The
Drumpfster Fire
chronicles Week
10
The
Drumpfster Fire
chronicles Week
10
A Talbot‑‑Heindl Experience LLC Zine By: Chris Talbot‑‑Heindl
March
25 2017
ouse Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes canceled a hearing scheduled for Monday that was to include three former Obama administration officials so that they could have a closed hearing with FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers. This came as a surprise to other members of the committee. Representative Adam Schiff responded to the cancellation, “We don’t welcome cutting off public access to information. I think that there must have been a very strong pushback from the White House about the nature of Monday’s hearing.”
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ere’s the sequence of events regarding Chairman Nunes and the “investigation” he seems to partisan to conduct. Nunes received a call while on his way to an event on Tuesday. He left his staff and according to his account, reviewed classified intelligence files from sources he hasn’t named. Wednesday morning, he held an impromptu press conference where he declared that agencies had “incidentally collected information about US citizens involved in the Trump transition.” Drumpf claimed to be vindicated via Twitter. The investigation under Nunes’ leadership changed from the possible coordination between the Drumpf campaign and Russia to whether Drumpf officials were victims of spying abuse instigated by Obama himself. On Thursday, Nunes refused to brief his own committee on the contents of the intelligence he received, but apologized for blindsiding them. On Friday, he agreed to hear testimony from Drumpf’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Then, he canceled the open hearing with former senior officials who battled Drumpf so far, including: Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates who was fired for doing her job; former director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who publicly disputed Drumpf’s wiretapping claim; and former CIA Director John Brennan, who said that Drumpf should “be ashamed of himself” over his behavior to intelligence agencies.
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rumpf started his Saturday with another trip to another Drumpf property (making it 8 out of 10 weekends that he did so). He started his day at the Drumpf National Golf Club in Virginia. He ended his day dining at the Drumpf International Hotel, a few blocks from the White House.
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rumpf sent a tweet to his followers to watch Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro. Then Pirro’s show took to slamming House Speaker Paul Ryan. “Speaker Ryan, you come in with all your swagger and experience and you sell ‘em a bill of goods which ends up a complete and total failure, and you allow our president in his first 100 days to come out of the box like that, based on what? Your legislative expertise, your knowledge of the arcane ins and outs of the bill-writing process? Your relationships? What? Your drinks at the Hay-Adams with your pals?” Drumpf has declined to say if he knew what Pirro was speaking about.
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March
26 2017
rumpf started his day, once again, at a Drumpf property – the golf course in Virginia. While it’s normal for a president to get out of the White House and boost small businesses across the country, it’s not usual for the business they boost to be exclusively their business. Apparently, the taxpayer-funded stays at Drumpf properties have been a huge boost for business. “The stars have all aligned. I think our brand is the hottest it has ever been,” said Eric Drumpf.
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PA Administrator Scott Pruitt said that Drumpf will sign an executive order to begin destroying Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The plan limits carbon emissions from power plants and reduces coal’s share of US power generation. Drumpf and Pruitt claims that eliminating the plan will drive down electricity prices and create jobs. “For too long, over the last several years, we’ve accepted the narrative that if you’re pro-growth, pro-jobs, you’re antienvironment. If you’re pro-environment, your anti-jobs or antigrowth,” Pruitt said. Then he reinforced the narrative by adding, “The executive order’s going to address the past administration’s effort to kill jobs across the country through the Clean Power Plan.” Fun fact: solar power is on the rise and has created jobs faster than any other sector of our economy.
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rumpf practiced further nepotism by creating an official office for Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser. He will head up the newly minted White House Office of American Innovation, comprised of former business executives, which will act as a brain trust. “The government should be run like a great American company. Our hope is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers, who are the citizens,” Kushner stated.
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rumpf accused the Freedom Caucus and the Club for Growth and Heritage, two conservative organizations, of the Drumpfcare failure in a tweet. “Democrats are smiling in DC that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club for Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & Ocare!”
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news alert from Fox News went out stating, “News Alert: @ POTUS spending weekend working at the White House.” How this could be a news alert is crazy, but the facts are, it wasn’t even true. Drumpf did what he always does and spent a lot of time at Drumpf properties, spending taxpayer money vacationing and golfing at his own businesses. The current tally is 1 out of every 3 days, Drumpf has visited a Drumpf property since he’s been president. The official schedule from the White House for the weekend stated, “no public events scheduled.”
