Welcome to the Crystal Clear podcast with weekly standard founder and editor at large Bill Crystal. I'm Eric Felton Bill, how's it going? Just fine Eric. Are you fine?
Thank you It's been some kind of week, you know We were in the podcast studio here just a week ago and we were talking about credit where credit is due and we're and actually we're talking About Donald Trump in that context Things have changed. Yeah, I think I just come back from maybe commenting on television on President Trump's speech in Warsaw Which I thought was quite good more Reaganite than not touches a couple of you know little excessive nationalism You might say that I thought were necessary, but basically 85 90% what I thought it was appropriate for an American president to say and I Wanted to get Donald Trump credit for that And I said as you say credit were credit is due then he had the meeting with President Putin, which is maybe was going on as we were Speaking here in the podcast studio two very important meetings going on thousands of hours apart and Are you gonna be Putin? Yeah, that's well, you know We'll leave that's where our listeners to decide and I don't think we had to read out on that yet And things did start to go downhill there. I thought C phase wrote a terrific piece for us over the weekend Well Friday night actually after Secretary of State's television read out of that meeting the extent to which the president seemed to be Credulous about a couple of president Putin's claims and and generally sort of didn't I don't know Tell us which was our own size readout did not reassure one that it had been a very good meeting We have a terrific piece in the magazine this week by Eric Edelman the number three person in the defense department under Donald Trump seldom about gates in the second George W.
Bush term about how this really can be dangerous if a Russian president takes your I think he's taking your measure and thinks he can sort of push you around or basically Get you to credulously believe whatever he says that that can be lead to miscalculations and famously the not quite You know as Eric says, it's not as analogous as perfect but the Khrushchev Kennedy meeting in Vienna and 61 really went disastrously for Kennedy and Khrushchev thought he could really this was a young rookie president who wasn't prepared and didn't seem good at standing up to Khrushchev and We should get away with things and we had the world and we had more dangerously in the Cuban Missile Crisis so it's interesting that Eric Edelman points out in that piece though is that JFK had the smarts to know he had Been spanked by Khrushchev and to act accordingly to change his posture. Yes, and that you know We then recovered from that I guess you'd say and even so I would encourage critics to do some rash things now Maybe Putin will be more conscious. Let's open. Maybe others have kind of Trumpet so far on Sunday morning I guess it was to tweet that you know he was fine with setting up a working group on cyber security with Putin something that I imagine Putin or Lavrov proposed this kind of I was a joke, you know I've got a nasty joke kind of rubbing our face in the fact that they succeeded in doing all this hacking and so I hadn't Very much a price for it and Trump said it says yeah, that's a good idea Then they walked that back Sunday night So maybe Putin would have decided that the system here was constraining Trump and McMaster and Madison others were we're not gonna let him push us around and I hope that's the case but then over the weekend We got that kept the beginning of a cascade of stories about the meeting of Donald Trump jr With Russian and lawyers and now it's two of them that we met with and first you know the first there was rumors of a meeting Oh, it's just about adoption that okay was a meeting about Hillary Clinton that it was a meeting which they were told that she was a Russian government Lawyers may not actually be but that's what there was and someone who wanted to help Participate in the Russians helping Donald Trump and the presidency so each day got worse Trump's offenses each day were sort of overtaken by events It's a pretty it was a pretty rough week.
I think in that respect for president Trump and his defenders And I just think people are still not analyzing people but some people they're still too much for Tennessee to look at these things Okay, well, that's kind of problematic this meeting on the other hand It's not the end of the world and maybe it went nowhere and so we just you know Foolish rookie mistake credulous, but nothing fundamental that would be true I think if that were the whole story with the one thing we should have learned and I think especially honestly Trump defenders You're going to this one is this more calm or they may be working on we certainly don't know what to come this word that way If there was one meeting that could have been three meetings that could have been ten meetings that could have been ten random disconnected meetings incidentally We should all didn't amount to anything but the idea that we now know everything about the extent or possible extent of possible collusion or compromising With or of Donald Trump or the Trump campaign, I think that's the most foolish position to take so I think everyone needs to be just We'll see what happens that Robert Mueller will find out what happened We can republicans complain that you know there's more scrutiny Republicans and Democrats and what about Hillary Clinton and all that But you know what there's one president and there's a special counsel and he's investigating this and I think it's Doesn't look good in the sense that the Trump team doesn't seem to have its act together And the Trump team itself probably doesn't know everything that happened a lot of it again could be sort of random Unseemly but not fundamentally illegal or terrible things, but we just don't know and that's what strikes me We do not we have six months of a presidency with a special counsel That's pretty unusual doing serious investigation and we don't know how far this is going to go or how serious this is going to be One thing that's clear is that it's some of the players Whether it's Don jr. Paul Manafort Jared Kushner are going to be testifying in front of Hill committees and Almost certainly before the FBI and Mueller's investigation any time you have to go over the same territory under oath multiple times Even the most careful and honest Respondent gets at risk of getting the story mixed up right and I think it's not as the president Trump It's family at least of a totally careful sometimes about what they say and or about the truth Maybe others will be and maybe they'll get good lawyers will say look you've got to be careful and tell the truth if you don't remember say Something so you're not sure