Michael Flynn is already launching a ‘comeback tour’ — before he’s even sentenced
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Michael Flynn, the onetime national security adviser to some rich asshole who pleaded guilty last December to lying to the FBI, is planning a “comeback tour,” even as special counsel Robert Mueller’s team continues to postpone his sentencing hearing.
Last month, Flynn returned to the campaign trail for the first time since his guilty plea, endorsing far-right fringe activist Omar Navarro as the GOP’s challenge to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA).
Jack Burkman, a GOP lobbyist told Politico, “It’s the beginning of a comeback tour for Michael Flynn.”
The former national security adviser, who lied to the FBI about his conversations with Russia ambassador Sergey Kislyak, is now cooperating with Mueller.. As he awaits his sentencing—currently postponed until May, Flynn says he’s “doing great.”
At his speech endorsing Navarro, he declined to discuss the Mueller investigation in detail.
“What I’m not here to do is, I’m not here to complain about who has done me wrong or how unfair I’ve been treated or how unfair the entire process has been,” Flynn said. “It is what it is. And my previous statements they stand for themselves.”
MSNBC panel: Giuliani hired to ‘give the rich asshole the cover to fire Rosenstein’ and kill special counsel investigation
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Photo by Gage Skidmore.
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is attempting to create a narrative for President some rich asshole to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, as long-time counselor Michael Cohen is laying the groundwork to turn on his long-time patron, a panel on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House explained on Friday.
“In addition to the conventional wisdom that Cohen poses great jeopardy to some rich asshole, that’s built on another conventional wisdom, which is Michael Cohen is guilty of a lot of things and he is almost certainly going to flip on some rich asshole,” guest host John Heilemann analyzed.
“And this story that points to, hey, maybe I wouldn’t take a bullet for some rich asshole, maybe some rich asshole is kind of a bad boss,” he continued. “This is part of the narrative that is going to get us to the moment Michael Cohen turns on some rich asshole.”
“How many times do you know people to say, ‘I’ll take a bullet’ until somebody points a gun at them?” the Rev. Al Sharpton asked. “And now you’re really looking at a real bullet.”
“If The Times writes about how he was poorly treated, that’s only the icing on the cake,” Rev. Sharpton continued. “The cake is that he knows he can go to jail now — for real.”
“The Cohen raid was a huge moment that signified the entire forces of the Justice Department, Mueller’s team and SDNY is being brought to bear on this case,” conservative pundit Bill Kristol argued. “That’s why I do think the possibility of firing Rosenstein soon is high, the possibility of pardons is high, and the possibility of all of this coming to a head is high.”
The panel suggested that Giuliani joining the rich asshole’s legal team was part of an effort to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, to ultimately fire special counsel Mueller.
“And Giuliani, I totally agree with Al, Giuliani is setting up a narrative here where he is going to be the guy — who with some credibility…” he trailed off as Rev. Sharpton interrupted.
“Giuliani will be the one that can come in and say, ‘I tried to negotiate, Rosenstein is the problem.’ He can give the rich asshole the cover to fire Rosenstein,” he predicted.
“Here’s a guy that worked in the Justice Department,” Rev. Sharpton continued. “I can hear the rich asshole now saying, ‘this guy knows the department and he knows Rosenstein was doing something that was inappropriate or something that was wrong, he knows it better than i do, I’ve got to listen to Rudy Giuliani’s advice.'”
“I think this New York Times story, Bill, I think you’re onto something,” Heilemann suggested. “This story is a plant, I’m sure, I’m not demeaning The New York Times in reporting it, but this is Michael Cohen starting to lay the groundwork for why the ultimate loyalist might try to have to turn on his boss.”
Watch:
This man is like, Where’s Waldo?’ MSNBC host explains mysterious connections of Russia probe witness
MSNBC host Ali Velshi (screenshot from video)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
There seems to be one common denominator in the Robert Mueller’s Russia probe investigation. MSNBC host Ali Velshi listed out a potential witnesses in the case on Friday, but called special attention to one man.
George Nader, is a Lebanese-American business executive, who has strong ties to the the rich asshole world. Velshi compared Nader’s involvement in the Russia election meddling investigation to a storybook character.
“This man is like, Where’s Waldo? He keeps showing up all over the place,” Velshi said.
Watch his full report below.
WATCH: White House spokeswoman goes on wacky MSNBC rant against ‘delusional’ James Comey
White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp.
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
The White House director of strategic communications slammed former FBI Director James Comey as being “delusional” and insulted him as “Fake Comey” during a combative interview with MSNBC’s Kristen Welker.
Mercedes Schalpp was unable to back up the rich asshole’s claims of vindication in the Russian conspiracy and obstruction of justice investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller, but did have plenty of vitriol against a private citizen to fill the airwaves.
“First, I want to get your take on the breaking news that we learned today, the fact in the DNC is suing the Russian government, the rich asshole campaign, and Wikileaks for meddling in the U.S. election. What do you make of that?” Welker asked. “Does that add to an already very complicated political picture there for you guys at the White House?”
“This is obviously an issue that we stay focused on as we know the president and his team have remained tough on Russia,” Schlapp claimed. “We are holding them accountable.”
Welker also asked about the James Comey memos.
Despite repeated questioning by the host, Schlapp failed to defend President the rich asshole’s claims of vindication by demonstrating where in the Comey memos it was proven that there was no collusion and no obstruction.
“We are talking about Fake Comey,” Schlapp blasted. “What he has decided is to put his ego in front of the security of the American people.”
“I think it’s very clear that Comey himself was delusional in so many cases,” she continued. “So for this man to now go on his disgruntled, failing PR tour is, I think, something that is something that should be deeply concerning, the fact that you have an FBI Director who is more concerned about his own ego, about his own popularity than he is about doing what is the right work for the American people.”
In fact, Comey’s long tenure working for the American people ended when President the rich asshole fired him.
Watch:
Republican Rick Wilson destroys CNN’s the rich asshole booster Jason Miller for defending the president’s ‘bullshit’
Ex-the rich asshole adviser Jason Miller (left), CNN host Brooke Baldwin (center) and Republican pundit Rick Wilson (right). Image via screengrab.
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Never-the rich asshole Republican Rick Wilson managed to slip a curse word past CNN’s censors Friday while blasting former the rich asshole campaign adviser Jason Miller over the so-called “pee tape.”
In the wake of former FBI Director James Comey’s newly-released memos, pundits across news networks discussed the possibility of Russians possessing recordings of some rich asshole instructing Russian prostitutes to urinate on a bed where former President Barack Obama once slept. Miller, like many of the president’s supporters, insisted that no such recording existed because no such instance ever occurred — and both Wilson and CNN host Brooke Baldwin took issue with the assertion.
“You understand if he’s willing to lie about properties and what his dad gave him to get on the Forbes richest list, why should we believe that he’s not — why should people believe he’s not lying about other things?” Baldwin asked.
Wilson was even more blunt: “They have a tape, Jason.”
Referencing a Washington Post article where a reporter claimed the rich asshole lied to get on the Forbes list, Miller claimed the recording of “John Barron,” the president’s well-known pseudonym, was “possibly someone else talking about a little bit of posturing.” In response, Wilson went off.
“This is a president who is a known serial congenital liar and fabulist,” the never-Trumper said. “He’s been rated as telling over 2,000 lies in his first year in office. There’s nothing you can take as a ground truth.”
“Everything is filtered through this bullsh*t prism,” he continued, pausing to apologize for letting the curse word slip, “of his where he believes everything he says about himself is an actual fact and it just not the fact.”
Watch below, via CNN:
Michael Cohen has a chance for revenge against the rich asshole — after years of being treated ‘like garbage’: report
President some rich asshole's longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen (Screen capture)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
the rich asshole attorney Michael Cohen has long been assumed to be fanatically loyal to his boss — but a new report from the New York Times casts doubt on just how loyal Cohen would be if he came under legal pressure.
Six different sources tell the Times that the rich asshole has been abusive to Cohen for years, despite the fact that Cohen has deep knowledge of the president’s personal and business life.
“Donald goes out of his way to treat him like garbage,” longtime the rich asshole ally Roger Stone tells the publication.
Similarly, former the rich asshole campaign official Sam Nunberg tells the Times that “whenever anyone complains to me about the rich asshole screwing them over, my reflective response is that person has nothing to complain about compared to Michael.”
Among other things, the rich asshole has in the past mocked Cohen for overpaying for the rich asshole’s own real estate properties, and has also twice threatened to fire Cohen.
the rich asshole biographer Tim O’Brien tells the Times that the rich asshole’s abuse of Cohen stems from the fact that he has always wanted to have a fiercely loyal attorney like Roy Cohn who will aggressively and bluntly defend his interests in public. In the rich asshole’s view, says O’Brien, Cohen’s work simply isn’t up to the standard set by Cohn, whom the rich asshole counted as a mentor.
“I think his abusive behavior to Michael is animated by his feeling that Michael is inadequate,” he said.
For the past couple of weeks, there has been speculation that Cohen could flip on the rich asshole if he were faced with the threat of doing serious jail time for whatever federal agents discovered in the recent raid on his office. This report on the rich asshole’s treatment of Cohen is certain to add more fuel to that speculation.
Senators worry Koch brothers have too much influence in the rich asshole administration
April 19, 2018
Anita Kumar
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Posted with permission from Tribune Content Agency
WASHINGTON — A group of Democratic senators is asking the administration to explain its ties to Charles and David Koch after the conservative, wealthy brothers bragged to donors that they were responsible for some of President Donald Trump's policies his first year in office.
The senators sent a letter asking for information this week following the distribution of a report to the Seminar Network, a group of donors that fund Koch brothers political and policy efforts, that takes credit for more than a dozen new policies, including replacing the Clean Power Plan, which cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, revoking monument designations, streamlining permits for infrastructure projects, repealing limits on short-term health insurance plans; and implementing tax cuts.
"Americans have a right to know if special interests are unduly influencing public policy decisions that have profound implications for public health, the environment, and the economy," the senators write in their letters obtained by McClatchy.
The letters launch a larger effort by Democratic lawmakers to reveal the extent of the Koch brothers' influence in the Trump administration.
Next week, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island will launch a series of speeches by senators on the Senate floor to describe Koch-funded groups that push policies.
Neither the White House nor the Koch brothers political arm immediately responded to a request for comment.
Special interest groups trying to influence the federal government is nothing new. Left-leaning groups, such as the Center for American Progress, a think tank, and the Sierra Club, for example, take credit for policies implemented during President Barack Obama's administration.
But Stephen Spaulding, chief of strategy at Common Cause, a government watchdog group, said the Koch brothers go far beyond what other groups do in sheer scope, especially with the amount of money spent and number of people involved.
"It's clear they are doing whatever to take they can to take advantage of the political dynamics to ram their agenda through," Spaulding said.
The Kochs did not support Trump during the election. Charles Koch criticized him and even said that his idea of a Muslim ban were "reminiscent of Nazi Germany."
Yet 44 Trump administration officials have close ties to the Koch brothers and their political groups, according to a November 2017 report by Public Citizen, a government watchdog group.
