During a Tuesday morning interview, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley says she never had doubts about resident Trump's fitness for office and
his truthfulness. The Morning Blow panel discusses Haley's remarks.
Nikki Haley is positioning herself to a presidential run. Cenk Uygur and
Ana Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down.
"Two of resident Trump’s senior advisers undermined and ignored him in
what they claimed was an effort to “save the country,” former United
Nations ambassador Nikki Haley claims in a new memoir.
Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson and former White House chief of
staff John F. Kelly sought to recruit her to work around and subvert
Trump, but she refused, Haley writes in a new book, “With All Due
Respect,” which also describes Tillerson as “exhausting” and imperious
and Kelly as suspicious of her access to Trump.
“Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the resident, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save
the country,” Haley wrote.
“It was their decisions, not the resident’s, that were in the best
interests of America, they said. The resident didn’t know what he was
doing,” Haley wrote of the views the two men held."
In my news colleagues’ latest scoop, The Post’s Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey and Carol Leonnig report
that the attorney general declined to fulfill resident Trump’s request
that he publicly exonerate Trump’s “perfect” call with Ukraine’s
president — following several actions recently in which “the Justice
Department has sought some distance from the White House.”
Right. Like a barnacle seeks distance from a whale.
The
distancing maneuver is plainly an attempt by those sympathetic to Barr
to make him look a bit less like the resident’s mob lawyer — done
anonymously so that Trump wouldn’t rage at Barr but instead blame the “degenerate” Post, as he did Thursday. But Barr has sealed his fate. As Trump’s impeachment looms, Barr has degraded the office Elliot Richardson once dignified.
Barr has turned the Justice Department into a shield for residential
misconduct and a sword wielded against political opponents.
Even as Barr’s latest distancing gambit debuted, he was due to huddle
Wednesday with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Trump’s loyal defender, to
decide how to release an inspector general’s report examining the FBI’s
investigation into Russian 2016 interference and Trump’s campaign.
Notably, the Justice Department inspector general himself, Michael
Horowitz, was “not expected to attend,” The Post reported, leaving Barr
and Graham free to decide what should be declassified to put Trump in
the best possible light.
Barr’s
team aims to get that report out in the coming weeks, just in time for
Barr’s holiday party at the Trump International Hotel, for which the
attorney general is paying upward of $30,000 to the resident’s business. Barr must have liked what he saw when he dined at the hotel earlier this year on a night when Trump was also there for a fundraiser.
If
Barr does manipulate the inspector general’s report to Trump’s
advantage, he’ll be reprising his mis-characterization of the Mueller
report. Then, before releasing the report, he declared
that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III had found “no collusion” (a
phrase Mueller did not use), and he cleared Trump of obstruction of
justice. It was such a betrayal that Mueller (whom Barr had claimed was
his good friend) complained about Barr’s misleading summary. Asked about the objections, Barr, under oath, falsely told Congress he knew nothing about them.
Since then, Barr testified to Congress that “I think spying did occur” in the Russia probe, echoing Trump’s claim and earning a public contradiction by FBI Director Christopher A. Wray.
Rewarding
Trump loyalists’ demands, Barr appointed a prosecutor (in addition to
the inspector general) to examine the Trump-Russia probe, which has mushroomed into a criminal investigation of the investigators. Among those leading the probe? Nora Dannehy, the special prosecutor who decided not to charge
any members of the George W. Bush administration after the politically
motivated firing of U.S. attorneys and subsequent lies about the
actions.
Further indulging Trump’s “witch hunt” claims, Barr traveled to Italy in search of evidence that would discredit the Trump-Russia investigation, and he reportedly asked the resident to enlist the Australian and British governments in the effort. Trump named Barr during his infamous call with the Ukrainian president seeking investigations of Democrats and Joe Biden, according to the White House’s partial reconstruction: “I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it.”
The whistleblower got wind of this and said:
“Attorney General Barr appears to be involved.” But the Justice
Department — Barr’s Justice Department — declined to investigate, even
though the CIA inspector general found the complaint “credible” and
“urgent.” Barr, though named in the complaint, didn’t recuse himself,
even as the Justice Department attempted to block
the complaint from reaching Congress, as the law requires. Along the
way, he embraced a White House legal strategy of defying subpoenas that
has met with a string of defeats in the courts.
