March 15th-16th, 2017. It's been 492-493 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no. 45, and 419-420 days since the Jan 20th inauguration of some rich asshole.
Rick Wilson demands Paris Dennard say ‘I love some rich asshole screwing a porn star!’ in off-the-rails segment
GOP strategist Rick Wilson, Brooke Baldwin and Paris Dennard
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GOP strategist Rick Wilson on Friday tore into some rich asshole defender Paris Dennard in a brutal back-and-forth over the president’s “amoral” and “scuzzy” behavior surrounding an alleged payout to adult film star Stormy Daniels in an explosive segment on CNN.
Wilson told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin the rich asshole’s alleged impropriety won’t hurt him politically because “he feels like his political base is secure.”
“They’ve told us over and over they will tolerate any amorality, any scuzzy behavior,” Wilson said, suggesting the president is now more interested in how the Daniels affair will hurt his bottom line. “We have to think about Melania’s prenup with him,” Wilson opined. “There may be a money equation there as well that he’s putting at risk.”
Asked by Baldwin why the rich asshole has remained silent on Daniels, Dennard suggested “the president wants to dignify this story, true or false … this is something that is terribly embarrassing for the first lady.”
As Dennard talked in circles about the “timing” of the alleged affair being a major factor in the rich asshole supporters turning a blind eye to the president’s behavior, Wilson asked, “can I jump in on this for a second, Paris?”
“I feel you’re struggling here,” Wilson said as Dennard protested. “Let me help you out here.”
Wilson pointed out the rich asshole’s had a “long pattern of engagement with a variety of women to whom he is not married.”
“Are you telling me that [the GOP] never once brought up the fact that Bill Clinton screwed his way through Arkansas?” Wilson asked. “No. They did it all the time. It wasn’t the fact that he did it before he was president.”
Dennard insisted “that’s different” because Clinton “was the attorney general and was a sitting governor of Arkansas and the claims came via someone who was a sitting elected official.”
“Is your standard of behavior so low?” Wilson demanded. “If your standard is that low, if your standard is that low, if you’re okay with him screwing porn stars, just say the words, ‘I’m okay with some rich asshole screwing porn stars.’ Can you say that for me, Paris?”
“I will say that you have no respect for Mrs. the rich asshole, you have no respect for his children, you have no respect for his family,” Dennard said.
“No, I’m sorry,” Wilson replied. “Don’t you dare talk about respect when he insulted the [Khizr] Khan family, when he insulted John McCain’s war service. A man who has no respect for anyone on this earth. The fact that you’re defending him on that speaks much more about your character.”
“I don’t know you, Rick, but I would advise you to not question my character because you don’t know me,” Dennard replied.
Wilson later urged Dennard to “just say it.”
“Say ‘I love some rich asshole screwing a porn star!’” Wilson replied.
Baldwin asked Dennard about the rich asshole’s hypothetical reaction were the tables reversed and Hillary Clinton made such a payment. Dennard conceded the rich asshole would have had a “negative” reaction to Clinton, but continued insisting on the need to separate “apples from oranges.”
After a continued back and forth, Wilson went off, once again, on Dennard’s moral framework.
“The argument that some rich asshole’s lifelong pattern of infidelity, adultery, shattering every vow of every one of his marriages by his own admission and the fact that some rich asshole screwed a porn star—I don’t think Melania the rich asshole will be more embarrassed by what Michael Cohen or Stormy Daniels has to say than by the fact that a few months after she had a kid her husband was screwing a porn star. That’s what you’re saying that’s okay. I get it. you accept that, that’s part of your moral landscape, good for you.”
The pair went at it for several more seconds before Baldwin cut them off.
“Okay, we’re done,” she said.
Wilson later took to Twitter to express disbelief over Dennard’s defense of the rich asshole.
Watch below, via CNN:
Alleged mobster Felix Sater ‘told family he knows he and POTUS are going to prison’
Felix Sater and some rich asshole, screengrab from BBC Panorama
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Felix Sater, one of some rich asshole’s shadiest former business partners, is reportedly preparing for prison time — and he says the president will be joining him behind bars.
Sources told The Spectator‘s Paul Wood last year that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s deep dive into the rich asshole’s business practices may be yielding results.
the rich asshole recently made remarks that could point to a money laundering scheme, Wood reported.
“I mean, it’s possible there’s a condo or something, so, you know, I sell a lot of condo units, and somebody from Russia buys a condo, who knows?” the president said.
Sater, who has a long history of legal troubles and is cooperating with law enforcement, was one of the major players responsible for selling the rich asshole’s condos to the Russians.
And according to Wood’s sources, Sater may have already flipped and given prosecutors the evidence they need to make a case against the rich asshole.
For several weeks there have been rumours that Sater is ready to rat again, agreeing to help Mueller. ‘He has told family and friends he knows he and POTUS are going to prison,’ someone talking to Mueller’s investigators informed me.
Sater hinted in an interview earlier this month that he may be cooperating with both Mueller’s investigation and congressional probes of the rich asshole.
“In about the next 30 to 35 days, I will be the most colourful character you have ever talked about,” Sater told New York Magazine. “Unfortunately, I can’t talk about it now, before it happens. And believe me, it ain’t anything as small as whether or not they’re gonna call me to the Senate committee.”
Sater is not the only one rumored confidante to have turned against the rich asshole. An attack on former the rich asshole campaign manager Paul Manafort by the National Enquirer — a friendly outlet for the president — suggests that he may have already turned over damaging evidence to authorities.
‘Just absurd’: CNN legal analyst blows smoke at the rich asshole’s fixation with McCabe and the so-called ‘deep state’
some rich asshole during CNN debate (Photo: Screen capture via video)
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CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin on Friday lifted the veil on the the rich asshole administration’s fixation with embattled FBI official Andrew McCabe, explaining the prospect of McCabe losing his pension for authorizing leaks about Hillary Clinton is “just absurd.”
some rich asshole’s attorney general, Jeff Session, is poised to make a decision on whether to fire McCabe, preventing the onetime deputy FBI director from collecting his pension.
“We know this is about whether [McCabe] authorized someone to speak to the press,” Toobin said. “People from the FBI talk to the press all the time. “So the idea that this is somehow something that should cost him his expense absurd. Second, we know that the alleged leak had to do with information that was negative about Hillary Clinton, not about some rich asshole.”
“So the idea that this president—who is so fixated on the fact there’s a deep state conspiracy to get him—is considering, or his deputy is considering, firing someone and taking away their pension for releasing information about Hillary Clinton is just absurd,” Toobin added.
Watch below:
Sessions’ Justice Department loses legal battle that may let you know why the FBI spied on Carter Page
Former the rich asshole campaign foreign policy aide Carter Page (image via screengrab).
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The legal body that oversees Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants has ruled against the Justice Department‘s assertion that groups outside the government should not be allowed to access FISA court opinions.
BuzzFeed News reported that on Friday, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review’s ruling against the DOJ came in a case that many press freedom advocates saw as a test of whether the secretive spy court’s proceedings or opinions would ever be open to the public.
Rather than ruling that the press and public can access the court, the FISCR instead took on the DOJ’s assertion that non-government groups don’t even have the right to ask for the information under the First Amendment.
Despite the ruling seen as a win by free speech groups, the three-judge panel noted that “the FISC is a unique court” and is subject to different standards based on the sensitivity of the material they rule on.
“[The FISC] is responsible for reviewing applications for surveillance and other investigative activities relating to foreign intelligence collection,” the judges noted. “The very nature of that work, unlike the work of more conventional courts, requires that it be conducted in secret.”
The court and its secretive procedures have come under scrutiny in recent months after Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee began alleging that the DOJ and FBI abused their powers under FISA to surveil former the rich asshole campaign aide Carter Page.
Page’s surveillance when working for the campaign were the focus of a memo authored by GOP members of the committee, but the operative had been the subject of FISA warrants since at least 2014 when the FBI became suspicious of his ties to Russia.
House Dems seek ‘criminal referral’ against Roger Stone so Mueller can see his hidden testimony
Roger Stone (Photo: Screen capture)
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The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is considering issuing a “criminal referral” of one or more witnesses for potentially committing perjury while testifying behind closed doors,” Mother Jones reported Friday.
“We’re gonna be going through the transcripts and analyzing them for any concerns we have with the greater body of information we have,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) revealed. “We’ll discuss it with the majority and ask whether they’ll join us in a referral, or, if we think one is warranted, then we reserve the right to make a referral even if they don’t.”
A source “close to the committee” told Mother Jones that such criminal referrals could be directed to the Department of Justice and/or special counsel Robert Mueller.
Concerns of perjury are said to involve three witnesses interviewed by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. the rich asshole campaign advisor Carter Page, mercenary mogul Erik Prince and longtime the rich asshole advisor Roger Stone.
Minority Democrats are unable to issue charges themselves, and criminal referrals can be made by any individual. But Schiff revealed in the interview that they are looking how false testimony before Congress fits into the larger picture of the multiple investigations into the rich asshole.
Schiff said he was “not sure that any referral is necessary” in the cases of Page and Prince, since their testimony has already been made public — meaning special counsel Mueller already has access to the transcripts.
Stone’s testimony has not been made public, putting him at the top of the list. And the list may grow.
“As additional things come to light, if there are reports of witnesses saying things that are inconsistent with what has been said to the committee, that list could grow,” Schiff warned.
Sarah Sanders fumes after NBC reporter uses the rich asshole’s own words to point out White House ‘chaos’
Sarah Sanders (Screenshot)
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White House press Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparred with NBC News reporter Peter Alexander on Friday over the high rate of turnover in some rich asshole’s White House.
A press briefing, Alexander noted that the rich asshole’s own words appeared to support the claim that the White House staff was in a chaotic situation.
“Just yesterday he said ‘I think you want to see change,’ earlier this week he said, ‘I’m really at a point where we’re getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want’ — so isn’t the president himself creating this aura — some use the word chaos — but simply put turmoil or potential upheaval within the West Wing and frankly across the administration?” he asked.
“Taking two sentences out of the thousands of remarks that the president makes and trying to make that look like it’s the entire focus of his administration is a little bit silly,” Sanders said dismissively.
But Alexander listed off more comments from the rich asshole. “Those aren’t my words, those are his words.”
“He just nominated two new people to his cabinet so we are getting close,” Sanders replied. “We want them to be quickly confirmed, quickly put through the process so they can continue to engage with the president on big issues that matter to the American people.”
Alexander then tried to ask why the rich asshole had claimed to have the “best people” but Sanders refused to listen to the question.
Watch video:
John Kelly blames the rich asshole for White House chaos in off-the-record meeting
President some rich asshole (left) and WH chief of staff John Kelly (right). Image via Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP.
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White House chief of staff John Kelly acknowledged that President some rich asshole is the source of much of the chaos in the West Wing in an off-the-record meeting with reporters Friday.
