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The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 Empty Re: The Serious Side - part 6

Post by party animal - not! Sat 01 Sep 2018, 16:02

The John McCain memorial in Washington Cathedral is a lesson in statesmanship

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Post by annemarie Sat 01 Sep 2018, 16:09

Yes, it's something the idiot in the White House  knows nothing about.

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Post by LizzyNY Sat 01 Sep 2018, 16:47

Watching now. A lesson in dignity, respect and civics for the "ruling" party. When Drumpf goes he'll be lucky if anyone shows up.
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Post by Donnamarie Sat 01 Sep 2018, 17:18

I needed to hear the words spoken this morning from McCain’s memorial service.  Those who spoke had differences with McCain in politics but they all understand what McCain stood for and what our country stands for.  Looking at the faces of many in the Congress who were there I suspect that sadly the overriding message fell on deaf ears.
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Post by LizzyNY Sat 01 Sep 2018, 23:28

Megan McCain's eulogy for her father was brilliant. I can only imagine the strength it took to stand before all those people and speak so eloquently and forcefully at a time of such intense grief. I hope she knows how proud he would have been of her.

Anyone who missed her speech should try to find it. I'm sure it will turn up online somewhere and it's well worth listening to.
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Post by annemarie Sun 02 Sep 2018, 18:29

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6124099/They-seated-far-Trump-allies-Jared-Ivanka-treatment-McCain-funeral.html

[size=34]They were seated too far in the back - Trump allies complain about Jared and Ivanka's treatment at McCain funeral and about the fact they were there[/size]


  • Trump's friends are fuming after the tributes to John McCain contained some pointed criticism of the president

  • His allies are also angry that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were there

  • Although one person said they should have had better seats

  • Screen shots show they were seated in the same section as former presidents, just a few rows back from the front 

  • Lindsey Graham invited the couple after talking to Cindy McCain, it was reported

  • But Graham denied he was the source of the invite, saying Ivanka Trump's kind words about Senator McCain were noticed by the family  


By EMILY GOODIN, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 11:18 EDT, 2 September 2018 | UPDATED: 12:53 EDT, 2 September 2018

    


President Donald Trump's allies are roaring about the treatment of the president and his family at John McCain's funeral service, including complaining Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were seated too far in the back of the Washington National Cathedral. 
Trump's friends are fuming after the tributes to the late senator contained some pointed criticism and unfavorable comparison to the president.
There is also anger at the fact Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were at the service - and where they sat in the huge Washington National Cathedral, which can seat about 4,000 people.
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Trump allies were angry Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were at McCain's funeral service and where they sat in the large Washington National Cathedral
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Screen shots show Jared Kushner and Ivanka were seated a few rows back from the front
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Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at McCain's memorial service
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Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were seated in the same section as the former presidents
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The Washington National Cathedral can hold almost 4,000 people
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Meghan's blistering eulogy took Trump's election slogan and accused him of 'cheap rhetoric' about greatness



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Mike Pence pays tribute to the legacy of John McCain


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Former President Obama pays tribute to the legacy of …


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Bill Clinton brings laughter and tears with Aretha anecd…


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Lindsey Graham gives emotional tribute to Senator…



'It was a very nice gesture by Jared and Ivanka to attend,' Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg told Politico. 'I find it contemptible that the McCain family couldn't seat them in a better, more respectable section.'
Screen shots of the service show the couple were seated in the same section as the former presidents and first ladies, a few rows back from the front. 
The president's daughter and son-in-law entered the cathedral on Saturday morning shortly before McCain's funeral service began.
Ivanka Trump was spotting hugging Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, McCain's best friend in the Senate who invited the couple to the service.
Graham cleared the invite with Cindy McCain, The New York Times reported. He invited Ivanka Trump after she offered him her condolences during a meeting on Capitol Hill last week.    


But Graham, speaking on CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday, denied he was the source of the invite. 
'No. Nobody was at the funeral who did not get invited by the family,' the Republican senator from South Carolina said.
He said it was Ivanka Trump's kind words on McCain that got the family's attention. 
'Earlier in the week, I met with Ivanka about a trip we're planning in Africa. Ivanka said some very nice things about Sen. McCain after his passing. It was not unnoticed by the family,' he said. 'I'm hoping that Cindy, who has done terrific work for human trafficking of women and all things related to that issue, can work with Ivanka and others because that's her life's work.'    
Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, who gave a eulogy at McCain's funeral, said neither member of the couple complained of any veiled shots at the president.
'They felt that the whole service was a great tribute to [McCain] and elevating,' Lieberman said. 'Hopefully everybody is elevated by what happened there in the cathedral yesterday and the whole week, and will take some of this forward with us and make the country better.' 
But other Trump allies were upset Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were at the service all given the slams against the president.
One person told Politico their attendance a 'huge mistake.'
The couple was seated in the cavernous cathedral to hear Meghan McCain take a few pointed shots at President Trump during her eulogy on her father. 
'The America of John McCain is generous and welcoming and bold,' Meghan McCain said. 'She is resourceful and confident and secure. She meets her responsibilities, She speaks quietly because she is strong. America does not boast because she has no need to. The America of John McCain has no need to be great again because America was always great.' 
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Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were invited by Lindsey Graham to attend
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John McCain's casket is carried out the cathedral
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Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly escort Cindy McCain to lay a wreath at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
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Donald Trump pictured at the Trump National Golf Club during the funeral of John McCain
As Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump watched McCain be memorialized by former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, President Trump sent out multiple tweets on NAFTA and attacking the investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.  
The president also played golf at Virginia golf course.  
Other members of the Trump administration were at McCain's service including White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and National Security Adviser John Bolton.
Kelly and Mattis also escorted Cindy McCain when she laid a wreath at the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial before the funeral service began.

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Post by annemarie Sun 02 Sep 2018, 20:46

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6124335/Pennsylvania-GOP-official-resigns-calling-protesting-NFL-Players-baboons.html

[size=34]Pennsylvania GOP official resigns after calling NFL Players who take the knee 'baboons' and 'ignorant blacks', threatening that they will change their actions 'when white people stop paying their salaries'[/size]


  • Carla Maloney was the Republican Committee of Beaver County's secretary

  • She also said the NFL players should 'go to Africa and see how you like it there' 

  • 'Let's see how the baboons get paid when white people stop paying their salaries,' she added in post that repeatedly called the Steelers 'baboons' 

  • It is believed Maloney made the post after Steelers sat in locker room for anthem

  • Committee's chairman has admitted that he already knew about posts last year


By ANNETA KONSTANTINIDES FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 
PUBLISHED: 13:34 EDT, 2 September 2018 | UPDATED: 15:26 EDT, 2 September 2018

    



A Republican Committee official in Pennsylvania has resigned after it was revealed she called NFL players who took the knee during the national anthem 'baboons'. 
Carla Maloney, the Republican Committee of Beaver County’s secretary, also called them 'ignorant blacks' and told them to 'go to Africa' in the racist Facebook posts. 
'Tired of these overpaid ignorant blacks telling me what I should believe in,' the proud Trump supporter wrote in one post on her personal page in 2017.
'I will tell you what I believe in and that is our Flag the National Anthem and America period end of story.' 
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Pennsylvania GOP committee official Carla Maloney has resigned after it was revealed she called NFL players who took the knee during the national anthem 'baboons'
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Pictured are the various racist Facebook posts from Maloney, which were made under her personal Facebook page 'Carla Belich Fueller') 
'You don't like it here go to Africa see how you like it there. We are all Americans not African American not Hispanic American. WE ARE ALL AMERICAN.' 

She also proclaimed that her hometown team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, were now 'just as bad as the rest of the overpaid baboons'. 
'You respect your flag, country, and our national anthem. How many men and women have lost limbs or died to protect this country and you baboons want respect,' Maloney continued. 
'If you want respect you need to earn it and so far you haven't. Stop watching, or going to a game, and paying for overpriced food, water, and tickets.' 
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Carla Maloney also called the protesting athletes 'ignorant blacks' and told them to 'go to Africa' in the racist Facebook posts
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Maloney (pictured with CNN host Van Jones) also proclaimed there was 'reverse racism' in America and predicted that a civil war would happen 'sooner than later'
'Let's see how the baboons get paid when white people stop paying their salaries.' 
Maloney also proclaimed there was 'reverse racism' in America and predicted that a civil war would happen 'sooner than later', according to the Beaver County Times. 
On Friday, Maloney released her resignation letter and apologized for her 'distasteful, inappropriate, and insensitive social media posts'.   
'I know my posts and comments were disrespectful not only to the people that I love, but families across the country,' she wrote. 
'While it does not change the fact that the words were mine, and mine alone, the fact that these posts were made public were the result of an ongoing family dispute.' 
Maloney then revealed she was resigning both as secretary of the committee and as an elected member, effective immediately.
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Maloney specifically hit out at the Steelers and said they were 'just as bad as the rest of the overpaid baboons'. Pictured are members of the 49ers kneeling in December 2017
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Maloney (pictured with Eric Trump) also wrote: 'We are all Americans not African American not Hispanic American'
'In conclusion, I know I am a better person than this and, as I step away from these public positions, I will work to show everyone who I truly am,' she wrote.
'From the bottom of my heart, I again apologize for my remarks, my poor taste, and the problems they have caused. I also apologize to everyone offended by my posts.'
Chip Kohser, the chairman of the Republican Committee of Beaver County, said Maloney made the posts before she was named secretary earlier this year. 
Kohser believes the posts were made after most of the Steelers remained in the locker room for the anthem before the September 2017 game against the Bears in Chicago. 
The chairman admitted that he knew about Maloney's Facebook posts last year, saying he simply warned her to think more about what she said online because she represented the Republican party. 
'Those comments do not reflect the opinions of the Republican Party as a whole,' he said in a statement on Saturday. 
He said Maloney, who has taken down her Facebook page, is 'certainly apologetic that she put that persona out there about herself'. 
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On Friday Maloney released her resignation letter (pictured) and apologized for her 'distasteful, inappropriate, and insensitive social media posts'
Maloney appeared on CNN's The Van Jones Show last month to discuss immigration, identifying herself as a Trump supporter. She did not disclose she was a GOP official.
She told Jones that she believes immigrants 'want us to roll out the red carpet out to them'. 
'We need to take care of us, Americans first. How many homeless children are in America? What about the black community that has one mother or one father?' she said.
Later in the program Maloney told Jones she believes Trump is going to win the presidential election 'by a landslide' in 2020.  
Maloney's resignation comes the same week of the two-year anniversary of the protests. 
Colin Kaepernick first kneeled during the national anthem before the San Francisco 49ers final preseason game on September 1, 2016. 
His simple, silent protest regarding police brutality against African Americans created a firestorm of attention and controversy that included both the NFL and the president.
As Trump rallied for the organization to suspend boycotting players without pay, the NFL enacted a new policy promising fines for any team whose players protested the national anthem on the field. 
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The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 4FA45A9300000578-6124335-Celebrities_including_Debra_Messing_and_Megan_Mullally_have_publ-a-19_1535915438432


Celebrities including Debra Messing and Megan Mullally have publicly hit out at Maloney since her posts were revealed 
But in July the NFL put the new anthem policy on hold after coming to an agreement with the NFL Players Association. 
As for the Steelers, they have remained quiet with their own protests following the controversy of that night in the locker room. 
The Steelers had orignially planned to stand together with interlocked arms during the anthem before the game against the Bears. 

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But, the night before, team captains Ben Roethlisberger and Cameron Heyward instead decided the players would remain in the locker room. 
Meanwhile, coach Mike Tomlin and three other coaches still stood on the sidelines, and offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva remained on the field - standing for the anthem and placing his hand over his heart. 
No Steelers player has since kneeled for an anthem, and the team recently released a statement saying 'it's always been about football first'.

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Post by Donnamarie Sun 02 Sep 2018, 21:32

I do not believe there is any way a Trump supporter is not racist.  People can’t be a little racist or hold racist tendencies.  It is what it is. Trump supporters own their racism.  Trump in the White House has given these people credibility now.  And some of these racists are working for the administration. 

Lizzy I thought Meghan’s eulogy was so powerful.  Incredibly emotional.  She brought tears to my eyes.  She is her father’s daughter for sure.  Personally I don’t support her views on politics.  I’ve seen her on ‘The View’ speak out about Trump and the state of our country.  She has a lot of sympathy for Trump supporters.  She doesn’t seem to feel they bear any responsibility for standing behind Trump.  I have real issues with that.  She has also said she hates Hilary Clinton.  I was taken aback by that comment.  She tends to wear her emotions on her sleeve.
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Post by annemarie Sun 02 Sep 2018, 22:29

I do believe that a lot of his followers are racist and have found a voice with him condoning their actions.

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Post by LizzyNY Mon 03 Sep 2018, 00:19

Donnamarie- I agree with Meghan McCain on two points: her love of this country and her respect for our servicemen and women. I don't know where her hatred of Hillary comes from, but I do understand how it irritates her when all Republicans are tarred with the same brush. It's the same feeling I get when all Democrats are lumped in with the Sanders socialists.

For me, her demeanor on the View makes it hard for me to concentrate on what she says. She seems to suffer from the same syndrome that afflicts so many conservatives: if you talk fast enough and loud enough and drown everyone else out, everyone else will just give up and go away. It doesn't make them right - just rude.

IMO, her father had the right idea. Cooperation and collaboration for the good of the country no matter which party you belong to.
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Post by annemarie Tue 04 Sep 2018, 16:19

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6129935/Mollie-Tibbetts-dad-got-racist-propaganda-robocall-using-death-calling-race-traitor.html

[size=34]Mollie Tibbetts' dad is horrified to get a racist robocall about his daughter that says she would ask America to 'kill all the immigrants' if she was resurrected[/size]


  • Rob Tibbetts received a robocall from white supremacists about his daughter

  • Call two days after Mollie Tibbetts funeral said his family were 'race traitors'

  • Voice said if his Mollie could be resurrected she would 'kill all immigrants'

  • The robocalls have been sent out to residents across Mollie's home state of Iowa

  • Iowa authorities say there is little they can do due to First Amendment 


By SARA MALM FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 07:53 EDT, 4 September 2018 | UPDATED: 09:36 EDT, 4 September 2018

    




The father of slain Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts has been targeted by white supremacists in recorded phone calls using her death to push their racist agenda.
Rob Tibbetts believes he was one of the first to receive the robocall, which have since been sent to residents across the state, just two days after his daughter's funeral in Brooklyn, Iowa.
The recorded voice called the Tibbetts family 'traitors to their race' and claimed that if the slain 20-year-old could be resurrected she would 'kill all immigrants'. 
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Horrifying: Rob Tibbetts received a robocall calling his family 'race traitors', claiming that if his daughter Mollie, pictured with him, could be resurrected she would 'kill all immigrants'
'It was unbelievably painful,' Mr Tibbetts told the Des Moines Register. 

'It was everything that's dark and wrong in America right now,' adding that his daughter would have found the message 'profoundly racist'.


Iowa authorities have since confirmed that 'robocalls' citing Ms Tibbetts are being used to promote white supremacist views, but they said there's little they can do.
Prosecutors have no authority to step in because there's no apparent effort to deceive anyone for commercial purposes, said Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for the Iowa attorney general's office.
Hicks said Iowa law addressing robocalls, or autodialing, bars using the equipment for fraudulent purposes, 'but there are all kinds of exceptions for noncommercial purposes and for nonprofit organizations.' 
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Shocking: Mr Tibbetts called the robocall 'unbelievably painful' and said that that his daughter would have found the message 'profoundly racist'.
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Iowa authorities have since confirmed that 'robocalls' citing Ms Tibbetts are being used to promote white supremacist views, but they said there's little they can do due to free speech

He called it a 'really tricky First Amendment issue.'
University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts was abducted while she was out for an evening run near her home in Brooklyn, Iowa on July 18.
The man charged in her death, 24-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera, is also suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. President Donald Trump and other politicians quickly noted that element of the case and called for changes to immigration law.
The robocalls reference comments Tibbetts' father made in defense of Hispanics when he addressed friends and family at her funeral. 
The calls question whether his daughter would feel the same if she were still alive and describe Rivera as 'an invader from Mexico.' 
The calls also reference immigrants living the U.S. illegally when saying: 'We don't have to kill them all, but we do have to deport them all.'
The calls were first reported by an Iowa political website, Iowa Starting Line.
The recordings say the calls are being paid for by The Road to Power, an Idaho-based group with a website and neo-Nazi podcast linked by officials to an Idaho man who, according to local media, distributed racist CDs in a high school parking lot in Sandpoint, Idaho, in December. The man didn't return a phone message Friday from The Associated Press.
The caller ID shows a Brooklyn area code and local prefix, but Ted Atkinson with the Brooklyn Mutual Telecommunications Cooperative said it's unclear where the calls are coming from.
Nearly 100 people held a prayer vigil Thursday in Des Moines to support the Tibbetts family and urge Hispanic unity in the face of the robocalls. 
In an opinion piece  published online by The Des Moines Register on Saturday, Rob Tibbetts that while he supports debate on immigration, some politicians and pundits went too far in using his daughter's death to promote political agendas. 
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Cristhian Bahena Rivera, seen  at the Poweshiek County Courthouse in Montezuma, Iowa, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Mollie Tibbetts
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Mr Tibbetts, pictured with his daughter, has asked politicians and commentators to refrain from using his daughter's death to further their arguments
He argued that the suspected killer 'is no more a reflection of the Hispanic community as white supremacists are of all white people.'
'Do not appropriate Mollie's soul in advancing views she believed were profoundly racist,' he wrote. 
'The act grievously extends the crime that stole Mollie from our family and is, to quote Donald Trump Jr., 'heartless' and 'despicable.''
The quote comes from a Friday opinion piece by Trump Jr. that criticized the media and Democrats for not playing up the suspect's immigration status.
'Despite what some Democrats may wish in the depths of their hearts, Mollie was murdered by an illegal alien and her murder would never have happened if we policed our southern border properly,' the president's son wrote.
Rob Tibbetts wrote in his opinion piece that his daughter was 'nobody's victim. Nor is she a pawn in others' debate.'
'She may not be able to speak for herself, but I can and will,' he went on to say.
'Please leave us out of your debate. Allow us to grieve in privacy and with dignity. At long last, show some decency. On behalf of my family and Mollie's memory, I'm imploring you to stop.'

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Post by Donnamarie Wed 05 Sep 2018, 00:46

It’s awful that Mollie’s dad had to come out to make these comments when his family is grieving so much.  But I really admire him for what he said.  He didn’t succumb to lashing out at the immigrant community because of the heinous crime by one individual ... like one dim bulb of a son of an idiot president.
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Post by LizzyNY Wed 05 Sep 2018, 01:02

The "dim bulb" is only trying to rile up daddy's base and try to pull his approval ratings out of the gutter. Heaven forbid any of them take the feelings of Mollie's family into consideration. After all, they only lost a daughter. Drumpf is losing supporters!
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The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 Empty Re: The Serious Side - part 6

Post by annemarie Wed 05 Sep 2018, 12:46

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6133035/Trump-DENIES-calling-Sessions-mentally-retarded.html

[size=34]Trump slams Woodward's book as a 'fraud' and DENIES ever calling Sessions 'mentally retarded' after claims Kelly called the president an 'idiot' and Mattis bemoaned his grade-school intellect[/size]


  • Bombshell book says Kelly and Mattis questioned president's mental faculties

  • President dismissed quotes as 'made up' and accused the author of being biased

  • Trump allegedly called Jeff Sessions 'dumb Southerner' and 'mentally retarded' 

  • He denied these claims in another angry tweet posted at 11pm on Tuesday 

  • Veteran Watergate journalist Bob Woodward also quotes numerous other aides 

  • Claims ex-economy advisor Gary Cohn branded the president 'professional liar'

  • Says lawyer John Dowd told him not to testify to Robert Mueller due to legal peril

  • Dowd allegedly told president: 'Don't testify. It's either that or orange jumpsuit'


By RORY TINGLE  and FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT and GEOFF EARLE DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 01:00 EDT, 5 September 2018 | UPDATED: 05:36 EDT, 5 September 2018

    


Donald Trump has slammed Bob Woodward's bombshell book as a 'fraud' and denied ever calling attorney general Jeff Sessions 'mentally retarded'.
'The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions “mentally retarded” and “a dumb southerner". I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing. He made this up to divide!' he tweeted at 11pm on Tuesday.  
Trump also tweeted statements from John Kelly and James Mattis that refuted quotes attributed to them by Woodward questioning his mental faculties. Kelly allegedly called Trump an 'idiot' while Mattis compared him to a 'fifth grader'.
'The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly. Their quotes were made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing?'

Scroll down for video 
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Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday to accuse famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward of fabricating quotes and information in his new book, Fear: Trump in the White House 
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At 11pm [ET] Trump went on to deny another claim in the book regarding slurs he allegedly made against Attorney General Jeff Sessions
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'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner,' Trump (left, on August 29) reportedly said of his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe. He is pictured in DC on August 31


Trump repeatedly ripped into sessions after he decided to to recuse himself from the Russia probe.
In addition to calling him a 'traitor', the President allegedly said: 'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner. … He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.' 
Woodward quoted Kelly as ripping in to Trump after he blew a fuse at a meeting. 
'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails,' the White House Chief of Staff allegedly said. 'We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.'
But Kelly hit back at the claims on Tuesday, saying in a statement: 'The idea that I ever called the President is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite... 
'This is both a pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from his many successes.'
In another episode, Trump questioned the utility of U.S. early warning systems in Alaska to identify a nuclear attack from North Korea.
When Trump asked about it, Defense Secretary Mattis schooled him: 'We're doing this in order to prevent World War III.
Mattis then told colleagues Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader.'
But on Tuesday he denied the account, saying: 'The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence.


'While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.' 
A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Rob Manning, said Mattis was never interviewed by Woodward.
'Mr. Woodward never discussed or verified the alleged quotes included in his book with Secretary Mattis' or anyone within the Defense Department, Manning said. 
Previous accounts during Trump's first year had former secretary of state Rex Tillerson calling Trump a 'moron,' and Tillerson did not explicitly deny it. This would mean three of Trump's most senior advisors have ridiculed his mental capacity.   
Woodward also reported that after Syria's Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted the Syrian leader taken out, saying: 'Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them'
Mattis assured Trump he would get right on it but then told a senior aide they'd do nothing of the kind, Woodward wrote. National security advisers instead developed options for the airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley denied Tuesday that Trump had ever planned to assassinate Assad. She told reporters at U.N. headquarters that she had been privy to conversations about the Syrian chemical weapons attacks, 'and I have not once ever heard the president talk about assassinating Assad.'
She said people should take what is written in books about the president with 'a grain of salt.'
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Defense Secretary Mattis (left, at the Pentagon on August 28) and Kelly, White House chief of staff, (right, in the White House on August 27) both questioned quotes attributed to them
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Trump also tweeted official statements from Kelly and Mattis as part of a barrage of posts on Tuesday evening
In a taped phone call with Trump that the journalist released hand-in-hand with excerpts from the forthcoming book on Tuesday, Woodward recounts how he tried to reach the president to fact-check claims he had made.
Trump says he wished he had known about the book – which was already coming out at the time of the call.

'I never got a call. I never got a message,' the president said at first. 'Who did you ask about speaking to me?'
Woodward told him he had lunch with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway where he pressed her on getting a Trump interview – prompting Trump to admonish his former campaign manager while she was in the room.
At one point during the back-and-forth, Conway walked into the room where Trump was speaking, and he invited her to jump on the call.
'You and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne ... And you said you would get back to me. Nothing,' Woodward told her.
Conway then told Woodward: 'Yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions,' without naming names.
'Who are the people?' Woodward asked, but he got no response. At that point, without answering, Conway jumped off the call, and Trump got back on.
Trump then faulted Woodward for not calling him directly.
'But you never called for me. It would have been nice, Bob, if you called for me in my office,' Trump said.
'Kellyanne went to somebody, but she didn't come to me. And she should have come to me,' Trump said.  
The president noted that the book was almost certain to contain embarrassing information about his administration - and that it would probably be 'very inaccurate' as he geared up for the coming bloodbath.
Woodward assured him that it wouldn't, and the two ended the call that took place in August amicably. 


