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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: BayGBM on August 17, 2016, 05:17:35 AM
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First he fires Corey Lewandowski... and elevates Manafort. Now he demotes Manafort and installs Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Bannon. And Trump claims he knows how to pick the "best" people. ::) These amateurs are moving deck chairs on the Titanic! GOP voters deserve so much better. :'(
Trump shakes up campaign, demotes top adviser
By Robert Costa and Jose A. DelReal
Donald Trump, following weeks of gnawing agitation over his advisers’ attempts to temper his style, moved late Tuesday to overhaul his struggling campaign by rebuffing those efforts and elevating two longtime associates who have encouraged his combative populism.
Stephen Bannon, a former banker who runs the influential conservative outlet Breitbart News and is known for his fiercely anti-establishment politics, has been named the Trump campaign’s chief executive. Kellyanne Conway, a veteran Republican pollster who has been close to Trump for years, will assume the role of campaign manager.
Two Trump campaign aides confirmed the staff's reshuffle early Wednesday, requesting anonymity to discuss personnel changes without permission.
Trump issued a statement hours later. “I have known Steve and Kellyanne both for many years. They are extremely capable, highly qualified people who love to win and know how to win,” he said. “I believe we’re adding some of the best talents in politics, with the experience and expertise needed to defeat Hillary Clinton in November and continue to share my message and vision to Make America Great Again.”
The campaign played down the notion that Trump was reacting to the polls or saw his bid in crisis.
“These announcements come at a time of significant growth for Mr. Trump’s campaign, with the first major TV ad buy of the general election slated to start later this week and with additional top-flight operatives joining the movement on a near-daily basis,” the campaign said in the statement.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the moves.
Trump’s stunning decision effectively ended the months-long push by campaign chairman Paul Manafort to moderate Trump’s presentation and pitch for the general election. And it sent a signal, perhaps more clearly than ever, that the real-estate magnate intends to finish this race on his own terms, with friends who share his instincts at his side.
While Manafort, a seasoned operative who joined the campaign in March, will remain in his role, the advisers described his status internally as diminished due to Trump’s unhappiness and restlessness in recent weeks.
While Trump respects Manafort, the aides said, he has grown to feel “boxed in” and "controlled" by people who barely know him. Moving forward, he plans to focus intensely on rousing his voters at rallies and through media appearances.
Trump's turn away from Manafort is in part a reversion to how he ran his campaign in the primary with then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Lewandowski's mantra was "let Trump be Trump" and Trump wants to get back to that type of campaign culture, the aides said.
In Bannon especially, Trump is turning to an alter ego — a colorful, edgy figure on the right who has worked at Goldman Sachs and made several films, including a documentary about former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.
Bannon, in phone calls and meetings, has been urging Trump for months to not mount a fall campaign that makes Republican donors and officials comfortable, the aides said. Instead, Bannon has been telling Trump to run more fully as an outsider and an unabashed nationalist.
Trump has listened intently to Bannon and agreed with him, believing that voters will ultimately want a presidential candidate who represents disruption more than a candidate with polished appeal, the aides said.
“I want to win,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal. “That’s why I’m bringing on fantastic people who know how to win and love to win.”
The campaign said in its statement that Bannon, a former Navy officer, would be “temporarily stepping down from his role with Breitbart News to work full-time on Mr. Trump’s campaign in a new position designed to bolster the business-like approach of Mr. Trump’s campaign.”
“Mr. Bannon,” it continued, “once recognized by Bloomberg Politics as the ‘most dangerous political operative in America,’ will oversee the campaign staff and operations in addition to strategic oversight of major campaign initiatives in addition to working with Mr. Manafort."
Manafort, in a statement, said that he is sure the additions will “undoubtedly help take the campaign to new levels of success.”
“Buckle up,” wrote a Trump strategist in a text message Wednesday to The Washington Post.
Trump’s decision developed over the weekend as he traveled to the Hamptons in New York for a Saturday evening fundraiser at the home of Woody Johnson, the wealthy Republican benefactor who owns the New York Jets.
According to three Republicans familiar with that event, Trump was confronted by several supporters there, including mega-donor Rebekah Mercer, about news reports on his advisers’ desire to tame his personality.
Trump was visibly infuriated at those stories, the Republicans said, and he conferred with Mercer about potential steps he might take to remake his campaign and populate his inner circle with voices more like his own.
Bannon’s name soon came up. Mercer, the daughter of hedge-fund titan Robert Mercer, spoke highly of him. (The Mercer family is a prominent investor in Breitbart News as well as in a super PAC opposing Hillary Clinton.) Trump did the same and told her they had been talking.
By Sunday, as Manafort appeared on network television shows, Trump was stewing and dialing up his friends, the Republicans said. He connected with his son-in-law and trusted adviser Jared Kushner, who has been on vacation in Europe. Then he called Conway and Bannon, ruminating aloud on how they could help him jolt his stalled candidacy.
The Journal reported that Bannon met with Trump later on Sunday at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., to “lay out his new thinking for the campaign team” — with Manafort joining that meeting.
Bannon and Conway, who are friendly, both told Trump they’d be willing to work together and that they understood Trump’s vision for the rest of the campaign, the Republicans said. While careful to not be critical of Manafort — Conway has referred to the changes as an “expansion” rather than a shake-up — they told Trump they would be dedicated to sharpening his message rather than handling him.
Bannon came to the conversation armed with ideas about how to promote Trump nationally and underscore his populism. Conway, who worked on Newt Gingrich’s 2012 campaign and has long counted Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, as a client, had thoughts on how Trump could reach out to more women and suburban voters.
Bannon quickly began to prepare for a takeover. He was spotted at Trump Tower on Monday and worked there Tuesday though he did not travel with Trump.
The three Republicans requested anonymity due to sensitivity of the campaign shake-up and their relationships with Trump, Bannon and Conway.
Moving forward, Trump is hopeful that Manafort will remain involved and a leader within the campaign with a possible emphasis on building Trump’s Washington operation, one of the Republicans said.
But Bannon’s position could make any attempt to smooth relations in Washington difficult. Breitbart News has been harshly critical of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and is seen as an antagonistic organ by congressional GOP leaders.
Another headache for Manafort: the continued hovering presence of Lewandowski, now a CNN commentator, who remains a confidant of Trump. According to Trump aides, he had a hand in prodding Trump to elevate Conway and Bannon and spoke with Trump over the weekend.
Ever since Manafort came onto the campaign, he and Lewandowski have had a bitter relationship, which only worsened when Lewandowski was fired in June during the last major campaign overhaul.
Controversy has also swirled around Manafort in recent days, after he was named in a corruption investigation in Ukraine that suggested he had received $12 million in undisclosed cash payments. The purported payments, earmarked in a ledger kept by the political party of Viktor Yanukovych, then Ukraine's president, raised questions about Manafort's ties to foreign governments and prompted his critics to demand his resignation. Manafort has denied receiving any such payments.
Trump has struggled to stay on message since the Republican National Convention last month, erasing the steady footing he had developed in polls against Clinton through a series of self-inflicted wounds that have driven news cycle after news cycle.
The day after he formally accepted the nomination at the GOP convention, Trump seemed intent on score-settling when he tore into his vanquished rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and revived unsubstantiated conspiracy theories linking Cruz’s father to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Then, during a combative news conference, he offhandedly invited Russian hackers to infiltrate and release Clinton’s private emails.
The three Republicans requested anonymity due to sensitivity of the campaign shake-up and their relationships with Trump, Bannon and Conway.
Moving forward, Trump is hopeful that Manafort will remain involved and a leader within the campaign with a possible emphasis on building Trump’s Washington operation, one of the Republicans said.
But Bannon’s position could make any attempt to smooth relations in Washington difficult. Breitbart News has been harshly critical of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and is seen as an antagonistic organ by congressional GOP leaders.
Another headache for Manafort: the continued hovering presence of Lewandowski, now a CNN commentator, who remains a confidant of Trump. According to Trump aides, he had a hand in prodding Trump to elevate Conway and Bannon and spoke with Trump over the weekend.
Ever since Manafort came onto the campaign, he and Lewandowski have had a bitter relationship, which only worsened when Lewandowski was fired in June during the last major campaign overhaul.
Controversy has also swirled around Manafort in recent days, after he was named in a corruption investigation in Ukraine that suggested he had received $12 million in undisclosed cash payments. The purported payments, earmarked in a ledger kept by the political party of Viktor Yanukovych, then Ukraine's president, raised questions about Manafort's ties to foreign governments and prompted his critics to demand his resignation. Manafort has denied receiving any such payments.
Trump has struggled to stay on message since the Republican National Convention last month, erasing the steady footing he had developed in polls against Clinton through a series of self-inflicted wounds that have driven news cycle after news cycle.
The day after he formally accepted the nomination at the GOP convention, Trump seemed intent on score-settling when he tore into his vanquished rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and revived unsubstantiated conspiracy theories linking Cruz’s father to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Then, during a combative news conference, he offhandedly invited Russian hackers to infiltrate and release Clinton’s private emails.
Those controversies flew in the face of efforts by Trump’s advisers to craft a more deliberate and controlled message, and to transform Trump from the populist flamethrower he was during the GOP primary to a candidate more restrained and presidential in style and demeanor.
