Obama just fact-checked the rich asshole with a scathing criticism of his decision to violate the Iran nuclear deal
some rich asshole and Barack Obama meet in the Oval Office. (Screengrab)
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Former President Barack Obama responded almost immediately to some rich asshole’s decision to violate the Iran nuclear deal by fact-checking the president’s reasoning for pulling out of the agreement.
“Debates in our country should be informed by facts, especially debates that have proven to be divisive,” the 44th president wrote on Facebook. “So it’s important to review several facts about the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action].”
You can read the entire post below, via Facebook.
POLITICS
the rich asshole To Violate Iran Nuclear Deal, Vows To Reimpose Sanctions
The move puts the future of the 2015 international agreement in crisis.
WASHINGTON — President some rich asshole announced on Tuesday the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.
The U.S. will not extend waivers on sanctions targeting Iran’s nuclear program, effectively ending its compliance with the 2015 international agreement under which Iran accepted restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for economic relief.
“I am announcing today that the U.S. will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” the rich asshole said at the White House. “We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanctions.”
the rich asshole accused the deal ― officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) ― of being poorly negotiated and lacking enforcement mechanisms. He said it allows Iran to develop a nuclear weapon in a short time, but offered no evidence to back these assertions. the rich asshole also cited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s April 30 presentation on Iran’s nuclear program, which alleged that Iran lied about its past nuclear activities before negotiating the nuclear deal.
“At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction: that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program. Today, we have definitive proof that this Iranian promise was a lie,” the rich asshole said.
Nuclear experts and European officials criticized Netanyahu’s speech for pandering to the rich asshole and offering essentially no new information on Iran’s nuclear activities. Much of Netanyahu’s presentation centered on information that was publicly available in a 2007 declassified intelligence report, and Netanyahu did not state that Iran was in current violation of the deal.
European officials, who pushed for the rich asshole to uphold the deal, condemned the president’s decision to pull out. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted shortly after the rich asshole’s speech that France, Germany and the United Kingdom regret the U.S. decision and that “we will work collectively on a broader framework.” The European Union’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini said that the deal was working and fulfilling its promise.
Former President Barack Obama, who touted the Iran deal as one of his chief foreign policy accomplishments, put out a statement criticizing the rich asshole’s decision to undo the agreement.
“Walking away from the JCPOA turns our back on America’s closest allies, and an agreement that our country’s leading diplomats, scientists, and intelligence professionals negotiated,” Obama said.
It is not immediately clear what will happen next. The 2015 nuclear agreement was negotiated among Iran, the U.S. and five other countries — the U.K, France, Germany, China and Russia ― which urged the U.S. not to withdraw. Last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif suggested that if the U.S. pulled out of the nuclear accord, his country could also exit the deal and resume its nuclear program at a “much greater speed.” Iran has no reason to continue to abide by the agreement if the economic benefits “start to diminish,” he said.
But most of the economic benefits Iran receives through the nuclear deal do not come directly from the U.S., which maintains a primary embargo against Iran. When the rich asshole previously waived sanctions, he suspended secondary sanctions, which penalize other countries for doing business with Iran.
“If you take away U.S. sanctions relief, you are taking away probably the most powerful incentive the Iranians had to do their part,” said Richard Nephew, a former State Department official who worked on Iran sanctions policy.
When the rich asshole threatened to pull out of the nuclear agreement last year, the European Union’s ambassador to the U.S., David O’Sullivan, warned that the EU could invoke a blocking statute that would protect European businesses from U.S. secondary sanctions. Theoretically, this means that Iran could continue receiving economic benefits under the 2015 deal and would be compelled to maintain the restrictions on its nuclear program.
But implementing this blocking mechanism or other steps to preserve the deal would be technically difficult and diplomatically risky for European countries.
“It’s going to be a herculean task,” said Reza Marashi, a National Iranian American Council analyst and former State Department official who just returned from two weeks of meeting with officials and experts in Europe.
“The real meat on the bones would take at least a year to implement, and they have no plan for anything ... they’ve spent most of their energy trying to figure out a way for the rich asshole to stay in.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said after the rich asshole’s announcement that Iran will continue its commitment to the deal and negotiate with the remaining countries. If talks fail, he said that Iran could once again begin enriching uranium. Ahead of the rich asshole’s announcement, Rouhani warned that Iranians could face “some problems” in the coming months.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors the use of nuclear energy, has verified Iranian compliance with the agreement multiple times since 2015, most recently in March. Defense Secretary James Mattis, an outspoken critic of the Iranian government, testified before Congress on April 26 that the nuclear deal provided “robust” measures to inspect Iran’s nuclear program and verify that it is complying with the deal.
the rich asshole has called the Iran nuclear agreement the “worst deal ever” and has long pressed his advisers to come up with an alternative strategy to contain Iran’s nuclear efforts. When his advisers failed to deliver, the rich asshole ordered Congress in October to pass legislation that would unilaterally change U.S. commitments under the deal. Two Republican lawmakers briefly tried but failed to attract enough supporters. So the rich asshole turned to the Europeans with an ultimatum: Find a way to fix the deal before May 12, when sanctions waivers would need to be extended, or the U.S. will walk away.
the rich asshole wanted the Europeans to cobble together a supplemental agreement that would impose further limits on Iran’s ballistic missile program and get rid of the deal’s sunset clauses — expiration dates on some of the restrictions on the country’s nuclear program.
Getting rid of the sunset provisions would require fundamentally changing the terms of the 2015 deal — a move that would require approval from all parties.
The leaders of the U.K., Germany and France have argued that the U.S. should remain in the nuclear deal and work with European countries to address Iran’s missile program and develop a plan for what to do after parts of the agreement expire.
Even as the Europeans worked to create a solution that would appease the rich asshole, he ousted two of his advisers who reportedly advocated sticking with the JCPOA: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster. They were replaced by Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, respectively, hawkish figures who have pushed for military confrontation with Iran.
On April 30, Netanyahu said Israeli intelligence had uncovered a trove of documents that showed Iran lied about its past nuclear work when it signed the nuclear agreement in 2015 — which is widely acknowledged, including by proponents of the nuclear deal.
The dramatic televised presentation appeared to be part of an effort to bolster the rich asshole’s argument for exiting the nuclear deal. Israeli officials briefed the rich asshole on the documents two months ago, Barak Ravid of Israel’s Channel 10 News reported.
In some ways, Netanyahu’s presentation highlighted key reasons to keep the 2015 deal alive, nonproliferation experts argued.
“If you think Iran lied — which it did — then the last thing you should ever contemplate doing is killing the JCPOA, removing the limits that it places on Iran’s nuclear program, and cutting off the extraordinary access that the agreement provides to the IAEA,” Jeffrey Lewis, the founder of the nonproliferation blog Arms Control Wonk, wrote in Foreign Policy on May 1. “If you do that, Iran’s nuclear program is very likely to end up looking like North Korea’s.”
Stormy Daniels hints the rich asshole is not well endowed
Stormy Daniels attends the Los Angeles Premiere of "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" held at the Universal Studios in Hollywood, California, United States (Shutterstock).
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Stormy Daniels opened up about her one night with President the rich asshole in an interview with Penthouse.
Daniels’ name has made major headlines since news broke that she had an alleged affair with the president, and was paid nearly $130,000 in “hush money” right before the 2016 election.
Daniels’ latest bit of information dives in details about her sexual encounter with President the rich asshole.
During a speech, President the rich asshole said that his genitals are bigger than his hands.
Daniels shut this claim down quickly.
When asked how “big” the rich asshole is Daniels compared his size to a finger.
“And the penis wasn’t big?” a reporter asked. “Yeah, Like his fingers?”
Daniels said.
Daniels said.
She did say that “everyone’s different” when it comes to having sex, and that she didn’t seek to “shame” President the rich asshole.
Obama: Withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal 'a serious mistake'
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 05/08/18 03:44 PM EDT
Former President Obama on Tuesday called President the rich asshole’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement “misguided” and a “serious mistake.”
"Without the JCPOA, the United States could eventually be left with a losing choice between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East," Obama said in a statement, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
"If the constraints on Iran’s nuclear program under the JCPOA are lost, we could be hastening the day when we are faced with the choice between living with that threat, or going to war to prevent it," he added.
The 2015 agreement between Iran, the U.S., Germany, France, the United Kingdom, China, Russia and the European Union provided sanctions relief to Tehran in exchange for curbing its nuclear program.
Obama expressed concern that withdrawing from the agreement would hurt the U.S.' standing with its world allies. European leaders have already said they intend to honor the agreement without the U.S.
the rich asshole long railed against the agreement, calling it “terrible” and “the worst ever.” His past comments made Tuesday’s move largely unsurprising.
"The fact is, this was a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never ever been made. It didn’t bring calm, it didn’t bring peace and it never will," the rich asshole said Tuesday.
In his statement, Obama sought to counter each of the most popular arguments among the rich asshole and Republicans for leaving the agreement.
He argued that the deal has effectively reined in Iran’s nuclear program, and disputed the rich asshole’s claims that Iran is not complying with the pact.
the rich asshole has also been critical of the sunset clause in the agreement, which lifts restrictions on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program after 2025.
Obama argued that because the sunset clause won’t come up for several years, “there is little reason to put those restrictions at risk today.
He concluded that the agreement “was never intended to solve all of our problems with Iran,” but that pulling out of the deal hurts future negotiations.
“Because of these facts, I believe that the decision to put the JCPOA at risk without any Iranian violation of the deal is a serious mistake,” Obama said.
‘Despicable’ the rich asshole demands $7 billion cut to child health insurance after massive gift to the rich
President some rich asshole (Shutterstock)
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Months after ramming through deficit-exploding tax cuts for billionaires and large corporations, President some rich asshole and the GOP are now looking for programs to slash to make up the difference—and they’re starting with children’s healthcare.
