Parkland student mocks DeVos: ‘Unfair’ to ask Education secretary education questions
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 03/12/18 10:48 AM EDT
A student who survived last month's mass shooting at a Florida high school mocked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for her "60 Minutes" interview in which she struggled to answer basic questions about schools.
"Everybody please give @BetsyDeVosED a break in regards to the 60 Minutes video... Answering questions about education is hard," Cameron Kasky tweeted.
"It’s unfair to put the United States Secretary of Education on the spot like that. Secretary DeVos, you are in an office, so I will stand by you."
In a subsequent tweet, Kasky — who has become a vocal advocate for gun control since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. — noted there was "a drop or two of sarcasm in there."
"Everybody please stop saying @BetsyDeVosED isn’t qualified for her job," he said in another tweet.
"I bet NONE of you have enough money to buy that position anyway, so please allow the secretary to do her good work without your criticism."
Everybody please give @BetsyDeVosED a break in regards to the 60 Minutes video...
Answering questions about education is hard. It’s unfair to put the United States Secretary of Education on the spot like that.
Secretary DeVos, you are in an office, so I will stand by you.
Answering questions about education is hard. It’s unfair to put the United States Secretary of Education on the spot like that.
Secretary DeVos, you are in an office, so I will stand by you.
(Hey guys just so you know, there was a drop or two of sarcasm in there)
Everybody please stop saying @BetsyDeVosED isn’t qualified for her job.
I bet NONE of you have enough money to buy that position anyway, so please allow the secretary to do her good work without your criticism.
DeVos struggled during a pointed "60 Minutes" interview to answer basic questions about education policy and schools.
DeVos is a school-choice advocate who has pushed for policies that allow students to leave public schools and take public funding to charter or religious schools.
During the interview, she specifically struggled to explain what would happen to the schools and students left behind.
“In places where there is a lot of choice that’s been introduced, Florida for example, the studies show that where there’s a large number of students that opt to go to a different school or different schools, the traditional public schools actually, the results get better as well,” DeVos said during the interview.
“Now, has that happened in Michigan?” "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl responded. Michigan is DeVos's home state, and the Education secretary as a private citizen spent millions to back school-choice efforts in that state.
“Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better?” Stahl asked.
"I can't say overall that they have all gotten better," DeVos responded.
Democrats and several journalists have called out DeVos for her difficulty in answering questions during the interview.
DeVos faced fierce opposition in her confirmation process, with senators in both parties criticizing her for her lack of experience with public and rural education.
She was confirmed, despite two GOP senators voting against her nomination. Vice President Pence cast the tie-breaking vote for her confirmation.
the rich asshole: Not enough 'political support' to raise age for gun buys
BY JONATHAN EASLEY - 03/12/18 09:56 AM EDT
President the rich asshole on Monday suggested he still supports raising the minimum age for purchasing a gun despite the idea being left out of a White House proposal released over the weekend.
In two morning tweets, the president reiterated his support for strengthening background checks, arming school officials and banning bump stocks.
"Very strong improvement and strengthening of background checks will be fully backed by White House. Legislation moving forward. Bump Stocks will soon be out. Highly trained expert teachers will be allowed to conceal carry, subject to State Law. Armed guards OK, deterrent!" the rich asshole tweeted.
Very strong improvement and strengthening of background checks will be fully backed by White House. Legislation moving forward. Bump Stocks will soon be out. Highly trained expert teachers will be allowed to conceal carry, subject to State Law. Armed guards OK, deterrent!.......
"....On 18 to 21 Age Limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting. States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly)."
....On 18 to 21 Age Limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting. States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly).
The White House on Sunday announced it would establish a federal commission led by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to determine how best to address gun violence in schools.
the rich asshole is not proposing legislation of his own, but will back existing bills aimed at enforcing the background check system and encouraging students and teachers to report suspicious behavior.
The president has said he supports enhancing the existing background check system and raising the age of purchase for all guns from 18 to 21 years old.
However, the measures the White House introduced on Sunday did not address those two issues.
The National Rifle Association, which contributed heavily to the rich asshole’s 2016 campaign, opposes raising the age of purchase for guns and measures that would add new layers to the background checks system.
In the near term, the White House will focus on training and arming some school officials — a highly controversial idea.
The Department of Justice will match schools with state and local law enforcement officials to provide “rigorous firearm training to qualified personnel." That program will be voluntary.
The administration is also looking to support the transition of law enforcement officials into education careers and is calling on states to enforce new measures that would allow them to take firearms away from individuals they deem potential threats.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is reviewing whether it can use the regulatory process to ban bump stocks, a supplement that allows certain semi-automatic weapons to fire more rapidly.
Betsy DeVos struggles to answer basic education questions during televised interview
She tried to defend her plan to cut funding for public schools. It was a disaster.
During an interview on Sunday’s edition of 60 Minutes, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos struggled to handle straightforward pushback about her plan to steer federal education dollars toward charter and private schools and away from traditional public schools.
During an exchange with host Lesley Stahl that quickly went viral, DeVos was unable to explain how her plan would benefit students in struggling schools, and admitted she’s never “intentionally visited schools that are underperforming.”
After DeVos cited “studies” showing that “when there is a large number of students that opt to go to a different school or different schools, the traditional public schools, the results get better as well,” Stahl asked her, “has that happened in Michigan? We’re in Michigan — this is your home state.”
DeVos, a former Republican Party chairwoman in Michigan, has been active in school reform efforts in the state for decades. Her efforts have not coincided with improved outcomes for students. As the Washington Post puts it, DeVos has “been a force behind the spread of charter schools in Michigan, most of which have recorded student test scores in reading and math below the state average.”
Public schools in the states are struggling as well. According to a study released earlier this month by nonpartisan research and advocacy organization Education Trust-Midwest, Michigan schools showed the largest dip in 3rd grade reading levels among 11 comparable states over the last three years.
“Michigan has fared poorly in several educational measures in recent years,” The Detroit News adds. “About 56 percent of third-graders did not pass the reading test on Michigan’s state assessment in 2017. A Brookings Institute analysis last year also found that the state’s students made the least improvement in National Assessment of Education Progress scores since 2003.”
DeVos tried to dodge Stahl’s question, saying, “Well, there [are] lots of great options and choices for students here in Michigan.”
But Stahl pushed back.
“Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better?” she followed up.
“I don’t know — overall, I can’t say overall that they have gotten better,” DeVos replied.
“The whole state is not doing well,” Stahl said.
“Well, there are certainly lots of pockets where the students are doing well,” DeVos replied.
Stahl again pushed back, noting that “your argument that if you take funds away, the schools will get better, is not working in Michigan, where you have a huge impact and influence over the direction of the school system here.”
“I hesitate to talk about all schools in general, because schools are made up of individuals schools attending them,” DeVos replied, again dodging.
The exchange ended with Stahl asking DeVos if she’s “seen the really bad schools — maybe try to figure out what they’re doing?”
“I have not, I have not, I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming,” DeVos said. “Maybe I should.”
In October, DeVos released a document outlining her policy priorities. As ThinkProgress detailed at the time, under her plan, the Education Department seeks to give priority to projects that expand school choice.
DeVos’ priorities were reflected in President the rich asshole’s 2017-18 budget, which called for $1.4 billion to support investments in schools choice, while proposing $9.2 billion in cuts from other federal education programs.
Watch Betsy DeVos fall apart in disastrous back-to-back interviews
By
Tommy Christopher
-
March 12, 2018
DeVos completely humiliated herself...twice.
the rich asshole Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos completely fell apart during a recent pair of high-profile interviews, stumbling badly over education policy and school safety.
