Tag: Donald Trump

Posted on

GOP House Intelligence Committee Chairman On Trump Wire Tap Allegations: “Clearly The President Was Wrong”

Congressmen Adam Schiff (L) and Devin Nunes (R)

Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes told reporters this morning he thinks President Donald Trump was wrong when he accused President Barack Obama of wiretapping him.

Nunes, an 8-term U.S. Congressman from California, also says he doesn’t believe Trump Tower was wiretapped at all.

“I don’t think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower,” the 8-term Congressman from California told reporters during a joint press conference with Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff (D-CA).

“We don’t have any evidence” that President Obama tapped Trump Tower, Nunes said. Going further, he added, “I don’t think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower.”

“Now you have to decide, as I mentioned to you last week, are you going to take the tweets literally? And if you are, then clearly the president was wrong,” he said.

Note how very uncomfortable Nunes is here. He can’t even look the reporters in the eye.

As the White House staff has begun parsing the president’s accusations, let’s go back and remember just exactly what it is that Trump is alleging:

Posted on

Rachel Maddow Talks Trump Tax Returns, Trump Pretends No One Has Heard Of Pulitzer Prize Winning Author

Last night, Rachel Maddow almost blew up Twitter with the news that she had in her possession “Donald Trump’s tax returns.”

In truth, it was two pages of Trump’s 2005 tax returns. The pages were sent anonymously to Pulitzer Prize winning, New York Times best selling author David Cay Johnston, who sat down with Maddow to discuss what the return could tell American voters about their new president.

The White House actually put out a statement in advance of Maddow’s show which confirmed the information.

The very short version is that Trump paid $36 million in taxes on $153 million adjusted gross income. So, about 25% tax rate. About what most middle class folks pay percentage-wise.

Reminder – Trump is the first President in four decades to refuse to release his returns, even though he promised on many occasions to do so.

For the full breakdown of the tax returns by Johnston, click here.

Watch below as Maddow and Johnston discuss the documents:

Folks are wondering where the tax return came from, and it’s been considered by a lot of folks that Trump himself, or an aide, sent the pages as a distraction from his current White House woes. As we all know, Trump used to “leak” info on himself to New York City newspapers under an assumed name often back in the 80s and 90s.

This morning, the Donald at least feigned anger tweeting, “Does anybody really believe that a reporter, who nobody ever heard of, “went to his mailbox” and found my tax returns? @NBCNews FAKE NEWS!”

Reminder: Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize winning author with New York Times best-sellers to his credit. A LOT of folks have heard of him.

Johnston replied to the tweet thusly:

Johnston also shared last night that his family was allegedly threatened by Trump supporters:

Now. Can we get back to Trump’s allegations of wire tapping and the American Health Care Act which won’t be passing in it’s present form?

Posted on

TrumpCare Falls Far Short Of Promised “Insurance For Everybody”

According to the CBO, the American Health Care Act would increase the number of Americans without health coverage by 24 million and reduce the federal budget deficit by $337 billion by 2026.

This doesn’t quite jive with Trump’s oft-repeated promises that the GOP replacement would provide “insurance for everybody” and be “much less expensive and much better.”

Time travel time: Donald Trump in September 2015 on CBS’ 60 Minutes talking healthcare:

“I am going to take care of everyone. I don’t care if it costs me votes or not.”

Oh, and the American Health Care Act includes $880 billion in Medicaid cuts.

Let’s take another trip in the way back machine:

Posted on

White House: Obama Didn’t Wiretap Trump’s Phones, He “Wiretapped” Them

So, this is how President Trump will backtrack out of his false allegation that President Obama wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower.

According to Trump spokesman Sean Spicer today during a White House press briefing, Obama didn’t wiretap Trump’s phones.

He “wiretapped” the phones.

See, those were air quotes utilized by Spicer. Watch below at the :55 mark:

In truth, President Trump specifically accused Obama of tapping “my phones” during the 2016 election.

It’s been over a week since the Trumpster took to Twitter to accuse Obama of tapping his phones. Folks from Capitol Hill to the media have asked every day what proof Trump has to base such an outrageous accusation.

The answer is, of course, none.

