Media obsesses about jokes as the rich asshole kills solo press conferences
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It has been 438 days since the rich asshole's last solo press conference. But many in the media are more concerned about some jokes.
The media is obsessing over some jokes, even as a major news organization declares that the rich asshole has effectively killed the presidential press conference.
Comedian Michelle Wolf’s routine from Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner dominated the news Monday morning. Officers and members of the association rushed to join others in condemnation of Wolf. Much of the criticism revolved around the false claim that she went after Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ physical appearance.
But Monday morning also featured a declaration by the Associated Press that White House press conferences are dead in the rich asshole era.
the rich asshole has held only one solo press conference during his time in office, and that was 438 days ago, by far the longest gap recorded for a modern president.
the rich asshole has participated in 23 joint press conferences, at which American reporters typically get to ask only two questions. But he has even flouted that rule repeatedly.
Hours after Wolf called out Sanders’ dishonesty, Sanders seemed to only prove Wolf’s point. She scolded a reporter for daring to ask the rich asshole a question at one of those joint press conferences. the rich asshole had only called on one American reporter, so Hunter Walker of Yahoo News shouted his question as the rich asshole left the podium.
While complaints about a comedian dominated White House reporters’ Twitter feeds, it was also reported that the Department of Justice has removed an entire section from its manual that deals with “the need for free press.”
And just days ago, Reporters Without Borders released its study showing the U.S. slipped to 45th worldwide on press freedom. Sanders reacted to that news by bragging that she takes questions “unvetted.”
And earlier this year, the rich asshole made the Committee to Protect Journalists’ list of top press oppressors. the rich asshole’s supporters at Fox News deflected that news by bragging that the rich asshole has not murdered any journalists. But the rich asshole’s hostility toward the press has incited death threats against those reporters who do stand up to him.
The rich asshole administration has threatened and intimidated reporters who dared to call out its lies. Yet many of their colleagues are more focused on a comedian who simply told some jokes that contained uncomfortable truths.
Americans deserve a free press that holds the rich asshole accountable, not one that defends or ignores his abuses.
White House chief of staff denies report he called the rich asshole an idiot
White House chief of staff John Kelly is denying a report from NBC News that he has called President the rich asshole an “idiot” and saying the president does not know about the policy issues on his agenda.
“I spend more time with the president than anyone else and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship," Kelly said Monday in a statement issued by the White House.
"He always knows where I stand and he and I both know this story is total BS," he said. "I am committed to the president, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President the rich asshole and distract from the administration’s many successes.”
According to NBC, Kelly used the insult during closed-door meetings with other White House staffers amid tense negotiations over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which the rich asshole tried to end last year.
NBC cited eight current and former officials for its story.
The chief of staff, who oversaw immigration enforcement as Homeland Security secretary, believed that the rich asshole was prepared to make too many concessions to Democrats because he did not understand the issue.
"He doesn't even understand what DACA is. He's an idiot," Kelly said in one meeting, two officials who said they were present told NBC News. "We've got to save him from himself."
A top aide to Kelly also denied the story.
"It’s complete b.s. ... He never said that,” Kelly assistant Zachary Fuentes told a group of four reporters in the West Wing.
Fuentes also said he was in the room for meetings that were cited in the NBC story published Monday afternoon.
Three White House spokespeople told NBC News they do not believe Kelly called the rich asshole an idiot, but conceded that the top aide expressed concern that the president would strike a deal that was too soft for his supporters and claimed that he was stopping the rich asshole from making a bad deal.
The bombshell report, even with Kelly's quick denial, is likely to renew questions about Kelly’s future in the White House.
The retired Marine Corps general, who was brought on board last summer to instill order and discipline in the West Wing, has been losing clout as the rich asshole has tired of his style.
Kelly reportedly portrays himself as one of the only administration officials keeping the president from inflicting damage upon the country, comments that will almost certainly irk the rich asshole.
The president previously grew angry with Kelly in January when he said during a Fox News interview that the rich asshole has “evolved” on immigration and said things during the campaign “that may or may not be fully informed.”
the rich asshole pushed back against Kelly’s comments on Twitter, but later sought to mend any rift by telling reporters that his top adviser is “doing a great job.”
The latest incident has parallels to comments made by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who reportedly called the rich asshole a “moron.”
the rich asshole publicly needled his top diplomat for weeks before firing him earlier this year.
Updated at 5:10 p.m.
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April 30, 2018
the rich asshole used to call his chief of staff John Kelly one of his favorite generals. He probably won't be doing that again.
It isn’t just average Americans who think the occupant of the Oval Office is an “idiot.” His chief of staff, John Kelly, thinks so too.
NBC reports that the increasingly isolated Kelly, who for months has seemed just one more scandal away from being fired on Twitter, has repeatedly called the rich asshole “an idiot,” though presumably not to his face. White House officials say Kelly portrays himself “as the lone bulwark against catastrophe.”
The catastrophe being, of course, the rich asshole himself.
“He doesn’t even understand what DACA is. He’s an idiot,” Kelly reportedly said in one meeting. “We’ve got to save him from himself.”
In his many bizarre rantings about DACA, the program that allows young immigrants brought to the United States as children to remain in their homes, the rich asshole has clearly demonstrated he has no idea what DACA is.
Kelly isn’t the first member of the rich asshole’s inner circle to express his frustration with the rich asshole’s intellect. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly described the rich asshole as a “fucking moron” — and then refused to deny the story.
H.R. McMaster, the rich asshole’s former national security adviser who was fired and replaced in March by Fox News commentator and warmonger John Bolton, expressed similar thoughts about the rich asshole. McMaster reportedly described the rich asshole as an “idiot,” a “dope,” and someone with the intelligence of a “kindergartener.”
And that was before he was fired on Twitter.
Plenty of the rich asshole’s top aides and advisers have expressed their frustration with the man who spends hours every day rage-tweeting Fox News and saying demonstrably false things his team will later struggle to explain.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that Kelly has called the rich asshole an idiot. The real surprise is that more of the rich asshole’s closest advisers haven’t.
John Kelly calls the rich asshole an ‘idiot’ in private — and is planning to leave the White House this summer
President some rich asshole (left) and White House chief of staff John Kelly (right). Image via Saul Loeb/AFP.
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the rich asshole administration officials say White House chief of staff John Kelly considers himself the only barrier between some rich asshole and catastrophe — and has at times called the president “an idiot.”
According to eight current and former White House officials who spoke with NBC News, the increasingly public rift between the president and his chief of staff has widened to the point that he expects to no longer work in the West Wing come July of this year.
“He doesn’t even understand what [the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program] is. He’s an idiot,” Kelly reportedly said, as per two officials. “We’ve got to save him from himself.”
“He says stuff you can’t believe,” a senior White House official told NBC. “He’ll say it and you think, ‘That is not what you should be saying.'”
Along with Kelly’s comments about the president, four of NBC’s White House sources said the chief of staff “has at times made remarks that have rattled female staffers,” including the claim that “women are more emotional than men.” That comment, the former and current the rich asshole administration officials said, was made at least once in the president’s company.
House Republicans buried this new email from Flynn in their report on Russian election interference
Another big coincidence.
On Friday, the Republican members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released a 253-page report on their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The purpose of the report, which the Democrats on the committee said was issued prematurely, was to announce their conclusion that the the rich asshole campaign did not collude with Russia.
But buried on page 72 was something genuinely newsworthy.
On July 15, 2016, General Michael Flynn, the rich asshole’s former National Security Adviser who is now cooperating with Special Counsel Mueller, sent an email predicting “a number of things…will happen…via cyber operations…by both hacktivists [and] nation-states.”
A week later, Wikileaks began releasing hacked emails from the DNC. This email had not previously been reported.
The Republicans on the committee attempt to explain away Flynn’s email by saying it “does not necessarily indicate non-public knowledge.” But this was not an explanation that Flynn provided to the committee. Flynn, in fact, was never interviewed by the committee.
Moreover, while the committee suggests that Flynn is potentially relying on publicly known information, Flynn is explicitly predicting future events in this email.
The Flynn email is part of a lengthening list of extreme coincidences one must accept to believe the the rich asshole administration did not have advance knowledge of Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 election.
Roger Stone tweeted, “Trust me, it will soon [be] Podesta’s time in the barrel,” weeks before Wikileaks released Podesta’s hacked emails. Stone also bragged about communicating with Wikileaks. Stone now claims, however, that he had no advance knowledge that Podesta’s emails were hacked.
some rich asshole Jr. arranged a meeting with top campaign staff and Russian operatives after he was promised Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. the rich asshole Jr., however, claims that the Russians had no information about Clinton to share and the meeting was a bust.
George Papadopoulos was told by a Russian go-between that the government had obtained thousands of emails from Clinton. Papadopoulos subsequently bragged to an Australian diplomat about receiving this information. He was also regularly in touch with campaign officials — but those officials claim Papadopoulos never told them about the hacked emails.
The Democrats on the committee issued a minority report, arguing the investigation was incomplete. The report argues that numerous key witnesses were either not called or declined to answer important questions. Those witnesses include Flynn, Stone, the rich asshole Jr., and Papadopoulos.
POLITICS
the rich asshole’s Immigration And Customs Enforcement Chief To Retire
Thomas Homan had become the face of the White House’s deportation efforts. But his U.S. Senate confirmation stalled.
Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan will retire from government service, he announced Monday, after spending the last 14 months serving as the most controversial deportation chief in the agency’s brief history.
“It has been the honor of my life to lead the men and women of ICE for more than a year,” Homan said in a statement. “The decision to leave federal service after more than 34 years is bittersweet, but my family has sacrificed a lot in order for me to serve and it’s time for me to focus on them.”
Widely respected by law enforcement officials, but reviled among immigrant rights groups, Homan was plucked from retirement last January to lead President some rich asshole’s controversial deportation crackdown.
Homan had initially filled the position on an interim basis last year while the White House looked for a formal nominee, an ICE official said Monday. Though the White House nominated Homan to the position in November, he informed the Department of Homeland Security early this year that he intended to step down because of family considerations, according to the official.
Homan told HuffPost earlier this month that his family had received threats since he took charge of the agency.
But Homan had also recoiled at the notion of passing through a politically contentious Senate confirmation hearing, according to the The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.
Despite receiving the nomination to head ICE six months ago, Homan’s confirmation hearing had yet to be scheduled. A group of 17 mostly Democratic senators penned a letter Friday pressing DHS to cough up documents it had given to the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee and questioned whether he should continue to head the agency after 14 months without confirmation.
