Chris Cuomo destroys the rich asshole defender’s “release the memo” hype in 60 seconds
JANUARY 25, 2018
"It ain't the Democrats, my friend."
For nearly a week, Republicans have been demanding the release of a memo prepared by the rich asshole accomplice Rep. Devin Nunes of California, alleging surveillance abuses. They have been aided in that effort by Fox News and an army of Russia-linked social media bots, who have relentlessly promoted the #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag.
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has been leading the charge. He wrote a letter demanding the release of the memo and flogged the conspiracy theory on Fox News. But Gaetz more than met his match Wednesday night when he tried to peddle the campaign to CNN anchor Chris Cuomo — and got shut down like a rich asshole government.
Gaetz insisted “Democrats are trying to block the American people from seeing” the fraudulent Nunes memo.
“Every Republican on the intelligence committee voted for more transparency,” he said. “Every Democrat voted against it.”
But Cuomo picked that premise apart in a mere 59 seconds. “I have something that you should probably know by now,” Cuomo told Gaetz. “The Democrats can’t stop you from making it public.”
He pointed out that “The president of the United States has power to classify and declassify,” adding “Is there a process? Does he have to follow it? No. Is he someone who seems uniquely suited to ignoring that process? Yes.”
Cuomo also noted that members of Congress “have immunity for anything you say in speech or debate on the floor of Congress. You could go out there. You could read the memo, and you could put anything you want into the congressional record.”
“So it ain’t the Democrats, my friend,” Cuomo concluded. “You could put this, if you wanted to do more than just hype it.”
Cuomo’s demolition of Gaetz was so thorough that he actually had Gaetz urging caution about releasing classified information hastily and recklessly, which is exactly what the Justice Department has said in response to the “release the memo” campaign.
Because Republicans control the House Intelligence Committee and the White House, Democrats could not block the release of the memo if they wanted to. The vote Gaetz referred to was a vote to allow members of the House to view the memo in a secure setting, a vote Republicans won.
As Cuomo rightly said, “It ain’t the Democrats.”
Nearly 100,000 people in Kentucky could lose their health care, thanks to the rich asshole administration.
some rich asshole may have failed to repeal Obamacare, but his administration is doing the next best thing: encouraging states to kick as many poor people off their Medicaid coverage as possible.
His Medicaid administrator, Seema Verma, released new guidelines allowing states to force Medicaid recipients to work or perform community service to keep their coverage. Kentucky is the first state to have such a system approved, and several other states have plans in the works.
Now, 15 residents of Kentucky are suing the administration in federal court to stop the plan that could lead to nearly 100,000 people losing their health care.
The plaintiffs, who range in age from 20 to 62, argue that federal Medicaid requirements can only be changed in ways that increase coverage, not reduce it, and that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services imposed the new guidelines without sufficient public comment or transparency required by law.
The rich asshole administration’s proposal is based on dangerous myths and stereotypes about the poor. Studies show 60 percent of Medicaid recipients already work, and 79 percent live in households where someone is working. Among those who do not, most are caregivers, disabled, in school, or actively looking for work but cannot find it.
Despite this, Verma seems to believe taking away people’s access to health care will magically give them a job. She has bizarrely claimed it is “soft bigotry” to assume poor people are jobless for reasons other than laziness.
Supposedly, the new guidelines exempt people who are disabled or in school. But in practice, work requirements tend to kick off even people who are working, because of the difficulty of the paperwork and bureaucracy to prove eligibility. Kentucky’s own estimates show 100,000 people could lose coverage in that state alone.
Kentucky used to be a huge success story for health care, with a successful insurance exchange and Medicaid expansion under Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear. His Republican successor, Matt Bevin, shut down the exchange and is now determined to roll back Medicaid, claiming with absolutely no basis that Medicaid does not work because disease still exists. He has even threatened to cancel Medicaid expansion entirely, ending coverage for 500,000 people, if courts strike down his work requirement system.
the rich asshole and GOP governors cannot be allowed to contort Medicaid from a system that protects public health into a system that humiliates the poor. The American people are standing up and fighting back.
Jeff Sessions wants to strong-arm states and cities into racially profiling immigrants. California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom will not be threatened.
One of some rich asshole’s biggest white whales is “sanctuaries,” cities and states that have policies against asking people their immigration status, or responding to requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to keep people locked up.
The administration was smacked down in federal court last April for trying to strip grants from sanctuary cities, but now Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is considering criminal charges against politicians in these cities.
But the rich asshole’s real bulldog on the issue is Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Sessions’ latest tactic is to subpoena 23 sanctuary cities for documents about their communications with federal agencies. In response, several furious mayors canceled a meeting at the White House.
And Wednesday evening, California’s lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom, hit back on Twitter.
“Bring it,” he wrote. “Your racist political stunts are getting old and will not work on us.”
The law Sessions is citing to justify his anti-sanctuary crusade is 8 U.S.C. § 1373, which prohibits states and cities from enacting policies that prohibit the sharing of immigration data with the Department of Homeland Security.
But as the Immigrant Legal Resource Center points out, nothing in that law mandates states and cities collect that information, which is what sanctuary policies prohibit.
While conservatives and Fox News hosts love to imply that sanctuary cities, by definition, harbor fugitives and forbid federal officers from entering, that is not how it works. It is nothing more than a limit on how local police can question or detain suspects.
It should be noted that, whereas Sessions’ motivation for stamping out sanctuaries is grounded in racist myths about a wave of immigrant crime, cities and states have a multitude of reasons for enacting such policies even aside from immigrant rights.
For one thing, holding someone for ICE is expensive and opens up jurisdictions to lawsuits. For another, studies show when local police don’t ask people for immigration papers, it improves trust in the police and makes people more likely to report crimes.
Sessions loves to talk up the rule of law. But he is so blinded by his agenda against racial and ethnic minorities that he ignores what the law actually says, and Newsom is all too happy to set him straight on the facts.
Asshole and possible Zodiac Killer Ted Cruz: No path to citizenship for Dreamers
BY MORGAN GSTALTER - 01/25/18 04:22 PM EST
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Thursday rejected the idea of giving young immigrants in the country illegally a path to citizenship, one day after President the rich asshole said he was open to the idea.
“I do not believe we should be granting a path to citizenship to anybody here illegally,” Cruz told reporters, according to Bloomberg. “Doing so is inconsistent with the promises we made to the men and women who elected us.”
“For some reason that to me is utterly inexplicable, we see Republicans falling all over themselves to gallop to the left of [former President] Obama in a way that is contrary to the promises made to the voters who elected us,” he added.
the rich asshole on Wednesday said he was open to a path to citizenship for some immigrants in exchange for funding for a border wall and other security measures.
