Former Reagan ambassador blames Fox News for sowing ‘chaos and incoherence’ in the rich asshole’s foreign policy
Former Ambassador Tom Niles speaking before the Greenwich Retired Men's Association.
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A former top American diplomat slammed Fox News for sowing “chaos” that prevents President some rich asshole from having a foreign policy, Greenwich Time reported Wednesday.
Tom Niles was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as Ambassador to Canada and by President George H.W. Bush as Ambassador to the European Union under and Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Canada.
“My perspective on foreign policy today. I could ask the question, ‘Do we have a foreign policy today?’” Ambassador Niles suggested. “My answer to that question would be, ‘No, we don’t.’”
“Our foreign policy depends, at the top level at least, on what the president sees on Fox News in the morning and what gets his attention and obsession, or annoys him or whatever and which causes him to send out the familiar messages that he sends out,” Niles said. “What we have really is chaos and incoherence in the national security policy area.”
“The State Department and Foreign Service … are gradually being destroyed,” he concluded.
Watch:
Stormy Daniels' lawyer claims porn star described President the rich asshole’s genitalia in unaired ‘60 Minutes’ clip
BY KATE FELDMAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, April 4, 2018, 11:39 PM
CBS allegedly spared its viewers the naughty parts during Stormy Daniels’ “60 Minutes” interview.
Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ attorney, said Wednesday that the woman who claims to have had sex with President the rich asshole in 2006 recorded about two hours of an interview. About 15 minutes aired on the March 25 episode, which apparently didn’t include some of her more salacious tidbits.
“She can describe the President’s genitalia in great detail,” Avenatti told Megyn Kelly on her show, resulting in groans from the host and her audience.
President the rich asshole’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, allegedly paid Daniels $130,000 as part of a hush agreement. She and her lawyer are now arguing that Cohen broke the non-disclosure agreement when he went public with the contract.
“It’s obvious the President knew about the agreement. It’s obvious he had something to do with the payment. It’s clear as day,” Avenatti told Kelly.
Davis Schwartz, Cohen's lawyer, told WABC Radio that Avenatti's claims about the description are untrue.
Michael Avenatti argued that Daniels is a “principled woman.”
(NBC)
"This is utter nonsense," he said on the "Curtis and Cosby" show. "Avenatti and his client are grandstanding. They have nothing."
Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented both Daniels and Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who has also alleged an affair with the rich asshole, told CNN Wednesday that he’s waiting for the “whole truth” to come out.
CBS did not immediately return a request for comment about the “60 Minutes” interview.
The White House has denied the allegations.
Mueller asking Russian oligarchs about any donations to the rich asshole campaign: report
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 04/04/18 05:12 PM EDT
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has reportedly questioned whether Russian oligarchs illegally sent cash donations to President the rich asshole’s campaign or inauguration.
CNN reported Wednesday that Mueller’s team stopped two oligarchs during recent trips to the U.S. and made a voluntary document and interview request to a third Russian oligarch.
In one case, Mueller’s team stopped an individual after his jet landed at a New York airport to search his electronic devices. It is not clear if the second oligarch was searched, CNN reported.
The network said the special counsel has intensified its focus on whether money flowed into the U.S. presidential race from Russia.
Mueller is reportedly looking into whether the oligarchs themselves donated to the rich asshole’s campaign or inauguration funds, or if they used American citizens as straw donors.
the rich asshole raised $333 million for his presidential campaign, and his inauguration committee raised nearly $107 million, more than any previous president. As of January, the inauguration committee had not disclosed how it spent its excess funds.
Mueller is said to have previously inquired about the rich asshole’s business dealings in Russia prior to his presidential campaign launch in 2015. In particular, his team has looked at the rich asshole’s visit to the country for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, and at his failed efforts to brand a the rich asshole Tower in Moscow.
Mueller told the rich asshole's lawyers last month that he does not consider the president to be a criminal target at this point in his investigation into Russia's election meddling, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. But he still considers the rich asshole to be a subject of his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Mueller is preparing a report about the rich asshole's actions in the White House and whether he sought to obstruct the investigation into Russian meddling in the election, according to the Post.
the rich asshole has repeatedly railed against Mueller’s investigation, claiming there was no collusion and that the probe is a "witch hunt."
Mueller’s probe has thus far resulted in guilty pleas or indictments of four former the rich asshole associates. He also announced charges against 13 Russians who allegedly attempted to interfere in the 2016 campaign.
A federal judge on Tuesday issued the first sentence as part of the Mueller probe, sentencing Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan to 30 days in prison for lying to federal investigators amid the investigation.
Updated at 5:37 p.m.
‘Their silence is deafening’: Seth Meyers slams GOP for keeping quiet while ‘wannabe autocrat’ the rich asshole runs amok
"Late Night" host Seth Meyers
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“Late Night” host Seth Meyers on Wednesday piled on some rich asshole and the Republican Party over the president’s plan to send troops to the southern border and his relentless attacks on Amazon.
Playing a clip of the rich asshole stumbling over the word “militarily” while discussing the U.S. border with Mexico, Meyers wondered if the president just said a word or if “your teeth tried to escape your mouth again.”
“the rich asshole is less articulate than a seven-year-old in the back of his mom’s sedan after dental surgery,” Meyers joked. “Is this real life?”
Meyers later turned to Republicans’ attacks on former President Barack Obama, who the GOP summarily accused of picking “winners and losers” in the economy. After dismantling the president’s attacks on Amazon and founder Jeff Bezos, the host lit into their hypocrisy.
“For years, Republicans spun a wild fantasy about an imperial president interfering in the free market place by picking winners and losers, and now they’ve got a president who’s actually doing that, and their silence is deafening,” Meyers said.
“the rich asshole is a wanna autocrat who thinks he can rule unilaterally, whether it’s on the border, economically or militarily,” Meyers joked.
Watch the video below:
Sanders won’t say if the rich asshole has confidence in Pruitt
BY TIMOTHY CAMA - 04/04/18 04:40 PM EDT
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday declined to answer directly when asked if President the rich asshole has confidence in embattled Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt.
Sanders confirmed that the White House is investigating whether Pruitt’s now-famous $50-a-night lease arrangement in a Capitol Hill condo last year was proper.
“The president thinks that he’s done a good job, particularly on the deregulation front,” Sanders told reporters at the White House when asked point-blank whether the rich asshole has confidence in Pruitt.
The questions referred to reports over the past week that Pruitt rented a D.C. condo from the wife of a lobbyist whose firm had numerous fossil-fuel clients. Pruitt paid $50 per night for the two-bedroom unit, but only on nights he slept there.
On Monday, The New York Times reported that the EPA approved one of the lobbyist's client's projects while Pruitt was staying in the property.
Asked if the rich asshole is OK with the arrangement, Sanders said he is not.
“We’re reviewing the situation. When we have had the chance to have a deeper dive on it and we’ll let you know the outcomes of that, but we’re currently reviewing that here at the White House,” she said.
Pruitt, who has also faced scrutiny over his travel expenses and a $43,000 soundproof "privacy booth" he had installed in his agency office suite, was further hit this week by reports that the EPA used the Safe Drinking Water Act to secure raises — previously rejected by the White House — for two of his closest aides.
On Wednesday, he said he didn't know about the raises at the time.
“My staff and I found out about it yesterday and I changed it,” Pruitt told Fox News.
the rich asshole called Pruitt on Monday night to tell him “keep your head up, keep fighting” and that “we have your back,” a White House official said earlier in the week.
The administration, which has been dealing with a string of high-profile departures this year, has occasionally voiced support for an official relatively soon before their ouster. On March 26, a White House spokesman said the rich asshole retained confidence in Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin; Shulkin was fired two days later.
Other high-level administration exits in the past six weeks include the rich asshole's communications director, top economic adviser and secretary of State.
Former the rich asshole adviser Boris Epshteyn defends Sinclair in new ‘must-run’ segment
"My goal with every segment is to tell you facts which you may not already know and then my take on those facts."
Sinclair Media Group television stations across the country were sent a new “must-run” segment from Boris Epshteyn, former senior adviser to some rich asshole’s 2016 presidential campaign, on Wednesday.
The video, internally titled “MEDIA BASHING OF THE SINCLAIR BROADCASTING GROUP,” is a full-throated defense of conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group’s recent move to require some local news anchors to read “must-run” segments that denounce “false news.” The segments are largely understood to be a reference to the rich asshole’s preferred term for any unfavorable media coverage: “fake news.”
Epshteyn, now chief political analyst at Sinclair, acknowledges in the segment that yes, he did work for Mitt Romney in 2008 and for then-candidate the rich asshole in 2016, but that makes him all the more reliable when it comes to providing political analysis.
“I know that I would want someone giving opinions about medicine only if they were a doctor,” Epshteyn said. “In terms of my analysis playing during your local news, as you see, my segments are very clearly marked as commentary. The same cannot be said for cable and broadcast news hosts who inject their opinions and bias into news coverage all the time without drawing any lines between them.”
