February 13th, 2017. It's been 458 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no. 45, and 386 days the Jan 20th inauguration.
the rich asshole campaigned on the slogan "America first," but his businesses are ignoring American workers.
the rich asshole’s hotels and resorts are not hiring Americans to fill their seasonal job vacancies, despite his rhetoric about “America first.” Since he was inaugurated, none of the seasonal jobs at his resorts have been filled by Americans.
Vox reports that in an analysis of filings that the rich asshole Organization made with the U.S. Department of Labor between 2016 to 2017, only one American worker was hired — in August 2016 — for the 144 open positions for servers, cooks, housekeepers, and bartenders.
The remaining 143 positions were taken by foreign guest workers who were granted H-2B visas.
Most of the jobs included in the survey were at Mar-a-Lago, the rich asshole’s Florida resort where he has spent a majority of his weekends since he took office. Also included were the rich asshole National Golf Clubs in Briarcliff Manor, New York, and Jupiter, Florida.
In just one month, August of 2017, Mar-a-Lago requested permission to hire 70 foreign workers.
the rich asshole still directly benefits from business done at his properties because he has refused to sell off his interests or place them in a blind trust. The rich asshole Organization is operated by his sons Donald Jr. and Eric.
the rich asshole’s properties have hired foreign workers even though there are workers available within the United States. Tobias Pfutze, an economics professor at Florida International University in Miami, says the hiring decisions for the rich asshole don’t make sense.
“I haven’t heard anything about there being a labor shortage,” he told Vox. “The service labor market here is very flexible.”
After doing the minimum required by the law to attract U.S. workers — placing an ad in the newspaper — the rich asshole’s company said it had no qualified American applicants and went ahead with foreign hires.
Going back to at least 2013, records show the rich asshole regularly hiring foreign workers.
The behavior runs completely contrary to the rich asshole’s rhetoric, both as a candidate and since he won the election.
“From this day forward, it’s going to be only America First. America First,” the rich asshole proclaimed at his inauguration.
He did so even after the Anti-Defamation League asked him to stop using the phrase during the campaign. The organization pointed out that “America First” was the rallying cry of anti-Semites seeking to keep America out of World War II, allowing Hitler to pursue his policy of genocide.
Not only has the rich asshole kept using the language, but he cannot even be bothered to execute business strategy based on the slogan.
If the rich asshole is truly the multi-billionaire he claims to be — nobody can independently verify the claim because his tax returns are a secret — hiring 144 Americans for jobs at his properties shouldn’t be a problem, even if he has to pay them slightly higher wages.
But instead, he has passed over Americans while ostensibly working for them in the White House. Like so much of his rhetoric, “America First” is hollow.
the rich asshole’s lawyer admits he paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels weeks before election
He defended the payment as lawful.
the rich asshole’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, admitted on Tuesday that he paid $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
“Neither the rich asshole Organization nor the rich asshole campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly. The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone,” Cohen told the New York Times.
Daniels allegedly had an affair with the rich asshole in 2006 after the pair met at a golf tournament. She described her liaisons with the rich asshole in detail in a 2011 interview with In Touch that was published this year.
Cohen would not elaborate on the purpose of the payment or say whether or not he discussed the payment with the rich asshole. His statement does not address whether he was reimbursed by the rich asshole personally.
In January, after reports of the payment surfaced in the Wall Street Journal, Cohen released a statement from Stormy Daniels which said “[r]umors that I have received hush money from some rich asshole are completely false.”
Cohen released this letter knowing that he, some rich asshole’s longtime personal attorney, had paid Daniels $130,000.
Prior to an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last month, another statementpurportedly from Daniels stated: “I am not denying this affair because I was paid ‘hush money’ as has been reported in overseas owned tabloids.” On the program, Daniels said she didn’t know anything about the statement. During her interview with Kimmel, she effectively confirmed the existence of a non-disclosure agreement regarding her relationship with the rich asshole.
Cohen disclosed his payment in response to a complaint filed with the Federal Elections Commission by Common Cause. The complaint alleged that Cohen, who set up a private company to make the payment to Daniels, violated election law by making an illegal campaign contribution.
Steve Spaulding, an executive with Common Cause and former Special Counsel at the Federal Election Commission, responded to the story, saying the payment acknowledged by Cohen was illegal if it was made for the purpose of influencing the election.
If made for the purpose of influencing the election—it’s an excessive in-kind contribution and should have been reported. twitter.com/maggienyt/stat…
At the time of the payment, Daniels was reportedly in discussions with several media outlets to go public with her story.
The White House’s latest bullshit defense of Rob Porter doesn’t add up, two Obama lawyers say
The White House's personnel security office, explained.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that the White House’s personnel security office’s consideration of former staff secretary Rob Porter, who resigned last week after two of his ex-wives accused him of domestic abusive, was still ongoing when Porter resigned.
“The White House personnel security office, staffed by career officials, received information last year in what they considered to be the final background investigation report in November,” Sanders said at the press briefing Tuesday. “But they had not made a final recommendation for adjudication to the White House because the process was still ongoing when Rob Porter resigned.”
But two former Obama lawyers who worked in the White House told ThinkProgress Tuesday that Sanders’ description of the process is misleading.
“It’s not credible at all,” one of the lawyers, Daniel Jacobson, said in a phone call with ThinkProgress Tuesday regarding Sanders’ statement about the personnel security office.
“The personnel security office is very thorough but if there is a super VIP in the West Wing who needs a security clearance, they would expedite it,” Jacobson said. “The White House makes it sound like there are files that just get stuck at the bottom of the pile if they really need to get a security clearance.”
According to Jacobson and another Obama administration lawyer, when the White House wants to hire someone, the FBI begins a background check on that person. When they finish the background check, the personnel security office and the White House counsel receive that background check and the information it contains.
In Porter’s case, the personnel security office and President the rich asshole’s White House counsel would have had access to Porter’s background check, which reportedly contained the allegations made by his two ex-wives as well as the police report from when one of the women, Jennifer Willoughby, filed for a temporary restraining order against Porter. (The Daily Mail obtained and published the report last week.)
The background check also reportedly included photographs of injuries Porter’s first wife, Colbie Holderness, says Porter gave her, which have been published by the media in recent days.
On Tuesday, FBI director Christopher Wray said under oath during a hearing that their background check had concluded.
“What I can tell you is that the FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed background investigation in late July,” Wray said Tuesday during the hearing. “Soon thereafter we received requests for follow-up inquiry, and we did the follow-up and provided that information in November, and then we administratively closed the file in January, and then earlier this month we received some additional information and we passed that on as well.”
That means that in March — 11 months ago — the White House counsel and personnel office would have begun to receive background information on Porter, and, according to a Bloomberg News report Tuesday evening, the report given to the council and the personnel security office last July contained the abuse allegations that have been made against Porter.
Sanders’ statement Tuesday makes it sound as if the White House did not have access to information about Porter’s background, but, in reality, they would have received any information the personnel security office was receiving about Porter.
One lawyer told ThinkProgress that although the determination about a person’s security clearance can take months — especially in the crush of new hires that come with a new administration and with a complicated case like Porter’s — the White House had all the information about the abuse allegations against Porter. Another said that to blame the personnel office was unfair.
Jacobson told ThinkProgress he can only think of one reason why someone like Porter’s clearance would be delayed. The personnel security office, which is staffed by career officials, report to Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin, a the rich asshole political appointee.
“I don’t know their dynamics, but my guess as to what happened here is perhaps the personnel security office told Joe Hagan or someone who works for Joe Hagan and there were some issues here and they would not be able to grant him security clearance with a straight face,” Jacobson said Tuesday.
Then, Jacobson said, he thinks it’s possible Hagan asked the personnel security office to delay adjudication of Porter’s security clearance in order to keep Porter in the White House. According to Bloomberg News, Hagan was aware of the accusations.
And Joe Hagin, who plays a key role for security clearances for the Executive Office of the President, was aware of this, one source told me. twitter.com/dcraiggordon/s…
“I find it extremely troublesome, bothersome, what I saw today in the quotes from the press secretary, that she is trying to blame [the personnel security office],” Jacobson said Tuesday. “To somehow try and deflect attention onto them is really, sort of, I think, not fair, when the only explanation I can think of is there has been political interference.”
Idiot Sean Hannity says Obama’s portrait is sexually perverse
The right-wing host claims the portrait contains "secret sperm cells."
Fox News host Sean Hannity claims that President Obama’s official Smithsonian portrait is sexually perverse because it contains “secret sperm cells.”
“Obama’s portrait – a stark contrast to predecessors with inappropriate sexual innuendo,” the right-wing host wrote in a now-deleted tweet on Tuesday. The post linked to an article on Hannity.com, titled, “PORTRAIT PERVERSION: Obama Portrait Features ‘SECRET SPERM,’ Artist Joked About ‘Killing Whitey.'” That article has now also been removed from the website.
“Controversy surrounding Kehinde Wiley’s wildly non-traditional portrait of the Commander-in-Chief broke out within minutes of its unveiling,” Hannity.com staffers wrote. “[I]ndustry insiders [claim] the artist secretly inserted his trademark technique — concealing images of sperm within his paintings.”
Wiley, the artist behind the portrait, which was commissioned for the Smithsonian Institution’s “America’s Presidents” exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, has indeed used subtle sperm motifs in many of his past paintings. As Smarthistoryexplains, the details are meant to “pok[e] fun at the highly charged masculinity and propagation of gendered identity that are involved in the Western tradition of portraiture.” Washington Post art and architecture critic Philip Kennicott has also noted that Wiley’s portraits of young Black men — intended to “[skewer] the pomp and grandiloquence of historical portraiture” by French, Italian, and Flemish painters — often have “a distinct homoerotic quality.”
It’s unclear whether Wiley actually did embed sperm imagery into Obama’s portrait, which is separate from the president’s official White House portrait.
The basis for Hannity’s controversial claims seems to have stemmed from a racist 4chan thread criticizing the “really bad official portraits of king and queen n—-r.”
“While it is well known that the artist who painted the portrait is obsessed with sperm and puts it all of his work, it appears his portrait of Obama is no exception. You cannot deny that on his forehead there is a representation of a sperm cell,” the thread’s original poster writes. “Best timeline lads. All hands on deck. Let’s get this in the news.”
The Hannity article also blasts Wiley for “jok[ing] about ‘Killing Whitey’ during an interview. That quote, however, stems from a 2012 interview Wiley gave to New York Magazine, in which he described his reinterpretations of Caravaggio’s classic painting, Judith Beheading Holofernes, as “sort of a play on the ‘kill whitey’ thing.” (“Kill whitey” may refer to a study conducted by Cornell researcher David Pizarro, which posed a version of the classic “trolley problem” to its participants, with an additional racial element; the painting is also considered a reference to Black women rejecting white standards of beauty.)
The suggestion that Obama’s portrait — a portrait of the first Black U.S. president — is somehow sexually perverse also plays on a racist trope that suggests Black men are naturally inclined to be sexual predators — a theme that has been examined at length in books like Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
“The brute caricature portrays black men as innately savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal — deserving punishment, maybe death,” the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University explains. “This brute is a fiend, a sociopath, an anti-social menace. Black brutes are depicted as hideous, terrifying predators who target helpless victims, especially white women.”
This trope, first popularized in the mid to late 1800s, later inspired “the public rationalization for the lynching of blacks,” museum officials write.
Perhaps most notable is the fact that Hannity thinks the portrait is inappropriately sexual, but he has previously defended accused sexual predators, such as former Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused by at least nine women of sexual predation. In November, Hannity claimed during his radio show that the accusations against Moore were predominantly “he said, she [said]” and that Moore had done nothing wrong.
“OK, so the two other girls were older in this case. He was apparently, like, 32, and he dated — one girl was 18, one girl was 17. They never said he did — there was no sexual — there was kissing involved, and then they’re saying this one encounter with a 14-year-old [that was] consensual,” Hannity said. “I don’t know how you find out the truth.”
After receiving criticism for those remarks Hannity issued a statement claiming that he had been taken out of context.
The Fox News host has also defended President the rich asshole, who has been accused by 18 women of sexual predation or inappropriate behavior.
UPDATE (6:00 p.m.): Hannity blamed his staff for the post in a statement sent by a Fox News spokesperson to the Daily Beast: “Earlier today my web staff posted content that was not reviewed by me before publication. It does not reflect my voice and message and, therefore, I had it taken down.”
Upright Turtle boy Mitch McConnell just created a DACA crisis
"Senators have had plenty of time to prepare," he said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is giving the Senate the rest of this week only to consider permanent legislation to protect the nearly 800,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers before he moves on to “other things.”
On Tuesday, McConnell said the Senate would limit its work to this week only to provide a permanent framework following the expiration of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) — setting in place a definitive deadline for an tough piece of immigration legislation that would grant earned citizenship to 1.8 million undocumented immigrants and likely amp up immigration enforcement.
