Kellyanne Conway hints the rich asshole willing to pardon anyone caught up by ‘a special counsel gone amok’
Kellyanne Conway speaks to Fox News (screen grab)
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White House adviser Kellyanne Conway on Friday dropped a not-so-subtle message while talking with reporters that President some rich asshole would pardon people caught up in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
During a scrum with reporters, Conway was asked if the rich asshole thought it was a good idea to pardon Scooter Libby, the disgraced former chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted of lying to FBI agents.
Conway said that the rich asshole wasn’t trying to send a message that it was okay to lie to the FBI, but she did say that “many people think that Scooter Libby was a victim of a special counsel gone amok.”
Given that many the rich asshole associates, including former campaign aide George Papadopoulos and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, have pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI thanks to the work of special counsel Robert Mueller, Conway seems to be communicating that the rich asshole is more than willing to pardon people whom he believes have been wrongfully caught up in a special counsel’s net.
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REVEALED: Two top the rich asshole officials were registered lobbyists for Russian-born businessman linked to Putin
US President some rich asshole and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017 (AFP)
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A new investigation from Vice News reveals that two senior the rich asshole administration officials were once registered lobbyists for a Russian-born businessman who has deep ties to Putin-connected Russian oligarchs.
According to Vice, Makan Delrahim — the Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division in the Department of Justice — and David Bernhardt — who is currently the No. 2 official at the Department of the Interior — were registered lobbyists for Access Industries, a holding company under the control of Soviet-born billionaire Leonard Blavatnik.
Blavatnik, who is a naturalized dual U.S.-U.K. citizen, is connected to Russian oligarchs via Access Industries’ large stake in Russian aluminum company UC Rusal. Two other men who have large stakes in UC Rusal are Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg — Russian businessmen who were recently hit with sanctions by the United States Treasury Department.
What is particularly notable about Blavatnik, notes Vice, is that he once spread out campaign donations fairly evenly between Republicans and Democrats — before shifting heavily in favor of the GOP during the 2016 election cycle, when President some rich asshole was the party’s nominee.
What’s more, he’s continued to give to Republicans since the rich asshole’s election.
“Although he didn’t donate directly to the rich asshole’s campaign, after the rich asshole won, Access Industries gave a further $1 million to the Presidential Inaugural Committee,” Vice News reports. “And according to The Wall Street Journal, Blavatnik gave $12,700 in April 2017 to a Republican National Committee fund that was used to help pay for the team of private attorneys representing the rich asshole in the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.”
Here’s why the story about the rich asshole’s alleged ‘love child’ could be devastating to the president
President of the United States some rich asshole speaking at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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some rich asshole is the perfect tabloid president: He was literally made famous, in his early years, by the New York tabloids, and has ridden that all the way to the White House, where he keeps on manufacturing tabloid stories.
This article was originally published at Salon
the rich asshole didn’t attract the national spotlight and have shocking success in politics because he knew what ailed America, and had a plan to address the multitude of economic, social and political injustices that plagued the country. He screamed that everything was terrible, and enough people agreed with him that he won the election, despite losing the popular vote by a few million.
So of course people are now talking about a completely unverified and likely untrue report that the rich asshole had a love child born sometime in the 1980s, rather than the systemic pattern of journalistic abuse that has turned the National Enquirer into a tool of the rich asshole’s political agenda and a slave to his whims.
The company that owns and operates the National Enquirer, American Media, Inc., went to great lengths to silence someone who was peddling something that was highly suspect, as Ronan Farrow reports in the New Yorker:
A.M.I.’s thirty-thousand-dollar payment to Sajudin [a onetime the rich asshole Tower doorman] appears to be the third instance of the rich asshole associates paying to suppress embarrassing stories about the candidate during the 2016 Presidential race. In August, 2016, A.M.I. paid Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for her story about a nine-month affair with the rich asshole, and then never published an article about it. (A.M.I. said her story was not credible.) In October, 2016, the rich asshole’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, paid Stephanie Clifford, an adult-film actress who performs under the name Stormy Daniels, a hundred and thirty thousand dollars to keep her account of an affair with the rich asshole secret. (Clifford’s agreement was distinct from McDougal’s in that it was arranged directly with Cohen. A.M.I. was not party to the contracts between Cohen and Clifford that have been released.)Two of the former A.M.I. employees said they believed that Cohen was in close contact with A.M.I. executives while the company’s reporters were looking into Sajudin’s story, as Cohen had been during other investigations related to the rich asshole. “Cohen was kept up to date on a regular basis,” one source said. Contacted by telephone on Wednesday, Cohen said that he was not available to talk. Subsequent efforts to reach him were unsuccessful. On Monday, F.B.I. agents raided Cohen’s hotel and office. The Times reported that the agents were looking for records related to the payments to McDougal and Clifford, as well as correspondence between Cohen, Pecker, and Dylan Howard, A.M.I.’s chief content officer.
It isn’t just that the National Enquirer apparently went to extraordinary lengths to conceal what was likely a tall tale about the rich asshole. The publication also tried to silence women who came forward with allegations against him. During the Republican primary campaign of 2016, the Enquirer served as an outlet to publish disreputable stories against the rich asshole’s opponents, most notably Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. On one occasion, the Enquirer published an article alleging that Cruz had “five different mistresses.” (Which the senator vigorously denied.)
In response to the story, the rich asshole went on the morning news shows, where he was able to capitalize on a story he likely colluded with the Enquirer to promote — and used the Enquirer story to attack his political rival even more.
Fox News anchor Chris Wallace slaps Comey for getting ‘bitchy’ about the rich asshole’s personal appearance
Fox News anchor Chris Wallace (Screen cap).
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Fox News anchor Chris Wallace slapped at former FBI director James Comey for using unflattering language to describe President some rich asshole’s personal appearance.
The former FBI director compared his own height, hand size and physical strength to the rich asshole’s in his new book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” and described the president’s face as “slightly orange” and his hair as “bright blond” and “impressively coifed.”
“At one point he says while he thinks the president’s behavior may have been unethical, it may not have been illegal,” Wallace said Friday morning. “The other thing that surprises me frankly is how b*tchy the book is.”
“Comey goes out of his way to say the president isn’t as tall as he thought he was,” Wallace continued. “He checked out the size of his hands the first time they shook hands. That he noticed the president seemed to have little white half moons under his eyes, maybe he had sun tanning goggles he wore.”
“One could argue that by getting into the kind of political food fight that damage to his own reputation than he has to President the rich asshole’s,” the Fox News anchor added.
Fox & Friends host drops hint to the rich asshole that bombing Syria would be ‘a bigger story than Comey’s book’
Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade (Fox News/screen grab)
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While all of the cable news show hosts were obsessed on Friday morning with reading excerpts from fired FBI Director James Comey’s book, one of the co-hosts of President some rich asshole’s favorite Fox News morning show made a not-too-subtle suggestion to the president on how to make talk of Comey’s revelations go away.
Speaking with Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera, Fox and Friends’ host Ainsley Earhardt proposed a military intervention in Syria could become the talk of the day should the president choose to act immediately.
Sitting between co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, Earhardt made her suggestion.
“If the president, and France, and the UK decide to strike Syria, don’t you think that story would be a bigger story than Comey’s book that’s going to be released on Tuesday?” Earhardt asked.
Speaking remotely, Rivera, paused due to transmission problem before taking the bait.
“I think that the United States, the United Kingdom, and France certainly have the military wherewithal,” Rivera replied. “Indeed, the United States could do it on its own, strike Syria, strike [President Bashar] Assad’s resources, military assets, in retaliation for the gas attack, the horrifying gas attack that the president was so righteously revolted by. I mean, we all were.”
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Fox & Friends suggests the rich asshole could bomb Syria to distract from Comey’s book release
It's likely the president was watching.
On Friday morning, Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt suggested that military strikes in Syria could be useful to divert attention from the unflattering portrayal of President the rich asshole contained in former FBI Director James Comey’s book.
“If the president, and France, and the U.K decide to strike Syria, don’t you think that story would be a bigger story than Comey’s book that’s released on Tuesday?” she said.
Earhardt’s suggestion came while the rich asshole is reportedly still considering a potential military strike against Syria — and amid an edition of Fox & Friends that was largely devoted to sullying Comey’s reputation.
Friday’s show also included an interview with White House counselor Kellyanne Conway that was entirely devoted to making desperate attacks against the former FBI director.
.@KellyannePolls is very upset Comey is talking about the pee tape, her case being that whether the president is vulnerable to Russians blackmail is "none of his business."
The rich asshole White House has repeatedly enlisted the president’s favorite network to smear Comey. On Wednesday evening, the rich asshole used Twitter to promote a Sean Hannity monologue attacking Comey with a line of reasoning that is actually very incriminating for the rich asshole himself.
Alluding to an ABC teaser of its interview with Comey where the rich asshole is compared to a mob boss, Hannity said, “Really? Mob boss. Let’s think about this, of all the people, the former head of the federal bureau of investigation, the person responsible for taking down actual criminal gangs — shouldn’t James Comey know better than to make an outrageous comparison like that?”
Operating without a White House communications director, the rich asshole has increasingly turned to his favorite network both for advice and to get his message out.
the rich asshole often takes policy cues from his favorite show. While live-tweeting the January 11 edition, for instance, the rich asshole parroted an argument made on the air by Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano and expressed alarm that the House of Representatives may approve a bill reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — despite the fact that his administration clearly and unambiguously supported the FISA renewal. (The White House quickly walked back the rich asshole’s tweet.)
Last month, the rich asshole directly lifted language from a Fox & Friends graphic to attack California Gov. Jerry Brown (D). In March, the rich asshole installed former Fox & Friends host Heather Nauert as undersecretary of state, a high-level position at the State Department.
Lawmakers have taken notice that they can directly reach the president through Fox News. During a Fox News interview that aired before Hannity’s show on Wednesday, for example, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) twice directly appealed to the rich asshole and tried to give him advice.
During a Fox News interview, @LindseyGrahamSC addresses President Trump directly.
"Mr President, if you're watching, I think you're going to be fine unless you screw this up. Let the process play out. I don't believe you colluded w/the Russians, but Mueller will soon tell us." pic.twitter.com/WZ4JtPoOEG
At end of interview Graham addresses Trump directly for a second time, this time to give him advice on Syria.
