Trump and Bannon split up

[jserraglio]

CNN Analysis

January 3, 2018

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon called the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer purportedly offering damaging information about Hillary Clinton "treasonous," according to a new book obtained by The Guardian.
The book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" by Michael Wolff, is based on hundreds of interviews, including ones with President Donald Trump and his inner circle. According to the Guardian, Bannon addressed the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr., then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner and Russian operatives that was arranged when Trump Jr. agreed to meet a "Russian government attorney" after receiving an email offering him "very high level and sensitive information" that would "incriminate" Clinton.
"The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor — with no lawyers. They didn't have any lawyers," Bannon continued, according to the Guardian. "Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad s***, and I happen to think it's all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately."
Bannon also reportedly told Wolff: "They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV."
The White House declined to comment Wednesday about Bannon's reported assertions.
Bannon also reportedly told Wolff that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign's potential ties to Russia is centered on money laundering, saying that the White House is "sitting on a beach trying to stop a Category Five" hurricane.
"You realize where this is going ... This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose (senior prosecutor Andrew) Weissmann first and he is a money-laundering guy," Bannon reportedly said. "Their path to f***ing Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr., and Jared Kushner ... It's as plain as a hair on your face."
Bannon said he believes Kushner, the White House senior adviser and the President's son-in-law, could be convinced to cooperate if Mueller probes his financial records.
"They're going to go right through that. They're going to roll those two guys up and say play me or trade me," Bannon is reported as saying, apparently referring to Trump Jr. and Kushner.
The Trump Tower meeting has been of intense interest to the congressional Russia investigators as well as Mueller.
Trump Jr. testified before House investigators last month but would not say what he and his father discussed after reports surfaced about the meeting, citing attorney-client privilege.
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[jserraglio]

And the Donald responds:

Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.

Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than thirty years by Republicans. Steve doesn’t represent my base—he’s only in it for himself.

Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.

We have many great Republican members of Congress and candidates who are very supportive of the Make America Great Again agenda. Like me, they love the United States of America and are helping to finally take our country back and build it up, rather than simply seeking to burn it all down.

[lennygoran]

I've been watching this most of the day-very pleasurable! Regards, Len

[jserraglio]

I've been watching this most of the day-very pleasurable! Regards, Len

You might also enjoy the excerpts from Wolff's book in NY Mag. The emperor's foibles are on public display. Trump let Wolff hang out in the WH for weeks. Trojan Horse? Wolff in sheep's clothing?

[lennygoran]

Trump let Wolff hang out in the WH for weeks. Trojan Horse? Wolff in sheep's clothing?

Excellent comments! Now 3 questions.

1. When will Bannon be called before Mueller.

2. To save DACA how much of the Wall would you be willing to build?

3. How much credit should Jared get for allowing Ivanka to become the first female president?

Regards, Len

[jserraglio]

Answers:
1. Never. Mueller will be investigating till the Rapture if he has to call everybody who bad-mouths Trump.

2. Todo el Muro, señor, no hay problema, México está pagando, ¿recuerdas?

3. None, Jared Kushner has all the credit he needs from Deutsche Bank.

[lennygoran]

Answers:
1. Never. Mueller will be investigating till the Rapture if he has to call everybody who bad-mouths Trump.

2. Todo el Muro, señor, no hay problema, México está pagando, ¿recuerdas?

3. None, Jared Kushner has all the credit he needs from Deutsche Bank.

Thanks for these thoughts.

On 1. I'm very disappointed by this.

On 2. LOL!

On 3. Can this be proved in any way?

Now after watching CNN all day I have another question-can this lead to anything big? Regards, Len

Go, Mark Corallo, go!

Wolff reports that a spokesman for Trump's legal team left the job because he feared possible obstruction of justice related to a statement drafted aboard Air Force One that defended Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer in June 2016.

"Mark Corallo was instructed not to speak to the press, indeed not to even answer his phone. Later that week, Corallo, seeing no good outcome-and privately confiding that he believed the meeting on Air Force One represented a likely obstruction of justice-quit. (The Jarvanka side would put it out that Corallo was fired.)"

[jserraglio]

WH now accusing Michael Wolff of being a fantasy fiction writer: well, dumbasses, why did you give him the run of the West Wing? Go back to Latin IV, guys: Timeo Demokrats et dona ferentes.