March 27-April 2 2017
Days 137-143 since the
Nov 8 election and 67-73 since no 45 has been in office.
The implosion of the GOP
is fucking hilarious. Now, no45 is fighting his own party and
threatening them as well. The investigation is getting worse for him.
the rich asshole To Media: Focus On
Obama Wiretapping Me Instead Of My Russia Scandal, Thank You!
APRIL 1ST, 2017 
CONOVER NEWS, POLITICS29 COMMENTS
CONOVER NEWS, POLITICS29 COMMENTS
Amateur
president some rich asshole keeps bringing up his baseless claim alleging
that Barack Obama had his phones wiretapped before the election. The former
reality show star is deflecting from his Russia scandal by attacking his
predecessor without offering one bit of evidence.
the
rich asshole tweeted, “When will Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd and @NBCNews start
talking about the Obama SURVEILLANCE SCANDAL and stop with the Fake the rich
asshole/Russia story?”
When will Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd and @NBCNews start talking about the
Obama SURVEILLANCE SCANDAL and stop with the Fake Trump/Russia story?
He
followed that with another tweet saying, “It is the same Fake News Media that
said there is “no path to victory for the rich asshole” that is now pushing the
phony Russia story. A total scam!”
It is the same Fake News Media that said there is "no path to victory
for Trump" that is now pushing the phony Russia story. A total scam!
the
rich asshole is opening a can of worms by tweeting out that same fact-free
claim in an unprecedented fashion. Even Republicans have denounced the rich
asshole’s cowardly accusation. It’s pure deflection on his part, trying to get
the public’s attention off his mounting number of scandals. At a press
conference in mid-February, the rich asshole said,”I have nothing to
do with Russia. To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.”
So,
the rich asshole doesn’t know Paul Manafort, Carter Page, Michael Flynn or his
son-in-law Jared Kushner?
the
rich asshole supporters bought into his ‘Crooked Hillary’ tweets, and those,
too, were based on fiction. Also, his ‘sick Hillary’ tweets (implying that she
was a low energy candidate on the brink of death), coincided with the Kremlin’s efforts after it
hired an army of trolls to circulate that conspiracy theory,
among others. But we’re sure THIS IS ALL A COINCIDENCE! So many coincidences…
On
Friday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer tried to revive the rich asshole’s
wiretap claims, too. It’s almost as if this is a concerted effort.
But
sure, don’t look at the man behind the curtain. Look the other way, instead.
And do not ask any questions. The end.
By John
Prager on April 1, 2017 2:57 pm ·
On Friday, Fox News reported that
the intelligence official — one of twenty people who could possibly do so
according to NSA Director Mike Rogers — who “unmasked” the rich asshole
associates with connections to Russia was “very high up.”
While it was never a
secret that only high-ranking officials could make such a decision if they
determined it was in the best interest of the country, this is apparently VERY
BIG NEWS according to some rich asshole and his favorite propaganda outlet.
“Wow, @FoxNews just reporting big news.
Source: “Official behind unmasking is high up. Known Intel official is
responsible,” the rich asshole tweeted during his traditional Saturday morning
rant. “Some unmasked not associated with Russia. the rich asshole team
spied on before he was nominated.” If this is true, does not get much bigger.
Would be sad for U.S.”
Wow, @FoxNews just
reporting big news. Source: "Official behind unmasking is high up. Known
Intel official is responsible. Some unmasked....
..not associated with Russia. Trump team spied on before he was
nominated." If this is true, does not get much bigger. Would be sad for
U.S.
Note that the rich
asshole said “some” of the people named were not associated with
Russia. This, of course, serves as a tacit admission that members of his team
were indeed involved with Putin.
Naturally, Twitter was
very excited about the rich asshole’s huge news:
@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews … or the part where they
straight out suggested you are, in fact, a criminal. https://twitter.com/foxnews/status/847887264105594880 …
@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews Why are you telling Flynn to
ask for immunity? Wouldn't that only be necessary if you KNEW he had something
to hide?
@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews The impeachment party is
going to be about 100 times bigger than your inauguration crowd.#TrumpRussia#TheResistance pic.twitter.com/xw21G80lkF
@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews The "failing New York
Times" is gonna nail your ass to the wall.
And everyone knows it.#TrumpRussia#TheResistancepic.twitter.com/AC6DorlZQK
And everyone knows it.#TrumpRussia#TheResistancepic.twitter.com/AC6DorlZQK
@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews Fake news
@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews Clearly a fake source pic.twitter.com/yEf51s4PuX
Wow, @FoxNews just
reporting big news. Source: "Official behind unmasking is high up. Known
Intel official is responsible. Some unmasked....
@realDonaldTrump Our
so-called president is still getting all his intelligence information from Fox
News. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/848216035153121285 …
Wow, @FoxNews just
reporting big news. Source: "Official behind unmasking is high up. Known
Intel official is responsible. Some unmasked....
@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews Are you concerned with the
leaker or the information being leaked? You seem overly worried about something
you say is 'BIGLY FAKE'. pic.twitter.com/pWRpF96tPR
Wow, @FoxNews just
reporting big news. Source: "Official behind unmasking is high up. Known
Intel official is responsible. Some unmasked....
..not associated with Russia. Trump team spied on before
he was nominated." If this is true, does not get much bigger. Would be sad
for U.S.
@realDonaldTrump You're
the saddest thing to happen to the U.S.
..not associated with Russia. Trump team spied on before
he was nominated." If this is true, does not get much bigger. Would be sad
for U.S.
@realDonaldTrump It
does get bigger.
Collusion with Russia is bigger.
Incidental data collection is nothing.
Collusion with Russia is bigger.
Incidental data collection is nothing.
..not associated with Russia. Trump team spied on before
he was nominated." If this is true, does not get much bigger. Would be sad
for U.S.
@realDonaldTrump Are
you aware that you're the President of the United States, and control all the
intelligence agencies?
..not associated with Russia. Trump team spied on before
he was nominated." If this is true, does not get much bigger. Would be sad
for U.S.
@realDonaldTrump If
it is true, I'm sure it's because you are a threat to the nation and the
previous administration was aware of that. Thanks Obama!
the rich asshole’s
recent Twitter tantrums seem to be connected to recent news that former foreign
policy advisor Michael Flynn offered to testify before Congress in exchange for
immunity — a sign of guilt according to both the
rich asshole and Flynn.
