the rich asshole absolves Putin and shoots himself in the foot
(CNN)Until Saturday, President some rich asshole had earned some praise for his trip to Asia. Overall, the visit seemed to go well by the standards we use to evaluate him. There were few unsettling tweets over the past few days, at least relative to his normal routine, and by most accounts the meetings with the key leaders have gone smoothly. the rich asshole has played ball in the diplomatic celebrations and seemed to be in good spirits. He's offered some provocative words about North Korea, but nothing that comes close to the kinds of incendiary words he used before the United Nations in New York.
Yet to call the trip a success would be a big mistake.
On Saturday, the President delivered his first moment of shock and awe with his Achilles' heel on foreign policy: Russia. In an act of defiance, he said he believed President Vladimir Putin's claim that Russia did not intervene in the 2016 US election despite all the evidence to the contrary, including from US intelligence agencies. He seems more worried that Putin is "insulted" by the accusations than he is by the impact these operations had on our democratic processes. The shocking comments about Putin are likely to drown out everything else that has happened so far.
The statement is a head-turner. It is part of the ongoing puzzle from this administration: What explains the rich asshole's insistence on taking a relatively positive stance toward the Russian government despite the overwhelming evidence we have of an ongoing cyberwar against democratic elections and a terrible record on human rights.
There was no need for the rich asshole to make this statement right now, and because it comes in the middle of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation it will only fuel more questions about why the relationship with Putin seems so important to him.
the rich asshole continues to give legitimacy to a leader with a well-documented history of abusive behavior without any clear payback at this point -- as Richard Nixon sought with détente in the 1970s or Ronald Reagan with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. Nixon and Reagan each softened their tone toward the Soviets in exchange for major arms control agreements -- although neither ever ignored the underside of communism. Indeed, they were both careful to acknowledge publicly the unacceptable parts of Soviet behavior so they could enter into the negotiations with legitimacy among US allies and so that the Soviets understood the United States would not simply cave to every demand. the rich asshole has systematically undercut the efforts of previous presidents and the current Congress to intensify pressure on Russia. Instead, as he has now done on this trip, he is Putin's ally-in-chief.
The irony is that his laggard response to Putin's abuses and the ongoing revelations about what his campaign and administration officials hid about their relations to Russia taints all efforts to work with Russia on issues such as Syria. Every negotiation becomes suspect -- not because of the media but because of the rich asshole and his team.
Nor can the rich asshole overcome the wreckage he has left behind in the United States. Since he left for Asia, the news has been pretty devastating for himself and the Republican Party. We learned that Mueller's investigation has intensified with two indictments, one guilty plea and recent reports about the possible new directions of the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
A recent round of polling has shown that the rich asshole has historically low approval ratings at this point in his presidency. Many Americans don't trust the President and believe he might have done something wrong in his dealings with Russia.
Independents are not happy with the administration, and even in the rich asshole counties,according to The Wall Street Journal, many feel the country is worse off since he took office.
Tuesday's elections sent shockwaves through the GOP. Democrats turned out in large numbers, with many choosing to send a signal of opposition to the rich asshole through their own local elections. The possibility of a Democratic coalition of suburban voters, African-Americans, women, Latinos and millennials emerged to counteract the the rich asshole coalition of white, rural, noncollege-educated voters.
Foreign leaders pay attention to these things. In person, they might be pleasant with the President and avoid any uncomfortable subjects, but the rich asshole's domestic standing matters very much in terms of his clout. When they look at the news in the United States they see a greatly weakened President who will probably not have the capacity to deliver on many things or to rally the support of the nation behind any military or diplomatic initiative. This fact continues to hobble how much the rich asshole can achieve overseas, and the situation has only deteriorated during this trip.
Finally, there is the problematic nature of the overall message that the President has delivered: The United States is demanding a full and united front against the threat of North Korea but will not participate in comprehensive, regional trade agreements. This message, which the rich asshole has been consistent about, is devastating.
the rich asshole is reversing the basic strategy of President Barack Obama, which had been to increase the leverage of the United States in Asia through participation in a trade agreement. The idea was that once the United States was more closely tied to the key players in the region through trade, then we could enhance our ability to sway governments, including China, which would respond to our more muscular economic presence in the region, on security issues such as North Korea.
the rich asshole blew this apart when he pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and then continued to tell Asian leaders the United States would not enter into any comparable agreements.
At the summit of Pacific Rim leaders, he said, "I am always going to put America first. ..." The problem with this approach is that it leaves the United States without any serious leverage in the region, and it doesn't give countries such as China good reason to work with the US if our demands don't fit their interests. "For the rich asshole to come with an 'America First' agenda leaves Asian leaders in the lurch," one expert told The New York Times.
Nor has the President done much to inspire confidence that his "Indo-Pacific" strategy has any substance. As has been the case with the Paris climate accord and possibly the Iran nuclear deal, the rich asshole keeps isolating the United States rather than our adversaries by removing our government from these international agreements.
The President completes his tour as an extraordinarily weak leader politically who does not have the muscle at home to move debates in the direction he wants. The visit might have looked and sounded better than many observers expected, but, in the end, it did not add up to much.
Ret. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (Photo: Defense Intelligence Agency)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
President some rich asshole’s decision to fire Chris Christie as transition chief three days after the election played a critical role in retired General Mike Flynn’s appointment as National Security Advisor, according to a new report in Politico. President the rich asshole fired Flynn in February after just 24 days on the job.
White House reporter Nancy Cook covered the the rich asshole transition for Politico and explained how Flynn got so close to President the rich asshole.
Christie had “deep reservations” about Flynn, whom vetting had concluded “suffered from poor judgement and espoused far-out ideas on foreign policy.”
The vetting was trashed, literally, by the rich asshole strategist Steve Bannon, who threw binders of potential nominations “into trash bins with a sense of ceremonial glee.”
Shortly after the election, Flynn “crashed” a meeting on the 25th floor of the rich asshole Tower, attended by Christie, Bannon, Rick Dearborn, Jeff Sessions, Ivanka the rich asshole, Jared Kusher, Eric the rich asshole and some rich asshole Jr.
Ivanka reportedly praised Flynn’s campaigning and loyalty, asking what role he would like in the administration.
Flynn responded he wanted to be Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, or National Security Advisor.
And by mid-November, Flynn had the job of National Security Advisor, unleashing a chain of events that now threatens to end the the rich asshole administration.
NBC News is reporting that special counsel Robert Mueller has enough evidence to charge Michael Flynn. Flynn is also reportedly worried his son, Michael Flynn Jr, is in legal jeopardy.
Flynn and his son allegedly plotted to kidnap a Muslim cleric living in the United States and hand him over to Turkey for $15 million.
All of this has lead legal observers to conclude that Flynn is likely the next domino to fall in the Russia investigation.
Ex-adviser Kingston ‘not troubled’ as the rich asshole sides with Putin and calls intelligence officials ‘political hacks’
Jack Kingston on CNN
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
A CNN discussion on President some rich asshole’s defense of Vladimir Putin’s claim he had nothing to do with meddling in the 2016 election turned combative Saturday morning with a former the rich asshole adviser said he isn’t “troubled by it.”
Appearing with CNN host Victor Blackwell and Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, former Congressman Jack Kingston (R) dismissed the U.S. intelligence community that has evidence of Russian interference after Rogin lambasted the rich asshole.
“I would say like I’m really troubled by this, but I’m not surprised,” Rogin began. “This is what President the rich asshole has been saying all along, that he basically believes Putin when Putin says ‘I didn’t do it,’ and the rich asshole says, ‘okay, that’s good enough for me, case closed.'”
“Luckily for America and our democracy, there are lots of other people in Washington and around the world who don’t believe Putin when he says I didn’t do it, and are looking into it,” Rogin continued. “The Mueller investigation. We’re talking about the Senate. We’re talking about the House. We’re talking about our intelligence agencies. we’re talking about lots and lots of think tanks and academics all over the world who believe the Russians interfered. and believe they’re still doing it in 2018 and 2020. And to just throw our hands up and say ‘well I asked him and he said he didn’t do it what are we going to do?’ is simply not acceptable.”
Rogin then added, the rich asshole is “more worried about Putin’s hurt feelings than he is about the attack that the Russians did on our democracy.”
Given a chance to respond, Kingston fired back while also defending the rich asshole calling former U.S. intelligence officials “political hacks.”
“I think number one, people like Clapper and Comey have proven themselves to be very political, at least not removed from the politics,” Kingston began. “But I also want to say, I’ll agree with Josh, this doesn’t surprise me. But I also would say it doesn’t trouble me. Because I think it’s almost a perfunctory statement because the minute he meets with Putin, that’s going to be the question certainly by the press. so, he needs to just kind of get that out of the way.”
Kingston went on to pivot away from the rich asshole undercutting the intelligence community, saying the president needs to focus on defeating ISIS and that “building on his relationship with Putin” is a “positive step,” leading to a frantic back and forth with Rogin.
Watch the video below via CNN:
the rich asshole defends Putin over Russian meddling in election: ‘He says I didn’t do that and I really believe that’
some rich asshole and Vladimir Putin (Wikimedia Commons)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Going up against America’s intelligence community, President some rich asshole told reporters on Air Force One that he takes the word of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who continued to deny he had any hand in influencing the 2016 presidential election.
According to a transcript of an interview with the president provided to Axios, the rich asshole stated that he no loner wants to to argue with Putin and wants to work with him.
Asked, “Did Russia’s attempts to meddle in US elections come up in the conversations?” the rich asshole replied, “He said he didn’t meddle, he said he didn’t meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times.”
“I just asked him again,” the president continued. “He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election, he did not do what they are saying he did. Well, look, I can’t stand there and argue with him, I would rather have him get out of Syria, I would rather get to work with him on the Ukraine rather than arguing about whether or not… that whole thing was set up by the Democrats. Look at Podesta, look at all the things that they have done with the phony dossier. Those are the big events. But Putin said he did not do what they said he did. But we have a good feeling toward getting things done.”
Asked specifically about the election, the rich asshole still backed Putin.
“Every time he sees me he says I didn’t do that and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it. But he says I didn’t do that,” He replied. “I think he is very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country. Because again, if we had a relationship with Russia, North Korea which is our single biggest problem right now, it would help a lot.”
You can read the rest of the interview here
the rich asshole advisors ‘flipped out’ when Sean Spicer revealed he was on forbidden floor of the rich asshole Tower: report
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Ousted White House press secretary Sean Spicer caused a panic among the rich asshole advisors, who “flipped out” over worries he may have admitted a violation of a federal court ruling, according to a new report in Politico. Reporters Annie Karni and Josh Gerstein report on outreach they received after an oral historywas published by GQ Magazine on Tuesday.
“After the interview was published, four people who worked with Spicer on the campaign and at the RNC reached out to Politico to express surprise that he highlighted his presence on the fifth floor — which served as the nerve center of the campaign’s poll-monitoring operation and data war room that day — because party employees were given strict instructions prohibiting them from going there,” Politico noted.
The “unfinished” fifth floor of the rich asshole Tower was the “war room” according to the rich asshole national field coordinator and battleground states director Matt Mowers, as recounted to GQ in the oral history.
“A group of us gathered on the fifth floor of the rich asshole Tower in what could be described as basically an oversized utility room. Stepien’s going through key counties, Florida in particular—Broward, Miami Dade, southern Florida. What’s in, what’s not. I would say that at least through 7:30, 8 o’clock, it was a very cautiously optimistic view,” is the statement from Spicer that so alarmed the the rich asshole team.
All four sources who reached out to Politico to dispute Spicer’s account remembered seeing large signs reminding RNC staffers to keep out.
Sean Spicer was the communications director for the RNC.
“It was a sign you can’t miss,” recalled one source. “It was pretty glaring.”
At issue is concern that Spicer acknowledged conduct that the RNC worried was a violation of a US District Court order.
Judge Dickinson Debevoise, who died in 2015, presided over decades of litigation concerning racially targeted RNC voter suppression efforts.
The Republican National Committee signed a “consent degree” promising to discontinue their practices.
Politico acquired an RNC memo filed in the proceedings that was distributed in September 2016, demonstrated the legal liability Republicans faced.
“There are severe consequences for any violation of the Consent Decree, one of which will be a renewal of its provisions for another eight years,” read the legal memo. “It is set to expire in 2017 (after nearly 4 decades) — but only if no violation occurs between now and then.”
The nature of the rich asshole’s speeches alleging voter fraud may bring even more scrutiny in the ongoing litigation.
“In August 2016, when I perceived that some rich asshole was likely to emphasize voter fraud in his campaign, I started to put an even greater emphasis on training regarding the Consent Decree than in past cycles,” RNC chief counsel John Phillippe noted in a court declaration.
U.S. District Court Judge John Vazquez is now presiding over the case.
Thursday, the RNC argued the “consent decree” should be allowed to expire as planned on December 1st.
The RNC event produced a PowerPoint presentation warning against any mingling with the rich asshole’s campaign activities on election day.
“Separation between Victory and EDO [election day operations] — Caution is imperative,” the PowerPoint cautioned.
Read the GQ oral history and Politico’s report on the ensuing panic.
Earlier this week, news broke that Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for United States Senator in Alabama, had allegedly initiated sexual contact with a minor when he was 32 years old. As word of his actions toward the 14-year-old came to light, three more women have accused the judge of making advances toward them when they were minors.
Everyone has been talking about Moore’s allegations and what should be done, but some rich asshole had been mostly silent – until now. Earlier this morning, the rich asshole weighed in on the Moore controversy, and what he said was pretty damn disturbing. According to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the rich asshole said:
Now of course, the rich asshole calling for Moore to step down is a better response than most would expect of the undeserving, brash POTUS – especially when many members of the Republican party are actually DEFENDING Moore or straight up denying the accusations of the many women who have come forward.
The disturbing part about this is that the rich asshole has something in common with Moore – the president himself has a child rape case against him, and he clearly hasn’t taken his own advice on this one. That’s right – the rich asshole has been accused of raping a 13-year-old, as well as sexually assaulting countless others. He even admitted to sexually assaulting women in his “grab ‘em by the pussy” comments in the infamous Access Hollywood tape. Despite the overwhelming evidence against him and the fact that he admitted to it, the rich asshole has continued to act like he deserves to be President of the United States and lives his life as if his vile actions never happened.
the rich asshole’s call for Moore to step down means absolutely nothing when it is coming from a serial rapist and child molester.
Featured image via Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Why doesn’t the rich asshole want to meet with Putin?
Damien Sharkov
Posted with permission from Newsweek
Wrapped in obfuscations and contradictions, President Donald Trump’s second meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is becoming the Schrödinger's cat of political parlays. It is both definitely happening, and dead in its tracks.
Three senior Russian officials and Putin’s spokesman have given assurances that Putin’s agenda for the talk is ready this week and the meeting has gone from “very likely” to confirmed for Friday.
