Forbes Received a Very Strange Phone Call After some rich asshole Dropped 92 Spots On Its Rich People List
When we saw the headline we all knew something would come next. Forbes released their annual list of America's richest people, and some rich asshole, who is famously obsessed with his own wealth, was $600 million poorer this year and had fallen 92 spots on the list.
the rich asshole HUMILIATED As WH Walks Back His Attack After Soldier’s Mom Confirms His Insensitive Phone Call
some rich asshole is having another bad day.
Earlier this week, the rich asshole finally contacted the family of one of the four American soldiers who were killed in Niger.
Unfortunately, the rich asshole was an asshole.
“He knew what he signed up for, but I guess it hurts anyway,” the rich asshole told Army Sgt. La David Johnson’s widow Myeshia over the phone while she and the rest of Johnson’s family were meeting his flag-draped coffin.
Florida Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson passed her account of the rich asshole’s insensitive words to the media.
“She was crying the whole time, and when she hung up the phone, she looked at me and said, ‘He didn’t even remember his name.’ That’s the hurting part,” Wilson told MSNBC. “He was almost like joking. He said, ‘Well, I guess you knew’ — something to the effect that ‘he knew what he was getting into when he signed up, but I guess it hurts anyway.’ You know, just matter-of-factly, that this is what happens, anyone who is signing up for military duty is signing up to die. That’s the way we interpreted it. It was horrible. It was insensitive. It was absolutely crazy, unnecessary. I was livid.”
On Wednesday morning, the rich asshole attacked Wilson and accused her of lying. the rich asshole even claimed to have proof.
As it turns out, Wilson has witnesses, including Johnson’s own grieving mother, who confirmed Wilson’s account to the Washington Post.
“President the rich asshole did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” Cowanda Jones-Johnson said. She went on to confirm that Wilson’s account was accurate.
Faced with real proof, the White House was forced to walk back the rich asshole’s attack.
“This president cares deeply,” a White House official told the Sentinel. “Maybe he said something that was misunderstood, but he certainly cares about fallen servicemen and women.”
In short, the White House just basically confirmed that some rich asshole acted like an asshole toward Johnson’s family, and also that Rep. Wilson was telling the truth.
the rich asshole owes her and Johnson’s family a very public apology.
some rich asshole is having another bad day.
Earlier this week, the rich asshole finally contacted the family of one of the four American soldiers who were killed in Niger.
Unfortunately, the rich asshole was an asshole.
“He knew what he signed up for, but I guess it hurts anyway,” the rich asshole told Army Sgt. La David Johnson’s widow Myeshia over the phone while she and the rest of Johnson’s family were meeting his flag-draped coffin.
Florida Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson passed her account of the rich asshole’s insensitive words to the media.
“She was crying the whole time, and when she hung up the phone, she looked at me and said, ‘He didn’t even remember his name.’ That’s the hurting part,” Wilson told MSNBC. “He was almost like joking. He said, ‘Well, I guess you knew’ — something to the effect that ‘he knew what he was getting into when he signed up, but I guess it hurts anyway.’ You know, just matter-of-factly, that this is what happens, anyone who is signing up for military duty is signing up to die. That’s the way we interpreted it. It was horrible. It was insensitive. It was absolutely crazy, unnecessary. I was livid.”
On Wednesday morning, the rich asshole attacked Wilson and accused her of lying. the rich asshole even claimed to have proof.
As it turns out, Wilson has witnesses, including Johnson’s own grieving mother, who confirmed Wilson’s account to the Washington Post.
“President the rich asshole did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” Cowanda Jones-Johnson said. She went on to confirm that Wilson’s account was accurate.
Faced with real proof, the White House was forced to walk back the rich asshole’s attack.
“This president cares deeply,” a White House official told the Sentinel. “Maybe he said something that was misunderstood, but he certainly cares about fallen servicemen and women.”
In short, the White House just basically confirmed that some rich asshole acted like an asshole toward Johnson’s family, and also that Rep. Wilson was telling the truth.
the rich asshole owes her and Johnson’s family a very public apology.
The mother of Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in an ambush in Niger earlier this month, said President the rich asshole did disrespect her family, despite the rich asshole's insistence that remarks about a phone conversation he had with Johnson's widow were "fabricated."
"President the rich asshole did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband," Johnson's mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, told The Washington Post.
Her comments come after Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) said Tuesday she overheard the rich asshole tell Johnson's widow that the fallen soldier "knew what he signed up for ... but when it happens it hurts anyway."
Wilson told CNN that she was in a car with Johnson’s widow, Myeshia, during a trip to meet her husband's casket when the rich asshole called. Wilson said Myeshia was "very distraught after the call."
The Post asked Jones-Johnson, who was also in the car, if Wilson's description of the conversation was accurate.
"Yes," she said.
the rich asshole disputed Wilson's claims in a tweet Wednesday morning.
"Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!" the president said in a tweet.
Wilson said during an interview Wednesday on CNN that the rich asshole is a "sick man," adding that she has "no reason to lie."
The report comes after the rich asshole spurred controversy earlier this week by claiming former President Obama and other past presidents didn't call the families of fallen soldiers.
Later in the Monday press conference, he said he was "told" Obama didn't often call.
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 10/18/17 12:10 PM EDT
President the rich asshole on Wednesday doubled down on his denial that he told the widow of a soldier killed in Niger that her husband “knew what he signed up for.”
Speaking at the White House, the rich asshole pushed back on details of his call with Army Sgt. La David Johnson’s widow that were provided by Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), who was in the car with the widow, Myeshia Johnson, during the conversation.
“I didn’t say what that congresswoman said — didn’t say it at all — she knows it,” the rich asshole told reporters. “I would like her to make the statement again because I did not say what she said."
The comments followed an early morning tweet, in which the president claimed Wilson “totally fabricated” her account of the call.
the rich asshole said he “had a very nice conversation with the woman, the wife, who sounded like a lovely woman.”
The president’s denials are at odds with Wilson’s description of the conversation, as well comments made by Johnson’s mother, who stood behind the congresswoman’s statements.
"President the rich asshole did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” Cowanda Jones-Johnson, who said she was also in the car, told The Washington Post.
The president’s denials are at odds with Wilson’s description of the conversation, as well comments made by Johnson’s mother, who stood behind the congresswoman’s statements.
"President the rich asshole did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” Cowanda Jones-Johnson, who said she was also in the car, told The Washington Post.
The White House later said the rich asshole's chief of staff, John Kelly, was on the call, which was not recorded. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Kelly thought the rich asshole's remarks on the call were entirely appropriate.
"General Kelly was present for the call and thought it was completely appropriate," she said. "He thought the call was respectful and he thought that the president did the best job he could under those circumstances to offer condolences on the part of the country."
Wilson first revealed details of the rich asshole’s call with Johnson’s widow late Tuesday, after his body was returned to his hometown of Miami. "He knew what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurt," the rich asshole said, according to the lawmaker.
“I still stand by my account of the call b/t @realDonaldTrump and Myeshia Johnson. That is her name, some rich asshole. Not ‘the woman’ or ‘the wife,’” she tweeted Wednesday after the president spoke.
the rich asshole, asked about his claim that he has “proof” of his account, said “let her [Wilson] make her statement again and you’ll find out.”
the rich asshole’s comments have engulfed the White House in controversy and renewed doubts about his ability to empathize with the families of fallen soldiers.
Wilson was among four U.S. service members killed earlier this month in an ambush by Islamist militants. Military officials have said the soldiers were on a train-and-advise mission with Nigerien forces.
the rich asshole ignited a firestorm of criticism Monday with his response to a reporter who asked why he had waited nearly two weeks to contact the families of the fallen.
the rich asshole suggested he has done more than former President Obama and his other predecessors to make contact with the families of fallen soldiers.
“I think I’ve called every family of someone who’s died,” the rich asshole said in an interview Tuesday with Fox News Radio.
He also suggested that Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, was not contacted by Obama after his son was killed in Afghanistan.
“As far as other representatives, I don’t know. You could ask General Kelly, did he get a call from Obama?” the rich asshole said.
The Associated Press reported Kelly was invited to a White House breakfast for families of fallen soldiers in 2011. Kelly and his wife reportedly sat at a table with then-first lady Michelle Obama.
It’s not the first time the rich asshole has feuded with Americans who lost loved ones in conflict.
He sparred with the Gold Star parents of Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004, after they spoke out against his campaign during the Democratic National Convention.
In 2015, the rich asshole also took a dig at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who spent years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. “I like people who weren’t captured,” he said at the time.
White House says the rich asshole’s promised personal check to military family has now been mailed
U.S. President some rich asshole attends a "Made in America" event on pharmaceutical glass manufacturing at the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
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The check has been sent.
