GOP chair claims the rich asshole and staff ‘working very well together’: ‘There is no chaos inside the White House’
Ronna Romney McDaniel speaks to Fox News (screen grab)
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Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel on Thursday sought to knock down reports that there is “chaos” inside President some rich asshole’s White House.
After recently losing a number of cabinet officials and staffers in the the rich asshole administration, McDaniel made a point of addressing White House dysfunction during an appearance on Fox News.
“There is no chaos in the White House,” she insisted. “Let me just tell you, there’s no chaos. It is a White House that is focused on results and bringing the best people in. That’s what the president has done throughout his career and he’s continuing to do that as commander-in-chief.”
Fox News host Harris Faulkner noted that there were a number recent high-profile White House departures, including economic adviser Gary Kohn and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
According to McDaniel, Democrats invented the “chaos theory” because “the collusion theory has been debunked.”
The GOP chairwoman pointed to a controversial report released by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee to back up her argument.
“There is no collusion,” she asserted. “They were pushing this Russia collusion story. That’s gone now. So now, they’re pushing the chaos theory.”
“I was with the president the past two days,” McDaniel added. “It is a well-run machine. They are working very well together. The president is laser-focused on the American people and getting results.”
Watch the video below from Fox News.
the rich asshole boasted to donors about making up facts during talks with Trudeau: report
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 03/14/18 11:19 PM EDT
President the rich asshole said at a fundraising dinner that he made up facts during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
the rich asshole told those at the dinner that he insisted that the U.S. had a trade deficit with Canada, but did not know if that was the case, according to leaked audio of the speech obtained by the Post.
“Trudeau came to see me. He’s a good guy. Justin. He said ‘No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,’” the rich asshole said. “Nice guy, good looking guy, comes in — ‘Donald we have no trade deficit.’”
“I said, ‘Wrong Justin, you do.’ I didn’t even know. ... I had no idea. I just said ‘You’re wrong.’ You know why? Because we’re so stupid. ... And I thought they were smart. I said, ‘You’re wrong Justin,’” the rich asshole continued.
“He said, ‘Nope we have no trade deficit.’ I said, ‘Well in that case I feel differently,’ I said, ‘but I don’t believe it.’ I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said ‘Check because I can’t believe it,’” he said.
“‘Well sir you’re actually right. We have no deficit but that doesn’t include energy and timber … And when you do we lose $17 billion a year.’ It’s incredible."
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative states that the United States does, in fact, have a trade surplus with Canada, according to the Post.
the rich asshole also implied during the speech that he could pull U.S. troops stationed in South Korea if he didn’t strike a trade deal favorable to the U.S. with the country, the newspaper reported.
“We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them. We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military,” the rich asshole said. "We have right now 32,000 soldiers between North and South Korea. Let’s see what happens.”
The president has often railed against other countries over their trade deals, calling them unfair to the United States. He recently imposed massive tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, a decision largely denounced overseas.
the rich asshole was speaking at a fundraising dinner in Missouri for GOP Senate candidate Josh Hawley, who is attempting to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill (D).
Adam Schiff: ‘Had a Russian nerve agent been used on someone in our country, could we count on our President?’
Adam Schiff speaks to Martha Raddatz (ABC/screen grab)
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House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Thursday wondered whether President some rich asshole would speak out against Russia if it used chemical warfare to attack someone in the U.S.
In a message posted to Twitter, Schiff said that he was unsure how the rich asshole would handle a poisoning like the one in London, where Vladimir Putin has been accused of using a banned nerve agent to attack a former spy who turned against Russia.
“the rich asshole refuses to personally condemn Russia over the poisoning of individuals in Britain,” Schiff write. “Had a Russian nerve agent been used on someone in our country, could we count on our President to speak out then? What would it take?”
During remarks earlier in the week, the rich asshole had promised to condemn Russia or “whoever it is” if the U.S. agrees with the British government’s assessment of the attack. Other members of the rich asshole’s administration — like UN Ambassador Nikki Haley — have offered a more full-throated condemnation of Russia.
the rich asshole gives jolt to push for military ‘space force’
BY ELLEN MITCHELL - 03/15/18 06:00 AM EDT
President the rich asshole is giving a boost to the idea of creating a new military force focused on battles in space.
the rich asshole surprised military leaders on Tuesday by announcing the possibility of a “Space Force,” suggesting he’s interested in putting some political capital behind the idea.
Supporters of a dedicated military space arm are worried that the United States is lagging behind Russia and China, who have already made moves to spin off their space operations into separate military branches and are developing electronic warfare and anti-satellite weapons.
Lawmakers who like the idea say hearing the president tout the proposal was a shot in the arm.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), who last year led a doomed effort with Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) to establish a space corps within the Air Force, touted the rich asshole’s comments.
“Looking forward to working with [the rich asshole] on this initiative!” Rogers wrote on Twitter.
But a number of challenges remain before the Space Force becomes a reality.
Air Force leaders are hesitant to put their support behind the idea, warning it would be premature and add burdensome bureaucracy to the service.
Air Force chief of staff Gen. David Goldfein and Secretary Heather Wilson sidestepped a question Wednesday from Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), chairwoman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, about how they interpreted the rich asshole’s remarks. Neither of them restated their opposition to a separate military branch for space.
Goldfein said he was “really looking forward to the conversation,” while Wilson said she appreciates “the president’s and the vice president’s leadership on space.”
Last year, Wilson said a space corps would just “add more boxes to the organization chart,” while Goldfein said talk about a separate military branch for space is “moving in the wrong direction.”
The White House last year also opposed the space corps plan and said creating it was “premature at this time.”
What’s more, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also opposed the plan, with Mattis even sending a letter of opposition to Congress.
“At a time when we are trying to integrate the Department’s joint warfighting functions, I do not wish to add a separate service that would likely present a narrower and even parochial approach to space operations,” Mattis wrote in a July letter to Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio).
A new Space Force also faces opposition in the Senate, where Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), led the charge last year to kill the House’s push.
Nelson told The Hill Wednesday that though the rich asshole expressed enthusiasm for a separate space-focused military branch, “when he talks to the U.S. Air Force, I think he will get a different consideration, that there shouldn’t be, that all of that is being handled by the Air Force now.”
When asked whether he thought the House would be able to convince the Senate of the need for a military space arm by next year, he replied: “I don’t.”
Rogers, however, was unfazed by the roadblocks and said he predicts a new space arm will be set up in three to five years, with dollars for the effort to be inserted in the fiscal 2020 defense budget.
“Our position all along was to spend this year raising awareness of need for this. By raising that awareness the Senate’s going to realize what we realized over the last year and a half, this is a really big problem that can’t be fixed without dramatic changes.”
Rogers said the opposition in the Senate can be overcome.
“This is a big step too fast without them being familiar with why this is necessary … and while I was frustrated by that, I couldn’t be too aggravated because 18 months earlier I was in the same boat. [But] once you become aware of the facts … they’ll be in the same position we are,” he added.
Other supporters of a dedicated military space branch are unsure it will come to fruition anytime soon.
Retired Gen. Robert Kehler, the former head of U.S. Strategic Command, told House lawmakers Wednesday that congressional and military leaders must be cautious in going forward with such a plan, as “my experience with major organizational changes is that they always take longer and cost more than we think.”
House Armed Services Committee ranking Democrat Adam Smith (Wash.) told The Hill he’s positive the rich asshole’s enthusiasm for a space force is “absolutely going to move the dial in terms of improving our approach to space,” but “whether or not an actual space corps will come out of it, I don’t know. … That’s more of a 50-50 question.”
BOMBSHELL: Mueller just subpoenaed the the rich asshole Organization — and he wants documents about Russia
Robert Mueller, some rich asshole -- screenshots
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Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office has issued subpoenas to the rich asshole Organization seeking documents about its past dealings inside Russia.
The New York Times reports that Mueller’s team has asked the rich asshole Organization to deliver a series of documents on many topics, including some that are related to Russia.
According to the Times, the subpoena “is the first known time that the special counsel demanded documents directly related to President the rich asshole’s businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president.”
Although the Times’ report doesn’t have information about what Mueller is specifically looking for in his subpoena, it says that the request for the documents indicates that his office is broadening the scope of its inquiry to look at the president’s complex international business dealings.
The rich asshole Organization is an umbrella company that oversees the rich asshole’s many businesses. the rich asshole in the past has signaled that Mueller’s team would be crossing a “red line” if it looked into his past business dealings, although Mueller could justify investigating such dealings on the grounds that they may explain why Russian officials worked to help get the rich asshole elected in 2016.
In 2008, for example, some rich asshole Jr. said that Russians “make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of” the rich asshole Organization’s assets, while also adding that “we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and MAGGIE HABERMAN MARCH 15, 2018
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WASHINGTON — The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has subpoenaed the rich asshole Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, according to two people briefed on the matter. The order is the first known time that the special counsel demanded documents directly related to President the rich asshole’s businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president.
The breadth of the subpoena was not clear, nor was it clear why Mr. Mueller issued it instead of simply asking for the documents from the company, an umbrella organization that oversees some rich asshole’s business ventures. In the subpoena, delivered in recent weeks, Mr. Mueller ordered the rich asshole Organization to hand over all documents related to Russia and other topics he is investigating, the people said.
The subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation, which some rich asshole’s lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now, will drag on for at least several more months. Word of the subpoena comes as Mr. Mueller appears to be broadening his investigation to examine the role foreign money may have played in funding some rich asshole’s political activities. In recent weeks, Mr. Mueller’s investigators have questioned witnesses, including an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, about the flow of Emirati money into the United States.
Neither White House officials nor Alan S. Futerfas, a lawyer representing the rich asshole Organization, immediately responded to requests for comment. The rich asshole Organization has typically complied with requests from congressional investigators for documents for their own inquiries into Russian election interference, and there was no indication the company planned to fight Mr. Mueller about it.
The rich asshole Organization has said that it never had real estate holdings in Russia, but witnesses recently interviewed by Mr. Mueller have been asked about a possible real estate deal in Moscow. In 2015, a longtime business associate of some rich asshole’s emailed some rich asshole’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, at his the rich asshole Organization account claiming he had ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and said that building a rich asshole Tower in Moscow would help some rich asshole’s presidential campaign.
some rich asshole signed a nonbinding “letter of intent” for the project in 2015 and discussed it three times with Mr. Cohen.
Mr. Mueller could run afoul of a line the president has warned him not to cross. Though it is not clear how much of the subpoena is related to some rich asshole’s business beyond ties to Russia, some rich asshole said in an interview with The New York Times in July that the special counsel would be crossing a “red line” if he looked into his family’s finances beyond any relationship with Russia. The president declined to say how he would respond if he concluded that the special counsel had crossed that line.
A month before some rich asshole spoke of his red line, the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, threatened to quit after some rich asshole asked him to have Mr. Mueller fired because the president believed he had conflict-of-interest issues that precluded him from running the special counsel investigation.
Mr. Mueller was appointed in May to investigate whether some rich asshole’s campaign colluded with the Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election and any other matters that may arise from the inquiry. He is also examining whether the president has tried to obstruct the investigation.
some rich asshole’s lawyers are in negotiations with Mr. Mueller’s office about whether and how to allow his investigators to interview the president. Mr. Mueller’s office has shared topics it wants to discuss with the president, according to two people familiar with the talks. The lawyers have advised some rich asshole to refuse an interview but the president wants to do it, as he believes he has done nothing wrong and can easily answer investigators’ questions.
At the same time, some rich asshole is considering whether to bring on a new lawyer to help represent him in the special counsel’s investigation. Last week, some rich asshole spoke with Emmet Flood, a longtime Washington lawyer who represented former President Bill Clinton during the impeachment process, about coming into the White House to deal with the inquiry.
Michael S. Schmidt reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York.
Sarah Sanders says the rich asshole didn’t admit lying when he admitted lying to Canada’s prime minister
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Screenshot)
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White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Thursday conflicted with President some rich asshole’s own account of a misleading statement that he claimed to make up about trade with Canada.
According to The Washington Post, the rich asshole “boasted in a fundraising speech Wednesday that he made up information in a meeting with the leader of a top U.S. ally, saying he insisted to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbor to the north without knowing whether that was true.”
At Thursday’s press briefing, NPR correspondent Mara Liasson pointed out that the U.S. actually had a trade surplus with Canada.
Sanders asserted that Liasson’s figures did not “take into account some of the additional things like energy and timber.”
“It shows that there actually is a deficit,” she said. “The president was accurate because there was a trade deficit. He didn’t have to look at the specific figures because he knew there was a trade deficit.”
Sander admitted, however, that she did not have proof of the claims “in front of her.”
Watch the video
POLITICS
President some rich asshole on Wednesday finally admitted that sometimes he just has no idea what he’s talking about.
In audio recordings obtained by The Washington Post, the rich asshole told a crowd at a Missouri fundraising event about a trade meeting he recently had with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in — ‘Donald, we have no trade deficit.’ He’s very proud because everybody else, you know, we’re getting killed,” the rich asshole said, according to the Post. “So, he’s proud. I said, ‘Wrong, Justin, you do.’ I didn’t even know. ... I had no idea. I just said, ‘You’re wrong.’ You know why? Because we’re so stupid. … And I thought they were smart. I said, ‘You’re wrong, Justin.’ He said, ‘Nope, we have no trade deficit.’ I said, ‘Well, in that case, I feel differently,’ I said, ‘But I don’t believe it.’ I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, ‘Check, because I can’t believe it.’”
the rich asshole told his audience that he eventually admitted he was wrong, but he walked back the entire story in a tweet on Thursday.
According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the U.S. actually has a trade surplus with Canada, though the truth is a bit more complicated. There are multiple methodologies for calculating trade figures, and by some estimates the U.S. does run a deficit. Canada’s own data even shows it comes out ahead. But as Bloomberg notes, “Whichever data is used, the deficit (or surplus) is still relatively small compared to total trade between the two countries ― between 1 and 2 percent.” And trade deficits aren’t even necessarily a bad thing.
This is hardly the first time the rich asshole has been criticized for misinformation. While he often cites incorrect or misleading information with unflinching confidence, Wednesday’s comments add confusion to already complicated trade talks.
the rich asshole, who has long complained about trade imbalances, recently decided to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Canada and Mexico were exempted from the tariffs, with the caveat that the ongoing talks on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement result in a deal that satisfies the rich asshole. the rich asshole’s admission of cluelessness could make it harder for NAFTA negotiators to take him at his word.
Then again, it might not come as much of a surprise.
Shep Smith takes shot at Hannity and Tucker: ‘They don’t really have rules — they can say whatever’
Fox News host Shepard Smith (Screenshot)
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Fox News’ Shepard Smith, who has often quarreled with some of his own colleagues about the quality of information they feed to their viewers, recently conducted an interview with Time Magazine in which he took a not-so-veiled shot at Fox hosts such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson.
During the interview, Smith outlined the differences between what Fox News hosts like he and Chris Wallace try to do and what “opinion” hosts such as Hannity, Carlson, and Laura Ingraham try to accomplish.
“We serve different masters,” he said of the two sides of Fox News. “We work for different reporting chains, we have different rules.”
In fact, Smith continued, one difference between himself and hosts like Hannity is that Hannity doesn’t seem to have any standards about what he’ll say on his program.
“They don’t really have rules on the opinion side,” Smith said. “They can say whatever they want. If it’s their opinion. I don’t really watch a lot of opinion programming. I’m busy.”
Smith last year came under criticism of Hannity for offering coverage that was critical of the rich asshole’s presidency. Smith responded simply by saying, “Sometimes facts are displeasing.”
the rich asshole unveils new sanctions against Russia
BY JONATHAN EASLEY - 03/15/18 10:35 AM EDT
The U.S. will impose new economic sanctions on two-dozen Russian individuals and entities for cyberattacks in the U.S. and meddling in the 2016 election, senior national security officials said Thursday.
The Treasury Department will target five entities and 19 individuals from Russia for actions ranging from the “destabilizing efforts” in the 2016 presidential election to the “NotPetya” malware attack, the costliest and most disruptive in history.
Treasury says it will freeze the assets and prohibit Americans from doing business with the accused Russians.
Some of those entities and individuals — including the “Internet Research Agency,” which allegedly used fake social media accounts to sow division in the U.S. — have already been indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller.
The new sanctions also target two Russian military intelligence firms and a half-dozen people associated with them.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are investigating what officials described as a two-year cyber-warfare campaign against U.S. government entities and critical infrastructure in the energy, nuclear, commercial, water, aviation and manufacturing sectors.
“The Administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia,” he continued. “Treasury intends to impose additional CAATSA sanctions, informed by our intelligence community, to hold Russian government officials and oligarchs accountable for their destabilizing activities by severing their access to the U.S. financial system.”
The new sanctions come amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Russia.
The U.S. and its allies say Moscow was behind a brazen chemical attack against a former Russian intelligence officer in Britain.
British prime minister Theresa May expelled 23 Russian diplomats and the U.S. has signed on to a joint statement with its Western European allies slamming Russia for the “abhorrent” attack and demanding accountability from Moscow.
“This latest action by Russia fits into a pattern of behavior in which Russia disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and attempts to subvert and discredit Western democratic institutions and processes,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. “The United States is working together with our allies and partners to ensure that this kind of abhorrent attack does not happen again.”
This week, United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley blamed Moscow for chemical strikes allegedly perpetrated by the Syrian government against its own people.
And on Wednesday — the four-year anniversary of Moscow annexing the disputed peninsula of Crimea — the State Department released a blistering statement condemning Russia’s “campaign of coercion and violence” there.
Treasury officials say that the administration has to date sanctioned more than 100 individuals and entities for the actions in Ukraine.
“In addition to countering Russia’s malign cyber activity, Treasury continues to pressure Russia for its ongoing efforts to destabilize Ukraine, occupy Crimea, meddle in elections, as well as for its endemic corruption and human rights abuses,” the department said in a statement.
“The recent use of a military-grade nerve agent in an attempt to murder two UK citizens further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct of its government.”