Q - Why not allow DACA debate go longer than this week if it doesn’t get done? @SenMajLdr: “We have other things to do”
“Senators have had plenty of time to prepare,” McConnell said, according to Politico. “There’s no reason why we should not reach a bipartisan solution this week. But to do this, we need to get the debate started, look past making political points and focus on actually making law.”
In the past, McConnell downplayed the urgency in resolving what should have been the easiest segment of the undocumented population to provide permanent legislation. After all, Dreamers have been trotted out as hopeful Americans with “merit” and “skill,” two core elements of the rich asshole administration’s focus to encourage lower levels of immigration.
“There is no crisis,” McConnell said in December. “There is no emergency. The president has given us until March to address it.”
Now with a little more than three days left in the week, McConnell just gave the Senate a crisis — and a hard deadline.
Every Senator has had ample time to prepare for this week's #immigration debate on the #Senate floor. The clock is ticking, but debate has yet to begin because Democrats have yet to yield back any of their post-cloture time.
Debate has swirled around the DACA program — which provided temporary deportation protections and work authorization to nearly 800,000 immigrants who came to the country as children — since President some rich asshole phased out the program to end on March 5, 2018. A federal judge ruled that current beneficiaries could renew their applications for one final two-year renewal, but the uncertainty of a White House challenge has made permanent legislation into a much more urgent legislative request.
Allowing three days to debate the lives of millions of immigrants is absurd for a few reasons. The White House has repeatedly claimed DACA recipients have until March 5 to worry about being at risk of deportation. But that claim has not held water as more DACA recipients have found themselves in the crosshairs of immigration enforcement operations, whether as collateral arrests or because they came into direct contact with officials. And it seems a bit crass to throw the lives of so many immigrants into limbo. These people contribute to America not just economically, and many are in crucially underemployed industries like teaching, healthcare, and even the military.
Both parties have various immigration proposals that require the support of at least 60 senators to pass legislation, which will receive alternating votes between Democratic and Republican amendments, Politico reported. But there’s also the issue of McConnell undercutting time by propping up measures that will go nowhere with Democrats. On Tuesday, Democrats objected to the Senate majority leader’s attempt to set up floor votes on a sanctuary cities amendment. The amendment essentially withholds congressional funding from local law enforcement agencies for choosing not to turn over suspected undocumented immigrants in their custody without a warrant.
Agreement may be hard to come by as other amendments are unlikely to receive 60 votes on the Senate floor. Some Democratic senators insist on a “clean” DREAM Act, or a way to give some so-called Dreamers an earned pathway to citizenship, without slashing legal immigration avenues and additional funding for more number of federal immigration agents who could potentially go after their parents. Few, if any, Republicans would be willing to support that without concessions that include border security measures or fewer legal immigrants in the country. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is expected to introduce a compromise proposal that will fund a border wall, provide a pathway to 1.8 million immigrants, eliminate the diversity visa lottery, limit family-based visas, and reallocate visas to deal with the growing backlog. A bipartisan proposal from Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Chris Coons (D-DE) does not include border wall funding, but also does not have the support of the president who ultimately has to sign the full bill.
Asshole House Republicans want to gut the Americans with Disabilities Act because they hate poor and disabled people
A House bill would make it harder for people with disabilities to hold businesses accountable for inaccessibility.
This week, Congress is expected to vote on a bill that would significantly weaken the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act and let businesses off the hook for failing to provide accommodations for accessibility.
The ADA Education and Reform Act was introduced by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), and was recently adopted in the House Judiciary Committee. It addresses the 1990 civil rights law that protects people with disabilities when it comes to employment; access to public entities, such as transportation; and accommodations to fully enjoy businesses, such as being able to go to a hotel without barriers to getting inside. The law allows people with disabilities to file lawsuits against businesses that don’t provide reasonable accommodations, but supporters of the ADA Education and Reform Act argue that it fuels “drive-by lawsuits.”
The bill would require people making complaints to let a business know of any accessibility violations in writing. The business would then have 60 days to acknowledge the complaint and respond, and 120 days after the 60 days to make “substantial progress” toward making changes. These provisions would essentially remove any incentives for businesses to comply with the ADA, the ACLU argues, because business owners can theoretically be out of compliance for years and not be penalized for it. They only have to say they are making “substantial progress.”
In a letter to Reps. Steve King (R-IA) and Steve Cohen (D-TN), who serve on the House Judiciary Committee, the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities wrote last year, “We know of no other law that outlaws discrimination but permits entities to discriminate with impunity until victims experience that discrimination and educate the entities perpetrating it about their obligations not to discriminate.”
According to the ACLU, the bill also flies in the face of the intention of civil rights laws. The Civil Rights Act of 1964’s provision allowing those who are denied access to public accommodation due to race, color, religion, or national origin to immediately seek relief aims to push businesses to take these accommodations seriously. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) wrote in The Washington Post last year that it would make the disability community “the only protected class under civil rights law that must rely on ‘education’ — rather than strong enforcement — to guarantee access to public spaces.”
The business community, which has had three decades to learn about and adjust to the ADA, must provide accommodations that don’t present an undue burden and are readily achievable. Businesses have been using this vague language to their advantage for years, as The American Prospect recently reported, “to seek favorable court rulings, claiming at various times that providing ‘reasonable accommodations’ would constitute an ‘undue burden’ on their finances.” There is little evidence to support the claim that frivolous lawsuits are a problem with the ADA specifically. Although supporters of the bill say that there has been a 37 percent increase in Title III filings in 2016 compared to 2015, those are made of a small number of large-scale filers. Furthermore, ethics rules bar lawyers from bringing frivolous lawsuits.
The argument that people with disabilities are trying to make money off the ADA is not based on fact, as Robyn Powell explained in Rewire. “When the ADA was being drafted, as a compromise between the business community and the disability community, the disability community gave up the option to obtain damages for a business’s failure to comply with the law by allowing only injunctive relief — meaning the business owner has to change their behavior — and attorneys’ fees,” Powell wrote. Some state and local laws allow compensatory damages to be assessed against the business owner, but the ADA does not permit monetary damages to be assessed against business owners in lawsuits brought by people with disabilities.
If the bill passes, it would affect 22 percent of Americans who have a disability, 13 percent of which experience mobility issues, such as walking or climbing stairs, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The share of people with disabilities is higher among women and people of color. One in four women have a disability and three in 10 non-Latinx Black people have a disability.
Watch CNN’s Cooper list off all of Sanders’ Porter lies after White House refuses to provide network with spokesperson
CNN's Anderson Cooper, White House Spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders -- screenshots
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The embattled White House of President some rich asshole refused to send a spokesperson on CNN to discuss their continually changing rationalizations for excusing away Rob Porter’s domestic violence allegations. In their absence, AC360 anchor Anderson Cooper brutally reviewed the public record of the scandal, now in its eighth day.
“If you haven’t seen the 1944 movie Gaslight or kept up with your Psychology Today subscription, gaslighting is when someone tries to make you question your reality and sanity,” Cooper defined. “They do this by lying, they do this by speaking in contradictions and by denying the reality that you know to be true.”
“That is how the White House is gaslighting the American people daily in covering-up how it handled the case of Rob Porter,” the host observed.
Cooper then reviewed the time line of mistruths from the White House since the scandal broke last week.
“We asked the White House for anyone to come and talk about any of this tonight and they said no,” Cooper reported.
“You don’t have a White House official, but you do have me,” replied CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta.
Watch:
The rich asshole lawyer Michael Cohen claims he paid Stormy Daniels $130K from his own pocket: report
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels (left, via Shutterstock) and the rich asshole's personal lawyer Michael Cohen (right, via screengrab).
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President some rich asshole’s personal attorney Michael Cohen said Tuesday night that the $130,000 payout made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels came from his own pocket.
The New York Times reported that Cohen also said the rich asshole Organization did not reimburse him for the payment issued October 2016, which is rumored to be “hush money” for an alleged affair with the rich asshole in 2006.
“Neither the rich asshole Organization nor the rich asshole campaign was a party to the transaction with [Stephanie] Clifford [Daniels’ legal name], and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Cohen told the Times in a statement. “The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”
Cohen did not respond to the Times‘ further questions about the payment, which were first reported a month ago by the Wall Street Journal, including whether the rich asshole knew about the payment to the adult actress or what it was for.
The report also noted that this was the first time Cohen has confirmed the payment was made. When the Journal reached out for comment before publishing their initial report, the attorney denied that the rich asshole had an affair with Daniels.
White House imposed ban on new interim security clearances last fall but let previous hires stay
President some rich asshole, Mike Flynn, Reince Priebus, Mike Pence and Steve Bannon (Sean Spicer, White House.gov)
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The rich asshole administration last fall imposed a ban on issuing new interim security clearances — a practice that has recently come under fire amid revelations that multiple senior White House aides had been working without permanent clearance.
Politico reported Tuesday night that the Office of Management and Budget emailed senior officials within the administration on November 7, 2017 about the practice, saying the White House personnel security office advised against it.
The personnel security office was cited in White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Tuesday explanation as to why the administration allowed ex-staff secretary Rob Porter, whose domestic abuse allegations were known to the FBI on his clearance request, to continue with his interim security clearance.
The report also noted that employees granted the temporary clearance prior to the rule change — like Porter and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — would be allowed to keep it. It’s currently unclear what prompted the OMB announcement or if the rule is still in effect.
‘He pushed me down and assaulted me’: Mormon wives reveal abuse as church elders counsel silence to save marriages
Rob Porter and Colbie Holderness
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Amid the now week-long fallout from allegations that former White House staffer Rob Porter abused two of his ex-wives lies an underlying suspect: elders in the Church of the Latter-Day Saints who advise Mormon women to stay with their abusers.
Like Porter’s ex-wives, BuzzFeed News reported Tuesday, Mormon women are often encouraged to stay with their abusive husbands.
More than 20 former and current Mormon women spoke to BuzzFeed about their experiences asking for church leaders’ advice when their husbands abused them, and many reported the same negative reactions.
“In response to their requests for guidance, the women said, they were told by their bishops to stay in abusive relationships, that their eternal salvation could be jeopardized by leaving violent partners, and that they were to blame for their marital problems,” the report noted.
Jennifer Willoughby, one of Porter’s ex-wives who told the FBI about the erstwhile staffer’s abuse, told the Intercept that when she went to an LDS elder for counseling on her then-husband’s anger problems, she was advised to consider his political aspirations.
“‘Keep in mind, Rob has career ambitions,'” Willoughby recalled the Mormon leader telling her.
Willoughby’s story appears to be on the milder end of abuse-apologist advice from LDS elders.
Rebecca, a 48-year-old Utahan, told BuzzFeed she “can’t tell you how many doors were broken down in my house” while she tried to keep herself and her children safe from her husband. Nevertheless, when she sought help from a Mormon bishop in 2012, he dismissed it, saying “all relationships have their problems.”
Two years later, she got an even more troubling warning against leaving.
“I was told by my bishop, ‘You’re ruining your family for eternity,’” she said. “So it was traumatic to realize that I had been living in this marriage for decades that was terrible and demeaning and degrading, and then I was being told that if I left it I was ruining my children.”
“Mormons believe that marriages and parental relationships continue after death,” the report noted. “But the opportunity to be with family members after death hinges on a person’s righteousness, and requires them to be married in an LDS temple, a rite known as ‘sealing.'”
A Colorado woman told BuzzFeed that when she was physically assaulted by a man she’d been dating at a Mormon school, a bishop told her she’d “forced” the man to act in that manner.
“He said that it was a very serious situation, that I needed to repent, and told me I had to meet with him weekly to discuss what had happened,” she said. “At the time, his response was more damaging to me than what the guy had done.”
The woman later met and married another man who sexually assaulted her and enacted emotional abuse.
“He then snapped and pushed me down and raped me while I was saying no, asking him to stop, and crying,” she said.
When she told another church leader that she would not be moving with him as he accepted a job in a new state, she was warned that “her decision could jeopardize her husband’s career.”
“He repeated that I needed to ‘support and sustain the priesthood’ and that my husband’s career would be at risk if I didn’t move with him to support him,” she said.
Dems flip seat in Florida state special election
BY REID WILSON - 02/13/18 07:43 PM EST
Democrats on Tuesday won yet another special election for a state legislative seat once held by a Republican, this time in a battleground seat south of Tampa, Fla.
With all precincts reporting, attorney Margaret Good (D) took 52 percent of the vote, ousting Sarasota real estate agent James Buchanan (R).
President the rich asshole carried the state legislative district by a 5-point margin in 2016. It opened when the incumbent Republican quit to spend more time with her family and building her business.
Good won despite Buchanan's well-known name: His father, Rep. Vern Buchanan (R), owned some of the largest car dealerships in the area. He now represents a district in Congress that includes the legislative seat in which his son ran.
And Buchanan had some outside help, most recently from Corey Lewandowski, the rich asshole's former campaign manager. Lewandowski held a rally for Buchanan over the weekend near Sarasota, where he warned about Democratic wins in state legislative seats.
Good won support from former Vice President Joe Biden, who recorded an automated call her campaign blasted across the district in the race's final hours.
