The
Drumpfster Fire
chronicles Week
1
x
The
Drumpfster Fire
chronicles Week
1
A Talbot‑‑Heindl Experience LLC Zine By: Chris Talbot‑‑Heindl
April
1 2017
rumpf began his morning with Twitter, writing, “When will Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd and @NBCNews start talking about the Obama SURVEILLANCE SCANDAL and stop with the Fake Trump/ Russia story?” Todd was stating, “The fact is the president, if he cannot accept that there is Russian interference in our democracy in some form or another and he fights it every step of the way, then this story will consume him and his presidency will never get going and never get off the ground.” The tweets in relation to the discussion just seem ironic.
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inancial disclosure reports showed that the king and queen of nepotism – Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump – still benefit from a real estate investment worth $740 million. This would be fine if they were civilians, but they’ve both been handed White House positions they aren’t qualified for, making it an ethics violation.
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ncluded in the ethics nightmare, Ivanka Trump will maintain a stake in the Drumpf International Hotel in Washington DC. She earned between $1-5 million from the hotel between January 2016 and March 2017.
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disclosure revealed that ex-National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, failed to list payments he received from Russia-linked groups, which included $45k in a speaking fee for Russian today, a Kremlin-backed news network, and a $1.5 million paycheck from Flynn Intel Group, the consulting group he founded.
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isclosures also revealed that Drumpf’s Chief Strategist, Stephen Bannon received $191k in consulting fees from Breitbart, $125k from Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that worked for the Drumpf campaign, and a $61k salary from the Government Accountability Institute, a conservative nonprofit. Drumpf Counselor, Kellyanne Conway earned at least $842k and National Economic Council lead Gary Cohn earned $77 million. Drumpf’s administration is actually shaping up to be the wealthiest in history. The disclosures were pretty revealing and may require a whole lot of spin to cover conflicts of interest.
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tweet by White House social media director Dan Scavino Jr. may have violated federal law. He tweeted, “.@realDonaldTrump is bringing auto plants & jobs back to Michigan. @justinamash is a big liability.#TrumpTrain, defeat him in primary.” The Hatch Act prohibits officials from using their positions for political activity. It would be fine since it is his personal account, except he listed his official White House position and featured a pic of himself inside the Oval Office.
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federal judge in Louisville, Judge David Hale, rejected Drumpf’s free speech defense against a lawsuit accusing him of inciting violence against protesters at a campaign rally. The judge found that video of the attack supported the protesters’ allegations that their injuries were a “direct and approximate result” of Drumpf’s egging them on.
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he Drumpf administration has done away with the American Bar Association’s vetting of candidates for the federal bench, moving away from a time honored tradition of making sure that judges are qualified that goes back to the Eisenhower administration. The White House Counsel, Donald McGahn II, wrote, “Like previous administrations, we will release information regarding each nominee in a manner that provides equal access to all interested groups. But we do not intend to give any professional organizations special access to our nominees.
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ice President Pence talked up Drumpf on an Ohio tour. During a speech at an electronics manufacturing services company in Columbus, Pence said that Drumpf is “taking the fight to the terrorists, on our terms, on their soil.” At Dynalab in Reynoldsburg praised Drumpf’s removal of the Clean Power Plan, which he said marked the end of the “war on coal” and Washington’s “assault” on affordable energy.
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April
2 2017
rumpf took to Twitter early in the morning to tweet about repealing Obamacare and surveillance. “The real story turns out to be SURVEILLANCE and LEAKING! Find the leakers.” Not sure how it “turns out to be” that and what proof – if any – he has.
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enator John Cornyn said on CBS News that the Senate Intelligence Committee would investigate the possibility that US officials unmasked members of Drumpf’s White House in a surveillance sweep, as well as the Russian interference of the 2016 election. “Obviously anytime anybody jeopardizes the privacy rights of an American citizen, and as part of an intelligence gathering process that would be unauthorized, and then leaks that information, that’s potentially a crime. And that’s something we ought to pursue.”
