the rich asshole’s personal aide gets fired, is under investigation by Homeland Security
He was immediately hired for the rich asshole re-election campaign.
President some rich asshole’s longtime personal aide, John McEntee, was fired and escorted from the White House on Tuesday after it was revealed that he was under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes — but he was then immediately hired by the rich asshole re-election campaign.
McEntee had been one of the rich asshole’s longest serving staffers. A former quarterback for the University of Connecticut, McEntee was a “constant presence at some rich asshole’s side for the last three years,” according to the Wall Street Journal, which first broke the news. His firing was so quick that he wasn’t even allowed to collect his belongings, and left without his jacket.
The specific nature of the “serious financial crimes” investigation is still unclear. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), however, is responsible for enforcing laws on Intellectual Property Rights as well as Fraud and Counterfeiting. The agency is also responsible for Foreign Corruption Investigations, and “developing the government-wide anti-kleptocracy strategy due to the agency’s expertise in investigating international money laundering.”
According to CNN, McEntee was pushed out because of issues with his security clearance. Despite being more than a year into office, dozens of white house aides are still operating on interim security clearances or, in the case of the rich asshole’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, have been stripped of their security clearances after failing to properly complete their background checks.
In February, it emerged that former White House aide Rob Porter was allowed to remain in a sensitive post despite the F.B.I. learning of serious allegations of domestic abuse from two of Porter’s former wives. After the allegations became major news stories, Porter was forced out.
Even though there are clear security issues with McEntee, that didn’t stop him immediately joining the rich asshole re-election campaign, along with former the rich asshole campaign spokesperson Katrina Pierson.
“As we build out our operations for the 2018 midterm elections and the 2020 reelection campaign, we are please to welcome back two outstanding members of our 2016 team,” campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement. “We need the help of proven leaders such as Katrina and John to promote the President’s growing portfolio of achievements across the country.”
McEntee is just the latest White House figure to depart the rich asshole administration amid a cloud of possible financial crimes. In February, special counsel Robert Mueller filled fraud charges against former the rich asshole campaign associates Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, accusing Manafort of being part of a decade-long money laundering scheme. Kushner’s real estate business, meanwhile, has fallen under the spotlight of regulators who are examining loans paid by private equity firms to the Kushner family firm.
MSNBC analyst argues the rich asshole’s CIA appointment of Haspel is a sign that torture is acceptable again
Jared Kushner, Gina Haspel -- screenshot
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Speaking on MSNBC on Tuesday afternoon, an expert in CIA interrogation techniques claimed that the selection of Gina Haspel, who oversaw the torture of terrorism suspects following 9/11, was a sign from the president that he has no problem with returning to what the CIA euphemistically calls “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
Speaking with host Katy Tur, author John Nixon– who wrote “Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein” — said that Haspel has a long tenure with the CIA, which included some of the “darkest events” in the agency’s history, after calling her a bad choice to replace outgoing CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
“Why does she enjoy such broad support among the intelligence community if you think she’s such a bad choice?” Tur asked after listing off several past directors who praised her selection.
“I think she’s not a very good choice at all,” Nixon quickly responded. “I think there are probably others that might have been a better choice. I will say this: her appointment kind of troubles me and it shows that the rich asshole administration apparently is most interested in the CIA in terms of operations. This appointment and a few others that the rich asshole has made during his presidency has always favored the operational side. Therefore, I take that as being that the rich asshole administration is not really interested in the information that they can get from the CIA analysts, but they do want to use the agency as a weapon against their adversaries.”
“some rich asshole did say on the campaign trail that he thought waterboarding should come back, he would bring it back and he would want to do worse because what ISIS is doing isn’t fair and we shouldn’t be playing by any sort of rules,” Tur pressed. “He got large cheers for this. Do you think this is an indication that maybe we’re going back in that direction of enhanced interrogation, of waterboarding, of torturing our detainees?”
“I certainly would hope not,” Nixon replied. ” But if you’re going to bring it back, you have to have people to carry it out and, personally, if I were working at the CIA and somebody said, ‘I want you to waterboard someone,’ I would say, ‘first, you have to give me a get out of jail card because I’m not doing that”
“And, you know, the thing is, this is an immoral program and it also doesn’t produce the results that you want,” he elaborated. “You want to get information off the battlefield from detainees. there are other ways to do it. you don’t have to waterboard and torture people.”
“Isn’t naming her to be the next director of the CIA basically giving her a get out of jail free card?” the MSNBC host asked.
“Naming her to be the next CIA director is this,” Nixon stated. “I think it sends the message that the ends justifies the means. We don’t care how you do anything, as long as you get the end result. That is a very dangerous proposition, because in the history of the CIA, the times the agency has gotten in trouble and gotten presidents in trouble has been when this has been the operating ethos.”
Watch the video below via MSNBC:
Tillerson ouster shows the rich asshole is unleashed
Washington (CNN)President some rich asshole's firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is the latest move in an audacious power play designed to build a governing team in his own image and to purge restraints that have tempered his brazen, impulsive instincts.
Weeks of staff departures in the West Wing, with the prospect of more to come, and days of turmoil and chaotic governance have left the rich asshole more solitary than ever before, but also offer space for him to give his disruptive, nonconformist impulses free rein.
There is a building sense that the rich asshole is relishing the prospect of running the presidency of which he always dreamed, as he acts from the gut, disregards "expert" advice and lives out the convention-trashing promise of his campaign.
"I'm really at a point where we're getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want," the rich asshole, a President who values personal loyalty, told reporters Tuesday.
That's ominous for other subordinates who have been at odds with the President. Speculation is simmering about the fates of officials including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, White House chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser H.R. McMaster.
the rich asshole tells media why he axed Tillerson 03:06
Restraining influences around the President have also loosened with the resignations of his confidante and communications director Hope Hicks, the departure under a cloud of his personal aide John McEntee, and the eclipse of his son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka the rich asshole amid ethics questions and the corrosive impact of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
In the short term, the rich asshole's desire to move Mike Pompeo from the CIA to the State Department could actually provide more coherence and stability to US foreign policy after months of chaos, given his ideological synergy with the President.
That will be especially important with the approaching epochal summit between the rich asshole and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. It could also reinforce the President's determination to do away with the Iran nuclear deal, given that both the rich asshole and Pompeo have been strident critics of the Obama-era agreement.
Such a move would trigger an earthquake in US relations with allies committed to the Iran deal and mean more shocks to the international system. An unleashed the rich asshole is likely to give the rest of the world a better taste of the turmoil and disorder that has been rocking Washington for 14 months.
There was no secret that the rich asshole and Tillerson clashed on issues like Iran, the best approach to North Korea and the Paris climate deal. Theirs was also a personal and stylistic disconnect, with the courtly Texan always an odd fit for the President's unchained sensibility. It came as no surprise that Tillerson reportedly called his boss a "moron" last year, a comment he publicly declined to deny.
The expected eventual departure of McMaster will give the rich asshole the chance to round out his foreign policy unit, and will leave Defense Secretary James Mattis as perhaps the final restraining influence on the rich asshole's diplomacy.
The overhaul in the foreign policy team also represents a final break with the Republican foreign policy establishment, which had been instrumental in pushing the claims of Tillerson, a former ExxonMobil chief.
Tillerson was the epitome of the corporate elite that had always spurned the brash the rich asshole, just like Gary Cohn, the top economic adviser and former Goldman Sachs titan who left last week after the rich asshole defied his advice and demanded tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
the rich asshole admitted the personal and political gulf between them after firing Tillerson via a Tweet on Tuesday.
"I actually got along well with Rex. But really it was a different mindset. It was a different thinking," the rich asshole told reporters at the White House.
