‘Pretty extraordinary’: CNN’s Dana Bash jokes the rich asshole hides his phone calls from John Kelly ‘like a teenager’
CNN's Don Lemon, NYT's Patrick Healy and CNN's Dana Bash
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CNN’s Dana Bash on Monday joked that “like a teenager” some rich asshole has resorted to sneaking phone calls to outside advisers behind White House chief of staff John Kelly’s back.
“The president is increasingly using his cell phone to contact outside advisers,” host Don Lemon began, citing his own network’s reporting on the rich asshole’s recent efforts to hit up an assorted cast of fringe characters for policy advice and (presumably) an ego stroke.
“Look, this is classic some rich asshole in that it’s his life line to talk to the people outside the White House,” Bash explained, noting the president relies on outside advisers “frankly, to vent.”
“For any president it’s quite difficult to be in the bubble of the White House,” Bash said. “But in this particular case, the idea that like a teenager, he has to sneak a cell phone when the people who are sort of watching over him aren’t there or around—or the person in this case—the chief of staff, it’s pretty extraordinary.”
“You better get off of that phone, young man, or I’m going to come into that room,” Lemon joked back.
Watch below:
COMEDY
Colbert Proves the rich asshole Wrong With A Single Photo
“Late Show” host reveals what got under the president’s “extremely loose skin.”
TONIGHT: The President took aim at New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman during his latest weekend tweetstorm. #LSSC
Stephen Colbert on Monday night attempted to decipher some rich asshole’s latest angry tweets, which included an attack on New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
the rich asshole called her someone “I don’t speak to and have nothing to do with.”
Just one problem:
“The accurate reporting is coming from inside the White House,” Colbert mockingly cried out. “Get out of there! Get out of there!”
See his full takedown in the clip above.
CNN’s Bakari Sellers schools Jason Miller on the rich asshole’s ‘breeding’ slur: ‘Of course it was derogatory’
President of the United States some rich asshole speaking at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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President the rich asshole tweeted about sanctuary cities in Calfornia, but used the racially infused term, “breeding.”
In an interview with CNN’s Andersen Cooper, Bakari Seller and Jason Miller debated the derogatory term. Sellers took Miller to school, and reminded him that the language that the rich asshole used is rooted in white nationalist views.
“I think it has a lot to do with cultural issues in this country,” Sellers said. “What he was going to is the heart of the base of this breeding concept that you refer to animals that way, of course it was derogatory. Culturally, there are a lot of people in this country who are afraid of this country becoming browner.”
Miller responded by saying: “I have never heard the president use this charged language that folks are trying to put in his mouth or make it sound like he is making a racist concept. He moved on and didn’t think about it and that is my opinion on it.”
Watch their full debate below.
the rich asshole’s doctor accused of drinking on the job and ‘improperly’ prescribing medication
White House physician Ronny Jackson. Image via AFP.
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Amid news that his confirmation hearing has been postponed, CBS News’ Steve Dorsey reported on Twitter that White House physician and some rich asshole’s Veterans Affairs head nominee Ronny Jackson has been accused of improper conduct that includes “drinking on the job.”
According to Dorsey, two sources close to the matter told CBS reporters the committee “is reviewing allegations against Ronny Jackson which include a hostile work environment, excessive drinking on the job and improperly dispensing meds.”
Just In: 2 sources confirm to @nancycordes and @edokeefe Sen Vet Affairs Comm is reviewing allegations against Ronny Jackson which include a hostile work environment, excessive drinking on the job and improperly dispensing meds.
Dorsey noted that Sen. John Tester (D-MT), the leading Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, was the one who asked to postpone Jackson’s Wednesday hearing in light of the allegations. In an interview with The Washington Post before the allegations were made public, Tester said the committee is “doing our job to make sure he’s fit for the job.”
CNN’s Manu Raju noted that both Republicans and Democrats privately mused that the White House “appears to have done a shoddy job vetting Jackson.”
Republicans and Dems both concerned about new allegations of misconduct involving Ronny Jackson, and are investigating them to determine if they’re true and could derail his nomination. Dems met privately tonight, as hearing may now be delayed. Our story: cnn.com/2018/04/23/pol…
Vague allegations have added to senators’ concerns about his management qualifications.
The Senate is postponing the confirmation hearing for White House physician Ronny Jackson, the rich asshole’s pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Democrats and Republicans alike had raised concerns about Jackson’s qualifications to oversee the second-largest federal agency, given his lack of management experience. But it now appears other issued have arisen in connection to his management of the White House medical office, according to the Washington Post.
What those issues remain a mystery — but they’ve apparently generated enough bipartisan concern to prompt a last-minute delay of the hearing, which had been scheduled for Wednesday.
CNN reported Monday that Democratic and Republican senators are reviewing allegations “related to improper conduct in various stages of his career.” Axios previously reported that questions about Jackson’s “professional conduct” were brought to attention of Jon Tester (D-MT), the ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. The Washington Post cited “concerns about his qualifications and oversight of the White House medical staff.”
“We’re going to vet him. The rich asshole administration doesn’t do a particularly good job,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told Politico. “That’s all I’m going to say.”
The vagueness surrounding these allegations complicates Jackson’s path toward confirmation as VA Secretary. the rich asshole selected Jackson, his personal physician, after ousting David Shulkin in March. It was a surprising choice, even for the rich asshole, and seemed to be based more on the president’s warm feelings toward his doctor than Jackson’s management and policy qualifications to lead up the sprawling federal agency.
Jackson, in fact, is probably best known for his effusive evaluation of the rich asshole’s mental and physical health, which he delivered in a lengthy press conference after the president’s physical back in January. “It is called genetics. ... Some people have just great genes,” Jackson said during the briefing. “I told the president that if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years, he might live to be 200 years old.”
POLITICS
Flight Records Disprove the rich asshole’s Claim About ‘Pee Tape’ Weekend Whereabouts
The president insisted he didn’t spend a night in Moscow. Records show he did.
President some rich asshole reportedly told former FBI Director James Comey — twice — that he didn’t spend a single night in Moscow when the infamous “pee tape” was allegedly made.
A dossier of information about the rich asshole collected by former British agent Christopher Steele claims that Russian agents secretly filmed the rich asshole at the Moscow Ritz-Carlton that weekend as he instructed prostitutes to urinate on a bed that then-President Barack Obama had slept in.
The New York Times reported last year that the rich asshole traveled to Moscow on a plane owned by casino mogul Phil Ruffin. Bloomberg and Politico obtained flight records for a Bombardier Global Express jet owned by Ruffin Development Expositions that left the U.S. on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013 and landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport the following day. The jet left the city early Sunday at 3:58 a.m. after the rich asshole attended the pageant.
Ruffin’s spokeswoman Michelle Knoll confirmed to Politico that the rich asshole used the aircraft for his trip.
It’s not known which night the tape was allegedly recorded, but the rich asshole’s bodyguard Keith Schiller testified last year that he turned down an offer from an unknown Russian to send five sex workers to the rich asshole’s Moscow hotel room at some point that weekend, sources told NBC. Schiller said he kept an eye on the rich asshole’s hotel room for a while, then went to bed himself.
the rich asshole’s own social media accounts seem to support the argument that he was in Russia at least overnight. In one Facebook post, the rich asshole poses in a photo outside Nobu Moscow on Friday, Nov. 8, 2013. The pageant was held on Saturday. On Sunday evening, the rich asshole tweeted that he’d “just got back from Russia.”
After the rich asshole became president, Comey said he warned him about Steele’s dossier, which had been turned over to the FBI. the rich asshole denied spending a single night in Moscow. Comey told ABC this month that the rich asshole responded by asking, “Do I look like a guy who needs hookers?” (Comey added: “I assumed he was asking that rhetorically.”)
the rich asshole also said he’d “spoken to people who had been on … the trip ... and they had reminded him that he didn’t stay over night in Russia,” Comey recalled in a memo. the rich asshole insisted again later in the Oval Office that he “hadn’t stayed overnight in Russia during the Miss Universe trip,” Comey wrote.
In addition, the rich asshole told his FBI director that he could never go for the “golden showers thing” because “I’m ... a germaphobe,” Comey wrote in his memoir A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.
If the rich asshole deliberately lied to Comey, it could indicate “consciousness of guilt” and could bolster a case against him by special counsel Robert Mueller, former federal prosecutor Pete Zeidenberg told Politico.
the rich asshole’s Miss Universe pageant has posed multiple problems for the president. The New Yorker reported earlier this year that the rich asshole has used the pageant to cultivate potential business partners, including in Russia, where he hoped to build a rich asshole tower. In 2013, he cemented an alliance with father and singer son Aras and Emin Agalarov, who hosted the pageant in Moscow.