“The absence of a Senate-confirmed head of ICE for more than a year hinders Congressional oversight and the efficient operation of the agency and is troubling in any circumstance,” the letter said. “We understand that the rich asshole Administration may be concerned about Mr. Homan answering questions under oath about his leadership of ICE, as well as the possibility that Mr. Homan’s nomination could be defeated in the Senate.”
The Senators went on to accuse Homan of carrying out “radical – and in some cases possibly illegal – changes in immigration enforcement policies and practices.” The cited the separation of hundreds of undocumented children from asylum-seeking parents after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, reversing the presumptive release of pregnant women from immigrant detention, and discarding a decades-long policy of halting deportations for individuals at the request of Congress.
Those changes were “accompanied by inflammatory and inaccurate statements,” the letter said, noting Homan’s alleged use of the derogatory epithet “tonk” to refer to unauthorized immigrants, which HuffPost first reported in a lengthy profile earlier this month. The term is a Border Patrol slang that derives from the sound of bashing an immigrant over the head with a metal flashlight. (Homan denied using the term.)
In an administration bogged down by infighting and high turnover, Homan had appeared to easily win the rich asshole’s confidence, pressing ahead with the White House’s deportation agenda enthusiastically, despite the political blowback.
But Homan’s abrupt departure leaves the signature agency charged with the rich asshole’s deportation efforts leaderless and without a clear successor.
“Everyone is surprised,” a former DHS official told HuffPost. “ICE has never had a deep bench and over the last year and a half it’s become increasingly weak. I would hope they’re looking outside the agency for someone with fresh ideas.”
Homan had also recently complained to co-workers that he’d been increasingly marginalized by DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who left him out of negotiations with lawmakers on immigration reform earlier this year, according to The Washington Post.
But as recently as Jan. 24 of this year, Homan told the radio show John and Ken on Demand that he planned to move forward with confirmation.
“There’s a lot of paperwork involved,” Homan said at the time. “We’re on the finishing touches.”
Monday’s announcement brings to a close a three-decade career in law enforcement that began when Homan joined the police department of the 2,000-person village of West Carthage in upstate New York. After serving four years as a Border Patrol agent in the 1980s, Homan steadily rose through the ranks of immigration enforcement, first as an investigator with the now defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service, and later as an administrator with ICE, which was created in 2003.
Homan’s background in the rank-and-file brought with it an uniquely detailed understanding of all aspects of immigration enforcement and his tenure was characterized by a glorification of the deportation officers whom he views as unfairly vilified by legal groups and the national news media. Even among critics of the rich asshole’s immigration crackdown, Homan himself has remained widely respected among current and former DHS officials.
But he also brought a uniquely combative attitude to a position that has traditionally been filled by lawyers who shy away from making contentious statements about immigration enforcement ― one of the country’s most divisive political issues. Homan earned the ire of both immigrant rights groups and Democratic politicians by asserting that, under his watch, unauthorized immigrants “should look over your shoulder, and you need to be worried.”
In perhaps his most bombastic statement, Homan in an appearance on Fox News urged the Justice Department to consider prosecuting local officials who embrace “sanctuary” policies that limit local cooperation with ICE.
Even as he prepared to exit government service, Homan remained a booster of his deportation officers and took a jab at the national press.
“I am humbled and inspired by the 20,000 American patriots who serve this agency and protect our nation, increasingly in the face of unfair and false criticism from politicians and the media,” Homan said in Monday’s statement. “Because of their tremendous dedication and hard work, we have made significant progress this past year in enforcing our nation’s immigration and customs laws, and in protecting public safety and national security. I will continue to be a strong advocate for the workforce and for the ICE mission.”
Jeff Sessions’ DOJ deletes ‘need for free press’ section in key manual for federal prosecutors
Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
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The Dept. of Justice has revamped a key and critical manual for federal prosecutors, remaking it to reflect the vision of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ priorities and goals.
“In: Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ tough-on-crime policies. Out: A section titled ‘Need for Free Press and Public Trial.’ References to the department’s work on racial gerrymandering are gone. Language about limits on prosecutorial power has been edited down,” Buzzfeed reports.
“The changes include new sections that underscore Sessions’ focus on religious liberty and the rich asshole administration’s efforts to crack down on government leaks — there is new language admonishing prosecutors not to share classified information and directing them to report contacts with the media.”
Buzzfeed notes that the manual, technically titled the United States Attorneys Manual, is actually used by federal prosecutors and throughout the Justice Dept.
Part of the section of freedom of the press that was deleted said that “careful weight must be given in each case to the constitutional requirements of a free press and public trials as well as the right of the people in a constitutional democracy to have access to information about the conduct of law enforcement officers, prosecutors and courts, consistent with the individual rights of the accused.”
In short, Sessions is opting to change the DOJ’s First Amendment focus to preserving and expanding “religious liberty,” and gutting freedom of the press protections.
The racial gerrymandering section, in part, had read:
“The Voting Section defends from unjustified attack redistricting plans designed to provide minority voters fair opportunities to elect candidates of their choice and endeavors to achieve racially fair results where courts find…that redistricting plans constitute unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.”
Under Attorney General Eric Holder the manual was changed to advocate for charging decisions that “fairly reflect the defendant’s criminal conduct.”
It now reflects Attorney General Sessions’ memo that orders federal prosecutors to “charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offenses. By definition, the most serious offenses are those that carry the most substantial guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences.”
As gas prices soar, the rich asshole wants Americans to spend $100 billion more on driving
the rich asshole blames OPEC for rising oil prices -- but he used to blame President Obama.
The price of crude oil has jumped to its highest level in more than three years. As a result, Americans are facing the “costliest driving season in years,” CBS explained Monday morning.
Yet despite soaring gasoline prices — and a recent tweet by the President bemoaning high oil prices — the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Transportation Department will soon be sending the White House a proposal to roll-back Obama-era fuel economy standards. And these standard would result in nearly $100 billion in higher costs for U.S. drivers in the coming years.
“The preferred course of action would freeze fuel-economy standards at 2020 levels for both cars and light trucks,” the New York Times, which spoke to a federal official who had seen the plan, reported Friday.
As the EPA itself concluded in its final January 2017 “Determination on the Appropriateness” of the standards, such a roll-back would have disastrous consequences for U.S. consumers, competitiveness, and a livable climate.
The savings from the standards put in place by Obama are so significant that the EPA calculates “consumers who finance their vehicle with a 5-year loan would see payback within the first year.”
Freezing the standards at 2020 levels would undo efficiency gains that would provide consumers $98 billion in total net benefits, primarily from reduced fuel use, the EPA found. Individual car buyers would lose “a net savings of $1,650” (even after accounting for the higher vehicle cost).
The roll back would also raise U.S. oil consumption by 1.2 billion gallons and increase U.S. carbon pollution by 540 billion tons over the lifetime of the model-year 2022–2025 cars. And the full cost is far more than that, since the EPA didn’t look at the impact on cars built after 2025 that would also be subject to the weaker standards.
Yet even as his own administration is planning to make driving more expensive for future Americans, the rich asshole himself tweeted ten days ago, “Looks like OPEC is at it again … Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!”
The President blames OPEC for high oil prices, but back in 2012 when gasoline prices soared, the rich asshole tweeted that President Obama “could have stopped this.”
Gas prices are about to hit a record high during the Labor Day weekend. @BarackObama could have stopped this.
the rich asshole wasn’t the only one attacking Obama for high gas prices back then. “Rising Gas Prices Give G.O.P. Issue to Attack Obama,” as one front-page New York Times headline from 2012 put it.
Today, the rich asshole appears to be trying to ward off similar attacks by shifting the blame to OPEC. But as CNBC has noted, if the rich asshole takes a harder line towards Iran, that could remove more oil from the market and raise prices even more.
Moreover, blaming OPEC means blaming OPEC’s 800-pound gorilla, Saudi Arabia, as well as its Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman — with whom the rich asshole has established a cozy relationship. Indeed CBNC quotes one leading oil expert who points out, “If he’s really concerned about OPEC policy, he should pick up the phone and call Mohammed bin Salman.”
The reality is that if the rich asshole cared about what Americans’ gasoline bills were, he wouldn’t be in the process of undoing Obama’s fuel economy standards. Undoing these rules will result in less efficient vehicles and more trips to the gas station.
Omarosa confirms 's---hole' comments for Nigerian president
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 04/30/18 04:00 PM EDT
Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman confirmed in a tweet to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday that President the rich asshole referred to African nations as "shithole countries" in an Oval Office meeting earlier this year.
Asked about the remarks at a White House press conference, Buhari said he did not bring the issue up during his meeting with the rich asshole.
“I’m not sure about, you know, the validity of whether that allegation against the president is true or not," Buhari said. “So the best thing for me is to keep quiet.”
Reports surfaced in January that the rich asshole called Haiti, El Salvador and African nations “shithole countries” during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers discussing immigration reform.
the rich asshole was sharply criticized over the reported remark, with the African Union saying he "dishonor[ed] the celebrated American creed and respect for diversity and human dignity."
While the rich asshole has previously denied using the term, which was confirmed by members who were present, he said at Monday's press conference that he and Buhari did not discuss the issue during the Nigerian leader's visit.
“We didn’t discuss it,” the rich asshole said. “The president knows me and he knows where I’m coming from.”
“And you do have some countries that are in very bad shape and very tough places to live in,” he added.
Manigault Newman, who served as director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison, has been sharply critical of the rich asshole since her unceremonious ouster late last year.
She said during a stint on "Celebrity Big Brother" in February she would never "in a million years" vote for the rich asshole again.
“It’s going to not be OK, it’s not,” she said when asked if Americans should be worried. “It’s so bad.”
some rich asshole sued for defamation by adult film actress Stormy Daniels
Stormy Daniels (Photo: Screen capture)
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The adult film actress Stormy Daniels on Monday filed a defamation lawsuit against U.S. President some rich asshole over a recent tweet that Daniels said falsely attacked her truthfulness.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed her lawsuit in Manhattan federal court over an April 18 tweet by the rich asshole, concerning a sketch of a man that Daniels said had threatened her in 2011.
She said the rich asshole referred to it as: “A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total can job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, editing by G Crosse
the rich asshole: Didn't discuss 'shithole' comments with Nigerian president
President the rich asshole on Monday said his reported “shithole countries” comments did not come up during Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to the White House.
“We didn’t discuss it,” the rich asshole said during a press conference. “The president knows me and he knows where I’m coming from.”
the rich asshole has previously denied using the term to describe African nations, but he stood by the crux of his remarks about nations that send immigrants to the U.S.
“And you do have some countries that are in very bad shape and very tough places to live in,” the president said.
