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A Tally of Trump Winners and Losers
November 14, 2016
1. Winner: Rudy Giuliani. As mayor and de facto NYPD commissioner for eight years and more recently a fevered Trump supporter, it was unclear whether his final destination would be Washington or an insane asylum. With talk of him potentially becoming attorney general, the former seems more likely — at least in the short term.
2. Possible Winner: Ray Kelly. His six million stop-and-frisks and pervasive spying on Muslims would seem to make him the ideal Trump candidate for secretary of Homeland Security. And, as a cabinet appointee, he won’t have to report to Giuliani, whom he despises. And vice versa. Neither his diabetes, hearing issues and quadruple bypass surgery nor his age (he is now 75) slowed him down as NYPD commissioner.
3. Biggest winner. Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo. Can you imagine a Trump-appointed attorney general indicting Pantaleo on federal charges for the “chokehold” death of Eric Garner after a Staten Island grand jury — many of them probable Trump supporters — declined to indict him criminally? Could you imagine Giuliani indicting Pantaleo? As mayor, the NYPD didn’t fire or even bring departmental charges against the four cops who shot and killed the unarmed Amadou Diallo in the Bronx.
4. Loser: Bill Bratton. He threw in with Hillary and Bill Clinton, joining Teneo Holdings, which has ties to the Clinton Global Initiative. Within in a year, the firm could be out of business.
5. Another Loser: Chris Christie. Demoted in Trump’s transition team apparently because of the Bridgegate scandal, his best shot with Trump might be ambassador to Mexico.
6. Loser: Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Already damaged goods after meeting with Bill Clinton just before FBI Director James Comey cleared Hillary in the email scandal, Lynch’s legacy may become the political calculation she appeared to make in attempting to indict Pantaleo after her predecessor, Eric Holder, dallied for more than a year and took no action.
7. Loser: President Obama’s legacy. Give Trump a year — maybe just a few months — and that could change.
8. Big Losers: Comey and the FBI. Already weakened by top officials protecting Boston mass murderer Whitey Bolger and failing to connect the dots before 9/11, the FBI’s Director is accused by Hillary of effecting Trump’s election. She has a point. His two letters to Congress about Clinton’s emails just days before the election recall the worst of J. Edgar Hoover in making the FBI a feared political entity. Democrats will likely call for Comey’s head. In the name of unity, Trump may acquiesce.
9. Biggest loser: The New York Times and the mainstream media. Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr’s. vow to subscribers that the Times “rededicate ourselves to the fundamental mission of journalism … to report America and the world honestly” is his implicit acknowledgement of the paper’s failed election coverage. In 2003, Sulzberger forced top editors to resign over the Jayson Blair reporting scandal. Today, he might retire its doddering editorial board and fire its public editor, who failed to note the biased election coverage. He himself might consider retirement.