That was the message from the White House on Wednesday after the father of a slain U.S. Army sergeant said a generous offer from President some rich asshole had not materialized.
Chris Baldridge told the Washington Post that the rich asshole offered his family $25,000 after the death of his 22-year-old son at the hands of an Afghan police officer in June. But he told the newspaper the money never arrived.
A White House spokeswoman said on Wednesday the media was advancing a “biased agenda” by following up on the Baldridge story.
“The check has been sent,” White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in an email. “It’s disgusting that the media is taking something that should be recognized as a generous and sincere gesture, made privately by the president, and using it to advance the media’s biased agenda.”
The issue added to controversy over the rich asshole’s response to military families who have lost loved ones. On Monday, the rich asshole said some of his predecessors “didn’t do anything” to console relatives of fallen soldiers, drawing widespread criticism.
the rich asshole offered no evidence to back up his claim, which was immediately shown to be false.
On Wednesday, the rich asshole denied an account by Representative Frederica Wilson of Florida that he had told the widow of Sergeant La David T. Johnson, who was killed in a firefight in Niger, that the man knew “what he signed up for.”
“I didn’t say what that congresswoman said,” the rich asshole told reporters earlier in the day. “I had a very nice conversation with the woman, with the wife who … sounded like a lovely woman,” he said.
Sergeant Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, told The Washington Post on Wednesday that she was present during the rich asshole’s call to her son’s widow and she supported the congresswoman’s account of the rich asshole’s comment.
“President the rich asshole did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” Jones-Johnson said.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Steve Holland; Editing by Caren Bohan, Toni Reinhold)
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The check has been sent.
That was the message from the White House on Wednesday after the father of a slain U.S. Army sergeant said a generous offer from President some rich asshole had not materialized.
Chris Baldridge told the Washington Post that the rich asshole offered his family $25,000 after the death of his 22-year-old son at the hands of an Afghan police officer in June. But he told the newspaper the money never arrived.
A White House spokeswoman said on Wednesday the media was advancing a “biased agenda” by following up on the Baldridge story.
“The check has been sent,” White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in an email. “It’s disgusting that the media is taking something that should be recognized as a generous and sincere gesture, made privately by the president, and using it to advance the media’s biased agenda.”
The issue added to controversy over the rich asshole’s response to military families who have lost loved ones. On Monday, the rich asshole said some of his predecessors “didn’t do anything” to console relatives of fallen soldiers, drawing widespread criticism.
the rich asshole offered no evidence to back up his claim, which was immediately shown to be false.
On Wednesday, the rich asshole denied an account by Representative Frederica Wilson of Florida that he had told the widow of Sergeant La David T. Johnson, who was killed in a firefight in Niger, that the man knew “what he signed up for.”
“I didn’t say what that congresswoman said,” the rich asshole told reporters earlier in the day. “I had a very nice conversation with the woman, with the wife who … sounded like a lovely woman,” he said.
Sergeant Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, told The Washington Post on Wednesday that she was present during the rich asshole’s call to her son’s widow and she supported the congresswoman’s account of the rich asshole’s comment.
“President the rich asshole did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” Jones-Johnson said.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Steve Holland; Editing by Caren Bohan, Toni Reinhold)
There is a very silly dance underway between the the rich asshole administration and the federal judiciary.
Not long after taking office, President some rich asshole issued his long-bragged-about Muslim Ban, which prohibited nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries from traveling into the United States. Almost immediately, the ban ran into trouble in the federal courts.
The ban has now made several trips through the federal judiciary, including a number of visits to the Supreme Court — with the justices temporarily halting at least some parts of the ban, and then dissolving most of that order for jurisdictional reasons. Meanwhile, the rich asshole administration made two rounds of tweaks to the ban, at times explicitly admitting that these tweaks are intended solely to increase the likelihood that the ban will survive in court.
After the first round of tweaks, for example, the rich asshole described the second version of the Muslim Ban as a “watered down version of the first one” that was crafted “by lawyers in response to prior legal challenges.” He also said that his preference was that “we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place.”
Now, the third version of the ban is starting to make its way through the courts — and the early news is not good for the rich asshole. On Tuesday, a federal district court in Hawaii temporarily halted this latest version of the ban. Then, on Wednesday morning, a federal court in Maryland ordered a halt to much of the ban as well.
The decisions rely on different legal arguments. But the thrust of both — and especially Judge Theodore Chuang’s decision in the Maryland case, International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) v. the rich asshole — is that the courts are not fooled by the rich asshole’s effort to play around with the ban at the margins and claim that it does not suffer from the same legal flaws as previous versions.
Judge Chuang, moreover, relies on a constitutional argument that is far more likely to survive additional scrutiny than a weaker statutory argument that makes up the backbone of the Hawaii case.
Though there is always uncertainty about whether an increasingly partisan Supreme Court will apply established legal doctrines to one of the signature policy proposals of a Republican president, Chuang’s opinion provides a convincing case that Muslim Ban 3.0 is no less unconstitutional than prior versions. And Judge Chuang is able to make this case largely because of the rich asshole’s own statements undermining his administration’s work. While administration officials try to sweep the rich asshole’s anti-Muslim bias under the rug where no judge will see it, the rich asshole himself keeps exposing it for everyone to see.
The core section of the Muslim Ban at issue in IRAP is the rich asshole’s effort to ban travel from several majority-Muslim nations. The specific group of nations on this list has changed somewhat over time. Muslim Ban 2.0 targeted Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Now, Sudan is off the list and Chad is on it.
Muslim Ban 3.0’s biggest innovation, however, is that it includes one nation that isn’t majority-Muslim — North Korea. This latest version of the ban also prevents certain Venezuelan government officials and their families from traveling to the United States.
Yet, as Judge Chuang explains, this inclusion of residents from North Korea and Venezuela has less substance behind it than it originally seems. “The Venezuela ban is qualitatively different from the others because it extends only to government officials, and the ban on North Korea will, according to Department of State statistics, affect fewer than 100 people,” Chuang writes. That’s “only a fraction of one percent of all those affected by” Muslim Ban 3.0.
Thus, the inclusion of these two nations appears to be little more than “a litigating position” rather than a genuine effort to cure the legal problems with previous versions of the ban. By including North Korea and a handful of Venezuelans in the ban, the rich asshole creates an illusion that he is no longer targeting Muslim nations without actually producing much of a substantive result.
Nor does the rich asshole’s most recent set of tweaks to the Muslim Ban erase his previous statements indicating that he wants to ban Muslims. The changes do not eliminate his multiple campaign statements bragging about his plans to ban Muslims. Nor do they it wipe away his statements that the ban was structured as a ban on travel from certain “territories” and not as a direct ban on Muslims because he was trying to cover up the fact that he wants to ban Muslims.
And, as Judge Chuang notes, Muslim Ban 3.0 doesn’t even do a particularly good job of coming up with pretextual reasons to target the nations singled out by this version of the ban.
Though Ban 3.0 “is purportedly designed to combat deficient information-sharing practices,” Chuang writes, “Somalia, which was found to have adequate information-sharing practices, is nevertheless on the list of Designated Countries and is subject to a ban on all immigrants from that nation.”
Meanwhile, Venezuela, “a non-majority Muslim nation, was determined to have inadequate information-sharing practices, to have at least one national security risk factor, and to not reliably receive its nationals slated for deportation. Despite these deficiencies, only officials of the Venezuelan government are barred from entry.”
Thus, Ban 3.0 isn’t even consistent with “its own terms.” It “did not simply rely on the results of an objective information-sharing review but instead made certain subjective determinations that resulted in a disproportionate impact on majority-Muslim nations, and a greater alignment with the travel ban of” Ban 2.0.
Were the rich asshole, and the the rich asshole administration, better at covering up the president’s motives, the courts likely would have allowed his Muslim bans to stand. Courts typically defer to presidents on matters of national security. The reason why these bans have not fared well is because the rich asshole is so bad at lying and his administration hasn’t found an effective way to cover up for him.
‘I did not say what she said!’ Pouty the rich asshole lashes out when asked for proof of Wilson fabricating quotes
President the rich asshole pouts when asked about his remarks to a Gold Star family (Screen cap).
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President some rich asshole continued to insist that Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) “totally fabricated” her account of his Tuesday phone call with Myeshia Johnson, the widow of the late Army Sgt. David Johnson — but he declined to offer evidence to prove his claims when asked by reporters on Wednesday.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal’s Rebecca Ballhaus, the rich asshole was asked for the “proof” he promised existed that would back up his claim that Wilson lied about him telling Johnson that her late husband “knew what he signed up for” when he joined the Army.