[size=34]Highlights: The most searing quotes in Bob Woodward's book[/size]


WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT TRUMP
JOHN KELLY, CHIEF OF STAFF: 'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. 
We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.'
JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY:  'Fifth- or sixth-grader'
REX TILLERSON, EX-SECRETARY OF STATE: 'He's a f***ing moron.'
JOHN DOWN, EX-PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'F***ing liar.'  
JOHN DOWD, EX-PERSONAL ATTORNEY, ON HOW TRANSCRIPT OF A MUELLER INTERVIEW WOULD BE DESCRIBED BY FOREIGN LEADERS: 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?'
GARY COHN, EX-CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER: 'A professional liar'  
ROB PORTER, EX-STAFF SECRETARY WHO QUIT WHEN BOTH EX-WIVES ACCUSED HIM OF ABUSE: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.'
WHAT THEY SAID TO EACH OTHER
STEVE BANNON TO IVANKA TRUMP: 'You're nothing but a f***ing staffer! You walk around this place and act like you're on charge, and you're not. You're on staff!'
IVANKA TRUMP TO STEVE BANNON: 'I'm not a staffer!  I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter and I'm never going to be a staffer!'
 JOHN KELLY TO GARY COHN:  'If that was me, I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his a** six different times.'
JOHN DOWN TO ROBERT MUELLER: 'He just made something up. That's his nature.'       
AND WHAT TRUMP SAID ABOUT THEM...
BARACK OBAMA: 'Weak d**k' 
RUDY GIULIANI, PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'Rudy, you're a baby. I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?' 
WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE SECRETARY:  'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. You're past your prime.'  
H.R MCMASTER, EX-NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: 'Like a beer salesman.'
REINCE PRIEBUS, EX-CHIEF OF STAFF: 'Like a little rat. He just scurries around.
AFTER EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT FATAH AL-SISSI ASKED IF HE WAS GOING TO BE AROUND: 'Like a kick in the nuts.'
BASHAR AL-ASSAD, SYRIAN DICTATOR: 'Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them'  




The president was singing a different tune on Tuesday, hinting that Woodward could have 'made up' anecdotes in his book, including a story about Gary Cohn absconding with an order to end the United States' trade deal with South Korea to keep Trump from making an international mess.
'That's false. It's just made up,' Trump told The Daily Caller in a furious response to the book. 'There was nobody taking anything from me.'
Trump suggested that 'disgruntled employees' may have made the claims -- or that they could have been falsified Woodward in their entirety.
'It could just be made up by the author,' Trump said of the journalist he once defended on Twitter against slights levied against him by the Obama administration.
The damaging statement about the widely respected journalist had former President George W. Bush's White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher shaking his head.
'I've been on the receiving end of a Bob Woodward book. There were quotes in it I didn't like. But never once - never - did I think Woodward made it up,' Fleisher said. 'Anonymous sources have looser lips and may take liberties. But Woodward always plays is straight. Someone told it to him.'
Trump's press secretary piled on with a statement that said: 'This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad.'
In the response to Woodward's book, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders argued that 'sometimes' Trump's approach to the office is 'unconventional' but it 'always gets results.'
'Democrats and their allies in the media understand the President's policies are working and with success like this, no one can beat him in 2020 – not even close.' 
The White House did not hold a televised question and answer session with reporters again on Tuesday, choosing instead to respond to the explosive book that hits shelves on Sept. 11 through written statements.
Trump held off on eviscerating Woodward on Twitter, as well, responding to him instead in the interview with The Daily Caller.
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MAYBE HE MADE IT UP: That was Trump's charge on Tuesday as he tried to get out from under Woodward's damaging allegations. Ari Fleisher, the former press secretary to George W. Bush, said in a tweet that the charge didn't add up
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Trump was once a fan of Bob Woodward - but now the president says he might be a liar
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White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed the work of the famed journalist as 'nothing more than fabricated stories'
The book also recounts efforts by Cohn to try to head-off what he considered rash or ill-advised policy moves by Trump.
Cohn 'stole a letter off Trump's desk' to prevent the president from executing a planned withdrawal from the United States-South Korea trade pact.
The book even ventures into the advice Trump received from his former lead lawyer on the Russia investigation, John Dowd. 
'Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit,' he advised Trump, according to the book. 
Dowd is also said to have explained to special counsel Robert Mueller face-to-face that he didn't want his client to testify, because he feared that Trump would be cast as an imbecile.
He reportedly told him: 'I'm not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?''
According to Woodward, Mueller replied: 'John, I understand.' 
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Extracts from veteran Watergate reporter Bob Woodard's (left) new book (right) set off explosions across the political world 


[size=34]Trump insists Bob Woodward's book interview request never made it to the Oval Office[/size]


President Donald Trump complained on a recorded phone call no one ever contacted him about veteran journalist Bob Woodward's interview request – then complained advisor Kellyanne Conway should have come to him directly.
The Washington Post released a recorded August 14 phone call between the famously well-sourced author and the president soon after the paper reported on a copy of 'Fear,' Woodward's forthcoming book on Trump.
Trump does admit at one point during the call that a senator had passed along Woodward's request for an interview, but at other times says he had no idea about it.
The call begins with Woodward, after alerting the president he was recording, regretting the two hadn't been able to connect and Trump saying he wished he had known about the book – which was already coming out at the time of the call.
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'She should have come to me,' Trump said of Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, (seen at the White House on August 29) during a conversation with Bob Woodward about an interview request Trump claims he never was told about

'I never got a call. I never got a message,' the president said at first. 'Who did you ask about speaking to me?'
Woodward told him he had lunch with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway where he pressed her on getting a Trump interview – prompting Trump to admonish his former campaign manager while she was in the room.
At one point during the back-and-forth, Conway walked into the room where Trump was speaking, and he invited her to jump on the call.
'You and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne ... And you said you would get back to me. Nothing,' Woodward told her.
Conway then told Woodward: 'Yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions,' without naming names.
'Who are the people?' Woodward asked, but he got no response. At that point, without answering, Conway jumped off the call, and Trump got back on.
Trump then faulted Woodward for not calling him directly.
'But you never called for me. It would have been nice, Bob, if you called for me in my office,' Trump said.
'Kellyanne went to somebody, but she didn't come to me. And she should have come to me,' Trump said.  




Dowd said Tuesday in emails to the Washington Examiner that anecdotes and quotes attributed to him – including a claim that he called Trump a 'f**king liar' and that a mock session with Trump in advance of a potential interview with Mueller revealed the 'full nightmare' he was dealing with – are not true. 
'I have not read Bob Woodward's book, which appears to be the most recent in an endless cycle of accusations and misrepresentations based on anonymous statements from unknown malcontents,' he told the outlet. 
'I do not intend to address every inaccurate statement attributed to me – but I do want to make this clear: there was no so-called 'practice session' or 're-enactment' of a mock interview at the Special Counsel's office. Further, I did not refer to the President as a 'liar' and did not say that he was likely to end up in an 'orange jump suit.' 
The email from Dowd concluded: 'It was a great honor and distinct privilege to serve President Trump.'
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Trump said his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, (pictured in DC on February 7) scurries around 'like a rat'
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Former director of the U.S. National Economic Council Gary Cohn snatched a letter off Trump's desk to keep him from precipitously moving to pull out of a trade deal. Cohn is seen on the right next to Jared Kushner on March 8




Woodward also described an argument between Ivanka Trump and then chief White House strategist Steve Bannon.
'You're a goddamn staffer!' Bannon allegedly screamed at her, explaining she had to work through Priebus like other aides. 'You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!'
Ivanka replied: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter.' 
According to another anecdote, Trump told former staff secretary Rob Porter former chief of staff Reince Priebus was 'like a little rat. He just scurries around.'
Porter in turn allegedly said on Trump: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.' 
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, 80, a billionaire investor, wasn't spared Trump's criticism, either.
'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. … You're past your prime,' Trump reportedly told him. 
Trump also reportedly called his personal Rudy Giuliani a 'baby', and compared former national security adviser H.R. McMaster to a 'beer salesman'. 


[size=34]Ivanka Trump 'got into an expletive-laden screaming match with Steve Bannon'[/size]


By Ariel Zilber  
Woodward described an argument between Ivanka Trump and then chief White House strategist Steve Bannon.
'You're a goddamn staffer!' Bannon allegedly screamed at her, explaining she had to work through Priebus like other aides. 'You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!'
Ivanka replied: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter.' 
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Ivanka Trump reportedly was offended when she was told by strategist Steve Bannon she was merely a White House 'staffer' by answering: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter,' it has been claimed. She is seen outside her Washington, D.C. home last month

Bannon was said to have been upset with Ivanka's reported tendency to bypass the standard chain of command and take up issues directly with her father.
Every other White House aide was required to report to the chief of staff at the time, Reince Priebus.
But the reported exchange apparently highlighted the fact that Ivanka felt she was not bound by the same rules.
Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, are senior advisers to the president even though they have no previous experience in government.  





The book follows the January release of author Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury,' which led to a rift between Trump and Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist, who spoke with Wolff in terms that were highly critical of the president and his family. Wolff's book attracted attention with its vivid anecdotes but suffered from numerous factual inaccuracies.
Woodward's work also comes weeks after former White House aide and 'Apprentice' contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman published an expose on her time in the West Wing, including audio recordings of her firing by Kelly and a follow-up conversation with the president in which he claimed to have been unaware of Kelly's decision.
While White House aides have become increasingly numb to fresh scandals, the latest book still increased tensions in the West Wing, especially given the intimate details shared and the number of people Woodward appeared to have interviewed. 
Some White House officials expressed surprise at the number of erstwhile Trump loyalists willing to offer embarrassing stories of the president and his inner circle.
White House aides on Tuesday coordinated with other officials quoted in the book to dispute troublesome passages. But insiders speculated the fallout could be worse than that from 'Fire and Fury,' given Woodward's storied reputation.
Woodward's book was already ranked the top-selling book on Amazon on Tuesday.
Trump has been increasingly critical of anonymous sources used by reporters covering his administration. Woodward's account relies on deep background conversations with sources, meaning their identities are not disclosed.

annemarie
Over the Clooney moon

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The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 Empty Re: The Serious Side - part 6

Post by annemarie Thu 06 Sep 2018, 03:51

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6136303/Senior-Trump-official-writes-astonishing-anonymous-op-ed-boasting-secret-resistance.html

[size=34]'Treason?' Trump demands the NYTimes hand over the 'gutless' aide behind the anonymous 'resistance' op-ed for 'national security' reasons after senior official labeled him 'amoral and petty'[/size]


  • Rare anonymous Times op-ed takes pointed shots at Trump; author claims to be an senior official in the Trump administration 

  • Essay describes Trump's leadership style as 'impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective' and claims Cabinet members whispered about removing him

  • Trump lashed out after the op-ed was published and questioned if the 'so-called "Senior Administration Official" really exists' 

  • Times says the author's 'identity is known to us' and his 'job would be jeopardized by its disclosure

  • Times' Twitter account identified the writer as 'he'; company claims it was a mistake made by a staffer who doesn't know one way or another 

  • Online suspicion focused on VP Mike Pence, who often uses the unusual word 'lodestar' – which made an appearance in the essay

  • A senior White House official said Pence and his aides are not under suspicion and suspects the word was included to throw journalists off the scent 


By DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:26 EDT, 5 September 2018 | UPDATED: 21:29 EDT, 5 September 2018

    


President Donald Trump has unleashed a blistering attack on the New York Times and questioned whether the senior White House official behind an anonymous op-ed published Wednesday really exists.
'Does the so-called 'Senior Administration Official' really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source?' Trump tweeted hours after the newspaper published a brutal opinion essay written by one of his staffers. 
'If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!' 
An hour earlier, Trump tweeted a single word: 'TREASON?'  

The op-ed describes the president as 'impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective' and says the author is part of an organized 'resistance' whose goal is 'to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting [President] Trump's more misguided impulses until he is out of office.'
During a White House event with a group of sheriffs, Trump called the op-ed 'gutless' and suggested the writer is 'probably... failing and probably here for all the wrong reasons.'
Separately, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that the essay was 'pathetic, reckless, and selfish' and challenged the Times to 'issue an apology.'
'This is just another example of the liberal media's concerted effort to discredit the President,' she said.  


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A mysterious senior aide to President Donald Trump attacked him anonymously in The New York Times on Wednesday, and the president shoved back in a tirade about the newspaper's veil of secrecy and the aide who betrayed him
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Trump has unleashed a blistering attack on the New York Times and questioned whether the senior White House official behind an anonymous op-ed published Wednesday really exists
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The president tweeted a single word to sum up his leanings about the essay
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The Times wrote that 'he' – identifying the author as male – is part of a White House resistance movement whose goal is to subvert the president's worst impulses in order to save the country
Sanders said the unidentified writer chose 'to deceive, rather than support, the duly elected President of the United States. He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people. This coward should do the right thing and resign.' 
But Trump focused equally on the 'dishonest media' – specifically the Times, a paper he claims is 'failing' despite its steady growth in subscribers since he took office. 
'The New York Times is failing. If I weren't here, I believe The New York Times probably wouldn't even exist,' he said, later adding: 'They don't like Donald Trump and I don't like them because they're very dishonest people.' 
The Times described Wednesday's move as 'rare,' leaving open the possibility that its editorial board has masked the names of op-ed writers in the past.
The identity of the mystery scribe, Washington's new 'Deep Throat,' will become the stuff of cocktail party chatter and Twitterati sleuths for weeks.
But in a tweet the Times described the person as a male, saying 'he and others' are working together behind the scenes of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 
A Times spokeswoman later told Business Insider that the pronoun was a mistake that shouldn't be read as a tip-off.
'Senior opinion editors know the identity of the official, as we pointed out in our editor's note,' Danielle Ha said in an email. 'The tweet was drafted by someone who is not aware of the author's identity, including the gender, so the use of 'he' was an error.'
Online chatter Wednesday quickly focused on Vice President Mike Pence as armchair language analysts focused on one line describing the late Sen. John McCain as 'a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue.'
That word – lodestar – is a favorite of the vice president. But a senior White House official told DailyMail.com that suspicion is not focused on him or anyone in his office following a frank discussion among the VP's senior staff.
The official suspects 'lodestar' was purposely included in the op-ed to throw journalists off the scent.


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'Lodestar,' a word Vice President Mike Pence is fond of using in speeches and on television, appeared in the mysterious op-ed, leading some to conclude he wrote it; but a senior White House official said hi and his office were not under suspicion 
In an online introduction, the Times says the author's 'identity is known to us' and the person's 'job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers.'
The essay describes a 'quiet resistance' that by its nature has remained secret but isn't designed to bring Trump down – only to curb his worst impulses. 
'Ours is not the popular 'resistance' of the left,' the author writes. 'We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.'
'But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.'
So rather than risk the invocation of the Constitution's 25th Amendment, the prescribed route for removing a president, he boasts that 'we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until – one way or another – it's over.'




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The guessing game s afoot, and every male Trump appointee is a suspect
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The Times took pains to keep the author's name a secret but its social media staff eliminated half the population with the word 'he'




[size=34]Highlights: The most searing quotes in Bob Woodward's book[/size]


WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT TRUMP:
JOHN KELLY, CHIEF OF STAFF: 'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.'
JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY:  'Fifth- or sixth-grader'
REX TILLERSON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: 'He's a f***ing moron.'
JOHN DOWN, FORMER PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'F***ing liar.'
JOHN DOWD ON HOW TRANSCRIPT OF A MUELLER INTERVIEW WOULD BE DESCRIBED BY FOREIGN LEADERS: 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?'
GARY COHN, FORMER CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER: 'A professional liar'  
ROB PORTER, FORMER STAFF SECRETARY WHO QUIT WHEN BOTH EX-WIVES ACCUSED HIM OF ABUSE: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.'
WHAT THEY SAID TO EACH OTHER:
STEVE BANNON TO IVANKA TRUMP: 'You're nothing but a f***ing staffer! You walk around this place and act like you're on charge, and you're not. You're on staff!'
IVANKA TRUMP TO STEVE BANNON: 'I'm not a staffer!  I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter and I'm never going to be a staffer!'
JOHN KELLY TO GARY COHN:  'If that was me, I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his a** six different times.'
DOWD TO ROBERT MUELLER: 'He just made something up. That's his nature.'     
WHAT TRUMP SAID ABOUT THEM:
BARACK OBAMA: 'Weak d**k' 
RUDY GIULIANI, PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'Rudy, you're a baby. I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?' 
WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE SECRETARY:  'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. You're past your prime.'  
H.R McMASTER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: 'Dresses like a beer salesman.'
REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF: 'Like a little rat. He just scurries around.'
AFTER EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT FATAH AL-SISSI ASKED IF HE WAS GOING TO BE AROUND: 'Like a kick in the nuts.'
BASHAR AL-ASSAD, SYRIAN DICTATOR: 'Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them.'




The nameless internal Trump critic bashes the president's 'amorality,' and claims he has no 'first principles that guide his decision making' and no affinity for typical Republican ideals.  
And Trump's 'impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective' management style, the writer claims, has brought disaster most of the time – and most Cabinet officials 'are working to insulate their operations from his whims.'
'Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back,' he continues.
Unlike The Washington Post, the stated policy that guides the Times in its decisions about publishing op-eds does not exclude anonymous essays.
The West Wing has been buffeted from one incoming missile to the next in recent days; the biggest recent salvo has been journalist Bob Woodward's book 'Fear,' which caught the Trump administration flat-footed when excerpts first emerged Tuesday.
That book, too, reveals at least one episode of a senior Trump adviser going behind his back to prevent him from making a catastrophic mistake.
Former chief economic advisor Gary Cohn, Woodward writes, once tried to prevent a trade disaster when Trump asked for paperwork pulling the U.S. out of a bilateral agreement with South Korea.
He 'stole a letter off Trump's desk,' Woodward writes, specifically to prevent the president from signing it. And Cohn told others he did it 'to protect the country'. 
The president has branded Woodward's book a 'fraud' and a work of fiction.


[size=34]WHAT DOES THE 25TH AMENDMENT SAY? CAN TRUMP'S CABINET REALLY TOPPLE HIM?[/size]


An anonymous Trump administration official behind a New York Times op-ed says there were 'early whispers within the Cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment.'
That section of the U.S. Constitution deals with presidential authority in the event of death or removal from office, and was ratified in 1967.
What does the 25th Amendment say?
The first of four sections states that the vice president takes over the Oval office if the president dies or resigns – or is removed – something which the original Constitution did not clearly state.
Presidents can be removed by impeachment or through the 25th Amendment, which the Constitution's framers included as aless dishonorable way of discharging a gravely ill chief executive.
Section II states that if the vice president dies or resigns – or is fired – both the House and Senate have to confirm a new vice president, whose only real constitutional duty is to serve as president of the Senate.
Section III makes clear that the a president can temporarily delegate his powers to the vice president, and later reclaim them when he is capable of serving. This is most often invoked if a president is under the influence of surgical anaesthetic for a short period of time. 
Section IV is featured in the op-ed, and is the amendment's most controversial part.
It describes how the president can be removed from office if he is incapacitated and does not leave on his own.
The vice president and 'a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide' must write to both the president pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, saying that 'the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.'
Practically speaking, this means at least eight of the president's 15 most senior Cabinet members, together with the vice president, must agree that a president should be removed before any plan can move forward.
Notifying the House Speaker and the Senate president pro tempore is the act that immediately elevates the vice president to an 'acting president' role.
The deposed president can contest the claim, giving the leaders of the bloodless coup four days to re-assert their claims to the House and Senate. 
Congress then has two days to convene – unless it is already in session – and another 21 days to vote on whether the president is incapable of serving. A two-thirds majority in both houses is required to make that determination.
If Congress can't reach that threshold within 21 days, the president regains his powers. If it can, his powers go back to the vide president and he is dismissed from office.
What could happen to trigger the 25th Amendment?
Vice President Mike Pence and eight of the 15 'principal' Cabinet members would have to agree to notify Congress that President Donald Trump was incapable of running the country.
That group inludes Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Their formal notification would go to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who holds the title 'president pro tempore' as the Senate's most senior member. As soon as the letter is sent, Pence would become 'acting president.'
What if Trump does not agree?
If Trump claims he iscapable of holding office, he would write to Hatch and Ryan within four days, setting up three weeks of intense debate in both houses of Congress.
Trumpn would be removed from office if both two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate agreed with Pence and his cabal. If either of both chambers fell short of that mark, Trump would retain his powers and likely embark on a wholesale housecleaning, firing Pence and replacing disloyal Cabinet members.
Are there any loopholes?
The 25th Amendment allows Congress to appoint its own panel of experts to evaluate the president instead of relying on the Cabinet – the men and women who work most closely with Trump – to decide on  acourse of action.
It specfies that some 'other body as Congress may by law provide' could play that role, but Pence would still need to agree with any finding that the president is incapable of discharging his duties.
If Democrats were to take over both the House and Senate, they could create such a panel with simple majority votes. 
That commission could hypothetically include anyone from presidential historians to psychiatrists, entrusted to assess the president's fitness for office. 
Could Trump fire Pence if he rebelled?
Yes, in principle.  If Trump smelled a whiff of trouble, he could dismiss Pence with the stroke of a pen. 
But installing a more loyal VP could be problematic since the 25th Amendment includes its own poison pill: Both houses of Congress must vote to approve a new vice president.
If Pence and a congressionally-created body seemed on the way to declaring Trump incapacitated, Trump would be up against the same Congress which created the body to get a new and loyal vice president confirmed. 
Is there any precedent for this?
Essentially, no. Section 3, the voluntary relinquishment of power, has been invoked by Jimmy Carter alone.
Section 4 has never been invoked, although there are claims that Ronald Reagan's outgoing chief of staff Donald Regan told his successor, Howard Baker, that he should be prepared to invoke it because Reagan was' inattentive and inept' and 'lazy'.
But the PBS documentary American Experience recounted how the new chief of staff and his team met Reagan and after watching him closely at their first meeting for signs of incapacity and decided he was in perfect command of himself. 

annemarie
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The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 Empty Re: The Serious Side - part 6

Post by annemarie Fri 07 Sep 2018, 05:21

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6141575/A-congressional-investigation-LIE-DETECTOR-tests-Trump-allies-demand-radical-steps-mole.html

[size=34]A congressional investigation and LIE DETECTOR tests: Trump allies demand radical steps to track down White House mole, as at least 32 senior officials come forward to say they are not the leaker[/size]


  • Republican Sen. Rand Paul thinks Trump needs to whip out lie-detector tests to find out who wrote an anonymous op-ed for the New York Times

  • Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday urged the anonymous writer to stop hiding and have Trump removed if they think he's an unfit president 

  • At least 32 White House senior officials have denied they are involved in the Times op-ed

  • Melania Trump to author of New York Times piece: 'You are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions' 

  • Vice President Mike Pence and every member of President Trump's Cabinet has denied being the author of the op-ed

  • Sarah Sanders tells the media to 'STOP' speculating on who wrote the piece

  • CNN reports President Trump is reading all the denials 

  • Republican Sen. Rand Paul suggested Trump use a lie detector test to discover the author's identity 

  • Their denials come as official Washington and President Trump are seeking the identity of the writer 

  • Who wrote it has become Washington's new favorite guessing game 


By MINYVONNE BURKE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and EMILY GOODIN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 22:00 EDT, 6 September 2018 | UPDATED: 00:15 EDT, 7 September 2018


Republican Sen. Rand Paul suggested that president Donald Trump use a lie-detector test to find out which White House official penned an anonymous New York Times' op-ed piece. 
Paul made the suggestion as 32 staffers deny they were the 'senior official' in the Trump administration who wrote a piece for the Times claiming there is resistance within the White House and officials were working 'from within' to thwart Trump's most dangerous impulses.
'It's not unprecedented for people with security clearances to be asked whether or not they're revealing things against the law under oath and also by lie detector,' Paul said. 
'We use the lie-detector test routinely for CIA agents and FBI agents,' he added. 'If you have a security clearance in the White House, I think it would be acceptable to use a lie detector test and ask people whether or not they're taking to the media against the policy of the White House.' 
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Republican Sen. Rand Paul says Trump should use lie-detector tests to find the senior official who penned the New York Times op-ed 
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday urged the anonymous writer to stop hiding and have Trump removed if they think he's an unfit president
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The New York Times op-ed drew a furious response from President Donald Trump on Thursday 
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32 White House senior officials have now denied their involvement in the Times op-ed
Paul also expressed concern on whether the leaker could reveal national security secrets to the media, but said he does not think Congress should get involved and investigate.