Now,
as part of the “distancing” campaign, Barr’s Justice Department would
have us believe the attorney general never discussed with Trump the
prospective Ukraine probe into the Bidens, didn’t talk to Trump lawyer
Rudy Giuliani about Ukraine and didn’t know anything about the White
House withholding aid to Ukraine.
Why would anybody doubt the sincerity of such claims?
Maybe Barr is getting queasy, with two of Giuliani’s Ukraine associates under indictment and Giuliani being turned down by four lawyers
before finding representation. Maybe he’s unnerved by what he’s reading
in the daily drop of impeachment depositions; on Thursday, another
high-ranking State Department official testified about Giuliani’s campaign being “full of lies.” Maybe he even felt a pang of conscience.
It doesn’t matter. During his confirmation hearing in January, Barr vowed
to “protect the independence and the reputation of the department.”
Instead, he destroyed the former and squandered the latter. We may never
know why he ruined his reputation to serve as Trump’s mob lawyer. But
it’s far too late for rehabilitation.
Republicans in the House of Representatives have finally found a
strategy to deal with impeachment that they believe will play well with
the public. That strategy is to blame the whole thing on Rudy Giuliani.
House Republicans are going to try to paint Giuliani as a rogue
operative, and all of the people who went along with the extortion plan
were actually working with Giuliani and not Trump. Ring of Fire’s Farron
Cousins discusses this.
The Student Government Association at the University of Alabama sent a
letter warning students and organizations that if they protest Donald
Trump’s expected visit to the Alabama vs. LSU football game this
weekend, they will lose their seats at the stadium for the rest of the
year.
This is a very clear violation of the 1st Amendment, and it
wouldn’t be surprising to see the SGA back off these claims now that the
public knows what they are up to. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins
discusses this.
"Former attorney general Jeff Sessions plans to announce as soon as
Thursday that he will run for his old Senate seat in Alabama, according
to three people familiar with his plans, setting the stage for a
potentially contentious Republican primary with resident Trump at the
center and control of the Senate possibly at stake.
Sessions, whose turbulent two year stint in the administration ended in
dramatic fashion when he was forced out by Trump in November 2018, would
enter with strong name recognition and deep institutional ties in the
state and elsewhere.
He held the seat for two decades before he became
Trump’s first U.S. attorney general.
But the wild card in the race will be Trump, and whether he will weigh
in against his former attorney general and in favor of other Republicans
who have already announced their candidacies.
Trump remains popular in
the state and plans to attend the University of Alabama’s football game
against Louisiana State University in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Saturday."
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to officially enter the 2020 presidential race, making him the 2nd billionaire to fight for the Democratic nomination. Bloomberg is entering the race because he sees that Biden and the other centrists are fading fast, and he doesn’t want to pay more money under a Sanders or Warren administration. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what’s happening.
Think about it. Last night's election was so decisive, pundits
haven't yet figured out a way to turn it into "this is bad news for
Democrats." (I have faith, though.) After last night's blue tidal wave,
Willie Geist picked through the debris.
"Donald Trump can't run away from this. Republicans cannot run away
from the fact that a Donald Trump-backed candidate probably lost. He has
not conceded yet but probably lost the governorship in a state that
President Trump won by 30 points," Geist said.
Joe Scarborough couldn't keep from crowing.
"Just looking at the specifics here, what has to be especially
difficult for Donald Trump this morning and for all Republicans, they
have to -- here's the thing, before Donald Trump went to Kentucky on
that last night and had those stupid shirts that said 'Read the
transcript' printed up. By the way, which of course the document he was
talking to said up top, 'This is not a transcript.' The stupidity.
"It's really shocking, and we're sitting there -- how do people get
away with that? They don't. Here's the thing, they don't get away with
it. He doesn't get away with it. He's going to be impeached. His party
lost the biggest landslide vote lost in the history of the United States
Republicans 2018 for following him blindly," he said.
He pointed out Bevin was ahead by 5 percentage points in the polls before Trump held his rally.
"Donald. Bevin was ahead, son. He was ahead by five points before you
went to Kentucky. right? Look at this. Donald, look at that. I know you
don't like reading, Donald, but look. That R stands for Republican. He
had 52% before you went and did that rally for him, and he got those
poor folks wearing that shirt that said read the transcript when the
piece of paper itself said this is not a transcript.