“I didn’t say what that congresswoman said,” the rich asshole insisted. “I did not say what she said.”
the rich asshole also issued a veiled threat to Wilson and dared her to “make her statement again and then you will find out.”
Despite the rich asshole’s denials, however, Sgt. Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, confirmed that the rich asshole did tell her daughter-in-law that her late husband “knew what he signed up for.”
“President the rich asshole did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” Jones-Johnson told the Washington Post.
Watch the video of the rich asshole below.
The ‘Fake Melania the rich asshole’ Conspiracy Theory Is Taking The Internet By Storm And It’s Everything
The Internet is going crazy after photos, videos and .gifs have been circulated of Melania the rich asshole with her husband at a press conference on Monday. Will the real Melania the rich asshole please stand up? Don’t look at me like that. the rich asshole circulated conspiracy theories about our country’s first black president in order to delegitimize his presidency so this is fair game and also, it’s hilarious.
And if this is not Melania, we have to ask, what has he done with his wife? Blink twice next time you’re on the air if you need help, girlfriend. We might be there for you. Maybe.
It all started with this tweet from social media user @JoeVargas, then it went viral.
“My wife, Melania, who happens to be right here,” some rich asshole is heard telling reporters.
This is not Melania. To think they would go this far & try & make us think its her on TV is mind blowing. Makes me wonder what else is a lie pic.twitter.com/JhPVmXdGit
Uproxx is sure it is Melania, but don’t let them ruin your day. Instead, let’s just enjoy getting away from the the rich asshole swamp and the former reality show star’s outbursts on Twitter.
The Internet is sure that Melania has a body-double.
Is it or isn’t it Melania??? pic.twitter.com/1XsxXad1P5
Oh my god. This is just like the Anniversary episode of Fawlty Towers when Polly has to pretend to be Sybil. twitter.com/JoeVargas/stat…
“I’m joined here by my wife Melania…who also happens to be here today” #ItsNotMelania pic.twitter.com/FKU9IB38tn
(•_•)
<) )╯THAT'S
/ \
\(•_•)
( (> NOT
/ \
(•_•)
<) )> MELANIA
/ \
something scary
I can't get over this. They really dressed a white woman up like Carmen Sandiego and tried to pass her off as Melania.
okay look this "Melania body-double travels w Trump" story is silly I mean where would they find another woman willing to go places with him twitter.com/JoeVargas/stat…
“My wife, Melania, who happens to be right here”
I’m at the point where whatever he says, I believe the opposite. That literally ain’t her. twitter.com/prettyfunnymom…
some rich asshole is a conspiracy theorist who was elevated to power by his gullible base. the rich asshole supporters seem upset on Twitter that Melania is trending on the social site over this conspiracy theory, but the ones their president circulated are OK by them. Also, what happened to Melania the rich asshole’s nose? There’s something funny going on there. And why isn’t Alex Jones all over this? Hmm…maybe he’s a part of it. I mean, if NASA had to step forward to deny that it is running a child sex slave ring on Mars because of Jones’s conspiracy theory then we can ask what part he played in switching a body double for the First Lady. Jones and the rich asshole are buddies, after all. WHAT HAVE Y’ALL DONE WITH MELANIA?
Stop looking at me like that.
Sarah Sanders attacks Frederica Wilson over the rich asshole call to widow, Twitter erupts
Sarah Huckabee Sanders came to the defense of some rich asshole over allegations that he made insensitive remarks to a widow of a fallen solider.
OCTOBER 18, 2017 / 7:25 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
One of the biggest stories of the last 24 hours involves #some rich asshole and the alleged remarks he made [VIDEO]to a widow of one of the soldiers killed earlier this month in Niger. After receiving criticism, the White House decided to push back, including comments made by Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Sanders on the rich asshole
Earlier this month in Niger, Africa, four Green Berets were killed during an ambush in the region. The story passed through the news cycle and didn't get much mention from the White House, as some rich asshole was spending more time lashing out at NFL players for protesting the national anthem, defending his response to the hurricane in Puerto Rico, while also taking part in reported feuds with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Republican Sen.
Bob Corker. Fast forward to this week and Army Sgt. La David Johnson's body was flown into Miami International Airport, where his casket was met by his pregnant widow Myeshia Johnson, along with their two young child. Following her greeting of the casket, Johnson received a phone call from the president, who reportedly upset the widow by saying Johnson "knew what he was signing up for." The story was confirmed by Florida Rep. #Frederica Wilson, though the rich asshole has since lashed out on #Twitter to defend himself. In a tweet on Wednesday morning, the rich asshole called out Wilson, while noting that he has "proof" that she is not being accurate. As reported by NBC News on October 18, Sarah Huckabee Sanders attempted to defend the president [VIDEO]and offer clarification.
While addressing reporters at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, Sarah Huckabee Sanders was questioned on some rich asshole's phone call with Myeshia Johnson, including the details of the alleged "proof" that the president has to back up his denial.
"There were several people in the room from the administration that were on the call, including Chief of Staff General John Kelly," Sanders said.
.@PressSec says Pres. Trump was "completely respectful" in condolence call to widow of Green Beret killed in Niger: cbsn.ws/2gjVnPU
Sarah Huckabee Sanders was then asked if some rich asshole made the comment "he knew what he signed up for" to Myeshia Johnson, as she did her best to deflect. "The president's call, as accounted by multiple people in the room, believe that the president was completely respectful, very sympathetic," she said. "There is never going to be enough that a president can do for the families of those that are killed in action," Sanders went on to say.
On the attack
Not stopping there, Sarah Huckabee Sanders called out and attack Frederica Wilson for the allegations she made against the billionaire real estate mogul. "I think it is appalling what the congresswoman has done and the way that she has politicized this issue," she stated.
Twitter reacts
As Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave her defense of some rich asshole, those who oppose the current administration fired back on Twitter. "So they’re calling the mother a liar on top of her having to deal with losing her son- horrible people," one tweet read.
"This woman looks like she hates her life..." another tweet noted. "(SHS) peddles lies and hate for a subhuman buffoon," one Twitter user wrote.
So they’re calling the mother a liar on top of her having to deal with losing her son- horrible people
Oh please, even the family has said it's true, not just the Congresswoman. Even if it wasn't a malicious comment, he completely failed.
"Is (SHS) in a secret competition for Best Liar of all time? Unclear. But likely," yet another tweet added. The backlash continued as the critics of some rich asshole piled on the president and held his feet to the fire.
2 MIN READ
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President some rich asshole criticized the National Football League on Wednesday for not forcing players to stand for the national anthem, firing back after league officials meeting in New York chose instead to effectively back players’ right to political activism.
“Total disrespect for our great country!” tweeted the rich asshole, who has repeatedly denounced players in the country’s most popular sports league as unpatriotic for kneeling during the anthem in a demonstration against racism.
After the first day of the NFL’s two-day autumn meeting of team owners, players and their union’s leaders in Manhattan, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters they talked about “the issues that our players have been trying to bring attention to. About issues in our communities to make our communities better.”
The small but growing number of players kneeling during the national anthem are protesting the killing by police of unarmed black men and boys across the United States, as well as racial disparities in the criminal justice system. More than half of all NFL players are black.
the rich asshole wants the league to suspend players if they kneel during pregame renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” His vice president, Mike Pence, walked out of a stadium in Indianapolis this month as players knelt, which the rich asshole said he had instructed Pence to do.
On Tuesday, Goodell appeared less interested in stifling the protests, despite the president’s views, and rather hailed the character of the players, saying that he wanted to help their political activism.
The commissioner said the league will meet again with players, probably in the next two weeks, and spend more time talking to reporters when the gathering concludes on Wednesday.
Additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Bill Rigby
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
the rich asshole personally thanked fake Twitter account linked to Russia
The account, which was suspended by Twitter, received public thanks from the president.
Among the dozens of fake Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts run out of Russia revealed by Russian publication RBC earlier this week, one may have caught the eyes of political journalists. The @TEN_GOP account, the largest fake Twitter account run out of Russia that was uncovered by RBC, had become something of a conservative gadfly on Twitter. With nearly 150,000 followers, The Daily Beast described the account – which called itself the “Unofficial Twitter of Tennessee Republicans” – as “an influential pro-the rich asshole” account.
Twitter, however, recently suspended the account, along with @ELEVEN_GOP – another account revealed by RBC as Russian. The @ELEVEN_GOP account, sharing the same profile picture as @TEN_GOP, described itself as the “back-up account” for @TEN_GOP.
A third account, @10_GOP – which shared the same profile picture as the other two accounts, and billed itself as providing “Conservative, daily news that you won’t find on mainstream media” – hasn’t been confirmed as Russian, although it, too, has been suspended.
