April 17th, 2017. It's been 525 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no. 45, and 452 days since the Jan 20th inauguration of some rich asshole.

the rich asshole to hold rally on same night as White House correspondents' dinner

BY BRETT SAMUELS - 04/17/18 05:22 PM EDT

President the rich asshole will speak at a campaign rally in Michigan on April 28, the same night of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, the president’s campaign announced Tuesday.

The event will take place at 7 p.m. in Washington, Mich., located just outside of Detroit.

It is the second consecutive year that the rich asshole will hold a rally outside Washington instead of attending the annual dinner. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is expected to attend this year to represent the White House.

“While the fake news media will be celebrating themselves with the denizens of Washington society in the swamp that evening, President the rich asshole will be in a completely different Washington, celebrating our national economic revival with patriotic Americans,” Michael Glassner, chief operating officer of the the rich asshole campaign, said in a statement.

the rich asshole indicated in an interview earlier this month that he would skip the event for a second straight year.

Past presidents have attended the event and delivered remarks addressing the press.

The event celebrates members of the WHCA and young journalists for their work, though it increasingly was also seen as a glitzy, celebrity-fueled night at which politicians, reporters and editors rubbed shoulders with stars from the entertainment industry. The New York Times is among the media organizations that no longer attends the event.

the rich asshole has had a combative relationship with the media since he took office. He frequently attacks outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, labeling them "fake news" and questioning their reporting on Twitter.

White House aide Larry Kudlow: ‘Totally wrong’ to say Nikki Haley was ‘confused’ about Russian sanctions

NOOR AL-SIBAI
17 APR 2018 AT 19:17 ET

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley (left) and WH economic adviser Larry Kudlow (right). Images via screengrab.

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White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow reportedly apologized to UN Ambassador Nikki Haley Tuesday after she refuted his suggestion that she was “momentarily confused” when she announced additional Russia sanctions during an interview.

“With all due respect, I don’t get confused,” Haley said in a statement read on-air at Fox News.

According to the New York Times‘ Julie Davis, Kudlow reportedly spoke to Haley and told her he was “totally wrong” to call her confused after a decision was made to not impose new economic sanctions.

“The policy was changed and she wasn’t told about it,” Kudlow told the reporter, “so she was in a box.”

U.S. NEWS

04/17/2018 08:27 pm ET Updated 0 minutes ago

CIA Director Mike Pompeo Secretly Met With North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un: Report

the rich asshole is planning to meet with the North Korean leader in the coming months.

By Nick Visser and Sarah Ruiz-Grossman

Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over Easter weekend, two unnamed sources told The Washington Post. CNN later confirmed the news.

Pompeo reportedly made a secret visit to North Korea to prepare for direct talks between U.S. President some rich asshole and Kim, who plan to discuss Pyongyang’s nuclear program. News of the meeting comes just days after the CIA chief told senators he was encouraged that such talks would be productive.

the rich asshole has nominated Pompeo to become the next U.S. secretary of state. “I’m optimistic that the United States government can set the conditions for that appropriately,” Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing last week, noting that such talks could achieve an outcome “America and the world so desperately need.”

The tension between the U.S. and North Korea has thawed somewhat in recent months after Pyongyang signaled its willingness to negotiate with the United States and South Korea. Envoys from the South traveled to Pyongyang in March with the aim of forging a dialogue with the U.S.

The White House has said the talks are supposed to take place in May or early June. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his wife Ri Sol Ju, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan in an undated — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his wife Ri Sol Ju, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan in an undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency on March 28, 2018.

the rich asshole told reporters on Tuesday that five locations were being considered for the summit, but that none of them were in the United States, according to CNN. The president, sitting next to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said he believed “there’s a lot of goodwill” going into the meeting.

“We’ll see what happens, as I always say,” the rich asshole noted. “Because ultimately, it’s the end result that counts.”

Kim has repeatedly expressed willingness to denuclearize the North, a longstanding condition U.S. diplomats have said must be on the table for any negotiations to begin.

But experts are skeptical that the country would easily give up its nuclear weapon program.

“It’s a nice thing to say, but it can’t happen outside of a comprehensive settlement that ensures the Kim family’s rule in perpetuity,” Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Middlebury Institute, wrote in The New York Times last month. “Rather than agreeing to disarm, Mr. Kim is saying he is willing to engage in a process, headed toward an ambiguous goal.”

The Times reported Tuesday that Kim was preparing to formally announce such plans during his upcoming meeting on April 27 with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Kim also met in secret with China’s Xi Jinping last month in his first trip abroad since assuming power. The meeting came at the behest of Xi, and afterward, Kim said he hoped to “develop friendship” with the Chinese.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Ex-Watergate prosecutor demonstrates why Sean Hannity may have criminal exposure in Michael Cohen scandal

BOB BRIGHAM
17 APR 2018 AT 18:50 ET

Fox News personality Sean Hannity speaking at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference (SPAC). Photo by Gage Skidmore.

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A former Watergate prosecutor explained on MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber that Sean Hannity would never have been revealed as a client of Michael Cohen — unless he was conspiring or had engaged in criminal activity.

“Sean Hannity is in trouble tonight for secretly employing a rich asshole lawyer — and not Michael Cohen,” Melber. “Another one in a story breaking right now, Fox anchor Sean Hannity has of course been facing heat since the bomb dropped in that New York courtroom Monday exposing him as the third mystery client of Michael Cohen, the rich asshole lawyer under federal criminal investigation.”

“Tonight, that odd revelation is morphing into something even odder, an apparent pattern with Sean Hannity employs several of some rich asshole’s top lawyers while reporting on them, and interviewing them, without disclosing it,” he noted. “Sean Hannity tonight, now trying to explain why he hires so many the rich asshole lawyers, and hides that fact from his viewers and Fox is on defense as well.”

“The bigger question is why hide it?” he suggested. “And why when you think about that drama yesterday, why do they find themselves playing defense on controversy sparked by the Stormy Daniels saga?”

“And why do the rich asshole and Cohen seem so incensed about whatever it is the Feds may have found in Michael Cohen’s office?” he asked.

“If it wasn’t bad, why hide it?” Melber asked former Watergate prosector Nick Ackerman.

“It makes no sense, because the privilege belongs to Sean Hannity, it belongs to the client,” Ackerman replied.

“He could have simply decided not to do anything here, because if he did nothing and he has nothing to hide and he didn’t do anything criminally, the odds are this information or whatever in the files relate to him would never see the light of day.”

“This stuff doesn’t becomes public afterward, there’s no Freedom of Information Act that would have to be honored,” he continued. “This is covered by grand jury secrecy.”

The former prosecutor surmised that Hannity was either trying to help Cohen bolster his case, or that he had criminal exposure.

“If Hannity was involved in some criminal matter, that’s the only way any of this evidence gets out,” he concluded.

Watch:

POLITICS

04/17/2018 07:14 pm ET

Republicans Befuddled By the rich asshole’s Abrupt Reversal On New Russia Sanctions

“That’s just not a good signal to Moscow or any of our adversaries or allies,” one senator said.

By Igor Bobic

WASHINGTON ― President some rich asshole’s sudden decision not to impose tough new sanctions on Russia left many lawmakers dumbfounded this week and led some to question whether the rich asshole had seriously undermined Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who had announced the sanctions just a day prior. 

Haley made headlines during an interview on Sunday when she announced that the rich asshole administration would be rolling out new sanctions against Russia as punishment for its continued support of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. 

“[Treasury] Secretary Mnuchin will be announcing those on Monday, if he hasn’t already,” Haley said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” when asked whether Assad’s patrons will see any consequences in the wake of a horrific chemical weapons attack in Syria. “And they will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to Assad and chemical weapons used.” 

“And so I think everyone is going to feel it at this point. I think everyone knows that we sent a strong message, and our hope is that they listen to it,” she added.

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley discusses the situation in Syria on April 14, 2018 at UN headquarters.

Less than 24 hours later, however, after the Kremlin denounced the sanctions as “international economic raiding,” the rich asshole decided to put them on hold “because he was not yet comfortable” with executing them, according to The Washington Post. Haley’s comments, the paper further reported, had “caused consternation” in the White House on Sunday.

The cleanup continued the following day after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters the administration is considering slapping additional sanctions on Russia and that it will make a decision in “the near future.” Larry Kudlow, the president’s chief economic adviser, meanwhile, pinned the blame on Haley by stating that she “got ahead of the curve.”

