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March 11, 2018
Maggie Haberman had the only possible response to the rich asshole's absurdity: Laughter and facts.
the rich asshole kicked off his Sunday morning with one of his trademark tantrums. But Maggie Haberman, the New York Times reporter he targeted, shut him quickly and easily.
“The Failing New York Times purposely wrote a false story stating that I am unhappy with my legal team on the Russia case and am going to add another lawyer to help out,” the rich asshole tweeted. He was referring to a Times article by Haberman and Michael Schmidt.
The story in question says that the rich asshole is in talks with attorney Emmet T. Flood, who represented President Bill Clinton during his impeachment process.
“Wrong. I am VERY happy with my lawyers, John Dowd, Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow. They are doing a great job and have shown conclusively that there was no Collusion with Russia..just excuse for losing,” the rich asshole added. “The only Collusion was that done by the DNC, the Democrats and Crooked Hillary. The writer of the story, Maggie Haberman, a Hillary flunky, knows nothing about me and is not given access.”
Anyone who followed Haberman’s breathless coverage of Hillary Clinton’s emails would find it ludicrous to call Haberman a “Hillary flunky.”
And even Haberman herself seemed to acknowledge that, as she laughed out loud at the rich asshole’s insult. But Haberman also responded with the rich asshole’s greatest enemy, the facts.
“Several people close to the rich asshole confirmed our story. the rich asshole also met with Emmet Flood in the Oval last week for purpose of potentially hiring him. Our story was confirmed by other outlets,” Habermann replied, quoting the rich asshole.
Haberman also pointed out that the rich asshole’s tantrum raises the humiliating “possibility Flood has turned him down.”
the rich asshole is also verifiably wrong about Haberman’s access. No one from the White House complained about Haberman’s background-heavy coverage of Hope Hicks’ resignation, for example.
the rich asshole relishes attacking women. But he doesn’t seem to notice that it rarely works out for him.
‘Get over it’: Paris Dennard blows up after CNN pundit calmly owns him over the rich asshole’s petulant behavior
Paris Dennard, Fredricka Whitfield and Tara Setmayer (CNN/screen grab)
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the rich asshole surrogate Paris Dennard on Sunday lashed out at CNN contributor Tara Setmayer after she excoriated President some rich asshole for praising authoritarian leaders and embarrassing the U.S. with his “petulant” attitude.
CNN host Fredricka Whitfield noted during a Sunday panel discussion that the rich asshole had made a number of controversial statements at a Saturday rally near Pittsburgh. He praised the leaders of North Korea and China, while encouraging the crowd to rise up against the U.S. media. Additionally, the president falsely claimed that a majority of women in the U.S. voted for him and suggested that drug offenders should be executed.
“This is a terrible idea,” Setmayer said of executing drug offenders. “The fact that the president of the United States would even entertain the examples of a totalitarian country like China or the Philippines, where their president is engaged in extra-judicial killings as something that we should consider here in the U.S.”
“It just gives you an insight into where his mind is,” she continued. “And this adulation for strongmen, which should concern every American. I figure I’m not alone. When I watched that rally last night, my stomach was in knots. There were so many things that this president did during that rally that were stomach turning for me as an American watching these democratic norms and ideals and where common decency is no longer currency anymore, no longer something to be expected of the president of the United States.”
The CNN contributor added: “Watching these people clapping for a president behaving that way, it concerns me. And I think we as a country need to take a look at what’s going on here. It’s seems like rhetoric is more in control of what reality is coming from some rich asshole and his supporters, as opposed to what’s truthful, what’s factual. Those are casualties under this president.”
According to Setmayer, the “stress on our democratic norms” is more important that party ideology.
“These examples of the way the rich asshole behaves and the way people accept it and enable it,” she noted, “this is how democracy dies and dictators rise. And I think we need to stop just pointing to tax cuts and the economy is great and completely ignoring what this president is doing to the office of the president.”
Setmayer’s argument seemed to agitate Dennard, who was still smarting when he was asked about the rich asshole’s false claim that a majority of American women voted for him. In fact, the vote percentages the rich asshole uttered are only true when exclusively white women are counted, which he failed to mention.
Dennard insisted that the president’s statement was true regardless of the facts.
“Look at the women who are serving in that White House,” he charged. “It is diverse and is is positive and it is something every one of those voters in that auditorium can support. I saw tons of women there that were actually cheering enthusiastically about what the president is doing. Because it is positive.”
“You can focus on the negative,” Dennard told Setmayer. “But the voters and the American people who are outside the bubble, outside of the beltway and outside of the punditry of people like Tara Setmayer understand what this president is doing and they appreciate it and they support it. And I’m going to stand with the voters rather than standing with somebody who’s coming on shows and trying to pick and choose what the president is or is not saying.”
“He won the Electoral College vote and he’s the president! Get over it!” Dennard shouted when Setmayer tried to respond. “He won! That’s how we work!”
“This kind of petulant, ‘Get over it, he won, oh my gosh,'” Setmayer said. “That attitude right there is why so many people feel that what some rich asshole has created in this country is bigger than just, ‘Oh, he won and you didn’t so get over it.’ It’s nothing to do with that.”
“If Barack Obama did a fraction of what some rich asshole did last night just at that rally alone, you, Paris Dennard, would be on here going off,” she insisted. “So I don’t want to hear it, you castigating those of us who call the president of the United States out for being a liar and being dishonest and acting like a child from the podium when he’s supposed to be president of the United States. It’s nothing to do about who won or who lost.”
“You could be respectful to the president of the United States,” Dennard shot back. “Try that with your rhetoric towards him.”
“He should be respectful of the office of the presidency!” Setmayer exclaimed. “When he acts like the president of the United States, I’ll show him the respect that office deserves. But until then, I will continue to call out the fact that none of this is normal.”
Watch the video below from CNN.
‘We will impeach the president:’ Maxine Waters steps up after the rich asshole’s ‘very low I.Q. individual’ insult
Valerie Richardson
Posted with permission from The Washington Times
Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, repeated her call for Congress to impeach President Trump after he called her a "very low I.Q. individual" at his Saturday rally.
Mr. Trump told the crowd that "we have to defeat Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters, a very low I.Q. individual," then referred to her ongoing push for him to be impeached.
"Ever see her? You ever see her? 'We will impeach him! We will impeach the president,'" he said at the rally in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. "But he hasn't done anything wrong. 'It doesn't matter, we will impeach him.' She's a low I.Q. individual. You can't help it. She really is."
Ms. Waters responded later that night by slamming the president's brainpower at the Human Rights Campaign's annual dinner in Los Angeles.
"Don't forget, this man who's disparaging me has been called stupid, ignorant, uninformed, unhinged and a moron by his own staff and appointees," Ms. Waters told the crowd at the J.W. Marriott. "And so he had the nerve to attack me."
Before her speech, she told the Advocate that she believes the case for impeachment is stronger than ever, citing the investigation into Russian collusion by special counsel Robert Mueller.
"I've always believed that there was enough there certainly to impeach him, and I believe even more so now that Mueller has been more than connecting the dots," she said.
She added that she was "not surprised at all" by his comments, and that she thought the impeachment talk "bothers him a lot."
"I've been saying some things about him for a while. I think it's gotten to him, finally. I've been very vocal, and I've been very confrontational almost," she said.
The congresswoman also took a jab at the intelligence of a member of the Trump cabinet, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.
"Under Secretary Carson's leadership--that's Ben Carson I'm talking about. That's the one that they say is so brilliant? Brain surgeon? Send him back to the operating room. We don't need him in HUD," said Ms. Waters in a video of the speech posted by the Advocate.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was pulled into the back-and-forth Sunday by "Meet the Press" host host Chuck Todd, who grilled him over the president's statements at the rally, including the "low I.Q." remark.
"You know he likes to put names on people," said Mr. Mnuchin. "He did that through the entire presidential election, including all the Republicans that he beat. These are campaign rally issues."
An irate Todd asked if that was "acceptable behavior for the rest of the administration, too."
"This is something that is at a campaign rally and the president likes making funny names," said Mr. Mnuchin.
Mr. Trump spoke at the rally to drum up support for Republican Rick Saccone, who's running in Tuesday's special congressional election against Democrat Conor Lamb.
Mr. Trump told the crowd that "we have to defeat Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters, a very low I.Q. individual," then referred to her ongoing push for him to be impeached.
"Ever see her? You ever see her? 'We will impeach him! We will impeach the president,'" he said at the rally in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. "But he hasn't done anything wrong. 'It doesn't matter, we will impeach him.' She's a low I.Q. individual. You can't help it. She really is."
Ms. Waters responded later that night by slamming the president's brainpower at the Human Rights Campaign's annual dinner in Los Angeles.
"Don't forget, this man who's disparaging me has been called stupid, ignorant, uninformed, unhinged and a moron by his own staff and appointees," Ms. Waters told the crowd at the J.W. Marriott. "And so he had the nerve to attack me."
Before her speech, she told the Advocate that she believes the case for impeachment is stronger than ever, citing the investigation into Russian collusion by special counsel Robert Mueller.
"I've always believed that there was enough there certainly to impeach him, and I believe even more so now that Mueller has been more than connecting the dots," she said.
She added that she was "not surprised at all" by his comments, and that she thought the impeachment talk "bothers him a lot."
"I've been saying some things about him for a while. I think it's gotten to him, finally. I've been very vocal, and I've been very confrontational almost," she said.
The congresswoman also took a jab at the intelligence of a member of the Trump cabinet, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.
"Under Secretary Carson's leadership--that's Ben Carson I'm talking about. That's the one that they say is so brilliant? Brain surgeon? Send him back to the operating room. We don't need him in HUD," said Ms. Waters in a video of the speech posted by the Advocate.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was pulled into the back-and-forth Sunday by "Meet the Press" host host Chuck Todd, who grilled him over the president's statements at the rally, including the "low I.Q." remark.
"You know he likes to put names on people," said Mr. Mnuchin. "He did that through the entire presidential election, including all the Republicans that he beat. These are campaign rally issues."
An irate Todd asked if that was "acceptable behavior for the rest of the administration, too."
"This is something that is at a campaign rally and the president likes making funny names," said Mr. Mnuchin.
Mr. Trump spoke at the rally to drum up support for Republican Rick Saccone, who's running in Tuesday's special congressional election against Democrat Conor Lamb.
‘We are all embarrassed’: Evangelical women are fleeing the rich asshole and praying for an alternative before 2020
Close-up of woman praying (Shutterstock)
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According to a deep dive into President some rich asshole’s Christian base, white women who identify themselves as “evangelicals” are having a hard time stomaching the president they voted for in 2016 because they believed he shared their values.
Responding to inquiries from the New York Times, the demographic that went solidly for the rich asshole are having a form of buyers remorse, loving what the rich asshole stands for, while loathing how he has conducted himself in the White House. Added to that, the continuing scandals that have now grown to include a reported sexual relationship with a porn star soon after his third wife gave birth to their son.
As one woman put it: “We are embarrassed.”
According to the Pew Research Center, support for the rich asshole among white evangelical women in recent surveys has dropped from about 13 percentage points down to 60 percent, compared with about a year ago. That downward spiral is appreciably larger than the 8-point the rich asshole approval drop among all women.
Carol Rains, a white evangelical Christian who hails from Dallas, said she still supports the rich asshole’s agenda, but wishes it was championed by someone a bit more palatable.
“I would like for someone to challenge him, but it needs to be somebody that’s strong enough to go against the Democrats,,” Rains explained as one of her friends, Linda Leonhart added, “I will definitely take a look to see who has the courage to take on a job like this and do what needs to be done.”
Like many evangelicals, the women indicated that the question of where the candidate stands on abortion is paramount when it comes to support, but admitted that the rich asshole’s “pettiness, impulsiveness, profanity and name calling” is cringeworthy.
“Certainly we are all embarrassed, but for the most part he represents what we stand for,” explained Leonhart.
According to Christian radio host Carmen Fowler LaBerge, “I don’t know any evangelical woman who is going to defend the character of the president. Many things the president says and does are things that many evangelicals use as examples with our kids of what they should not do.”
Karen Swallow Prior, a professor at staunchly Christian Liberty University who claimed she didn’t vote for the rich asshole, explained that his conduct since being elected has opened many eyes, and she is pleased that some of her fellow Christians are finally seeing the light.
“Now that the rich asshole is in office and we are evaluating his performance then, I am glad to see that people are less in lockstep and thinking critically about him as a leader, and it doesn’t surprise me that his overall support would decline from 80 percent,” she explained.
“I was one of those culture war evangelicals in the ’80s and ’90s,” she continued. “I was appalled by the candidacy and presidency of Bill Clinton. It was hammered into my mind that character mattered, and that did change when the rich asshole came along. In some ways, I felt betrayed by my evangelical peers who taught me and cemented in me the idea that character matters. I didn’t abandon that belief. I feel like some evangelicals did.”
According to William Martin, author of “With God on Our Side,” evangelical Christians may have reached the end of their patience with the rich asshole no matter how closely his ideology aligns with theirs.
“It may simply be that there’s not a single breaking point as much as a tipping point, the ‘Oh Lord, I can’t stand another one of these,’” he pronounced.