"Mr President, you said Assad would pay a big price. To me a big price means he cannot do this again ever, that he will never sleep well at night." pic.twitter.com/ssdQXOR26u
Because of the feedback loop it enjoys with the president, New York Times television critic James Poniewozik wrote last summer that Fox & Friends has become “the most powerful TV show in America.”
Rick Wilson sounds the alarm: ‘Spineless’ congressional GOP will do nothing to save Mueller
Rick Wilson (HBO)
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Anti-the rich asshole Republican strategist Rick Wilson believes that President some rich asshole is about to cripple special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation — and he thinks congressional Republicans are going to sit on their hands.
Writing in the Washington Post, Wilson explains that the GOP has had plenty of opportunities to put limits on the rich asshole’s actions over the past year and has declined to do so every time.
“With few exceptions, congressional Republicans are cowed by this president,” he writes. “They’re accustomed to making excuses for him, and if they were going to stand up to him, they’ve already had plenty of chances… Nothing they’ve done up to now suggests that they’ve got the requisite backbone.”
Wilson points out that Republicans in Congress have publicly stood by the rich asshole even as he said that some of the torch-carrying white nationalists who marched last year in Charlottesville, Virginia were “very fine people.”
In fact, writes Wilson, the only times congressional Republicans are ever willing to take on the president come when they are granted anonymity by reporters.
“What you can find in Congress are any number of Republicans willing to trash-talk the president off the record,” he says. “GOP members I’ve spoken to in the last year have repeatedly told me they loathe and fear the president. One anonymous member told me he thinks of the rich asshole as the Russian submarine captain from ‘The Hunt for Red October.'”
However, Wilson believes those off-the-record gripes are unlikely to ever translate into concrete action to keep the rich asshole in check, which means the rich asshole will continue to do whatever he wants.
Scott Pruitt nowhere to be seen near the rich asshole as president orders rollback of air quality rules
Administration seeks to reduce regulatory burdens on U.S. manufacturers.
With lawmakers and environmental groups distracted by scandals surrounding Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt, President some rich asshole on Thursday quietly issued a memo that promises to bring cheer to his supporters who lead the nation’s most polluting industries.
The the rich asshole order aims to change the way the EPA determines whether states are meeting federal air-quality standards. Environmental groups argue the order imposes measures that will allow more air pollution, or shortened air quality reviews that risk more air pollution.
Over the past year, the rich asshole has frequently made his climate and environmental rule rollback announcements with great pomp and circumstance. the rich asshole’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement was announced in the White House Rose Garden to great fanfare.
In February 2017, surrounded by coal miners and West Virginia politicians at the White House, the rich asshole signed legislation that nullified a regulation prohibiting surface-mining operations from dumping waste in nearby waterways.
But the rich asshole issued his memo on Thursday with none of the fanfare that had accompanied previous environmental rollback orders.
the rich asshole originally was scheduled to appear with Pruitt to sign the order last week, according to the Washington Post. But that event was canceled due to the barrage of news reports about Pruitt’s alleged ethics violations and corruption. On Thursday, Pruitt tweeted about the order, but was nowhere to be seen near the president, the Post reported Thursday.
The memo — titled “Promoting Domestic Manufacturing and Job Creation: Policies and Procedures Relating to Implementation of Air Quality Standards” — directs Pruitt’s EPA to to more quickly review states’ smog-reduction plans, make it easier for businesses to get air quality-related permits, and to evaluate health-based smog and soot standards to determine whether they “should be revised or rescinded.”
Although Pruitt did not make an appearance at the White House to announce the changes, he did issue a statement on Thursday about the memo. “This memorandum helps ensure that EPA carries out its core mission, while reducing regulatory burdens for domestic manufacturing,” Pruitt said.
In a statement issued Thursday, the White House said aspects of the EPA’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) program are outdated, inefficient, and in need of reform. The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to set NAAQS for “criteria pollutants,” which include carbon monoxide, lead, ground-level ozone, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide. The EPA is required by law to review these standards every five years.
Over the years, these air quality standards have become more stringent. As a result, manufacturers have experienced delays in obtaining air permits needed to build new facilities or expand existing ones, the White House said.
Adopting one of Pruitt’s favorite talking points — “core mission” — the rich asshole stated the actions he is ordering “are intended to ensure that EPA carries out its core missions of protecting the environment and improving air quality in accord with statutory requirements, while reducing unnecessary impediments to new manufacturing and business expansion essential for a growing economy.”
Environmentalists, however, warned the president’s order is another example of how the the rich asshole administration is creating conditions that will allow for increased air pollution. They also questioned the legality of the rich asshole’s mandates.
“With a cloud of scandal whirling around Scott Pruitt, some rich asshole and Pruitt just stooped to a new low with this latest attack on the Clean Air Act on behalf of corporate polluters,” Mary Anne Hitt, senior director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, said Thursday in a statement.
the rich asshole’s order could lead to major changes in how science is used to set clean air rules. According to Hitt, it will allow the EPA to “bypass important scientific work that keeps millions of communities’ air clean, and it sets in motion a clear ploy to weaken the latest science-based smog pollution standard.”
By directing the EPA to reconsider all of its past guidance for the NAAQS program, the rich asshole is “threatening clean air protections for cities across the country,” Sara Jordan, legislative representative for the League of Conservation Voters, said in a statement.
“This is yet another example of this administration selling out our future to industry polluters — it’s nothing more than a naked attempt to attack science, gut our clean air protections, and put polluter profits ahead of our health,” Jordan said.
the rich asshole’s order will allow companies that want to pollute in an area where the air already violates federal standards to get a permit by obtaining offset credits from a firm in an entirely different area. “The courts have said on more than one occasion that the Clean Air Act does not allow that,” Janet McCabe, who headed the EPA’s air quality office under the Obama administration, told the Los Angeles Times.
The order requires the EPA to speed up reviews of state plans to reduce air pollution, setting a strict 18-month deadline, and complete reviews of all pre-construction permits for industry within a year.
the rich asshole also called on the EPA to give more weight to pollution blown in from overseas. “International and background sources of air pollution are critical issues facing state, local, and tribal agencies implementing national standards,” Pruitt said.
The Sierra Club vowed it will not stand for any new process that weakens clean air safeguards. “We will work with our allies to combat any polluter giveaways that Scott Pruitt and some rich asshole have planned,” Hitt said. “As Pruitt’s scandals become more outrageous, we will keep fighting to make sure our environmental and public health laws are fully enforced.”
Here are five important actions Americans need to take if the rich asshole fires Mueller
some rich asshole (NBC/Screenshot)
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Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich took to Facebook on Friday morning to set out a roadmap to fight back against President some rich asshole should he choose to fire special counsel Robert Mueller for getting too close in his investigation into Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential campaign.
In the video, Reich set out a five point plan, saying, “the rich asshole is on the warpath. It’s looking increasingly likely he’ll fire special counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as a step toward firing Mueller — and precipitate a constitutional crisis. Be prepared. If this happens, here are 5 things you can do.”
According to Reich, concerned Americans first need to go to TrumpIsNotAboveTheLaw.org to research locations of “peaceful protests” in their communities.
‘We must also urge all who remain in the special counsel’s office to preserve files and documents, ” he added. ” This is important because, after the Saturday Night Massacre when Nixon fired Archibald Cox, Nixon’s staff took possession of the documents.”
“Number three: If Mueller is fired, we must demand that the Justice Department appoint a new independent special counsel to continue the investigation,” Reich continued.
“Call on the Senate to establish a Senate-select Watergate-style committee to investigate all matters related to the Russian scandals and the rich asshole’s abuse of power, ” Reich stated as his fourth point, before adding that the House should also convene hearings.
“Number five: Make sure all Americans, Democrats, Independents, even Republicans vote on November 6 to repudiate the rich asshole, ” he concluded. “That and create a Congress that will stand up to him.”
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the rich asshole administration signals how little it cares about the Summit of the Americas
President the rich asshole will be the only U.S. president to ever skip the summit.
President some rich asshole cancelled his plans to attend the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru this weekend, saying that he needs to stay in the United States in order to decide how to respond to Saturday’s deadly chemical attack in Syria.
the rich asshole has already blown his own 48-hour deadline for making a decision on how to proceed, but has so far threatened Russian forces supporting the regime of Syrian Bashar al-Assad with missile strikes and dialed it back.
the rich asshole will be the only U.S. president to have skipped the summit since its inception in 1994, a decision that was announced not immediately after the chemical attack in Syria, but the day after the FBI raided his lawyer’s office.
That the rich asshole decided not to go might be a further blow to U.S. relations with Latin American countries, where he has a 16 percent approval rating. The president has had a tense relationship with Latin American countries since coming into office.
He’s accused Mexico of failing to protect the border and said the country exports its criminals to the United States. He tried to get Mexico to pay for a border wall (which Mexico has said will not happen) and is pushing for the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico (which is not going well).
He has slapped sanctions on Venezuela, where an ongoing political crisis has led the country to the brink of economic collapse and a major shortage of food and medical supplies.
When it comes to missing the summit, the rich asshole is in bad company.
Venezuela’s embattled president, Nicolas Maduro, is the only other leader who is not attending the summit. Maduro, however, has been barred from the summitbecause he has failed to make the democratic reforms and hold free and fair elections.
So, while the president and his advisers weigh whether or not to respond to the chemical attack, Vice President Mike Pence is being sent instead. The trouble is, his team doesn’t seem to know who he is actually meeting.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that Pence’s office noted that the vice president would be attending “a banquet hosted by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of Peru.” It appears that that Pence’s team is not up on the weeks-old news out the country, however:
One problem: Kuczynski resigned more than three weeks ago after becoming ensnared in a corruption scandal involving Latin America’s largest construction firm. Kuczynski’s decision came on the eve of a congressional impeachment vote. Kuczynski has continued to deny wrongdoing.
The error has since been corrected in an updated itinerary.
Federal judge rules against DOJ policy that rewards police for cooperating with ICE
"This is a complete victory."
A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled this week that the U.S. Department of Justice cannot withhold public safety, policing grants in so-called “sanctuary cities” where local law enforcement officials can choose not to turn over suspected undocumented immigrants in custody over to federal immigration authorities.