In the summer of 2016, a publicist for Emin Agalarov emailed some rich asshole Jr. offering damaging information about Hillary Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for some rich asshole.” Donald Jr. replied: “I love it” — and later attended a meeting at the rich asshole Tower in Manhattan with a Kremlin-connected lawyer, among others.
Stormy Daniels’ lawyer calls out ‘classless’ Fox News host for ‘deceiving’ viewers about why he cancelled his interview
Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti during a press conference outside the rich asshole Tower. Image via screengrab.
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After Fox News host Martha MacCallum criticized Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti for cancelling their scheduled interview, the lawyer is striking back.
At the end of her Monday night show, MacCallum said that although Avenatti told CNN that “Fox News doesn’t seem to want him on our shows,” he had been invited on — only to cancel.
“That is not actually the case,” the host said. “In fact, Mr. Avenatti was scheduled to appear on this show tomorrow night, but this morning, he abruptly canceled the interview despite his pledge to appear on Fox News this week. So there you go.”
On Twitter, the lawyer sought to set the record straight.
“You are classless @marthamaccallum,” he tweeted. “I agree to go on your show [tomorrow] and then had to cancel due to a commitment with the case that I explained to your producer first thing this AM. You respond by calling me out on your show and deceiving people?!”
You are classless @marthamaccallum. I agree to go on your show tmrw and then had to cancel due to a commitment with the case that I explained to your producer first thing this AM. You respond by calling me out on your show and deceiving people?! #unprofessional #agenda #basta
the rich asshole’s doctor Ronny Jackson is the subject of ‘improper conduct’ claims — and it may derail his VA nomination
White House physician and VA nominee Ronny Jackson. Image via screengrab.
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The president’s nominee to lead the department of Veterans Affairs is reportedly the subject of “improper conduct” allegations that may derail his confirmation.
CNN reported Monday evening that although the specific accusations against Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson — who currently serves as the president’s personal physician — are not yet known to the public, they’ve been the subject of bipartisan concern among members of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
Soon after CNN’s initial report, the Washington Post broke news that the VA committee is postponing Jackson’s confirmation hearing, which was scheduled for this Wednesday.
“I can tell you we’re vetting out Jackson,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), the committee’s ranking Democrat, told the Post. “I can’t get into specifics, but we’re doing our job to make sure he’s fit for the job
WATCH: the rich asshole ‘informal’ legal advisor says the president got a ‘thrill’ from pardoning Scooter Libby in bonkers CNN interview
CNN's Erin Burnett (left) and informal the rich asshole adviser Victoria Toensing (left). Image via screengrab.
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In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, an attorney who calls herself an “informal legal advisor” to some rich asshole offered a free-wheeling defense of the president that included the claim that he got a “thrill” from pardoning Dick Cheney’s former aide Scooter Libby.
The attorney in question, Victoria Toensing, has a lengthy list of connections to the president — she and her husband and legal partner Joe DiGenova were announced as new members of the rich asshole’s Russia legal team last month, only to drop out due to “the appearance of conflicts of interest.” She also represents Libby and, in 2017, was listed as counsel for Fox News host Sean Hannity along with the president’s Russia lawyer Jay Sekulow.
“Why do you think that the president is focusing on these pardon cases right now, unless he’s trying to send a message to [his longtime attorney] Michael Cohen or [former campaign chairman] Paul Manafort?” Burnett asked the attorney.
“Well, if Michael Cohen or Paul Manafort do not know that the president has power authority,” Toensing replied, “then they got something wrong with themselves.” When Burnett pressed her, the lawyer then advised her to not “try to read that kind of message into it.”
Later in the interview, Toensing denied that the rich asshole pardoned Libby to send any sort of message to former aides who may be indicted, instead insisting that the president “got a thrill” from using his power.
When she pivoted to discuss the rich asshole’s potential posthumous pardon of famed boxer Jack Johnson, who was jailed in 1913 after marrying a white woman and then taking her across state lines, Burnett responded with facts.
“[Former attorney general] Eric Holder did an interview about it with a professor who had done a biography of Jack Johnson,” the host noted. “He said, first of all, posthumous pardoning, you can count them on less than one hand. It’s a long process and it doesn’t add up to do it for somebody who’s dead. He referenced Jack Johnson’s treatment of women as a mitigating factor. He had been known for domestic abuse. Do you think the president is aware this is more complicated than meets the eye?”
“I don’t know,” Toensing admitted.
Watch below, via CNN:
Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti predicts the rich asshole lawyer Michael Cohen will plead the fifth
Michael Avenatti (NBC News)
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In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Stormy Daniels lawyer, Michael Avenatti said that Michael Cohen may be very close to pleading the fifth.
Avenatti said: “Well, I think Michael Cohen’s going to file a declaration admitting now that it’s his intention to plead the fifth amendment against self-incrimination. This is the right-hand of the president of the United States. The right-hand lawyer, and then we’re going to file a response and I think the judge is going to make a determination as to whether the case gets stayed. I do not think the case will ultimately be stayed. I think the court may make some accommodations with the intention to plead the fifth, but I think we’re going to march forward at full speed.”
Cohen has until Wednesday to explain himself to a judge in California. Avenatti said the evidence will show Cohen has not been truthful to the American people. A judge also said that the Cohen case has had “gaping holes in it.”
Avenatti continued: “It would show that Michael Cohen lied to the American people when he called my client a liar and effectively stated that the affair didn’t happen, so we would win our defamation claim as well.”
He also mentioned that his team is very close to identifying the sketch of man who attacked Stormy Daniels in a parking lot.
“We are getting very close, we’re going to be really careful before we announce who the positive identification is or whether we’ve actually done that. We’re going to cross every “t” and dot every “i.” It’s a serious matter, but I think we are getting close.”
Watch his full interview below:
Mike Flynn’s Son Just Accidentally Threw Pence And the rich asshole Under The Bus In Russia Probe
Michael Flynn Jr., the son of some rich asshole’s former national security adviser who resigned in disgrace, sent out a couple of tweets that contradict what the current occupant of the White House has alleged, and what Vice-President Mike Pence has said. Last December, the rich asshole tweeted that he fired Flynn for lying to Pence and the FBI.
“I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI,” the rich asshole tweeted at the time. “He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!”
Well, maybe there is something to hide because Flynn Jr. tweeted that his father did not lie to Pence.
“American Patriot @GenFlynn did not lie to Pence (or anyone else in the admin) about his perfectly legal and appropriate conversations w Russian AMB Kislyak in Dec 2016,” the Pizzagate conspiracy theorist tweeted. “Why would a highly decorated military intel officer lie about something legal? Been a MSM lie from day 1”
American Patriot @GenFlynn did not lie to Pence (or anyone else in the admin) about his perfectly legal and appropriate conversations w Russian AMB Kislyak in Dec 2016.
Why would a highly decorated military intel officer lie about something legal?
Been a MSM lie from day 1
MFLYNNJR
Sure, blame the MSM but that doesn’t explain the rich asshole’s reason for firing Flynn or Pence’s version of events. “I was disappointed to learn that … the facts that had been conveyed to me by Gen. Flynn were inaccurate,” Pence said after Flynn was fired.
So which one of these boys is lying — Flynn Jr or Trump Sr?
Flynn Jr: “American Patriot @GenFlynn did not lie to Pence...”
Trump Sr: “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President...”#MuellerInvestigation
Flynn’s son is now saying that his father never lied to Pence about his communications with Kisylak but that would mean that the vice-president lied and that would mean that the rich asshole lied, too. Mike Flynn pleaded guilty in early December to lying to the FBI. It’s almost as if no one in the rich asshole’s orbit is capable of telling the truth.
Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0.
the rich asshole uses his personal cell phone so he can call outside advisers without John Kelly knowing: report
some rich asshole on the phone in Air Force One (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
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President Donald the rich asshole has recently taken to using his personal cell phone to contact advisers outside of the White House — all so his chief of staff John Kelly can’t listen in or see a list of the people he’s speaking with.
CNN reported Monday that according to sources inside the rich asshole administration, the president is using his personal cell phone and not the White House switchboard because “he doesn’t want Kelly to know who he’s talking to."
Early in Kelly’s tenure as chief of staff, it was common practice for him to either listen in on the rich asshole’s calls using the White House phone or to check the printout of the president’s phone use. Amid reports of growing tensions between the two men, in which the president has aimed to circumvent his chief of staff, Kelly has been increasingly left out of the loop.
