The Banter Brief: The Perilous Investigation Of The Investigators

The best breakdown of the week that was on the internet.

Oct 25, 2019

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s edition of The Banter Brief. If you aren’t subscribed to the newsletter, make sure to drop your email in below so you can get The Banter Brief for free every Friday. We do a run down of the most important stories of the week, what the polls are saying, who said what, what you should be watching, and stories you can be happy about. You can also try a Banter Membership free for 14 days and get access to all premium articles:

1. The Most Important Story Of The Week

There were two major stories this week that deserve our attention. The first was the news that the Justice Department has announced it is opening a criminal inquiry into its own Russia investigation. Reported the New York Times:

Justice Department officials have shifted an administrative review of the Russia investigation closely overseen by Attorney General William P. Barr to a criminal inquiry, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move gives the prosecutor running it, John H. Durham, the power to subpoena for witness testimony and documents, to convene a grand jury and to file criminal charges.

This blatant politicization of the Justice Department is not good news for democracy. Trump believes he can use it to go after political enemies, and with the dangerously corrupt AG Barr running the investigation, he has a deadly weapon with which he can manipulate public opinion.

The second important story was the stunning revelation that Donald Trump is almost certainly engaging in stock market manipulation to the benefit of his friends. As Bob Cesca covered in depth on The Banter yesterday, evidence has emerged that Trump has “been deliberately blurting good and bad news about his trade war because he knows it moves the stock market.” Further more, “he might be tipping off his friends or even his family when he’s about to do it.” The evidence is extremely troubling, with mystery traders making enormous stock purchases on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange that immediately precede a Trump tweet about tariffs. If it turns out Trump knew something, he could be in deep, deep trouble.

Read more: I Think We Have Another Impeachment Article, And It’s A Big One - Bob Cesca on the shocking evidence that shows Trump is manipulating the stock market to enrich his friends.

2. Poll Analysis

Impeachment: the numbers aren’t budging much, but it seems support for the inquiry, not necessarily removing the president (an important distinction) is ticking upwards. FiveThirtyEight concludes: “As of Thursday night, 48.1 percent of Americans support impeachment and potential removal in our tracker’s average, while 43.7 percent oppose it.”

Democratic Primary: There’s some confusion as to whether Joe Biden is still leading the pack, or whether a surging Elizabeth Warren has usurped him. Basically, it is extremely difficult to tell given different polls ask different questions, but one thing has become clear. As the Wall Street Journal concludes:

Comparing national results by each pollster suggests that Mr. Biden’s support has been static, while Ms. Warren’s support has grown. Biden’s support has ranged narrowly, from 31% to 33%, in recent surveys by Morning Consult, while Ms. Warren’s support rose from 16% in September to 21% most recently in those polls.

Biden is till the favorite, but Warren is providing stiff and growing competition.

3. Quote of the Week

“Two things are true There’s only been ONE man EVER who was always right & deserves blind loyalty & his name was Jesus;

And No matter what a Republican does the left will never be fair to them. What they want is Republicans who will douse themselves in kerosene & light a match.”

- Sen. Marco Rubio on Twitter denying his blind loyalty to Trump while justifying it at the same time.

4. What To Watch On Netflix

“Living With Yourself,” is Paul Rudd’s new Netflix series, and definitely worth checking out. Rudd plays Miles, a chronically depressed marketing executive in an unhappy marriage and even unhappier career. After a recommendation from a colleague at work, Miles goes to a "rejuvenating" treatment spa in a nondescript strip mall. Unbeknownst to Miles, the “rejuvenating” treatment consists of cloning him and disposing of the original version of himself. Unfortunately, the treatment goes awry and Miles survives the disposal process and has to live with the improved clone version of himself.

It is a strange, oddly sweet series that delves into everything from middle aged angst to fertility, marriage, American suburbia, and the morality of DNA manipulation. Think American Beauty meets Black Mirror meets The Forty Year Old Virgin.

5. Good News

America’s diplomats are finally taking their revenge on Donald Trump after years of humiliation by testifying against him in the impeachment hearings. Current and former foreign service officers are defying Trump administration orders to stonewall the investigation and are going en masse to Capitol Hill to testify before House committees. As Politico reports:

In their testimonies, the diplomats have described being sidelined on Ukraine policy as Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and political appointees — apparently at the president’s direction — pursued a “shadow” foreign policy that included withholding some $400 million in military aid to Kyiv. Their boss, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has attacked the House process as “ troubling” and defended the legitimacy of Giuliani’s efforts.

Will this result in actual impeachment? Probably not given the Senate’s refusal to condemn anything Trump does, but it could help dramatically shift public perception when the evidence is made public. And that could cost Trump and the GOP dearly in 2020.

See you next week!

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