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ress Secretary Sean Spicer was asked via email from everyone’s favorite #altfact rag, Breitbart, to respond to Politico’s Tara Palmeri’s article regarding Drumpf being advised to replace White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, after the Drumpfcare failure. His response was: “She is an idiot with no real sources.”
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March
27 2017
ews organizations began to report about House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes’s previously unknown trip to the White House to brief Drumpf in secrecy about the Russia investigation. Questions arose as to why he would meet with the Drumpf at all, nevermind twice, why he would need to brief Drumpf on documents that he already had (being that he claimed he knew in his tweet), why he would work with the Executive Branch to obtain documents when he could subpoena them, why he would brief Drumpf on an ongoing investigation – especially before briefing his own committee members.
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enate Majority Leader Charles Schumer asked House Speaker Paul Ryan to take Nunes off the investigation in light of his briefs to Drumpf about the ongoing investigation. Ryan refused, stating he had “full confidence” in Nunes to conduct the impartial investigation.
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epresentative Adam Schiff called for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes to step down. “After much consideration, and in light of the Chairman’s admission that he met with his source of information at the White House, I believe that the Chairman should recuse himself from any further involvement in the Russia investigation, as well as any involvement in oversight of matters pertaining to any incidental collection of the Trump transition, as he was also a key member of the transition team.”
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ouse Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes claimed that he went to the White House because he needed a secure location to view the classified documents. “I’m sure that the Democrats do want me to quit, because they know that I’m quite effective at getting to the bottom of things.” Nunes does have his own secure location on Capitol Hill to view classified documents, so this is obviously an #altfact.
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he White House announced that Drumpf’s son-in-law and senior advisor, federally employed via nepotism, Jared Kushner agreed to be questioned about his connections to Russia.
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ress Secretary Sean Spicer began the “daily” press briefing with a “special guest,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions, there to make excuses for the Drumpf adminstration’s treatement of immigration. He started, “The Department of Justice has a view to enforce our nation’s laws, including our immigration laws. Those laws require us to promptly remove aliens when they are convicted or detained of certain crimes. The vast majority of American people support this commonsense requirement.”
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27 2017
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ttorney General Sessions then began to enumerate what he saw as failures due to sanctuary cities - blaming them for “DUIs, assaults, burglaries, drug crimes, gang rapes, crimes against children, and murderers - countless Americans would be alive today and countless loved ones would not be grieving today if these policies of sanctuary cites were ended.� The truth of the matter is that undocumented immigrants commit crimes - and especially violent crimes - at a far lower rate than the general populace. The one population that does the most - white males.
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ttorney General Sessions then offered a threat to sanctuary cities - that the federal government would refuse federal funding for Justice Programs, to the tune of $4.1 billion, to sanctuary cities.
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ress Secretary Sean Spicer began his opening by reading aletter from the State Department, condemning the detention of peacheful protestors in Russia on Sunday. “The detention of peaceful protestors, human rights observers, and journalists is an affront to essential democratic values...The Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve a government that supports an open marketplace of ideas, transparent and accountable governance, equal treatment under the law, and the ability to exercise their rights without fear of retribution.” That’s nice and all, but where was the State Department during the Occupy resistance, the Black Lives Matter movement, or the DAPL protests?
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reporter asked Press Secretary Spicer how Drumpf planned to work with Democrats on a new health care bill after attacking them for so long, calling Chuck Schumer “a clown,” and shutting them out of the process. Spicer claimed that if Democrats reach out, “We’re willing to listen and to move forward.” He then stated that “with all due respect, to the beginning of your question, I don’t think it’s a one-way street some of the comments that have been made” passing the buck once again.
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reporter asked that since Hillary Clinton worked on health care when Bill was president and again when Obama was, would Drumpf seek out the help of former presidents and First Ladies, especially Hillary. Spicer basically refused to answer that specific question, instead stating, “I think the President noted on Friday afternoon that we learned a lot, on several fronts, about strategically how to handle this, as well as some of the members that we thought we would have with us. And we’re re-examining that on a variety of bases.
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27 2017
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uring the press briefing, April Ryan attempted to ask a quesiton about the white supremacist who went to New York to kill black men by his own admission. “What is the White House saying about this obvious and apparent hate crime?” Spicer began his answer by saying, “I’m not going to - I mean, you yelled at the Attorney General a specific case, if I’m...I’m glad to talk about the issues. I just want to be very clear that I am not going to reference any specific case before the DOJ right now.”