"Donald, this is not working for you. You should just stay home and
watch like those cage fights, right? Sit down, drink some Tang, the
drink of the astronauts and maybe have some Sanka coffee, stir it up.
This is what happened after you showed up in Kentucky.
"Donald, my friend, you lost the state for Republicans."
She was on a bike ride in 2017 and was photographed making the gesture as the resident's motorcade went by.
Juli
Briskman shows her middle finger as a motorcade with resident Donald
Trump departs Trump National Golf Course in Sterling, Va. on Oct. 28,
2017.Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images file
With
99 percent of the vote reported by the Loudoun County Office of
Elections Tuesday night, unofficial returns showed Democrat Juli
Briskman ahead of Republican incumbent Suzanne Volpe with 52 percent of
the vote.
Among her goals, Briskman said she would increase transparency in local government.
Juli
Briskman, who was fired after giving resident Donald Trump's motorcade
the middle finger while cycling and is running for a seat on the
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, on Oct. 17, 2019, in Sterling, Va. Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images
Briskman was on a bike ride in October 2017 and was photographed making the gesture as Trump's motorcade went by.
She
told her bosses what happened after the photo went viral and was asked
to leave her government contracting job or face termination. She sued
and won a severance claim, but her wrongful-termination lawsuit was
dismissed.
The
letter, signed by Assistant Attorney General Joseph Hunt, asked for
details or copies of the author's nondisclosure agreements "or the dates
of the author's service and the agencies where the author was employed,
so that we may determine the terms of the author's nondisclosure
agreements and ensure that they have been followed."
Publication
of the book may violate nondisclosure agreements based on the
individual's work or access to classified information, the letter
states, "if the author is, in fact, a current or former 'senior
official' in the Trump administration."
A top aide to Rep. Devin Nunes has been providing conservative
politicians and journalists with information—and misinformation—about
the anonymous whistleblower who triggered the biggest crisis of Donald
Trump’s residency, two knowledgeable sources tell The Daily Beast.
Derek
Harvey, who works for Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House
intelligence committee, has provided notes for House Republicans
identifying the whistleblower’s name ahead of the high-profile
depositions of Trump administration appointees and civil servants in the
impeachment inquiry.
The purpose of the notes, one source said, is to
get the whistleblower’s name into the record of the proceedings, which
committee chairman Adam Schiff has pledged to eventually release. In other words: it’s an attempt to out the anonymous official who helped trigger the impeachment inquiry.
On Saturday, The Washington Postreported
that GOP lawmakers and staffers have “repeatedly” used a name
purporting to be the whistleblower during the depositions. The paper
named Harvey as driving lines of questioning Democrats saw as attempting
to determine the political loyalties of witnesses before the inquiry. A
former official told the Post that Harvey “was passing notes [to GOP lawmakers] the entire time” ex-NSC Russia staffer Fiona Hill testified.
“Exposing
the identity of the whistleblower and attacking our client would do
nothing to undercut the validity of the complaint’s allegations,” said
Mark Zaid, one of the whistleblower’s attorneys. “What it would do,
however, is put that individual and their family at risk of harm.
Perhaps more important, it would deter future whistleblowers from coming
forward in subsequent administrations, Democratic or Republican.” Zaid
has represented The Daily Beast in freedom-of-information lawsuits
against the federal government.
resident Trump's low-profile appearance Sunday night at Game 5 of the World Series drew loud boos and jeers when he was introduced to the crowd.
resident
Donald Trump is introduced during the third inning of Game 5 of the
baseball World Series between the Houston Astros and the Washington
Nationals Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019, in Washington.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
Wearing a dark suit and a tie,
Mr. Trump arrived at Nationals Park just before the first pitch of the
Houston Astros-Washington Nationals matchup. Hours earlier, he had announced that U.S. forces had assaulted the hiding place of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
who was killed in the raid in northeast Syria. At the same time, a
divisive impeachment inquiry into the resident is underway in Congress.
Mr. Trump and first lady Melania Trump entered a lower-tier box to
the left of home plate as the game was beginning. At that point, his
presence hadn't yet been formally announced, but baseball fans in the
section just below his suite turned to look toward the box as he
arrived. Some waved at the resident as he smiled and gave a thumbs-up.