Steve Schale, a Florida Democratic strategist who ran the state for former President Obama's campaigns, said Good's margin should worry Republicans in the Midwest, because so many voters in the Sarasota area migrated south along Interstate 75.
"Not only did Democratic women really come out, the fact that so many Republicans and independents voted for Good says to me that there is a good chunk of these swing voters who are just frustrated by the direction of the administration, and sent the only message they could," Schale said.
The district is the 17th special election in a Republican-held seat to fall into Democratic hands since the rich asshole was inaugurated. Democrats have portrayed the wins, in states ranging from deep-red Oklahoma and Alabama to swing-purple Wisconsin and Florida, as evidence that their voters are fired up ahead of November's midterm elections.
In some cases, Democrats have dramatically overperformed their typical vote tallies. Last week, Democrats won a state House district in Missouri where the rich asshole won by a 61 percent to 33 percent margin.
Voters in two other deep red state legislative districts headed to the polls Tuesday night. In Oklahoma, a Republican easily won a vacant state Senate seat. In Georgia, no candidate won enough of the vote to prevent a runoff election.
Updated: 9:17 p.m.
the rich asshole budget threatens local transit projects
BY REID WILSON - 02/13/18 05:31 PM EST
President the rich asshole’s proposed budget for fiscal 2019 would leave cities and states on the hook for billions of dollars in spending on public transportation projects that are already underway.
The $4.4 trillion budget proposal rolled out this week would cut several grant programs funded by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), an office within the Department of Transportation that issues grants to localities in need of funding for massive transit projects they might not otherwise be able to afford.
A study by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, analyzing the administration’s budget requests over the past two years, found total spending on infrastructure could decline by as much as $55 billion over the next 10 years. The total increase in federal spending, the study found, would be far less than the $200 billion pledged by the White House.
The budget phases out the FTA’s Capital Improvement Grants (CIG) program over the course of a decade. It would fund the program only enough to close agreements already reached with state and local governments. At the same time, it would eliminate funding for projects that are competing for, but have yet to receive, grants under the FTA’s New Starts program.
It also proposes allocating only 5 percent of new funding for projects that have already been approved. Federal funding would be allowed to account for up to 20 percent of any individual project’s overall cost, foisting much more of the burden onto cities and states.
“These are huge cuts,” said Kevin DeGood, director of infrastructure policy at the liberal Center for American Progress. “This plan is just a fiscal two-by-four to the face.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the proposed cuts. In a briefing Monday, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney did not address cuts to specific transportation funding programs.
Cities and states stand to lose billions in funding for projects that are already moving toward construction. Nationally, more than 70 projects are waiting for funding from the New Starts program, and only about a dozen have been approved.
Sacramento, Calif., is one city waiting for final approval of a major transit project. City leaders have already reached a preliminary agreement with federal officials for a $50 million grant to fund a new streetcar between downtown and West Sacramento.
In the Seattle area, public transit officials are waiting for up to $1.7 billion in funding for extensions of a light rail project into growing suburbs north and south of the city center. City leaders are also hoping for $75 million to fund a new streetcar, and projects in Tacoma, Spokane and Everett are all at risk of losing tens of millions in anticipated funding.
the rich asshole’s infrastructure “plan would essentially throw states a few Legos when what we really need is concrete and steel,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said in a statement. “His $1.5 trillion plan expects state, local and private partners to pick up more than 85 percent of the tab. States cannot and should not bear the burden of building a 21st century infrastructure system on our own.”
In Lake County, Ind., the end of the CIG program would mean an end to funding for a rail extension that would connect the area’s fast-growing suburbs to Chicago’s subway system, known as the West Lake Corridor.
In the Washington, D.C., area, Democrats say the budget would cut funding for the Metro system by slashing the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act by $30 million.
“The president’s budget paints a bleak picture for the future of transit in America,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D), who represents the Northern Virginia suburbs. “Nothing could be more indicative of that vision than shortchanging Metro and allowing for the further decline of the national capital’s transit system.”
In addition to the grant programs that help fund local projects, the administration is also proposing to slash in half federal subsidies for Amtrak. The budget proposal calls on states to begin chipping in more for long distance routes the national passenger rail carrier operates.
Rob Porter claimed ex-wife's black eye was due to a fall: report
BY AVERY ANAPOL - 02/13/18 04:50 PM EST
Former White House staff secretary Rob Porter reportedly blamed his ex-wife's black eye on a fall while defending himself against abuse allegations in an off-the-record meeting with four journalists last week.
According to a Politico report on Tuesday, Porter told The New York Times's Maggie Haberman, The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey, Axios's Jonathan Swan and The Wall Street Journal's Michael Bender that his ex-wife Colbie Holderness had fallen during a vacation in Florence and bruised her eye.
Porter resigned from his White House post on Wednesday following reports that his two ex-wives accused him of past emotional and physical violence. Holderness also shared photos of herself with a black eye that she said Porter gave her.
Porter has denied the accusations, and also reportedly told White House senior staff the same story about Holderness’s black eye.
The White House has faced mounting scrutiny over its handling of the allegations against Porter. Reports emerged Tuesday that the White House arranged an off-the-record meeting between Porter and the four reporters after the accusations were made public.
A person familiar with the meeting told Politico that Porter confirmed to reporters his intention to resign, but that White House communications aides said that Chief of Staff John Kelly had encouraged him to stay.
He also reportedly admitted to at least one of the accusations, that he had called his ex-wife a “f---ing bitch.”
The White House’s handling of the allegations against Porter has been at the center of controversy after it was reported that Kelly knew about the accusations early last year and did not take action.
The White House has stood by its position that a personnel investigation of Porter was still underway when he resigned, despite FBI Director Christopher Wray testifying that the FBI closed its background check of Porter last January.
Updated at 5:10 p.m.
the rich asshole spars with GOP lawmakers on steel tariffs
BY VICKI NEEDHAM - 02/13/18 04:42 PM EST
President the rich asshole on Tuesday told lawmakers at the White House that he is considering new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, warning that the domestic industries are being “decimated” by unfair trade.
“They are dumping and destroying our industries,” the rich asshole said. “We can’t let that happen.”
the rich asshole pushed back against several lawmakers who warned him the tariffs could cost U.S. jobs and hurt the broader economy.
“You may have a higher price, but you have jobs,” the rich asshole said during the nearly hourlong meeting, which included lawmakers from both parties.
The White House meeting was scheduled as closed to the press, but the rich asshole let reporters remain in the room. That allowed for an unusual public airing of the tensions between Republican lawmakers and the president on trade.
Republicans have been particularly outspoken on trade issues, repeatedly calling on the president to remain in the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Lawmakers stayed on offense, warning the president that previous tariff actions have backfired and done more harm than good to jobs and U.S. manufacturing.
But the rich asshole said he remains unconvinced that punishing countries for unfair trade practices would produce dire consequences.
He reiterated his long-held position that the United States has been losing at trade because “we’re like the stupid people” when it comes to crafting deals.
Republican lawmakers in the room took turns debating the president, often questioning his claims or rebutting his criticism of other countries.
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) was first out the gate, warning the rich asshole about the possible negative effects of high tariffs on imports.
“We need to be careful here that we don’t start a reciprocal battle on tariffs,” Blunt said.
“We make aluminum and we make steel in Missouri, but we buy a lot of aluminum and we buy a lot of steel as well," he said.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said tariffs could lead to job losses.
But the president argued that rebuilding the steel and aluminum industries “will create a lot of jobs.”
He told Lee that instead of raising prices under higher tariffs, foreign competitors will simply “eat a lot of the tax."
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) urged the president to “go very, very cautiously here,” highlighting the importance of steel to the defense industry.
Toomey, among other lawmakers, recommended that the president go after those countries that are engaging in unfair trade practices.
“That’s all countries,” the rich asshole replied.
But Toomey responded that "the 232 is a different matter, and invoking national security, when I think it's really hard to make that case, invites retaliation that will be problematic for us."
the rich asshole at one point singled out Canada, saying the country has “treated us very unfairly on timber and lumber … and not easy on Wisconsin farmers.”
That drew a response from Republican Sen. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin.
“Wisconsin operates a trade surplus with both Canada and Mexico,” he said. “Trade works very well for Wisconsin.”
Much of the meeting centered on what actions the rich asshole might take on steel and aluminum imports, following reports sent to the White House by the Commerce Department last month.
the rich asshole has about 60 days left to make a decision whether to assess penalties under Section 232 of a 1962 trade law that gives the president the power to apply higher tariffs and quotas on imported steel and aluminum for national security reasons.
The United States already has more than 150 countervailing and antidumping duties on steel imports, some as high as 266 percent.
the rich asshole reiterated that he is considering imposing a mix of tariffs and quotas on steel and aluminum.
“I want to keep prices down, but I also want to make sure that we have a steel industry and an aluminum industry, and we do need that for national defense,” the president said.
But the warnings continued from lawmakers, many from steel- and aluminum-producing states. They urged the rich asshole to look at the bigger picture and take into account the historic context of these sorts of trade punishments.
Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) urged the president to “look carefully at what President George W. Bush did” when he imposed tariffs.
“The effect was it raised the price of almost all steel in the United States,” he said.
Alexander said auto parts companies and manufacturers lost jobs.
the rich asshole dismissed the concern, saying instead that Bush had botched the efforts.
“It didn’t work for Bush, but it worked for others,” the rich asshole said.
Alexander responded: “It cost jobs and raised prices.”
In 2002, President George W. Bush put emergency steel tariffs into place. But he lifted the tariffs a little more than a year later, after U.S. allies threatened to retaliate.
Many congressional Democrats, meanwhile, are supportive of the rich asshole taking action on steel imports.
The four Democrats who attended Tuesday’s meeting — Sens. Bob CaseyJr. (Pa.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Gary Peters (Mich.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.) — delivered a variety of messages to the rich asshole on trade.
Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, went so far as to urge the rich asshole to require that his infrastructure program only use American-made steel.
the rich asshole nodded his head in agreement.
Others urged quicker action on tariffs.
"The time for talk about standing up for our steelworkers has passed," Casey said.
"It’s time for action. Our steelworkers are getting the short end of the stick because foreign countries are cheating on trade," he said.
Brown, who has been pushing the rich asshole administration to take tougher action on steel, especially imports from China, said that while, “I understand the cautionary notes by my colleagues,” the United States must take action to counter Beijing.
China’s overcapacity of steel has been a big source of concern for the rich asshole and for his predecessor. The Obama administration made it harder for Beijing to sell cheap steel in the U.S., but lawmakers like Brown have pushed for more action.
The U.S. imports steel from more than 110 countries and territories. Much of it comes from important allies such as Canada, Brazil, South Korea and Mexico.
That aspect of the trade debate was raised by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the House’s tax-writing chairman. He told the rich asshole that “everyone in the room” supports his tough approach on trade, but warned that the tariffs could affect U.S. relationships.
“You have to be careful to make sure our allies are with us," Brady said.
the rich asshole doesn't answer reporters' questions about domestic violence
BY BRANDON CARTER - 02/13/18 04:07 PM EST
President the rich asshole didn’t respond Tuesday when asked by reporters if he had a message for victims of domestic violence as the White House continues to handle the fallout from abuse allegations against former top aide Rob Porter.
Reporters shouted questions to the rich asshole as they were escorted from a roundtable the rich asshole hosted with members of the National Sheriffs’ Association.
“Do you have a message for domestic violence victims?” one reporter asked as the saga extended into a seventh day.
It’s unclear if the rich asshole heard the question being asked.
the rich asshole didn’t answer but thanked reporters as they left the room.
the rich asshole also didn’t answer a similar question earlier Tuesday during a meeting with members of Congress on trade.
Porter resigned as staff secretary last week after he was accused of domestic abuse by both of his ex-wives, one of whom revealed photographs of herself with a black eye she said she received from Porter.
Porter has denied the allegations.
On Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a statement she said was dictated by the rich asshole in which he declared his support for victims of domestic violence.
"The president and the entire administration take domestic violence very seriously and believe all allegations need to be investigated thoroughly,” the statement read. “Above all, the president supports victims of domestic violence and believes everyone should be treated fairly and with due process."
When asked Tuesday why the rich asshole didn’t offer the statement himself, Sanders told reporters it was because he had dictated it to her.
"The president dictated to me specifically that comment yesterday, which I read out to you guys,” Sanders told reporters.
the rich asshole praised Porter’s work last week, saying he hopes Porter has a “great career ahead of him.”
"He says he's innocent, and I think you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent. So you'll have to talk to him about that. But we absolutely wish him well," the rich asshole said.
The president also took to Twitter Saturday to question a lack of “due process” after Porter and another White House aide resigned following abuse allegations.
"Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new," the rich asshole tweeted.
Sanders defends herself from criticism from Porter ex-wife
BY BEN KAMISAR - 02/13/18 03:32 PM EST
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended herself on Tuesday from criticism from one of the ex-wives of Rob Porter who’s accused the former White House staffer of abuse.
