By Denny Gulino
THE WHITE HOUSE (MaceNews) – Day by day the wall gets longer, with two long sections in place Monday. That would be the new 13-foot wall along what used to be Pennsylvania Ave. in front of the White House, a physical metaphor for the less visible but substantial barriers being erected inside to stave off impeachment.
There’s a lot of the original 6.6 foot wall still in place that allows tourists an oblique view of the Executive Mansion through the bars. The temporary white plywood wall shielding the construction blocks the favorite camera angles.
The sidewalk across what is now the Pennsylvania Ave. plaza is, as always, populated by fresh crowds of tourists who can no longer get a closer view of the White House.
They mingle with the constant performance and protest art underway there. There are rap protestors who blare music, the permanent encampment of those who live in their protest tent, whose First Amendment rights are protected by court order.
There are even occasional Make-America-Great-Again hat-wearing Trump supporters who proudly pose for pictures amid the onlookers, protestors, passers-by on bikes and scooters, Secret Service guards on foot and the flow of people going to and from their jobs in the area.
Beyond the walls, old and new, life goes on inside the White House and it’s not the same. What would have been a routine swearing-in of a new Cabinet member, in this case Justice Antonin Scalia’s son Gene as new secretary of Labor, was intertwined with the currents of impeachment coursing through the hallways.
President Trump acknowledged the large turnout of Scalia family members, including the late justice’s wife who Trump identified as a long-time friend. And son Gene, a prominent lawyer who previously worked in the Labor Department, acknowledged what he said was largely unknown.
The new Labor secretary took time to “thank the President for the kindness that he has, in fact, shown my mother since even before his inauguration. It’s a story few people know.” He went on, “I’m fixing that right now.“
Secretary Scalia’s remarks about Trump were of scant historical importance and were not to make it on the various network news broadcasts, yet reflected well on Trump, not often cited for anonymous generosity.
“He reached out to my mother for — just out of kindness, with no political advantage, to see how she was doing, to then make sure that she had a good inauguration seat and the like,” Scalia continued.
“And he looked after an elderly woman who was going through a difficult time and gave her some help and support when it meant an awful lot. And we’re very grateful.”
The glow of reciprocal good will and mutual admiration was not to last. The president turned to the reporters present on his way out of the Oval Office to resume his bitter criticism of his accusers that has occupied dozens of his tweets in the past 48 hours.
His personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani had been subpoenaed earlier in the day, the target of three House Committee chairmen, Adam Schiff, Elijah Cummings and Eliot Engel.
His Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, already subpoenaed, had just been identified by The Wall Street Journal as having been among those who listened in as Trump spoke by telephone with the Ukraine prime minister, a conversation that was later to trigger the impeachment inquiry.
Various committee lawyers prepared to interview several present and former administration officials, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent, U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland.and others.
So Trump vented some more, a president under attack and rallying his supporters and lawyers to fight in his behalf in the difficult weeks and months ahead.
“We’re trying to find out about a whistleblower — when you have a whistleblower that reports things that were incorrect,” the president said, ignoring the efforts by the intelligence community to fulfill the guarantee of anonymity granted that whistleblower.
“Adam Schiff — representative, congressman — made up what I said.” Trummp continued. “He actually took words and made it up. The reason is, when he saw my call to the President of Ukraine, it was so good that he couldn’t quote from it because it — there was nothing done wrong.”
Trump earlier in the day had suggested Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, had committed “treason.”
“There’s been tremendous corruption<” Trump said. “And we're seeking it. It's called ‘drain the swamp.’” Taking no questions, Trump went on, "There's been corruption on the other side. There's been corruption like you've never seen.”
Within 10 hours Monday, Trump had aimed 13 tweets at the impeachment inquiry and Rep. Schiff.
He found time to aim another tweet at China as well and its content took some of the wind out of the stock markets, at least for a time, impinging on the hopeful scenario of imminent negotiations that will resume in 11 days.
Like his castigation of China before the UN General Assembly last week, the words did not seem like the sentiments of someone hoping for an agreement.
Quoting an author who railed against China on Fox News, Trump tweeted, “After many years, the United States is finally waking up to Beijing’s plans and ambitions to pass us as the dominant economic & military superpower in the 21st Century. What’s happening now is that the U.S. is finally responding (thank you President Trump).“
“We are winning, and we will win,” Trump wrote. “They should not have broken the deal we had with them. Happy Birthday China!”