According to a Google Cache search, @10_GOP said in early September that it was run by the same person behind @TEN_GOP and @ELEVEN_GOP.
But however popular @TEN_GOP and @ELEVEN_GOP may have been, it was @10_GOP that got the ultimate Twitter honor last month. The account Tweeted“We love you, Mr. President!” to President some rich asshole – and the rich asshole responded in kind, sharing the Tweet with his followers and writing, “So nice, thank you!”
So nice, thank you! twitter.com/10_gop/status/…
That is to say, the sitting president of the United States retweeted and publicly thanked a Twitter feed that was either a fake account run out of Russia, or one that claimed to be a fake account run out of Russia.
A spokesperson from Twitter declined to respond to revelations that the rich asshole retweeted and publicly thanked @10_GOP.
To be fair to the rich asshole, he was hardly the only prominent conservative to boost these fake accounts run out of Russia. In July, Collin Rugg, who bills himself as a “Proud [the rich asshole] supporter,” slammed Twitter for “suspend[ing @TEN_GOP] for no reason!”, and called on followers to subscribe to @ELEVEN_GOP.
SPREAD THE WORD. @TEN_GOP was suspended for no reason! @ELEVEN_GOP is the backup account. RETWEET this and give them a follow! twitter.com/eleven_gop/sta…
Jack Posobiec, a noted conspiracy theorist and the creator of a “Rape Melania” sign, also publicly celebrated the @ELEVEN_GOP account, writing “Tennessee Gop is back!!” When it was revealed yesterday that @ELEVEN_GOP was a fake account run out of Russia, Posobiec deleted the Tweet.
While the revelations about the fake social media accounts run out of Russia continue to reverberate, it’s become increasingly clear that Facebook was not the only platform abused – or even the one Russian actors would have used to try to reach the president. After all, as @TEN_GOP tweeted, “President the rich asshole [is] always taking time to say hello to his supporters!”
So nice, thank you! twitter.com/10_gop/status/…
SPREAD THE WORD. @TEN_GOP was suspended for no reason! @ELEVEN_GOP is the backup account. RETWEET this and give them a follow! twitter.com/eleven_gop/sta…
the rich asshole WHINES Like A Bitch On Twitter After NFL And Democrats Tell Him To Go Fuck Himself
The Democrats and the NFL both told some rich asshole to go f*ck himself.
For weeks, the rich asshole has been demanding that the NFL force players to stand for the national athem, a move that would crush protests against police brutality and racial injustice while shredding First Amendment rights.
Well, the rich asshole’s demand backfired as more players than ever before have been taking a knee during the anthem.
And NFL owners decided earlier this week in an annual meeting that they will not adopt a rule to force players to stand.
Of course, this infuriated the rich asshole and he whined about it on Twitter, accusing the NFL of disrespecting the country.
The kicker is that the rich asshole both disrespected our country and our troops and their families by failing to acknowledge the deaths of four soldiers this week. He has also neglected to call the families and when he contacted the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson he insulted her by telling her that “he knew what he was signing up for.”
the rich asshole’s words were relayed to the media by Rep. Frederica Wilson, whom he lashed out at on Twitter.
If the rich asshole really has proof, he should release it immediately. But, as usual, the rich asshole is probably bluffing so we should not expect him to actually provide any proof at all.
the rich asshole also attacked Democrats as a whole for not supporting his massive tax cuts for the wealthy.
some rich asshole is a deranged lunatic who thinks he is a king. It’s time to oust him from office and put him in prison where he belongs.
the rich asshole blasts Dem who said he made insensitive remark about fallen soldier: 'Totally fabricated'
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 10/18/17 07:35 AM EDT
President the rich asshole early Wednesday ripped Rep. Frederica Wilson, saying the Florida Democrat's claim that he made an insensitive comment about a fallen soldier's wife was "totally fabricated."
"Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!" the president said in a tweet.
Wilson said on Tuesday that she overheard the rich asshole tell the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in an ambush in Niger nearly two weeks ago, that Johnson “knew what he signed up for..but when it happens it hurts anyway.”
“She has just lost her husband, she was just told that he cannot have an open casket funeral which gives her all kinds of nightmares about what his body must look, what his face must look, and this is what the president of the United States says to her,” Wilson told CNN.
Wilson said during an CNN interview early Wednesday that the rich asshole is a "sick man."
"I have no reason to lie," she added.
the rich asshole ignited controversy on Monday at a press conference when he made the disputed claim that his predecessors did not call the families of fallen soldiers.
He attempted to walk back the claim at the same press conference.
--This report was updated at 8:30 a.m.
the rich asshole reverses course, indicates opposition to ObamaCare deal
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 10/18/17 09:57 AM EDT
President the rich asshole on Wednesday suggested he will oppose a bipartisan deal to help stabilize ObamaCare, reversing comments he made one day earlier.
the rich asshole wrote on Twitter that he was "supportive" of the deal's architect, Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), as well as the Senate process, but said he would "never support bailing out" insurance companies, saying they "have made a fortune" under ObamaCare.
the rich asshole stopped short of saying he would veto the measure, however.
The president has sent a series of mixed signals on the legislation drafted by Alexander and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the ranking member on the Health Committee.
The measure would fund insurer subsidies known as cost-sharing reduction payments for two years while allowing states greater flexibility to waive the health-care law’s rules.
the rich asshole announced last week he would cut off the payments, a move experts said would cause insurance premiums to skyrocket.
But the president on Tuesday signaled he may support the proposal, calling it “a short-term solution so that we don’t have this very dangerous little period” for insurance companies. Later in the evening, he appeared to backtrack on those comments.
"While I commend the bipartisan work being done by Sens. Alexander and Murray — and I do commend it — I continue to believe Congress must find a solution to the ObamaCare mess instead of providing bailouts to insurance companies," the rich asshole said in a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The president’s seeming inability to take a clear position on the issue has frustrated many on Capitol Hill.
Alexander said Wednesday that the rich asshole had called him earlier in the morning to express optimism about the agreement.
"He called me to say that number one, he wanted to be encouraging about the bipartisan agreement that Sen. Murray and I announced yesterday," Alexander said at an Axios event.
The Tennessee senator said the rich asshole “intends to review it carefully to see if he wants to add anything to it."
the rich asshole came close to backing the deal Tuesday, even as he railed against insurance companies and declared that “ObamaCare is virtually dead.”
“It will get us over this intermediate hump,” the rich asshole said at a news conference with the Greek prime minister.
At the same time, the rich asshole claimed “we either have the votes or we are very close to having the votes” for repealing ObamaCare.
Updated: 10:24 a.m.
Senate GOP prepares for a war with Bannon
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 10/18/17 06:00 AM EDT
Bannon has threatened to back primary challengers against as many as six Senate Republican incumbents facing voters in 2018.
He was scheduled to travel to Arizona Tuesday to attend the campaign kick-off rally for former state legislator Kelli Ward, who is challenging Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) next year.
Senate Republicans are publicly and privately calling on Bannon to step back.
“I think he’s going to back off on that. He certainly should,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), one of the Republicans Bannon hopes to knock off next year.
“He’s a smart guy, and he’s going to realize that’s unfruitful. Where he ought to be spending his time is going after those who are screwing up the country all these years, and they don’t happen to be Republicans,” the 83-year-old senator added.
Hatch, who has yet to announce whether he’s running for reelection, says he hopes the rich asshole will endorse him if he decides to pursue an eighth term.
“I like the rich asshole. I endorsed him,” Hatch said. “I think he’ll endorse me.”
He noted that, along with then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), he was one of the first Senate Republicans to endorse the rich asshole in the 2016 presidential race.
the rich asshole called Hatch two weeks ago to ask him to run again, according to an aide familiar with the conversation. When he faced a contested primary in 2012, Hatch indicated his seventh term would be his last.
Other Republicans are pushing back against Bannon with tougher language.
Letting out a groan of frustration, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a swing vote in the upcoming tax-reform debate, waved her hand dismissively and said, “I think he should stay out.”
A Republican senator who is not up for reelection next year called Bannon’s maneuvering “terribly counterproductive” and grumbled, “I don’t think much of it.”
Bannon didn’t comment for this article.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday vowed to back incumbents in 2018.
“We had an experience in 2010 and 2012 nominating candidates in primaries who couldn’t win the general election,” he said, citing past conservative challengers who defeated candidates backed by the party leadership only to lose to Democrats on Election Day.
One famous instance was in 2012 when conservative candidate Richard Mourdock beat longtime GOP incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) before losing what was thought to be a safe Republican seat to Democrat Joe Donnelly.