What secrets does the
rich asshole have? Based on his actions, even speculation has not scratched the
surface.
the rich asshole tells NBC to stop covering
Russia story
BY ELLIOT SMILOWITZ - 04/01/17 09:00 AM EDT 6,440
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the rich asshole tells
NBC to stop covering Russia story
TheHill.com
President
the rich asshole on Saturday called for NBC News to devote more attention to
his unproven claims that President Obama spied on him and stop covering the
investigations into Russia’s interference in the election.
“When
will Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd and @NBCNews start talking about the Obama
SURVEILLANCE SCANDAL and stop with the Fake the rich asshole/Russia story?” the
rich asshole tweeted just before 9 a.m.
“It
is the same Fake News Media that said there is ‘no path to victory for the rich
asshole’ that is now pushing the phony Russia story. A total scam!” he added
shortly after.
It
was not immediately apparent what NBC coverage the rich asshole was taking
issue with. Chuck Todd on Friday interviewed top Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell and former
Obama press secretary Josh Earnest on “MTP
Daily” about the latest Russia developments.
Russian
interference in last year’s election is the subject of investigations by the
Senate Intelligence Committee, House Intelligence Committee and the
FBI.
the rich asshole’s former national
security adviser Michael Flynn has volunteered to be
interviewed by the FBI and congressional committees probing possible links
between the the rich asshole campaign and Russia in exchange for
immunity from prosecution.
The
president has frequently decried coverage of the investigations into Russian
meddling as "fake news."
the
rich asshole last month claimed in a series of tweets that Obama “wiretapped”
him before the election. He did not supply any evidence.
FBI
Director James Comey says he knows of “no information” validating the rich
asshole’s accusation. the rich asshole has stood by the allegations, and the
White House has said the comment refers to the Obama administration’s
surveillance activities more broadly.
the rich
asshole's approach to intel agencies shows anxiety, distrust
By JULIE
PACE, EILEEN SULLIVAN and VIVIAN
SALAMA
Mar. 31, 2017 5:38 PM
EDT
WASHINGTON (AP)
— The White House's handling of intelligence reports on the Russia
investigation has been labeled unorthodox and, to the Democrats, suspicious.
But when it comes to some rich asshole's relationship with his spy agencies,
that's par for the course.
Since taking
office, the rich asshole has challenged the integrity of intelligence
officials, moved to exert more control over U.S. spying agencies and accused
his predecessor of using government spycraft to monitor his presidential
campaign.
This week, the
rich asshole's White House is facing allegations that it funneled secret
intelligence reports to a top Republican investigating his campaign's possible
ties to Russian officials as well as Moscow's interference in the 2016
election.
The approach
appears to be based, at least in part, on the White House's anxiety over the
Russia investigations, which threaten to seriously weaken his presidency. It
also reflects a deep distrust of the intelligence community among his political
advisers, including government newcomers who have never dealt with classified
information or covert programs.
"It
reveals a chasm of ignorance about how stuff is done," said Michael
Hayden, the former head of the CIA and National Security Agency.
the rich
asshole, with the backing of political advisers Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner,
initially sought to put Wall Street billionaire Stephen Feinberg in charge of a
review of the intelligence agencies. An early iteration of the review explored
eliminating the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the umbrella
agency created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to streamline and
coordinate intelligence.
Officials say
they viewed the agency as an unnecessary and bloated bureaucracy that can
manipulate or distort information.
But the review
was recalibrated after Dan Coats — who was confirmed earlier this month as the
rich asshole's intelligence director — vigorously complained about being
undermined in the midst of his confirmation hearings, according to U.S.
officials. Coats is now leading the review, though it does not include
potentially scrapping the office he now runs, according to the officials.
"This is
going to be more on the 'trim and optimize' as opposed to 'dismantle,'"
said L. Roger Mason, Jr., an executive with the nonprofit Noblis and
a member of the the rich asshole transition team that focused on the
national intelligence directorate.
the rich
asshole's White House has looked for other ways seize the reins.
Officials have
expressed an interest in having more raw intelligence sent to the president for
his daily briefings instead of an analysis of information compiled by the
agencies, according to current and former U.S. officials. The change would have
given his White House advisers more control about the assessments given to him
and sidelined some of the conclusions made by intelligence professionals.
One official
said the focus on accessing more raw intelligence appeared to be more of a
priority under the short tenure of Michael Flynn, who was ousted as national security
adviser after less than one month on the job. He was replaced by H.R. McMaster,
an Army lieutenant general who was expected to exert more control over the NSC
but has found himself struggling to overcome skepticism among Flynn holdovers
who have the ear of Bannon.
Earlier this
month, CIA leaders raised concerns with McMaster about an intelligence director
on his staff. McMaster moved to replace him, but the staffer, Ezra
Cohen-Watnick, appealed to Bannon and Kushner, who got the rich asshole to intervene
to save his job.
Cohen-Watnick
was a protege of Flynn, having worked for him at the Pentagon's intelligence
shop. Now the NSC's senior director for intelligence programs, Cohen-Watnick is
one of about a dozen people in the White House with access to a full range of
classified information, including details of U.S. covert programs. His position
also gives him the ability to request intelligence products from agencies.
On Thursday,
The New York Times identified Cohen-Watnick as one of two White House staffers
who helped House intelligence chairman Devin Nunes view secret reports.
A U.S. official
confirmed Cohen-Watnick had access to the kind of intelligence materials, but
maintained he did not play a role in helping the congressman access the
documents. The official pointed instead to the other official named in the New
York Times report, Michael Ellis, a White House lawyer who previously worked
for Nunes on the House committee.
Cohen-Watnick
has privately expressed suspicion to colleagues over whether Ellis could have
been responsible for some of the leaks that had been troubling the new
administration in its first few weeks in office, according to an administration
official.
The current and
former officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to
publicly discuss the sensitive matters.
Nunes said the
materials he saw showed the "troubling" extent to which information
about the rich asshole and his associates' communications was spread around the
government in the waning days of the Obama administration. His public
declarations came days after the rich asshole officials privately suggested to
reporters that they focus on that same topic, a signal that the California
congressman and the White House may have been working in tandem.
The White House
also said the information validated the rich asshole's remarkable and unproven
claim that President Barack Obama wiretapped his New York skyscraper, though
Nunes disputed that conclusion.