U.S. District Judge Manuel Real issued a “permanent, nationwide ban against a Justice Department policy that gave an edge to obliging police departments applying for a community policing grant program,” the Los Angeles Times reported. The ruling agreed with an argument made by the city of Los Angeles that the DOJ had “abused its power by awarding bonus points to grant applicants that commit to cooperating with federal immigration authorities and policies,” according to Bloomberg News. The ruling would thus prevent the DOJ from withholding the Community Oriented Policing Services grant, funding that helps local police departments hire new officers for “community policing.”
“This is a complete victory,” Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said according to the Los Angeles Times. Feuer challenged the DOJ policies in federal court last year. “This is yet another dagger in the heart of the administration’s efforts to use federal funds as a weapon to make local jurisdictions complicit in its civil immigration enforcement policies.”
The Los Angeles Police Department applied for the COPS funding last year, but was rejected. The loss of funding meant the LAPD was unable “to hire 25 officers for the community policing program in Harvard Park, one of the city’s deadliest neighborhood,” the Los Angeles Times reported. The publication added that funding instead came from private donors and local public funds.The city cannot retroactively seek money, which the federal judge said could put them at a disadvantage in the future.
Under the DOJ policies, localities would have to abide by new policies like notifying federal authorities of suspected undocumented immigrants in local custody and allowing access to detention facilities and data files. The ruling was criticized by a DOJ spokesperson who called the ruling “overbroad and inconsistent with the rule of law.”
“The department has the lawful discretion to give additional consideration for jurisdictions that prioritize the safety of their communities and their law enforcement officers when they promise to cooperate with federal immigration authorities seeking information about illegal aliens who have committed crimes,” Devin O’Malley, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said in a statement.
The the rich asshole administration has routinely claimed that sanctuary cities are places that protect criminal immigrants. But immigrant advocacy groups say that cities are much safer when immigrants and people of color feel like they can report crimes to police departments without being detained themselves.
San Francisco previously challenged the the rich asshole administration’s threats to withhold federal funds from “sanctuary jurisdictions.” A federal judge in Philadelphia similarly ruled in 2017 that the DOJ cannot withhold funding from the city based on conditions deemed “improper under settled principles of the Spending Clause, the Tenth Amendment, and principles of federalism.” Another federal judge in Chicago said that the president couldn’t set conditions on spending controlled by Congress, the Chicago Tribune reported in November 2017.
White House reporter tells CNN that the rich asshole is going to go ‘crazy’ watching TV coverage of Comey’s book
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman appears on CNN (Screen cap).
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New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman appeared on CNN Friday morning to discuss former FBI Director James Comey’s upcoming book — and she predicted that it would send President some rich asshole into a spiral of rage.
Reacting to the rich asshole’s angry Friday tweets attacking Comey, Haberman said that the president is feeling a sense of impotent rage as he watches interview clips with Comey pop up around cable news — which will only get worse next week when Comey’s promotion tour hits full gear.
“He is going to feel like he has to do something to reclaim the narrative and just tweeting is not going to be enough because as we are seeing, Comey and this interview, which doesn’t even air until another couple of days, is going to be everywhere,” Haberman said. “And that is going to make him crazy.”
Haberman then noted that the rich asshole’s schedule next week is unusually light after he decided to cancel a planned trip to South America, meaning he’ll have a lot of alone time to sit and watch cable news cover Comey’s book.
“He is then going to go to Mar-a-Lago next week for a summit with the Japanese prime minister,” she said. “This is going to be a lot of downtime with him in front of the TV stewing, and that is always a danger point.”
Watch the video below.
the rich asshole is suddenly very concerned about Scooter Libby. Here’s why.
The former Bush aide was convicted of obstruction of justice -- the same thing the rich asshole is being investigated for.
President the rich asshole is set to pardon Scooter Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted in 2007 for lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice as part of the Bush administration’s effort to discredit Valerie Plane, a CIA agent and wife of Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson.
ABC News reports that the rich asshole “has already signed off on the pardon.”
The timing of the White House’s sudden concern about Libby is notable, given that special counsel Robert Mueller is currently investigating the rich asshole and his campaign for obstruction of justice. the rich asshole pardoning Libby may be a signal to former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison because of charges brought against him by Mueller, but is still not cooperating with the investigation.
During a CNN interview on Friday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) sounded the alarm about Libby being pardoned for obstruction of justice by a president currently under investigation for obstruction of justice.
“Look, we’re in a tough time right now, we’re grappling with this Mueller investigation,” Kaine said. “Even today, the president is announcing that he’s gonna pardon Scooter Libby.”
“Why pardon Scooter Libby today? People have forgotten about Scooter Libby,” Kaine added. “The pardoning of somebody who is convicted for obstruction of justice working in the White House, I think is more about sending a message to people today than it is about a case that’s 10 years old — so we’re in a very very challenging time right now.”
Sen @timkaine sounds alarm about Trump dangling pardon for Scooter Libby.
"What do that today? The pardoning of somebody who is convicted of obstruction of justice working in the White House, I think is more about sending a message to people today."
On Thursday, NBC reported that prior to an FBI raid on the rich asshole’s personal attorney on Monday, Mueller’s team had been aiming to finalize a report on its findings about whether the rich asshole obstructed justice in the Russia investigation “in the coming months, as early as May or as late as July.”
NBC’s report adds that the timeline might be moved up now that Mueller’s team no longer expects to be able to interview the president. It adds that Mueller’s investigation of the rich asshole for obstruction is going down four paths:
Three sources familiar with the investigation said the findings Mueller has collected on the rich asshole’s attempts to obstruct justice include: His intent to fire former FBI Director James Comey; his role in the crafting of a misleading public statement on the nature of a June 2016 the rich asshole Tower meeting between his son and Russians; the rich asshole’s dangling of pardons before grand jury witnesses who might testify against him; and pressuring Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
On Wednesday, the rich asshole casually admitted to obstructing justice on Twitter, saying he only did so to “fight back.” But there is no “fighting back” exception to obstruction of justice charges, which were part of the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
‘LEAKER & LIAR’: the rich asshole calls for Comey to be prosecuted in furious morning tweet
President some rich asshole and former FBI Director James Comey (Photos: Screen captures)
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President some rich asshole has lashed out at former FBI Director James Comey on Friday morning in an angry tweet storm.
“James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR,” the rich asshole wrote. “Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired. He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted. He lied to Congress under OATH.”
In fact, Comey did not leak classified information, but rather leaked out a memo that he wrote about his interactions with the rich asshole in which the rich asshole asked the former FBI director for his personal loyalty. As the Washington Post explains, this specific memo contained no classified material.
After calling for his own former FBI director to be prosecuted, the rich asshole continued attacking Comey in very personal terms.
“He is a weak and untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI,” the rich asshole wrote. “His handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case, and the events surrounding it, will go down as one of the worst ‘botch jobs’ of history. It was my great honor to fire James Comey!”
Comey has been on TV promoting his new book, “A Higher Loyalty,” which is scheduled to be released on April 17.
In the excerpts released from the book, the media has focused on a few main points. First, an indication that the so-called “Russian pee tape” of the rich asshole with prostitutes is real. Others include Comey’s take on the rich asshole’s smaller stature, smaller hands, orange skin and hair that seemed like it would take him a while to “do” each morning. Another allegation is that Comey and the FBI were taken aback by the rich asshole transition team being more interested in “spin” than the fact that Russia had attacked the United States.
The Republican National Committee has launched a website to attack Comey and Fox News has been using the same language the president used in attacking the former FBI director.
‘Tremendous pressure is building’: the rich asshole tweets about border as walls come crashing down on presidency
President some rich asshole takes a moment before taking the stage during a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., May 29, 2017. (DOD photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Brigitte N. Brantley)
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President some rich asshole dashed off a tweet about the border wall as bombshell news breaks on investigations into his personal dealings and close associates.
Former FBI director James Comey’s new book revealing embarrassing details and grave concerns about the president was released Friday, and the FBI raided the rich asshole’s longtime attorney earlier in the week seeking a wide range of evidence.
The president responded to another damaging news cycle by tweeting about his promised border wall — but it seemed as if he might have been worried about the investigations.
“Tremendous pressure is building, like never before, for the Border Wall and an end to crime cradling Sanctuary Cities,” the rich asshole tweeted. “Started the Wall in San Diego, where the people were pushing really hard to get it. They will soon be protected!”
Morning Joe pounds Fox News for comparing Mueller to Stalin — and shames conservatives for watching
Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough blasted Fox News for broadcasting “Nazi” attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller — and shamed their audience for lapping it up.
The “Morning Joe” host singled out Newt Gingrich for condemnation for comparing Mueller, a decorated war veteran and respected former FBI director, to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin during Sean Hannity’s program.
“I want Republicans on Capitol Hill, I want the people who run Fox News to look at that tape,” Scarborough said. “Now, I know Newt and I’ve liked Newt, but I want Newt to look at that tape again and I want him to ask himself, and I want Fox News to ask themselves, and I want Republicans on Capitol Hill to ask themselves, and I want conservatives across America to ask themselves are you comfortable with a spokesperson, a lackey for the president of the United States comparing the men and women of the FBI who protect us every day, comparing them to Nazis who slaughtered upwards of 12 million.
“Newt, are you really comfortable comparing the FBI to Joseph Stalin?” he continued. “I ask those leading Fox News, I ask Republicans on Capitol Hill, conservatives across America, are you really comfortable attacking law enforcement officers and personnel who were protecting your children against the next ISIS terror attack on American soil, comparing those FBI agents to Joseph Stalin, a man who killed between 25 and 40 million of his own people?”
He said the rule of law protects against dictators such as Hitler and Stalin, and he hammered Gingrich and other the rich asshole apologists for attacking democratic institutions that act as a safeguard to authoritarianism.
“We have a rule of law, we have a United States Constitution, we have legal procedural safeguards, we have the Bill of Rights,” Scarborough said. “Every one of those safeguards given to us from our founding fathers, each one was checked off, and there is a federal judge, Newt Gingrich, somewhere in New York City that you are also comparing to Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler because they signed off on the warrants.”
“When you start comparing Robert Mueller to Stalin or Hitler, you are not attacking Robert Mueller, you are attacking the United States of America, you are attacking the United States Constitution, you are attacking the genius of our founding fathers to make sure that for over 240 years those sort of abuses haven’t happened here, and they’re still not happening here,” he added. “You owe Robert Mueller an apology, you owe the men and women of the FBI an apology — and you owe the American people an apology.”