At
the end of the third inning, the resident stood and waved to the
crowd, and ballpark video screens carried a salute to U.S. service
members that drew cheers throughout the stadium. When the video on the
Jumbotron cut to the resident and his entourage — which included a
number of GOP lawmakers — and the loudspeakers announced the Trumps,
cheers abruptly turned into a torrent of boos and heckling from what
sounded like a majority of the crowd. Chants of "Lock him up!" broke out
in some sections, including one below where the resident was sitting.
Mr. Trump appeared unfazed and continued waving. Later, some fans
behind home plate held a sign reading "VETERANS FOR IMPEACHMENT."
Another banner appeared during the game: "IMPEACH TRUMP!"
A red banner reading "Impeach Trump!" appeared over right field during game 5 Sunday night in the World Series.
CBS News - Arden Farhi
The resident remained at the
game for seven innings before heading back to the White House. The
Astros took a 3-2 series lead with a 7-1 victory in Game 5.
Until
Sunday night, Mr. Trump hadn't attended a major league game as resident
even though the White House is a few miles northwest of Nationals Park.
A dozen or so congressional lawmakers accompanied him, according to a
list provided by the White House, including Senators Lindsey Graham of
South Carolina and David Perdue of Georgia, and Representative Steve
Scalise of Louisiana and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
"I
think everybody is excited," Nationals star pitcher Stephen Strasburg
said before the game. "It's the resident of the United States. So
there's obviously beefed-up security. So usually the dogs that are
sniffing in our clubhouse are these nice Labs that are super friendly.
And today there was a German shepherd that I didn't really feel
comfortable petting."
Nationals manager Dave Martinez said: "He's
coming to the game. He's a fan. Hopefully he cheers for the Washington
Nationals, and I hope he enjoys the game."
Mr. Trump's staff has
long tried to shield him from events where he might be loudly booed or
heckled, and he has rarely ventured into the neighborhoods of the
heavily Democratic city. He won just over 4% of the vote in the District
of Columbia in 2016.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob
Manfred said he discussed with the resident whether he'd like to throw
out the ceremonial first pitch, but the resident declined, citing the
disruption that would cause fans getting to the ballpark.
Washington Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner told the Washington
Post that Mr. Trump should be at the game, but he made clear that he did
not invite the resident to throw out the first pitch, saying there
were many other candidates who should be considered before Mr. Trump.
Rep. Katie Hill (D-Santa Clarita) announced Sunday that she would resign from Congress after allegations that she engaged in affairs with a congressional aide and a campaign staff member became public this month.
Hill announced the resignation in a letter to constituents, saying she was stepping down “with a broken heart.”
The
letter did not specify when the resignation would take effect. Hill
will be the first female member of Congress to resign in a post-#MeToo
era. Her resignation will also be the first after a House rule banning sexual relationships with staffers was enacted last year in response to nearly a dozen male members of Congress resigning amid sexual harassment allegations.
Police officers in Ireland just received a bill from Trump’s Doonberg
resort after they were called in to provide extra security for the resident. His golf course is now billing them $100,000 for things like
tea, coffee, and packs of snacks that they “provided” to the officers
who were protecting the resident.
Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins
explains how this violates the Constitution, and why its just morally
wrong.
CNN's Poppy Harlow clashes with Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) over his tweet
claiming without evidence that former Vice President Joe Biden committed
a crime.
Dozens of Republican Representatives, led by Matt Gaetz, attempted to
storm the impeachment hearings on Wednesday, creating a massive security
breach by filming the sensitive information with their cell phones.
These Republicans are creating a spectacle of the entire impeachment
inquiry by falsely claiming that they are being shut out of the process.
Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what’s happening.
A poll released yesterday by Quinnipiac found that a full 55 percent of
respondents approve of the impeachment inquiry, while a dwindling 43
percent opposed it. Last week those numbers were 51 percent to 45
percent.
But the numbers representing the group that I believe are the most
critical in the public opinion sphere were also the ones that saw the
most dramatic movement. You see, support for Donald Trump’s Impeachment
among independents jumped 8 points (in a single week).
And here is what is very well fueling the rapid change related to how
the American people feel about Impeaching and removing this clear and
present danger from office. It is a combination of who is coming to the
defense of Donald Trump and those who seem to be running in the other
direction.
