The Nuclear Option

When the story broke of the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, I wrote an open letter of sorts here to Republican officials who were going out on a thin limb defending Trump.  I saw they should back off because, being in Congress, they knew the story and charges were all true, because they knew how FBI subpoenas work.  So, save themselves.  Because the story will only get worse. 

The story has progressively gotten worse.  And now we’re at nuclear worse.

After insisting that the suggestion he had taken nuclear documents was "a hoax," it turns out that Trump had in fact stolen nuclear documents.

Whoooaaa, hold the horses, Becky.  What a shock.

Gee, maybe ALL those things he’s been saying were just "hoaxes" were real, too.

Say it ain’t so, Shoeless Joe.

​​It turns out that among other material found by FBI officials who searched Mar-a-Largo, a document was found that describe a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities.

Perhaps this is what they found in Melania’s room that Trump was whining about over the weekend.

In a major report from the Washington Post, they wrote –

“Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. Only the president, some members of his Cabinet or a near-Cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special-access programs, according to people familiar with the search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive details of an ongoing investigation.

“Documents about such highly classified operations require special clearances on a need-to-know basis, not just top-secret clearance. Some special-access programs can have as few as a couple dozen government personnel authorized to know of an operation’s existence. Records that deal with such programs are kept under lock and key, almost always in a secure compartmented information facility, with a designated control officer to keep careful tabs on their location.

“But such documents were stored at Mar-a-Lago, with uncertain security, more than 18 months after Trump left the White House.”

How high is the secrecy for documents like this?  Top secret material is generally kept in a SCIF – a Secured Compartmented Information Facility, a unit so protected that (among many things) a person entering can’t even take their mobile phone inside.  Former CIA Director John Brennan said that such documents as these about nuclear capabilities would be kept in a safe – inside of a SCIF!!!

Still, for all that – and there’s a lot more -- my favorite line in the article was: “A Trump spokesman did not immediately comment.”

I can only imagine the consternation among the Trump brain trust on how to respond.  After all, “Nuclear documents a Hoax” was out.  So was, “All they had to do was ask.”  And “We were cooperating.”

I think they’re considering going with “Define ‘nuclear documents.’”

And we haven’t even gotten to – “Er, sir, why did you take the highest secret documents on nuclear capabilities on foreign government’s capabilities???  And please, dear God, don’t tell us that you needed it to put in your book.”

In fairness, it’s been a hectic weekend for statements for the Team Trump ace communications staff.  They’ve been busy trying to come up with an explanation why Trump went out of his way to bring up a neo-Nazi in prison who dresses up as Hitler and says Hitler should have finished the job with Jews and make the guy his poster boy to go all-in defending during his Pennsylvania speech.

Fun Fact:  If Republicans are looking for a reason why President Biden called the extremist MAGA wing of the GOP “fascist,” that would be a good place to start.

And if they are looking for a reason why Mar-a-Lago was searched and Trump is being investigated under the Espionage Act, that whole “nuke” thing is a good place to start for that.

To be clear, Trump having nuclear documents (not to mention all the other top secret and classified material, along with all the other government material, none of which he had a legal right to have) is only a criminal matter.  (And yes, “only” is meant sardonically.)  Completely separate of this is the defensive danger Trump has cause for U.S. security, since we have no idea who else saw this material.  And of course all our adversaries saw Mar-a-Lago as target.  A target so lax that a Russian-speaking woman talked her way into the country club pretending to be a Rothschild, befriended members, and had her picture taken with Trump – and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

But it was cool to hear Trump bring up Hillary Clinton and get his acolytes crying out on lock-step cue, “Lock her up.”  It’s a phrase they should get used to hearing.

And there’s one other phrase they should know well –

He put us all at risk.  Literally.

By the way, let’s go back to the beginning for that comment from Trump about nuclear documents at Mar-a-Lago being just a hoax.  What he said in full was, “The nuclear documents issue was a hoax.  Just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a hoax.”

Just like it, he said. Ah, Trump projection. Finally, he spoke the truth.  So, since the nuclear documents were real, he's in essence confirmed that Russia Russia Russia was very real, too.  Yes, this was a “hoax” just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a “hoax.”

They both were very real.  And for both -- he put us all at risk.  Literally.

Note to Republicans:  THIS is what "He put us all at risk" and "Lock him up" actually mean.​