‘Get out of the country!’: Navajo lawmaker harassed by Arizona the rich asshole supporters accusing him of being here ‘illegally’
Arizona state Rep. Eric Descheenie, photo by Gage Skidmore.
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Supporters of President some rich asshole used racist language against dark-skinned public servants while rallying against immigration, the Arizona Capitol Times reported Saturday.
“Supporters of President some rich asshole singled out dark-skinned lawmakers, legislative staffers and children at the Capitol on Jan. 25 as they protested congressional efforts to pass immigration reform, according to staffers of the Arizona Legislature and two Democratic legislators, AZ Capitol Times reported. “Waving large flags in support of the rich asshole while standing between the House and Senate buildings, the protesters, who were also armed, asked just about anyone who crossed their path if they ‘support illegal immigration.’”
One dark-skinned Arizonian who was asked if he was in the country “illegally” was Rep. Eric Descheenie (D-Chinle).
Rep. Descheenie is a Navajo lawmaker.
“I’m indigenous to these lands,” Rep. Descheenie said. “My ancestors fought and died on these lands. I just told them, ‘Don’t ask me that question.’”
Legislative staffers Lisette Flores and Selianna Robles had gone to a local farmers’ market for lunch and were also accosted.
“We’re walking back, and they start yelling again, ‘Get out of the country.’ At that point, they pointed to Lisette, called her an illegal, and said, ‘Get out, go back home!’” Robles said. “But they pointed at Jane (Ahern), who works for the House, and they said, ‘No, you can stay.’”
Ahern is white.
“They assume things about you. There’s not much we can do,” said Robles, an Arizona native raised in the town of San Luis. “We work for the state, we’re public servants, and we’re just here to do our job.”
The Democratic leader of the state Senate blasted the “unacceptable” response by law enforcement after officers were allegedly instructed to stand down.
“I can tell you that the Democratic staff who were yelled at by the protesters and called illegals definitely felt harassed and were not satisfied with the response,” Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs (D-Phoenix) wrote in a letter to Senate President Steve Yarbrough (R-Chandler).
“They did not feel safe,” Rep. Hobbs noted.
“This is a public place. When armed protesters aggressively go after members, staff and visitors, there needs to be a response that ensures the safety of everyone involved,” Rep. Hobbs wrote. “I have seen instances here at the capital (sic) when peaceful protesters with a different agenda were surrounded by many more law enforcement officers with a much more aggressive response.”
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 01/27/18 02:24 PM EST
Republican National Committee (RNC) finance chairman Steve Wynn is stepping down from his post following sexual misconduct allegations, according to a Republican source familiar with the matter.
"Today I accepted Steve Wynn’s resignation as Republican National Committee finance chair," RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said in a statement obtained by The Hill.
The RNC's statement Saturday, first reported by Politico, was its first response since allegations of sexual misconduct involving the casino mogul broke the previous day.
Wynn issued a statement on Saturday, saying he was resigning in light of the "distraction" created by the allegations.
"Effective today I am resigning as Finance Chairman of the RNC. The unbelievable success we have achieved must continue. The work we are doing to make America a better place is too important to be impaired by this distraction. I thank the President for the opportunity to serve and wish him continued success," Wynn said.
GOP officials came under pressure to respond after The Wall Street Journal reported Friday on the allegations against Wynn, which span decades, from employees at his properties.
The Journal reported that Wynn reached a $7.5 million settlement with a manicurist who worked at his Wynn Las Vegas property who said he forced her to have sex with him. Other women reported multiple other instances of inappropriate touching or comments.
Wynn denied misconduct allegations in a statement to the newspaper.
“The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous. We find ourselves in a world where people can make allegations, regardless of the truth, and a person is left with the choice of weathering insulting publicity or engaging in multi-year lawsuits. It is deplorable for anyone to find themselves in this situation,” Wynn said.
The casino mogul claimed that “the instigation of these accusations is the continued work of my ex-wife Elaine Wynn, with whom I am involved in a terrible and nasty lawsuit in which she is seeking a revised divorce settlement.” Elaine Wynn's attorney denied the claim.
News of the allegations sent Wynn Resorts's stocks plummeting on Friday, with the company's board of directors launching an investigation "comprised solely of independent directors" to look into the allegations.
It also fueled political attacks, with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) hammering its Republican counterpart for two consecutive days, accusing party officials of having a double standard when it came to handling allegations of sexual misconduct.
Democrats noted that Republicans were quick to call out Democratic lawmakers and say that the party should return donations from filmmaker Harvey Weinstein when a wave of sexual misconduct allegations against him emerged in the fall.
"In the exact words of RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, ‘If you stand for treating women well and you stand for the respect of women, you shouldn't take money from somebody who treated women with the absolute highest level of disrespect,’ ” DNC deputy communications director Sabrina Singh said in a statement Friday that the party recirculated on Saturday.
The DNC was criticized from right-leaning political groups after the committee donated the money it received last cycle from Weinstein to three liberal political groups.
Wynn was tapped to serve as the GOP's finance chairman following President the rich asshole's inauguration last year. He previously called the rich asshole a "great friend" in 2016 and served as a vice chairman on the rich asshole's inaugural committee.
The businessman has donated to an array of political organizations as well both Republican and Democratic politicians.
He gave around $450,000 to the RNC and over $761,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Party officials have not indicated yet what they will do with Wynn's donations.
Wynn donated $729,217 to the rich asshole's inauguration and has made major contributions to Sens. Dean Heller (D-Nev.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.).
The mogul has also made smaller donations to various lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).
Wynn has also made donations to Democrats, giving over $31,000 to former Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and smaller donations to former Vice President Joe Biden and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Josh Delk contributed to this report, which was updated at 3:30 p.m.
Newly released data reveal that some rich asshole's D.C. hotel is performing far worse than its rivals — except on measures of rampant corruption.
some rich asshole’s Washington, D.C., hotel is far emptier than the national average, which makes its role as a hub for corruption and influence peddling even more sordid than it first appears.
CNN reports that the rich asshole International Hotel had an average monthly occupancy rate of 50 percent for the first 11 months of 2017. That’s about one-third below the industry average “for a broad group of luxury hotels in Washington over the same period,” according to CNN, which looked at data from January 2017 through November 2017.
Hotel industry research firm STR’s analysis indicates that hotels comparable to the rich asshole International had an average monthly occupancy rate of 77 percent.
the rich asshole’s properties both domestically and internationally have struggled over the past year as his embrace of racism and bigotry, along with his daily displays of incompetence, have trickled down to the properties bearing his name. Several of them have tried — sometimes under legal threat from lawyers — to physically remove the rich asshole name.
The new information echoes trends at other the rich asshole hotels, which have seen the rates they charge collapse over the last year.
Despite the D.C. hotel’s miserable performance, it is charging a premium for rooms there. STR reports that top tier D.C. hotels charge $334 on average per night, while the rich asshole’s hotel is charging an average of $559 per night.
That discrepancy highlights one of the major roles the rich asshole’s hotel has played for the last year: corruption hub.
Because the rich asshole has not divested from the business — a departure from the long-standing presidential norms — the money that comes into the rich asshole hotels goes into the rich asshole’s personal bank account.
That loophole has been exploited by entities both foreign and domestic. Republican organizations, including the party itself, have held multiple events at the rich asshole hotel. And every time the party hosts an event for the rich asshole or other Republican organizations at a rich asshole property, the fees for hosting, catering, etc. are going into the rich asshole’s pockets.
Corporate and foreign businesses have also been using the rich asshole hotel as their hub in Washington. So companies and countries with business before the United States government that requires the rich asshole’s personal input — worth potentially billions of dollars — have an incentive to throw a few thousand dollars in the direction of the hotel, which is just half a mile away from the White House.
On the open market, the rich asshole hotel in Washington is following the same the rich asshole pattern: failing. But on the measures most often associated with the rich asshole — corruption and influence peddling — it continues to succeed beyond he could possibly dream.
‘Scumbag and liar’: Ex-White House ethics chief hammers the rich asshole apologist Jack Kingston for attacking Mueller investigation
Richard Painter, Jack Kingston -- screenshot
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During a CNN panel discussion on a report that President some rich asshole asked White House lawyer Doug McGahn to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, Bush-era ethics czar Richard Painter furiously went after the rich asshole supporter Jack Kingston for maligning the former FBI director and his investigative team, calling the attacks the work of “scumbags and liars.”
CNN host Martin Savidge pressed Kingston on the firing revelation, asking, “Jack, President the rich asshole has claimed the report that he tried to fire Mueller was ‘fake news.’ He’s used that before on things that he has not liked that have been reported to the mainstream media. But even his favorite news channel, Fox News, has confirmed the report. So is fake news going to cut it as far as the defense for the president?”
“Well, I don’t think he really needs a defense,” Kingston parried. “I think at this time he had a very, very aggressive attorney in Marc Kasowitz who probably made the recommendation not only to be pushed back very, very hard but to consider firing Mueller because of his obvious conflict of falling out about the golf club with the rich asshole and the fact that he was passed over for the FBI job just days before which he apparently really wanted.”
“So, I think there was question about Mueller’s conflicts, not to mention everything else we’ve learned about Peter Strzok and Lisa Page and the memos and misuse of FISA and everything else. so, i think –” Kingston attempted.
“Wait, his argument is that my attorney put me up to it here?” Savidge interrupted.
“I think so,” Kingston replied. “I think — this is what I understand as very possible is that he said you should consider it. McGahn said it is a horrible idea and if you do it, I would resign.”
Given a chance to respond, Painter lashed out at Kingston for attacking Mueller and the integrity of the FBI, while bashing the rich asshole over rumors he might also fire Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if he refused to dismiss Mueller.
“Well, he’s got to get thrown out of office,” Painter exclaimed. “Rod Rosenstein is his own appointee to that position, a Republican. These attacks on Robert Mueller are disgusting. Robert Mueller was at the FBI picking up the pieces after 9/11. He’s a loyal Republican appointed by President Bush, he’s is a good man.”
“People accusing him of bias are liars, flat out liars,” Painter continued, his voice rising. “I’ve been a Republican for 30 years, but I’m not going to put up with scumbags in my party attacking a good man like Robert Mueller who is a loyal American, a patriot. He was a Marine. He is the straight arrow that we need in charge of this investigation.”
“The FBI should also not be attacked,” Painter continued. “If anything, it was FBI director James Comey, who threw the election to some rich asshole with that letter right before the election.”
Watch the video below via CNN:
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 01/27/18 01:08 PM EST
A former ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush on Saturday accused both major political parties of being "full of hypocrites," saying parties should return campaign contributions from high-profile figures accused of sexual misconduct.
During a segment on MSNBC's "AM Joy," Richard Painter pointed to newly revealed allegations of sexual misconduct against casino mogul and Republican National Committee (RNC) finance chairman Steve Wynn, saying the allegations show both parties have trouble with major backers.
"When it comes to money and politics, both parties are full of hypocrites," Painter said. "What this is about is the dependence of both parties on people who have a lot of money."
"That's why some rich asshole likes Mr. Wynn," Painter continued. "He [Wynn] has a lot of money, he brings money into the party, into the political campaign. That's why the Democrats liked Harvey Weinstein."
Painter then called on members of the RNC and its Democratic counterpart to see that all donations from Weinstein, Wynn and other mega-donors are returned.
"We need to get both parties to return all the money from all these mega-donors — and I don't care if they're perverts like these two men, or people who want to pollute the environment, destroy the planet [like] the Koch brothers, or people who want to bankroll white nationalism like the Mercer family."
"Both parties are addicted to money," he added.
Democrats blasted the RNC on Friday after a Wall Street Journal investigation uncovered decades of sexual harassment allegations against Wynn.
Wynn denied allegations of sexual assault and harassment in a statement to the Journal, though the RNC has faced calls from Republicans to remove him as finance chairman.
“The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous. We find ourselves in a world where people can make allegations, regardless of the truth, and a person is left with the choice of weathering insulting publicity or engaging in multi-year lawsuits. It is deplorable for anyone to find themselves in this situation,” Wynn said.
The Fresno Bee excoriated Rep. Devin Nunes for "doing the dirty work" of the rich asshole White House and caring more about conspiracy theories than constituents.
The Fresno Bee, a daily newspaper in Fresno, CA, issued a savage takedown of GOP Rep. Devin Nunes on Friday, blasting the congressman for being “the rich asshole’s stooge” and “doing the dirty work” of the White House.
“What, pray tell, does Rep. Devin Nunes think he’s doing by waving around a secret memo attacking the FBI, the nation’s premier law enforcement agency?” the paper asked, referring to the memo that Nunes wrote alleging — without evidence — that the FBI engaged in major surveillance abuses during its investigation of the rich asshole campaign.
“He certainly isn’t representing his Central Valley constituents or Californians, who care much more about health care, jobs and, yes, protecting Dreamers than about the latest conspiracy theory,” Nunes’ hometown paper said.
“Instead, he’s doing dirty work for House Republican leaders trying to protect President some rich asshole in the Russia investigation.”
The scathing editorial went on to say that it’s “no accident” that Nunes and his fellow partisan hacks started hyping the memo right around the same time that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation appears to be ramping up, particularly in its focus on the rich asshole’s potential obstruction of justice.
As the paper notes, Mueller’s team interviewed former FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week — coinciding with the GOP’s disingenuous push to ‘release the memo,’ which is actually just a note written by Nunes.
The stunt, led by Nunes and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) — with an assist from Russian-linked Twitter accounts — is just the latest attempt to “discredit the FBI and distract the public,” the editorial board wrote.
“There are reasons to be very skeptical of this memo,” they added. “The FBI hasn’t been sent a copy or given a chance to respond. Democrats who have seen it, including Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank say it’s full of inaccuracies and innuendo.”
Schiff, also from California, serves as the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Nunes is the head of the committee but was forced to recuse himself last year after pulling a similar stunt in which he attempted to provide cover for the rich asshole’s lie about being “wiretapped” by the Obama administration.
“Nunes … may believe he will pay no political price for unfairly attacking law enforcement and protecting the rich asshole,” the editorial board wrote. “But his performance as chairman of the highly sensitive House Intelligence Committee has been nothing short of embarrassing.”
“Instead of taking Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election seriously and leading an impartial and bipartisan inquiry, Nunes has colluded with the White House.”
