Defense bill would authorize the rich asshole's military parade
BY REBECCA KHEEL - 05/04/18 11:25 AM EDT
House Republicans are supporting President the rich asshole’s planned military parade with a provision in the annual defense policy bill that would allow the event to go forward.
According to a summary of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released Friday, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) “agrees with President the rich asshole that it is appropriate to honor and celebrate 100 years of patriotic sacrifice in a way that expresses appreciation and admiration for our men and women in uniform, including a parade in the nation’s capital and a national celebration for that purpose.”
In March, the Defense Department released a memo saying the parade would be held Nov. 11, the 100th anniversary of the end of the World War I.
The parade is meant to highlight contributions of veterans throughout U.S. history and is to include veterans wearing period uniforms, according to the memo. The memo also stipulates that only wheeled vehicles are to be used, not tanks.
At the time of the Pentagon’s confirmation in February, Thornberry told reporters that he didn’t “know that it’s necessary” to have a parade and that the best way to support to the troops is through an increased defense budget.
In order to ensure the parade does not leave the military flat-footed, the NDAA “prohibits the use of operational units or equipment in the parade if the secretary of Defense believes such use will hamper readiness,” according to the summary of the bill.
A summary from committee Democrats, though, puts a different emphasis on the provision.
The bill “authorizes the Defense secretary to use any kind of motorized vehicle, aviation platform, munition, operational military unit or operational military platform, unless he believes its use will affect its readiness,” the Democratic summary said.
The bill would also authorize for use in the parade military units that perform customary ceremonial duties and small arms and munitions appropriate for customary ceremonial honors, according to the Democratic summary.
The inclusion of the provision is likely to spark debate when the committee meets to the consider the bill Wednesday.
In the bill’s summary, committee Republicans fired a shot across the bow of those who oppose the parade.
“For too long our men and women in uniform have been victims of political discord,” the summary said. “Honoring those who have served our nation over the past 100 years, including those who served in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, should not be a political matter.
"Veterans of those conflicts did not let politics stand in the way of their service to the country. No political interest or concern should stand in the way of expressing the country’s gratitude and respect."
the rich asshole throws Giuliani under the bus
"Virtually everything that's been said has been said incorrectly."
On the heels of Rudy Giuliani’s string of disastrous interviews with cable and print outlets, President the rich asshole sought to do some damage control, and in the process threw his new attorney under the bus.
During two brief question-and-answer sessions with reporters on Friday morning, the rich asshole didn’t try to explain the disconnect between Giuliani’s claim that the rich asshole reimbursed Michael Cohen for a hush payment made just before the 2016 election to a woman who says she had an affair with the rich asshole, and the rich asshole’s own previous denial that he knew anything about the payment. Instead, the rich asshole repeatedly asserted that Giuliani simply didn’t know what he was talking about.
“He started yesterday. He will get his facts straight,” the rich asshole said while leaving the White House on his way to the NRA convention in Texas. “Virtually everything that’s been said has been said incorrectly.”
Later, while boarding Air Force One, the rich asshole was asked why he’s changed his story about the Daniels payment. He lashed out at a reporter for asking the question — “I didn’t change any story. I’m telling you this country is growing so fast and to be bringing up that kind of crap and witch hunt all the time…that’s all you want to talk about” — before again suggesting that Giuliani is ignorant of the facts.
“When Rudy made the statement, he had just started and wasn’t totally familiar with everything. And Rudy, we love Rudy, he is a special guy. What he really understands is this is a witch hunt,” the rich asshole said.
Giuliani claims to be better informed than the rich asshole. In a phone interview with NBC, he said there are documents proving that the rich asshole reimbursed Cohen for the payment, which may have violated federal law.
“I don’t think the president realized he paid him [Cohen] back for that specific thing until we [his legal team] made him aware of the paperwork,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani told NBC that the president responded to the news by saying, “‘Oh my goodness, I guess that’s what it was for.'”
For Mueller, a question of three conflicts
BY SHARYL ATTKISSON, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 05/04/18 09:50 AM EDT
As the special counsel investigation surrounding President the rich asshole goes on, we still don’t know what evidence Robert Mueller and his team have amassed behind closed doors. It’s entirely possible they have built a strong case that the rich asshole illegally conspired with Russian President Putin, which the rich asshole’s critics have long claimed but which the rich asshole denies.
If the New York Times' list of questions that Mueller wants to ask the rich asshole is accurate, however, it’s hard not to notice that Mueller is treading in waters in which he — the special counsel — may have at least three serious conflicts of interest.
Think of it this way: You’re the boss at a company and decide to fire an important manager. Maybe you believe he acted improperly, conspired against you, or is simply not the right man for the job. He’s unhappy you fired him. Now imagine the fired employee — or his good friend and colleague — is awarded the power to judge and assess your motives regarding that firing and other matters. Would it be fair to have the very people who feel wronged be put in charge of determining your fate?
Mueller garners a great deal of respect from many in politics, the law and media. But no matter how close to perfect an investigator might be, it may not be reasonable to expect him to be able to completely set aside his feelings on matters of his own position or the treatment of a longtime friend and colleague.
This question isn’t unique to this case. As discussed in an article in Boston College Law Review, “Rethinking Prosecutors' Conflicts of Interest,” legal scholars Bruce Green and Rebecca Roiphe write that “prosecutorial conflicts are ubiquitous” and “ought to be taken seriously … They threaten prosecutors’ exercise of discretion in all cases and pose multiple threats in some cases.” The authors also raise conflicts arising from “institutional ties, that may distort prosecutors’ ability to ascertain and pursue the public interest.”
That brings us to a second area of possible conflicts of interest. Mueller’s institutional ties would seem to be relevant in a case whose counterpoints rest largely on the institution’s own alleged misbehavior. By that I mean some in the intelligence community and the Department of Justice allegedly conspired to “get the rich asshole,” promulgated and leaked questionable “intelligence” that turned out to be political opposition research, and exploited the government’s most intrusive surveillance authority to spy on Americans who were tied to the rich asshole during the presidential campaign. Mueller was an integral part of this very “community” for the better part of three decades.
A third possible conflict of interest involves the case’s entanglements with two of the people instrumental in Mueller’s appointment as special counsel. Though we didn’t know it at the time, it was his old friend Comey who secretly leaked — or gave — information to the New York Times to spur the appointment. And Mueller’s actual appointment was made by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who we now know signed his name to at least one of the controversial wiretaps against a rich asshole campaign associate. To make matters more complex, Rosenstein is the one who provided President the rich asshole a strongly worded memo supporting the decision to fire Comey — an act for which Mueller also apparently is investigating the rich asshole.
If the rich asshole illegally colluded with Russia, these three perceived conflicts might seem to be little more than footnotes to what would be one of the biggest stories of our time. But if there turns out to be scant evidence that the rich asshole broke the law, then a fair legal mind would have to turn his attention to those who might have conspired to make it seem as though he did. Can Mueller be counted on, if necessary, to look in an uncomfortable direction toward friends, colleagues and those who are responsible for his own appointment?
