February 18th-19th, 2017. It's been 463-464 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no. 45, and 391-392 days since the Jan 20th inauguration.
White House official: School shooting gave us a ‘reprieve’ from being ‘pummeled’ on Rob Porter scandal
some rich asshole crosses arms when asked about Robert Mueller investigation (Photo: Screen capture)
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An anonymous White House official has told the Washington Post that last week’s horrific school shooting in Parkland, Florida felt like something of a “reprieve” for a White House staff that was deeply battered by scandal.
In an interview with the Washington Post, the official said that the mass shooting, which left 17 people dead, took some of the heat off the rich asshole White House for its handling of former staff secretary Rob Porter, whom the White House fired after credible allegations emerged that he beat his two former wives.
“For everyone, it was a distraction or a reprieve,” the official said. “A lot of people here felt like it was a reprieve from seven or eight days of just getting pummeled.”
However, the official also lamented that news coverage of the shooting would inevitably die down in the coming days, which would lead to more media focus on administration scandals.
the rich asshole takes last spot in experts' presidential rankings survey
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 02/19/18 01:21 PM EST
President the rich asshole has placed last among U.S. commanders in chief in a recent survey of experts.
The 2018 Presidents and Executive Politics Presidential Greatness Survey asks respondents, each of them current and recent members of the Presidents and Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, to rate each president on a scale of 0-100 for overall greatness.
Abraham Lincoln topped the list with an average score of 95.03, followed by George Washington with 92.59. The top seven slots remained unchanged from when the survey was conducted last in 2014.
Former President Obama placed eighth on the list, with an average score of 71.13, jumping 10 places from the previous survey.
the rich asshole took the bottom slot with an average score of 12.34. Among those who identified as Republicans and conservatives, the rich asshole ranked 40th.
Obama came in second place when respondents were asked who should be the next president on Mount Rushmore, though he was well behind runaway favorite Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The survey was conducted from Dec. 22, 2017, to Jan. 16. It was based on responses from 170 experts.
the rich asshole-Russia inquiry: Manafort under pressure after reports that Gates has flipped
February 19, 2018
some rich asshole’s former campaign manager is under increasing pressure to cooperate with criminal prosecutors investigating the campaign’s alleged collusion with the Kremlin following reports that his chief lieutenant will testify against him.
Several US media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and CNN, reported that Rick Gates, a former campaign aide and lobbyist, has struck a deal with Robert Mueller, the special counsel, and will testify against Paul Manafort, his longtime business associate, in exchange for leniency.
Gates has appeared to be a relatively minor figure in the rich asshole/Russia probe. But if he were to plead guilty to criminal charges connected to his earlier work as a lobbyist for a pro-Kremlin party in Ukraine, including allegations of money laundering, it would set off a chain of events that could bring Mueller’s investigation deep into the White House.
© Provided by Guardian News Paul Manafort.
Paul Manafort served for five months as chairman of the rich asshole campaign, resigning in August 2016 after past payments he had received for work in the former Soviet bloc came to light. Investigators are believed to be scrutinizing Manafort's contacts with Russians during the campaign, including an offer by Manafort to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in July 2016 to provide "private briefings" on the US presidential race.
Manafort, 68, was charged on 30 October with multiple federal felonies unconnected with his campaign duties. The charges included money laundering, tax fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors accuse Manafort of using shell companies and tax havens to launder tens of millions of dollars in payments from Kremlin-backed political parties in Ukraine and other employers.
Manafort pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Manafort brought deep political experience to the rich asshole campaign. He had helped incumbent president Gerald Ford beat back a challenge for the nomination by Ronald Reagan at the 1976 Republican national convention and later built a lobbying business in Washington that specialised in unsavory clients around the world. Read Manafort’s career here.
the rich asshole has denied that his campaign ever colluded with the Kremlin. This weekend, in the wake of a who allegedly engaged in a sophisticated plot to support the rich asshole’s campaign on social media and disparage his rival, Hillary Clinton, the rich asshole emphasized that there was no evidence that the alleged Kremlin plot had swayed the results of the election.
The reports of Gates’ possible cooperation come after prosecutors stated in court on Friday that they had unearthed additional evidence of criminal activity by Manafort.
© AP Rick Gates, left, with his lawyer Tom Green, leave the federal district court in Washington DC on 14 February.
Experts say any deal with Gates would only be struck if investigators were confident he had valuable testimony to offer on a more senior figure in their ongoing inquiry.
The two developments – the alleged additional evidence of wrongdoing and Gates’s possible testimony – could give Mueller and his team additional ammunition to force Manafort to cooperate in their inquiry or face a potentially tough prison sentence if he is found guilty of the crimes he has been charged with.
If Manafort were to cooperate in the probe it could potentially offer Mueller’s team a wealth of new information about the inner workings of the rich asshole campaign and any possible interactions with Russian officials.
The news raises questions about what Gates might have to offer to prosecutors.
Both Manafort and Gates were indicted last October for alleged crimes that pre-date their work for the campaign and did not involve any allegations of wrongdoing involving the rich asshole campaign or Russia. Both pleaded not guilty to the allegations, including money laundering and failing to register as lobbyists for foreign powers.
But legal experts have speculated that Mueller, the former FBI chief who is leading the rich asshole/Russia probe, has continued to investigate both men.
that the FBI asked officials in for financial information about FBME, a defunct bank used by wealthy Russians that has been accused of serving as a money launderer by US financial regulators. FBME has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Related:
Manafort served relatively briefly as the rich asshole’s campaign manager. He following media reports that raised questions about his former work as a lobbyist for pro-Kremlin forces. On the day he resigned, Manafort opened a shell company that received $13m in loans from two businesses with ties to the rich asshole, .
Manafort also had business ties to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who is close to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
On Friday, new court documents filed by prosecutors alleged that bail documents submitted by Manafort had revealed new alleged criminal conduct involving bank fraud. Prosecutors said that Manafort had obtained a mortgage on a property using fake profit and loss statements, which overstated his income by millions of dollars.
According to the Gates’s revised plea is expected to be presented in court in Washington within the next few days. Citing unnamed individuals with information about the case, the paper reports that Gates has said he would testify against Manafort and would receive a “substantial reduction in his sentence”. While the sentence will not be spelled out in court documents, he is expected to serve about 18 months in prison under the terms of any cooperation deal, according to the Los Angeles Times report.
Two other former campaign officials, Michael Flynn and George Papadopolous, are already cooperating in the criminal investigation after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI.
the rich asshole blames everyone but Russia
West Palm Beach, Florida (CNN)President some rich asshole, ensconced in his opulent private club of Mar-a-Lago this weekend, had a screed of combative thoughts.
None, however, offered answers.
Here in South Florida, the weekend air was filled with raw emotion in the wake of the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook. Local television broadcasts featured searing calls to action and demonstrations from students and parents alike.
the rich asshole, inside his estate and restrained from golfing for two straight days for fear of bad optics, was seemingly following along - and unleashed on Twitter.
Just 40 miles north of Parkland, the President blasted the FBI for missing warning signs about the shooter — and promptly turned the subject back to himself by suggesting the bureau was too preoccupied with the Russia investigation and could have prevented the shooting.
The string of rants - which aides were given no heads up about - made clear that if anyone was preoccupied by Russia, it was surely the President.
With a pair of national crises before him — another deadly shooting and another wave of evidence that Russia interfered in an American election — the rich asshole demonstrated Sunday morning which was occupying more of his attention: Rather than outlining steps to protect the nation against more shootings or tampering in upcoming elections, he made the moment about himself.
the rich asshole has yet to detail what he or his administration plan to do to punish Russia for meddling in the 2016 election. Special counsel Robert Mueller, in a thorough indictment released Friday, detailed how hundreds of Russian operatives -- including a close associate to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- interfered in the election by organizing political events and used social media to tout the rich asshole and criticize Hillary Clinton.
In a series of tweets -- over a dozen since the indictment was revealed -- the rich asshole has repeatedly said his 2016 campaign did not collude with Russian operatives ("no collusion!" he wrote), labeled Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence committee, a "leakin' monster of no control" and lamented the fact that "they are laughing their asses off in Moscow."