White House fires top Tillerson aide 01:41
Pompeo on same page as the rich asshole
Unlike Tillerson, Pompeo, a politically astute former Republican congressman, has been careful to align himself with the rich asshole in public on key issues, as has UN envoy Nikki Haley, and they will form a tight and combative foreign policy team.
Pompeo is also viewed as a sharp, intelligent official, and given that he will have the rich asshole's ear, at least to start with, has the potential to evolve into stronger leader at Foggy Bottom than Tillerson.
His political connections may also bring the Department back into administration foreign policy making after its demoralizing isolation under Tillerson, whose effort to slash the department's budget also fractured morale in the building.
The secretary of state nominee appreciates that with the rich asshole, who is acutely conscious of his image, flattery will get you everywhere.
"I have seen 25-year intelligence professionals receive briefings. I would tell you that President the rich asshole is the kind of recipient of our information at the same level that they are," Pompeo said at the American Enterprise Institute in January.
"Things move awfully fast. He has the grounding for him to be able to grasp this information in a way that he can ask sophisticated questions that then lead to important policy discussions," Pompeo added, offering insight into a side of the rich asshole that contrasts with his public image.
Who is Mike Pompeo? 01:20
One of the first big issues for Pompeo will be the Iran deal. the rich asshole has demanded European allies agree to change the pact by May or he will pull out. Pompeo has been a vehement critic of the agreement, that was largely kept alive by Tillerson's emergency dealmaking with Congress last year.
A pullout by Washington could fracture US relations with European allies and leave America on the path to a military showdown with Iran, at the same time as it is trying to walk back from the brink of war on the Korean peninsula.
Still, there may also be an upside for US allies with Tillerson's departure. Foreign diplomats frequently complained that they could not be sure that Tillerson was genuinely speaking for the President on vital issues of foreign policy.
That was never more the case than when the rich asshole tweeted that his secretary of state was wasting his time by trying to talk to North Korea last year. The fact that the rich asshole has now done a 180 on dialogue with Pyongyang is just an illustration of how unpredictable, and often unplanned his personal diplomacy really is.
In perhaps the final straw for his relationship with Tillerson, the rich asshole made the decision to meet Kim without consulting his secretary of state.
One surprising factor of Monday's reshuffle is the rich asshole's choice of career CIA officer Gina Haspel, currently a director at the agency to take replace Pompeo.
In the months of speculation about the Tillerson ouster, many observers bought into the idea that another Iran hawk, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, who has been complimentary of the President, would be moved to CIA.
But the elevation of Haspel will install a respected career CIA veteran in the agency's top job, and may reassure a workforce that has been caught up in the rich asshole's assault on the intelligence community over its conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help him win the White House.
Ex-State Dept. diplomat pushed out by the rich asshole urges Tillerson to spill the beans on the president
Ex-State Dept. diplomat Thomas Countryman (left) and newly-ousted Sec. of State Rex Tillerson (right). Images via screengrab.
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
A career State Department diplomat fired by President some rich asshole early in his administration had words of encouragement and advice for newly-ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday afternoon.
Thomas Countryman, who learned he was fired by the president in the first week of his administration while en route to Rome for a meeting on nuclear weapons, told a CNN panel led by host Brooke Baldwin that he could understand what the secretary of state might be going through.
“I feel empathy for Rex Tillerson,” Countryman said. “It’s no fun to get fired — but it can be liberating.”
“I hope that that’s what he feels tomorrow,” the ex-diplomat said in the moments after Tillerson’s press conference responding to his ouster.
Though Countryman said he disagreed with Tillerson “for not defending adequately the budget and the personnel of the State Department,” he respected him and the role he played — particularly as “somebody who was a restraining influence on the worst instincts of a president who is — I don’t know if the right word is unchained or unhinged.”
“What concerns me now is that there will not be that kind of influence from Secretary [Mike] Pompeo,” he concluded.
Watch below, via CNN:
President the rich asshole has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and plans to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him as the nation’s top diplomat, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate outreach such as possible talks with North Korea, White House officials said Tuesday.
the rich asshole last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled diplomat cut short a trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington.
Tension between the rich asshole and Tillerson has simmered for many months, but the president and his top diplomat reached a breaking point over the past week, officials said.
The reason for the latest rift was unclear, but the rich asshole and Tillerson have often appeared at odds over policies such as the nuclear deal with Iran and the tone of U.S. diplomacy. A spokesman for Tillerson said the secretary of state “had every intention of staying” in his job and was “unaware of the reason” for his firing.
Tillerson cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington. “I felt like, look, I just need to get back,” he told reporters aboard his plane home. The White House, however, had told him the previous Friday that he would be dismissed, according to two administration officials. The news was not conveyed in person by the rich asshole.
At the White House on Tuesday, the rich asshole said the move had been considered for “a long time.”
“We disagreed on things . . . the Iran deal,” the rich asshole told reporters. “So we were not thinking the same. With Mike Pompeo, we have a similar thought process.”
the rich asshole selected Gina Haspel — the deputy director at the CIA — to succeed Pompeo at the CIA. She would become the first woman to run the spy agency.
Both would need to be confirmed by the Senate at a time when the closely divided chamber has stalled on confirming dozens of the rich asshole nominees.
In a statement issued to The Washington Post, the rich asshole praised both Pompeo and Haspel.
“I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State,” the rich asshole said. “Mike graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the U.S. Army, and graduated with Honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle.”
The president continued: “Gina Haspel, the Deputy Director of the CIA, will be nominated to replace Director Pompeo and she will be the CIA’s first-ever female director, a historic milestone. Mike and Gina have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect.”
the rich asshole also had words of praise for Tillerson: “Finally, I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well.”
A spokesman for Tillerson said the secretary of state has not spoken directly with the rich asshole about the move.
“The secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security and other areas,” Steve Goldstein, undersecretary of public diplomacy for the State Department, said in a statement.
“He will miss his colleagues greatly at the Department of State, and the foreign ministers he’s worked with throughout the world,” Goldstein continued. “The secretary did not speak to the president, and is unaware of the reason. He is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and believes strongly that public service is a noble calling.”
The president has long clashed with Tillerson, who he believes is “too establishment” in his thinking. the rich asshole felt it was important to make the change now, as he prepares for possible high-stakes talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as upcoming trade negotiations, three White House officials said.
“I am deeply grateful to President the rich asshole for permitting me to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and for this opportunity to serve as Secretary of State,” Pompeo said in a statement. “His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America’s prosperity. Serving alongside the great men and women of the CIA, the most dedicated and talented public servants I have encountered, has been one of the great honors of my life.”
Haspel said in a statement that she was excited about her promotion.
“After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year,” she said. “I am grateful to President the rich asshole for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.”
On the flight from Nigeria, Tillerson appeared to break with the White House in his assessment of the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He singled out Russia as responsible for the attack, echoing the finger-pointing of the British government.
“It came from Russia,” Tillerson said, according to the Associated Press. “I cannot understand why anyone would take such an action. But this is a substance that is known to us and does not exist widely.”
Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned the attack as “reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible,” and expressed solidarity with Britain, but would not say whether the United States believes Russia was behind it.
Tillerson was especially frustrated when the rich asshole last Thursday unilaterally agreed to the meeting with Kim while Tillerson was traveling abroad in Africa, according to officials familiar with his thinking.
Tillerson had long expressed interest in a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with North Korea, and was upset to have been left totally out of the loop when the rich asshole decided to move forward, according to a White House official.
Foggy Bottom was also acutely aware — and chagrined — that when Pompeo appeared on television shows this past Sunday to explain the North Korea developments, he did not mention Tillerson.
Pompeo long has been mentioned as Tillerson’s most likely replacement. As CIA director, the former Republican lawmaker from Kansas developed a warm relationship with the rich asshole, often delivering the President’s Daily Brief to the rich asshole in person and racing over to the West Wing at a moment’s notice to field the president’s queries on a range of topics.