“Here is the bottom line: I am proud to be the chief political analyst at Sinclair. My goal with every segment is to tell you facts which you may not already know and then my take on those facts.”
Epshteyn’s segments are packaged to local news stations, of which Sinclair owns or operates 193 across the country, along with pro-the rich asshole scripts.
As ThinkProgress has previously reported, those segments frequently include misleading talking points and misinformation from the the rich asshole administration, packaged as actual political analysis and news coverage.
Anchors at Sinclair-owned stations across the country have voiced their concerns about the change.
Seattle-based ABC affiliate KOMO-TV leaked scripts to the Post-Intelligencer, which required anchors to lament the “trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories” and the “sharing of biased and false news.”
“They’re certainly not happy about it. It’s certainly a forced thing,” one KOMO employee told the newspaper
A producer at KHGI-TV announced his resignation on March 26, shortly after the station mandated that anchors denounce “fake news.”
The producer, Justin Simmons, told CNN Money Wednesday that he had been aware and worried about Sinclair’s “must-runs” for the past year and a half, but the promos were the final straw.
“This is almost forcing local news anchors to lie to their viewers,” he said.
As recently as Wednesday, Sinclair stations were forced to run an Epshteyn segment praising President some rich asshole’s recent tariff announcement.
“The newly negotiated trade deal between the United States and South Korea shows the new tariffs on steel and aluminum, which went into effect last week, are already paying dividends,” Epshteyn said in the segment, citing a March 25 deal between the two countries that forces South Korea to slash its steel exports to the United States by 30 percent, while exempting it from a regular 25 percent tariff.
“Here’s the bottom line,” Epshteyn said. “This new deal with South Korea is a win for American businesses and our economy. Instead of causing trade wars, as critics have feared, the new tariffs… are pushing our trading partners to engage in fair trade with the United States.”
The pre-taped segment ran on multiple Sinclair-owned stations this week and is one of several “must-runs” distributed to stations.
Betsy DeVos wanted to prosecute leakers at the DOE — but was shot down by her own agency’s internal watchdog
Betsy DeVos (Photo Gage/Skidmore Wikipedia)
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Education Secretary Betsy DeVos asked the department’s inspector general if leakers could be prosecuted — and was told any case that came from such a complaint would be on shaky legal grounds.
Reporting on an internal memo circulated within the department, the Washington Poston Wednesday noted that in response to DeVos’ request, the IG’s office told her that there’s little grounds for doing so, because the department doesn’t have many guidelines governing how employees should handle information.
“While evaluating the . . . incidents of alleged unauthorized releases of non-public information, we identified challenges to criminal prosecution or taking significant administrative actions against individuals responsible for the release of this type of information,” the report read.
In response to DeVos, Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Aaron R. Jordan said that the department should implement stronger policies aimed at controlling unauthorized leaks and training employees on how to handle information. In doing so, Jordan wrote, department officials could more easily punish leakers in the future. Such a move, he wrote, “may increase the potential” for the IG’s office “to obtain a criminal prosecution in certain cases.”
As a footnote, Jordan noted that any future guidelines must “take into consideration whistleblower rights and protections,” because “there may be times when what may be viewed as a ‘leak’ or unauthorized release of non-public information could involve a protected disclosure.”
Sinclair broadcasts must-run segment praising the rich asshole’s tariffs
The segment features former the rich asshole adviser Boris Epshteyn reciting the president's talking points about the impending trade war.
Sinclair-owned news stations promoted a pre-taped segment praising President the rich asshole’s decision to impose tariffs on foreign nations this week, amid controversy over a leaked “must-run” script.
The canned clip, a recurring “commentary” segment called “Bottom Line with Boris,” features former the rich asshole campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn delivering administration-friendly talking points on the president’s proposed tariffs, which target countries like China.
“The newly negotiated trade deal between the United States and South Korea shows the new tariffs on steel and aluminum, which went into effect last week, are already paying dividends,” Epshteyn said, citing a March 25 pact between the two countries that forces South Korea to slash its steel exports to the United States by 30 percent, while exempting it from a regular 25 percent tariff.
“Here’s the bottom line,” he said. “This new deal with South Korea is a win for American businesses and our economy. Instead of causing trade wars, as critics have feared, the new tariffs…are pushing our trading partners to engage in fair trade with the United States.”
The canned segment was aired on multiple other Sinclair-owned stations this week, often during regular daytime news programming, and is one of several “must-runs” that Sinclair distributes to its stations on a regular basis. Other “must-run” segments include the previously recurring “Behind the Headlines” with Mark Hyman, Sinclair’s vice president for corporate relations, and a must-run segment produced by former RT correspondent Kristine Frazao, which features former the rich asshole adviser Sebastian Gorka pushing a conspiracy theory about the so-called “Deep State,” an unelected group of government officials who are supposedly manipulating administration policy.
Epshteyn’s segments in particular are frequently loaded with misinformation, and misleading White House talking points, typically under the guise of actual political analysis and news coverage. Monday’s segment, for instance, praised the rich asshole’s decision to impose tariffs on a number of foreign countries, against the advice of trade experts who said the move could further imperil U.S. workers and farmers. While the initial steel and aluminum tariffs were later adjusted to exclude European Union nations, NAFTA partners Canada and Mexico, and later South Korea, the rich asshole’s latest round of tariffs targeting Chinese exports have not gone over well.
“As the Chinese saying goes, it is only polite to reciprocate,” a Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson stated on Tuesday evening, ahead of an announcement that the nation would issue retaliatory tariffs targeting U.S. soybeans, aircraft, automobiles, and chemical products. “The Chinese side will resort to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and take corresponding measures of equal scale and strength against U.S. products in accordance with Chinese law.”
Officials say the tariffs will hurt U.S. farmers, who have lobbied the the rich asshole administration to walk back its aggressive trade policies.
More recently, Epshteyn took aim at outlets reporting on Sinclair’s use of such “must-run” segments, posting a video on his YouTube page that blasted the media for supposedly “injecting bias” into their own daily news coverage.
“In terms of my analysis playing during your local news…my segments are very clearly marked as ‘commentary.’ The same cannot be said for cable and broadcast news hosts who inject their opinions and bias into news coverage all the time, without drawing any lines between them,” Epshteyn said.
He added, “I am proud to be the chief political analyst at Sinclair. My goal with every segment is to tell you facts which you may not already know and then my take on those facts. I am thrilled to keep sharing the truth and my perspective with you, day in and day out.”
Conservative-leaning Sinclair, America’s largest owner of local news stations, came under fire last week after KOMO-TV in Seattle, Washington shared with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer a script from a must-run segment that anchors were required to read on-air. The script denounced competitor outlets for reporting “false news” and was widely seen as a reference to President the rich asshole’s preferred term for the press, “fake news.”
Sinclair has since claimed it did nothing wrong in distributing the segment and others like it.
“The promos served no political agenda, and represented nothing more than an effort to differentiate our award-winning news programming from other, less reliable sources of information,” a spokesperson stated.
the rich asshole to deploy National Guard to southern border
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 04/04/18 03:28 PM EDT
President the rich asshole signed an order Wednesday night to deploy National Guard troops to the U.S. southern border.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen first announced the rich asshole's plan to deploy the National Guard earlier in the day Wednesday while speaking at the White House.
Nielsen framed the move as a way to toughen an immigration system that “rewards bad behavior,” including illegal drug smuggling and border crossings.
“It’s time to act,” Nielsen told reporters, adding that the deployments could begin “immediately.”
Nielsen did not share key details about the operation, including how many troops will be sent to the border, the length of the deployment or its cost.
The move follows days of warnings from the rich asshole about the dangers posed by illegal immigration, gangs and drugs.
Nielsen said the number of immigrants crossing the border illegally has risen since last year, when they fell following the rich asshole’s inauguration. She said the administration is eager to act because crossings are expected to further rise in April.
“The threat is real,” Nielsen said. “This threatens not only the safety of our communities and children, but also our very rule of law, on which, as you know, our country was founded.”
The announcement sparked backlash from immigrant rights advocates, who dismissed the deployment as a political ploy to satisfy the rich asshole’s supporters ahead of the November midterm election.
“the rich asshole’s National Guard ploy is just plain stupid,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of the liberal advocacy group America’s Voice. “This is about the rich asshole’s incompetence, petulance and xenophobia.”
The directive will allow National Guard troops to support U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents who guard the southern frontier, but Nielsen did not specify what exactly the support role will entail.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Obama sent guardsmen to the border during times of heightened concern about illegal immigration. Then, troops assisted border agents in constructing physical barriers, monitoring security footage and flying aircraft to monitor the border.
Nielsen said National Guard troops will not actively detain or handle migrants who cross the border illegally. An 1878 law banning federal troops from enforcing domestic laws could limit how much the guardsman can do along the border.