Perhaps.
But the perception of a single conflict of interest can be considered serious enough to trigger a lawyer’s responsibility to recuse or excuse himself. One could argue that Mueller’s perceived conflicts are equal to if not more direct than those that led Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from any Russia probes. Mueller’s failure to publicly address his own conflicts in the case as he continues work may provide the biggest question mark on his ability to remain impartial.
In “Rethinking Prosecutors’ Conflicts of Interest,” the authors state that issues invariably arise over a prosecutor’s “failure of disinterestedness.” Mueller may be a fair, aggressive prosecutor. Yet, to some, it would appear that he is most interested, indeed.
Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) is an Emmy-award winning investigative journalist, author of The New York Times bestsellers “The Smear” and “Stonewalled,” and host of Sinclair’s Sunday TV program “Full Measure
‘Suicide mission’: White House ally offers brutal analysis of the rich asshole’s legal position in Mueller probe
President some rich asshole arrives at the Memorial Amphitheater during the 149th annual Department of Defense (DoD) National Memorial Day Observance. (DoD Photo by U.S. Army Sgt. James K. McCann)
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Even some of President some rich asshole’s allies believe his legal defense is shaky against the special counsel investigation.
The president’s legal team — now led by Rudy Giuliani — has shifted its goal from criminal defense to a political fight to hold off impeachment if Democrats retake Congress in the midterm elections, reported Politico.
the rich asshole and his lawyers plan to challenge special counsel Robert Mueller through the media to chip away at his credibility and keep the support of Republican voters and lawmakers.
“The public strategy has now subsumed the legal strategy,” said one source who has worked with the president’s lawyers. “The public stance is fight, fight, fight. So the legal strategy is now fight, fight, fight.”
Giuliani joined the president’s outside legal team last month, and he blew up the rich asshole’s defense in the Stormy Daniels lawsuit by revealing he had repaid attorney Michael Cohen for a $130,000 hush money payout just days before the 2016 election.
A list of topics Mueller would likely ask the rich asshole during an interview was compiled by the rich asshole’s legal team and then leaked to the New York Times earlier this week.
White House attorney Ty Cobb, who has been negotiating an interview of the president by Mueller, announced this week he would retire from the rich asshole’s legal team at the end of the month, after attorney John Dowd — who advised against the sit-down — already left.
Veteran defense attorney Emmet Flood will join the rich asshole’s legal team, but even some of the president’s allies questioned why the highly respected GOP lawyer would join a chaotic and ruthless White House inner circle.
“The mystery isn’t why Ty Cobb is leaving, it’s why Emmet Flood is joining a suicide mission,” one lawyer close to the White House told Politico.
Michael Cohen reportedly breaks his silence, takes shot at Rudy Giuliani
This story is hard to believe. Michael Cohen, according to someone who spoke to Cohen directly, says not to believe it.
Rudy Giuliani, as part of a media blitz that began Wednesday night, has created a new narrative around the payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels from the rich asshole’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Giuliani claims that the rich asshole, over the course of 2017, repaid Cohen for the $130,000 he sent to Stormy Daniels in 2016 as part of a hush money agreement struck just before the election. And yet Giuliani also claims the rich asshole just found out that he reimbursed Cohen for the money a few days ago. It was Giuliani himself, according to this new narrative, who informed the rich asshole.
Giuliani said he made @realDonaldTrump aware of paperwork that showed payments were actually reimbursements for Stormy. Trump replied: ‘Oh my goodness, I guess that's what it was for,’” Giuliani said.
This story is hard to believe. Michael Cohen himself, according to someone who spoke to Cohen directly, says not to believe it.
Donny Deutsch, an advertising executive who has known Cohen and the rich asshole for years, revealed on MSNBC that he had a conversation with Cohen on Thursday. According to Deutsch, in that conversation Cohen said that the narrative Giuliani had constructed around the Stormy Daniels payment was false.
“I spoke with Michael Cohen yesterday, and his [comment] about Giuliani was that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He also said that, ‘Look, there are two people that know exactly what happened — myself and the president, and you’ll be hearing my side of the story,’” Deutsch said.
Deutsch described Cohen as “very frustrated” with Giuliani’s attempt to spin the facts.
Cohen is currently the target of a federal investigation in the Southern District of New York. His office, home, and hotel room were raided by the FBI on April 9. Based on the threshold of evidence needed to get authorization for such a raid, Cohen is in grave risk of being indicted.
There is reportedly concern among the rich asshole camp that Cohen will “flip” — provide damaging information about the rich asshole to prosecutors in exchange for more lenient treatment. Cohen’s conversation with Deutsch yesterday, as reported, is unlikely to alleviate these fears.
Giuliani: the rich asshole did not know reimbursements to Cohen were for Stormy Daniels payment
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 05/04/18 07:27 AM EDT
Rudy Giuliani said that President the rich asshole had no knowledge until recently of what he was reimbursing his lawyer for when he repaid Michael Cohen $130,000 for the payment Cohen made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels.
In an interview with NBC News, Giuliani, who joined the president's legal team last month, insisted that the rich asshole paid Cohen a total sum of about $420,000, which he says covered a number of fees and expenses for the attorney that Giuliani did not further explain.
“I don't think the president realized he paid him back for that specific thing until we made him aware of the paperwork,” the former New York City mayor told NBC.
His statements come days after Giuliani shocked many in Washington by admitting on Fox News that the rich asshole had reimbursed his attorney for the $130,000 payment to Daniels just days before the 2016 presidenital election.
The admission came after weeks of insistence from the White House that the rich asshole had no knowledge of the payment and the rich asshole himself stating that he didn't know where Cohen got the money to pay Daniels's to stay quiet about an alleged 2006 affair with the rich asshole.
“It's not campaign money. No campaign finance violation. They funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it,” Giuliani said Wednesday. “That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds or whatever funds, it doesn’t matter. The president reimbursed that over a period of several months."
Despite the interview, which critics said was damaging to the president's case, Giuliani says there's "no daylight" between what he says and the president's legal strategy.
"You're not going to see daylight between the president and me," he said. "We're going to work hard to have a consistent strategy."
White House stunned as Giuliani racks up new possible felonies for the rich asshole
By
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the rich asshole's new lawyer Rudy Giuliani seems like he's trying to run the rich asshole off a cliff.
It was a head-scratcher when Rudy Giuliani was announced as the rich asshole’s new top defense attorney just a few weeks ago, while the White House struggles to contain mounting legal woes.
As a lawyer, Giuliani hadn’t practiced inside a courtroom in nearly three decades, and his background was as a prosecutor, not a defense attorney.
Turns out the skeptics were right.
It’s been two days since Giuliani’s scattershot interview on Fox News — where he conceded the rich asshole paid back his attorney Michael Cohen for the $130,000 hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels in 2016 — and the White House is still reeling.