James Comey reveals pee tape could be real in new ABC News interview
Former FBI Director James Comey (Screen cap).
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Former FBI Director James Comey tells ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he has no idea whether the so-called “pee tape” is real — but he can’t definitively rule it out.
In a preview clip released by ABC, Comey tells Stephanopoulos that he can’t verify the salacious rumor about President some rich asshole hiring prostitutes to perform a “golden shower” in a Moscow hotel room — but he also says, given what he knows about the rich asshole’s character, he can’t rule it out either.
“I honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I don’t know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013,” Comey said. “It’s possible, but I don’t know.”
What made Comey suspicious that the rumor could have some validity was that the rich asshole asked him to investigate the source of the rumor, just so he could reassure wife Melania the rich asshole that no such thing ever happened.
“I remember thinking, ‘How could your wife think there’s a 1% chance you were with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow?” he said. “I’m a flawed human being, but there is literally zero chance that my wife would think that was true.”
The full interview with Comey is scheduled to air at 10 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Watch the video below.
Robert Mueller’s investigation may be scattered, but he knows what he’s doing
Special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller. Image via Tim Sloan/AFP.
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Late last week, when explaining why President some rich asshole shouldn’t meet with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, National Review pundit Rich Lowry penned an editorial that implicitly argued Mueller’s investigation couldn’t be trusted because it had gone beyond the scope of focusing on alleged collusion with the Russian government.
Lowry’s main claim was that Mueller was overstepping his bounds because we, the American people, don’t really know what he wants from the president.
the rich asshole lawyer John Dowd reportedly quit over the dispute, and he was right. the rich asshole shouldn’t walk into the same room with Mueller. He shouldn’t say “hello” to him. He shouldn’t follow him on Instagram or Twitter. He should treat him as an adversary who, even if he isn’t conducting “the witch hunt” that the rich asshole alleges, would certainly be happy to nail him for the slightest misstatement.Mueller was supposed to be conducting a counterintelligence investigation into Russian meddling, which immediately also became an investigation of obstruction of justice. the rich asshole’s attitude should be, “Come and get me, copper — if you have a case for obstruction, make it, but I’m not incurring any additional legal jeopardy by sitting down and talking to you.”
Since that column, the FBI raided the rich asshole attorney Michael Cohen’s office, seeking records on the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in which the rich asshole bragged about committing sexual assault — and the fallout; just minutes later, a batch of emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign was released on WikiLeaks, diverting attention. Mueller’s investigation once seemed to be finding out if the president and his campaign had colluded with a foreign power to win the 2016 election, but now it seems to be about everything from an alleged affair with a porn star and the possibly illegal payments which covered it up to other alleged payments to women. This has left the public understandably confused about what exactly is going on.
So should Mueller tell the country what he’s looking for? According to experts who spoke to Salon, the answer is no.
“Part of the point of an investigation is that you’re following the facts and the implications to where they lead” John Wonderlich, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, told Salon. “So to say the public deserves to know where it’s going would be to presuppose that there is some outcome in mind rather than a merit-based process of investigation based on standards and procedures prescribed in the law.”
Jesse Franzblau, a policy analyst at Open The Government, had a similar observation.
“From a transparency perspective, there is a lot that the public has the right to know, particularly about the investigation into potential foreign influence into the election,” Franzblau told Salon. “Obviously there is an enormous public interest there. But there are definitely a lot of legal bounds that the special counsel is not able to disclose a lot of information to the public, for obvious reasons. There is grand jury information, there is a lot of sensitive evidence information collected through sensitive means. There are definitely a lot of restrictions and the special counsel’s mandate is actually quite restrictive in terms of what he’s able to do in terms of producing information, even to Congress.”
He added, “It’s not like the structure under Ken Starr’s investigation [of President Bill Clinton], where that type of investigation they were actually required to produce a report to Congress.”
If anything, the main concern that both transparency advocates had wasn’t that Mueller’s opacity reflected poorly on him. Instead they were worried that, if the rich asshole decides to fire Mueller in order to protect himself, all of Mueller’s research — including revelations that may have proved that the president broke the law — could get lost or deliberately destroyed.
“Now you actually have members of Congress moving to introduce legislation to mandate that the special counsel issue a report, in the case that the special counsel is fired, that they have to issue a report two weeks later directly to Congress about the status of the investigation, with the intent to make sure that the information gathered is preserved and make sure things aren’t lost,” Franzblau told Salon. “There certainly is a lot of concern when you have a very high level investigation, investigating the highest levels of power, there is obviously concern.”
When it comes to the long-term impact of the Mueller investigation, the stakes for American democracy couldn’t be higher. Regardless of whether one feels that the rich asshole colluded with Russia, illegally silenced women who could derail his campaign or broke the law in any other way, the rule of law depends on the notion that the president be held as accountable for his actions as any other citizen. The drastic expansion of the scope of Mueller’s probe ought to raise eyebrows — both because of what it implies about the rich asshole’s potential crimes and because it goes well beyond what the public believed was being scrutinized — but the reality is that America will be best served if the precedent is set that a president must obey the law, not that the law must accommodate the president.
Fortunately, it seems like most Americans agree with that idea. Sixty-nine percent of American voters, including 55 percent of Republicans, told a recent Quinnipiac poll that the rich asshole should not fire Mueller, even though Republicans are far more likely than the rest of the country to think that the questions about the rich asshole are overblown or motivated by partisanship. It may not be ideal for the nation to watch with bated breath as each new headline drops about Mueller, wondering if it will soon be conclusively revealed that our president committed treason or broke the law in some other way, but that is better than a president engaging in corruption and being able to get away with it.
Bring on the pain: Here is what critics keep getting wrong about the rich asshole and his supporters
some rich asshole speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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some rich asshole is not a real populist. His plans and those of his Republican allies–both already enacted and in the future–will further hollow out the social safety net, give even more money to the rich, damage the environment, reduce public education to ruins, remove corporate regulations and gut the Affordable Care Act. This will hurt most Americans, especially the rich asshole’s most enthusiastic supporters among the so-called “white working class.” Yet these same voters continue to support the rich asshole and the Republican Party.
This dynamic befuddles many journalists, reporters, pundits and other professional observers of politics. Why? Because they lack political vision and are extremely naive — and overly hopeful — about the true nature of today’s conservative movement.
Moreover, the truth is simply too frightening for many people to accept: The Republican Party and movement conservatism are now fully sociopathic.
The criteria from the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” and the “International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems” are as follows:
- Callous unconcern for the feelings of others
- Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms and obligations
- Very low tolerance to frustration, a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence
- Incapacity to experience guilt or to profit from experience, particularly punishment
- Markedly prone to blame others or to offer plausible rationalization for the behavior that has brought the person into conflict with society
- Deception, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure
- Impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead
Of course, some rich asshole personally exemplifies these traits in excess. He and the Republican Party (and especially right-wing libertarians such as the Koch brothers) have also perfected what I described several years ago as political sadism.
Here the Republican Party, its leaders, and media enablers use fear in conjunction with physical, emotional and financial pain to manipulate Republican voters and many independents into supporting policies that cause them harm. Instead of attributing the cause of this distress correctly, the rich asshole’s voters and other members of the American right-wing want to retaliate against and thus hurt those individuals and groups they view as the Other. This is the primary psychological wage that today’s Republican Party and conservative movement pays its supporters.
In his new book “The Road to Unfreedom,” Timothy Snyder, the Yale historian and bestselling author, describes this feedback loop as sadopopulism:
the rich asshole was called a “populist.” A populist, however, is someone who proposes policies to increase opportunities for the masses, as opposed to the financial elites. the rich asshole was something else: a sado-populist, whose policies were designed to hurt the most vulnerable part of his electorate.Encouraged by presidential racism, such people could understand their own pain as a sign of still greater pain inflicted upon others. … [S]uch a voter is changing the currency of politics from achievement to suffering, from pain to gain, helping a leader of their choice establish a regime of sadopopulism. Such a voter can believe that he or she has chosen who administers their pain, and can fantasize that this leader will hurt enemies still more. … If people who support the government expect their reward to be pain, then a democracy based upon policy competition between parties is endangered.
The pundits, journalists and other observers who choose not to speak truth to power have internalized a folk theory of American politics and society. In this mythology, American voters are thought to be rational actors, fully capable of relating their personal lives to broader sociopolitical questions, and ultimately placing material self-interest above other concerns. And they are believed to be fundamentally decent people who will usually make the right choice, in the aggregate, when given the opportunity.
However, decades of research in political science, social psychology and other fields complicates those assumptions. For example, the recent book “Democracy for Realists” by political scientists Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels highlights the power of symbolic politics and group identity in the political behavior of American voters.
Bartels has also shown in his new working paper “Partisanship in the rich asshole Era” that the election of some rich asshole has not dramatically remade the Republican Party, nor has it caused a mass exodus by its more “sensible” voters. the rich asshole is in fact the leader of the Republican Party; his values, policies and ideas are shared by a large majority of Republican voters.
Because Republicans and the broader right-wing have spent at least five decades nurturing both dog whistle white identity politics and overt racism, as well as other culture war issues, their voters are a movement beholden to a type of political religion. The Democrats have no such advantage: Their base is a coalition of different groups who are more pragmatic and much less ideologically zealous.
It is true that the rich asshole and the Republicans leave the vast majority of their voters’ bellies empty. But in a devil’s bargain, they fill their voters’ hearts and minds with rage, hate and resentment. What substitute can liberals, progressives, and Democrats offer for such a seductive and poisonous cocktail? If the Democratic Party is unable to find an answer, some rich asshole will be a two-term president.
Stephen Colbert says if the rich asshole can claim executive privilege retroactively Americans should get to change their votes retroactively
Stephen Colbert (Photo: Screen capture)
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In Thursday’s “Late Show,” host Stephen Colbert couldn’t help but mock President some rich asshole for his legal troubles.
In his opening monologue, the CBS host noted that the rich asshole may have violated campaign finance laws for National Enquirer owner David Pecker giving $150,000 to keep Karen McDougal quiet.