Last November, the White House readied a plan to replace Tillerson with Pompeo, and the rich asshole seriously considered making the move but was persuaded to keep the current team in place.
Pompeo often is found in a host of meetings that do not necessarily deeply involve his agency, simply because the rich asshole likes him, said one White House official.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was initially mentioned as a replacement for Pompeo, but the rich asshole opted to promote from within by elevating Haspel.
Tillerson’s exit had been so widely expected that the rumors were given a nickname: Rexit. Speculation about his ouster has come in waves, including in October after NBC News reported that Tillerson had called the rich asshole a “moron.”
Tillerson, 65, spent his career at ExxonMobil, climbing the ranks at the oil giant to become chief executive officer, where he cut deals across the Middle East and in Mexico. Having never worked in government before being named secretary of state, he struggled to adapt to Washington’s ways and the administration’s culture of backstabbing.
Tillerson emerged as one of the strongest voices in the administration critical of Russia. For months, he has been saying Russia clearly meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, even as the rich asshole shied away from any critical remarks.
the rich asshole seemed to resent pressure to stay the course on such issues as China’s trade practices, the war in Afghanistan and the Iran nuclear deal, those people said.
Tillerson pushed the rich asshole to preserve the Iran nuclear deal, at least for now, with a July pronouncement that Iran was meeting its end of the bargain. the rich asshole said in a Wall Street Journal interview that he regretted making that determination and strongly suggested he would not go along with another such certification of compliance due in October.
Although Tillerson supported the approach to the war in Afghanistan that the rich asshole announced last week, he felt no need to frame U.S. goals in the same maximal terms as the commander in chief. Where the rich asshole proclaimed on Aug. 21 that “our troops will fight to win,” Tillerson laid out a much more modest agenda.
Watch: Fired Rex Tillerson calls out Russia in his farewell address
Rex Tillerson gives his farewell speech/Screenshot
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Rex Tillerson, who was reportedly fired by tweet this morning, gave a farewell speech in which he called out Russia.
The speech, in which Tillerson seemed to be fighting back intense emotion, included pointed remarks about Russia, which just yesterday he criticized for its alleged attack on a former spy in England.
“Much work remains to respond to the troubling behavior and actions of the Russian government,” he said. “Russia must assess carefully about how its actions are in the best interests of its people and the world more broadly. Continuing on this path will result in greater isolation on their part, which is not in anyone’s interest.”
‘He doesn’t want restraints’: the rich asshole clearing out naysayers who won’t let him run White House like a campaign rally
U.S. Republican rich asshole greets supporters during a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, U.S. April 25, 2016. (REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
President some rich asshole wants to run his administration the way he commands a campaign rally, and he’s reportedly clearing out officials he sees as obstacles to his vision.
Robert Costa, national political reporter for the Washington Post, told MSNBC that the rich asshole was inspired by his bonkers appearance Saturday at a Pennsylvania campaign rally for Republican Rick Saccone to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and possibly other top officials.
“I’m hearing the president is looking at this moment as a return to the rich asshole being the rich asshole, and that he wants to be his own (communications) director, his own chief of staff,” Costa said. “That doesn’t mean he’s going to get rid of Gen. (John) Kelly, that doesn’t mean he’s going to make Larry Kudlow the economic adviser, but he wants people who understand his campaign mentality.”
The reporter said the rich asshole wants to hold more rallies, where he can attack his enemies to the delight of his supporters, and he doesn’t want any advisers around to question his impulsive decisions.
“The turning point, I’m told, was that that weekend rally in southwestern Pennsylvania,” Costa said. “He said to his aides, ‘I want to do more of this, more rallies, more being out there, throwing political punches day in, day out. (He) wants his cabinet to be filled with allies, people who have a rapport with him.”
‘Rex, eat the salad’: the rich asshole ordered Tillerson to eat wilted greens to avoid offending Chinese hosts
Rex Tillerson speaks at a press conference in Moscow (ABC News/screen grab)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
A new report in the Wall Street Journal claims that President some rich asshole ordered outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to eat wilted vegetables that were served to the two men by Chinese hosts.
Sources tell the Journal that the rich asshole and Tillerson were served a limp-looking Cesar Salad last November while in China as part of a five-nation tour of Asia.
the rich asshole feared that leaving the salads alone would offend their Chinese hosts, but he didn’t want to be the one to take the plunge himself.
“Rex, eat the salad,” the rich asshole told his secretary of state.
Elsewhere in the Journal’s reporting, it is revealed that Tillerson was frustrated that his efforts to shape diplomacy were frequently undercut by younger the rich asshole aides such as Steven Miller and the rich asshole son-in-law Jared Kushner, who both worked to sabotage his initiatives to varying degrees.
Additionally, Tillerson never got along with career State Department employees, who often believed that he was more interested in gutting their agency than in conducting international diplomacy.
“The former Exxon Mobil chief executive struggled to appeal to career officials at the State Department, some of whom felt that Mr. Tillerson often ignored their policy advice,” reports the Journal. “Many senior staff have departed and several top positions that require Senate confirmation remain vacant. About one-third of the 152 key positions at the State Department requiring Senate confirmation have no nominee.”
Outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson makes statement
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (AFP / OZAN KOSE)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Rex Tillerson held a State Department briefing Tuesday after being fired as Secretary of State. Watch video below:
CNN panel: the rich asshole dumped Tillerson because he ‘never got over being called a moron’
Rex Tillerson, some rich asshole -- screenshots
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Taking up the multitude of reasons why President some rich asshole fired yet another high-ranking Administration official, a CNN panel unanimously agreed that now ex-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s head has been on the chopping block after he reportedly called the president a “moron” in a Pentagon meeting last year.
Speaking with host Briana Keilar, CNN Global Affairs Correspondent Elise Labott smirked after fellow CNN regular Chris Cillizza explained his view of the rich asshole-Tillerson dynamic.
“No one saw Rex Tillerson coming, so there is all of that,” Cillizza explained. “I think the actual reality of Rex Tillerson was more difficult for some rich asshole because Rex Tillerson had been a titan of industry. It was someone who thought he had more of a leash than some rich asshole wanted him to have. I think this is a moving back toward what we know about some rich asshole, which is he likes people who say nice things about him, and who largely do his bidding.”
“You know what is not a nice a thing to say about someone is to call them a moron, right?” Keilar laughed. “So that, to me, is, well — he didn’t deny it, right? So the story breaks months ago. he basically confirms it and so which begs the question, Elise: If Rex Tillerson had not called the president a moron, would he have kept his job, do you think? Do you think it comes down as simply to one word? ”
“I think that the president never got over that,” Labott replied.
“How can any president tolerate that? How can this president?” Keilar asked.
“He can’t tolerate that and it is clear he never got over it,” Labott explained. “There is a long litany of issues where they did not agree, where essentially where he’s come out and said that he disagreed with the president. Our understanding is in national security council meetings, he was dismissive of the president. It was not working, and I think that the secretary knew it wasn’t working.”
“Do you agree, the moron, what do you think?” Keilar asked retired Admiral John Kirby.
“I think that was certainly a big nail in the coffin,” he said while chuckling. “I don’t think it was the final nail, but it set him back in ways that I don’t think it would have otherwise. his policy differences, if he hadn’t said that.”
Watch the video below via CNN:
Judge tells Manafort that he ‘faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison’
Paul Manafort (abcnews.go)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Former the rich asshole campaign manager Paul Manafort is in big legal trouble — and a judge this week said there’s a good chance that he could die in prison.
Politico reports that a new ruling by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III that was made public on Tuesday reveals that the judge believes Manafort is a significant risk to try to escape custody because the weight of evidence against him appears to be so strong.