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ewt Gingrich announced on Fox News while discussing the Russian interference issue, “It is ironic that all of the real evidence of real money and real influence-buying relates to Democrats.” He of course, didn’t go on to talk about what “evidence” that included.
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2 2017
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lt-right whipping woman, former National Security Advisor Susan Rice was blamed by Republican lawmakers of seeking and leaking redacted Drumpf officials’ statements that were captured incidentally in surveillance. Senator Lindsey Graham stated on Fox News, “When it comes to Susan E. Rice, you need to verify, not trust.” Senator Tom Cotton called Rice “The Typhoid Mary of the Obama administration.”
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enate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell went on Fox News and said that Judge Neil Gorsuch would be confirmed this week. “We are going to get Judge Gorsuch confirmed. It will really be up to [Democrats] how the process to confirmation goes moving forward.” That remark means that McConnell hasn’t overlooked the “nuclear option” of a rules change to get Gorsuch approved.
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S Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley claimed on ABC’s “This Week” that there was no question that Russia was involved in the US presidential election. She also claimed that there was no contradiction between Drumpf’s tweets and her statement, and that she believes Drumpf should take a harder Russian stance, but “Of course, he’s got a lot of things he’s doing.”
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ox News’s Chris Wallace handed Environmental Protection Agency’s new head, Scott Pruitt his ass. Wallace grilled him on the Executive Order to dismantle the Clean Power Plan that set a number of health milestones. Pruitt started talking about government overreach, to which Wallace responded, “But sir, you are giving me a regulatory answer, a political answer. You’re not giving a health answer...You’re talking about regulatory overreach. But the question is, there are 166 million people living in unclean air, and you’re going to remove some of the pollution restrictions, which would make the air even worse.”
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ruitt talked about how the country’s air quality was not as bad as it had been and was “actually pre-1994 levels with respect with our CO2 footprint.” He didn’t seem to understand that change was directly because of “overreach” of the EPA and that there is date proving that most of the CO2 reductions occurred during the Obama adminstration as a direct result of the clean-energy plans, like SunShot, that he put in place.
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rumpf told the UK Financial Times that he would “solve” the nuclear threat from North Korea. “If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you...China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone.”
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rumpf took House Speaker Paul Ryan and White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney golfing at his Drumpf National Golf Club on the taxpayers’ dime to discuss the Drumpfcare fiasco. Ryan stated: “We had a great day with the president. We did talk about some health care reform...And I remain very optimistic that we will get an Obamacare repeal.”
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ill O’Reilly released a statement claiming he was “vulnerable to lawsuits from individuals who want me to pay them to avoid negative publicity.” The statement was in defense of a New York Times report that he had to pay a bunch of different women a total of $13 million for sexual harassment.
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new report found that big buildings owned by Drumpf and Drumpf’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner are among the biggest polluters in New York City. Drumpf Tower uses more energy than 93% of the city’s large residential buildings.
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April
3 2017
rumpf took to Twitter early in the morning to claim that the Russia investigation was a scam and the real story was Obama’s wiretapping. “Such amazing reporting on unmasking and the crooked scheme against us by @foxandfriends.” He then blasted Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the Democrats. He later tweeted, “@ FoxNews from multiple sources: ‘There was electronic surveillance of Trump, and people close to Trump. This is unprecedented.’ @ FBI”
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he official portrait of the First Lady Melania Trump was released. From the portrait, it is clear that either Melania’s face is plastic without pores or creases, or it has been Photoshopped to holy hell.
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rumpf signed a congressional resolution to overturn the Obamaera’s internet privacy protections developed by the Federal Communications Commission. The change allows internet providers to easily track and sell a customer’s online information without permission from the customer.
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uring Judge Neil Gorsuch’s hearing for the Supreme Court, Senator James Inhofe claimed that there was precedent for not considering Judge Garland when Obama nominated him. “Right now, this is the very first of an administration, and there is a lot of precedent for that, that someone in his last final months should not be making the determination as to who is going to be the confirmed nominee.” Judge Garland was actually nominated in March, not the final months of Obama’s presidency. Seven nominations in the 19th century were made by a “lame duck” president between the election and his successor’s inauguration.
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enator John Thune claimed that there was a precedent for not filibustering Judge Gorsuch. “If they do filibuster him, it will break a 230-year tradition. There has never been a successful partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee, and the only time filibusters have been attempted, they’ve been attempted by Democrats.” The debate over Justice Fortas in ’68 was successfully filibustered – a filibuster started by Republicans with 15 Sothern Democrats (by today’s standards, they would be Republicans).
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enate Democrats secured enough votes to successfully filibuster Judge Gorsuch’s nomination. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, “This is a new low,” and reiterated that Gorsuch would be confirmed by Friday due to the “nuclear option” – a cloture or rule change to allow Gorsuch to be approved with a simple majority.
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uring Drumpf’s campaign, he promised time and again to work for free and donate his salary back to all the agencies he was defunding. During the press briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer presented a check for $78k to Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Spicer stated, “The park service has cared for our parks since 1916, and the president is personally proud to contribute the first quarter of his salary to the important mission of the park service, which is preserving our country’s national security.” I guess this will pad the $1.5 billion budget cut…by exactly 0.005%.
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3 2017
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ecretary Zinke was there to take the check and make some remarks. It seemed more like an introduction and “what I did last summer” grade school oral report than a briefing. “Those who don’t know, I get my inspiration from Teddy Roosevelt…I’m the steward of our nation’s finest and most majestic holdings…After riding on a horse on my first day – we were pretty busy – just on public lands along, I signed directions, on the first day, to expand public access.”
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he first question put to Secretary Zinke was a bit of a zinger: “How is that war on coal been working there? You’re saying that you’re going to open it up because of the war on coal. Isn’t that kind of contrary to what Teddy Roosevelt wanted and preserving land?” Zinke responded by saying that “environmentally it’s better to produce energy here under reasonable regulation than watch it get produced overseas with none,” indicating that he may know about as much about the renewable energy industry as Drumpf does.
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uring the press briefing, a reporter asked Press Secretary Spicer if Drumpf being “far wealthier than any President we’ve seen in modern times,” would consider reimbursing officials in New York and Florida for “the additional security burdens that they have faced, given his residence there, travels to those place…” Spicer claimed that the Chinese delegation coming this weekend requested to stay at Mar-A-Lago, tried to the false equivalency of Bush’s and Obama’s travel expenses, and claimed that Drumpf made a huge donation today, when would it be enough.
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reporter questioned the legitimacy of Jared Kushner’s position, “I appreciate how he’s in such a unique position and so trusted by the President, but there are people who could look at the situation and say, the White House isn’t meant to be run as a family business. There are institutions with experienced diplomats who have years of decades of linguistic and experience on the ground.” Spicer claimed “it’s not a binary choice where it’s – he’s doing this at the expense of somebody else.” But he is.
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ttorney General Jeff Sessions sent around a memo to the Justice Department officials to review agreements made during the Obama administration with police forces with troubled excessive violence histories or civil rights violations. The Baltimore agreement, for example, was reached after Freddie Gray was murdered in police custody and requires officers to learn how to resolve conflicts without force – which is pretty benign considering the circumstances.
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ttorney General Sessions’ memo states, “By strengthening our longstanding and productive relationships with our law enforcement partners, we will improve public safety for all Americans.” I guess that doesn’t take into the account the public safety that those police forces violated to require an agreement.
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hicago was among the cities that was evaluated and had negotiations started for a monitoring agreement after a series of police shootings were done against miniorities in the city. Attorney General Sessions called the report “shoddy.” In a joint statement, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Superintendent Eddie Johnson of the Chicago Police said that Sessions would not alter their plans to reform the police in Chicago. “We can only speak for our intentions, we can’t speak for the federal government.”