“Our strategy going forward is to protect our incumbents and to help people get nominated who can actually win elections,” McConnell told reporters after meeting with colleagues over lunch.
It was a signal to colleagues that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC linked to McConnell, would pour money into primaries next year if necessary to protect incumbents.
“The message is that [McConnell is] going to be there and we’re going to be there to back incumbents and candidates that we think are electable,” said Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune (S.D.), the third-ranking member of the GOP leadership.
Thune said he expects the NRSC will spend resources in primaries to defend incumbents.
“We’re going to do everything we can to grow our majority,” he added.
The Senate Leadership Fund spent more than $10 million to back Sen. Luther Strange (R), who lost in Alabama’s Senate Republican primary last month to Judge Roy Moore, an outspoken conservative whom Bannon backed.
The NRSC spent about $360,000 in coordinated expenditures to help Strange before the Alabama runoff election.
The committee’s spending on Senate GOP primaries next year will depend on state-by-state coordination limits and how much traction a conservative challenger may be gaining against an incumbent, said a GOP strategist familiar with internal discussions about the 2018 races.
Senate Republicans say they hope McConnell can persuade the rich asshole, with whom he has had a rocky relationship this year, to pressure Bannon to back off loyal incumbents such as Senate Republican Policy Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), who are both up for reelection.
the rich asshole acknowledged McConnell’s concerns at a joint press conference with the GOP leader Monday and hinted that he may step in.
“Some of the people that he may be looking at, I’m going to see if we talk him out of that, because frankly, they’re great people,” the rich asshole said Monday of some of the GOP lawmakers in Bannon’s sights.
Senate GOP leaders argue it would be smart for the rich asshole to support the incumbents he will need to vote for tax reform and other items on his agenda.
“I hope he will; I think he will,” Thune said. “They’re the kind of people he’ll need to get his agenda through.”
Barrasso and Fischer, two Republicans on Bannon’s target list, say they will focus on doing their jobs and serving their constituents. Neither said whether they would seek an endorsement from the rich asshole.
“People in Wyoming elected me to do a job and I’m going to continue to do that,” said Barrasso. “I’m focused on the lives of the people of Wyoming and tax reform is an important part of that.”
Fischer said, “I’m honored to serve the people of Nebraska and I’m very fortunate to enjoy a lot of support in the state.”
“I work really well with the president, and my office works really well with the administration, and I expect that to continue,” she added. “I just hope we can continue a good working relationship, because we’ve gotten a lot of stuff done.”
Soldier’s grieving mom confirms: ‘President the rich asshole did disrespect my son and my daughter’
Cowanda Jones-Johnson and Sgt. David Johnson (Facebook)
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The mother of Sgt. David Johnson said President some rich asshole disrespected her slain son during a widely publicized phone call.
Cowanda Jones-Johnson was present when the president called her daughter-in-law, Myeshia Johnson, during the ride to greet the slain serviceman’s body, reported the Washington Post.
The call, which was taken over speaker phone, was overheard by Rep. Frederica Johnson (D-FL) and a county official riding in the car.
“President the rich asshole did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” Jones-Johnson told the newspaper.
The soldier’s mother declined to elaborate, but she told the newspaper that Wilson’s account of the conversation was accurate.
The president disputed Wilson’s account Wednesday morning after she appeared on MSNBC, and he claimed to have proof.
But the lawmaker stood by her account of the conversation and told CNN she had proof.
Second federal judge blocks the rich asshole’s new travel ban
Judge's gavel (AFP Photo/Gil Cohen Magen)
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A second U.S. federal judge has blocked President some rich asshole’s latest effort to restrict citizens from eight countries from entering the United States, dealing another legal blow to the administration’s third bid to impose travel restrictions.
U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland, in a ruling filed overnight, said the plaintiffs challenging the policy were likely to succeed in proving that it violated the non-discrimination law “to the extent that it bars entry by immigrants on the basis of nationality.”
the rich asshole’s bid would have taken effect this week but was blocked on Tuesday by a U.S. federal judge in Hawaii in a separate challenge.
Together, the pair of rulings set up a high-stakes battle over the president’s executive authority that is expected to ultimately wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
the rich asshole’s latest order targeted people from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea, as well as certain government officials from Venezuela.
The open-ended ban, announced last month, was the third version of a policy that had previously targeted some Muslim-majority countries but had been restricted by the courts.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu said Hawaii was likely to succeed in proving that the policy likely violated federal immigration law. The White House called the ruling flawed.
Unlike the Hawaii ruling, however, the decision by the Maryland judge is limited to individuals without bona fide connection to the United States.
Chuang also found that the rich asshole’s executive order violated the U.S. Constitution’s establishment clause, which prohibits the federal government from assisting a religion, a conclusion that the Hawaii judge did not reach.
In reaching his decision, Chuang cited a string of public statements the rich asshole made during the presidential campaign in which he touted a “Muslim ban.”
Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest ruling out of Maryland.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Watch the MSNBC interview with Rep. Frederica Wilson that set the rich asshole off on crazed Twitter rant
Rep. Frederica Wilson (MSNBC)
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A Florida congresswoman described the “extremely insensitive” phone call from President some rich asshole that left a grieving Army widow in tears.
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) was riding in a car with the pregnant widow of Sgt. David Johnson, who was killed Oct. 4 during a terrorist ambush in Niger, when the president called to offer his condolences.
She said Tuesday evening that the president told Myeshia Johnson that her late husband “knew what he signed up for … but when it happens, it hurts anyway.”
“That’s not the worst part,” Wilson told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “She was crying the whole time, and when she hung up the phone, she looked at me and said, ‘He didn’t even remember his name.’ That’s the hurting part.”
The president’s remarks, which he denied moments after Wilson’s interview ended, were made in lighthearted fashion, according to the Florida Democrat.
“He was almost like joking,” Wilson said. “He said, ‘Well, I guess you knew’ — something to the effect that he knew what he was getting into when he signed up, but I guess it hurts anyway. You know, just matter of factually, that this happens —
anyone who is signing up for military duty is signing up to die. That’s the way we interpreted it, and it was horrible. It was insensitive, it was absolutely crazy, unnecessary. I was livid.”
anyone who is signing up for military duty is signing up to die. That’s the way we interpreted it, and it was horrible. It was insensitive, it was absolutely crazy, unnecessary. I was livid.”
At least two Gold Star families never heard from the rich asshole — and a third still waiting for call
President some rich asshole takes a moment before taking the stage during a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., May 29, 2017. (DOD photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Brigitte N. Brantley)
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The relatives of at least two slain soldiers say they’ve never received a phone call or letter from President some rich asshole, despite his boasts to the contrary.
the rich asshole claimed Monday that he’d personally consoled the family of every military service member who died during his presidency, and suggested that his predecessors did not do.
But the families of two slain soldiers killed since Inauguration Day told the Associated Press they had not heard from the president, and another family said they had received a letter but no call.
Extensive documentary evidence exists that shows Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush contacted the relatives of slain troops during their time in the White House.
the rich asshole made the accusations after he was asked why nearly two weeks had passed before he called the families of four troops killed in a terrorist ambush in Niger.
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) was asked about the rich asshole’s comments to the widow of Sgt. David Johnson, and she said the president told the pregnant woman her soldier husband had signed up for that risk.
the rich asshole accuses Dem lawmaker of ‘totally fabricating’ comments to soldier’s widow in early morning rage tweet
some rich asshole speaks from the White House (screen grab)
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President some rich asshole on Wednesday lashed out at Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) after she accused him of making insensitive comments to the widow of slain U.S. Army Sgt. David Johnson.
“Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof),” the rich asshole wrote. “Sad!”
the rich asshole in the past has bluffed about having “proof” to disprove accusations leveled against him, such as when he warned former FBI Director James Comey that he might have “tapes” of their conversations that would show that the rich asshole didn’t repeatedly ask him for unconditional loyalty.
When pushed to release these tapes, however, the rich asshole eventually acknowledged that no such tapes existed.
Wilson on Tuesday said that the rich asshole told Myeshia Johnson, whose husband was killed in Niger earlier, that Sgt. Johnson “knew what he was signing up for” when he joined the Army, although he did acknowledge that it’s still “sad” when soldiers die.
the rich asshole takes credit for ISIS ‘giving up’
the rich asshole made combating the Islamic State a key component of his 2016 presidential campaign.
WASHINGTON — President some rich asshole claimed credit Tuesday morning for successes in the ongoing campaign against Islamic State militants in Iraq, telling a radio host that he had “totally changed the attitudes of the military.”