Still, the rich asshole said he would like to visit Nigeria.
"It's an amazing country," he said. "And in certain ways, I hear, from the standpoint of the beauty of a country, there's no country more beautiful."
Buhari said he did not raise the comments with the rich asshole because he was unsure of the veracity of the media reports.
“I’m not sure about, you know, the validity of whether that allegation against the president is true or not," Buhari said. “So the best thing for me is to keep quiet.”
The Washington Post reported in January that the rich asshole complained about immigrants coming from "shithole countries,” during a closed-door meeting with lawmakers, specifically referring to Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations.
Despite the rich asshole’s denials, members of Congress insisted he made the comments.
“The words used by the president, as related to me directly following the meeting by those in attendance, were not ‘tough,’ they were abhorrent and repulsive,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) tweeted at the time.
The reported remarks sparked international outrage, with many U.S. diplomats being summoned to explain the comments to leaders in foreign countries.
the rich asshole to speak at NRA convention after claiming gun lobbying group has no control over him
It's the president's third consecutive appearance at the event.
President the rich asshole is slated to speak at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention later this week, White House officials confirmed on Sunday night. The event comes just two months after the rich asshole told lawmakers they shouldn’t fear the NRA, and claimed the gun lobbying group had less power over him than it did over members of Congress.
According to CNN, a White House spokesperson said the president was “finalizing exact details,” but did not offer any additional comment on his speech. The event will be the rich asshole’s third consecutive appearance at the annual convention.
Vice President Mike Pence is also scheduled to deliver remarks at the convention on Friday.
The president’s decision to attend the NRA gathering comes on the heels of comments he made to lawmakers on February 28, in which he chided them for being fearful of the NRA’s lobbying power on Capitol Hill.
“They do have great power, I agree with that,” the rich asshole said during a bipartisan meeting at the White House, responding to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who had argued that passing gun legislation was nearly impossible because of the NRA’s monetary stranglehold on Congress. “They have great power over you people. They have less power over me. What do I need?”
the rich asshole added, “Some of you people are petrified of the NRA. You can’t be petrified. They want to do what is right, and they’re going to do what’s right. I really believe that.”
Since those comments though, the president’s actions suggest that the NRA’s influence over him might in fact be even stronger than over members of Congress: in the wake of the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida which left 17 people dead, the rich asshole initially expressed a willingness to work with legislators to enact stricter gun measures, including raising the minimum purchasing age for assault-style rifles from 18 to 21 and expanding background checks. Days later, following several meetings with top NRA executives, the president changed his tune.
“….On 18 to 21 Age Limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting,” the rich asshole tweeted on March 12, remarking on the administration’s official plan to deter future school shootings, released that same morning. “States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly).”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the president’s comments later that day, saying that the rich asshole was “making sure that the things we can do right now, we’re actually doing, instead of holding some of those pieces back.”
the rich asshole also backed down on the idea of universal background checks, another gun reform measure the NRA vehemently opposes.
“Universal means something different to a lot of people,” Sanders stated on March 2. “He certainly wants to focus and improve on the background check system.”
Sanders’ comments came one day after NRA lobbying executive Chris Cox tweeted about meeting with the president, saying both the rich asshole and Pence “support the Second Amendment, support strong due process and don’t want gun control.”
I had a great meeting tonight with @realDonaldTrump & @VP. We all want safe schools, mental health reform and to keep guns away from dangerous people. POTUS & VPOTUS support the Second Amendment, support strong due process and don’t want gun control. #NRA #MAGA
As ThinkProgress previously noted, the NRA dropped nearly $11 million in outside spending to support the rich asshole during the 2016 election, and nearly $20 million more to attack his rival, Hillary Clinton.
the rich asshole’s visit to the annual NRA convention comes at a fraught time for the gun lobbying group. On Friday, CNN reported that the NRA was poring over documents linked to Kremlin-backed banker Alexander Torshin, a lifelong NRA member.
Torshin has been accused of funneling money through the NRA to boost the rich asshole’s 2016 presidential bid, and is currently being investigated by the FBI, according to sources who spoke with McClatchy. It’s not clear when the investigation first began or whether it’s linked to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into allegations of collusion between the the rich asshole campaign and Russian officials.
the rich asshole: 'No reason' to apologize for comments about immigrants during campaign
President the rich asshole on Monday said there’s “no reason” to apologize for his rhetoric toward immigrants during the 2016 presidential campaign, even as that rhetoric has drawn renewed scrutiny thanks to a lawsuit over his proposed travel ban.
“There’s no reason to apologize. Our immigration laws in this country are a total disaster,” the rich asshole said during a joint press conference with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
“They're laughed at, all over the world, they’re laughed at for their total stupidity,” he added.
the rich asshole was asked if he’d apologize for his campaign rhetoric about immigrants if it could help end a lawsuit challenging his proposed travel ban. the rich asshole said he didn't think an apology would matter, adding later, "I think if I apologized it wouldn’t make 10 cents worth of difference to [opponents of the travel ban.]”
During the 2016 presidential campaign, the rich asshole called for a full ban on Muslims from entering the country, suggested Mexico was sending “rapists” and “criminals” across the border, and questioned if a judge with Mexican heritage could be impartial.
He largely used the opportunity Monday to address the need for changes to U.S. immigration laws, which he has done frequently in recent months.
"We’re doing the best we can with it, but we have to have changes in Congress and we have to have it quickly," the rich asshole said.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case over the rich asshole's travel ban last week.
The latest policy, issued by a presidential proclamation, initially limited travel into the United States by people from Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen and Chad, though the White House announced earlier this month it was dropping Chad from the list.
A point of contention in the lawsuit is whether the rich asshole’s campaign statements and tweets during his presidency prove his proclamation was based on an animus towards Muslims.
This bank was under investigation until the rich asshole got elected — and now it’s involved in multiple Kushner deals
Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor to President some rich asshole. (DoD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dominique A. Pineiro)
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A bank that had been under federal investigation until last year has played a role in two recent real estate transactions involving Kushner Companies, Jared Kushner’s family company.
Earlier this month, BofI Federal took over a mortgage previously owned by the Kushner Companies for a development in Brooklyn, New York City real estate filings show. The previously unreported transaction involves a loan on a development project in the historically industrial, now gentrifying Bushwick neighborhood. Kushner Companies had made a loan of roughly $30 million to the project at 215 Moore Street in late 2016. Jared Kushner remains a senior adviser to President some rich asshole.
BofI, which was previously known as Bank of Internet USA, said in a statement to ProPublica that it “has no exposure or relationship with Mr. Kushner or his company with respect to 215 Moore St.” The bank likened the transaction to a routine refinancing.
In another transaction last October, the Kushner Companies got a $57 million loan on one of its own projects in New Jersey. BofI Federal provided much of the money behind that loan, Bloomberg reported last week.
BofI Federal Bank faced a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into its lending practices and conflict of interest policies until last year. After multiple subpoenas in 2016, the SEC closed the investigation in late June 2017.
Kushner stepped away from the management of his family real estate company to join the rich asshole White House but held onto many of his family company’s assets, including the Bushwick project debt. Ethics experts have criticized the arrangement, saying it could create conflicts of interest if Kushner Companies business partners have business before the government
Based in San Diego, the publicly traded BofI Federal does most of its real estate lending in California, and has only a small presence in the New York market. It has attracted attention from short-selling investors, who question the bank’s business model and practices. The company has said the investors have purveyed misleading information.
In November 2016, shortly after the presidential election, Kushner Companies announced it was pursuing a new line of business in lending money to other developers’ projects.
That month, the company made a loan of at least $33 million to a well-known New York developer, Toby Moskovits, for a project in Brooklyn. The developers have dubbed the project at 215 Moore Street and several adjacent lots the “Bushwick Generator.” The project is targeting what they describe as “the job-generating tech and creative firms that are repowering Brooklyn’s economy.” On a recent visit, the project was still under construction. Most of the rundown former industrial building was still open to the sky, except for a central open-plan office area where a vintage Singer sewing machine table acts as a front desk.
In a transaction inked in early April, the Kushner Companies debt was transferred to BofI, which is now the lender on the project, real estate filings show. Public records don’t reveal the terms of the BofI transaction and whether Kushner Companies made money or otherwise benefitted.
In a statement, BofI said that it had no relationship with Kushner regarding the Bushwick property. The bank said the owner of the Bushwick project was a pre-existing customer. BofI “decided, after carefully underwriting the transaction, to provide financing to one of our prior customers,” the bank said in a statement.
A Kushner Companies spokeswoman said that the owners of the project exited from the loan and “repaid the Kushner lending arm.” She declined to elaborate on the terms.
BofI also played a role in an earlier Kushner Companies transaction in Jersey City, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Bloomberg reported that BofI provided much of the money for a $57 million October 2017 loan to the One Journal Square development.
The Jersey City loan was issued by Fortress Investment Group and BofI purchased an interest in the loan from Fortress. In its statement, BofI said the terms of that deal are confidential. “Banks routinely purchase participation interests in loans made by other institutional investors,” the statement said.
In the hunt for funding for the same Jersey City project, Kushner’s sister drew negative attention last year when she pitched Chinese investors using a controversial program that gives visas to foreigners who invest in the U.S.
The SEC investigation of BofI was closed without any action on June 27, 2017, several months before the first of the known Kushner transactions, according to documents obtained through public records requests by investment research outfit Probes Reporter.
As part of its investigation, the SEC subpoenaed documents from BofI relating to its internal controls, conflicts of interest policies, and residential loans to foreigners, among other matters.
The New York Post reported early last year that the Justice Department was also looking into issues at the bank related to possible money laundering. “We are not aware of any ongoing DOJ or Treasury investigation,” the company said in a statement.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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the rich asshole: Threats to end Iran deal won't affect North Korea talks
President the rich asshole said Monday that pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal would not hurt upcoming talks with North Korea.
“I think it sends the right message,” the rich asshole said when asked if his approach to the deal with Tehran sends the wrong message to Pyongyang.
“You know, in seven years, that deal will have expired and Iran is free to go ahead and create nuclear weapons,” he added. “Seven years is tomorrow. That’s not acceptable.”
the rich asshole spoke during a press conference with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House.
The president refused to say if he will pull out of the Iran deal before a May 12 deadline to extend sanctions relief.
“We’ll see what happens, I’m not telling you what I’m doing,” the rich asshole said.
the rich asshole renewed his criticism of the Obama-era agreement just minutes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a televised address outlining what he said were Iran’s violation of the nuclear pact.