But the centerpiece of the new sanctions are related to Russian election meddling. They represent an aggressive action from the rich asshole, who has been criticized for not doing enough to crack down on Moscow after his 2016 election victory.
Treasury is sanctioning the Internet Research Agency (IRA) and 15 individuals or LLCs associated with it.
Most of those individuals have already been charged in the Mueller investigation for allegedly setting up shop in the U.S. to run an interference campaign around the 2106 election.
Treasury laid out a long list of accusations against the IRA, alleging the group “altered, or caused a misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes and institutions.”
Treasury accused the IRA of creating vast numbers of fake online personalities to pose as campaign organizers or interest groups; of posting thousands of fake campaign advertisements that reached millions of people online; of organizing political rallies on the left and right; and of opening bank accounts in the U.S. with stolen identities.
Treasury has also targeted two Russian intelligence organizations in retaliation for what officials described as widespread and persistent cyberattacks.
A group called the Federal Security Service used cyber tools to target journalists and politicians who were critical of the Russian government and is said to behind a 2014 hacking of Yahoo that compromised millions of email accounts.
And Treasury sanctioned the Main Intelligence Directorate, along with a half-dozen people associated with the group, for being behind the “NotPetya” cyber-attack.
Officials estimated that attack cost companies and individuals billions of dollars worldwide while wreaking havoc on the global shipping trade.
- Updated at 11:45 a.m.
POLITICS
the rich asshole White House Staffers Reportedly Have A ‘Dead Pool’ On Who Will Be Next To Go
They’re filling out a different kind of bracket.
While many Americans were filling out brackets with their March Madness picks, officials in the White House of President some rich asshole were placing a different kind of bet.
They’ve reportedly placed odds on who will be the next one out the door.
Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post wrote on Twitter:
MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle replied:
The reports come amid turmoil at the White House, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson fired just weeks after White House communications director Hope Hicks resigned.
the rich asshole has also reportedly asked Chief of Staff John Kelly ― himself rumored to be on the chopping block ― to fire White House advisers Ivanka the rich asshole (the president’s daughter) and Jared Kushner (his son-in-law).
Numerous lower-levels staffers have also left or were forced out, while reports say there may be more Cabinet-level changes to come.
Here is some of the reaction to reports of the betting pool... which includes more than a few people trying to place their own bets:
The new normal-a dead pool in the White House. The last administration simply had a March Madness pool.
C
Miss SHEILA
If I’m McCabe I call in sick the rest of the week to get my retirement. Sessions will be gone next.
By
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March 15, 2018
"The momentum on the Democratic side is real."
The GOP’s failure in the Pennsylvania special election has Republicans across the country quaking over a monumental shift in power come November.
And that includes Republicans in North Carolina, who currently control the state assembly and fear that might not be the case come November.
A fundraising email leaked by conservative North Carolina blogger Brant Clifton shows just how panicked the party is. Matt Bales, political director for the North Carolina Republican House Caucus, warned that if the Pennsylvania result were applied to the state assembly, Democrats would wipe out the Republican majority.
“The outcome is yet another example of the Democratic base being fired up and the Republicans not turning out their voters,” Bales wrote. “The momentum on the Democratic side is real. Our fate will be determined by how hard we work and the effort we put into defending our majority and supermajority in the next six months.”
Bales calculated that after November, the North Carolina General Assembly would have 74 Democrats and 46 Republicans. Republicans currently hold a 75-45 majority.
It could be even worse than Bales realizes. Democrats in North Carolina crunched the same numbers including the state senate, and concluded that 39 seats would flip, giving Democrats majorities in both houses.
“And – like every single district in NC – every single one has a Democratic challenger,” wrote Robert Howard, communications director for the North Carolina Democrats. And according to Howard, the momentum is certainly on Democrats’ side.
“People are sick and tired of Republican efforts to rig the system against our middle class and they’re ready to sweep them out of office this fall at record numbers,” Howard said in a statement to Shareblue Media. “Republicans are merely confirming what Democrats already knew: every race is on the table this year.”
Nationally, 119 Republican House seats are more competitive than the one the rich asshole helped Republicans lose in Pennsylvania. And if the blue wave accomplishes anything close to what North Carolina is predicting at a state level, Democrats will be in great shape to correct the gerrymandering that has helped Republicans maintain their grip on the House.
It’s a fitting irony that by helping to drag Republican congressional candidates down, the rich asshole may be hastening his own political demise at the hands of a Democratically controlled House of Representatives.
WORLD NEWS
U.S. Hits Russia With Sanctions For Election Meddling, Cyber Attacks
“The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States slapped sanctions on 19 Russian individuals and five groups, including Moscow’s intelligence services, for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and malicious cyber attacks, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said there would be additional sanctions against Russian government officials and oligarchs “for their destabilizing activities.” Mnuchin did not give a timeframe for those sanctions, which he said would sever the individuals’ access to the U.S. financial system.
“The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure,” Mnuchin said in a statement.
U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign using hacking and propaganda, an effort that eventually included attempting to tilt the race in President some rich asshole’s favor. Russia denies interfering in the election.
Those targeted by the new sanctions include the Russian nationals and entities charged on Feb. 16 by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller with conspiring to tamper in the election. The indictment said Russians adopted false online personas to push divisive messages, traveled to the United States to collect intelligence and staged political rallies while posing as Americans.
The new sanctions also include Russian intelligence services, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), and six individuals working on behalf of the GRU.
Thursday’s action blocks all property of those targeted that is subject to U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits American citizens from engaging in transactions with them.
Treasury said the sanctions were also meant to counter destructive cyber attacks including the NotPetya attack that cost billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia and the United States. The United States and Britain last month attributed that attack to the Russian military.
Russian government hackers since at least March 2016 “have also targeted U.S. government entities and multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors,” the Treasury Department statement said.
A senior administration told reporters on a conference call that Russian actors infiltrated parts of the U.S. energy sector.
“We were able to identify where they were located within those business systems and remove them from those business systems,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Both Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress, which nearly unanimously passed a new sanctions bill against Russia last summer, had criticized the rich asshole for not punishing Moscow. The the rich asshole administration in January did not announce sanctions against Russia, for now, under the new law.
Republican Ed Royce, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, welcomed the new sanctions as an important step. “But more must be done,” Royce said in a statement, promising that his committee would “keep pushing to counter Russian aggression.”
The Treasury Department said it would keep pressure on Russia for its ongoing efforts to destabilize Ukraine and occupy the Crimea region, as well as corruption and human rights abuses.
“The recent use of a military-grade nerve agent in an attempt to murder two UK citizens further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct of its government,” it said.
Britain, the United States, Germany and France jointly called on Russia on Thursday to explain a military-grade nerve toxin attack on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent in England.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Will Dunham)
the rich asshole: 'We do have a trade deficit with Canada'
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 03/15/18 09:50 AM EDT
President the rich asshole on Thursday insisted that the U.S. has a trade deficit with Canada after he reportedly acknowledged mentioning the deficit to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a meeting without knowing if it was actually true.
the rich asshole tweeted that the U.S. does "have a Trade Deficit with Canada," noting that the U.S. has a deficit "with almost all countries."
"We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive). P.M. Justin Trudeau of Canada, a very good guy, doesn’t like saying that Canada has a Surplus vs. the U.S.(negotiating), but they do...they almost all do...and that’s how I know!" the rich asshole tweeted.
We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive). P.M. Justin Trudeau of Canada, a very good guy, doesn’t like saying that Canada has a Surplus vs. the U.S.(negotiating), but they do...they almost all do...and that’s how I know!
The president's tweet came after a Washington Post report Wednesday night that the rich asshole said in a fundraising speech that he made up facts about U.S. trade with Canada during a meeting with Trudeau.
In recounting the conversation with the Canadian premier, the rich asshole said that he pushed back on Trudeau's claim that the U.S. did not run a trade deficit with Canada.
"I said, ‘Wrong, Justin, you do.’ I didn’t even know. ... I had no idea," the rich asshole reportedly said.
According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the U.S. actually has a trade surplus with Canada. Data by Statistics Canada, however, shows that Canada has a trade surplus with the U.S.
the rich asshole has frequently railed against what he deems unfair trade that puts the U.S. at a disadvantage. The U.S., Canada and Mexico are in the process of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) at the rich asshole's urging.
Trudeau and the rich asshole have gone back and forth over the rich asshole's trade rhetoric before.
The story the rich asshole told to donors on Wednesday was similar to one he recounted at a rally in Florida in December, in which he insisted that, when lumber and energy are accounted for, Canada runs a trade surplus with the U.S.
According to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, the U.S. runs a $24.6 billion services trade surplus with Canada and a $12.1 billion deficit on goods. That means that the U.S. ultimately runs a $12.5 billion goods and services trade surplus with Canada.
In February, Trudeau warned that Canada "will not be pushed around" on trade negotiations.
“We will not be pushed around. At the same time we can remain confident about NAFTA,” Trudeau said.
“The negotiations are complex and challenging ... I’ve said many times, we are not going to take any old deal,” he added. “Canada is willing to walk away from NAFTA if the United States proposes a bad deal.”