'We need to get to the bottom of it,' he said. 
While Paul thinks lie-detector tests are the best route to finding the leaker, Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday urged the anonymous writer to stop hiding and have Trump removed if they think he's an unfit president. 
In a fundraising email on Thursday, the Massachusetts Democrat wrote: 'They should stop hiding behind anonymous op-eds and leaking information to Bob Woodward' and 'do what the Constitution demands they do: invoke the 25th Amendment and remove this president from office.'  
A flood of denials have been pouring in after dozens and dozens of senior staffers publicly deny their involvement in the op-ed. According to CNN, statements from his administration are being printed off and given to Trump. 
An official said that Trump is reading each statement carefully.  
The denials have been fast and definitive given that the president measures the strength of such responses as part of his loyalty tests.        
Earlier Thursday, First Lady Melania Trump joined the list of those denying they wrote the op-ed piece as the inflammatory essay becomes an all-hands on deck crisis for the Trump Administration.
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Deny, deny, deny: From left to right, Wilbur Ross, Alexander Acosta and Alex Azar say they were not the anonymous writer 
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Didn't do it: From left to right, Andrew Wheeler, Ben Carson and Betsy DeVos released statements distancing themselves from the Times op-ed 
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Dan Coats (left) released a statement denying that he or his aide wrote the piece. Elaine Chao (center) and Gina Haspel (right) also said they are not involved 
'Freedom of speech is an important pillar of our nation's founding principles and a free press is important to our democracy. The press should be fair, unbiased and responsible,' the first lady said in a statement.
'Unidentified sources have become the majority of the voices people hear about in today's news. People with no names are writing our nation's history. Words are important, and accusations can lead to severe consequences. If a person is bold enough to accuse people of negative actions, they have a responsibility to publicly stand by their words and people have the right to be able to defend themselves,' she added.
She concluded: 'To the writer of the oped – you are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions.'
She joined Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a string of senior figures in flatly denying they wrote the 'resistance' op-ed whose publication drew a furious response from Trump.
Additionally every Cabinet secretary, along with other senior aides, have denied authorship as Trump has launched a massive mole hunt for the author behind the scandalous piece.

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Melania Trump denies authorship of New York Times op-ed and condemns anonymous author

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From left the right, Don McGahn, James Mattis and Jeff Sessions also said they are not the leaker
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From left the right, Jon Huntsman, KellyAnne Conway and Kirstjen Nielsen said they are not the anonymous writer who penned an op-ed for the Times 
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Mick Mulvaney (left) also denied being involved, along with Mike Pompeo (center) and Mike Pence
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'The Vice President puts his name on his op-eds,' Pence's office said in a tweet denying he was the writer 
Reports indicate the president is becoming more and more paranoid about who he can trust in the wake of the bombshell essay and a book by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward.   

WHO'S DENIED AUTHORSHIP


First Lady Melania Trump 
Vice President Mike Pence
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen 
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos 
Defense Secretary James Mattis
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin
Attorney General Jeff Sessions 
White House Counsel Don McGahn 
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross 
Health and Human Services Services Secretary Alex Azar 
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke 
Energy Secretary Rick Perry 
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao 
Labor Department Secretary Alexander Acosta 
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie 
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue 
UN Ambassador Nikki Haley
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman 
CIA Director Gina Haspel 
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joe Simons
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney 
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai
Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler 
White House Counsel Kellyanne Conway 
US Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Lighthizer 




Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Health and Human Services Services Secretary Alex Azar, Labor Department Secretary Alexander Acosta, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and First Lady spokesperson Stephanie Grisham are all denying authorship of The Times piece.
Also denying authorship are White House Counsels Don McGahn and Kellyanne Conway, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, CIA Director Gina Haspel, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joe Simons, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders is slamming the who-wrote-it game going on in Washington D.C., advising the media to 'Stop.'
'The media's wild obsession with the identity of the anonymous coward is recklessly tarnishing the reputation of thousands of great Americans who proudly serve our country and work for President Trump. Stop. If you want to know who this gutless loser is, call the opinion desk of the failing NYT at 212-556-1234, and ask them. They are the only ones complicit in this deceitful act. We stand united together and fully support our President Donald J. Trump,' she said in a statement posted to her twitter account.  
Pence's denial was especially noteworthy after online speculation about who penned the piece narrowed in on the vice president, making him the odds on favorite as being the author. 
Jarrod Agen, Pence's deputy chief of staff and communications director, tweeted that the vice president 'puts his name on his op-eds.'
'The @nytimes should be ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical, and gutless op-ed. Our office is above such amateur acts,' Agen wrote Thursday morning. 
Pompeo told reporters during a visit to India that it wasn't him either.
'It's not mine,' he said, according to the Associated Press.
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Nikki Haley (left) said she wasn't behind the op-ed either. Rick Perry (center) and Robert Lighthizer (right) also issued statements denying their involvement
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Robert Wilkie (left) said he did not write it, as well as Ryan Zinke (center). Sarah Sanders slammed the media's attention in finding out who wrote it 
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Sonny Perdue (left) and Steven Mnuchin also said they were not involved
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Trump claims a 'deep state' is working against him

[size=18]'It's a disgrace': Pence reacts to anonymous New York Times op-ed




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'I come from a place where if you're not in a position to execute the commander's intent, you have a singular option, that is to leave,' Pompeo added. 
Coats put out a statement denying either he or his deputy wrote the piece.
'Speculation that The New York Times op-ed was written by me or my Principal Deputy is patently false. We did not. From the beginning of our tenure, we have insisted that the entire IC remain focused on our mission to provide the President and policymakers with the best intelligence possible,' he said.  
US Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Lighthizer told CNN in a statement he didn't write it and it does not reflect his views.
'I did not write it. It does not reflect my views at all, and it does not reflect the views of anyone I know in the Administration. It is a complete and total fabrication,' Lighthizer said.
'.@stevenmnuchin1 is honored to serve @POTUS & the American people. He feels it was irresponsible for @nytimes to print this anonymous piece. Now, dignified public servants are forced to deny being the source. It is laughable to think this could come from the Secretary,' tweeted Treasury Department spokesperson Tony Sayegh for Steven Mnuchin.
'Secretary Nielsen is focused on leading the men and women of DHS and protecting the homeland - not writing anonymous and false opinion pieces for the New York Times. These types of political attacks are beneath the Secretary and the Department's mission,' press secretary Tyler Q. Houlton said.
A spokesperson for Carson simply stated 'haha nope' about whether the secretary of housing and urban development was the writer.  


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Trump is trying to learn the name of the author of the anonymous piece and has a printed list of everyone's statement on the matter 
A Pentagon spokesperson denied it was Mattis. 'It was not his op-ed,' spokesperson Dana White said.
A Justice Department spokesperson told CNN Sessions was not the author either. 
Energy Secretary Rick Perry tweeted he didn't write the piece. 
'I am not the author of the New York Times OpEd, nor do I agree with its characterizations. Hiding behind anonymity and smearing the President of the United States does not make you an 'unsung hero', it makes you a coward, unworthy of serving this Nation,' he wrote. 


PLACE YOUR BETS ON WHO WROTE THE OP-ED


Online bookmakers rushed to cash in on the Washington D.C. frenzy over who the anonymous 'senior official' behind the New York Times's 'resistance' op-ed could be.
 The runners from www.actionnetwork.com are :
Mike Pence 60.0% (-150)
Betsy DeVos 33.3% (+200)
Mike Pompeo 20.0% (+400)
Steven Mnuchin 20.0% (+400)
John Kelly 20.0% (+400)
Jim Mattis 16.7% (+500)
Jeff Sessions 16.7% (+500)
Ryan Zinke 14.3% (+600)
Sonny Perdue 14.3% (+600)
Wilbur Ross 12.5% (+700)
Alex Acosta 12.5% (+700)
Alex Azar 11.1% (+800)
Ben Carson 11.1% (+800)
Robert Wilkie 11.1% (+800)
Kirstjen Nielsen 9.1% (+1000)
Ivanka Trump 7.7% (+1200)
Jared Kushner 7.7% (+1200)
Stephen Miller 6.3% (+1500) 





DeVos's press department tweeted the education secretary doesn't 'play Washington insider games.' 
'.@BetsyDeVosED is not a Washington insider and does not play Washington insider games. She has the courage of her convictions and signs her opinions. She is not the author of the anonymous @nytimes op-ed,' they wrote.
Who wrote the piece has become Washington's new guessing game and even the president is playing.
Inside the West Wing on Wednesday, senior officials canceled afternoon meetings to start the search process, the Wall Street Journal reported. 
Some staff were even calling reporters to ask if they knew who wrote the piece. 
When it comes to negative stories involving the West Wing, the president looks at how forcefully aides respond them. 
A Trump friend told the Washington Postthe president believes he can only trust his children.
The president reacted to The Times piece with 'volcanic' anger and was 'absolutely livid,' The Post reported. 
Trump suspects the author works on national security issues or in the Justice Department. 
One senior administration official told Politico the White House is in 'total meltdown' over the op-ed.
And the president is publicly expressing frustration that his own administration is working against him, claiming again he is a victim of 'the deep state.'
'The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy - & they don't know what to do,' he wrote on Twitter Thursday morning.  
The New York Times opinion piece describes the president as 'impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective' and says the author is part of an organized 'resistance' whose goal is 'to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting [President] Trump's more misguided impulses until he is out of office.' 
Within hours of its publication, online chatter Wednesday quickly focused on Pence as observers focused on one line describing the late Sen. John McCain as 'a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue.'
That word – lodestar – is a favorite of the vice president. But a senior White House official told DailyMail.com that suspicion is not focused on him or anyone in his office following a frank discussion among the VP's senior staff.
The official suspects 'lodestar' was purposely included in the op-ed to throw journalists off the scent. 
The term means 'a star that leads or guides' or 'serves as an inspiration, model, or guide.' 
Trump himself has called the writer 'gutless' and called on the newspaper to release the identity in the name of national security. In an online introduction, the Times says the author's 'identity is known to us' and the person's 'job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers.'
'Does the so-called 'Senior Administration Official' really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source?' Trump tweeted hours after the newspaper published a brutal opinion essay that the newspaper said was written by one of his senior-level appointees.
'If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!' 



[size=34]Who wrote the New York Times' Trump 'resistance' op-ed?[/size]


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Pence speaks on a mobile phone before attending the Republican policy luncheon in DC on September 5

Mike Pence - DENIES IT
Sleuths honed in on the word 'lodestar,' a favorite of the vice president. The op-ed's author described the late Sen. John McCain as 'a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue.'
Others suggested the word, which means the guiding star of a ship, could have been deliberately included to throw journalists off the scent.
This was the verdict of a senior White House official who spoke to Dailymail.com. He said suspicion is not focused on him or anyone in his office following a frank discussion among the VP's senior staff.
Pence has never criticized Trump in public. Writing the op-ed would almost certainly scuttle any future bid for high office. And his communications director has publicly denied it, saying Pence would always sign his own work.
Stephen Ford
If 'lodestar' was not an intentional red herring, others speculated, suspicion could fall on Pence's speechwriter.
But the VP's use of the word dates back to at least 2001. Ford, a youngish rising star in Washington's conservative circles, was in the third grade that year.
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Mattis gestures during a press briefing at the Pentagon on May 19, 2017

James Mattis - DENIES IT
The Secretary of Defense, despite being a Trump favorite, has repeatedly sounded at odds with the commander-in-chief while discussing NATO, Russia and military strategy.
During one episode in Bob Woodward's recent book, 'Fear,' Trump questioned the ability of U.S. early warning systems in Alaska to identify a nuclear attack from North Korea.
Mattis is said to have schooled him. 'We're doing this in order to prevent World War III,' he reportedly said.
The Pentagon chief reportedly told colleagues after the incident that Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader.'
Mattis has denied the account, saying in a statement: 'The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence.'
A Pentagon spokesperson denied he wrote the Times piece. 'It was not his op-ed,' spokesperson Dana White said. 
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Kelly at the White House on August 20

John Kelly
The White House chief of staff was also quoted in Woodward's book as having called Trump an 'idiot.'
'It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails,' he allegedly said.
'We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.'
Kelly denied making the claims, in a statement put out by the White House.
'The idea that I ever called the President is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite,' he said. 'This is both a pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from his many successes.'
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Sessions speaks about immigration and law enforcement at Lackawanna College on June 15, 2018

Jeff Sessions - DENIES IT
The attorney general has a motive to shiv his boss after Trump repeatedly chastized him in public for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
And he has let loose on Sessions over charges the Department of Justice brought against two sitting Republican members of Congress, complaining the indictments handicapped the incumbents and jeopardized the GOP's ability to retain its majority in the House.
The president also compared Sessions unfavorably to the FBI director he fired, 'Lyin' James Comey,' saying they had become martyrs to the same lawmakers who despised them after resisting orders from the president.
Woodward writes that Sessions called Trump 'mentally retarded,' something that also met a stern denial.
A Justice Department spokesperson denies Sessions wrote the NYT op-ed. 
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Coats addresses the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on July 19

Dan Coats - DENIES IT
The director of national intelligence has also veered from Trump loyal line.
Told of the president's plan to invite Vladimir Putin to the White House, Coats enraged the president by snarking: 'That is going to be special.'
He later 'clarified' his comments, made during an interview at the Aspen Institute security forum in Colorado, by saying his response 'was in no way meant to be disrespectful or criticize the actions of the president.'
Trump drew heavy criticism from both Republicans and Democrats over his summit with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, where he seemed reluctant to blame Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Coats put out a statement denying either he or his deputy wrote the piece. 
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McGahn is interviewed at a conference in Gaylord, Maryland, on February 22

Don McGahn 
The White House counsel is planning to leave the White House in the fall, so he may not fear the consequences of exposure as a secret anti-Trumper.
He has also clashed with the president in the past.
This includes declining an order to fire Robert Mueller, who is overseeing the Russia investigation that Trump describes as a 'witch hunt.' 
McGahn risked the president's anger by spending 30 hours in interviews with Mueller's team, over three separate occasions.
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Melania and Ivanka watch on ahead of the first debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in Hempstead, New York

Melania or Ivanka? - MELANIA DENIED
The first lady is an unlikely candidate for authorship of the Times essay.
Twitter commenters noted she had already been accused of telegraphing coded messages publicly hinting at opposition to her husband's policies.
This included wearing a jacket saying 'I really don't care, do u?' when visiting shelters for illegal immigrant children.
Melania Trump denied authorship Thursday, saying in a statement: 'To the writer of the oped – you are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions.' 
Ivanka Trump has previously said she would work to ensure her voice is heard via her father's policies but has seemingly failed to do so – particularly in the case of family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border, which she 'vehemently' opposed.
Her husband Jared is a senior adviser and also could be involved, but it's a long shot that anyone in Trump's family would sell him out

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Post by annemarie Fri 07 Sep 2018, 10:47

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6141823/Trump-tells-supporters-vote-isnt-impeached.html

[size=34]'If it does happen, it's your fault': Trump warns his supporters to vote for him so he isn't impeached if Democrats control Congress[/size]


  • President Trump raised the specter of impeachment if Democrats win control of Congress during his rally in Billings, Montana on Thursday 

  • He warned that a Democratic-controlled Congress would pursue impeachment

  • Trump warned his supporters that it would be their fault if he was impeached because they didn't go out and vote

  • He claimed if he was impeached claims it could lead to the US one day becoming a third world country


By EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 00:47 EDT, 7 September 2018 | UPDATED: 01:49 EDT, 7 September 2018

    




President Donald Trump has told his supporters the blame is on them if he gets impeached and claims it could lead to the US one day becoming a third world country.  
Trump raised the specter of impeachment if Democrats win control of Congress during his rally in Billings, Montana on Thursday night.
He warned that a Democratic-controlled Congress would pursue impeachment despite the strong economy and set a precedent that would hurt future presidents. 
A few Democratic lawmakers have called for Trump to be removed from office. 

Scroll down for video 
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Trump raised the specter of impeachment if Democrats win control of Congress during his rally in Billings, Montana on Thursday night
'Let's say a Democrat gets elected and let's say we have a Republican House. We will impeach that Democrat, right?' Trump said. 
'You're going to have a country that's going to turn into a third-world country because if the opposite party becomes president, every time before it even starts, before you even found out whether or not he or she is going to do a great job, they'll say, 'We want to impeach him!''
'If it does happen, it's your fault because you didn't go out to vote.'
Trump continued on the topic of impeachment, saying: 'How do you impeach somebody that's doing a great job, that hasn't done anything wrong?
'Our economy is good. How do you do it? How do you do it? How do you do it?' 
He warned his supporters: 'You are not just voting for a candidate, you are voting for which party controls Congress. Very important thing. Very important thing.'
Trump was in Montana to support Senate candidate Matt Rosendale who is challenging Democratic Sen. Jon Tester - a top GOP target in the mid-term elections. 


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Trump was in Montana to support Senate candidate Matt Rosendale (above) who is challenging Democratic Sen. Jon Tester - a top GOP target in the mid-term elections 
As he stood alongside Rosendale, Trump said Tester 'will never drain the swamp because he happens to live in the swamp.' 
Seeking to portray the Montana farmer as a tool of liberal Democrats, Trump said: 'Jon Tester talks like he's from Montana, but he votes like he's Nancy Pelosi' - a reference to the House minority leader, a frequent Trump target.


Trump also lit into Tester for his role in torpedoing Trump's nomination of Ronny Jackson to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. 
Earlier this year, Tester released unsubstantiated, anonymous allegations against Jackson that accused him of on-the-job drunkenness, overprescribing medication and fostering a hostile work environment. Jackson, a Navy rear admiral who was Trump's personal physician, denied the claims and eventually withdrew his nomination.
'What Tester did to Admiral Jackson should never, ever be allowed,' Trump said, calling the allegations 'lies.' 
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Post by annemarie Fri 07 Sep 2018, 20:36

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6143497/Obama-urge-Democrats-vote-citing-perilous-time-U-S.html

[size=34]'How hard is it to say Nazis are bad?' Obama finally breaks his silence with excoriating – and hilarious – attack on 'bully' Trump who 'cozies up to Russia' – and even the unelected insiders who are trying to sabotage the regime[/size]


  • Former President Barack Obama went after President Trump as a 'symptom' of social dysfunction

  • He denounced Trump's foreign policy, attacks on the press, and efforts to pressure the attorney general 

  • He said his successor has been 'capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years'

  • 'How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?' 

  • Obama made the comments in a speech while accepting an ethics award in home-state Illinois

  • He returned to the political stage as Democrats hope to rip Congress from GOP hands

  • He has faced pleas from Democrats to reenter the political fray 

  • 'We can't put up walls around America'

  • Called for 'old fashioned' ideas like forcing candidates to release their tax returns 

  • As he spoke President Trump called for the attorney general to investigate who leaked an anonymous op-ed to the New York Times 

  • Trump said afterward the speech made him 'fall asleep' 


By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 10:39 EDT, 7 September 2018 | UPDATED: 15:21 EDT, 7 September 2018

    


President Barack Obama delivered a sweeping denunciation of his political successor on Friday, calling President Trump a 'bully' who is distorting the rule of law and calling for voters to secure a restoration of 'decency and lawfulness' in government.
Speaking in his home state, Obama called President Donald Trump a 'symptom' of a societal problem where powerful forces manufacture and capitalize on 'resentments,' then picked apart both his policy agenda and the manner in which he has governed the country.
Speaking to a crowd in Champagne, Illinois but also to a national audience, Obama directed remarks even to those who might part with Democrats on immigration or other policy issues.
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President Barack Obama called for the 'restoration of honesty and decency and lawfulness in our government' and ripped President Donald Trump
Scroll down for video 

'You should still be concerned with our current course. You should still want to see a restoration of honesty and decency and lawfulness in our government,' the former president said. 
'It should not be a Democratic or Republican, it should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents,' Obama said.
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'It shouldn't be Democratic or Republican to say that we don't threaten the freedom of the press because they say things or publish stories we don't like,' he said
'Or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up.'
'I'm not making that up,' Obama said, chuckling as he referenced a recent tweet by Trump faulting Attorney General Jeff Sessions for the indictments of two sitting Republican House members – who are also two of his foremost House supporters.
'That's not hypothetical. It shouldn't be Democratic or Republican to say that we don't threaten the freedom of the press because they say things or publish stories we don't like. I complained plenty about Fox News. But you never heard me threaten to shut 'em down or call them 'Enemies of the People,' Obama said. 
Obama's comments, made at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, came almost exactly as Trump was calling for Sessions to investigate the anonymous senior administration official who wrote an op-ed blasting chaos 'amorality' inside the White House and calling Trump.
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Trump saved some of his criticism for the Republican Party, which has scored legislative victories and installed judges while abiding conduct by Trump that many senior lawmakers have criticized.   
He faulted those who issue 'vague statements of disappointment when the president does something outrageous but we won't actually do anything about it. That's not civility. That's abdicating your responsibility.'
'It's a vision that says the protection of our power and those who back us is all that matters even when it hurts the country,' Obama said. 'They're undermining our alliances, cozying up to Russia. What happened to the Republican Party? Its central organizing principle in foreign policy was the fight against communism, and now they're cozying up to the former head of the KGB.'
President addressed Obama's speech while campaigning in North Dakota, where he hopes to put pressure on Democratic incumbent Heidi Heitkamp.
Somebody, very popular guy here was just interviewing me. You know who I'm talking about. Great guy. And he said, "What did you think of President Obama's speech?" And I said, "I'm sorry, I watched it but I fell asleep,' Trump said at a fundraising event. 'I found he's very good. Very good for sleeping.'
Then Trump told his North Dakota crowd: 'Isn't this much more exciting than listening to President Obama?'



Then he added: 'I think he was trying to take some credit. He was trying to take credit for this incredible thing that's happening to our country. If the Democrats got in, I have to say this to President Obama, and it wasn't him but would have been the same thing. If the Democrats got in with their agenda in November of almost two years ago, instead of having 4.2 up [second quarter economic growth], I believe honestly you'd have 4.2 down. You'd be negative. You'd be in negative numbers,' he said. 
Obama's call for action could be taken different ways amid a fratricidal split among Democrats that have seen experienced liberal lawmakers fall in safe districts in Massachusetts and other areas.
'Better is good. I used to have to tell my young staff this all the time in the White House. Better is good. That's the history of progress in this country. Not perfect. Better,' Obama said. 
President Barack Obama blasted President Donald Trump at a speech in Illinois












'We are Americans. We're supposed to stand up to bullies, not follow them,' Trump said. 
 'We're supposed to stand up to discrimination,' Obama said. 'And we're sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers. How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?' he asked.
He was referencing Trump's comments that there were good people on 'both sides' during the violent clash in Charlottesville last summer. 
The former rival who saw Trump try to rip up his political legacy then blasted Trump's own pet project – a border wall – and reigniting the issue of Trump's failure to release his tax returns. 
'It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause,' Obama said in a speech that saw his return to the political stage two months before the Mid-term elections.
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Trump spent the first months of the Trump Administration in relative silence, honoring a tradition where presidents don't usually bash their successors
'He's just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years. A fear and anger that's rooted in our past but also born out of the enormous upheavals that have taken place in your brief lifetimes,' Obama said.
Urging votes for Democrats in the midterms, he said: 'Our democracy depends on it.' 
Obama cast Trump, who blasted him during his own campaign and repeatedly questioned his U.S. citizenship, only to seek to dismantle much of his agenda once taking office, as part of a system where the status quo seeks to maintain control.
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Obama was responding to pleas dating to the start of the Trump administration for him to take a more prominent role confronting Trump
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Obama's denunciation of Trump came as the president fends off an anonymous op-ed and a harsh bombshell book by Bob Woodward
It was a stark contrast to the narrative put forward by Trump, who casts himself as the leader of 'forgotten' Americans battling elites.
The former president also joined a liberal critique on the anonymous New York Times op-ed and elements of Bob Woodward's book that reveal insiders working to thwart Trump by stalling, steering him away from decisions, and even swiping documents off his desk.
'The claim that everything will turn out okay because there are people inside the White House who secretly aren't following the president's orders – that is not a check,' Obama said.
'I'm being serious here,' he said for emphasis. That's not how our democracy is supposed to work. These people aren't elected. They're not accountable.  They're not doing us a service by actively promoting 90 per cent of the crazy stuff coming out of this White House, then saying don't worry, we're preventing the other 10 per cent.'
'That's not how things are supposed to work. This is not normal. These are extraordinary times. And they're dangerous times. But here's the good news. In two months, we have the chance, not the certainty but the chance, to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics,' he said to applause. 
Obama took on Trump's signature issues, hours after Trump once again assured his own supporters he would force Congress to fund construction of a border wall.
'We can't put up walls around America,' said Obama. 
Then he brought up an issue with personal sting for Trump – his finances.  
'Democrats aren't just running on good old ideas like requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns …' Obama quipped at one point, bringing up a campaign issue that 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton hammered during her failed campaign against Trump. 
Prior candidates released their returns for decades. Trump didn't do so, saying he would await an audit that was underway. The White House has now cast it as an old issue and hasn't said they will ever get released. At the same time, special counsel Robert Mueller's probe has touched on the 2013 Miss Universe pageant that was then owned by Trump and efforts by the Trump Organization in 2015 and 2016 to pursue a Trump Tower Moscow. 
'We can't just put walls up all around America. Walls don't keep out threats like terrorism or disease. And that's why we propose leading our alliances and helping other countries develop and pushing back against tyrants, Obama said.


