the rich asshole’s new pick to the lead the CIA played a major role in Bush’s torture regime
The rich asshole administration is about to get even darker.
President the rich asshole ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, announcing he plans to replace Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. the rich asshole chose Pompeo’s current deputy, Gina Haspel, to be the next director of the CIA, touting Haspel as the first woman to fill this role.
Long before Haspel became the #2 official at America’s premiere intelligence agency, however, she played a significant role in the Bush administration’s attempts to extract information from detainees through torture.
As the New York Times reported last year, “as a clandestine officer at the Central Intelligence Agency in 2002, Gina Haspel oversaw the torture of two terrorism suspects and later took part in an order to destroy videotapes documenting their brutal interrogations at a secret prison in Thailand.”
Torture is not an effective method of obtaining information and often leads to individuals making false claims in order to end the torture. As a 2014 report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concluded, “the CIA’s use of its enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees.” Multiple detainees, according to the report, “fabricated information, resulting in faulty intelligence.”
Nevertheless, Haspel reportedly ran an overseas detention site in Thailand, where two men were tortured. According to the New York Times, one detainee, Abu Zubaydah, was “waterboarded 83 times in a single month, had his head repeatedly slammed into walls and endured other harsh methods before interrogators decided he had no useful information to provide.”
ICE spokesman quits after saying he ‘couldn’t bear the burden’ of lying for the rich asshole administration
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe for his role on the the rich asshole campaign and undisclosed contacts with the Russian ambassador, appears under threat of losing his job (AFP Photo/CHIP SOMODEVILLA)
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman James Schwab on Monday resigned from his role with the San Francisco division, citing the “burden” of spreading falsehoods from some rich asshole and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
As CNN reports, Schwab accused Sessions and Acting Director Tom Homan of deliberately spreading misleading information after ICE slammed Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s decision to warn the public about upcoming ICE raids.
“Sanctuary jurisdictions like San Francisco and Oakland shield dangerous criminal aliens from federal law enforcement at the expense of public safety,” Homan said of Schaaf’s warning. ”Because these jurisdictions prevent ICE from arresting criminal aliens in the secure confines of a jail, they also force ICE officers to make more arrests out in the community, which poses increased risks for law enforcement and the public.”
“864 criminal aliens and public safety threats remain at large in the community, and I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayor’s irresponsible decision,” Homan said.
“Director Homan and the Attorney General said there were 800 people at large and free to roam because of the actions of the Oakland Mayor,” Schwab told CNN. “Personally I think her actions were misguided and not responsible. I think she could have had other options. But to blame her for 800 dangerous people out there is just false.”
Schwab told SFGate, “I quit because I didn’t want to perpetuate misleading facts.”
“I asked them to change the information,” he said. “I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didn’t agree with that. Then I took some time and I quit.” Schwab told CNN he’d “never” been in a situation “where someone asked me to deflect when we absolutely knew something was awry.”
“I just couldn’t bear the burden—continuing on as a representative of the agency and charged with upholding integrity, knowing that information was false,” Schwab said.
“It’s the job of a public affairs officer to offer transparency for the agency you work for.” he argued. “I felt like we weren’t doing that. I’ve never been in a situation when I’ve been asked to ignore the facts because it was more convenient. It was my first time being asked to do that.”
Sam Nunberg and another witness told Mueller that Roger Stone met with Julian Assange in 2016
Roger Stone and Sam Nunberg
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Roger Stone spoke to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as early as spring 2016, according to two witnesses in the special counsel probe.
The Republican “dirty trickster” and former the rich asshole campaign adviser told Sam Nunberg and another associate about his contacts with Assange, contradicting their public denials, and both of those associates told Robert Mueller and his investigators, reported the Washington Post.
Nunberg gave an on-the-record interview to the newspaper about his testimony Monday, the same day Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee issued a one-page statement claiming their own probe had found no evidence of the rich asshole-Russia collusion.
President some rich asshole then issued an all-caps statement on Twitter trumpeting the GOP lawmakers’ statement.
The other Stone associate spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity.
Nunberg, who testified Friday and admitted afterward the Mueller probe was “warranted” because there's “something there,” said Stone told him that he had met with Assange, and he then told the special counsel.
Another associate told Mueller that Stone revealed in spring 2016 that Assange told him that WikiLeaks had obtained emails that would torment top Democrats such as John Podesta, then campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton.
“The conversation occurred before it was publicly known that hackers had obtained the emails of Podesta and of the Democratic National Committee, documents which WikiLeaks released in late July and October,” the Post reported. “The U.S. intelligence community later concluded the hackers were working for Russia.”
Stone and Assange have denied communicating with one another, and the GOP operative has denied advance knowledge of the WikiLeaks document dumps — which he sometimes appeared to foreshadow on social media.
He reiterated his denials Monday to the Post, saying his comments to Nunberg were intended as a joke.
“I wish him no ill will, but Sam can manically and persistently call you,” Stone said. “I said, ‘I think I will go to London for the weekend and meet with Julian Assange.’ It was a joke, a throwaway line to get him off the phone. The idea that I would meet with Assange undetected is ridiculous on its face.’”
FBI agents tried to contact jailed ‘sex coach’ claiming evidence of Russian collusion — but were denied
Anastasia Vashukevich (Instagram)
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FBI agents tried to meet with a Belarusian “sex coach” detained in a Bangkok jail to discuss her alleged evidence of Russian collusion with the the rich asshole campaign, but they were denied by Thai officials.
Thai officials denied access to Anastasia Vashukevich, who has become internationally famous in recent months for her racy selfies, and her associate Alexander Kirillov because only legal representatives and family members are permitted access to the detainees, reported CNN.
The pair asked the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok for help last month after their arrest for offering sex lessons without a permit, and Vashukevich offered information about alleged election interference by Russia.
FBI agents contacted Thailand’s immigration bureau last week to set up a meeting, according to a highly placed source in the department.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok referred to a statement issued last week about Vashukevich and her offer.
“We are aware of media reports of this individual’s arrest,” the embassy said in a statement. “She is not a U.S. citizen, and we would refer you to Thai law enforcement for further questions.”
Vashukevich, who goes by Nastya Rybka on social media, and her boyfriend and mentor Kirillov, who goes by Alex Lesley, were arrested Feb. 25 with eight other Russian-speaking “sex coaches” for working in Thailand without a permit.
They claim Russia orchestrated the arrests to stop them from revealing more than an hour of audio recordings and photos and meetings related to the 2016 election.
Vashukevich, who claims to be the former mistress of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, says she witnessed several meetings in 2016 and 2017 between the oligarch and at least three unnamed Americans.
Deripaska is a metal tycoon who sued former the rich asshole campaign manager Paul Manafort and his lieutenant Rick Gates over an $18.9 million investment the pair was supposed to make in Ukraine.
Gates has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to investigators in the Russia probe, and Manafort has been charged with money laundering, fraud and numerous other charges in the case.
Robert Mueller invokes ‘conspiracy to defraud government’ charge in Russia probe
Dan Boylan
Posted with permission from The Washington Times
Special counsel Robert Mueller and his prosecutors have invoked an unusual "conspiracy to defraud the government" charge to ensnare a Russian cyber network and could use the same legal strategy to go after President Trump and his associates, even if the conspiracy is not linked to a criminal act.
Although the president constantly denies any wrongdoing, Mr. Mueller's 10-month long investigation has become the heart of the Trump-Russian election meddling saga, dominating headlines and leaving the White House tangled in conflict and controversy as additional charges have also been filed against four of his close associates - with further indictments likely.
Last month, Mr. Mueller, a Republican and former FBI director indicted 13 Russian nationals connected to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) Russian "troll farm," accusing the IRA of interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by spreading fake news stories through U.S. social media. The same approach was employed in securing a plea deal last month with Rick Gates, the aide for former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
What has attracted attention in legal circles is the underlying legal theory behind the indictments, accusing the Russians of essentially committing a crime by preventing agencies of the U.S. government from carrying out the duties. Mr. Mueller appears to be leveraging the theory "into a powerful instrument with respect to both foreign and domestic actors," according to a recent article on Lawfare, a national security blog by the Lawfare Institute and Brookings Institution.
Emma Kohse, Harvard International Law Journal editor-in-chief, Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Lawfare blog's top editor, argue that, based in the language of the indictments and the legal precedents behind them, the "conspiracy to defraud the government" charge provides the Mueller team with significant flexibility in trying to build a case against Mr. Trump and members of his 2016 campaign.
Mr. Mueller's prosecutors charge in the indictment that the Russian defendants conspired to obstruct U.S. government agencies in multiple ways, including improper campaign expenditures, failing to register as foreign agents carrying out political activities and also deceitfully obtaining visas - in essence blocking the Federal Election Commission and the State Department, among other agencies, from doing their jobs.
In addition, several of the defendants "traveled to the United States under false pretenses for the purpose of collecting intelligence" to assist the troll farm's influence operations.
The same legal theory appears to underpin at least part the Mueller team's case against Mr. Gates. In a February filing, the special counsel alleged that Mr. Gates, who agreed to a plea deal admitting financial fraud and lying to investigators, defrauded the government by "impeding, impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful governmental functions of a government agency, namely the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury."
The crime of "conspiracy to defraud the United States," the authors noted, is not new, but sets up a very different legal battle than trying to prove outright that Mr. Trump or his associates actively colluded with Russians to alter the outcome of the 2016 election.
The "conspiracy to defraud" approach, the Lawfare authors point out, "has been sitting in plain sight in the general conspiracy statute ... since 1948 (and an earlier provision with substantially similar language dates to 1867). The statute makes it illegal for two or more persons to 'conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose.'"
