February 15th-16th, 2017. It's been 460-461 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no. 45, and 388-389 days the Jan 20th inauguration.
Parkland survivor slams GOP for shrugging off dead kids — but freaking out over ‘rainbow wedding cakes’
Cameron Kasky on CNN -- screenshot
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Speaking with CNN host Anderson Cooper, a survivor of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, lambasted Republicans who sell their votes to the NRA — taking specific aim at his Republican U.S. senator and governor.
According to Cameron Kasky, there were many heroes at the Florida high school where former student Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people on Wednesday — but he sees no heroism in the words of Republicans who only offer their “thought and prayers.”
“I’ve never been to a school after a shooting like this where I’ve met so many students talking about issues of guns when so many politicians are saying now is not the time to talk about the it,” host Cooper began.
“Everybody has done an amazing job responding to this: the Stoneman Douglas community, the Parkland community — everyone is supportive and grieving and inspired,” Kasky replied. “We’re going to use this to try to make something better out of it.”
“Do you think change is possible in terms of the kind of change you want?” the CNN host asked.
“Everything I’ve heard where we can’t do anything and it’s out of our hands and it’s inevitable, I think that’s a facade that the GOP is putting up,” He replied before turning on the NRA. “After every shooting the NRA sends a memo saying ‘send your thoughts and prayers.’ This is the only country where this kind of thing happens. I’ve heard from other people, they don’t have gun drills. We had to prepare extensively at Stoneman Douglas. This is something that can be stopped and will be stopped.”
“There is a segment of this society that will shrug this off and send their thoughts and prayers but march for hours over a rainbow wedding cake” he added.
“Do you worry, a week from now when the media moves on, that this will become another in a long line of tragedies?” Cooper pressed.
“That was the thought I had. I’m not worried,” Kasky stated. “This can be stopped — this needs to be stopped.”
“For those saying ‘thoughts and prayers and this is not the time to talk about guns,” Cooper asked.
“This is the time to talk about guns,” Kasky immediately replied. “But there’s much more that can be done, much more that needs to be done and much more that people like Sen Marco Rubio and Governor Rick Scott are not doing. It’s scary to think these are the people who are making our laws when our community just took 17 bullets to the heart. It feels like the only people who don’t care are the people making the laws.”
“There is a segment of this society that will shrug this off and send their thoughts and prayers but march for hours over a rainbow wedding cake,” he later added.
Watch the video below via CNN:
Fox News guest tells blatant lie about gun show loophole, host makes no attempt to correct him
Matt Schlapp chairs the influence American Conservative Union, hosts of the annual CPAC gathering
After mass shootings like Wednesday’s tragic Parkland, Florida attack, gun violence prevention advocates often urge legislation to require universal background checks for gun purchases, closing a longstanding loophole that allows private sales at gun shows without one. And members of the Republican majority in Congress typically dismiss these suggestions as unlikely to have prevented the particular attack. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), for example, said Thursday, “Usually at about this time, we hear about the gun show loophole, fine, close the gun show loophole, but how many mass killings have resulted from guns purchased at gun shows?”
But frequent Fox News guest and American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp took a different approach on Fox & Friends Friday morning, actually claiming that the gun show loophole does not even exist — a position contradicted by his own group’s actions.
Another guest on the show, former Missouri state Representative Don Calloway (D), urged action to prevent future mass shootings and accurately noted that “We have gun show loopholes throughout this country.”
“That is not true,” Schlapp responded.
Calloway answered, “That is absolutely true. You can go into any gun show in many states in this country, 30 states and buy a gun without a significant background check.”
“That is not true,” Schlapp repeated. “That’s not accurate.”
Host Steve Doocy made no attempt to correct Schlapp’s obviously false statements, changing the subject to the need to make it easier for kids to report suspicious classmates.
Watch:
The irony is that part of the reason for the gun show loophole’s continued existence is the efforts of Schlapp and his organization to fight efforts to close it and any other forms of “gun control.” Indeed, a 2014 New Mexico legislative scorecard — bearing Schlapp’s own signature on the second page — explicitly opposed that state’s efforts to rectify the problem: “HB 77 Second Amendment. This bill requires a background check for the transfer of a firearm at a gun show. ACU opposes restricting Second Amendment rights and opposed this bill. The bill passed the House on February 13, 2013 by a vote of 43-26.”
If Sclapp really believed background checks were already required for private sales at background checks, as he claimed on Friday, it is hard to image why he would negatively score such a vote on his legislative scorecard.
The gun show loophole is alive and well in Florida. With some of the weakest gun laws in the country, the state does not even require an ID to purchase a gun, making it easier to obtain a firearm than to vote.
While the American Conservative Union may not be a household name, it is the multi-million dollar tax-exempt operation behind the annual CPAC conference. The gathering attracts conservative leaders including President some rich asshole, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), and the National Rifle Association’s leadership.
the rich asshole: Dems 'totally abandoned' 'Dreamers'
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 02/16/18 10:09 AM EST
President the rich asshole on Friday accused Democrats of abandoning young immigrants after the Senate rejected three separate immigration bills a day earlier.
"Cannot believe how BADLY DACA recipients have been treated by the Democrats...totally abandoned!" the rich asshole tweeted, referring to the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. "Republicans are still working hard."
Cannot believe how BADLY DACA recipients have been treated by the Democrats...totally abandoned! Republicans are still working hard.
The president's tweet came a day after senators rejected three proposals that would have resolved the fate of the "Dreamers" — young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
DACA temporarily shielded Dreamers from deportation and gave them permission to work in the U.S. But the rich asshole rescinded the program in September, giving lawmakers until March 5 to work out a legislative fix for the program recipients.
But three bills that sought to address the matter were voted down in the Senate on Thursday.
The measure that received the most votes was a centrist compromise bill, which would have established a path to citizenship for Dreamers while setting aside roughly $25 billion for the rich asshole's proposed border wall. That bill got 54 votes — six short of the 60 it needed to avoid a filibuster and pass.
the rich asshole, however, refused to back any proposal other than his own, which was sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). That measure would have created a pathway to citizenship for the Dreamers but also sought to curb legal immigration. It received only 39 votes in the Senate.
the rich asshole to visit Parkland, site of Florida school shooting
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 02/16/18 09:50 AM EST
President the rich asshole said he will make a Friday visit to Parkland, Fla., where a gunman killed 17 people at a high school in the latest mass shooting that has stunned the nation.
“I will be leaving for Florida today to meet with some of the bravest people on earth — but people whose lives have been totally shattered. Am also working with Congress on many fronts,” the president tweeted.
The stop comes two days after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and during a previously scheduled visit to Florida for Presidents Day weekend.
the rich asshole on Thursday had said that he planned to meet with families and local officials and “continue coordinating the federal response.”
The president urged Americans to “answer hate with love; answer cruelty with kindness” after a 19-year-old former pupil shot and killed students and faculty at the school.
But the rich asshole is facing mounting pressure to address calls to tighten the nation’s gun laws following the deadliest U.S. school shooting in five years.
The president made no mention of the topic Thursday during his first public remarks on the shooting, though he did pledge to address mental health issues and school security.
The suspected shooter legally purchased the high-powered AR-15 rifle used in the attack, his family said. He reportedly had a history of making threatening social media posts and was expelled from the high school last year for fighting.
Wednesday’s massacre has again forced the rich asshole to assume the role of consoler-in-chief, an agonizing duty that the past three presidents have had to carry out with increasing frequency.
The president and first lady Melania the rich asshole visited a Las Vegas hospital last October to console victims and first responders who were caught in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, which occurred when a gunman cut down 58 people at an open-air concert.
The Florida shooting caused the White House to scramble the president’s schedule.
the rich asshole scrapped a planned trip to Orlando, Fla., on Friday to tout his infrastructure plan and will no longer attend a campaign rally next Wednesday in Pennsylvania.
But the president is still planning to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., following the school visit.
Ex-Playmate who says she had affair with the rich asshole details cover-up efforts: report
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 02/16/18 08:24 AM EST
A former Playboy centerfold who alleged that she had an affair with President the rich asshole more than a decade ago said in a new interview that a purported effort to cover-up the story by the National Enquirer took her "rights away."
The model, Karen McDougal, told The New Yorker that she felt like she could not so much as even mention the rich asshole's name after the Enquirer paid $150,000 for her story about the alleged affair and then withheld it from publication.
"At this point I feel I can’t talk about anything without getting into trouble, because I don’t know what I’m allowed to talk about," she told the publication. "I’m afraid to even mention his name."
McDougal claims that she had an affair with the rich asshole in 2006, while he was married to his current wife, first lady Melania the rich asshole.
The Wall Street Journal reported in November 2016 that American Media, Inc., the company that owns the Enquirer, paid McDougal $150,000 for her story about the alleged affair with the rich asshole, and then never published it.
Instead, the company reached an agreement with McDougal to author a regular column about aging and fitness, though that deal largely went unfulfilled after the rich asshole won the White House, according to the New Yorker.
AMI's chairman and CEO, David Pecker, is friendly with the rich asshole.
A White House spokesperson denied the alleged affair, calling the allegations from McDougal "fake news."
"This is an old story that is just more fake news," the spokesman told The New Yorker. "The President says he never had a relationship with McDougal."
McDougal reportedly recorded her affair with the rich asshole in a handwritten document obtained by The New Yorker. McDougal confirmed to the magazine that the handwriting was hers.
The former Playboy model's comments on the alleged affair came roughly a month after The Wall Street Journal reported that Michael Cohen, a personal lawyer for the rich asshole, paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 not to go public with allegations that she had a sexual encounter with the rich asshole in 2005.
the rich asshole has denied having an affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Cohen acknowledged in a statement to The New York Times this week that he did, in fact, pay Clifford $130,000, but insisted that the payment came from his own money.
"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," Cohen said in the statement. "The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone."
GOP looks for Plan B after failure of immigration measures
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 02/16/18 06:03 AM EST
Republicans are looking for a Plan B on immigration after a series of proposals were rejected Thursday in the Senate, leaving little time to act before nearly 1 million immigrants who came to the country illegally as children could face deportation.
Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, is floating a proposal to extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program indefinitely in exchange for $25 billion for border security.
President the rich asshole has opposed any deal that does not also include changes to two legal immigration programs, however.
It is also far from clear that conservatives in the House would go along with the plan. GOP leaders in that chamber are trying to build support for a harder-line bill, though an initial version has come up short in whipping efforts.
Still, GOP lawmakers are taking a close look at new ideas after legislation based on the rich asshole’s framework for an immigration deal won just 39 votes on Thursday — fewer than two other proposals. (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.] also backed the measure, but changed his vote for procedural reasons.)
“People are talking about it quietly but not in front of the whole group yet,” a Republican senator said of conversations about a backstop.
GOP lawmakers acknowledge that the rich asshole would need to endorse any fallback plan for it to have a chance of passing.
And such a turnaround seemed unlikely on Thursday, as the rich asshole and the Department of Homeland Security railed against proposals falling short of his goals.
the rich asshole, who just last month said he would sign any bill a group of senators sent to him, increasingly appears to be siding with immigration hard-liners in his administration, such as top White House aide Stephen Miller.
But after the failure of the bill based on the rich asshole’s four-point proposal, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the president needs to retrench his expectations.
“The thing I like about [the Thune–Portman–Moran] proposal is it’s a two-pillar proposal,” he said.
The new GOP proposal, floated within hours of the failed votes, is also backed by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.). It would subject the Obama-era program shielding about 700,000 people from deportation to two-year renewal periods, according to a GOP source familiar with the proposal.