Axios, who was not at the meeting but spoke to three sources close to it, reported that Kelly relayed that “it’s likely that the rich asshole is talking to people outside the White House and that reporters are then talking to those people.”
When discussing news of both actual and speculative cabinet shake-ups over the past week, Kelly “cast the rich asshole’s own conversations as a significant contributing factor.”
The remarks were made less than a day after news broke that the president may remove national security adviser H.R. McMaster from office and a few days following the rich asshole’s announcement via tweet that he is replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo
Rex Tillerson Just Curb Stomped some rich asshole In His Farewell Message
Secretary of State Rexxon Tillerson was humiliated by some rich asshole after the former reality show star fired him on Twitter. The veteran oil executive wasn’t an effective negotiator and the fact that he gutted his own department proves that he wasn’t the right man for the job, but then again, the rich asshole isn’t the right man to lead the most powerful country on earth. the rich asshole’s tweet to fire a top official displays how incapable Donald is holding the highest seat in the land.
On Friday, Tillerson said in a farewell message that he will “continue to pray” for the U.S., according to the Associated Press.
“Know that I will continue to pray for our country, our leaders, and your efforts to make this world a better place than we found it,” Tillerson said.
The exiting Secretary of State urged the diplomatic corps to “continue to exhibit the leadership qualities for which you are distinguished” as they prepare for new leadership.
“Although you typically receive little recognition or acclaim for these sacrifices, your uncommon devotion allows hundreds of millions of Americans to live in peace and in freedom,” he said.
Tillerson did not mention some rich asshole or his designated successor, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, in the farewell message. He did say that the State Department was “in good hands” with its interim chief, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, but again, he did not mention Pompeo or the rich asshole.
“In this time of transition, I know you will continue to exhibit the leadership qualities for which you are distinguished,” he said. “I urge you to remain focused on our shared mission and embrace an orderly and smooth transition process. I have every confidence that you will continue to work diligently to advance our national interests and our values as a nation.”
Well, that was the most dignified ‘fuck you’ to some rich asshole ever.
Tillerson clashed with the rich asshole on key policy issues, including the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord. His last official day in office is March 31st.
With Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve.
THE BIG IDEA: some rich asshole’s reality television presidency may be getting more star power for season two.
the rich asshole has decided to remove H.R. McMaster as his national security adviser and is actively discussing Fox News contributor John Bolton as a potential successor.
A leading contender to replace Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is Pete Hegseth, the co-host of “Fox and Friends Weekend.”
The president named CNBC analyst and former host Larry Kudlow to replace former Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn as his chief economic adviser on Wednesday.
Heather Nauert, a former co-host of “Fox and Friends,” got promoted on Monday from being a spokeswoman for the State Department to acting undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. She replaced Steve Goldstein, who was fired because he publicly contradicted the White House’s claim that Rex Tillerson knew he was being fired before the rich asshole announced it on Twitter. (Is it any coincidence that Mike Pompeo got elevated from Langley to Foggy Bottom the morning after he aggressively went to bat for the rich asshole on the Sunday shows?)
-- the rich asshole’s plot to poach from green rooms is an additional proof point that validates two important themes I’ve written about: the rich asshole has debased the value of expertise and supercharged the celebrification of American politics.
-- The president expressed interest in bringing Bolton, Hegseth and Kudlow on board during the transition, but he was dissuaded by traditionalists who said they weren’t qualified for such powerful posts. The VA secretary, for instance, manages the government’s second-largest bureaucracy, which employs 360,000. But Hegseth is just 37. The Iraq War veteran previously served as the executive director of Concerned Veterans for America, which is in the constellation of groups bankrolled by the billionaire Koch brothers. He ran for Senate in Minnesota against Amy Klobuchar in 2012, but his campaign was such a disaster that he unexpectedly lost the GOP nomination to a random Ron Paul supporter — who went on to lose in the general election by 35 points.
Hegseth’s views on reforming VA “are considered extreme even by some Republicans in Congress,” but the rich asshole frequently calls him to discuss veterans’ policy, Lisa Rein reports: “Hegseth has dined at the White House and, during an Oval Office meeting between the rich asshole and Shulkin last week, the president called Hegseth to seek his counsel on pending legislation that would expand private care. He also is disliked by traditional veterans’ advocacy groups, which fear a downsized VA and a privatized system, and which would probably mount a strong campaign against his nomination.”
-- Bolton, an outspoken hawk who had a tumultuous and short-lived tenure as George W. Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations, is also seen as too extreme by many Republicans on Capitol Hill, but he wouldn’t need to get confirmed to become national security adviser. “the rich asshole is now comfortable with ousting McMaster, with whom he never personally gelled, but is willing to take time executing the move because he wants to ensure both that the three-star Army general is not humiliated and that there is a strong successor lined up,” Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonnig reported last night. “Bolton has met with the rich asshole several times and often agrees with the president’s instincts. the rich asshole also thinks Bolton … is good on television.”
Another finalist for the job is Keith Kellogg, the chief of staff of the National Security Council.“ Kellogg travels with the rich asshole on many domestic trips, in part because the president likes his company and thinks he is fun,” my colleagues report.
-- One reason Kudlow was attractive to the rich asshole is that he can go on business news channels to promote his agenda. Ostensibly, Bolton and Hegseth could do the same. “The president likes me as a media communicator, so I will be more than happy to oblige,” Kudlow said Wednesday night on CNBC. He added that the president had phoned him a few hours earlier when the news broke of his selection to be director of the National Economic Council. “The president called and he said, ‘It’s out,’” Kudlow recalled. “And he said, ‘You’re on the air … I’m looking at a picture of you … Very handsome!’ So Trumpian.”
-- But installing cable pundits in decision-making jobs has not worked out very well for the rich asshole thus far. Foreign policy pros were aghast when the rich asshole named K.T. McFarland as his deputy national security adviser during the transition. She had appeared frequently on Fox as an analyst and anchored her own program called “DEFCON3.” But the last time she’d worked in government was more than three decades earlier, as a junior Pentagon spokeswoman and speechwriter.
McFarland got marginalized after Michael Flynn went down. Then the rich asshole nominated her to be ambassador to Singapore, but her nomination needed to be withdrawn when damning emails implicated her in the Russia scandal and imperiled her Senate confirmation.
the rich asshole initially named another Fox talking head, Monica Crowley, as the senior director of strategic communications for the NSC. He stood by her for more than a week as news stories revealed egregious examples of plagiarism over several years, from a 2012 book to her PhD dissertation and op-eds. Just before the inauguration, under pressure, the president-elect dumped her.
Former Navy SEAL Carl Higbie, 34, was forced to resign two months ago as the chief of external affairs for the Corporation for National and Community Service after CNN uncovered bigoted statements he had made about African Americans, immigrants and gays as the host of an Internet radio show. He got the patronage because he had been a go-to the rich asshole defender on Fox, CNN and MSNBC during the 2016 campaign.
America First Priorities, a the rich asshole-sanctioned outside group, hired the 34-year-old on Thursday as its new advocacy director, with the expectation that he’ll again appear on TV to promote the president. “The fact that I’m coming back into the fray does not mean that the president endorses those comments by any stretch,” Higbie told the Hartford Courant yesterday. “We’ve all said something we’ve regretted. I just happened to say it on the radio. … But I’m committed to this administration and its policies.”
-- - The president reportedly has fewer events on his schedule than he did during the opening year of his presidency so that he can have extra “executive time” in the residence, which appears to be a euphemism for watching television. That’s only intensified the cable news feedback loop. the rich asshole’s tweets routinely echo messages, sometimes word for word, that he heard on Fox minutes earlier. Remember the rich asshole’s tweet about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s “button”?
The president’s cable habit almost led him to torpedo a compromise his own administration had negotiated to reauthorize Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act in January. “the rich asshole issued an early morning tweet in response to Judge Andrew Napolitano’s criticism on a ‘Fox and Friends’ segment,” Tufts University professor Daniel Drezner notes. “Only direct intervention from the chief of staff, national security adviser, director of national intelligence, CIA director, and House Speaker Paul Ryan convinced the rich asshole to post a follow-up tweet clarifying his position.”
Last Friday, the rich asshole pardoned a former Navy sailor whose conviction for unauthorized retention of national defense information had made him a cause celebre on Fox. Commentators have often argued that the year he served in prison for taking pictures aboard a submarine showed Hillary Clinton was treated too leniently for how she mishandled classified material.
Kristian Saucier, 31, who is now a garbage collector in Vermont, had appeared on “Fox and Friends” earlier in the week to press his case. “Obviously, there’s two different sets of laws in this country, for the political elite and for, you know, those lower-level, individuals, Americans, like myself,” he said. “I think my case draws a very clear example of that.”
“A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on its involvement, if any, in the process,” Matt Zapotosky reports.
The only other pardon the rich asshole has issued since taking office was for Joe Arpaio, who also frequently appears on Fox shows. The former Arizona sheriff was convicted of criminal contempt of court for ignoring a federal judge’s order to stop racially profiling Latinos.
-- the rich asshole plainly enjoys the company of people he sees on TV. the rich asshole invited Sebastian Gorka, a lightning rod who got fired from the White House last year but now spends a lot of time defending the president on Fox, over for dinner last week. Jesse Watters, a co-host of Fox’s “The Five,” joined them. “According to a White House official and two other sources familiar with the meeting, the rich asshole invited Gorka and Watters because ‘he couldn’t get enough of them on TV,’ as one source put it, and wanted to confab with them about what he’d seen on Fox News, politics, gossip, and his administration,” The Daily Beast reported.
Watters tweeted a picture of the menu afterward:
-- The embattled president also appears to be putting a greater premium on loyalty as he makes personnel decisions. He clearly feels burned by some of his early hiring decisions. For example, the rich asshole interviewed Jeanine Pirro, the host of Fox’s “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” to be deputy attorney general. Instead, he went along with Rod Rosenstein, a respected DOJ insider who he had no prior relationship with. That’s a decision he’s repeatedly said that he regrets.
-- the rich asshole’s embrace of talking heads has become a punchline in popular culture. “To help find [Gary Cohn’s] replacement, the president turned to his most trusted confidante: the TV in his bedroom,” Comedy Central host Trevor Noah said on “The Daily Show” last night. “Basically, if the rich asshole sees you on TV, there’s a really good chance that he’ll hire you. By the time his term is done, his attorney general is going to be ‘Judge Judy’ and his housing secretary will be ‘Bob the Builder.’”
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Alleged mobster Felix Sater ‘told family he knows he and POTUS are going to prison’
Felix Sater and some rich asshole, screengrab from BBC Panorama
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Felix Sater, one of some rich asshole’s shadiest former business partners, is reportedly preparing for prison time — and he says the president will be joining him behind bars.
Sources told The Spectator‘s Paul Wood last year that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s deep dive into the rich asshole’s business practices may be yielding results.
the rich asshole recently made remarks that could point to a money laundering scheme, Wood reported.