And they came with a price: A Washington Post-ABC News poll released earlier this month showed Clinton opening an eight-point lead against Trump among registered voters. Nearly 6 in 10 voters surveyed in that poll said they do not believe he is qualified to be president. Meanwhile, Trump's persistent unpopularity with minority voters has outweighed his strength among white voters in key battleground states and has potentially put several noncompetitive states for Democrats into play.
"You know, I am who I am," Trump told a Wisconsin television station Tuesday. "It's me. I don't want to change. Everyone talks about, 'Oh, well, you're going to pivot, you're going to.' I don't want to pivot. I mean, you have to be you.”
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First they tried to spin this as an "expansion" of the campaign rather than a shake up because things weren't going as planned. Why they even bother with such rhetoric is baffling because everyone can see their dysfunciton. Now, barely two days later even Eric Trump is admitting Manafort was fired (see last paragraph below). ::)
Paul Manafort Quits Donald Trump’s Campaign After Tumultuous Run
By MAGGIE HABERMAN and JONATHAN MARTIN
Paul Manafort, installed to run Donald J. Trump’s operation after the firing of his original campaign manager, handed in his resignation on Friday, signifying the latest tumult to engulf the candidate, whose standing in the polls has steadily dropped since the Republican Party’s convention in July.
Mr. Manafort left nearly a week after a New York Times report about problems within the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign helped precipitate a leadership shake-up. His departure reflects repeated efforts to steady a campaign that has been frequently roiled by the unpredictable behavior of its tempestuous first-time candidate.
Mr. Manafort was also dogged by reports about secretive efforts he made to help the former pro-Russian government in Ukraine, where he has worked on and off over several years. Those news reports were blotting out much of the news coverage of the candidate this week. And they contributed to Mr. Manafort becoming viewed with trepidation by Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and a major force within the campaign, particularly after a number of false starts since the Republican National Convention, according to three people briefed on the matter.
“This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process. Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success.”
Mr. Manafort, a veteran strategist who had managed Republican nominating conventions in the past, was hired by the campaign in late March, as Mr. Trump was facing a protracted delegate fight in his effort to capture the Republican nomination. When he joined the campaign, he was seen as a peer to Mr. Trump, 70, and someone whose advice Mr. Trump might heed. In fact, Mr. Manafort had pushed for the selection of Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana, as Mr. Trump’s running mate.
But until this week, the role of campaign manager had remained empty since the June ouster of Corey Lewandowski, who played into Mr. Trump’s most aggressive instincts and with whom the candidate had a level of chemistry that he never forged with Mr. Manafort, according to several advisers who witnessed them interact. Mr. Trump has continued to seek out the advice of Mr. Lewandowski, a fierce rival of Mr. Manafort, since the aide’s departure from the campaign.
Since the convention in Cleveland, Mr. Trump has engaged in a series of self-defeating battles, including belittling the mother of a Muslim soldier who was killed in Iraq and threatening to withhold an endorsement from Speaker Paul D. Ryan. Aides have tried a range of efforts to rein in his impulses, including adding different travel companions.
Mr. Manafort ended up taking over the campaign two months ago after Mr. Lewandowski was fired when he became a distraction to the candidate over a string of high-profile fights.
Jason Miller, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, wrote on Twitter Friday afternoon that Rick Gates, Mr. Manafort’s deputy, would leave New York for Washington, where he would serve as “the campaign’s liaison to the R.N.C.” Mr. Manafort’s friends said privately that he had urged core staff members whom he brought on to stay on the campaign.
Last weekend, Mr. Trump decided to install Stephen K. Bannon as his chief executive and Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser, as the new campaign manager. That followed an emergency meeting called after the Times article last weekend on the frequent and stymied efforts by Mr. Trump’s top advisers to curtail his pugilistic instincts. Roger Ailes, the recently departed Fox News chairman, was present in New Jersey as the hastily called campaign meeting took place, and he is expected to play a role behind the scenes, including discussing debates with Mr. Trump.
The announced staff moves were widely seen as a step toward sidelining Mr. Manafort, but he and other Trump officials initially said that he would remain with the campaign.
But it remains to be seen who will step into the role of chief strategist for the final 11 weeks of a campaign that hasn’t held a poll lead since before the Republican convention, although his new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, was seen as the likeliest choice.
After a primary season in which crucial organizational elements were left untended, the campaign is still struggling to ramp up against the operational behemoth of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Mr. Manafort is the second top Trump aide to be eased out in the last two months. Mr. Trump’s first campaign manager, Mr. Lewandowski, was dismissed in June after he repeatedly clashed with the candidate’s children and failed to prepare for a delegate slog against hardened opposition within the Republican Party.
Mr. Trump’s aides wanted to put out word of Mr. Manafort’s resignation on Friday morning, before the candidate landed in flood-ravaged Louisiana. But even after releasing a statement, by noon, as Mr. Trump toured Baton Rouge, his campaign had not held a conference call with staff members to inform them of the change.
The latest turmoil comes as Mr. Trump has been trying to reset his campaign after a disastrous stretch in which he committed a series of self-inflicted wounds. The often-improvisational candidate has given three speeches this week in which he largely followed a script, began airing his first television ads on Friday and has mostly targeted Mrs. Clinton while refraining from attacking other Republicans. Mr. Trump, who has long resisted apologizing for any misstep, even said in a speech on Thursday night that he regretted some of comments he had made.
But Mr. Trump’s renewed effort to impose a measure of professionalism on his campaign was obscured by a near-daily stream of stories detailing Mr. Manafort’s compensation from and advocacy for Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukranian president and ally of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
It had become clear to Mr. Manafort last weekend, as Mr. Trump excoriated him over a Times story describing the candidate’s and campaign’s dysfunction, that the pending stories about his work in Ukraine would make remaining on difficult, according to three people briefed on this thinking at the time.
Mr. Trump was informed about the latest reporting — an Associated Press article citing emails that showed Mr. Manafort’s firm had orchestrated a pro-Ukrainian Washington lobbying campaign without registering as a foreign agent — in North Carolina on Thursday night. That was enough to prompt Mr. Trump to telephone Mr. Bannon and suggest it was time for Mr. Manafort to go, according to a Republican briefed on the exchange.
“The easiest way for Trump to sidestep the whole Ukraine story is for Manafort not to be there,” said Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who has become a counselor to Mr. Trump.
Yet Mr. Trump’s dissatisfaction with Mr. Manafort began before the drumbeat of stories about the operative’s Ukranian work, with the Times account, published online last Saturday, of the candidate’s struggles to remain on message despite repeated interventions from advisers and allies.
The next day, Mr. Trump met with Mr. Ailes in Bedminster, N.J., and Mr. Ailes urged him to shake up the campaign, according to a Republican briefed on the meeting. Mr. Ailes, a former Republican strategist and ad man who has become a trusted adviser to Mr. Trump since his ouster, had reviewed some of the initial television commercials Mr. Manafort had overseen and told Mr. Trump in blunt terms that they were lackluster.
Thomas Barrack, a financier and friend of Mr. Trump who helped bring Mr. Manafort into the campaign, expressed regret about the turn of events involving Mr. Manafort.
“I’ve known him since we were in college, he’s a first-class person, he’s an amazing individual and he has been the lead architect in trying to seamlessly put together the institutional side of this campaign,” Mr. Barrack said in an interview. “I think the architecture he put together will continue to serve the campaign well, but I’m sorry to see him go.”
After he was hired by Mr. Trump, Mr. Manafort helped quash uprisings among Republican delegates that, even if they wouldn’t imperil Mr. Trump’s ability to get the nomination, would have been an embarrassing distraction at the convention.
In an interview with Fox News, Eric Trump, the candidate’s second-oldest son, appeared to acknowledge that Mr. Manafort did not entirely leave on his own.
“My father just didn’t want to have the distraction looming over the campaign and quite frankly looming over all the issues that Hillary’s facing right now,” Eric Trump said.
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Another great example of Trumps "extreme vetting" of his own personal
Hiring Bannon as "CEO" of the campaign, whatever the fuck that means, is like hiring someone who's never flown a plane or even ridden in one to be a pilot on his private jet
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Another great example of Trumps "extreme vetting" of his own personal
Hiring Bannon as "CEO" of the campaign, whatever the fuck that means, is like hiring someone who's never flown a plane or even ridden in one to be a pilot on his private jet
;D
This campaign is a perfect example of Trump's leadership skills on display. ::)
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Trump’s ‘apology’ sounds like a non-apology
By James Hohmann
Donald Trump is still figuring out the art of the non-apology apology.
After more than a year of refusing to budge as he moved from one firestorm to the next, the Republican nominee surprised everyone Thursday night by declaring that he lives with some “regret.”
But while he expressed remorse for the first time since getting into the presidential race 14 months ago, he steered clear of the S-word: “sorry.”
Parsing the speech, which was read from a teleprompter, veteran campaign strategists and historians noted that Trump sounded much more like a conventional politician than he has all year. In their view, he’s following a path of rhetorical evasion that has been well trod by candidates in both parties.
Linguists and relationship experts, meanwhile, said Trump’s comments were ineffective and that his words cannot accurately be described as an “apology.” In fact, the GOP nominee did not specify exactly who or what he was talking about. The targets over the course of his campaign are plentiful, including the parents of Capt. Humayun Khan, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Megyn Kelly, New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, Mexicans and Muslims.