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e then referenced the one incident where one of the antiSemitism and terror to Jewish community centers were instigated by a Jewish man. “While we unequivocally - no question about it - need to call out hate, anti-Semitism where it exists, there is another thing that we have to do, in your case in particular, while I don’t know all of the details, and I don’t want to reference any specific case - but I think we saw this the other day with some of the anti-Semitic behavior that was going out with respect to people of the Jewish faith, is that we saw these threats coming into Jewish community centers, and there was an immediate jump to criticize folks on the right and to denounce people on the right and ask them to condemn them. And it turns out that, in fact, it wasn’t someone on the right. And it was - and the President, from the get-go had said, I bet you it’s not someone - and he was right.” Important fact: that man was responsible for 19 out of the hundreds of attacks and threats.
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rumpf took to Twitter to ask the hard-hitting question of why the House Intelligence Committee wasn’t looking into the #altfact that Hillary Clinton gave Russia uranium. “Why isn’t the House Intelligence Committee looking into the Bill & Hillary deal that allowed big Uranium to go to Russia, Russian speech…money to Bill, the Hillary Russian ‘reset,’ praise of Russia by Hillary, or Podesta Russian Company. Trump Russia story is a hoax. #MAGA!”
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March
28 2017
ox News host Bill O’Reilly took a swipe at Congresswoman Maxine Waters stating that he couldn’t listen to her because of her “James Brown wig.” Before the statement, O’Reilly played a speech Waters had delivered on the House floor discussing African-Americans in the country, “We have suffered discrimination. We have suffered isolation and undermining. But we stand up for America, often times when others who think they are more patriotic, who say they are more patriotic, do not.”
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hroughout her speech, O’Reilly mocked her. He sneered, smiled, pumped his fist, and mouthed disparaging responses. Afterward, he asked what his colleagues thought of her speech, then stating, “I – I didn’t hear a word she said. I was looking at the James Brown wig.”
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ewly released letters show that the Drumpf administration tried to block former acting Attorney General Sally Yates from testifying in the House’s Russia investigation. According to the letters, the Justice Department notified Yates that the administration considers her testimony to be off-limits because of attorney-client privilege – the client being Drumpf.
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ouse Republicans passed a bill that would do away with landmark online privacy protections in a party-line vote. This would allow internet service providers to access customer browsing habits, app usage history, location data, and Social Security numbers to do what they will with it. It also undoes the increased safeguards for customer data that Obama enacted. If signed, it would allow these companies to sell their customers’ information to marketers and financial firms without consent. It also forbids the Federal Communications Commission from issuing protections in the future.
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28 2017
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ouse Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes ignored calls for him to recuse himself from the Russian tampering investigation. Representative Adam Schiff, the committee’s ranking member, has stated that he is too close to Drumpf to conduct a properly impartial investigation – by his own admission. His response on if he was going to continue: “Why would I not?... [Democrats’ concerns] sounds like their problem.”
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ox News’ Bill O’Reilly issued a mock apology to Congresswoman Maxine Waters, with a snicker, “Although many Americans disagree with her extremism at times, she deserves a hearing and she should not be marginalized by political opponents. In fact, I made that mistake this morning on ‘Fox and Friends.’ I said in a simple jest that the congressman’s hair distracted me. Well, that was stupid. I apologize.” Then proceeded to slam her.
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ill O’Reilly went on to denigrate her intelligence, “So what exactly is Maxine Waters talking about when she says Mr. Trump is dangerous for America? I have no idea and I don’t think Ms. Waters has any clue either.” He slammed her statement on the plight of African-Americans. O’Reilly responded, “That is not patriotism, madam. That is demagoguery.” He then claimed that she was unpatriotic for questioning Drumpf.
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ress Secretary Sean Spicer slammed Democrats for continuing to block Judge Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, claiming, “Leading Democrats have lamented these tactics as recently as last year. Senator Schumer, in fact, wrote last year in an op-ed in the New York Daily News - and I quote - ‘At a time when Americans want to move forward, the last thing we need - the last thing is a new recipe for gridlock at the Supreme Court.’” He compared apples to oranges, as Judge Merrick Garland, appointed in March, wasn’t even given the courtesy of a hearing.
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28 2017
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ress Secretary Spicer stated that the letters that came out the day before regarding former acting Attorney General Sally Yates being refused a hearing were “100% false.”