On Friday, Trump’s spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said a formal meeting when both leaders attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam, is not happening. “Regarding a Putin meeting, there was never a meeting confirmed, and there will not be one that takes place due to scheduling conflicts on both sides," Sanders said Friday, ABC reported.
An informal conversation—a pull-aside—will be the most likely exchange between the two leaders, according to Sanders.
“Are they going to bump into each other and say hello? Certainly possible and likely. But in terms of a scheduled, formal meeting, there’s not one on the calendar and we don’t anticipate that there will be one,” Sanders added.
Despite the Kremlin’s very public build-up to the prospective meeting, U.S. top diplomat Rex Tillerson also poured cold water on the odds of it happening, suggesting that Washington doubted that anything new would come out of a long conversation with Putin.
“It wouldn’t be at all unusual if they ended up with some kind of a pull-aside. The question is whether we’ve got sufficient substance,” Tillerson said Thursday. “You know, if we’re going to have a meeting, let’s make sure it’s a meaningful meeting.”
So far only Trump himself has suggested a meeting with Putin was ever on the cards, saying at the start of his Asia tour on Monday: “We want Putin's help on North Korea, and we'll be meeting with a lot of different leaders.”
Hearing the latest rebuffs, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov doubled down on Friday, insisting “Our American colleagues are coming forward with contradictory information. Either way a meeting on the sidelines will take place,” he told state news agency Itar-Tass, but did not specify if he meant anything other than an informal encounter will occur. Work on scheduling a talk was ongoing, Peskov reiterated.
"We do not comprehend everything yet but we continue to patiently work in order to achieve some understanding," Peskov added later in the morning, sounding less categorical that the leaders would have much of an interaction. "Both presidents are in town. Either way they will cross paths," he told Itar-Tass.
So heading into the APEC summit, a second Trump-Putin meeting is both off the table and borderline guaranteed. The clashing lines on what could end up being little more than a courteous handshake or a brief check-in at dinner, are telling of who stands to benefit from the publicity around a meeting, experts argue.
“Trump can avoid Putin if he wants—the last thing the Russian [president] wants is an appearance that he is a desperate suitor being spurned,” says Mark Galeotti, Russian policy expert at the Institute of International Relations Prague. “But by the same token the Russians are quite keen for a meeting, not because they expect to get anything practical, I think, but because the optics would help further their case that Russia is a global power and Putin an indispensable figure on the world stage.”
Trump and Putin’s first meeting did not result in any real shifts in policy, despite going well into overtime and producing a whole album of photographs with the two leaders exchanging amicable looks. Putin arguably won the publicity war after the meeting, forcing the prime minister of U.S.-ally Japan Shinzo Abe to wait for him and underlining how good Trump was at listening during the meeting.
Trump, meanwhile, was lambasted at home for holding another undisclosed run-in with the Russian president at dinner and not pressing Putin hard on allegations of election hacking. Although the Russian press praised the meeting as a likely coming together of minds, the U.S. and Russia remain as divided as ever on Ukraine and Syria, and the Trump administration, if not Trump himself, has continued to criticize Russia for election interference. A repeat of that process would not benefit Trump.
“President Putin would gain simply by having face time with President Trump,” Stephen Pifer, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and former Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia expert at the National Security Council, told Newsweek. “It would help bolster his image as a key international ‘player.’ A substance-free meeting, on the other hand, would do nothing for Mr. Trump, given questions at home about contacts between his campaign and Russian officials,” Pifer said.
The publicity around potentially snubbing Putin with a very short run-in or no meeting at all, could go further and become the precursor for a change of tone on Russia by Trump, Galeotti says.
“Trump could—in theory—make this a turning point by even the least reference to Russian interference in the U.S. elections, or at minimum making a criticism of Moscow's policy in Syria or elsewhere,” he says. “Frankly, any open criticism would help his people to make the case that he is not somehow in thrall to Putin. But I’m not convinced that’s likely.”
Mueller team investigating pre-election meeting between Flynn and ‘Putin’s favorite congressman’: report
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher speaking at the 2013 California Young Americans for Liberty State Convention in Fullerton, California. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team of investigators is looking into a pre-election meeting that took place in 2016 between then-the rich asshole campaign adviser Michael Flynn and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), who has often been described as “Putin’s favorite congressman.”
NBC News is reporting that “the meeting allegedly took place in Washington the evening of September 20” last year and “was arranged by his lobbying firm, the Flynn Intel Group.”
NBC News’ report does not have any information about the nature of the meeting, although it says that it is reviewing emails sent from Flynn’s firm to Rohrabacher’s staff thanking them for arranging the meeting.
Rohrabacher, a California Republican who has become notorious for his efforts to advance Russian interests as a member of the United States Congress, recently had his travel privileges restricted over fears that he has been compromised by Russian intelligence officials.
The Daily Beast reported earlier this year that Rohrabacher was given instructions by Russian intelligence officials on how to alter sanctions legislation and to set up “a virtual show trial on Capitol Hill” last June, right at around the time that some rich asshole Jr. and key members of the the rich asshole campaign met with Russian nationals who claimed to be representatives of the Russian government’s efforts to undermine the candidacy of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Rohrabacher’s original plan was to have a show trial in Congress of anti-Putin campaigner Bill Browder in which he would “confront Browder with a feature-length pro-Kremlin propaganda movie that viciously attacks him—as well as at least two witnesses linked to the Russian authorities, including lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.”
You lay with dogs, and you get fleas.
‘Blind loyalty’: Papadopoulos lied to the FBI to protect the rich asshole — and is now upset he’s been abandoned
Former the rich asshole campaign adviser George Papadopoulos (image via Twitter).
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
George Papadopoulos, the former the rich asshole campaign aide who lied to the FBI about the extent of his contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign, is reportedly feeling betrayed by President some rich asshole.
ABC News reports that Papadopoulos is feeling “upset” that the rich asshole threw him under the bus in the wake of his guilty plea last month for making false statements to the FBI.
According to ABC News’ sources, Papadopoulos lied to the FBI because he had “blind loyalty” to the rich asshole and didn’t want to contradict what the president was saying publicly about his campaign’s contacts with Russia throughout the 2016 election.
However, ABC News claims that Papadopoulos is now “upset” that the president publicly called him a liar — despite the fact that the reason he lied was to protect the rich asshole.
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last month to making false statements to FBI agents about the nature of his contacts with Russian-linked figures. Among other things, Papadopoulos told FBI agents that he had very limited interactions with an unidentified Russian woman — but agents later learned that he reached out to her with the specific intention of arranging meetings between the the rich asshole campaign and Russian government officials.
Watch the video of ABC News’ report below.
Papadopoulos lied to FBI in "an apparent case of blind loyalty to protect Donald Trump,” ABC News reports, and is “upset the man he tried to protect is now trying to distance himself.” abcn.ws/2yO3jER
Mueller investigating Mike Flynn and son’s plot to kidnap Muslim cleric and give him to Turkey for cash
Michael Flynn Jr., left, with his father Michael Flynn (Screen cap).
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Mike Flynn and his son’s alleged plot to kidnap a Muslim cleric living in the U.S. and hand him over to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars.
The former national security adviser to President some rich asshole and his son, Mike Flynn Jr., would have been paid up to $15 million for delivering Fethullah Gulen to the Turkish government, according to sources familiar with the investigation who spoke to the Wall Street Journal.
FBI agents have questioned at least four individuals about a meeting in December 2016, during the presidential transition, at the 21 Club in New York City, where Flynn met with representatives of the Turkish government.
That meeting was a follow-up to a secret Sept. 19 meeting attended by former CIA director James Woolsey, who said Flynn and others discussed “a covert step in the dead of night to whisk this guy away.”
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan views the cleric as a political enemy and has asked the U.S. to extradite him.
Flynn is now facing military, congressional and criminal investigations into his financial ties to both Turkey and Russia.
Flynn lobbied on behalf of Turkish interests in the U.S. before joining the the rich asshole administration but didn’t disclose the work until March, after he was forced out of the White House for misleading statements about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador about sanctions.
Steve Bannon insists white supremacist support for the rich asshole ‘100 percent media fabrication’
Steve Bannon (New York Times)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Steve Bannon insists President some rich asshole’s appeal to white supremacists is just a “media fabrication.”
The president’s former chief strategist and campaign manager gave a lengthy interview to the New York Times, whose reporters asked him to explain whether the rich asshole had intentionally or inadvertently appealed to white nationalists.
Bannon, who runs a Breitbart News website that tagged “black crime” stories, said it’s simply “nonsense” that the rich asshole appeals to racists.
“I think these guys grab on to anything they can,” Bannon said. “No, the message is one of, this guy is the least racist guy I’ve ever met. And nothing in the campaign, and nothing that he’s done to date. That’s all that’s all left wing. That’s MSNBC nonsense. And by the way, you can’t help with a couple of, these guys are marginalia to marginalia. Right? So they’ll grab onto anything — and by the way, every time they say the rich asshole’s name, MSNBC has got a camera on it and the New York Times has an article on it, right? Because you’re obsessed with it.”
Bannon described his Breitbart website in August 2016 as “the platform for the alt-right,” a rebranded euphemism for organized white supremacists, and recently revealed emails show how he used Robert Mercer’s billions to push plainly racist views into the political mainstream.
But he insisted to incredulous Times reporters that the media had fabricated white supremacist support for the rich asshole, whose name they chanted at a violent rally in Charlottesville.
“Absolutely, a hundred percent it’s a hundred percent media fabrication,” Bannon said, “and, by the way, because they realize that they think the only way they can run is by smearing you to be a nativist, a misogynist, a racist, a homophobe. Just go down the line.”
the rich asshole in Vietnam: US will not 'be taken advantage of anymore'
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 11/10/17 08:25 AM EST
President the rich asshole on Friday laid out his "America first" trade agenda in Asia, delivering a denunciation of the "unfair" multilateral trade agreements that he said undermine the United States' "sovereignty" and economic power.
Speaking to a gathering of CEOs on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam, the rich asshole vowed to strike bilateral trade agreements "with any Indo-Pacific nation that wants to be our partner and that will abide by the principles of fair and reciprocal trade."
"From this day forward, we will compete on a fair and equal basis. We are not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore," he said. "I am always going to put America first the same way that I expect all of you in this room to put your countries first.
"What we will no longer do is enter into large agreements that tie our hands, surrender our sovereignty, and make meaningful enforcement practically impossible."
The address homed in on a familiar theme for the rich asshole, who was in part elected on a platform of renegotiating trade deals that he claims have caused American jobs to move overseas and made U.S. business less competitive.
But the multilateral agreements that the rich asshole has denounced have largely been embraced in the Asia-Pacific.
In his first days in office, the rich asshole withdrew the United States' intent to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a far-reaching trade deal with 11 other countries in the Pacific that was touted by former President Obama.
Trade ministers from the 11 countries that remain in the deal reached a tentative agreement on a framework for the TPP that doesn't involve the U.S.
Leaders of those countries were set to sign the landmark agreement on Friday. But the future of the TPP was cast into uncertainty again after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would not attend the signing, according to multiple reports.
Mounting GOP retirements threaten House majority
BY JONATHAN EASLEY AND SCOTT WONG - 11/10/17 06:04 AM EST
A retirement wave has hit House Republicans, emboldening Democrats who have become increasingly bullish about their prospects of winning back a majority in 2018.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) on Thursday became the latest Republican to announce he would not seek another term.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) on Thursday became the latest Republican to announce he would not seek another term.
The 13-term Virginian followed Reps. Ted Poe (R-Texas) and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.), both of whom announced Tuesday — hours before Republicans suffered sweeping losses at the polls — that they’d retire from Congress.
All told, 29 Republicans will not seek reelection to their House seats, compared to only 11 for Democrats. Fifteen Republicans are retiring outright, rather than seeking other political offices or positions. Only two Democrats are doing the same.
“Anybody who has a pair of eyes and ears knows that the House is in play and at risk,” Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), who heads a moderate GOP caucus and is not seeking reelection next year, told The Hill. “And I’m sure that fact enters into the calculation of many members who are contemplating their futures."
“Do you really want to go through another year like the last one?” Dent asked.
All told, 29 Republicans will not seek reelection to their House seats, compared to only 11 for Democrats. Fifteen Republicans are retiring outright, rather than seeking other political offices or positions. Only two Democrats are doing the same.
“Anybody who has a pair of eyes and ears knows that the House is in play and at risk,” Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), who heads a moderate GOP caucus and is not seeking reelection next year, told The Hill. “And I’m sure that fact enters into the calculation of many members who are contemplating their futures."
“Do you really want to go through another year like the last one?” Dent asked.
Not all of the retiring Republicans are exiting districts that are likely to be in play.
Goodlatte's district, for example, is reliably Republican and was won by President the rich asshole in 2016 by 25 points.
In the 15 districts where members are retiring outright, the rich asshole won six of them by 18 points or more.
Yet the retirements are expanding the map for Democrats.
LoBiondo has held his district for 12 terms, and it was not considered a likely Democratic pickup until his retirement. After his announcement, the Cook Political Report declared it a toss-up in 2018.
Republicans face enormous electoral headwinds heading into 2018.
the rich asshole’s approval rating is at historic lows for a first-term president, and the party that controls the White House almost always loses seats in midterm elections. The GOP held on to four House seats in special elections this year that took place in red districts, but Tuesday’s shellacking at the polls is more in line with how many political observers believe 2018 will shake out.
And the stampede for the exits could continue.
Republicans said more retirement announcements are expected in the coming days and weeks. The other veteran GOP chairmen who are facing term limits and could retire are Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Homeland Security Comimittee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas).
Another long-serving Texas Republican, powerful Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, isn’t facing term limits but represents a congressional district that’s trending blue.
the rich asshole’s approval rating is at historic lows for a first-term president, and the party that controls the White House almost always loses seats in midterm elections. The GOP held on to four House seats in special elections this year that took place in red districts, but Tuesday’s shellacking at the polls is more in line with how many political observers believe 2018 will shake out.
And the stampede for the exits could continue.
Republicans said more retirement announcements are expected in the coming days and weeks. The other veteran GOP chairmen who are facing term limits and could retire are Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Homeland Security Comimittee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas).
Another long-serving Texas Republican, powerful Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, isn’t facing term limits but represents a congressional district that’s trending blue.
Sessions is on Democrats’ retirement watch list, as well as Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), former Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and former Homeland Security Committee Chairman Pete King (R-N.Y.) and Reps. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) and Bruce Poliquin (R-Maine).
After Tuesday’s landslide in Virginia, buzz around the Capitol centered on vulnerable GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock, who represents affluent Northern Virginia suburbs just outside of Washington, D.C. In addition to electing Ralph Northam as governor, Democrats took back seven GOP-held state delegate seats that overlap Comstock’s sprawling district, The Washington Post reported.
GOP lawmakers are also closely watching former Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who nearly lost his seat to Democrat Doug Applegate last year, and former Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), who was forced to relinquish his gavel two years ago due to term limits but stuck around.
GOP lawmakers are also closely watching former Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who nearly lost his seat to Democrat Doug Applegate last year, and former Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), who was forced to relinquish his gavel two years ago due to term limits but stuck around.
