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Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,589
You'll never believe what Donald Trump just said about 9/11
Donald Trump has always had a bit of Walter Mitty in him. But on Monday morning, in a speech to first responders and others impacted by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, he took his fantastical memory of himself to new and not-at-all-appropriate heights.
"I was down there also, but I'm not considering myself a first responder," Trump said. "But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you."
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So, what was Trump actually doing on September 11, 2001?
One thing he was doing was getting on the phone with WWOR's Alan Marcus to talk about the attacks and their aftermath. It was in that interview that Trump said this about a property -- 40 Wall Street -- that he owned:
"40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest—and then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest. And now it's the tallest."
Yeah. He really said that.
And as Politico's Michael Kruse noted in a story about what Trump (and Hillary Clinton) were doing on September 11, 2001, Trump was a bystander on the day -- watching the events unfold from his offices (and home) at Trump Tower, which was several miles from Ground Zero.
Writes Kruse:
"In the immediate aftermath of the worst terrorist attacks in the history of the country, Trump talked publicly mostly about the buildings, and his buildings, and market ramifications and the character and resiliency of the citizens of the city where he's lived almost his entire life. But reporters then had only so much reason to ask him about issues of national security or foreign policy."
Several days after the attacks, Trump did an interview with a German news station just a few blocks from Ground Zero. And according to a Newsday report on September 14, Trump had been spotted at Ground Zero the previous day:
"The sight of Donald Trump, every hair in place and impeccably dressed in a black suit, pressed white shirt and red tie, walking into the plaza with his cellular phone to his ear.
"'No, no. The building's gone,' he says into the phone."
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Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,589
Trump's intelligence chief resigned after the White House repeatedly suppressed his warnings about Russian interference, New York Times reports
  • Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats in recent months saw his warnings about threats posed by Russia watered down by the White House, The New York Times reported Sunday.
  • According to The Times, a dossier by Coats on Russian interference in the 2018 midterms was altered by the White House to contain less critical language.
  • Coats' resignation was announced Sunday in a tweet by President Donald Trump, who wants a loyalist, Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas, to replace him.
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Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,589
Trump billionaire friend aimed to profit from Mideast nuclear deal - Democrats
Tom Barrack, a billionaire friend of U.S. President Donald Trump, pursued a plan to buy Westinghouse Electric Corp even as he lobbied Trump to become a special envoy to promote the building by the firm of nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia, said a congressional report released on Monday.

While Barrack failed in both efforts, the report provides fresh evidence of the ease with which some corporate and foreign interests have gained access to Trump and other senior members of his administration.

Documents obtained by the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee raise “serious questions about whether the White House is willing to place the potential profits of the President’s friends above the national security of the American people and the universal objective of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons,” the report said.

The report is the second from the panel’s investigation into the plan to construct 40 nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East. The plan was supported by Trump’s first national security adviser Michael Flynn, Barrack, Trump’s inaugural committee chairman, and a consortium of firms led by retired U.S. military commanders and former White House officials called IP3.

One company was Westinghouse, the only U.S. manufacturer of large reactors, which was bought out of bankruptcy by Brookfield Asset Management last August.

The report comes alongside a number of other investigations into the administration being conducted by the panel chaired by Representative Elijah Cummings - including into the use of personal texts and emails for official business by Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner.

Trump attacked Cummings, an African American from Baltimore, in weekend tweets that the president’s critics denounced as racist.

Monday’s report was based largely on thousands of documents provided by unidentified private companies. The White House, the report said, provided no documents, while other federal agencies submitted some.

The committee may subpoena White House documents, it said.

Documents showed that Barrack negotiated with Trump and other White House officials to seek “powerful positions,” including special Middle East envoy, as he took steps to profit from the civil nuclear scheme he advocated.

A previous committee report, published in February, said efforts to advance the nuclear power scheme began during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump officials have continued meeting with IP3 even though White House lawyers in January 2017 instructed staff to cease work on the plan over concerns that Flynn was breaking conflict of interest laws, according to that report. Flynn, fired by Trump in February 2017, advised IP3 while serving on his campaign and transition team, said both reports.

White House lawyers also worried that promoters of IP3’s so-called “Middle East Marshall Plan” sought to transfer U.S. nuclear know-how to Saudi Arabia even as they pushed back on Riyadh’s behalf against certain safeguards, the reports said. Known as the “Gold Standard,” the safeguards are designed to prevent nuclear weapons development. IP3 called the standard a “total roadblock,” Monday’s report said.