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, the rich asshole told reporters that he remains open to ending the trade agreement if Canada and Mexico do not acquiesce to U.S. demands.
“I may terminate NAFTA, I may not. We’ll see what happens,” he said. "I think we have a good chance, but we'll see what happens."
The president earlier this month temporarily exempted Canada and Mexico from recently announced steel and aluminum tariffs amid the NAFTA talks, but he has discussed the possibility of the U.S. withdrawing from the trade deal.
CNN's Cuomo calls out Hannity, Maddow: 'I don't know where their partisan fights are getting us'
BY JOE CONCHA - 03/15/18 08:24 AM EDT
CNN's Chris Cuomo is calling out his soon-to-be prime-time competition in Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity, saying, "I don't know where their partisan fights are getting us."
"They have huge numbers. I have huge respect for their success, and I take nothing away from them," Cuomo said to Variety, referring to Hannity and Maddow.
"But the point is, I don't know where their partisan fights are getting us."
CNN announced Wednesday that Cuomo, a former ABC "20/20" co-anchor who jumped to CNN to co-anchor "New Day" on weekday mornings, will be moving to a 9 p.m. slot this spring.
He wrote on Twitter following the announcement of his new show, "Chris Cuomo Prime Time," that he will be "testing power" while "pushing for progress."
Not leaving @NewDay yet, and show will be strong with @JohnBerman and Alisyn and the best production team there is - but life is change. The need and the challenge at night are great...and I love the challenge of being in the main arena and testing power and pushing for progress. twitter.com/palpatin64/sta…
MSNBC's Maddow and Fox News's Hannity almost always finish among the top three programs in cable news, along with Fox News's Tucker Carlson.
For February, Hannity averaged 3.33 million total viewers per night. Carlson was second with 3.144 million viewers and Maddow third with 2.874 million.
In the 25-54 demographic that advertisers covet most, Hannity averaged 711,000 viewers, with Carlson registering 650,000 and Maddow 641,000. Maddow has been surging in March, however, winning the category on most nights.
"Cuomo Prime Time," which ran throughout January, was seen as a test run for Cuomo in prime time. The program finished tied for the month with Cooper as CNN's top-rated show in the key 25–54 demographic. It averaged 392,000 viewers while finishing tied for ninth overall against rivals Fox News and MSNBC.
In total viewers, Cuomo averaged 1.11 total viewers in prime time and finished 25th overall against its cable news competition.
"The show will feature Cuomo’s signature in-depth one-on-one interviews that test politicians and newsmakers on their positions, as well as analyses of news of the day and the latest breaking news," CNN said in a statement announcing the new program.
the rich asshole doubles down on lie he told Canada’s Trudeau in jumbled new tweet
Justin Trudeau and some rich asshole (Screengrab)
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President some rich asshole on Thursday issued a baffling and incoherent tweet defending his decision to simply make up facts during discussions with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Reacting to reports that he boasted about inventing false facts while talking with Trudeau, the rich asshole insisted that he knew what he was talking about — even if he didn’t actually know what he was talking about.
“We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive),” the president wrote. “P.M. Justin Trudeau of Canada, a very good guy, doesn’t like saying that Canada has a Surplus vs. the U.S.(negotiating), but they do…they almost all do…and that’s how I know!”
In fact, the United States government says that the U.S. actually does have a trade surplus — not a deficit — with Canada.
“U.S. goods and services trade with Canada totaled an estimated $627.8 billion in 2016,” writes the Office of the United States Trade Representative. “Exports were $320.1 billion; imports were $307.6 billion. The U.S. goods and services trade surplus with Canada was $12.5 billion in 2016.”
the rich asshole’s tweet falsely claiming that America has a trade deficit with Canada comes after the Washington Post reported that the rich asshole admitted to giving made-up information to Trudeau while he was speaking at a closed-door fundraiser in Missouri.
“I didn’t even know,” the rich asshole admitted of the time he insisted to Trudeau that Canada had a trade surplus with America. “I had no idea. I just said, ‘You’re wrong.’ You know why? Because we’re so stupid.”
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March 15, 2018
the rich asshole finally breaks his silence on Conor Lamb's stunning special election victory in Pennsylvania by lying about the Democrat's campaign.
After the White House claimed the GOP’s special election loss in Pennsylvania on Tuesday was “virtually a tie,” while the rich asshole himself remaining silent, a third game plan has emerged.
During a closed-door meeting with donors Wednesday night, the rich asshole flat out lied about the race, and lied about the Democrat who posted a victory in the district the rich asshole won by 20 points 16 months ago.
“The young man last night that ran, he said, ‘Oh, I’m like the rich asshole, Second Amendment, everything. I love the tax cuts, everything.’ He ran on that basis,” the rich asshole announced, according to The Atlantic. “He ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me.”
Running in a deeply conservative district that skews quite old, Conor Lamb, a Marine veteran, did mount a slightly unorthodox Democratic campaign. But the idea that he won because he favored the GOP tax giveaway to billionaires and corporations, or that he spent the campaign season complimenting the rich asshole, is simply false.
Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter from President Barack Obama, neatly summed up Lamb’s politics:
It was Lamb’s Republican opponent, Rick Saccone, who bragged on the campaign trail that he was “the rich asshole before the rich asshole was the rich asshole.”
Lamb, by contrast, wanted nothing to do with the rich asshole’s toxicity.
But in order to justify the special election debacle, the rich asshole is telling friends that the Democrat won because he ran as a the rich asshole-loving candidate.
Not even close.
Lamb’s win is clearly gnawing at the rich asshole, who personally flew to Pennsylvania’s 18th District twice this year to stump for the hapless Saccone. After preemptivelydemanding credit if Republicans won the special election, the rich asshole went uncharacteristically silent on Twitter about the race.
And the Pennsylvania debacle comes after the rich asshole backed another spectacular loser, accused pedophile Roy Moore, in the Alabama special election in December.
This week’s the special election was held to replace Republican Rep. Tim Murphy, who resigned in disgrace last year after it was revealed that the right-wing congressman had urged a woman he was having an affair with to have an abortion.
The election should’ve been no contest for the GOP, since the district is rated as an R+11, meaning it tilts very far in favor of Republicans.
In the wake of the GOP’s stunning defeat, election prognosticators are now downgradingRepublican chances in even more House races.
How’s the rich asshole going to spin that?
Kellyanne Conway snaps at ‘Fox & Friends’ hosts for mentioning massive turnover in the rich asshole administration
Kellyanne Conway appears on 'Fox & Friends' (Screen cap).
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White House adviser Kellyanne Conway on Thursday took a shot at Fox News for reporting that President some rich asshole appears poised to conduct a major purge of his own White House staff.
When asked by “Fox & Friends” about a Fox News report claiming that the rich asshole is planning to oust multiple officials — including national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin, and chief of staff John Kelly — Conway said that such stories were, on the whole, not very important.
“I don’t have any personnel announcements,” Conway began, before pivoting toward ripping the Fox News report. “I have to say I’m just fascinated about all the stories about palace intrigue and personnel, and a lack of stories about policy, it really is amazing. Thank God the president himself goes out across the country, like he did for two solid days this week, and takes his message directly to the people.”
As an example of the rich asshole taking his message directly to the American public, Conway pointed out that the president went to Missouri and “heard first-hand from people, including a tearful cafeteria worker saying, ‘Thank you for my tax cut!'”
Host Steve Doocy seemed a bit taken aback by Conway’s criticism and pointed out to her that, while Fox News does focus on policy issues, there has been a lot of turnover at the White House in recent weeks.
“This has been a big week for personnel changes,” Doocy said. “That’s why there’s this speculation.”
“The president has this right!” Conway insisted.
Watch the video below.
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March 15, 2018
Seven months after Congress required the rich asshole to impose sanctions on Russia for interfering in the 2016 election, he's finally doing it.
the rich asshole may have been dragged, kicking and screaming, but the administration finally announced sanctions against Russia for its cyberattacks against the U.S. in 2016.
What finally forced the rich asshole’s hand? Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation — the same one the rich asshole has denounced as a “witch hunt.”
“The new punishments include sanctions on the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm that produced divisive political posts on American social media platforms during the 2016 presidential election,” CNN reports. “Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, a financial backer to the Internet Research Agency with deep ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is also included.”
The new sanctions would bar named individuals from traveling to the United States and freeze whatever assets they have in the country.
Until now, the rich asshole has been almost comically reluctant to punish Russia for its aggressive attack on American elections.
Just this week, 140 House Democrats wrote to the rich asshole and urged him to impose sanctions on Russia. “Your actions over the last year have shown that you will constantly excuse President [Vladimir] Putin and deny his well established assistance to your campaign in 2016,” the letter stated.
Congress approved those sanctions last summer, with more than 500 members of the House and Senate supporting the measure. the rich asshole angrily agreed to sign the sanctions bill, lashing out at Congress in the process.
And the White House did nothing for seven months.
In January, the State Department actually claimed that no sanctions were needed because Russia had been effectively deterred.
