‘Hannity insanity’: Internet rips Fox News host’s favorite ‘informant’ for her latest ‘dead wrong’ anti-FBI rant
Fox News contributor Sara Carter. Image via screengrab.
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After a Fox News contributor widely considered to be the source of many Sean Hannity’s “scoops” posted on her own blog a rant intended to defame the FBI and Justice Department, Twitter responded with fury at her fact-free ravings.
“BOMBSHELL: Secret TEXTS Show FBI, DOJ May Have RUSHED Anti-the rich asshole FISA Warrant,” the headline on Sara Cater’s website read. Soon after, Hannity announced that Carter would be on his show to discuss her analysis of texts between FBI agent Peter Strzok and his then-girlfriend, DOJ lawyer Lisa Page.
In her post, Carter alleged that her analysis showed the bureau “may have improperly coordinated” with the DOJ when obtaining a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to spy on former the rich asshole campaign aide Carter Page, who she characterized as a “volunteer.”
Hours after she posted her “BOMBSHELL” report, Hannity republished it on his own website and announced she’d be joining him on air to discuss it.
Prior to Hannity’s announcement, however, Twitter users began to rip apart Carter’s claim.
“Dear @SaraCarterDC,” University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck tweeted. “If you’re going to spout conspiracy theories, at least make them plausible.”
“FISA warrants can only come from the FISA Court,” he wrote, noting that there’s “no scenario” in which the Eastern District of Virginia, which Carter noted had “previously issued subpeonas [sic] in the Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigation,” would issue a warrant to surveil an American citizen.
Dear @SaraCarterDC:
If you’re going to spout conspiracy theories, at least make them plausible. #FISA warrants can only come from the FISA Court; there’s no scenario where E.D. Va. could’ve or would’ve issued one:saraacarter.com/bombshell-secr…
Gabriel Maior, an Oklahoman attorney and contributor for the conservative Federalist new site, noted that Carter’s piece “gets key facts about the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] dead wrong.”
I see this getting bounced around, but note that it gets key facts about the FISC dead wrong.
For example, it claims the Eastern District of Virginia court "had issued several FISAs."
First, that's grammatically wrong. Second, only the FISC in D.C. issues FISA warrants. twitter.com/SaraCarterDC/s…
Check out more responses below:
1) FISC is NOT out of EDVA
2) that fact alone utterly undercuts this “bombshell” reporting.
Do better @SaraCarterDC you’re a journalist and you should know the basics about FISC...particularly citing EDVA. Major gaffe twitter.com/saracarterdc/s…
Here’s my proof in concept, you and others can easily access the supplemental FISA application granted by the FISC in DC NOT in EDVA.
Seriously I’m NOT a reporter but even I have a basic command of this thing called googlefisc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/… pic.twitter.com/mGCr1OQR1j
The EPA tried to avoid tough questions for leader Scott Pruitt by only inviting Fox News to a press conference
Scott Pruitt testifies before the testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works January 18, 2017 (image via Aaron P. Bernstein/AFP).
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Amid increasingly controversial reports related to Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt’s oil-lobby linked condo rental in D.C., the department failed to inform reporters from all but Fox News about a rescheduled press conference he held on Tuesday.
CNN reported Tuesday evening that Pruitt was originally scheduled to appear at a press conference at a Chevrolet dealership in Chantilly, Virginia, but after pushback from the company, the EPA rescheduled it to take place at their headquarters. After changing venues, the EPA “attempted to allow television camera access to Fox News without informing the other four networks: CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS,” the report noted. After Fox alerted the other networks, a press pool was established.
At the event, some reporters were heard shouting questions about Pruitt’s relationship to the president, but CNN reported that by and large, the administrator was able to avoid “tough questions” about the $50-a-night condo that was rented to him by an oil lobbyist’s wife who had fundraised for him.
“Most reporters who cover the agency weren’t in the room,” CNN’s report read, “and cameras were nearly non-existent.”
One reporter in attendance at the meeting said that they saw journalists who worked for The New York Times, ABC News and Bloomberg — but that many were invited individually and appeared to have run over upon learning of the conference just before it began. The EPA, CNN noted, did not send a notice to the agency’s press list.
Earlier in the day, the Times‘ Hiroko Tabuchi tweeted that nobody from her employer’s office had been invited to the conference. Soon after, the Times was sent an invitation, and climate change reporter Lisa Friedman rushed to attend, Tabuchi noted.
We’re now hearing that Pruitt plans to announce the auto emissions decision at an invitation-only event at EPA headquarters, surrounded by friendly press and industry reps. NYT hasn’t been invited.
UPDATE: NYT has now been invited to this announcement and @LFFriedman is racing to the EPA! Stay tuned..
the rich asshole Proves He Wants To Be A Dictator, Will Order Troops To The Border
Every day, some rich asshole proves that he doesn’t want to be President of the United States. He wants to be a dictator. The United States was built to be a free society, we don’t have things like tanks in our streets. That hasn’t stopped the rich asshole for ordering the Pentagon to waste millions on a military parade, and nor has it stopped him from floating the idea of having Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin visit the White House – AFTER he congratulated Putin on “winning” a sham election. Now, frustrated that construction has not started on his ridiculous border wall, the rich asshole has taken another step down the road toward turning America into an authoritarian state, and said that he will order the military to guard America’s border with Mexico. While speaking with other world leaders, the rich asshole said:
“I told Mexico, and I respect what they did, I said, look, your laws are very powerful, your laws are very strong. We have very bad laws for our border and we are going to be doing some things, I spoke with (Defense Secretary James) Mattis, we’re going to do some things militarily. Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military. That’s a big step.”
So, in other words, the rich asshole wants troops along the border to brutalize immigrants and scare immigrant communities in border states. This is like something out of North Korea, not the United States of America. the rich asshole supporters are always wailing about people taking their freedoms away, and the man they so blindly follow is doing just that with his insane thirst for and more power and control over the people he is supposed to be serving.
This is tyranny folks. We should all be very, very afraid. Let’s hope the institutions hold long enough to have a Democratic Congress so we can get rid of this dictator-in-the-making next year.
Featured image via Steffen Kugler /BPA via Getty Images
POLITICS
Anti-Semitism Is Rising, But the rich asshole Won’t Fill A State Department Job To Fight It
The Anti-Defamation League is calling on him to restore “America’s moral leadership” by naming a new envoy.
A State Department position designed specifically to focus on anti-Semitism has remained empty since President some rich asshole took office. Jewish leaders have repeatedly urged the White House to fill the post, and this week they renewed their push.
The Anti-Defamation League, a national human rights organization, sent a letter to the rich asshole on Monday calling on him to name a new special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism.
With such hatred escalating globally, ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt wrote that the U.S. needs its “voice on anti-Semitism around the world.”
“That voice has been silent for the past fifteen months,” Greenblatt wrote.
Established by the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004, the special envoy position was most recently filled by Ira Forman, former executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council. Forman served from May 2013 until Jan. 20, 2017, when, like many other top State officials appointed by President Barack Obama, he was let go.
Past special envoys have provided input on anti-Semitism for State Department reports on human rights and religious freedom. The office also held trainings for individuals embarking on foreign postings so they would know how to identify anti-Semitism and what to report to the State Department.
“These are things that don’t happen unless someone is responsible in the State Department for making sure it happens,” Hannah Rosenthal, who served as the special envoy before Forman, told reporters last year.
Although the office still has a presence on the State Department website, its final two remaining employees were reportedly reassigned in July 2017.
“Mr. President, by nominating a respected and effective advocate, you will be reasserting America’s moral leadership against anti-Semitism and reassuring Jewish communities that America stands with them and their ability to live securely as Jews wherever they are,” Greenblatt wrote on Monday.
The ADL’s renewed call to fill the position comes at a time of heightened anti-Semitism around the globe. Last week, thousands of people took to the streets across France to decry the murder of an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor whose death authorities have linked to anti-Semitism.
In the U.K. last month, Jewish leaders said they would march to Parliament after Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn failed to assuage their concerns about his defense of an offensive anti-Jewish mural in 2012.
“The data confirms the anger and concern of these communities,” Greenblatt’s letter stated. “Violent anti-Semitic assaults increased 34 percent in Britain according to the Community Security Trust in 2017, and according to the French Ministry of the Interior, increased 26 percent in France during the same period.”
Incidents of anti-Semitic rhetoric and attacks have also hit Poland, Sweden, Tunisia and Iran in recent months.
In the U.S., trends that indicated an anti-Semitic spike around the time of the 2016 presidential election have persisted. A report published by the ADL in February showed that the number of anti-Semitic incidents rose nearly 60 percent in 2017, marking the largest single-year increase the organization has ever recorded.
the rich asshole’s administration has been fairly cavalier about the dangers of anti-Semitism, at times even peddling ugly stereotypes and conspiracy theories that promulgate bias. Then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last summer that he believed a special envoy dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism would actually interfere with the government’s efforts to combat bias.
A State Department official told HuffPost on Tuesday that although the envoy position remains vacant, “the Office of International Religious Freedom at the Department of State continues actively to support the mission of that office.”
“Combating anti-Semitism internationally is a priority for this administration,” the official said. “President the rich asshole and Vice President Pence have publicly expressed their deep concern about high levels of anti-Semitism globally.”
This story has been updated with the State Department’s response.
POLITICS
2 Florida Republicans Now Joining Calls For Scott Pruitt To Resign
Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen say Pruitt should leave the agency amid growing controversy over his spending and ties to lobbyists.
WASHINGTON ― Reps. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) called for Scott Pruitt’s resignation Tuesday, becoming the first Republicans to demand the embattled Environmental Protection Agency administrator step down amid growing controversy over his spending and ties to lobbyists.
In a tweet, Curbelo said Pruitt’s “corruption scandals are an embarrassment,” and urged President some rich asshole to fire the nation’s top environmental regulator if he does not quit.
Major policy differences aside, @EPAScottPruitt‘s corruption scandals are an embarrassment to the Administration, and his conduct is grossly disrespectful to American taxpayers. It's time for him to resign or for @POTUS to dismiss him. twitter.com/jtsantucci/sta…
Ros-Lehtinen, who is retiring from Congress this year, echoed Curbelo.
“When scandals and distractions overtake a public servant’s ability to function effectively, another person should fill that role,” the congresswoman said in a statement provided to HuffPost.
Curbelo is one of the most vulnerable House Republicans running for re-election this cycle ― former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won his majority-Latino district by 16 points in the 2016 election ― and he has said he’d welcome the rich asshole’s help ahead of the 2018 midterms. Curbelo is up just five points over likely Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, according to a survey the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released this week.
Curbelo, widely considered one of the GOP’s few hawkish voices on climate change, has been critical of Pruitt. In March 2017, he called Pruitt’s denial of carbon emissions’ impact on climate change “reckless,” and urged the administrator to “come to South Florida to see” firsthand the effects of sea-level rise.