DeVos kicked off the new week by face-planting on “60 Minutes” — just a short time after she thoroughly bungled a visit to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. When interviewer Leslie Stahl pressed Devos to explain the poor performance of Michigan public schools after her charter school policies were enacted, DeVos first tried to pivot, then got completely caught.
“Michigan, yes, well, there’s lots of great options and choices for students here,” Devos said.
“Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better?” Stahl asked.
“I don’t know,” DeVos replied, and when asked if she had visited any of the troubled Michigan schools, said “I have not intentionally visited schools that are under-performing.”
“Maybe you should,” Stahl replied, and DeVos was forced to agree.
DeVos followed up that disaster by tripping over school safety policy during a “Today Show” interview Monday morning.
Anchor Savannah Guthrie asked DeVos why the rich asshole’s school safety plan did not include raising the age limit to purchase assault weapons.
“Well, the plan is really the first step in a more lengthy process,” DeVos said, covering for the rich asshole administration’s total surrender to the NRA. “The proposals that the president has put forward really encompass a lot of things that are supported on a broad, bipartisan basis…”
“But Secretary DeVos, can I just jump in on that?” anchor Savannah Guthrie interrupted, pointing out the rich asshole’s unambiguous statements in support of age limits. “So what happened, what changed?”
DeVos could only reply that “Everything is on the table,” and explicitly said that the subject needs to be changed from “guns and a gun issue” to something about “how violent acts are even occurring to start with.”
After initially remaining silent on the idea of arming teachers, DeVos has embraced that dangerous policy, and is now sputtering to defend the rich asshole’s cave-in on age limits.
DeVos’ manifest ignorance about the basics of education policy has been clear all along, but these two interviews showcase the dangerous way in which she combines that ignorance with a policy agenda that prioritizes politics over the safety of children.
‘Melania knew’: NYT’s Charles Blow questions the rich asshole marriage as Stormy Daniels scandal erupts
New York Times columnist and author Charles Blow (Screen capture)
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New York Times columnist Charles Blow says Melania the rich asshole can’t possibly be shocked by her husband’s alleged extramarital affair with a porn actress.
Blow wrote that the payoff to adult film star Stormy Daniels is “so lewd and tawdry” that it manages to rise above — or sink below — the standard set by President some rich asshole.
“It’s not even the infidelity that most bothers me,” Blow wrote. “I view that as an issue between spouses and with the other person involved. I contend that we on the outside never really know what understandings may exist in a marriage, unless the two parties within reveal it.”
“In this case, Melania knew exactly the kind of man she was getting,” he added.
Blow recounted that the future president met his future wife at a New York Fashion Week party while on a date with another woman, while in the process of divorcing his second wife, Marla Maples, who had previously been his mistress.
“According to GQ, ‘He sent his companion to the bathroom so he could have a few minutes to chat up the model he’d noticed. But Melania knew of the rich asshole’s reputation — which was immediately confirmed by the fact that he had come to the party with a date and was now asking for her number.”
“That’s right,” Blow wrote. “Melania knew.”
The columnist said the rich asshole engaged in some of his worst known behavior shortly before and after Melania gave birth to their son, Barron — such as publicly leering at his daughter, Ivanka, bragging about getting away with sexual assault on the “Access Hollywood” tape and allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with Daniels.
the rich asshole Desperately Trying To Stop Stormy Daniels’ 60 Minutes Interview From Airing
some rich asshole has his lawyers working overtime to stop what appears to be one of the biggest threats he has ever faced — his porn star former mistress running her mouth about their affair.
If you haven’t heard, Stormy Daniels — real name Stephanie Clifford — taped an interview with “60 Minutes” regarding her affair with The rich asshole, which occurred just after Melania gave birth and resulted in a $130,000 hush money payment to the adult actress.
The interview is set to air on March 18 but according to reports, the rich asshole’s lawyer intends to stop that from happening.
“We understand from well-placed sources they are preparing to file for a legal injunction to prevent it from airing,” a source told BuzzFeed on Saturday.
the rich asshole says he was unaware of the $130,000 payment his personal lawyer made on his behalf from his personal account, which he arranged using his the rich asshole organization email. Cohen complained to friends that The rich asshole didn’t reimburse him for the payoff.
the rich asshole has recently been in a frenzy because he forgot to sign the non-disclosure agreement with Clifford, which forbids her revealing “paternity information” and “alleged children” to the public.
the rich asshole has even more reason to worry, as many prenuptial agreements contain an “infidelity clause,” which can mean a massive payout for Melania if it can be proven that the rich asshole cheated.
It’s unclear why the rich asshole is so worried about Stormy Daniels speaking out when he has not been concerned about many other horrible things he has done making it to the public, but perhaps we will find out soon when the interview airs.
Devos struggles in pointed '60 Minutes' interview
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 03/12/18 09:57 AM EDT
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos struggled to answer basic questions about education policy and schools during a pointed interview that aired Sunday on CBS's "60 Minutes."
DeVos, a school-choice advocate who has pushed for policies that allow students to leave public schools and take public funding to charter or religious schools, specifically struggled to explain what happened to the schools and students left behind in response to a series of questions from "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl.
“In places where there is a lot of choice that’s been introduced, Florida for example, the studies show that where there’s a large number of students that opt to go to a different school or different schools, the traditional public schools actually, the results get better as well,” DeVos said during the interview.
“Now, has that happened in Michigan?” Stahl responded. Michigan is DeVos's home state, and the Education secretary as a private citizen spent millions to back school-choice efforts in that state.
“Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better?” Stahl asked.
"I can't say overall that they have all gotten better," DeVos responded.
She later added: "I hesitate to talk about all schools in general because schools are made up of individual students attending them."
Stahl also recommended that DeVos visit schools that are underperforming, to which she responded, "Maybe I should. Yes."
During the interview, DeVos was also unable to answer a question about whether she was suggesting the number of false accusations of rape and sexual assault were as high as the number of actual rapes and sexual assaults.
"Well, one sexual assault is one too many and one falsely accused individual is one too many," DeVos said.
"But are they the same?" Stahl pressed.
"I don't know," DeVos responded.
At certain points during the interview, DeVos also seemed to contradict herself.
She was asked during the interview whether she believes teachers should have guns — a proposal put forth by President the rich asshole after last month's mass shooting at a Florida high school.
"That should be an option for states and communities to consider. And I hesitate to think of, like, my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Zorhoff, I couldn't ever imagine her having a gun and being trained in that way," she said.
"But for those who are — who are capable this is one solution that can and should be considered. But no one size fits all."
She noted she is also "not so sure exactly" how she become the "most hated" member of the president's Cabinet — as Stahl described her. She said she believes she is "more misunderstood than anything."
Democrats and several journalists commented on the interview, writing of DeVos's difficulty in answering questions.
Just watched the whole @60Minutes piece on Betsy DeVos. Pretty rough. @LesleyRStahl seemed to know more about the nation’s public schools than the education secretary.
This offers a kind of sad glimpse at the way some huge philanthropic and political donors go through life: being told they are geniuses by very accomplished people who want their $; and then totally unready for actual challenge. twitter.com/buzzfeednews/s…
DeVos faced fierce opposition in her confirmation process, with senators in both parties criticizing her lack of experience with public and rural education.
During her confirmation hearing, she at one point cited grizzly bear attacks as part of her reasoning for allowing states to determine their own gun policies in schools.
She said Wyoming schools may need guns to "protect from potential grizzlies."
She was confirmed, despite two GOP senators voting against her nomination. Vice President Pence cast the tie-breaking vote for her confirmation.