“It had to do with the people I put in and it had to do with rules of engagement. We weren’t fighting to win. We were fighting to be politically correct,” the rich asshole told radio host Chris Plante, a seeming dig at the Obama administration. The president’s remark comes on the same day that Islamic State militants were pushed from the capital of their self-described caliphate, the Syrian city of Raqqa.
Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. military advisers and airstrikes, have made significant gains against the Islamic State in recent months, forcing it from the city of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Earlier this month, The New York Times reported on the surrender of more than 1,000 Islamic State fighters fleeing the Iraqi city of Hawija.
the rich asshole made combating the Islamic State a key component of his 2016 presidential campaign, arguing that former President Barack Obama had been too soft in going after the militant group and that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would have done the same. As president, the rich asshole has delegated some battlefield autonomy to military officials on the ground, a step he said has improved efficiency. In other areas, his administration’s strategy has remained largely similar to that of Obama’s.
“I totally changed rules of engagement. I totally changed our military. I totally changed the attitudes of the military and they have done a fantastic job,” the rich asshole said. “Yeah, ISIS is now giving up. They’re giving up, they’re raising their hands, they’re walking off. Nobody’s ever seen that before.”
“Why did that happen?” Plante asked the rich asshole.
“Because you didn’t have the rich asshole as your president. I mean, it was a big difference. I mean, there’s a big, big difference if you look at the military now,” the president replied.
the rich asshole finally calls widow of fallen Army soldier — only to tell her ‘he knew what he signed up for’
U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson and some rich asshole
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some rich asshole on Tuesday finally called the families of four U.S. soldiers who were killed during an ambush in Niger earlier this month, only to tell the widow of U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson, “he knew what he signed up for.”
“Yes, he said it,” Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Miami Gardens) told ABC. “It’s so insensitive. He should have not have said that. He shouldn’t have said it.”
BREAKING: @RepWilson heard @realDonaldTrump 's call to Widow of LaDavid Johnson, killed in Niger, and says it was "Insensitive and Insane" @WPLGLocal10 (1/2)
BREAKING: @RepWilson says @realDonaldTrump told soldier's widow "He knew what he signed up for... but when it happens it hurts anyway." @WPLGLocal10 (2/2)
the rich asshole called Tuesday afternoon and spoke to Johnson’s widow, who’s pregnant with her third child to the deceased Army soldier. Johnson is also survived by a 2-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter. CBS Chicago producer Ginger Maddox posted this photo of Johnson’s widow and young daughter:
According to Wilson, the rich asshole later added, “But when it happens it hurts anyway.”
The report comes amid growing controversy over the rich asshole’s delayed acknowledgment of the deaths of four servicemen, as well as his deflection of any criticism aimed at said delay. The president on Monday inaccurately claimed his predecessors, including former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush “did not call”the families of fallen soldiers and sometimes “didn’t do anything” to acknowledge those killed in the line of duty.
When Johnson’s body was returned to Dover Air Force Base on Saturday, the rich asshole was golfing.
Every once in a while, a politician says something so outrageous that it produces not the feigned outrage that has become so familiar, but genuine outrage. That’s what President Some rich asshole managed yesterday, when in a news conference he was asked about his public silence on the four American soldiers who were killed in Niger, and claimed that while he calls the families of those killed in action to express his condolences, previous presidents, particularly Barack Obama, hadn’t done so.
This was a particularly despicable lie, because it painted Obama — and other presidents, but let’s be honest, mostly Obama — as cruel and dismissive when it comes to the sacrifice of those in uniform, while portraying Some rich asshole as the only one who truly cares.
This morning, Some rich asshole actually seemed to double down. In an interview with Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade, he referred to the fact that the son of his chief of staff, John Kelly, was killed in Afghanistan in 2010:
“I mean, you could ask General Kelly did he get a call from Obama. You could ask other people. I don’t know what Obama’s policy was. I write letters, and I also call. … This was, again, fake news CNN. I mean, they’re just a bunch of fakers.”
It would be easy to just add this to the mountain of lies Some rich asshole has told, but it’s worth taking a moment to examine it, because it provides an important window not only into his own thinking but also the way that the president is succeeding in making the entire country stupider and more misinformed on an ongoing basis.
Let’s begin with Some rich asshole’s words at the news conference. He was asked, “Why haven’t we heard anything from you so far about the soldiers that were killed in Niger?” and he replied that he had written letters to the families, though those letters hadn’t yet been sent, and that he’d be calling them at some point. Then came this:
“So, the traditional way — if you look at President Obama and other Presidents, most of them didn’t make calls, a lot of them didn’t make calls. I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I’m able to do it.”
A few minutes later, another reporter circled back to this question, asking how Some rich asshole could claim that Obama didn’t call the families of fallen soldiers. Here’s part of his response:
“I don’t know if he did. No, no, no, I was told that he didn’t often. And a lot of Presidents don’t; they write letters. I do…
“President Obama I think probably did sometimes, and maybe sometimes he didn’t. I don’t know. That’s what I was told. All I can do — all I can do is ask my generals. Other Presidents did not call. They’d write letters. And some Presidents didn’t do anything. But I like the combination of — I like, when I can, the combination of a call and also a letter.”
It’s obvious from his responses that Some rich asshole had absolutely no idea what presidents before him did or didn’t do in this situation, which he admitted again today (“I don’t know what Obama’s policy was”). But he went ahead and claimed that only he calls the families.
This is quite familiar to anyone who has been watching Some rich asshole these past couple of years. He takes his own limited experience and characterizes it as unique, extraordinary and unprecedented. No one has ever done this before, no one has accomplished so much, no one knows more than I do. There’s an element of the salesman’s puffery at work, but it also comes from a place of pure ignorance.
As conservative writer Tim Carney hypothesized last week, when Some rich asshole claims that no administration has ever done as much as his, it isn’t so much that he’s intentionally lying but that he’s so ignorant of the presidency and politics in general. He never realized that presidents and their staffs work very hard (“Like how 10-year-old me assumed teachers went into a cocoon at 3 pm,” Carney said), so he assumes he must be the first to have ever done so. The comparison to a 10-year-old is apt, because Some rich asshole’s brand of ignorance is so infantile. All of us are ignorant about some things, but only Some rich asshole believes that if he doesn’t know something, no one else could know it either (“Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated“).
When a normal person is in a state of ignorance, he or she might exercise some caution and refrain from making a volatile accusation that, for instance, his or her predecessors were callous to Gold Star families. But not Some rich asshole. You’ll notice that the first time he says it, he asserts it as simple fact: “If you look at President Obama and other Presidents, most of them didn’t make calls.” When he’s challenged, he equivocates: “I don’t know if he did … President Obama I think probably did sometimes, and maybe sometimes he didn’t. I don’t know. That’s what I was told.”
Now here’s why this matters. Yes, many news outlets pointed out that Some rich asshole wasn’t telling the truth. But there are probably three interns at Fox News who are now scouring old news reports to find some family member of a fallen soldier who didn’t get a call from Obama. If they find it, that person’s story will then become the subject of a segment on Sean Hannity’s show, and it will then get retold on a hundred talk radio programs and conservative websites as proof that Obama was a monster and the media are all lying about this. (Some rich asshole’s insistence that there was “fake news” at work is another way of telling his supporters not to believe whatever they hear about this subject that comes from sources not explicitly supporting him.) And I promise you that if you took a poll two weeks from now, you’d find that 40 percent of the public (or more) believes that Obama never called the family of any fallen soldier, and only Some rich asshole has the sensitivity to do so.
And that’s how Some rich asshole takes his own particular combination of ignorance, bluster and malice, and sets it off like a nuclear bomb of misinformation. The fallout spreads throughout the country, and no volume of corrections and fact checks can stop it. It wasn’t even part of a thought-out strategy, just a loathsome impulse that found its way out of the president’s mouth to spread far and wide.
If you’re one of those who marvel at the fact that Some rich asshole’s approval ratings aren’t even lower than they are, this is a big reason for that. It’s absolutely necessary to correct Some rich asshole’s falsehoods, but we shouldn’t fool ourselves into believing that any poisonous lie he tells won’t find an eager audience. And the whole country gets dumber and dumber.
The rich asshole White House is orchestrating a smear campaign against President Barack Obama to distract from the rich asshole's deplorable treatment of the families of soldiers killed in Niger.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
some rich asshole has disgraced himself by refusing to acknowledge the deaths of four troops killed in an ISIS ambush — and the White House has kicked into high gear to cover his behavior.