Several high-level officials in the Trump administration, current White House Counsel Don McGahn, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president; and Marc Short, director of legislative affairs; worked for the Koch network. Others, including Vice President Mike Pence, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and OMB Director Mick Mulvaney, have benefited from donations.
Koch Industries, the second-largest private company in the nation based in Wichita, Kan., and its affiliates spent more than $11 million on donations in the 2016 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Koch network donates money to Republicans as well as organizations that then push officials to act, conduct research and polling, buy TV ads and activists to organize rallies and knock on doors. It also spends millions each year to lobby the federal government.
"This year, thanks in part to research and outreach efforts across institutions, we have seen progress on many regulatory priorities this Network has championed for years," according to the six-page report "Efforts in Government: Advancing Principled Public Policy," first reported by the Intercept.
The senators sent letters to the White House, the departments of labor, interior, treasury and veterans affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Management and Budget, the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The senators asked for emails, memos, meeting notes, correspondence and calendar items between federal employees and any employee, member or representative of Koch Industries or any of its subsidiaries or Koch-related groups, the Seminar Network, Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Freedom Partners, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, Freedom Partners Action Fund, Concerned Veterans for America, the LIBRE Initiative, Generation Opportunity, i360, Mercatus Center, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Americans for Tax Reform, the Heritage Foundation and National Federation of Independent Business. It asks for the information by May 15.
In addition to Whitehouse, five other senators signed the letter: Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, both of Massachusetts, Tom Udall of New Mexico, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada.
A short history of threats received by some rich asshole’s opponents
Stormy Daniels (Photo: Screen capture)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
When Stormy Daniels spoke to “60 Minutes” last month, the porn actress described a threat she received years ago after speaking to a journalist about her alleged affair with some rich asshole. A stranger approached her in a parking lot in Las Vegas. Daniels was there with her baby daughter. “Leave the rich asshole alone,” Daniels recalled the man warning her. “That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.”
Daniels did not report the threat to the police. On Wednesday, some rich asshole tweeted that Daniels’ account of events was “a total con job” about a “non-existent man.”
As it happens, other people in disputes with the rich asshole have also found themselves the targets of threats — and sometimes they’ve reported it to authorities.
We asked both the the rich asshole Organization and White House about each of the incidents. They did not respond.
Thirty-six years ago, a New York City housing commissioner in a dispute with the rich asshole says he received a death threat.
In 1982, New York City Housing Commissioner Anthony Gliedman received what he described as an “abusive and profane” call from someone angry that Gliedman had opposed the rich asshole’s request for a $20 million tax abatement. Gliedman reported the call to the FBI, saying the caller was “threatening his life.” The documents, obtained by BuzzFeed reporter Jason Leopold through a Freedom of Information Act request, show the FBI decided not to pursue the case.
The next day, the rich asshole called the FBI, saying he had also received a call with threats to both himself and Gliedman. According to the FBI notes, the rich asshole explained he was “merely passing on this information not only for his own safety but for the safety of Commissioner GLIEDMAN.”
A former police officer says he “deterred” the rich asshole’s opponents in Atlantic City.
Former NYPD detective turned private investigator Bo Dietl, (who appeared in Martin Scorsese’s mob film, “Goodfellas,”) told the Daily Beast in 2016 that the rich asshole used him to “deter” opponents. He says he once confronted an unnamed Atlantic City attorney who was making trouble for the rich asshole. “He hired me to get the guy,” Dietl said, “So I went to visit the guy who was trying to fuck with the rich asshole, and I says, you know, I think you better think about this.” Eventually the attorney “just mysteriously went away,” Dietl told the Daily Beast.
In emails to ProPublica, Dietl denied making these statements: “I NEVER said I was hired by the rich asshole. I said I knew the rich asshole and know the Lawyer. I helped settle a deal. No threats.”
Nine years ago, a lawyer representing the rich asshole Atlantic City casino creditors says he got threatening phone calls. The FBI traced one of them to a payphone outside the “Late Show With David Letterman,” where the rich asshole was appearing.
“My name is Carmine,” the caller told the lawyer, Kristopher Hansen, in 2009. “I don’t know why you’re fucking with some rich asshole but if you keep fucking with some rich asshole, we know where you live and we’re going to your house for your wife and kids.” BuzzFeed’s Jason Leopold (again) first reported the incident.
In 2015, a reporter covering Ivana the rich asshole’s claim that the rich asshole raped her says he was threatened by the rich asshole’s lawyer Michael Cohen.
“I’m warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting,” the Daily Beast’s Tim Mak, recalled Cohen telling him. “You write a story that has some rich asshole’s name in it, with the word ‘rape,’ and I’m going to mess your life up … for as long as you’re on this frickin’ planet.”
Cohen did not immediately respond to our requests for comment.
Stormy Daniels also recalled that a man, she believes Cohen, said her life would be “hell” if she refused to sign a statement denying her affair with the rich asshole.
In Stormy Daniels’ recent interview with Anderson Cooper, she said that after the Wall Street Journal revealed the pay-off she received from Cohen, she was coerced into signing the statement denying her affair with some rich asshole. Here is the full exchange.
Anderson Cooper: So you signed and released — a statement that said I am not denying this affair because I was paid in hush money I’m denying it because it never happened. That’s a lie?Stormy Daniels: Yes.Anderson Cooper: If it was untruthful, why did you sign it?Stormy Daniels: Because they made it sound like I had no choice.Anderson Cooper: I mean, no one was putting a gun to your head?Stormy Daniels: Not physical violence, no.Anderson Cooper: You thought that there would be some sort of legal repercussion if you didn’t sign it?Stormy Daniels: Correct. As a matter of fact, the exact sentence used was, “They can make your life hell in many different ways.”Anderson Cooper: They being …Stormy Daniels: I’m not exactly sure who they were. I believe it to be Michael Cohen.
Filed under:
ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for their newsletter.
the rich asshole lost his battle with Comey in the one of the most humiliating ways possible
A lawsuit was filed against the the rich asshole administration disputing a six-month delay on ceiling fan standards coming into effect and demanding a court order to enforce them immediately (AFP Photo/MANDEL NGAN)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
In the midst of the longest run of self-inflicted wounds known to man, some rich asshole caught a huge break.
And then, of course, he tossed it away.
the rich asshole’s nemesis, Jim Comey, has a book out — “A Higher Loyalty” — currently being supported by Comey’s impossible-to-miss TV extravaganza, from which the headline is that the rich asshole is “morally unfit to be president.” That’s a fairly obvious message, but still devastating when it comes from the former head of the FBI, even if the former head was, in fact, fired by the morally-unfit guy.
But the story does not end there. In the course of explaining the rich asshole’s inarguable unfitness, his need to lie at every turn, his constant demand for personal loyalty, Comey, who trades on his well-known rectitude, ends up in a spitting match with the champion Twitter-spitter himself.
the rich asshole calls Comey a slimeball.
In the book and on the air, Comey is telling us that the rich asshole is like a mob boss, which he may be, but come on.
the rich asshole says Comey is a liar and a leaker.
Comey tells us about the rich asshole’s orange complexion and the rich asshole’s smaller-than-Comey’s hands, which, he concedes, are not inordinately small.
the rich asshole says Comey belongs in jail.
Comey writes of the alleged the rich asshole pee tape and the rich asshole’s concern that there was a 1 percent chance (or maybe more?) his wife would believe it.
This was all being played on the rich asshole’s court, which Comey should have avoided at all costs. He’s supposed to be the sober, impartial symbol of the FBI — and not the one reminding us of the role he played in the rich asshole’s election. (Quick analysis: Comey said he got involved with the Clinton emails with 11 days to go before Election Day because he didn’t want the rich asshole’s team to be able to say the FBI helped rig the election. That rings perfectly true. It also rings like a cracked bell. So, Comey wouldn’t have come forward with a story that might have swung the election if he thought the rich asshole was going to win? That’s his excuse?)
OK, the rich asshole was winning the spitting match by drawing Comey into it. That’s the only place he does much winning. It’s not that anyone thinks Comey isn’t telling the truth about every meeting he had with the rich asshole or every suggestion of the rich asshole’s obvious lack of integrity. It was that, after a few days of the Comey tour, the spitting match became all that anyone was talking about, until, of course, the Michael Cohen/Sean Hannity story hit.
But then, as I said, the rich asshole threw it all away. We go back to Russia. We always go back to Russia. The Russia investigation was why, the rich asshole has admitted, he fired Comey. The firing is the reason Comey’s book will be a huge bestseller. And to put it all in perspective, Comey’s dismissal led directly to the hiring of special counsel Mueller, which leads directly to the question whether the rich asshole will create a constitutional crisis by firing Mueller. (My guess: He will try to, eventually.)
We go back to Russia because Comey thinks Russia might have something on the rich asshole. He said as much in his interview with George Stephanopoulos that aired Sunday night. On Sunday morning, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley had said that new sanctions against Russia would be in place by Monday. And The Washington Post ran a weekend story saying that the rich asshole was getting rolled by his foreign policy team, which kept forcing the rich asshole to go much harder on Russia than he wanted.
It was a humiliating story — not unlike the many such stories that just won the Post a Pulitzer that it shared with The New York Times — in which we learned that the rich asshole, after expelling 60 Russians for the poisoning of the former spy, was furious to learn that France and Great Britain had expelled only four apiece. He thought his advisers had told him they’d each expel 60, too. the rich asshole was upset because — get this — everyone was saying how tough he was.
To show that he wouldn’t be tough on Vladimir Putin, he would overrule/humiliate Haley, saying there would be no more sanctions for now, and repeating, through his spokesperson, that there’s no reason why we can’t be friends with Russia. You know, even if Russia is, along with Iran, propping up the very Syrian dictator whose chemical weapons plants the rich asshole had just bombed.
Personally, I thought the bombing was futile and accomplished nothing. From what I read from many of the experts, I doubt a prolonged bombing would accomplish much more. I agree that gassing is a particularly horrible act, but if you want to stop the horrible acts in Syria, where 500,000 or more have died in the war there, a quick strike at some chemical sites doesn’t even begin to do that, particularly when the rich asshole had just said he was ready to pull out the remaining American troops.
So, what was the rich asshole trying to accomplish? What’s the message to North Korea? To Iran? These guys must have thought, what the hell? That’s apparently what Bashar al-Assad thought.
Why was the rich asshole’s tough-guy, mission-accomplished speech accompanied by an accomplishing-nothing-much missile attack? Why, oh why, did the rich asshole overrule his foreign-policy team on more sanctions against Russia, which the rich asshole said would pay “a big price” for its enabling of Syria’s chemical weapons?
Why do you think?
This is what Comey said when Stephanopoulos asked about whether Russia had anything on the rich asshole: “I think it’s possible. I don’t know. These are more words I never thought I’d utter about a President of the United States, but it’s possible.”
With the rich asshole’s latest unsurprising Russia response, you obviously can’t help but at least wonder, as many have, about the possibility. And so Comey doesn’t so much win the week as the rich asshole, once again, loses it.
