Stage is set for end of Trump presidency after lawyer names him a co-conspirator

Marian Kamensky, a cartoonist for satirical magazines in Europe, labels his vision "Guilty," showing prison jumpsuits for lawyer Michael Cohen; ex-Campaign Manager Paul Manafort, who was found guilty this week; and President Trump, but he is getting far ahead of events.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Suddenly, events have caught up to Donald J. Trump, the New York developer, con man, liar and racist who many believe stole the 2016 presidential election with the help of Russia.

Michael Cohen, the lawyer who worked as Trump's fixer, pleaded guilty in federal court this week to several violations of campaign-finance laws in 2016, and named Trump as his co-conspirator.

Referring to Cohen's plea, The Washington Post's Fact Checker said on Friday:

"There's no question Trump lied -- repeatedly, intentionally, over more than a year, enlisting top aides and advisors to further the deception -- to cover up the hush money he arranged during the 2016 campaign" for two women who had separate affairs with Trump.

What is astounding is that the report is the first time the newspaper used the word "lie" to describe a statement from President Trump.

The Post's Fact Checker is a prime example of how the news media failed us during the 2016 campaign, and after Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017.

No reporter from that august publication, The New York Times or any other medium has confronted Trump and asked him to "stop lying to the American people" about everything he's done, especially his rollback of Barack Obama's policies.

"The president has made a staggering 4,229 false or misleading claims since taking office to the end of July, according to our database," Fact Checker's Salvador Rizzo reported.

"In many of those cases," claimed Rizzo, "it's not possible to tell whether Trump was intentionally fibbing or simply careless or wrong."

"Careless"? Give me a break.

Mueller and Trump

Meanwhile, on Thursday, The Times published a long article on how the Mueller investigation might play out for Trump:

How Mueller's Investigation Could End

From Jeff Darcy, staff cartoonist for Cleveland.com.

From David Fitzsimmons, cartoonist for the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson.

'Fake news' Trump knows debunking his lies can take days, weeks or even months

Daily News front pages from July 17, above, and July 21, 2018, below, ran with a New York Times report on layoffs at the tabloid, which "positioned itself as an unapologetically liberal counterpuncher to Rupert Murdoch's New York Post," according to The Times.

The biggest shock in the announcement was not that the newsroom staff would be cut in half and that the editor in chief was out of a job. It was the small number of employees involved -- "more than 40 ..., including 25 of 34 sports journalists and most of the photo department," The Times reported, at what once was the largest-circulation paper in the country.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- "President Trump often cries 'fake news' when he doesn't like what's being reported even when he knows it's the truth," The Washington Post says.

"For example, Trump said he knew nothing about any hush money paid to ... alleged mistresses Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal during the 2016 campaign," The Post's Fact Checker reported on Friday, adding:

"But we later found out that he did know.

"Trump claimed he had no role crafting his son's misleading statement about a meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign. But his attorneys later conceded Trump had dictated his statement.

"The moral of this story is that some of Trump's claims can be fact-checked quickly -- say, when he cites spurious data -- but other claims, particularly those involving Russia, can be debunked only after reporters and investigators dig up a full factual record.

"The process can take days, week or months.

"It's easy to lose the thread, and there's a risk these types of claims will end up forgotten in a memory hole."

Confront Trump

As I've said many times before, one possible solution is for reporters to confront Trump and appeal to him to "stop lying to the American people."

But Trump seems to have the upper hand in every meeting with reporters, and when he doesn't want to answer a question, simply says, "Thank you" over and over again or insults the reporter.

Also, The Washington Post Fact Checker should stop calling Trump's lies "false claims." 

The White House press corps has only a few members willing to push Trump or his staff; instead they compete to see who can be first to disseminate the latest presidential lie or tweet.

Where are they now?

I occasionally see the name or byline of one of the staffers who fell victim to Gannett's purchase of The Record of Woodland Park in July 2016.

That was the beginning of the end for more than 350 employees at North Jersey Media Group, publisher of my local daily newspaper, which I no longer subscribe to.

In The Washington Post Fact Checker article I cited today, I saw a tagline for Salvador Rizzo, whose byline from Trenton often appeared in The Record.

And onetime Assignment Editor Debra Vial now is director of communications and community relations at Suez, the water company in North Jersey.

Daily News

More evidence that some newspaper print editions are just limping along came in last week's announcement of layoffs at the Daily News.

