Democrats would be tougher negotiators than President Trump in all likelihood. “Democrats defined a good deal [with North Korea] as meeting five pillars: the dismantlement or relinquishing of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons; the end to uranium and plutonium enrichment and the dismantlement of the infrastructure necessary to do that; the continued suspension of ballistic missile tests; the ability to conduct inspections for nuclear and missile activity anytime anywhere in North Korea, as well as the ability to snap back sanctions if illicit activity is found; and the assurance that the deal would be permanent.”
It would be tough to argue against impeachment in this case. “A self-pardon would be, ironically, self-incriminating, indicating that the president at the very least believed he was likely to be charged with a crime, even if he didn’t believe he committed one. Moreover, it would make it much easier for a president to commit crimes with less fear of repercussions. The only recourse would be removal by Congress.”
It is tough to do, but a Twitter provocateur is just the guy to do it. “The German foreign ministry has asked the new U.S. ambassador to Germany to clarify comments he made during an interview with Breitbart over the weekend in which he said he wanted to ’empower’ right-wing anti-establishment parties in Europe. Ambassador Richard Grenell told the far-right news outlet: ‘There are a lot of conservatives throughout Europe who have contacted me to say they are feeling there is a resurgence going on.’ ” Totally inappropriate.
It isn’t tough to imagine a fleet of staffers will rat him out. “A senior Environmental Protection Agency official acted essentially as the personal assistant to the administrator, Scott Pruitt, helping him hunt for an apartment, travel to a college football game and even try to procure a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel, congressional transcripts show.” Good grief.
Tough, but fair. “If I were President of the United States and I had a lawyer that told me I could pardon myself, I think I would hire a new lawyer,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
It will be tough going when their boss wants to give away the store. “[National Security Adviser John] Bolton rejects Trump’s anti-alliance, anti-leadership posture as much as his predecessor, Gen. H.R. McMaster. And neither Bolton nor Gen. John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, nor Defense Secretary James Mattis were about to let Trump trade away the American position in South Korea, and certainly not for hollow statements from Kim about the future promise of denuclearization.” Read the whole thing.
It’s going to be tough to discredit all these witnesses. “Trump clearly has a problem with the intelligence community chiefs, and it may be a big problem. Recall the Washington Post’s reporting that the president asked the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, and the director of the National Security Agency, Adm. Mike Rogers, to publicly deny any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, and that he also asked whether Coats could pressure [then-FBI director James B.] Comey to back off from the Flynn investigation. Yet his lawyers are unable to muster anything exculpatory to say on this point.” Uh-oh.