“There might have been some momentary confusion about that,” he told reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday.

“With all due respect, I don’t get confused,” Haley later responded in a statement of her own.

The the rich asshole administration’s sharp reversal on sanctions ― as well as the unusual public contradiction between top aides ― left lawmakers of both parties scratching their heads on Tuesday. 

“It’s really disheartening to, one, have passed sanctions that haven’t been implemented, and two, to have the White House say, ‘All right, we’re going to do it’ and then move away from it,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) told HuffPost. “That’s just not a good signal to Moscow or any of our adversaries or allies.” 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he was not surprised by how the administration handled the matter. Corker was an author of a sanctions bill that the rich asshole signed in August ― but also called “seriously flawed.”

“You know, two weeks ago we were moving out of Syria, and then the next day we weren’t, so it’s just sort of standard confusion,” he told reporters.

The the rich asshole administration’s public rebuke of Haley, in particular, could undermine her standing around the world, said Keith Michael Harper, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council under President Barack Obama.

the rich asshole has been reluctant to criticize or take punitive measures against Russia, despite its meddling in the 2016 presidential election, support for Assad, annexation of Ukraine, and likely poisoning of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in Britain. 

the rich asshole was reportedly furious with his top aides last month after he learned the U.S. had expelled more diplomats and suspected spies ― 60 ― than European allies like France and Germany to punish Russia for its suspected role in the poison attack. “There were curse words,” one official told The Washington Post. “A lot of curse words.”

The U.S. president has offered effusive praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and has expressed a desire to work with him to solve many of the world’s problems. He has also declined numerous opportunities to denounce Russia for election interference, leaving open the possibility that other foreign actors were responsible.

Yet the rich asshole has also taken some recent steps to call out Russia. “To Iran, and to Russia, I ask: What kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women, and children?” he asked in a speech announcing U.S. missile strikes against Syria last Friday. Earlier this month, his administration also announced it was hitting 24 Russian oligarchs with sanctions over “malign activity,” including election meddling.

Republicans had few good answers on Tuesday as to why the rich asshole has been hesitant to criticize or take action against Russia.

“I don’t know,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told HuffPost. “I think he has criticized Russia and called them out, but, you know, I don’t know. He has long-standing relationships there.”

“I would support sanctions, definitely,” she added.

Asked why he seemed unwilling to criticize Russia, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told HuffPost, “I think he’s criticized them every day when he bombs their chief ally in Syria.”

Democrats, meanwhile, questioned the rich asshole’s commitment to punitive actions against Russia given his reversal on new sanctions.

“The White House shouldn’t have to drag the president kicking and screaming to do the right thing when it comes to punishing Vladimir Putin and Russia,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday.

“Nikki Haley must be so embarrassed today,” he added. “That she forthrightly says, we’re going to be tough on Russia and do additional sanctions one day and the president contradicts her the next. Do they talk to each other? Do they have a set plan? Or is it just up to the president’s whim, day to day, moment to moment?”

Internet celebrates Nikki Haley’s ‘extra savage’ burn of top White House aide Larry Kudlow: ‘Well, damn!’

NOOR AL-SIBAI
17 APR 2018 AT 18:45 ET

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley (Photo: Screen capture)

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Moments after UN Ambassador Nikki Haley indirectly slammed the presidents’ new economic adviser for saying she was “momentarily confused” when announcing new Russia sanctions, Twitter erupted in praise for the diplomat.

“Well damn,” Washington Post White House correspondent Josh Dawsey said after noting the ambassador’s brief statement to Fox News.

“Nikki Haley really should have added a ‘bless his heart’ to her statement if she wanted to be extra savage,” NPR’s Jessica Taylor mused.

“We are on Haley watch,” activist Amy Siskind tweeted. “She is one of the few competent ones left.”

Check out more responses below:

Nikki Haley fires back at the White House over Russia sanctions

"With all due respect, I don't get confused."

LUKE BARNES APR 17, 2018, 7:51 PM

Nikki Haley, President some rich asshole’s ambassador to the United Nations, denied the White House claim Tuesday that she’d gotten confused as to whether the rich asshole administration would impose new sanctions on Russia.

Earlier in the day, national economic adviser Larry Kudlow said that Haley had gotten “ahead of the curve” on the imposition of new sanctions. “She’s a very effective ambassador,” he said. “But there might have been some momentary confusion about [the sanctions].”

Kudlow went on to claim that one set of sanctions had already been decided on, and additional ones were “under consideration but not been determined.”

In response, Haley said in a statement, “with all due respect, I don’t get confused.”

Kudlow then backtracked and said that “the policy was changed and she wasn’t told about it, so she was in a box” — which would imply that the rich asshole administration’s U.N. ambassador was being kept out of the loop on major foreign policy decisions.

On Sunday, Haley had announced that additional sanctions against Russian companies, banks, and equipment suppliers with ties to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons program would be imposed. The action came in response to an alleged chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma which left at least 70 people dead.

“With the political and diplomatic actions that we’re taking [against Syria] now, we wanted their friends, Iran and Russia, to know that we meant business and that they were going to be feeling the pain from this as well,” Haley said at the time. “You will see that Russian sanctions will be coming down. Secretary Mnuchin will be announcing those on Monday, if he hasn’t already.”

But on Monday, the Washington Post reported that the rich asshole was angry that the sanctions were being rolled out before he was comfortable announcing them. One White House official said that Haley had “made an error that needs to be mopped up.”

The decision by the rich asshole administration to delay additional sanctions against Russia comes just one day after former FBI Director James Comey sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos and claimed that it was “possible” that Russia had compromising material on the rich asshole.

And this isn’t the first time the rich asshole administration has tiptoed around Russian sanctions. After former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned in the U.K. with a nerve agent, along with his daughter, the rich asshole administration spent days avoiding the issue — despite British Prime Minister Theresa May presenting conclusive evidence of Russian involvement before Parliament. One of the few voices going against the White House’s tepid stance was Nikki Haley.

“One member stands accused of using chemical weapons on the sovereign soil of another member,” Haley said during an emergency meeting of the UN security council in March. “The credibility of this council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable.”

Nikki Haley lashes out at White House for calling her ‘confused’

Alison R. Parker

April 17, 2018

The disarray within the rich asshole administration was put on full display when U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley released a terse rebuke after the White House called her 'confused' about Russian sanctions.

The rich asshole administration certainly has no qualms about throwing any of its own under the bus when it’s convenient. And that’s again evident in the growing dispute between the White House and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley over Russian sanctions.

Haley’s terse statement to Fox News about her supposed “confusion” over the sanctions put the disarray on very public display.

On “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, Haley declared that a new round of sanctions “will be coming down” imminently. The sanctions would target Russian companies that have aided Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s government in making and deploying chemical weapons.

Haley’s announcement came days after the rich asshole administration launched strikes against Syria in response to Assad’s latest attack on his own people.

the rich asshole himself put on a show of admonishing Russian President Vladimir Putin for supporting Assad. Yet rather than back up his own U.N. ambassador, the rich asshole chose to embarrass her by shifting course in less than a day.

Monday morning, the rich asshole reversed Haley’s announcement. He told his national security advisers he wasn’t comfortable implementing them yet.

And the administration blamed the discrepancy between Haley’s announcement and the White House’s backpedaling on her “confusion.”

the rich asshole’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters that there wasn’t actually any backpedaling. It was simply that Haley had gotten “ahead of the curve” in her statement.

“There might have been some momentary confusion about that,” he added blithely.

Haley begged to differ. And when asked for comment by Fox News host Dana Perino, she offered a brief and pointed dissent.

“With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”

Kudlow reportedly apologized to Haley soon after her statement. He put the blame elsewhere for her not knowing about the change of plans. And he said he was “totally wrong” in his earlier statement.

But the whole debacle still highlights the pitfalls of working for the rich asshole White House. It means knowing that one may be committing “professional suicide.” And it also means working for a boss who displays a stunning lack of loyalty to anyone around him.

the rich asshole’s erratic governing — or lack thereof — is a familiar pattern. And his willingness to throw someone like Haley under the bus is also nothing new. Nor is the endless disarray pouring out of this White House.

But that doesn’t make it any less embarrassing on the global stage when representatives of United States government don’t seem to know what the other is doing.

McConnell quashes the rich asshole’s plan to claw back spending deal

BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 04/17/18 06:55 PM EDT

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday shot down President the rich asshole’s call for Congress to pass a rescissions package that would cut nondefense spending included in the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending package passed in March.