The authors add that "unlike conspiracy to commit an offense, conspiracy to defraud the United States need not be connected to a specific underlying crime," and "defraud" is not defined by the law.
Mr. Mueller's IRA indictment uses the statute specifically in context of U.S. election law and while its use is not popular, several federal circuit courts have heard cases based on the theory and allowed its application regarding federal election laws.
"Russia's sustained, many-front effort to interfere in the 2016 election - a glimpse of which was shown in the indictment - is undoubtedly more complex and far-reaching than the plots that have previously been prosecuted as conspiracies to defraud the United States," Ms. Kohse and Mr. Wittes write. "But that makes Mueller's theory richer, not more novel."
Because Mr. Mueller is alleging conspiracy to defraud the FEC, DOJ and State Department, some legal scholars say recent commentary about "collusion" between the Trump campaign and Kremlin is misdirected. Instead, he appears to be building a case with the FEC, DOJ and State Department at its core - not the Kremlin.
And, the authors note, it's not much of a legal stretch to go after U.S. citizens who aided the Russian troll farm in the conspiracy against U.S. government agencies.
"To allege that a new conspirator had joined such a conspiracy, Mueller would have to allege only that such a person - presumably a new defendant - had agreed to participate in a scheme of deceit by which the FEC, the Justice Department or the State Department was deprived of its regulatory authority," Ms. Kohse and Mr. Wittes write.
Following that line of legal logic, any Americans who knowingly assisted the IRA troll farm - by feeding them information or directing them on how to employ that information - would be taking part in its scheme "to influence the U.S. election behind the back of the U.S. government." They would thus be guilty of committing a crime - even if what they though they were doing was legal.
They also could very likely have not known that they were assisting a Russian plot to meddle in the 2016 election, U.S. intelligence sources have repeatedly told The Washington Times.
"Mueller is targeting the 'useful idiots' who worked as Russian propagandists who didn't even realize who they were working for," a source told The Times.
Although the president constantly denies any wrongdoing, Mr. Mueller's 10-month long investigation has become the heart of the Trump-Russian election meddling saga, dominating headlines and leaving the White House tangled in conflict and controversy as additional charges have also been filed against four of his close associates - with further indictments likely.
Last month, Mr. Mueller, a Republican and former FBI director indicted 13 Russian nationals connected to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) Russian "troll farm," accusing the IRA of interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by spreading fake news stories through U.S. social media. The same approach was employed in securing a plea deal last month with Rick Gates, the aide for former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
What has attracted attention in legal circles is the underlying legal theory behind the indictments, accusing the Russians of essentially committing a crime by preventing agencies of the U.S. government from carrying out the duties. Mr. Mueller appears to be leveraging the theory "into a powerful instrument with respect to both foreign and domestic actors," according to a recent article on Lawfare, a national security blog by the Lawfare Institute and Brookings Institution.
Emma Kohse, Harvard International Law Journal editor-in-chief, Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Lawfare blog's top editor, argue that, based in the language of the indictments and the legal precedents behind them, the "conspiracy to defraud the government" charge provides the Mueller team with significant flexibility in trying to build a case against Mr. Trump and members of his 2016 campaign.
Mr. Mueller's prosecutors charge in the indictment that the Russian defendants conspired to obstruct U.S. government agencies in multiple ways, including improper campaign expenditures, failing to register as foreign agents carrying out political activities and also deceitfully obtaining visas - in essence blocking the Federal Election Commission and the State Department, among other agencies, from doing their jobs.
In addition, several of the defendants "traveled to the United States under false pretenses for the purpose of collecting intelligence" to assist the troll farm's influence operations.
The same legal theory appears to underpin at least part the Mueller team's case against Mr. Gates. In a February filing, the special counsel alleged that Mr. Gates, who agreed to a plea deal admitting financial fraud and lying to investigators, defrauded the government by "impeding, impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful governmental functions of a government agency, namely the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury."
The crime of "conspiracy to defraud the United States," the authors noted, is not new, but sets up a very different legal battle than trying to prove outright that Mr. Trump or his associates actively colluded with Russians to alter the outcome of the 2016 election.
The "conspiracy to defraud" approach, the Lawfare authors point out, "has been sitting in plain sight in the general conspiracy statute ... since 1948 (and an earlier provision with substantially similar language dates to 1867). The statute makes it illegal for two or more persons to 'conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose.'"
The authors add that "unlike conspiracy to commit an offense, conspiracy to defraud the United States need not be connected to a specific underlying crime," and "defraud" is not defined by the law.
Mr. Mueller's IRA indictment uses the statute specifically in context of U.S. election law and while its use is not popular, several federal circuit courts have heard cases based on the theory and allowed its application regarding federal election laws.
"Russia's sustained, many-front effort to interfere in the 2016 election - a glimpse of which was shown in the indictment - is undoubtedly more complex and far-reaching than the plots that have previously been prosecuted as conspiracies to defraud the United States," Ms. Kohse and Mr. Wittes write. "But that makes Mueller's theory richer, not more novel."
Because Mr. Mueller is alleging conspiracy to defraud the FEC, DOJ and State Department, some legal scholars say recent commentary about "collusion" between the Trump campaign and Kremlin is misdirected. Instead, he appears to be building a case with the FEC, DOJ and State Department at its core - not the Kremlin.
And, the authors note, it's not much of a legal stretch to go after U.S. citizens who aided the Russian troll farm in the conspiracy against U.S. government agencies.
"To allege that a new conspirator had joined such a conspiracy, Mueller would have to allege only that such a person - presumably a new defendant - had agreed to participate in a scheme of deceit by which the FEC, the Justice Department or the State Department was deprived of its regulatory authority," Ms. Kohse and Mr. Wittes write.
Following that line of legal logic, any Americans who knowingly assisted the IRA troll farm - by feeding them information or directing them on how to employ that information - would be taking part in its scheme "to influence the U.S. election behind the back of the U.S. government." They would thus be guilty of committing a crime - even if what they though they were doing was legal.
They also could very likely have not known that they were assisting a Russian plot to meddle in the 2016 election, U.S. intelligence sources have repeatedly told The Washington Times.
"Mueller is targeting the 'useful idiots' who worked as Russian propagandists who didn't even realize who they were working for," a source told The Times.
NEW PHONE...
One of the four people listed in the porn star’s NDA speaks out with new details about her alleged fling with the future president.
03.12.18 10:04 PM ET
Stormy Daniels turned on the speakerphone when President the rich asshole called.
So says Keith Munyan, one of the four people Stormy Daniels included in the nondisclosure agreement she signed with some rich asshole’s lawyer. Munyan confirmed critical elements of the alleged romantic tryst between the porn star and the future president, and added new details to a tawdry saga that has rocked the White House.
Munyan, a longtime friend of Daniels, remembers eavesdropping on a half-dozen phone calls between her and the future president.
“He would call all the time. That man can talk about nothing for hours,” Munyan told The Daily Beast in a phone call Monday.
Back in 2006, the rich asshole was only a tabloid character turned reality TV star—and on these calls, he allegedly offered Daniels keys to a New York condo. When she declined, the rich asshole proposed she move into his unfinished the rich asshole Tower in Tampa, Florida.
Munyan said the rich asshole also promised Daniels—who is suing him to quash a “hush agreement” over their alleged affair—a spot on The Apprentice.
A Los Angeles fashion photographer, Munyan befriended Daniels during a shoot in late 2005. The following summer, Daniels would meet and allegedly have “textbook generic” sex with the rich asshole at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.
the rich asshole has denied Daniels’ allegations of an affair.
Around this time, Munyan was in the process of moving, and Daniels rented out his house. The shutterbug continued using his studio on the property and spent time with Daniels, who broadcast her phone calls with her celebrity suitor.
“That man can talk about nothing for hours.”
“She would go, ‘Oh, look who’s calling me now,’ and would put him on the phone,” Munyan recalled, adding that he and Daniels would sit and laugh.
“He was talking about giving her a condo in New York,” Munyan said. “She said, ‘I don’t want to move to New York.’ That’s when she wanted to move to Florida.”
Munyan remembers silently raising his hand when he heard the rich asshole’s offer: “I’m like, ‘Really?’ I put my hand up. I’ll take it!”
According to Munyan, the rich asshole promised to arrange for Daniels to view a condominium in Florida but she declined. The performer, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, would move to Tampa on her own three years later.
the rich asshole was always polite to the adult actress and director, Munyan said. The “grab ’em by the pussy” rhetoric was absent from what he overheard.
“She had very professional conversations with him,” Munyan added. “It was always about business and what her goals are.”
As The Daily Beast reported, Munyan was one of four people named in Daniels’ nondisclosure agreement as having “confidential information” about the alleged tryst.
Also listed were Daniels’ ex-husband, her manager, and one fellow porn star named Angel Ryan. (Ryan was identified as Jessica Drake, who in October 2016 came forward to accuse the rich asshole of sexual misconduct at the same Lake Tahoe event where he met Daniels.)
Munyan is like family to Daniels, whom she calls “Dad.”
“She’s got two gay dads now,” Munyan quipped, referring to his husband J.D. Barrale, who spoke to The Daily Beast in support of Daniels last week.
the rich asshole and Daniels dined alone together throughout 2006, and he invited the porn star to see the Miss USA pageant in Hollywood, Munyan said. Munyan was home when the rich asshole sent a limousine to pick Daniels up for the event.
But, eventually, the conversations about the rich asshole faded and were long forgotten—until the 2016 presidential election.