The tweets come hours before the rich asshole will meet with House Speaker Paul Ryan, a lawmaker who has tried to avoid commenting on the President's Twitter missives. The messages threaten to overshadow a previously planned meeting on the party's legislative agenda and mid-term election outlook.
And they are a sign that neither embattled White House chief of staff John Kelly — on property for the weekend at Mar-a-Lago — or other advisers who met with the president on Saturday can keep him on track.
"If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow," he wrote. "Get smart America!
The messages shed light on a President who has been almost entirely focused on the past -- how the Russian allegations impact the legitimacy of his presidency and accusations against his 2016 campaign -- and not how he will work to stop Russia from meddling in the future.
In a written statement released Friday, the rich asshole's prescription for combating Russia was for the country to "come together as Americans" and "stop the outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories, which only serve to further the agendas of bad actors, like Russia, and do nothing to protect the principles of our institutions."
The statement did not detail how his administration would penalize the country for their 2016 efforts.
The weekend messages also show that there is little the rich asshole won't use to undercut Mueller's investigation.
Late on Saturday night, the rich asshole linked the admitted mistake by the FBI around last week's school shooting in Parkland with the Russia investigation. The Wednesday shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killed 17 people.
"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable," he wrote. "They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the rich asshole campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"
The FBI announced on Friday that they failed to act on a tip about Nikolas Cruz, the confessed shooter in the Parkland school massacre. A person close to Cruz, according to the FBI, contacted them on February 5 to report concerns. But the bureau did not appropriately follow established protocols in following up on the tip.
the rich asshole echoed Fox News and other conservative media who seized on the admitted mistake, using it as the latest data point in the President's months long campaign to undercut Mueller's investigation.
the rich asshole's issues with Mueller have long been clear: He views any suggestion that Russia helped tip the election in his favor as an insinuation that he isn't a legitimate president, a charge that openly frustrates him.
But by ignoring Russia's impact on the election, the rich asshole has done little to confront Putin for meddling.
The rich asshole administration decided last month not to impose new sanctions on Russian individuals for meddling in the 2016 election, bucking Congress by instead putting out a "name and shame" list of prominent Russian business and political figures.
the rich asshole has raised questions as to whether Russia actually meddled in the election by repeatedly calling it a hoax and CNN reported this month that the rich asshole remains unconvinced that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, even as his intelligence chiefs unanimously told a Senate panel Tuesday that Russia meddled in 2016 and is planning to do so again in 2018.
The President also told reporters in Vietnam last year that he accepts Putin's denials on 2016 meddling.
the rich asshole even went as far as to undercut his own national security adviser via Twitter this weekend, telling his 48 million followers that "General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems."
McMaster told an audience in Munich, Germany, that the Mueller indictments released Friday show evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 election is "now really incontrovertible."
The burst of tweets may offer a window into the president's thinking. His decision to go after his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, underscored what aides have been describing in recent days as a souring relationship.
WATCH: the rich asshole has been on ‘The View’ 18 times — and here are his five weirdest moments
the rich asshole appears on The View in 2003 (Photo: Screen capture)
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Remember that time President some rich asshole said he would be dating his daughter Ivanka if she wasn’t his daughter? That happened on the set of “The View,” and at the time the hosts were trying to be polite and hide their horror.
Celebrating President’s Day, “The View” recalled the top five appearances the rich asshole had among the 18 times he spoke with the co-hosts over the years.
One was the time the rich asshole came on to explore the persistent “hair” question. While Americans have uncovered what’s under the presidential coif, back in 2003, Joy Behar gave it a tug herself.
“I believe him, because I believe Donald,” Behar said in 2003. “He’s an upstanding American. But people don’t believe him.”
the rich asshole’s most publicized moments was when he sat on the couch with the women to proclaim his daughter was so hot he’d date her.
“Stop it. Oh, it’s so weird. Stop it,” Behar said at the time.
“You know, you are sick,” echoed former co-host Meredith Vieira.
“Who are you, Woody Allen?” Behar asked.
In a 2015 interview after the rich asshole declared and claimed Mexicans were rapists, an angry Whoopi replied to the voice of the rich asshole on the phone that not all Mexicans are rapists and murderers.
Just three years before that, the rich asshole denounced those who simply “take it” when they’re attacked “terrible.” Behar argued at the time that ad hominim attacks aren’t worth responding to, such as things like “you’re fat” and “you’re stupid.”
“Why do they have no effect? Donald’s been doing them?” former host Barbara Walters asked.
The top former appearance, however, came from a 2011 episode in which the women hammered the rich asshole on being a birther. Walters and Goldberg both lost their cool.
“Whoopi, I love you!” the rich asshole told her at the time.
“I love you to and I think that’s the biggest pile of dog mess I’ve heard in ages!” she replied.
Watch the clips below:
9 totally unpresidential things some rich asshole tweeted over Presidents Day weekend
Washington (CNN)It's become almost de rigueur at this moment in time to note that President some rich asshole is the least presidential president who has ever presidented.
From the campaign he ran to get to the White House to how he acted since arriving there 395 days ago, the rich asshole seems to take pride in dashing expectations of how a president should act, speak or tweet. He views his election as a middle finger from the Average Joe or Jane to the "elites" -- political, media, etc. -- and seems to take as his guiding light a healthy disrespect for even the idea of being "presidential."
While this un-presidential phenomenon is nothing new, the rich asshole seemed to take it to new -- and dangerous -- heights over the long Presidents Day weekend. Cooped up at Mar-a-Lago -- the rich asshole didn't play golf either Saturday or Sunday out of concern for how it might look when funerals were ongoing for the victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida -- the rich asshole reportedly was fuming at the coverage of the indictments of 13 Russians by special counsel Bob Mueller. And when he fumes, bad stuff happens.
Here's a quick whip-around of all the un-presidential things the rich asshole tweeted this weekend -- in reverse chronological order. I rated each one by its magnitude of unpresidentialness with 1 being President Abraham Lincoln. and 10 being President Presidents Beavis and Butthead.
1. "Just watched a very insecure Oprah Winfrey, who at one point I knew very well, interview a panel of people on 60 Minutes. The questions were biased and slanted, the facts incorrect. Hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!"
Context: Winfrey was on "60 Minutes" doing a segment with a focus group of Michigan voters -- seven the rich asshole voters, seven who did not vote for him -- talking about their impressions of the rich asshole.
Unpresidential rating: 7. Imagine George W. Bush tweeting this. Or Barack Obama. Or, well, any president. Also, it sort of seems like the rich asshole is blaming Oprah for the fact that some people said nasty things about him?
2. "Thank you to KenStarr, former Independent Counsel, Whitewater, for your insight and powerful words on FISA abuse, Russian meddling etc. Really great interview with @MariaBartiromo"
Thank you to KenStarr, former Independent Counsel, Whitewater, for your insight and powerful words on FISA abuse, Russian meddling etc. Really great interview with @MariaBartiromo
Context: Starr did an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on Sunday in which he noted that the latest Mueller indictment made clear that there had been no knowing collusion with the rich asshole campaign officials. Starr also took a shot at "senior officials" of the US government in regard to leaking the goings-on of the FISA court.
Unpresidential rating: 3. Yes, the rich asshole was watching TV even though he has long maintained that he very rarely has time to do that because he so busy reading "documents." And, yes, he only liked what Starr said because it aligned with his belief that this whole Russia investigation is a red herring for a clueless Justice Department that is missing the real story of Hillary Clinton's crime(s). Still, for the rich asshole, this was nothing close to the least presidential thing he tweeted this weekend.
3. "The Fake News of big ratings loser CNN"
Context: the rich asshole linked here to a pro-the rich asshole Twitter handle that showed a cartoon of an aged Wolf Blitzer in the year 2038 saying: "Update! We should see evidence of Russia-the rich asshole collusion any day now." (I actually wasn't able to see this tweet because the "realdjtrump" has blocked me!) This same Twitter handle also tweeted a cartoon featuring Hillary Clinton in blackface during the 2016 election.
Unpresidential rating: 8. This is a total troll move that lots and lots of conservatives on Twitter would do. But none of them are the President of the United States. Best case scenario: the rich asshole was unaware of the cartoonist's controversial past. Worst case scenario: He was totally aware of it.