That whole time, the rich asshole repeated his “no collusion” mantra as Mueller widened his investigation into possible ties between the the rich asshole campaign and Russian operatives in 2016.
The sanctions law passed by Congress required the administration to identify offending entities. Turns out the administration decided to follow Mueller’s lead. Last month, Mueller’s office announced indictments against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian groups.
Those charges allege that Russians working for the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency created false American personas and stole identities of Americans as part of an effort that was aimed at supporting the rich asshole’s campaign and “disparaging Hillary Clinton.”
The targets of the sanctions announced Thursday mirror the same targets named in Mueller’s indictment.
Meanwhile, Russia’s military intelligence service was “directly involved” in attacking the 2016 election, the Treasury Department announced. And, “In announcing the measures, the administration also disclosed a Russian attempt to penetrate the US energy grid.”
Through it all, though, the rich asshole still refuses to personally and publicly denounce Putin.
CNN’s Cuomo nails GOP lawmakers for rushing to protect pets on airlines — but doing nothing about guns
Chris Cuomo (Screenshot/YouTube)
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Responding to reports that GOP lawmakers are pressing to introduce a bill that will protect animals on airlines following the tragic death a French bulldog stuffed into an overhead bin, CNN host Chris Cuomo marveled at the speed with which they are protecting pets but doing nothing about guns that are being used to slaughter students.
Sharing clips of former United Airline passengers describing how horribly their pets have been treated by United Airlines — including a tearful teen describing finding her dog had died mid-flight — CNN correspondent Athena Jones explained what steps United is taking to avert another tragedy and how Congress is responding.
“Republican Sen. John Kennedy (LA) is introducing legislation to ban animals from being put in overhead bins,” a CNN report relayed “The Department of Transportation says 18 animals died on board United Airline flights last year, more than any other airlines. This is one year after they faced intense backlash after this video surfaced of a passenger being dragged off a United flight for refusing to get off the plane due to overbooking.”
“Who can forget that story?” Jones added. “United has announced start anything April it will issue brightly colored tags to passengers traveling with pets to put on their pet carriers so they can be easily identified by the crew.”
“That sounds like a start,” host Alisyn Camerota suggested. “They can also listen to the passengers who are telling them the dog is in the carrier and the dog is barking.”
Cuomo then jumped in to question the priorities of congressional lawmakers.
“That is legal language to cover themselves for what is sure to be a lawsuit,” Cuomo exclaimed. “Also, an interesting aspect to this, John Kennedy, we ’ve had him on the show, Republican senator out of Louisiana, here he is moving on this right away. ‘What happened with this dog? We have to figure it out.’ So bills are being introduced.”
“School shootings? Not so much,” Cuomo accused. “But this dog and why? Because they believe that you act out of consequence and no conscience. And they believe voters will reward and punish if they don’t own this. They don’t feel the same way about the other issue.”
Watch the video below via CNN:
the rich asshole auditioning a new cast of White House aides by watching them on TV
U.S. President some rich asshole speaks during an interview with Reuters at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 17, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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President some rich asshole has grown sick and tired of many White House aides for a variety of reasons, and he’s holding a casting call for their replacements.
The president wants to shake up his administration, even after the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his deputy and the recent departures of personal assistant John McEntee and economic adviser Gary Cohn, and he wants candidates who look the part, reported Axios.
“the rich asshole is irritated by a fairly long list of people. And, yes, those people include John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Jeff Sessions and, now, the troubled Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin,” reported Jonathan Swan for the website.
White House aides are sick with worry that the rich asshole will replace them or their boss at any time, and while no concrete plans have been revealed about anyone’s job status — the president keeps the rumor mill spinning “with his own constant, unguarded ramblings,” Axios reported.
the rich asshole tweets out announcements on some jobs and privately calls friends and associates to float other ideas, which they often pass on to reporters.
TV personality Larry Kudlow told CNBC that he found out Wednesday he would be named chief economic adviser after the president called him to praise his television appearances.
“The president called and he said: ‘It’s out. … You’re on the air,'” Kudlow said. “‘I’m looking at a picture of you. … Very handsome!”
the rich asshole is also reportedly considering frequent Fox News guest John Bolton as a replacement for national security adviser H.R. McMaster, but he’s not crazy about his personal appearance.
A “source close to the White House” told CBS News that the rich asshole wouldn’t require Bolton to shave his mustache for the job, but his facial hair continues to be a “sensitive subject.”
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March 15, 2018
the rich asshole went to Missouri to fundraise for GOP Senate candidate Josh Hawley, who is challenging Sen. Claire McCaskill. It was a complete disaster.
Fresh off of the humiliating defeat of Republican Rick Saccone in Pennsylvania, the rich asshole applied his toxic touch to Missouri Republican Josh Hawley’s Senate campaign Wednesday with a flurry of belligerent lies disguised as a fundraising speech.
The Washington Post obtained audio of the rich asshole’s 30-minute speech to donors on behalf of Hawley, who is running against Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. But according to the Post, the rich asshole “barely spoke about Hawley.”
Instead, he spent his time regaling donors with attacks on U.S. allies like Canada. He bragged about repeatedly needling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over an imaginary trade deficit, when in reality the U.S.enjoys a small trade surplus with our neighbor to the north.
He also attacked Japan on trade, accusing the country of using a bizarre test for U.S. automobiles in Japan.
“It’s the bowling ball test,” he said. “They take a bowling ball from 20 feet up in the air and drop it on the hood of the car. If the hood dents, the car doesn’t qualify. It’s horrible.”
He also threatened South Korea during a frightening riff on the Korean Peninsula.
“We have right now 32,000 soldiers on the border between North and South Korea,” he said. “Let’s see what happens.”
He also mocked concerns about his history of nuclear threats against North Korea. “He’s going to get us in a war,” the rich asshole said, deriding a news anchor’s concerns about his behavior. “You know what’s going to get us in a war? Weakness.”
the rich asshole’s performance on Hawley’s behalf is yet another example of the kind of “help” he has offered to Republican candidates like puppy-resistant Rick Saccone in Pennsylvania, alleged child molester Roy Moore in Alabama, and fellow racist Ed Gillespie in Virginia. the rich asshole warmly embraced and supported each of those candidates, and each one lost.
It’s little wonder that National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio could not name a single battleground district where he would send the rich asshole. And with a strong incumbent like McCaskill, Missouri isn’t the place for the rich asshole, either.
Vulnerable Republicans may be secretly wishing for the rich asshole to sit down and shut up. The good news for Democrats looking to take back Congress in November is there’s very little chance that will happen.
the rich asshole: Lamb performed well in Pennsylvania because he’s ‘like the rich asshole’
BY AVERY ANAPOL - 03/15/18 07:29 AM EDT
President the rich asshole reportedly said late Wednesday that Democratic congressional candidate Conor Lamb performed well in a deep-red Pennsylvania district because he is “like the rich asshole.”
the rich asshole told GOP donors at a private fundraiser that Lamb ran “a pretty smart race, actually” against Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone, The Atlantic reported.
“The young man last night that ran, he said, ‘Oh, I’m like the rich asshole. Second Amendment, everything. I love the tax cuts, everything.’ He ran on that basis,” the president said of Lamb, according to the news outlet. “He ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me. I said, ‘Is he a Republican? He sounds like a Republican to me.’”
He campaigned against the GOP tax cuts, calling them a "giveaway" to the wealthy.
"We didn't need to add a penny to our debt to have the tax cut for our working and middle-class people," he said during a debate.
During the debate, Lamb also expressed at least some support for the rich asshole's steel and aluminum tariffs, saying the U.S. has "to take some action to level the playing field," though he added that he would support more targeted tariffs on countries like China.
He shied away from criticizing the rich asshole during the race, but does not appear to have ever said he is "like" the president.
Lamb declared victory Tuesday night in Pennsylvania’s 18th District, previously a Republican stronghold, while leading Saccone by a razor-thin margin. the rich asshole won the district by 20 points in 2016.
The New York Times called the race for Lamb on Wednesday, saying that his less-than-700-vote lead over Saccone “appears insurmountable.” Republicans had poured millions of dollars into a race that should have been an easy win, though the district itself will disappear once Pennsylvania's new congressional map takes effect.
the rich asshole supported and held a campaign rally for Saccone, during which he spoke primarily about his own administration’s accomplishments and criticized the media.
In his remarks on Wednesday, the rich asshole claimed that his rally for Saccone lifted the candidate’s polling numbers “seven points up,” according to The Atlantic. Saccone was trailing Lamb in several polls by a thin margin into Tuesday’s election.
“That’s a lot,” the rich asshole reportedly said. “And I was up 22 points, and we lifted 7, and 7 normally would be enough, but we’ll see how it all comes out. It’s, like, virtually a tie.”
Updated at 7:57 a.m.
MSNBC’s Mika shreds GOP’s ‘self-destructive suck-ups’ for riding ‘USS the rich asshole’ to their doom
Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski roasted Republicans who repeatedly embarrass themselves on the record by defending President some rich asshole’s shameless and scandalous behavior.
The “Morning Joe” co-host said their fealty showed the rich asshole had completely taken over the Republican Party — but she warned that his dominance would eventually destroy the GOP.