I don't remember and but we will we will see I think it's some it's worrisome honestly and and Yeah, we'll have as a multiple testimonies I think the FBI investigation ends up being the real the Mueller investigation special counsel investigation ends up being by far the most important I mean either you will find Criminal activity or not either you'll find it goes right into the White House or not either you will recommend to Congress that they do something Or they consider doing something I think it's how it works You refer to Congress for action if that's can't start it with Clinton or not and those are all things will happen in the next six or 12 months So you know in a certain way all this regulation is gonna be overtaken because either you know either Trump into the good news Or troubles of Mueller finds at the end of the day whatever Michael Flynn or Donald Trump Jr Right I've done that there's not a fundamental reason to consider something like impeachment against Donald Trump You know criminal charges that anyway does give Trump a clean bill of health But again, they've been so reckless. So if we think about this way they can't basically had a potential campaign scandal Who knows what's even real skin? But let's just say a campaign a problem in what happened in the campaign and instead of keep and it could stay that way and two things Happened Jared Kushner decided he wanted to be in the White House or Donald Trump decided he wanted Jared Kushner and his daughter He's talking about the White House that turns you know things that happened in a camp if they say New York It'd be all about boy that campaign was kind of a chaotic and it's a mean station of ab There's no White House connection right and then the second thing that happens the firing of Comey FBI director James Comey, which apparently Kushner advocated if he hadn't done that it just said I don't like James Comey I hate the fact that he's the best at the end of the day There's not really anything there.
They're not gonna vent anything. I was gonna leave him alone You know if a couple of guys were my campaign get hope before grand juries I mean so be it life is tough But the firing of Comey also made it a White House issue So if you think about that the firing of Comey the bringing of Christian into the White House those two things turn a possible campaign scandal Into a White House scandal possible White House scandal well and the White House as you tweeted Appears to have been involved in trying to deal with what was otherwise a campaign scandal by coming up with the initial phony Bologna's story for what this meeting was about between Don Jr. and Natalia Vasotnitskaya, that's good that you can do. I just keep saying the Russian lawyer Yeah, no, that's absolutely right.
That is a gross indicative They're not even thinking in the way fairly or unfairly you need to think if you're under this kind of investigation Donald Trump Jr. had a meeting The matter for was there question was there the one thing if there's questions about it if Donald Trump Jr. Has to make a statement because there's a New York Times article the one thing everyone would learn is Donald Trump Jr. And his lawyers should make a statement you do not want the White House chief of staff and the White House communications director Whoever was they said they haven't denied that Trump's staff and the Air Force wanted in communication with the White House worked on the Donald Trump Jr.
Statement and then apparently President Trump signed off on it that just makes again that draws it all into the wise now They're all gonna be interrogated by Mueller. How did you know? Why were you do you miss lattice to whether it was fundamentally meeting about sanctions? Who told you that?
Why did you think were you misleading other people? Can we see the email where you were told? You know what I mean? They've opened up a huge number of avenues not huge but some numbers of some avenues of investigation right into the core of the White House and That's the one thing you don't want to do, right?
So that's another example of in a way. That's the very that's the best example But I was talking about they still haven't understood how important it is to control it to contain this kind of thing And they've got a president in the United States personally Involved in shaping an answer which or at least signing off on it Which now we're gonna get the course all those questions right with the president not know president lawyers not know that again The White House counsel not know the president's personal outside lawyer not know what about the emails yet I think there's a story just today breaking that maybe at least there may have been that Jared Christian's lawyers did tell the president's lawyers So that he signed off on a false statement is that part of a broader effort therefore to obstruct justice? Obviously, it's not a featureable offense to put out a misleading press release But it just invites an investigation in a way that was totally unnecessary And it makes it you're in a position as president with your family around you of having the extra difficulty of trying to distance yourself from Your family which is I think part of what Gary Kasparov talks about in the weekly standard this week where he talks about nepotism being Not just inefficient but bringing with it a host of other problems. Yeah, that was a very very good short piece by the great former chess champion and Russian dissident really a shrewd I've gotten to know a shrewd analyst of world politics and a Putin's dictatorship and American politics It turns out for a case is very smart guy.
So one of the greatest fight you greatest just play a well time So when he came to America, he picked it up very quickly But that's one of the very true points you make some again Look friends have had brothers and kids and relatives who went off the reservation who did questionable things We've even had criminal investigations, but the one thing I won't learn is you know, I love him. I love my family I'm sure he didn't have anything wrong But you know what that's a private matter between him and you know you deal with him and his lawyer the White House is staying out of that Even when you have investigations into people the White House usually it's very much Kevin doff You know what I mean? So that no one else can get in trouble for sort of why did you say this? How did you know that that you you said this and they've just gotten it's on the opposite They've sucked everything right into the Oval Office and now they're all susceptible to interviews and and depositions and requests for emails and texts and phone Con records in the White House I mean they'll say they provide those executive privilege, but that just opens up a whole bunch of other of other problems So it is in a way.
I think of Watergate. I mean there was a campaign basically crime I mean they mostly campaign partly campaign related at least the actual Watergate break in was to the DNC that we got national committee headquarters part of the Nixon's Election effort I creeped the committee we like the president was kind of the You know the center of a real acronym of all times But what makes it what made it a scandal that ended up bringing down a president that turns out the meetings to maybe authorize the burglary We're in the White House or with the president himself But then equally as much the meetings to how to how to handle it. We're not sloughed off on to You know what you got to ask the campaign or the people who were handling the lawyers were handling the after effects of campaign It was let's have a White House meeting with HR Alderman and John Dean to figure out how to handle this Maybe they had no choice because Nixon was so involved in the beginning it may turn out to be comfortable here But it made sure not to Donald Trump president Trump really didn't have that much to do with it But it's now unfortunately for him I think sort of injected himself into something where he could have kept an arms like systems So you have a White House that is roiling with with all of these problems and yet the political issues still go on There's health care. There's tax reform.
There's matters of state craft like figuring out what to do with the Iran deal right? How does this White House deal with those issues when one it's distracted by all of the investigations going on and how to respond to those and two It would seem that when you're under this kind of investigation your political capital It doesn't count for very much on the Hill. It doesn't help to have this investigation going on in the distraction and you said and the erosion to some degree of political capital On the other hand you're clicking that a pretty effective 1998 or at least not a terrible one while he was under investigation and ended up being impeached By a congress controlled by the other party so Nixon did things in 1973 and for and you know It turns out what you read about it later It was kind of chaotic internally But he did very important things in foreign policy helping Israel and the young people were so you could do you can do things But again requires a kind of discipline It requires people not getting in the middle of writing statements for Donald Trump Jr When there's a New York Times article and saying you know what that's that's for Mr. Trump's journeys And we're busy here working on health care and other things they have a chance to get health care through it looks like next week Very iffy I'd say but outside job.
I don't know how good ability is. I don't know if it worked terribly well But you know at this point by any victories better than not having although if it happens Will there be any reason to think it happened because Donald Trump's White House had a vision and and shepherded that vision through the process? No, but still winning is you know He will take credit for the victory and in support he is a Republican president and people will make be making judgments about Republican Congress You know the bills are unpopular I could make a case that 18 months from now. They'll pay more advice for passing it to letting it die short term I got to think there'll be a certain rallying of Republicans at least they did something But they're not in good shape I mean there's six months in no legislation to speak of through one good Supreme Court appointment This next legislation health care not a great bill So even if they get through I think it's it's more about averting a disaster than getting a huge check mark on the board They'll end up putting a lot of eggs I suppose in the texture form basket is the kind of big thing they could deliver in the first year apart from Supreme Court in some of the nominations It's a lot of times do a ton of other things of course I've just continued to be just mystified by the way in which they sort of seem to have internalized the notion that we don't We're doing tax reports like they're not you know thirteen different camera There are cabinet agencies with a million issues where you can do a lot of bite-sized things and they're not huge But you do get credit for them and they can be useful.
There's an opioid crisis when we have a coordinated They're probably gonna be money for the opioid for treatment in the health care bill Why not simultaneously have a real serious effort both kind of international terms of Mexico But also law enforcement here at home to bust up all the networks that make the opioid the delivery of the opioids of fentanyl and stuff with Mexico possible, you know Make it a high profile thing bring in some of the entire general to run it And some of it will be PR a lot of what we have anyway Or you'll be working with local police departments and and the da and FBI But you know it never hurts to have a kind of you know a little bit of a White House spotlight on it And if you handle it well you get some credit incidentally, it's a huge problem I mean it really does deserve some intensive effort It's a law and order type issue which is good for Trump It is made worse by having a porous border good for Trump And there are probably a bunch of other issues where you could do stuff It's not at the level of informing the entire health care system with your entire tax code of the United States But there are actual problems out there that cabinet secretaries could take a lead on with some White House blessing and some White House involved But they just seem to have been maybe it's the same as staff up yet Maybe it's just because they're thinking only by doing the really big stuff I'm a little mystified that there's not just more happening at the kind of singles and doubles level And I think I would help them. I think I think now they're some risk of people just thinking it's just a game They can't straight they can't do anything they can't run their legal defense as well They can't pass big legislation the foreign trips end up being sort of you know one good day They want bad day. They really need to you know So like a baseball team you don't get out of the hitting slot Maybe by you know having a 12 run game or something But at least get some singles and walks and show that you're kind of not simply flailing away at the point If you have to yeah, exactly really yeah All right Well, that's it for the Crystal Clear podcast this week Be sure to tune in every week just go to iTunes or Google Play for a free subscription or go to our website weeklystandard.com Thanks so much bill. Thanks Eric.
And thank you for listening. I'm Eric Felton