4. "If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the US then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!"
Context: the rich asshole views the investigations into Russia's attempted meddling in the 2016 election as a political witch hunt driven by people who simply can't accept that he won the election fair and square.
Unpresidential rating: 9. "They are laughing their asses off in Moscow." 'Nuff said.
5. "Now that Adam Schiff is starting to blame President Obama for Russian meddling in the election, he is probably doing so as yet another excuse that the Democrats, lead by their fearless leader, Crooked Hillary Clinton, lost the 2016 election. But wasn't I a great candidate?"
Context: In the indictment of the 13 Russian nationals filed by Mueller on Friday, the claim is made that Russians began plotting their election interference in 2014 -- when Obama was still president.
Unpresidential rating: 5. The election ended more than 400 days ago. the rich asshole won. Also, the neediness of "wasn't I a great candidate" is crushing.
6. "I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said 'it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer.' The Russian 'hoax' was that the rich asshole campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!"
Context: He did.
Unpresidential rating: 6. the rich asshole's re-writing of history is a feature, not a glitch, of his personality. Still, we normally expect our presidents to, you know, try to tell the truth?
7. "Finally, Liddle' Adam Schiff, the leakin' monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election. He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!"
Context: See #5.
Unpresidential ranking: 4. Name-calling isn't usually the purview of presidents. And the rich asshole is over-using "liddle" and "little" to demean people of late. But when compared to all of other stuff the rich asshole tweeted just this weekend?
8. "General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!"
Context: In Germany on Saturday, McMaster, the rich asshole's national security adviser, said that it was now "really incontrovertible" that the Russians had engaged in a broad and deep scheme to influence the 2016 election.
Unpresidential rating: 10. Attacking your own national security adviser for stating something that your intelligence community has unanimously stated for the past year? Check! Engaging in a series of short-hand references to half-baked conspiracies about your opponent in the 2016 election? Check! This one has it all!
9. "Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the rich asshole campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"
Context: In the wake of the news Friday that the FBI had failed to check out a specific tip about the Parkdale shooter, the rich asshole is suggesting here that the Bureau was distracted by its pointless Russia investigation
Unpresidential rating: 10. Back to back (im)perfect scores! Consider that even as funerals are taking place, the rich asshole is using the murders of 17 people to further an argument about how the FBI's investigation into Russian meddling is wrong-headed and a waste of time.
WH: the rich asshole supports efforts to improve gun background checks
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 02/19/18 09:01 AM EST
A White House spokesperson said Monday that President the rich asshole would back improving the federal background check system.
“The president spoke to Senator [John] Cornyn [R-Texas] on Friday about the bi-partisan bill he and Sen. [Chris] Murphy [D-Conn.] introduced to improve Federal Compliance with Criminal Background check Legislation," the White House said in a statement.
"While discussions are ongoing and revisions are being considered, the President is supportive of efforts to improve the Federal background check system.”
The comments come after a gunman opened fire at a Florida high school, killing 17 people and wounding more than a dozen others.
Multiple students and lawmakers have called for Congress to act following the shooting to prevent a future tragedy.
Last year, the rich asshole overturned an Obama-era regulation restricting certain people from buying guns.
Critics said removing the legislation made it easier for people with mental illness to purchase guns, potentially increasing the danger to themselves or others.
During his campaign, the rich asshole cast himself as a pro-gun candidate.
At a National Rifle Association gathering in 2016, he said that the Second Amendment was "on the ballot in November."
"The only way to save our Second Amendment is to vote for a person that you all know named some rich asshole," he said.
Kremlin dismisses Mueller indictments: No 'significant evidence' of Russian meddling
BY GEOFFREY ROWLAND - 02/19/18 08:29 AM EST
The Kremlin on Monday dismissed U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller's charges of interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the indictments issued against 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies did not have any proof that the Russian state was engaged in interference activities, according to a report by Reuters.
The statement is the first remarks from Moscow since the indictments were issued last Friday.
Mueller on Friday issued the charges alleging that the Russians created false U.S. personas and stole the identities of real U.S. people in order to interfere with the 2016 election, an assessment that had previously been reached by U.S. intelligence agencies.
Peskov said that the indictment focuses on Russian individuals and not the state saying that there is no proof that the Kremlin or Russian government agencies were involved in any meddling efforts.
"First, as before, we do not see any significant evidence that someone interferes in the internal affairs of the U.S. Second, we are talking about Russian citizens, but we heard from Washington accusations about the involvement of the Russian state, the Kremlin, and the Russian government. There are no indications that the Russian state could have any involvement in this — and there can't be," Peskov said.
Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations Russia tried to influence the 2016 election.
President the rich asshole expressed his anger with the Russia investigation late Saturday night and Sunday morning, declaring that “they are laughing their asses off in Moscow” over the ongoing probe into Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.
“If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams,” the rich asshole tweeted Sunday morning. “They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!”
the rich asshole has long dismissed the notion that he received help in defeating his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, and has resisted calls from members of both political parties to do more to disrupt Russia's possible plans to meddle in future U.S. elections.
The president has not criticized Russia for its election-meddling scheme, opting to focus on the ways he believes Mueller’s indictment exonerates his campaign from colluding with the Kremlin.
Shooting survivor to NRA: ‘Don’t you dare come back here’
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 02/19/18 07:45 AM EST
A student who survived the Florida school shooting on Monday shared a message for the National Rifle Association (NRA), calling for it to "disband."
During an interview on CNN, students were asked what they would say to the NRA.
"Disband, dismantle ... don't make another organization under a different name. Don't you dare come back here," Emma Gonzalez said on CNN.
"The fact that you were in power for so long and that you had so much influence for so long in America just goes to show how much time and effort we still need to spend on fixing our country."
She said gun control is "just the first thing."
Seventeen people were killed and a number of others wounded last week when a gunman opened fire at a high school in Florida.
Gonzalez also targeted lawmakers who are accepting money from the NRA.
“If they accept this blood money, they are against the children,” Gonzalez said. “You’re either funding the killers, or you’re standing with the children.”
Students who survived the shooting have been speaking out, demanding that lawmakers take action to prevent a future tragedy.
Over the weekend, Gonzalez delivered an emotional speech at a gun control rally in Florida, calling out President the rich asshole and the NRA.
“If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should never have happened, and maintain telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, I’m going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association,” Emma Gonzalez said during her speech. “I already know — $30 million.”
In the wake of the shooting, several people also raised concerns about the amount of money various lawmakers receive from the NRA.
The New York Daily News and a writer for "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" both highlighted contributions that lawmakers have received from the NRA following the shooting.
Calls mount from Dems to give platform to the rich asshole accusers
BY MIKE LILLIS - 02/19/18 06:00 AM EST
Eyeing big gains in November’s midterms, House Democrats say they’d like to give a national platform to President the rich asshole’s sexual harassment accusers if they win back the lower chamber.
More than a dozen women have accused the president of sexual harassment abuses dating back decades, claims the rich asshole has fervently denied. But as the #MeToo movement continues to sweep the country — toppling titans of business, Hollywood, the media and a handful of lawmakers on Capitol Hill — a growing number of Democrats think Congress should lend a voice to the rich asshole’s accusers if their party controls the House next year.
“I think it would be most appropriate,” said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), among the handful of Democrats who’s pushing to impeach the rich asshole.
“I mean, this is the most unusual circumstance that you have a president with over a dozen accusers of sexual harassment occupying the most prestigious position in the country.”
Long-dogged by accusations of sexual misconduct, the rich asshole this month fueled the controversy surrounding his past when he suggested that two former senior aides, Rob Porter and David Sorensen, were unfairly treated after allegations surfaced that both men had abused their ex-wives. the rich asshole suggested the aides were convicted in the court of public opinion without the right to self-defense. Both were forced to resign.
“Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new,” the rich asshole tweeted last weekend. “There is no recovery for someone falsely accused — life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?”
The comments were not overlooked by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who called for immediate congressional hearings featuring similar due process for the rich asshole’s accusers, who number at least 19.