“The iceberg is coming, so why are you afraid of being primaried?” Brzezinski said. “The whole thing is going down anyway. The Republican Party does not exist right now.”
NBC News reporter Heidi Przybyla said Republicans had already invested too much in the rich asshole to abandon him now.
“They all bought a ticket on the U.S.S. the rich asshole and it was all up to all of them to keep it afloat,” Przybyla said. “Now that you’re seeing holes poked in the ship and folks starting to see that it’s sinking potentially, that there’s a huge wave coming, you know, there is definitely panic, but at the same time they are on the record in some of the most controversial statements that this president has said. Their silence is on the record.”
Przybyla said the only thing that might turn the GOP against the president would be “conclusive evidence” of collusion or obstruction of justice in the Mueller probe, but even then she’s not so sure.
“Look what you just saw this week with the House Intelligence Committee essentially shutting down (their) investigation,” Przybyla said. “That is members again putting themselves on the record in quite a public way that they don’t want to know and that they’re willing to take that risk that they look silly when the evidence comes out.”
Brzezinski said the current state of the Republican Party disgusted her.
“I’ve never seen a larger group of self-destructive suck-ups,” she said. “Like, what good is going to come out of it — how does this help them?”
‘Just blatant disrespect’: CNN panel flays the rich asshole for boasting about ‘BSing’ Canada’s Trudeau
Alisyn Camerota, Chris Cuomo -- CNN screengrab
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Reacting to a Washington Post report that President some rich asshole laughingly boasted to donors about lying to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the panel on CNN ‘s “New Day” was stunned that the president brazenly admitted it and warned that it will come back to harm the U.S. in future trade negotiations with other countries.
Wednesday night the Washington Post reported that the rich asshole told donors that he made up information about a trade deficit he believes the United States has with Canada during a meeting with Trudeau — and that the president treated it like a joke.
To illustrate the offensiveness of the rich asshole making light of speaking with another world — particularly one closely allied with the U.S. — hosts Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota took time to read the entire transcript of the rich asshole’s comments for CNN analysts John Avlon and Mark Preston.
Following the recitation, Cuomo took aim at the rich asshole.
“Look we know that the president flagrantly abuses the truth, when I say we, I mean everyone but the rich asshole base, abuses the truth when it suits him,” host Cuomo began. “It’s part of his persuasiveness and maybe his own sense of self-delusion, about what is true and what isn’t. But what does it mean for Justin Trudeau to hear this isn’t what the president was talking about when they are still at the table about NAFTA?”
“Oh, it’s going to mean great things, it’s really help build trust,” Avlon sarcastically offered. “It’s not that he is bragging about lying, that this is part of the Manhattan real estate developer persona, right? But it is the personal disrespect he has shown in Justin Trudeau. He is basically playing him off as ‘a good-looking guy who I just blatantly lied to and I’m such a genius that I was proven right.'”
“Look, presidential words matter, but they do not matter to President the rich asshole and, what’s more, he brags about lying,” he continued.
“I see it differently,” host Camerota interjected. “I see it as the best window yet we have had into his style and belief that he doesn’t care about the details or the facts. They don’t matter. He runs with a hunch … he has a feeling about this. ‘I feel you’re screwing me over, so I don’t need to know the facts, I feel that way.’ So he runs with it.”
“Geopolitically, going with your gut is dangerous,” Preston remarked. “Acts matter when we’re dealing with international diplomacy and the American president, whose words really do matter.”
Watch the video below via CNN:
Senate GOP: We will grow our majority in midterms
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 03/15/18 06:00 AM EDT
Senate Republicans say they are confident about expanding their majority even while their party faces strong political headwinds amid growing sentiment that GOP control of the House is in serious jeopardy.
Sen. Cory Gardner (Colo.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), gave colleagues a pep talk during a private meeting Tuesday, pointing out poll numbers showing Republicans beating five vulnerable Democratic incumbents.
“He said if the election were held tomorrow, we’d pick up five seats,” said a Republican senator who heard Gardner’s comments and said the “upbeat” outlook was based on public polling.
“I think come November we will continue to build our strong economy message,” he said. “The benefits of the tax cuts are real. Today Democrats are advocating a massive tax increase at the Commerce Committee.”
The lawmaker who requested anonymity said Gardner’s comments reflect a prevailing view within the Senate Republican Conference that any possible Democratic wave is likely to be felt more in the House than the Senate.
A significant reason for GOP optimism is the Senate 2018 map, where Democrats are defending 26 of the 35 seats up this fall. Among those 26 seats, President the rich asshole won five states by 18 or more points and five more by narrow margins. Republicans, meanwhile, have three tough races in Arizona, Nevada and Tennessee.
Senate Republicans took note of the still-undecided race in Tuesday’s special House election in Pennsylvania, where Democrat Conor Lamb is narrowly ahead of Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone in a district the rich asshole won by 20 points. Yet, they say they aren’t panicked.
A survey by Axios and SurveyMonkey published last week showed five Senate Democratic incumbents losing if the election were held today.
The poll showed Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) losing to generic Republicans.
A second Republican senator, who confirmed Gardner’s comments, said there’s growing optimism about knocking off Tester because he faces competition from a Green Party candidate who could divide liberal voters in November.
The Associated Press, however, reported Tuesday that the Green Party candidate, Timothy Adams, was previously on the Republican Party’s payroll and heads a newly formed anti-tax group, which diminishes his credibility with the left.
Gardner is bucking up his colleagues as signs accumulate of a coming Democratic wave in November that could flip control of the House and possibly the Senate as well.
A spokeswoman for the NRSC declined to comment on Gardner’s private comments.
David Bergstein, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Gardner’s optimistic talk is actually a sign of growing desperation.
“Republicans can’t defend their higher health-care costs or their tax scam that benefits corporate executives at the expense of the middle class, and have lost a Senate seat in Alabama along with a congressional seat in a district the rich asshole won by 20 points. No wonder they’re grasping at straws,” he said.
Senate Republicans say Lamb’s possible victory in Pennsylvania’s 18th District is concerning, but they’re hopeful that it is not a harbinger of things to come in the fall.
“Obviously it’s not a good story when a district that I think I carried by 20 points and President the rich asshole carried by 20 points is basically a tie,” said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who won the district handily in his 2016 reelection win.
But Toomey cautioned, “I’d be careful about extrapolating.”
“Every race has its own peculiarities, its own unique circumstances,” he added.
Saccone’s possible loss and the dismal showing by Republican candidates in state races in New Jersey and Virginia in November has underscored a feeling among Republicans that they are facing a political headwind because of the rich asshole.
While Gardner is expressing confidence to his colleagues, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been more circumspect.
McConnell last month told The New York Times, “The odds are that we will lose seats in the House and the Senate.” He also acknowledged Democrats have a major edge in fundraising over the Senate GOP.
Historically, the president’s party loses seats in midterm elections, but some Republicans think that trend could be exacerbated by the rich asshole’s polarizing style.
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a regular critic of the president, called the Pennsylvania special election “a wake-up call, and a big one.”
“This is a 20-point the rich asshole district. A year later, we lose it,” he said, expressing hope that it would illustrate to fellow Republicans “the limits of Trumpism.”
“You can only drill down so hard on the base. You have to appeal to a broader electorate,” Flake added.
“Having the president come into town and ridicule Democratic members of Congress and encourage cheers of ‘CNN sucks’... right-thinking people are saying that’s not our view.”
Flake, who is not seeking reelection, said his colleagues are feeling more nervous about the midterms despite cheery talk from GOP leaders such as Gardner.
Other Republican senators say they’re not nervous but nevertheless realize they face an uphill battle because of historical trends.
“Any party in control needs to keep its eyes wide open as you approach the first midterm election in a new president’s term. That’s historically been the case, so we’ll just have to work harder,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who will work to elect a Republican to replace retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) later this year.
Alexander said that the rich asshole has proven he has rock-solid support among the Republican base, but the challenge will be to broaden that enthusiasm for GOP candidates to swing and independent voters.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said party strategists should pay close attention to the result to make course corrections ahead of the midterms, if necessary.
“I don’t think there’s any need to panic but certainly we should take a look at the results and why people voted the way they did,” she said.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Senate Republicans are probably in better shape than House Republicans in this midterm elections.
“The map, no matter what happens, still leans in our direction, so I think they have a better than even chance to actually pick up a seat or two,” Cole said of Senate Republicans and the favorable battleground map.
Department of Defense spent thousands at the rich asshole properties in 2017
Pentagon employees spent more than $17,000 at the rich asshole's Panama hotel.
The Department of Defense spent more than $138,000 at the rich asshole branded properties in the first eight months of some rich asshole’s presidency, according to CNN, which reviewed hundreds of records obtained by a government watchdog group.
Property of the People, which presses for government transparency, obtained the documents via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, and according to the Daily Beast also discovered that Pentagon employees spent more than $17,000 in the first half of 2017 on lodging at a Panama hotel that until recently was managed by the rich asshole Organization.