Yet with his poll numbers sinking with 81 days left to go, Trump has finally decided to participate in a familiar ritual of penitence: asking the voters for grace after a headline-grabbing misdeed (or, in Trump’s case, many). It’s the same kind of public plea for forgiveness that U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte also issued on Friday over revelations that he fabricated a story about being robbed in Rio (he didn’t actually use the word “sorry” either). But there are many celebrities (actor Mel Gibson after his drunken tirade against “the Jews”) and politicians (then-South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) after “hiking the Appalachian Trail”) who have been through it before.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has also had to make some public mea culpas in her political lifetime — most recently, saying she was “sorry” for her use of a private email server as secretary of state.
Sometimes the public plea for forgiveness works; sometimes it doesn’t.
The biggest problem for Trump, experts said, was the vague nature of his actual words.
“Sometimes in the heat of debate, and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that,” Trump said. “And believe it or not, I regret it. I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain.”
Asked if he’ll apologize to the Khan family, newly installed campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said “he may.”
“I certainly hope they heard him,” Conway said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I hope that everybody who has criticized him at some point, for being insensitive or for mocking someone, at least shows some recognition and some forgiveness.”
New York University historian Tim Naftali, who previously directed the Richard Nixon presidential library, heard Nixonian echoes as he watched the tape of Trump’s speech in Charlotte on Thursday night. Two men who Trump talks to — Roger Ailes and Roger Stone — worked for the former president.
After Watergate, Nixon never apologized for breaking the law, even in his famous interview with David Frost. He instead said that he was sorry for causing the American people pain and suffering.
“An apology involves contrition. Neither Trump, so far, nor Nixon showed real contrition,” Naftali said. “Nixon, at least, believed apologies were a sign of weakness, which exposed him to more attacks from his real and perceived enemies.”
Trump’s insults have come fast and furious during the campaign, but he has never before apologized. “I don’t have regrets,” he said in March when asked about the charged rhetoric at his rallies.
After Khan’s father said Trump does not understand what “sacrifice” means during the Democratic National Convention, the GOP nominee spent a week attacking him. Even following heavy criticism of his attacks on a Gold Star family, Trump told WJLA: “I don’t regret anything.”
Susan Wise Bauer, who wrote the “The Art of the Public Grovel,” called Trump’s language about regret “pretty pathetic.”
“ ‘Regret’ is about the weaseliest non-apology, non-confession word you can pick,” said Bauer, who teaches American literature at the College of William and Mary. “You could ‘regret’ the fact it’s raining outside and have nothing to do with it.”
Perhaps that’s exactly why so many public figures use the word so often, in lieu of more direct words like “apologize” or “sorry.”
Last month, under fire for disparaging Trump as a member of the Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said: “On reflection, my recent remarks ... were ill-advised and I regret making them.”
In 2008, after Joseph R. Biden Jr. called Barack Obama, at that point his opponent for the Democratic nomination, “the first sort of mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” the Delaware senator released a statement saying: “I deeply regret any offense my remark ... might have caused anyone.”
For others, Trump’s non-apology recalled then-Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood’s mealy-mouthed response to sexual harassment accusations. “I’m apologizing for the conduct that it was alleged that I did, and I say I am sorry,” Packwood said in 1992.
“Trump’s not really able to name what he did wrong,” said Edwin Battistella, author of “Sorry About That: The Language of Public Apology” and a linguistics professor at Southern Oregon University. “If you think about what a good apology is, you really want to name what you did wrong and apologize specifically for that — not just say I’m sorry for ‘whatever.’ ”
Naftali says Trump is “testing the waters” to see if unspecified regrets is enough.
“That’s a classic way for an unrepentant person to try to get us to move on,” Naftali said. “What was unusual and new about what Trump did was that he actually took responsibility for the power of his words.”
Lauren Bloom, who wrote “Art of the Apology: How, When, and Why to Give and Accept Apologies,” said sincerity is a fundamental apology requirement. “I’m sure he sincerely regrets creating controversy that hurt his poll numbers, but that’s not being sorry,” she said.
Bloom argued that, if Trump was sincere, he would telephone some of the people he lashed into, including McCain (who he blasted for being captured in Vietnam) or Carly Fiorina (whose face he mocked).
But Republican strategists lack confidence that Trump has the self-discipline to stick with this approach.
“The speech was him trying yet again to send the same message — ‘we’re going to pivot’ — which we’ve seen for well over a year now is meaningless,” said Doug Heye, a former Republican National Committee communications director.
Besides her email server, Clinton has offered many non-apology apologies of her own. She defended her support for the Iraq War in 2008 before saying it was a “mistake” in 2014.
Bill Clinton is much more accomplished in the art of the non-apology apology. In April, he lectured Black Lives Matter protesters about his crime bill, angering some African Americans.
“I almost want to apologize,” he said the next morning.
But he did not. He just kept talking.
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(http://www.collinsvilleil.org/plant.jpg)
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It’s hard to imagine a much worse pitch Donald Trump could have made for the black vote
By Philip Bump
At a rally Friday night in Dimondale, Mich., Donald Trump repeated a version of a plea to black voters that he had offered 24 hours earlier in North Carolina.
"No group in America has been more harmed by Hillary Clinton's policies than African Americans," he said, apparently pointing to individuals in the crowd. "No group. No group. If Hillary Clinton's goal was to inflict pain to the African American community, she could not have done a better job. It is a disgrace."
"Detroit tops the list of most dangerous cities in terms of violent crime, number one," he said from a city 90 minutes away from Detroit with a population that is 93 percent white. "This is the legacy of the Democratic politicians who have run this city. This is the result of the policy agenda embraced by crooked Hillary Clinton."
He went on.
"The only way to change results is to change leadership. We can never fix our problems by relying on the same politicians who created our problems in the first place. A new future requires brand new leadership," he said.
"Look at how much African American communities are suffering from Democratic control. To those I say the following: What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? What do you have to lose?" he asked. "You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?"
This was not the Teleprompter Trump that we saw in Charlotte, interlacing his prepared remarks with occasional asides. This was Traditional Trump, riffing a bit more on what he wanted to say in a manner that probably didn't do him much good.
Consider: Black Americans are not "living in poverty" as a general rule. A quarter of the black population is, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, about the same as the percentage of Hispanics. In Michigan, the figure is slightly higher. Most black Americans don't live in poverty, just as most white Americans don't.
Consider: The unemployment rate in the black community is higher than that in the white community, as it has been since the Department of Labor started keeping track. Among young blacks, though, the figure is not 59 percent — unless (as PolitiFact noted) you consider not the labor force but every young black American, including high school students. Many young black high school students are unemployed. This isn't a metric that the Labor Department typically uses, for obvious reasons, but calculating the rates for young whites gives you about 50 percent, too.
Consider: Black voters are perfectly able to evaluate candidates on qualities other than their political parties. Black voters began supporting the Democratic Party heavily thanks to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Since then, they have consistently voted for the party — a party that is one-fifth black and which since 1964 has elected the vast majority of the black members of Congress. Democrats win the support of black voters consistently because those voters like the work that they do and like the fights that they fight.
When President Obama won reelection in 2012, 93 percent of black Americans thought he was doing a good job. That's also the percentage of the vote he received, according to exit polls, beating Mitt Romney by 87 points.
And yet, somehow, Trump is doing worse.
In the battle between Trump and Clinton, he consistently lands in the low single digits of support from black Americans. In some polls, he has received 0 percent support, a negligible amount. In our most recent survey, he got 2 percent support.
Why? Because nonwhite voters view Trump very unfavorably. We wrote about this in June but can now update the numbers. Four-in-5 blacks have a very unfavorable view of Trump, with a slightly higher percentage, 83 percent, agreeing with the idea that he is biased against women and minorities. Eighty-seven percent of black voters we surveyed indicated that they would be anxious if he were elected president and only 6 percent "comfortable." The numbers for Clinton — who very quickly tweeted that Trump's Michigan comments were "so ignorant it's staggering" -- were nearly completely flipped.
There are any number of reasons that black Americans might view Trump unfavorably, starting with his 2011 effort to cast suspicion on Obama's place of birth. Or, probably, starting with his full-page ad calling for the death penalty against five black teenagers in New York City who were accused of rape — wrongly, as it turned out. Or perhaps thanks to the support his current candidacy is getting from people like former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.
There's no reason to think that Trump's suggestion that black Americans had "nothing to lose" because they "are living in poverty" will do anything to reverse that trend. Nor was his insistence in North Carolina that he should get votes from black voters because "the inner cities are so bad." Some black people, research shows, live in places besides the "inner city."
So why make the argument? It could be, simply enough, that Trump doesn't have anyone in his inner circle that can provide a sense of how to reach out to the black community. One adviser said on CNN that Trump making his appeal in a mostly white town wasn't a big deal and that "maybe it would have been nice if he went and had a backdrop with a burning car." Or maybe Trump was listening to Ben Carson, who in May made a similar argument for Trump: He would only be president for four years, so what could go wrong?
It's likely that Trump's continuing lack of meaningful outreach to black voters keeps him from understanding effective ways of arguing his case. When he went to Baton Rouge to see flood damage, he stopped at a Baptist church with a mostly white congregation.
Or maybe black voters aren't his intended audience. Maybe, with his poll numbers low thanks to soft support from his own party, Trump is trying to convince Republicans that he wants or can earn the black vote. In our most recent poll, one-fifth of Republican men and a quarter of Republican women agreed with the statement that Trump is biased against women and minorities. He gets 90 and 80 percent of the vote from those groups, respectively. Maybe this is an attempt to get them to see him as doing real outreach, even if he isn't.