Stephen Slick,
who served in the CIA and NSC for three decades, said intelligence agencies go
to "extraordinary lengths" to safeguard the privacy of Americans. He
said officials "have no incentive to see intelligence reports they gather
and distribute for national security purposes become fodder in domestic
political disputes."
At least some
of what Nunes viewed at the White House is believed to be communications
between foreign governments discussing the incoming administration, which could
have been picked up through routine monitoring of diplomats and other foreign
officials living in the U.S.
Hayden said
that the rich asshole and his advisers appear to be missing the fact that such
information is collected to give the U.S. government insight into the thinking
of foreign powers that can be used to Washington's advantage. And as
president-elect, Hayden said, the rich asshole would have had access
to much of this information.
"These
people wrote this not for the Obama administration but for the American
government, with full knowledge that whatever they were writing would be
accessible by the president-elect or the president," Hayden said.
___
Follow Julie
Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC,
Eileen Sullivan at http://twitter.com/esullivanap and Vivian
Salama at http://twitter.com/vmsalama
Sean Spicer completely goes to pieces when asked if the rich
asshole ordered Nunes cover-up
By Tommy
Christopher |MARCH 31, 2017
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer tried to avoid answering
questions about the White House's involvement in
House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes' (R-CA) investigation, but
reporters refused to let him off the hook.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
White House Press
Secretary Sean Spicer spent the better part of the week trying to sell the absurd lie that he did not know who
walked House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) into
the White House to be fed information that he used to defend some rich asshole.
Eventually, Spicer abandoned that lie and said he is just not going to talk about “process” anymore,
but a pair of new and promising threads emerged in its wake.
Spicer is not
incapable of delivering an emphatic response, but he waffled when asked a pair
of new questions involving the Nunes cover-up.
First, and most
glaringly, Spicer completely fell apart when NBC News’ Kristen Welker asked him
if the rich asshole had directed White House officials to feed Nunes classified information:
lol, @kwelkernbc appears to have literally
broken Sean Spicer with this question. What a terrible, terrible liar he is.
WELKER: Thanks,
Sean. Did the President direct anyone in this White House or in his national
security team to try to find information or intelligence to back up his
assertion about wiretapping?
SPICER: I don’t
— I’m not aware of anything directly. I’d have to look into that in terms
of — again, there’s two sides to this. One is the information side, and
two is the policy and the activities and the legal piece of what happened. And
I don’t — those are big buckets, if you will.
WELKER: So it’s
possible.
SPICER: I’m not
going to comment on it.
Spicer then left
similar wiggle room when The Daily Caller’s Kaitlan Collins asked about an even
more explosive allegation — that Nunes may have been promised a White
House post in the future:
Promising thread to pull
at under oath: Spicer, asked if Nunes has been promised a WH post: "Not
that I'm aware." Not "of course not!"
COLLINS: Did anyone
in the White House ever raise the possibility of a Cabinet position or a top
intelligence post later on in the administration for Devin Nunes?
SPICER: Not that
I’m aware.
Spicer first
asserted that he did not know, then quickly shifted to not commenting
at all, as if he had caught himself saying something that could later make
him vulnerable.
Spicer is one of
several the rich asshole administration figures, including Vice President Mike Pence, who frequently
gives the sort of careful answers that would insulate them
from having made false statements, should new information come to light. When
Spicer uses the “not that I’m aware” dodge, that is the signal for
reporters to grill him all the more strenuously on the point.
If the rich asshole
directed the Nunes cover-up, and promised Nunes a quid pro quo, it would be just one more thing to push the rich asshole’s illegitimate presidency over the brink,
and onto the garbage heap of history.
By Conover Kennard on March
31, 2017 2:04 pm ·
Disgraced former National Security
Adviser Michael Flynn has asked for immunity in exchange for testifying in the
FBI’s continuing investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign
and Russia and he has an answer from the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Two Congressional sources told NBC News that the committee declined Flynn’s lawyer’s
request.
According to a senior congressional
official with direct knowledge of the case, Flynn’s lawyer was told it was
“wildly preliminary” and that immunity was “not on the table” at the moment.
Another source weighed in to say that the committee communicated that it is
“not receptive” to Flynn’s request “at this time.”
The senior congressional official added
that Flynn’s lawyer had conveyed the offer of testimony in exchange for
immunity from prosecution to the Justice Department.
Alleged president Donald Trump tweeted
this morning:
Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a
witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic
proportion!
The thought is that either the
authorities have nothing on Flynn or they have bigger fish to fry and there’s
only one person above the former National Security Adviser in this scenario:
Donald J. Trump. Or, the evidence already collected on Flynn is damning and
they don’t need to make a deal – the latter of which is possible.
Flynn was fired after lying about
speaking with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about Obama-era sanctions. From
there, things got worse for Flynn. He also met with Kislyak for about 20
minutes at Trump Tower in December. Just one week later, Flynn registered with
the Justice Department as a foreign agent for $530,000 worth of lobbying work
he did before the 2016 election that “could be construed to have principally
benefited the Republic of Turkey.”
In a statement Thursday, Flynn’s lawyer
Robert Kelner said no “reasonable person” would get questioned in “such a
highly politicized, witch hunt environment without assurance against unfair
prosecution.”
However, in 2016, Flynn was seen at a
Trump rally leading ‘Lock her up!’ chants then saying that if he did “one
tenth” what Hillary Clinton did, he would be in jail. In addition, on Meet
the Press last year, Flynn said, “When you are
given immunity, that means that you’ve probably committed a crime.”
Ouchies! Life sure comes at you fast AF,
huh?
Baffled and paralyzed’ Trump realizes
his ‘Game of Thrones’ style of governing has ‘flopped’: report
Facebook4.3KTwitterMore124
Donald Trump visits Capitol Hill (screen grab)
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President Donald Trump has found that running the federal
government is much more difficult than running a reality TV show.
According to a new report from Axios reporter Mike Allen,
Trump is feeling “baffled and paralyzed” as he’s started to realize that he
can’t just order elected lawmakers to do his bidding the same way he used to
boss around Celebrity Apprentice hopefuls.
“President Trump brought his chaos-and-loyalty theory of
management into the White House, relying on competing factions, balanced by
trusted family members, with himself perched atop as the gut-instinct decider,”
the report claims. “He now realizes this approach has flopped.”
Allen’s sources say that Trump advisers spend much of their
evenings calling up reporters and trashing their own colleagues, which has
created an atmosphere of “suspicion and insecurity” that is even “worse than
what you read.”