The editorial went on to slam the GOP for launching baseless, politically motivated attacks on the men and women of the FBI, all in an effort to provide cover for the rich asshole.
“[I]t is supremely ironic that the GOP — which long has proclaimed itself the party of law and order — is serving to undermine public trust in agents who risk their lives, combat organized crime, ferret out public corruption and protect us against terrorism.”
Republicans’ misleading allegations of wrongdoing are bad enough, but their push to release an intelligence memo that could reveal sources and methods is nothing short of dangerous. The Department of Justice wrote a letter on Thursday warning Nunes not to release the memo without giving the DOJ and FBI time to review it, calling the idea “extraordinarily reckless.”
But none of that seems to concern the rich asshole apologists like Nunes, who care more about putting on a show than doing the work they were elected to do.
In its conclusion, the fiery editorial offered a simple recommendation for Nunes and his fellow Republicans. “[D]o our democracy a favor,” the paper said. “Stop with the hyperventilating and let Mueller finish his investigation and get to the truth.”
the rich asshole is quietly attempting to walk back his destructive rhetoric, but in a way that his loyal supporters won't see.
some rich asshole’s description of numerous countries with large, non-white populations as “shitholes” created multiple international incidents, and yet another instance where world leaders felt compelled to denounce the United States for the rich asshole’s bigotry.
Now in a new letter, the rich asshole administration is quietly telling the leaders of some of the countries he targeted that he “deeply respects” Africans — but carefully doing so in a way that many of the diehards he counts on for political support will not see.
The letter also said America “profoundly respects” the partnership between our nation and members of the African union, and claims that the rich asshole is committed to “strong and respectful relationships with African states.”
NBC News and the Associated Press obtained copies of the letter, but the document was not promoted or publicly released by the rich asshole administration or the State Department.
To elevate the letter would likely offend the many people with bigoted views who have boosted the rich asshole, both as a candidate and during his presidential tenure.
They have cheered him on as he called Mexicans rapists, pushed for a ban on Muslim travel to America, and praised neo-Nazis as “very fine people.”
And many of them were quick to dismiss the “shithole” comments and find ways to justify the sentiment, if not the specific wording.
the rich asshole’s hateful comments and statements turn off vast numbers of Americans, in favor of rhetoric that appeases the “base” of his supporters.
Minimizing a half-hearted rollback of his “shithole” comment would fit right in with that approach.
the rich asshole is trying to have it both ways: undo the damage of his racist rhetoric, while also appeasing those who approve of it and who have invested in his presidency.
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 01/27/18 11:06 AM EST
President the rich asshole said that he "deeply respects" the people of Africa and pledged "strong and respectful relationships" with the continent's nations in a letter sent to African leaders this week.
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News, was dated Thursday and comes after allegations emerged that the rich asshole demanded in a meeting with lawmakers this month to know why the U.S. should admit immigrants from "shithole countries," including African nations.
The letter came ahead of an African Union summit in Ethiopia, which is taking place this weekend.
In the letter, the rich asshole also offered his "best wishes for a successful summit," and noted that his administration is committed to ensuring "free, fair and reciprocal trade" with African nations, while working to "safeguard legal immigration," according to NBC News.
He said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will make an "extended visit" to the region in March.
the rich asshole's reported comments decrying immigration from "shithole countries" prompted international backlash, particularly from African leaders, who blasted the remarks as a deep insult from the president of an otherwise friendly country.
After the alleged comments came to light, U.S. diplomats in Africa and elsewhere were summoned by respective governments to explain the remarks. African ambassadors in Washington demanded apologies from the White House.
The African Union also demanded an apology from the rich asshole earlier this month, saying that the reported remarks "dishonor the celebrated American creed and respect for diversity and human dignity."
the rich asshole met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the chairman of the African Union, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday. He called their discussions "tremendous."
Kushner companies are fighting to hide their investors. A judge just forced them out in the open.
A rare look into how Kushner gets his money and manages his companies.
On Friday, a federal judge rejected a request to hide details of rental properties affiliated with Jared Kushner’s real estate empire.
Kushner was CEO of Kushner Companies, which owns the companies involved in the suit, before stepping down in Jan. 2017 to join his father-in-law, President some rich asshole, in the White House as a senior advisor. Kushner still owns a stake in, and collects income from, at least one of the companies in the suit, according to his last financial disclosure filed with the federal government.
And those Kushner-owned companies are fighting to keep their investors secret.
A class action suit filed in Baltimore accuses the firms of collecting illegal fees from Maryland tenants, in violation of state law. The suit also claims the company threatened to evict tenants who protested the fees.
The plaintiffs are a series of limited liability companies, or pass-throughs, that manage properties in Maryland and other states. They’ve fought to keep information about how they are structured secret by asking for a protective order on court records.
Five news-media outlets — The Baltimore Sun, ProPublica, The Washington Post, WMAR-TV, and the Associated Press — filed a complaint in the case to force the companies to make those details public.
Under the order issued Friday, the companies have to file the unsealed information about their investors in federal court by Feb. 9. The information could provide the public with a rare look into how the companies are structured.
Both Kushner and the rich asshole have kept details of their companies’ ownership and structure away from the public eye. Their financial don’t reveal who invests in their LLCs, how much money comes from companies or individuals overseas, which banks might be lending them money, or even how much debt they owe.
Kushner has repeatedly filed incomplete and incorrect financial disclosures that omit, among other things, real estate holdings. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka the rich asshole, have been the subject of lawsuits over their financial disclosures.
The plaintiffs in the current case say media coverage is “politically motivated.” If they were forced to disclose their partners, the companies say, it would hurt their chances of receiving fair treatment.
In making his ruling Friday,Judge James Bredar cited the public expectation that “the Court conducts its business in the sunlight.” Bredar also cited Kushner’s role as a public official — and the keen public interest in matters related to the rich asshole family businesses — as a key reason to force the companies to make their ownership structure public.
“[I]ncreased public interest in a case does not, by itself, overcome the presumption of access,” Bredar wrote. “In fact, it would logically strengthen it, particularly when the interest is due to the presence of important public figures in the litigation.”
White House lawyer McGahn has never bothered to hang pictures in his West Wing office figuring he will be fired any day: report
White House counsel Don McGahn.
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White House counsel Don McGahn is struggling to corral some rich asshole and believes he could be fired by the tempestuous president any day, The New York Times reported Saturday.
“He told colleagues that he travels light because he never knows when he might be asked to leave,” The Times reported.
McGahn chose not to decorate the walls and shelves his West Wing corner office.
“Several people who know him say he is intensely focused on his mission while maintaining a wry sense of humor and ironic detachment,” The Times noted. “The stresses can be enough that he will cancel his afternoon meetings and leave the White House.”
“President the rich asshole picked the finest White House counsel I’ve ever worked with,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who reportedly has urged McGahn to stay after threatening to resign.
With Ty Cobb now taking the lead on the rich asshole’s legal defense, McGahn has been able to focus on confirming Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and twelve appeals court judges.
McGahn has “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that in his wildest dreams when he was going to law school he would never have imagined that he would have been in this position to have a direct effect on the courts for years to come,” said former the rich asshole communications director Michael Dubke.
“I am sure he’s thought about quitting — I doubt there is a person in any West Wing that hasn’t thought about it — but this is very important to him,” Mr. Dubke said. “He views this as this is going to be his ultimate imprint on American government.”
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 01/27/18 10:28 AM EST
President the rich asshole raised eyebrows on social media on Friday night after his Twitter account "liked" a tweet detailing allegations of sexual misconduct against casino mogul and Republican National Committee (RNC) finance chairman Steve Wynn.
It's unclear why the rich asshole might have favorited the tweet, which linked to a story published earlier Friday by The Wall Street Journal. the rich asshole apparently later "unliked" the tweet, as it no longer appeared on his account as of Saturday morning.
Many Twitter users simply use the social media site's "like" function to flag tweets for a later date, while others use it to express support or agreement with something. the rich asshole's initial favorite on Friday night raised questions from some Twitter users.
realDonaldTrump liked this tweet: twitter.com/WSJ/status/956…
Do likes equal endorsements @realDonaldTrump?
It's relatively rare for the rich asshole to favorite posts on Twitter. While he has posted nearly 37,000 tweets, he has only "liked" two dozen tweets, several of which are his own.
Wynn was named RNC finance chief following the rich asshole's inauguration last year. The former rival casino owner called the rich asshole a "great friend" in 2016 and served as vice chairman on the rich asshole's inaugural committee after the election.
The Journal report published Friday detailed sexual misconduct allegations spanning decades against Wynn, the CEO of Wynn Resorts, including that he agreed to pay a $7.5 million settlement to a manicurist at one of his resorts after forcing her to have sex with him.
Wynn has denied the allegations, and has blamed his ex-wife for instigating them.
Spokespeople for the White House did not immediately respond to The Hill's requests for comment.
the rich asshole's legal team is reportedly searching through 20 year-old legal cases in the hopes of finding a way to shield him from special counsel Robert Mueller — contradicting the rich asshole's own words from a few days ago, when he said he was "looking forward" to speaking with Mueller.
As some rich asshole’s allies have ruthlessly attacked the character of special counsel Robert Mueller in what was recently revealed to be an orchestrated smear campaign, the president’s lawyers have been desperately scrambling to find a way to shield him from the long arm of Mueller’s investigation.
According to a new report in the Wall Street Journal, the rich asshole’s legal team is now looking at 20 year-old court cases in the hopes of finding an obscure case law that will immunize the rich asshole from having to give testimony.
As the WSJ details, the rich asshole’s lawyers are particularly interested in a case from 1997 which “ruled that presidents and their closest advisers enjoy protections against having to disclose information about their decision-making process or official actions.”
The case could also be used to delay the rich asshole’s testimony — a strange move for someone who says he has nothing to hide.
Citing legal scholars, the WSJ reported that the rich asshole’s lawyers “could invoke the 1997 case to obtain more favorable terms of any voluntary interview some rich asshole gives, because a court fight over an interview or grand jury testimony could take months to resolve.”
This constitutes a significant reversal from Wednesday, when the rich asshole asserted that he was “looking forward” to being interviewed by Mueller as part of the Russia investigation, which he has repeatedly denounced as “fake news” and a “witch hunt.”
However, the rich asshole’s lawyers clearly feel differently.
Even if the rich asshole is completely innocent of any wrongdoing with regards to Russia — and even if his efforts to interfere with the investigation are not found to constitute obstruction of justice — it will still pose a huge challenge for man who lies as much and as effortlessly as he does to submit himself for questioning by law enforcement, who could then seize upon his every untruth and pursue charges of perjury.
Of course, if Mueller decides to subpoena him, the decision would be out of the rich asshole’s (tiny) hands — and there may not be much his lawyers can do to help him.
It is evident that the rich asshole does not have a sense of scale for the trouble he is in or the legal preparations he must make. While his lawyers are scrambling behind the scenes to shield the rich asshole from Mueller, it may very well be too late to shield him from himself.
‘It’s the official party!’: MSNBC’s Reid ridicules GOP operative after he claims RNC doesn’t ‘represent Republicans’
Joy Reid, Jason Johnson -- screenshot
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Addressing the fact that no Republican had commented on allegations that RNC Finance chair Steve Wynn reportedly paid out $7.5 million to ensure a woman whom he allegedly raped would keep quiet, a former adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) stunned MSNBC host Joy Reid by stating that the RNC doesn’t represent Republicans.
Speaking with host Reid, Cruz strategist Jason Johnson was asked about Wynn’s continuing relationship with Republicans.
“The RNC is going to meet next week,” Reid explained. “Steve Wynn is supposed to be there; he is finance chair. Michael Cohen, made a recent statement about him and some rich asshole’s lawyer has been the driving force behind the RNC finance committee. The DNC said the Republican Party is the party of Roy Moore, some rich asshole and Trent Franks. Are you concerned that your party is becoming the party of some rich asshole, Roy Moore and now Steve Wynn?”
“First of all, with regard to the RNC meeting next week and Steve Wynn’s role, one thing is, if you step back from the politics a moment, that may cause it to play out differently,” Johnson began.”What leadership role Steve Wynn plays with the RNC, or with his own company for that matter, it’s a publicly traded company. I believe it was the Wall Street Journal story that pointed out recently, from an FCC filing, from Wynn Casinos, the company, stating that if there were a change in Mr. Wynn’s leadership capacity ability to be involved with the company, it would be a serious hit to the company.”
“I’m sorry. What do you mean by that? His business is tanking?” Reid asked. “What does that have to do with whether he remains finance chair of the RNC and shows up at their meeting?”
‘What I’m saying to you is ultimately, if the goal here is not just to point fingers and try to take some moral high ground and say Republicans are all sexists and Democrats are angels — if ultimately the goal is to get rid of Steve Wynn, my point is that will likely dictate what his future is with the RNC,” Johnson parried. “My guess is if he has to step down from a company that has his signature at the top of the letterhead, it’s unlikely he’ll continue to be chairman of RNC.”
“It is a faux moral high ground when they back Roy Moore, accused of child molestation, continued to have a member who said he was a soul mate of a very young staffer?” Reid asked. “When some rich asshole has 19 accusers of alleged sexual misconduct and Republicans back him to the hilt? Is it faux high ground when they refuse to throw anyone out? Democrats dumped Al Franken because they demanded he leave office.”
‘If you want me to take them one at a time: Roy Moore — to state that every Republican across the board supported Roy Moore –,” the GOP operative offered before being cut off.
“The leadership stayed with him,” host Reid exclaimed. “The president of the United States was backing him!”
“You’re right, with the exception of the president and the RNC,” Johnson soldiered on. “So look, there is an interesting situation right now. There’s no doubt about that, but to state that the RNC represents every Republican in the country, the voters, the elected officials –.”
‘It’s the official party,” Reid interjected again. “You’re saying put them aside and find Republicans who found moral clarity on Roy Moore and they count more than the organ that represents the Republican Party of the United States.”
“It may come as a surprise to you, but for many of us out here in the country who don’t live in Washington, DC, it’s not exactly breaking news that the Republican National Committee has not been our prime representative as voters,” Johnson suggested.