“That is just not an acceptable situation. They’re not sitting back idly. They’re setting off missiles, which they say are for television purposes. I don’t think so,” he said.
the rich asshole also opened the door to a new nuclear pact with Iran, something its leaders have already ruled out, saying his dissatisfaction “doesn’t mean we won’t negotiate a real agreement.”
the rich asshole is expected to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks for high-stakes talks over the rogue leader’s nuclear weapons.
Some foreign-policy watchers say that if the rich asshole pulls the U.S. out of the Iran deal, it could send a message to Kim that the president should not be taken at his word.
Multiple reports over the weekend indicated that North Korea has offered major concessions, such as ending its nuclear program if the U.S. agrees not to invade the country in the future.
Skeptics say Pyongyang has made major promises about curbing its weapons program in the past but has not followed through.
the rich asshole, who has demanded complete denuclearization in North Korea, said Monday that Singapore and the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea are being considered as potential meeting sites.
the rich asshole has long railed against the Iran deal, calling it "terrible" and "the worst ever."
European allies have urged the rich asshole to remain in the Iran accord while working on a supplemental deal that addresses flaws he sees in the existing agreement.
the rich asshole defends calling African nations ‘shithole countries’ while standing next to Nigerian leader
"You do have some countries that are in very bad shape and very tough places to live in."
During a White House news conference with Nigerian Prime Minster Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, President the rich asshole defended calling African nations “shithole countries.”
A reporter asked Buhari if he and the rich asshole discussed “his reported comments from earlier this year, when he reportedly used vulgar language to describe African nations” during their talks earlier in the day.
Buhari diplomatically dodged the question, saying, “I’m very careful with what the press says about other than myself, um, I’m not sure about the validity of whether that allegation against was true or not, so the best thing for me is to keep quiet.”
But the rich asshole jumped in. He said “we didn’t discuss it,” but then indicated that if the two heads of state had, he wouldn’t have felt compelled to apologize for anything.
“We didn’t discuss it, and you do have some countries that are in very bad shape and very tough places to live in,” the rich asshole said. “But we didn’t discuss it because the president knows me and he knows where I’m coming from, and I appreciate that.”
In January, the Washington Post reported that during a bipartisan meeting about immigration from countries like Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations, the rich asshole said, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”
As the rich asshole’s comments were widely criticized as racist, the White House released a statement that didn’t deny anything, but instead touted that while “certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries… President the rich asshole will always fight for the American people.”
the rich asshole later denied that he said anything “derogatory about Haitians.” Notably, however, he didn’t deny calling African countries “shitholes.”
During another part of Monday’s news conference, the rich asshole was asked if he has any regrets about calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” during the presidential campaign. the rich asshole indicated he has no regrets about that racially incendiary comment either.
Trump offers quote that the QAnon crowd will be sure to take notice of: "Think of it, in a modern world, this world, there is more human trafficking and slavery than at any time in the history of this world. It is it hard to believe." pic.twitter.com/iJoIiXzpfR
TRUMP on his call for a Muslim ban during the campaign: "There is nothing to apologize for." pic.twitter.com/zufM2fhBwL
“There is no reason to apologize,” the rich asshole said. “There is nothing to apologize for. We have to have strong immigration laws to protect our country.”
Stormy Daniels sues the rich asshole for defamation
BY AVERY ANAPOL - 04/30/18 02:04 PM EDT
Adult-film star Stormy Daniels has filed a defamation suit against President the rich asshole in addition to her ongoing one against his personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
Daniels's lawyer, Michael Avenatti, tweeted Monday that his client has filed the lawsuit for the rich asshole's "irresponsible and defamatory statements" about Daniels, whom Cohen paid $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement weeks before the 2016 election.
The complaint alleges that the rich asshole's tweets mocking Daniels over a forensic sketch of a man she says threatened her to keep quiet about her claims of an affair with the president amount to defamation because they accuse her of fabricating the alleged crime, which would itself be illegal.
Moments ago, we filed this lawsuit against Mr. Trump for his recent irresponsible and defamatory statements about my client @stormydaniels. He is well aware of what transpired and his complicity. We fully intend on bringing it to light. #buckleup #bastadropbox.com/s/cghg5fwc42lh…
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is seeking damages in excess of $75,000, claiming that in posting the tweets, the rich asshole knew that Daniels "would be subjected to threats of violence, economic harm, and reputational damage."
Daniels claimed in a “60 Minutes” interview last month that in 2011 a man approached her and her infant daughter in a parking lot and threatened her not to speak about the alleged affair.
“He leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That’s a beautiful little girl,' ” Daniels said. “ 'It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.' And then he was gone.”
In response to the forensic sketch Daniels released, the rich asshole tweeted that the situation was “a total con job,” and shared a tweet that compared the sketch to a photo of Daniels’s ex-husband, suggesting that the two are the same person.
A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)! twitter.com/shennafoxmusic…
Cohen has requested and on Friday received a 90-day stay in Daniels's lawsuit against him, following the FBI raids on his office, home and hotel room earlier this month.
Last week, Cohen invoked his Fifth Amendment rights in the suit, saying he could not effectively defend himself because it might incriminate him in the federal case.
The FBI raids included documents related to the $130,000 payment, among other issues. They came in part from a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, though the case against Cohen is reportedly not directly related to the probe into Russia's election interference.
Cohen is reportedly under investigation for campaign finance and bank fraud violations.
the rich asshole campaign’s $228,000 payments to Michael Cohen could be ‘witness tampering’: ex-White House ethics chief
Norman Eisen (Screengrab / CNN)
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President some rich asshole’s reelection campaign is reportedly helping longtime the rich asshole attorney Michael Cohen pay his legal bills — and one expert says that this raises the possibility of witness tampering.
Sources tell ABC News that “the rich asshole campaign has spent nearly $228,000 to cover some of the legal expenses” for Cohen, whose office was raided by the FBI earlier this month.
ABC News says that these payments are “raising questions about whether the rich asshole campaign may have violated campaign finance laws,” as it is illegal to use campaign funds for personal use, which could be the case if the rich asshole is using his campaign’s funds in a bid to get his longtime “fixer” off the hook for alleged crimes.
Norm Eisen, who served as the White House ethics chief under former President Barack Obama, writes on Twitter that these payments “could be illegal… on so many levels.”
“Is it repayment for $130k hush money that Cohen paid [to adult film star Stormy Daniels]?” he asked. “If so, campaign finance law issues. Equally troubling: Together with the rich asshole calls, it raises possibility of witness tampering. Risky biz!”
This is problematic--and could be illegal--on so many levels. Is it repayment for $130k hush money that Cohen paid? If so, campaign fin. law issues. Equally troubling: together with the Trump calls, it raises possibility of witness tampering. Risky biz! abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump…
Stephen Spaulding, chief of strategy at the nonprofit watchdog group Common Cause, similarly tells ABC News that the rich asshole’s campaign is on “shaky legal ground” in making payments to Cohen.
the rich asshole campaign covered some of Cohen's legal costs: report
President the rich asshole’s campaign has covered some legal costs for Michael Cohen, ABC News reported Monday.
The campaign spent about $228,000 on three payments to McDermott Will and Emery, a law firm that represents the rich asshole's personal attorney, between October and January.
While the work was listed as "legal consulting" on disclosure forms, sources familiar with the payments told ABC they are related to Cohen's legal fees in the Russia investigation.
Cohen’s attorney, Stephen Ryan, is a partner at McDermott Will and Emery. Ryan has represented Cohen in both the Russian election interference probe and in the case surrounding a $130,000 payment Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about an alleged affair with the rich asshole.
ABC News noted that it is illegal for campaign funds to be spent for personal use and that Cohen has publicly stated that he was not formally part of the the rich asshole campaign.
However, legal experts told ABC News that if the payments were made to cover legal fees in the investigation to Russian election interference, the campaign would not have violated finance law. Sources also told the network that the payments were not related to Daniels.
A rich asshole campaign spokesman declined to comment to ABC News. Ryan, Cohen's attorney at McDermott Will and Emery, also did not return the network's requests for comment.
The new report comes after federal prosecutors revealed that Cohen is under criminal investigation. The FBI raided Cohen's office earlier this month, partially on a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller.
Daniels is suing Cohen for defamation for suggesting that she lied about her alleged affair with the rich asshole. Cohen is asserting his Fifth Amendment rights in the lawsuit.
- Updated at 2:13 p.m.
the rich asshole: ‘No reason to apologize’ for racist words courts use against him
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the rich asshole's long record of ugly racist rhetoric keeps getting him in trouble at court, but he still won't apologize for it.
the rich asshole doubled down on the racism that has hampered him in court, refusing to apologize for comments that have repeatedly hindered implementation of his Muslim ban.
At a joint press conference with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari Monday afternoon, the rich asshole called on the conservative Washington Times for the first question, and was asked if he would apologize for his past comments, even just to make the court cases go away.
“I don’t think it would, number one,” the rich asshole said. “And there’s no reason to apologize. Our immigration laws in this country are a total disaster. They’re laughed at all over the world, they’re laughed at for their stupidity. And we have to have strong immigration laws.
“So I think if I apologized, it wouldn’t make 10 cents worth of difference to them,” he said. “There is nothing to apologize for.”
the rich asshole’s history of racist, anti-Muslim comments has been cited by multiple courts hearing the issue of his Muslim ban. Last May, for example, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals recited a long list of statements from the rich asshole, on the campaign trail and in office, that made clear his “anti-Muslim sentiment.”
Some have suggested that an apology by the rich asshole might help to overcome those legal hurdles and allow his policies to prevail in court.
But even if that were the case, apologizing for his racism and bigotry would cost him much more than a defeat in court. It would cost him the support of the resentful base that put him in office and keeps his approval near 40 percent.
Now Ted Cruz is trying to save his job by threatening to gut health care
By
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Things are looking worse and worse for Ted Cruz's re-election race, and his new pitch to voters isn't going to help him at all.
Texas Republican Ted Cruz is facing an increasingly competitive battle to hold on to his Senate seat, but his new promise to voters is likely to make his chances that much worse.
Instead of trying to boost his numbers with Texas voters, Cruz is vowing to do something deeply unpopular: try again to repeal Obamacare.
“I believe we need to do everything humanly possible to deliver on the promises we made to voters and to score major substantive victories for the American people while we have majorities in both houses and a Republican president,” Cruz told a group of his Republican colleagues last week.
And what does he mean by that?
“We need to finish the job at Obamacare.”
That’s a bizarre and potentially dangerous stance to take, given that Obamacare’s popularity is at a record high.
