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US-POLITICS-TRUMP-WRAP-UPDATE
Trump calls on Times to reveal ‘coward’ behind critical op-ed
WASHINGTON, Sept 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Donald Trump on Thursday called on the
New York Times to reveal the name of the “coward” who wrote an explosive,
anonymous article that has plunged his presidency into its worst crisis yet.
The White House has been convulsed by a fevered hunt for the senior
official who declared, in an unsigned article for The New York Times
published Wednesday, that “unsung heroes” were quietly working within the
administration to frustrate the president’s “worst inclinations.”
“Nobody knows who the hell he is, or she,” Trump told supporters at a rally
in Billings, Montana, adding: “Unidentified deep state operatives who defy
voters to push their secret agendas are truly a threat to democracy itself.”
Invoking national security concerns, Trump said the paper should publish
the official’s name, before encouraging reporters to investigate the matter.
“That would be a good scoop!” he said.
On the internet and in Washington, a guessing game has raged over who the
author might be, prompting nearly every cabinet-ranked member of the
government to deny it was them.
Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense
Secretary Jim Mattis and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats were
among those who issued denials.
“The Vice President puts his name on his Op-eds. The @nytimes should be
ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical, and gutless
op-ed,” Pence’s spokesman Jarrod Agen wrote on Twitter.
“Our office is above such amateur acts.”
The manifesto followed the release of excerpts from a bombshell book by
Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, who portrayed Trump’s White House as an out-
of-control “crazytown.”
Trump responded with a furious volley of tweets that asked if the author
had committed treason while First Lady Melania Trump condemned the decision
to publish.
“To the writer of the op-ed — you are not protecting this country, you are
sabotaging it with your cowardly actions,” she said.
– Firestorm –
The Woodward book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” reported that senior
aides lifted documents from the Oval Office desk to keep the president from
acting on his impulses, reinforcing the assertions in the Times article.
The firestorm caught up with Mattis and Pompeo in New Delhi, where the
Secretary of State denounced the Times’ decision to publish as “sad” and
“disturbing.”
“I come from a place where if you’re not in a position to execute the
commander’s intent, you have a singular option, that is to leave,” he said.
Both men denied involvement, while Coats, who as intelligence chief has at
times been publicly at odds with Trump, said in a statement speculation that
he or his deputy had written the op-ed were “patently false.”
When asked if she wrote it, UN envoy Nikki Haley responded with a curt
“no” on her way to a Security Council meeting.
James Dao, who runs the Times op-ed page, told CNN he received the article
several days ago through an intermediary, but had spoken directly with its
author.
– Eye-opening –
In one eye-opening passage, the writer says cabinet members initially
considered invoking the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution, which provides
for the president’s removal if he is “unable to discharge the powers and
duties of his office.”
They decided against the move, fearing a constitutional crisis, but
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren took to the airwaves on Thursday to
revive the idea.
“If senior administration officials think the president of the United
States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th
Amendment,” Warren told CNN.
Trump meanwhile has called for the article’s author to be unmasked.
“Are the investigative ‘journalists’ of the New York Times going to
investigate themselves – who is the anonymous letter writer?,” he tweeted
ahead of a rally in Montana.
The Times acknowledged the “rare step” of publishing an anonymous editorial
but said the official’s job would be jeopardized if they were identified.
The piece described a “two-track” presidency in which Trump says one thing
and his staff consciously does another, citing the president’s alleged
preference “for autocrats and dictators.”
“The root of the problem is the president’s amorality,” the official said,
denouncing Trump’s “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective” leadership
style.
BSS/AFP/RY/10:12 hrs