Such a bargain would extend “permanent protection to today’s Dreamers who are facing an uncertain future and finally [take] a meaningful step toward enhancing border security,” Thune said, referring to the immigrants covered by DACA.
the rich asshole is demanding that a deal include $25 billion for his border wall, but the GOP plan would instead establish a $25 billion trust fund for border security and cap outlays at $5 billion a year.
Portman called it “a sensible and fair solution is to codify the protections for the DACA population that puts “in place stronger border security measures consistent with the president’s proposal.”
Separately, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) is shopping around another proposal that would extend DACA for three years in exchange for three years of bolstered border security funding.
That measure looks like a stretch — at least partly because of the retiring Flake’s poor relationship with the rich asshole.
the rich asshole isn’t the only hurdle that the Thune measure would face.
Senate Democrats seem very unlikely to back a package that includes $25 billion for border security and no pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. It would represent a significant step back from a deal put together by centrist senators from both parties this week, though that effort also failed to win a supermajority of 60 votes.
“Yeah, everything they wanted on the wall and next to nothing for Dreamers,” a Senate Democratic leadership aide said, waving aside the idea.
It will also be opposed by some Senate Republicans.
Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who has been in the middle of immigration talks, called the Thune idea “a fallback position,” but called for broader reform.
“Here’s the problem, it doesn’t end the cause of this and incentivizes a whole new generation of parents to bring their kids in illegally,” he said. “That’s the part that Democrats just really don’t want to face up.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) told reporters Thursday that a permanent fix for illegal immigrants who came to the country at a young age would be preferable.
He described himself as “hesitant” to embrace a temporary fix.
“It would be better for the people who are in the DACA program as well as better for our immigration system to have a permanent solution,” Cotton said.
“Part of the problem that people in the DACA program explain is when they only have one year, two years, three years of certainty, it’s hard for them to make big life decisions: to change a job, to move, to sign a mortgage,” he said.
the rich asshole’s preferred framework also includes language reducing the weight of family relationships in decisions to grant green cards, and overhauling the diversity visa lottery program.
the rich asshole gave Congress a March 5 deadline to replace DACA, but some lawmakers say they really have until June to come up with a solution because two federal judges have issued injunctions ordering the rich asshole administration to keep DACA in place, at least temporarily.
“It’s no longer a reality the deadline is March 5,” said Cotton.
Cotton said the Supreme Court is not likely to rule on the issue until June and could even postpone it until the fall session, setting up a ruling around the time of the midterm elections.
Republican senators say the most likely way for a fallback measure to reach the rich asshole would be for it to be attached to an omnibus spending package Congress must pass before a March 23 deadline.
Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (Texas) told reporters that he didn't see an immigration backstop plan getting dedicated floor time. He said it might be possible to attach something to the omnibus, however.
Jordain Carney contributed.
How many people have been paid off to cover up the rich asshole's past? And how much will it cost to keep them quiet?
More evidence of the rich asshole’s long history of reckless behavior emerged Friday morning, with the New Yorker reporting that the rich asshole had an affair with a Playboy model while married in 2006.
More importantly, the woman, Karen McDougal, last year signed a $150,000 contract with the publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, a close friend of the rich asshole, who then made sure the story about the affair was never published. The contract also made sure the McDougal couldn’t discuss the matter publicly.
That payoff looks an awful lot like the $130,000 hush money payment the rich asshole’s personal attorney made to a porn actress on the eve of the 2016 election. In 2011, she had discussed her affair with the rich asshole. But the 2016 payment barred her from doing so going forward.
In the wake of the rich asshole’s attorney conceding he made the $130,000 payment, the actress, Stormy Daniels, is now threatening to go public with her story.
For the rich asshole, it all points to an elaborate system he and his handlers have in place to cover up embarrassing information about his past. However, it also exposes the possibility that the rich asshole can be blackmailed because key players know embarrassing secrets about his past.
Indeed, at the National Enquirer, stockpiling dirt on famous people is a common practice. “Pecker also used the unpublished stories as ‘leverage’ over some celebrities in order to pressure them to pose for his magazines or feed him stories,” one former employee told The New Yorker.
“These dirty stories about high-profile individuals would be used as leverage over these individuals,” New Yorker writer Ronan Farrow told “Good Morning America” Friday. “Obviously, national security implications here when that happens to be the president.”
Incredibly, this is a White House drowning in blackmail possibilities.
Recall that the reason the White House recently became engulfed in controversy over a top aide who was accused of abusing his ex-wives is because he could not land a security clearance in part because of the fear that he could be blackmailed over the explosive allegations of abuse.
And the reason then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates arrived at the White House just days after the rich asshole was inaugurated last year was to warn the staff that national security adviser Michael Flynn, by lying about his previous contacts with Russian operatives, was now susceptible to blackmail because the Russians knew he had lied.
And during the 2016 campaign, Christopher Steele, the former British spy who was hired to chronicle the rich asshole’s salacious dealings with the Russians, was so alarmed by what he found that he contacted the FBI because he feared that if elected, the rich asshole could be blackmailed by Russia.
An awful lot of people seem to have an awful lot of dirt on the rich asshole and his associates. Keeping them quiet raises all kinds of national security problems for this White House.
the rich asshole’s Stormy Daniels problem gets worse
BY JONATHAN EASLEY - 02/16/18 06:06 AM EST
President the rich asshole’s Stormy Daniels problem is getting worse.
The porn star, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says she is ready to spill the beans about a 2006 extramarital sexual encounter with the president now that Michael Cohen, the president’s personal attorney, has acknowledged he paid her $130,000 to not discuss the allegations publicly.
The porn star, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says she is ready to spill the beans about a 2006 extramarital sexual encounter with the president now that Michael Cohen, the president’s personal attorney, has acknowledged he paid her $130,000 to not discuss the allegations publicly.
Cohen, who spent years leading the legal team at the rich asshole Organization, has in the past described himself as the president’s “fix-it guy.”
A lawyer for Clifford says Cohen violated their nondisclosure agreement and that she’s preparing to tell the story in full. “Everything is off now and Stormy is going to tell her story,” said Gina Rodriguez, an attorney for Clifford.
Clifford’s accusations bring unwanted scrutiny to the Trumps' private life, and could also have legal ramifications.
Clifford’s accusations bring unwanted scrutiny to the Trumps' private life, and could also have legal ramifications.
A liberal watchdog group has filed complaints with the Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission alleging that Cohen’s payment to Clifford runs afoul of campaign finance laws, although GOP lawyers are dismissive of the claims.
It’s another political headache for the White House at a time when the administration is dealing with the enduring controversy over a senior aide who resigned amid accusations he abused his ex-wives.
Republicans are worried that the White House’s stumbling response to that controversy will further erode their standing with women ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
It’s another political headache for the White House at a time when the administration is dealing with the enduring controversy over a senior aide who resigned amid accusations he abused his ex-wives.
Republicans are worried that the White House’s stumbling response to that controversy will further erode their standing with women ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
As a result, more news about a possible presidential affair with a porn star, which allegedly took place shortly after first lady Melania the rich assholegave birth, is unwelcome.
“It’s one more example of the rich asshole disrespecting women, both his wife and the woman he had an affair with and then tried to buy her silence,” said Jennifer Lawless, who leads American University’s Women and Politics Institute.
“the rich asshole’s level of support among women voters has gone down and these issues have a lot to do with it. But more importantly for Republicans, it drives up Democratic turnout that leads to the kinds of outcomes we saw recently in Virginia.”
“the rich asshole’s level of support among women voters has gone down and these issues have a lot to do with it. But more importantly for Republicans, it drives up Democratic turnout that leads to the kinds of outcomes we saw recently in Virginia.”
Rumors of Clifford’s allegations had been bubbling under the surface for some time in celebrity gossip magazines.
The story burst back onto the scene in January when The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen had given Clifford hush money shortly before the campaign.
Clifford began making the rounds in the media but would not confirm or deny whether the affair took place.
Clifford’s attorney circulated a statement with her name on it denying the affair, but in a subsequent interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," the actress strongly implied that the statement was not true and that the encounter did take place.
This week, Cohen told The New York Times that he made the payment but that he acted alone and was not reimbursed for it.
the rich asshole’s allies are dismissing the controversy as another media-generated distraction that will have zero impact on the president’s broader support, which has ticked up in recent weeks as voters have warmed to the GOP tax bill.
“The media’s ability to impact public sentiment has been so completely diminished that this will have no impact on the rich asshole’s numbers,” said a former the rich asshole transition adviser.
The story burst back onto the scene in January when The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen had given Clifford hush money shortly before the campaign.
Clifford began making the rounds in the media but would not confirm or deny whether the affair took place.
Clifford’s attorney circulated a statement with her name on it denying the affair, but in a subsequent interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," the actress strongly implied that the statement was not true and that the encounter did take place.
This week, Cohen told The New York Times that he made the payment but that he acted alone and was not reimbursed for it.
the rich asshole’s allies are dismissing the controversy as another media-generated distraction that will have zero impact on the president’s broader support, which has ticked up in recent weeks as voters have warmed to the GOP tax bill.
“The media’s ability to impact public sentiment has been so completely diminished that this will have no impact on the rich asshole’s numbers,” said a former the rich asshole transition adviser.
“Nothing the mainstream media is talking about is at the forefront of the thoughts of most Americans, and Melania has learned from experience that the media makes up all kinds of ugly stories.”
Privately, some of the rich asshole’s allies are questioning Clifford’s integrity, pointing to her background in adult films and the statement released by her attorney denying the affair.
And they argue that the public will shrug off the controversy, as voters knew what they were getting when they elected a reality television star as president.
“Nobody thought they were electing a priest,” said Sam Nunberg, a former the rich asshole campaign aide.
Frank Cannon, the president of the conservative American Principle Project, said the evangelical voters that make up a substantial portion of the rich asshole’s base would stick by him. The Christian right has been thrilled by the rich asshole, believing he has delivered on his campaign promises.
“Evangelicals and conservatives have fallen for guys who talk right about the issues — we’ve elected them time and again and we didn’t get anything out of it,” Cannon said. “This is a guy who comes from a crass political world. He doesn’t have the rhetoric or the biography so he knows he has to deliver for us to keep our support and he’s done that.”
“This is not a guy I want to be my pastor,” Cannon added. “But being a pastor isn’t the job. I’m not sure my pastor can deliver politically like the rich asshole has.”
Cohen’s admission that he paid Clifford out of his own pocket appeared to be aimed at putting to rest questions about whether the president or his campaign was involved.
Privately, some of the rich asshole’s allies are questioning Clifford’s integrity, pointing to her background in adult films and the statement released by her attorney denying the affair.
And they argue that the public will shrug off the controversy, as voters knew what they were getting when they elected a reality television star as president.
“Nobody thought they were electing a priest,” said Sam Nunberg, a former the rich asshole campaign aide.
Frank Cannon, the president of the conservative American Principle Project, said the evangelical voters that make up a substantial portion of the rich asshole’s base would stick by him. The Christian right has been thrilled by the rich asshole, believing he has delivered on his campaign promises.
“Evangelicals and conservatives have fallen for guys who talk right about the issues — we’ve elected them time and again and we didn’t get anything out of it,” Cannon said. “This is a guy who comes from a crass political world. He doesn’t have the rhetoric or the biography so he knows he has to deliver for us to keep our support and he’s done that.”
“This is not a guy I want to be my pastor,” Cannon added. “But being a pastor isn’t the job. I’m not sure my pastor can deliver politically like the rich asshole has.”
Cohen’s admission that he paid Clifford out of his own pocket appeared to be aimed at putting to rest questions about whether the president or his campaign was involved.
Individual donors are restricted to giving $2,700. The watchdog group Common Cause, in separate complaints filed with the Justice Department and the FEC, alleged that the $130,000 was tantamount to in-kind campaign contribution.
Common Cause says the payment is illegal even if it did not come from the rich asshole or the campaign because Cohen was acting as “an agent of then-candidate the rich asshole.”
Conservative lawyers dismissed the claims as a cheap effort to keep the story in the news.
As a well-known celebrity businessman, the rich asshole has countless reasons to protect his reputation that extend beyond the campaign, conservative legal experts say.
“If you believe individuals would try to obtain settlements from a rich celebrity like some rich asshole irrespective of his candidacy, then this payment has no FEC implication,” said Charlie Spies, a GOP lawyer.
Larry Klayman, a lawyer and founder of a conservative watchdog group, echoed that sentiment, saying that FEC complaints rarely gain traction and that there is nothing illegal about paying to protect one’s reputation. Klayman said he doubts the Justice Department complaint will go anywhere either.
“The rich asshole Justice Department and attorney general Jeff Sessions have had a hard enough time investigating Clinton and the Democrats,” he said. “It’s all Washington Kabuki theater.”
Some have likened the controversy to the government’s prosecution of former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards. In that instance, the government failed to convince a jury that payments connected to an affair were considered regulated campaign contributions or expenditures.
Common Cause says the payment is illegal even if it did not come from the rich asshole or the campaign because Cohen was acting as “an agent of then-candidate the rich asshole.”
Conservative lawyers dismissed the claims as a cheap effort to keep the story in the news.
As a well-known celebrity businessman, the rich asshole has countless reasons to protect his reputation that extend beyond the campaign, conservative legal experts say.
“If you believe individuals would try to obtain settlements from a rich celebrity like some rich asshole irrespective of his candidacy, then this payment has no FEC implication,” said Charlie Spies, a GOP lawyer.
Larry Klayman, a lawyer and founder of a conservative watchdog group, echoed that sentiment, saying that FEC complaints rarely gain traction and that there is nothing illegal about paying to protect one’s reputation. Klayman said he doubts the Justice Department complaint will go anywhere either.
“The rich asshole Justice Department and attorney general Jeff Sessions have had a hard enough time investigating Clinton and the Democrats,” he said. “It’s all Washington Kabuki theater.”
Some have likened the controversy to the government’s prosecution of former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards. In that instance, the government failed to convince a jury that payments connected to an affair were considered regulated campaign contributions or expenditures.
Karen McDougal the rich asshole claims – Playboy model claims she had nine-month affair with US president… which was ‘covered up’ by the National Enquirer
The model claims a newspaper run by the US president's pal bought the exclusive rights to the story and then buried it
A PLAYBOY model has claimed she had nine-month affair with some rich asshole which was then “covered up” by a newspaper – claims both he and the paper strongly deny.
The US president met former Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal at a party for “The Apprentice” in 2006 while married to his wife Melania, according to an explosive report.
McDougal told The New Yorker in a hand-written note that the rich asshole “immediately took a liking to me, kept talking to me – telling me how beautiful I was etc.
“It was so obvious that a Playmate Promotions executive said, ‘Wow, he was all over you – I think you could be his next wife.”
She said she was initially wowed by the rich asshole, writing: “I was so nervous! I was into his intelligence and charm – such a polite man.
“We talked for a couple hours, then it was ‘ON’! We got naked and had sex.”
But McDougal claimed she was stunned when the rich asshole offered her money as she was getting dressed after their romp.
She wrote: “I looked at him (and felt sad) and said, ‘No thanks – I’m not ‘that girl.’
“I slept with you because I like you – NOT for money’.
“He told me, ‘you are special,’.”
She also claimed the National Enquirer – run by a pal of the US president – helped to cover up the scandal.
The paper paid $150,000 (£107,000) for the exclusive rights to the story, but then never published it.
The publication is quoted as saying it decided not to run with the story because it didn’t find it credible.
But the New Yorker highlighted the “catch and kill” tactic allegedly favoured by editor David Pecker, in which publishers pay for exclusive stories and then bury them.
McDougal wrote that after their first tryst she “went to see him every time he was in LA (which was a lot)”.
the rich asshole eventually introduced her to members of his family and took her to his private homes, including at the rich asshole Tower, where he pointed out Melania’s separate bedroom, McDougal claimed.
She claimed he “said she liked her space, to read or be alone”.
During a 2007 party for the rich asshole Vodka in Los Angeles, she said she was sat at a table with The rich asshole, some rich asshole Jr, his pregnant wife Vanessa and Kim Kardashian.
some rich asshole Affair With Playboy Model Karen McDougal Detailed in Ronan Farrow New Yorker Piece
CREDIT: REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
some rich asshole engaged in elaborate efforts to cover his tracks while having multiple extramarital affairs, according to Ronan Farrow’s latest blockbuster report in the New Yorker.
The story relies heavily on the firsthand account of Karen McDougal, a former Playmate of the Year, who recounts her consensual affair with the current president before he was elected. The White House called the report “fake news,” its default response to unflattering stories. Farrow obtained an eight-page, handwritten note from McDougal’s friend detailing their relationship. McDougal confirmed that it is her handwriting in the letter.
The media industry has been abuzz with speculation about the target of Farrow’s latest investigation ever since word broke on the Drudge Report this month that he was readying another deep dive into sexual misconduct among the powerful. Farrow, along with New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, helped uncover Harvey Weinstein’s alleged decades of harassment and sexual abuse.
The story may attract attention not for the revelation that President the rich asshole was involved in an affair before he was elected to the office, but for its presentation of details of how he kept such relationships quiet and how he attempted to buy the silence of the women with whom he interacted. Central to these efforts were the close relationship that the rich asshole maintained with American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer. The gossip publication paid McDougal $150,000 for the exclusive rights to the story of her affair with the rich asshole, but killed the piece. It also contracted her to write a fitness column. And the piece claims the company has approached McDougal about extending her agreement after news broke that Stormy Daniels had been paid not to discuss her own alleged affair with the president.
“It took my rights away,” McDougal told Farrow. “At this point, I feel I can’t talk about anything without getting into trouble, because I don’t know what I’m allowed to talk about. I’m afraid to even mention his name.”
During the affair, the rich asshole also took pains to avoid leaving a paper trail. When he would travel with McDougal, he would have her book and pay for her own flights before reimbursing her.
the rich asshole was obsessed with his accomplishments, sending McDougal favorable articles about his businesses and showering her with merchandise from his golf courses, according to Farrow’s article. The nine-month affair with McDougal ended in April 2007. the rich asshole was married to his current wife, Melania, during the time.
the rich asshole’s alleged infidelities have been public knowledge for years, and his tight relationship with AMI and its chief David Pecker have also been the subject of articles, but Farrow’s story implies that the Enquirer functioned as a veritable protection racket for the president. Jerry George, a former AMI senior editor, told the New Yorker that the company never published anything about the rich asshole without his approval.
Pecker also maintained a close relationship with Weinstein, and offered to buy rights to the story of one of his accusers as a possible means of silencing her, according to a report in the New York Times.
Bombshell report emerges of alleged the rich asshole affair with Playboy model
some rich asshole had an affair with former Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal — whom he met at a party for “The Apprentice” in 2006 while married to his current wife, Melania, according to an explosive report Friday that details the great lengths to which the future president went to conceal his alleged indiscretions from the press.
McDougal wrote in an eight-page, handwritten note — which her friend John Crawford shared with the New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow — that the rich asshole “immediately took a liking to me, kept talking to me — telling me how beautiful I was etc.
“It was so obvious that a Playmate Promotions exec said, ‘Wow, he was all over you — I think you could be his next wife,’” according to the piece, titled “some rich asshole, a Playboy Model, and a System for Concealing Infidelity.”
She said she was initially wowed by the rich asshole.
“I was so nervous! I was into his intelligence + charm. Such a polite man,” she wrote. “We talked for a couple hours — then, it was ‘ON’! We got naked + had sex.”
But McDougal added that she was stunned when the rich asshole offered her money as she was getting dressed after their romp.
“I looked at him (+ felt sad) + said, ‘No thanks — I’m not ‘that girl.’ I slept w/you because I like you — NOT for money’ — He told me ‘you are special,’” she wrote, according to Farrow’s account.
McDougal wrote that after their first tryst, she “went to see him every time he was in LA (which was a lot).”
the rich asshole eventually introduced her to members of his family and took her to his private homes, including at the rich asshole Tower, where he pointed out Melania’s separate bedroom, McDougal claimed.
He “said she liked her space,” McDougal said, “to read or be alone.”
During a 2007 party for the rich asshole Vodka in Los Angeles, she said, she was seated at a table with The rich asshole, some rich asshole Jr., his pregnant wife, Vanessa, and Kim Kardashian.
And at an “Apprentice” bash at the Playboy Mansion, McDougal said, the rich asshole told her he had asked his son Eric “who he thought was the most beautiful girl here + Eric pointed me. Mr. T said ‘He has great taste’ + we laughed!”
McDougal ended their nine-month affair in April 2007, according to the article.
The White House said in a statement that the rich asshole denies having had an affair with McDougal.
“This is an old story that is just more fake news. The president says he never had a relationship with McDougal,” a spokesman told the New Yorker.
The story comes as porn star Stormy Daniels is planning a tell-all about her own tryst with the rich asshole.
Seduce and destroy: President the rich asshole 'had affair' with Playboy Playmate three months after Melania gave birth and allegedly tried to pay her for sex before 'silencing her with $150k NDA'
· Karen McDougal says she met some rich asshole at a Playboy Mansion party in 2006
A Playboy Playmate who claims that she had a year-long affair with President some rich asshole is sharing new details about how the real estate scion used his money and power to get her in bed and then ensure her silence.
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Karen McDougal, Playboy Playmate, claims she had an affair with the rich asshole: Report
<blockquote class="repubhubembed"><p class="rhexcerpt">A new woman alleges she had an extramarital affair with President Trump in 2006, according to a Friday report in the New Yorker. Former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal said that she met Mr. Trump at the Playboy Mansion after he taped an episode of his reality show "The Apprentice" on the grounds. Famed publisher Hugh Hefner…<!--more--></p><style scoped>.repubhubembed{display:none;}</style></blockquote>
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Report details Playboy model and the rich asshole's alleged affair and coverup
Last Updated Feb 16, 2018 10:01 AM EST
The New Yorker is reporting new details of an alleged 2006 affair between President the rich asshole and a former Playboy model -- and how it was allegedly covered up. The magazine cites a report that American Media Inc. paid former model Karen McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story before the 2016 election.
Former AMI employees told the magazine that the company's CEO, David Pecker, routinely purchases, then does not print, negative stories – a practice known as "catch and kill."
Pecker is a friend of some rich asshole.
A spokesperson for AMI said McDougal's story was never published because it was not deemed credible.
A White House spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News that some rich asshole denies having had an affair with McDougal.
"This is an old story that is just more fake news," the spokesperson said.
The story comes the same week after Stormy Daniels, the porn star whom some rich asshole's attorney acknowledges paying $130,000 just before Election Day, believes she is now free to discuss an alleged sexual encounter with the man who is now president.
At the same time, developments in the bizarre case fueled questions about whether such a payment could violate federal campaign finance laws.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, believes that some rich asshole's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, invalidated a non-disclosure agreement after two news stories were published Tuesday: one in which Cohen told The New York Times he made the six-figure payment with his personal funds, and another in the Daily Beast, which reported that Cohen was shopping a book proposal that would touch on Daniels' story, said the manager, Gina Rodriguez.
"Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story," Rodriguez told her manager told The Associated Press Wednesday.
© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Former Playboy model claims she had an affair with the rich asshole, report says
President some rich asshole and his allies concealed an affair with a former Playboy model through secret meetings, payoffs and legal arrangements, according to a report published Friday in The New Yorker.