The New York tabloid's newsroom apparently contained fewer than 90 employees, including photographers and sports reporters.

The New York Times reported that laying off half the newsroom involved "more than 40 employees." I would have said "only about 40 employees."

This at a tabloid that once circulated in the millions, and in May 2o16 still was the ninth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States. 

Trump lurches to next disaster in Rome; Christie slams critics, claims a great job

Cartoonist John Cole of The Times-Tribune in Scranton, Pa., lampoons President Trump for sharing classified Israeli intelligence on ISIS in an Oval Office meeting with Russian officials. Speaking to reporters on Monday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nearby, Trump claimed he "never mentioned the word ... Israel." Netanyahu had a stricken look on his face.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

In February, President Trump abandoned the bedrock principle that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will come from establishing two states for two people, but still wanted to reach "the ultimate deal."

This week, he failed miserably to advance the peace process one bit despite separate meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

"I've heard it's one of the toughest deals in the world," Trump said of Mideast peace before leaving Israel for Rome. "But I'm sure we're going to get there eventually."

What a miserable failure. The liar, con man and tax dodger -- who rode a wave of racism and misogyny to victory on Nov. 8 -- proves once again he's all talk, no action.

Still, USA Today's dated report in The Record of Woodland Park raves Trump "became the first sitting president to pray at Jerusalem's Western Wall on Monday" (1A).

Big deal.

In February, President Trump destroyed the Palestinians' hope for their own state. In this AFP photo from Trump's meeting today with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president grins and bears it. Trump looks constipated.

Was Trump heavily sedated

 in Saudi Arabia?

Christie bluster

The Record's front-page report on Governor Christie's 90-minute press conference on Monday is quite a contrast to the one Salvador Rizzo filed for Observer.com.

Bob Jordan of Gannett's Asbury Park Press focused on the so-called controversy over the bond issue Christie authorized for the $300 million renovation of the State House (1A).

Rizzo, who worked at The Record until March, had a different take:

"For old times' sake, Christie gave one last stem-winder news conference, going on and on about this and that for nearly an hour and a half. He bantered. He snapped at reporters. He critiqued all his predecessors over the last four decades and all the candidates hoping to succeed him" in January.

"He dared the assembled press to write nice things about New Jersey's recent upsurge in jobs.... He disclosed his thoughts about President Trump's Twitter account. I'm trying to encourage him [Trump] not to tweet."

Christie also said he would have never hired Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, who was fired for lying about his ties to Russia during the campaign, or even let him the White House.

In response, Preet Bharara, another former U.S. attorney, tweeted in a reference to the Bridgegate trial convictions of two of Christie's former aides:

"Yes, we all know that Chris Christie is great at spotting & screening out problematic top staff."

'Crappy column'

Rizzo also reported Christie slammed his news media critics, including political Columnist Charles Stile, Rizzo's former colleague at The Record:

Christie took questions from Stile "without cutting him off for once or complaining about his crappy column."

That surprised me, because Stile was Christie's chief booster at The Record for all of his first term (2010-14), and stuck with him way up until the shocking revelations about the GOP thug at last year's Bridgegate trial.

In fact, Stile's column on Monday's front page seemed to echo Christie as the reporter tried to destroy the candidacy of Jim Johnson of Montclair, one of the Democrats seeking to succeed the governor.

The headline was damning:

"Johnson's 

liberal vision

overlooks

sacrifices" 

Of course, the only ones who would have to sacrifice anything would be millionaires, whom Christie has shielded from a tax surcharge since 2010.

Stile also labeled Johnson's proposals, including a minimum wage of $15, "utopia."

Christie and Trump voodoo budget plans intend to screw middle, working classes

From Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Steve Sack of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Is there really any mystery to Governor Christie's final budget address this afternoon?

Columnist Charles Stile seems to think so, as his long and tedious Page 1 column indicates (1A).

Is anyone bothering to turn to 7A for the rest of Stile's drivel?

As Staff Writer Salvador Rizzo reported on Monday's front page, Christie will propose his last budget "after years of missed revenue projections, credit-rating downgrades and failed reform efforts."

The state is broke for a number of reasons, including Christie repeatedly vetoing a tax surcharge on millionaires.

And today's lead story reports the GOP bully is actually taking away money from low-income women and children to pay for ads promoting a drug-addiction hotline and website (1A).

Can Christie go any lower after years of screwing state employees, teachers, minimum-wage workers and so many others?

