News
Senate's Dumbest Republican Knows Why Trump Fired State Department IG, But SHHH IT'S A SECRET
Your Sunday Rundown 2.0!
May 18, 2020 11:25 AM
This week's Sunday shows had so much stupidity, it couldn't be contained to ONE Sunday Rundown. After Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was done blaming Americans being fat for them being more susceptible to COVID-19, CNN's "State Of The Union" interviewed Wisconsin GOP senator and Oversight Committee chairman Ron Johnson on the Friday night Saturday Night Massacring of Steve Linick, the inspector general of the State Department (SDIG). Host Jake Tapper quoted Utah senator Mitt Romney's comments about this "threat to accountable democracy" and then asked Johnson to weigh in.
Johnson retreated to the super worn-out reasoning the GOP has trotted out for everything from Trump firing Jim Comey to the firing of Andrew McCabe to Trump's retaliation against Alexander Vindman and Gordon Sondland for testifying about Trump's impeachable (and impeached) Ukraine extortion:
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="d1351" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="36adc8af04209b42d1d4768f09e34d42"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1262197462665768964" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Sen. Ron Johnson: "I'm not crying big crocodile tears over this [inspector general] termination."… https://t.co/kxZEE7PflL</div> — The Hill (@The Hill)<a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/statuses/1262197462665768964">1589766300.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p>
<p><br></p><blockquote>
<strong>JOHNSON</strong>: [T]hey serve at the president's will. And that is true of every inspector general.
</blockquote><p>
Tapper pointed the hypocrisy of this statement by playing the world's easiest "what if" game:
</p><blockquote>
<strong>TAPPER</strong>: Well, no one questions whether or not he has the authority to do so.
But I really have to say, I find it hard to believe that, if President Obama had gotten rid of four inspector generals -- inspectors general in six weeks, that you would have the same attitude that you seem to have right now.
</blockquote><p>Johnson looked for legitimate sounding reasons for Trump to have fired this IG, and then it got weird:</p><blockquote><strong>TAPPER</strong>: Well, what was their reasoning?
Because all the public knows is that this acting inspector general was investigating whether or not Secretary of State Pompeo was misusing a political appointee to do personal errands for him. That's according to Democratic aides on Capitol Hill.
And then a senior administration official has said Pompeo asked Trump to remove this inspector general investigating him, and President Trump did so.
What are they telling you that makes you feel like you understand their reasoning?
<br><br>
<strong>JOHNSON</strong>: Again, I'm -- I'm -- I'm not going discuss my private conversations with senior administration officials.
But my guess, this will all come out. Congress will be able to do what oversight it choose to do. I'm sure the Democrats in the House will call in Mr. Linick, and he will be able to testify, and he will be able to tell his story.
And my guess, the administration will hopefully have an opportunity to tell their side of the story as well.
I'm not crying big crocodile tears over this termination. Let's put it that way. </blockquote><p>Oh, so it's a super secret squirrel reason! Well, calm down everyone. It's just a gentle secret between Trump and Senator Johnson. I mean, they've both been so <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/if-you-dont-stop-and-look-around-the-impeachment-you-could-miss-it">upfront</a> and <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/senates-dumbest-gop-idiot-wishes-whistleblower-had-kept-trumps-ukraine-crimes-to-himself">honest</a> before. Why shouldn't we take their word?</p><p>But, besides it being ludicrous to trust Trump or Johnson, it seems that once again Trump broke the actual rules for how you are to dismiss an inspector general:<br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="ad2cc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0428f28ffff6642c07d6c919b818c14e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1262024498120925186" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Inspector General Act requires @realdonaldtrump to give Congress written reasons for firing an IG 30 days befor… https://t.co/R0lHLvq63H</div> — Eliot Engel (@Eliot Engel)<a href="https://twitter.com/RepEliotEngel/statuses/1262024498120925186">1589725062.