“For that the feds would have to prove that David Pecker was trying to help some rich asshole,” Colbert explained. “And to do that, they would have to somehow know that Pecker said in an interview, ‘some rich asshole is a friend of mine. I want to help him, so what I did was make a deal with Karen McDougal so that her story would never see the light of day.’ Good luck twisting that one, Robert Mueller.”
He moved on to talk about the recent news that former the rich asshole advisor, “and student embalmer’s first try,” Steve Bannon. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Bannon is trying to get back into the good graces of the White House by developing a strategy to attack special counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
“Then, Bannon says the rich asshole should insist all the documents he’s already handed over to the special counsel can’t be looked at, claiming, ‘executive privilege should be exerted immediately and retroactively,'” Colbert quoted. “Fair enough, as long as America gets to change our vote retroactively.”
Colbert’s next fear came from a report in which the White House revealed each morning the staff is spinning their wheels trying to respond to whatever policy the rich asshole makes on Twitter.
“Oh, my God! the rich asshole Tower is on fire. Oh, my God, they raided Michael Cohen’s office. Oh, my God, we’re going to bomb Syria,” Colbert quoted from the New York Times report. “I understand. I woke up this morning and said, ‘Oh my God, the White House just wakes up and says ‘oh my god’!”
When addressing Syria, Colbert noted that the rich asshole has decided that he might bomb Syria. He noted that it was a strange response given that just days prior he said that he planned to pull out of Syria.
“He knows Syria’s not the name of a porn star, right?” Colbert joked, much to band leader Jon Batiste’s chagrin.
Watch the commentary below:
Don Lemon shuts down ex-the rich asshole aide live on air: ‘It is a privilege to come on here — it is not a right’
Don Lemon (Photo: Screen capture)
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In a Thursday panel discussion about the Fox News spin protecting President some rich asshole, CNN host Don Lemon called out Sean Hannity for coordinating with the rich asshole in a “feedback loop.”
Lemon began playing a clip of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who compared FBI agents and special counsel Robert Mueller to the Nazi Gestapo and Joseph Stalin.
Media commentator Brian Stelter said that it is very clear that Hannity is coordinating with the White House since they’re all using the same phrasing. He noted Hannity and the rich asshole speak frequently and Hannity has been known to dine at the White House and join the president at Mar-a-Lago.
“The president props up an alternative reality where he’s winning, his enemies are losing, where Mueller’s corrupt, and where this investigation needs to be disbanded,” Stelter said. “That’s the alternative universe, that parts of Fox, the National Enquirer, which has been in the news, Sinclair commentators, right-wing media outlets prop up this alternative universe. And, look, that’s fine in some ways. I love reading fiction novels. What they are promoting is a version of fiction and it does a disservice to their viewers to claim that it is facts.”
Lemon asked the rich asshole’s former communications director Jason Miller whether it was “appropriate” to allow a cable news show to bash the special counsel. Miller pivoted to say that Hannity and the rich asshole can do whatever they want because it is their Constitutional right to do so. Lemon corrected him asking if it was “appropriate.” Miller ultimately refused to answer the question.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Lemon said. For that he decided to move on to former campaign staffer to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Amanda Carpenter. “Amanda, Mueller is a war hero, how can Newt Gingrich compare him to Stalin?”
“At once I thought Newt Gingrich to be a student of history, but these seem like pretty reckless comparison comparisons,” Carpenter said. “I mean, here’s my question, OK: the rich asshole people, they don’t like [Jeff] Sessions, they don’t like Mueller, they don’t like [Rod] Rosenstein, so who do they like? They apparently like lawyers like Joe diGenova. What also makes reckless statements and I believe compared the Mueller probe to a form of regicide which is, by definition, the killing of a king. So, you can see where their head is at. And so they’re on this campaign to discredit pretty much anyone who doesn’t consider some rich asshole a king because I don’t know where else this goes.”
The second half of the discussion got even more heated as Lemon went up against Miller, who parroted the rich asshole talking points about “witch hunts” and the investigation taking too long.
“You’re proving my point,” Lemon said. “That’s what they’re being fed from Fox and from the White House.”
In a shouting match, Lemon noted that the Benghazi investigation went on for two and a half years with seven different hearings by Republicans, where the Mueller investigation has been going on for less than a year.
“I did not hear one conservative saying, ‘It is time to bring this to an end, it’s going on too long,'” Lemon said.
Miller explained that the reason it was happening now is that the rich asshole is winning so much. The discussion devolved into chaos from there until Lemon simply had to shut it down.
“Jason, I can’t — please, be respectful,” Lemon said. “When you come on and give this information and other the rich asshole supporters and give disinformation I spend most of my time trying to debunk falsities and lies instead of educating the American people. it’s frustrating every single night. You talk about no collusion. You don’t even know the original focus of the Russia investigation. You’re feeding talking points that aren’t true to the American people. If you’re going to be on this platform respect the American people. It is a privilege to come here. Don’t come on CNN and lie or deflect about what’s going on. Come here and be honest with the American people. It is a privilege to come on here. It is not a right.”
Watch the full discussion below:
Part 1:
Part 2:
POLITICS
Comey Memoir Claims the rich asshole Was Obsessed With Disproving ‘Pee Tape’ Allegation
“There’s no way I would let people pee on each other around me. No way,” the rich asshole allegedly told Comey.
President some rich asshole is just as fixated on the so-called pee tape allegations as the rest of the world is, former FBI Director James Comey writes in his new memoir, according to The Washington Post and the New York Post.
According to Comey’s telling in A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, the rich asshole was obsessive about disproving the most salacious allegations in the infamous intelligence dossier about him: that there is footage of him watching prostitutes urinate in the same Moscow hotel suite that the Obamas had once stayed in.
the rich asshole “strongly denied the allegations, asking — rhetorically, I assumed — whether he seemed like a guy who needed the service of prostitutes,” Comey wrote of conversations he had with the rich asshole about the dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.
the rich asshole brought up the alleged incident with him at least four times in January 2017, according to the 304-page memoir.
“I’m a germaphobe,” the president reportedly told him as he tried to show the unlikelihood of the “golden shower” event.
“There’s no way I would let people pee on each other around me. No way,” he reportedly told Comey, who served as the bureau’s director until the rich asshole fired him the following May amid the FBI’s investigation into whether the rich asshole’s campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
BEFORE YOU GO
What Is It?
A 35-page document, published in January, containing numerous unverified and potentially devastating allegations against some rich asshole. If even a portion of the claims in the dossier are true, it could mean that the Russian government has a vast trove of kompromat — blackmail material — that it’s using to force the president into doing its bidding.
Surely you’ve heard at least one late-night joke about the pee pee tape. the rich asshole went out of his way to deny that claim specifically. Golden showersare in the dossier, but so is a lot of information that seems slightly more believable — or at least slightly less absurd. But don’t trust us, read the whole thing for yourself at BuzzFeed. Your clicks will help pay to defend the outlet against the Russian businessmen who have sued BuzzFeed for publishing it.
Surely you’ve heard at least one late-night joke about the pee pee tape. the rich asshole went out of his way to deny that claim specifically. Golden showersare in the dossier, but so is a lot of information that seems slightly more believable — or at least slightly less absurd. But don’t trust us, read the whole thing for yourself at BuzzFeed. Your clicks will help pay to defend the outlet against the Russian businessmen who have sued BuzzFeed for publishing it.
Who Created It?
Christopher Steele, a former British MI6 intelligence officer, compiled the bulk of the intelligence as part of a larger anti-the rich asshole opposition research effort launched by Republican donors during the 2016 GOP primary. When the rich asshole secured the nomination, rich Republicans pulled their funding, leaving rich Democrats to fill in.
What Was The Fallout?
News of the dossier broke on January 10, just 10 days before the rich asshole’s inauguration. It was just the latest in a series of reports calling the rich asshole’s ties to Russia into question, and in many people’s minds, the scent of a scandal had already become impossible to ignore.
Although many of the explosive allegations still haven’t been confirmed and may indeed be entirely false, reporting has revealed that intelligence agencies have taken at least some of the claims seriously.
In August, ABC News reported that the Senate Judiciary Committee had called Glenn Simpson, a former reporter who founded the research firm that had hired Steele to compile the dossier, to answer questions in a closed session. ABC News also reported that Steele had met with the FBI and provided agents with the names of his sources.
Although many of the explosive allegations still haven’t been confirmed and may indeed be entirely false, reporting has revealed that intelligence agencies have taken at least some of the claims seriously.
In August, ABC News reported that the Senate Judiciary Committee had called Glenn Simpson, a former reporter who founded the research firm that had hired Steele to compile the dossier, to answer questions in a closed session. ABC News also reported that Steele had met with the FBI and provided agents with the names of his sources.
How Did the rich asshole Respond?
the rich asshole has repeatedly insisted the dossier, as well as any reports about his ties to Russia, are “fake news” and “phony.” After the report was published, the rich asshole lashed out at U.S. intelligence agencies, suggesting they may have been behind the leak of the document itself. The day after his inauguration, however, the rich asshole gave a speech at the CIA headquarters in Virginia in which he sought to make amends.
“I am so behind you,“ the rich asshole said. “You’re gonna get so much backing. Maybe you’re gonna say, please, don’t give us so much backing, Mr. President, please, we don’t need that much backing.”
“I am so behind you,“ the rich asshole said. “You’re gonna get so much backing. Maybe you’re gonna say, please, don’t give us so much backing, Mr. President, please, we don’t need that much backing.”
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April 12, 2018
The former FBI director nailed Republicans for standing idly by as the rich asshole attacks our democracy.
Former FBI Director James Comey took a swipe at Republican leaders in Congress who have “stood idly by” or remained “silent” while the rich asshole attacks our institutions and undermines our democracy.
Comey, a lifelong Republican until recently, delivered the stinging rebuke in a passage from his upcoming book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” part of which was published by the Washington Post on Thursday.
While the former FBI chief saved his harshest criticism for the rich asshole, who he compares to a mafia boss, he didn’t let GOP leaders off the hook for their complicity in the rich asshole’s war against American institutions and law enforcement agencies.
“It is also wrong to stand idly by, or worse, to stay silent when you know better, while a president brazenly seeks to undermine public confidence in law enforcement institutions that were established to keep our leaders in check,” Comey wrote.
When the rich asshole fired Comey last May — a move that is reportedly at the center of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential obstruction of justice by the rich asshole — a handful of Republicans publicly voiced their concerns and then promptly did nothing to address them.
Since then, Republicans have continued that same pattern, refusing to take action even as the rich asshole has taken aim at America’s institutions and referred to lawful FBI actions as a “witch hunt,” an “attack on our country,” and “a treasonous act.”
Despite the rich asshole’s repeated attempts to fire Mueller, congressional leaders like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have refused to support legislation to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation.
When the rich asshole threatened to fire Mueller in March, only three out of 51 Senate Republicans spoke out in opposition. Meanwhile, Speaker Ryan simply laughed off the rich asshole’s public attacks on Mueller.
Then, of course, there are Republicans like Rep. Devin Nunes, who has used his role as the head of the House Intelligence Committee to run interference and shield the rich asshole from scrutiny.
Despite being forced to recuse himself from the investigation, Nunes has continued to do everything in his power to obstruct the work of congressional investigators and undermine the integrity of the FBI, DOJ, and anyone associated with the Russia probe.
And even though he has the power to do so, Speaker Ryan has not once tried to stop Nunes from engaging in these reckless and destructive acts.
Meanwhile, other GOP members of Congress have taken to spreading conspiracy theories about a so-called “deep state” plot to keep the rich asshole out of the White House, even going as far as launching secret investigations aimed at discrediting the FBI and DOJ.
One Republican even insisted that the FBI and DOJ should be tried for treason for their role in the ongoing Russia probe.
the rich asshole’s attempt to discredit the Russia investigation by undermining the institutions and individuals in charge is nothing short of an attack on democracy itself. Republicans had a chance to stand up to the rich asshole by standing up for the country, but they chose not to.
They put themselves on the wrong side of history — and that’s how they’ll be remembered.
‘The scoop is that I have this’: Watch Rachel Maddow read new shocking passages from forthcoming James Comey book
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow holds up a copy of the new book by James Comey.
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MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow read captivating passages from A Higher Loyalty, the forthcoming book authored by former FBI Director James Comey.
“The fact is, the scoop is actually kind of the fact that I have this, the new not-yet-released book from fired FBI Director, James Comey,” Maddow explained. “And it’s weird that I have this, because the publisher had taken fairly heroic measures to ensure that this book did not leak out before publication on Tuesday, next Tuesday, a Tuesday we have not yet reached.
“Somewhere along the way, though, those heroic measures lost their cape and fell out of the sky,” Maddow concluded.
“And now I’ve got a copy, because NBC News was able to go hunting in the urban jungle of New York City and they tranquilizer-darted a copy of it in the wild and gave it to me,” the host explained.
Watch Maddow read from the book:
Sean Hannity loses ratings war even after the rich asshole begs for viewers
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the rich asshole urged his 50 million Twitter followers to watch Hannity Wednesday night, but the Fox Host still came in second place.
Not even a presidential tweet can turn around Sean Hannity’s second-place ratings on Fox News.
Just hours before Hannity’s show Wednesday night, the rich asshole tweeted out a plea that people watch the Fox News program that night:
Big show tonight on @seanhannity! 9:00 P.M. on @FoxNews
What viewers saw Wednesday night, in part, was attorney Joe DiGenova claim that special counsel Robert Mueller had surrounded himself with “legal terrorists,” and that the rich asshole should cease all cooperation with the Russia probe.
It’s all part of a Fox News-sponsored campaign to smear federal prosecutors in order to protect the rich asshole as he clings to power.
DiGenova nearly became the rich asshole’s top defense attorney last month, after John Dowd quit the post.
Yet despite the rich asshole promoting Hannity’s show to his 50 million Twitter followers, Hannity received no ratings bump whatsoever and his show still came in second place behind MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Wednesday night.
During the 9 p.m. slot, Maddow drew 3.2 million viewers, compared to Hannity’s 3 million.
In terms of the ad-friendly demographic of viewers between the ages of 25 and 54, Maddow won the night in a landslide with 770,000 viewers to Hannity’s 570,000.
This is part of a larger trend this spring where Hannity finds himself trailing Maddow on a nearly nightly basis as she emerges as the most-watched host in all of cable news.
By getting the rich asshole to tweet out a promotion for his show on Wednesday, Hannity played his ace. And it flopped.
Ex-the rich asshole aide accuses CNN of being ‘a bunch of perverts’ for talking about pee tape in Hannity segment about the pee tape
Sean Hannity (Photo: Screen capture)
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Fox News host Sean Hannity continued his obsession with the alleged Russian “pee tape” that was first mentioned in the dossier from Christopher Steele. In the past, comedian Seth Meyers has hilariously mocked Hannity for being a close ally of the rich asshole’s while constantly discussing the one part of the dossier the rich asshole wishes would go away.
“Now if you don’t remember that dossier, I can’t tell you about it, because it’s unverified,” Meyers said in an episode last year. “And it doesn’t seem fair to sit here and list off unverified claims. But I can let the rich asshole lapdog Sean Hannity tell you, because he can’t seem to stop talking about it.”
That obsession continued Thursday in a conversation with Hannity, former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and former senior the rich asshole advisor Sebastian Gorka.
Hannity began with a clip of CNN discussing the book by former FBI Director James Comey to be released next week. In the book, Comey alleges that the rich asshole asked him to investigate if the Russians did indeed have such a tape. The president claimed it was to put his wife’s mind at ease.
Pivoting to Gorka, Hannity asked for a “natural reaction.”
“We know for sure is that Comey is a liar, and CNN are a bunch of perverts. That’s all you need, that’s the bombshell,” Gorka said.
After a discussion about the “salacious” allegations, the panel then turned to talk about Hillary Clinton.
Watch the clip below:
Former the rich asshole Lawyer Michael Cohen Just Did Something That Should Worry The rich asshole Immensely
the rich asshole lawyer Michael Cohen is currently on the FBI’s radar because of a $130,000 hush payment he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to cover up his boss’s affair with her. Five days later, the rich asshole organization billed the campaign almost $130,000 — something that looks just a bit suspicious to anyone not wearing a MAGA hat.
Cohen is facing charges of bank fraud, campaign finance violations, wire fraud, and more — and his problems are the rich asshole’s problems. So naturally, Cohen’s actions on Wednesday should have The rich asshole very worried.
Cohen was seen dining with MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch, who only hours prior had urged Cohen to flip on his current boss.
So New York: a @CNN producer just caught up with Michael Cohen outside of @BarneysNY where he was having lunch (Freds?!) with @DonnyDeutsch.
“Michael at this point, for whatever his emotional, legal, personal reasons is devoutly, devoutly, devoutly loyal to this president — where I can’t understand it, candidly,” Deutsch said on “Morning Joe” Wednesday. “I will see it as this unfolds, (the FBI raid) two days ago it was not about Russia, it was not. It was about banking and finance. When you scratch that scab, there’s a lot of pus coming out of it.”
Does this necessarily mean that the rich asshole should be shaking in his boots? Well, The rich asshole already has many reasons to do that — but while this is not proof that Cohen has flipped on the rich asshole, it’s a pretty good indicator that he’s at least considering it. And at this point, the rich asshole is likely p*ssing his pants like they’re a Moscow hotel bed.
Watch Deutsch’s appearance on Morning Joe below:
By
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April 12, 2018
Pruitt insisted staff find ways for him to write off personal trips, among other transgressions.
EPA chief Scott Pruitt gave his staff a set of simple instructions when he had an urge to travel: “Find me something to do.”
Needing at least some sort of justification, Pruitt told his staffers to go hunting for excuses so he could write his personal trips off as official, government-related excursions.
Pruitt’s trips included spending taxpayer dollars to repeatedly fly home to Oklahoma on the weekends, as well as visit other destinations, last year. Pruitt also regularly demanded that his flights be booked on Delta airlines — even when the federal government didn’t have a government carrier contract with Delta — because Pruitt wanted to bank as many frequent flyer miles as possible.
Those are among the revelations detailed in a new, six-page letter from Senate Democrats, who recently interviewed the EPA’s former deputy chief of staff Kevin Chmielewski, who was removed from his post after objecting to Pruitt’s runaway spending habits.
“Mr. Chmielewski also provided details about how Mr. Pruitt had assigned one of his aides, Millan Hupp, to ‘act as your personal real estate representative, spending weeks improperly using federal government resources and time to contact rental and seller’s agents, and touring numerous properties in which you might wish to reside,'” the New York Times reports.
The shocking disclosures add to the mountain of unethical behavior on Pruitt’s part. Last year he spent a staggering $3 million on travel, and today he’s reportedly protected by security force of 19 agents and a fleet of at least 19 vehicles, paid for by taxpayers, even though the EPA can’t explain why Pruitt needs unprecedented protection like that.
On Thursday, two Democratic senators also claimed that Pruitt has maintained “secret” email accounts while head of the EPA.
Still, after waging a public relations campaign last week, exclusively via the conservative media, Pruitt has been able to hang onto his job by portraying himself as a would-be martyr of the rich asshole era.
Pruitt’s fans think he’s the real victim and that he’s being targeted unfairly by liberal critics who will “use any means” to stop the rich asshole agenda.
Pruitt’s outlandish spending has been noted for many months, but the story exploded anew when he was caught “leasing” a luxury Washington, D.C., condo on a per-night basis from the wife of an energy lobbyist at far below market value, even while the EPA approved a pipeline extension for a company represented by that lobbyist’s firm.
Pruitt’s daughter also benefited from the sweetheart condo deal, which cost just $50 a night. But even with the discount, Pruitt didn’t pay the rent and the lobbyist landlord had to change the locks on him.
Meanwhile, the pressure on Pruitt continues to mount. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), who’s retiring after this year, is pushing to get more documents about Pruitt’s sweetheart lease deal, as well as his costly plane travel.
It looks like Pruitt will even have to explain to Republicans what he meant by “Find me something to do.”
‘Nothing like a tape in the defendant’s own voice’: MSNBC panel breaks down importance of possible Michael Cohen tapes
The 'All In with Chris Hayes' anchor holding up a copy of the forthcoming book by James Comey.
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Reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation could be in possession of audio files recorded by long-time some rich asshole attorney Michael Cohen are significant evidence because courtrooms can hear the victim in their own voice.