Senate Republicans have expressed skepticism about the rich asshole’s idea since he first floated it during the Easter Recess and McConnell finally killed it this week.

The GOP leader warned that passing a privileged resolution to cut domestic nondefense spending contained in the budget deal would imperil future negotiations with Democrats.

“You can’t make an agreement one month and say, 'OK, we really didn’t mean it,' " McConnell told Fox News.

He pointed out that the rich asshole helped negotiate the $1.3 trillion spending deal and signed it into law.

“He agreed to it. He was involved in the negotiation and signed the bill,” he said, emphasizing, “We had a deal with the Democrats.”

McConnell said the rich asshole shouldn’t have been shocked that the bipartisan package included Democratic priorities.

“He and his people were involved in the negotiation. They agreed to it,” he said.

The omnibus increased discretionary spending by nearly $300 billion over fiscal years 2018 and 2019. Most of that, $165 billion, was for defense programs.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is running to succeed Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in 2019, is a leading proponent of the rescissions package and has been working closely with the rich asshole on it.

Some Senate Republicans think McCarthy is trying to ingratiate himself with the president while a leadership promotion is on the line.

“This sounds a lot like a play by Kevin McCarthy to boost his profile with the White House,” a GOP aide told The Hill earlier this month.

McConnell seemed more open-minded about the idea earlier this month, but even then expressed doubt that it would gain much traction on Capitol Hill.

“I’m willing to discuss with the administration of the possibility of some kind of rescission package. I think it’s worth a discussion. Whether that’s achievable is another matter,” he told reporters last week.

Nikki Haley tears into top White House aide who said she was ‘ahead of the curve’ on Russia sanctions

NOOR AL-SIBAI
17 APR 2018 AT 18:19 ET

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley on Face the Nation

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In response to White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow’s assertion that UN Ambassador Nikki Haley was “ahead of the curve” on her announcement of Russia sanctions, the top diplomat issued a statement refuting his comments.

“With all due respect,” Haley’s statement, read on-air at Fox News, said, “I don’t get confused.”

“There might have been some momentary confusion about that,” Kudlow told CNN’s Jeff Zeleney earlier on Tuesday about the sanctions Haley announced Sunday night on CBS’ Face the Nation. “But if you talk with Steve Mnuchin at Treasury and so forth, he will tell you the same thing — they’re in charge of this — we have had sanctions. Additional sanctions are under consideration but not implemented.”

Stormy Daniels’ lawyer says man in composite sketch who threatened her works for the rich asshole ‘indirectly’

NOOR AL-SIBAI
17 APR 2018 AT 18:14 ET

A composite sketch of the man who allegedly intimidated the rich asshole mistress Stormy Daniels. Image via screengrab.

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In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti said that he believes the man who threatened her to keep quiet about her affair with some rich asshole may “indirectly” work for the president or his lawyer, Michael Cohen.

After Avenatti told Tapper that Daniels has in recent weeks reviewed photographs of potential suspects and that their team is narrowing down who may have threatened her, the host asked him if they believe the man featured in the composite sketch they released earlier in the day could work for the president or his lawyer.

“The photographs that you have, that she’s looked at, are they individuals who worked for Mr. the rich asshole or Mr. Cohen at some point in the past?” the host asked the attorney.

“We believe indirectly,” Avenatti replied. He went on to tell Tapper that in the hours since they released the sketch this morning, roughly 400 people have come forward with tips via email about the identity of the alleged intimidator.

Watch below, via CNN:

Stormy Daniels’ attorney Avenatti explains why Cohen is going to roll on the rich asshole ‘after he gets his ankle bracelet’

MARTIN CIZMAR
17 APR 2018 AT 17:49 ET

Nicolle Wallce interviews Michael Avenatti/Screenshots

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some rich asshole’s personal attorney—who says he would “take a bullet” for the president—is about to get squeezed, and Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti thinks he’s going to snitch on the rich asshole so save himself like the protagonist of Goodfellas or like Salvatorye “Sammy the Bull” Gravano.

Avenatti went on MSNBC with Nicolle Wallace today and declared that Cohen “is going to roll on the rich asshole.”

“There’s little to no doubt that [Cohen] is going to be indicted in the next 90 days, if not sooner,” he said.

Avenatti said that he expects Cohen’s lawyers will talk to him

“They put potentially an ankle monitor around your ankle, if you’re bailed out,” Avenatti said. “Reality sets in and your attorney has a ‘Comes to Jesus’ meeting with you and it goes something like thais: You know if you’re convicted you’re going to potentially face 10 to 15 years in the federal system… unless you roll over and you provide information on somebody higher up the food chain. That conversation has a tendency to really bring a lot of clarity to the choice.”

The segment ended with Avenatti drawing another parallel to mobsters past.

“Remember, Al Capone was not convicted of murder, he was convicted of tax fraud,” Avenatti said.

“I know, it’s just so much less sexy though,” Wallace said.

The full 17 minute interview is below in two parts.

WATCH: MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace clobbers the rich asshole’s ‘in-the-gutter war’ against James Comey

BOB BRIGHAM
17 APR 2018 AT 17:41 ET

MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace

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MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace, who served George W. Bush as White House communications director, thwacked President some rich asshole for a “profound disintegration of norms” after the commander-in-chief tweeted that former FBI Director James Comey should be in jail.

“OK, so we’ve got a trivia question for you,” Wallace said. “What do James Comey, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Manning and people who burn flags all have in common?”

“According to the president, they should all be in jail,” she answered. “It’s just the latest example of a profound disintegration of norms, a process that’s been playing out since the day the rich asshole started his campaign.”

Wallace noted former FBI Direct James Comey is waging an “asymmetrical, post-fact, in-the-gutter war” with President the rich asshole.

The Deadline: White House host interviewed former federal prosecutor and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman.

“What do you make of someone from your line of work, the Justice Department, going to toe-to-toe with a president who fights dirty?” Wallace asked.

“I mean, it’s sort of surreal,” the former U.S. Attorney admitted. “Toe-to-toe is the word and there’s a lot of coverage of it as if it’s a cage match, Comey versus the rich asshole.”

“This is not normal,” he continued. “This is not okay.”

“It is not the job of the President of the United States to say who should be in jail and who shouldn’t be in jail,” Litman declared. “And that’s even if what we were saying had any basis in fact, which it doesn’t.”

Litman, who teaches constitutional law, did find one “heartening” aspect of Monday’s court hearing.

“Yes, it’s anomalous and sensational, but it really is a kind of triumph of the rule of law there,” he suggested. “It’s kind of good news.”

“We have the president against the porn star — the porn star is going to win and she’s going to win because the law is going to be applied faithfully by a single judge,” he argued. “That’s the way it’s supposed to work, one way or another, even against the president.”

Watch:

the rich asshole turns state visit into infomercial for his private club

"Many, many people want to be here, many of the leaders want to be here -- they request specifically."

AARON RUPAR APR 17, 2018, 4:24 PM

On Tuesday afternoon, President the rich asshole used a photo op with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to promote his private Mar-a-Lago club.

Shortly after Abe arrived in Florida for his second visit to the property, the rich asshole told reporters that “many of the world’s great leaders request to come to Mar-a-Lago and Palm Beach. They like it. I like it. We’re comfortable.”

the rich asshole, who broke precedent by refusing to divest from his business interests when he assumed office, still profits from Mar-a-Lago. Since he was inaugurated, initiation fees have doubled to $200,000, and the rich asshole Organization has cranked up prices for entry to events.

Mar-a-Lago membership comes with perks that go beyond access to the president. For instance, during Abe’s first visit to the club in February of last year, he and the rich asshole responded to a crisis created by North Korea testing an intermediate-range ballistic missile in full view of diners and waiters, with sensitive documents illuminated by cell phone lights. Members were later able to describe the scene “in detail” to reporters.

After singing his club’s praises on Tuesday, the rich asshole went on to offer reporters an inaccurate history of the property, saying it was “originally built as the southern White House. It was called the ‘southern White House.'”

“It was given to the United States, and then Jimmy Carter decided it was too expensive for the United States, so they fortunately for me gave it back and I bought it,” the rich asshole continued. “But we are — who would have thought, it was a circuitous route, but now it is indeed the southern White House. And again many, many people want to be here, many of the leaders want to be here — they request specifically.”