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>So here we are again as the Trump administration pulls some shit like this, and Democrats try to hold them accountable with the very limited power they have. Both Rep. Eliot Engel and Senator Bob Menendez have announced they will be looking into Trump's latest Saturday Night Massacre:<br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="a88c1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="002d93f67b1699c182161af2aa2ac746"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1261727399689019395" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The president notified Congress he will remove State Dept Inspector General and now Congressional Democrats say the… https://t.co/CKzXOvTDxB</div> — Kelly O'Donnell (@Kelly O'Donnell)<a href="https://twitter.com/KellyO/statuses/1261727399689019395">1589654228.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>But now it seems Johnson has added one more wrinkle and somehow made himself a character in Trump's latest abuse of power. <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/senates-dumbest-republican-up-to-ass-in-trump-ukraine-scandal" target="_blank">It is so common,</a> for him! </p><p>Although this time it seems a different person has something to gain from this firing, and for once it is not Trump.<br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="c33cd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ba28d79e663d346cb903b109cc906463"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1261793172071411712" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">An inspector general has zero coercive power. The IG can’t fire anyone, promote anyone, or make agency decisions.… https://t.co/GI3RpC7UmJ</div> — Ted Lieu (@Ted Lieu)<a href="https://twitter.com/tedlieu/statuses/1261793172071411712">1589669909.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p><br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="3bad5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="aa2e52f08507625a7911de2645325bd8"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1262183646972252165" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Accusations that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo improperly used government resources, including asking diplomatic s… https://t.co/NYfiznysTm</div> — The New York Times (@The New York Times)<a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/statuses/1262183646972252165">1589763006.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>So this is awesome. Good luck with all of this, Mike Pompeo!<br></p><p>And thus concludes your second Sunday Show rundown, because there was so much stupid there had to be two of them this time.</p><p><strong>If you love Wonkette, SUPPORT WONKETTE FINANCIALLY.</strong></p><p></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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justice department
Poor Man's Roy Cohn Bill Barr Says Trump's Dictator-Style Purges Are F*ckin' AWESOME
Let's check in with what kinda Nazi shit Donald Trump's enablers are still doing while Americans are dropping dead of a pandemic!
April 10, 2020 12:41 PM
One terrible thing about the coronavirus crisis in America — you know, aside from the almost-17,000-and-counting deaths Donald Trump could have done something to prevent — is that the same evil people are still behind the scenes doing the same evil things they were doing before. There's just less of a light on them, because of how the media is rightfully obsessed with the pandemic.
So what is the embodiment of rightwing evil, Attorney General Bill Barr, up to? What is that low-rent dime store broken condom dispenser in a truck stop off the highway version of Roy Cohn doing to enable Trump's continuing crime sprees?
Well, for one thing, he's going on Laura Ingraham's white nationalist "Hee Haw" show!
And he thinks Trump's purge of inspectors general, especially his firing of intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson, was just awesome. Atkinson was fired because he followed the law and, when presented with a whistleblower's evidence that Trump was trying to force Ukraine to help him steal the 2020 election, he didn't do cover-ups for Trump like Bill Barr did.