“We’re going to morph into it,” the rich asshole said. “It’s going to happen, at some point in the future, over a period of 10 to 12 years.”
the rich asshole in October announced he would be ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program launched by Obama, which allowed certain immigrants who entered the country illegally as children to work and go to school in the United States.
DACA protections will begin to expire for those covered by the program on March 5.
Negotiators are now working on a deal that would replace DACA with legislation protecting the so-called Dreamers. It would be paired with border security measures and changes to other immigration programs.
the rich asshole has demanded $25 billion in funding for his U.S.-Mexico border wall, an end to the diversity visa lottery system and limitations on family-based migration.
The fight over immigration led to a three-day shutdown of the government that ended on Monday.
Lawmakers now face a Feb. 8 deadline to pass another government funding bill to prevent a shutdown.
the rich asshole to support path to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers
And right wingers lost their freakin' minds.
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 01/25/18 05:02 PM EST
The White House will endorse allowing as many as 1.8 million young immigrants to seek U.S. citizenship in an immigration plan that will be released next week, senior administration officials said Thursday.
In exchange for the "Dreamer" protections, President the rich asshole will seek billions of dollars for a border wall and sweeping changes to the immigration system.
Officials who described the plan to reporters framed it as Congress’s best chance to pass a fix for immigrants who benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which the rich asshole terminated last year.
The White House is urging the Senate to draw up legislation based on the plan and introduce it the week of Feb. 5, days before government funding is set to expire, though officials said they do not have an assurance it will be brought up.
“This truly represents a bipartisan compromise position,” said one official, who requested anonymity to detail the proposal. “We have no doubt that if this legislation were brought to the floor, it would easily garner 60 votes.”
The official said Congress failed to pass immigration overhauls in the past because lawmakers considered legislation that was too big in scope and only represented “the most liberal sections of both parties.”
the rich asshole aides offered the most detailed look to date at the president’s plan on immigration, an issue that animated his campaign and has dominated the policy debate on Capitol Hill.
It’s designed to break a partisan impasse on the issue before the DACA programs begin to wind down on March 5.
Despite the White House’s optimism, the plan contains elements that could be unpalatable to lawmakers in both parties.
Under the proposal, immigrants who are covered by DACA or those who are eligible but did not apply can apply for legal status if they meet certain work and education requirements that would be spelled out by Congress.
A senior administration official previously said just the roughly 690,000 immigrants who are covered by DACA would be eligible to apply for citizenship. But another official said Thursday that an additional 1.1 million immigrants who meet age and status requirements for DACA could also apply.
It would take 10-12 years for immigrants to eventually earn citizenship, a timeline the rich asshole revealed during an impromptu session with reporters Wednesday.
the rich asshole has repeatedly said he wants to help young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, known as “Dreamers.” But an official said it was a “dramatic concession by the White House” to expand the pool of people eligible for citizenship.
The larger “Dreamer” population is believed to number 3.6 million people.
In exchange, the rich asshole is asking for $25 billion in large part to build his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a key campaign promise the president has said must be included in a final deal.
The money would be kept in a trust fund so it could not be clawed back by future Congresses.
Officials estimate the wall will cost $20 billion, with the other $5 billion slated to fund new technology and stronger security measures for ports of entry and the U.S-Canada border.
Another $5 billion would be spent to hire more border agents and immigration judges.
That trade-off — wall funding in exchange for DACA protections — appears similar to a deal that Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) offered 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."
But an administration official said the White House plan was “galaxies apart” from what Schumer offered.
The the rich asshole plan contains steep limits on migration by extended family members.
Under the new system, U.S. citizens and permanent residents could only sponsor their immediate families, which includes spouses and minor children. Other relatives, like parents and siblings, would be excluded.
The framework also scraps the visa lottery system, which allows people from countries with low levels of U.S. immigration to apply for visas. The administration would "reallocate" the visas to clear a backlog of people waiting for family-based and high-skilled worker visas.
the rich asshole administration officials said the plan should satisfy lawmakers who accused the rich asshole of stymying immigration negotiations by being too vague in his demands.
Schumer, who failed to strike a deal last week before the three-day government shutdown, compared the talks to “negotiating with Jell-O.”
“So, where’s the president at on this?” a the rich asshole administration official said, summarizing lawmaker complaints “So here it is. … This is the president’s position.”
While the rich asshole’s offer contains a key demand for Democrats — a path to citizenship for DACA-eligible immigrants — it might scare off members who say they’re giving up too many restrictions on legal immigration.
“There is going to be a significant pushback regarding the changes to legal immigration,” Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, told The Hill.
“Some folks on the far-left of the Democratic Party are going to have to accept — if they are sincere in their care for DACA recipients — they’re going to have to acknowledge the election results,” a senior administration official replied.
Some conservative Republicans are also balking at offering any path to citizenship to young immigrants.
“I do not believe we should be granting a path to citizenship to anybody here illegally,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told reporters at the Capitol. “Doing so is inconsistent with the promises we made to the men and women who elected us.”
Noorani called the administration's plan “an important step in the process” but said more changes would need to be made in order for Congress to pass a DACA fix.
“I’m not sure this is the framework that gets to 60 in the Senate and 218 in the House,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a statement said the administration's plan "builds upon the four pillars for reform that the president has consistently put forth."
"Members on both sides of the aisle will look to this framework for guidance as they work towards an agreement," McConnell said.
Administration officials aides were also not optimistic the plan could pass the House, where immigration hard-liners are more prevalent.
“I don’t know yet,” one official said when asked if it could pass the House. The same official predicted the House and Senate would likely have to go to a conference committee to resolve their differences on immigration.
Speaker Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) office praised the administration for releasing a plan.
“We’re grateful for the president showing leadership on this issue and believe his ideas will help us ultimately reach a balanced solution,” said spokesman Doug Andres.
Updated at 6:22 p.m.
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 01/25/18 11:08 AM EST
Some attendees at the annual World Economic Forum are planning to walk out during President the rich asshole's address on Friday.
Several conferencegoers told Quartz that they are planning to leave during the rich asshole's speech in protest of his reported remarks this month that immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations came from "shithole countries."
Bonang Mohale, the CEO of Business Leadership South Africa, said in an open letter last week that he and others would boycott the rich asshole's address at the annual gathering in the Swiss resort town of Davos, and urged "likeminded peers to do the same."
In that letter, Mohale called the rich asshole's alleged comments insulting and blasted the president's "continued failure to unequivocally apologise" for the remarks, which the rich asshole has denied saying.
"The overt racism of these statements is self-evident, and a stain on an office as august as yours," Mohale wrote.
The Washington Post first reported earlier this month that, in an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers and administration officials, the rich asshole demanded to know why the U.S. should admit immigrants from "shithole countries" over immigrants from countries like Norway.
The reported remarks were widely condemned as callous and racist, and prompted governments in Africa and elsewhere to summon U.S. diplomats to explain the president's alleged comments.
