Peter Navarro has had a month so far in federal prison to think about things. I wonder if he’s reflected on the path that brought him there or if he’s still just pissed.
On March 19th he reported to prison in Miami to serve 4 months on a charge of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to testify about his actions while he was trade advisor during the Trump administration. Reporters asked what he was feeling as he turned himself in, “I am pissed - that’s what I’m feeling right now.”
But he didn’t explain why he was pissed. Was it simply because he didn’t get to delay serving time while he appealed his case?
Pardoned criminal Steve Bannon was convicted of similar charges and to my knowledge hasn’t served his 4 month sentence yet as his appeal goes forward. That would be a petty sort of pissed, but I could imagine a petty sort of man angry of the “unfairness” of a system that holds some people to account and others seem to get special treatment, pardons, repeated delays on unending appeals…
I don’t get the sense that Navarro is that sort of a petty man. His former boss, Donald Trump, strikes me as that sort of petty guy. But Navarro seemed to believe his specious argument that executive privilege prevented his testimony to Congress. He seems like he holds a sense of misguided and, well, privileged integrity. He did his job within the Trump administration and he didn’t seem to take it personally when, for instance, his boss apparently paid no attention to the warning he gave about the potential of a Covid pandemic on January 30, 2020.
“The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil, …This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.”
That’s what Navarro wrote in a memo to President Trump on January 30, 2020. I can imagine a petty man feeling a degree of frustration when about 5 weeks later, on March 7, Trump told reporters, “no, I’m not concerned at all,” about the emerging new virus. Three days later Trump said, “just stay calm, it will go away.”
Seriously, if I were Peter Navarro I would have been like, “did he read my memo?”
Then on March 13 Trump said, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” I’ll admit it, I’d be pissed at that point. But wait…there’s more.
On April 8th Trump was asked about Navarro’s memo of January 30.
“I read about it maybe a day, two days ago, … It was a recommendation that he had, I think he told certain people on the staff, but it didn’t matter. I didn’t see it.”
That would be the the point where my head exploded, “Jesus Christ! That fucking moron didn’t read my memo!” That would have been my reaction. “How many people are going to die unnecessarily because of his laziness?” would have been my question.
But apparently Peter Navarro isn’t as petty as me. A petty man would not be sitting in federal prison right now. A petty person would likely have done the right thing and testified, avoiding contempt of Congress charges.
I wonder if time in prison has allowed Navarro to consider what he’s really pissed about.
Pissed he connected himself to such a dangerous and selfish person also pissed that no one else like his fringe economic theories