The Department of Defense expenditures were made at the rich asshole’s private club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, as well as 12 other the rich asshole properties. A CNN analysis of the documents revealed that military personnel may have spent more than a third of the $138,000 ($58,875.69) on lodging and food at Mar-a-Lago.
“With the [Department of Defense’s] spending at Mar-a-Lago and other the rich asshole properties, and the rich asshole’s refusal to divest from his sprawling business empire, once again we find the President’s hand deep in the taxpayer’s pocket,” Ryan Shapiro, Property of the People co-founder, said on the public interest news site The Sparrow Project. “the rich asshole’s venality and his administration’s open contempt for transparency creates a functionally unprecedented potential for conflicts of interest and corruption.”
The expenditures have raised concerns among ethics experts who say the payments may violate the Constitution’s domestic emoluments clause, which prevents the president from receiving money from the federal government or state governments.
The clause “has always been strictly enforced because you don’t want the President playing favorites,” Norman Eisen, a former ethics adviser to President Barack Obama, told CNN. “We know that Cabinet officials try to ingratiate themselves with the President by telling the rich asshole how much they love his properties. Who’s to say that’s not influencing the rich asshole’s decisions?”
the rich asshole still controls his real estate business, the rich asshole Organization, despite calls from ethics officials and government watchdog organizations for the rich asshole to divest himself of assets that can lead to conflicts of interest.
One of those groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) in Washington, D.C. chronicled instances in which government and special interests interacted with the president’s private businesses during the rich asshole’s first year in office, and found more than 500 instances of potential conflicts of interests.
At the rich asshole’s former Panama property, which was known up until this month as the rich asshole International Hotel & Tower Panama, the rich asshole Organization licensed the president’s name to the hotel and had a contract to manage the property until 2031, according to Newsweek.
Jordan Libowitz, a spokesperson for CREW, told the Daily Beast on Wednesday that if the rich asshole’s business had a profit-sharing agreement with the Panama hotel, and if his company benefited from hotel patronage, then the arrangement could be a potential domestic emolument violation. But this is unclear because of the lack of transparency surrounding the rich asshole Organization’s business dealings.
“We don’t know to a full extent how the rich asshole Organization’s internal business mechanisms work,” he continued. “We don’t know what money is going where and that’s a problem when the president still owns a significant share of the profit.”
Earlier this month, the majority owner of the Panama hotel, Orestes Fintiklis, evicted the rich asshole Organization’s hotel staff from the property, and then erased the rich asshole name from the Panama property, as ThinkProgress’ Casey Michel reported. The hotel is now called Bahía Grand.
On Tuesday, ThinkProgress reported on efforts by members of Congress to investigate alleged drug trafficking and money laundering at the Panama hotel. Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA) and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) contacted the Drug Enforcement Administration’s acting administrator earlier this week seeking information about what the DEA knows about these allegations.
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March 14, 2018
the rich asshole's team falls back on alternative facts after the Republicans' brutal loss in Pennsylvania.
While Democrat Conor Lamb basks in the glow of his special election victory over Republican Rick Saccone, the rich asshole’s White House is committed to pretending it was a tie.
the rich asshole himself has been notably and blessedly silent after his desperate last-minute visit failed to help Saccone win in Pennsylvania’s 18 Congressional District.
But deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah tried to spin the rich asshole as Saccone’s near-savior, telling reporters during a gaggle aboard Air Force One that the rich asshole’s “engagement in the race turned what was a deficit for the Republican candidate to what is essentially a tie.”
Shah also falsely claimed that Conor Lamb “embraced the president’s policies and his vision,” echoing spin from other Republicans and conservative media figures.
In real life, however, Conor Lamb won the special election Tuesday night despite the fact that the rich asshole carried the district by twenty points, and Lamb closed a double-digit polling lead after the rich asshole jumped into the race.
Lamb ran against the rich asshole tax scam, and polls came out the weekend of the rich asshole’s unhinged last-ditch campaign stop in Pennsylvania showing Lamb gained against the Republicans. And unlike the last losing special election candidate the rich asshole endorsed, Rick Saccone wasn’t even an accused child molester.
The Democratic victory in Pennsylvania is just the latest in a long string of special election flips, and the first since the passage of the rich asshole tax scam.
With just eight months to go until the midterms, there are 119 current Republican seats that are closer than the Pennsylvania 18th District was in 2016, and with any luck, the rich asshole will be willing to help lose as many of them as is humanly possible, too.
Stormy Daniels makes the Steele dossier look more plausible
BY GREGORY J. WALLANCE, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 03/15/18 01:30 PM EDT
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin spent nearly $1 million on seven military aircraft trips between the spring and fall of 2017, according to documents gathered by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
CREW sued for records following a highly publicized trip between Mnuchin and his wife Louise Linton to Fort Knox, Ken., in August.
The trip, on a military jet, coincided with the total solar eclipse, and led to speculation that Mnuchin had planned the trip in order to take in the cosmic event. Mnuchin denied the charges.
“The public still has no reasonable explanation for why Secretary Mnuchin apparently has never used commercial aircraft while his predecessors did, or why he needs military aircraft that can accommodate 120 passengers when his travel manifests contain far fewer names,” said Anne Weismann, an official for the left-leaning government watchdog.
The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
The revelation is the latest in a series of reports on lavish spending among the rich asshole cabinet.
Health Secretary Tom Price resigned following revelations that he spent over $400,000 in taxpayer money on chartered flights.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson planned to spend $31,000 on a dining set for his office. He cancelled the order after media criticism.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt faced scrutiny for regularly flying first class, despite the availability of far cheaper options.
Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin had to reimburse the government after improperly expensing a ticket for his wife to join him on a European trip, plus tickets to see tennis at Wimbledon.
CNN analyst predicts VA Secretary Shulkin is next in line to be fired — and here are the horrific reasons why
United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin (image via Wikimedia Commons).
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Reviewing the continuing chaos in the rich asshole administration — where seemingly every cabinet official has their head on President some rich asshole’s chopping block — a CNN analyst attempted to predict who would be the next to be shown the door — with Veterans Administration Secretary David Shulkin leading the field.
According to host Chris Cuomo, “They were supposed to be the best cabinet ever assembled– and they’re not. That is the estimate of President the rich asshole himself who is eyeing a purge of his embattled cabinet. The president wants to get rid of the, quote, ‘deadweight’.”
“So let’s take a look of what could be called some of the deadweight,” Cuomo continued before introducing political analyst Mark Preston with his March Madness-styled “deadweight bracketology.”
With Cuomo noting the list did not include Chief of Staff John Kelly or any of the “security guys,” the CNN host added, “we don’t have McMaster here. Mattis hasn’t been discussed and they are important people, a different part of the analysis. Let’s start with the least likely to go in this estimation. Of these people who is least likely?”
“Anything we say could change in a matter of seconds if President the rich asshole is watching and tweet out that he has since fired somebody,” Preston began. “Let’s look at the Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. ”
“She ran into a lot of trouble this week, didn’t quite understand that she needed to go out and look at low performing schools to understand how our education system works, and we haven’t seen a whole lot of her publicly, that is the reason why,” Preston admitted.
Preston went on to note that EPA administrator Scott Pruitt deserves consideration for possibly being dumped, stating, ” He has the paranoia vibe — making sure people aren’t spying on him and spending all the money,” including $43,000 for a soundproof booth.
With both HUD Secretary Ben Carson and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke also under intense scrutiny over their spending habits, Preston said the departure list is likely headed by Shulkin, despite the fact that he “has the best reputation within his own agency.”
“There are two things this guy has going for him could make hum the easiest to get rid of for the president,” Cuomo prompted.
“The fact of the matter is he is supposed to take care of our veterans,” Preston explained while showing a graphic describing the Washington D.C. VA hospital as “too dirty to keep medical devices in.”
“How do you explain this?” Preston asked. “They are paying for them to go to Wimbledon? He is the VA secretary! Last I knew he was not in charge of the State Department or diplomacy.”
Having said this, I do know when he was under consideration for this job, the rich asshole didn’t necessarily take a liking to him right away. He [the rich asshole] had to be convinced by those within the military circles to keep him on. As you and I spoke beforehand, he is also an Obama guy an Obama-era holdover, and that gives the president great political cover, saying our veterans deserve the best.”
“If someone has to go, he’s in bad shape, and the irony is that the people in his agency like him and think he does a good job,” he concluded.
You can watch the video below via CNN:
The extravagant spending of the rich asshole’s champagne cabinet
All while their agencies suffer.
President some rich asshole ran on the promise that he would “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C. One of the ways in which the president sought to do this was by filling his cabinet with individuals who were not previously part of the political establishment.
Some members of his cabinet, however, seem to be reveling in their new-found fame and are spending thousands of taxpayer dollars to fund their ridiculous requests.
The EPA administrator’s $43,000 phone booth
Last fall, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed that the agency spent more than $25,000 on a “secure phone booth” for Administrator Scott Pruitt’s office.
New EPA records reported on Wednesday, however, show that there was much more to the cost than just constructing a soundproof booth. In order to make room for the booth, officials had to make space near a closet in Pruitt’s office. The agency paid a firm $7,978 to remove a closed-circuit television equipment to make room while another contractor was hired to pour 55 square feet of concrete more than two feet thick, at a cost of $3,470. A drop ceiling was constructed for $3,361 by another set of workers while others patched and painted the small area for $3,350, records show.