Karen McDougal, a former Playboy Playmate of the Year, documented her alleged nine-month affair with the rich asshole in an eight-page handwritten note shared with The New Yorker.
McDougal, 46, claims the rich asshole once offered to pay her after they had sex in a private bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, the location of most of their purported liaisons. She alleges the rich asshole tried to avoid creating a record that might expose their relationship by having her pay for her own flights and then reimbursing her.
Alleged affair between the rich asshole and Playboy model a decade ago resurfaces 0:42
A White House spokesperson said the rich asshole denied having an affair with McDougal: “This is an old story that is just more fake news. The President says he never had a relationship with McDougal.”
McDougal confirmed to The New Yorker a Wall Street Journal report that said American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, agreed to pay her $150,000 for her story but then did not publish it.
David Pecker, the CEO and chairman of AMI, is a the rich asshole supporter who has reportedly described the president as a “personal friend.” Six former AMI employees told The New Yorker that Pecker often purchases a story in order to bury it — a tabloid industry practice called “catch and kill.”
A spokesman for AMI did not immediately return a request for comment from NBC News.
The revelations in The New Yorker come just days after a personal lawyer for the rich asshole, Michael Cohen, confirmed he paid $130,000 to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, who has claimed she had an affair with the rich asshole.
Cohen has strongly denied that the rich asshole had an affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Daniels’ manager, Gina Rodriguez, said her client now feels free to “tell her story” because she believes Cohen invalidated a non-disclosure agreement.
McDougal, who was Playboy Playmate of the Year in 1998, met the rich asshole at a party at the Playboy Mansion in June 2006; they purportedly started sleeping together soon after. At the time, the rich asshole had been married to Melania the rich asshole for less than two years.
McDougal describes her relationship with the rich asshole as consensual. The president has been accused by 16 other women of sexual misconduct — allegations that he vehemently denies.
She told The New Yorker she ended the relationship in April 2007. That decision was reinforced after the rich asshole insulted McDougal’s mother and made a racially derogatory comment about one of her friends, several of McDougal’s friends told the magazine.
Former Playboy model Karen McDougal had 2006 affair with the rich asshole — but agreement kept her silent until now
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Friday, February 16, 2018, 8:36 AM
A former Playboy model opened up about her affair with the future President the rich asshole, despite selling the details to a gossip media group that “caught and killed” her story.
Karen McDougal, a former model who has recently found God and regretted parts of her past, spoke to the New Yorker for a story about the nine-month affair she had with the rich asshole in 2006, shortly after his marriage to his third wife Melania.
The 46-year-old confirmed a Wall Street Journal report from shortly before the 2016 election that she was paid $150,000 by American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, for the account of any affair she had with a “then-married man.”
That “then-married man” was the then-reality star of “The Apprentice,” who she met at a Playboy Mansion party.
some rich asshole with former Playboy model Karen McDougal in a photo that she posted in 2015.
(KAREN MCDOUGAL VIA TWITTER)
She wrote in private notes obatined by the New Yorker that she would visit the rich asshole at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where he always ordered steak and mashed potatoes, and that he offered her money after the first time they had sex.
"We talked for a couple hours – then, it was “ON”! We got naked + had sex," she wrote.
"I looked at him (+ felt sad) + said, ‘No thanks - I’m not ‘that girl.’ I slept w/you because I like you - NOT for money’ - He told me ‘you are special.'"
The model said she had sex with the rich asshole at a July 2006 golf event. Above, the rich asshole at the event.
(DINO VOURNAS/AP)
the rich asshole would also allegedly fly her across the country for events, including the Lake Tahoe golf tournament where he allegedly began an affair with pornstar Stormy Daniels.
the rich asshole denied the New Yorker report, as the White House has done with news about Daniels, despite the fact that the rich asshole lawyer Michael Cohen later confirmed that he paid Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket.
McDougal's journal entries say that her relationship with the future President included meeting members of his family, and that the rich asshole told her his son Eric pointed to her when asked who he thought the most beautiful woman at the party was.
Karen McDougal (center) attends a Playboy's 50th Anniversary party in 2003.
(DENISE TRUSCELLO/WIREIMAGE)
Those around McDougal said that she ended the relationship in April 2007 after nine months because of guilt and thinking “what her mother thought of her.”
She was also allegedly offended by the rich asshole's comments, including telling one of her friends who had a relationship with a black man that she liked “the big black d---.”
The New Yorker story also recounts the process through which McDougal sold her story to American Media, during which she says she was misled about the extent to which her agreement, which she only received $82,500 of after others took a cut, silenced her.
McDougal says that she regrets some parts of her past.
(GREGG DEGUIRE/WIREIMAGE)
Ronan Farrow, who wrote Friday's piece after a bombshell expose on Harvey Weinstein, said in an interview on NPR’s Morning Edition that the agreement shows the leverage that the tabloid empire controlled by David Pecker holds over the President.
American Media denied having any leverage, as well as claims from McDougal that it did not live up to its end of the agreement to give her a fitness column.
The former model says she worries what will happen now that she has decided to speak out, but says she was prompted to do so by the emergence of the Daniels revelations and the openness of the #MeToo movement.
McDougal also said that recent health issues she believes stem from her breast implants have made her look again at her choices.
"As I was sick and feeling like I was dying and bedridden, all I could do was pray to live. But now I pray to live right, and make right with the wrongs that I have done," she said.
She added that she hopes other women think twice before signing agreements that protect powerful men, something Farrow called “the moral compromises of silence.”
WHO IS KAREN MCDOUGAL? THE RICH ASSHOLE ACCUSED OF NEW AFFAIR WITH PLAYBOY PLAYMATE
A former Playboy Playmate allegedly had an affair with some rich asshole after meeting him at a pool party in 2006 hosted by Playboy magazine’s former publisher Hugh Hefner.
the rich asshole was at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles that June filming an episode of The Apprentice.
The New Yorker obtained an eight-page document written by former Playmate Karen McDougal in which she wrote that the rich asshole “immediately took a liking to me, kept talking to me—telling me how beautiful I was, etc. It was so obvious that a Playmate Promotions exec said, ‘Wow, he was all over you—I think you could be his next wife.’”
McDougal confirmed to journalist Ronan Farrow, who last year broke stories about sexual assault allegedly committed by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, that she wrote the handwritten notes. The document was given to The New Yorker by McDougal’s friend John Crawford.
According to McDougal's account, the rich asshole asked for her number at the pool party and the two began talking regularly on the phone. McDougal wrote they soon met at the Beverly Hills Hotel for dinner in a private bungalow.
“We talked for a couple hours—then, it was 'ON'! We got naked + had sex,” she wrote. After, the rich asshole offered her money. “I looked at him (+ felt sad) + said, ‘No thanks—I’m not ‘that girl.’ I slept w/you because I like you—NOT for money’—He told me ‘you are special.’”
In 2001, McDougal was named runner-up, behind Pamela Anderson, as the sexiest Playmate of the 1990s. She was named Playmate of the Year in 1998.
The relationship McDougal recounts took place a short time after the rich asshole’s third wife and future first lady Melania the rich asshole gave birth to Barron the rich asshole, President some rich asshole’s youngest son, who was born March 20, 2006. Donald and Melania the rich asshole married in January 2005.
The White House did not immediately respond to Newsweek ’s request for comment.
“This is an old story that is just more fake news," a West Wing spokesperson told The New Yorker. "The president says he never had a relationship with McDougal.”
McDougal told Farrow that her story was bought on November 4 by the National Enquirer ’s publisher American Media, Inc. for $150,000, which prevented her discussing it further.
“At this point, I feel I can’t talk about anything without getting into trouble, because I don’t know what I’m allowed to talk about," McDougal said. "I’m afraid to even mention his name.”
She said the contract she signed with the company “took my rights away.” The story did not appear in the Enquirer.
Allegations about McDougal’s relationship with the rich asshole follow his personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s claim this week that he paid porn star Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels, $130,000 before the 2016 election to prevent her from sharing a similar story.
Cohen told The New York Times on Tuesday that he paid Clifford out of his own pocket.
“Neither the rich asshole Organization nor the rich asshole campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford,” Cohen said. “Neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly.”
On Wednesday, InTouch magazine published a full transcript of a 2011 interview with Clifford in which she described having sex with the rich asshole in July 2006 and said she could describe the president’s “junk perfectly.” The magazine said Clifford passed a polygraph test and so did her ex-husband and a good friend who corroborated her account.
Clifford alleges that she met the rich asshole at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. In her letter, McDougal wrote that she met with the rich asshole at the event as well as after they had started their affair.
After nine months, McDougal ended the affair in 2007.
“She couldn’t look at herself in the mirror anymore,” Crawford said, noting she had feelings of guilt.
Former Playboy model Karen McDougal opens up about affair with some rich asshole
Aformer Playboy model has gone public about her alleged affair with some rich asshole after she claims a magazine bought her story in order to bury it.
Karen McDougal claims she met Mr the rich asshole at a Playboy Mansion party in 2006, shortly after his wife Melania gave birth to the couple's son Barron.
Ms McDougal, a former 'Playmate of the Year', said that Mr the rich asshole "immediately took a liking" to her, saying that one person at the party told her "wow, he was all over you - I think you could be his next wife".
Ms McDougal said she was weary of speaking publicly about her time with the future president for fear of legal reprisals.
However, the New Yorker claims to have obtained a hand-written account of the affair, which Ms McDougal confirmed to the magazine was in her own handwriting.
On the eight-page document she details how they began a nine-month affair during which she visited him at a private bungalow in the Beverly Hills Hotel where he always ordered steak and mashed potatoes.
During their first sexual encounter, Ms McDougal claimed Mr the rich asshole offered her cash afterwards.
"We talked for a couple hours – then, it was 'ON'! We got naked + had sex," she wrote.
Afterwards, she said he offered her money.
"I looked at him (+ felt sad) + said, 'No thanks - I'm not 'that girl.' I slept w/you because I like you - NOT for money' - He told me 'you are special.''
The former model claimed she was even introduced to Mr the rich asshole's sons at a party.
Ms McDougal said she ended the relationship nine months later in April 2007, after becoming frustrated with Mr the rich asshole's inappropriate comments.
She claimed he made racially charged comments about black men as well as making sexually crude comments about a friend.
Ms McDougal, who has since become religious, also worried about what her mother would think of her lifestyle.
She was persuaded to sell her story to AIM, the National Enquirer's publishing company, around the time Mr the rich asshole was seeking the Republican party's nomination because a former friend began publicly discussing the alleged affair.
“I didn’t want someone else telling stories and getting all the details wrong,” she said.
The model said she was offered $150,000 for the information but the National Enquirer never published her allegations.
New Yorker: Ex-Playmate alleges the rich asshole system for covering up affairs
Washington (CNN)A former Playboy model who claims she had an affair with some rich asshole beginning in 2006 is going public with a description of the rich asshole's alleged system for concealing affairs.
In an eight-page, handwritten document that The New Yorker obtained, Karen McDougal detailed her alleged affair with the rich asshole for nine months from June 2006 to April 2007, when the rich asshole was two years into his marriage with Melania the rich asshole, the future first lady. The document was provided to The New Yorker by McDougal's friend, but she confirmed to the magazine that the handwriting in the document is hers.
The magazine's story was published on Friday.
Karen McDougal during Dennis Rodman's 43rd Birthday Party at The Highlands in Hollywood, California, United States. (Photo by Mark Sullivan/Getty Images) 2004
The document describes how the rich asshole allegedly carried out his affair with McDougal -- paying for dinner in a private bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, offering her money after the first time they had sex and reimbursing her for travel.
"No paper trails for him," McDougal wrote, according to The New Yorker.
