Fox News’ Shep Smith nails the rich asshole for confusing story about Mike Pompeo’s secretive North Korea summit
Fox News host Shepard Smith (Screenshot)
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Fox News’ Shep Smith noted Wednesday that during a “little get-together” at Mar-a-Lago, President some rich asshole appeared to confirm reports that CIA Director and nominated secretary of state Mike Pompeo secretly traveled to North Korea to meet with the country’s leader Kim Jong-un.
Though the president said during the press conference with Japanese President Shinzo Abe that Pompeo “just got back” from North Korea, the host pointed out that The Washington Post‘s report about the clandestine meeting said it took place weeks ago.
“Fox News confirmed the sit-down happened over Easter weekend to talk about a possible summit between President the rich asshole and the North Korean leader,” Smith noted. “Now, President the rich asshole just said [Pompeo] just got back.”
“Easter was awhile ago,” the host mused. “I’m guessing something’s lost in the translation there.”
Watch below, via Fox News:
Lawyers for the rich asshole attorney Michael Cohen propose candidates to review seized files
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President some rich asshole's personal lawyer Michael Cohen exits a hotel in New York City, U.S., April 11, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
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Lawyers for President some rich asshole’s personal attorney Michael Cohen have asked a federal judge to consider four candidates to review material seized by the FBI that may be protected by attorney-client privilege, rather than let prosecutors look at it first.
In a Tuesday night letter to U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, Cohen’s lawyers said the candidates, all former federal prosecutors in Manhattan, could serve as a “special master” to review boxes, hard drives and electronic equipment taken in the April 9 raid of Cohen’s home, office and hotel room.
Courts often retain special masters who are independent of the parties to handle various matters. Wood has not decided whether to appoint one for the Cohen case, and prosecutors are expected to propose their own list on Wednesday.
Wood’s decision on who can review the materials will have a bearing on how much prosecutors might be about to learn about Cohen’s dealings with the rich asshole and others.
The April 9 search was conducted partly on a referral by the Office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is probing possible collusion between the rich asshole’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
Lawyers for Cohen and the rich asshole have said they should be able to review the seized materials for possible attorney-client privilege, while prosecutors have said they want their own “taint team” to handle the review.
The special master candidates proposed by Cohen’s lawyers were: Bart Schwartz, the chairman of Guidepost Solutions LLC; Joan McPhee, a partner at the firm Ropes & Gray; Tai Park, a partner at Park Jensen Bennett; and George Canellos, a partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.
Canellos previously served as co-director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division.
Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for adult film actress Stormy Daniels, has said he believes some seized materials may relate to a $130,000 payment made to her by Cohen, in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual relationship she claims to have had with the rich asshole in 2006.
Attorney-client privilege shields the communications of the subject of a lawsuit or criminal case with legal counsel.
Prosecutors are investigating Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud, and possible campaign law violations in connection with the payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and perhaps other matters related to the rich asshole’s campaign, a person familiar with the probe has said.
Reporting by New York Newsroom; Editing by Will Dunham
Reporting by New York Newsroom; Editing by Will Dunham
Pittsburgh police are being ordered to prepare for riots if the rich asshole fires Mueller
some rich asshole and Robert Mueller/Screenshots
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Police detectives in Pittsburgh are being ordered to prepare themselves for riots if President some rich asshole fires special counsel Robert Mueller.
An email sent out to detectives and posted online by WTAE-TV reporter Marcie Cipriani shows that Victor Joseph, the commander of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police’s major crimes division, has sent out an alert instructing detectives to bring full riot gear with them to work in case they’re needed to put down violent protests in the wake of Mueller’s firing.
“There is a belief that President the rich asshole will soon move to fire Special Proseutor Mueller,” Joseph writes in his email. “This would result in a large protest within 24 hours of the firing. The protest would be semi-spontaneous and more likely happen on short notice.”
It is not clear whether Joseph has some inside knowledge that would lead him to believe that the rich asshole is planning to fire Mueller. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto tells Cipriani that Joseph’s email to detectives sent out this week was simply a “precautionary” measure.
Read the email for yourself below.
SOURCE: This is the email sent to Pgh detectives this morning. I am working to get a response from the city as well as additional details on the potential protests. #WTAE
Meghan McCain berates James Comey to his face for not being more like J. Edgar Hoover
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Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover might have been closeted, racist and headed a bureau that threatened civil rights activists, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. However, on Wednesday’s episode of “The View,” co-host Meghan McCain told James Comey to his face that he should be more like Hoover.
Comey began his interview with the women by saying that his wife always says that when something happens people should try and make something good come from it. That was a major reason why he wanted to write the book.
“I think I had something useful to say,” he continued.
McCain began her questioning by quoting former senior White House advisor David Axelrod saying, “I have no doubt about its brilliance when it comes to book sales. Maybe he should have called it ‘Higher Royalties,'” referencing the book title Higher Loyalty.
Comey said that Axelrod and McCain should read the whole book before criticizing, because, “even if you leave the book still thinking I’m an idiot, you realize I’m actually kind of an honest idiot and I’m not on anybody’s side.”
McCain said that people at his level don’t get there by being an idiot and she’d never accuse him of that. However, “maybe J. Edgar Hoover is rolling over in his grave at the things you’re revealing. It doesn’t seem like something the director of the FBI — why are you laughing?”
McCain asked the question because both Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar were cracking up.
“He is the wrong guy to bring up,” Goldberg said.
“He didn’t write a tell-all book when he left!” McCain said, perhaps not recalling that Hoover died while he was still the director of the FBI and before the director position had term limits.
“Did he say he was a cross dresser?” Behar joked.
“Can I finish my question?” McCain snapped. “What would you say to that?”
“That I don’t think of it as a tell-all,” he said. “It’s a whole lot more than the stories that are in the last few chapters of the book. It’s about mistakes I have made, things I’m very much ashamed of, I did when I was younger. It’s a story about portions of my life to try to tell a story. It has no classified information or sensitive information, and I know that because I wrote it and the FBI reviewed it.”
During the interview, it was announced that Congressional Republican issued a letter to Jeff Sessions, demanding that the Justice Department investigate Comey and others for a slew of what they say are crimes.
“It seems they’ve been saying that since the Clinton investigation and the inspector general is already looking into that,” he said responding to the breaking news.
He noted that Hoover would probably have said about his term as FBI director that he followed the rules and was transparent.
“I mean, he had a number of flaws, one was that it was all about secret files and I’m trying to tell a story that some don’t reflect well on me that’s open and honest,” he said.
McCain was also bothered by Comey’s commentary about the Republican Party, saying multiple times that his comments were political. Comey retorted saying that he has values that the GOP no longer holds and that for some it might sound like politics but to him they are his values.
“I feel like the Republican Party left me and people like me,” he said. “I used to think that at the heart of being a conservative, lower case, ‘c,’ was first that character matters and that values matter most of all, and I don’t know where that is today in the Republican Party, so I’m just not comfortable being part of it.”
McCain said that the commentary about the GOP does not represent people like her or others in her party who remain non-tea party members. However, as many commentators, including Republicans, have said, the GOP has been overtaken by the far right. Indeed, the party is headed by some rich asshole now, whether McCain likes it or not.
Comey also said that given the way the media has seized on the comments he’s made about the rich asshole’s orange complexion and his hand size, he wished he didn’t include it and he would have taken it out.
“It gave people a hand hold who haven’t read the book to attack the book,” he said.
Watch the interview below:
Part 1:
Part 2:
House Republicans calling on Jeff Sessions to prosecute eight of the rich asshole’s political foes
Jeff Sessions stumps for presumptive Republican presidential nominee some rich asshole at the Republican National Convention in 2016. (Shutterstock)
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Nearly a dozen House Republicans have signed on to a letter calling for the Justice Department to prosecute eight of President some rich asshole’s political enemies.
The letter issued Wednesday morning urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions to open investigations — and then prosecutions — of eight former government or law enforcement officials who have drawn the president’s ire over the past three years.
The lawmakers called on Sessions to investigate Hillary Clinton, former FBI director James Comey and his former deputy Andrew McCabe, former attorney general Loretta Lynch and former acting attorney general Sally Yates, FBI general counsel Dana Boente, and FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
“Because we believe that those in positions of high authority should be treated the same as every other American, we want to be sure that the potential violations of law outlined below are vetted appropriately,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter was also addressed to FBI director Christopher Wray and John Huber, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah.
The Republicans accused Clinton of campaign finance violations related to the Steele dossier, and they accused Lynch of obstruction of justice in the “Uranium One” deal.
The lawmakers accused Comey of leaking classified information to a friend who passed his personal memos along to reporters, and they cited a report by the Justice Department’s inspector general on McCabe to call for possible criminal charges.
The representatives called for an investigation into Yates’ and Boente’s roles in the FISA warrant against former the rich asshole campaign adviser Carter Page, and the two FBI agents were singled out for investigation for their anti-the rich asshole texts during the presidential campaign.
“We are especially mindful of the dissimilar degrees of zealousness that has marked the investigations into Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and and the presidential campaign of some rich asshole, respectively,” the lawmakers said.
The lawmakers cite a Wall Street Journal editorial, which they described as a news report, as justification to investigate Strzok and Page, and most of the alleged crimes they list are related to events leading up to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller.
The letter was signed by GOP representatives Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Dave Brat (R-VA), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Andy Harris (R-MD), Jody Hice (R-GA), Todd Rokita (R-IN), Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Ted Yoho (R-FL).
The rich asshole administration is reportedly denying green cards to young immigrants
The rich asshole administration has linked Special Immigrant Juvenile status recipients with the MS-13 gang.
The rich asshole administration appears to have lowered the age limit for a legal immigration status granted to certain young people under the age of 21 who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by their parents, the New York Times reported Wednesday. The publication found that several people between the ages of 18 and 21 have been unable to proceed with their petitions and are now ineligible for green cards.
The federal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency allows some young people — who can prove that they have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by a parent — to apply for the Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status. If the classification is granted, people may then qualify for lawful permanent status, or a green card. But as the New York Times reported, applicants in New York over the age of 18 and under the age of 21 have seen their applications denied “because of an unannounced policy reversal by the rich asshole administration.”
The SIJ status designation was originally meant for a small group of children of undocumented parents who were declared dependent by state juvenile courts, according to the Congressional Research Service. Legal groups helped familiarize the public with the status beginning in late 2013 when large numbers of unaccompanied Central American children began showing up on the southern U.S. border. Many had fled gang violence and extreme poverty, while others fled deadly situations at home. Between 2005 and 2013, the Congressional Research Service reported, there was a tenfold increase in the number of children requesting the SIJ status. SIJ status applications “hit 19,475 in the 2016 fiscal year,” Reuters reported.
At least 81 SIJ applicants from the New York City area “have been denied or were told they would soon be denied by the immigration agency,” according to The Legal Aid Society of New York which spoke with the New York Times. And “in total, more than 1,000 young people across the state, not all of them from Central America, could be affected.”
According to the publication, the rich asshole administration appears to be “reinterpreting” the policy and saying that applicants over the age of 18 but under 21 do not qualify for the status because “family courts lack jurisdiction over the person’s custody” at the age of 18. These in-between young immigrants can have guardians, but the USCIS agency do not consider guardians the same as “custody.”
“Nothing in the federal statutes has changed; only the interpretation has changed,” Beth Krause, the supervising attorney for the Immigrant Youth Project at The Legal Aid Society of New York, told the publication. “And now, U.S.C.I.S. is interpreting this in a way to cut out a very large portion of kids who, until the past couple of weeks, had gotten these grants under the same facts.”
Since last year, the rich asshole administration has linked recipients of this particular immigration status with criminal immigrants affiliated with the MS-13 gang. When President some rich asshole gave a speech in Long Island, New York, he cast “alien minors” as “animals” who committed gruesome, gang-related killings in the country. Harsh critics of the SIJ status have also linked the process with fraudulent claims of children being abandoned by their parents. At the same time, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has taken special care to announce enforcement operations where federal agents have swept up SIJ status recipients in their efforts to bust transnational gangs.