After the Goodlatte news broke, Rogers, the Appropriations chairman emeritus, said he’s not going anywhere.
“I’m busy. I’m happy, hardworking, and hate to see some of these great people retire,” said Rogers, who turns 80 next month.
Democrats are relishing every new departure.
Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, released a strategy memo on Thursday announcing that the national party had expanded its list of targeted House seats from 80 Republican-held districts to 91 in the wake of Tuesday’s elections.
Democrats need to flip 24 seats to win back the majority in the House.
Luján cited the rapid pace of GOP retirements in his memo. He pointed to a Sabato’s Crystal Ball study that found the president’s party has historically shed 22 points in races for open seats that take place in midterm years.
“In general, eliminating the power of incumbency creates a great deal of advantage for House Democratic challengers,” Luján wrote.
The DCCC outraised the National Republican Congressional Committee by $9 million in the most recent quarter, although the NRCC still has about $12 million more in cash on hand.
But perhaps the most startling fundraising trend was uncovered by a Brookings Institution study. Analyst Michael Malbin found that nearly 100 Democrats running in GOP-held districts in 2018 had already raised at least $50,000. The last comparable election cycle was the 2010 GOP wave election, when 60 Republicans running in Democrat-held district had raised the same amount at this point.
“I’m busy. I’m happy, hardworking, and hate to see some of these great people retire,” said Rogers, who turns 80 next month.
Democrats are relishing every new departure.
Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, released a strategy memo on Thursday announcing that the national party had expanded its list of targeted House seats from 80 Republican-held districts to 91 in the wake of Tuesday’s elections.
Democrats need to flip 24 seats to win back the majority in the House.
Luján cited the rapid pace of GOP retirements in his memo. He pointed to a Sabato’s Crystal Ball study that found the president’s party has historically shed 22 points in races for open seats that take place in midterm years.
“In general, eliminating the power of incumbency creates a great deal of advantage for House Democratic challengers,” Luján wrote.
The DCCC outraised the National Republican Congressional Committee by $9 million in the most recent quarter, although the NRCC still has about $12 million more in cash on hand.
But perhaps the most startling fundraising trend was uncovered by a Brookings Institution study. Analyst Michael Malbin found that nearly 100 Democrats running in GOP-held districts in 2018 had already raised at least $50,000. The last comparable election cycle was the 2010 GOP wave election, when 60 Republicans running in Democrat-held district had raised the same amount at this point.
House GOP leaders aren’t publicly panicking over retirements just yet.
“It’s a lot of good talent that we’re going to lose. It’s tough,” Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), the GOP’s chief vote-counter, told The Hill. But he joked: “I told [retiring colleagues] to stop talking to one another because somebody else might want to join them. The sad thing is they start smiling more and more after they make the announcement.
“We just have to tamp that down.”
National Republicans say the retirements are being overplayed, noting that they’re happening for a variety of reasons.
Goodlatte, Poe and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) were term-limited for their positions as committee chairs. Many House members have left for administration posts or are leaving to run for higher office. GOP Reps. RaúlLabrador (Idaho), Kristi Noem (S.D.), Diane Black (Tenn.), Jim Renacci (Ohio) and Steve Pearce (N.M.) are all running for governor of their states, while others are running for the Senate.
Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio) was offered a job atop the Ohio Business Roundtable that he said would allow him to spend more time with his family.
One House GOP strategist argued that only a handful of retirements are taking place in Democrat-leaning districts, pointing to seats currently held by Lobiondo and Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Dave Reichert (R-Wash.).
Goodlatte, Poe and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) were term-limited for their positions as committee chairs. Many House members have left for administration posts or are leaving to run for higher office. GOP Reps. RaúlLabrador (Idaho), Kristi Noem (S.D.), Diane Black (Tenn.), Jim Renacci (Ohio) and Steve Pearce (N.M.) are all running for governor of their states, while others are running for the Senate.
Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio) was offered a job atop the Ohio Business Roundtable that he said would allow him to spend more time with his family.
One House GOP strategist argued that only a handful of retirements are taking place in Democrat-leaning districts, pointing to seats currently held by Lobiondo and Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Dave Reichert (R-Wash.).
Republicans believe state Sen. Dino Rossi (R-Wash.) will hold Reichert’s seat, which is seen as a toss-up by Cook. Ros-Lehtinen's is seen as a district leaning Democrat.
Republicans still have way more incumbents running than Democrats do. In many districts, Democrats will have to survive multi-candidate primaries, potentially weakening them ahead of the general election.
“If you look across the board it’s a variety of reasons, and most of the retirements are in very red districts that we’ll keep,” said a House GOP strategist who requested anonymity. “Each member that retires does so with their own reasons. ... Dent mentioned he wasn’t happy, but other than that, it hasn’t been a lot of folks leaving because of their electoral prospects; it’s been normal attrition. You go into any cycle prepared for retirements.”
Republicans still have way more incumbents running than Democrats do. In many districts, Democrats will have to survive multi-candidate primaries, potentially weakening them ahead of the general election.
“If you look across the board it’s a variety of reasons, and most of the retirements are in very red districts that we’ll keep,” said a House GOP strategist who requested anonymity. “Each member that retires does so with their own reasons. ... Dent mentioned he wasn’t happy, but other than that, it hasn’t been a lot of folks leaving because of their electoral prospects; it’s been normal attrition. You go into any cycle prepared for retirements.”
Political panic is brewing in the Republican Party after the Democratic sweeps on Tuesday
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnnell (C) and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (L) and South Dakota Senator John Thune (R) speak to reporters after U.S. President some rich asshole's meeting with Senate Republicans to discuss healthcare at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 19, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
After 2017’s election night, the Republicans are on the brink of falling apart as a national party—and everybody who has been around politics longer than President the rich asshole knows it.
“Ed Gillespie’s resounding loss in Tuesday’s Virginia governor’s race—coupled with a series of other losses in lower-profile races around the country—will likely take what was bubbling concern among Republicans about their prospects in the 2018 midterms and transform it into a frothing cauldron of panic,” wrote Chris Cillizza, CNN’s editor-at-large and a longtime Washington analyst. “That panic is born not from the fact of Gillespie’s defeat but the way in which he lost—and the role President some rich asshole and Trumpism played in that loss.”
As bad as the results were for Republicans on Tuesday (Democrats won two governors’ races as well as legislative majorities in several states, and elected a deep bench of progressives to mayoral and other down-ballot posts), the rich asshole’s response in the aftermath will only make matters worse for the GOP.
First, the rich asshole tweeted that Gillespie didn’t follow his cues. “Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for,” the rich asshole said. That’s false, because Gillespie did what Republicans across the country thought was their best strategy: embrace Trumpism but not some rich asshole. Gillespie defended Confederate monuments, made racist attacks against Latin Americans (by accusing youths of being gang members), and pledged to outlaw sanctuary cities and repeal the restoration of voting to ex-felons.
What did the president do next? His administration Wednesday issued its latest Cuba sanctions, alienating many Latinos, who according to exit polls, turned out to vote in record numbers in Virginia on Tuesday.
the rich asshole isn’t going to change course. Neither is his base, nor its stalwart supporters. On Steve Bannon’s Breitbart.com, Wednesday morning’s lineup completely ignored Tuesday’s results. Instead, there was a gamut of stories revving up nostalgia for the rich asshole’s victory a year ago. The lead story was, “November 8, 2016: The Untold Story of Breitbart’s Election Night.” Down the page was its preview of Virginia’s governor’s race, instead of coverage of the results. “The contest between the two milquetoast and uninspiring establishment candidates represents nearly everything voters hate about politics,” Breitbart claimed.
Outside Trumplandia, as many Republicans and political observers know, the opposite is true. A majority of Virginia voters rejected the rich asshole’s divisive politics and embraced competent governing—or the prospect of it. The conservative National Review’s Jim Geraghty put this rejection of Trumpism as bluntly as any seasoned Republican.
“If last night had brought a routine disappointment for Republicans—say, the statewide candidates losing by a few points and only a handful of state assembly seats flipping to the Democrats—the ‘blame the rich asshole’ argument would be weaker,” Geraghty wrote. “But last night was the worst night for Republicans in Virginia in a long time. Gillespie lost by the worst margin for a Republican gubernatorial candidate in the state since 1985. No GOP statewide candidate hit 48 percent. Perhaps more significantly, Republicans entered Election Day with a 17-seat margin in the state assembly and lost at least 13, with seven seats too close to call this morning.” (By midday Wednesday, Democrats had won 15 of those seats, including 11 by women candidates.)
What’s apparent to Republicans who haven’t drunk the the rich asshole-Breitbart-Fox News Kool-Aid is that Trumpism and following the party’s white nationalist fringe is a recipe for sending the GOP into the wilderness. the rich asshole-style extremism may help copycats win low-turnout primaries to get onto fall ballots. But it’s increasingly apparent that such extremism is a formula for losing in the general election.
CNN’s Cillizza, who used to write the Washington Post’s Fix column handicapping candidates, noted Gillespie’s the rich asshole-like messaging completely failed in the party’s wealthier northern Virginia suburbs, which are like many GOP strongholds across America. David Wasserman, the U.S. House editor for the Cook Political Report, noted that the rich asshole’s messaging also failed in Richmond and the suburbs around Hampton Roads, which are conservative and home to nearby military bases. As a result, six of 10 Virginians told exit pollsters they strongly disapproved of the job the rich asshole is doing—that is, his style, his substance and his accomplishments.
“There’s simply no way to explain the demolition of Gillespie in the suburbs and exurbs other than a strong distaste for the rich asshole among those voters,” Cillizza said. “And, for all of the caveats and the don’t-read-too-much-into-one-race-ism by the ‘smart’ political reporters, the simple fact is that every single Republican politician in the halls of Congress will be paying very close attention to what happened in Virginia Tuesday night and wondering what it all means for them.” He continued:
“What it means—at least as of today—is this: the rich asshole remains a potent and powerful force in Republican primaries. But, he is a potentially toxic taint with the broader general electorate. Which puts Republicans—especially those facing potentially serious primary challenges or who sit in swing districts in the general election—in a no-win position. Run away from the rich asshole and risk losing your primary fight. Run with the rich asshole and risk losing the general election. Badly.”
This no-win frame—that standing with the rich asshole will be an electoral death knell in next November’s federal elections—was also seen in results outside Virginia. In New Jersey, where voters were tired of the antics of another GOP bully, outgoing Gov. Chris Christie, Democrats won a complete lock on legislative and executive branch power. In Maine, where another red belligerent is governor, voters said no to dismantling Obamacare and voted to expand Maine’s Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.
Report Advertisement
Further affirmation that Trumpism is turning the Republican Party into a sinking electoral Titanic comes from Congress, where a growing list of mainstream conservatives are retiring. New Jersey Rep. Frank LoBiondo announced his departure Tuesday, saying “those of us who came to Congress to change Washington for the better through good governance are now outliers.”
Further affirmation that Trumpism is turning the Republican Party into a sinking electoral Titanic comes from Congress, where a growing list of mainstream conservatives are retiring. New Jersey Rep. Frank LoBiondo announced his departure Tuesday, saying “those of us who came to Congress to change Washington for the better through good governance are now outliers.”
For Democrats, whose party is as internally divided as the Republicans, Tuesday’s results were the first good political news in a year (apart from the deepening the rich asshole campaign-Russian collusion quagmire). However, Democrats, who were quick to send out fundraising missives on Tuesday once the size of the day’s blue wave became evident, need to get their party’s act together. At least on a national level, the Democratic National Committee has done little to encourage the party’s large Berniecrat wing, which elected 46 percent of the delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
But before cynicism takes hold, ponder the big takeaways from 2017’s general election. It was a night of unexpectedly good results for anti-the rich asshole voters. The Republican Party, whether Breitbart or Fox News says it or not, is heading into a panicky downward spiral. And most important of all, large numbers of voters in a non-presidential year want to be heard and are turning out.
That wasn’t supposed to happen in Virginia—not under the GOP’s watch. Virginia is one of the most heavily gerrymandered states in the country. In 2011, the Republicans, who then controlled their legislature, drew state and U.S. House election districts to create red supermajorities. That step, coupled with passing more restrictive voter ID requirements to get a ballot, gave most GOP candidates a roughly 10 point starting line advantage over Democrats (outside of seats they were going to win). On Tuesday night, statewide voter turnout was up 16 percent, compared to 2013. That’s an incredible turnout and one not predicted by pollsters.
Look at the result. In Virginia, the GOP went into Election Day with a 17-seat majority in its lower legislative chamber. Democrats took back 15 of those seats, electing many women. Another five seats were too close to call as of Wednesday, suggesting that no matter who is declared the winner, recounts will ensue. Fortunately, Virginia votes on paper ballots or computers with printouts, meaning there is a record that can be examined. Nobody expected a Democratic turnaround of that magnitude before Tuesday.
Election Day 2017 showed that voters have something to say and want to express it. In the meantime, it doesn’t appear that Republicans are capable of changing course away from the rich asshole and Trumpism between now and 2018. Those who want to turn away, as Cillizza said, will be facing “a frothing cauldron of panic.” Whether Democrats seize that opportunity is an open question. But no matter what the opposition party does, big numbers of Americans surely will be watching and voting in 2018.
Russian lawyer brought intel from firm behind infamous the rich asshole-Russia dossier to meeting with Don Jr.
Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer some rich asshole, Jr. met with to get "dirt" on Hillary Clinton (image via Twitter).
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Among the revelations from Reuters’ reporting that both some rich asshole and Hillary Clinton paid for information from Fusion GPS — the research firm implicated in the infamous “golden showers” dossier on the then-Republican candidate — is the hidden gem that more of their research made its’ way into 2016’s most controversial meeting.
The report claims that the “dirt” Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya brought to the notorious the rich asshole Tower meeting in 2016 was compiled by none other than Fusion GPS, as part of “an unrelated investigation.” The Fusion-sourced opposition research was reportedly about illegal campaign donations given to Clinton.
News that both the rich asshole and Clinton (through the Democratic National Committee) paid for research by Fusion flies in the face of Republicans’ claims that Clinton and the DNC’s funding of the “dodgy dossier” is worthy of speculation and disbelief.
the rich asshole, Clinton camps both offered slice of dossier firm’s work: sources
U.S. presidential candidates some rich asshole and Hillary Clinton attend campaign events in Hershey, Pennsylvania, November 4, 2016 (L) and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 22, 2016 in a combination of file photos. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/Carlos Barria/Files
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
The same political research firm that prepared a dossier on the rich asshole campaign ties to Russia had unrelated information on Clinton Foundation donors that a Russian lawyer obtained and offered to President some rich asshole’s eldest son last year, three sources familiar with the matter said.
The White House and Republican lawmakers have attacked the firm, Fusion GPS, over the dossier compiled by a former British spy that is central to investigations in Congress and by a special counsel into conclusions by U.S. spy agencies that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election and wanted to help the rich asshole win.