“I mean, it’s possible there’s a condo or something, so, you know, I sell a lot of condo units, and somebody from Russia buys a condo, who knows?” the president said.
Sater, who has a long history of legal troubles and is cooperating with law enforcement, was one of the major players responsible for selling the rich asshole’s condos to the Russians.
And according to Wood’s sources, Sater may have already flipped and given prosecutors the evidence they need to make a case against the rich asshole.
For several weeks there have been rumours that Sater is ready to rat again, agreeing to help Mueller. ‘He has told family and friends he knows he and POTUS are going to prison,’ someone talking to Mueller’s investigators informed me.
Sater hinted in an interview earlier this month that he may be cooperating with both Mueller’s investigation and congressional probes of the rich asshole.
“In about the next 30 to 35 days, I will be the most colourful character you have ever talked about,” Sater told New York Magazine. “Unfortunately, I can’t talk about it now, before it happens. And believe me, it ain’t anything as small as whether or not they’re gonna call me to the Senate committee.”
Sater is not the only one rumored confidante to have turned against the rich asshole. An attack on former the rich asshole campaign manager Paul Manafort by the National Enquirer — a friendly outlet for the president — suggests that he may have already turned over damaging evidence to authorities.
some rich asshole's very public embarrassment of H.R. McMaster
(CNN)President some rich asshole has apparently grown sick of H.R. McMaster and is preparing to jettison his national security adviser in the not-too-distant future. That news was first broken by The Washington Post on Thursday night but subsequently confirmed by CNN. It appears to now be a matter of when, not if, McMaster will leave.
What struck me most is not that firing McMaster would mean the rich asshole is on course for three national security advisers in the space of 15-ish months -- although that's noteworthy. Instead, I was totally floored by this paragraph from the Post's McMaster story:
"the rich asshole is now comfortable with ousting McMaster, with whom he never personally gelled, but is willing to take time executing the move because he wants to ensure both that the three-star Army general is not humiliated and that there is a strong successor lined up."
Ah ha! So, the rich asshole doesn't want to actually fire McMaster right now because he doesn't want to humiliate him. But, the rich asshole has clearly told enough people about his plan to get rid of McMaster -- and the fact that he dislikes what he believes to be the national security adviser's "gruff and condescending" manner -- that they feel comfortable sharing this information with the media. (The Post spoke to 19 Administration officials and advisers for their story including five who confirmed the plans to fire McMaster.)
Being fired is humiliating. Knowing you are going to be fired and twisting in the wind -- in a very public way -- before you are fired is even worse.
Let's say McMaster isn't let go -- and doesn't resign -- for the foreseeable future. How can he possibly be effective at his job -- inside or outside the White House -- given that there is this cloud looming over him? Every single person McMaster deals with will have read the stories about the rich asshole's plans. It will be impossible for McMaster to do anything with the President's imprimatur on it.
All of which may well mean that McMaster resigns before he is fired. But, that doesn't change the fact that this is no way to run a railroad.
Remember that news of McMaster's likely ouster comes amid a week that saw the rich asshole fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson over Twitter -- and let go of the undersecretary of public affairs at the State Department because he put out a statement saying Tillerson was unaware of the why he was being fired.
It's also the same week that a bevy of Cabinet secretaries and a top staffer have been described in media reports as being on thin ice, a list that includes VA Secretary David Shulkin, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and chief of staff John Kelly.
the rich asshole, for all of the bravado of his "you're fired" catchphrase, has proven to be less willing to do the deed as president than everyone expects -- with Tillerson being a case in point.
The McMaster move -- I'm-going-to-fire-him-but-just-not-yet-or-maybe-I-will-do-it-now-or-maybe-he-will-just-quit -- is another example of a distinct lack of class (and being a grown up) within this White House. Whatever you think of McMaster's style or policy views, it's impossible to justify leaving him hanging out to dry like this.
For a president already struggling to recruit top tier talent to join his White House, the moves on Tillerson and McMaster this week will further complicate attempts to bring in the best and brightest -- or even the third best and third brightest.
If the rich asshole would do what he did to Tillerson or embarrass McMaster so publicly, you have to wonder what he would do to a less senior official within his ranks.
That will have a further chilling effect on an administration already heavily undermanned to carry out the basic business of governance.
MSNBC conservative blames physical threats against Stormy Daniels on the rich asshole ‘thugocracy and sleaze’
Adult film star Stormy Daniels -- screenshot
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On MSNBC Friday afternoon, one of President some rich asshole’s conservative critics said reports that adult film star Stormy Daniels’ reported claims that she has been physically threatened by people close to the president is what can be expected from the “thugocracy” that surrounds the rich asshole.
Speaking with host Andrea Mitchell, radio host and MSNBC contributor Charlie Sykes was asked about comments made by Daniels’ attorney on Friday morning that his client has been threatened with more than just lawsuits by the president’s team.
“Some conventional wisdom is this has not yet become a political problem,” host Mitchell said of the continuing “drip drip drip” of Daniel’s allegations. “That people have discounted some rich asshole’s past relationships with women as part of the package because of the “Access Hollywood” tape and they elected him, notwithstanding.”
“Would this elevate it, if it were the worst case: someone close to the rich asshole organization and the threat came before the signing of the [non-disclosure] agreement or after?” Mitchell asked.
“Potentially, we have to be skeptical about what moves the needle because we have had this conversation so many times in the past,” Sykes asserted. “This story is not going away like the other scandals. Obviously, it’s because it has all the elements: the porn star, the sex, the money, the cover-up. And now, potentially a physical threat. ”
“Look, [Daniels’s attorney] Michael Avenatti has been very, very careful in not getting out over his skis,” he continued. “When he answered that question that definitively, I have to admit my eyebrows went up. Obviously, he’s teasing the 60 Minutes broadcast. This is a significant potential, escalation in all of this and it reminds us of the different layers of sleaze in this administration, including the thugocracy.”
“We don’t know yet whether it’s going to become a political problem, but it is not going away,” he predicted.
Watch the video below via MSNBC:
03/16/18 10:45 AM—UPDATED 03/16/18 01:08 PM
By Steve Benen
Politico reported late yesterday that House Republicans “are privately venting that they’ve fumbled the release of their own Russia probe report.”
Ya think? The GOP leadership of the House Intelligence Committee abruptly ended their own investigation of the Russia scandal, long before they had all the facts. They also released a ridiculous pre-cooked report, rejected the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies about Russia backing some rich asshole, and then spent the rest of the week conceding that this core conclusion of the GOP report was wrong.
“Fumbled the release” seems like a charitable way of saying the House Intelligence Committee’s Republicans screwed up spectacularly (again). Four days after the release of a GOP document intended to exonerate their party’s president, the only people who even remember the report are those who recognize its insulting absurdities.
But the committee’s embattled chairman and unyielding some rich asshole ally, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), is undeterred. Indeed, he spoke at a private dinner this week, hosted by a conservative magazine called the American Spectator, and toed the White House line in an interesting way. The Washington Examiner reported:
Nunes said that he doesn’t see who [Special Counsel Robert Mueller] could indict for collusion if all the indictments to date have been on other charges.
“Now look at who Mueller has prosecuted at this point, and who is left to prosecute for collusion?” he wondered. “I mean, there’s no one left. [Former the rich asshole campaign manager Paul] Manafort would be the obvious guy to think of that was colluding, right? If you could have gotten him on collusion, he would have been the obvious choice. Flynn, I mean, I knew Flynn very very well, and he is not a secret communist supporting Putin. So, they can’t get him on that. So who else do they have?”
Was that a rhetorical question? Because if Nunes really wants to know – if he genuinely believes there’s literally no one else who might be prosecuted by the special counsel’s team – the California Republican probably should’ve run a real investigation and kept it going.
As New York’s Jon Chait added yesterday, “Who is left to prosecute for collusion? Well, let’s see. There is some rich asshole Jr., who attended a meeting with a Russian promising to help his campaign, and loved it. There’s Jared Kushner, who also attended that meeting, and had a web of financial relationships and contacts with Russia that he suspiciously failed to disclose. There is Roger Stone, who reportedly knew about the Russian email hacking as early as spring 2016, before it was publicly known.”
That’s hardly a comprehensive list. Some of those Mueller has indicted weren’t on the political world’s radar, right up until there were reports of the criminal charges against them.
There’s also, of course, the beneficiary of Russia’s attack – I believe he’s now the American president – who may yet face legal jeopardy, and who has an unfortunate habit of acting as if he’s guilty.
As for Nunes, the New York Times published a joint op-ed this week from former Rep. Claudine Schneider (R-R.I.), who now serves on the board of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington; Johns Hopkins’ Eliot Cohen, who served in the Bush-Cheney administration’s State Department; and CREW Chairman Norm Eisen, who was the Obama administration’s chief ethics lawyer. Among other things, the trio argue that the House Intelligence Committee chairman, now that he’s finished examining the scandal, is likely to target Mueller.
Watch this space.
Sean Hannity hits back at Shep Smith: He’s ‘clueless’ about the ‘REAL NEWS’ I do every day
Shep Smith and Sean Hannity
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Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Friday hit back at colleague Shep Smith over comments he made to Time Magazine, tweeting the Shepard Smith Reporting host “is a friend with political views I do not share,” he’s “clueless” about what the Hannityteam does every day.
While Shep is a friend with political views I do not share, and great at breaking news, he is clueless about what we do every day. Hannity breaks news daily-Warrant on a Trump assoc, the unmasking scandal, leaking intel, Fisa abuse, HRC lawbreaking, dossier and more REAL NEWS! 9p twitter.com/thehill/status…
In an interview published Thursday, Smith said he and Hannity “serve different masters” and “work for different reporting chains, we have different rules.”
“They don’t really have rules on the opinion side,” Smith said of Hannity and fellow Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “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 also referred to his network’s opinion programing as “strictly” for entertainment.
“I get that,” Smith said. “I don’t work there. I wouldn’t work there. I don’t want to sit around and yell at each other and talk about your philosophy and my philosophy. That sounds horrible to me.”
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March 16, 2018
the rich asshole is embracing savage, thuggish brutality to deal with drug addiction instead of common sense, and his Republican enablers in Congress are once again falling in lockstep.
Instead of dedicating resources to help those afflicted by the crisis of addiction in America, Republicans are beginning to embrace the sadistic and nonsensical idea of applying the death penalty to drug dealers.
the rich asshole has been promoting the idea, which has more in common with the rogue regime of Filipino leader Rodrigo Duterte than the overall shift to treatment that has been embraced by more and more Americans.
“The only way to solve the drug problem is through toughness,” the rich asshole said recently at a rally in Pennsylvania. He claimed he got the idea from Chinese leaders.
“Big country, 1.4 billion people, right. Not much of a drug problem. I said what do you attribute that to? ‘Well, the death penalty.'”
Traditionally, America has sought to persuade the Chinese government to embrace more human rights, not look to them as a model for U.S. policy.