Missouri GOP Senate frontrunner has the rich asshole-like relationship with truth
Josh Hawley blamed sex trafficking on the sexual revolution, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
A few weeks back, the Kansas City Star published excerpts from a December speech, made by Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (R), in which he blamed human trafficking on the sexual revolution of the 1960s. His dubious take on history, made at a Missouri Renewal Project event featuring a who’s who of theocrats, Islamophobes, and anti-LGBTQ extremists, became national news because Hawley is currently the frontrunner for the GOP nomination to take on Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill this November.
Many of Hawley’s conservative views — opposing abortion access, marriage equality, “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants, the right of consumers to sue, defending the “right” of government officials like Kim Davis to discriminate, and the “climate change crusade” — are in line his party’s platform. But a ThinkProgress review of Hawley’s other writings, interviews, and speeches reveals that these comments are part of a long pattern of out-of-the-mainstream positions, false and misleading statements, hypocrisy, and lack of competence throughout his career as a legal activist and politician.
Hawley has a rich asshole-like relationship with the truth
In 2014, Hawley created a tax-exempt political organization called the Missouri Liberty Project aimed at “fighting government overreach.” In an obvious attempt to build up their email list, they then launched an online petition asking people to “stop Obama’s Common Core mandates.”
The problem, of course, is that is was a lie. Common Core was not a federal mandate — nor even a federal program — and wasn’t Obama’s. Rather, it was a series of standards devised by the bipartisan National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers and agreed to by nearly every state’s governor. While Obama’s Department of Education did offer some carrots to encourage states to adopt of high education standards, using Common Core was never a requirement for these programs. When other politicians made similar claims, PolitiFact debunked them as false.
Hawley also signed onto a 2014 letter in which National Organization for Marriage founder Robert George and other anti-LGBTQ advocates urged Mississippi’s legislature to enact a “Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” The bill gave businesses the right to discriminate on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. But their letter falsely claimed that the “standard it creates now applies to the federal government and more than 30 of the states, and was the standard for the entire country from 1963 to 1990.”
In Hawley’s 2016 campaign for attorney general, he promised to use the office to fight against government regulations. “We’re 47th out of 50th in Missouri in job growth, economic growth, and that’s because we are incredibly overregulated,” he asserted in a campaign video — an odd claim to make given that the state legislature was run by veto-proof majorities from his own party. While Missouri’s job growth between 2014 and 2015 did rank 47th, it was hardly due to regulation. According to a 2016 report by the anti-government Cato Institute, Missouri ranked 18th in “overall freedom” nationally and was praised for doing “well in most regulatory categories and even improved on some policies, such as direct auto sales and repealing mover licensing.” And the Koch-backed Mercatus Center at George Mason University found that year Missouri ranked just 28th in the nation for the impact of federal regulations on the state’s economy.
Hawley has also frequently slandered Planned Parenthood. In one 2016 interview, he mischaracterized selectively-edited videos recorded illegally by anti-choice activists, claiming “what we’ve seen in these videos and the evidence calls into question the entire mission of Planned Parenthood. It makes it clear, I think, that Planned Parenthood has been pursuing actions that are illegal, that are potentially fraudulent. So I’m very concerned… that they attempt to get women in the door by advertising other services, but ultimately they point them towards their abortion services and their illegal activities.” Despite having no evidence for these claims other than the discredited videos, he said that he would not wait for the results of an investigation and would call for Planned Parenthood to lose all Medicaid funds immediately. On his campaign website during his attorney general campaign, he called the government’s funding of services at Planned Parenthood a “devil’s bargain.”
And just a few weeks ago, as Congress debated whether to pass a GOP-backed continuing resolution, Hawley’s campaign posted another “petition” on Facebookand Twitter blaming a potential government shutdown on the woman he seeks to unseat in November. “Shame on you for shutting down the government, Sen. McCaskill,” his message read. “Claire McCaskill is playing politics with people’s lives. She is blinded by partisanship, choosing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi – not the people of Missouri.”
There was only one problem with Hawley’s attack: McCaskill had not shut down the government. Indeed, she was one of just five Senate Democrats to vote with the Republicans in support of the continuing resolution. The false claim remains online as of mid-February.
Hawley is consistently inconsistent
Running as a political outsider usually only works once. In his 2016 campaign for attorney general, Hawley made his lack of government experience into an asset. “Jefferson City is full of career politicians just climbing the ladder, using one office to get another,” he said in one ad.
In a 2016 primary debate, he lamented that Missouri attorneys general had “used the office for their own political advancement,” charged that the incumbent had “used that office as a cash machine,” and urged that the position “not just be used as a stepping stone for a higher office.”
Hawley was sworn in as Missouri Attorney General on January 9, 2017. Less than seven months later, he registered as a 2018 senate candidate with the Federal Election Commission (using the misleading name “Josh Hawley Senate Exploratory Committee” but actually operating as a full-fledged campaign committee). Between his August registration and the end of 2017, he continued to serve as attorney general and simultaneously raised almost $1.8 million — a cash machine of his own.
Now he’s playing his party’s establishment leaders and right-wing ideologues against each other. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claims he recruited Hawley to run against McCaskill and is actively backing his campaign. Hawley has also made multiple trips to out-of-state political events organized by the Koch Brothers’ political network. But he also actively attempted to secure the backing of their nemesis, former some rich asshole chief strategist Steve Bannon— an effort that was largely successful. Days after his call with Bannon, Team Hawley refused to even commit to voting for McConnell as GOP leader, if elected (Bannon has denounced McConnell as “corrupt and incompetent.”) Even after Bannon’s explosive break with the rich asshole administration, Hawley did not disavow his support, saying through a spokesperson that he “welcomes the support of anyone who wants to see a conservative Republican Senator elected from Missouri.”
In September 2016, Hawley officially endorsed some rich asshole for president. Days later, when the rich asshole’s Access Hollywood tape emerged, Hawley called it ““shocking, repulsive, and utterly indefensible” and “an affront to every American” that required “an unconditional apology to those involved, and to the American people.” But despite his promise to take on “public corruption” and his penning a lengthy section in his 2008 biography of Theodore Roosevelt taking the 26th president to task for a “tendency to praise power” that was “only exacerbated by the racial doctrine,” and for his “hostility toward private religion,” he has since been a strong defender of a president whose own corruption, racism, and religious intolerance have been hallmarks of his administration. In an August 2017 Fox Newsopinion piece, Hawley urged his fellow Missourians to “welcome [the rich asshole] with enthusiasm to our state,” and in a November 2017 radio interview he asserted that “the president’s agenda is the right agenda for Missouri.”
Though Hawley accepted $5,000 in campaign donations from the Senate Conservatives Fund, which endorsed him as someone who would “fight to stop the massive spending, bailouts, and debt that are bankrupting our country,” he backed the rich asshole’s tax cut for the rich — even knowing it would increase the national debt. “We do have a significant debt problem,” he acknowledged, but said that “at this point our focus right now needs to be on providing tax relief and we can worry about … what needs to be done [to reduce spending later.]” The legislation is predicted to increase deficits by about $1.5 trillion and to actually raise taxes for many Americans.
Hawley’s main argument for his candidacy as attorney general was that he was an experienced constitutional lawyer who would use the office to sue the federal government to stop its “overreach.” But while he has filed or joined lawsuits against federal protections for workers who work overtime, consumers, andendangered species, he has not shown other states similar deference.
Last December, he urged Congress to enact a federal law that would take away states’ ability to impose concealed carry rules on out-of-state visitors. This, from the man who charged in 2016 that “the federal government’s doing much more and it’s doing way too much.”