“She had very professional conversations with him... It was always about business and what her goals are.”
Days before Americans voted, Daniels signed a nondisclosure agreement in exchange for $130,000 in hush money. The contract not only bought Daniels’ silence, but ensured she fork over any text messages, images, or other “property” that could relate to the rich asshole.
Daniels now argues this agreement is invalid because the rich asshole never signed it, and because the rich asshole’s attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, allegedly breached their contract by speaking publicly about the payout.
On Monday, the porn star offered to return the money she received from Cohen, in return for nullifying their confidential settlement.
“I just remember her calling me and saying she signed the nondisclosure agreement,” Munyan told The Daily Beast, adding, “She told me that I was on it.”
“The reason Stormy signed the NDA was to protect her family,” Munyan said. “She signed it because she felt intimidated.” (Daniels’ lawsuit claims the rich asshole and Cohen “aggressively sought to silence [her] as part of an effort to avoid her telling the truth,” which could have cost the rich asshole the election.)
Daniels spoke kindly of the rich asshole back in 2006, Munyan said.
When asked what Daniels said of the rich asshole, Munyan replied, “That he was actually a very brilliant man.”
“They had great conversations, not like he does now. He just wants to hear himself talk,” Munyan said. “They would sit down to a nice dinner, discuss business.”
“She’s just trying to be as courageous as possible in front of a bunch of people who are not wanting this to come forward.”
“It’s probably because she drew that out of him.”
Munyan described Daniels as a very private person, who steps into the limelight when she dances on stage.
When they met, Daniels was looking for a photographer who wasn’t in the porn industry. Munyan took classic, pinup-style snapshots for her calendar.
“She’s very intelligent. She’s not your typical girl. She’s very smart and very articulate,” Munyan swooned over his friend. “Don’t let the blonde hair fool you. That girl’s smart.”
Daniels has a big heart, he said, especially for her horses. (Daniels is a nationally ranked equestrian, according to Rolling Stone.) Whenever she visits Munyan and his hubby, the three of them just sit at the dining table and laugh.
Munyan said most of all, Daniels is funny.
After one headline claimed she was bringing her dirty laundry on her strip club tour, she made an Instagram account called @Stormysbasket. The page features photos of Daniels’ laundry basket including one where it’s apparently being interviewed by CNN’s Nick Valencia.
Last year, Daniels’ erotic romance, “Unbridled,” was released through porn studio Wicked Pictures. She directed and starred in the passion project as a “savvy New Yorker who returns to her Texas roots to save the family farm, only to run into her old beau in the process,” one industry magazine gushed.
Munyan says Daniels is seeking funding for a horror film she wrote; it’s set in the swamps of her native Louisiana.
Daniels is “not this cartoonish evil stripper porn star” that online trolls are making her out to be, said Munyan’s husband, J.D. Barrale.
Her “dads” continue to call and check in with Daniels on her “Make America Horny Again” strip club tour. On Monday, Barrale told The Daily Beast that Daniels is “doing the best she can with all that hate that’s coming at her.”
“She’s a very strong woman,” Barrale said. “She’s just trying to be as courageous as possible in front of a bunch of people who are not wanting this to come forward.”
He added, “She’s been trolled by so many people. I think once people got to know who she is, they’d see she’s quite a wonderful gal.”
Good thing Mueller doesn't happen to follow the same rules.
House Republicans cut interviews short, conclude the rich asshole didn’t collude with Russia
GOP comes to collusion-free conclusion despite failing to interview Manafort, Flynn, and Papadopoulos.
According to the House Intelligence Committee, there is no evidence that some rich asshole’s campaign colluded with Russia.
The committee, led by Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX), released a statement on Monday saying that they had uncovered “no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the rich asshole campaign and the Russians.” Conaway — who had replaced Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) following the latter’s significant breaches of conduct — added that, in addition to the one-page statement, the panel had also completed a substantial draft report, which is yet to be released.
The committee’s statement on Monday, however, went beyond just absolving the rich asshole campaign of any suspected collusion with Moscow, even going so far as to dispute the U.S. Intelligence Community’s findings that Russia had preferred a rich asshole presidency to that of Hillary Clinton. The statement also added that the Clinton campaign had obtained “anti-the rich asshole research” from Russian sources, an apparent nod to the disputed Steele memo.
The draft report will now likely go to the minority staff on the committee, currently led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). However, it remains possible — or likely — that the Democrats will push to release a second, competing report. Democrats have complained that a number of key witnesses still have not been interviewed by the committee, and that Republicans on the committee didn’t bother to use subpoenas in order to obtain pertinent information.
“By ending its oversight role in the only authroized investigation in the House, the Majority has placed the interests of protecting the President over protecting the country and history will judge its actions harshly,” Schiff said Monday evening in an extensive statement. “During the first open hearing of our investigation, I asked whether we could conduct this investigation in the kind of thorough and nonpartisan manner that the seriousness of the issues merited… Regrettably, that challenge proved too much.”
Further, Republicans cut short the witness interview portion of the investigation — something Schiff only learned of on Monday afternoon. Among the witnesses who were reportedly not called before the committee were Paul Manafort, the rich asshole’s former campaign chair, and Michael Flynn, the rich asshole’s former national security adviser. Both Manafort and Flynn have been targeted by the special counsel’s office for dissembling about their ties to pro-Russian operatives, as has former the rich asshole campaign adviser George Papadopoulos — another individual the committee didn’t interview.
“Democrats say the committee has raced through its final interviews, while allowing witnesses to pick and choose which questions they answer,” CNN reported.
While the committee’s statement was relatively straightforward — or at least lacked any of the colorful commentary associated with the White House — Conaway told reporters that claims of collusion, despite any number of strange meetings and piling guilty pleas, were something found only in fiction.
“Only Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn or someone else like that could take this series of inadvertent contacts with each other, or meetings, whatever, and weave that into some sort of fictional page-turner spy thriller,” Conaway said.
Not even two weeks ago, President the rich asshole appeared to buck the National Rifle Association — publicly endorsing Democratic-friendly gun-control ideas while mocking other Republicans as “petrified” of the powerful firearms lobby.
“They have great power over you people,” the rich asshole said on Feb. 28, referring to the NRA while addressing a group of lawmakers at the White House. “They have less power over me.”
But now the rich asshole has retreated, putting forward a modest package of gun-safety measures this week that has none of the provisions opposed by the NRA that he seemed to back days earlier. The shift provides another example of the strong influence wielded by the NRA both at the White House and on Capitol Hill, where most lawmakers remain opposed to significant policy changes in the wake of the shooting massacre that killed 17 at a Parkland, Fla., high school last month.
“I think we could all see it coming. I wish the president had televised the meeting with the NRA like he televised the meeting with us,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Monday, referring to a March 1 huddle between the rich asshole and top officials at the gun rights group. “Clearly, the NRA was more persuasive than I was.”
In the face of such criticism, the rich asshole defended his plan in a series of tweets Monday morning.
Students protest gun violence outside the White House on Feb. 21, a week after the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“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 wrote in one Twitter message.
White House officials said the rich asshole’s official gun plan was drafted within the confines of what Congress will allow — a notable contrast to the rich asshole’s “I alone can fix it” image as someone who could single-handedly cut through Washington gridlock.
Administration officials also disputed that the rich asshole’s plan amounts to a reversal of his positions since that February meeting, when the president surprised lawmakers of both parties by appearing to back proposals to raise the purchase age for AR-15s and similar types of rifles and to expand background checks. He also declared at that meeting that law enforcement officials should “take the guns first, go through due process second” for those suspected of mental illness.
“He hasn’t backed away from these things at all,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a contentious back-and-forth with reporters Monday. “But he can’t make them happen with a broad stroke of the pen. You have to have some congressional component to do some of these things, and without that support, it’s not as possible.”
Publicly, Republican senators had dismissed the rich asshole’s embrace of Democratic-friendly gun measures as the negotiating tactic of a businessman who wanted to hear from all sides before coming to a decision. His defenders on Capitol Hill said much the same Monday, arguing that the rich asshole’s plan was crafted in political reality, considering the composition of Congress.
“I’ve called the meeting we had at the White House on TV really more of a brainstorming session. It was not a legislative strategy session,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said Monday. “I think as the president and the White House has talked to Congress, they found out what is achievable and what’s not.”
Yet Vice President Pence spoke with a number of Senate Republicans who privately raised serious concerns about what the rich asshole said at the gun summit, according to one White House official who was not authorized to talk on the record and so spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Sen. Steve Daines (Mont.) was among the GOP lawmakers who reached out to the administration with worries about what was said, conveying his concerns to the White House’s legislative staff.
“We really reengaged and reemphasized the points I made to the president in that meeting: First thing we need to do to make kids safe is to make our schools safe,” Daines said Monday. “I’m pleased to see that he’s moved away from a focus on gun control and now focused on stopping people who have a homicidal intent.”
At a meeting on March 1, NRA lobbyist Chris Cox told the rich asshole that some of his ideas, particularly raising the age limit to buy a semiautomatic rifle from 18 to 21, wouldn’t pass and that raising the age wouldn’t stop crimes, according to people briefed on the meeting. Cox also said the background check legislation being supported by the White House would go too far, these people said.
the rich asshole saw the arguments as convincing, said two people who later spoke to him. The meeting was warm, these people said, with the president telling Cox that he valued the NRA and wanted to be on the same page.
Cox and NRA President Wayne LaPierre, who met with the rich asshole earlier, made clear to the president that the NRA supported him and did not want to be at odds.