“The explosive revelation, which Mr. Giuliani said was intended to prove that some rich asshole and Mr. Cohen violated no campaign finance laws, prompted frustration and disbelief among the president’s other legal and political advisers, some of whom said they feared the gambit could backfire,” the New York Times reported.
“The president’s other lawyers ultimately determined that Mr. Giuliani had consulted with some rich asshole, people close to them said, but were left speechless about why he decided to make the disclosure in such a high-profile way and without any strategy to handle the fallout.”
Aside from the political ramifications from lying about paying off a porn star prior to Election Day, Giuliani may have actually increased the rich asshole’s legal exposure:
4 possible felonies from Rudy Giuliani admission:
1. $130k payment to Stormy was in-kind coordinated contribution above limits
2. Cohen was a straw donor used to cover up true source of contribution
3. False statements on financial disclosures
4. False statements on banking forms twitter.com/NormEisen/stat…
Giuliani’s goal on Fox News seemed to be to inoculate the rich asshole from any campaign donation violations in terms of Cohen’s hush-money payment. But it appears he failed miserably at that.
Instead, all Giuliani did was to obliterate whatever strains of credibility the White House may have still had among the non-believers.
Now, the White House is left scrambling to explain its previous and obvious lies about Daniels, it’s even losing support from some key right-wing media voices, which are calling out the rampant duplicity.
The punchline is that Giuliani was hired to deal with Robert Mueller’s Russia probe and try to bring that to a close, not to get involved in the Stormy Daniels case.
But now Giuliani’s ensconced himself in both, and they’re both unraveling.
But it wasn’t like the rich asshole had lots of good options. At least a dozen white-collar lawyers had already turned down White House job offers, not wanting to work for an irrational client who often refused to heed legal counsel, and had a long history of not paying his bills.
Now that they’re together, the rich asshole and Giuliani are blazing their own chaotic path — one that appears to be heading straight toward a cliff.
POLITICS
the rich asshole Responds To Erroneous NBC Report That Feds Tapped Michael Cohen’s Phone Lines
NBC and ABC walked back reports that federal investigators had wiretapped the rich asshole’s longtime lawyer.
President some rich asshole lashed out at NBC News after the outlet walked back its report that federal investigators wiretapped the phone lines of his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen as part of their investigations into him.
NBC News first reported on the alleged wiretapping Thursday, citing two people familiar with the legal proceedings related to Cohen. Cohen is under investigation for a $130,000 payment he made to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who claims she had an affair with the rich asshole. ABC News later confirmed the report.
But hours later, NBC issued a correction on air, citing three senior U.S. officials to say Cohen was not wiretapped. ABC, which posted a similar report on Thursday, also corrected its report. Federal officials were actually reportedly monitoring Cohen using a device known as a pen register, which logs phone numbers or Internet addresses that have been contacted.
The fumbled report came the day after Rudy Giuliani, the rich asshole’s newest attorney, told Fox News that the rich asshole repaid Cohen the $130,000 paid to Daniels, allegedly to keep her from speaking out about the affair. The news directly contradicts statements the rich asshole made last month, when he said he had no knowledge of Cohen’s payments to the actress.
Giuliani was “furious” about the initial NBC report, according to The Washington Post’s Robert Costa.
Mueller emerges as villain in Republican campaigns
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 05/04/18 06:00 AM EDT
Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is emerging as a new litmus test in key Republican Senate primaries.
GOP hopefuls locked in nasty primary fights are increasingly denouncing the Russia probe as they try to position themselves as the candidate aligned closest with President the rich asshole.
The volleys against the special counsel — who has been investigating potential collusion between Moscow and the the rich asshole campaign for nearly a year — come at a time when elections in several battleground states have entered a crucial stretch.
Rep. Todd Rokita, who is in a heated three-way primary in Indiana, appears to be the first Republican Senate candidate to include Mueller in a TV spot, telling GOP voters he will “fight the Mueller witch hunt” if he wins.
The ad unfavorably compares the former FBI director, who is widely respected in the Beltway, to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly (Ind.), saying they are using “fake news to try to destroy our president.”
Rokita’s ad is just one example of Republicans trying to outdo each other to be the most pro-the rich asshole candidate in a Republican primary.
Rep. Luke Messer, one of Rokita’s rivals in the primary race, is one of five GOP Senate hopefuls to sign on to a letter nominating the rich asshole for a Nobel Peace Prize. Rokita, in turn, announced he plans to introduce a House resolution for Mueller to either end his probe within 30 days or hand over a status report to Congress that includes an expected end date.
“No one in government should be without accountability, and for many Americans, this investigation looks more like an attempt by the Washington elite to destroy President the rich asshole with innuendo, leaks, and baseless allegations than to provide justice,” Rokita said.
The ascendance of GOP anger at Mueller on the campaign trail comes as the White House and the rich asshole’s legal team are stepping up their attacks on the investigation.
“This is certainly I think a distraction, but I think it’s a distraction to the American people,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), a new addition to the rich asshole's legal team, told Fox News that “the basis of the case is dead. [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions should step in and close it.”
Amid the rich asshole’s attacks, Republican voters appear to be souring on Mueller’s investigation.
Nearly half of Republican voters view Mueller’s probe unfavorably, a 19 percent increase since March, according to a NPR–PBS NewsHour–Marist poll released last month.
A majority of GOP voters don’t believe the rich asshole should fire Mueller, according to a separate Quinnipiac University poll, but 61 percent say the special counsel’s probe is unfair; 82 percent say it is a “political witch hunt,” and 74 percent would oppose legislation preventing the rich asshole from firing Mueller.
While candidates aren’t explicitly saying the rich asshole should fire Mueller — a red line few Republicans are willing to cross — they are taking a different tack from Republicans already in office. GOP lawmakers have urged the rich asshole for months to let Mueller finish his investigation.
Incumbents Republicans up for reelection who don’t face heated fights for their own party’s nomination have taken a somewhat softer tack against Mueller.
Sen. Dean Heller (Nev.), the most vulnerable Senate Republican up for reelection, told Nevada reporters that while he doesn’t want the rich asshole to fire Mueller and he believes the investigation should be “thorough,” he wants “them to get this over with.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), asked about the leaked list of questions Mueller has for the rich asshole, called it “deeply concerning” and warned Mueller against going on a “fishing expedition.”
“The early warning signs in the special counsel investigation were when Bob Mueller filled the team with partisan Democratic prosecutors,” he told a Texas radio station. “History has taught that the problem with special prosecutors … is over and over again they become fishing expeditions.”
Underscoring the potential disconnect between the primary fights and the looming shift to the general election, the Republican National Committee blasted out a note to reporters on Thursday arguing that the Russia election won’t matter in November.
“It’s not the never-ending Russia investigation, White House palace intrigue, or the President’s tweets. It’s the economy, stupid!” the GOP campaign arm said, pointing to polling from Morning Consult that showed Americans were most concerned about economic issues.