Republicans’ efforts last year to repeal the health care law blew up in their faces, with the program’s approval numbers going up as the GOP was trying to kill it.
The party’s attempts at sabotage haven’t helped either. Americans enrolled in Obamacare in record numbers last fall, despite the rich asshole administration’s effort to discourage enrollment.
Worse still for Republicans, a recent HuffPost/YouGov poll found 30 percent of registered voters list health care as their top issue this election, and voters trust Democrats over Republicans when it comes to handling health care issues.
In other words, Republicans’ attempts to destroy Obamacare helped push voters who care about health care right into the arms of the Democratic Party.
Amazingly, Cruz isn’t even the only Republican senator up for re-election this year who’s dipping a toe in the repeal waters again. Nevada’s Dean Heller, often cited as the most vulnerable senator, told a group of Republicans at a private luncheon that if re-elected he would fight again to repeal Obamacare.
“If we have 51 Republicans that will vote to repeal and replace, it will happen,” he insisted. Heller’s vote for the failed repeal bill has only hurt him with his constituents and further jeopardized his chances of keeping his job.
It’s a patently desperate move, hoping to rally the base by revisiting an election pitch that used to work for Republicans. But that was before the party took over the White House and Congress, and proved they still cannot follow through.
In the meantime, Obamacare has become more popular than ever. Threatening to gut health care is unlikely to help those Republicans realizing their days may be numbered.
But they don’t have many other options. Despite full control of the federal government, the party has almost nothing to show for it, and they know it. Their singular achievement — a tax scam that gives billions to corporations and the ultra-wealthy — is incredibly unpopular with voters.
So as unlikely as it is to actually work, for Republicans like Cruz — whose Democratic challenger Rep. Beto O’Rourke is outraising him and tying him in the polls — going back to the tired and failed repeal well is all they have left.
Let’s kill the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — it is just a shameful, pompous DC bonding ritual
Comedian Michelle Wolf at the White House Correspondents Dinner (Screenshot)
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The annual “nerd prom,” otherwise known as the White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD), was Saturday night. If we are lucky, it will be the last one. The entire event is inappropriate, and it has nothing to do with comedians being rude to the people in the audience or on the dais. After all, they are hired to do that. The whole tired ritual is based on the old tradition of the comedy “roast,” where people get up and insult the guest of honor, which in the case of the correspondents’ dinner, is the president and the D.C. establishment, including the press.
This article was originally published at Salon
No, the event is inappropriate because it’s an obnoxious suck-up to power, no matter who the president is or how edgy the comedian. The press and the politicians lining up on red carpets with Hollywood celebrities and yukking it up together, as if politics and government were just one big performance and this was their awards show, has always been an excellent illustration of everything that’s wrong with our civic life. But in the age of the rich asshole it’s become downright decadent and disturbing.
This year’s dinner seems to have hit quite a nerve. Comedian Michelle Wolf’s comedy stylings were not appreciated by the press corps or the administration. She called the president and the White House staff liars, which is true, and pointed out that the media benefits from this surreal circus, which is also true. This bound both together in a way that clearly made everyone extremely uncomfortable, as it was meant to.
So now we have much clutching of pearls and rending of garments among members of the press, demanding apologies from Wolf for allegedly insulting Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ looks (which Wolf did not do) and for comparing her to Aunt Lydia in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which is as spot-on as you can get. (As New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum pointed out on Twitter, “her job is *exactly* like Aunt Lydia: she is the frowning female enforcer for a fascist patriarchal society, punishing those who resist her lies.”)
Anyway, Sanders has no right to be upset by any rude insults when she serves as an apologist for this man:
I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came..
Wolf’s jokes were sharp, to be sure, but they were nothing like that. I’m sure no one needs to be reminded of the president’s daily assaults on the press and his political rivals, or anyone else who angers him. So the rich asshole administration calling for smelling salts over this routine is the biggest laugh line of the night.
Here’s a typical example of the Beltway handwringing on Sunday morning.
Apology is owed to @PressSec and others grossly insulted ny Michelle Wolf at White House Correspondents Assoc dinner which started with uplifting heartfelt speech by @margarettalev - comedian was worst since Imus insulted Clinton’s
This is also part of the tiresome ritual, which seems to work itself into a full blown hissy-fit every few years. Mitchell is referring to the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Dinner in 1996 where the comedian for the night was radio personality Don Imus, who rudely referenced the president’s infidelities in front of Hillary Clinton and said that the Clinton administration’s diverse cabinet looked like “the scene out of Star Wars.” Hillary glared and Bill covered his face and everyone was very upset. The correspondents’ association even sent the president and first lady an apology.
But here’s the thing. Clinton regularly appeared with Imus during his campaigns, and the longtime shock jock was even credited with putting Clinton on the map back in 1992. Imus’ show featured a regular parody song about Hillary Clinton with lyrics about how she “fornicates,” “menstruates” and “urinates,” with the refrain: “That’s why the First Lady is a tramp.” He called the president a “fat pantload” and a “lying weasel.” It didn’t stop Bill from calling in and kibitzing with the guy.
Don Imus was a reprehensible racist and misogynist. Yet politicians of both parties lined up to be on his show. And it wasn’t just them. For years after his allegedly despicable performance at that dinner, members of the political press corps kept on appearing with him. It wasn’t until 2007, when Imus described the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hoes,” that he was finally forced off the air, if only temporarily. (Which made many of his media pals very sad.)
The last time the D.C. establishment had a full WHCD meltdown, it was over the appearance of Stephen Colbert in 2006, who performed as his Bill O’Reilly-esque character from Comedy Central and skewered the attendees to the bone over the sycophantic relationship between the media and the George W. Bush administration. That performance is legendary today, but at the time, everyone in Washington was appalled. Again.
As Wikipedia reminds me, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen called Colbert “rude” and a “bully.” Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., House Democratic whip at the time, told the Hill that Bush was “the President of the United States, and he deserves some respect.” Right-wing operative Mary Matalin called Colbert’s performance a “predictable, Bush-bashing kind of humor” and columnist Ana Marie Cox said that Colbert was no hero and sagely observed that “comedy can have a political point but it is not political action.”
Colbert’s routine was savage toward the press, but in subsequent years they all couldn’t wait to get booked for interviews on his show.
Now we have the press corps calling for the fainting couch over Michelle Wolf’s comedy act in what appears to be a once-a-decade bonding exercise between the media and the administration. Journalists are defending the White House against the rude depredations of Big Comedy, while the rich asshole administration pretends that it and the Washington press corps are victims of the coarsening of our patriotic institutions.
Needless to say, this has never been more fatuous than it is right now. While journalists, celebrities and politicians all preened on the red carpet, President the rich asshole was in Michigan calling the press fake, dishonest and despicable, as usual. His worked-up followers stood in front of the media and also preened for the cameras, calling them “degenerate filth.”
This Trump supporter repeatedly yelled at the press, calling media “degenerate filth” and to get out of his country after the Michigan rally concluded pic.twitter.com/hbd8vhpVYc
If anyone thinks that comedians pulling their punches at black-tie Washington events will do anything to change this dynamic, they are fooling themselves.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is a kabuki dance performed by people who want to pretend that sharing one night where they can all dress up in fancy clothes and enjoy their mutual fame is desirable and useful to the government and the system. Every decade or so they also need to pretend to be offended on each others’ part when the comedian they hire to roast themselves “takes it too far” by pointing out what a farce it all is.
If some rich asshole does one good thing during his misbegotten presidency, perhaps it will be to put an end to this charade once and for all.
By Adam Conover
Mr. Conover is the creator of “Adam Ruins Everything” on TruTV.
April 30, 2018
Comedy has no rules, per se. But in my 15 years of writing and performing, I’ve come up with a few guidelines that I find helpful:
1. Be funny.
2. Tell the truth.
3. Make people in power uncomfortable.
By that math, in her performance at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night in Washington, Michelle Wolf did exactly what a great comic is supposed to do. She made the crowd of assembled journalists, politicians and guests laugh; she made them squirm; and she made them gasp in astonishment (and yes, a little delight) when a sharp sliver of the truth cut a little closer to the bone than they were expecting.
In other words, she killed.
Yet in return for her excellence, Ms. Wolf was criticized not just by partisan defenders of the president, but by members of the press, too. Journalists called Ms. Wolf’s set “offensive,” “deplorable” and “a debacle.” Margaret Talev, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, who booked the comedian to perform, released a statementon Sunday night that said “unfortunately, the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit” of the group’s mission.
There is no president of the Comedians’ Association, and though Ms. Wolf and I know each other professionally, I’m not her spokesman. But at risk of speaking out of turn, I’d like to offer this official response from America’s comics: If you don’t want comedy, don’t hire us.
The journalistic and political classes are very eager to borrow the cultural authority of comedians when it suits them, sending out gala invitations and posing for photos in hopes that a bit of that edgy satirical shine will rub off on them. From Senator John McCain’s chummy on-air relationship with Jon Stewart to President Barack Obama’s hyperactive zeal to appear on every comedy product from Jimmy Fallon’s “Slow Jam the News” to “Between Two Ferns,” the message was clear: Comedy is cool.
But as soon as a comic does his or her job too well and uses comedy to speak a truth that could jeopardize the press’s attempt to befriend the political players they cover, reporters put away their cellphone cameras and cry, “Who invited such a rude woman?”
No one who hired Siegfried & Roy was shocked when they brought a tiger onstage. So you shouldn’t be shocked if you book a comedian and she points out that the emperor has no clothes. Or when she points below the emperor’s waistline and makes a rude joke.
Contrary to what several prominent journalists said, the transcript shows that Michelle Wolf did not make a single joke at the expense of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s physical appearance. Rather, she did something much worse in the eyes of those assembled: She ridiculed the White House press secretary’s mendacity, hypocrisy and complicity. And in a searing, brutally funny segment, she criticized the willingness of the press to play along:
“You guys are obsessed with the rich asshole. Did you used to date him? Because you pretend like you hate him, but I think you love him. I think what no one in this room wants to admit is that the rich asshole has helped all of you. He couldn’t sell steaks or vodka or water or college or ties or Eric, but he has helped you. He’s helped you sell your papers and your books and your TV. You helped create this monster, and now you’re profiting off of him. And if you’re gonna profit off of the rich asshole, you should at least give him some money because he doesn’t have any.”
No wonder the crowd seemed so uncomfortable.