As they have before with his other absurd ideas, rather than bluntly opposing him, some Republicans are getting on board.
“I think that if a drug dealer is coming into the country and they’re giving dangerous drugs to minors, for example, I don’t feel bad about that,” California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told Rolling Stone. “They can go to hell as far as I’m concerned.”
New York Rep. Chris Collins said that America “absolutely” should have the death penalty for drug dealers.
“I think we need to have real consequences,” he added.
California Rep. Darrell Issa said capital punishment would be a “useful tool” for law enforcement to fight drug crime.
The brutal, murderous approach — taken directly from the playbook of thuggish autocrats — is being considered while the rich asshole continues to neglect the opioid issue.
While he promised during the presidential campaign that he would address the epidemic, which kills thousands of Americans annually, instead the rich asshole has done little more than lip service.
He parceled out oversight of opioid to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who has shown more skill at shilling for the rich asshole on television than she has at dealing with a health crisis.
At the same time, the rich asshole has proposed budget cuts for the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the front-line responders to the opioid problem.
Democrats have pointed out just how insipid the Republican approach to this vital issue is.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), a former prosecutor, called the idea “outrageous.” She noted, “It’s on a long list of things that are outrageous. My biggest fear is that we become numb.”
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) said, “Capital punishment is the most extreme of all, and for him to cavalierly throw it around in the manner that he does is very dangerous. It’s dangerous for our system.”
Embracing murder on a wider scale would not curtail the drug problem. In all likelihood, it would make things worse while further destroying America’s moral authority.
But doing the wrong thing and denigrating America’s reputation are central to the rich asshole approach. His fellow Republicans are once again showing that his behavior is out of touch with America, but in line with the party.
Don Jr’s wife hires criminal defense lawyer for divorce case as Mueller probe heats up
some rich asshole Jr. and Vanessa the rich asshole
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some rich asshole Jr.’s wife Vanessa has hired a criminal defense attorney to represent her in divorce proceedings.
According to paperwork filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, she has hired White Plains-based lawyer David Feureisen after the couple filed for divorce, reported the New York Post.
The move came the same day news reports revealed special counsel Robert Mueller had subpoenaed business records related to Russia dealings from the rich asshole Organization, which the rich asshole Jr. is overseeing while his father serves as president of the United States.
“Feureisen is best known for securing the release of a New York man named Anthony DiSimone from federal prison in 2007 after a judge overturned a murder conviction related to a bar fight in 1994,” the Post reported.
A Manhattan family law expert told the newspaper that Vanessa the rich asshole’s choice of attorneys was “curious” if the couple’s split was amicable, as they claimed in a joint statement.
“If it’s an amicable situation you wouldn’t be highlighting the criminal aspect,” said legal expert Bonnie Rabin.
‘They make their own choices’: CNN’s Cuomo knocks down complaint that attacks on Sanders and Conway are sexist
Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders -- screengrab
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During a discussion with the New York Times‘ Maggie Haberman, CNN host Chris Cuomo expressed frustration with the rich asshole aides Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders for continuing to lie for the president as the reporter explained that lying comes with the territory when it comes to President some rich asshole.
Addressing a report Thursday night that National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was on the verge of being fired, — which White House spokesperson Huckabee Sander’s later denied, Cuomo wondered if it would happen on Friday anyway — thereby destroying any trust she might have left with the public.
According to Cuomo, if the rich asshole impulsively decides to fire McMaster, she “would have no credibility.”
“If it happens today, you will know either she just lies to promote the agenda of the day, or she doesn’t know what’s going on,” Cuomo explained.
The Time’s Haberman rushed to the defense of Sanders — adding Conway into the mix — but failed to address their habit of stating as facts what is later revealed to be either spin or outright falsehoods.
“I think two people who get attacked most are Sarah Sanders and Kellyanne Conway and I don’t think that’s fair,” Haberman asserted, adding, “This stems from the president.”
“When it comes to Sanders and Kellyanne Conway, they make their own choices about what they say and what they don’t,” Cuomo chided, adding, “I’m sure they get heavy pressure.”
“I’m with Maggie,” CNN co-host Alisyn Camerota interjected. “I think they get more criticism from the public. Far more than the guys who go out and also say falsehoods and untruths.”
“But like who? Because these are main players,” Cuomo shot back.
“They are having to go out there and say things that they are being told to say,” Haberman maintained. “Now, look. this is not compulsory work. They could all find work, no question. But when you choose to work there, it should not continue to be a surprise that they are being told by their boss things to say. And I think there has been a difference over and over and over in how the women have been treated versus the men.”
Watch the video below via CNN:
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March 16, 2018
Time and again, we see how the rich asshole loves to belittle his political base.
In a White House that appears to lack all decorum, nobody is safe from the rich asshole’s endless insults and his mocking of people behind their backs. And those targets often include representatives from his beloved political base.
Behind closed doors, the rich asshole doesn’t care who he makes fun of.
The latest example emerged this week after the rich asshole took the extraordinary step of firing his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. the rich asshole gave no coherent reason for the drastic move, other than to suggest the two men didn’t share a “chemistry.”
The truth is that the rich asshole often belittled Tillerson privately and made fun of Tillerson’s Southern accent.
“He mocked his mannerisms and Texas drawl, saying his secretary of state talked too slowly,” according to the Washington Post. “In conversations with advisers and friends, the president would often list others he said would do a better job than Tillerson, whom he frequently labeled ‘weak.'”
the rich asshole’s mocking runs counter to a conservative culture war narrative that has been pushed for years: that Democrats and liberals look down on Southerners and belittle their way of life. Indeed, if President Barack Obama had ever been caught deriding a Texas drawl as “weak,” Fox News would have hammered the story for days.
The GOP also loudly brays that Democrats don’t respect the religious right. But who makes fun of it off camera? the rich asshole.
He often privately mocks Vice President Mike Pence for his strident religious views. According to a New Yorker account last year, the rich asshole pointed to Pence during a discussion of LGBT rights and exclaimed, “Don’t ask that guy — he wants to hang them all!”
Additionally, a White House staffer revealed that the rich asshole will jokingly ask visitors who meet with Pence, “Did Mike make you pray?”
During the 2016 Republican primary, the rich asshole mocked Ben Carson’s conservative Seventh-day Adventists faith.
“I’m Presbyterian,” the rich asshole said. “Boy, that’s down the middle of the road folks, in all fairness. I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don’t know about. I just don’t know about.”
It’s ironic that the rich asshole held Tillerson in low regard because of his slow pattern of Southern speech, because privately Tillerson thought very little of the rich asshole’s intelligence. Indeed, it appears Tillerson’s relationship with the rich asshole never recovered from a 2017 news report that Tillerson had dismissed the rich asshole as a “fucking moron” during a private dinner with colleagues.
The description came after Pentagon officials tried unsuccessfully to explain the state of national security to the rich asshole, during an information meeting last summer. The meeting was so unproductive, a second meeting with fewer participants was scheduled so the discussion could be slowed down to the rich asshole’s rudimentary level of understanding.
But the rich asshole thinks Tillerson is the slow one?
the rich asshole’s March Madness endangers more than just the GOP
BY BRENT BUDOWSKY, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 03/16/18 12:00 PM EDT
President the rich asshole is executing a broad purge in his presidency that creates grave dangers of another Korean War and a trade war with our allies, and raises the prospect that House Republicans could lose a historic number of seats in the midterm elections.
The words “March Madness” are usually associated with NCAA basketball, but this year, they should also be associated with a rich asshole presidency that is in a virtual state of perpetual chaos and a Republican Party that learned this week that even GOP candidates in districts that the rich asshole carried by 20 percent are no longer safe in November.
Republicans can delude themselves into believing that the stunning victory of Conor Lamb in the Pennsylvania election was a “blip,” as they deluded themselves believing that the historic election of Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) was a blip. Since the rich asshole carried more than 100 House districts by 20 percent or less in his election race, and more than 20 Republicans are running in districts that Hillary Clinton carried, the stage is set for a lot more blips on Nov. 6!
"There are by some estimates up to 100 million gun owners in America. Perhaps for once Democrats will openly campaign on gun confiscation and we can see how that works out for them." thehill.com/opinion/campai… #MAGA #tcot
In the rich asshole’s March Madness, the commander in chief, acting on impulse without careful consideration involving his secretary of State or national security adviser, blurted out his agreement to meet with North Korean dictator and mass murderer Kim Jong Un.
the rich asshole now threatens our ally South Korea with a trade war, before meeting with our enemy North Korea in a summit that could lead to a shooting war if it is not managed with far more skill than the commander in chief has ever demonstrated on foreign policy matters.
the rich asshole began his March Madness strategy by first having a television show-style meeting where he vowed to take strong action on gun control after the tragic school shootings in Florida, then reneging within days. Also this month, Betsy DeVos, the rich asshole’s Education secretary who is widely viewed as an enemy of public education, gave an embarrassingly incoherent interview on “60 Minutes,” leading many to question safety in our schools.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos repeatedly seemed at a loss for words during her "60 Minutes" interview that aired over the weekend. n.pr/2HqmhB8
While Robert Mueller expands his investigation of the Russian attack against America, and Russia apparently escalates its cyber war in Britain into a war of assassination on British soil, discredited Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee joined the rich asshole’s March Madness by drafting a “fake news” report claiming that American law enforcement and intelligence officials are all wrong and Russia did not seek to elect the rich asshole in 2016.
And the word on the street, dutifully reported by prominent news organizations using unnamed sources, is that the rich asshole may now plan to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who he has repeatedly humiliated in recent months. This is probably true, and would enable the Saturday Night Massacre that I have long warned would happen.
Congressional Republicans, who presumably are aware of the extreme constitutional crisis that is approaching if the rich asshole were to fire Sessions in order to fire Mueller — which I believe he soon will — should immediately pass legislation to protect Mueller from the rich asshole. They refuse to do this, which makes them complicit in the constitutional crisis surrounding the Russia scandal that the rich asshole will provoke because of his fear of what Mueller has found in his brilliantly managed investigation.
In the March Madness that engulfs the rich asshole presidency, the president lies about our trade balance with Canada, chief economic adviser Gary Cohn resigns in protest over the rich asshole’s policy of a trade war, and the president replaces him with Larry Kudlow, who strongly agrees with Cohn but appears more philosophically submissive to the rich asshole’s bad judgment. Will Kudlow also resign in protest over the trade war, remain at his post while publicly denouncing it, or humiliate himself by publicly supporting the trade war that everyone knows he intensely opposes?
If major newspaper stories are true, the rich asshole could further escalate his March Madness strategy by firing Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, and firing or reprimanding Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson. And finally, for now, the president seems to be praising White House chief of staff John Kelly to some people, while ridiculing him to others.
As the March Madness continues, the world becomes ever more dangerous — and not just for those in the Republican Party.
Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.