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ared Kushner, Drumpf’s son-in-law and advisor via nepotism landed in Iraq in the fuzziest job duty yet. Evidently, he was invited by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford Jr. Dunford’s spokesman, Navy Captain Greg Hicks claimed Kushner is “traveling on behalf of the president to express the president’s support and commitment to the government of Iraq and US personnel currently engaged in the campaign.” I’m sure there are people with that actually within their job description.
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he United Nations analyzed some of the anti-protesting bills and laws that are being proposed by Republicans around the nation – a North Dakota bill that would allow motorists to run over and kill protestors, a bill that would allow police to use “any means necessary” to remove activists from roadways, increased penalties, a Missouri bill that would make it illegal to wear a mask or disguise while protesting, a North Carolina bill that would make it a crime to heckle lawmakers, etc - and have stated that they represent “an alarming and undemocratic” trend.
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April
4 2017
chemical attack in Syria was conducted against civilians – killing at least 100 and inuring 400 more - by the Bashar al-Assad regime. During the press gaggle, Press Secretary Sean Spicer claimed in his introduction by claiming that the attack was a “consequence of the past administration’s weakness and irresolution. Presient Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a ‘red line’ against the use of chemical weapons, and then did nothing.”
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he first question Press Secretary Spicer received tried to determine the Drumpf administration’s stance: “I hope you could give some clarity in terms of the adminstration’s position on Syria. Secretary of State Tillerson just days ago said that the Syrian people themselves should decide the future of the country. And at the same time…the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has said that Assad is a war criminal. So you just criticized President Obama’s policy on Syria and the red line. What will the administration do in response to what we saw take place over the past 24 hours?” Spicer answered, “I think the statement speaks for itself.”
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hen asked if Drumpf would do more than accuse Obama and maybe think about asking President Bashar al-Assad to step down, Press Secretary Sean Spicer dismissed it as ridiculous: “We would look like, to some degree, rather silly not acknowledging the political realities that exist in Syria.”
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fter accusations were made over the weekend, former Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice said that she never tried to uncover the names of Drumpf campaign or transition officials redacted in intelligence intercepts “for political purposes,” and said that allegations that she leaked the identities were “completely false...I leaked nothing, to nobody, and never have and never would.”
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arter Page, who served as a Foreign Policy Adviser to Drumpf during his campaign, added to the Russian hoopla when he released a statement that confirmed his role in a Justice Department spy case – that he communicated several years ago with a Russian intelligence agent under surveillance by the FBI. He stated in his defense, “As I explained to federal authorities prior to the January 2015 filing of this case, I shared basic immaterial information and publicly available research documents,” with the spy from the Russian Federation. “In doing so, I provided him nothing more than a few samples from the far more detailed lectures I was preparing at the time for the students...”
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espite the repeal of the “bathroom bill” being another discrimination law, the NCAA ended the boycott of North Carolina. The organization claimed that North Carolina had “minimally achieved a situation where we believe NCAA championships may be conducted in a nondiscriminatory environment.” Since the new law prohibits the development of or enforcing of civil rights laws, one can only assume that the boycott was more about public opinion than actual discrimination.
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April
5 2017
hite House Advisor employed via nepotism, Ivanka Trump, stated that the American public should just trust her that she is schooling her father even though she never says anything publicly or seems to be doing it. “I would say not to conflate lack of public denouncement with silence. I think there are multiple ways to have your voice heard. In some cases, it’s through protest and it’s through going on the nightly news and talking about or denouncing every issue on which you disagree with. Other times it is quietly and directly and candidly.”
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embers of the Republican Party began to splinter from party loyalty to call out the Drumpf administration as responsible for the Syrian chemical attack. Senator Marco Rubio blamed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on a local Florida radio show, who stated earlier that the US would let Assad stay in power. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a few days later we see this.”