“The President has shown through words and actions that he doesn’t value women. It’s not surprising that he doesn’t believe survivors or understand the national conversation that is happening,” tweeted Gillibrand, a possible presidential candidate in 2020. “If he wants due process for the over dozen sexual assault allegations against him, let’s have Congressional hearings tomorrow.
“I would support that and my colleagues should too.”
Aside from Cohen, Gillibrand has found an early ally in Rep. Kathleen Rice, a fellow New York Democrat, who characterized the rich asshole’s comments as just the latest evidence that the president is “tone-deaf on any issue having to do with harassment or even domestic violence.”
“He just has a disturbing lack of appreciation for the seriousness of these cases, and a predilection to always believing the accused instead of these victims,” Rice said. “It’s probably hard for him to condemn other people who engage in behavior that’s similar to his own — I understand the potential hypocrisy there — but when you’re the president, you’re supposed to make people feel like you care about their issues.”
Rice emphasized that inviting the rich asshole’s accusers to testify on Capitol Hill is a call for party leaders, not her. And she stressed that the decision ultimately lies with the women themselves.
“It’s going to be up to each individual woman who’s had an incident with some rich asshole to decide how public they want to be now about it,” Rice said.
“But,” she added, “these are long overdue conversations having to do with sexual harassment and domestic violence.”
Amid mounting pressure, the rich asshole on Wednesday told reporters in the Oval Office that he’s “totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind.”
“Everybody here knows that,” he said.
The Democrats, though, are not convinced. Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the minority whip, said that given the accusations facing the rich asshole, the president has no moral authority to attack those alleging domestic abuse.
“This empathy for battered women?” Hoyer said Thursday. “It’s pretty late in coming and pretty lame in articulation.”
Harassment claims have swirled around the rich asshole long before he arrived in Washington.
His first wife, Ivana the rich asshole, told a court in 1989 that her then-husband had “raped” her during an argument, though she later said she didn’t use the term in a “criminal sense.” A makeup artist filed a lawsuit against the rich asshole in 1997 alleging attempted rape. And in October of 2016, just a month before the rich asshole was elected, The Washington Post published the audio of a previously unreleased Access Hollywood interview, recorded in 2005, in which the rich asshole boasts that his celebrity has allowed him to “do anything” to women.
“You can grab them by the p---y,” he told host Billy Bush.
the rich asshole dismissed the remarks as “locker room talk,” but the story prompted a number of women to come forward with their own allegations against the then-candidate. the rich asshole has denied them all, and his White House team is pushing back hard against Gillibrand’s suggestion that his accusations should be given a voice on Capitol Hill.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said last Sunday that those alleging misconduct against the president have “had their day,” while accusing Gillibrand and the Democrats of hypocrisy for supporting former President Clinton amid his White House tryst with a young aide.
Cohen pointed to the rich asshole’s response to Wednesday’s shooting massacre in Florida — in which the rich asshole urged the public to “always report” instances of “bad and erratic behavior” — as a template for the Democrats to follow in investigating the sexual harassment charges against the president.
“The president basically called for it,” Cohen said. “He said when the public sees bad and erratic behavior, or actions by somebody that’s mentally disturbed, they should report it.
“Congress has that same responsibility.”
the rich asshole hits golf course 3 days after visiting shooting victims
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 02/19/18 09:29 AM EST
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President the rich asshole hit the golf course on Monday, three days after visiting people affected by the deadly school shooting in nearby Parkland, Fla.
The president arrived at the rich asshole International Golf Club in West Palm Beach shortly after 9 a.m.
the rich asshole avoided golf over the weekend, a decision aides said was out of respect for the 17 people killed in a shooting last week at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
But the president returned to the course on Monday to cap off a holiday weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort. the rich asshole is scheduled to return to Washington in the afternoon.
the rich asshole has not been seen publicly since Friday, when he met with injured victims and first responders from the school shooting.
The only other time the president ventured from Mar-a-Lago was Sunday night, when he dined with his family at his West Palm Beach golf club.
Aides said he met with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and phoned local officials who represent the school, but both took place behind closed doors.
the rich asshole spent some of his weekend reacting to television news programs.
The president lashed out in anger over the Russia investigation in an extraordinary burst of tweets late Saturday and early Sunday morning.
And he slammed Oprah Winfrey as “very insecure” after watching her appearance on CBS News’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday.
“Just watched a very insecure Oprah Winfrey, who at one point I knew very well, interview a panel of people on 60 Minutes,” the rich asshole tweeted late Sunday. “The questions were biased and slanted, the facts incorrect.”
Referring to speculation Winfrey might run against him in 2020, the rich asshole wrote, “hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!”
Winfrey did not comment personally on the rich asshole but asked a panel of voters whether he is fit for office and if they believe he made his “shithole countries” comment about Haiti, El Salvador and African nations.
The White House made some news Monday morning when a White House spokesperson said that the rich asshole would back improving the federal background check system.
“The president spoke to Senator [John] Cornyn [R-Texas] on Friday about the bi-partisan bill he and Sen. [Chris] Murphy [D-Conn.] introduced to improve Federal Compliance with Criminal Background check Legislation," the White House said in a statement.
"While discussions are ongoing and revisions are being considered, the President is supportive of efforts to improve the Federal background check system.”
the rich asshole backs effort to improve gun background checks: White House
President some rich asshole (Screenshot)
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President some rich asshole spoke to Senator John Cornyn about gun legislation on Friday, two days after a shooting at a Florida school killed 17 people, and supports efforts to improve the federal background check system, the White House said on Monday.
the rich asshole spoke to Cornyn, a Republican, about the bi-partisan bill he and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy introduced to improve federal compliance with criminal background checks, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
“While discussions are ongoing and revisions are being considered, the President is supportive of efforts to improve the Federal background check system,” Sanders said.
the rich asshole loses his mind after ‘biased and slanted’ Oprah Winfrey ’60 Minutes’ interview with Michigan voters
Actress and TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey delivered a rousing, campaign-style speech as she accepted a Golden Globe for lifetime achievement. (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File / KEVIN WINTER)
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U.S. President some rich asshole blasted media mogul Oprah Winfrey on Twitter on Sunday night over a segment on CBS’s 60 Minutes program and again said he hoped she would face him as an opponent in the 2020 presidential race.
Actress and television host Winfrey, now a contributor to the CBS program, led a panel of 14 Republican, Democrat and Independent voters from Grand Rapids, Michigan in a wide ranging discussion about the rich asshole’s first year in office.
the rich asshole tweeted: “Just watched a very insecure Oprah Winfrey, who at one point I knew very well, interview a panel of people on 60 Minutes. The questions were biased and slanted, the facts incorrect. Hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!”
Winfrey has told various media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, that she is not running for president, but has considered it, after there was much recent media speculation.
The panelists ranged from voters who said “I love him more and more every day,” to others questioning the rich asshole’s stability, saying, “All he does is bully people.”
Winfrey made no declarative statements for or against the president in the program. But she did ask questions ranging from whether the country is better off economically to whether respect for the country is eroding around the world.
‘This guy says we’re not going to be a laughing stock?’: John Oliver’s perfect the rich asshole smackdown in epic return
John Oliver (Photo: Screen capture)
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Comedian John Oliver made an epic return to late-night Sunday after several months on hiatus.
After being off since before the holidays, Oliver and his team had to choose which issues were the most important to recap. They opted to discuss the United States’ reputation on the global stage.
President some rich asshole campaigned on the idea that the United States wasn’t respected. It’s unclear where he gathered the information, since polls have shown opinion of the U.S. has fallen since he was elected. Regardless, the rich asshole calling places “sh*thole countries” likely didn’t help.
Oliver noted that the rich asshole’s attacks have now caused the U.S. global median approval to sink so low it’s equal to “replacing Gal Gadot in the Wonder Woman franchise with Matt Lauer.” He explained that the U.S. is slowly losing what he called “soft power,” that is derived from a country’s personal brand. It’s built up using everything from diplomatic gestures to pop culture. the rich asshole, however, has done little to fix it. Instead, he doesn’t seem to even know or care.
“I’m the only one that matters,” Oliver said the rich asshole thinks. His “America First” obsession, ultimately is creating a leadership vacuum that is being filled by other allies.
To maintain it’s reputation, Oliver took the role of an ambassador to promise the world that “some rich asshole does not reflect America.”
