Tag: Donald Trump

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Trump Tries To Deflect From More Bad News On Campaign/Russia Story

Stilling obsessing over his 2016 opponent, Donald Trump went on yet another wild Twitter rant this morning wondering why the FBI isn’t investigating a host of Hillary Clinton issues (#fakenews) as former Trump campaign officials are being indicted and charged for various alleged crimes.

Can you say “Change the subject?”

What Trump is really mad about is the revelation that he did know something about Russian connections during the 2016 campaign.

From this morning’s New York Times:

At a March 31, 2016, meeting between Mr. Trump and his foreign policy team, Mr. Papadopoulos introduced himself and said “that he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump and President Putin,” according to court records.

“He went into the pitch right away,” said J. D. Gordon, a campaign adviser who attended the meeting. “He said he had a friend in London, the Russian ambassador, who could help set up a meeting with Putin.”

Mr. Trump listened with interest. Mr. Sessions vehemently opposed the idea, Mr. Gordon recalled. “And he said that no one should talk about it,” because Mr. Sessions thought it was a bad idea that he did not want associated with the campaign, he said.

And so, Trump takes to Twitter to deflect and obfuscate:

“Pocohontas,” also known as Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, clapped back:

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Trump Demands Death Penalty For Manhattan Truck Driving Terrorist

Donald Trump

Donald Trump took to Twitter this morning to demand that Sayfullo Saipov, the Lower Manhattan truck driver who killed 8 in a terrorist attack on Tuesday, should get the death penalty.

The Trumpster wrote, in part, “NYC terrorist was happy as he asked to hang ISIS flag in his hospital room. He killed 8 people, badly injured 12. SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!”

It’s extremely unusual for a president to make such a direct call to action about the death penalty.

There’s a good reason why elected officials shouldn’t comment on ongoing prosecutions. Speaking out publicly too soon can hand a defense lawyer the chance to bring up how an accused terrorist can’t get a fair trial in addition to other complications.

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Gallup Poll: Trump Approval Rating Plummets To New Low

Click image to enlarge

It’s not a good day in Trump Land.

In addition to three Donald Trump advisers being indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and Trump’s proposed ban on transgender military service members being blocked by a federal judge, there’s more bad news for the Trumpster as the Gallup Tracking poll shows the president has hit a historic low in his approval rating in the poll.

Today’s results show Trump at a dismal 33% approval rating; his disapproval rating has shot up to 62%.

So. Much. Winning.

On this day in 2009, President Obama’s first year in the White House, his approval rating was 55% with only 40% disapproval.

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Trump Campaign Chair Paul Manafort & Associate Charged With 12 Counts Including Conspiracy Against U.S. And Money Laundering

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort

Former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about interactions with foreign agents with close contact to the Russian government.

Additionally, former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, and his longtime associate Rick Gates have been charged on 12 counts by special counsel Robert Mueller.

From CNN:

In court records unsealed on Monday, the FBI said George Papadopoulos “falsely described his interactions with a certain foreign contact who discussed ‘dirt’ related to emails” concerning Hillary Clinton.

In addition, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump campaign official Rick Gates surrendered Monday to Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller.

Gates, 45, is a longtime business associate of Manafort, 68, having worked together since the mid-2000s, and served as his deputy on the campaign. The two were indicted under seal on Friday, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The charges against Manafort and Gates are unrelated to the Trump campaign, but Papadopoulos’ guilty plea brings the Mueller probe into actions that occurred during the 2016 campaign.

Papadopoulos lied to FBI agents “about the timing, extent and nature of his relationships and interactions with certain foreign nationals whom he understood to have close connections with senior Russian government officials,” according to the complaint. Mueller signed a 14-page statement regarding Papadopoulos’ offense, which lays out of the facts of the case.

The indictment against Manafort and Gates contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.

The charges do not cover any activities related to the campaign, though it’s possible Mueller could add additional charges.

Note: Papadopoulos was arrested on July 27, 2017, and we are just now hearing about it. While the White House has tons of info leaks going on, Robert Mueller’s investigation is tight and locked down. No leaks coming from his team.

