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| Rudy Giuliani getting booed in Yankee Stadium |
Rudy Giuliani's unhinged appearances on network and cable news programs over the past couple weeks haven't exactly boosted Trump's credibility.
Or his own for that matter.
While attending a Yankees game in the Bronx last Monday, Giuliani was loudly booed by a Memorial Day crowd when he was introduced on the PA system as the camera panned about for celebrities in attendance.
The 74-year-old crackpot Trump supporter / lawyer tried to pass the unmistakeable slight off as the Yankee fans showing him "love", but as I've mentioned on this blog before, I lived in New York City for 14 years and have attended dozens of Yankees games over the years.
Just to be clear, when Yanks fans boo you in Yankee Stadium, it ain't love.
Giuliani's efforts to try and undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation have gotten so bizarre, it's actually getting embarrassing for Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Particularly given that mid-term elections, which are clearly shaping up to be a referendum on Trump's first two chaotic years in office, and the divisive, mean-spirited tone of his administration, are now only four months off.
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| Top Republicans Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and Trey Gowdy all support the Mueller investigation |
For those nervous, legacy-cognizant Republican members of Congress who haven't already announced that they won't seek another term in office (in an effort to avoid the humiliation of being in the same party as Trump) the stakes are high heading into summer.
The week before last, even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other leading Republican members of Congress, including the dependably right-leaning Hillary-basher, Representative Trey Gowdy, publicly stated their firm support for the ongoing investigation being led by special counsel Robert Mueller of intentional interference in the 2016 U.S. elections ordered by Vladimir Putin.
In political terms, that's a pretty revealing indicator of how Republican politicians preparing to face a fired-up voter base are trying to re-position themselves.
But it's more than that.
For example, obviously I don't agree with a lot of the policy positions of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, but I respect his mastery of the arcane rules of the Senate chamber.
And don't think for a second that he's forgotten Trump's loudmouth support for failed pedophile Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore last fall - who ran on a platform that was partially based on checking the power of the "Republican Washington establishment", calling out McConnell by name repeatedly.
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| Trump in Nashville telling one of the 35 lies or factually-misleading statements he told. |
Five of those indicted have already plead guilty.
As the New York Times reported, "Thirteen are Russians accused of meddling in the 2016 elections."
True to his bombastic nature, Trump's response to members of his own political party publicly supporting the Mueller investigation even as he desperately tries to undermine it, has been predictable.
He took it as a snub from the same mainstream Republicans that he gleefully eviscerated like dead fish during the 2016 campaign and, as he's done consistently when he's getting bludgeoned by the mainstream press and social media, he took to the road Wednesday night.
Heading down south to try and rally his shrinking, but loyal base of support.
As USA Today and other news organizations reported, Trump used an appearance at a "Make America Great Again" rally in Nashville, Tennessee to meander through at least 35 different false or misleading statements on his favorite topics including provably false statements on the Affordable Care Act championed by President Obama, taking credit for wage growth that began under Obama and of course Trump's central theme - irrational immigrant bashing.
Even the local Tennessean.com caught Trump, once again, lying about the size of the crowd there.
His blundering, back-and-forth foreign policy efforts, including on-again, off-again negotiations with North Korea and the announcement of 25% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from some of America's closest allies - including France, Canada and Mexico - have further fractured already-tenuous relationships with some the country's biggest global trading partners.
To say nothing of the fact that such tariffs will likely increase steel costs for U.S. manufacturers
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| Dinesh D'Souza being arrested for illegal campaign contributions back in 2014 |
The tariffs in particular were so reckless, it's possible they were meant to overshadow Trump's decision to help Chinese electronics maker ZTE after the Chinese announced they would invest hundreds of millions in an Indonesian project from which Trump would personally profit.
The ZTE decision even irked Republican politicians in Washington.
And it certainly didn't help that the announcement coincided with China approving additional trademarks for profiteering First Daughter Ivanka Trump, who has shamelessly helped herself - as has her husband Jared Kushner - to unabashed financial feeding at the trough during their questionable tenure in the White House as roving "senior advisers" to their quasi-delusional daddy.
But unquestionably, Trump's most bizarre effort to rally his right-wing base and deflect from the reality of his disastrous presidency, was his decision to issue a presidential pardon last week to the textbook homophobic bigot Dinesh D'Souza (pictured above).
As an op-ed by the New York Times editorial board on Thursday titled "Dinesh D'Souza? Really?"
noted:
"On Thursday, Mr. Trump pardoned Dinesh D'Souza, the right-wing troll known for, among other things, posting racist tweets about President Barack Obama, spreading the lie that George Soros was a Nazi collaborator and writing that 'the American slave was treated like property, which is to say, pretty well.' "
Trump's decision to pardon D'Souza for funneling $20,000 in illegal campaign contributions to Republican Senate candidate Wendy Long back in 2012 seems intended as yet another petty swipe in Trump's bizarre obsession with President Obama.
Particularly given D'Souza's many racist attacks on Obama over the years, including a widely-panned and unsubstantiated book and calling Obama "boy" on Twitter among other assorted classless, low-rent nonsense.
So it's not surprising that Trump used his executive power to pardon someone like that (Hell, he pardoned ex-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio), anything to distract from the ongoing disaster that is his presidency.
Another Hail Mary pass lobbed from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue - not to score, but to distract.
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