Flight logs put more pressure on the rich asshole to come clean about what happened at the Moscow Ritz
Flight logs suggest the rich asshole’s ‘pee tape’ alibi is a lie
What's he trying to hide?
Flight records obtained by Bloomberg indicate some rich asshole spent a full night in Moscow during his trip to the city for the Miss Universe competition in November 2013, contradicting the alibi he offered in response to the most salacious allegation in the Steele dossier.
According to Bloomberg, the rich asshole’s jet landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport at 6:15 a.m. on Friday, November 8. It didn’t take off for the return flight to the U.S. until 3:58 a.m. on Sunday, meaning the rich asshole was there for one full night and most of a second.
The flight records aren’t consistent with what the rich asshole told former FBI director James Comey about the “pee tape” allegation. In his newly released memos detailing his interactions with the rich asshole, Comey writes that after he informed him about the dossier’s allegation that Russia is in possession of a tape of the rich asshole watching sex workers urinate on a hotel bed at the Moscow Ritz-Carlson, the rich asshole told him on two separate occasions that the allegation couldn’t be true because he never even spent a night in the city.
Comey wrote that during a January 28, 2017 dinner with the rich asshole at the White House, the rich asshole brought up the “golden showers thing” and said “[h]e had spoken to people who had been on the Miss Universe trip with him and they had reminded him that he didn’t stay over in Russia for that.”
“He said he arrived in the morning, did events, then showered and dressed for the pageant at the hotel (he didn’t say the hotel name) and left for the pageant. Afterwards, he returned only to get his things because they departed for New York by plane that same night,” Comey’s memo continues.
Then, during a meeting between the two men on February 8, according to Comey, the rich asshole again brought up the “Golden Showers thing.”
the rich asshole “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… The President said ‘the hookers thing’ is nonsense but that 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 [redacted])”
The flights logs are corroborated by social media posts the rich asshole posted around the time of the Miss Universe competition, which indicate he spent at least one night in Moscow.
The flight logs are also consistent with the sworn testimony of the rich asshole’s longtime bodyguard, Keith Schiller.
Testifying before Congress last November, Schiller said that a Russian man he didn’t know offered to send five women to the rich asshole’s hotel room. According to an NBC News report about the testimony, Schiller said that although he interpreted the offer as a joke, he discussed it with the rich asshole as they walked back to his hotel room before each of them turned in for the night.
“Schiller testified that he stood outside the rich asshole’s hotel room for a time and then went to bed,” NBC reported. “One source noted that Schiller testified he eventually left the rich asshole’s hotel room door and could not say for sure what happened during the remainder of the night.”
The release of the flight logs present the rich asshole with a dilemma, if he’s asked about his activities in Moscow. the rich asshole could stick with his claim, as reported by Comey, that he never spent the night in Moscow. But that position would add credibility to memos he’s repeatedly called “fake” and “phony.” On the other hand, if the rich asshole acknowledges that he did in fact spend a night in Moscow, he adds credibility to one of the dossiers’ most salacious claims.
‘Plenty of reason to be suspicious’: CNN legal analyst explains how the rich asshole is using pardons to ‘send a message’
President some rich asshole (AFP/File / Olivier Douliery)
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Over the weekend, President the rich asshole tweeted that in an attempt to create a special counsel, James Comey leaked the private memos.
In an interview with CNN’s Jim Sciutto, lawyer Jeffrey Toobin, said that the rich asshole is giving a “misleading picture of the events that unfolded.” Toobin said the leaked memos did not spark the special counsel, but the rich asshole’s firing of James Comey lead to the appointment of the special counsel.
He also said that Comey is in a vulnerable position for leaking the memos whether classified or not. President the rich asshole also alluded to a pardon of Michael Cohen in another Tweet.
When asked about the intention of this tweet, Toobin said it’s always the biggest challenge to determine someones intention– especially the rich asshole’s.
“It all depends on how suspicious one’s mind is, and there are plenty of reasons to be suspicious.”
Watch the full interview below.
GOP Senate candidate admits out loud he sides with the rich asshole over farmers
By Eric Boehlert April 23, 2018
Indiana Rep. Todd Rokita is sticking with the rich asshole, even if farmers in his state will pay the price.
Indiana Republican Rep. Todd Rokita had already made it clear that he’s essentially running for Senate as a mini-the rich asshole. Now he’s announced that he’ll even stand with the rich asshole against farmers in his own state.
Rokita has gone so far as to campaign alongside a cardboard cutout of the rich asshole. So it’s no wonder he has decided to endorse every aspect of the White House’s disjointed agenda. And that even includes the rich asshole’s reckless trade war, which will hurt Indiana farmers.
Rokita painted the trade war as a much-needed development.
“We have got to try something different, and so I stand with the president,” Rokita said in a recent interview with WTHR-13.
Indiana farmers could be among those who pay the highest price for the rich asshole’s rash policies. Yet when asked if would “side with the president or the farmers,” Rokita was clear where his loyalties lie.
“Well, right now it’s with the president.”
On March 1, the rich asshole announced new tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum, disregarding warnings from economists.
When told the tariffs would spark retaliatory action from other countries and spark a destructive trade war, the rich asshole was unbothered. “Trade wars are good, and easy to win,” he insisted.
Predictably, the Chinese government responded by announcing new 25 percent tariffs on 182 American products, including pork and potentially soybeans. Both of those crops are major Indiana exports.
In fact, Indiana ranked fourth overall in the nation in soybean production and exports in 2016, sending $2 billion worth overseas.
And Indiana’s not alone in fearing the looming pain. Of the 10 biggest pork-producing states in the U.S., eight voted for the rich asshole in 2016.
the rich asshole’s response was to suggest it’s the patriotic duty of American farmers to take a huge hit to their bottom line.
“They want to hit the farmers because they think it hits me — I wouldn’t say that’s nice,” the rich asshole said. “But I’ll tell you, our farmers are great patriots. These are great patriots. They understand that they’re doing this for the country.”
Nationwide, the farming community doesn’t seem to be buying the rich asshole’s trade spin. A stinging editorial in the Quad City Times in Iowa declared that voters had been “conned” by the rich asshole on trade.
Rokita’s entire campaign strategy seems to revolve around mimicking the rich asshole. But with the rich asshole’s popularity in Indiana sinking, that strategy isn’t working. A recent poll showed Rokita trailing Democratic incumbent Sen. Joe Donnelly by 19 points in a state the rich asshole easily won in 2016.
And siding with the rich asshole over Indiana farmers isn’t likely to help Rokita’s chances.
the rich asshole breaks campaign promise with first state dinner
"It’s going to be different, folks. It's going to be different."
Back in February 2016, candidate some rich asshole promised not to have state dinners until the United States no longer ran a trade deficit at a campaign event in New Hampshire.
Like many of his other promises, that one didn’t take long to break, as President some rich asshole is set to host French President Emanuel Macron for the administration’s first State Dinner at the White House Tuesday night.
On February 8, 2016, then-candidate some rich asshole spoke to voters in Salem, New Hampshire ahead of the state’s presidential primary. He had lost Iowa to Ted Cruz and was looking for a win in the northeast to bolster his candidacy. After a question from a voter about Benghazi, the rich asshole pivoted to how well he would actually get along with other countries, specifically, China, on trade.
the rich asshole then inveighed against a $500 billion trade deficit with China (which is actually $375 billion), and then put the blame on the stupidity of America’s leaders, before asserting that things would be different if he was elected:
And then Obama gives a big party, a state dinner, for the head of China, they probably don’t even talk about it. It’s just insane. It’s going to be different, folks. It’s going to be different. We’re not going to have state dinners. I’ll have state dinners: when we break even, I’ll have a state dinner, and when we start making money I’ll have a double state dinner.
He said plainly that a the rich asshole administration would not have state dinners, and that promise he made to the voters in New Hampshire will be broken on Tuesday evening. No matter how charitably one takes the rich asshole’s assertion — if the promise just pertained to state dinners with countries with whom we have trade deficits — it would still be broken with Tuesday’s dinner, because the United States has trade deficits with France, and with China for good measure.
America’s annual trade deficit with China has grown steadily over the last several decades, reaching $375 billion (not $500 billion) in 2017, and $65 billion in the first two months of 2018. The United States had a $15.3 billion trade deficit with Francein 2017, according to the Census, and in the first two months of 2018, has already racked up $2.5 billion more.