Curbelo’s comments about Pruitt, one day after the EPA unveiled the administration’s plan to roll back Obama-era vehicle emissions rules, demonstrates how quickly the latest accusations of corruption against the administrator have spun out of control.
Pruitt’s housing in Washington came under scrutiny last week after ABC News reported that he rented a room in a luxury condominium co-owned by the wife of a top gas industry lobbyist. Pruitt paid $50 per night, a sweetheart deal well below the market rate for an upscale Capitol Hill townhouse. The EPA’s Office of General Counsel quickly issued a memo endorsing the rate, but the agency’s ethics lawyer struggled to defend Pruitt’s adult daughter’s use of another room at the residence.
Curbelo did not return a request for an interview on Tuesday afternoon.
Asked to comment on Curbelo’s remarks about Pruitt, EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox sent a statement defending the administrator’s rental.
“As EPA career ethics officials stated in a memo, Administrator Pruitt’s housing arrangement for both himself and family was not a gift and the lease was consistent with federal ethics regulations,” the statement said.
The controversy comes after months of criticism over Pruitt’s spending on first-class flights and luxury hotels, including $2,600 airfare to Oklahoma, a $120,000 trip to Italy and a $40,000 visit to Morocco to promote liquefied natural gas, a questionable responsibility for an EPA administrator to take on.
Few other Republicans have publicly called on Pruitt to step down. A spokesperson for Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), who also represents a district in southern Florida, did not immediately return a request for comment.
However, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who outlasted the “Bridgegate” scandal that thwarted his presidential ambitions, on Sunday said he was concerned about the ethics of Pruitt’s rental.
“I don’t know how you survive this one, and if he has to go, it’s because he never should have been there in the first place,” Christie said on ABC News’ “This Week.”
the rich asshole reportedly phoned Pruitt on Monday evening and told him to “keep your head up” and “keep fighting.” In a meeting with leaders of Baltic nations at the White House on Tuesday, the rich asshole said, “I hope he’s going to be great.”
Democrats, meanwhile, are calling on Pruitt to resign “immediately.”
“It is long past time for Scott Pruitt’s tenure to end. From cozying up to industry insiders, to wasting taxpayer dollars and breaking ethical norms, Americans cannot trust Pruitt and he should resign immediately,” the Democratic National Committee said in a statement.
The Senate confirmed Pruitt last year by a vote of 52-46. Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, two vulnerable Democrats who are up for re-election this year in states the rich asshole won in 2016, joined nearly every Republican in voting to approve Pruitt’s nomination.
Neither Manchin’s spokesperson nor Heitkamp’s spokesperson immediately responded to a request for comment about whether the senators thought Pruitt should step down.
This article has been updated with comment from the EPA and Ros-Lehtinen.
Reporter busts the rich asshole’s racist caravan lie: ‘It’s a human rights march’
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It's called the 'Stations of the Cross' caravan, and it poses zero danger to the U.S.
the rich asshole claimed on Tuesday that the situation along the U.S.-Mexico border has become so dire and dangerous he’s going to send U.S. troops to protect it, once again wallowing in incoherent scare rhetoric about immigration. It’s all part of his renewed scare campaign about immigration.
Teaming up with Fox News, the rich asshole has for days been wildly hyping the idea that a massive caravan of would-be immigrants would soon be descending on the U.S. border.
“The big Caravan of People from Honduras, now coming across Mexico and heading to our ‘Weak Laws’ Border, had better be stopped before it gets there,” the rich asshole tweeted.
But he’s lying, of course. None of this matches realty.
The annual caravan in question, which has taken place for years and most often without notice from the United States, has already stalled in Mexico. And there appears to be no plan for members to continue on to the U.S. border.
“There were reports Mexican officials were seeking to end the caravan, but it was for all intents and purposes over anyway,” the Associated Press reported. “The participants were never equipped to march en masse to the U.S. border or anywhere near it.”
Indeed, the peaceful protest was halted days ago in the town of Matias Romero in the southern state of Oaxaca, according to the AP.
So no, there isn’t some marauding mob — a massive caravan — heading to the U.S. in order to swamp the border, as CNN’s Jim Acosta stressed, following the rich asshole’s racist, white-nationalist comments on Tuesday.
“We should point out when he’s talking about this caravan of people coming up through Central America, through Mexico, that is not a new phenomena. That is almost a peaceful protest that’s been happening over the years,” said Acosta.
“It’s a human right march in some sense, in that it sheds light on the people of Central America, the very difficult condition they’re going through.”
The mass movement of people is known as the “Stations of the Cross” caravan, and it’s been held in southern Mexico for about 10 years. “The event first began as short processions of migrants, some dressed in biblical garb and carrying crosses, as an Easter-season protest against the kidnappings, extortion, beatings and killings suffered by many Central American migrants as they cross Mexico,” Time reported.
Who else but the rich asshole would try to a take a “Stations of the Cross” human rights march and turn it into caravan of destruction?
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April 3, 2018
the rich asshole's new obsession with attacking Amazon is so unhinged, even Fox is calling it out for the nonsense it is.
Even Fox News is having a hard time understanding what the rich asshole is talking about with his attacks on Amazon.
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith discussed the topic with financial analyst Hitha Herzog and Fox Business reporter Geri Willis on a panel, and all agreed the rich asshole’s complaints make no sense.
the rich asshole has been fussing about Amazon by arguing that the company is somehow taking advantage of the U.S. Postal Service.
He claimed that Amazon is “costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy” and that “many billions of dollars” are being “bourne (sic)” by taxpayers in service of Amazon.
the rich asshole has repeatedly lashed out at Amazon in recent days because of his frustration with the Washington Post’s coverage of his flailing presidency. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, also owns the Post.
On Fox, Smith said, “It is somewhat hard to imagine that the president doesn’t realize that tax dollars do not go to the post office.”
Herzog replied that he can “just go on Google” to get the pertinent information. And in fact the official Post Office website says, “The Postal Service receives NO tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.”
Smith explained to viewers that the rich asshole’s assertion is completely without merit.
“It’s not like someone has said ‘We’re losing tax dollars.’ No one’s ever said this. That’s not a thing.”
“There is no association with the USPS and tax dollars,” Herzog added.
the rich asshole’s frustrations and inability to respond to the Post’s journalism like a normal elected official has resulted in his absurd attacks on Amazon.
The use of his bully pulpit to attack and even threaten a private business based solely on his personal political agenda has cost the company billions in stock market value.
Calling Amazon out for business practices that are harmful to the public or environment would be a worthwhile use of his time and world attention, but the rich asshole is just trying to settle a political score.
But his chosen argument — invoking the post office — is disconnected from reality.
Fox News typically bends over backward to accommodate the rich asshole’s rambling and validate his concerns, but at least on Smith’s program, that detachment from reality is being challenged with facts.
“That’s not a thing” sums up the rich asshole and his relationship to the world in so many ways.
the rich asshole Says U.S. Will Use Military To Protect Border With Mexico
The president said he discussed the idea with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President some rich asshole’s strategy for the U.S.-Mexico border includes mobilizing the National Guard, the White House said on Tuesday, after the rich asshole had earlier spoken publicly to reporters about “guarding our border with the military” to stop illegal immigrants.
The White House statement was released after the rich asshole met with Defense Secretary James Mattis, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other officials on border issues. It gave no details on whether or when the rich asshole’s strategy might be implemented.
The National Guard, part of the U.S. military’s reserve forces, has been used in recent years for surveillance and intelligence on the border, but not direct law enforcement.
The president’s earlier remarks sharpened his recurring anti-immigration rhetoric. He said he wanted to deploy U.S. military forces until his long-promised border wall is built.
“Until we can have a wall and proper security we’re going to be guarding our border with the military,” the rich asshole told reporters at the White House, lamenting what he called “horrible” U.S. laws that left the southern border poorly protected.
the rich asshole railed against a “caravan” of Central American migrants traveling from the Mexico-Guatemala border in the last 10 days toward the United States, journeys that have occurred annually since 2010 in an effort to draw attention to the plight of people fleeing violence in their countries.
On Tuesday night, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said on Twitter that the caravan “dispersed gradually and at the decision of its participants.” Mexican officials say privately that they believe the rich asshole has exaggerated the caravan’s importance to renew pressure on Mexico over the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
After 14 months in office, the rich asshole still hammers regularly on an anti-immigration theme that helped to energize conservative Republican voters who helped him win the presidency in the 2016 election. the rich asshole took a hard line on illegal immigration during the campaign and has also sought to curtail legal immigration.
His efforts have thus far failed to produce a comprehensive overhaul of America’s immigration laws or full funding for his border wall in the Republican-led Congress. No major legislation was expected before November’s congressional elections.
LEGAL QUESTIONS RAISED
His latest comments immediately raised questions in Congress and among legal experts about troop deployments on U.S. soil.
The Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law on the books since the 1870s, restricts using the U.S. Army and other main branches of the military for civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil, unless specifically authorized by Congress.
But the military can provide support services to law enforcement and has done so on occasion since the 1980s.
Under Republican President George W. Bush, the National Guard between 2006 and 2008 provided border-related intelligence analysis, but had no direct law enforcement role.
In 2010, President Barack Obama sent National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexican border to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support to U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Some specific statutes authorize the president to deploy troops within the United States for riot control or relief efforts after natural disasters.
“The details really matter here,” said Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law.
“The real question is going to be if the president is serious about this, what kind of legal arguments do we get out of the White House and the Pentagon for such a deployment.”
A senior Republican aide in the U.S. House of Representatives said key lawmakers had not been briefed on the White House plan. The aide said there was no indication that a specific plan had even been formulated yet.
Geronimo Gutierrez, Mexico’s ambassador in Washington, said he had spoken to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen about the rich asshole’s remarks on the border and that Mexico had formally asked the U.S. government to clarify them.
“It’s certainly not something that the Mexican government welcomes,” Gutierrez told CNN.
Nielsen, who took part in the meeting with the rich asshole, said in a Twitter message late on Tuesday that she had been told by Mexican officials “the caravan is dissipating.”
In southern Mexico, officials screened the dwindling number of hundreds of largely Central American migrants on Tuesday.
At a campaign rally, Mexican leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is leading most polls by double digits before the July 1 presidential election, said that if the U.S. government militarizes the border, thousands of his supporters would protest by forming a “big human chain of Mexicans for peace.”
Some members of Congress said they were uncomfortable with the idea of using the military at the border.
Democratic Senator Brian Schatz said the rich asshole should have to seek approval from Congress for any such troop deployment. “We should put that new law to a vote in the Senate,” he said on Twitter. “I predict fewer than 20 votes.”