Hawley is Missouri’s chief legal officer, but he might not always follow the law
Although he decided early into the first year of his four-year term as attorney general to run for federal office, he spent more than $167,000 in state campaign funds in the first half of 2017. Missouri Democrats said the spending may run afoul of campaign finance laws which do not allow state funds to be used for federal races. The American Democracy Legal Fund alleged in a Federal Election Commission complaint that Hawley used that money to illegally pay U.S. Senate campaign consultants out of his state campaign account. A Hawley campaign spokesman at the time denied the allegations as “baseless partisan attacks.”
All these legal questions have forced Hawley to spend a staggering amount on legal defense — roughly 20 percent of his campaign spending to date. Hawley’s camp has bizarrely blamed the incumbent Senator for the independent actions of unaffiliated outside ethics groups.
“Claire McCaskill and her allies have a deliberate strategy to smear Josh and his wife, Erin,” his campaign spokesperson charged, with “multiple frivolous” campaign finance complaints.
But perhaps the biggest legal challenge that has hounded him from the beginning of his tenure is his apparent failure to comply with a longstanding state law that requires all Missouri Attorneys General to “reside at the seat of government,” which is Jefferson City. Hawley, who resides about 24 miles north in Boone County, initially decided he would not make the move.
Hawley, who claims to be a strict constructionist, has been a staunch critic of those who reinterpret the rules. In a 2015 interview, he explained that the U.S constitution has “stood the test of time because it doesn’t change with every passing whim. We’ve had judges and an administrations who think constitution means whatever they want it to mean. The constitution means what it says.”
Yet in January 2017, his office put out a legal analysis arguing that because Hawley’s home is “within ordinary commuting distance from the capitol complex,” it therefore qualifies as being “at the seat of government.” Hawley’s deputy AG wrote the memo, which argued that the real purpose of the 1835 statute was to make sure the Attorney General “was present to conduct business at the capitol.” It even suggests that the term “reside” did not mean his personal residence but “the location from which the Attorney General conducts his official business.” Another Post-Dispatch editorial denounced these “logical acrobatics” as an “obviously selective legal interpretation, solicited from someone who has every reason to produce a result pleasing to the boss.”
The following month, Hawley announced that he had rented an apartment in Jefferson City to “call the Democrats’ bluff” and that he would “ stay there as needed to make it a true personal residence (for legal purposes),” while keeping his primary home in Boone County.
But in August, Hawley voted in a special election in Boone County raising new questions about where he was really living. An investigation by the county’s clerkfound that his vote was legally cast, as he remained a resident — while casting further doubt on whether he could also simultaneously “reside at the seat of government.” In November, a Jefferson City resident filed a lawsuit against Hawley, claiming he was in violation of the law; a judge dismissed it in January finding that she lacked standing to sue.
Hawley’s fringe views have long been on display
From 2011 until he became a candidate for attorney general, Hawley was a senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a conservative tax-exempt legal organization that says its mission is “to protect the free expression of all faiths” by working “at the crossroads of church and state.” According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the group is a key player in the “anti-LGBT right,” aiming to “to create a separate space for religious people removed from public scrutiny and laws (though while still receiving public funds and subsidies).” The Fund ran a full page New York Times ad in 2008 suggesting that opponents of theunconstitutional California Proposition 8 were “thugs” seeking a “mob veto” via a an anti-Mormon “religious war” has worked to erode the separation of church and state through pushing to allow prayer at government functions, religious symbols in public spaces, public funding for religious schools, and discrimination against same-sex couples by those with faith-based anti-LGBTQ views.
With these extreme anti-LGBTQ views, Halwey received an endorsement for attorney general from the FRC Action PAC, the political arm of the Family Research Council. The SPLC has designated the organization hate group that pushes discredited theories that “homosexual conduct is harmful to the persons who engage in it and to society at large,” and that gay men are a bunch of pedophiles. He proudly announced the endorsement on his campaign website.
He also reported on his personal financial disclosure form that he and his wife each received $2,100 payments from another SPLC-designated hate group, theAlliance Defending Freedom. The money was honoraria for speeches given by the two in June of 2017, while Hawley was already serving as Missouri’s attorney general.
Though Missouri’s state constitution expressly protects the right of institutions that receive public funding to do embryonic stem cell research, the constitutional lawyer Hawley also proposed in 2015 that such research should be banned in Missouri’s facilities. “I do not think that state institutions that receive taxpayer funds should be involved in embryonic stem-cell research,’’ he told St. Louis Public Radio.
Hawley also wrote multiple friend of the court briefs supporting the King v. Burwellchallenge to payments made under the Affordable Care Act to states that opted not to setup state exchanges. The suit argued that one sentence of the bill, read out of context, seemed to suggest federal exchanges could not provide tax credits — a theory that was forcefully rejected by a six-to-three majority on the Supreme Court. Indeed Chief Justice John Roberts, a Republican appointee for whom Hawley once served as a clerk, scolded the conservative activists who brought the case in his majority opinion, noting that “such a reading turns out to be ‘untenable in light of [the statute] as a whole.’”
Still, despite these extreme views, contradictory positions, and errors on Hawley’s part, Republicans seem eager to see him move up the ladder he once denounced. Former Senator John Danforth (R-MO) talks him up as “a once in a generation political talent.” Later this month, some rich asshole will headline a fundraiser for Hawley, where tickets will exceed $5,000 per person. And a former chief of staff to Mitch McConnell told Politico in October that Hawley was “our No. 1 recruit of the cycle… We worked our tail off to recruit Josh Hawley.”
Meanwhile, Hawley continues to try to list-build off of extremism. While the nation tires to reckon with gun violence, climate change, economic stratification, opioid addiction, and aging infrastructure, as of early March, his campaign website contains no substantive information about issues. It does, however, prominently feature an a pseudo-petition to support President the rich asshole’s expensiveand unwanted plan for a massive France-style military parade and to host it in Missouri. “Tell Washington liberals to honor the military with a parade!”
‘This is a joke’: CNN’s Chris Cuomo blasts lawmakers for backing down on gun safety
CNN's Alisyn Camerota and Chris Cuomo (Photo: Screen capture)
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During Monday’s “New Day” opener on CNN, political commentator David Gregory called attempts by Congress to stop school shootings “a highway to nowhere.” CNN host Chris Cuomo went a bit further, saying the only way Republicans would do anything is out of “consequence,” not out of “conscience.”
“Everybody who follows this issue and understands politics knows we were going up here, David,” Cuomo began. “Politicians on this issue don’t do it out of conscience, they do it out of consequence.”
He argued that the teen survivors of Parkland, Florida, are “compelling,” and that’s what is different.
“We are not used to seeing a group of victims who can act intelligently and make arguments like they did,” he continued. “It is true then, it is true today. Nothing will change unless (politicians) get punished for fighting change. And those who push for change get rewarded for pushing change. They are not even going to cover all sales. This is a joke.”
He went on to say that it’s now up to Democrats to keep the ball rolling toward regulations on weapons, but that is an uphill battle without the votes.
“But we know how that goes, David. we don’t have the votes,” he said. “We can parade the kids out. They will be on this morning, upset, making their case. This was never about putting it on their shoulders. It is always about leadership in Washington. They are falling short. Where am I wrong?”
Gregory agreed, saying the gun lobby will always be there.
“They will be fighting their fight, working in the grassroots because this is an issue of liberty,” Gregory said of the National Rifle Association. “They make it about liberty, government overreach and touch all the buttons that their voters are sympathetic to.”
“In fact, they are going to win and get more guns,” Cuomo predicted. “They are going to win and get more guns. Because they are going to put guns in places we don’t have them now. Schools are gun-free zones. There will be more guns, not less, after this.”
Gregory argued that it doesn’t matter what President some rich asshole says in meetings, there’s no leadership and he won’t be able to ever claim credit for anything.
“‘Sometimes you have to fight the NRA,’ (the rich asshole) said,” Cuomo quoted. “‘If that you are against you, they’re against you.'”