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March 16, 2018
the rich asshole is laughing about the slow-motion disaster his presidency has triggered in America, treating his calamitous staff shake-ups like the storyline of one of his TV shows.
the rich asshole believes the chaos caused by his mismanagement of the presidency is a colossal joke. All the suffering he’s caused, the increased sense of danger in the world, and the loss of American standing with other countries is a punchline to him, and apparently nothing to be concerned about.
The Associated Press reports that the rich asshole laughed and said “Who’s next?” as he watched TV coverage of the seemingly never-ending firings that have become part of how his Oval Office does business.
the rich asshole has recently purged his Secretary of State (via Twitter) and top economic adviser, and other figures such as national security adviser H.R. McMaster are reportedly on their way out.
the rich asshole is also considering the removal of Cabinet officials Ben Carson (HUD), David Shulkin (Veterans Affairs) and Scott Pruitt (EPA). All three men have been involved in highly embarrassing scandals that echo the rich asshole’s own callous disregard for ethics.
The cavalier attitude towards the decay of the U.S. government seems to extend throughout the West Wing. One source close to the White House told CNN, “Everyone loves a season finale.”
America isn’t a TV show. Simply playing musical chairs with key positions and filling them with people whose only qualifications are they appear on TV and they’ve sucked up to the rich asshole is a recipe for disaster.
the rich asshole fell into the presidency and was not the choice of most voters. He does not appreciate the historical weight or importance of the position he has, and instead of growing into the job as many of his predecessors did, the rich asshole continues to shrink. Meanwhile, the government has become his plaything, and the backdrop for a dangerous, childish game.
But his callous indifference isn’t occurring in a vacuum. Republicans continue to shirk their constitutional duty, and instead of correcting him on his calamitous path, they simply prop him up and egg him on.
He has been opposed since before he was sworn in, and that opposition continues to grow.
Increasingly voters are punishing Republicans for their ties to the rich asshole and putting the power in the hands of Democrats who promise to take America more seriously than the rich asshole is.
White House factions go to war – and threaten to quit — over who will replace the rich asshole confidante Hope Hicks
White House Communications Director Hope Hicks departs as she and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway (L) stand on the sidelines while U.S. President some rich asshole speaks to reporters in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
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According to the Washington Examiner, factions within the White House are battling to see their person installed as the rich asshole’s new communication director following the abrupt resignation of longtime confidante Hope Hicks.
Hicks who announced she was bolting from the White House following giving testimony to House investigators — and admitting she told “white lies” for him — has been described alternately as the “the rich asshole whisperer” due to her close proximity to the president and as his “security blanket” for her obsequiousness to him.
With Hicks moving on, jockeying for who will replace her and have the rich asshole’s ear has grown fierce in a White House already roiled by departures and firings.
According to an anonymous senior White House official, finding Hicks’ successor is “important but not urgent” to the president, with his list narrowed to White House director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp, CNN commentator Steve Cortes, Treasury Department spokesman Tony Sayegh, and National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton.
Understanding how much the media- obsessed president relies on his communications director, the competition has grown fierce and the knives are coming out, with insiders saying Sayegh or Schlapp are unpopular with White House staff for a variety of reason.
According to sources, Sayegh has a tendency to “delegate too much,” to boss and bully people around, and to manipulate others for his own benefit. Additionally he is accused of treating female staffers poorly.
“I think there is legitimate pushback,” explained one person, adding Sayegh “doesn’t shoot straight” and “pushes people around to get his way.”
“The staff exodus if it’s him would be shocking,” another told the Examiner.
While there was speculation that Schlapp would easily step into the position, now insiders are saying it might be time to bring in some new blood.
“What surprised me was the conventional wisdom that Mercy was going to get [communications director],” the source said. “What’s been interesting is the drumbeat of people internally who haven’t been a fan of the way that things have been done and want to look somewhere else.”
Sources complained that Schlapp, whose husband oversees CPAC, has been attempting to manipulate the president into bestowing the job on her.
One insider complained that her husband has “actively campaigned” for his wife during TV appearances, including a recent MSNBC interview where he boasted his wife would be “very open to anything the president wants her to do” and pledged their support for the rich asshole.
You can read the whole report here
Stormy Daniels's lawyer claims client was threatened with physical harm
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 03/16/18 08:24 AM EDT
Stormy Daniels's attorney on Friday said that his client had been threatened with physical harm in connection to her alleged affair with President the rich asshole.
Asked on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" whether Daniels had ever been threatened with physical harm, Michael Avenatti succinctly replied, "Yes."
It wasn't clear who allegedly threatened Daniels or what the exact nature of the threats were.
Avenatti declined to answer further questions on the subject, saying that "people will have to tune in to '60 Minutes' on March 25," when CBS is scheduled to air an interview with Daniels.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is suing to void a nondisclosure agreement that she says prevents her from speaking out about her alleged affair with the rich asshole more than a decade ago.
She was paid $130,000 by the rich asshole's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, weeks before the 2016 presidential election. She says the payment was intended to buy her silence about the alleged affair.
Cohen has acknowledged making the payment to Daniels but has insisted that the funds came from a personal account and were not tied to the the rich asshole campaign.
The White House has denied that the rich asshole ever had an affair with Daniels.
A hearing date for the lawsuit has been set for July 12 at the Los Angeles County Superior Court, according to court documents.
Avenatti said on Thursday that he has been approached by six other women with stories about President the rich asshole similar to that of the adult-film actress.
He cautioned in an appearance on CNN that he had not yet vetted the cases "to any great degree," but said that at least two of the women have nondisclosure agreements.
POLITICS
Stormy Daniels Was Physically Threatened, Lawyer Says
Lawyer Michael Avenatti wouldn’t elaborate and promoted the porn star’s upcoming interview with “60 Minutes.”
Stormy Daniels, the porn star who alleges President some rich asshole’s personal attorney paid her to keep silent about an affair with the rich asshole, has been physically threatened, her lawyer said Friday.
Lawyer Michael Avenatti was asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” whether Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, faced threats of “physical harm.” He responded, “Yes.”
Avenatti, who said earlier this month that his client has been legally threatened by the rich asshole’s lawyer, declined to elaborate. He said he would “not confirm or deny” if the physical threats came from the rich asshole himself.
Stormy Daniels’ attorney @MichaelAvenatti asks Mika’s question if his client was threatened with physical harm
Avenatti also declined to say whether the threats were related to Daniels’ non-disclosure agreement she reportedly reached with the rich asshole in 2016 to keep quiet about the affair.
“I’m not at liberty to discuss it. You can ask it 17 different ways. I’ll give you the same answer,” Avenatti said.
Avenatti, who has been on a publicity campaign for Daniels in recent weeks, repeatedly told “Morning Joe” viewers to watch Daniels’ forthcoming interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” which The Washington Post reported would air on March 25.
Adding to the suspense, Avenatti suggested the broadcast was still uncertain, but said “we hope” the interview will air.
“I don’t know that we’re out of the woods yet,” Avenatti said, referring to speculation that the rich asshole’s lawyers are trying to prevent CBS from airing the interview. The network has declined to comment on the matter.
Asked if he has “any doubt” that the rich asshole “directed” his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to pay $130,000 to silence Daniels, Avenatti said: “None.” Again, he would not elaborate.
| March 16, 2018 07:21 AM
The lawyer representing adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with President the rich asshole a decade ago, said Thursday there were six other women who had come forward with similar stories, and some claim to have nondisclosure agreements with the rich asshole.
"As of tonight, we've been approached by six separate women with similar stories to my client," Michael Avenatti said in an interview on CNN. "I want to stress that we have not vetted these stories to a great degree, however the initial consultation, the initial information that we're receiving indicate that there are some striking similarities between their stories and that of my client, Miss Clifford."
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Avenatti did not give any information on what the similarities were between Daniels’ story and what the other women allegedly experienced with the president. He did say, however, that he viewed at least two more nondisclosure agreements from the women that came to him.
Clifford’s lawsuit against the rich asshole alleged that the nondisclosure was invalid because he never signed it himself, but it instead was signed on his behalf by his personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Cohen also was the one who paid the film star $130,000 in alleged “hush money” ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
South Korean minister to meet Ivanka after Tillerson was fired
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 03/16/18 08:06 AM EDT
Ivanka the rich asshole will meet with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha when she visits the U.S. following the abrupt ousting of secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Noh Kyu-duk confirmed Thursday that Ivanka the rich asshole, a White House adviser, would meet with Kang, KBS World Radio reported.
The purpose and exact date of the meeting are not yet clear.
It was previously reported that Kang would meet with Tillerson to discuss talks with North Korea, among other issues, but Tillerson was ousted earlier this week from his role.
the rich asshole said earlier this week he made the decision to oust Tillerson on his own and that Tillerson would be "much happier now."
the rich asshole replaced Tillerson with CIA director Mike Pompeo. the rich asshole said he and Pompeo are "always on the same wavelength."
Ivanka the rich asshole will meet with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha when she visits the U.S. following the abrupt ousting of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Noh Kyu-duk confirmed on Thursday that the rich asshole, a White House adviser, would meet with Kang, KBS World Radio reported.
The purpose and exact date of the meeting are not yet clear.
Kang is also expected to meet with Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) during her visit.
It was previously reported that Kang would meet with Tillerson to discuss talks with North Korea, among other issues, but Tillerson was ousted earlier this week from his role.
President the rich asshole said earlier this week he made the decision to oust Tillerson on his own and that Tillerson would be "much happier now."
the rich asshole replaced Tillerson with CIA director Mike Pompeo.
Mobster Felix Sater Told Family ‘He And POTUS Are Going To Prison’
According to the rich asshole confidante (and mobster) Felix Sater, both of them are going to prison.
the rich asshole’s former business partner has a history of flipping on his friends in exchange for immunity, and this seems to be his current angle with the rich asshole. The Spectator reports that Mueller has Sater by the balls. It’s looking like the mobster has flipped on his former associate, and he has bee telling friends that both he and the rich asshole are going to spend some time in the slammer:
For several weeks there have been rumours that Sater is ready to rat again, agreeing to help Mueller. ‘He has told family and friends he knows he and POTUS are going to prison,’ someone talking to Mueller’s investigators informed me.
Recently Sater, who was instrumental in offloading the rich asshole properties to the Russians, hinted in an interview that he was possibly cooperating with authorities.
“In about the next 30 to 35 days, I will be the most colourful character you have ever talked about,” Sater told New York Magazine late last year. “Unfortunately, I can’t talk about it now, before it happens. And believe me, it ain’t anything as small as whether or not they’re gonna call me to the Senate committee.”
the rich asshole, as is tradition when his associates cause him to squirm by getting caught, has repeatedly denied knowing who Sater is — and abandoning his friends has caused others to turn on him in an effort to save their own asses, including his former campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Despite all this, House Republicans announced that their sham “investigation” did not uncover any evidence of collusion with Russia and its allies. It’s time for them to “grow a pair.”