But Mar-a-Lago was not built as the “southern White House.” In fact, it was constructed from 1924 to 1927 by cereal-company heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post. Upon her death in 1973, she donated the property to the National Park Service. It subsequently fell into disrepair and was purchased by the rich asshole in 1985.

After promoting Mar-a-Lago, the rich asshole took credit for the winter Olympics that took place in South Korea earlier this year — “without us and without me in particular, I guess, you would have to say, that they wouldn’t be discussing anything including the Olympics, which would have been a failure” — and then claimed he had given his “blessing” for leaders of North and South Korea to discuss the formal end of the Korean War.

“They do have my blessing to discuss the end to the war,” the rich asshole said.

Presidents have traditionally used the government-owned Camp David property in Maryland to host foreign heads of state.

Right-wingers freak out after Cosmopolitan magazine urges Stormy Daniels to run for office: ‘Great idea libtards’

NOOR AL-SIBAI
17 APR 2018 AT 17:35 ET

Adult film star Stormy Daniels -- screenshot

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After Cosmopolitan ran an editorial about Stormy Daniels potentially running for office, a right-wing news blog and its followers lost it at the concept of the entertainer being elected.

“Seriously?” a headline at Newsbuster read. “Cosmo Wants Stormy Daniels To Run for Office – Again.”

“The media’s extended coverage of porn star Stormy Daniels and her affair with President the rich asshole has gone above and beyond a fever pitch,” writer Corinne Weaver mused, though as GOP operative Cheri Jacobus noted, it’s Newsbusters that appears to be “apoplectic” at the concept of the porn star running for office.

After recounting Daniels’ 2009 Louisiana Senate run and berating liberal-leaning pundits for admiring the adult film actress as a “whistleblower” who is “fiercely funny,” Newsbusters implored outlets further to the left to cease and desist.

“Stop it,” Weaver implored. “Get some help.”

Shortly after publishing the post, Twitter users began to share it with their own commentary.

“Great idea libtards,” one user noted.

Another user who describes themselves as a “deplorable” suggested that Daniels is “banging her way” up the political ladder, but misspelled the word “up.”

User Mike Posner, who joked in his bio that “covfefe is for closers,” suggested that another person fills the “wh*re slot” in the Senate, and that Daniels can perhaps “fill that role in the House.”

McConnell gives the rich asshole the green light, says he won’t allow vote on bill to protect Mueller

This is despite increased bipartisan efforts to protect the special counsel.

LUKE BARNES APR 17, 2018, 6:01 PM

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Tuesday that there was no way he would entertain legislation that would prevent President some rich asshole from firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Speaking with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, McConnell said that such a measure is “not necessary” — despite an increasing bipartisan push to bring such legislation forward.

“There’s no indication that Mueller’s going to be fired, I don’t think the president’s going to do that,” he said. “Just as a practical matter even if we passed it why would we sign it.”

Last week the Special Counsel and Integrity Act was introduced, which combines similar legislation from Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-DE) and another bill from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Cory Booker (D-NJ). It allows for a 10-day window in which the special counsel can appeal any decision to fire him to a three-judge panel.

The bill stalled after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) added an amendment requiring Mueller to report to Congress any changes in the scope of his investigation, but the desire to protect Mueller remains. On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said “we need the bill to protect Mueller, and we need it now.”

However, now that McConnell has announced that he has no intention of bringing such a bill to the floor, any legislation looks dead on arrival. More worryingly, however, it opens the door for the rich asshole to fire Mueller since he now knows that Congress won’t act to stop him.

Ever since the FBI’s raid on the offices and home of the rich asshole’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, the president has been fuming over the legal investigations surrounding him, and suggested that he has at least considered firing Mueller.

“I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on,” the rich asshole said during a press availability last Monday. “We’ll see what happens, but it’s really a sad situation when you look at what happened. And many people have said, ‘You should fire him.'”

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has also changed her tune about the possibility of firing Mueller. During a press briefing last week, Sanders said that the White House “had been advised” that the rich asshole has the power to fire Mueller — which marks a major change from March, when the White House said it “is not considering or discussing” firing Mueller.

Meanwhile, Fox News, the president’s favorite network, has been laying the groundwork for the rich asshole to fire Mueller for months. Heavy-hitter commentators like Jeanine Pirro, Newt Gingrich, and Sean Hannity — who now has his own the rich asshole-related headache to deal with — have been working to discredit the special counsel’s probe as ineffectual and biased.

McConnell says he won’t allow vote on bill to protect Mueller because the rich asshole wouldn’t sign it

MARTIN CIZMAR
17 APR 2018 AT 16:50 ET

Mitch McConnell who is blocking a bill to protect special prosecutor Robert Mueller/Screenshot

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some rich asshole is not going to fire Robert Mueller, says Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.

But just in case he does—well, Republicans don’t want to do anything.

McConnell told Fox News Neil Patrick Cavuto that he won’t allow a bill to protect Mueller.

“I don’t think the president is going to do that, McConnell said. “And just as a practical matter, if we passed it, why would he sign it?”

Cavuto failed to make the obvious follow-up: Even if the rich asshole refused to sign the bill, the Senate could override his veto with 67 votes.

“It’s not necessary in my judgement,” McConnell said.

“Obviously, enough your colleagues fear it enough to say it should be in there,” Cavuto said.

“I’m the one who decides what we take to the floor,” McConnell said. “And we will not be having this on the floor of the senate.”

Fox News has finally weighed in on Hannity’s undisclosed conflict of interest. It’s cool with them.

Fair and balanced.

AARON RUPAR APR 17, 2018, 2:58 PM

On Tuesday afternoon, Fox News released a statement indicating the network has no concerns about Sean Hannity’s failure to disclose his attorney-client relationship with Michael Cohen, President the rich asshole’s longtime attorney.

Hannity didn’t mention his entanglements with Cohen even as he harshly criticized an FBI raid of Cohen’s office where his own communications were seized.

“While FOX News was unaware of Sean Hannity’s informal relationship with Michael Cohen and was surprised by the announcement in court yesterday, we have reviewed the matter and spoken to Sean and he continues to have our full support,” the statement says.

It’s unclear whether Fox News did its own investigation, or is just taking Hannity’s word for it that Cohen didn’t do substantial work for him. It’s also unclear whether Hannity will be allowed to continue to cover Cohen — and, by extension, President the rich asshole — despite his ongoing conflict of interest.

Fox News’ statement comes on the heels of a number of prominent media personalities reacting to news of Hannity’s undisclosed conflict of interest by calling for the network to take some sort of action.

“Going to find out what kind of org Fox is today,” NBC’s Chuck Todd tweet. “No serious news org would allow someone this conflicted to cover this story.”

Todd wasn’t alone in asserting that at least some people at Fox News care about journalistic integrity.

Prior to the Tuesday afternoon statement, Fox News’ only public comment about the Hannity controversy had been to release a statement from Hannity himself denying any wrongdoing.

While Fox News higher-ups aren’t concerned about the conflict of interest, a regular guest on Hannity’s show is.

On Monday night, Hannity was confronted live on-air by lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who interrupted a panel discussed devoted to trashing James Comey to confront Hannity about the Cohen controversy.

“First of all, Sean, I want to say that I really think that you should have disclosed your relationship with Cohen when you talked about him on this show,” Dershowitz said. “You could have said just that you had asked him for advice or whatever. But I think it would have been much, much better had you disclosed that relationship.”

Hannity didn’t acknowledge the conflict of interest, but instead responding by saying, “I have the right to privacy.”

Fox News has at least feigned concern about the basic tenets of journalism ethics in the past. Last May, the network retracted an investigative report about the death of slain DNC staffer Seth Rich. In a statement announcing the retraction, the network said the piece “was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting. Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed.”

But even after Fox News retracted the Rich story, Hannity continued to push it on his show. The network was recently sued by Rich’s family, in part because of Hannity’s irresponsible coverage.

Americans to Republicans: Your tax bill scam is terrible

Dan Desai Martin

April 17, 2018

A new Gallup poll shows the Republican tax bill scam is wildly unpopular.

The tax scam championed by Republicans is doing exactly what critics warned: showering the wealthy with deficit-financed tax breaks, while leaving workers and the American middle class behind. The latest Gallup poll confirms, once again, a majority of Americans disapprove of the GOP tax bill.

It makes sense that Americans continue to hold a negative view of the bill. For one, the overwhelming majority of the benefits are going to the already wealthy. In 2018, the richest 1 percent will see a tax break of more than $50,000, or almost $1,000 per week. The poorest 20 percent will see a mere $60 spread out over the course of the entire year, slightly more than $1 per week.