Of all of the claims Trump made Friday night, though, perhaps none is as laughable as his ultimate prediction.
"At the end of four years, I guarantee you, that I will get over 95 percent of the African American vote," he said. "I will produce for the inner cities, and I will produce for the African Americans. The Democrats will not produce, and all they've done is taken advantage of your vote. That's they've done. And once the election's over, they go back to their palaces in Washington, and you know what, they do nothing for you, just remember it."
Black voters will not give Trump 95 percent of the vote should he be up for reelection in 2020. If he got 25 percent of the vote from black Americans, it would be remarkable. And unless he persuades his own party to support his candidacy, the only one returning to a golden palace after Election Day will be Donald Trump.
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(https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2013/07/18/15/06/plant-164500_960_720.jpg)
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Unless someone promises free stuff , and a lot of it , thry always lose the black vote.
It’s hard to imagine a much worse pitch Donald Trump could have made for the black vote
By Philip Bump
At a rally Friday night in Dimondale, Mich., Donald Trump repeated a version of a plea to black voters that he had offered 24 hours earlier in North Carolina.
"No group in America has been more harmed by Hillary Clinton's policies than African Americans," he said, apparently pointing to individuals in the crowd. "No group. No group. If Hillary Clinton's goal was to inflict pain to the African American community, she could not have done a better job. It is a disgrace."
"Detroit tops the list of most dangerous cities in terms of violent crime, number one," he said from a city 90 minutes away from Detroit with a population that is 93 percent white. "This is the legacy of the Democratic politicians who have run this city. This is the result of the policy agenda embraced by crooked Hillary Clinton."
He went on.
"The only way to change results is to change leadership. We can never fix our problems by relying on the same politicians who created our problems in the first place. A new future requires brand new leadership," he said.
"Look at how much African American communities are suffering from Democratic control. To those I say the following: What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? What do you have to lose?" he asked. "You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?"
This was not the Teleprompter Trump that we saw in Charlotte, interlacing his prepared remarks with occasional asides. This was Traditional Trump, riffing a bit more on what he wanted to say in a manner that probably didn't do him much good.
Consider: Black Americans are not "living in poverty" as a general rule. A quarter of the black population is, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, about the same as the percentage of Hispanics. In Michigan, the figure is slightly higher. Most black Americans don't live in poverty, just as most white Americans don't.
Consider: The unemployment rate in the black community is higher than that in the white community, as it has been since the Department of Labor started keeping track. Among young blacks, though, the figure is not 59 percent — unless (as PolitiFact noted) you consider not the labor force but every young black American, including high school students. Many young black high school students are unemployed. This isn't a metric that the Labor Department typically uses, for obvious reasons, but calculating the rates for young whites gives you about 50 percent, too.
Consider: Black voters are perfectly able to evaluate candidates on qualities other than their political parties. Black voters began supporting the Democratic Party heavily thanks to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Since then, they have consistently voted for the party — a party that is one-fifth black and which since 1964 has elected the vast majority of the black members of Congress. Democrats win the support of black voters consistently because those voters like the work that they do and like the fights that they fight.
When President Obama won reelection in 2012, 93 percent of black Americans thought he was doing a good job. That's also the percentage of the vote he received, according to exit polls, beating Mitt Romney by 87 points.
And yet, somehow, Trump is doing worse.
In the battle between Trump and Clinton, he consistently lands in the low single digits of support from black Americans. In some polls, he has received 0 percent support, a negligible amount. In our most recent survey, he got 2 percent support.
Why? Because nonwhite voters view Trump very unfavorably. We wrote about this in June but can now update the numbers. Four-in-5 blacks have a very unfavorable view of Trump, with a slightly higher percentage, 83 percent, agreeing with the idea that he is biased against women and minorities. Eighty-seven percent of black voters we surveyed indicated that they would be anxious if he were elected president and only 6 percent "comfortable." The numbers for Clinton — who very quickly tweeted that Trump's Michigan comments were "so ignorant it's staggering" -- were nearly completely flipped.
There are any number of reasons that black Americans might view Trump unfavorably, starting with his 2011 effort to cast suspicion on Obama's place of birth. Or, probably, starting with his full-page ad calling for the death penalty against five black teenagers in New York City who were accused of rape — wrongly, as it turned out. Or perhaps thanks to the support his current candidacy is getting from people like former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.
There's no reason to think that Trump's suggestion that black Americans had "nothing to lose" because they "are living in poverty" will do anything to reverse that trend. Nor was his insistence in North Carolina that he should get votes from black voters because "the inner cities are so bad." Some black people, research shows, live in places besides the "inner city."
So why make the argument? It could be, simply enough, that Trump doesn't have anyone in his inner circle that can provide a sense of how to reach out to the black community. One adviser said on CNN that Trump making his appeal in a mostly white town wasn't a big deal and that "maybe it would have been nice if he went and had a backdrop with a burning car." Or maybe Trump was listening to Ben Carson, who in May made a similar argument for Trump: He would only be president for four years, so what could go wrong?
It's likely that Trump's continuing lack of meaningful outreach to black voters keeps him from understanding effective ways of arguing his case. When he went to Baton Rouge to see flood damage, he stopped at a Baptist church with a mostly white congregation.
Or maybe black voters aren't his intended audience. Maybe, with his poll numbers low thanks to soft support from his own party, Trump is trying to convince Republicans that he wants or can earn the black vote. In our most recent poll, one-fifth of Republican men and a quarter of Republican women agreed with the statement that Trump is biased against women and minorities. He gets 90 and 80 percent of the vote from those groups, respectively. Maybe this is an attempt to get them to see him as doing real outreach, even if he isn't.
Of all of the claims Trump made Friday night, though, perhaps none is as laughable as his ultimate prediction.
"At the end of four years, I guarantee you, that I will get over 95 percent of the African American vote," he said. "I will produce for the inner cities, and I will produce for the African Americans. The Democrats will not produce, and all they've done is taken advantage of your vote. That's they've done. And once the election's over, they go back to their palaces in Washington, and you know what, they do nothing for you, just remember it."
Black voters will not give Trump 95 percent of the vote should he be up for reelection in 2020. If he got 25 percent of the vote from black Americans, it would be remarkable. And unless he persuades his own party to support his candidacy, the only one returning to a golden palace after Election Day will be Donald Trump.
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Liberal LA Times Trump +2 this morning...
http://www.latimes.com/politics/
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Trump campaign manager no longer wants him to release his tax returns
By Jenna Johnson
Donald Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said Sunday morning that she does not want the Republican presidential nominee to release his tax returns until an audit by the Internal Revenue Service is completed, abandoning a position that she took five months ago, when she didn't work for the campaign and urged Trump to "be transparent" and release the filings.
"I've learned since being on the inside that this audit is a serious matter and that he has said that when the audit is complete, he will release his tax returns," Conway said during an interview on ABC's "This Week" that aired Sunday morning. "I also know as a pollster that what concerns people most about quote 'taxes' is their own tax liability, and so we appreciate people being able to see Hillary Clinton's plan and Donald Trump's plan and figure out who will really get the middle-class tax relief."
According to Trump's attorneys, his tax returns filed since 2009 are under audit but those from 2002 to 2008 are no longer under audit. Conway said Sunday in an interview on CNN that she does not want Trump to release those returns, either.
On ABC, Conway also took a swipe at Clinton over transparency: "I'm glad that he's transparent about a number of things, and we're certainly running against the least accountable, least transparent, I think, joyless candidate in presidential political history."
Trump is the first major presidential nominee from either party since 1976 to not release tax returns. Last summer, Clinton released returns from 2007 to 2014, and her campaign shared her 2015 return this month, as well as 10 years of returns from her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, has said that he plans to release his tax returns, with a spokesman telling CNN that this would happen before the election.
In April, Conway appeared on CNN and defended a short-lived alliance between Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) to stop Trump, a strategy that she considered "fair game."
"Of course it's fair game," Conway said. "Oh, absolutely. It's completely transparent. Donald Trump's tax returns aren't, and I would like to see those be transparent."
During the Sunday interview on CNN, Conway said she didn't understand why Trump's tax returns have become such a big issue.
"This entire tax return debate is somewhat confounding to me, in the following sense: I don't think that it creates one job, gets one more individual who does not have health insurance covered by health insurance, particularly under the disaster that has been Obamacare with these private insurers pulling out our exchanges now and reporting billions of dollars of losses," Conway said. "If we want transparency, if we want specifics, the most relevant thing that people can look at is what is his plan for their tax bill."
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When is Hillary releasing the 33k deleted emails
Trump campaign manager no longer wants him to release his tax returns
By Jenna Johnson
Donald Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said Sunday morning that she does not want the Republican presidential nominee to release his tax returns until an audit by the Internal Revenue Service is completed, abandoning a position that she took five months ago, when she didn't work for the campaign and urged Trump to "be transparent" and release the filings.
"I've learned since being on the inside that this audit is a serious matter and that he has said that when the audit is complete, he will release his tax returns," Conway said during an interview on ABC's "This Week" that aired Sunday morning. "I also know as a pollster that what concerns people most about quote 'taxes' is their own tax liability, and so we appreciate people being able to see Hillary Clinton's plan and Donald Trump's plan and figure out who will really get the middle-class tax relief."