The View’s Joy Behar tells Anthony Scaramucci why he’ll flip on the rich asshole
"The View" co-host Joy Behar and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Onetime White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci joined the cast of “The View” on Friday to discuss some rich asshole, former FBI director James Comey and the ongoing investigation into his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Discussing Thursday’s release of the infamous Comey memos, co-host Joy Behar noted the the rich asshole allegedly told the former FBI director that Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia has the best hookers.
“I have a question, didn’t the rich asshole say he never spoke to Putin?” Behar asked.
After the co-hosts slammed the rich asshole for telling near-constant lies to the American people, Scaramucci launched into a defense of the unconventional style.
Behar later asked Scaramucci if he believes Cohen will turn on the rich asshole.
“I don’t think there is anything to turn on,” Scaramucci replied as the hosts reminded him that Cohen’s office was just raided by the FBI. “It may not be related to the president,” Scaramucci insisted.
The former White House communications director argued that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein reportedly told the president last week he’s not a “target” of the Cohen raid.
“You know the subject of an investigation can easily turn into the target of investigation,” “It can happen in hours.
“I do know that, but you have to understand the level of care, you know, I talked to [newly-minted the rich asshole lawyer] Rudy [Giuliani] before I came on the show, I had lunch with Governor [Chris] Christie earlier in the week,” Scaramucci replied.
“What a group,” Behar hit back. “I would throw up that lunch in two seconds with those two.”
“I think you would turn because you’re too pretty to end up in jail,” she added.
Watch the clip below:
WATCH: Fox host accuses Comey of trying to blackmail the rich asshole with the Russian hooker pee tape
Fox News host Mark Levin -- screenshot
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Appearing on Fox & Friends on Friday morning, Fox News host Mark Levin launched into a full-scale attack on James Comey, saying he thinks the former FBI director attempted to blackmail some rich asshole by threatening to release the famed golden showers tape of the president with Russian hookers.
“Comey is like a bad rash,” Levin told Fox and Friends host Brian Kilmeade. “You know, he just won’t go away.”
The brash Fox personality who hosts Fox’s Life, Liberty and Levin on the Sunday nights, accused Comey of being a “very petty, superficial man.”
“This is a former head of the FBI. He is the former deputy attorney general of the United States. He is a former United States attorney. He is conducting himself like a complete Bozo the Clown,” Levin snarled. “And he does enormous damage to the Federal Bureau of Investigation by conducting himself this way.”
Turning to the private meeting documented in Comey’s notes, where the then-FBI director said the rich asshole badgered him about the investigation into former the rich asshole National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Levin claimed that Comey tried to hang on to his job by threatening the president with information contained in the notorious Steele dossier.
“You have a dossier that was fraudulent, where you have you actual collusion with the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC, and payments being made through law firms to Fusion GPS,” Levin maintained. “That was used to get a FISA warrant against an American citizen with loose ties to the rich asshole campaign in order to get to the rich asshole campaign and the rich asshole transition through the back door.”
“All this, again, occurred under James Comey’s watch and then, he meets with the president-elect of the United States, a week or so before he becomes president of the United States,” he added. “Clears the room out, doesn’t show him the dossier, doesn’t tell him who funded it, but tells him some of the most scurrilous lies that are in this dossier in order, I think, to tell the president of the United States ‘don’t mess with me, look what I have on you.’ I actually think he was in a position to blackmail the president. Or he thought he was.”
Levin was mistaken about Comey clearing the room out, as it has been previously reported that the rich asshole asked to be alone with Comey, sending Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step outside.
You can watch the interview below:
DNC hits the rich asshole campaign with multimillion-dollar lawsuit for conspiring with the Russian government
Vladimir Putin and some rich asshole (Photos by: Nikolay Androsov / Shutterstock and Wikipedia Commons)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
The Democratic National Committee on Friday filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit accusing the rich asshole campaign of colluding with WikiLeaks and the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
The Washington Post reports that the lawsuit, which was filed in a federal district court in Manhattan, claims that the rich asshole’s campaign encouraged Russia to illegally hack the emails of Democrats, while also conspiring to help Russian agents spread and disseminate the leaked communications.
“During the 2016 presidential campaign, Russia launched an all-out assault on our democracy, and it found a willing and active partner in some rich asshole’s campaign,” DNC Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “This constituted an act of unprecedented treachery: the campaign of a nominee for President of the United States in league with a hostile foreign power to bolster its own chance to win the presidency.”
The lawsuit does not name the rich asshole as a defendant. Instead, it names people within the rich asshole campaign who were known to have had contacts with Russian officials who promised them dirt on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, such as some rich asshole Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and George Papadopoulos.
Also named in the suit is Roger Stone, a longtime the rich asshole ally and right-wing “dirty trickster” who boasted of communicating directly with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 presidential campaign — but who now insists that he was merely “joking” about such contacts.
The Post notes that the Democrats will likely have a hard time succeeding in this lawsuit since the Russian government is not subject to American laws. However, it says that the DNC filed a similar lawsuit against former President Richard Nixon during the Watergate investigation, which eventually resulted in a $750,000 settlement from the Nixon campaign.
It’s time to admit the ‘grotesque caricature’ of white evangelicals is the reality
Pastor Robert Jeffress (left) and President some rich asshole (right). Image via Jeffress' Twitter.
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
This week dozens of prominent evangelical leaders gathered at conservative Wheaton College, in Wheaton, IL, to address the “grotesque caricature” of their faith in the rich asshole era. The organizer of the gathering, Doug Birdsall, told the Washington Post that under the rich asshole’s leadership, the term “evangelical” has taken on too many negative associations, especially when it comes to racism and nationalism. The goal of the gathering, then, was to address these concerns while returning the word “evangelical” to its core meaning. Rather than a political pariah, an “evangelical” is simply “a person who believes in the authority of the Bible, salvation through Jesus’ work on the cross, personal conversion and the need for evangelism.”
This article is reprinted with permission from Religion Dispatches. Follow RD on Facebook or Twitter for daily updates.
There’s no doubt that evangelicalism seems to have an image problem, especially since its overwhelming alliance with the rich asshole. In the minds of many outside the fold, evangelicalism no longer represents a specific religious position centered on sin and the need for individual salvation but rather a self-serving, power-hungry political movement that will side with the devil himself for the sake of political pragmatism.
“When people say what does it mean to be an evangelical, people don’t say evangelism or the gospel,” Birdsall told the Washington Post. But this image problem isn’t new. Although polling shows that overall feelings toward evangelicals as a religious group have remained relatively stable since 2014, the perception of evangelicals as “agents of intolerance,” to quote John McCain back in 2008, well predates the rich asshole era.
And besides, we shouldn’t chalk it all up to image. The fact remains that over 80% of self-identified white evangelical voters cast their lot with the rich asshole. Moreover, despite a host of missteps and scandals, overall evangelical support for the rich asshole as president hasn’t declined but grown.
It would be wrong to paint all evangelicals with the same brush. Evangelicalism is and will remain a complex socio-political movement propped up by a religious rhetoric that emphasizes individual piety, but its adherents aren’t all the same. Indeed, some of the rich asshole’s most vocal critics come out of evangelicalism.
That said, given the consistency with which white evangelicals as a whole have lent their support to the rich asshole—and right-wing candidates and policies more generally—it’s far past time to own up to the fact that the image is, in many respects, the reality.
Well-intentioned evangelical leaders may not like to hear that, but it remains the case that an overwhelming majority of evangelicals continue to support the rich asshole and his policies. Sure, they may have issues with his moral center, or lack thereof, but they’re willing to overlook all this for the sake of political expediency, for promises of “religious freedom,” and the hope of a judiciary stacked with conservative judges.
This is because, at the end of the day, evangelicalism isn’t really about personal values but, rather, social and political conversion and control. Little has changed, in this sense, since the days of Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority (as Daniel Schultz rightly pointed out recently on RD).
The rich asshole era, then, does not create a new problem for evangelicals and their image; it’s simply casting a very bright light on what has always been there, at least for the past forty years or so.
If evangelical support for the rich asshole sounds more calculated than sincere because of this, that’s because it is. But while critics charge evangelicals with hypocrisy, with undercutting their own assumed moral authority for the sake of political success, it’s important to emphasize, contra John Fea, that this more pragmatic approach to social change isn’t completely outside their own religious traditions, and it’s questionable the extent to which evangelicals ever held much moral authority in the first place.
Evangelicals put great stock in the Bible, but as others have noted in the rich asshole context, the Bible is full of stories of God choosing morally ambiguous and even repulsive individuals to lead the so-called faithful. Indeed, that narrative line, repeated over again in numerous ways, makes up a significant portion of what most Christians refer to as the Old Testament.
Another way to put the matter is to say that the Bible isn’t all about love and how you relate to your neighbor, as Christians of a more liberal bent seem to assume privately and when they enter the public sphere. Love’s certainly part of the story too, but it’s not the whole story: sure, the Bible tells us to love each other, to care for poor, the outcast, and the oppressed; but it also tells us many stories of cold calculation, self-preservation, and ideological success—and many of the “heroes” of the Bible play just these games.
It would be wrong, however, to understand the distinction between these two impulses according to the tired—and ultimately anti-Semitic-distinction—between an Old Testament God of wrath and a New Testament God of love. There’s plenty of the latter in the so-called Old Testament, but there’s also pieces of the former in the New Testament. Indeed, someone like Paul could not have become an apostle if the narrative of the morally ambiguous, repulsive individual weren’t in place there as well. Even after Paul’s conversion, he’s not exactly the nicest guy on the block; indeed, if one reads Galatians, Paul can even sound a little Trumpish: certain of his own position while dismissive of others, all the while touting his accomplishments as a way to gain favor (Gal. 1-2).
In pointing this out, I’m not saying that I agree with the particular narrative arc of the morally suspect individual and the way it’s deployed by evangelicals in our current political landscape. I don’t, and if I had to throw my hat into the “culture wars” I’d throw it on the side of the more liberal Christians every time. Nevertheless, it’s wrongheaded to reduce evangelical involvement in politics to a simple hypocrisy that lies completely outside the purview of biblical faith. In this respect I part ways with John Fea, who believes that prominent evangelical leaders have “sacrificed their moral vision” to become “court evangelicals.”
While emphasizing only this aspect of the Bible is horribly simplistic, to assume it’s not there is to ignore the book’s complexity and ambiguities, some far from ideal, that mark the history of Christianity. But covering over the “darker” aspects of the faith for the sake of love, as more liberal Christians tend to do, reads Christianity just as simplistically, even if it’s a reading that is, in many ways, more palatable.
I applaud those evangelicals who want to think honestly about the movement’s current image in the rich asshole age. But appealing to some “pure” form of the faith beyond its supposed political corruption—beyond the racism, xenophobia, nationalism, and the like that even critics of paper over—isn’t the way to go.