Tax hikes will arrive for millions of Americans in the coming years, with some kicking in this year. For example, homeowners in Los Angeles will see a 30-year mortgage cost up to $76,000 more, thanks to new changes in the tax bill.

Republicans dismissed the concerns of critics, who warned their bill would primarily benefit corporations, not average Americans. As predicted, rich corporations are spending their Congressional kickbacks to enrich Wall Street through record-setting dividend payments and stock buybacks, not investing in workers.

According to USA Today, “it is the massive spending on dividends and share buybacks that critics pounce on, as this use of cash benefits the wealthy and company shareholders, rather than middle-class workers.” After all, the wealthiest 10 percent of households own an astounding 84 percent of all stocks owned by Americans, according to a New York University economist.

USA Today further reports that less than 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies gave bonuses to workers as a result of the tax bill. And the majority of workers say they have not seen any increase in their own paychecks. Speaker Paul Ryan once boasted about a secretary who will receive $1.50extra per week. Six quarters is hardly the change Republicans promised.

Republicans claimed the bill would be a boon to small business. Instead, the unfair advantage given to wealthy corporations drew a quick rebuke from small business owners, who soured on a bill heaping even more advantages on the richest Americans, people who already have the most resources.

Claims that the deficit-financed boondoggle — promoted as “rocket fuel” for the economy — would lead to an abundance of new jobs and increasing wages for workers didn’t pan out either. The most recent jobs report from the Labor Department shows an economy performing largely as it did in years past. The economy continues to grow like it did under President Obama, except America is now saddled with more debt.

Thanks to a recent report, Americans now know 80 percent of gains from the tax bill are going offshore to foreign investors. In other words, the United States will borrow money to pay for an unpopular tax bill so that foreign investors can receive four out of every five dollars of economic gain. On top of that, there are provisions in the bill designed to incentivize corporations to outsource jobs and hide profits overseas to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

The unpopularity of the tax bill isn’t only about its skewed rewards system. Massive changes to health care policy, which is leading to dramatic health care cost increases, is also an issue for the public.

In some parts of the country, health care premiums are estimated to increase by up to 94 percent in the next three years, mainly due to Republican-backed provisions in the tax bill. An estimated 13 million Americans will lose health insurance in the coming years.

And of course, the corporate kickbacks doled out are not free; Republicans in Congress decided to pay for the tax bill through a massive increase to the national deficit. It didn’t matter that Republicans like Ryan, who so loudly backed the bill, once called the nation’s debt and deficit the defining issue of the day. (“The facts are very, very clear,” he said in 2011, “the United States is headed towards a debt crisis.”)

Now, the Republicans’ tax scam is a major component in the nation’s additional $2.4 trillion deficit. The fiscal recklessness of the tax bill even threatens America’s credit rating.

The tax scam is so bad even Republicans struggle, and fail, when campaigning on its merits. In a recent Pennsylvania congressional special election, the bill was so unpopular Republicans stopped talking about it, pivoting instead to the rich asshole-like race-baiting, anti-immigrant advertising. (In a district the rich asshole won by 20 points, the Democratic challenger won.)

Americans across the country recently took to the streets to demand an end to what organizers call the rich asshole Tax. Marchers have plenty of reasons to be unhappy about a policy that’s failing them, and according to Gallup, they represent the majority of America.

Neil Gorsuch voted with the liberal justices, but his opinion should chill you to the bone

If you are surprised by Gorsuch's vote to protect immigrants, you haven't been paying attention to Gorsuch's record.

IAN MILLHISER APR 17, 2018, 2:28 PM

Broadly speaking, there are two different approaches to the law on the Supreme Court’s right flank.

Justice Samuel Alito is the consummate partisan. Unlike his other conservative colleagues, Alito has never cast the key fifth vote to throw a decision to the Court’s liberals. He’s also far more inclined to manipulate existing doctrines than to overrule them — claiming that longstanding doctrines actually require progressive laws to be read narrowly, even when such claims are the opposite of the truth. Alito tends to view each case in isolation. And, whenever possible, he presents the best arguments he can muster to gain a conservative result in each particular case.

At the other end of the spectrum is Justice Clarence Thomas. Less partisan and more ideological, Thomas is willing to push much further than Alito, and he has no compunctions about explicitly overruling major precedents. For example, under Thomas’ theory of the Constitution, child labor laws and the federal ban on whites-only lunch counters are unconstitutional. Unlike Alito, however, Thomas thinks in terms of broad principles rather than in terms of isolated efforts to move the law to the right. On rare occasions, this broader approach to the law places Thomas to the left of his fellow justices.

Which brings us to Tuesday’s decision in Sessions v. Dimaya, a 5-4 decision where Neil Gorsuch sided with the four liberals in favor of an immigrant convicted of burglary. Gorsuch’s vote, and his separate opinion in Dimaya, confirms that he is much more a Thomas than he is an Alito. He is willing to hand liberals a small victory on the path to a much larger effort to shift legal doctrines to the right.

The man who occupies the seat that Senate Republicans held open for a year until some rich asshole could fill it has not gone soft — even if he did hand a victory to an immigrant.

So, if you are writing about the Dimaya case, and want to give your readers an accurate picture of what Gorsuch is up to, please don’t do this:

Dimaya should have been a very easy case. Four years ago, the Supreme Court decided Johnson v. United States, which held that a federal law imposing stricter sentences on people who commit felonies that involve “conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another” is unconstitutionally vague. Eight justices voted in the majority in Johnson (although two wrote separate opinions), and Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion. This was not a close case.

Dimaya involves a strikingly similar statute to the one in Johnson. Under the law at issue in Tuesday’s decision, a non-citizen is all-but-certain to be deported if they commit a felony that “by its nature, involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property.” A bare majority of the Court — the four liberals plus Gorsuch — agreed that this law suffers from the same vagueness problems that plagued the law at issue in Johnson.

Though Justice Elena Kagan wrote the Court’s primary opinion, and Gorsuch joined enough of that opinion to form a majority for the proposition that the immigration statute is unconstitutionally vague, Gorsuch also wrote a separate opinion that provides a great deal of insight into how he views his role as a judge. Moreover, when read in light of Gorsuch’s prior record, his separate opinion in Dimaya suggests that he sees this case as one step in a broader anti-regulatory journey.

Hobbling federal agencies

Dimaya is not the first time Gorsuch has used an immigration case to make a broader statement against government regulation. As a federal appellate judge, Gorsuch wrote two opinions in Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch, a case involving an immigrant who was unfairly jerked around by conflicting decisions by various government decision makers. In his first opinion, written on behalf of a three-judge panel, Gorsuch wrote a relatively narrow decision siding with the immigrant.

Then, in separate opinion joined by no other judge, Gorsuch launched into a rant against the Supreme Court’s decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council.

Chevron is one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of the last half-century. It provides that, when a federal agency pushes out a new regulation, and the statute which allegedly permits such a regulation is ambiguous, courts will typically defer to the agency’s reading of the statute unless that reading is outlandish.

Though Chevron was uncontroversial for several decades, it became one of the conservative Federalist Society’s most hated decisions during the Obama years — no doubt because Chevron required a judiciary controlled by Republicans to defer to environmental and labor regulators in a Democratic administration. Gorsuch’s critique of Chevron largely mirrors that of the Federalist Society — that Chevron places too much power in the executive branch and not enough in the legislature and judiciary.

The practical effect of a Supreme Court decision overruling Chevron would be to transfer power from whoever controls the presidency to a Republican-controlled judiciary.

Some of Gorsuch’s other writings, moreover, suggest that he may take an extraordinarily narrow view of Congress’ power to delegate regulatory authority to federal agencies. Gorsuch may even agree with Justice Thomas’ view that “generally applicable rules of private conduct” can only be created by an act of Congress.

Among other things, if Thomas’ view were ever to become law, much of America’s environmental law, which requires the EPA to continually update environmental standards as technology improves, would simply cease to exist.

With this broader agenda in mind, consider a key passage from Gorsuch’s opinion in Dimaya.

Under the Constitution, the adoption of new laws restricting liberty is supposed to be a hard business, the product of an open and public debate among a large and diverse number of elected representatives. Allowing the legislature to hand off the job of lawmaking risks substituting this design for one where legislation is made easy, with a mere handful of unelected judges and prosecutors free to “condem[n] all that [they] personally disapprove and for no better reason than [they] disapprove it.”