Under the rich asshole, lawyers have also seen a slow-down in SIJ status approvals. Between April and June 2017, approvals totaled 1,862, or less than half of the total number approved from the previous three-month period, Reuters reported at the time.
“U.S.C.I.S. has not issued any new guidance or policy directives regarding the adjudication of S.I.J. petitions,” Jonathan Withington, a spokesman for the federal agency, told the New York Times. “We remain committed to adjudicating each petition individually based on the merits of the case and safeguarding the integrity of our lawful immigration system.”
‘Does he think we’re not going to remember’: CNN panel mocks the rich asshole for contradicting himself in James Comey tweet
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In a Wednesday morning political discussion, chief CNN political reporter Dana Bash and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin couldn’t help but laugh at President some rich asshole’s slew of contradictory morning tweets.
In a tweet, the rich asshole attempted to rewrite history by claiming that he fired “slippery James Comey” for being the worst FBI director in history instead of it being about the Russia investigation. The statement is contrary to what the rich asshole told in an interview with Lester Holt.
“In fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with the rich asshole and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won,’” the rich asshole said in the 2017 interview.
“The problem with President the rich asshole here is President the rich asshole,” quipped CNN host John Berman. “Up is down. Black is white. Night is day, here as we deal with this statement. It is odd. It’s odd because — does he think we’re not going to remember? Is he trying to blur the lines here?”
Bash described this as “exhibit A” for why the rich asshole’s attorneys don’t want him to speak to special counsel Robert Mueller. She noted that when she reached out to White House sources, their only comment was “ug.”
“You know, if you’re tweeting out something that directly contradicts a statement that you made on camera to a network television anchor, you’re going to be in trouble,” she continued. “So, you know, this is classic some rich asshole in that he really doesn’t have regard for things that he said before because, in his world, it doesn’t matter and the truth is, in the world that he is trying to reach on Twitter, it doesn’t matter for many of those people, for many people in his base. It doesn’t matter. It is only up to us and those who are outside that world to remind everybody that what he said is not what he said after he fired James Comey which is it was about Russia.”
Toobin noted his tweet about Stormy Daniels essentially did the same thing, where he is beginning to take the bait from attorney Michael Avenatti.
“It’s amusing, and the sketch, who knows? The sketch to me looks more like Tom Brady or Jon Bon Jovi than anyone else,” Toobin commented.
When it came to the reasons why the rich asshole fired Comey, things like this tweet are critical, Toobin explained. “Because if he’s fired because of that memo that Rod Rosenstein wrote that it was because of the investigation and his mishandling of it, that is not an obstruction of justice, we can argue whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing. But if he fired James Comey to stop or interfere with the Russia investigation, as the rich asshole himself suggested in that interview with Lester Holt, that’s a very different story and potentially highly incriminating.”
Berman explained that the tweet from the rich asshole isn’t going to change anything.
“And Dana’s right, much as most Americans should be watching this television program, more of them are just reading some rich asshole’s tweets, especially his supporters, and they don’t hear the other side,” Toobin said.
Watch the full clip below:
Michael Cohen’s associates always seem to end up disciplined, disbarred, accused or convicted of crimes
Michael Cohen (CNN)
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If you’ve seen video or images of Michael Cohen, President some rich asshole’s personal attorney, they’ve probably been set in locations that exude power and importance: Cohen berating a CNN anchor in a TV studio, for example, or striding across the sleek marbled interior of the rich asshole Tower, or more recently, smoking cigars in front of Cohen’s temporary residence, the Loews Regency Hotel on Manhattan’s Park Avenue.
But to understand how Michael Cohen arrived in those precincts, you need to venture across New York City’s East River. There, in a Queens warehouse district in the shadows of an elevated No. 7 subway line, is a taxi garage that used to house his law practice. The office area in the front is painted a garish taxicab-yellow, with posters of hockey players on the wall and a framed photo of the late Hasidic rabbi Menachem Schneerson. Cohen practiced law there and invested in the once-lucrative medallions that grant New York cabs the right to operate.
Or you could drive 45 minutes deep into Brooklyn, near where Gravesend turns into Brighton Beach. There, in a desolate stretch near a shuttered podiatrist’s office, you’d find a medical office. According to previously unexamined records, Cohen incorporated a business there in 2002 that was involved in large quantities of medical claims. Separately, he represented more than 100 plaintiffs who claimed they were injured in auto collisions.
At the same time, in Brooklyn and Long Island, New York prosecutors were investigating what Fortune magazine called possibly “the largest organized insurance-fraud ring in U.S. history.” That fraud resulted in hundreds of criminal prosecutions for staging car accidents to collect insurance payments. Cohen was not implicated in the fraud.
A distinctive pattern emerged early in Cohen’s career, according to an examination by WNYC and ProPublica for the “the rich asshole, Inc.” podcast: Many of the people who crossed paths with Cohen when he worked in Queens and Brooklyn were disciplined, disbarred, accused or convicted of crimes.
Cohen, 51, has always emerged unscathed — until now. Last week, his Rockefeller Center office was raided by federal agents, as were his home, hotel room, safety deposit box and two cellphones. Cohen is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. According to court papers, investigators are examining whether he committed fraud and showed a “lack of truthfulness.”
He and his attorneys did not respond to a lengthy set of questions emailed to them. Cohen’s lawyers have stated that he has done nothing improper.
Cohen has attained national attention as the man who paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep her alleged affair with the rich asshole secret. He also negotiated a $1.6 million settlement with a woman impregnated by the rich asshole fundraiser Elliott Broidy. (Cohen’s attorney told a judge on Monday that his only three legal clients over the past 15 months were the rich asshole, Broidy and talk-show host Sean Hannity.)
Cohen has for decades had close personal and professional relationships with many citizens of the former Soviet Union. He ended up as point men on the rich asshole’s deals there and also turned up in the notorious Russia “dossier.” He has routinely been described as an indispensable man to some rich asshole.
One indicator of that, according to The New York Times: President the rich asshole is more agitated by what those New York prosecutors may find in Cohen’s files than he is by the wide-ranging investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Cohen, it seems, may hold some crucial secrets. What’s more surprising, perhaps, is the path he took to get to that point.
Michael Cohen grew up in the Five Towns area of Long Island, New York, a heavily Jewish enclave. His father was a surgeon, according to media reports, and Cohen enjoyed a top-tier education, graduating from the private Lawrence Woodmere Academy, then moving on to American University.
From there, it seems, Cohen’s educational trajectory turned in a different direction. He attended the Thomas M. Cooley School of Law in Michigan, which, InsideHigherEd.com once wrote, “is known for admitting students other law schools would not touch.”
In 1992, after law school, he returned to his home region and landed a job working for a personal injury attorney named Melvyn Estrin, who had an office on lower Broadway in Manhattan.
Estrin was the first in a series of colleagues who would run afoul of authorities. Within three years of Cohen’s arrival, Estrin was charged with bribing insurance adjusters to inflate damage estimates and expedite claims. He later pleaded guilty. Cohen was never implicated in any of the misdeeds. Estrin did not respond to a request for comment. He is still practicing law.
Cohen continued to use Estrin’s address on legal filings as late as 1999, but he added several new addresses during this period, including 22-05 43rd Ave., in Long Island City, Queens — the taxi garage. It was the headquarters of the New York branch of the empire of Simon Garber, a Soviet emigre who also has had cab companies in Chicago and Moscow. Charismatic and silver-haired, Garber released kitschy TV-style advertisements, in Russian, for his company.
Over the years, Garber has been convicted of assault in New York, arrested for battery in Miami and pleaded guilty in New Jersey to charges of criminal mischief involving him breaking into three neighbors’ homes, shattering glass doors, smearing blood all over and taking a shower. In Chicago, his taxi fleet included wrecked vehicles with illegally laundered titles.
Garber did not respond to a request for comment. (Two other attorneys had offices inside Garber’s offices in the early 2000s. One was forced to resign from the bar after he was accused of not turning money over to a client. The other was disbarred, in part for trying to steal money from the first lawyer.)
In 1994 Cohen married Laura Shusterman, who was born in the Soviet Union. Her father, also a taxi entrepreneur, pleaded guilty to a felony, conspiracy to defraud the IRS, the year before.
By the late 1990s, records show, Cohen had begun acquiring taxi medallions, licenses required by the City of New York to operate a yellow cab. The number of medallions has been strictly controlled for decades. Before the advent of services like Uber, they were particularly valuable, with their price peaking at over $1 million in 2014.
Cohen co-owned some of the medallions with his wife, and indeed, his family and business relationships sometimes overlapped. Filings show his father-in-law once made a loan to Garber. And in 2001, Cohen borrowed money for one of his taxi companies, Golden Child Cab Corp., from one of the men convicted with Cohen’s father-in-law, Fima Shusterman, in the fraud against the IRS.
Starting around 2000, Cohen was involved in scores of car insurance lawsuits, often on behalf of plaintiffs who claimed to have been injured in auto collisions and were seeking judgments to cover purported medical expenses.
At this time, a wave of staged auto accidents, involving immigrants from the former Soviet Union who claimed to have been hurt, had led prosecutors to open a massive investigation. They dubbed it Operation Boris, an acronym for Big Organized Russian Insurance Scam. The prosecutorial push resulted in hundreds of convictions.
Cohen also drew up incorporation papers for at least three medical practices and three medical billing companies. One company Cohen registered in 2002, Avex Medical Care PRC, sued insurance companies nearly 300 times. The plaintiffs lawyer in almost all of these cases was David Katz, who was disbarred later for professional misconduct.
The doctor who owned Avex was charged in 2003 with criminal insurance fraud connected with another medical business; the charge was dismissed. He’s now practicing medicine in New Jersey.
Dr. Zhanna Kanevsky, the principal of Life Quality Medical, a clinic business that Cohen incorporated in 2002, surrendered her medical license after pleading guilty to writing phony prescriptions for 100,000 oxycodone and other pills.
Once again, Cohen was never charged.
In the early 2000s, the rich asshole and Cohen became connected, fittingly, through real estate. Cohen started to transfer the wealth he’d gained from taxi medallions and insurance lawsuits to apartments in the rich asshole buildings. Along with his parents, his in-laws, and Simon Garber, Cohen acquired eight units in the rich asshole Palace, the rich asshole Park Avenue, and the rich asshole World Plaza. The man who operated out of a Queens taxi garage now owned apartments alongside the likes of Sophia Loren and Harrison Ford.
Cohen also began to show political ambitions. In 2003, he ran for City Council on Manhattan’s Upper East Side as a Republican. Even people close to his campaign weren’t sure why he ran.
His own campaign biography provided few answers — or rather, disparate ones. He claimed at the time to own 200 taxi medallions, to be a member of the Friars Club, an avid stamp collector, and a member of the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Inspector General advisory board.
Cohen lost the City Council race, but his donor list provides a snapshot of his network. He received contributions from his father, his father-in-law, and Bruce Winston, a son of the jeweler Harry Winston. A New York Republican with knowledge of Cohen’s 2003 campaign said Cohen told him then that he was Harry Winston’s in-house counsel at the time. The company says Cohen was never an employee.
Court papers show Cohen was one of the lawyers who helped Bruce Winston, and his daughter, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, in a legal action challenging Deutsche Bank’s conduct as trustee of Harry Winston’s estate. Their petition failed. (For her part, Wolkoff, a friend of Melania the rich asshole’s, later became the highest-paid contractor for some rich asshole’s inauguration, taking in an eye-popping $26 million, and sparking a backlash.)
It’s unclear when Cohen and the rich asshole first met, but the two were publicly linked in February 2007. The New York Post published an article then about an attorney who was purchasing large numbers of apartments in the rich asshole buildings. “the rich asshole properties are solid investments,” Cohen told the Post. the rich asshole returned the compliment, declaring Cohen to be a wise investor. “Michael Cohen has a great insight into the real-estate market,” he told the Post. “He has invested in my buildings because he likes to make money — and he does.”
Three months later, Cohen became an executive vice president at the rich asshole Organization, with the same job title as Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric the rich asshole.