Barrack has been cooperating with the oversight committee and provided it with requested documents, a spokesman said. Barrack’s investments and business development in the region are for a “better aligned Middle East,” he said. “This is not political it is essential.”

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

IP3 said the report linked misunderstandings about the oversight over the transfer of nuclear energy technology to foreign nations with conspiracy theories and allegations “to create an arbitrary and contrived story that doesn’t reflect the reality that occurred.”

EARLY INFLUENCE
Texts and emails showed that Barrack sought to shape Trump’s approach to Gulf Arab states early on by sharing a draft of a Trump campaign speech with Rashid al-Malik, an Emirati businessman. Malik circulated the draft to Emirati and Saudi officials, Monday’s report said.

Barrack then shared Malik’s suggestions about the speech with Paul Manafort, a political consultant who chaired Trump’s campaign at the time, the report said. Manafort was convicted in 2018 of bank fraud and tax evasion in charges that grew out of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

The New York Times on Sunday reported that federal prosecutors investigating foreign influence on Trump’s campaign are examining Barrack’s exchanges with Malik.

Neither Barrack, chairman of Colony Capital, a private equity firm, nor Malik are registered as lobbyists for foreign interests with the Justice Department.

Barrack, the report said, began communicating days before Trump’s inauguration with IP3 co-founder Robert “Bud” McFarlane, a national security adviser to the late President Ronald Reagan. In an email to Barrack following a Jan. 23, 2017, meeting, McFarlane said it would be fitting for Trump to name Barrack as his “personal representative to promote the execution” of the nuclear reactor scheme.

Documents also showed that in mid-2017, Barrack, his company and IP3 discussed purchasing Westinghouse out of bankruptcy in partnership with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is headed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and other investors, the report said.

Barrack ultimately failed, with two other U.S. investment firms, to purchase Westinghouse.

But after Brookfield Asset Management announced in January 2018 its winning bid for the company, Barrack asked Brookfield Chief Executive Bruce Flatt whether he could join the venture, the report said. There is no evidence Barrack was successful.

Days after buying Westinghouse, Brookfield announced it agreed to a 99-year lease on a Manhattan building owned by Kushner’s family - a deal that saved the Kushner Companies’ property.

The report also cites a series of documents showing how the nuclear power scheme was discussed between IP3, Barrack and senior administration officials. Those talks appear to have included a White House meeting between Trump, Barrack and other Colony employees on the same day that Trump met with the Saudi crown prince, on March 14, 2017 the report said.
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Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,589
Chris Wallace Confronts WH Chief of Staff on Trump’s Racist Baltimore Tweets: There’s a ‘Clear Pattern Here’
Pressed by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace on Sunday to defend President Trump recently calling Rep. Elijah Cummings’ Baltimore district a “rodent infested mess,” acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney claimed that the president’s attacks had “absolutely zero to do with race."

With the president doubling down on his tweets on Sunday morning, Wallace began his Fox News Sunday interview with Mulvaney by asking “what is the president talking about” when he says no “human being would want to live” in Baltimore, especially considering Cummings’ district is in the upper half nationally in per capita income.

Mulvaney insisted that the president was merely “fighting back” against the Maryland congressman for what he sees as “illegitimate attacks about the border” last week, prompting the Fox anchor to push back.

“Nobody objects to the president defending his border policy but this seems to be the worst kind of racial stereotype,” Wallace stated. “Black congressman, majority-black district. ‘No human being would want to live there.’ Is he saying people that live in Baltimore are not human beings?”

The top White House staffer objected, claiming it was “right for the president to raise the issue” of poverty in Baltimore. He went on to say that when he was in Congress, he would have been “fired” if his home district looked like Cummings’.

“I think the president’s right to raise that and it has absolutely zero to do with race,” Mulvaney added.

“You say it has little to do with race, there is a clear pattern here,” Wallace shot back, noting that Trump has made similar remarks about other congresspeople of color, such as Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and the so-called Squad.

“Infested,” Wallace said. “It sounds like vermin. It sounds subhuman and these are all six members of Congress who are people of color.”

Mulvaney, however, told Wallace that he was “spending too much time reading between the lines.”

“I’m not reading between the lines,” Wallace countered. “I’m reading the lines.”
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Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,589
Twitter suspends account hours after Trump retweeted it
In a move that will likely embolden President Donald Trump's claims that social media companies are biased against him and his supporters, Twitter suspended an account Tuesday evening that the President had retweeted just hours earlier.

