In a piece of logic that is as comical as it is incomprehensible, an administration official told the Washington Post that "The White House did not thoroughly vet [Matthew] Whitaker before Trump appointed him acting attorney general, because he was 'already chief of staff.'"
This same official added that Whitaker is probably safe as the "acting" A.G. — in every sense of the air-quote word — "unless more comes out." The White House, it seems, is rather comfortable with Whitaker's record, as is.
Let's review. During his 2014 campaign for the U.S. Senate — which offers "advice and consent" on presidential judicial appointments — he opined that judges mustn't be "secular" in their legal thinking; that they should instead possess a "biblical view"; that the founders meant the judiciary to be the "inferior branch" among nonetheless coequals; and that Marbury v. Madison, which established the indispensable concept of judicial review, was a flawed Supreme Court decision.
Mr. Whitaker also served as a board member for a fraudulent, Miami-based patent-marketing firm; threatened scammed customers with law suits, to shut them up; and ignored a Federal Trade Commission 2017 subpoena, which "[sought] his records related to the company."
Furthermore, as a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, he brought what amounted to political charges against an "openly gay Democratic state senator." The jury acquitted the defendant with due haste. And, of course, as acting attorney general, Whitaker will oversee the Mueller investigation, which he has already denounced as "crazy." (Really crazy is Whitaker's opinion that "The left is trying to sow this theory that essentially Russians interfered with the U.S. election, which has been proven false. They did not have any impact in the election," he said in contradistinction to the entire U.S. intelligence community.)
Still, the White House insists that Whitaker is safe in his job, "unless something more comes out," which reveals Trump's spectacular tolerance levels for legal mush, criminal behavior, and homophobia as a political platform. But, the White House has an excuse, however chronologically peculiar it may be: There was no need to vet Whitaker for his present job, since he was "already chief of staff."
Meanwhile, the president of the United States can't seem to decide if he even knows Mr. Whitaker. Speaking on "Fox & Friends" in October, Trump said "I can tell you Matt Whitaker’s a great guy. I mean, I know Matt Whitaker." Yesterday? "I don’t know Matt Whitaker." The latter remark is especially odd, since one White House official "laughed Friday at Trump’s suggestion that he did not know Whitaker." Why the jocularity? Well, "Trump and Whitaker have met in the Oval Office several times."
Nevertheless, Trump is handling this puzzler of a situation with his customary grace, aplomb, vicious racism and misogyny. When asked yesterday by a black, female CNN reporter if he hired Whitaker to constraint the Mueller investigation, Trump answered, "What a stupid question. I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions." When asked another discomfiting question by April Ryan, a black reporter for American Urban Radio Networks, Trump responded that she's a "loser" who "doesn’t know what the hell she is doing."
Makes ya kinda proud, doesn't it?
Or, perhaps Trump himself said it better, before leaving yesterday to insult Parisians: "It’s very sad, I have to say."