You can read the whole report here
Parkland survivor: the rich asshole 'owned' by NRA just like other politicians
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 03/11/18 08:48 PM EDT
David Hogg, a student survivor of the Parkland, Fla., shooting last month, criticized President the rich asshole after the White House unveiled new gun proposals on Sunday, saying that the rich asshole walking back his calls for certain gun measures shows that “he’s owned” by the National Rifle Association (NRA), just like other politicians.
“Because of the NRA lobbying on the rich asshole, I’m glad to see that he did take action, and he did seem to take steps in the right direction,” Hogg said Sunday on CNN.
“But then once he met with the NRA, he showed that he’s no better than all the other politicians because he’s owned by them too. And it just shows the inaction because of this lobbying organization that’s continued to terrorize our children and hurt our futures,” Hogg continued.
Hogg appeared on CNN shortly after the White House unveiled proposals to enhance security in schools, including urging states to help arm teachers. The proposals did not call for raising the age limit on certain gun purchases as was originally reported, however. They also did not include universal background checks, which many gun control advocates, including Hogg, have called for.
Hogg, one of several survivors of the school shooting last month who has led the push for tougher legislation regarding guns, also ripped Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The White House on Sunday said it would create a commission led by her, in order to identify ways to keep schools safe from instances of gun violence.
“I think it’s a good step to make sure that we’re taking action, but I also think it’s important to realize that Betsy DeVos basically paid for her position. She doesn’t really have any experience in this area, she paid over $200 million to just to get this title and I think she's not the right person for this,” he said.
Dem lawmaker needles the rich asshole over his big problems: If Mueller doesn’t get you, ‘Stormy will’
Stormy Daniles, Robert Mueller -- screenshots
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Representative Maxine Waters has responded to some rich asshole’s late Saturday campaign rally attack, in which he described her as a “very low I.Q. individual” for discussing her desire to see the president impeached.
“And Maxine Waters, a very low IQ individual,” the rich asshole told supporters. “You ever see her? ‘We will impeach him. We will impeach the president’. But he hasn’t done anything wrong. ‘It doesn’t matter, we will impeach him.’ She’s a low I.Q. individual. You can’t help it. She really is. ‘We will impeach him.’ But you have Maxine Waters and you have plenty of others.”
Watch:
Waters responded with class early Sunday, phoning in her commentary to MSNBC’s A.M. Joy. “He’s an expert at name-calling,” she said. “I understand that in addition to continuing his name-calling of me… calling me low I.Q…. that he continued to attack Elizabeth Warren, and Nancy Pelosi, maybe made some reference to Oprah Winfrey… on and on and on…”
“And it seems that he’s identifying and picking up more and more women that he’s attacking,” she continued. “Again, I expected this… this is what this conman does. He diverts attention from himself by attacking others. But this business about Stormy is not gonna go away.”
Waters was referring to adult actress Stormy Daniels, who may soon tell the full story about her alleged affair with the rich asshole in spite of a “hush money” settlement negotiated by the president’s attorney.
“He can call us all the names that he wants to call us, but our special counsel, Mueller, is connecting the dots… if for some reason Mueller does not get him, Stormy will,” Waters advised. “I’m not gonna run from it. I’m not intimidated by him. He can keep calling names—I’ve got plenty for him. Everybody knows he’s a conman, he’s been a conman all of his life… ‘Conman Don’ is gonna keep it up, and again, he comes for me, I’m coming for him.”
Listen:
Early Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin dismissed the president’s racial and vulgar attacks made during the rally as “funny moments.”
Oprah on what she'd say to the rich asshole: I'd only speak if I thought I'd be heard
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 03/11/18 09:18 PM EDT
Oprah Winfrey said Sunday that she only speaks "where I feel that I can be heard" after being asked what she would say to President the rich asshole if given the chance.
“Billionaire to billionaire, mega star to mega star, and also human being to human being, what would you say to the president?” CNN host Van Jones asked Winfrey on his show.
“I would only speak where I feel that I can be heard. So, I would only speak if I felt I could be heard,” Winfrey responded.
"I would only speak if I felt that I could be heard," @Oprah tells @VanJones68 after he asks her what she would say if she had 10 minutes with President Trump #VanJonesShow cnn.it/2Hp8nz8
Winfrey’s interview aired one day after the rich asshole attacked her personally during a campaign rally for Pennsylvania congressional candidate Rick Saccone (R). the rich asshole said Saturday night he hoped Oprah would run against him in 2020.
Speculation ramped up that Winfrey might consider a bid for the White House after she delivered a stirring speech at the Golden Globes in January. She has repeatedly denied she’s considering a campaign, including again on Sunday night, but those close to her have encouraged her to run.
A January CNN poll found Winfrey leads the rich asshole by 9 points in a hypothetical 2020 matchup.
Winfrey on Sunday also lamented the tendency for politicians to focus on negativity.
“Do not give your energy to the other side. Do not spend all your time talking about your opponents,” she said. “Do not give your energy to that which you really don’t believe in. Do not spend an ounce of your time on that.”
White House official says the rich asshole was just having fun by smearing Maxine Waters
"The president likes making funny names."
On Saturday, the president attacked Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), a veteran African American congresswoman and outspoken the rich asshole critic, saying, she’s a “a very low IQ individual — you ever see her?” On Sunday, his Treasury Secretary dismissed this and other attacks made by the rich asshole at a Pennsylvania event as irrelevant “campaign rally issues.”
“You know I’ve been with the president and at campaigns,” Steve Mnuchin told NBC’s Meet the Press. “He likes to put names on people.”
“The president likes making funny names,” he added.
Host Chuck Todd noted that the rich asshole had also encouraged booing of the American press corps while discouraging booing of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
“What you should focus on is: We’ve had a great week of results. So this is a historic situation of the president meeting with North Korea with no preconditions on the United States’ side whatsoever, as well as steel tariffs,” Mnuchin said.
Watch:
“The president is focused on economic growth,” the Treasury secretary concluded, completely ignoring the question.
“If that’s what we should be focused on,” Todd asked, “then why can’t the president focus on that, sir?”
Mnuchin answered that Todd should not “take these campaign rallies and focus them on that’s what it is [sic].”
White House accidentally implicates the rich asshole in Russia probe: He ‘would be aware of any efforts’ to collude
Raj Shah speaks to ABC News (screen grab)
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White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah on Sunday seemed to acknowledge that President some rich asshole would likely be complicit if special counsel Robert Mueller finds that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to win the presidential election.
ABC host Jonathan Karl asked Shah during an interview on the This Week program if the president would “keep his word” and testify before Mueller’s investigation.
“He also said that would be in consultation with his attorneys,” Shah hedged.
“He said 100 percent to me,” Karl recalled.
The ABC host went on to ask if the rich asshole told White House counsel Don McGhan to fire former FBI Director James Comey and then later suggested that he should lie about.
But Shah refused to answer.
“You can’t tell me if that’s not true,” Karl pointed out.
“Let’s step back for a second,” Shah said. “This investigation was about collusion with the Russian government — between the rich asshole campaign and the Russian government. There’s been zero evidence — after a year of investigation — that we’ve seen of actual collusion between the Russian government and the rich asshole campaign.”
“The president, who would be aware of any types of efforts, has been pretty clear,” the White House spokesperson continued. “[He] understands and knows that there’s no collusion. And so, as he has said, this investigation is everything from a hoax to a witch hunt. It’s not going to find any evidence of collusion.”
Watch the video below from ABC.
the rich asshole’s hastily passed tax law is error-riddled
After rushing through the bill, Congressional Republicans may have to re-write parts of it
After years of dishonestly whining that the Affordable Care Act was written in secret and rushed through Congress with insufficient debate, Congressional Republicans and the rich asshole administration cobbled together their tax legislation in December and rushed it through Congress. Now, it appears, America is paying the price for their shoddy work.
Desperate to pass the bill — which contained massive tax cuts for President the rich asshole and the very rich, and tax increases for many poor and middle class families — with only Republican votes, the GOP majority was forced to make deals and amendments on the fly. Indeed, USA Today reported in December that the Senate actually passed its version of the bill with last-minute alterations that were “handwritten into the margins.”
Now, the error-riddled legislation President the rich asshole signed into law may be so problematic that it may need to be re-written, the New York Times reported on Sunday. “Companies and trade groups are pushing the Treasury Department and Congress to fix the law’s consequences some intended and some not, including provisions that disadvantage certain farmers, hurt restaurateurs and retailers and could balloon the tax bills of large multinational corporations,” the paper reported. Even the pro-GOP U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote to the Treasury Department on Thursday raising concerns about ambiguities in the legislation.
One problem, known as the “grain glitch,” is that the bill contained a massive deduction for farmers who sell to cooperatives, but offers no such deduction if they sell their crops to independent agribusinesses. Another drafting error in the bill means that restaurants and retailers who do renovations will have to deduct their costs over 39 years, instead of the intended 15 year period.
Unlike the legislation itself — which was rammed through under the budget reconciliation so as to require only 51 votes in the Senate — any legislative fixes will require some Democratic support. But Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told The Times that his party will demand substantive changes as well: “We’re not just going to sit down and fix the things they did badly because they did it in the dead of night with lobbyists at the table.”
As recently as last summer, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) published a “flashback” document listing a series of out-of-context newspaper quotes to demonstrate that Obamacare was the result of a “‘secret’ closed door” process. And McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) have steadfastly blocked even bipartisan efforts to make technical fixes to that legislation.
Mueller breaks up with collusion probe in 'SNL' parody of 'The Bachelor' finale
BY BROOKE SEIPEL - 03/11/18 01:48 AM EST
"Saturday Night Live" this week parodied the dramatic season finale of "The Bachelor" in its opening sketch, but instead of a breakup between an engaged couple, "SNL" showed the breakup of Robert Mueller with his collusion investigation.
The reality television show "The Bachelor" ended earlier this week with the season's bachelor, Arie Luyendyk Jr., proposing and subsequently breaking up with the contestant Becca Kufrin.
The awkward, unedited scene from the finale was parodied in the "SNL" opening skit with some parts mimicking the finale shot-for-shot.
But instead of Arie, cast member Kate McKinnon plays Mueller, and Cecily Strong plays Becca as someone who is intent on the special counsel charing President the rich asshole with collusion.
"I've been struggling a little bit over the last few months just, like trying to figure this whole thing out and like grasp everything, and the reality is that I don't — I don't think that I can give you everything that you want right now, you know, and I think you sense that,” McKinnon says as Mueller to Strong.
"So. What, you don't have the rich asshole on collusion?" Strong's Becca responds.
"I'm just trying to be honest and tell you that I can't commit to collusion right now," McKinnon says back.
In the same way that Arie leaves Becca for the other Bachelor finalist, Mueller leaves collusion to instead pursue obstruction of justice charges.
“I have to wait two more years for him to be out of office,” Strong asks, mortified.
“Honestly, probably six,” Mueller replies.
The skit comes as Mueller's ongoing investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election leaves speculation about what possible charges, if any, could be levied against President the rich asshole. Some believed the president would be charged with collusion early on in the investigation, but as the probe continues to unfold others have suggested he could be charged with obstruction of justice.
Mueller filed charges against 13 Russians and three Russian groups for interfering in the U.S. election earlier this month, alleging a conspiracy to sow political divisions in the U.S.
Steve Mnuchin to Chuck Todd: I tell my kids to ‘focus on policy’ when the rich asshole calls you ‘son of a b*tch’
Chuck Todd speaks to Steve Mnuchin (NBC/screen grab)
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Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Sunday downplayed “vulgarities” uttered by President some rich asshole and argued that children should be focusing on White House policy instead of the president’s words.
During an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd alluded to a tweet in which the president referred to him as a “son of a bitch” and to other inflammatory remarks made at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
“The president of the United States in the past has been a beacon of freedom of the press,” Todd told Mnuchin. “Instead, last night, he was praising authoritarian figures in China and North Korea and encouraging boos of the American press.”
“Of course he believes in freedom of the press,” Mnuchin insisted. “And he believes, more importantly, in protecting democracy around the world. And that’s what we should be focused on, a week of policies.”
“If that’s what we should be focused on then why can’t the president focus on that, sir?” Todd wondered. “Would you call last night’s speech a focused speech on that?”
“I wasn’t at the campaign rally as you know,” the treasury secretary stuttered. “But again, don’t take these campaign rallies and focus them on that’s what it is.”
“So, should we stop covering the campaign rallies?” Todd pressed. “If it doesn’t matter what he says there, if we’re to dismiss everything he says at a campaign rally as I think you’re trying to imply, then are you saying we shouldn’t cover these things?”
Mnuchin accused Todd of putting words in his mouth.
“You should obviously carry them,” Mnuchin said. “What I’m trying to say is I’m focused on the policies.”
“Many people including myself raise their kids to respect the office of the presidency,” Todd observed. “When he uses vulgarity to talk about individuals, what are they supposed to tell their kids?”
“I’ll be with my kids this morning,” Mnuchin noted. “And I’ll be focusing them on what the president is doing to protect the United States, it’s citizens.”
“So don’t worry about his values?” Todd interrupted. “Don’t worry about him as a role model?”
“I’ve never said that,” Mnuchin remarked. “I don’t know why you are putting these words in what I’m trying to say.”
“What are you supposed to say to kids?” Todd tried again.
“Again, I think you should be focused on what the policies are,” Mnuchin said. “He’s using those vulgarities in the context of a campaign rally. And obviously there were a lot of funny moments on that rally.”
Todd, however, did not appear to agree.