WATCH: Alleged mobster Felix Sater battles CNN’s Chris Cuomo over Mueller probe involvement
Chris Cuomo, Felix Sater -- screengrab
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On Friday morning a Soviet-born American businessman with a shady background, who claims he was a senior advisor to some rich asshole, coyly and repeatedly ducked questions from a persistent Chris Cuomo on whether he has spoken with investigators from special counsel Robert Mueller’s office.
Saying he was coming on the air to clear up some misconceptions about his past and his relationship with the rich asshole, businessman Felix Sater was instead pressed by the New Day host to divulge anythung he could about the Russian investigation and his own part in it.
“There is this whole intelligence assets and spy story that goes along with your involvement here,” Cuomo asked. “It is interesting to me that’s motivating you to come out, not all these other questions that have been swirling around about you. To this point, whom have you gone and spoken to from the government about your involvement with trump and potential connections to Russia? Have you taken to Mueller’s investigators?”
“I’m not at liberty to discuss the on-going investigations,” Sater demurred.
“You can talk about who you spoke to, not the content of what you discussed,” the CNN host suggested.
“I can only say that I have, in fact, testified in front of the Senate, in front of the House Intel Committee, but the rest of it i can’t discuss until it actually comes out,” Sater parried.
“But if you don’t say ‘I haven’t spoken to the Mueller investigators,'” Cuomo began. “Certainly you could tell me if you haven’t. There’s no penalty to saying I didn’t speak to Mueller’s investigators. If you’re not telling me I haven’t spoken to the investigators, the assumption is that you have. Do you allow that analogy?”
“I cannot answer about anything that may be part of the on going investigation,” the businessmen once again stated.
“True,” Cuomo allowed. “Except you could say if you haven’t spoken to the investigators. you could say that.”
“I choose not to,” Sater bluntly stated with a knowing look.
Watch the video below via CNN:
Stormy Daniels's lawyer claims client was threatened with physical harm
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 03/16/18 08:24 AM EDT
Stormy Daniels's attorney on Friday said that his client had been threatened with physical harm in connection to her alleged affair with President the rich asshole.
Asked on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" whether Daniels had ever been threatened with physical harm, Michael Avenatti succinctly replied, "Yes."
It wasn't clear who allegedly threatened Daniels or what the exact nature of the threats were.
Avenatti declined to answer further questions on the subject, saying that "people will have to tune in to '60 Minutes' on March 25," when CBS is scheduled to air an interview with Daniels.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is suing to void a nondisclosure agreement that she says prevents her from speaking out about her alleged affair with the rich asshole more than a decade ago.
She was paid $130,000 by the rich asshole's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, weeks before the 2016 presidential election. She says the payment was intended to buy her silence about the alleged affair.
Cohen has acknowledged making the payment to Daniels but has insisted that the funds came from a personal account and were not tied to the rich asshole campaign.
The White House has denied that the rich asshole ever had an affair with Daniels.
A hearing date for the lawsuit has been set for July 12 at the Los Angeles County Superior Court, according to court documents.
Avenatti said on Thursday that he has been approached by six other women with stories about President the rich asshole similar to that of the adult-film actress.
He cautioned in an appearance on CNN that he had not yet vetted the cases "to any great degree," but said that at least two of the women have nondisclosure agreements.
They're not very smart, are they?
Republicans insist tax law will help in midterms
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 03/16/18 06:00 AM EDT
Republicans are brushing off questions about their plan to run on tax cuts in November after the issue failed to gain traction in the Pennsylvania special election, which some are viewing as a troublesome sign for the party.
The Republican candidate, Rick Saccone, and allied conservative groups ran hard on President the rich asshole’s tax cuts before largely abandoning the message to pivot to immigration and attacking House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.).
While the final result of Tuesday's special election has yet to be certified, it appears Saccone has lost to Democrat Conor Lamb in a district that the rich asshole carried by double digits in 2016.
Democrats see big implications for the November midterms at a time when Republicans are signaling that the tax law will be one of their top talking points.
Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) on Thursday held the Pennsylvania race up as proof that Republicans' claims about the popularity of the tax bill are overstated.
“The American people are smart about this,” he said on the Senate floor. “They know the vast majority of this goes to the wealthy. They know the amount going to them is small. They know that their tax breaks are temporary and corporate tax breaks are permanent.”
Schumer noted that two-thirds of the ads run by Saccone and super PACs backing him initially mentioned taxes. But after a week of testing this strategy, the percentage of ads focused on taxes dropped to 36 percent.
“After two weeks of these ads, they tested it out, my Republican friends. They got rid of taxes as an issue. It wasn’t working with the fairly well-off middle-class Pittsburgh suburbanites or blue-collar members of Green County and Westmoreland County,” he said.
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), the chairman of Senate Republicans' campaign arm, shot back, arguing that Schumer's proposal to repeal the rich asshole tax cut in order to pay for infrastructure is a losing strategy.
"If I were Chuck Schumer, I'd be terrified about a growing economy with people earning wages that are higher than they were and I'd be terrified that I came up with a plan to increase taxes," he said.
Democrats nevertheless feel emboldened on taxes after Tuesday's results.
Lamb had called the tax bill signed into law by the rich asshole in December a “giveaway” to wealthy individuals and large corporations while criticizing its impact on the national deficit.
“Taxes as an issue is substantially less salient among voters than many other things including and especially health care,” argued Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster who briefed Senate Democrats last week on the rich asshole tax cuts.
“What Pennsylvania 18 shows is that when you have a real back-and-forth on the tax bill and the cost and consequences, it doesn’t stand up very well in the political battle of ideas and messages,” he said.
While Republicans are looking to highlight the issue, some vulnerable Senate Democratic incumbents also view the rich asshole tax cut as an opportunity to play offense.
“The public is starting to see that after blowing this huge hole in the budget, the Republicans are coming after Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. There’s no doubt that they are,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who is up for reelection in a state that the rich asshole carried by 8 points.
Republican officials argue they fumbled the Pennsylvania seat, a district that the rich asshole won a year ago in a landslide, because they had a weak candidate.
Corry Bliss, executive director of the Congressional Leadership Fund, called Saccone "a joke" after the election, while the rich asshole had reportedly knocked the Pennsylvania Republican in private as "weak."
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) argued voters didn’t see Saccone as much more conservative than Lamb, who voiced support for expanded background checks instead of new gun restrictions and said he personally opposes abortion but supports the right to choose.
“They were able to pick a candidate who can run as a conservative,” Ryan said, noting that Lamb also said he wouldn't support Pelosi serving another term as Democratic leader.
Despite how the Pennsylvania race shook out, Republicans overall are leaning into the tax cuts as one of their best strategies come November, viewing it as a major accomplishment they can tout on the campaign trail while attacking vulnerable Democrats who opposed it.
Americans for Prosperity, a political group backed by billionaire donors Charles and David Koch, announced Wednesday it will spend $4 million on television and digital ads highlighting tax reform in Indiana and Missouri, two Senate battlegrounds.
The aggressive move forced Democrats to rally to the defense of Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.), two other Democratic senators up for reelection in states the rich asshole won.
Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC dedicated to winning a Senate Democratic majority, has spent $3.8 million in both states defending the incumbents.
Chris Pack, the communications director for American Crossroads and the Senate Leadership Fund, two outside groups dedicated to protecting the GOP majority, said Democrats wouldn’t have poured millions of dollars into Indiana and Missouri if they weren’t worried about the potency of taxes as an issue.
“If Democrats were truly unconcerned about tax cuts being used as an offensive message, then Donnelly would never have set up a microsite begging Senate Majority PAC to come in and defend him,” Pack said, referring to a page on Donnelly’s campaign website stating his support for middle-class tax cuts and his vote for extending the Bush-era tax cuts in 2012.
Chris Hayden, a spokesman for Senate Majority PAC, said his group is using a message similar to Lamb’s in Pennsylvania to defend McCaskill and Donnelly.
“When voters find out that their health care premiums are going up and the health care company got a huge tax break and this bill adds $1.8 trillion for the debt and they find out there’s a plan to change Medicare and Social Security to help pay for it, we do really well on the issue,” he said.
A senior Republican aide said the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and allied groups are preparing more ads to attack Democrats for not backing the tax cuts.
“It is the clearest, easiest message,” the aide said. “This can be cut and played 18 different ways. We have so much information."
The NRSC blasted Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) for backing a proposal to repeal the rich asshole tax cuts to pay for an infrastructure bill. Nelson faces a tough reelection against a likely bid from Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R).
“Bill Nelson’s re-election strategy seems to be voting against bigger paychecks, bonuses and more jobs, and instead supporting higher taxes for Florida families,” said NRSC spokeswoman Katie Martin.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday highlighted other areas of the tax law where Republicans may focus, such as its expansion of the tax advantage for college savings accounts to allow families to use them for private and religious schools.
He said that helped one family in Louisville, Ky., send their learning-disabled child to a private school with smaller classes and more individual attention.
Garin, the Democratic pollster, argued that linking the rising profits of insurance and pharmaceutical companies — and rising costs for health-care consumers — to the tax bill is a strong strategy for Democrats.
“What we’ve been seeing in polling is that the biggest economic concern of voters is the high cost of health care and when you remind people that the tax bill gave huge benefits to drug companies and health insurance companies and those companies are going ahead and raising people’s health-care costs anyway, that’s a very powerful message,” he said.
Brown, meanwhile, is linking the tax cuts to Republican plans to reform entitlement programs as he gears up for a tough reelection fight in Ohio.
Ryan announced in early December that Republicans would aim to reduce federal funding on Medicare, Medicaid and entitlement programs, arguing that Medicare and Medicaid “are the big drivers of the debt.”
McConnell quickly dismissed the idea as a non-starter in the Senate, but Brown thinks it's still at the forefront of the GOP agenda.
“Of course they’re not giving up. They’ve never given up,” he said. “They don’t like social insurance. Anytime they’ve ever had a chance, they’ve gone after Medicare.”
“You saw Ryan did it right away. McConnell said no but McConnell has a three-times higher IQ when it comes to politics than Ryan,” Brown added.
the rich asshole drew a red line for Mueller; Mueller just crossed it
BY JONATHAN TURLEY, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 03/16/18 09:30 AM EDT
Politicians seem to be drawn to red lines the way tornados are drawn to motor homes, and the results are just about the same.
Red lines are the favorite way for politicians to distinguish between their usual hyperbolic language and a final ultimatum. It is the way for politicians to say, “I really mean it,” and can often prove embarrassing when they don’t.
That was the problem when President Barack Obama drew his “red line” in 2012 on the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime in Syria. Bashar Assad used chemical weapons, and Obama did effectively nothing.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has issued a subpoena to the rich asshole Organization to turn over documents related to the rich asshole’s business interests in Russia. In July, the rich asshole was asked if investigating his finances would be a “red line,” and he responded that it would be. Now that Mueller has sent a subpoena flying over that red line, the stakes could not be higher for the rich asshole.