But that’s done little to quell growing rhetorical fire from GOP Senate hopefuls.
Each of the candidates in the final Indiana GOP primary debate called for the investigation to end, with Rokita adding that Mueller either needs to “show his cards or fold his hand.”
Most of the Republicans hammering Mueller and the Russia investigation are running in states that the rich asshole won in the 2016 presidential election, a list that includes Indiana.
In Montana, another state won by the rich asshole, Troy Downing, who is competing in a four-way Senate primary, said Mueller’s probe has gone “on too long, no collusion, needs to end!”
Michael Flynn — the rich asshole’s former national security advisor who pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators and is reportedly working with Mueller’s probe — is set to campaign with Downing on Sunday.
Anger over Mueller’s probe was also apparent during a nationally televised debate between three Senate GOP candidates in West Virginia, where primary voters will head to the polls next week.
Rep. Evan Jenkins said Mueller should “end this investigation now.” Meanwhile Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, while sidestepping if he believes the rich asshole should fire Mueller, added: “I think it needs to come to an end. It’s a witch hunt.”
A third West Virginia candidate, former coal CEO Don Blankenship, who was released from prison less than a year ago, touted his own clash with the Justice Department to say he understands the rich asshole’s frustrations.
A third West Virginia candidate, former coal CEO Don Blankenship, who was released from prison less than a year ago, touted his own clash with the Justice Department to say he understands the rich asshole’s frustrations.
“You know I’ve had a little personal experience with the Justice Department,” he said to laughter and applause from the audience. “They lie a lot, too. ... The Mueller investigation should end.”
Vanity Fair reporter predicts the rich asshole will turn on Kushner: ‘No question Jared is going to be thrown under the bus’
Emily Jane Fox (MSNBC)
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The author of a forthcoming book on President some rich asshole’s children agreed with Rudy Giuliani that Jared Kushner was, when it comes down to it, ultimately “disposable.”
The former New York City mayor told Fox News host that the president’s son-in-law could be tossed overboard if the special counsel probe implicated Ivanka the rich asshole, and Vanity Fair reporter Emily Jane Fox put those remarks into context on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“I think it obviously came off as a joke,” Fox said, “and what he was trying to say was in a joking manner, but in all jokes there’s some truth, right? Every comedian knows that.”
Fox said she gained some insight into the president’s relationship with his son-in-law while reporting her book, “Born the rich asshole,” and she said his loyalty had limits.
“I have talked to a handful of people,” Fox said, “especially in reporting the book and for Vanity Fair, who are close to the president, who have been close to him for years, who said if it comes down to it, there’s no question that Jared is going to be thrown under the bus. If the president is presented with a choice of saving himself or his son-in-law, Jared is out before you can say Jared.”
Daniel Goldman, a former deputy U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Kushner was closely involved with Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty in the Russia probe, and Paul Manafort, who has been indicted on numerous charges.
“Bob Mueller is keeping the collusion aspect very close to his vest,” Goldman said, “and I would expect at some point that is going to come out and people should be nervous, Jared Kushner should be nervous, Roger Stone is someone who should be nervous, Paul Manafort — there may be more indictments against him. We have not heard the last of it, but we don’t hear very much about Kushner, but I don’t think that means Bob Mueller is not focusing on him.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski said Kushner was a strong supporter during the transition of Flynn, who served briefly as the rich asshole’s first national security adviser, and Giuliani, who did not join the White House but now serves as a legal adviser to the president.
“He was very much a supporter of Rudy being Secretary of State,” Brzezinski said. “He wanted that, he was pushing that in a big way, and he was extremely defensive of Michael Flynn. He said, ‘You’ve got to understand, you may not support Michael Flynn as national security adviser, but he really understands Donald, he travels with him’ — these are Jared’s words. ‘He calms him down.'”
Flynn was pushed out for lying about his communications during the transition with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and he pleaded guilty late last year to lying to FBI agents about those contacts.
“They have a special relationship, a bond where they’re always together, always talking,” Brzezinski said, paraphrasing Kushner. “Flynn kind of — he didn’t use this word, but almost babysits him, is always minding him, and Jared was the one who was constantly pushing those relationships between Rudy Giuliani and Michael Flynn and obviously — follow the money.”
The conversation then moved into a discussion of Kushner’s “complicated” financial dealings, but co-host Willie Geist interrupted to reflect on what Brzezinski had said about her private discussions with the president’s son-in-law.
“Listening to your description, that’s an insane qualification for the job — the care and feeding of the president,” Geist said.
You get what you vote for.
the rich asshole voters hurt most by the rich asshole policies, new study finds
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond warns southern states face greatest impact from rising temperatures.
Failure to stop business-as-usual global warming will deliver a severe economic blow to Southern states, a recent paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond finds.
Remarkably, this ground-breaking study, “Temperature and Growth” concludes that “under the business-as-usual scenario, the projected trends in rising temperatures could depress U.S. economic growth by up to a third.”
As the Wall Street Journal summed up the findings: “Climate Change May Deeply Wound Long-Term U.S. Growth.”
The study focused on the impact of high temperatures in productivity and found that rising temperatures have their biggest negative economic impact in the summer — but that it’s not just outdoor work like farming and construction that suffers. Using historical data, the authors showed that the finance, retail, and real estate sectors also get hit hard during the hottest summers.
The authors note that a scenario of low CO2 emissions would sharply reduce the economic harm. But such a scenario requires far more aggressive action than the world embraced in the Paris Climate Accord.
In reality, the the rich asshole administration’s policies — to abandon the Paris climate deal while working to gut both domestic climate action and coastal adaptation programs — make the worst business-as-usual scenarios for climate change more likely while undermining any efforts to prepare for what’s coming.
Significantly, the researchers from the University of North Carolina, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank found that “the temperature effects are particularly strong in states with relatively higher summer temperatures, most of which are located in the South.”
The estimated summer impact “for the ten warmest states is about three times as large as their whole-country counterpart.” This means those ten states would be economically devastated in the coming decades.
The study ranks the states by average summer temperature. The top ten, in order, are: Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Arizona. Besides all being in the south, they all also voted for the rich asshole.
We’ve long known the southern U.S. would be hit the hardest by climate change. Back in 2011, the nation’s top climate scientist, James Hansen (then at NASA), warned “If we stay on with business as usual, the southern U.S. will become almost uninhabitable.”
And earlier studies have found that rising temperatures would hit worker productivity hard in peak summer months globally. For instance, a study done in 2013 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) concluded that “heat-stress related labor capacity losses will double globally by 2050 with a warming climate.”
NOAA found that business-as-usual policies cut labor capacity in half during peak months by century’s end.
But the Richmond Fed study is the first to focus specifically on this country: It’s “the first in the literature to systematically document the pervasive effect of summer temperatures on the cross-section of industries in the U.S.”
So it’s the first study to document that the rich asshole’s climate policies will hit the states that voted for him the hardest.