“Yeah, they were hilarious,” the host quipped sarcastically.
Watch the video below from NBC.
the rich asshole lawyers ‘preparing’ legal action to stop ’60 Minutes’ from airing Stormy Daniels interview: report
Michael Avenatti, Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels) and Anderson Cooper (Twitter)
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Attorneys for President some rich asshole over the weekend reportedly threatened to take CBS to court if the network goes through with plans to air an interview with an adult film actress who allegedly had an affair with their client.
A person familiar with the legal strategy told BuzzFeed News that a “legal injunction” was already being prepared to prevent Stephanie Clifford, whose screen name is Stormy Daniels, from speaking on the CBS program about her alleged affair with the president.
“We understand from well placed sources they are preparing to file for a legal injunction to prevent it from airing,” the source said.
BuzzFeed noted that details of the legal strategy were not immediately clear.
Update: CBS is expected to air the interview on March 18, according to BuzzFeed.
A little update here: BuzzFeed News has learned that CBS plans to air the “60 Minutes” interview with Stephanie Clifford next Sunday, March 18. twitter.com/chrisgeidner/s…
Read the entire report here.
Flake calls for 2020 the rich asshole primary challenger
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 03/11/18 09:52 AM EDT
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) called for a Republican to challenge President the rich asshole in the 2020 election on Sunday during an interview with NBC's Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press."
"Do you think he needs to be challenged from somebody who espouses your views?" Todd asked Flake.
"Yes, I do. I do. I mean, it would be a tough go in a Republican primary. The Republican Party is the rich asshole party right now. But that's not to say it will stay that way," Flake said.
Flake made similar comments earlier this month, and would not rule out a 2020 challenge to the rich asshole.
“I do think the president will have a challenge from the Republican Party, I think there should be,” Flake said. “I also think that there will be an independent challenge, particularly if the Democrats insist on putting somebody up from the far left of the party.”
Flake has stoked speculation about a potential 2020 bid with an upcoming visit to New Hampshire.
Meanwhile, the rich asshole last night jumped into full campaign mode at a rally in Pennsylvania for GOP congressional candidate Rick Saccone.
the rich asshole spent most of the event touting his accomplishments as president, and revealing his new campaign slogan "Keep America Great."
"The tax bill was so massive, bigger than [Ronald] Reagan, biggest one done," the rich asshole said. It is so big, he added, that "we are calling it tax reform" instead of a tax cut.
"This is where a nonpolitician is good. For 40 years they couldn't pass anything," the president continued.
the rich asshole is poised to face off against one of several Democratic hopefuls in 2020, which may include Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) or Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
‘This isn’t a reality show’: Ex-Obama security adviser kneecaps the rich asshole’s nuke negotiation skills
Ben Rhodes on ABC -- screenshot
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Speaking with ABC host Jonathan Karl, a former security adviser to President Barack Obama scoffed at the notion that some rich asshole would be able to hold his own in nuclear negotiations with North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un, saying the rich asshole is over his head.
Appearing on This Week, ex-Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes expressed concern that the meeting between the two heads of state could end in disaster.
“This is not a real estate deal or a reality show. When you’re in a negotiation as complex as a North Korean nuclear program, and a situation that is volatile as the Korean peninsula, you need diplomats,” Rhodes explained to the ABC host.
“You don’t hollow out the State Department,” Rhodes warned. “Look — they have no ambassador to Seoul. The person who was in charge of North Korean negotiations just left the State Department.”
According to Rhodes, he has been in contact with Obama and they both are worried about what might transpire after watching how the State Department under the rich asshole has been decimated and run under Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
“We have a lot of concerns with how they’ve handled the State Department, how they’ve handled science, and how they’ve been erratic on this issue with North Korea,” he said, before adding, “I think the nation should be rooting for diplomacy to work with North Korea, and I think that’s certainly President Obama’s view.”
Watch the video below via ABC on Twitter:
CNN panel pummels Scaramucci after he says paying off adult star is ‘presidential’: ‘That’s not how it works’
Anthony Scaramucci and Neera Tanden appear on CNN (screen grab)
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A CNN panel on Sunday called out former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci after he claimed that some rich asshole is acting “presidential” even though his attorney has been accused of paying off an adult film star to cover up an alleged affair.
CNN host Jim Acosta noted during a panel discussion on the State of the Union program, that the rich asshole stated recently that he did not have to act “presidential.”
“What kind of example does that set?” the CNN host wondered, referring to the impact on nation’s children.
“This is the mistake that everybody’s making about him,” Scaramucci opined. “He’s obviously very presidential.”
“In what way?” Acosta asked as the panel laughed.
“What are you talking about?” Scaramucci complained. “I think he’s breaking new presidential ground in the North Korea situation. You may think it’s bad but, guess what, I happen to think it’s very good.”
“Because he’s president, everything he does is presidential?” conservative pundit Amanda Carpenter asked.
“You guys don’t like his style,” Scaramucci said. “I’m trying to help out my Democratic friends here.”
“If Barack Obama paid off a porn star $130,000, if he cheated on three wives,” CNN analyst Bakari Sellers responded. “The list goes on and on. If he had a handful of advisers that are indicted or plead guilty then there would be pitchforks in front of the White House. Presidential is not something that’s associated with some rich asshole.”
“He’s going to win again in 2020,” Scaramucci shot back. “We may have to get couch in here for some of you people.”
“You can’t rebut anything that I’ve said about being presidential,” Sellers observed.
“I actually can,” Scaramucci remarked.
“Paying off a porn star is presidential?” Sellers replied.
Scaramucci insisted that the rich asshole “didn’t pay off a porn star.”
“His lawyer did,” Carpenter noted.
“It was paid by [the rich asshole lawyer] Michael Cohen with Michael Cohen’s money,” Scaramucci argued.
“That’s not presidential though,” Sellers said.
“The guy is presidential because he is the president,” Scaramucci quipped.
“No, that’s not how it works,” Carpenter concluded.
Watch the video below from CNN.
Pompeo on Putin claim Kremlin was not involved in meddling: ‘That’s false’
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 03/11/18 09:28 AM EDT
CIA Director Mike Pompeo in a Sunday show interview said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that his government did not meddle in the 2016 election is “false.”
“The Russians attempted to interfere in the United States election in 2016,” Pompeo told “Fox News Sunday.”
“It was Russians who actually engaged in this,” Pompeo said, clarifying that those individuals had ties to the Kremlin.
Pompeo maintained the CIA’s position that the U.S. intelligence community's analysis of the election interference does not extend to whether or not Russia’s attempts to meddle impacted the 2016 election.
“The intelligence community has been clear that’s not our role,” Pompeo said.
the rich asshole pushes back on report he's 'unhappy' with legal team
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 03/11/18 09:56 AM EDT
President the rich asshole on Sunday insisted he is "VERY happy" with the legal team defending him against allegations his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.
He also claimed they have shown "conclusively" there was no collusion between his campaign and Russia. His comments follow a report in The New York Times claiming that the rich asshole is looking to shake up his legal team amid some frustration with their approach.
the rich asshole in two tweets on Sunday morning criticized one of the reporters behind the story, claiming she is "a Hillary flunky."
"The Failing New York Times purposely wrote a false story stating that I am unhappy with my legal team on the Russia case and am going to add another lawyer to help out. Wrong," the rich asshole tweeted.
"I am VERY happy with my lawyers, John Dowd, Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow. They are doing a great job and...have shown conclusively that there was no Collusion with Russia..just excuse for losing. The only Collusion was that done by the DNC, the Democrats and Crooked Hillary. The writer of the story, Maggie Haberman, a Hillary flunky, knows nothing about me and is not given access."
The Failing New York Times purposely wrote a false story stating that I am unhappy with my legal team on the Russia case and am going to add another lawyer to help out. Wrong. I am VERY happy with my lawyers, John Dowd, Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow. They are doing a great job and.....
...have shown conclusively that there was no Collusion with Russia..just excuse for losing. The only Collusion was that done by the DNC, the Democrats and Crooked Hillary. The writer of the story, Maggie Haberman, a Hillary flunky, knows nothing about me and is not given access.
The Times reported that the rich asshole is considering adding the lawyer that helped Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial to the White House legal team to handle special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 elections.
the rich asshole reportedly met with lawyer Emmet Flood this past week to discuss him joining his legal staff, though no agreement has been reached yet, according to the Times.
White House spokesman does not deny that Carl Icahn was tipped off
A curious non-explanation from Raj Shah.
A White House spokesman offered a non-denial and a curious explanation for why the rich asshole confidant Carl Icahn dumped millions of dollars worth of steel-related stock just before the president announced new tariffs.
As ThinkProgress initially reported, billionaire investor and close the rich asshole confidant Carl Icahn sold $31.3 million of stock in a company heavily dependent on steel in late February, just days before the rich asshole’s surprise announcement on plans to impose steep tariffs on steel imports. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dodged questions about whether the rich asshole had tipped Icahn off, promising to “verify and get back to” a reporter.
On Sunday, ABC News host Jon Karl repeated the question to Huckabee Sanders’ principal deputy, Raj Shah, who responded by saying equally little.
“I don’t know of any call,” Shah answered.
He then suggested that Icahn might have made the determination to suddenly sell the stock based on the fact that the rich asshole has been talking about taking action for a really long time. “I do think that Mr. Icahn and any investor could have looked at what the president has been saying for not just months but years about this issue, to understand where he was at.” Of course, none of the rich asshole’s previous protectionist statements noted a March 1, 2018 date of action.
Watch:
Last week, Icahn issued a statement defending the sales, claiming, “Any suggestion that we had prior knowledge of the rich asshole administration’s announcement of new tariffs on steel imports is categorically untrue.”
James Cox, a Duke Law professor and expert on insider trading, told ThinkProgress at the time that Ichan’s statement was “perfectly predictable, perfectly bland and devoid of anything other than conclusory statements,” likening it to a suspected bank robber caught with a bag full of money saying, “I have all this cash because I found it on the street.” He noted that while Icahn could be telling the truth, more investigation is needed.
Shah’s statement on Sunday did little clear up those questions.
the rich asshole kicks off Sunday with bonkers tweet: ‘The only Collusion was that done by the DNC’ and ‘Crooked Hillary’
some rich asshole (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia)
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President some rich asshole took to Twitter Sunday morning to attack the New York Times for reporting he is seeking the services of a Clinton impeachment attorney to help defend him against special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into his administration.
In a frantic set of Tweets, the rich asshole called out New York Times writer Maggie Haberman by name, calling her a “Hillary flunky.”
“The Failing New York Times purposely wrote a false story stating that I am unhappy with my legal team on the Russia case and am going to add another lawyer to help out. Wrong. I am VERY happy with my lawyers, John Dowd, Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow. They are doing a great job,” the rich asshole tweeted. “And have shown conclusively that there was no Collusion with Russia..just excuse for losing. The only Collusion was that done by the DNC, the Democrats and Crooked Hillary. The writer of the story, Maggie Haberman, a Hillary flunky, knows nothing about me and is not given access.”
You can see the tweets below:
Los Angeles Police Department ‘prepared for anything’ when the rich asshole visits Southern California
March 10, 2018
Cindy Carcamo and Ruben Vives
Los Angeles Times
Posted with permission from Tribune Content Agency
LOS ANGELES — Since President Donald Trump took office, California has been the epicenter of the resistance, home to countless protests, marches, impromptu airport rallies and, of course, commentary of various kinds of Facebook and Twitter.
But it's all been done at a distance, because Trump has avoided California. Until this week.
Trump will spend Tuesday and a bit of Wednesday in Southern California, visiting prototypes for the border wall he's vowed to build in San Diego and attending a fundraiser on Los Angeles' Westside.
What remains unclear is whether his brief visit will bring out major protests. Some anti-Trump activists said they intend some kind of action, but so far there have been no plans for a massive demonstration such as the women's march last year or some of the immigration demonstrations that clogged the streets of downtown L.A.
Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Horace Frank, who oversees the counterterrorism and special operations bureau, said that although no permitted protests in the form of marches are planned, authorities do expect to see both opponents and supporters out in numbers during a presidential visit.
"We are prepared for anything," he said.
At least one protest is planned in Beverly Hills area between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m Tuesday by a Facebook group, Trump Not Welcome in LA. More than 1,000 people have indicated they will attend. The Los Angeles Police Department is preparing for many more protests of various sizes on the Westside. Trump's earlier visits to L.A. while he was a candidate did bring out demonstrators.
Some protests are also planned for the San Diego area.
Ron Gochez, a political secretary with political group Union del Barrio's Los Angeles chapter, is organizing the Beverly Hills protest. The same group plans a rally against Trump on Monday evening in San Diego, the day before he arrives in the region to inspect prototypes for his proposed southern border wall. He plans to visit Beverly Hills the same day, where he plans to attend a Republican fundraiser.
As of Friday afternoon, Gochez said, more than a thousand people were following the Beverly Hills protest Facebook page even though he was still unclear about where the protest would take place.
"He cannot step foot in this state and not expect an organized response to denounce him," Gochez said. "We have dignity and we can only demonstrate that through denouncing Trump and fighting for freedom from fear. We are not just going to stand with our arms crossed while they deport us or attack Muslims or women's rights."
