Ukraine-Russia Peace Deal Thanks to...South Africa?, DeSantis Edges Out Trump in Iowa...Thanks to Tornado? American Homeless in NYC Displaced Due to Border Crossers (The Five for 05/16/23)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
Lots of news happening, so let’s dive in.
[one]
Yesterday, a report released acquitting former President Trump of any underhanded dealings with the Russians…but also fell short of Trump’s claims the report would expose “the crime of the century.”
A special prosecutor found that the FBI rushed into its investigation of ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and relied too much on raw and unconfirmed intelligence as he concluded a four-year probe that fell far short of the former president’s prediction that the “crime of the century” would be uncovered.
The report Monday from special counsel John Durham represents the long-awaited culmination of an investigation that Trump and allies had claimed would expose massive wrongdoing by law enforcement and intelligence officials. Instead, Durham’s investigation delivered underwhelming results, with prosecutors securing a guilty plea from a little-known FBI employee but losing the only two criminal cases they took to trial.
The roughly 300-page report catalogs what Durham says were a series of missteps by the FBI and Justice Department as investigators undertook a politically explosive probe in the heat of the 2016 election into whether the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia to tip the outcome. It criticized the FBI for opening a full-fledged investigation based on “raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence,” saying the speed at which it did so was a departure from the norm. And it said investigators repeatedly relied on “confirmation bias,” ignoring or rationalizing away evidence that undercut their premise of a Trump-Russia conspiracy as they pushed the probe forward.
Are some members of the FBI corrupt? I mean…it’s the government. I’m sure some members of the U.S. Postal service are corrupt and robbing the taxpayer blind.
Is Trump innocent of Russian entanglements? This report proves he is.
Does this report move the needle in the 2024 election at all? I doubt it.
Whatever you think of Trump, it’s unlikely the Durham report will change your mind. Which makes this new info important, but perhaps not consequential.
But it would be best if someone cleaned up the FBI…this is a national disgrace.
And I say that as someone who’s friends with VERY good officers in the Bureau.
[two]
Over the weekend, President Biden gave the commencement address for Howard University, a historic HBCU in Washington D.C. where he described White Supremacy as the greatest threat to the nation.
“Fearless progress toward justice often means ferocious pushback from the oldest and most sinister of forces,” Biden said. “That’s because hate never goes away. … It only hides under the rocks. And when it’s given oxygen it comes out from under that rock. And that’s why we know this truth as well: silence is complicity. We cannot remain silent.”
Biden continued by telling the soon-to-be-grads that they represented the future of America — a future with the opportunity to put the “strength of our diversity at the center of American life,” and one that “celebrates and learns from history.”
Still, in an apparent reference to former President Donald Trump, Biden acknowledged that the path toward that future is by no means easy.
“Let’s be clear: There are those who don’t see you. Who don’t want this future,” Biden said. “There are those who demonize and pit people against one another. There are those who would do anything and everything, no matter how desperate or immoral, to hold onto power.”
Aside from the fact that we’re staring down a potential World War with China in the next decade (which pretty much trumps anything going on at home, as far as threats go), Biden has a complicated history with White Supermacy himself, including his past friendship with Senator Strom Thurmond.
If you’re not familiar with Thurmond…here’s a quick slice of his glowing personality and the policies he pushed.
That quote is accurate. You can hear the recording of Thurmond delivering the line to a cheering crowd in a failed bid for President in 1948 (listen here).
In the 2020 Democratic campaign, Biden had to defend himself from these past actions…against (then) candidate Kamala Harris. From USA Today (in 2019):
“I’m flawed and imperfect like everyone else. I’ve made the best decisions that I could at the moment they had to be made,” Biden said. “If the choice is between doing nothing and acting, I’ve chosen to act.”
Several Harris supporters in the state said her pointed and personal critique of Biden, who opposed busing mandates in the 1970s, struck a chord in South Carolina. Marguerite Willis, a recent Democratic candidate for governor, said that when Harris spoke in last month’s debate about her own experiences being bused as a child, the entire room where Willis was watching the debate grew quiet.
“Growing up here in South Carolina, that’s meaningful to us,” said Willis, who is white. Schools were segregated when she was a child, and she recalled not meeting a black girl her age until leaving the state for college. “So when she talked about being bused, it was powerful for me and I’m sure it’s powerful for a lot of people here who have experiences of their own.”
So is White Supremacy the greatest threat to the nation?
Well, a high ranking official accused the current President of aligning with White Supremacy.
And that high ranking official…is the current Vice President.
Complicated, indeed.