The president was also taken aback by how many GOP lawmakers told him that his proposals were unlikely to pass, two senior administration officials said. He later told others in the White House that he wanted to support only legislation that could pass.
One senior administration official said the rich asshole was never determined to pass everything he proposed or seemed to suggest in the bipartisan summit but likes to publicly gauge what others are thinking.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) told the rich asshole that broad gun laws were not going to pass, according to a senior administration official. A number of senior aides also told the president that there were not enough votes on the Hill to raise the purchase age for some guns, the official said.
“At first, he really wanted to do it . . . everyone was telling him, embrace this moment,” one the rich asshole adviser said. But now “he is telling people how supportive the NRA has been to him. He knows they are an important ally.”
Another senior administration official said that the rich asshole “does things on the fly” in sessions like the one on guns and that they aren’t real promises or formal positions. His team was already drafting legislative proposals that mirrored what eventually came out, this official said.
Now, the rich asshole administration is focused on two main pieces of legislation: a bill to improve the federal background check database and a measure to shore up safety at schools, including grants to fund violence-prevention training for teachers and students. Both are broadly popular on Capitol Hill, although a handful of Republican senators are objecting to speedy passage of the background check bill.
The White House also wants states to pass bills for “risk-protection orders,” which allow law enforcement to take guns away from people considered a public threat, and it is establishing a Federal Commission on School Safety, to be chaired by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, that will explore possible solutions.
the rich asshole’s plan does not include an endorsement of a bipartisan measure written by Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) to expand background checks to firearms sales at gun shows and online purchases, confusing key lawmakers who believed that the rich asshole would get on board with the bill.
“Why did he talk about it so favorably in the public meeting?” Manchin asked of the rich asshole and his bill. “I don’t think the president seemed to be concerned about that, but I’m sure some of the more politically astute staff may be.”
Despite the White House’s comments that it was working within the realm of the possible, some proposals in the rich asshole’s plan aren’t politically achievable in Congress. One of the most controversial would give “rigorous firearms training” to some teachers to protect students — an idea that would struggle mightily to pass.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of support for that,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a reliable ally of the White House, said Monday. “I just don’t think that there’s a move to arm teachers. I’m not particularly opposed to that, but there would have to be tremendous training and tremendous effort to make that work.”
Philip Rucker contributed to this report.
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March 12, 2018
GOP Rep. Tom Rooney just admitted that the Republican-led intel committee is a sham.
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee announced they’d concluded their investigation into Russia’s election interference and potential coordination with the rich asshole campaign. And just hours later, Republican Rep. Tom Rooney, a member of the committee, admitted that they had “lost all credibility.”
CNN’s Erin Burnett asked Rooney why Republicans had shut down their investigation before interviewing key persons. That potential interview list includes four the rich asshole associates currently under indictment by special counsel Robert Mueller.
“The Senate hasn’t ended theirs, Bob Mueller hasn’t ended [his] — why are you all ending it?” Burnett asked.
Rooney was straightforward in his damning assessment of his own committee. “We have gone off the rails and now we’re a political forum for people to leak information to drive the day’s news,” he admitted.
“We have lost all credibility,” he added.
This comes just after Republicans on the committee dismissed the U.S. intelligence community’s high confidence assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Republicans referred to the conclusion that Russia had interfered to help the rich asshole as a “narrative” with which they disagreed.
The Republican report also stated that the committee found no evidence to refer a single person for potential criminal prosecution. Yet Mueller’s investigation has brought about the indictment of 19 people and three companies, including four members of the rich asshole campaign.
The credibility of the House Intelligence Community has been called into question from the very beginning. Chairman Devin Nunes invited such criticism by using his position as the head of the committee to shield the rich asshole from scrutiny.
Despite recusing himself, Nunes continued to participate in the committee’s activities. In doing so, turned the investigation into a sideshow — and turned himself into a joke.
The abrupt conclusion of the Republican-led investigation is the final act of a congressional panel that has spent the past year putting on appearances.
The committee lost its credibility long ago — and even Republicans who were in on the act are coming clean.
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March 12, 2018
Rather than risk actually finding the same incriminating evidence as the U.S. intelligence community, Republicans decided to simply stop looking.
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee announced Monday that they are prematurely shutting down their investigation into Russian interference and potential coordination with the rich asshole campaign.
The announcement came after they apparently reached the opposite conclusion of the U.S. intelligence community.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the committee “has finished interviewing witnesses in its yearlong probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to a person familiar with the matter, signaling the end is near of a contentious investigation that has revealed deep partisan divisions on the panel.”
The end of the GOP-led investigation notably coincides with the start of primary elections. And it has the appearance of a partisan maneuver aimed at shielding the rich asshole from special counsel Robert Mueller’s very credible — and very active — investigation.
“Republicans on the committee and in the House of Representatives think it is now time to conclude the panel’s investigation, according to people familiar with the matter,” the WSJ reports. “Republicans and Democrats on the House committee have said they would like to produce a bipartisan report, but relations on the panel have deteriorated to the point where such a task may be difficult.”
Similar to the failed memo stunt led by Rep. Devin Nunes, Republicans released the conclusions of the committee’s investigation without consulting or even showing the report to Democrats on the committee.
According to CNN, Republicans have concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not trying to help the rich asshole win the election when he ordered an intelligence operation aimed at influencing the presidential election.
But this is precisely the opposite conclusion reached by the U.S. intelligence community in a high confidence assessment released in January 2017. In their new release, Republicans referred to that assessment as a “narrative” with which they disagreed.
The Republican report, which found no evidence to refer a single person for potential criminal prosecution, diverges sharply from Mueller’s investigation. Thus far, Mueller’s probe has brought about the indictment of 19 people and three companies, including four members of the rich asshole campaign.
Professor Steve Vladeck, a legal analyst for CNN, noted that the stark discrepancy between the conclusions reached by Republicans and the results of the ongoing special counsel investigation completely undermines the credibility of the House Intelligence Committee’s work.
But that’s not the only sign that the GOP report is lacking.
Republicans say they found no evidence of collusion between the the rich asshole campaign and Russia. But that conclusion that was reached without even interviewing the rich asshole or other key witnesses.
“The committee issued a subpoena to former White House chief strategist Bannon in January, but in his return testimony he still did not answer questions about his time in the White House,” CNN reported. “Democrats also sought subpoenas for the committee’s last two witnesses, outgoing White House communications director Hope Hicks and former the rich asshole campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, but Republicans did not issue them.”
Just four days ago, Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called on the committee to bring Erik Prince in for a second interview after discrepancies in his testimony were revealed. Republicans also ignored this request.
Republicans also refused to issue subpoenas to look at Twitter messages between key figures like some rich asshole Jr., Roger Stone, and Julian Assange.
Furthermore, Republicans announced the end of their investigation before ever talking to the four the rich asshole associates who are under indictment by special counsel Mueller: former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former campaign aide Rick Gates, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos.
All of this suggests that Republicans are prematurely ending the investigation to take some of the pressure off the rich asshole. And it gives their base a shiny object to distract them as they head into what is shaping up to be a disastrous midterm election season.
It also suggests that they are worried about what they would find if they looked hard enough — so they simply stopped looking.
Republicans aren’t the only ones who are worried. As they wrap up their phony investigation, the rich asshole is reportedly in the process of bringing an impeachment lawyer onto his legal team.
They’re all nervous, and they’re all getting desperate. But false reports and refusal to accept the facts won’t shield them from reality.
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March 12, 2018
Sen. Richard Burr apparently does not know what the word "collusion" actually means.
The House Intelligence Committee’s Republican majority claims there was no collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russia. They even deny there was any attempt by Russia to help the rich asshole specifically. And Republican Senate intelligence chair Richard Burr is twisting himself in knots trying to make his conclusion line up with that.
Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju whether he was aware of evidence of collusion between the rich asshole and Russia, Burr said that he was not.
And in his view, if there was collusion, “It’s collusion on [the] part of the Russians, not the the rich asshole camp.”
In other words, Burr is apparently suggesting that the Russians colluded with themselves.
This flies in the face of not just logic, but the literal defintion of the word “collusion.”
And there is already clear, publicly known potential evidence of collusion between Russia and the rich asshole associates. There was the infamous meeting at the rich asshole Tower between some rich asshole Jr. and a Russian lawyer. And the recent revelation that Erik Prince’s trip to Seychelles focused on establishing a secret backchannel with the Kremlin. Both of these incidents are among those under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Burr and House intel chair Devin Nunes’ attempts to quash the investigations follow a concerted, months-long attempt to discredit the intelligence community. This culminated in the “Nunes memo” which falsely claimed the FBI tried to conceal information from a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court.
But Mueller’s investigation continues undeterred, with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein giving him his full confidence.
Republicans cannot bury the truth. And Burr’s nonsensical attempt to deflect reality does nothing to shield him, his party, or the rich asshole from its impact.
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March 12, 2018
Sam Nunberg confessed that the special counsel asked him about the rich asshole's attempts to buy women's silence.
Sam Nunberg, the disgruntled ex-the rich asshole aide who drew national attention for refusing to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s subpoena for one night, made a startling confession to MSNBC’s Ari Melber in an interview Monday night.
“Did Mueller’s folks ask anything relating to these issues around payments to people or women?” Melber asked Nunberg.
“They asked if I had ever heard anything about that, and my answer is, I never have,” said Nunberg. “I don’t know anything about it, and I wouldn’t have known anything about it.”
“So when did they ask about that?” Melber pressed him.
“In my voluntary interview,” said Nunberg, adding that “it would have been dereliction of duty not to ask me.”