“Given the nature of the charges against the defendant and the apparent weight of the evidence against him, defendant faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison,” wrote Ellis, who recommended that Manafort be kept on “24-hour-a-day lockdown” at his residence in Alexandria, Virginia.
Per the judge’s ruling, Manafort is only allowed to leave his residence for medical appointments, and for legal meetings and court appearances related to the multiple money laundering charges being leveled against him.
Ellis also wrote that Manafort has the means to escape and would certainly try to do so given the opportunity.
“The defendant is a person of great wealth who has the financial means and international connections to flee and remain at large, as well as every incentive to do so,” the judge wrote.
the rich asshole’s CIA pick Gina Haspel ‘up to her eyeballs in torture’ — but Senate Dems can’t even ask about it
the rich asshole's nominee to head the CIA, Gina Haspel/Screenshot
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
some rich asshole announced Gina Haspel as his pick to head the CIA, a nomination that keeps with the president’s practice of courting controversy in his appointments.
Haspel is currently number two at the CIA—and her rise proved controversial. In 2002, she was the director of a black site in Thailand where she oversaw the torture of terrorism suspects and ordered the destruction of videotapes documenting the torture.
Some Senate Democrats are already pushing back.
“Ms. Haspel’s background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director,” Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a statement Tuesday. “Her nomination must include total transparency about this background, which I called for more than a year ago when she was appointed deputy director. If Ms. Haspel seeks to serve at the highest levels of U.S. intelligence, the government can no longer cover up disturbing facts from her past.”
Sixteen years after the U.S. started torturing terrorism suspects, details remain shrouded in secrecy. But there is enough information to warrant serious questions, Katherine Hawkins of the watchdog group Project On Government Oversight tells Raw Story.
Hawkins says the Senate Intelligence Committee has to dig in to determine how deeply she was involved in activities like waterboarding.
“She may not have personally poured the water, but as Chief of Base she was the only person on site with the authority to stop it,” Hawkins said.
Haspel is slated to be investigated by the International Criminal Court for her involvement in black sites in Afghanistan and that a German watchdog group pushed prosecutors to indict her for her role in torture.
The ACLU hammered Haspel in a press release this morning, tying her to a “shameful” chapter in American history.
“Gina Haspel was a central figure in one of the most illegal and shameful chapters in modern American history,” the group wrote. “She was up to her eyeballs in torture, both in running a secret torture prison in Thailand and carrying out an order to cover up torture crimes by destroying videotapes. One man held at the secret prison she ran was waterboarded 83 times, slammed against walls, sleep deprived, and locked in a coffin-like box.”
Hawkins worries that senators will not be able to bring these issues up when discussing whether to confirm her.
“Senators can’t even ask about information on her Wikipedia page without being accused of disclosing classified information and jeopardizing their security clearances,” she said. “There has to be disclosure of what she did—and if that’s too damaging, she shouldn’t be the head of the CIA.”
In 2013, Haspel was due to lead the agency’s clandestine service. That was blocked by Senator Dianne Feinstein. There was enough information to stop Haspel’s rise then, Hawkins says, but it remains to be seen how this round will go.
“The question is whether the Senate Intelligence Committee is going to go into it,” Hawkins says.
Internet wrecks Sean Spicer after he tweets that Rex Tillerson ‘severed’ America well
Sean Spicer (Fox/screen grab)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday thanked former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for serving the United States — except he made a critical typo that made it seem as though Spicer believed Tillerson was actually tearing America into pieces.
“Secretary Tillerson is a true patriot that has severed our nation well,” Spicer wrote on Twitter. “Thank you for serving. Mike Pompeo will be an outstanding Secretary of State – the Senate should act swiftly to confirm him.”
Spicer’s gaffe sparked multiple hilarious responses — check out some of the best ones below.
This whole administration has severed our nation well.
Sean you don’t have to do this anymore. The mean man can’t yell at you
No one wants to hear you speak outside of a court setting sean.
Keep severing. A new scalp every day. Now just waiting for him to raze the White House and de-camp to Mar a Ego.
Gonna need a really good editor with that book deal, Sean
Was Rex severed just like Trump severed your gonads?
lol how is this not a parody account.
Kellyanne Conway cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars with trips on private jets
Kellyanne Conway (ABC News)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Kellyanne Conway traveled at least four times at taxpayer expense with former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price — and congressional Democrats want an explanation.
Price resigned Sept. 29 over his use of taxpayer-funded private jets during his seven months in office, and he has repaid a fraction so far of his travel expenses, according to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
The Department of Treasury has received three checks from Price, who now works as an adviser for Jackson Healthcare, totaling $59,389.97 as reimbursement, according to Cummings.
HHS documents confirm Conway, the former the rich asshole campaign manager and now a senior White House adviser, traveled along with Price at least four times between May and September at a cost to taxpayers of tens of thousands of dollars.
Conway was joined on at least one of those flights by her staff, and she and Price also traveled with other unspecified White House officials.
The cost of those flights to taxpayers was at least $59,101.35, according to Cummings.
Other travel expenses were not provided to the committee.
NEW: Oversight committee confirms that TOM PRICE reimbursed $60,000 worth of private flights.
But committee Democrats also confirmed that Kellyanne Conway was on 10 flights with Price at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars to taxpayers.democrats-oversight.house.gov/sites/democrat…
Ousted the rich asshole aide McEntee is under investigation for ‘serious financial crimes’: report
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
President some rich asshole’s personal assistant John McEntee was abruptly escorted out of the White House on Monday night — and now a new report from CNN claims that he was ousted due to an investigation into what may be “serious financial crimes.”
A source tells CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that “McEntee was fired because he is currently under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes,” although the source also emphasizes that these potential crimes are “not the rich asshole related.”
News of McEntee’s firing — which occurred on Monday — broke on Tuesday morning. According to the Wall Street Journal, McEntee was escorted out of the White House and was not even allowed to gather his belongings.
Even though McEntee is reportedly being under investigation for financial crimes, the rich asshole presidential campaign announced on Tuesday morning that it would hire him to help with the president’s reelection efforts in 2020.
CNN’s Cuomo blasts GOP intel members for protecting their own butts with ‘no collusion’ report
CNN's Chris Cuomo (Screen cap).
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Addressing a report issued by some Republican members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that claimed it had found no evidence of collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russia, CNN host Chris Cuomo called it an attempt to cover their own butts and also President some rich asshole’s.
Speaking with CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, the New Day host seemed flabbergasted at the extent to which the GOP members were going to shut down any investigation into the rich asshole White House.
“You know what’s remarkable about the House Republicans’ report here?” Toobin attempted to explain. “They didn’t have to go as far as they’re going in saying that Russia didn’t want to help the rich asshole. Of course Russia wanted to help the rich asshole. Now, the more toxic question is: did the rich asshole’s campaign work with the Russians? That’s very much not established for certain at this point.”
“But to say that Russia didn’t want the rich asshole to win? Wasn’t helping him win after the Wikileaks hack, the social media indictment of the 13 Russians and after the rich asshole Tower meeting? Why fight that battle when the real battle is one they might actually win,” he added.
Cuomo then took the GOP members of the committee to task, saying that they can’t be trusted to investigate anything involving their own party.
“Look, I think we maybe go a step farther and say you can’t have any of these men and women investigate their own, they just can’t do it,” Cuomo explained. “They can’t surrender me to the we. It’s shame on them for not doing what the people put them there to do. This isn’t oversight. it’s just CYA.”
“If it’s your party you’re looking at, there are going to be problems. Isn’t that just a simple truth?” Cuomo asked Toobin.