The sources told Reuters that the negative information that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya wanted to give to Republican the rich asshole’s campaign at a June 2016 meeting in New York had been dug up by Fusion GPS in an unrelated investigation.
the rich asshole’s congressional supporters have suggested that because Fusion also conducted research for lawyers representing a Russian firm in the unrelated matter, the dossier was part of a Russian campaign to help Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. the rich asshole backers call the 35-page report a “dodgy dossier” financed by Clinton supporters.
Russia has repeatedly denied allegations of meddling in the U.S. election and the rich asshole denies any collusion between his campaign and Moscow officials.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, Veselnitskaya said she went to the rich asshole Tower meeting with some rich asshole Jr., his brother-in-law Jared Kushner, and top campaign adviser Paul Manafort to show them proof of tax evasion by major Democratic donors.
She said Donald Jr. asked her for written evidence that illegal funds went to Clinton’s campaign, Bloomberg reported.
Emails made public earlier this year by the rich asshole Jr. showed that a publicist for the son of one of his father’s Russian business contacts helped introduce Veselnitskaya and advised him that she and her associates had “sensitive” information that could damage Clinton.
“I love it,” the rich asshole Jr. responded, according to the emails.
In December, 2014, the sources said, Veselnitskaya, who then was involved in litigation pitting her Russian client against British-American financier William Browder, received a legal research memo reporting that the Ziff Brothers, two New York financiers allied with Browder, had made a large contribution to a Clinton charity.
The memo had been prepared by Fusion, which had been hired to conduct legal research on Browder by Baker and Hostetler law firm. The firm represented Russian businessman Denis Katsyv, who was engaged in disputes with Browder and U.S. prosecutors.
Glenn Simpson, one of Fusion GPS’ founders, met with Veselnitskaya about that litigation before and after her meeting with the rich asshole Jr., Kushner and Manafort, according to a source familiar with the matter.
However, a source familiar with 10 hours of testimony Simpson gave the Senate Judiciary committee in August said he told investigators he did not know of Veselnitskaya’s the rich asshole Tower meeting until reports of it appeared in the media.
Representatives of the Judiciary Committee’s Republican majority did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Manafort declined to comment.
Representatives for the rich asshole Jr. and Kushner could not immediately be reached for comment and neither could a U.S.-based lawyer for Veselnitskaya.
Two sources said the Fusion GPS work for Baker and Hostetler that produced the information Veselnitskaya offered the rich asshole Jr. and his associates was unrelated to the firm’s work for Perkins Coie, a law firm that represented the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s campaign.
Perkins Coie has acknowledged that it paid $1.02 million to Fusion for research related to some rich asshole and his campaign.
(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by John Walcott and Grant McCool)
Former ambassador to China: President Xi Jinping is ‘playing the rich asshole like a fiddle’ with extravagant state visit
China, Pyongyang's traditional ally and biggest trading partner, has long called for the United States and North Korea to exercise restraint in the impasse and seek a negotiated solution that would de-nuclearise its secretive neighbour (AFP Photo/JIM WATSON)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Xi Jinping, the President of the People’s Republic of China, is “playing [Donald] the rich asshole like a fiddle,” Mexico’s former ambassador to China Jorge Guajardo said Thursday.
From the extravagant welcome in Tiananmen Square to a rare dinner in China’s Forbidden City, Guajardo said the rich asshole is falling prey to classic Jinping tactics.
“You don’t have good chemistry with a Chinese leader who doesn’t speak your language and is geared to not develop chemistry,” Guajardo said.
“You leave that meeting thinking ‘It went great,’” Guajardo noted, insisting the goal is to have visitors feel like they’re a part of a special friendship only to “laugh and say ‘No, let’s not confuse all that pomp and circumstance with the meat of the matter.’”
“I would be lying to you if I tell you I didn’t fall for it when I was there,” he said.
Guajardo said that a “bilateral relationship with the US is now just a matter of stroking the rich asshole’s ego,” noting “that’s all it takes.”
Longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller reveals Russians offered the rich asshole ‘five women’ for group sex
some rich asshole would like to "sit back" and watch as Russia get bogged down in Syria (AFP Photo/Darren Mccollester)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Keith Schiller — longtime bodyguard to President some rich asshole — said this week that after a meeting about the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow, a Russian associate offered to send “five women” to the rich asshole’s hotel room, but Schiller declined the offer on his boss’ behalf.
NBC News said that Schiller made the remarks in his testimony to Congress about Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between that country’s government and the rich asshole 2016 campaign.
Two sources who were present for the interview said that Schiller initially thought the offer by a Russian present at the meeting was a joke and responded, “We don’t do that type of stuff.”
Schiller was adamantly disputing salacious allegations from the dossier on the rich asshole assembled by opposition research firm Fusion GPS.
WASHINGTON — After a business meeting before the Miss Universe Pageant in 2013, a Russian participant offered to "send five women" to some rich asshole's hotel room in Moscow, his longtime bodyguard told Congress this week, according to three sources who were present for the interview.
Two of the sources said the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, viewed the offer as a joke, and immediately responded, "We don't do that type of stuff."
The two sources said Schiller's comments came in the context of him adamantly disputing the allegations made in the the rich asshole dossier, written by a former British intelligence operative, which describes the rich asshole having an encounter with prostitutes at the hotel during the pageant. Schiller described his reaction to that story as being, "Oh my God, that's bull----," two sources said.
The conversation with the Russian about the five women took place after a morning meeting about the pageant in Moscow broke up, two sources said.
That night, two sources said, Schiller said he discussed the conversation with the rich asshole as the rich asshole was walking back to his hotel room, and Schiller said the two men laughed about it as the rich asshole went to bed alone. Schiller testified that he stood outside the rich asshole's hotel room for a time and then went to bed.
One source noted that Schiller testified he eventually left the rich asshole's hotel room door and could not say for sure what happened during the remainder of the night.
Two other sources said Schiller testified he was confident nothing happened.
Schiller said he and the rich asshole were aware of the risk that hotel rooms in Moscow could be set up to capture hidden video, two sources said.
Schiller was grilled about the Moscow trip as part of four hours of testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. The questioning around the Moscow trip took a significant amount of time, the sources said. Schiller was also asked about the June 2016 meeting at the rich asshole Tower between some rich asshole Jr. and Russians, two of the sources said. He testified that he did not recall much about that day.
In a statement, Schiller's lawyer said "the versions of Mr. Schiller’s testimony being leaked to the press are blatantly false and misleading. "
"We are appalled by the leaks that are coming from partisan insiders from the House Intelligence Committee," said Stuart Sears. "It is outrageous that the very Committee that is conducting an investigation into leaks — purportedly in the public interest — is itself leaking information and defaming cooperative witnesses like Mr. Schiller. The Chairman and Ranking Member should investigate and hold accountable whoever is responsible for leaking false and misleading versions of Mr. Schiller’s testimony. This conduct is indefensible and calls into question the credibility and motives of the Committee’s investigation."
A Navy veteran, Schiller worked part-time as a bodyguard for the rich asshole while still an NYPD officer. He began working for the rich asshole full-time after his retirement from the force in 2002 and became his director of security in 2004. He served as director of oval office operations in the rich asshole White House from January until September.
Published on
9 November 2017
the rich asshole was offered multiple Russian prostitutes in Moscow, bodyguard admits VIDEO
some rich asshole's longtime body guard opened up about the president's time in Russia during a lengthy interview with congress.
As the ongoing investigation into Russian election interference continues, new details have emerged [VIDEO]about#some rich asshole's past history in the country. The latest revelation dates back to an incident at the Miss Universe Pageant in 2013 in response to the so-called "pee tape" dossier.
the rich asshole in Russia
Not long after some rich asshole announced his campaign for president [VIDEO], questions were raised as to what conflicts of interest he might run into due to his past history of taking part in international business. As the months moved forward in the 2016 presidential election, speculation grew about what the rich asshole's relationship was with Russia.
The former host of "The Apprentice" refused to criticize Russian President #Vladimir Putin in a direct contrast to his typical behavior of calling out several other world leaders. In addition, the rich asshole refused to release his tax returns, becoming the first major presidential candidate in 40 years to keep his financial information from the public. With his finances hidden and his apparent admiration for Russia out in the pubic, the rich asshole has also faced the issue of having past and current members of his campaign and administration linked back to the Kremlin, from former campaign manager Paul Manafort, to his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Fast forward to present day and the investigation into Russia, led by special counsel Robert Mueller, has already filed charges against three former members of the rich asshole's campaign, despite constant denial by the White House.
One of the biggest mysteries surrounding the president and Russia stems from the unconfirmed "dossier" that was released by CNN earlier this year, which Buzzfeed claims included the rich asshole involved in sexual acts with Russian prostitutes. As reported by NBC News on November 9, one of the rich asshole's bodyguards elaborated further.
BREAKING: Longtime Trump bodyguard testifies that Trump turned down an offer of Russian women nbcnews.to/2jeF4IW
According to Keith Schiller, a longtime bodyguard for some rich asshole, opened up to congress about an incident that took place several years back with the president in Russia. During the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow, Russia, an unnamed Russian participant offered to "send five women" to the rich asshole's hotel, in what would amount to potential sexual activity. Schiller reportedly explained that the offer was viewed as a possible joke, and was quickly turned down. "We don't do that type of stuff," he said, adding that the billionaire real estate mogul laughed off the offer before going to bed alone for the night.
#BREAKING: Ex-Trump bodyguard: Trump declined offer to have women sent to his hotel room in Russia hill.cm/EjAD79T
The interview with congress was in relation to the aforementioned "pee tape" dossier that was put together by a former British intelligence operative, before being reported on as speculation by CNN. When asked about the dossier itself, Keith Schiller replied, "Oh my God, that's bullsh*t."
“Alt-right” snowflakes play victim, in hopes of mainstream sympathy
Latest “alt-right” gambit: Paint themselves as targets of anti-white racism and a violent antifa revolution
It's been a year since some rich asshole's surprise victory, but his biggest fans — white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and far-right trolls — are starting to stall in their mission to ride the rich asshole's presidency towards mainstream acceptance of their views.
Sure, they've had some remarkable wins. Tucker Carlson continues to normalize white nationalism, both on Fox News and through the Daily Caller, his online publication. the rich asshole continues to dish out red meat, attacking NFL players and any other black people, including a pregnant war widow, who dare speak a word of criticism. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly are still supporting the rich asshole's racist agenda.
Still, after the summer's rally in Charlottesville — which was meant to be a triumph for white nationalism, but ended up creating a national backlash — the far right is struggling a bit. Social media followers and page views appear to be leveling off. Some of the main figures who served as conduits between the white nationalist far right and the mainstream conservative movement — such as Steve Bannon, Milo Yiannopoulos and Gavin McInnes — have struggled to maintain their footing in the public square.
Despite all this, there's reason to be concerned that the "alt-right" is regrouping and finding new ways to normalize white nationalist rhetoric. Despite being diffuse and very loosely organized, "alt-righters" have become skilled at painting themselves as victims and generating sympathetic coverage. Two recent campaigns by online "alt-right" activists show that, despite some setbacks, they're getting better at ingratiating themselves with mainstream conservatives.
Jared Holt, a research associate for People for the American Way, recently blogged at Right Wing Watch about a particularly insidious effort to popularize white supremacist ideas by trolling liberals: Hanging signs on college campuses or other public spaces that say, "It's OK to be white."
The campaign started in October, after some racist members of the 4chan network saw a news story about the fact that signs with slogans like "Don’t apologize for being white" had cropped up at Boston College, near the location of a planned rally against racism. The signs were obviously intended to paint anti-racism as inherently anti-white.
The 4channers loved it, but realized the strategy would work even better if such signs were completely decontextualized. Near a rally against racism, it's clear enough that signs like that are meant to embolden white racism and hurt people of color. But when they were displayed in random places, with no context at all, white supremacists could claim the signs were innocent — and that anyone who objects to them is a bigot who believes there is something wrong with being white.
Holt told Salon that, in his research, he found more than 100 instances of the signs — always with the same language, "It's OK to be white" — popping up across the country, typically at colleges and universities.
“Every time, someone on Twitter would take a picture of the sign and express that it was racist," he said. The "alt-right posters," he continued, "chalk that up as a win," because they want to convince people that "liberals are actively working against white people.”
To achieve this, the people behind the campaign, who are mostly anonymous, have tried to conceal the origins of the signs, instructing people who hung them to deny any association with the "alt-right."
This is part of a larger strategy aimed at garnering sympathy from mainstream conservatives, or "normies": Rather than argue directly for racist or fascist beliefs, "alt-righters" paint themselves as victims of "political correctness," playing directly to the conservative longing to believe that liberals are the intolerant bad guys in our national drama.
Last week, the "alt-right" had tremendous success with this strategy by floating a ludicrous conspiracy theory that antifa activists were planning a violent uprising against the rich asshole and his supporters, which was supposedly to begin on Nov. 4. For two months, conspiracy theorists whipped themselves into a frenzy over protestsorganized by a group called Refuse Fascism, with right-wing sites like WorldNetDaily and InfoWars claiming that the planned rallies were just the cover story for an armed revolution — and demanding that the rich asshole supporters show up, armed, to fight back.
“Make sure you got enough ammo, make sure your guns are ready,” one YouTuber dramatically declared. “You have to understand these are vicious, vicious people. Your life means nothing to them. In fact, if you’re a white man, you don’t deserve to live.”
Despite the fact that this was an obviously delusional notion, and one Snopes had already debunked, the "alt-right" successfully hooked somewhat more reputable conservative publications into their paranoid hysteria.
"Antifa apocalypse? Anarchist group's plan to overthrow the rich asshole 'regime' starts Saturday," read a breathless headline at Fox News. While the article's author, Caleb Parke, reluctantly acknowledged that the action planned on that day was a demonstration, not a revolution, he also claimed that "violent masked anarchists" would be on hand, citing Alex Jones as if he were a reputable source. The network used some alarming visuals to stir their viewers into believing this "revolution" was real:
What's going on here is crude but effective: Get mainstream conservatives to fear and despise the anti-fascist, which might help fascism look reassuring or reasonable by comparison.
"They’re trying to mainstream themselves by playing this victim card," Holt said, adding that this was particularly ironic "for a movement that likes to throw around the term ‘cuck,'" a term, like "snowflake", that "alt-righters" use to demonize their opponents as weak and oversensitive.
There's no small amount of projection going on here. It's a staple of far-right ideology that liberals play the victim and make up imaginary oppressions, but in reality it's the "alt-right" that is creating conspiracy theories and spreading lies about how liberals are committing or enabling "white genocide." Sometimes it seems like these folks spend their lives fighting against fictional threats that they themselves invented.
Winged Foot Golf Club refuses to hang President the rich asshole’s portrait
Preeti Maheshwari
Posted with permission from International Business Times
The Republican members of the elite Winged Foot Golf Club in Westchester County, New York, are angry after the club management refused to honor and put up a portrait of President Donald Trump in the club.
Trump is a member of the elite club that charges as much as $200,000 as its initiation fees, and the Republicans among the 800 members of the club have been asking to have a POTUS portrait hung inside the clubhouse.
According to Page Six, an insider at the club said, "Trump has been a member of this club since 1969, and there is a big push to honor him at the club. We should be proud that the president of the United States is a member of Winged Foot. It is prestigious to have him here. But the senior club management has refused to put up a Trump portrait."
The insider added, "It seems the leaders of Winged Foot do not want to rock the boat and politicize the club, given that the U.S. Open will be at Winged Foot in 2020." He also informed that many charities had canceled their plans to host fundraisers at the Palm Beach, Florida, club Mar-a-Lago "due to the political turbulence associated with this choice of venue."
According to the source cited in Page Six, the superiors of the club seem to be trying to erase signs of Trump’s membership.
He said, "Each member of the club has a locker with their name on it, but president Trump’s name has been mysteriously taken down. Some members are outraged because there seems to be no justification, apart from, perhaps, too many people were trying to take selfies at Trump’s locker, or they simply don’t want to advertise his membership."
It is assumed that the decision of not honoring Trump is to avoid creating an unfriendly atmosphere among the 800 members of the club who include many well-known New York law firm partners, and investment bankers. It is also so that charities or organizations that may wish to hold events at the club are not offended.
According to the website Trump Golf Count, Trump has unofficially played 73 rounds of golf in his first nine months as president.
According to NBC News, Trump has spent 96 out of his 293 days overall in office at a Trump property as of Aug. 10, 76 days of which were spent at one of his golf properties.
The Winged Foot Golf Club is a private club with two 18-hole golf courses located in Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York. The club has been designed by architect A.W. Tillinghast. Tillinghast has also designed Baltusrol Golf Club (lower course), Bethpage Black Course, Suburban Golf Club, Shackamaxon Country Club, San Francisco Golf Club, Cedar Crest Park, and Quaker Ridge Golf Club to name a few.
The Winged Foot Golf Club was founded in 1921 by a consortium that mainly consisted of members of the New York Athletic Club (NYAC). Started in June 1923, membership application to this club is by invitation only.
Trump is a member of the elite club that charges as much as $200,000 as its initiation fees, and the Republicans among the 800 members of the club have been asking to have a POTUS portrait hung inside the clubhouse.
According to Page Six, an insider at the club said, "Trump has been a member of this club since 1969, and there is a big push to honor him at the club. We should be proud that the president of the United States is a member of Winged Foot. It is prestigious to have him here. But the senior club management has refused to put up a Trump portrait."
The insider added, "It seems the leaders of Winged Foot do not want to rock the boat and politicize the club, given that the U.S. Open will be at Winged Foot in 2020." He also informed that many charities had canceled their plans to host fundraisers at the Palm Beach, Florida, club Mar-a-Lago "due to the political turbulence associated with this choice of venue."
According to the source cited in Page Six, the superiors of the club seem to be trying to erase signs of Trump’s membership.
He said, "Each member of the club has a locker with their name on it, but president Trump’s name has been mysteriously taken down. Some members are outraged because there seems to be no justification, apart from, perhaps, too many people were trying to take selfies at Trump’s locker, or they simply don’t want to advertise his membership."
It is assumed that the decision of not honoring Trump is to avoid creating an unfriendly atmosphere among the 800 members of the club who include many well-known New York law firm partners, and investment bankers. It is also so that charities or organizations that may wish to hold events at the club are not offended.
According to the website Trump Golf Count, Trump has unofficially played 73 rounds of golf in his first nine months as president.
According to NBC News, Trump has spent 96 out of his 293 days overall in office at a Trump property as of Aug. 10, 76 days of which were spent at one of his golf properties.
The Winged Foot Golf Club is a private club with two 18-hole golf courses located in Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York. The club has been designed by architect A.W. Tillinghast. Tillinghast has also designed Baltusrol Golf Club (lower course), Bethpage Black Course, Suburban Golf Club, Shackamaxon Country Club, San Francisco Golf Club, Cedar Crest Park, and Quaker Ridge Golf Club to name a few.
The Winged Foot Golf Club was founded in 1921 by a consortium that mainly consisted of members of the New York Athletic Club (NYAC). Started in June 1923, membership application to this club is by invitation only.
‘You need to just shut up’: Morning Joe mocks the rich asshole for screwing up attempt to punish CNN
Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough burst into laughter after watching a clip of President some rich asshole threatening CNN’s business from the campaign trail — which could serve as evidence in a lawsuit.
The Justice Department reportedly won’t approve the $85 billion merger between CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, and AT&T unless the telecommunications company sells off the cable news network or DirecTV.
the rich asshole has repeatedly singled out CNN for attacks both on the campaign trail and as president, which could be presented as evidence to block the conditions imposed by the Justice Department.
“As an example of the power structure I’m fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN,” the rich asshole said last year, in a clip aired Thursday morning by MSNBC. “A deal we will not approve in my administration because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.”
The “Morning Joe” host burst into laughter after watching the video clip, saying it would undermine his administration’s case against the merger.
“I’m sorry, you know, there are so many times, and even Kellyanne Conway’s husband at one point basically said, ‘Mr. President, you need to just shut up because you are hurting yourself in your legal cases,'” Scarborough said. “He did that, his tweets, his words have been used time and time against him rightly in courts by judges to strike down decisions that actually would have gone (to) his benefit.”
Scarborough said no judge would ignore that clear evidence of prejudice
“I’m just a dumb country lawyer, and I don’t know a whole lot of this stuff,” joked Scarborough, a former attorney and lawmaker. “I am thinking that clip could be used by any attorney, AT&T, to say, ‘Hey, look, you can see what was in his mind before he was president of the United States, even before he knew what the merger looked like. He said he wouldn’t approve it and brought up CNN, his obsession with CNN.”
Trumpism didn’t just lose on Tuesday night — progressives won
US President some rich asshole speaks during a joint press conference with the Palestinian leader at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on May 23, 2017 (AFP Photo/MANDEL NGAN)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
A year after the election of President the rich asshole and Republican sweep of Congress, Americans got another gut check. The results of some of the closer elections are still coming in, but one thing stands out immediately: Victories across the country represented more than a rejection of the bigotry and jingoism that the rich asshole has emboldened. It was also a tremendous victory for unabashed progressives who didn’t run from the label and try to appear centrist to rural White people.
There’s one possible exception: In response to a race-baiting campaign from Republican Ed Gillespie, Virginia’s new Democratic governor-elect, Ralph Northam, ran a fairly tepid campaign, where he shunned progressive causes like sanctuary cities in an attempt to bolster the rural White vote. But Virginians also elected Justin Fairfax as lieutenant governor, the state’s second Black politician to win a statewide office since Gov. Douglas Wilder won by four-tenths of a percentage point in 1990.
The state wins followed a pattern of Virginia cities and the Washington, D.C., suburbs voting Democratic, and Black and women voters turned out in force. According to exit polls, 80 percent of non-White voters and 87 percent of Black voters supported Northam, and while Gillespie won 57 percent of White voters, his 15-point margin was smaller than the rich asshole’s 24-point margin in the state last year.
But those results weren’t limited to Virginia, and across the country people of color and progressives won resounding victories. Blavity has a good roundup of many of the races where people of color won statewide offices for the first time, including Sheila Oliver (New Jersey’s lieutenant governor-elect), Vi Lyles (mayor-elect of Charlotte, North Carolina), Yvonne Spicer (mayor-elect of Framingham, Massachusetts), and Ravinder Bhalla, the incoming mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, a bearded and traditional turban-wearing Sikh who weathered a campaign marked by racist flyers trying to connect him with terrorism.
A large number of women, including women of color, also ran for office this year, and they won some important victories. In Virginia, Hayla Ayala and Elizabeth Guzman became the first Latinas and Danica Roem became the first openly transgender person elected to the House of Delegates. Women also scored key victories in Boston, where two women of color were elected to the city council, bringing the number of women on the council to six out of 13 seats. In Seattle, voters elected their first openly lesbian mayor in Jenny Durkan, who is also the city’s first woman mayor since 1926.
Progressives also had a good showing in New Jersey, where the incoming governor, Philip Murphy, promised to make the state a bulwark against Trumpism. The state of Maine voted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, despite Gov. Paul LePage’s strong opposition.
Even former U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, whom Northam defeated in the Democratic primary in Virginia, campaigned for Northam and down-ticket Democrats. Perriello was favored by progressive voters, some of whom at least appeared to threaten to undermine Northam’s campaign over his lack of ideological purity.
Those fears didn’t come to pass, and perhaps this might be a sign that the divisions that have split progressives and centrists since 2016 (and exacerbated by the release of Donna Brazile’s book charging that Hillary Clinton rigged the primary) can be overcome to deliver a broader victory. And the exit polls showed 97 percent of people who supported Northam said expressing opposition to the rich asshole was one of the factors in their vote.
If we take away anything from Tuesday’s victories, it’s that progressives shouldn’t be afraid to show off their superhero capes. Candidates need to realize that there are larger things at stake, and when the alternative to a boring centrist is a bigot, we might have to settle for a draw in one battle in order to win the bigger war. The midterm elections are a year away, but the campaign’s already started.
the rich asshole’s voter fraud commission is getting sued — by its own commissioner
some rich asshole during CNN debate (Photo: Screen capture via video)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
A Democratic member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity filed suit against the commission in federal court in Washington, D.C. on Thursday morning, alleging that its Republican leadership has intentionally excluded him from deliberations and violated federal transparency laws. The commission has been sued more times (eight, including the new filing) than it has officially convened for meetings (two times).
The suit, filed by Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, accuses the commission of violating the Federal Advisory Commission Act, which, among other things, requires that advisory committees be bipartisan and sets transparency requirements for them. “Everything we are doing is absolutely perpendicular to that,” Dunlap charged in an interview. “We aren’t inviting the public to participate. We aren’t transparent. And we aren’t even working together at all. My real fear is that this commission will offer policy recommendations that have not been properly vetted by all of the commissioners.”
The complaint contends Dunlap “has been, and continues to be, blocked from receiving Commission documents necessary to carry out his responsibilities” despite repeated requests to be included. It asserts that Dunlap is moving forward with the lawsuit “reluctantly” in order to prevent the commission from “becoming exactly the kind of one-sided, partisan undertaking the Federal Advisory Committee Act was designed to prohibit.”
The commission shouldn’t be surprised by the suit, said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight, an advocacy group that is representing Dunlap in the suit. Dunlap has written to the commission multiple times, asking them to address his grievances. “We think the commission is on more than enough notice they are not living up to their obligations,” Evers said, adding that he hopes to avoid a protracted legal battle.
Kris Kobach, the commission’s co-chair and the Republican secretary of state for Kansas, did not respond to an email seeking comment shortly before this article was published (if he responds, we’ll update the article), but told PBS in October that he was “not aware of any information or discussions or exchange of materials from commission members that would exclude” Dunlap.
Email records filed with a federal court by the Department of Justice contradict that assertion. They show Kobach has repeatedly discussed commission business with a handful of people without including other commissioners. Most notably, Kobach drafted a controversial letter to states requesting publicly available voter rolls with input from Hans von Spakovsky and J. Christian Adams, two Republicans who only joined the commission afterwards. Those discussions didn’t include other commissioners.
Dunlap asserted that the remainder of the commission was made aware of Kobach’s intent to send the letter only hours before states received copies. The suit claims this “deprived Secretary Dunlap of the opportunity to consult with other members of the Commission or to formulate and express his views as to the legality or propriety of this action.”
Dunlap asked Andrew Kossack, the executive director of the commission, for copies of this and other correspondence in a letter on Oct. 17 and again in a follow-up email on Nov. 1. Dunlap asserted that he has not been provided anything in response. (Kossack has not replied to past questions from ProPublica on this point.)
Among the other claims in the suit are contentions that the commission’s record-retention practices are lax and its use of personal email accounts presents data security risks.
The suit also claims the commission has not communicated with Dunlap since it last met in mid-September, including about plans for any future meetings. However, other commissioners and even outside groups have spoken publicly about such plans. On Oct. 19, for example, the conservative Minnesota Voters Alliance announced in a fundraising email that it had been “invited to speak at the December 2017 meeting of the ‘Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.’”
Dunlap, who said he was unaware of any such meeting, emailed Kossack on Oct. 25 to ask who had invited the group. Kossack, whose job is to run the commission’s operations, stated that he didn’t know. “I have never communicated with this group, and no meeting is scheduled for December,” he wrote in an Oct. 27 email to Dunlap, a copy of which was provided to ProPublica. Said Dunlap: “If the executive director of this commission doesn’t know what his commissioners are planning, that’s a sign of bigger problems. I think that really means we’ve gone off the rails.” (The Minnesota Voters Alliance has not responded to questions from ProPublica.)
Finally, Dunlap’s suit claims the commission’s purported bipartisanship is just “a facade,” a contention Dunlap has repeatedly made since the release of a now notorious email penned by von Spakovsky in February. “There isn’t a single Democratic official that will do anything other than obstruct any investigation of voter fraud,” von Spakovsky wrote, adding that if Democrats or “mainstream Republicans” were named to the commission, it would be an “abject failure.”
In a recent interview with The Hill, von Spakovsky defended the email, asserting it was part of a “private conversation.” He also stated that he believes he is getting along with the Democrats on the commission. “So far, at least, it seems like we’ve worked well together,” he said.
Countered Dunlap: “I just laughed when I read that. We aren’t working together at all.”
ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for their newsletter
Obama’s ex-press secretary calls BS on Sarah Sanders excuse for the rich asshole skipping questions in China
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders (Screenshot)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
President some rich asshole declined to take questions from reporters during his first state visit to China — and a former White House press secretary called out the official excuse as baloney.
The last three presidents each fielded questions from the media alongside their Chinese counterparts, but the rich asshole declined to do so — and his press secretary offered an explanation.
“It was at the Chinese insistence there were no questions today,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary.
NBC News political director Chuck Todd pointed out on Twitter that previous press secretaries demanded press conferences while on official state visits to China.
China isn’t supposed to have a say about press access. Previous press secs used to fight with Chinese counterparts for press access when in China. Witnessed personally. twitter.com/kaitlancollins…
Jay Carney, who served as White House press secretary under former President Barack Obama, called out Sanders for failing to get the rich asshole in front of reporters over Chinese objections.
I once had to tell Chinese officials that Pres. Obama would not show up for the press avail unless there would be a Q&A. They backed down. twitter.com/chucktodd/stat…
the rich asshole and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, did not take any questions from reporters Thursday at an event described as a news briefing, and the president has largely stayed away from reporters during his heavily choreographed visit to China.
Carrier to lay off hundreds more workers — despite cash deal with the rich asshole to save jobs
President-elect some rich asshole speaks to Carrier workers about saving their jobs (Photo: Screen capture)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
President some rich asshole last year struck a deal with the Carrier Corporation last year that was supposed to save American manufacturing jobs at the company and prevent it from moving them overseas.