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enator John McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee also blamed Secretary Tillerson on CNN, and said that Tillerson’s comment about Assad was “one of the more incredible statements I’ve heard…It is another disgraceful chapter in American history, and it was predictable.”
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enator Rob Portman, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, agreed with Drumpf’s assessment that Obama was at fault, but also blamed Drumpf in a statement he released. “The Assad regime will not cease these brutal and illegal attacks unless it has a credible belief that the United States and our allies will hold it accountable for its crimes. The Obama administration undermined US credibility and abdicated America’s leadership role when it abandoned its infamous red line in 2013. We cannot afford to make the same mistake twice.”
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rumpf removed White House Chief Strategist and white supremacist Stephen Bannon from the National Security Council and put the traditional military, intelligence, and Cabinet officials back in power of the Council. The White House retroactively painted the picture that the shake up was always meant to happen, and Bannon was there temporarily to “fix” what Obama’s National Security Advisor and Republican whipping woman, Susan Rice, had done. Bannon claimed, “Susan E. Rice operationalized the NSC during the last administration. I was put on to ensure that it was de-operationalized. General McMaster has returned the NSC to its proper function.” Whatever “operationalized” means…
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nother story, from other members of the White House, have painted a picture where Drumpf’s new National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster initiated the change, because he didn’t want a political advisor in the Situation Room when decisions about war and peace are made.
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et another story, from other members of the White House, have painted a picture where Drumpf was angry about the backlash from upgrading Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon and had considered reversing course the same weekend it was announced, but didn’t want to feed the media frenzy. So he ran with it until Bannon’s involvement had more lasting effects – the Muslim Ban rejection by courts and the characterization of Drumpf as a puppet for “President Bannon” on television and print media.
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rumpf spoke about the Syrian chemical attack during the Joint Press Conference with Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan. Throughout the entire press conference, Drumpf blamed Obama for being weak and causing the attack to happen. He offered to help King Abdullah to take in refugees, but held tight on his stance that the US would not be taking in any refugees. He stated that the attack changed his mind about not getting involved, “I do change and I am flexible, and I’m proud of that flexibility. And I will tell you, that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me – big impact. That was a horrible, horrible thing. And I’ve been watching it and seeing it, and it doesn’t get any worse than that. But he also stated that he would not telegraph what he was doing, so no American would actually know until it happened.
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revious to the chemical attack, Drumpf has said that he would destroy ISIS, and if that meant that Assad would be bolstered in the effort, that would be fine by him. He also has held Vladimir Putin as a good guy - since he is a “Christian” leader who would use power and violence against jihadist Islam - same as Drumpf. This was the first time he has shown any interest in doing anything, despite that the Syrian civil war has been going on for six years and there have been 161 chemical attacks - sarin, mustard gas, VX, and chlorine have all been used.
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uring an interview with The New York Times in the Oval Office, Drumpf was all over the place. When asked about why Democrats oppose Gorsuch, he went into an answer about his massive Electoral College win and that Susan Rice was the real story that people should be looking at. “I think the Susan Rice thing is a massive story. I think it’s a massive, massive story. All over the world, I mean other than The New York Times.” Reporter: “We’ve written about it twice.” Drumpf: “Huh?” Reporter: “We’ve written about it twice.” Drumpf: “Yeah, it’s a bigger story than you know.”
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rumpf weighed in on Bill O’Reilly’s sexual harassment scandals during the interview with a good old, “I don’t think Bill did anything wrong.” No surprise from a man who suggested that if you’re rich you can grab a woman by the pussy. He also made sure to let people know that O’Reilly is “a good person” which I’m sure is a great comfort to all the women he harassed. “I think he shouldn’t have settled; personally I think he shouldn’t have settled. Because you should have taken it all the way.”