“I’ve never heard you say that publicly before. In your FBI interview with Mueller’s team, they were asking about payments to women?” Melber said.
“They were asking if i knew anything about it.” said Nunberg. “But I think it’s pretty obvious that they’re looking into this, especially because — and this is the issue — besides this LLC, you have now this $130,000 payment that was made after the election from campaign to the rich asshole Org. You know, so it just seems a little suspect.”
Melber noted that the interviewers “are supposed to investigate potential crimes” and began to ask again about the questions.
“That’s not the way they asked it,” said Nunberg hastily.
“How did they?” Melber pushed him. “Tell us.”
“In our voluntary interview, they wanted to know if I had ever — not about specific payments — if I’ve ever heard of anything like that going on, to which I never have. Nor was I at the campaign during that time,” Nunberg said.
Nunberg’s belated attempt to downplay the significance aside, this is the first evidence that Mueller is looking into the rich asshole’s payments to women, which at the very least includes Stormy Daniels.
And as Melber points out, if Mueller is investigating the payments, he has cause to suspect a crime may have occurred which goes deeper than the current legal circus the rich asshole has found himself in.
Mueller’s investigation stretches far deeper than the American public yet knows. And it is only a matter of time before another shoe drops.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow walks through new reporting that bolsters the rich asshole dossier’s ‘golden showers’ allegation
Host of 'The Rachel Maddow Show' on MSNBC.
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Though it remains unclear whether the most salacious detail of the “golden showers” dossier is actually true, reporting on some rich asshole’s 2013 trip to Moscow may highlight the ways the Kremlin used sexual acts the future president witnessed or engaged in as leverage against him.
Discussing excerpts from David Corn and Michael Isikoff’s new book “Russian Roulette,” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow outlined key passages from the book that could lend credence to the allegation that the rich asshole in 2013 hired Russian prostitutes to urinate on a bed that then-President Barack Obama slept on.
Maddow noted that although Corn and Isikoff’s book asks more questions than it answers on the alleged incident that gave the dossier its notorious nickname, “they have lots of new detail about that allegation” — including that the rich asshole did in fact book the Ritz-Carlton “presidential” suite where Obama once stayed.
Along with getting “very specific” about the time frame during which the incident would have to have taken place on the rich asshole’s single night in Moscow, the book’s authors quote Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the dossier, as lacking confidence in the “golden showers kompromat tape allegation.”
In earlier segments of the book published by Mother Jones, Isikoff and Corn also detailed an anecdote that took place in a “raunchy” Moscow nightclub called “The Act.”the rich asshole, along with a British publicist and Russian singer who also attended the infamous the rich asshole Tower meeting in 2016, “were photographed in the lobby by a local paparazzi,” and upon hearing the future president may attend, the club’s managers “arranged to have plenty of Diet Coke on hand” for him.
“The owners had also discussed whether they should prepare a special performance for the developer,” the passage read, “perhaps a dominatrix who would tie him up onstage or a little-person transvestite the rich asshole impersonator—and nixed the idea.”
The Act, the book continued, was known to feature at least two “golden showers” performances. Photos of the rich asshole at the club later surfaced following the publication of the passage.
Per @DavidCornDC and @Isikoff's new book, the Las Vegas nightclub Trump went to with Emin Agalarov in June 2013—a few months before he visited Moscow—was known for some...salacious...acts yahoo.com/news/miss-univ… pic.twitter.com/6Cm77qvVcT
He cannot deny being at the club that night Keith Schiller is right behind him the club was shut down in October of the same year for reasons related to the performances and other issues. pic.twitter.com/8DOwZ9l9UF
Watch Maddow walk through the allegations below, via MSNBC:
Internet trolls ‘amped up’ the rich asshole for celebrating latest House intel report with ALL CAPS tweet
President some rich asshole yelling inside a truck (image via Creative Commons).
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After the GOP-controlled House Intelligence Committee released a draft report concluding that there was no collusion between the the rich asshole campaign and the Kremlin, President some rich asshole wrote an all-caps missive to the committee’s latest document.
“THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE RICH ASSHOLE CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION,” the president tweeted.
Twitter, naturally, couldn’t let it go.
“Putting it in all caps doesn’t make it true, pumpkin,” one user responded.
Putting it in all caps doesn't make it true, pumpkin.
We know you are guilty.
You know you are guilty.
Most importantly, Mueller knows you are guilty.#TrumpRussia twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
BuzzFeed News’ Katherine Miller took the opportunity to troll the president using her own all-caps tweet featuring lyrics from Alanis Morrisette’s “You Oughta Know.”
IT'S NOT FAIR, TO DENY ME, OF THE CROSS I BEAR THAT YOU GAVE TO ME YOU, YOU, YOU OUGHTA KNOW twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
CNN’s Jim Scuitto, meanwhile, noted that the Russian embassy was also celebrating the impending end of the House intel committee probe.
All “Russia investigations” (not only in the US) are destined to end as @ConawayTX11 brilliantly concluded: “only Tom Clancy could take this series of inadvertent contacts, meetings, whatever, and weave that into some sort of a spy thriller that could go out there”#JackRyan
Check out the best responses below:
This was not the finding of the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. President, but only a statement by its GOP members, who lack the courage to stand up to a President of their own party when the national interest necessitates it. twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
And not a god damn person with any god damn sense believes this report – not even GOP committee members, who have barely any sense at all.
ALL CAPS WON'T MAKE IT MORE BELIEVABLE, you freak show.#Maddow twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
guessing this tweet was provided to House Intel majority before they got rolling, and they conducted their investigation accordingly twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
We can all point out the flaws in this statement (even apart from the hideous use of all caps).
But this statement isn't meant for us.
For those for whom it _is_ meant, the majority on the House Intelligence Committee did exactly what they were supposed to do.
Shame on them. twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
I ONLY TWEET ENTIRELY IN ALL CAPS WHEN MY LAPDOG IS ACTUALLY SITTING IN MY LAP - GOOD BOY, DEVIN! twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
Trump's poker tell would be yelling I HAVE VERY GOOD CARDS PROBABLY THE WINNING HAND DON'T BET IF YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE MONEY BECAUSE I AM GOING TO WIN THIS HAND twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
This is what Donald's penis looks like when he's about to pay a sex worker $130K for sex. twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
‘We’ve lost all credibility’: GOP House intel member contradicts his own party’s Russia probe conclusion
CNN's Erin Burnett and Rep. Tom Rooney
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House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL) on Monday admitted his panel has “lost all credibility” after waffling on whether or not he accepts his party’s conclusions on the Russia probe.
Rooney, speaking on @OutFrontCNN , seems uncertain about finding in report says: The GOP agrees with the "Intelligence Community Assessment’s judgments, except with respect to Putin’s supposed preference for candidate Trump."
GOP committee members on Monday released a draft report from the year-long Russia probe that insisted there’s no evidence of collusion between some rich asshole’s campaign and Russia—and challenges the intelligence community’s assessment that Vladimir Putin interfered in the 2016 election to help the rich asshole.
Wow. Rep. Tom Rooney, a GOP intelligence committee member, is undermining his own report on @CNN right now.
Says there's no doubt that the Russians meddled in the election to help Donald Trump.
Rooney was speaking with CNN’s Erin Burnett, at first appearing to contradict the GOP’s conclusion that Putin did not want to help the rich asshole.
“I don’t know that necessarily there was a full fledged campaign to do everything they could to help elect some rich asshole,” Rooney said. “I think their goal was chaos. To say that we have seen a red evidence or say. ‘We got to get some rich asshole in there,’ I don’t know that’s true.”
“Why would you end the investigation now?” Burnett asked. “It sounds like there’s disagreement between Republicans on your committee … why are you all ending it?”
“Two things: From what I said last week is we have gone off the rails and now we’re a political forum for people to leak information to drive the day’s news. We have lost all credibility and we’re going to issue probably two different reports.”
Watch the clip below:
Internet rallies behind son of NYT’s Haberman after he creates a Twitter account to slam the rich asshole’s criticism of his mom
New York Times' reporter Maggie Haberman (left) and President some rich asshole inside the Oval Office. Image via screengrab.
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On Sunday, President some rich asshole slammed the New York Times‘ White House correspondent Maggie Haberman as a “Hillary [Clinton] flunky” who doesn’t have any access.
In response, Haberman’s son, Max Gregorian, created his own Twitter account to blast the president on his favorite medium — and gained his own defenders in the process.
“How I (want to) react when @realDonaldTrump criticizes my mom,” the 12-year-old tweeted, using a gif of Luke Skywalker brushing debris off of his shoulder to describe his feelings.
In response, journalists and laypeople alike rallied around Gregorian, congratulating him for joining Twitter to defend his mom and expertly referencing Star Wars in one fell swoop.
“Padawan with the Jedi move,” Eqsquire‘s Max Potter tweeted.
“Max Gregorian in 2048,” another user posted.
Check out the best responses below:
Omg is this real? What a great kid
this - Please know that there’s a large fan club who all feel this way @TheMaxGregorian twitter.com/TheMaxGregoria…
If your mom weren't upsetting people in power, she wouldn't be doing her job. You should be proud of her.
99%Swamp=100%FedUp
You are more intelligent than this POTUS will ever be. You just keep it up because you will have a great future ahead of you.