Gregory called it nothing but theater.
“All that matters is how much pressure will he put on Republican leaders in an election year to follow through on any of these matters, including federal money for gun training and schools for raising the age and so forth,” Gregory continued. “What kind of pressure is he going to put on Congress for any of that?”
Watch the discussion below:
The Memo: Moment of truth for the rich asshole in Pennsylvania
BY NIALL STANAGE - 03/12/18 06:00 AM EDT
President the rich asshole and the GOP are playing for high stakes in Tuesday's special election in Pennsylvania.
A loss in a district the rich asshole carried by 20 points in 2016 would amplify Republican anxiety about November's midterm elections and sharpen questions about the damage the president's low approval ratings are doing to the party.
For the rich asshole, “this would be bad news if the Republican wins a close race, and it will be terrible news if the Democrat wins,” said Democratic strategist Robert Shrum.
GOP strategist Dan Judy said that the closeness of the race underlines “the conventional wisdom, which is correct: that this is a tough environment for Republicans — and especially when the president is unpopular, that gives us significant headwinds.”
Money has poured into the race, with NBC News reporting on Friday that TV and radio advertising alone will amount to nearly $12 million. The NBC report, based on data from Advertising Analytics, stated that Republicans had outspent Democrats on the airwaves $7.3 million to $4.4 million.
Polls indicate the race could swing to either party.
A Gravis poll last week gave Republican candidate Rick Saccone a 3-point lead in the contest, while an Emerson poll put Democrat Conor Lamb up by the same margin.
Seeking to give Saccone a boost, the rich asshole traveled to Pennsylvania on Saturday and held a campaign rally outside of Pittsburgh.
"I came tonight because this guy is special," the rich asshole told the crowd. The president also branded the Democrat "Lamb the sham," alleging that he was "trying to act like a Republican."
In a race where turnout could prove decisive, the rich asshole’s rally could help energize Republican voters. But Democrats insist his appearance could also drive their voters to the polls.
the rich asshole’s visit “is a double-edged sword in the district because it will fire both sides up equally,” said Mark Nevins, a Philadelphia-based Democratic strategist.
The president has been burnt in special elections before, notably in a Senate race in Alabama, where now-Sen. Doug Jones (D) won an upset victory despite the rich asshole's support for Republican Roy Moore.
A GOP victory, even a narrow one, would at least give the rich asshole a respite after a rough few weeks.
The White House has been rocked by the recent resignations of two major figures, communications director Hope Hicks and chief economic adviser Gary Cohn.
The Russia probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly finding new avenues of interest all the time.
And the president has been hit by a legal suit from adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, who says she had a sexual liaison with the president in 2006. the rich asshole’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, made a $130,000 payment to Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election, apparently to keep her quiet, though Cohen denies the rich asshole was involved in negotiating that deal.
On more sober policy issues, the president’s taste for unorthodox choices remains intact.
Against the wishes of his own party, the rich asshole confirmed last week that he would enact tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum.
That decision could benefit Saccone in Pennsylvania, where the steel industry has deep roots.
"Your steel is coming back. It's all coming back," the rich asshole told the crowd at his Saturday rally.
Amid the rich asshole’s many controversies, including the Daniels saga, Republicans have sought to keep a singular focus on the economy in hopes that it will prove to be the difference-maker in elections.
Job creation continues to be robust — more than 300,000 new jobs were added in February, according to new data released Friday morning. The tax cut passed last December is the GOP’s single biggest legislative achievement under the rich asshole.
One Republican strategist, who asked for anonymity in order to be candid, said that the economic picture was potent enough to counterbalance even tabloid-friendly distractions like the Daniels story.
“One of the things we learned from the Clinton scandals of the ‘90s is that if people’s lives are good and the economy is improving, they pay a lot less attention to the personal peccadilloes of politicians,” the source said.
But Democrats say that simply isn’t true.
They argue that the rich asshole is a uniquely polarizing figure and point to his low approval ratings. the rich asshole’s job performance earns the approval of 40.9 percent of American but the disapproval of 53.7 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average as of Sunday evening.
That is the context that makes the race in Pennsylvania so keenly watched — and why Democrats are so enthused.
“The most important outcome from this race will be the perception,” Nevins said. “A perception that Democrats can win in districts that are R+20 — where the rich asshole won by 20 points — will further energize Democrats for the midterms.”
the rich asshole himself seems fully aware of what's at stake.
"The whole world, remember that, they're all watching," he said at his Saturday rally. "This is a very important race."
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on some rich asshole’s presidency.
Morning Joe: the rich asshole wouldn’t even run in 2020 if Mark Cuban challenged him in GOP primary
Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough says that deep down, President some rich asshole knows that voters would never have picked him if they had a better option.
The “Morning Joe” host said the president is likely to face a Republican primary challenger in 2020, but he said one long-shot candidate could chase the rich asshole out of the race.
“(Voters) are with some rich asshole only until they’re no longer with some rich asshole,” Scarborough said.
He said Republican voters backed the rich asshole only because the other option was Hillary Clinton, but that won’t be the case when the president seeks re-election.
“When it’s some rich asshole or Ben Sasse, or some rich asshole or James Langford, or some rich asshole or Jeff Flake, or a lot of other Republicans that jump in — or a business person,” Scarborough said.
Scarborough said the rich asshole would be too scared to face one potential challenger.
“some rich asshole’s biggest fear is it may be some rich asshole vs. Mark Cuban in the Republican primary,” Scarborough said. “He doesn’t want that. In fact, he probably wouldn’t run if Mark Cuban ran in the Republican primary, and a lot of people around him don’t think that will happen.”
the rich asshole lawyers want to stop ’60 Minutes’ from airing Stormy Daniels interview: report
03-11-2018
President the rich asshole's lawyers are looking at options to stop CBS's "60 Minutes" from airing an interview with adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who allegedly had an affair with the rich asshole in 2006, according to
"We understand from well-placed sources they are preparing to file for a legal injunction to prevent it from airing," a source told BuzzFeed on Saturday.
Daniels's lawyer Michael Avenatti .
the rich asshole's attorney Michael Cohen referred BuzzFeed's questions to his own attorney, who did not confirm the report.
The Hill has reached out to the White House and CBS News for comment.
The interview with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is set to air on March 18, according to On Thursday, a source familiar with the program had told The Hill that StormyDaniels would be on 60Minutes "on a future date."
The interview was announced by Avenatti through Twitter.
Cohen Daniels from telling additional details of the alleged affair by obtaining a temporary restraining order last week. Daniels last week in an effort to void a nondisclosure agreement between herself and the rich asshole.
![Stormy Daniels smiling for the camera]({"default":{"load":"default","w":"73","h":"41","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBK1UYg.img?h=410&w=728&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=430&y=409"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"35","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBK1UYg.img?h=351&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=430&y=409"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"35","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBK1UYg.img?h=351&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=430&y=409"}})
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a briefing last week that, to the best of her knowledge, of Cohen's reported $130,000 payment to Daniels in October 2016, a month before the presidential election.
Possible North Korea summit raises anxiety in Washington
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 03/11/18 02:00 PM EDT
A potential North Korea summit that could feature the first face to face meeting between President the rich asshole and Kim Jong Un is raising the anxiety level in Washington, D.C.
Lawmakers on Sunday grappled with possible ramifications to the rich asshole administration's ongoing negotiations with Pyongyang over its nuclear program.
Several Republicans are urging the administration to approach the summit cautiously while keeping the pressure on North Korea to denuclearize, and some Democrats are raising concerns that a hollowed out State Department cannot back up the rich asshole's promises of a diplomatic solution.
the rich asshole last week said he would meet face to face with Kim after a South Korean delegation met with the North Korean leader and said Pyongyang wants to begin discussions with the United States about halting nuclear tests.