Watch the video below via MSNBC:
Bill Maher: the rich asshole’s tombstone will say ‘picked fights with black people’
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 01/27/18 08:19 AM EST
HBO host Bill Maher said on Friday that President the rich asshole's most consistent quality is that he "loves to pick fights with black people."
"If some rich asshole keeps insisting that he's the 'least racist person anyone has ever met,' he has to explain why the single most consistent thing in his whole life is he loves to pick fights with black people," he said on his show, "Real Time with Bill Maher."
"Of all his myriad insanities, if I had to pick one line for his tombstone it would be: 'Here lies some rich asshole; picked fights with black people,' " Maher quipped.
Maher went on to rattle off a series of feuds the rich asshole has carried on with black people at one point or another over the past several years, including his attacks on former President Obama, NFL free agent Colin Kaepernick, former Attorney General Eric Holder and Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.).
"I could continue this list, but we'd be here through the end of February, which is Black History Month, or as the rich asshole likes to say, 'All Months Matter,' " Maher said.
the rich asshole has repeatedly faced accusations of racism, most recently after allegations emerged that he demanded in a meeting with lawmakers and administration officials to know why the U.S. should admit immigrants from "shithole countries," such as Haiti and African nations, and called for more immigrants from countries like Norway.
the rich asshole denied that he made those comments, telling reporters earlier this month that he is "not a racist" and that he is "the least racist person you have ever interviewed."
According to a damning new report, the rich asshole ordered a smear campaign targeting FBI officials likely to testify against him — a move that Special Counsel Mueller is now investigating as potential obstruction of justice.
some rich asshole urged his aides to orchestrate a plan to discredit specific FBI officials after learning that they were likely to testify against him in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing Russia probe, according to an explosive new report by Foreign Policy.
The report, published Friday evening, details a series of events that took place in June 2017, following the testimony of former FBI Director James Comey. Those events are now being investigated as potential obstruction of justice, according to Foreign Policy.
During his testimony, Comey mentioned that he had spoken with three other senior FBI officials about the rich asshole’s efforts to undermine the Russia investigation. A short time later, the rich asshole’s lawyer John Dowd warned the president that corroborating testimony from the other FBI officials would likely play a key role in Mueller’s investigation into potential obstruction of justice.
According to the new report, that warning prompted the rich asshole to take matters into his own hands, telling aides they needed to “fight back harder” and ordering them to orchestrate a smear campaign targeting the specific FBI officials named by Comey, including Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Since Dowd gave him that information, the rich asshole — as well as his aides, surrogates, and some Republican members of Congress — has engaged in an unprecedented campaign to discredit specific senior bureau officials and the FBI as an institution.
The FBI officials the rich asshole has targeted are Andrew McCabe, the current deputy FBI director and who was briefly acting FBI director after Comey’s firing; Jim Rybicki, Comey’s chief of staff and senior counselor; and James Baker, formerly the FBI’s general counsel. Those same three officials were first identified as possible corroborating witnesses for Comey in a June 7 article in Vox. Comey confirmed in congressional testimony the following day that he confided in the three men.
The Foreign Policy report comes just one day after the New York Times published a bombshell report revealing that the rich asshole ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller last June — the same month that the rich asshole called on his aides to devise the smear campaign.
The report also comes on the heels of the revelation that Attorney General Jeff Sessions pressured FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire McCabe — one of the three officials targeted by the rich asshole’s smear campaign.
While it’s no secret that the rich asshole and his allies have engaged in coordinated attacks against the FBI and the officials who work there, Friday’s report reveals that the targets of that campaign were not random. Rather, they were the specific people who were most likely to testify against the rich asshole and corroborate what Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
McCabe, who has been the target of frequent and vicious attacks by the rich asshole and his Republican allies, confirmed last month that he could corroborate Comey’s testimony about the rich asshole pressuring him to pledge his loyalty by shutting down the Russia probe. This allegedly resulted in the firing of Comey when he refused the rich asshole’s request.
This series of events could prove crucial in Mueller’s investigation into whether the rich asshole — and those around him — engaged in a cover-up.
Baker, the FBI’s top lawyer, is among the few other witnesses with inside knowledge about the rich asshole’s reported attempts to pressure Comey to end the Russia investigation. In December, Baker was quietly and unexpectedly reassigned to another position within the FBI. He told colleagues he would be “taking on other duties at the FBI.”
Like McCabe, Baker has been targeted by attacks launched by the rich asshole’s allies, including right-wing media outlets like Circa (operated by the pro-the rich asshole Sinclair network) and Breitbart (until recently, run by the rich asshole’s former campaign manager and chief strategist Steve Bannon).
Clearly, the rich asshole wanted to discredit officials like Baker and McCabe because he views their testimony as a threat — which is telling, given that a person with nothing to hide would have no reason to fear the truth. But fearing that they could be key witnesses in an obstruction of justice case, the rich asshole took matters into his own hands and tried to undermine them before they could give their testimony.
Now, though, Mueller is investigating those very efforts to undermine the three FBI witnesses as a potential act of obstruction by the rich asshole.
As Foreign Policy noted, proving obstruction of justice hinges on whether a prosecutor can show the intent of the person under investigation. The fact that the rich asshole was reportedly motivated to attack specific FBI officials because they were likely to testify against him “could demonstrate potential intent that would bolster an obstruction of justice case,” the report concluded.
It’s hard to imagine anything backfiring more spectacularly than the rich asshole’s attempt to undermine the obstruction case against him by trying to impugn the integrity of these three FBI officials — only to find out that the smear campaign against the officials is now being investigated as an act of obstruction. But if anyone can top this failure, it’s the rich asshole.
Career State Department officials are being relegated to menial jobs in what is increasingly seen as political retribution for their association with President Obama.
some rich asshole is well known for neglecting the diplomatic apparatus of his administration. He has left numerous positions vacant and often undercuts the work of the people he has hired, prompting former Secretaries of State to sound the alarm.
But even more disturbing is how the rich asshole is managing the people he does have, many of whom are still career civil servants who served under President Barack Obama — and who increasingly feel they are being punished for it.
According to a new CNN report, State Department employees are being relegated to desk jobs, and “several officials tell CNN they have retained attorneys after repeatedly trying unsuccessfully to raise concerns about being assigned to low-level jobs in Foggy Bottom such as answering Freedom of Information Act requests.”
The widespread assignment of State Department officials to FOIA duty under the rich asshole and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been going on for months, and has effectively been used as a fishing expedition against Hillary Clinton.
But the new report reveals that many of these officials are high-ranking diplomats with experience in solving global problems, and sheds new light on the suspicious pattern of reassigning officials who served under Obama:
[M]any of those assigned to the “FOIA Surge” effort resemble a band of misfit toys, including several ambassadors returning from overseas and senior career and civil service members who were detailed to other agencies. Others worked in offices created by Obama as policy priorities, which the rich asshole administration has announced it intends to close.
Assigning former ambassadors and senior officials to desk jobs makes little sense — unless it’s being done as a form of political retribution.
But as the rich asshole seeks to punish former Obama administration officials, it’s the government — and the citizens it serves — that will suffer the consequences.
“This administration has already done serious harm to American diplomacy by forcing seasoned officials out and ignoring the expertise of career State Department professionals,” said Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“If the allegations are true that the administration is punishing public servants as a form of political retribution, those responsible must face consequences,” Engel said. “I intend to get answers about this.”
the rich asshole has spent most of his presidency railing against an imagined “Deep State” of long-serving government officials who are supposedly bent on pushing him out of office. But given the current conditions at the State Department, it seems to be the other way around.
the rich asshole has only liked 25 tweets — ever.
some rich asshole is notorious for throwing the world into chaos with his tweets. But for someone who jumps on Twitter as frequently as he does, he rarely “likes” other people’s tweets.
That’s why the rich asshole’s first “like” of 2018 is so bizarre.
Just before 10 PM on Friday, the rich asshole hit the “like” button for the first time this year — and the tweet he liked was a Wall Street Journal article detailing allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of rival casino mogul Steve Wynn.
Why the rich asshole would like this news is anyone’s guess, seeing as Wynn is the financial chief of the Republican National Committee and has amicably lobbied the White House, including in the controversial case of Chinese businessman Guo Wengui.
In his entire time on Twitter, the rich asshole has only liked 25 tweets, most of which are either self-promotional or from family members.
In a mark of irony, the Republican Party is deathly silent on the Wynn story, after they had spent months trying to paint the sex crimes of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein as reflective on all Democrats. So the rich asshole’s like is one of the only statements we have from the GOP on the matter.
It is hard to fathom what is in the rich asshole’s mind. But speculating is unlikely to yield results.
some rich asshole and the Republican National Committee’s finance chair Steve Wynn have more in common than just being casino owners and friends.
They are both sexual predators, according to recent allegations against Wynn.
(the rich asshole admitted to being a sexual predator in the infamous”Access Hollywood” tape that surfaced in 2016.)
The Wall Street Journal reports multiple women faced sexual harassment and rape at the hands of Wynn, who now leads fundraising efforts for the Republican Party.
In 2005, a manicurist left Wynn’s office in tears, telling colleagues Wynn forced her to have sex. Former employees told the WSJ about a culture of sexual abuse and fear, one noting that “everybody was petrified.”
Mirroring Republican efforts from just three months ago, many people are now calling on Republicans to return money from an accused sexual predator.
When news of Weinstein’s sexual harassment broke, the RNC released the following statement:
During three-decades worth of sexual harassment allegations, Harvey Weinstein lined the pockets of Democrats to the tune of three quarters of a million dollars. If Democrats and the DNC truly stand up for women like they say they do, then returning this dirty money should be a no brainer.
Now that not only a Republican donor, but the rich asshole’s hand-picked finance chair, is accused of similar behavior, will Republicans make the same demand of their own members?
So far, there is mostly silence.
Disgraced former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, even after getting booted from the White House, was prolific on social media demanding that Democrats return money. He went so far as to call silence from some Democrats “stunning.”
Yet when the Daily Beast reached out to him for comment on Wynn, Spicer was silent.
When Politico reached out to three Republican political arms — the RNC, where Wynn is finance chair; the Republican Governors Association; and the National Republican Senate Committee — they did not reply to a request for comment.
While national Republican groups are silent, the Wisconsin GOP said it would donate a $10,000 contribution from Wynn, only a very small drop in a very large bucket.
“Wynn has donated more than $2 million to Republican campaigns, party organs, and interest groups since 2001,” according to the Daily Beast. “That includes more than $1.3 million to the Republican National Committee (compared with the $300,0000 in donations that Weinstein gave to the DNC) and the party’s House and Senate campaign arms.”
The Democratic National Committee took its Republican counterpart to task for its hypocrisy and silence.
“In the exact words of RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, ‘If you stand for treating women well and you stand for the respect of women, you shouldn’t take money from somebody who treated women with the absolute highest level of disrespect,'” the DNC said in a statement.
“Instead, the RNC and Ronna McDaniel have helped fund the campaign of an alleged child molester, blindly supported the GOP’s attacks on women’s health, supported a President who has been accused of sexual misconduct by over a dozen women – and now they remain silent amid sexual assault allegations involving Steve Wynn, one of their party’s most senior officials.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper said it was a “perfectly legitimate point” when Republicans asked Democrats about Weinstein’s donations, and therefore it is just as relevant now that Republicans answer questions about their own finance chair and his donations.
The Indiana Democratic Party is calling on RNC members to “return any of the committee’s donations raised by alleged serial sexual assaulter and RNC finance chairman Steve Wynn.”
The chair of the Clark County Democrats, which includes Las Vegas, was one of the first to call for Republicans to return money from Wynn:
Wynn, from Nevada, is particularly invested in Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller. Wynn helped push Heller to vote for the Obamacare repeal bill, as well as the deeply unpopular tax scam bill.
Will Heller and other Republicans stand by the principles they espoused only three months ago?
Or will the GOP continue to stand by sexual predators, as they did with the rich asshole, Roy Moore, and Rep. Pat Meehan?
Republicans face a difficult choice now. If they stand by Wynn, they further discredit themselves in their demands for immediate accountability in cases of sexual harassment and assault when the perpetrator isn’t one of them.
If they throw Wynn under the bus, they lose the enormous contributions he has made over so many years.
As for whether the rich asshole will stand by his friend and fellow alleged sexual predator, who continues to have great influence over the rich asshole, it’s too soon to say, as the rich asshole is en route back from his trip to Davos.
It is fair to say, though, that his relationship with Wynn will be one of the many questions he faces once he lands.
some rich asshole’s former divorce lawyer will write his own tell-all book
Taylor Swaak
Posted with permission from Newsweek
President Donald Trump's divorce lawyer announced he's penned a tell-all book that will include details from the commander in chief's two high-profile divorces.
Jay Goldberg, who's represented celebrities ranging from Robert F. Kennedy to the Rolling Stones, told Page Six the memoir will divulge “all the inside stories" of his most notable trials, making Trump's divorces to Ivana Trump and Marla Maples fair game.
"Trump gets a very bad rap," he said. "The book is going to reflect his true character."
Robin Davis, Goldberg's representative, told The Hill that the lawyer and Trump "were very close" and also worked together on many of Trump's real estate deals. Nothing in the book, she said, “would be contrary to a client’s attorney privilege.”
Goldberg is putting the publishing rights up for auction next week, Page Six reported.
Trump's first marriage to Ivana Trump collapsed in 1992 with a drawn-out legal battle following his highly publicized affair with Marla Maples. Ivana reportedly got $25 million and a $14 million Connecticut estate from the divorce settlement. His marriage to Maples ended in 1999—Maples said their relationship was "built on an illusion"—and she obtained $2 million from the settlement.
Trump's life and character was a focal point of Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, published earlier this month, which drew on more than 200 interviews to unveil the administration's inner workings. The book claimed, among other things, that Trump exhibited symptoms of deteriorating mental health, was “horrified" to win the presidency and has been a “ chronically unfaithful husband” to his wife, Melania Trump.
The president quickly decried the book as "phony" and tweeted that he'd never spoken to Wolff. Trump attorney Charles Harder also unsuccessfully attempted to halt publication by issuing a cease and desist letter to Wolff and his publisher.
Jay Goldberg, who's represented celebrities ranging from Robert F. Kennedy to the Rolling Stones, told Page Six the memoir will divulge “all the inside stories" of his most notable trials, making Trump's divorces to Ivana Trump and Marla Maples fair game.