When your mum is @maggieNYT and you get 1k+ likes with your first tweet
(seems kids are going to own twitter in 2018)
cc @longlivekcx @lexforchange twitter.com/TheMaxGregoria…
@maggieNYT you are rasing a fine young man. He loves his Mom, and has a great attirude.twitter.com/TheMaxGregoria…
Man, that's pretty epic. I wish my first tweet of all time was to defend my mom against bullying from the President of the United States.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/18f0…
How I (want to) react when @realDonaldTrump criticizes my mom @maggieNYT : pic.twitter.com/M2sD9h5yoM
How I (want to) react when @realDonaldTrump criticizes my mom @maggieNYT : pic.twitter.com/M2sD9h5yoM
Best 1st tweet ever @TheMaxGregorian pic.twitter.com/dBWOyCHtfq
‘I wouldn’t wipe my ass with it’: Ex-CIA analyst rips House GOP intel committee’s ‘no collusion’ report
Phil Mudd (Photo: screen capture)
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CNN’s Phil Mudd on Monday had a remarkable reaction to the conclusion by Republicans members on the House Intelligence Committee that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 presidential election to help some rich asshole, telling Wolf Blitzer if the report was “written on toilet paper, I wouldn’t stoop to wipe my ass with it.”
“Their responsibility was not to represent party, Democrat or Republican, but to represent people,” Mudd said. “How do we protect the next election? The last 30 minutes, Wolf––you give me one sentence where somebody spoke about how they’re going to protect us instead of saying this is why the other party did something wrong.”
“If this report were written on toilet paper, I wouldn’t stoop to wipe my ass with it,” he continued. “These people owe us more. They gave us less. That’s what I see, Wolf.”
Watch the video below:
Ex-the rich asshole aide Sam Nunberg admits Mueller asked about the rich asshole’s payouts to women: ‘It’s obvious they’re looking into this’
Ex-the rich asshole campaign aide Sam Nunberg on MSNBC. Image via screengrab.
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Fresh off the heels of a grand jury testimony he said he wouldn’t do, former the rich asshole campaign aide Sam Nunberg told MSNBC’s Ari Melber that special counsel Robert Mueller questioned him about the president’s alleged “payments to women” in the wake of the Stormy Daniels scandal.
Quoting a section from Michael Wolff’s “Fire & Fury” in which former White House adviser Steve Bannon suggested one of President Donald the rich asshole’s personal lawyers “took care of” a hundred women via settlements, Melber asked Nunberg if he was questioned on the president’s supposed payments.
“They asked if I had ever heard anything about that, and my answer is I never have,” Nunberg said. “I don’t know anything about it, and I wouldn’t have known anything about it.”
After clarifying that the questions came during his voluntary meeting with the special counsel’s team and not during his grand jury testimony last Friday, the former aide conceded that it’s “pretty obvious that they’re looking into this” given reports about the rich asshole lawyer Michael Cohen’s “hush agreement” payout to adult star Stormy Daniels.
Watch below, via MSNBC:
House Intel Republican contradicts panel, says Russia tried to help the rich asshole in 2016
BY LUIS SANCHEZ - 03/12/18 09:03 PM EDT
Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on Monday that "there is evidence" showing the Russians attempted to help the rich asshole during the 2016 presidential election, contradicting a draft report from the panel.
“I certainly think there is evidence of that. I don’t know that necessarily there was a full-fledged campaign to do everything that they could to help elect some rich asshole,” Rooney told host Erin Burnett on CNN's "OutFront." “I think that their goal was chaos.”
“To say that we have seen or read evidence that says ‘we have to get some rich asshole in there,’ I don’t know that that’s true,” Rooney added.
Burnett pointed out that “the intelligence community had said” Moscow’s intention “was to hurt Hillary Clinton,” and that the Kremlin “wanted to explicitly help some rich asshole.”
Rooney responded: “Yes, I believe there's evidence of everything that you just said.”
The House Intelligence Committee announced on Monday that it had finished interviewing all its witnesses in its investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the rich asshole campaign during the 2016 race.
A draft report on its findings, which drew swift condemnation from Democrats, said Moscow sought chaos, not to boost one candidate over another. The report contradicts the conclusions drawn from multiple U.S. intelligence agencies, which hold that Russia sought to help elect the rich asshole.
“Instead of conducting an honest investigation, House Republicans chose to put partisanship over our national security and run a shameful interference campaign to give cover to some rich asshole,” the Democratic National Committee said in a statement.
Rooney argued that the investigation needed to end because the committee was losing its credibility.
“We’ve gone completely off the rails and now we are just basically a political forum for people to leak information to drive the day’s news,” Rooney said. “We’ve lost all credibility and we are going to issue probably two different reports, unfortunately.”
Relations between Democrats and Republicans on the committee have worsened, with much of the spotlight focused on the conflict between Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and ranking member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
Tensions reaching a boiling point earlier this year when Democrats and Republicans released competing memos concerning alleged surveillance abuses by the FBI and Justice Department.
According to CNN, the Democrats on the committee are expected to issue a report arguing that members did not conduct a thorough investigation. Republicans will likely argue that they did not find any evidence of collusion.
Rooney also warned that the government needs to act to prevent foreign interference in the upcoming midterm elections.
“If we don’t get any of these recommendations out before this cycle gets fully underway, then we have really just completely wasted a year of everybody’s time,” he said.
Senate GOP shoots down bill blocking the rich asshole tariffs
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 03/12/18 07:49 PM EDT
Senate GOP leadership is downplaying the chances of a showdown with President the rich asshole over tariffs, predicting they’ll be able to work out their differences without legislation.
Republican lawmakers signaled on Monday that they believe the White House will ultimately narrow the financial penalties after initially only providing exceptions for Canada and Mexico.
Asked about legislation, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) predicted there would be a "back-and-forth" between congressional Republicans and the rich asshole before the tariffs are implemented.
"I think we're making progress without legislation. ... I expect we'll continue that conversation," said Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the chairman of the Finance Committee, told reporters "let's wait and see what happens."
"I think the president knows we're going to have to work that out," he said.
The move was a direct rebuke to congressional Republicans who had worked frantically behind the scenes, and through public pleas, for the rich asshole to back down or at least significantly narrow the tariffs.
The penalties are expected to be implemented within 15 days. That gives Congress little time to do what has so far eluded them: win over a president who put protectionist trade policies at the center of his presidential campaign.
Several GOP senators have appeared open to legislation nullifying, or broadly addressing, the tariffs.
Hatch told reporters late last week that there was a "good chance" Congress would pass legislation "if I have my way."
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation on Monday to nullify the rich asshole's tariffs, saying, "Congress simply can’t be complicit as this administration courts economic disaster in this fashion."
Flake noted that he hadn’t yet started reaching out to colleagues to get them to support his measure.
Neither Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) nor House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) have weighed in on taking legislative action. Both emphasized that they wanted to work with the rich asshole to narrow the tariffs in the immediate wake of his decision.
Because any legislation will need the rich asshole’s signature, it could ultimately be required to get two-thirds support in both chambers — a Herculean task for a GOP-controlled Congress against a Republican president.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who has been critical of the tariffs and supportive of legislation to stop them, appeared skeptical that Congress would ultimately buck the president.
“I mean, even if we were to get a vote on it, would it pass? And would we override a veto? So, legislatively there's not that much we can do,” he said on Monday.
There’s no sign that McConnell or Ryan would want to expend political capital going head-to-head with a GOP president in a midterm election year.
"I don't think we're there yet. I'm not a fan of the trade policy, but I don't think we're there yet,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of GOP leadership. “I think it may work itself out.”
A majority of GOP voters support the rich asshole’s tariffs and his handling of trade policy, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this month.
The poll found that 58 percent of GOP voters support the tariffs, and 69 percent approve of his handling of trade.
Nullifying the tariffs isn’t the only option senators have. They could also hold up nominees or refuse to renew the rich asshole’s ability to fast-track trade deals through Congress. Such a dramatic step appears unlikely considering a Republican-controlled Senate gave President Obama the same power.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), asked about legislation, predicted Republicans will want to wait and see what the administration does before making a decision.
“I think we're probably going to pay a little bit of attention to what the administration does and how they implement this going forward. They've taken Canada and Mexico out, which is a move in the right direction, but the question is, you know, what about European allies, etc.,” said Thune, the No. 3 Senate Republican.
With Congress expected to leave on March 23 for a two-week recess, quick action on tariffs is unlikely. The Senate is currently debating reforms to the Dodd-Frank banking bill. It’s expected to turn next to legislation to combat online sex trafficking and funding the government
Supporters of tariff legislation would also need to win over McConnell, who keeps a tight grip on the floor schedule, in order to set up a vote.
Flake, asked about leadership’s cool reception to legislation, said he believes other lawmakers will want to formally weigh in.
“There will be a lot of members who want to vote," he said. "So, we’ll see."
the rich asshole blocks Broadcom deal over national security concerns
BY HARPER NEIDIG - 03/12/18 06:38 PM EDT
President the rich asshole on Monday blocked what would have been the biggest tech deal in history, saying the Singapore-based Broadcom’s efforts at a hostile takeover of Qualcomm posed a threat to national security.
The announcement came just hours after Broadcom CEO Hock Tan met with officials from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. (CFIUS) to make his case for the deal, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
CFIUS had launched an investigation into the national security implications of the deal last week over concerns that it would hamper U.S. efforts to develop 5G wireless networks and other emerging technologies. CFIUS on Monday recommended that the president veto the deal.
"Broadcom is reviewing the Order," the company said in a statement. "Broadcom strongly disagrees that its proposed acquisition of Qualcomm raises any national security concerns."
In an order released Monday night, the rich asshole said he’d been presented with “credible evidence” by CFIUS that the transaction could threaten U.S. security.