According to a Washington Post report late Monday, the rich asshole is “sending a plan to Congress that calls for stripping more than $15 billion in previously approved spending,” $7 billion of which would come from the broadly popular Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
“Not much surprises me anymore in American politics. But this is despicable on every level,” wrote Rep. Barbara Lee in response to the rich asshole’s proposed cuts. “But this is despicable on every level.”
The #GOPTaxScam gave a trillion dollars to billionaires & massive corporations. Now, Republicans want to gut the Children’s Health Insurance Program to pay for it.
Not much surprises me anymore in American politics. But this is despicable on every level. washingtonpost.com/business/econo…
Described by one the rich asshole administration official as “the biggest rescission request that has ever been sent to Congress,” the proposal needs a mere majority in both the House and Senate to pass.
Speaking with the Post on Monday, Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) said the the rich asshole administration has assured Republicans that this package of spending cuts is just the first of many.
As the Post reported, CHIP and is just one over over 30 programs the White House is moving to slash.
After handing out giant tax cuts to the rich & big corps, #Trump, in an effort to appease radical conservatives, wants to take healthcare away from many kids to cover some portion of the $2T increased national debt created by the #TrumpTaxScam. washingtonpost.com/business/econo…
“This proposal is a shameful betrayal of children,” Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.) wrote in response to reports of the rich asshole’s proposal. “This administration and congressional Republicans passed a massive tax giveaway to their donors and big corporations, and now they want vulnerable children to pay for it.”
Giuliani insists the rich asshole is pleased with what a mess he’s made
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Someone is in denial about Rudy Giuliani's performance.
Even as the rich asshole is reportedly nearing the end of his patience with Rudy Giuliani’s disastrous media blitz, Giuliani says the rich asshole is encouraging him to do more.
On Tuesday morning, NBC News’ Kristen Welker confronted Giuliani with those reports during a telephone interview, asking, “Is the president frustrated with some of your TV appearances?”
“No, the president is encouraging me do more of them,” Giuliani said. “I try to keep ’em under control. I just did one on Sunday even though we had about four requests.
“No, the president feels that the TV interviews have organized his supporters, and those who are — who understand the way in which he’s been very badly treated in this situation from the very beginning,” Giuliani said.
But White House insiders expect Giuliani’s stint as the rich asshole’s mouthpiece to “burn out” quickly, after a disastrous five days of public statements by Giuliani. the rich asshole himself even had to come out and affectionately rebut Giuliani last Thursday. And on Monday, the rich asshole’s State Department sharply rebuked Giuliani for falsely announcing the impending release of hostages from North Korea.
But Giuliani insists the rich asshole feels “pretty good” about the situation, which may also be true. the rich asshole cultivates a faux tough-guy image, but has repeatedly shown himself unwilling to personally deliver bad news to subordinates. Most recently, he fired VA Secretary David Shulkin via Twitter just hours after having spoken to him by phone, never mentioning the firing.
It is entirely possible that the rich asshole is too cowardly to tell his pal Rudy to pipe down, all the while simultaneously venting behind Giuliani’s back.
Giuliani’s showing no sign of getting the message that’s filtering out to the media from the White House though, so it might not be long before Giuliani finds himself the subject of a surprising tweet and some parting well wishes.
Less than one in three Americans support US pullout from Iran deal
U.S. President some rich asshole displays a presidential memorandum after announcing his intent to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement in the Diplomatic Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 8, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
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Less than one in three Americans agrees with President some rich asshole’s decision to pull the United States out of an agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear program, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national opinion poll released on Tuesday.
The poll, conducted May 4-8, ahead of the Republican president’s announcement to end the deal, found that 29 percent of adults wanted to end the deal with Iran and five other world powers to ease sanctions and limit Iran’s nuclear program.
Another 42 percent said the United States should remain in the deal, and the remaining 28 percent said they “don’t know.”
Even among those who are registered as Republicans, less than half – 44 percent – advocated ending the U.S. involvement in the deal. Another 28 percent wanted to remain, and the remaining 28 percent said they did not know.
the rich asshole, who has long criticized the 2015 agreement for not being tough enough on Iran, announced that he was terminating America’s involvement and would impose the “highest level” of economic sanctions against the country.
the rich asshole, who has long criticized the 2015 agreement for not being tough enough on Iran, announced that he was terminating America’s involvement and would impose the “highest level” of economic sanctions against the country.
According to the poll, 54 percent of Americans said they “strongly” or “somewhat” supported the Iran nuclear agreement while 27 percent said they were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed to it.
Many Americans also appeared to be concerned about what would happen if the rich asshole pulled the United States out of the deal.
Nearly two out of three adults said that if the United States ended its agreement, Iran would likely announce that it was developing nuclear weapons. About half said they thought it would be likely that the United States and Iran “will enter into armed conflict.”
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 1,277 adults, including 492 registered Republicans. It has a credibility interval of 3 percentage points for the entire sample and 5 percentage points for registered Republicans, meaning that the results could vary by that much in either direction.
Reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Leslie Adler
the rich asshole insults closest US allies by pulling out of Iran deal
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the rich asshole is alienating America's longest-standing allies and also endangering the world — just so he can have revenge on President Obama.
the rich asshole is pulling the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal, a decision which will further alienate the United States from its closest and longest-standing international allies.
The New York Times reports that the rich asshole’s obsession with undoing the presidency of Barack Obama has led him to this point in his tenure, noting that the rich asshole’s petulant action “lunges America’s relations with European allies into deep uncertainty.”
Apparently since they do not have ongoing envy and obsession with Obama, the other European nations who are a part of the deal will stay in it.
the rich asshole also hands Iran “a propaganda win” by pulling out of the deal, giving Iran the upper hand over the United States while also allowing them to move toward creating a nuclear arsenal.
The Times notes that if the rich asshole reimposes sanctions on Iran, it could cause those allies to be engaged in a “diplomatic and economic clash” with the United States.
Reigniting those sanctions will also lead to higher gas prices for average Americans, but the rich asshole believes undoing a large part of Obama’s legacy is worth it.
U.K. foreign secretary Boris Johnson, acting on orders from prime minister Theresa May, recently appeared on Fox News and made a direct appeal to the rich asshole not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” and stick with the deal.
Johnson also wrote an op-ed in the New York Times begging the rich asshole to stay with the deal.
French president Emmanuel Macron said withdrawing from the deal “would mean opening Pandora’s box, it could mean war.”
German chancellor Angela Merkel has also pushed for the Iran deal to be kept in place.
Hundreds of European lawmakers have written to the rich asshole, noting in a joint document “We were able to impose unprecedented scrutiny on the Iranian nuclear program, dismantle most of their nuclear enrichment facilities, and drastically diminish the danger of a nuclear arms race.”
They have been pushing for him to keep the deal to preserve international security.
Former Israeli leader Ehud Barak, who has often been hawkish toward Iran, said it would be a “mistake” to drop out of the deal and would hurt negotiations with North Korea, who has continued to pursue nuclear weapons.
But the rich asshole has been tearing America away from its allies and toward authoritarian regimes more in line with his own world view.
He praised authoritarians like Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, while calling Germany “evil, very evil.”
While the rest of the world committed to the Paris climate accords, the rich asshole took America out, which generated international criticism and condemnation from citizens and leaders.
Approval of American leadership has plummeted under the rich asshole, as he takes the country away from its traditional role toward a more isolationist approach.
The Iran deal was put in place to help international peace. It sought to keep nuclear weapons away from the ever-volatile cauldron of Middle Eastern politics.
World leaders understood the importance of doing so and were led by President Barack Obama to the historic agreement.
Now, simply because his failing presidency has none of the support Obama experienced, the rich asshole is again upending the apple cart, even if that means condemning the world to war and turning away allies that have been with America since it was founded.
the rich asshole pulls US from Iran nuclear deal, to revive sanctions
U.S. President some rich asshole reacts to a question from the media as National Security Advisor John Bolton and Vice President Mike Pence look on after the president announced his intention to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement during a statement in the Diplomatic Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 8, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
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President some rich asshole on Tuesday pulled the United States out of an international agreement aimed at stopping Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, and said he would reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran immediately.
The decision is likely to raise the risk of conflict in the Middle East, upset America’s European allies and disrupt global oil supplies.
“This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made,” the rich asshole said at the White House. “It didn’t bring calm. It didn’t bring peace. And it never will.”
Top aides want the rich asshole to finally ditch his most corrupt Cabinet member
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EPA Chief Scott Pruitt's corruption is a 'bottomless pit.'
White House aides are urging the rich asshole to finally fire Scott Pruitt from his Cabinet post as the revelations of corruption continue uninterrupted.
“One official said there was recognition now that Mr. Pruitt’s problems were ‘a bottomless pit,'” the New York Times reports.
Indeed, in just the last 24 hours NBC News reported that Pruitt and his two top aides spent more than $1,200 for a dinner at a five-star restaurant in Rome last year.
Politico reported yesterday that Pruitt’s office took immediate action after conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt contacted the EPA and asked for help on behalf of a California county. The county is represented by the same law firm employs Hewitt.
And BuzzFeed revealed that Pruitt’s excuse for spending lavishly on a 24-hour security detail — because he’s allegedly been threatened so often — doesn’t hold up. When the EPA’s in-house investigators looked into the “threats,” they couldn’t find anything serious.
In fact, one of the “threats” BuzzFeed reported was an incident that involved someone drawing a mustache on Pruitt’s photo on the cover of Newsweek magazine and then taping the doctored cover inside an elevator at EPA headquarters.
The case was closed due to a lack of an “overt threat” against Pruitt.
To date, the EPA has spent more than $3 million on Pruitt’s first-class travel, lodging, and around-the-clock security detail, according to the Associated Press.
And a government watchdog recently concluded that Pruitt broke the law by spending more than the amount approved by Congress for office renovations when he okayed the $43,000 installation of a secure telephone booth at his EPA office.
