High-ranking GOP congressman blasts the rich asshole for failing to enact Russia sanctions: ‘A price must be paid’
US President some rich asshole (right) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on November 11, 2017 (AFP Photo/JORGE SILVA)
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The Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday slammed President some rich asshole for failing to enact sanctions on Russia over their electoral interference.
Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) told the Daily Beast that he agrees with U.S. Cyber Command and NSA chief Mike Rogers — that the rich asshole has communicated there is “little price to pay” for the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 elections and reported meddling in the 2018 midterms that’s already underway.
“An aggressor will always push forward and do more until he meets resistance,” Thornberry told the Beast. “There has to be a price to be paid.”
“They’re going to keep doing things until there’s a price to be paid,” the chairman continued. “I am very much on the side of calling them out and exposing what they’re doing.”
the rich asshole berated Hope Hicks for telling Congress she sometimes lies for him — and that was her ‘final straw’: report
President some rich asshole, Hope Hicks -- screenshot
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CNN anchor Erin Burnett reported Friday that Hope Hicks left the White House after being berated by President some rich asshole for being “so stupid” in admitting to Congress she sometimes tells lies for the president.
“Breaking news, White House in turmoil. Hope Hicks — the White House communications director and perhaps the president’s closest confidante — gone, abruptly resigning, just a day after admitting she’s told lies for the president,” Burnet explained. “Just to give you an idea how vital Hicks is to the president. One of the president’s close allies telling me tonight, quote, ‘she was his last emotional crutch’ — that’s how crucial she is.”
“That source telling me Hicks departure was sudden,” Burnett continued. “The source saying the rich asshole berated Hicks after her testimony to Congress yesterday, you know, the nine hours in which she admitted to telling lies on behalf of the president.”
“According to the source, the rich asshole asked Hicks after the testimony, how she could she be so stupid,” Burnett continued. “And apparently that was the final straw for Hope Hicks.”
“What are you learning about Hope Hicks’ stunning departure?” Burnett asked CNN White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny.
“There’s no question that we have stood here several times over the last thirteen months and talked about a resignation or departure, this one is different,” Zeleny explained. “Hope Hicks was not a political expert, but she was a some rich asshole expert.”
“She played a major role here,” Zeleny continued. “So this is coming across as a major bombshell.”
“People across the West Wing were surprised, people were crying, they were upset,” Zeleny reported. “In fact, when she held a meeting with the few small staffers who report to her, she was crying and upset.”
Watch:
Ex-CIA officer reveals Hope Hicks’ departure could answer ‘corrupt intent’ question at heart of Mueller probe
Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller and Hope Hicks aboard Air Force One.
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Former CIA officer and National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price suggested that the departure of White House communications director Hope Hicks may finally answer questions of motive in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia collusion.
“Two big stories that are breaking right now. One, a rare leak about the Russia probe coming from witnesses who were inside the room, detailing, that after all the discussion of obstruction, Bob Mueller, right now, is back to collusion and back to some rich asshole,” MSNBC anchor Ari Melber reported. “Here’s the story, Mueller’s investigators pressing witnesses on a question that we know the White House fears most: Did the rich asshole know about the Russian email hack against the Democrats in advance? And was he in on it?”
“Two, the other breaking story right now, top the rich asshole aide Hope Hicks, resigning, she’s out. This news breaking literally a day after she faced Russia investigators,” Melber noted. “It appears that Hope Hicks did tell the truth about the lies, that people had been telling for the rich asshole, when they worked for the rich asshole. We only know that she told, as she put it, ‘white lies for the rich asshole,’ because yesterday she was in the setting where she had to tell the truth.”
“That’s exactly right and I think you have to consider the nature of those white lies and why did she have to tell those white lies, or whatever color the lies, were in the first place?” Price explained.
“Was there this issue, Ari, of corrupt intent? Was there corrupt intent when on board Air Force One she was the one relaying messages from Don, Jr on the ground, back to the president, and back and forth crafting this — what we now know to be false — narrative about a meeting that they said at the time was for adoptions?” Price asked. “Why did they feel the need to lie about it?”
“Was it some natural compulsion to tell untruths, or, and this is what Mueller and his team are going to be looking at it, was it an affirmative effort on the part of the rich asshole officials to obstruct the Mueller probe?” Price continued.
Watch:
Comm Director Abruptly Resigns After Admitting She Lies For the rich asshole, White House In Shambles
Hope Hicks, the White House communications director and one of some rich asshole’s longest-serving advisers, abruptly announced her resignation on Wednesday just one day after she was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee and admitted that she sometimes tells “white lies” for the so-called president, according to the New York Times.
During her 8-hour testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Hicks said that in her job, she has occasionally been required to tell “white lies” in her official capacity but said that she had never lied about anything connected to the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Hicks said that she had “no words” to express her gratitude to the rich asshole, who in turn, released a statement.
“Hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years,” the rich asshole said. “She is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person. I will miss having her by my side, but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, I totally understood. I am sure we will work together again in the future.”
Hicks is the fourth person to serve as communications director in the rich asshole administration, and she did not reveal what job she plans to take on next. She will likely exit the White House in the next few weeks.
At this point, we can only speculate as to why Hicks is resigning but she is on special counsel Robert Mueller’s radar and that’s not a good place to be after so many indictments have been handed down. She did admit to lying and in an official capacity. And if she lied to Mueller, then she’s toast. She’s only 29-years-old and she tied herself to the most chaotic and corrupt administration in history.
Job options for Ms. Hicks: work in the prison cafeteria. Or, after she makes a plea deal with Mueller, she can start a reality show with Omarosa.
Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images.
Sorry Conservatives, President Bone Spurs Probably Didn’t Actually Stop A Mugging
You’ve probably seen conservatives chirping about that time some rich asshole bravely hopped out of his limo to stop a bat-wielding mugger while on his way to a Paula Abdul concert — but it appears that the story is about as legitimate as any other the rich asshole story with a single account supporting his version.
The newspaper clipping shared to support the claim is in fact real and it does in fact say that the rich asshole “stopped” the mugging, but here’s the thing…
If you actually read the article conservatives are sharing, there are two sources for the claim that the rich asshole had something to do with the mugger running off — some rich asshole himself and a “witness” who “asked not to be identified” who says that the violent mugger dropped the bat on the rich asshole’s command and “came over and started talking to him.”
Another witness who wasn’t afraid to be named says that isn’t what happened:
Kathleen Romeo, a 16-year-old student at St. Michael’s Academy in Manhattan, said cries of “There’s the rich asshole!” went through the crowd of onlookers when the erstwhile deal maker emerged from his limousine in front of a Smiler’s deli.“A lot of people were surprised that he got out to see what was happening,” Romeo said, adding that the bat-wielder ran off just before the rich asshole actually appeared, and that the rich asshole, “just looked around and went back into his limo.”
Nevertheless, the rich asshole paints himself as the hero in this attack, which was never reported to police:
“The guy with the bat looked at me, and I said, “Look, you’ve gotta stop this. Put down the bat,”‘ the rich asshole said. “I guess he recognized me because he said, ‘some rich asshole, I didn’t do anything wrong.’ I said, ‘How could you not do anything wrong when you’re whacking a guy with a bat?’ Then he ran away.”
It’s been around three decades since the incident, so it’s difficult to say which version is true — well, it would be difficult if the rich asshole didn’t have a well-documented habit of posing as other people to talk himself up (just ask the rich asshole “spokesmen” John Miller and John Barron, both of whom were actually the rich asshole).
It we’re taking the word of one named witness versus some rich asshole and an unnamed witness with a suspicious account (the mugger just stopped to chat with The rich asshole?), it’s probably best to bet on the first witness who had nothing to gain or lose in the situation.