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Obama cast Trump as part of a backward system he called 'cynical.'
'Each time we've gotten closer to those ideals, somebody somewhere has pushed back,' Obama said. 
'The status quo pushes back,' said Obama, who took office in 2008 campaigning on 'change.'
'Sometimes the backlash comes from people who are genuinely if wrongly fearful of change. More often it's manufactured by the powerful and the privileged who want to keep us divided and keep us angry and keep us cynical because that helps them maintain the status quo, and keep their power, and keep their privilege,' Obama said. 
'I know there are Republicans who believe that government should only perform a few minimal functions. But that one of those functions should be making sure nearly 3,000 Americans don't die in a hurricane and its aftermath,' he said to applause, referencing the revised death toll in Puerto Rico following the devastating storm last year. 
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'You cannot sit back and wait for a savior. You can't opt out because you don't feel sufficiently inspired by that particular candidate. This is not a rock concert. This is not Coachella,' said Obama
Obama, a former community organizer, said he saw a 'great awakening' of activism and cited recent protests. Then he cited a new crop of Democratic candidates, including women and veterans.
 'We need more women in charge,' Obama said. 
He said he was called to speak out 'as a fellow citizen.'
'I’m here today because this is one of those pivotal moments when every one of us as citizens of the United States need to determine just who we are, what it is that we stand for," Obama said. "As a fellow citizen, not as an ex-president, I’m here to deliver a simple message, which is that you need to vote, because our democracy depends on it." 
Trump also sought to energize voters for the off-year election, including those who might be less than inspired by some of the Democratic legislative candidates.
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Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) greets guests before a speech by former President Barack Obama at the University of Illinois on September 7, 2018 in Urbana, Illinois. Obama was at the university to accept the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government
'You cannot sit back and wait for a savior. You can't opt out because you don't feel sufficiently inspired by that particular candidate. This is not a rock concert. This is not Coachella,' he said, referencing the California music festival.
'We don't need a Messiah. All we need are decent honest hardworking people who are accountable, and who have America's best interest at heart,' Obama said.
'People ask me, what are you going to do for the election? The question is what areyou going to do.  You're the antidote, he said.
Obama jumped back into the political fray on Friday, telling Democratic voters the stakes are too high to sit out November's elections, when the party is seeking to wrest control of Congress from President Donald Trump's Republicans.
Obama has largely avoided the spotlight since Trump succeeded him last year. But a speech on Friday at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will mark the start of a flurry of activity as he hits the campaign trail on behalf of Democratic candidates in critical races.
The Nov. 6 election is widely seen as a referendum on Trump. While the president touts fulfilled campaign promises such as tax cuts and deregulation, his tenure has been clouded by a widening probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and growing questions about his behavior and fitness for office, even by some within his administration.
Both parties traditionally see a large drop-off in turnout in non-presidential election years, but Democrats and Republicans alike are trying to energize voters with talk of high stakes.
Democrats need to pick up 23 seats to win a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and two seats in the U.S. Senate. Control of one or both chambers would allow them not only to foil Trump's agenda but also to open congressional investigations into his administration.
Democratic control of the House would also allow the party to press impeachment proceedings, although the party has broadly steered clear of making that threat.
Despite that, Trump starkly told his supporters on Thursday to stave off any impeachment proceedings against him by keeping Republican majorities in Congress.
'It's so ridiculous,' he told a rally in Montana, referring to impeachment. 'But if it does happen, it's your fault, because you didn't go out to vote. OK? You didn't go out to vote. You didn't go out to vote. That's the only way it could happen.'
The former Democratic president, following tradition, has so far been reluctant to publicly criticize his successor, to the frustration of some Democrats. Last week, he appeared to chide Trump, without naming him, in a eulogy for the late Republican Senator John McCain.
Obama will appear at a campaign event in Southern California this weekend before heading to Ohio next week and, later in September, to Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Obama was at the university to accept the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government.

[size=34]President Barack Obama's denunciation of President Donald Trump [/size]


 
BARACK OBAMA: Hello, Illinois! I.L.L.! I.L.L.! Okay, okay. Just checking to see if you’re awake. Please have a seat, everybody. It is good to be home. It’s good to see corn, beans. I was trying to explain to somebody as we were flying in, that’s corn. That’s beans. They were very impressed at my agricultural knowledge. Please give it up for Amari, once again, for that outstanding introduction.
I have a bunch of good friends here today, including somebody who I served with who is one of the finest senators in the country, and we’re lucky to have your senator, Dick Durbin, is here. I also noticed, by the way, former governor Edgar here, who I haven’t seen in a long time, and somehow he has not aged and it was great to see him.
I want to thank everybody at the U of I system for making it possible for me to be here today. I am deeply honored at the Paul Douglas award that is being given to me.
He is somebody who set the path for so much outstanding public service here in Illinois. Now, I want to start by addressing the elephant in the room. I know people are still wondering why I didn’t speak at the 2017 commencement. The student body president sent a very thoughtful invitation. Students made a spiffy video, and when I declined, I hear there was speculation that I was boycotting campus until Antonio’s pizza reopened. So I want to be clear. I did not take sides in that late-night food debate.
The truth is, after eight years in the white house, I needed to spend some time one on one with Michelle if I wanted to stay married. And she says hello, by the way. I also wanted to spend some quality time with my daughters, who were suddenly young women on their way out the door. And I should add, by the way, now that I have a daughter in college, I can tell all the students here, your parents, they cry privately. It is brutal. So please call. Send a text. We need to hear from you. Just a little something.
Truth was, I was also intent on following a wise American tradition of ex-presidents gracefully exiting the political stage and making room for new voices and new ideas.
Truth was, I was also intent on following a wise American tradition of ex-presidents gracefully exiting the political stage and making room for new voices and new ideas.
We have our first president, George Washington, to thank for setting that example. After he led the colonies to victory as General Washington, there were no constraints on him, really. He was practically a god to those who had followed him into battle. There was no constitution. There were no democratic norms that guided what he should or could do. And he could have made himself all-powerful, could have made himself potentially president for life.
Instead, he resigned as commander in chief and moved back to his country estate. Six years later, he was elected president. But after two terms, he resigned again and rode off into the sunset.
The point Washington made, the point that is essential to American democracy, is that in a government of and by and for the people, there should be no permanent ruling class. There are only citizens, who through their elected and temporary representatives, determine our course and determine our character.
I’m here today because this is one of those pivotal moments when every one of us as citizens of the United States need to determine just who it is that we are. Just what it is that we stand for. And as a fellow citizen — not as an ex-president, but as a fellow citizen — I’m here to deliver a simple message, and that is that you need to vote because our democracy depends on it.
Now, some of you may think I’m exaggerating when I say this November’s elections are more important than any I can remember in my lifetime. I know politicians say that all the time. I have been guilty of saying it a few times, particularly when I was on the ballot. But just a glance at recent headlines should tell you that this moment really is different. The stakes really are higher. The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire.
And it’s not as if we haven’t had big elections before or big choices to make in our history. Fact is, democracy has never been easy, and our founding fathers argued about everything. We waged a civil war. We overcame depression. We’ve lurched from eras of great progressive change to periods of still, most Americans alive today, certainly the students who are here, have operated under some common assumptions about who we are and what we stand for.
Out of the turmoil of the Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression, America adapted a new economy, a 20th century economy, guiding our free market with regulations to protect health and safety and fair competition, empowering workers with union movements, investing in science and infrastructure and educational institutions like U of I, strengthening our system of primary and secondary education, and stitching together a social safety net. All of this led to unrivaled prosperity and the rise of a broad and deep middle class and the sense that if you worked hard, you could climb the ladder of success.
Not everyone was included in this prosperity. There was a lot more work to do. And so in response to the stain of slavery and segregation and the reality of racial discrimination, the civil rights movement not only opened new doors for African-Americans but also opened up the floodgates of opportunity for women and Americans with disabilities and LGBT Americans and others to make their own claims to full and equal citizenship.
And although discrimination remained a pernicious force in our society and continues to this day, and although there are controversies about how to best ensure genuine equality of opportunity, there’s been at least rough agreement among the overwhelming majority of Americans that our country is strongest when everybody’s treated fairly, when people are judged on the merits and the content of their character and not the color of their skin or the way in which they worship God or their last names. And that consensus then extended beyond our borders.
And from the wreckage of world War II, we built a post-war architecture, system of alliances and institutions to underwrite freedom and oppose Soviet totalitarianism and to help poorer countries develop. American leadership across the globe wasn’t perfect. We made mistakes. At times we lost sight of our ideals. We had fierce arguments about Vietnam and we had fierce arguments about Iraq. But thanks to our leadership, a bipartisan leadership, and the efforts of diplomats and peace corps volunteers, and most of all thanks to the constant sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, we not only reduced the prospects of war between the world’s great powers, we not only won the Cold War, we helped spread a commitment to certain values and principles like the rule of law and human rights and democracy and the notion of the inherent dignity and worth of every individual.
And even those countries that didn’t abide by those principles were still subject to shame and still had to at least give lip service to the idea, and that provided a lever to continually improve the prospects for people around the world. That’s the story of America. A story of progress, fitful progress, incomplete progress, but progress. And that progress wasn’t achieved by just a handful of famous leaders making speeches. It was won because of countless acts of quiet heroism and dedication by citizens, by ordinary people, many of them not much older than you. It was won because rather than be bystanders to history, ordinary people fought and marched and mobilized and built, and yes, voted to make history.
Of course, there’s always been another darker aspect to America’s story. Progress doesn’t just move in a straight line. There’s a reason why progress hasn’t been easy and why throughout our history every two steps forward seems to sometimes produce one step back. Each time we painstakingly pull ourselves closer to our founding ideals, that all of us are created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, the ideals that say every child should have opportunity and every man and woman in this country who’s willing to work hard should be able to find a job and support a family and pursue their small peace of the American dream, ideals that say we have a collective responsibility to care for the sick and the and we have a responsibility to conserve the amazing bounty, the natural resources of this country and of this planet for future generations — each time we’ve gotten closer to those ideals, somebody somewhere has pushed back.
The status quo pushes back. Sometimes the backlash comes from people who are genuinely, if wrongly, fearful of change. More often it’s manufactured by the powerful and the privileged who want to keep us divided and keep us angry and keep us cynical because it helps them maintain the status quo and keep their power and keep their privilege. And you happen to be coming of age during one of those moments.
It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause. He’s just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years, a fear and anger that’s rooted in our past but it’s also born out of the enormous upheavals that have taken place in your brief lifetimes.
By the way, it is brief. When I heard Amari was 11 when I got elected and now he’s like started a company — that was yesterday!
But think about it. You’ve come of age in a smaller, more connected world where demographic shifts and the wind of change have scrambled not only traditional economic arrangements but our social arrangements and our religious commitments and our civic institutions. Most of you don’t remember a time before 9/11, when you didn’t have to take off your shoes at an airport. Most of you don’t remember a time when America wasn’t at war or when money and images and information could travel instantly around the globe. Or when the climate wasn’t changing faster than our efforts to address it.
This change has happened fast, faster than any time in human history. And it created a new economy that has unleashed incredible prosperity, but it’s also upended people’s lives in profound ways. For those with unique skills or access to technology and capital, a global market has meant unprecedented wealth. For those not so lucky, for the factory worker, for the office worker, or even middle managers, those same forces may have wiped out your job or at least put you in no position to ask for a raise, and as wages slowed and inequality accelerated, those at the top of the economic pyramid have been able to influence government to skew things even more in their direction.
Cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans, unwinding regulations and weakening worker protections, shrinking the safety net. So you have come of age during a time of growing inequality, a fracturing of economic opportunity. And that growing economic divide compounded other divisions in our country. Regional, racial, religious, cultural. And made it harder to build consensus on issues. It made politicians less willing to compromise, which increased gridlock, which made people even more cynical about politics. And then the reckless behavior of financial elites triggered a massive financial crisis.
Ten years ago this week a crisis that resulted in the worst recession in any of our lifetimes and caused years of hardship for the American people. For many of your parents, for many of your families. Most of you weren’t old enough to fully focus on what was going on at the time, but when I came into office in 2009, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. 800,000. Millions of people were losing their homes. Many were worried we were entering into a second great depression.
So we worked hard to end that crisis but also to break some of these longer term trends. The actions we took during that crisis returned the economy to healthy growth and initiated the longest streak of job creation on record. And we covered another 20 million Americans with health insurance and cut our deficits by more than half, partly by making sure that people like me who have been given such amazing opportunities by this country pay our fair share of taxes to help folks coming up behind me.
And by the time I left office, household income was near its all-time high, and the uninsured rate hit an all-time low, poverty rates were falling. I mention this just so when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started. I’m glad it’s continued, but when you hear about this economic miracle that’s been going on, when the job numbers come out, monthly job numbers and suddenly Republicans are saying it’s a miracle, I have to kind of remind them, actually, those job numbers are the same as they were in 2015 and 2016 and -- anyway. I digress.
So we made progress, but -- and this is the truth -- my administration couldn’t reverse 40-year trends in only eight especially once Republicans took over the house of representatives in 2010 and decided to block everything we did. Even things they used to support.
So we pulled the economy out of crisis, but to this day, too many people who once felt solidly middle class still feel very real and very personal economic insecurity. Even though we took out bin Laden and wound down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, got Iran to halt its nuclear program, the world’s still full of threats and disorder that come streaming through people’s televisions every single day. And these challenges get people worried and it frays our civic trust and it makes a lot of people feel like the fix is in and the game is rigged and nobody’s looking out for them.
Especially those communities outside our big urban centers. And even though your generation is the most diverse in history with a greater acceptance and celebration of our differences than ever before, those are the kinds of conditions that are ripe for exploitation by politicians who have no compunction and no shame about tapping into America’s dark history of racial and ethnic and religious division. Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security will be restored if it weren’t for those who don’t look like us or don’t sound like us or don’t pray like we do, that’s an old playbook. It’s as old as time.
And in a healthy democracy, it doesn’t work. Our antibodies kick in, and people of goodwill from across the political spectrum call out the bigots and the fear mongers and work to compromise and get things done and promote the better angels of our nature.
But when there’s a vacuum in our democracy, when we don’t vote, when we take our basic rights and freedoms for granted, when we turn away and stop paying attention and stop engaging and stop believing and look for the newest diversion, the electronic versions of bread and circuses, then other voices fill the void.
A politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment takes hold and demagogues promise simple fixes to complex problems. No promise to fight for the little guy, even as they cater to the wealthiest and most powerful. No promise to clean up corruption and then plunder away. They start undermining norms that ensure accountability and try to change the rules to entrench their power further. They appeal to racial nationalism that’s barely veiled, if veiled at all. Sound familiar?
I understand this is not just a matter of Democrats versus Republicans or liberals versus conservatives. At various times in our history, this kind of politics has infected both parties. Southern Democrats were the bigger defenders of slavery. It took a Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, to end it. Although it was a Democratic president and a majority Democrat Congress spurred on by young marchers and protesters that got the civil rights act and the voting rights act over the finish line, those historic laws also got passed because of the leadership of Republicans like Illinois’s own Everett Dirksen. So neither party has had a monopoly on wisdom.
Neither party has been exclusively responsible for us going backwards instead of forwards. But I have to say this because sometimes we hear a plague on both your houses. Over the past few decades, it wasn’t true when Jim Edgar was governor here in Illinois.
But over the past few decades, the politics of division and resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican party. This Congress has championed the unwinding of campaign finance laws to give billionaires outside influence over our politics. Systematically attacked voting rights to make it harder for young people and minorities and the poor to vote. Handed out tax cuts without regard to deficits. Slashed the safety net wherever it could, cast dozens of votes to take away health insurance from ordinary Americans, embraced wild conspiracy theories like those surrounding Benghazi or my birth certificate, rejected science, rejected facts on things like climate change, embraced a rising absolutism from a willingness to default on America’s debt by not paying our bills to a refusal to even meet much less consider a qualified nominee for the supreme court because he happened to be nominated by a Democratic president.
None of this is conservative. I don’t mean to pretend I’m channelling Abraham Lincoln now, but that’s not what he had in mind, I think, when he helped form the Republican party. It’s not conservative. It sure isn’t normal. It’s radical. It’s a vision that says the protection of our power and those who back us is all that matters even when it hurts the country. It’s a vision that says the few who can afford high-price lobbyists and unlimited campaign contributions set the agenda, and over the past two years, this vision is now nearing its logical conclusion.
So with Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, without any checks or balances whatsoever, they’ve provided another $1.5 trillion in tax cuts to people like me who I promise don’t need it and don’t even pretend to pay for them. It’s supposed to be the party supposedly of fiscal conservatism. Suddenly deficits do not matter. Even though just two years ago when the deficit was lower, they said I couldn’t afford to help working families or seniors on medicare because the deficit was in existential crisis. What changed? What changed?
They’re subsidizing corporate polluters with taxpayer dollars, allowing dishonest lenders to take advantage of veterans and consumers and students again. They’ve made it so that the only nation on Earth to pull out of the global climate agreement, it’s not North Korea, it’s not Syria, it’s not Russia or Saudi Arabia, it’s us. The only country. There are a lot of countries in the world. We’re the only ones.
They’re undermining our alliances, cozying up to Russia. What happened to the Republican party? Its central organizing principle in foreign policy was the fight against communism, and now they’re cozying up to the former head of the KGB.
Actively blocking legislation that would defend our elections from Russian attack. What happened? Their sabotage of the affordable care act has already cost more than 3 million Americans their health insurance, and if they’re still in power next fall, you better believe they’re coming at it again. They’ve said so. In a healthy democracy, there’s some checks and balances on this kind of behavior, this kind of inconsistency, but right now there’s nothing. Republicans who know better in Congress, and they’re there, they’re quoted saying, yeah, we know this is kind of crazy, are still bending over backwards to shield this behavior from scrutiny or accountability or consequence, seem utterly unwilling to find the backbone to safeguard the institutions that make our democracy work.
And by the way, the claim that everything will turn out okay because there are people inside the White House who secretly aren’t following the president’s orders, that is not a check. I’m being serious here. That’s not how our democracy’s supposed to work. These people aren’t elected. They’re not accountable. They’re not doing us a service by actively promoting 90% of the crazy stuff that’s coming out of this white house, and then saying, don’t worry, we’re preventing the other 10%.
That’s not how things are supposed to work. This is not normal. These are extraordinary times. And they’re dangerous times.
But here’s the good news. In two months we have the chance, not the certainty, but the chance to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics. Because there is actually only one real check on bad policy and abuse of power. That’s you. You and your vote. Look, Americans will always have disagreements on policy. This is a big country. It is a raucous country.
I happen to be a Democrat. I believe our policies are better and we have a bigger, bolder vision of equality and justice and inclusive democracy. We know there are a lot of jobs young people aren’t getting a chance to occupy or aren’t getting paid enough or aren’t getting benefits like insurance. It’s harder for young people to save for a rainy day let alone retirement.
So Democrats aren’t just running on good old ideas like a higher minimum wage, they’re running on good new ideas like medicare for all, giving workers seats on corporate boards, reversing the most egregious corporate tax cuts to make sure college students graduate.
We know that people are tired of toxic corruption and that democracy depends on transparency and accountability, so Democrats aren’t just running on good old ideas like requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns, but on good new ideas like barring lobbyists from getting paid by foreign governments.
We know that climate change isn’t just coming. It’s here. So Democrats aren’t just running on good old ideas like increasing gas mileage in our cars, which I did and which Republicans are trying to reverse, but on good new ideas like putting a price on carbon pollution.
We know in a smaller, more connected world, we can’t just put technology back in a box. We can’t just put walls up all around America. Walls don’t keep out threats like terrorism or disease. And that’s why we propose leading our alliances and helping other countries develop and pushing back against tyrants.
Democrats talk about reforming our immigration system so, yes, it is orderly and it is fair and it is legal, but it continues to welcome strivers and dreamers from all around the world. That’s why I’m a Democrat. That’s a set of ideas that I believe in. But I am here to tell you that even if you don’t agree with me or Democrats on policy, even if you believe in more libertarian economic theories, even if you are an evangelical and our position on certain social issues is a bridge too far, even if you think my assessment of immigration is mistaken and the Democrats aren’t serious enough about immigration enforcement, I’m here to tell you that you should still be concerned with our current course and should still want to see a restoration of honesty and decency and lawfulness in our government.
It should not be Democratic or Republican. It should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents. Or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up. I’m not making that up. That’s not hypothetical.
It shouldn’t be Democratic or Republican to say that we don’t threaten the freedom of the press because they say things or publish stories we don’t like. I complained plenty about Fox News, but you never heard me threaten to shut them down or call them enemies of the people. It shouldn’t be democratic or Republican to say we don’t target certain groups of people based on what they look like or how they pray.
We are Americans. We’re supposed to stand up to bullies. Not follow them. We’re supposed to stand up to discrimination, and we’re sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers. How hard can that be? Saying that Nazis are bad.
I’ll be honest, sometimes I get into arguments with progressive friends about what the current political movement requires. There are well-meaning folks passionate about social justice who think things have gotten so bad, the lines have been so starkly drawn, that we have to fight fire with fire. We have to do the same things to the Republicans that they do to adopt their tactics. Say whatever works. Make up stuff about the other.
I don’t agree with that. It’s not because I’m soft. It’s not because I’m interested in promoting an empty bipartisanship. I don’t agree with it because eroding our civic institutions and our civic trust and making people angrier and yelling at each other and making people cynical about government, that always works better for those who don’t believe in the power of collective action.
You don’t need an effective government or a robust press or reasoned debate to work when all you’re concerned about is maintaining power. In fact, the more cynical people are about government, the angrier and more dispirited they are about the prospects for change, the more likely the powerful are able to maintain their power.
But we believe that in order to move this country forward, to actually solve problems and make people’s lives better, we need a well-functioning government. We need our civic institutions to work. We need cooperation among people of different political persuasions. And to make that work, we have to restore our faith in democracy. We have to bring people together, not tear them apart. We need majorities in Congress and state legislatures who are serious about governing and want to bring about real change and improvements in people’s lives. And we won’t win people over by calling them names or dismissing entire chunks of the country as racist or sexist or homophobic.
When I say bring people together, I mean all of our people.
This whole notion that has sprung up recently about Democrats needing to choose between trying to appeal to white working class voters or voters of color and women and LGBT Americans, that’s nonsense. I don’t buy that. I got votes from every demographic. We won by reaching out to everybody and competing everywhere and by fighting for every vote. And that’s what we’ve got to do in this election and every election after that. And we can’t do that if we immediately disregard what others have to say from the start because they’re not like us, because they’re white or they’re black or they’re man or a woman or they’re gay or they’re straight.
If we think that somehow there’s no way they can understand how I’m feeling and therefore don’t have any standing to speak on certain matters because we’re only defined by certain characteristics, that doesn’t work if you want a healthy we can’t do that if we traffic in absolute when it comes to make democracy work, we have to be able to get inside the reality of people who are different, have different experiences, come from different backgrounds. We have to engage them even when it is frustrating. We have to listen to them, even when we don’t like what they have to say.
We have to hope that we can change their minds, and we have to remain open to them changing ours. And that doesn’t mean, by the way, abandoning our principles or caving to bad policy in the interests of maintaining some phony version of civility. That seems to be, by the way, the definition of civility offered by too many congressional Republicans right now. We will be polite so long as we get 100% of what we want and you don’t call us out on the various ways we’re sticking it to people. And we’ll click our tongues and issue vague statements of disappointment when the president does something outrageous, but we won’t actually do anything about it. That’s not civility. That’s abdicating your responsibilities. But again, I digress. Making democracy work means holding on to our principles,
having clarity about our principles, and then having the confidence to get in the arena and have a serious debate. It also means appreciating progress does not happen all at once but when you put your shoulder to the wheel, if you’re willing to fight for it, things do get better. And let me tell you something, particularly young people here.
Better is good. I used to have to tell my young staff this all the time in the white house. Better is good. That’s the history of progress in this country. Not perfect, better. The civil rights act didn’t end racism, but it made things better. Social security didn’t eliminate all poverty for seniors, but it made things better for millions of people. Do not let people tell you the fight’s not worth it because you won’t get everything that you want. The idea that, well, you know, there’s racism in America, so I’m not going to bother voting, no point, that makes no sense. You can make it better. Better is always worth fighting for. That’s how our founders expected this system of self-government to work. Through the testing of ideas and the application of reason and evidence and proof, we could sort through our differences, and nobody would get exactly what they wanted, but it would be possible to find a basis for common ground. And that common ground exists.
Maybe it’s not fashionable to say that right now. It’s hard to see it with all the nonsense in Washington. It’s hard to hear it with all the noise. But common ground exists. I have seen it. I have lived it. I know there are white people who care deeply about black people being treated unfairly. I have talked to them and loved them, and I know there are black people who care deeply about the struggles of white rural I’m one of them. And I have a track record to prove it. I know there are evangelicals who are deeply committed to doing something about climate change. I’ve seen them do the work.
I know there are conservatives who think there’s nothing compassionate about separating immigrant children from their mothers. I know there are Republicans who believe government should only perform a few minimal functions but that one of those functions should be making sure nearly 3,000 Americans don’t die in a hurricane and its aftermath.
Common ground is out there. I see it every day. It’s just how people interact, how people treat each other. You see it on the ball field. You see it at work. You see it in places of worship. But to say that common ground exists doesn’t mean it will inevitably win out.
History shows the power of fear and the closer that we get to Election Day, the more those invested in the politics of fear and division will work -- will do anything to hang on to their recent gains. Fortunately, I am hopeful because out of this political darkness, I am seeing a great awakening of citizenship all across the country. I cannot tell you how encouraged I’ve been by watching so many people get involved for the first time or the first time in a long time. They’re marching and they’re organizing and they’re registering people to vote and they’re running for office themselves.
Look at this crop of Democratic candidates running for Congress and governor, running for the state legislature, running for district attorney, running for school board. It is a movement of citizens who happen to be younger and more diverse and more female than ever before, and that’s really useful. We need more women in charge. But we have first-time candidates. We have veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Record numbers of women. Americans who have previously maybe didn’t have an interest in politics as a career but laced up their shoes and rolled up their sleeves and grabbed a clipboard because they, too, believe this time’s different. This moment’s too important to sit out.
And if you listen to what these candidates are talking about in individual races across the country, you’ll find they’re not just running against something, they’re running for something. They’re running to expand opportunity and running to restore the honor to public service. And speaking as a Democrat, that’s when the Democratic party has always made the biggest difference in the lives of the American people. When we led with conviction and principle and bold new ideas. The antidote to a government controlled by a powerful few, a government that divides is a government by the organized, energized, inclusive many. That’s what this moment’s about. That has to be the answer.
You cannot sit back and wait for a savior. You can’t opt out because you don’t feel sufficiently inspired by this or that particular candidate. This is not a rock concert. This is not Coachella. We don’t need a messiah. All we need are decent, honest, hard-working people who are accountable and who have America’s best interests at heart. And they’ll step up and they’ll join our government, and they will make things better if they have support.
One election will not fix everything that needs to be fixed. But it will be a start. And you have to start it. What’s going to fix our democracy is you.
People ask me, what are you going to do for the election? No, the question is what are you going to do? You’re the antidote. Your participation and your spirit and your determination, not just in this election, but in every subsequent election and in the days between elections. Because in the end, the threat to our democracy doesn’t just come from Donald Trump or the current batch of Republicans in Congress or the Koch brothers and their lobbyists or too much compromise from Democrats or Russian hacking. The biggest threat to our democracy is indifference. The biggest threat to our democracy is cynicism.
Cynicism led too many people to turn away from politics and stay home on Election Day. To all the young people who are here today, there are now more eligible voters in your generation than in any other, which means your generation now has more power than anybody to change things. If you want it, you can make sure America gets out of its current funk. If you actually care about it, you have the power to make sure what we see is a brighter future. But to exercise that clout, to exercise that power, you have to show up. In the last midterm elections in 2014, fewer than one in five young people voted.
One in five. Not two in five or three. One in five. Is it any wonder this Congress doesn’t reflect your values and your priorities? Are you surprised by that? This whole project of self-government only works if everybody’s doing their part. Don’t tell me your vote doesn’t matter. I’ve won states in the presidential election because of 5, 10, 20 votes per precinct. And if you thought elections don’t matter, I hope these last two years have corrected that impression.
So if you don’t like what’s going on right now, and you shouldn’t, do not complain, don’t hashtag, don’t get anxious, don’t retreat, don’t binge on whatever it is you’re bingeing on, don’t lose yourself in ironic detachment, don’t put your head in the sand, don’t boo. Vote. Vote. If you are really concerned about how the criminal justice system treats African-Americans, the best way to protest is to vote. Not just for senators and representatives but for mayors and sheriffs and state legislators.
Do what they just did in Philadelphia and Boston and elect states attorneys and district attorneys who are looking at issues in a new light, who realize that the vast majority of law enforcement do the right thing in a really hard job, and we just need to make sure all of them do. If you’re tired of politicians who offer nothing but thoughts and prayers after a mass shooting, you’ve got to do what the parkland kids are doing. Some of them aren’t even eligible to vote yet. They’re out there working to change minds and registering people. And they’re not giving up until we have a Congress that sees your lives as more important than a campaign check from the you’ve got to vote.
If you support the #metoo movement, you’re outraged by stories of sexual harassment and assault, inspired by the women who have shared them, you’ve got to do more than retweet a hashtag. You’ve got to vote. Part of the reason women are more vulnerable in the workplace is because not enough women are bosses in the workplace. Which is why we need to strengthen and enforce laws that protect women in the workplace, not just from harassment, but from discrimination in hiring and promotion and not getting paid the same amount for doing the same work. That requires laws, laws get passed by legislators.
You’ve got to vote. When you vote, you’ve got the power to make it easier to afford college and harder to shoot up a school. When you vote, you’ve got the power to make sure a family keeps its health insurance. You could save somebody’s life. When you vote, you’ve got the
power to make sure white nationalists don’t feel emboldened to March with their hoods off or their hoods on in Charlottesville in the middle of the day. 30 minutes. 30 minutes of your time. Is democracy worth that?
We have been through much darker times than these. And somehow each generation of Americans carried us through to the other side. Not by sitting around and waiting for something to happen, not by leaving it to others to do something, but by leading that movement for change themselves. And if you do that, if you get involved and you get engaged and you knock on some doors and you talk with your friends and you argue with your family members and you change some minds and you vote, something powerful happens. Change happens. Hope happens. Not perfection, not every bit of cruelty and sadness and poverty and disease suddenly stricken from the Earth. There will still be problems, but with each new candidate that surprises you with a victory that you supported, a spark of hope happens.
With each new law that helps a kid read or helps a homeless family find shelter or helps a veteran get the support he or she has earned, each time that happens hope happens. With each new step we take in the direction of fairness and justice and equality and opportunity, hope spreads. And that can be the legacy of your generation.
You can be the generation that at a critical moment stood up and reminded us just how precious this experiment in democracy really is, just how powerful it can be when we fight for it, when we believe in it. I believe in you. I believe you will help lead us in the right direction, and I will be right there with you every step of the way. Thank you, Illinois. God bless you. God bless this country we love.
Thank you.