A White House spokesperson denied the affair in a statement to the magazine.
"This is an old story that is just more fake news. The President says he never had a relationship with McDougal," the spokesperson said.
After ending the affair, McDougal signed a limited life-story rights agreement in August 2016, granting American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer -- an outlet that's published material favorable to the rich asshole -- exclusive ownership of her story for $150,000.
However, the company -- run by David Pecker, a friend of the rich asshole's -- never ran her story and, according to The New Yorker, instead used the purchase to kill the piece. The company told the magazine it did not print it because it did not find McDougal's story to be credible.
Jerry George, a former senior editor for American Media, Inc., told The New Yorker that Pecker routinely buys and kills stories, and also protects the rich asshole, who he considers a friend.
"We never printed a word about the rich asshole without his approval," George told The New Yorker.
The company, according to the report, also agreed to publish regular columns by McDougal on aging and wellness, and to "prominently feature" her on two magazine covers.
McDougal told The New Yorker she regretted signing the contract.
"It took my rights away," McDougal said. "At this point I feel I can't talk about anything without getting into trouble, because I don't know what I'm allowed to talk about. I'm afraid to even mention his name."
McDougal told the magazine she hopes speaking out would convince others to avoid signing similar agreements.
According to the magazine, McDougal, a Republican, was at first reluctant to speak about her alleged affair during the presidential campaign, fearing that the rich asshole supporters might accuse her of fabricating her account or harming her or her family. She told The New Yorker she wanted to avoid "(influencing) anybody's election" or receiving "death threats on my head."
The Wall Street Journal, however, did publish a storyabout the alleged affair and the arrangement with the National Enquirer days before the 2016 election.
The story's publication comes after the rich asshole's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, said he paid $130,000 to Stephanie Clifford, a porn star who goes by the name Stormy Daniels, ahead of the 2016 election. Clifford allegedly had a sexual encounter with the President before his time in office, though Cohen said the rich asshole "vehemently denies" any encounter between the two.
Like McDougal, Clifford was barred from telling her story but because she signed a non-disclosure agreement. A manager for Clifford has claimed the agreement is no longer validbecause of Cohen's disclosure about the payment.
Clifford's attorney, Keith Davidson, was also retained by McDougal to negotiate her deal with AMI, though he no longer represents McDougal.
the rich asshole has previously faced accusations of having several extramarital affairs before he was elected President. He has also been accused by at least 15 women of a wide range of sexual misconduct accusations, including sexual assault, sexual harassment and lewd behavior. the rich asshole has denied the allegations and at one point threatened to sue his accusers, though he has yet to do so.
This story has been updated.
One woman’s account of clandestine meetings, financial transactions, and legal pacts designed to hide an extramarital affair.
By Ronan Farrow
5:00 A.M. 02-16-2018
In June, 2006, some rich asshole taped an episode of his reality-television show, “The Apprentice,” at the Playboy Mansion, in Los Angeles. Hugh Hefner, Playboy’s publisher, threw a pool party for the show’s contestants with dozens of current and former Playmates, including Karen McDougal, a slim brunette who had been named Playmate of the Year, eight years earlier. In 2001, the magazine’s readers voted her runner-up for “Playmate of the ’90s,” behind Pamela Anderson. At the time of the party, the rich asshole had been married to the Slovenian model Melania Knauss for less than two years; their son, Barron, was a few months old. the rich asshole seemed uninhibited by his new family obligations. McDougal later wrote that the rich asshole “immediately took a liking to me, kept talking to me - telling me how beautiful I was, etc. It was so obvious that a Playmate Promotions exec said, ‘Wow, he was all over you - I think you could be his next wife.’ ”
the rich asshole and McDougal began an affair, which McDougal later memorialized in an eight-page, handwritten document provided to The New Yorker by John Crawford, a friend of McDougal’s. When I showed McDougal the document, she expressed surprise that I had obtained it but confirmed that the handwriting was her own.
The interactions that McDougal outlines in the document share striking similarities with the stories of other women who claim to have had sexual relationships with the rich asshole, or who have accused him of propositioning them for sex or sexually harassing them. McDougal describes their affair as entirely consensual. But her account provides a detailed look at how the rich asshole and his allies used clandestine hotel-room meetings, payoffs, and complex legal agreements to keep affairs—sometimes multiple affairs he carried out simultaneously—out of the press.
On November 4, 2016, four days before the election, the Wall Street Journal reported that American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, had paid a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for exclusive rights to McDougal’s story, which it never ran. Purchasing a story in order to bury it is a practice that many in the tabloid industry call “catch and kill.” This is a favorite tactic of the C.E.O. and chairman of A.M.I., David Pecker, who describes the President as “a personal friend.” As part of the agreement, A.M.I. consented to publish a regular aging-and-fitness column by McDougal. After the rich asshole won the Presidency, however, A.M.I.’s promises largely went unfulfilled, according to McDougal. Last month, the Journal reported that the rich asshole’s personal lawyer had negotiated a separate agreement just before the election with an adult-film actress named Stephanie Clifford, whose screen name is Stormy Daniels, which barred her from discussing her own affair with the rich asshole. Since then, A.M.I. has repeatedly approached McDougal about extending her contract.
McDougal, in her first on-the-record comments about A.M.I.’s handling of her story, declined to discuss the details of her relationship with the rich asshole, for fear of violating the agreement she reached with the company. She did say, however, that she regretted signing the contract. “It took my rights away,” McDougal told me. “At this point I feel I can’t talk about anything without getting into trouble, because I don’t know what I’m allowed to talk about. I’m afraid to even mention his name.”
A White House spokesperson said in a statement that the rich asshole denies having had an affair with McDougal: “This is an old story that is just more fake news. The President says he never had a relationship with McDougal.” A.M.I. said that an amendment to McDougal’s contract—signed after the rich asshole won the election—allowed her to “respond to legitimate press inquiries” regarding the affair. The company said that it did not print the story because it did not find it credible.
Six former A.M.I. employees told me that Pecker routinely makes catch-and-kill arrangements like the one reached with McDougal. “We had stories and we bought them knowing full well they were never going to run,” Jerry George, a former A.M.I. senior editor who worked at the company for more than twenty-five years, told me. George said that Pecker protected the rich asshole. “Pecker really considered him a friend,” George told me. “We never printed a word about the rich asshole without his approval.” Maxine Page, who worked at A.M.I. on and off from 2002 to 2012, including as an executive editor at one of the company’s Web sites, said that Pecker also used the unpublished stories as “leverage” over some celebrities in order to pressure them to pose for his magazines or feed him stories. Several former employees said that these celebrities included Arnold Schwarzenegger, as reported by the Los AngelesTimes, and Tiger Woods. (Schwarzenegger, through an attorney, denied this claim. Woods did not respond to requests for comment.) “Even though they’re just tabloids, just rags, it’s still a cause of concern,” Page said. “In theory, you would think that the rich asshole has all the power in that relationship, but in fact Pecker has the power—he has the power to run these stories. He knows where the bodies are buried.”
As the pool party at the Playboy Mansion came to an end, the rich asshole asked for McDougal’s telephone number. For McDougal, who grew up in a small town in Michigan and worked as a preschool teacher before beginning her modelling career, such advances were not unusual. John Crawford, McDougal’s friend, who also helped broker her deal with A.M.I., said that the rich asshole was “another powerful guy hitting on her, a gal who’s paid to be at work.” the rich asshole and McDougal began talking frequently on the phone, and soon had what McDougal described as their first date: dinner in a private bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel. McDougal wrote that the rich asshole impressed her. “I was so nervous! I was into his intelligence + charm. Such a polite man,” she wrote. “We talked for a couple hours – then, it was “ON”! We got naked + had sex.” As McDougal was getting dressed to leave, the rich asshole did something that surprised her. “He offered me money,” she wrote. “I looked at him (+ felt sad) + said, ‘No thanks - I’m not ‘that girl.’ I slept w/you because I like you - NOT for money’ - He told me ‘you are special.’ ”
Afterward, McDougal wrote, she “went to see him every time he was in LA (which was a lot).” the rich asshole, she said, always stayed in the same bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel and ordered the same meal—steak and mashed potatoes—and never drank. McDougal’s account is consistent with other descriptions of the rich asshole’s behavior. Last month, In Touch Weekly published an interview conducted in 2011 with Stephanie Clifford in which she revealed that during a relationship with the rich asshole she met him for dinner at a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where the rich asshole insisted they watch “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel. Summer Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice,” alleged that the rich asshole assaulted her at a private dinner meeting, in December of 2007, at a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel. the rich asshole, Zervos has claimed, kissed her, groped her breast, and suggested that they lie down to “watch some telly-telly.” After Zervos rebuffed the rich asshole’s advances, she said that he “began thrusting his genitals” against her. (Zervos recently sued the rich asshole for defamation after he denied her account.) All three women say that they were escorted to a bungalow at the hotel by a rich asshole bodyguard, whom two of the women have identified as Keith Schiller. After the rich asshole was elected, Schiller was appointed director of Oval Office Operations and deputy assistant to the President. Last September, John Kelly, acting as the new chief of staff, removed Schiller from the White House posts. (Schiller did not respond to a request for comment.)
Over the course of the affair, the rich asshole flew McDougal to public events across the country but hid the fact that he paid for her travel. “No paper trails for him,” she wrote. “In fact, every time I flew to meet him, I booked/paid for flight + hotel + he reimbursed me.” In July, 2006, McDougal joined the rich asshole at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship, at the Edgewood Resort, on Lake Tahoe. At a party there, she and the rich asshole sat in a booth with the New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, and the rich asshole told her that Brees had recognized her, remarking, “Baby, you’re popular.” (Brees, through a spokesman, denied meeting the rich asshole or McDougal at the event.) At another California golf event, the rich asshole told McDougal that Tiger Woods had asked who she was. the rich asshole, she recalled, warned her “to stay away from that one, LOL.”
During the Lake Tahoe tournament, McDougal and the rich asshole had sex, she wrote. He also allegedly began a sexual relationship with Clifford at the event. (A representative for Clifford did not respond to requests for comment.) In the 2011 interview with In Touch Weekly, Clifford said that the rich asshole didn’t use a condom and didn’t mention sleeping with anyone else. Another adult-film actress, Dawn Vanguard, whose screen name is Alana Evans, claimed that the rich asshole invited her to join them in his hotel room that weekend. A third adult-film performer, Jessica Drake, alleged that the rich asshole asked her to his hotel room, met her and two women she brought with her in pajamas, and then “grabbed each of us tightly in a hug and kissed each one of us without asking for permission.” He then offered Drake ten thousand dollars in exchange for her company. (the rich asshole denied the incident.) A week after the golf tournament, McDougal joined the rich asshole at the fifty-fifth Miss Universe contest, in Los Angeles. She sat near him, and later attended an after-party where she met celebrities. the rich asshole also set aside tickets for Clifford, as he did at a later vodka launch that both women attended.
During the rich asshole’s relationship with McDougal, she wrote, he introduced her to members of his family and took her to his private residences. At a January, 2007, launch party in Los Angeles for the rich asshole’s now-defunct liquor brand, the rich asshole Vodka, McDougal, who was photographed entering the event, recalled sitting at a table with Kim Kardashian, the rich asshole, some rich asshole, Jr., and the rich asshole, Jr.,’s wife, Vanessa, who was pregnant. At one point, the rich asshole held a party for “The Apprentice” at the Playboy Mansion, and McDougal worked as a costumed Playboy bunny. “We took pics together, alone + with his family,” McDougal wrote. She recalled that the rich asshole said he had asked his son Eric “who he thought was the most beautiful girl here + Eric pointed me. Mr. T said ‘He has great taste’ + we laughed!” the rich asshole gave McDougal tours of the rich asshole Tower and his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. In the rich asshole Tower, McDougal wrote, the rich asshole pointed out Melania’s separate bedroom. He “said she liked her space,” McDougal wrote, “to read or be alone.”