Allen also claims that
former Reince Priebus deputy Katie Walsh quit her job at the White House this
week because she was tired of working in an environment reminiscent of Game of Thrones.
“Buckle up,” Allen writes in conclusion. “You should expect
regular, sometimes violent, upheavals in this Trump White House.”
Obama officials gave Senate Intel
Committee list of Russia documents before they could be destroyed
Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate
Intelligence Committee (C-SPAN)
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The Obama administration left behind a trail of clues for the
Senate Intelligence Committee in case President Donald Trump’s team tried to
destroy evidence related to the Russia probe.
Officials in the outgoing
administration created a list of document serial numbers and distributed the
index to senior members of the committee, which held its first hearings
Thursday about possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, reported NBC News.
A former Obama official revealed the list was created in early
January, and he hand-delivered it to committee members.
The official said he and his colleagues wanted to make it harder
for the Trump administration to “bury” the information by keeping the document
numbers — which were not classified — locked in an intelligence committee safe.
Reporting intensified in the last weeks of the Obama
administration about possible Trump campaign ties to Russia, as intelligence
officials rushed to publicly reveal allegations of collusion head of the
incoming administration.
The attempted cover-up of Donald Trump’s
relationship with Russia is slowly falling apart
Donald Trump (AFP Photo/Rhona Wise )
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It’s déjà vu all over again.
As the Trump Russia story continues to stutter forward,
comparisons to Watergate are everywhere — and justifiably so. The revelations
and denials, the slow unraveling of deception, the critical role of a free and
independent press challenging the cover-up and digging for the truth are all
very familiar, especially to those of us who actually were in Washington
back during those peculiar days and nights of Richard Nixon.
But another
inside-the-Beltway, historic parallel struck me last week when reports emerged
of House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) suddenly jumping from
his Uber car into another and covertly racing to the White House grounds, where
he met with who-knows-who about who-knows-what. (The New York Times reported on Thursday that White House
officials Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Michael Ellis gave Nunes access to
“intelligence reports that showed President Trump and his associates were
incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies.” Early
Thursday evening, The Washington Post added to the list John Eisenberg, legal
adviser to the National Security Council.)
When it comes to paralleling Nunes and his car switcheroo, there
hasn’t been such noteworthy bolting from a vehicle in the District of Columbia
since a South American stripper named Fanne Foxx dashed from the limousine of
House Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur Mills and jumped into the Tidal Basin.
That was in 1974, just a couple of months after Nixon’s resignation. Foxe and
Rep. Mills were having an affair and soon after his companion’s 2 a.m. dip,
Mills, who was considered by many to be the most powerful man on Capitol Hill,
had to give up his chairmanship. Foxe had her 15 minutes of fame, during which
her exotic dancer sobriquet was changed from “The Argentine Firecracker” to
“The Tidal Basin Bombshell.”
No word as to what Rep.
Nunes’ stripper name will be, but I’m open to
suggestions. Certainly Devin “D for Dumb” Nunes is a real
possibility. Which brings to mind another congressional highlight of 1974, and
I’m not talking about the superb work of the House Judiciary Committee passing
articles of impeachment against Nixon. It also was the year that a start-up
magazine, New Times, made a splash with its
cover story naming, “The 10 Dumbest Members of Congress.” It was written by
Nina Totenberg, now NPR’s star legal affairs correspondent.
No. 1 on her list was Sen. William Scott, Republican from
Virginia, a one termer whose stupid-is-as-stupid-does behavior
reportedly included racist and anti-Semitic remarks.
During a defense briefing that included information about
missile silos in Russia, Scott is alleged to have said, “Wait a minute! I’m not
interested in agriculture. I want the military stuff.” Nor did he seem to know
the difference between the Suez Canal and the Persian Gulf, so thank God he
never was anywhere near the nuclear codes.
To make matters worse, when the article appeared, Scott called a
press conference in his office to angrily denounce the story, giving it even
wider coverage and proving once and for all that he really was exactly who
Totenberg and the magazine said he was.
Which brings us back to Devin Nunes. Certainly, in this
current Congress he already has a lot of competition for dumbest. The
Texas House Republicans alone include an impressive array of top-tier
candidates. (And I say that as a Yankee who nonetheless received half his
chromosomes from a smart and capable Texan.)
Or maybe Nunes is dumb like a fox. Between his feckless dashing
about Washington like a barely housebroken Scooby-Doo and his postponement of
more open hearings that might further reveal the administration’s culpability,
he has done his best to obfuscate and obstruct. He’s certainly a tool, his
fumbling mistakes and misrepresentations thoroughly mucking up his committee’s
investigation, probably beyond redemption. Which doubtless is just what his
White House pals wanted.
Hard to believe he wants to go out this way (and he should
resign, recuse himself or be replaced by House Speaker Ryan). There are even
those who say that when the committee room doors are closed, in private he has
been a helpful colleague — until now.
Apparently, Nunes been played and played big-time, a
cog in the Steve Bannon machine designed to subvert the current investigations.
That classified — and said to be anonymous! — information about which Nunes
insisted he had to brief President Trump but at the same time hide from the
eyes of his committee turns out to have been leaked to him by the supposedly
leak-averse White House itself. In other words, he was briefing the White House
on documents he got from the White House. Huh?
And what was in those
documents? According to The Times:
“The intelligence reports consisted primarily
of ambassadors and other foreign officials talking about how they were trying
to develop contacts within Mr. Trump’s family and inner circle before his
inauguration, officials said…
“Mr. Nunes has acknowledged that the
incidental intelligence gathering on Trump associates last year was not
necessarily unlawful, and that it was not specifically directed at Mr. Trump or
people close to him. American intelligence agencies typically monitor foreign
officials of allied and hostile countries, and they routinely sweep up
communications linked to Americans who may be taking part in the conversation
or are being spoken about.”
Shocker — not. And far removed from the myth of Barack Obama
“wiretapping” Trump Tower, as the current president claimed.
Now, how about the men who allegedly handed off the info to Rep.
Nunes? There’s Michael Ellis, who’s in the White House Counsel’s office. He
used to work for Nunes at the intelligence committee and now reports
to the aforementioned National Security Council attorney John Eisenberg.
And you may remember Ezra Cohen-Watnick — he’s the guy who
national security adviser H.R. McMaster recently wanted to bounce from his
position as the National Security Council’s senior director for intelligence.
