Tag: Donald Trump

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Poll: 62% Of Americans Don’t Believe Trump Has Been Honest About Russian Interference

A new poll by NBC/Wall Street Journal taken after the midterm elections shows a majority of Americans think Donald Trump hasn't been truthful regarding the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Donald Trump

A new poll by NBC/Wall Street Journal taken after the midterm elections shows a majority of Americans think Donald Trump hasn’t been truthful regarding the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

• Almost two-thirds (62% of those polled) say Trump has not been honest regarding Russian interference in the last presidential election.

• 33% believe the economy will get worse in the next 12 months versus 28% who believe it will continue to improve.

• Only 38% of those polled would vote to re-elect Trump president.

• Only 33% say Trump ‘got the message’ that voters want a change of direction via the midterm elections; 22% say he got the message but won’t make any changes in his approach to the presidency.

• 56% say the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Check out more from the recent survey here.

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SNL Cold Open Offers “A Wonderful Life” Where Trump Was Never President

SNL’s holiday show cold open threw a new spin on the Christmas classic, It’s A Wonderful Life, where Donald Trump wishes for a world where he was not elected president.

The skit features celebrity cameos by Ben Stiller (Michael Cohen), Robert De Niro (Robert Mueller), and host Matt Damon (Brett Kavanaugh).

Entering a holiday party, Trump looks around the room noting the mood of the party goers: “Everyone looks so different. What are those things on their faces?”

Kenan Thompson’s ‘Clarence the Guardian Angel’ replies, “Those are called smiles.”

When Trump asks if ‘they ever found’ Hillary Clinton’s emails, Clarence shares, “They did – they were all Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons.”

In this new world, Mike Pence is a gay DJ (“It’s so great to be myself”).

And Melania Trump, no longer married to the Donald, doesn’t have an accent anymore. “After our divorce, I lost it. They said being around you was hurting my language skills.”

The sketch appears to have triggered the Trumpster:

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Trump Rants About Cohen Becoming A ‘Rat,’ Wonders Why Folks Didn’t “Break Into The DNC?”

Donald Trump went on one of his usual Sunday morning Twitter rants raging about his former ‘fixer,’ Michael Cohen, becoming a “Rat” after the FBI “BROKE INTO AN ATTORNEY’S OFFICE!”

Of course, the FBI didn’t ‘break’ into Cohen’s office. A federal judge authorized a legal search warrant after finding that there was a good reason to believe evidence of a crime would be found in his office.

p.s. They did find that evidence. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison this week.

The president of the United States just wondered in front of millions of Twitter users why someone didn’t break into the Democratic National Committee offices.

Doesn’t that sound familiar? I’m thinking circa 1972 and a certain Richard Nixon…?

History truly repeats itself.

By the way, Cohen tweeted that the FBI was “extremely professional, courteous and respectful” during the search.

It’s worth noting that Ken Starr has absolutely NO idea what Special Counsel Robert Mueller has found during his investigation.

Also – the Ken Starr/White Water investigation went on for four years. Mueller was appointed to head up the current investigation in May 2017 meaning he’s spent less than half the time Starr took to look into White Water.

Similarly, Starr expanded his investigation far afield from his original mandate. So arguments that Mueller should ‘ignore’ crimes not related to Russia along the way are ridiculous.

When the police investigate a robbery and trip over a dead body, they don’t ignore the body.

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Trump Administration Asks SCOTUS To Allow Trans Military Ban Before Review

The Department of Justice has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Donald Trump’s ban on transgender military service members to go into effect while waiting on SCOTUS to decide whether or not to even take the case up for review.

The Department of Justice has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Donald Trump’s ban on transgender military service members to go into effect while waiting on SCOTUS to decide whether or not to even take the case up for review.

Apparently, the United States is in a state of emergency regarding the few thousand transgender people currently serving with honor in the U.S. military.

I know – it doesn’t make any sense.

Let’s go back a bit, shall we?

In July of 2017, President Trump surprised American military leaders and the world when he announced his plan to ban trans military service members after “consultation with my Generals and military experts” due to the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of transgender service members.

Remember, this is the guy who told Americans during the 2016 presidential campaign that he would ‘fight’ for the LGBTQ community.

Riiiiight.

Conservatives loved the idea; Liberals and LGBTQ activists were outraged.

In the ensuing months, numerous injunctions were ordered by judges blocking the implementation of the policy, and for good reason.

Not only has The American Medical Association (AMA) issued a statement saying there is ‘no medically valid reason’ for banning transgender people from serving in the United States military, but all four service chiefs (Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force) have testified they’ve seen no negative effects from transgender military personnel serving the country they love.

According to a 2016 RAND Corporation study, there are an estimated 1,320 to 6,630 transgender individuals out of the 1.3 million service members on active duty.