"Trump gets a very bad rap," he said. "The book is going to reflect his true character."
Robin Davis, Goldberg's representative, told The Hill that the lawyer and Trump "were very close" and also worked together on many of Trump's real estate deals. Nothing in the book, she said, “would be contrary to a client’s attorney privilege.”
Goldberg is putting the publishing rights up for auction next week, Page Six reported.
Trump's first marriage to Ivana Trump collapsed in 1992 with a drawn-out legal battle following his highly publicized affair with Marla Maples. Ivana reportedly got $25 million and a $14 million Connecticut estate from the divorce settlement. His marriage to Maples ended in 1999—Maples said their relationship was "built on an illusion"—and she obtained $2 million from the settlement.
Trump's life and character was a focal point of Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, published earlier this month, which drew on more than 200 interviews to unveil the administration's inner workings. The book claimed, among other things, that Trump exhibited symptoms of deteriorating mental health, was “horrified" to win the presidency and has been a “ chronically unfaithful husband” to his wife, Melania Trump.
I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist. Look at this guy’s past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!
The president quickly decried the book as "phony" and tweeted that he'd never spoken to Wolff. Trump attorney Charles Harder also unsuccessfully attempted to halt publication by issuing a cease and desist letter to Wolff and his publisher.
Obama aide: ‘we’d be impeached’ if US taxpayers paid $24 million for a Air Force One refrigerator for us
Benjamin Fearnow
Posted with permission from International Business Times
A Department of Defense contract for $23,657,671 awards Boeing, the maker of the highly customized Boeing 747-200B models that compose the two Air Force One planes, to replace refrigerators and "chillers."
The complex "bespoke equipment requirements" of the plane's interior design and electrical system are said to be the reason behind the massive pricetag -- and not just price gouging on behalf of Boeing, Defense One first reported. The two jets are labeled "Air Force One" depending on whether or not President Trump is onboard, and both have been in service since 1990. The seemingly petty requirements for refrigeration -- such as the need to have enough food onboard to last all crew and passengers several weeks -- also adds to the hefty cooling bill.
Although Trump has shown his knack for eating fast food while flying, Air Force One requirements show that at least 3,000 meals must be on the planes at all times. The meals are kept in massive cooling units below the passenger cabin, as Travel & Leisure reports.
"Although serviced on a regular basis, reliability has decreased with failures increasing, especially in hot/humid environments," Air Force spokesman Ann Stefanek told Defense One.
The current refrigerators on the plane are nearly 27 years old and new chillers are set to be installed by engineers with high-level security clearance by October 2019. In December 2016, Trump claimed he would cancel the creation of Boeing's new 747-8 models because "costs are out of control."
But for now, Trump's Diet Coke and KFC are set to cool on the taxpayer dime.
The complex "bespoke equipment requirements" of the plane's interior design and electrical system are said to be the reason behind the massive pricetag -- and not just price gouging on behalf of Boeing, Defense One first reported. The two jets are labeled "Air Force One" depending on whether or not President Trump is onboard, and both have been in service since 1990. The seemingly petty requirements for refrigeration -- such as the need to have enough food onboard to last all crew and passengers several weeks -- also adds to the hefty cooling bill.
Although Trump has shown his knack for eating fast food while flying, Air Force One requirements show that at least 3,000 meals must be on the planes at all times. The meals are kept in massive cooling units below the passenger cabin, as Travel & Leisure reports.
"Although serviced on a regular basis, reliability has decreased with failures increasing, especially in hot/humid environments," Air Force spokesman Ann Stefanek told Defense One.
The current refrigerators on the plane are nearly 27 years old and new chillers are set to be installed by engineers with high-level security clearance by October 2019. In December 2016, Trump claimed he would cancel the creation of Boeing's new 747-8 models because "costs are out of control."
But for now, Trump's Diet Coke and KFC are set to cool on the taxpayer dime.
Melania the rich asshole probably knew about Stormy Daniels according to adult actress Alana Evans
Maria Vultaggio
Posted with permission from Newsweek
Melania Trump probably knew about the alleged tryst Donald Trump had with ex-porn star Stormy Daniels in 2006, according to adult actress Alana Evans. TMZ caught up with the X-rated star at the 34th AVN Awards Thursday in Las Vegas, where Evans said affairs are common for powerful men like Trump.
When Daniels was asked about the alleged affair on Thursday by Inside Edition, she smiled and refused to answer. Evans said that response made it “obvious to all of us” that the alleged affair really happened.
She mused why Daniels didn’t directly confirm the accusations. “Now, I don’t know, specifically, if there was money involved, or if there was a non-disclosure [agreement], but it’s completely obvious [that it happened],” Evans said. “Otherwise, we would be hearing it from her own mouth, not stories that she did years ago.”
As far as the infidelity accusations go, Evans said Melania should support President Trump—no matter what. “She’s the first lady. She’s in a very tough position. And my advice for her would be the same advice I would give to anyone else: Stand by your man,” the adult actress said. “I live in a world where extramarital affairs and being with other people isn’t the way the general public deem it. And a lot of the times, when you’re a powerful man...your spouse knows that you’re going to have women.”
Taking her last statement a step further, Evans implied cheating was likely allowed in the Trump marriage. “We don’t know what their arrangement may be, [the] unspoken words between the two of them,” she said.
As far as anyone judging their marriage: “It’s not really anyone’s business.”
The White House denied the claim about Trump sleeping with Daniels. “This allegation was asked and answered during the campaign,” White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah told reporters aboard Air Force One last week.
Though Daniels was mum on Thursday with Inside Edition, In Touch magazine published an interview on January 19 that Daniels gave them seven years ago.
“The sex was nothing crazy. He wasn’t like, ‘Chain me to the bed,’ or anything,” she told In Touch in 2011. “It was one position. I can definitely describe his junk perfectly, if I ever have to. He definitely seemed smitten after that. He was like, ‘I wanna see you again, when can I see you again?’”
Trump didn’t respond to Daniel’s seven-year-old In Touch interview. If the affair happened in the summer of 2006, like Daniels said in 2011, it would have been months after Melania gave birth to Barron, now 11.
When Daniels was asked about the alleged affair on Thursday by Inside Edition, she smiled and refused to answer. Evans said that response made it “obvious to all of us” that the alleged affair really happened.
She mused why Daniels didn’t directly confirm the accusations. “Now, I don’t know, specifically, if there was money involved, or if there was a non-disclosure [agreement], but it’s completely obvious [that it happened],” Evans said. “Otherwise, we would be hearing it from her own mouth, not stories that she did years ago.”
As far as the infidelity accusations go, Evans said Melania should support President Trump—no matter what. “She’s the first lady. She’s in a very tough position. And my advice for her would be the same advice I would give to anyone else: Stand by your man,” the adult actress said. “I live in a world where extramarital affairs and being with other people isn’t the way the general public deem it. And a lot of the times, when you’re a powerful man...your spouse knows that you’re going to have women.”
Taking her last statement a step further, Evans implied cheating was likely allowed in the Trump marriage. “We don’t know what their arrangement may be, [the] unspoken words between the two of them,” she said.
As far as anyone judging their marriage: “It’s not really anyone’s business.”
The White House denied the claim about Trump sleeping with Daniels. “This allegation was asked and answered during the campaign,” White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah told reporters aboard Air Force One last week.
Though Daniels was mum on Thursday with Inside Edition, In Touch magazine published an interview on January 19 that Daniels gave them seven years ago.
“The sex was nothing crazy. He wasn’t like, ‘Chain me to the bed,’ or anything,” she told In Touch in 2011. “It was one position. I can definitely describe his junk perfectly, if I ever have to. He definitely seemed smitten after that. He was like, ‘I wanna see you again, when can I see you again?’”
Trump didn’t respond to Daniel’s seven-year-old In Touch interview. If the affair happened in the summer of 2006, like Daniels said in 2011, it would have been months after Melania gave birth to Barron, now 11.
‘Thou shalt allow The rich asshole to fuck porn stars’: Rick Wilson hilariously quotes fake scripture to mock evangelicals
Rick Wilson (Photo: Screen capture)
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MSNBC commentator Rick Wilson couldn’t help but make fun of the evangelical community for giving President some rich asshole a pass on his alleged extramarital affairs and moral quandaries.
During “Real Time Overtime,” Wilson told host Bill Maher that he was quoting “The Book of Poontang” to back up his claims.
“And it says, thou shalt allow The rich asshole to f*ck porn stars and let him get away with it,” Wilson joked.
He explained that the decision to give the rich asshole a so-called “mulligan” on morality is nothing more than a Mt. Everest-size mountain of bullsh*t” and that the evangelicals are “on the peek of that mountain.”
During his opening monologue, Maher hit the evangelical community just as hard.
Watch the full portion of Overtime below:
the rich asshole has only liked 25 tweets — and his latest is about Steve Wynn’s accusers
President some rich asshole (left, via AFP) and disgraced RNC finance chairman Steve Wynn (right, via Shutterstock).
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On Friday night, President some rich asshole liked his 25th tweet to date — and Twitter immediately noticed how strange it was.
“Interesting like,” journalist Julia Wick wrote alongside a screenshot of the president “liking” a tweet from the Wall Street Journal about how RNC chairman and Las Vegas real estate mogul Steve Wynn pressured his employees into performing sex acts on him. Wynn, as Raw Story noted earlier on Friday, vouched for the rich asshole’s sanity when he was on the campaign trail.
The New Republic‘s Jeet Heer soon after pointed out that this was only the 25th tweet the rich asshole has ever liked.
Trump has only liked 25 tweets. This is the most recent tweet he "liked" tonight. twitter.com/sherlyholmes/s…
A perusal of the presidents likes reveals the majority are his own tweets, as well as a few posted by his family members and three tweets posted by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on November 1, 2017, the day of the attack in lower Manhattan.
Flavorwire’s Jason Bailey also pointed out that the president appears to have liked two tweets where people criticized him.
Ok, as @ditzkoff notes, one of Trump's 25 "likes" is the WSJ Wynn story. But I'm also fascinated by the fact that two of the others are... people dunking on him in his replies?
RNC suspiciously silent about sexual assault allegations against its finance chair
The organization previous railed against Democrats for accepting donations from Harvey Weinstein.
The Wall Street Journal published a story Friday exposing Las Vegas casino mogul and Republican National Committee finance chairman, Steve Wynn, for his alleged history of sexual assault. One incident detailed in the Journal report claims Wynn forced a manicurist to have sex with him and later paid the woman $7.5 million for her silence.
This wasn’t just a one-off incident, according to the report; dozens of women, many of them workers at his casinos, came forward with their own stories of forced sexual contact with Wynn.
As finance chairman of the RNC, Wynn’s position is primarily to raise money for the party of President some rich asshole, an old friend and fellow businessman himself accused of sexual misconduct by 19 women. Just as the rich asshole has denied the allegations against him, Wynn did the same, telling the Wall Street Journal, “the idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous.”
In the wake of these allegations, the RNC seems to be scrambling to find an appropriate response — thus far choosing silence. (The organization railed against Democrats last fall for taking donations from Harvey Weinstein after the numerous allegations of sexual assault and harassment against him were made public.)
As reported by Buzzfeed, Wynn donated more than $200,000 to Republicans in 2017, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Roughly $69,000 of that went directly to the RNC, including in-kind contributions, like travel expenses, vendor reimbursements, and catering charges.
Wynn donated to two successful GOP candidates: Greg Gianforte in Montana and Karen Handel in Georgia, in addition to donating $100,000 to the National Republicans Senatorial Committee in 2017 and contributing to the campaigns of Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and Nevada Sen. Dean Heller. All told, Wynn has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the RNC and various organizations affiliated with the Republican party.
According to the Washington Post, Wynn has no immediate plans to resign from his post at the RNC, leaving the organization to deal with the fallout.
The RNC has yet to respond to questions from multiple media outlets about Wynn, including a request from ThinkProgress. Sam Stein, a political editor at the Daily Beast, even reached out to former White House press secretary Sean Spicer for comment. Spicer, who echoed the RNC’s call for Democrats to return any donations from Harvey Weinstein, has yet to respond.
In addition to causing trouble for the RNC, the sexual assault allegations against Wynn are already having an impact on his business empire. Wynn, who is currently building a $2.4 billion casino in Massachusetts, will soon have to face the state’s gaming commission, which says it will be conducting a regulatory review to determine the next appropriate steps.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Wynn Resorts Ltd. shares sank 9 percent after the Wall Street Journal’s report was published.
Melania spokeswoman blasts 'salacious' reports as 'fake news'
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 01/26/18 04:51 PM EST
A spokeswoman for first lady Melania the rich asshole lashed out at the media for "tabloid" reporting that about she says has "seeped into 'main stream' reporting."
In a tweet Friday afternoon that did not mention a specific report, the rich asshole's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham accused news outlets of "salacious & false reporting," and referred to some outlets as "fake news."
"The laundry list of salacious & flat-out false reporting about Mrs. the rich asshole by tabloid publications & TV shows has seeped into 'main stream media' reporting. She is focused on her family & role as FLOTUS - not the unrealistic scenarios being peddled daily by the fake news," Grisham tweeted.
BREAKING:The laundry list of salacious & flat-out false reporting about Mrs. Trump by tabloid publications & TV shows has seeped into "main stream media" reporting. She is focused on her family & role as FLOTUS - not the unrealistic scenarios being peddled daily by the fake news.
The tweet from Grisham came just hours after the United Kingdom-based Daily Mail published a report claiming the first lady was spending nights in a D.C. hotel following news reports alleging that President the rich asshole's lawyer Michael Cohen arranged a $130,000 payment to a porn star for her silence concerning an affair with the rich asshole.
The first lady originally planned to accompany her husband to Davos, Switzerland, this week for the World Economic Forum but instead remained behind.
Grisham told CNN on Monday that the change was made due to "scheduling and logistical issues."
the rich asshole has not made a public statement since the publishing of The Wall Street Journal's report earlier this month that President the rich asshole had an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2006, shortly after the birth of Barron the rich asshole.