Trump dump

The bad news in President Trump's proposed budget includes another $54 billion for the military and cuts in environmental protection, according to USA Today (1A).

A TV news report this morning said the Repubican "replacement" for the Affordable Care Act won't take effect until 2020.

Amid all the turmoil expected from Trump's budget address to Congress tonight, The Record is still re-hashing the mix-up at the Oscar ceremony in La La Land on Sunday night (Bill Ervolino on 1A, Better Living cover).

To the editor

Good for Ronald Barone, a Wyckoff resident, who says in a letter to the editor:

"Of all the laughable statements Donald Trump makes, one of the most ridiculous is that he inherited a mess" (8A).

Sadly, the editorial board of the Woodland Park daily, as well as some of its reporters and columnists, haven't made that point -- either at all or enough -- to counter all of Trump's lies during the presidential campaign and his first five weeks in office.

Our next prez -- a filthy rich con man and tax dodger -- will make America hate again

Supporters of  Donald J. Trump denounced a cartoon from Jim Morin, showing the president-elect beating Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights hero who says he is boycotting the inauguration of an "illegitimate" president.

EYE ON THE RECORD

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Make no mistake. 

My use of the word "prez" in the headline just bought me room for "con man" and "tax dodger," but, alas, "pussy grabber" didn't fit.

I certainly didn't intend to confer on billionaire Donald J. Trump any of the coolness of the late, great tenor saxophonist Lester Young, who was called "Prez" and "The President" by his fellow musicians.

The inauguration of Trump on Friday will end government for all as we knew it under President Obama, and usher in a period of racism, hate speech and division unlike anything we've seen before.

The Record today carries the fifth and final installment of "Trump Tracker," a series in which the editors and reporters try to predict how a Trump administration will affect 14 issues important to North Jersey residents and businesses (1A and 10A).

They intend to update the stories "at least once every three months." 

That's hardly enough, especially if they spend the rest of the time merely reporting partisan politics and sound bites -- as they have done for the entire Obama administration, as well as during Governor Christie's tenure.

#TeamRecord

On 11A today, readers get a foreshadowing of how The Record of Woodland Park will cover the Trump inauguration, written by Elise Toribio, who is identified as "social-mobile editor" or do they mean "mobile social editor"?  

Poor Toribio reports that Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States "in front of thousands of Americans on the National Mall."

"Thousands"? One estimate is that 900,000 people will attend the ceremony. 

Toribio urges readers "to follow our reporters and photographers on their social channels ... for live updates before, during and after the event." 

Unfortunately, many older readers of The Record don't have smartphones or follow Twitter and other social media.

A dozen staff reporters or columnists and four photographers will be in Washington for the inauguration.

When their work appears in the print edition on Saturday and Sunday, much of it will be largely ignored by readers who watched hours of coverage and commentary on TV.

Obama farewell

In his final news conference, Obama told the White House press corps, "You're not supposed to be sycophants, you're supposed to be skeptics" (12A).

The president appeared to be urging them to "be skeptics" during the Trump administration. 

Many Americas are disappointed the press corps, as well as print, radio and TV reporters, acted like sycophants during the campaign, hoping to gain advantage with Trump and his supporters.

Regulations

In his story on Trump reducing federal rules today, Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson reports "exactly what regulations will be rolled back and what businesses or individuals will be affected remain unclear" (1A).

That's quite a journalistic cop-out from a veteran reporter, who could have discussed regulation of the auto industry that affects nearly everyone.

Trump officials are expected to side with automakers who are pushing back against the latest fuel-mileage standards from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Auto emissions kill 53,000 people a year and aggravate climate change, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the upstart who is leading the movement to all-electric vehicles.

And no one wants to see a reduction in auto-safety regulations in view of the thousands of Americans killed by defective air bags, tires, cars and trucks in recent decades. 

Affordable housing

Page 1 of The Record today carries a decision from the state Supreme Court that is almost as significant as the landmark Mount Laurel rulings in 1975 and 1983.

The high court ruled towns must allow developers to build affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families "whose needs were ignored for more than 16 years" (1A).

The justices rejected arguments from several towns, the Christie administration and the League of Municipalities, State House Bureau reporter Salvador Rizzo reports.

But this story and previous accounts largely avoid the racial angle -- most of the people who live in affordable housing are black and Hispanic, and many towns oppose accommodating those minorities.