Mueller investigating the rich asshole’s efforts to drive out Sessions after he recused himself from Russia probe: report
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President some rich asshole.
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Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating some rich asshole’s efforts last summer to drive out Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has recused himself from all matters related to the Russia investigation.
As the Washington Post reports, Mueller’s team has begun probing interviewees about the rich asshole’s “state of mind” last year when he publicly attacked “beleaguered” Jeff Sessions, whom the president still consistently berates.
the rich asshole has said he would not have hired Sessions as attorney general had he known the former Alabama senator would recuse himself from the investigation. In January, the New York Times reported the rich asshole tried to fire Sessions but decided against it after White House counsel Don McGahn threatened to resign.
The report is yet another indication Mueller is investigating the rich asshole’s efforts to obstruct justice in the Russia probe.
The Post also reports the rich asshole privately derides the attorney general as “Mr. Magoo,” and complains he’s “stuck with Sessions.” Earlier this month, top aides bought Sessions “a bulletproof vest with his name emblazoned on it as a gift,” the Post notes.
CNN panel stunned by Hope Hicks ouster: the rich asshole’s White House is ‘coming apart’ at the seams
CNN host Jake Tapper (left) and White House aide Hope Hicks (right). Images via screengrab.
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In any other news cycle, having three major news breaks in one day would be out of the ordinary. But as CNN’s Jake Tapper noted this afternoon, “we just call that Wednesday.”
Responding to news that White House communications director Hope Hicks is abruptly resigning just a day after she testified before the House Intelligence Committee and admitted she told “white lies” for President some rich asshole, Tapper and his panelists noted that the rich asshole administration’s chaos appears to have reached a head.
“In all appearances, she was stoic and professional,” GOP strategist Amanda Carpenter noted. “When you lose someone at the head of the ship, it can feel like things are coming apart and that’s my sense of what’s happening.”
Indeed, despite Hicks’ insistence per multiple sources that she’s been considering an exit from the rich asshole administration for months, White House officials told BuzzFeed News that they were shocked by the news.
Tapper later noted that “it does seem like there is more chaos in this news cycle every day than any other period I can recall — because of the rich asshole White House.”
Watch below, via CNN:
the rich asshole claims the NRA has ‘less power’ over him than over lawmakers
The NRA spent more than $11 million to support him during the 2016 election cycle.
President the rich asshole on Wednesday claimed that the National Rifle Association, the most powerful gun lobby group in the country, has “less power” over him than they have over members of Congress. His comments came during a bipartisan meeting with legislators to address school safety in the wake of this month’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
“They do have great power, I agree with that,” the rich asshole said, responding to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who argued that passing any legislation to prevent gun violence was difficult due to the NRA’s outsized influence on Capitol Hill. “They have great power over you people. They have less power over me. What do I need?”
Many legislators have indeed accepted large donations from the NRA over the years, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R), who told Parkland shooting survivors last week that he would continue to do so, despite the tragedy in his home state. But while the gun lobbying organization has not made direct contributions to the rich asshole himself, it did spend more than $11 million on independent expenditures to support him, and nearly $20 million more to attack Hillary Clinton, during the 2016 presidential election.
Additionally, the rich asshole has signaled a willingness to remain close with the NRA and repeat, sometimes verbatim, its talking points. Just this past Sunday, the president held a lunch meeting with three senior NRA officials, including NRA chief Wayne LaPierre and chief lobbyist and principal political strategist Chris Cox. According to the rich asshole, their discussion centered on mental health.
“I tell you what, the reason I had lunch with the NRA Sunday — I called them. I said you’ve got to come over. I said ‘fellas, we’ve got to do something,'” the president recounted for lawmakers on Wednesday. “… I tell you, they are well-meaning. I said to them very nice, I said, ‘Fellas, we’ve got to do something. We can’t keep restricting–we can’t keep… we have to do what is right.’ When it comes to mental health and other issues, I said, we have to do what is right. And I’m telling you, I think they’re there. I think they’re there.”
He added, “Some of you people are petrified of the NRA. You can’t be petrified. They want to do what is right, and they’re going to do what’s right. I really believe that.”
According to a Politico report on Monday, the president’s language on gun policy has closely mirrored — if not been identical to — the NRA’s official talking points in the days following the Parkland school shooting. The one issue on which the two sides have diverged is bump stocks: the NRA’s official position on the matter is to wait for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to issue new regulations banning them, which ATF officials have repeatedly said they cannot do without legislation from Congress. the rich asshole, by contrast, has said he would “write out” an order banning them himself, if it came to it.
“I’m going to write the bump stock, essentially write it out,” he said Wednesday. “That will be gone shortly. We can focus on other things.”
Mueller’s probe of the rich asshole’s role in leaked Clinton emails proves he’s ‘getting the nail in the coffin’: Katy Tur
Robert Mueller, some rich asshole -- screenshots
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MSNBC anchor Katy Tur, who was the NBC News reporter embedded with the some rich asshole campaign during the 2016 presidential election, revealed to “Deadline: White House” host Nicolle Wallace how the rich asshole’s statements during the campaign are now driving special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into some rich asshole’s Russian collusion.
“On a day a when the White House staff dynamic resembles the Montagues and the Capulets, a picture is emerging of a wounded Jared Kushner in one corner and a temporarily fortified John Kelly in the other,” Wallace suggested, referencing the feuding families in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. “One White House official describes it to Axios this way, ‘Javanka and Kelly are locked in a death match. Two enter, only one survives.'”
“One of the common denominators when some rich asshole erupts on Twitter at Jeff Sessions, it is his unbridled rage of being out of control when it comes to the Mueller investigation,” Wallace noted. “And on that front, our colleagues at NBC News are out with a big news scoop today about what Bob Mueller wants to know about some rich asshole’s situational awareness about that Democratic hack of Hillary Clinton’s campaign emails.”
“It is a rare peek inside the special investigation and it is the clearest indication yet that the three former the rich asshole campaign officials who have all pleaded guilty to crimes, who are all now working for Mueller may be helping him fill in the campaign’s contacts with Russia in much more detail than we’ve understood until today’s report,” the host continued.
“Unbelievable reporting and an unbelievable picture of the specificity with which Bob Mueller is piecing together the entire campaign,” Wallace said to Tur.
“Here’s the real significance in the reporting, it felt like the investigation was moving on to asking not whether some rich asshole coordinated or colluded with Russia, but whether or not he obstructed justice once he got into office. Those are the threads that we had been following, that’s what we had been hearing about,” Tur explained. “This points us back in the original direction, which is, ‘did some rich asshole himself potentially work behind the scenes to coordinate the release of those e-mails?'”
“That July 27th press conference is one that I was at, and that comment, ‘Russia, if you’re listening,’ almost came out of nowhere,” Tur reminded. “He was being asked about the DNC hacks and what he thought about them and whether or not he would call on Russia not to meddle and then stopped very abruptly, looked at the cameras, and said that.”
The timing of the email releases is at the heart of the collusion investigation.
“The Podesta e-mails came just hours after the Access Hollywood tape dropped,” Tur reminded.
“He always had a batch of leaked e-mails whenever he was in a hole,” Wallace agreed.
The host then played Tur’s follow-up questions of the rich asshole.
“He doubled down. He doubled down on it in that moment,” Tur concluded. “And then we know now that this is one of the things that raised a lot of red flags for FBI investigators.”
“It didn’t make any sense. Why would he go there? They’re trying to figure that out,” Tur continued. “I talked to another witness in the Mueller investigation who sat for a pretty long interview and they told me that the atmospherics are remarkable. They know everything, they’re not fishing. These investigators can tell you what room you were in, who you were sitting next to in that room, and what exactly you said while you were there.”
“They’re piecing together a puzzle, they have the building blocks for it, whatever metaphor you want to use,” Tur explained. “As one witness put it, they are not cops going around trying to figure out a crime scene. They have it all and now they’re trying to get the nail in the coffin.”