California and Trump have been on a collision course since he took office, clashing on immigration, climate change and other issues. The Justice Department last week sued California over state laws aimed at providing sanctuary for those here illegally. Trump and other members of his administration have slammed Oakland's mayor after she issued a public warning last month that immigration agents were about to conduct sweeps across the Bay Area.
This isn't the first time a state has so vehemently opposed a sitting president, said Louis DeSipio, a professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine.
For instance, a cluster of southern states stood in defiance in the late 1950s and early '60s when the federal government sought to desegregate schools.
Still, California stands out in that "you've never had a state as large and as economically and politically important to the nation and the world standing in outright opposition to a sitting president on a number of policies, including immigration," DeSipio said.
Trump has taken longer to visit California than any other president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. That's likely because he remains wildly unpopular here, said Caroline Heldman, a political scientist at Occidental College.
"He could visit other states to promote his border wall, but he's coming to California, the heart of the resistance movement against his presidency, to provoke a fight and throw some red meat to his base," she said.
Of course, Trump does have his supporters in the Golden State. And a few groups plan to support him at a rally Tuesday morning near the border fence prototypes in San Diego.
Robin Hvidston, executive director of We the People Rising, a Claremont-based organization against illegal immigration, said she'll be there. She's heartened by the visit.
"I always point to the fact that more than 4{ million Californians voted for Trump," she said.
Hvidston said Trump's visit demonstrates he is serious about the border.
Craig Griffin, a 71-year-old Paramount resident, said he supports the president's immigration enforcement, but he doesn't plan to attend any rallies. He's hoping any anti-Trump protest will be peaceful.
"I think he's been doing great," he said. "He's been shaking things up."
Griffin's neighbor Teresa Ramirez felt differently.
"I don't want him visiting here," she said. "Why is he coming here? What for? To repeat what he's been telling everyone in the country? ... I feel he's just coming here to spit his toxic words."
Ramirez, a Mexican immigrant who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, hasn't decided whether she will join the protesters.
Marya Ayloush, a 22-year-old whose father is Syrian Muslim and whose Mexican mother converted to Islam, joined thousands of protesters who converged at Los Angeles International Airport last year to condemn Trump's travel restrictions on predominantly Muslim countries.
She carried a sign that read: "I am a Mexican, Arab, Muslim, Woman. Trump's Boogey Man."
This time, however, she'll sit it out. Ayloush, a University of California, Los Angeles student majoring in Chicano studies, has finals this week and won't be able to make it. Still, she said, she supports those who will and said she is aghast at Trump's visit.
"It's a slap in the face. He's coming to our state, not to mediate or to try to have dialogue, but coming to incite," she said.
———
(Staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.)
the rich asshole: Turn off pundits who mention 'somewhat low' approval ratings
BY LUIS SANCHEZ - 03/11/18 12:00 PM EDT
President the rich asshole in a tweet on Sunday said viewers should not watch pundits who discuss his "somewhat low" approval ratings.
“Rasmussen and others have my approval ratings at around 50%, which is higher than Obama, and yet the political pundits love saying my approval ratings are 'somewhat low,' " the rich asshole tweeted.
"They know they are lying when they say it. Turn off the show - FAKE NEWS!”
Rasmussen and others have my approval ratings at around 50%, which is higher than Obama, and yet the political pundits love saying my approval ratings are “somewhat low.” They know they are lying when they say it. Turn off the show - FAKE NEWS!
Rasmussen Reports currently has the rich asshole’s approval rating at 44 percent, however, while the majority of other major pollsters have the rich asshole’s approval rating hovering between percentages in the high 30s and low 40s.
Rasmussen did have the rich asshole’s approval rating at 50 percent or slightly below for most of February, but his ratings began to slide once again in March.
The president has hit political pundits before for attacking his low approval ratings and has often dismissed negative coverage and polls as “fake news.”
However, many Republicans fear that the rich asshole’s low approval could hurt GOP candidates in the midterm elections this November.
the rich asshole’s announcement that he will impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum have dominated the news cycle for much of this month. The tariffs have been widely criticized, even by members of the president’s own party.
Other countries have also threatened to retaliate against the tariffs, raising an escalation that could result in a trade war.
The stakes are sky high in the Pennsylvania special election
BY LLOYD GREEN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 03/11/18 10:00 AM EDT
With two days to go, the fight for Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district is a toss-up. Polls released last week show contradictory outcomes, but peg the leader’s margin as a tissue-thin three points. Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone are racing toward a Tuesday finish uncertain of the order of finish. Who actually wins will likely hinge on turnout and headlines.
Make no mistake, the closeness of the race is tied to some rich asshole’s double-digit slide in a district that he convincingly won less than two years earlier. Against this backdrop, a Lamb win will signal that if the Democrats can win there then they can win almost anywhere. As ex-Vice President Joe Biden put it, “I promise ya, if Lamb wins you’re going to see a half-dozen Republicans say, ‘I’m not running again.’” Whether that actually happens remains to be seen
Until recently, Tim Murphy, a veteran eight-term Republican, who had run unopposed in his last two reelection bids, represented the Pennsylvania’s 18th district in Congress. When challenged in 2012, Murphy vanquished his opponent by better than 30 points. With that kind of track history, Tuesday’s contest should have been a snooze. But as we all know, it isn’t. Past was actually prelude.
It turns out that the avowedly pro-life Murphy was forced out after his mistress went public about terminating her pregnancy. While our president claims to be able to get away shooting someone in broad daylight, mere mortals like Murphy, Lamb and Saccone all have a far smaller margin for error. So, here is where they are.
Right now, momentum and buzz are with the Democrat. Already, reports have surfaced of Republicans forming circular firing squads, with figurative trigger fingers pointed right at Saccone. According to the GOP’s wise men, Saccone suffers from poor organization, a charisma deficit, and a lack of fundraising skills. To further complicate matters, the 60-year-old Saccone is facing a decades-younger opponent. For the record, Lamb is also a former Marine, one-time federal prosecutor, and double University of Pennsylvania graduate.
But Saccone’s quandary is not just about aesthetics, resumes, or even the rich asshole presidency. Rather, Lamb’s positions on the issues and the public’s perception of the Republican agenda appears to be weighing Saccone down. Tax cuts and the prospect of Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not halt Lamb’s candidacy.
Right off the bat, Lamb announced that he would not back Pelosi for House speaker, signaling his independence from the national party’s machinery. Beyond that, Lamb has resisted temptation to embrace liberal orthodoxies, which makes great sense in a district where hunting is a way of life.
For example, on the issue of guns, Lamb announced that his priorities were enforcing existing laws, and keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. That wouldn’t play on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, but it’s good enough for government work in western Pennsylvania.
To be sure, the race is not lost for Saccone. History and demographics keep him in the game. The district is older and whiter than most, with minorities compromising less than 5 percent of residents. Clearly, it is not Coalition of the Ascendant Country, and nor for that matter is this Pennsylvania district a rerun of the Alabama Senate race, one that saw the Republican Roy Moore turn into a human spectacle.
Beyond that, the latest jobs report shows an economy that is “awfully strong” with “room to run.” A monthly jobs gain of 313,000 may be as good as any campaign ad. On top of that, the upcoming meeting between President the rich asshole and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un may add a momentary patina of competence to an administration beleaguered by Stormy Daniels, and a West Wing under siege.
A Democratic win on Tuesday ought to make Paul Ryan think of early retirement, while a Democratic loss should serve as a reminder that flipping the House is no easy task. In a matter of hours, we will know where things stand.
Lloyd Green was the opposition research counsel to the George H.W. Bush campaign in 1988 and later served in the U.S. Department of Justice.
‘That’s what Mueller is trying to do’: Internet ridicules the rich asshole’s ‘Keep America Great’ 2020 campaign slogan
President some rich asshole
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President some rich asshole gave up his regular Saturday golf game so he could travel to Pennsylvania and endorse Rick Saccone for Tuesday’s special Congressional election. But the rich asshole, as usual, made Saturday evening’s speech all about himself, not the Republican he’s supposed to be trying to help elect. Politico made it clear, writing, “At Pennsylvania rally, the rich asshole endorses himself.”
In fact, the rich asshole reportedly spoke for about 75 minutes. Guess when he finally endorsed Rick Saccone?
After telling supporters he was responsible for the greatness of South Korea’s Olympic Games and for bringing North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un to the bargaining table, the rich asshole meandered through a long list of reasons why “Make America Great Again” could not be his 2020 re-election slogan.
Apparently convinced that he has achieved his goals after just 14 months in office, President the rich asshole announced that “Keep America Great” will be his new rallying cry for 2020.
“But we can only do that if we elect people who are going to back our agenda and fight for our values,” the rich asshole told the audience in Moon Township, Pennsylvania.
On Twitter, many were only too happy to mock the rich asshole and his rebranding:
Trump's challenge for 2020 (if he runs) of claiming that he's had historic accomplishments/improved things while highlighting the bad things he says still go on is on display at this rally.
Keep America Great Except For The Parts We’re Still Angry About, Which Aren’t Trump’s Fault, Unless You’re Angry About Trump, Which, Look, Isn’t That Because He’s Trying To Make Things Great, And If It’s Not, Isn’t That Your Problem!
Christopher Zullo
Republicans touting slowing down economy, repeal of net neutrality, opening shores & artic to drilling, using DACA as bargaining chip for useless wall, slashing benifits for poor and giving corporations massive tax cut they didn’t need as winning is insanityDonald Trump announcing that his 2020 campaign slogan is “Keep America Great” WHILE he is dismantling our democracy and being investigated for treason is called GASLIGHTING. Donald Trump is not making (or keeping) anything great except his lawyers’ bank accounts. #BlueWave2018
A year under trumpism, he says he wants to "Keep America Great."
Let's review:
Global laughingstock
FBI probe
Hush money payoff to porn star
Fewer jobs than under Obama
Automatic weapons killing streak
Embrace of neo-Nazis
America was ALREADY great b4 trump. #BlueWave2018
"Keep America Great" to Trump and his supporters means Keep America White#TheResistance #MAGA #Trump #FoxNews #Resist #ImpeachTrump #FBR
the rich asshole says drug dealers should get the death penalty
He admitted getting the idea from autocrats.
some rich asshole drew cheers at a rally in western Pennsylvania Saturday when he suggested that drug dealers should be executed and praised east Asian autocrats for their tough-on-crime policies.
The US president was talking to the crowd near Pittsburgh about a conversation on illegal drugs he recently had with Singapore’s leader Hamilah Yacob.
“We [the authorities in Singapore] have a zero tolerance policy … that means if we catch a drug dealer, death penalty,” the rich asshole explained to the crowd, which roared in approval. “A drug dealer will kill 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 people during the course of his or her life … So you can kill thousands of people and go to jail for 30 days.”
“That’s why we have a problem, folks,” the rich asshole continued. “I don’t think we should play games … We can’t just keep setting up blue ribbon committees.”
the rich asshole said that he originally got the idea from China’s President, Xi Jinping, who this week was approved de facto president-for-life, as the Chinese Congress voted to remove term limits from its president. At the rally he said that seeking the death penalty for drug dealers “is a discussion we have to start thinking about. I don’t know if the country’s ready for it.”
The president’s call for a return of the death penalty was immediately criticized, including by some former the rich asshole acolytes. “If you’re smart and you can lawyer up, you don’t get the death penalty,” former press secretary Anthony Scaramucci told CNN. “If you have a low I.Q. and you’re in a rural place and frankly, if you’re African-American… you end up getting the death penalty. I think it’s completely unfair.”
Throughout his first year in office, the rich asshole has consistently shown admiration for the hardline law enforcement of autocratic leaders. In April last year, the rich asshole called Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to congratulate him on his “unbelievable job on the drug problem” — despite the International Criminal Court opening an investigation into Duterte’s war on drugs. the rich asshole also celebrated Xi Jinping’s consolidation of power, saying that “maybe we’ll give that a shot someday.”
But despite the cheers of the crowd in Pennsylvania, the reality is that support for the death penalty is rapidly ebbing away. In 2016, The Pew Research Center found that less than half of Americans currently support the death penalty, its lowest number in four decades and down from 80 percent support in the mid-1990s.
WATCH: Carter Page jokes his way through Fox News talkshow — but won’t deny being a Russian spy when asked
Carter Page on Fox News/Screenshot
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Carter Page, a former the rich asshole campaign advisor at the center of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, went on Fox News comedy show on Saturday night and called investigations a “joke.”
Page bragged about his ties to the Kremlin from 2013 on, and was being watched by the FBI after one of his Russian contacts was busted spying on the U.S. The FISA warrant issued to surveil Page is at the center of the Nunes memo.
Page went on Greg Gutfeld‘s Saturday night talkshow where he was asked fright off the top if he is a spy.
“When I see you, you don’t seem like a spy to me, which means you could be an amazing spy” Gutfeld said. “Are you a spy?
Perhaps oddly for a man who has been watched by U.S. intelligence for years because he holds pro-Russia views and has met with Russian spies, Page decided to answer with a joke.
“Well the North Koreans, they offered a much better deal. It was only $11 billion from the Russians, and they jacked it up a bunch” he said.
Gutfeld then pivoted the idea that Page is a victim.
“So why are they after you?” he asked.
“I think they figured out that I would be a pretty easygoing guy in terms of throwing out all these crazy stories,” Page said.
Page did get a little serious when discussing the “civil rights abuses” he suffered and suggested that FISA warrants issued against him may have violated his First Amendment rights.