Since then, however, Carrier has laid off hundreds of employees — and Fox News reports that the company is planning to lay off hundreds more workers early next year.
Specifically, Carrier says it plans to lay off 215 more workers this coming January, just months after it laid off more than 300 employees earlier this year. The deal that the company struck with the rich asshole gave it $7 million to keep some jobs in the United States, although it still is moving many of the jobs at its Indiana plant down to Mexico anyway.
Although Carrier workers were initially jubilant about the deal to save their jobs, many have grown disillusioned as they’ve seen their colleagues laid off regardless of the incentives the company had to keep its production in the United States.
Brenda Darlene Battle, a 55-year-old former Carrier worker who accepted a buy-out agreement earlier this year, told the New Yorker that the general feeling among employees is that the rich asshole “blew smoke up our asses.”
Justice, AT&T trade accusations over CNN sale
BY HARPER NEIDIG AND JORDAN FABIAN - 11/08/17 05:32 PM EST
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and AT&T traded accusations on Wednesday over whether the company would have to sell off CNN, the cable network frequently feuding with President the rich asshole, as a condition of its merger with Time Warner.
Sources at the Justice Department told The Hill and other news outlets that antitrust officials had rejected an offer from AT&T on Monday to divest in CNN in order to win approval for the $85 billion deal.
The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the offer did not alleviate their concerns that the deal could potentially harm the public by giving the new company too much power to deliver only the content it produces through AT&T’s networks.
“Until now, we’ve never commented on our discussions with the DOJ. But given DOJ’s statement this afternoon, it’s important to set the record straight,” said Stephenson, referring to the anonymous quotations from Justice sources.
“Throughout this process, I have never offered to sell CNN and have no intention of doing so.”
It is highly unusual for details of such offers to emerge in public, and the startling back-and-forth between Stephenson and the Justice Department will raise new questions about whether the deal can be consummated.
It was also impossible not to consider the rich asshole’s ongoing feud with CNN, which is run by a former NBC executive who worked with the rich asshole on “The Apprentice.”
The president frequently rips CNN as “fake news,” and earlier this year tweeted out a video from his 2007 "WrestleMania" appearance that was edited to show the rich asshole beating up someone with the CNN logo imposed on their head.
On the campaign trail last year, the rich asshole vowed to block the deal, but since he took office, most observers predicted that the $85 billion transaction would sail through the regulatory review.
Before Stephenson’s public comments, The New York Times reported that Justice had told AT&T and Time Warner to either sell off CNN’s parent company, Turner Broadcasting, or DirecTV as a condition of approving their proposed merger. AT&T bought DirecTV in 2015 for $48.5 billion.
The Hill's sources said that AT&T only offered to sell off CNN, and not Turner.
The Financial Times was the first to report that Justice had asked Time Warner to spin off CNN.
“It’s all about CNN,” a source told The Financial Times.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Justice Department was weighing a lawsuit to block the deal.
Some Democrats were quick to seize on the latest reports as evidence of political interference by the White House.
“Presidential power must be used wisely and fairly. I don’t know the details here but this is worth investigating,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote in a tweet.
“The burden of proof is on the Justice Department to establish that there is no political interference in their Antitrust Division,” he added.
Administration officials pushed back Wednesday night, saying the White House had not intervened in the merger.
“I have never been instructed by the White House on this or any other transaction under review by the antitrust division," Makan Delrahim, the assistant attorney general for the anti-trust division told The Hill.
White House spokesman Raj Shah similarly said that the rich asshole has not spoken with the Justice Department on the deal.
"The President did not speak with the Attorney General about this matter, and no White House official was authorized to speak with the Department of Justice on this matter,” Shah said in a statement to The Hill.
Democrats will have a chance to grill Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the topic when he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee next week.
The news comes on the same day that one of AT&T’s top executives suggested that the deal has hit some roadblocks. The company has been saying for months that the merger is expected to close by the end of the year, but now John Stephens, AT&T’s chief financial officer, says that it’s unclear when the two companies will get the green light from regulators.
“I can’t comment on those discussions, but with those discussions, I can now say that the timing of the closing of the deal is now uncertain,” Stephens said at a conference in New York Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Stephens emphasized that a “vertical merger like this hasn't been blocked for over 40 years.”
There were few signs of trouble for the merger until July of this year, when The New York Times, citing an administration official, reported that the White House was exploring how to use the deal as leverage over CNN.
The report touched off criticism from Democrats, who are vehemently opposed to the deal but are wary of any White House interference in Justice Department proceedings.
“Although I have raised serious questions about the impact of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner, Inc., the transaction should be judged solely on its impact on competition, innovation, and consumers, not as ‘leverage’ for political gain,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the top antitrust Democrat, wrote in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions over the summer.
Critics of the deal worry that AT&T’s control over programming would allow the combined company to give its own content favorable treatment, hurting competing networks. They also argue that the merger could lead to consumers paying higher prices for certain content.
In June, a group of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) wrote a letter to Sessions criticizing the deal. In that letter, Democrats warned of potential problems of the merged company owning CNN and argued that no conditions would be sufficient to reduce the deal’s potential harm.
“Allowing one giant company like a combined AT&T-Time Warner to control the content available to Americans would threaten the basic principles of our democracy, especially given Time Warner's ownership of key information sources like CNN,” the Democrats wrote.
“With both the incentive and the ability to direct consumers to Time Warner-owned content, AT&T-Time Warner could restrict its subscribers' access to alternative viewpoints, such as those offered by competing news outlets like Fox, MSNBC, or Breitbart.”
Clinton fires back at Brazile ‘rigged’ claims: ‘That just wasn’t the case’
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 11/09/17 09:12 AM EST
Hillary Clinton on Wednesday dismissed claims made by former Democratic National Committee interim Chairwoman Donna Brazile about the party’s presidential primary, saying the way she described the contest “just wasn’t the case.”
“I didn’t know what she was referring to because, as has now come out, that just wasn’t the case,” Clinton said during an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
“But the current DNC leadership really invested heavily in Virginia and New Jersey and other places.”
Clinton’s comments come after Brazile stirred controversy last week when an excerpt from her new book appeared to suggest that the Democratic primary was rigged in Clinton’s favor.
Brazile cited a fundraising agreement between the Clinton campaign, Clinton’s joint fundraising committee and the DNC that said the campaign would “control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised.” The agreement, according to Brazile, was signed in August of 2015, nearly a year before Clinton secured the nomination.
“The funding arrangement with [Hillary for America] and the victory fund agreement was not illegal, but it sure looked unethical,” Brazile wrote in the excerpt published in Politico.
“If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead. This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party’s integrity.”
Former Clinton staff members pushed back on Brazile’s revelations last week, saying they “do not recognize the campaign she portrays in the book."
But the former interim DNC chairwoman appeared to backtrack on her claims Sunday, telling ABC’s “This Week” that she does not believe the party’s primary was rigged.
“I found no evidence, none, whatsoever,” Brazile told George Stephanopoulos on “This Week" when asked about accusations that the primary process was rigged in Clinton's favor.
“The only thing I found, which I said, I found the cancer, but I’m not killing the patient, was this memorandum that prevented the DNC from running its own operation.”
Carrier plans more layoffs at plant the rich asshole vowed to protect: report
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 11/09/17 07:22 AM EST
Carrier, which struck a deal with President the rich asshole last year to keep jobs at its Indianapolis plant, is reportedly planning more layoffs at the facility.
More than 200 additional employees will lose their jobs in January, Fox News reported.
Robert James, the president of the union that represents plant workers, said employees "just don't have any faith in this plant staying in Indianapolis."
the rich asshole — who has promised to revamp the manufacturing sector on the campaign trail and in the Oval Office — said he reached an agreement with the corporation last December to preserve about 1,000 jobs at the Indianapolis plant.
That deal came after Carrier said it would close its facility in Indianapolis and move operations to Mexico — eliminating 1,400 jobs.
Earlier this year, the air conditioning company laid off 300 workers at the Indianapolis factory.
“This week, approximately 300 employees will leave Carrier as part of the previously announced plan to relocate fan coil manufacturing production lines,” Carrier said in a statement in July.
Vice President Pence was governor of Indiana from 2013 to 2017.
Dear Republicans, Get Ready to Start Losing
The stunning Democratic sweep last night that saw them win key state legislative seats and governorships across the country was a direct "Fuck You" to the Republican Party, and a clear sign of where the country is heading in the future.
To the GOP,
Congratulations on your first lesson in karma in the era of some rich asshole! It has been a long time coming, but you've finally been made to feel the consequences of your allegiance to a bonafide lunatic who has no business being in the White House. The stunning Democratic sweep last night that saw them win key state legislative seats and governorships across the country was a direct "Fuck You" to the Republican Party, and a clear sign of where the country is heading in the future. Unfortunately for you, the direction isn't right. It's left, and there not a lot you can do about it.
This is what happens when you openly embrace xenophobia, hate and misogyny. While there are dark elements of society that you know will predictably come out and vote for you when agitated, there are always more decent people who will respond to keep them in check. We saw this in World War II when global fascism was defeated, and we're seeing it again as its bastard descendent attempts to make a comeback. Fascism-lite is still fascism, and we're not having any of it. Not now, and not ever.
This is the bed you made, and the bed you are going to have to lie in. You supported a bigoted man who openly denigrates women, insults minorities and lies through his teeth on a hourly basis. You supported a man who denies climate change, who works openly for the billionaire class and is destroying the federal government for his own callous purposes. The GOP was better than this. Not much, but it was a party filled with people who loved this country and likely wanted to make it better. That party no longer exists. Now you have a weak, divided shambles of an organization that cannot stand up to the rich asshole and cannot win elections going forward. This is not theory, but fact as the voters delivered you a message last night that can be interpreted in no other way. The future of America is black, brown, female and tolerant. You are white, old, male and full of shit.
There was a time when liberals like myself could reach out to conservatives and engage in civil conversation. That era has gone, and the only conservatives liberals will talk to are the ones who denounce the rich asshole and his vile brand of ethno nationalism. The rest of you are complicit in this insanity, and you will pay the price for it.
What goes up must come down. What is concealed will be revealed, and what you reap is what you sow. The reckoning for some rich asshole is coming, and you are going to learn to lose, and lose horrifically.
See you in 2018.
‘We are at risk of a coup’: GOP Congressman demands Mueller resign — and the DOJ investigate Clinton
Campaign mailer sent by Matt Gaetz in 2016 showing him holding a rifle while vowing to 'kill Muslim terrorists,' photo by Baboonx (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
The congressman representing the most Republican district in Florida escalated his attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller, who’s heading an investigation into Russian interference and collusion with the rich asshole campaign.
Freshman Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) took to a nearly-deserted house floor Wednesday to demand Mueller end his investigations into conduct by President some rich asshole’s administration and 2016 campaign.
“We are at risk of a coup d’état in this country if we allow an unaccountable person with no oversight to undermine the duly-elected President of the United States,” Gaetz said. “And I would offer, that is precisely what is happening right now with the indisputable conflicts of interest that are present with Mr. Mueller and others at the Department of Justice.”
“I join my colleague, the gentleman from Arizona, in calling for Mr. Mueller’s resignation or his firing,” Gaetz continued.
“Moreover, we absolutely have to see the Department of Justice appoint a special counsel to look into the Clinton Foundation, the Uranium One deal and the FusionGPS dossier,” Gaetz suggested.
Rep. Gaetz, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) called on special counsel Mueller to resign after the indictments of the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his deputy Rick Gates and the conviction of campaign and transition staffer George Papadopoulos.
Watch Rep. Gaetz make the case against allow Robert Mueller to finish investigating the rich asshole:
the rich asshole’s limited appeal a warning sign for Republicans ahead of 2018 elections
some rich asshole (Screen Capture)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Democratic election victories in Virginia and New Jersey showed Republicans losing more ground in suburban areas, where President some rich asshole’s unpopularity could cost them dearly in next year’s congressional races.
The results from Tuesday, particularly in Virginia, suggest that the rich asshole’s strategy of playing to a loyal but limited base has not enabled him to broaden support for his presidency or his party.
Democrats were delighted, believing that control of the U.S. House of Representatives, and perhaps even the Senate, now both controlled by Republicans, might be up for grabs in next year’s elections.
Some Republicans shared that view after their party’s candidates did poorly among independent, college-educated, women, and minority voters in suburban areas.
“Unless we get our act together, we are going to lose heavily,” Republican Senator John McCain said on Wednesday.
Democrats would need to pick up 24 seats next year to retake control of the House. Should that happen, the rich asshole’s policy agenda would be effectively dead and the administration would come under greater scrutiny.
The win by Democrat Phil Murphy in New Jersey’s governor’s race came as no surprise because of the unpopularity of outgoing Republican Governor Chris Christie. But Ralph Northam’s 9-point victory over Republican Ed Gillespie for governor in swing-state Virginia was larger than expected.
the rich asshole quickly tried to distance himself from Gillespie’s poor showing, saying on Twitter that the Republican candidate “worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for.”
Still, the rich asshole’s leadership record appeared to motivate Democrats to vote in record numbers in Virginia, with exit polls showing that many came out simply to express their displeasure with the president.
“the rich asshole is turning off more voters than he’s bringing in,” said Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist in Washington. “His base is strong, but it isn’t growing.”
During his first year in office, the rich asshole has consistently played to a base of passionate supporters, many of them older white men who live in rural areas declining in population, and has shown little inclination to reach out to the majority of voters who disapprove of him.
Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster based in Virginia, said the party was on a risky track. “Republicans have traded fast-growing upscale suburban counties for slow-growing or declining rural areas. That is not a formula for long-term success.”
There also may be signs of slippage in the rich asshole’s political base.
In Virginia, Gillespie campaigned hard on immigration and crime – two hot issues with the president’s supporters – but did worse than expected in some rural and suburban areas that the rich asshole easily won last year.
In rural Dickenson County, considered to be the heart of the rich asshole country in Virginia, Gillespie’s margin over Northam was almost 7 percentage points less than the rich asshole’s margin of victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton last year.
the rich asshole won the city of Virginia Beach in 2016 by 3 points, but Gillespie lost to Northam there by 5, a swing of eight points.
‘SUBURBS OUT IN FULL FORCE’
More critically, Gillespie was blown out by Northam in northern Virginia’s populous suburbs, where the rich asshole also struggled in the presidential race.
“The suburbs came out in full force,” said Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist. “They appear to be very motivated to try and deliver a message to the rich asshole.”
In growing Loudoun County, outside of Washington, Democrat Barack Obama barely edged out Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race. On Tuesday, Northam buried Gillespie there by almost 20 points.
“I’m worried,” Ari Fleischer, a former White House spokesman for Republican President George W. Bush, told Fox News on Wednesday. “Democrats came out in huge numbers yesterday in the races and if they have that kind of enthusiasm going into 2018, it’s going to be very tough sailing for Republicans.”
Gillespie, a longtime Washington insider and lobbyist, tried to keep his distance from the rich asshole personally even as he adopted some of his more combative campaign rhetoric.
It was a strategy that failed and Mackowiak said the result reflected the rich asshole’s historically low approval rating. “I don’t think the White House was worried about that before, but now I think they have to be.”
The five-day Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll has the rich asshole hovering around 35 percent approval nationally, with close to 60 percent of respondents disapproving of his performance in office.
A person familiar with the rich asshole’s political operation dismissed the election results on Tuesday as having anything to do with the president, noting that both New Jersey and Virginia were won by Clinton in 2016.
Andrew Surabian, an adviser to the pro-the rich asshole political group Great America Alliance, said Gillespie lost because he was exactly the kind of establishment Republican that the rich asshole voters have rejected.
“Ed Gillespie’s campaign went down in flames because he failed to fully embrace the president or his agenda,” Surabian said, “and without a coherent message and an authentic messenger, Republican candidates will not be successful moving forward.”
Team some rich asshole deflects blame after election losses
BY JONATHAN EASLEY AND JORDAN FABIAN - 11/08/17 04:06 PM EST
The White House was in damage control mode on Wednesday as it sought to deflect blame for Tuesday's sweeping electoral losses and reassure Republicans who fear President the rich asshole’s unpopularity will cost them at the polls in 2018.
Democrats view Tuesday as the start of a nationwide voter uprising against the rich asshole. The party coasted to victory in governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey, while cutting into GOP majorities in statehouses across the country.
A person familiar with the president’s political operation dismissed the notion that an anti-the rich asshole wave is building, arguing that Democrats had merely held on in states they were expected to win. New Jersey is a deep-blue state, and Virginia has gone for the Democrat in the last three presidential elections.
The person chalked up GOP losses to history, noting that the party that controls the White House typically struggles in off-year gubernatorial races. Democrats view Tuesday as the start of a nationwide voter uprising against the rich asshole. The party coasted to victory in governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey, while cutting into GOP majorities in statehouses across the country.
A person familiar with the president’s political operation dismissed the notion that an anti-the rich asshole wave is building, arguing that Democrats had merely held on in states they were expected to win. New Jersey is a deep-blue state, and Virginia has gone for the Democrat in the last three presidential elections.
Local dynamics also played a part, the person said. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) unpopularity dragged down his lieutenant governor’s bid to succeed him, the person argued, adding that Virginia GOP gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie had lost a Senate race only three years earlier.
the rich asshole’s historically low approval rating and liberal anger at the president played no part in driving the Democrats’ blockbuster turnout on Tuesday night, according to the president’s team.
“This is not about the president,” the person said.
Aides downplayed the importance of New Jersey and Virginia for the GOP in the 2018 and 2020 elections.
“These are blue states that the president didn’t win last year, and candidly the results weren’t even close last year in either of the states.”
Team the rich asshole’s reading of the political landscape is unlikely to calm nervous Republicans, who quickly blamed the president and mused about whether their control of Congress would be short-lived.
Republican Rep. Scott Taylor (Va.) told The Hill that the GOP’s losses were a “referendum” on the rich asshole administration.
“There has to be some self-reflection at the top and how that’s spilling over in the down ballot,” Taylor said. “I know they would tout the four congressional special elections we won, that’s a little bit different. That’s a localized thing. We under-performed in places that we should have crushed as Republicans. ... When you look at tonight in Virginia and the results that continue to come in ... [our] leaders need to have some self-reflection.”
It was clear on Wednesday that the rich asshole and his advisers were still searching for answers after the blowout on Election Day.
the rich asshole immediately sought to separate himself from Gillespie, who lost to Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) by 9 points, saying he failed to fully “embrace” what his administration stands for. the rich asshole sought to reassure Republicans that better days lay ahead, pointing to their four special-election victories this year in the House and declaring that the economy is “doing record numbers.”
That assessment appeared to contradict the argument of his own political team that the president was not a factor in the losses.
The source familiar with the operation said if any national political dynamic affected the race, it was that swing voters backed Democrats because they were frustrated by the "lack of action by Congress" on the rich asshole's agenda.
But the sentiments from the White House are unlikely to reassure GOP officials and donors, who fear electoral disaster awaits them in 2018.
Democrats need to flip 24 seats to reclaim the House, and it appears like that could be within reach.
“These are blue states that the president didn’t win last year, and candidly the results weren’t even close last year in either of the states.”
Team the rich asshole’s reading of the political landscape is unlikely to calm nervous Republicans, who quickly blamed the president and mused about whether their control of Congress would be short-lived.
Republican Rep. Scott Taylor (Va.) told The Hill that the GOP’s losses were a “referendum” on the rich asshole administration.
“There has to be some self-reflection at the top and how that’s spilling over in the down ballot,” Taylor said. “I know they would tout the four congressional special elections we won, that’s a little bit different. That’s a localized thing. We under-performed in places that we should have crushed as Republicans. ... When you look at tonight in Virginia and the results that continue to come in ... [our] leaders need to have some self-reflection.”
It was clear on Wednesday that the rich asshole and his advisers were still searching for answers after the blowout on Election Day.
the rich asshole immediately sought to separate himself from Gillespie, who lost to Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) by 9 points, saying he failed to fully “embrace” what his administration stands for. the rich asshole sought to reassure Republicans that better days lay ahead, pointing to their four special-election victories this year in the House and declaring that the economy is “doing record numbers.”
That assessment appeared to contradict the argument of his own political team that the president was not a factor in the losses.
The source familiar with the operation said if any national political dynamic affected the race, it was that swing voters backed Democrats because they were frustrated by the "lack of action by Congress" on the rich asshole's agenda.
But the sentiments from the White House are unlikely to reassure GOP officials and donors, who fear electoral disaster awaits them in 2018.
Democrats need to flip 24 seats to reclaim the House, and it appears like that could be within reach.
So far, 29 GOP House members have announced they will not seek reelection, giving Democrats new opportunities to pick up seats.
Republicans are nervously eyeing the rich asshole’s approval rating, which sits at historic lows at this point for a first-term president. They are also well aware that midterm elections are notoriously unkind to the party in power.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel cautioned candidates against running away from the president.
She argued that the RNC had raised more than $100 million in 2017 — doubling-up their counterparts at the Democratic National Committee — and said the rich asshole’s supporters make up the most engaged and energetic part of the conservative electorate.
“I will always say to any candidate in our party, the greatest enthusiasm in our party right now is for President the rich asshole,” she said on Fox News. “We’re seeing it through the fundraising numbers, we’re seeing it across the country. I see it as party chair, I absolutely think any candidate should be embracing the president.”
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the election results increase the sense of urgency for the Republican-held Congress to pass its agenda. Republican candidates will be tied to the rich asshole whether they want it or not, Ryan said on "Fox & Friends."
“We already made that choice,” he said. “We’re with the rich asshole. We already made that choice. That’s a choice we made at the beginning of the year. That’s a choice we made during the campaign, which is we merged our agendas. … We all agreed on that agenda. We’re processing that agenda.”
the rich asshole’s allies are rallying behind him. They quickly pinned the blame on Gillespie, whose resume is stocked with establishment credentials. The former lobbyist was once an adviser to President George W. Bush and served as chairman of the Republican National Committee.
“Tonight proves you can't put lipstick on an establishment pig,” said Andy Surabian, an adviser to former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon.
Bannon’s news outlet Breitbart brimmed with anti-establishment anger at Gillespie.
“Republican Swamp Thing Gillespie Rejected,” said one headline, which described the “milquetoast” former RNC chairman as an “establishment Republican tactician.”
The Breitbart wing believes that Gillespie’s loss bolsters their argument that nominating the rich asshole Republicans — not establishment figures — is the way forward for the GOP.
Bannon is recruiting challengers to run against nearly every Republican facing reelection in the Senate, which has many in the party worried that they’ll nominate unelectable far-right candidates or that incumbents will limp into the general election.
Those close to the rich asshole’s political team, which is led by White House political director Bill Stepien, legislative affairs director Marc Short and Vice President Pence’s chief of staff Nick Ayers, claim they’re not sweating any of it yet.
They flatly dismissed the exit poll data that found Gillespie getting crushed in the Virginia suburbs and losing the college-educated white voters that the rich asshole had won there only a year ago.
The onus for the 2018 elections hangs squarely on Congress passing the president’s agenda, the official said, because there are only a “limited number of things a president can do to move a race.”
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel cautioned candidates against running away from the president.
She argued that the RNC had raised more than $100 million in 2017 — doubling-up their counterparts at the Democratic National Committee — and said the rich asshole’s supporters make up the most engaged and energetic part of the conservative electorate.
“I will always say to any candidate in our party, the greatest enthusiasm in our party right now is for President the rich asshole,” she said on Fox News. “We’re seeing it through the fundraising numbers, we’re seeing it across the country. I see it as party chair, I absolutely think any candidate should be embracing the president.”
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the election results increase the sense of urgency for the Republican-held Congress to pass its agenda. Republican candidates will be tied to the rich asshole whether they want it or not, Ryan said on "Fox & Friends."
“We already made that choice,” he said. “We’re with the rich asshole. We already made that choice. That’s a choice we made at the beginning of the year. That’s a choice we made during the campaign, which is we merged our agendas. … We all agreed on that agenda. We’re processing that agenda.”
the rich asshole’s allies are rallying behind him. They quickly pinned the blame on Gillespie, whose resume is stocked with establishment credentials. The former lobbyist was once an adviser to President George W. Bush and served as chairman of the Republican National Committee.
“Tonight proves you can't put lipstick on an establishment pig,” said Andy Surabian, an adviser to former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon.
Bannon’s news outlet Breitbart brimmed with anti-establishment anger at Gillespie.
“Republican Swamp Thing Gillespie Rejected,” said one headline, which described the “milquetoast” former RNC chairman as an “establishment Republican tactician.”
The Breitbart wing believes that Gillespie’s loss bolsters their argument that nominating the rich asshole Republicans — not establishment figures — is the way forward for the GOP.
Bannon is recruiting challengers to run against nearly every Republican facing reelection in the Senate, which has many in the party worried that they’ll nominate unelectable far-right candidates or that incumbents will limp into the general election.
Those close to the rich asshole’s political team, which is led by White House political director Bill Stepien, legislative affairs director Marc Short and Vice President Pence’s chief of staff Nick Ayers, claim they’re not sweating any of it yet.
They flatly dismissed the exit poll data that found Gillespie getting crushed in the Virginia suburbs and losing the college-educated white voters that the rich asshole had won there only a year ago.
The onus for the 2018 elections hangs squarely on Congress passing the president’s agenda, the official said, because there are only a “limited number of things a president can do to move a race.”
Fox ignores Dem wins and celebrates the rich asshole’s ‘historic victory’ by playing highlights from 2016 election night
Fox News highlights the rich asshole's "historic victory" (screen grab)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Fox & Friends on Wednesday empaneled a group of voters to relive President some rich asshole’s “historic victory” instead of acknowledging Tuesday’s huge win for Democrats.
Host Ainsley Earhardt began the segment by replaying highlights from the night of the rich asshole’s win, noting that he had victories in Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Iowa and Pennsylvania.
“We all remember where we were when that news broke,” Earhardt beamed. “It has been one year after President the rich asshole’s historic victory over Hillary Clinton. We are back now with our panel talking about where we all stand today.”
“Hillary Clinton was the worst candidate I’ve seen run on a national stage,” panelist David Webb opined. “some rich asshole reflected what other said around the country: it’s our kitchen table, our economics — and we need a change in Washington.”
“We’re not hearing that the Democrats — as they have always been with identity politics are interested in dividing the country.” he complained.
Within minutes, the panel devolved into a shouting match about whether NFL players should be allowed to kneel during the National Anthem.
“No one can hear you at home when you all yell,” Earhardt scolded. “It’s annoying at home.”
Watch the video below from Fox News.
Pennsylvania the rich asshole fans don’t care about his failures — as long as he keeps attacking NFL players
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
President some rich asshole’s supporters in economically depressed portions of Pennsylvania had hoped by now he would have delivered the help he promised — but they’ll take his attacks on civil rights protesters as consolation.
Politico Magazine revisited some of the rich asshole voters who set hard deadlines for action ahead of last year’s election, and found they hadn’t stopped backing the Republican president despite his record.
A year after the rich asshole’s election, local unemployment has improved slightly in the Johnstown area, and there’s some new activity in the coal mines — but not much else has changed.
“There’s nothing good in the area,” said the rich asshole voter Pam Schilling, who lost her 32-year-old son last year to a heroin overdose. “I don’t have anything good to say about anything in this area. It’s sad.”
But her enthusiasm for the rich asshole remains as strong as ever: “I’m a supporter of him, 100 percent.”
That’s what Politico Magazine’s Michael Kruse found over and over.
Another supporter, Joey Del Signore, said the rich asshole was a dramatic improvement over President Barack Obama — whom he suspects may be the antichrist.
“Everybody I talk to realizes it’s not the rich asshole who’s dragging his feet,” Del Signore said. “the rich asshole’s probably the most diligent, hardest-working president we’ve ever had in our lifetimes. It’s not like he sleeps in till noon and goes golfing every weekend, like the last president did.”
Kruse said he pointed out that the rich asshole does, in fact, frequently golf — which he said seemed to surprise Del Signore.
“Does he?” the Fox News viewer said, before changing the subject. “If I was married to his wife, I don’t think I’d go anywhere.”
The rich asshole supporters became most animated when the subject of NFL protesters came up, Politico Magazine reported.
“Shame on them,” Del Signore said. “These clowns are out there, making millions of dollars a year, and they’re using some stupid excuse that they want equality — so I’ll kneel against the flag and the national anthem?”
Schilling and her husband had stopped watching NFL games, despite their love for the Dallas Cowboys, and she told the reporter what her somewhat shyer half would not say he called the professional sports league.
“N*ggers for life,” Schilling said, which emboldened her husband somewhat.
“For life,” Dave McCabe agreed.
Democrats’ anniversary gift for the rich asshole: An electoral ‘bloodbath’ in multiple states
some rich asshole (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
President some rich asshole suffered a triple defeat as Democrats won high-profile state and mayoral elections to underscore his unpopularity on Wednesday’s first anniversary of his dramatic election win.
The Tuesday night results amounted to a sweeping repudiation of what critics have called the rich asshole’s politics of division, and a test of his influence ahead of electoral battles looming on the state and national level.
The most damaging defeat was in Virginia, a state bordering Washington seen as a bellwether for national politics with the country gearing up for 2018 congressional elections and the next presidential contest in 2020.
The Virginia governor’s race had all the makings of a nailbiter, but in the end, Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam trounced his Republican rival Ed Gillespie by an unexpectedly wide nine percentage points in the southern battleground state.
In New Jersey, Democrat Phil Murphy reclaimed the governorship with a victory of about 13 percentage points over his rival following eight years of Republican Governor Chris Christie, a onetime ally of the rich asshole.
And in New York, progressive Mayor Bill de Blasio rode a wave of hometown distaste for the rich asshole to cruise to re-election in America’s most populous city.
Murphy and Northam painted their wins as rejections of the polarization that to a large extent characterized the rich asshole’s 2016 campaign and much of his first year in the White House.
“Tonight, New Jersey sent an unmistakable message to the entire nation: we are better than this,” Murphy declared.
The results mark a revival of political fortunes for the Democratic Party, which had failed to win a number of previous special elections in several states this year triggering concern about how to counter the rich asshole’s influence in US politics.
“This is a referendum on American values,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said on CNN, speaking of the Tuesday night sweep.
In a statement, the Committee said it had won not just in Virginia and New Jersey but “up and down the ticket across the country” by maintaining or flipping mayoral and state house seats in six other states.
In Virginia, Democrat Danica Roem, 33, made history by becoming the state’s, and possibly the nation’s, first openly transgender state legislative delegate.
A victory for Gillespie would have served to validate the rich asshole’s aggressive style, and form a blueprint for how mainstream Republicans can embrace the rich asshole issues without necessarily embracing the controversial man himself.
Now they might be forced to rewrite their playbooks.
In his typically combative style, the rich asshole swiftly sought to distance himself from Gillespie, who did not campaign with the president in Virginia.
“Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for,” the rich asshole wrote in a scathing tweet from South Korea, where he is in the midst of a tour through Asia.
– ‘Bloodbath’ –
The president insisted that with the US economy doing well, “we will continue to win.”
But some analysts said the results suggest a Democratic wave might be on the horizon.
Virginia was a “bloodbath” for Republicans, Michael McDonald of the University of Florida told AFP.
Even though Gillespie aired ads that fueled a debate on race, guns, illegal immigration and the fate of Confederate statues, his attempt to distance himself from the rich asshole specifically just did not work.
“the rich asshole sucks up a lot of the air in American politics, so it’s difficult for any Republican to run away from some rich asshole,” he said.
If the rich asshole had not proven a drag on Virginia voters, it would demonstrate his overwhelming power to draw Americans to polls despite poor approval numbers.
Compounding the Republican woes in Virginia, Democrats also won contests for lieutenant governor and attorney general.
The party gained several seats in the 100-member House of Delegates, putting Republicans under threat of possibly losing control of the state legislature.
“There will be a lot of Republicans who are concerned” about how such a development might translate into losses in 2018’s congressional mid-term elections, McDonald said.
“If they can lose control of a legislative chamber, they can certainly lose control of the US House of Representatives,” said the professor.
All 435 seats in the US House are up for re-election every two years.
Republicans currently hold a comfortable majority, but if they lose that advantage, the rich asshole’s legislative agenda, including his longstanding effort to repeal and replace the existing health care law, would come under threat.
The Resistance Just Gave the rich asshole A Huge F**CK YOU On Election Night
Tuesday was a big election night for an off-year election. This was especially true for Democrats. It was a true test of the power of The Resistance, because despite some rich asshole’s awfulness, initially we lost five straight special elections for Congressional seats vacated by people who went to work in Cabinet positions in the rich asshole Administration. Therefore, it was a HUGE relief as the election results rolled in on Tuesday night.
The Democrats gained a governorship, as Democrat Phil Murphy roundly thumped Republican and LT. Governor and ally to outgoing Governor Chris Christie Kim Guadagno, and Democrat Ralph Northam beat Republican Ed Gillespie in Virginia. Despite the fact that Gillespie ran a positively Trumpian campaign, full of racism and anti-immigrant fear-mongering, it didn’t work. Gillespie is not Teflon Don. Also, Danica Roem made history by becoming the first transgender person to be elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. The icing on the cake here is that she beat incumbent Robert G. Marshall, who is a proud homophobe who regularly peddled so-called “bathroom bills.” After twenty-six years, the very embodiment of everything this man hates has pushed him from public office.
Further, of course liberal New York City re-elected Mayor Bill de Blasio, who won in a landslide. This is the first time the Democrats have swept all three big off-year races – New York Mayor, New Jersey Governor, and Virginia Governor – since 1989.
Tuesday night was a round rejection of the bigotry and divisiveness that has characterized everything about some rich asshole, the campaign he ran, and his entire administration – from his racist Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, to his bigoted Vice President Mike Pence, to the white nationalists that have paraded in and out of the rich asshole’s
adult daycare center White House. All in all, it’s a great night for the Resistance. But remember – celebrate tonight, get back to work tomorrow. 2018 is just around the corner.
the rich asshole Seething After Humiliating Virginia Elections, Throws Ed Gillespie Under The Bus
Well, that didn’t take long.
After weeks of supporting Republican candidate Ed Gillespie on Twitter, some rich asshole quickly distanced himself from him as if he never supported him at all.
The statewide elections in New Jersey and Virginia were landslide victories for Democrats this year, with Gillespie losing the Virginia gubernatorial race to Ralph Northam, who ran on an anti-the rich asshole platform.
The losses were a humiliating defeat for the rich asshole, who desperately attacked Northam on Twitter and praised Gillespie on Election Day.
....and has been horrible on Virginia economy. Vote @EdWGillespie today!
.@EdWGillespie will totally turn around the high crime and poor economic performance of VA. MS-13 and crime will be gone. Vote today, ASAP!
Yet, the rich asshole threw Gillespie under the bus after hearing about the defeat.
Seriously.
You can bet that if Gillespie had won the rich asshole would kissing his ass right now and calling him a close friend and loyal supporter. But he lost so the rich asshole is trashing him and pretending that he never really supported him.
the rich asshole also lied because not only did Gillespie embrace the rich asshole and his bigotry, the economy is only hitting record numbers thanks to the policies of President Obama. Had Obama served a ninth year in office, we would be seeing these same economic numbers. Because the rich asshole is still operating on the Obama budget and has not signed a single piece of economic legislation.
If this election is a sign of things to come, the rich asshole and the Republican Party should be scared to death. The American people are coming for them and it’s not going to be pretty.
Maine Voters Tell the rich asshole To Go F*ck Himself, Expand Medicaid Through Obamacare
Republicans should be downright afraid to try killing Obamacare ever again.
As we all know, some rich asshole has been urging Republicans in Congress to pass legislation that would strip healthcare from over 20 million Americans.
Not only do the rich asshole and his Republican allies want to kill Obamacare, they want to end Medicaid as we know it. Indeed, Medicaid would become a death panel where the state would decide what kind of healthcare people get.
As the rich asshole’s effort to kill Obamacare gets more desperate, the landmark healthcare program gets more popular, enough so, that a few Republicans have broken ranks to oppose repeal.
In fact, Medicaid expansion is so popular that Maine voters overruled Governor Paul LePage’s veto on Tuesday via the ballot.
According to Reuters,
Tuesday’s ballot asked Maine voters to approve or reject a plan to provide healthcare coverageunder Medicaid for adults under the age of 65 with incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which in 2017 is about $16,000 for a single person and about $22,000 for a family of two.
And 60 percent of Maine voters approved, clearly rejecting LePage’s and the rich asshole’s efforts to kill Medicaid and Obamacare.
70,000 Mainers will now be eligible for Medicaid coverage and will get the healthcare they need and deserve.
This is huge because Maine is often considered politically independent to conservative leaning, meaning that Republicans would be better off abandoning their war on healthcare.
If they don’t, voters across the country will go to the ballot box and replace them with lawmakers who actually give a damn about them and their health.
And the rich asshole could be on the path to being a one-term president, assuming he isn’t impeached or arrested before 2020.
And he’ll have no one to blame but himself. Because people don’t like it when politicians try to kill them.
Featured Image: White House Photo by Pete Souza
WATCH: Fox host melts down as DNC chairman gloats over Tuesday’s big election wins
Maria Bartiromo interviews DNC Chairman Tom Perez on Fox Business (Screen cap).
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday tried to grill Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez about Donna Brazile’s accusations that the DNC was unfavorably weighted toward Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Democratic primary — but he couldn’t help talking about the party’s smashing electoral victories in Virginia and New Jersey.
In particular, Bartiromo attacked Perez for not talking with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) after Brazile claimed that the Clinton campaign had undue influence over the DNC before the 2016 Democratic primary even started.
Perez, however, refused to take the bait.
“Maria, we are focused on winning elections, focused on the future here,” he said.
“Right, unfortunately Bernie Sanders’s hopes were dashed because it was rigged,” Bartiromo interrupted.
Perez pointed out that, whatever problems the DNC had with its ties to the Clinton campaign, Hillary Clinton still won the Democratic nomination fairly by getting 4 million more votes than Sanders did.
“But now we know it was rigged!” she shouted back.
“Maria, I understand that, when the Democrats win, as they did last night, that you’d like focus on other things,” Perez retorted.
Later in the interview, Bartiromo bashed the DNC for not giving over its computers to the FBI in the wake of the Russian hacks — and implied that there was some damaging information on those computers “that you didn’t want anyone to see.”
“Maria, you are in a fictional wonderland right now,” Perez replied, with a grin on his face.
Watch the video below.
Dems win from coast to coast
BY REID WILSON - 11/07/17 11:17 PM EST
A year after suffering perhaps the most demoralizing defeat in modern political history, Democrats roared back on Tuesday, claiming big victories in races up and down the ballot and across the country.
The breadth of the Democratic wins surprised even the most optimistic party stalwarts, who worried over their own chances in key races Tuesday. But as the results rolled in, those Democrats said they had energized their core voters and capitalized on President the rich asshole's unpopularity to reach swing voters.
"This is not a wave. This is a tsunami," Virginia Del. David Toscano, the state House Democratic leader, told The Hill in an interview Tuesday night. "This is a huge, huge sea change here in Virginia."
More astonishingly, Democrats appeared to have captured at least a share of control of the state House of Delegates, erasing what had been a massive Republican majority. Democrats picked up 16 Republican-held seats, giving them control of 50 out of the 100 seats in the lower chamber, with three more GOP-held districts likely headed for recounts.
In New Jersey, former Goldman Sachs executive Phil Murphy (D) easily won the right to replace deeply unpopular Gov. Chris Christie (R), cementing Democratic control in the Garden State.
In Washington state, Democrat Manka Dhingra (D) appeared headed for victory in a special election to fill an open state Senate seat. Dhingra's win in a formerly Republican district would give Democrats control of all levers of government in the Evergreen State.
Georgia Democrats celebrated winning two deep red districts in special state House elections. Two Democrats appear likely to face each other in a runoff in a suburban Atlanta state Senate district formerly held by a Republican after finishing first and second in the all-party primary — a result that would break the GOP's supermajority.
Democrats added to their majority in the New Jersey state Senate and picked up two additional state Assembly seats.
The party won a GOP-held seat in the New Hampshire state House, too.
Even local elections tipped left on Tuesday. In St. Petersburg, Fla., Mayor Rick Kriseman won reelection, after campaigning with former Vice President Joe Biden and other Democratic stalwarts, over former Mayor Rick Baker in a race in which early polls showed Baker leading.
In Manchester, N.H., Joyce Craig became the first woman to win the mayor's office, and the first Democrat to win the city since 2003, after she ousted four-term incumbent Ted Gatsas (R).
Senior Democratic strategists said their candidates had found a way to tie Republican candidates to the deeply unpopular president, not through his uncouth statements and behavior but through his unpopular policies.
"We're getting better about our the rich asshole messaging," said Jessica Post, who heads the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, a group dedicated to winning state legislative elections.
Some Republicans, rattled by Tuesday's losses, said they had more to learn about running for and winning office with an unpopular the rich asshole in the White House.
"I don't know how you get around that this wasn’t a referendum on the administration, I just don’t. Some of the very divisive rhetoric helped prompted and usher in a really high Democratic turnout in Virginia," Rep. Scott Taylor (R-Va.) told The Hill at Republican gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie's party. "We need to have some looking in the mirror."
Post and Toscano pointed to Virginia delegate races in which the Democratic candidates talked about the rich asshole and local issues, sometimes in the same breath — a lesson national Democrats might heed in next year's midterm elections.
"You can't just run on the rich asshole. We used that energy to build our base, but we had to have something else. And in every one of these places, we had something else," Toscano said. "It started to rain candidates for us. People came out of the woodwork and wanted to run."
Some Republicans said they, too, have to chart an independent course ahead of next year's elections, in part because voters still don't connect the rich asshole with the rest of the GOP.
"A lot of voters see the rich asshole as a third party," said Brad Todd, a GOP strategist who has long advised the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). "There is a sweet spot for Republicans to insist that Congress needs to enact the president's agenda."
"Republicans who will work with the president when they agree with him but who are also willing to break with him in a thoughtful way when they don't agree or it isn't right for their district or state is really the best place to be because it is where the American people are," said Liesl Hickey, who ran the NRCC.
Still, a year after the rich asshole upset conventional wisdom to capture the White House, Democrats saw Tuesday's results as a cold dish of revenge.
"I don't think there's any way you can get away from the notion that this was a sound defeat for some rich asshole tonight with this outpouring of support for Democratic candidates," Toscano said.
Ben Kamisar contributed to this report, which was updated on Nov. 7 at 7:30 a.m.
Virginia was a state Republicans thought they had rigged to win. Democrats not only won — they laid the groundwork for a fairer election system.
Democrats scored an enormous moral victory and a blow to some rich asshole on Tuesday by electing Ralph Northam as the next governor of Virginia.
But in addition to electing Northam, Democrats flipped 14 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates — the largest Democratic gain in a single election in the state since 1899. This victory triples the total number of Democratic state legislative pickups since the rich asshole was elected, and reduces the GOP majority to just a few seats.
Many of these individual races were themselves inspiring. There was Danica Roem, the transgender journalist who beat a virulently antigay GOP lawmaker. There was Kathy Tran, who will be Virginia’s first Asian-American woman lawmaker. There was Chris Hurst, whose reporter girlfriend was shot and killed on live TV, and who gave up his career in news to go into politics and fight gun violence.
But Democrats did even more than win big on Tuesday. They broke a Republican gerrymandering scheme in Virginia that has been in force for nearly a decade.
For years, Republicans in Virginia have controlled the House of Delegates because they were allowed to draw their own district lines after the last census. GOP lawmakers played with district boundaries to pack Democratic voters into a few small districts, while spreading Republican voters out across several, thus rigging the races to skew more GOP than the popular vote.
Virginia is one of the most heavily such gerrymandered states, although Republicans have used this model to rig state legislatures nationwide. Some of these schemes were so blatantly illegal the Supreme Court struck them down, as in North Carolina.
Now that Virginia has a Democratic governor, and the GOP House caucus has been severely weakened, it will be almost impossible for Republicans to get a gerrymandered legislative map through when it is due to be redrawn in 2021. They will have to draw the map fairly.
Democrats’ stunning, inspirational victory in the House of Delegates is a signal that not only is some rich asshole on notice, the entire corrupt GOP machine is on notice with him. And with 2018 around the corner, Tuesday night is only the beginning.
last
No comments:
Post a Comment