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ress Secretary Sean Spicer lost it during the press briefing in regards to questions about Drumpf and Russia, and fully at reporter April Ryan. Ryan said that the White House had a Russia issue to deal with. Spicer responded, “No, we don’t have that,” and when she continued with her question, he cut her off, “No, no. I get it. But I’ve said it from the day that I got here until whenever that there’s not a connection. You’ve got Russia…If the president puts Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that’s a Russian connection.”
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pril Ryan attempted to speak again, but Spicer cut her off, “I appreciate your agenda here…At some point, report the facts.” Spicer then spoke about those who have stated that there’s no proof of collusion, which is only part of the issue she was talking about. “I’m sorry that that disgusts you. You’re shaking your head...At some point, April, you’re going to have to take ‘no’ for an answer, with respect to whether or not there was collusion.”
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pril Ryan attempted to ask a different question about former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit and how she wasn’t a Drumpf supporter. Spicer pounced, “It seems like you’re hellbent on trying to make sure that whatever image you want to tell about this White House stays,” he accused. He then exasperatedly lashed out, “Please, stop shaking your head again.” While he’s no stranger to being a dick to reporters and accusing them of having an agenda, he has never demeaned them for speaking or reacting before.
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PA employees received an email around lunchtime from EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt with the title, “Our Big Day Today.” The email informed the staff that Drumpf would be visiting to sign an executive order to dismantle Obama’s environmental protections. The email also warned that there was limited space, which turns out was not a problem, as scientists in the EPA tend to care about environmental protections. The event was well attended by coal miners, coal executives, Pruitt, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, and Vice President Pence.
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28 2017
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he Secretaries in attendance made sure to pour salt on wounds at the EPA by taking swipes at the legitimacy of the staffs’ work. “Today, we’re taking a great step in breaking the restraints that have become burdens,” Secretary Perry stated. “We’re not going to allow regulations here at the EPA to pick winners and losers,” Administrator Pruitt stated. “We’re ending the theft of American prosperity and rebuilding our beloved country,” Drumpf declared. Elsewhere in the building, anonymous statements from employees went something more like, “What an insult,” “Needless to say, morale is at rock bottom.” Some employees wore buttons that read “scientific integrity” in silent protest.
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n a speech at the Professional BusinessWomen of California conference, Hillary Clinton spoke about what happened to both Congresswoman Maxine Waters and April Ryan as examples of everyday sexism. “Just look at all that’s happened in the last two days to women who were simply doing their jobs…Too many women, especially women of color, have had a lifetime of practice taking precisely these kinds of indignities in stride. But why should we have to?”
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rumpf’s remarks during the signing of his executive order were #altfacts or misleading. He claimed that dismantling the EPA’s environmental protections would help for the US’s “energy independence.” The executive order does no such thing. The US is an exporter of power, not an importer. The Clean Power Plan didn’t change that. It only regulated carbon emissions from existing power plants.
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rumpf claimed that the Clean Power Plan “threatens our miners, energy workers, and companies” which is an #altfact. The Bureau of Labor Statistics have shown that coal mining jobs have been declining since the 1980s. The real threat is automation and natural gas. Destroying the Clean Power Plan won’t stop the trend. Coal jobs are going the way of the telephone operator.
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rumpf reiterated his #altfact that the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines would create “thousands and thousands” of jobs. The truth is that together, both would create 50k temporary jobs, just during their construction, and then all those people would be unemployed, and 75 folks would have permanent jobs.
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rumpf then congratulated himself on declaring that the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines are made with US steel. “Who makes it, who makes those beautiful pipes for the pipeline? Sir, they’re made outside of this country, and I said no more, no more. So we added a little clause, didn’t take much, that you want to build pipelines in this country, you’re going to buy your steel and you’re going to have it fabricated here.” This is a flat out lie. The White House has stated that the Keystone Pipeline is exempt because it is not new pipe. By this logic, the Dakota Access Pipeline is likely exempt as well.
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28 2017
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he roll back of the Clean Power Plan and other regulations (including one that was designed to cut tailpipe emissions from personal cars and trucks) will make the US fail to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement Pledge, which was to lower emissions by at least 26% below 2005 levels by 2025.
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ongresswoman Maxine Waters was asked on MSNBC is she had a reaction to Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly’s remarks from earlier in the day. She stated, “Let me just say this: I’m a strong black woman and I cannot be intimidated. I cannot be undermined. I cannot be thought to afraid of Bill O’Reilly or anybody…And I’d like to say to women out there everywhere: Don’t allow these right-wing talking heads, these dishonorable people, to intimidate you or scare you. Be who you are. Do what you do. And let us get on with discussing the real issues of this country.”