In sum, the EPA shelled out $43,000 so that Pruitt can take private calls with the White House in peace.
When questioned about the booth during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing last fall, Pruitt defended the expense, calling it, “necessary for me to be able to do my job,” despite every other administrator getting along just fine without it in the agency’s 48 year history.
Like most other cabinet members guilty of extravagant spending, Pruitt has recommended massive budget cuts.
The Interior secretary’s $139,000 door
The Interior Department reportedly spent $139,000 on construction for the agency labeled “Secretary’s Door,” according to records first reported by the Associated Press.
According to the report, Secretary Ryan Zinke was not aware of the contract, but when the news wire called the agency to comment on the expense, a man answering phones hung up on the reporter.
That Zinke would allow such an extravagant amount of money to be paid on a set of doors shouldn’t be much of a surprise. According to the Washington Post, Zinke has commissioned commemorative coins with his name on them to give to visitors, and has instated a tradition of flying a special secretarial flag whenever he is at the Interior Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Previous secretaries have had coins, but not personalized ones. The cost to taxpayers is unknown.
Zinke has also taken a liking to military and chartered flights while conducting his work for the government. One trip, which Zinke took from Las Vegas, Nevada to Kalispell, Montana — near his hometown of Whitefish — cost taxpayers $12,375. Zinke defended that choice by saying he could not have made a meeting with members of Las Vegas’ new professional hockey team if he had taken a commercial flight.
During a Senate committee hearing Tuesday, Zinke defended his flights and extravagant spending habits, calling attacks on him “misleading” and “innuendos.”
In an ironic twist, Zinke has supported the rich asshole’s budget cuts for the Interior Department and has proposed slashing the agency’s workforce by 4,000.
The $31,000 dining set at the Department of Housing and Urban Development
In early March, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson said in a statement that he was “shocked” to learn that the dining set he had chosen for a little-used formal space in his office cost $31,000.
At the time, HUD communications director Raffi Williams stated that “the agency is working to rescind the order for the dining room set” at Carson’s request and denied that neither Ben nor his wife Candy had no awareness that the dining set was being purchased.
But newly released emails first reported by CNN show that the Carsons actually selected the furniture themselves.
According to CNN’s report, “an August email from a career administration staffer, with the subject line ‘Secretary’s dining room set needed,’ to Carson’s assistant refers to ‘printouts of the furniture the Secretary and Mrs. Carson picked out.’” The emails do no indicate that Carson expressed concern about the dining set’s cost, or made moves to cancel the order until news of the price broke.
The August emails also revealed Carson asked his staff about the legality of using HUD funds to commission a $25,000 portrait. The New York Times notes there are no portraits of Carson’s predecessors in the HUD office.
As ThinkProgress detailed earlier this month, Carson’s extravagant spending occurs as the agency he oversees slashes affordable housing programs.
The jet-setting Treasury Secretary’s $800,000 flights
From March of 2017 to October, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin chartered seven military aircraft flights at a cost of more than $800,000.
Mnuchin’s travel expenditures were first brought under scrutiny after former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned after his excessive use of private and military aircraft for government work was reported by Politico. Price’s trips cost taxpayers nearly $1 million.
Louise Linton, Mnuchin’s wife, also had a part in attracting more scrutiny on the secretary’s travels. In August, she posted a now-deleted photo on Instagramdisembarking on a military jet emblazoned with official government markings. In the post she added hashtags to denote the expensive designer labels she was wearing.
As the post went viral, many criticized timing of trip, suggesting Mnuchin and Linton requested the plane so they could have an optimal view of the solar eclipse, which was occurring that day.
An investigation by the Treasury Department’s inspector general into Mnuchin’s travel found that his trips were all legal.
“I see no violation of law in these requests and uses,” OIG Counsel Rich Delmar wrote in the report. “What is of concern is a disconnect between the standard of proof called for… and the actual amount of proof provided.”
POLITICS
Sarah Sanders Changes Her Tune With Message Chastising Russia For UK Poisoning
But the rich asshole himself has yet to state that Russia is responsible for the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter.
Just one day after Sarah Huckabee Sanders went through verbal hoops to avoid naming Russia as the party responsible for poisoning a former spy with a deadly nerve agent, the White House press secretary released a surprisingly stern message on Wednesday denouncing the nation.
In the statement, Huckabee Sanders repeated her claim that the U.S. stood in solidarity with the U.K., but this time she said the rich asshole administration shares its ally’s conclusion that Russia is culpable for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia. Both remain critically ill.
The message from Sanders read:
“The United States shares the United Kingdom’s assessment that Russia is responsible for the reckless nerve agent attack on a British citizen and his daughter, and we support the United Kingdom’s decision to expel Russian diplomats as a just response. This latest action by Russia fits into a pattern of behavior in which Russia disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and attempts to subvert and discredit Western democratic institutions and processes. The United States is working together with our allies and partners to ensure that this kind of abhorrent attack does not happen again.”
After U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May said investigators found it was “highly likely” Russia was behind the attack, the country expelled 23 Russian diplomats from the country. May said President some rich asshole, along with other U.K. allies, would “cooperate closely to respond” to the attack, according to Reuters.
Though U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and now Huckabee Sanders have come out and condemned Russia, the rich asshole himself has yet to acknowledge the country’s responsibility in the attack.
POLITICS
the rich asshole Claims Credit For Shock Dem Win In Pennsylvania
the rich asshole claimed he “lifted” GOP candidate Rick Saccone’s margin, even though Saccone had been expected to easily win the traditionally red district.
WASHINGTON ― President some rich asshole downplayed the significance of the Democratic victory in the special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District on Wednesday, claiming that Conor Lamb won because he tried to be “like the rich asshole.”
Lamb, a political newcomer, was projected to defeat state Rep. Rick Saccone in Tuesday’s election, although the margin was thin. It was a staggering show of Democratic strength in a deep-red Pennsylvania congressional district that the rich asshole won by almost 20 points in 2016.
“The young man last night that ran, he said, ‘Oh, I’m like the rich asshole. Second Amendment, everything. I love the tax cuts, everything.’ He ran on that basis,” the rich asshole said at a fundraiser in Missouri on Wednesday, according to The Atlantic. “He ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me. I said, ‘Is he a Republican? He sounds like a Republican to me.’”
Lamb, in fact, ran against the GOP-passed tax cut law. And even conservative groups realized that the signature achievement of the Republican Congress wasn’t resonating with voters; they shifted away from that issue as the campaign went on. Saccone, however, tried to sell himself as a politician in the mold of the rich asshole.
Just last weekend, the rich asshole campaigned outside of Pittsburgh for GOP candidate Rick Saccone, a state senator whose message was built on support of the rich asshole and his policies. But what typically would have been an easy GOP victory on Tuesday evening became a narrow race between Saccone and Lamb that stretched into the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
Lamb declared victory, leading by only a few hundred votes. By Wednesday evening, he was projected to win as the remaining absentee, provisional and military ballots would not have been enough for Saccone to surpass Lamb.
the rich asshole claimed Wednesday that he “lifted [Saccone] 7 points up,” although it’s not clear how he came up with that number.
“It’s actually interesting, because it’s only a congressman for five months,” the rich asshole added, downplaying the results. Because of redistricting, the 18th District will exist in its current form only until the end of the year. Lamb’s hometown will be shifted into a new district, an area where the rich asshole would have won by just 3 percentage points.
Saccone’s projected loss would add to a string of embarrassing Republican performances in special elections as the 2018 midterm primaries loom. the rich asshole has distanced himself from previous GOP special election losers, including Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who was upset by Democrat Doug Jones.
The southwestern Pennsylvania congressional district, a traditional GOP bastion that includes the affluent south suburbs of Pittsburgh and rural towns in former coal country, became vacant late last year, when former Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) resigned after pressuring a woman with whom he had an affair to get an abortion.
Republicans had invested vast time and energy trying to prevent a close race against Lamb, who gained support in part by distancing himself from national Democrats and staking out more conservative positions.
In addition to the rich asshole, Vice President Mike Pence and two of the rich asshole’s children, some rich asshole Jr. and White House senior adviser Ivanka the rich asshole, had visited the area in recent weeks to drum up support for Saccone.
By Tuesday night, as a closer-than-expected race appeared likely, Republicans were already coming up with various reasons to blame Saccone and downplay the results, with one GOP strategist complaining about the candidate’s facial hair.
White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah suggested to reporters Wednesday that the rich asshole should take credit for helping Saccone ― a message similar to what the president said at the fundraiser later that night.
“The president’s engagement in the race turned what was a deficit for the Republican candidate to what is essentially a tie,” he said.
But Saccone was widely predicted to win the traditionally GOP district.
Shah also claimed that Lamb won because he “really embraced the president’s policies and his vision.”
Under Pennsylvania law, this congressional election does not automatically trigger a recount. Saccone could petition for a recount within five days.
Amanda Terkel contributed reporting.
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