In what may be some sort of Washington, D.C., record, Pruitt is already the subject of at least 11 federal investigations and even some Republicans have called for his resignation.
Advisers told the Times that if Pruitt were finally pushed out, his recently confirmed deputy, Andrew Wheeler, could take over the duties with little disruptions.
Last week, four top EPA aides resigned in the span of just four days. “As many as a dozen more senior political staff members are said to be considering resigning,” the Times reports.
Will Pruitt himself soon join the exodus?
Conservative columnist ridicules Melania the rich asshole’s cyberbullying campaign
U.S. President some rich asshole and first lady Melania the rich asshole in Washington, U.S. July 12, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
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Writing for the Washington Post, a conservative columnist all but rolled her eyes at first lady Melania the rich asshole’s roll-out of her awkwardly named “Be Best” cyberbullying campaign, pointing out it should start in the White House with her husband.
Under a sarcastic, “Is Melania the rich asshole pulling our leg?” headline, conservative Jennifer Rubin — who has become one of President some rich asshole’s most vociferous critics — jumped all over a statement from the first lady who lectured, “It is our responsibility as adults to educate and remind [children] that when they are using their voices — whether verbally or online — they must choose their words wisely and speak with respect and compassion.”
“C’mon, she must know we all know her husband is a terrible role model for children in part because of his Twitter abuse directed at hundreds of people and institutions,” Rubin wrote in the scathing op-ed. “He’s also a bad role model, of course, because he’s lied more than 3,000 times, cheated on his wives, made racist and misogynistic comments and bragged about sexually assaulting women, but I digress.”
After reviewing the White House website page detailing proposals undoubtedly created by the first lady’s advisers, Rubin had a few of her own; specifically targeting a an unnamed White House occupant.
- Don’t tweet at strange hours early in the morning or late at night.
- Have someone else read your tweets if you are unsure if they are appropriate.
- Always proofread your tweets.
- Never use social media to insult people.
- Never use hate speech on social media.
Rubin added that “the ‘well-being part of her initiative also seems to fit a certain president’s behavior,” and backed that up with some other suggestions, ticking off:
- Never incite violence.
- Never mock people with disabilities.
- Never watch more than an hour of TV — it will rot your brain.
- Never diminish others to make yourself look bigger.
- Praise others and avoid bragging
- Always tell the truth.
“I could go on, but you get the point,” Rubin confessed, before giving the first lady credit for at least trying.
“I don’t doubt her sincerity on any of these issues,” Rubin admitted. “In fact, she’s precisely right that adult behavior may be the biggest factor in developing children’s good habits and solid character. And that is why our awful political culture is so troubling for many parents. How can they ask their kids to be better than the most famous and powerful people in our country? Well, at least now they can point to Melania the rich asshole.”
Rubin also suggested that it is possible Melania is passively-aggressively getting back at her husband and that the launch of the campaign comes at an ironic time.
“We’d like to think she’s also needling her husband, and it is hard to think she doesn’t have him in mind, just a little,” Rubin pointed out. “That she should step forward just as her husband’s alleged infidelities are taking up most of the political oxygen is just icing on the cake.”
You can read the whole piece here.
Giuliani’s already losing the rich asshole after just 3 weeks on the job
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'I think this thing will burn out,' a senior White House official said.
Rudy Giuliani thinks he enjoys the rich asshole’s full confidence, but a senior White House official says Rudy’s time in the rich asshole’s spotlight may soon be coming to a close.
In an interview this weekend, Giuliani said that the rich asshole is “very happy” with the job Giuliani has been doing, but CNN reports that Giuliani has been an “embarrassment” to the rich asshole, and may soon find himself sidelined. Others in the White House are comparing Giuliani to ousted communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
A senior White House official told CNN, “I think this thing will burn out,” and, “Either he’ll change his behavior, or he’s not going to do it very long.”
And while Giuliani still thinks things are going well, he recently told Politico that he will be giving interviews more “selectively.”
The comparison to Scaramucci, who lasted just 10 days as White House communications director, is an apt one. the rich asshole actually hired Giuliani in mid-April, but Rudy stepped out of the shadows less than a week ago — to completely upend the rich asshole’s legal footing.
Last Wednesday, Rudy stunned Sean Hannity with the bombshell revelation that the rich asshole reimbursed Michael Cohen for the hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, which would mean the rich asshole lied when he denied knowing about it.
On Thursday morning, Giuliani gave another Fox interview, during which he drew an explicit connection between the payoff and the 2016 election.
By Friday, the rich asshole was forced to try doing damage control by telling reporters that Giuliani is a “great guy” who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
But the rich asshole sent Giuliani out to do some more interviews over the weekend, during which Rudy confirmed that the rich asshole and attorney Michael Cohen have a “long history” of payments like the one made to Daniels.
And Giuliani’s media blitz began shortly after special counsel Robert Mueller’s questions for the rich asshole were leaked to the media, an unwise move that observers suggest had Rudy’s fingerprints all over it.
Giuliani has only been on the job as de facto communications director for six days, and he’s already managed to damage the rich asshole more than even Scaramucci could. Let’s see if he can make it through the rest of this week.
WATCH: Roger Stone falls apart under questioning by MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell
Andrea Mitchell and Roger Stone (MSNBC)
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Roger Stone appears frequently on right-wing fringe broadcasts, where he unspools wild conspiracy theories about the president’s enemies, but the longtime Republican operative fell apart under follow-up questioning by MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.
The GOP “dirty trickster” denied reports that President some rich asshole, his longtime confidant, had grown tired of Rudy Giuliani’s TV antics against special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
“I have not heard that from credible sources around the president,” Stone insisted. “I think it is fair to say that Mayor Giuliani is a very tough guy, and right now the president needs a tough leader on his legal team.”
Stone issued attacks on Mueller and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, but he stuttered, furiously blinked and fiddled with his earpiece after Mitchell asked him to explain why he previewed stolen emails that U.S. intelligence believe were stolen by Russian hackers.
“Coincidence,” he said. “Let’s go back to the previous tweet, which was crucial. I said ‘the’ Podestas, apostrophe ‘S’ — should have been ‘S,’ they tell me — the time in the barrel will come.”
Mitchell wasn’t distracted, and Stone continued floundering when she pointed out that Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta’s stolen emails were dumped online shortly after the “Access Hollywood” tape was revealed.“That would be based on conjecture, supposition — there’s no evidence that would suggest that is what I was speaking to,” Stone said, as he adjusted his earpiece. “I never said anything of the kind.”
Mitchell asked him to explain his Aug. 4, 2016, tweet claiming to have shared dinner with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and Stone claimed the email was a joke to his “neurotic” colleague Sam Nunberg.
“It’s schtick, please,” Stone said. “My passport, customs records, airline records, the security cameras at the Ecuadorian embassy, my hotel bill, my airline bills to Los Angeles and a receipt from Izzy’s Diner on Santa Monica Boulevard would show you that I was not in London that weekend and could not have met with Assange. And to anticipate a follow-up question, no, neither by Skype or phone, either.”
Stone then blamed a faulty earpiece for his brief delay before denying that he had met with Mueller and his investigators, and he cast doubt on the U.S. intelligence consensus about Russian hacking of Democratic targets during the 2016 election.
“I don’t buy into the premise that Guccifer is indeed a Russian asset,” he said. “I think that is unproved.”
Stone claimed only MSNBC and other media outlets had concluded the hacker was a Russian operative, and he was thrown off balance when Mitchell pointed out that Mike Pompeo, the rich asshole’s former CIA director and current Secretary of State, agreed.
“The evidence, Mr. Pompeo,” Stone began. “Our intelligence agencies have been politicized. This is, in my opinion, an open question. There’s vigorous debate on it on the internet. Guccifer 2.0, whoever that is, is using software that is registered to a person who works at the Democratic National Committee.”
“A number of counterterrorism IT experts in a great piece published by The Nationquestioned whether the DNC was ever hacked,” he continued, “whether the purloined information was taken out the back door through some kind of portable computer drive, so it is unproven at best. But in all honesty, it’s irrelevant because my only 24-word communication with him happened six weeks after WikiLeaks has already published the story, the allegedly hacked emails, consequently, could not have colluded with him to do so — it’s chronologically impossible.”
Stone then insisted the accusations against him were too stupid to be plausible.
“I made that exchange on Twitter entirely public,” he said. “Who would conduct international espionage on Twitter?”
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May 8, 2018
Republicans are battling Republicans in an effort to protect the rich asshole.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) is continuing his relentless pursuit to run interference for the rich asshole White House. In a bizarre twist, the far-right chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is leading the charge to hold the rich asshole’s far-right Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, in contempt of Congress.
And Nunes insists “100 percent” of Republicans would support him.
Nunes’ trumped-up charge is that Session’s Department of Justice is stonewalling Nunes’ committee, which is committed to running interference for the rich asshole on the Russia investigation.
Nunes has demanded documents that are at the center of the ongoing, active criminal probe. Sessions rejected the request, citing longstanding DOJ precedent to not share documents that are being used in real time to catch criminals.
“Disclosure of responsive information to such requests can risk severe consequences, including potential loss of human lives, damage to relationships with valued international partners, compromise of ongoing criminal investigations, and interference with intelligence activities,” Sessions’ DOJ notified Nunes last week.
Nunes, leading the Sean Hannity wing of the Republican Party, wants Sessions to pay a high price. That might keep Nunes on the rich asshole’s good side, since the rich asshole has also been leading a public relations campaign against his own attorney general.
But the attack campaign, where the GOP Congress wages war on the GOP attorney general, will likely harm the party in the long run. “Other Republicans worry that such a move could muddy the party’s campaign message for the congressional elections later this year,” Bloomberg reports.
Like everything else connected to the rich asshole administration, the unfolding civil war is stunning to behold — to have a Republican member of the House threatening to hold a Republican Cabinet member in contempt.