Some people noted that Ms. Wolf’s routine was poorly received in the Hilton ballroom itself. But watching her at home I recognized exactly what she was doing. Every performer who has done comedy on television knows that the people in the studio don’t really matter. They’re uncomfortable, they’re tense, and they have to be polite because they’re sitting six inches away from Chris Christie. You’re never getting a real laugh out of them. Instead, you focus on the audience that counts: the folks at home. And the folks at home don’t want comedy that’s polite and tasteful, and secures them access to an interview next Wednesday — they want comedy that stands on the rooftop and calls out hypocrisy and deceit at the top of its lungs.
The way the press corps treats the brilliant comedians it hires is an old joke by now, and we all know the punch lines. In 2016, when Larry Wilmore tore into the cable news industry’s history of racist coverage and greeted President Obama in a manner some took offense to, he was deemed to have gone “too far.” In 2006, Steven Colbert mercilessly mocked President George W. Bush from just feet away. Yet that now legendary performance was very poorly received at the time.
I went back to watch the video again: The assembled press squirms in their seats, barely laughing as Mr. Colbert drops bomb after bomb of brilliant satire. The reviews that followed were just as scathing as those Ms. Wolf received: The Washington Post’s Richard Cohen wrote that Mr. Colbert was “not funny” and “rude”; the New York Observer’s Chris Lehmann said that his “timing was dreadfully off”; Representative Steny H. Hoyer said that the comedian had “crossed the line.” In response, the next year the White House Correspondents’ Association booked the celebrity impressionist and sexagenarian Rich Little, who did Johnny Carson impressions while President Bush happily smiled. So much for satire.
Comics are regularly asked to perform for impossible rooms. They’re called “hell gigs.” I’ve done standup on a ferryboat, at a youth hostel where no one spoke English and, on one memorable occasion, at an electronic music festival where the entire audience was on ecstasy. All three went better than you’d expect. All a comic really needs to put on a show is a microphone, low ceilings (more important than you’d think!) and an audience that’s willing to hear what he or she has to say.
So, which is it? Does the White House press corps want to use the platform to let the unvarnished truth be spoken to those in power? Or would they rather prioritize the preservation of politeness and a chummy relationship with the administration we rely on them to cover? If it’s the former, great! That’s what we do.
If it’s the latter, please, leave America’s comedians off the invite list. Better yet, cancel the whole charade and head out to your local comedy club. You’ll find us there, doing what we’re paid to: telling jokes and telling the truth.
Adam Conover (@adamconover) is the creator and host of “Adam Ruins Everything” on TruTV.
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GOP turns on their top voter suppression fanatic after he loses in court
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Kris Kobach once spearheaded the GOP's plot to block the vote, with the rich asshole's support. Now, after a devastating court defeat, his own party has started to turn on him.
Few people have done more to shape the Republican Party’s recent crusade against voting rights, or have been given more power and influence to regulate the polls, than Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
But now, Kobach’s career looks like it’s in freefall — exactly at the moment Kobach is trying to unseat fellow Republican Jeff Colyer for governor.
Kobach’s latest humiliation came on Friday. After Kobach was found in contempt of court, Republicans in the Kansas House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to ban state funds from being used to pay any penalties he might face.
According to the Topeka Capitol-Journal, the ban is likely illegal and unenforceable. But the vote is a stunning disavowal from the party that not only supported Kobach’s war on democracy but handed him the firepower to wage it.
Kobach has been a formidable force within the GOP as one of the loudest voices alleging massive illegal voting and pushing for severe restrictions at the polls.
Kobach was celebrated by the rich asshole, who has repeatedly claimed he only lost the popular vote due to voter fraud (which has been disproven). He was even appointed to co-chair Mike Pence’s commission on “election integrity.”
The truth is Kobach’s claim of an epidemic of noncitizen voting does not exist. His “reforms” just block legal voters, most of which are low-income and non-white.
Koback attempted to implement many laws known to hold up voters, including requiring voters to submit proof of citizenship before registering — which was repeatedly shot down in court. His personal investigators found barely any cases of voter fraud. And his plan for excessive voter cross-checking is quietly being abandoned, with eight states pulling out over concerns the system is inaccurate and insecure.
And the rich asshole’s voter fraud commission collapsed, after state leaders in both parties refused to submit data and the commission was sued by one of its own members.
As a final humiliation, Kobach was found in contempt of court and ordered to pay the ACLU’s legal fees after the organization sued him for his voter suppression tactics.
Judge Julie Robinson, a George W. Bush appointee, had to reprimand Kobach for not following court procedure, and his own witnesses failed to provide one example of an election being swayed by noncitizen voters.
It seems like Republicans have caught on that their once rising star is a failure. And they want no part of the fallout from his disgrace.
the rich asshole campaign has paid portions of Michael Cohen's legal fees: Sources
The rich asshole campaign has spent nearly $228,000 to cover some of the legal expenses for President some rich asshole’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, sources familiar with the payments tell ABC News, raising questions about whether the rich asshole campaign may have violated campaign finance laws.
Federal Election Commission records show three payments made from the rich asshole campaign to a firm representing Cohen. The “legal consulting” payments were made to McDermott Will and Emery — a law firm where Cohen's attorney Stephen Ryan is a partner — between October 2017 and January 2018.
Cohen has said that he did not have a formal role in the rich asshole campaign, and it is illegal to spend campaign funds for personal use – defined by the FEC as payments for expenses “that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s campaign or responsibilities as a federal officeholder.”
"They're on shaky legal ground," said Stephen Spaulding, chief of strategy at the nonprofit watchdog group Common Cause. "It sounds like they are really pushing the envelope … If the campaign were to say they are campaign-related payments, then maybe it's okay to use campaign funds. But he can't have it both ways."
Legal experts told ABC News that if the payments referenced in the FEC filings are related to the Russia investigation, they likely wouldn't violate campaign finance law, as the investigation is related to the 2016 presidential campaign. If the payments are related to the Stormy Daniels matter, however, the campaign could have a problem.
It is not clear what type of legal work the payments were for, but sources familiar with the matter said that the legal work in question was not related to Daniels.
A spokesperson for the rich asshole campaign declined to comment on the payments. Ryan, Cohen’s attorney, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Matt Rourke/AP
Cohen has been the rich asshole's personal attorney and confidante for more than a decade, but he is now facing possible legal exposure related to his work for the rich asshole.
Ryan has represented Cohen in two key legal matters — Special Counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into possible collusion between the the rich asshole campaign and Russian agents ahead of the 2016 presidential election, and the so-called “hush” agreement he arranged with a porn star who claimed to have had a sexual encounter with the rich asshole in 2006.
Mueller's team has subpoenaed the rich asshole Organization for Russia-related documents, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter, and congressional investigators have asked Cohen to explain his role in confidential negotiations to build a rich asshole Tower in Moscow at the height of the presidential campaign. Cohen told ABC News in Augusts that the rich asshole Organization seriously considered the proposal — which would have brought the world’s tallest building to Moscow — before eventually abandoning the plan.
The special counsel could also be interested in Cohen’s $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the election to keep quiet about an alleged affair with the rich asshole. Earlier this month, the FBI raided Cohen’s home, office, and hotel room and seized records related to the Daniels matter, after a referral from Mueller’s team was made to the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. Cohen has not been charged with a crime. He appeared in court last week, where a judge appointed a “special master” to review the seized material to determine what records, if any, fall under attorney-client privilege.
Cohen’s possible legal jeopardy doesn’t end with the investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York or the special counsel. Daniels has since sued the rich asshole and Cohen over the “hush” agreement, challenging its legitimacy because the rich asshole never signed it, and she later added defamation charges against Cohen to the suit. In a court filing last week, Cohen revealed his plans to exercise his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in that lawsuit.
Mary Altaffer/AP, FILE
The rich asshole campaign spent more than $830,000 on legal consulting during the first three months of 2018, including one payment to the firm representing Cohen, according to FEC reports. The payments made up more than 20 percent of the total campaign expenditures.
More than $279,000 of that went to two other law firms — Harder LLP received $93,181 and Larocca, Hornik, Rosen, Greenberg & Blaha received $186,279 — that have represented President the rich asshole and Cohen in matters related to Daniels, but sources said these particular payments were related to other matters.
The rich asshole campaign also paid Larocca, Hornik, Rosen, Greenberg & Blaha firm nearly $81,000 for "legal consulting" during the 2016 election cycle, FEC reports show. President the rich asshole added Lawrence Rosen, a partner at Larocca, Hornik, Rosen, Greenberg & Blaha, to his legal team in March to handle the legal issues following the disclosure of the so-called "hush" agreement that Cohen negotiated with Daniels. Rosen did not respond to a request for comment on the payments.
The Patriot Legal Defense Fund was established earlier this year to help former the rich asshole campaign staffers and the rich asshole administration officials pay for legal bills associated with the ongoing Russia probes. It is unclear, however, who has benefited from the fund as it does not disclose its beneficiaries. the rich asshole and his immediate family members are excluded from receiving money from the fund, and a source close to former national security adviser Michael Flynn told ABC News in February that he would not accept support from the fund.
In 2017, the rich asshole campaign also paid legal fees to the attorneys representing top aides – and family members – tangled in the ongoing Russia probes. The rich asshole campaign and the Republican National Committee paid $514,000 in legal fees for some rich asshole Jr, and in January, the rich asshole campaign paid more than $66,000 to the law firm representing former the rich asshole bodyguard Keith Schiller, who has been a fixture at the rich asshole’s side for decades and served as the rich asshole’s director of Oval Office operations until September.
‘This makes no sense’: Whoopi Goldberg tries — and fails — to break down the rich asshole’s latest rambling speech
Whoopi Goldberg (Photo: Screen capture)
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President some rich asshole spent Saturday speaking to an audience about a rambling list of topics that meandered from domestic to foreign policy and everywhere in between.
Republican commentator Ana Navarro joined “The View” while Meghan McCain was out with her family in Arizona. She explained that the major things that concerned her were that when the rich asshole asked if there were any Hispanics in the room “the entire crowd booed at the mention of Hispanics.” The second piece that concerned her was the rich asshole supporter rushing to the media pen and telling them that they are horrible and need to get out of his country.
“Maybe the part at the end of this rally where one of his supporters went over to the media pen and started telling them you degenerate filth, get out of my country,” she continued. “If you want to have a real conversation about the White House Correspondents’ dinner, about the tenor of what happened there about the tone, about civility, we also have got to condemn and look at what he’s doing, because you see, I can’t bring myself to hold comedian for one night to a higher standard than we hold the president of the United States for his entire term.”
Joy Behar explained that as a person in power today, the rich asshole can get away with anything.