annemarie
Over the Clooney moon

Posts : 10309
Join date : 2011-09-11

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The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 Empty Re: The Serious Side - part 6

Post by annemarie Mon 10 Sep 2018, 10:44

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6149193/Republican-Senator-says-thinks-leaving-GOP-morning.html

[size=34]Republican Senator says he thinks about leaving GOP 'every morning' as he calls the White House a 'reality show, soap opera presidency' with 'way too much drama every day'[/size]


  • Republican Sen. Ben Sasse is a frequent critic of President Trump's 

  • 'I probably think about it every morning when I wake up' he told CNN of leaving the Republican Party 

  • Sasse told NBC 'it's pretty clear that this White House is a reality-show, soap-opera presidency'

  • He also dismissed talk he could challenge Trump in 2020 although he didn't rule it out 


By EMILY GOODIN, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 17:56 EDT, 9 September 2018 | UPDATED: 18:07 EDT, 9 September 2018

    


Republican Sen. Ben Sasse says he thinks about leaving the GOP 'every morning' and he hammered the White House as a 'soap opera presidency.'
'I probably think about it every morning when I wake up and I figure out, why am I flying away from Nebraska to go to D.C. this week? Are we going to get real stuff done?,' he said on CNN's 'State of the Union.'
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Republican Sen. Ben Sasse says he thinks about leaving the GOP 'every morning'
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Sasse has been a critic of Trump's going back to the 2016 campaign
Sasse has been a critic of President Donald Trump's going back to the 2016 campaign. And he tweeted last week he 'regularly' thinks about switching to become an independent. 

The first-term senator, who describes himself as an 'independent conservative,' said he is 'committed to the party of (Abraham) Lincoln and (Ronald) Reagan as long as there's a chance to reform it. But this party used to be for some pretty definable stuff. And, frankly, neither of these parties are for very much more than being anti.'
He also told NBC's 'Meet the Press' that 'there's just way too much drama every day,' coming out of the White House, which is 'distracting' the country from more serious issues. 
He specifically cited the 'drama' coming from Omarose Manigault Newman's book, from Bob Woodward's book, and the drama from the anonymous New York Times op-ed written by a 'senior official in the Trump administration' that describes a 'resistance' movement in the administration.



'I don't have any desire to beat this president up, but it's pretty clear that this White House is a reality-show, soap-opera presidency,' he said. 
Sasse did tell CNN he likes some of the things Trump has done, particularly citing Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. 
He also brushed off talk he could challenge Trump in 2020 - although he didn't completely dismiss it.
'I'm pretty happy living in Nebraska and going to DC five days a week trying to serve the best way I can,' Sasse said, adding 'we spend way too much time talking about campaigning in this country.' 
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Sen. Ben Sasse says he likes some things Trump has done, such as nominate Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court
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President Trump has not targeted Sasse like he has other critics

Sasse is a fitness nut known for sometimes doing 10,000 pushups a month. He has a long Ivy league pedigree - a bachelors in government from Harvard and a doctorate in history from Yale - and has emerged as a conservative critic of the president.
He famously said during the 2016 campaign that instead of going to the GOP convention in Cleveland to watch Trump be nominated, he'd take his kids to watch some dumpster fires. 
He's also, like Trump, a fan of Twitter and tweets often on everything from policy issues to Nebraska football. 
But he's remained clear of the president's wrath unlike other lawmaker critics of Trump, such as Senator Jeff Flake.

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The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 Empty Re: The Serious Side - part 6

Post by party animal - not! Mon 10 Sep 2018, 11:12

Some of you may be interested in this - pretty sure that George is!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBBMuMHZthg

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Post by Donnamarie Tue 11 Sep 2018, 04:03

Thanks PAN for posting this interview.  I just got around to watching tonight.  It doesn’t matter what Trump says about Woodward.  Woodward is a highly respected journalist and is meticulous in his reporting.  Trump is a known pathological liar.  Who will most people believe?Woodward’s warnings to the public should be taken very seriously.

I have always thought that it was wrong for people in the White House to prop this man up by covering up his unstable behavior and his inability to govern at all.  Many of Trump’s actions have already caused crises.  So these people are not doing such a great job.  He has already done so much harm to this country.  The cowards in the White House who may think they are the country’s saviors need to resign.  All of them.  I remember Lizzy saying that it’s better to let Trump stay until 2020 because Pence taking over could be even worse.  I agree that Pence is as harmful to this country as Trump, just in a different way.  But Trump needs to go.  My gut feeling is that Pence will have a lot to answer for if he takes over as President.  And if the Democrats win back the House there are going to be so many investigations undertaken that I have to assume Pence will be caught up in a few of those.  I got to believe that he won’t look so good to voters come 2020.
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Post by LizzyNY Tue 11 Sep 2018, 12:49

Donnamarie - Woodward is a well respected journalist in the real world, but that isn't where Drumpf's base lives. They'll bend themselves into pretzels to believe anything unfavorable about Drumpf is a lie.

Re: Pence -Drumpf is a stupid opportunistic narcissist who "believes" whatever he thinks will get him what he wants.. Pence is an ultra-conservative zealot and he's smart- lightyears smarter than Drumpf. In his own way he's even more dangerous.

My feeling, when I wrote that post, was that if Pence had the opportunity to complete Drumpf's term he would be able to reunify the party and build a solid base for himself. He'd be much harder to beat in 2020 than Drumpf. I still feel the same about Pence, but I don't know if we can survive two more years of Drumpf.
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The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 Empty Re: The Serious Side - part 6

Post by annemarie Tue 11 Sep 2018, 14:04

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6153933/Trump-begins-9-11-anniversary-tweeting-Hillary-Clinton-FBI-enemies-leak-strategy.html

[size=34]Trump begins 9/11 anniversary by tweeting about Hillary Clinton and his FBI enemies’ 'leak strategy' before flying to Pennsylvania for solemn 'Never Forget' tribute[/size]


  • President marked 9/11 anniversay with a tweet about his enemies in the FBI and Justice Department

  • Mentioned the terror attacks only in a retweet of a proclamation-signing a day earlier and a compliment to then-New York Mayor Giuliani, who is now his lawyer

  • Trump is upset about a newly revealed text message showing senior FBI agent Peter Strzok telling his lover about a 'media leak strategy' inside the agency

  • 2,996 people died on September 11, 2001 in coordinated Islamist-led terror attacks, the worst in America's history

  • White House said 'bad weather' forced the president to leave via motorcade instead of helicopter, denying reporters the chance to ask him questions

  • A half-hour later he tweeted a hand-over-heart memorial photo taken a year ago on the South Lawn with the sun shining overhead 

  • White House aides participated in a moment of silence outside, in nice weather, at the same moment the first plane struck the World Trade Center in 2001 


By DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and WIRES
PUBLISHED: 01:10 EDT, 11 September 2018 | UPDATED: 08:59 EDT, 11 September 2018

     



President Donald Trump began the 17th anniversary of the most deadly international terror attack in U.S. history with a tweet about his domestic political enemies.
He was incensed about a new development in the investigation of a senior FBI agent caught conspiring with his lover to help ensure his defeat in 2016.
A text message revealed Monday night by a Republican congressman shows Peter Strzok telling Lisa Page in April 2017 that they should collaborate on a 'media leak strategy.'
So as he prepared to visit sacred Pennsylvania ground where 40 passengers and crew died as they prevented a hijacked plane from reaching Washington, D.C., the president quoted a paid of his favorite TV commentators to gin up his favorite political hardball game.

'We have found nothing to show collusion between President Trump & Russia, absolutely zero, but every day we get more documentation showing collusion between the FBI & DOJ, the Hillary campaign, foreign spies & Russians, incredible,' Trump wrote, paraphrasing the words of Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs and a frequent guest commentator.
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President Donald Trump left Washington on Tuesday for a 9/11 memorial service in Pennsylvania, but not before tweeting about his political enemies
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Before mentioning the terror attacks 17 years ago, the president's Twitter feed focused on 'collusion' among the FBI, Justice Department, Hillary Clinton campaign and foreign agents
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Trump was venting about Monday night's revelation that senior FBI agent Peter Strzok told his lover in 2017 that they should collaborate on a 'media leak strategy,' presumably about Trump
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2,996 people died on September 11, 2001 when Islamist hijakers flew planes into the twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center, slammed into the exterior of the Pentagon building in Virginia and crashed amid apassenger revolt in rural Pennsylvania
Four minutes later, 9/11 was back on his mind – but only long enough to retweet a photo circulated by his social media manager, showing him signing a 'Patriots Day' proclamation a day earlier.
'#NeverForget #September11th,' the president added, contributing two hashtags but little else to ease America's annual mourning.
When he returned to his 9/11 stream of consciousness before leaving the White House for a Pennsylvania memorial service, he found a way to bring the terror attacks back to his own administration by praising his attorney Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor of New York City when 2.996 people perished.
'Rudy Giuliani did a GREAT job as Mayor of NYC during the period of September 11th. His leadership, bravery and skill must never be forgotten. Rudy is a TRUE WARRIOR!' Trump tweeted.
But in between his notes about the nation-shaping Islamist blitz, he found a moment to put the Strozk text message on the country's radar.
'New Strzok-Page texts reveal “Media Leak Strategy”,' he marveled, citing a Fox News Channel report. 
'So terrible, and NOTHING is being done at DOJ or FBI – but the world is watching, and they get it completely.'
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Visitors to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., participated in a sunset memorial service on Monday where Trump is visiting
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Seventeen years later, deaths are still being attributed to the conditions in lower Manhattan after two of the world's tallest buildings collapsed
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The American national flag was draped on one face of the Pentagon building at dawn on Tuesday in Arlington, Virginia
The president also quoted Dobbs saying that Obama-era Attorney General Eric Holder 'could be running the Justice Department right now and it would be behaving no differently than it is.'
In the bombshell text message cited Monday in a letter to the FBI from North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, Strzok wrote to Lisa Page: 'I had literally just gone to find this phone to tell you I want to talk to you about media leak strategy with DOJ before you go.'
Against the backdrop of his usual political fuming, Trump headed to Shanksville, PA along with the first lady. 
The White House told reporters that 'bad weather' had forced the president to travel to Joint Base Andrews via motorcade instead of helicopter, denying the press the chance to ask him questions on the South Lawn.
The sky above 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was cloudy but the air was dry.
A half-hour later Trump's Twitter account published a photo of the president and first lady flanked by phalanxes of White House aides on the South Lawn, a picture taken a year ago with the sun shining brightly overhead. 
White House aides participated in a moment of silence on the South Lawn later in the morning, in fair weather.
Shanksville is where hijackers crashed a California-bound commercial airliner on Sept. 11, 2001, after the 40 passengers and crew members learned what was happening and attempted to regain control of the aircraft. Everyone on board was killed.
Nearly 3,000 people died on 9/11 when other airplanes were flown into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in an attack planned by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Nearly a decade later, bin Laden was killed in May 2011 during a U.S. military operation ordered by President Barack Obama.


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Visitors to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania stopped Monday to recognize the names of all 40 victims from Flight 93
Trump, a New York native making his first visit as president to the Shanksville site, will focus on honoring the many lives that were lost that day.
"Certainly the focus will be on remembering that horrific day and remembering the lives that were lost, and certainly honoring the individuals who were not only lost that day, but also put their lives of the line to help in that process," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
Trump observed the solemn anniversary for the first time as president last year. He and the first lady led a moment of silence at the White House accompanied by aides and administration officials at the exact time that hijackers flew the first of two airplanes into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers.
The president also participated in the Pentagon's Sept. 11 observance last year. Vice President Mike Pence will represent the administration there on Tuesday.
Trump was in his Trump Tower penthouse – 4 miles from the World Trade Center – during the 2001 attacks. He has a mixed history with Sept. 11, often using the terrorist strikes to praise the response of New Yorkers to the attack but also making unsubstantiated claims about what he did and saw that day. 
He has also accused fellow Republican George W. Bush, who was president on Sept. 11, of failing to keep Americans safe.
Trump has said when talking about Muslims that "thousands of people were cheering" in Jersey City, New Jersey, situated across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan, as the towers collapsed. There is no evidence in news archives of mass celebrations there by Muslims.
Trump has also said he lost "hundreds of friends" in the attack on New York City. He has not provided any names but has mentioned knowing a Roman Catholic priest who died while serving as a chaplain to the city fire department.

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The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 Empty Re: The Serious Side - part 6

Post by annemarie Thu 13 Sep 2018, 18:28

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6163051/Donald-Trump-brags-getting-tremendous-accolades-response-Hurricane-Florence.html

[size=34]Trump brags he is getting 'tremendous accolades' for his response to Hurricane Florence - even though it hasn't hit land[/size]


  • Trump claims government officials and locals praised his preparations for storm

  • Hurricane Florence heading towards south-east with thousands leaving homes

  • Residents along coast boarding up their properties and stockpiling supplies

  • President was criticized for his response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico


By CHRIS DYER FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 05:20 EDT, 13 September 2018 | UPDATED: 08:36 EDT, 13 September 2018

     




Donald Trump has bragged his handling of the preparations for Hurricane Florence is getting 'tremendous accolades' - even though the storm has not hit yet.
Residents along the south-eastern coast of the US have been boarding up their properties, stockpiling supplies and some have left their homes as the Category 2 storm heads toward land.
Many residents in the Carolina states have said they have little trust in the authorities and fear they would not get much support from central government should the area be devastated by the hurricane, given the response to the devastation caused by Maria to Puerto Rico last year.
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A camera on the International Space Station captures the eye of Hurricane Florence as it tracks across the sea and towards the south-east coast of America
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Donald Trump bragged his handling of preparations for Hurricane Florence is getting 'tremendous accolades'

But yesterday President Trump claimed politicians and people on the ground were praising the preparations made by his administration.
He said during a reception for Congressional Medal of Honor recipients at the White House: 'We're getting tremendous accolades from politicians and the people but we are ready.'
The president added the hurricane is going to be 'one of the biggest ever to hit our country' but said his staff are closely coordinating with state and local officials in the Carolinas Georgia and Virginia.
Up to 1.7m residents on the eastern seaboard have been scrambling to evacuate their homes as government officials warned the hurricane would deliver a 'Mike Tyson punch' to South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. 
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Sand bags surround homes on North Topsail Beach, North Carolina, as mandatory evacuations orders were issued for the area
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Chris Williams boarded up his Knuckleheads bar with the sign 'looters will be shot' in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

[size=18]
Hurricane Florence set to deliver disaster for days






[/size]
 As many as 3 million people could lose electricity as a result of the storm.
Trump urged people to take seriously the threat of what may be the biggest storm to hit the East Coast in decades. 
He added: 'Get out of its way. Don't play games with it. It's a big one.'
Trump is keen to show his team are better prepared than during Hurricane Maria, which killed nearly 3,000 people last September.
He has been defending his handling of the devastating storm.
Trump tweeted yesterday: 'We got A Pluses for our recent hurricane work in Texas and Florida, and did an unappreciated great job in Puerto Rico, even though an inaccessible island with very poor electricity and a totally incompetent Mayor of San Juan. We are ready for the big one that is coming!'   
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People and pets evacuated ahead of the forecast of Hurricane Florence sought shelter at Burgaw Middle School in Burgaw, North Carolina yesterday



But Puerto Rican Democratic Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is running for a House of Representatives seat from New York, criticized Trumps response to the disaster. 
She tweeted: 'The 1 year anniversary of Hurricane María is next week. Some of my PR family JUST got power a few weeks ago. People are developing respiratory issues partly due to airborne fungal spores from lack of proper cleanup. The admin’s response to Puerto Rico has been a disaster.' 
Yesterday it emerged an estimated 20,000 pallets of water bottles were left sitting on tarmac at Puerto Rico's José Aponte de la Torre Airport airport for nearly a year.
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Pictures of of thousands of unused bottles of water were posted on social media yesterday
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Post by annemarie Thu 13 Sep 2018, 23:13

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6165317/Leaders-gather-funeral-Secretary-General-Kofi-Annan.html

[size=34]World leaders and dignitaries gather in Ghana to pay last respects at state funeral of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan[/size]


  • Annan, who died last month in Switzerland aged 80, was honored with a state funeral in his home country 

  • The grandson of tribal chiefs, he was first black African to become the UN leader, serving from 1997 to 2006 

  • Was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2001 for helping to galivinise the organisation in the midst of the Iraq War 


By CHARLIE MOORE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 14:37 EDT, 13 September 2018 | UPDATED: 16:07 EDT, 13 September 2018

     


World leaders and international dignitaries gathered to pay their last respects to former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at his funeral in Ghana today.
Annan, who died last month in Switzerland aged 80, was honored with a state funeral in his home country.
The grandson of tribal chiefs, he was the first black African to become the UN leader, serving from 1997 to 2006.
He was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2001 for helping to galvanise the organisation in the midst of the Iraq War and an HIV pandemic. 


