January 23rd, - January 24th, 2017. 435-436 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no.45, and 365-366 days since the Jan 20th inauguration.
Lawmakers clap back against Justice Department’s subpoena threat over ‘sanctuary cities’
The U.S. Department of Justice threatened 23 jurisdictions.
Several mayors pulled out of a scheduled meeting with the White House on Wednesday after the U.S. Department of Justice threatened 23 jurisdictions with subpoenas over their “sanctuary city” policies. Many other officials cited by the DOJ’s subpoena threat also had harsh words for the federal government.
The White House working session on the economy, opioid crisis, and infrastructure — which took place Wednesday afternoon — came as the U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a letter warning nearly two dozen jurisdictions that they could risk losing crucial federal grants if they do not change their policies reflecting leniency towards immigrants. The DOJ has argued that localities are defying federal immigration laws and must comply with the agency “in a timely manner.”
At issue in the DOJ letter are so-called “sanctuary cities” like New York City and San Francisco, where local authorities can choose not to hand over undocumented immigrants in criminal detention to the federal immigration agency for potential deportation proceedings without a judicial warrant. Less known about these localities is that they do turn over immigrants in custody who have been charged with serious crimes.
The DOJ sent letters to jurisdictions demanding that they provide documents that they are not violating federal law. Any jurisdictions that didn’t “respond completely” by February 23 will be subject to a subpoena.
The DOJ sent letters to the following jurisdictions: Chicago; Cook County, Illinois; New York City; the state of California; Albany, New York; Berkeley, California; Bernalillo County, New Mexico; Burlington, Vermont; the city and county of Denver, Colorado; Fremont, California; Jackson, Mississippi; King County, Washington; Lawrence, Massachusetts; the city of Los Angeles, California; Louisville, Kentucky; Monterey County, California; Sacramento County, California; the city and county of San Francisco; Sonoma County, California; Watsonville, California; West Palm Beach, Florida; the state of Illinois; and the state of Oregon.
Here are the responses from officials from the cities cited by the DOJ:
Officials who attended the White House meeting and were cited by DOJ
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer
Fischer’s office sent a letter to WFPL in response to the DOJ’s letter one hour before he attended the 3 p.m. White House meeting, stating that Louisville was compliant with federal law and also a welcoming city for immigrants.
“The Jefferson County Attorney provided the U.S. Department of Justice with a response to its questions about the new city ordinance in December, and received no feedback until moments ago, when the letter from the DOJ arrived,” according to a statement provided to WFPL by Fischer’s spokeswoman. “Before accusations are made, we expect a basic level of evidence, which the DOJ has not provided.”
“As outlined in the county attorney’s original letter, Louisville is both in compliance with the federal law and a welcoming city. We will provide the additional documents sought; a subpoena is an unnecessary threat. Picking fights for political reasons is a disservice to all Louisvillians, Kentuckians and Americans.”
Officials who declined the White House meeting and were cited by DOJ
Several mayors invited to the working session declined to attend on account of the DOJ’s letter.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
I will NOT be attending today’s meeting at the White House after @realDonaldTrump’s Department of Justice decided to renew their racist assault on our immigrant communities. It doesn’t make us safer and it violates America’s core values.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
Today I stood with @USMayors & rejected Trump's midday threat to force welcoming cities to walk away from our values. The Trump DOJ can try to intimidate us with legal threats, but we will never abandon our values as a welcoming city or the rights of Chicago residents.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock
Officials who weren't invited to White House meeting, but were cited by DOJ
Bernalillo County Commission Chairman Steven Michael Quezada
“I’m going to stand my ground. … I’m protecting children, good families and good people,” Quezada told the Albuquerque Journal on Wednesday. He explained that the threat of losing or having to pay back funds to the federal government was something that the county would look to figuring out.
“If we have to relook at the budget and look at how we’re going to make it work, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Quezada added.
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger
During a press conference Wednesday, Weinberger told reporters that he would likely comply with the DOJ’s request, but stood by the city’s immigration enforcement policies, according to the Burlington Free Press.
“I expect we will respond the way we have consistently responded to these threats, which is to say we are not going to be intimidated by the federal government into bad public safety policy,” Weinberger said. He said that he did not believe federal law compels Burlington police to participate in harsh collaborative efforts with federal agents.
“We have responded professionally to the inquiries about this, and I’m sure we will respond professionally again,” he added. “We’re not going to be intimidated by this. We’re going to stand up for the right thing.”
Burlington receives about $40,000 annually from the grant that is under threat, according to the publication, towards funding that went to victim services in years past.
King County Council chair Joe McDermott
“The Department of Justice has ramped up its campaign of intimidation, threatening local officials who follow the law and protect local residents,” McDermott and King County Executive Dow Constantine said in an emailed statement to the Seattle Post Intelligencer. “To be clear, we comply with the requirements for the federal public safety grants. The Department of Justice’s reckless actions threaten the safety of our communities.”
Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera
Rivera said the city has not given federal authorities “any reason to think that we are hiding anything from them,” according to MassLive, a local site based in Western Massachusetts. He also said that federal funding has been used to “put better radio communications in police vehicles” and that the city has collaborated with federal law enforcement agencies in the past.
“Today’s letter is a red herring and a continuation to politicize the federal government’s failure to produce a common sense immigration policy,” Rivera said. “If they make it seem that we are hiding the bad guys, it takes away the urgency to help the good guys. Instead of helping the good guys by working on a solution for the dreamers or a path to citizenship, they are focusing on imaginary bad guys.”
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti
“Ironically, this administration cut the grants, and is threatening to cut further grants that we literally used to hire the cops that go after MS-13,” Garcetti, told reporters on Wednesday. “How perverse is that? Somebody who says they’re for going after gangs that prey on our communities, taking the money away from our police to do that?”
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg
Steinberg told McClathy DC through a spokesman that his “commitment to supporting, protecting and defending Sacramento’s immigrant communities is unwavering.”
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera
Copies of all letters here: twitter.com/cjciaramella/s…
SF City Attorney Dennis Herrera says San Francisco will comply with DOJ request. DOJ letter also contained threat of subpoena pic.twitter.com/nr9hCAUaMt
Watsonville Mayor Lowell Hurst
“Let’s try and protect our residents as well as we can,” Hurst told the local paper Register-Pajaronian. “We don’t want to harbor criminals, but we want to see students and hardworking parents protected as best as we can.”
West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio
“We want people to know in West Palm Beach we are not going to be checking your immigration status,” Muoio said, according to the Sun Sentinel.
The White House thinks holding the fate of DREAMers hostage is ‘fun’
"Well if I told you now it would take away the fun out of Monday."
During Wednesday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the White House plans on releasing an immigration policy framework on Monday.
Asked by a reporter whether their framework will include a permanent solution or pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, Sanders answered, “Well if I told you now it would take away the fun out of Monday.”
The White House appears to believe that the immigration status of nearly 800,000 DACA recipients is game, and that the public should be left in suspense awaiting to hear what they ultimately decide.
On Monday Senate Democrats caved to the demands of Republicans by voting in a favor of a short term spending bill that omitted a fix for DREAMers, in exchange for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s “intention” to vote on a DACA fix by March 5, when DACA recipients will no longer be allowed to re-apply for the two year protected status – effectively ending any hope they have of obtaining legal status to live in the country.
But as ThinkProgress has previously reported, many DREAMers don’t have until March 5. An average of 122 people lose their status every day. Roughly 22,000 individuals have lost their DACA protections since September of 2017, when the the rich asshole administration first announced it was ending the program.
Even DACA recipients whose statuses are still lawful are at risk of deportation.
While DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said last week during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that “no one will lose their status until March 5 or later, depending on what happens with the court,” that’s not entirely true.
For instance, Jorge Garcia, a 39-year-old husband and father who has lived in the United States for nearly 30 years, had his story go viral last week. He was able to stay in the United States thanks to extensions under the Obama administration but no longer met the DACA age requirements and was deported to Mexico.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday dodged a question about whether the White House would begin deporting DREAMers after the March deadline.
“We haven’t determined that. We are hopeful we don’t have to do that and we don’t have to get there,” Sanders said.
The rich asshole administration’s plan to make Congress whiter
If you can't win, rig the game.
The rich asshole administration is pushing a subtle change to a government form which could have profound implications for future elections and potentially violate the Constitution.
Last month, the Justice Department wrote a letter to the Census Bureau requesting to add a question to the census form asking if individuals are citizens. The letter, which was first reported by ProPublica, alarmed many experts — including former high-ranking census officials — because including such a question is likely to discourage non-citizens, and undocumented immigrants in particular, from participating in the census.
Census data is used both to allocate congressional representation to states and to guide redistricting under the One Person/One Vote doctrine, which requires districts to be roughly equal in population.
As the Washington Post notes, “a majority of the nation’s undocumented immigrants live in just 20 metropolitan areas.” So a change to the census form that discourages these immigrants from filling it out will likely shift political power away from urban centers (where voters tend to prefer Democrats) and toward more rural areas (where voters tend to prefer Republicans.
It is also difficult to square with the Constitution.
Specifically, the Fourteenth Amendment provides that “representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed.” So if the Census Bureau adopts a question known to discourage certain populations from filling out their census forms, that will prevent representatives from being allocated based on the “whole number of persons in each state” because the number of people in states with larger undocumented immigrant populations will be systematically undercounted.
If the Census Bureau does include the citizenship question on 202 census forms, however, it is unclear whether the courts would correct this problem.
The Supreme Court held in Washington v. Davis that plaintiffs alleging race discrimination must show that a law was enacted with discriminatory purpose — and not simply that it has a discriminatory effect — in order for the law to be struck down under Constitution’s protections against discrimination. The Court is now much more conservative than it was in 1976, when Davis was decided, so there is a very real chance that the current Court would impose a similar standard on a suit challenging the census question.
That would place a heavy burden on anyone challenging the question, as they would have to show that it was added to the census for the very purpose of preventing an accurate count. The Justice Department, for what it is worth, claims that it wants the question added to ensure that districts drawn to allow racial minorities to elect a candidate of their choice actually have sufficient numbers of minorities who are eligible to vote.
But as the Post suggests, there is a third possible explanation for why the Justice Department wants this question on census forms.
In 2016, the Supreme Court considered Evanwel v. Abbott, a suit spearheaded by a leading white rights activist, which sought to change the way legislative districts are drawn. Currently, districts are drawn to have roughly equal total population — so a district with a large number of children, immigrants, or other disenfranchised persons will have fewer voters than one with an older population made up primarily of voting citizens. The plaintiffs in Evanwel claimed that districts must be drawn to have roughly equal numbers of “voter-eligible” individuals. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected this argument, though the Court’s two most conservative members disagreed as to why.
Had the Court embraced the Evanwel plaintiffs’ theory, power would have shifted away from districts with large numbers of immigrants — which tend to also be communities of color — and toward white communities.
While Evanwel held that states are not required under the Constitution to exclude non-voters when drawing district lines, it left open the question of whether a state is permitted to do so. If the census gathers data on who is and who is not a citizen, that could aid states that want to experiment with methods of drawing districts that exclude non-citizens.
And that would, in turn, lead to a whiter Congress.
Republicans are calling for the public release of a classified document about the Obama administration
· Emily Shugerman New York
· 01-24-2018
Democrats have crafted a response to the Republican-drafted memo that purportedly contains explosive claims about the Obama administration and its investigation of possible Some rich asshole campaign ties to Russia.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes released a memo to his fellow Republican Representatives last week that purported to show “shocking” abuses by the Obama administration in its surveillance of the Some rich asshole campaign. The news spurred other conservatives to demand the public release of the classified memo – something President Donald Some rich asshole is reportedly inclined to do.
Now, ranking Intelligence Committee member Adam Schiff says Democrats have drafted their own memo, as a means of “setting out relevant facts and exposing the misleading character of the Republicans’ document”.
Mr Schiff slammed the Republican memo as a “highly misleading” attempt to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller, the attorney in charge of investigating possible Some rich asshole-Russia ties. The memo, Mr Schiff said, “seeks to selectively and misleadingly characterise classified information in an effort to protect the President at any cost.”
Some Republicans who have seen Mr Nunes’s memo claim it proves that the warrants used to surveil the Some rich asshole campaign were improperly obtained, and that the entire investigation was politically motivated. Republican Representative Steve King tweeted that the allegations contained in the memo were “worse than Watergate”.
The buzz around the document led to calls for its public release, and even spawned the hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo. So far, however, officials from the FBI, Justice Department, and Senate Intelligence Committee have all been denied access to the document.
But Mr Some rich asshole – a frequent critic of the special counsel’s investigation – is partial to releasing the memo publicly, according to CNN. Mr Schiff said one Republican Representative who had talked to the President reported that he seemed inclined to release the memo because its contents were “so favourable to him”.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said only that the White House "support[s] full transparency”.
"It sounds like there are some members in the House that have some real concerns with what is in that memo and feel very strongly that the American public should be privy to see it,” she said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Mr Nunes stepped aside from his committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the US election last year, after the House Ethics Committee placed him under investigation over reports that he “may have made unauthorized disclosures of classified information.”
Mr Nunes called the investigation “entirely false and politically motivated” in a statement at the time.
‘FACTS BE DAMNED’
The Department of Justice called the plan to release it to the public ‘extraordinarily reckless.’
01.24.18 5:57 PM ET
A controversial Republican memo alleging surveillance abuse specifically names FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein along with former FBI Director James Comey.
Capitol Hill sources on both sides of the aisle say the memo’s release is only a matter of time. And when it comes out, these current and former officials — all GOP bêtes noires — are likely to face even more criticism from the right over their involvement in FBI counterintelligence work.
Republicans, including Some rich asshole himself, have spent months attacking McCabe and Comey while special counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating Team Some rich asshole’s connections to the Kremlin. Rosenstein put that probe in place—a move Some rich asshole has derided as a witch hunt.
A groundswell is building to release the memo—written by Devin Nunes, the California Republican and key Some rich asshole ally who chairs the House intelligence committee—which former FBI agents fear will damage public trust in the bureau. While Democrats say the memo deliberately misrepresents the procedures for obtaining a foreign-intelligence surveillance warrant, The Daily Beast has learned that Hill Republicans are gearing up to use an obscure parliamentary rule to release it.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department has expressed serious concerns about the memo’s potential release. In a letter sent to Nunes on Jan. 24, Stephen Boyd, the department’s top congressional liaison, wrote that “it would be extraordinarily reckless for the Committee to disclose such information publicly without giving the Department and the FBI the opportunity to review the memorandum and to advise the HPSCI [the House intelligence committee] of the risk of harm to national security and to ongoing investigations that could come from public release.”
That letter also said the department is “unaware of any wrongdoing” related to the FISA process—indicating the department disagrees with the scores of congressional Republicans who say Nunes’ memo provides proof of wrongdoing.
Rep. Chris Collins, a New York Republican, told The Daily Beast that Nunes has told Republicans his staff spent months putting the memo together.
On Jan. 18, the House intelligence committee voted along party lines to let all House members read the memo compiled by Nunes and his Republican staff based on highly classified intelligence the FBI shared with a few members of Congress.
The news spawned the hashtag #releasethememo, with actors ranging from WikiLeaks to the ACLU to Michael Flynn Jr. calling for the memo to be made public. Democrats have emphasized Russian bots’ efforts to boost the hashtag, but a well-placed source told The Daily Beast yesterday that the bulk of the support for the social media campaign comes from actual Americans on the right.
The memo is enormously controversial. Hill Democrats and former FBI officials say it’s a ploy to damage public confidence in the FBI and undermine Mueller’s investigation. Republicans, meanwhile, say the memo contains massively disturbing evidence of FBI wrongdoing.
The recent Republican attacks on the bureau are taking a toll on current agents and analysts, two former senior FBI officials told The Daily Beast.
Ron Hosko, who formerly headed the FBI’s criminal investigative division, said morale in the bureau is “sagging.” Some officials could barely leave their houses to string up Christmas lights without being accosted by their neighbors about the bureau’s apparent troubles, he said.
He added that members of Congress who argue that the FBI hastily obtained a surveillance order known as a FISA warrant based on British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s dossier of salacious allegations are nothing but conspiracy theorists.
“I think there are people who are intent on damaging the FBI, facts be damned,” he said.
Ali Soufan, a retired FBI counterterrorism special agent, warned that the attacks on the bureau were draining their accusers’ credibility.
“Some of the Republicans attacking the FBI are isolating themselves from otherwise sympathetic FBI agents. It’s no secret that the FBI tends to lean conservative,” Soufan said.
“The few GOP politicians attacking the FBI are, frankly, demagogues. They’re putting party and self-interest above country. They are damaging national security. They unfortunately gave up any moral authority.”
To make the memo public, House Republicans are considering the use of an arcane, little-known process from the House of Representatives’ rules of procedure (PDF).
Rule X, subsection 11(g), lays out a process for releasing classified material even over objections by the president of the United States.
The rule only comes up on extremely rare occasions, according to veterans of contentious declassification disputes between the intelligence agencies and their congressional overseers.
Typically, when Congress requests a declassification, an internal review occurs within the relevant agency or agencies. It’s captained substantially by the attorney general, the director of national intelligence, and the CIA director, depending on the particular agencies with substantial equities in the disclosure at issue. When multiple intelligence agencies are involved, the director of national intelligence runs the process.
“It doesn’t typically need to be invoked,” said Robert Litt, who never saw the House use it during his seven-plus years as the senior lawyer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence under ex-directors James Clapper and Dennis Blair. “It’s only if Congress wants to declassify something the executive branch doesn’t want declassified.”
Under the rule, if a clash occurs between the House intelligence committee and the executive branch over keeping something secret, the president gets five days to deliver objections that cite a danger to national security posed by disclosure. Should the dispute persist, the committee can vote to take the matter to the full House of Representatives to consider. The full House’s debate is to occur in secret, with a public vote determining the outcome.
The president, however, can simply decide on his own to declassify anything. And in Some rich asshole’s case, his spokesperson is on the record supporting declassification.
“We certainly support full transparency. We believe that’s at the House intel committee to make that decision at this point,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Tuesday. “It sounds like there are some members in the House that have some real concern about what’s in that memo and feel very strongly that the American public should be privy to see it.”
Sanders is procedurally correct. The entire Rule X subsection 11(g) process depends on the House intelligence committee initially voting for declassification. While the committee voted last Thursday to permit House members outside the committee to view the still-classified memo in a secured room, a declassification vote has yet to occur, the top Democrat on the panel indicated Wednesday.
“It now appears that the GOP intends to seek further dissemination of this classified information, this time to the public,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said in a statement, adding that Democrats had drafted a counter-memo “setting out the relevant facts and exposing the misleading character of the Republicans’ document so that members of the House are not left with an erroneous impression of the dedicated professionals at the FBI and DOJ.”
Asked if an internal executive branch declassification process has begun, a spokesman for the office of the director of national intelligence replied: “We don’t have anything on this matter.”
FBI officials asked to see Nunes’ memo, but a spokesperson told The Daily Beast on Sunday that their request was denied.
At this point, congressional sources on both sides of the aisle say they think the memo’s release is inevitable. Nunes holds the reins. Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy are deferring to Nunes as to how to handle the memo, according to leadership aides.
“It is the mood of our conference, clearly, to release it,” said Rep. Collins. “And I would think it’s safe to say, based on Devin outlining the ins and outs and crossing of the t’s and dotting of the i’s to do this right, that that would be his intention as well.”
Inside the bureau, former special agent Soufan said there was “disappointment and frustration” over the right’s attacks, but not surprise.
“It’s not the first time we’ve been attacked [by politicians] and it won’t be the last. A lot of [FBI] people are very disappointed, but they’re tuning it out and they’re going to support the mission,” Soufan said.
Adam Schiff says aim is "exposing the misleading character" of the classified doc drafted by GOP staff.
4:56 PM, JAN 24, 2018 | By JENNA LIFHITS
The House Intelligence Committee is now home to dueling memos over alleged surveillance abuses related to the 2016 election. Democrats on the committee have crafted their own secret document in response to a Republican-drafted memo that outlines alleged FBI misconduct against the Some rich asshole team, as demands from GOP lawmakers to release that document publicly gain traction.
Upward of 190 lawmakers have viewed the classified memo since Thursday, when House Intelligence Committee Republicans voted to release the document to the full House. The document reportedly alleges politically motivated abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by federal officials against the Some rich asshole campaign.
But Democrats say the memo is factually inaccurate and seeks only to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian election interference and any potential links between the Some rich asshole campaign and the Kremlin. They are now looking to release their own counter-memo to the full House.
“Regrettably, it has been necessary for Committee Democrats to draft our own memorandum, setting out the relevant facts and exposing the misleading character of the Republicans’ document,” said the panel’s top Democrat Adam Schiff, “so that members of the House are not left with an erroneous impression of the dedicated professionals at the FBI and DOJ.”
“Regrettably, it has been necessary for Committee Democrats to draft our own memorandum, setting out the relevant facts and exposing the misleading character of the Republicans’ document,” said the panel’s top Democrat Adam Schiff, “so that members of the House are not left with an erroneous impression of the dedicated professionals at the FBI and DOJ.”
Schiff said that with their memo, Republicans seek to “selectively and misleadingly characterize classified information in an effort to protect the President.” “This represents another effort to distract from the Russia probe and undermine the Special Counsel,” he said.
Democrats on the panel will move to make their document accessible to the full House on Monday. There are nine Democrats on the panel to Republicans’ 13, and the move would require majority approval.
Top House Republicans have been encouraging members to view the classified memo, which is located in a secure area of the Capitol. A GOP source told TWS Wednesday that intelligence panel members are “strongly moving” toward publishing the memo.
The document could be made public if the panel approves its release in a vote, which might happen as early as next week or the week after, the source said. The president would then have five days to object if he so chooses.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that the administration supports “full transparency.” If the president objects to public release, the question could come before the full House.
Members have been hesitant to describe the details of the GOP-drafted memo. But reports indicate that it addresses the extent to which law enforcement officials relied on information from ex-spy Christopher Steele, whose 2016 research was partially financed by the Democratic National Committee, in obtaining a FISA warrant to surveil Some rich asshole campaign adviser Carter Page.
Jan. 24, 2018, at 5:26 p.m.
By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Intelligence Committee Democrats have drafted their own "memo" about the investigation of Russia and the 2016 U.S. election, after calls for the release of a Republican memo critical of a special counsel's criminal probe, the panel's ranking Democrat said on Wednesday.
Amid growing partisan rancor over the investigation of possible collusion between President Donald Some rich asshole's campaign and Moscow, many of Some rich asshole's fellow Republicans have been clamoring for the release of a classified memorandum commissioned by Republicans, which they say shows anti-Some rich asshole bias at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Democrats have criticized that memo as "highly misleading" talking points intended to undermine the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Some rich asshole and his associates. They accused Republicans of inappropriately releasing classified information by allowing every House of Representatives member to read it.
Moscow denies attempting to influence the presidential election. Some rich asshole denies any collusion.
"Regrettably, it has been necessary for Committee Democrats to draft our own memorandum, setting out the relevant facts and exposing the misleading character of the Republicans' document so that members of the House are not left with an erroneous impression of the dedicated professionals at the FBI and DOJ," Representative Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat, said in a statement.
The dispute has fueled doubts about whether the House panel's investigation has become too politicized to produce a credible report. House Intelligence is one of three congressional committees looking into the issue, along with the Senate Intelligence and Senate Judiciary Committees.
Schiff said panel Democrats will ask that their memorandum be made available for review by all House members on Monday at the committee's normally scheduled meeting.
A spokesman for Representative Devin Nunes, the panel's Republican chairman, who commissioned the Republican memo, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A top Justice Department official told Nunes in a letter on Wednesday that allegations of impropriety at the department are unfounded, according to a senior U.S. official.
"We believe it would be extraordinarily reckless for the Committee to disclose such information publicly without giving the Department and the FBI the opportunity to review the memorandum and to advise the (committee) of the risk of harm to national security and to ongoing investigations that could come from the public release," Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said in the letter.
"Indeed, we do not understand why the Committee would possibly seek to disclose classified and law enforcement sensitive information without first consulting with the relevant members of the Intelligence Community," the letter said.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that some conservative House Republicans had discussed the Republican memo and their plans to release it with Some rich asshole.
Schiff and Senator Dianne Feinstein called on Twitter Inc and Facebook Inc on Tuesday to investigate accounts promoting the Republican memo that were reportedly linked to a Russian influence operation.
Separately, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked its Republican chairman, Chuck Grassley, to share with Mueller transcripts of its interviews in the Russia investigation.
Aides to Grassley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; editing by Grant McCool)
GOP senator has ‘no comment’ on the rich asshole’s latest FBI flub while walking back claims of a DOJ ‘secret society’
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill. Image via screengrab.
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On Wednesday, a Republican senator who went on Fox News with claims he has an informant with intelligence about a “secret society” within the Department of Justice said he had “no comment” about reports that President Donald the rich asshole asked FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe who he voted for.
Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) terse response to Washington Post reporters about the rich asshole’s latest FBI flub came amid his own attempts to walk back his comments about his informant.
On Wednesday morning, CNN’s Manu Raju tweeted that Johnson clarified his “informant” comments, and echoed claims made the previous night on Fox News by Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and John Ratcliffe (R-TX), who said they’d read text exchanges between FBI agents discussing the so-called “secret society.” Rep. Ratcliffe admitted on air that he was not sure the meeting of the alleged clandestine group “actually happened.”
Ron Johnson tells us his “secret society” comments were based on an informant and the words used in a Strzok-Page text exchange. He acknowledges not knowing what they meant - and says the focus now on his committee is the Clinton email scandal.
Watch Johnson’s Wednesday interview below, via the Post:
‘You blatantly lie’: Indiana voters call ‘bullsh*t’ on GOP lawmaker for defending the rich asshole on wall and taxes
Rep. Jim Banks (WISE)
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A Republican lawmaker heard an earful from angry voters during a town hall meeting where he defended President some rich asshole.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) met with constituents Tuesday night at VFW Post 857 in Fort Wayne, but things quickly got off to a bad start for the first-term congressman, reported The Journal-Gazette.
The Indiana Republican insisted 90 percent of Americans would benefit from the GOP tax cut bill passed late last year — but constituents immediately and loudly disagreed.
“People like him have told me my whole life, ‘Don’t vote Democrat because they’re gonna run up the debt,’ and every time I vote for a Republican, they run up debts more than Democrats,” said Lee Albright, who runs a family-owned meat shop. “We’re tired of the same old trickle-down economics.”
Banks said he respectfully but passionately disagreed, and pointed to bonuses doled out by companies to their workers after the tax cut bill’s passage.
“We have seen significant evidence that this tax reform has resulted in more (compensation) bonuses for the American people, higher wages for the American people, more jobs for the American people and a pretty significant tax cut for the American people, too,” he said.
But another constituent pointed out that individual tax cuts were temporary while corporate tax cuts were permanent.
“It angers me that you voted for this bill, and that the message you are relaying about this bill is misleading at best,” said Vicky Lomont, of Fort Wayne. “This bill paints a disastrous economic picture for us average Americans.”
Things only got worse for the Columbia City congressman, whose northeast Indiana district backed both him and the rich asshole by 70 percent in 2016.
“Middle class taxpayers are) going to see the greatest impact from tax cuts and tax reform of any other class of our society,” Banks said. “(Business owners) are telling me over and over again that now they can create jobs in their small business, that they can create more investments in their business, that they can do more with their tax dollars because of tax cuts.”
Audience members openly laughed at some of the lawmaker’s claims, and one person in the crowd of about 100 people shouted “bullsh*t” at one point.
The town hall grew heated after Banks defended the rich asshole’s broken campaign promise about building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“You blatantly lie – now you’re telling us we’ve got to pay for it,” said constituent Linda Brooks. “That’s a flat-out lie. Mexico was supposed to pay for the wall, that’s the bottom line.”
Banks urged voters to take up that issue with the president during the next election, but that wasn’t sufficient for at least one constituent.
“Why don’t you take it up (with the rich asshole)?” yelled one audience member.
‘That’s no biggie?’ Stephanie Ruhle burns down the rich asshole conspiracy theorist for lying about Russia ‘cover up’
Nan Hayworth and Stephen Ruhle appear on MSNBC (screen grab)
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Former U.S. Congresswoman Nan Hayworth (R-NY) on Wednesday endeavored unsuccessfully to convince an MSNBC panel that President some rich asshole was not trying to influence the Russian investigation when he fired then-FBI Director James Comey and allegedly tried to cover up a meeting with Russians at the rich asshole Tower.
“There’s nothing here that has to be inevitably put together as evidence of collusion,” Hayworth told MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle. “In fact, just the opposite. The FBI under Comey and under FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, [FBI agents sending anti-the rich asshole text messages] were clearly colluding. That’s the pattern.”
Former CIA Chief of Staff Jeremy Bash shot down Hayworth’s conspiracy theory.
“To believe that, you would have to believe that some rich asshole’s motivation [in firing Comey] was that he was looking out for Hillary Clinton,” Bash explained. “And I don’t think anybody believes that. You zoom back the lens, you see three elements basically attacking the FBI, launching a war on the men and women of the FBI.”
“You have the Russian intelligence services, you have the rich asshole organization,” he continued. “And now, I’m sorry to say you have some congressional Republicans who want to defend the president even though they used to be pro-law enforcement, they used to be pro-intelligence community. That view has shifted now and they have morphed into attacking the men and women of the FBI.”
Bash added: “It doesn’t comport with the facts. But more importantly, it’s dangerous for national security and for our country.”
Ruhle noted that President the rich asshole and the White House had lied about a 2016 meeting between the rich asshole campaign and Russians at the rich asshole Tower.
“That’s a no biggie?” Ruhle asked former congresswoman.
Hayworth, however, would not back down.
“There’s no evidence that anything substantive came of that meeting,” she insisted.
“That’s not what I asked,” Ruhle interrupted.
“But there was nothing to cover up!” Hayworth shot back.
“Then why did they?” the MSNBC host pressed.
“They didn’t cover it up!” Hayworth repeated.
“Why did they lie about what took place in the meeting?” Ruhle queried.
“It was presented as they wanted to talk about [Russian adoptions]!” Hayworth said, struggling for words while avoiding Ruhle’s gaze.
“They said under the direction of the president it was a meeting about Russian adoptions,” Ruhle stated. “They have since changed the story multiple times. Why would they do that?”
Hayworth responded with a frustrated gasp: “There was nothing of substance that came of that meeting.”
“That’s not what I asked you,” Ruhle remarked.
Hayworth again insisted that the rich asshole believed the meeting was about Russian adoptions, but Bash chimed in, reminding her that the Russian told some rich asshole Jr. that the meeting had to do with the Russian government providing dirt on Hillary Clinton.
“They didn’t succeed!” Hayworth shouted, adding that the real collusion was that the Clinton campaign funded the Russian dossier about the rich asshole and it was also used in the FBI’s Russia investigation.
Watch the video below from MSNBC.
African business leaders at Davos wish they could ignore the rich asshole’s ‘dumb bigotry’
some rich asshole (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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African leaders on the receiving end of President some rich asshole’s “sh*thole”slur are preparing for awkward encounters during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“While many here are poised to recoil at some rich asshole’s arrival — diplomats, heads of state and members of human rights organizations — much of the moneyed elite who pay the bills for many Davos festivities are willing to overlook what they portray as the American president’s rhetorical foibles in favor of focusing on the additional wealth he has delivered to their coffers,” The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Ignoring President the rich asshole’s “rhetorical foibles” is easier for the global moneyed elite than for leaders from Africa.
“As global leader, the United States has lost a lot of recognition, purely because of the current leadership,” said Joel Motsweng Baepi of the South African office of Old Mutual.
“His is just dumb bigotry. Unfortunately, it’s dumb bigotry you cannot ignore because it comes from the White House,” he continued.
Those financially comfortable enough to ignore the rich asshole’s bigotry will define much of the attendance at Davos.
“They are now licking their lips,” said Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate economist. “Davos Man has been able to overlook the rich asshole’s ‘America First’ rhetoric, his anti-climate change action, his protectionism, nativism, racism, bigotry, narcissism, misogyny, for the lucre that seems to be the true motivating force behind Davos Man.”
Mueller Investigation
THE RICH ASSHOLE’S OVERCONFIDENCE COULD BE MUELLER’S SECRET WEAPON
The president’s interview with F.B.I. investigators could be his undoing.
The conventional wisdom is that the rich asshole’s long history of false statements and exaggeration would create enormous legal risk if he decides to talk to the government. “The superficial view would be that every day this guy makes stuff up as he goes along, so the rich asshole is going to be a terrible witness, and he’ll say things that will get him in trouble,” former federal prosecutor Sam Buell told my colleague Chris Smith last week. “the rich asshole has experience as a litigant, and maybe he understands the game,” he added. But Mueller’s team—a murderers’ row of 17 lawyers, sequestered at an undisclosed location in southwest Washington—has undoubtedly been preparing for a possible interview. Andrew Weissmann, one of Mueller’s top investigators, is known to be particularly methodical. “Andrew is super-thorough, persistent, and factual,” Buell said. “He’ll know the record cold, and he’ll be a good listener, to see if he really gets an answer to the question he’s asked.”
The potential questions the rich asshole could face run the gamut. Two sources familiar with Mueller’s plans told the Post that his expected interview with the rich asshole will focus on the firings of former F.B.I. Director James Comey, who was leading the F.B.I. investigation at the time, and Michael Flynn, who was revealed to have lied to White House officials about his interactions with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. His emphasis suggests that he remains focused on whether the rich asshole obstructed justice when he dismissed the former. The special counsel is also reportedly interested in the rich asshole’s alleged efforts to oust Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in order to ascertain whether the president displayed a “pattern” of behavior. A conversation between the rich asshole and F.B.I. deputy director Andrew McCabe, in which the president allegedly asked McCabe whom he voted for in the 2016 election, and grilled him about political donations his wife received during her failed Virginia state Senate bid, has also attracted Mueller’s attention, a source told the Post. the rich asshole has frequently attacked McCabe, whom he implied early on was a deep-state Clintonworld plant, and his firing of Comey was allegedly precipitated by a similar demand for loyalty.
Whether the rich asshole actually testifies is another story. There is a strong legal argument that would allow the president to avoid an interview—and little political upside to acquiescing. While the rich asshole has previously said that he’s “100 percent” willing to sit down with the special counsel, in recent interviews he has been more evasive, sidestepping the question by asserting that there was “no collusion,” and telling reporters on Tuesday, “we’ll see what happens.” According to the Post, White House lawyers are negotiating the details of the rich asshole’s potential interview and are pushing for a mix of face-to-face and written questions. Even if the rich asshole does agree to meet with F.B.I. investigators, he could invoke his Fifth Amendment rights—“I don’t think there is any gain for him to speak to Mueller,” Renato Mariotti, a former Chicago prosecutor, told Smith. “My guess is that the White House conversation weighing the legal versus the political downsides happened months ago—and that this whole effort to undermine and attack Mueller is a way to try to reduce the political downside of taking the Fifth.”
But the rich asshole may not take the easy out; behind the scenes, he has reportedly made it clear that he’s not worried about being interviewed because he “has done nothing wrong.” the rich asshole’s confidence may ultimately be the thing that most imperils him—he would be bound by oath not to exaggerate or mischaracterize, and the president’s aversion to facts is practically record-setting. “By talking to the government, you’re running an enormous risk of a false statement or perjury,” white-collar defense attorney Robert Bennett told Smith. “You can only let your client testify if you know he’ll tell the truth.”
There may be one big explanation for Republican attacks on Mueller and the FBI
Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller and President some rich asshole (Photos: Screen capture and AFP)
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Congressional Republicans, Fox News and allies of the rich asshole administration are potentially attacking the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller in a pre-emptive strike on the investigation’s credibility, said an essay published Wednesday by Vanity Fair‘s Abigail Tracy.
Tracy outlined the risks posed to President some rich asshole by a face-to-face meeting with Mueller’s investigative team, writing, “Mueller will almost certainly try to question the rich asshole, setting up a perilous choice for the president: refuse, inciting a political crisis, or give testimony that could prove his undoing.”
the rich asshole’s unreliability as a witness is notorious. His tendency to exaggerate and misstate the facts could trip him up when speaking to a team as experienced and astute as Mueller’s.
“I don’t think there is any gain for him to speak to Mueller,” said former Illinois federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. “My guess is that the White House conversation weighing the legal versus the political downsides happened months ago — and that this whole effort to undermine and attack Mueller is a way to try to reduce the political downside of taking the Fifth.”
the rich asshole’s allies and Fox News have been attacking the Russia investigations from a number of directions, whether through the ongoing manipulation of intelligence data by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) or accusations that FBI investigators belonged to a “secret society” within the government that is determined to bring down the rich asshole administration.
The smear campaign may well be intended to poison discussion around the question of Russian meddling to such an extent that the rich asshole will face minimal political consequences for refusing to cooperate with investigators.
the rich asshole is reportedly sanguine about any possible encounters with Mueller and his team. Given the thousands of lawsuits in which the rich asshole has been involved over the last three decades, he may be one of the country’s most experienced litigants.
This confidence could be misplaced, said Vanity Fair.
“By talking to the government, you’re running an enormous risk of a false statement or perjury,” defense attorney Robert Bennett said to the magazine’s Chris Smith. “You can only let your client testify if you know he’ll tell the truth.”
Here are 9 bonkers incidents from Michael Wolff’s book that mainstream media totally missed
Michael Wolff (Screengrab)
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The ramifications of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the the rich asshole White House are still being felt as the author uses interview appearances to maintain a place in the news cycle. The book has already resulted in the ouster of White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, whose extreme nationalist views were among the strongest influences on President the rich asshole’s administration.
On Friday, Wolff claimed during an interview on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher that the rich asshole is having an affair while in the White House. Wolff said the information can be read “between the lines” in the book. Some have wondered whether the subject is U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley.
While the award-winning Wolff’s factual reliability is a matter of continued debate, his book is anchored by hours of recorded interviews and copious notes. Many of the most explosive allegations have yet to be examined at-large in the mainstream media. Here are some of the most disturbing and fascinating claims found in the pages of Fire and Fury.
1. Ann Coulter tried to stop the rich asshole from employing his children.
“In defiance of law and tone, and everybody’s disbelieving looks, the president seemed intent on surrounding himself in the White House with his family,” Wolff writes. “The Trumps, all of them—except for his wife, who, mystifyingly, was staying in New York—were moving in, all of them set to assume responsibilities similar to their status in the rich asshole Organization, without anyone apparently counseling against it.”
But one far-right figure was dead-set against the rich asshole’s plan to include his family in the administration.
Wolff writes, “the rich asshole supporter Ann Coulter… took the president-elect aside and said, ‘Nobody is apparently telling you this. But you can’t. You just can’t hire your children.’”
2. Jared Kushner is the victim of anti-Semitism in the White House.
the rich asshole has a strong tendency to reduce people to their ethnic identities. His own son-in-law didn’t escape his bigotry, as the rich asshole applied Jewish stereotyping to his own family.
The coding of “globalism” and financial language in Trumpism create a silent tension in which anti-Semitic populists quietly fight against perceived Jewish “globalist” elements in the White House.
“In the rich asshole White House, it is a war between the Jews and the non-Jews,” former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger explains.
“For the rich asshole, giving Israel to Kushner was not only a test, it was a Jewish test: the president was singling him out for being Jewish, rewarding him for being Jewish, saddling him with an impossible hurdle for being Jewish—and, too, defaulting to the stereotyping belief in the negotiating powers of Jews,” Wolff writes. “‘Henry Kissinger says Jared is going to be the new Henry Kissinger,’ the rich asshole said more than once, rather a combined compliment and slur.”
3. the rich asshole’s preferred health care solution is Medicare-for-all.
The president had to be coached by his right-wing handlers to prevent him from embracing socialized medicine.
“All things considered, he probably preferred the notion of more people having health insurance than fewer people having it. He was even, when push came to shove, rather more for Obamacare than for repealing Obamacare,” Wolff writes.
“As well, he had made a set of rash Obama-like promises, going so far as to say that under a forthcoming Trumpcare plan (he had to be strongly discouraged from using this kind of rebranding—political wise men told him that this was one instance where he might not want to claim ownership with his name), no one would lose their health insurance, and that preexisting conditions would continue to be covered. In fact, he probably favored government-funded health care more than any other Republican.”
While the conclusion is the opinion of the author, a direct quote attributed to the rich asshole is eyebrow-raising. It finds the rich asshole flat-out toying with a health care solution to the left of the traditional Democratic position.
“‘Why can’t Medicare simply cover everybody?’ [the rich asshole] had impatiently wondered aloud during one discussion with aides, all of whom were careful not to react to this heresy,” Wolff writes.
4. Steve Bannon wanted to succeed the rich asshole as president of the United States.
Wolff observes that campaign manager Kellyanne Conway did not seem to be the actual person pulling the strings of the rich asshole’s 2016 campaign. That person was Steve Bannon.
“Her title was campaign manager, but that was a misnomer. Bannon was the real manager, and she was the senior pollster,” Wolff explains. “But Bannon shortly replaced her in that role and she was left in what the rich asshole saw as the vastly more important role of cable spokesperson.”
As the rich asshole’s presidency continued, Bannon became increasingly convinced that the rich asshole presidency would implode.
“This is all about money laundering,” he reportedly predicted of the Mueller investigation. “Mueller chose Weissmann first and he is a money laundering guy. Their path to f**king the rich asshole goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr., and Jared Kushner.”
“They’re sitting on a beach trying to stop a Category Five,” he summarized.
While Bannon often referred to himself as “President Bannon,” Wolff writes that he has stopped the tongue-in-cheek references to his own power and openly expresses a plan to run for president in 2020.
5. Hope Hicks is the subject of abuse as the rich asshole keeps her close.
Among the most troubling elements of Wolff’s account are the segments about Hope Hicks. Wolff portrays Hicks as being on the receiving end of bullying behavior, including sexual harassment, from the rich asshole and his White House.
“Hicks’s family increasingly, and incredulously, viewed her as rather having been taken captive,” Wolff writes. “Following the rich asshole victory and her move into the White House, her friends and intimates talked with great concern about what kind of therapies and recuperation she would need after her tenure was finally over.”
Wolff explains that Hicks filled more of a traditional daughter role for the rich asshole than Ivanka did, except that he exploited her when it served his options, treating her like a personal servant.
“Hicks was the president’s chief media handler. She worked by the president’s side, wholly separate from the White House’s forty-person-strong communications office,” Wolff explains.
“You must be the world’s worst PR person,” the rich asshole would say playfully if the media was particularly critical of him on a given day.
Hicks’ function was to serve the whims of the rich asshole, as she wasn’t qualified or politically experienced. “The problem isn’t Twitter, it’s Hope,” a communication staffer explained.
One account describes a “loud, scary, clearly threatening” Bannon screaming at Hicks, “I am going to f**k you and your little group!” Hicks reportedly fled the scene, “visibly terrified” and “hysterically sobbing.” The president merely inquired: “What’s going on?”
Another anecdote finds Hicks fleeing yet another room after the president humiliates her following an alleged romance with Corey Lewandowski. When Hicks asked how Lewandowski could best be protected from the media, the rich asshole told her that she’d already “done enough” for him, saying, “You’re the best piece of tail he’ll ever have.”
6. the rich asshole isn’t convinced Richard Nixon was guilty in the Watergate scandal.
John Wesley Dean III served as White House counsel during the administration of President Richard Nixon. He became a witness for the FBI amid the Watergate scandal in exchange for a plea deal. Now, Dean is an author and political commentator, and the rich asshole is reportedly obsessed with him.
“the rich asshole, who saw history through personalities—people he might have liked or disliked—was a John Dean freak. He went bananas when a now gray and much aged Dean appeared on talk shows to compare the rich asshole-Russia investigation to Watergate,” Wolff writes. “That would bring the president to instant attention and launch an inevitable talk-back monologue to the screen about loyalty and what people would do for media attention.”
the rich asshole’s obsession is linked to a disturbing refusal to accept the historical record about the Nixon administration.
Wolff writes that the president’s tirades about Dean were “accompanied by several revisionist theories the rich asshole had about Watergate and how Nixon had been framed.”
7. The war in Afghanistan infuriates the rich asshole for its lack of profitability.
“For two hours, he angrily railed against the mess he had been handed. He threatened to fire almost every general in the chain of command,” Wolff writes of the rich asshole’s dissatisfaction with the plan his officials created for continuing the war with Afghanistan. “He couldn’t fathom, he said, how it had taken so many months of study to come up with this nothing-much-different plan.”
Per usual, the rich asshole was only interested in war for its profitability. “He disparaged the advice that came from generals and praised the advice from enlisted men. If we have to be in Afghanistan, he demanded, why can’t we make money off it?”
“China has mining rights, but not the United States,” the rich asshole continues in the account, before comparing the failed war strategy with a situation involving a New York restaurant needing a bigger kitchen.
8. the rich asshole is sympathetic to the contemporary KKK.
The president’s bizarre blame-game after violent white supremacists terrorized Charlottesville, Virginia, gave the public a window into his private beliefs.
He blamed “many sides” for the violence, despite the fact that only one side was populated by neo-Nazis screaming, “Jews will not replace us.”
the rich asshole’s sympathy for hate groups applies to the KKK, according to Wolff.
“Privately, he kept trying to rationalize why someone would be a member of the KKK—that is, they might not actually believe what the KKK believed, and the KKK probably does not believe what it used to believe, and, anyway, who really knows what the KKK believes now?” Wolff writes.
The author states that the rich asshole also denies his own father’s established connection to the KKK, which may explain his attempts at rationalization.
9. the rich asshole planned to lose the 2016 election and was ‘horrified’ when he won.
Outlets focused on the negative response Melania the rich asshole was reported to have upon learning of the rich asshole’s victory. Much less coverage was dedicated to how the rich asshole felt about winning the presidency.
Steve Bannon described a “befuddled the rich asshole morphing into a disbelieving the rich asshole and then into a quite horrified the rich asshole.” Don Jr. reportedly told a friend that his father “looked as if he had seen a ghost.”
But the rich asshole quickly morphed in a way that will sound familiar to those who have watched him occupy the office for the past year.
“[S]till to come was the final transformation: suddenly, some rich asshole became a man who believed that he deserved to be and was wholly capable of being the president of the United States,” Wolff writes.
Psychiatrist receives death threats after the rich asshole warning
Bandy X. Lee, MD, MDiv, photo via the Yale School of Medicine’s Law and Psychiatry Division
Tom Porter
Posted with permission from Newsweek
A psychiatrist who briefed members of Congress on President Donald Trump’s mental state said she is receiving thousands of death threats every day.
Dr. Bandy X. Lee, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, told the New Haven Register that the threats were received by email, phone and social media, but mostly came through Twitter.
“I was concerned because I was getting a thousand threatening messages a day at one point,” Lee said.
Politico reported earlier this month that Lee was summoned to Congress on December 5 and 6 by lawmakers concerned by the president’s behavior. In an interview with the website, she said that she had cited the president’s obsession with conspiracy theories, interest in violent videos, and denial of facts he has previously admitted were true as being grounds for concern.
Read more: Trump's mental health exam was insufficient and potentially dangerous, Yale psychiatrist writes
Lee, who has edited a collection of psychiatric testimonials on the president entitled The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, told lawmakers that Trump was "going to unravel."
“We feel that the rush of tweeting is an indication of his falling apart under stress. Trump is going to get worse and will become uncontainable with the pressures of the presidency," Lee later told Politico.
“One senator said that it was the meeting he most looked forward to in 11 years,” Lee said. “Their level of concern about the president’s dangerousness was surprisingly high.”
Lee has been criticized by other medical professionals for diagnosing the president’s mental state without having examined him, in breach of codes of professional practice. Lee said she is not offering an assessment of Trump’s mental state, but calling for one to be conducted based on his behavior.
Lee told the Register that her main concern is the threat Trump poses to the public.
“My concern is not Mr. Trump’s personal mental health,” she told the New Haven Register. “It is the threat that he poses to the public by virtue of occupying the office of the presidency, and I am acting on my obligation to the public, as professional have an obligation to the public and not just to their private patients.”
Claims in Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury that key White House aides have suggested Trump was mentally unfit to be president prompted an extraordinary Twitter outburst from the president, who boasted of being a “very stable genius.”
Dr. Bandy X. Lee, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, told the New Haven Register that the threats were received by email, phone and social media, but mostly came through Twitter.
“I was concerned because I was getting a thousand threatening messages a day at one point,” Lee said.
Politico reported earlier this month that Lee was summoned to Congress on December 5 and 6 by lawmakers concerned by the president’s behavior. In an interview with the website, she said that she had cited the president’s obsession with conspiracy theories, interest in violent videos, and denial of facts he has previously admitted were true as being grounds for concern.
Read more: Trump's mental health exam was insufficient and potentially dangerous, Yale psychiatrist writes
Lee, who has edited a collection of psychiatric testimonials on the president entitled The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, told lawmakers that Trump was "going to unravel."
“We feel that the rush of tweeting is an indication of his falling apart under stress. Trump is going to get worse and will become uncontainable with the pressures of the presidency," Lee later told Politico.
“One senator said that it was the meeting he most looked forward to in 11 years,” Lee said. “Their level of concern about the president’s dangerousness was surprisingly high.”
Lee has been criticized by other medical professionals for diagnosing the president’s mental state without having examined him, in breach of codes of professional practice. Lee said she is not offering an assessment of Trump’s mental state, but calling for one to be conducted based on his behavior.
Lee told the Register that her main concern is the threat Trump poses to the public.
“My concern is not Mr. Trump’s personal mental health,” she told the New Haven Register. “It is the threat that he poses to the public by virtue of occupying the office of the presidency, and I am acting on my obligation to the public, as professional have an obligation to the public and not just to their private patients.”
Claims in Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury that key White House aides have suggested Trump was mentally unfit to be president prompted an extraordinary Twitter outburst from the president, who boasted of being a “very stable genius.”
No border wall, no DACA, the rich asshole tells ‘cryin’ Chuck Schumer’
Chantal Da Silva
Posted with permission from Newsweek
President Donald Trump has warned Democrats there will be no agreement to help so-called Dreamers unless they agree to support the U.S. leader's plans to build a wall along the country's border with Mexico.
Referring to the Senate Minority Leader as "Cryin' Chuck Schumer," the president lashed out after Schumer announced he had withdrawn an offer related to funding for a border wall on Tuesday evening.
"Cryin' Chuck Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA," Trump wrote in a tweet Tuesday night. "We must have safety and security, together with a strong military, for our great people!" he added.
Democrats had fought to strike a deal protecting Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, from deportation after Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program back in September.
In a bid to force a DACA fix, Democrats refused to support a funding bill that would keep government operations running, resulting in a three-day federal shutdown that ended on Monday night after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) promised that immigration legislation would be addressed in early February.
Schumer, who had led Democrats in fighting for a DACA fix, said he had discussed funding for a border wall at the White House on Friday as part of a potential deal.
The senate minority leader said during a speech on the Senate floor Friday that he had reluctantly put the border wall on the table "in exchange for strong DACA protections."
Read more: No, Mexico won't pay for the border wall, Trump Chief of Staff says
On Tuesday, however, Schumer told reporters he had withdrawn the offer, saying: "We're going to have to start on a new basis and the wall offer is off the table," according to Reuters.
Since his 2016 election campaign, Trump has vowed to build a wall along the southwestern border of the United States to stop illegal immigrants from Mexico from entering the country.
He has also repeatedly stated Mexico will pay for the wall, an assertion that the country has vehemently rejected.
Referring to the Senate Minority Leader as "Cryin' Chuck Schumer," the president lashed out after Schumer announced he had withdrawn an offer related to funding for a border wall on Tuesday evening.
"Cryin' Chuck Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA," Trump wrote in a tweet Tuesday night. "We must have safety and security, together with a strong military, for our great people!" he added.
Democrats had fought to strike a deal protecting Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, from deportation after Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program back in September.
Cryin’ Chuck Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA. We must have safety and security, together with a strong Military, for our great people!
In a bid to force a DACA fix, Democrats refused to support a funding bill that would keep government operations running, resulting in a three-day federal shutdown that ended on Monday night after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) promised that immigration legislation would be addressed in early February.
Schumer, who had led Democrats in fighting for a DACA fix, said he had discussed funding for a border wall at the White House on Friday as part of a potential deal.
The senate minority leader said during a speech on the Senate floor Friday that he had reluctantly put the border wall on the table "in exchange for strong DACA protections."
Read more: No, Mexico won't pay for the border wall, Trump Chief of Staff says
On Tuesday, however, Schumer told reporters he had withdrawn the offer, saying: "We're going to have to start on a new basis and the wall offer is off the table," according to Reuters.
Since his 2016 election campaign, Trump has vowed to build a wall along the southwestern border of the United States to stop illegal immigrants from Mexico from entering the country.
He has also repeatedly stated Mexico will pay for the wall, an assertion that the country has vehemently rejected.
‘It’s a yes or no question’: Reporter grills Sarah Sanders over the rich asshole asking FBI officials who they voted for
Cecilia Vega speaks to Sarah Sanders (CNN/screen grab)
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White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday refused to deny that President some rich asshole asked acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe who he voted for.
According to The Washington Post, the rich asshole asked McCabe who he voted for in the 2016 presidential election. McCabe reportedly told the president that he did not vote. The president has also been accused of asking former FBI Director James Comey for a loyalty pledge.
At Wednesday’s briefing CBS correspondent Cecilia Vega asked Sanders if the rich asshole “made a habit” of asking officials how they voted.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Sanders replied.
When Vega pressed about the rich asshole’s conversation with McCabe, Sanders did not deny that the president asked the acting FBI director how he voted.
“I can’t get into the details of what was discussed, I wasn’t there,” Sanders stated.
“It’s a yes or no question,” Vega pointed out. “He did or he didn’t ask.”
“I wasn’t in the room, I don’t know,” Sanders shot back. “I know he didn’t ask me.”
Later in the briefing, the press secretary became visibly disturbed when reporters pressed her on the question.
“I very seriously doubt that any person in America would list that as an issue they care about,” Sanders insisted.
Watch the video below from CNN.
Don Lemon perfectly nails Franklin Graham’s ‘ends justify the means’ moral hypocrisy on the rich asshole
Don Lemon and Franklin Graham (CNN)
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Franklin Graham shrugged off President some rich asshole’s moral failings by arguing his various aberrations took place before he was in the Oval Office.
The president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association appeared Tuesday night on “CNN Tonight,” where he told host Don Lemon that the rich asshole’s alleged extramarital affair with a porn actress was different than behavior for which he criticized Bill Clinton.
“These alleged affairs, they’re alleged with the rich asshole, didn’t happen while he was in office,” Graham said.
“This happened 11, 12, 13, 14 years ago,” he continued, “and so, I think there is a big difference and not that we give anybody a pass, but we have to look at the timeline and that was before he was in office.”
Lemon questioned Graham’s moral consistency, saying that it sounded like he believed the rich asshole was good — despite evidence to the contrary — because he delivered on political promises.
“It sounds like you’re saying he is good because he is good for what you think is right, that the ends justify the means,” Lemon said. “If that’s the case, then poor people should be robbing banks.”
Graham insisted the rich asshole had matured since the alleged 2006 affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels, who gave a detailed account of the relationship in a magazine interview, but Lemon asked whether the president’s tweets and other public remarks disproved that claim.
“There is a lot of presidents that have had rough language and a lot of these things that have been accused of the president, I am not sure are true,” Graham said. “He says he didn’t do it, and the others that said he didn’t do it.”
Graham then argued that God had put the rich asshole in office for a reason, and the religious leader then praised his skills as a businessman.
“I think people have confidence in his business ability, and I think that’s why we see the stock market where it is,” Graham said. “Of course, the tax issue is huge.”
Fox contributor, anti-feminist, and devoted the rich asshole fan Tomi Lahren is hardly in a position to tell women why they should march.
some rich asshole and his supporters have been making absurd efforts to downplay and undermine the massive Women’s Marches that marked the rich asshole’s inaugural anniversary last weekend, but paid Fox New the rich asshole shill Tomi Lahren deserves a prize for her molten take on the protests.
the rich asshole reacted to the Women’s Marches by pretending they were celebrating him during his do-nothing the rich asshole shutdown weekend, a premise that White House counselor Kellyanne Conway happily defendedon CNN, while Lara the rich asshole suggested that women were too stupid to even know why they were marching.
As offensive as those reactions were, Lahren managed to top them during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday morning.
Asked a question that was unrelated to the Women’s Marches, Lahren volunteered “Isn’t Sarah Huckabee Sanders amazing?”
“We had the Women’s March this past weekend,” Lahren continued. “If these women really want to march for someone, they should march for someone like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, first mommy press secretary, she handles this media perfectly.”
The fact is, though, that there are nearly as many reasons to march against Sanders as there are to march against the rich asshole. Not only has she enthusiastically defended the rich asshole’s sexual predation, his racism, his lies, and his every depraved policy, but she has gone above and beyond in attacking women on her own.
It was Sanders, not the rich asshole, who first demanded the firing of journalist Jemele Hill for criticizing the rich asshole, who flatly called the rich asshole’s many accusers liars, who called April Ryan “disgusting” while refusing to condemn slavery, who viciously attacked San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who said that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) had it coming when the rich asshole sexually harassed her in front of the entire world, and the list goes on.
Facts don’t matter to the likes of Lahren and Conway, who build careers on trolling the women who stand up to the rich asshole. Lahren is in fact a frequent critic of feminism and said in an interview with Playboy last year that it’s “bad” for the country.
But the joke will soon be on them, as the rich asshole has inspired women to lead the resistance against him — and to run for office in record numbers — while sending many who supported him fleeing to the Democrats. We will see who’s laughing in November.
While Republicans and the White House tries to dismantle trust in law enforcement, one Republican congressman says enough already.
Asked why so many of his Republican colleagues seem obsessed with trying to discredit the FBI as special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia and obstruction of justice investigation churns on, Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent stressed that “it’s important that we not undermine the American public’s confidence in the Justice Department and the FBI.”
“We Republicans have often sold ourselves as the party of law enforcement, and not just on the state and local level, but the federal level as well,” Dent said, urging Republicans to “temper” their rhetoric.
Today, that reputation of supporting federal law enforcement is in tatters as the GOP, likely at the White House’s request, wages a daily war against the FBI and the Department of Justice in the hopes of undermining public confidence so that if and when Mueller delivers additional indictments against members of the rich asshole’s team, Republicans can cry “foul.”
This week, there are not one but two newly hatched smear campaigns being marketed by partisan Republicans on the Hill and on Fox News, as they scramble to try to dismantle trust in law enforcement in advance of possible bad news.
One conspiracy claims the FBI is hiding thousands of text messages that somehow reveal the supposed anti-the rich asshole bias that fuels the Bureau. But even the Republican chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee thinks that one is half-baked.
The second revolves around the harebrained claim that a single 2016 FBI text exchange between two employees reveals a “secret society” within the FBI that meets and plots the rich asshole’s political demise.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) appeared on Fox News Tuesday and improved the plot, suggesting Republicans suddenly have a mysterious “informant” who can confirm the wild plot twist.
Asked if he had any clue what Johnson was talking about, Dent said, “I have no idea.” He added, “I am not prone to conspiracy theories, I really am not. I wish some of my colleague would temper their rhetoric.”
“I have confidence in director Mueller that he is going to run a through and professional investigations,” added Dent. “I do have confidence in this and we should not do anything to undermine this investigation.”
Today, it seems most of the Republican Party has a much different plan.
Sessions congratulates the rich asshole for ending imaginary crime wave
Sessions says the rich asshole delivered on his promise to end "American carnage." There's just one problem.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is crediting President the rich asshole for leading an effort to end a violent crime wave in America. There’s just one problem — that crime wave never existed in the first place.
In a new USA Today op-ed and on the White House’s social media channels, Sessions is touting new FBI crime statistics showing a very slight drop in U.S. violent crime in 2017 by praising the rich asshole for giving Americans hope.
"For the first time in a long time, Americans can have hope for a safer future, with a slower murder rate and decreasing violent crime." Read more from AG Sessions: 45.wh.gov/SDgypy
“Crime rates are not like the tides — we can help change them,” Sessions wrote. “And under the rich asshole’s strong leadership, we will.”
Overall, “violent crime declined by 0.8 percent” in the first six months of 2017. The FBI release on the data described it as a “slight decline.”
But as recent Brennan Center data indicates, violent crime in America’s largest cities has been steadily decreasing for more than two decades — through both Democratic and Republican administrations.
The only specific the rich asshole policy change under the rich asshole that Sessions cites in his op-ed is increased federal prosecutions. But the less-than-one percent drop in violent crime in the first half of 2017 paled in comparison to other recent years — there was a 4.4 percent drop in violent crime in 2013, for instance. A spike in murders of the first half of 2017 was offset by a decline in rape and robbery.
In general, year-to-year crime statistics tend to highly variable, so the long-term trend is the more important indicator.
the rich asshole’s campaign featured stoked fear about a fictional crime wave. During his “American carnage” inaugural speech, the rich asshole decried “the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.” Sessions has parroted the rich asshole’s rhetoric. During a speech immediately after he was sworn in as AG, he said “we have a crime problem,” going as far as to falsely characterize it as “a dangerous, permanent trend that places the health and safety of the American people at risk.”
Sessions is doing everything he can to give President the rich asshole credit for tackling violent crime at the same time that concerns are mounting about the rich asshole’s political interference in law enforcement institutions.
The president has reportedly been pushing Sessions to purge Obama-era holdovers from the FBI, and a number of the rich asshole-supporting Republican members of Congress have been using Fox News’ platform to suggest that “deep state” officials are trying to undermine the president.
Like Sessions is doing with regard to crime data, The rich asshole administration has worked to give the rich asshole credit for the fake jobs boom.
"This is what happens when the president of the United States, some rich asshole, repeatedly attacks members of the press."
Having previously been the target of death threats — there’s an open investigation at the NYPD right now regarding one case — CNN’s Don Lemon spoke with emotion Tuesday night as he addressed some rich asshole following news that a bigoted Michigan man had been arrested for calling in new death threats to CNN last week.
The man in custody specifically mimicked the rich asshole’s rhetoric in his threats to kill CNN staffers. “Fake news,” he said in one of several phone calls. “I’m coming to gun you all down.”
“There’s nothing random about this. Nothing,” Lemon warned. “This is what happens when the president of the United States, some rich asshole, repeatedly attacks members of the press simply for reporting facts he does not like.”
the rich asshole has tweeted the term “fake news” at least 50 times since his inauguration in 2017, often directed specifically at CNN. In fact, he tweeted about “Crazy Jim Acosta of Fake News CNN” on Tuesday, just a day after the story of the threats against the network broke.
“We are not the enemy. We are not trying to silence you,” Lemon said, directly addressing the rich asshole. “It is the job of the free press to report the facts, to ask questions — tough questions, ones you don’t like. No matter how many times you attack us as ‘fake news,’ we will continue to do our jobs.”
“If one of us is hurt, or, God forbid, something else in some way or another, either because you don’t understand the power of your words and/or you don’t care, it won’t be a fake injury or a fake death,” Lemon stressed. “It’ll be real. How will you answer those questions then? Not only from journalists, but from our loved ones, because you’re going to have to do it.”
Brandon Griesemer of Novi, Michigan, was recently arrested after he made “made approximately 22 total calls to CNN” on Jan. 9 and 10, threatening its employees, according to an arrest affidavit that was released.
“Fake news. I’m coming to gun you all down,” Griesemer said during one call to the network’s Atlanta headquarters. In another call, he said, “I am on my way right now to gun the f‑‑‑in’ CNN cast down. F‑‑‑ you.”
His threats also contained epithets against African-Americans and Jews. He was charged “with transmitting interstate communications with the intent to extort and threat to injure.”
Yet even after Griesemer was arrested, the rich asshole continued to Tweet dangerous, anti-CNN rhetoric.
The paranoid right has a confirmed history in this country of absorbing hateful rhetoric and turning that rhetoric into action.
In 2010, after listening to Glenn Beck weave wild conspiracy theories about the little-known liberal Tides Foundation, Byron Williams jumped in his truck, laced up his body armor, and drove up the California coast to San Francisco to shoot up the organization’s headquarters and spark a political revolution.
His planned domestic terrorist attack never came to pass because California Highway Patrol officers pulled Williams over for drunk driving on his way to his killing spree. Williams quickly opened fire, wounding two officers during a lengthy shootout.
It was bad enough when we had Fox News hosts like Beck inspiring would-be political killers. Now the president of the United States does it.
the rich asshole shocked Brits by ordering Theresa May to make people stop protesting against him: report
British Prime Minister Theresa May visited US President some rich asshole at the White House in January. (AFP/File / Brendan Smialowski)
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President some rich asshole last year ranted about nonexistent “no go” zones in London to U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May — and she was forced to tell him that he was mistaken.
In a big Bloomberg article on the rich asshole’s relationship with May, former May strategy director Chris Wilkins says that “the rich asshole turned to May and told her he believed there were parts of London that were effectively ‘no-go areas’ due to the number of Islamic extremists” during a meeting between the two world leaders in 2017.
Wilkins claims that May didn’t let the rich asshole’s bogus talking point stand, however, and spoke up to “correct him” and inform him that London did not have any “no-go zones.”
Elsewhere in the story, Bloomberg reports that the rich asshole berated May for the unfair treatment that he received in the U.K. press and refused to set foot in the country until she could guarantee that he would not be greeted with mass protests.
“May responded to say such treatment was simply the way the British press operate, and there wasn’t much she could do,” Bloomberg writes. “In the secure bunker underneath the prime minister’s office, her advisers listened in to the call in astonishment at the rich asshole’s demand.”
Katie Perrior, May’s former communications director, tells Bloomberg that she now regrets her former boss’s decision to offer the rich asshole a state invitation to visit their country.
“It was clear to me and others at the time that an offer of a state visit to President the rich asshole was over the top and unnecessary,” she says.
France’s Macron uses his Davos speech to roast the rich asshole’s climate denial
Macron has tried to position himself as a leader on climate action since taking office.
Since taking office in 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron has positioned himself as the antithesis to President some rich asshole’s climate denial. Throughout the last year, Macron has been one of the Paris climate agreement’s most outspoken proponents, hosted a climate conference in Paris (to which the rich asshole was not invited) and even began offering United States climate scientists grants to come and continue their work in France.
On Wednesday, Macron brought his passion for upstaging the rich asshole on climate issues to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, kicking off his speech with a joke about the U.S. president’s history of climate denial.
Macron began his speech in Davos by talking about the irony that a conference about globalization is taking place in a part of the world cut off from its surroundings by snow, immediately transitioning to a jab at President some rich asshole’s climate denial.
“For sure, with Davos, when you look outside…it could be hard to believe in global warming,” Macron said. “Obviously, and fortunately, you didn’t invite anyone skeptical with global warming this year.”
Two days before Trump's speech in Davos, France's Macron gets laughs with global warming joke at #WEF18 address reut.rs/2E6BcjD
The comment was an apparent swipe at the rich asshole, who tweeted in December that the East Coast, which was suffering through a historic cold snap at the time, could “use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against.”
Climate scientists were quick to point out that the president appeared to misunderstand the difference between weather and climate — weather being atmospheric conditions at any given place at any given time, and climate being the long-term trend of atmospheric conditions. Even though the eastern portion of the United States experienced bitterly cold temperatures in December, the rest of the world was experiencing above-average temperatures. The Arctic, for instance, was 6.1°F (3.4°C) above average in late December, and Australia experienced its fifth-warmest December on record.
Viewed from a global, long-term perspective, the trend is clear: the Earth is unequivocally warming. According to NASA, the five warmest years on record have all occurred since 2010, and 17 of the warmest 18 years on record have all occurred since 2001. Last year was the second-warmest year on record according to NASA measurements (third-warmest on record according to NOAA measurements), and the warmest on record without an El Niño pattern, which typically boosts temperatures around the globe.
Last year, climate-related disasters in the United States alone cost more than $300 billion, shattering the previous record for economic losses associated with natural disasters. From Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria to devastating wildfires throughout the Western United States, there were 16 disasters in 2017 that individually totaled more than $1 billion each in economic losses.
Despite evidence of warming and billions in economic damage, however, the rich asshole administration has continued to push forward with its anti-climate agenda. In June, the rich asshole announced that the United States would be withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, sending a signal to the rest of the world that the rich asshole administration would essentially be removing the United States from future climate negotiations (the United States doesn’t officially exit the agreement until November of 2020, and could re-enter under a new administration). At home, the rich asshole has also pushed for the repeal of the Clean Power Plan — the Obama administration’s attempt to place emissions limits on power plants — as well as a number of smaller regulations aimed at limiting emissions from industry and transportation.
the rich asshole is scheduled to speak at Davos on Friday, and his speech will likely center on his administration’s America First policy. Meanwhile, in an interview given to Fox Business from Davos, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said that America’s fracking boom has finally allowed the country to become an energy exporter.
“The United States is not just exporting energy,” Perry said. “We’re exporting freedom.”
Republican senator claims FBI is holding ‘secret society’ meetings to plan presidential coup
"There's so much smoke here, there's so much suspicion."
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) spoke with Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Tuesday night and dropped a bombshell claim: high-ranking members of the FBI were part of a “secret society” actively attempting to overthrow the rich asshole administration.
The proof, he said, lay in a series of classified text messages between FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, which have not been made public.
“What this is all about is further evidence of corruption — more than bias — but corruption of the highest levels of the FBI,” Johnson said, referring to Strzok and Page’s texts, which were largely critical of President the rich asshole. Both employees had been working on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe until last summer. Strzok was dismissed after the series of text messages were first brought to light; Page had already completed her work for the special counsel by then.
Offering no evidence to support his claim, he added, “And that secret society… we have an informant talking about a group that was holding secret meetings off-site. There is so much smoke here. There’s so much suspicion.”
After Baier asked him to elaborate, Johnson shook his head “no.”
“We have to dig into it,” he said.
On Wednesday, amid escalating criticism, Johnson doubled down.
“Listen, the term secret society comes from Strzok and Page. I had heard of a group of people within the F.B.I. Holding secret offsite meetings. I was connecting the dots,” he told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer.
When Hemmer pushed him for more details, Johnson refused, arguing that the matter was classified. “I don’t want to give any indication. We’re dealing with the world’s premier investigative agency here and people that come forward to us fear retaliation.”
Once again, despite having the messages at his disposal, Johnson refused to produce any evidence to back his claim.
Johnson’s suggestion of a “secret society” is not the first wild theory Republicans have conjured up in recent weeks in a concentrated effort to discredit Mueller’s investigation, often without any supporting evidence.
On Thursday last week, Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee claimed that they had seen a four-page memo detailing surveillance abuses by people working for the FBI, adding that it proved corruption at the highest levels of the Justice Department. According to Fox News’ Catherine Herridge, one GOP member even compared the alleged surveillance to “KGB activity in Russia.”
As ThinkProgress previously noted, there’s nothing stopping Republicans from releasing the memo in question, and no need to wait for the president to declassify it either. Despite this, Republicans have waged war on the FBI and Democrats alike for supposedly covering it up, even pushing a #ReleaseTheMemo campaign on Twitter.
Republican pressure on Mueller and his team has escalated since the special counsel handed out its first indictments late last year. In October, Mueller’s office indicted former the rich asshole campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates several charges, including money laundering, operating as unregistered foreign agents for the Ukraine, and conspiracy against the United States. That same week, it was revealed that former the rich asshole campaign adviser George Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty earlier in the year to lying to the FBI about his campaign communications with the Russians. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December and is reportedly cooperating with Mueller’s team.
The New York Times on Tuesday also reported that Mueller’s team had interviewed both Sessions and former FBI Director James Comey, among others. Comey previously claimed that the rich asshole pushed him to pledge his loyalty and asked him to drop the FBI investigation into Flynn.
This is what passes for American "leadership" now.
some rich asshole heads to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, but one of his Cabinet secretaries is already there — and she’s already causing an embarrassment for the United States.
Sadly, global humiliation is already becoming a tradition for the rich asshole team’s travels abroad.
the rich asshole’s trip to Davos has left him vulnerable to criticism from his anti-“globalist” base, but the White House pitched his appearance as a chance to “sell his accomplishments” and “remind the world that we are open for business, that we’re a competitive country.”
But during a Davos forum on Wednesday, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao delivered a message that sounded a lot more like alienation than an invitation.
Members of the panel were asked if the U.S. is retreating from its role as a global leader and becoming “just another country.”
When it was Chao’s turn to answer, she suggested it would be best to let the rich asshole answer that. But she offered her own arrogant take on the issue.
“Davos should be very flattered that he has chosen this as a forum, and so those that don’t want to listen to him, you can — they can leave!” Chao stated.
“When we talk about America’s role around the globe, it’s not as if America is going to withdraw,” she continued, going on to say that “America has been the chump” for its role in ensuring “global peace and security.”
Chao’s remarks come on the heels of a massive 11-nation trade agreement that does not include the U.S., the very definition of America withdrawing. And that is just the latest example of the rich asshole’s abdication of leadership on the world stage.
America’s standing has suffered greatly under the rich asshole, who is seen as a dangerous fool by the rest of the world. When he’s not embarrassing the country, he’s destabilizing the rest of the world by provoking nuclear showdowns and stomping all over decades of Middle East policy. Under the rich asshole, simply not murdering journalists has become a praiseworthy attribute for an American president.
Unfortunately for the world, they really can’t get up and leave if they don’t like the rich asshole’s reckless and dangerous words and actions, and neither can we. But we’re only stuck with him for three more years — at most.
RNC chair defends the rich asshole’s political litmus test for the FBI
"I ask people who they vote for sometimes. I think it's just trying to get to know somebody."
During an interview on CNN on Wednesday morning, RNC chair Ronna McDaniel said she has no concerns about a report indicating President the rich asshole grilled then-acting FBI director Andrew McCabe about who he voted for in the 2016 election.
“I think it’s just a conversation — I don’t think it intends, you know, all these terrible things that people are trying to put forward,” she said. “I ask people who they vote for sometimes. I think it’s just trying to get to know somebody.”
McDaniel was referencing a Washington Post report detailing that the rich asshole — shortly after firing then-FBI Director James Comey amid the bureau’s active investigation into his campaign — had a meeting with McCabe during which he asked who McCabe voted for in the 2016 election.
“McCabe said he didn’t vote, according to [current and former U.S.] officials, who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about a sensitive matter,” the Post reported. “McCabe, who has spent more than two decades at the bureau, found the conversation with the rich asshole ‘disturbing,’ said one former U.S. official.”
The Post report also notes that the rich asshole “vented his anger at McCabe over the several hundred thousand dollars in donations that his wife, a Democrat, received for her failed 2015 Virginia state Senate bid from a political action committee controlled by a close friend of Hillary Clinton.”
the rich asshole recently attacked McCabe on Twitter for his wife’s ties with Hillary Clinton.
the rich asshole’s December tweet contains numerous factually inaccuracies. McCabe’s wife, Jill McCabe, received $500,000 from a PAC controlled by then-Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe for an unsuccessful Virginia Senate bid she made in 2015, before the Clinton email investigation began.
Asking McCabe who he supported for president is just the latest example of the rich asshole putting political pressure on the Department of Justice, which is supposed to operate independently of political influence.
Before firing former FBI Director James Comey, the rich asshole asked him to pledge personal loyalty to him — a request Comey refused. the rich asshole has also repeatedly called for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to launch investigations into his political enemies.
More recently, the rich asshole has reportedly been trying to push McCabe out of the FBI. On Tuesday, Axios reported that Sessions — “at the public urging” of the rich asshole — “has been pressuring FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, but Wray threatened to resign if McCabe was removed, according to three sources with direct knowledge.”
None of this seems to bother McDaniel, however.
“He’s certainly not going around to every single FBI agent and saying, ‘Did you vote for me?'” she said during the CNN interview. “It’s a conversation. He had someone in his office. He kept people on who I know, I’m sure he thinks didn’t support him.”
“This is a president who is just getting to know people, and that’s part of those conversation,” McDaniel added.
‘This guy’s busted’: Morning Joe says Mueller has ‘smoking gun’ evidence of the rich asshole obstruction on tape
Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
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Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether President some rich asshole intended to obstruct justice in the Russia probe, but a “Morning Joe” panel found the evidence hilariously obvious.
The MSNBC program hosted Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) to discuss the latest developments in the probe, including efforts by Republican lawmakers and Fox News to discredit Mueller and his investigation.
A new report by NBC News shows the White House concluded in late winter that Mike Flynn had lied to FBI agents, which means the rich asshole was aware his former national security adviser was in legal jeopardy when he fired FBI director James Comey on May 9.
But MSNBC’s Ari Melber said the rich asshole had already publicly confessed to firing Comey over his handling of the Russia probe during a May 11 interview with NBC News.
“Isn’t the funny part here that we also have tapes but they were made by Lester Holt?” Melber said. “I mean the president said something on TV that if it were a secret tape, if we found the secret tape of him saying, ‘Russia was on my mind when I fired the FBI director.’ It would actually look worse, but it just all happened live.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski giggled as she agreed Melber was right, that those nationally broadcast recordings would be potentially damning if they had been revealed another way, and Himes agreed other the rich asshole campaign associates — including his family members — had also signaled corrupt intentions.
“Don Jr. in meeting, you know, in his the rich asshole Tower meeting where he’s looking and excited of getting dirt about Hillary Clinton, it was all about the e-mails,” Himes said, laughing. “Maybe they’re not tapes, but we live in a world with a lot more evidence.”
Host Joe Scarborough said Mueller had two other key pieces of evidence already on the public record from the week the rich asshole fired Comey.
“Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ statement the next day, where she says he wanted to finish the investigation so he got rid of him, you’ve got intent from that White House statement,” Scarborough said. “Finally, the smoking gun of all smoking guns, the White House released a conversation between some rich asshole and the Russian foreign minister and the Russian ambassador to the United States and congressman, you got the president of the United States saying, ‘Hey, I got the pressure off, this guy is a real nut job. I fired him, so now the pressure is off on this investigation.’ So guess what? some rich asshole colluding with the government of the two people that were inside that Oval Office.”
Brzezinski said the rich asshole’s statement to NBC News could hardly be more clear evidence of intent.
“the rich asshole (is) on tape going, ‘Look, I am going to obstruct justice, okay?'” she said. “‘Everybody listen — Lester, are you rolling? I am going to obstruct justice.'”
Scarborough said the admission was the type of evidence prosecutors dream of finding.
“This is the sort of thing when I was an attorney and we were digging through old depositions or we were digging through discovery or digging through documents, this would be the sort of thing that you would pull out of a thick file, and you would run down and go in to your senior partner and say,’I found, I found it — this guy’s busted,'” Scarborough said. “Except for the fact he did it in plain sight, he admitted it in plain sight with Lester Holt, with the Russian foreign minister, with the Russian ambassador of the United States, and then had his White House spokesperson do it.”
US slaps new sanctions on North Korea over weapons program
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 01/24/18 11:39 AM EST
The Treasury Department announced new sanctions on North Korea on Wednesday over its nuclear weapons program.
"Treasury continues to systematically target individuals and entities financing the Kim regime and its weapons programs, including officials complicit in North Korean sanctions evasion schemes," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
The U.S. is targeting nine entities, 16 people and six vessels under the sanctions.
Relations between North Korea and the U.S. have declined over the past year amid Pyongyang's continued testing of intercontinental ballistic missiles and President the rich asshole's warnings to the nation.
President the rich asshole praised his administration's sanctions on North Korea earlier this month.
Sanctions and “other” pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea. Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea. Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see!
Despite declining tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, relations between North Korea and South Korea appear to be improving.
North and South Korean leaders have taken part in negotiations for the first time in years on the upcoming Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
BY JESSIE HELLMANN - 01/24/18 11:36 AM EST
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is urging President the rich asshole to approve federal funding for a family planning program that excludes Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, a move that could set off a wave of similar actions in other red states.
Abbott argued that his state's program is consistent with policies the the rich asshole administration announced last week, when it rescinded Obama-era guidance protecting abortion providers from such actions.
"The approval of Texas’ waiver is not only consistent with the policies you announced last week, but also will set a powerful example of the impact of your decision to rescind previous guidance from the Obama administration," Abbott wrote in a letter to the rich asshole on Tuesday.
The Obama administration withheld $35 million a year in Medicaid Title X family planning funds from Texas after the state began excluding Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from the program.
Now, Abbott is asking for the money back to fund its "Healthy Texas Women Program," while still excluding Planned Parenthood.
If approved by the rich asshole administration, it would pave the way for other states to cut Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid programs.
"The Obama administration stripped hundreds of millions of dollars from Texas’ women’s health program, simply because Texas refused to fund abortion providers or their affiliates through the program," Abbott said.
"We appreciate the significant steps you have outlined to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent in accordance with a culture that prioritizes life. Reinstating federal funding for Texas’ women’s health program provides an additional opportunity to put those values into action, all while supporting health care access for Texas women."
The administration said last week it would rescind the Obama-era guidance, issued in 2016, that warned states against ending Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood.
In a press call with reporters last week, a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) official called the move an effort to "roll back regulations the Obama administration put out to radically favor abortion."
"Reinstating the pre-2016 standards frees up states to once again decide for themselves what reasonable standards they use to protect Medicaid programs and their beneficiaries," said Charmaine Yoest, assistant HHS secretary for public affairs.
Texas submitted the request in July, and it's not clear if it will be approved by the administration.
Anti-abortion groups have touted the rich asshole administration's actions as an "important step" toward defunding Planned Parenthood.
But Planned Parenthood called Abbott's request an effort to take away rights from women and others who already face "unequal and unfair treatment."
"We have to keep fighting to make sure everyone gets the health care they want or need, without politicians controlling when, how, or why," said Yvonne Gutierrez, executive director of Planned Parenthood Texas.
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 01/24/18 11:10 AM EST
A bipartisan group of senators, including members of leadership, will meet on Wednesday evening as they look for a deal on immigration.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters that a bipartisan group put together by GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) will meet around 5 p.m.
Cornyn and Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, are expected to take part in the meeting.
Cornyn said on Wednesday that he and Durbin will work as a "clearinghouse" to field ideas from both caucuses.
"So we can build from the bottom up a plan that can hopefully get enough support that we can get it passed," Cornyn said when asked about the meeting.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) threw his support behind the group, noting he had "very good conversations" with Collins and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).
"I support the bipartisan group. In fact, as some of our members here on the Democratic side have plans for it, I encourage them to join it and form it," he said.
He added that "what they are doing is very, very good for the body."
The Wednesday gathering comes after a smaller group of 12 senators, organized by Graham, met on Monday to begin negotiations.
Collins was also at the forefront of an effort by a group of moderate senators to reach an agreement to end the shutdown.
Lawmakers have roughly two weeks until the current government funding bill runs out on Feb. 8. If they aren't able to reach a larger deal by then, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he will bring up an immigration bill.
Updated at 11:17 a.m.
TAGS CHARLES SCHUMER MITCH MCCONNELL LINDSEY GRAHAM SUSAN COLLINS JOE MANCHIN JOHN CORNYN DICK DURBIN SENATE IMMIGRATION GOVERNMENT FUNDING
BY HARPER NEIDIG - 01/24/18 10:54 AM EST
AT&T is calling on Congress to pass a net neutrality law that would cover not only internet service providers but also platforms like Facebook and Google.
The telecom giant took out full-page ads in major newspapers like The New York Times and the Washington Post on Wednesday calling for an “internet bill of rights.”
“Legislation would not only ensure consumers’ rights are protected, but it would provide consistent rules of the road for all internet companies across all websites, content, devices and applications,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson wrote in the ad.
AT&T has been an outspoken champion of the Federal Communications Commission’s decision last month to repeal its 2015 net neutrality rules, which prevented internet providers from discriminating against web content or from creating internet fast lanes.
The company also pushed Congress last year to eliminate a set of FCC privacy rules that would have required broadband companies to obtain permission from consumers before using their data to sell targeted ads.
Gigi Sohn, who served as an adviser to former Democratic FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, said AT&T was being hypocritical in its call for internet legislation.
“Among other things, the company has led the charge to repeal the Wheeler FCC’s strong broadband privacy rules and rules protecting Americans with landline phones, promoted state laws that ban communities from building their own broadband networks, and of course, has been a central player in the FCC’s recent repeal of its network neutrality rules and the agency’s abdication of its role protecting consumers and competition,” Sohn said in a statement.
“Make no mistake about it, any “Internet Bill of Rights” supported by AT&T will leave the FCC powerless, net neutrality and privacy protections weak and consumers and competition left out in the cold,” she added.
AT&T and most Republicans argue that the FCC’s net neutrality rules were too heavy-handed and there are sufficient laws on the books to preserve an open internet.
When Congress overturned the FCC privacy rules, AT&T argued that the laws unfairly subjected internet service providers to restrictions that didn’t cover companies like Facebook and Google, which provide more targeted advertising.
Opponents of the FCC’s net neutrality rules are pushing for Congress to fill the void left by the agency’s repeal in order to preempt a regulatory back-and-forth that would accompany every change in administration.
“Without predictable rules for how the internet works, it will be difficult to meet the demands of these new technology advances,” Stephenson wrote.
Net neutrality supporters largely reject any attempt to legislate open internet protections, arguing that a GOP-controlled Congress would not produce rules as strong as what the FCC had in place.
“It would be a lot easier to take AT&T at their word if they hadn't spent more than $16 million last year alone lobbying to kill net neutrality and privacy protections for Internet users,” said Evan Greer, an activist with the pro-net neutrality group Fight for the Future. “Internet activists have been warning for months that the big ISPs plan has always been to gut the rules at the FCC and then use the 'crisis' they created to ram through bad legislation in the name of 'saving' net neutrality.”
Stephenson wrote that AT&T is committed to not blocking or throttling web content, but made no mention of paid prioritization, the creation of internet fast lanes that net neutrality supporters argue would upend what they see as a level playing field on the internet.
some rich asshole dials back on ‘America First’ agenda while rubbing elbows with elites at Davos
some rich asshole during CNN debate (Photo: Screen capture via video)
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President some rich asshole ran on an “America First” policy, but his appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland seems to be turning against that policy as the United States ranking falters.
The Steve Bannon-influenced policy is taking a shift, however. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the rich asshole seems to be backtracking from the “America First” policy he sold to voters.
“This is about an America First agenda, but America First does mean working with the rest of the world,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told the media Wednesday morning.
The sentiment was echoed by the rich asshole’s National Economic Council chief Gary Cohn. “America First is not America alone,” he said.
During the rich asshole’s inauguration speech just over a year ago, he cited the policy as a new vision that is different from any other administration in history.
“From this day forward, a new vision will govern…it’s going to be only America first, America first,” the rich asshole said.
The phrase first appeared in March 2016 during a New York Times interview in which the rich asshole claimed he wasn’t supporting isolationism but that the U.S. should come first.
An extensively researched report from The Atlantic explained the history of the phrase that dates back to isolationism during World War II and anti-Semitism. They cited the America First Committee (AFC), founded in 1940 to oppose the U.S. involvement in the war. The group condemned Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration for advocating entering the war.
Bannon, who advocated the “America First” policy and ensured it was included in the rich asshole’s inaugural speech, cited specific policies that fall under the umbrella. According to former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, the rich asshole and Bannon’s “view [of] foreign relations is a zero-sum game.”
“the rich asshole’s and Bannon’s version of ‘America First’ is no less dangerous,” than the World War II isolationism and anti-Semitism, according to Reich. “It is alienating America from the rest of the world, destroying our nation’s moral authority abroad, and risking everything we love about our country.”
the rich asshole, on the other hand, claims that America’s standing in the world has never been better. After returning from the “longest in history” trip to Asia, the rich asshole told members of the press the U.S. standing is on the rise.
“This great respect showed very well our country is — further evidence that America’s renewed confidence and standing in the world has never been stronger than it is right now,” the rich asshole said. “When we are confident in ourselves, our strength, our flag, our history, our values — other nations are confident in us. And when we treat our citizens with the respect they deserve, other countries treat America with the respect that our country so richly deserves.”
He repeated the sentiment during the campaign rally outside of Alabama for failed senate candidate Roy Moore. “The world is starting to respect the United States of America again,” the rich asshole said. The facts don’t verify the claim.
While Reich’s editorial was authored a year ago and the rich asshole has spent the year claiming America is more respected, the reality shows something different. As if Reich foreshadowed it, the standing of the United States has actually fallen under the rich asshole.
Gallup World Poll surveyed 134 countries between March and November 2017 and findings revealed that not only has the perception of U.S. leadership abroad dropped, allies of the U.S. have too. According to Gallup, countries that stand with the U.S. also saw dramatic drops in approval rates for American leadership. Opinions of the U.S. leadership fell 40 points under the rich asshole, something that never happened under former President Barack Obama, despite the rich asshole’s claims.
The disapproval numbers for the United States are so high it even set a record. the rich asshole’s “like it or lump it” policies for to foreign policy and global relations could be driving the decline, Gallup said in the analysis.
The public seems to agree. A poll from The Economist/Yougov conducted in December, 52 percent of those surveyed say the U.S. is less respected in the world. Only 21 percent think the U.S. is more respected and 36 percent don’t think there was any change.
the rich asshole’s list of international flubs include allegedly referring to countries as “sh*thole countries” such as Haiti and African nations, the claim NATO is obsolete, pulling out of trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord and stoking nuclear war fanatic Kim Jong-Un of North Korea.
BY TIMOTHY CAMA - 01/24/18 10:33 AM EST
Energy Secretary Rick Perry characterized the rich asshole administration’s energy agenda as a world-changing development that spreads freedom around the globe.
Perry framed exports of fossil fuels like oil, natural gas and coal as a central part of President the rich asshole’s “Energy Dominance” agenda, in which the administration is aiming to dramatically increase the domestic production of fossil fuels.
“The United States is not just exporting energy, we’re exporting freedom,” Perry said on Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria” in an interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“We’re exporting to our allies in Europe the opportunity to truly have a choice of where do you buy your energy from. That’s freedom. And that kind of freedom is priceless.”
The former Texas governor further cited the estimate from numerous sources, like the International Energy Agency, that the United States will become the world’s top oil producer this year. It is already the top natural gas producer.
“I'm not sure anything since World War II has been any more dynamic, from my perspective, than the shift in energy supply, energy control if you will,” Perry said of the domestic oil and gas boom of the last decade.
“The United States isn’t about controlling a country with this energy. It’s about literally freeing up our allies around the world, letting them know that we’re going to be there for them. There’s no strings attached when you buy American [liquid natural gas]. So that’s world-changing.”
Perry said that the United States has an “amazing” supply of oil and natural gas, citing the rich asshole’s offshore drilling plan and Congress’s plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
He waded briefly into the rich asshole’s Monday decision to impose steep tariffs on imported solar panels and washers, saying it’s a sign of the rules under which the rich asshole thinks countries should trade with the United States.
“We shouldn’t be worrying about this administration from the standpoint of transparency and fairness. That’s what some rich asshole’s all about,” Perry said.
“You want to compete against the United States? Bring it. But don’t subsidize in a way that is unfair. Don’t get into the market and try to gobble all the market, and then all of the sudden, after you’ve choked everybody else out of the market, guess what, prices go up.”
Free-market Republicans have joined affected industries like solar panel installers and appliance companies in criticizing the rich asshole’s tariffs, saying they represent an abandonment of free-trade principles.
‘Not a coincidence’: Morning Joe shows how the GOP and Fox News are in cahoots to undermine Mueller
Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough blasted Republican lawmakers and Fox News for cooking up conspiracy theories as they conspire to undermine the investigation of President some rich asshole’s ties to Russia.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) claimed Tuesday a “secret society” within the FBI wanted to take down the rich asshole, and Fox Business host Lou Dobbs called for “war” against the Department of Justice, as Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) pushed a memo he says proves a conspiracy against the president.
“You know, in the age of the rich asshole, things come at us so quickly that it’s important to step back and add some context yet again to what’s going on right now,” Scarborough said. “You actually have a Fox News host calling for war against the men and women of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and calling for war against the men and women, the professionals who work at the Justice Department. At the same time, you actually have a GOP senator pushing out murky allegations about a secret society inside the FBI that is plotting a coup against some rich asshole.”
The “Morning Joe” host said Republican efforts to undermine the special counsel probe were being assisted by the same foreign adversary at the center of the rich asshole-Russia investigation.
“This all happens on the day that they start a hashtag #releasethememo, in which Russian bots start going to push forward hashtag that the Freedom Caucus is trying to undermine the reputation of the men and women of the FBI,” Scarborough said. “All on the same day, not a coincidence, that we find out that some rich asshole is going to have to testify under oath to Bob Mueller.”
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 01/24/18 07:19 AM EST
CIA Director Mike Pompeo has been interviewed as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference, NBC News reported.
Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates has also cooperated with the special counsel, the network reported.
President the rich asshole last year fired Yates from her post after she refused to defend his initial travel ban. She has since become a frequent critic of the rich asshole administration.
Pompeo and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, who has also spoken with Mueller's team, are "peripheral witnesses" to the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, one person familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The report comes one day after news broke that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was interviewed last week in the Mueller probe, which is investigating, among other things, possible connections between the rich asshole's presidential campaign and Russia.
Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in March, despite criticisms from the rich asshole. It was reported earlier this month that the rich asshole ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to block Sessions from recusing himself, but the attorney general do so anyway.
Comey was also interviewed last year by Mueller's team.
the rich asshole has repeatedly dismissed the Russia probe as a witch hunt and denied collusion.
Mueller reportedly wants to question the rich asshole on his decision to fire Comey and the departure of his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
Two people familiar with Mueller’s investigation told The Washington Post that the rich asshole’s legal team could present conditions for the rich asshole to interview with Mueller’s investigators as soon as next week.
the rich asshole's apparent attempt to determine whether Andrew McCabe would be loyal to him is the latest episode in the "relentless, all-out assault" on the FBI.
The evidence has been mounting for a year that some rich asshole obstructed justice in his attempts to shut down the Russia investigation.
But yet another shoe dropped Tuesday, when the Washington Post reported that the same week the rich asshole fired FBI Director James Comey as part of his obstruction, he also questioned then-acting Director Andrew McCabe about how he voted in 2016. That seems to have been an attempt to determine whether McCabe might be more favorable to the rich asshole or, like Comey, pose a threat.
the rich asshole had unsuccessfully sought Comey’s pledge of loyalty — a fact McCabe, now deputy director of the FBI, corroborated during testimony last month before the House Intelligence Committee. Essentially asking whether McCabe had voted for the rich asshole, in what certainly seems an attempt to determine McCabe’s potential loyalty, strikes an all too familiar and equally disturbing note.
“It is explosive, because what it shows is even more powerful evidence of obstruction of justice and interference with the FBI, and an attack on the FBI itself,” Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Tuesday evening.
He added that McCabe is “a longstanding career professional in the FBI,” and to ask him “whether he had political involvement in the sense of who he voted for … adds context also to the continuing work of the Judiciary Committee, which should be looking into whether or not this kind of interview involving the president of the United States and a career professional at the FBI represents an attack on this institution.”
The FBI, Blumenthal said, is “one of the premier law enforcement institutions in the world, and it is now under attack by Republicans — a relentless, all-out assault on law enforcement institutions.”
McCabe has become one of the top targets of attacks, smears, and conspiracy theories by the rich asshole and his Republican enablers in Congress.
the rich asshole’s interrogation of McCabe, immediately after firing Comey, only adds to the speculation that the rich asshole has been trying to purge the FBI of those he deems insufficiently loyal and to obstruct investigations into him, his campaign, and his family.
And it’s a conversation that special counsel Robert Mueller is also investigating, according to the Post, which further indicates it might be part of the larger subject of the rich asshole’s potential obstruction.
The public deserves answers on the rich asshole’s political manipulation of our nation’s top investigators, and he must be held accountable.
Mike Flynn concealed his fateful FBI interview from the rich asshole White House — until Yates blew the whistle: report
President some rich asshole, Mike Flynn, Reince Priebus, Mike Pence and Steve Bannon (Sean Spicer, White House.gov)
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One year ago today, then-national security adviser Mike Flynn met privately in his West Wing office for an interview with FBI agents about his communications with the Russian ambassador.
Flynn answered questions without a lawyer present and without telling President some rich asshole or other top White House officials — and more than 10 months later pleaded guilty to lying during that Jan. 24, 2017, interview, reported NBC News.
Two people familiar with the matter told NBC News that the rich asshole learned two days after the interview that Flynn had spoken with the FBI, which was set up hours before it took place by deputy FBI director Dan McCabe and a White House scheduler.
The scheduler didn’t ask the reason for the meeting and the FBI didn’t offer an explanation, one source told NBC News.
No one knew that any of this was happening,” said another senior White House official who was in the administration at the time.
“Apparently it was not clear to Flynn that this was about his personal conduct,” said a second White House official. “So he didn’t think of bringing his own lawyer.”
Two days after the interview, then-deputy attorney general Sally Yates warned White House counsel Don McGahn that Flynn may be vulnerable to blackmail by the Russian government because he had lied to top White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence.
McGahn briefed the rich asshole, along with then-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and then-chief of staff Reince Priebus, about his meeting with Yates later that same day.
That’s when the rich asshole learned Flynn had been interviewed with the FBI, sources told NBC News.
Yates, who was fired Jan. 30, has testified before Congress that McGahn asked her how Flynn had done in his interview, and she said she told the White House counsel she could not comment on that.
A source said McGahn did not ask Flynn if he had lied to the FBI, but they said it’s not clear whether the White House counsel suspected the national security adviser had misled investigators.
The FBI requested Flynn’s phone records and other documents in late winter, after Flynn was forced out.
A source told NBC News the White House concluded at that time that Flynn had lied in his interview and was under investigation — so the president would have known his national security adviser was in legal jeopardy when he fired FBI director James Comey on May 9.
Comey has testified before lawmakers that the rich asshole asked him Feb. 14, the day after the national security adviser’s firing, to let go of his investigation of Flynn, but the president has denied that allegation.
That timeline will be key to proving a possible obstruction of justice case against the president in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Comey was interviewed late last month by Mueller’s team.
BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS - 01/24/18 06:00 AM EST
The knives are out for the FBI on Capitol Hill.
Conservative lawmakers from four separate committees are raising alarm bells about a tranche of missing text messages between two FBI agents assigned to the investigation into Russia and President the rich asshole’s campaign, saying it calls into “further question the credibility and objectivity of certain officials at the FBI.”
Meanwhile, House Intelligence Committee lawmakers are refusing to allow the FBI to view a classified four-page memo that GOP members say shows abuse by the bureau of government surveillance powers.
“Well, yeah, they’re the ones that had the problem,” Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) said Tuesday, when asked why the bureau’s request to see the document is being denied.
In another sign of tension, Axios reported Monday night that FBI Director Christopher Wray threatened to resign over pressure from the White House to dismiss Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, a longtime GOP target.
It all comes amid signs that special counsel Robert Mueller is moving closer to interviewing the rich asshole as he continues his probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, including possible collusion with members of the rich asshole’s campaign.
Democrats have painted investigations of the FBI’s conduct by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the House Intelligence, Oversight and Government Reform, and Judiciary committees as transparent efforts to discredit Mueller’s probe.
The fighting has strained the relationship between the bureau and Capitol Hill Republicans for months, culminating in a rare public statement from the FBI confirming they had requested, and been denied access to, the memo. Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) on Tuesday called the relationship “rocky,” saying “2016 and 2017 haven’t been good years for [the Justice Department] and FBI.”
“To say we want to see your memo when for months and months they haven’t let us see lots of stuff we wanted to see — the memo came from what you gave us, FBI,” Gowdy told Fox News. “There is nothing new in there other than what you gave us and you showed us.”
The Intelligence panel is wrangling over publicly releasing the memo, which would require a committee vote. Lawmakers of both parties have described it as a set of conclusions based on Republican research into FBI misconduct, with Democrats condemning it as misleading allegations and committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) characterizing it as “facts.”
There are also signs the GOP is not united on the subject of the FBI, an organization that historically has not been seen as an enemy of the Republican Party.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), whose panel is also investigating Russia’s election interference, told CNN Tuesday that the FBI had been cooperative in providing documents to Congress.
“I’m not going to read anything into it other than it may be a technical glitch at the bureau,” he said of the missing texts. “The fact that they have provided the rest of them certainly doesn’t show an intent to try to withhold anything.”
Democrats have been more direct in their criticism. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, called the allegations in the memo “a conspiracy theory concocted by Chairman Nunes” after reviewing the underlying materials.
One important question is whether Republicans will be able to release any of the intelligence used to craft the memo. A working group, including Gowdy, Nunes and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), met over the weekend to discuss the possibility. Nunes has “a plan,” according to Conaway, but no further details have been made public.
In a conversation with The Hill on Monday, Nunes said claims that the memo was unpersuasive without the underlying evidence were an example of Democratic obstruction.
The five months of missing messages between senior counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page has thrown gasoline on the fire. The messages begin again on May 17, the day that Mueller was appointed.
It “is harder and harder for us to explain one strange coincidence after another,” Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) told Fox News on Tuesday.
Gowdy, Ratcliffe and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) have revealed selective excerpts from the texts the bureau did turn over on Friday, arguing that they display “stunning” bias against the rich asshole.
Page and Strzok were having an extramarital affair and frequently discussed the news of the day over texts, according to previously released messages. In those missives, they often criticized then-candidate the rich asshole as unfit for office, with Page at one point writing “this man cannot be president.” The two also criticized the Obama administration, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s team and other Democrats.
The messages were uncovered during the course of an inspector general investigation into the bureau’s handling of the investigation into Clinton’s email practices while secretary of State. Page had already left the team at that point, and Mueller removed Strzok when he was made aware of the texts.
The latest set of messages has not yet been viewed by reporters in full. In one excerpt published by Johnson on Tuesday, Strzok and Page discuss becoming a part of Mueller’s team, weighing both their own relationship and the likely outcome of that investigation.
“You and I both know the odds are nothing. If I thought it was likely, I’d be there no question. I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concerned there’s no big there,” Strzok wrote to Page.
Johnson provided his own interpretation of that text, telling a radio show in Milwaukee, “In other words, Peter Strzok was the FBI deputy assistant director of the counterintelligence division, and the man had a plan to do something, because he just couldn’t abide some rich asshole being president.”
the rich asshole, who has repeatedly characterized the Mueller probe as a “witch hunt,” tweeted Tuesday that the news of the lost text messages was “one of the biggest stories in a long time.”
Even some former FBI officials concede that the texts between the two officials are damning. Ron Hosko, a former assistant director at the bureau, told The Hill they showed “misconduct [that] has to be addressed.”
But he was far more dubious of the Republican narrative on the memo.
“There are voices painting this picture of a conspiracy because more than anything they believe it’s getting them traction to push the Mueller investigation off the rails,” he said.
“It is better for them not to have it out there because right now it’s a bogeyman — people can assume that the worst is in the memo. It’s their best strategy today to get traction on it, while damage is being done to the FBI.”
Gowdy on Tuesday insisted that he “supports” Mueller and “has no interest” in interfering with the investigation.
He has repeatedly said that it “breaks his heart” to report “bad apples” at the FBI.
Jonathan Easley contributed.
11 nations are set to sign a historic trade deal without the United States, exposing the rich asshole's continued lack of global stature and influence.
While some rich asshole prioritizes golfing and so-called “executive time,” foreign heads of state are busy filling a global leadership vacuum left vacant by the United States.
Bloomberg reports that 11 countries — including Japan, Canada, and Australia — have reached an agreement on a historic trade deal, which they expect to sign in March.
The U.S. was part of the original negotiations, formerly known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). But one of the rich asshole’s first acts after inauguration was to completely withdraw the country from all negotiations.
And as Bloomberg notes, the deal came in the immediate wake of a reckless move by the rich asshole, while he was home watching his own party shut down the federal government.
“The deal was reached after two days of talks in Tokyo, and came just hours after the rich asshole imposed tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines — his first major move to level what he says is a global playing field tilted against U.S. companies.”
And as per usual, his reasons relied on misinformation and outright lies.
While positions on the TPP in the U.S. were mixed, withdrawing completely means that the nation has no influence over a deal impacting a huge segment of the global economy.
According the Australian government, the new deal will “eliminate more than 98 per cent of tariffs in a free-trade zone, with a combined GDP of $13.7 trillion.”
the rich asshole seems determined to isolate the U.S. from the rest of the world, withdrawing from a place of global leadership to a place of lazy isolation.
And he is succeeding.
The rest of the world thinks that the rich asshole is some combination of arrogant, intolerant, and dangerous. Views on America’s global leadership have tanked since the rich asshole took office, falling an astounding 18 points in a Gallup poll. And he has also managed to tank tourism numbers to the U.S., costing the nation $4.6 billion and 40,000 jobs in that industry.
President Barack Obama spent eight years rebuilding the nation’s credibility on the global stage after George W. Bush’s reckless cowboy diplomacy mired the U.S. in multiple wars.
the rich asshole has managed to undo any progress that was made in barely one year. Not only has he lost the respect of global citizens, he has lost the trust of other global leaders.
From withdrawing from the Paris climate accords to insulting the United Nations to badmouthing NATO, the rich asshole has done all in his power to alienate world leaders. His proposed cuts to global development programs were met with worldwide shock and anger.
It is no wonder that new power structures are developing around the globe that don’t involved the United States.
the rich asshole is an unreliable, chaotic leader who cannot be counted on. He has squandered any possible goodwill, and exhausted any benefit of the doubt that world leaders were willing to expend at the beginning of his term.
World leaders are moving on together. the rich asshole and America are left behind, alone with nothing but “executive time” outbursts to remind us of how far we, as a country, have fallen.
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