According to Trump's attorneys, his tax returns filed since 2009 are under audit but those from 2002 to 2008 are no longer under audit. Conway said Sunday in an interview on CNN that she does not want Trump to release those returns, either.
On ABC, Conway also took a swipe at Clinton over transparency: "I'm glad that he's transparent about a number of things, and we're certainly running against the least accountable, least transparent, I think, joyless candidate in presidential political history."
Trump is the first major presidential nominee from either party since 1976 to not release tax returns. Last summer, Clinton released returns from 2007 to 2014, and her campaign shared her 2015 return this month, as well as 10 years of returns from her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, has said that he plans to release his tax returns, with a spokesman telling CNN that this would happen before the election.
In April, Conway appeared on CNN and defended a short-lived alliance between Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) to stop Trump, a strategy that she considered "fair game."
"Of course it's fair game," Conway said. "Oh, absolutely. It's completely transparent. Donald Trump's tax returns aren't, and I would like to see those be transparent."
During the Sunday interview on CNN, Conway said she didn't understand why Trump's tax returns have become such a big issue.
"This entire tax return debate is somewhat confounding to me, in the following sense: I don't think that it creates one job, gets one more individual who does not have health insurance covered by health insurance, particularly under the disaster that has been Obamacare with these private insurers pulling out our exchanges now and reporting billions of dollars of losses," Conway said. "If we want transparency, if we want specifics, the most relevant thing that people can look at is what is his plan for their tax bill."
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Hey.. I have a great idea...
Lets vote for a feeble Grandma who can't get up stairs, gets propped up by pillows, and is in severely poor medical health who has according to FBI testimony perjured herself under oath!
yeah... that sounds like an AWESOME idea for a strong president to represent the US!!
Hildog 2016 !! lets do this... whoo hooo
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Liberal LA Times Trump +2 this morning...
http://www.latimes.com/politics/
Is this poll accurate? Is the poll that has Trump down 9 points in FL accurate?
hoping youre consistent, and not one of those folks that only believes in polls when their guy leads.
have you endorsed a candidate yet, or still making up your mind, coach?
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Is this poll accurate? Is the poll that has Trump down 9 points in FL accurate?
The L.A. Times poll is an outlier.
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Is this poll accurate? Is the poll that has Trump down 9 points in FL accurate?
hoping youre consistent, and not one of those folks that only believes in polls when their guy leads.
have you endorsed a candidate yet, or still making up your mind, coach?
Done playing your games. You know who I endorsed as Ive said it right after the convention. Figure it out junior.
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Done playing your games. You know who I endorsed as Ive said it right after the convention. Figure it out junior.
hey, we both may end up voting trump. I dont want hilary to win either, I just think trump is a lib piece of shit working for her too.
what's with this 'junior' stuff? Do you talk like a piece of shit in real life? or just on the message boards?
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Conway shouldn’t have gone on TV
By Jennifer Rubin
Grading on a curve, Kellyanne Conway is doing A-plus work for Donald Trump. She hasn’t manhandled a reporter as Corey Lewandowski did. She’s not tied up with Russian oligarchs as Paul Manafort has been. But in absolute terms, her tenure has gotten off to a rocky start and her appearance on the Sunday shows was misguided if not semi-disastrous.
To recap Trump’s travails since she came on: He made a condescending speech to African Americans that only magnified his cluelessness. He insisted on grandstanding in Baton Rouge, only to be told off by the governor and exclude the press anyway. As money figures were released, there was confirmation of how little of what he purportedly raised is going to his campaign (about $37 million of $80 million raised); how lavishly he spent on consultants and in payments to his own entities; and how badly his campaign and super PACs trail Hillary Clinton’s money operation. The latter fundraising troubles were not on Conway’s watch, but she did little to pave the way by downgrading expectations.
Next, the Huffington Post reports that she must treat Trump like a baby, flattering him (“she has a whole vocabulary of diplomatic words”) and keeping bad news away (“Kelly’s telling Trump what he wants to hear”). That’s horrible if true because it portrays him as crippled by his own ego and demonstrates that Trump can abide only women with whom he agrees. (“That’s the kind of woman he likes around, who can tell him the soft way — encourage him, guide him but not criticize him.”) That’s humiliating, frankly, but it certainly jibes with a narcissistic personality. If Conway really is helping Trump escape from reality, she is doing Trump, the party and the country no good. Then there were her remarks on Sunday, which were at times bizarre.
She couldn’t say if Trump was changing a central tenet of his campaign, his deportation of 11 million people. (“To be determined,” she said of a policy he’s advocated for over a year.)
After saying before she joined Trump’s campaign that she didn’t like politics of denigration, she had to insist, “He doesn’t hurl personal insults.” Who believes such preposterous spin?
She lied that Trump had apologized in public to Capt. Humayun Khan’s parents. She also let it be known that he has not apologized to anyone personally. It was painful to watch:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So what specifically does Mr. Trump regret saying?
CONWAY: He has said that he wants to regret anytime he’s caused somebody personal pain by saying something that he didn’t intend to cause personal pain. And I think those who have received it privately should take that expression of regret.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So he’s called the Khan family?
He’s called John McCain and apologized?
CONWAY: No, he’s expressed his regret publicly and said if I have caused you personal pain — that can include me, that can include you — that he regrets that. And that’s the Donald Trump —
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: But that’s regretting what they feel, not what he said.
CONWAY: No, no, that’s regretting that — he said if I have chosen the wrong words or said something in a way I didn’t intend, then I regret that. But this is exactly what people love. They love humility. They love accessibility. They love authenticity. And I’m just amazed that the Hillary team has responded in yet another attack on Donald Trump.
And of course she had to spin on his refusal to release his taxes, which she previously said he should do. “I’ve learned since on being the inside that this audit is a serious matter and that he has said that when the audit is complete, he’ll release his tax returns,”she said. (So he’s in big trouble with the IRS?) And as if to underscore that she was dishing out spin, she added, “I also know as a pollster that what concerns people most about, quote, ‘taxes’ is their own tax liability.” In other words, he thinks he can get away with it.
Finally, confronted with criticism of Trump’s condescending speech about African Americans, she let on it was all about catering to white people. “Those comments are for all Americans. And I live in a white community. I’m white. I was very moved by his comment. In other words, he is trying to tell Americans that we can do better.” Translation: He was telling white people he’s not as racist as they might have suspected.
Listen, Conway has an impossible job — trying to make Trump into a respectable candidate. She is far and away the most competent and experienced person on the team. From the outside, she’s also the most “normal” person he’s had in any senior position. But she has never run a presidential campaign. Moreover, she seems to have forgotten the first rule of campaigns: When you are going to be asked questions for which there are no good answers, don’t go on TV.
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She went on TV because she wants to be a star anchor on TrumpTV and is trying to get as much airtime as possibl.
She didn't know his message, and created a big pile of flip-flop shit that he didn't need, in a week where he was actually doing well.
Creating that doubt of "maybe they can stay, to be determined!" was a DUMB move.
Trump would be better off with a 12-year old running part of his campaign at this point.
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She went on TV because she wants to be a star anchor on TrumpTV and is trying to get as much airtime as possibl.
She didn't know his message, and created a big pile of flip-flop shit that he didn't need, in a week where he was actually doing well.
Creating that doubt of "maybe they can stay, to be determined!" was a DUMB move.
Trump would be better off with a 12-year old running part of his campaign at this point.
I don't know about a 12-year old but Conway is not a compelling presence on TV. She reeks of hypocrisy and opportunism. She may or may not be effective behind the scenes but on TV she is a total disaster! :-X
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I don't know about a 12-year old but Conway is not a compelling presence on TV. She reeks of hypocrisy and opportunism. She may or may not be effective behind the scenes but on TV she is a total disaster! :-X
12-year-old running Trump campaign office in Colorado
WHEAT RIDGE, CO (KDVR/CNN) - Donald Trump's campaign has some young blood among its leadership.
And by young, that means 12 years old.
In one of the most important counties in swing state Colorado, Donald Trump is relying on 12-year-old Weston Imer, who runs the Jefferson County operation for the Trump campaign.
Jefferson County is one of the most populous counties in Colorado and is part of the Denver metro area.
http://www.kmov.com/story/32807204/12-year-old-running-trump-campaign-office-in-colorado
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12-year-old running Trump campaign office in Colorado
WHEAT RIDGE, CO (KDVR/CNN) - Donald Trump's campaign has some young blood among its leadership.
And by young, that means 12 years old.
In one of the most important counties in swing state Colorado, Donald Trump is relying on 12-year-old Weston Imer, who runs the Jefferson County operation for the Trump campaign.
Jefferson County is one of the most populous counties in Colorado and is part of the Denver metro area.
http://www.kmov.com/story/32807204/12-year-old-running-trump-campaign-office-in-colorado
A 12 year old could run this country better than Obama can.
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12-year-old running Trump campaign office in Colorado
WHEAT RIDGE, CO (KDVR/CNN) - Donald Trump's campaign has some young blood among its leadership.
And by young, that means 12 years old.
In one of the most important counties in swing state Colorado, Donald Trump is relying on 12-year-old Weston Imer, who runs the Jefferson County operation for the Trump campaign.