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</p><div id="58771" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="41d26569bda20aedfbad37de87ccdff4"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1248572076405018624" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Barr says Trump "did the right thing" when he fired intelligence community IG Michael Atkinson. https://t.co/mEhK8gNpV5</div> — TPM Livewire (@TPM Livewire)<a href="https://twitter.com/TPMLiveWire/statuses/1248572076405018624">1586517755.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p><br></p><blockquote><strong>BARR:</strong> I think the President did the right thing in removing Atkinson.</blockquote><p>Barr whined that Atkinson "was told [...] in a letter from the Department of Justice" that he wasn't supposed to be doing anything with whistleblower complaints involving Donald Trump's crimes, BUT YET HE PERSISTED and "tried to turn it into a commission to explore anything in the government and immediately report it to Congress without letting the executive branch look at it and determine whether there was any problem." </p><p>Which, again, was the law (the<a href="https://www.wonkette.com/acting-dni-joseph-mcguire-adam-schiff-is-gonna-make-you-a-star" target="_blank"> inspector general going to Congress,</a> not going up Bill Barr's butt). </p><p>Even so, Bill Barr's Justice Department <em>did</em> look at Trump's crimes, <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/hero-whistleblower-tried-to-come-forward-weeks-ago-then-the-white-house-found-out" target="_blank">for like four seconds,</a> and he <em>did</em> see that <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/donald-trump-grrr-mad-lets-read-the-whistleblower-complaint-thats-making-him-grrr-mad" target="_blank">whistleblower complaint</a>, where Trump tried to force Ukraine to meddle in the 2020 election on his behalf, and Barr decided that Trump is allowed to commit crimes because (Republican) presidents are above the law because that is what Bill Barr actually believes because Bill Barr is an evil un-American piece of shit. </p><p>Ingraham noted that <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/which-inspector-general-is-trump-saturday-night-massacring-this-lovely-tuesday" target="_blank">Trump is firing</a> <em>a lot</em> of IGs <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/how-is-king-trump-more-dangerous-to-america-than-coronavirus-today" target="_blank">right now,</a> and said, "Of course that's used to say, 'Well the President just doesn't want a watchdog.'" (People say that because of how it is true.) Barr responded that Trump "wants responsible watchdogs." </p><p>Of course, for Trump and Barr "responsible watchdogs" are the kind that let Trump commit crimes without consequences, just like "fair" reporters are ones who lick Trump's ass for breakfast. </p><h2>Speaking Of Trump's IG Purge!</h2><p>Speaking of Trump's IG purge, the <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-taps-john-mcentee-29-year-old-once-exiled-aide-to-help-him-purge-government-of-enemies-and-watchdogs" target="_blank">Daily Beast reported</a> Thursday morning that, as with Trump's earlier ongoing purge of witnesses who told Congress the truth about Trump's impeachable and impeached crimes against Ukraine and against American democracy, the IG purge is being spearheaded by that dumbshit fresh-faced 29-year-old Trump loyalist idiot Johnny McEntee. </p><p>You remember Johnny. He's the one who used to be Trump's "body man" at the White House, until one day in 2018 when he <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/trump-white-house-loses-last-fuckable-guy" target="_self">got ass-walked</a> off the premises because he was being investigated for Serious Financial Crimes. Turns out it was gambling problems of some sort! Anyway, we named him Hot Johnny because in Trump's sea of unfuckable deplorables — see: Stephen Miller — he had a pretty face. </p><p>He landed at the Trump campaign, but Trump brought him back to the White House recently, and ever since he's been <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/trumps-newest-power-hire-allowed-to-eat-pizza-whenever-he-wants-doesnt-even-have-curfew" target="_blank">hiring college kids</a> to help him do his purges, which now include IGs, the lifelong public servants who act as nonpartisan watchdogs rooting out crime and grift and graft and dysfunction where they find it. </p><blockquote>In the past two months, Trump and McEntee have discussed the topic of replacing inspectors general—<a href="https://about.bgov.com/news/impeachment-spotlights-vulnerability-of-acting-federal-watchdogs/" target="_blank">a number of whose nominations require approval by the Senate</a>—along with various other positions in the federal government. The president has made clear that he is adamant about quickly filling those posts (there are more than <a href="https://about.bgov.com/news/impeachment-spotlights-vulnerability-of-acting-federal-watchdogs/" target="_blank">70 such watchdogs</a> across the government) with those more submissive to him and ousting appointees he often baselessly lambasts as "corrupt," according to a senior administration official.</blockquote><p>Hey, Americans are dropping like flies from a pandemic. How is that <em>not</em> a good time for Donald Trump to consolidate power and make some real moves to become the world's stupidest despot in human history he's always dreamed of being? </p><p>And Johnny is helping!