The investigation is obviously not wrapping up, as suggested by the White House, and it is moving into an area rife with risk for the president. The greatest risk, however, is not Mueller’s but the rich asshole’s possible actions.
Exclusive: The special counsel has subpoenaed Trump Organization records, some related to Russia, bringing the inquiry closer to the president nyti.ms/2FGinHV
There is no question that Mueller is now fishing in waters far afield from the original allegations of collusion on Russia, but this subpoena is well within his mandate. Mueller is allowed to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated” with the rich asshole campaign, as well as “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.” the rich asshole’s former associates effectively made the nexus needed by Mueller to pursue this information.
The subpoena reportedly includes business dealings in Russia and related topics. One obvious focus of the investigators is likely to be the 2015 venture to build a rich asshole Tower in Moscow. Ultimately, nothing came from the effort, but the rich asshole was personally consulted on the venture and the company issued an initial non-binding “letter of intent.”
At the heart of the venture was a fairly shady character named Felix Sater, who wrote to the rich asshole’s equally controversial lawyer, Michael Cohen, to push a deal in Moscow. Of particular note is the timing of this email during the presidential campaign; in one of Sater’s emails to Cohen, Sater assured that “Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”
A Russian immigrant, Sater often bragged of his contacts in Russia and Putin’s inner circle. He was particularly proud of arranging a 2006 trip by Ivanka the rich asshole to Russia and “arrang[ing] for Ivanka to sit in Putins private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin.”
Felix Sater is the man who partnered with Pres. Trump to try to build a hotel in Moscow while Trump was running for president.@ABC's @GStephanopoulos sat down for an exclusive interview with him. abcn.ws/2HD4h6G
Sater had worked with the rich asshole on other projects. He is often described by critics as someone with an uncontrollable temper and insatiable greed; he once reportedly stabbed a man in the face with a martini glass stem. Sater assured the rich asshole team that “I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected.” Sater laid out how Putin could help the rich asshole by using the deal to portray the rich asshole as a business genius: “If he says it we own this election. Americas most difficult adversary agreeing that Donald is a good guy to negotiate.”
Sater was writing during the campaign about a Russian deal but selling the deal as a way for Putin to help the rich asshole. He even laid out his own cut in an email in saying that he wanted the ambassadorship to the Bahamas: “That my friend is the home run I want out of this.”
Sater could be the “home run” for the rich asshole critics, however. The financing laid out by Sater would have come from Vneshtorgbank, or VTB, a Russian bank already under sanctions by the United States for funding an effort to undermine Ukraine’s political system.
Mueller may also pursue other financial leads, particularly in light of his prior subpoenas to Deutsche Bank for records pertaining to the rich asshole associates and deals. VTB has been linked to Deutsche Bank in shady deals out of Moscow; Deutsche Bank was a central player in laundering Russian money worldwide. the rich asshole reportedly owed the bank $300 million at the time of his taking office. New York Department of Financial Services fined the bank $425 million just after the rich asshole inauguration.
Deutsche Bank agrees to pay $630m to settle allegations the bank helped to launder $10bn from Russia on.ft.com/2jOSZDh
As usual, there has been a degree of hyperventilation over this new subpoena, and it is important to keep the inquiry in perspective. The Moscow deal ultimately fell through, and even some of the cited evidence cuts both ways for the rich asshole. For example, Cohen’s involvement is hardly notable given his reckless and self-defeating moves in the Stormy Daniels controversy; Cohen is cited as trying to reach out to Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, to ask Putin to help on the rich asshole Tower deal.
It certainly sounds like vintage Michael Cohen, who professionally shows all of the control of a falling locomotive. However, Cohen notably did not even have Peskov’s direct email, and sent this highly controversial email to a general inbox for press inquiries. That was like using Facebook to arrange collusion meetings and asking a possible co-conspirator to “friend” you with a call-me emoji.
With the likes of Sater and Cohen working together, the results are likely to be more comical than conspiratorial. Nevertheless, there are risks (as I have previously raised) in Mueller combing through the rich asshole financial deals.
But the biggest risk could be self-inflicted: One month before stating this red line, the rich asshole reportedly ordered White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II to fire Mueller. McGahn refused, and ultimately threatened to resign.
If the rich asshole were to fire Mueller at this point, it could deliver not just a “home run” but the game to critics. the rich asshole blundered by firing Comey and triggering the special counsel appointment. The firing of Mueller would be a hundred times worse for the White House and present a true existential threat to this administration. Congress would likely move to reinstate the Independent Counsel Act or otherwise protect Mueller.
That is Congress’s red line, and no one has to state it.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.
Morning Joe hosts say the rich asshole may have threatened other women into silence: ‘We’ve heard of a pattern like this’
Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
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The revelation that Stormy Daniels was threatened with physical harm over her claims against President some rich asshole could invalidate the nondisclosure agreement, trigger possible criminal charges — and bring down his presidency.
Attorney Michael Avenatti told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, was threatened with physical harm but refused to say whether the threat came from the rich asshole or one of his associates.
“If Stormy Daniels comes out and says she was physically — let’s say that again, physically threatened arm — by either the president himself or somebody close, that — and it seems to be credible, that in and of itself would bring down this presidency,” said MSNBC contributor Donny Deutsch.
Host Joe Scarborough said he wasn’t so sure, because it would depend on whether Republican lawmakers would hold the rich asshole accountable.
“Step back, we’re not watching a movie — it’s stunning,” Deutsch said. “What happened here 15 minutes ago is nothing short of stunning.”
“It changes the dynamic,” agreed co-host Mika Brzezinski.
Scarborough and Brzezinski, who’ve known the president for years, said they had reason to believe the threat was made by a close associate of the rich asshole’s — and that Daniels wasn’t the only victim of such threats.
“Mika and I have reason to believe that it may be somebody closely associated with the president, so this is not some supporter, some random supporter,” Scarborough said.
“We’ve heard of a pattern like this that we’ve seen never actually seen ourselves, but being close to the inner the rich asshole circle,” Brzezinski added.
“If this is somebody in the inner circle, if it’s a henchman, somebody like that — that will bring down this presidency,” said Deutsch, who’s also known the rich asshole for years. “This is physical harm to a woman. This is not sex, this is not groping.”
Scarborough said he was shocked that Avenatti answered Brzezinski’s question about the alleged threat, but he said the revelation explained so much about why Daniels chose to come forward with her claims against the president.
“That had to be something at the heart of her more allegations and one of the reasons why she’s so insistent on coming forward now, because either some rich asshole or somebody close to some rich asshole physically threatened her and told her to be quiet or else harm would come to her,” Scarborough said.
The panelists agreed that Avenatti seemed to suggest he and Daniels would be able to document the threat in their March 25 “60 Minutes” interview, and Brzezinski explained why the allegation was such a bombshell.
“We’re talking about this president, President the rich asshole, who’s very vocal about his conquests with women, or whatever you want to call it, throughout his entire career, and a porn star who, sex is a part of her career, so what would the sex be?” Brzezinski said. “Why that would be a story at this point? I think what we’re looking another now is what happened after and whether or not she was threatened by the president of the United States.”
MSNBC analyst John Heilemann put the claims into historical context, and he suggested Daniels was potentially the victim of extortion.
“The notion that she was not just paid off but was essentially forced to take the payment,” Heilemann said, “and she was told that she had to take the money and shut up or she would be physically harmed, that in the last two weeks in a presidential campaign, where the stakes are who’s going to win the presidency in a month of October surprises, when some rich asshole is facing multiple allegations of assault and sexual harassment, that is a gargantuan story.”
COMEDY
the rich asshole Store’s Attempt To Troll Jimmy Kimmel Over Chinese Merch Goes Very Wrong
The battle heats up.
The rich asshole Store, run by the family of President some rich asshole, tried to troll late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on social media on Thursday.
It didn’t go as they had hoped.
On “Jimmy Kimmel Live” earlier this week, Kimmel bought ― and mocked ― a bunch of the rich asshole Store merchandise, pretty much all of which was made overseas despite the president’s “Buy American” slogan.
Kimmel also said he planned to file a complaint about two of his purchases, which didn’t list a country of origin, an omission that could lead to fines if the products were made overseas.
The store took to Twitter to retaliate against Kimmel’s segment:
Hey @JimmyKimmel, it appears you make an even better salesman than comedian – Thanks for the pitch! trumpstore.com/collections/ma…
Kimmel fired back:
You are most welcome and, may I say, the Chinese do a BEAUTIFUL job making your products! @DonaldJTrumpJr @EricTrump twitter.com/TrumpStore/sta…
He wasn’t the only one who thought the rich asshole Store’s tweet rang hollow:
How much are the Chinese getting paid to make America great again?
Please make a Trump™ Matryoshka doll, with Donald, then all the kids, and finally, right in the center, Bob Mueller.
Practice what you preach, Trumps. Make your products in The USA.
the rich asshole doesn’t just know he’s a liar — he’s proud of it
He’s much too proud of his deceit to ever stop.
The pantheon of deceit that President some rich asshole has constructed in his brief civic career is vast, and the regularity of his mendacity has the preciseness of a Swiss watch. What’s more, he exults in every petty deception because it’s the foundation for his notorious ascent into public view. And yet, it can still come as a shock to watch the rich asshole bask in the shamelessness of lying.
Case in point: the rich asshole’s cavalier boasting Wednesday to a group of potential donors that, while in conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he arrogantly insisted the United States has a trade deficit with Canada, despite having no idea if what he was saying was true in that moment.
There is nothing more damnable than the rich asshole openly admitting to willfully lying to one of America’s close and valued allies. Surely, Trudeau knew, as he listened to the rich asshole’s belligerent bluster, that the U.S. president was, at best, ignorant of the facts surrounding our trade relationship with our neighbor to the north; at worst, the rich asshole was lying for no other reason than self-enjoyment. In the worst and most likely case, both were true.
the rich asshole has made trade with other countries a centerpiece of his efforts to improve the domestic economy, promising to impose tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum products as well as withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. the rich asshole has presented himself as the necessary linchpin for all future arrangements, and has told the American people that he will negotiate directly with foreign leaders to produce trade agreements more favorable to U.S. interests.
But the revelation of knowing acts of dishonesty makes it clear to any foreign leader with whom he intends to negotiate trade deals that the rich asshole has no depth of knowledge on serious issues and cannot be trusted as an honest broker. He can not possibly succeed at a bargaining table, if foreign leaders know they’re dealing with a congenital liar.
According to reports in The Washington Post, which obtained an audio recording of the rich asshole’s Wednesday meeting with a group of donors at the Hilton St. Louis Frontenac, in St. Louis, Missouri, the rich asshole “made a blistering attack against major U.S. allies and global economies, accusing the European Union, China, Japan and South Korea of ripping off the United States for decades and pillaging the U.S. workforce.” In the course of this discussion, the rich asshole admitted, without prompting, that he just made up the facts he presented during his meeting with Trudeau. (For their part, Canadian officials are at a loss to recall this meeting between the rich asshole and Trudeau. As Alexander Panetta reports in the National Post, the “Canadian government is unsure what meeting [the rich asshole is] referring to,” speculating that “the conversation happened by phone.”)