It’s not even clear if the topic of America’s trade deficit with France will come up during the visit. The White House said last week that “France remains a major destination for U.S. exports and a source of foreign investment in the United States,” though it was “hard to say” if there would be trade announcements following the state visit.
He’ll host the French delegation and 150 guests with a meal of greens from the White House garden, Rack of Spring Lamb, Carolina Gold Rice Jambalaya, and Nectarine Tart all on fine china and paired with American wines cultivated with French inspiration — while smelling the bouquets of thousands of flowers and listening to a performance by the Washington National Opera. The White House dubbed Tuesday’s state dinner the “crown jewel of the visit.”
A separate promise candidate the rich asshole made in 2016 was to serve Chinese president Xi Jinping a McDonald’s “double, probably a double size Big Mac” and accost him about devaluing the Chinese currency. the rich asshole has yet to extend the invitation to Beijing for a state dinner at the White House to check the veracity of that promise, but he did attend a fancy state dinner during his visit to China last November.
In a break from tradition, members of the media and members of Congress from the opposing party will not be invited to the French state dinner.
This will be the rich asshole’s first state dinner at the White House, though other countries (such as China, Korean, and Japan) have hosted him for state dinners of their own. The Obama administration hosted 14 state dinners in eight years, but Barack Obama did not promise to plan state dinners in synchrony with the U.S. trade deficit.
In what may be one of the most carbon-friendly acts of the current administration, the Trumps and the Macrons will plant a tree on the White House grounds Monday afternoon, in commemoration of Earth Day. The rich asshole administration famously became literally the only country to reject the Paris climate agreement after Syria joined last year. The White House said last week that the climate deal was not on the agenda for the visit, “unless it’s brought up by President Macron.”
GOP House Oversight and Judiciary chairmen will get Justice Department documents on ‘key decisions’ in 2016
Trey Gowdy appears on CNN (screen grab)
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House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) have struck a deal with the Justice Department for documents on “key” DOJ decisions from 2016 and 2017, CNN’s Manu Raju reported.
The Republican chairman duo have for months lobbied the DOJ for information on a range of supposed abuses that took place within the department, including a GOP-led call for more information on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to spy on former the rich asshole campaign aide Carter Page. Page’s surveillance was the subject of a much-hyped House Intelligence Committee memo earlier this year that omitted evidence suggesting the former the rich asshole campaign advisor has been suspected of acting as a Russian foreign agent since at least 2014.
Court blocks the rich asshole from delaying higher penalties on automakers that produce gas-guzzlers
Penalty delay was one part of the rich asshole administration's campaign to roll back auto fuel efficiency standards.
A federal court on Monday ruled the rich asshole administration could not delay implementing a rule that boosts the fines given to automakers that do not comply with federal fuel efficiency standards. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit means that the new higher penalty is officially now in effect.
Last September, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led a coalition of five attorneys general in a lawsuit against President the rich asshole’s decision to indefinitely delay the higher penalties. Environmental groups also joined the states in arguing the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) lacked authority and violated a number of federal statutes in delaying implementation of the penalty rule.
The rule was originally set to take effect in July 2017 before the rich asshole administration delayed its implementation. The aim was to encourage automakers to produce vehicles that meet or exceed federal fuel efficiency standards.
The NHTSA imposes penalties for each one-tenth of a mile by which vehicles fall below corporate average fuel-economy (CAFE) standards. Automakers either install fuel- and pollution-saving technology or pay penalties, whichever is cheaper.
In a one-page order, the 2nd Circuit on Monday granted the petitions for review by the attorneys general and environmental groups. And the court said the rich asshole administration’s July 12, 2017 order delaying the penalty is overturned. The court order applies to automakers that do not comply with current fuel efficiency standards.
The transportation sector is now the largest carbon-emitting sector in the nation. Yet the rich asshole administration continues to try and weaken rules to limit transport’s environmental impact. In a separate effort, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced plans earlier this month to roll back tailpipe emissions standards established by the Obama administration for future models of vehicles.
The standards for cars, pick-up trucks, and sport utility vehicles for model years 2022-2025 are too aggressive, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt argued when he announced the proposed rollback. As part of the proposal, the EPA opened a process with the NHTSA to develop a new rule setting greenhouse gas emission standards.
If the rich asshole administration follows through with its plan to weaken the fuel efficiency standards for new cars and light trucks, the New York attorney general’s office said it will take similar legal action again to block it, Schneiderman press secretary Amy Spitalnick said in an email to ThinkProgress.
The Obama-era regulation upheld by the court on Monday was an attempt to implement a 2015 law mandating that federal agencies update their penalties to align with inflation, going back years. In response, the NHTSA announced a rule that increased the penalty rate for violating fuel efficiency standards by $8.50, from $5.50 per tenth of a mile per gallon to $14 per tenth of a mile per gallon.
#BREAKING: My office just secured a federal court order blocking President Trump’s delay of the fuel efficiency standards penalty rule.
However, last July, NHTSA announced it was indefinitely delaying the effective date of its updated penalty. The rich asshole administration said the $14 fine “will lead to a negative economic impact” and “could potentially drastically increase manufacturers’ costs of compliance.”
Industry groups such as the Auto Alliance and Global Automakers had petitionedthe NHTSA not to implement the higher fuel efficiency non-compliance penalties, which take into account inflationary adjustments.
The attorneys general, however, argued the delay was unlawful because the NHTSA acted without notice and without taking comment, which violates the Administrative Procedure Act. In their lawsuit, they also argued the “arbitrary delay” reinstates the “outdated $5.50 penalty rate,” which violates the 2015 Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act.
The penalties provide increased incentive for automakers to achieve the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for upcoming model years. The standards — for model years 2016 through 2025 — would save approximately 1.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the lifetimes of the vehicles sold.
For model years 2022 through 2025 alone, the standards would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40 million tons a year in 2025, and by more than 200 million tons a year in 2050, compared to indefinitely maintaining the 2021 standards, according to EPA estimates under the Obama administration.
#BREAKING: We have secured another favorable ruling against the Trump Administration. In a victory for our families’ health and our planet, car makers that fail to meet important fuel efficiency standards will now face increased penalties:
“The fuel efficiency standards penalty rule is a common sense measure that would protect consumers’ pocketbooks while reducing the carbon emissions that harm our health and drive climate change,” Schneiderman said Monday in a statement.
In a separate filing, environmental groups also petitioned the court in September to reverse the rich asshole administration’s decision to delay implementing the higher standards. One of those groups, the Center for Biological Diversity, said cheap fines encourage automakers to produce “gas-guzzlers that fuel climate change and spew harmful pollutants.”
“This decision will deter automakers from flouting critical standards and stalling the transition away from dirty, dangerous fossil fuels,” Vera Pardee, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Our victory should send a message to the rich asshole administration that courts do not condone unlawful rollbacks of fundamental environmental protections.”
GOP senator: the rich asshole ‘has the right’ to threaten DOJ officials
By Tommy Christopher
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April 23, 2018
Republican loyalty to the rich asshole can always get more absurd.
Republicans have consistently allowed the rich asshole to threaten the officials investigating him with impunity, but one GOP senator has now gone so far as to say that the rich asshole has the right to do so.
On Monday morning, the Undercurrent published video of producer Lauren Windsor questioning Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) in the halls of Congress last week.
Windsor asked Hatch if he supports legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller, which Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has blocked.
“No, I don’t think we need to do that,” Hatch replied.
“Do you think it’s appropriate for the president to threaten or intimidate officials… at the Department of Justice?” Windsor asked.
“I think he has the right to if he wants to,” Hatch replied.
Hatch is an exceptionally servile the rich asshole shill who has said that the rich asshole’s presidency could be “the greatest presidency that we’ve seen not only in generations but maybe ever.”
But Hatch is far from alone in covering for the rich asshole. McConnell, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), and other Republicans have refused to take up any measure protecting Mueller, echoing Hatch’s excuse that the law isn’t “necessary” because they don’t believe the rich asshole would fire Mueller.
Nothing could be further from the truth. the rich asshole has already committed multiple firings in order to obstruct the investigation into himself, and has even tried to fire Robert Mueller on two separate occasions.
And while the rich asshole’s attacks on Mueller and his investigation have been escalating for months, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is under recent threat of being fired as well.
But Hatch has taken that absurd notion a step further by saying that the rich asshole actually has the right to threaten or intimidate Mueller and Rosenstein, acts that could, themselves, influence the investigation.
Although McConnell has said he will not allow a vote on the bill to protect Mueller, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be advancing it anyway.