</p><h2>But Anyway, Back To Attorney General Meatsack!</h2><p>And obviously, Bill Barr is helping, in more ways than one!</p><p>Back in the before-times, one of Barr's appalling, <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/just-when-you-thought-you-couldnt-respect-bill-barr-any-less" target="_blank">democracy-destroying tasks</a> was his <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/is-bill-barr-trying-to-cockblock-the-sdnys-ukraine-invesigations-sure-looks-like-it" target="_blank">spearheading of a number of efforts</a> to investigate the investigators, in an effort to completely erase the Russian attack on the 2016 election to help install Trump in the presidency, which the Mueller Report called "sweeping and systematic." In this way, Barr is not only Trump's manservant, but also Vladimir Putin's manservant. <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/ig-report-takes-476-pages-to-destroy-every-conspiracy-theory-in-donald-trumps-stupid-leaking-brain" target="_blank">Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report</a> on the origins of the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation didn't find any Deep State conspiracies to spy on Trump, but Barr has always been pretty sure there were and that "spying did occur," because on top of being evil, he's a ginormously stupid idiot who <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/bill-barr-is-your-batsh-t-fox-news-watching-uncle-and-you-hate-him" target="_blank">believes what he sees on Fox News.</a> </p><p>Last night, Barr gave Laura Ingraham an update on the <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/bill-barrs-fake-russia-probe-pretty-sure-hillary-clinton-pizzagated-cia-into-framing-russia-for-oh-who-knows-f-ck-it" target="_blank">so-called Durham investigation,</a> named for John Durham, the US attorney Barr picked to find the real truth about Hillary Clinton and James Comey colluding to create a conspiracy to deny her the presidency so she could frame Trump as a Russian plant:</p><blockquote>In the interview, Mr. Barr also said that some of the people who were involved in the decision to investigate the Trump campaign in 2016 could face federal criminal prosecution.<br><br>John H. Durham, the veteran federal prosecutor assigned to look into the origins of the campaign investigation, "is looking to bring to justice people who were engaged in abuses if he can show there were criminal violations," Mr. Barr said.<br><br>"My own view is that the evidence shows that we are not dealing with just mistakes or sloppiness," Mr. Barr said. "There is something far more troubling here. And we're going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted."</blockquote><p>"His own view" is that there was a criminal Deep State conspiracy to take down Trump, and he's going to prosecute Trump's political enemies, even though the IG and everybody else who's looked at it has found that the Russia investigation was correctly predicated and factually sound, and oh yeah, <em><a href="https://www.wonkette.com/the-top-768-796-reasons-putin-wants-trump-re-elected-for-gop-rep-chris-stewart-and-idiots-like-him" target="_blank">we still don't know for sure</a> that the president is *not* a Russian asset</em>.</p><p>All of this is Nazi shit, and every one of these people is pure evil. </p><p>FUCKING VOTE IN NOVEMBER.</p><p>[<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-taps-john-mcentee-29-year-old-once-exiled-aide-to-help-him-purge-government-of-enemies-and-watchdogs" target="_blank">Daily Beast</a> / <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/us/politics/barr-atkinson-trump.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a>]</p><p><strong>Follow Evan Hurst on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/evanhurst" target="_blank">RIGHT HERE, DO IT RIGHT HERE!</a></strong></p><p><strong>Wonkette is fully funded by readers like YOU. If you love Wonkette, SUPPORT WONKETTE FINANCIALLY.</strong><br></p><p></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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White House
Part-Time White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham Now No-Time Press Secretary
Her replacement, Kayleigh McEnany, is worse.
April 07, 2020 11:45 AM
Stephanie Grisham is officially no longer doing the job she never did in the first place. The White House press secretary is out, and she was never in (we could do this all day). She leaves the role having never once briefed the press or berated them for kicks. That's a new record for uselessness, which is quite the achievement for a White House with both an Ivanka and a Jared.
Grisham replaced the odious Sarah Huckabee Sanders in July and since then she fiercely advocated for her downsizing. She claimed Trump was his own "best spokesperson" and the "most accessible president in history." She insisted that press briefings were “a lot of theater" (remember when we had theater?) that reporters used to make themselves famous. She restricted her public appearances to Fox News foot massage sessions, where she was often praised as the hardest-working woman in no business. Take this ridiculous exchange from "Fox & Friends" last fall:
AINSLEY EARHARDT: How do you do it?