[size=10][size=18]World leaders gather in Ghana to pay respects to Kofi Annan



L
[/size][/size]





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World leaders and international dignitaries gathered to pay their last respects to former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at his funeral in Ghana today
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Nane Maria, the widow of Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat and former Secretary General of United Nations who died on August 18 at the age of 80 after a short illness
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The grandson of tribal chiefs, he was the first black African to become the UN leader, serving from 1997 to 2006
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Nane Maria Annan, the Swedish wife of the former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, who died in Switzerland, prays in front of the casket of her husband lying in state at the International Conference Centre
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Mourners included Princess Beatrix (centre), the former queen of the Netherlands, and her daughter-in-law Princess Mabel, who were close friends of Annan
Mourners included Princess Beatrix, the former queen of the Netherlands, and her daughter-in-law Princess Mabel, who were close friends of Annan.
'Kofi Annan was courageous, speaking the truth to power while subjecting himself to intense self-scrutiny,' said current UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Presidents from across Africa joined Guterres, Annan's family and many others in a ceremony that concluded two days of viewings.
The presidents of Namibia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone attended, along with Niger's prime minister and Angola's vice president.
Former leaders from Europe and Africa also joined the ceremony, including Graca Machel, wife of the late South African President Nelson Mandela.
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Clergymen pray over the coffin of former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, draped with the Ghana flag
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Annan, who died last month in Switzerland aged 80, was honored with a state funeral in his home country
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Former leaders from Europe and Africa also joined the ceremony, including Graca Machel, wife of the late South African President Nelson Mandela
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Kofi Annan's son Kojo Annan, left, widow Nane Annan, second left, and daughter Ama Annan, center, join other family members to pay their respects
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A woman wearing traditional dress dances and members of the public pay their respects as the coffin of former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
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Dignitaries sit before the coffin of the late Kofi Annan, during a state funeral at the Accra International Conference centre
Gutteres said the late Annan 'was an exceptional global leader - and he was also someone virtually anyone in the world could see themselves in: those on the far reaches of poverty, conflict and despair who found in him an ally; the junior UN staffer following in his footsteps; the young person to whom he said until his dying breath always remember, you are never too young to lead - and we are never too old to learn.'
Guterres, who was selected by Annan to be the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, spoke of the honor of working with him to weather 'many of the same global storms.'


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'The world has lost a standard-bearer of global cooperation. The United Nations has lost an embodiment of its mission,' he said. 'Now that I occupy the office Kofi once held, I am continually inspired by his integrity, dynamism and dedication. To him, indifference was the world's worst poison.'
Even after serving as secretary-general he continued to work on the front lines of diplomacy, said Guterres.
'He helped to ease post-election tensions in Kenya, gave his all to find a political solution to the brutal war in Syria and set out a path for ensuring justice and rights for the Rohingya people of Myanmar,' said Guterres.
Ghana's President Nana Dankwa Akufo-Addo said Annan was bold and never gave up on what he believed in.
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Mette-Marit (left), Crown Princess of Norway attends a state funeral for Kofi Annan with Princess Mabel (right) of the Netherlands
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Dignitaries attend the state funeral for the late Kofi Annan at the Accra International Conference centre, Ghana, 13 September 2018. Kofi Annan the seventh Secretary General of the United Nations passed away on 18 August 2018 at age 80
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Guards of a Ghanaian chief wear black and plants on their heads, a tradition when going to a funeral, and queue outside to pay their respects
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Traditional leaders pay their respects to former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, who died in Switzerland
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Soldiers guard the coffin of Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat and former Secretary General of United Nations who died on August 18 at the age of 80
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Ghanaian chiefs queue outside to pay their respects to the coffin of former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
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Ashanti dancers perform as local chiefs, politicians and extended family members wait to pay their respects to Kofi Annan
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Kofi Annan was an ardent believer in the capacity of Ghana and the continent of Africa to chart its own path of progress. Pictured: A woman mourns
'Despite the unjustified attacks on him, trying to fix him with responsibility for the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica when he was head of U.N. peace operations, he never lost his moral compass, as he showed when he stood up to the might of the United States of America when she was embarking on the ill-fated intervention in Iraq.'
History has vindicated Annan, said Akufo-Addo, saying that his 'epic but unavailing effort to establish the supremacy of international law over the actions of even the world's greatest power won him the admiration of all right-thinking persons.'
He said Kofi Annan was an ardent believer in the capacity of Ghana and the continent of Africa to chart its own path of progress.
Annan's wife, Nane 'thanked God for giving her such an extraordinary human being,' while his daughter Ama Annan Adedeji said her father 'was one of the most loving people l have known.'
Mourners have thronged to the conference center in Accra, where his coffin has been since his body arrived Monday, and where the funeral was held.
A private burial follows at Accra's Military Cemetery, with full military honors and a 17-gun salute. 
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Members of the public pay their respects as the coffin of former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, draped in the Ghana flag
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Dignitaries sit before the coffin of the late Kofi Annan, during a state funeral at the Accra International Conference centre
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A general view of a state funeral for Kofi Annan at the Accra International Conference centre, Ghana

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Post by annemarie Fri 14 Sep 2018, 21:03

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6168327/Paul-Manafort-heads-court-prosecutors-file-superseding-indictment.html

[size=34]Manafort FLIPS: Ex-campaign chair turns RAT on Trump as he pleads guilty in dramatic deal with Robert Mueller's prosecutors and agrees to meet special counsel WITHOUT his attorneys[/size]


  • Disgraced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has made a deal to avoid a second trial on charges including money-laundering

  • He has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, according to statements in court and pleaded guilty in federal court to two charges, with other ones dropped

  • Trump's former campaign chairman remains in jail, and faces up to 10 years in prison - as well as losing his Tump Tower apartment, purchased for $3.7 million

  • 'This had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his victorious 2016 Presidential campaign. It is totally unrelated,' said the White House

  • Manafort was already convicted of bank and tax fraud after trial in Alexandria, VA, and faces spending the rest of his life in prison 

  • Manafort admits he laundered more than $30 million to buy property and goods and 'cheated the United States out of over $15 million in taxes.'

  • Trump last month hailed Manafort as a 'brave man' for refusing to 'break' nut now faces Manafort speaking freely to Mueller's investigators without his attorney

  • Guilty plea is the fourth by a Trump campaign official 


By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ALANA GOODMAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 09:33 EDT, 14 September 2018 | UPDATED: 15:31 EDT, 14 September 2018

     



Paul Manafort pleaded guilty on Friday to two counts of conspiracy against the United States, telling a court he will cooperate with Robert Mueller's investigation and agreeing to meet with the special counsel team without an attorney 
The stunning development that Manafort will assist prosecutors who went after him on a raft of money laundering and tax charges follows a series of earlier indications that Manafort would not cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller.
His cooperation, depending on the extent of it, could provide prosecutors with a valuable tool as they forge ahead with the Russia probe.
Manafort faces up to 10 years in prison for the charges. As part of his plea agreement, Manafort also agreed to forfeit five properties he owned in New York, including his apartment at Trump Tower and his sprawling estate in the Hamptons.

In addition, he will give up a brownstone he owned in Brooklyn, New York, his SoHo, Manhattan, condo, and an apartment in Chinatown. He must also forfeit two bank accounts at Federal Savings Bank and an account at Capital One.
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Guilty: This is the moment Paul Manafort stood to accept his guilt at the Washington D.C. federal court hearing presided over by Judge Amy Berman Jackson
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In court: Paul Manafort sat and listened as attorney Richard Westling addressed the judge
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Kathleen Manafort arrives at court as her husband prepares to plead guilty to federal charges
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WHAT'S THE DEAL? Trump tweeted weeks ago that Manafort refused to 'break' in order to get a 'deal.' On Friday he reached a cooperation agreement with prosecutors


Manafort appeared to be in good spirits, flashing a wide grin when he walked into the D.C. federal courtroom wearing a black suit and dark purple tie.
He exchanged no glances with his wife, Kathleen, who sat in the second row and looked unemotional as prosecutors read off the accusations against her husband.
The charges included allegations that Manafort lied to the Department of Justice about his work for a foreign government and that he obstructed justice by attempting to influence potential witnesses in the case.
When Judge Amy Berman Jackson asked Manafort if this was a 'true and accurate statement of what you did in this case,' Manafort replied, 'It is.'     
The former Trump campaign chairman pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy against the United States, charges that carry a maximum of five years in prison each. The judge noted that these sentences could not be served concurrently.
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Guilty: Paul Manafort, 69, will stay behind bars awaiting sentencing, and faces up to 10 years in prison
He will also face up to three years of supervised release on each count and a maximum $250,000 fine on each count.
Judge Jackson said she will wait to sentence Manafort until she receives a report on the sentencing guidelines from the Probation office. She will also allow on both sides to file objections if they wish to do so.
She also told Manafort that the law will require her sentencing guidelines to be more severe because his actions involved money laundering, obstruction of justice, and off-shore accounts and other 'sophisticated means.'
She said the enhanced guidelines would mean Manafort should face between 210 and 262 months in prison – an amount of time that would have to be capped due to the 10 year maximum sentence.
Judge Jackson also noted that Manafort would not be eligible for parole because it has been abolished for federal cases.
Manafort's defense team agreed that the statutory 10-year maximum 'would be reasonable in this case.' Prosecutors will still have a chance to file a motion asking for a lower sentence, and this could depend on the extent of Manafort's cooperation with the special counsel's office.
Judge Jackson gave attorneys on both sides 60 days to return to file a joint status report in the case. 
WHITE HOUSE RESPONDS: 'MANAFORT'S CASE IS NOTHING TO DO TRUMP'
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement following the bombshell development in court.
'This had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his victorious 2016 Presidential campaign. It is totally unrelated,' Sanders said.
This had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his victorious 2016 Presidential campaign. It is totally unrelated.' - White House press secretary Sarah Sanders
A cooperation agreement would bind Manafort to answering questions from prosecutors about the gamut of questions about what he knows as they pursue their probe of Russian election interference in the elections and connections between President Donald Trump's team and Russians. 
Manafort attended the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russian in June of 2016 that got set up after a British music publicist reached out to Donald Trump Jr. after getting an offer of dirt on Hillary Clinton. 
MANAFORT LOSES TRUMP TOWER PAD AND FACES 10 YEARS IN PRISON 
Manafort also will be required to forfeit assets as part of the plea. Prosecutors say he deprived taxpayers of $15 million and laundered $30 million in assets. Manafort used overseas income to purchase homes in the U.S., then took out millions in bank loans to fund purchases here without declaring the money as income. 
He faces up to ten years in jail. 
Manafort also agreed to forfeit five properties he owned in New York, including his apartment at Trump Tower and his sprawling estate in the Hamptons.
In addition, he will give up a Brownstone he owned in Brooklyn, his SoHo condo, and an apartment in Chinatown. He must also forfeit two bank accounts at Federal Savings Bank and an account at Capital One.
Manafort also owns a home in Alexandria Virginia and a home in Florida.
Manafort bought his upper-floor apartment in Trump Tower in November 2006, using an LLC he controlled called John Hannah LLC. Public records show a purchase price of $3.675 million. 
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Manafort will give up a Trump Tower apartment with an original of purchase price of $3.675 million
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Seized: Paul Manafort loses his brownstone in Brooklyn's upscale Carroll Gardens and his loft in Manhattan's trendy SoHo, which he rented out on AirBnB
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Seized: Paul Manafort will lose his lavish Hamptons estate which his first trial had heard was where he spent a fortune on gardening and even karaoke equipment
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Keeping: Manafort's wife Katherine will still have use of the Alexandria, VA condo, which was raided by the FBI acting for Mueller's probe 
MANAFORT'S WIFE SHOWS NO EMOTION AS SHE WATCHES HIM FLIP
While in court, Manafort appeared to be in good spirits, flashing a wide grin when he walked into the D.C. federal courtroom wearing a black suit and dark purple tie.
He exchanged no glances with his wife, Kathleen, who sat in the second row and looked unemotional as prosecutors read off the accusations against her husband.
When Judge Amy Jackson asked Manafort if this was a 'true and accurate statement of what you did in this case,' Manafort replied, 'It is.'
The former Trump campaign chairman pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy against the United States, charges that carry a maximum of five years in prison each. The judge noted that these sentences could not be served concurrently.
He will also face up to three years of supervised release on each count and a maximum $250,000 fine on each count.
Judge Jackson said she will wait to sentence Manafort until she receives a report on the sentencing guidelines from the Probation office. She will also allow on both sides to file objections if they wish to do so.
She also told Manafort that the law will require her sentencing guidelines to be more severe because his actions involved money laundering, obstruction of justice, and off-shore accounts and other 'sophisticated means.'
She said the enhanced guidelines would mean Manafort should face between 210 and 262 months in prison – an amount of time that would have to be capped due to the 10 year maximum sentence.
Judge Jackson also noted that Manafort would not be eligible for parole because it has been abolished for federal cases.
Manafort's defense team agreed that the statutory 10-year maximum 'would be reasonable in this case.' Prosecutors will still have a chance to file a motion asking for a lower sentence, and this could depend on the extent of Manafort's cooperation with the special counsel's office.
Judge Jackson gave attorneys on both sides 60 days to return to file a joint status report in the case. 
'Once again an investigation is concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason: the president did nothing wrong,' Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said in a statement, CNN reported. 
MANAFORT'S ATTORNEY: HE DID IT FOR HIS FAMILY  
Manafort attorney Kevin Downing told reporters: 'He's accepted responsibility. And he wanted to make sure that his family was able to remain safe and live a good life. He's accepted responsibility and this is for conduct that dates back many years, and everybody should remember that,' he said. 
Even as Hurricane Florence battered the East Coast, Trump was briefed by his legal team on the bombshell developments Friday.
Under the terms of the agreement revealed by Judge Amy Berman Jackson, Manafort has agreed to submit to further interviews with the special counsel, share documents in his possession, testify in other court proceedings, and waive his right to have a lawyer present during interviews, CNN reported.      
Charges where a Virginia jury deadlocked would go away, but only following 'successful cooperation,' according to Judge Jackson. He would serve no more than 10 years in jail, and he will remain incarcerated. 
He's accepted responsibility. And he wanted to make sure that his family was able to remain safe and live a good life' - Manafort attorney Kevin Downing 
The deal not only spares Manafort the expense of a second trial – it spares Trump the spectacle of another court proceeding of his former campaign chair in the weeks before the November elections.   
'Is what the prosecutor just said a true and accurate description of what you did in this case?' Judge Jackson asked him.
'I did. It is,' he replied. 
An earlier indictment laid out how Manafort lied to get home loans and then used properties to harvest cash. 
He 'falsely represented the amount of debt he had by failing to disclose on his loan application the existence of' another mortgage on his Union Street [a $3 million townhouse in Brooklyn] home, for example,' according to the indictment.   
When the document [a loan application] was first submitted to Lender B, a conspirator working at Lender B replied: 'Looks Dr'd. Can't someone just do a clean excel doc and pdf to me??' A subsequent version was submitted to the bank,' according to prosecutors.
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Statement: Kevin Downing, Paul Manafort's attorney, spoke outside the court to say that his client's guilty plea was for the sake of his family
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Taking a tumble: TV cameraman Chris Plater fell while filming Kevin Downing after the attorney had made his statement
The cooperation deal comes after Manafort has already been convicted of federal crimes in a Virginia courthouse, and faces sentencing. It follows speculation that Manafort was following a different path, potentially pursuing a simple guilty plea or even seeking a pardon from Trump.
Prosecutors filed a new superseding indictment against Paul Manafort Friday, as the former Donald Trump campaign chair agreed to plead guilty to federal crimes. 
Manafort appeared in court Friday morning in what Special Robert Mueller's office announced was an arraignment and plea agreement hearing that began around 11:00 am.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office sent out the new superseding criminal information laying out a series of charges against Manafort Friday morning.
New exhibits contained in the indictment show Manafort pushing an 'action plan' to go on 'offense' and show 'what Ukraine is doing' – actions that would appear to indicate a U.S. lobbying effort.
Also included is a 2010 memo Manafort wrote to pro-Russian Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovich touting a 'Public and Government Relations program' Manafort said he created. 
MANAFORT'S JAW-DROPPING MEMOS: HE WROTE ABOUT 'OBAMA'S JEWS' 
One newly revealed document showed Manafort 'orchestrated a scheme to have …'[O]bama jews' put pressure on the administration' to support Yanukovych and 'disavow' his rival, Tymoshenko. 
This involved putting out stories that 'a senior Cabinet official' who previously criticized Yanukovych 'was supporting anti-Semitism because the official supported Tymoshenko, who in turn had formed a political alliance with a Ukraine party that espoused anti-Semitic views.'
The government charged Manafort 'coordinated privately with a senior Israeli government official' to issue a statement publicizing the story.
'I have someone pushing it on the NY Post. Bada bing bada boom,' he wrote.
He sought to have the administration 'understand that 'the Jewish community will take this out on Obama on election day if he does nothing,' according to prosecutors.  
The New York Times reported that prosecutors charged Manafort with one count of conspiracy and another of conspiracy to obstruct justice – a charge related to witness tampering in the case. The times reported they were dropping five charges dealing with money laundering and lobby disclosure violations.
However the superseding indictment stated Manafort failed to register as a foreign agent, laundered funds, and hid Ukrainian payments that reached $60 million.
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Manafort was convicted on eight counts in his first trial last month, and was said to be discussing a plea deal ahead of the second trial - which he has now made
Typically in such cases the defendant must admit to all of the charges against him, even if he does not plead guilty to all the charges. 
A plea allows Manafort to avoid a trial in Washington, D.C. Manafort has already been convicted in a federal court in Virginia.
A hearing set for Friday morning was pushed back to 11:00 am, signaling last minute maneuverings in the case. 
Manafort's criminal indictment was changed to a plea agreement, special counsel Peter Carr told the Post Friday morning.
The Special Counsel's office released an official statement Friday that did not yet confirm the guilty plea. 
'A superseding criminal information against Paul J. Manafort, Jr., 69, of Alexandria, Va., has been filed today in the District of Columbia, which alleges a conspiracy against the United States (money laundering, tax fraud, failing to file Foreign Bank Account Reports, violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and lying and misrepresenting to the Department of Justice) and a conspiracy to obstruct justice (witness tampering),' according to Mueller's office.
'Additional information will be provided in the near future.'
RUDY'S ALREADY CLAIMED TRUMP IS RELAXED ABOUT PLEA DEAL 
Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani had earlier told Politico the president isn't worried about Manafort possibly accepting a plea.
Manafort was scheduled to go on trial in D.C. on September 17, on charges including money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent. Jury selection begins that day with opening arguments to follow a week later. 
Before the deal emerged, Giuliani said: 'We can see a reason why he might want to do that. What's the need for another trial?
'They've got enough to put him in jail. His lawyer is going to argue they shouldn't. The judge should decide this. Not Mueller. I think it's pretty clear if they were going to get anything from him, they'd have gotten it already. 
'What's the point of further harassing him?'  
Manafort was found guilty on eight counts of tax and bank fraud at an August trial in Virginia court. He has yet to be sentenced.
Trump and his team are unconcerned about a possible plea deal, Giuliani said, because they're convinced Manafort has no damaging info on the president.
'From our perspective, we want him to do the right thing for himself,' Giuliani said. 'There's no fear that Paul Manafort would cooperate against the president because there's nothing to cooperate about and we long ago evaluated him as an honorable man.'
A plea deal could benefit Trump in that it would keep Manafort and the Russia investigation out of the news ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. 
And, given the nature of the charges he was convicted on in Virginia, at 69 Manafort could be facing life in prison simply from those convictions. 
Even though Manafort's charges stem from his lobbying business and not his campaign work for Trump, the prosecution came from the Mueller probe of Russia's election meddling.
And Manafort was part of the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where he, Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer who claimed to have dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Giuliani confirmed that Trump's legal team and Manafort's are in regular contact and that they are part of a joint defense agreement that allows confidential information sharing. 
Such an agreement would allow frequent communication between the two men's lawyers. Those contacts could inform Manafort's decision-making as he weights whether to make a deal, whether to cooperate, and whether he believes he is likely to secure a presidential pardon. 

R

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Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said the president isn't worried about Paul Manafort possibly flipping
The president has expressed sympathy for Manafort, unlike his reaction to his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to eight counts the same day Manafort was convicted.
'I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family,' Trump tweeted after the Virginia trial's verdict. 'Justice' took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to 'break' - make up stories in order to get a 'deal.' Such respect for a brave man!'
There has been speculation the president could pardon Manafort, which the president has not tamped down.
He has praised his former campaign chairman for not flipping.
'One of the reasons I respect Paul Manafort so much is he went through that trial — you know they make up stories. People make up stories. This whole thing about flipping, they call it, I know all about flipping,' Trump told 'Fox & Friends' last month. 
'It's called flipping, and it almost ought to be illegal. ... For 30, 40 years I've been watching flippers. Everything's wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they — they flip on whoever the next highest one is, or as high as you can go.' 