Not only do such appeals represent little more than nostalgia-laden theological desires that have little to do with what goes on on the ground, but they also ignore the fact that the line between religion and politics is flimsy at best, if not entirely non-existent. Evangelicalism, in its current manifestation, isn’t a religion that has been corrupted by its entry into politics but is, rather, a social movement that works through a specific type of politics. The substance of that politics has been clearly on display for some time now. the rich asshole and his evangelical allies didn’t invent it; they only exacerbated it.
If evangelicalism ever wants to play a more positive role in social and political life, perhaps it’s time its leaders acknowledge that its public image isn’t a “grotesque caricature,” but the thing itself. There’s a weighty theological term and disposition for taking an approach that comes to terms with such hard truths but attempts to chart a new path beyond them: repentance. If that doesn’t happen, then Daniel Schultz is probably right: the meeting at Wheaton will not have accomplished much of anything.
Rural the rich asshole voters have second thoughts about opposing immigration after ICE raids their town
some rich asshole speaks at Nevada rally (MSNBC)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently conducted a large-scale workplace raid in Bean Station, Tennessee, a rural community that overwhelmingly voted for President some rich asshole in 2016.
However, many community members who backed the rich asshole nonetheless found themselves disturbed at the way that ICE had gone about rounding up immigrant families — and now they’re rethinking their past hard-line stance on immigration.
In a lengthy report published by The New Yorker, some local residents say that raids such as the one in their community go against their deeply held Christian values.
“I’m a Christian; God loves everybody equally,” 50-year-old Hank Smith told the publication. “And I never had a problem with anyone being here… immigration didn’t really affect me before. But then this raid happened.”
Pastor David Williams, who leads the local Hillcrest Baptist Church, says he’s seen people in his congregation change their minds about the best way to deal with undocumented immigrants.
“You cannot be a true Christian if you ignore your neighbor in need,” he told the New Yorker. “The people in the middle have had their hearts soften because of the raid.”
As the New Yorker documents, the raid on immigrant workers was particularly traumatic for many people in the nearby town of Morristown, Tennessee, where “more than five hundred students were reported absent from area schools” the day after the raid.
Deborah, a 44-year-old the rich asshole voter, said that while she has conflicting views on immigration, she didn’t hesitate to help out her community members who were affected by the ICE raid.
“I never understood all the technicalities of what it takes to become a legalized resident,” she told the New Yorker. “How can I judge what I don’t understand?”
Mike Flynn back in limelight after FBI plea deal
April 20, 2018
Greg Price
Posted with permission from Newsweek
Disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn has re-entered the political limelight but not as a witness or target of the special counsel’s investigation. Instead, Flynn has reportedly become a star among President Donald Trump’s supporters and those rallying against Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
Indeed, the former general delivered a foreign policy speech in New York Thursday night and endorsed a Republican candidate for Congress last month, according to Politico.
After delivering his speech about “directions in foreign policy” for the London Center for Policy Research, he stated he was “doing great” while refusing to answer questions.
Flynn reportedly was not paid for the speech, but those who attended had to shell out $10,000 in order to hear the short-lived national security adviser, as well as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and others.
The speech followed Flynn’s endorsement of Republican candidate Omar Navarro, who is challenging Democratic Representative Maxine Waters for her seat in California.
The efforts are intended for Flynn to put his controversial recent past behind him.
“General Flynn is moving on with his life and this speech is part of that endeavor,” his brother Joseph Flynn told Politico. “There are lots of people who want to hear his voice again.”
Still, Flynn is only about five months removed from his guilty plea in Mueller’s probe. In December, he admitted to lying to FBI officials about his contacts with foreign officials and agreed to cooperate with the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.
Flynn’s speech occurred mere hours before former FBI director James Comey’s infamous memos were leaked to the media. Comey quoted Trump as saying Flynn had “serious judgment issues” after learning a foreign leader had called to speak to the president but that a call back had not been scheduled until six days later. The country and its leader were redacted, as were other lines in the memos that Comey kept after what he perceived to be odd or improper behavior by Trump in their interactions.
Trump has said he had to fire Flynn in February of last year because he had lied to the FBI, but has also wondered on Twitter why Flynn’s life had to be “destroyed” while others like Comey and Hillary Clinton have faced no investigations. The president reiterated his stance Friday morning while again blasting Comey.
“So General Michael Flynn’s life can be totally destroyed while Shadey James Comey can Leak and Lie and make lots of money from a third rate book (that should never have been written). Is that really the way life in America is supposed to work? I don’t think so!” Trump tweeted.
So General Michael Flynn’s life can be totally destroyed while Shadey James Comey can Leak and Lie and make lots of money from a third rate book (that should never have been written). Is that really the way life in America is supposed to work? I don’t think so!
GOP goes full banana republic and demands investigation of imaginary anti-the rich asshole conspiracy
Former FBI Director James Comey testifies before the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 8, 2017. (AFP/File / SAUL LOEB)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
If I had read this opening paragraph of a CNN story four years ago I would have assumed it was actually an excerpt from a bad movie script:
A week after the tell-all book from James Comey exploded onto the scene, President some rich asshole is telling aides and confidants something he rarely does: He’s pleased at how Republicans and the White House led the charge to try and discredit the former FBI director.
Setting aside the ridiculous notion of some rich asshole being president, I would have said the stuff about the White House and Republicans openly celebrating a campaign to discredit an FBI director, much less a stalwart Republican like Comey, would be absurd and no one would believe it. They were the “law and order” party. They love FBI directors.
This article was originally published at Salon
There’s no need to belabor this little time-travel exercise. It’s just that sometimes you have to acknowledge the strangeness of what’s going on. This is just one small example, but it’s a significant one. The president and his minions in the media and, more significantly, in the Congress are working overtime to discredit witnesses in a counterintelligence investigation involving … the president. And they are bragging about their success to the news media.
On Thursday night the Department of Justice finally relented and released the long-sought “Comey memos,” which the former FBI director had written to document his meetings with the rich asshole and other members of the White House during those first few months of the rich asshole administration. Just like the infamous “Nunes memo,” they are basically duds as far as new information is concerned. This should come as no surprise: Comey testified at length before Congress and wrote a book about all this that he’s currently appearing on every TV show in the known world to promote. Apparently, the rich asshole’s allies hoped or believed these would prove Comey was lying and instead they have now proved to everyone that he wasn’t. They’re reduced to making absurd observations that Comey never once wrote that he “felt obstructed.”
Still, it was a thrilling day for the rich asshole. His Justice Department referred former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia for possible criminal charges. Finally, one of his perceived political enemies was getting what was coming to him.
McCabe was referred on the basis of the FBI inspector general’s report finding that he had shown a “lack of candor” about an unauthorized leak to the Wall Street Journal confirming that the FBI was still investigating the Clinton Foundation. You’ll recall that McCabe was fired in a highly unorthodox fashion for this infraction, just hours before he was to officially retire and weeks before the report was released in full.
According to former FBI counter-intelligence official Frank Figliuzzi, who recently discussed all this on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” this referral is unusual:
If it is true that the charge that is being referred is for a lack of candor during an internal inquiry, I cannot recall that ever happening in my 25-year FBI career. I also headed the office of professional responsibility adjudication unit. I was the chief inspector of the FBI during my career and that’s a new one on me. So, what I was thinking is that the referral would be for an unauthorized leak — that McCabe actually conceded that he did allow his subordinates to talk to the media and disclosed the existence of a case. That sounded more prosecutable than lacking candor during an internal inquiry. I don’t know if he was under oath or not, but nonetheless the remedy for that is termination not criminal referral. So I’m troubled by this, if the reporting is correct.
James Comey told Rachel Maddow on Thursday night that there were two people in the FBI who had authorization to provide such information to the media at the time: Himself and Andrew McCabe. So a criminal referral on that count would seem to be odd as well.
It appears that McCabe is facing potential criminal indictment for a so-called crime not easily found in the statute books (“lack of candor”) or over a leak he was specifically authorized to make. This is not the end of this story.
According to the Washington Post, the president is not satisfied:
the rich asshole also loudly and repeatedly complained to several advisers earlier this week that former FBI director James B. Comey, former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, among others, should be charged with crimes for misdeeds alleged by Republicans, the associates said.
Although White House officials said Thursday that the rich asshole has not called Justice Department officials or taken any formal action, the persistent grousing has made some advisers anxious, according to two people close to the president.
He doesn’t have to call Justice officials. They are well aware of his demand to lock up Hillary Clinton for crimes that exist only in his head, and he has said that McCabe is a criminal many times. Surely they read his Twitter feed:
The right-wing media, led by unofficial White House chief of staff Sean Hannity, have been calling for indictments of the president’s enemies for months. Now he has some congressional back-up for this authoritarian, banana-republic command. Eleven members of the House have called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray to launch criminal investigations into Clinton, Comey, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, McCabe, former acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente and FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page for a variety of different and unaffiliated alleged crimes. If it weren’t for the fact that McCabe has actually been referred for possible indictment already I’d say all of that was nuts.
I hate to give James Comey the last word, but this is what he said during an NPR interview this week after President the rich asshole called for him to be sent to prison:
The president of the United States just said that a private citizen should be jailed. And I think the reaction of most of us was, “Meh, that’s another one of those things.” This is not normal. This is not OK. There’s a danger that we will become numb to it, and we will stop noticing the threats to our norms. The threats to the rule of law and the threats most of all to the truth. And so the reason I’m talking in terms of morality is, those are the things that matter most to this country. And there’s a great danger we’ll be numbed into forgetting that, and then only a fool would be consoled by some policy victory.
Dem lawmaker tells MSNBC that White House ‘lit up’ Nunes after Comey revealed the rich asshole under investigation
Rep. Jim Himes (MSNBC)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
A Connecticut Democrat blamed the White House for corrupting Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee charged with investigating election interference by Russia.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) appeared Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where he discussed the memos written by former FBI director and released by the Department of Justice under pressure by House Republicans loyal to President some rich asshole.
“I want to ask you a question that I think is on a lot of people’s minds in Washington,” said Josh Earnest, the former White House press secretary, “which is simply, what’s the deal with Devin Nunes?”
The former Obama administration official blamed Nunes for violating established norms on the committee and allowed its legislative duties to be corrupted by partisan politics.
“The question is, is he aware of those norms?” Earnest said. “Is he overly pliable? Is he eager to please some rich asshole? What is the deal with that guy?”
Himes echoed comments by a former Democratic staffer on the House committee, who said Nunes had been pressured by the White House to slow the investigation into the rich asshole campaign ties to Russia.
“I think this is what happens, and this is a little speculative on my part,” Himes said. “But we have that open hearing, I think it’s March of last year, where Jim Comey says there actually is an investigation. This is the president’s worst nightmare. The president, of course, is close to Devin Nunes.”
“Speculative on my part, but my guess is the White House after Comey announced the investigation, lit him up like you wouldn’t believe,” he added. “Devin spent a lot of time and energy since then trying to make it up and defend the president. Of course, that’s sad, because that’s not the job of the investigative committee.”
the rich asshole team still negotiating Mueller interview despite Cohen raid: report
Special counsel and former FBI director Bob Mueller (image via screengrab).