He tried to prove “the rich asshole is the worst of us, but he’s not all of us,” and to illustrate it, he held a parade displaying the best and worst of what America has to offer. It included everything from the T-Rex costume to Star Wars and Scientology. He showcased New York’s Gay Men’s Chorus singing Smashmouth’s “All Star,” all while Oliver slipped into a bed shaped like the Batmobile.
Watch the video below:
Students who survived massacre refuse to pose for photo op with the rich asshole
The students of Parkland, Florida, aren't letting anyone tell their stories for them — not even the president of the United States.
The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, refuse to be props for the rich asshole’s agenda.
On Monday, survivors of last week’s deadly shooting Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg told CNN’s “New Day” they will not be attending the rich asshole’s “listening session” this week.
“I believe we’ve been invited, but neither of us are going,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez, who made national news for her barn burner of a speech at a gun control rally this weekend, said they have a prior town hall meeting with Jake Tapper.
But the refusal is also a rebuke to the rich asshole, who conducted himself with shocking insensitivity in the wake of the shooting. He tried to blame the massacre on the students and the Russia investigation, and posed for a beaming thumbs-up with the first responders and nurses who tried to save mortally wounded children, as if expecting adulation for being on the scene of a national tragedy. Gonzalez clearly does not want to afford the rich asshole another opportunity for ghoulish self-promotion at her classmates’ expense.
As Gonzalez and Hogg noted, the rich asshole is only part of the problem. The entire NRA political machine is culpable in their friends’ deaths.
Asked if she had any words for the NRA, Gonzalez said, “Disband, dismantle … don’t make another organization under a different name. Don’t you dare come back here.”
In response to the point that the NRA gives millions to politicians to vote their way, Gonzalez had a blunt response.
“If they accept this blood money, they are against the children. They are against the people who are dying,” she said. “There’s no other way to put it at this point. You’re either funding the killers, or you’re standing with the children. The children who have no money. We don’t have jobs. So we can’t pay for your campaign. We would hope that you have the decent morality to support us at this point.”
“If you can’t get elected without taking money from child murderers,” added Hogg, “why are you running?”
Many in America are coming to the same conclusion, with one wealthy Florida Republican megadonor refusing to fund another campaign until his party restricts assault weapons.
But old habits die hard. House Speaker Paul Ryan was caught living it up at a GOP fundraiser in Key Biscayne, Florida, immediately after the shooting, and had a teacher ejected from the event after she asked him what he was going to do about guns.
Meanwhile, students like Gonzalez and Hogg are organizing and refusing to allow politicians to shape the narrative of the tragedy they survived. And that includes the president.
Right-wingers are egging on the rich asshole to pardon every person Mueller indicts — including himself
Robert Mueller, some rich asshole -- screenshots
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President some rich asshole’s conservative allies are encouraging him to fight special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe by issuing pardons to every single person he indicts.
Politico reports that conservatives are calling on the rich asshole to pardon suspects indicted by Mueller as a way of lowering their willingness to cooperate with the probe.
“I think he should be pardoning anybody who’s been indicted and make it clear that anybody else who gets indicted would be pardoned immediately,” Frederick Fleitz, a former CIA analyst and senior vice president at the conservative Center for Security Policy, told Politico.
“It’s kind of cruel what’s going on right now and the president should put these defendants out of their misery,” right-wing activist Larry Klayman told the publication. “I think he should pardon everybody — and pardon himself.”
The family of Michael Flynn in particular has been lobbying the rich asshole to pardon his former national security adviser, who last year pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and who is now cooperating with Mueller’s probe.
However, alt-right activist Mike Cernovich told Politico that the rich asshole needs to be cautious with his pardons — and that he should only issue blanket pardons if Democrats retake Congress this fall.
Andrew Johnson’s failed presidency echoes in the rich asshole’s White House
Andrew Johnson
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The two have much in common. Like the rich asshole, Johnson followed an unconventional path to the presidency.
A Tennessean and lifelong Democrat, Johnson was a defender of slavery and white supremacy but also an uncompromising Unionist. He was the only U.S. senator from the South who opposed his state’s move to secede in 1861. That made him an unconventional yet attractive choice as Abraham Lincoln’s running mate in 1864 when Republicans took on the mantle of the “Union Party” to win support from Democrats alienated by their own party’s anti-war stance.
Six weeks after becoming vice president, an assassin’s bullet killed Lincoln and catapulted Johnson to the presidency.
Republican reception mixed for Johnson
Like the rich asshole, Johnson entered the White House with a mixture of skepticism and support among Republicans who controlled Congress. He was a Southerner and a Democrat, which concerned them. But his courageous Unionism and blunt criticism of rebels – “Treason must be made infamous and traitors punished,” he proclaimed – impressed congressional leaders, who believed that he would take a firm approach to the South.
The Republicans soon learned that they were mistaken.
Through bold assertion of executive authority, Johnson quickly reconstructed state and local governments in the South. Because African-Americans were excluded from the process, these regimes were controlled by Southern whites, most of whom had been loyal Confederates. Predictably, they adopted laws designed to keep African-Americans in a servile position.
Southern officials also stood by and even abetted whites who unleashed a wave of violence against former slaves. For example, in July 1866, New Orleans police participated in a massacre that left 37 African-Americans and white Unionists dead and more than 100 wounded.
Unlike today’s Republicans, most of whom have become more loyal to the rich asshole, Reconstruction-era Republicans pushed back against Johnson. They viewed emancipation as a crowning achievement of Union victory and were determined to ensure that former slaves enjoyed the fruits of freedom. Although they hoped to avoid conflict with the president, in early 1866, they adopted measures designed to establish color-blind citizenship and protect former slaves from injustice.
No fan of negotiation
Like the rich asshole, Johnson’s instinct was to attack rather than negotiate. A states’ rights Democrat and proponent of white supremacy, Johnson rebuffed Republicans’ efforts at compromise. He responded to Republican civil rights legislation with scathing veto messages. In September 1866, he toured the North, leveling personal attacks against congressional leaders and seeking to rally voters against them in the midterm elections.
Growing up poor and illiterate, Johnson had developed a deep hostility for African-Americans, believing that they looked down on people like him. His private conversations were laced with racist invective. After meeting with a delegation led by the black leader, Frederick Douglass, for example, he exclaimed to his secretary, “I know that damned Douglass; he’s just like any n—-r, and he would just as likely cut a white man’s throat as not.”
In speeches on the campaign trail and in Washington, Johnson cast his opposition to Republican civil rights policy in language that today appears clearly racist. He sought to appeal to voters — North as well as South – who felt threatened by African-American gains.
In vetoing the Civil Rights Act of 1866, Johnson argued that African-Americans, who had “just emerged from slavery,” lacked “the requisite qualifications to entitle them to the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States.” Indeed, he asserted, the law discriminated “against large numbers of intelligent, worthy, and patriotic foreigners [who had to reside in the U.S. for five years to qualify for citizenship] in favor of the negro.”
Made excuses for Southern racism
Johnson excused racist violence in the South. Ignoring facts that had been widely reported in the press, Johnson held Republicans in Congress responsible for encouraging black political activism during the New Orleans massacre. That was the July 1866 riot where a white mob – aided by police – set upon African-American marchers and their white Unionist sympathizers, leaving 37 African-Americans and white Unionists dead and more than 100 wounded.
“Every drop of blood that was shed is upon their skirts,” Johnson charged, “and they are responsible for it.” Whites who encouraged blacks to demand the right to vote, not the white mobs and police who attacked them, bore responsibility, Johnson implied.
Like the rich asshole, Johnson fancied himself a populist. He saw himself as a principled defender of the people against Washington insiders bent on destroying the republic. By refusing to seat senators and representatives from the reconstructed states of the former Confederacy, he charged in 1866, congressional leaders were riding roughshod over the Constitution.
“There are individuals in the Government,” Johnson told an audience in Washington, D.C., “who want to destroy our institutions.”
Later, when confronted by catcalls from Republican partisans, Johnson fired back.
“Congress is trying to break up the Government,” he said, casting congressional leaders as enemies of the Union in the mold of secessionist heroes Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.