WSJ rakes the rich asshole over the coals for Stormy Daniels lies: ‘Americans will stop believing anything he says’
President some rich asshole (Shane T. McCoy / US Marshals)
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The right-wing Wall Street Journal editorial page raked President some rich asshole over the coals for his handling of the Stormy Daniels mess — and it said he risked completely destroying his credibility with American voters.
Writing about the latest revelations that the rich asshole reimbursed attorney Michael Cohen for paying off Daniels during the 2016 presidential election, the editorial board slammed the rich asshole for repeatedly lying about what he knew about the hush payments.
“some rich asshole’s public deceptions are surely relevant to his job as President, and the attempted cover-up has done greater harm than any affair would have,” the editors write. “some rich asshole asked Americans, not least his supporters, to believe his claims about the payments. They were false and conveniently so in putting the onus on Mr. Cohen. Now, as more of the story has emerged, he wants everyone to believe a new story that he could have told the first time.”
Although the editors acknowledge that lying about an affair with a porn star is a small deal in and of itself, they conclude that the rich asshole will regret regularly lying to the American public during a time when he needs their trust to deal with a crisis.
“some rich asshole is compiling a record that increases the likelihood that few will believe him during a genuine crisis—say, a dispute over speaking with special counsel Robert Mueller or a nuclear showdown with Kim Jong Un,” they conclude. “some rich asshole should worry that Americans will stop believing anything he says.”
POLITICS
Giuliani Tells Mueller To Back Off ‘Fine Woman’ Ivanka the rich asshole But Calls Kushner ‘Disposable’
some rich asshole’s new lawyer says “the whole country” will turn against the special counsel if he targets the president’s daughter.
Rudy Giuliani warned special counsel Robert Mueller to steer clear of Ivanka the rich asshole, daughter of and adviser to President some rich asshole, but said her husband, White House adviser Jared Kushner, is “disposable.”
“If they do do Ivanka, which I doubt they will, the whole country will turn on him,” Giuliani told Sean Hannity on Wednesday night. “They’re going after his daughter?”
Hannity then asked the former New York City mayor about Kushner.
“Jared is a fine man, you know that,” Giuliani said, “But men are, you know, disposable. But a fine woman like Ivanka? Come on.”
The remark didn’t get much attention at first, given that Giuliani made headlines with several other comments.
He admitted that the rich asshole repaid $130,000 to his personal attorney Michael Cohen that had been sent to porn star Stormy Daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement just before the 2016 election.
He also admitted that the rich asshole fired then-FBI Director James Comey in part because he refused to say the president wasn’t under investigation.
The comments about Kushner have some wondering if Giuliani was sending a message.
Former federal prosecutor Paul Butler said on MSNBC that one reading of Giuliani’s comments “might be he’s offering Jared Kushner’s head up on a platter to Mueller as long as he leaves the president’s daughter alone.”
Earlier this year, The New York Times reported that the rich asshole was trying to find a way to get his daughter and son-in-law out of the White House and had asked his chief of staff, John Kelly, for help in ousting the couple.
MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch talked to Michael Cohen — who says Giuliani ‘doesn’t know what he’s talking about’
Donny Deutsch (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch said he spoke to Michael Cohen — who says Rudy Giuliani doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
The former New York City mayor claimed on Fox News that President some rich asshole repaid his longtime attorney for a hush money payout to porn actress Stormy Daniels, but Deutsch told “Morning Joe” that Cohen denied Giuliani’s explosive claims.
“Look, we’ve talked a lot about some rich asshole’s lack of management style,” Deutsch said. “The Giuliani thing is interesting. We forget how, during the campaign, Giuliani was unhinged. If you show clips of him during the campaign, there’s a reason he didn’t get hired for all the jobs he wanted to.”
Deutsch, a former advertising executive who has known both the rich asshole and Cohen for years, said the attorney disputes Giuliani’s account.
“I spoke with Michael Cohen yesterday, and his (account) about Giuliani was that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Deutsch said. “He also said that, ‘Look, there are two people that know exactly what happened — myself and the president, and you’ll be hearing my side of the story,’ and he was obviously very frustrated by what had come out yesterday.”
Deutsch said he understood the rich asshole’s chaotic management style all too well, because he was also a “mercurial guy” as a CEO, but he tried to surround himself with people who offset his weaknesses.
“The last thing I was ever going to do was double and triple down,” he said. “Probably the way Giuliani got there in the first place, one day he was probably pissed — ‘My lawyers aren’t tough, get Giuliani, get Rudy on the phone, he’ll do it’ — and that’s the thought that goes through it, and now we’re starting to see the residue and collateral damage.”
Host Mika Brzezinski said the president told her and co-host Joe Scarborough why he hadn’t hired Giuliani for any of the high-profile White House position he’d sought, before the rich asshole turned on them.
“Well, I’ll just tell you that during the transition, some rich asshole told both Joe and me that Giuliani was a little out of it, was kind of losing it and would fall asleep — it’s what he told us,” she said, “and I don’t know if it played into why he didn’t become Secretary of State. We certainly openly lobbied on the air for that not to happen, because we also thought there was something different with him.”
the rich asshole tweets rant against NBC for correcting inaccurate report on Michael Cohen wiretap warrant
some rich asshole at the NBCUNIVERSAL 2015 Winter TCA Press Tour at The Langham Huntington Hotel (Shutterstock)
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President some rich asshole finally smacked NBC News for walking back a report that his attorney Michael Cohen was under a wiretap warrant.
The network and ABC News each issued corrections to reports that Cohen had been wiretapped by the FBI, saying instead that the attorney had instead been subjected to a pen register — which means that his calls were logged in real time.
“NBC NEWS is wrong again!” the rich asshole tweeted. “They cite ‘sources’ which are constantly wrong. Problem is, like so many others, the sources probably don’t exist, they are fabricated, fiction! NBC, my former home with the Apprentice, is now as bad as Fake News CNN. Sad!”
Rudy Giuliani Wants Limits For the rich asshole Interview In Russia Probe
He wants any the rich asshole interview with Mueller to be limited in time and scope.
(Reuters) - U.S. President some rich asshole’s new chief lawyer said on Thursday that if his client agrees to an interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, it should be limited to a few hours and focus on Russian tampering in the 2016 election.
Asked what questions might be appropriate, the lawyer Rudy Giuliani, a former New York mayor, suggested two to Reuters: “Was there some agreement with the Russians? Was there any meeting of the rich asshole with the Russians?”
A former federal prosecutor, Giuliani said he was the president’s new chief counsel in the Russia investigation but that he would also keep an eye on a U.S. inquiry into a $130,000 hush payment by longtime the rich asshole attorney Michael Cohen to a porn star who said she had a 2006 sexual encounter with the rich asshole.
Giuliani said he wanted any the rich asshole interview with Mueller to be limited in time and scope, suggesting for only 2-1/2 hours and not under oath.
