by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
You can’t make this shit up. It definitely seems as though just like Nixon’s obsession with Daniel Ellsberg sowed the seeds of his self-destruction that Trump’s personal vendetta against John Brennan may very well do the same damn thing to him.
I would not be at all surprised if it wasn’t Brennan who Barr was to bring a criminal referral against in his quest to give Trump the fig leaf necessary to pardon Paul Manafort and Mike Flynn. Yes, Trump will definitely win at least one news cycle by doing this, but long term it may be a bit more dicey. Things are just about far enough in the impeachment proceedings that Trump may feel he has to wait until after he’s acquitted in the Senate to go full Putin on us. Or, given that he’s bonkers and not the political genius everyone thinks he is, he may just say fuck it and do it between now and whenever he’s formally impeached.
Who knows. The key thing is there’s no discernable endgame right now, which is why, by definition, this is a crisis. A big one. It could go either way. What’re more, we’re not really prepared for either eventuality. We’re going to be in a new era, no matter what.