There’s no precedent for this madness.
Worse, Nunes’ contempt threat arrives for all the wrong reasons. Nunes isn’t furious that Sessions is somehow corrupting the DOJ and the Californian wants to protect the institution. He’s furious because Sessions won’t aggressively use the DOJ to protect the rich asshole’s criminality.
Nunes might think he’s immune politically, having won re-election by more than 30 points in 2016. But there are clear signs that his seat is in jeopardy.
There are just 14 remaining Republican House members of Congress from California, out of the state’s 53-person delegation. After Election Day, as a blue wave grows in 2018, that Republican number is expected to shrink even further.
Waging war with the rich asshole’s attorney general seems like a good way for Nunes to worsen his chances in November.
Melania the rich asshole’s ‘Be Best’ website secretly altered after allegations of plagiarism
Melania the rich asshole gives an interview/Screenshot
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Melania the rich asshole‘s “Be Best” program was quickly mocked for its slogan and logo, but less than an hour after her presentation of the “new” program to help children make better choices, one enterprising blogger noticed the booklet accompanying it was plagiarized, verbatim, from an Obama-era FTC publication.
The Rude Pundit@rudepunditFun fact: The White House trumpets “Talking with Kids about Being Online” as “a booklet by First Lady Melania the rich asshole and the Federal Trade Commission.” Except for an intro, it’s exactly the same thing Obama’s FTC put out.
Calling charges of copying and cribbing “baseless accusations,” the White House is now on the attack, defending the First Lady, insisting it’s not plagiarism, but merely rebranding.
“Mrs. the rich asshole agreed to add Be Best branding and distribute the booklet in an effort to use her platform to amplify the positive message within,” the First Lady’s Communications Director said in a statement Tuesday.
That makes it sound like she was doing the FTC a favor, as if they came begging to her.
A quick look at the Internet Archive shows the original languageon the White House’s Be Best website refers to the program’s documentation as “a booklet by First Lady Melania the rich asshole and the Federal Trade Commission.”
That sounds like they spent countless hours creating something brand new.
They didn’t.
The language on the website was secretly changed, literally under cover of darkness, sometime between 7:19 PM and 11:39 PM.
The new language calls it “a Federal Trade Commission booklet, promoted by First Lady Melania the rich asshole.”
That’s a big difference, and clearly reveals the attempt to plagiarize – or at least to take credit for work that was not hers, and cover that up.
Perhaps if this were the first time Mrs. the rich asshole had plagiarized Americans would be disinclined to highlight the audacious pirating.
But Melania the rich asshole also plagiarized Michelle Obama in her speech to the RNC.
So, there’s a pattern here.
In the White House statement defending the First Lady, her communications director also took a swipe at reporters, which is all but required these days by the rich asshole administration staffers.
POLITICS
Giuliani Says the rich asshole Lawyer Michael Cohen ‘Has No Incriminating Information About The President’
The newest member of the rich asshole’s legal team in the Russia probe says he feels bad for Cohen and Paul Manafort because of the “storm trooper tactics” used against them.
WASHINGTON — President some rich asshole’s newest lawyer said Tuesday that his previous lawyer Michael Cohen knows nothing damaging about the rich asshole and therefore is of little value to federal prosecutors investigating him.
“He possesses no incriminating information about the president,” Rudy Giuliani told HuffPost, adding that any charges that may be filed against Cohen are unfortunate for him but would not affect the rich asshole. “It’s of no consequence to the president.”
Giuliani said he nevertheless feels bad for Cohen and others, such as former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort, for the “storm trooper tactics” prosecutors and the FBI have used when carrying out search warrants against them.
Cohen is under investigation by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. Manafort is accused of money laundering and making false statements by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russian intelligence agencies.
Giuliani, who was once the U.S. attorney for the same office investigating Cohen and later became New York’s mayor, acknowledged using predawn raids to execute search warrants — such as the one he claimed was used for Manafort — but never against white-collar suspects.
“I did that in organized crime cases. I did that in terrorism cases. I did that in murder cases,” Giuliani said. “I didn’t do that with respectable people.”
(In a court filing last month, Mueller’s office described the warrant as having authorized a search between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., which it said it complied with.)
He scoffed at the notion that the investigation into Manafort was a counterintelligence investigation, not a run-of-the-mill fraud probe. “In your dreams,” he said.
Cohen, after inquiring about the topic of questions from HuffPost, did not respond to follow-up queries.
He remains at the center of an investigation of how a porn star, Stormy Daniels, received $130,000 to remain quiet about an affair she said she had with the rich asshole a decade ago. The payment came just days before the 2016 presidential election but was never reported as a campaign expense by Cohen or the rich asshole. That payment has spawned a string of contradictory statements from Cohen, the rich asshole and, in the past week, Giuliani.
Cohen originally claimed that he paid Daniels using his own money to protect the rich asshole’s reputation. the rich asshole told reporters aboard Air Force One last month that he did not know where the money had come from and suggested asking Cohen, whom the rich asshole described as his lawyer.
But in a Fox News interview last week, Giuliani revealed that the rich asshole repaid Cohen, arguing that it therefore could not have been a campaign finance violation. the rich asshole followed up with series of tweets, in which he said the money came from a monthly retainer he paid Cohen.
Giuliani then told NBC News that the rich asshole may not have known at the time of the payments to Cohen what the money was for, and in a subsequent interview with ABC News, Giuliani said Cohen may have similarly paid off other women too, although Giuliani said he did not have knowledge of that.
Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Daniels who is suing the rich asshole to break the 2016 hush agreement, said he finds Giuliani’s comments about Cohen perplexing.
“Michael Cohen served as the personal attorney for some rich asshole for upwards of 12 years,” Avenatti said. “The idea that nothing improper that he did in that time period could blow back on some rich asshole is absurd.”
Giuliani said he is pushing to wrap up the Russia probe by figuring out how best to have the rich asshole respond to Mueller’s questions. Giuliani said a May 17 date he mentioned earlier was not a hard deadline for that decision but a goal. “We need some sort of deadline for this. It’s gone on forever,” he said. “It’s hurting the country.”
He said the only reason that Mueller was even appointed special counsel was that former FBI Director James Comey “illegally leaked” memos he wrote to a friend, making the whole investigation suspect, in Giuliani’s view. “Memos he writes are FBI property,” he said of Comey.
the rich asshole fired Comey a year ago. The White House at first claimed that the reason was his improper conduct during an investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. But the rich asshole soon told NBC News and top Russian diplomats visiting the Oval Office that he fired Comey because of the Russia investigation.
Because Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself from that investigation, Comey’s firing led Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint Mueller as a special counsel.
Giuliani said Tuesday that the rich asshole was too busy for any extended interviews with Mueller’s investigators, given important negotiations regarding North Korea, Iran and China. “The president is pretty darned tied up right now,” Giuliani said.
On a broader level, notwithstanding the recent conflicting statements about Cohen and Daniels, Giuliani said he will have a much better relationship with the rich asshole than his previous lawyers, some of whom were reportedly frustrated by his unwillingness to follow their advice.
“They didn’t know him for 30 years like I do. They didn’t help him get elected,” Giuliani said. “I know how to deal with him, and he knows how to deal with me.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that the raid of Manafort’s home took place before dawn. Mueller’s office said in a court filing last month that it complied with a warrant that authorized a search between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
First lady’s office rages at ‘opposition media’ for reporting on Melania copying Obama’s cyberbullying pamphlet
Melania the rich asshole/Screenshot
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The East Wing of the White House lashed out at journalists for reporting on how First Lady Melania the rich asshole copied her “Be Best” anti-cyberbullying guidelines from Barack Obama’s administration.
Stephanie Grisham, the communications director for the First Lady, issued a statement on Tuesday morning that blasted news organizations like Raw Story who covered the scandal.
Melania Trump copies 'Be Best' anti-cyberbullying guidelines from booklet released by Obama's FTC rawstory.com/2018/05/melani…
“After giving a strong speech that was met with a standing ovation and positive feedback, the focus from opposition media has been on an eduction booklet, ‘Talking with Kids About Being Online’ produced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2009,” Grisham said. “Despite providing countless outlets with ample background, and on-the-record comments from the FTC, some media have chosen to take a day meant to promote kindness and positive efforts on behalf of children, to instead lob baseless accusations towards the First Lady and her new initiatives.”
Grisham added, “I encourage members of the media to attempt to Be Best in their own professions.”
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Melania the rich asshole was caught cribbing a Michelle Obama speech while addressing the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
On Monday evening, MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow reminded of the paralells between to two scandals.
Read the full statement:
POLITICS
the rich asshole Reportedly Tells Macron He’s Pulling Out Of Iran Nuclear Deal
France, the U.K. and Germany have been working with the rich asshole administration in recent weeks in an attempt to change the president’s mind.
President some rich asshole broke the news to French President Emmanuel Macron that he was planning to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement in a call on Tuesday morning, The New York Times reported.
The U.S. president plans to reinstate all of the sanctions that had been waived as part of the deal while also slapping on new “economic penalties,” a person briefed on the conversation told the news outlet. Sources also told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the U.S. will violate the deal but did not share any details.
France, the U.K. and Germany, the three European co-signatories on the deal, have been working with the rich asshole administration in recent weeks in an attempt to change the rich asshole’s mind.
Officials from all three countries visited Washington, D.C., to make their appeals in person, to no avail. The discussions fell apart, a second person familiar with the negotiations said, around limits on Iran’s nuclear output after 2030.
The president has been critical of the 2015 agreement meant to curb Iran’s nuclear program, calling it “one of the most incompetently drawn deals I’ve seen” last October.
the rich asshole is expected to make a formal announcement on the agreement at 2 p.m. ET Tuesday at the White House.