[size=34]ROBERT MUELLER'S PROBE SO FAR: EIGHT CONVICTIONS - INCLUDING THREE TOP TRUMP AIDES, A JAILED ATTORNEY AND 25 RUSSIANS ACCUSED[/size]


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GUILTY: MICHAEL FLYNN 
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in December 2017. Awaiting sentence
Flynn was President Trump's former National Security Advisor and Robert Mueller's most senior scalp to date. He previously served when he was a three star general as President Obama's director of the Defense Intelligence Agency but was fired. 
He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his conversations with a Russian ambassador in December 2016. He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.
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GUILTY: MICHAEL COHEN
Pleaded guilty to eight counts including fraud and two campaign finance violations in August 2018. Awaiting sentence
Cohen was Trump's longtime personal attorney, starting working for him and the Trump Organization in 2007. He is the longest-serving member of Trump's inner circle to be implicated by Mueller. Cohen professed unswerving devotion to Trump - and organized payments to silence two women who alleged they had sex with the-then candidate: porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.He admitted that payments to both women were felony campaign finance violations - and admitted that he acted at the 'direction' of 'Candidate-1': Donald Trump.
He also admitted tax fraud by lying about his income from loans he made, money from  taxi medallions he owned, and other sources of income, at a cost to the Treasury of $1.3 million.
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GUILTY: PAUL MANAFORT
Found guilty of eight charges of bank and tax fraud in August 2018. Pleaded guilty to two charges Awaiting sentence and second trial
Manafort worked for Trump's campaign from March 2016 and chaired it from June to August 2016, overseeing Trump being adopted as Republican candidate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He is the most senior campaign official to be implicated by Mueller. Manafort was one of Washington D.C.'s longest-term and most influential lobbyists but in 2015, his money dried up and the next year he turned to Trump for help, offering to be his campaign chairman for free - in the hope of making more money afterwards. But Mueller unwound his previous finances and discovered years of tax and bank fraud as he coined in cash from pro-Russia political parties and oligarchs in Ukraine.
Manafort pleaded not guilty to 18 charges of tax and bank fraud but was convicted of eight counts. The jury was deadlocked on the other 10 charges. A second trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent is due in September.  
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GUILTY: RICK GATES 
Pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements in February 2018. Awaiting sentence
Gates was Manafort's former deputy at political consulting firm DMP International. He admitted to conspiring to defraud the U.S. government on financial activity, and to lying to investigators about a meeting Manafort had with a member of congress in 2013. As a result of his guilty plea and promise of cooperation, prosecutors vacated charges against Gates on bank fraud, bank fraud conspiracy, failure to disclose foreign bank accounts, filing false tax returns, helping prepare false tax filings, and falsely amending tax returns.
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GUILTY: GEORGE PAPADOPOLOUS
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in October 2017. Awaiting sentence
Papadopoulos was a member of Donald Trump's campaign foreign policy advisory committee. He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his contacts with London professor Josef Mifsud and Ivan Timofeev, the director of a Russian government-funded think tank. 
He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.
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GUILTY: RICHARD PINEDO
Pleaded guilty to identity fraud in February 2018. Awaiting sentence
Pinedo is a 28-year-old computer specialist from Santa Paula, California. He admitted to selling bank account numbers to Russian nationals over the internet that he had obtained using stolen identities. 
He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.
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GUILTY AND JAILED: ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in February 2018. He served a 30-day prison sentence earlier this year and was deported to the Netherlands upon his release.
Van der Zwaan is a Dutch attorney for Skadden Arps who worked on a Ukrainian political analysis report for Paul Manafort in 2012. 
He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about when he last spoke with Rick Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik.
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GUILTY:  W. SAMUEL PATTEN
Pleaded guilty in August 2018 to failing to register as a lobbyist while doing work for a Ukrainian political party. Awaiting sentence.
Patten, a long-time D.C. lobbyist was a business partner of Paul Manafort. He pleaded guilty to admitting to arranging an illegal $50,000 donation to Trump's inauguration.
He arranged for an American 'straw donor' to pay $50,000 to the inaugural committee, knowing that it was actually for a Ukrainian businessman.
Neither the American or the Ukrainian have been named.   
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CHARGED: KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK
Indicted for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. 
Kilimnik is a former employee of Manafort's political consulting firm and helped him with lobbying work in Ukraine. He is accused of witness tampering, after he allegedly contacted individuals who had worked with Manafort to remind them that Manafort only performed lobbying work for them outside of the U.S.
He has been linked to  Russian intelligence and is currently thought to be in Russia - effectively beyond the reach of extradition by Mueller's team.
INDICTED: THE RUSSIANS 
Twenty-five Russian nationals and three Russian entities have been indicted for conspiracy to defraud the United States. 
Two of these Russian nationals were also indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 11 were indicted for conspiracy to launder money. Fifteen of them were also indicted for identity fraud. 
Vladimir Putin has ridiculed the charges. Russia effectively bars extradition of its nationals. The only prospect Mueller has of bringing any in front of a U.S. jury is if Interpol has their names on an international stop list - which is not made public - and they set foot in a territory which extradites to the U.S. 





[size=34]POLITICS, SEX, AND LIES: THE RISE AND FALL OF PAUL MANAFORT[/size]


In the span of just two years, Paul Manafort has gone from one of Washington's most sought-after Republican lobbyists to a political pariah - and now his conviction will seal that status forever.
It has been a long and spectacular fall from grace for the 69-year-old former Trump campaign manager, the son of a small-town mayor who went on to work for four U.S. presidents and made his fortune as the Washington mouthpiece for some of the world's most notorious dictators.
Today Manafort has few defenders in the nation's capital, after being convicted of tax fraud and money laundering by special counsel Robert Mueller - who first secured a guilty verdict from a jury then a plea deal on the eve of a second trial.
Even Manafort's former boss, President Trump, claimed he never would have hired the former lobbyist if he had known about the allegations.
'Paul Manafort came into the campaign very late and was with us for a short period of time (he represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole & many others over the years), but we should have been told that Comey and the boys were doing a number on him, and he wouldn't have been hired!' wrote Trump in a Twitter post in June.
Now the president faces Manafort co-operating with Robert Mueller 'fully and truthfully'. 
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[size=14]The power brokers: Paul Manafort, his future business partners Roger Stone and Lee Atwater, were photographed as young Republican operatives. Stone, a Trump confidante and notorious political dirty trickster is now fighting off the Mueller probe himself; Atwater died in 1991, a former RNC chairman with a reputation for dirty campaigns. All three cashed in on their political work by lobbying those they got elected
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Manafort, the grandson of an Italian immigrant, was raised in a staunch Republican home in New Britain, Connecticut. 
When he was 16, his father Paul John Manafort Sr. was elected mayor of New Britain and served for three terms. 
In 1981, Manafort Sr. was indicted – but later acquitted – on perjury charges in a sweeping city corruption and bribery scandal that also ensnared the police and fire chiefs.
After Catholic parochial schools and graduating from Georgetown University Law School, Manafort went on to work as an advisor for Republican Presidents Gerald Ford. 
He served as an advisor to Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole's presidential campaign.
But he - and his business partners - worked out how to turn political advising into a gusher of cash: by lobbying the very politicians they had helped elect.
He co-founded a prominent lobbying firm with ex-Nixon aide Roger Stone, and other partners, which shopped their access to top Republicans to U.S. businesses, state and city governments, and anyone who would pay.
That came to embrace the wider world too; the Manafort lobbying roster included brutal regimes willing to pay high fees for his services – including Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos and Zaire military leader Mobutu Sese Seko.
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[size=14]Betrayed: Kathleen Manafort stood by her husband despite his family finding proof of his mistress on Instagram; she attended every minute of his trial and was there when he said he was flipping
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Manafort went on to found his own political consulting firm in 2005, bringing on his former intern Rick Gates as his trusted deputy.
He also continued to take on controversial clients. In 2010, Manafort helped elect Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, head of Ukraine's Putin-allied Party of Regions.
The victory paid off – between 2010 and 2014, federal investigators said Manafort's firm earned 'a cash spigot': $60 million in fees from the Party of Regions' political patrons.
According to prosecutors, Manafort stashed the funds away in a series of offshore bank accounts and shell companies, and failed to disclose the income in his tax returns. In total, they claim he dodged taxes on $15 million.
But after Yanukovych was voted out of power by Ukraine's parliament in 2014, Manafort's fortunes suddenly changed. He stopped getting payments from Yanukovych's wealthy oligarch supporters, and started to have trouble paying his bills.
This is when prosecutors claim Manafort started applying for loans using phony financial information. In total, they said he scammed banks out of $20 million.
Manafort's alleged crimes were uncovered during the course of a special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller, who has been investigating potential Russian interference in the 2016 election and collusion with the Trump campaign.
In addition to the tax and bank fraud trial in Alexandria, Virginia, Manafort also faces additional counts of failing to register as a foreign agent for his Ukraine work. That trial is set to take place in Washington, D.C.
Even before the charges were filed against him, Manafort's personal life had been unravelling, according to years of hacked text messages between his daughters Andrea, 32, and Jessica, 36, that were posted online.
According to the messages, Manafort's family had caught him having an affair with a woman who was around the same age as his daughters, renting a pricy house for her in the Hamptons and paying her credit card bill.
They discovered the affair after seeing the woman's posts boasting about her expensive travel and dinners on Instagram. 
Manafort, who was undergoing an emotional breakdown according to the messages, committed himself to a psychiatric clinic in Arizona in 2015. 
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[size=14]Texts: Manafort's daughters Jessica (left, with now ex-husband Jeff Yohai, who flipped) and Andrea (right with husband Christopher Shand) exchanged text messages which were hacked revealing his affairs and calling him a psychopath. Jessica has changed her name to Bond, her mother's maiden name
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[size=14]Fruits of lobbying: This is the condo overlooking the Potomac where the FBI raided Manafort on orders from Mueller. He bought it for $2.75 million, part of a property empire worth conservatively $15 million
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After he was released in 2016 - claiming he had 'new insight' into himself - he linked up with the Trump campaign and became the candidate's campaign manager during the crucial months surrounding the Republican National Convention.
His daughter Andrea took a different view of that. She wrote in a leaked text to a friend, who was not named in the leak: 'Trump probably has more morals than my dad. Which is really just saying something about my dad. My dad is a psycho!!! At least trump let his wives leave him. Plus, Trump has been a good father.'
And she also texted: 'Trump waited a little too long in my opinion, but I can attest to the fact that he has now hired one of the world's greatest manipulators. I hope my dad pulls it off. Then I can sell my memoir with all his dirty secrets for a pretty penny.'
His other daughter, Jessica Manafort filed to change her name to Jessica Bond in August, after his conviction, telling the Los Angeles Times: 'I am a passionate liberal and a registered Democrat and this has been difficult for me.'
Despite the clearly unhappy family, Manafort's wife Kathleen stood by him in the face of his infidelity.
She loyally attended each day of his tax fraud trial, always sitting in the row directly behind his defense table.
Since June, Manafort has been incarcerated for alleged witness tampering related to his foreign agent case. He has been serving that time in a county jail in Alexandria which is close to the federal court where his tax and bank fraud trial was held.
After his conviction on eight of the 18 charges, he was kept inside because the outcome did not affect the allegation of witness tampering. 
In a recent mug shot, the fashion-conscious Manafort sported a jailhouse jumpsuit and shadowy stubble. His brown hair, which he previously dyed, is now tinged with grey.
The former lobbyist, who once spent $18,000 on a python skin jacket, has also been forced to attend his trial without socks – because he reportedly balked at the white ones he is required to wear as an inmate.
Manafort's conviction even impacted the legacy of his father, a popular three-term mayor in New Britain, Connecticut, from 1965 to 1971 - who was himself investigated for corruption, but unlike his son, never charged.
In August the city changed a street named after the former mayor from 'Paul Manafort Drive' to 'Paul Manafort Sr. Drive' in order to distance it from the controversy surrounding Manafort's trial.

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Post by annemarie Sat 15 Sep 2018, 22:29

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6171655/Former-Secretary-State-John-Kerry-hits-Trump-tweet-illegal-meetings-Iran.html

[size=34]'He’s got the maturity of an eight-year-old boy with the insecurity of a teenage girl': Former Secretary of State John Kerry hits back after Trump accused him of 'illegal meetings' with Iran[/size]


  • John Kerry has responded to accusations against him made when Donald Trump tweeted he had 'illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian Regime'

  • Former US Secretary of State appeared on the Real Time with Bill Maher Friday and compared the president's behavior to that of children

  • Kerry said: 'He's the first President who spends more time reading his Twitter likes than his briefing books or the constitution of the United States' 

  • Obama's top diplomat compared Trump's administration to 'Mean Girls' and used his experience in the Vietnam war to demonstrate how important the truth is


By LEAH SIMPSON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 14:11 EDT, 15 September 2018 | UPDATED: 15:28 EDT, 15 September 2018

     


Former US Secretary of State John Kerry has responded to President Donald Trump's accusations he had 'illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian Regime'.
Trump posted a tweet late Thursday saying that the meetings were 'to the detriment of the American people'.
During an appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher Friday, Kerry compared the leader's behavior to that of children.
'He really is the rare combination – he’s got the maturity of an eight-year-old boy with the insecurity of a teenage girl. That’s just who he is,' the former Massachusetts senator told the show's host and audience.


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John Kerry called Donald Trump a 'rare combination' – saying 'He’s got the maturity of an eight-year-old boy with the insecurity of a teenage girl' on Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher show
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Kerry also said: 'He's the first President who spends more time reading his Twitter likes than his briefing books or the constitution of the United States'
Kerry added that the president needs to spend more time addressing issues that matter.
He mentioned he should be worrying about the plea deal Paul Manafort has struck with Robert Mueller to cooperate with the Russia investigation, saying: 'Soon he'll be saying that's the worst deal that's been made'.
'He's the first President who spends more time reading his Twitter likes than his briefing books or the constitution of the United States,' he said during the interview.
'It's gone from the art of the deal to the art of the squeal,' he said, mentioning the anonymous op-ed that recently appeared in the New York Times where a member of Trump's administration revealed they and other members of the team have vowed to take him down from the inside.
The Vietnam war veteran was on the show to promote his new memoir Every Day Is Extra and urged the audience to see 2017's Netflix film The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, which documents just how early the lying about the reason for the war began.
He compared the lack of truth surrounding that war to current times. 
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President Donald Trump accused former Secretary of State John Kerry of holding ‘illegal meetings’ with Iran
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The Vietnam war veteran was on the show to promote his new memoir Every Day Is Extra
Kerry said: 'We have a president where the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth are three different things.'
Maher told Kerry that 2004 was really the beginning of the Fake News that Trump speaks of so much, with a campaign against Kerry who went on to take up a role with former President Barack Obama.
Kerry and Maher spoke about the 'Mean Girls' mentality coming from Trump's office with Kerry ultimately defending his decision to have discussions with Iran since leaving his role. 


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Under President Barack Obama, Kerry was the lead US negotiator opposite the Iranians in the nuclear talks. He is seen right with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif at the United Nations headquarters in New York in April 2016

'We've always relied on our democracy getting stronger when people tell the truth,' Kerry continued, as he discussed with Maher that Trump wasn't a fan of the real truth emerging.
Kerry continued by explaining how he and the late John McCain had brought America too far forward for them to regress under Trump's administration.
'John McCain and I together decided we were going to end the war at home and abroad,' he said, adding that he believes all veterans who came back from Vietnam had a very difficult time.
The chat also detailed how they spent 10 years providing families of the deceased with closure by bringing remains back.
Continuing to defend his meetings with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for nuclear talks that could change the West's relationship with the Middle East, he said: 'I did absolutely [meet with Iran]. Everybody does. There's absolutely nothing unusual about it.'

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Post by annemarie Mon 17 Sep 2018, 20:50

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6177055/Trump-Jr-mocks-sexual-assault-claim-against-Kavanaugh.html

[size=34]Don Jr. mocks sex attack allegation leveled at Brett Kavanaugh and LIKES a tweet comparing claims against Supreme Court nominee to 'LYNCHINGS'[/size]


  • President's son uses social media to speak out against allegations his father's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanugh has a history of sex assault 

  • Psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford alleges he tried to force himself on her when she was 15 and Kavanaugh was 17 during drink-fueled party

  • Don Jr. used Instagram to mock her allegations by comparing them to playground crush 

  • On Twitter he liked a tweet from James Woods about '#MeTooLynchings' before actor deleted the tweet


By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 11:59 EDT, 17 September 2018 | UPDATED: 14:19 EDT, 17 September 2018

     




President Donald Trump's eldest son appeared to mock the sexual assault allegations against his father's nominee for the Supreme Court.
Christine Blasey Ford, a college professor, has come forth with an allegation that Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the president's nominee, assaulted her at a party more than 30 years ago. Kavanaugh denied the charges, releasing a statement Monday that he was willing to speak to a Senate panel to 'refute' the allegation.
Donald Trump Jr. posted an image on Instagram with the caption 'Judge Kavanaugh sexual assault letter found by Dems...'
The photo attached shows a crumpled-up piece of notebook paper with a scribbled message: 'Hi Cindy will you be my girlfriend, Love Bret.' 

The note has boxes to check for 'yes' or 'no' and seems to compare Kavanaugh's accuser to a school yard crush.
Trump Jr. also 'liked' a tweet from conservative actor James Woods which compared the accusation to a #MeToo 'lynching.' Woods later deleted the tweet.
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Satire: The president's son used Instagram to mock the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, his father's Supreme Court nominee
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Statement: Don Jr. linked a tweet using the term 'lynchings' from conservative actor James Woods, who later deleted the message
Trump Jr. has long been the Trump child most in touch with the president's most ardent voters. He seems to relish the button-pushing, asserting or trolling Tweet. 
His social media feed has traded in conspiracy theories and hard-line messages about immigration or gun control. 
He once circulated a post that compared Syrian refugees to a bowl of Skittles candy that contained some that 'would kill you.'
He's beloved on the right as the swaggering embodiment of the Make America Great Again agenda. And he's embracing his role as a popular emissary for his father, crisscrossing the country on campaign trips, penning op-eds in support of favored candidates and showcasing his new relationship with former Fox News host Kim Guilfoyle.
Trump Jr. has also mirrored his father's combative defiance toward special counsel's Robert Mueller's investigation while downplaying any talk of his own legal exposure stemming from his involvement in a 2016 Trump Tower meeting that's a focus of Mueller's probe into possible links between the president's election campaign and Russia.
Kavanaugh, meanwhile, was seen arriving at the White House late Monday morning. There was no immediate explanation of the reason for his visit. He had been on a smooth confirmation track, but the new allegations have roiled that process.






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Opposite sides: Don Jr. is putting himself up against Christine Blasey Ford, who alleges Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when she was 15 and he was 17


[size=34]Text of letter Christine Ford wrote to Sen. Feinstein on Kavanaugh[/size]



July 30 2018
CONFIDENTIAL
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Dear Senator Feinstein;
I am writing with information relevant in evaluating the current nominee to the Supreme Court.
As a constituent, I expect that you will maintain this as confidential until we have further opportunity to speak.
Brett Kavanaugh physically and sexually assaulted me during high school in the early 1980's. He conducted these acts with the assistance of REDACTED.
Both were one to two years older than me and students at a local private school.
The assault occurred in a suburban Maryland area home at a gathering that included me and four others.
Kavanaugh physically pushed me into a bedroom as I was headed for a bathroom up a short stair well from the living room. They locked the door and played loud music precluding any successful attempt to yell for help.
Kavanaugh was on top of me while laughing with REDACTED, who periodically jumped onto Kavanaugh. They both laughed as Kavanaugh tried to disrobe me in their highly inebriated state. With Kavanaugh's hand over my mouth I feared he may inadvertently kill me.
From across the room a very drunken REDACTED said mixed words to Kavanaugh ranging from "go for it" to "stop."
At one point when REDACTED jumped onto the bed the weight on me was substantial. The pile toppled, and the two scrapped with each other. After a few attempts to get away, I was able to take this opportune moment to get up and run across to a hallway bathroom. I locked the bathroom door behind me. Both loudly stumbled down the stair well at which point other persons at the house were talking with them. I exited the bathroom, ran outside of the house and went home.
I have not knowingly seen Kavanaugh since the assault. I did see REDACTED once at the REDACTED where he was extremely uncomfortable seeing me.
I have received medical treatment regarding the assault. On July 6 I notified my local government representative to ask them how to proceed with sharing this information. It is upsetting to discuss sexual assault and its repercussions, yet I felt guilty and compelled as a citizen about the idea of not saying anything.
I am available to speak further should you wish to discuss. I am currently REDACTED and will be in REDACTED.
In confidence, REDACTED.

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Post by Donnamarie Tue 18 Sep 2018, 03:48

Trump Jr. is an idiot like his dad.  I believe Ford.  Why would any woman put herself in this situation to be raked over the coals by the media and the wolves on the Judiciary Committee unless the allegations were true? Ford is very brave to come forward and speak at the hearing now scheduled for next Monday.  Every woman on that Committee should vote against Kavanaugh’s appointment.

 I still find it appalling what happened to Anita Hill when she testified about her encounters with then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas back in 1991.  Hill was very credible in her testimony about the sexually bizarre comments (who would make that crap up??) Thomas had said to her and yet Thomas was still confirmed. 

Both Hill back in 1991 and Ford underwent polygraph tests and were found to be truthful .....
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Post by party animal - not! Tue 18 Sep 2018, 12:02

Well, considering women make up only 20% of the numbers in Congress, realistically what chance does this (very credible) woman have?

No wonder Feinstein still wants the FBI to step in

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Post by LizzyNY Tue 18 Sep 2018, 13:39

I can see most men excusing this as just a high school kid getting drunk and acting stupid at a party. Many of them probably have a similar incident in their past. If it was an isolated incident you could almost excuse it - but it appears it wasn't. A man has come forward to suggest that there was another incident while Kavanaugh was clerking.

I would assume he has matured since then and no longer considers that kind  of behavior acceptable - except that he's lying about it. If you've done nothing wrong you don't need to lie.
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Post by party animal - not! Tue 18 Sep 2018, 17:33

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/brett-kavanaugh-mark-judge-sexual-assault-claim-supreme-court-georgetown-prep-a8542426.html

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Post by Donnamarie Wed 19 Sep 2018, 00:44

Well as of this evening Ms. Ford hasn’t agreed to appear at the hearing on Monday.  But Mark Judge who was with Kavanaugh during the incident has already said through his lawyer that he won’t be a witness at the hearing.  That’s interesting.  

I think the optics of this hearing will look awful if Ford agrees to appear before the Judiciary Committee.  All these middle aged white men (mostly Trumpites, formerly Republicans) trying to discredit a woman who claims sexual assault.  Even if there is no hard evidence it will turn off many women in this country who are already fed up with an administration which has as its President a man who has sexually harassed and assaulted any number of women and gotten away with it.
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Post by party animal - not! Wed 19 Sep 2018, 01:57

Mm, well of course Grassley could always subpoena Judge.

And Stormy's new account will have turned a lot of women off too!

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Post by LizzyNY Wed 19 Sep 2018, 02:24

I wonder why Ford hasn't responded to the Committee's request I know it won't be easy, but IMO.she's losing credibility by staying silent.

Mr. Judge has told several different versions of the story. He claims they were good Catholic boys who would never behave in such a manner, but in one of his books he claims the opposite. He says he wasn't there. He says it didn't happen. He says a lot of things. I don't think anything he says can be trusted, but I do believe the things he put in writing before all this became public.
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Post by Way2Old4Dis Wed 19 Sep 2018, 16:38

Ford has called for an FBI investigation before she testifies before the committee. I think she's absolutely right. The hearings are a sham, and would be just a way for the Rethuglicans to say, "See, we addressed it. Nothing happened. Let's move on." This needs an objective, professional investigation.

Of course, the Assaulter-in-Chief and the minions in the Senate don't think an FBI investigation is called for. Of course.

I'm so sick of this daily onslaught from the organized crime enterprise that is "running" the country. My dream scenario - not the long-term they-all-go-to-prison one- is that the House flips Dem in November. In January, the House votes Hillary Clinton as Speaker (the Speaker does not have to be a Congressperson). That puts her third in line for succession to the Presidency.

Then The Pussygrabber and God's Chosen get impeached and indicted. Speaker of the House becomes President.

Hillary Clinton serves out the term to 2020, runs again and wins.

I really wish Kamala Harris didn't want to be President. She'd be a great Attorney General. Maybe she'd go for VP, and run in 2024.

Clinton puts Merritt Garland and Eric Holder on the Supreme Court, once Gorsuch is removed (fruit of an illegitimate presidential tree) and the Kava-naw debacle leaves the 9th seat vacant.

And we really start healing and restoring our nation so this kind of criminal coup never happens again.

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Post by LizzyNY Wed 19 Sep 2018, 23:46

Way2Old - From your mouth to God's ear!
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Post by Donnamarie Thu 20 Sep 2018, 14:35

I’ve thought a lot about whether Ford should testify now that the Committee has refused to an FBI investigation. It’s a sham and incredibly hypocritical of Grassley to have decided not to investigate considering that the Judiciary Committee did approve of an FBI investigation during the Clarence Thomas nomination hearings back in 1991.  

I wouldn’t criticize Ford if she decides not to appear.  As she has stated it would be unfair to her and the due process.  But I think if she does agree to the hearing she can at least tell her story to the public.  She can certainly make a statement in person about how unfair the procedure is to getting at the truth but I think her testimony can be impactful to public opinion.  I still think optically the Republican male members don’t come away from this looking good.  They just want Ford to go away.
They hope she won’t show up.
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Post by party animal - not! Thu 20 Sep 2018, 18:45

Possibly not quite the sort of support Kavanaugh was looking for?
https://shareblue.com/brett-kavanaugh-roy-moore-interview-accused-sexual-predators-flock-together/

https://twitter.com/kasie/status/1042819774231834624. This is way better..........

