Tag: liar

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Ernst: Obama ‘Failed’ On Ebola, Trump Is ‘Stepping Forward’ On COVID-19

CNN’s Dana Bash interviews Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (R)
During an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union this morning, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (R), who criticized President Obama in 2014 for exhibiting what she called “failed leadership” on Ebola, was asked by CNN’s Dana Bash if Donald Trump is exhibiting “failed leadership” on the coronavirus health threat. Note: There were only 11 confirmed cases of Ebola reported in the U.S. and 2 Americans died from the virus six years ago. At this writing, the number of American deaths from COVID-19 is just under $130,000. Ernst’s response to the question: “I think the president is stepping forward.”

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Robust News Cycle Leads To CNN’s Best Ratings In 40 Year History

Donald Trump
The Associated Press reports the recent stretch of news regarding the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the lives of the world’s citizens coupled with the racial upheaval triggered by George Floyd’s death has resulted in CNN garnering its biggest audience for any three-month period in the network’s 40-year history. According to the Nielsen ratings, CNN’s weekday prime-time audience of 1.95 million was up 120% over the same period last year. Fox News saw a 43% increase pulling in an average of 4.07 million viewers, while MSNBC’s audience of 2.47 million was up 13% from 2019. Donald Trump, who rarely acknowledges actual facts and figures, routinely refers to CNN as “failing.” Sure, Jan… Even the moderator for CNN’s Twitter account for Public Relations finds the Donald to be exhausting in his perpetual lies.

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Appeals Court Orders Judge To Dismiss Case Against Michael Flynn

Michael Flynn (photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
From the New York Times:

A divided federal appeals court panel ordered an immediate end on Wednesday to the case against Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser — delivering a major victory to Mr. Flynn and to the Justice Department, which had sought to drop the case.

In the ruling, two of three judges on a panel for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered the trial judge overseeing the matter, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, to immediately dismiss the case without further review. The third accused his colleagues of “grievously” overstepping their powers, and the full appeals court has the option of reviewing the matter.

The order — a so-called writ of mandamus — was rare and came as a surprise, taking its place as yet another twist in the extraordinary legal and political drama surrounding the prosecution of Mr. Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying to F.B.I. agents in the Russia investigation about his conversations in December 2016 with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

Trump fired Flynn in early 2017 for lying to Vice President Pence and other colleagues about what he and the Russian ambassador discussed in December 2016. Flynn then agreed to cooperate with the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and plead guilty to one count of making a false statement when F.B.I. agents had questioned him about the conversations. But after pleading guilty, he reversed course last year and sought to withdraw his guilty plea.

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Former Judge Calls DOJ Attempt To Drop Flynn Charges ‘Gross Abuse Of Power’

Michael Flynn (photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
A former federal judge asked to look into the Justice Department’s highly unusual request to drop its criminal case against Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s first national security advisor, did not demure in his assessment calling the move a “gross abuse of prosecutorial power.” From CNBC:

“The Government has engaged in highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the President,” the ex-judge, John Gleeson, wrote in a scathing legal filing opposing the proposed dismissal. Trump has strongly criticized the prosecution of Flynn.

Gleeson, who was assigned by the judge in Flynn’s case to advise him on several questions, also wrote that the retired Army lieutenant general “has indeed committed perjury” in his statements to the case judge during proceedings in the case, “for which he deserves punishment.”

But Gleeson added that while federal Judge Emmet Sullivan has the power to hold Flynn in criminal contempt for perjuring himself during a plea hearing and another hearing conducted by Sullivan, the judge should “not exercise that authority.”

“Rather, [Sullivan] should take Flynn’s perjury into account in sentencing him on the offense to which he has already admitted guilt,” Gleeson wrote in a filing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

Twice under oath, Flynn admitted to lying to FBI agents about his discussions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States prior to Trump’s inauguration. In the end, all of this won’t matter. Trust and believe, the Donald will issue a pardon for Flynn. #LockHimUp

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News Round-Up: May 14, 2020

The cast of Queer Eye heads to Philadelphia this June on Netflix
Some news items you might have missed: • Netflix: Who’s ready for the season of brotherly love? Grab your oars, a life vest, and an extremely absorbent box of tissues because Queer Eye Season 5 (above) is arriving in Philly, June 5th! • NewNowNext: A new queer-centric concert series: Outloud: Raising Voices, a 10-episode benefit show featuring livestreamed performances from LGBTQ and allied artists, will kick off May 26 with performances by Kesha, Betty Who and more. Funds raised during the epic five-week affair will benefit local Pride organizers impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. • OUT: Under the veil of secrecy, legislators have crafted and rushed through a new civil code for the island of Puerto Rico. Having passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the legislation is awaiting the signature of Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced. But, advocates warn that amendments to the bill made without public debate and adequate time for analyzing could roll back LGBTQ+ rights. • The Hill: Donald Trump went without a mask during a visit to a Pennsylvania medical equipment distribution center (again) even as other government officials in his party wore face coverings around the facility. • Yahoo News: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is being sued for her revised federal guidelines on how sexual assault allegations should be handled on college and K-12 campuses. Plaintiffs say (and they are right) the changes would “inflict significant harm” on victims and “dramatically undermine” their civil rights. • Fox News: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted he lied when he said the Obama administration did not leave behind any “game plan” for responding to a pandemic.