The Homeland Security chief said she has already begun working with border-state governors and the Defense Department on the logistics of sending National Guard units to the border.
The announcement came hours after the rich asshole declared his administration will be taking “strong action today” to boost immigration enforcement and one day after he floated the prospect of sending troops to the border.
“Our Border Laws are very weak while those of Mexico & Canada are very strong,” the rich asshole tweeted Wednesday morning. “Congress must change these Obama era, and other, laws NOW! The Democrats stand in our way - they want people to pour into our country unchecked....CRIME! We will be taking strong action today.”
The president has also cited a “caravan” of more than 1,000 Central Americans traveling toward the U.S. southern border as justification for a new crackdown.
The caravan, which has been the subject of reports on Fox News, is part of an annual protest organized by the group Pueblo Sin Fronteras. Most of the participants are not expected to cross the border into the U.S.
The president, who has been frustrated by the lack of progress in building his proposed border wall, met Tuesday with senior White House and Cabinet officials to discuss ideas to bolster his immigration strategy.
The ongoing planning and lack of publicly available details about the operation suggests the rich asshole’s announcement took many in his administration by surprise.
But some aides framed it as part of an ongoing push to crack down on illegal immigration.
Senior administration officials said they are crafting a legislative package that would close “loopholes” that they say allows certain people who cross the border illegally to remain in the U.S. for too long.
The proposals would make it harder for migrants to gain asylum in the U.S. and also allow the government to speed up deportations of people apprehended near the border.
Similar language was included in an immigration framework released by the White House last fall, which was rejected by Congress.
Officials said Wednesday that the rich asshole is weighing executive actions that could punish families who pay smugglers to bring their children illegally to the U.S.
The president is facing pressure from his base to secure a win on immigration, after Congress ignored his request for $25 billion to build the border wall he promised during the 2016 campaign.
the rich asshole received just $1.6 billion for border barriers in the omnibus spending bill, and most of that money cannot be used to build new portions of the wall.
The president and his top aides have since tried to shift the goalposts, saying that replacements of and updates to existing wall portions also qualify as part of the rich asshole’s wall.
“To us, it’s all new wall. If there was a wall before that needs to be replaced, it’s being replaced by a new wall,” Nielsen said on Wednesday. “This is the the rich asshole border wall.”
the rich asshole said Tuesday that National Guard personnel would remain along the border until his wall his built.
Updated at 10:00 p.m.
CNN segment goes off-the-rails after Stormy Daniels’ lawyer calls her former attorney an ‘absolute tool’
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and attorney Michael Avenatti.
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The telegenic new attorney representing Stormy Daniels in her legal battles with President some rich asshole slammed his predecessor as an “absolute tool” during a Wednesday interview with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.
Cooper asked Michael Avenatti about Keith Davidson, who represented Daniels during negotiations over her $130,000 non-disclosure agreement.
“Keith Davidson has said, though, that the whole story has not come out yet, that most of it has but some things haven’t,” Cooper noted. “He is bound by attorney-client privilege with Stormy Daniels, even though he no longer represents her. Some people have said, well, look, why don’t you release — or why doesn’t Stormy Daniels agree to release Keith Davidson from the attorney-client privilege so that he can say whatever he wants to say?”
“Well, I mean that’s certainly something we’ll consider,” Avenatti replied. “It’s highly unusual, you know, I think if the president or Michael Cohen would waive their attorney-client privilege, we’d certainly be willing to do that.”
“I’ve been very careful in what I’ve said about Keith Davidson, Anderson, over the last few weeks. But I’m going to say this, Keith Davidson is an absolute tool,” Avenatti blasted. “He is an absolute tool.”
“It’s unethical and there’s going to be serious consequences that result from it,” he predicted. “I’m shocked.”
“I think he’s violated the attorney-client privilege for both clients,” Avenatti continued. “I think he’s violated numerous ethical canons.”
Watch:
Mafia-linked businessman who tried to help the rich asshole strike a Moscow deal grilled by Senate intel committee for 7 hours
Felix Sater and some rich asshole, screengrab from BBC Panorama
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After speaking with both the House Intelligence Committee and special counsel Robert Mueller, a the rich asshole business associate who was recently outed as an American spy spent seven hours before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed-door meeting.
BuzzFeed News reported that people who were at the Senate meeting with Felix Sater — a Soviet-born businessman who revealed to the House in March that he was an undercover informant for American intelligence forces for more than a decade — would not say what happened behind the chambers’ doors. They did, however, note that investigators on the committee likely interviewed him about the proposed 2015 the rich asshole Tower deal he tried to help the president strike in Moscow and “a supposed Ukrainian ‘peace plan.'”
Sater, BuzzFeed noted, is “more than a hundred witnesses the Senate Intelligence Committee — which has taken the lead on congressional investigations into potential collusion between the the rich asshole campaign and Russia — has interviewed since the start of the probe in January 2017.”
By
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April 4, 2018
Sinclair Broadcast Group has issued threats and punishments, but some angry staffers have had enough.
Some besieged journalists at Sinclair Broadcast Group are speaking out — and walking out.
Workers at the rich asshole-friendly local television giant are fuming after the company was denounced for airing Orwellian attacks on “fake news.” It’s likely more disgruntled employees want to bolt the propaganda-happy company, but now we know that Sinclair makes it extremely painful to leave by hitting workers with sizeable financial fines if they quit.
Long known for its cost-cutting ways and being a miserable place to work, Sinclair has added to the stress level of its employees in recent years by forcing stations across the country to run pro-the rich asshole commentaries.
Then came the scripted announcements, and with them a huge backlash against the company.
That’s why Justin Simmons recently quit his job as morning show producer at Sinclair’s KHGI outlet in Nebraska.
“This is almost forcing local news anchors to lie to their viewers,” Simmons told CNN. “I didn’t go into news to give people biased information. Resigning seemed like the least I could do,” he added. “I wish there was more.”
Addressing viewers with an unvetted post on Facebook, Sinclair anchor Norma Holland, from WHAM in Rochester, New York, essentially apologized for the company’s actions.
“The Sinclair message you saw me and my colleagues in has damaged the trust you place in us — a trust that’s taken, me in particular, 22 years to build. That hurts,” she wrote.
“I could have chosen to quit, but who among us has an alternate career in their back pocket ready to go?” she continued. “I have a family to support. That’s not an excuse — that’s reality.”
And even if embarrassed anchors like Holland want to quit, they might end up owing Sinclair 40 percent of their salary. The company uses a highly unusual and oppressive contract measure that curbs employees, in which the employee has to pay the employer. (Simmons in Nebraska was not under contract with Sinclair when he quit, so he didn’t face any financial penalty.)
Meanwhile, one Sinclair station general manager this week warned workers there would be “huge implications” for them if they were caught “sharing negative information” about the secretive company.
All of this rings true to Aaron Weiss, who worked as a news director at a Sinclair station in 2013 before resigning in disgust. The heavy handed, pro-GOP taped commentaries that every Sinclair station was forced to air, especially offended him.
“More than one script came down that, had it come from one of my fresh-out-of-college reporters, I would have sent back for a complete rewrite,” Weiss wrote at Huff Post. “But Sinclair executives made it clear that the must-run scripts were not to be touched by producers or anchors.”
Note that unlike staffers who sign up for partisan warfare when they go to work for Fox News or Breitbart or other openly, pro-GOP outlets, lots of Sinclair employees only end up working for the company after the rapidly expanding broadcast giant purchases the stations where those employees work.
And now they’re stuck working for repressive the rich asshole TV.
Last year, Bloomberg Businessweek interviewed nearly two dozen current and former Sinclair employees who detailed the different ways Sinclair bosses interfered with the newsgathering process.
But in terms of local news, Sinclair dominates, which limits the options for workers. “On journalismjobs.com, the main job board for the industry, 64 percent of the 1,300 open jobs listed as of Monday were for Sinclair,” the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.
Sinclair’s massive reach is only expected to grow.
After the rich asshole’s FCC removed ownership limits last year, Sinclair last year made a $3.9 billion bid to acquire the Tribune Company. If allowed by regulators, the deal would put the company in control of 223 TV stations, a previously unheard of number of outlets for a single television broadcast company to own.
Combined, the stations would give Sinclair access to more than 70 percent of American households, including major market stations in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
GOP Senate Candidate: If You Oppose the rich asshole, It’s Just Like Adultery
We all know that the Republican Party likes to tout itself as the party of so-called “family values.” That means they oppose all abortion, homosexuality, polyamory, divorce, adultery…you know, all the stuff that they like to say that will send you straight to a fiery pit for all eternity and therefore do all they can to outlaw, but somehow routinely get caught doing themselves. But, they no longer have that
bigotry wrapped in a flag and a Bible moral high ground, because of some rich asshole.
