Red Mosquito

One of the most blandly unsettling passages in Bob Woodward’s Fear recounts the near resignation of Gary Cohn, one of the book’s likely sources and (therefore) heroes. In August 2017, Cohn, nauseated at President Trump’s equivocation over neo-Nazis demonstrating in Charlottesville, Virginia, attempted to quit. Trump berated Cohn for his weakness and, characteristically equating political loyalty to himself with loyalty to the country, accused Cohn of “treason.” “It was chilling,” Woodward reports.

Then Trump tried another approach. “If you leave now, taxes are over,” he warned. By this he meant the massive corporate tax cuts Cohn had helped to craft and from which he also stood to personally benefit. Cohn’s moral outrage began to drain, and he instead decided to stay on, prioritizing the taxes, or, as Woodward has him selflessly declaring, “helping the country.”

There is no better symbol for the Republican Party elite in the Trump era than Gary Cohn weighing the morality of opposing Nazism against corporate-tax-rate cuts and choosing the latter.

McParadigm wrote:We just talked about why this effectively nullifies any pardon ambitions earlier today.

Simple Torture wrote:

McParadigm wrote:We just talked about why this effectively nullifies any pardon ambitions earlier today.

On top of this--I don't 1000% understand this, but will try to find a source, so bear with me for a second--apparently, since Manafort has pled guilty, he effectively has given up his 5th ammendment rights if he gets pardoned. If he gets subpoenad to discuss something he's been pardoned for, he can't be charged with it, so he can't refuse to discuss it; if he did, he could be charged with contempt of court or obstruction, which he'd then have to be pardoned for again. Madness.

96583UP wrote: but few if any GOP congressmen were directly involved

tragabigzanda wrote:

96583UP wrote: but few if any GOP congressmen were directly involved

I'm less confident in this after watching Dark Money last night.