Colbie Holderness, one of the women claiming domestic violence at Porter’s hands, faulted Sanders for not addressing whether President the rich asshole believes the accusations in an opinion piece published Tuesday.
"While I cannot say I am surprised, I expected a woman to do better," Holderness wrote in The Washington Post.
"We do the very best job we have every single day. I would never presume to understand anything going on with that individual, nor would I think that she could presume whats going on with me or the way I'm responding," Sanders said.
She went on to state that the White House has "condemned domestic violence in every way possible," adding the president's budget funds the Violence Against Women Act.
"We are looking for ways we can take action to help prevent this from ever happening to anyone. To presume I feel differently is simply a very strong mischaracterization of who I am and what this White House is," she added.
Porter resigned from his position as White House staff secretary last week after news reports on the alleged domestic violence emerged. The administration has presented conflicting reports about when senior staffers learned the details of the claims against Porter.
At the same news conference, Sanders again refused to answer whether the rich asshole believes Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby, another ex-wife of Porter's accusing him of assault.
"The president takes all of these accusations very seriously. He believes in due process; above everything else he supports the victims of any type of violence and certainly would condemn any violence against anyone," Sanders said when asked.
In interviews with CNN on Tuesday, Holderness and Willoughby said the White House has yet to reach out to them.
"I think how it makes me feel is not as important as the message it sends to others," Holderness said. "Reaching out to Jennie and me would, in some small way, provide support for their assertion that they take domestic violence seriously."
Sanders: FBI chief did not contradict us on Porter controversy
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 02/13/18 03:13 PM EST
The White House on Tuesday said FBI Director Christopher Wray's testimony does not contradict its account of how it handled domestic abuse allegations against former top aide Rob Porter.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the FBI's background investigation was closed, as Wray told Congress, but a White House Personnel Security Office investigation was still underway.
"The process was still ongoing when Rob Porter resigned," Sanders said.
Wray's testimony dealt a blow to the White House, which has struggled to move past the Porter controversy, now in its seventh day.
The FBI chief told the Senate Intelligence Committee the bureau first delivered a partial report on Porter’s problems uncovered in a background check in March 2017, well before the White House said it knew about the abuse allegations.
Wray also told senators the FBI closed its file on Porter in January, even though the White House has said the background-check process for Porter’s security clearance was still ongoing.
Sanders said the personnel security office was still reviewing information provided by the FBI after it submitted its final report on the investigation last summer.
"The White House Personnel Security Office, which is staffed by career officials, may have received information. But they had not completed their process and made a recommendation to the White House for adjudication," she said.
McConnell: Senate needs to move on from immigration
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 02/13/18 02:44 PM EST
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that three days is enough to wrap up the immigration debate and the Senate needs to move on to other issues.
“We have other things to do,” he said in response to a question about whether he'd allow the floor debate, which began on Monday, to continue beyond the week.
McConnell argued that senators are well-versed in the issue after passing comprehensive immigration reform in 2013 and negotiating behind closed doors in recent months.
“We have other things to do,” he said in response to a question about whether he'd allow the floor debate, which began on Monday, to continue beyond the week.
McConnell argued that senators are well-versed in the issue after passing comprehensive immigration reform in 2013 and negotiating behind closed doors in recent months.
“This is an issue we’ve been talking about literally for years,” he told reporters after a GOP policy lunch.
“We spent three months talking to the Democrats about this,” he said of recent talks.
McConnell pushed back on a suggestion from one reporter that he is tilting the playing field by voicing support for a GOP plan that codifies President the rich asshole’s four-point immigration proposal.
“I’m not trying to dictate to [Democrats],” he said, but also chastised them for blocking a vote in an amendment backed by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) addressing so-called sanctuary cities.
“We need to get to started on the debate,” he said.
McConnell is expected to file cloture on Tuesday afternoon on several immigration proposals, setting up votes on Thursday unless there is unanimous consent to act sooner.
Scaramucci: 'Kelly must resign'
BY JOSH DELK - 02/13/18 01:58 PM EST
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci is calling for President the rich asshole's chief of staff John Kelly to resign amid a controversy involving a former aide.
Scaramucci, who was fired by Kelly just 10 days into his tenure at the White House last summer, pointed to reports that the White House knew of alleged abuse involving former staff secretary Rob Porter long before officials have since claimed to have known.
In a testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau had submitted a partial report on Porter to the White House in March, and a full background report in November.
"Based on FBI testimony, WH Chief of Staff John Kelly almost certainly knew about credible allegations of domestic abuse against Rob Porter at least 6 months ago - then recently forced others to lie about that timeline. Inexcusable. Kelly must resign," Scaramucci tweeted Tuesday.
Scaramucci added in another tweet that his call for Kelly to resign had "nothing to do" with his exit from the White House, writing, "Domestic abuse is a red line. Covering up for it is indefensible."
Based on FBI testimony, WH Chief of Staff John Kelly almost certainly knew about credible allegations of domestic abuse against Rob Porter at least 6 months ago - then recently forced others to lie about that timeline. Inexcusable. Kelly must resign. nytimes.com/2018/02/13/us/…
Domestic abuse is a red line. Covering up for it is indefensible. If speaking out against that makes me look petty, then so be it. This has nothing to do with my exit from WH. I trust the FBI Director in this matter, and so should you. We'll know the full truth soon enough. twitter.com/USMCLA/status/…
White House officials have not mentioned the March contact with the FBI and asserted last week that they did not have full knowledge of Porter's past until stories of his ex-wives' accounts of the abuse surfaced last week.
Scaramucci, who was ousted as the White House communications director over inflammatory comments he made about White House staff in a magazine interview last year, has criticized Kelly's handling of the Porter scandal in recent days.
Scaramucci told CNN last week that "the cover-up is always worse than the crime," referring to Kelly's claim that he did not know the full extent of the allegations when he first defended Porter as a "man of true integrity and honor."
"I would say, 'Jeez, you know, I knew about it,' " he added.
Porter resigned last Wednesday following reports about the abuse claims. The Washington Post later reported that Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn knew for months about some of the allegations, which delayed Porter's security clearance.
Updated: 2:23 p.m.
Kelly on handling of Porter: 'It was all done right'
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 02/13/18 12:56 PM EST
President the rich asshole’s chief of staff John Kelly defended the White House’s response to domestic abuse allegations against Rob Porter, a former top aide.
“No,” Kelly told The Wall Street Journal when asked if it should have been handled differently. “It was all done right.”
The chief of staff made the comments Monday — before FBI Director Christopher Wray undercut the White House’s account of how it responded to the allegations from Porter’s two ex-wives.
Wray on Tuesday told the Senate Intelligence Committee the FBI first delivered a partial report on the allegations against Porter in a background check in March 2017, well before the White House said it knew about them.
Wray also told senators the FBI “administratively” closed its file on Porter in January, even though the White House has said the background check process for Porter’s security clearance was still ongoing.
Kelly has come under fire for initially defending Porter after the allegations surfaced and for reportedly urging staff to offer an inaccurate account of how the White House handled the situation.
36 people who could challenge the rich asshole in 2020
BY LISA HAGEN - 02/13/18 06:00 AM EST
The field of Democrats who could jockey for a White House bid in 2020 is growing by the day, as more and more potential candidates are eyed as possible challengers to President the rich asshole.
Many potential candidates have sought to stand out from the field through vocal opposition to the rich asshole agenda — voting against the bipartisan two-year budget deal or calling for the president’s resignation.
Here are 36 potential candidates, from top contenders to long shots, who could run in 2020:
Sanders reportedly met with top advisers in late January to discuss a potential 2020 run. But Sanders said he’s focused on his reelection in 2018. Still, the 2016 Democratic primary candidate hasn’t shied away from opportunities to contrast himself to the rich asshole. The favorite of the Democrats’ progressive wing delivered his own response to the State of the Union address, calling the rich asshole a “bully.” If elected, Sanders would be 79 when taking office in 2021.
Former Vice President Joe Biden
A recent poll of the hypothetical 2020 field showed Biden, who benefits from massive name recognition after two terms as vice president, easily leading the Democratic pack. Biden reportedly said privately that he believes he’s the only Democrat who can beat the rich asshole in 2020. And Biden, who would be 78 in January 2021, publicly weighed the possibility of running on ABC’s “The View” in December.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
Gillibrand, 51, gained prominence for speaking out against sexual harassment and assault, and has sought to position herself as one of the rich asshole’s leading Senate antagonists by frequently voting against his nominees. After the rich asshole tweeted that she “would do anything” for campaign donations — which many thought had sexual implications — Gillibrand shot back that the rich asshole “cannot silence me” with a “sexist smear.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Warren, another progressive favorite, is frequently touted as a top 2020 contender. But she’s downplayed presidential rumors and says she’s focused on her reelection in 2018. Warren, who will be 71 on Inauguration Day in 2021, was one of several Senate Democrats with possible presidential ambitions who voted against the two-year budget deal. Warren hasn’t gone as far as some colleagues, however, who have called for the rich asshole to resign because of the sexual harassment allegations against him.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)
Booker has continued to raise his profile, most recently during a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Booker, 48, made a rousing speech accusing Nielsen of being complicit with the rich asshole after Nielsen said she didn’t hear the rich asshole say that the United States shouldn’t accept immigrants from “shithole countries.”
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.)
Harris, 53, a rising star in the party, generated national attention after she was cut off from questioning a witness at Senate Intelligence Committee hearings. But Harris, like many potential 2020 candidates, has insisted that she’s not thinking about future campaigns.
Former talk show host Oprah Winfrey
Winfrey set off presidential rumors after her speech about sexual harassment at the Golden Globes last month. But Winfrey, 64, told InStyle Magazine that she doesn’t “have the DNA for it.”
Former Attorney General Eric Holder
Holder is the latest politician who wouldn’t rule out a 2020 bid. When asked about a future White House run, he responded, “We’ll see.” Holder, 67, said he’s focused on his National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a Democratic effort to reverse Republican redistricting gains.
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro
Castro, who was on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 shortlist for vice president, will make his first foray into presidential politics with a Friday trip to New Hampshire, which holds the first presidential primary. Castro, 43, said he has “every interest in running,” and will headline the New Hampshire Young Democrats 2018 Granite Slate Awards Dinner.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D)
O’Malley, 55, has already been testing the waters after an unsuccessful run in the 2016 Democratic primary.
Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.)
Delaney, 54, became the first declared presidential candidate of 2020 when he launched his campaign last July. The retiring congressman commissioned the first ad of the 2020 primaries in Iowa — which holds the first presidential caucuses.
Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.)
Gutiérrez, 62, is also retiring from Congress at the end of 2018, and is reportedly exploring a presidential run. The longtime congressman is a strong proponent of immigration reform, and backed an effort to introduce articles of impeachment against the rich asshole.
Billionaire mega-donor Tom Steyer
Steyer, 60, ruled out running for office in 2018, but he hasn’t closed the door on 2020. He plans to spend $30 million to help Democrats take back the House in 2018, and is continuing his ad campaign calling for the rich asshole’s impeachment.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry
The 2004 presidential nominee has stayed out of the limelight since leaving his position as secretary of State. But recent reports say Kerry, 74, is considering another bid.
Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D)
McAuliffe, a potential contender close to the Clintons, could be boosted by recent Democratic gains in Virginia. McAuliffe, 61, can also draw on a large fundraising network as a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)
Murphy, 44, has sworn off a bid in 2020, but that hasn’t stopped the speculation about whether the leading gun control advocate will make a run.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
Klobuchar, 57, may have hurt her chances by not joining Democrats in opposing the recent budget deal for its lack of protection for “Dreamers,” but her supporters say her policy chops can’t be ruled out.
Former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander
After losing a surprisingly close Missouri Senate race in 2016, 36-year-old Kander has raised his national profile with a new national group meant to fight voter suppression. He’s also made the rounds at various local Democratic events, making stops in key early states.
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D)
Buttigieg, 36, has kept busy since making a headline-grabbing bid to chair the DNC. The openly gay Navy reservist has traveled the country to speak on panels and headline local Democratic Party events, and would offer Democrats a chance to field a midwestern politician — although he could be criticized for a lack of experience beyond the local level.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D)
Fresh off his reelection as mayor, the 56-year-old de Blasio stoked speculation about a bid with his trip to Iowa late last year. While he said that he isn’t running for president, he’s kept up rumors of a possible bid while emerging as a progressive the rich asshole critic.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.)
Kaine, 59, Clinton’s running mate in 2016, is expected to win reelection to the Senate. That victory could give him momentum going into 2020.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D)
Patrick, 61, has been out of office since 2015, but those close to former President Obama have reportedly urged him to run for the White House.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D)
Cuomo, 60, is one of several New Yorkers eyeing potential presidential bids in 2020. And he’s been making a name for himself through his opposition to the GOP’s tax overhaul.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D)
Garcetti, 47, got some attention last year from donors, and generated some more national buzz with a recent hike with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)
Brown is a familiar name in White House shortlists, and was considered for Clinton’s vice president pick. But Brown, 65, could face a tough reelection race this cycle in one of the 10 states that the rich asshole won in 2016.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban
The 59-year-old billionaire businessman and “Shark Tank” star said late last year that there’s a “10 percent” chance he runs in 2020.