“We sometimes do a false equivalency where, in terms of, Democrats or Republicans, they’re both bad,” Toobin remarked. “I have to say I think the Democrats were trying to get at the facts here, they were trying to interview more people, they were trying to get more documents, trying to get financial records. so I don’t think this was a purely equivalent situation.”
Watch the video below via CNN:
‘Time to buckle up’: Stormy Daniels prepares for ugly fight after the rich asshole misses deadline to lift gag order
Michael Avenatti, Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels) and Anderson Cooper (Twitter)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
President some rich asshole and his lawyer, Michael Cohen, on Tuesday missed a deadline that could have nullified a hush agreement on adult film star Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels.
Through her attorney, Michael Avenatti, Clifford on Monday offered to return $130,000 in hush money to Cohen if he would declare the contract “null and void.” Voiding the contract would allow Clifford to speak about an alleged affair with the rich asshole.
But Avenatti revealed in a tweet on Tuesday, that the rich asshole and Cohen had missed the deadline to revoke the contract.
And although Avenatti did not offer specifics, he hinted that legal action was coming.
“Time to buckle up,” Clifford’s attorney wrote.
The President and Mr. Cohen have purposely ignored our settlement offer, thus doubling down on their efforts to muzzle Ms. Clifford and prevent her from telling the American people what happened. Time to buckle up. #basta
(h/t: Bloomberg)
the rich asshole confidantes tell him he looks guilty by silencing Stormy: ‘It’s the only reason the rich asshole has stayed quiet’
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels (left, via Wikimedia Commons) and President some rich asshole (right, via screengrab).
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
People close to some rich asshole have reportedly warned the president that he looks guilty of having an affair because he is refusing to let adult film star Stormy Daniels speak out about it.
CNN reported on Tuesday that the president was asking his closest friends and advisers what to do about the actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. She is suing the rich asshole and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, in order to dissolve an agreement that prevents her from speaking about the alleged affair.
“The source [close to the president] said the rich asshole is being told by advisers not to fight Daniels’ decision to break a confidentiality agreement because it would make him look guilty. This source said it’s the only reason the rich asshole has stayed quiet on the issue and hasn’t been tweeting about it,” according to the CNN report.
CNN adds: “The source also believes the controversy potentially poses a bigger threat to the rich asshole’s presidency than Russia. The difference here compared to accusations from other women is that there’s a signed agreement and a payment.”
Clifford offered this week to repay Cohen $130,000 in return for declaring the hush agreement “null and void.” But the rich asshole’s attorney has not responded to the offer.
A ridiculous pick’: Conservative columnist shreds booted Tillerson — and the GOP that rubber-stamped him for the rich asshole
Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson -- Reuters
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Reacting quickly to the unceremonious firing of now-former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin called the former Exxon executive a “ridiculous pick” from the start and criticized GOP lawmakers who gave a thumbs up to President some rich asshole’s quixotic choice to head the State Department.
Under the cheeky headline, “Tillerson is put out of his misery,” Rubin said the Tillerson firing was “was a long time in coming,” and that he had been hamstrung by a chaotic White House, adding to tensions that were exacerbated after he reportedly called the rich asshole a “moron.”
“Tillerson was arguably the weakest secretary of state in the post-World War II era. He oversaw a failed reorganization effort at Foggy Bottom, which depressed morale and led to an exodus of veteran diplomats,” Rubin wrote. ” His aversion to the press and to the role of public diplomacy more generally, as well as his frosty relationship with Congress, indicated that he never made the successful transition from oil executive to the country’s lead diplomat.”
Pointing to former ambassador Eric Edelman saying, “Tillerson’s tenure will be a little remembered footnote in America’s diplomatic history like the brief undistinguished tenure of Edward Stettinius (another corporate executive who proved to be a diplomatic failure),” Rubin added, “In retrospect, it was a ridiculous pick. At a time of multiple, complex threats, hiring someone with no public service experience at all, let alone State Department service, was reckless in the extreme.”
Rubin then turned her ire to the GOP senators for giving a thumbs up to an oil executive with no foreign policy background.
“GOP senators, including [Arkansas Senator Tom] Cotton, Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, who claim to be foreign policy gurus, were equally foolish in confirming him after an embarrassing performance during his confirmation hearing,” she wrote.
“Any secretary of state would face herculean challenges under a president who is as impulsive, ignorant and weirdly obsequious toward America’s great international foe — Russia — as the rich asshole is,” Rubin explained. “the rich asshole has installed a disproportionate number of military and ex-military officials in key roles, putting those who deploy soft power at a severe disadvantage. If Pompeo, who does enjoy the rich asshole’s trust, can elevate the profile of the department, improve morale, steer the rich asshole away from international disasters and reestablish the essential role of human rights in our foreign policy, he’ll earn our deep gratitude. He surely will not have an easy time of it.”
You can read her whole piece here.
5 extraordinary words in the rich asshole’s statement about Russia poisoning people
"As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be."
During a brief Q-and-A with reporters at the White House on Tuesday, President the rich asshole was asked to respond to British Prime Minister Theresa May’s claim that Russia was responsible for the poisoning and attempted murder of a former spy and his daughter on British soil.
the rich asshole went to great lengths to avoid pinning blame on the Putin regime, saying, “we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be” — but only if “we agree” with the facts.
“As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be,” he said.
Facts are not typically things that are open for agreement or disagreement — they just are. But five words the rich asshole used in his statement — “if we agree with them” — leave open the possibility that the White House may not ultimately “agree” with May that the poisoning was “an unlawful use of force” by the Putin regime.
the rich asshole’s comments came a day after Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders bent over backward during a White House briefing to avoid pinning blame for the attack on Russia.
“Look, we’ve been monitoring the incident closely — take it very seriously,” she said. “The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against UK citizen on UK soil is an outrage. The attack was reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible.”
But as a reporter noted, Sanders never mentioned Russia at all while she read a statement condemning the attack.
“Right now, we are standing with our UK allies — I think they are still working through some of the details of that,” Sanders said, prompting the reporter to point out that May had already told members of parliament it is “highly likely” Russia was behind the attack.
“Like I just said, we stand with our ally and we certainly fully support them and are ready if we can be of any assistance of them,” Sanders reiterated, before moving on to another question.
the rich asshole’s Q-and-A with reporters came on the heels of his firing of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — a move that was announced just hours after Tillerson broke with the administration’s line and condemned Russia for the attack.
As he’s now doing with regard to the poisoning, the rich asshole has repeatedly refused to condemn Russia for meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Asked about what lessons he has learned about Russian interference during a news conference last Tuesday, the rich asshole responded by questioning the U.S. intelligence community’s consensus conclusion — including ones offered publicly by his hand-picked officials — that the Putin regime was behind hacks and influence operations meant to help him win the presidency.
“Probably there was meddling from other countries, maybe other individuals,” he said, echoing the infamous comment he made during one of the presidential debates about how a “guy sitting on his bed who weighs 400 pounds” may have been responsible for Democratic hacks, not Russia.
During a subsequent interview with MSNBC, Russian President Vladimir Putin used the rich asshole’s talking point to deny Russian involvement, saying whoever was responsible for the hacks might “actually [be] working for some kind of American company. Perhaps one of them used to work for one of the candidates. I have no idea, these are not my problems.”
POLITICS
the rich asshole’s Pick To Replace Former Exxon CEO As Secretary Of State Is A Bigger Climate Denier
Mike Pompeo, who was tapped to replace Rex Tillerson, could be the first secretary of state to reject climate science outright. Climate deniers have high hopes for him.
Mike Pompeo, President some rich asshole’s pick to replace sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, threatens to bring a hard-line brand of climate change denialism to Foggy Bottom for the first time.
The current CIA director, named early Tuesday as the nominee to be the nation’s top diplomat, has long rejected the widely-accepted science behind man-made global warming, dashing hopes that the United States might reverse its decision to leave from the Paris climate accord before November 2020, when the deal allows the country to formally withdraw.