The whole GOP acted appalled during the 2016 campaign as the rich asshole careened from outrage to outrage, but they still stuck by him. After the infamous Access Hollywood tape, House Speaker Paul Ryan was caught on tape telling his members that he would no longer defend some rich asshole, and a slew of GOP lawmakers and high-rollers abandoned their embattled nominee in favor of write-in candidates instead. And then, the bane of our democratic republic, the Electoral College, vomited some rich asshole into the Oval Office, where he has been squatting ever since. To that end, the fact that he is a credibly accused sexual predator, a racist, a birther, and a thrice-married serial adulterer no longer mattered. According to Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, as long as the rich asshole does the Christian Right’s bidding, he gets a “mulligan” for 70 years of the kind of immorality that would have long ago ended the career of any other politician, regardless of political affiliation. That is why the news we are bringing you all today is so peculiar, given the circumstances laid about above.
Meet GOP Rep. and newly minted Senate candidate Kevin Cramer (R- ND). He has decided that the best way to make it to the United States Senate is to fully Trumpify himself. He wouldn’t be the first down ballot Republican to do so, but Cramer takes it to a whole new level. He compares any GOP lawmaker who dares to go against the rich asshole to an adulterer, saying to right-wing radio host Scott Hennen when talking about conservative Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp:
“Here’s the good news about some rich asshole: Most of the time, he’s for North Dakota, and that’s my point where I’ve heard [Heitkamp] say, ‘Gee, I voted with him 55 percent of the time.'”“Can you imagine going home and telling your wife, ‘I’ve been faithful to you 55 percent of the time?’ Are you kidding me? Being wrong half the time is not a good answer.”
Cramer seems to forget the change that has been made since they gave some rich asshole a pass on their usual insistence upon the purest of pure moralists representing their party. In the rich asshole’s GOP, adultery – even with porn stars – is A-Okay.
These people are the worst kinds of hypocrites, but then again, anyone who has been paying attention already knew that.
Featured image via Zach Gibson – Pool/Getty Images
the rich asshole-lovers whined about a Fox News reporter’s ‘unfair’ question to EPA chief Pruitt — and the Internet shut them down
EPA head Scott Pruitt at CPAC (Screenshot)
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After his “combative” interview with Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt, Fox News’ Ed Henry faced jeers from the rich asshole supporters and defense from fellow journalists for his tough line of questioning.
During the interview, Henry grilled the administrator on Pruitt’s reported condo rental in 2017 from an oil lobbyist’s wife who donated to his Oklahoma attorney general’s race. After getting into specifics about what a one-bedroom apartment on Capitol Hill costs, Pruitt, apparently fed up, told the reporter he was “not being fair.”
“Didn’t President the rich asshole say he was gonna drain the swamp?” Henry asked Pruitt. “Is draining the swamp renting an apartment from the wife of a Washington lobbyist?”
“I don’t even think that that’s even remotely fair to ask that question,” the EPA administrator replied.
After the interview, journalists and viewers alike lauded the Fox News reporter for pressing the EPA administrator on the issue, which came just a day after the network appeared to be the only outlet given proper advance notice by the agency when Pruitt gave a rescheduled press conference at their headquarters.
“Fox News here impressively drills Pruitt to address questions re pay raises for two staffers,” the New York Times‘ Eric Lipton tweeted. “Pruitt concedes agency mishandled this. Rare concession on his part.”
Fox News here impressively drills Pruitt to address questions re pay raises for two staffers. Pruitt concedes agency mishandled this. Rare concession on his part. "It should not have been done" fxn.ws/2q3RUcA #FoxNews
Not all of the responses, however, were congratulatory. Some users seemed to agree that Henry treated Pruitt “unfairly” when questioning him about the $50-a-night condo rental on Capitol Hill and the significant pay raises given to two EPA staffers that formerly worked for him in Oklahoma.
“Your interveiw sounded unfair and attacking to Scott Pruitt,” one user wrote. “Why have you not interviewed and use the same attacking fashion to Hillary Clinton? How about obama [sic] and Clinton that abused taxpayers money? Now that’s an interview we all would like to hear! Afraid?”
“This is HUGELY unfair on Pruitt,” another user responded.
Pruitt claims he found out about EPA staff pay raises yesterday, but didn't know who authorized the raises.
Fox News's Ed Henry responds: "You don’t know? You run the agency. You don’t know who did it?"foxnews.com/politics/2018/…
This is HUGELY unfair on Pruitt.
There are LOADS of things he doesn't know. If we start blaming him for all of them, we'll be here forever!!#OnlyTheBest #FinePeople
Check out more responses below:
I’m with Billy Baldwin on this miscreant! I awake each morning and wonder why Pruitt still has a job! twitter.com/kaitlancollins…
Ed Henry: Aren't these two employees friends of yours from Oklahoma?
Pruitt: I didn't know about the raises.twitter.com/FoxNews/status… #ScottPruitt #EPA
Pruitt claims he found out about EPA staff pay raises yesterday, but didn't know who authorized the raises.
Fox News's Ed Henry responds: "You don’t know? You run the agency. You don’t know who did it?"foxnews.com/politics/2018/…
>@edhenry to Scott Pruitt: "Do you know what the median income in this country is?...One of your friends from Oklahoma got a pay raise that's the median income in America....Are you embarrassed?" foxnews.com/politics/2018/…
.@edhenry gave @EPAScottPruitt repeated chances to own up. He did not.
Q: Did you make mistakes?
- "I think this is something that needs to be corrected."
- Pressed again: A mistake "by my team"
"I'm fixing it."
"I'm fixing the problem."
Pruitt claims he didn’t know (until yesterday) about the massive pay raises to his aides.
Really, @EPAScottPruitt, you didn’t know? Did you also “not know” you were sitting in first class on taxpayers’ dime?
We’re not buying it, #PresidentPruitt. ow.ly/3QJk30jjO27
And then, after trying to give Fox exclusive access yesterday, still gave Ed Henry an exclusive interview today. twitter.com/rcfp/status/98…
‘They deserve better’: Ex-National Guard administrator slams the rich asshole’s ‘ridiculous’ plan to send troops to the border
President some rich asshole during a Fox News interview. Image via screengrab.
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A former Homeland Security official and current CNN national security analyst slammed President some rich asshole’s plan to deploy the National Guard to the American-Mexican border based on Fox News fearmongering.
Analyst Juliette Kayyem, who previously oversaw the National Guard for the state of Massachusetts before becoming DHS’ Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs, said that guard deployments in the past have always been done with the coordination of governors. With the rich asshole, she argued, that coordination has been eschewed.
Along with the lack of planning between state and federal-level National Guard offices, Kayyem also noted that taxpayers would likely end up paying for the deployment.
“The National Guard is an integral part of our Homeland Security defenses,” she told CNN host Erin Burnett. “They deserve to be treated better than this. This sort of willy-nilly, we’re gonna throw them at the border, is ridiculous.”
Watch below, via CNN:
Mueller’s cooperating witness George Nader revealed as key link between Jared Kushner and Russia: report
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner (left, via Al Jazeera) and businessman George Nader (right, via screengrab).
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Special counsel Robert Mueller has a cooperating witness who could provide a key link between the 2016 some rich asshole presidential campaign and Russia, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
George Nader is connected to both the Persian Gulf states and Russia; to Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon.
Nader has frequently traveled to Russia and had his picture taken with Vladimir Putin, The Times reported. And it was Nader who set up the secret Seychelles island meeting between Russian oligarch Kirill Dmitriev and Eric Prince, the Blackwater founder and the rich asshole confidante who is also the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Also at issue is a 2017 meeting at offices of hedge fund manager Richard Gerson of Falcon Edge Capital, attended by Kushner, Bannon and Nader.
By
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April 4, 2018
Special counsel Mueller is digging into the one area that scares the rich asshole the most.
If the rich asshole took any comfort from Tuesday’s report stating that he is a subject — but not currently a target — in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, he may want to reevaluate that position in light of new revelations.
CNN reported Wednesday evening that Mueller’s team is employing an aggressive new approach as they investigate the rich asshole’s financial ties to Russia, going as far as stopping Russian oligarchs upon entry to the U.S. and questioning them about potentially illegal contributions to the rich asshole campaign and/or inauguration.
According to CNN, the investigators have “taken the unusual step of questioning Russian oligarchs who traveled into the US, stopping at least one and searching his electronic devices when his private jet landed at a New York area airport…”
A second Russian oligarch was also stopped during a recent trip to the U.S., CNN reported, and Mueller’s team issued an interview request for a third Russian oligarch.
In all of these instances, investigators are probing whether Russian billionaires may have illegally funneled cash to the rich asshole’s presidential campaign and inauguration.
As CNN noted, Mueller’s interest in questioning Russian oligarchs reveals that his team has “intensified its focus into the potential flow of money from Russia into the US election” as it investigates Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential coordination with the rich asshole campaign.