Trump retweeted a post from an account operating under the name "Lynn Thomas" that accused Democrats of being "the true enemies of America." The account, which created in September 2018, described itself as a "Fierce Trump supporter" and declared: "I'm not a bot."

Just a few hours later, Twitter had suspended the account, confirming to CNN it had broken the platform's rules. The company did not say what rules the account had broken.

The Daily Beast first reported the suspension.

In an interview with C-SPAN set to air Tuesday night, Trump said he has "not much" regret when it comes to the tens of thousands of tweets he has sent, but he also acknowledged that it can be an issue when he retweets other accounts.

"The bigger problem are the retweets. You'll retweet something that sounds good, but it turned out to be from a player that's not the best player in the world, that sort of causes a problem," he said.

Explaining his use of Twitter, Trump called it an "incredible way of communicating," as well as a way to combat negative coverage.

Earlier this month, Trump invited a cadre of rightwing internet personalities to the White House for a "social media summit." There the President bemoaned Silicon Valley's purported bias against him and his supporters.

He claimed that Twitter was making it difficult for people to follow him on the platform, saying at the time,"People come up to me: 'Sir, we want to follow you; they don't let us on." He added later: "I have millions of people, so many people I wouldn't believe it, but I know that we've been blocked. People come up to me and they say, 'Sir, I can't get you. I can't follow you.'"
There is no evidence, as CNN has previously reported, that Twitter or other social media companies have made it difficult for people to follow Trump. And when Trump recently used racist language to attack four progressive Democratic congresswomen of color, a Twitter spokesperson told CNN that the President's tweets were not against its rules -- a conclusion apparently contradicted by Twitter's written policies.
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Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,589
'Serving under Trump is embarrassing': Fifth Republican congressman retires in just two weeks as GOP fears more exits
The fifth Republican congressman in two weeks is set to step down as the GOP reportedly fears a wave of retirements amid ongoing tension in the party over Donald Trump’s presidency.

Representative Mike Conaway will not seek re-election to his Texas seat in 2020, according to Politico, but has not confirmed his decision or his reason for retiring.

However, House Republicans are reportedly worried that the difficulties of serving under Mr Trump and working with a Democratic majority in Congress will lead to more exits.

“Serving in the era of Trump has few rewards. He has made an already hostile political environment worse,” Tom Davis, a former senior Republican congressman, told The Hill.

“Every day there is some indefensible tweet or comment to defend or explain. It is exhausting and often embarrassing.”

Mr Conaway, who has served in Congress for 15 years, will join Republican representatives Paul Mitchell, Pete Olson, Martha Roby and Rob Bishop in announcing his retirement.

Mr Mitchell's resignation was spurred by his frustration with partisan fighting and the "rhetoric and vitriol" in US politics, according to The Hill.

However, he did not explicitly attribute blame to the president.

Ms Roby said she would not vote for Mr Trump in 2016 as his behaviour had been "unacceptable as a candidate for president" but has since improved their relationship and received an endorsement from him in 2018.

The Republican Party is facing a difficult task in reclaiming the House in 2020 after Democrats were victorious in last year’s midterm elections.

Mr Trump’s approval ratings remain low, currently at about 43 per cent on average, and his divisive political agenda could prove costly in congressional elections next year.

Mr Conaway, Mr Mitchell, Ms Roby and Mr Bishop all represent safe Republican districts that are expected to pick GOP candidates in 2020.

However, Mr Olson’s district could be competitive, as the Texas congressman saw his majority cut to 5 per cent in 2018.

Even in safe districts, the prospect of returning to the House in 2020 may be unappealing for many conservative representatives as Democrats are expected to win a majority again next year.

In a general ballot, recent polling has shown Democrats lead Republicans by 5.6 per cent for the 2020 election, according to an average by political analysis website FiveThirtyEight.

All 435 voting seats in the House of Representatives will be up for election in 2020, along with 34 seats in the US Senate.
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KWingJitsu

KWingJitsu

ยาเม็ดสีแดงหรือสีฟ้ายา?
Nov 15, 2015
10,311
12,693
MC Gusto said:
Not sure if you are ignorant or being disingenuous but either way, this is one of the stupidest statements I have seen this week.
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I'mma go with the former, and ...You should see his other statements :tearsofjoy:
 
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