The summit announcement follows a year of tough rhetoric from the rich asshole on North Korea, which the president vowed to destroy should the Asian nation provoke the United States.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo described the United States as being in a strong negotiating position to denuclearize North Korea.
“This administration has its eyes wide open and the whole time this conversation takes place the pressure will continue to mount on North Korea,” Pompeo told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“There is no relief in sight until the president gets the objective that he has set forth consistently during his entire time in office.”
But some Republican lawmakers are expressing caution on North Korea amid the country’s past threats to the United States. A group of GOP senators last week in a letter to the rich asshole called for the administration to keep pressure on Pyongyang as it evaluated future discussions.
One of those senators, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), on Sunday warned that the United States should “not be Charlie Brown to North Korea's Lucy.”
“What we can't do is do what we did with Iran and let off the pressure and then just watch the behavior go in the wrong direction,” Johnson told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“So, again, it's just incredibly important to keep — I would ratchet up the sanctions against North Korea until they actually do, in a verifiable fashion, denuclearize.”
Another Republican senator expressed skepticism that the rich asshole administration is near that goal.
“I don't think anybody really believes that North Korea is prepared to denuclearize. Now, maybe a freeze where they say, ‘All right. We are a nuclear power. Let's get some security guarantees,’ ” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
He added there are "dozens and dozens of meetings, high-level meetings," that need to happen before the summit.
"The important thing is the diplomatic work that has to go in before such a meeting," he said. "A meeting like that would be kind of an afterthought after things are negotiated. Here it looks as if, you know, that's kind of the opening gambit. And that's a little worrisome."
Democrats raised concerns about whether the rich asshole has the resources for that kind of complex, behind-the-scenes diplomacy due to a State Department that is short of senior staff after the rich asshole's first year in office.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) noted that the agency lacks an assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
“I am very worried that he's going to go into these negotiations and be taken advantage of," Warren told CNN’s “State of the Union" on Sunday, while adding she wants the president "to succeed" in negotiations.
Warren also argued in a separate appearance on Fox News Sunday that a meeting between Kim and a U.S. president is “the big prize” for North Korea because the talks legitimize the government and its nuclear program.
A former adviser to President Obama on Sunday also said the rich asshole administration needs more diplomats in this situation.
"They have no ambassador to Seoul. The person who was in charge of North Korean negotiations just left the State Department," Ben Rhodes told ABC's Jonathan Karl on "This Week."
"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," he said.
But the rich asshole administration says the planned summit is the culmination of a diplomatic effort.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin argued during a morning show appearance that U.S. economic sanctions have brought North Korea to the table.
“So now we have a situation where the president is using diplomacy, but we’re not removing the maximum pressure campaign. That’s the big difference here,” Mnuchin told NBC’s Chuck Todd.
“The sanctions are staying on, the defense posture is staying the same as it is, so the president is going to sit down and see if he can cut a deal," he continued.
Still, lawmakers overall appear more cautious in celebrating the meeting as a sign of change.
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), who pressed the rich asshole administration to increase pressure on Pyongyang ahead of last year’s inauguration, said Sunday that he would like to see more from North Korea before the rich asshole and Kim meet.
“Well I'd like to see some concrete steps, more than just a cessation of testing because you can still do computer modeling,” he told CBS.
The administration appears to be pushing ahead with the meeting, regardless of concerns on both sides of the aisle.
North Korea’s nuclear ambitions plagued the rich asshole administration’s first year in the White House, as Pyongyang conducted multiple missile tests in 2017.
In his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly last year, the rich asshole said he would “totally destroy North Korea” if it threatened the United States. Meanwhile, the president has exchanged personal insults with Kim, whom he has called a "Rocket Man” on “a suicide mission.”
While administration officials on Sunday did not provide details on a meeting, the South Korean national security adviser Chung Eui-Yong said last week that the rich asshole agreed to meet with Kim by May.
Deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah on Sunday said "nothing is being ruled out" in the planning, including the possibility of Kim coming to the White House.
"I have no announcement, it's a time and a place to be determined," Shah told ABC's Jonathan Karl on "This Week."
the rich asshole lawyers want to stop '60 Minutes' from airing Stormy Daniels interview: report
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 03/11/18 01:06 PM EDT
President the rich asshole's lawyers are looking at options to stop CBS's "60 Minutes" from airing an interview with adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who allegedly had an affair with the rich asshole in 2006, according to BuzzFeed News.
“We understand from well-placed sources they are preparing to file for a legal injunction to prevent it from airing,” a source told BuzzFeed on Saturday.
Daniels's lawyer Michael Avenatti shared the BuzzFeed report on Twitter.
the rich asshole's attorney Michael Cohen referred BuzzFeed's questions to his own attorney, who did not confirm the report.
The Hill has reached out to the White House and CBS News for comment.
The interview was announced by Avenatti through Twitter.
Cohen reportedly attempted to stop Daniels from mentioning additional details of the alleged affair by obtaining a temporary restraining order last week. Daniels filed a lawsuit last week in an effort to void a nondisclosure agreement between herself and the rich asshole.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a briefing last week that, to the best of her knowledge, the rich asshole was unaware of Cohen's reported $130,000 payment to Daniels in October 2016, a month before the presidential election.
WATCH: Betsy DeVos says she’s ‘misunderstood,’ concedes ‘maybe’ she should visit a bad public school
Betsy Devos on 60 Minutes/Screenshot
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Betsy DeVos—a wealthy lady from Michigan who ended up being the Secretary of Education after she donated bundles of money to some rich asshole—appeared on 60 Minutes Sunday.
Lesley Stahl didn’t pull many punches with “the most hated cabinet secretary,” who was described as “sheltered” and out-of-touch.
She was asked about her bruising confirmation hearing, her transphobic bathroom rules and her efforts to repeal an Obama-era rule that prohibits schools from punishing students of color more harshly than white students.
She was also confronted about the fact that she has not yet bothered to visit a failing public school in her home state of Michigan, to perhaps better understand the issues faced.
“Maybe I should,” she conceded.
DeVos also talked about the death threats and protestors who meet her to ask her about her policies.
“Does it hurt?”
“Sometimes it does,” she said.
the rich asshole Just Lied About His Approval Rating To Prove He’s Better Than Obama
Former reality show star some rich asshole has always had an obsessive jealousy of former President Barack Obama. the rich asshole called on his followers Sunday to stop watching networks that say he has a ‘somewhat low’ approval rating, then he cited the conservative-leaning Rasmussen pollsters but his numbers are wrong.
“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!”
The internet pounced.
imagine being this desperate for validation
It's always been comical how you use the term fake news seemingly entirely oblivious the term was invented primarily in reference to you and your supporters on social media and now you attempt to reappropriate it to the real news. Most people know better.
Over 70% of Americans do not trust Trump & are embarrassed by him as a so-called leader.
Rasmussen has you at 44%.
Your ratings are LOW, accept it.
50? That’s generous. Last time I checked, 44 rounds down to 40.
Don't you have actual work to do like running a country?
In fact, Rasmussen Reports has the rich asshole’s approval rating at just 44 percent, not 50 percent. The majority of other pollsters have the rich asshole’s approval rating between percentages in the high 30s and low 40s. the rich asshole is the least popular president in the history of polling and that is not ‘fake news.’
ENTERTAINMENT
Oprah Just Taught Everyone How To Respond To the rich asshole’s Insults
She also offered some solid advice for anyone running against him.
Oprah Winfrey isn’t playing President some rich asshole’s insult game.