One area of interest is whether Russians may have given money to companies or think tanks that donated to the campaign through political action committees.
It has previously been reported that Mueller is investigating whether a Kremlin-linked Moscow businessman funneled money to the National Rifle Association to help some rich asshole win the election.
Another area under scrutiny by Mueller is whether Russians pumped money into the rich asshole campaign and inaugural fund though straw donors, using Americans with citizenship as a vessel for the illegal donations.
Mother Jones previously reported that Andrew Intrater — the head of the American subsidiary of a major Russian company owned by an oligarch linked to Putin — had donated $250,000 to the rich asshole’s inauguration fund on Jan. 6, 2017. Intrater, an American citizen, is also the cousin of the Putin-linked oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg.
The same month that Intrater poured a quarter of a million dollars into the rich asshole’s inaugural fund, Vekselberg publicly expressed his desire for the U.S. to lift sanctions on Russia.
the rich asshole’s inaugural committee also accepted other contributions from Americans with ties to Russian oligarchs and businesses. According to Mother Jones, “Russian American businessman Alexander Shustorovich and Access Industries, a firm owned by Len Blavatnik, a Soviet-born American citizen and Vekselberg’s longtime business partner, each gave $1 million to finance the rich asshole’s inauguration.”
The latest CNN report shows that Mueller is interested in these flows of cash, and he’s willing to use aggressive tactics in his quest for answers. the rich asshole may be able to dodge Mueller’s interview request (for now), but he can’t evade scrutiny — nor can he hide from the very, very long arm of the law.
Fox Business host corners the rich asshole’s chief economic adviser on trade: This doesn’t sound like the man I’ve ‘admired’
Fox Business host Jim Cavuto (left) and the rich asshole's new economics adviser Larry Kudlow (right). Image via screengrab.
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During a tense exchange Wednesday afternoon, Fox Business host Neil Cavuto grilled CNBC economic analyst-turned-White House adviser Larry Kudlow over his apparent flip-flopping stance on tariffs amid President some rich asshole’s trade war.
After Kudlow asserted that China is to blame for the increasingly volatile trade situation that led to the stock market tanking earlier this week, his former ideological ally cornered him.
“You think this is the solution, Larry?” Cavuto asked the new director of the National Economic Council, referencing the president’s proposed tariffs.
“I hope you are to avoid that kind of thing,” the Fox Business host continued. “But this doesn’t sound like the laissez-faire, hands-off Larry Kudlow I’ve respected and admired all these decades.”
Watch below, via Fox News:
By
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April 4, 2018
Cambridge Analytica has already set its sights on the 2018 midterm elections.
As the scandal surrounding the rich asshole campaign’s shady data firm Cambridge Analytica continues to grow, the company is quietly offering its services to Republican campaigns for the upcoming 2018 midterm elections.
According to a report by Colorado-based ABC affiliate Denver7, a Cambridge Analytica employee recently contacted the campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Robinson, offering to help him win “however we can.”
“Hello, this is Michael calling with Cambridge Analytica in Washington, D.C. Just wanted to give you a call because we’ve been tracking the governor’s race here in Colorado for the last few weeks, and we would love to offer services, and help you win, by however we can,” the Cambridge Analytica employee said in a voicemail left with Robinson’s campaign and later obtained by Denver7.
As Denver7 noted, the GOP-backed Senate Majority Fund used two Colorado political nonprofits to pay Cambridge Analytica nearly half a million dollars in 2014 and 2015. Republicans successfully regained the majority in the state Senate in 2014 — the year when most of that spending took place.
Just three months ago, Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix — who has since been suspended amid the fallout from the unfolding scandal — said the company was backing away from seeking work in America.
But the offer to Robinson shows that the data firm is still very much at work in America, actively seeking contracts with Republican campaigns ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
And that’s not the only sign of the company’s ongoing attempts to influence U.S. politics.
On Monday, Politico reported that newly appointed the rich asshole national security council aide Kirsten Fontenrose had worked until recently for the parent company of Cambridge Analytica.
The revelation “underscores the firm’s influence in the rich asshole’s Washington,” Politico noted.
There are also lingering questions surrounding Cambridge Analytica’s work for the rich asshole’s new national security adviser, John Bolton.
Bolton’s super PAC has paid Cambridge Analytica more than $1.1 million since 2014 for “research” and “survey research,” according to an analysis of campaign finance filings by the Center for Public Integrity.
On March 30, Bolton’s super PAC announced that it would cease operations as of March 31 — but Bolton previously said his super PAC would spend $1 million in the 2018 election cycle in a bid to help Republican Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson in Wisconsin. Nicholson is challenging Democratic incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
“Bolton’s super PAC spent roughly $2.5 million during the 2016 election cycle to support the bids of Republican U.S. Senate candidates, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The press release announcing support for Nicholson said that ‘Ambassador Bolton looks to increase those contributions for the 2018 midterm elections,'” the Center for Public Integrity reported.
The rich asshole campaign hired Cambridge Analytica in June 2016, and went on to pay the company at least $6 million for its work on data analytics.
After the rich asshole won the 2016 election, Cambridge Analytica touted its work as integral to the rich asshole’s victory and reported a surge of interest in its services.
“It’s like drinking from a fire hose,” Matt Oczkowski, Cambridge’s head of product, told the Washington Post in February 2017. “Besides Antarctica, we’ve gotten interest from every continent.”
The data firm even set up shop in a brand new office space near the White House, apparently anticipating an influx of new clients in the U.S.
Perhaps most troubling of all is the fact that the personal data harvested by Cambridge Analytica — which was used to build the digital operation that guided the rich asshole’s campaign for the presidency — can’t be reigned back in. And according to a new report, Cambridge Analytica likely siphoned data from far more Americans than initially reported.
In a report issued Wednesday afternoon, Facebook announced that the personal information of many as 87 million users, mostly in the U.S., had been “improperly shared” with Cambridge Analytica. That figure is a sharp increase from the initial estimate of 50 million users worldwide.
To put that number in context, an estimated 139 million Americans voted in the 2016 presidential election.
No one associated with the rich asshole campaign, including the rich asshole himself, have given any indication that they see a problem with Cambridge Analytica’s practices. In fact, the rich asshole appeared to brag about the data company’s work in a recent tweet.
Furthermore, Brad Parscale, who worked side by side with Cambridge Analytica employees and used the stolen data to develop the digital strategy for the rich asshole’s 2016 campaign, was recently hired to run the rich asshole’s re-election campaign.
And now, after hijacking the 2016 presidential election, the company has set its sights on a new target: the fast-approaching 2018 midterms.
Not even Fox News is buying Scott Pruitt’s excuse for pay raise scandal
White House says it's "currently reviewing" EPA administrator's apartment deal.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt told Fox News on Wednesday that members of his staff, not him, are guilty of using an obscure loophole to give two of his staffers significant pay raises, even though the White House rejected the salary increases.
When asked by Fox News why he went around President the rich asshole to give the pay raises, Pruitt denied he approved the salary increases. “I did not. My staff did. And I found out about that yesterday and I changed it,” Pruitt said in the interview.
Reporter Ed Henry asked him who approved the salary increases and whether it was a career EPA employee or a political appointee. “I don’t know,” Pruitt responded.
“You run the agency,” Henry responded incredulously. “You don’t know who did this?”
The Atlantic reported Tuesday that Pruitt filed a formal application with the White House last month for substantial pay raises for the two aides. The the rich asshole administration, however, declined to approve the raises.
After the raises were rejected, Pruitt reportedly used a little-known 1977 provision to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to give the two young political staffers he had brought with him from Oklahoma. By reappointing the staffers under this authority, Pruitt could exercise total control over their contracts under the SDWA and grant the pay raises on his own.
Within two weeks of the White House rejecting the raises, Sarah Greenwalt, a 30-year-old attorney working as Pruitt’s senior counsel, received a $56,000 raise and now makes $164,200. And 26-year old Millan Hupp, Pruitt’s scheduling director, received a $28,000 raise and now makes over $114,590.
Though Hupp and Greenwalt’s duties did not change, the EPA began processing them for raises of $28,130 and $56,765, respectively, compared with their 2017 salaries, according to The Atlantic. The raises were granted less than two weeks after they were denied by the White House, the magazine reported.
When asked by Henry if he knew the median income in the U.S. is $56,000, Pruitt said he did not know.
“So one of your friends from Oklahoma got a pay raise that’s the median income,” Henry said.
“They did not get a pay raise,” Pruitt emphasized. “I stopped that yesterday.”
Asked whether he is embarrassed that the pay raises took effect under his watch, Pruitt said, “It should not have happened. The officials that were involved in that process should not have done what they did.”
When pressed by Henry, Pruitt said the two staffers “serve a very important person here,” although it’s possible the EPA administrator misspoke and instead meant to say “serve a very important purpose here.”
In a statement, the Sierra Club said Pruitt knows he’s “in hot water” with the rich asshole.