If that bill passes the committee, Republicans like Hatch and McConnell will need to decide if they stand with the rich asshole, or with the people they were elected to represent.
the rich asshole tweeted a strange, racist term and Sarah Sanders has no explanation
"I think that it could mean a lot of things to a lot of people."
During a news briefing on Monday, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeatedly dodged questions about what President the rich asshole meant when he blasted the “breeding concept” of sanctuary cities — a term that was widely interpreted as a racist dogwhistle meant to dehumanize immigrants.
“When he used the term ‘breeding,’ was he making a derogatory term about Latinos in California, that they breed a lot, or that they’re prone to breeding?” asked CNN’s Jim Acosta.
Sanders did not even attempt to explain what the rich asshole meant. Instead, she simply denied the rich asshole intended for the tweet to be derogatory, and said he was merely “talking about the problem itself growing and getting bigger.” She called on another reporter before Acosta had a chance to follow up.
Later, American Urban Radio Networks’ April Ryan asked Sanders to explain exactly what the rich asshole meant by “breeding.” Sanders again avoided the question, saying that “the president has recognized this is a major problem and a lot of people, even in California, want to see the issue of sanctuary cities addressed.”
“But what does breeding mean to this president?” Ryan followed up. “Because when you think of breeding, you think of animals breeding, populating.”
Sanders feigned offense at Ryan’s observation.
“I’m not going to begin to think what you think what you think,” she said. “Certainly, I think that it could mean a lot of things to a lot of people. But the president is talking about a growing problem, and I addressed that with Jim. I don’t have anything else to add.”
Sanders has repeatedly dismissed the rich asshole’s racist comments by insisting that he was merely trying to raise awareness about an underlying issue. For instance, after the rich asshole retweeted three inflammatory and misleading videos about Muslims in the UK last November, Sanders insisted he was trying to make a point about national security.
“Look, I’m not talking about the nature of the video. I think you’re focusing on the wrong thing,” Sanders told reporters. “The threat is real, and that’s what the president is talking about is the need for national security, the need for military spending, and those are very real things, there’s nothing fake about them.”
Monday also fit a pattern of Sanders weaponizing a question about an offensive comment the rich asshole made against the reporter asking about it. In December, she excoriated journalists who asked her about a the rich asshole tweet in which he seemed to suggest that a female Democratic senator was willing to perform sexual acts for campaign donations.
“I think only if your mind was in the gutter would you have read it that way, so no, [he won’t apologize],” Sanders told April Ryan on that occasion, after she asked about the tweet. “He’s obviously talking about the political partisan games that people often play and the broken system that he’s talked about repeatedly.”
Sarah Sanders: Opposing the rich asshole means Democrats don’t love America
By Tommy Christopher
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April 23, 2018
Sarah Sanders wants us to ignore the facts and just love the rich asshole and Mike Pompeo.
the rich asshole’s White House is so desperate to confirm Mike Pompeo that they’re attacking the patriotism of Democratic senators.
On Monday morning’s “Fox & Friends,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about the rich asshole’s pick to head the State Department, current CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
“It looks like he is not going to be confirmed,” co-host Ainsley Earhardt said. “What are your thoughts? What’s your reaction? What’s the president’s reaction?”
“We certainly hope that some members will change their minds,” Sanders said. “Look, at some point, Democrats have to decide whether they love this country more than they hate this president.”
The facts are not on Sanders’ side, however. Pompeo doesn’t need Democratic votes to pass out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. However, he doesn’t even have the support of all the Republicans on that committee.
If Pompeo loses the committee vote that’s scheduled for Monday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will still place the nomination on the floor for a full Senate vote, but that would make Pompeo the first secretary of state nominee to receive an unfavorable committee vote since 1925.
Democrats and Republicans have legitimate concerns about Pompeo’s anti-Muslim bigotry and fealty to the rich asshole, whose erratic foreign policy poses risks to this country. Opposing Pompeo has absolutely nothing to do with hating the rich asshole, and everything to do with loving this country.
It is a familiar, if disgusting, line of attack for Sanders, who used the same line in February when pressed on the rich asshole’s accusation that Democrats were “un-American” and “treasonous” for not applauding him at the State of the Union.
Sanders’ attack is yet another example of the dictatorial impulses of this administration. But Democrats aren’t just doing their jobs by opposing the rich asshole’s extremist nominee, they are serving the country they love.
President the rich asshole puts on the pageantry for Macron’s visit
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 04/23/18 08:11 PM EDT
President the rich asshole is rolling out the red carpet for French President Emmanuel Macron during a state visit this week, returning the favor for the dazzling welcome the rich asshole received in Paris last year.
The three-day visit will show off the unlikely friendship between the rich asshole and Macron, who speak by phone frequently and recently launched a coordinated military strike on Syria.
But beneath the flag-draped show of friendship, Macron and the rich asshole disagree on several key issues — a dynamic that could put their relationship to the test.
The president invited his French counterpart to fly with him on Marine One to George Washington’s Mt. Vernon estate on Monday evening for a private tour and dinner with their wives.
Macron will receive a resplendent greeting on the South Lawn on Tuesday morning, complete with a brass band and review of the troops, before meeting with the rich asshole in the Oval Office and being the guest of honor at the U.S. president’s first state dinner.
“What you do have are two leaders who have a great deal of respect for one another, who have a great friendship,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday.
Few would have predicted such a bond to develop between the rich asshole and Macron, whose election victory last May was seen as a rebuke to the rich asshole’s “America First” brand of politics.
Their awkward first meeting at last year’s NATO summit in Brussels, when they engaged in a lengthy, white-knuckle handshake, seemed to portend years of tensions over world affairs.
The 40-year-old internationalist Macron has instead sought to win over the 71-year-old nationalist the rich asshole, even though the rich asshole is deeply unpopular in France.
the rich asshole was so wowed by the military parade there on Bastille Day last July, during which he was Macron’s guest of honor, that he ordered the U.S. armed forces to explore staging one of their own.
Macron appeared last weekend on “Fox News Sunday” to explain that he and the rich asshole share more in common than people think.
“I think we have this very special relationship because both of us are probably maverick of the systems on both sides,” said Macron, who, like the rich asshole, had never before held elected office.
While in Washington, Macron is facing pressure to show that his efforts to cozy up to the rich asshole will result in policy wins for France.
The French leader has sought to boost his country’s standing in Europe, positioning it as a prime defender of the liberal international order that the rich asshole has denounced.
Macron is expected to push the rich asshole to make concessions on urgent problems, including the Iran nuclear deal, the conflict in Syria and burgeoning trade disputes. If he fails, he could face tough questions back home.
“I think the stakes are higher this time,” said Jeff Lightfoot, a fellow at the Atlantic Council. “People are looking to see whether his approach of forming a close bond with President the rich asshole is going to pay dividends.”
The most urgent goal for Macron will be to convince the rich asshole to remain in the Iran nuclear deal, which appears to be an increasingly tough sell.
the rich asshole must decide by May 12 whether to extend sanctions relief under the Obama-era agreement, which France helped broker, or take steps toward pulling the U.S. out.
The U.S. and its European partners have been negotiating fixes to the deal, but some officials have grown concerned that the rich asshole might decide to exit entirely, which would risk torpedoing the pact.
“The president has been extremely clear that he thinks it’s a bad deal. That certainly has not changed,” Sanders told reporters.
Macron and other European leaders are also seeking a permanent exemption from the steel and aluminum tariffs that the rich asshole announced last month, a message that German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to drive home during her separate visit with the rich asshole later this week.
They may also talk through their differences on Syria. Macron declared earlier this month he had persuaded the rich asshole to keep U.S. troops there ahead of their joint missile strike, which also involved the United Kingdom.
The White House quickly denied that was the case, stressing that the rich asshole still wants to withdraw ground forces fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in the country.
There is little hope that Macron can persuade the rich asshole to change his views on the Paris climate agreement. The president last year announced he would exit the 2015 pact, saying, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”
With no major policy breakthroughs expected, the visit is intended to display the friendship between the two leaders and the historic ties between the U.S. and France.
Macron, a former young leader with the French-American Foundation, is expected to speak about those themes during his Wednesday address to a session of Congress.
The visit will be full of other symbolic acts.
Macron, the rich asshole and their wives planted an oak sapling from Belleau Wood, the site of one of the first battles of World War I to feature U.S. troops. The tree was planted on the South Lawn.
The state dinner menu will serve as a “showcase of the best of America’s cuisines and traditions, with nuances of French influences,” according to first lady Melania the rich asshole’s office.