Cohen was never a traditional in-house lawyer for the rich asshole. He has been described as both a “fixer” and a “dealmaker” — and it seems he embraced both roles. “He did jobs for Donald that no one else would do,” said one person who worked with Cohen, “especially not a lawyer. He did a lot of these jobs.”
Still, even after Cohen had joined the rich asshole Organization, he harbored personal political dreams. In 2010, Cohen mounted a second unsuccessful campaign, this time for the New York state Senate. Among his donors in that race were shipping magnate Oleg Mitnik and tobacco tycoon and New York real estate man Howard Lorber, one of some rich asshole’s closest friends.
Cohen continued to expand his role within the rich asshole universe. It had become simultaneously global, national and highly local. The rich asshole Organization’s business model had shifted, from building high-end Manhattan properties to scoping for international licensing deals, particularly in the former Soviet Union. Cohen, along with the rich asshole’s adult children, headed up this effort.
At a rich asshole Tower press conference in early 2011, Cohen took the public stage as an international dealmaker. “Seven months ago, at the request of a dear friend of mine from Georgia, Giorgi Rtskhiladze, I traveled to the Republic of Georgia to explore several real estate opportunities on behalf of some rich asshole,” Cohen said in his unmistakable Long Island accent. He then introduced the rich asshole and the then-president of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili.
The ostensible purpose of the press conference was to talk up a planned tower in the city of Batumi, on the Black Sea coast. But most of the questions centered on some rich asshole’s possible run for president.
Months earlier, Michael Cohen had helped set up a website called shouldtrumprun.com with the Long Island law firm Gerstman Schwartz & Malito. (David Schwartz is a longtime Cohen friend and attorney who made several television appearances on Cohen’s behalf when the Stormy Daniels news broke.) Cohen also traveled to Iowa to explore the political terrain.
Shouldtrumprun.com was billed as independent of the rich asshole; otherwise the rich asshole would have had to file papers with the Federal Election Commission on his own behalf. At the press conference, the rich asshole was peppered with political questions. “Could you comment on the kind of feedback or what you took from the feedback from Mr. Cohen’s Iowa trip,” one reporter asked. “You could ask Mr. Cohen. You can speak to him,” the rich asshole replied.
But she pressed. “Are you encouraged by anything that you saw or read out of that? the rich asshole couldn’t resist. “Well,” he said, “I mean the response has been amazing, actually.”
Another response: A complaint was filed with the Federal Election Commission, alleging the rich asshole had accepted “excessive or impermissible contributions from the rich asshole Organization, LLC” because shouldtrumprun.com was set up by an employee: Michael Cohen. the rich asshole and Cohen were cleared of wrongdoing. One of the two commissioners who signed off on the ruling was Donald McGahn. McGahn later became the rich asshole’s White House counsel.
There’s another piece of public work that Cohen was involved in that further shows the close links among the rich asshole, Cohen, and the attorney David Schwartz. During the same time period of the Georgia deal and shouldtrumprun.com, Schwartz and Cohen were both working on a project called the rich asshole on the Ocean, which aimed to construct a massive catering hall in the popular Jones Beach State Park on Long Island.
the rich asshole was so keen on this project that, unusually even for him, he called four governors and a state comptroller to lobby for it, according to former state officials. In at least one of the calls, he cited his generous donations as a reason to get the clearances he needed to move forward.
the rich asshole put Cohen in charge of the negotiations. But some state officials balked at what they saw as an attempt to commercialize a state park, and the rich asshole’s insistence that the state override its fire code so he could build a kitchen in the basement.
The lobbying was contentious, said Judith Enck, the top environmental advisr for Govs. Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson (and later the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency for the New York region), who was involved in the negotiations. “That was not a typical discussion with a business that was trying to do business with the state of New York. It was aggressive,” Enck said. “There were efforts to go around me to get a better outcome in the discussion … I recall it as you know one of the most unpleasant experiences I had in the governor’s office.”
Misery, perhaps, for a government official — but triumph for the rich asshole, Cohen and Schwartz. They got permission to begin construction. “GREAT JOB!” the rich asshole wrote in a note to Schwartz. “I will hire your firm again!”
Alas, it was all for naught in the end. Months later, the tail of Superstorm Sandy inundated Jones Beach and the rich asshole walked away from the project.
Three years later, when the rich asshole made a run for the White House, Cohen continued to serve both as promoter and dealmaker. He frequently appeared on TV as a rich asshole surrogate, though he had no official campaign position. In one interview in the summer of 2016, Cohen refused to acknowledge that polls strongly favored Hillary Clinton. He badgered CNN anchor Brianna Keilar when she referred to the rich asshole’s then-dismal poll numbers. “Says who?” Cohen shot back. “What polls?” The anchor, seemingly mystified, answered, “All of them?” The clip went viral.
Cohen’s truculent tendencies were also on display a year before that interview when he threatened Daily Beast reporter Tim Mak. Mak had resurfaced an old accusation made by some rich asshole’s first wife, Ivana, during their divorce proceedings, that the rich asshole had raped her. (She later withdrew the allegation.) “I’m warning you,” Mak says Cohen told him, “tread very fucking lightly because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting.”
Behind the scenes, Cohen was still attempting to make deals for the rich asshole in the former Soviet Union. Cohen drafted a letter of intent with a Moscow investment company to build the rich asshole World Tower Moscow.
Cohen’s partner in the deal was Felix Sater, a rich asshole associate who had been convicted of assault and securities fraud and had widely reported connections to the Russian mob. “Let’s make this happen and build a rich asshole Moscow,” Sater wrote in an email to Cohen. “And possibly fix relations between the countries by showing everyone commerce and business are much better and more practical than politics.”
In another email, Sater wrote, “Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it.” In a statement issued last summer, Cohen called this “puffery” and said Sater was prone to colorful language and salesmanship.
Cohen’s activities drew the attention of Christopher Steele, a former British spy who was assembling raw intelligence on the rich asshole campaign for a private client (ultimately paid for by the Clinton campaign). The resulting collection of documents has become known as “the dossier.”
Steele’s memo included the assertion that Cohen met with Russian contacts in Prague after damaging news emerged about the rich asshole’s former campaign manager and an aide. “The overall objective had been ‘sweep it all under the carpet and make sure no connection could be fully established or proven,’” Steele wrote in a memo dated Oct. 19, 2016.
In statements and court documents, Cohen has vociferously denied ever visiting Prague, even dispensing photos of his passport, with no Czech stamps visible, as putative proof. Cohen has filed two defamation lawsuits over the release of the dossier. But now McClatchy has reported that special counsel Robert Mueller has evidence that Cohen was in Prague in late summer 2016. (And the photographic “proof” Cohen offered may turn out to be moot, according to the McClatchy article, since he reportedly entered the Czech Republic from Germany, which would not have required him to pass through immigration or customs.)
One thing that Cohen does not dispute: In October 2016, he was involved in fixing another problem, this time by paying $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels. Cohen asserts he did this on his own, with money he obtained from a home equity line of credit.
When FBI agents searched Cohen’s offices on April 9, 2018, they were seeking evidence relating to the Stormy Daniels payment. They were also, according to the Washington Post, sifting through business records relating to Cohen’s taxi medallions. There may still be answers to be found in Queens.
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Russian news agencies say US told Moscow no new sanctions for now
the rich asshole's relationship with Moscow has stalked the first year of his presidency, with key former aides under a US investigation for alleged collaboration with the Kremlin. (SPUTNIK/AFP / Mikhail KLIMENTYEV)
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Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday that U.S. President some rich asshole’s administration had informed the Russian embassy in Washington that the United States had no immediate plans to impose new sanctions.
Relations between Moscow and Washington are in focus after the United States imposed fresh sanctions on Russia in early April, triggering a massive sell-off on Russian markets and raising global geopolitical tensions to a new level.
“I can confirm that the United States has informed the Russian embassy that there will be no new sanctions for now,” TASS cited a source in the Russian foreign ministry as saying.
Interfax, TASS and RIA agencies published similar reports at the same time, citing one source at the Russian foreign ministry.
Interfax said the Russian embassy in Washington received a letter from the rich asshole administration, while RIA said it was a notification.
The reports moved the market, helping the rouble pair losses, and echoed previous statements by a senior U.S. administration official on Monday that the rich asshole had delayed imposing fresh penalties.
The reports moved the market, helping the rouble pair losses, and echoed previous statements by a senior U.S. administration official on Monday that the rich asshole had delayed imposing fresh penalties.
This official said the rich asshole was concerned that immediately imposing more sanctions, on the heels of last weekend’s U.S.-led strike against Russian-backed Assad, would interfere with his efforts to negotiate agreements with Russian President Vladimir Putin on combating Islamic extremism, policing the internet and other issues.
The United States on April 6 imposed sanctions against Russian entities and individuals to punish Moscow for its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and what the U.S. Treasury Department dubbed other “malign activity.”
Russia denies any interference in the U.S. election.
In retaliation, Russian lawmakers proposed a wide range of measures to the U.S. sanctions last week, including banning U.S.-made software and alcohol.
A decision on Russia’s counter-measures has been postponed until mid-May, after the inauguration of Putin, who won another six-year term in March presidential elections.
An evangelical professor explains the troubled nostalgia and racial anxiety behind Christians’ support for the rich asshole
President some rich asshole meets with religious leaders in the Oval Office on the National Day of Prayer. (Screenshot)
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In the wake of some rich asshole’s election (and since) many tried to answer the question, “Why would evangelicals support him?” According to the Pew Research Center 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for some rich asshole, an astonishing margin given the rich asshole’s lack of church involvement and his, um, complicated personal history. But few solid analyses have come from within the movement itself. Instead, most pundits have either treated evangelicalism as an oddity or revealed their own personal alienation from the movement.
This article is reprinted with permission from Religion Dispatches. Follow RD on Facebookor Twitter for daily updates.
Messiah College historian John Fea has earned the right to author a book on this topic. His research focuses on American Christianity, including his nuanced, Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? that book put the lie to David Barton’s Christian nationalist mythology, and his critiques of evangelical writer Eric Metaxas, which earned a blocking on Twitter. Fea’s blog, “The Way of Improvement Leads Home,” enjoys wide appreciation. I consider John a friendly and admired acquaintance.
Fea is an insider who teaches at an evangelical college and attends an evangelical megachurch. When he describes the experience of walking into his church the Sunday after the 2016 election, surmising that most of his fellow believers had voted for a horrible person like some rich asshole, I feel his pain.
Fea begins by setting forth the obvious reasons one might expect evangelicals to reject some rich asshole. the rich asshole’s faults extend beyond personal moral failings and “virtually no evidence of a Spirit-filled life.” Other Republican candidates shared conservative policy values, and with greater consistency than the rich asshole, and possessed far more compelling spiritual bona fides. Yet before the rich asshole defeated Hilary Clinton, he defeated those conservative Christian candidates. White evangelicals still support the rich asshole.
Fea walks a fine line between empathy for his fellow evangelicals and critical appraisal. He believes evangelicals hold legitimate grievances against Democrats. He explains that during the Obama administration evangelicals experienced setbacks at a dizzying pace, particularly with respect to matters of gender and sexuality. Obama’s stance on abortion could be taken as a given, but his change of mind on same-sex marriage—if it was indeed a change of mind—was an unwelcome surprise. Fea perceives attacks on religious liberty in the Affordable Care Act’s requirements concerning birth control and the Obama Justice Department’s enforcement of civil rights for LGBT persons. All of these factors motivated evangelicals to believe that they and their movement were under siege.
But evangelicals will also feel Fea’s sting. In Fea’s analysis, three tropes—fear, nostalgia, and power—primarily account for the rich asshole’s appeal to evangelicals. A sense of cultural disorientation tinged with racism plays into the long-standing conservative strategy—the appeal to fear, nurtured by the rich asshole more effectively than any other candidate. If evangelicals disagreed with his policies, “Obama’s biracialism, single-parent upbringing, and global experiences made him a poster child for the demographic changes taking place in the country.” Fea’s chapter, “A Short History of Evangelical Fear,” is worth the price of the book.