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio)
Ryan, 44, earned a high profile last year when he challenged House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for her leadership post.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D)
Despite the rich asshole’s 20-point victory in Montana, Bullock, 51, was reelected to the governor’s mansion in 2016. His victory could appeal to Democrats looking to compete in deep-red states.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D)
Landrieu, 57, drew national attention when he made an impassioned speech calling for the removal of Confederate statues in his hometown.
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo (D)
Raimondo, 46, the first woman to serve as Rhode Island governor, earned national exposure after she hosted the National Governors Association meeting last July.
Starbucks Executive Chairman Howard Schultz
Schultz, 64, stepped down as CEO of the popular coffee franchise in late 2016, sparking a flurry of stories that he could be considering a 2020 bid.
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg
Sandberg’s book on corporate feminism, “Lean In,” drew high praise and raised the 48-year-old’s profile outside of Silicon Valley.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
The wrestler-turned-movie star, 45, said last year that he’s “seriously considering” a bid, although he said that 2024 is a more “realistic” option.
Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates
Yates became a hero to Democrats when the rich asshole fired her for refusing to defend the travel ban. Yates, 57, said last year that she doesn’t envision herself running for office.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D)
Hickenlooper, 66, drew some short-lived buzz over rumors he could potentially form a unity ticket in 2020 with Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R). But Hickenlooper dismissed those rumors, saying he has “no ulterior motive” for working across the aisle with Kasich.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D)
The two-term governor and former congressman, 67, is expanding his network nationally as the new chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.
Ben Kamisar contributed.
FBI contradicts White House on probe of former aide Porter
By DEB RIECHMANN and ZEKE MILLER 02-13-2018
WASHINGTON (AP) — Contradicting the White House, the FBI said Tuesday it gave the rich asshole administration information on multiple occasions last year about a top aide accused of domestic abuse by his two ex-wives, and the investigation wrapped up in January.
That account by FBI Director Christopher Wray challenged the White House assertion that Rob Porter’s background “investigation was ongoing” and officials first learned the extent of accusations against him only last week, just before he abruptly resigned.
Wray’s testimony marked the latest development in a scandal that has called into question the judgment of senior members of the White House staff, put new stress on the administration’s already strained credibility with the public, and drawn accusations of tone-deaf handling of abuse allegations.
The week-long fallout from the allegations against Porter, President some rich asshole’s staff secretary, has thrown the West Wing into chaos not seen since the earliest months of the administration and has sparked new rounds of recriminations inside the White House.
Privately, officials acknowledge that the public timeline offered last week — that the administration first learned of the ex-wives’ charges against Porter last Tuesday — was flawed at best.
Several senior officials, including chief of staff John Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn, were aware of the broad allegations against Porter for months, officials said.
Kelly found out after requesting an update on the large number of senior staffers operating without full security clearances, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. McGahn told Kelly last fall there was concern about information in the background investigation involving Porter’s ex-wives, the official said, and Kelly expressed surprise that Porter had previously been married.
Despite that, Porter took on an increasingly central role in the West Wing and was under consideration to serve as the rich asshole’s deputy chief of staff, two officials said.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Monday, “The White House had not received any specific papers regarding the completion of that background check.” Yet Wray testified that the FBI sent the White House its preliminary report in March 2017 and its completed investigation in late July. Soon after that, the agency received a request for a follow-up inquiry, and it provided that information in November. Porter was interviewed about the allegations in September, an official said.
“And then we administratively closed the file in January, and then earlier this month we received some additional information and we passed that on as well,” Wray added in his congressional testimony Tuesday, without elaboration.
The FBI does not make recommendations about whether to grant or deny a security clearance, officials said, leaving the determination up to the employee’s agency, in Porter’s case, the White House.
Sanders maintained Tuesday that her statement about an ongoing investigation was accurate because Porter’s clearance hadn’t received a final sign-off from the White House Office of Personnel Security.
“We find those statements to be consistent with one another,” she said.
The White House has refused to divulge the number of staff members who still do not have full clearances, though the list includes Jared Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law. Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that “there are a dozen or more people at Mr. Kushner’s level” who are working without full security clearances.
A senior administration official said as many as two dozen senior officials don’t hold permanent clearances. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Separately, the rich asshole’s intelligence chief called for top-to-bottom reform of the security clearance process, which allowed Porter to operate in his job for more than a year with only an interim clearance.
“We have a broken system and I think everybody’s come to agree with that now,” Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, told The Associated Press. He called for limits on the information made accessible to those with temporary clearances — a practice that is currently not followed in the West Wing, an official said.
Meanwhile, Colbie Holderness, Porter’s first wife, pushed back against comments made by presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway that seemed to suggest strong women can’t be victims of domestic violence.
Conway, in a weekend interview on CNN, said she had no reason to disbelieve accounts by Holderness and another ex-wife that Porter had abused them. But when asked if she was concerned for top White House aide Hope Hicks, who reportedly was dating Porter, Conway said no because “I’ve rarely met somebody so strong with such excellent instincts and loyalty and smarts.”
Conway went on to say that “there’s no question” that domestic violence “knows no demographic or geographic bounds,” and she understands there is a stigma that surrounds these issues.
In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, Holderness wrote that Conway’s first statement “implies that those who have been in abusive relationships are not strong. I beg to differ.”
Porter resigned after Holderness and his second ex-wife, Jennifer Willoughby, came forward with allegations of emotional and physical abuse. Porter has denied harming his former partners.
The White House approach has drawn criticism even from the rich asshole’s own party.
“I think you can’t justify it,” Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst told CNN about a report that the White House arranged for Porter to defend himself privately to reporters after the allegations surfaced. “You can’t justify that.”
___
Associated Press writers Robert Burns, Sadie Gurman and Juliet Linderman in Washington and Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report.
Sanders flails after she’s busted lying about Porter scandal: ‘We relay the best and most accurate information’
Sarah Sanders (CNN/screen grab)
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Sarah Huckabee Sanders was in damage control mode on Tuesday after FBI Director Christopher Wray contradicted her claim that the White House failed to fire a staffer who was accused of domestic abuse because it had not received a final report from the bureau.
During Monday’s press briefing, Sanders insisted that the FBI’s investigation into staffer Rob Porter had been “ongoing” when the public recently learned that he had been accused of abusing two ex-wives. Porter eventually resigned, but was repeatedly defended by members of the administration like President some rich asshole and Chief of Staff John Kelly.
At a hearing on Tuesday, Wray revealed that the investigation into Porter had been completed in July and that details had been provided to the White House on multiple occasions.
“The FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed background investigation in late July that soon thereafter we received requests for follow-up inquiry, and we did the follow-up and provided that information in November and we administratively closed the file in January,” Wray told Senate Intelligence Committee. “Then earlier this month, we received some additional information, and we passed that on as well.”
At Tuesday’s press briefing, Sanders faced reporters demanding to know why she had seemingly misled them the day before.
“We explained the process extensively last week,” Sanders insisted.
According to the press secretary, the process within the White House “was still ongoing when Rob Porter resigned.”
“Christopher Wray said it was closed so who is telling the truth?” NBC correspondent Kristen Welker asked.
“Both,” Sanders replied, later adding: “I can only give you the best information that I have.”
“Everyday I think we can learn from the day before and strive to do better.”
Sanders was also asked why she repeated incorrect information that was provided by Chief of Staff John Kelly about Porter.
“We relay the best and most accurate information,” Sanders stated.
Watch the video below.
‘You must be part of the deep state’: the rich asshole fans turn on Anthony Scaramucci after he says Kelly should resign
Anthony Scaramucci appears on MSNBC (Screen cap).
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Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci drew the ire of President some rich asshole’s fans on Tuesday when he called on White House chief of staff John Kelly to resign in the wake of the Rob Porter scandal.
Responding to FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony that the FBI had finished its background investigation into the former White House staff secretary this past July, Scaramucci hammered Kelly for keeping Porter on the staff despite knowing about multiple domestic abuse allegations being leveled against him.
“Based on FBI testimony, WH Chief of Staff John Kelly almost certainly knew about credible allegations of domestic abuse against Rob Porter at least 6 months ago —
then recently forced others to lie about that timeline,” Scaramucci wrote on Twitter. “Inexcusable. Kelly must resign.”
then recently forced others to lie about that timeline,” Scaramucci wrote on Twitter. “Inexcusable. Kelly must resign.”
Based on FBI testimony, WH Chief of Staff John Kelly almost certainly knew about credible allegations of domestic abuse against Rob Porter at least 6 months ago - then recently forced others to lie about that timeline. Inexcusable. Kelly must resign. nytimes.com/2018/02/13/us/…
Scaramucci, who was ousted from his job at the White House after 11 days, was then accused by a the rich asshole supporter of being bitter that Kelly got rid of him shortly after he took over as chief of staff last summer.
Scaramucci replied that this wasn’t about him getting fired from the White House, but was rather about how the White House deals with domestic abuse allegations.
“Domestic abuse is a red line,” he wrote. “Covering up for it is indefensible. If speaking out against that makes me look petty, then so be it. This has nothing to do with my exit from WH. I trust the FBI Director in this matter, and so should you. We’ll know the full truth soon enough.”
Domestic abuse is a red line. Covering up for it is indefensible. If speaking out against that makes me look petty, then so be it. This has nothing to do with my exit from WH. I trust the FBI Director in this matter, and so should you. We'll know the full truth soon enough. twitter.com/USMCLA/status/…
This prompted some angry reactions from the rich asshole fans who accused Scaramucci of being disloyal to the president — check out some of the responses below.
Don't trust you or the FBI! You must be part of the deep state— Lola Mae (@lala_mae46) February 13, 2018
I would not let a man do that .
I would beat the shit out of him.
He has to sleep sometime
This is about two women
Did they report it ?
Was it dismissed or what?
Why now?
People are innocent until proven guilty. You have no facts from a judge or jury. Until then, this is just gossip. Whether you like that or not.
Melissa Davis Wow, John Kelly is one of the most honorable man known. Axe to grind?
Your rantings are disingenuous. If you were in Porter’s shoes, you would want due process and discretion as well. Just admit that you are still angry with Kelly.
Did anyone actually ask you? Does your opinion even matter on this subject… I alam it had the pleasure of completely forgetting you.— justin meyer (@PrinceOnTheHill) February 13, 2018
(1) Have you thought about the possibility that Director Wray/FBI lied and said that to contradict the @WhiteHouse as their "pay-back" for releasing the @DevinNunes @HouseIntelComm that exposed @FBI corruption at the top (Re: Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, etc.)?
Someone is bitter!!! U sound like Bannon now!!
White House official warns Kelly’s ‘cover-up is unraveling’ as FBI Director Wray contradicts Porter timeline
Gen. John Kelly (image via Homeland Security/Creative Commons).
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A White House official on Tuesday told Axios that Chief of Staff John Kelly’s “coverup” of the Rob Porter scandal is “unravelling.”
The official made the remark following testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray that called to question the White House’s public timeline of the rich asshole administration’s response to Porter.
Speaking before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, Wray undercut White House aides who claim they weren’t aware of the extent of allegations against Porter until last week. According to Wray, “the FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed background investigation in late July.”
Wray added the department later “received requests for follow-up inquiry, and we did the follow-up and provided that information in November and we administratively closed the file in January.”
“Wray’s FBI timeline makes one thing clear: the Kelly coverup is unraveling right before our eyes,” the White House official said.
Last week, two senior White House officials told the Washington Post that Kelly told staffers in a meeting to say “he took action to remove Porter within 40 minutes of learning that abuse allegations from two ex-wives were credible.” As the Post noted, that timeline “contradicts both the public record and accounts from numerous other White House officials.”
Onetime White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci also hit Kelly over Wray’s testimony, tweeting that the president’s chief of staff “must resign.”
Based on FBI testimony, WH Chief of Staff John Kelly almost certainly knew about credible allegations of domestic abuse against Rob Porter at least 6 months ago - then recently forced others to lie about that timeline. Inexcusable. Kelly must resign. nytimes.com/2018/02/13/us/…
Jared Kushner’s crushing debt presents security risk as $1.2 billion loan comes due: MSNBC panel
666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan (left, image via Twitter) and the rich asshole's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner (right, via screengrab).
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Embattled senior White House advisor Jared Kushner’s economic troubles may be one of the red flags holding up security clearance for President some rich asshole’s son in law, MSNBC anchor Katy Tur explained on Tuesday.
“Nearly one year into the rich asshole administration and NBC News has learned 30 to 40 White House personnel lack permanent security clearances,” Tur reported. “One of those folks was Rob Porter. Another, according to the Washington Post is Jared Kushner. Porter is gone, but Kushner still has access to classified intelligence, including the Presidential Daily Briefing.”