In a letter to both companies’ attorneys last week, the interagency panel said it was concerned that Broadcom’s takeover would put at risk U.S. efforts to build next-generation wireless networks, thereby giving Chinese firms the opportunity to take the lead.
In another letter released before Monday’s meeting, CFIUS said its national security concerns had been “confirmed” and hinted that it would recommend to the president that he block the deal.
Broadcom in the past week has been aggressively pushing back on concerns that it has any plans to hamper Qualcomm’s research and development investments. It announced a $1.5 billion innovation fund, promised to build out Qualcomm’s work in 5G and assured Congress that it would not sell any assets to foreign entities.
the rich asshole’s order comes just months after he stood alongside Tan in the White House as the Broadcom chief revealed that the company would be re-domiciling in the U.S. in what the administration touted at the time as a major jobs announcement. Broadcom made its unsolicited bid for Qualcomm a few days later.
Broadcom has also tried to accelerate its plans to become a U.S. company in order alleviate concerns about the takeover’s impact on national security.
But none of the efforts seemed to be enough to placate CFIUS, which made an unprecedented intervention to halt Broadcom’s takeover last week by ordering Qualcomm to postpone its shareholder meeting, at which Broadcom was expected to win a majority of the San Diego company’s board of director seats.
Spokespeople Qualcomm were not immediately able to comment.
—Updated at 8:46 p.m.
Conservative columnist rips ‘the rich asshole evangelicals’ for co-opting the GOP: ‘They’ve sold their souls’
some rich asshole in Cleveland prayer huddle -- (YouTube screen grab)
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In the wake of President some rich asshole’s scandal involving payouts for an alleged relationship with a porn star, a conservative columnist slammed “the rich asshole evangelicals” for selling out their souls in favor of politics.
“With their reactions to the Roy Moore candidacy and the Stormy Daniels scandal, the rich asshole evangelicals have scaled the heights of hypocrisy to the summit,” Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson wrote in an op-ed published Monday evening.
“Family-values conservatives who dismiss credible accusations of sexual abuse and wink at hush money for a porn star have ceased to represent family values in any meaningful sense. They have made a national joke of moral standards that were once, presumably, deeply held,” he continued. “At least when a Democrat violated them.”
Gerson, who also penned a cover story for this month’s issue of the Atlantic opining on evangelicals becoming “an anxious minority seeking political protection” from the president, argued that “[fundamentalists’] deeper issue is the distinctly non-Christian substance of President the rich asshole’s values.”
“the rich asshole’s nasty mash-up of the power of positive thinking, the Playboy philosophy and the will to power is a naturally poor fit for religious conservatives,” he wrote. “Or so one would have thought.”
“the rich asshole evangelicals defend their support for the president in the pose of political realists,” Gerson continued. “A president, they argue, is not a pastor. A certain amount of compromise is necessary to get conservative judges and more favorable treatment of Christian institutions. This is the way of the world.”
Indeed, Pastor Robert Jeffress, one of the president’s faith advisers, declared on Fox News that the rich asshole’s alleged relationship with Daniels is “totally irrelevant” despite it being against his own beliefs and those he preaches from the pulpit of his Dallas megachurch.
“I‘m his friend,” Jeffress said during his interview. “I will never walk away.”
Evangelicals’ staunch defense of the president, Gerson wrote, will eventually come back to haunt them.
“Identifying evangelicalism with the rich asshole’s ethno-populism may have some short-term benefits,” he wrote. “But public influence eventually depends on the persuasiveness of public arguments. And close ties to the rich asshole will eventually be disastrous to causes that evangelicals care about.”
“Pro-life arguments are discredited by an association with misogyny,” Gerson continued. “Arguments for religious liberty are discredited by association with anti-Muslim bias. Arguments for family values are discredited by nativist disdain for migrant families.”
“The damage radiates further,” he concluded. “the rich asshole evangelicals are blessing the destruction of public norms on civility, decency and the importance of public character.”
House GOP ending Russia probe, says no collusion found
BY OLIVIA BEAVERS AND KATIE BO WILLIAMS - 03/12/18 06:00 PM EDT 8,412
The House Intelligence Committee is shutting down its contentious investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the top Republican leading the probe announced on Monday.
The committee will interview no more witnesses and Republicans are in the process of preparing their final report, Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) told reporters. A draft of that roughly 150-page report will be delivered to committee Democrats for review on Tuesday.
It will also contradict an official U.S. intelligence community assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin showed a “preference” for some rich asshole during the race — another assertion that the rich asshole has disputed.
“We found no evidence of collusion,” Conaway said Monday. “We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment in taking meetings — but only Tom Clancy could take this series of inadvertent contacts, meetings, whatever, and weave that into some sort of a spy thriller that could go out there.”
Further, he said, “we couldn’t establish the same conclusion that the CIA did that [the Russians] specifically wanted to help the rich asshole.”
the rich asshole applauded the committee's findings on Twitter:
THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
The announcement is unlikely to herald any bipartisan conclusion to the central questions in an investigation that for more than a year has been mired in investigatory offshoots, leaks and bitter fighting between committee members.
The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), in a blistering statement called the end of the probe a "tragic milestone" and a "capitulation to the executive branch."
"By ending its oversight role in the only authorized investigation in the House, the Majority has placed the interests of protecting the President over protecting the country, and history will judge its actions harshly," Schiff wrote.
Schiff in his statement emphatically rejected the GOP's assertion that the Russians did not seek to help the rich asshole's campaign, saying the evidence "is clear and overwhelming that the Intelligence Community Assessment was correct."
"If the Russians do have leverage over the President of the United States, the Majority has simply decided it would rather not know," he said.
Republicans have said for months that they were ready to wind down the investigation, having found no evidence of collusion. Democrats paint a different picture, warning that Republicans are protecting the president by failing to conduct a serious investigation.
Conaway said Monday that he expects Democrats to make “extensive changes” to the draft report Republicans will deliver on Tuesday. Lawmakers from both parties have long said that Democrats would likely issue their own report.
The GOP report will confirm a broad-based Russian active measures campaign designed to sow discord during the 2016 presidential race, as well as a “lackluster” pre-election response to that campaign.
It will also include “how anti-the rich asshole research made its way from Russian sources to the [Hillary] Clinton campaign,” an apparent reference to the controversial dossier of opposition research on the rich asshole compiled in part by former British spy Christopher Steele, who was hired by the research firm Fusion GPS.
“We will say that there was an attempt to use foreign sources with respect to the Clinton campaign,” Conaway said.
“It was clear that there was — at least Steele and however much he talked and didn’t talk to Russians — that’s foreigners and that information was paid for by the [Democratic National Committee] and the Clinton campaign,” Conaway said, adding, “I don’t have any direct evidence that they knew about it.”
The GOP report will also include a section covering what the committee believes were criminal leaks related to the dossier, though Conaway said the committee lacked the evidence to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department.
The draft report also includes recommendations for both Congress and the executive branch, centered on election security, government response to cyberattacks and support to European allies.
The investigation, launched in January 2017, is coming to a close after lawmakers reviewed more than 300,000 documents and interviewed 73 witnesses, including former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, some rich asshole Jr. and the rich asshole's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.
As initially conceived, the probe was tasked with four investigatory pillars, including the Russian interference effort, the government’s response to that campaign, leaks of classified information related to those matters and any ties between Russia and “individuals associated with political campaigns.”
Despite regular outbreaks of internecine fighting, the investigation has produced one of the most significant public developments in the Russia saga to date: It was at a public committee hearing that then-FBI Director James Comey revealed that the bureau was investigating the matter.
It was also the genesis of an ongoing GOP investigation, spearheaded by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), into what some House Republicans say were gross abuses of U.S. surveillance authorities.
In a dramatic moment, Nunes stepped back from leading the investigation amidst a now-closed Ethics Committee investigation into whether he revealed classified information during an impromptu press conference last spring.
It was then that Conaway took over the investigation, though Democrats have complained that Nunes continued to assert his authority behind the scenes. Nunes has insisted the Ethics investigation, which cleared him of any wrongdoing, was a political sham.
Relations on the panel were further rocked earlier this year when committee Republicans forced the publication of a formerly classified memo prepared by Nunes’s staff alleging surveillance abuses, over the objections of both Democrats and the FBI.
Although Democrats were later permitted to release their own countermemo, they have since called on Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to remove Nunes from his post as chairman.
Committee Republicans have said the investigations into surveillance abuses are separate from the Russia probe. Those reviews are ongoing, Conaway said Monday.
The panel has also been split by disputes over subpoenaing witnesses. Democrats have complained that Republicans have allowed witnesses to set the parameters of their testimony at the behest of the White House, a characterization disputed by Conaway on Monday.
“Broad statement, you use subpoenas when you think you can actually get something from them, and we’re not particularly confident that the subpoena process will get us any more than we had,” he said. “We also think we have the evidence we need to come to the conclusions we’ve come to.”
The committee will not pursue steps to enforce the subpoena of Bannon, who frustrated both Republicans and Democrats by refusing to answer questions outside of the 25 scripted by the White House during a pair of interviews this year.
The raucous investigation in the House has been dramatically different from a parallel probe underway in the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has largely kept its work under wraps and whose leaders have presented a united front.
The Senate panel’s work is ongoing. Its first product, a report on election security, is expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Conaway on Monday declined to set a timeline for the public release of the House report, which must first be sent back to the intelligence community to be scrubbed for classified information.
He said the report would not be shared with the Senate Intelligence Committee before publication.