Cohen-Watnick, 30, went running to his protectors, Steve Bannon and
presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner. They then went to Trump, who overruled
McMaster and saved the kid’s job. After Trump sent his scurrilous tweets about
wiretapping, Cohen-Watnick apparently wanted to pay his debt to the boss and
seems to have set about trying to find something, anything, that might be
interpreted as supporting his president’s fantasy.
Cohen-Watnick is a
protégé of McMaster’s short-lived predecessor as national security adviser, the
notorious Michael Flynn, who lost his job for, among other sins, purportedly
lying to Vice President Mike Pence and others about his conversations with
Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. At least that was the cover story. He also
may have been involved in a private, half-baked scheme to
kidnap Turkish opposition leader Fethullah Gulen from exile in Pennsylvania and
turn him over to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and certain death, thus
avoiding formal extradition.
Still with me? Earlier
reports had indicated that Flynn might be cutting a deal with the FBI, copping
a plea in exchange for telling everything he knows about Donald Trump’s team
and Russia, including possible collusion in that country’s interference with
the 2016 election. Now The Wall Street Journal reports that
according to officials, Flynn has offered to be interviewed by the agency and the
congressional intelligence committees in exchange for immunity, “but has so far
found no takers.” His lawyer wrote,
“Gen. Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it,
should the circumstances permit.” I’ll bet, but it may take a while; no one
seems anxious to grant Flynn’s request anytime soon. And it’s pretty funny
coming from a fellow who last September told Meet the Press,
“When you are given immunity, that means you probably committed a crime.”
Which brings us back to
Watergate. When Woodward and Bernstein started writing their articles in June
1972, there was frustration, because while they were on the front page of The Washington Post almost every day, their
reporting was buried in other newspapers around the country and the story got
little traction — much as the Russia story has been ignored or denied by
Trump’s base. Richard Nixon won re-election in a landslide.
In my memory, Watergate finally began to really crack open months
later when the burglars appeared for sentencing in March 1973. One of them,
James McCord, had written a letter to Judge John Sirica and then met with him
in chambers, begging for a deal and singing like the Vienna Boys Choir about
who at the Nixon White House had asked the burglars to take the rap and remain
silent in exchange for a payoff.
So maybe now a similar agreement eventually will be reached with
Flynn. Add to that the seeming seriousness of Republican Richard Burr, chair of
the Senate Intelligence Committee, who as of this week — and unlike the hapless
Nunes — seems committed to getting honest answers, much as his fellow North
Carolinian, Democrat Sam Ervin, sought when he chaired the Senate Watergate
Committee. (That said, the apparent commitment of Burr — and Democratic vice
chair Mark Warner of Virginia — does not yet negate the real need for an
independent, bipartisan inquiry and a special prosecutor.)
Senators of both parties
serving on the intelligence committee were stunned Thursday when
Clinton Watts, a senior fellow at the George Washington
University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, told them in a public hearing that
not only had Russia hacked Hillary Clinton but also other GOP
presidential candidates who ran against Trump in the primaries, including Marco
Rubio, Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham. What’s more, Watts said, “the
commander in chief has used Russian active measures at times against his
opponents.”
In part, he noted, that’s
why Russia was so successful — Trump played such a willing (if possibly
unwitting) role in their scheme:
“… Part of the reason these active measures work, and it does today in terms of
Trump Tower being wiretapped, is because they [Trump’s associates] parrot the
same lines.”
Sure, there’s a chance this will all lead to naught. But we
have to find out. Every piece of this puzzle inexorably leads us to the big
looming questions one longs to ask Trump and his cohort under oath: If there’s
really nothing going on, why are you working so hard to keep the truth from
coming out? What exactly are you hiding?
Or is this a knee-jerk authoritarian response to anyone who
dares challenge the leader, a dictatorial reaction that will only worsen with
time and the consolidation of power? That may be the most frightening question
of all.
By Wendy
Gittleson on March 31, 2017 2:21 pm ·
It’s becoming
increasingly apparent that Donald Trump is a man who hates his job.
WASHINGTON,
DC – MARCH 31: U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a meeting with the
National Association of Manufacturers in the Roosevelt Room of the White House
March 31, 2017 in Washington, DC. President Trump signed two
executive orders today that aim to boost U.S. manufacturing by addressing
foreign trade. (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON,
DC – MARCH 29: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event celebrating
Women’s History Month, in the East Room at the White House March
29, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Why would he? He’s
getting it from all sides. There’s the terrible health care bill that went down
in flames, and it was the right who
brought the gasoline. Then there’s this Russian scandal, which
isn’t going away any time soon. Now, the rumors are that Trump is
thinking of quitting, and the rumors aren’t being started by just anyone. They
are being started by Claude Taylor, a part of three presidential campaigns and
a member of the Clinton White House.
An ind journalist I have worked
with-who has been reliable-says they have 2 sources that say Trump is
considering options-incl resignation.
A member of the White
House press corps tweeted this:
Former chairman of RNC Steele
told WWR at lunch that Trump will not finish his term; advises clients to
bolster ties w/VP Pence
Yes, these
are rumors, and are no way to be treated as fact, at least not yet,
but it does highlight that Trump is facing a pivotal moment in his life. One of
the most graceful ways for him to exit the scandals surrounding him might be to
resign, but it’s possible that that’s been the plan all along. There’s no way
in hell Mike Pence has the charisma necessary to win the White House,
especially in our very shallow times, but the Christian Right loves him, and
what better way is there for them to get the president they want?
Trump
Blames Woman Who Is Not President For Flynn-Russia Scandal
MARCH 31ST, 2017 CONOVER NEWS, POLITICS11 COMMENTS
CONOVER NEWS, POLITICS11 COMMENTS
Amateur
president Donald Trump is trying to deflect from the news that disgraced former
National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has asked for
immunity in exchange for testifying in the FBI’s continuing
investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
In
response, Trump wrote on Twitter that Flynn should seek immunity in order to
protect himself from a “witch hunt” being carried out by Democrats and the
media.
Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a
witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic
proportion!
Again,
Trump is claiming Democrats suffered a ‘big election loss’ when that’s not true
at all. He’s literally blaming Hillary Clinton who is not the President.
Flynn
was an adviser to Trump’s campaign and his first national security adviser
before being forced to resign less than a month after Inauguration Day amid
reports that he lied to Vice President Mike Pence and others about the nature
of conversations he had had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn spoke
with Kislyak and met him for about 20 minutes at Trump Tower in December. Just
one week later, Flynn registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent
for $530,000 worth of lobbying work he did before the 2016 election that “could
be construed to have principally benefited the Republic of Turkey.”