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Post by LizzyNY Thu 20 Sep 2018, 22:37

Typical. Focus on anything but the crime. Heaven forbid they gave a woman's well being the same respect as a man's reputation.
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Post by Donnamarie Thu 20 Sep 2018, 22:53

Ha!  I’m sure even Republicans are saying to Roy Moore ... “Please shut up!”

Except ...

A Republican alt right candidate, Corey Stewart, running for Senate in my state actually said that the Ford allegation was “a bunch of crap.”  “What else did Judge Kavanaugh do - pull a girl’s pigtail in 1st grade?”  Yep.  He said that.
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Post by annemarie Thu 20 Sep 2018, 23:51

https://people.com/human-interest/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-one-year-later/

[size=40]One Year After After Deadly Hurricane Maria: 'Puerto Rico Will Never Stop Crying'[/size]

[url=https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpeople.com%2Fhuman-interest%2Fpuerto-rico-hurricane-maria-one-year-later%2F%3Futm_source%3Dpinterest.com%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dsocial-share-article%26utm_content%3D20180920%26utm_term%3D6603903&media=https%3A%2F%2Fpeopledotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2017%2F12%2Fhurricane-maria1.jpg&description=One Year After After Deadly Hurricane Maria%3A %27Puerto Rico Will Never Stop Crying%27][/url][url=https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=One Year After After Deadly Hurricane Maria%3A %27Puerto Rico Will Never Stop Crying%27][/url]
[url=https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpeople.com%2Fhuman-interest%2Fpuerto-rico-hurricane-maria-one-year-later%2F%3Futm_source%3Dpinterest.com%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dsocial-share-article%26utm_content%3D20180920%26utm_term%3D6603903&media=https%3A%2F%2Fpeopledotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2017%2F12%2Fhurricane-maria1.jpg&description=One Year After After Deadly Hurricane Maria%3A %27Puerto Rico Will Never Stop Crying%27][/url]
The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 Image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpeopledotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2017%2F12%2Fhurricane-maria1
Carol Guzy/ZUMA Wire
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CHAR ADAMS 
September 20, 2018 04:56 PM

It’s been exactly one year since Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc on Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm. The hurricane resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths and about $90 billion in damages. Now, a year later, the citizens of Puerto Rico are still struggling to recover.
“We all have some sort of [post traumatic stress disorder]. It’s a trauma,” San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto told ABC News. “It’s not a shock, it’s a trauma.”
Hurricane Maria made landfall last year on Sept. 20, quickly becoming the most powerful storm of its kind to hit the island since 1932. It crippled the island’s electrical grid and sent thousands fleeing for the mainland. Months after the storm, businesses remained shuttered, according to The National Weather channel.

Thousands of homes are still in need of repair, with residents wondering when fallen trees will be removed from their homes and some sleeping in rain-damaged houses with little or no cover, according to the New York Times.
Efforts to help by the Federal Emergency Management Agency seem to have fallen short.
[url=https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpeople.com%2Fhuman-interest%2Fpuerto-rico-hurricane-maria-one-year-later%2F%3Futm_source%3Dpinterest.com%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dsocial-share-article%26utm_content%3D20180920%26utm_term%3D6603903&media=https%3A%2F%2Fpeopledotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2018%2F07%2Fkc31.jpg&description=One Year After After Deadly Hurricane Maria%3A %27Puerto Rico Will Never Stop Crying%27][/url]
The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 Image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpeopledotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2018%2F07%2Fkc31
Courtesy of Kenny Chesney
Although FEMA’s work in Puerto Rico was the longest sustained domestic airborne food and water mission in America’s history, the aid proved to be too little too late, according to the Times. More than one million people requested help from the agency, and 58 percent were denied. The Timesfound that grants given to survivors of Hurricane Harvey in Texas were thousands more than that given to struggling Puerto Rico residents.

As many are struggling to survive on the ravaged island, and obtain basic necessities, they are also coping with the loss of friends and family members who died in or after the storm.
RELATED: One Year After Deadly Hurricane Maria, the Best Way to Help Puerto Rico Is to Vacation There
Ramón A. Paez Marte, of Canóvanas, told NBC News that at least seven people he knew died in the wake of the hurricane. He spoke of a man in his 30s who worked to rescue stranded elderly residents as the storm left them without food, water or medicine.
“He didn’t even last one month,” Paez Marte told NBC of the young man. “He had a wound and when he dove into the flood waters trying to help people, I guess it caught a really bad infection and they couldn’t cure it.”

[url=https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpeople.com%2Fhuman-interest%2Fpuerto-rico-hurricane-maria-one-year-later%2F%3Futm_source%3Dpinterest.com%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dsocial-share-article%26utm_content%3D20180920%26utm_term%3D6603903&media=https%3A%2F%2Fpeopledotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2017%2F09%2Fpitbull-puerto-rico-2.jpg&description=One Year After After Deadly Hurricane Maria%3A %27Puerto Rico Will Never Stop Crying%27][/url]
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Even though some progress is being made — some schools and government offices have reopened — it is still difficult for many of the residents to even talk about the devastating storm.

“I don’t even want to remember it,” Porfirio Guerrero told NBC News. “I still remember spending three consecutive days without eating. There was barely any money for food, the supermarkets were empty. It was horrible.”
RELATED: Remembering Hurricane Maria: Devastating Photos Show the Storm’s Fury in Puerto Rico
Ricardo Lockwood moved to Central Florida in the wake of the hurricane in search of work. He was forced to leave his family behind.
“I had no choice. No choice. I have daughters. I have a family to feed,” he told CBC News, noting that he works as a supply manager for a driving company and sends resources to his family in Puerto Rico. “I miss it. It’s my island. I miss the beach, but we are one hour away from Cocoa. One hour away from Tampa, so, it’s okay.”

[url=https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpeople.com%2Fhuman-interest%2Fpuerto-rico-hurricane-maria-one-year-later%2F%3Futm_source%3Dpinterest.com%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dsocial-share-article%26utm_content%3D20180920%26utm_term%3D6603903&media=https%3A%2F%2Fpeopledotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2017%2F09%2Fpuerto-rico-11.jpg&description=One Year After After Deadly Hurricane Maria%3A %27Puerto Rico Will Never Stop Crying%27][/url]
The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 Image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpeopledotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2017%2F09%2Fpuerto-rico-11
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty
On Thursday, dozens gathered for a mass at Parroquia Nuestra Señora De La Piedad to honor those who died in the storm.

“Puerto Rico will never stop crying for them,” said Archbishop Roberto González, who led the mass, according to NBC. “Not counting them, not crying for them, goes against the Christian values.  It is insensitive to others’ pain.”
While the island is still working to rebuild, many hotels and tourist attractions have reopened. With that, experts say vacationing on the island is a great way to support Puerto Rico residents.
RELATED VIDEO: 3-Month-Old Baby Dies After Tree Falls on Mobile Home During Hurricane Florence





The tourism industry in Puerto Rico is estimated to employ over 63,500 people and earns 7 percent of the island’s gross national product.

“The tourism industry has recovered, and we are ready and willing and eager to welcome visitors,” Brad Dean, CEO of Discovery Puerto Rico, said, according to USA Today.
Meanwhile, Manolo Lopez, founder of the Cosa Nuestra Relief Fund told New York, “Taking day or overnight trips and spending money in a community outside of San Juan is important, too.”
“Go to Arecibo, Ponce, Mayagüez, Isabela — these are towns with a lot to offer, so much charm, and beautiful beaches,” Lopez added. “They depend on their local economy to get back on their feet.”
There are many ways to help with the recovery efforts in Puerto Rico through the Red Cross, All Hands and Hearts, Direct Relief, Hope Builders, and more.

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The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 Empty Re: The Serious Side - part 6

Post by annemarie Fri 21 Sep 2018, 20:07

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6193171/Joe-Biden-regrets-Anita-Hill-treatment-hopes-Christine-Ford-treated-dignity.html

[size=34]Joe Biden regrets the way that Anita Hill was 'vilified' and hopes that Christine Ford is treated more respectfully: 'She deserves to be treated with dignity'[/size]


  • Joe Biden says an FBI investigation should be opened into Christine Blasey Ford's sex assault claim against Brett Kavanaugh  

  • The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Clarence Thomas responded to Anita Hill, Biden said a probe would delay proceedings by two days

  • 'Anita Hill was vilified when she came forward by a lot of my colleagues...I wish I could’ve done more to prevent those questions and the way they asked them.'

  • Biden said he hopes that his Senate colleagues learned from that experience, 'learned from that she deserves to be treated with dignity'

  • In contrast, Trump told Sean Hannity in a TV interview in Las Vegas that the Senate shouldn't delay Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation any longer

  • He also mocked Democrats who are demanding an investigation of a sex-assault claim dating back to 1982: ' "Why didn't somebody call the FBI 36 years ago?" '

  • Accuser Christine Ford's lawyers are telling Senate committee aides that she will only testify under certain conditions

  • They want her to testify after Kavanaugh and questioned by senators - all of whom would be male on the GOP side - not a female lawyer


By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT and DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 07:58 EDT, 21 September 2018 | UPDATED: 13:11 EDT, 21 September 2018

     




Joe Biden says an FBI investigation should be opened into Christine Blasey Ford's sex assault claim against Brett Kavanaugh before the Senate moves forward with a vote on his Supreme Court nomination.
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Clarence Thomas faced accusations from Anita Hill, the retired Democratic politician said an FBI probe would only delay the proceedings by two days.
'I think they should do an FBI investigation. We did that for Anita Hill,' he said on 'Today' in an Friday morning interview. 'Most importantly, Anita Hill was vilified when she came forward by a lot of my colleagues, character assassination. I wish I could’ve done more to prevent those questions and the way they asked them.'
Biden said he hopes that his Senate colleagues learned from that experience, 'learned from that she deserves to be treated with dignity.'
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Joe Biden says an FBI investigation should be opened into Christine Blasey Ford's sex assault claim against Brett Kavanaugh before the Senate moves forward with a vote on his Supreme Court nomination
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'Anita Hill was vilified when she came forward by a lot of my colleagues, character assassination,'Biden recalled. 'I wish I could’ve done more to prevent those questions and the way they asked them'
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Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas (R), flanked by his wife Virginia, waits to reopen his testimony, 12 October 1991, before the Senate Judiciary Committee after law professor Anita Hill filed sexual harassment charges against him
'It takes enormous courage for a woman to come forward on the bright lights of millions of people watching and relive something that happened to her, assert that something happened to her. And she should be treated with respect,' Biden said.   
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The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Clarence Thomas faced a sex assault accusation, Biden says he regrets the way his colleagues treated Anita Hill
In contrast, President Donald Trump said Thursday that the Senate Judiciary Committee should move swiftly to finish vetting his Supreme Court nominee and ridiculed Democrats who are calling for an FBI investigation into a sex-assault allegation dating back to 1982.

'You say, "Why didn't somebody call the FBI 36 years ago?"' the president said, declaring that Kavanaugh's opponents have tried to 'besmirch' him. 
Committee Republicans are trying to secure a commitment from accuser Christine Ford to appear at a hearing on Monday, but the Palo Alto University professor and Democratic senators are calling for an FBI investigation before the process can move forward.
Ford says she'd be willing to testify on Thursday - but only if Kavanaugh appears before the committee as previously scheduled on Monday. 
'I say let her say what she has to say and let's see how it all comes out,' Trump told Fox news Channel host Sean Hannity inside a Las Vegas arena before a scheduled rally. 'But they've delayed it a week, and they have to get on with it.' 

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The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 506792F800000578-6189427-Brett_Kavanaugh_is_working_to_save_his_Supreme_Court_nomination-m-10_1537451703911

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Christine Ford (left) has accused Brett Kavanaugh of pinning her down to a bed during a party more than 35 years ago, covering her mouth, and groping her over a one-piece bathing suit while he tried to disrobe her. Kavanaugh flatly denies that it ever happened
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President Donald Trump defended Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday and mocked Democrats who want an FBI investigation into a woman's claim that he sexually assaulted her in 1982.  'Why didn't somebody call the FBI 36 years ago?' the president asked
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Trump said Thursday in Las Vegas that the U.S. Senat should 'get on with it' and confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court
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Anita Hill was assailed at her public testimony by senators and Thomas was later confirmed. She's seen here in 2017
In his pre-rally interview, Trump called Kavanaugh 'an outstanding person' and dismissed the demands for an FBI probe. 
The FBI has conducted six background checks on Kavanaugh, including some when he was first nominated to a federal judgeship in 2006.
But Ford claimed in a letter to her congresswoman this summer that a drunken, teenage Kavanaugh had once pinned her to a bed at a high school party and groped her through a swimsuit while he tried to undress her.
Kavanaugh has flatly denied the event ever happened, and a friend who Ford claimed was present has backed him up.

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The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 507D004500000578-6191817-image-a-22_1537499774054

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Trump defended his nominee and didn't mention Ford. His audience mentioned Kavanaugh's name before he did, chanting it loudly at Trump's first mention of 'our judges'
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Protesters opposed to Kavanaugh's nomination were arrested outside the office of Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley on Thursday



Ford spoke to no one of it until 2012 when she and her husband discussed it in therapy. 
Trump took pains to not mention her by name on Thursday, and limited himself to defending Kavanaugh's character. 
'I'm not saying anything about anybody else, but I want to tell you that Brett Kavanaugh is one of the finest human beings you will ever have the privilege of knowing or meeting,' the president said to cheers. 
'A great intellect, a great gentleman, an impeccable reputation. Went to Yale, top student. Went to Yale Law School, top student.'
'So we gotta let it play out,' he concluded. 'But I want to tell you, he is a fine, fine person ... and he's got tremendous support.'
Trump was in Nevada to rally a crowd in support of Republican Sen. Dean Heller, who is running for a third term.
On Wednesday during a donor conference call, Heller dismissed the nomination controversy.
'We got a little hiccup here with the Kavanaugh nomination,' he said. 'We’ll get through this and we’ll get off to the races.'
Washington is divided over whether or not Ford's memory can be trusted. Conservatives have claimed that perhaps she has misremembered Kavanaugh as her assaulter.
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The Serious Side - part 6 - Page 18 502C7A4C00000578-6191817-Brett_Kavanaugh_in_his_high_school_yearbook-a-11_1537514936272

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Christine Blasey (now Ford) and Brett Kavanaugh are pictured in their high school yearbooks
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Trump was in Las Vegas to rally in support of Republican Sen. Dean Heller (right), who called Ford's accusation a 'hiccup' during a conference call for donors on Wednesday



Her attorneys offered late Thursday to make her available to testify in a hearing next week, but with strings attached.
They told Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, that Ford would only agree to be questioned by senators – not committee lawyers.
They also demanded that she must testify after Kavanaugh, something that would run counter to the standards of both Capitol Hill hearings and criminal courtroom procedure. 
Ed Whelan, a former clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia and a Kavanaugh defender, suggested Thursday on Twitter that a teen from Kavanaugh's high school who looks like him may have been Ford's assailant.
Hours earlier police arrested protesters outside Grassley's Senate office.
The demonstrators shouted that they believed Ford and tied her case to that of Anita Hill, a law professor whose sexual harassment accusations against Justice Clarence Thomas nearly derailed his 1991 Supreme Court confirmation.
The newest attorney on Ford's team is Ricki Seidman, who was Biden's communication director. Seidman had previously worked for Sen. Ted Kennedy during the Thomas hearings, and helped convince Hill to testify.

[size=18]Kavanaugh sexual assault accuser willing to testify: Lawyer




[/size]


Some of the same senators who served in the upper chamber at the time of the Thomas allegation, in 1991, will have to decide whether to put Kavanaugh on the court, including the current Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley.
Biden advised Grassley and other lawmakers on the committee in his Friday interview on 'Today' that a woman bringing a sex assault allegation against a nominee 'should be given the benefit of the doubt' and 'not be abused again by the system.'
'Ask tough questions. Ask substantive questions,' he said, 'but not the character assassination.'
The ex-senator from Delaware said that Senate rules prevented him from drowning out questions he believed went too far with the pounding of the gavel during the Hill testimony.
'And so what happened was, she got victimized again in the process,' he said. 'I believed her when she came forward. I encouraged her to come forward.' 
Asked what he'd say to Hill now if he had the chance, Biden insisted that he'd done nothing wrong but said: 'I’m sorry I couldn’t have stopped the kind of attacks that came to you.' 
Biden noted that he voted against Thomas, leading to a tie on his nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The full Senate narrowly confirmed Thomas to the bench on a 52-48 vote.
He said the proceedings also inspired him to author the Violence Against Women's Act and put two women on the Judiciary committee.

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Post by Way2Old4Dis Sat 22 Sep 2018, 15:18

There is no statute of limitations on sexual assault in Maryland. The Maryland Attorney General should launch its own investigation.

The Rethuglicans are being typically nasty to Ford in their response to her requests for her testimony. If I were her, I'd get just as nasty, and press charges against Kava-naw. Let him smirk about that, and see how the jerks try to sit someone on the Supreme Court who's under active criminal investigation.

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Post by annemarie Sat 22 Sep 2018, 18:07

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6196533/Housing-Secretary-Ben-Carson-accused-fathering-child-outside-marriage.html

[size=34]Housing Secretary Ben Carson claims 'socialist' plot to take over America originating in Britain has fueled Brett Kavanaugh's sex assault allegations[/size]


  • Ben Carson claims long-running 'socialist' plot to take over America fueled allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh

  • The Housing secretary claims he was once accused of fathering a child outside wedlock despite having only ever slept with his with 

  • Carson accusers are people who want to 'change us to another system' and said it dates back to the socialist Fabian Society which came to the U.S from Britain

  • Claims allegations against Kavanaugh may cause people to 'think twice' before accepting positions in government

  • Kavanaugh expected to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week over the allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford


By LEAH MCDONALD FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 12:15 EDT, 22 September 2018 | UPDATED: 12:46 EDT, 22 September 2018

     



Housing Secretary Ben Carson believes a 'socialist' plot to take over America has fueled allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The former neurosurgeon, who was appointed secretary of urban housing and development in March 2017, blamed the controversy over Kavanaugh's nomination on people who want to 'fundamentally change this country'.  
Carson echoing President Trump's earlier remarks, said Kavanaugh's accusers had become 'desperate'. 
'They don't like what America is and what it represents, and they want to change us to another system,' he said.

'In order to do that, there are three things they must control: the education system, the media, and the courts. The first two of those they have.
'The other they thought they had, but it was snatched out from under their noses in November of 2016.'
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Housing Secretary Ben Carson (pictured) said he was once  accused of fathering a child outside marriage but wasn't worried as he 'only ever slept with my wife in my entire life'
Carson was one of the first members of Trump's Cabinet to directly address the allegations, which have divided the nation and, increasingly, threaten to divide the Republican party. 
He said: 'If you really understand the big picture of what's going on, then what's going on with Kavanaugh will make perfectly good sense to you.
'There've been people in this country for a very long time, going all the way back to the Fabians, people who've wanted to fundamentally change this country'. 
The term 'Fabians' refers to the Fabian Society, a British socialist organization that was founded in the 19th century, and which today functions as part of the UK's Labour Party.
An American chapter of the Fabian society was established in 1895 in Boston, but it is no longer active in the United States.  
Carson's remarks about Ford echo Trump's assertion earlier Friday that his nominee was 'under assault by radical left wing politicians who don't want to know the answers.'
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Carson and his wife Candy (pictured) met when they studied at Yale  and married in 1971 
During a speech on Friday, Carson, 67, described an incident in his own career when he was accused of fathering a child out of wedlock.
However, he said he wasn't intimidated because 'I knew that the only woman I had ever slept with in my entire life was my wife.'  
Kavanaugh, 53, who was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Donald Trump in July, has seen his confirmation process disrupted by an allegation from a California Professor that he sexually assaulted her while they were in high school.
He has denied the allegation and negotiations are underway about having his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Carson, who was born in Detroit, touched on the allegation made against him during a speech at the annual Values Voter Summit in Washington on Friday. 
Carson and his wife Candy met in 1971 as students at Yale University.


They married in 1975 have three sons Rhoeyce, Benjamin Junior, and Murray, as well as several grandchildren.   
Carson claimed that the so-called forces 'are like wet hornets, just completely lost control off the deep end, and the further they get away from being able to control the courts the more desperate they become,' he added.
Carson continued: 'Sexual predators, people who prey upon people who are weaker than them or in a lower position, is abominable. And there's just no room for it, as far as I'm concerned, OK?'
'Having said that, we must also recognize that there are two sides to every story'. 
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Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (pictured) has denied the allegations of sexual assault which were made by University Professor Christine Blasey Ford  last week 
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Christine Blasey Ford (pictured)  has been given extra time to decide whether she will testify against Kavanaugh at a Senate Judiciary Committee, with a decision due imminently  
Kavanaugh currently serves as a judge on the powerful US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. 
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President Trump (pictured) attacked Christine Blasey Ford's credibility on Friday
The allegations were first reported to two Democratic lawmakers in July, but only became public this month, as Kavanaugh's confirmation seemed all but assured.
Kavanaugh has denied assaulting Ford, and he has agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the allegation.
As of Friday, representatives for Ford were still negotiating terms under which the California psychology professor would be willing to testify before the committee about what she says was a violent attempted rape in 1982.
A few hours before Carson spoke on Friday, President Trump attacked Ford directly by accusing her of exaggerating what happened and accusing Democratic lawyers and operatives of plotting to ruin Kavanaugh.
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Donald Trump's tweet (pictured) about Christine Blasey Ford has been widely denounced 
He tweeted: 'I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents.
'I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!'
Establishment Republicans were quick to distance themselves Friday from Trump's remarks.
Kavanaugh is expected to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week. 
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Post by LizzyNY Sat 22 Sep 2018, 20:02

UGH! WTF?!! The Fabian Society? Really?!! I have come to the conclusion that a position in this administration requires that you be either mentally or morally deficient. If you are both, you go to the top of the list.
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Post by party animal - not! Sat 22 Sep 2018, 21:22

You'll like this, Lizzy

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/407909-senate-judiciary-staffer-resigns-after-past-sexual-harassment-allegation
He was working on the Kavanaugh case
It would appear that another Republican strategist is aware of Kavanaugh having private meetings with Hatch too........aided by someone called Whelan from the Federalist Society

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Post by LizzyNY Sat 22 Sep 2018, 22:30

Saw that on Daily Kos - although why he left his previous position is a bit murky. Some say it was because he "embellished" his resume when he took the CRC job. Others claiim it was because of sexual assault charges. Sleazy either way.

Whelan is another conservative bottom feeder who trolled Christine Ford's Linkd In account before she was publicly identified. Now, how did he know who she was?


He has since put out the theory that she was attacked by some other guy who he thinks looks like Kavanaugh. He even published the guy's name, address and floor-plans of his home! Ford says she knew both men and knows exactly which one attacked her - and it wasn't Whelan's candidate.

He has since said he shouldn't have posted all that info about the man. Ya think? I guess he realized he left himself open to a humongous lawsuit and I hope he gets sued for everything he has. What a schmuck!
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Post by party animal - not! Sat 22 Sep 2018, 22:47

It truly shocks me that Ford is going to be interviewed by a panel entirely made of older men, who quite possibly would have been a part or witness to something similar on a prep school or similar who will have been brought up in an age when this was all acceptable for the most part and whose privileged background could buy their way out any trouble. And I keep wondering what Trump has on any of them, or if they're only moved by the burgeoning stock market

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Post by LizzyNY Sun 23 Sep 2018, 00:16

PAN - I think it's more that they want to hold onto power and push their agenda through. They're all from the "boys will be boys" generation  who believe that kind of behavior is a rite of passage for boys. Getting falling-down drunk and having sex with the nearest girl at hand is just part of growing up - as is boasting about it to your buddies. Who the girl is or whether she consents or not really doesn't matter - she's just a masturbatory aid. It's the notches on the bedpost that count.

(Sorry I'm ranting. This is making me really furious.)
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