Combining egotism, victimhood and paranoia in a manner similar to the rich asshole, Johnson portrayed himself as the nation’s much maligned savior.
“I am your instrument,” he told one audience. “I stand for the country, I stand for the Constitution.”
Cornell University Collection of Political Americana, Cornell University Library
Johnson saw his opponents as enemies bent not just on impugning the legitimacy of his presidency but whose “intention … [is] to incite assassination.” In a melodramatic and revealing pledge, he proclaimed, “If my blood is to be shed because I vindicate the Union … then let it be shed.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Johnson’s presidency ended badly.
Reviled by African-Americans
While lauded by white Southerners, he was reviled by African-Americans and most Northerners for disgracing the office of the presidency. Thomas Nast, the popular political cartoonist, lampooned him, the press chastised him and private citizens expressed their disgust.
Commenting on Johnson’s electioneering tour of the North, Mary Todd Lincoln said acidly that his conduct “would humiliate any other than himself.”
Congressional Republicans overrode Johnson’s vetoes and tied his hands on matters of policy. In 1868, the House of Representatives voted to impeach him but the Senate fell one vote shy of the two-thirds majority necessary to remove him from office.
As his term came to an end in 1869, his successor, Ulysses Grant, refused to ride to the inauguration in the same carriage as the disgraced Johnson, who then declined to attend the ceremony. Instead, he remained at the White House, leaving it for the last time to go to his Tennessee home — and perhaps a more receptive audience of like-minded Southerners — after the inauguration was over.
Presidents succeed by appealing to shared values, uniting rather than dividing, making strategic use of the respect Americans have for the office, and avoiding the gutter. Andrew Johnson failed on all counts, destroying his presidency and bringing himself into contempt.
The Washington Post’s Senior Editor Marc Fisher writes that some rich asshole learned as a real estate developer and entertainer “that what humiliates, damages, even destroys others can actually strengthen his image and therefore his bottom line.”
Will those lessons serve the rich asshole well as president? Or will they condemn him to Johnson’s ignominious fate?
Donald Nieman, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Binghamton University, State University of New York
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article
Mueller could investigate the rich asshole’s porn star payoffs as campaign finance violations: legal expert
President some rich asshole and adult actress Stephanie Clifford, whose stage name was Stormy Daniels, in a 2006 Myspace photo.
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Special counsel Robert Mueller could investigate whether President some rich asshole’s payments to his alleged mistresses broke campaign laws, according MSNBC legal analyst Jonathan Turley.
The president’s longtime attorney, Michael Cohen, says he “facilitated a payment” to porn actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election, and the National Enquirer publisher reportedly paid $150,000 to a Playboy model who said she had an affair with the rich asshole.
Those payments may have violated campaign finance laws, Turley said.
“The question is whether (Mueller) has the intestinal fortitude to want to get into this type of issue with a former Playboy bunny and a porn star,” Turley said. “Mueller is a tied-down type of guy. I don’t know if he wants to go in that direction, (but) he could.”
Turley said there was precedent for a case like that, with the prosecution of former senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards.
“There is case precedent there,” he said. “I actually disagree with the interpretation of campaign financing that came out of this last indictment. I think there’s a free speech issue that has to be addressed, it goes way too far on that. This would not be as much of a stretch, there’s precedent here for that type of allegation.”
the rich asshole to host student ‘listening session’ after Florida massacre
WASHINGTON –President the rich asshole will host a “listening session” with high school students and teachers on Wednesday, a week after the deadly mass shooting in Florida.
the rich asshole blamed the FBI for Florida school massacre. Joy Reid’s response just broke Twitter
MSNBC‘s Joy Reid gave President the rich asshole a civics lesson on Twitter last night.
Reid was responding to the rich asshole’s tweet attempting to blame the Parkland Florida school massacre on the FBI’s being too busy investigating his campaign’s collusion with the Russian interference in the presidential election to follow up on leads that may have stopped the mentally disturbed shooter before he could execute his plan.
Reid went back to the basics in her reply to the President’s self-serving tweet, offering the President an organizational lesson about the agency that is part of the executive branch of government that the rich asshole “leads” and that he presumably should know about the details of its structure.
The FBI is part of the executive branch which you run, so presumably you know that its counterintelligence and domestic crime divisions are completely separate. And yet you would use massacre victims — dead children and teachers — to try and further obstruct the justice system. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
That Joy Reid is clever. She saw what the rich asshole was clumsily attempting to do and, unlike his gullible and too lazy to think for themselves supporters, called it out as the attempted self-interested con job that it was, all while providing the President with some valuable information about the FBI’s internal structure that he should know and probably doesn’t.
Thanks for the lesson, Joy, and for pointing out the rich asshole’s vile effort to pin the blame for the school shooting on anything besides the Republican Party’s obstructionism on gun control while helping demonize our top law enforcement agency to help discredit their investigation into his and his party’s misdeeds.
‘A wave is coming’: Republicans brace for heavy losses in November as Democrats gain momentum
Paul Ryan appears on CBS (screen grab)
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Republican lawmakers, candidates, strategists and funders are sounding the alarm that November’s elections could be disastrous for the party and that only key structural advantages could shield the party from losing both houses of Congress.
Vanity Fair‘s Abigail Tracy said on Sunday that recent losses in bellwether races around the country have sown fear among GOP faithful.
“These races are like canaries in the coal mine,” said former Democratic Rep. Steve Israel (NY), ex-chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “For Republicans, the canaries are dying.”
Earlier this year, losses in special elections in Georgia, Montana and South Carolina seemed to indicate that anti-the rich asshole sentiment would not be sufficient enough to turn longtime red districts blue.
Recent months, however, brought a string of defeats including former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, a far-right candidate who received high-profile support from former White House adviser Steve Bannon.
“Ten months out,” wrote Tracy, “strategists see the trend as a potential harbinger of the legendary blue wave in the 2018 midterms that could rob of the G.O.P. of its majority in the House — and possibly, the Senate.”
Without former President Barack Obama and longtime conservative bogeyman Hillary Clinton to run against, Republicans are left with one major political figure to align themselves with or to oppose, the historically unpopular president.
A Republican strategist who spoke to Tracy anonymously said they believe Republicans should double down on the president’s message and stoke the always-loyal base ahead of November.
“I think they ought to continue to be bold to get people fired up to vote in the election,” the strategist said. “No matter what, the clock is ticking on how long we have the majority…it doesn’t matter if it’s two more years or ten months or four more [years]. Whatever it is, this is their shot. That might not happen again.”
GOP fundraisers say, however, that they’re being wildly outraised by Democrats.
“In the final quarter of 2017, more than 40 House Republicans were outraised by at least one, if not multiple, Democratic opponents. The fear is that the Republican Party will be forced to defend traditionally safe states,” Tracy said.
After Democratic challenger Patty Schachtner won a Wisconsin state senate seat in a deep red district, GOP strategist Trygve Olson said on Twitter, “A wave is coming…This a suburban-rural district. If the G.O.P. is losing WI-10 lookout!”
Democrats shouldn’t be overconfident, however. GOP strategist Rick Wilson told Tracy, “Democrats are always capable of screwing up — they do it a lot. They are spectacularly bad at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”
Atlantic writer: the rich asshole administration ‘snowflakes’ get upset when anyone else ‘says it like it is’
Journalist Julia Ioffe of The Atlantic on MSNBC (Screen capture)
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Sunday night, on MSNBC’s “Kasie D.C.” with Kasie Hunt, the panel mocked members of President some rich asshole’s administration — like EPA head Scott Pruitt — who keep getting caught spending lavishly on private planes, first class seats on commercial flights and luxury accommodations on the taxpayers’ dime.
“We live in a country where if you become a Cabinet secretary, you’re pretty much set for life,” said NBC national security reporter Ken Dilanian. “I’m not saying I agree with this, but you can monetize that and make millions of dollars and fly first class or private for the rest of your life.”
“Is it too much to ask for a little modesty and humility and caring what the taxpayers think for the brief time that they’re in office?” Dilanian continued. “What is it with these guys?”
Pruitt has claimed that he flies first class or in private planes because members of the public have approached him and been rude to him since he joined the rich asshole administration.
