BY PRIYANKA ARIBINDI, BRIAN BEUTLER
& CROOKED MEDIA

Thursday, May 31st, 2018

—John Boehner, one Bloody Mary in

PARDON ME, I'M TERRIBLE

President Trump deployed the pardon power corruptly for the third time, granting a reprieve to Dinesh D'Souza, a racist, right-wing conspiracy theorist, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to making illegal campaign contributions. Trump also floated the possibility of further pardons for people who have been convicted of the kinds of crimes for which his associates are currently under investigation! Weird coincidence!

Earlier this year, Trump pardoned Scooter Libby—Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff—for obstruction of justice and perjury convictions. Last year he pardoned Joe Arpaio—the racist and inhumane former Maricopa County, AZ sheriff—for criminal contempt of court.

The thread connecting these pardons (other than the fact they’re all politically connected Republicans) is that they pertain to the same family of crimes that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating. Campaign violations. Abuse of power. Obstruction. The message to subjects of the Russia investigation is: Hang tight, don't squeal, perjure yourself if necessary, and a pardon will await you too. He can do it with a tweet if he wants! It’s a neat constitutional power.

Trump, after all, has every reason to be concerned that his associates will flip on him. His indicted campaign manager, Paul Manafort, is proclaiming his innocence. His personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, is expected to be indicted soon, as is his political adviser Roger Stone. Both men have professed their loyalty to Trump and promised not to turn on him—for now. The pardon dangle seems intended to persuade them not to.

It’s hard to overstate how serious an abuse of power this is, and why it's so important that Mueller is cooperating with state attorneys general. If Trump grants pardons to people like Manafort and Cohen, it still wouldn’t prevent them from being tried and convicted in state courts, which means they still have an incentive to cooperate with prosecutors.

Trump pressured Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reclaim control of the Russia probe on at least four occasions, telling Sessions he’d be a “hero” to conservatives if he did the “right thing” and un-recused himself.

Trump’s proposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum are set to hit allies in Canada, Mexico, and the European Union at midnight tonight. All affected countries have vowed to retaliate. (Punish) America First.

Federal bank regulators have announced a plan to weaken the Volcker Rule, which was instituted to prevent big banks from engaging in risky trading with depositors’ money. This follows last week’s vote in Congress to loosen bank regulations by partially repealing the Obama-era Dodd-Frank reforms. Let the good times roll! (Until the next crash.)

The White House is demanding that TBS cancel comedian Samantha Bee’s show after Bee called Ivanka Trump a “feckless cunt” on Wednesday night. Both Bee and TBS issued apologies earlier today. Conservatives have attempted to draw an equivalence between Bee’s comments and the racist ones Roseanne Barr made before ABC canceled her show earlier this week, because they can’t seem to understand that vulgarity is not the same as racism.

The new National Security Council chief of staff Fred Fleitz was the top policy official at the Islamophobic Center for Security Policy, which has promoted a conspiracy theory that Muslims are plotting to take over the U.S. He should fit right in. Hear more about him and the other extremists in the White House on the latest episode of Pod Save the World →

Walmart says it will subsidize college tuition for its 1.4 million employees across the U.S. if they seek degrees in either supply chain management or business at three universities (online or on campus), without requiring them to return to Walmart after the degree is complete.

Mitt Romney says he voted for his wife to be president in 2016. Voting for a fun write-in was a great way to pretend to vote while actually skipping one of the most important elections in American history! Mitt, you scamp!

This site will show you the most popular songs from the year you graduated and it’s a real trip down memory lane. From Old Man Brian: In Priyanka’s case, a very short trip.

On Pod Save America: John Legend stops by to talk with Tommy about the importance of getting to know your district attorney, plus Jon and Dan discuss Roseanne, the Republicans’ midterm strategy, and the danger Democrats face in the June 5 California primary.

Listen →

Yesterday, Illinois approved the Equal Rights Amendment, putting the amendment one state away from becoming a lasting part of the U.S. Constitution. The amendment, originally ratified by Congress and sent to the states for approval in 1972, states that civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution apply equally to all people, regardless of sex. Opponents say this will be used to expand abortion rights, but #actually it’s about including women in the nation’s cardinal founding document.

Southwest Airlines has apologized for asking a mom to prove that her biracial son with a different last name was indeed her son. After presenting the child’s passport, an employee asked to see his birth certificate or a Facebook post. While some claim the documentation request is a standard precaution against child trafficking, Southwest has owned up to the fact that differing last names should not have triggered it.

Amid a lengthy tirade against the mainstream media, Trump tweeted: "Not that it matters but I never fired James Comey because of Russia! The Corrupt Mainstream Media loves to keep pushing that narrative, but they know it is not true!"

Last year in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Trump said,  “When I decided to just [fire Comey] I said to myself, I said 'you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.’” The same week, he told Russia’s top diplomat and its then ambassador to the U.S. in the Oval Office that he fired Comey because he felt “great pressure” from the Russia investigation.

Did someone forward you this email? Sign up to get What A Day in your inbox!