“Scott Pruitt is pressed hard to explain why he directly defied some rich asshole by coordinating massive raises for his staff through an obscure loophole — after the the rich asshole White House rejected those raises,” the environmental group said Wednesday in a statement. “Pruitt attempts to pass the buck, blaming someone else, but he doesn’t actually know who.”
Shortly after the Fox News interview aired on Wednesday, the rich asshole spokesperson Sarah Sanders during a White House press briefing was asked about another ongoing Pruitt scandal — his arrangement in 2017 to rent an apartment from energy industry-connected lobbyist for only $50 per day. Sanders said the White House is “currently reviewing” the apartment deal.
At the White House press briefing, a reporter asked: “As you know, Sarah, the president promised to drain the swamp. His [Pruitt’s] behavior and actions seem very swamp-like. Why is the president okay with this?
Sanders responded: “The president’s not.”
In response to whether the rich asshole still has confidence in Pruitt, Sanders said: “The president thinks that he’s done a good job, particularly on the deregulation front.”
Meanwhile, Pruitt also used the obscure provision of the SDWA to hire two ex-lobbyists who were then assigned roles crucial to maintaining clean water, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Pruitt used the law to hire Lee Forsgren, a former attorney for the fossil fuel lobbying firm HBW Resources, which has campaigned for the controversial Dakota Access pipeline and Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Last year, Forsgren became the Office of Water’s deputy assistant administrator, where he has jurisdiction over the Clean Water Act, the SDWA, and, oil spills.
Pruitt also used the law to hire Nancy Beck, a former chemical industry lobbyist, as the top deputy at the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
Farmers and business groups warn trade war with China will wreck the rich asshole country: ‘This has to stop’
some rich asshole speaking at the Iowa Republican Party's 2015 Lincoln Dinner at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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President some rich asshole is scaring the agricultural and manufacturing sectors of the economy as the United States and China outline detailed plans for sweeping tariffs.
“Farmers and ranchers are, by necessity, patient and optimistic. We know markets ebb and flow, ” said American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall. “But China’s threatened retaliation against last night’s U.S. tariff proposal is testing both the patience and optimism of families who are facing the worst agricultural economy in 16 years. This has to stop.”
Soybean farmers in Iowa worry about long-term damage from the rich asshole’s trade war.
“Short term, the volley of proposed tariffs between the countries will negatively impact soybean prices,” the Iowa Soybean Association said in a statement. “Long-term, an ongoing trade dispute with China risks stoking anti-Americanism sentiment that could jeopardize the strength of trade relations between the two countries – relationships that have taken U.S. soybean farmers nearly 35 years to develop.”
“The last thing the administration should be doing is starting a trade war on the backs of American farmers,” said Minnesota Soybean Growers President Michael Petefish.
“We have already seen soybean futures down nearly 40 cents as of this morning,” says Minnesota Soybean CEO Tom Slunecka. “That’s more than a billion dollars lost in value for our crop just this morning.
Manufacturing is also threatened by a trade war.
“Business Roundtable agrees with the Administration’s concerns regarding China’s unfair trade practices, including theft of intellectual property, restrictions on foreign investment, and policies that foster unfair competition,” the association of CEO’s said. “But unilaterally imposing $50 billion of new tariffs without a long-term strategy that leads to economic reforms in China will only hurt America’s businesses, workers, and families.”
Pruitt says he didn’t know about staffers’ controversial pay raises
BY TIMOTHY CAMA - 04/04/18 02:25 PM EDT
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt said he wasn’t aware that two close aides received pay raises after the White House refused to allow it.
“My staff and I found out about it yesterday and I changed it,” Pruitt told Fox News in an interview published Wednesday, adding that he wasn’t sure who was responsible for the raises.
“You don’t know? You run the agency. You don’t know who did it?” Fox’s Ed Henry asked the EPA head.
“I found out this yesterday and I corrected the action and we are in the process of finding out how it took place and correcting it,” Pruitt responded.
The pay raise controversy is just one in a series of scandals Pruitt has been involved in in recent days.
The Atlantic reported Tuesday that Pruitt asked the White House to give his senior counsel Sarah Greenwalt a raise to $164,200 from $107,435, and his scheduling director Millan Hupp a raise to $114,590 from $86,460, but the White House rejected the request. Since they are political appointees, the White House must approve such raises.
But the EPA then decided to use an obscure authority it has under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which exempts certain employees from civil service rules, to give Greenwalt and Hupp the raises.
Fox’s Henry asked Pruitt if the two are friends of his.
“Well, they serve a very important person,” he responded.
“And you did not know that they got these large pay raises?” Henry asked.
“I did not know that they got pay raises until yesterday.”
Hupp also helped Pruitt search for apartments during off hours, The Washington Post reported.
Pruitt has spoken only to a handful of conservative media outlets in the days since the controversies were first publicly reported.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard, Pruitt blamed“people that have long in this town done business a different way” for fueling the controversy over renting an apartment from the wife of an energy lobbyist.
He told The Daily Signal that many of the news reports about the apartment controversy are untrue or incomplete.
Mueller has searched the electronic devices of at least one Russian oligarch while probing illegal contributions to the rich asshole
Special counsel Robert Mueller and some rich asshole (Wikimedia Commons)
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Special counsel Robert Mueller has begun questioning Russian oligarchs over whether they “illegally funneled cash donations directly or indirectly into some rich asshole’s campaign and inauguration”—and stopped at least one at a New York airport to search his electronic devices, CNN reports.
According to CNN, another “Russian oligarch was stopped during a recent trip to the U.S.,” and a third received an “informal voluntary document and interview request” from Mueller’s team.
In each situation, Mueller’s team has asked about the oligarchs’ donations to the rich asshole’s campaign—which is prohibited under campaign finance laws.
The news comes after a Washington Post report, published Tuesday, that revealed Mueller has told the rich asshole’s legal team that the president is not a “criminal target” of his probe—but remains a subject of the investigation.
WATCH: DHS secretary flails as reporter asks if the rich asshole wants to send troops to Mexican border because of Fox News
Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Image via screengrab.
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Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednesday was quick to change the subject after a reporter asked her if President some rich asshole wants to send the National Guard to the American-Mexican border because of a segment broadcast by Fox News.
Prior to Nielsen taking the White House press podium to address the media, the rich asshole announced yesterday that he intends to send troops to the border — and said that the so-called “caravan” of migrants making their way to the American bordermade him “very sad.” Reports on the “caravan” circulated on Fox News over the weekend, but subsequent reporting by other outlets revealed that the group of mostly Central American migrants were taking part of an annual activist publicity stunt aimed at bringing attention to the issues faced by asylum seekers.
When a reporter asked Nielsen if Fox News’ reporting may be partially responsible for his decision to send the National Guard to oversee the U.S.-Mexico border, she didn’t have an answer for his question.
“This is the 440th day of the Trump administration,” the reporter said. “You talk about the urgency, talk about it being April, but there’s a lot of speculation in the country that this might have something to do with something that the president saw on television Sunday morning.”
“Can you speak to that speculation?” he asked.
“I think what’s true is that the president is frustrated,” Nielsen said. “He has been very clear that he wants to secure our border.”
“I think what you’re seeing is the president taking his job very seriously in terms of securing our border and doing everything we can without Congress to do just that,” she concluded.
Later during the briefing, another reporter asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders a similar question, which was also dodged.
Both @DHSgov secretary and @PressSec decline to directly answer whether this National Guard deployment was prompted by Fox News report @realDonaldTrump may have seen this weekend.
Watch below, via CNN:
the rich asshole tells USDA chief farmers won’t be hurt by China trade dispute
BY LUIS SANCHEZ - 04/04/18 01:33 PM EDT
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Wednesday that President the rich asshole told him farmers will not be hurt by an ongoing trade dispute with China.
Speaking at a town hall discussion in Ohio, Perdue said that the recently announced Chinese tariffs on $50 billion worth of U.S. products could be concerning to farmers but noted that the president said they shouldn’t worry.
"I talked to the president as recently as last night," Perdue said. "And he said, 'Sonny, you can assure your farmers out there that we're not going to allow them to be the casualties if this trade dispute escalates. We're going to take care of our American farmers. You can tell them that directly.'"
The new tariffs target a number of U.S. goods, including whiskey and soybeans.
China’s latest tariffs come after the rich asshole announced $50 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods in an attempt to make them reconsider how they handle intellectual property.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) warned that Chinese tariffs could greatly hurt farmers.
"The United States should take action to defend its interests when any foreign nation isn’t playing by the rules or refuses to police itself. But farmers and ranchers shouldn’t be expected to bear the brunt of retaliation for the entire country," Grassley said in a statement.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that Illinois farmers — the largest producer of soybeans — will be heavily hurt by China’s retaliation to the rich asshole’s tariffs.