Guests will dine on a rack of spring lamb and Carolina gold rice jambalaya “cooked in a New Orleans tradition” and sip a selection of three American wines made with French techniques
French president aims to talk President the rich asshole out of bailing on Iran nuclear deal
Emmanuel Macron is meeting with the rich asshole after saying there is no "Plan B" if the JCPOA is torn up.
French President Emmanuel Macron has a tough mandate in his visit with President some rich asshole on Monday: He aims to talk the rich asshole into sticking with the Iran nuclear deal and into reversing plans to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on European trade partners.
Macron’s visit will include a state dinner — the first one hosted by President the rich asshole since he took office in January 2017.
But hanging in the balance is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — a deal signed by Iran, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, Russia, and Germany that saw Iran scaling back its enrichment program in exchange for sanctions relief.
the rich asshole has repeatedly called the JCPOA the “worst deal ever” and has called for pulling out or renegotiating the deal throughout the campaign and presidency.
Iranian officials, meanwhile, have been meeting with European counterparts to make clear that Iran will not stay in the deal should the United States pull out. And there is every indication that the rich asshole will do just that.
Sanctions waivers are up for renewal on May 12, and President the rich asshole said in January that he would not extend the waivers unless the European partners “fix the terrible flaws” of the JCPOA.
In an attempt to appease the rich asshole, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom tried and failed to pass new sanctions in the European Union, and Iran has grown increasingly agitated with the threat of brutal banking sanctions being snapped back, threatening its fragile economic recovery.
In the lead up to his visit, Macron on Sunday said there is no “Plan B” if the JCPOA is torn up, and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif agreed with him, tweeting that the JCPOA is an “all or nothing” agreement.
In a Sunday interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, Zarif said that by pulling out of the deal, President the rich asshole would isolate the United States, proving it to be an unreliable partner and setting a “bad precedent.” Zarif added that the United States was not the only party in the JCPOA with options:
“No, we have put a number of options for ourselves and those options are ready, including options that would involve resuming at a much greater speed our nuclear activities. And those are all envisioned within the deal. And those options are ready to be implemented and we would make the necessary decision when we see fit.”
Macron might also discuss easing trade sanctions against Russia, and the Associated Press reported on Monday that he is likely to push for extending exemptions on steel and aluminum tariffs to European trade partners.
E.U. exemptions from the 25 percent and 10 percent tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum imports respectively expire on May 1, with the European Union threatening to apply $3.4 billion in tariffs on American products, such as bourbon and denim, if it doesn’t get the exemptions.
GOP fundraiser at the rich asshole property in New Jersey actually loses moneyBy Eric Boehlert - April 23, 2018
Need to lose money in NJ? Throw a fundraiser at a rich asshole property featuring a Fox News speaker.
New Jersey Republicans, already on the precipice of election doom come November, made the fatal mistake of combining the rich asshole and Fox News for a recent fundraiser, and ended up paying for it.
Like so many GOP groups, the state’s Morris County Republican Party held a fundraiser at the rich asshole National Golf Club this year, at the cost of $24,000. the rich asshole properties across the country have been flooded with Republican money as organizations try to make ties to him.
New Jersey Republican also paid out $30,000 for Fox News host Greg Gutfeld to be the evening’s speaker. But the whole night turned out to be a bust, with Morris County Republicans ending the night $6,000 in the black.
The event flopped even though Republicans held out the possibility the rich asshole might attend.
“At the February fundraiser, Republicans teased potential donors with the idea that President the rich asshole would attend as a surprise guest — even asking for social security numbers in advance, something that would suggest a presidential appearance,” the New Jersey Globe reported.
New Jersey Republicans cannot afford fundraising flops this year. Looking ahead, not one but two Morris County congressional seats are in danger of being flipped by Democrats.
In the 11th District, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen has already announced his retirement, and this race has been tagged as a “toss-up.” And in the 7th District, Rep. Leonard Lance faces a tough re-election campaign. In 2016, both Frelinghuysen and Lance cruised to easy re-election wins.
In truth, every Republican in New Jersey faces tough campaigns this year.
With the rich asshole widely despised, and voters just getting over the eight-year fiasco that was Chris Christie’s run in the governor mansion, recent polling suggests if everything goes wrong for the GOP in November, the entire New Jersey House delegation next year could end up being Democratic.
Teaming up with the rich asshole and Fox News might be the perfect way for the GOP to lose the Garden State.
the rich asshole Told Comey He Wasn’t in Moscow Long Enough to Make a Pee Tape. He Lied.
According to James Comey, when he met with some rich asshole in 2017, the incoming president denied allegations that he had hired prostitutes to urinate on a bed once used by President Obama. the rich asshole’s denial, according to Comey, leaned heavily on his claim that he never even spent the night in Moscow. Instead, claimed the rich asshole, he “departed for New York by plane that same night.”
Reporting, combined with and social-media posts by the rich asshole and his entourage during the trip, has cast a lot of doubt on the rich asshole’s version of this story. Bloomberg News has obtained an additional piece of information disproving the rich asshole’s alibi. Flight records show that the rich asshole arrived in Moscow on early Friday morning, November 8, 2013. He departed early Sunday morning, November 10. the rich asshole absolutely had enough time for a golden showers performance if he had wanted to have one.
It’s possible the rich asshole misremembered the trip, or concocted a false alibi despite being innocent of the accusation. A more plausible account of his motives is that he lied because he was covering up his behavior. It is another piece of evidence for the Peelievers.
Reporters press Sarah Sanders on the rich asshole tweet about ‘breeding’
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 04/23/18 03:29 PM EDT
White House press secretary Sarah Hucakbee Sanders on Monday attempted to explain the meaning of one of President the rich asshole’s tweets last week in which he complained that sanctuary cities are “crime infested & breeding concept.”
“There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept,” the rich asshole tweeted Wednesday.
There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept. Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW!
The tweet received renewed attention on Monday, which was the first press briefing since it was sent while the president was in Florida.
“No, he’s talking about the problem itself growing and getting bigger,” Sanders responded.
April Ryan, a reporter for American Urban Radio Networks, pressed Sanders later in the briefing on what the president meant by “breeding” in the context of his tweet.
"The president has recognized this is a major problem. A lot of people, even in California, want to see the issue of sanctuary cities addressed," Sanders said.
“When you think of breeding, you think of animals breeding, populating,” Ryan interjected.
“I’m not going to begin to think what you think,” Sanders responded. “Certainly I think it could mean a lot of things to a lot of people. But the president is talking about a growing problem.”
A third reporter asked Sanders if the president was talking about "people having babies."
"Not that I'm aware of," Sanders said. "I would have to ask him to be more specific."
The tweet was one of several the rich asshole has sent in recent weeks claiming sanctuary cities are undermining U.S. laws. His administration has attempted to crack down on those jurisdictions, which do not require local police to enforce federal immigration law.
Though the rich asshole or other White House officials did not elaborate on his use of the term "breeding," some on social media have suggested it was a typo, and that perhaps the president meant to type "contempt."
"If [Sarah] could just say that the president meant to type 'breeding contempt' instead of 'breeding concept' this might be easier," tweeted Bloomberg reporter Justin Sink.
if sarah could just say that the president meant to type "breeding contempt" instead of "breeding concept" this might be easier
Scope of Koch influence on the rich asshole climate policy under scrutiny
Democratic Senators sent letters to the White House, EPA, and Interior Department, among others.
Senate Democrats are probing the Koch brothers’ influence on a number of the rich asshole administration policies at agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Interior.
The move comes after a report circulated to members of a seminar last year linked to the conservative billionaire Koch family appeared to take credit for a number of policy decisions, including the rollback of the Clean Power Plan and efforts to scale back national monuments.
Through a series of letters sent to various agency leaders and the White House on Friday, six Democratic lawmakers took aim at the leverage wielded by the Kochs. The wealthy family has spent decades directly and indirectly funding hardline conservative policies, undermining environmental protections and supporting think tanks that promote climate denial.
Writing to President the rich asshole, the senators highlighted the prominent role the Kochs have played since the president took office.
“Long-standing members of the Koch network fill the ranks of the federal government, raising concerns about the network’s access to and influence over federal decision-making,” wrote Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), who is leading the effort. “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.”
Whitehouse asked for virtually all correspondence with federal employees to or from Koch employees or other representatives of Koch Industries — the largest privately owned energy company in the United States — or its subsidiaries and related groups. Data on political hires with Koch ties was also requested.
The letters are co-signed by Democratic Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, as well as Tom Udall (NM), Ron Wyden (OR), and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV).