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ongresswoman Waters was asked if she had a response to Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, and she said, “No, I’m not responding to him.” She then stated that Fox News had no credibility. “They’ve had to pay millions of dollars out in fines for harassment and other kinds of things. And so we know about that checkered past, and we also know that when a woman stands up and speaks truth to power that there will be attempts to put her down. And so, I’m not going to be put down, I’m not going to go anywhere. I’m going to stay on the issues.”
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March
29 2017
fter the wiretapping claims that British intelligence officials spied on Drumpf during the presidential campaign, Andrew Napolitano was suspended from Fox News. He made his reappearance on Fox News and claimed again that British intelligence officials did it. “And the American public needs to know more about this rather than less because a lot of the government surveillance authorities will expire in the fall and there’ll be great debate about how much authority we want the government to have to surveil us.”
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n a display of irony, the First Lady stated during a speech for the 2017 Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award ceremony, “Wherever women are diminished, the entire world is diminshed with them. However, wherever women are empowered, towns, villages, schools, and economies are empowered, and together we are all made stronger.” One place to start, might be at home.
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29 2017
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ress Secretary Sean Spicer began his monologue during the press briefing declaring that the US has a drug and opioid crisis and that “First, we must get struggling Americans the help that they need.” This after the Republicans tried to pull drug abuse counseling and help from Obamacare during the Drumpfcare debates.
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ress Secretary Spicer then claimed that Drumpf made women’s empowerment a priority throughout his campaign, despite his attacks to Hillary Clinton, Megyn Kelly, Heidi Klum, Heidi Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Meryl Streep, and others as well as the “pussy grabbing” comments that he didn’t take back or really apologize for.
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n an effort to not be a total dick, Press Secretary Spicer called on April Ryan for the first question and asked her how her day was first. He tried to keep his belittling to a minimum.
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reporter asked Press Secretary Spicer why Drumpf thinks that selling internet users’ information to providers is good for America. “I’m wondering who this benefits apart from ISPs and their executives...Doesn’t this erosion of protections cause major risks for people to use that information for nefarious purposes? Also hostile nations potentially looking at what congressmen are browsing online - is that concerning to the White House?” Spicer’s answer was: when Drumpf signs it, “I’m sure we’ll have further details on why.”
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n reference to Drumpf claiming that a new repeal and replace bill to Obamacare was coming “very quickly,” Spicer stated that “People need to be taken at their word. There’s a lot of members that made a commitment to their voters, to their constituents that they were going to get something done on this and repeal and replace and address the health care situation.” But if we took Drumpf on his word, health care is done and he was going to let Obamacare self-destruct.
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reporter brought up Drumpf’s comment that our soldiers were fighting like never before in Iraq. “US troops are there in a support role - an advise-and-assist role. What does he mean? What does the President mean when he says they’re fighting there like never before?” The reporter also made mention of the actual fighting that went on under the Bush and Obama administrations. Spicer didn’t quite answer the question, instead mentioning, “there has been some progress, particularly in Mosul, the way that they have taken back that city...And I think with the advice and consent of US military advisors, there’s been tremendous progress in moving Iraq forward to an area of civility and to continuing to see the troops there in Iraq stand on their own.”
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month after revealing that he didn’t know who Frederick Douglass was, Drumpf revealed that he just learned about Susan B. Anthony in a speech to a “women’s empowerment panel” for Women’s History Month. He started off his speech by speaking bout his wife’s accomplishments, calling her an “inspiration to many.” He then talked about her poll numbers being great.
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e then started talking about how his “cabinet is full of really incredible women leaders,” despite the fact that it is more white and male than any cabinet since Reagan. He was able to name them off and list their accomplishments in about 1.5 minutes of the speech – including a complete derailment into infrastructure and jobs staying in the country.
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29 2017
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fter mentioning Abigail Adams and Harriet Tubman, he mentioned Susan B. Anthony. “Have you heard of Susan B. Anthony? I’m shocked that you’ve heard of her – who dreamed of a much more fair and equal future and an America where women themselves as she said helped to make laws and elect the lawmakers, and that’s what’s happening more and more.”
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n announcement was made that Ivanka Trump would become an official government employee, despite assurances to the opposite made last week. She will become an unpaid adviser to Drumpf in the White House.