That same study estimated the cost of health care coverage for transgender personnel could range from $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year, which is about one-fifth of what

So, we can afford dick pills, but not trained trans soldiers…?

Then, earlier this month, Department of Justice Attorney Brinton Lucas told the D.C. Circuit Court that if the Trump policy were to be implemented, transgender troops would not be “discharged on the basis of their transgender status.”

(Wait for it…)

But, they would have to identify as the biological sex assigned to them at birth meaning they would have to stop any transition-related medical treatment – treatment that every major medical association has deemed necessary and life-saving for trans people.

Then, over Thanksgiving weekend, the Trump administration bypassed the appeals court process and requested the Supreme Court review the case before the circuit level courts even issue their opinions.

This isn’t a very popular approach as SCOTUS doesn’t like to review a case before it has made its way through the lower courts.

The high court likes to have cases work their way through traditional channels so they have the benefit of the opinions of lower court judges by the time cases reaches SCOTUS.

This week, the Trump administration filed emergency briefs asking the high court to allow the transgender ban to go into effect until SCOTUS can review the case in 2019.

According to Think Progress, the emergency briefs claimed waiting any longer to boot transgender military service members poses “too great a risk to military effectiveness and lethality” and it would be “contrary to the Nation’s interests.”

But such arguments have gained little traction in the past.

For example, U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal ruled in September that “loss of unit cohesion” was the same argument used to keep Black people, women, and gay people from joining the military.

“The military has repeatedly proven its capacity to adapt and grow stronger specifically by the inclusion of these individuals,” wrote Bernal as he dismissed claims that including trans people would generate any different outcome.

It’s worth noting that the emergency briefs filed this week object to numerous motions for discovery filed in the cases. It seems the Trump administration wants to claim that all documentation related to how the ban was developed would fall under executive privilege.

What they really mean is that if those documents came to light, the American public might discover that Vice President Pence (a known homophobe) and his virulently anti-LGBTQ friends were instrumental in pushing the new ban through.

Should the Supreme Court allow the policy to be implemented before the case reaches SCOTUS, thousands of transgender soldiers could be discharged for being who they are.

This short video from the New York Times introduces just a few of the trans soldiers who are at risk of being discharged.

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Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s ‘Fixer,’ Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison

Michael Cohen

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and so-called ‘fixer,’ was sentenced today to three years in prison for his role in secret hush money scandals regarding alleged affairs between Donald Trump and two women.

His crimes included campaign finance violations as well as lying to Congress.

From The New York Times:

The sentencing in federal court in Manhattan capped a startling fall for Mr. Cohen, 52, who had once hoped to work by Mr. Trump’s side in the White House but ended up a central figure in the inquiry into payments to a porn star and a former Playboy model before the 2016 election.

Judge William H. Pauley III said Mr. Cohen had committed a “smorgasbord” of crimes involving “deception” and motivated by “personal greed and ambition.”

“As a lawyer, Mr. Cohen should have known better,” the judge said.

Before he was sentenced, a solemn Mr. Cohen, standing at a lectern, sounded emotional but resolved as he told the judge he had been tormented by the anguish and embarrassment he had caused his family.

Referencing Trump recently calling him ‘weak,’ Cohen agreed with that assessment but for different reasons than Trump.

“It was because time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds rather than to listen to my own inner voice and my moral compass,” Mr. Cohen said.

Cohen had also served as deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee.

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News Round-Up: December 11, 2018

Matthew Camp flies the friendlier skies
Matthew Camp (via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• As I board my plane to head home to Las Vegas from the fab Puerto Vallarta, let me inform you no one on my flight looks quite like Matt Camp (above), who I just chatted with for an upcoming interview.

• Michelle Obama has added EVEN MORE dates to her book tour as sales of her memoir, Becoming, have already exceeded 3 million copies in North America alone.

• Conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin has a VERY interesting idea Donald Trump might use to stay out of jail if not re-elected.

• A Florida man has been sentenced to 3 years in prison for hooking up with straight men, telling them he was a woman, promising blindfolded anonymous sex and then filming them without their knowledge or consent.

• Yale Law School librarian Fred Shapiro has issued his annual list of the year’s most memorable quotes. Topping the list is Rudy Giuliano’s “Truth isn’t truth” quote from his interview on “Meet the Press,” August 19, 2018.

• Jim Marchese, who no one remembers from the 2014 season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, is attempting to become relevant in some way via his blatant homophobia on social media telling his Twitter followers, “NO STRAIGHT MALE wants his son to be gay.”

He doubled down with even more homophobia:

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Washington Post Launches New “Bottomless Pinocchio” Rating For Trump’s Repeated Lies

Donald Trump

The Washington Post Fact Checker is beginning a new fact-checking rating for politicians – the “Bottomless Pinocchio.

That dubious distinction will be awarded to politicians who repeat a false claim so many times that they are, in effect, engaging in campaigns of disinformation.