But the tone was light—Page even said that he would want Bruce Willis to play him in a movie.
You can watch the segment below.
the rich asshole in full campaign mode at Pennsylvania rally
BY BROOKE SEIPEL - 03/10/18 11:10 PM EST
President the rich asshole was in full campaign mode on Saturday at a rally for Republican congressional hopeful Rick Saccone, returning to the bombastic, unrestrained candidate from 2016.
For more than an hour, President the rich asshole railed against the media and skewered his Democratic opponents while endorsing Saccone — a Pennsylvania state Representative facing a tough race in the House special election.
"This guy should win easily, and he's going to win easy. You got to know him. He's an extraordinary person. Go out and vote on Tuesday for Rick Saccone," the rich asshole said before leaving the stage in Moon Township, Pennsylvania.
But the rich asshole spent most of the evening touting his own accomplishments since he took office rather than praising Saccone, and even used the rally to unveil his own 2020 campaign slogan: "Keep America Great."
the rich asshole celebrated passing tax reform and his tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, and pledged to continue work building a border wall with Mexico.
"The tax bill was so massive, bigger than [Ronald] Reagan, biggest one done," the rich asshole said. It is so big, he added, that "we are calling it tax reform" instead of a tax cut.
"This is where a nonpolitician is good. For 40 years they couldn't pass anything," the rich asshole said.
the rich asshole also patted himself on the back for his planned meeting with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, who he is expected to meet with by the end of May.
The president hit the media over its coverage of the planned meeting, saying the news cycle transitioned too quickly away from what he is already touting as a great success.
The "fake news" criticisms included a jab at NBC's “Meet the Press,” host Chuck Todd, who the rich asshole called a "sleeping son of a bitch."
Unlike past campaign rallies, the rich asshole spent less time targeting his former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, and turned his fire on rumored 2020 candidates, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Oprah Winfrey.
"If I don't win the election, [news] ratings are going to go so far down, they'll be out of business, every one of them. Can you imagine?" the rich asshole said to cheers. "Can you imagine covering Bernie or Pocahontas? How about that?"
"I would love Oprah to win. I would love to beat Oprah. I know her weakness," the rich asshole added. "Wouldn't we love to run against Oprah. I would love it. I would love it. That would be a painful experience for her."
the rich asshole did not elaborate on Winfrey's weakness but only added that they know each other very well.
"I know her very well," the rich asshole said. "I was on her last show, or one of the last, the last week. She had Donald the rich asshole, and some rich asshole's family. My, my, my, we have come down a long way, haven't we."
the rich asshole also took aim at Rep. Maxine Waters (D) who has frequently called for the president's impeachment. the rich asshole hit the California lawmaker as having "a very low IQ."
Other moments that grabbed attention at the rally included the rich asshole calling for the death penalty for drug dealers, praising countries that execute drug lords.
the rich asshole used Singapore as an example, describing a conversation he had about how the country handles its drug problem.
"They don't play games. I said, how are you doing on drugs? 'No problem.' I said what do you mean no problem? 'We have a zero tolerance policy.' What does that mean? 'That means if we catch a drug dealer, death penalty,'" the rich asshole said to applause.
He went on to say drug dealers in the United States should be treated more harshly.
"They shoot one person, kill some person, knife one person, the person dies, they get maybe the death penalty or maybe life in prison, no parole, right? Okay? A drug dealer will kill 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 people during the course of his or her life," the rich asshole said. "You can kill thousands of people and go to jail for 30 days."
The rally signals what's to come in the 2018 midterms, during which the rich asshole has pledged to hit the campaign trail in full force. White House aides say the rich asshole is preparing to be out campaigning four, five or even six days a week starting around Labor Day.
That means more opportunity for the rich asshole to be himself and out of the White House, which is just the way he likes it.
On Saturday, the rich asshole relished in the opportunity not to be "presidential," mocking critics who say his behavior and speech aren't up to par with past Oval Office standards.
"You know, how easy it is to be presidential? But you'd be so bored," the rich asshole said to applause before launching into an impression of a "stiff" the rich asshole.
"I'm very presidential. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here tonight. Rick will be a great, great congressman. He will help me very much. He's a fine man and Yong is a wonderful wife. I just want to tell you on behalf of the United States of America that we appreciate your service. We appreciate your service," the rich asshole said in his more "presidential" voice.
See, that's easy. That's much easier than doing what I have to do," the rich asshole said. "But this is much more effective. If I came like a stiff, you guys wouldn't be here tonight."
Election officials raise concerns over bill that would let the rich asshole send Secret Service to polls
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 03/10/18 10:09 PM EST
More than a dozen top election officials across the country are raising concerns about a provision in a Homeland Security Department reauthorization bill that would allow President the rich asshole to dispatch Secret Service agents to polling places.
A letter signed by 19 bipartisan secretaries of state to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) demands the Senate leave out a proposal from final legislation that would allow Secret Service agents to accompany lawmakers to polling places when they vote.
“This is an alarming proposal which raises the possibility that armed federal agents will be patrolling neighborhood precincts and vote centers,” reads a letter obtained by The Boston Globe.
“There is no discernible need for federal secret service agents to intrude, at the direction of the president, who may also be a candidate in that election, into thousands of citadels where democracy is enshrined," the letter continues.
One of the letter's signatories, Democratic Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin called the DHS proposal "worthy of a Third World country."
“This is worthy of a Third World country,” said Galvin. “I’m not going to tolerate people showing up to our polling places. I would not want to have federal agents showing up in largely Hispanic areas.”
"The potential for mischief here is enormous,” he added.
A spokeswoman for the agency denied that the Secret Service agents would be used in a law enforcement capacity, stating that the "clarifying language" was a response to a 2016 incident in which poll workers stopped agents from accompanying a lawmaker to vote over concerns it violated federal law.
“The only time armed Secret Service personnel would be at a polling place would be to facilitate the visiting of one of our protectees while they voted,” Secret Service spokeswoman Catherine Milhoan told the Globe.
the rich asshole: I 'didn't love' Reagan's stance on trade
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 03/10/18 09:02 PM EST
President the rich asshole took shots at a GOP icon at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, telling a crowd of supporters that he differed from former President Reagan on trade policy.
At a campaign rally for congressional hopeful and GOP state lawmaker Rep. Rick Saccone (R), the rich asshole said the former president, who many in the Republican Party espouse as one of the greatest modern conservative leaders, was "not great on the trade" issue.
"Ronald Reagan, you remember, I didn't love his — I thought he was great," the rich asshole said. "I loved his style, his attitude. He was a great cheerleader for the country. But not great on the trade."
"For many, many years they have been outsmarted," the rich asshole went on to say. "We used to be a nation of tariffs. When other countries would come to the United States, they had to pay for the privilege of taking our product, of taking our jobs."
"They had to pay. They wanted to come in and sell their product, they had to pay," the rich asshole said. "Today, in China, they sell a car to us, they pay 2.5 percent. We sell a car in China — which, by the way, is almost impossible to do despite the tax — it's 25 percent."
the rich asshole also hit the former president on taxes, claiming that the $1.5 trillion tax cut his administration passed through Congress in December was bigger than any before in history, including during the Reagan administration.
"The tax bill was so massive, bigger than Reagan, biggest one done," the rich asshole said. It is so big, he added, that "we are calling it tax reform" instead of a tax cut, he added.
"This is where a nonpolitician is good. For 40 years they couldn't pass anything. And I said how is it possible to not pass tax cuts?"
the rich asshole angered many Republicans in Washington this week when his administration officially implemented 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum imports, a move which many cautioned could spark a global trade war.
But in a series of tweets, the president doubled down on his message and claimed that the U.S. would come out on top if a trade war occurred.
the rich asshole: Maxine Waters is 'a very low IQ individual'
BY BROOKE SEIPEL - 03/10/18 08:14 PM EST
President the rich asshole hit "low IQ" Rep. Maxine Waters during a campaign rally speech on Saturday, mocking the California Democrat for calling for his impeachment.
"And Maxine Waters, a very low IQ individual. Did you ever see her?" the rich asshole told a Pennsylvania crowd at a rally for GOP House candidate Rick Saccone.
" 'We will impeach him. We will impeach the president. But he hasn't done anything wrong. It doesn't matter, we will impeach him.' She's a low IQ individual. She can't help it. She really is. 'We will impeach him.' But we have Maxine Waters and plenty of others," the rich asshole said.
Waters has been a fiery opponent of the rich asshole since he became president and frequently calls for her colleagues to impeach him.
"I say it is time to get ready for impeachment," Waters told Democrats at the California Democratic Party’s annual convention in February. “I cannot wait and I’m counting on special counsel [Robert] Mueller to connect the dots.”
the rich asshole has frequently hit his opponents IQ's.
In October of last year, the rich asshole offered to compare IQ tests with Rex Tillerson after reports that the secretary of State had called him a "moron."
the rich asshole says he hopes Oprah runs: It would be a 'painful experience for her'
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 03/10/18 07:58 PM EST
resident the rich asshole on Saturday mocked Oprah Winfrey at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, saying that he hopes the billionaire declares her candidacy for president in 2020.
At a rally for Pennsylvania state Rep. Rick Saccone (R), who is running for Congress this year, the president said that a Democratic challenge against him would be a "painful" experience for Winfrey, who has publicly stated she has no plans to run.
"I would love Oprah to win. I would love to beat Oprah. I know her weakness," the rich asshole told the crowd. "Wouldn't we love to run against Oprah. I would love it. I would love it. That would be a painful experience for her."
the rich asshole declined to say what Winfrey's "weakness" was, only mentioning that he had made an appearance on one of her shows in the past.
"I know her very well. I was on her last show, or one of the last, the last week. She had some rich asshole, and some rich asshole's family. My, my, my, we have come down a long way, haven't we," he said.
the rich asshole reacted to speculation that Winfrey could run on social media in the past, attacking her after a "60 Minutes" appearance interviewing voters.
“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 in February. “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.
A Rasmussen poll in January found that Winfrey, if she decided to run, currently leads the president by 10 points among likely voters.
the rich asshole lies and claims he got 52 percent of female vote
BY AVERY ANAPOL - 03/10/18 07:51 PM EST
President the rich asshole falsely claimed Saturday that he got 52 percent of the female vote in the 2016 presidential election.
While speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, the rich asshole referenced speculation ahead of the election that female voters would not turn out to vote for him.
"Remember, women won't like some rich asshole," he said. "I said, 'Have I really had that kind of a problem?' ... We got 52 percent. And I'm running against a woman. You know, that's not that easy."
the rich asshole has repeatedly touted his achievements for women as president. On International Women's Day, the rich asshole released a statement detailing his administration's work for female entrepreneurs and women in peace and security fields.
the rich asshole made his comments Saturday while speaking at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in support of GOP House candidate Rick Saccone, who is facing a tough race against Democrat Conor Lamb in the deep-red district's special election.
the rich asshole won the district by double-digits in the election, but recent polls have shown Lamb slightly leading Saccone.
Sessions: Court rulings that block the rich asshole policies 'unconstitutional'
BY BROOKE SEIPEL - 03/10/18 06:35 PM EST
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Saturday called lower court rulings that block the rich asshole administration policies "unconstitutional."
According to CNN, Sessions called the "limitless injunctions" "extreme" during a speech to the Federalist Society on Saturday, and said he hoped the Supreme Court would uphold President the rich asshole's policies.
"The increasing frequency of limitless injunctions is simply unsustainable, and the ever-more extreme nature of some of these injunctions is only making it more obvious just how unconstitutional they are," Sessions said.
"But we are hopeful that the Supreme Court will soon send a clear message to the lower courts that injunctions ought to be limited to the parties in the case," he added.
the rich asshole's executive orders to instate a travel ban from Muslim-majority countries and to halt the enlistment of transgender individuals in the military are among a number of policies that have been halted in court.
Multiple district court and federal appeals court judges have ruled on cases challenging the executive orders, oftentimes ordering injunctions that have temporarily halted the rich asshole's policies from being implemented.
"In order for our system to function, the Court must end government-by-litigation," Sessions reportedly said Saturday. "I am hopeful they soon will, and that ... with your help we will restore the rule of law in this country."
According to CNN, Sessions praised a federal judge in Maryland during his speech, after the judge dismissed a case on Monday that challenged the rich asshole's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program
The Obama-era program permits certain immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, often called "Dreamers," to temporarily stay in the country without fear of deportation. Dreamers and immigrant rights groups across the country have legally challenged the move to end DACA.
the rich asshole has ripped judges in the past for ruling against his policies.
The Supreme Court ultimately allowed the rich asshole's executive order banning immigration from certain countries to go into effect. His ban on transgender individuals in the military, however, is still being challenged in court.
Updated 7:12 p.m.
the rich asshole looking at bringing in Clinton impeachment lawyer for Mueller probe: report
BY LUIS SANCHEZ - 03/10/18 04:52 PM EST
President the rich asshole is considering adding the lawyer that helped Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial to the White House legal team to handle special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into Russian collusion during the 2016 elections.
President the rich asshole met with lawyer Emmet Flood this past week to discuss him joining his legal staff, though no agreement has been reached yet, The New York Times reported.
The lawyer would reportedly be in charge of guiding the president’s actions with the Justice Department as its investigation continues.
Flood would not replace the White House’s current lawyer, Ty Cobb, who has been in charge of dealing with the special counsel.