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S District Judge Derrick Watson held a hearing on Hawaii’s request to extend the temporary hold on the Muslim Ban 2.0. He then issued a 24-page order blocking Drumpf from suspending new visas for travelers through the Muslim Ban 2.0. Drumpf’s attorneys tried to argue that the judge shouldn’t consider comments Drumpf made about Muslim Ban 2.0. But Watson wrote, “The court will not crawl into a corner, pull the shutters closed, and pretend it has not seen what it has.”
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orth Carolina lawmakers unveiled a “compromise” on the bathroom bill, stating that they wouldn’t restrict which public restrooms transgender people can use as long as they don’t have to follow through on non-discrimination ordinances. It would also put a three-year ban on future non-discrimination ordinances. The “compromise” was proposed due to the amount of money that the state has lost due to the bathroom bill estimated at $3.7 billion, and a statement by NCAA that stated they would not let North Carolina host college championship games through the year 2022 unless there were changes made to the law by Thursday.
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he “Cards Against Humanity” creator, Max Temkin, has vowed to buy and publish the internet histories of the Congresspeople who voted against net neutrality, so that they would know what it feels like to have their personal data auctioned off.
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ecretary of State Rex Tillerson lifted all human rights conditions on the sale of F-16 fighter jets and other weapons and arms to Bahrain to end the debate, which is basically another F.U. to SAudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern states.
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March
30 2017
rumpf took to Twitter to suggest that members of his own party in the Freedom Caucus should be fought in the 2018 midterm elections, showing that he’s all about the swamp and establishment he claimed to be against. “The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!”
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espite the ludicrous tweet, House Speaker and Drumpf Lap Dog, Paul Ryan, came to his defense. “I understand the president’s frustration. About 90% of our conference is for this bill to repeal and replace Obamacare and about 10% are not. And that’s not enough to pass a bill.”
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he North Carolina House passed the “compromise” bill that would repeal the “bathroom bill” forcing transgender people to use the bathroom of their birth gender, but would allow them to not enforce non-discrimination ordinances meant to protect LGBTILQ people. The House passed it 70-48 and the Senate passed it 32-16, sending it to Governor Roy Cooper, just in time to have it passed and not have to give up championship games by the NCAA. Governor Cooper won his election running on the repeal of the “bathroom bill,” but has supported this new bill, stating that it “begins to repair our reputation.”
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ice President Mike Pence stripped women of healthcare from Planned Parenthood with his tie-breaking Senate vote to repeal an Obama regulation meant to protect the healthcare provider. The regulation stated that states that denied Title X funding – which goes to Planned Parenthood and other groups that provide low-income families with family planning services – would be in violation of the law. For reference, 1 million breast exams and contraception for 904k women were provided under Title X in 2015.
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nformation revealed that despite the claim that it did not come from the White House, a pair of White House officials - Ezra Cohen-Watnick, senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a lawyer for the White House Counsel’s Office - provided House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes with the intelligence reports he revealed to Drumpf. The revelation calls to question if anyone involved is still impartial or if all three used intelligence to advance Drumpf’s political agenda at the expense of transparency.
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report showed that there were more airstrikes in Yemen in the last month than all last year. The amount of civilian casualties have increased monumentally as airstrikes have struck homes, a mosque, and a school rather than military targets. American-led airstrikes destroyed an entire city block in Mosul, making it one of the worst civilian death counts in a single American military strike in Iraq ever.
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30 2017
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overnor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, signed the legislating repealing the “bathroom bill” but creating a moratorium on the writing of or the enforcement of non-discrimination ordinances for the next three years. He cited that it would begin undoing the economic damage of North Carolina and didn’t comment on the safety and rights of those who would be damaged by the new law.
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he Environmental Protection Agency sent out a press release about Drumpf’s Executive Order rolling back climate change regulations. Typically, a press release would have quotes from supporters. This did not. The first quote: “With this Executive Order, President Trump has chosen to recklessly bury his head in the sand...Today’s executive order calls into question America’s credibility and our commitment to tackling the greatest environmental challenge of our lifetime.”
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ormer National Security Advisor Michael Flynn offered to be interviewed about the Russian connection in exchange from prosecution. This is the same man who started the “lock her up” campaign and famously said, “When you are given immunity, that means you probably committed a crime.”
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March
31 2017
rumpf tweeted in the early morning: “Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by the media & Dems, of historic proportion!” Not only is this ridiculous because there wasn’t a big election loss - Hillary won the election technically - but also because of what Drumpf said about immunity last year when Hillary’s aides were seeking it: “The reason they get immunity is because they did something wrong. If they didn’t do anything wrong, they don’t think in terms of immunity. If you are not guilty of a crime, what do you need immunity for? Right?”
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he data from the General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center revealed extreme racism and prejudice, especially among white Republicans. A majority of white Republicans (55%) believe that African Americans are worse off economically “because most just don’t have the motivation or will power to pull themselves up out of poverty.” 42% of white Republicans believed that African Americans were lazier than white folk and 26% believed they were less intelligent.
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federal judge approved the $25 million settlement agreement against fraud claims for Drumpf’s Drumpf University. This gives back 90 cents on the dollar for what the students who were conned spent at his fraudulent University. Sherri Simpson, a lawyer who spent $19K on Drumpf University programs didn’t want the settlement, but wanted Drumpf tried for criminal racketeering and wanted a personal apology.
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uring the press briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer reiterated how he would not speak to process but substance when it came to the Russian influence investigation. He has broadly determined that “process” includes who said/informed what, when, and with what authority. He then went against his own definition to provide an abbreviated, hand-picked “process” on wiretapping Drumpf.
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31 2017
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n the first question, Press Secretary Spicer then went into a laundry list of #altfacts including Hillary Clinton’s aimed to “strengthen Russia,” that she used her office to make concessions to Russia “selling off one-fifth of our country’s uranium, paid speeches, paid deals, getting personal calls from Vladimir Putin.” He finished his first question with: “I think if there’s - you really want to talk about a Russian connection and the substance, that’s where we should be looking. That - not there.”
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ress Secretary Sean Spicer was asked if Drumpf would release his tax returns since it was Financial Disclosure Day. Spicer stated taxes weren’t actually due until April 15. The reporter asked if he would release on the 15. “But I think that - again, I think that, respectfully, you look at what we’re doing, frankly - and again, this will be discussed after this is done - but I think there is an element of going above and beyond what has been done in the past to make sure that people have access to this.”
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fter Press Secretary Spicer refused to an answer another question about the wiretapping allegation on the grounds of “process,” a reporter retorted: “I think we are concerned about the substance just as much as the process. But the details matter.”
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reporter asked Press Secretary Spicer to find out if the FBI had broadened the investigation “beyond just simply Russia” since his answers to previous questions didn’t indicate it, but press has stated that they had. Spicer had a mini melt-down: “You can call the FBI. I’m not going to call the FBI and ask the what their investigation is, and then you’ll write a story about how I called the FBI.”
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ress Secretary Spicer blamed the violence in Chicago on undocumented immigrants, when asked about the defunding of sanctuary cities conflicting with Drumpf’s promise to fix the inner cities. “I tink it would be interesting to want to send more money to a city that is allowing people to come to the country who are breaking the law, who, in many cases, are committing crimes - member of gangs. And so you can’t be a sanctuary city and at the same time seem to pretend or express concern about law enforcement or ask for more money and probably a number of the funds that you’re using in the first place are going to law enforcement to handle the situation you’ve created for yourself.”
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he reporter followed up: “Does that mean the President is more interested in deporting illegal immigrants than he is with putting shooters and killers in jail?” Spicer replied, betraying the thought that he has that undocumented immigrants are the shooters and killers despite the actual statistics showing that they commit crimes at a far lower rate than naturalized citizens: “No. Because if a shooter or killer is here illegally and he’s in this country, then I think that - again, I think, respectfully, you’re delinking the two issues.”
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March
31 2017
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ajor Garrett attempted to get a straight answer out of Press Secretary Sean Spicer on whether Drumpf’s tweet was meant as a subtle indication to the FBI or Congress to give Mike Flynn immunity - since they are the only two bodies who can provide that. Spicer deflected masterfully three times, “What he means is that he supports Mike Flynn’s attempts to go up to Congress and be very clear with everything they ask and everything they want.”
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uoting a biblical passage that Republicans seem to love, Representative Jodey Arrington proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to make it harder for unemployed people to eat. “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” The problem with the quote is that it refers to those who can work but choose not to. The facts are that 2/3 of SNAP recipients are children, seniors, and people with disabilities. 22% are caretakers or employed at a rate of 30 hours or more a week, but not making enough to eat. The unemployed adults on SNAP are the mentally ill, the borderline disabled, and veterans.
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