While some lawmakers who attended the meeting have confirmed that the rich asshole used the term, others have denied it or said they didn't hear him say it.
House intel member: I’ve read the so-called ‘DOJ abuses’ memo — and it reads like the writer was ‘a couple whiskies in’
Rep. Jim Hines (D-CT) during an MSNBC interview. Image via screengrab.
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A member of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jim Hines (D-CT) has read chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) hyped and secretive “Justice Department abuses” memo — and says its contents are far from the bombshell his GOP colleagues claim they are.
“Having read it,” Himes told MSNBC host Chris Matthews during a Thursday evening interview, “you’d hope that whoever wrote that was a couple of whiskies into the bag.”
The memo that spurred a right-wing (and Russian bot-fueled) Twitter campaign under the hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo was, as Huffington Post reported last week, supposedly written by GOP staffers.
The document, Himes continued, is “based on intelligence that none of these people have reviewed.”
“When mouth-breathers like [Fox News host Sean] Hannity and [Jeanine] Pirro throw this stuff up on television it doesn’t surprise me,” he said. But to hear it come from congresspeople like Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) “who should know better,” Himes continued, is disappointing.
Watch below, via MSNBC:
Watch the rich asshole insist he never gave ‘any thought’ to firing Mueller
His statement came two months after he reportedly ordered the White House counsel to fire Mueller.
On Thursday night, the New York Times reported that President the rich asshole tried to fire special counsel Robert Mueller last June. the rich asshole ordered White House counsel Donald F. McGahn to oust Mueller, but backed down when McGahn threatened to resign.
the rich asshole, however, has publicly denied even considering firing Mueller.
At a press briefing from his New Jersey golf club on August 10, 2017, the rich asshole was asked if he had ever “thought about or considered” firing Mueller. “I haven’t given it any thought,” the rich asshole responded.
Watch (starting at 14:19):
If the New York Times report is true, this was a lie. Just two months prior to this press conference, he had ordered Mueller fired.
the rich asshole’s top aides made similar denials. In an August 6 interview on ABC News, the rich asshole adviser Kellyanne Conway was asked if the rich asshole was committed to not firing Mueller. “The president has not even discussed that… he has not discussed firing Bob Mueller,” Conway said.
Watch (starting at 14:57):
This was also a lie if the New York Times report is true.
In an interview with USA Today on August 8, the rich asshole lawyer John Dowd said firing Mueller has “never been on the table, never.” Dowd added that the idea that the rich asshole would try to fire Mueller was simply a “manifestation of the media.”
‘This began with Devin Nunes’: Shep Smith exposes GOP’s ‘bogus’ memo as a ‘weapon of partisan mass distraction’
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Fox News host Shep Smith (Screengrab / composite)
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Fox News’ Shep Smith on Thursday tore apart the “bogus” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) memo, tearing into the House Intelligence Committee chairman for hyping “a weapon of partisan mass distraction” meant to distract from the Russia investigation and “behoove” some rich asshole’s relentless attacks on core Democratic values.
Smith was reacting to an anti-FBI memo written by Nunes that alleges impropriety on the part of the FBI and Department of Justice during the 2016 presidential election. That memo is the culmination of Nunes’ many efforts to distract from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and provide cover to the rich asshole.
“This began with Devin Nunes,” Smith reminded viewers. “The same Devin Nunes who last year made White House surveillance claims, staged a rush to the White House to purportedly share surveillance information with the administration, but actually took information from the administration and staged a report of it.”
“At its core, it was PR,” Smith said. “And it was bogus.” The Fox News host noted Smith “will not share the memo in question”—not to investigators, the DOJ or his Republican colleague on the Senate intel committee. He also referenced assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd’s letter to Nunes Wednesday warning a public release of the memo without proper oversight would be “extremely reckless.”
“A memo can be a weapon of partisan mass distraction,” Smith said. “Especially at a pivotal moment in American history, when it behooves the man in charge for supporters to believe the institutions can’t be trusted, investigators are corrupt, and the news media are liars. Context matters.”
Watch the video below, via Fox News:
CNN mocks the rich asshole’s promise to talk to Mueller with all the times he promised to release his returns in 30-second-long ‘tribute’
some rich asshole (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia)
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President some rich asshole’s lawyer backtracked on Thursday that he would be speaking under oath with special council Robert Mueller and his team. The president has promised several times on video and audio recordings that he would be more than willing to speak with Mueller and his team. Although, the rich asshole also said multiple times that he’d releases his taxes.
“Are you going to talk to Mueller?” a reporter asked the rich asshole Wednesday evening.
“I’m looking forward to it, actually,” the rich asshole said.
“You want to?” the reporter asked.
“There has been no collusion whatsoever,” was the rich asshole’s response. “There’s been no obstruction whatsoever, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Less than 24 hours later, however, the rich asshole’s lawyer’s were the ones to swoop in and be the bad guy while the rich asshole claims innocence.
“Over my dead body,” conservative former federal prosecutor Patrick Cotter said. “I would never let any client of mine interviewed if they are target the investigation. it makes no sense. and a whole parade of possibilities that happen when you allow your client interviewed by the government.
CNN reporter Gloria Borger said it was a perfect example of the rich asshole playing “good cop and letting the lawyers be the bad cop.” However, she noted that Mueller’s team can always subpoena the rich asshole if he refuses to cooperate. It would turn a game of chicken into the chickens heading to the pen.
“Yesterday, when the president said this, it seemed sort of a smart thing to do,” host Erin Burnet said. “You come out and say ‘I have nothing to hide, I’m eager to do that,’ you’ll get credit from that from your base and plenty of other people. Then someone else over rules you. In fact, it sounds very similar to another promise the president made to release his tax returns.”
It was revealed Thursday, that the rich asshole sought to fire Mueller last June, but that White House council Don McGahn said he would quit.
In a 30-second supercut, CNN brought back all of the broken promises the rich asshole made. Check it out below:
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President some rich asshole’s lawyer backtracked on Thursday that he would be speaking under oath with special council Robert Mueller and his team. The president has promised several times on video and audio recordings that he would be more than willing to speak with Mueller and his team. Although, the rich asshole also said multiple times that he’d releases his taxes.
“Are you going to talk to Mueller?” a reporter asked the rich asshole Wednesday evening.
“I’m looking forward to it, actually,” the rich asshole said.
“You want to?” the reporter asked.
“There has been no collusion whatsoever,” was the rich asshole’s response. “There’s been no obstruction whatsoever, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Less than 24 hours later, however, the rich asshole’s lawyer’s were the ones to swoop in and be the bad guy while the rich asshole claims innocence.
“Over my dead body,” conservative former federal prosecutor Patrick Cotter said. “I would never let any client of mine interviewed if they are target the investigation. it makes no sense. and a whole parade of possibilities that happen when you allow your client interviewed by the government.