Spicer also said that Trump was referring to the Obama administration broadly; that Trump didn’t mean to specify President Obama as an individual.

However, Trump’s language in those now-infamous tweets included “Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower” and accused Obama of being a “bad” or “sick guy.” Sounds like he was talking about Obama to me.

I guarantee what happened was Trump read the allegation from Breitbart thanks to a report put in his daily reading pile by an aide. Trump, already angry from Jeff Sessions quick decision to recuse himself from any investigation into Russian contacts, went on a Twitter tear about the idea of being surveilled, without bothering to think about any future blowback of such an allegation.

Now, he’s stuck with providing concrete proof, or looking foolish.

Guess which one it’s going to be?

Posted on

President Trump’s Travel Expenses Continue To Dwarf Obama’s

Does this really not bother any of Trump’s supporters?

Before he became America’s commander in chief, Trump frequently criticized Obama’s travel expenses on Fox News and via his Twitter account.

Posted on

Trump: Unemployment Numbers May Have Been Phony In The Past, But “Very Real Now”

After years of knocking unemployment reports from the Department of Labor Statistics as “phony,” President Trump has a brand-new outlook now that he’s in the White House.

“Don’t believe these phony numbers,” Trump told supporters early last year. “The number is probably 28, 29, as high as 35 [percent]. In fact, I even heard recently 42 percent.”

But when White House spokesman Sean Spicer was asked about the past versus present on the topic of unemployment today, Spicer replied, “I talked to the President prior to this, and he said to quote him very clearly. ‘They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.’”

Watch below.

Posted on

GOP: Last February’s 242K New Jobs Was “Disappointing” But Feb 2017’s 235K Is “Great”

The latest jobs report is out from the Department of Labor Statistics and the good news is the effects of the Obama years continues as the U.S. economy added 235,000 jobs, and unemployment fell to 4.7%

The Trump administration, of course, immediately attempted to take credit for the stats. As everyone knows, President Trump’s economic policies have barely begun implementation. Plus, it takes months for policies to begin to affect the economy in a broad, significant manner.

I would note the fact that this February’s numbers (235K) are very similar to the last two February’s stats – February 2015 (238K) and February 2016 (237K). Kind of hard for Trump to take credit when we’re basically on the same track; no real change of direction here.

And then there’s the fact that just last year, Trump called this very same metric for unemployment “phony.”

On February 9, 2016, Trump said in New Hampshire, “Don’t believe those phony numbers when you hear 4.9 and 5 percent unemployment. The number’s probably 28, 29, as high as 35. In fact, I even heard recently 42 percent.”

But, just to show how the Republicans have been spinning job stats for years, take a look at GOP Congressman Kevin Brady’s statements on both February 2016’s jobs report and this year’s.

Funny how 242,000 new jobs were described at “disappointing to see so little growth” in February of last year under Obama, but this year’s 235,000 number rated “This is a great report.”

Check out Brady’s statements below.

Things that make you go “hmm…”

(source)

Posted on

Senate Committee Requests FBI Provide Evidence (If Any) Of Trump Wiretaps

From the New York Times:

On Wednesday, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate’s Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism asked the F.B.I. and the Justice Department for evidence that the government had sought legal permission to tap Mr. Trump’s phones.

The request came in a letter from Senators Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, and Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, to Mr. Comey and the acting deputy attorney general, Dana Boente. Mr. Boente is overseeing the Russia inquiry because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any cases involving the Trump campaign and Russia, after acknowledging he met with Russia’s ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak.

“We request that the Department of Justice provide us copies of any warrant applications and court orders — redacted as necessary to protect intelligence sources and methods that may be compromised by disclosure, and to protect any ongoing investigations — related to wiretaps of President Trump, the Trump campaign or Trump Tower,” the senators wrote.

Posted on

Trump Tweets “Respect For Women,” Twitter Remembers Differently

President Trump took to Twitter this morning (for a change) to tweet a bit of something for International Women’s Day.

The response Trump got, however, probably wasn’t what he was expecting.

The Twitterverse has a long memory, and folks were quick to remind the president just how much he “respects” women by sharing one of his most infamous quotes, word for word:

Here’s just a few of the choice responses Trump got on Twitter: