LGBTQ news and entertainment
In this week’s podcast:
• World Pride comes home to New York City
• Donald Trump’s gay spokesman says the president’s anti-LGBTQ policies “just don’t matter” to him
• South Florida LGBTQ organization accidentally honors men accused of gay-bashing
• A new survey of LGBTQ Americans shows 83% believe sex work between consenting adults should be legal
• Country star Jake Owen gives us one more reason to ‘Believe’ he loves his LGBTQ fans
All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report
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| Donald Trump |
Last week, the political world was in an uproar over White House aide Kelly Sadler declaring during a meeting in the West Wing that Sen. John McCain’s opposition to CIA nominee Gina Haspel was largely not important because “he’s dying anyway.”
Not a kind way to speak about a man who’s devoted his whole life to service to country.
Today, the White House is trying the spin the story into a “leak” scandal.
“When you work in any work environment…if you aren’t able in internal meetings to speak your mind, or convey thoughts, or say anything that you feel without feeling like your colleagues will betray you, that creates a very difficult work environment,” said White House press secretary Raj Shah.
Writing for Axios, Jonathan Swan took time to explore why the Trump White House has so many leaks to the press.
“To be honest, it probably falls into a couple of categories,” one current White House official tells me. “The first is personal vendettas. And two is to make sure there’s an accurate record of what’s really going on in the White House.”
“To cover my tracks, I usually pay attention to other staffers’ idioms and use that in my background quotes. That throws the scent off me,” the current White House official added.
“The most common substantive leaks are the result of someone losing an internal policy debate,” a current senior administration official told me. “By leaking the decision, the loser gets one last chance to kill it with blowback from the public, Congress or even the President.”
“Otherwise,” the official added, “you have to realize that working here is kind of like being in a never-ending ‘Mexican Standoff.’ Everyone has guns (leaks) pointed at each other and it’s only a matter of time before someone shoots. There’s rarely a peaceful conclusion so you might as well shoot first.”
Axios‘ Mike Allen, who covered the White House for 20 years, says “we learn more about what’s going on inside the Trump White House in a week than we did in a year of the George W. Bush presidency.”
The so-called leaks coming out of the White House are a massive over exaggeration put out by the Fake News Media in order to make us look as bad as possible. With that being said, leakers are traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 14, 2018
Start with that John Barron guy. I hear he leaks a lot. That’s what people are saying. https://t.co/3inCEZhAhD— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) May 14, 2018
In Trump's opinion, his staff member who made fun of John McCain's terminal illness isn't a "traitor," but the people who told the press about it are. https://t.co/CLtD4hjYdT— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) May 14, 2018
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| Sen. John McCain |
White House communications aide Kelly Sadler demonstrated yesterday the Trump Nation disdain for being “politically correct” by offering a distasteful assessment of Sen. John McCain’s opposition to Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel.
Said Sadler of McCain, “It doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway.”
From The Hill:
Special assistant Kelly Sadler made the derisive comments during a closed-door White House meeting of about two-dozen communications staffers on Thursday morning.
“It doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway,” Sadler said, according to a source familiar with the remarks at the meeting.
The White House did not deny the account of Sadler’s remarks, which came amid a discussion of Haspel’s nomination and McCain’s opposition to it.
A WH official confirms WH aide Kelly Sadler mocked John McCain’s cancer diagnosis saying “he’s dying anyway” in response to his opposition to Haspel nomination. The “joke… fell flat” the official said.— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) May 10, 2018
@kellysadler45 May I remind you my husband has a family, 7 children and 5 grandchildren.— Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) May 10, 2018
Meghan McCain on Kelly Sadler’s comments about her father: "I don't understand what kind of environment you're working in when that would be acceptable and then you could come to work the next day and still have a job." (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/WpiMGPlYUw— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 11, 2018
“It was a hard day yesterday,” Meghan McCain says on @TheView, but adds: “My father’s legacy is going to be talked about for hundreds and hundreds of years. These people? Nothingburgers.”— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) May 11, 2018
The White House communications official who mocked “dying” McCain during a meeting, is @kellysadler45. Our taxes pay her damn salary.
Oh, one more thing. Kindly, don’t ever talk to me again about the cruelty of a “smoky-eye” joke. https://t.co/sGtDlcsJD4— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) May 10, 2018
For those who may not recall, McCain served his country in the Air Force, was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for years where he was tortured, spent decades in Congress and was the 2008 Republican presidential candidate.
Whether you agree or disagree with his political positions, few have dedicated their lives to the U.S. as McCain has. Surely in a White House meeting a little more decorum could be found?
But no. That would be “political correctness.”
#MAGA