As one
Intelligence Committee member put it, there’s a
“pattern of deceit” with Flynn.
But to
Trump, it’s all about his election win. It’s always about him. We recall Flynn
leading “Lock her up!” chants at a rally for Trump, then said that if he did
‘one tenth’ of what Hillary Clinton did, he’d be in jail.
Last
year, Trump attacked Hillary Clinton — he repeatedly referred to as ‘crooked’ —
after several of her staffers were given immunity deals in exchange for
cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into her private
email server. Trump also attacked Clinton’s aides repeatedly on the campaign
trail for seeking immunity in exchange for their testimony in the investigation
of Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was serving as Secretary of
State.
“The
reason they get immunity is because they did something wrong, if they
didn’t do anything wrong, they don’t think in terms of immunity,” Trump said last September
at a rally in Wisconsin.
At
another rally in Florida the day before, Trump asked, “If you are not guilty of
a crime, what do you need immunity for? Right.”
He
tweeted to Clinton in October, “ATTN: @HillaryClinton – Why did five of your
staffers need FBI IMMUNITY?!”
ATTN: @HillaryClinton -
Why did five of your staffers need FBI IMMUNITY?! #BigLeagueTruth #Debates
Watch
courtesy of ABC:
Devin Nunes’ sources raise new questions
about Steve Bannon’s role on the National Security Council
Devin Nunes speaks to
reporters (CNN/screen grab)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
The revelation that two White House
staffers fed classified documents to Rep. Devin Nunes raises new questions
about the elevation of Steve Bannon to the National Security Council in
January.
Last Monday, Nunes announced the rich
asshole and members of his transition team may have been the subject of legal
incidental surveillance. The House Intelligence Committee chairman Nunes has
since refused to disclose the source of his information—even to fellow members
of the House Intelligence Committee—fueling speculation over the source and
contents of those documents.
A bombshell New York Times report
released Thursday revealed that former House Intelligence Committee general
counsel Michael Ellis—who was tapped to join the White House on Mar. 7—and Ezra
Cohen-Watnick, former deputy to disgraced National Security Adviser Michael
Flynn, were the sources behind Nunes’ unorthodox announcement last week.
Cohen-Watnick worked for Flynn at the
Defense Intelligence Agency before joining the rich asshole’s transition
team, AlterNet reports. He was later
brought on to the National Security Council by Flynn. According to a Mar. 13 Politico report, following Flynn’s
ouster as National Security Adviser, the rich asshole’s replacement, H.R.
McMaster, tried to sideline Cohen-Watnick. A source told Politico that McMaster’s decision was based
in part on Cohen-Watnick’s close ties to Flynn, insisting the pair “saw eye to
eye about the failings of the CIA human intelligence operations.”
After hearing word of the
impending shake-up, Cohen-Watnick appealed to two key the rich asshole advisers
with whom he forged relations while on the the rich asshole
transition team: Bannon and the rich asshole’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
According to Politico, the pair “brought the matter to the rich asshole” on
Mar. 13, and he agreed that Cohen-Watnick could stay on as the National
Security Council’s senior director.
Bannon, the rich asshole’s chief White
House adviser, had become a “statutory member” of the National Security Counsel on
Jan. 29, an unprecedented move that one State Department official called
“bizarre.” Three days prior, on Jan. 26, the Department of Justice, led by
acting attorney general Sally Yates, notified the White House counsel that
Flynn lied about his the contents of his phone conversation with Kislyak. Flynn
would not step down from his position as National Security Adviser for another
two weeks. On Jan. 30, just three days after she personally warned the White
House of Flynn’s communications with Kislyak, Yates was ousted as acting
attorney general for refusing to defend the president’s ill-fated travel ban.
On Mar. 4, days before Ellis’s hiring
and a little more than a week before the rich asshole became personally
involved in saving Cohen-Watnick’s National Security Council role, the
president tweeted his baseless accusations that former President Barack Obama
had ordered a wiretap of the rich asshole Tower. the rich asshole has since
said he felt Nunes’ announcement last Monday “somewhat” vindicated
his wiretap claim. Top officials, including Nunes, have said the
information in no way substantiates the president’s assertion.
Nunes on Thursday refused to confirm or
deny whether Ellis and Cohen-Watnick were the sources behind his incidental
surveillance information, insisting he “will not respond to speculation from
anonymous sources.”
Nunes spokesman responds to NYT story fingering two White
House officials as the source of his information.
At a press conference Thursday, White
House Press Secretary Sean Spicer declined to comment on the source of Nunes’
intelligence.
REVEALED: Nunes got surveillance docs
from Flynn deputy and his own former staffer now at White House
Republican congressman
Devin Nunes (Latvian Foreign Ministry/Flickr)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Two White House officials were involved
with the hand over of intelligence information to House Intelligence
Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), according to a bombshell report in the New York Times.
We have known that prior to his
announcement to the press last week that members of President some rich
asshole’s transition team were caught up in “incidental surveillance” of
foreign nationals, Nunes visited the White House grounds in order to view confidential
information in a SCIF (Sensitive Confidential Information Facility).
That information was believed to have been provided to him by his former
staffer Michael Ellis — who was hired by the the rich asshole White House on
Mar. 7.
Now, the Times says
that another White House staffer, a former deputy to disgraced National
Security Adviser Mike Flynn named Ezra Cohen-Watnick was also involved with
getting the information to Nunes.
“Mr. Cohen-Watnick is a former Defense
Intelligence Agency official who was originally brought to the White House by
Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser,” the report said.
Flynn was forced to step down after it
came to light that he lied to Vice Pres. Mike Pence and to the public about his
interactions with officials within the Russian government both before and after
the 2016 election.
GOP lawmaker stuns MSNBC host with Devin
Nunes defense: ‘He answers to the president’
Craig Melvin and Rep.
Ted Yoho (MSNBC)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) defended the
chairman of the House Intelligence Committee’s integrity Thursday on MSNBC by
misrepresenting the embattled Republican’s constitutional duties.
Nunes has come under fire after publicly
revealing the Trump transition team had been snared in the U.S. surveillance of
foreign agents, and then briefing the White House, before sharing those details
with his colleagues.
