Tag: Donald Trump

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Trump Denies Being Briefed Regarding Bounties On US Troops

L-R Vice President Mike Pence, President Donald Trump (image via White House/Public Domain)
American intelligence officials reportedly concluded months ago that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly approached Islamic insurgents linked to the Taliban offering rewards in exchange for killing U.S. military forces in Afghanistan. From the New York Times:

The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year.

The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said. Officials developed a menu of potential options — starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other possible responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the officials said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, called the inaction “shameful” during a virtual town hall event on Saturday.

“Not only has he failed to sanction or impose any kind of consequences on Russia for this egregious violation of international law, Donald Trump has continued his embarrassing campaign of deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin,” Said Mr. Biden.

“His entire presidency has been a gift to Putin, but this is beyond the pale,” added Biden. “It’s a betrayal of the most sacred duty we bear as a nation, to protect and equip our troops when we send them into harm’s way.”

Trump tweeted today that neither he, Vice President Mike Pence, or Chief of Staff Mark Meadows were ever told about bounties on American troops. He also threw shade at Biden for reading a prepared statement, which Trump does all the time.

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Trump: I’m Staying In DC To Make Sure Law & Order Is Enforced, Which Means ‘Play Golf’

Donald Trump is on the golf course again today. Remember back in 2015 when he said, “I’m not going to have time to go play golf.” Folks are counting his trips to his golf clubs.

“I was going to go to Bedminster, New Jersey, this weekend, but wanted to stay in Washington, D.C. to make sure LAW & ORDER is enforced,” Trump tweeted on Friday. “I am doing what is necessary to keep our communities safe.” Which, of course, means ‘play golf.’

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Trump On Biden: “He’s Gonna Be President Because Some People Don’t Love Me”

During an interview on Fox News Thursday night, Donald Trump admitted he could lose his reelection bid in November saying, “He’s gonna be your president because some people don’t love me, maybe.” Trump then, of all people, took a moment to mock the way former Vice President Joe Biden speaks. “I don’t want to be nice or un-nice, but…the man can’t speak.” “Un-nice?” He also pivoted to the healthy economy he inherited from President Obama insinuating HE alone had achieved that before the coronavirus.

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News Round-Up: June 24, 2020

Some news items you might have missed: • CBS Sports: Major League Baseball is set to return starting either July 23 or 24, the league has announced. It’s worth noting that 40 MLB players and staff members reportedly tested positive for the novel coronavirus in recent days. • Billboard: Former President Barack Obama is set to deliver a special message to the LGBTQ community for the 3rd annual Stonewall Day virtual event. He will be joined by major stars such as Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Katy Perry and more, who will be offering their own messages of support, while pop superstars Kesha and Hayley Kiyoko will take to the digital stage for special performances. The Stonewall Day 2020 livestream on Logo’s YouTube and Facebook pages from 12:45 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET on Friday, June 26. • NewNowNext: Also on Friday, the cast of FX’s Pose will reunite for “Pose-A-Thon,” a commercial-free, one-hour online kiki with the cast and creative team of Pose. The event will raise awareness for three LGBTQ organizations: GLSEN, Hetrick-Martin Institute, and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. The “Pose-A-Thon” will air Friday, June 26 at 10pm ET on FX, Freeform, and the “Pose-A-Thon” website. • New Music: Lauv drops a surprise new EP titled Without You. The 4 tracks were all written and produced during quarantine. The global hottie also releases the quarantine made video for “Dishes,” the totally chill-vibe lead track for the EP. p.s. He also recently launched Breaking Modern Loneliness, an episodic podcast where each episode is a new open forum discussion on all things human relationships, mental health, and technology.

• Zillow: The massive real estate website has announced all Zillow listings will now provide information regarding local LGBTQ protections to help home buyers and renters identify which communities provide protection for all. Currently, only 22 states and the District of Columbia have laws against housing discrimination that include sexual orientation and gender identity. • Reuters: American approval of Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has dropped to the lowest level on record since Reuters/Ipsos polls started asking the question at the beginning of March. With new COVID-19 cases surging, 58 percent said they disapproved. • Out: Actor and activist Wilson Cruz (My So-Called Life, Star Trek: Discovery) offers this subtle reminder that at the young age of 46-years-old, he ain’t playing.

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COVID-19: Trump Administration May Shift Blame To CDC

Donald Trump at press conference (image via White House)
With Trump under fire for his handling of the outbreak, Oval Office advisers are looking to shift blame to the CDC. From Politico:

White House officials are putting a target on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, positioning the agency as a coronavirus scapegoat as cases surge in many states and the U.S. falls behind other nations that are taming the pandemic.

Trump administration aides in recent weeks have seriously discussed launching an in-depth evaluation of the agency to chart what they view as its missteps in responding to the pandemic including an early failure to deploy working test kits, according to four senior administration officials.

Part of that audit would include examining more closely the state-by-state death toll to tally only the Americans who died from Covid-19 directly rather than other factors. About 120,000 people in the U.S. have died of the coronavirus so far, according to the CDC’s official count.

Politically, Trump aides have also been looking for a person or entity outside China to blame for the coronavirus response and have grown furious with the CDC, including its public health guidance and actions on testing, making it a prime target.

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Trump Campaign: TikTok Rally Hacking Claims Are Bogus

In a statement posted to the Trump 2020 campaign site, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, claims news reports about TikTok and K-Pop fans claiming thousands of RSVPs to the woefully under-attended rally in Tulsa this past weekend are unfounded. In fact, Parscale denounces those reports of ticket hacking because the campaign weeds out “bogus” requests.