In addition to the Russia questions, Giuliani said investigators could ask about possible obstruction of justice related to the rich asshole’s firing a year ago of then-FBI Director James Comey.
The two sides have been negotiating the terms of a possible interview for months, including topics Mueller might pursue as part of a nearly year-old inquiry into possible collusion between Moscow and the rich asshole’s presidential campaign.
The Kremlin has denied assertions by U.S. intelligence agencies that it meddled in the election. the rich asshole has denied any collusion and has described the investigation as a political witch hunt.
Giuliani, who joined the rich asshole’s legal team last month, said they were trying to figure out whether it was a good idea for the rich asshole to voluntarily submit to an interview.
“Are they trying to trap him?” Giuliani asked. He said the rich asshole’s legal team expected to make a decision in two or three weeks. “We want to get it over with,” he said.
Giuliani said the rich asshole had used retainer fees starting in 2017 to reimburse Cohen for the $130,000 Cohen paid the porn star, Stormy Daniels, in the closing weeks of the November 2016 election.
the rich asshole wrote in a tweet on Thursday that Cohen was not paid using campaign funds. The payment was part of a “private agreement” that involved money that had “nothing to do with the campaign,” the rich asshole said.
He said the payment was aimed at stopping “false and extortionist accusations” Daniels made about a sexual encounter with the rich asshole. the rich asshole acknowledged a non-disclosure agreement with her to secure her silence. He denied they had an affair.
The president had previously told reporters he did not know about the payment Cohen made to Daniels.
The investigation of Cohen is an offshoot of Mueller’s probe.
The claim of repayment is significant because a payment by Cohen could be seen as an illegal campaign contribution. the rich asshole as candidate would have been permitted to make unlimited personal contributions to his own campaign.
But several experts pointed out an undisclosed campaign loan is also a violation of federal election law.
“It is hardly an improvement to claim that what was claimed as a gift is now a secret loan from your lawyer to pay hush money to a porn star,” said Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University Law School Professor who has frequently expressed skepticism about the legal case against the president.
But legal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said it was asking the Department of Justice and Office of Government Ethics to investigate whether the rich asshole made an illegal false statement by not including the $130,000 payment in his personal financial disclosures.
The group said the rich asshole was legally required to disclose any liability in excess of $10,000.
Other legal experts said the payment may not qualify as the sort of financial obligation the rich asshole would have been required to disclose.
Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University, said that while prosecutions for making false statements to the government are common, they are rarely based on an omission on a financial disclosure form.
“I don’t see this becoming a case,” he said.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow details point-by-point how GOP’s latest attacks on Mueller are complete bull
MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow
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MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow acquired a letter sent from two GOP congressmen to the Justice Department demanding they release a de-classified, un-redacted memo detailing special counsel Robert Mueller‘s authority to conduct key aspects of his investigation. There’s only one thing wrong — those congresspeople “clearly don’t know what they’re talking about.”
The April 9 letter — sent from Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Mark Meadows (R-NC) to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — demands the DOJ allow them “access to the entirety of your memo authorizing the entirety of the [Russia] investigation.” The Republicans asked for the “full, unredacted” and declassified version of the memo by the end of the week it was sent.
The congressmen’s letter, had not yet been publicized before Maddow read it on-air, went on to suggest Mueller’s investigation was undertaken “outside the scope of regulations” in a “counter-intelligence basis rather than a criminal basis.”
As Maddow noted, the letter immediately raised red flags because the memo authorizing the Mueller investigation, which she outlined earlier in the segment, is not actually classified but is instead “law enforcement-sensitive.”
“Clearly these members of Congress are freelancing here,” she said. “It’s not at all clear they know what they’re talking about.”
“In at least one important sense, these members of Congress making this demand of Rod Rosenstein, they clearly don’t know what they’re talking about,” Maddow said before noting that in “the rich asshole land,” demands of that nature now happen daily — including on the president’s Twitter feed.
Watch below, via MSNBC:
CNN panel reveals how the rich asshole’s claim he can fire whoever he wants is complete nonsense
CNN political panel (Photo: Screen capture)
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President some rich asshole and his defenders have claimed that as the president he has the power to hire and fire whomever he wishes whenever he wishes.
In a CNN panel discussion, conservative commentator Scott Jennings, whose LinkedIn profile does not say he attended law school, explained this reasoning comes from the three-word “bottom line” that justifies everything: “Because I can.” Jennings explained that as president, the rich asshole has no obligation to justify any hiring or firing decisions to the American people. He cited a 1968 law that claimed the president has that ability specifically with the FBI director.
“So, you think he can fire him if someone gives him a suitcase full of cash to fire him, that would be OK?” asked CNN legal analyst Jeff Toobin.
Jennings said “of course not,” claiming that when it comes to the FBI director, however, the president has the ability to hire and fire as he sees fit.
“No you don’t,” the Harvard Law graduate broke in. “No you don’t. Because the president is not allowed to act out of a corrupt motive, in firing someone who is investigating him. I mean, this is the key issue here, and that’s why what [Rudy] Giuliani said yesterday was not an explanation, it was a confession. It was Giuliani saying, ‘The reason he fired him is that he wouldn’t exculpate the man who fired him. ”
“So, you’re saying that you believe that the 1968 law about hiring and firing the FBI director can be interrupted by certain issues?” Jennings asked.
“Absolutely!” Toobin exclaimed.
Jennings asked if Toobin knew for a fact there was corruption, but Toobin said that the investigation is about that.
Lawyer and democratic strategist Van Jones said that he’s done employment law in the past and he knows that “at will” employees can be fired for whatever reason the employer decides.
“But not an illegal reason,” he qualified. “So, you can’t fire someone just because they’re a woman” or for someone’s race or other reasons that are illegal. “I think that’s what we’re dealing with here. If you have a corrupt motive, you’re firing someone to conceal a crime, you can still get in trouble.”
Democratic commentator Maria Cardona explained that the retrospective of all of the reasons that the rich asshole has given for firing former FBI Director James Comey is all the evidence that anyone needs.
“There is clearly not an innocent reason that he did that,” she said. “Because you wouldn’t have to be making up different reasons as to why you did something. If you did it on the up and up.”
Watch the full conversation below:
Watch MSNBC’s Chris Hayes get in a shouting match with a zany the rich asshole adviser over the Constitution
MSNBC's Chris Hayes (left) and informal the rich asshole legal adviser Victoria Toensing (right). Image via screengrab.
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In her second cable news appearance in as many nights, an attorney linked to both some rich asshole and Fox News host Sean Hannity got into a shouting match with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes over the president’s constitutional authority to fire people.
From the very beginning of her interview, attorney Victoria Toensing argued that the rich asshole has the authority under Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution to fire people as he sees fit — her go-to response when asked about the president’s potential obstruction of justice when firing former FBI director James Comey.
