Of Course Trump Tried to Get the Justice Department to Stop SNL From Making Fun of Him - Vanity Fair

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Weaponizing the federal government against a sketch-comedy show? Sounds about right!

By Bess Levin

June 22, 2021

One of the defining features of Donald Trump, besides his creepy obsession with his eldest daughter and inability to ever tell the truth, is that he has the thinnest skin of any mammal on earth. (Yes, biologists, even thinner than the African spiny mouse!) The human embodiment of the phrase “can‘t take a joke,” this is a man who apparently ran for president because Barack Obama teased him at the White House Correspondents’ dinner, an event known for its roasts. Later, as leader of the free world, he flew off the handle after Meryl Streep said she was unhappy about him mocking a disabled reporter; he angrily tweeted that the Oscar-winning actress was “overrated” and “a Hillary flunky who lost big.” He threw a hissy fit and canceled his trip to Denmark after he was informed that he couldn’t buy Greenland, claiming it was “nasty” for the prime minister to call the idea of him buying the place “absurd,” which it quite obviously was. Last fall, he threatened to withhold the COVID-19 vaccine from New Yorkers because Andrew Cuomo was supposedly mean to him.

Another thing we know about Trump is that during his time in office, he never once hesitated to use the full weight of the federal government to go after his enemies, and so really, it’s in no way surprising to learn that he tried to use the Department of Justice—among other agencies—to get various late-night shows, including Saturday Night Live, to stop making fun of him.

Per The Daily Beast:

It was the middle of Donald Trump’s presidency, and he was—yet again—mad at Saturday Night Live. And he wanted the federal government to help him settle the score. In March 2019, the then-president of the United States had just watched an episode of the long-running, liberal-leaning NBC sketch comedy series (it wasn’t even a new episode, it was a rerun), and grew immediately incensed that the show was gently mocking him. “It’s truly incredible that shows like Saturday Night Live, not funny/no talent, can spend all of their time knocking the same person (me), over & over, without so much of a mention of ‘the other side,’” Trump tweeted, long before he was banned from Twitter for inspiring a violent mob. “Like an advertisement without consequences. Same with Late Night Shows. Should Federal Election Commission and/or FCC look into this?”

It was, on its face, a ridiculous question and threat, as SNL is obviously satire, and therefore a form of protected speech in America that pissed-off commanders-in-chief have no authority to directly subvert. However, then-President Trump went farther than simply tweeting his displeasure with the late-night comedians and SNL writers’ room. The internal discussions that followed, between the former leader of the free world and some of his political and legal advisers, once again underscored just how much Trump wanted to use the full weight and power of the U.S. government to punish his personal enemies.

According to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Daily Beast, Trump repeatedly asked lawyers and advisers what the Federal Communications Commission, the courts systems, and the DOJ could do to “probe or mitigate” SNL, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and other late-night shows, which relentlessly mocked him for being a national embarrassment.

[One] source, who has a law degree, said that when they briefly discussed this with Trump more than two years ago, they made a point of saying that the Justice Department, in particular, doesn’t handle these matters, anyway. Trump seemed disappointed to hear that there was no actual legal recourse or anything that the FCC or DOJ could do to punish late-night, anti-Trump comedy.

“Can something else be done about it?” Trump replied, according to this source, to which they responded with some version of “I’ll look into it.” (This person says that to this day, they have not, in fact, “looked into it.”)

Of course, attempting to punish SNL, Jimmy Kimmel, and others for humorously pointing out what a terrible president he was wasn’t the only way Trump weaponized the government against his perceived enemies. Last month, it emerged that the DOJ had spied on numerous journalists from media outlets Trump regularly attacked, and this month, The New York Times reported that the Justice Department under Jeff Sessions took the “highly unusual step” of subpoenaing Apple for data from the accounts of Democratic representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, the former of whom Trump regularly called “Shifty Schiff” and on at least one occasion said he should be arrested and tried for treason. And despite the fact that the administration came up empty-handed in its quest to tie the lawmakers to national security leaks, Bill Barr continued the investigation, clearly viewing his gig as attorney general to settle Trump’s scores.

In other Trump legal news

The Trump Organization has sued New York City for canceling its contract with a Bronx golf course in the wake of the January 6 riot, claiming that Bill de Blasio had it out for Trump since day one. Which may be true, but doesn’t much matter given the contract was only nixed after the whole attempted coup business.

Per CNN:

In a lawsuit filed in state court in Manhattan, the company alleged wrongful termination of the contract in mid-January, saying the city and Mayor Bill de Blasio had “denounced President (Donald) Trump in the most inflammatory terms” and “incited others to terminate business with Trump-related entities” the day after the riot. Pointing also to comments de Blasio had made earlier in his term in which he threatened to end the city’s Trump-related contracts, the company said in the lawsuit that “Mayor de Blasio had a pre-existing, politically-based predisposition to terminate Trump-related contracts, and the City used the events of January 6, 2021 as a pretext to do so.” The company had operated the Bronx golf course since 2015.