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
According to one of some rich asshole’s attorneys, negotiations are ongoing for the president to sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller after it appeared they had fallen apart following a raid on the rich asshole’s personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Speaking with the Daily Beast, the rich asshole attorney Ty Cobb, it is possible that the interview could take place.
“The Cohen searches, while they have taken time away from discussions with regard to an interview, certainly have not brought those discussions to a halt,” Cobb said in a statement. “They continue.”
Following news of the raids on Cohen home and office, the rich asshole raged on Twitter claiming, “Attorney Client privilege is now a thing of the past. I have many (too many!) lawyers and they are probably wondering when their offices, and even homes, are going to be raided with everything, including their phones and computers, taken. All lawyers are deflated and concerned!”
Despite the rich asshole’s Twitter outburst, Cobb said negotiations have continued.
“The Cohen searches have not yet changed our strategy or level of cooperation with the special counsel,” Cobb continued.
the rich asshole personal attorney Jay Sekulow conformed the statements saying, “We continue our ongoing cooperation with the Office of the Special Counsel.”
The attorney’s no doubt will be joined in the negotiation by former New York City Mayor and U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani who announced he is joining the rich asshole legal team and brings more criminal charges experience.
“I’m doing it because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country and because I have high regard for the president and for Bob Mueller,” Giuliani said in a statement.
REVEALED: the rich asshole used his ‘John Barron’ alias to lie about his wealth — and sneak onto the Forbes 400
President some rich asshole departs the White House for Palm Beach, FL (Shutterstock)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Jonathan Greenberg, an investigative reporter who used to write for Forbes, has written an extensively documented article for the Washington Post detailing how President some rich asshole once used his alias “John Barron” to lie about his personal wealth.
Specifically, Greenberg says that, while writing up Forbes’ annual list of the 400 richest people in America in 1984, he received a phone call from a the rich asshole Organization official who went by the name of John Barron and who informed him that the rich asshole’s wealth was far greater than what was currently understood.
Although Greenberg didn’t know it at the time, he has now figured out that “John Barron” was actually the rich asshole himself. What’s more, Greenberg says the rich asshole told him a series of whoppers that artificially inflated his wealth beyond its true value.
“It took decades to unwind the elaborate farce the rich asshole had built to project an image as one of the richest people in America,” Greenberg writes. “Nearly every assertion supporting that claim was untrue. the rich asshole wasn’t just poorer than he said he was. Over time I have learned that he should not have been on the first three Forbes 400 lists at all.”
Greenberg says that he and his fellow Forbes reporters had long suspected that the rich asshole exaggerated his wealth. However, he also says that the rich asshole’s hyperbole about his net worth had the perverse side effect of making reporters assume he was only stretching the truth — not simply making it up whole cloth.
“This was a model the rich asshole would use for the rest of his career, telling a lie so cosmic that people believed that some kernel of it had to be real,” he writes. “The tactic landed him a place on the Forbes list he hadn’t earned — and led to future accolades, press coverage and deals. It eventually paved a path toward the presidency.”
Listen to Greenberg’s call with the rich asshole posing as Barron below.
Audio from May 17, 1984, phone conversation
CNN’s Cuomo: Putin’s latest Russian hooker statement is another example of how he humiliates the rich asshole
New Day host Chris Cuomo -- screengrab
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
During a CNN panel discussion on former FBI Director James Comey’s memos that were released Thursday night, CNN host Chris Cuomo pointed to the Kremlin’s response that called attention to the most tawdry aspects to the revelations which illustrated how Russian President Vladimir Putin subtly trolled President some rich asshole.
Speaking with CNN analysts Laura Coates and Josh Campbell, the “New Day” hosts read an official Kremlin statement that addressed the report that Putin boasted to the rich asshole that Russia has “the most beautiful hookers in the world,” during a brief conversation.
According to a statement from Russian Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, “President Putin could not say such a thing and did not say it to President the rich asshole, taking in to account that they had never communicated before the rich asshole became President. As for the main content of the book, I do not presume to judge. We did not read it.”
Pointing a Bloomberg report that showed there had been a discussion, host Cuomo pointed out that the Kremlin statement was an intentional jab at the rich asshole
“It’s a reminder politically that Vladimir Putin is not some rich asshole’s friend,” Cuomo explained. “There may be a softness here trying to manage to make the relationship better. But every opportunity that Vladimir Putin has to embarrass him and expose the president of the United States, he does it. Even on something as tawdry as this.”
“Certainly, and he capitalizes on it, of course,” Coates added. “That’s one of the reasons people have been questioning, including former FBI Director James Comey in his interviews, why is it that this president of the United States is supportive and not antagonistic to Vladimir Putin. He raises issues that have not been up. He tells people ‘don’t picture a pink elephant,’ that’s all they ever see.”
Watch the video below via CNN:
Comey memos reveal the rich asshole berated Mike Flynn for waiting too long to return Putin’s call
some rich asshole and Vladimir Putin (MSNBC)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Former FBI Director James Comey’s contemporaneous memos of his interactions with President some rich asshole show that the president questioned the judgement of former national security adviser Michael Flynn — and now a new report from the Wall Street Journal reveals why.
According to Comey’s redacted memos, the rich asshole berated Flynn because he waited days to inform him about a phone call to the White House from an unspecified world leader. Although the leader’s name was blacked out in the memos, the Journalhas independently confirmed that the president was referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“People familiar with the matter say that the call was from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was the first foreign leader to call the White House to congratulate some rich asshole after his inauguration,” the Journal reports. “The call wasn’t brought to some rich asshole’s attention until he was in the middle of a lunch with British Prime Minister Theresa May and was thanking her for being the first to call him. Mr. Flynn piped up and explained that it was Mr. Putin, not Ms. May, who the first to call… according to the memo, some rich asshole was furious ‘because six days was not an appropriate period of time to return a call.'”
Comey’s memos, which were leaked to the media on Thursday night, offered a slew of new details surrounding his interactions with the rich asshole White House.
Among other things, they show that the rich asshole talked with his former FBI director about Russian prostitutes on three separate occasions; that the FBI had been granted a FISA warrant to surveil former national security adviser Michael Flynn while he was working in the White House; that the rich asshole, despite his professed love for Flynn, questioned his judgement; and that the rich asshole had pitched jailing reporters as a way to stop leaks coming from the White House.
the rich asshole claims vindication after release of Comey memos
BY BRANDON CONRADIS - 04/20/18 12:06 AM EDT
President the rich asshole late Thursday night trumpeted the release of a series of memos written by former FBI Director James Comey, claiming they exonerated him of allegations that he obstructed justice and colluded with Russia.
"James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION," the rich asshole tweeted. "Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?"
James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION. Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?
Comey's memos have become a flashpoint in an increasingly bitter partisan fight on Capitol Hill tied to whether the rich asshole tried to obstruct justice in the ongoing probe into possible ties between his campaign and Russia.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) was forced to hand over the memos to Congress on Thursday or face a subpoena from House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). He and other Republicans, including Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), have been investigating alleged anti-the rich asshole bias at DOJ in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.
Following the release of the memos, which mostly contained details already known to the public thanks to Comey's testimony on Capitol Hill and leaked excerpts from his autobiography, the three Republicans released a statement saying the memos provided clear evidence there was no obstruction of justice.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, meanwhile, claimed they “provide strong corroborating evidence of everything [Comey] said about President the rich asshole” and show a “blatant effort to deny justice.”
In his tweet, the rich asshole also alluded to the fact that Comey had provided one unclassified memo to a friend who then gave it to the New York Times. Comey did so in order to trigger the appointment of a special counsel in the Russia probe.
the rich asshole has repeatedly railed against the probe, frequently referring to it as a "witch hunt." He has also stepped up his attacks on Comey in recent days, as the ex-FBI director mounts a media blitz in order to promote his new book.
Here are 13 transformational bills in Congress that could completely change America as we know it
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan of Wisconsin speaking at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
We are so focused on political parties, and also on the personalities of candidates, that we almost always ignore some of the really important, and sometimes transformational things that are also “on the ballot” in congressional elections.
And when there is a Special Election in the middle of a Congressional Session, this is even more the case, as brand-new lawmakers can change the dynamic on Capitol Hill, helping to sway the outcome of numerous bills awaiting votes in Congress.
So, here are just a few of the bills that currently exist and are waiting to be voted on (or not) that a Congresswoman Debbie Lesko or a Congresswoman Hiral Tipirneni—currently in a battle to fill the seat left vacant by incumbent Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.)—will be able to co-sponsor and vote for. Or not.
Arizona’s 8th District voters aren’t the only American voters who have a say in who’s getting a seat in the 115th Congress. Voters in Ohio’s 12th and Michigan’s 13th are also tasked with filling vacancies in upcoming special elections. Also, voters from Minnesota and Mississippi will vote to fill vacant Senate seats.
The following bills have the power of enacting transformational change across the nation on issues that should concern everyone.
- The Clean Energy for America Act: To incentivize additional renewable energy and more renewable energy jobs, potentially helping to turn Arizona into a solar power “powerhouse.”
- The Paycheck Fairness Act: To ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work. The bill already has 199 sponsors and co-sponsors and only needs 19 more supporters to have enough votes to pass the House. Will any of the candidates seeking congressional seats this year be that 200th vote?
- The Citizen Sovereignty Act: To help reduce the influence of big money lobbyists in Washington. The bill will be introduced on April 25, the day after the April 24th special elections.
- The Safe and Affordable Prescription Drug Importation Act: To allow Americans to purchase prescription drugs from Canada at lower rates than available in the United States and “The SPIKE Act” to prevent large spikes in the cost of currently available drugs.
- The Save Net Neutrality Act: To return net neutrality as the law in the U.S.
- The Fair Representation Act: To end political gerrymandering, the practice of states choosing political districts for political benefit.
- The Student Loan Fairness Act: To allow college students to benefit from the same interest rates as big banks do.
- The Marijuana Justice Act: To eliminate federal penalties for the possession or use of marijuana for recreational purposes.
- The Dog and Cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act: One of many bills that affect animals that almost never receive public attention, this would overrule laws in many states allowing for the killing of dogs and cats and help NGOs end the Yulin Dog Meat Festival (currently stuck in committee).
- The PAST Act: Also stuck in Congress, this would outlaw the torture of Tennessee Walker horses, reversing a law that animal rights advocates consider to be one of the cruelest in American history.
- The Dream Act: To cancel the removal and grant lawful permanent resident status on a conditional basis to an alien who is inadmissible or deportable.
- The Medicare for All Act: To expand Medicare to all ages and allow every American to receive medical services from the government if they so desired.
- The Background Check Expansion Act: To create comprehensive background checks for gun purchases.
Also, in March of 2017, Congress passed H.J.Res 69 to allow hunters in Alaska to shoot baby bears and their parents hibernating in their dens, overturning a key Obama-era animal rights law. Will Lesko or Tiperneni—or other candidates seeking congressional seats this year in Ohio and Michigan—support a bill to overturn this cruel resolution if they are elected?