He still hasn’t shared the documents,
which he obtained from an undisclosed sourceon the
White House grounds, and some GOP lawmakers have begun calling for him to step
down from overseeing the investigation.
“I know Devin, (and) he’s a man of high
integrity and character,” Yoho said, echoing hisprevious defense of
Nunes.
“I think he will do the right thing,”
Yoho continued. “If he feels he’s been compromised and needs to step aside, I’m
sure he will. Until he makes that decision I’m not concerned with it.”
The Florida Republican then
misrepresented the Constitution’s separation of powers to justify Nunes
briefing President Donald Trump on the surveillance, even though some members
of his transition team — and possibly the president himself — are under FBI investigation
for alleged ties to Russia.
“You have to keep in mind who he works
for,” Yoho told MSNBC. “He works for the president and answers to the
president.”
MSNBC’s Craig Melvin asked Yoho whether
the committee chairman actually worked for his constituents, and not the
executive branch.
“You do both,” Yoho said. “But when in
that capacity, if you’ve got information, I’m okay with what he did.”
Yoho then complained that he didn’t work
for the president when Melvin asked him about Trump’s attacks on his fellow conservatives in
the Freedom Caucus.
“I don’t work for the president, I don’t
work for the (House) leadership,” Yoho said. “I work for the people that sent
me here.”
Melvin pointed out that Yoho had claimed
just moments before that Nunes worked for the president, and the lawmaker
stumbled.
“As a congressman, they work for their
constituents, as a chairman of a committee, he has, okay?” Yoho said.
By John
Prager on March 29, 2017 9:43 am ·
On
Wednesday, failing President Donald Trump attempted to distract from his
ongoing troubles with his administration’s numerous, suspicious, and likely
treasonous ties to Russia by once again attacking media he considers
adversarial — which, of course, is anyone but Fox News and Breitbart at this
point. In this case, he once again went after the “failing” New York Times.
“Remember
when the failing @nytimes apologized
to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so
wrong,” Trump tweeted. “Now worse!”
Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized
to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so
wrong. Now worse!
No.
No one remembers that because it didn’t happen. Trump, of course, is
referencing a 200-word letter printed by the Times after the election thanking readers for their loyalty and
pledging to “rededicate” itself to the same high journalistic standards to
which the publication has always held itself. At no point did the Times — which
has broken numerous stories that were uncomfortable for The Donald and doubled its subscriptions in 2016 (so
much for “failing,” huh?) — say its excellent coverage was “bad” nor did they
apologize to their readers.
“If
the people of our great country could only see how viciously and inaccurately
my administration is covered by certain media!” Trump added, failing to note
that only right-wing media covers him inaccurately.
If the people of our great country could only see how
viciously and inaccurately my administration is covered by certain media!
Naturally,
Americans dropped by to let Trump know what they think of his ‘alternative
facts’:
Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized
to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so
wrong. Now worse!
@realDonaldTrump you have moved from fake
news to fake memories.
Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized
to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so
wrong. Now worse!
@realDonaldTrump @nytimes No
one remembers because you're lying. You are reporting FAKE NEWS. You are the
problem here. You need to go.
Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized
to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so
wrong. Now worse!
.@realDonaldTrump wasn't true the last two
times you said it, still not true now pic.twitter.com/FwFko0yFsS
This never happened. @RealDonaldTrump's
tweet is a deliberate mischaracterization of a Nov. 13 letter from the NYT.https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/847056211006631936 …
(Here's the NYT letter Trump is referring to. It's really
not an apology at all.) https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/us/elections/to-our-readers-from-the-publisher-and-executive-editor.html?_r=0 …
To Our Readers, From the
Publisher and Executive Editor
Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized
to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so
wrong. Now worse!
.@realDonaldTrump generally I don't
remember things that never happened.
Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized
to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so
wrong. Now worse!
@realDonaldTrump @nytimes no
one remembers this, no, because IT NEVER HAPPENED YOU CRAZY OLD FUCK
Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized
to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so
wrong. Now worse!
@realDonaldTrump @nytimes Remember
when your GREAT LEGAL MIND pal Judge Napolitano was fired by Fox 4 a false
story??
Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized
to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so
wrong. Now worse!
@realDonaldTrump @nytimes Wasn't
an apology. Was a thank you to subscribers and a declaration of continued
excellence in journalism pic.twitter.com/N7BsGM2uxe
Trump’s
desperation is becoming more and more obvious by the day. He’s running scared
and it’s up to the ‘FAKE NEWS’ media to make sure he goes down in flames.
the rich asshole says he’ll ‘fight’ GOP
Freedom Caucus members in 2018 if they don’t ‘get on the team’
some
rich asshole speaks from the White House (screen grab)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
President
some rich asshole issued a threat to members of the House Freedom Caucus on
Thursday in which he warned them of possible primary challenges if they don’t
line up to back his agenda.
“The
Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the
team, and fast,” the president tweeted. “We must fight them, and Dems, in
2018!”
The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get
on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!
the
rich asshole has previously criticized the Freedom Caucus for nuking House
Speaker Paul Ryan’s proposed health care plan, which died without receiving a
vote last Friday. This marks the first time, however, that the president has
suggested that he will back primary challenges against him if they keep bucking his
agenda.
When
asked by CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond whether the rich asshole would really try
to primary the Freedom Caucus in 2018, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee
Sanders said that “the president’s tweet speaks for itself.”
Does Trump want
Freedom Caucus members to be primaried? Trump Spox @SHSanders45:
"The President’s tweet speaks for itself." https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/847435163143454723 …
‘Didn’t take long for the swamp to drain
the rich asshole’: Freedom Caucus members hit back after the rich asshole
threat
Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) (Gage
Skidmore, Flickr
DON'T
MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
President some rich asshole lashed out at the House Freedom Caucus on Thursday, and swore that
he would “fight” them in 2018 if they didn’t start backing his agenda.
Two Freedom Caucus members quickly hit back at the rich asshole,
with one suggesting that Washington, D.C. has already made him corrupt.
Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) tweeted that it “didn’t take long for
the swamp to drain some rich asshole.” He also told the president that there’s
“no shame” in it because “almost everyone succumbs to the D.C. Establishment.”
It didn't take long for
the swamp to drain @realDonaldTrump. No shame,
Mr. President. Almost everyone succumbs to the D.C. Establishment. https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/847435163143454723 …
Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL), meanwhile, told MSNBC that it was
“unfortunate” that the rich asshole said that the Freedom Caucus threatened the
entire Republican agenda.