Evangelicals long for a mythical Christian past, and the rich asshole’s “Make America Great Again” mantra appeals directly to that troubled nostalgia. But Fea presses, “Christians should be very careful when they long for the days when America was apparently ‘great.’” Are we appealing to the post-war boom in church attendance, which occurred with Jim Crow in force and when marital rape was legal? And by embracing prominent evangelical leaders, whom Fea labels “court evangelicals,” the rich asshole assuages evangelicals’ gaping wound—disenfranchisement—by granting them access to power. Readers will come away with a nuanced appreciation for fear, nostalgia, and power as fundamental elements of evangelical discourse.
But there are other ways to tell the story. Fea repeatedly calls the rich asshole a “strongman,” suggesting the threat of authoritarianism. Perhaps Fea could have more directly tied the rich asshole’s appeal to evangelicalism’s prominent authoritarian streak as part of a global erosion of participatory democracy. He comes close to doing so by telling the story of evangelical fear—including emerging responses to immigration, and by assessing the movement’s longing for power—but Fea stops short of saying that evangelicalism has long had a problem with authoritarianism and alternative facts.
The question of race figures prominently in Fea’s analysis, but it does not rise to the level of the Big Three: fear, nostalgia, and power. I weigh racism as a larger contributor in white evangelical Trumpism. Our respective backgrounds may account for our differences on this point. I grew up in the South; Fea did not. Perhaps historians need to take greater account of the divergent histories within evangelicalism.
Fea repeatedly notes evangelicals’ mixed (at best) history with respect to race relations. He devotes nine pages to the history of racial fear in the evangelical South, but he never gets messy with the most telling factor: that no other religious group even remotely approaches white evangelicals’ preference for the rich asshole. Race proved one of the most decisive predictors of the rich asshole support, and white evangelicals were the most loyal the rich asshole voting bloc of all.
At one point Fea flirts with a pointed analysis of racism. He discusses how the Hart-Celler Act changed immigration patterns in the United States, bringing more people of color and more non-Christians into the population than had ever come before. The Act, he argues, instilled fear in white evangelicals. Fea locates immigration in the context of evangelical fear that Christianity was losing its hold on American culture.
But the caution of his argument fails him. When he takes up the ambiguous (again, at best) engagement of evangelicals with the Civil Rights Movement, he rehearses “the relationship between race and evangelical opposition to ‘big government’ intervention in state and local affairs.” But here’s the problem: for a long period of time, evangelical resistance to activist government emerged out of resistance to civil rights. It has no other meaningful origin. Prior to the Civil Rights Movement and the Reagan Revolution, white Southerners had voted Democrat, supporting organized labor, government infrastructure programs, and investment in education. The big government argument is precisely the point at which Republicans values united with Southern racism to transform American politics.
Perspective is everything. One could rehearse a history of evangelical progressivism in the nineteenth century, with a spotlight on Charles Finney’s inclusion of women and opposition to slavery. One could call attention to the interracial outbreak of Pentecostalism at Azusa Street. But that story is highly selective. It has almost nothing to do with Southern evangelicalism.
The very term “Southern evangelicalism” poses problems. A huge chunk of what we call the evangelical movement today would have identified themselves simply as “Christians” in the South of my childhood. Our evangelical-mainline distinctions made little difference to most people. Southern Baptists were, well, Southern, and rarely identified as evangelical. Churches of Christ, a massively influential movement in parts of the South and Midwest, had little to do with other Christian groups. Southern Methodists and Presbyterians didn’t merge with their national counterparts until 1968 and 1983, respectively. Today’s Presbyterian Church in America emerged from pro-segregation Southern Presbyterians and only recently repented of its racist roots. A key question today might involve the degree to which a Southern ethos, complete with its implicit racism, shapes American evangelicalism.
This is a good and timely book. Fea is correct that evangelicals feel a sense of cultural disenfranchisement. But I do wish Fea had addressed authoritarianism and racism more directly. Polling data from 2016 reveals both as primary factors in the rich asshole support.
Just decades ago conservative white churches constituted what amounted to cultural Christianity in the South. Before the rise of the Religious Right, they saw little common cause with Northern evangelicals. But while other evangelicals feel tension with the broader culture over religion, Southern evangelical alienation is largely about being Southern. And being Southern is all about race.
Schiff pushes bill to review any the rich asshole pardons in Russia probe
BY JOHN BOWDEN -
California Rep. Adam Schiff (D) has introduced a bill that would give Congress oversight of any pardon that President the rich asshole grants to a subject of the Russia investigation or to a member of his family.
In the event that the rich asshole pardons someone connected to the Russia prbe, Schiff's bill, known as the Abuse of the Pardon Prevention Act, would require the Justice Department to turn the case files for the investigation over to the House Judiciary Committee.
If the case file contains classified information, it would also be supplied to the House Intelligence Committee.
Schiff told USA Today that the impetus of his bill was the rich asshole's decision last week to pardon I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, an aide to the Bush administration convicted of lying to the FBI in an investigation into the leak of the identity of a CIA agent.
"It would allow Congress to determine whether a pardon is an effort to obstruct justice," Schiff told the newspaper. "I think it would have the effect of discouraging a pardon used for the purpose of shielding the president or his family from prosecution."
In the release, Schiff called the possibility of the rich asshole granting a pardon to subjects of the Russia investigation "unsettling." Several former members of the rich asshole's campaign, including former chairman Paul Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, have been caught up in charges amid the investigation.
"There are unsettling indications that President the rich asshole could use the expansive pardon power granted by the Constitution as an instrument to undermine the Special Counsel’s investigation and other investigations into his business, family or his associates," Schiff writes.
"At a time of constitutional peril, it is incumbent on the Congress to stand up for the rule of law by creating a strong disincentive to the President issuing pardons to protect himself and obstruct ongoing investigations.”
the rich asshole last week issued the pardon of Libby, whom he said was treated "unfairly."
"I don’t know Mr. Libby," the rich asshole said in a statement. "But for years I have heard that he has been treated unfairly. Hopefully, this full pardon will help rectify a very sad portion of his life."
Fox News pledges full support of TV host Hannity
Sean Hannity (Photo: Screen capture)
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Fox News said on Tuesday it was putting its “full support” behind television host Sean Hannity after it was revealed that he had an “informal relationship” with U.S. President some rich asshole’s personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Fox News said that it did not know about the relationship.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Cohen’s home and office on April 9 as part of a criminal investigation, seizing as many as 10 boxes, hard drives and electronic equipment.
U.S. prosecutors conducted the search partly on a referral by the Office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Federal prosecutors are investigating Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud, and possible campaign law violations in connection with a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels and perhaps other matters having to do with foreign support to the rich asshole’s 2016 campaign, a source familiar with the investigation said.
Cohen was forced on Monday to reveal in a New York federal court that Hannity, one of the rich asshole’s most ardent defenders, was on his client list. Cohen disclosed Hannity’s name through one of his own lawyers at the order of the judge.
Federal prosecutors are investigating Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud, and possible campaign law violations in connection with a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels and perhaps other matters having to do with foreign support to the rich asshole’s 2016 campaign, a source familiar with the investigation said.
Cohen was forced on Monday to reveal in a New York federal court that Hannity, one of the rich asshole’s most ardent defenders, was on his client list. Cohen disclosed Hannity’s name through one of his own lawyers at the order of the judge.
Cohen was in court to ask the judge to limit the ability of federal prosecutors to review documents that were seized.
Hannity, 56, said on Monday that he had never paid for Cohen’s services or been represented by him, but had sought confidential legal advice from him. The conservative host often uses his weeknight broadcast on Fox News to defend the president against what he sees as biased attacks by the media. the rich asshole has also praised Hannity.
Reporting by Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe
the rich asshole allies fear that both Pence and Nikki Haley will backstab him — and run against him in 2020: report
President some rich asshole addresses violence in Charlottesville -- screengrab
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Allies of President some rich asshole are reportedly worried about Vice President Mike Pence and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley getting too close, as they fear they could backstab the president ahead of his 2020 reelection bid.
A New York Times report claims that “Republicans close to the White House” are whispering “about the prospect of an alliance between Haley and Vice President Mike Pence, possibly to run as a ticket in 2020.” Times reporter Maggie Haberman similarly writes on Twitter that “the prospect of a Pence-Haley political alliance raised ire of people close to the rich asshole.”
The prospect of a Pence-Haley political alliance raised ire of people close to Trump nytimes.com/2018/04/17/wor…
What has spooked the rich asshole allies, according to the report, was Pence’s recent decision to hire longtime the rich asshole critic Jon Lerner as his own national security adviser — a move that the rich asshole angrily squashed after he learned that Lerner had made anti-the rich asshole ads on behalf of the right-wing Club for Growth during the 2016 Republican primaries.
Haley, meanwhile, has been openly feuding with the White House after she said on Sunday that there would be additional sanctions levied against Russia — only to be shot down by the rich asshole one day after her announcement.
More than 40 Dem House challengers outraising GOP incumbents
BY BEN KAMISAR AND LISA HAGEN - 04/18/18 11:51 AM EDT
More than 40 House Democratic candidates outraised Republican incumbents in the first fundraising quarter of 2018, another booming fundraising period for the left.
By comparison, Republican challengers outraised Democratic incumbents in just two seats, according to the Cook Political Report.
The most recent trends build on strong fundraising quarters by Democrats that have prompted concerns from Republicans about their ability to hold the House.
“That's going to force the [National Republican Campaign Committee] NRCC and Congressional Leadership Fund to bail out a lot of cash-strapped GOP candidates come the fall.”
On top of the quarterly reports, 15 Republican incumbents had less cash on hand than their likely Democratic challengers, according to Open Secrets.
One of the most striking examples is Democrat Dan McCready, who’s been a consistently strong fundraiser and a top recruit for the party.
He raised about $615,000 in the first quarter of the year, nearly doubling the haul of Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.), who brought in about $350,000.
The clean energy expert also has a massive cash advantage, with more than $1.3 million on hand. Pittenger has about $253,000 in the bank, which he will need not only for the general but also to get through a tough primary.
Pittenger will face a rematch against Republican Mark Harris, who lost by just 134 votes in the 2016 primary.
Those dynamics have prompted the Cook analysts to change ratings in seven races in favor of Democrats.
The race for the Arizona House seat former held by Rep. Trent Franks (R) — who resigned after reportedly discussing paying a staffer to act as a surrogate mother — shifted from solid Republican to likely Republican.
That election is being fought on clear GOP turf, as the district is considered a Republican stronghold and President the rich asshole won it in 2016 by 21 points.
Yet recent polling is showing the race tightening. One survey last week found Democrat Hiral Tipirneni trailing Republican Debbie Lesko by 10 points, while two polls released this week — one a non-partisan poll from Emerson College and another internal poll by the Democrat’s campaign — found the race within the margin of error.
Other races that shifted to the left include those involving Republican Reps. French Hill (Ark.), Randy Hultgren (Ill.), Jack Bergman (Mich.), David Joyce (Ohio), Ralph Norman (S.C.) and Tom Garrett (Va.). All of those Republicans were outraised by their likely Democratic opponents.
Democratic candidates are the leading fundraisers in 15 open seats currently held by a Republican. Republicans lead in just three currently Democratic-held open seats, according to Cook.
Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats in the midterms to retake the majority in the House. According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Democrats currently have a 5.5 percentage point lead over Republicans on a generic congressional ballot.
Democrats are optimistic that a combination of historical trends, which typically find the incumbent president's party losing seats in a midterm election, as well as President the rich asshole's dismal favorability rating could contribute to a strong showing in November.
James Comey says GOP turned itself into a rich asshole cult in exchange for tax cuts — so he’s leaving
FBI director James Comey (Brookings Institution/Flickr)
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Former FBI Director James Comey was once a proud Republican, but not anymore.
He made the decision after tangles with the White House and the Republican National Committee’s launch of a site called “Lyin’ Comey,” after President some rich asshole’s attacks, according to an interview on the ABC News podcast “Start Here.”
“The Republican party has left me, and many others,” Comey said, explaining his abandonment. “I just think they’ve lost their way and I can’t be associated with it.”
Despite the resurgence of the tea party, Comey said that the evolution of the GOP has “probably been over the rich asshole presidency” and his followers.