“That sounds a lot like he’s a ‘snowflake,'” Ioffe said. “The whole 2016 the rich asshole campaign was about up-ending the whole stifling ‘PC culture’ and we just want to say it like it is. It sounds like they want to be the only ones saying it like it is, whereas minorities for example should not be saying it like it is.”
She went on to remind the panel of the story of the U.S. ambassador to China under President Barack Obama, who was spotted in the Beijing airport flying coach and carrying his own bags. The Russians, Ioffe said, found it ridiculous that a U.S. diplomat should travel “with the plebes” and not among the wealthy.
Watch the video, embedded below:
US and Chinese officials got into physical scuffle over ‘nuclear football’ in November: report
some rich asshole and John Kelly. (Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Kelley)
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White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a U.S. military aide, members of the Secret Service and Chinese officials got into a physical scuffle over the so-called “nuclear football” in November, said a Sunday evening report from Axios.com.
Five sources told Axios’ Jonathan Swan that on Nov. 9, as a delegation of U.S. officials including Kelly and President some rich asshole attempted to enter Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
As the entourage crossed the threshold into the Great Hall, Chinese guards stopped the military aide tasked with carrying a briefcase containing the materials necessary for the president to authorize a nuclear strike, the so-called “nuclear football.” This aide is to remain close to the president at all times.
Axios said that when the aide was stopped, Kelly — who had already entered the hall — rushed to where the aide was being detained and ordered all U.S. personnel to continue into the Great Hall and disregard Chinese instructions. The Americans began to move forward.
A “commotion” ensued, Swan said, in which a Chinese security official lunged at Kelly and grabbed him, which Kelly responded to by shoving the man’s hands away. A Secret Service officer then tackled the Chinese official and wrestled him to the ground.
The whole confrontation was over in a matter of moments, but the question remains as to how it happened. White House officials assured Swan that they did all the necessary advance work to coordinate with Chinese officials.
But, Swan wrote, “somebody at the Chinese end either didn’t get the memo or decided to mess with the Americans anyway.”
At no point, said U.S. officials, was the nuclear football in the hands of the Chinese government nor did anyone touch the briefcase. The head of the Chinese security team reportedly apologized to the U.S. delegation within minutes.
the rich asshole came under fire early in his administration for his reportedly cavalier attitude toward the nuclear football. A guest at Mar-a-Lago posed for a selfie next to the officer carrying the case and posted it online last year.
Eric and Don Jr. egged on the rich asshole’s weekend Twitter tirade against the FBI: CNN
CNN's Boris Sanchez in West Palm Beach, FL (Screen capture)
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CNN’s Boris Sanchez reported on Sunday that sources say President some rich asshole’s weekend Twitter attacks on the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation were spurred by his sons Donald Jr. and Eric.
Sanchez told anchor Fredericka Whitfield that the president has chose to spend the weekend indoors and away from the golf course to avoid the “bad optics” of being seen golfing while the grieving families of Parkland, FL lay the victims of Wednesday’s mass shooting to rest.
The trouble with the restive president and his child-like attention span is that it has left him beholden to the influence of his sons, who have shown themselves to be eager dupes for racist conspiracy theories and other disinformation campaigns.
“He’s essentially spending the weekend inside watching cable news and speaking with his sons,” Sanchez said, “who sources tell us have been urging him to respond to some of the allegations that have been made in recent weeks and to take on the FBI in light of the revelations in the indictment.”
Watch the video, embedded below:
Resident asshole and drug fiend Rush Limbaugh attacks Parkland students for marching and ‘bashing’ NRA: ‘This is totally political’
Ruch Limbaugh speaks to Fox News (screen grab)
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Radio host Rush Limbaugh attacked a group of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida for organizing marches after 17 were killed in a mass shooting at their school.
While speaking to Fox News Sunday, Limbaugh was asked by host Chris Wallace if a planned march by students could get lawmakers to act to prevent school shootings.
“Chris, I have to ask if anybody is really serious about solving this because none of this — by the way, I couldn’t care less about the gun angle of this,” Limbaugh replied, referring to a group of students from Parkland that Wallace had just spoken to. “None of this is going to solve — prayers and condolences don’t solve it and marches aren’t going to solve it. Chris, the next shooter is out there.”
“It’s not the fault of the NRA. It’s not the fault of any — it’s the fault of the people doing this and our inability to deal with that and stop them,” he insisted. “Until we’re willing to get serious about where we are and how do we they stop this from happening and marches aren’t going to do it, saying no more guns isn’t going to do it, bashing the NRA isn’t going to do it.”
Wallace also wondered if it was fair to blame the FBI and local law enforcement for missing the signs that the shooter exhibited “erratic behavior.”
“I could be snarky and I could say maybe the FBI should stop trying to find every case of sexual harassment in the White House and maybe they ought to give up on this ridiculous pursuit the Russians colluded with the rich asshole in the election,” Limbaugh suggested. “You know, we’re told, well, we can’t do anything until the crime has been committed. That’s what has to change and is going to take some really smart people to figure how to do that without violating civil liberties and the Fourth Amendment and so forth. But it’s clear that the way we deal with this now — this, Chris, this is totally political.”
“Until we’re willing to get serious about where we are and how do we they stop this from happening and marches aren’t going to do it, saying no more guns isn’t going to do it, bashing the NRA isn’t going to do it,” he added.
Limbaugh disputed the notion that the group of students from Parkland that Wallace had just interviewed are “taking politics out of this.”
“The minute they bash the NRA, it’s politics,” the conservative talker asserted.
“But to buy an AR-15, a semiautomatic rifle, you can be 18 years old and the background check takes just minutes,” Wallace noted. “Question, is that sensible?”
“It may not be sensible. I don’t know,” Limbaugh replied, deflecting the question. “My point is, that’s not
the problem. If you ban the AR-15, they’re going to find something — most of these are handguns anyway. If you ban that, they’re going to find some other way to do this.”
the problem. If you ban the AR-15, they’re going to find something — most of these are handguns anyway. If you ban that, they’re going to find some other way to do this.”
Watch the video below from Fox News.
By
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February 18, 2018
Rep. Trey Gowdy offered the latest absurd take on gun violence. CBS anchor Nancy Cordes wasn't having it.
The responses from the right to Thursday’s horrific mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, have ranged from cowardly avoidance of the press, to offensive attempts at shifting blame away from gun violence, to absurd leaps of “reason” in order to avoid taking action on guns.
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) delivered a prime example of the latter category Sunday morning.
And he was promptly humiliated for his trouble.
During an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Gowdy tried to offer condescending advice to the courageous student survivors who have been speaking out in the wake of the tragedy.
While Republicans have been singularly focused on blaming mental illness, Gowdy hypocritically advised the students to “look at” multiple aspects of the shooting.
“You have to look at the shooter, and you have to look at the instrumentality by which that shooter is killing people,” he said.
Host Nancy Cordes asked if Gowdy was “suggesting that weapons that can kill or injure many people in a short period of time should be more restricted than they are now?”
“Well, you can certainly look at that,” Gowdy replied. “But of course Nancy, some of the more heinous mass killing we’ve had involve semi automatic pistols. And I have had people, when I was a prosecutor, kill with all manner of instrumentality, from shovels to bricks to rope to hands. You’re equally dead. So whether it’s a semi-automatic pistol …”
“Wait a minute, Congressman,” Cordes interrupted. “In Las Vegas, the shooter was able to injure 500 people in minutes. You can’t do that with a shovel or a brick.”
“No, you cannot,” Gowdy conceded, then stammered his way through some more absurd doublespeak about how “you also have to look at the shooter.”
Gowdy’s tactic here was disturbingly reminiscent of House Speaker Paul Ryan’s following the Las Vegas mass shooting, when he feigned support for a ban on bump stocks, only to do nothing once the public pressure subsided.
In this case, Republicans like Gowdy will claim an intention to “look at” any number of gun violence provisions while hoping for public outrage to fade, and while still clinging to their absurd talking points about guns.