“The Director of National Intelligence believes that needs to change,” Tur noted, playing a clip of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats testifying.
“Ken, first to you, what do you make of the warning from DNI Coates?” Tur asked NBC News intelligence and national security reporter Ken Dilanian.
“Look, what he just said there is not being followed by this White House,” he replied. “I think we have two problems: there’s a bureaucratic problem where just in general, it takes too long for people to get a security clearance. It shouldn’t take a year.”
“But secondly, we also have a problem with the president, who apparently is ignoring the signals that are being sent to him by his own FBI about the suitability of certain people for high clearance,” Dilanian continued.
“And in the case of Jared Kushner, my sources tell me it is unprecedented for someone to be seeing the Presidential Daily Brief who has not received a full security clearance,” he said. “This is a document that has the nation’s deepest secrets, including covert operation and top-level intelligence, NSA eavesdropping of foreign leaders, and to have someone looking at that document who hasn’t been fully cleared, who hasn’t been signed off on by the FBI, is unprecedented and it’s a decision directly made by some rich asshole, Katy,” Dilanian continued.
Tur noted Kushner’s troubled 666 Fifth Ave tower, which is hemorrhaging so much money that the Kushner Companies may lose control of the building.
“There are a bunch of people, and Jared Kushner certainly appears to be one of them, who would not be able to get a security clearance in the context of work for any of these agencies, where people don’t really start work, generally, until the clearance comes through,” Lawfare editor in chief Benjamin Wittes noted.
Wittes noted staffers working on temporary clearances, “despite in some cases, some pretty obviously — if not disqualifying, at least disqualification-raising background concerns.”
“This is the kind of thing that, you know, shocks and terrifies intelligence professionals,” he warned.
“It’s a $1.2 billion mortgage, it’s due by February 2019,” Tur noted.
Watch:
‘Across all democracies, you don’t see lying like this’: GOP’s Schmidt demolishes White House Porter cover-up
Republican strategist Steve Schmidt on MSNBC.
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Long-time GOP strategist Steve Schmidt analyzed the Rob Portman scandal during a Tuesday interview on “Deadline: White House” with MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace.
“The story imploded today like it was a building implosion or stadium implosion you were watching on tv,” Schmidt observed. “What happened here is that the FBI came back and they said, ‘hey, the staff secretary who has a code-word SCI top-secret clearance is credibly accused of beating his two wives.’ And the White House took no action, kept him in place.”
“We see the abject incompetence that was described in the Michael Wolff book. We see recklessness around national security issues, scores of west wing officials don’t have the requisite clearances necessary to see the nation’s most closely guarded secrets,” Schmidt explained.
“We see the usual dishonesty and it’s blowing up in their face. And lastly, we see the cruelty. The cruelty of the press secretary toward these women. Of Kellyanne Conway toward these women. Of the President of the United States toward these women. And really, the whole of the administration toward these women,” Schmidt observed.
Wallace, who worked closely with Schmidt as a Republican Party operative before switching careers to journalism, wondered if the GOP had ever been so flawed.
“Steve, I want you to see if you can come up with any parallel. I reached back through the Palin years, to the Bush years and we were deeply flawed. We made more mistakes before lunch than most people in normal jobs make in five years. But I can’t remember the depravity that I see in this White House,” Wallace admitted.
“That’s for sure,” Schmidt confirmed.
“[I] wonder if you can just talk about how sort of effective it is for them to do such a volume business of chaos and crisis creation,” Wallace suggested.
“I think the important thing to understand, to remember, for the American people, is that this is not normal. This is — there’s never been an administration like this,” Schmidt argued. “In fact, when you look out across all the western democracies, you don’t see lying like this. the constancy of lying, the dishonesty, the allegations of conspiracy, the smearing, the defend-to-the-end at all costs the image and the reputation of the leader”
“There’s never been anything like this. We are in a — we are in unchartered territory with this comportment and it’s vile,” Schmidt added. “The behavior is disgraceful, it’s disgusting.”
“The country has never before now elected somebody who is so manifestly unfit intellectually, morally, temperamentally, for the office of President of the United States,” Schmidt concluded.
Watch:
‘We’ve been lied to’: CNN’s Jake Tapper methodically dismantles White House talking points on Porter scandal
CNN's Jake Tapper
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CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday dismantled the White House talking points surrounding former staff secretary Rob Porter, accusing the rich asshole administration of lying to the American people to cover up for a man accused of beating two of his ex-wives.
“We are now one full week into the domestic abuse scandal involving now-former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, and yet the American people still do not know who knew what, and when, and why,” Tapper began during his monologue on “The Lead.”
Tapper noted the American people have “questions that the White House refuse to answer,” noting the administration would like to“ lead to you believe they’ve been nothing but clear and consistent on this issue.”
Tapper pointed out Chief of Staff John Kelly’s self-praise claiming the White House’s response to Porter “was all done right.”
“That’s just wrong,” Tapper explained.
“Just since yesterday we’ve learned more that suggests the White House has not told the American people the full truth,” Tapper continued. “From the White House podium yesterday, Sarah [Huckabee] Sanders painted a rosy picture of a White House motivated by a clear sense of right and wrong, seeking to remove—with clarity and purpose—someone who had been accused of abhorrent behavior.”
“What that narrative does not acknowledge is that the initial response from the White House was to prop up Porter and stand by Porter,” the CNN host added,
Tapper then turned to an off-the-record interview between Porter and four top White House reporters, which occurred after “that black eye photograph of Porter’s first wife was published.”
“Whatever the motivations, make no mistake,” Tapper said of that interview. “This was the communications staff of the White House facilitating an opportunity for an accused domestic abuser to tell journalists … that his ex-wives were liars. All of it paid for by your tax dollars, and a clear contradiction to the narrative the White House is now pushing—that once they saw the black eye photo, Porter was essentially shown the door.”
Noting FBI Director Chris Wray’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Tapper noted there’s yet another contradiction to the White House’s timeline. Wray told Congress on Tuesday, “the FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March and then a completed background investigation in late July.”
Rolling footage of Huckabee Sanders at Tuesday’s press briefing, Tapper said the press secretary “acknowledged the FBI had finished the process” but shifted the blame to career officials “internally at the White House.”
“Okay, everyone got that?” Tapper asked. “So today, a process that was not completed was the one that was internal, at the White House, the white house personnel office. That, of course is the exact opposite of what Sanders said just 24 hours ago.”
“Take a listen,” he said, rolling a clip of Huckabee Sanders saying the background process had not been completed by the FBI.
“The White House has yet to be forthright and transparent with the American people about how this happened,” Tapper said. “The most clarity we have gotten so far might be from President the rich asshole himself who has wished Porter well in his future but has not said or written one single word of support for the victims of his alleged abuse, or for survivors of domestic violence in general. Instead, we’ve been misled and we’ve been lied to time and again. And for what?”
Watch below:
Watch below:
Former White House adviser says only 3 people in the rich asshole’s Cabinet wanted to move the Israeli embassy to Jerusalem
Alex Thomas
Posted with permission from Rare
gorka israelAt a D.C. Young Republicans event Monday night at the Capitol Hill Club, Gorka said (at 30:00 in a video posted by an attendee) “this is from a cabinet member — I can’t give you the Cabinet member’s name — but the decision to move our embassy to Jerusalem. Only three people in the Cabinet supported the president. Okay, only three people. Everybody else didn’t want to do it or wanted to slow roll it, said it would create a cataclysm… The president said ‘I promised the American people… I have promised the people of Israel, our best friends in the Middle East. Oh, and by the way, it’s the right thing to do!'”
“As far as I’m concerned, this is the most pro-Israel administration since 1776,” Gorka later added (at 34:30). “It’s just a fact.”
Gorka also boasted (at 35:00) he was in the Oval Office when Trump was making a decision on the Iran deal and that “the president was not happy… the president wants to kill the deal. He just wants to see the best scenario for how to do it–and to be honest with you, without disclosing anything I shouldn’t disclose, he’s not been given the good scenario yet.”
Gorka was forced out of the White House last August, shortly after the arrival of Chief of Staff John Kelly. From there, he joined Fox News as a contributor. The former Trump adviser has stumbled through a few controversies since coming into the spotlight, including being associated with Hungarian Nazi group Vitézi Rend and facing firearms charges in Hungary. Those charges have since been dropped.
Trump announced in December his intention to move the Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. U.S. presidents have long supported a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but have tried to leave open the question of who should hold Jerusalem as their capitol or how the city would be divided in such a deal.
It’s unclear which three Cabinet members supported Trump’s decision to move the embassy, but the White House aide with deepest ties to Israel is Jared Kushner. Trump’s son-in-law’s family received a $30 million investment from Menora Mivtachim — one of the five largest financial institutions in Israel. Kushner also co-directed a foundation that funded an Israeli settlement in Palestine. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley — the current U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, which is considered a Cabinet-level post — is outspoken in support of Israel, even going so far as to condemn the United Nations, calling the international group “[one] of the world’s foremost centers of hostility towards Israel.
‘The corruption is universal’: GOP strategist says Porter scandal is part of the rich asshole’s ‘mosaic of deception’
Rick Wilson (Photo: Screen capture)
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Anti-the rich asshole Republican strategist Rick Wilson on Tuesday laid down the law on the White House’s botched handling of the Rob Porter scandal.
Noting that Porter kept getting more responsibilities during his tenure at the White House — even as the FBI informed the rich asshole administration that past abuse allegations leveled against him would prevent him from getting security clearance — Wilson said that the rich asshole’s White House staff seems to believe that it is completely immune from scandal, just as the rich asshole was during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“A normal White House with a real General Counsel and chief of staff would have pulled the trigger on Porter after the FIRST FBI report came back,” Wilson writes. “Kelly and the rest of them came to believe that the hermetic shield around the rich asshole covers them. It doesn’t. Is this the killer scandal of all time? No. It’s just part of the mosaic of chronic deception.”
Wilson then said that any honorable person who works for the rich asshole will end up becoming corrupt, simply because such corruption is necessary to maintain employment at the rich asshole White House.
“The personal and moral corruption of the rich asshole is universal, inevitable, and tragic,” he writes. “Everyone around him, no matter where they start, ends reduced, stained, lesser for the experience. Like attracts like and the rich asshole has drawn people to him who are far below par on every front.”
Read the whole tweet storm below.
1/ Again, a normal White House with a real General Counsel and COS would have pulled the trigger on Porter after the FIRST FBI report came back.
2/ Kelly and the rest of them came to believe that the hermetic shield around Trump covers them. It doesn't. Is this the killer scandal of all time? No. It's just part of the mosaic of chronic deception.
3/ *Should* the GC and COS have a standard that doesn't merely reflect the President's "If you love me I love you" mentality? Of course. That's what their actual employers -- the citizens of this country, not Donald Trump -- expect and deserve. DO they? Of course not.
4/ The personal and moral corruption of Trump is universal, inevitable, and tragic. Everyone around him, no matter where they start, ends reduced, stained, lesser for the experience.
Like attracts like and Trump has drawn people to him who are far below par on every front.
5/ The universal character of these fights today is simple; outrage, lunacy, criminality, corruption, racial animus, incompetence, violence against women...all of it will be defended to the last breath by Trump's media enablers and fans.
‘A new rock bottom’: Washington Post columnist shreds Huckabee Sanders as a ‘tool’ for the rich asshole’s abuse
Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Wikimedia Commons)
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Margaret Sullivan, the former public editor of the New York Times and current Washington Post columnist, wrote a scathing op-ed about Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ performance from the press podium Tuesday, noting the usually on-point press secretary “oozed contempt” when discussing respect for women.
Sullivan said Huckabee Sanders, in her defense of the White House’s botched response to the Rob Porter scandal, spoke to reporters “like an exasperated teacher reprimanding a classroom troublemaker.”
“Watching the press secretary at Monday’s briefing, the words that came to mind were these: A new low,” Sullivan wrote. “Yes, a new rock bottom from the podium at the rich asshole White House press briefing.”
Sullivan noted that reaching “a new rock bottom” was a feat, considering Huckabee Sanders’ predecessors, Sean Spicer and Anthony Scaramucci. “But she did it,” Sullivan wrote. “Time after time Monday, Sanders stuck to her pallid script, repeating without elaboration the words she said the president had told her to say, expressing his supposed support for domestic violence victims, although just days before he seemed much more sympathetic to those accused of abuse, specifically his deposed aide Rob Porter.”
She also related Tuesday’s press conference to an incident last year, when the rich asshole said Sen. Kirsten Gellibrand (D-NY) would “do anything” for campaign contributions before he was president.
“When asked in the briefing whether that didn’t sound an awful lot like sexual innuendo, Sanders turned the tables, telling the reporter, ‘Your mind is in the gutter,’” Sullivan wrote.
The veteran reporter said Huckabee Sanders’ performance is indicative of the diminished value of press briefings.
“To state the obvious: Holding powerful people and institutions accountable is the chief role of journalism in this country, and a crucial one,” Sullivan wrote. ‘White House press briefings have never been the best place for that. They have always been spin chambers, but have served a limited purpose.”