In a Twitter post earlier on Tuesday, the rich asshole said the caravan “heading to our ‘Weak Laws’ Border, had better be stopped before it gets there. Cash cow NAFTA is in play, as is foreign aid to Honduras and the countries that allow this to happen. Congress MUST ACT NOW!” Congress is on vacation until next week.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Makini Brice, Amanda Becker, Richard Cowan, Eric Beech, Mohammad Zargham and Phil Stewart in Washington; Karen Freifeld in New York and the Mexico City newsroom; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Grant McCool)
WATCH: CNN panel laughs in the face of the rich asshole backer who claims Mexicans are ‘invading’ the US
CNN host Erin Burnett (left) and former the rich asshole campaign aide Steve Cortes (right). Image via screengrab.
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After former the rich asshole campaign operative Steve Cortes made a bold and inaccurate claim about Mexicans staging a “soft invasion” at America’s southern border, CNN host Erin Burnett and national security analyst Juliette Kayyem couldn’t refrain from laughing.
While discussing President some rich asshole’s apparent mixup between the National Guard service members who guard the southern border and active duty military officers, Kayyem, who previously served as an official with the Department of Homeland Security, said she’d give the rich asshole the benefit of the doubt for his “confusion.” Cortes then responded by suggesting the U.S. should send military to Mexico — and hilarity ensued.
“What I’m saying, and I think the president would concur with me on this,” the former the rich asshole campaign aide said, “is there has been a soft invasion of the United States.”
“Invasion?” Burnett asked him incredulously. “You’re gonna use the word ‘invasion’?”
Cortes doubled down, saying that Mexico didn’t send an army, but that its citizens undertook “a soft invasion of illegal immigration.”
After Kayyem questioned Cortes’ claim and asked him if the rich asshole should overrule White House chief of staff John Kelly, who oversaw U.S. Southern Command and had once before corrected the president when he erroneously claimed there were soldiers guarding the American border with Mexico, the former campaign aide appeared to trip over his words.
“[the rich asshole] was given this mandate,” Cortes said. “He didn’t assume this mandate. He was given it by the American people, and he was crystal clear on this issue.”
Watch below, via CNN:
POLITICS
EPA Reportedly Approved Pipeline Project Linked To Lobbyist Renting Room To Pruitt
Pruitt’s spokeswoman denied any link between the approval and the apartment rental.
The Environmental Protection Agency approved a pipeline project last year during the same time period that administrator Scott Pruitt was renting a room from the wife of a lobbyist who represented the pipeline’s owner, The New York Times reported on Monday.
The news comes amid a growing controversy surrounding Pruitt’s unusual housing arrangement, in which he paid $50 a night to rent a room in a luxury condo from Vicki Hart, whose husband runs Williams & Jensen, a well-known energy lobbying firm.
The rental agreement, which was open-ended, offered a rate that was well below market value. The White House is conducting an informal review of the matter, unnamed officials told the Wall Street Journal and CNN.
At the same time that Pruitt had access to the condo, the EPA signaled its approval for a pipeline project from Enbridge Inc. The Canada-based company hoped to expand its Alberta Clipper pipeline and ship hundreds of thousands of barrels of additional oil to the U.S. each day.
Williams & Jensen was a registered lobbyist for Enbridge at the time, the Times reported. However, a spokesman from the firm told the newspaper that Williams & Jensen did not lobby the EPA or Pruitt on the project’s behalf.
Liz Bowman, Pruitt’s spokeswoman, also told the Times that “any attempt to draw that link is patently false.”
The State Department granted the permit last October. Since then, Enbridge has expanded the pipeline.
Critics say the $6,100 Pruitt paid for his rental over six months amounted to a sweetheart deal. Rates for a one-bedroom apartment in D.C. are typically thousands of dollars higher per month and often require a contract for a set amount of time, whether the occupant sleeps there or not.
On Monday, several House Democrats sent Pruitt a letter asking him to detail the arrangement surrounding the rental.
The EPA’s senior ethics counsel, Justina Fugh, said last Friday the agreement did not qualify as a “prohibited gift at all,” and described the deal as “a routine business transaction and permissible even if from a personal friend.”
But the coverage of Pruitt’s close personal and financial ties to a lobbyist was just the latest in a string of negative press for the EPA chief. On Monday, it was reported that the EPA considered leasing a private jet for Pruitt’s travels. A story in Politico also noted that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has already considered firing the administrator
CNN legal analyst predicts Manafort will flip on the rich asshole: ‘His case is nearly indefensible’
Paul Manafort (Photo: Screen capture)
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Former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin was surprised that lawyers for President some rich asshole were happy with news that special counsel Robert Mueller has identified the commander in chief as a subject of FBI investigation.
“In federal law enforcement, there are three categories of witnesses,” Toobin, a CNN legal analyst, explained to Anderson Cooper.
“There are targets, who are almost certainly going to be charged, going to be indicted,” Toobin continued. “There are witnesses, who are just people whose information is of value to the prosecutors.”
“And in between the two, there is something called the subject, that is someone who is under investigation but who may or may not be charged,” he explained. “the rich asshole is a subject and I don’t think that is particularly good news for him.”
“It is a big deal to be under criminal investigation by the FBI, particularly if the you are the President of the United States,” Toobin concluded. “This has been implicit in what the Mueller investigation has been doing. But this confirmation, that the president is under criminal investigation, that is a profound thing to think about.”
Toobin also thinks former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort may be close to flipping and cooperating with the special counsel investigation.
“He is in desperate legal trouble,” Toobin observed. “Now that his right hand man, Gates, has pleaded guilty and cooperate against him, I think his case is nearly indefensible.”
“And I just think the walls are closing in on Manafort, where he’s really in an untenable legal position,” Toobin concluded.
Watch:
Mueller told the rich asshole’s lawyers he’s not yet a ‘criminal target’ of the Russia probe — but advisers worry it may be a trap
Robert Mueller, some rich asshole -- screenshots
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Special counsel Robert Mueller reportedly told some rich asshole’s lawyers the president is not a “criminal target” of the Russia investigation — but some people close to the West Wing worry it may be a technique designed to lure him into an in-person interview.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday night that Mueller told the rich asshole’s lawyers that the president remains one of the subjects of the Russia probe, and is preparing a report on his actions and potential obstruction of justice, according to three sources close to the investigation.
Mueller, the report continued, reiterated during March meetings with the rich asshole’s lawyers that he is invested in having a sit-down meeting with the president.
While the rich asshole and some close to him reportedly feel emboldened by Mueller’s “assurance,” the Post‘s sources said some other advisers were worried the special counsel might be attempting to “bait” the president into an interview — a move that “could put the president in greater legal peril.”
Former FBI agent and current CNN analyst Josh Campbell delineated on Twitter the difference in severity between a “target” and “subject” of an investigation.
TARGET: a person as to whom prosecutor/grand jury has substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime
SUBJECT: a person whose conduct is within the scope of the grand jury’s investigation justice.gov/usam/usam-9-11… twitter.com/washingtonpost…
Ex-Watergate prosecutor details how Mueller is building a case for ‘conspiracy with a foreign agent’
Special counsel Robert Mueller and former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort, composite image.
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Former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks explained to MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews how Robert Mueller’s latest legal maneuvering is reminiscent of the Watergate prosecution which helped bring down former President Richard Nixon.
“Jill, his first prosecution reminds me of Watergate, like everything reminds me of Watergate,” Matthews noted. “In this case, you start with the small fry, if you will, and work your way up, punishing them along the way perhaps.”
“It does. And that is how we operated,” Wine-Banks confirmed. “You start building your case by getting the people who can give you someone higher up.”
Earlier Tuesday, Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in jail for lying to the special prosecutor, but Wine-Banks said the ostensibly-short sentence may have been sending a critical message to more important witnesses.
“That’s a very strong message to all future witnesses: don’t think you can outsmart them,” she noted. “You can end up in jail for this.”
“They know there’s something there or they wouldn’t be doing it,” Wine-Banks concluded. “They know there’s someone guilty involved in a conspiracy with Russia. The Russians know something or have something and that’s why they’re trying to stop the investigation.”
Wine-Banks also had advice for former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
“And I think that in terms of Manafort, yes, there’s a clear and easy case to make against him for money laundering and for the crimes that he has been charged with, but hopefully he’s now starting to see how much more the prosecutors know and will start to talk and admit what he has done in terms of the election which is clearly set forth in Rosenstein’s authority to Mueller,” Wine-Banks counseled. “So it could go much further and … it’s conspiracy with a foreign agent that is the crime.”
Watch:
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey rejects the rich asshole’s ‘thoughts and prayers’ after YouTube HQ shooting
Twitter's Jack Dorsey and some rich asshole
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Police are still investigating a shooting Tuesday at the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California. But Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of some rich asshole’s favorite messaging platform, rejected the president’s “thoughts and prayers” in response to the tragedy—and directed him to the March or Our Lives policy proposals.
A female shooter opened fire at YouTube headquarters on Tuesday afternoon, wounding at least three people before apparently killing herself. Shortly after the shooting the rich asshole tweeted he “was just briefed” on the incident offered his “thoughts and prayers” to “everyone involved.”
Dorsey, who heads one of the most recognizable social networking services in the world, expressed remorse for his “friends at YouTube” before turning to the president’s response.
“We can’t keep being reactive to this, thinking and praying it won’t happen again at our schools, jobs, or our community spots,” Dorsey wrote. “It’s beyond time to evolve our policies.”
“This is a simple and reasonable approach, and it won’t solve all, but it’s a good start,” he added, linking to the March for Our Lives policy platform.
We can’t keep being reactive to this, thinking and praying it won’t happen again at our schools, jobs, or our community spots. It’s beyond time to evolve our policies. This is a simple and reasonable approach, and it won’t solve all, but it’s a good start: marchforourlives.com/how-we-save-li… twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
March for Our Lives, the pro-gun control group formed after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida in February, likewise tweeted its support for YouTube.
“March for Our Lives stands with YouTube as they stood with us incredibly early on in our mission to stop this,” the organization wrote.
Former federal prosecutor smacks down Fox News legal analyst’s ‘deliberately misleading attack’ on Mueller
Special counsel and former FBI director Bob Mueller (image via screengrab).
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A legal analyst for Fox News was slapped down for making multiple errors of “law and fact” in an attack on special counsel Robert Mueller. Fox analyst Gregg Jarrett faced the wrath of former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti after asking Mueller and DOJ Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to resign.
“Unethical Mueller, in his court filing, admits that Rosenstein’s order appointing him was intentionally vague,” Jarrett claimed. “This violates the special counsel law that requires a specific statement of facts to be investigated.”
“Rosenstein and Muller (sic) colluded to break the law and should resign,” Jarrett demanded.
Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti posted a link to Jarrett’s claims and asked, “Can you spot all of the errors in his 280-character attack on Mueller?”
Mariotti charged “Jarrett’s attack is full of basic errors of law and fact.”
And Mariotti listed the errors.
“Jarrett’s attack on Mueller is factually and legally inaccurate and fails to take into account what Mueller said in the court filing that Jarrett supposedly read and is responding to,” Mariotti concluded. “He shouldn’t be passing off this deliberately misleading attack as ‘analysis.'”
Read the full response below:
1/ Gregg Jarrett provides legal analysis on Fox News. Can you spot all of the errors in his 280-character attack on Mueller? twitter.com/GreggJarrett/s…
2/ Jarrett is referring to yesterday's response to Manafort's motion to dismiss, in which Mueller revealed a heavily redacted memorandum from Rosenstein setting forth what matters he was authorized to investigate. But Jarrett's attack is full of basic errors of law and fact.
3/ As a starting point, there is no special counsel law. It's a DOJ regulation. Secondly, the regulation does not indicate that the statement of facts be made public, so the private memo to Mueller setting forth the specific statement of facts to be investigated is proper.
4/ For that reason, "Rosenstein and Muller [sic]" did not "collude to break the law." In fact, there is no evidence that Mueller had anything to do with Rosenstein's decision to include more detail in the private memorandum than he did in the public order appointing Mueller.
5/ Even if Mueller and Rosenstein agreed together not to include the names of people and specific factual matters to be investigated in the public order of appointment--and there's no evidence they did--that would not be against the law (or a crime, as Jarrett implies).
6/ Jarrett also ignores the justifications for Rosenstein's decision given by Mueller in the court filing: (1) investigations can be compromised by premature disclosure of the persons and crimes under investigation and (2) it's fair to people under investigation not to name them.
7/ Jarrett also calls Mueller "unethical" in his tweet but does not explain why. Even if Rosenstein did not properly follow the DOJ regulations (and there's no evidence he hasn't), conducting the special counsel investigation would not be unethical.
the rich asshole retreats to campaign talking points when asked about relationship with Putin
He simply refuses to criticize Putin.
During a news conference with Baltic heads of state on Tuesday, President the rich asshole held out hope that he still might become friends with Vladimir Putin — while completely ignoring his regime’s efforts to undermine American democracy and in a chemical attack in Britain.
the rich asshole was asked by a European reporter whether he views the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin as “an enemy, or someone you can have dialogue with.” He began his response by saying, “I think we’ll be able to have a great dialogue, I hope.”
“I think I could have a very good relationship with President Putin,” the rich asshole said. “It’s a real possibility that I could have a good relationship, and remember this — getting along with Russia is a good thing, getting along with China is a good thing, getting along with other countries is a good thing, not a bad thing.”
“So I think I could have a very good relationship with Russia and with President Putin, and if I did that would be a great thing, and there’s also a great possibility that that won’t happen — who knows.”
During another part of his response, the rich asshole claimed that “nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have, and I know you’re nodding yes because everybody agrees when they think about it.”
The examples the rich asshole cited of how tough he’s been included his push to make America energy independent, which has nothing directly to do with Putin. He also referenced his scolding of other members of NATO for failing to spend enough on defense — comments that actually were widely viewed at the time as destabilizing the alliance, which serves as a bulwark against Russian aggression.
During Tuesday’s news conference, the rich asshole didn’t mention two major developments that have taken place since the campaign and have further ostracized Putin from the international community — the recent poisoning of a former spy in a park in England that the British government has pinned on Putin, and Russia’s efforts to meddle in the U.S. presidential election on the rich asshole’s behalf.
When the rich asshole has spoken publicly about those incidents, he’s cast doubt upon Russian involvement. During a joint press conference with Swedish Prime Minster Stefan Löfven last month, the rich asshole suggested the hacks of prominent Democrats during the campaign might’ve been the work of “other countries, maybe other individuals.”
A week later, the rich asshole downplayed Putin’s involvement in the poisoning of the former spy in Britain, saying he’s willing to “condemn Russia or whoever it may be” — but only if “we agree” with the facts.
the rich asshole’s comments on Tuesday echoed what he repeatedly said during his presidential campaign, when he brushed aside criticism of Putin’s involvement in the murders of dissident journalists and spies by noting that “our country does plenty of killing also” and that “there’s nothing wrong with not fighting everybody, having Russia where we have a good relationship as opposed to all the stupidity that’s taken place.”
“I’m saying that I’d possibly have a good relationship. [Putin’s] been very nice to me,” the rich asshole told Bill O’Reilly in April 2016. “If we can make a great deal for our country and get along with Russia that would be a tremendous thing. I would love to try it.”
Then, during the same July 2016 news conference where he called upon Russian hackers to obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails, the rich asshole said, “I would treat Vladimir Putin firmly, but there’s nothing I can think of that I’d rather do than have Russia friendly, as opposed to the way they are right now, so that we can go and knock out ISIS with other people.”
Rosenstein just appointed a new deputy to oversee Mueller’s Russia probe
Ed O'Callaghan, the Justice Department's new acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General. Image via screengrab.
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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has picked a longtime prosecutor to help him run the Justice Department’s Russia investigation.
CNN reported Tuesday that, according to a DOJ official, former white collar defense attorney-turned-prosecutor Edward O’Callaghan is now the acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General.
O’Callaghan’s new position, which CNN noted is referred to as the “Padag” within the DOJ, carries behind-the-scenes cachet. In the role, the veteran prosecutor and counterterrorism will advise Rosenstein on all department investigations and policy.
The report noted that O’Callaghan’s most recent position was as acting head of the DOJ’s National Security Division. In the role, he “raised eyebrows,” CNN noted, when he addressed the press to defend the rich asshole administration’s “use of contested terrorism figures to encourage changes to immigration policies.”
Rosenstein’s new deputy will replace former “Padag” Robert Hur, who last month was unanimously confirmed as the U.S. Attorney for the state of Maryland.
the rich asshole says he will send troops to guard the southern US border
"We'll be doing things militarily."
President the rich asshole said on Tuesday that he would be sending U.S. troops to guard the country’s southern border with Mexico, citing “weak and pathetic” immigration laws implemented under President Obama.
“President Obama made changes that basically created no border. Catch and release. You catch them, you register them, they go into our country. We can’t throw them out. In many cases they shouldn’t be here,” he said during a televised meeting with Baltic States leaders on Tuesday. “…They’re in our country. And we can’t do anything about it because the laws that were created by Democrats are so pathetic and so weak.”
He added, “I’ve been speaking with Gen. Mattis, [the secretary of defense]. We’ll be doing things militarily. Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’ll be guarding our border with the military. That’s a big step. We really haven’t done that before, or certainly not very much before. But we will be doing things with Mexico, and they have to do it.”
According to Politico, Mattis was against the idea of sending troops to the southern border, with anonymous senior officials in the Department of Homeland Security claiming that the administration had no official deployment plans in place. The officials cited “unresolved policy issues” as the reason for the hold up.
the rich asshole’s claim about being the first to implement such a decision and place troops at the southern border is inherently false. Previously both Presidents George W. Bush and Obama called up 6,000 and 1,200 National Guard troops to the border, respectively, in an effort to assist local law enforcement with immigration duties. As educational website ThoughtCo reported in August, neither president was required to suspend the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prevents the use of military force to carry out civilian law enforcement tasks, because troops were predominantly used to assist local police with reconnaissance and “counternarcotics enforcement” until more Border Patrol agents could be installed in their place.
The president on Tuesday also singled out a caravan of immigrants from Honduras, making their way through Mexico on an annual pilgrimage to raise awareness about the dangers facing those who choose to take the long journey to the southern U.S. border. Participants say their eventual goal is to gain asylum in the United States.
According to the Washington Post, Mexican authorities stopped the group on Monday evening, registering some of the travelers and requiring others to leave the country within 10 days. Some of the travelers, including “vulnerable” individuals such as pregnant people and those with disabilities, qualified for humanitarian visas, they added.
“I just noticed the caravan now, which is toward the middle of Mexico coming up from Honduras, is breaking up very rapidly. That’s because Mexico has very strong immigration laws, as we should have,” the rich asshole said on Tuesday. “…We cannot have people flowing into our country illegally.”
Asked to address his decision to send troops to the border in a subsequent press conference with Baltic States leaders, the president doubled down.
“We are preparing for the military to secure our border between Mexico and the United States,” he said. “We have a meeting on it in a little while with Gen. Mattis and everybody. And I think that it is something that we have to do. The caravan, which is over 1,000 people coming in from Honduras, thought they were just going to walk through Mexico and right through the border.”
He added, “We’ll see what happens. But we have to have strong borders. We need the wall.”
the rich asshole’s statements were the culmination of a lengthy Twitter rant this week in which the president claimed Mexico needed to do more to stop the immigrants from trying to get into the United States.
“Mexico has the absolute power not to let these large ‘Caravans’ of people enter their country. They must stop them at their Northern Border, which they can do because their border laws work, not allow them to pass through into our country, which has no effective border laws,” he wrote on Monday.
A day earlier, on Easter Sunday, the rich asshole claimed that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was at fault for drawing immigrants to the country.
“Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release,” he tweeted. “Getting more dangerous. ‘Caravans’ coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!”
the rich asshole also threatened to kill NAFTA if Mexico did not stop immigrants from reaching the U.S. border.
“Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S.,” he wrote. “They laugh at our dumb immigration laws. They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!”
The president has struggled to obtain funding for his proposed border wall, a major campaign promise for which the rich asshole initially claimed Mexico would pay.
POLITICS the rich asshole Tells Baltic Presidents Not To Call On U.S. Reporters: ‘Real News, Not Fake News’
“You can pick a reporter ― a Baltic reporter, ideally.”
WASHINGTON ― President some rich asshole on Tuesday continued his attacks on the media by implying that U.S. journalists are “fake news” during a joint press conference with leaders from the Baltic countries.
“Pick a reporter, please. You can pick a reporter ― a Baltic reporter, ideally,” he told Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis, while taking questions from journalists. “Real news, not fake news.”
“Pick a reporter please. You can pick a reporter -- a Baltic reporter, ideally. Real news. Not fake news,” @POTUS jokes with Latvian president during joint press conference with Baltic leaders cbsn.ws/2Gy4yYo
His remarks generated laughter from the audience.
the rich asshole called on only one American reporter, Steve Holland of Reuters, at the beginning of Tuesday’s news conference.
the rich asshole has issued a number of tweets in recent days attacking various news organizations, from CNN to The Washington Post, as “fake,” part of an ongoing pattern of denigrating the press.
At other joint news conferences with foreign leaders, where each leader will typically select two reporters for questions, the rich asshole has often called on reporters from right-wing outlets.
Political and media analysts have repeatedly warned that the rich asshole’s constant attacks on journalism put him in the company of antidemocratic strongmen like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In August, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, noted that “freedom of the press, not only sort of a cornerstone of the U.S. Constitution but very much something that the United States defended over the years, is now itself under attack from the president.”
the rich asshole has not held a solo news conference since February 2017.
the rich asshole says he will deploy U.S. military to southern border
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 04/03/18 01:05 PM EDT
President the rich asshole said Tuesday he wants to deploy U.S. troops to guard the southern border until his proposed wall is built, a move that could significantly escalate his efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.
