Get your score cards!

Can’t tell the players without a score card!

This summary is extensively re-written but it’s based on Recapping a stunningly bad two weeks for the Trump White House by Philip Bump of the Washington Post.

12 Days In May

Monday, May 8– Former acting attorney general Sally Yates testifies before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee that she told White House counsel Don McGahn on Jan. 26 and 27 she believed that National Security Adviser Michael Flynn could be compromised by the Russian government and that his private statements contradicted what Vice President Pence had said publicly.

Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein tasked with finding excuses for James Comey’s dismissal based on his handling and statements regarding the Clinton email server investigation.

Tuesday, May 9– Trump fires FBI director James Comey. Trump’s letter explicitly mentions that Comey had told him three times that he wasn’t under investigation. Sean Spicer ‘hides’ in the bushes finally giving an off camera press conference where he asserts that the firing was spurred by Rosenstein’s memo, which was “all him”.

Wednesday, May 10– Trump meets with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office. This meeting took place at the personal request of Vladimir Putin and while the U.S. press was barred the Russian news agency TASS is there. Transcripts later revealed Trump said-

“I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off. I’m not under investigation.”

From the Post–

Later in the day, The Post reports that Rosenstein threatened to resign after seeing how his memo was used against Comey. This memo, deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says, left Trump “no choice” but to fire Comey. But she also contradicts Spicer, saying that the memo followed a meeting between Trump, Session and Rosenstein on Monday.

The White House releases a timeline that indicates that Trump wanted to remove Comey after his congressional testimony the prior week — not because of the memo.

Thursday, May 11– In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Trump undercuts everything that had been said previously, arguing that he was going to fire Comey regardless of the memo — and that when he decided to do so, “I said to myself, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story.”

According to two people who heard Comey’s account of a dinner that he had with Trump the day after Yates warned the White House about Flynn, Trump asked Comey whether or not he would pledge his loyalty to the president. Comey demurred, promising only his “honesty.”

The other embarrassing story of the day? Trump’s claim that he invented the phrase “priming the pump”.

Friday, May 12– Trump threatens Comey-

James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!

Spicer refuses to say if Trump is recording Oval Office conversations.

Saturday and Sunday the 13th and 14th– Nothing much happens.

Monday, May 15– It turns out Trump’s conversation with Lavrov and Kislyak also revealed highly classified information- that Daesh is developing undetectable bombs that look like Laptops. This information came from the Mossad and Trump even named the location it came from, bragging about how good his intelligence was. This was so classified that the White House put CNN (which had the story) under prior restraint and asked other news organizations to withold the Israeli sourcing when reporting on Trump’s leak. It’s all part of the public record now except the Daesh location (which I imagine they know since they’re the ones building them, but is too sensitive for U.S. citizens).

Spicer must have been hiding in the bushes again because they sent out General McMasters, the National Security Advisor to issue a non-denial denial-

The story that came out tonight as reported is false. The president and the [Russian] foreign minister [Sergey Lavrov] reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries, including threats to civil aviation. At no time — at no time — were intelligence sources or methods discussed and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known. Two other senior officials who were present, including the secretary of the state, remember the meeting the same way and have said so. Their on the record accounts should outweigh those of anonymous sources. And I was in the room. It didn’t happen.

Until that whopper he had been generally well respected. The key point is that it was never alleged that Trump disclosed “sources and methods” or discussed “military operations”, so it’s a flat out Strawman Fallacy.

Tuesday, May 16– Trump tweeted that he had the “absolute right” to share information with the Russians. The Israeli sourcing is reported widely. Trump meets with Turkish President Erdogane. Afterward, Erdogan heads to the Turkish ambassador’s where his bodyguards beat up protesters. The White House offers no comment.

It turns out Comey made contemporaneous memos detailing his conversations with Trump, including one in which Trump appeared to ask for the FBI to drop its investigation into Flynn.

Wednesday, May 17– Robert Mueller is appointed Special Counsel by Rosenstein. The White House releases a conciliatory statement obviously not written by Trump, who is livid with rage.

It turns out Flynn reported he was under investigation to the Transition Team in early January. Also Elijah Cummings had warned as early as November 18th that Flynn was lobbying for Turkey. Pence puts on his Schultz Pickelhaube and pretends to know nothing, NOTHING! In addition Flynn’s objections led to the cancellation of a military operation by Kurdish forces (the Turks consider them terrorists) against Daesh in early January in the fading days of the Obama Administration.

Thursday, May 18– It is reported the Trump campaign team had at least 18 contacts with Russian interests that hadn’t been disclosed.

Rosenstein tells senators that he knew Comey would be fired before he wrote his memo.

The Post–

This, amazingly, constituted the best day of the week for the White House.

Friday, May 19 (Yesterday)- Trump leaves (and there is much rejoicing).

It is revealed that “a senior White House official” (someone working closely with Trump right now) is under investigation. There is wide speculation that it’s Trump’s son-in-law, Ivanka’s husband, Jared Kushner.

Rosenstein informed House members that the investigation into Russian meddling now included an assessment of whether or not there had been a coverup.

Today I’ve been busy so I don’t know if there have been any more bombshells, but if you’ve been under a rock (and who wouldn’t want to be?) that should catch you up.

“(T)his is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”