The key difference, this time, is that the actual survivors of this shooting are speaking out with power and brilliance, and their demands for action are being amplified by a fed-up public and journalists who have heard enough of these lies.
the rich asshole, Ryan meet at Mar-a-Lago amid calls for action on gun violence
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 02/18/18 07:57 PM EST
President the rich asshole on Sunday met with House Speaker Paul Ryan(R-Wis.) at Mar-a-Lago to discuss the Republican Party's agenda, as calls grow for both the administration and Congress to take action on gun control in the wake of a deadly shooting at a nearby Florida high school.
The shooting in Parkland, Fla., which left 17 people dead, was among the issues the pair discussed during the meeting, the White House said in a statement, although no details were provided.
the rich asshole, who has said he is “working with Congress on many fronts” to prevent future shootings, has not yet weighed in on his stance on tougher gun measures in the wake of the shooting. He did, however rail against the Obama administration on Twitter on Sunday for supposedly failing to pass gun control legislation when it had the chance.
Ryan for his part has warned against new gun control measures following the latest deadly shooting.
“There’s more questions than answers at this stage,” Ryan said in a radio interview Thursday. “I don’t think that means you then roll the conversation into taking away citizens’ rights — taking away a law-abiding citizen’s rights.”
The meeting came as a growing chorus of lawmakers, activists and students called for the government to take action on gun violence.
Thousands gathered in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Saturday to mourn the deaths of those in Wednesday's shooting and call for restricted access to firearms, while on Sunday students appeared on television to call for an organized march in an effort to hold lawmakers accountable.
Some Democrats and Republicans on Sunday also urged lawmakers to consider varying degrees of reforms, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), a former presidential contender, pleaded with the rich asshole to take the lead on the issue.
the rich asshole and Ryan also discussed immigration and infrastructure reform, according to the statement.
The immigration debate hit a roadblock last week after the Senate failed to pass legislation that would address the fate of young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
The Senate on Thursday rejected the rich asshole's plan for immigration reform by a 39-60 vote, making it the fourth proposal in a row denied by the upper chamber.
The rich asshole-backed measure, which was led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), provided a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, who could face deportation as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is scaled back.
Gates agrees to testify against Manafort in Mueller probe: report
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 02/18/18 04:17 PM EST
Richard Gates, a former campaign adviser for President the rich asshole, has agreed to testify against his former associate Paul Manafort as part of a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
The former adviser and Manafort business associate is reportedly nearing a deal with Mueller’s team and will plead guilty to fraud charges in the next few days, according to the Times.
Gates and Manafort were both indicted in Mueller’s probe in October and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
CNN first reported last week, however, that Gates had been working to strike a deal with Mueller.
A person close to the talks told the Times that Gates will change his plea "within the next few days" and that he expects to receive a far shorter sentence if he cooperates with Mueller's office.
Gates's defense lawyer did not return the Times's request for comment. And a spokesman for Mueller declined to comment to the newspaper.
Gates hired a prominent white-collar attorney last month, who was spotted twice meeting with Mueller’s team. The meeting fueled speculation that Gates was moving to cooperate with the special counsel.
Mueller accused Manafort of bank fraud in a court filing Friday, but did not file new criminal charges against the former the rich asshole campaign head.
Former the rich asshole campaign staffer George Papadopoulos and former national security adviser Michael Flynn have both pleaded guilty to charges in Mueller's probe.
The special counsel also indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian groups on Friday for allegedly interfering in the 2016 election.
the rich asshole to meet with high school students following Florida shooting
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 02/18/18 02:42 PM EST
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President the rich asshole plans to meet with high school students on Wednesday following last week’s deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla.
The White House announced Sunday that the rich asshole will host a “listening session” with both students and teachers, followed by a similar event Thursday with state and local officials to discuss school safety. No further details were provided.
High school students have been some of the most vocal advocates for new gun laws in response to last Wednesday’s shooting, which left 17 students and staff dead.
Emma Gonzalez, a student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where the shooting took place, called out the rich asshole during an impassioned speech at a pro-gun control rally Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, roughly 40 miles from where the president is spending the holiday weekend.
“If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should never have happened, and maintain telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, I’m going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association,” Gonzalez said. “I already know — $30 million.”
the rich asshole visited injured victims and their families on Friday at a nearby hospital and also met with first responders and law enforcement officers to thank them, but he made no mention of new gun laws during his visit.
The president criticized former President Obama and Democrats for not tightening the nation’s gun laws when they were in power.
“Just like they don’t want to solve the DACA problem, why didn’t the Democrats pass gun control legislation when they had both the House & Senate during the Obama Administration. Because they didn’t want to, and now they just talk!” the rich asshole tweeted Saturday.
the rich asshole, however, has focused much of his public comments over the weekend on the new indictments in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s election interference.
In one tweet, he said the FBI missed signs about the suspected gunman’s troubled past because it is “spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the rich asshole campaign - there is no collusion.”
The comment drew widespread criticism from Democrats and Republicans.
the rich asshole: I never said Russia didn't meddle in election
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 02/18/18 07:52 AM EST
President the rich asshole on Sunday claimed he never said Russia didn't meddle in the 2016 presidential race, noting the Russian "hoax" was that his campaign colluded with Russia.
"I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said 'it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer,' " the rich asshole tweeted.
"The Russian 'hoax' was that the rich asshole campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!"
I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said “it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer.” The Russian “hoax” was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!
The indictment alleges the goal of the Russians was to support then-candidate some rich asshole and hurt his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Some of the Russians allegedly posed as Americans and communicated with “unwitting individuals associated with the rich asshole Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities.”
the rich asshole in a tweet late Saturday said his national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, forgot something when he said in Munich the indictments show “incontrovertible” evidence of Russia's election meddling.
"General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!" the rich asshole tweeted.
the rich asshole has repeatedly denied the notion that his campaign coordinated with the Russians to influence the 2016 race and has accused Democrats of improper collusion with the FBI.
the rich asshole last year said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin when Putin said he didn't meddle in the 2016 election.
“Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it," the rich asshole said last November.
the rich asshole later sought to clarify his comments on whether he believed Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential race, saying: "I believe our intel agencies."
Multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential race.
This report was updated at 8:30 a.m.
Dem senator warns Mueller against issuing Russia report near 2018 election
BY JOSH DELK - 02/18/18 07:00 AM EST
Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) on Sunday warned special counsel Robert Mueller against issuing a report on his findings in the ongoing investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election near the upcoming 2018 midterm elections.
Speaking to radio host John Catsimatidis on New York radio station AM 970, Casey said he couldn't make any assumptions about where the Mueller investigation is going in light of indictments issued on Friday. But he added that he would recommend Mueller not release a report on his findings near the midterms, when it would distract from elections or cause people to question the election's integrity.
"I don't think we'll know anywhere near the full story until [Mueller] issues his report," Casey said. "But once you get into the summer, and you get close to the election, I think it's a mistake for him to release it late. I think you should wait until after [the election]" Casey said.
On Friday, Mueller's team issued indictments against 13 Russian individuals for conspiracy to influence the U.S. elections in 2016, tying them to propaganda and misinformation efforts aimed at swaying the electorate in favor of President the rich asshole.
Top intelligence officials warned the Senate this week to expect further operations by Russia in 2018 to influence the upcoming midterm elections, that included probes of state electoral infrastructure.
the rich asshole: I hope Oprah runs in 2020 so she can be defeated
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 02/18/18 11:43 PM EST
President the rich asshole slammed Oprah Winfrey as “very insecure” in a tweet late Sunday night, saying he hopes she runs for president so “she can be exposed and defeated.”
“Just watched a very insecure Oprah Winfrey, who at one point I knew very well, interview a panel of people on 60 Minutes,” the rich asshole tweeted. “The questions were biased and slanted, the facts incorrect.”
“Hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!” he continued.
Just watched a very insecure Oprah Winfrey, who at one point I knew very well, interview a panel of people on 60 Minutes. The questions were biased and slanted, the facts incorrect. Hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!
Winfrey had interviewed a group of Michigan voters for a “60 Minutes” segment that aired Sunday night. Half of the group had voted for the rich asshole and the other half had not.
Speculation that Winfrey might run for president emerged after she delivered an emotional speech at the Golden Globes last month. However, she has denied that she was considering a presidential bid.
the rich asshole has weighed in on a potential run by Winfrey before, saying that he didn’t think she would run but that if she did, he would beat her.
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