Tag: Donald Trump

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News Round-Up: February 7, 2020

Anthony Varrechia (via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Like a LOT of folks, I find designer Anthony Varrecchia (above) to be sooo sexy. I’ve been meaning to point out, by the way, that I try to feature a wide range of InstaHunks – younger, older, muscular, beefy, bear-y, all races…Someone made a remark to me a few months ago on my ‘lack of diversity’ in the choices of eye-candy and I was like…whaaaat? • NY Times: Just hours after Donald Trump had Lt. Colonel Alex Vindman escorted from the White House, Trump has fired Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union. Both testified in the House impeachment inquiry into Trump’s alleged quid pro quo with Ukraine. • New Hampshire: Two new polls show Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg leading the pack in the upcoming New Hampshire primary. A new NBC News/Marist poll finds Sanders gets support from 25 percent of likely Democratic primary voters in the Granite State, while Buttigieg gets support from 21 percent. The Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll puts the two even closer with Sanders at 24 percent and Buttigieg at 23 percent. • Courthouse News: At a record 20.4 million voters, California officials announced Thursday over 80% of the state’s eligible voters are registered to vote in next month’s Super Tuesday primary – the highest rate for a presidential primary since 1952. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla says there are currently over 3 million more registered voters compared to a similar point in the 2016 presidential election. • Washington Post: Just days after the earth saw its warmest January on record, Antarctica has broken its warmest temperature ever recorded. A reading of 65 degrees was taken at Esperanza Base along Antarctica’s Trinity Peninsula on Thursday, making it the ordinarily frigid continent’s highest measured temperature in history. • ABC News: In a rare dissent within party ranks, Republican Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont said during a news conference that he believes Donald Trump abused his power and shouldn’t be in office. He added the U.S. Senate should have been allowed to hear more from witnesses who could have provided evidence about the charges against Trump. • KIT212: Kenneth rounds up the what’s what in local gay rags across the country, like Ben McLaughlin and Lee Gonzalez on the cover of Chicago’s GRAB Magazine.

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Impeachment Witness Lt. Colonel Vindman Escorted From White House

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman

NBC News is reporting Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council who testified during the House impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, was escorted from the White House Friday afternoon.

“LTC Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth,” his attorney David Pressman said in a statement. “The truth has cost LTC Alexander Vindman his job, his career, and his privacy.”

Pressman added that, “the most powerful man in the world – buoyed by the silent, the pliable, and the complicit” had “decided to exact revenge” on Vindman.

Vindman had, as part of his duties, listened in on the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy, which was at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.

The Washington Post first reported on efforts by the White House to push out Vindman, citing two people familiar with the move, as part of a broader targeting by Trump of perceived enemies in the wake of his acquittal in the Senate after a two-week trial. The Post reported that Vindman would be reassigned to a job at the Defense Department.

Other than to embarrass him, there was no reason to “escort” a decorated Army officer honored with a Purple Heart medal after being injured in Iraq in 2004. In his opening statement during his appearance before Congress, Vindman included an emotional message to his father. “You made the right decision 40 years ago to leave the Soviet Union and come here to the United States of America in search of a better life for our family,” said Vindman. “Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth.”

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Trump Attacks Political Foes At National Prayer Breakfast

Donald Trump used this morning’s bipartisan National Prayer Breakfast to attack “dishonest and corrupt” individuals who opposed him in his impeachment trial singling out Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) who voted against Trump, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. NBC News reports:

Entering the stage, Trump lifted up a copies of USA Today and The Washington Post with headlines reading “ACQUITTED” and “Trump Acquitted” splashed across the front pages, displaying them to the crowd.

“I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not so. So many people have been hurt and we can’t let that go on. And I’ll be discussing that a little bit later at the White House.”

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Senate Votes To Acquit Donald Trump, Romney Only GOP Guilty Vote

The U.S. Senate voted to acquit Donald Trump today on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) was the only Republican to cross party lines and vote to remove Trump from office. Two notable red-state Democratic Senators – Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona cast ‘guilty’ votes. This becomes the first bipartisan vote to remove a sitting president via impeachment. From the New York Times:

The tally for conviction fell far below the 67-vote threshold necessary for removal and neither article of impeachment garnered even a simple majority.

The first article, abuse of power, was rejected 48 to 52, and the second, obstruction of Congress, was defeated 47 to 53. Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, was the only member to break with his party, voting to remove Mr. Trump from office.

The votes, ending the third presidential impeachment trial in American history, were a resounding victory for Mr. Trump after five months of blaring scandal over Ukraine that embroiled Washington and threatened his presidency. But both sides agreed that the final judgment on Mr. Trump will be rendered by voters when they cast ballots in just nine months.

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Bloomberg Trolls Trump: “Two Billionaires? Who’s The Second One?”