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ope Hicks, the White House Director of Strategic Communications interrupted the Bill O’Reilly train of thought during the interview with: “Can we get to infrastructure? Because I know we are sensitive about time.” Drumpf had to have the last word, so he mentioned now The New York Times was covering Bill O’Reilly a lot, but not Susan Rice. “You certainly covered O’Reilly big. Not Susan Rice, boy.”
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lso during the interview in the Oval Office, Drumpf claimed that former National Security Advisor Susan Rice may have committed a crime by seeking to learn the identities of Drumpf campaign associates in the incidental surveillance. He provided exactly zero evidence. When New York Times reporters attempted to ask what evidence he had of that claim, he said he would talk about it more “at the right time.” Former intelligence officials from Republican and Democratic administrations have stated that her actions were not unusual or unlawful. She attempted to ask for the redacted names when the conversations contained an imminent security threat.
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epresentative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee, said that Drumpf’s comments were part of an effort to distract from the investigations into the Russian interference of the election that the Committee is investigating. “He began by accusing President Obama of a crime without any evidence. He’s now moved on to accusing Susan Rice of a crime without any evidence, and this is sadly how this president operates…It would be a terrible way to do business. It’s a worse way to run a country.”
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rumpf commented on the ridiculous claim he made last month about Obama spying on him during his campaign, stating, “It’s such an important story for our country and the world. It is one of the big stories of our time.” I guess this would be true in the true sense of the word story – one that is fictional.
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April
6 2017
epresentative Elijah Cummings denied that he told Drumpf that he would “go down as one of the great presidents in the history of our country,” as Drumpf stated he did in an interview with The New York Times. Cummings has stated that he actually said, “I have said repeatedly that he could be a great president if – if – he takes steps to truly represent all Americans rather than continuing on the divisive and harmful path he is currently on.”
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ouse Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes announced he would temporarily step aside from the Russian meddling investigation as the House Ethics Committee opened an inquiry into whether he “may have made unauthorized disclosures of classified information, in violation of House Rules, laws, regulations, or other standards of conduct.” The accusation is referencing the time he went to the White House grounds secretly to meet with a source and then told the press about it before informing the Committee he chairs and the time he briefed Drumpf. Nunes called the accusations “entirely false” and blamed “leftwing activist groups” for the complaint.
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epublicans instituted the “nuclear option” to clear the way for Judge Neil Gorsuch to be confirmed as a Supreme Court Judge rather than find a nominee that the current rules would confirm, and allowing all future presidential nominees for the executive branch and federal courts to be confirmed by a simple majority. Democrats wanted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to consider Judge Merrick Garland who was nominated by Obama in March 2016. McConnell decided a rule change would be the better option.
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enate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed that the filibuster was “the latest escalation in the left’s never-ending judicial war, the most audacious yet…And it cannot and it will not stand. There cannot be two sets of standards: one for nominees of the Democratic president and another for the nominees of Republican presidents.” Of course, if the standards were the same, Judge Gorsuch wouldn’t even have been considered since Drumpf is campaigning and apparently, according to Republicans, a Supreme Court Justice can’t be considered during a campaign.
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y GOP colleagues high fived each other after voting to damage pillars of our democracy. This is no cause for celebration,” Senator Richard Blumenthal tweeted of the rules change.
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ress Secretary Sean Spicer held a press gaggle on the flight to Palm Beach, Florida. The first question posed, “Sean, following up on Syria yesterday, there’s a lot of people who see a contradiction between the sympathy expressed for the victims of the gas attack and the policy of basically not allowing, for humanitarian reasons, these sort of people to come into the United States now.” Spicer claimed that Drumpf is interested in setting up “safe zones” in the war torn, chemical warfare areas rather than exposing the US to potential threats from refugees.
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ecretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters at the airport about President Bashar al-Assad, in a complete about face from Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s comments: “It would seem there would be no role for him to govern the Syrian people...We are considering an appropriate response for this chemical weapons attack. A serious matter requires a series response.”