Rosenstein defends Mueller: No reason to end special counsel
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 03/12/18 07:03 PM EDT
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended special counsel Robert Mueller in an interview published Monday, saying that he doesn’t believe “there is any justification” for ending the probe into Russia's election interference.
"The special counsel is not an unguided missile," Rosenstein told USA Today. "I don't believe there is any justification at this point for terminating the special counsel."
The Washington Post reported earlier this year that President the rich asshole had ordered that Mueller be fired last summer, but was thwarted by White House counsel Don McGahn, who threatened to resign over the move.
the rich asshole has repeatedly attacked Mueller’s probe as a “witch hunt.”
Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller following the firing of FBI Director James Comey and recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the 2016 investigation, said oversight of the probe takes up only "a fraction" of his time on a daily basis.
He also defended the Justice Department from recent attacks.
the rich asshole and Republican lawmakers have slammed the department and the FBI, claiming officials there are biased against the rich asshole.
"I believe much of the criticism will fall by the wayside when people reflect on this era and the Department of Justice," said Rosenstein, who did not mention the rich asshole by name during the interview. "I'm very confident that when the history of this era is written, it will reflect that the department was operated with integrity."
He also said that he felt “very confident” in his ability to carry out his job.
"In any political job, you recognize that your time is going to be limited. My goal is to get as much done for as long as I'm here in the job,” Rosenstein said.
"And when my time is up, whenever that may be, I'm confident that I'm going to be able to look back proudly on the work our department has done while I've been fortunate enough to be here,” he continued.
Rosenstein added that he had “anticipated that this would be a lower-profile job,” but that he wouldn’t trade places with past deputy attorneys general.
His comments came the same day GOP lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee announced that they are ending the panel’s probe into Russia's election interference.
The Republican lawmakers are finalizing their report on the probe’s findings, and will say that they found no evidence of collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russia.
White House insists the rich asshole has not 'chickened out' on NRA
BY JONATHAN EASLEY - 03/12/18 03:38 PM EDT
The White House on Monday defended President the rich asshole’s gun proposals as it faced questions about whether he had “chickened out” in the face of pressure from the National Rifle Association (NRA).
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the rich asshole “hasn’t backed away” from his support for expanding background checks or raising the age limit on gun purchases, although neither was addressed in a plan the administration rolled out Sunday night.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the rich asshole “hasn’t backed away” from his support for expanding background checks or raising the age limit on gun purchases, although neither was addressed in a plan the administration rolled out Sunday night.
The NRA, which contributed heavily to the rich asshole’s election campaign in 2016, opposes both measures.
“He hasn't backed away from these things at all,” Sanders said at a press briefing, where she faced numerous questions on the issue, including from a Washington Post reporter who said the president seemed “petrified” by opposition from the NRA and wondered whether he had “chickened out.”
“They’re still outlined in the plan,” Sanders said.
Sanders made the case that the rich asshole is focusing first on proposals that have “broad bipartisan support” or that could be accomplished “immediately” through the regulatory process or federal action.
She insisted that the president still supports raising age limits on gun purchases and expanding background checks, but said both would require more political pressure and further review before action can be taken.
“He can’t make them happen with a broad stroke of the pen,” Sanders said. “You have to have some congressional component to do some of these things, and without that support, it's not as possible.”
The White House is under growing pressure to act on the president’s proposed gun restrictions after last month’s shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead.
Weeks ago at a White House meeting with lawmakers from both parties, the rich asshole accused Republicans of fearing the NRA and of backing down against it. He also repeatedly said he was different from other presidents and that he would take action in response to gun violence.
“He hasn't backed away from these things at all,” Sanders said at a press briefing, where she faced numerous questions on the issue, including from a Washington Post reporter who said the president seemed “petrified” by opposition from the NRA and wondered whether he had “chickened out.”
“They’re still outlined in the plan,” Sanders said.
Sanders made the case that the rich asshole is focusing first on proposals that have “broad bipartisan support” or that could be accomplished “immediately” through the regulatory process or federal action.
She insisted that the president still supports raising age limits on gun purchases and expanding background checks, but said both would require more political pressure and further review before action can be taken.
“He can’t make them happen with a broad stroke of the pen,” Sanders said. “You have to have some congressional component to do some of these things, and without that support, it's not as possible.”
The White House is under growing pressure to act on the president’s proposed gun restrictions after last month’s shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead.
Weeks ago at a White House meeting with lawmakers from both parties, the rich asshole accused Republicans of fearing the NRA and of backing down against it. He also repeatedly said he was different from other presidents and that he would take action in response to gun violence.
But the proposals advanced in a White House plan rolled out Sunday included little that would bother the NRA — a point that reporters sought to drive home in several contentious exchanges with Sanders on Monday.
“It seemed like President the rich asshole was the one petrified of the NRA,” the Post reporter said.
An exasperated Sanders said the White House was focused on what it could accomplish in the near-term, while also noting that former President Obama was not able to do anything on gun control.
“Let's not forget that the Obama administration had the White House and all of Congress for two years and didn't do anything,” she said.
“It seemed like President the rich asshole was the one petrified of the NRA,” the Post reporter said.
An exasperated Sanders said the White House was focused on what it could accomplish in the near-term, while also noting that former President Obama was not able to do anything on gun control.
“Let's not forget that the Obama administration had the White House and all of Congress for two years and didn't do anything,” she said.
the rich asshole said on Twitter on Monday he still supports raising the minimum age for purchasing a gun but there isn’t enough “political support” on that front right now.
Sanders said the administration is reviewing whether age restrictions can be done at the federal level or if they need to be enacted on a state-by-state basis.
“The president, as you know, doesn't have the ability to just create federal law, and he would need a number of other individuals to come together to help make that happen,” Sanders said.
The president on Monday also reiterated his support for strengthening background checks, although Sanders declined to elaborate on whether the president supports universal background checks, which would require federal involvement in private gun sale transactions and at gun shows.
The White House is backing a bill in Congress that would incentivize the use of the current criminal background checks system without expanding it. The NRA opposes expanding background checks.
In the near term, the White House says it will focus on training and arming some school officials — a highly controversial idea.
The Department of Justice will launch a voluntary program aimed at matching schools with state and local law enforcement officials to provide “rigorous firearm training to qualified personnel."
The administration is 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 people they deem potential threats.
And the Justice Department is reviewing whether it can use the regulatory process to ban bump stocks, a device that allows certain semi-automatic weapons to fire more rapidly. The NRA opposes banning the sale of bump stocks.
“What he is pushing forward are things that can immediately be accomplished, either through the administration or that have broad base bipartisan support in Congress,” Sanders said. “But that doesn't mean that he has wiped away some of those other things that we're still looking at how best we can move forward on.”
The White House has tapped Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to lead a federal commission to determine how best to address gun violence in schools.
That effort got off to a rocky start after DeVos struggled through a “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday, in which she had a hard time answering basic questions about the education system and appeared conflicted on the rich asshole’s proposal to arm some teachers.
“That should be an option for states and communities to consider,” DeVos said. “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.”
“But for those who are — who are capable this is one solution that can and should be considered,” she said. “But no one size fits all.”
the rich asshole has in the past criticized so-called blue ribbon commissions, like the one DeVos is leading on school safety, saying they are used by bureaucrats to kick the can down the road.
The White House said Monday that the rich asshole, not DeVos, would be the face of the administration’s push on new gun proposals.
“I think the president is going to be the lead on school safety when it comes to this administration,” Sanders said. “He certainly has been since the process has begun, and he'll continue to lead on it as we move forward.”
Sanders said the administration is reviewing whether age restrictions can be done at the federal level or if they need to be enacted on a state-by-state basis.
“The president, as you know, doesn't have the ability to just create federal law, and he would need a number of other individuals to come together to help make that happen,” Sanders said.
The president on Monday also reiterated his support for strengthening background checks, although Sanders declined to elaborate on whether the president supports universal background checks, which would require federal involvement in private gun sale transactions and at gun shows.
The White House is backing a bill in Congress that would incentivize the use of the current criminal background checks system without expanding it. The NRA opposes expanding background checks.
In the near term, the White House says it will focus on training and arming some school officials — a highly controversial idea.
The Department of Justice will launch a voluntary program aimed at matching schools with state and local law enforcement officials to provide “rigorous firearm training to qualified personnel."
The administration is 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 people they deem potential threats.
And the Justice Department is reviewing whether it can use the regulatory process to ban bump stocks, a device that allows certain semi-automatic weapons to fire more rapidly. The NRA opposes banning the sale of bump stocks.
“What he is pushing forward are things that can immediately be accomplished, either through the administration or that have broad base bipartisan support in Congress,” Sanders said. “But that doesn't mean that he has wiped away some of those other things that we're still looking at how best we can move forward on.”
The White House has tapped Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to lead a federal commission to determine how best to address gun violence in schools.
That effort got off to a rocky start after DeVos struggled through a “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday, in which she had a hard time answering basic questions about the education system and appeared conflicted on the rich asshole’s proposal to arm some teachers.
“That should be an option for states and communities to consider,” DeVos said. “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.”
“But for those who are — who are capable this is one solution that can and should be considered,” she said. “But no one size fits all.”
the rich asshole has in the past criticized so-called blue ribbon commissions, like the one DeVos is leading on school safety, saying they are used by bureaucrats to kick the can down the road.
The White House said Monday that the rich asshole, not DeVos, would be the face of the administration’s push on new gun proposals.
“I think the president is going to be the lead on school safety when it comes to this administration,” Sanders said. “He certainly has been since the process has begun, and he'll continue to lead on it as we move forward.”
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