“These people don’t represent anything I believe in,” he said of the GOP.
According to him, the Republican Party has turned into a rich asshole party.
“I see the Republican Party, as near as I can tell, reflects now entirely some rich asshole’s values,” Comey explained. “It doesn’t reflect values at all. It’s transactional, it’s ego-driven, it’s in service to his ego. And it’s, I think, consoling itself that we’re going to achieve important policy goals — a tax cut or something.”
The Republican Party is expected to lose seats in the upcoming midterm elections. Comey marks one more voter they’ve lost.
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April 18, 2018
Republicans are once again trying to block a special election — this time, for a Senate vacancy that hasn't even happened yet.
Some Republicans in Arizona seem to be dismissing the possibility Sen. John McCain, who is battling cancer, might leave the Senate due to illness. But in a suspicious coincidence, they just wrote legislation that would prevent a special election this year, which would only be necessary if the seat were vacated.
According to the Associated Press, the bill was originally intended to address the special election process for House races after Rep. Trent Franks resigned in disgrace for sexual harassment. But Republicans in the state Senate slipped an “emergency clause” into the bill, changing the deadline for a Senate special election from May 31 to March 31.
That would mean if McCain resigns, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey could appoint a replacement to last through 2020.
This ploy is just the latest in a series of panicked moves by Republicans to cancel elections they fear losing.
Earlier this year, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker tried to deny special elections in Assembly District 42 and Senate District 1, fearing the vacant Republican seats might flip blue. He gave up only after he was ordered to hold elections by three separate courts, including a judge he appointed.
Republicans are already defending the open seat of departing Sen. Jeff Flake, one of their most vulnerable races. Having both of Arizona’s Senate seats open at once would be a nightmare for them, in no small part because they’re struggling with candidates.
There is Rep. Martha McSally, a lockstep right-wing partisan best known for planting fake social media posts praising herself. There is former state Sen. Kelli Ward, who has called for abolishing all federal gun laws, wants America to exit the U.N., and drew fire recently for mocking military service. And there is disgraced ex-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who ran self-described “concentration camps” in the Arizona desert, had to be pardoned by the rich asshole for criminal contempt of court, and whose platform includes continuing to argue President Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud.
Arizona Republicans will struggle to get just one of these candidates through a general election, let alone two.
In fact, a similar situation is already unfolding in Mississippi. Sen. Roger Wicker already has a regularly scheduled election, but Sen. Thad Cochran resigned on April 1 due to poor health. With both the state’s Senate seats on the ballot this fall, the odds of white supremacist state Sen. Chris McDaniel being a nominee are up — and so are the odds of a Roy Moore-style implosion that hands a deep red seat to Democrats. As a consequence, some election forecasters no longer rate Mississippi as safe for the GOP.
The GOP’s woes in the House are evident, as even districts the rich asshole won by 20 points become competitive and flip blue. But now the Senate, once thought to be a lock for Republicans, is also shifting in ways that erode the GOP’s advantage. Between primary chaos in states where Republicans hope to beat Democratic incumbents, and formidable Democratic candidates making a play for seats held by Republicans, the GOP can no longer be sure they will walk away in November with either chamber.
And as the last-ditch maneuvers in Arizona prove, Republicans know they cannot afford any more shakeups.
Biden to decide on White House run at end of year
BY BOB CUSACK - 04/18/18 11:25 AM EDT
Spotted: Former Vice President Joe Biden, sporting his trademark sunglasses and a sharp blue tie, at Reagan Washington National Airport getting on the D.C. shuttle to LaGuardia Wednesday morning.
Asked when he will decide on whether to launch a 2020 presidential bid, Biden smiled and told The Hill, “Oh, not until the end of the year.”
Other passengers also greeted and shook hands with Biden.
President the rich asshole, who has clashed publicly with Biden, agrees with the former veep on LaGuardia. the rich asshole has taken several shots at the airport.
the rich asshole contradicts himself on Comey firing in another angry tweet
some rich asshole speaks to NBC News anchor Lester Holt on June 23, 2016. (Media Matters)
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President some rich asshole contradicted his past statements on firing FBI director James Comey in a Wednesday morning tweet.
Comey has been sharply criticizing the rich asshole and questioning his fidelity to the United States as the former lawman promotes his new book, “A Higher Loyalty” — and the president has angrily hit back.
“Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)!” the rich asshole tweeted.
the rich asshole admitted to NBC News anchor Lester Holt shortly after firing Comey that the Russia investigation played a role in his decision.
“In fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with the rich asshole and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won,'” the rich asshole said.
The president also admitted to firing Comey over the investigation during a private Oval Office meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador to the U.S. the day after relieving the FBI director of his duty.
“I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job,” the rich asshole told the Russian officials, according to a document summarizing the meeting. “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”
“I’m not under investigation,” he added.
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April 18, 2018
Last year, the rich asshole admitted he fired FBI Director James Comey to try to shut down the Russia investigation. Now, all of a sudden, he's saying his own story isn't true.
the rich asshole has spent almost a year admitting that he obstructed justice when he fired FBI Director James Comey on May 9, 2017, but now he seems to be trying to undo that with a single tweet.
On Wednesday morning, the rich asshole followed up an ill-advised tweet about the Stormy Daniels scandal with yet another attack on former FBI Director James Comey.
The new denial comes days after White House counselor Kellyanne Conway tried to revive the administration’s original cover story for Comey’s firing: that he was removed at the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for his unfair treatment of Hillary Clinton while investigating her emails.
But just days after he fired Comey, the rich asshole admitted the Rosenstein memo was a pretext. He told NBC News’ Lester Holt that he intended to fire Comey “regardless of recommendation,” and that the Russia investigation was at the top of his mind when he did it.
“When I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said ‘you know, this Russia thing with the rich asshole and Russia is a made-up story,” he told Holt. “It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.'”
He also told Russian officials, in a secret Oval Office meeting the day after Comey’s firing, that the firing had relieved the pressure from the Russia investigation.
the rich asshole has spent a good portion of the year since Comey’s firing basically admitting to obstruction of justice. He has also complained repeatedly that Comey wasn’t tough enough on Clinton, undermining his own supposed justification for the firing in the first place.
Whatever decent legal advice the rich asshole has gotten may finally be sinking in, but it’s too little, too late.
MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt deplores the rich asshole’s Twitter war with porn actress: ‘Barbara Bush is drinking bourbon in heaven’
Kasie Hunt (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosts spent Wednesday honoring the life of Barbara Bush — until the 45th president got into a Twitter dispute with a former porn star who says he once sent a hired goon to threaten her.
Hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski had the morning off, and co-host Willie Geist filled in with MSNBC congressional reporter Kasie Hunt, and they led a discussion of the rich asshole’s most direct response yet to Stormy Daniels’ claims.
“Whatever you think about Michael Avenatti, he has been a beast,” said MSNBC contributor Eddie Glaude Jr. “Every trap that he’s set the rich asshole’s lawyers have stepped into, but every trap has been designed to get the rich asshole to step into it — so the gaggle on Air Force One and now this tweet.”
Glaude, who’s chair of the Center for African-American Studies at Princeton University, quoted Avenatti’s tweeted responses to the president’s denials to mock the rich asshole for walking into the lawyer’s latest trap.
“‘Welcome to the playing field,’ right?” Glaude said. “‘Where have you been?’ We think he’s been playing the media, trying to be kind of out there, (but) he’s been really trying to get the rich asshole to step out, and here he’s done it.”
MSNBC analyst Mike Barnicle said the president’s increasingly frantic tweets had already been normalized, and Geist asked presidential historian Jon Meacham to put the latest Twitter rants into context.
“Is there a Franklin Pierce reference, something could you drop in here?” Geist asked.
Meacham found himself at somewhat of a loss.
“I was going to mention that when Chester Arthur tweeted about the Ringling Bros. burlesque show, you know — you genuinely can’t make it up,” Meacham said.
The leading headlines before the rich asshole’s tweets were the disconnect between the White House and UN ambassador Nikki Haley over Russia sanctions and the death of Barbara Bush, so Meacham put the tweets into context against those stories.
“Someone used the phrase, ‘the thinking in the White House,’ and the way Nikki Haley said, ‘With all due respect’ — there is none on this, it’s not,” Meacham said. “We have this remarkable cable addict who is tweeting away, and I’m sorry to link the two, but here we are in a day where we’re thinking about the way George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Bush presided over the country, and on that morning the 45th president tweets about this. You know, lest anyone miss the point that this all proves Darwin, let’s underscore this moment.”
Hunt capped off the segment with a tribute to the late first lady.
“I think Barbara Bush is drinking bourbon in heaven right now,” Hunt said.
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April 18, 2018
Republicans fear erratic messaging is dooming their tax sales pitch. Truth is, voters aren't buying the message.
Some Republicans are still clinging to the idea that they can sell their tax giveaway to corporations and billionaires during this year midterm election cycle. But they insist the rich asshole is stepping all over their plans with his erratic behavior and muddled messaging.
Republicans seem to be less willing to acknowledge reality that the party’s signature legislative achievement under the rich asshole is simply widely unpopular with voters.
“People aren’t talking about it enough, and when people aren’t talking about it enough, that’s a problem,” Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told the Washington Examiner.
It’s pretty clear, though, that the rich asshole is the one who isn’t talking enough about it. Instead, he’s been focused on trying to start a trade war, when not denigrating immigrants or lashing out at former FBI Director James Comey and special counsel Robert Mueller.
Earlier this month, for instance, the rich asshole traveled to West Virginia for what was billed as a “Roundtable Discussion on Tax Reform.” But he quickly ditched his prepared remarks about taxes, calling them “boring,” and turned the event into ugly political rally.
“Remember my opening remarks at the rich asshole Tower?” he said, referring to his racist campaign kick-off in 2015. “I used the word ‘rape.’ And yesterday it came out where, this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobody’s ever seen before.”
Indeed, the rich asshole’s erratic behavior makes it nearly impossible for Republican to focus a public discussion on taxes. In recent weeks, the rich asshole and the White House have become completely consumed by the Stormy Daniels hush-money scandal, as well as the blockbuster news that the FBI raided the office and home of the rich asshole’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, were raided.
It also can’t help that Speaker Paul Ryan, the chief proponent of the tax bill, has essentially admitted defeat and decided to retire from Congress at the end of his term, making him a far less effective messenger.
But would focusing on the tax bill actually help Republicans? Not likely.
Nationally, just 27 percent of Americans approve of the bill, which Republicans thought was going to be the hallmark of their midterm campaigns. Indeed, at the time of the signing, the rich asshole bragged, “I don’t think I’m going to have to travel too much to sell it. I think it’s selling itself.”
In an affluent state like New Jersey where the GOP tax bill should, in theory, be popular with voters, just 19 percent think their taxes will go down thanks to the GOP bill.
Privately, Republicans have reason to panic because they already know the tax bill isn’t working electorally. It’s not working in purple states (Virginia), and it’s not working in red states (Alabama). In both those places, Republicans last year lost statewide races they thought they could win, in part by running on a tax cut agenda.
Republicans also tried that in Pennsylvania, for the special election in the 18th District. GOP-friendly groups initially spent heavily on pro-tax cut television ads, only to pull them when it became clear the message was not resonating with voters, who flipped the solidly Republican district blue last month.
And oh yeah, the rich asshole still won’t release his tax returns. Voters have likely noticed that.
the rich asshole claims he didn't fire Comey because of Russia investigation
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 04/18/18 08:27 AM EDT
President the rich asshole on Wednesday claimed he didn't fire James Comey due to the Russia investigation, even though he had previously cited the probe when discussing his decision to fire the former FBI director.
"Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)!" the rich asshole tweeted Wednesday.
Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)!
The claim comes after the rich asshole last year specifically cited the investigation into Russian election interference while explaining his decision to fire Comey.
“Regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey,” the rich asshole said during an interview on NBC last year.
“And, in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, ‘You know, this Russia thing with the rich asshole and Russia is a made up story,’ ” the rich asshole continued.
“It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won."
the rich asshole in recent days has been going on the attack against Comey, referring to the former FBI director as a "slimeball" and saying he will go down as the worst FBI director in history.