The president told reporters that he has been discussing the idea with Defense Secretary James Mattis, arguably his most trusted Cabinet adviser.
For the past three days, the rich asshole has vented his frustration about the lack of progress in building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, one of his signature campaign promises, along with what he sees as “weak laws” against illegal immigration.
The president’s latest proposal comes as he faces mounting pressure from his base to secure a policy win on immigration after lawmakers ignored his plea for $25 billion in wall money.
the rich asshole received just $1.6 billion for border fortifications in a recent government funding bill, and most of that money cannot be used to build new portions of the wall.
The president has previously suggested that the Pentagon could redirect funding to pay for the wall, but such a move would require congressional approval that the president would likely not receive.
The White House said in a Tuesday evening statement that the rich asshole and his team discussed “the mobilization of the National Guard” as part of a new border strategy, but provided no further details.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment. The Department of Homeland Security, which is tasked with guarding the border, declined to comment.
Sending troops to the border would be an unusual but not unprecedented step.
Former President George W. Bush deployed 6,000 National Guard troops to the southern border in 2006 to assist the Border Patrol while more border agents were hired and trained. Former President Obama made a similar deployment in 2010, sending 1,200 guardsmen to the U.S.-Mexico frontier.
Active-duty personnel face strict limits on their ability to operate on U.S. soil. An 1878 law bans federal troops from enforcing domestic laws, a concern that critics raised with Obama. National Guard troops primarily served in support roles during past border deployments.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers said the rich asshole’s proposal could inflame tensions with Mexico and lead to armed clashes at the border.
“I don't feel really comfortable with the idea of deploying military troops and creating the possibility for an increase in violence and an escalation of the conflict,” Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on CNN.
Rooney said people who cross the border illegally should be stopped and vetted through “the normal process.”
Mexico’s Ambassador to the U.S. Gerónimo Gutiérrez said on CNN his government has asked the rich asshole administration for a formal clarification of the president’s remarks, adding that he addressed them personally with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Nielsen, Mattis, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, chief of staff John Kelly and other top officials were set to meet at the White House on Tuesday to discuss immigration proposals.
“We are preparing for the military to secure our border between Mexico and the United States,” the rich asshole said later Tuesday during a press conference. “We have a meeting on it in a little while with General Mattis and everybody. And I think that it's something we have to do.”
the rich asshole has recently reverted back to the hard-line immigration stance he championed during the 2016 presidential race, backing away from his efforts to compromise with Democrats on Capitol Hill.
In a series of tweets, the president closed the door to a deal to protect immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children and accused Democrats of tanking it because they want to “allow open borders, drugs and crime!”
He has also called on Mexico to step up efforts to detain illegal border crossers and sounded the alarm about a “caravan” of Central American migrants heading for the U.S. border.
the rich asshole said Tuesday he heard reports the caravan was broken up, crediting his threat to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) if Mexico does not arrest more migrants.
“They did it because, frankly, I said you really have to do it,” the president said. “We're going to have a relationship on NAFTA; we're going to have to include security in NAFTA.”
The caravan is a group of more than 1,000 migrants traveling from Central America through Mexico toward the U.S. border. It is organized almost every year by the group Pueblo Sin Fronteras and is designed to protest U.S. immigration policy.
A spokesman for the group said not all migrants will try and cross the border and that most will stay in Mexico.
Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” discussed the caravan in a report Sunday shortly before the president tweeted about it.
The president’s tweets, however, could result in new policy proposals.
Administration officials said Monday that they are working on a legislative package designed to close what the White House sees as “loopholes” in U.S. immigration law.
It’s not clear what the package will include, though it is expected to draw on a framework from last fall that proposed making it harder to seek asylum, among other changes.
the rich asshole has repeatedly expressed his anger that the omnibus spending bill he signed does not include his immigration demands, which could deflate his supporters ahead of November's midterm elections.
The president floated a path to citizenship for immigrants eligible for the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which he has ended, in exchange for funding the wall and slashing the number of people who can legally immigrate to the U.S.
“As ridiculous as it sounds, the laws of our country do not easily allow us to send those crossing our Southern Border back where they came from,” the rich asshole tweeted Monday. “A whole big wasted procedure must take place. Mexico & Canada have tough immigration laws, whereas ours are an Obama joke. ACT CONGRESS.”
Updated at 8:35 p.m.
POLITICS
Americans Don’t Really Care About the rich asshole’s ‘Great Wall’ ― But His Base Sure Does
The president has been lashing out about his pet project since he failed to get both Mexico and Congress to pay for it.
WASHINGTON ― If President some rich asshole seems particularly agitated about his failure to secure money to build his long-promised wall along the Mexican border, he has millions of good reasons to be like that.
While most Americans are relatively unconcerned about the rich asshole’s “Great Wall,” his supporters continue to expect it to be built, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll.
Fully 65 percent of those who voted for the rich asshole in 2016 said the president was “likely to accomplish” his promise to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. (Six percent said they believed it had already happened.) More the rich asshole voters named the promise as a top three priority than anything else but his vow to “drain the swamp” in the nation’s capital.
It is precisely those loyal supporters whom the rich asshole may be on the verge of alienating by failing to get funding for the wall in a $1.3 trillion spending bill he signed late last month.
“He lied to us. He lied to us all. He betrayed us,” said William Gheen, head of the hard-line group Americans for Legal Immigration. “He’s jumped into the D.C. swamp like it’s a Mar-a-Lago hot tub.”
Overall, only 30 percent of Americans think the rich asshole will be able to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, while 49 percent think he will fail. Only 13 percent of Americans generally rank the wall in the top three promises the rich asshole made. Among the rich asshole voters, the latter figure is nearly three times as high: 37 percent.
Mark Krikorian, of the similarly hard-line Center for Immigration Studies, said the lack of wall funding in the spending bill, which runs through Sept. 30, wouldn’t have been so bad had it not been for the large spending increases in other areas, including those favored by Democrats.
“If he was enjoying success more broadly, then the disappointing parts of this bill wouldn’t have that sting,” Krikorian said. “There’s no question that this is going to de-motivate a significant number of people. You can’t put up with betrayal forever.”
the rich asshole appears to understand how poorly the spending bill has gone over with his base, which may be why he has spoken out so aggressively about the wall over the past week ― even, at one point, trying to get the military to pay for it out of its budget. (On Tuesday, he even suggested he might post troops along parts of the border until the wall gets built.)
“Embarrassingly stupid,” a Republican adviser close to the White House said on condition of anonymity. “Over a year in, just signed a $1 trillion spending bill and now whines about having the Army do it.”
Stan Collender, who for many years worked on Capitol Hill as a budget committee staffer, said he cannot see the Defense Department going along with a major reallocation of its funds. Nor can he see Congress going along with it, which it would need to do.
“He said Mexico was going to pay for the wall, and they turned him down,” Collender said. “Plan B was for Congress to pay for it, and they turned him down. Plan C is that he wants the Pentagon to pay for it, and they’re almost certainly going to turn him down.”
As the military option seemed to fizzle, the rich asshole instead began claiming ― falsely ― that construction of his wall has already begun.
“We started building our wall. I’m so proud of it. We started. We started. We have $1.6 billion, and we’ve already started,” he said during a speech last week in Ohio. “And you saw those beautiful pictures, and the wall looks good. It’s properly designed.”
Those pictures he referred to were included in a message sent from the rich asshole’s Twitter account the previous day: “Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL!”
The tweet included photos of a tall “bollard” fence under construction in Calexico, California. It is replacing a shorter existing fence, and the work has been planned for years. (It is unclear, however, whether the rich asshole personally wrote or directed that tweet and added those photos. The president is not known to gather images or video from the internet on his own.)
Meanwhile, the newly passed spending bill contains only $641 million to build 33 miles of barrier along the border between Mexico and the United States in areas that are currently unsecured. That total includes 25 miles of “levee” fencing along the Rio Grande and eight miles of pedestrian fence. The remainder of the roughly $1.6 billion is to repair and replace existing fence or to upgrade other border security measures.
And completely absent from the discussion is the idea of Mexico paying for the project ― something that the rich asshole promised hundreds of times on the campaign trail.
While most of his campaign positions were drafted weeks or months into his presidential run, the rich asshole’s promise to build a structure along the southern border was a central point in his June 2015 announcement speech.
“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively,” the rich asshole boasted. “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”
That vow drew an enthusiastic response, and the rich asshole began including it in his standard stump speech. Often it would be in a call-and-response format, with the candidate asking, “Who’s going to pay for the wall?” and the crowd shouting, “Mexico!”
The vow did not go over well with Mexican leaders, and that country’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, reportedly canceled a recent planned visit to the White House over his adamant refusal to stop saying that Mexico had no intention of paying for the rich asshole’s wall.
Whether the funding element of the rich asshole’s wall promise matters to his political base is unclear. The HuffPost/YouGov poll did not separate wall construction generally from the idea of Mexico paying for it. According to a Quinnipiac University poll from last May, 52 percent of Republican voters believed the rich asshole would eventually find a way to make Mexico pay for the wall, while 39 percent did not and 10 percent did not know.
Some top Republicans wonder how meaningful these figures really are, pointing out that the rich asshole has already suggested that renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico should count toward his wall funding promise.
“the rich asshole will likely argue that his great deal-making regarding NAFTA will prove that Mexico paid for the wall,” said one Republican National Committee member on condition of anonymity.
“Some of the polling I’ve seen indicates that voters don’t even care if it’s a bricks-and-mortar wall or a ‘virtual’ wall,” said GOP pollster Neil Newhouse. “They simply want our borders intact.”
But Gheen, of Americans for Legal Immigration, said the rich asshole’s strongest and earliest supporters are quite clear about what they want.
“Millions of Americans were very serious about some rich asshole’s promises,” said Gheen, who noted he went to great effort to attend the rich asshole’s inauguration because he was so enamored of the new president. “When they were chanting about building the wall, they weren’t joking around. It wasn’t some type of pep rally.”
the rich asshole likely has only one chance left to make things right with his base before the November midterm elections. The new spending bill expires at the end of the federal budget year on Sept. 30. Congress will have to pass an extension or an entirely new spending plan prior to that deadline, and the rich asshole last week appeared to signal that he intends to use that opportunity to demand his wall.
“On September 28th, we go further and we’re getting that sucker built,” he said. “And you think that’s easy? People said, ‘Oh, has he given up on the wall?’ No, I never give up.”
Whether the rich asshole would be willing to shut down the government if Congress fails to give him his wall money remains to be seen. He wasn’t willing last month, and doing so at the end of September could reflect poorly on Republicans just five weeks before Election Day.
One former the rich asshole aide, though, said he might not have a choice. If the rich asshole fails yet again to get his wall, his most loyal supporters might just skip voting entirely, the aide said on condition of anonymity.
“Does he put his base to sleep for the midterms?” the former aide said. “Half of his base is pissed off because of the wall, and the other half is pissed because ‘Here we go again.’”