McDougal’s account, like those of Clifford and other women who have described the rich asshole’s advances, conveys a man preoccupied with his image. McDougal recalled that the rich asshole would often send her articles about him or his daughter, as well as signed books and sun visors from his golf courses. Clifford recalled the rich asshole remarking that she and Ivanka were similar and proudly showing her a copy of a “money magazine” with his image on the cover.
the rich asshole also promised to buy McDougal an apartment in New York as a Christmas present. Clifford, likewise, said that the rich asshole promised to buy her a condo in Tampa. For the rich asshole, showing off real estate and other branded products was sometimes a prelude to sexual advances. Zervos and a real-estate investor named Rachel Crooks have both claimed that the rich asshole kissed them on the mouth during professional encounters at the rich asshole Tower. Four other women have claimed that the rich asshole forcibly touched or kissed them during tours or events at Mar-a-Lago, his property in Palm Beach, Florida. (the rich asshole has denied any wrongdoing pertaining to the women.)
McDougal ended the relationship in April, 2007, after nine months. According to Crawford, the breakup was prompted in part by McDougal’s feelings of guilt. “She couldn’t look at herself in the mirror anymore,” Crawford said. “And she was concerned about what her mother thought of her.” The decision was reinforced by a series of comments the rich asshole made that McDougal found disrespectful, according to several of her friends. When she raised her concern about her mother’s disapproval to the rich asshole, he replied, “What, that old hag?” (McDougal, hurt, pointed out that the rich asshole and her mother were close in age.) On the night of the Miss Universe pageant McDougal attended, McDougal and a friend rode with the rich asshole in his limousine and the friend mentioned a relationship she had had with an African-American man. According to multiple sources, the rich asshole remarked that the friend liked “the big black dick” and began commenting on her attractiveness and breast size. The interactions angered the friend and deeply offended McDougal.
Speaking carefully for fear of legal reprisal, McDougal responded to questions about whether she felt guilty about the affair, as her friends suggested, by saying that she had found God in the last several years and regretted parts of her past. “This is a new me,” she told me. “If I could go back and do a lot of things differently, I definitely would.”
McDougal readily admitted that she voluntarily sold the rights to her story, but she and sources close to her insisted that the way the sale unfolded was exploitative. Crawford told me that selling McDougal’s story was his idea, and that he first raised it when she was living with him, in 2016. “She and I were sitting at the house, and I’m watching him on television,” Crawford said, referring to the rich asshole. “I said, ‘You know, if you had a physical relationship with him, that could be worth something about now.’ And I looked at her and she had that guilty look on her face.”
McDougal, who says she is a Republican, told me that she was reluctant at first to tell her story, because she feared that other the rich asshole supporters might accuse her of fabricating it, or might even harm her or her family. She also said that she didn’t want to get involved in the heated Presidential contest. “I didn’t want to influence anybody’s election,” she told me. “I didn’t want death threats on my head.” Crawford was only able to persuade her to consider speaking about the relationship after a former friend of McDougal’s began posting about the affair on social media. “I didn’t want someone else telling stories and getting all the details wrong,” McDougal said.
Crawford called a friend who had worked in the adult-film industry who he thought might have media connections, and asked whether a story about the rich asshole having an affair would “be worth something.” That friend, Crawford recalled, was “like a hobo on a ham sandwich” and contacted an attorney named Keith M. Davidson, who also had contacts in the adult-film industry and ties to media companies, including A.M.I. Davidson had developed a track record of selling salacious stories. A slide show on the clients page of his Web site includes Sara Leal, who claimed to have slept with the actor Ashton Kutcher while he was married to Demi Moore. Davidson told Crawford that McDougal’s story would be worth “millions.” (Davidson did not respond to a request for comment.)
Dozens of pages of e-mails, texts, and legal documents obtained by The New Yorker reveal how the transaction evolved. Davidson got in touch with A.M.I., and on June 20, 2016, he and McDougal met Dylan Howard, A.M.I.’s chief content officer. E-mails between Howard and Davidson show that A.M.I. initially had little interest in the story. Crawford said that A.M.I.’s first offer was ten thousand dollars.
After the rich asshole won the Republican nomination, however, A.M.I. increased its offer. In an August, 2016, e-mail exchange, Davidson encouraged McDougal to sign the deal. McDougal, worried that she would be prevented from talking about a Presidential nominee, asked questions about the nuances of the contract. Davidson responded, “If you deny, you are safe.” He added, “We really do need to get this signed and wrapped up...”
McDougal, who has a new lawyer, Carol Heller, told me that she did not understand the scope of the agreement when she signed it. “I knew that I couldn’t talk about any alleged affair with any married man, but I didn’t really understand the whole content of what I gave up,” she told me.
On August 5, 2016, McDougal signed a limited life-story rights agreement granting A.M.I. exclusive ownership of her account of any romantic, personal, or physical relationship she has ever had with any “then-married man.” Her retainer with Davidson makes explicit that the man in question was some rich asshole. In exchange, A.M.I. agreed to pay her a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The three men involved in the deal—Davidson, Crawford, and their intermediary in the adult-film industry—took forty-five per cent of the payment as fees, leaving McDougal with a total of eighty-two thousand five hundred dollars, billing records from Davidson’s office show. “I feel let down,” McDougal told me. “I’m the one who took it, so it’s my fault, too. But I didn’t understand the full parameters of it.” McDougal terminated her representation by Davidson, but a photograph of McDougal in a bathing suit is still featured prominently on his Web site—according to McDougal, without her permission. The Wall Street Journal reported that, two months after McDougal signed the agreement with A.M.I., Davidson negotiated a nondisclosure agreement between Clifford and the rich asshole’s longtime personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, for a hundred and thirty thousand dollars. (On Tuesday, Cohen told the Times that he had facilitated the deal with Daniels and paid the money out of his own pocket. Cohen did not respond to a request for comment.)
As voters went to the polls on Election Day, Howard and A.M.I.’s general counsel were on the phone with McDougal and a law firm representing her, promising to boost McDougal’s career and offering to employ a publicist to help her handle interviews. E-mails show that, a year into the contract, the company suggested it might collaborate with McDougal on a skin-care line and a documentary devoted to a medical cause that she cares about, neither of which has come about. The initial contract also called for A.M.I. to publish regular columns by McDougal on aging and wellness, and to “prominently feature” her on two magazine covers. She has appeared on one cover and is in discussions about another, but in the past seventeen months the company has published only nine of the almost a hundred promised columns. “They blew her off for a long time,” Crawford said. A.M.I. said that McDougal had not delivered the promised columns.
A.M.I. responded quickly, however, when journalists tried to interview McDougal. In May, 2017, The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin, who was writing a profile of David Pecker, asked McDougal for comment about her relationships with A.M.I. and the rich asshole. Howard, of A.M.I., working with a publicist retained by the company, forwarded McDougal a draft response with the subject line “SEND THIS.” In August, 2017, Pecker flew McDougal to New York and the two had lunch, during which he thanked her for her loyalty. A few days later, Howard followed up by e-mail, summarizing the plans that had been discussed, including the possibility of McDougal hosting A.M.I.’s coverage of awards shows such as the Golden Globes, Grammys, and Oscars. None of that work materialized. (A.M.I. said that those conversations related to future contracts, not her current one.)
A.M.I.’s interest in McDougal seemed to increase after news broke of the rich asshole’s alleged affair with Clifford. Howard sent an e-mail suggesting that McDougal undergo media training, and a few days later suggested that she could host coverage of the Emmys for OK! Magazine. In an e-mail on January 30th, A.M.I.’s general counsel, Cameron Stracher, talked about renewing her contract and putting her on a new magazine cover. The subject line of the e-mail read, “McDougal contract extension.” Crawford told me, “They got worried that she was going to start talking again, and they came running to her.”
Several people close to McDougal argued that such untold stories could be used as leverage against the President. “I’m sixty-two years old,” Crawford said. “I know how the world goes round.” Without commenting on the rich asshole specifically, McDougal conceded that she had a growing awareness of the broader implications of the President’s situation. “Someone in a high position that controls our country, if they can influence him,” she said, “it’s a big deal.” In a statement, A.M.I. denied that it had any leverage over the rich asshole: “The suggestion that AMI holds any influence over the President of the United States, while flattering, is laughable.”
McDougal fears that A.M.I. will retaliate for her public comments by seeking financial damages in a private arbitration process mandated by a clause of her contract. But she said that changes in her life and the emergence of the #MeToo moment had prompted her to speak. In January, 2017, McDougal had her breast implants removed, citing declining health that she believed to be connected to the implants. McDougal said that confronting illness, and embracing a cause she wanted to speak about, made her feel increasingly conflicted about the moral compromises of silence. “As I was sick and feeling like I was dying and bedridden, all I could do was pray to live. But now I pray to live right, and make right with the wrongs that I have done,” she told me. McDougal also cited the actions of women who have come forward in recent months to describe abuses by high-profile men. “I know it’s a different circumstance,” she said, “but I just think I feel braver.” McDougal told me that she hoped speaking out might convince others to wait before signing agreements like hers. “Every girl who speaks,” she said, “is paving the way for another.”
the rich asshole had sex with Playboy model while married to Melania — and then offered her money: report
Karen McDougal (Instagram)
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some rich asshole conducted an extramarital affair with a former Playboy playmate while married to his current wife, according to a new report — and the National Enquirer helped him cover it up.
Karen McDougal, a former “Playmate of the Year,” documented the relationship in an eight-page note that one of her friends shared with the New Yorker‘s Ronan Farrow.
the rich asshole and McDougal met in June 2006 at a party at the Playboy Mansion for his reality TV show “The Apprentice,” and the former model said he immediately took an interest in her.
“It was so obvious that a Playmate Promotions exec said, ‘Wow, he was all over you – I think you could be his next wife,’” McDougal said.
the rich asshole had been married to his third wife for nearly two years at that point, and Melania had just given birth to their son.
McDougal claimed she and the rich asshole had sex — and she said the future president offered her money afterward.
“I looked at him (+ felt sad) + said, ‘No thanks – I’m not ‘that girl.’ I slept w/you because I like you – NOT for money’ – He told me ‘you are special.’,” she wrote.
The Wall Street Journal reported just four days before the 2016 election that National Enquirer publisher American Media, Inc., paid $150,000 for the exclusive rights to McDougal’s story — which it never published.
AMI chairman David Pecker describes the rich asshole a “personal friend,” and he’s been known to buy damaging stories about the president that he then sits on, which is called “catch and kill” in the tabloid industry.
the rich asshole Organization attorney Michael Cohen claimed this week he “facilitated” a $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the election to cover up the rich asshole’s sexual relationship with her.
Grieving Florida mom who blew up at the rich asshole invokes Barron to demand the right to protect kids against guns
Lori and Ilan Alhadeff -- CNN screenshot
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In a sit-down interview with CNN’s Alysin Camerota, the Florida mom who lost her 14-year-old daughter and blasted President some rich asshole after the Florida high school shooting that occurred on Wednesday, called on the president to protect other children like he would protect his own 11-year-old son, Barron.
On Thursday, Lori Alhadeff blew up at the rich asshole on CNN while talking about her daughter Alyssa after Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old man, killed 17 students at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
“President the rich asshole, you say what can you do?” Alhadeff passionately stated in the earlier interview. “You can stop the guns from getting into these children’s hands! Put metal detectors at every entrance to the schools. What can you do? You can do a lot! This is not fair to our families and our children go to school and have to get killed! I just spent the last two hours putting the burial arrangements for my daughter’s funeral, who is 14! Fourteen! President the rich asshole, please do something! Do something. action! We need it now! These kids need now!”
Speaking with host Camerota at a memorial for her daughter at a soccer field where they girl once played, the mother invoked the name of the president’s youngest son, saying all kids deserves the type of protection Barron the rich asshole receives.
“She was supposed to have a long and bright future,” Camerota asked. “How can you ever get your head around what happened?”
“I just saw my daughter cold as can be, shot in the heart, shot in the head, shot in the hand, dead, cold as can be,” Lori Alhadeff explained. “She is gone. I don’t think I can wrap my head around that or no other person around the world could either.”
“My child is dead, I can’t help her,” she continued. “But I can help all the other kids at Stoneman Douglas High School and around the world. We have to protect our children, we have to fight for them, it is our job as parents. We have to recognize that if something is wrong with our own child, if they are ill, you need to get them help. If you have guns in the house and the child has access to the guns, that needs to stop.”
Asked again what she would like to say something to the rich asshole, Alhadeff brought up the rich asshole’s youngest child.
“President the rich asshole, Barron goes to school, so let’s protect all these other kids here in Parkland in Florida and everywhere else in the United States of America,” she told the camera. “Because we earned it just like how you earned the right to protect Barron. You need to help us now. We need security now for all these children that have to go to school. We need action, action, action.”
Watch the video below via CNN:
Alex Azar defends the rich asshole drug pricing proposals, pushing back against criticism
Ike Swetlitz
Posted with permission from STAT
WASHINGTON - Alex Azar defended the drug pricing proposals in the Trump administration's latest budget request Thursday, pushing back on criticism that none of the ideas would lower the list prices for prescription drugs.
The new health and human services secretary, when pressed on the matter by both a Democratic and a Republican senator at a budget hearing, pointed to two concrete proposals by the administration. Both take aim at Medicare's prescription drug benefit. One would put insurers, rather than the federal government, on the hook for more of the cost; another aims to encourage insurance companies to push cheaper generic drugs instead of costly brand drugs to their patients.
It's unclear whether those policies, which were among a raft of other ideas that take aim at pharmacy benefit managers and hospital prices, among other facets of the health system, would actually bring down list prices. Indeed, even the senators who asked Azar about the policies - Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) - expressed skepticism after hearing his response.
Azar's defense comes as patient advocates and interest groups representing other health care players have argued that the proposals will do little do bring down the list prices of prescription drugs, despite Azar's repeated promises to do so.
With just two weeks behind him at HHS, Azar escaped largely unscathed from the first two of three hearings this week, at which he was tasked with defending his agency's budget proposal. Only a handful of lawmakers asked the former Eli Lilly executive about the administration's long list of drug pricing proposals.
Many focused instead on niche Medicare or Medicaid issues, or a separate controversy about an Idaho insurer's decision to flaunt some of the rules of the Affordable Care Act.
He said that, under the proposal, Medicare Part D recipients who have reached the "catastrophic coverage" phase (meaning they have already spent $5,000 out-of-pocket), would have more of the cost of their prescription drugs paid for by private insurance and less by the federal government.
That change, Azar said, would ensure that the private insurers that administer Medicare Part D plans "have even more incentive to fight against the branded drug companies to keep those list prices down."
Those Part D plans negotiate drug prices through pharmacy benefit managers. This negotiation process does not clearly lower the list price of drugs.
Azar also pointed out the administration has proposed changing the way in which out-of-pocket costs are calculated. Currently, brand drugs have government-mandated discounts that lower the cost to the patient. Those government-mandated discounts are included in the out-of-pocket cost - even though the patient doesn't pay them out of pocket.
Under Azar's proposal, the required discounts would no longer count as out-of-pocket costs. This means that insurance companies wouldn't benefit as much from brand drugs having high list prices, but it's not clear if it would encourage the drug companies themselves to lower the list prices.
At a Wednesday hearing at the Ways and Means Committee, Azar faced little scrutiny of his drug pricing proposals.
The most specific question came from Tom Reed (R-NY), who wanted to know why prices for insulin produced by Eli Lilly, where Azar used to work, went up, and what the secretary would do to "get those insulin prices under control." The line echoed similar questioning during Azar's Senate confirmation hearing.
Azar said that he couldn't speak specifically about his former company, but pointed to the Food and Drug Administration's high number of generic drug approvals as a way to increase competition and lower prices, and expressed his desire to "develop a very robust biosimilar market" so that complicated drugs that are grown in biological tissues, as opposed to chemically synthesized, also face competition.
Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) pointed out that the Department of Veterans Affairs receives extra discounts on drug because of the high volume of its purchases. "Why in God's name are we not allowing Medicare to negotiate volume discounts to achieve those savings?" Higgins said, pounding the table.
Azar responded by saying that drugs currently covered by Medicare Part B, which are often administered in hospitals, could benefit from the negotiations currently conducted in Medicare Part D. (Often, private pharmacy benefit managers negotiate for prices in Part D on behalf of the individual plan sponsors.)
Erin Mershon contributed reporting.
The new health and human services secretary, when pressed on the matter by both a Democratic and a Republican senator at a budget hearing, pointed to two concrete proposals by the administration. Both take aim at Medicare's prescription drug benefit. One would put insurers, rather than the federal government, on the hook for more of the cost; another aims to encourage insurance companies to push cheaper generic drugs instead of costly brand drugs to their patients.
It's unclear whether those policies, which were among a raft of other ideas that take aim at pharmacy benefit managers and hospital prices, among other facets of the health system, would actually bring down list prices. Indeed, even the senators who asked Azar about the policies - Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) - expressed skepticism after hearing his response.
Azar's defense comes as patient advocates and interest groups representing other health care players have argued that the proposals will do little do bring down the list prices of prescription drugs, despite Azar's repeated promises to do so.
With just two weeks behind him at HHS, Azar escaped largely unscathed from the first two of three hearings this week, at which he was tasked with defending his agency's budget proposal. Only a handful of lawmakers asked the former Eli Lilly executive about the administration's long list of drug pricing proposals.
Many focused instead on niche Medicare or Medicaid issues, or a separate controversy about an Idaho insurer's decision to flaunt some of the rules of the Affordable Care Act.
Azar gets into the weeds
Asked about the drug pricing proposals, Azar dove quickly into the details.He said that, under the proposal, Medicare Part D recipients who have reached the "catastrophic coverage" phase (meaning they have already spent $5,000 out-of-pocket), would have more of the cost of their prescription drugs paid for by private insurance and less by the federal government.
That change, Azar said, would ensure that the private insurers that administer Medicare Part D plans "have even more incentive to fight against the branded drug companies to keep those list prices down."
Those Part D plans negotiate drug prices through pharmacy benefit managers. This negotiation process does not clearly lower the list price of drugs.
Azar also pointed out the administration has proposed changing the way in which out-of-pocket costs are calculated. Currently, brand drugs have government-mandated discounts that lower the cost to the patient. Those government-mandated discounts are included in the out-of-pocket cost - even though the patient doesn't pay them out of pocket.
Under Azar's proposal, the required discounts would no longer count as out-of-pocket costs. This means that insurance companies wouldn't benefit as much from brand drugs having high list prices, but it's not clear if it would encourage the drug companies themselves to lower the list prices.
At a Wednesday hearing at the Ways and Means Committee, Azar faced little scrutiny of his drug pricing proposals.
The most specific question came from Tom Reed (R-NY), who wanted to know why prices for insulin produced by Eli Lilly, where Azar used to work, went up, and what the secretary would do to "get those insulin prices under control." The line echoed similar questioning during Azar's Senate confirmation hearing.
Azar said that he couldn't speak specifically about his former company, but pointed to the Food and Drug Administration's high number of generic drug approvals as a way to increase competition and lower prices, and expressed his desire to "develop a very robust biosimilar market" so that complicated drugs that are grown in biological tissues, as opposed to chemically synthesized, also face competition.
Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) pointed out that the Department of Veterans Affairs receives extra discounts on drug because of the high volume of its purchases. "Why in God's name are we not allowing Medicare to negotiate volume discounts to achieve those savings?" Higgins said, pounding the table.
Azar responded by saying that drugs currently covered by Medicare Part B, which are often administered in hospitals, could benefit from the negotiations currently conducted in Medicare Part D. (Often, private pharmacy benefit managers negotiate for prices in Part D on behalf of the individual plan sponsors.)
Erin Mershon contributed reporting.
Ted Cruz claims Dems trying to ‘politicize’ massacre — then blames Obama for mass shooting
Ted Cruz speaks to Fox News (screen grab)
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Thursday accused Democrats of politicizing the latest school massacre and insisted that “evil” would always be present regardless of gun laws.
In an interview on Fox News, Cruz called the death of 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School “truly heartbreaking.”
“Our prayers are with the families and all of those children who went through that horrible horror,” Cruz said. “This horror shouldn’t exist. And we don’t know right now exactly why this deranged individual did this. I’m sure in the days to come we are going to find out more about what his motives were. But whatever they were, they were evil. And this is a horrible, horrible thing and our prayers are with those Florida families.”
According to Cruz, a school massacre “could happen anywhere.”
“We have seen that evil can occur whether in Parkland or in a church in Texas or in schools across the country,” he insisted. “I mean, there are murderers. Evil is sadly always present and we need to do what we can to act to prevent it. Sometimes you see brave heroes who are able to step forward. Sometimes you have heroes that are armed and can engage the killer and stop them and save people’s lives.”
Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt noted that “Democrats are calling for gun control, they’re talking about not allowing you to buy the AR-15 anymore.”
“We have seen multiple shootings recently, mass shootings using this weapon,” she said. “You’re a parent, you have young girls who are going to grow up and go to school as well.”
“The reaction of Democrats to any tragedy is to try to politicize it,” Cruz complained. “They immediately start calling that we’ve got to take away the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens. That’s not the right answer.”
Cruz, who reportedly has taken more money from pro-gun groups than any member of Congress, said that victims of mass shootings have told him that “gun control is not the answer here.”
“The answer is to focus on criminals, to focus on violent criminals,” he remarked. “This individual appears to have significant issues with mental illness. I think we will certainly be asking were there signs of mental illness, could we have stepped in and prevented this before hand?”
Cruz also asserted that President Barack Obama shared the blame for a mass shooting that killed 26 at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
“Had the Obama administration simply followed federal law and enforced the law, existing gun laws made it illegal for the Sutherland Springs shooter to buy a gun,” he opined. “But the Obama administration failed to report his criminal conviction so he wasn’t in the background check system.”
Watch the video below from Fox News.
the rich asshole budget would undo gains from conservation programs on farms and ranches
Posted with permission from The Conversation
By Ashley Dayer, Assistant Professor of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Tech and Seth Lutter, Master's student, Virginia Tech.
Texas farmer Taylor Wilcox received USDA funding to flood his fallow rice fields, creating habitat for black-necked stilts and other birds. USDA, CC BYFarm bill conservation programs provide about US$5.8 billion yearly for activities such as restoring wildlife habitat and using sustainable farming practices. These programs affect about 50 million acres of land nationwide. They conserve millions of acres of wildlife habitat and provide ecological services such as improved water quality, erosion control and enhanced soil health that are worth billions of dollars.
Sixty percent of U.S. land is privately owned, and it contains a disproportionately high share of habitat for threatened and endangered species. This means that to conserve land and wildlife, it is critical to work with private landowners, particularly farmers and ranchers. Farm bill conservation programs provide cost shares, financial incentives and technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners who voluntarily undertake conservation efforts on their land.