This article has been updated.
some rich asshole Jr takes an incredibly hypocritical victory lap after Eric Schneiderman resigns
some rich asshole, Jr. speaking with supporters of his father, some rich asshole, at a campaign rally at the Sun Devil Fitness Center at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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some rich asshole Jr. clearly is no fan of Eric Schneiderman, the disgraced, now-former New York Attorney General who has been a thorn in the rich asshole family’s side – most recently obtaining $25 million for the rich asshole University victims. Schneiderman resigned Monday night, hours after an exposé detailing sickening abuse and assault allegations by four women went live at The New Yorker.
So the President’s son’s gloating tweets might be excused as revealing more of the 40-year old the rich asshole scion’s immature antics, were it not for the fact that his father is some rich asshole, and he fully supports and defends him – assault allegations and all.
In short, they’re incredibly hypocritical and tone-deaf.
19 women have accused some rich asshole of sexual assault, groping, inappropriate behavior, or of having a consensual affair with them, according to USA Today. At least three reportedly have nondisclosure agreements with the rich asshole.
the rich asshole is also on record – the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape – bragging about sexually assaulting women. He’s also bragged about his affairs.
Take a look at some of the rich asshole Jr.’s tweets, totally tone-deaf considering his father’s alleged actions:
POLITICS
Joe Scarborough: the rich asshole’s Legal Strategy Is Like ‘A Monkey Throwing Poo Against The Wall’
“It doesn’t usually turn out well,” the MSNBC host said of feces flinging.
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough ruthlessly mocked President some rich asshole on Tuesday for adding former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani to his legal team.
“some rich asshole said during the transition that Rudy Giuliani was losing it, that he was a couple of steps behind, that he was falling asleep five minutes into meetings,” Scarborough said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“Everybody around some rich asshole said [Giuliani] was drinking too much ― some rich asshole suggested as much,” Scarborough continued. “That was two years ago. And the fact that some rich asshole brought this guy in two years later despite his own reservations about him ... it’s not 3D chess. That’s not even checkers. That’s a monkey throwing poo against the wall, and it doesn’t usually turn out well.”
Giuliani made waves last week when he revealed the rich asshole reimbursed personal attorney Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford).
the rich asshole denied knowledge of the payment and suggested Friday that Giuliani didn’t have “his facts straight.” Giuliani continued his media blitz over the weekend with a bizarre interview on ABC’s “This Week,” in which he hinted that Cohen may have made payments to other women on behalf of the rich asshole.
Still, Giuliani said he was happy with his explosive media tour.
“We all feel pretty good that we’ve got everything kind of straightened out and we’re setting the agenda,” Giuliani told The Washington Post on Sunday.
the rich asshole ‘exasperated’ that Rudy Giuliani’s train wreck TV interviews haven’t killed Mueller probe yet: report
Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani and President some rich asshole, composite image. Giuliani by Marc Nozell from Merrimack, New Hampshire, USA (Rudy Giuliani) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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the rich asshole attorney Rudy Giuliani once claimed that he could get special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe to end within “a week or two” — but now that the investigation seems to be steamrolling ahead, President some rich asshole is reportedly losing patience.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported on Tuesday that the rich asshole is already souring on his new attorney, despite the fact that he has only been on the job for two weeks.
“It did not take long for Rudy Giuliani to fall out of the president’s good graces here,” Collins explained. “He’s only been on the legal team for about three weeks now, not even three weeks. And already the president is disappointed in his performance.”
Collins then went on to explain that the rich asshole had originally brought Giuliani on board because he believed the former New York mayor’s more aggressive approach would somehow intimidate Mueller into closing down the Russia probe.
“The president brought Rudy Giuliani, his longtime friend, on because he thought he was going to be able to help bring this Russia investigation to an end much more quickly with more aggressive approach, something that matched the way that the president wanted to go after this,” she said. “But now after this string of interviews that Rudy Giuliani has done… the president is now thinking that Rudy Giuliani is causing more headaches than he is solving problems.”
She then went on to say that both the rich asshole and multiple White House officials are “very exasperated” with Giuliani — and some are even questioning whether he is “all there mentally.”
Watch the video below.
POLITICS
Passengers ‘Lashing Out’ At Scott Pruitt Justify First-Class Travel, New EPA Memo Says
Thousands of newly released EPA documents show the agency went to great lengths to shield the embattled administrator from encounters with the public.
Newly released Environmental Protection Agency documents attempt to justify administrator Scott Pruitt’s frequent use of first-class and business-class travel with a claim that fellow passengers were “lashing out” at him.
The 87-word memo, dated May 1, 2017, was drafted by Pasquale Perrotta, who recently quit as head of Pruitt’s personal security detail. Perrotta wrote that he had noticed “lashing out from passengers which occurs while the Administrator is seated in coach with [his security detail] not easily accessible to him due to uncontrolled full flights.”
“We believe that the continued use of coach seats for the Administrator would endanger his life and therefore respectfully ask that he be placed in either business and or first class accommodations,” the memo concludes.
The justification reportedly allowed the scandal-scarred EPA head to fly in premium cabins, often costing taxpayers thousands more than seats in coach. One trip to Italy cost more than $7,000, The Washington Post notes. Another to Morocco cost more than $16,000.
The travel memo obtained by the Post was among thousands of EPA documents released to media outlets on Monday in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. Many show efforts by Pruitt’s staff to limit his encounters with the public. Pruitt is facing 11 investigations into his spending, management practices and ethical lapses. Pruitt’s travel preferences are under investigation by the EPA’s office of the inspector general.
The documents also reveal Pruitt’s practice of ducking interactions with average Americans, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing emails in a 10,000-document cache the EPA surrendered in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
EPA officials choreographed appearances so Pruitt wouldn’t face questions from the public, worked to limit social media postings during his trips to keep them private, and often arranged events in secret to avoid reporters.
“He didn’t want anybody to question anything,” Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff for operations, told The Times. Chmielewski, who said he was pushed out of the agency for questioning Pruitt, said the EPA boss “just doesn’t understand what it’s like to be a public figure.”
The EPA has maintained that Pruitt has gotten far more threats than his predecessor, justifying his large security detail and extravagant travel arrangements. The Times notes that there were 33 threat investigations underway as of mid-March. Ten of those involved Pruitt himself, including a message on a “threatening postcard,” missives posted to Twitter and emails and phone calls.
BuzzFeed notes that three investigations have been launched this year involving Pruitt, but all have been closed due to lack of evidence that the administrator faced serious harm. One such incident, closed due to a lack of an “overt” threat, involved a Newsweek magazine cover that someone drew a mustache on and taped to an EPA elevator.
The release of Perrotta’s travel memo comes several months after the EPA said Pruitt was booked into premium cabins because members of the public yelled at him too much. The agency’s Office of Criminal Enforcement told Politico in February that the administrator was “approached at the airport numerous times, to the point of profanities being yelled at him.”
Pruitt has since said he would start flying coach.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani ‘losing everything’ due to the rich asshole
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani takes part in a news conference near the United Nations General Assembly in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., September 22, 2016. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo)
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Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani staked his legacy on efforts to end decades of tension with the West. With the landmark nuclear deal unravelling, what hope is there for his political future?
Regardless of whether US President some rich asshole tears up the 2015 nuclear deal that was the centrepiece of Rouhani’s diplomatic efforts, it is clear that the traditional animosity between the US and Iran has returned for the foreseeable future.
“Rouhani bet big on the nuclear deal and invested all his political capital in it,” said Mojtaba Mousavi, a political analyst in Tehran.
“Now the deal is gasping its last breaths, and so Rouhani is losing everything — all his economic and political plans — that he built on the back of the nuclear deal,” Mousavi told AFP.
– A boon for conservatives –
From the start, Rouhani’s conservative opponents were deeply suspicious of his negotiations with Washington, and their fears were borne out when it became clear that US pressure would continue to hobble Iran’s trade ties even after the 2015 deal.
With his constant threats to tear up the accord, the rich asshole has ensured the world stays wary of doing business with Iran.
“The uncertainty around the JCPOA (nuclear deal) is a victory for the conservatives who feed off the hostility of US foreign policy to reinforce internal repression and limit the reach of the Islamic republic’s elected institutions,” said Clement Therme, an Iran expert with Britain’s International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Behind-the-scenes conservative forces have made their presence felt in recent months, with sweeping arrests of dual nationals and NGO workers on espionage charges, the blocking of Iran’s most popular social media app Telegram, and pressure on high-profile reformers that forced the resignation of Tehran’s mayor and a top environmental official.
Rouhani has overseen a moderate easing of social restrictions, but in Iran the presidency is only one of many power centres.
He faces powerful conservative forces embedded in the clergy, the judiciary and a Guardian Council with veto power over laws and election candidates, not to mention the over-riding authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Rouhani has totally flunked on all his promises, but he has doubled down on the reform rhetoric recently, trying to maintain his popular base and finger-pointing at the conservatives,” said Ardavan Amir-Aslani, an author and international lawyer with an office in Tehran.
“But opening a few new cafes and letting women push their headscarves back a few inches are not the fundamental reforms that Iran needs,” he added.
– Need for unity –
What may save Rouhani from being completely sidelined is the establishment’s fear of a greater unravelling.
Protests in December and January showed that anger over the economy and civil liberties was much wider spread than in the past, affecting dozens of second-tier towns and cities.
“I think the leader (Khamenei) is still trying to help Rouhani. Protecting the prosperity and unity of the country is his top priority, especially in this tough situation,” said Mousavi.
Rouhani won a second term as president a year ago, with the backing of reformists who saw him as the best option from the small selection allowed to stand by the Guardian Council.
There were never any illusions that he was a radical reformer — he has been a regime insider from the earliest days of the Islamic revolution — but many were still disappointed when his promises of reform fell flat.
“Some of the criticism is unfair. Rouhani has done great things. There is more openness, less morality police, journalists are somewhat freer,” said a reformist journalist, who asked to remain anonymous.
