Is Trump’s Veep Pick in like Flynn?

July 11, 2016

Is Trump's Veep Pick in like Flynn?

Our Eliana Johnson reports on seven political figures who were sent the documents for vetting to be Donald Trump's running mate. Five still in consideration are New Jersey governor Chris Christie, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, Indiana governor Mike Pence, former Defense Intelligence Agency director and retired General Michael Flynn. Tennessee senator Bob Corker and Iowa senator Joni Ernst did not complete their forms and publicly withdrew as potential options. Eliana adds her sources say that there may have been other figures sent the forms, but those seven definitely were. For what it's worth, former Trump staffer Sam Nunberg affirms there are more, but won't name names.

Most of these are the most frequently-mentioned names. Flynn seems to be getting a lot of buzz lately; he has a fortuitously timed book about radical Islam coming out.

If you want to talk about a figure who can indict the previous administration with force and credibility, Flynn might be the best pick:

In a sane world, this sort of thing would spur serious impeachment talk:

President Barack Obama's former top military intelligence official said Tuesday that the White House ignored reports prefacing the rise of ISIS in 2011 and 2012 because they did not fit their re-election "narrative."

"I think that they did not meet a narrative the White House needed. And I'll be very candid with you, they just didn't," retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead."

Flynn, who has been critical of both Obama and former President George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq War and involvement in the Middle East, said that Obama was served poorly by a small circle of advisers who were worried about his re-election prospects at the time. The story they needed to tell, he said, was that pulling troops from Iraq would not leave the region vulnerable to rise of a radical Islamic group like ISIS.

"I think the narrative was that al Qaeda was on the run, and (Osama) bin Laden was dead . . . they're dead and these guys are, we've beaten them," Flynn said, but the problem was that despite how many terrorist leaders they killed they "continue to just multiply."

Marine general Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday that "we have not contained" ISIS and that "I don't believe the campaign [against ISIS] was fully resourced since 2010."

Here's one giant stumbling block: Flynn appears to be pro-choice, judging from his answer on ABC's This Week: "I think women have to be able to choose . . . sort of, the right of choice. They are the ones that have to make the decision because they're the ones that are going to decide to bring up that child or not."

You can imagine how pro-lifers are greeting this answer; Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List declared, "General Flynn has disqualified himself from consideration as vice president. His pro-abortion position is unacceptable and would undermine the pro-life policy commitments that Mr. Trump has made throughout the campaign."

What are the odds of a terror attack in the United States between now and November? ISIS-inspired Islamists have launched four terror attacks on American soil in the past 13 months: Garland, Texas; Chattanooga, Tennessee; San Bernardino, California; and Orlando, Florida. If you think there's going to be an attack, and that the issue of protecting Americans from terrorists at home and abroad is going to be the preeminent issue in the election in the closing weeks, then picking Flynn might make the most sense.

What We Lose When the President and His Team Deny the Obvious

If this administration wants to reassure the public and restore trust in elected officials, it has to stop saying things everyone can see just isn't true. Noah Rothman spells out how, after crises, we're told lies in the name of unity, or political correctness:

"I think it's very hard to untangle the motives of this shooter," the president told reporters at a press conference. "By definition, if you shoot people who pose no threat to you, you have a troubled mind."

If Obama was attempting to say that mass killers are definitionally disturbed and, therefore, we should disregard their stated motives, that's a defensible proposition. But the president has not been consistent here. In fact, he has a conspicuous habit of thrusting his hands skyward in a shrug whenever bad actors commit atrocities that could cast a negative light on himself or his administration.

The Dallas gunman, Micah Xavier Johnson, wasn't vague about what inspired his murderous rampage. "The suspect said he was upset at white people," said Dallas chief of police David Brown. "The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers." You don't get much more cut and dried than that . . .

When radical Islamic militants conduct attacks in the name of radical Islam, we are also often privy to obscene lectures about complex motives. "It is possible that this was terrorist-related, but we don't know," Obama told reporters after 14 people were killed by ISIS-pledged murderers in San Bernardino, "it's also possible that this was workplace related." Only three days later during a White House address did Obama concede that there was no "workplace related" motive in San Bernardino.

It was in that speech that he also confessed that an attack in Chattanooga was an ISIS-inspired assault on American uniformed military personnel. Previously, the FBI had insisted that it might never release information in regard to what led 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez to attack a Naval and Marine Reserve recruiting center.

This same bizarre self-censorship led the nation's attorney general to call the slaughter of gay club-goers in Orlando an act of "hate" as opposed to a premeditated terrorist attack. But so as to "avoid re-victimizing" the survivors of this attack and the loved ones of those who perished, the Department of Justice released 911 transcripts censoring the words "the Islamic State" and its self-styled leader, "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi." All this approach accomplished was to insult the nation's intelligence.

The obvious question to members of the public after statements like these is, if the government isn't being honest with me about this, what else are they not honest about?

May's Day

Theresa May is the woman likely to be the next Prime Minster of the United Kingdom:

Conservative leadership candidate Andrea Leadsom has announced she is pulling out of the race to replace David Cameron as prime minister.

The energy minister has paved the way for Home Secretary Theresa May, as the only remaining candidate, to be named Tory leader and PM as early as today.

However, it was not immediately clear whether Conservative rules would require the party's 1922 Committee to seek another contender to appear on the ballot paper alongside Mrs May for a planned vote of the party's 150,000 members.

From her announcement speech, a section that caught Reihan Salam's eye:

Britain still needs a Government that is capable of delivering a program of serious social reform and realising a vision of a country that truly works for everyone.

The evidence of this need has been known to us for a long time. If you're born poor, you will die on average nine years earlier than others. If you're black, you're treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you're white. If you're a white, working-class boy, you're less likely than anybody else to go to university. If you're at a state school, you're less likely to reach the top professions than if you're educated privately. If you're a woman, you still earn less than a man. If you suffer from mental health problems, there's too often not enough help to hand. If you're young, you'll find it harder than ever before to own your own home. These are all burning injustices, and -- as I did with the misuse of stop and search and deaths in police custody and modern slavery -- I am determined to fight against them.

But the mission to make this a country that works for everyone goes further than fighting these injustices. If you're from an ordinary, working-class family, life is just much harder than many people in politics realise. You have a job, but you don't always have job security. You have your own home, but you worry about mortgage rates going up. You can just about manage, but you worry about the cost of living and the quality of the local school, because there's no other choice for you.

"Frankly, not everybody in Westminster understands what it's like to live like this. And some need to be told that what the Government does isn't a game, it's a serious business that has real consequences for people's lives.

ADDENDA: Some good lines from Maureen Dowd this weekend, discussing the Clintons and what they offer America: "So many lawyers, so little law . . . The Clintons work hard but don't play by the rules. Imagine them in the White House with the benefit of low expectations."