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t the Women in the World summit, Scarlett Johansson had this to say about Ivanka Trump’s statement that she would advise her father in private: “I think you can’t have it both ways. If you take a job as a public advocate then you advocate publicly, and yesterday she said something which I found particularly disappointing, which is she felt the greatest change she would have actually would be behind closed doors...How old-fashioned, that this idea behind a great idea is a great woman. What about being in front of that person or next to them or standing on your own?...Screw that, it’s so old-fashioned. It’s so uninspired and actually really cowardly.”
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witter had to file a lawsuit to block an order from the Department of Homeland Security that demanded to know the user of an account who has been critical of Drumpf’s immigration policies. Drumpf thought that because it was a @ALT_uscis indicating that it is run by someone who is an employee of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services division of Homeland Security - he had the right to usurp free speech and know who it was.
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uring his campaign, Drumpf spoke out against US military involvement in the Middle East saying that we should always focus on “America First.” he stated that the Syrian civil war was a problem for the Middle East to solve, no refugees would be admitted because they might be terrorists, and that a military action culd lead to another world war.
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efore the campaign, Drumpf repeatedly tweeted at Obama not to involve the US in the Syrian civil war despite the “red line” policy and stated that if Obama did use the military, he needed to seek Congress’s approval. “AGAIN, TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER, DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA - IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING!”
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ut the Drumpf Administration authorized a US military launch of 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian military airfield in retaliation for the chemical attack that killed civilians this week. This is the first American assault on Assad since the country’s civil war began six years ago. Drumpf claimed it was the scenes of suffering that changed him. “Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.” But all of that was happening in 2013 when he was urging Obama to do nothing.
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rumpf timed the unilateral airstrikes at the same time that he was hosting China’s President Xi Jingping, making it the most awkward it could be. China has a rich history of opposing unilateral military action. It may have intentionally been a little threatening as well, as a warning of what could happen if the North Korea issue escalated.
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yria’s military stated that the US “aggression” killed at least 13 people and aided militant factions such as the Islamic State by weakening Syria’s forces. A news agency stated that at least eight civilians, including four children were killed near the air base.
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rumpf himself said that the strikes were for the US national security interest and claimed that diplomacy had failed “very dramatically.” He added a call to our allies: “Tonight I call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria,” by adding to the slaughter and bloodshed, “And also, to end terrorism of all kinds and all types.”
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o add to the confusion and possible international incident, there was a Russian military area on the base that the US bombed that was hit. The attack may have put hundreds of American troops in Syria in danger.
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o make international relations worse, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused the Russians of failing to deliver on a 2013 commitment to ensure that Syria dismantled its chemical weapons stockpile. He stated, “So either Russia has been complicit or Russia has been incompetent in its ability to deliver on that agreement.”
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rumpf did not seek or get Congressional authorization for the attack. Congress, not the White House, has the power to authorize military force as part of the checks and balances of the system. Senator Rand Paul tweeted, “While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the United States was not attacked...The President needs Congressional authorization for military action as required by the Constitution.
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rumf also did not seek permission from the United Nations. The United Nations Charter recognizes two justifications for using force, which include permission from the Security Council or a self-defense claim. Drumpf had niether.
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enator Tim Kaine called it out as well: “I voted for military action against Syria in 2013 when Donald Trump was advocating that America turn its back on Assad’s atrocities. Congress will work with the President, but this failure to seek Congressional approval is unlawful.”
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oogle announced that it expanded the fact check feature to help combat the spread of fake news. it will show any fact check ratings from reputable sources (Politifact, Snopes, etc.) alongside the articles themselves.
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ussia announced it was pulling out of a pact that was made with the US to share information about warplane missions over Syria. President Vladimir Putin called for a meeting of the UN Security Council and Russian spokesman, Dmitry Peskov stated, “President Putin considers the American strikes against Syria an aggression against a soverign government in violations of the norms of international law, and under a far-fetched pretext. This step by Washington is causing significant damage to Russian-American relations, which are already in a deplorable state.”