Jefferson County is one of the most populous counties in Colorado and is part of the Denver metro area.
http://www.kmov.com/story/32807204/12-year-old-running-trump-campaign-office-in-colorado
Well, I don't know how much running it he's doing... Maybe he is, but eh.
From your link:
Imer's mother, Laurel Imer, is the official field coordinator on paper, but she wants to give her son most of the responsibility and help show other parents - Democrat or Republican - how to get their kids involved.
"You have a responsibility to your children to teach them," Laurel Imer said.
School starts for Weston Imer in September, and he hopes to lead the field office until then, recruiting friends and making Trump - who he has met - proud.
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I like what they're doing there, putting kids to work with such responsibility. Pretty cool actually.
Trump's new campaign manager said some stupid shit, and now the base is running from Trump because he has to commit to deportation, or admit to his STRONGEST supporters that he was just lying to them when he promised that.
We're figuring it out now = to be determined = why in the F did she just put trump in this position? He had to cancel a speech on immigration and is now re-formulating it?
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A 12 year old could run this country better than Obama can.
Do you mean to say a 12 year old could better clean up the disaster left by the Bush administration? Is that what you mean to say? Or do you cling to the idea that Bush/Cheney was a successful administration. ::)
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Do you mean to say a 12 year old could better clean up the disaster left by the Bush administration? Is that what you mean to say? Or do you cling to the idea that Bush/Cheney was a successful administration. ::)
How is that obamacare working out moron? The one law this pos got signed and its a trainwreck
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Here are the leading Republicans who rushed to defend Donald Trump on race: ______
by Phillip Bump
On Dec. 29, 2014, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) admitted that he'd attended an event hosted by white supremacist leaders a decade earlier. The timing was awkward for Republicans, since Scalise had recently moved into the upper ranks of the House caucus after Eric Cantor lost his reelection bid. Within 24 hours, then-Speaker John A. Boehner stood by Scalise.
"More than a decade ago, Representative Scalise made an error in judgment, and he was right to acknowledge it was wrong and inappropriate," Boehner said in a statement. "Like many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I know Steve to be a man of high integrity and good character. He has my full confidence as our Whip, and he will continue to do great and important work for all Americans."
It was important for Boehner to step up for Scalise because Scalise was part of the party's leadership team. Yet the day after Hillary Clinton delivered a stinging indictment of Donald Trump, the Republican Party's ostensible leader, on the same subject, other Republican leaders haven't risen to his defense.
The Republican Party has tweeted repeatedly since Clinton's speech, praising the National Park Service, hitting Clinton on her foundation and pledging to return to the Constitution. It offered no press release in defense of its nominee, issuing one only about Clinton having not held a press conference since last year.
That's been the only subject of Republican Chairman Reince Priebus's tweets, too, including one this morning.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan's website (where Boehner's 2014 statement currently lives) includes an update about constituent outreach by Rep. Mac Thornberry added since Thursday — but, then, Ryan's official page isn't the proper place for a political defense. The Facebook page for his campaign has updated twice since Clinton's speech with a YouTube video of one of his speeches and a call to update the tax code.
Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the House Republican Conference, has also weighed in on social media since Clinton's speech: She gave a shout-out to a local business and wrote about preventing forest fires.
NBC's Frank Thorp reached out to both Ryan's office and that of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The results?
Recap: Asked for response to Clinton's 'alt-right' speech:
Ryan spox: "Doubt he saw it."
McConnell spox: "I don't think he saw the speech."
The speech was not a surprise. Clinton announced that she intended to link Trump to the so-called alt-right earlier this week, making it clear she would imply that the Republican nominee had the backing of racists and anti-Semites. In a normal election cycle, that would prompt the party to line up leaders and surrogates in defense of their candidate. This isn't a normal election cycle.
MSNBC's Benjy Sarlin (who noticed the GOP's silence early) points out that his network asked party spokesman Sean Spicer about the lack of a coordinated rebuttal to Clinton. "I don't know," Spicer said. "I think Congress is in recess."
Congress is in recess, as it has been since the middle of July. (Nice work if you can get it.) That didn't stop members of Congress from tweeting. By my quick tally, there have been 86 tweets from Republican members of Congress since Clinton's speech. A handful have dealt with the presidential race; none can be interpreted as a defense of Donald Trump.
One Republican's tweet can be interpreted as the opposite.
Well, it was good while it lasted... https://t.co/QV6PXUoRX7
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) August 26, 2016
There has also been no defense of the Republican nominee from his running mate. After a string of tornadoes in his home state, Gov. Mike Pence returned to Indiana. His tweets over the past day have dealt with the state's recovery. His campaign Twitter account, which could easily have tweeted a link to a statement defending Trump, didn't. He hasn't tweeted there since Wednesday.
Trump does have statements on his website offering a defense. Three come from members of the "Republican Leadership Initiative," a party effort to teach the basics of political campaigns to those interested. So the party-connected individuals we can say with certainty have defended Trump are Alfred Liz, Patricia Bober and Oz Sultan.
This is not exactly a circling of the wagons.
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Do you mean to say a 12 year old could better clean up the disaster left by the Bush administration? Is that what you mean to say? Or do you cling to the idea that Bush/Cheney was a successful administration. ::)
Still Bushs fault? Lmao hahahahahhaha
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Trump’s repellent inner circle
By Michael Gerson
Donald Trump is undergoing his own “extreme vetting.” And we are learning a great deal about the quality of his public pledges.
In no particular order, Trump has shifted his position on raising the federal minimum wage (against it, for it, get rid of it, leave it to the states, put it at $10 an hour); on fighting the Islamic State (bomb the “hell out of them” and take the oil fields, let our regional allies take the lead, declare war and send in troops, let Russia take care of it); on taxes for the wealthy (increase them, cut them dramatically, make the wealthy pay more, make everyone pay less); on his Muslim ban (exclude all Muslims, keep Muslims out except for members of the military and current residents, it was “just a suggestion,” ban Muslims from countries with a history of terrorism, impose “extreme vetting”); on the national debt (eliminate it in eight years, prioritize massive infrastructure spending, renegotiate debt with creditors, just “print the money”).
Now, concerning his defining promise to round up and deport 11 million undocumented men, women and children, Trump is undergoing a rapid, convulsive transition from Mr. Hyde into Dr. Jekyll. In the movies, this role would require hours in the chair of a highly skilled makeup artist. Trump has Sean Hannity.
For much of Trump’s fan base, these details couldn’t matter less. The Trump revolution is mainly a matter of personnel, not policy. Put the right man in charge who will hire the “best people” and fire all the corrupt, stupid failures. Trump’s primary appeal — and his main source of self-regard — is his skill as a negotiator, manager and talent scout.
Here we are also getting a good feel for the candidate. Trump’s campaign has been a roiling, noxious, dysfunctional mess from the start, characterized by public feuds, subject to sudden leadership changes and unable to fulfill key functions (like actually having a campaign apparatus in key states). And Trump’s personnel selections have been both instructive and disastrous.
Consider this list of Trump’s chosen: Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski had a brutal and demeaning style that resulted in a staff revolt, and his manhandling of a female reporter overshadowed the Trump campaign for weeks. Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was paid lucrative consulting fees by foreign interests and resigned after reports that Ukraine anti-corruption investigators were scrutinizing millions in alleged payments there.
Longtime adviser Roger Stone is a crackpot conspiracy theorist who asserts that Bill and Hillary Clinton are “plausibly responsible” for the deaths of roughly 40 people and that Hillary Clinton should be “executed for murder.” Confidant Roger Ailes recently stepped down from his job at Fox News under a cloud of sexual harassment claims. And Steve Bannon, Trump’s new campaign chief executive, is known for his bullying tactics and for running a website (Breitbart News) that flirts with white nationalism.
There are a few exceptions to this pattern — Kellyanne Conway and Mike Pence come to mind — but Trump has hired and elevated some of the very worst people in American politics, known for their cruelty, radicalism, prejudice and corruption.
What does all this say about Trump as a prospective president?
First, it means that the ideal of leadership Trump displayed as a reality television star is his actual view of leadership. It is not an act. In Trump’s view, leaders elevate themselves by belittling others. They yell and abuse and bully. And their most important quality is absolute loyalty to the great leader, the star of the show. This is a view of leadership that would make H.R. Haldeman cringe.
Second, Trump has managed to pick a team that directly undermines many of his campaign objectives. Need to appeal to women? Include a man in your inner circle accused by many of misogyny. Need to appeal to minorities? Elevate a figure associated with the racially divisive alt-right. Need to challenge the corrupt status quo in Washington? Hire a consultant for oppressive governments. Trump’s rhetoric is belied by his choice of friends and associates.
Finally, ideology doesn’t seem to be the main criteria in Trump’s selections. The hiring of Bannon does make Trump’s appeal to the alt-right explicit. But Breitbart News is mainly known in this election for slavish devotion to the cult of Trump. This attribute may well guide most of Trump’s top-level personnel choices, including for the Supreme Court.
Trump, more than most, needs to surround himself with people who compensate for his alarming weaknesses. Instead, his choices demonstrate and amplify those weaknesses, becoming one more reason to utterly reject his leadership.
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Donald Trump Hires First and Deals With Background Questions Later
By ALAN RAPPEPORT
Donald J. Trump has called for “extreme vetting” to determine who is allowed to enter the United States, but when it comes to his presidential campaign, he has shown a propensity to be lenient when it comes to the kinds of red flags that might scare off other candidates.