“But he is ultimately a man of the system and wants to remain one. His identity is tied up with being part of the system — if he denies it, he denies himself.”
For now, Rouhani has stuck to his guns, strongly criticising the censorship of social media and slamming officials for failing to respond effectively to popular anger.
But he faces a difficult challenge, having to respond to the rich asshole without derailing his wider diplomatic efforts.
“The smart move would be to wait out the end of the rich asshole’s mandate, stay in the nuclear deal and build up something with the Europeans, however limited. Wait until this blows over,” said Amir-Aslani.
“That’s what they should do — but we’ll see.”
Poll: Majority says Russia probe is politically motivated
BY LUIS SANCHEZ - 05/08/18 11:20 AM EDT
A majority of Americans say special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election is politically motivated, according to a new CBS News poll.
The poll, which comes nearly a year after Mueller’s investigation began, found that 53 percent of people think there are political motives to the investigation, while 44 think the investigation is justified.
Despite the perceived partisan motivations, 76 percent said President the rich asshole should still cooperate with the investigation if he’s asked to be interviewed.
That is a drop, however, from January, when 84 percent of respondents said the rich asshole should cooperate with the special counsel.
The drop in agreeing that the rich asshole should cooperate was steepest among Republicans. In January, 73 percent of Republicans backed cooperation with Mueller, but in the latest poll, only 53 percent did so.
Although most Americans think the investigation should continue, the poll found that Republicans say they want their party in Congress to draw the investigation to a close. Most Democrats and independents still want Congress to allow the investigation to continue.
The poll randomly surveyed 1,101 adults via telephone between May 3 and 6. It has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.
the rich asshole told France’s Macron he would pull out of Iran deal today: NY Times
President some rich asshole (AFP / Mandel NGAN)
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President some rich asshole told the president of France that he would be withdrawing the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, an unnamed source told the New York Times.
Original story continues below…
President some rich asshole is expected to deliver a hammer blow to the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday, removing key sanctions relief for Tehran and casting the accord’s future into serious doubt.
Officials and diplomats expect the pugnacious US leader to ignore last-ditch European pleas and withdraw US support for what he has repeatedly slammed as a “very badly negotiated” agreement.
At 2:00 pm (1800 GMT), the rich asshole will make perhaps the most consequential foreign policy announcement of his young presidency to date from the Diplomatic Reception room of the White House.
Concretely, he must decide by May 12 whether to continue to waive sanctions on Iran’s central bank and its oil sector dealings, a key pillar of the 2015 agreement reached between Tehran and six world powers.
Critics warn ending the waivers would unravel the carefully constructed deal, plunge Iran’s already struggling economy into crisis, spur a Middle East arms race and expose the biggest transatlantic rift since the Iraq War.
His decision will be closely watched across the Middle East, where a number of powers are mulling their own nuclear programs, and in Pyongyang ahead of non-proliferation talks between the rich asshole and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
For months, the rich asshole has unsuccessfully demanded changes to the Obama-era nuclear accord, which saw Iran stop military-scale uranium enrichment and open up to inspections, in return for massive sanctions relief.
Months of intensive talks between the United States and European allies ultimately stalled when Berlin, London and Paris refused the rich asshole’s demand to rewrite key provisions of the accord.
One European diplomat, echoing the somber mood around foreign embassies in Washington on the eve of the rich asshole’s announcement, said “there is plainly a difference of opinion.”
“I would like to pretend to you today that I feel that there is a chance of the existing (deal) remaining intact,” the European official said. “I think that that chance may exist but it is very small.”
A French official said President Emmanuel Macron left the United States last week “convinced that we would get a negative decision.”
– Danger of ‘escalation’ –
Ahead of the rich asshole’s verdict, diplomats shifted into damage limitation mode, hoping that beyond his inevitably harsh rhetoric, he stops short of immediately reimposing sanctions.
the rich asshole may decide to denounce the deal but leave sanctions in limbo, offering what diplomats say is a last slim chance to salvage the agreement.
On the other end of the scale, the rich asshole could decide to reimpose central bank and a thicket of other sanctions against Iran — from finance to transport — effectively ending US participation in the deal and putting European companies at risk of punitive measures.
In Brussels, officials are already working on “blocking” measures that would protect EU citizens and companies from US prosecution.
“We are having conversations obviously and we are working on a number of proposals that could protect European companies and operators,” a senior EU official told reporters.
Tehran has sent mixed signals about its potential response, hinting it could leave a fatally undermined deal and resume military-scale uranium enrichment.
But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani — who publicly backed engagement with the United States and could face a domestic backlash if that policy fails — indicated his country would stay in the agreement even if the United States pulls out.
It is still unclear whether Iran’s more hardline military leaders, or Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hold the same view.
Iran staying in the deal makes it more likely that vital avenues for European trade would stay open.
Amid six months of speculation over the rich asshole’s decision, the Iranian rial had lost around a third of its value, before authorities in April took the drastic step of pegging the exchange rate to the dollar.
– Hawks take the lead –
Since his days as a presidential candidate, the rich asshole has vowed to scrap the deal, but has until now stopped short, amid fierce debate inside his administration.
According to a CNN poll published Tuesday, 63 percent of Americans believe their country should not withdraw from the agreement.
The United States does not allege that Iran is breaking the terms of the agreement, but says the accord itself does not permanently end Tehran’s controversial nuclear programs, stop missile tests or end bellicose Iranian activity in the region.
the rich asshole has complained, in particular, that Iran gets sanctions relief up front but could return to controversial activities once restrictions reach their “sunset” in 2025.
His administration has also been angered by Iran’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in Syria’s civil war and Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen.
With the arrival of John Bolton as National Security Advisor and Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, the Iran hawks now appear to be in the driver’s seat.
Reimposing oil sanctions could be just the first step of a “a broad coercive campaign” to “break the regime’s back” according to Cliff Kupchan, an analyst with the Eurasia group.
European powers are deeply skeptical that the rich asshole’s administration has a backup plan to restrain Iranian ambitions once he has made good on his campaign promise to tear up the deal.
Britain’s Boris Johnson, who was in Washington to lobby Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence, told Fox News: “Plan B does not seem to be, to me, particularly well-developed at this stage.”
the rich asshole requests $15.4B spending clawback
BY NIV ELIS - 05/08/18 10:52 AM EDT
President the rich asshole on Tuesday officially asked Congress to rescind $15.4 billion in spending from previously approved funds, the largest single such request from a White House and the first in nearly two decades.
Congress has 45 days to approve the request in a measure that is not subject to a Senate filibuster.
The White House says that the clawback is mostly aimed at unobligated funds, such as those leftovers in accounts for defunct programs. Scrapping unobligated funds does not reduce the deficit.
Some of the funds being targeted, however, would reduce expenditures.
The White House hopes to pressure Democrats to vote for the package by saving more controversial clawbacks, such as those dealing with current spending levels, for a future request.
Democrats cried foul at the notion of cancelling recently approved 2018 spending from a bipartisan deal, saying it would breach the agreement and poison the well for future negotiations.
Democrats say that some of the clawbacks in the current proposal are not so innocuous, including some from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
“These Republican rescissions show the hypocrisy of a GOP Congress that insists on tight budgets for children and families while handing enormous, unpaid-for giveaways to corporations and the wealthiest,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday night.
The White House says that the CHIP funds are from two accounts: one in which the spending authorization has already lapsed, and another that has excess funds that are not expected to be used.
“None of the CHIP programs that have just been reauthorized would be impacted in any way should this rescissions package pass,” Mulvaney told reporters at the Capitol Tuesday.
Some of the other categories in the rescission request include $4.3 billion from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program in the Energy Department, which the White House says has not issued a loan since 2011; leftover funds designated for the Ebola outbreak that has since been quashed; and $800 million from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, which the White House says is due to receive an automatic top-up from mandatory spending anyway.
The Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative House caucus, voiced its approval for the package and called for its passage in the Senate, where it faces skepticism from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell(R-Ky.).
"Instead of making excuses for why keeping our promises is not possible, Mitch McConnell should make every effort to pass this package,” the caucus said in a resolution adopted by its steering committee.
Giuliani insists the rich asshole wants him to continue ranting on TV: ‘The president is encouraging me to do more’
Rudy Giuliani appears on Fox News (screen grab)
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President some rich asshole’s lead attorney, Rudy Giuliani, on Tuesday revealed that the president has discussed invoking his Fifth Amendment right against testifying in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
While speaking to NBC’s Kristen Welker, Giuliani insisted that the president wanted him to do more interviews even though his recent media blitz has been criticized for damaging his client’s case.
“The president is encouraging me to do more [interviews],” Giuliani insisted. “I try to keep them under control. I just did one on Sunday even though we had about four requests. You know, the president feels that the TV interviews have organized his supporters and those who understand the way in which he’s being treated — badly treated — in this situation from the very beginning.”
Giuliani went on to confirm that the president has discussed pleading the Fifth with his legal team, but said that he “doesn’t want to” if it’s not necessary.
GIULIANI tells NBC's @kwelkernbc that Trump has told his legal team he "doesn't want to" plead the 5th.
Which means his legal team has discussed whether @realdonaldtrump should plead the 5th...
the rich asshole expected to remove US from Iran nuke deal
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 05/08/18 10:18 AM EDT
President the rich asshole is expected to announce Tuesday he will not continue sanctions relief for Iran, a major step toward ending the 2015 nuclear pact he has long blasted as the “worst deal ever.”
Specifics about the steps the rich asshole is expected to take are still unknown, such as how long it might take to reimpose sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the deal.
the rich asshole will reveal his decision to the public at 2 p.m. in the Diplomatic Room of the White House.
The New York Times, citing a source, reported that the U.S. will reimpose all sanctions waived under the Iran deal and impose new penalties, a sweeping move that will almost certainly trigger a showdown with Tehran. The report was published after the rich asshole discussed his decision with French President Emmanuel Macron.