Watch:
Internet shocked after the rich asshole suggests he wants to ‘take the guns’ before due process: ‘The NRA’s head is exploding’
President some rich asshole (AFP / MANDEL NGAN)
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During a Wednesday press conference, President some rich asshole said he would prefer police “take the guns first” and “go through due process second” to prevent mass shootings like the one that happened on Valentine’s Day in Parkland, Florida.
“I like taking the guns early,” the president remarked amid lawmakers gathered for an announcement of a bipartisan school safety and gun control bill.
The remarks, naturally, were not missed by Twitter.
“If Obama said this, Fox News might actually implode,” the Toronto Star‘s Washington correspondent Daniel Dale mused. “There would be an actual fire at Fox News.”
Trump: "Take the firearms first and then go to court." "I like taking the guns early, like in the crazy man's case...take the guns first, go through due process second."
If Obama said this, Fox News might actually implode. There would be an actual fire at Fox News.
“the rich asshole just said ‘take the guns first and do due process second’… and the sound you heard was Wayne LaPierre’s head exploding,” the Boston Globe‘s Michael Cohen joked, referencing the National Rifle Association’s executive vice president who he reportedly had lunch with recently.
Check out the best responses below:
EVERY MAGA GUY NOW: Please take the guns daddy trump, please confiscate the guns, and then kiss me. twitter.com/NBCNews/status…
Re: Trump’s claim that police should, paraphrasing, “take away guns from mentally ill people, regardless of their rights,” we should not be surprised.
Authoritarianism and (especially) fascism is about the arbitrary application of force, for which rules are only ad hoc alibi.
Also hey, kinda fucking silly that after right-wing pundits cried for 8 years about Obama wanting to take away guns by force, Trump is the one who actually wants to do it.
But of course like you said, the implications are dire.
I’m sorry that I can’t help but laugh at the probably over-noticed point that Obama was accused of multiple, insane conspiracy theories to take guns and Trump can just go out and say “let’s take guns.”
Obviously it’s meaningless because Trump will have dinner with Paul Ryan or Wayne LaPierre and decide to expand first amendment rights to firing off guns in public, but still, hilarious.
Close the rich asshole aide Hope Hicks abruptly resigns 24 hours after testifying in House Intelligence about Russia
Hope Hicks (ABC News/screen grab)
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White House Communications Director Hope Hicks is resigning, the New York Times reports.
The move comes one day after Hicks was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee. During that meeting, Hicks reportedly told the intel committee she occasionally tells “white lies” for some rich asshole, but she insisted she’s never told substantial lies about anything materially related to the Russia investigations.
CNN reports Hicks will depart “in the next few weeks.”
Hicks told the Times there are “no words” to express her gratitude towards the rich asshole.
“Hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years,” the rich asshole told the Times. “She is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person. I will miss having her by my side but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, I totally understood. I am sure we will work together again in the future.”
Ex-DOJ official says the rich asshole aides face a grim future in Mueller probe: They committed Russia ‘collusion out in the open’
President some rich asshole's eldest child and namesake son, some rich asshole Jr., senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former Campaign Chairman and Campaign Manager Paul Manafort. Composite image.
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The former spokesperson for the Department of Justice explained the importance of the latest reports on the questioning by special counsel Robert Mueller, during a Wednesday interview by MSNBC’s Katy Tur.
“It’s not just that July news conference where he said, ‘Russia, are you listening?’ It’s also Roger Stone’s tweets about Wikileaks in the months that led up to the election, it’s also how some rich asshole used Wikileaks to his advantage during the election,” Tur explained.
“Remember, the John Podesta emails came out just hours after the Access Hollywood tape was released. some rich asshole was mired in this great scandal, this huge scandal surrounding what he said on the tape about women’s body part and what he was allowed to do and only hours later there is a scandal that could very easily distract from it and put focus again on Hillary Clinton,” Tur reminded.
“Yeah, that’s exactly right. Just as the hacked DNC emails came out right before the Democratic National Convention, timed for maximum impact to disrupt the convention at a time when Hillary Clinton needed a bump out of the convention,” Miller replied. “I think these are the central questions of this investigation, especially when you put it in the context of the entire timeline.”
“In a way, it’s almost like collusion out in the open,” Miller explained. “After his campaign was told that the Russian government had obtained Clinton emails, he’s out publicly asking them to release them.”
“If that was a private communication, we would just be waiting for an indictment or an impeachment referral, because it was public, people think of it differently,” Miller suggested. “When you put it in context to the rest of the timeline, it’s an extremely damning piece of evidence.”
Tur noted that when interviewing witnesses, when she would suggest Mueller’s questions didn’t sound that detailed, “the person will push back and say ‘no, they know everything.’ And their voice will drop when they say it. They’re able to recreate entire scenes, say who you were sitting next to and what you said in that room.”
“Obviously, they will have done their homework, not just in interview other witnesses, but remember, they now have three cooperating witnesses that we know of,” Miller explained. “These are witnesses that, are not just in answering the questions that are asked of them, but was your an incentive to tell everything they know because it helps reduce their sentences for the crimes of which they plead guilty.”
The latest news also brings up the question of whether former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort will flip.
“Paul Manafort, at some point, is likely is going to spend time in jail, he’s going to be a convicted felon,” Miller predicted. “The only question is how long does he want to go to jail? Does he want to take this case to trial, get convicted and sent to jail, almost certainly for the rest of his life? Does he want to strike a plea deal that brings his sentence down, and potentially brings it down dramatically if he has important information about the president, the president’s son or son-in-law?”
“We don’t know the answer,” Miller reminded. “Mueller may or may not know the answer, but that is the key question for Paul Manafort to face in looking at what are some really, really grim options.”
Watch:
What the hell is going on at the rich asshole’s Panama property?
Threats of eviction, fights between rival security teams, police in riot gear – and a new investigation into the rich asshole's most maligned property.
Strange things are happening at the rich asshole International Hotel and Tower in Panama.
Armed guards and riot police. Shredded files and members of the rich asshole building security arrested. All while the building’s majority owner tries to sever ties with the rich asshole brand.
Suddenly, where the rich asshole Panama property — which Ivanka the rich asshole described as her family’s “largest project in all of the Americas” — once stood as one of the major blights against the business record of the entire the rich asshole family, it now threatens to become something much more menacing for the president.
The most recent trouble appears to have begun last summer. In August, businessman Orestes Fintiklis and his Miami-based Ithaca Capital Partners purchased 202 of the rich asshole tower’s 369 units during what the AP described as a “fire sale.” By October, however, Fintiklis realized that affiliations with the rich asshole brand were taking a toll on his bottom line. As he claimed last month, the property had “steadily been losing market share and stands in last place among its peer luxury hotels,” per a lawsuit filed by Ithaca.
As such, Fintiklis moved to end the rich asshole Hotel’s management contract, as well as “seek compensatory damages,” as the AP noted. the rich asshole Hotels, however, disputed the push, claiming that Ithaca pledged that it would “not seek to act against [the rich asshole Hotels’] interests as hotel manager” when Fintiklis became majority owner.
The developments since have been nothing short of bizarre.
Panamanian power struggle
Despite Fintiklis’ efforts to evict the rich asshole Hotel staff from the building — and even though a Panamanian court in December declined to support the rich asshole Hotel’s claims — the staff has thus far refused to leave the building, blocking Fintiklis from his units. The rich asshole staff even went so far as to “[run] off a group of Marriott executives who had been invited to tour the property amid a search for a replacement hotel operator,” per the AP.
“Someone grabbed me by the neck and wrestled me down. Then he continued attacking everyone.”