A spokesman for the city law department said Monday that “the actions of Mr. Trump to incite a deadly riot at the Capitol on January 6th caused a breach of the Ferry Point contract by eliminating options for hosting championship events and we will vigorously defend the City’s decision to terminate the contract.… The City properly followed the termination process detailed in the contract and we look forward to selecting a new vendor for Ferry Point that will further the best interests of New Yorkers,” the spokesman said.

New York City was far from the only place that severed ties with Trump after he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Other groups that terminated their business relationships with the Trump Organization, CNN notes, include Deutsche Bank, credit card processor Stripe, Shopify, and the PGA of America, which pulled a major golf tournament from one of Trump’s courses.

On Twitter, de Blasio’s spokesman, Bill Neidhardt, wrote: “Donald Trump directly incited a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. You do that, and you lose the privilege of doing business with the City of New York. It’s as simple as that.” Seems reasonable!

Senate Republicans unite to disenfranchise millions of voters

They’re really coming together on this one:

Senate Republicans banded together Tuesday to block a sweeping Democratic bill that would revamp the architecture of American democracy, dealing a grave blow to efforts to federally override dozens of GOP-passed state voting laws. The test vote, which would have cleared the way to start debate on voting legislation, failed 50-50 on straight party lines—10 votes short of the supermajority needed to advance legislation in the Senate.… While many Democrats and liberal activists insist the fight is not over—pledging to launch a final, furious push over the coming weeks to change the Senate’s rules to pass the bill—they face long odds as key lawmakers have insisted they are not willing to eliminate the chamber’s supermajority rule to override Republican opposition.

[Mitch] McConnell and other Republicans have taken aim at numerous provisions in the Democratic legislation, including a proposal to publicly finance congressional campaigns, potential new disclosure requirements for political donors, and a realignment of the Federal Election Commission meant to break partisan gridlock in enforcing election laws. And they have maintained their solid opposition to the ballot-access provisions in the Democratic bill—such as a guaranteed period of early voting, mandatory no-excuse mail voting, and a broad new automatic voter registration system—by arguing that the federal government simply has no role in dictating state election laws.

The push by Republicans to bury the bill in a shallow grave comes as 18 states have enacted more than 30 laws in 2021 alone deemed “anti-voter” by the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab, which estimates the restrictions affect approximately 36 million people, the Post notes. The laws impose new voter ID requirements, restrict access to mail-in voting, create new obstacles to register to vote, and expand what constitutes criminal behavior by voters, election officials, and third parties. Before the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer condemned the GOP for its refusal to even debate voting rights, saying, “They want to deny the right to vote, make it harder to vote for so many Americans, and then they don’t want to talk about it. They will sweep it under the rug and hope that Americans don’t hear about it, but Americans will hear about it. We’re going to make sure of that.”

Texas governor Greg Abbott still gunning for that America’s sweetheart award

A colossally mismanaged state of emergency in which more than 150 people froze to death? A threat to slash the pay of lawmakers standing up for voting rights? A near total ban on abortion? And now vetoing an anti-dog-cruelty bill? This guy just doesn’t quit! Per The Week:

Abbott...vetoed a bill Friday that would have banned tethering dogs outside with heavy chains, earning him the ire of dog owners and the hashtag #AbbottHatesDogs, the Houston Chronicle reported Monday. The bill, which would have expanded and clarified the state’s animal cruelty laws, had the support of animal control officers, law enforcement agencies and organizations, county prosecutors, and advocates for animals, and it passed 28-3 in the Senate and 83-32 in the House.

The dog bill wasn‘t the only one Abbott vetoed in recent days, The Week noted. He also rejected two criminal reform bills as well as one requiring schools to teach middle and high school students about child abuse prevention and domestic violence.

Elsewhere!

Delta Variant Gains Steam in Undervaccinated U.S. Counties (Bloomberg)

Jill Biden Pitches Shots for Reluctant Arms in Trump Country (Bloomberg)

Pressure builds to open U.S.-Canada border as residents, lawmakers, and business owners clamor for a plan (Washington Post)

The winner of Tuesday’s Manhattan D.A. primary is poised to take over Trump investigation (CNN)

“No one is gonna steal the election from me”: Echoes of 2020 in NYC mayor’s race (Politico)

Housing Market “Gone Berserk” Stirs Unease Over Investors’ Clout (Bloomberg)

Federal Reserve Builds Lego Town to Explain Inflation (Bloomberg)

When an Eel Climbs a Ramp to Eat Squid From a Clamp, That’s a Moray (NYT)

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