Don't Obey In Advance

Chris Wray resigned as FBI Director and, in the process, gave Donald Trump a huge assist. Also, some life-affirming video from Syria

I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality. If you were sent this email or are a free subscriber and would like to become a paid subscriber, you can sign up here.

If money is tight or you’re already up to eyeballs in subscriptions, here’s another idea — share this article. Email it to a friend (or even an enemy). Post it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Text or email it to your wife, husband, mother, father, brother, sister, or even your creepy second cousin who lives in Homs. Word of mouth is often the best way to build support for a creative endeavor, so if everyone here sends it to just one person … it would be much appreciated.

I'm working on a longer piece, but I wanted to check in about what’s happening this week.

First, some self-promotion. Last week, I joined Mike Pesca and Liz Wolfe to discuss the latest in American politics—mostly the Hunter Biden pardon and why Democrats lost. You can listen to the whole thing here!

Second, I went on Pete Dominick’s show this week and talked about politics, Syria, Trump’s Cabinet picks, etc. You can check out the audio here.

Third, you absolutely must watch this video from Syria, in which CNN’s chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward finds and liberates a prisoner in a Syrian jail and informs them that Assad has fled the country. It is pretty life-affirming.

Last week, I speculated that Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense was on life support. All the indications pointed in that direction (for example, it’s never a good sign when the president-elect’s camp is leaking the names of potential replacements). Well, he’s since made a miraculous recovery.

The crucial Senate vote on Hegseth is Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, who is both a veteran but also a survivor of sexual assault. I thought she would be a tough vote for Hegseth to get, but then, on Monday, she signaled greater openness to supporting confirmation.

The important context here is that Ernst is up for reelection in two years, and Iowa Republicans were making clear that if she opposed Hegseth, she could face a primary challenge (that included a thinly veiled public attack from Iowa’s Republican Attorney General). This doesn’t mean that Ernst will ultimately vote in favor of Hegseth, but her change in tone suggests she is leaning in that direction. If Ernst votes “yes” my money would be on Hegseth making it through, Of course, there’s still what should be an ugly confirmation hearing to come — and potentially more revelations about his past drinking and philandering. But the smart money right now is on Hegseth getting confirmed.

Having said that, Trump will have to expend significant political capital to get Hegseth confirmed, and it’s hard to see why it’s worth it — especially since there will be ugly confirmation hearings for Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr, and Kash Patel. But if Trump wants to establish dominance over congressional Republicans, forcing a rape survivor to support Hegseth’s nomination would undoubtedly do the trick.

Cowardly Chris Wray

Yesterday, Chris Wray announced that he would step down as FBI Director before President-elect Trump took office. Trump signaled weeks ago that he intended to fire Wray and has already announced the nomination of Kesh Patel to replace him.

This was a dangerous, cowardly move by Wray that directly benefits Trump.

The FBI Director’s term is ten years — and this is done on purpose to avoid the appearance of politicization in a job that is head of the nation’s foremost federal law enforcement agency (Wray has served for seven years so far). The FBI Director is not supposed to be a political bauble for an incoming president and an opportunity to put a political ally in charge of federal law enforcement. The whole point is to take the FBI out of politics. Trump’s decision to fire Wray undoes that norm — and by acquiescing to Trump’s power grab, Wray has played directly into his hands.

In his comments about his preemptive resignation, Wray said, “This is the best way to avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.”

Wray has done the exact opposite.

Wray’s move makes it appear that Trump is justified in firing him (he’s not). He fundamentally weakened the FBI and undermined the institutional principle that the agency is non-political. Moreover, by quitting, he’s making things easier for Trump. Rather than force Trump to engage in an ugly display of presidential power,r he’s obeyed in advance.

As James Fallows nicely put it in his substack yesterday, “Maybe it is ‘inevitable’ that Donald Trump would have gotten his way in controlling the FBI. But other people don't have to make it quick and easy for him. Which is what Christopher Wray has just done.”

Murder Is Bad

I don’t have much to add about the cold-blooded murder of United Health Group Brian Thompson except to say that it’s horrible and bad, which is somehow a controversial position. A small but vocal minority of Americans have tried to justify Thompson’s murder because they don’t like health insurance companies. I’m not a huge fan either, but I’m also not a huge fan of randomly murdering people because you don’t like their business practices. Suffice it to say, sadly, this needs to be pointed out.

As for the alleged shooter, Luigi Mangione, it seems that he cut off contact with friends and family in the months before the shooting, which makes me wonder if he had a psychotic break. I shouldn’t need to point it out, but killing a healthcare executive because you’re upset with the American healthcare industry is a deeply anti-social act. I also can’t help but note the irony that Thompson was born in Iowa, the child of a beautician and grain elevator operation, who rose to CEO at one of the largest businesses in America. Meanwhile, Mangione went to the University of Pennsylvania and is a member of one of the wealthiest families in Maryland.

What’s Going On

• Crystal Ball’s Miles Coleman did a deep dive into what happened in Wisconsin during this election, and it’s largely consistent with my write-up from a few days ago. Across the board, Trump did slightly better than he had in 2020. Harris slightly underperformed, which was enough for the state to flip.

  • Coleman digs far deeper than I did and makes two interesting observations: First, Harris had issues in Milwaukee, which is also where Trump made some of his biggest gains.

  • Harris’s largest increase in votes vis-a-vis Biden was in Dane County, around Madison. That she did slightly better in a white liberal bastion and slightly worse in a predominately Black city is a good explanation for Democratic underperformance.

• The Amazing Kreskin passed away this week. Whenever I saw him on Letterman back in the day, his tricks blew me away. It’s worth doing a deep dive on YouTube to see some of his incredible feats.

• Interesting piece by Geoffrey Skelley on the swing to the right this election cycle.

• Great interview with Sonny Rollins about “that picture.”

Musical Interlude