Indeed, the rich asshole Organization hasn’t budged in its claims that Fintiklis has no standing to evict the rich asshole Hotels from the building, or from its role as building manager — a role it says is supposed to continue through 2031. In a brief statement, the rich asshole Organization lawyer Alan Garten claimed that Fintiklis “has been conspiring with others to remove the rich asshole Hotels as manager and fire most, if not all, of its loyal and dedicated employees.” Further, according to Garten, Fintiklis has “resorted to thug-like, mob style tactics.”
According to Fintiklis’ lawyer, however, the rich asshole Organization added some 20 private guards to their staff remaining at the hotel over the past few days. Likewise, when staffers working for the building’s condominium section — and not affiliated with the rich asshole Hotels — tried to enter the room containing the building’s surveillance monitor and servers, the rich asshole guards physically repelled them, with the phone and internet connections then downed as a result. As one staff member told The Washington Post, “Someone grabbed me by the neck and wrestled me down. Then he continued attacking everyone.”
Another legal complaint adds that the rich asshole’s security team physically shoved Fintiklis himself when he attempted to terminate the rich asshole employees. Likewise, when the hotel owners’ association tried to fire the rich asshole Hotels staff last week, witnesses saw the rich asshole’s managers begin “carrying files to an area where the sounds of a shredding machine could be heard,” the AP reported.
The physical struggles increased yesterday, when Panamanian police arrested a security guard at the hotel after the guard prevented a police commander from entering the hotel’s offices. And today, onlookers witnessed police in riot gear entering the hotel.
But the issues haven’t been limited to scuffles and handcuffs. Earlier this week, Panama’s government entered the fray, announcing that it would be formally investigating the matter. As such, wrote the Post’s Joshua Partlow and David Farenthold, the standoff has suddenly “turned a theoretical concern about the rich asshole administration — that, someday, the president’s private business might be investigated by a foreign government — into a reality.”
Divesting from the rich asshole
The legal wranglings, and the sudden threat of a foreign government investigating the rich asshole-affiliated assets, are the latest blow to the rich asshole’s Panama property, as well as to the president’s broader business ventures.
The signs of massive money laundering at the rich asshole’s Panama property were impossible to miss.
The history of the Panama hotel is as sketchy as any associated with the rich asshole brand. When the building — described by the rich asshole as Ivanka’s “baby” — was known as the rich asshole Ocean Club, it served as one of the most noteworthy targets for Colombian drug cartels to launder their money. A 2017 report from Global Witness found that the building, which was “one of the rich asshole’s most lucrative licensing deals” during his pre-presidency days, raked in “proceeds from Colombian cartels’ narcotics trafficking” — and that the rich asshole himself was “one of the beneficiaries” of the laundering.
There is no indication the rich asshole was outwardly aware of any of the cartels’ involvement in the rich asshole property purchases. However, the signs of money laundering were obvious: many of the units were purchased in both bulk and in cash, for instance, and several were purchased via “bearer shares,” one of the most notorious means of using luxury properties to launder dirty money.
What’s more, many of the purchasers were anonymous shell companies — a number of which contained “the rich asshole” in their names. As Reuters reported, in 2013 the property’s first primary broker, who worked closely with Ivanka on the building, said, “When I was in Panama I was regularly laundering money for more than a dozen companies.”
According to the Global Witness report, this is a common feature in the rich asshole business dealings.
the rich asshole’s business approach has been to lease his name and for him and his family to drum up sales in some of the world’s dirty money hotspots, in some instances aided — knowingly or unwittingly — by networks of money launderers. The result is that the rich asshole’s current wealth has depended in part on securing significant infusions of untraceable foreign funds.
All of that, however, was before the rich asshole became president, and before his brand became toxic across the world. The rich asshole name has already been removed from properties in Canada and Brazil, as well as in New York. Should Fintiklis succeed, Panama would be the latest country to see a building divest itself of association with the rich asshole.
While many building owners may want to distance themselves from the rich asshole for moral or political reasons, there’s also a financial component. As one businessman who owns multiple units in the rich asshole’s Panama property told the Post, “It’s a bloodbath, basically. It’s a financial bloodbath. Nobody wants to go there. If you’ve got a Marriott and a Hyatt and a rich asshole, you’re not going to the rich asshole.”
Given the fact that physical fights are now taking place on the rich asshole property — to say nothing of the downed phone lines, the police in riot gear, and the new investigation from the Panamanian government — there’s little reason to think anyone will be choosing the rich asshole’s Panama project over its competitors anytime soon.
the rich asshole campaign sells hat with slogan embraced by white supremacists
For $50, you too can advertise bigotry.
President some rich asshole’s re-election campaign store has added a new product to its line of red, white, and camouflage “Make America Great Again” hats. the rich asshole supporters are now able to purchase $50 navy hats with the words “American Dreamer” embroidered in large, white letters.
On the surface, the product seems perfectly innocuous. “American Dreamer,” after all, is a reference to one of the rich asshole’s most popular lines from his first State of the Union address.
“My duty, and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber, is to defend Americans — to protect their safety, their families, their communities, and their right to the American Dream,” said the rich asshole, speaking about his administration’s various crackdowns on immigration. Referencing the millions of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, known as “Dreamers,” he insisted, “Americans are dreamers too.”
The phrase was seen as intentionally divisive and mirrored the rich asshole’s language last September when he announced he would rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that provided legal protections for hundreds of thousands of those Dreamers. “[Y]oung Americans have dreams too,” the rich asshole stated at the time.
The phrase “Americans are dreamers too” was quickly embraced by white nationalists following the rich asshole’s State of the Union speech. Many of them made memes of the phrase, pairing the rich asshole’s words with stock images of white people.
Prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer, for instance, posted this image on Twitter during the rich asshole’s speech:
Spencer
Former KKK grand wizard David Duke also thanked the rich asshole for including the line in his speech. “Thank you President the rich asshole,” he wrote. “Americans are ‘Dreamers’ too.”
The argument for the Dream Act — which would have provided young, undocumented immigrants with the ability to become permanent residents if it had passed, and from which the term “Dreamers” was derived — is that Dreamers areAmericans. They had no choice in the decision to come to the United States, they grew up here and, in many cases, have no connection to any other country. the rich asshole’s turn of phrase, by contrast, pits “Americans” and “Dreamers” against one another.
The timing of the “American Dreamer” hats sale is curious, considering the deadline the rich asshole set for Congress to come up with a permanent DACA fix, March 5, is just around the corner.
So far, Congress hasn’t been able to come up with a legislative solution that the president finds acceptable, leaving Dreamers in limbo. Earlier in January, a court ruling allowed the DACA renewal process to continue past March 5, and on Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear any arguments in the case, upholding the lower court ruling for the time being, or until it decides to take up the case. In the meantime, however, no new DACA applications will be accepted.
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February 28, 2018
Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, an NRA opponent, was not invited to a White House school safety event even though he represents the community targeted.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) supports the teenage survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High school shooting, but he has been excluded by the rich asshole from a White House meeting on school safety.
the rich asshole did invite other Florida lawmakers to the event, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who has been a vocal proponent of the NRA.
Nelson pointed out that snubbing him showed a lack of seriousness from the White House on school safety. “I don’t know why I wasn’t invited… And of course that doesn’t foster bipartisanship when you’re trying to solve a problem,” he told ABC News.
The snub of Nelson comes after he and Rubio both appeared in a televised town hall meeting with the survivors and families from Parkland.
In that meeting, Nelson called for “common-sense solutions, like getting the assault rifles off the streets” and touted his sponsorship of bills that would limit the sales of war weapons.
By contrast, Rubio refused a plea from a student to stop taking NRA contributions. Rubio has received an “A+” rating from the NRA, while the extremist organization gave Nelson an “F.”