The bar for the Bottomless Pinocchio is high: The claims must have received three or four Pinocchios from The Fact Checker, and they must have been repeated at least 20 times. Twenty is a sufficiently robust number that there can be no question the politician is aware that his or her facts are wrong. The list of Bottomless Pinocchios will be maintained on its own landing page.

The Fact Checker has not identified statements from any other current elected official who meets the standard other than Trump. In fact, 14 statements made by the president immediately qualify for the list.

Among the whoppers that Trump continues to repeat that qualify for the “Bottomless Pinocchio” include the Democrats ‘colluding’ with the Russians in the 2016 election (48 times); calling his tax cut legislation “the biggest tax cut in history (123 times); and boasting that the U.S. is experiencing ‘the best economy in the history of the country (99 times).

There’s much more at the link.

What a dubious distinction.

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James Comey: Vote Trump Out In Landslide Without Impeachment

James Comey

During a Q&A session at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y in New York City on Sunday night, former FBI Director James Comey told the audience that the answer to the scandal-ridden Trump administration is voting him out in a landslide in 2020, not impeachment.

Via CNN:

“All of us should use every breath we have to make sure the lies stop on January 20, 2021,” Comey told an audience at the 92nd Street Y on New York City’s Upper East Side. He all but begged Democrats to set aside their ideological differences and nominate the person best suited to defeating Trump in an election.

Comey said he hoped that Trump would be swept out of office without being impeached. Framing the rise of Trumpism as a political ill the country needed to exorcise at the ballot, he expressed a hope that Americans would “in a landslide rid ourselves of this attack on our values.”

“Removal by impeachment would muddy that,” he said, and potentially leave a third of the country feeling like their chosen leader had been removed in a “coup.”

For what it’s worth, I wholeheartedly agree.

First, even though a Democratic-led House of Representatives might vote for articles of impeachment, the Republican-controlled Senate would never vote Trump out.

Second, the democratic process would be viewed as a much more widespread solution than, as Comey says, a Trumper-viewed ‘coup.’

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Donald Trump Rants About “No Smocking Gun”

Donald Trump

Donald Trump clearly had a terrible weekend after announcing his second chief of staff, John Kelly, would be leaving soon AND his prime pick to replace Kelly, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers, publicly tweeted his decision to decline the offer.

So, Monday morning, the Trumpster was all ready to pick a fight. Taking to Twitter, he ranted:

“Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun…No Collusion.” @FoxNews That’s because there was NO COLLUSION. So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution,..which it was not (but even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama’s – but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine. Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me). Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!”

Legal experts weighed in:

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Axios: “We Now Know…”

Donald Trump

In light of this week’s sentencing recommendations from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, plus new details from former FBI Director James Comey at congressional hearings, Axios comes up with this list of “what we know” regarding the ongoing investigation:

We now know several Russian officials reached out to a half dozen Republicans very close to Trump and his campaign, including his eldest son, his closest adviser, his lawyer, and his campaign manager. We now know they took the meetings, often enthusiastically, during and after the campaign.

We now know Russia offered in those chats campaign assistance — “synergy,” they called it. We know now of no one around Trump who alerted the FBI of this effort to subvert our elections.

We now know that 12 Russian intelligence officers were indicted for hacking the DNC and systematically releasing material for the purpose of hurting the Clinton campaign via WikiLeaks.

We know that Trump associates Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi attempted — successfully, in some instances — to get in touch with WikiLeaks and that they are under investigation for whether they had advance knowledge about the email dumps.

We now know Donald Trump, Jr and others took a meeting with Russians promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. We now know Don, Jr., when approached with the promise of dirt, wrote: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

We now know Trump was negotiating a Trump property in Moscow during the presidential campaign — and hid this from the public and lied about it. We now know Mueller believes, based on his court filing, the “Moscow Project was a lucrative business opportunity that sought, and likely required, the assistance of the Russian government.”

We now know every arm of the US intelligence community concluded Russia sought to systematically influence the election outcome. We now know this was an unanimous conclusion, save one dissent: Trump.

We now know Trump officials continued talking with the Russians during the post-election transition. We now know Jared Kushner and Jeff Sessions failed to initially disclose any contacts with Russians on their government forms.

We now know Jared Kushner suggested a secret backchannel with the Russians, which had it happened, would have been free of US eavesdropping.

We now know Trump soured on FBI director James Comey, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and White House counsel Don McGahn in part over their handling of the probe.

We now know Paul Manafort, who ran the Trump campaign in the summer of 2016, lied about his Russia contacts, was indicted, and is going to jail.

We now know Flynn lied about his Russian contacts, was fired and pleaded guilty, after agreeing to become a key witness in the investigation.

We now know Cohen lied about his Russian contacts, was indicted, and then flipped to become a key witness against Trump.

Axios’ final note – Robert Mueller knows a lot more than just the above.