CNN reporter Gloria Borger said it was a perfect example of the rich asshole playing “good cop and letting the lawyers be the bad cop.” However, she noted that Mueller’s team can always subpoena the rich asshole if he refuses to cooperate. It would turn a game of chicken into the chickens heading to the pen.
“Yesterday, when the president said this, it seemed sort of a smart thing to do,” host Erin Burnet said. “You come out and say ‘I have nothing to hide, I’m eager to do that,’ you’ll get credit from that from your base and plenty of other people. Then someone else over rules you. In fact, it sounds very similar to another promise the president made to release his tax returns.”
It was revealed Thursday, that the rich asshole sought to fire Mueller last June, but that White House council Don McGahn said he would quit.
In a 30-second supercut, CNN brought back all of the broken promises the rich asshole made. Check it out below:
White House unveils immigration plan laced with white nationalist policy ideas
The plan calls for a whopping $25 billion for border security.
The White House released its immigration framework Thursday, detailing a plan officials say will result in a path to citizenship for 1.8 million DREAMers in exchange for $25 billion dollars for border security.
A senior White House official called the new proposal “a compromise position that we believe… will get 60 votes in the Senate” and “a framework that ultimately will lead to passage of a law,” during a call with Republican Hill staffers
The plan, while perhaps appearing generous on first glance, is actually setting in motion a kind of immigration reform that is quite stringent and laced with white nationalist policy ideas.
The White House immigration framework limits forms of legal immigration by eliminating the visa lottery and curbing U.S. migration by extended families — or what the rich asshole administration pejoratively calls “chain migration” — a big change to current U.S. immigration policy. New citizens would only be able to sponsor their immediate families, like spouses and children, to legally enter the country. Other relatives would be excluded.
Restricting so-called “chain migration” disproportionately affects Latinos and people of Asian origin, who are likely to be recent immigrants and therefore more likely to have close relatives outside the United States.
Additionally, the Diversity Visa Immigrant Program, which allows up to 50,000 people a year to immigrate to the United States from underrepresented populations is a system that disproportionately benefits African immigrants.
The framework claims the new immigration policy will help around 1.8 million DREAMers, yet makes no mention of what will happen to the undocumented immigrants living in the United States who are not DREAMers, leaving their immigration statuses in limbo.
What the framework does mention in detail, however, is how much the money administration is seeking for border security: a whopping $25 billion.
The White House says the $25 billion would help pay for the cost of a physical barrier at the United States southern border with Mexico and the northern border with Canada. The administration is also seeking funds for more U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lawyers and immigration judges, suggesting that the only thing standing in between President the rich asshole and his deportation ambitions are the number of personnel.
UPDATE (7:07 PM)
United We Dream, an immigrants rights advocacy group released the following statement regarding the White House immigration framework:
“Let’s call this proposal for what it is: a white supremacist ransom note. the rich asshole and Stephen Miller killed DACA and created the crisis that immigrant youth are facing. They have taken immigrant youth hostage, pitting us against our own parents, Black immigrants and our communities in exchange for our dignity.”
“To Miller and the rich asshole’s white supremacist proposal, immigrant youth say: No.
“With each passing day, immigrant youth are losing their livelihoods and are at risk of deportation. People like Eric, Yuridia, and Damaris could soon face the same fate as Luis, who was kicked in the head by deportation agents and confined in a detention camp.
“But our fear, our pain, and our lives must not be used to shackle our parents and ban those seeking refuge; we must not be used to tear apart the moral fabric of this country. For months, we have organized and mobilized the country to demand a common sense solution that delivers protection without harming others: the Dream Act.”
“So let us be clear: any politician who backs up this ransom note is enabling the rich asshole and Miller’s white supremacist agenda.
“Members of Congress of conscience must make the moral choice to reject this white supremacist proposal and pass legislation that protects us without harming others. Dream Act now.”
BY MELINA DELKIC ON 1/25/18 AT 7:31 PM
A Fox News host called the conspiracies surrounding the infamous Nunes Memo a “weapon of mass distraction" on Thursday, departing from the network's extensive coverage of the matter.
Shepard Smith, an anchor for the network, criticized the validity of the four-page-long classified document that Republican Representative Devin Nunes, of California, says contains proof that the FBI abused surveillance laws.
"Many who have seen the memo say it's misleading, distracting and lacking context," he said, adding that "a memo can be a weapon of partisan mass distraction, especially at a pivotal moment in American history, when it behooves the man in charge for supporters to believe the institutions can't be trusted, investigators are corrupt and the news media are liars. Context matters."
He also said, "Devin Nunes wrote the memo currently in question. He will not share it with investigators. The rich asshole Justice Department wants to see it—he won't let them. The same the rich asshole department says it should not be made public, as it would damage the nation."
Smith is known for departing from the stances of many of his colleagues at the network. In November, when many conservative media members were talking about the Uranium One deal involving Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, Smith called the reporting "inaccurate," and spent several minutes explaining why the alleged scandal wouldn't have been possible.
After Smith lashed out at the rich asshole in July 2017 for "constant flip-flopping between narratives" on a meeting some rich asshole Jr. attended in June 2016, Fox News colleague Sean Hannity accused him of being "anti-the rich asshole."
Many independents and Democrats have praised Smith for his coverage. Evan McMullin, the former independent presidential candidate, tweeted on Thursday, "Shep Smith and @ShepNewsTeam have been showing a great deal of integrity under what must be challenging circumstances at Fox News. Thank you, Shep."
Before Smith's coverage of the Nunes Memo, MSNBC host Joy Reid tweeted on Sunday that he "just keeps making sense: [the rich asshole] and Republicans are responsible for the #TrumpShutdown."
Shep Smith and @ShepNewsTeam have been showing a great deal of integrity under what must be challenging circumstances at Fox News. Thank you, Shep. twitter.com/mattgertz/stat…
TheLatest: WH out with list of employees Mueller questioned
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on investigations of links between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign (all times local):
12:26 p.m.
More than 20 White House employees working for President Donald Trump have given voluntary interviews to special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russian election interference and any possible obstruction of justice.
That's according to a document released by Trump's attorney John Dowd.
The document highlights the White House's "unprecedented" cooperation with Mueller's investigation including that it has turned over more than 20,000 pages of documents. The president's campaign has turned over more than 1.4 million pages of documents.
Dowd released the list a day after Trump said he was looking forward to being questioned by Mueller's team. Negotiations about the interview's content and setting are still ongoing, but Trump says it could be as soon as two or three weeks.
____
12:32 a.m.
President Donald Trump says he's more than willing to answer questions under oath as part of the special counsel's Russia investigation.
When asked by reporters late Wednesday about being questioned by Robert Mueller, the president said he's "looking forward to it, actually."