“The president’s allies are worried about Monday’s raid on the home and office of the rich asshole’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, which you would expect they would be worried,” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes joked. “But specifically, because of fears that Cohen might have taped his conversations.”
“Harry, can you imagine nuclear care with which the FBI and Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney’s Office folks are going through the evidence they collected from Michael Cohen?” Hayes former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman.
“The main thing this does to me is reinforce the whole mob family thing, we’re in the second half of Good Fellas here, where everyone’s scurrying, everyone’s scared of everyone else and it’s becoming clear people have been kind of taking precautions for when the day would come,” the former U.S. Attorney said, referring to the classic 1990 film by Martin Scorsese.
“And I just want to tell you — as a lawyer and prosecutor — nothing like a tape, nothing like a tape in the defendant’s own voice to really, really nail somebody,” the constitutional law professor added.
“Of course, there’s some precedent here,” Hayes replied. “It was the infamous White House tapes, the Nixon tapes, that ended up spelling Nixon’s doom.”
“This investigation has to go on,” former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa argued. “There’s been such obscuring of the truth over and over again by this president and by the administration, and it is fundamentally destroying and undermining our democracy and the rule of law.”
“Last night, the president told the people of America to watch television programming on which the Republican former Speaker of the House compared a raid on Mike Cohen to a Nazi Gestapo tactic or a Stalinist tactic,” Hayes reported. “Talking about a search warrant that was obtained and executed according, it appears, to due process under the Constitution of the United States as a Nazi tactic, that the FBI was carrying out a Nazi undertaking.”
“That is the point at which we’re at,” Hayes concluded.
By
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April 12, 2018
The FBI is investigating communications between the rich asshole's personal fixer, Michael Cohen and pro-the rich asshole allies at the National Enquirer, where multiple stories about the rich asshole were hidden and payoffs were reportedly made.
The FBI is investigating communications between two of the rich asshole’s closet allies and their work to hide several embarrassing sexual stories related to him before the presidential election.
NBC News reports that the search warrant used to execute the raid on the properties of the rich asshole attorney and personal fixer Michael Cohen sought “all communications” that linked him to American Media executives David Pecker and Dylan Howard.
American Media Inc. (AMI) is the parent company of the supermarket tabloids The National Enquirer and Globe Magazine.
The Enquirer is alleged to have paid off several sources and witnesses with embarrassing stories about the rich asshole.
Most recently Dino Sajudin, a former doorman that worked at the rich asshole World Tower said he had a “confidential agreement” with the media company and “was instructed not to criticize President the rich asshole’s former housekeeper due to a prior relationship she had with President the rich asshole which produced a child.”
The New Yorker reported that Sajudin was paid the money as part of a practice called “catch and kill,” which gave the magazine company the exclusive rights to his story, but then they buried it to shield the rich asshole ahead of the election.
Sources who worked for AMI told the New Yorker that they believe Cohen was in contact with AMI executives as they collected Sajudin’s story.
Pecker is a close friend of the rich asshole’s and has pushed a constant stream of pro-the rich asshole stories in the Enquirer, while also using his tabloids to attack Democrats like President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Pecker’s Globe also published a fabricated smear attacking Malia Obama.
Karen McDougal, who also reportedly had an affair with the rich asshole, signed a $150,000contract with the Enquirer for her story. Like Sajudin, McDougal’s story never saw the light of day.
The practice is remarkable since reporting on affairs and related rumors are core to what AMI’s papers do.
Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about her affair with the rich asshole, in an echo of the Sajudin and McDougal stories.
Now it is known that the FBI is looking into how negative stories were killed off and how his henchman, Michael Cohen was in the middle of it all.
After the news broke about the FBI raid of Cohen’s property, the rich asshole was apoplectic, furiously slamming Mueller and the Department of Justice.
Once again, his direct connection to a criminal matter has surfaced, and he is lashing out. He called the raid an “attack on our country,” but what is really happening is that the rich asshole’s dirty laundry is finally being aired.
The White House is screwing with scientists — and they’re fighting back
Times of Trenton Editorial Board
Posted with permission from NJ.com
Bill Kaminsky, from Howell, is one of about 1000 people who rallied in Trenton in solidarity with the March for Science being held in Washington D.C. on Saturday April, 22, 2017. NJ (Robert Sciarrino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)Republicans, Democrats and everyone else on the political spectrum deserve access to breathable air, drinkable water and all the other necessities of life that define a society that appreciates - and acts on - the expertise scientists provide us.
It's no secret that the White House has declared an unofficial war on that very branch of knowledge, seeking to undermine years of effort and generations of progress.
That's the unifying theme behind a march this Saturday through the streets of Trenton: to encourage policymakers at all levels to make informed decisions based on proven scientific data, rather than on the needs of money-hungry corporations.
"I still believe that the American people respect and support science, but we all need to make that clear to the people elected to lead us," said Matthew Buckley, a physics professor at Rutgers University and a founder of last year's march in Trenton.
The local event, which kicks off at 10 a.m. on the steps of the War Memorial at 1 Memorial Drive, echoes similar rallies across the nation - and the world.
More than 1 million people gathered across the globe for the first March for Science last April, including about 6,000 here in the Garden State. They were protesting the erosion of scientific inquiry into such matters as climate change, medicine, public safety and education.
Protestors getting ready to march to fight the 'war on science'
Since that time, march organizers say, things have only gotten worse.
The past year has seen crippling rollbacks in environmental protection, sharp decreases in funding for basic research, and restrictions on the free movement and expression of our nation's scientists.
Zwicker, for one, has seen enough - as an assemblyman and as a physicist.
A speaker at last year's march and a member of the steering committee for this year's event, the Democratic lawmaker says his activism is driven by the urgent need "to protect our children and grandchildren from political decision that will have an impact for generations."
As if to echo his words, the Environmental Protection Agency this week made headlines for considering a major change in the way it assesses scientific work, a move seen as severely limiting the research available to its staffers when they go about crafting environmental regulations.
The new policy, which will affect nearly every aspect of debate the agency conducts, is a boon to the fossil fuel industry, whose titans have long sought to dispute the link between polluted air and premature deaths - a link established 25 years ago in a definitive Harvard University study.
The weather forecast for Saturday in Trenton is mostly sunny, with a high in the 70s. The outlook for science in the coming year should only be as rosy.
Five things to know from Comey's new book
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 04/12/18 06:47 PM EDT
The first excerpts from former FBI Director James Comey’s book were released on Thursday, providing his first extensive public recounting of the events surrounding the 2016 election and his brief time in the rich asshole administration.
Comey, who was fired by President the rich asshole last May, details his interactions with the president and the fallout from the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
The book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth Lies & Leadership,” is due out on April 17.
Here are some of the most notable claims in the book:
Comey compares the rich asshole to a mob boss
Comey takes a number of shots at his former boss in the upcoming book, likening him to a mob boss and criticizing his physical appearance.
Comey wrote that the rich asshole sought loyalty “like Sammy the Bull’s Cosa Nostra induction ceremony,” a reference to a notorious mobster. He also described the rich asshole’s leadership as “ego driven," according to The Associated Press.
He also went in depth to describe the rich asshole’s appearance when recounting their first in-person meeting.
the rich asshole’s face “appeared slightly orange,” Comey wrote, “with bright white half-moons under his eyes where I assumed he placed small tanning goggles.”
He also observed that the rich asshole’s hair “looked to be all his” and that his hands were “smaller than mine, but did not seem unusually so."
Comey regrets his explanation of the Clinton investigation
Comey addressed his handling of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of State, which Clinton and supporters have blamed for her election loss.
“I have read she has felt anger toward me personally, and I’m sorry for that,” Comey wrote, according to an excerpt obtained by ABC News.
“I’m sorry that I couldn’t do a better job explaining to her and her supporters why I made the decisions I made.”
Though Comey publicly said Clinton would not be prosecuted for her handling of classified information, he wrote a letter just a couple weeks before Election Day stating the FBI had uncovered new emails.
Though Comey said no new information was found in the emails, Clinton’s team blamed the letter for her sharp drop in the polls leading up to the election.
the rich asshole asked Comey to investigate salacious allegations
The president seemed intent on disproving lewd claims about him contained in the so-called “Steele dossier,” and asked Comey to investigate, the ex-FBI chief wrote.
Comey recalled that the rich asshole repeatedly brought up the unproven allegation that while staying in Russia, he asked prostitutes to urinate on a bed previously used by the Obamas.
the rich asshole denied the allegations in conversations with Comey, and said that he didn't like how the claims affected the first lady, according to The Washington Post.
“I’m a germaphobe,” the rich asshole told him in a phone call on Jan. 11, 2017, according to the book. “There’s no way I would let people pee on each other around me. No way.
Comey wrote that he warned the president looking into the claims could create the narrative that the FBI was investigating the president.
John Kelly threatened to resign over Comey’s firing
Comey wrote that shortly after news of his firing broke, he received an “emotional call” from Kelly.
Kelly, then the Homeland Security Secretary, said he intended to “quit in protest” because he “didn’t want to work for dishonorable people who would treat someone like (Comey) in such a manner,” Comey wrote.
Comey discouraged him from doing so, he wrote.
Kelly was hired a couple months later as the rich asshole's chief of staff. He has frequently butted heads with the president in that role.
Obama comforted Comey after the election
Former President Obama reassured Comey shortly after the 2016 election that he did his job well in handling the email case.
“I picked you to be FBI director because of your integrity and your ability," Obama told Comey. "I want you to know that nothing — nothing — has happened in the last year to change my view.”
Comey wrote that he was on the verge of tears, and told the then-president that he was "just trying to do the right thing."
Comey acknowledged in the book that his decision to disclose the status of the Clinton investigation may have been influenced by her status in the polls.
“Certainly not consciously, but I would be a fool to say it couldn’t have had an impact on me,” he wrote.
‘What would I have to do?’: Ann Coulter wants the rich asshole to fire one of his kids
Ivanka, Eric and some rich asshole Jr. (Twitter)
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Conservative provocateur Ann Coulter wants President some rich asshole to fire one of his kids.
Currently, three of the rich asshole’s children work for him. Ivanka the rich asshole is a senior White House advisor, along with son-in-law Jared Kushner. Sons some rich asshole, Jr. and Eric the rich asshole are trustees of the rich asshole Organization.