The administration is orchestrating a smear campaign against President Barack Obama to cover up the rich asshole’s callous treatment of the families of four fallen soldiers. The episode is the latest skirmish in the rich asshole’s decades-long war on the military, in which he has attacked and denigrated service members and their families.
the rich asshole has not called the families of four soldiers who were killed in action in Niger two weeks ago. To try to justify his lack of respect, he falsely alleged in a press conference that other presidents — including Obama — neglected to contact the families of the fallen. Previously, the rich asshole refused to acknowledge sailors who were missing and later declared dead, instead, he constantly referenced himself in a narcissistic speech in Arizona.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been identified as the administration figure who is pushing and confirming the rich asshole’s attack on Obama, where he claimed Obama did not call the families of fallen soldiers.
Sanders has peddled the smear to multiple media outlets, including Fox News, Axios, ABC, and NBC. The Daily Beast reported that “senior White House officials signed off on this specific line of attack as legitimate communications strategy,” but did not want their names attached to the smear campaign.
the rich asshole recently used the death of Marine Lt. Robert M. Kelly, son of White House chief of staff John Kelly, to deflect from the criticism he has received. He told a Fox News host, “I mean you could ask Gen. Kelly, did he get a call from Obama?”
The Obamas hosted the general and his wife, Karen, at a White House reception for Gold Star families and were seated at first lady Michelle Obama’s table.
When Kelly appeared before a gathering of the Military Officers Association of America, he told them, “Please don’t mention my son.”
Now the rich asshole is openly disrespecting that request to exploit Kelly’s loss for cheap shots at Obama.
the rich asshole has often attacked, demeaned, and belittled those who have served. His behavior, along with his other failures in office, has contributed to a sense among many in the military that the rich asshole is “unfit to be the president of the United States,” according to reporting from Carl Bernstein, who broke the Watergate case.
the rich asshole received five deferments during the Vietnam War, and did not serve. His physician cited “bone spurs,” which did not appear years later in the report issued by his doctor while he was running for president.
When a veteran discussed his service with the rich asshole early in the 2016 campaign, the rich asshole told theman he was responsible for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in New York.
But members of the commission to build that memorial said the rich asshole never attended meetings except for quick photo ops. When that criticism came out, the rich asshole attacked the members as “very small thinkers,” adding, “They’re stockbrokers that were in Vietnam and they don’t have it.”
the rich asshole once said avoiding STDs while he was on the dating scene was his “personal Vietnam.”
He infamously attacked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), denigrating McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and declaring, “I like people who weren’t captured.”
He repeatedly and viciously attacked the family of a slain American soldier, smearing and denigrating Khizr and Ghazala Khan, after they spoke out about his bigoted attacks on Muslims.
As he campaigned for the presidency, the rich asshole insisted he knew more than the generals in the field leading the fight against ISIS. He said, ” I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me.” He also said the generals “don’t know much because they’re not winning.”
The White House-directed smear campaign comes almost precisely a week after the rich asshole laughed and joked during a solemn military ceremony honoring the flag and those who have died to defend it — while at a military base.
His actions show that the rich asshole is more than willing to denigrate and belittle the military to shield himself from criticism and condemnation he earned on his own.
Federal judge halts the third version of the rich asshole’s Muslim Ban
Turns out, banning Muslims isn't a thing that a president can do.
According to Judge Derrick Watson’s opinion in Hawaii v. the rich asshole, the latest round of changes to the rich asshole’s ban are not significant enough to rescue it from the same legal attacks that placed the previous version of the ban in legal jeopardy. Watson handed down a temporary order on halting the ban.
This round of litigation concerns the provisions of the ban restricting citizens of certain nations from entering the United States. Though the Supreme Court has not fully considered any version of these provisions on the merits, it handed down a temporary order in June holding that a previous version of the ban could not be enforced against close relatives of people in the United States, or other “foreign nationals who have a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”
The version of the ban considered by the Supreme Court prohibited nationals of six countries — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — from entering the United States. The latest version removes Sudan from this list, adds Chad and North Korea (though, in some cases, some nationals of some of the banned nations are allowed in the United States), and bans certain Venezuelan government officials and their families from entering the United States.
Two of the nations impacted by the latest version of the ban — North Korea and Venezuela — are not majority Muslim nations, perhaps in an effort to deflect allegations that the rich asshole issued the ban specifically to target Muslims. But the addition of these two nations serves little more than a cosmetic purpose. As mentioned above, only a small number of Venezuelan officials and their families are impacted by the new ban, and virtually no North Koreans travel to the United States.
The thrust of Judge Watson’s opinion is that the latest version of the policy, Muslim Ban 3.0, does not correct significant problems that led courts to block much of Muslim Ban 2.0. To reach this conclusion, he relies heavily on a previous opinion by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which is binding upon Watson.
That opinion held, among other things, that federal immigration law “requires that the President find that the entry of a class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States” before they can be banned, and also “requires that the President’s findings support the conclusion that entry of all nationals from the [list of] designated countries…would be harmful to the national interest” in a case such as this one.
the rich asshole has not met that burden. The new order, Watson explains, “‘does not tie these nationals in any way to terrorist organizations within the six designated countries,’ find them ‘responsible for insecure country conditions,’ or provide ‘any link between an individual’s nationality and their propensity to commit terrorism or their inherent dangerousness.’”
Additionally, the new order “contains internal incoherencies that markedly undermine its stated ‘national security’ rationale.” the rich asshole, for example, “finds that Iraq fails the ‘baseline’ security assessment but then omits Iraq from the ban for policy reasons.” Meanwhile, it restricts travel from Somalia despite the fact that Somalia passes a test that other nations which are not subject to a sweeping ban fail.
So Watson’s order is good news for opponents of the ban, but it remains to be seen whether it will stand. For one thing, as ThinkProgress previously explained, the Ninth Circuit decision that Watson relies upon includes some dubious legal analysis that may not stand up in the Supreme Court.
Watson, moreover, does not reach a constitutional question at the heart of the case — whether the ban was enacted for the very purpose of targeting Muslims — so it remains to be seen whether courts will view the rich asshole’s nominal inclusion of two non-Muslim majority states in the ban as significant.
Watson, moreover, does not reach a constitutional question at the heart of the case — whether the ban was enacted for the very purpose of targeting Muslims — so it remains to be seen whether courts will view the rich asshole’s nominal inclusion of two non-Muslim majority states in the ban as significant.
A reporter finally asked the rich asshole to just explain his health care plan. His response was a train wreck.
A simple question. A disastrous answer.
the rich asshole was responding to Fox News’ John Roberts, who noted that the rich asshole’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act through legislation have failed, and then asked him, “I’m wondering, at this point, what is your health care plan, sir?”
Without addressing the question, the rich asshole immediately attacked insurance companies.
“Well if you look, ah, insurance companies, and you take a good strong look at the numbers, you’ll see since the formation of Obamacare they’re up 400 percent, 450 percent, 250 percent, 300 percent — they’ve made a fortune, the insurance companies,” the rich asshole said. “So when I knocked out the hundreds of millions of dollars a month being paid back to the insurance companies by the politicians, I must tell you, that wanted me to continue to pay this, I said I’m not going to do it. This is money that goes to the insurance companies to line their pockets, to raise up their stock prices, and they’ve had a record run, they’ve had an incredible run, and it’s not appropriate.”
the rich asshole then pivoted to attacking Obamacare.
“Obamacare is a disaster. It’s virtually dead, as far as I am concerned it really is dead, and I predicted that a long time ago — it is a concept that doesn’t work, and we are very close,” the rich asshole said. “We feel we have the votes, and as soon as we’re finished with taxes, John, we really feel we have the votes to get block grants into the states where the states can much better manage this money and much better take care of the people, rather than the federal government. The state block grants — we’ll do massive block grants into the various states so that the states can run the program.”
Before he was done, the rich asshole attacked Democrats (“they have no good policies”), decried that his judicial appointments aren’t being approved more quickly (“it’s a very disgraceful situation”), and touted his tax plan (“the largest tax cuts in the history of our country”).
“Yeah, essentially that would be the plan, yes,” the rich asshole said. “Block grants.”
The Graham-Cassidy plan the rich asshole mentioned would result in 32 million Americans losing coverage and has already been rejected by a critical mass of Republican senators.
the rich asshole has repeatedly proven himself unable to talk about the details of policy. While he was pushing Obamacare repeal over the summer, the rich asshole did an interview where he indicated he thinks health insurance cost $12 annually. Following a June meeting during which the rich asshole tried to persuade Republican senators to vote in favor of a repeal bill that provided huge tax breaks to the wealthy, one supportive senator told the New York Times that the rich asshole “did not have a grasp of some basic elements of the Senate plan — and seemed especially confused when a moderate Republican complained that opponents of the bill would cast it as a massive tax break for the wealthy, according to an aide who received a detailed readout of the exchange.”