Here, Gorsuch warns that vague statutes effectively “hand off the job of lawmaking” to prosecutors who enforce those statutes and, ultimately, to the judges who interpret them. But his criticism of vague laws largely tracks with Justice Thomas’ critique of agency regulation.

Modern regulatory regimes, where Congress enacts a broad standard and then allows agencies to update the details and new facts emerge and new technologies are developed, are inconsistent with Thomas’ view of the Constitution. In that view, any decision that “involves an exercise of policy discretion” must be enacted through “an exercise of legislative power.”

Most agency regulations, in Thomas’ view, “hand off the job of lawmaking” to the executive branch.

Gorsuch’s opinion in Dimaya, in other words, should not give even a moment of comfort to liberals. If anything, it should chill anyone who believes that a modern society must have robust labor and environmental regulation. Mr. Gorsuch does not outright endorse Thomas’ view of agency regulation, but Gorsuch’s opinion in Dimaya is another data point suggesting that he and Thomas have similar views on this subject. Gorsuch just chose to express his broader anti-regulatory view in a decision involving an immigrant.

Not Thomas

In fairness, it should be noted that Gorsuch tacks well to Thomas’ left on one important issue in Dimaya. In his own dissenting opinion, Thomas takes the rather extraordinary view that “I continue to harbor doubts about whether the vagueness doctrine can be squared with the original meaning of the Due Process Clause.” Thomas would, at the very least, substantially weaken doctrines preventing individuals from being convicted of a crime based on vague laws that offer little clarity about what kind of activity is forbidden.

Gorsuch breaks with Thomas on this point — indeed, he spends about half of his opinion explaining why he is “persuaded instead that void for vagueness doctrine, at least properly conceived, serves as a faithful expression of ancient due process and separation of powers principles the framers recognized as vital to ordered liberty under our Constitution.”

This disagreement suggests that, while Thomas is eager to overrule venerable doctrines that are inconsistent with a broadly conservative worldview, Gorsuch’s ideology is more libertarian. That means the two men are likely to vote together in labor and environmental cases — or even, potentially, in child labor cases — but that Gorsuch may be less inclined to burn down protections for criminal defendants and some immigrants.

But Gorsuch’s decision to vote with the liberals in Dimaya should not be read as a sign that he is more moderate than the consensus view suggested when Gorsuch was nominated for his current job. Indeed, if anything, Gorsuch’s opinion in Dimaya suggests that he is quite conservative indeed. He’s just willing to sweep a handful of immigrants and criminal defendants within a broader framework designed to hobble government.

Comey: the rich asshole would ‘literally have to fire everyone in the DOJ and FBI’ to shut down Russia probe

ELIZABETH PREZA
17 APR 2018 AT 17:20 ET

President some rich asshole and former FBI director James Comey (Shutterstock)

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Former FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday tamped down concerns over some rich asshole’s reported willingness to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and special counsel Robert Mueller, telling NPR the president “would literally have to fire everyone” to shut down the Russia investigation.

“I don’t see firing Rod Rosenstein or Robert Mueller, frankly, as effective,” Comey told NPR. “If the president’s goal is to shut down an investigation, he would literally have to fire everyone in the Department of Justice and the FBI to accomplish that. And that’s impossible because someone will replace those people, and some agents will continue the work.”

Comey added that “the good news for people” is that the Department of Justice and the FBI “are ballasts.”

“Those people do not care about partisan politics,” Comey said of his former agency. “And if seven people are fired, the eighth person will pick up the shield and march on and do the job. So he’d literally have to fire everyone in those organizations to accomplish his goal.”

Comey also said he believes Congress will move to protect the investigation in the event the rich asshole tries to fire Rosenstein and Mueller.

“Even though they’ve been slow to awaken, I know people in Congress on both sides of the aisle care deeply about finding the truth,” Comey said. “And so I think in theory, but it’d be very difficult in practice.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday told Fox News he would not bring forward a bill to protect Mueller, insisting “as a practical matter” the rich asshole wouldn’t sign it in the first place.

“Why would he sign it?” McConnell asked.

Listen to the full interview below:

MSNBC host nails the rich asshole’s ‘full-up weird’ Mar-a-Lago ‘infomercial’

Tommy Christopher

April 17, 2018

MSNBC host Ali Velshi had the only logical response to the rich asshole's bizarre rambling about Mar-a-Lago.

the rich asshole excels at cheapening American democracy. And he did it again on Tuesday, turning a diplomatic visit with a world leader into an infomercial for his golf resort.

At a photo op with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, the rich asshole couldn’t resist praising Mar-a-Lago while also butchering its history.

“Many of the world’s great leaders request to come to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach,” the rich asshole said. “They like it, I like it, we’re comfortable. We have great relationships.”

He went on to claim — wrongly — that the estate “was originally built as the southern White House.” And he again boasted that “many of the leaders want to be here, they request it specifically.”

MSNBC’s Ali Velshi immediately blasted the rich asshole following the remarks.

“That was full-up weird,” Velshi said pointedly. “That was an infomercial for Mar-a-Lago, which didn’t make any sense. It’s a private club, and the president was touting it.”

The estate was not built as a “southern White House,” but as a private mansion. It was bequeathed to the U.S. government by Marjorie Post 50 years after it was constructed. It became a private club after President Jimmy Carter returned the property to the Post Foundation.

the rich asshole has made a regular habit of profiting from the presidency, which he began right after his inauguration with another visit from Japan’s prime minister. the rich asshole’s White House claimed that Abe’s stay at Mar-a-Lago was a “gift,” one that ethics lawyer Norm Eisen called a “free global infomercial” for the club.

American taxpayers have also been billed for expenses at Mar-a-Lago for every trip the rich asshole has made there. And the rich asshole has made a regular habit of visiting his other properties while traveling, boosting their profits as well.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway was also admonished for using the White House as a storefront for Ivanka the rich asshole’s merchandise.

The constant grift that is the the rich asshole administration has been an international shame since his inauguration. Using a meeting with a world leader to promote his property is a further embarrassment.

the rich asshole blocks Russia sanctions following Comey’s blackmail comments

Bad timing.

MELANIE SCHMITZ APR 17, 2018, 12:29 PM

President the rich asshole blocked a new round of sanctions against Russia this week, just one day after former FBI Director James Comey suggested in an interview with ABC News that the Russians may have compromising information on the rich asshole that could be used to blackmail him.

The sanctions, first announced by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Sunday, came on the heels of an alleged chemical attack in the rebel-held town of Douma near the Syrian capital of Damascus on April 7. The attack, which left at least 70 people dead, prompted a retaliatory strike from the United States, France, and the U.K. The sanctions were expected to target Russian companies with ties to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons program, as well as several banks and equipment suppliers, according to CNN.

But Monday came and went without any announcement. And by Monday evening, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement directly countering Haley’s comments.

“We are considering additional sanctions on Russia and a decision will be made in the near future,” she said. “We are evaluating, but nothing to announce right now.”

White House officials added to the narrative later, telling the Washington Post that Haley had made her comments in “error” and that there are simply been “confusion internally about what the plan was,” despite the fact that Haley checks in with the rich asshole regularly and reviews talking points prior to discussing them publicly.

It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the reversal. A White House official who spoke with The New York Times initially suggested that the rich asshole believed the sanctions were unnecessary “because Moscow’s response to the airstrike were mainly bluster.” Russian President Vladimir Putin had called the strike an “act of aggression” on Saturday, but did not announce any plans to retaliate.

Later on Monday, while en route to the rich asshole’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Sanders suggested to reporters aboard Air Force One that the rich asshole had blocked the sanctions because he wanted “to have a good relationship with [Russia].”

the rich asshole’s decision to block the sanctions also came one day after former FBI Director James Comey sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos to promote his book, A Higher Loyalty, in his first televised interview since the rich asshole fired him last May. In the interview, Comey claimed the rich asshole was “morally unfit to be president” and stated that it was “possible” the Russians had compromising information that could be used to blackmail the rich asshole.

“I think it’s possible. I don’t know. These are more words I never thought I’d utter about a president of the United States, but it’s possible,” he said, responding to a question about the rich asshole’s fixation on the notorious Russia dossier, compiled by former MI-6 officer Christopher Steele during the 2016 election, which contains allegations of misconduct and conspiracy between the the rich asshole campaign and Russian officials.

The following morning, the rich asshole lashed out at Comey on Twitter — ignoring his blackmail comments and suggesting Comey had committed “many crimes” while serving as FBI director.

White House sources have previously claimed Comey was fired because he would not pledge his loyalty to the rich asshole and would not drop an investigation into former national security adviser and the rich asshole campaign surrogate Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI about his connections with Russian officials. Flynn is currently cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating claims of collusion between the the rich asshole campaign and Russia, as well as possibly obstruction of justice by the president.

It’s possible that the rich asshole chose to block the sanctions because he did not believe Russia posed a threat following last Friday’s airstrike. But the timing of Sanders’ announcement, paired with Comey’s interview, is especially curious — suggesting the rich asshole may have good reason to want to remain in Putin’s good graces.

The United States imposed sanctions against Russia earlier in March, in retaliation for its meddling in the 2016 presidential election and other “malicious cyberattacks.” The sanctions targeted 13 individuals and three Russian corporations previously indicted by Mueller for their involvement in a massive social media disinformation campaign meant to tilt the election results in the rich asshole’s favor. That same month, the the rich asshole ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from U.S. soil, following a series of attacks on former Russian spies living on U.K. soil, a decision made in coordination with Britain, Canada, and 14 European Union member nations.

Speaking to Baltic leaders on April 3, the rich asshole, referring to the sanctions, claimed that “nobody” had been tougher on Russia, but added, “With that being said, I think I could have a very good relationship with President Putin.”

What does Comey know about the rich asshole and the New York FBI?

NEWSWEEK
17 APR 2018 AT 15:31 ET

April 17, 2018

Nina Burleigh

Posted with permission from Newsweek

Among the many mysteries of the 2016 election is what exactly provoked FBI director James Comey to announce he was reopening the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails just days before the election, while keeping secret the fact that the FBI was looking at Russian active measures in support of the Trump campaign.

Now that he is a private citizen and is making himself available to journalists because he has a book to promote, Comey can address the still-murky connections between the New York FBI office, elements of the New York Police Department and Donald Trump.

Comey does not address it in his book, but Trump’s connections to the FBI and the New York police are deep and go back a long way. He sent his favorite longtime personal bodyguard, former NYPD officer Keith Schiller, to deliver the walking papers to Comey when he fired him. Schiller had worked for Trump for years, until leaving the White House late last year. Trump supporters among the NYPD showed up at the president’s victory party at the Hilton in New York City, on election night, some in full dress uniform. The NYPD sex crimes chief donated thousands of dollars to the Trump campaign.

Trump also employed as a bodyguard an FBI agent named Gary Uher, after he was involved in a deal to bring Trump Organization business associate and Russian-mob linked Felix Sater back from Russia in the late 1990s. The deal allowed Sater to avoid prison time for a Wall Street fraud by working as a government informant, according to an investigation by McClatchy DC.

And Trump donated a million dollars--while running for the GOP nomination--to a charity that gave money to veterans and the families of fallen federal law enforcement agents. The charity is founded by former New York FBI agent James Kallstrom, who was on record during 2016 saying he talked to both former and current FBI agents who were “P.O.’d” about Comey’s decision not to pursue charges against Hillary Clinton.

Those connections are key to understanding the law enforcement politics and internal pressures behind Comey’s announcement, 11 days before the election, that the FBI was reopening the investigation into Clinton’s emails. Comey made the decision based on a New York Police Department discovery of Hillary emails on a seized laptop owned by Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s then-husband Anthony Weiner. The discovery provoked a plethora of wild rumors about what was in it, some of which were spread by people close to Trump, including Erik Prince. The emails turned out to be material they had already seen, but Comey reopened the investigation before FBI agents determined that.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was so tight with the New York FBI that he boasted about his advance knowledge of that impending development in several cryptic announcements about the October surprise. Giuliani’s ties to the New York FBI go back to his days as New York U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

On October 25, 26 and 28, 2016, Giuliani, then a prominent media spokesman for Trump, announced on various programs, including Fox News, that he expected “surprises” from Trump, coming from the FBI. He also bragged that he had gotten that information from "a few active agents, who obviously don't want to identity themselves" about the Weiner/Clinton email investigation.

The Comey letter, released on October 28, said the FBI had “learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation” into the private email server Clinton used while working in the Obama administration as secretary of state. The letter had an immediate effect on the news cycle and the election. It “halved Clinton’s lead in the polls, imperiling her position in the Electoral College,” according to the political site Five Thirty Eight.

On November 4, Giuliani again alluded to conversations with unnamed, former agents. When asked whether he’d heard about the investigation, he replied: "Did I hear about it? You're darn right I heard about it, and I can't even repeat the language that I heard from the former FBI agents."

On May 3, 2017--six days before Trump fired him--Comey, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was looking into questions about the involvement of Giuliani, Kallstrom and possibly unknown FBI agents in New York.

During the hearing, Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, asked: “Let me ask you this. During your investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, a number of surrogates like Rudy Giuliani claimed to have a pipeline to the FBI. He boasted that, and I quote, numerous agents talk to him all the time. (Inaudible) regarding the investigation. He even said that he had — insinuated he had advanced warning about the emails described in your October letter. Former FBI agent Jim Kallstrom made similar claims. Now, either they're lying, or there's a serious problem within the bureau. Anybody in the FBI during this 2016 campaign have contact with Rudy Giuliani about — about the Clinton investigation?”

Comey responded: “I don't know yet. But if I find out that people were leaking information about our investigations, whether it's to reporters or to private parties, there will be severe consequences.”

The exchange went on:

LEAHY: Did you know of anything from Jim Kallstrom?

COMEY: Same answer. I don't know yet.

LEAHY: Do you know any about — from other former agents?

COMEY: I don't know yet. But it's a matter that I'm very, very interested in.

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, in an interview that aired Sunday night on ABC, asked Comey whether a “rogue element” of FBI agents in New York had pressured him. Comey said he commenced an investigation into the Giuliani leaks, but was sacked before he learned the results. “I don’t want to single out anybody, ‘cause I don’t know where it was coming from,” he said.

As Comey makes his book rounds, here are five questions that he should answer:

1. Who do you think leaked information about the FBI reopening the Clinton emails investigation to Rudy Giuliani?

2. Did you ever launch any kind of internal investigation into leaking by former agents in New York?

3. Do you now believe there was collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the FBI bureau in New York?

4. Do you know if the Inspector General of the Department of Justice is looking into Giuliani's role or Trump campaign-FBI collusion?

5. Has anyone, to your knowledge, questioned Giuliani or former FBI agent James Kallstrom about their roles in either pressuring the FBI to reopen the investigation, or the leak about it?

WATCH: Hannity confronted about not disclosing Cohen conflict on his show and he was not happy

"I have a right to privacy."

AARON RUPAR APR 17, 2018, 10:04 AM

During Monday night’s edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity defended his failure to disclose his attorney-client relationship with Michael Cohen, even as he vociferously defended President the rich asshole’s longtime personal lawyer, whose law office was raided last week. Cohen’s files presumably include communications with Hannity that he is now seeking to keep under wraps.

Hannity made his case in response to Alan Dershowitz, who interrupted a panel discussed devoted to trashing James Comey to confront Hannity about the Cohen controversy.

Hannity wasn’t willing to give an inch.

“Do you understand the nature of it, professor? It was minimal,” Hannity said.

Dershowitz pushed back, telling Hannity that “you should have said that, and that would have been fair to say, that it was minimal.”

“I have the right to privacy,” Hannity replied, ignoring the ethical problems surrounding his conflict of interest. “I do.”

The real issue, however, is not “privacy,” but Hannity not disclosing a clear conflict of interest to his viewers. Hannity knew he had a personal stake in the FBI’s investigation of his attorney, and yet he used his TV and radio platforms to compare the raid to the tactics of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany.

Cohen disclosed that Hannity is a client in an effort to prevent investigators from looking at records pertaining to the work he did for him. While Cohen has been in the news for hush payments he negotiated to women who said they had affairs with the rich asshole and a top RNC official, Hannity claims the work Cohen did for him “focused almost exclusively on real estate.”

While Hannity now claims to have concerns about “privacy,” Fox News was recently sued by the family of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich in part because Hannity pushed a conspiracy theory about Rich’s death on his show.