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eskov and a spokeswoman of Russia’s foreign ministry, Maria Zakharova, both asserted that the attacks were not a reaction to the chemical attack in Syria, but had been planned earlier as a distraction to other events. Peskov specifically stated that the Russian president considered the attack an attempt to distract from the heavy civilian casualties caused by the US attempts to capture Mosul.
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ussia reacted to Drumpf’s airstrikes, and it was not favorable. The Russian government’s official newspaper commented, “The real estate billionaire has repeated the deplorable experience of his predecessors. This isn’t the first demonstration of a completely incompetent US approach – similar to a big elephant in a small china shop – to solving the most acute international problems.”
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ussian General Igor Konashenkov called the effectiveness of the airstrikes “extremely low,” and listed the targets that were struck – a warehouse, a training facility, a mess hall, a radar station, and six MiG-23s under repair. What wasn’t touched – the airstrip and parked jets.
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he Senate voted 54-45 to confirm Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch after invoking the nuclear option on Thursday to allow the vote to win with a simple majority instead of the traditional 60 votes. During the 20-hour hearing, Judge Gorsuch committed to nothing, giving canned answers and claiming to be neutral.
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ussian warship, the frigate Admiral Grigorovich, left its station in the Black Sea and moved toward the American vessels that launched airstrikes against the Syrian airport.
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n a super awkward show, Press Secretary Sean Spicer ordered that the press turn the cameras off after all news outlets had already begun live airing the press gaggle. “It’s off. Off. Everything is off.”
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n his opening statement during the press briefing, Press Secretary Spicer admitted that the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs told Drumpf a real poker following the Syrian airstrikes. “He asked about reaction from the world community as well as congressional leaders and was informed that there was fairly unanimous praise for the decision and the actions the President took.”
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hen asked if the Syrian airstrike was a one-off, Press Secretary Spicer stated his normal answer which is ridiculous in the case of a current incident and possible war, “he’s not going to telegraph his next move.”
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reporter attempted to find out what three options General H.R. McMaster brought to Drumpf’s attention regarding a way to move forward with Syria. Press Secretary Spicer refused to answer. He interrupted her question with a “No.”
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nother reporter asked, “I know you say the President says he’s not going to outline what he’s going to do next, he wants to remain flexible. But members on the Hill say that they want to be brought into the process.” Spicer claimed that key congressional leaders and committee heads were all informed. “I think now that action has been taken, I believe that they’ll be - they’ve started to have those conversations.”
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nother reporter asked if the airstrikes would put a setback on working with Russia to defeat ISIS. Press Secretary Spicer responded: “I don’t know that I agree with that. I think that there can be a shared commitment to defeat ISIS and also agree that you can’t gas your own people. I don’t think that - there is a mutal level of human decency that I think we can expect out of everybody, and I don’t think that that goes hand in hand with also augmenting that with our national security interests.”
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n Drumpf’s Weekly Address, he bragged about jobs, the number of deportations, and the strength of our military. There was no mention about what happened in Syria, our unilateral attack in retribution, or what the American people and people around the world can expect in the coming days.
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federal judge approved the agreement negotiated under Obama to overhaul the Baltimore police department above objections from Drumpf and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Mayor Catherine Pugh stated, “I believe that it makes Baltimore safer. I think by building and training our police officers in ways to deescalate violence, to work with our communities, to have cultural diversity training, and have the right kind of tools they need to know what they can do in certain areas of our community...I think it’s improved policing.”
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witter dropped the lawsuit against the US government after US officials withdrew the request to reveal the identity of a tweeter who was critical of Drumpf’s immigration and border protection rules. One of the ACLU attorneys representing the Twitter user, Esha Bhandari stated, “The First Amendment requires the government to have a very compelling reason for unmasking someone’s identity. That is important or people would be chilled from speaking out, particularly when they are speaking out against the government.
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