Last week, Paul Manafort resigned from Mr. Trump’s campaign after revelations of his Ukrainian business dealings. On Thursday, Stephen K. Bannon, the newly hired campaign chief executive, was ensnared in controversy over domestic violence charges made against him in the 1990s.
The hires and subsequent firestorms have created distractions for Mr. Trump’s campaign and raised questions about the management style of a Republican nominee who has based his candidacy on his business acumen and his ability to surround himself with the best people.
The case against Mr. Bannon, who took a leave from the conservative website Breitbart News to join the campaign, was eventually dropped. He had pleaded not guilty to allegations that he had grabbed his wife by the wrist and neck during an altercation and threatened her with retribution if she testified against him.
Mr. Manafort was never charged with any crimes, but his leadership role in the campaign became untenable after it became known that $12.7 million from a pro-Russia political party had been earmarked for him. The revelation underscored criticism that Mr. Trump is too cozy with Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin.
A squeaky-clean past does not appear to be a prerequisite for working on the Trump campaign. On Thursday, the campaign hired Bill Stepien, a former top aide to Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey whose role in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal led to his firing. Mr. Stepien, who is expected to bolster Mr. Trump’s political operation, was excluded from a top-level role in Mr. Christie’s presidential campaign because of his involvement in the scandal engulfing the governor’s administration.
“I’m betting he hasn’t done any due diligence on any of these folks,” Dave Ulrich, a management professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, said of Mr. Trump. “It’s leadership on instinct.”
The Trump campaign would not discuss its vetting process for hiring people, and it was unclear if Mr. Trump knew about Mr. Bannon’s brush with the law.
“I don’t know what he was aware of with respect to a 20-year-old claim where the charges were dropped,” Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump’s new campaign manager, told ABC News on Friday.
Mr. Bannon, Mr. Manafort and Mr. Stepien are not the first of Mr. Trump’s hires to come with baggage. Mr. Manafort’s predecessor, Corey Lewandowski, also came with some warning signs. As a congressional aide, he was once arrested after he brought a gun to work. He also ended up distracting Mr. Trump’s campaign after he was charged with battery in April for allegedly grabbing the arm of a reporter. Those charges were later dropped.
Mr. Trump, who once tried to trademark the phrase “you’re fired,” which he popularized as star of “The Apprentice,” has shown a tendency to hire with his gut in other instances. During a news conference at the construction site of his Washington hotel in March, he plucked a woman from the audience and offered her a job with his company.
“She seemed like a good person to me,” Mr. Trump said after the event.
Other presidential campaigns have had thorough vetting processes when bringing on new staff members. A former aide to Mitt Romney, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss the inner workings of that campaign, said that the 2012 nominee did extensive background checks and that potential hires who had even D.W.I. convictions did not make the cut.
Some said that Mr. Trump’s penchant for giving second chances could be a good thing, as people who have had personal or career setbacks often work harder to make the most of such opportunities.
“They are grateful for the opportunity,” said Steve Kerr, an adviser to Goldman Sachs who used to lead the Jack Welch Management Institute, an online educational program. However, Mr. Kerr said, it is important for someone doing the hiring to be aware of any black marks that could be relevant to a new position.
“It would be incompetent vetting and recruiting if he didn’t know this stuff,” he added.
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That's a good point about trump and vetting.
I cannot think of any campaign in recent years with this much turnover. First was Cory, and ex cop that lied about putting hands on a woman. Next was manafort, likely a puppet of foreign govt. new guy has issues with with beating and worse, as the news showed today.
And it's not even like these guys are doing that amazing a job. If you're going to hire scumbags, they need to at least be very good at their jobs. Well, unless their job is to lose ;-)
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At Least 110 Republican Leaders Won’t Vote for Donald Trump.
Here’s When They Reached Their Breaking Point.
By KAREN YOURISH and LARRY BUCHANAN
This list includes current and former members of Congress, governors and high-level officials from Republican administrations. People shaded in blue have said they will vote for Hillary Clinton...
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/29/us/politics/at-least-110-republican-leaders-wont-vote-for-donald-trump-heres-when-they-reached-their-breaking-point.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
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Trump can’t fake love of ‘the blacks’
By Kathleen Parker
When Donald Trump says he has a great relationship with “the Blacks,” I wonder if he also gets along well with the Smiths. We know he’s tight with the Whites.
But what’s with the definite article?
During a brief dalliance with Google, I learned that Trump has used “the” before whites at least once — when commenting that Black Entertainment Television doesn’t offer awards to “the whites.” But for the most part, he reserves “the” for “the blacks,” or, as most people would say, “blacks,” if they don’t say “African Americans.”
Oftentimes, you’ll find the word “people” following “black,” as in: Black people are people, too, which is what I want to say to Trump every time he says “the blacks.”
“The blacks” is such an odd way of referring to any group of people (the Asians, the whites, the Latinos) precisely because it does what it shouldn’t. “The,” as Trump uses it, effectively functions as a separatist term, which tells us a great deal about Trump’s attitude toward, if I may, black people. Even while insisting that he has a good relationship with “the blacks,” Trump betrays an objectifying posture that would suggest otherwise. I don’t doubt that he has friends who happen to be black or black employees with whom he is cordial, if not friendly. At a certain economic level, race erases itself and racial identity becomes irrelevant.
But these associations are quite apart from speaking to a broad African American community, not to mention non-African American people of color, or from having empathy for minority groups.
Digging up old photos of Trump snuggling with Al Sharpton is laughable as evidence that Trump has any connection to a diverse community of black people.
Nor is speaking to a largely African American community in Detroit — or to an Iowa rally of mostly whites about “the blacks” — likely to shift Trump’s dismal poll numbers showing that his appeal to black voters is approximately commensurate with the number of older white males who pray for a President Hillary Clinton.
This, among other reasons, is why Trump most likely will not be the next president of the United States. You can’t fake love, and nothing’s worse than a would-be wooer who says all the wrong things.
Trump can still win the presidency without blacks, but he can’t win without a healthy chunk of nonwhite voters, including Hispanics and Asians, whose numbers have dramatically increased the past couple of decades.
Nor can the Republican Party long survive without attracting minorities and young voters. The truth is, whites determined to get their country back would do better to skip the Trump rallies and invest in some new bed linens and champagne — for romance, silly. A little bubbly between the sheets will grow the white voting bloc far more efficiently than building walls with definite articles and eye-rollingly insulting pandering.
The future of the Republican Party and the presidency comes down to simple math. White birthrates are down to almost nil. Minorities are swelling the electorate with high birthrates and immigration. This can be done without a calculator.
Given Trump’s egregious, minority-slamming rhetoric, combined with his uniquely offensive charm, there seems little chance he’ll be pulling in enough nonwhite votes to win. Meanwhile, the white electorate is shrinking. In 2012, whites were 72 percent of the electorate, compared with 88 percent in 1992. Estimates by GOP pollster Whit Ayres are that the 2016 electorate will be 69 percent white and 31 percent nonwhite. Thankfully, we acknowledge Ayres’s book, “2016 and Beyond,” in which he does the math so we don’t have to.
So let’s say that Trump wins the same share of white votes that Mitt Romney did in 2012 — 59 percent. He still needs 30 percent of nonwhite votes to win the election, according to Ayres. Recent history offers little hope of this outcome: Romney won only 17 percent of the nonwhite vote and John McCain just 19 percent.
Alternatively, Ayres suggests that if Trump doesn’t exceed Romney’s 17 percent nonwhite vote, then he’ll need a whopping 65 percent of white votes to win, and droves of white Republicans have already abandoned ship. Moreover, such a landslide has happened only once in the past 40 years — in 1984, when the Republican nominee won 66 percent of white votes, as well as 9 percent of blacks.
Needless to say, The Trump is no Ronald Reagan.
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The first thing I'd point out, is that African-Americans tend to move alike when they vote, and not sure that's seen to the same extent in any other such group. Is it? If someone could point it out, I'd appreciate it.
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Several of Donald Trump's Latino advisors resign after his immigration speech
by Kurtis Lee
Donald Trump has held photo ops with his National Hispanic Advisory Council and in recent weeks boasted about his increasing support from this crucial voting demographic.
But that was before his speech on immigration this week.
On Thursday, several who sit on the council announced their resignation, citing Trump's refusal to truly listen to their views on immigration reform.
Jacob Monty, a Houston-based immigration lawyer who was a member of the council, said in a Facebook post that he gave Trump a plan that would "improve border security, remove hardened criminal aliens and most importantly, give work authority to millions of honest, hard-working immigrants" in the country.
"He rejected that," wrote Monty, announcing his resignation from the council after Trump's speech. "So I must reject him."
In his immigration address Wednesday, Trump put forward several hard-line proposals, including new limits and entry criteria for legal immigrants, while also reaffirming a pledge to deny legal status to anyone who remains in the country illegally.
CBS News reported Thursday that 15 of nearly two dozen members on the council had resigned.
Ramiro Pena, a Texas pastor on the council, told Politico that Trump's speech had potentially cost him the election. Pena added that he'd have to reconsider being part of a "scam."
Alfonso Aguilar, who oversees Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, is not on the council but was another prominent surrogate of Trump's who backed off his support Thursday.
“For the last two months, he said he was not going to deport people without criminal records," Aguilar said on CNN. "And then we heard yesterday, and I was totally disappointed — not surprised, but disappointed — and slightly misled, because he gave the impression and the campaign gave the impression until yesterday morning that he was going to deal with the undocumented in a compassionate way.”