In a twist, Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp., turned out to be one of the most moderate voices on climate change in the rich asshole administration, despite his previous employer’s role as an early and generous financier of the climate change denial movement.
Tillerson urged the rich asshole against pulling out of the Paris Agreement last June, and suggested last September that the U.S. could remain in the deal. Still, the State Department rewrote its web page on climate change last March, abolished its climate change envoy position in August and left teams working on global warming issues in limbo, seemingly encouraging staff to leave. Coincidentally, a major environmental nonprofit sued the State Department on Tuesday for refusing to release a U.N. report on U.S. climate action that was due on Jan. 1.
If confirmed by the Senate, Pompeo seems poised to do more damage to efforts to combat climate change.
“It’s good news for us,” said Myron Ebell, a leading proponent of climate change denial and a director at the right wing Competitive Enterprise Institute. “I expect very good things from him at the State Department.”
Ebell, who led the rich asshole’s transition at the Environmental Protection Agency, said he hopes Pompeo will convince the president to withdraw the U.S. from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, completely ending all U.S. participation in climate talks.
He also wants Pompeo to “bury” an international deal to phase out refrigerants, coolants and aerosols called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, that contribute to climate change. The deal, signed by 197 countries in October 2016, is called the Kigali Amendment. Last November, the State Department quietly indicated its support for the agreement.
In his six years as a Republican congressman from Kansas, Pompeo voted so routinely against environmental policies that he received a 4 percent lifetime score on the League of Conservation Voters’ ranking. In 2011, he unsuccessfully pushed to end energy subsidies in a move Ebell said was meant to target tax credits for wind turbines.
Throughout his tenure in Congress, Pompeo received over $1 million in donations from the billionaire Koch brothers’ network, making him their top recipient in the rich asshole administration. He collected $71,100 from Koch Industries, the Republican megadonors’ fossil fuel conglomerate, catapulting Pompeo to the top of the company’s recipients in Congress in 2016 alone, according to data collated by the Center for Responsive Politics.
In January 2017, Pompeo skirted questions about his view on climate science during his Senate confirmation hearing to become CIA director.
“Frankly, as the director of CIA, I would prefer today not to get into the details of the climate debate and science,” he said. “It seems — my role is going to be so different and unique from that.”
In December 2015, Pompeo railed against the Obama administration for brokering the Paris climate agreement, the global deal to cut planet-warming emissions that virtually every nation on Earth has now signed.
“For President Obama to suggest that climate change is a bigger threat to the world than terrorism is ignorant, dangerous, and absolutely unbelievable,” he said at the time.
I would prefer today not to get into the details of the climate debate and science.Mike Pompeo at his Senate confirmation hearing in January 2017.
Pompeo called the accord part of a “radical climate change agenda.” He even used the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people to inveigh against Obama, claiming he “continues this pursuit of misguided policies, including his radical climate change agenda,” according to a since-deleted statement cited by Climate Central.
In December 2013, Pompeo rejected the consensus among 97 percent of peer-reviewed climate researchers that the planet is warming and burning fossil fuels, industrial farms and deforestation are the main causes.
“Look, I think the science needs to continue to develop,” he said during a segment on C-SPAN. “I’m happy to continue to look at it. There are scientists who think lots of different things about climate change. There’s some who think we’re warming, there’s some who think we’re cooling, there’s some who think that the last 16 years have shown a pretty stable climate environment.”
Environmental groups swiftly condemned the rich asshole’s decision to name Pompeo as secretary of state.
“some rich asshole has now somehow picked someone even worse than Rex Tillerson to run the State Department,” Naomi Ages, Greenpeace USA’s climate director, said in a statement. “In addition to being a climate denier, like his predecessor, Pompeo is Koch brothers’ shill who will denigrate the United States’ reputation abroad and make us vulnerable to threats at home.”
Rex Tillerson refused to resign after John Kelly asked — so the rich asshole fired him in a tweet: report
U.S. President some rich asshole and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson confer during a working lunch with African leaders during the U.N. General Assembly in New York, U.S. on September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired by President some rich asshole on Monday after he refused a request to resign.
According to CNN, Tillerson officially learned of his firing on Tuesday morning when the rich asshole informed the world in a tweet. But reports also said that Chief of Staff John Kelly had contacted Kelly on Friday to warn him.
Sources told AP’s Zeke Miller that Kelly had asked Tillerson to resign, but the secretary of state refused and forced the rich asshole to personally take the action on Monday.
.@JohnRobertsFox: WH source tells Fox News John Kelly called Tillerson Friday to tell him POTUS wanted him to step aside. Tillerson asked if POTUS could wait for him to get back from his Africa trip to pull the trigger. Tillerson landed 4 am Andrews AFB. POTUS pulled trigger.
GOP panics as tax cut message flops hard in Pennsylvania special election
Paul Ryan, some rich asshole and Mitch McConnell
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
The Republican Party has been hoping that its massive tax cut would save it from electoral doom this fall — but it seems that the GOP has completely given up on touting the tax cut in the final weeks of the special congressional election in Pennsylvania.
Analysis by Politico shows that Republican-backed ads mentioning tax cuts in Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district have been “essentially non-existent” since the start of March.
This marks a massive shift from early February, when more than 60 percent of GOP-backed ads touted the tax package as a boon for the American economy.
Corry Bliss, the executive director of the Congressional Leadership Fund, tells Politico that his organization has dropped mentioning the tax cuts in its latest ads because “the mission right now is base turnout” — which implies that promoting the GOP’s signature legislative accomplishment isn’t firing up its own party’s base of voters.
A report on blue-collar the rich asshole voters in the New York Times last week found that many of these voters thought that the tax cut was nice — but they also didn’t see it as a real solution to the problems they’re facing right now.
“It’s lunch money,” said Dan Neff, an employee at a machining and welding shop, of the tax cut.
The National Journal similarly reported earlier this month that the Republican Party is panicking about the upcoming special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district because its tax cut messaging is “barely moving the needle in the district’s working-class confines.”
the rich asshole’s Secretary of State pick is ‘the number 1 all time recipient of KOCH Industries $$$’
Mike Pompeo is, of course, a climate science denier and opponent of the Paris climate deal.
President some rich asshole has officially fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and intends to nominate current CIA director Mike Pompeo in his place.
Tillerson was the former CEO of ExxonMobil, which for decades was the number one funder of climate science disinformation until they were surpassed by the Koch brothers starting in 2005. But before Pompeo became CIA Director in 2017, he had for six years been a GOP House member from Kansas — and “the #1 all time recipient of #KOCH Industries $$$,” as the nonprofit research group OpenSecrets.org tweeted at the time:
Trump's CIA Director pick, @RepMikePompeo is the #1 all time recipient of #KOCH Industries $$$ #TrumpTransition bit.ly/2f8hfec
In just four election cycles, 2010 through 2016, Pompeo received: $335,000 from Koch Industries employees (including $92,000 just from the Koch family); $69,000 from the Koch Industries PAC; $417,175 from Americans for Prosperity (which is the right-wing advocacy group founded by the Koch brothers); plus another $87,532 from “Other outside groups heavily funded by the Kochs.”
That’s over $900,000 to buy one Congressman. No surprise, then, that Pompeo, who was a Tea Party member, is also a major denier of climate science. Pompeo described President Obama’s effort to cut carbon pollution at home (through the Clean Power Plan) and abroad (through the Paris climate deal) as a “perverse fixation on achieving his economically harmful environmental agenda” and as “worshiping a radical environmental agenda.”
He called the Paris Climate Accord a “costly burden” in 2015, adding that “Congress must also do all in our power to fight against this damaging climate change proposal and pursue policies that support American energy, create new jobs, and power our economy.”