In just 24 hours, Scott Pruitt’s scandals blew up into an ethics crisis
The EPA administrator had a no good, very bad 24 hours of news.
From pipeline deals and GOP fundraisers to private jets and pay raises, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt’s series of scandals has escalated in the past 24 hours.
Pruitt is not a man untouched by scandal. Since coming to the EPA in February of 2017, he has made headlines for expensive first-class travel, secretive private phone booths, and a close relationship with the industries he is charged to regulate.
And on Monday — the same day that Pruitt announced the EPA would be rolling back fuel efficiency and emissions standards for new cars — the cacophony of scandal surrounding Pruitt reached new heights, with five separate stories connecting the EPA administrator to ethically-questionable dealings.
Here’s a guide to Pruitt’s very bad news cycle.
The condo scandal deepens
Late last week, ABC News broke the story that Pruitt had rented a luxury condo in D.C. from an energy industry lobbyist for $50 a night — an arrangement, it later was revealed, that allowed Pruitt to only pay for nights where he slept in the condo, and also allowed his daughter to live there while she interned for the White House last summer. The rate Pruitt paid is widely seen as well-below market value in the neighborhood for two people.
The fact that the condo was rented at such a low rate means the agreement appears to be a gift to Pruitt from the lobbyist couple that owns the condo. Government ethics rules allow executive branch employees to accept outside gifts only if the gift is motivated solely by a personal relationship and not the official’s position — but the rules also caution that “it is never inappropriate and frequently prudent for an employee to decline a gift if acceptance would cause a reasonable person to question the employee’s integrity or impartiality.”
Two stories that broke late Monday are perfect examples of the kinds of ethical questions that can arise when a government official accepts a gift from a representative of an industry that he regulates.
The first, published by the New York Times, detailed how the EPA signed off on a pipeline expansion plan for Canadian energy company Enbridge at the same time that Pruitt was paying $50 a night to stay in the luxury condo connected with an energy lobbyist.
Enbridge is perhaps best known a pipeline rupture in 2010 that became the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history. And the company is represented by the lobbying firm Williams & Jensen, which is the firm chaired by the husband of the woman who co-owns the condo in which Pruitt stayed.
While both the EPA and a spokesman for Williams & Jensen denied that the lobbying firm intervened in the decision, the situation shows how easy it is for a government official’s impartiality to be questioned when they accept gifts from an outside source.
“We are concerned that the unique rental arrangement, in which you only paid rent on the nights you were in town for use of one bedroom in the home, could be a potential conflict of interest,” a letter, sent on Monday to Pruitt by three Democrats on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said. “As Administrator, you have taken a number of actions to benefit industries regulated by EPA, and this news raises the possibility that you may have personally benefited from your relationship with industry.”
A separate story, published on Monday by the Daily Beast, revealed that while Pruitt was staying in the condo, at least three Republican members of Congress held fundraisers at the townhouse.
The EPA said that Pruitt was not invited to, and did not attend, any of the fundraisers, and his presence would not be prohibited by any kind of ethics law. But the situation also muddies the waters between a government official charged with regulating industry and a political atmosphere rife with industry-linked money. It typifies the kind of “revolving-door” concerns between government officials and lobbyists that President the rich asshole railed against during his presidential campaign.
“Nothing says ‘the swamp’ like corporate lobbyists holding high-dollar fundraisers in a luxury Capitol Hill condo,” Brendan Fischer, the director of federal reform programs at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit ethics group, told the Daily Beast.
And while environmental groups and Democratic politicians have seized on Pruitt’s housing arrangement as proof of the administrator’s commitment to industry over public health and the environment, it appears as though the condo scandal has also reached the White House. According to the Wall Street Journal, the White House has launched an inquiry to “dig a little deeper” into Pruitt’s rental agreement regarding the condo.
A private jet for Pruitt
At the same time that stories were breaking left and right about Pruitt’s sweetheart rental agreement, the Washington Post published a piece on Monday evening detailing how the EPA considered leasing a private jet for the administrator’s travel needs.
According to one company contacted by Pruitt’s aides, the cost for renting a private jet would have been around $100,000 a month. The idea was rejected, however, after top advisers objected. According to EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox, “we did our due diligence, found it was not as cost efficient and continued to fly commercial.”
Pruitt is already under scrutiny from the EPA’s Office of Inspector General for using taxpayer dollars for first-class flights throughout 2017. This summer, Pruitt spent at least $90,000 on a series of first-class and military flights — including a transatlantic flight from New York to Rome. The EPA also recently disclosed some $68,000 in travel costs since August at the request of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC).
Pruitt has said that he flies first class when he travels due to the “toxic” political environment — a statement that citizens living in actual toxic communities told ThinkProgress felt like “a slap in the face.”
“I wish that I could get away like that from my situation, but I don’t get a day off from living this nightmare,” Amy Brown, a North Carolina resident who has been forced to drink bottled water for more than 1,000 days due to coal ash contamination, said. Pruitt has recently proposed loosening federal regulations for coal ash disposal, at the behest of industry.
Unauthorized raises for political appointees
Adding to Pruitt’s seemingly endless cascade of ethical quagmires, the Atlantic reported on Tuesday morning that the administrator had circumvented the White House to give sizable raises to two of his closest political aides.
According to the article, Pruitt had requested significant pay increases for two young political aides who had worked with him in Oklahoma and were now working at the EPA.
When the White House declined the pay raises, Pruitt used an obscure loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act — which allows the EPA administrator to hire up to 30 people into the agency without White House or congressional approval — to give the employees raises. One employee received a pay bump of $28,130 over her 2017 salary, while another received $56,765 more.
As New Republic reporter Emily Atkin noted on Twitter, there’s no small amount of irony in the fact that Pruitt used a provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act — normally used to help the agency hire specialists for roles in overworked or understaffed offices — to give significant pay bumps to two of his closest aides.
Under Pruitt, the EPA has seen its staffing levels fall to Reagan-era levels of staffing, with a bulk of buy-outs and retirements hitting the offices of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, Research and Development, and Enforcement and Compliance. Pruitt has also led a push to rollback regulations aimed at protecting drinking water for 1 in 3 Americans whose water sources are currently not protected by federal law.
Why Pruitt’s probably safe — for now
In any other world, the sheer amount of scandal and ethical issues facing Pruitt would raise serious questions about the administrator’s ability to successfully carry on as EPA Administrator.
The administrator of the EPA, after all, is in charge of the agency tasked with protecting human health and the environment. How could someone with such close ties to industry — and with so many ethical questions swirling around him — continue in his role?
The answer is simple: Under the rich asshole administration, the EPA’s mission has shifted — implicitly, if not explicitly — from protecting human health and the environment to dismantling the environmental regulations aimed at keeping industry in check.
Pruitt has consistently bragged about the work that the agency has done to roll back regulations, resulting in saved costs for industry. the rich asshole campaigned on a similar platform of sweeping regulatory rollbacks aimed at helping industry.
The bottom line is that, unlike former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price — who was forced to resign after a travel scandal — Pruitt has been ruthlessly effective in implementing the rich asshole’s campaign promises.
Price violated ethical rules, to be sure, but he also failed to deliver on the rich asshole’s essential promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Pruitt, on the other hand, has done nothing but pursue — with a single-minded kind of intention — the rich asshole’s deregulatory agenda.
For the time being, that loyalty to the rich asshole’s vision seems to be paying off. On Tuesday morning, multiple outlets reported that both the rich asshole and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had been in touch with Pruitt to reiterate their support.
And a few hours later, surrounded by industry allies, Pruitt went out and did what he does best: execute the rich asshole’s vision for a world with far fewer environmental regulations, with a public announcement about rolling back proposed federal emissions standards for automakers.
“This president has shown tremendous courage to show to the American people that America is going to be put first,” Pruitt said on Tuesday morning from a podium in the Rachel Carson room of the EPA’s headquarters. “We have nothing to be apologetic about.”
POLITICS the rich asshole Offers Support To EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Amid Ethics Scandal
“We’ve got your back,” the rich asshole reportedly said.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt may be facing growing pressure to resign amid widening ethics scandals, but he still has the support of the White House.
“I hope he’s going to be great,” President some rich asshole told reporters on Tuesday, following reports that he had personally called the EPA head to offer encouragement.
“We’ve got your back,” the rich asshole told Pruitt on Monday, Fox News said in a report citing two administration officials.
the rich asshole encouraged the EPA chief to “keep his head up” and “keep fighting,” CBS News confirmed in a separate report.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly also called Pruitt to reiterate the president’s message, per CBS News.
Questions continue to swirl over Pruitt’s use of taxpayer funds.
On March 29, ABC News reported that Pruitt had rented a condo last year that was linked to a lobbyist whose firm represents fossil fuel companies. He paid an eyebrow-raising low price for the property ― just $50 per night, according to Bloomberg ― which sparked more questions over a possible exchange of favors between the EPA and the industry it regulates.
Pruitt has also faced criticism on the travel expenses he’s racked up. The EPA chief was widely mocked earlier this year for defending his first-class travel due to “security concerns” ― which evidently consisted of angry members of the public confronting him on planes. He’s also spent tens of thousands on extreme office security measures during his tenure.
The rich asshole administration, however, appears pleased with Pruitt’s job performance. The EPA chief announced a plan Monday to roll back Obama-era fuel emissions standards for cars and light trucks. Those standards had helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but Pruitt said his move would help auto manufacturers produce affordable vehicles.
Illinois farmer on Chinese tariffs: ‘Our worst fears seem to be coming true’
April 2, 2018
Greg Trotter
Chicago Tribune
Posted with permission from Tribune Content Agency
Brian Duncan, an Illinois hog farmer, had hoped the tough trade talk in recent weeks between President Donald Trump and China amounted to saber-rattling.
On Monday, he discovered otherwise, when the Chinese government imposed tariffs on 128 U.S. products, including pork and various fruits, in retaliation for Trump's previously announced tariffs on steel and aluminum.
"We were hoping it was just brinkmanship and cooler heads would prevail. But instead, some of our worst fears seem to be coming true," said Duncan, who's also vice president of the Illinois Farm Bureau. "This is significant, real and serious for rural America."
The tariffs could test Trump's popularity among farmers, many of whom voted for him and have since cheered his rolling back of environmental regulations. Tax reform was also well-received by many farmers, Duncan said, but the mounting trade war with China has them "darned worried."
In Illinois, pork producers that have increasingly come to depend on the Chinese export market, particularly for cuts of pork less desirable to American consumers, will be hit hard by the Chinese tariff of 25 percent on pork. Buyers in China could turn to other countries as a result. The trade restrictions also could have a ripple effect on corn and soybeans, the two largest crops in the state, as both are used in pork production, according to the farm bureau.
And there's also the looming fear that China eventually could impose a tariff on soybeans.
"We're definitely concerned. ... In the long run, we want to see the free movement of goods," said Austin Rincker, a fourth-generation farmer of corn and soybeans in Moweaqua, a central Illinois village just south of Decatur.
