There are people who actually want a job in this madcap excuse for an administration, and Washington litigator Pat Cipollone is one of them, having begun to fill out the paperwork. He is not widely known, but he a purportedly respected member of the Washington Republican Bar and more importantly — he’s an avid supporter of Trump, a “true believer.” Axios:
Trump had been looking for loyalty in his next White House Counsel. He grew to loathe and distrust McGahn, and wanted somebody whom he felt would be unquestioningly “loyal” and who actually wanted the job, according to sources familiar with the president’s thinking.
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Flood told the president that he would do the job if asked but did not express a great deal of enthusiasm for doing it, according to sources briefed on their interactions.
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Flood did not lobby for the job. “It seemed to be he would do it, more as a chore than as an aspiration,” said a source familiar with his conversations with the president.
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Jay Sekulow and the president’s personal lawyers all thought Cipollone would be terrific. “Pat is a brilliant lawyer, strategist and has a deep knowledge of the workings of government,” Sekulow said.
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Another source, who is close to Cipollone, told Axios: “He cares very deeply about the president’s judicial selection agenda. And cut his teeth in the conservative legal world serving Attorney General Bill Barr.”
It’s great that he’s of the Trump faith. Trump will like that. The next question is, or will be: is he a killer? Trump’s idea of a “real” lawyer is Roy Cohn, astonishingly, but true, and that is what he has been crying for in the White House. “Where are my killer’s? I need a killer?” He also purported to need more “television lawyers” and Joe deGenova of Fox News was said to be a new hire a few months ago, but that didn’t last the weekend once he and Trump met face to face. It will be interesting to see what happens with this selection.
Bear in mind that Mitch McConnell’s quixotic quest at this point is none other than to stack the bench with as many rightwing jurists as possible, before the whole shithouse goes up in flames. And this guy is on board for just that.