For the record, I’m not sure what was going on with Biden and his friendship with Thurmond (for which Biden has *kinda* apologized), and I personally don’t see any evidence that would cause him to be labeled a racist.
But VP Harris certainly implied it, on the record. Which makes Biden’s commencement last weekend…quite awkward, in a wider context.
[three]
Over the weekend, both former President Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis were in Iowa, the state first state to vote in the 2024 primaries.
So far, Trump is in a solid lead over DeSantis in early polling, but the former Navy JAG had a heck of a weekend, stealing The Donald’s (literal) thunder after the former POTUS cancelled an event for severe weather…which never materialized.
DeSantis capitalized on Trump’s change in plans, rerouting his own travels to hold a last-minute meet-and-greet Saturday night at a barbecue restaurant not far from the location of Trump’s canceled rally. DeSantis’ team quickly kicked into gear as Trump announced that afternoon that his rally wouldn’t take place, the former president citing a tornado watch that was in effect until around the time he was set to take the stage.
Despite a long list of logistics that had to be solved — making an unplanned flight from a state party fundraiser in Cedar Rapids to 120 miles west in Des Moines for a 15-minute stop at Jethro’s BBQ — the decision was a quick one, according to a person familiar with the planning.
By Saturday evening, DeSantis and his team were buoyed by Trump’s rally cancellation, which kept the former president from receiving a night of headlines and live coverage as the Florida governor had national and Iowa media’s spotlight to himself. He and his wife, Casey, squeezed through a small opening in a crowd that had packed into the outdoor patio of the Des Moines restaurant, a mix of curious rib-eating customers, local activists and a gaggle of reporters.
DeSantis appears to be leaning heavily on the advice of Jeff Roe, who led Ted Cruz to an Iowa victory in 2016, in hopes of catching the “Obama effect.” In 2007 and 2008, the eventual 44th POTUS to a victory in Iowa, which in turn showed Democratic primary voters it was possible to defeat the “Clinton Machine.”
If DeSantis is going to have a shot, he must follow the same path to early victory, convincing Republicans that a vote for him isn’t a wasted effort.
The Five isn’t in the business of predicting elections…but simply reporting on what’s happening on the ground.
And on the ground in Iowa this weekend, DeSantis may have just edged out a bit of support.
[four]
Could a handful of African nations end the Russia-Ukraine war?
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have agreed to separate meetings with a delegation of leaders from six African countries to discuss a possible plan to end the war in Ukraine, South Africa’s president said Tuesday.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he spoke with Putin and Zelenskyy by phone over the weekend and they each agreed to host “an African leaders peace mission” in Moscow and Kyiv, respectively.
“Principal to our discussions are efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the devastating conflict in the Ukraine,” Ramaphosa said.
The leaders of Zambia, Senegal, Congo, Uganda and Egypt would make up the delegation along with Ramaphosa, he said in a statement. Putin and Zelenskyy gave him the go-ahead to “commence the preparations,” the South African leader said.
Four of those six African countries — South Africa, Congo, Senegal and Uganda — abstained from a U.N. vote last year on condemning Russia’s invasion. Zambia and Egypt voted in favor of the motion.
Overall, this is fascinating…and productive.
However, it’s worth noting that Congo is an outlier here, as it’s been embroiled in on-and-off civil war for 30 years…so bringing them to the peace deal is kinda like taking financial advice from the street corner weed dealer.
But overall, this could look like progress.
[five]
Over the weekend, homeless Americans were kicked out of hotels in New York to make room for migrants. Two of these families were paying for the rooms themselves, and still put out on the street.
Two homeless couples, including one with a baby, are getting the boot from a Yonkers hotel to make way for dozens of migrants being dumped there by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the displaced denizens told The Post on Monday.
Savannah Harp, 24, was forced to change her 18-month-old son Emir’s diaper on a bench outside the Ramada Inn in Westchester County on Monday morning after being told that the hotel where she has been paying $150 a night for the past two weeks is now suddenly booked up.
Harp, who rebooked each morning to stay at the hotel on Tuckahoe Road with her baby and boyfriend, said she believes they were denied a room Monday after it emerged that up to 100 migrant families could start arriving there.
“[The migrants’ are not having to pay out of their own pocket, and I’m having to pay out of my own pocket — and then I have to leave whenever [hotel workers] say,” Harp said.
“I don’t think it’s OK, to be honest.”
Elsewhere in New York, schoolchildren are unable to attend recess because their gyms are full of recent border crossers, who were shipped from Texas to the sanctuary city.
Until the next one,
-sth