A transcript of the comments made at this private fundraiser in St. Louis quoted the rich asshole saying:
. . . [A]nd, by the way, Canada, they negotiate tougher than Mexico. 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. Nice guy, good-looking, comes in — Donald, we have no trade deficit — he was very proud, because everybody else you know were getting killed with our, so he’s [unintelligible]. I said wrong, Justin, you do. I didn’t even know. Josh, I had no idea. I just said, you’re wrong. You know why? Because we’re so stupid. [Unintelligible, laughter] 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.
Turns out – duh! – the rich asshole was wrong. The United States has a trade surplus with Canada. The U.S. Trade Representative reported that for 2016, the most recent period for which figures are available, the United States exported $12.5 billion more in goods and services than it imported from our northern neighbor. (The way the White House has chosen to spin this moment is to suggest that only goods, not services, count now when tallying up a trade relationship.)
In the briefing I said I would provide the trade deficit number we have with Canada. In 2017 we had a $17.58 B trade deficit. In January 2018 we had a$3.63 B trade deficit. Both reflect trade in goods. Which is exactly what @POTUS referenced. census.gov/foreign-trade/…
the rich asshole has made a career out of lying. He does it with such ferocity that some observers, like Politico’s Maria Konnikova, imply that it’s pathological. In an essay published shortly before the rich asshole took office, Konnikova interviewed people who well knew the soon-to-be president.
“Those who have followed the rich asshole’s career say his lying isn’t just a tactic, but ingrained habit,” she wrote. “New York tabloid writers who covered the rich asshole as a mogul on the rise in the 1980s and ’90s found him categorically different from the other self-promoting celebrities in just how often, and pointlessly, he would lie to them.”
Bella DePaulo, a social scientist who has extensively studied liars and the make-up of personalities that regularly traffic in deceit, said the rich asshole is unlike most of the people she’s researched. “His lies are both more frequent and more malicious than ordinary people’s,” she wrote for The Washington Post. “By telling so many lies, and so many that are mean-spirited, the rich asshole is violating some of the most fundamental norms of human social interaction and human decency. Many of the rest of us, in turn, have abandoned a norm of our own — we no longer give the rich asshole the benefit of the doubt that we usually give so readily.”
Trump finally admits that he lies purposefully and knowingly when he makes up false information.cnn.com/2018/03/15/pol…
If that’s true, the rich asshole loses any mitigating fig leaf. He’s not naively faking his way through difficult issues and situations with bluster. He’s aware that his lies are obvious, pointless, and easy to discern. We now have definitive evidence that this is, indeed, true because the rich asshole told the world, albeit privately at that fundraiser, that his lying is willful, knowing, and purposeful.
Such behavior is reprehensible when discovered by, say, a spouse, coworker or casual acquaintance. But for someone granted with the public’s trust, gratuitous and simple-minded lying puts our society and all its norms at risk.
Mueller’s interest in the rich asshole Organization centers on Russian oligarch who set up the rich asshole Tower meeting: authors
Robert Mueller, the Special Counsel overseeing the investigation into possible collusion between Russians and the rich asshole campaign in the 2016 election, continues to keep his cards close to his chest as his probe circles the White House AFP/File / SAUL LOEB
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Appearing on CNN’s New Day on Friday morning, the authors of a new on book detailing President some rich asshole’s relationship with Russia throughout the years were asked what they made of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s bombshell subpoena on Thursday to the rich asshole Organization seeking documents about its past dealings inside Russia.
Speaking with host Chris Cuomo, authors David Corn and Michael Isikoff — whose book “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of some rich asshole” was just released — pointed the host in the direction of a Russian oligarch with longtime ties to the rich asshole.
“The idea of Mueller dropping subpoenas on the rich asshole organization, I’m not spending time on the rich asshole saying it crosses a red line,” Cuomo began. “Do you think it’s an indication this is about buttoning up the counter-terrorism aspect of this, or it could come from the arises out of part of the purview, which may be there may be time left in this investigation?”
“I think the investigation goes on for quite a while,” Corn replied. “The Iran-Contra investigation went on for awhile, they spent six or seven years working on that. I have no reason to believe we are coming to any conclusion soon. One of my least favorite cliches is ‘this the tip of the iceberg.’ But with Mueller it is very appropriate; those dealing with Russia, maybe dealing with other things, shows me he is serious. If he sees anything out there, anything out there that looks untoward, he’s going to look.”
“If you want to understand why Mueller is doing what he’s doing with the subpoena, I can direct you to the chapters, starting with chapter one, at the center of the investigation,” Isiskoff added. “One major incident was the notorious the rich asshole Tower meeting. Who set up the rich asshole Tower meeting? Agalarov, the Russian billionaire oligarch, who was known as Putin’s builder, who the rich asshole partnered with, first on Miss Universe, and then plans to build that first the rich asshole Tower project in Moscow.”
“It is important to know that the contact from the Russian government to the rich asshole campaign, to Don the rich asshole Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort came through Agalarov, this business partnership that the rich asshole had had for several years,” Corn interjected. “I can see several subpoenas for that. And then another the rich asshole Tower deal with a company we discovered in Russia that has very shady owners and offshore companies in Cyprus.”
You can watch the video below via CNN:
Fired White House staffers resurface with the rich asshole campaign and super PAC
The America First PAC's most recent hire was fired from the administration in January for making racist, sexist, and anti-LGBTQ comments.
Both President the rich asshole’s 2020 re-election campaign and the super PAC supporting his bid, America First Policies, have recently hired on troubled ex-administration staffers — one of whom was dismissed for making a slew of derogatory comments about people of color and the LGBTQ community.
On Thursday, America First Policies announced that it had hired on former Navy SEAL and 2016 campaign surrogate Carl Higbie to run its advocacy arm.
“Carl Higbie has been a loyal fighter for the America-first agenda since day one,” Brian O’Walsh, president of America First Policies, said in a statement. “His esteemed military leadership and service to our great nation — along with his extensive experience in advocacy, communications, and campaigning for candidates for federal office — will make him an invaluable addition to the America First team.”
Higbie previously worked as chief of external affairs for the federal government’s volunteer service organization, the Corporation for National and Community Service, under the rich asshole administration. He was forced to resign after a CNN KFile report in January, which included audio files of him making racist, sexist, anti-Muslim, and anti-LGBTQ comments in radio interviews.
“We’re promoting birth control to a Black woman because of the incredibly high rate of children born out of wedlock that are under-cared for or not cared for at all,” Higbie said in one interview. “The taxpayers are tired of supporting government checks going to these people who think that breeding is a form of employment. I’m sorry if Black people are the majority of the targeted audience. They are, statistically they are.”
He also claimed that Black women believed “breeding is a form of government employment.”
Trump's super PAC, America First Policies, just hired Carl Higbie as Director of Advocacy. Higbie made such racist comments that he was fired from the Trump administration. cnn.it/2DtZEJM
In a separate interview in June 2013, Higbie made vile comments about Muslims and sexual assault.
“Go back to your Muslim shithole and go crap in your hands and bang little boys on Thursday nights,” he said. “I just don’t like Muslim people. People always rip me a new one for that. Carl, you’re racist, you can’t, you’re sexist. I’m like Jesus Christ. I just don’t like Muslim people because their ideology sucks.”
Higbie currently lists himself on LinkedIn as a “Small Business Owner and TV Personality” and the CEO of Ameriman LLC, a political consulting firm.
Higbie is just the latest embattled ex-administration staffer to find his way back to the 2020 landscape. On Monday, longtime the rich asshole aide John McEntee, who told colleagues he’d had trouble securing a top secret security clearance because of past gambling and financial issues, was fired and escorted out of the White House. One day later, McEntee — along with former 2016 national spokesperson Katrina Pierson — was hired on by the president’s re-election campaign.
“As we build out our operations for the 2018 mid-term elections and the 2020 reelection campaign, we are pleased to welcome back two outstanding members of our 2016 team,” Brad Parscale, the rich asshole for President campaign manager, said in a statement. “We need the help of proven leaders such as Katrina and John to promote the President’s growing portfolio of achievements across the country.”
The White House declined to comment or give any details about McEntee’s dismissal this week, stating that it “do[es] not comment on personnel matters.”
Stormy Daniels was threatened with physical harm over the rich asshole claims, her attorney says
Michael Avenatti (MSNBC)
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Stormy Daniels was threatened with physical harm over her alleged sexual relationship with President some rich asshole, according to her attorney.
Michael Avenatti, who’s representing the porn actress in her suit against the president, refused to say who made the threat — but he told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” it would be shown on the March 25 broadcast of “60 Minutes.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski asked whether Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, had been threatened with physical harm — and Avenatti affirmed that she had.
He declined to say whether the threat came from the rich asshole or one of his associates, but he said the threat would be discussed in an interview on CBS News with Anderson Cooper.
“I can’t tell you anything beyond what I’ve already said,” Avenatti said.
He refused to confirm or deny whether the threat came from the president, and he refused to say whether the threat involved someone pointing a gun at Daniels.
“I’m not at liberty to discuss it,” Avenatti said. “You can ask it 17 different ways, I’ll give you the same answer. I applaud your tenaciousness.”
Avenatti agreed with Brzezinski that the $130,000 hush money payout to Daniels was unusually low for such agreements, but he said the reason for that figure would be explained when she was allowed to tell her story.
He said Daniels was not offered $130,000 by any other parties, and Avenatti suggested he has proof the president directed the payment.
‘This literally sounds like The Apprentice’: MSNBC’s Mika mocks the rich asshole’s backstabbing administration
Mika Brzezinski (MSNBC)
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White House staffers are reportedly gripped with “mania” as President some rich asshole purges staffers he doesn’t like, or who have been unable to secure clearance to view classified materials — and MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski said the situation was “frightening.”
The Washington Post reported that “anxious and nervous” White House aides have started a betting pool over which of them will be fired next, and the “Morning Joe” co-host said the president had his staffers right where he wanted them.
“This literally sounds like ‘The Apprentice,'” Brzezinski said.
“That’s what the president wants, and he said that,” said host Joe Scarborough.
“All he knows how to do is produce reality shows,” Brzezinski added.
Scarborough said leaks about possible White House shakeups were probably coming from the president himself.
“There’s a war of leakers at the highest levels in the West Wing,” Scarborough said. “It appears that somebody is saying (national security adviser H.R.) McMaster is gone — somebody, lets’s just say the chief of staff level or higher, and somebody else is saying, no, he’s staying. What are we poor consumers of news supposed to read through all of this?”
Brzezinski said the president’s approach to filling his administration with flunkies and TV personalities were harmful to U.S. interests.
“This is not casting, this is frightening,” she said. “It is such a scary time, when you really think about this — it’s not funny.”
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