In 2012 campaign materials the NRA falsely accused Nelson of opposing gun rights and cited his support for gun safety legislation as a reason he shouldn’t be re-elected.
Despite the NRA smears, Nelson easily won that election by 13 percent.
After the event, opinion polls have shown Rubio losing support and hitting all time lows, while Nelson’s support has remained unchanged.
Publicly opposing the rich asshole’s patrons at the NRA (they gave $36 million to back him in 2016) may have contributed to the White House snub.
Attempts to squelch those bucking the NRA agenda have failed miserably. The organization has grown more toxic, while the politicians who support it — like the rich asshole and Rubio — have lost ground.
The shooting survivors are calling out the NRA’s extremism, and officials like Nelson are responding. Banning him from a White House event is more likely to backfire than hand another victory to the NRA.
Sarah Sanders abruptly cancels White House briefing after Kushner’s security clearance is revoked
Sarah Sanders (MSNBC/screen grab)
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White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders canceled Wednesday’s press briefing after reports said that the security clearance of President some rich asshole’s son-in-law Jared Kushner had been revoked.
The briefing, which was originally slated for 2 p.m. ET, was canceled late Wednesday morning, several White House correspondent noted on Twitter. Sanders said that the briefing had been canceled because the rich asshole decided to allow reporters to attend a meeting with lawmakers.
“Due to heightened interest on school safety President the rich asshole has asked the press stay in the room for an extended period of time during the meeting with lawmakers,” Sanders said.
If the briefing had taken place as scheduled, Sanders was expected to be grilled Kushner’s security clearance and why he is still in charge of Mideast peace after it was revoked. The press secretary could have also faced questions on the rich asshole’s bid to arm teachers and reports that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson wanted to spend thousands more than is permitted to redecorate his office.
Jeff Sessions just hit back at raging the rich asshole
Attorney General Jeff Sessions (YouTube)
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday finally hit back at President some rich asshole’s insults.
In response to the rich asshole’s Wednesday morning tweet calling him “DISGRACEFUL,” Sessions said that he was confident that his office was acting appropriately — and he said that he would continue to “discharge my duties with integrity and honor” as long as he served as attorney general.
Sessions also said that the Department of Justice would “continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and the Constitution.”
the rich asshole publicly attacked Sessions earlier on Wednesday for not doing enough to investigate former President Barack Obama.
“Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse,” the president asked on Twitter Wednesday morning. “Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy?”
the rich asshole then trashed Sessions for not directing his own attorneys at the Department of Justice to investigate Obama themselves.
“Why not use Justice Department lawyers?” he asked. “DISGRACEFUL!”
the rich asshole has not been shy about ripping into his own attorney general for not doing enough to investigate his political foes. Last week, the rich asshole on Twitter told his followers to ask Sessions — whose name the president initially misspelled as “Jeff Session” — why Democrats weren’t being investigated for “crimes” related to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
And last summer, the rich asshole called Sessions “beleaguered” and “weak” because he was not sufficiently investigating former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.
the rich asshole has also raged against Sessions for recusing himself from overseeing the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election after it was revealed that Sessions falsely told the Senate during his confirmation hearing that he had never met with any Russian government officials during the campaign.
‘Jared Kushner feels like he’s being picked on’ over security clearance: Kushner friend tells CNN
Jared Kushner (Photo: Screen capture)
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Sources close to White House aide Jared Kushner told CNN on Wednesday that President the rich asshole’s son-in-law “feels like he’s being picked on” after his security clearance was revoked.
“The existing battle lines in the West Wings have been entrenched by this decision by [Chief of Staff John Kelly] to essentially strip Jared Kushner of his security clearance,” CNN White House Correspondent Jeff Zeleny explained. “Jared Kushner, first and foremost, he remains the president’s son-in-law and we were told again and again, that is something to keep in mind here. The president, as we know, believes he is doing a good job.”
Zeleny revealed that Kushner had known that he would lose his security clearance since Friday.
“He has gotten used to this idea,” the CNN reporter stated. “One of the reasons, I’m told, that he was up on the Hill working on his domestic agenda. He does not want to seem like he is being shoved aside.”
“Someone who is a friend/supporter of his this morning told me that he does not want to prove his critics right by leaving so do not look for Jared Kushner to leave,” Zeleny continued. “The president we are told does not like the view of this on television, that his son-in-law looks like he’s hanging out there.”
“Jared Kushner feels like he’s being picked on in some respects,” he added.
Watch the video below from CNN.
Shooting victim’s dad to the rich asshole: Stop threats against kids
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"I need president the rich asshole, today, to demand that everyone who is making these threats stop," said Fred Guttenberg.
Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed during the gun massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School two weeks ago, is demanding that the rich asshole do something to stop the threats being made against them.
During an interview by CNN Wednesday morning as Parkland students returned to class for the first time since the shooting, Guttenberg raised the issue of threats made against the student survivors and their families, and delivered an urgent message to the rich asshole.
“I need president the rich asshole, today, to demand that everyone who is making these threats stop,” Guttenberg told “New Day” co-host Alisyn Camerota. He also called on law enforcement to investigate the threats.
“We know they’re out there,” Guttenberg said. “Investigate. And the rich asshole, make an announcement.”
the rich asshole himself has acted atrociously toward survivors of the Parkland massacre, blaming classmates for failing to stop the shooter early on and failing to invite many of them to his sham “listening session” at the White House.
And some rich asshole Jr. endorsed ugly right-wing attacks on the Parkland students that helped fuel the threats against activists like David Hogg and his family.
the rich asshole should speak out against these threats, but since the attacks on these brave kids originate so close to home, it’s doubtful he will.
Senate intel committee’s Ron Wyden demands public hearings on the rich asshole’s financial ties to Russia
the rich asshole's relationship with Moscow has stalked the first year of his presidency, with key former aides under a US investigation for alleged collaboration with the Kremlin. (SPUTNIK/AFP / Mikhail KLIMENTYEV)
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Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) on Wednesday called for the Senate Select Intelligence Committee to hold hearings on financial ties between Russia and President some rich asshole and his associates.
In a letter to intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, Wyden observes that there have been an increasing number “press accounts” about the rich asshole’s financial links to Russia.
“I write to urge that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hold public hearings on financial relationships between some rich asshole and his associates and Russia,” the letter states.
Wyden notes that he first made the request on March 29, 2017.
“Since then, there have only been more press accounts describing financial ties between Russia and the rich asshole and his associates, as well as public testimony from the president’s son-in-law [Jared Kushner] that has raised far more questions than answers,” Wyden writes. “The indictments of former the rich asshole campaign co-chair Paul Manafort and campaign aide Rick Gates have also highlighted the importance of money laundering, bank fraud and tax evasion to any investigation of Russia’s influence in U.S. politics.”
Wyden goes on to argue that “following the money is a crucial component of any counterintelligence investigation, particularly when there are this many indicators of extensive longstanding and illicit financial relationships.”
“I do not believe, however, that the Committee has adequately investigated these matters or that the the rich asshole Administration, and in particular the Secretary of the Treasury, has not cooperated with congressional oversight,” Wyden concluded. “Indeed, the Secretary has refused to release assessments of senior Russian officials and Russian oligarchs, despite a statutory requirement to do so.”
Kushner’s security clearance fiasco exposes the rich asshole’s hypocrisy in attacking Hillary Clinton over handling of classified info
File picture taken on August 11, 2017 shows White House adviser Jared Kushner listening as US President some rich asshole speaks to the press on at his Bedminster National Golf Club in New Jersey (AFP Photo/JIM WATSON)
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Jared Kushner, son-in-law and top aide to President some rich asshole has lost his top-secret clearance despite his father-in-law/boss maintaining he should have it. The development is an ironic twist given the rich asshole’s accusations that Hillary Clinton mishandled classified intelligence by using her own email server.