Comey has been doing a media blitz to promote his new book, "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership."
During a Tuesday interview on "The Late Show," Comey told host Stephen Colbert that he was surprised when he got fired.
"I thought, I’m leading the Russia investigation. Even though our relationship was becoming strained, there’s no way I’m going to get fired," Comey said during the interview.
During an interview on ABC that aired Sunday night, Comey said there's "certainly some evidence" the rich asshole obstructed justice when he asked about the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Comey also said during the ABC interview he thinks it's possible the rich asshole is compromised by Russia.
the rich asshole has repeatedly attacked the Russia probe and has denied collusion between his campaign and Moscow.
the rich asshole finally tweets about Stormy Daniels, accidentally incriminates himself
How would he know?
On Wednesday morning, President the rich asshole claimed that a composite sketch of the man Stormy Daniels says threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 is of “a nonexistent man.”
the rich asshole retweeted a sketch of the man posted by a pseudonymous Twitter account, “Deplorably Scottish,” and wrote, “A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”
A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)! twitter.com/shennafoxmusic…
Daniels claims the threat against her occurred in 2011, shortly after the rich asshole’s longtime attorney and “fixer,” Michael Cohen, called In Touch Magazine and threatened to sue if the outlet ran an interview with Daniels recounting her affair.
During a recent interview with Anderson Cooper, Daniels recounted how “I was in a parking lot, going to a fitness class with my infant daughter,” when “a guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave the rich asshole alone. Forget the story.’ And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.’ And then he was gone.”
Shortly before the 2016 election, Daniels accepted a $130,000 payment from Cohen in exchange for her public silence about her relationship with the rich asshole. While Cohen used a the rich asshole Organization email account to arrange the transfer of funds to Daniels, he claims that the rich asshole had no knowledge of the payment — which would violate federal law if it was meant to bolster the rich asshole’s chances of getting elected.
During a brief question-and-answer session with reporters aboard Air Force One earlier this month, the rich asshole — who has denied having an affair with Daniels — said he knew nothing about the payment. Pressed on why Cohen would have made it, he said, “You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael.”
But it’s unclear how the rich asshole could have knowledge of what did or didn’t happen to Daniels in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 — particularly if, as he claims, he wasn’t aware of Cohen’s activities regarding Daniels.
Last week, Cohen’s office, home, and hotel room were raided by FBI agents seeking records pertaining to the Daniels payment, among other things.
The sketch was revealed on Tuesday’s edition of The View by Daniels and her attorney, Michael Avenatti. Daniels and Avenatti announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the suspect’s identification.
the rich asshole’s tweet on Wednesday marks the first time he’s addressed Daniels’ accusations on Twitter. According to the New York Times, the rich asshole’s advisers have warned him about the perils of tweeting about Daniels and Karen McDougal, another woman who claims to have had an affair from the rich asshole and received a payment shortly before the election in exchange for rights to her story.
Daniels described the affair in convincing detail during the 2011 interview with In Touch, which has since been published.
Avenatti reacted to the rich asshole’s tweet by suggesting it opens the door to a defamation claim.
“In my experience, there is nothing better in litigation than having a completely unhinged, undisciplined opponent who is prone to shooting himself in the foot,” he tweeted. “Always leads to BIGLY problems…like new claims (i.e. defamation).”
Avenatti argues that the hush agreement between Daniels, the rich asshole and a shell company set up by Cohen is invalid because the rich asshole says he was not aware of it and never actually signed it.
The Hill's Morning Report: Haley clashes with White House
BY JONATHAN EASLEY AND ALEXIS SIMENDINGER - 04/18/18 07:15 AM EDT
Welcome to The Hill's Morning Report, which is replacing The Hill's morning Tipsheet each weekday. This comprehensive morning email, reported by Jonathan Easley and Alexis Simendinger, briefs you on the most important developments in politics and what to look for in the days and weeks ahead…
The Hill’s annual 50 Most Beautiful list has been retired after nearly 15 years. A beautiful idea, whose time is up. "It's been a great run, but all things must come to an end,” editor-in-chief Bob Cusack says.
***
The White House has another drama on its hands, this time raising questions about how long U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley will remain in President the rich asshole’s administration.
The dust-up was pointed and public.
Haley is a star on the right and until this weekend appeared to work effortlessly with the White House, taking on a larger role than her position would warrant in the absence of a secretary of State.
That’s changed. The White House undercut Haley after she asserted during a television appearance that the administration was poised to impose new economic sanctions on Russia. No sanctions emerged, and the rich asshole’s team labored to explain the confusion.
National economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Tuesday that Haley “got ahead of the curve” and that “there might have been some momentary confusion about that.”
Haley wasted no words in her written reply: “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”
Kudlow later said he was wrong to imply that Haley was confused (and apologized to the ambassador), but the mix-up over sanctions followed separate friction with the rich asshole and the White House over a Haley aide Vice President Pence tapped to be his adviser. The president questioned the choice — the aide had been critical of the rich asshole — and the hiring was reversed.
We’re hearing that some in the rich asshole’s orbit are frustrated with Haley because they perceive her to be maneuvering around the rich asshole politically and getting ahead of him on policy. To the rich asshole’s allies, the hiring controversy looked like a strategic alliance between Pence and Haley, and a challenge to the president. Some of the rich asshole’s backers wondered if the pair was privately plotting a Pence-Haley ticket, should the rich asshole not seek reelection.
That kind of speculation can lead to shortened service in the rich asshole’s world.
The Hill’s Jordan Fabian has more reporting on this here.
Rift between Haley and White House erupts over sanctions. (The New York Times)
LEADING THE DAY
Former first lady Barbara Bush, 92, the wife of the 41st president and mother of the 43rd, died Tuesday after a period of failing health. (The New York Times)
Former first lady Barbara Bush, 92, the wife of the 41st president and mother of the 43rd, died Tuesday after a period of failing health. (The New York Times)
U.S and North Korea in `direct talks’ via Pompeo secret meeting: The two countries held “direct talks at very high levels,” the rich asshole revealed Tuesday. CIA Director Mike Pompeo secretly met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the rich asshole’s direction over Easter weekend, The Washington Post reported. The administration has been dealing with North Korean representatives through a channel that runs between the CIA. and its North Korean counterpart, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, according to the New York Times.
the rich asshole tweeted that the meeting went "very smoothly and a great relationship was formed."
A proposed U.S.-North Korea summit could take place in early June, or not at all, the rich asshole told reporters while hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Florida. Five possible summit locations are under discussion, none in the United States.
The president hopes a future face-to-face meeting can persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
Abe is seeking assurances from the president that Japan will be protected in any nuclear pact that might emerge.
The prime minister and the rich asshole continue meeting today to discuss trade issues and Japan’s purchases of U.S. military equipment. Also, “we’re going to sneak out ... and play a round of golf if possible,” the rich asshole added.
International addendum:
- The U.S. continues to seek the release of three Americans held in North Korea. (Associated Press)
- Defense Secretary James Mattis internally urged seeking approval from Congress before Syria strikes, but was overruled (New York Times)
- the rich asshole’s trade policies abroad are eroding his support at home in regions he won in 2016 (Reuters poll). Latest: the rich asshole says he’s (again) opposed to U.S. rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
- GOP’s big tax cuts along with higher federal spending projected to push up imports and widen trade deficits the rich asshole abhors (Wall Street Journal).
➔the rich asshole tweets of 'revolution' in California over sanctuary law.
➔ Hannity and the rich asshole shared more than one legal adviser. If it were a novel, reviewers would reject the plot. A former adult-film actress, who says she had an affair with the president, wants the courts to release her from an agreement not to talk about it. To publicize her version of events, Stormy Daniels releases an artist’s sketch of a man she says threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot seven years ago, asking the public to help find him.
And the president weighed in this morning on Twitter, referencing the sketch:
Separately, The Atlantic reports the rich asshole and Sean Hannity are tied through additional attorney connections aside from Michael Cohen — Jay Sekulow, the president’s personal attorney in the Russia investigation, and Victoria Toensing, wife of attorney Joe diGenova, a frequent guest on Hannity’s show. the rich asshole recently considered hiring the couple to represent his legal interests, but the president’s team decided the pair had legal “conflicts.” Fox News, via a statement, said it supports Hannity in the wake of the disclosure that Cohen claimed Hannity as a legal client, disputed by the anchor.
Next up: The government will begin the process of providing seized materials to Cohen’s team. This could take more than a week to process. Cohen’s lawyers will work with the rich asshole’s lawyers to provide access to all the material relevant to the president for review.
The Hill: Cohen’s negative headlines complicate the rich asshole’s political life.
IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES
➔ Gorsuch sides with liberals on immigration case: Ask Republicans about the rich asshole’s greatest achievement and many will point to reliable conservative Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch. So it was a surprise on Tuesday when he joined the liberals in a 5-4 decision stating that a federal law that eases the deportation of immigrants convicted of crimes is unenforceable because it’s too vague.
The ruling frustrated the rich asshole and his Justice Department; the administration quickly said Congress must move to fix the law. Influential conservative news aggregator Matt Drudge warned: Gorsuch sides with libs, hands the rich asshole loss on immigration.
But don’t expect conservatives to sour on Gorsuch just yet.
➔ Mark Krikorian, the executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for stricter immigration policies, tells us in an email:
“It doesn't bother me much. It was a question of statutory interpretation and while I'd have preferred that he'd side with the other conservatives on the court (and the Obama administration), it's a little early to start jumping to conclusions.”
The bottom line: The Judicial branch will not settle decades-long immigration debates. Congress will have to act with a willing president and election politics that shift the narratives -- an unlikely proposition in 2018.
More on immigration: Two groups affiliated with the billionaire conservative donors Charles and David Koch have launched a seven-figure national campaign to pressure Congress to act to protect so-called Dreamers — immigrants who came to the country illegally as minors. That’s unlikely to happen in an election year, and the Koch network, which has pledged to spend up to $400 million ahead of the midterm election, has expressed frustration that the GOP-controlled Congress is running out the clock.
The Hill: Congress grinds to a halt as House leadership competitions consume both sides of the aisle. Allies of Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) are frustrated that Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) publicly endorsed House majority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in the race.
➔ GOP’s Tax Day trouble: Republicans blanketed the airwaves on Tuesday to sell their tax code overhaul. Republicans are banking on the public’s embrace of tax cuts to save the GOP majority in the House.
Bad news on that front — a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that only 27 percent of the public thinks the law is a good idea, down from 30 percent in January. Thirty-six percent say it’s a bad idea.
Republicans are also cheerleading about the economy, but have a few mixed messages on that front. Kudlow, a deficit hawk, attacked the Congressional Budget Office, Congress’ green eyeshades, saying the scorekeepers should never be trusted. The CBO has projected massive deficits well into the future. But the Republican chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.), fired back, noting that the CBO is also projecting robust economic and job growth in the coming years. Which is it?
The Hill: Republicans are divided about bringing another tax bill to the floor because of deficit concerns. And Democrats say, “let’s see,” Reuters reports.
➔ Cabinet watch: Senate Republicans are pushing forward with a trio of the rich asshole’s Cabinet picks, setting up high-stakes confirmation battles. Pompeo as secretary of State could see a committee vote next week. The White House on Tuesday sent the formal nomination of Gina Haspel to lead the CIA to the Senate. Also awaiting confirmation is Ronny Jackson to be secretary of Veterans Affairs (The Hill).
Meanwhile, it was another day of harsh headlines for the rich asshole’s embattled EPA administrator Scott Pruitt. This time, critics assert he wasted taxpayer funds on a customized SUV. (The Washington Post)
➔ No vote to protect Mueller: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says the Senate will not take up a bill aimed at limiting the rich asshole’s ability to protect special counsel Robert Mueller from possible termination. (The Hill)
➔ White House turnstile: White House cybersecurity coordinator Rob Joyce has been detailed back to the NSA (The Hill). And the rich asshole’s top energy and environment adviser Michael Catanzaro will leave next week and return to CGCN Group, the law and lobbying firm where he previously worked. (The Hill)
OPINION
How Washington will spend your tax dollars, by Brian Riedl, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/2HuUrHx
The lawmaker vs. the lawbreaker (which one do we believe?), by Bill Press, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/2Hw7FUE
WHERE AND WHEN
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies will hear testimony this afternoon from HUD Secretary Ben Carson, about the department’s budget request for fiscal 2019.