A senior European diplomat said the chances of the deal remaining intact are "very small" but said the rich asshole administration is determined to "have a new start" with its approach to Iran.
“It’s pretty obvious to me that unless something changes in the next few days, I believe the president will not waive the sanctions,” the diplomat said in an email. "And that will have various consequences that I think we have yet fully to understand and spell out.”
Supporters of the deal have already begun lashing out at the rich asshole in anticipation of the announcement.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said the rich asshole was demolishing U.S. credibility with the move.
I will never forget the dark cloud that hung over the White House in the years Iran was advancing nuclear program & Obama was briefed on all the risks of using military force. (1/2) twitter.com/nytimes/status…
Trump has demolished America’s credibility & paved the way for Iran to re-start its nuclear program. Trump has done the unthinkable: isolated the US & rallied the world around Iran. The costs of using military force have only increased. (2/2)
The announcement will follow weeks of furious lobbying by European allies who sought to convince the rich asshole to remain in the deal.
They wanted to negotiate a side agreement that would assuage the president’s concerns, such as ballistic missile activity and Iran’s military interventions in the Middle East.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson made a last-minute visit to the White House on Monday to argue his case to senior officials, following presidential meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
But each one left the U.S. pessimistic about the deal’s future.
“My view — I don’t know what your president will decide — is that he will get rid of this deal on his own, for domestic reasons,” Macron told a group of reporters late last month.
the rich asshole promised during the 2016 campaign to pull the U.S. out of the agreement and has consistently derided the Obama-era pact since taking office. But on multiple previous occasions, he has been convinced by advisers to extend sanctions relief under the agreement
The president appears to determined to follow through on his campaign promise this time around. He took to Twitter early Tuesday morning to blast former Secretary of State John Kerry, who has reportedly met with Iran’s top diplomat to discuss ways to salvage the deal.
“John Kerry can’t get over the fact that he had his chance and blew it! Stay away from negotiations John, you are hurting your country!” the rich asshole wrote.
The U.S. and five other nations entered into the agreement with Iran three years ago. The Iran agreed to restrict its nuclear activities to prevent it from developing a weapon in exchange for sanctions relief.
If the deal falls apart, Iran could decide to eject nuclear inspectors and resume uranium enrichment and weapons development.
The rich asshole administration has not said how it plans to handle Tehran’s nuclear ambitions absent the nuclear agreement, nor has it explained how it will address foreign banks and other companies who do business with Iran if sanctions go back into place.
Law professor makes the case that Michael Cohen’s abortion hush money was actually to protect the rich asshole
President some rich asshole has reacted furiously to an FBI raid on the home and office of his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File / MARK WILSON, NICHOLAS KAMM
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Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that the rich asshole lawyer Michael Cohen arranged for a $1.6 million hush payout to a former Playboy model on behalf of Elliott Broidy, a top donor to the Republican Party who had impregnated her last year.
According to the Journal’s reporting, Broidy’s affair with former Playboy model Shera Bechard ended with her having an abortion.
However, University of Colorado Boulder law professor Paul Campos lays out the evidence in New York Magazine that this abortion hush money payment was much more likely intended to protect President some rich asshole rather than Broidy.
First, Campos notes that the nondisclosure agreement allegedly signed by Broidy and the model both used the same pseudonyms — “David Dennison” and “Peggy Peterson” — that Cohen used in his nondisclosure agreement between the rich asshole and adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Second, Campos argues that the rich asshole had a longtime friendship with Playboyfounder Hugh Hefner — and that he was a frequent guest at the Playboy Mansion.
“Bechard was actually at one time Hefner’s girlfriend, while the rich asshole and Hefner’s friendship mysteriously came to an end in 2016,” writes Campos.
Campos then speculates that Broidy may have been willing to take both the public relations and financial hit that came with paying off Bechard in order to protect his own financial interests and to secure favors from the rich asshole administration.
“Broidy has a history of bribing public officials to enhance the economic prospects of his business ventures,” he writes. “In 2009, he pleaded guilty to bribing New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi. As part of a plea deal which led to the convictions of seven of his co-conspirators, Broidy admitted he made more than one million dollars in illegal payouts and gifts to New York pension authorities.”
And that’s not all — Campos says that a Wall Street Journal report from earlier this year shows that “Broidy was slated to make tens of millions of dollars by getting the Justice Department to drop a probe into a multibillion-dollar bribery scandal involving 1MDB, the Malaysian state investment fund.” Additionally, the New York Times subsequently reported that Broidy recently has been aggressively “marketing his the rich asshole connections to politicians and governments around the world” by claiming that he could arrange meetings with administration officials.
White House aides telling the rich asshole to fire Pruitt: report
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 05/08/18 08:36 AM EDT
Senior White House staffers have reportedly pushed President the rich asshole to fire Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt amid mounting ethics controversies.
The New York Times, citing two top administration officials, reported that the president may be dialing back his previously staunch support of Pruitt.
One official told the newspaper that the White House is starting to view the EPA head’s spate of ethics problems as a “bottomless pit.”
Pruitt has come under intense scrutiny in recent months.
Reports have revealed that Pruitt racked up millions of dollars worth of travel and security expenses, including allegedly bringing his detail to Disneyland and the Rose Bowl. Pruitt justified his first-class travel by saying it was based on security precautions.
He has also come under fire for renting a Capitol Hill condo from the wife of an energy lobbyist for $50 each day he stayed there, approving raises for staffers that the White House previously rejected and constructing a $43,000 soundproof booth in his office.
During testimony on Capitol Hill last month, Pruitt said those controversies were largely matters handled by his staff or distractions from his agency's efforts to carry out the rich asshole's agenda.
While dozens of Democrats have called for Pruitt to resign, the rich asshole and some Republicans have defended Pruitt and praised him for cutting regulations.
Prosperity gospel pastor’s husband demands loyalty to the rich asshole: ‘Let’s not judge’ him for things he does and says
some rich asshole with Pastor Paula White (Photo: Facebook)
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Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain credits his wife — prosperity gospel pastor Paula White — with leading a faith revival in Washington under President some rich asshole.
Cain, who cowrote the group’s anthemic 1981 hit “Don’t Stop Believin’,” explained his wife’s spiritual role to the president in an interview with The Tennessean.
“She’s been called upon, I believe, good or bad, she’s been called by the Kingdom to serve,” Cain said. “She is letting grace in the door in Washington and I’ve seen it, uttering the name of Jesus Christ on the mall of Washington — it’s amazing.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer told the newspaper that White, who leads New Destiny Christian Center in Florida, was the president’s top spiritual adviser.
“We have to understand that Paula’s there to minister to the president and to pray over him,” Cain said. “She’s the one he trusts for prayer and she prays over him, and she brings mighty men of God to pray. Who are we to say the president doesn’t need prayer?”
The 68-year-old Cain admitted that the rich asshole — a thrice-married reality TV star who’s being sued by a porn actress over a hush money payout and is under investigation for possible election law violations — was not perfect, but he urged fellow Christians to trust the president.
“That’s what makes me crazy,” he said. “Let’s not judge. Why are we the ones throwing the stones? This is our president and with his faults, with his mistakes, with the things he says, he is our president. We are to honor the authority of our leaders, we are to honor those leaders. They’ve been chosen by God.”
He assured Christians that his megachurch pastor wife was taking care of the president’s spiritual well-being.
“Paula’s in there doing the best she can do and taking care of his soul,” Cain said. “Not his politics, not his rhetoric — his soul. If he leans on her for that, that’s a good thing, that is a really good thing. She brings prayer into the White House, I think it’s remarkable. I applaud her tenacity and it hasn’t been easy watching her get yanked around by the swamp, and yet she prevails. She’ll overcome. I stay in my lane on that one.”
Cain, who says his wife lets other men of faith pastor him, then asked the newspaper’s readers to buy his new memoir titled after Journey’s best-known song.
the rich asshole chided Hannity over Giuliani interview: report
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 05/08/18 08:24 AM EDT
President the rich asshole grew frustrated with Sean Hannity after the Fox News host’s interview last week with Rudy Giuliani, The Associated Press reported.
the rich asshole was reportedly bothered that Hannity used the word “funneled” during the interview with Giuliani. But a review of the transcript shows that Giuliani and Hannity were talking about two different things.
Giuliani was describing a payment the rich asshole’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement related to an affair Daniels says she had with the rich asshole in 2006.
“Because they funneled it through a law firm?” Hannity asked.
“Funneled it through a law firm, and the president repaid him,” Giuliani said.
But Hannity's question about funneling payments through a law firm pertained to Democrats funneling money through a law firm to pay for the so-called Steele dossier.
Giuliani's revelation that the rich asshole reimbursed Cohen contradicted the president’s past statement that he was unaware of the $130,000 payment or where the money for it came from.
The president has since acknowledged that he paid Cohen a monthly retainer, which he said was used to cover the cost of the payment to Daniels.
The White House has denied that the payment violated campaign finance laws.
Hannity is one of the rich asshole's strongest allies. He frequently defends the rich asshole on his show, and the two reportedly speak regularly. Cohen represents both men, though Hannity disputed that characterization, saying he only sought real estate advice.
This article was updated and clarified at 12:35 p.m.
Four servile the rich asshole loyalists in Congress are on a crusade to destroy the Mueller probe
President some rich asshole (AFP/File / SAUL LOEB)
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In what is probably the least shocking news of the last few weeks, Politico reported on Monday that President the rich asshole is getting fed up with Rudy Giuliani. For some reason he doesn’t think his new lawyer is helping his case by going on every TV show and repeatedly implicating his client in more and more crimes. the rich asshole is said to be specifically upset that Giuliani failed to shut down the Stormy Daniels scandal. Apparently he actually believed the long-ago New York mayor was an “expert on campaign finance,” and is disappointed to find out that he’s a phony who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. So much for the old saying, “It takes one to know one.”
This article was originally published at Salon
Rudy’s not going to get any better at this. Since his main function is to go on television and “fight,” it’s likely that if the rich asshole is already disillusioned with him, Giuliani’s days are numbered. He may not be the only one of the rich asshole’s BFFs to be in the doghouse. According to the AP, the president even snapped at his “shadow chief of staff,” Sean Hannity, for using the phrase “funneled money through a law firm” because he thinks it has “illegal” connotations. Perhaps the fact that Giuliani was openly suggesting that the rich asshole had been involved in a criminal scheme was what brought that particular image to mind.
But don’t worry. the rich asshole still has many friends in Washington who are willing to give it their all for his cause. Indeed, there’s one group he has dubbed “the warriors” (or as I prefer to call them: the four horsemen of the Apocalypse) for their willingness to fight for him in the Congress. He name-checked them on Fox and Friends: Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Ron DeSantis, also of Florida. According to Politico, this is the group bringing up articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein over his failure to provide documents on the Mueller investigation quickly enough and, of course, his refusal to continue to pursue Hillary Clinton right into the grave.
These four are not exactly household names, or they weren’t until the rich asshole got elected. Jordan is the veteran of the group having first been elected in 2006, while Meadows and DeSantis have only been in Congress since 2013. Gaetz is a 36-year-old freshman and the subject of this GQ profile, which described him as the “Trumpiest congressman in the rich asshole’s Washington.”
Meadows and Jordan are top dogs in the House Freedom Caucus, and all four are servile the rich asshole loyalists who are often on the phone with the president and carry his sword on Fox News shows around the clock. They are denigrating the Department of Justice and special counsel Robert Mueller probe at least as hard as the rich asshole. Indeed, if you want to know where the president gets his talking points (aside from Hannity), he often follows the warriors’ lead after watching them on one of his Fox shows. Their willingness to take on the DOJ by abusing their “oversight” role has made him very happy.
They are only too delighted to help. Gaetz told Politico,”The president’s been frustrated by some of the tactics that have been used against him. I think those frustrations are well-founded in fact and I appreciate him encouraging others to join our call.” Others see it a bit differently:
[T]he left-leaning public watchdog group Democracy 21 accused Meadows and Jordan of “colluding to obstruct and potentially give the rich asshole control over” Mueller’s probe. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, says they are “trying to sabotage” Mueller, and “want to force a confrontation with the Deputy Attorney General.”
Rosenstein responded to their impeachment threat by saying that the Department of Justice will not be “extorted.”
He later gave a speech obliquely addressing this issue which concluded with this:
Our system of government is not self-executing. It relies on wisdom and self-restraint. In a democratic republic, liberty is protected by cultural norms as well as by constitutional text. Lawyers and judges bear great responsibility for implementing and explaining those principles. The further we get from the founding generation, the less we appreciate how much everything depends on people rather than paper.Abraham Lincoln believed that the best way to ensure the survival of our “edifice of liberty and equal rights” is to enshrine reverence for the rule of law in the hearts of the citizens. “Let reverence for the laws,” he implored, “be breathed by every American mother … let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs — let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.” And, Lincoln concluded, “let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions” keep the rule of law.
I’m sure that the rich asshole and his warriors had a good laugh when they heard that.
House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes, R-Calif., must have been upset that the rich asshole didn’t mention him as one of his top lieutenants. After all, Nunes was caught red-handed conspiring with the White House and blatantly lying to the public about it — but just ignored the criticism and kept right on going. He is certainly not overly endowed with “wisdom and self-restraint.” Nunes has now upped the ante on this Rosenstein impeachment business by suggesting that he may cite Attorney General Jeff Sessions with contempt of Congress. Why? Because Sessions is actually following DOJ guidelines and refusing to turn over classified evidence in a counterintelligence investigation to people who have demonstrated that they are accomplices in the cover-up of the crime.
Nunes told “Fox & Friends” on Sunday that he was dead serious about going after Sessions and according to CNN, his committee may hold a vote on it this week. Since Sessions has recused himself from the Russia investigation he seems an odd target, but perhaps Nunes felt he needed to go above Rosenstein to get the rich asshole’s attention. On Monday night when the congressman was asked about his threat, he told reporters, “It wasn’t a threat, it’s what’s going to happen,” which are the kind of fighting words the president likes to hear from his warriors.
White House congressional liaison Mark Short told CNN in no uncertain terms, “I think we are supportive of our Cabinet.” Paul Ryan was his usual bucket of lukewarm water. But close observers see both the move to impeach Rosenstein and the contempt citation against Sessions as possible pretexts for the rich asshole to fire both of them. Why? For disrespecting the Constitution and the rule of law.
And yes, irony is dead.
The Memo: Few think the rich asshole will interview with Mueller
BY NIALL STANAGE - 05/08/18 06:00 AM EDT
President the rich asshole insisted a few days ago that he would “love to” speak to Robert Mueller’s team of investigators — but it’s becoming harder to find anyone in Washington who believes him.
Rudy Giuliani, who recently joined the president’s personal legal team, has been bombarding Mueller day after day.
And, in the same remarks where he professed his desire to speak with Mueller, he added a crucial caveat: “I have to find that we’re going to be treated fairly.”
Virtually no one believes that criterion is likely to be met, at least in the rich asshole’s mind.
Behind the scenes, people in the rich asshole’s orbit acknowledge that the attacks on Mueller are a way of preparing the ground for the president to refuse an interview, and to make such a decision as politically palatable as possible.
Behind the scenes, people in the rich asshole’s orbit acknowledge that the attacks on Mueller are a way of preparing the ground for the president to refuse an interview, and to make such a decision as politically palatable as possible.
the rich asshole critics and supporters alike acknowledge — albeit with differing levels of frankness — that the current strategy elevates the public relations and political game above the legal one.
So long as Mueller’s probe can be cast as compromised by bias, a large share of the president’s supporters will discount its findings, they believe.
So long as Mueller’s probe can be cast as compromised by bias, a large share of the president’s supporters will discount its findings, they believe.
Some people around the president also believe Giuliani is playing a shrewder negotiating game than some people give him credit for, at least in one respect.
His suggestion last week that he might make the president available for an interview but only a relatively brief one is almost certain to be rejected by Mueller — at which point the president’s team could argue they were willing to be constructive but were rebuffed.
Meanwhile, the vigor of the attacks on Mueller from the president and his allies continues unabated.
Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told The Hill on Monday that he believes “the president should never sit down with Mr. Mueller because Mr. Mueller’s investigation has been an exercise in bad faith from the beginning.”
DiGenova emphasized that he was speaking in a personal capacity. In March, it had been announced that he would join the president’s legal team, together with his wife and fellow attorney Victoria Toensing. Later, however, a statement was issued by the rich asshole’s lawyer Jay Sekulow noting that the couple would not join up after all because of “conflicts.”
DiGenova and Toensing are frequent guests on cable television, however, where they continue to urge a hard line from the rich asshole toward the investigation.
In his Monday interview with The Hill, diGenova referred to Mueller and the people who surround him as “legal thugs,” adding that sitting down with them would be a “terrible mistake” for the rich asshole.
There could be a price to be paid for not volunteering for such an interview.
According to a Washington Post report, Mueller had suggested during a meeting back in March that he might issue a subpoena if the rich asshole did not consent to an interview.
The mere act of having a subpoena issued against him could be damaging for the rich asshole. If he challenged it, the battle could go all the way to the Supreme Court.
The balance of legal opinion holds that the rich asshole would be likely to lose such a fight, though even some the rich asshole critics acknowledge it is not an open-and-shut case.
The problem is even more acute in the political realm, where the president could be trying to fight off a subpoena at the same time as he is trying to rally the Republican Party to fight the midterm elections in a difficult climate.
Harry Litman, a former deputy assistant attorney general during the Clinton administration, said that a legal battle over a subpoena would take a minimum of “five or six months.”
“That harms Mueller in some ways but it harms the rich asshole worse, because it makes it harder for him to call for [Mueller’s] ouster,” Litman said. “And there may also have been a turn in the House, and maybe even in the Senate by then. So time is not on his side.”
Given those downsides, Litman suggested it was likely there could be another round of negotiations between Mueller’s team and the president’s lawyers, aimed at coming up with a compromise arrangement. He was not, however, optimistic about this bearing fruit.
Referring to the rich asshole’s lawyers, he said: “I don’t see them offering him up for sworn testimony. And I don’t see Mueller settling for anything less.”
Sam Nunberg, a former the rich asshole campaign aide, argued that the president should only comply with a request for an interview if it pertained to the allegations of Russian collusion during the campaign.
Nunberg insisted that such allegations were false and that therefore the rich asshole had nothing to lose by speaking about them.
But he was much more resistant to the idea that the president should be drawn into broader testimony.
The firing of FBI Director James Comey, for example, was among the issues that were raised in a list of questions that emerged from previous discussions between the Mueller and the rich asshole teams. The New York Times published those questions last week.
If that list is broadly accurate, Nunberg said, “Then, no, I don’t think he should agree to an interview.”
Nunberg insisted a fight against Mueller is winnable, politically as well as legally, for the president.
“As a general rule, whether Americans like the president or not, they will hate the government more,” he said. “They will hate unelected bureaucrats trying to overturn the will of the people.”
It is not clear that the electorate is close to that point, however.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll last month indicated that 69 percent of adults supported Mueller investigating allegations of Russian collusion while only 25 percent were opposed.
That may be one reason why the rich asshole team is insisting publicly it still has an open mind about a rich asshole interview.
Giuliani told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that “every day we swing a little different” on whether to advise the rich asshole to testify or not.
He hoped a final decision could be made by May 17, he added — the one-year anniversary of Mueller’s appointment.
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