President Donald Trump’s 2019 budget request would slash funding for farm bill conservation programs by about $13 billion over 10 years, on top of cuts already sustained in the 2014 farm bill. In a recent study, we found that it is highly uncertain whether the benefits these programs have produced will be maintained if they are cut further.
Jim and DeAnn Sattelberg received Conservation Reserve Program funding to plant ‘filter strips’ that protect water sources on their Michigan farm. USDA, CC BYFunding cuts and future prospects
Conservation on private land produces tangible benefits for wildlife, water quality, erosion control and floodwater storage. The public value of these improvements extends far beyond the boundaries of any individual landowner’s property.Studies have shown that farmers appreciate the direct benefits they receive from participating in these programs, such as more productive soil and better hunting and wildlife viewing on their lands. Conservation programs can also provide farmers with an important and stable income source during crop price downturns.
Congress made substantial cuts in farm bill conservation programs in 2014 – the first reductions since the conservation title of the bill was created in 1985. In total, the 2014 farm bill reduced conservation spending by 6.4 percent, or about $3.97 billion over 10 years.
USDA/ERSThe Conservation Stewardship Program, which focuses on working lands in agricultural production, offers farmers financial incentives and technical advice for conservation measures such as cover crops or efficient irrigation systems. In 2015 USDA funded only 27 percent of CSP applications.
The Trump administration’s proposed cuts have drawn criticism from conservation groups and farmers. Meanwhile, these programs appear to have bipartisan support in Congress.
In a June 2017 hearing, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, said:
“I’ve heard repeatedly from farmers and ranchers about the importance of these programs, how they successfully incentivize farmers to take conservation to the next level, and the need for continued federal investment in these critical programs.”In October 2017, Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, introduced a bipartisan bill to strengthen the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which fosters private-public partnerships in regions of high conservation priority. The Trump administration has proposed to eliminate this program, along with the Conservation Stewardship Program.
Funding will be tight for the 2018 farm bill, as USDA has acknowledged. A set of guiding principles the department released on Jan. 24 pledged to provide “a fiscally responsible Farm Bill that reflects the Administration’s budget goals.” Congress will soon face funding decisions that will have critical implications for conservation outcomes and landowners.
USDA employees help South Dakota cattle ranchers repair and replace ponds for watering livestock, an initiative of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. USDA/NRCS South Dakota, CC BY-SAWithout funding, fewer farmers will conserve
Further budget cuts in farm bill conservation programs would undermine environmental protection in multiple ways. Less land and wildlife would be protected, and fewer farmers would be able to enroll in these programs. Moreover, as our study concluded, landowners are unlikely to continue their conservation efforts when payments end.Federal agencies and environmental organizations generally would like to see owners keep up conservation practices even when they no longer receive federal incentives. We call this phenomenon “persistence.” Designing incentives so that they produce lasting behavior changes is a challenge in many fields, including agricultural conservation.
Our search of relevant scientific publications found very limited research on landowner behavior after incentive program contracts end. What research has been done indicates that persistence is highly variable and often does not occur.
Studies have found that after contracts expire, the percentage of landowners who continue conservation management can range from 31 to 85 percent. Persistence also depends on the practices landowners are required to perform. Structural actions like planting trees are more likely to have lasting effects than measures that landowners need to perform frequently and may abandon, such as treating invasive plants with herbicides.
Little is known about why landowners do or do not persist with conservation behaviors after incentive programs end. But we have identified several mechanisms that could support persistence behavior.
As landowners participate in conservation programs, they might develop positive views of conservation. They also may continue to use conservation practices because they want to be perceived as good land stewards. Practices that involve repeated action, such as moving cattle for prescribed grazing, might become habits. Finally, landowners with sufficient financial and technical resources are more likely to persist with conservation behaviors.
Long-term costs of defunding conservation programs
Our research shows that it is hard to predict how farmers and ranchers will respond if they are unable to re-enroll in farm bill conservation programs. Some might continue with conservation management, but it is likely that many landowners would resume farming formerly protected land or abandon conservation practices.To promote conservation more effectively over time, it would make sense to consider farm bill policy changes such as issuing longer-duration contracts and designing post-contract transitions that encourage continued conservation. Further budget cuts will only reduce future conservation on private land, and could undo much of the good that these programs have already achieved.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
A gun killed 17 of my classmates — STFU’: Parkland student crushes Tomi Lahren’s latest pro-gun rant
Tomi Lahren (Facebook)
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A student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School crushed Fox News’ Tomi Lahren over her latest rantings about guns.
Writing on Twitter, Lahren accused “the Left” of being insensitive to families who lost children during Wednesday’s massacre in Parkland, Florida, in which a gunman fatally shot 17 people and wounded over a dozen more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
“Can the Left let the families grieve for even 24 hours before they push their anti-gun and anti-gunowner agenda?” Lahren asked. “My goodness. This isn’t about a gun it’s about another lunatic.”
Can the Left let the families grieve for even 24 hours before they push their anti-gun and anti-gunowner agenda? My goodness. This isn't about a gun it's about another lunatic. #FloridaShooting
However, a student at the high school who had classmates killed in the massacre was not impressed by Lahren’s attacks on gun safety advocates — and she absolutely let her have it in a response to her tweet.
“A gun has killed 17 of my fellow classmates,” she wrote. “A gun has traumatized my friends. My entire school, traumatized from this tragedy. This could have been prevented. Please stfu tomi.”
A gun has killed 17 of my fellow classmates. A gun has traumatized my friends. My entire school, traumatized from this tragedy. This could have been prevented. Please stfu tomi twitter.com/tomilahren/sta…
Other Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students have similarly attacked lawmakers and gun-rights advocates for refusing to do anything to curb gun violence in the United States.
Student David Hogg, for instance, told CNN on Thursday that it is unconscionable there have already been multiple school shootings in the United States over the past two months alone.
“My sister, she’s a freshman, and she had two of her best friends die,” Hogg said. “That’s not acceptable. That is something that we should not let happen in this country, especially when we’re going to school.”
Another student, meanwhile, called President some rich asshole a “piece of sh*t” over his inaction
WATCH LIVE: the rich asshole to make national address after Florida school shooting
President some rich asshole pauses during the 9/11 Observance Ceremony at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. (DOD photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Dominique A. Pineiro)
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U.S. President some rich asshole will make a national address at 11 a.m. ET on Thursday, a White House spokeswoman said, about a massacre at a Florida high school on Wednesday in which a 19-year-old gunman killed 17 people in one of the country’s deadliest school shootings.
Earlier on Thursday, the rich asshole wrote in a Twitter post: “So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!”
(Reporting by Makini BriceEditing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Jimmy Kimmel mocks Michael Cohen’s porn star payoff with hilarious fake lawyer commercial
Michael Cohen (ABC)
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Jimmy Kimmel mocked President some rich asshole’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen for claiming he’d paid $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels for no apparent reason.
The adult film star has said she conducted a sexual relationship with the rich asshole shortly after his wife gave birth to their son, and Cohen admitted this week to “facilitating a payment” to Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
“What kind of an idiot would believe that his lawyer would pay a porn star more than $100,000 for no reason?” Kimmel said. “They didn’t have sex, he just decided to give her money?”
Kimmel shared a phony legal ad ridiculing the rich asshole Organization attorney’s claim.
“Have you never had sex with a porn star?” the announcer says. “Then you need a lawyer to give that porn star large amounts of cash — not your own cash, his own cash. Michael Cohen is the leader in giving porn stars money for no reason at all.”
the rich asshole-loving college student suspended for knife threat: ‘Deport or kill all illegals’
Corbin Steele (YouTube)
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A Michigan student has been suspended for pulling a knife on immigration activists and making an apparent threat.
The activists were seated at a table at Wayne State promoting their student organization BAMN when another student wearing a some rich asshole campaign shirt approached them, reported WXYZ-TV.
The student, later identified as Corbin Steele, brandished a knife after arguing with the activists.
“I think we should deport or kill all illegals that don’t belong in our country,” the student says in a video posted online. “No, I’m not a Nazi.”
No one was injured in the incident, but Steele, who studies engineering at the Detroit university, was placed on interim suspension.
“I don’t know if he threatened them but he violated campus policy on workplace violence. We don’t allow any weapons or any type of violence between parties,” said Chief Anthony Holt, of university police.
Activists said the incident was the third altercationthey’d had with Steele, who previously shouted “Make America great again” and “Kill all illegals” at them while walking past, but he had never threatened violence before.
Steele was placed on suspension while the incident was investigated.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to building an inclusive campus community where intolerance — particularly when accompanied by physical threats — is not tolerated,” said university president M. Roy Wilson.
POLITICS
Twitter Users Accuse the rich asshole Of Victim Blaming After Florida Shooting
“Nothing like blaming the classmates for their own murders. Well done!” one user tweeted.
Twitter users accused President some rich asshole of victim blaming after the president’s Thursday tweet suggested that people who knew suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz may not have done enough to prevent the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.
The president’s tweet said neighbors and classmates knew the suspect accused of carrying out Wednesday’s attack was a “big problem.”
So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!
the rich asshole may have thought his tweet was well-intentioned, but many people on Twitter felt it sent the wrong message, especially considering reports that a YouTube video blogger did report Cruz to the FBI.
And social media users let the president know it.
Nothing like blaming the classmates for their own murders. Well done! Leadership of the highest caliber right here
You're right! It's the students ' fault @realDonaldTrump get yourself an examination of consciousness. Do disgust!
So we now have a President that is blaming the children, the dead children, the cowering in their classroom children for the evils of one gun carrying idiot. Remember, you are the one that allowed this by revoking gun checks for mental illness. You are guilty!
Two things. (1) It is considered crass to, even indirectly, blame the "neighbors and classmates" for a school shooting. (2) What if the authorities you say should be alerted refuse to act? (see link from a year ago) nbcnews.com/news/us-news/t…
Others had similar thoughts but expressed them much more directly.
On behalf of the families of the victims you’re blaming, why don’t you go fuck yourself. Seriously. Just go away.
Do you even think before you tweet. So insensitive, indirectly passing the blame to the victims.
You have got to be kidding. It WAS reported again and again. Don't preach to the damn choir Donald when your own glass house is shattering around you. You are such a hypocrite. The NRA and Putin are controlling your every move. You can't be President when you are compromised.
Some people felt the president’s suggestion was a bit simplistic and hypocritical.
Congratulations! You've solved this school shooting problem! Thanks for your wisdom and tweeting. #WorstPresidentEver
He was expelled for getting in a fight. His screen name was reported to the FBI, not him specifically. If they had linked him to his screen name, then they could have investigated him!
One guy just thought it was ridiculous.
So the aim now is anyone that shows any signs of not being 100% right in their behaviour must be reported? Impossible and knowingly dodging the fundamental problem
A few people felt he’s the wrong guy to be making this type of statement.
And just who do we report the president of the united states to
when he's as wacky as a fruit cake?
You have NO moral authority to stand on, none whatsoever, zero. You constantly use divisive language and resort to name calling against honorable members of congress, and leaders of institutions of integrity. How many times have you incited violence DJT? nytimes.com/video/us/10000…
Forgive me but what education or authority do you have to determine if someone is mentally ill? He was part of a white supremacist militia organization into paramilitary training that sounds more like terrorism the mental illness to me.
Then there was the user who brought up an infamous the rich asshole quote that appears to contradict the president’s more recent message condemning the gun violence in Florida.
"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters” doesn’t come back to haunt him as much as it should.
Putin sends condolences to the rich asshole after Florida shootings: Kremlin
U.S. President some rich asshole and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk during the family photo session at the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam November 11, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
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Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to U.S. President some rich asshole after a gunman shot dead 17 people and wounded more than a dozen others in an attack at a Florida high school, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
(reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, writing by Denis Pinchuk, editing by Gareth Jones)
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