The House Agriculture Committee begins a farm bill markup; lawmakers leave for a long weekend this evening.
President the rich asshole and first lady Melania the rich asshole host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife for a second day. The schedule includes a working lunch, joint press conference, and “social dinner.” (Mrs. the rich asshole and Mrs. Abe also have a schedule of events together.)
Vice President Pence will travel to Mar-A-Lago to participate in the rich asshole's bilateral meetings with Abe, and plans to return to Washington tonight.
ELSEWHERE
> “Close to Home”: The third article in a five-part series by The Hill’s Rachel Roubein about how the opioid epidemic affects Americans. Presented by Partnership for Safe Medicine, read today’s installment, where Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) opens up his family’s tragic loss. (The Hill)
> Microsoft, Facebook and dozens of tech companies declared in a set of principles they will not help any government mount cyber attacksagainst “innocent civilians and enterprises from anywhere.” (Reuters)
THE CLOSER
Comedian Michelle Wolf tells The Hill’s Judy Kurtz during an interview that her performance at the April 28 White House Correspondents' Association dinner (aka “the nerd prom”) won’t concentrate solely on the rich asshole, who is skipping the event. He plans to hold a Michigan campaign rally that night (The Hill).
“I think it’s fair game to go after him as much as you want,” Wolf tells In The Know. “I also think there’s so much happening, and so many people to make fun of, that it would kind of be a waste to only go after him.”
Wolf appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Monday night and dared the rich asshole to show up at the annual soirée (“it would be real fun”) hosted by journalists.
“Especially in late-night right now, there’s so much comedy about him. It’s kind of refreshing to hear about the other terrible things,” she told ITK with a chuckle. “I just hope people think the jokes are good.” Read more of the interview here.
****
Suggestions? Tips? Intriguing pix to share from around D.C. and the Capitol? We want to hear from you, and please encourage friends and colleagues to subscribe! Jonathan Easley jeasley@thehill.com + Alexis Simendinger asimendinger@thehill.com
CNN’s Alisyn Camerota says the rich asshole played himself on Twitter: ‘We had no Stormy Daniels in our show’ until now
CNN's Alisyn Camerota (Photo: Screen capture)
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CNN didn’t intend to talk about Stormy Daniels in their Wednesday “New Day” show — but because President some rich asshole tweeted about it, it became part of the conversation.
the rich asshole retweeted one of his fans who has been convicted of fraud and boasts a friendship with his longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller. That fan tweeted a photo of Daniels and a supposed ex-boyfriend against the composite sketch of a man Daniels said threatened her outside of a Las Vegas gym.
“A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!” the rich asshole commented.
“The whole thing is absurd,” said Daily Beast editor John Avlon. “Let’s not lose sight of that fact. The president can’t know either way. I guess he can know if he had a hand in it in some way. We are all just rolling around in the gutter here.”
CNN co-host Chris Cuomo referred to the retweet, noting that the rich asshole is trying to placate in his response.
“Look at what narrative of what base he is playing to,” he continued. “This is an obvious play. The problem for the president, you can’t claim to be victim of negative news when you create the problem.”
“We had no Stormy Daniels in our show until now,” host Alisyn Camerota confessed.
Cuomo agreed, saying that there are many stories in the news today that the rich asshole could have tweeted about or promoted.
“By the way, he just took that picture, that sketch and said, ‘Hey, 52 million people who follow me, take a look,” Political commentator Chris Cilizza noted.
“There it is,” Cuomo agreed.
Watch the full commentary below:
The rich asshole administration is paying Focus on the Family to stop the AIDS epidemic in South Africa
The anti-LGBTQ “church” took federal funds to give purity pledges to South African youths.
The State Department gave a prominent anti-LGBTQ religious organization a grant to combat HIV/AIDS in South Africa through a religious program that pressures kids into pledging that they will abstain from sex until marriage.
An affiliate of Focus on the Family (FOTF) received a $49,505 grant under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) from the State Department’s Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator on September 18, 2017, while the department was under the leadership of then-Secretary Rex Tillerson, according to USA Spending. Focus on the Family’s Thriving Family is tasked with using these funds to prevent HIV and AIDS by implementing its global abstinence-only purity pledge program, called “No Apologies,” to 7,000 “learners” in 90 schools in South Africa between October 2017 and September 2018.
South Africa has the largest HIV epidemic in the world, with nearly 19 percent of its population, a total of 7.1 million people, living with the deadly sexually transmitted infection as of 2016, according to the U.K.-based global HIV and AIDS organization Avert.
PEPFAR was created in 2003 under the George W. Bush administration to combat the global epidemic — an effort Focus on the Family’s leadership has frequently criticized.
Focus on the Family’s founder and chairman emeritus, James Dobson, has long used his position with the organization to fight against effective efforts to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS, to demonize LGBTQ people, and even to oppose global funding from PEPFAR, suggesting that the money would go to promote “wickedness” and prostitution.
Experts say that the group’s purity pledge approach is completely ineffective and in fact detrimental.
‘No apologies’
Focus on the Family spreads its abstinence-only “No Apologies” program, which promises to teach the “truth about life, love, and sex,” to teens in countries crippled by the AIDS epidemic throughout the world.
According to the organization’s website, 2 million people between the ages of 12 and 22 have taken the program’s purity pledge and the group makes wild claims about its effectiveness. FOTF boasts that, in 2011, a survey found 92 percent of 1,500 Malaysian students who had gone through the program claimed to have kept their pledge of “sexual purity.”
The program shows students a 30-minute video with testimonies from peers who went through the program and teaches students about healthy relationships, overcoming relationship challenges, the various components of humans, and “the difference between love, lust and infatuation.”
It also teaches students how to reject sexualized pop culture, the consequences of premarital sex, why abstinence “works every time,” and the value of marriage.
“Focus on the Family Africa has used the No Apologies program to take the lead in promoting abstinence, not safe sex, as the route to curbing the spread of AIDS, and creating more stable family situations,” the organization explains on its website. “This is a powerful program centered around the value of each young person, character, and making a commitment to their future.”
In an email, Paul Batura, Focus on the Family’s vice president of communications, said Focus on the Family Africa is an independent global partner and has been contracted by the South African government to alleviate the HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa.
“Focus on the Family Africa’s ‘No Apologies’ character-based abstinence education program has served hundreds of thousands of South African students over more than a decade and is highly regarded by South African government officials, school principals, parents and community members as an effective part of the solution to the country’s HIV/AIDS epidemic,” Batura wrote.
“Focus on the Family Africa’s ‘No Apologies’ character-based abstinence education program has served hundreds of thousands of South African students over more than a decade and is highly regarded by South African government officials, school principals, parents and community members as an effective part of the solution to the country’s HIV/AIDS epidemic,” Batura wrote.
‘Wickedness around the world’
After AIDS began sweeping the globe in the 1980s, James Dobson and Focus on the Family were among the most vocal opponents of taking concrete action to address the epidemic, prompting President Ronald Reagan’s own surgeon general, Dr. C. Everett Koop, to publicly chastise Dobson and the late televangelist Rev. D. James Kennedy in 1989 for their response to the crisis.
Specifically, Dobson and Kennedy helped promote misinformation about how HIV can be contracted, claiming the virus could be spread through kissing or mosquito bites. Koop was livid.
“The Christian activity in reference to AIDS of both D. James Kennedy and Jim Dobson is reprehensible,” Koop told Charisma & Christian Life magazine in 1989.
Koop acknowledged that Dobson had initially shown some willingness to promote AIDS awareness. “I don’t know what happened to him,” he said. “He changed his mind, and last August in his paper he attacked me for two pages as leading people down the garden path. But again, his arguments were full of holes. I just cannot believe the poor scholarship of so many Christians.”
Though the public’s understanding of HIV and AIDS increased greatly over the next decade, Dobson’s did not. In 1992, Dobson sent out a fundraising letter defending his abstinence-only, anti-contraception rhetoric. The letter contained a passage that claimed, “[N]ot one of 800 sexologists at a recent conference raised a hand when asked if they would trust a thin rubber sheath to protect them during intercourse with a known HIV infected person. And yet they’re perfectly willing to tell our kids that ‘safe sex’ is within reach and that they can sleep around with impunity.”
Again, in 2006, after President George W. Bush proposed an increase in the U.S. contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS as part of his PEPFAR plan, Dobson wrote a letter to Congress opposing the increase. The money, the letter warned, would fund “needle exchange programs, legalization of prostitution, and, unbelievably, support for George Soros’ organizations,” as well as “all kinds of wickedness around the world.” Dobson also complained that billions in PEPFAR money was “going toward terrible programs that are immoral as well as ineffective. For example, to promote condom distribution, people associated with these government programs have dressed up like condoms and created ceramic sculptures of male genitalia.”
In an emailed statement on Tuesday, the State Department defended its recent decision to give Focus on Family Africa the PEPFAR grant, saying the group had been working with the South African government since 2002 and had reached millions of students in provinces across the country.
The program is “a highly inter-active, character-based abstinence curriculum…designed to discourage early sexual debut/activities and other high-risk behavior and empower strong character development among youth,” a spokesperson wrote.
And while Thriving Family teaches that abstinence is the “best method to prevent HIV,” the State Department wrote, the program provides referrals for services and information that it does not offer.
“The State Department plans to combat the AIDS epidemic through every means available, while always taking into context local factors, needs and experience,” the spokesperson said. “All interventions must always be developmentally appropriate for those they are intended to serve.”
‘Little to no evidence’
In recent years, PEPFAR itself has moved away from abstinence-only strategies because they are not effective, according to Alana Sharp, a policy associate for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.
“There’s a lot of evidence that shows it is not effective as an HIV prevention strategy,” Sharp told ThinkProgress, noting that in 2015, PEPFAR’s own guidancedescribed abstinence-only programs as having “little to no evidence of efficacy and have been shown (in some cases) to have negative effects on young people’s risky sexual behaviors.” Studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionand others have reported similar results.
“The issue with abstinence is that, theoretically, it can be effective, but when young people do choose to have sex, despite their intention not to, they’re not prepared with information about how to protect themselves or their partners,” Sharp said. She added that this is especially concerning in a South African context, “where many young people are already having sex,” and often young women’s first encounters may be coerced or forced.
Considering Focus on the Family’s history of erasing gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities and rejecting their right to marry, religious purity pledges can be especially stigmatizing and dangerous to those young people.
“I think these programs will be harmful, and just ineffective — providing info that’s not relevant to them, not useful to them, and [won’t] protect them against HIV,” Sharp said.
Still, despite all of this evidence, the rich asshole administration released a 2018 PEPFAR operational plan late last year that emphasized abstinence before marriage — “sexual risk avoidance” — as the principal strategy to fight HIV/AIDS. The administration has reportedly discouraged the use of terms like “’evidence-based” and “science-based” from government documents.
Funding a church
Right Wing Watch reported on Tuesday that in 2016, Focus on the Family successfully convinced the Internal Revenue Service that it should be treated as a church, rather than as a regular non-profit. This distinction means that the organization no longer needs to be transparent about its finances and is exempt from portions of the Affordable Care Act. But it also means that the State Department effectively opted to directly fund a church, paying for it to do its religious work in a foreign country under the guise of actual policy efforts.
Dena Sher, legislative assistant director at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, told ThinkProgress in an email that the 2017 PEPFAR grant should not have been issued to Focus on the Family for that very reason.
“Focus on the Family now claims to be a church and its programs are designed to promote religion. This grant will fund an abstinence-only program for thousands of teens in schools in South Africa, asking them to take a purity pledge,” she wrote. “Studies show that this approach is ineffective and unethical. The government should never fund faith-based projects that aren’t based on science. These students’ health and well-being should come first.”
