Yesterday I reported on the firing of reality TV personality Omarosa Manigault Newman from her position in the Trump administration.
Today, Omarosa made the rounds of news shows denying the reports she was forcibly removed from the White House grounds. As usual with the former TV villainess, there’s more and more drama surrounding her even as she exits.
But the best part of the Omarosa departure was a short comment this morning on Good Morning America.
At the end of the segment wherein Omarosa tried to preface some future media attention saying she has “quite the story to tell,” Robin Roberts threw some serious shade with a subtle “Bye, Felecia.”
Jurors in the case of Isauro Aguirre, found guilty of first-degree murder of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez, have recommended the death penalty for the 37-year-old man.
Aguirre was convicted of first-degree murder on November 15. According to prosecutors, Aguirre hated the boy because he suspected he was gay.
Jurors on Wednesday voted for the death penalty for a man convicted of fatally torturing his girlfriend’s young son — a savage slaying that led to sweeping reform within Los Angeles County’s child-welfare system.
The verdict ended a murder trial in which jurors heard and saw disturbing evidence about how 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez suffered repeated abuse at the hands of Isauro Aguirre, 37, who stared ahead expressionless as he heard the pronouncement.
When paramedics arrived at the boy’s Palmdale home on May 22, 2013, Gabriel was unconscious and had a cracked skull, broken ribs, burned and bruised skin, missing teeth and BB pellets lodged in his groin. He died two days later after being removed from life support.
During closing arguments in the penalty phase of Aguirre’s trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Hatami told jurors that in the months leading up to the boy’s death, the defendant had reveled in his brutalization, forcing Gabriel to eat cat feces and his own vomit. The boy slept in a small cabinet, the prosecutor said, with his ankles handcuffed, his hands bound and his mouth gagged with a sock.
U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas has announced he will not run for re-election in 2018.
Farenthold, currently in his fourth term in the House of Representatives, has been under fire since it was disclosed that he settled a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former aide with $84,000 in taxpayers’ money.
A former senior aide to Rep. Blake Farenthold has approached the House Ethics Committee to share a damning account of working for the Texas Republican, with the intent of describing the congressman as verbally abusive and sexually demeaning — and his congressional office as an intensely hostile environment that drove the aide to physical and emotional distress.
Michael Rekola, who was Farenthold’s communications director in 2015, described in an interview with CNN new details of the congressman’s abusive behavior. It ranged from making sexually graphic jokes to berating aides — bullying that Rekola says led him to seek medical treatment and psychological counseling, and at one point, caused him to vomit daily.
One comment from the congressman was especially personal. Rekola was about to leave town to get married in July 2015, when, he said, Farenthold, standing within earshot of other staffers in his Capitol Hill office, said to the groom-to-be: “Better have your fiancée blow you before she walks down the aisle — it will be the last time.” He then proceeded to joke about whether Rekola’s now-wife could wear white on her wedding day — a clear reference, Rekola said, to whether she had had premarital sex.
In 2014, Rep. Blake Farenthold’s former communications director Lauren Greene sued alleging she’d been sexually harassed by the Congressman while working in his office.
Farenthold denies any sexual misconduct saying he only settled the lawsuit to put the matter to rest.
In the photo above, Farenthold (in the pajamas) posing with two women who were not his wife. You’ll note the woman on the left has an “M” on her hand which apparently meant she was underage and couldn’t legally drink at the event.
Rumors have swirled for years about Farenthold’s excessive drinking and inappropriate behavior.
It’s still a ways off, but it sounds more and more like Joe Biden really wants to run for prez again.
A lot of folks say they want a younger, fresher candidate for the Democrats, but you’ve got to admit folks like Joe.
And then there’s the fact that we’ve all learned the value of experience in the past 10 months…
Watch Joe on The View this morning where he teases a possible run.
Joe Biden on running for president: “If, in a year from now, if we’re ready, and nobody has moved in that I think can do it, then I may very well do it.” pic.twitter.com/Cli21USbFK
As I leave Puerto Vallarta to head back to reality (and truth be told, I’m pretty content with my reality), here’s a moment of eye-candy to help get us all over Hump Day.
In stone-cold sober language, the USA Today editorial board takes Donald Trump to task for once again finding a new rock bottom for his crassness.
With his latest tweet, clearly implying that a United States senator would trade sexual favors for campaign cash, President Trump has shown he is not fit for office. Rock bottom is no impediment for a president who can always find room for a new low.
A president who would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush.
This isn’t about the policy differences we have with all presidents or our disappointment in some of their decisions. Obama and Bush both failed in many ways. They broke promises and told untruths, but the basic decency of each man was never in doubt.
Donald Trump, the man, on the other hand, is uniquely awful. His sickening behavior is corrosive to the enterprise of a shared governance based on common values and the consent of the governed.
[snip]
The nation doesn’t seek nor expect perfect presidents, and some have certainly been deeply flawed. But a president who shows such disrespect for the truth, for ethics, for the basic duties of the job and for decency toward others fails at the very essence of what has always made America great.
Donald Trump’s approval rating has hit an all-time low in the latest Monmouth University Poll.
The Donald’s current job rating stands at a net negative 32% approve and 56% disapprove. This marks his lowest rating in Monmouth’s polling since taking office in January.
Trump’s biggest dips come from Independent women voters.
His lack of any notable legislative achievements plus his decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel which many feel will destabilize the Middle East were contributing factors to his declining numbers.
Previous surveys conducted over the course of the past year indicated his approval rating ranging from 39% to 43% and his disapproval rating ranging from 46% to 53%.
Republican Rep. Peter King speaking to CNN’s New Day regarding former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s responsibility for last night’s stunning GOP loss in Alabama by U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore:
“It’s not a political issue but a moral issue… this guy does not belong on the national stage. He looks like a drunk that wandered on to the national stage.”
Rep. Peter King: Steve Bannon “looks like some disheveled drunk who wandered on to the political stage” says Alabama vote was a “revulsion by people” of Bannon’s style and political views https://t.co/EJGw7GI4Is