Mueller is investigating Russian election interference and Trump's possible obstruction in the firing of the FBI director. He has been seeking an interview with Trump, but White House officials had not previously confirmed that the president would grant one.
As for timing, Trump said, "I guess they're talking about two or three weeks, but I'd love to do it."
He said, as he has repeatedly, that "there's no collusion whatsoever" with the Russians, and he added, "there's no obstruction whatsoever."
‘Nothing says America like a solid gold toilet’: Internet cheers the Guggenheim’s ‘brilliant’ the rich asshole troll
President some rich asshole complains about the inadequacies of libel laws shortly before a cabinet meeting (Screen cap).
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The Washington Post on Thursday published an incredible story on some rich asshole’s effort to “borrow” a Vincent Van Gogh painting for use in the president and First Lady’s living quarters.
According the report, the Guggenheim’s chief curator Nancy Spector replied that she was not able to accommodate the president’s request, she was able to offer an “alternative.” As the Post reports, Spector’s offer was ‘an 18-karat, fully functioning, solid gold toilet—an interactive work entitled ‘America,’” by artist Maurizio Cattelan.
Spector added the artist “would like to offer it to the White House for a long-term loan.” asked about his offer to the Trumps, Cattelan told the Post, “What’s the point of our life? Everything seems absurd until we die and then it makes sense.”
The Internet on Thursday was thoroughly amused by what users saw as the perfect metaphor for the rich asshole’s presidency.
Read the replies below:
I have peed in this toilet. That's really all I have to add. twitter.com/washingtonpost…
White House: Gimme art by the ear guy.
Guggenheim: Literally you are a piece of shit have a nice day fund the arts in school bish! twitter.com/MikeDelMoro/st…
Thought this had to be satire but no of course not - when the Trump’s asked for a Van Gogh the rather shady counter offer was a solid gold toilet called America via @washingtonpost washingtonpost.com/local/dc-polit…
Oh, sh**, that's cold.
The Trumps asked to borrow a Van Gogh for the White House. The Guggenheim offered an 18K gold toilet instead. wapo.st/2ncBjSH?tid=ss…
] @ Ars Technica.@washingtonpost says it’s “an 18-karat, fully functioning, solid gold toilet - an interactive work entitled ‘America’ that critics have described as pointed satire aimed at the excess of wealth in this country.”twitter.com/washingtonpost…
*kisses two fingers and holds them up to the air*
Cheers to you Guggenheim curator twitter.com/kylegriffin1/s…
Strong work, @Guggenheim. Strong work. twitter.com/MikeDelMoro/st…
“What’s the point of our life? Everything seems absurd until we die and then it makes sense.”
Now that’s a way to not answer a reporter’s questions. washingtonpost.com/local/dc-polit…
Extremely tickled by this quote from the artist whose golden toilet the Guggenheim tried to give to Donald Trump washingtonpost.com/local/dc-polit…
When asked why the he offered the toilet to the Trumps, the artist said, “What’s the point of our life? Everything seems absurd until we die and then it makes sense.”
I am officially dead, deceased, no longer of this word!(H/t @missrrosenberg
In the year of our Lord two thousand and eighteen, even the Guggenheim dunks on the President of the United States. washingtonpost.com/local/dc-polit…
It's funny and sad at the same time.We all know how much Donny loves his gold
. Very thoughtful on behalf of the #Guggenheim. twitter.com/kylegriffin1/s…
you not! The 
What a crappy thing for Guggenheim to do twitter.com/jeneps/status/…
Oh yeah, doesn’t get any better. Trump wants a Van Gogh painting for WH; Guggenheim says no, offers a solid gold toilet instead. Nicely done twitter.com/kylegriffin1/s…
the rich asshole asked the Guggenheim for a Van Gogh to hang in the White House — here’s what they offered instead
'America': a sculpture by Maurizio Cattelan (Guggenheim Museum)
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President some rich asshole and First Lady Melania the rich asshole asked the Guggenheim Museum to loan them a Van Gogh painting for the White House residence, said the Washington Post on Thursday.
However, the museum offered the first couple a consolation prize: A solid gold toilet called “America.”
The White House reportedly asked the famous art museum if the Trumps could “borrow” Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “Landscape with Snow.”
In an email, museum curator Nancy Spector said the Guggenheim could not accommodate the White House’s request.
“The curator’s alternative: an 18-karat, fully functioning, solid gold toilet – an interactive work entitled ‘America’ that critics have described as pointed satire aimed at the excess of wealth in this country,” said the Post.
“America” was installed for public use at the Guggenheim for a year, but that exhibit has closed and the toilet is now available, Spector said, and artist Maurizio Cattelan said he would be more than willing to offer the sculpture to the Trumps as a “long-term loan.”
A white supremacist ransom note’:DREAMers quickly reject the rich asshole’s immigration plan
"Another attempt by the White House to undermine the delicate, bipartisan work happening in Congress."
The White House unveiled its new immigration framework Thursday, a plan officials claim will save 1.8 million DREAMers in exchange for $25 billion dollars for increased border security. But the framework also severely limits legal forms of immigration, like the diversity visa lottery program, and excludes immigrants from sponsoring non-immediate family members — both legal forms of immigration that are primarily utilized by non-white immigrants.
Several DREAMers — people who were brought to the U.S. as children — and immigrants rights advocacy groups reacted to the White House’s proposal almost immediately, calling out the rich asshole administration for its brazen embrace of a popular white supremacist policy platform.
“Let’s call this proposal for what it is: a white supremacist ransom note. the rich asshole and Stephen Miller killed DACA and created the crisis that immigrant youth are facing. They have taken immigrant youth hostage, pitting us against our own parents, Black immigrants and our communities in exchange for our dignity,” immigrant advocacy group United We Dream said in a statement Thursday.
“So let us be clear: any politician who backs up this ransom note is enabling the rich asshole and Miller’s white supremacist agenda. Members of Congress of conscience must make the moral choice to reject this white supremacist proposal and pass legislation that protects us without harming others. Dream Act now.”
Anyone supporting this ‘proposal’, you might as well wear you white kkk robe out in public #DreamActNow twitter.com/cnn/status/956…
No. No. No. No. Hell no! You're not gonna do all that to our families and future immigrants on the back of Dreamers. Terrifying Miller wish list. Miller = evil×100.
"White House presents immigration plan with path to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers" politi.co/2nd0yF8
Anyone supporting this ‘proposal’, you might as well wear you white kkk robe out in public #DreamActNow twitter.com/cnn/status/956…
No. No. No. No. Hell no! You're not gonna do all that to our families and future immigrants on the back of Dreamers. Terrifying Miller wish list. Miller = evil×100.