“So, you know, I was saying that I was fired for saying something one time that he has said 20 million different ways,” she continued. “So, he can get away it. The rest of us cannot. He was saying the Democrats are against the military. This is a man who dodged the draft five times. Who denigrates the Gold Star family. Who denigrated Meghan’s father, John McCain. He just gets up there and says, oh, Democrats hate the military and veterans, I mean, and he gets away it.”
The group of women then read aloud some of the things the rich asshole said. One thing specifically.
“Talking about Hispanics, he says, ‘All these people poring — are going to — all these people pouring across the border are going to vote Democrat. They do it for a lot of reasons. A lot of times they don’t even know they’re doing or why they’re doing it but we have to have borders. We need it fast,'” Whoopi Goldberg read the statement.
“Now, just as a sentence, this makes no sense,” Goldberg said. “Just structurally what are you saying? OK, so we have a lot of issues and at some point someone is going to say, ‘Hey, you know what, we need to start holding this guy to the same standards.’ If you’re going to lead the country that’s not the direction I want to go in. I know that we have laws for a reason. I know that the Constitution works. I don’t always like it. I would like to massage it, but I know it’s there for a reason. This is a good thing for us. It’s good for us to have laws because it keeps people from dictatorships.”
Watch below:
Kathy Griffin is taking back her apology to the rich asshole and his family: F*ck him — I’m not holding back
Kathy Griffin (Photo: Screen capture)
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Comedian Kathy Griffin is making a comeback after the controversy surrounding her photo of her holding a bloodied head of President some rich asshole.
While Griffin made apologies for what she thought was funny and ironic given years of similar attacks on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, now she’s taking back that apology.
“Yeah, I take the apology back. F*ck him,” she told the hosts of “The View” Monday. “And Don Jr. and Eric, or as I call them Eddie Munster and Date Rape.’ I’m not holding back on this family. This president is different and I have been through the mill and so now I’m back on the road. I sold out Carnegie Hall in less than 24 hours.”
She explained that her mother, who watches Fox News and “thinks that it’s real,” was afraid that her own daughter had been recruited by Al-Qaeda or ISIS. “I had to tell her, ‘I don’t think they’re taking 57-year-old red-haired Irish-American comedians today.”
When asked if she regrets apologizing, Griffin said she did.
“I mean, I’m not kidding. I’ve performed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two places the rich asshole has never been and can’t find on a map,” she continued. “If course with my connection with the military I thought of literally Daniel Pearl’s mother and so I thought, OK, obviously not very many people literally witnessed that horrendous event but when I thought of her I thought, OK, apologize. And then when I found out that I was really just kind of part of the rich asshole wood chipper which Michelle Wolf is in now and, you know, I didn’t know they had this apparatus already set up before my silly picture of a $5 Halloween mask and ketchup and wanted to make a statement about what a misogynist he is."
She specifically cited eight years of President Barack Obama’s effigy being hanged or lynched by his opponents. She also noted that people had decapitated Hillary Clinton heads during the 2016 election as well.
“It’s important — the First Amendment is the First Amendment for a reason,” she explained. “It’s the first one — and also, I mean, the thing is, this guy just is different. I don’t mean to disrespect the presidency. I’ve been to the White House. I have visited. I, you know, I was doing stand-up for so long, there was a time in the Bill Clinton days you could make fun of that Monica [Lewinsky] dress all day long and nobody thought you were a terrorist but now, like, you said things have gotten not only politically incorrect but this administration and learned it firsthand because I got a call the next day from the Department of Justice and I was under a two-month federal investigation for conspiracy to assassinate the president of the United States.”
Watch the full commentary below:
Fox News host says don’t make jokes about top White House officials because they aren’t powerful
Brian Kilmeade thinks Sarah Sanders and Kellyanne Conway are special snowflakes.
During his Fox News Radio show on Monday, Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade made a case that comedian Michelle Wolf’s monologue at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — in particular, her jokes about Sarah Sanders — were inappropriate, because her targets aren’t sufficiently powerful.
Kilmeade, who was in attendance on Saturday, claimed, “very few, I can tell you, were laughing at Michelle Wolf. Cringing, more likely. Because — because there was a victim. With comedy, the victim should be powerful people. They shouldn’t be Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.”
Here’s the audio, via Media Matters:
Kilmeade’s argument would make sense if Sanders and Conway weren’t public figures, or were being forced to serve as two of the most recognizable faces in the the rich asshole White House against their will. But that is not the case.
On Fox & Friends, hosts expressed similar objections to Wolf’s monologue. Kilmeade made a case that the solution is not to stop booking comedians at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner altogether, but to book ones that will do a better job going after both sides.
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“A lot of people says, ‘well, it’s time to cut the comedian’ — I don’t think it’s time to cut the comedian,” Kilmeade said. “I would think that Jay Leno would be the guy. You come in there, you use the issues and you have fun, and you mock both sides.”
In particular, Fox & Friends hosts objected Wolf’s joke about how Sanders “burns facts, and then she uses the ash to create a perfect smoky eye.” Even though Wolf’s joke was about Sanders honesty and not her makeup skills, host Ainsley Earhardt said Sanders was “sitting five feet from this comedian, and this comedian is making fun of her appearance.”
C-SPAN cuts off Republican caller who says Michelle Wolf is ‘ignorant’ because she talked about ‘tampons’
Pedro Echevarria takes calls on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr's death (C-SPAN/screen grab)
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C-SPAN host Pedro Echevarria on Monday hung up on a caller who alleged that comedienne Michelle Wolf was “ignorant” because she talked about tampons at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday.
During her controversial comedy routine at the annual dinner, Wolf joked that White House adviser Ivanka the rich asshole is “as helpful to women as an empty box of tampons.”
On Monday, a man from Pennsylvania named Howard calling in on C-SPAN’s Republican line lashed out at Wolf.
“I think she’s ignorant,” Howard said of Wolf. “And I don’t think that C-SPAN should carry that kind of stuff.”
“As far as what she said, what makes her ignorant in your mind?” Echevarria wondered.
“Well, the tampons and all this and that,” Howard replied. “You claim to be a family program. Now, I watch a lot of C-SPAN every morning. I watched back during the inauguration, you had the two white entertainers and how they cussed. And you had a black man up on the soap box, how he cussed.”
“Caller, just to let you know, regardless of Correspondents’ Dinner, regardless of Inauguration, we air these things in total,” Echevarria explained. “That’s part of our mission.”
“Why do you cut off the caller when they mentioned fellatio?” Howard charged.
“Well, you just said it and I didn’t cut you off,” Echevarria said as he hung up on the caller.
Watch the video below from C-SPAN.
Lin-Manuel Miranda Defended Michelle Wolf Over Her White House Correspondents' Dinner Jokes
Miranda was once the subject of the rich asshole fury after the Hamilton cast addressed Mike Pence. He told Michelle Wolf she did a great job despite what the haters are saying.
Lin-Manuel Miranda knows a thing or two about pissing off the the rich asshole administrationthrough entertainment, and he has some advice for controversial White House Correspondents' Dinner comedian Michelle Wolf: job well done.
"Great job. It was really funny and you did your job," Miranda said Monday during his appearance on BuzzFeed's AM to DM.
The Hamilton creator and star also defended Wolf, who is facing backlash in some conservative and media circles for her jokes about press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and other women in the the rich asshole administration.
"I actually really like Sarah. I think she’s very resourceful," Wolf said. "She burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies."
The comedian also compared the rich asshole's press secretary to Aunt Lydia from The Handmaid’s Tale and called her an "Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women."
That @PressSec sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out, on national television, was impressive.
Miranda, whose show became the target of the rich asshole fury when cast members addressed Pence when he attended in November 2016, defended Wolf's wide-ranging jokes. He also said the rich asshole had abdicated the traditional responsibility of attending the dinner and being the subject of a comic roast.
"I thought she punched all around. She dinged the press, she dinged Democrats, she dinged Republicans, she dinged the president, who is supposed to sit there, by the way. That's been the tradition is that we all sit there and enjoy it.
"So that was an abdication of responsibility of not being there to take the joke," he said.
Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images
the rich asshole supporters called for a boycott of Hamilton after the Pence incident, and the then president-elect also weighed in.
"The cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior," he tweeted.
White House pushes back on reports of Jackson's ouster as the rich asshole's physician
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 04/30/18 10:17 AM EDT
The White House on Monday pushed back on reports that Dr. Ronny Jackson, the failed Veterans Affairs nominee, is no longer President the rich asshole’s personal physician.
White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement that Jackson, a Navy rear admiral, is “currently on active duty” and is still “assigned to the White House.”
“Despite published reports, there are no personnel announcements at this time,” Shah said.
The statement does not deny outright that Jackson’s role has changed on the White House medical team.
Politico and The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Jackson will not return to his previous role as physician to the president.
The reports said Sean Conley, a Navy veteran who had performed Jackson’s responsibilities following his nomination, would continue to serve as the president’s personal doctor.
Jackson withdrew as nominee to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs last week amid allegations that he drank on the job, overprescribed medication and contributed to a hostile work environment.
Those charges, which the White House has denied, compounded concerns on Capitol Hill that the former combat doctor was not qualified to lead the nation’s second-largest Cabinet agency.
The root causes of the rich asshole’s rise also reveal how to stop him and his ilk
some rich asshole's grandparents fled poverty in Germany to go to America (AFP Photo/Timothy A. Clary)
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Why did working class voters choose a selfish, thin-skinned, petulant, lying, narcissistic, boastful, megalomaniac for president?
With the 2018 midterms around the corner, and prospective Democratic candidates already eyeing the 2020 race, the answer is important because it will influence how Democrats campaign.
One explanation focuses on economic hardship. The working class fell for the rich asshole’s economic populism.
A competing explanation – which got a boost this week from a study published by the National Academy of Sciences – dismisses economic hardship, and blames it on whites’ fear of losing status to blacks and immigrants. They were attracted to the rich asshole’s form of identity politics – bigotry.
If Democrats accept the bigotry explanation, they may be more inclined to foster their own identity politics of women, blacks, and Latinos. And they’ll be less inclined to come up with credible solutions to widening inequality and growing economic insecurity.
Yet the truth isn’t found in one explanation or the other. It’s in the interplay between the two.
Certainly many white working class men and women were – and still are – receptive to the rich asshole’s bigotry.
But what made them receptive? Racism and xenophobia aren’t exactly new to American life. Fears of blacks and immigrants have been with us since the founding of the Republic.
What changed was the economy. Since the 1980s the wages and economic prospects of the typical American worker have stagnated. Two-thirds now live paycheck to paycheck, and those paychecks have grown less secure.
Good-paying jobs have disappeared from vast stretches of the land. Despite the official low unemployment rate, millions continue to work part-time who want steady jobs or they’re too discouraged to look for work.