Donald Trump responded to the charges via Twitter saying the actions noted in Manafort’s charges

Meanwhile, as the nation focuses on the fact that advisers to the president have been indicted on charges of conspiracy against the United States, this is what Fox News is doing this morning:

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NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll: Trump Hits Lowest Approval Rating Yet

NBC News reports that Donald Trump’s job approval rating has dropped to the lowest point of his presidency according to the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

Only 38% of those surveyed say they approve of Trump’s job performance indicating a 5 point decline from September.

Trump’s previous low approval rating in the same poll was 39% in May.

A whopping 58% disapprove of the job Trump is doing.

Notable drops in support show up in three key demographics in the course of just one month:

• Independents shifted from 41% approval in September to 34% now

• White voters dropped from 51% to 47%

• White voters without a college degree – and these are key for Trump – declined from 58% to 51%

Not only is this a personal low for Trump, it’s the lowest of any president in modern times at this point of their presidency.

In October of their first year in the White House, the NBC/WSJ poll showed:

• George W. Bush at 88% approval

• Barack Obama at 51% approval

• Bill Clinton at 47% approval

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Sunday Morning Trump Twitter Rant: “Do Something!”

Donald Trump had his predictable Twitter meltdown this morning in anticipation of actual charges coming from the Mueller/Russia investigation.

“Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?),… the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more. Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia,… “collusion,” which doesn’t exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R’s……are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING! All of this “Russia” talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT!”

#DoSomething is now trending on Twitter LOL

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Podcast: Egypt Lawmakers Propose Criminalizing LGBTs; Ryan Murphy’s New Series Casts Record Number Of Trans Actors; Colton Haynes Gets Married

In this week’s podcast:

• Lawmakers in Egypt have drafted legislation which would criminalize homosexuality, making being gay punishable with prison time

• The Trump administration now wants to argue against LGBTQ protections at the U.S. Supreme Court

• Ryan Murphy’s new series Pose has cast a record number of transgender actors

• Arrow/Teen Wolf/American Horror Story star Colton Haynes got married in Palm Springs with lots of famous friends in attendance

• plus, my suggestions for some Halloween movies with a queer slant

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report

 (btw – how do you like the new logo for the podcast?)

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NYT: Trump Tower Russian Lawyer Shared Same Talking Points As Kremlin Memo

According to Donald Trump and his White House, you would think the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is just about over and was a big bust.

Trump tweeted today, “It is now commonly agreed, after many months of COSTLY looking, that there was NO collusion between Russia and Trump. Was collusion with HC!”

But that’s not at all the truth. It is not “commonly agreed” that there was nothing there.

As a matter of fact, check out this in today’s New York Times:

Natalia V. Veselnitskaya arrived at a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 hoping to interest top Trump campaign officials in the contents of a memo she believed contained information damaging to the Democratic Party and, by extension, Hillary Clinton. The material was the fruit of her research as a private lawyer, she has repeatedly said, and any suggestion that she was acting at the Kremlin’s behest that day is anti-Russia “hysteria.”

But interviews and records show that in the months before the meeting, Ms. Veselnitskaya had discussed the allegations with one of Russia’s most powerful officials, the prosecutor general, Yuri Y. Chaika.

And the memo she brought with her closely followed a document that Mr. Chaika’s office had given to an American congressman two months earlier, incorporating some paragraphs verbatim.

The coordination between the Trump Tower visitor and the Russian prosecutor general undercuts Ms. Veselnitskaya’s account that she was a purely independent actor when she sat down with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Paul J. Manafort, then the Trump campaign chairman.

It also suggests that emails from an intermediary to the younger Mr. Trump promising that Ms. Veselnitskaya would arrive with information from Russian prosecutors were rooted at least partly in fact — not mere “puffery,” as the president’s son later said.

Bolding is mine.

Puffery refers to “puffing up” an exaggerated image of what is being described.

The idea that Veselnitskaya’s memo having identical language as Russian Prosecutor General Chaika’s being mere coincidence is something no one believes.