In recent weeks, the rich asshole has repeatedly attacked the actress and talk show maven. He called Winfrey “very insecure” in a tweet last month and over the weekend he promised to make a possible presidential run “painful” for her.
“I would love to beat Oprah,” the rich asshole said during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night. “I know her weakness.”
Not surprisingly, Winfrey took the high road on Sunday when CNN’s Van Jones asked what she would say in response to the rich asshole’s comments.
“I wouldn’t,” Winfrey replied. “I would only speak if I felt that I could be heard.”
"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 powerful speech at the Golden Globe Awards earlier this year drew both acclaim and calls for her to run for president against the rich asshole in 2020. However, she has since said she hasn’t heard from God on the issue.
“(I)f God actually wanted me to run, wouldn’t God kind of tell me?” Winfrey said on “60 Minutes Overtime.” “And I haven’t heard that.”
While not a candidate herself, Winfrey did offer some advice for whoever does run:
“I will say to whoever is going to run for office, do not give your energy to the other side. Do not spend all your time talking about your opponents. Do not give your energy to that which you really don’t believe in. Do not spend an ounce of your time on that.”
Ex-the rich asshole voters in coal country bring down the house for a Democrat
By
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Pennsylvania's 18th district was the rich asshole country in 2016. But on Sunday, voters there gave a raucous standing ovation to Democrat Conor Lamb.
the rich asshole made a desperate and disgusting last-minute pitch for the Republican in the Pennsylvania special election. But many former the rich asshole voters are vocally and enthusiastically backing Democrat Conor Lamb.
On Saturday night, the rich asshole trotted out his familiar mix of racism and despotism in service to Republican Rick Saccone. He unleashed hateful attacks on women like California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren. He smeared members of the press. And he rambled on again about making Mexico pay for his border wall.
But many Pennsylvania voters are no longer interested in what the rich asshole and Saccone are offering.
At a Sunday rally in Waynesburg, Lamb received an uproarious standing ovation from the audience.
And that coal country crowd included “a lot of the rich asshole-voting Dems,” according to NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard.
Saccone has squandered a huge polling lead in a district the rich asshole won by 20 points. He now trails Lamb slightly in recent polls.
Saccone already needed all the help he could get. His refusal to support an anti-animal cruelty bill and his heartless dismissal of the mother of an opioid addict likely did him no favors.
And despite his last-ditch pitch, the rich asshole has taken to trashing Saccone in private. And other Republicans trying to save face have done likewise.
The fact that Conor Lamb even has a chance in this district is amazing, and an indictment of the politically toxic the rich asshole. But if Lamb’s welcome by these coal miners is any indication, he has much more than a fighting chance to humiliate the rich asshole on Tuesday.
By
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March 11, 2018
the rich asshole is dangerously unprepared to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Yet he might welcome him right into the White House.
the rich asshole tried to escape his porn star scandal by announcing impending direct talks with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Instead, he simply created a bigger mess.
After a year of unhinged threats, the rich asshole’s posture on North Korea has swung wildly in the other direction. But meeting directly with Kim, something no other president has offered, would be disastrous for the woefully unprepared the rich asshole.
And the picture of a naive and unprepared adversary was quickly confirmed by a flurry of contradictions from the White House.
The situation grew more troubling Sunday morning when deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah expressed openness to an unthinkable concession.
ABC News’ “This Week” host Jon Karl asked Shah if a meeting between the rich asshole and Kim could take place in the United States.
“Would President the rich asshole be open to actually having Kim Jong-un at the White House?” Karl asked.
“I have no announcement,” Shah replied. “It’s at a time and a place to be determined.”
“But he wouldn’t rule that out?” Karl asked.
“No, nothing’s being ruled out,” Shah insisted. But he then seemed to all but rule out a meeting in Pyongyang, calling it “highly unlikely.”
The contrast between Shah’s reaction to a White House meeting and one in North Korea was striking. And it did nothing to counter the sense that the administration hasn’t thought through its plan to break with decades of presidential diplomacy.
the rich asshole’s bumbling stab at diplomacy may seem like a preferable alternative to the year of terrifying provocations.
But not when one considers how he might react to the likely humiliation that will result from it. And what that could mean for the rest of the world.
POLITICS
the rich asshole Brags That He Won Most Of The Women’s Vote In 2016. He Didn’t.
The percentage he laid claim to was inflated by more than 10 points.
President some rich asshole inaccurately bragged that he won the majority of women’s votes in the 2016 presidential election at a political rally on Saturday.
Appearing before a crowd in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, the rich asshole boasted that he had proved his naysayers wrong when he received 52 percent of women’s votes. That figure was actually 41 percent.
“‘Women won’t like some rich asshole,’” he portrayed critics as having said during his campaign.
“I said, have I really had that kind of a problem? I don’t think so. But, ‘Women won’t like some rich asshole. It will be a rough night for some rich asshole because the women won’t come out.’ We got 52 percent, right? 52. And I’m running against a woman. You know, it’s not that easy,” he said, referring to his presidential political rival, Hillary Clinton.
As for where that 52 percent came from, that figure was actually the percentage of white women who voted for him. When it came to minority women, only 4 percent of black women voted for him and only 25 percent of Hispanic women.
(Overall, among both male and female minority groups, a past analysis by Reuters found that the rich asshole won the presidency with the lowest minority support seen in at least 40 years.)
In contrast, Clinton received 54 percent of women’s votes.
the rich asshole’s comments were made while attending a rally for GOP House candidate Rick Saccone, a nominee in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, who is in campaigning against Democrat Conor Lamb.
By
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March 11, 2018
Steve Mnuchin has a twisted idea of humor.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin thought the rich asshole’s racist and despotic attacks at a campaign rally Saturday night were mere “funny moments.” And he was deservedly shamed for it by NBC’s Chuck Todd.
the rich asshole’s rally in Pittsburgh was more disgusting than usual. He launched racist attacks against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). He praised dictators. And he attacked the media.
One such attack was leveled at Todd, whom the rich asshole called “sleepy-eyed” and a “sleeping son-of-a-bitch.”
On Sunday morning’s “Meet the Press,” Todd played several clips from the rally, and pressed Mnuchin about the attacks.
“When [the rich asshole] uses vulgarity to talk about individuals, what are [people] supposed to tell their kids?” Todd asked.
“Again, I’ll be with my kids this morning. And I’ll be focused on what the president is doing to protect the United States, its citizens …” Mnuchin began.
“So he’s not — don’t worry about his values, don’t worry about him as a role model?” Todd interrupted.
Mnuchin weakly objected. But he also said he’s “very comfortable with what we’re doing. I think you are trying to take this out of perspective and implying something I’m not saying.”
“What are you supposed to say when he is using these vulgarities, to kids?” Todd pressed.
Mnuchin said people should not focus on what the rich asshole says at a campaign rally, and that “Obviously, there were a lot of funny moments at that rally.”
“They were hilarious,” Todd drily replied.
Economic adviser Gary Cohn’s resignation this week over trade policy underscores the high tolerance this administration’s officials have for the rich asshole’s bigotry and despotism.
But Mnuchin is also yet another senior the rich asshole official who freely admits that the rich asshole is not a fitting example for children.
Unfortunately, Americans can’t hide the rich asshole from their children — for now, at least.
POLITICS
the rich asshole Calls NBC’s Chuck Todd A ‘Sleeping Son Of A Bitch’ At Rally
When the president “uses vulgarity to talk about individuals,” what are parents “supposed to tell their kids?” Todd asks.