‘Don Jr. thought he was the family dipsh*t’: Bill Maher ridicules the rich asshole’s stupid move thinking he could fire Mueller
Bill Maher (Photo: Screen capture)
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Bill Maher began Friday’s “Real Time” by talking about President some rich asshole desire to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
“He only backed off after Don McGahn said, ‘You know this isn’t a TV show, right?'” Maher said. He went on to say that the rich asshole thought he could fire Mueller because the special counsel quit the rich asshole’s club and didn’t pay his bills.
“First Stormy Daniels and now Mueller? Has there been anyone who the rich asshole hasn’t tried to f*ck on the golf course?” Maher joked.
Maher noted that even some rich asshole Jr. was asking “I thought I was supposed to be the family dipsh*t.”
When it came to Devin Nunes, Maher wondered if he “represented the district of the rich asshole’s colon.”
He went on to mock the rich asshole’s border wall, saying that “the wall is really more valuable to him as an idea than a reality. Like his marriage.”
Melania the rich asshole was supposed to be with the rich asshole in Davos, but she had other obligations. Maher said “that’s political speak for, ‘Why don’t you take your porn star girlfriend.'” Instead, Mrs. the rich asshole stayed home and went to the Holocaust Museum
“She went to the Holocaust Museum to cheer up,” Maher said.
\But where the opening monologue really knocked it out of the park was the evangelical community’s hypocrisy on the rich asshole’s alleged affair. Watch Maher’s comments about it below:
Report that the rich asshole tried to fire Mueller sends Fox News into a tailspin
"Yeah, maybe some rich asshole wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict -- does he not have the right to raise those questions."
On Thursday evening, the New York Times broke news that last June, President the rich asshole ordered a White House lawyer to fire special counsel Robert Mueller. The story looks bad for the rich asshole, as it indicates that over a short period of time, he twice tried to fire officials overseeing an investigation of his campaign.
At first, the rich asshole’s favorite TV network — Fox News — pretended the story didn’t exist. While the other cable networks covered it, Fox News was talking about a 2005 photo of President Obama with Louis Farrakhan.
A short time later, Sean Hannity tried to deny the Times report, telling his viewers that “our sources — and I’ve checked in with many of them — they’re not confirming that tonight.”
But Hannity was wrong — Fox News’ Ed Henry had in fact confirmed the Times’ reporting. (So did Politico, the Washington Post, and CNN.)
Later during the same broadcast, Hannity attempted an amazing about-face. He begrudgingly acknowledged that the Times report was confirmed by Fox News, saying, “Yeah, maybe some rich asshole wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict — does he not have the right to raise those questions?”
By Friday morning, Fox News was walking back its own reporting. An anonymously-sourced report on its website attempt to cast doubt on the story reported by the Times and others, noting that while “the rich asshole did have conversations about firing Mueller,” those conversations “might not have amounted to an outright directive.” That report was also highlighted on Fox News programming. Notably, the rich asshole representatives passed up numerous opportunities to deny that the rich asshole ordered Mueller’s firing.
Meanwhile, the rich asshole’s favorite show — Fox & Friends — barely covered the story about the rich asshole trying to dismiss Mueller, and treated the rich asshole’s unconvincing denial of it as gospel.
Fox & Friends has now moved on to the "doesn't the president have the right to fire anyone he wants to" defense. pic.twitter.com/Q3y4e79Kzc
Hegseth: The president says it's fake news, and even if it's true he didn't fire Mueller so it isn't news.
Earhardt: He says it's fake news, let's move on to something you actually care about. pic.twitter.com/pDUwDVCTDj
Fox News’ handling of the latest Mueller story is reminiscent of how they handled another damaging news cycle for the rich asshole earlier this month. Although Fox News independently confirmed a story broken by the Washington Post about the rich asshole calling African nations “shithole countries” during a White House meeting, the network spent the following day gradually walking back its own reporting.
As he’s now doing with the latest report that he tried to fire Mueller, the rich asshole weakly tried to deny making the “shithole countries” comment.
‘The shutdown is actually underway anyway — all the time’: Real Time panel calls out the rich asshole’s slow destruction of the government
Bill Maher Panel Rick Wilson, Michelle Goldberg, Ro Khanna (Photo: RealTime Twitter)
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President some rich asshole is already trying to shutdown the government all day — everyday, according to “Real Time” host Bill Maher.
During a panel discussion, Maher noted that the rich asshole administration hasn’t been able to fill over 600 “vital jobs” in the executive branch since taking office. The State Department has been cut by 8 percent and career diplomats are being demoted to the level of interns to humiliate them and get them to quit. Four top jobs in the Veterans Administration are still unfilled.
“The government shutdown is actually underway anyway — all the time, since the rich asshole took office,” Maher said.
When it comes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, designed to help speak out for Americans so they don’t get scammed or taken advantage of by big banks, the administration asked for zero dollars.
“And an echo-terrorist is head of the EPA,” Maher said about Scott Pruitt. “This is a government shutdown in motion.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) noted that it isn’t the Republicans or the Democrats who are opposing the vote on the DREAMers and shutting down the government, it’s Speaker Paul Ryan.
Watch the full discussion below:
Sally Kohn destroys Ben Ferguson over ‘secret society’ flop: ‘Wish viewers had Smell-o-Vision because this smells desperate’
"State of Resistance" host Sally Kohn (left) and conservative commentator Ben Ferguson (right) on CNN. Images via screengrab.
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While discussing the so-called Justice Department “secret society” debacle that blew up in Republicans’ faces earlier this week, liberal pundit and author Sally Kohn shut down GOP commentator Ben Ferguson after he tried to resuscitate the conspiracy.
“I think it’s sad that we’re calling everything conspiracy theories when what Republicans are doing in many of these cases is asking questions,” Ferguson said as CNN host Jim Scuitto interrupted. “It is fair to ask questions.”
“You have two FBI agents who clearly have show in their text message bias against some rich asshole,” he continued, referencing agents Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, the individuals at the heart of the GOP’s attacks against special counsel Robert Mueller. “These same two individuals used the words describing that they might actually need to have some sort of secret meeting in their own words.”
Kohn, as evidenced by her facial expressions while Ferguson spoke, wasn’t having it.
“I mean, I send texts to my friends all the time comparing my day to Beyoncé’s,” she said, “but it doesn’t mean I’m Beyoncé.”
Laughing, she said it’s “scary” that Ferguson and his party mates who cried wolf about the single text message couldn’t interpret the out-of-context text as a joke. Indeed, Huffington Post reported yesterday that not only was the single “secret society” text a reference to calendars full of “beefcake” photos of Vladimir Putin that Strzok bought as a gag for his colleagues, but the text’s existence has already been discovered and summarily dismissed as an obvious joke by reporters who read the text a month prior.
“It’s unfortunate that they haven’t invented ‘Smell-o-Vision’ because this smells desperate,” Kohn said.
Watch the hilarious exchange below, via CNN:
Rep. Devin Nunes, the rich asshole’s stooge, attacks FBI
January 25, 2018 01:07 PM
Updated January 26, 2018 03:46 PM
What, pray tell, does Rep. Devin Nunes think he’s doing by waving around a secret memo attacking the FBI, the nation’s premier law enforcement agency?
He certainly isn’t representing his Central Valley constituents or Californians, who care much more about health care, jobs and, yes, protecting Dreamers than about the latest conspiracy theory.
Instead, he’s doing dirty work for House Republican leaders trying to protect President some rich asshole in the Russia investigation.
It’s no accident that this latest attempt to discredit the FBI and distract the public is happening at the same time special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe appears to be picking up steam – and focusing on possible obstruction of justice by the president.
Reports this week say that Mueller’s team has interviewed former FBI Director James Comey – fired by the rich asshole over the Russia probe – and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the investigation. Reports also say that Mueller wants to soon interview the rich asshole about the dismissal of Comey, as well as the firing of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with investigators.
the rich asshole said Wednesday he’s willing to talk to Mueller under oath, subject to advice from his lawyers, of course. But he also suggested he’s being accused of obstruction because he’s “fighting back” against unfair allegations of collusion between his campaign and Russia.
Nunes of Tulare is sheltered in a relatively safe Republican district, and may believe he will pay no political price for unfairly attacking law enforcement and protecting the rich asshole. But his performance as chairman of the highly sensitive House Intelligence Committee has been nothing short of embarrassing.
Instead of taking Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election seriously and leading an impartial and bipartisan inquiry, Nunes has colluded with the White House. Last March, Nunes said he’d seen secret intelligence reports backing the rich asshole’s claims that President Barack Obama had “wiretapped” his offices, but it turned out the documents came from the administration.
The blowback forced Nunes to step away from the Russia investigation. But he never fully recused himself and after the Republican-controlled House Ethics Committee in December cleared him of disclosing classified information, he raised his profile again.
Now, he’s being celebrated in Trumpworld with the four-page memo that accuses the FBI of political bias and misdeeds. Drafted by Nunes staffers, it apparently summarizes classified material and alleges abuse of the surveillance process by the FBI and Justice Department to target the rich asshole campaign. Conservative media and some Republicans in Congress are calling for it to be released publicly and using it to call for Mueller’s investigation to be shut down.
There are reasons to be very skeptical of this memo. The FBI hasn’t been sent a copy or given a chance to respond. Democrats who have seen it, including Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank, say it’s full of inaccuracies and innuendo. And the social media campaign #ReleaseTheMemo may be promoted by Russian-linked bots, just as during the 2016 campaign.
Nunes’s office did not respond Wednesday to our questions about the memo. But the Justice Department wrote to him, warning that it would be “extraordinarily reckless” to release the memo without any review for possible risk to national security or ongoing investigations.
While the FBI has overstepped during its history (for instance the COINTELPRO operations against political dissidents during J. Edgar Hoover’s tenure), it is supremely ironic that the GOP – which long has proclaimed itself the party of law and order – is serving to undermine public trust in agents who risk their lives, combat organized crime, ferret out public corruption and protect us against terrorism.
We also can’t forget that Republicans defended the FBI when Democrats criticized Comey last year for reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails just before the election.
But now we’re supposed to believe some Republicans that there’s some kind of anti-the rich asshole “secret society” within the FBI? It’s ridiculous.
Everyone – Republicans, Democrats, advocacy groups on all sides and the media – should do our democracy a favor: Stop with the hyperventilating and let Mueller finish his investigation and get to the truth.
‘Embarrassing’: Devin Nunes’ home paper rips him to shreds for ‘ridiculous’ anti-FBI conspiracies
Rep. Devin Nunes speaks to a crowd at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. Image via CSIS/Creative Commons.
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Fresno, CA’s daily newspaper the Fresno Bee on Friday ripped into House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) for “doing the dirty work” on behalf of some rich asshole’s White House.
In a scathing editorial, the Fresno Bee charged Nunes with failing to represent his constituents in California by “waving around a secret memo attacking the FBI” instead of focusing on “health care, jobs” and Dreamers.
“Instead, he’s doing dirty work for House Republican leaders trying to protect President some rich asshole in the Russia investigation,” the Fresno Bee wrote.
The editorial noted the timing of Nunes’ secret memo, which coincided with reports special counsel Robert Mueller is honing in on possible obstruction of justice by the president, having interviewed former FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Jeff Session last week.
“Nunes of Tulare is sheltered in a relatively safe Republican district, and may believe he will pay no political price for unfairly attacking law enforcement and protecting the rich asshole,” the Fresno Bee wrote. “But his performance as chairman of the highly sensitive House Intelligence Committee has been nothing short of embarrassing.”
The Fresno Bee pointed to Nunes’ efforts last year to focus the attention on what he claimed was inappropriate “unmasking” by former President Barack Obama—a distraction technique designed to provide cover to the rich asshole’s unfounded claim his predecessor “wire tapped” the rich asshole Tower.
“The blowback forced Nunes to step away from the Russia investigation,” the Fresno Bee continued. “But he never fully recused himself and after the Republican-controlled House Ethics Committee in December cleared him of disclosing classified information, he raised his profile again.”
Turning to the memo that Nunes and several of his Republican colleagues have spent the past week hyping, the Fresno Bee noted the document—drafted by Nunes staffers—“ apparently summarizes classified material and alleges abuse of the surveillance process by the FBI and Justice Department to target the rich asshole campaign.”
“There are reasons to be very skeptical of this memo,” the Fresno Bee explained. “The FBI hasn’t been sent a copy or given a chance to respond. Democrats who have seen it, including Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank, say it’s full of inaccuracies and innuendo.”
The editorial board called it “supremely ironic” for the Republican Party—“which long has proclaimed itself the party of law and order—to undermine public trust in agents who risk their lives, combat organized crime, ferret out public corruption and protect us against terrorism.”
“Now we’re supposed to believe some Republicans that there’s some kind of anti-the rich asshole ‘secret society‘; within the FBI?” the Fresno Bee asked. “It’s ridiculous.”
Read the full editorial at the Fresno Bee
EXCLUSIVE
the rich asshole Launched Campaign to Discredit Potential FBI Witnesses
The president targeted three bureau officials who could provide key testimony in the Mueller probe.
BY MURRAY WAAS
|
President some rich asshole pressed senior aides last June to devise and carry out a campaign to discredit senior FBI officials after learning that those specific employees were likely to be witnesses against him as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.
In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8, recently fired FBI Director James Comey disclosed that he spoke contemporaneously with other senior bureau officials about potentially improper efforts by the president to curtail the FBI’s investigation of alleged collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8, recently fired FBI Director James Comey disclosed that he spoke contemporaneously with other senior bureau officials about potentially improper efforts by the president to curtail the FBI’s investigation of alleged collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Mueller is investigating whether the rich asshole’s efforts constituted obstruction of justice.
Not long after Comey’s Senate testimony, the rich asshole hired John Dowd, a veteran criminal defense attorney, to represent him in matters related to Mueller’s investigation. Dowd warned the rich asshole that the potential corroborative testimony of the senior FBI officials in Comey’s account would likely play a central role in the special counsel’s final conclusion, according to people familiar with the matter.
In discussions with at least two senior White House officials, the rich asshole repeated what Dowd had told him to emphasize why he and his supporters had to “fight back harder,” in the words of one of these officials.
Not long after Comey’s Senate testimony, the rich asshole hired John Dowd, a veteran criminal defense attorney, to represent him in matters related to Mueller’s investigation. Dowd warned the rich asshole that the potential corroborative testimony of the senior FBI officials in Comey’s account would likely play a central role in the special counsel’s final conclusion, according to people familiar with the matter.