“I’ve heard that argument before,” Hayes shot back. “[the rich asshole-linked Harvard Law professor] Alan Dershowitz has made it, Joseph diGenova, your husband, has made it.”
The host began to explicate Toensings argument when she cut him off, loudly saying “no, no, no” when she disagreed with him in saying she believes it’s “impossible for the president to obstruct justice” when using his authority under the constitution.
He then offered a thought experiment: if President Obama were to have fired the U.S. attorney in Newark, New Jersey who investigated Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) because “he wanted that senators vote,” would that be obstruction of justice? According to Toensing, it would not.
“You think that’s fine?” the host pressed.
“He can fire U.S. attorneys,” the former federal prosecutor told Hayes. “I’m just telling you what the law is.”
“No it’s not!” he shot back, to which Toensing responded with a quip telling the host he should ask his wife, who is a lawyer, for her legal opinion.
Watch the entire heated exchange below, via MSNBC:
Stormy Daniels’ attorney calls BS on the rich asshole’s latest payout claim: He had ‘an extra-marital affair slush fund’
Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti (Photo: Screen capture)
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The tour of Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti continued Thursday where he appeared on CNN to speak with Anderson Cooper and call into question the new legal defense of President some rich asshole.
Commentators have spent the day noting how Rudy Giuliani bombed the rich asshole’s legal case in a single Fox News interview while oddly accepting payment for serving on the president’s defense team.
Avenatti walked Cooper through the ways in which what he said “doesn’t make any sense.”
“We filed our case the first week of March,” he explained. “So, there is no question that he would have had to have known about the allegation or the payment as of that date. Let’s back up even before that. The Wall Street Journal did their article, I think in late January or sometime in February, relating to the disclosure of the agreement and the $130,000. So, I can’t imagine he didn’t know about it at that time. Then you also look at the statement by, and I think you put it up for your audience earlier, the statement by Michael Cohen about facilitating the payment, where he denied being reimbursed by the the rich asshole Organization (or the campaign).”
Avenatti said that he has pointed out before that the time the sment was drafted there was an agreement in place relating to the reimbursement between Stormy Daniels and Cohen.
the rich asshole’s new defense seems to be that he gave Cohen carte blanche in making all of the decisions without any authorization. That’s how Cohen was somehow reimbursed. Avenatti called it nonsense, saying he’s never heard of anyone with an agreement before.
“I’m not aware of another high profile individual who had an attorney on retainer and provided that attorney with a slush fund to pay women that come out of the woodwork that accuse that individual of extra marital affairs,” he continued.
Cooper noted that Avenatti has long maintained that it would be unethical for any attorney to enter into an agreement on behalf of a client with a fake corporation set up simply to make something go away.
“I’m going to call it what it is which is a slush fund and I do believe it would be unethical for Michael Cohen to be administering the extra marital affairs slush fund, not telling some rich asshole on a consistent basis how they were paid and being paid for,” Avenatti continued.
While NBC News has retracted their story saying that investigators were wiretapping Cohen’s phone, Avenatti said that he knows independently of the report that Cohen’s text messages were being monitored as were his emails. NBC’s story was about wiretapping, which Avenatti had not heard of.
Watch the full interview below:
‘Honey, don’t go there’: April Ryan flattens the rich asshole apologist claiming Sarah Sanders shouldn’t have to answer questions about lawyers
CNN's Erin Burnett, April Ryan, Jason Miller and Joan Walsh (Photo: Screen capture)
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CNN contributors April Ryan and Joan Walsh on Thursday shut down some rich asshole defender Jason Miller for looming the “job of the White House press secretary” does not include answering questions about the president’s payment to longtime attorney Michael Cohen.
The panel was discussing Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ press briefing, during which the White House press secretary insisted her repeated denials of the rich asshole’s part in the Daniels payout were made with “the best information [she had] at the time.”
National correspondent Joan Walsh compared that excuse to a deli owner apologizing for rancid salami.
“I sold you the best thing I had at the time. I’m sorry you got sick,” Walsh said.
Sanders became agitated during Thursday’s press briefing when pressed on the payout by Ryan. Ryan said Sanders took it personally and criticized her use of “street” talk when she said “something like, ‘you don’t know me.’”
Miller, however, defended Sanders
“I thought Sarah did fantastic today,” Miller said. “The fact that we’re talking about Sarah not making a bunch of news, and that’s actually driving the news, I don’t think is necessarily a bad thing. I mean, the fact of the matter is, this White House should have had, and this presidency should have had, an outside counsel that was handling these types of issues a year ago. This is not the job of the White House, this is not the job of the White House press secretary. Sarah does a fantastic job every single day.”
“That’s not true,” Ryan replied.
“No, it is true,” Miller said. “Sarah does a fantastic job putting forth information.”
“No, it’s not true, I’ve been there 21 years and I remember impeachment with Bill Clinton—“ Ryan said as Miller interjected, wondering why she was “making it personal?”
“Spin it the way you want to spin,” Ryan shot back.
“Wow, April,” Miller said, suggesting his fellow CNN contributor was now the one taking things personally.
“She attacked me,” Ryan said, referring to Sanders. “She attacked me for asking a question, don’t go there, honey. Don’t go there.”
From there, the conversation quickly derailed. Watch below, via CNN:
GOP rep who brings cardboard the rich asshole cutouts to campaign events demands Mueller provide a ‘progress report’ or end the Russia probe
some rich asshole cardboard cutout and Rep. Todd Rokita (Twitter)
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A Republican member of the House of Representatives on Thursday introduced a resolution requesting special counsel Robert Mueller end his investigation into Russia collusion unless he can provide a “valid progress report” within the next 30 days.
As the Washington Examiner reports, Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) blasted the Mueller investigation for “[dragging] on for nearly a year at a cost of tens of millions of dollars without producing a shred of evidence of collusion.”
“I expect a valid progress report within the next 30 days or the investigation should be terminated,” Rokita demanded.
Rokita argued Mueller was operating “without accountability,” adding “for many Americans, this investigation looks more like an attempt by the Washington elite to destroy President the rich asshole with innuendo, leaks, and baseless allegations than to provide justice.”
Rokita, who is running for Senate in Indiana, released an ad on Wednesday promising to end the Mueller probe if he’s elected.
“Mueller, Pelosi, Donnelly. They’re using fake news to destroy our president. Who’s tough enough to stop the witch hunt?” the ad, echoing the rich asshole, asked. As the Daily Beast reports, the pro-the rich asshole representative has even taken to brandishing his “Make America Great Again” hat and “bringing a cardboard cutout of the president to some campaign events.”
‘Complete and utter horsesh*t’: Internet in disbelief after Pence claims the rich asshole starts Cabinet meetings ‘with prayer’
some rich asshole in Cleveland prayer huddle -- (YouTube screen grab)
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Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday claimed President some rich asshole regularly asks to start Cabinet meetings with prayer — and Twitter can’t handle how audacious and false-seeming the comment was.