Leftists and online trolls doing a victory lap, thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance, don’t know what they’re talking about or how our rallies work.

Reporters who wrote gleefully about TikTok and K-Pop fans – without contacting the campaign for comment – behaved unprofessionally and were willing dupes to the charade.

Registering for a rally means you’ve RSVPed with a cell phone number and we constantly weed out bogus numbers, as we did with tens of thousands at the Tulsa rally, in calculating our possible attendee pool.

These phony ticket requests never factor into our thinking. What makes this lame attempt at hacking our events even more foolish is the fact that every rally is general admission – entry is on a first-come-first-served basis and prior registration is not required.

The fact is that a week’s worth of the fake news media warning people away from the rally because of COVID and protestors, coupled with recent images of American cities on fire, had a real impact on people bringing their families and children to the rally.

MSNBC was among outlets reporting that protesters even blocked entrances to the rally at times. For the media to now celebrate the fear that they helped create is disgusting, but typical. And it makes us wonder why we bother credentialing media for events when they don’t do their full jobs as professionals.

The Tulsa Fire Marshall estimated 6,200 showed up for the event at the BOK Center which holds just over 19,000. If I’m understanding Parscale correctly, he’s saying his team received around a million valid requests for rally tickets, and a smattering of protests kept around 993,800 people from entering the event? Trump campaign spokeswoman Mercedes Schlapp deflected when Fox News anchor Chris Wallace asked “What happened?”

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Tom Petty Estate Demands Trump Stop Using “Won’t Back Down” At Rallies

(screen capture from ‘I Won’t Back Down’ music video)
The family of late rocker Tom Petty has formally asked Donald Trump’s campaign to stop using Petty’s song, “I Won’t Back Down” after the track was played at Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa on Saturday. Petty’s estate said in a cease and desist statement the Trump campaign was “in no way” authorized to use the song. According to the estate, Petty wrote the song for the common man and would not have approved of its use by Trump’s campaign. “We believe in America and we believe in democracy. Donald Trump is not representing the noble ideals of either. We would hate for fans that are marginalised by this administration to think we were complicit in this usage”.

The Petty estate isn’t the first to publicly denounce Trump’s use of their music at his rallies. Neil Young, Rihanna, Elton John, REM, The Village People, Adele, Guns N Roses, the Rolling Stones, Pharrell, Queen, Prince, Aerosmith, and Earth Wind and Fire have called BS on the Donald’s use of their music. Petty died at the age of 66 in 2017 of an accidental overdose.

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Lincoln Project Trolls Trump’s Rally Speech Explaining #RampGate

At Donald Trump’s woefully under-attended campaign rally last night in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Trumpster spent a considerable amount of time explaining the recent #RampGate episode. In case you missed it, after speaking at this year’s West Point Academy commencement ceremony, Trump slowly exited the stage via a ramp he called “very slippery” (no rain that day) and very steep. The Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump conservatives (including White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s husband, George Conway), released their latest ad with their take on Trump’s protracted maneuvers on the now-infamous ramp. #Brilliant

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Federal Prosecutor Investigating Trump Associates Fired

L-R Attorney General William Barr, Donald Trump (public domain)
From the New York Times:

Attorney William P. Barr said on Saturday that President Trump had fired the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, who has investigated the president’s closest associates, deepening a crisis over the independence of law enforcement and the president’s purge of officials he views as disloyal.

Mr. Trump removed the prosecutor, Geoffrey S. Berman, United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, after he had refused to step down on Friday night. The president’s announcement capped an extraordinary clash over an office that has been at the forefront of corruption inquiries into Mr. Trump’s inner circle.

In a statement released on Saturday, Mr. Barr said Mr. Berman had “chosen public spectacle over public service.” “Because you have declared that you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so,” the statement read.

A memo, authored by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in 1979, apparently notes a president can dismiss a U.S. attorney, but the attorney general can’t.

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Six Trump Staffers Test Positive For Coronavirus Ahead Of Tulsa Rally

From the Washington Post:

Six members of the advance team preparing to staff President Trump’s rally here Saturday tested positive for the coronavirus, underscoring concerns about holding a massive indoor event in a city where cases are spiking.

The campaign made that announcement, saying quarantine procedures had gone into effect for the infected staff members and those in “immediate contact” with them, as hundreds of supporters filled downtown streets in anticipation of the president’s rally — his first since the virus brought much of public life to a standstill in March.

Upon entering the rally grounds, attendees were handed blue face coverings and directed through a maze of metal fencing, which led to a touchless temperature screening conducted by volunteers in purple smocks.

Note: Oklahoma has seen a 100 percent spike in new coronavirus cases in the past week. NBC News spoke to Trump supporters outside the rally venue today, all of whom expressed little to no concern about the virus. Several also expressed doubt about the severity of the pandemic. “If Trump felt comfortable having it here, then I’m comfortable,” said one supporter. Said another, of the coronavirus risk: “If today is the day I die, today is the day I die.” “As far as I know, I’m still an American,” said Tom Todd, Sheri’s husband and a retired welder. “This is a free country and I can do what I want. If I want to wear a mask, I wear a mask. If I don’t, I don’t. If I get sick, I get sick. That’s my choice,” Tom continued, adding that he thought the number of coronavirus deaths was being “padded.”