In discussions with at least two senior White House officials, the rich asshole repeated what Dowd had told him to emphasize why he and his supporters had to “fight back harder,” in the words of one of these officials.
In a brief conversation Friday afternoon, Dowd denied the accounts of administration officials contained in this story as “flat-out wrong,” but he also refused to discuss what details were incorrect. “My advice to the president is confidential,” he told Foreign Policy.
“You don’t know me,” Dowd added. “You don’t how I lawyer, and you don’t know what I communicated to the president and what I did not.”
While Dowd’s private advice to the president would ordinarily be protected by attorney-client privilege, Mueller might be able to probe comments that the rich asshole made to others about that legal advice by asking him directly about it as well as anyone else he shared that advice with.
A person with direct knowledge of the matter said although Dowd explained the risks of senior FBI officials joining Comey in testifying against the rich asshole, that information was part of a broader presentation to the president about Mueller’s investigation. It is not improper, but in fact is a duty, for an attorney to explain to a client how they are at risk, the source said. What may have been improper, however, were actions the rich asshole took upon learning that information.
A person with direct knowledge of the matter said although Dowd explained the risks of senior FBI officials joining Comey in testifying against the rich asshole, that information was part of a broader presentation to the president about Mueller’s investigation. It is not improper, but in fact is a duty, for an attorney to explain to a client how they are at risk, the source said. What may have been improper, however, were actions the rich asshole took upon learning that information.
Since Dowd gave him that information, the rich asshole — as well as his aides, surrogates, and some Republican members of Congress — has engaged in an unprecedented campaign to discredit specific senior bureau officials and the FBI as an institution.
The FBI officials the rich asshole has targeted are Andrew McCabe, the current deputy FBI director and who was briefly acting FBI director after Comey’s firing; Jim Rybicki, Comey’s chief of staff and senior counselor; and James Baker, formerly the FBI’s general counsel. Those same three officials were firstidentified as possible corroborating witnesses for Comey in a June 7 article in Vox. Comey confirmed in congressional testimony the following day that he confided in the three men.
In the past, presidents have attacked special counsels and prosecutors who have investigated them, calling them partisan and unfair. But no previous president has attacked a long-standing American institution such as the FBI — or specific FBI agents and law enforcement officials.
Mueller has asked senior members of the administration questions in recent months indicating that prosecutors might consider the rich asshole’s actions also to be an effort to intimidate government officials — in this case FBI officials — from testifying against him.
The New York Times reported late Thursday that the rich asshole also ordered the firing of Mueller last June. the rich asshole reportedly changed his mind after White House counsel Donald McGahn threatened to resign and two of the president’s highest-ranking aides told him that it would have devastating effects on his presidency.
Press reports at the time said there were indications that Mueller was already investigating the rich asshole for obstruction of justice, even though he was only recently appointed.
Press reports at the time said there were indications that Mueller was already investigating the rich asshole for obstruction of justice, even though he was only recently appointed.
Obstruction of justice cases depend largely on whether a prosecutor can demonstrate the intent or motivation of the person he or she charges. It’s not enough to prove that the person under investigation attempted to impede an ongoing criminal investigation — a prosecutor must demonstrate some corrupt purpose in doing so.
That the rich asshole may have been motivated to attack specific FBI officials because they were potential witnesses against him could demonstrate potential intent that would bolster an obstruction of justice case.
That the rich asshole may have been motivated to attack specific FBI officials because they were potential witnesses against him could demonstrate potential intent that would bolster an obstruction of justice case.
the rich asshole must repent if he wants to be forgiven for his sins: Watch Billy Graham’s granddaughter take evangelicals to Sunday school
CNN's Jim Scuitto and Rev. Billy Graham's granddaughter, Jerushah Armfield (Photo: Screen capture)
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Billy Graham’s granddaughter Jerushah Armfield explained to the right-wing evangelicals that supporting some rich asshole’s bad behavior is sending the wrong message to the world about what Christianity is about.
In a discussion with CNN’s Jim Scuitto, Armfield explained that if the rich asshole wants to be forgiven he needs to get right with God and repent. Her comments came after a series of clips from right-wing evangelical leaders like Tony Perkins and Armfield’s own uncle saying that the rich asshole deserves forgiveness just like everyone else.
“In order to forgive somebody, that individual needs to repent and apologize,” she noted. “And I don’t think America has seen that from our president in any scenario, really.”
Scuitto asked if the same treatment would be given from these men if President Barack Obama had been outed for having an alleged affair with a porn star. Armfield answered that “we all know the answer to that.” Scuitto persisted, however, asking what the answer would be.
“I don’t think that any of the prior world leaders have been forgiven for anything from some of these evangelicals,” she replied. “The question you are asking is the same question I am asking. And the world knows the answer is nothing these leaders have said or done have illustrated that they would give that forgiveness to, let’s say President Obama, were he in that situation. Now, if President Obama had asked for forgiveness and in humility and changed his behavior, absolutely, I think that’s a core of our faith. But you’ve got to, you know, ask for forgiveness first.”
Scuitto played an interview of Armfield’s uncle, Franklin Graham, who said that the rich asshole is a good man and that God put him in the presidency. Armfield had a different take.
“First, a lot of times people seem to be focusing on the language that he used which wasn’t the issue,” she said, talking about the rich asshole’s comments about Haiti and other countries being “sh*thole countries.” She said it was the context of the language that was the issue. “I think they are focusing on the language. I think it was, you know, the disheartening dehumanizing comments that were said around the world. I think — I said the last time I was on your program, my president doesn’t have to be a Christian, but I don’t want him to be held up as the poster-boy for evangelical because he doesn’t represented most of us.”
She went on to say that the evangelicals that are giving the rich asshole a passbecause of appointments of anti-choice judges or policy positions isn’t a valid reason either.
“I understand a lot of evangelicals are supporting him because of his policies,” she continued. “I would love to see a Christian leader come out to say they support him for his policies but he needs to clean up his act. They feel like they have to stay hush on his behavior, and they’re sending the wrong message to the world what Christianity is or what evangelicals are or have become.”
Watch below:
the rich asshole has only liked 25 tweets — and his latest is about Steve Wynn’s accusers
President some rich asshole (left, via AFP) and disgraced RNC finance chairman Steve Wynn (right, via Shutterstock).
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On Friday night, President some rich asshole liked his 25th tweet to date — and Twitter immediately noticed how strange it was.
“Interesting like,” journalist Julia Wick wrote alongside a screenshot of the president “liking” a tweet from the Wall Street Journal about how RNC chairman and Las Vegas real estate mogul Steve Wynn pressured his employees into performing sex acts on him. Wynn, as Raw Story noted earlier on Friday, vouched for the rich asshole’s sanity when he was on the campaign trail.
The New Republic‘s Jeet Heer soon after pointed out that this was only the 25th tweet the rich asshole has ever liked.
Trump has only liked 25 tweets. This is the most recent tweet he "liked" tonight. twitter.com/sherlyholmes/s…
A perusal of the presidents likes reveals the majority are his own tweets, as well as a few posted by his family members and three tweets posted by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on November 1, 2017, the day of the attack in lower Manhattan.
Flavorwire’s Jason Bailey also pointed out that the president appears to have liked two tweets where people criticized him.
Ok, as @ditzkoff notes, one of Trump's 25 "likes" is the WSJ Wynn story. But I'm also fascinated by the fact that two of the others are... people dunking on him in his replies?
‘Essentially calling his own staff liars’: Ex-FBI counterintelligence chief explains the rich asshole’s credibility dilemma
President some rich asshole, Mike Flynn, Reince Priebus, Mike Pence and Steve Bannon (Sean Spicer, White House.gov)
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The former Assistant Director for Counterintelligence at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Frank Figliuzzi, explained the credibility paradox President some rich asshole created by dismissing as “fake news” a bombshell New York Times report on the ordered firing of special counsel Robert Mueller.
“Deadline: White House” host Nicolle Wallace said, “some rich asshole’s reaction to this story, by calling Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman’s account fake news, he may have impeached the credibility or perhaps even the testimony of Don McGahn. Elaborate.”
“He may have painted himself into a corner here that has legal significance, Figliuzzi noted.
“So, as we’ve just heard, this news that he wanted to fire Mueller was not a surprise to Mueller,” Figliuzzi explained. “So, someone or multiple people in the White House shared this firing with Mueller.”
“Here comes the rich asshole publicly saying, ‘that’s fake news,’ so, he’s essentially calling his own staff liars,” Figliuzzi said.
“So, if this obstruction matter heads to a grand jury, a courtroom, or to Congress for impeachment, we may face a situation where the president is literally confronted with the written statements of his own staff, possibly his own White House counsel, contradicting the president’s public statements that this is fake news.”
“He’s not only impeaching the credibility of his own staff, but his own staff now is faced with impeaching the president’s credibility. It’s quite an interesting dilemma,” he concluded.
“It sounds like a standoff,” Wallace said.
“As you all sort of hinted at earlier, the fact that the rich asshole sometimes says things that don’t lineup with reality is likely giving a lot of concern to the president’s lawyers about whether or not they want him to sit down with Mueller,” noted Daily Beast reporter Betsy Woodruff.
Watch:
Here is the 1997 federal court case that the rich asshole’s team may use to deny Mueller’s subpoena
Special counsel Bob Mueller (left) and President some rich asshole (right). Images via screengrab.
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President some rich asshole’s lawyers are reportedly researching a 1997 federal court case whose ruling found that presidents and their advisors are protected from disclosing information about their decisions.
As the Wall Street Journal reported Friday evening, the 1997 case involved then-Agriculture Secretary Michael Espy, who was indicted for taking improper gifts in his official capacity but later acquitted in appeals court. In the case, an independent counsel subpoenaed the White House for records regarding Epsy.
The Epsy ruling became central to then-President Bill Clinton’s scandal involving White House intern Monica Lewinsky after he invoked executive privilege to protect a close friend and confidante from having to testify about their discussions involving the matter.
Though the rich asshole volunteered to reporters that he’s very willing to testify under oath earlier this week, White House counsel Ty Cobb walked the claim back hours after the impromptu admission. Later, the rich asshole’s personal lawyer John Dowd said he would be the one to make the decision about whether the president will speak to Mueller — and as of yesterday, had not yet reached a conclusion.
Todd Presnell, an attorney and expert in executive privilege, told the Journal the rich asshole could potentially use the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination, but choosing to do so “would be a public-relations nightmare.”
White House counsel Donald McGahn was ‘fed up’ with the rich asshole: source
Donald McGahn (USA Politics)
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White House Counsel Donald McGahn threatened to quit last June because he was “fed up” after President some rich asshole insisted he take steps to remove the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that the rich asshole backed down from his order to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller after McGahn said he would resign rather than follow the directive, citing four people told of the matter
the rich asshole on Friday denied the report.
“Fake news, folks, fake news,” the president told reporters when asked about the report in Davos, Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum of business and political leaders.
If the rich asshole did try to fire Mueller, it could strengthen a case for obstruction of justice against the president based on whether he had “corrupt intent” in trying to hinder Mueller’s investigation, legal experts said.
A person familiar with the situation told Reuters the rich asshole sought to have Mueller removed over what the president perceived as conflicts of interest. These included Mueller’s relationship with James Comey, who succeeded Mueller as FBI director until the rich asshole fired him in May, and Mueller’s resignation from one of the rich asshole’s golf clubs over a fee dispute in 2011, other people said.
The person told Reuters on Friday that the rich asshole asked McGahn to raise what he said were Mueller’s conflicts with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein because the president thought they were serious enough to remove Mueller.
Rosenstein appointed Mueller after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation and is the official overseeing the special counsel.
McGahn, who could not be reached for comment, did not discuss the issue with Rosenstein and threatened to quit when the rich asshole continued to insist that he do so, the person said.
The lawyer did not issue an ultimatum directly to the president but told then White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and then chief strategist Steve Bannon he wanted to quit because he was “fed up with the president,” the person said.
The source added that it was possible Bannon and Priebus did not know all the details of the rich asshole’s discussions with McGahn about Mueller at that time.
Neither Bannon nor Preibus could be reached for comment.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment on the report.
White House lawyer Ty Cobb, who is representing the presidency in the Mueller probe, declined comment, citing respect for special counsel.
the rich asshole could be questioned about the incident by Mueller’s team, which sources say has been negotiating with the president’s personal lawyers about a possible interview in the coming weeks.
Moscow has denied the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies that it meddled in the election to help the rich asshole. Mueller’s office is also investigating potential coordination between the rich asshole campaign and Russia, something that the rich asshole has repeatedly denied.
According to sources, the special counsel has asked other witnesses about whether the rich asshole has tried to obstruct justice by, for instance, firing Comey, who previously headed the Russia investigation as FBI Director.
To build a criminal obstruction of justice case, federal law requires prosecutors to show that a person acted with an improper, or “corrupt,” intent, such as protecting himself or those close to him.
Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago, said moving to fire Mueller would further strengthen an obstruction case against the rich asshole.
“Even after he knows that he is being looked at for obstruction of justice and has seen legal analysts talk about obstruction with the Comey firing he is still moving forward and doing what he can to influence that investigation,” Mariotti said.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; additional reporting by Steve Holland in Davos and Jan Wolfe in New York; Editing by Anthony Lin and Grant McCool)
The View shuts down S. E. Cupp for trying to drag Monica Lewinsky into the Stormy Daniels scandal
Conservative commentator S. E. Cupp on ABC's 'The View' (Screen capture)
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Conservative commentator S. E. Cupp met stiff resistance from most of the panelists on ABC’s “The View” on Friday when she said that people who are dwelling on President some rich asshole’s purported liaison with adult film star Stormy Daniels should be giving equal time to Monica Lewinsky.
“Don’t you want her on the show?” co-host Joy Behar asked about Daniels. “I want her here.”
Daniels, said Cupp, is “playing the hand she was dealt. What bothers me, though, in giving her this platform, Monica Lewinsky was caught having an affair with a president. Who’s going to interview her? I’d love to see someone her. Her life was ruined.”
“She’s been interviewed a hundred times,” said Behar. “She’s been on this show.”
In fact, Lewinsky was considered for a co-host slot on “The View” in 2015.