As Politico‘s Tim Alberta flagged, Pence told the Christian Broadcasting Network he has “lost count of the number of times that the president has nudged me, or nudged another member of the cabinet and said ‘Let’s start this meeting with prayer.'”
“What complete and utter horsesh*t,” author and Wonkette founder Ana Marie Cox tweeted in response to Pence’s claim.
Open Secrets’ Robert Maguire, meanwhile, noted that the rich asshole admitted “on camera, in front of a live audience” that he never asked God for forgiveness for anything when he was on the campaign trail.
“It would be great if someone would ask Pence about this sometime,” the journalist wrote.
Again, the president admitted, on camera, in front of a live audience, during the campaign that he has never asked God's forgiveness for anything. twitter.com/TimAlberta/sta…
It would be great if someone would ask Pence about this sometime twitter.com/RobertMaguire_…
Check out more responses below:
... "a staff member from trump’s campaign recalls him mocking pence’s religiosity. he said that, when people met with trump after stopping by pence’s office, trump would ask them, “did mike make you pray?” bit.ly/2zrTcSN ht @bjgunts attn @anamariecox twitter.com/TimAlberta/sta…
if only there were some extremely specific directive in the christian scriptures about claiming to have witnessed things that didn't actually happen twitter.com/TimAlberta/sta…
The thing that amazes me about Mike Pence's sycophancy is, he's one guy Trump *can't* fire and he still says patently hilarious things like this twitter.com/TimAlberta/sta…
hilarious. Who is writing these scripts? Do they act it out first to see how realistic it looks or sounds, or do they just wing it? twitter.com/TimAlberta/sta…
Well as long as he is praying I guess the lying cheating racist sexual abusing thief is gonna be ok!twitter.com/TimAlberta/sta…
Anytime Donald Trump suggests prayer, he's dumping another truck load of con on his gullible base. twitter.com/TimAlberta/sta…
Christi If there was anybody left out there who still harbored doubts about Pence being as full of shit as a constipated hippo, doubt no more. twitter.com/TimAlberta/sta…
Mueller requests 70 blank subpoenas for Manafort’s federal case in Virginia
Special counsel Robert Mueller and former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort, composite image.
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Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has requested 70 blank subpoenas in the government’s case against former some rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
According to document filed with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Mueller “respectfully requested” recipients of the 70 subpoenas appear before court at 10 a.m. on July 10, 2018.
Manafort’s trial on 18 criminal charges—including bank fraud—is set to begin July 10 at the federal court in Alexandria, VA. Prosecutors have said they plan to call 20-25 witnesses, CNN reports. Manafort is also scheduled to face charges in Washington, D.C. in September.
CNN’s Jake Tapper has a better idea of someone the rich asshole should have paid to keep quiet than Stormy Daniels
CNN's Jake Tapper (Screengrab)
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Jake Tapper wasted no time in talking about the rich asshole’s new lawyer Rudy Giuliani on his show Thursday afternoon.
Tapper asserted that maybe Giuliani, who’s been vomiting out information and causing chaos in Washington, should have been paid to keep quiet.
Giuliani revealed that President the rich asshole paid $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels as “hush money.”
A statement that directly contradicts what the rich asshole’s team has told the American people.
“The new lawyer turns the stormy Daniels’ scandal upside down admitting that the president did pay back hush money,” Tapper said.
Tapper said that maybe the “hush money” went to the wrong person.
“Maybe Giuliani should have received the hush money.” Tapper said.
Kellyanne Conway’s Husband Reveals How Screwed the rich asshole Is After Giuliani’s Bombshell Interview
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is a paid liar but her husband, who is an attorney, trolls some rich asshole on Twitter and now, he targeted the so-called president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani after he appeared on Sean Hannity’s show. During the interview, Giuliani told Hannity that the former reality show star personally repaid his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen the $130,000 for the “hush agreement” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels — and that somehow, means he couldn’t have violated campaign finance laws but George Conway disagrees. The former New York mayor and current the rich asshole lawyer made the admission despite the rich asshole previously claiming he knew nothing about the nondisclosure agreement. Mr. Conway shared a link to Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules after Giuliani’s bombshell interview.
“If any person, including a relative or friend of the candidate, gives or loans the candidate money “for the purpose of influencing any election for federal office,” the funds are not considered personal funds of the candidate even if they are given to the candidate directly,” the FEC rules read.
“Instead, the gift or loan is considered a contribution from the donor to the campaign, subject to the per-election limit and reportable by the campaign,” it continues. “This is true even if the candidate uses the funds for personal living expenses while campaigning.”
This morning, the rich asshole unleashed a tweetstorm in an attempt to do damage control after his attorney’s interview. Apparently, the former reality show star or his attorneys have never read the FEC rules which Mr. Conway provided.
the rich asshole has the worst attorneys.
MEDIA
Fox News Host Neil Cavuto Tells the rich asshole He Stinks In Fiery Takedown
“I guess you’re too busy draining the swamp to ever stop and smell the stink you’re creating.”
Fox News host Neil Cavuto had some harsh words for some rich asshole on Thursday: Mr. President, you stink.
The host listed some of the rich asshole’s worst lies and misstatements, including claiming there was widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election and the recent revelation that he repaid his personal lawyer Michael Cohen for $130,000 in hush money given to porn star Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, after he’d repeatedly denied knowing about the situation.
“How can you drain the swamp if you’re the one that keeps muddying the water?” Cavuto asked. “You didn’t know about that $130,000 payment to a porn star until you did.”
Cavuto, one of the few hosts on Fox News who calls out the president, said the rich asshole cannot criticize the press for reporting “fake news” when he repeatedly makes false statements without correction.
“Your base probably might not care,” Cavuto added. “But you should. I guess you’re too busy draining the swamp to ever stop and smell the stink you’re creating. That’s your doing. That’s your stink. Mr. President, that’s your swamp.”
Check out the full takedown in the video link here.
Watch: Fox News’ Neil Cavuto spends 4 minutes cataloging the rich asshole’s lies in world-weary lecture
Neil Cavuto gives the rich asshole a lecture/Screenshot
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Neil Cavuto is Fox News’ longest tenured host, having hosted Your World With Neil Cavuto since the network’s 1996 launch.
Cavuto has beat Stage 4 cancer, battles multiple sclerosis and undergone open-heart surgery. He’s also seen the rise and fall of many Republican standard-bearers.
Like Fox personalities such as Shep Smith, Cavuto has an uneasy truce with the rich asshole, who refuses to appear on his show.
But after Rudy Giuliani’s stunning revelation that the rich asshole lied to cover up apparent campaign funding violations related to the Stormy Daniels hush-money payoff, a weary Cavuto have a calm but stern lecture to the president. He documented dozens and dozens of lies and exaggerations told by the rich asshole, from his electoral college win to non-existent New Hampshire voter fraud.
“I guess you’re too busy ‘draining the swamp’ to notice the stink you’re creating,” he said. “Mr. President, that’s your stink.”
Watch below.
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