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Trump: ‘I Was Being Sarcastic About Injecting Disinfectant’

After Donald Trump suggested during a White House press briefing on Thursday that perhaps medical experts should look into some sort of “injections” of “disinfectant” might be a possible treatment for COVID-19, Trump walked those remarks back saying he was just being ‘sarcastic.’ “I was asking it sarcastically to reporters just like you to see what would happen,” Trump said in the Oval Office today. You can see the Trumpster pull the ‘sarcastic’ card in the first tweet below along with his video of his actual comments during yesterday’s press briefing where he clearly directed his questions about disinfectant to his medical experts.

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Judge Rules No New Trial For Trump Confidante Roger Stone

Roger Stone (screen capture)
Donald Trump’s longtime friend and ally, Roger Stone, has failed in his quest for a new trial after he was found guilty on seven felony counts including obstructing the congressional inquiry, lying to investigators under oath and trying to block the testimony of a witness whose account would have exposed his lies. From the New York Times:

The federal judge overseeing the criminal case against Roger J. Stone Jr. refused on Thursday to grant him a new trial, rejecting the defense’s argument of juror misconduct that President Trump has also repeatedly trumpeted.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court in Washington ordered Mr. Stone to surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons as soon as he is notified to do so. She also released him and his lawyers from a gag order she imposed months ago.

The judge’s decision appears to end one of the most politically fraught federal criminal cases in recent years. In a last-ditch effort to keep their client out of prison, Mr. Stone’s lawyers had claimed that the jury forewoman had improperly concealed a bias against Mr. Stone, justifying a new trial.

The jury convicted Mr. Stone, 67, in November of seven felonies for an attempt to thwart a congressional inquiry that threatened his longtime friend Mr. Trump, and Judge Jackson sentenced him in February to 40 months in prison.

Additionally, CNN reports, “All 12 of Roger Stone’s jurors wrote in a series of powerful, anonymized statements this week that they feel harassed, afraid and do not want more information about them revealed to the public, especially after President Donald Trump and right-wing media criticized them for their conviction of the longtime Trump friend.” Donald Trump is certain to pardon Stone. Mark my words.

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Fact-Check: Trump Says U.S. Has ‘Best’ COVID-19 Testing System (Nope)

L-R CNN’s Jim Acosta, Donald Trump
From NowThis News:

During a White House press briefing, Donald Trump said the U.S. doesn’t need nationwide testing before sending people back to work. Watch CNN’s Jim Acosta challenge President Trump on his COVID-19 testing claim.

The U.S. does not have the ‘best’ testing system. As of April 1, dozens of countries have far higher testing rates including Germany, Italy, Norway, S. Korea, Canada, Australia, & Estonia.

The White House had promised to conduct 27 million tests by the end of March. As of April 9, Trump himself told the press only 2 million tests had been administered. Based on those 2 million tests, the U.S. is testing approximately 6 people per thousand. Countries like South Korea and Germany are triple that rate. In the same exchange between Acosta and Trump, the Donald told the CNN journalist, “You shouldn’t be asking that kind of a question … it is very insulting to a lot of great people.” Journalists ask questions. It’s literally their job. People who are on point don’t get defensive when asked questions. They have answers.

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Trump Goes On Attack After Question About Jared Kushner’s “Our Stockpile” Comment

On Thursday, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner (you know, the one solving the Middle East conflict) made a perplexing remark about the stockpile of medical equipment housed by the federal government. “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile,” Kushner said. “It’s not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.” Folks were confused as to what differentiates the federal “our” stockpile from what would/should be used by states. It almost sounded like Kushner was saying the stockpile was for the Trump clan or the Trump administration to do with it as they wished. The federal government IS the United States of America. It exists primarily to keep the citizens of all states and U.S. territories safe. If the stockpile isn’t meant for states to use, then who would be using it? And why is anyone at this point in time even using the word “OUR” in regard to anything? Then on Friday (via CBS News):

When CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang pressed the president on what Kushner meant by “our,” he dismissed the question as a “gotcha.”

“‘Our, our’ — it means the United States of America,” the president said.

Mr. Trump said the stockpile is needed for the “federal government,” to keep for the country “because the federal government needs it, too, not just the states.”

The president accused Jiang of using a “nasty” tone in her question.

Governors have implored the president to provide them more ventilators and other much-needed equipment, but the president has repeatedly put the blame on the states for not stocking up on the equipment themselves.

Basically, Kushner misspoke. And in the Trump administration handbook, rather than say, “He misspoke,” everyone has to act like the response was “perfect” and they are stuck defending a stupid comment.

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Trump Extends Shutdown Guidelines Past ‘Aspirational’ Easter Target

Donald Trump announced an extension of his administration’s “15 days to slow the spread” shutdown guidelines for 30 more days as the reality of increasing coronavirus infections and deaths set in. Public health officials and governors had urged him to change course from lifting the shutdown on Easter Sunday. Via Axios:

The president set April 30 as the new deadline for the social distancing guidelines in a Sunday evening briefing from the White House.

Driving the news: With the original 15-day period that was announced March 16 about to end, officials around the country had been bracing for a premature call to return to normalcy from a president who’s been venting lately that the prescription for containing the virus could be worse than the impacts of the virus itself.

“We had an aspiration” of Easter, Trump said, but when he heard the numbers of potential deaths, he realized he couldn’t push a reopening of the economy as soon as he previously had foreshadowed.

Trump explained his turnaround by saying his government’s modeling shows the peak death rate will likely come in two weeks. He said that 2.2 million people could die if the government did nothing and the public didn’t do the social distancing. “Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won,” he said.