During the 2016 election, the rich asshole was dogged about Clinton’s private email server and that it posed a national security threat. At the time Clinton was using the server it was not illegal to do so, rather it was considered “reckless,” NBC News recalled.
“She set up this illegal server knowing full well that her actions put our national security at risk and put the safety and security of your children and your families at risk,” the rich asshole told a Phoenix audience in October 2016.
Days before the election, he attacked Clinton again during a campaign stop in Florida.
“Think of it, can you imagine Anthony Weiner has probably every classified email ever sent. And knowing this guy, he probably studied every single one, in between using his machine for other purposes,” the rich asshole said about emails that copied aide Huma Abedin. She then wiped the computer and allowed her husband to use it, but the emails could still have been accessed.
“Hillary Clinton will be under investigation for a long, long time for her many crimes against our nation, our people, our democracy, likely concluding in a criminal trial,” the rich asshole said the following day at a Minnesota campaign stop.
Since taking office, the rich asshole has been more cavalier with classified information. During a meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador, the rich asshole disclosed highly classified information that “jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State,” The Washington Post reported. He then claimed he was “right” to have disclosed it.
the rich asshole also shared classified intelligence with a lawmaker, who lacked access, in May 2017 while staff looked on in horror.
During a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week a reporter asked the rich asshole about Kushner’s clearance. the rich asshole said it would be up to his chief of staff John Kelly, but said that Kushner deserves the authorization and was being treated unfairly. The White House went on to say that Kushner would not be impacted by the strengthening of access.
The White House has “gamed” the system to ensure aides had access to top secret information despite not being cleared by the FBI. Many West Wing staffers and family members lacked clearance levels but they still had access to the information.
Kushner is being asked to handle Mexico, establish Middle East peace and other issues.
Watch the full report below:
the rich asshole nomination for Nobel Peace Prize possibly a fake
President some rich asshole (Screenshot)
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Has some rich asshole really been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize? The Norwegian Nobel Institute said Wednesday it had filed a police report after receiving a seemingly fraudulent nomination for the US president.
“We have good reason to believe that a nomination we received concerning the rich asshole has been falsified,” Nobel Institute director Olav Njolstad told AFP.
He refused to provide further details, saying it was for the police to give more information.
Each year, nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize must be submitted by January 31. Among those entitled to propose names are members of parliament and government, former laureates and some university professors.
While the list of candidates is kept secret for at least 50 years, those who nominate are however allowed to disclose their choice.
The Peace Research Institute of Oslo (Prio) said in early February that the rich asshole’s name was on the list.
Like last year, the rich asshole was nominated for his “ideology of peace by force” by an American who did not want his identity revealed, according to Prio, a body independent of the Nobel organization which closely monitors the nominations revealed publicly.
It is possible that this nomination was submitted by a person suspected of committing identity fraud to appear eligible to nominate.
The Nobel Institute said it had received 329 valid nominations for the 2018 Peace Prize. The five members of the Nobel committee that selects the winner are also allowed to submit names during their first meeting of the year, which was held on Monday.
The name of the 2018 winner will be announced in early October.
the rich asshole excludes Florida’s Democratic senator from ‘bipartisan’ meeting on guns — just like he did after hurricane
Democratic Senator Bill Nelson makes a point during U.S. Senate debate in Davie, Florida, October 17, 2012. REUTERS/Joe Skipper
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Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida’s only Democratic senator, was excluded from a “bipartisan” meeting on gun laws at the White House even though the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School occurred in his state.
The Wall Street Journal reported that President some rich asshole had scheduled a bipartisan meeting to talk about gun legislation on Wednesday.
“An effort to tighten the national background-check system for gun sales bogged down on Capitol Hill Tuesday, but lawmakers held out hope that bipartisan negotiations, including a White House meeting on Wednesday, could spur legislative action in response to recent mass shootings,” the Journal noted.
But according to The Tampa Bay Times, Nelson office confirmed this week that he was snubbed from the meeting. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and other Florida lawmakers were invited to the event.
The Tampa Bay Times also pointed out that it wasn’t the first time that the rich asshole has excluded Nelson from bipartisan meetings to do with his state.
“When the rich asshole visited Fort Myers after Hurricane Irma, Nelson was not part of the tour, attended by a large group of Florida politicians. An invite did come but it was late, Nelson said, and he was on his way to North Florida to survey damage there,” the paper reported.
Thanks to the rich asshole, 39 Republican districts (So Far) Have Been Flipped To Democrats
While some rich asshole was spending his evening endorsing candidates on Twitter, Democrats just flipped two GOP-held seats and one in a district that carried the rich asshole by 13 percentage points in the presidential election. On Tuesday night, Democrat Philip Spagnuolo, a substance abuse counselor, won a special election for the Belknap 3 House District in New Hampshire, adding to the long list of seats Dems have flipped since the rich asshole’s inauguration.
Meanwhile, in Connecticut Democrat Philip Young claimed victory over Republican Bill Cabral in a Stratford-based district that has been in Republican hands for decades — even though Hillary Clinton carried a narrow plurality there in 2016.
This marks the 38th and 39th legislative flips since the rich asshole’s inauguration. Democrats have now flipped six this year alone.
Ahead of next month’s primary elections in Texas, more Democratic voters than Republicans have cast ballots in what some party officials have interpreted as a new sign that a blue wave is building ahead of the midterm elections, according to The Hill.
The Texas Secretary of State’s office said 168,000 voters had cast ballots in the Democratic primary in person or by mail in the state’s ten largest counties through the end of Sunday. By contrast, 138,000 voters had cast ballots in the Republican primary.
In Texas, y’all. Look out, Ted Cruz, because Democrat Beto O’Rourke is coming. O’Rourke outraised Cruz in donations by $1.5 million: $2.3 million to $800,000. That nice chunk of cash was from the beginning of 2018 through mid-February and that came after O’Rourke outpaced Cruz in the closing quarter of 2017, $2.4 million to $1.8 million.
the rich asshole endorsed Cruz, among others, today on Twitter.
Keep endorsing candidates, some rich asshole. It’s the kiss of death.
White House excludes Florida Democratic senator from meeting
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 02/28/18 12:13 PM EST
The White House has excluded Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) from a meeting between President the rich asshole and lawmakers from both parties about a legislative response to the high school shooting in his home state.
Nelson, who is up for reelection next year and may be challenged by Rick Scott, Florida’s Republican governor, was not in the White House list of invitees and was conspicuous in his absence.
Florida’s other senator, Republican Marco Rubio, did make the cut, as did a number of House members from Florida: GOP Reps. John Rutherford and Brian Mast and Democratic Reps. Ted Deutch and Stephanie Murphy.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who is running for the Senate in her state, also was on the invitee list.
“I don't know why I wasn't invited. ... And of course that doesn't foster bipartisanship when you're trying to solve a problem,” Nelson told ABC News.
Spokespeople for the White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
An aide argued that the decision to exclude Nelson from the White House meeting is “all political.”
“The White House is doing everything it can to help Gov. Rick Scott as he prepares to run against Nelson this year. This is just the latest,” the staffer said.
“The White House is doing everything it can to help Gov. Rick Scott as he prepares to run against Nelson this year. This is just the latest,” the staffer said.
the rich asshole has reportedly been urging Scott to enter the race against Nelson.
If Scott challenges Nelson, it is expected that it could be the most expensive Senate race in the country this fall.
Deutch and Rubio both took part in a CNN town hall with Nelson last week, where they faced questions about Congress's next steps on gun control in the wake of the school shooting, where 17 people were killed.
Deutch and Rubio both took part in a CNN town hall with Nelson last week, where they faced questions about Congress's next steps on gun control in the wake of the school shooting, where 17 people were killed.
Nelson, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy (Conn.) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) sent a letter to the rich asshole on Wednesday urging him to support stricter gun control laws.