But, she argued, under Huckabee Sanders, they’re even worse.
“With her dismissive gestures, her curled-lip sneers, her ready insults and guilt-free lies, Sanders is a conduit — a tool — for the rich asshole’s own abusive relationship with journalists,” Sullivan wrote, wondering if reporters really need to “keep coming back for more.”
Sarah Sanders being kept in the dark about Kelly’s knowledge of Porter scandal: White House officials
President some rich asshole (left, via Wikimedia Commons) and WH press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (right, via screengrab).
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During the White House press briefing on Tuesday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said four times that she can only provide media with “the best information” available to her regarding disgraced ex-staffer Rob Porter, who’s been accused of domestic violence by two ex-wives.
A CNN panel, led by “The Lead” host Jake Tapper, noted that the wording appeared intentional.
“She seems to be saying to reporters, to everyone out there, ‘I’m not being told everything,'” the host noted.
Bloomberg Businessweek journalist Joshua Green, who published a book last year on the relationship between President some rich asshole and his erstwhile aide Steve Bannon titled The Devil’s Bargain, agreed.
“That’s what we’re hearing privately from West Wing officials,” Green said.
“It’s pretty clear to me that if the White House press secretary doesn’t have this information,” he continued, “it’s because her boss doesn’t want her to have this information.”
Green went on to say that the rich asshole could get the scandal behind him if he wanted — to which The Nation‘s Joan Walsh responded that the president “doesn’t particularly care” about the scandal.
Former GOP congressional aide Tara Setmayer, meanwhile, said the Porter controversy illustrates the need for better crisis management.
Watch below, via CNN:
‘Domestic violence is a crime’: Dem Congresswoman slams abuse ‘apologist’ Kellyanne Conway
Kellyanne Conway speaks to Fox News (screen grab)
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Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) blasted White House counselor Kellyanne Conway for being an “apologist” for President some rich asshole in scandals involving women, during a Tuesday interview with MSNBC’s Katy Tur.
“Let’s talk about Rob Porter. This is getting a bit lost in it, because we’re talking about the changing story at the White House, but the first ex-wife of Rob Porter is out with a new op-ed and she’s calling out Kellyanne Conway for a statement she made on Sunday, saying she felt that Hope Hicks, who is currently dating Porter, would be okay with him because she’s a strong woman,” Tur noted.
Tur then read the following from the Colbie Holderness op-ed in The Washington Post.
“Borrowing Conway’s words, I have no reason not to believe her when she says that Hicks is a strong woman. But her statement implies that those who have been in abusive relationships are not strong. I beg to differ. Recognizing and surviving in an abusive relationship take strength,” Holderness wrote.
“There’s also former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci who’s tweeting about this,” Tur noted.
Domestic abuse is a red line. Covering up for it is indefensible. If speaking out against that makes me look petty, then so be it. This has nothing to do with my exit from WH. I trust the FBI Director in this matter, and so should you. We'll know the full truth soon enough. twitter.com/USMCLA/status/…
“Do you think John Kelly should resign?” Tur asked.
“I think John Kelly should resign,” Speier answered.
“I think that what’s lost in all of this is that domestic violence is a crime and it is one of the biggest factors in women being murdered by their significant other or their spouse,” Speier reminded.
“To have a number of people working in the White House who have records of domestic violence is really chilling to women across this country,” Speier suggested. “It certainly is chilling to me.”
“And I think that Kellyanne Conway has never really been very good on recognizing women’s issues for what they are and has always been an apologist for the president,” Speier concluded.
Watch:
‘Not the end’: Shep Smith walks Fox News viewers through damning timeline of White House’s Porter response
Fox News' Shep Smith
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Fox News host Shep Smith on Tuesday walked through the timeline of the White House’s evolving response to a growing scandal involving former top aide Rob Porter.
“Who knew what and when?” Smith asked viewers Tuesday, noting while “we do not yet have a definitive answer,” we do have “a brand new timeline” from the White House.
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke with reporters after FBI Director Chris Wray testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday, telling Congress the FBI informed the White House about problems with Porter last year. Smith noted Wray said the FBI “submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March and then a completed investigation in late July.”
“So there you go, completed its investigation in July, passed it all along and then did follow-up work,” Smith explained, adding the White House is now trying to place the blame on the White House Personnel Security Office.
The Fox News host explained the administration “needed more” on Porter. “Presumably, the accounts from the ex-wives and the photos and all the rest were not enough, we don’t know,” Smith said.
He also walked through the “other timeline concerns,” including Kelly’s statement praising Porter that was released hours after a photo was published that showed one of Porter’s ex-wives with a black eye.
“To sum up here, the White House and the FBI have slightly different timelines, and within the White House there are different stories,” Smith said.
“Though the White House has not yet copped to it, the timeline is becoming clear: the FBI told them Porter was a huge problem last summer yet he stayed on the job, until what the FBI knew became public,” he added.
“Is the White House covering up for Porter?” Smith asked. “Did they look the other way because he was doing an important job, in their view, well?”
Watch below, via Fox News:
Sheepish the rich asshole urges reporters to leave as he’s asked if he has a message to domestic violence victims
President some rich asshole during a White House meeting. Image via screengrab.
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President some rich asshole on Tuesday was silent when asked by reporters if he has anything to say to domestic violence victims in the wake of allegations that his former staff secretary abused two of his ex-wives.
A short clip posted by NBC News on Twitter shows the president ending a White House meeting, repeating the phrase “thank you” as a reporter asked him if he has “a message to domestic violence victims.” He then was silent as the camera panned away from him.
Over the weekend, the rich asshole tweeted in apparent reference to the allegations against his former staff secretary Rob Porter and lamented the supposed damage abuse and assault allegations do to people who are accused.
Speaking to reporters last week, the rich asshole said he was “sad” to hear the news that Porter had resigned, wished him a great career and reminded the press that his ex-staffer claims he’s innocent.
Watch below:
Second judge blocks the rich asshole administration from ending DACA
BY MAX GREENWOOD AND JOHN BOWDEN - 02/13/18 04:18 PM EST
A second federal judge has issued an injunction barring the rich asshole administration from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program while litigation plays out in courts.
U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, wrote in a court order Tuesday in New York City that the administration could not rescind the Obama-era program "pending a decision on the merits of these cases."
"Defendants thus must continue processing both initial DACA applications and DACA renewal requests under the same terms and conditions that applied before September 5, 2017, subject to the limitations described below," he wrote.
The New York ruling is similar to one issued last month by San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who ordered the administration to continue processing DACA applications.
Shortly after that order, then the rich asshole administration formally asked the Supreme Court to review the lower court's decision. The justices have yet to decide whether to hear the case.
President the rich asshole announced in September that he would rescind the program, which temporarily shields immigrants brought to the country as children illegally — known as "Dreamers" — from deportation.
But the rich asshole gave lawmakers until March 5 to pass legislation enshrining the program's protections into law. Lawmakers have scrambled in recent weeks to reach a deal on DACA before the deadline.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) celebrated Tuesday's injunction as a victory for the more than 42,000 DACA recipients living in the state.
“Federal courts from coast to coast have now reviewed the record and reached the same conclusion: President the rich asshole’s decision to rescind DACA was illegal," Schneiderman said in a statement.
"Today’s ruling reflects not only the illegality of the rich asshole Administration’s move to rescind DACA, but also the clear and demonstrable benefits DACA provides to New Yorkers across our great state."
The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment.
This story was updated at 5:20 p.m.
Second US judge blocks the rich asshole administration from ending DACA program
A small group of demonstrators block traffic to demand action by the federal government on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in downtown San Diego, California, U.S., December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake
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A second U.S. judge on Tuesday blocked President some rich asshole’s decision to end a program that protects immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children from deportation.
U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, cannot end in March as planned, a victory for state attorneys general and immigrants who sued the Republican administration. The decision is similar to an earlier ruling by a federal judge in San Francisco that DACA must remain in place while litigation over the rich asshole’s decision unfolds.
TOLD YA SO
FBI: We Told White House About Rob Porter Three Times Before He Resigned
John Kelly claims he axed the staff secretary immediately after learning of domestic-abuse allegations. The bureau’s director just called that into question.
02.13.18 12:17 PM ET
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday contradicted the White House timeline of how it handled—or didn’t—domestic-abuse allegations against former staff secretary Rob Porter.
During a Senate intelligence hearing on Tuesday, Wray testified that the FBI informed the White House as early as March 2017 about at least some of the findings of a background check on Porter as part of his security-clearance application.
Porter’s ex-wives publicly accused him last week of physical abuse in their marriages, and said they told the FBI he was abusive during interviews with agents as part of his background check for a security clearance to handle classified information.
During an exchange with Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Wray was asked whether the bureau's background investigation and its findings could affect Porter's security clearance for working in the White House.
“I can’t get into the content of what was briefed,” Wray initially said.
Wyden pressed: “Were they informed?”
Wray responded by laying out a timeline of the FBI’s actions that is fairly damning to the White House’s public declarations about the way they handled the situation.
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“What I can tell you is that the FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed background investigation in late July, that is—soon thereafter we received requests for a follow-up inquiry, and we did the follow-up, and provided that information in November,” Wray said.
“And then we administratively closed the file in January [2018]. And then earlier this month we received some additional information and we passed that on as well,” Wray added.
In response to these revelations, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Tuesday that even if the FBI had finished its procedure on Porter's background check, the White House personnel security office had not and “therefore not made a recommendation to the White House.”
Sanders and Chief of Staff John Kelly initially defended Porter to the Daily Mail until a photograph of Porter’s ex-wife, featuring a black eye, surfaced. The White House has repeatedly claimed that it was only made “fully aware” of the allegations against Porter when they surfaced in the press—Kelly even reportedly claimed he took action against Porter within “40 minutes” of learning.
Wray’s testimony directly calls into question the White House's public assertions about what they knew about the allegations against Porter and when they knew it.
On Monday, Sanders declined to directly answer whether “At any time, between January 25th of last year and last Wednesday, did the FBI make anyone here at the White House...aware of the allegations that had been raised against Porter by Colbie Holderness and his second wife, Jennie Willoughby?”
“Look, we learned of the extent of the situation involving Rob Porter last Tuesday evening,” Sanders claimed, “and within 24 hours, his resignation had been accepted and announced.”
But according to Politico, Sanders arranged an off-the-record meeting with Porter and four reporters in which the accused former staffer “relayed his version of events and fielded questions from the group.” The White House did not comment on this meeting and whether Kelly was made aware of it.
The White House also claimed that an investigation was still ongoing. Legislative director March Short said on Sunday that the FBI “had not completed that investigation.” Sanders said Monday that “the White House had not received any specific papers regarding the completion of that background check. So I can’t go any further than what we’ve already said on that front.”
Wray told Wyden “we administratively closed the file” in January.
When asked Monday by the Wall Street Journal if the matter could've been handled better, Kelly said no. “It was all done right,” he added.
Piers Morgan launches sex smears at Omarosa for ‘singing like a b*tchy canary’ about the rich asshole’s White House
Piers Morgan and Omarosa Manigault (NBC)
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British journalist Piers Morgan lashed out at Omarosa Manigault as a “reprehensible human being” as she returns to reality TV following a stint in the White House.
Manigault was fired in November from President some rich asshole’s public liaison office, and she is currently appearing on the CBS reality show “Celebrity Big Brother,” where she has been criticizing some of her former White House colleagues.
Morgan, who appeared with Manigault on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” hosted by the rich asshole, hit back at his former cast mate Tuesday in his Daily Mail column.
“I’ve met a lot of vile human beings in my life, from dictators and terrorists to sex abusers and wicked conmen,” Morgan wrote. “But I’ve never met anyone quite so relentlessly loathsome as Omarosa; a vicious, duplicitous, lying, conniving, backstabbing piece of work.”
Morgan claims Manigault offered him sex in exchange for winning “Celebrity Apprentice,” called him a “f*cking f*ggot” when he refused, tried to humiliate him in front of other cast members and threatened to punch him.
“Omarosa is a reprehensible human being, prepared to offer sex to win a reality TV show and use the most vile homophobic slurs against rival contestants,” he said.
Morgan said it was “obviously (and) completely unacceptable” that accused spousal abuser Rob Porter held onto his job as White House staff secretary until photographic proof was published, but he asked why Manigault had remained there for so long.
“On Celebrity Big Brother, Omarosa’s been singing like a b*tchy canary about the rich asshole, V-P Mike Pence and others. And this will be just the start of it,” Morgan said. “Brace yourselves for the ‘insider’ book, the docu series and the Lifetime movie.”
Morgan said the rich asshole prides himself in backing winners, but he said Manigault had never won anything in her life.
“He took this serial loser, and horrible human being, into the heart of the White House to spread her poison,” Morgan said. “In its way, that’s just as big a scandal as Rob Porter, yet nobody seems to care.”
