Scenes From Our Late-Stage Kakistocracy

Pulte, Pelley, and the Slush Fund

“A middle finger to the senate.” Bill Pulte.

You might have missed this revealing tidbit: On Tuesday we learned that the Pentagon has hired a convicted January 6 rioter for a sensitive counterterrorism job.

The appointment of Elias Irizarry, who was 19 at the time of the riot in 2021, to a post in the Defense Department’s Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict office has raised alarm internally among staff who question how anyone convicted in the assault on American democracy could be trusted for such a sensitive role in the U.S. government, these people said.

That story was overshadowed by Trump’s appointment of MAGA-loyalist Bill Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence. But the two stories are related, because, as Derek Thompson wrote, they are an indication that we have entered “‘Late Kakistocracy” — the “phase of democratic decline where the regime starts running out of ppl who will work for it, and so the folks who aren’t qualified for their current positions are promoted to even larger positions for which they are even more unqualified.”

Under the law that established the DNI, appointees are required to have “extensive national security expertise.” Pulte, who heads up the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has none, bupkus. He has no background in either intelligence or law enforcement.

As David Graham: observed in The Atlantic: “When Trump appointed Gabbard—a former Democratic member of Congress who endorsed him in 2024—she became by far the least-qualified person to ever hold the job. Pulte somehow has fewer qualifications….”

How bad is Pulte? If there was a Union of Mediocrities it would reject Pulte for not being up to their standard of bare-adequacy. His tenure as Trump’s housing czar, notes the NYT, has been “marked by a lot of talk and theatrics but few tangible results.”

How bad is Pulte? Even Republican who have swallowed one deplorable appointment after another are gagging on Pulte. GOP Leader John Thune who makes no secret of his frustrations with Trump, told CNN “We don’t need a weaponized DNI, we need professionals there.” Sen. John Cornyn, R-NothingLeftToLose, told reporters, ““I see no evidence of any qualification for the job.”

But that’s not the point, is it? Because Pulte has the one qualification that Trump is now demanding: As he scrapes the bottom of his barrel, the president is looking for appointees ready and willing to abuse the powers of government to punish his enemies. In Pulte — as in Todd Blanche and Ken Paxton — he has found the whole package. Pulte proved his willingness to use his position to help Trump target NY AG Letitia James, Senator Adam Schiff and others. Nothing has come of the cases, but it was the malice that counted. Now he gets to use the resources of the nation’s intelligence community to pursue that agenda.

And because he is merely “acting,” he won’t need Senate confirmation.

Indeed, Steve Bannon called the appointment (which he applauded), “a middle finger to Republican members of the Senate.”

Exit take: Bannon’s not wrong.

Happy Wednesday.

Note: A quick reminder, if you find all of this deeply un-American, you are not the crazy ones. But this is the fight of our lifetimes, and the challenge of our generation.

Right now, fewer than 10 percent of our readers are paid subscribers. That’s okay, because this newsletter — and the podcasts — are free. But if you find what I do is worth something to you, I hope you will consider a subscription.

That comes to about 27 cents a day, less if you subscribe annually, for a daily dose of sanity. And both the dogs and I are immensely grateful for your generous support.

Trump Scraps the Slush Fund (?)

Maybe. But we really don’ know yet, do we? Todd Blanche hasn’t put it in writing, and we haven’t heard from the Kakistocrat-in-Chief yet, have we?

What we do know is this: “Order Shielding Trump Family From I.R.S. Audits Will Remain, Blanche Says” - The New York Times

Mr. Blanche’s directive left in place a staggering public benefit to a president who has sought to bend the government toward his own financial interests. A host of thorny legal questions also remain. Mr. Trump’s lawsuit against the I.R.S. was revived last week by a judge concerned about potential deception in the agreement to withdraw the suit and to release the Trumps from any ongoing audits.

These protections could be immensely valuable to Mr. Trump and his family, who have faced repeated audits from the Internal Revenue Service. Just one investigation by the I.R.S. stemmed in part from how Mr. Trump claimed losses on his Chicago tower could have cost him more than $100 million, The New York Times has reported. The Trump Organization had recently entered settlement talks with the I.R.S. to try to resolve the audit, The Times previously reported.

Tax lawyers and former I.R.S. officials have said that the protection for Mr. Trump was unprecedented in its scope and form, particularly since it extends to “affiliates” of the Trumps. Pre-existing I.R.S. procedure has been to audit the president every year, rather than confer on him sweeping protection from scrutiny on tax returns already filed.

It may actually be worse than that. Former DOJ official (and best-selling author) Andrew Weissmann posted:

BREAKING: Don’t fall for what Blanche is suggesting in his Congressional testimony right now -- DOJ is NOT getting rid of the whole bogus slush fund deal; it’s still giving Trump $1,776 billion AND still giving him (and family) a broad civil release of liability; all it is NOT doing is using the $1,776 to create a fund for J6ers and others.