In reality, the Paris Climate Accord is hardly radical given that 200 nations unanimously agreed it is vital for preserving a livable climate. Indeed, it remains an incredible deal for America, since it would avert numerous catastrophic climate impacts on this country, while requiring us to merely continue reducing carbon dioxide emissions at the pace we have been in recent years.
During his confirmation hearings for CIA director, Pompeo dodged all questions about climate change, saying “Frankly, as the director of CIA, I would prefer today not to get into the details of the climate debate and science.”
But the State Department plays a direct and key role in climate change — not just in international climate negotiations, but also in international aid and development, including choices about which energy sources developing countries should choose — so, such non-answers given as by Pompeo previously should not fly this time around.
POLITICS
ICE Spokesman Quits, Bashes the rich asshole Administration On Immigration Raids
James Schwab said that officials have spread misleading information about a recent immigration crackdown.
A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Francisco resigned over the rich asshole administration’s handling of a recent immigrant raid in the Bay Area.
James Schwab told the San Francisco Chronicle late Monday that administration officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President some rich asshole, grossly exaggerated the number of undocumented immigrants who avoided arrest after Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf tipped off the public days before the raid began on Feb. 25.
“I quit because I didn’t want to perpetuate misleading facts,” Schwab said. “I asked them to change the information. 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 added that even if there had been no prior warning about the raid, “we were not ever going to be able to capture 100 percent of the target list.”
ICE said 232 people were arrested in the sweep, but claimed the number could have been higher.
“Efforts by local politicians have shielded removable criminal aliens from immigration enforcement and created another magnet for more illegal immigration, all at the expense of the safety and security of the very people it purports to protect,” the agency said in a statement.
Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan claimed that 864 “criminal aliens” escaped arrest, and the rich asshole railed that close to 1,000 people would have been swept up, calling Schaaf’s warning “a disgrace.” Sessions accused the Oakland mayor of promoting “a radical open-borders agenda.”
Schwab disputed the claims and told CNN he could no longer “bear the burden ― continuing on as a representative of the agency and charged with upholding integrity, knowing that information was false.”
Schaaf applauded Schwab’s decision.
“Our democracy depends on public servants who act with integrity and hold transparency in the highest regard,” the mayor said in a statement.
Sessions escalated the dispute last week by filing a lawsuit against the state of California over its so-called sanctuary cities― areas that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) characterized the move as “basically going to war against the state of California.”
The timing is uncanny, as the rich asshole begins his first visit as president to California on Tuesday to check out prototypes for a border wall and attend a Republican fundraiser.
the rich asshole pick for top diplomatic post kind of hates diplomacy
CIA Director Mike Pompeo has a history of preferring war and extrajudicial killings over diplomatic talks and peaceful solutions.
President some rich asshole on Tuesday fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo for the position. Now, the person who could head the top diplomatic post in the country doesn’t even seem to be a fan of diplomacy.
Pompeo supported the torture program before he suddenly opposed it, is hawkish on North Korea, opposes the Iran nuclear deal, and has sought to expand the drone program, allowing the CIA to carry out strikes in Afghanistan.
In an impromptu presser on the White House’s south lawn, the rich asshole told reporters on Tuesday that he replaced Tillerson — who he fired while the Secretary of State was on an official trip in Africa — with Pompeo because:
…We disagreed on things. When you look at the Iran deal. I think it’s terrible. I guess he — it was okay. I wanted to either break it or do something. And he felt a little bit differently. So we were not really thinking the same. With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process.
Pompeo has been an unpopular figure among human rights advocates for years. When the rich asshole nominated him as CIA director, Human Rights Watch outright called for the Senate to reject his confirmation, citing his stance on torture, the surveillance program, whistleblowers (he called for Edward Snowden’s execution), and Muslims, who he said were “potentially complicit” in attacks against the United States and are “a threat” to the country.
He has called Guantanamo Bay Prison a “goldmine of intelligence ” and believes prisoners there are treated “exceptionally well.”
Assuming Pompeo gets confirmed by the Senate, he is an odd choice for the country’s top diplomat. In 2014, Pompeo, then a Republican lawmaker from Kansas, told reporters at a roundtable meeting that a war against Iran would be preferable to signing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). “In an unclassified setting, it is under 2,000 sorties to destroy the Iranian nuclear capacity. This is not an insurmountable task for the coalition forces,” said Pompeo.
Signed between Iran, the United States, United Kingdom, France, China, Russia, and Germany, the JCOPA limits Iran’s enrichment program in exchange for sanctions relief. President the rich asshole has said he wants to tear up the deal — if the European partners won’t “fix” it to his liking — something that Pompeo supports. The new secretary of state nominee has also repeatedly said that North Korea is “a handful” of months away from striking the United States for about a year now.
“I think this is tied to North Korea and possibly the sanctions actions – which Tillerson opposed….actually, so many policies,” said Barbara Bodine, a retired ambassador and director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Answering questions via email, Bodine told ThinkProgress that Tillerson’s departure was “in the works” and that his critical comments of Russia on Monday came as a parting shot. “If you’re leaving, why not?” she said.
Pompeo’s potential appointment also comes at a crucial time for U.S.-North Korea relations. Just last week, President the rich asshole accepted an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to meet and discuss ways to ease the tension over Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
This comes after months of increasingly heated rhetoric between the two leaders that has gone from name-calling to threats of actual attacks. As an expert previously told ThinkProgress, North Korea is three or four long-range missile tests away from having a nuclear weapon that could reach the United States. Included in the offer to speak is the promise to suspend those tests, so there is no way of presently knowing when the North Koreans will have the sorts of capabilities Pompeo has been talking about.
Rachel Stohl, managing director of Stimson Center and directs the Conventional Defense Program told ThinkProgress that she was “shocked and surprised” at the announcement on Tuesday. “We’re trying to find predictability in an administration that has been nothing but unpredictable. So we have no idea ‘why now’ — was it well thought out?”
Calling Pompeo a “political choice” she added, “My concerns have to do more with issues related to transparency and accountability, the relevance of diplomacy as a key pillar of our strategy in terms of foreign policy — it can’t just be military force.”
The trouble is that the State Department has what Stohl calls a “thin bench” when it comes to diplomatic expertise, with what she describes as few “worker bees”– frontline diplomats and assistant secretaries in crucial posts such as South Korea.
“We need to think about what is diplomacy? Diplomacy is not about show of force. It’s not about threatening your interlocutors. Diplomacy is about listening, and compromise, and finding common solutions — or at least common approaches…and this administration is short on that experience,” she said.
The rich asshole administration went from having Tillerson, a former oil executive, to Pompeo, who also lacks international experience, at the helm of a state department that has been decimated. As Stohl pointed out, “The morale at the State Department is so low, and the staff is really paralyzed and unable to get anything done. You have really good people, really good civil servants who have dedicated their lives [to service] who are disheartened.”
Will Pompeo be able to turn things around — assuming he even wants to?
“I don’t know,” replied Stohl, with a deep sigh.
Stormy Daniels' lawyer: the rich asshole missed deadline for offer to return nondisclosure money
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 03/13/18 03:16 PM EDT
A lawyer for adult film star Stormy Daniels said President the rich asshole's lawyers did not meet a deadline regarding her offer to return the $130,000 she received as part of a nondisclosure agreement.
Daniels — whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — did not get a reply from a letter offering to return the money she received as part of the nondisclosure related to an alleged affair with the rich asshole in exchange for freedom to speak about the experience, Bloomberg News reported.
"The president and Mr. Cohen have purposely ignored our settlement offer, thus doubling down on their efforts to muzzle Ms. Clifford and prevent her from telling the American people what happened," Clifford's lawyer, Michael Avenatti, posted on Twitter.