When I was Secretary of Labor in the 1990s, I frequently visited the Rust Belt, Midwest, and South, where blue-collar workers told me they were working harder than ever but getting nowhere.
Meanwhile, all the economy’s gains have gone to the richest ten percent, mostly the top 1 percent. Wealthy individuals and big corporations have, in turn, invested some of those gains into politics.
As a result, big money now calls the shots in Washington – obtaining subsidies, tax breaks, tax loopholes (even the rich asshole promised to close the “carried interest” loophole yet it remains), and bailouts.
The near meltdown of Wall Street in 2008 precipitated a recession that cost millions their jobs, homes, and savings. But the Street got bailed out and not a single Wall Street executive went to jail.
The experience traumatized America. In the two years leading up to the 2016 election, I revisited many of the places I had visited when I was labor secretary. People still complained of getting nowhere, but now they also told me the system was “rigged” against them.
A surprising number said they planned to vote for Bernie Sanders or some rich asshole – the two anti-establishment candidates who promised to “shake up” Washington.
This whole story might have been different had Democrats done more to remedy wage stagnation and widening inequality when they had the chance.
Instead, Bill Clinton was a pro-growth “New Democrat” who opened trade with China, deregulated Wall Street, and balanced the budget. (I still have some painful scars from that time.)
Obama bailed out the banks but not homeowners. Obamacare, while important to the poor, didn’t alleviate the financial stresses on the working class, particularly in states refused to expand Medicaid.
In the 2016 election Hillary Clinton offered a plethora of small-bore policy proposals – all sensible but none big enough to make a difference.
Into this expanding void came the rich asshole’s racism and xenophobia – focusing the cumulative economic rage on scapegoats that had nothing to do with its causes. It was hardly the first time in history a demagogue has used this playbook.
If America doesn’t respond to the calamity that’s befallen the working class, we’ll have Trumps as far as the eye can see.
A few Democrats are getting the message – pushing ambitious ideas like government-guaranteed full employment, single-payer health care, industry-wide collective bargaining, and a universal basic income.
But none has yet offered a way to finance these things, such as a progressive tax on wealth.
Nor have they offered a credible way to get big money out of politics. Even if “Citizens United” isn’t overruled, big money’s influence could be limited with generous public financing of elections, full disclosure of the source of all campaign contributions, and a clampdown on the revolving door between business and government.
the rich asshole isn’t the cause of what’s happened to America. He’s the consequence – the product of years of stagnant wages and big money’s corruption of our democracy.
If they really want to stop the rich asshole and prevent future Trumps, Democrats will need to address these causes of the rich asshole’s rise.
Jeff Sessions Deletes ‘Need For Free Press’ From Manual For Federal Prosecutors
Does the the rich asshole Administration support a free press? If The rich asshole’s repeated attacks on the media every single time they call him out on his lies and his Hitlerian “FAKE NEWS” (Hitler preferred the German term Lügenpresse, of course) narrative weren’t enough to convince you, let’s take a look at what Jeff Sessions’ DOJ just did.
Buzzfeed reports that Sessions’ DOJ has added some stuff to its manual for federal prosecutors and removed some pretty important things as well.
“The changes include new sections that underscore Sessions’ focus on religious liberty and the the rich asshole administration’s efforts to crack down on government leaks — there is new language admonishing prosecutors not to share classified information and directing them to report contacts with the media,” the publication reports.
BUT it’s not all about preventing people from leaking information the the rich asshole administration doesn’t want to get out to the public. The changes also make it clear to the rest of us that the First Amendment really is at risk under The rich asshole’s rule:
The media contacts policy was updated in the manual in November. A subsection titled “Need for Free Press and Public Trial” was removed entirely. That section, which was included in versions of the manual at least as far back as 1988, according to DOJ archives, read as follows:“Likewise, careful weight must be given in each case to the constitutional requirements of a free press and public trials as well as the right of the people in a constitutional democracy to have access to information about the conduct of law enforcement officers, prosecutors and courts, consistent with the individual rights of the accused. Further, recognition should be given to the needs of public safety, the apprehension of fugitives, and the rights of the public to be informed on matters that can affect enactment or enforcement of public laws or the development or change of public policy.”
Sessions’ DOJ also added sections that mention that it’s illegal to share classified information with someone who isn’t authorized to receive it and another requires employees to report “any contact with a member of the media about a DOJ matter.”
Those additions aren’t new information, but when considered along with the removal of the section about the “need for free press,” the the rich asshole administration’s agenda is pretty clear.
In addition, Sessions has nixed a section on racial gerrymandering that had read:
“The Voting Section defends from unjustified attack redistricting plans designed to provide minority voters fair opportunities to elect candidates of their choice and endeavors to achieve racially fair results where courts find…that redistricting plans constitute unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.”
Our country is in peril, and since Republicans won’t step up to do something about it, it’s up to us this November to replace them with people who will.
the rich asshole suggests border village as meeting spot for Korean summit
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 04/30/18 08:37 AM EDT
President the rich asshole on Monday suggested his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un take place in the "truce village" between the borders of North Korea and South Korea.
“Numerous countries are being considered for the MEETING, but would Peace House/Freedom House, on the Border of North & South Korea, be a more Representative, Important and Lasting site than a third party country? Just asking!” the rich asshole wrote on Twitter, referring to the location where the leaders of North Korea and South Korea recently met.
Numerous countries are being considered for the MEETING, but would Peace House/Freedom House, on the Border of North & South Korea, be a more Representative, Important and Lasting site than a third party country? Just asking!
The remark comes ahead of an expected meeting between the rich asshole and Kim in the coming weeks.
The Peace House, on the South Korean side of the border, was recently used for delegations of the two Koreas to meet ahead of the Winter Olympics in South Korea.
The White House has yet to announce a date or place for the potential summit. White House national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday said that the administration is still working to determine the meeting place.
“Well we need to agree on a place and that remains an issue,” Bolton told “Fox News Sunday.”
‘Buckle Up’: Stormy Daniels Is Suing the rich asshole For Defamation Over Tweet
Stormy Daniels is suing some rich asshole for defamation over his tweet dismissing a composite sketch of a man who the adult film star says threatened her over her alleged affair with the former reality show star. She has recently also filed a lawsuit against the rich asshole’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Earlier this month, the rich asshole called the sketch “a total con job” in a tweet.
A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)! twitter.com/shennafoxmusic…
Well, that tweet is coming back to haunt him in a bigly fashion.
“By calling the incident a ‘con job,’ some rich asshole’s statement would be understood to state that Ms. Clifford was fabricating the crime and the existence of the assailant, both of which are prohibited under New York law, as well as the law of numerous other states,” Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti wrote in the lawsuit.
“It was apparent that some rich asshole meant to convey that Ms. Clifford is a liar, someone who should not be trusted, that her claims about the threatening encounter are false, and that she was falsely accusing the individual depicted in the sketch of committing a crime, where no crime had been committed. … some rich asshole made his statement either knowing it was false, had serious doubts about the truth of his statement, or made the statement with reckless disregard for its truth or falsity,” Avenatti wrote.
Avenatti made the announcement on Twitter.
“Moments ago, we filed this lawsuit against some rich asshole for his recent irresponsible and defamatory statements about my client @stormydaniels,” he tweeted. “He is well aware of what transpired and his complicity. We fully intend on bringing it to light. #buckleup #basta”
Moments ago, we filed this lawsuit against Mr. Trump for his recent irresponsible and defamatory statements about my client @stormydaniels. He is well aware of what transpired and his complicity. We fully intend on bringing it to light. #buckleup #bastadropbox.com/s/cghg5fwc42lh…
Last week, Cohen invoked his Fifth Amendment rights in the Daniels’ suit, saying he could not effectively defend himself because he might incriminate himself in the federal case.
Ex-GOP House Intel Chair nukes his party’s the rich asshole-Russia report: ‘Worst way to conduct an investigation’
Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-MI (Screen capture)
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Mike Rogers, a former GOP lawmaker who once served as chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, torched his own party for how it’s conducted its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
When asked about former FBI Director James Comey’s comments that the House Republicans’ report on Russian interference was a “wreck,” Rogers acknowledged that he had a point, although he said Democrats were also to blame for the problem.
“Clearly, both of the reports coming out from the Democrats and Republicans are slanted, partisan, leaning reports,” he said. “There’s probably some good information in both. I’ve been reading the Republican report, there’s some interesting information in there, but they all started with a premise and a conclusion that there either was or wasn’t collusion. I never think, as an old FBI agent myself, that is always the worst way to conduct an investigation.”
CNN’s Poppy Harlow then asked Rogers to weigh in on whether President some rich asshole is being wise in using the House GOP’s report as a definitive exoneration of whether his campaign colluded with Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 election.
“What the president’s doing now is to try to set the stage for what may or may not happen,” Rogers explained. “I think that’s a terrible use of his time. But when it comes to both of the reports, I don’t think you can say that they’re definitive in any way.”
Watch the video below.
Conservative Lobbyist: Journalists Shouldn’t ‘Say The President Is Lying’
the rich asshole’s ongoing war on the media is heating up. As the White House Correspondents’ Association caves to The rich asshole’s demands and promises a kinder, gentler, friendlier White House Correspondents’ Dinner in the future, right-wing lobbyists are furthering (or Führering) his message: the media has no business calling him out on his lies.
Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the oldest conservative lobbying organization in the country. the American Conservative Union, appeared on CNN to let the world know that if the rich asshole or one of his representatives lies to you, me, or anyone else, the media’s job is to stay silent and be complicit.
The WHCA is already doing a good job with that, having thrown Michelle Wolf under the bus after the Right criticized her (and lied repeatedly in doing so) for pointing out that Sarah Huckabee Sanders lies constantly and vowed to promote “unity” rather than truth, but Schlapp wants more.
” I also think when it just says she lies, she lies, she lies — now look, we have big political disagreements in this country, and I think it’s wrong for journalists to take that next step,” Schlapp said on CNN’s New Day. “And granted, she’s a comedian, but plenty of journalists do it as well, is they take the next step. Just present the facts. Let the American people decide if they think someone’s lying.”
“The journalists shouldn’t be the one to say that the president or that his spokesperson is lying, because what that does to 50 percent of the country is it makes them feel like they’re not credible to listen to anymore,” he added.
With the GOP screaming “FAKE NEWS” at inconvenient but factual stories and demanding that no one criticize the President, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Germany during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.
Don’t you miss the days when the above statement could be reasonably dismissed as hyperbolic?
Watch it below:
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