The letters come after a report from the Koch-backed Seminar Network last December hailed victories in the first 11 months of the rich asshole’s tenure in office. Among the efforts labeled as a success was the rich asshole’s announcement that he would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement. Also included were efforts to streamline infrastructure project permitting and a review of the Antiquities Act, a more than 100-year-old law protecting archaeological sites on public lands and allowing the president to protect and designate national monuments.
In addition to the rich asshole, letters were also sent to EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, among others. Senators asked Pruitt for documents relating to the repeal of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which worked to reduce carbon dioxide emissions with a focus on reigning in coal and encouraging renewable energy alternatives. The rich asshole administration has sought to repeal the initiative in an effort to help revive the coal industry.
Pruitt was also asked about the repeal of the Waters of the United States rule outlining federal water protections, which the rich asshole has called “one of the worst examples of federal regulation.”
Senators indicated they were also seeking information on a shift away from so-called “sue and settle” policies at the EPA. Under Pruitt, the agency has moved towards fighting lawsuits with environmental organizations in court, rather than settling them, a change that has been criticized by activists.
Zinke was similarly queried for documents pertaining to environmental policies linked to Koch influence, including ending a ban on fracking and backing a plan to reduce several national monuments.
In December, the rich asshole announced plans to shrink Bears Ears National Monument in Utah by 1.1 million acres, along with another Utah monument, Grand Staircase-Escalante, which the administration wants to reduce to half of its original size. Documents obtained by the New York Times last month indicate oil and gas drilling served as a key incentive in the decision, despite condemnation by indigenous communities including the Navajo Nation.
It is common for special interests to lobby the government, but the extent of Koch influence on the rich asshole administration officials has alarmed progressives and environmental advocates.
A recent ThinkProgress review of Pruitt’s public calendar found that the EPA administrator scheduled 10 speeches to be given at conservative think tanks during his first year at the agency — many of them funded or backed by the Kochs in some way.
Zinke has also given speeches to Koch-backed organizations and Interior Department-backed efforts to reduce national monuments in Utah have been linked directly to the conservative Utah-based Sutherland Institute, which receives much of its funding from the Kochs.
Following the letters, Democrats reportedly plan to raise the issue in the Senate this week, highlighting the “web of Koch-funded front groups advocating for business-friendly policies, sowing doubt in the public debate on important issues, and planting operatives within the halls of government.”
The Labor and Treasury Departments also received letters, as did the National Labor Relations Board, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the White House Office of Management and Budget. Recipients have until May 15 to respond to the requests.
White House stresses the rich asshole has 'no intention' of firing Mueller
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 04/23/18 02:08 PM EDT
The White House on Monday stressed that President the rich asshole does not plan to fire special counsel Robert Mueller after the president said the Russia investigation was “based on an illegal act.”
“As we’ve said many times before, we have no intention of firing the special counsel,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.
“We've been beyond cooperative with them, we're continuing to cooperate with them," she added.
Sanders was responding to the rich asshole’s provocative tweet from last Friday about the probe into whether his campaign colluded with Russia in that country's election-interference efforts in 2016.
“James Comey illegally leaked classified documents to the press in order to generate a Special Council? Therefore, the Special Council was established based on an illegal act? Really, does everybody know what that means?” he wrote.
The tweet came in response to reports that the Justice Department is investigating Comey, the former FBI director, for providing memos to a friend that the government later determined contained classified information.
Sanders said on Monday that the rich asshole was simply reiterating his belief that the Russia probe is a “total witch hunt” and not previewing any personnel moves.
“It was a false premise that this entire thing started on,” she said.
Key West greets the rich asshole with a collective middle finger
some rich asshole (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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Arriving in Key West, Florida, last week to tour an anti-drug trafficking facility, President some rich asshole was greeted by loud protests attended by residents who made abundantly clear their disapproval of his visit and his policies.
As the president’s motorcade drove through the island city, protesters first chanted the slogan “Love Trumps Hate” before a number of attendees began waving their middle fingers and shouting “Fuck you!” at the presidential vehicle.
Key West welcomes Trump with a chorus of "Conch Republic Hellos" because Florida (WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE) - video via @ColleenHough
On Twitter, the president posted his own video of his arrival in Key West, appearing unaware of the tenor of the gathering that had assembled to greet him. A Floridian quickly clarified that most of the people lining the city’s main street were not there to express support.
Fantastic crowd and great people yesterday in Key West, Florida. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/HqOUFgmbQS
To be clear, everyone standing there was yelling in protest as you drove by. The local news had to mute out what they were saying. Facts and truth matter. Key West is the most liberal city in Florida and rightly so, you were not given a warm welcome. Thanks neighbors! #resist
the rich asshole concluded his visit to the Joint Interagency Task Force South center by touting his planned border wall, saying, “We’re committed to securing our borders to reduce crime, illegal drugs, human trafficking. Drugs are flowing into our country. We need border protection. We need the wall.”
Many protesters directed their ire at the rich asshole’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, holding signs that read, “We are a country of immigrants” and described the president as “racist.”
This article was originally published at Common Dreams
POLITICS
Kris Kobach Tells A Misleading Tale About Why He Was Held In Contempt
The Kansas secretary of state claimed the contempt finding by a federal judge was “ridiculous.”
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) publicly defended himself on Saturday after a federal judge found him in contempt of court, arguing that he shouldn’t be held responsible for what didn’t happen and shifting the blame to others.
U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson held Kobach in contempt of court last week, ruling that he had failed to fully follow her 2016 order temporarily blocking a Kansas law that required people to prove their citizenship when they registered to vote at the motor vehicle department. There were about 18,000 people who had failed to show proof of citizenship and as a result had their voter registrations placed “in suspense.” As part of her ruling, Robinson wanted those people to be made registered voters like any others.
Specifically, Robinson expected Kobach to send out two notices to those 18,000 people: a letter telling them that they were fully registered to vote in 2016 and a postcard informing them of their polling place. Kobach suggested he would do both, but in fact, he did not ensure that the postcards were sent out. He also failed to update the online state election manual to indicate that people didn’t need to prove their citizenship at the motor vehicle department.
As part of her contempt ruling, Robinson ordered Kobach to pay attorney fees to the American Civil Liberties Union, which had filed the motion seeking to hold the Kansas official in contempt. The judge reserved a decision on any further remedies for when she rules on the merits of the underlying case against the Kansas law later this year.
Many Kansans see the postcards as a formal confirmation that they are eligible to vote, Marge Ahrens, the former co-president of the Kansas League of Women Voters, testified during the trial, which was held in Kansas City last month.
Over the weekend, Kobach told Breitbart News that the contempt finding was “ridiculous” and blamed local county election officials for failing to send out the postcards.
“She also wanted to make sure that all those voters got a notice telling them where their polling place is, the standard postcard that’s sent out in Kansas. And we instructed the counties to do so, but some of the counties didn’t get it done in time in the short period before the election,” Kobach said. “So the judge is holding my office in contempt for the failure of counties to follow the instructions that we gave them. It’s just ridiculous.”
“When really all it is, is some counties that didn’t send out both postcards, they only sent out one postcard,” he continued.
Kobach’s comments mischaracterize what he and his office actually did and said. A month before the 2016 election, Robinson specifically asked Kobach if the voters affected by her ruling would receive the postcards that Kansans are used to getting in the mail before an election.
“They will get the same notice that others ― that other voters get, that it notifies you of your polling place,” Kobach told the judge on Oct. 5, 2016.
But at a contempt hearing in March of this year, Bryan Caskey, the director of elections in Kansas and a Kobach staffer, said he had been confused as to whether local election officials needed to send out the postcards in addition to the court-ordered letter informing people they were eligible to vote. While Kobach and his lawyers had claimed Caskey verbally told local officials to send the postcards, Caskey testified that he could not verify that election officials in all 105 counties had sent them.
He later testified that he’d informally surveyed four local election officials as to whether they had sent the postcards after being told to do so in October 2016 and could confirm that just one had done so.
After the contempt hearing but before the judge ruled against Kobach, Caskey sent a letter to all election officials in Kansas instructing them that they should send out the postcards. As of April 3, he had received confirmation from 49 counties that the postcards had gone out.
Chris Biggs, a Democrat who served as Kansas secretary of state before Kobach (and whom Kobach defeated in the 2010 election), told HuffPost that while he hadn’t seen the specific communications at issue in the case, it was common for local election officials to seek guidance from the secretary of state’s office on how to enforce election law. Biggs said that he would have wanted to create a clear record of what he’d ordered local election officials to do.
“If I had a court order to do something, I would want to serve and have proof that I communicated in writing with every election official in the state,” he said.