Coulter was asked by The Hollywood Reporter what her one question would be for the rich asshole.
“What would I have to do to get you to fire one of your kids?” Coulter replied.
the rich asshole has two children he may not be able to fire. Tiffany the rich asshole is a law student at Georgetown and the president’s youngest son is a school-kid.
.@AnnCoulter’s one question for Trump: “What would I have to do to get you to fire one of your kids?” #THRNYpower
Posted 8:33 PM
Updated at 8:36 PM
If such tapes turn up in material seized by federal investigators, they would be considered 'a gold mine,' legal experts say.
THE WASHINGTON POST
President the rich asshole’s personal attorney Michael Cohen sometimes taped conversations with associates, according to three people familiar with his practice, and allies of the president are worried that the recordings were seized by federal investigators in a raid of Cohen’s office and residences this week.
Cohen, who served for a decade as a lawyer at the rich asshole Organization and is a close confidant of the rich asshole, was known to store the conversations using digital files and then replay them for colleagues, according to people who have interacted with him.
“We heard he had some proclivity to make tapes,” said one the rich asshole adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. “Now we are wondering, who did he tape? Did he store those someplace where they were actually seized? … Did they find his recordings?”
Cohen did not respond to requests for comment. Stephen Ryan, an attorney for Cohen, declined to comment. A White House spokeswoman referred a request for comment to Cohen and his attorney.
On Monday, FBI agents seized Cohen’s computers and phones as they executed a search warrant that sought, among other records, all communications between the lawyer and the rich asshole and campaign aides about “potential sources of negative publicity” in the lead-up to the 2016 election, The Washington Post reported.
Investigators were also looking for any records related to adult-film star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, who both received payments after alleged affairs with the rich asshole.
It is unknown whether Cohen taped conversations between himself and the rich asshole. But two people familiar with Cohen’s practices said he recorded both business and political conversations. One associate said the rich asshole knew of Cohen’s practice because the attorney would often play him recordings Cohen had made of his conversations with other top the rich asshole advisers.
“It was his standard practice to do it,” this person said.
Legal experts said Cohen’s taped conversations would be viewed by prosecutors as highly valuable.
“If you are looking for evidence, you can’t do any better than people talking on tape,” said Nick Akerman, a former Watergate prosecutor.
Such recordings “would be considered a gold mine,” said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University who specializes in legal ethics.
“The significance is 9.5 to 10 on a 10-point scale,” he added, noting that investigators know “that when people speak on the phone, they are not guarded. They don’t imagine that the conversation will surface.”
Federal investigators would not automatically get access to any tapes that might have been seized in the raids. The recordings would first be reviewed by a separate Justice Department team to protect lawyer-client privilege, among other things.
Comey calls the rich asshole 'untethered to truth' in upcoming book
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 04/12/18 05:45 PM EDT
Former FBI Director James Comey rips President the rich asshole as "untethered to truth" and self-interested in his upcoming memoir, according to an Associated Press report.
In the book, "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership," Comey describes the rich asshole's leadership as "ego driven and about personal loyalty," and accuses the president of trying to pressure him over the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 president campaign.
The former top cop also takes personal shots at the rich asshole, describing "bright white half-moons" under his eyes that he suggests are the result of wearing tanning goggles, according to the AP.
the rich asshole fired Comey in May 2017, ostensibly for his handling of the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of State.
But the rich asshole acknowledged days after Comey's dismissal that the investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and Moscow factored into the decision.
Comey's book, which is due for release next week, offers an account of his interactions with the rich asshole similar to the one he gave in congressional testimony last year.
He acknowledged in that testimony that he had authored memos documenting his interactions with the president, including one in which the rich asshole pressed him for a pledge of loyalty and another in which he allegedly suggested that Comey drop the FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
‘Tipping point in history’: NYT reviews new James Comey book revealing ‘untethered to truth’ president
FBI Director James Comey in the Oval Office on September 17, 2013. Photo by Pete Souza
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The “very persuasive” forthcoming book by former FBI Director James Comey was featured Thursday in The New York Times book review.
“The central themes that Comey returns to throughout this impassioned book are the toxic consequences of lying; and the corrosive effects of choosing loyalty to an individual over truth and the rule of law,” Michiko Kabutani wrote in the review of the book, A Higher Loyalty.
“Comey’s book fleshes out the testimony he gave before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June 2017 with considerable emotional detail, and it showcases its author’s gift for narrative — a skill he clearly honed during his days as United States attorney for the Southern District of New York,” The Times noted.
The review also focused on how the public will evaluate the credibility of competing claims of the former FBI Director and President some rich asshole.
“One uses language incoherently on Twitter and in person, emitting a relentless stream of lies, insults, boasts, dog-whistles, divisive appeals to anger and fear, and attacks on institutions, individuals, companies, religions, countries, continents,” the review reminded. “The other chooses his words carefully to make sure there is “no fuzz” to what he is saying, someone so self-conscious about his reputation as a person of integrity that when he gave his colleague James R. Clapper, then director of national intelligence, a tie decorated with little martini glasses, he made sure to tell him it was a regift from his brother-in-law.”
The book also revealed some of the passages from the book.
“This president is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values,” Comey wrote. “His leadership is transactional, ego driven and about personal loyalty.”
“We are experiencing a dangerous time in our country with a political environment where basic facts are disputed, fundamental truth is questioned, lying is normalized and unethical behavior is ignored, excused or rewarded,” he continued.
And Comey explained how he interpreted the fact he never saw the rich asshole laugh came from his “deep insecurity, his inability to be vulnerable or to risk himself by appreciating the humor of others, which, on reflection, is really very sad in a leader, and a little scary in a president.”
The review also tried to predict how the book — and its author — will be remembered.
“It’s ironic that Comey, who wanted to shield the F.B.I. from politics, should have ended up putting the bureau in the midst of the 2016 election firestorm; just as it’s ironic (and oddly fitting) that a civil servant who has prided himself on being apolitical and independent should find himself reviled by both the rich asshole and Clinton, and thrust into the center of another tipping point in history,” the review concluded.
Comey in new book: “We are experiencing a dangerous time in our country, with a political environment where basic facts are disputed, fundamental truth is questioned, lying is normalized and unethical behavior is ignored, excused or rewarded.”
My review: nyti.ms/2JHSO7O
Michael Cohen asks court to put Stormy Daniels case on ice, invokes 5th Amendment
Cohen suggests proceeding with the case could be incriminating.
UPDATE: Lawyers for Michael Cohen and some rich asshole have formally notified the court Thursday evening that they intend to ask for the case to be stayed, citing Cohen’s Fifth Amendment rights. Stormy Daniels attorney, Michael Avenatti, will oppose the motion.
Just one week after President some rich asshole told reporters to direct all questions about the Stormy Daniels allegations to his lawyer, Michael Cohen, Cohen will “plead the Fifth Amendment against self incrimination,” according to Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ lawyer.
“That’s what we have been informed by his counsel,” Avenatti said on MSNBC Thursday. “You may recall that one week ago today, the president stood on Air Force One and told the public and the press that if they had any questions about what happened relating to the agreement or the payment, that they could pose those questions to Michael Cohen.”
JUST IN: Stormy Daniels' attorney @MichaelAvenatti says Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen will "plead the 5th amendment against self incrimination" and he "will seek an emergency stay" against the defamation lawsuit.
the rich asshole said, asked by a reporter en route to West Virginia, that he didn’t know about the alleged $130,000 payment Cohen made to Daniels right before the 2016 presidential election. the rich asshole has also completely denied the affair. A reporter then asked, “Then why did Michael Cohen make it, if there was no truth to her allegations?”
“You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael’s my attorney, and you’ll have to ask Michael,” the rich asshole responded.
But on Thursday, Avenatti said he learned Cohen won’t be answering any questions at all and that Cohen will be seeking an emergency stay against the defamation suit. Avenatti also said they will oppose that stay.
“Make no mistake about it. We’re talking about the attorney to the president of the United States,” Aventti said. “The man that knows where a lot of bodies are buried, and we have learned within the last hour or two that it is his intention to plead the Fifth Amendment.”
As ThinkProgress’ Judd Legum has noted, the Daniels story is so dangerous for the rich asshole for three reasons, including the fact that it indicates the rich asshole, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen women, is willing to lie about his sexual encounters with women, that the Daniels story has parallels to those stories, and because it suggests that the rich asshole is vulnerable to extortion and blackmail.
When the rich asshole finally addressed the Daniels allegations last week, he was asked whether he knew where Cohen got the money to pay Daniels, and the rich asshole said he did not. the rich asshole was also asked whether he ever set up a fund of money from which Cohen could pull, a question the president did not answer.
White House terrified that FBI seized Michael Cohen’s audio recordings: report
the rich asshole's planned tariffs on steel and aluminium have triggered fears of a trade war. (AFP / MANDEL NGAN)
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Former FBI Director James Comey once joked “Lordy I hope there are tapes,” when talking about conversations he had with President some rich asshole. Now it seems there might actually be tapes.
A Washington Post report revealed Thursday that the rich asshole’s personal attorney Michael Cohen sometimes would tape conversations with associates. Allies of the rich asshole’s are now fearful that those tapes are in the hands of the FBI, which raided Cohen’s office Monday.
“We heard he had some proclivity to make tapes,” a the rich asshole adviser told The Post. “Now we are wondering, who did he tape? Did he store those someplace where they were actually seized? . . . Did they find his recordings?”
It’s currently unknown whether Cohen recorded his conversations with the rich asshole himself, but two sources familiar with Cohen told The Post that the rich asshole knew of the practice because Cohen would play recordings with other advisors.
“It was his standard practice to do it,” one person said.
Former the rich asshole biographer Tim O’Brien noted that the rich asshole told him that their conversations were being recorded. When the two were involved in a lawsuit, however, O’Brien found out that the rich asshole’s threat had been nothing more than bluster.
“Back in the early 2000s, the rich asshole used to tell me all the time that he was recording me when I covered him as reporter for the New York Times,” O’Brien wrote. “He also said the same thing when I was writing a biography of him, ‘the rich asshole Nation.’ I never thought he was, but who could be sure?”
the rich asshole confessed in the deposition he is “not equipped to tape-record.”
The story is developing….
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