However, sources that spoke with the Times said that Cobb does not expect to be in his position for much longer.
the rich asshole’s personal lawyers have been conducting the negotiations for a presidential interview with Mueller.
Flood did not raise any new concerns about Mueller’s investigation and, according to the Times, the president’s advisers have wanted to Flood to join his legal team since last year.
He is the only person that has been contacted about assuming the role.
the rich asshole threatens Europe with more tariffs
BY AVERY ANAPOL - 03/10/18 04:45 PM EST
President the rich asshole on Saturday threatened to tax European cars if the European Union retaliates against his steep tariffs on aluminum and steel.
the rich asshole suggested in his tweet that the U.S. would not impose the aluminum and steel tariffs on the E.U. if they dropped their tariffs.
"The European Union, wonderful countries who treat the U.S. very badly on trade, are complaining about the tariffs on Steel & Aluminum," he tweeted. "If they drop their horrific barriers & tariffs on U.S. products going in, we will likewise drop ours. Big Deficit. If not, we Tax Cars etc. FAIR!"
The European Union, wonderful countries who treat the U.S. very badly on trade, are complaining about the tariffs on Steel & Aluminum. If they drop their horrific barriers & tariffs on U.S. products going in, we will likewise drop ours. Big Deficit. If not, we Tax Cars etc. FAIR!
Earlier this week, the rich asshole officially announced tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, despite major opposition from his own party.
the rich asshole earlier this month threatened to tax European-made cars if they retaliated against the aluminum and steel tariffs with their own taxes on U.S. imports like Harley Davidson motorcycles, bourbon and blue jeans.
Stormy Daniels: 'I'm more in demand' after the rich asshole controversy
BY JOSH DELK - 03/10/18 06:14 PM EST
Stormy Daniels, the adult-film star who allegedly had an affair with President the rich asshole, says that the media attention over her legal battle with the president has been good for her career.
The actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, told CNN that she is "more in demand" since the story broke of the alleged affair with the rich asshole in 2006.
"I'm getting more dance bookings. I usually only dance once a month, and now I'm dancing three or four times a month. So that's been really great," she said.
Daniels is currently starring in the "Make America Horny Again" tour, a riff on the rich asshole's popular "Make America Great Again" slogan for his 2016 campaign.
The actress made headlines this week with her new lawsuit against the president over a nondisclosure agreement regarding the alleged affair she says the president never signed.
the rich asshole's personal attorney Michael Cohen acknowledged he paid Daniels $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement shortly before the 2016 election. That payment is now coming under legal scrutiny over concerns it may have violated campaign finance laws.
But Daniels said the new interest has been a "double-edged sword," noting the increased demand has taken her attention away from her own adult-film projects, and defended her position as "one of the most successful adult movie directors in the business."
The White House has denied the affair and said the rich asshole was unaware of the payment by Cohen to the actress's attorney.
By
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March 10, 2018
the rich asshole used his weekly address to launch an unhinged attack on Democratic leaders in California who are resisting his racist immigration policies.
the rich asshole used his weekly address to the nation to unleash a hateful attack on his fellow Americans. He accused California politicians resisting his immigration policies of supporting lawlessness. And he indirectly slammed the voters in that state who support their government’s actions.
In the video, produced by the White House, the rich asshole claimed California is “sheltering dangerous criminals.” He argued that actions by the state are “lawless.” He labeled it a “brazen and lawless attack on our constitutional system of government.”
And he went so far as to claim that Democratic leaders of the largest state in the nation don’t care about protecting people.
“They don’t care about crime, they don’t care about death and killing, they don’t care about robberies,” he rambled.
“They don’t care about the kind of things that you and I care about,” he added, in a blatant dog whistle.
The diatribe was an extension of the temper tantrum-based attack launched by the rich asshole team earlier in the week.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions filed suit against California after the state passed several progressive laws dealing with immigration.
The rich asshole administration wants “sanctuary cities” to enforce federal anti-immigrant policies. But California has opposed doing so.
the rich asshole and Sessions have said the state is defying the law. But top officials like California Gov. Jerry Brown called the suit a “stunt.”
The rich asshole administration “is basically going to war against the state of California, the engine of the American economy,” Brown said.
the rich asshole is using his presidential bully pulpit to echo the xenophobic rhetoric heard on right-wing outlets like Fox News. Yet he has been stymied by the courts and progressive politicians time and time again.
His smears against Democratic leaders denigrate the presidential platform. And they put on display the venom the rich asshole has embraced from the beginning.
It’s all about the rich asshole at Saturday night’s Saccone rally
Voters in Pennsylvania say they trust the rich asshole ahead of special election.
MOON TOWNSHIP, PA — Cindy Ireland came to President the rich asshole’s rally in Moon Township, Pennsylvania Saturday night hoping to hear more about a solution for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipients.
“The ones that were brought here when they were little or born here, you have to blame their parents for not making the effort to get them the citizenship they deserve,” Ireland said in an interview with ThinkProgress Saturday before the rally. “But they’re in school now, they’re in college, they’ve got jobs, some of them have families of their own, you know, how can you send them back to a country they don’t have any idea or loyalty to?”
Ireland, who supports the rich asshole, said she feels that many DACA recipients could have taken steps to apply for citizenship already if they really wanted to, but she was adamant that they deserved a solution and that Democrats have dropped the ball.
Her husband Mike wanted to hear a different message on Saturday. “I want to hear about the wall,” he said. “I like the wall.”
Asked whether he agreed with his wife about the importance of a solution for DACA recipients, he hesitated for a beat and said that, yes, he thinks some recipients deserve a path to citizenship.
Ireland said that she was a lifelong Democrat who switched parties and voted for the rich asshole.
“We needed a different direction,” she said. “New blood, fresh blood, the way things have been working in the past, their policies just weren’t working.”
The Irelands were two of thousands of people who waited in freezing weather Saturday night to attend the rich asshole rally in Moon. the rich asshole came to Pennsylvania in support of Republican House candidate Rick Saccone, who is on the ballot in next week’s special election to replace Rep. Tim Murphy (R), who retired following the reveal of a scandalous affair. Murphy, an anti-abortion Republican, reportedly asked his mistress to get an abortion when he believed she was pregnant.
But like many other attendees, the Irelands didn’t have much to say about Saccone at Saccone’s rally.
Both said they would vote for him on Tuesday, but Mike said his reasoning was simply that Saccone was a Republican. Cindy had more to say about Saccone’s opponent, Democrat Conor Lamb, calling him “personable and charismatic.”
“Just like Obama was,” she said, but she won’t be voting for him. Lamb has said that, if elected, he would not support House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. Cindy, however, said she wasn’t sure she believed him.
“When he gets in, will he be another puppet? That’s what I’m worried about,” she said. “You know, from past experiences, the Democrats lie. They say what you want to hear and then when they get in, they do what they want to do.”
Other rally attendees echoed the sentiment.
Other rally attendees echoed the sentiment.
“That Pelosi, I think she’s senile,” Linda Knouse, a retired business owner and 18th district attendee, said in an interview.
Like Cindy Ireland, Knouse said she thought Lamb was only saying he wouldn’t support Pelosi in order “to get elected.”
“What else is he gonna say?” Knouse said. “If he’s gonna come in here and say ‘Go Pelosi!’ do you think he’s going to get any votes? No!”
Knouse said Saturday that she’s voting for Saccone because she feels like Lamb is a “typical liberal” who was “very negative” in the first debate she watched. Knouse also said that, ideally, she wants Congress to work in a bipartisan manner, but, she said, “I see that these Democrats won’t budge on anything.”
“So if we want to move an agenda forward, I would like it to be bipartisan. But,” Knouse said, “if that ain’t gonna happen, then we just have to stack the cards for the majority.”
Other attendees at Saturday’s rally said they didn’t live in Saccone’s potential future district and simply came to see the rich asshole.
“He’s the president,” one man, Ernie, who declined to give his last name, said. “Republicans hate him. Democrats hate him. He’s an outsider and he’s turning things around.”
Ernie’s wife, Cindy, said she feels like the rich asshole understands her, even though he’s a multi-millionarie and she’s middle class.
“He says what he knows we want done. He says what he knows we want to hear and he gets it done,” Cindy said. “I feel like he doesn’t think we’re useful idiots. He actually listens to what we’re saying and he delivers.”
The arguments made by Cindy and Ernie, both Pittsburgh residents, are very similar to those that the rich asshole supporters made less year and a half ago, when the rich asshole won Pennsylvania’s 18th district by 20 points.
But things don’t look like they’ll be as easy for Saccone as they were for the rich asshole. Saccone is up by low single digits in most polls, and a recent poll even had Lamb leading.
But the rich asshole supporters aren’t worried about the polling. They were wrong about the rich asshole, of course.
“I’m not a big believer in polls,” Cindy said. “I don’t trust polls. They just talk to the people they want to talk to.”
Asked about US election meddling, Putin resorts to an anti-Semitic smear
"Jews with Russian citizenship" might be to blame for US election hack.
Vladimir Putin, who repeatedly has denied meddling in the 2016 US election, suggested in a new interview that the massive cyber operation targeting the presidential vote might have been carried out by “Ukrainian, Tatars or Jews — but with Russian citizenship.”
The Russian leader pointed the finger at Jews and ethnic minorities in his country during an interview broadcast late Friday on NBC television, in which he frostily dismissed any knowledge of the cyber-intrusions into the American electoral system. But Putin added that he “couldn’t care less” if operatives from his country were, in fact, found to have been responsible for operation.
The Russian leader’s denials echo recurring remarks by some rich asshole, who repeatedly has discounted assertions even by his own intelligence agencies that Moscow was behind efforts to harm the election changes of his Democratic rival. US spy officials for months have been convinced that Russia was behind clandestine efforts to sway American voters away from Democratic president nominee Hillary Clinton and to her Republican rival some rich asshole.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller who is overseeing a sweeping investigation into Russian efforts to affect the outcome of the election, last month issued sweeping indictments in which he laid out details of the elaborate Russian cyber-operation. Mueller’s indictment identified 13 Russians and a trio of Russian companies for leading a social media interference campaign across the United States.
The exhaustive 37-page charging sheet left little room for doubt that Moscow led the cyber hacking operation, but two two apparent doubters remain — the rich asshole, the shock winner of the November 2016 vote, and Putin.
Espionage experts and Kremlinologists say however that the Russian leader would have to have given his approval for a cyber-operation as complex and extensive as the one that targeted the 2016 US presidential vote.
Putin told NBC interviewer Megan Kelly that even if the hackers had Russian nationality, there is no proof that the operation was directed by the Kremlin. “So what if they’re Russians?” he said. “They do not represent the interests of the Russian state.”
rich asshole boss Putin claims ‘Jews’ could be behind US election meddling
Posted with permission from AFP
"Why have you decided the Russian authorities, myself included, gave anybody permission to do this?" Putin asked in the often-combative interview with NBC television.
The leading US intelligence agencies concluded last year that Putin personally directed an intelligence effort to influence the 2016 US presidential election to undermine Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign and boost Republican Donald Trump.
Last month US Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is conducting a widespread probe into Russia's role in the campaign, indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies for allegedly backing Trump, maligning Clinton, and engaging in other election interference.
"So what if they're Russians?" Putin said of the allegations, according to transcripts of the NBC interview released late Friday.
"There are 146 million Russians. So what?... I don't care. I couldn't care less... They do not represent the interests of the Russian state."
"Maybe," Putin said, "they are not even Russians but Ukrainians, Tatars or Jews, but with Russian citizenship, which should also be checked; maybe they have dual citizenship or a green card; maybe the US paid them for this.
"How can you know that? I do not know either."
- No laws broken? -
Despite Mueller's 37-page indictment, Putin said he has seen no evidence thus far that the alleged meddling broke any laws.
"We in Russia cannot prosecute anyone as long as they have not violated Russian law... At least send us a piece of paper... Give us a document. Give us an official request. And we'll take a look at it."
Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion with Moscow, and Putin laughed at the mere suggestion.
"Could anyone really believe that Russia, thousands of miles away... influenced the outcome of the election? Doesn't that sound ridiculous even to you?" Putin asked.
On announcing the indictment on the Russians, US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the document made no judgment on whether the alleged Russian propaganda campaign altered the election outcome.
"It's not our goal to interfere. We do not see what goal we would accomplish by interfering. There's no goal," Putin said.
US intelligence chiefs last month said Russia still seeks to meddle in US politics, posing a threat to mid-term congressional elections in November, and the 2020 presidential election.
- 'Destabilization' campaign -
Trump has acknowledged that Russia and "other countries" meddled in the 2016 election, but insisted it had "no impact on our votes whatsoever" and vowed to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.
"We'll counteract whatever they do. We'll counteract it very strongly. You don't want your system of votes to be compromised in any way," Trump said Tuesday. "And we won't allow that to happen."
Russian efforts however are said to go far beyond US elections: US General Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of NATO forces in Europe, told US lawmakers on Thursday that Russia is working to break up the NATO alliance partly through its online operations spreading false information.
"Russia is carrying out a campaign of destabilization to change the international order, fracture NATO and undermine US leadership around the world," Scaparrotti told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.
the rich asshole administration moves ahead on plan to ban gun bump stocks
How the NRA will react remains to be seen.