Chris Murphy and Klobuchar will attend Wednesday's White House meeting. Four Democratic senators are invited along with seven Republicans.
‘You’re going to get prosecuted’: Ex-DOJ official says Hope Hicks in legal jeopardy after admitting ‘white lies’
White House communications director Hope Hicks deplanes Air Force One (Twitter)
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White House Communication Director Hope Hicks could face criminal prosecution after she admitted telling “white lies” to defend President some rich asshole, a former Justice Department official said on Wednesday.
During a panel discussion on CNN, Justice Correspondent Evan Perez explained that Hicks told the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that she was guilty of fabricating “white lies” for the president, but she refused to say what she had lied about.
Former Pentagon and State Department spokesperson John Kirby pointed out that lying is a fireable offense, especially for communications officials like Hicks.
“If I had [told white lies] and anybody found out that I did then I would have been fired by the secretary of defense and/or the secretary of state,” Kirby said. “You take an oath to the American people to serve in public office. One of those oaths is you are going to protect and defend the Constitution. And that means telling the truth. That means being honest, both offscreen and onscreen.”
CNN legal analyst Lauren Coats, a former federal prosecutor, observed that Hicks may have open herself up to criminal prosecution if she is caught telling “white lies” to special counsel Robert Mueller or his investigators.
“Is there a difference between a white lie and a big lie?” CNN host John Berman asked Coats.
“Not if you’re Robert Mueller,” Coats insisted. “We have already seen at least two to three people [charged for lying]. If you are lying generally then you’re going to get prosecuted for it. You’re going to have a guilty plea. So, there’s no real semantics-based nuance argument you could make.”
“It sounds like in her private life as a citizen for some rich asshole’s organization, she was the spin doctor,” Coats continued. “That role changes when you are the communications director of the White House and it especially changes if you are talking to the FBI, a chief investigator or even congressmen.”
Berman concluded by noting that Hicks reportedly told members of the House Intelligence Community that she had been advised not to lie to Mueller’s investigative team.
Watch the video below from CNN.
Meghan McCain: It was ‘naïve’ to trust that the rich asshole wouldn’t cruelly attack cancer-stricken father again
Cindy and Meghan McCain (Photo: Screen capture)
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During an appearance on “The View” Wednesday, co-host Meghan McCain and her mother Cindy schooled President some rich asshole down on his lack of empathy and humanity.
Meghan said that the rich asshole and Melania called her personally after she tweeted about stories she’d heard that the president was mocking her father’s war injuries. They apologized and at that point made an agreement that the rich asshole would refrain from attacking her father personally while he’s fighting for his life with glioblastoma, a rare form of brain cancer that killed former Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden.
“I really was under the impression that this fight between our families and between him and my father, especially at this particular moment, would end,” Meghan said. It didn’t.
During the rich asshole’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, however, the rich asshole accused McCain of sinking the GOP’s healthcare bill. Though, he didn’t call out McCain by name.
“To have this moment of CPAC, which is supposed to be the mothership of conservatism and the Republican Party and to see booing at this specific moment in time was very hurtful,” Meghan continued. “And I feel quite frankly very naive to have believed that this would have been any different.”
Co-host Joy Behar agreed it was a mistake to believe anything the rich asshole told her.
Mrs. McCain said that it seems the president fails to understand that there are many more important things happening due to the senator’s leadership. She specifically cited a human trafficking bill that McCain worked on that was finally passed this week as well as other important policy initiatives. Instead the rich asshole focuses on their internal war with each other and the senator’s vote against the health bill.
“From my own feeling — we need more compassion,” Mrs. McCain said. “We need more empathy. We need more togetherness in terms of working together. We don’t need more bullying and I’m tired of it.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin agreed, wondering when it would end, but Behar said that it’s never going to stop because it simply isn’t in the rich asshole’s nature. She recalled when the rich asshole mocked McCain for being captured during Vietnam.
“It’s like the lowest level of character you can find,” Behar continued.
“His ego doesn’t allow for others to have accolades,” said co-host Whoopi Goldberg about the president. “Whether they agree or not, people love your dad because he knows what is right and will stand up. It’s why (the rich asshole is) so pissed at Obama. Obama is off doing his thing, he doesn’t care, but he has to keep bringing him up because he has to show he’s doing better than Obama. Everything has to be bigger and better and everything has to be this. And when it comes to things where his failings are clear, he has to try to take down.”
When it came to the discussion about Jared Kushner losing his security clearance, Mrs. McCain noted that the nepotism is running rampant in the White House.
“It’s a broader discussion,” Mrs. McCain said. “Nepotism shouldn’t play a role in any of this at all. And you have two people that are very close to him whose purpose is not the country but about serving the man, and that’s a problem because that’s about serving your country.”
Watch the full discussion below:
Joe Manchin opposes AR-15 ban because his friends have them: ‘I don’t know anyone that’s committed a crime’
Willie Geist speaks to Joe Manchin (MSNBC/screen grab)
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Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia stated on Wednesday that he would not vote to ban military-style assault weapons — like the AR-15 that was used to murder 17 in Parkland, Florida — because none of his friends had committed crimes with them.
During an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program, host Willie Geist asked Manchin if he agreed with Dick’s Sporting Good’s call for Congress to outlaw so-called assault weapons.
Manchin argued that some gun control measure made sense. He advocated for a ban on bump stocks and increasing the age to 21 for the purchase of semi-automatic weapons.
“But the AR-15 is a different thing,” Manchin insisted. “I don’t own an AR-15, nor do I have a need to buy one. I have a lot of friends that do own them. And they, basically, are not committing crimes. They bought them because they could.”
Geist pressed Manchin on banning the AR-15, but the senator deflected.
“The market is going to change,” the senator opined. “They are sold now legally. I’m not going to weigh in on that. I don’t have a desire to buy one. I don’t own one.”
“Let’s put it this way,” he continued. “I have a lot of friends that have sport cars. Okay? I’ve seen 200 MPH on the speedometer. Do you think they are going to go 200? But they think they can or it will if they want it to. I don’t know on this one. That is difficult because there’s not enough votes to pass that.”
“How would you vote,” Geist wondered.
“Right now, I would say that I don’t have any friends that own the gun right now — I don’t know anyone that’s committed a crime,” Manchin remarked. “So, I wouldn’t take their gun away.”
Watch the video below from MSNBC.
Ex-the rich asshole top aide Paul Manafort pleads not guilty, faces Sept. 17 trial
Paul Manafort (Youtube)
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U.S. President some rich asshole’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a new indictment brought against him in the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and will face trial in September.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is running the Russia probe, is dialing up the legal pressure on Manafort, who has not opted to cooperate with investigators.
Manafort’s former business partner Rick Gates, another the rich asshole ex-campaign aide, decided last week to cooperate with the investigation.
Manafort is facing two separate indictments on an array of charges, including conspiracy to launder money, filing false tax returns and failing to register as a foreign agent for lobbying work for the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian government of former President Viktor Yanukovych.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson set Manafort’s trial to start Sept. 17 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Manafort was the rich asshole’s campaign manager for five months in 2016. He was originally indicted last year with Gates, the rich asshole’s former deputy campaign manager.
Gates agreed to cooperate with Mueller as part of a plea deal to charges that he lied to investigators and conspired against the United States.
Gates’ move was seen as adding to pressure on Manafort to cut a deal himself but he said in a statement issued last Friday after Gates’ plea deal that he maintained his innocence.
‘They’ve already convicted him!’ Fox host freaks out over San Diego State course on the rich asshole impeachment
Ainsley Earhardt (Fox News)
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San Diego State University is offering a course that seems almost tailor-made to outrage Fox News viewers — so, naturally, the conservative network devoted about three minutes to the class.