One out of every 3 soybeans grown in the U.S. is exported to China, largely to feed a rapidly growing hog industry for a booming middle class in China, said Rincker, who's also a board member of the Illinois Soybean Association.
That amounted to more than $14 billion in soybean exports to China in 2016, according to the American Soybean Association.
Illinois was the top soybean-producing state in 2017, with about $3 billion in exports, according to estimates from the Illinois Soybean Association. China is the largest export market for whole soybeans.
Pork exports to China are smaller, but growing. Nationally, more than $660 million in pork — including "variety meats" like ears, hooves and organ meat — was exported to China last year, according to Tamara Nelsen, senior commodities director for the state farm bureau. Because those products are sold to smaller-budget, price-sensitive Chinese consumers, the tariffs could hurt demand and therefore pricing, Nelsen said.
"It's a bit like taxing rice in Indonesia," Nelsen said.
This trade war comes at a tough time for U.S. farmers, who have seen net farm income decline by 50 percent since 2013.
In the past few weeks, the value of hogs has declined by about $20 a head on the commodities market, said Duncan, who also grows corn and soybeans on about 4,000 acres in Polo, Ill., about 115 miles west of Chicago.
Illinois pork producers have worked hard to build the export market for pork, Duncan said. The industry now supports about 10,000 jobs in the state.
Beyond the Chinese tariffs, Duncan said he's concerned about the fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has vowed to renegotiate. He said he would rather see the Trump administration try to improve trade with China and other countries with more dialogue and working through the World Trade Organization.
"We seem to have a 'ready-fire-aim' approach that's more disruptive," Duncan said.
POLITICS
17 States Sue the rich asshole Administration Over Census Citizenship Question
The proposed question raised concerns that minority communities would be discouraged from responding, leading to less congressional representation and federal funding.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday aimed at blocking the rich asshole administration from adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census, saying such a question violates the U.S. Constitution’s mandate to count all persons.
In a statement, Schneiderman’s office said the suit was filed on behalf of 17 states plus the District of Columbia, six cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. It comes a little over a week after the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, announced it would add the question. Schneiderman said the decision to add a citizenship question “blatantly” undermined the Constitution’s mandate to count all people.
“The prospect of someone saying, ‘I am from the rich asshole administration’ knocking on your door to ask a question about citizenship would understandably provoke real fear,” Schneiderman said during a Tuesday press conference, flanked by members of New York’s congressional delegation.
The numbers from the census are used to determine how many seats each state gets in Congress, as well as how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds are allocated. Democratic members of New York’s congressional delegation said Tuesday that the decision to add a citizenship question was an attack on states, like New York, with high immigrant populations in an attempt to cut their congressional representation and share of federal funding.
“It is being added to harm states and cities like New York both politically and financially,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). “We are being unfairly targeted because we have large, diverse immigrant populations which we welcome and support.”
Civil rights groups voiced loud opposition to adding the question, noting that the bureau has not tested the question and that immigrant groups will be afraid to respond out of fear about their immigration status. In September, census researchers reported they were already seeing an unprecedented amount of concern about the confidentiality of census responses amid the rich asshole administration’s harsh immigration rhetoric and policies.
The census already asks Americans about their citizenship as part of the American Community Survey, a smaller annual survey that goes out to about 3 million people. The Department of Justice asked the Commerce Department to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, saying it needed better information to better enforce Section 2 the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 law designed to protect the voting power of minorities. Section 2 prohibits discriminatory voting practices.
The census has not asked about citizenship on the decennial form since 1950, and former top Justice Department officials say that the ACS provides adequate data to enforce the law.
On Tuesday, Schneiderman questioned whether U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was really interested in better enforcing the Voting Rights Act.
“Jeff Sessions has not brought one case under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act since he’s been Attorney General,” he said.
A Commerce Department spokesman expressed confidence that the decision to add the citizenship question would withstand legal scrutiny.
“We are not going to comment on the specifics of pending litigation, but these cases are without merit. We look forward to prevailing in court and continuing to work with the Census Bureau to conduct a complete and accurate 2020 census,” the spokesman said.
This post has been updated.
the rich asshole signals he wants US troops out of Syria
BY JORDAN FABIAN AND BEN KAMISAR - 04/03/18 02:24 PM EDT
President the rich asshole on Tuesday signaled that he wants to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, but said no final decision has been made.
“I want to get out. I want to bring those troops home," the rich asshole said at a news conference with leaders from Baltic states.
"Seven trillion dollars in the Middle East over the last 17 years, we get nothing out of it … except death and destruction. It’s a horrible thing.”
The president pointed to America's success in combating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror group in the region, adding that he will consult with his advisers and foreign leaders about the American military presence in the war-torn nation.
the rich asshole also floated the possibility of extending the U.S. military presence there — as long as other countries, potentially including Saudi Arabia, pay for it.
"Saudi Arabia is very interested in our decision. I said, 'Well, you want us to stay, maybe you are going to have to pay,'" the rich asshole said.
"It's very costly for our country and it helps other countries a hell of a lot more than it helps us."
The comments are the latest signals from the White House that the rich asshole wants American troops out of Syria as soon as possible. the rich asshole also floated the prospect during last week's speech in Ohio.
"We're knocking the hell out of ISIS. We'll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon," the rich asshole said.
"Let the other people take care of it now. Very soon, very soon we're coming out. We're going to have a hundred percent of the caliphate, as they call it. Sometimes referred to as land, taking it all back. Quickly, quickly."
The Wall Street Journal reported the following day that the White House froze more than $200 million in funds the State Department had committed to the recovery in Syria.
POLITICS
First Person Sentenced In Robert Mueller’s Russia Investigation
Alex van der Zwaan pleaded guilty to lying about communications with an aide to ex-the rich asshole campaign manager Paul Manafort.
WASHINGTON ― A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Alex van der Zwaan to 30 days in prison, a $20,000 fine and two months’ supervised release, making him the first person to be sentenced as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President some rich asshole’s campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election.
Van der Zwaan, an attorney who formerly worked at the high-powered law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, pleaded guilty in February of lying to the FBI about his communications with Rick Gates, a top aide to former the rich asshole campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Both Gates and Manafort have been charged in Mueller’s probe with lying to investigators and conspiracy, tied to Manafort’s work as a lobbyist for pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine.
Documents filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington last week claimed that Gates and van der Zwaan had communicated with a former Russian intelligence officer in the months leading up to the 2016 election. That individual, identified only as “Person A” in the filings from Mueller’s team, is believed to be Konstantin Kilimnik, who worked for Manafort’s lobbying firm in Ukraine, according to Reuters.
“What I did was wrong. I apologize to the court for my conduct,” van der Zwaan said in a short statement at his sentencing hearing.
Van der Zwaan’s lawyers asked for no jail time, noting that his wife is pregnant.
“His career has been destroyed, he has been separated from his friends and family, and he faces the possibility of missing the birth of his first child. Although Alex committed a serious offense, just punishment does not require incarceration,” his attorneys wrote last week.
In February, Gates pleaded guilty to the charges against him and is now cooperating with Mueller’s investigation.
Manafort pleaded not guilty and faces a trial later this year.
Fox News is in full cover-up mode as scandals engulf the rich asshole’s EPA chief
By
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As a deluge of scandals about the rich asshole-era EPA is exposed, Fox News has taken the lead in playing down the corruption and whining about criticism.
Fox News does not want Americans to know about the rampant corruption and mismanagement in the rich asshole’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The right-wing propaganda network is covering up yet another the rich asshole-era scandal in hopes of shoring up his unpopular presidency.
Anchor Bill Hemmer complained that “the left” is attacking EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, whining that “he’s got a target on him” from the left. He went on to praise Pruitt for “rolling back regulations all across the country.”
Hemmer described the latest revelation about Pruitt in laughably dishonest language, claiming, “He is under fire from some for a housing arrangement he had during the transition period.”
The real story is that Pruitt benefitted from a sweetheart deal where he rented out a condo in Washington, D.C., from a lobbyist for only $50 per night.
The same lobbyist represented a Canadian company, Enbridge Inc., who received approval in March 2017 from the EPA to expand a pipeline project.
A pay-for-play scandal, seen through the Fox News filter, somehow became a simple “housing arrangement” that “the left” is upset about.
As the story broke, Fox barely covered it. The corrupt exchange only merited a 20-second mention on “Fox & Friends,” the rich asshole’s favorite show, which he often uses as the basis for his Twitter tirades.
The support for Pruitt on Fox echoes the rich asshole himself, who reportedly called Pruitt and offered the administration’s full-throated support despite the scandals in his department.
Asked about Pruitt during a brief availability with the press, the rich asshole said of Pruitt, “I hope he is going to be great.”
The EPA has taken its cues from the rich asshole himself, allowing corruption to be the norm while using federal resources for private luxury.
Pruitt met with oil executives at the rich asshole’s D.C. hotel (a nexus for the rich asshole-era corruption), and then backed off on regulation for the industry.
Pruitt gave a failed banker whose bank had given Pruitt loans a federal job. He spent nearly $25,000 in tax dollars on a soundproof booth.
He billed taxpayers thousands for luxury first-class flights.
That is the sort of business Fox doesn’t want their audience to know about and dismisses simply as attacks from “the left.”
For the network to give appropriate coverage to these and other scandals (and there are so many) is to admit that the network backs corruption and turns a blind eye if Republicans are the guilty party.
Fox is failing at its mission. Millions of Americans know how corrupt the rich asshole and his top lieutenants are. It’s just one of the reasons why the rich asshole is such an unpopular figure.
But the propaganda machine is holding out and denying reality, hoping that the last few Americans who continue to back the rich asshole remain clueless about what the current administration has done to their country in their name.
POLITICS
A Third Woman Is Suing To Break A the rich asshole-Related Nondisclosure Agreement
Jessica Denson says she experienced sexual harassment while working on the rich asshole’s 2016 campaign.
Jessica Denson, the former head of Hispanic outreach for President some rich asshole’s 2016 campaign, is suing his campaign organization in an attempt to nullify a nondisclosure agreement she entered into while working for the rich asshole.
Denson, 32, began working for the rich asshole’s campaign in August 2016 and sued for $25 million in New York state court in November 2017, claiming that her campaign managers “defamed her, harassed her and discriminated against her,” Bloomberg reports. She also said she experienced “sexual discrimination and harassment,” according to NBC News.
The campaign responded to Denson’s initial discrimination case against the rich asshole’s campaign organization, some rich asshole For President Inc., by filing an arbitration claim in December, seeking $1.5 million in damages. According to Bloomberg, Denson’s NDA prevents her from speaking negatively of or disclosing confidential information about the rich asshole, his company and his family members.
The rich asshole campaign argued that by filing her workplace harassment suit, Denson disparaged the campaign and thus violated her agreement. Denson, an actress and journalist based in Los Angeles, said the NDA has been “weaponized” against her in order to quash her allegations.