WATCH: Kamala Harris grills FBI Director Wray over the rich asshole’s access to sensitive Russia investigation intel
Sen. Kamala Harris and FBI Director Chris Wray
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Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) on Tuesday grilled FBI Director Christopher Wray over some rich asshole’s access to information about the Russia investigation, noting his ability to declassify Devin Nunes’ anti-FBI memo, while technically legal, may present a conflict for the Department of Justice’s probe.
Harris began her line of questioning during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing by delivering an impassioned defense of the intelligence community against relentless attacks by the rich asshole and his supporters.
“I am concerned that the political attacks against the men and women of your agency may have had an effect on your ability to recruit, retain and also the morale of those agencies,” Harris said.
“So I would like to emphasize the point that we all, I think, share in making, which is we thank the men and women of your agencies for selfless work. They do it on behalf of the American people without any expectation of award or reward, and we cannot thank them enough for keeping us safe.”
Harris then turned to the rich asshole’s decision to declassify the Nunes memo, which alleged surveillance abuses by the FBI tangentially related to the Russia investigation.
“According to the White House statement, the president was the one that authorized the memo’s declassification,” Harris said. “Do you believe there’s an actual, or at least appearance, of a conflict of interest when the president is put in charge of declassifying information that could complicate an ongoing investigation into his own campaign?”
Wray said the FBI has “been very clear” about its view of the “disclosure and accuracy of the memo in question,” but said it falls under the president’s job description to “object or not to declassification.”
“I think that is the president’s responsibility,” Wray said.
“Regardless of whether there’s an appearance of, or actual, conflict of interest?” Harris pressed.
“I leave it to others to characterize whether there’s appearance or conflict of interest, but I think the president was fulfilling his responsibility in that situation,” Wray insisted.
Harris asked if Wray would present “additional sensitive FBI information on the investigations into his campaign” if the president asked for such documents. Wray pledged he would not “discuss the investigation in question with the president, much less provide information from that investigation to him.”
“And if he received that information and wanted to declassify it, would he have the ability to do that from your perspective … however he received it, perhaps from members of the United States Congress?” Harris continued.
“I think legally he would have that ability,” Wray suggested.
The Democratic senator asked if the rich asshole “should recuse himself from reviewing and declassifying sensitive material related to this investigation?”
Wray said he leaves recusal questions to other people.
Harris later asked Wray if the FBI has done legal analysis on the questions she presented. After the FBI Director joked that he now gets to “blame lawyers for things instead of being the lawyer that gets blamed,” Harris asked, “have you blamed any lawyers for their analysis of this issue?”
“I have not yet, no,” Wray admitted.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka the rich asshole (Twitter)
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Officials in the rich asshole White House reportedly turned a blind eye to allegations of wife beating that prevented one White House employee from getting a permanent security clearance because they worried that the president’s daughter and son-in-law could be caught up in the firestorm.
Following the news that the FBI had refused to sign off on Rob Porter’s security clearance due to allegations of wife beating, The New York Times noted on Monday that President some rich asshole’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was one of dozens of officials in the White House who had not been able to pass an FBI background check for a permanent security clearance.
Kushner, like Porter, has made use of a temporary security clearance designed to only be used for a few months at the most.
According to the Times, White House staff failed to follow up on Porter’s clearance because they did not want to endanger Kushner and Ivanka the rich asshole.
People familiar with the security clearance process in some rich asshole’s White House said it was widely acknowledged among senior aides that raising questions about unresolved vetting issues in a staff member’s background would implicitly reflect on Mr. Kushner’s status, as well — a situation made more awkward because Mr. Kushner is married to the president’s daughter Ivanka.
Read the entire report here
FBI chief: the rich asshole hasn't directed me to stop Russian meddling in midterms
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 02/13/18 02:29 PM EST
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday said President the rich assholehasn’t directed him to stop Russian efforts to interfere in this year’s midterm elections.
“We’re taking a lot of specific efforts to blunt Russian efforts,” Wray said when Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) asked if he’d been directed by the rich asshole to do so.
“As directed by the president?” Reed interjected.
“Not as specifically directed by the president,” Wray responded.
Reed asked each official whether they had received specific direction from the rich asshole to blunt Russian meddling efforts during future elections. The officials indicated they had not received that directive from the president, but that the rich asshole expects them to carry out their intelligence duties, including getting ahead of threats from Russia and others.
Coats told the committee there “should be no doubt” that Russia believes it was successful in influencing the 2016 election and will target the 2018 election in a similar fashion.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is one of multiple congressional panels carrying out separate investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Special counsel Robert Mueller is leading a criminal investigation into the same subject.
POLITICS
One Year In, Betsy DeVos Has Supercharged Teacher Activism
“She was a wake-up call to everyone who was concerned about the future of public education.”
NEW YORK ― When Betsy DeVos was named education secretary last February, she become public education’s No. 1 enemy. After all, the billionaire is notorious for her desire to expand private school choice programs (which include many religious private schools that teach Christian fundamentalist doctrine).
One year into her tenure, educators have turned this opposition into action.
As in so many industries and among Democrats at large, there has been a wave of activism in response to President some rich asshole in the past year. In education, this activism has manifested as a renewed rallying around traditional public schools.
The Network for Public Education, an advocacy group, has seen membership shoot up to 330,000 members, compared to 22,000 members before DeVos was nominated. The previous year, membership had increased by only a fraction of that amount.
Polls have shown a decline in support for some of DeVos’ favorite types of schools. One poll from August showed that public enthusiasm for charter schools ― a type of public school that is privately operated and often has support from both parties ― is dropping. Another poll, from American Federation for Children, the education reform group DeVos used to head, found that overall support for the concept of “school choice” has been dropping too, although it remains high. (The AFC poll defines school choice as giving “parents the right to use the tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school which best serves their needs.”)
DeVos “was a wake-up call to everyone who was concerned about the future of public education,” Diane Ravitch, a former U.S. assistant secretary of education and founder of the Network for Public Education, said over breakfast in a Brooklyn neighborhood in January. “I’m actually glad [the rich asshole] chose her.”
Ravitch, who is writing a book about resistance to school privatization efforts, calls DeVos a “blessing in disguise.” For the first time in a decade, Ravitch said, she feels public schools are “gaining ground on the school privatization movement... and I don’t think it’s going to survive the scrutiny.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second largest teachers union, says she has also seen increased engagement among her members in the age of the rich asshole and DeVos ― especially as an upcoming Supreme Court case threatens to deal a major blow to union finances. She told HuffPost she has recently observed a string of local races where pro-public education advocates have prevailed. More members are showing up at town halls and regional meetings.
“You see a tremendous appetite to fight,” Weingarten said.
But she’s not cheery about the reasons for this increased engagement.
“What you also see, on the other side, is a brazen, non-hidden quest to just kill us, and to kill every bit of every tool that enables broad-based voice and opportunity,” she said.
Indeed, Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, says she is far more worried than she is optimistic about DeVos’ impact.
“The truth of the matter is, even though there is a heightened awareness and pushback, there is so much money on the other side that it is overwhelming,” said Burris, a former public school principal.
Despite widespread dislike for DeVos and some of her policies, these issues are still moving forward in many places. A majority of consequential education policy decisions are made at the state and local levels, especially as DeVos’ plans for more federal school choice have mostly stalled. Burris notes that groups like hers have seen an increase in monetary donations ― but “because there are so many Republican majorities in statehouses, they are seizing the day,” she said. “They are sponsoring legislation at a breakneck speed.”
Advocates for charter schools say they have seen some declining support from liberals, but support among centrists and conservatives has remained steady.
Peri Lynn Turnbull handles external relations and strategy at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. She says that while charter schools have become a harder sell in left-leaning, anti-the rich asshole states, she’s glad that overall it has become a more relevant issue. It has become challenging, though, to combat what she calls increased misinformation about what charter schools are and what they do.
“It’s elevated the conversation, for one. There’s no doubt about it,” said Turnbull, whose organization has also been critical of many of the rich asshole and DeVos’ signature priorities.
On the other hand, Lennie Jarratt of the Heartland Institute, a conservative and libertarian think tank, said there’s been an increase in private school choice legislation at the state level that “hadn’t happened like that in prior years.” Private school choice takes various forms ― whether through tax credits, vouchers, or education savings accounts ― but it generally helps parents subsidize a child’s enrollment in a private school. Opponents of private school choice say it drains public school systems of resources.
“Teachers unions pushed back harder probably than any other year against school choice,” Jarratt said. “The proponents of school choice [have] been just as vocal, and more vocal too.”
Jeanne Allen, head of the pro-charter and pro-voucher group Center for Education Reform, says that not having to advocate as much to get a voice with federal leaders has freed up her group to focus more on other issues.
She doesn’t believe that opposition to DeVos has had any lasting impact on the education field.
“She’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but when I talk to people from all walks of life, I get very little, I hear very little criticism,” Allen said. “I think the political fallout over her confirmation was a very, very small vocal minority of people who have any kind of lasting concerns.”
Homeland Security calls NBC report on election hacking 'false'
BY MORGAN CHALFANT - 02/12/18 12:12 PM EST
The Department of Homeland Security on Monday pushed back against a recent NBC News report claiming that Russian hackers “successfully penetrated” U.S. voter roles before the 2016 elections, calling it misleading.
“Recent NBC reporting has misrepresented facts and confused the public with regard to Department of Homeland Security and state and local government efforts to combat election hacking,” Jeanette Manfra, the department’s chief cybersecurity official, said in a statement.
The article published by NBC last week drew on an exclusive interview with Manfra, during which she told the publication that U.S. officials observed “a targeting of 21 states and an exceptionally small number of them were actually successfully penetrated.”
Citing her comments, NBC reported that Russia “successfully penetrated the voter registration rolls of several U.S. states” before the election.
In a statement, a spokesperson for NBC defended the network's reporting as accurate.
"It’s hard to believe DHS actually watched or read NBC’s report. Our story is accurate, and makes all of the very same points this statement accuses us of not making," the spokesperson said.
Manfra said Monday morning, "NBC News continues to falsely report my recent comments on attempted election hacking — which clearly mirror my testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee last summer — as some kind of 'breaking news,' incorrectly claiming a shift in the administration’s position on cyber threats."
“As I said eight months ago, a number of states were the target of Russian government cyber actors seeking vulnerabilities and access to U.S. election infrastructure,” she said.
Homeland Security has maintained that most of the pre-2016 targeting efforts involved mere preparations for hacking, like scanning for vulnerabilities, and were not ultimately successful.
Officials in both Illinois and Arizona have said that hackers tried to break into voter roles in their respective states. Hackers successfully accessed records on 200,000 Illinois voters by penetrating the state voter database. In Arizona, officials say that hackers successfully delivered malware to a county election official’s computer but that malicious actors never actually made it into the system.
Homeland Security notified all 21 states of the targeting efforts last September. Officials in some states have disputed the conclusions, saying that the evidence did not point to targeting of actual election infrastructure.
“NBC’s irresponsible reporting, which is being roundly criticized elsewhere in the media and by security experts alike, undermines the ability of the Department of Homeland Security, our partners at the Election Assistance Commission, and state and local officials across the nation to do our incredibly important jobs,” Manfra said.
Homeland Security is providing cyber scanning and other services to state officials who request it as part of its new critical infrastructure designation for voting systems and infrastructure. The department is also working to bolster threat intelligence sharing with election officials in states across the country.
Manfra’s statement on Monday came after the National Association of Secretaries of State, which represents a number of chief election officials, similarly criticized NBC for misleading reporting.
This post was updated at 12:56 p.m. to reflect a statement from NBC News.
FEBRUARY 12, 2018 / 8:04 PM / UPDATED A DAY AGO
the rich asshole tells Putin more steps needed to scrap North Korea nuclear program
·
“President the rich asshole reiterated the importance of taking further steps to ensure the denuclearization of North Korea,” the White House said in a statement about the call with Putin.
In an interview with Reuters last month, Trump accused Russia of helping North Korea evade international sanctions meant to punish Pyongyang for its pursuit of a nuclear-armed missile capable of reaching the United States.
“Russia is not helping us at all with North Korea,” Trump told Reuters.
Moscow denies it has failed to uphold U.N. sanctions.
Trump and Putin spoke after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, in an interview with the Washington Post, raised the prospect of talks with North Korea.
But Pence, who traveled to South Korea for the Winter Olympics, also said Washington would intensify its “maximum pressure campaign” against Pyongyang until it takes a “meaningful step toward denuclearization.”
Last year, North Korea conducted dozens of missile launches and its sixth and largest nuclear test in defiance of U.N. resolutions.
Russia signed on to the latest rounds of United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea imposed last year, including a ban on coal exports, which are an important source of the foreign currency Pyongyang needs to fund its nuclear program.
But North Korea shipped coal to Russia at least three times last year after the ban was put in place on Aug. 5, three Western European intelligence sources told Reuters.
The North Korean coal was shipped to the Russian ports of Nakhodka and Kholmsk, where it was unloaded at docks and reloaded onto ships that took it to South Korea or Japan, the sources said.
Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Eric Walsh and Peter Cooney
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