Talk about next-level trolling. During an interview with CBS News, Mike Bloomberg was asked about his feud with Donald Trump, and whether people want to see two billionaires fighting on Twitter. Bloomberg: “Two billionaires? Who’s the second one?” Bloomberg is a self-made billionaire worth an estimated $56 billion. Trump claims he’s a billionaire, but no one has ever seen any proof of that as he is the first president in over 40 years to refuse to release his tax returns.

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Bloomberg Would Repeal Tax Cuts For Wealthy

L-R Mike Bloomberg, Donald Trump
From the New York Times:

Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York unveiled a plan on Saturday that would raise an estimated $5 trillion in new tax revenue from high earners and corporations, a proposal that would almost certainly raise his personal tax bill but is less aggressive than those from his most liberal rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. The proposal includes a repeal of President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for high earners, along with a new 5 percent “surcharge” on incomes above $5 million per year. It would raise capital gains taxes for Americans earning more than $1 million a year and maintain a limit on federal deductions of state and local tax payments set under the 2017 law, which some Democrats have pushed to eliminate.

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Justice Dept Lawyers Contradict Trump Impeachment Team

Throughout the impeachment trial, Donald Trump’s lawyers have said that the House impeachment investigation should have played out in court. They’ve repeatedly said that subpoenas for witnesses and documents must take place in the courtroom because the judicial branch is an essential check on the legislative branch. But House Manager Adam Schiff incited laughter in the Senate when he announced that Trump’s Justice Department argued in court today that judges have no place to enforce subpoenas because of the impeachment power. According to reports, when the judge asked DOJ lawyers “If Congress can’t enforce its subpoenas, what remedy is there?,” the attorneys said, “Impeachment.” As Schiff said in front of cameras today, “you can’t make this up.”

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The Mooch To John Bolton: ‘Welcome To Life Under The Bus’

Anthony Scaramucci (screen capture)
Donald Trump’s former White House Communications Director (for 11 days) Anthony Scaramucci pens a new op-ed in the Washington Post adorned with the headline, “Hey John Bolton, welcome to life under the bus!”

President Trump’s White House has launched another disinformation campaign against a former staffer. This time, John Bolton, the last national security adviser, is the target, thanks to revelations from his unpublished book.

Trump said Monday that Bolton’s claim about withholding aid to Ukraine in a quid pro quo “was only to sell a book.” The president later added Bolton “begged” him for a job and proffered advice that would have led to “World War Six by now.” But he still hired Bolton.

I know what Bolton is going through very well because Trump did the same to me. After I criticized him, the president started calling me a “nut job” and said I “wheedled” my way into his campaign.

[snip]

I, for one, never felt more alive than when the president of the United States called me an “unstable nutjob” on Twitter. His bullying and intimidating methods have frozen many in his party, but when I began receiving them myself, I realized I was finally free. Bolton might learn that speaking the truth is the best method of recovery for Trump Employment Syndrome.

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Senate Republicans Say They Were Blindsided By White House

Donald Trump and John Bolton

As Donald Trump’s legal team begins its second day of oral arguments in the Senate impeachment trial, some Republicans in the Senate were roiled by the report from the New York Times that the White House had been sitting on a copy of former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s upcoming book which apparently asserts that Trump did condition the release of military aid for Ukraine on an announcement of investigations into Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

Via the New York Times:

By Monday morning, several Republican senators had angrily called the White House trying to determine who at the administration knew about Mr. Bolton’s manuscript, which aides there have had for several weeks, and what was in it. They told the White House they felt blindsided, according to people briefed on the calls who insisted on anonymity to describe private discussions.

One reason for their ire is that Mr. Bolton’s account flies in the face of the rationale the president’s lawyers have offered the Senate for his actions, and which many Republicans have latched onto themselves as a defense of his conduct.

Trump, of course, denies Bolton’s version of the story. He tweeted, “I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.” Trump’s lawyers now have to somehow argue that the Donald didn’t do what he’s accused of doing after Bolton has said he did. It’s difficult to see how some GOP senators won’t vote in favor of Bolton testifying at the impeachment trial now, especially since he’s said he would testify if asked. Even folks over at Fox News see the bad timing of the Bolton news.

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Fox News Poll Shows 50% Support Removing Trump From Office

A new poll by Fox News shows 55% of those polled approve of the current economy (44% say it’s only ‘fair’), but 50% say the Senate should vote to remove Donald Trump from the Oval Office. Even with the strong economy, the new survey says 56% are not satisfied with the direction of the country versus 43% who approve. And by a 50-44 percent margin, respondents say the Senate should vote to convict Trump and remove him from office. Remember, this a Fox News poll, folks. While the majority of responses fall on partisan lines – 81% of Democrats say remove and 84% of Republicans disagree – among independents, the results are starker as 53% of those say Trump should be removed versus 34% who disagree. This is now the third major national poll released this week to show support for removing Trump from office at 50% or higher – 51% in CNN’s poll and Pew’s polling, 50% in the Fox poll.