The university is offering a one-credit course in March called “the rich asshole: Impeachment, Removal or Conviction?” taught by professor John Joseph Cleary.
The network, which spent less than 30 seconds Wednesday morning on a pair of bombshell reports about Jared Kushner, invited an SDSU student who’s also a correspondent for the conservative Campus Reform website to talk about the course, which will rely on the book, “The Case for Impeachment,” by political historian Allan Lichtman.
“I think the dangerous part of it is that they are making a very strong claim that the president has sort of committed crimes of treason or bribery and that he is, you know, been allegedly accused of violating the Article 2 Section 4 of the Constitution,” Jones said.
“Fox & Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt complained that the course did not offer any sort of balance to its premise.
“It’s not even sort of,” she said. “They are claiming that they don’t give an option of innocence. They say ‘the rich asshole impeachment, removal or conviction.’ It’s not the rich asshole, guilty or innocent. They have already convicted him here, right?”
Jones agreed, saying the course should have focused on historical examples of impeachment instead of a hypothetical case against the sitting president.
“Their message is very clear, and we see this all the time,” Jones griped. “College campuses, especially San Diego State University, there is tons of liberal bias and it’s honestly not surprising, unfortunately.”
Jones and Earhardt agreed the university was targeting the rich asshole and his supporters by building the elective course around his impeachment.
“I mean, it’s clear — his name is in the title,” Jones said. “It’s very clear what the message is this course is sending. Look at the required textbook, it was written by a liberal nutjob on the East Coast. His message is very clear as well. This course is to go after President the rich asshole, and unfortunately, they can, you know, spew their talking points all they want but I’m not buying it.”
‘You heartless prick’: Internet users destroy conservative writer for singling out Parkland teen for attack
David Hogg 0n MSNBC
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A conservative magazine declared Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg “fair game” — and social media users lambasted the “heartless prick” who penned the attack.
National Review writer Charles C.W. Cooke suggested the 17-year-old activist had “chosen to insert himself into an important national policy debate,” and he argued that conservatives who “disagree with his views on guns have a duty to speak up against them.”
Twitter users argued that Hogg had earned his national platform after watching 17 of his classmates and teachers gunned down two weeks ago at his high school.
"Chosen to insert himself" is an interesting way of saying "survived an attack by a man with an AR-15 who murdered 17 of his schoolmates and teachers."
I know a way to keep future David Hoggs from "choosing to insert themselves," but the I bet NRO won't like the solution. twitter.com/NRO/status/968…
"Has chosen to insert himself" sounds like such astonishing effrontery, until you take a breath and realize it means that he, a citizen, has opinions and is voicing them. The National Review, in fact, is engaged in the same outrageous presumption here. twitter.com/NRO/status/968…
"David Hogg has chosen to insert himself"?No, the NRA-sponsored, AR-15 wielding killer, Nikolas Cruz, who targeted @davidhogg111 to kill with a weapon that shoots bullets at 2,000 miles per hour, forced him to insert himself into discussing the insanity of the NRA. https://t.co/Hcxs7jZleM— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) February 28, 2018
He didn’t choose it, nor did he insert himself. He was teleported in on the wings of flying bullets IN HIS SCHOOL FROM A NAZI’S AR-15. twitter.com/nro/status/968…
Seriously ... someone comes into this young man's school with an assault rifle, kills 17 of his classmates and teachers, and you say he chose to insert himself into the policy debate. What ARE you smoking?
He's "chosen to insert himself"?!?
There is so much wrong with your tweet I scarcely know where to start.
Lololol "chosen to insert himself" you heartless pricks
Siding with the NRA against a child who survived a mass shooting at his school is a bad look. He didn’t insert himself.
Chosen to insert himself?
His school was shot up. His classmates & teachers were murdered.
Are you sick in the head? twitter.com/NRO/status/968…
Yeah, what kid wouldn’t choose to be a victim of a school shooting so as to “insert himself into a national debate?”
What is their point?
Yes, David has as much right to insert himself into the debate -as does everyone else who disagrees with him.
Who’s on first?
Nope, he didn't "choose to insert himself" in gun debate. He survived a massacre of 17 of his classmates and has dedicated himself to stopping the wardens of death - the NRA and the GOP. May there be full justice.
He didn’t choose to insert himself, but instead chose to rise and fight back once he was thrown into this horrific situation. The conservative media should be terrified of these kids.
Unless @davidhogg111 chose to be hunted down at school by a 2nd Amendment fan with an AR-15, he didn’t “choose” to insert himself in this debate. And you’ve been speaking for years on this topic, which is why we’re in the mess we’re in. Maybe it’s time to listen to someone else. twitter.com/NRO/status/968…
David Hogg didn’t choose to insert himself into a gun debate. He is the living embodiment of how the debate should be framed.
How many right wing attacks on the Parkland students have been on their views? And how many have called them actors, publicity hounds, coached dupes or criticized them for being caught with a smile?
‘Stand up to the NRA and rip off your shock collar’: Parkland teen David Hogg calls out the rich asshole as a ‘coward’
CNN host Alisyn Camerota speaks with Stoneman Douglas students Lauren and David Hogg (Photo: Screen capture)
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Marjory Stoneman Douglas student David Hogg was furious as he entered his school for the first day back since the massacre on Valentine’s Day.
In an interview with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, Hogg said that the past weeks since the shooting have been “frustrating and annoying” watching political leaders in Washington, such as House Speaker Paul Ryan, resist doing anything to help stop mass shootings in America.
“They want to sell more guns on behalf of the people who own them, which is the NRA,” Hogg said of those pushing weapons in classrooms. “They want to sell more guns. They want to scare more people. They want to get more guns sold so they can get re-elected. They want to scare the people and we don’t want to see that happen.”
Hogg, who has been the target of attacks and threats online, said the thing that angers him most is that after two weeks policymakers haven’t done anything to stop mass shootings.
“None of our glass is being replaced with bullet-proof glass,” he went on. “None of our locks that are being replaced are able to be locked from the inside. No legislative action has been taken. All we have now is more guns and more chances for things to go wrong. I mean, think about it this way, what about for a student like me that is going to be at school today? What if I was misidentified as another school shooter? What if there is a blue-on-blue situation where we had a scenario where we had an undercover police officer and they started going off because thought they saw a school shooter and as such they started shooting at each other and slaughtered everything behind?”
Hogg said that the only thing that has changed is that there are “more guns and more chances for things to go wrong.”
He called politicians cowards, specifically naming Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) and President some rich asshole.
“They won’t stand up to the NRA and rip off their shock collar,” he said.
Camerota noted that the state legislature is taking action on some things, including the move to arm teachers.
“That’s just a compromise for the GOP’s politics,” Hogg said. He listed off the things he would like to see the legislature do, including, “raising the federal age of gun ownership and possession to the age of 21, banning all bump stocks, making sure that we have a universal background check, making sure people who are committed of acts of domestic violence aren’t able to get a gun. And making sure people who have history of mental illness aren’t able to obtain weapons of mass destruction.”
“I think the fact that I have had to threaten the entire state of Florida is a testament to how disgusting the state of politics has become,” Hogg said. He said that he sees some action, “but at this point seeing everything that’s going on is giving me hope. That’s why I’m here today. If that bill is not on the House floor at the Florida state level, I wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t feel safe coming to school. Honestly, I don’t. we don’t have bullet-proof glass. We just have more guns.”
He also noted that Scott is holding back the implication of any legislation that takes effect and alleged it was for political reasons.
“Rick Scott is trying to implement it a year later so he can have that happen right around his election,” Hogg said. “We can’t let that happen. We cannot let that happen. I know he is saying it takes time. It doesn’t. He’s governor. We saw his response to Hurricane Irma. He cares more about his political agenda.”
Watch the full interview below:
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