During the contempt hearing, Robinson dismissed Kobach’s claim that he wasn’t responsible for the postcards failing to go out because he couldn’t force election officials in 105 counties to send out the postcards.
“The Court is troubled by Defendant’s failure to take responsibility for violating this Court’s orders, and for failing to ensure compliance over an issue that he explicitly represented to the Court had been accomplished,” Robinson wrote in her contempt order. “Defendant deflected blame for his failure to comply onto county officials, and onto his own staff, some of whom are not licensed attorneys.” (Kobach is a lawyer.)
“The letters from Plaintiffs seeking compliance with these issues were directed to Defendant. The motion for contempt was directed to Defendant. It was Defendant’s duty to ensure that the counties complied with the Court’s Orders, a duty this Court made crystal clear to him back on October 5, 2016,” she continued.
Biggs also questioned Kobach’s contention that he couldn’t make sure that county election officials sent out those postcards.
“He’s the chief election officer, so he would have the ability to advise them how they’re supposed to behave. And if they didn’t, he could seek appropriate action through the attorney general’s office and the local county attorneys, if necessary, to force them to perform their lawfully required duty,” Biggs said.
In his Breitbart interview, Kobach predicted that he would successfully appeal the contempt finding to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
the rich asshole orders DHS not to let immigrant caravans into US
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 04/23/18 10:05 AM EDT
President the rich asshole said Monday he's ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to turn away “caravans” of immigrants attempting to enter the U.S. through the southern border.
“Despite the Democrat inspired laws on Sanctuary Cities and the Border being so bad and one sided, I have instructed the Secretary of Homeland Security not to let these large Caravans of people into our Country,” the rich asshole tweeted.
Despite the Democrat inspired laws on Sanctuary Cities and the Border being so bad and one sided, I have instructed the Secretary of Homeland Security not to let these large Caravans of people into our Country. It is a disgrace. We are the only Country in the World so naive! WALL
"Mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through Mexico and into the U.S. We may make this a condition of the new NAFTA Agreement," he added in a separate tweet.
Mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through Mexico and into the U.S. We may make this a condition of the new NAFTA Agreement. Our Country cannot accept what is happening! Also, we must get Wall funding fast.
the rich asshole has in recent weeks warned multiple times of caravans of migrants making their way toward the U.S.
He appears to be referring to a group of more than 1,000 immigrants from Central America making their way toward the U.S. border who are planning to seek political asylum in either Mexico or the U.S.
the rich asshole has used their progress to criticize Mexico and to call for Congress to enact stricter immigration laws.
He recently signed an order to deploy National Guard troops to the U.S. southern border.
His administration has also filed lawsuits targeting "sanctuary cities," which don't require local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law.
Fox News host calls on the rich asshole to fire Scott Pruitt
But President the rich asshole still has full confidence in Pruitt.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt is facing more friendly fire after this weekend, as a fourth Republican representative along with a Fox News host called on Pruitt to resign following a barrage of scandals.
On Sunday, in response to a question on Twitter, Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) said that Pruitt “should resign” and that he was the “wrong fit from the start for [sic] agency dedicated to protecting our environment.”
Yes EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt should resign. Wrong fit from start for agency dedicated to protecting our environment. #EarthDay2018 reinforces our need to promote pristine planet via clean air & water, leaving it better for future generations. Requires leadership & balance. twitter.com/buckeye1960osu…
LoBiondo is the fifth Republican lawmaker, and fourth Republican representative, to call for Pruitt to resign. In the House, Reps. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) have all called for Pruitt to step down. In the Senate, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) remains the only Republican to call for Pruitt’s resignation, though a number have expressed concern with Pruitt’s apparent various ethical lapses.
Last week, 170 lawmakers — all Democrats — from both the House and the Senate introduced a resolution calling for Pruitt to resign.
But Pruitt is also facing fire from outside of the halls of Congress. On Sunday, former adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron and L.A.-based Fox News host Steve Hilton called for the rich asshole to fire Pruitt, arguing that the EPA administrator has become a walking example of the kind of “swampy” mentality that the rich asshole promised to end.
“What we need is for President the rich asshole to take the lead, fire Scott Pruitt, and throw out the lobbyists from his administration,” Hilton said.
Hilton’s call for Pruitt’s resignation isn’t the first time that Fox News has taken an antagonistic position towards the administrator’s growing canon of scandals.
In early April, Fox News reporter Ed Henry pressed Pruitt on whether he approved raises for two political aides despite the White House not approving those pay increases. Pruitt denied he had knowledge of the raises, but later reporting revealed that Pruitt was privy to the details.
The growing chorus calling for Pruitt’s resignation comes as new information broke late last week about Pruitt’s dealings with a lobbyist couple from whom he rented a room in Washington.
In early April, ABC News reported that for a six month period during his first year as administrator, Pruitt rented a luxury condo on Capitol Hill from the wife of Steven Hart, a prominent D.C. energy lobbyist. Pruitt paid just $50 a night for the condo, and his daughter stayed there for a period of time during the summer while she was interning in D.C. — leading ethics experts to question whether the agreement constituted a gift from the lobbyist family.
Pruitt and Hart maintained that neither engaged in any business between the EPA and any of Hart’s clients while Pruitt was staying in the condo. On Sunday, however, the Guardian reported that Pruitt and Hart did indeed meet at the EPA in July of 2017 (while Pruitt was staying in Hart’s wife’s condo) to discuss efforts to preserve the Chesapeake Bay.
Also on Sunday, White House legislative director Marc Short told NBC’s Chuck Todd that President the rich asshole still has full confidence in Pruitt.
“Scott Pruitt is doing a phenomenal job and the president is happy with him,” Short said on “Meet the Press.”
On Friday, Hart announced that he would be stepping down from his role of chairman at Williams & Jensen, a D.C.-based lobbying firm that represents companies like Exxon and Enbridge.
POLITICS Sean Hannity Defends Real Estate Empire Aided By HUD Loans
The Fox News host defended his choice not to disclose his investments, despite covering the HUD secretary on his show.
Fox News host Sean Hannity is speaking out following a report that he purchased discounted and foreclosed properties as investment tools through shell companies, all the while receiving support from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The “Hannity” talk show host, in a statement Monday, defended his choice to not publicly disclose what he described as his “personal” investments.
His real estate portfolio was disclosed by The Guardian on Sunday, following an investigation into President some rich asshole’s attorney, Michael Cohen, whom Hannity had undisclosed ties to before his name surfaced in court last week. Hannity had said last week that he was not a client of Cohen’s but had sought his advice on real estate. Among the documents the FBI seized from Cohen were details on the real estate investments.
In his statement, Hannity said that he did not “individually select, control or know the details about” the real estate investments that he made but that they were going to communities that he said “badly need such investment.”
Properties linked to Hannity, which were disclosed by The Guardian, include more than 870 homes that were purchased in seven states over the last decade. Their value totals at least $90 million.
Hannity, whose salary from Fox News is estimated by Forbes to be $36 million annually, acknowledged in his statement that he received loans from HUD to invest in properties during President Barack Obama’s administration.
Those mortgage loans, which, according to the Guardian, were acquired through HUD’s National Housing Act, offered investors protection against loan defaults when purchasing rental properties. There were larger loan guarantees given to buyers who offered housing to low-income tenants. Two of the most expensive properties reportedly purchased by Hannity in Georgia used $17.9 million that he acquired through HUD’s program.
After Ben Carson took over as secretary of HUD under the rich asshole, Hannity’s loan portfolio increased by $5 million, The Guardian reported.
Hannity argued that he never discussed his original loans obtained during Obama’s administration with anyone at HUD. But he also didn’t disclose them to his viewers, including while interviewing Carson on his program last year and praising Carson’s work. Hannity also did not disclose his connection to Cohen, despite defending him on his program.
Journalists, as part of a code of ethics, are expected to recuse themselves from reporting on a subject that involves a personal connection or, at the least, disclose those connections. Hannity has argued that he is not a journalist, despite the fact that he covers national news and interviews high-profile guests on “Hannity.” Last week he identified himself as “an opinion journalist or advocacy journalist” instead.
In a twist, while he was reportedly buying up discounted homes, Hannity criticized Obama and blamed him for Americans’ struggles to own their own homes amid the nation’s housing crisis. On his program in 2016, he said Obama has failed to turn talk into action when it came to helping “every American get ahead.”
“The rate of those who own a home has now dropped several percentage points. Now we also saw record numbers of foreclosures during his presidency. 2011 was the worst year on record for home sales,” he told his viewers on that program.
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