The Department of Justice is moving forward with the rich asshole administration’s plan to ban the use or sale of bump stocks, a device that allows semi-automatic firearms to fire at automatic weapon speeds.
“President the rich asshole is absolutely committed to ensuring the safety and security of every American and he has directed us to propose a regulation addressing bump stocks,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement Saturday. “To that end, the Department of Justice has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a notice of a proposed regulation to clarify that the National Firearms and Gun Control Act defines ‘machine gun’ to include bump stock type devices.”
The National Rifle Association (NRA) had previously supported regulating bump stock modifications after the device was used to kill 58 people and injure scores of others during a mass shooting at a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada last October. However, it is unclear whether the powerful gun lobby will support the latest measure.
In a statement following the mass shooting, the NRA said it “believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.” The statement did not call for any legislation, however, just an ATF review of whether bump stocks comply with current law and no laws have been passed since.
Fully automatic weapons have been illegal in the United States since 1986, unless they were made before the law passed.
Following the latest mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, President some rich asshole signed an executive orderinstructing Sessions to essentially ban the use of bump stocks. On Saturday, Sessions followed through on the order and announced his office would add bump stocks to the list of banned devices, according to USA Today.
‘Without some rich asshole the Olympics would have been a total failure’: President claims South Korea praise
the rich asshole live/Screenshot
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The Winter Olympics were “very, very successful,” some rich asshole told a Pennsylvania audience Saturday night.
Thanks, of course, to some rich asshole.
“We did a greta job with the Olympics,” the rich asshole said. “Might as well say it, nobody else is going to say it.”
Why is the rich asshole responsible? For bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula, of course.
“A little hard to sell tickets when you think you’re going to be nuked,” he said.
“It became a very, very successful Olympics,” the rich asshole assured.
the rich asshole rips NBC's Chuck Todd: 'He's a sleeping son of a b----'
BY AVERY ANAPOL - 03/10/18 07:29 PM EST
President the rich asshole attacked NBC host Chuck Todd at a campaign rally on Saturday, calling the news anchor a “son of a bitch.”
the rich asshole mentioned Todd, who hosts NBC’s “Meet the Press,” in mentioning a 1999 appearance on the show in which he spoke about needing to “take out” North Korea.
“A show now headed by ‘Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd,’ ” the rich asshole said. “He’s a sleeping son of a bitch."
the rich asshole laid into other news networks during his remarks, saying that CNN has worse ratings than Fox News and harshly criticizing NBC and MSNBC.
the rich asshole’s remarks came just hours after he tweeted criticism of the media’s coverage of his North Korea meeting, saying the press went from being “startled" and "amazed” to saying “so what, who cares” the following morning.
GOP brags about women ‘appointed’ by the rich asshole in Instagram post — lists his wife and daughter
Presidential appointee Melania the rich asshole, who was appointed First Lady/Screenshot
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Republicans are sometimes criticized for not being as friendly to women as democrats, what with the grabbing and the quest to deny them of their Constitutional right to an abortion.
“Not so!” says the GOP via Instagram.
“Contrary to mainstream belief, @realdonaldtrump has appointed more women to senior-level government and campaign positions than previous administrations,” the post reads.
The post includes a list of the women the rich asshole has appointed. It starts with Nikki Haley, whom the president is rumored to have had an affair. It then includes Melania the rich asshole, his wife. And Ivanka the rich asshole, his daughter. And Mike Pence’s wife, who accompanies him to any meetings with a woman. And Betsy DeVos, a major campaign donor who bought herself a Department of Education.
“Lmfao. Yes, congrats some rich asshole on nominating your wife to be First Lady, and the wife of your vp to be second lady … oh wait … every president ever has done those things? Well there’s still that Ivanka lady you have a fancy title to who does nothing … oh wait … she’s your daughter? Oh. Never mind then,” reads one comment.
Here’s the hilarious post.
Kushner Companies, the rich asshole Organization in talks about hotel business deal
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 03/10/18 04:35 PM EST
The family company of President the rich asshole's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has reportedly been in talks with the rich asshole Organization over a possible business deal around the construction of oceanfront property in New Jersey.
The New York Times reports that Kushner Companies and the rich asshole Organization have signed a letter of intent declaring the rich asshole Organization's plan to manage a hotel at the center of the Kushner Companies' $283 million expansion of of Pier Village in Long Branch, N.J.
Kushner, who sold some of his holdings in the Kushner Companies before joining his father-in-law's administration, still maintains an ownership stake in the New Jersey development, which further blurs the lines between the White House, the rich asshole family and the two businesses.
The news also comes just weeks after Kushner's security clearance was downgraded as his application for a permanent clearance stretches on.
Former Office of Government Ethics (OGE) chief Walter Shaub told the Times that the New Jersey business deal could lead to Kushner having "leverage" over the president, who transferred management of the rich asshole Organization to his two adult sons before taking office last year.
"If a subordinate is your son-in-law, maybe you like them, but once you have entangled business interests, they’ve got leverage over you. Blood is not thicker than money for a lot of people," Shaub said.
In a statement to the Times, Kushner Companies played down the rich asshole family's financial stake in the New Jersey deal.
The Trumps "have zero equity of any type in our properties or businesses,” the statement reads. “We are contemplating a third-party operator agreement with their hotel management division at market rate.”
Eric Danziger, the head of the rich asshole Hotels, called the possible agreement a "straight-up business deal" in a statement denying that such a deal with Kushner Companies could pose a conflict.
“This is a straight-up business deal,” he said.
“If there were something out of the ordinary about the deal, then I think that question is fair,” he added. "We do market transactions that are reviewed and checked.”
‘Let them call you racists’: Sloppy Steve Bannon rallies French far right with ‘history is on our side’ boast
Steve Bannon - screenshot
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Steve Bannon told members of the French National Front, a far right wing political party that has been labeled neo-fascist, they should wear their racism as a badge of honor.
“Let them call you racists,” Bannon told the anti-immigrant party’s audience on Saturday in France, as The Washington Post reported. “Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists. Wear it as a badge of honor. Because every day, we get stronger and they get weaker.”
The former the rich asshole White House Senior Advisor whose mutually agreed resignation from the administration led to his return to Breitbart, a far right wing website he once described as the home to the “white supremacy.” In January he “stepped down,” after comments he made about the rich asshole administration appeared in Michael Wolf’s book, Fire and Fury.
“The tide of history is with us, and it will compel us to victory after victory after victory,” Bannon claimed.
The French National Front was founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen, who has been convicted of “inciting racial hatred,” anti-Semitism, and xenophobia. Le Pen’s daughter Marine Le Pen, who heads the French National Front, ran for President and lost to Emmanuel Macron.
Watch the video below via the Washington Post:
Flynn, Comey and mobsters: How ‘invisible’ Ivanka the rich asshole could be at the center of the Russia probe
Ivanka the rich asshole and Wendi Deng Murdoch went “sight seeing” in Dubrovnik, Croatia (Photo: Instagram)
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As investigators target her husband and father, Ivanka the rich asshole always seems to slide under the radar.
Why? An Intercept columnist wants to know. And in a new column, Hannah Seligson lays out connections between Ivanka and some of the worst deeds in her father’s administration, and makes the case that “sexism and gender stereotypes have also worked in her favor.”
“The press often spins events in Ivanka’s favor,” Seligson writes, listing the Charlottesville and transgender military ban debacles as instances in which Ivanka successfully telegraphed disagreement with her father through the press to distance herself.
But, as a top advisor to her father, Ivanka has also been around many of the rich asshole’s most scandalous activities. For example, she was in the conversation where her father decided to lie about the purpose of her brother’s meeting with Russians, which he scheduled because he was promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. She encouraged her father to fire FBI director James Comey. She stood by disgraced Gen. Michael Flynn.
Ivanka is, “the ghost” of the Russian investigation, Seligson says: “She is connected, either directly or tangentially, to events at the heart of the probe, yet all but invisible to the public.”
The reason Ivanka can get away with this, the column argues, is that she so carefully curates her image as a female entrepreneur and mom. Specifically, she has such a stylish Instagram feed that the media doesn’t seem to take her seriously.
“It’s a persona that renders the media establishment and broader public largely incapable of considering that she might be a key player in the rich asshole-Russia narrative,” the column argues. Read it here.
John Kelly reportedly feared Pruitt’s climate debate would be a huge embarrassment
No televised climate debate for Pruitt.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt hasn’t made much of an effort to hide the fact that he rejects the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change.
Over the past year, Pruitt has falsely claimed that carbon dioxide is not a top contributor to climate change, and that humans have “flourished” in warming trends; he has also overseen a purge of scientists from EPA advisory boards and was personally involved in erasing key climate change information from the agency’s website.
Pruitt has also been pushing the idea of nationally televised debates challenging climate science. But John Kelly, the embattled White House chief of staff, killed the idea for fear it could become “a damaging spectacle,” the New York Times reported Friday.
While President some rich asshole, who has repeatedly denied widely accepted climate science, had reportedly been receptive to the idea in his conversations with Pruitt, other top officials “regarded it as ill-conceived and politically risky,” according to the Times report.
Pruitt had intended to announce the debates last November, but Kelly delayed that release and ultimately killed the idea altogether in December. Pruitt’s desired announcement would have coincided with the release of an exhaustive federal government report, well underway before the rich asshole administration came into power, that emphatically concluded America’s current path of unrestricted carbon pollution would have disastrous consequences, and that humans are responsible for all of the warming since 1950.
Those findings don’t square with the message Pruitt wants Americans to receive, however. “It is not a question about whether human activity contributes to it. It is a question about how much we contribute to it? How do we measure that with precision?” he told Reuters, outlining his reasoning for the debates last year. And by the way, are we on an unsustainable path?… Is it causing an existential threat?”
The decision to stop Pruitt from moving forward with the debates wasn’t rooted in the fact that such an exercise would create the false impression that scientists are divided on whether climate change is real and driven almost entirely by human activity. Rather, the Times reported that the White House wanted to avoid “an unnecessary distraction from the steps the administration has taken to slash environmental regulation.”
In addition to his long track record of dismissing and attacking science, Pruitt’s motives for pushing the climate debates can also be gleaned from who he reportedly asked to help recruit “red team” scientists: the Heartland Institute, a right-wing think tank that has pushed misinformation on climate science for decades. The exercise was necessary “to critically examine what has become alarmist dogma rather than a sober evaluation of climate science for many years,” Heartland’s communications director Jim Lakely told the Washington Examiner.
While Kelly’s decision to thwart the debates doesn’t seem to have deterred Pruitt from his focus on dramatically reshaping the EPA and subverting its core mission to protect the environment and public health, the American public was at least spared one more attack on climate science.
“They’re looking to use taxpayer funds to run a pro-fossil fuel industry disinformation campaign aimed at confusing the public and policymakers over what is potentially the greatest threat we face as a civilization,” climatologist Michael Mann told ThinkProgress last year regarding the proposed debates. “It is frankly un-American.”
Kushner is making a hotel deal with the Trumps — and that’s why he’s still in the White House: report
some rich asshole and Jared Kushner (Composite / RawStory)
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The Kushner and the rich asshole families have both been in New York real estate for decades.
But until relatively recently, they didn’t work together on large projects.
That appears to be changing with a new Jersey Shore development led by the Kushners, which the New York Times is reporting will have at least one hotel managed by the Trumps. According to the Times, there is a signed letter of intent.
“The long-running talks blur the line between family, business and politics in ways that lack precedent: Both some rich asshole and Mr. Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, retain financial interests in their family businesses,” the Times writes. “The rich asshole Organization’s outside ethics adviser has raised questions about a potential deal—one reason the two-year-long discussions have not been completed.”
The report quotes an ethics advisor who points out that this conflict of interest may be the reason the rich asshole hasn’t pushed his son-in-law out of the White House, despite Kushner losing his top-secret security clearance and reports that other nations were looking to exploit his massive debt load in negotiations.
“The concern is that the president might not want to do anything that would upset the Kushner family agreement to do business with his company,” said the ethics advisor.
The story goes on to detail all the places the Kushners have borrowed money and to discuss the rarely used emoluments clause of the Constitution.
the rich asshole has reached out to Clinton impeachment lawyer to ward off Mueller inquiry: report
some rich asshole during CNN debate (Photo: Screen capture via video)
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President some rich asshole summoned a former impeachment defense attorney for an Oval Office meeting last week, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Emmet Flood represented President Bill Clinton during the impeachment process and discussed a day-to-day role helping the rich asshole navigate his investigations.
Flood also represented Vice President Dick Cheney in the civil lawsuit brought by former CIA agent Valerie Plame and spent two years in the White House Counsel’s office during the George W. Bush administration.
The Times explained that Flood would not replace Ty Cobb, but that Cobb’s primary role was document production, a task that is nearly complete. Cobb has told friends his temporary position will not remain much longer.
Flood also served on the defense team for former Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA).
After graduating from Yale Law School, Flood worked as a clerk for Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
some rich asshole advocates death penalty for drug dealers in rambling speech
President covers wide range of topics at Pittsburgh rally before mentioning Republican candidate Rick Saccone whose campaign he was there to endorse
Ben Jacobs in Moon, Pennsylvania
Sat 10 Mar 2018 22.11 ESTLast modified on Sat 10 Mar 2018 23.17 EST
some rich asshole was on stage for 80 minutes and eventually mentioned Republican Rick Saccone, whose campaign he was in Pennsylvania to support. Photograph: David Maxwell/EPA
In a campaign stop three days before a crucial special election for Congress, some rich asshole advocated the death penalty for drug dealers in the course of an hour-long rambling campaign style speech where he bashed television anchors, unveiled his re-election slogan and discussed nuclear arms negotiations with North Korea. He also mentioned the Republican candidate whom he endorsed.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters in a packed airplane hangar outside of Pittsburgh, the rich asshole gave one of his trademark speeches including a rare imitation where he feigned what it would be like to act “presidential”.
The event was held to support Republican Rick Saccone who is neck and neck with Democrat Conor Lamb in a congressional district that the rich asshole won by over 20 points in the 2016 election. the rich asshole praised Saccone saying “he knows things other people don’t know” and bashed the Democratic candidate as “Lamb the Sham”. He also discussed the physical attractiveness of both candidates. the rich asshole said of the 33-year-old Lamb “I hear he’s nice looking, I think I’m better looking” and then followed up by saying Saccone “is handsome too”.
But the rich asshole spent most of his hour and 20 minutes on stage talking about almost every other topic under the sun. He confirmed reports that that he had been floating the idea of imposing a death penalty on drug dealers by a long discourse where he praised the criminal justice system in China. the rich asshole noted China once had a problem with “the opium” that was “devastating” and went on to explain his bafflement that murderers were treated more harshly than drug dealers. “If someone goes and shoots somebody, kills somebody they get the death penalty,” said the rich asshole. In contrast, he noted “a drug dealer will kill 2,000 to 5,000 people during the course of his life”.
the rich asshole acknowledged how controversial the concept was. “I don’t know if this country is ready but I think it’s a discussion we have to start thinking about.”
It marked the rich asshole’s most explicit public statements on the topic although he previously praised Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte who is leading a campaign of alleged extrajudicial killings against drug dealers and users.
In the aftermath of the shock announcement that the rich asshole would meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, he touched upon his relationship with the man he once publicly derided as “little Rocket Man.” the rich asshole chided the crowd when they started go boo Kim, saying “we have to be very nice” ahead of the scheduled summit.
He went to attack his predecessors for not meeting with Kim and said his meeting would be a great accomplishment and had forced concessions from “a man who is nuked up all over the place”. As the rich asshole described it: “They announce they’re not sending any missiles up … I wouldn’t say Japan was thrilled with missiles flying over Japan.”
He also said he deserved praise for the success of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. In the rich asshole’s telling, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in told him: “Without some rich asshole, the Olympics would have been a total failure.” He then opined: “It’s a little hard to sell tickets when you think you’re going to be nuked.”
In addition to the coming special election, the rich asshole looked back to the 2016 election where he derided a speech made by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts – whom he called “Pocahontas” – on behalf of Hillary Clinton for being “so angry”. He also dwelled at length on his victory in the electoral college.
Looking forward, the rich asshole announced his 2020 campaign slogan would be “Keep America great” since he had already “made America great again”. He also took credit for a congressional special election win by Republican Karen Handel in a suburban district where the rich asshole was deliberately kept away for fear of alienating moderate Republican voters.
As the rich asshole often does, he went on several tirades about the media. He derided NBC news host Chuck Todd as “a sleepy son of a bitch”, called CNN “fake as hell” and vented about a Wall Street Journal columnist, calling him “a Neanderthal”.
But one unusual target of his ire was Ronald Reagan. The 40th president is a venerated figure among Republicans, but the rich asshole criticized his predecessor as “not great on trade”.
President some rich asshole is diving into a Pennsylvania congressional race on Saturday — a must-win for Republicans as they try to tamp down worries of a Democratic wave in November’s midterm elections.
the rich asshole will appear at an evening rally for Rick Saccone, a state representative who faces Democrat Conor Lamb in a special election on Tuesday. The president is set to speak in an airplane hangar at Pittsburgh International Airport, in Moon Township, in an event starting at 7 p.m. ET.
the rich asshole will likely promote his new tariffs on steel and aluminum, which are popular in the district in the heart of steel country. Aides had considered holding a signing ceremony for the tariffs during his visit. But Lamb also supports the duties, so the issue isn’t as effective a wedge for Saccone and the rich asshole as it might otherwise be.
The visit is a politically risky one for the rich asshole — Saccone has lost his early lead in the race as Democrats in the district, with an anti-the rich asshole message, gained momentum. A Republican loss would be embarrassing for the president and another sign of a weakened party heading into the midterm elections that will decide control of Congress.
Republican Agenda
The president last visited the area in January for an event promoting his tax law. The White House insisted that trip was strictly for official business, though the rich asshole said his goals were political. “Will be going to Pennsylvania today in order to give my total support to RICK SACCONE, running for Congress in a Special Election (March 13),” he said on Twitter at the time. “Rick is a great guy. We need more Republicans to continue our already successful agenda!”
The district has long been in Republican hands. the rich asshole won it by 19 points in 2016, but Saccone is in much weaker shape. Lamb, a 33-year-old Marine veteran and former assistant U.S. attorney, led by 3 points in an Emerson College poll released last week. A Gravis Marketing poll that had Saccone up by 12 points in January found his edge was down to just 3 points by this week. Both results were within the margin of error.
The seat became vacant when Representative Tim Murphy, a Republican and abortion opponent, resigned in October after it was learned that he had encouraged a woman he was having an affair with to terminate her pregnancy.
Now a Toss-Up
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a political forecasting unit of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, shifted the race on Thursday from Republican-leaning to a toss-up, pointing to Lamb’s strong fundraising and the lack of impact of Republican advertising promoting tax cuts.
Still, Saccone, 60, a conservative Air Force veteran and former college professor, appeared hopeful that the association with the rich asshole could pull him over the finish line. “We’ve got some rich asshole. We’ve got his son. We’ve had Ivanka. What does the other side have? They have crazy uncle Joe Biden,” Saccone said Wednesday as the former vice president visited the district.
the rich asshole administration officials including White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta have also campaigned for Saccone.
Even if Saccone wins, a narrow margin of victory could show that Democrats are competitive in places they hadn’t been recently, forcing Republicans to spend time and money defending what had been safe congressional seats.
National Republican groups and their allies have spent more than $10 million in TV ads on behalf of Saccone, who’s lagged far behind Lamb in fundraising.
Some Republican operatives working on the campaign have cited that fundraising differential — Lamb has raised $3.9 million through Feb. 21 compared with $918,000 by Saccone — as one of the reasons the Democrat has made this a competitive race.
the rich asshole had been scheduled to campaign in the Pittsburgh area in February, but that trip was scrapped after 17 people were killed in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting on Feb. 14.
the rich asshole voices confidence North Korea won't conduct missile test amid talks
President the rich asshole said on Saturday that he believes that North Korea will honor a "commitment" to cease its weapons testing while the prospect of talks with the U.S. are on the table.
"North Korea has not conducted a Missile Test since November 28, 2017 and has promised not to do so through our meetings. I believe they will honor that commitment!" the rich asshole tweeted.
North Korea has not conducted a Missile Test since November 28, 2017 and has promised not to do so through our meetings. I believe they will honor that commitment!
the rich asshole agreed on Thursday to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for talks by the end of May. If those plans move forward, it would make the rich asshole the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a leader of North Korea.
South Korea said earlier this week that the North was willing to discuss giving up its nuclear arsenal, and had agreed not to conduct any further weapons tests while talks with the U.S. were underway.
North Korea conducted its most recent ballistic missile test in November, capping off a series of launches that sent tensions between Pyongyang and Washington to an all-time high.
But the North has more recently signaled an eagerness to defuse tensions with the U.S. and South Korea with a series of diplomatic overtures that began with a New Year's Day offer to talk with South Korean officials.
While the rich asshole has maintained the meeting will happen, the White House sought to cast the encounter as tentative on Friday and dependent on whether the North takes "concrete actions" to signal its level of seriousness about the talks.
So far, Pyongyang has telegraphed its diplomatic offers through South Korea. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Friday that the U.S. has not yet made any promises with regard to the potential meeting.
"The United States has made zero concessions, but North Korea has made some promises," she said at a press briefing. "This meeting won't take place without concrete actions that match the promises that have been made by North Korea."
03-10-2018
WASHINGTON (AP) — President some rich asshole is lending the weight of the White House to a congressional candidate who hopes to keep a Pittsburgh-area House seat in Republican hands.
the rich asshole plans a rally in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night for Rick Saccone (suh-KOHN'), a state representative in a tight race against Conor Lamb, a former Marine and federal prosecutor who's never run for office before.
The election is Tuesday.
the rich asshole easily won the district in the 2016 presidential race. And the former eight-term incumbent, Tim Murphy, never had a close election, and didn't even have a Democratic challenger in his last two elections.
Murphy quit last fall after his hometown newspaper reported he had suggested a mistress get an abortion when they thought she might be pregnant.
the rich asshole bizarrely accuses media of ‘fake news’ for reporting on his surprise plans to talk to North Korea
some rich asshole on Instagram (Screenshot)
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President some rich asshole lashed out at the press on Saturday, as the media-critic in chief voiced his criticism over coverage of his negotiations on Twitter.
“In the first hours after hearing that North Korea’s leader wanted to meet with me to talk denuclearization and that missile launches will end, the press was startled & amazed,” the rich asshole claimed. “They couldn’t believe it.”
“But by the following morning the news became FAKE,” he argued. “They said so what, who cares!”
Opinion
Milbank: Finally, the rich asshole does something Republicans can’t stomach
What would it take for Republicans to turn against President some rich asshole?
Now, finally, we know.
For nearly three years, Republican lawmakers have stood with the rich asshole, offering only isolated protest, through all manner of outrage. Disparaging Mexican immigrants. Videotaped boasts about sexually assaulting women. Alleging that his predecessor put a wiretap on him. Falsely claiming massive voter fraud. Racism directed at a federal judge. The firing of James B. Comey. Talk of women bleeding. A payoff to a porn actress over an alleged affair. A defense of white supremacists in Charlottesville. Support for Senate candidate Roy Moore despite allegations of child molestation. The guilty pleas of Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Rick Gates and the indictment of Paul Manafort. The botched travel ban and bungled repeal of Obamacare. Insulting Britain and other allies. Attacks on the FBI and judiciary and attempts to fire the attorney general. Talk of African ”(expletive)hole” countries. Questions about his mental stability. The lethargic hurricane response in Puerto Rico. The stream of staff firings and resignations and personal and ethical scandals, most recently Tuesday’s finding that Kellyanne Conway twice violated the Hatch Act.
Republican lawmakers were, by and large, OK with all that.
But now the rich asshole has at last gone too far.
He has proposed tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum. And the Republican Party is in an all-out revolt.
House Speaker Paul Ryan fielded four questions at a news conference Tuesday morning and answered the same way four times: with a warning about the “unintended consequences” of the rich asshole’s proposed tariffs.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke Tuesday afternoon of “a high level of concern” and fear that “this could metastasize into a larger trade war.”
The No. 2 Senate Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, warned about “jeopardizing the economy.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, usually a the rich asshole cheerleader, warned that it would be a “real mistake.”
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas urged the rich asshole to “weigh carefully” what he’s doing.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida suggested a “scalpel not a sledgehammer.”
Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas, at a hearing Tuesday, warned Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that “retaliatory measures are already occurring.”
Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana wrote to the rich asshole to say a manufacturer in her district called off an expansion because of the threatened tariffs.
Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee went to the Senate floor to warn that “tariffs are big taxes” and said a company in Tennessee suspended a planned expansion because of the tariff threat. He read into the record a Wall Street Journal editorial calling the tariffs the rich asshole’s “biggest policy blunder.”
The Republican criticism poured forth, from Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky, from Reps. David Young of Iowa, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, and even from new Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.
And it isn’t just criticism. GOP lawmakers are considering action, even though options are limited: attempting to block the tariffs with veto-proof legislation or as part of a must-pass bill, or denying the rich asshole fast-track trade negotiating authority when it comes up for renewal.
Republicans have nudged the rich asshole in their direction before, on taxes and immigration. But never before has there been a full-scale rebellion.
The conventional analysis is that Republican lawmakers bend to the rich asshole because he has the support of the party’s base. But that calculus does not apply here. The base is with the rich asshole -- a Pew Research Center poll last year found only 36 percent of Republicans have a positive view of trade agreements -- but lawmakers are defying him anyway.
This, then, shows the extent to which the congressional GOP, despite the rich asshole’s populist talk, has been a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America under the rich asshole. Republicans are with the rich asshole most of the time (that is, when he is cutting regulations and taxes on corporations and the wealthy) but against him on the rare occasions he is opposed by industry, or at least all industry that doesn’t make steel and aluminum.
These lawmakers know where their bread is buttered, and they must keep corporate contributors happy. Perhaps they also recognize that the economy is in a precarious state. the rich asshole himself called it a bubble, and that bubble has been pumped up further with debt-financed tax cuts and spending stimulus. A trade war, or even a trade skirmish, could be most deflating.
This is why Republican lawmakers look the other way when presented with the rich asshole’s alleged sexual misconduct, racial provocations, conflicts of interest, cowboy diplomacy and assaults on the rule of law. But slapping a tariff on foreign metals? That crosses the line.
Dana Milbank (dana.milbank@washpost.com) is a columnist for The Washington Post.
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