Legislators legislate. That is their responsibility. Their main job is to sponsor or co-sponsor and vote for pieces of legislation that will solve the challenges of the American people and move our country forward.
If you are eligible to vote for candidates seeking a legislative seat, ask them specifically whether they will co-sponsor and vote for bills that you care about.
And, then, it is your responsibility to go to the polls and “hire” a proxy who will go to Washington and vote for these bills.
So, let’s move beyond political parties and talk about—and hold our political candidates responsible for—voting for the specific things that matter to us, our families, animals and the environment, and the direction of our country.
By
-
April 19, 2018
At least Rudy Giuliani can commiserate with the rich asshole about the pressure of facing an FBI investigation.
In his frenzy to find a lawyer — any lawyer — willing to join his crumbling legal team, the rich asshole seems to have gotten confused and hired one of his alleged co-conspirators instead.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that Rudy Giuliani has joined the team of lawyers defending the rich asshole in the ongoing Russia investigation.
Giuliani apparently hopes he can convince special counsel Robert Mueller to bring the investigation to an end within “a couple of weeks,” CNN’s Dana Bash reported.
It’s unclear, however, if Giuliani is hoping to end the Russia probe on behalf of the rich asshole — or to save his own skin.
An outspoken supporter of the rich asshole since the earliest days of his candidacy, Giuliani found himself facing scrutiny from investigators for his alleged involvement in events surrounding the FBI’s reopening of its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
In October 2016, Giuliani went on Fox News and bragged that he knew in advance that the FBI had recently uncovered a new batch of emails from Clinton.
“We got a couple of surprises left,” Giuliani said at the time.
Three days later, then-FBI Director James Comey announced that the bureau was reopening its investigation of Clinton’s emails.
While Giuliani would later deny any involvement in making the information public, he acknowledged that he had been privy to information leaked from the FBI. Leaks such as this were reportedly a key factor in Comey’s decision to bypass FBI protocol regarding announcements that could affect elections and disclose the new emails to Congress.
Adding to the suspicion, Giuliani made a series of comments in July 2016 claiming that Russia had obtained Clinton’s 33,000 deleted emails from her private server. His remarks came just a day after the rich asshole suggested that the Kremlin should find the missing emails.
Giuliani’s admission that he had advanced knowledge of the Clinton email probe ultimately put him in the crosshairs of the FBI’s Russia investigation.
In May, Comey announced that the bureau was looking into whether FBI employees leaked information about the investigation into Clinton’s emails to members of the rich asshole’s campaign team, including Giuliani.
The results of that investigation have not yet been made been public, so Giuliani’s role in the scandal remains unknown. Just six days after he announced that the FBI was looking into the leaks, Comey was fired by the rich asshole.
But that’s not Giuliani’s only connection to the Russia probe.
He also reportedly tried to broker a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Turkey to free his client, Reza Zarrab, a Turkish businessman accused of facilitating a money laundering scheme as part of a plot to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Zarrab struck a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors in November, leading to speculation that he may be cooperating with Mueller’s probe. If those reports are true, that would mean Giuliani’s current client (the rich asshole) is the subject of an investigation in which a former client (Zarrab) is a cooperating witness.
And it doesn’t end there.
Further complicating matters, Mueller is reportedly investigating a $15 million offer made to Michael Flynn from representatives of the Turkish government in exchange for securing Zarrab’s release — and kidnapping exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.
So not only has Giuliani allegedly come under scrutiny in the Russia probe, but his former client may actually be a key witness — and now, Giuliani will now be representing the rich asshole in that very same investigation.
In a statement announcing Giuliani’s hire, the rich asshole praised his longtime ally and publicly expressed his desire for the Russia probe to come to an end.
“Rudy is great,” the rich asshole said. “He has been my friend for a long time and wants to get this matter quickly resolved for the good of the country.”
Giuliani has good reason to want to wrap up the investigation — but “the good of the country” has nothing to do with it.
‘NO COLLUSION’: the rich asshole proclaims his innocence after release of Comey memos that make him look bad
some rich asshole during CNN debate (Photo: Screen capture via video)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
After the House Republicans released the memos from former FBI director James Comey, President some rich asshole declared victory on Twitter.
“James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION. Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?” he tweeted.
The memos don’t prove there was no collusion, rather they quote the president saying that there is no collusion.
Similarly, the memos don’t prove there was no obstruction of justice. The allegation against the rich asshole is that the firing of Comey was the example of obstruction, because the rich asshole told NBC News Lester Holt the firing was as a result of the Russia investigation.
A leak is defined as an unauthorized release of confidential government information. Thus, the release of the memo was not technically considered a leak.
Many commentators have noted that the release of the memos ultimately makes the rich asshole look worse. Whether it was the constant need to bring up Russia, yet another story of the rich asshole and Russian prostitutes and the concerning timeline about conversations regarding former national security advisor Michael Flynn.
MEDIA
Stormy Daniels’ Attorney Predicts: ‘I Do Not Think The President Will Serve Out His Term’
Michael Avenatti said this won’t end well for some rich asshole.
The attorney representing porn star Stormy Daniels said on Thursday that President some rich asshole may not be in the White House much longer.
“I’m going to make a prediction now,” Michael Avenatti told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace. “I do not think the president will serve out his term. I just don’t.”
Daniels claims to have had an affair with the rich asshole in 2006, something the president has denied.
the rich asshole’s personal attorney Michael Cohen has admitted to paying $130,000 to Daniels just before the 2016 election as part of a nondisclosure agreement.
The FBI seized material from Cohen last week, setting off a chain of events that Avenatti predicted will be a disaster for the rich asshole.
“This is a very, very serious matter for the president at this point. There’s no question that Michael Cohen knows where many, many bodies are buried,” he said. “They are going to turn him. And when they turn him, the president is going to be in a very, very bad place.”
Avenatti has previously predicted that Cohen will crack under pressure once he’s indicted and turn on the rich asshole.
“I think Michael Cohen is going to fold like a cheap deck of cards on some rich asshole, and the results are going to be very, very bad,” he warned last week.
‘The stink of guilt is all over this guy’: Rick Wilson nails House GOP for thinking public Comey memos would help the rich asshole
Rick Wilson on CNN -- screengrab
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
The calls of stupidity aimed at the House Republicans grew louder Thursday evening after they released the memos from former FBI director James Comey.
During a panel discussion with CNN’s Don Lemon, Republican Rick Wilson was astonished that the House Republicans would be so stupid to release memos that not only made the president look worse but made Comey look better.
“I don’t think his congressional allies did him any favors tonight by revealing these memos,” Wilson said, agreeing with many commentators speaking out on Twitter Thursday. “If they thought this was going to make Comey and had investigation look bad, this is once again reminding people of the concept of the rich asshole, hookers and Russia all in one big package. It’s astounding how they released these tonight.”
Wilson was also shocked at how guilty President some rich asshole comes off in the memos.
“This is one more example of some rich asshole either having a relationship with Vladimir Putin that he hasn’t been honest about it, or trying to impress people with an imaginary relationship with Vladimir Putin,” Wilson also said. “This is guy whose behavior — I mean the stink of guilt is all over this guy.”
Watch his full take below:
‘How does any evangelical stay’: Ex-Republican Congressman rails against the rich asshole’s morality on display in Comey memos
former Republican Congressman David Jolly (R-FL) (Photo: Screen capture)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
During a Thursday panel discussion with CNN’s Don Lemon, former Republican Congressman David Jolly (R-FL) said that the takeaway from the release of the memos from former FBI director James Comey is the morality of the president should be more of a concern.
“I think the take away from this is the fact that Vladimir Putin told some rich asshole that they have beautiful Russian hookers,” Jolly said. “And the question tonight is how does any evangelical stay with some rich asshole in this moment? And this is one of the phenomenas of some rich asshole’s presidency to be honest, that someone who pledges family values is burdened by this extra-curricular, extra-marital activities.”
The reference Jolly made to the prostitutes goes back to a comment in the Comey memos about a conversation the rich asshole said he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The President said ‘the hookers thing’ is nonsense,” Comey wrote, referencing the salacious “golden showers” dossier written by former British spy Christopher Steele. “Putin had told him ‘we have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world.’”
“He did not say when Putin had told him this,” Comey wrote.
“And tonight we learn, this memo comes out, that suggests there are beautiful Russian hookers that some rich asshole is somehow entranced by,” Jolly continued. “You can’t get away from that. And Don, look, fine it’s not a legal issue. Maybe it’s a political issue. But at the end of the day this is 2018, and we’re living through an environment in the United States of America where the president is compromised likely criminal but also morally.”
Watch the full conversation below:
GOP leadership scrambles to spin Comey memo release as bad for former FBI director and not for the rich asshole
Devin Nunes (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
The cable news shows were quick to seize on the release of the memos by former FBI director James Comey. However, everything discussed seemed to be about issues that weren’t entirely flattering to the president. Still, the Republican Congressional leadership tried to spin that the memos made Comey look bad.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC), and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) released a statement attacking the former FBI director.
“We have long argued former Director Comey’s self-styled memos should be in the public domain, subject to any classification redactions. These memos are significant for both what is in them and what is not,” their statement began. “Former Director Comey’s memos show the President made clear he wanted allegations of collusion, coordination, and conspiracy between his campaign and Russia fully investigated. The memos also made clear the ‘cloud’ President the rich asshole wanted lifted was not the Russian interference in the 2016 election cloud, rather it was the salacious, unsubstantiated allegations related to personal conduct leveled in the dossier.”
As a fact-check, the memos reveal that the president said over and over again that there was no collusion. They provided no proof, evidence or information one way or the other.
“The memos also show former Director Comey never wrote that he felt obstructed or threatened,” the statement also said.
That is correct, instead, the memos illustrate the frequent requests by the president about Russia. The obstruction case has more to do with the president’s interview with NBC News reporter Lester Holt in which the rich asshole admits he fired Comey as a result of the Russia investigation.
The Republicans then move to call out Comey for not taking contemporaneous notes about his conversations with President Barack Obama. It’s unclear if he did or did not take notes of conversations with Obama, though in his book, Comey details conversations with the former president, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and other leaders.
Those commenting about the release of the memos on Twitter noted that the president has spent the past year assailing those who “leak.” In this case, it was the GOP leadership that provided the unflattering leak.
So, they are the leakers? I thought leaking was bad
MSNBC’s Chuck Todd wondered what the House GOP was hoping to accomplish by releasing the memos.
“Nothing I’ve read seems to change Comey’s story and if anything, these memos give more, not less, credence to the dossier,” he tweeted.
University of Texas School of Law Professor Steve Vladeck noted that the bluff by the House GOP “may have backfired spectacularly.” Unless it was their goal “to dramatically bolster Comey’s credibility.”
If demanding that DOJ turn over the #ComeyMemos was a bluff on House Republicans’ part (to create an excuse to fire Rosenstein), it may have backfired spectacularly.
(Unless their goal was to dramatically bolster Comey’s credibility.)