"White House presents immigration plan with path to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers" politi.co/2nd0yF8
Trump proposes path to citizenship for 1.8 million immigrants
“The white supremacists who operate in the White House without hoods have hijacked the immigration debate in our country, attempting to hold young, undocumented immigrants hostage in exchange for a vile, extremely racist agenda that will drag our country back to the pre-civil rights era,” Kica Matos, Fair Immigration Reform Movement spokesperson, said in a statement responding to the White House’s policy framework.
“The proposed immigration framework is also another attempt by the White House to undermine the delicate, bipartisan work happening in Congress.
“The white supremacists who operate in the White House without hoods have hijacked the immigration debate in our country, attempting to hold young, undocumented immigrants hostage in exchange for a vile, extremely racist agenda that will drag our country back to the pre-civil rights era,” Kica Matos, Fair Immigration Reform Movement spokesperson, said in a statement responding to the White House’s policy framework.
“The proposed immigration framework is also another attempt by the White House to undermine the delicate, bipartisan work happening in Congress.
the rich asshole tried to fire the special counsel in June. Experts suggest that would have ended his presidency.
In the largest bombshell of the Russia story since some rich asshole fired FBI Director James Comey, the New York Times reported that in June, the rich asshole tried to do the same to special counsel Robert Mueller, and only backed off after White House counsel Don McGahn threatened to resign.
How big would a Mueller firing have been? Absolutely cataclysmic, experts say.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper spoke with Michael Zeldin, an attorney and legal analyst, about the implications of what would have happened if the rich asshole had gone through with it.
“From a political standpoint, I think it would have been his own Saturday Night Massacre,” said Zeldin, referring to the infamous affair in which Richard Nixon fired a string of Justice Department officials in order to get rid of special prosecutor Archibald Cox. “And Carl [Bernstein] can tell us how that worked out for the last firing of a special counsel.”
“From a legal standpoint, I think it would have added a great deal of emphasis on the effort to charge the president with obstruction of justice and/or file an article of impeachment, you know, a recommendation. Article of impeachment with the House, because this would be obstructionist behavior. He has no legal basis to fire Mueller,” continued Zeldin.
As he explained, “There are specific regulations that govern Mueller’s conduct,” which were not violated. Republicans have tried to invent scandals about “conflicts of interest” in Mueller’s tea, but none of them are legitimate conflicts.
“McGahn was protective of the president. Rosenstein would have quit. I think Rachel Brand would have quit,” said Zeldin. “Had the president not been, you know, sort of well-served by McGahn, he would be facing either respective indictment for obstruction of justice — assuming a president can be indicted — or a referral for article of impeachment. I think this would have been a camel-breaking straw for even those Republicans who are pretty much lined up in his favor.”
Zeldin is not alone in his assessment.
CNN’s Chris Cuomo asked former president of the Nixon Library Tim Naftali what would have happened. “Could it be true that, but for White House Counsel Don McGahn, if the president of the United States had ordered the firing of the special counsel, he might have wound up exactly where Nixon was?”
Naftali responded that he would have been. “I think it’s likely we would have had an impeachment crisis last June …a number of leaders in the Senate, Republican leaders, were sending signals to the president, don’t do this. Don’t fire the special counsel.”
“This is what’s really concerning: why does he want to fire Mueller?” he added. “That’s the real issue. Why does he want to fire him? Now, in Nixon’s case, he wanted to fire the Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor, and his team stopped him from doing it in the summer of ’73. But they couldn’t hold him back by October of ’73, and he pulled the trigger.”
All signs indicate that the rich asshole very nearly avoided making a decision that would have instantly ended his presidency. The only question that remains is whether he can avoid making it again.
Anthony Scaramucci blames news about the rich asshole wanting to fire Bob Mueller on Steve Bannon — then denies he said it
Chris Cuomo and Anthony Scramucci (Photo: Screen capture)
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In a bizarre interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, former advisor and brief White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci demanded that Steve Bannon’s phone records be investigated because he thought the former Breitbart CEO was behind a shocking leak that came out Thursday.
“I find it very ironic that this information is coming out while [some rich asshole] is here in Davos while he’s had great fanfare,” Scaramucci said. “Between you and me I would like to get a look at somebody like Steve Bannon’s phone records to see who he’s talking to and how this information is out there.”
The story from The New York Times revealed that the rich asshole sought to fire special counsel Robert Mueller but White House counsel Don McGahn threatened to quit if it happened. Scaramucci also claimed that the story was completely irrelevant because the rich asshole never did fire Mueller, which Cuomo quickly pounced on.
“Don’t say that the information can’t be believed because of the timing,” Cuomo said. Scaramucci cut in to say that it wasn’t that he doesn’t believe the reporting, rather that it was suspect.
Scaramucci said that the conversion was a “privileged conversation” and thus shouldn’t have been released to begin with. The White House counsel doesn’t have executive privilege with the president as found by the U.S. Supreme Court during the investigation into President Richard Nixon.
The two argued about whether or not it was important before returning to the issue of Bannon, where Scaramucci backtracked.
“This distraction is about leaks and Steve Bannon,” Cuomo said.
“You don’t want to let me finish because you know I’m making a lot of sense to your viewers,” Scaramucci alleged. “The guy was never fired.”
“You’re saying it was leaked by Bannon,” Cuomo said.
“I did not say that. I’m not saying that. I’m accepting the reporting,” Scaramucci said. “I’m not saying that. Don’t say I’m saying that when I’m not saying that. What I am saying is he didn’t fire the guy. He may have had a conversation about firing the guy and then made a decision not to fire the guy.”
Cuomo clarified that it wasn’t what the reporting was about. The conversation devolved from there.
Watch the video below:
It's time to talk about impeachment.
some rich asshole has been trying to kill the investigation into him, his campaign, and his family almost from the moment he took office.
His sloppy attempts to obstruct the investigation have only made the case against him that much worse. He fired FBI Director James Comey and foolishly admitted he did so because of Comey’s investigation. He’s been smearing, slandering, and tweet-raging about special counsel Robert Mueller for months.
But an explosive new report confirms the rich asshole’s attempts to end this investigation go far beyond his public outbursts. Last June, only a month after Mueller was appointed, the rich asshole tried to have him fired for investigating the rich asshole for obstruction of justice.
And the rich asshole’s White House is not denying it.
“We decline to comment out of respect for the Office of the Special Counsel and its process,” said Ty Cobb, one of the rich asshole’s lawyers, in a statement to the Times.
For a White House that smears any allegation, regardless of the amount of evidence supporting it, as “fake news,” that statement speaks volumes about the story, which is based on conversations with multiple sources.
The only reason Mueller still holds his position is because White House counsel Don McGahn threatened to quit.
Mueller was appointed in May 2017, and by June, the rich asshole was concocting what certainly seems to be a very thin case for his firing:
First, he claimed that a dispute years ago over fees at the rich asshole National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., had prompted Mr. Mueller, the F.B.I. director at the time, to resign his membership. The president also said Mr. Mueller could not be impartial because he had most recently worked for the law firm that previously represented the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Finally, the president said, Mr. Mueller had been interviewed to return as the F.B.I. director the day before he was appointed special counsel in May.
It’s not surprising, then, that McGahn refused to be a party to such an obvious attempt at further obstruction.
The bombshell report confirms what many Democrats were warning when the rich asshole first started smearing Mueller.
“The message the president is sending through his tweets is that he believes the rule of law doesn’t apply to him and that anyone who thinks otherwise will be fired. That’s undemocratic on its face and a blatant violation of the president’s oath of office,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) at the time.
The GOP-led smear campaign against Mueller also kicked into gear at the same time the rich asshole was looking for a way to fire him.
When Mueller was first appointed in May, Republicans had nothing but good things to say about the Purple Heart veteran and former FBI director.
But a month later, their tone had shifted considerably. Suddenly, the investigation was a “witch hunt” and Mueller went from having integrity to having “conflicts of interest.”
In their attempt to undermine Mueller, the rich asshole and his Republican allies launched myriad allegations against the special counsel and his role in the investigation, with some calling on him to step down and others refusing to push back on the baseless attacks against him.
At one point, longtime the rich asshole confidante Roger Stone accused Mueller of committing obstruction of justice and demanded that he be removed from his position as special counsel, while former chief strategist Steve Bannon urged the rich asshole to use more aggressive tactics against Mueller.
In November, Republicans even introduced legislation that would have compelled Mueller to step down. These attacks began in June and peaked again in December, but they never ceased. Now we know why.
Last June, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) predicted that if the rich asshole did indeed fire Mueller, “Congress would begin impeachment proceedings.”
That’s exactly what the rich asshole was trying to do, and the only thing that stopped him was his own attorney threatening to quit, which would almost certainly have exploded the story of the rich asshole’s intentions at the time.
Seven months later, we know those fears were warranted.
‘Mass hysteria’: April Ryan’s June 2017 claim that White House freaked out over Mueller firing corroborates NYT bombshell
April Ryan, White House correspondent anf Washington, D.C., bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks (Photo: Screen capture)
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White House correspondent April Ryan told CNN on the night of June 12, 2017that the White House was in “mass hysteria” with staffers fearing President some rich asshole was about to fire special counsel Robert Mueller.
Thursday night, The New York Times reported senior staffers corroborated that story to Mueller’s team that the rich asshole wanted to fire the special counsel. It was White House counsel Don McGahn who stopped it by saying that if the rich asshole did it he would resign. the rich asshole didn’t fire Mueller after all. Months later, he even denied ever thinking about it.
Here’s what Ryan had to say seven months ago.
“One of my sources reached out to me right before we went on air and they said there’s mass hysteria in the West Wing about this,” Ryan explained “We don’t know if it’s going to happen or if it won’t happen, but what we do know: if indeed the president does fire Mueller, it shows that he’s impeding the process again.”
Ryan argued Mueller must be allowed to carry on his investigation “because of what [the rich asshole] did with Comey,” referring to the president’s decision to fire the former FBI director over the Russia investigation.
“There’s a lot of smoke and there’s a lot of alarm bells going off,” Ryan continued. “The question is, where’s the fire.”
Ryan noted if the rich asshole decided to fire Mueller, it would be a “big problem for him politically.”
Watch the video below:
NYT reporter who broke Mueller firing story: McGahn is central to all major White House scandals
Special counsel Robert Mueller (left, via White House archives) and White House counsel Don McGahn II (right, via screengrab).
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After breaking a bombshell story about President some rich asshole attempting to fire special counsel Robert Mueller last June, the New York Times‘ Michael Schmidt told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that White House counsel Don McGahn is more central to the rich asshole administration scandals than most Americans realize.
McGahn, who is featured prominently in Schmidt’s co-written report with the Times‘ Maggie Haberman, threatened to quit when the rich asshole ordered him to fire Mueller — but as Schmidt noted, he was also involved in a number of other massive events on the special counsel’s collusion radar.
“Don McGahn was involved in the Comey firing, Don McGahn was involved in lobbying Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation,” Schmidt said. “He’s a central player in all these things and it’s a remarkable part of the story that gives us insight how the president tried to use lawyers in ways he was apparently sort of afraid to do himself.”
Maddow also noted that Schmidt broke another story involving McGahn earlier this month claiming that one of the White House attorney’s deputies deliberately misled the rich asshole to steer him away from firing Comey.
Watch the interview below, via MSNBC.
Conservatives Are FUMING Over the rich asshole’s New DACA Plan: ‘Burn Our MAGA Gear!’
News that some rich asshole will endorse allowing as many as 1.8 million young immigrants to seek U.S. citizenship in an immigration plan did not go down well with his base. The White House said it will accept the Dreamer protections in exchange for billions of dollars to fund his dumb border wall. On DACA recipients, the rich asshole said,”Tell ’em not be concerned, OK? Tell em not to worry about it. We’re going to solve the problem… They should not be concerned.”
The hashtag #AmnestyDon was quickly launched by the rich asshole supporters.
Don't support Trump anymore. He's betrayed us on immigration. None of us voted for a big ass amnesty deal. #AmnestyDon
@realDonaldTrump US gives millions of visas yrly.No need for #AmnestyCitizenship
Don't be #AmnestyDon
Base will drop you.#PoliticalSuicide@PressSec @mercedesschlapp @DonaldJTrumpJr @EricTrump @LynnePatton @LaraLeaTrump @DiamondandSilk
How Many More Must Die?Trump/GOP are betraying us! This is disgusting. Will never vote for Trump or the GOP every again! Sick of the RINO's and the immigration sellouts!!
Burn our MAGA gear! #AmnestyDon
This is what the end of the United States looks like. If you still support #AmnestyDon after this you're no better than the lemmings on the left.
"Strzok and Page"#ThursdayThoughts twitter.com/NBCPolitics/st…
@realDonaldTrump hey #amnestyDon listen to Cruz
“I do not believe we should be granting a path to citizenship to anybody here illegally,” the Texas Republican said in the Capitol. “Doing so is inconsistent with the promises we made to the men and women who elected us"
I want it to sink in, just how badly #KateSteinle #JamielShaw & every AMERICAN MURDERED by @POTUS #AmnestyDon 's DACA ILLEGALS (He now owns their MURDERS) will have an ALTERNATIVE in 2020.
He went off the rails once before and we beat him back. Our base is the only group he truly he truly fears in this country. We have more power than we realize. #AmnestyDon twitter.com/KeepItRealist/…
.@jeffsessions is fighting sanctuary cities.