Denson filed her countersuit in a Manhattan federal court on March 26, claiming that the NDA is too vague to be enforced. She said her original suit contained “no allegations whatsoever pertaining to the personal life or business affairs of some rich asshole or any of his family members or businesses,” NBC News reports.
A representative for the rich asshole’s campaign did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
the rich asshole’s presidential campaign and administration have been marked by the widespread use of NDAs. Two other women are fighting legal battles to break similar agreements.
A few days before the 2016 presidential election, porn star Stephanie Clifford, who uses the name Stormy Daniels, entered into a confidentiality agreement with the rich asshole’s attorney that barred her from speaking about an affair she and the rich asshole allegedly had in 2006. the rich asshole’s attorney arranged a $130,000 payment to Daniels ― a transaction that may have been illegal.
Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who says she had an affair with the rich asshole in 2006, is suing a publisher to get out of an agreement that she says forbids her from discussing the alleged 10-month affair.
the rich asshole: Nobody has been tougher on Russia than me
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 04/03/18 01:11 PM EDT
President the rich asshole on Tuesday argued he has been tougher on Russia than any of his predecessors, despite frequent criticisms from lawmakers over his relationship with Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Ideally we want to get along with Russia. Getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Maybe we will, maybe we won’t,” the rich asshole told reporters during a meeting with Baltic state leaders.
“Probably no one has been tougher to Russia than some rich asshole,” he added, citing investments in the U.S. military and NATO.
"Getting along with Russia would be a good thing, not a bad thing — and just about everybody agrees to that, except very stupid people."
the rich asshole expelled 60 Russian diplomats from the U.S. last week in solidarity with an initial move by Britain and other countries over the apparent Russian poisoning of a former double agent on British soil earlier this month.
However, lawmakers have criticized the rich asshole for not speaking out more forcefully against Putin, particularly given the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russia attempted to influence the 2016 election.
Several members of Congress, including some Republicans, also hit the rich asshole for congratulating Putin on his recent reelection, despite widespread reports of election fraud and intimidation.
The Kremlin said Monday that the rich asshole invited Putin
POLITICS
DOJ Slaps Quotas On Immigration Judges To Speed Deportations
Immigration judges will have to handle 700 cases a year to avoid an unsatisfactory rating.
The Justice Department will rate the performance of its immigration judges based on how many cases they complete in a push to reduce a backlog clogged with deportation arrests.
Beginning Oct. 1, immigration judges will be required to process a minimum of 700 cases annually in order to receive a top rating of satisfactory, according to a memo first obtained by The Wall Street Journal. A satisfactory rating also requires judges to complete 85 percent of removal cases within three days of a merit hearing.
The quota amounts to completing three cases per day, DOJ spokesman Devin O’Malley told The Washington Post, “so it’s not that big of a lift.” Judges have handled an average of 678 cases per year over the past five years, he said.
“The purpose of implementing these metrics is to encourage efficient and effective case management while preserving immigration judge discretion and due process,” James McHenry, director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, wrote in an email to judges on Friday.
The Justice Department, which oversees immigration courts, floated judicial performance metrics in an immigration reform package in October as a way to help reduce the backlog of immigration cases, which has ballooned to more than 600,000 under the rich asshole administration’s increased deportation arrests. DOJ announced in November it would hire new judges, enhance technology and encourage judges to complete more cases.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has imposed other measures to trim the backlog, including elimination of a provision that awards asylum seekers a full hearing before a judge.
Some judges affected by the new quotas noted that the emphasis on quantity over quality could damage the system.
“We’re incredibly concerned in that judges should not feel undue pressure to dispose of these cases rapidly in an effort to manage the enormous backlog,” Laura Lynch, senior policy counsel for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told The Daily Beast. “We’re very concerned that cases will be rushed through the system and due process will be circumvented with these new quotas.”
Telling immigration judges “to simply ‘go faster’ will lead to some obvious problems,” tweeted Stephen Robbins, an immigration lawyer in Washington state. “Judges squeezing together hearings, allowing less time for testimony, issuing brief, often rushed decisions.”
Robbins also raised the issue of people who represent themselves in immigration court because they lack government-appointed lawyers.
“Imagine having a first grade education and going up against a ICE prosecuting attorney and a Judge who is in a hurry to reach quota,” Robbins wrote.
‘700 cases a year to earn a satisfactory grade’: Department of Justice sets immigration judge quota
Jeff Sessions wants more deportations.
The Justice Department has ordered a quota for federal immigration judges to complete 700 cases a year “in an attempt to speed up deportations,” according to multiple news outlets.
The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) said the new standards would take effect on October 1, the start of the 2019 fiscal year, and judges must complete 700 cases a year, the Wall Street Journal initially reported. Judges’ job performance will be evaluated “based on how quickly they close cases,” the publication added. The EOIR also imposed measures such as the amount of time judges should spend on different types of cases and court motions. According to the standards, a judge who decides between 560 and 700 cases a year “needs improvement” and a judge who makes fewer than 560 cases gets an unsatisfactory mark.
The immigration court system currently faces a backlog of about 684,000 court cases so far in the 2018 fiscal year. That averages to 678 completed cases per judge annually.
“These performance metrics… are designed to increase productivity and efficiency in the system without compromising due process,” a Justice Department official told Fox News. The new standards would mean judges would have to complete an average of three cases per day.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who oversees immigration courts, has previously supported judges making quick decisions to clear the backlog. As the AP pointed out, Sessions wrote in December that “performance measures would aid in ‘the efficient and timely completion of cases and motions’ while maintaining fairness.”
“Using metrics to evaluate performance is neither novel nor unique to (the Executive Office for Immigration Review),” James McHenry, director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, wrote in an email to the roughly 350 immigration judges nationwide. “The purpose of implementing these metrics is to encourage efficient and effective case management while preserving immigration judge discretion and due process.”
In general, the new requirements make it possible for judges to rule the same day that an asylum seeker goes to court to prove that the individual has passed the first threshold of establishing whether the individual has a “credible” or “reasonable” fear of being returned to their country.
Critics say that the new standards could make it more difficult for judges to rule with fairness and may in turn add to their backlog because more immigrants may choose to appeal decisions by arguing that they were denied a fair hearing.
“We believe the imposition of numerical performance metrics is completely, utterly contrary to judicial independence,” Dana Leigh Marks, an immigration judge in San Francisco and an union spokesperson for National Immigration Judges Association told the AP. “We believe assessing quality is fine, not quantity.”
Although the new standards will not take place until later this year, fast-tracking decisions in the past have led to major outcry by pro-immigrant groups. When Central American children fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries began showing up on the southern U.S. border in large numbers in 2014 through 2016, the Obama administration put in place a “rocket docket” to make immigration judges decide on cases within 21 days. Several immigration organizations filed a lawsuit in 2016 to force the administration at the time to release information on the deportation procedures.
Lawyer gets jail time in first sentence of Mueller probe
BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS AND OLIVIA BEAVERS - 04/03/18 11:49 AM EDT
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan to 30 days in prison for lying to federal investigators in the first criminal sentence to result from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
Van der Zwaan, who was also ordered to pay $20,000 in fines, pleaded guilty in late February to making “materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements and representations” to the special counsel’s office and FBI agents.
According to the indictment, van der Zwaan lied about his contacts with the rich asshole campaign official Richard Gates and a Ukraine-based business associate of both Gates and former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort. He then tried to cover his tracks by deleting emails that the special counsel's office had requested.
Press reports have identified the businessman as Konstantin Kilimnik, a former Russian intelligence officer and a longtime associate of Gates and Manafort.
The London-based lawyer has no known ties to the rich asshole campaign, but in a court filing last week, prosecutors allege that van der Zwaan and Gates knowingly had discussions with Kilimnik during the final months of the election. Prosecutors said the communication “was pertinent to the investigation.”
Kilimnik has denied involvement with Russian intelligence.
In a court filing on Monday, prosecutor Andrew Weissman said van der Zwaan, the son-in-law of a Russian oligarch, is in “an unusual position of having information related” to the Russia probe that “is not widely known — including information that he knows first-hand due to his role in the conduct the Office is investigating.”
Several other the rich asshole campaign associates have also pleaded guilty to various charges stemming from the special counsel investigation, including Gates, former the rich asshole campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn. They are all cooperating with prosecutors.
None of the charges so far directly relate to the issue of whether the rich asshole campaign colluded with Moscow. But according to a heavily redacted court filing released late Monday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein gave Mueller the green light to investigate allegations that Manafort colluded with Russia to swing the election.
Manafort has been indicted on numerous charges of fraud and money laundering and pleaded not guilty to all of them. He has not been indicted on any charges related to election interference.
The charges against van der Zwaan centered on work he did at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom on a 2012 report about the trial of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
According to Mueller’s team, van der Zwaan worked closely with Manafort and Gates on the report, which defended the handling of Tymoshenko’s trial by the Russia-aligned government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The State Department criticized the report as a deceptive assessment of the Yanukovych government's conduct and Mueller's team has accused Manafort and Gates of funneling $4 million to secretly pay for it.
According to Mueller’s team, van der Zwaan worked closely with Manafort and Gates on the report, which defended the handling of Tymoshenko’s trial by the Russia-aligned government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The State Department criticized the report as a deceptive assessment of the Yanukovych government's conduct and Mueller's team has accused Manafort and Gates of funneling $4 million to secretly pay for it.
Skadden, a powerful New York law firm, has said it fired van der Zwaan last year and is cooperating with the investigation.
Van der Zwaan’s precise value to the Mueller investigation remains unclear.
But Weissman in his Monday filing asked Judge Amy Berman Jackson to limit public access to his case records, arguing that “requests filed by someone with non-public information could, themselves, suggest to third parties investigative facts that are otherwise not widely known.”
POLITICS
Obama’s Photographer Just Went On A some rich asshole-Trolling Spree
Pete Souza can’t stop throwing shade at the rich asshole on Instagram.
Former White House photographer Pete Souza was on a President some rich asshole-trolling roll over the Easter weekend.
Souza repeatedly threw shade at the rich asshole by sharing a series of throwback snaps from his time documenting former President Barack Obama’s administration.
Souza kicked off on Saturday by posting this shot to Instagram, in what appeared to be a response to the rich asshole’s earlier tweet where he insulted the governor of California by calling him Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown.
On Sunday, Souza posted an old shot of Obama and the Easter Bunny “listening to the national anthem.” It looked like a subtle mocking of the rich asshole for not singing all the words to the anthem at the College Football Playoff National Championship game in January:
Souza later responded to the rich asshole’s attacks on Amazon and the Washington Post with this picture and caption:
Souza appeared to hit the rich asshole on Monday over his tweets about a “caravan of migrants” trying to reach the Mexico-U.S. border:
Souza ended his spree with this photo of Obama from the 2011 White House Easter Egg Roll.
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