Saturday 10 June 2023

Trump indicted, Bojo quits

Trump and Johnson are both narcissistic psychopaths who have lived by the lie and will die by the lie. How appropriate is it then that on the same day, 9 June mark it in the diary, Trump is indicted on espionage charges and Johnson jumps out of parliament before he’s pushed out by his own MPs. Both issued self-pitying statements blaming witch hunts (the same word) organised by a conspiracy of their opponents without the slightest acknowledgment of their own responsibility for the problems they face.

Neither of them was ever fit for even the most minor public office, a charge leveled at each of them by members of their own parties, something I have never heard about any other American or British politician in history. The greatest and the worst had their detractors but none as far as I know were openly described as 'unfit for office'.

Johnson was forced out of Downing Street last year by his own ministers when 60 of them resigned after he appointed the sex predator Chris Pincher as a deputy chief whip even after he was told of concerns about his behaviour. He has now been found guilty of misleading MPs by a parliamentary committee with an inbuilt Tory majority. You and I might not be surprised by any of that. He has been sacked from at least two jobs for lying and seems to have a lifelong aversion to the truth so an ignominious end was always inevitable.

But to Johnson, it apparently came as a shock - "much to my amazement - that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament." 

In his resignation statement he took aim at Harriet Hartman (deeply prejudicial), the committee's chief legal counsel, Sue Gray, some Tory MPs, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP, Rishi Sunak, the committee itself (a ‘kangaroo court’) and really just about everyone - except his own flawed personality. He even hinted at a comeback saying he was leaving parliament “for now.” 

On Brexit, he had this to say: "Sadly, as we saw in July last year, there are currently some Tory MPs who share that view [to get rid of him]. I am not alone in thinking that there is a witch hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result."

He honestly thinks he should still be PM, just as Trump thinks he should still be POTUS. Trump believes he will be able to escape justice by running for The White House again next year and Johnson thinks he can do the same at No 10.

David Gauke on Newsnight says the Conservative Party needs to "make it clear this is the end for Boris Johnson" because "he's done enormous damage" to the party's reputation for honesty and competence.”

Gauke should brace himself, the damage is only just starting. Look at this tweet:

Campbell-Bannerman was in the same discussion with Gauke and he leads the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO) whose task it is to reinstall Johnson as leader.  So, a split is definitely coming between the parliamentary party and the membership.

Some commentators think Johnson's plan is to see Sunak fail at the next election and fail badly (which he will) leading to him stepping down and opening the way for a leadership bid. Once (IF) he becomes leader, a safe seat will be found for him somewhere.

The first skirmishes in the battle for the soul of the party have just begun.  It will take decades.

Johnson’s resignation honours list was published on Thursday and he used it to reward his cronies and supporters who don’t seem to realise what an indelible stain that is going to be in the future. Don't forget he still has the Covid inquiry to contemplate. I note in passing that there was no peerage for Nadine Dorries or Nigel Adams, both had been tipped for the Lords. Dorries also quit in a huff yesterday, leaving the Tories to face two awkward by-elections.

Across the Atlantic, Trump’s long-expected indictment was published yesterday as well and it looks like an absolute slam dunk to me. The Department of Justice (DoJ) has everything: sworn statements from his own attorneys and close aides, photographs, footage from Trump’s own security cameras of boxes of classified information being hidden, and even a voice recording of him discussing secret plans with a writer and a publisher.

The document is only 49 pages but well worth a skim reading.

The indictment has 37 counts of which 7 are against Trump and one against a long-serving member of his staff, Waltine Nauta.  Most of the counts (31) carry a maximum jail term of 10 years and a couple have 20-year terms.

Social media is full of images published by the DoJ in the indictment:

There is not the smallest scintilla of doubt that Trump ordered the boxes of classified material be illegally removed from the White House, knew they were classified, and was actively involved in a conspiracy to hide many secret and top secret documents from the FBI and government officials.

His own attorneys resigned when the indictment was published - which gives you an idea of what sort of difficulty he's in. In Trumpian fashion, he responded on Twitter:

Lie, cover up, lie, lie, and keep on lying. Even when faced with incontrovertible evidence Johnson and Trump keep on lying because they simply can’t recognise the truth, can’t understand the truth, can't acknowledge the existence of the truth.

They are now coming to the end of the road, but for their respective parties, the troubles are about to get much worse. The divisions they have opened up will take years to heal.

Posted by at