This is worse than before.

CBS Fires Scott Pelley

Not really surprising, but still a shocking episode in the ongoing devolution of CBS.

Pelley’s liquidation came just a day after his fiery defiance of the new regime, which is in the process of gutting “60 Minutes.” (See yesterday’s newsletter.)

The show’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton, thus began his tenure by extending the Ellison/Weiss “Black Thursday” bloodletting into the Black Tuesday firing of the veteran CBS correspondent and anchor.

In a late-night letter notable for its whiny defensiveness, Bilton complained about Pelley’s criticisms at a staff meeting the day before:

“Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt,” wrote Bilton. “Yesterday’s performative display of hostility enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress.”

Bilton wrote that Pelley’s “antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you.”

”Therefore, your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately.” (Full text below.)¹

**

This was not, of course, a run-of-the mill personnel dispute nor was it about the need for linear television to re-invent itself. And Pelley understood that, even if some of the balls-and-strikes pundits did not.

The context is crucial here. As Pelley said late last night, “the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.”

There is nothing secret or subtle about this. Billionaire nepo-baby David Ellison has been aggressively sucking up to Trump to get his approval for a deal to buy Warner Bros. after completing Skydance Media’s acquisition of Paramount Global in August,

Back in April, the NYT reported that Ellison “feted President Trump and top members of his administration at a private dinner in Washington on Thursday as his company, Paramount, seeks federal sign-off on a $111 billion deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery.”

The gathering, at the U.S. Institute of Peace, included top executives and journalists from CBS News, which Paramount owns. Bari Weiss, the network’s editor in chief, joined Mr. Ellison at Mr. Trump’s table, and Norah O’Donnell, the former “Evening News” anchorwoman, also attended, according to two people briefed on details of the closed-door event.

Among the guests was Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general. Mr. Blanche oversees the Justice Department, whose antitrust division is set to review the Warner Bros. acquisition. The deal would place CNN and HBO, among other outlets, under Mr. Ellison’s control. Paramount’s chief legal officer, Makan Delrahim, also sat with Mr. Trump, the people said.

The billionaire media mogul has reportedly promised Trump that he would make “sweeping changes” at CNN as part of Warner Bros. takeover.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Ellison – who launched a $108 billion hostile takeover bid of WBD after Netflix and Warner announced their deal last week – made a trip to Washington recently to assure Trump administration officials that CNN would have a new look if he bought the network’s parent company.

“Trump has told people close to him that he wants new ownership of CNN as well as changes to CNN programming,” the WSJ added.

So, what’s happening at CBS today is prologue to what may await CNN. Some of the smart kids in the media thought that Pelley and others should have aired their concerns in private and accused him of being “performative,” by standing up CBS management in front of his colleagues.

But that’s exactly what moments like this require. Pelley could have pretended this was business-more-or-less-as-usual and gone along or kept his objections private. Instead, he spoke truth (aggressively) to power, because he understood (1) what is actually really happening, (2) the stakes for the free press, and (3) what time it is.

If only other folks in the media would do the same.

**

Mediaite’s daily newsletter zeroes in on the meaning of Pelley’s firing:

By swiftly terminating one of the network’s most respected veterans 24 hours after he lashed out in a meeting, the new CBS News leadership is sending a chilling, definitive message that dissent will not be tolerated — effectively daring the rest of the 60 Minutes staff to fall in line or leave.

**

Late last night, Pelley fired back:

There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes.

The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58thseason, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.

“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects.

Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.

The waste is heartbreaking.

Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.

For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.

At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to “keep up the good fight.” Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.

I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.

Scott Pelley

**

This morning, Bari Weiss accused Pelley of breaking the trust in the newsroom, but Pelley continued to call out CBS management and suggested that Weiss and others were not telling the truth about the meetings Tuesday that led to his firing. Via Mediaite:

“I am saddened to see the transcript of the CBS News morning editorial meeting,” Pelley said. “Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true. In the meeting on Tuesday, in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to ‘find a way back,’ as Weiss said in the editorial meeting.”

He continued by calling out CBS News President Tom Cibrowski:

“At not point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution. Weiss and Tom Cibrowski were openly hostile from the start. “Firing” was raised by Cibrowski in the first 15 seconds.

“No CBS executive, at any time, suggested “a way back.” To say so now is disingenuous. And they know it.”

He went on to claim Weiss and Bilton “refused” to answer his questions. He then listed several of those questions — including why Weiss had fired several correspondents last week — that he claimed to have asked in the meeting.

“I am pained the staff of CBS News was misled in the Wednesday morning conference call,” his statement said in the final paragraph. “These executives cannot gain the trust of the staff with lies. This is antithetical to everything we stand for and reveals contempt for what journalists do.”

Wednesday dogs

A dog and his boys.

1. Bilton’s letter firing Pelley: