GOP senator pushed absurd “secret society” conspiracy — based on a joke text
JANUARY 24, 2018
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson claimed there was a "group" of FBI agents "that was holding secret meetings off-site." His source turned out to be a joke from a text message.
Republicans are desperate to derail the Russia investigation with conspiracy theories about the text message correspondence between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
The two officials privately trashed some rich asshole during the Clinton server investigation, but also several other politicians on both sides of the aisle. As far as Republicans are concerned, this is a scandal that proves liberal bias at the FBI, brings down special counsel Robert Mueller, and discredits the entire federal investigative organization, even though it patently does none of those things.
But Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson went even further.
On Fox News on Tuesday, Johnson, who sits on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, claimed the Strzok and Page text messages prove there was “a group that was holding secret meetings off-site,” and reflected “corruption, more than bias.”
He reiterated this claim on Wednesday morning, saying “I have heard, you know, from somebody who has talked to our committee, that there — there is a group of individuals in the FBI that was holding secret, off-site meetings. And you know, again, that Strzok and Page calling it a certain term, I’m just saying, off-site meetings.”
The only problem? Johnson’s source is a text message that was clearly tongue-in-cheek.
The entirety of the message, from Lisa Page, states, “Are you going to give out your calendars? Seems kind of depressing. Maybe it should just be the first meeting of the secret society.”
Any reasonable interpretation of this would be that it was a cheesy joke, not a boast of a sinister underground organization of turncoat FBI agents trying to bring down the rich asshole.
But Johnson is hardly the first one to the party. Reps. Trey Gowdy and John Ratcliffe have also pushed the idea that Page’s clearly facetious remark represents something sinister, and the hosts at Fox and Friends breathlessly piled on.
This whole episode should be a cautionary tale to any government officials: Do not ever tell a joke in the office, or someday you may find yourself becoming the punchline of a farcical GOP investigation.
They're not even pretending anymore.
some rich asshole has practically turned Fox News into a fourth branch of government, a disturbing fact that his press secretary openly acknowledged Wednesday.
Fox News wields considerable policy influence over the rich asshole, dutifully doing the rich asshole’s propaganda dirty work, but it was nonetheless striking to see Sarah Huckabee Sanders overtly and shamelessly encourage it.
At Wednesday’s daily press briefing, Fox News reporter Jon Decker asked Sanders if the rich asshole would try to prevent his former strategist, Steve Bannon, from testifying before a grand jury in the Russia investigation by invoking a claim of executive privilege.
“As you have mentioned many times,” Decker said, “as the president has mentioned many times, ‘there is no collusion,’ why —”
“I’m glad you guys are starting to echo that, too,” Sanders interrupted. “If you could say it more and more when you’re on your networks, that would be really helpful.”
“No collusion” has been a fervent mantra of the rich asshole’s for months, but it is a flat lie that no one outside of Fox would repeat with a straight face. Even Sanders couldn’t help but crack a smile when encouraging Decker to ramp up his use of the phrase.
Fox has been the rich asshole’s primary propaganda weapon for a very long time, feeding him terrible policy ideas and conspiracy theories, broadcasting his talking points, and helping to keep his resentful base angry. It was recently revealed that Fox even killed the story of the rich asshole’s extramarital affair with a porn star right before the election.
But the time is coming when reporters who stand up to the rich asshole, and refuse to bow to this White House’s relentless assaults on the press will have the last laugh. That time should start right around November.
the rich asshole only tweets about school shooting after being brutally shamed by the press
JANUARY 24, 2018
the rich asshole had nothing to say about the latest mass shooting until the press called out his silence, and his press secretary had no excuse to offer.
It took some rich asshole over a full day to finally take to Twitter to send a message of support in the wake of Tuesday’s deadly Kentucky school shooting, where two students were killed and at least 20 more were injured after a 15-year-old student opened fire inside a common area at Marshall County High School in Benton, 200 miles southwest of Louisville.
the rich asshole’s tweet came soon after Mike Pence offering up his own sympathies 24 hours after the fact, highlighting how little the current administration seems to care about this epidemic of deadly rampages.
Notably, the rich asshole’s tweet was sent immediately following Wednesday’s press briefing, where press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had no valid excuse for the rich asshole’s abominable silence.
When NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander asked Sanders about the rich asshole’s lack of a response on this latest massacre, she resorted to little more than bullying and forced indignation.
“To sit there and question — I’m sorry, hold on. I was polite and let you finish,” Sanders said angrily. “Let me be very clear on this: The fact that you’re basically accusing the president of being complicit in a school shooting is outrageous.”
“I’m not,” Alexander noted, going on to remind Sanders of the rich asshole’s campaign ad which did explicitly accuse Democrats who support immigration reform of being complicit in any violent crimes, including murder, committed by undocumented immigrants. “I’m not accusing the president of anything.”
“Ignoring the fact of the safety and security of our borders is very different,” Sanders insisted, going on to offer hollow talking points about “crack[ing] down on crime.”
Notably, Sanders did all she could to avoid the deafening silence from the rich asshole on the particular issue of frighteningly common mass shootings — even knowing that this most recent massacre in Kentucky that was the 11th school shooting just this year.
“On Monday, a school cafeteria outside Dallas and a charter school parking lot in New Orleans. And before that, a school bus in Iowa, a college campus in Southern California, a high school in Seattle,” The New York Times reported following the Kentucky mass murder, recounting the other shootings this year.
“Gunfire ringing out in American schools used to be rare, and shocking.”
And the rich asshole hasn’t said a word in public about any of them in 2018.
Just one day before the Kentucky campus gun rampage, a 15-year-old student at the local high school in Italy, Texas, was shot by a classmate.
the rich asshole’s indifference has not gone unnoticed, especially from gun safety advocates.
“He’s beholden to the NRA. He’s doesn’t respond to these shootings because he’s trying avoid saying something that the NRA doesn’t agree with,” says Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, a group that was created in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012.
Playing defense for his deep-pocketed contributors at the NRA, the rich asshole has not only refused to urge action to curb gun violence in America since taking office, but refuses to even acknowledge this massive and deadly problem.
Following the shooting at the Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas, which took the lives of at least 50 people and injured more than 400, making it the worst mass murder in modern American history, the rich asshole briefly addressed the nation, but refused to mention guns. Instead, he strangely offered “warmest condolences” to the victims.
Watts notes that the lack of response from the White House sends a larger signal to the press that the shootings don’t matter.
And regrettably, Tuesday’s shooting generated very little cable news coverage.
The cultural and news media trend toward normalizing gun rampages — a trend driven straight from the Oval Office — certainly works to the benefit of the NRA and gun manufacturers. Those organizations don’t like being scrutinized after mindless mass killings in America, and especially after mindless mass killings that unfold inside school classrooms.
But the government ought to show more courage on the crucial issue, and certainly ought to care more for victims of violence than those who manufacturer the tools of it.
‘This is moving extremely fast’: the rich asshole ally panics as Mueller moves closer to the president
Christopher Ruddy (Screengrab / CNN)
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Although President some rich asshole insisted that he was looking forward to talk with special prosecutor Robert Mueller this week, one of the president’s allies is warning him to stay away from Mueller’s team at all costs.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said that the rich asshole would be foolish to talk to Mueller, and he said that the president would be putting himself in extreme legal jeopardy if he did so.
“He should treat Mueller like a plague,” Ruddy said. “He should assert executive privilege in every opportunity they can.”
Although some legal experts say that asserting executive privilege likely won’t save the rich asshole from having to give information to Mueller, Ruddy says the president has little choice because Mueller is coming after him with everything he’s got.
“It’s about anything and everything they can find,” he said. “This is moving rapidly, extremely fast.”
the rich asshole ally Roger Stone similarly called talking with Mueller a “suicide mission” in an interview with the Post this week.
Right-wing evangelist Franklin Graham tried to explain why it's OK for evangelicals to support a man who goes against all Christian teachings. Don Lemon took him to the cleaners.
Some rich asshole is the antithesis of what Christian doctrine holds up as moral, from his affair with a porn star to his schemes to rip off the poor to his hatred of foreigners.
Yet many white right-wing evangelicals voted for him, and polls now show they have completely flip-flopped on whether personal morality is important in a politician.
Pro-the rich asshole Christian evangelist Franklin Graham demonstrated this dissonance vividly when host Don Lemon asked him to defend the rich asshole’s immorality on CNN Tuesday night.
Lemon read Graham a quote from a speechwriter for George W. Bush. “He said, ‘Reverend, some Christian leaders are surrendering the idea that character matters in public life in direct exchange for Christians themselves. It is a political maneuver performed by union or business lobbyists every day.'”
“Why do you think evangelicals were so willing to call out, say, Bill Clinton’s behavior, but not President the rich asshole’s?” Lemon asked.
“These alleged affairs — they’re alleged with the rich asshole — didn’t happen while he was in office. This happened 11, 12, 13, 14 years ago,” said Graham. “I think the president has changed quite a bit in the last 11 years, at least I had seen that because there is a maturing of the president.”
Lemon immediately smacked down that excuse.
“The payout to the porn star, that was in 2016,” he said. “That wasn’t 11 years ago, that’s now.”
“That’s — when the story came out.” Graham spluttered, incorrectly.
Lemon continued with a litany of the rich asshole’s appalling and morally objectionable words and actions.
“Threatened nuclear war with North Korea, that’s now. Calls for a ban on religions entering the country, that’s now. He has 15 accusers, some of them said it was shorter than a long time ago, as you said. He started a fight with a Gold Star family, a fight with Gold Star widows. He fights with people on Twitter. He uses the word ‘s-hole’ about certain countries.”
“That’s all in the current timing now,” Lemon added. “That’s not from years ago. So that argument that he has changed or he has somehow evolved, that just doesn’t stand.”
“Well, no,” said Graham, clearly struggling for words, “but the, the, uh, affairs that Clinton had were while he was in the Oval Office. Johnson, Kennedy, the same thing.”
“There’s more to a person’s character than an affair. You are saying the only thing that matters is an affair?” said Lemon.
“No. No. That’s what you spend a lot of time on, Don, on the media focusing on this,” blustered Graham. “But you take his, like, his rough language, 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. He says he didn’t do it. And the others that said he didn’t do it.”
In one breath, Graham went from saying that “a lot” of presidents use profanity, to saying he believes the rich asshole did not actually use profanity.
Not once did Graham acknowledge that the problem with the rich asshole’s hateful comments about “shithole countries” was not the profanity, but the racism. Nor did he ever provide an example of the rich asshole “maturing” in the Oval Office, which was the entire foundation of his argument.
Lemon did not let it sit there. “Because someone else is a sinner or someone else used bad language, does that make it right?”
“No,” admitted Graham.
“Isn’t a president supposed to be a role model for all?”
“Well, you certainly want them to be a role model,” said Graham. “But he’s a businessman, Don, he’s not a politician. And so this is new territory for him. And I believe —”
“Are you saying business people don’t have morals as well?” asked Lemon.
“No, no,” said Graham, quickly backpedaling.
When Lemon pointed out that the rich asshole occupying the office of the presidency does in fact make him a politician, Graham rambled on, saying that the rich asshole “talks a certain way” in business meetings, but that he believes the rich asshole “is a good man.” As for the rich asshole’s role as president, Graham said that “God put him there.”
“All of us are sinners,” said Graham. “You, me, some rich asshole, there is a lot that we can do to improve. some rich asshole is not perfect. He’s not President Perfect. Again, I believe President Perfect comes down the road, we’ll vote for him.”
It is worth pointing out that Graham pointedly refused to accept that President Barack Obama was a Christian, and the worst personal scandal he had to his name was wearing a tan suit that no one liked.
Faced with hard questions about how a gravely immoral president fits in with his moral values, Graham offered a stammering, scattershot defense that lacked any intellectual consistency and dodged basic facts.
And judging by his halting performance, he knew it all too well.
the rich asshole demands $30 billion ransom to let DREAMers stay in their homes
JANUARY 24, 2018
the rich asshole says he cares about DREAMers, but that comes at a very steep price.
The rich asshole administration has made it abundantly clear that the uncertain future of 800,000 young immigrant facing deportation is a “fun” game, and whether the White House will do anything to protect them “depends on what we get in exchange.”
Now the White House has put a price tag on those lives: $30 billion.
That’s the very specific amount of money the rich asshole is demanding in exchange for a deal to protect and eventually offer the chance for citizenship to DREAMers — those young, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children and were permitted to remain here under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that the rich asshole rescinded last year.
“We’re going to morph into it,” the rich asshole told reporters Wednesday. “It’s going to happen, at some point in the future, over a period of 10 to 12 years.”
And all he wants in exchange is $25 billion to build his ridiculous wall on the southern border — the wall he insisted countless times Mexico would pay for — and another $5 billion for additional, undefined border security spending.
the rich asshole has already blown up one bipartisan deal, a deal that actually did include funding for his wall, to prevent the deportations that will begin en masse March 5, when DACA protections end. That deal was apparently too generous, according to the most virulently racist advisers on the rich asshole’s team who pushed him to kill the deal, a move that led to a brief government shutdown.
The only reason the government reopened was because Democrats extracted a promise from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that a vote to protect DREAMers would be held within the next two weeks.
There was no mention of a multi-billion ransom to satisfy the rich asshole’s border wall fantasy. Yet that’s apparently what the rich asshole is now demanding.
“Tell them they have nothing to worry about,” the rich asshole had the audacity to say Wednesday. But now that he has openly stated the price of protection for nearly a million immigrants and their families, his assurance is unlikely to stem the growing panic about what will happen — and what is already happening — for those families.
Sadly, the support from the rich asshole’s congressional enablers isn’t likely to reassure them either. Sen. Lindsey Graham actually praised the rich asshole’s “leadership” on the issue.
“I have never felt better about our chances of finding a solution on immigration,” he said. While Graham might feel better, knowing that they have been taken hostage to the tune of $30 billion is certain to make the people whose fates is actually on the line feel worse.
the rich asshole says he would speak to Mueller under oath in Russia probe
BY JORDAN FABIAN AND JONATHAN EASLEY - 01/24/18 06:01 PM EST
President the rich asshole said Wednesday that he plans to speak with special counsel Robert Mueller, laying the groundwork for a high-stakes meeting that could shape the course of the Russia investigation.
“I'm looking forward to it," the rich asshole told reporters at the White House when asked whether he would submit to questioning by Mueller's team.
"I would do it under oath," he added.
the rich asshole has ridiculed the Russia investigation as a “witch hunt” and a “hoax,” but the White House has sought to comply with the special counsel’s requests in hopes that the investigation will wrap soon and clear the president of wrongdoing.
the rich asshole said he expects to speak with Mueller in two to three weeks but cautioned the specifics are being worked out by his lawyers.
Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer leading the response to the probe, told The Hill the rich asshole was speaking in a rush before departing for Davos but stressed that he remains committed to continued complete cooperation with Mueller's office and looks forward to an interview with Mueller's team.
Cobb said arrangements are still being worked out between the special counsel's office and the rich asshole's personal attorneys.
the rich asshole said he was willing to talk because of his belief there was "no collusion" between members of his campaign and Moscow.
"I couldn't have cared less about Russians having to do with my campaign. The fact is — you people won't say this but I'll say it — I was a much better candidate than her," the rich asshole said, referring to Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent.
the rich asshole defended his constant attacks against the investigation, saying they have been unfairly described as possible criminal wrongdoing.
“You fight back, oh, it’s obstruction,” the rich asshole mockingly told reporters.
The president’s remarks come at a time when Mueller’s investigation has expanded to members of the rich asshole's Cabinet. The special counsel's office interviewed Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week.
“I’m not at all concerned,” the rich asshole said Tuesday about Sessions’s testimony.
Sessions is uniquely positioned within the rich asshole’s inner circle.
The former Alabama senator first acted as a high-profile campaign surrogate and strategist. As attorney general, he recused himself from the Russia investigation for failing to reveal contacts he had with a Russian diplomat during the campaign, paving the way for Mueller's appointment.
And Sessions was overseeing the Justice Department when the rich asshole fired former FBI Director James Comey. the rich asshole has offered conflicting public statements about why he fired Comey; critics say he did it an effort to end the investigation into his campaign, which some believe is tantamount to obstruction of justice.
Mueller is likely to quiz the rich asshole on the circumstances surrounding Comey’s firing.
The special counsel has already interviewed Comey, as well as former acting Attorney General Sally Yates.
So far, Mueller’s investigation has resulted in two guilty pleas as well as a raft of charges against the rich asshole’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
The president’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with the special counsel. So too is George Papadopoulos, a former campaign adviser who also pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
Manafort and Richard Gates, one of Manafort's associates and a member of the rich asshole campaign, face scores of charges related to alleged financial crimes before joining the rich asshole campaign.
The special counsel probe has cast a shadow over the rich asshole’s first year in office. While interviews with senior officials could indicate the investigation is nearing the end, the meeting with Mueller presents enormous risks for the rich asshole.
The central danger is that making false statements to the FBI is a federal crime. Legal experts have said the president's lawyers are likely to be pushing for certain parameters to limit the interview, such as asking that it be limited in its scope of questioning.
the rich asshole has in the past made exaggerated claims or falsehoods during legal depositions. The Washington Post found 30 occasions on which the rich asshole admitted to making false statements during a single deposition in 2007.
"This is a president who has a rather casual relationship with the truth,” Stephen Vladeck, a University of Texas law professor, recently told The Hill. “And if prior practice is any indication, has a casual relationship with norms of discourse.”
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, a bitter fight has broken out, with Republicans accusing the FBI of political bias and claiming that the investigation against the rich asshole was tainted from the start.
Defenders of the FBI are furious with the rich asshole’s allies for questioning the credibility of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency.
That fight took another nasty turn this week when The Washington Post reported that the rich asshole had asked FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe who he voted for in a private meeting after McCabe became acting FBI director in May.
the rich asshole on Wednesday said he did not recall that conversation.
"I don't think so," the rich asshole said. "I don't remember asking that question."
Whether he did ask the question or not, the rich asshole called it "unimportant."
The interaction, which reportedly took place last year, could be of interest to Mueller, who is looking into whether the president sought to obstruct the federal probe into Russia's election meddling.
Comey testified to Congress that, while he was still FBI director, the rich asshole had asked him about McCabe in a phone conversation.
"He asked me about McCabe and said, how is he going to be with me as president? I was rough on him on the campaign trail," Comey said.
McCabe's wife ran for Virginia state Senate and received campaign contributions from Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat close to the Clintons.
Morgan Chalfant contributed to this report, which was updated at 6:41 p.m.
the rich asshole says he's open to citizenship path for DACA recipients
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 01/24/18 06:23 PM EST
President the rich asshole on Wednesday said he is open to offering young immigrants a pathway to citizenship over 10-12 years, as long as he gets billions of dollars to pay for a border wall and other security measures.
Under his forthcoming immigration plan, which will be released Monday, the rich asshole told reporters that protections for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program would "morph into" citizenship over that period.
“We’re going to morph into it. It’s going to happen, at some point in the future, over a period of 10 to 12 years," he said.
A senior administration official later clarified that citizenship is a "discussion point" in the plan and that young immigrants would have to meet certain conditions in order to gain it.
The official added the offer only applies to the nearly 690,000 immigrants who benefit from the Obama-era DACA program that the rich asshole cancelled last fall. Those people are allowed to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation.
the rich asshole suggested he might extend the March 5 deadline when DACA expires if a deal is not reached before then, saying “I certainly have the right to do that, if I want.”
In exchange, the rich asshole is seeking $25 billion to build his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, in addition to $5 billion in other border security measures.
the rich asshole also wants to limit family-based immigration and end or overhaul the diversity visa lottery, the White House said earlier Wednesday.
The president sought to reassure DACA recipients, whose fate has been left in limbo by his decision to scrap the program.
"Tell them they have nothing to worry about," he said.
the rich asshole made the comments during an impromptu question-and-answer session with reporters, who were meeting with other administration officials in the West Wing.
The president quipped that he wants a deal when he returns from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, over the weekend.
White House chief of staff John Kelly is scrapping plans to travel to Switzerland to stay back and work on immigration.
The comments are the rich asshole’s clearest to date on what he wants in an immigration deal, and come amid complaints from Democrats and Republicans that the rich asshole has been unclear in his demands.
The trade-off floated by the rich asshole — wall funding in exchange for DACA protections — sounds similar to the deal that Sen. Charles Schumer(D-N.Y.) offered him last week, before the three-day government shutdown.
Schumer portrayed the $25 billion offer of wall funding as a major concession, but on Tuesday declared that money is now "off the table."
The White House is expected to release an immigration “framework” early next week in a effort to jump-start stalled immigration talks on Capitol Hill.
Lawmakers have until Feb. 8 to pass a government funding bill, but Democrats have said they might not support it unless DACA is addressed.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has been working to reach a bipartisan deal on immigration, hailed the rich asshole's remarks as a breakthrough.
“This statement represents presidential leadership on immigration that will allow us to solve a difficult problem. I truly appreciate President the rich asshole making it clear that he supports a path to citizenship for DACA recipients. This will greatly help the Senate efforts to craft a proposal which President the rich asshole can sign into law.
"With this strong statement by President the rich asshole, I have never felt better about our chances of finding a solution on immigration."
The White House, however, has repeatedly ruled out a bipartisan proposal co-authored by Graham as unacceptable to the president.
- This story was updated at 7:13 p.m.
White House says it will send immigration 'framework' to Congress
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 01/24/18 02:56 PM EST
The White House says it will send a “legislative framework” to Congress on Monday in an effort to jump-start stalled negotiations on immigration.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that the plan “represents a compromise that members of both parties can support."
"We encourage the Senate to bring it to the floor," she told reporters.
The spokesperson declined to reveal specifics about the plan, including whether it provides a pathway to citizenship for young immigrants who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children.
Sanders, speaking at the White House press briefing, would only say the framework would provide a “permanent” solution for young immigrants who benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the Obama-era initiative that President the rich asshole scrapped.
She said the measure will fulfill President the rich asshole’s goals of securing the border, curbing family-based immigration and eliminating the diversity visa lottery that allows people from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. to apply for visas.
The announcement comes as lawmakers are struggling to resolve a partisan impasse on immigration and spending.
Congress must pass a funding bill before Feb. 8 to avert another government shutdown, and immigration issues have been contentious elements of ongoing negotiations.
Lawmakers are also facing pressure to pass a fix for DACA recipients before the program is scheduled to wind down on March 5.
White House delays the rich asshole’s budget release over shutdown
BY MELANIE ZANONA - 01/24/18 12:59 PM EST
The White House is delaying the release of President the rich asshole’s budget proposal because of the three-day government shutdown over the weekend, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said Wednesday.
The fiscal 2019 spending blueprint — which will be the rich asshole’s second budget request to Congress — will now be unveiled on Feb 12. It had originally been expected in early February.
“Preparing for and then implementing the recent lapse in appropriations meant that both OMB and agency staff lost several work days during an especially critical part of the budget production process,” an OMB spokeswoman said.
the rich asshole’s first budget request, for fiscal 2018, proposed slashing government programs and dramatically reshaping federal spending.
The government has been operating under a series of short-term funding extensions since the start of fiscal 2018.
In Congress, lawmakers are still haggling over the top-line spending numbers for fiscal 2018, though leadership has said a deal is close. Lawmakers need to raise the budget caps in order to avoid across-the-board spending cuts that are mandated by sequestration.
But a fight over immigration — and a Democratic push to include equal increases for defense and nondefense programs — has stalled the budget caps deal, which is needed so that appropriators can actually start writing the omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2018.
Five things to know about the rich asshole's leaked infrastructure draft
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 01/24/18 12:15 PM EST
A draft of the rich asshole administration's principles for an infrastructure plan leaked earlier this week, providing industry leaders and lawmakers with a glimpse of what might be coming from the White House this year.
The undated document, obtained by The Hill, describes an infrastructure plan as a push for improvements to water infrastructure, transportation and Veterans Affairs facilities.
The White House refused to comment on the draft, but said that it "looks forward to presenting our plan in the near future.”
The leak came as industry leaders and lawmakers clamor for President the rich asshole to release his long-awaited infrastructure package. The administration had promised the proposal would be released in January, though it now appears to be slipping to next month.
Here are five important takeaways from the leaked draft.
1. The sources of revenue are unclear
1. The sources of revenue are unclear
The draft did not identify clear sources of revenue to pay for infrastructure improvements, raising questions about how the package would ultimately be funded.
“There’s nothing that really cuts to the very real question of how we’re going to pay for it,” said Kate Wood, the director of infrastructure policy for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, a trade group.
One potential revenue source is tolling, as the draft argues states should be given the “flexibility” to collects tolls on the interstates and use the revenue to invest in infrastructure projects. States were banned from tolling on interstates in 1956, with some exceptions for states already collecting tolls.
But collecting tolls could prove difficult for some states, Wood said, especially if they do not already have laws in place to capitalize on the proposed lift on the tolling ban.
Including the expansion of tolls in the plan could also spark a political fight, as lawmakers have long been wary of broaching the issue and many industry groups are opposed.
“As we’ve said before, we have serious concerns about the unintended consequences of tolls, including their inefficiency, disruption to traffic flows, diversion to secondary roads and negative impact on local economies, to name a few,” Chris Spear, the president and CEO of the American Trucking Association, said in a response to the leaked draft.
2. The struggling Highway Trust Fund is not mentioned
Some industry leaders who have long advocated for a comprehensive infrastructure package argue any plan must address the struggling Highway Trust Fund, which is used to finance road building.
The draft document, however, does not mention the fund, something business leaders say they are worried about.
2. The struggling Highway Trust Fund is not mentioned
Some industry leaders who have long advocated for a comprehensive infrastructure package argue any plan must address the struggling Highway Trust Fund, which is used to finance road building.
The draft document, however, does not mention the fund, something business leaders say they are worried about.
“Our primary concern with what’ve seen so far with the administration’s infrastructure proposal is that it does not [address] the underlying solvency issues with the Highway Trust Fund,” Jim Tymon, the policy division director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, told the Hill.
Tymon said he is “hopeful” that a future administration proposal will address the trust fund, which he said is a No. 1 priority for the state transportation departments.
The fund receives revenue from an 18.4 cent federal gas tax, but that levy has not been raised since 1993, eroding the fund’s ability to finance road projects.
Some groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are advocating for an increase to the gas tax to save the fund and finance infrastructure projects. But raising the gas tax is a politically charged issue bound to face roadblocks in Congress from both Republicans and Democrats.
The gas tax, like the fund itself, is also not mentioned in the document. But the White House last year was considering an increase to the federal gasoline tax as part of its infrastructure proposal.
3. It pushes for the expansion of public-private partnerships
3. It pushes for the expansion of public-private partnerships
Half of the appropriations under the memo would go toward bolstering private, state and local investment in infrastructure projects through grants. The draft also specifically recommends removing “constraints” currently in place on public-private partnerships for transit systems.
The administration is already receiving pushback for those components from progressive groups, like the Millions of Jobs coalition, which is made up of labor unions and grass-roots advocates.
“It’s a huge decrease in the federal government’s traditional role of funding infrastructure. It would shift the burden of investment to local taxpayers and force cities and states to sell off our bridges and roads,” Tate Hausman, the coalition's executive director, said of the draft.
“Under the rich asshole’s plan, control of our critical infrastructure would be handed over to corporations and rich investors, leading to higher costs for everyone,” he said.
the rich asshole himself has questioned whether the use of public-private partnerships for infrastructure would work.
4. the rich asshole may have a way to deliver to rural regions
4. the rich asshole may have a way to deliver to rural regions
The proposal suggests that a quarter of the appropriations go toward a program dedicated to investing in projects in rural areas, which could help the rich asshole deliver to the communities that helped elect him.
The plan says states would be encouraged to work with private and local investors on infrastructure efforts and lists broadband, or high-speed internet access, under “eligible entities” for the rural program.
Expanding broadband access is another priority for industry groups and also for Democratic lawmakers, who last year called for a $40 billion investment in increasing internet access for rural communities.
the rich asshole during the 2016 election won 62 percent of American voters in rural communities and smaller towns, according to the PEW Research Center.
5. The source of the draft and when it was created are murky
5. The source of the draft and when it was created are murky
While the document has been circulated as a draft of the rich asshole administration’s plan, its origins are unclear. The White House has not formally acknowledged the draft’s existence and has not provided additional information on a forthcoming package since the document first leaked.
One clue to the timing of the draft is a section on expanding private activity bonds, a tool commonly used to finance infrastructure projects.
The draft recommends allowing entities to issue advance refunding bonds to refinance private activity bonds. But the GOP tax bill passed late last year repealed the tax exemption for new advance refunding bonds. The House tax bill at one point proposed eliminating private activity bonds, but the final bill signed by the rich asshole kept the financing tool in tact.
The language about advance refunding bonds, if included in a future proposal, would place the infrastructure package at odds with the GOP tax law. But it is possible that the draft pre-dates the December passage of the tax legislation.
Pence breaks tie to confirm the rich asshole's pick for religious ambassador
Vice President Pence broke a tie Wednesday to confirm Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) to be President the rich asshole's ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.
The 49-49 vote marked the second time within hours that Pence was called in to help get Brownback through the chamber. He also broke a tie earlier Wednesday to end debate on the nomination.
With Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) at Davos and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) battling brain cancer, Senate Republicans effectively have a 49-49 majority until one of the senators returns.
The vote marks the eighth tie-breaking vote Pence has cast since taking over the vice presidential spot. By comparison, then-Vice President Biden cast zero tie-breaking votes, while then-Vice President Cheney cast eight over two terms in office.
The two votes on Brownback split down party lines, with every Republican supporting him and every Democrat opposing him.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said he didn't take his vote against a former colleague, who served in the chamber for more than a decade, lightly.
"I cannot in good faith support the confirmation of someone as ambassador-at-large for religious freedom who does not believe that all individuals are created equally in God's image," he said.
He added that "as much as I know the people of Kansas wish to see Gov. Brownback sent abroad and out of their state, I cannot support his confirmation today."
Democrats have knocked Brownback over his record in Kansas on LGBT issues.
In 2015, he repealed an order from then-Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on discrimination protections for LGBT individuals, arguing the former governor hadn't gotten approval from the legislature.
But Brownback was expected to be approved after Republicans lined up behind his nomination.
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) told WIBW, a local Kansas TV station, earlier this month that he expected the GOP governor would be quickly confirmed.
"Sam was just back in Washington here yesterday and the day before talking to the president about prison reform, and talking to him and talking to some people that may have some concerns. I think we're going to get him a vote and I hope that happens very quickly," he said.
Brownback, a devout Catholic, would be the fifth person to run the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom.
Brownback won election to the Senate in 1996, when he defeated Sen. Sheila Frahm in a Republican primary, after serving a single term in the House. He was one of the more conservative members of the Senate, and in 2007 he made a brief run for president before dropping out due to lack of funds.
The Kansas Republican left Washington in 2010 after winning the governorship of his home state.
The Kansas Republican left Washington in 2010 after winning the governorship of his home state.
Major Right Wing the rich asshole Supporter Banned From App After Trying To Cheat On His Wife
It’s not easy being a married white supremacy conspiracy theorist while trying to get a date. Take Jack Posobiec, for example. The self-described writer is a big-time some rich asshole supporter and even attended a press briefing once, then later he broadcast video on the lawn of the White House. Jack’s bizarre resume includes being a Pizzagate and Seth Rich conspiracy theorist. We’re sure Jack’s wife, Brittany, will be really interested in this next bit of info on her douchey husband.
Bumble, a dating app where “women make the first move,”—made a move to ban a profile allegedly belonging to Jack Posobiec. Twitter user Lindsey Ledford first reported Jack’s alleged profile to Bumble.
is @bumble_app still a feminist dating app or the place where white nationalists / nazis go to cheat on their wives?
As it happens, Bumble doesn’t like white supremacy pieces of trash on its site.
After sending Bumble several links regarding Jack’s behavior, the dating site said it will take action.
side note: i spotted the nazi around 10:45pm, then received this from bumble just after midnight. it read like a cosmic joke.
We are so grateful to you, Lindsey, for bringing this to our attention. Our team has removed Jack from our platform. Bumble was founded on the core values of kindness, respect, integrity and equality, and we do not tolerate anyone who does not uphold these values on our platform.
Bumble has a strong stance against hate, and our team will continue to do our very best to maintain our platform as a safe, inclusive, and empowering place. Thank you so much for helping us protect the Hive!
Twitter users can’t stop laughing.
Jack Posobiec tried using @bumble_app to cheat on his wife then got banned from the platform. What a fucking loser lmao @jackposobiec pic.twitter.com/hq1dqQJfHQ
It’s so petty of me to genuinely be glad about this but I don’t care
Let me guess he and his wife have an "understanding," which she was hitherto unaware of.
Every time I think I've decided who the alt right's king of self-ownage is, one of them raises the bar again.
Looking for: a woman who's OK with having Papa John's served at their wedding
Jack Posobiec: "But I was cheating on my wife to...
...uh
...own the libs!" twitter.com/nathanTbernard…
Posobiec denied that the account was his to Gizmodo. He said the account’s creator was “clearly some troll” and added: “I have a hot eastern European wife, as everyone knows.”
Oh dear, Jack sounds a bit stressed out.
SURE!
Jack can probably be found munching on a few Tide Pods while downing shots.
JANUARY 24, 2018 / 10:15 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
the rich asshole administration backs bills to toughen foreign investment rules
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The rich asshole administration supports bipartisan bills in Congress to toughen U.S. foreign investment rules amid growing concern about Chinese efforts to buy U.S. high-tech companies, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday.
The legislation would broaden the government’s power to stop foreign purchases of U.S. firms by strengthening the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
The bills “would achieve the twin aims of protecting national security and preserving the longstanding United States open investment policy,” the White House said.
The bills, introduced in November by Republican Senator John Cornyn and Republican Representative Robert Pittenger, have Republican and Democratic co-sponsors. The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on the topic on Thursday.
The legislation would expand CFIUS’ reach to allow it to review, and potentially reject, smaller investments and add new national security factors for CFIUS to consider. Those factors include whether information about Americans, such as Social Security numbers, would be exposed as part of the transaction or whether the deal would facilitate fraud.
CFIUS already has a reputation for being tough on high-tech deals involving China in particular and has blocked transactions that involve sophisticated semiconductors.
It has become more cautious since President some rich asshole was inaugurated a year ago amid growing political and economic tensions between the United States and China.
The panel has balked at approving a broader range of deals from China since the inauguration, according to lawyers who specialize in representing proposed transactions to the board.
Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Paul Tait
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
the rich asshole is trying out a new, absurd spin to justify what increasingly looks like obstruction of justice.
As the investigation into some rich asshole increasingly appears focused on his efforts to obstruct justice, the rich asshole is trying out a new defense in case he does ultimately testify under oath before special counsel Robert Mueller — something nearly 80 percent of Americans support.
He claimed he is being investigated because he was “fighting back,” and seemed to belittle the notion that firing FBI Director James Comey for refusing to pledge his loyalty and shut down the Russia investigation could qualify as obstruction of justice.
“Oh well, did he fight back? You fight back, oh, it’s obstruction,” he complained to reporters Wednesday.
The administration’s initial and widely ridiculed justification for firing Comey was because of his mishandling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton, something the rich asshole almost immediately undermined and his inner circle has struggled to justify ever since.
“Fighting back,” however, is a new one.
In addition to firing Comey, it was recently revealed that the rich asshole grilled then-acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe about how he voted in the 2016 election, as part of an effort to determine if he also posed a political threat to the rich asshole.
the rich asshole has also been fuming that Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the investigation, instead of presumably interfering on the rich asshole’s behalf.
Dozens of the rich asshole campaign and White House officials have testified to Comey, and his former campaign chairman Steve Bannon is in the pipeline. Two the rich asshole campaign officials have pleaded guilty to crimes, while two others are under indictment.
As the investigation inches ever closer to the rich asshole, he continues to throw out a flurry of justifications for his actions that do not meet a smell test or a legal bar.
“Fighting back” against his perceived political enemies is not much of a defense to allegations of obstruction of justice. It just makes him look guiltier.
No wonder his legal team is nervous about letting him testify.
DOJ recovering some missing texts between ex-Mueller team members Peter Strzok, Lisa Page: Report
by Diana Stancy Correll |
The Justice Department has begun to retrieve some of the texts exchanged between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that were said to be unpreserved, according to a new report.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department produced 384 pages of text messages that were sent between the two, but the FBI said that text messages sent between Dec. 14, 2016, and May 17, 2017, were lost due to “misconfiguration issues.”
But sources within the Department of Justice told Fox News that some of the texts exchanged from that five-month period are starting to be recovered.
Strzok was a top FBI counterintelligence agent who was part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia inquiry team prior to being demoted after it was revealed that he and Page exchanged text messages that were critical of the rich asshole. He was then moved to a human resources position. Page also was previously a member of the special counsel team.
Strzok was also a lead investigator in the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's unauthorized private email server.
The five-month period the Department of Justice previously had not been preserved includes the presidential transition period up to when Mueller was chosen to be special counsel.
WATCH: CNN’s Erin Burnett hammers Trey Gowdy over House GOP’s ‘extraordinarily reckless’ Nunes memo
CNN's Erin Burnett and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-CA)
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CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday hammered House Intelligence Committee member Trey Gowdy (R-SC) as he tried to defend the release of a memo drafted by committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) that the Department of Justice itself said would be “extraordinarily reckless.”
Gowdy insisted he’s “not a conspiracist” and that he has “tremendous respect for the Department of Justice and FBI” before saying he has “concerns about what they did in 2016.” Discussing a letter from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd warning against the release of the memo, Gowdy chimed, “let’s lower the rhetoric.”
Burnett cornered Gowdy about Boyd’s memo, explaining the Department of Justice “think not only would it be reckless, but see no wrongdoing in the FISA process.”
“Stephen Boyd is some rich asshole’s nominee!” Burnett explained. “He is saying to you all he does not see any evidence of what is being alleged.”
“I like Stephen,” Gowdy replied. “I work well with him. It’s really difficult to say a memo is reckless when you haven’t read it.”
“How is that consistent with you are saying?” Burnett pressed. “How can anyone talk about this and the implications of if it they haven’t seen the underlying information? From what I understand, nobody is advocating to release the information for what is a partisan memo that’s coming out of it. Because it’s so classified. Are you saying the top secret information you read should be released?”
Gowdy replied that he didn’t want to compromise sources and methods, prompting Burnett to press him about House Republicans’ new favorite rallying cry.
Watch the full interview below, via CNN:
Pt. 1 —
Pt. 2 —
the rich asshole lashes out at mayors boycotting White House event
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 01/24/18 05:05 PM EST
President the rich asshole on Wednesday attacked mayors who boycotted a White House event over his administration’s crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities.
"The mayors who choose to boycott this event have put the needs of criminal, illegal immigrants, over law-abiding America," the rich asshole told a group of mayors who attended the event. "So let me tell you, the vast majority of people showed up."
The president spoke after the Justice Department threatened to legally compel almost two dozen cities to show that they are cooperating with federal immigration laws.
Officials from the Justice Department sent letters to leaders of New York City, San Francisco, Chicago and other major cities demanding they turn over information about citizenship and immigration status of people who have been arrested. Many of the cities are seeking law-enforcement grant money from the administration.
The move prompted a swift backlash from city leaders, with many mayors joining a last-minute boycott of the White House meeting.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D), the head of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, announced the boycott shortly before the event, overshadowing the planned discussion on infrastructure and combating the opioid epidemic.
New York City’s Bill de Blasio was the highest-profile mayor to join the boycott.
“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,” de Blasio tweeted.
It was the latest turn in the dispute between the rich asshole administration and city leaders who choose not to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
The administration has repeatedly threatened to withhold grant money from the cities, which has triggered a contentious battle in the courts.
“We support enforcing the law and following the law,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “And if mayors have a problem with that, they should talk to Congress, the people that pass the laws.”
Sanders said the White House “would love to be able to work with these mayors, particularly on issues like infrastructure and other things. But we cannot allow people to pick and choose what laws they want to follow."
"If we have a country with no laws, then nothing matters," she added.
Many mayors and immigrant rights advocates say cooperating with federal authorities erodes trust of police in immigrant communities, making their cities less safe.
Mueller reveals he wants to interview the rich asshole about Comey, Flynn: report
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 01/24/18 08:42 PM EST
Special counsel Robert Mueller is seeking to question President the rich asshole about his interactions with former FBI Director James Comey and ask him questions regarding former the rich asshole National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, according to a new report Wednesday.
Mueller’s team sent the rich asshole’s lawyers a list of potential interview topics, CNN reported.
The special counsel is also interested in the rich asshole's outreach to lawmakers about congressional investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, CNN reported.
Mueller is conducting a criminal investigation into possible collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russia.
the rich asshole said Wednesday he is willing to speak with Mueller as part of the investigation, and willing to do so under oath. He told reporters that he expects the interview to occur in the next two to three weeks, but said his lawyers are still determining the specifics.
Mueller declined to comment to The Hill.
CNN reported earlier Wednesday that Mueller intends to speak to former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon about Comey and Flynn as well.
Mueller’s investigation has thus far led to two indictments and two guilty pleas.
Former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his former business associate, Richard Gates, were charged with money laundering and tax fraud, among other charges mostly related to the pair's work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine.
Flynn and former the rich asshole campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
-Updated 8:56 p.m.
Fox News Tells Gun-Toting Conservatives It’s Time ‘To Declare War’ On The FBI
Fox Business host Lou Dobbs went off the deep end — well, more than usual anyway — Tuesday night when he called for “war” against the FBI.
“Good evening, everybody,” Dobbs said to kick off his broadcast. “It may be time to declare war outright against the deep state and clear out the rot in the upper levels of the FBI and the Justice Department. Yes, I said ‘the rot.’”
“The FBI and the DOJ have broken the public trust by destroying evidence, defying oversight and actively trying to bring down the rich asshole presidency,” he said. “Tonight, there are new concerns that anti-the rich asshole FBI officials formed even a secret society at the FBI to subvert the president after his election. That’s according to two Republican lawmakers who have seen some of the thousands of texts between the FBI’s Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.”
It’s dangerous enough that Dobbs would tell the part of America who think a gun is the appropriate way to handle just about any situation to declare “war outright” against the FBI (keep in mind, these are the people who will storm a pizza restaurant because they think Hillary Clinton is keeping child sex slaves there) but that he would present such direction alongside the most whacked-out right-wing conspiracy theory we have seen since Pizzagate is incredibly disconcerting.
Dobbs knows what he’s doing. He’s trying to incite violence against the FBI. And he knows that his network’s viewers are probably stupid enough to listen.
Watch it below:
GOP Senator: I Have No Idea What I Was Talking About When I Said ‘Secret Societies’
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is walking back comments he made on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” on Tuesday in which he said that a whistleblower told Congress about secret meetings between FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials who allegedly gathered in order to discuss ways to undermine some rich asshole following the 2016 election. Johnson went into full Illuminati-mode, circulating the conspiracy theory in order to help his president who is plagued with scandals.
Johnson made the bizarre claim based on a text exchange between two FBI agents, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, that are accused of anti-the rich asshole bias, but then, the Wisconsin Republican did an about face in regards to his claim. But, of course, this was after he created a firestorm of attention over the ‘secret societies’ allegation.
The Daily Beast reports:
On Wednesday, however, Johnson claimed he did not know “what they meant” in the exchange, and his committee—the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs—will now focus on “the Clinton email scandal.” Johnson’s original comments were made Tuesday evening on Fox News’ Special Report and said he had an informant confirming “a group holding secret meetings off-site” and that it showed “potentially corruption at the highest levels of the FBI.”
CNN correspondent Manu Raju tweeted, “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.”
Johnson: “I've heard from an individual that there were FBI agents ... management of the FBI, holding meetings off-site.”
My Q: Off-site to do what, exactly?
Johnson: “I don't know. ...(The texts) raise an awful lot of questions; it is my responsibility to try and get answers.”
So, Johnson has no idea what he’s talking about and just helped to undermine the FBI by circulating a conspiracy theory, then pivoting to Hillary Clinton’s emails while his president is buried up to his eyeballs in scandals. Sounds legit!
‘Facts matter’: CNN’s Cuomo schools the rich asshole-backing House Rep. bizarrely comparing FBI texts to ‘Immaculate Conception’
CNN's Chris Cuomo and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL)
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CNN’s Christopher Cuomo on Wednesday delivered a stunning lecture to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), some rich asshole backer who’s been hyping the so-called Devin Nunes memo in an effort to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian investigation.
In an interview with Fox News, Gaetz declared that the fact there are missing text messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and Lisa Page is “the biggest coincidence since the immaculate conception.”
“What are you talking about?” Cuomo asked Gaetz.
“Look, the notion, and again—this will be illuminated by the memo—but the notion that this five months, not any five months, this particular five months is where the black hole is?” Gaetz began. “That is one hell of a coincidence, because it’s precisely the time someone would be hatching a conspiracy, meeting with their secret society, building out their insurance policy to—“
“You don’t even know that one exists,” Cuomo said, referring to the secret society. The CNN host then wondered, “what do you mean by the Immaculate Conception?”
“Look, I was making the point that this is an absurd coincidence,” Gaetz said, laughing.
“But like what, what do you think happened with the immaculate conception?” Cuomo asked.
“The Immaculate Conception, it’s obviously a religion document that deals with the Christian faith,” Gaetz stammered.
“I know, but where is the analogy?” Cuomo pressed. “That’s what I don’t understand. What do you think happened with the Immaculate Conception?”
“Did you really bring me on to discuss my religion?” Gaetz retorted, “The Immaculate Conception is not how Jesus is born.”
“It was Mary’s conception, it was the mother’s conception without original sin,” Cuomo shot back “Facts matter, congressman. If you’re going to make an analogy at least know what you’re talking about. Because you’ve gotta have a basis for these things. You only know what you show. You gotta release that memo, it’s gotta have the facts and you better figure out what this ‘secret society’ is before you say it’s a shadow organization within the FBI.”
‘US vs Nixon all over again’: Ex-Watergate prosecutor insists the rich asshole obstruction case is ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’
President some rich asshole discusses current military operations with Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command Commander, at MacDill, AFB, FL, Feb. 6, 2017. (DoD photo by D. Myles Cullen/Released)
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Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman bragged that he could convict some rich asshole of obstruction of justice, while explaining the White House paradox over invoking the Fifth Amendment, during a Wednesday interview with MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes.
“It really does look like you’ve got a plausible case for obstruction,” Hayes noted.
“Beyond a reasonable doubt,” Ackerman replied.
“That’s very confident of you,” Hayes noted.
“I’m very confident,” Ackerman admitted.
The former federal prosecutor explained that Mike Flynn was at the center of an obstruction case.
“He knows that Flynn lied. That lie is extremely material because it relates to what occurred during the campaign and the coordination between Russia and the campaign and the rich asshole knows it,” Ackerman predicted.
“I think you’re going to have proof of the underlying crime and the cover-up because when Flynn pled guilty to the lie about sanctions, it related to the coordination between Russia and the campaign,” Ackerman continued. “So he’s got a lot to say.”
Hayes wondered about the whether legal advice to invoke the Fifth Amendment, and refuse to testify on the grounds of self incrimination, might come up against the political reality of it looking like an admission of guilt, like in the Watergate scandal.
“That’s why they all went in and testified before the grand jury and got convicted of perjury,” Ackerman explained. “They were stuck between a rock and hard place.”
“Because they didn’t take the Fifth, you can’t take the Fifth because you look guilty,” Hayes observed.
Ackerman said there was no other option than invoking the Fifth Amendment.
“It is United States v. Nixon all over again where they forced President Nixon to produce tapes,” Ackerman noted.
Watch:
White House lawyer walks back the rich asshole’s pledge to speak with Mueller under oath
White House Lawyer Ty Cobb (image via screengrab).
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After President Donald the rich asshole volunteered to be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller under oath, his White House lawyer has clarified that the president spoke too quickly when making the offer.
“Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer leading the response to the investigation, said some rich asshole was speaking hurriedly and intended only to say that he was willing to meet,” the New York Times‘ Maggie Haberman wrote on an update to the original report that broke the story.
“He’s ready to meet with them, but he’ll be guided by the advice of his personal counsel,” Cobb told the Times, adding that Mueller’s team was working out “arrangements” with the rich asshole’s personal representation.
Why did Manafort’s defense lawyers leak an internal memo about the ‘DOJ and the press’?
Paul Manafort (Photo: Screen capture)
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Lawyers for former some rich asshole campaign manager Paul Manafort released an internal memo against the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller, Law and Crime reported Wednesday.
The document, titled, “DOJ [Department of Justice], OSC [Office of Special Counsel] and The Press” reportedly focused on Associated Press coverage of the Ukrainian “black ledger” of payments.
“Because the notes are so cryptic, it’s a bit hard to interpret what exactly the Manafort lawyers are after,” Law and Crime explained. “However, the Manafort team seems to be trying to figure out (or at least document) who was giving information to the Associated Press about Manafort’s finances.”
The question of whether the internal memo was inadvertently or intentionally released has been a matter of online speculation.
Former West Wing star Bradley Whitford, portraying defense attorney Albert Forest on the NBC show Chicago Justice, used a similar trick in the episode titled “Fake.”
Here is the single text Republicans are using to push the DOJ ‘secret society’ conspiracy
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller said cyber security will be the number one future threat in the country, but for the time being, "counterterrorism and stopping terrorist attacks" is more important. (Photo: Kit Fox/Medill Flickr)
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ABC News has acquired the single text message sent from FBI agent Lisa Page to fellow operative Peter Strzok that led Republicans to believe there’s a “secret society” within the Justice Department.
“Are you even going to give out your calendars? Seems kind of depressing. Maybe it should just be the first meeting of the secret society,” Page texted Strzok, who was later removed from his post on special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia’s election meddling after it was revealed he’d texted partisan opinions critical of President some rich asshole.
Over the last few days, Republicans have touted the Page text as “evidence” of a clandestine group within the DOJ, though they’ve admitted their investigation is still in its early stages when reporters push back. The claim appears to have first been made by Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and John Ratcliffe (R-TX) on Fox News Monday night, and has since been echoed by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI). The latter walked his claim back earlier on Wednesday after saying he had an “informant” who provided intel on the secret society.
A senior official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development with close ties to the rich asshole family attacked reporter April Ryan, and referred to her as "Miss Piggy."
An official at some rich asshole’s Department of Housing & Urban Development attacked veteran White House reporter April Ryan, describing her as “Miss Piggy.”
The tweet came from Lynne Patton, who heads New York’s federal housing office.
She deleted the tweet, but it was captured in a screenshot by several people on Twitter.
In addition to a picture of Ryan, Patton wrote, “I hear #MissPiggys still on a rampage. Gee, I must’ve struck a nerbe, @AprilDRyan.”
After she was caught in the smear, Patton tweeted, “I deleted my last tweet by choice. No one from this Administration contacted me. It was beneath me & I apologize to @AprilDRyan. My parents raised me to respect others & I regret my response. I apologize to them, @SecretaryCarson & the rich asshole family. They deserved better.”
The rich asshole administration has repeatedly targeted Ryan, a black woman who is the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks.
Ryan recently revealed that, after questioning the rich asshole and seeking comment on some of his racist comments, she was attacked by the pro-the rich asshole Fox News, with horrifying effects.
“I’ve been getting death threats just for asking a question,” she stated.
Patton was promoted last year to her position, after serving as a senior adviser to HUD Secretary Ben Carson. Before that, she worked as a party planner for Eric the rich asshole, and served on the rich asshole’s presidential campaign.
When she was first given her job by the rich asshole, Politico noted that she “tried to juice her own news release, claiming experience she didn’t have.”
The outburst from a member of the administration, with such a far-flung portfolio, shows the rotten mindset and vulgar personality types that the rich asshole team has installed in the government, handing out positions to their cronies and flunkies, rather than officials with experience needed to run the United States government — and without any sense of basic decency or decorum.
the rich asshole HUD official deletes tweet calling April Ryan ‘Miss Piggy’
the rich asshole HUD appointee Lynne Patton (left) and veteran White House correspondent April Ryan (right). Images via screengrab.
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On Wednesday evening, a senior official in the Department of Housing and Urban Development got into a Twitter argument on with veteran White House correspondent April Ryan that resulted in a deleted insulting tweet and numerous GIFs.
Though the initial topic of the spat is unclear, it consisted mainly of hurled insults in both directions after Ryan tweeted at Patton asking who she is.
@LynnePatton and who are you?
Obviously someone who occupies a lot of space in your head since you can’t stop tweeting about me...pic.twitter.com/L8KhnKjVD4
It culminated in a tweet that Patton has since deleted calling Ryan “Miss Piggy.”
Patton went on to say that she deleted the tweet of her own will and not on behalf of the rich asshole administration when apologizing to the reporter.
I deleted my last tweet by choice. No one from this Administration contacted me. It was beneath me & I apologize to @AprilDRyan. My parents raised me to respect others & I regret my response. I apologize to them, @SecretaryCarson & the Trump family. They deserved better.
‘Bat-bleep-crazy’: Nicolle Wallace laughs out loud at GOP ‘loons’ floating FBI ‘secret society’ conspiracies
Nicolle Wallace and Ken Dilanian of NBC News.
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MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace struggled to make it through her introduction of the latest Republican conspiracy theory aimed at undermining special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of President some rich asshole.
“Republicans seeking to discredit the Bob Mueller investigation have collectively honed in on a new talking point centered around missing text messages between two FBI officials already under scrutiny for privately sharing their personal views about the rich asshole and other politicians,” Wallace began. “Their theory goes like this: instead of a computer glitch, it was actually the FBI who deleted the texts as part of a widespread conspiracy to undermine some rich asshole.”
“The president tweeted about it last night. Maybe he was being sarcastic, I’m not sure any more,” Wallace acknowledged.
Wallace then tried reading a statement by Samsung, when she broke down in laughter.
“I can’t keep reading this,” Wallace interrupted.
“Let me just stop right here and say that just got bat-bleep crazy,” Wallace admitted.
“Ken Dilanean, what’s going on?” Wallace asked NBC News intelligence and national security reporter.
“I thought you were going to ask me about secret society, Nicolle,” Dilanian replied.
“You know what, let me do this. Let me do the loons justice and play the secret society sound. Let’s roll Ron Johnson,” Wallace said.
Watch:
DOJ blasts ‘extraordinarily reckless’ GOP scheme to release Nunes’ memo
Congressman Devin Nunes (Screenshot)
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The top congressional liaison at the Department of Justice wrote to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) to warn against releasing a controversial memo authored by House Intelligence Committee staffers, the Daily Beast reported Wednesday.
The DOJ letter by Stephen Boyd read, “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.”
“Despite those warnings, the Daily Beast has learned that Hill Republicans are gearing up to use an obscure parliamentary rule known process from the House of Representatives’ rules of procedure to release the memo. Found at Rule X, subsection 11(g), it lays out a process for releasing classified material even over objections by the president of the United States,” the Beast reported.
“It is the mood of our conference, clearly, to release it,” said Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY).
“It now appears that the GOP intends to seek further dissemination of this classified information, this time to the public,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in a statement.
Schiff is the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee and a former federal prosecutor.
Democrats have crafted their own 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.”
Retired FBI counterterrorism special agent Ali Soufan blasted the GOP attacks on the bureau.
“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.”
WATCH: Jake Tapper uses Republicans’ own words to nail their silence on the rich asshole’s overt efforts to influence the FBI
CNN's Jake Tapper (Screengrab)
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CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday slammed Republicans for refusing to condemn some rich asshole’s reported interactions with former FBI Director James Comey and former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, calling out their “lack” of principles in demanding a different standard for former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
“Today marks the anniversary of an incredibly consequential day in American history, although we did not know it at the time,” Tapper began. “One year ago today, January 24th, 2017, Michael Flynn, president the rich asshole’s then-national security adviser, met with FBI investigators and, in meeting, lied to the FBI about his interactions with the Russian ambassador.”
Tapper explained that was “the first domino” in a “chain of events that continues to send dominos falling today.”
Walking through a timeline from Flynn’s lie to the president’s request that former FBI director Comey “let Flynn go,” Tapper noted the rich asshole’s efforts to protect his onetime national security adviser.
“Why was the president so focused on protecting Flynn?” Tapper asked.
“Loyalty to some rich asshole—not loyalty to the law or to the public or to the U.S. Constitution—loyalty to the president has emerged as a theme of this presidency,” Tapper continued, pointing out that the rich asshole also reportedly asked former acting FBI director McCabe who he voted for.
Turning to Republican outrage over the “casual conversation” between former president Barack Obama’s attorney general Loretta Lynch and Clinton’s husband Bill Clinton, Tapper proceeded to nail the GOP for their changing goalposts for Republicans and Democrats.
“There should not be different sets of rules for different people,” Tapper said. “… Why is there now such silence when the president, according to sources close to Comey and McCabe, made what those two FBI officials thought were inappropriate comments in the midst of an investigation into the president’s White House and the president’s campaign team? If you only applied principles to your political points and never to yourself and your allies, then they’re not principles. They’re the lack thereof.”
Watch below, via CNN:
the rich asshole is still ‘obsessed’ with Hillary — and doesn’t seem to know lying to the FBI is a crime: NYT’s Haberman
some rich asshole speaks to press (Photo: Screen capture)
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Commenting on her bombshell New York Times report about President some rich asshole’s unprompted admission that he’s “looking forward” to his interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, reporter Maggie Haberman noted another strange exchange she had with the president.
The president, Haberman said, is still “obsessed” with Hillary Clinton, and only said he’d be willing to answer FBI questions under oath after he asked if his former campaign rival had done so.
“He doesn’t seem to know that lying to the FBI even without being under oath is a crime,” Haberman tweeted, noting that perhaps his disgraced ex-adviser Mike Flynn, who was charged with lying to bureau investigators, “can tell him.”
Potus, obsessed with Clinton still, asked me in response to my q about under oath whether she did to the FBI. He doesn’t seem to know that lying to the FBI even without being under oath is a crime. Perhaps Flynn can tell him twitter.com/maggienyt/stat…
Audio posted shortly after Haberman’s tweet by CNN appears to corroborate her claim that the president is still “obsessed” with Clinton.
“You people won’t say this, but I’ll say it,” the rich asshole told reporters. “I was a much better candidate than her. … I was one of the greatest candidates.”
Listen below:
Sarah Sanders tried to dismiss the latest school shooting in 3 seconds, and it got worse from there
"The fact that you're basically accusing the president of being complicit in a school shooting is outrageous."
At the beginning of Wednesday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders spent a mere three seconds acknowledging the victims of America’s latest deadly school shooting — one at Marshall County High School in Kentucky that left two students dead.
But NBC’s Peter Alexander circled back to the topic during the last question Sanders fielded. Alexander asked Sanders what President some rich asshole is doing to prevent school shootings, especially considering the fact that there have already been 11 school shootings so far this year and we’re not even through with January.
“On Tuesday, there was a high school in Kentucky; Monday a school cafeteria outside Dallas; a charter school parking lot in New Orleans as well — there have been 11 shootings in schools in the first 23 days of this year,” Alexander began. “In October, after the Vegas shooting, you said it was an unspeakable tragedy from that podium. You said it was a day for consoling survivors and mourning those we have lost, but you said there’s a time and place for political debate. What has the president done in the time since October to prevent any of these shootings from taking place?”
The question is a difficult one for Sanders to handle, as the rich asshole hasn’t done much of anything to stop school shootings. The president — whose election effort received more than $30 million from the National Rifle Association — has made clear he’s not a fan of stronger background checks, and thinks the problem of gun violence can only be solved by more guns.
So Sanders quickly tried to pivot from Alexander’s question. Instead, she attempted to give the president credit for the slight decrease in U.S. violent crime that occurred during his first months in office.
“The president believes that all Americans deserve to be safe in their schools and their communities,” she said. “We’ve had two years of increased violence prior to the president taking office. We’ve tried to crack down on crime throughout the country.”
Sanders’ response didn’t address gun violence in schools at all. When Alexander tried to follow up, Sanders grew impatient and attacked him.
“The fact that you’re basically accusing the president of being complicit in a school shooting is outrageous,” she said.
As Alexander noted, there was a good deal of hypocrisy in Sanders’ attack against him. Her objection to a reporter allegedly “accusing the president of being complicit in a school shooting” comes just days after the the rich asshole campaign released an ad accusing Democrats that stand in the rich asshole’s way of building a wall along the southern border of being “complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants.”
Shortly after the briefing ended, President the rich asshole responded to the latest deadly school shooting with a “thoughts and prayers” tweet.
Earlier today, I spoke with @GovMattBevin of Kentucky regarding yesterday’s shooting at Marshall County High School. My thoughts and prayers are with Bailey Holt, Preston Cope, their families, and all of the wounded victims who are in recovery. We are with you!
the rich asshole administration official calls journalist ‘Miss Piggy’
She's in charge of billions of taxpayer dollars.
Lynne Patton, a former event planner for Eric the rich asshole, was appointed by President some rich asshole to oversee all federal housing in New York and New Jersey. As head of Region II of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Patton manages billions of taxpayer dollars. She had no prior relevant experience before being appointed to the job, which pays $161,900 per year.
Patton said her experience as “gatekeeper to one of the most powerful families in the world” qualified her for the position.
Now, Patton is spending her time lobbing ugly insults at journalists on Twitter.
The incident started when someone posted a quote from an appearance by April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Network, on CNN. Ryan said that, after the rich asshole’s attacks on the media, she and other reporters had received death threats. Patton responded dismissively that she frequently received death threats as a black woman who supported some rich asshole.
Media: "There has been a war on the press by the @WhiteHouse led by @realDonaldTrump ... I've talked to other reporters, we've gotten death threats." @AprilDRyan to @brianstelter on @ReliableSources @CNN pic.twitter.com/bSqOhQOQqG
As a conservative black female who has publicly worked for & supported @realDonaldTrump, I’ve been getting death threats from fellow minorities on the left for the past 3 years - so welcome to the club, @AprilDRyan. pic.twitter.com/0EeG9pBesy
Patton went on to say that people who instinctively defend Ryan, rather than members of the rich asshole administration, are the problem. Ryan apparently noticed the discussion and called Patton a “fool.”
This went back and forth for awhile.
Kick rocks little girl. Find a job! @LynnePatton I ain’t the one! Girl bye. Blogger girl I do news. What do you do? Do you work at HUD or play at it you washed up wedding planner. Girl bye! twitter.com/lynnepatton/st…
That’s when Patton unleashed a more personal attack.
After posting the tweet, Patton had second thoughts. About 30 minutes later she deleted it and posted an apology.
“I deleted my last tweet by choice. No one from this Administration contacted me. It was beneath me & I apologize to @AprilDRyan. My parents raised me to respect others & I regret my response. I apologize to them, @SecretaryCarson & the rich asshole family. They deserved better,” Patton wrote.
She included a photo of herself, speaking at the Republican National Convention.
Nunes won’t even release his memo to Senate Republicans
Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have called the Nunes memo "profoundly misleading."
A four-page memo drafted by the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) and his staff reportedly alleges misconduct related to the FBI’s investigation of the the rich asshole campaign for possible collusion with Russia — but Nunes won’t share the memo with the Department of Justice, the FBI, or the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, said Wednesday that Democrats on the committee have written and will release their own competing memo to counter the claims set forth in the Nunes memo.
Schiff, who called the Nunes memo “profoundly misleading” and “another effort to distract from the Russia probe and undermine the special counsel,” wrote that now is the time for Democrats to set out the “relevant facts and exposing the misleading character of the Republicans’ document.”
A number of the rich asshole-supporting Republicans like Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) have flooded the airwaves of Fox News, arguing that the memo is grounds for firing special counsel Robert Muller. The hashtag #releasethememo has gained popularity among President some rich asshole’s most prominent supporters.
This latest effort comes after Republicans and key figures in the right-wing media have been working for months to discredit the Mueller investigation.
The democrats are lucky Republicans are honorable people. If we played the game like they do the memo would be all over CNN and everywhere else by now. Maybe it’s time we stoop to their level? #releasethememo
I viewed the classified report from House Intel relating to the FBI, FISA abuses, the infamous Russian dossier, and so-called "Russian collusion." What I saw is absolutely shocking.
This report needs to be released--now. Americans deserve the truth. #ReleaseTheMemo
But Nunes won’t share the memo with anyone other than House Republicans, even Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to a CNN report.
Staff working for committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) reportedly requested a copy of the memo and were denied, just as the FBI and Justice Department were similarly denied access to reviewing a copy of the document.
A number of journalists and legal experts deduct that Nunes’ close guarding of the memo is suspect.
What's interesting about the #releasethememo campaign is Nunes et al are not eager to release it to anyone who has access to the same underlying intelligence (Senate Intel, FBI) and could thereby independently evaluate its claims. twitter.com/mkraju/status/…
Over 200 people have read the memo that Burr, DOJ, and FBI were not permitted to see that CNN claims is closely guarded. cnn.com/2018/01/24/pol… pic.twitter.com/ocJzpL6GeQ
ABC News reported Wednesday evening that the Department of Justice, which again was denied access to the memo, has warned Nunes that it would be “extraordinarily reckless” disclose the memo without first allowing the department to assess whether the details would pose a threat to national security.
“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,” a top Justice Department official wrote in a letter to Nunes. “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.”
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