Hannity continued pushing Seth Rich conspiracy theories even after Fox News retracted an investigative piece falsely claiming there was evidence linking Rich with WikiLeaks, which published emails hacked from the DNC. Hannity pushed the conspiracy in hopes of discrediting the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia hackers stole the emails.

the rich asshole’s top economic adviser laughs off IRS website crash on Tax Day

Oliver Willis

April 17, 2018

The IRS website crashed on the day millions of Americans were trying to pay their taxes, but to the rich asshole's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow, it was a hilarious joke.

the rich asshole’s chief economic adviser laughed off a major failure of the IRS online payment system, even as millions of Americans were in the process of paying their taxes.

During a press briefing, director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow apparently first learned of the outage from a reporter and seemed to find it rather amusing.

Referencing the crash, a reporter asked Kudlow, “Are you in touch with your Treasury counterparts on that?”

“The IRS is crashing? That sounds horrible, that sounds really bad,” Kudlow said, laughing. “Hope it gets fixed.”

Kudlow, who has a long history of advocating for lower taxes and the right’s embrace of anti-IRS activism, expressed no sympathy or concern for Americans who are unable to pay their taxes because of the crash.

Later, Kudlow made it clear he didn’t know any of the details of the outage, asking reporters if it was “a computer breakdown,” adding, “well I’m sure they can fix it.”

Kudlow began speaking to reporters at about 12:20 p.m., but reports began to surface online about the outage as early as 6:36 in the morning.

IRS Acting Commissioner David J. Kautter told lawmakers in an oversight hearing earlier in the day, “On my way over here this morning, I was told a number of systems are down at the moment. We are working to resolve the issue and taxpayers should continue to file as they normally would.”

But Kudlow, who has the rich asshole’s ear and was hand-selected by him after watching him perform on CNBC as a pundit over the years, was apparently unaware.

And when he was told about the outage, which is causing panic among people trying to file their taxes, he took it as a joke.

It continues the cavalier approach from the rich asshole team toward taxes — and toward the struggle everyday Americans face.

the rich asshole of course infamously continues to hide his taxes from public scrutiny, ending the tradition in both parties of disclosing his returns.

James Comey fends off attacks as book releases at #1 on Amazon

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
17 APR 2018 AT 15:08 ET

Former FBI Director James Comey testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 3, 2017 (Screenshot)

DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!

Former FBI director James Comey fended off attacks Tuesday over his blistering criticism of President some rich asshole as his new book hit the stores and held the top slot on Amazon’s bestseller list.

Comey, who was fired by the US leader in May 2017, describes the rich asshole in the book as “morally unfit” for office, as a compulsive liar who threatens fundamental American values.

But critics say the veteran prosecutor has simply sought to even his score with the president through petty criticisms in the pointedly titled “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership.”

In an interview with National Public Radio to kick off the release Tuesday, Comey retorted that his descriptions of the rich asshole’s over-long neckties, his tangerine hair and skin, and the size of his hands were simply an attempt to engage the reader through vivid storytelling.

“I’m not making fun of the president. I’m trying to be an author, which I’ve never been before in my life,” Comey said.

“But while I’m typing, I can hear my editor’s voice ringing in my head, ‘Bring the reader with you. Show them inside your head. Bring them with you.'”

Comey’s memoir alternates between philosophical musings and advice on the issue of leadership — insisting on the need for honesty and transparency in public life.

The former FBI chief condemns the rich asshole as having brought to the US capital never-before seen values and ways in a US president, running the White House like a Mafia don.

“This president is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values,” he writes. “What is happening now is not normal.”

– Comey ‘very worried’ about US –

But the book has also unleashed a torrent of attacks against Comey — accused by his critics of self-satisfied moralizing.

Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee labelled him “sanctimonious” and a self-promoter with an “enormous ego.”

the rich asshole branded him an “untruthful slime ball” and called for his prosecution.

Comey has strongly defended his book, and denied suggestions he wanted to capitalize on his notoriety to enter politics.

“I’m very worried,” he said, explaining his criticism of the rich asshole.

“This is not some tin pot dictatorship where the leader of the country gets to say ‘the people I don’t like go to jail.'”

“This is not normal. This is not OK. There’s a danger that we will become numb to it, and we will stop noticing the threats to our norms.”

“A Higher Loyalty” has enjoyed strong pre-orders, and held onto its spot Tuesday as the top selling book on Amazon, including both fiction and non-fiction.

According to CNN, Flatiron Books, an imprint of publishing giant Macmillan, has printed an initial 850,000 copies, and expects to print more.

Comey is doing a number of media interviews and plans appearances in about a dozen cities, where the public has snapped up tickets, at $25-35 each, to hear him talk.

That's a whole lot of stupid.

Republican congressman says lying to the FBI isn’t so bad if you’re not under oath

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) decried a "double standard" hurting Michael Flynn and Michael Cohen.

JOSH ISRAEL APR 17, 2018, 9:13 AM

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a co-founder of the Freedom Caucus and a potential candidate to replace Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as Speaker of the House, offered an odd defense of former the rich asshole National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on Tuesday.

Flynn’s false statement to the FBI was not as big of a deal as other people’s misdeeds, Jordan suggested, because Flynn was not under oath at the time.

Though a poll this week found that 69 percent of Americans support Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between the rich asshole’s campaign and the Russia government, and 64 percent approve of his investigating the rich asshole’s business activities, Jordan told Fox News on Tuesday that the American people are being driven crazy by a “double standard” against Team the rich asshole.

“When you look at this the thing that bothers Americans so much, bothers the president, bothers me is the double standard,” Jordan said. “Mike Flynn, while not under oath, makes a false statement to the FBI and gets indicted. Andy McCabe lies four times to the FBI, twice under oath to [Justice Department Inspector General] Michael Horowitz, nothing happens to him. That kind of stuff drives Americans crazy.”

Jordan, who graduated from law school, might want to re-read 18 U.S. Code § 1001, which makes it a federal crime to knowingly make a false statement to federal law enforcement. There is no exception for those who don’t take an oath before making the statement, nor is there one for those who cross their fingers while lying.

Moreover, Jordan’s claim that “nothing happen[ed]” to former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is odd, seeing as McCabe was fired from his job last month because, in the words of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, he “lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.”

Jordan then made a similar claim of a double standard for Michael Cohen, the rich asshole Organization’s executive vice president and special counsel whose office was raided last week by the FBI, as compared to a former Clinton aide, who cooperated with the Bureau after receiving partial immunity.

In the same Fox and Friends interview, Jordan attacked former FBI Director James Comey for having mistreated Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign — while moments late complaining that the investigation was biased in her favor.

‘A little scary’: James Comey has never seen the rich asshole laugh — and is very concerned about it

ELIZABETH PREZA
17 APR 2018 AT 00:03 ET

President some rich asshole shakes James Comey's hand (Photo: Screen capture)

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Former FBI Director James Comey has managed to trigger some rich asshole’s tweetsorms, but never his sense of humor.

According to his forthcoming book “Higher Loyalty,” Comey—who was unceremoniously fired by the rich asshole to take “pressure” off the Russia investigation—writes he does not recall having ever seen the president laugh.

“I don’t recall seeing him laugh, ever,” Comey wrote. “Not during small talk before meetings. Not in a conversation. Not even here, during an ostensibly relaxed dinner.”

“I suspect his apparent inability to do so is rooted in 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,” Comey added.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

"With all due respect, I don't get confused."

Stormy Daniels’ attorney Avenatti explains why Cohen is going to roll on the rich asshole ‘after he gets his ankle bracelet’

"Many, many people want to be here, many of the leaders want to be here -- they request specifically."

the rich asshole handled North Korea crisis in full view of diners and waiters at his private club

Will Stormy Daniels Run For Office — For Real This Time?

This is despite increased bipartisan efforts to protect the special counsel.

Fair and balanced.

WATCH: Hannity confronted about not disclosing Cohen conflict on his show and he was not happy

Hannity was revealed as Michael Cohen’s mystery client and things got very awkward on Fox News

If you are surprised by Gorsuch's vote to protect immigrants, you haven't been paying attention to Gorsuch's record.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Part Of Immigration Law

Hobbling federal agencies

Not Thomas

Bad timing.

Little is known about what was actually achieved by strikes on Syria

7 eye-opening comments about Russia from James Comey’s ABC News interview

"I have a right to privacy."

This is how Hannity aggressively defended Michael Cohen without disclosing that he was his lawyer

Hannity was revealed as Michael Cohen’s mystery client and things got very awkward on Fox News

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) decried a "double standard" hurting Michael Flynn and Michael Cohen.

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