Existential Crisis

I understand what an Existential Crisis is.

(A) central proposition of Existentialism is that existence precedes essence, which means that the most important consideration for individuals is that they are individuals— independently acting and responsible, conscious beings (“existence”)— rather than what labels, roles, stereotypes, definitions, or other preconceived categories the individuals fit (“essence”). The actual life of the individuals is what constitutes what could be called their “true essence” instead of there being an arbitrarily attributed essence others use to define them. Thus, human beings, through their own consciousness, create their own values and determine a meaning to their life.

We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.

This is not it.

Hope Hicks Left the White House. Now She Must Decide Whether to Talk to Congress.
By Maggie Haberman, The New York Times
May 23, 2019

Like few others in the White House, Ms. Hicks was witness to some of the president’s angriest moments and most pointed directives about the investigations into the Trump campaign and its contacts with Russians in 2016. Her dilemma now is how to respond to House Democrats, who have grown frustrated and increasingly aggressive in the face of a sweeping decision by the Trump administration, and the Trump Organization, to oppose such subpoenas.

Ms. Hicks was instructed by the House Judiciary Committee to turn over documents by June 4 and to appear in person on June 19. She and another former West Wing aide, Annie Donaldson, who was the chief of staff to Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel at the time, were subpoenaed to testify.

Mr. McGahn also received a subpoena, and declined to appear. He said that he viewed the White House as his client, and that after the White House instructed him not to comply, he had to follow his client’s wishes.
…
Witnesses have generally followed the White House lead, in part because of institutional concerns about areas that could be viewed as covered by executive privilege. But if Ms. Hicks does not cooperate, she would potentially be in legal jeopardy with the House.

The likeliest possibility would be a compromise, where she would submit to an interview as long as certain topics are off limits. More recently, Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., reached a deal with the Senate Intelligence Committee to come in for a limited interview, after he balked at a subpoena.

Ms. Hicks declined to comment, as did her lawyer.
…
Ms. Hicks was mentioned on 28 pages in the (Mueller) report. Three of those are related to possible conspiracy between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, and the rest to the obstruction investigation. They paint a picture of an adviser who was more of a witness to the president’s frustrations with the investigations into his campaign and his own conduct, rather than someone who was an active participant in any discussions of what to do about them.

Ms. Hicks comes across in her interviews with the F.B.I. as trying to alert Mr. Trump to the possible news media reaction he might face to any new information about what took place in the campaign.

For instance, she is described telling Mr. Trump that emails existed related to Mr. Kushner and a meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer that took place in June 2016 at Trump Tower. The report describes Ms. Hicks looking at the emails at Mr. Kushner’s lawyer’s office, and being “shocked by the emails because they looked ‘really bad.’”

“The next day, Hicks spoke privately with the president to mention her concern about the emails, which she understood were soon going to be shared with Congress,” the report says.

“The next day, Hicks spoke privately with the president to mention her concern about the emails, which she understood were soon going to be shared with Congress,” the report says.

Mr. Trump, Ms. Hicks told investigators, “seemed upset because too many people knew about the emails and he told Hicks that just one lawyer should deal with the matter. The president indicated that he did not think the emails would leak, but said they would leak if everyone had access to them.”

At other points, the report described her recollections of a statement she issued shortly after Election Day in 2016, in which she said there was never contact between the campaign and foreign entities, and a conversation she had with the president after he had fired James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director.

Ms. Hicks was also there when the president learned of Mr. Mueller’s appointment as special prosecutor by Jeff Sessions, then the attorney general.

“Hicks saw the president shortly after Sessions departed and described the president as being extremely upset by the special counsel’s appointment,” the report says, adding “that she had only seen the president like that one other time, when the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape came out during the campaign.”

Existential? I think not. What it does indicate is that Maggie Haberman has no idea at all what the word means.

Haberman was born to a Jewish family on October 30, 1973, in New York City, the daughter of Clyde Haberman, who became a longtime journalist for The New York Times, and Nancy Haberman (née Spies), a media communications executive at Rubenstein Associates. At the firm, a “publicity powerhouse” whose eponymous founder has been called “the dean of damage control” by Rudy Giuliani, Haberman’s mother has done work for a client list of influential New Yorkers including Donald Trump. A singer, in 3rd grade Haberman played the title role in a performance of the musical Annie at the P.S 75 Emily Dickinson School. She is a 1991 graduate of Ethical Culture Fieldston School, an independent preparatory school in New York City, followed by Sarah Lawrence College, a private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in 1995.

I did not suspect Sarah Lawrence would be so lax in its instruction. Perhaps an introduction to Philosophy was not among her degree requirements or electives.