“some rich asshole said he planned to tackle tax reform later, ignoring the repeal’s tax implications, the staff member added,” according to The Times.
And it’s not just health care. Public comments the rich asshole has made in recent weeks indicate he is confused at best about how the national debt works, and about what the concept of “wiping out debt” entails.
While the rich asshole may not understand his own policies, the steps the the rich asshole administration has taken to sabotage Obamacare independently of Congress have already resulted in substantial rate increases.
the rich asshole judicial nominee tweeted that Hillary Clinton should be in jail
It's not like judges need to worry about due process of law or anything like that.
Nevertheless, President some rich asshole nominated this young, inexperienced lawyer to be a federal district judge in Alabama.
While Talley does not have the experience one would normally look for in a trial judge, he does have one thing going for him — a record of allegiance to the rich asshole and his campaign messages.
Like the rich asshole, Talley has frequently used Twitter to express controversial political views and to convey strong opinions. Though his Twitter account is no longer public, the website Archive.org captured several dozen of the rich asshole judicial nominee’s old tweets that paint a picture of a rich asshole partisan with dubious views of due process.
Among other things, Talley sent at least one tweet suggesting that former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton should be in jail.
Talley also appeared to defend the rich asshole’s use of a six-pointed star in a graphic criticizing Clinton — a graphic that was widely denounced as anti-Semitic— by claiming that the DNC were the real anti-Semites.
In addition to touting the rich asshole’s messages on Twitter, Talley also published a piece for CNN urging “Never the rich asshole” Republicans to support their party’s nominee. “Those who argue that another Clinton White House is somehow preferable to four years of the rich asshole are blind to the consequences,” Talley wrote, “for the nation, for the party and for the conservative movement.”
Talley isn’t an anomaly. the rich asshole has so far named particularly extreme nominees to the federal bench, including a growing list of far-right anti-LGBTQ activists — as well as Neil Gorsuch, who aligned himself with the Supreme Court’s most conservative flank immediately after moving into his new office in Washington, D.C.
Federal judge in Hawaii blocks the rich asshole's 3rd travel ban hours before it was going to take effect
- President some rich asshole. Chris Kleponis/Pool - Getty ImagesA federal judge in Hawaii put a temporary, nationwide suspension on the third iteration of President some rich asshole's travel ban.
- People from Iran, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad, and Libya will be able to continue to visit the US.
- The the rich asshole administration has already said it will appeal the judge's ruling, paving the way for a potential Supreme Court showdown in the future.
A federal judge in Hawaii on Tuesday granted a temporary restraining order against President some rich asshole's third travel ban, just hours before it was set to take effect at midnight on October 18.
the rich asshole issued a proclamation last month restricting travel to the US from nationals of eight countries, including Iran, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Venezuela, Chad, Libya, and North Korea.
Those restrictions came after the first two iterations of the travel ban, which targeted majority-Muslim nations, faced court challenges.
the rich asshole's second travel ban was partly implemented, and the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear arguments on its constitutionality in October.
But the justices removed oral arguments from the schedule after part of the second ban expired and the rich asshole issued the third ban as a replacement in September. The third ban will likely make its way to the Supreme Court, as well, though it must go through the appellate court system first. Another federal court is also expected to rule on the ban in a separate legal challenge.
Almost immediately after Watson issued the temporary restraining order on Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced it would appeal the ruling.
"Today's ruling is incorrect, fails to properly respect the separation of powers, and has the potential to cause serious negative consequences for our national security," the department said in a statement.
The White House said in a separate statement that the ban was vital for "the integrity of our immigration system and the security of our nation."
"Today's dangerously flawed district court order undercuts the president's efforts to keep the American people safe and enforce minimum security standards for entry into the United States," the statement said.
As the plaintiffs only sought to challenge the ban as it pertained to majority-Muslim countries, they did not include in their lawsuit the restrictions on travel from Venezuelan government officials or North Koreans. The ban will therefore take effect against those countries starting Wednesday.
Blocking the third ban
Protests erupted at airports across the country, like this one in San Francisco, after the first ban was issued on January 28, 2017. Stephen Lam/Getty
US District Court Judge Derrick Watson wrote in a 40-page opinion on Tuesday that the rich asshole's third travel ban would cause "irreparable harm" and violate federal immigration law were it to take effect.
"[The travel ban] suffers from precisely the same maladies as its predecessor: it lacks sufficient findings that the entry of more than 150 million nationals from six specified countries would be 'detrimental to the interests of the United States,'" Watson wrote, adding that the ban "plainly discriminates based on nationality."
the rich asshole's newest proclamation, issued on September 24, replaced the outright ban with travel restrictions tailored on a country-by-country basis, depending on whether or not they met certain US standards.
Unlike the previous travel bans, the third version did away with the original 90-day suspension on admitting travelers from the named countries. Instead, the new ban would have issued permanent travel restrictions that could be expanded or retracted based on the countries' compliance with US standards.
Watson also ruled that the rich asshole's proclamation contained "internal incoherencies that markedly undermine its stated 'national security' rationale," because many other countries that were not named in the ban also fail to meet one or more of the US's standards.
For instance, Watson noted, Iraq is excluded from the ban purportedly because of diplomatic ties to the US and its "commitment" to fighting ISIS, but fails the rich asshole's "baseline" security assessment.
"Under the law of this Circuit, these provisions do not afford the President unbridled discretion to do as he pleases," Watson said, calling the proclamation "simultaneously overbroad and underinclusive."
Zarfishan Zahid smiles as Sana Tahir holds Malaika Noman, 3, as the child arrives at Washington Dulles International Airport after a federal judge blocked the second ban on July 14, 2017. Reuters/James Lawler Duggan
Watson noted in his opinion that the plaintiffs argued that the rich asshole "never renounced or repudiated his calls for a ban on Muslim immigration." The plaintiffs argued that the rich asshole's calls for a full-throated ban have only grown more steady as time went on, Watson noted.
Watson's opinion even cited several of the rich asshole's tweets from early June, in which the president railed against the legal challenges to his initial travel ban, complaining that the Department of Justice had created a "watered down, politically correct version" in an effort to appease the Supreme Court.
"People, the lawyers and the courts can call it whatever they want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is, a TRAVEL BAN!" the rich asshole wrote in another tweet, which Watson also cited in his opinion.
On Tuesday, Neal Katyal, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, celebrated Watson's ruling. "We have just won," Katyal tweeted.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has sued the rich asshole administration over all three travel bans, also tweeted about the ruling, saying, "We're glad but not surprised, to be honest."
Read the full order below:
the rich asshole Travel Ban 3 Opinion by Rebecca Harrington on Scribd
the rich asshole Just Agreed To Support Legislation To SAVE Obamacare From His OWN Executive Order
GOP Senator Lamar Alexander and Democratic Senator Patty Murray have announced an agreement on a piece of bipartisan Obamacare legislation that will fund key Obamacare subsidies that were ended by President the rich asshole’s executive order last week. Meanwhile, the rich asshole just finished a press conference at the White House with Prime Minister of Greece Tsipras, where he both championed killing subsidies for Obamacare, while claiming he supports Alexander and Murray’s legislation to reverse his executive order. You can’t make this up.
“Senator Murray and I have an agreement,” Alexander said today, “We’re going to round up co-sponsors as best we can.” Their agreement provides two years of funding for Obamacare’s cost-sharing program that President the rich asshole cut last week. the rich asshole championed his executive order that killed these key Obamacare subsidies at the White house today, a mere 10 minutes before he completely reversed his position and confirmed that he would support Murray and Alexander’s new legislation to revive the subsidies.
“So when I knocked out the hundreds of millions of dollars a month being paid back to insurance companies by politicians…I said I’m not going to do it. They’ve had an incredible run and it’s not appropriate. Obamacare is a disaster.” said the rich asshole, in support of his Obamacare subsidy killing executive order. You can see his comments in the footage below.
the rich asshole was then asked about the new Obamacare saving deal about 10 minutes later, as the deal was announced during the rich asshole’s press conference. “Apparently Lamar Alexander has said he’s made a deal with Senator Patty Murray to stabilize Obamacare. Has the White House been involved in those negotiations and will you support that deal?” a reporter asked the rich asshole, to which he replied, “Yes, we have been involved and this is a short term deal.” You can see this eyeopening flip flop below.
Chuck Schumer has already offered a statement in support of this new Obamacare saving deal. Democrats will be coming out strong today to attack President the rich asshole for this seemingly unprecedented flip flop. There has never been a President who issued an executive order to end a piece of legislation, who then supported different legislation, less than a week later, to reverse said executive order.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calls the health care deal "a very good step forward" cnn.it/2hNzcSv
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