GRISHAM: I'm just tired a lot. But if I can keep up with the president, that's all that matters.
The woman did absolutely nothing.
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Office Space - What would you say you do here?</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StIcRH_e6zQ" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
</small>
</p><p>It's not like there wasn't any breaking news to discuss with this administration. Trump was impeached in late December, and while that seems like a 1,000 years ago, it was just a little over <em>three months</em>. That would've been enough for a full <em>West Wing </em>season, but there was also the coronavirus outbreak that Grisham completely washed her hands of (thoroughly and for 20-second intervals). When Mike Pence was <del>made the fall guy</del> put in charge of the coronavirus task force, the vice president's communications team also took over — probably because he actually had one. </p><p>Grisham's replacement is a potted plant named Andy, but the next real-live White House press secretary is Kayleigh McEnany, who was until now the national press secretary for Trump's failed 2020 campaign. The announcement dropped during the writing of this post and we're pausing to swap out Grisham's photo above with McEnany's because that's how life works. </p><p>This is billed as the first major personnel shakeup by brand-new White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, but it's not that shocking. Replacing Grisham is like replacing a flickering lightbulb in your new office. It's more annoying than functional and once you swap it out, you can get some work done.</p><p>McEnany is a Harvard Law graduate and obviously Jared Kushner's alma mater has very <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/trump-finally-ends-racism-against-white-people" target="_blank">high standards.</a> She's probably just <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/oh-go-fuck-yourself-kayleigh-mcenany" target="_blank">play acting </a>stupid, and she's the Meryl Streep of that shit. She's <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/media/341493-opinion-forget-don-jrs-email-its-hillary-clinton-who-colluded-with" target="_blank">argued</a> that Hillary Clinton was the secret mastermind who colluded with Russia to make Trump president. Wow, if true (it's not). She's also <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/how-much-hostile-foreign-assistance-is-trump-expecting-in-2020-kayleigh-mcenany-f-ck" target="_blank">suggested</a> — on TV, where people can watch — that it's perfectly legal and swell for the president to accept foreign assistance in his election campaign, which shows you just how much that Harvard law degree is worth. Trump would later get impeached for his attempts to extort a foreign nation into smearing his political opponent.</p><p>Meadows presumably hired McEnany because he wanted a press secretary who is more effectively evil on behalf of the president. McEnany, for instance, shamelessly defended Trump last summer after he <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/trump-says-his-racism-is-cool-because-many-racists-agree-with-him" target="_blank">tweeted</a> racist filth about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib. She claimed Omar — who you might've heard is Muslim — "won't condemn al Qaeda" and that if the congresswoman “hates" America so much (she doesn't) she should just leave. It's surprising McEnany didn't have to shave her head before giving this screed. </p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b77b2fc6d3238e93e014acc01478b45b"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lgyf6UTzqb0?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">CNN panelist unloads on Trump supporter over racist tweets</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgyf6UTzqb0" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
</small>
</p><p>Yeah, Meadows — supposed BFF of the late <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/mark-meadows-is-a-donald-trump-shaped-pos" target="_blank">Elijah Cummings</a> — wants this woman to be his new <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqnTcQJn-is" target="_blank">latex salesman. </a> She's not an upgrade in the human organism sense, but she has that Fox News-trademarked fire and fury. Grisham was a <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/whats-stephanie-grisham-lying-about-today" target="_blank">liar, </a>but she was also the supervillain henchman who might help the hero in the last act because she wants to save her mother in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN-tonQMgHc" target="_blank">Hackensack, New Jersey. </a> McEnany doesn't appear to possess even that small flicker of scruple. She's young. She's fit. She's gonna run a lie-athon for Trump until he's finally out of office. </p><p> Alyssa <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/mike-pence-condemns-mike-pence-for-saying-thing-mike-pence-definitely-did-not-say" target="_blank">Farah, </a>who was once Pence's press secretary, will also join the White House communications team in some absurd capacity. Meanwhile, Grisham has been reassigned to the metaphorical farm upstate that's Melania Trump's staff. She'll #BeBest for Melanie as her chief of staff, replacing Lindsay Reynolds whose existence we just learned of today. </p><p>[<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/politics/stephanie-grisham-press-secretary-briefing-melania-trump/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> / <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/us/politics/kayleigh-mcenany-stephanie-grisham-trump.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a>]<br></p><p><em>Follow Stephen Robinson on </em><em><a href="https://twitter.com/SER1897" target="_blank">Twitter.</a></em></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p><strong>Yr Wonkette is supported entirely by reader donations. Please click the clickie, if you are able!</strong></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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Impeachment
Fired Intel Community Inspector General Very Nicely Tells President Crime-Baby To Eat A Bag Of F*ck
Michael Atkinson has a few more things he'd like to say!