"Illinois’ farmers now join DACA recipients as the latest victims of President the rich asshole’s temper," Durbin said in a tweet. "Illinois is our nation's’ largest producer of soybeans, and a top producer of pork, and will feel China’s retaliation to threats of a trade war more than most. America cannot move forward in a blizzard of tweets and wild threats form this president."
Illinois is our nation’s largest producer of soybeans, and a top producer of pork, and will feel China's retaliation to threats of a trade war more than most. twitter.com/WSJ/status/981…
My statement on China’s retaliation to President Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on Chinese goods: pic.twitter.com/3nukmqMHlR
China’s tariffs have renewed fears of an escalating trade dispute between the U.S. and China, though the rich asshole on Wednesday said the U.S. is not in a trade war with China.
CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin says evidence of Mueller’s plan to charge the rich asshole is buried deep within Manafort indictment
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller said cyber security will be the number one future threat in the country, but for the time being, "counterterrorism and stopping terrorist attacks" is more important. (Photo: Kit Fox/Medill Flickr)
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CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on Wednesday hit back at the president and his backers for insisting that “collusion is not a crime” — and used the Justice Department’s own edicts to prove them wrong.
In an op-ed published Wednesday in The New Yorker, Toobin cited a legal brief issued by special counsel Robert Mueller that proved Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the man overseeing his investigation, authorized the indictment of former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort. As Toobin wrote, that brief could have ramifications that far surpass the man who formerly led the rich asshole campaign.
Submitted August 2nd, 2017 in response to claims by Manafort’s lawyers that the former campaign chairman’s work with politicians in the Ukraine was outside of his jurisdiction, the brief showed that Mueller had express authority to investigate whether Manafort colluded with Russia and/or undertook criminal action when working for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
The latter point, Toobin argued, was what allowed Mueller to indict Manafort on multiple counts related to his work for Yanukovych. But the former point — that he has authority to investigate whether the chairman “committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials with respect to the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election for President of the United States, in violation of United States law” — could have bearing on the investigation into whether President some rich asshole worked with Russians to win the American election in 2016.
Citing Mueller’s February indictment of 13 Russians for “conspiracy to defraud the United States” in the 2016 election, Toobin wrote that the special counsel’s indictment of the foreigners offer a glimpse of his interpretation of legal doctrine.
“This case, of course, only deals with Russian defendants,” he wrote. “But if Mueller were able to prove that Americans worked with the Russians in this kind of endeavor—that is, if he can prove that Americans colluded with the Russians—then he could bring a similar charge against them.”
On Tuesday, as Toobin pointed out, the Washington Post reported that Mueller informed the rich asshole’s lawyers that the president remains a subject of his investigation — and that he has not yet decided whether he’s going to bring criminal charges against the commander-in-chief.
“Mueller now has the authority, and the legal theory, to bring criminal charges for collusion,” Toobin concluded. “The unanswered question is whether he has American defendants, too.”
Judge rips Manafort's lawsuit to rein in Mueller
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 04/04/18 12:58 PM EDT
A federal judge on Wednesday appeared to reject the majority of the arguments made by former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort in his lawsuit seeking to limit the scope of Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation, Reuters reports.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman questioned Manafort's attorney on the legal reasoning behind the former the rich asshole aide's argument that Mueller's investigation has overstepped and should be shut down.
Manafort's civil lawsuit relies in part on a law called the Administrative Procedure Act, which dictates how federal agencies write regulations. Manafort claims that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's order last year appointing Mueller violated Justice Department policies.
He also claims that Mueller does not have the authority to investigate allegations that predate his time on the rich asshole's campaign.
Mueller's team in a filing on Monday rebutted Manafort and asked the court to dismiss his lawsuit, saying it "lacks merit."
"None of the authorities Manafort cites justifies dismissing an indictment signed by a duly appointed Department of Justice prosecutor based on an asserted regulatory violation, and none calls into question the jurisdiction of this court," the special counsel's office wrote.
In a heavily redacted memo also filed Monday, the special counsel's office revealed that Rosenstein explicitly gave Mueller the authority to investigate Manafort's Ukraine work, along with whether he "committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials" during the 2016 presidential race.
Manafort is charged with money laundering and tax fraud related to his lobbying work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. Mueller's team alleges that Manafort and his business associate, Richard Gates, attempted to conceal the money they made from that lobbying work from U.S. officials.
Gates pleaded guilty to two charges earlier this year and is now cooperating with the special counsel's investigation.
Manafort has pleaded not guilty and steadfastly denies both the charges and broader allegations of collusion with Russia during the 2016 race.
"I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me,” Manafort said in February.
Former staffer says the rich asshole corrupted Devin Nunes: ‘Pressure on him from the White House was too great’
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) speaking at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. Photo by Gage Skidmore.
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The total collapse in trust between Republicans and Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee during the the rich asshole presidency has been a major story for more than a year now, and a new report in The Atlantic sheds some more light on how this breakdown occurred.
One former staffer who worked for a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee tells the publication that Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) used to have a good working relationship — but he said that the the rich asshole White House successfully pushed Nunes to throw up roadblocks in investigating potential the rich asshole campaign ties with the Russian government.
“A decision to be bipartisan makes all the difference,” the source said. “The Midnight Run was a mistake, but everything after that was a decision. And at the end of the day, Nunes decided not to be bipartisan. The pressure on him from the White House was too great.”
Even some hardline conservatives, such as former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, have criticized Nunes for politicizing the intelligence committee and putting partisan loyalty above the committee’s mission to oversee America’s most vital secrets.
“He’s not searching for truth, he’s running interference for the White House, abdicating his role as a member of a coequal branch of government, dragging his fellow committee members down with him and exposing House leadership as ineffectual and foolish,” Walsh wrote in an op-ed this past February. “As a former congressman — but more important, as a citizen — that’s not what I want.”
Judge skewers Paul Manafort’s case challenging Mueller’s powers
Former the rich asshole campaign chair Paul Manafort
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A federal judge tore into all of the legal arguments that a lawyer for President some rich asshole’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort made on Wednesday in his long-shot civil case to convince her that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has run amok and should be reined in.
“I don’t really understand what is left of your case,” U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said to Kevin Downing, Manafort’s attorney, after peppering him with a lengthy series of questions.
Manafort filed a civil lawsuit on Jan. 3 against Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the Justice Department official who appointed the special counsel, in a key legal test of how far Mueller’s mandate extends.
Mueller is investigating potential collusion between the rich asshole’s campaign and Russia as well as whether the president has unlawfully tried to obstruct the probe.
Manafort, who performed lobbying work for a pro-Russian former Ukrainian president before serving as the rich asshole’s campaign chairman in the 2016 U.S. election, is facing two indictments brought by Mueller in federal courts in Washington and Alexandria, Virginia. The charges against him include conspiring to launder money, failing to register as a foreign agent, bank fraud and filing false tax returns.
Manafort has pleaded not guilty and none of the charges directly relate to work he performed for the rich asshole’s campaign.
Manafort’s civil lawsuit relies on an arcane law called the Administrative Procedure Act, which spells out the process federal agencies must follow when writing regulations. It alleges portions of Rosenstein’s order laying out Mueller’s investigative mandate violate Justice Department rules.
the rich asshole: Dems 'stand in our way' on stronger border
President the rich asshole on Wednesday called on Congress to take immediate action to strengthen border laws while accusing Democrats of standing in the way of legislation.
In a morning tweet, the president said current border laws are "very weak" and that "strong action" would be taken Wednesday.
Our Border Laws are very weak while those of Mexico & Canada are very strong. Congress must change these Obama era, and other, laws NOW! The Democrats stand in our way - they want people to pour into our country unchecked....CRIME! We will be taking strong action today.
This comes a day after the president said he wants to deploy U.S. troops to guard the southern border with Mexico until his proposed border wall is completed.
“UNTIL WE CAN HAVE A WALL AND PROPER SECURITY, WE ARE GOING TO BE GUARDING OUR BORDER WITH THE MILITARY,” THE RICH ASSHOLE SAID TUESDAY DURING A MEETING WITH BALTIC STATE LEADERS.
the rich asshole has received increased pressure from his base to score a policy win on immigration after lawmakers did not address his plea for $25 billion in wall money in recent spending legislation.
The president instead got 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 rich asshole on Tuesday also cited a “caravan” of Central American migrants heading for the U.S. border, later saying 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 president has been attempting to renegotiate NAFTA terms with Mexico and Canada for months. He exempted the countries from his recent steel and aluminum tariffs and reportedly hopes to have an updated version of NAFTA to unveil during the Summit of the Americas later this month.
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 04/04/18 07:39 AM EDT
President the rich asshole said the U.S. is not in a trade war with China in a tweet hours after China unveiled the latest round of tariffs targeting $50 billion in U.S. goods.
the rich asshole also accused past U.S. presidents of "foolish" trade policies that "lost" the trade war against China years ago.
