A bizarre series of statements from Donald Trump today during a press briefing that was supposed to be about “surprise medical bills.” It went off the rails after a short intro to that topic, everything from China to Robert Mueller and Don Jr. were covered. But the strangest moment came when a reporter asked what prompted the president to send an aircraft carrier to Iran. That’s when Trump went off on this tangent about former Secretary of State John Kerry (watch above):
“What I’d like to see with Iran, is I’d like to see them call me. You know John Kerry speaks to them a lot. John Kerry tells them not to call, that’s a violation of the Logan Act and frankly, he should be prosecuted on that… John Kerry violated the Logan Act. He’s talking to Iran and has many meetings and many phone calls and he’s telling them what to do. That is a total violation of the Logan Act.”
Politico explains “the Logan Act is a federal law that criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized persons with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States. No one has ever been convicted of violating it.”
Former federal prosecutor and CNN Legal Analyst Renato Mariotti says, “Ironically when it appeared that Michael Flynn and other Trump associates violated the Logan Act, Trump’s allies argued (correctly) that there had never been a successful Logan Act prosecution.” Furthermore, Politico writer Kyle Cheney says this is actually a “law that House Republicans have called to repeal because they think it was misused in the Flynn investigation.”
A spokesperson for Kerry quickly set the record straight:
“Everything President Trump said today is simply wrong, end of story. He’s wrong about the facts, wrong about the law, and sadly he’s been wrong about how to use diplomacy to keep America safe. Secretary Kery helped negotiate a nuclear agreement that worked to solve an intractable problem. The world supported it then and supports it still. We hope the President would focus on solving foreign policy problems for America instead of attacking his predecessors for theater.”
Kerry wasn’t the only person Trump attacked. He also lit into Robert Mueller.
Trump goes on bizarre anti-Mueller rant where he claims there are ‘thousands’ of photos of him with Comey https://t.co/FIfQplklm3
— Raw Story (@RawStory) May 9, 2019
He did offer praise though for two people, his son and China’s leader Xi Jinping.
President Trump tells @ABC's @jonkarl he was "very surprised" the Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr.
"My son is a very good person, works very hard, the last thing he needs is Washington, D.C. He would rather not ever be involved." https://t.co/jkytyQtFJs pic.twitter.com/0E6ccVoZVf
— ABC News (@ABC) May 9, 2019
President Trump says Chinese President Xi Jinping "just wrote me a beautiful letter" as trade war escalates between U.S. and China https://t.co/KwYHeGVuap pic.twitter.com/lBL3jgSc5x
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 9, 2019