"Time to buckle up."
The President and Mr. Cohen have purposely ignored our settlement offer, thus doubling down on their efforts to muzzle Ms. Clifford and prevent her from telling the American people what happened. Time to buckle up. #basta
Avenatti had written a letter to Michael Cohen, the rich asshole's longtime personal lawyer, explaining that Clifford would wire money into an account of the rich asshole's choosing. In return, the nondisclosure agreement between the rich asshole and Clifford would then be void.
Cohen had until noon Tuesday to respond to the offer, the letter said.
Clifford alleges she had an affair with the rich asshole more than a decade ago. Cohen acknowledged he paid Daniels $130,000 just before the 2016 presidential election, but denied the payment violated campaign finance laws.
Clifford has since filed a lawsuit alleging the nondisclosure agreement is invalid because the rich asshole never signed it.
The White House and Cohen have denied the affair took place.
‘Russians are bad’, mkay: Devin Nunes swears he will reopen Russia probe if someone finds evidence of collusion
Devin Nunes speaks to Fox News (screen grab)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes on Tuesday suggested that Republicans would reopen the investigation into Russia’s interference in the U.S. election if evidence of collusion with American campaigns emerges.
During an interview on Fox & Friends, Nunes responded to criticism he’s received for closing the House’s Russia investigation.
“It happens on a daily basis that I am accused of by the Democrats of being [a stooge for the president],” Nunes explained. “Right after I was named to the rich asshole transition team, I began getting attacks and began getting called — I was some agent of Russia and of a foreign power.”
Nunes went on to place the blame for Russia’s meddling in the U.S. election on former President Barack Obama and former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“I had warned the administration in early 2016 about this,” he said. “We spent 14 months on this investigation looking for collusion. We didn’t find any.”
According to Nunes, almost everyone in the rich asshole campaign had “testified under oath that they had no contacts with the Russians.”
In fact, multiple members of the rich asshole campaign admitted meeting with Russians at the rich asshole Tower in an effort to get dirt on Clinton. the rich asshole campaign members also admitted to meetings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.
“But on the other hand, we did find clear links between the Russians and the Hillary Clinton campaign,” Nunes insisted. “What we’re closing now is, look, there’s just no collusion.”
“There’s nothing there,” he added. “If we find something new, we’ll open it back up.”
Nunes concluded his remarks by taking a shot at the Obama administration.
“Their inability to actually do anything against the Russians, it wasn’t just 2016,” he argued. “It goes all the way back to 2009 and 2010 when Hillary Clinton hit the reset button with Russia. So the rich asshole’s position in the campaign was really no different from what the Obama administration position was.”
“It’s our job on the House Intelligence Committee to get the facts,” Nunes remarked. “And the facts are that we just haven’t found any collusion. We think the Russians are bad. We think they’re up to bad things. We think the Putin regime is very dangerous for a whole host of reason.”
Watch the video below from Fox News
State Department contradicts the White House: Tillerson has no idea why the rich asshole decided to fire him
President some rich asshole and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
The State Department on Tuesday issued a statement saying that just-fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had been planning to remain in his post — while adding that Tillerson still has no idea why he was fired.
In a statement sent to ABC News, the State Department said that Tillerson “had every intention of staying” at his job before he was fired, and he says that he “did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason” for his firing.”
NEW: State Dept. statement says Sec. Tillerson "had every intention of staying...The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason." abcn.ws/2GmY13D
This contradicts a report from White House sources on Tuesday morning that the rich asshole informed Tillerson last Friday that he planned to fire him and replace him with current CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
the rich asshole shocked the country on Tuesday morning when he abruptly announced that Tillerson was being fired over Twitter. The president had reportedly clashed regularly with his secretary of state during his tenure, and Tillerson reportedly enraged the rich asshole when he referred to him as a “moron” during a national security meeting.
Former ethics chief explains to CNN why all of the rich asshole’s cabinet officials are so bad at their jobs
Former director of government ethics, Walter Shaub (Photo: Screen capture)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Former director of government ethics Walter Shaub explained why President some rich asshole’s political appointees keep humiliating his administration over and over again.
According to Shaub it all goes back to the conspiracy theories of a “deep state.” Such theories might be indicative of an “administration (that) seems to have declared war on expertise. They don’t trust them.”
“What it really reflects is a suspicion of people who are experts,” he continued. “Betsy DeVos’s primary expertise seems to be in being a rich person who didn’t attend public schools she is overseeing and didn’t send her kids to public schools.”
He went on to explain that when the criteria for hiring someone is about their campaign donation, things like this and other administration issues are the result.
“And her comments about one of the things she said is she couldn’t comment on trends or statistics because each student is an individual,” Shaub said. “Well, that is an anti-intellectual idea coming from the head of the Department of Education because it’s almost like she’s saying you can’t study education. You can’t study whether it’s possible to make school systems in the aggregate better.”
He went on to reveal that one thing the American Oversight organization found after a Freedom of Information Act request was that DeVos doesn’t even go into the office five days a week. Typically, she isn’t at work from Thursday through Tuesday. He conceded it’s entirely possible she is working from home, but it’s suspect at the very least and not consistent with previous people occupying her office.
“They should be going out to view the things they’re overseeing,” he said of cabinet secretaries. “And you heard her on TV saying, she hasn’t focused on looking at the schools that need help. So, it really is disturbing, because it’s just sort of an entire trend of not focusing on the subject matter and coming in with one preconceived idea that, in her case, that idea happens to be, ‘Well, everybody should have more school choice.’ Well, it’s such a facile understanding. If you believe that policy, fine. But come armed with statistics and talking points that can justify that viewpoint.”
He explained that it all goes downhill from there. Nevermind the recent findings that senior counselor to the president, Kellyanne Conway, broke the law twice, the head of the Veterans Administration, David Shulkin, spent $122,000 on a 10-day European tour on the government dime. Except for his tickets from Wimbledon, which were given to him by a “friend of his wife’s,” he said. When ethics investigators asked the individual about the tickets, the person didn’t even know Shulkin’s wife.
That adds to a long list of cabinet officials that have spent millions in private planes, military helicopters, first-class seats, office doors and Ben Carson’s fancy furniture for his office. Carson, however, is far an isolated incident. Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price was forced to resign after only a few months on the job after it was found to have spent over $1 million on his travel.
Shaub explained that the “really depressing thing as an ethics official” is that all of these things should be setting off red alarms to Americans, but because the country is so “hyper-polarized” people are getting off scot-free.
Watch the interview below:
Rex Tillerson ousted as Secretary of State after clashing with the rich asshole
Rex Tillerson during his confirmation hearing (Screenshot)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is out as Secretary of State.
The former Exxon CEO, tapped by the rich asshole to become the nation’s top diplomat, stepped down after seeing his relationship with the president deteriorate as the White House lurched from crisis to crisis, reported the Washington Post.
He will be replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
The president reportedly told Tillerson on Friday that he would be fired.
Tillerson on Monday contradicted the White House position on the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain by agreeing with the United States’ NATO ally — which blamed the attack on the Kremlin.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders agreed Britain was America’s “closest ally,” but she stopped short of blaming the attack on Russia.
Tillerson, on the other hand, said the “egregious act” would “certainly will trigger a response.”
Earlier Tillerson put distance between himself and the rich asshole following the president’s controversial comments about the violence in Charlottesville with a terse, “The president speaks for himself.”
Axios recently reported that the rich asshole has grown increasingly dissatisfied with Tillerson, telling aides, “Rex just doesn’t get it, he’s totally establishment in his thinking.”
Tillerson joins a long list of top the rich asshole officials, including Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon, who have exited the administration as the president’s approval numbers continue tanking.
No comments:
Post a Comment