Sharp agreed. “It’s really unfortunate because we’re in a moment where we have very effective strategies to protect people against HIV,” she said. “We should be doing everything we can do be delivering evidence-supportive prevention strategies, like PREP, like condoms. To not be doing so, I think we’re being harmful.”
the rich asshole's EPA quietly revamps rules for air pollution
BY TIMOTHY CAMA - 04/18/18 06:00 AM EDT
The rich asshole administration has quietly reshaped enforcement of air pollution standards in recent months through a series of regulatory memos.
The memos are fulfilling the top wishes of industry, which has long called for changes to how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oversees the nation’s factories, plants and other facilities. The EPA is now allowing certain facilities to be subject to less-stringent regulations and is letting companies use friendlier math in calculating their expected emissions.
Environmentalists and public health advocates say the memos could greatly increase levels of air pollutants like mercury, benzene and nitrogen oxides. They accuse the EPA of avoiding the transparency and public input requirements that regulatory changes usually go through.
“These were radical departures of current law when they were proposed a decade ago and they’re just as radical today,” he said, referring to the Bush-era efforts, some of which were unsuccessful, to make changes to EPA air programs.
But for the EPA and its supporters, the memos simply bring the agency back to what the relevant laws and regulations are meant to be.
“They address specific concerns that people have had for years, and just make it much simpler for people to comply — especially for existing [facilities] — to make sure they can maintain their plants and replace worn-out components and those types of things, without the threat of enforcement litigation,” said Jeff Holmstead, a former head of the EPA’s air pollution office under the George W. Bush administration who now represents regulated companies at the law and lobbying firm Bracewell.
Bill Wehrum, head of the air office under EPA chief Scott Pruitt, wrote two of the three EPA memos. He recused himself from the third memo, which Pruitt wrote.
The first memo, issued in December, states that the EPA will no longer “second guess” companies’ calculations of their expected pollution output after certain big projects under what is known as New Source Review. Under that program, the EPA reviews the changes made to a facility to decide whether they need to go through the same process as if the facility were newly built.
The December memo effectively means the EPA will usually not take action against a company for its calculations if they turn out to be wrong.
The second memo, issued in January, repeals a Clinton-era policy known as “once in, always in.” Under the previous policy, facilities could never be considered “minor” sources of hazardous pollution if they were already considered “major” sources, and subject to much stricter rules.
Now, facilities can be regulated as “minor” if their emissions drop enough.
The third memo allows companies to use a procedure known as “project netting” when applying for permits for major projects under the New Source Review program. That means companies can use a more industry-friendly emissions calculation when they argue that a particular project would reduce emissions.
President the rich asshole added to the memos last week, signing one himself that formally asks the EPA to use more industry-friendly practices in enforcing the National Ambient Air Quality Standards program, a key Clean Air Act program for air quality nationwide.
John Walke, director for clean air at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the EPA is working to implement the policies the Bush administration failed to finish.
“I think Mr. Wehrum has decided this is likely a one-term administration and he’s going to devote his full resources to rolling back clean air, climate and public health protections in the time available to him,” Walke said.
“The most expedient and hasty way to accomplish those rollbacks is through the regular guidance documents that we have seen so far from EPA,” he said. “Rulemakings take time, they require public notice and input and hearings, and Mr. Wehrum and Mr. Pruitt plainly have no patience for those tedious fodders.”
Walke said that, taken together, the memos could allow polluting facilities to greatly increase their emissions.
The EPA didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The focus among the memos for environmental and health advocates is the one repealing the “once in, always in” policy, and letting “major” pollution sources reduce their emissions and be regulated as “minor” ones.
A coalition of environmental groups sued the EPA to stop the policy change, arguing that it should have gone through the full regulatory process, including analysis of its environmental impact and an opportunity for public comment. Democratic states joined in with their own lawsuit.
“Instead of prioritizing the health of hard-working Americans, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt wants to let major polluters off the hook. That is unconscionable, and it is illegal,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D).
“If the ‘Once In, Always In’ policy is rescinded, children in California and around the country — particularly those who must live near the polluting plant or factory — may grow up in an environment with tons of additional hazardous pollutants in the air they breathe. California will not allow that to happen,” Becerra said.
Two environmental groups opposed to the EPA’s move have put out recent analyses of the change, focused on specific areas of the country.
The Environmental Integrity Project looked at 12 industrial plants in the Midwest and concluded they could increase their pollution to 540,000 pounds annually, a fourfold growth.
The Environmental Defense Fund looked at the Houston area, and said that 18 facilities there could increase their emissions to 900,000 pounds a year, two and a half times current levels.
Holmstead said opponents of the rich asshole administration’s policy are unlikely to prevail. The Supreme Court ruled in the 2015 Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association case that federal agencies can repeal policy memos with other policy memos and don’t have to go through the full regulatory process to do so.
“I think the environmental groups are going to have a real uphill battle trying to get through court that this is somehow improper,” he said. “That really does fly in the face of the Perez decision.”
As for the increase in emissions, Holmstead said environmentalists are wrong. In many cases, the new policies will allow facilities to carry out projects that reduce emissions, or simply operate under a lower paperwork burden.
“They have yet to come up with any real-world examples of how that might happen,” Holmstead said of the scenarios in which pollution might increase. “These reforms are not going to lead to pollution increases.
“I don’t think that there will be a meaningful impact one way or another.”
Stormy Daniels’ lawyer warns the rich asshole the FBI may be investigating ‘con job’ he pulled in business
Attorney Michael Avenatti represents Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels.
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The attorney for Storm Daniels mocked President some rich asshole’s first direct response to the porn actress’ claims.
The president denied Daniels’ claim that a man threatened her infant daughter if she did not drop her claims about her sexual relationship with the rich asshole — and promoted a conspiracy theory about the alleged threat.
“A sketch years later about a nonexistent man,” the rich asshole tweeted early Wednesday. “A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”
Michael Avenatti, who’s representing Daniels, tweeted a response to the president — and warned the rich asshole he might be under FBI investigation for past frauds.
“FBI search warrants uncovering EXISTING documents and recordings showing con job after con job pulled on REAL people and very REAL American citizens (who didn’t know it),” Avenatti said. “Welcome to the playing field. #whereyoubeen #basta”
FBI search warrants uncovering EXISTING documents and recordings showing con job after con job pulled on REAL people and very REAL American citizens (who didn’t know it). Welcome to the playing field. #whereyoubeen #basta
The attorney then gloated after finally getting the rich asshole to directly respond to the adult film star’s claims.
“In my experience, there is nothing better in litigation than having a completely unhinged, undisciplined opponent who is prone to shooting himself in the foot,” he tweeted. “Always leads to BIGLY problems…like new claims (i.e. defamation). LOL.”
Senate GOP wary of new tax cut sequel
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 04/18/18 06:00 AM EDT
New projections on the size of the federal deficit and the price tag of President the rich asshole’s tax-cut law have left some Republican senators nervous about voting on another tax package before the election.
While the GOP on Tuesday used Tax Day to proclaim the success of last year’s $1.5 trillion tax cut, there is some unease about doubling down on the issue in the coming months. Some in the party want to go on offense and try to make permanent the individual tax cuts that were part of last year’s legislation. The bill’s authors sunset those provisions to keep the measure’s total projected cost below $1.5 trillion.
“I’d say, ‘Hell no. Hell no — double hell no,’ ” retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a leading budget hawk, told The Hill when asked about making the individual tax breaks permanent. Corker supported the bill, but last week — citing the deficit — said it could “be one of the worst votes I’ve made.”
He wants to see whether granting permanent tax breaks for individuals would stimulate the economy as much as the permanent corporate tax cut.
“We know on the corporate side those things are stimulative,” Perdue said.
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who wavered before backing the 2017 tax package, said he’s undecided about voting for another round of cuts.
“I’m going to have to look at it,” said Flake, who is not seeking reelection.
Extending the individual tax cuts would add between $573 billion and $736 billion to the national debt, according to a Penn Wharton Budget Model analysis released last week.
A Senate Republican aide said a bill to make the tax cuts permanent may not come to the floor because it divides the Senate GOP conference and doesn’t have a chance of passing, as it would need 60 votes to overcome an expected Democratic filibuster.
“Our membership is torn on it,” the aide said. “And it’s not a 50-vote exercise because we’re not going to pass a budget.”
Senate Republicans were able to pass last year’s tax package with a simple majority under a special budget process known as reconciliation.
But the chamber must first pass a budget resolution to set up that fast track, and there’s no sign that the Senate Budget Committee will mark up and pass a budget resolution before the election.
In March, Republican leaders floated the possibility of voting on a second round of tax cuts in 2018 to double down on their strategy of running on tax relief in the fall.
The strategy was to force vulnerable Democrats facing reelection in pro-the rich asshole states to vote on making tax cuts for individuals permanent.
“Can you imagine Democrats voting that down? I mean, how do you explain that one?” Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (Texas) told Politico in March. “I just think they’d be in an impossible position. They’d have to support it.”
In speeches this year, the rich asshole has promised another round of tax cuts and has repeatedly said that not one Democrat in Congress backed last year’s bill.
But the political calculus has changed amid the growing concerns of GOP lawmakers, voters and conservative activists over the mounting debate.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) warned last week that the federal debt will hit $33 trillion in 2028, or about 96 percent of the gross domestic product.
The CBO also estimated that last year’s tax bill will wind up costing $1.9 trillion over 11 years.
Many Republicans have problems with the CBO estimate and say it doesn’t take projected economic growth sufficiently into account.
Larry Kudlow, the rich asshole’s top economist and a contributor to The Hill, ripped the CBO on Tuesday.
During an interview on “Fox & Friends,” Kudlow said, “Never believe the CBO. ... They’re always wrong, especially with regard to tax cuts, which they never score properly.”
Still, GOP legislators are concerned about voters’ anger over the rising deficit.
Many Republican senators and House members received negative feedback during the two-week Easter recess about the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending package Congress passed in March. It increased the spending caps for defense and nondefense programs by nearly $300 billion for fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2019.
The tax law has picked up support compared to late last year. However, a new Gallup poll released this week found that 52 percent disapprove of the law compared to 39 percent who approve of it. A majority of those surveyed (56 percent) said they are unsure if the law has caused their federal taxes to increase or decrease.
Some Republicans are also second-guessing whether forcing vulnerable Democrats to vote on making the individual tax cuts permanent is a smart political maneuver.
The GOP political strategy to grow its narrow majority has been to bash red-state incumbents such as Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Joe Manchin(D-W.Va.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) for voting against the rich asshole tax cut. Scheduling a vote on making the individual tax breaks permanent, however, would give these Democrats a chance to vote “yes” and proclaim themselves tax cutters.
At the same time, it could wind up being a tough vote for Sen. Dean Heller(Nev.), the Senate’s most vulnerable Republican, because a “yes” could anger fiscal conservatives in his state who are worried about climbing deficits.
“I’m not sure if it winds up being better for Heidi Heitkamp than for Dean Heller,” said the Senate GOP aide, referring to the North Dakota Democrat who is running for reelection in a state the rich asshole carried by 36 points.
“Let’s see what the House can pass,” the source said.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters Tuesday that the House will vote this year to make the individual tax cuts permanent.
“Yes. Yes. Yes,” he declared. “[Rep.] Rodney Davis [R-Ill.] has already introduced legislation and we intend to act on that legislation this year,” he said.
The individual cuts are due to expire in 2026.
A spokeswoman for the House Ways and Means Committee said another round of tax breaks is a top priority.
“The House — and the Ways and Means Committee — is committed to make individual tax cuts permanent for hardworking Americans. This legislation will be a committee product and will move through Ways and Means. We are working through a deliberative process in areas such as tax extenders, and once we have concluded that process, we will be in a position to take action on this legislation,” said Julia Slingsby.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did not commit to bringing a second round of tax cuts to the floor this year when asked about it at a press conference Tuesday.
He indicated that it would depend on whether enough Democrats would agree to support it.
McConnell added that if Democrats who opposed last year’s tax package now want to make the individual breaks permanent, “that’s something we ought to take a look at.”
But he cautioned, “I’m a little skeptical about their desire here.”
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