“But Bill Clinton isn’t the president anymore,” said Sunny Hostin. “The president is some rich asshole, so it’s much more relevant at the very least.”
Cupp said that until “the left” answers for how former President Bill Clinton’s accusers were treated, “you can’t say he’s not president anymore.”
Bill Clinton stepped down at the end of his term in January of 2001 when President George W. Bush was inaugurated.
Watch the video, embedded below:
FLASHBACK: Steve Wynn vouches for the rich asshole’s sanity during campaign: ‘He’s stable enough’
Jon Ralston interviewed Steve Wynn in September 2016. Screengrab via KTNV.
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Billionaire finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and close some rich asshole confident Steve Wynn vouched for President the rich asshole’s mental stability during the heat of the 2016 election.
Wynn was the subject of a bombshell Wall Street Journal report published Friday that focused on a pattern of sexual misconduct.
The casino mogul sat down with longtime Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston for a KTNV Channel 13 interview that was posted on September 30, 2016.
“You know the guy really well, is he ready to be president?” Ralston asked
“Oh, he’s stable enough,” Wynn replied.
“Donald is an intelligent guy,” Wynn claimed.
“Privately, he’s thoughtful and that’s the reason he’s been successful,” Wynn continued.
Watch:
Nikki Haley rips 'offensive' rumor of affair with the rich asshole
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 01/26/18 09:06 AM EST
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is ripping online rumors suggesting she's having an affair with President the rich asshole as "disgusting" and "offensive" — and typical of the treatment of women in powerful positions.
In an interview with Politico, Haley said the rumors instigated by author Micheal Wolff are "absolutely not true."
She also said she's never talked once to the president about her future and that she is never alone with the rich asshole.
“So the idea that these things come out, that’s a problem,” she told Politico's Women Rule podcast.
“But it goes to a bigger issue that we need to always be conscious of: At every point in my life, I’ve noticed that if you speak your mind and you’re strong about it and you say what you believe, there is a small percentage of people that resent that and the way they deal with it is to try and throw arrows, lies or not.”
In his bestselling book "Fire and Fury," Wolff wrote that the rich asshole had been spending "a notable amount of private time with Haley on Air Force One and was seen to be grooming her for a national political future.”
Wolff also told HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" that he was "absolutely sure" the rich asshole was having an affair, and that readers would home in on a portion of his book once he had made the suggestion.
That led to online scrutiny of Haley.
Wolff didn't respond to Politico's request for a response to Haley.
This isn't the first time Haley has had to deal with false claims of an affair, something she said is an attack frequently made against women.
"I saw this as a legislator. I saw this when I was governor. I see it now. I see them do it to other women,” she said. “And the thing is, when women work, they prioritize, they focus, and they believe if you’re gonna to something, do it right.”
the rich asshole immigration plan hits wall of opposition
BY SCOTT WONG AND RAFAEL BERNAL - 01/26/18 02:08 PM EST
President the rich asshole's immigration plan is running into heavy opposition on and off Capitol Hill, suggesting the much-anticipated framework has failed to move the needle as a bipartisan group of senators try to negotiate a deal.
the rich asshole’s one-page framework calls for granting a pathway to citizenship for nearly 2 million young immigrants in exchange for tens of billions of dollars for his border wall and other policies that would dramatically restrict legal immigration in the coming years.
The president wants the Senate to draft legislation based on his blueprint and introduce it by Feb. 5, just three days before funding for the government runs out.
But the day-old plan is already taking heavy fire from both the right and the left.
For the bipartisan gang of 20 senators trying to hammer out an agreement to protect the "Dreamers," it’s clear the rich asshole outline — intended as an olive branch to Democrats — gets them no closer to a deal. One of the key negotiators of the group, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin(D-Ill.), warned that the rich asshole’s plan places the White House’s "hardline immigration agenda … on the backs of these young people."
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who will need to sign off on any deal for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in the upper chamber, echoed those sentiments on Twitter on Friday. the rich asshole is using DACA recipients as “a tool to tear apart our legal immigration system and adopt the wish list that anti-immigration hardliners have advocated for, for years,” he wrote.
the rich asshole’s plan did get an endorsement from a pair of key conservatives, Sens. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), with the latter characterizing the plan as “generous and humane” and “responsible.”
But for the most part, conservative outside groups, members of the House Freedom Caucus and other vocal immigration hard-liners all panned the White House plan, saying providing a path to citizenship for 1.8 million “Dreamers” amounted to “mass amnesty” for law breakers.
“Illegals have No Right to be here & have ALL violated our laws. This #Amnesty deal negotiates away American Sovereignty,” Rep. Steve King(R-Iowa), an immigration hawk, tweeted Friday.
Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, a group that advocates for reduced immigration, had embraced an immigration proposal by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). That bill includes a path to legalization for nearly 700,000 DACA recipients — the first time since 1986 that NumbersUSA has supported any proposal along those lines.
But the White House proposal goes too far for Beck.
"NumbersUSA has no choice but to oppose what is being suggested as the White House 'framework' for a mass amnesty," Beck said.
"The plan seems eerily similar to the blueprint used for the 2007 Bush-Kennedy amnesty, which appeared to end chain migration, but wouldn't actually end it for 17 years. NumbersUSA mobilized our huge grass-roots army to defeat the 2007 amnesty, and we will do the same if this plan is proposed next week," he added.
The outside conservative group Heritage Action described the rich asshole’s plan as a “nonstarter” because it “expands the amnesty-eligible population,” while the head of the Center for Immigration Studies, an immigration restrictionist group, suggested the rich asshole had betrayed the conservative base that had propelled him to the presidency.
“Time to start burning your #MAGA hats. Send pictures and I'll retweet,” Mark Krikorian tweeted.
The House Freedom Caucus, the group of roughly 30 conservative hard-liners, has yet to meet to discuss the rich asshole’s proposal. The group’s chairman, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), was traveling with the president in Davos, Switzerland, and has yet to weigh in. But other members of the group were cool to the rich asshole plan.
“There should be no amnesty for anyone who broke the law to come here,” one Freedom Caucus member, Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), told The Hill. “It’s a slap in the face to those who follow the law.”
And former Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), appearing on Fox News on Friday, said he had “concerns” about the rich asshole plan.
The Ohio Republican said he favors the Goodlatte bill, which places greater emphasis on border-enforcement measures like mandating that all employers use E-Verify, ending chain migration, also known as family reunification, and cracking down on sanctuary cities.
If there is a “focus on DACA first and then a little pretend security and pretend border wall and pretend chain migration,” Jordan said, “that’s a different animal, and I won’t be for that, and neither will lots of conservatives, more importantly, lots of Americans.”
On the other end of the political spectrum, Democratic leaders, liberal groups and pro-immigration advocates accused the rich asshole of holding Dreamers hostage while demanding draconian policies that would greatly curb legal immigration.
The plan calls for a $25 billion trust fund for border security — many times more than what Durbin and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had entertained in their bipartisan negotiations. It also would scrap the visa lottery system and severely limit family-based immigration, which Republicans call “chain migration.”
Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, an advocacy group that works closely with progressive members on immigration, said the White House plan "comes nowhere close to finding the sweet spot" for a bipartisan agreement.
"It is a far-right restructuring of our entire immigration system in trying exploit the crisis that was created by the rich asshole ending DACA," he said.
Greisa Martinez Rosas, a DACA recipient and policy director for United We Dream, a youth network of Dreamer advocates, said Dreamers — even those benefited by the proposal — would not accept its price.
"The immigration proposal presented yesterday by the rich asshole White House is nothing more than a white supremacist ransom note. A 'Sophie’s choice' by an immoral and horrible man whose aim is to wipe immigrant families from this country," she said.
Like the Goodlatte bill, the White House proposal would cut legal immigration and change the methods by which immigrants are selected.
Like the Goodlatte bill, the White House proposal would cut legal immigration and change the methods by which immigrants are selected.
John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said the proposal "decimates the family immigration system that has made this country so dynamic."
Democrats, wary of their base's reaction to the short-lived shutdown, took a similar tone.
"We cannot allow the lives of young people who have done everything right to be used as bargaining chips for sweeping anti-immigrant policies," said Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) in a statement.
"The White House is using Dreamers to mask their underlying xenophobic, isolationist, and un-American policies, which will harm millions of immigrants living in the United States and millions of others who want to legally immigrate and contribute to our country," she said.
Still, the White House proposal follows a well-worn formula in immigration negotiations — trading enforcement measures for legalizing blocs of immigrants in the country illegally.
"We can’t go on when the administration and Republicans ask for more, and more, and more for less, and less, and less," said Sen. Bob Menendez(D-N.J.) on Thursday. "You want a billion per year for the wall, I want a million undocumented people per year, legalized."
But Menendez warned, before the White House made its proposal public, that Republican enforcement demands were far outweighing their offer in terms of legalizations.
"It’s not reasonable to say that for a group of 700,000-800,000 students in this country, to ask what was negotiated for comprehensive immigration reform," he said.
Republican senators on the negotiating team remained silent in the aftermath of the White House announcement.
State of the Union could be upstaged by Stormy Daniels
Maria Perez
Posted with permission from Newsweek
President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address will not be the only thing the world will be watching come January 30. Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel announced on Thursday that he will be interviewing adult film star Stormy Daniels right after Trump’s speech.
Related: Trump Wanted a Threesome With Stormy Daniels, Porn Star Alana Evans Claims
“I am pleased to announce that the very gifted @StormyDaniels will be on #Kimmel Tuesday 1/30 after the #StateOfTheUnion. I have MANY QUESTIONS! #MAGA,” Kimmel tweeted Thursday night.
Daniels made the news earlier this month amid a wave of reports about Trump’s personal life before he entered the White House, including allegations that the two had a relationship. In a 2011 interview with InTouch Weekly that was not published until January 19, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she was invited to Trump’s hotel room where they had sex. The alleged encounter happened four months after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son, Barron.
The story was first publicized by a report in The Wall Street Journal that Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, gave Daniels a $130,000 payment to keep quiet about the 2006 sexual encounter less than a month before the 2016 election.
On the one-year anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, Daniels kicked off her “Make America Horny Again” tour at a South Carolina strip club. She posted the event on Instagram, but the social media site suspended her account two days after the tour took place.
Trump will deliver his first State of the Union address on Tuesday. The annual speech is formally given to Congress to outline the administration's agenda for the upcoming year. While it’s unclear what Trump will say during his address, he is likely to tout the Republican tax reform bill, passed in December, and the state of the U.S. economy and stock market.
The President’s address will air live on Tuesday, January 30 at 9 p.m. ET.
Related: Trump Wanted a Threesome With Stormy Daniels, Porn Star Alana Evans Claims
“I am pleased to announce that the very gifted @StormyDaniels will be on #Kimmel Tuesday 1/30 after the #StateOfTheUnion. I have MANY QUESTIONS! #MAGA,” Kimmel tweeted Thursday night.
I am pleased to announce that the very gifted @StormyDaniels will be on #Kimmel Tuesday 1/30 after the #StateOfTheUnion. I have MANY QUESTIONS! #MAGA
Daniels made the news earlier this month amid a wave of reports about Trump’s personal life before he entered the White House, including allegations that the two had a relationship. In a 2011 interview with InTouch Weekly that was not published until January 19, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she was invited to Trump’s hotel room where they had sex. The alleged encounter happened four months after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son, Barron.
The story was first publicized by a report in The Wall Street Journal that Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, gave Daniels a $130,000 payment to keep quiet about the 2006 sexual encounter less than a month before the 2016 election.
On the one-year anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, Daniels kicked off her “Make America Horny Again” tour at a South Carolina strip club. She posted the event on Instagram, but the social media site suspended her account two days after the tour took place.
Trump will deliver his first State of the Union address on Tuesday. The annual speech is formally given to Congress to outline the administration's agenda for the upcoming year. While it’s unclear what Trump will say during his address, he is likely to tout the Republican tax reform bill, passed in December, and the state of the U.S. economy and stock market.
The President’s address will air live on Tuesday, January 30 at 9 p.m. ET.
the rich asshole touts economy at Davos
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 01/26/18 08:52 AM EST
PRESIDENT THE RICH ASSHOLE ON FRIDAY DECLARED “AMERICA IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS” DURING A SPEECH IN DAVOS, SWITZERLAND, DESIGNED TO TOUT HIS ECONOMIC AGENDA TO THE WORLD’S BUSINESS AND POLITICAL ELITE.
THE RICH ASSHOLE'S SPEECH WAS THE MOST ANTICIPATED EVENT OF THE DAVOS FORUM AFTER HE WON ELECTION BY RAILING AGAINST “GLOBALISM” AND FREE TRADE, STATEMENTS THAT RATTLED LEADERS AROUND THE WORLD.
the rich asshole used parts of his speech at the World Economic Forum to assuage such fears.
“As president of the United States I will always put America first,” the president said. “But America first does not mean America alone. When the United States grows, so does the world.”
The crowd sat mostly silent as a more subdued the rich asshole spoke and offered a smattering of applause when he finished his speech.
While the rich asshole is viewed as an outsider at Davos, the World Economic Forum host organization rolled out the red carpet to make sure the president felt honored and welcomed.
A Swiss band wearing military-style blue and red uniforms played music as the rich asshole walked on stage.
During an impromptu Q&A session after the speech, World Economic Forum founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab told the rich asshole "I’m aware that your strong leadership is open to misinterpretation and biased interpretations.”
That remark drew boos from the audience, and there were also boos when the rich asshole criticized “fake news.”
the rich asshole’s address was overshadowed by the bombshell revelation that he tried to fire Robert Mueller last summer as special counsel leading the Russia investigation. The president called the reports “fake news” before he spoke to the Davos crowd.
During his speech, the rich asshole sought to keep the focus on the economy.
New economic statistics released shortly after the rich asshole’s speech showed the U.S. economy grew at a slower-than-expected 2.6 percent rate in the fourth quarter, partly because of a drag from trade.
That stopped a streak of quarters with 3 percent growth, though strong corporate demand and rising household sales also suggested a strong underlying economy.
the rich asshole cited his overhaul of the nation’s tax code and efforts to cut regulations as examples of how his policies have energized the U.S. economy.
“America is open for business and we are competitive once again,” the rich asshole said.