April 06, 2020 10:01 AM
Friday night, in a late news dump, we learned that Donald Trump fired Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general, because we guess he was having a little shithole authoritarian temper tantrum and that was the only thing that would make him feel better. Yes, Trump did this in the middle of a pandemic that he is so serious about that he's obsessively trying to make Americans ingest an unproven drug that may or may not be effective.
Atkinson's sin, obviously, is that he protected the whistleblower who made America aware that Trump was trying to steal another election by actively extorting Ukraine to announce fake investigations into Joe Biden in exchange for military aid that Congress had already appropriated and was desperately needed by Ukraine in its hot war with Russia. Atkinson also made Congress aware of the whistleblower complaint, which is what he was supposed to do according to the law. And yes, that includes Adam Schiff, because he is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
In other words, Trump fired Atkinson for doing his job, exactly as we'd expect an un-American barely elected president with authoritarian tendencies to do.
Atkinson has responded to being fired, and it's quite a statement, albeit an extremely professional one:
It is hard not to think that the President's loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial Inspector General, and from my commitment to continue to do so.
Yep, that's what happened! Here is the full statement:
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjkxNTA3Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTA1ODM0MH0.uz1LqXQT3CZ_3RCTM9y0-BuCfoVDHbOqR79liU2prnQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="8f933" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d87a7890c9be1926d04000ff76dd3e71" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
</p><p>Atkinson gave a fervent defense of our American process for protecting whistleblowers from regimes that just cannot stop committing crimes, defended his lawful handling of the Ukraine whistleblower complaint, and signed off with a message for the other IGs, which kinda boils down to "Yes I am being fired for doing my job, and Donald Trump is trying to intimidate all the other IGs who are witnesses to his crimes. Fuck him."</p><p> Of course, he says it nicer than that:</p><blockquote>Finally, a message for any government employee or contractor who believes they have learned of or observed unethical, wasteful, or illegal behavior in the federal government. They are counting on you to use authorized channels to bravely speak up -- there is no disgrace in doing so. It is important to remember, as others have said, that the need for secrecy in the United States intelligence Community is not a grant of power, but a grant of trust. [...] I have faith that my colleagues in Inspectors General Offices throughout the federal government will continue to operate effective and independent whistleblower programs, and that they will continue to do everything in their power to protect the rights of whistleblowers. Please do not allow recent events to silence your voices. </blockquote><p>"Please do not allow recent events to silence your voices." Ooh, we wonder what he means by that!</p><p>Before coronavirus became the only thing we have time to think about, Trump <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/white-house-purges-all-deep-state-imperialist-running-dogs-it-inexplicably-hired" target="_blank">was on a rampage</a> purging <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/purge-beginneth" target="_blank">all the people</a> who witnessed the crimes he committed against Ukraine and against American democracy, for which he was rightfully impeached forever and then acquitted in a Kremlin-style Susan Collins sham trial in the Senate. Trump's little stunt Friday night shows you where his heart really is, and it's not with the thousands of dead bodies piling up, deaths he could have done something to prevent if he wasn't singularly focused on exacting retribution against the patriots who saw something and said something about his crimes. </p><p>Trump's mal-developed shitbaby pattern continues even in the coronavirus crisis, as we saw the other day when the (acting) secretary of the Navy <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/navy-captain-booted-for-caring-more-about-4-000-sailors-lives-than-he-cares-about-donald-trumps-ego" target="_blank">relieved Captain Brett Crozier</a> from command of the <em>USS Theodore Roosevelt</em> after Crozier spoke out to protect the 4,000 sailors in his keep from the mindfucking incompetence of the Trump coronavirus response. Trump <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/04/trump-brett-crozier-letter-165020" target="_blank">claims</a> he didn't personally make the decision to fire Crozier, but that didn't stop him from publicly bitching and moaning about Crozier this weekend. And if Trump in fact did not make the decision, it doesn't negate our point, but merely confirms that Thomas Modly, the (acting) secretary of the Navy, is a Trump hack who doesn't need to be told to do Trump's dirty whiny ass titty baby work.</p><blockquote>"The letter was a five-page letter from a captain, and the letter was all over the place," Trump said. "That's not appropriate."<br><br>"I thought it was terrible, what he did, to write a letter. I mean, this isn't a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship that's nuclear powered. And he shouldn't be talking that way in a letter," Trump said.</blockquote><p>Fuck you.</p><p>And of course, Trump also<a href="https://nypost.com/2020/04/06/trump-defends-firing-terrible-intel-watchdog-michael-atkinson/" target="_blank"> found time</a> during the pandemic this weekend to bitch and moan some more about acting ICIG Michael Atkinson, whom he had fired the night before. </p><blockquote>On Saturday, Trump defended his move to fire Atkinson during a press conference, saying, "I thought he did a terrible job. Absolutely terrible."<br><br><span></span>"He took this terrible, inaccurate whistleblower report and he brought it to Congress."</blockquote><p>That <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/donald-trump-grrr-mad-lets-read-the-whistleblower-complaint-thats-making-him-grrr-mad" target="_blank">whistleblower complaint</a> was 100 percent fucking accurate, maybe the dumbshit president of the United States should <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/trumps-ukraine-transcript-is-real-and-it-is-bugf-ck" target="_blank">READ TEH TREAJSJD;KFADKKFJAJICRRIPT5!11!1PENIS!</a></p><p>Trump also said of the whistleblower during that presser that "somebody should sue his ass off," and babbled more about "fake reports" and "perfect calls," because he literally knows 100 words and just recycles them over and over again:</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6671bda800efb406c26eb713957d16bb"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tqUjOyVxf1A?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Trump says of whistleblower: 'Somebody ought to sue his ass off'</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqUjOyVxf1A" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
</small>
</p><p>This is what Trump is using his corona-lingus press conferences for these days. Whining and bellyaching about the few remaining competent people in the United States government, both the ones he's fired and the ones he hasn't had a chance to fire yet.<br></p><p>Isn't it awesome that Trump is whining like this while dead bodies pile up all around him? This must be what MAGA really means.</p><p>[<a href="%22The%20letter%20was%20a%20five-page%20letter%20from%20a%20captain,%20and%20the%20letter%20was%20all%20over%20the%20place,%22%20Trump%20said.%20%22That's%20not%20appropriate.%22%20%20%E2%80%9CI%20thought%20it%20was%20terrible,%20what%20he%20did,%20to%20write%20a%20letter.%20I%20mean,%20this%20isn't%20a%20class%20on%20literature.%20This%20is%20a%20captain%20of%20a%20massive%20ship%20that's%20nuclear%20powered.%20And%20he%20shouldn't%20be%20talking%20that%20way%20in%20a%20letter,%E2%80%9D%20Trump%20said." target="_blank">Politico</a> / <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/04/06/trump-defends-firing-terrible-intel-watchdog-michael-atkinson/" target="_blank">New York Post</a>]</p><p><strong>Follow Evan Hurst on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/evanhurst" target="_blank">RIGHT HERE, DO IT RIGHT HERE!</a></strong></p><p><strong>Wonkette is fully funded by readers like YOU. If you love Wonkette, SUPPORT WONKETTE FINANCIALLY.</strong><br></p><p></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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