Memos document Comey's interactions with the rich asshole
BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS - 04/19/18 10:50 PM EDT
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has handed over to Congress memos written by former FBI Director James Comey, documenting his encounters with President the rich asshole and providing a meticulously detailed, first-hand account of some of the most controversial moments in the rich asshole presidency.
The memos, obtained by The Hill, document seven conversations Comey had with the rich asshole between January and April of 2017. Four are classified and have been partly redacted, while the remainder are unclassified.
While the major narratives documented in the memos were already publicly known, they provide a few tantalizing new particulars about the rich asshole’s encounters with the president — and have already hardened partisan battle lines on Capitol Hill.
DOJ late Thursday handed over to Congress the fifteen pages of contemporaneous notes, which had become something of a Holy Grail in the controversy over whether the president sought to obstruct justice in the investigation into his campaign and Russia.
The three Republican chairs who forced the release of the memos — Reps. Bob Goodlatte (Va.), Trey Gowdy (S.C.) and Devin Nunes (Calif.) — claimed Thursday that they provide clear evidence that the rich asshole did not seek to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation.
The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, meanwhile, said that they “provide strong corroborating evidence of everything [Comey] said about President the rich asshole” and show a “blatant effort to deny justice.”The memos are written in what has become known as Comey’s signature style — detailed, visual and full of extemporaneous descriptions.
The three Republican chairs who forced the release of the memos — Reps. Bob Goodlatte (Va.), Trey Gowdy (S.C.) and Devin Nunes (Calif.) — claimed Thursday that they provide clear evidence that the rich asshole did not seek to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation.
The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, meanwhile, said that they “provide strong corroborating evidence of everything [Comey] said about President the rich asshole” and show a “blatant effort to deny justice.”The memos are written in what has become known as Comey’s signature style — detailed, visual and full of extemporaneous descriptions.
In one encounter, the rich asshole pushes Comey to be more aggressive in pursuing leaks out of the bureau, suggesting repeatedly that the best way to do this would be to prosecute journalists. According to Comey, the rich asshole said that journalists would be more willing to give up their sources after they had spent a few nights in jail, a remark at which the FBI director said he laughed.
In another anecdote, from a now-famous dinner with the rich asshole in the early days of the administration, Comey reveals that the president told him that he had “serious reservations” about then-national security advisor Michael Flynn’s “judgment.” the rich asshole would later fire Flynn for misleading the vice president about his contacts with Russian officials, Comey documents, but by then was pushing the FBI director to “let go” of the investigation into the former official.
The president, Comey wrote, also asked him whether there was an open surveillance warrant on Flynn. Comey answered — his response is blacked out, but public reports have indicated that there was — and explained that, typically, such queries should go through “established channels...to protect us and to protect the [White House] from any accusations of improper influence.”
In one redacted section that appears to refer to the Steele dossier, Comey says that he told the rich asshole that “portions of the material were corroborated by other intelligence” — a claim that could contradict some GOP claims that the FBI used unconfirmed material from the dossier in a surveillance warrant application for the rich asshole campaign aide Carter Page. Democrats who have seen the application say the FBI did confirm any material it used, while the rich asshole has called the dossier a total fabrication.
Comey also wrote that he repeatedly told the rich asshole that former deputy director Andrew McCabe — a longtime Republican target whom Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recently fired — was a “pro” and “an honorable person.”
McCabe was dismissed following a finding by the Justice Department Inspector General that he misled Comey and internal investigators about disclosures he authorized to the media related to the FBI’s investigation into the Clinton Foundation. According to the inspector general, McCabe authorized the disclosure to rebut negative press stories related to political donations given to his wife from a key Clinton ally during a failed state Senate campaign.
Comey on Thursday did not reject the notion that he could appear as a witness in any potential prosecution of McCabe.
Prior to his own dismissal in spring of 2017, Comey says he told the rich asshole, “if he had it to do over again I’m sure he would urge his wife not to run, but that guy put everything aside and did his job well.”
Republicans, who are investigating what they say is bias and possible wrongdoing by the Justice Department in the run-up to the 2016 election, say that the memos show Comey was “blind to biases within the FBI and had terrible judgment with respect to his deputy Andrew McCabe.”
Many of the main events Comey describes in the memos have already been made public, either by Comey’s own testimony or in public press accounts, and the release of the documents comes just two days after the publication of the former director’s tell-all memo that is deeply critical of the president.
The memos detail Comey’s account of several now-famous incidents: one in which the rich asshole allegedly demanded his personal loyalty; one in which he asked him to investigate allegations in the dossier that he had paid Russian prostitutes to urinate on a hotel bed once slept in by former President Obama; and the request that Comey “let go” of the Flynn probe.
The Justice Department turned over the documents under threat of subpoena from Goodlatte. House Republicans have been in an increasingly bitter dispute with the Justice Department, which the GOP says has been delustory in turning over documents that it is entitled to have.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told lawmakers on Monday that the Comey memos may relate to an “ongoing investigation,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Hill. In addition to possible collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russia, Mueller is investigating whether the president obstructed justice.
On Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd told lawmakers that the department had determined that the release of the documents to Congress "would not adversely affect any ongoing investigation" at this time.
The seven memos in particular have been a flashpoint in the dispute with DOJ.
Comey drew fire from Republicans after he revealed that he provided one unclassified memo to a personal friend to reveal to the New York Times in order to spark the appointment of a special counsel in the Russia probe following his dismissal.
Democrats have described the probe as a partisan exercise designed to undercut Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Comey's memos are seen as key to a potential obstruction of justice case against the president.
Republicans too gun-shy to endorse some rich asshole for the 2020 election are more than happy to help him now
some rich asshole and House GOP members in the White House Rose Garden on Thursday (Screen capture)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Some Republicans have been hesitant to support President some rich asshole’s 2020 re-election bid — but they are still helping in other ways.
On Capitol Hill, some GOP lawmakers have been reluctant to throw their weight behind the rich asshole’s re-election bid just yet, but let’s get real, a scenario in which the Republican Party chooses not to support its incumbent president is almost entirely inconceivable.
CNN caught up with several GOP lawmakers, some of whom were hesitant to express support for the rich asshole’s already launched 2020 campaign, and they either offered non-answers, deflections or insistence that the 2018 midterms are their only concern:
The comments highlight the continuing uneasiness many Republicans have over the rich asshole’s presidency, and the lingering questions about how the multiple legal battles the president is facing — from the allegations of hush money to silence an alleged affair with the porn actress Stormy Daniels, the raid of his personal attorney Michael Cohen’s properties and special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation — will eventually shake out. And they also contradict the rich asshole’s oft-stated contention that the party has “never” been more united.
Texas Republican and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said, “I don’t know what the world is going to look like,” when asked if he’d support the rich asshole’s re-election campaign. “But let’s say it’s not something I’ve given any thought to.”
When asked again days later he said, “I’m worried about the midterm election.”
GOP Sen. Ron Johnson says "it's way too early" to be talking about Republican support for President Trump in 2020 cnn.it/2EZk5iv
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., insisted it was “too early to weigh in on who I might support” in 2020.
“That’s a little loaded,” Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan told CNN. “One: we need to make sure that he’s actually moving forward and wants to go after this — so when he makes a declaration, then I think that would be a time to determine whether there are others (who) run or not.”
But, it’s important to note that appealing to a broader electorate has likely been part of the reason some Republicans have held off on throwing their weight behind the president, especially if they are up for reelection come November. Per CNN:
What puts Republicans on Capitol Hill in an awkward spot is the fact that the rich asshole’s approval numbers remain rock-solid among core GOP voters, standing at 85% among Republicans in a recent Quinnipiac poll. But if they side too closely with the rich asshole, they risk alienating the broader electorate, where his poll numbers have been historically low.It’s his shaky standing that could prompt a Democratic wave in this fall’s elections, with the GOP at serious risk of losing the House and potentially even the Senate. If that were to happen, some believe, Republicans in the Washington will begin to search for a new GOP candidate come 2020.
Regardless of any perceived uneasiness, the idea that the rich asshole and the GOP are not tethered at the hip is a dubious one at best. A primary contender would face a very difficult battle against a president who, when he was still a candidate, steamrolled through and humiliated every establishment GOP candidate in the lead up to the 2016 election.
Even departing Republican senators who have openly lambasted the president for his impolite optics, off-the-cuff rhetoric or impulsivity are likely to support most of his agenda, if not all of it.
Even if the GOP were to distance itself from the president in the months and years to come, for whatever reason, it does not change the fact that conservative lawmakers have both deliberately left special counsel Robert Mueller vulnerable to impulsive executive action, and have actively sought to undermine his investigation. Nevertheless, if the party chose to move in a different direction than the rich asshole come 2020, it’s not as if it did anything to prevent a potential constitutional crisis. In fact, GOP lawmakers have allowed that possibility to become a reality in their refusal to protect Mueller and his investigation.
As Greg Sargent of the Washington Post opined:
The complication here is that Congress, of course, is supposed to exercise oversight over law enforcement. But there comes a point at which this oversight, when exercised in obvious bad faith, crosses over into something else — that is, overt and deliberate political interference — and good-faith observers need to be able to say so. As former Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller put it to me: “The president is working with members of Congress to actively thwart his own Justice Department, because he wants it to stop investigating him.”
By the way: Does anyone think this would be happening if House Speaker Paul D. Ryan didn’t give this effort his tacit blessing? And is there any point at which Ryan, who is now the subject of much discussion summing up how his career will be remembered, will step in and put a stop to it?
The Republican Party has played a little game in which politicians have tried to have their cake and eat it too, by both assisting the rich asshole agenda and by attempting to act as if they are above his vengeful style of politics. The prime example of this is the “Never the rich asshole” movement, of which figures such as Utah Senate hopeful Mitt Romney could once be considered leaders. But it didn’t take long for him to publicly brag that he is even more of an immigration hawk than the rich asshole is.
Here are the 8 most shocking revelations from the release of the Comey memos
Former FBI director James Comey and President some rich asshole (Photo: Screen capture and Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
While it was well known about the conversation between former FBI director James Comey and President some rich asshole about former national security advisor Michael Flynn. However, the release of the Comey memos passed to Congress from the Justice Department revealed some previously unknown details about their conversations.
Here are the most shocking:
1. the rich asshole brought up Russian prostitutes on three separate occasions.
Out of the five meetings between the two, the rich asshole brought up Russian prostitutes on three occasions. One of those was in context of the Christopher Steele dossier and the salacious accusations that the rich asshole hired prostitutes to urinate in the bed that former President Barack Obama once slept in while in Moscow.
This is the second time, per Comey's memos, that Trump told him he did not stay overnight in Moscow in 2013. Schiller testified that he did. documentcloud.org/documents/4442…
2. the rich asshole wanted to jail journalists to entice them to give up anonymous sources.
It was known that the rich asshole wanted to throw journalists in jail, but the comments he made about it went even further.
“[the rich asshole] replied that we need to go after the reporters. And referred to the fact that 10 or 15 years ago we put them in jail to find out what they know,” the Comey memos revealed. “And it worked. He mentioned Judy Miller by name… He replied by saying it may involve putting reporters in jail. They spend a couple days in jail. Make a new friend. And they are ready to talk.”