The president said 2.4 million jobs have been created since he was elected in November 2016 “and that number is going up very, very substantially,” citing companies like Apple that have pledged to move jobs to the U.S. because of the new tax law.
the rich asshole said he wants to “negotiate mutually beneficial, bilateral trade agreements” with other countries — a shift away from sweeping, multi-national deals the U.S. has pursued in the past.
He also took a veiled swipe at China for its alleged theft of intellectual property and practice of forcing U.S. companies to turn over their intellectual property to do business there.
"We cannot have free and open trade if some countries exploit the system at the expense of others,” he said. “We support free trade, but it needs to be fair and it needs to be reciprocal.”
But the president also said he was open to negotiating multilateral trade agreements, including with members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact that the rich asshole pulled out of last year.
“We have agreements with several of them already,” the rich asshole said. “We would consider negotiating with the rest, either individually, or perhaps as a group, if it is in the interests of all."
the rich asshole’s openness to striking a deal with TPP countries has been one of the most surprising developments of his Davos trip, and one that could cause heartburn among his core supporters.
One of the rich asshole’s first actions as president was to sign an executive action that extracted the U.S. from the trade pact, a move he said at the time was a "great thing for the American worker."
The president said for the first time that he would consider re-entering the agreement.
“I would do TPP if we were able to make a substantially better deal,” the rich asshole told CNBC on Thursday.
Flu is ravaging America at its worst rate in a decade, and the agencies tasked with saving lives are under assault from some rich asshole.
America is facing a historically dangerous flu season, but the rich asshole administration has undertaken a series of catastrophic positions and initiatives that considerably increase the risk of deaths for thousands of Americans.
Already, 37 children have died during this flu season, and the problem is getting worse.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said it expects to have a flu season that is “something around” the severity of the 2014-15 flu season. In that time period, 34 million people got the flu: 710,000 were hospitalized, and 56,000 people died.
The severity is as intense as it was during the 2009 swine flu pandemic and intensifying, according to officials.
The difference now is that the flu is flourishing under an administration intent on hobbling the national response to severe medical conditions.
In its 2017 budget, the rich asshole administration proposed a $1.2 billion cut — a full 17 percent — to the CDC, the agency on the front lines of the national response to the flu outbreak. If the rich asshole had his way, the agency would have faced an enormous shortfall just as the crisis began.
Former CDC Director Tom Frieden, who worked under the Obama administration, sounded the alarms on the proposed cuts. He described them as “unsafe at any level of enactment,” adding that the rich asshole proposal “would increase illness, death, risks to Americans, and health care costs.”
These warnings were worrisome before, but now, in the midst of the outbreak, they show how unprepared and unserious the rich asshole administration has been on vital issues like public health.
Similarly, the rich asshole administration left hundreds of positions at the CDC vacant, including those that were key to federal emergency preparedness for pandemics. The staffing gap came as the rich asshole team tried to adhere to conservative “small government” dogma. It’s an approach that has left numerous position unfilled through the federal government. The State Department, for examples, has had serious staffing issues, including a number of empty diplomatic posts.
What they have focused on at the rich asshole-era CDC is an inane crackdown on language. CDC officials have faced new controls on how they can — and cannot — speak to the media. A series of terms and topics were completely banned, including “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “science-based,” and “evidence-based.”
It is unknown whether the CDC can even discuss the “evidence-based” projections of illness and death in this flu season.
the rich asshole and his Republican allies have campaigned for years on an anti-government message. As they have demonstrated so many times, when the government is led by a party that is overtly anti-government, it often leads to disaster. And innocent people will suffer because of it.
the rich asshole’s latest interview shows he’s not really the president
He’s holding the office but not doing the job.
By
President some rich asshole’s first non-Fox television interview in a long time, conducted with CNBC’s Joe Kernen from Davos, Switzerland, is in many respects weirdly devoid of substance. And much of the substance that’s there consists of misstatements of fact.
But lurking in that is an important insight: the rich asshole is holding the office of president, but he’s not doing the job of president. He seems to have no real idea what’s going on, even with his own signature policy moves.
Some of his misstatements have the color of propaganda, but often he seems to be caught up in other people’s propaganda or even to have misunderstood his own talking points. He’s disengaged from the details of big questions like NAFTA — “I may terminate NAFTA, I may not,” he says profoundly. He can’t even describe his own negotiating positions in the immigration standoff accurately.
Listening to him talk is interesting from an entertainment perspective (he did once host a popular television show), but it conveys no information about the world, the American government, or the rich asshole administration’s policies. If Kernen wanted to help his viewers understand what’s going on, he’d have been better off interviewing someone else.
the rich asshole keeps getting facts wrong
In a fairly typically Trumpian gesture, one of the president’s first remarks explains that most people don’t appreciate the significance of Apple’s commitment to invest $350 billion in US manufacturing facilities. Most people probably don’t appreciate this because it isn’t true.
Kernen asks about whether the rich asshole’s decision to come to Davos doesn’t contrast with his faux-populist branding, and the rich asshole responds:
What Apple actually promised was to make $30 billion in domestic capital investments, most of which will be data centers, offices, and Apple Store real estate upgrades rather than actual manufacturing facilities. The $350 billion measure is a rough five-year estimate of Apple’s total “contribution” to the American economy. If you’re playing Infinite Golf on your iPhone and make an in-app purchase, that contributes to GDP. Since the contribution is routed through Apple, your spending becomes part of the Apple contribution to the American economy. It’s a semi-fake measure that’s basically a long-winded way of saying that Apple is a very big company.
At any rate, $30 billion is a large number, but it’s both much smaller than $350 billion and not clearly any bigger than the amount of capital investment Apple has been making over the past few years anyway. The company’s whole press release about this is part of a larger trend of corporate America putting out the rich asshole-friendly propaganda to reward the White House for a lucrative corporate tax cut.
One’s hope with this stuff is always that the rich asshole is lying. The more disturbing explanation is that he’s actually confused — that Apple’s pro-the rich asshole propaganda has tricked the president himself.
He also says the trade deficit with Mexico is $71 billion a year (it was $55.6 billion last year) and that the deficit with Canada is $17 billion (the real number is $12 billion). The exact details here don’t really matter, but it’s hard to renegotiate NAFTA effectively, as the rich asshole claims to be doing, when you don’t know anything about it.
the rich asshole doesn’t know he canceled DACA
One of the more striking moments in the interview comes when Kernen asks the rich asshole about negotiations over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the status of talks over border security funding.
The entire legislative standoff over this was precipitated by the rich asshole’s decision to cancel the Obama-era DACA program, meaning that unauthorized immigrants protected from deportation would lose those protections beginning in March. Except the rich asshole doesn’t seem to realize this!
“And by the way, the court — it wasn’t me,” the rich asshole says. “The courts were not upholding that executive order.”
This just didn’t happen. President Obama launched DACA in 2012, and there was no legal controversy about it. Then in late 2014, he promulgated a broader program of immigration protections that a bunch of Republican attorneys general sued over. They got a lower court to stay the broader program, the White House appealed, and after the election, the rich asshole quit defending the White House position.
Then in summer 2017, a group of Republican attorneys general in favor of immigration restrictions threatened to sue over DACA if the rich asshole administration didn’t get rid of the program by September 5, and just as that deadline was about to hit, the rich asshole announced that the program would end in March.
No actual litigation took place.
the rich asshole doesn’t know what the DACA negotiations are about
Then, still answering the same question about negotiations, the rich asshole gets confused as to whether he needs a border wall because the southern border is in a state of chaos, or whether he’s already fixed the southern border:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Democrats are, for better or worse, prepared to cough up a lot of border security money in exchange for DACA protections. The sticking point is that the rich asshole’s White House keeps putting forward a lot of other demands — including, notably, a 50 percent cut in legal immigration.
But the rich asshole, amazingly, does not mention these demands at any point in the interview. The president is completely out to sea on the main policy debate of the moment, even though he’s also completely central to it.
the rich asshole is excessively impressed by his own economic record
The central pillar of the rich asshole presidency is the American economy, which grew faster in 2017 than it did in 2016 and which has continued the steady job growth of the Obama years to deliver what’s now a very low unemployment rate.
This is a pretty good record — especially relative to fears Democrats raised during the 2016 campaign that the rich asshole would wreck the economy with a series of destructive trade wars — but the rich asshole is clearly much more impressed with himself than the data supports:
Talking about quarterly GDP numbers is tedious, so here’s a convenient summary chart of what’s been going on.
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the rich asshole’s three quarters really have been pretty good. But they’re just not meaningfully different from the Obama-era economic performance. Indeed, under Obama, growth exceeded the rich asshole’s best quarterly number six times. And as the rich asshole says, Obama-era growth was nothing to write home about.
Actual growth performance under the rich asshole has been better than his skeptics feared but also worse than the 3 percent he promised. That’s no great shame — his promise was unrealistic — but it’s useful for the president to have a handle on what’s really going on in the world.
the rich asshole isn’t really the president
The two big Republican policy pushes of 2018 — the failed drive to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the successful push to enact a large corporate tax cut — were led primarily by Congress rather than by the executive branch. That’s natural given the rich asshole’s hazy level of interest in policy detail and the intense interest of the GOP caucus in these matters.
What’s become clear over the past few weeks as immigration has taken center stage, however, is that even in a process that is very much driven by the executive branch, it’s not driven by some rich asshole. the rich asshole has stronger feelings about immigration and a stronger political profile on it than either Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell. But he simply lacks the disposition and intellectual capacity to do the job of president of the United States as it’s conventionally defined. He doesn’t have a handle on the contours of the NAFTA negotiations, the state of the economy, or even “his own” immigration policy.
He seems unaware of both the origins of the current standoff and the main subjects of disagreement between the parties. He’s the one who installed the team of anti-immigration hardliners — Chief of Staff John Kelly, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and senior adviser Stephen Miller — who appear to be actually driving the process, so he’s responsible for what’s going on. But he’s not actually doing the work and, indeed, seems to have much less familiarity with his own policies and negotiating stances than a typical journalist or member of Congress.
the rich asshole calls report he ordered Mueller’s firing ‘fake news’
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 01/26/18 07:30 AM EST
President the rich asshole dismissed reports that he ordered Special Counsel Robert Mueller's firing last summer as "fake news" on Friday in Davos, Switzerland.
“Fake news. Fake news. Typical New York Times. Fake stories," the rich asshole told reporters.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that the rich asshole attempted to oust Mueller last June, but was stopped after White House counsel Don McGahn threaten to tender his resignation.
However, McGahn threatened to quit if the rich asshole tried to fire Mueller, saying the move would further stir speculation the president was obstructing justice in the investigation.
Attorney Ty Cobb, who is handling the White House's response to the probe, declined to comment to the Times.
“We decline to comment out of respect for the Office of the Special Counsel and its process,” Cobb said.
A number of other outlets have independently confirmed the Times's report, including Fox News.
Fox News host Sean Hannity said that the network had confirmed the reporting on Thursday after originally calling it a distraction.
"All right, so we have sources tonight just confirming to Ed Henry that, maybe, yeah, some rich asshole wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict. Does he not have the right to raise those questions?" Hannity said.
The report comes after the rich asshole said on Wednesday he is looking to sit down with Mueller for an interview.
"There’s been no collusion whatsoever. There’s no obstruction whatsoever, and I’m looking forward to it," the president said.
Sessions vows to battle bias following FBI texting controversy
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 01/26/18 08:14 PM EST
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday pledged to fight bias at the Justice Department as some Republicans raise concerns about political prejudice among the ranks of the FBI.
In a speech to law enforcement officials in Norfolk, Va., Sessions said his mission was simply to enforce the law and vowed to root out political bias among federal law enforcement.
"It means absolutely eliminating political bias or favoritism – in either direction – from our investigations and prosecutions," Sessions said. "That sort of thinking is the antithesis of what the department stands for, and I won’t tolerate it."
"It means identifying mistakes of the past, and correcting them for the future. When we find problems, we’re addressing them head on, not sweeping them under the rug."
Sessions comments came amid allegations by some Republicans of pervasive bias at the FBI, a notion fueled by the release of text messages exchanged between two FBI officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, expressing sentiments critical of President the rich asshole.
Strzok was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election after the Justice Department became aware of the text messages, though scrutiny from GOP lawmakers about the text exchanges has continued to intensify.
The texts, which Republicans have honed in on this week, come amid a broader focus on the part of GOP lawmakers and the rich asshole administration about the integrity of certain FBI officials.
Republicans have been pushing for the release of a classified memo alleging FBI misconduct, setting up a likely clash between President the rich asshole and the Justice Department.
PUBLISHED ON JANUARY 26, 2018
the rich asshole destroys everything he touches, including his latest marriage. The president was recently exposed for carrying on a year-long affair with pornstar Stephanie Clifford, stage name Stormy Daniels. the rich asshole then paid her $130,000 in hush money for her to keep the extramarital affair secret.
While First Lady Melania has yet to address the story, outside clues seem to indicate that she is (understandably) furious about Donald’s infidelity. She declined to travel with him to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, electing instead to visit the Holocaust Museum and fly to Mar-a-Lago. She was originally scheduled to attend the summit.
The Daily Mail now reports that she’s taken drastic steps because of the scandal and has spent numerous nights in a Washington D.C. hotel rather than staying in the White House with her philandering husband.
“It’s been upsetting and humiliating; her relationship with President the rich asshole has become strained,” a close source said The Daily Mail.
The couple’s anniversary was on Monday, but neither mentioned it and there was no public celebration of their marriage. One can only imagine what would have been said about President Obama if he had such a public feud with his own wife. the rich asshole is given an enormous amount of leeway by those on the right, and it appears discussion of certain topics, like his inability to maintain a healthy relationship, are off limits.
Melania reportedly rarely visits the president in the Oval Office, which is out of character historically for First Ladies. Her schedule, which was rigorous and constantly full for her predecessors is described as “vague.” It appears she has little desire to engage her role as FLOTUS. It seems unlikely that the two will get a divorce while the rich asshole is in office, but it also seems unlikely that their marriage will last long after his term ends.
Of course, the hypocrites in the rich asshole’s own party, the ones who champion “family values” and who are so filled with moral, religious self-righteousness have refused to disavow him over the affair. It appears there is norm he can break, no boundary he can cross that will prompt his zealots to leave him. They’ve exposed themselves as nothing but rank opportunists grubbing for political influence.
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