There’s some fast and loose going on in the White House that has some interesting implications for what might happen in the near future. There are also some implications on whether or not what they’re trying will work. It’s hard to tell and even harder to predict. From CNN via AlterNet:
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, “a fire-breathing defender” of President Donald Trump and the “Make America Great Again” movement, was brought on this week to serve as co-deputy FBI director next to Dan Bongino — a decision that, despite its shock value, may fail to “quiet the noise” around Jeffrey Epstein’s connection to the president, CNN’s Tom Foreman reports.
Dan may not care if he’s on the way out. We know he’s been struggling in the position. The whole Epstein mess is just that, a mess. I would think it’s certainly not what he signed up for. The concept he might have had does not match the nasty reality. He might miss the paycheck, but be quite happy to go back to his podcast, especially with Bailey being brought in. But Bailey is a disaster waiting to happen.
Bailey, according to Foreman, is a staunch supporter of Trump, having “tried and failed to intervene in President Trump’s criminal conviction in New York.” The Missouri attorney general also fought “against federal government overreach, student loan debt forgiveness, transgender rights and more” and even “[laid] out a conservative fever dream of ways liberals might cheat again before the [2024] election,” Foreman reports. Still, Bailey has a “thin” resume for his newfound “top federal job at the White House.”
Life at the FBI overall is not going well for almost everyone. The best people are getting fired. Patel is starting to sweat under the bad publicity and his poor performance. (Using the FBI to locate people when everyone knows exactly where they are? Oh, please.) And now they’re bringing in an incompetent idiot whose only qualification is fitting well into the MAGAt mode of talk, talk, talk.
Most of Trump’s cabinet is doing very well at getting themselves into trouble, as more and more of the amateurishness comes into public view. They’re all cringeworthy. Every time they make the news, it’s “oh, mercy, NOW what?”. Then they follow their leader and try to bluff and spin their way out of whichever situation. I’m not saying I’m a huge fan of Dan Bongino, but it seems, TO ME, that he had morals. He might not seem that way to you. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
But Bailey’s lack of bona fides is hardly the most alarming factor of the attorney general’s quick ascension among the White House ranks, Foreman notes. Instead, it’s how Bailey’s appointment relates to the Epstein case and Trump’s efforts to quiet the conversation around his relationship with the convicted sex trafficker. “Bongino has clearly struggled to drop his longstanding claims of a cover-up around the case,” Foreman reports. “… Bongino has also expressed some general sense that he doesn’t like what the job is showing him. He’s not crazy about this job.”
Dan should dump the whole mess in Bailey’s lap and run for the door. He’ll be happier. And we have someone new to rip apart. It’s almost guaranteed that Bailey is going to put his foot in it. Mr. Bongino will be well out of it and content that way.
Friends, I know everybody begs you for money. I promise you that of all of the outlets bugging you for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a bunch of old, disabled people, with the exception of one writer in his mid-50s. But the rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the ability to keep going in our quest to tell the truth about Trump and see democracy survive. If you can help, please do. Thanks. Ursula