“We’re not fighting the president, we’re trying to honor what we
ran on,” Yoho explained.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a conservative Republican who is not
a Freedom Caucus member, said that the president’s decision to attack fellow
Republicans showed that he was getting very comfortable in the “swamp” of
Washington, D.C.
“It’s a swamp, not a hot tub,” he said. “We both came here to
drain it.”
He then pointed out that the health care plan the rich asshole
embraced polled at a measly 17% approval.
@realDonaldTrump it's a swamp not a hot tub. We
both came here to drain it. SwampCare polls 17%. sad https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/847435163143454723 …
Congress
may stiff Trump on wall funding
Republicans
are afraid of losing a government shutdown showdown.
By BURGESS EVERETT and RACHAEL
BADE
03/28/17
05:06 AM EDT
Congressional
Republicans might deliver some more bad news for President Donald Trump, fresh
off their embarrassing failure to scrap Obamacare: No new money is coming to
build his wall.
Trump
hoped to jump-start construction of a massive wall on the U.S.-Mexico border
with money in a must-pass government funding bill. But Democratic leaders are
vowing to block any legislation that includes a single penny for the wall.
With
the GOP consumed by its own divisions, the White House and Hill Republicans
will have to rely on Democratic votes to avoid a government shutdown next month
in what would be another disaster for Trump’s fledgling presidency.
Republican
leaders, wary of this, are considering a plan that would not directly tie the
border wall money to the April 28 government funding deadline. Some Republican
insiders worry that the president cannot afford another major legislative
setback — and they believe a shutdown showdown would result in just that.
While
no decision has been made by GOP leadership, Republican lawmakers may decide to
decouple the two to avoid a confrontation with Democrats. If they do, the
chances of getting Trump’s wall funding passed this spring become slim.
“It
remains to be seen,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) in an interview.
“What I would like to see is a plan for how the money would be spent and a good
faith discussion about what border security is really composed of. We haven’t
had that.”
Asked
about the prospects for a lapse in government funding, Cornyn was definitive:
“There’s not going to be a shutdown.”
The
White House made an initial request earlier this month for $1.4 billion in
border wall funding as part of a package that boosts defense spending by $30
billion, with the thought that it would hitch a ride to the broader government
funding bill due next month. Republicans expect the final price tag for the
wall could be more than $20 billion.
The
problem is that polls show the border wall is not all that popular,
particularly if the United States is paying for it, and it does not unify
congressional Republicans in the way Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch or even
the basic goal of repealing Obamacare have done. That makes it a harder sell to
the rank-and-file GOP — especially if pressing it means playing a government
shutdown blame game with Democrats.
“The
border wall is probably not a smart investment,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham
(R-S.C.), who proposes funding the wall as part a package legalizing some young
undocumented immigrants and beefing up enforcement.
Several
sources said it is unclear whether Trump wants to take the fight to Democrats over the
wall or avoid a shutdown battle. His Office of Management and Budget Director
Mick Mulvaney in recent weeks has suggested the administration will focus more
on the wall in the future, perhaps as late as fiscal 2019. The White House
didn’t respond to a request for comment.
But
building the wall was Trump’s signature campaign promise. Pushing off funding
for it now would leave Trump with another unchecked campaign pledge at a time
the White House is thirsty for a victory after its Obamacare debacle.
Some
defense hawks, like Graham, are concerned that the border wall fight could
complicate an effort to get extra spending for the military.
“Democrats,
I think, are in a spot where they’re open-minded to military spending as long
as it doesn’t come at the expense of” domestic spending, Graham said. “Here’s
what I’d tell my colleagues in the House: If you don’t think the Defense
Department is an emergency situation, you’ve just stopped listening.”
Of
course, some in the GOP are itching for a border battle. A senior Republican
source suggested Trump could conceivably win a shutdown fight if he went to the
mat to defend it: “This is his signature issue. I cannot imagine a scenario
where the Trump administration loses on the border wall funding. If I were
them, I’d dare the Democrats to shut down the government over this.”
Another
senior House Republican source disagreed completely: "The Trump
administration can't have another disaster on its hands. I think right now they
have to show some level of competence and that they can govern."
Republicans
began the year thinking that they could get moderate Democrats and perhaps even
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to fund construction of a wall
that some Democrats have supported in the past. But Schumer has warned
McConnell that his party will not support any “riders” in the funding bill
intended to jam Democrats with conservative policies.
“The
wall is a poison-pill rider,” Schumer said in an interview. “They’ll do it at
their peril.”
Other
than the issue of the wall, the spending process on Capitol Hill is proceeding
apace. Republicans and Democrats are working diligently together on a measure
to fund the government through September that can appeal to the center of each
party, according to lawmakers and aides.
But
adding the wall into the mix would create a toxic political environment.
“That’s
a bigger problem,” said a Republican senator familiar with the emerging
spending bills. Including wall funding in the must-pass government funding bill
“would be hard.”
House
Republicans are expected to act first.
While
the chamber operates on majority rule and could conceivably write red-meat
appropriations bills that include wall funding, GOP leaders expect a
significant number of conservatives to defect on any government funding bill,
as they have in the past.
And
after the hard-line House Freedom Caucus brought down the Obamacare replacement
bill last week, GOP insiders worry they can’t depend on them to help get major
legislation across the finish line.
The
conservative caucus discussed giving Trump "greater flexibility" on
spending bills during a closed-door Monday night meeting, according to Freedom
Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows — so long as it includes funding for Trump's wall.
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"We
understand that we have a very narrow margin of victory… and we understand it
may require us to take more difficult votes than we have in the previous
Congress," the North Carolina Republican told reporters.
One
option for the House is to pass the government funding bill and the border and
defense package in a way that allows the Senate to easily separate the two
measures later.
Republicans
could pass a bipartisan bill keeping the government open and then attach a
second GOP bill with wall funding. That would let the Senate strip the wall
provision from the must-pass bill to avert a government shutdown, and the House
would be forced to swallow what the Senate can pass.
If
Trump insists, House GOP leaders could include the wall money directly in the
government funding bill — but they could lose only 22 Republicans if they
receive no Democratic support.
Even
if the House manages to pass a spending measure that includes funding for the
wall, Republicans will need at least eight Senate Democrats to break a
filibuster to fund the government, something Schumer says isn’t happening if
border wall money is included.
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