3. Comey called himself “reliable” instead of loyal.
“I responded by saying that he could fire me whenever he wished, but that I wanted to stay and do a job I love and think I’m doing well. I explained that I never expected to be back in government but had found this job hugely rewarding and wanted to serve out my term,” Comey wrote in the memo. “I added that I was “reliable” in one way but not in the way political people sometimes use the term. I explained that he could count on me to always tell him the truth. I said I don’t do sneaky things, I don’t leak, I don’t do weasel moves. But I was not on anybody’s side politically and could not be counted on in that traditional political sense, which I said I thought was in the president’s best interest.”
Hard to keep up with the amount of lies told by Comey in his memos. documentcloud.org/documents/4442…
4. The memos confirm Andrew McCabe’s claim that the rich asshole seemed obsessed with his wife.
“At this point he asked me (and asked again later) whether ‘your guy McCabe’ has a problem with me, explaining that ‘I was pretty rough on him and his wife during the campaign,'” the memos revealed. “I explained that Andy was a true professional and had no problem at all. I then explained what FBI people were like, that whatever there [sic] personal views, they strip them when they step into their bureau roles and actually hold ‘political people’ in slight contempt, without regard to party.”
5. the rich asshole blamed the Russia scandal for the reason his Obamacare repeal didn’t pass. Then devolved into more hooker talk.
“He began by joking that I was getting more publicity than he,” the memo says. “I replied that I hate it. He then said he was trying to run the country and the cloud of this Russia business was making that difficult. He said he thinks he would have won the health care vote but for the cloud. he then went on at great length, explaining that he has nothing to do with Russia (has a letter from the largest law firm in DC saying he has gotten no income from Russia). was not involved with hookers in Russia (can you imagine me. hookers? [sic] I have a beautiful wife. and [sic] it has been very painful). is [sic] bringing a personal lawsuit against Christopher Steele. always [sic] advised people to assume they were being recorded in Russia. has [sic] accounts now from those who travelled [sic] with him to Miss Universe pageant that he didn’t do anything, etc.”
6. Reince Priebus demanded to know if Flynn was under a FISA warrant.
Per Comey Memo, during meeting at the WH, then Chief of Staff @Reince asked him: “Do you have a FISA order on Mike Flynn?”
7. the rich asshole wasn’t sure about Flynn.
While the president tried to urge Comey to “let it go” with Flynn, he also wasn’t sure about the man in charge of the
According to Comey, the rich asshole said that he had “serious reservations about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s judgment.
8. the rich asshole couldn’t stop bringing up Russia.
In the five meetings, the rich asshole couldn’t stop talking about Russia. In one instance Comey revealed the two were talking about the argument the rich asshole made that the United States is just as bad as Russia one some things.
“There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” the rich asshole said in an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly
“You think my answer was good, right?” the rich asshole reportedly asked Comey.
Comey said that he thought it was fine except for the “killers” remark, noting that the U.S. is not the kind of “killers” that Putin is. the rich asshole didn’t like the answer, according to Comey.
“The president paused noticeably,” the memos reveal. “I don’t know what to make of it but he clearly noticed I had clearly criticized him.”
Comey describes to MSNBC’s Maddow his ‘unusual’ Oval Office meeting with the rich asshole where they discussed ‘Russian hookers’
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow (left) and former FBI Director James Comey (right). Image via screengrab.
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
While being interviewed by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, former FBI Director James Comey made a stunning revelation — that President some rich asshole discussed “the golden shower thing” and Russian “hookers” with him in the Oval Office.
In the memo, Comey noted that the rich asshole brought up “the golden showers thing” as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertion that his country has “the most beautiful hookers.” When Maddow asked Comey about the conversation that she presumed took place in the White House, he did her one better, explaining that they spoke, along with then-chief of staff Reince Priebus, in the Oval Office.
“He told you he’d had a personal conversation with President Putin about hookers?” Maddow asked Comey, to which he simply responded “yes,” later noting that he did not think the rich asshole was “speaking hyperbolically.”
When Maddow noted that she didn’t know of any other “personal conferring” the rich asshole had had with Putin, Comey said he wasn’t positive, but though there may have been reporting about a congratulatory call between the two leaders.
“That would be an unusual first call between two heads of state, a congratulatory phone call to brag about the relative value of each country’s hookers,” Maddow mused.
“I agree,” Comey said.
Watch below, via MSNBC:
READ: Comey's memos on conversations with the rich asshole
BY THE HILL STAFF - 04/19/18 10:04 PM EDT
Fifteen pages of former FBI Director James Comey's memos detailing his conversations with President the rich asshole became public Thursday night.
The Justice Department sent Congressional leaders redacted documents late Thursday. Four of Comey's memos are classified, and will be sent to lawmakers on Friday.
Shortly after the documents were given to Congress, the memos were obtained by The Associated Press.
Comey's memos detail private dinner conversations with the President in January 2017, during which the rich asshole asked him to pledge his loyalty. Another conversation about former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn is also detailed in the memos.
Read Comey's memos here:
2018-4-19 Comey Memo - Enclosure Unclassified by M Mali on Scribd
the rich asshole said Vladimir Putin boasted about having the most beautiful hookers in the world
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)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Among the revelations from former FBI Director James Comey’s recently-released memos includes an anecdote in which the president reportedly told him that Russia President Vladimir Putin was very boastful about the sex workers in his country.
“The President said ‘the hookers thing’ is nonsense,” Comey wrote, referencing the salacious “golden showers” dossier written by former British spy Christopher Steele. “Putin had told him ‘we have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world.'”
“He did not say when Putin had told him this,” Comey wrote.
In the memos, the former FBI director noted on three separate occasions that the rich asshole brought up Russian “hookers,” and also commented at least once about the dossier’s allegation that he paid prostitutes to urinate in a Ritz Moscow bed that President Barack Obama once slept in.
“The President brought up the ‘Golden Showers thing’ and said it really bothered him if his wife had any doubt about it,” Comey wrote. “He then explained, as he did at our dinner, that he hadn’t stayed overnight in Russia during the Miss Universe trip.”
You can read all of the redacted memos released to Congress below:
Ex FBI Director James Comey s Memos by Noor Al-Sibai on Scribd
Justice Department sends Comey memos to lawmakers
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 04/19/18 08:16 PM EDT
The Justice Department late Thursday sent a group of Congressional leaders memos ex-FBI Director James Comey wrote about his conversations with President the rich asshole.
Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd notified three Republican House committee leaders that he’d provided certain members of Congress with redacted documents on Thursday. Four of the memos are classified, and will be sent to lawmakers on Friday, Boyd wrote.
Boyd sent the notice to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).
Comey's seven memos have been a flashpoint in the debate over his handling of the investigations into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server and into the rich asshole campaign's possible ties to Russia.
GOP lawmakers, including Goodlatte, Gowdy and Nunes, have cited the memos as key evidence in their probe into alleged bias within the FBI and Justice Department against President the rich asshole.
Democrats have described the probe as a Republican effort to undercut special counsel Robert Mueller.
Comey said Thursday he’s doesn't mind if the memos are made available, and added that he supports transparency.
“I think what folks will see if they get to see the memos, is I’ve been consistent since the very beginning right after my encounters with President the rich asshole,” he said during an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN.
2018-4-19 Comey Memo - Goodlatte Gowdy Nunes by blc88 on Scribd
the rich asshole friend and lawyer thinks Michael Cohen will flip because he’s fearful of being raped in prison
Jay Goldberg, a longtime lawyer for some rich asshole (Photo: Screen capture)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Jay Goldberg, a longtime lawyer for some rich asshole, told CNN’s Erin Burnett Thursday that he expects Michael Cohen will flip on the president because he’s afraid of what might happen in prison.
“He’s not suited to stand up to the rigors of jail life,” Goldberg said. “Michael doesn’t see himself walking down Broadway while people are clamoring, ‘you’re going to be my wife.’ And so, he is under pressure from his family to try to figure out what it would take to bring the government aboard as his sponsor.”
Burnett noted that it sounds as if Goldberg believes Cohen did do something wrong that could be considered criminal.
“I don’t say that the government has importuned him to say certain things that are not true,” he said. “But a witness in Michael’s position is able to glean what it would take to get a letter of cooperation from the government and thereby avoid a lengthy prison term. The record is clear. It corrupts the system, said one important federal judge that witnesses under a threat of going to jail for a long period of time generally try to conform their conduct in such a way that they can earn what’s known as a 5k-1 letter.”
Goldberg even said that he told Cohen this and that he said he understood.
Watch the full interview below”
POLITICS
Here Are The Redacted Copies Of The Comey Memos
“He said he was grateful for the conversation, said more nice things about me and how he looks forward to working with me,” Comey wrote.
The Department of Justice released copies of the so-called Comey memos to congressional leaders on Thursday. In the documents, the former FBI director detailed his early encounters with newly-minted President some rich asshole.
Journalists with The Associated Press and other news outlets obtained redacted copies of the letters, which can be seen below.
The memos were released just days after House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) threatened to subpoena the DOJ to obtain them. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had asked for more time to “evaluate the consequences” of their release on Monday.
Read redacted copies of the memos below:
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
‘I don’t hate him’: James Comey explains his surprising relationship with ‘bully-like’ the rich asshole to CNN’s Tapper
CNN's Jake Tapper (left) and former FBI Director James Comey (right). Images via screengrab.
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, former FBI Director James Comey explained his strange and highly-publicized relationship to President some rich asshole that has once again made headlines in the wake of his new book.
“You write that your experience in high school gave you a ‘lifelong hatred for bullies,'” Tapper noted. “Do you think President the rich asshole is a bully and do you hate him?”
“I definitely don’t hate him,” the former FBI director said. “There are things he does that make me uncomfortable and I think are inappropriate that are in some ways like a bully-like behavior, but I don’t hate some rich asshole. I don’t even dislike some rich asshole.”
The host went on to ask Comey to clarify a comment he made about the rich asshole treating women “like meat,” to which the former FBI director replied that he had that impression not from personal experience but from the president’s public persona.
Watch below, via CNN:
CNN’s Paul Begala knocks Comey for saying ‘it’s possible’ the rich asshole obstructed justice: ‘He owes Americans more’
Paul Begala (Photo: Screen capture)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
In their highly anticipated interview, CNN’s Jake Tapper sat down with former FBI director James Comey to discuss the claims made in his new book about the president on Thursday.
Instead of providing viewers with clear answers, most people walked away scratching their heads.
That interview with @jaketapper was easily the most tough interview Comey has faced in his book tour thus far.
Throughout the interview, Tapper asked clear and specific questions. Comey’s calculated response were far from concrete. When asked if he thought Hillary Clinton would be a better president he said he couldn’t answer “hypothetical questions.” Comey also reiterated the phrase “it’s possible” for multiple questions.
Paul Begala, political commentator, bashed Comey for his light responses and said he failed the American people. “I think he owes the American people more than that.”
Watch Begala full reaction below.
No comments:
Post a Comment