.@POTUS is open to a #SanctuaryCOUNTRY#TrumpCAVED#TrumpSellout#IllegalsOverAmericans#ByeGOP#AmnestyDon
.@realDonaldTrump Says He's Open to U.S. Citizenship for DACA Illegal Alien INVADERS! #Hannity bit.ly/2n8BKxf
the rich asshole is already the least popular president in the history of polling and now he’s losing his base. Apparently, Breitbart started the hashtag, making it even funnier.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President some rich asshole last June ordered Special Counsel Robert Mueller fired but backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than follow his directive, The New York Times reported on Thursday, citing four people told of the matter.
White House lawyers and press officials did not immediately reply to Reuters requests for comment.
Mueller, who is investigating allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, learned of the incident in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior White House officials in an inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice, the Times reported.
Amid media reports that Mueller was looking into a possible obstruction case, the rich asshole argued that the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director had three conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the probe, two of the people said, according to the Times report.
First, the rich asshole said that a dispute years ago over fees at the rich asshole National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, had led Mueller to resign his membership, the newspaper reported.
The president also said Mueller could not be impartial because he had most recently worked for a law firm that previously represented the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. the rich asshole also said Mueller had been interviewed to return as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation the day before he was appointed special counsel in May, the Times reported, citing the two people.
White House counsel Donald McGahn said he would quit rather than follow through on the order to fire Mueller, the Times reported, citing the people.
McGahn disagreed with the president’s case for dismissing Mueller and told senior White House officials that firing him would have a catastrophic effect on the rich asshole’s presidency and raise questions about whether the White House was trying to obstruct the Russia probe, according to the people cited by the Times.
McGahn also told White House officials that the rich asshole would not follow through on the dismissal on his own, and the president then backed off his demand, according to the people, who the Times said spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.
Mueller was appointed special counsel in May by the Justice Department after the rich asshole fired FBI Director James Comey, who was leading the agency's Russia investigation. Russia has denied any meddling and the rich asshole has denied any collusion.
Comey's firing is central to whether the rich asshole may have committed obstruction of justice.
the rich asshole said on Wednesday he would be willing to be interviewed under oath by Mueller, and according to sources with knowledge of the investigation, the rich asshole's attorneys have been talking to Mueller's team about an interview.
(Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Leslie Adler)
He stepped off the request after the White House counsel threatened to quit.
President some rich asshole demanded the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller in June, according to the New York Times, and backed down only when his White House counsel threatened to quit.
It was rumored at the time that the rich asshole was considering firing Mueller, who continues to investigate his campaign’s ties to Russia and the president’s possible obstruction of justice. Now Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman confirm that the president, seething at the Russia investigation, actually ordered Mueller’s firing.
McGahn, according to the Times, told White House officials the rich asshole would not fire Mueller himself, and the president walked back his directive in the face of his White House counsel’s resistance.
the rich asshole’s disdain for the Russia investigation is no secret, and reports and speculation over whether the rich asshole would fire Mueller have swirled for months. The Times report suggests that Mueller has been in near-constant jeopardy: “some rich asshole has wavered for months about whether he wants to fire Mr. Mueller, whose job security is an omnipresent concern among the president’s legal team and close aides.”
Based on the Times report, the rich asshole was itching to fire Mueller not long after his investigation began in May after the firing of FBI Director James Comey, and just as the special counsel’s investigation began expanding to include a possible obstruction of justice case against the president.
Sources told the Times that the rich asshole sought to justify his firing of Mueller by trying to root out potential conflicts of interest — including an allegation that Mueller dropped his membership at the rich asshole’s golf course in Virginia in 2011 because of a dustup over fees:
First, he claimed that a dispute years ago over fees at the rich asshole National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., had prompted Mr. Mueller, the F.B.I. director at the time, to resign his membership. The president also said Mr. Mueller could not be impartial because he had most recently worked for the law firm that previously represented the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Finally, the president said, Mr. Mueller had been interviewed to return as the F.B.I. director the day before he was appointed special counsel in May.
McGahn warned White House officials of the firestorm that would erupt if the rich asshole fired Mueller, but the Times reports that the president had considered another option: firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Mueller investigation, and replacing him with Rachel Brand, the associate attorney general, likely with the goal of someone else giving Mueller the pink slip.
Ty Cobb, the lead White House attorney working on the Russia probe, declined to comment to the Times about the rich asshole’s attempts to fire Mueller.
January 25, 20189:14 pm
the rich asshole Already Ordered Mueller Fired, Couldn’t Pull Off His Own Saturday Night Massacre: Report
Everyone can stop waiting for President the rich asshole to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, because it appears he already tried to do it last summer. Four sources tell the New York Times that the rich asshole ordered Muller’s firing in June, as reports began circulating that Mueller was investigating him for obstruction of justice. However, the rich asshole backed down after White House counsel Don McGahn threatened to quit.
When McGahn received the rich asshole’s order, he reportedly refused to ask the Justice Department to dismiss Mueller. The special counsel can only be removed for cause, and McGahn didn’t find the case the rich asshole laid out very convincing. Per the Times:
First, [the rich asshole] claimed that a dispute years ago over fees at the rich asshole National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., had prompted Mr. Mueller, the F.B.I. director at the time, to resign his membership. The president also said Mr. Mueller could not be impartial because he had most recently worked for the law firm that previously represented the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Finally, the president said, Mr. Mueller had been interviewed to return as the F.B.I. director the day before he was appointed special counsel in May.
Legality aside, McGahn reportedly argued that firing Mueller would be catastrophic for the rich asshole’s presidency, as it would spark more questions about obstruction of justice. He told White House officials that the rich asshole would not follow through on ordering Muller’s firing on his own, and the president backed off.
Mueller learned about this incident as he interviewed current and former White House officials in recent months, so presumably he’s added attempting to fire him to the long list of times the rich asshole may have obstructed justice.
Since Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would have to fire Mueller. In December he told the House Judiciary Committee that no one had asked him to remove the special counsel, and he would not act on such an order unless it was justified. “If there were good cause, I would act. If there were no good cause, I would not,” Rosenstein told the committee.
the rich asshole reportedly discussed firing Rosenstein as well, and putting Rachel Brand, the number three person at the Justice Department, in control of the Russia probe.
In mid-July the rich asshole hired attorney Ty Cobb to oversee the White House response to the Russia probe. According to the Times, while the rich asshole’s longtime personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz had been taking an adversarial approach to Mueller’s investigation, the strategy shifted with Cobb’s arrival. Now the plan is to cooperate with Mueller, and bring an end to the Russia matter as quickly as possible. While the rich asshole never stopped deliberating about whether to fire Mueller, the president’s attorneys have placated him by continuing to claim that the investigation will soon be wrapped up (Cobb has been widely mocked for constantly offering new and unrealistic predictions for the probe’s end date).
In response to the report that the rich asshole attempted to fire Mueller, Cobb said, “We decline to comment out of respect for the Office of the special counsel and its process.”
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