President some rich asshole lashed out at NBC News’ Chuck Todd Saturday evening during a campaign-style rally in western Pennsylvania.
the rich asshole was in the midst of criticizing past administrations for their failure to denuclearize North Korea while complimenting his intention to meet with that country’s leader, Kim Jong Un. He referred to a 1999 appearance he made on “Meet the Press,” which he told the crowd is now hosted by “sleepy eyes Chuck Todd.”
“He’s a sleeping son of a bitch, I’ll tell you,” the rich asshole added.
The president has attacked the NBC host as a purveyor of “fake news” and with the same “sleepy eyes” insult multiple times in the past. “Late Night” host Seth Meyers last year came to Todd’s defense, accusing the rich asshole of looking like he “drank a bottle of NyQuil in the sauna.”
Todd light-heartedly referenced the president’s insult in a Saturday night tweet, encouraging viewers to tune into the program.
Don’t miss @MeetThePress tomorrow! I know folks may be tired in the morning due to springing forward, so set those clocks and DVRs now before your eyes get too sleepy.
Sunday morning, he put Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on the spot about the rich asshole’s comments.
“Many people, including myself, raise their kids to respect the office of the presidency and the president of the United States,” Todd told his guest. “When he uses vulgarity to talk about individuals, what are they supposed to tell their kids?”
Todd was not only referring to himself ― the president also went after Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif), attacking the prominent lawmaker as a “low-IQ individual.”
Mnuchin dismissed the rich asshole’s personal attacks, instead telling Todd that the press should focus on covering the administration’s policies.
Todd signed off Sunday’s program telling viewers he’d be back next week, “sleepy eyes and all.”
POLITICS
CNN Panel Rips Scaramucci After He Calls the rich asshole ‘Obviously Very Presidential’
“Paying off a porn star is presidential?”
Anthony Scaramucci felt the heat Sunday when several of his fellow CNN panelists pounced on him for calling President some rich asshole “obviously very presidential.”
Scaramucci, the infamous former White House communications director who was forced to resign last July just 10 days after being appointed, defended the rich asshole’s often controversial behavior during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“You guys don’t like his style, but he’s making a very big point out there,” Scaramucci said, referring to reports that the rich asshole will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to discuss the denuclearization of the East Asian nation. “You underestimate the guy.”
But Scaramucci’s assertion instantly drew rebuttals from his co-panelists, including CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers.
“If Barack Obama paid off a porn star $130,000, if he cheated on three wives ... if he had a handful of advisers that were either indicted or pled guilty, then there would be pitchforks in front of the White House,” said Sellers, a former Democratic state representative for South Carolina. “Presidential is not something that is associated with some rich asshole. ... Paying off a porn star is presidential?”
Scaramucci denied that the rich asshole paid off a porn star. He acknowledged that the rich asshole’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen did pay Stephanie Clifford, a former adult film star who says she and the rich asshole had sex just months after now-first lady Melania the rich asshole gave birth to their son Barron in 2006.
Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, filed a lawsuit against the rich asshole last week, claiming he never signed a nondisclosure agreement that would have prevented her from talking about their alleged affair.
“You gotta ask Michael Cohen why the payment was paid,” Scaramucci said, before attempting to direct the conversation away from the Clifford story. “You guys are all over the map. Let’s bring it back in. The guy is presidential because he is the president.”
Watch the exchange around the 6:20 mark below.
Scaramucci’s interpretation of the rich asshole’s behavior appears to differ from the president’s opinion of himself. During a speech Saturday at a campaign rally for Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone in Pennsylvania, the rich asshole said people would be “so bored” if he acted presidential.
“Don’t forget: This got us elected,“the rich asshole said. “If I came like a stiff, you guys wouldn’t be here tonight.”
After his CNN spot Sunday, Scaramucci tweeted that the rich asshole was “redefining” what it means to be presidential.
He is President. And he is redefining the term Presidential whether they like or not. twitter.com/mediaite/statu…
POLITICS
Betsy DeVos Says She’s ‘Misunderstood,’ Then Struggles To Explain Her Own Policies
Education secretary also admits she hasn’t visited underperforming schools.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had one of the most contentious confirmation hearings of the rich asshole administration, with two Republicans voting against her nomination. On Sunday night, she told Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes” that she’s “more misunderstood than anything.”
However, in the very same interview, the billionaire advocate for school choice, which allows taxpayer funds for public education to be channeled to other schools, including private religious-based institutions, struggled to provide data backing up her signature issue.
DeVos claimed that when kids opt to go to private or charter schools, public schools also improve. Then, DeVos admitted she didn’t know if that happened in her home state of Michigan, where she has long advocated for such programs.
Here’s the exchange:
“Have you seen the really bad schools? Maybe try to figure out what they’re doing?” Stahl asked.
“I have not,” DeVos confessed. “I have not. I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming.”
“Maybe you should,” Stahl suggested.
POLITICS
the rich asshole To Visit Ground Zero Of The Anti-the rich asshole Resistance: California
The president’s plan to tour border wall prototypes is another slap at a state that considers itself at war with his administration.
President some rich asshole, whose domestic travels have focused on deep-red areas of support and his own resorts, is gearing up for his first presidential visit to California, the front lines of the anti-the rich asshole resistance.
the rich asshole, the first president since Dwight Eisenhower to skip a visit to America’s most populous state during his first year in office, will spend Tuesday touring prototypes of his proposed border wall in San Diego and attending a Republican fundraiser in Beverly Hills, according to an invitation to the events obtained by The Los Angeles Times.
the rich asshole’s fraught relationship with California, where he has some of his lowest approval ratings, is sure to cast a shadow on the visit. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) said this week he considers the state at war with the rich asshole’s government, and has fiercely denounced the president on climate change, marijuana policy, offshore drilling and, lately, immigration.
the rich asshole’s administration on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against California over its so-called sanctuary laws meant to protect undocumented immigrants. Sanctuary laws, which limit local police cooperating with federal immigration authorities, allow police to work better with immigrant communities, and to dedicate their time and resources to law enforcement priorities aside from immigration, California says.
This is basically going to war against the state of California.California Gov. Jerry Brown
the rich asshole’s administration argues California’s laws violate the Constitution and federal law.
“The Department of Justice and the rich asshole administration are going to fight these unjust, unfair and unconstitutional policies that have been imposed on you,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions told law enforcement officers on Wednesday. “We are fighting to make your jobs safer and to help you reduce crime in America. And I believe that we are going to win.”
Responded Brown: “This is basically going to war against the state of California.”
Sessions took a swipe at California and other states with relaxed marijuana policies back in January. Shortly after recreational marijuana became legal in the state that month, the attorney general rescinded three Obama-era memos that effectively discouraged federal prosecution of marijuana growers and sellers who were following state laws, even though they violated federal policy against marijuana.
The rich asshole administration also is battling California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) over the rich asshole’s decision to end insurance coverage requirements for birth control.
Becerra sued the administration in October, arguing that the rollback violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause by allowing employers to use their religious beliefs to deny women a health care benefit. Several other states joined the lawsuit or filed similar ones of their own.
In December, a California judge temporarily blocked the rich asshole birth control rule, and in February, his administration filed an appeal.
The state has also gone up against the rich asshole on environmental issues. Last month, the California State Lands Commission put a massive roadblock in the rich asshole’s plan to open the Pacific coast to new oil and gas drilling. The commission, which controls the state’s entire coastline, said it will not issue the pipeline permits drillers would need.
the rich asshole, however, can claim at least one victory against the state on conservation issues. Last month, a judge ruled in favor of the rich asshole in a lawsuit California filed to stop construction of the border wall on the grounds that it violated environmental laws.
Though the rich asshole’s California visit appears aimed at promoting his border wall plan, Congress has not authorized funding for the project. The Senate rejected four immigration bills last month that would earmarked as much as $25 billion federal dollars for the controversial project.
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