"We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!" the rich asshole wrote.
We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!
China's government early Wednesday announced a $50 billion package of tariffs targeting U.S. soybeans, automobiles and other exports.
The White House, meanwhile, has pushed a number of tariffs aimed at China in recent days, including tens of billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese electronics and furniture.
The rich asshole administration has made confronting Chinese intellectual property theft a top priority in recent days, while China has promised reciprocal actions for any trade moves from the White House.
the rich asshole has in the past dismissed warnings from business leaders and Washington lawmakers that his actions could spark a trade war, calling such a conflict "good and easy to win."
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April 4, 2018
the rich asshole should not breathe a sigh of relief.
Republican Trey Gowdy, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, is warning the rich asshole not to relax about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation just yet.
On Wednesday morning’s “Fox & Friends,” Gowdy was asked about a Washington Post report that the rich asshole’s lawyers were told, a month ago, that the rich asshole is the “subject” of Mueller’s investigation, but not a “criminal target” of the probe.
“When I heard that, I wasn’t sure what it meant, because you never know where the facts are going to take you,” Gowdy said. “I think if we weren’t in a political environment, he probably would not have said that.”
“So if you were his attorney, you wouldn’t say, you wouldn’t have a sigh of relief?” co-host Brian Kilmeade asked.
“Heavens no,” Gowdy replied. “I’ll have a sigh of relief when the investigation is over, and even then, maybe not.”
“If he’s not the target, who is the target?” Pete Hegseth asked.
“I think the target, hopefully, are the Russians,” Gowdy said, then awkwardly noted that “I don’t know whether anyone colluded with the Russians. That’s who would be the target. We’ll let Mueller figure it out.”
Gowdy also called the distinction “meaningless” in an interview with CNN an hour later.
Mueller’s discussion with the rich asshole’s lawyers came in the midst of yet another the rich asshole meltdown, and was closely followed by signs that the rich asshole would be shaking up his legal team.
Although the rich asshole never misses an opportunity to falsely declare himself exonerated, he has thus far resisted crowing about this news. That could be an indication that the rich asshole is already all too aware that he is still being hunted by Mueller.
And if the rich asshole didn’t know it before, Gowdy just reminded him about the tightening noose of the Mueller probe, and did it right on the rich asshole’s favorite show. If Gowdy, a strident GOP attack dog, thinks the rich asshole should be worried, the rich asshole should be worried.
Capitol ‘overflowing’ with reporters in era of the rich asshole
BY SCOTT WONG AND MIKE LILLIS - 04/04/18 06:00 AM EDT
For a Capitol Hill reporter, it’s hard to find a seat in the building these days.
President the rich asshole has sparked so many controversies and such ferocious demand for news that the press galleries in the House and Senate are often filled to the brim. By midday the multiple overflow media spaces are at capacity as well, leaving stragglers no choice but to sit on the floor.
During votes, reporters swarm the Speaker’s Lobby, House hallways and Senate basement seeking lawmakers’ reaction to the rich asshole’s latest tweet, executive action or firing of a Cabinet official. Last year, dozens of policy reporters tracked major health-care and tax-reform bills as they moved through Congress. But with legislating all but over in this midterm election year, the crowds that gather on Capitol Hill are decidedly all about the rich asshole.
“It used to be gaggles of eight to 12 people; now our gaggles are 20 people,” said one longtime congressional observer. “And that group of 20 people ends up blocking hallways because everybody is trying to get to the principal and ask their question or simply hear what that principal is saying.
“The Capitol is overflowing with bodies. And there are all these pressure points developing as a result of that.”
The crush of media on Capitol Hill has created tensions between lawmakers, reporters and Capitol staffers — including law enforcers — charged with maintaining a balance between lawmaker safety and freedom of the press.
Last summer, the Senate press gallery took the unusual step of cordoning off parts of the Capitol to prevent mobs of reporters from trampling or tripping lawmakers. Reporters howled, leading the Senate press gallery to offer a compromise just this week: The cordons will be replaced by tape on the floor near the Senate subways — a literal thin blue line indicating where reporters should linger while awaiting the arrival of lawmakers.
The blue tape, which The Hill has learned will be installed after the Easter recess, will surely be met with ridicule from reporters who say they’ve seen a gradual erosion of press access on Capitol Hill. Reporters say the restrictions are the most pronounced on Tuesdays, when Vice President Pence attends the weekly lunch with Republican senators.
The Senate and parts of the House go into “lockdown” when Pence is on the move, meaning reporters, staffers and tourists must remain stationary until he and his entourage pass. And reporters say Capitol Police “obsessively” check their ID badges whenever Pence is in the building.
“Over the last 15 months, there have been increased attempts to corral reporters and control their movements. The overall effect is to make it tougher for reporters to talk to lawmakers,” lamented one veteran Capitol Hill reporter. “Reporters are out there trying to find out what’s going on; they’re not there to stargaze or cause a nuisance.”
Even in the more freewheeling House — where reporters are permitted to interview lawmakers on all four sides of the chamber — the hordes of reporters have triggered lawmaker complaints in recent weeks to the offices of Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, House sources said.
In one case, a lawmaker complained about reporters resting their laptops on a marble ledge as they staked out House Intelligence Committee meetings. Another complained that reporters and TV crews working out of the Will Rogers and Statuary halls, just off the House floor, were placing their food and coffee cups on the base of congressional statues.
Taking a cue from the Senate, officials with the House Sergeant at Arms have erected a pair of stanchions at the west entrance to the floor to restrict reporters’ movement and keep a clear path for lawmakers during votes.
Just before Congress’s spring break, sergeant at arms officers reconfigured the stanchions to essentially pen off reporters from lawmakers heading to votes. That created a tense standoff between the sergeant at arms and House Press Gallery officials, who represent reporters in the Capitol.
“I can see myself tripping over these stanchions and falling flat on my face,” one reporter said, looking at the new configuration.
By the last vote series of the day, the reporter pens were gone. But the Sergeant at Arms Office made no promises they wouldn’t be brought back. “The discussions are ongoing,” said a source familiar with the talks.
“We are always working ways with the Sergeant at Arms to find reasonable solutions to address the overcrowding of hallways and hearing rooms and areas where reporters are interacting with members,” said a House press gallery staff member.
A spokesman for the House sergeant at arms did not respond to a request for comment.
Some longtime lawmakers are questioning the wisdom of the heightened security measures. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who has spent roughly two decades on Capitol Hill as both an aide and lawmaker, said he’s had no problems navigating the recent maze of reporters, adding, “I don’t see the need for that kind of cordoning off.”
“I’ve never seen that as a problem in my years being on the Hill,” Connolly said Tuesday by phone. “If people don’t want to talk to the press they don’t have to.”
Connolly, tongue in cheek, offered a theory for why the Senate has been more aggressive in limiting press access.
“I guess senators are a little more allergic to mortal contact,” he said, laughing.
The issue is not a function of more reporters, per se. Indeed, the Capitol press galleries say the number of issued credentials has remained relatively stable in recent years. But even as the rich asshole has repeatedly attacked the “fake news,” he’s also created a near-insatiable public demand for it — one that seems to have led more reporters than before to utilize their credentials with more frequent visits to the Capitol.
During the 113th Congress (2013–14), there were a combined 2,891 credentials issued for correspondents of the daily and periodical press galleries. This Congress, the 115th Congress (2017–18), there are a combined 2,535 correspondents credentialed between the two galleries. Those figures don’t include radio and television journalists or photographers.
“So it’s not that more reporters have been credentialed; it’s that Congress is a place where more reporters are coming to cover everyday,” said a source familiar with the credentialing process. “There has been a deluge of reporters coming up here everyday.”
60 Minutes Cut Stormy Daniels Interview To Benefit the rich asshole
If you were wondering why CBS’ Stormy Daniels interview wasn’t quite as salacious as expected, it wasn’t because she didn’t reveal anything too interesting about The rich asshole — it was because “60 Minutes” cut so much out of the interview in what appears to be an effort to shield President Stable Genius from having too much revealed about his relationship with the adult movie star.
Stormy Daniels’ attorney says that his client described — in detail — the President’s* penis during the interview. In fact CBS cut quite a bit from the interview, only airing 14 minutes of the two-hour interviews with Daniels.
“60 Minutes and CBS, you know, they are a conservative network,” attorney Michael Avenatti says. “I mean, there is a lot of information that was said during that interview that didn’t make it into the final 60 Minutes.”
“They play it very close to the vest,” Avenatti says. “For instance, she can describe the president’s genitalia in great detail. That did not make it.”
It’s unclear why “60 Minutes” would act to protect the rich asshole from details that will bring him criticism, but in doing so they managed to deprive the American people of an opportunity to learn more about the President’s* decision to cheat on his wife who had just given birth with a porn star then have his lawyer pay her off in an effort to keep it from hurting him during the election.
Watch the interview below:
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