Trump's remarks came after he visited Mexico earlier in the day, offering subdued remarks alongside the country’s president. During the visit, Trump noted that he has "tremendous feeling for Mexican Americans."
The comments, a clear shift in tone, were far from his invective this election cycle when he denounced Mexican immigrants as "rapists" and drug runners in his first campaign speech
Last month, Trump held a roundtable meeting with members of the council, where they discussed creating jobs and the Republican presidential nominee's plans on immigration.
Among those who attended was Colorado state Rep. Clarice Navarro, who said she left feeling optimistic about Trump.
"I've always felt he does care about the Latino community, and now it's on us to get him elected," she said at the time.
On Thursday, she could not be reached for comment.
Florida Pastor Alberto Delgado said on MSNBC he would remain a member of the council.
“This is the plan he has, so we have to work with what he has and we must try soften that projection,” he said in reference to Trump's combative tone.
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...citing Trump's refusal to truly listen to their views on immigration reform.
He gave them and their "views" a shout-out when he described the utter nonsense that is now known as "Immigration Reform".
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He gave them and their "views" a shout-out when he described the utter nonsense that is now known as "Immigration Reform".
Do you ever have the feeling that we're all being manipulated?
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Do you ever have the feeling that we're all being manipulated?
Long live big brother!!
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Do you ever have the feeling that we're all being manipulated?
I do. That's the name of the game imo.
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The only implosion here is in GayBayLGBT a-hole by Vissy - Trump is moving ahead of the HillCVNT as way things are going
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I can imagine the outrage right now, if candidate Paul Ryan's emails were being hacked by Assange and Russian Hackers, and Candidate Hilary was on TV asking them for release. People would be living. Funny how espionage is alright if it's bringing down someone we dislike.
lots of threads to bump in coming years when hackers do this shit to a republican.
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I can imagine the outrage right now, if candidate Paul Ryan's emails were being hacked by Assange and Russian Hackers, and Candidate Hilary was on TV asking them for release. People would be living. Funny how espionage is alright if it's bringing down someone we dislike.
lots of threads to bump in coming years when hackers do this shit to a republican.
I don't think many people would be against exposing government corruption and mental illness, especially when the media is complacent with it all.
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I don't think many people would be against exposing government corruption and mental illness, especially when the media is complacent with it all.
what about affairs? what about medicine? what about herpes or other embarrasing shit? Repubs on getbig and Rush were mocking little things in the emails, using them for political gain.
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I don't fully trust WikiLeaks. Something's up, there.
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I don't think many people would be against exposing government corruption and mental illness, especially when the media is complacent with it all.
If there is complacency in the media it's probably out of fear that's what's happening to The Daily Mail, could happen to them. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/01/melania-trump-daily-mail-lawsuit (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/01/melania-trump-daily-mail-lawsuit)
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I don't fully trust WikiLeaks. Something's up, there.
After watching a recent interview with Julian Assange I absolutely cannot stand him. Talk about punchable faces!
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/world/europe/wikileaks-julian-assange-russia.html?_r=0
http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/07/29/wikileaks-hacked-dnc-emails-julian-assange-intv-ac.cnn/video/playlists/dnc-email-hack/
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How many Trump products were made overseas? Here’s the complete list.
By Michelle Ye Hee Lee
The Hillary Clinton campaign has at least two ads attacking Donald Trump for outsourcing the production of his merchandise. Given Trump’s rhetoric against companies shipping jobs out of the United States — he vowed not to eat Oreo cookies anymore after Nabisco moved some U.S. factory jobs to Mexico — this is a frequent attack on his record as a businessman.
Trump has a long history of outsourcing a variety of his products and has acknowledged doing so. When asked during a Republican primary debate in Miami why voters should trust that Trump “will run the country differently from how you run your businesses,” he answered: “Because nobody knows the system better than me. … I’m a businessman. These are laws. These are regulations. These are rules. We’re allowed to do it. … I’m the one that knows how to change it.”
Trump also encouraged outsourcing to students of Trump University, the now-defunct program that is under litigation over allegations of fraud. In a 2005 post titled “Outsourcing Creates Jobs in the Long Run,” Trump wrote that sending work outside your company “is not always a terrible thing.”
“I know that doesn’t make it any easier for people whose jobs have been outsourced overseas, but if a company’s only means of survival is by farming jobs outside its walls, then sometimes it’s a necessary step. The other option might be to close its doors for good,” Trump wrote in the post.
We searched for sources of Trump products through publicly available data, including online retail stores and public data of shipments at U.S. ports from 2007 through Aug. 17, 2016, gathered by the private company Importgenius.com. The data shows the last port of shipment before entering the United States (meaning Mexico is not included) and specifies the manufactured location for certain items. (Thanks to Kim Soffen, graphics reporter at The Washington Post, who worked with us to analyze the imports database.)
We took inventory below. We welcome reader suggestions for any new products and sources they find, and then we will update the list.
The Facts
Trump apparel
The Donald J. Trump Collection includes ties, suits, dress shirts, eyeglasses and other accessories.
Trump shirts were made in China, Bangladesh, Honduras and Vietnam. PolitiFact Virginia found some Trump sport coats made in India. The Clinton campaign pointed to import data from 2007 that showed a Trump men’s shirt shipment marked as made in South Korea.
Some of the Trump suits on Amazon.com show they were imported, Made in USA or both. BuzzFeed ordered a suit that was listed as both “imported” and “Made in USA” — and ended up with a label showing the suits were made in Indonesia.
Users commented on Amazon.com that the suit that BuzzFeed purchased previously was listed as being imported from Mexico or China. This photo shows a Trump suit that carries a “Made in Mexico” label.
Manufacturing information online is not always reliable — for example, a photo of one shirt shows a “Made in Bangladesh” label, but the item description says it was made in China. This may be a reflection of the different countries that products sometimes pass through before they are ultimately shipped into the United States.
Trump eyeglasses are made in China. Cufflinks and other accessories do not list the source of manufacturing on Amazon.com.
“Success by Trump,” a cologne in the Trump Fragrance line, was manufactured in the United States, according to PolitiFact Virginia. The Trump campaign’s “Make America Great Again” hats are made at a Southern California factory and are labeled “Proudly Made in USA.”
Trump home items
Trump Home has a range of items, including chandeliers, mirrors, bedding, table lamps, cabinets, sofas, barstools, cocktail tables and more.
Trump expanded the Trump Home brand internationally, including in Turkey. A Trump Organization news release shows it partnered with a global luxury furniture brand, Dorya International, to expand the Trump Home brand to a production facility in Turkey. According to Furniture Today, components of the Trump by Dorya furniture were made in Germany, particularly the brass and stainless pieces.
Several Trump Home items are listed as made in China or imported from China — mirrors, ceramic vases, wall decorations, kitchen items and lighting fixtures. The Clinton campaign has pointed to a trademark registration for the Trump Home brand that shows picture frames and other home products were made in India.
The Trump Home by Rogaska tabletop collection featured a crystal and china collection with a company based in Slovenia. Trump bedding comforters are listed as made in USA.
Trump hotel items
Many hotel amenities at Trump’s hotels were manufactured overseas and imported. Trump Hotel pens were made in China or Taiwan, and imported into the United States via South Korea. Shampoo, body wash, moisturizers, shower caps, laundry bags, show bags, pet collars, pet leashes and bath towels at Trump hotels are all listed as made in China.
Trump beverages
The Trump Natural Spring Water is served at Trump hotels, restaurants and golf clubs. Trump water comes from New York or Vermont, and is bottled in New York.
Trump Vodka was manufactured at a distillery in the Netherlands, supposedly distilled five times from “European wheat,” but the distribution company stopped carrying it in 2010. An Israeli company continued to carry Trump Vodka, although the version sold in Israel is different from the original Trump Vodka. The Trump Vodka produced and sold in Israel is made from ingredients that make it kosher for Passover, which made it a popular beverage around the holidays. But the Jerusalem Post reported that it turned out that not all ingredients actually were kosher for Passover.
Note: There’s a Trump Winery located in Charlottesville, Va., but it is reported to be owned by his son, Eric. The Trump Winery website says its name is a registered trademark of Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing, LLC. The winery imports glassware.
The Bottom Line
The Clinton ad claims that “Trump’s products have been made in 12 other countries.” This is correct. We know of at least 12 countries where Trump products were manufactured (China, the Netherlands, Mexico, India, Turkey, Slovenia, Honduras, Germany, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea). Further, Trump products transited other countries through the packaging and shipping process — meaning workers in more than 12 countries contributed to getting many of Trump’s products made, packaged and delivered to the United States.
As our inventory shows, manufacturing is a global process. Components of a product of an American company are made in different parts of the world, depending on who offers the most competitive prices, and ultimately imported into the country to be sold to American consumers. It’s not as simple as deciding not to eat an Oreo because Nabisco found a cheaper place to employ some of its workers.
Trump’s practice as a businessman is not consistent with his current rhetoric against trade as a presidential nominee — this vulnerability is backed with more than enough factual evidence. If Trump brand customers took the same stance against his products as he did against Nabisco, it is clear they would be left with few Trump items to buy. However, we do know of at least four Trump products made in the United States: “Make America Great Again” hats, bedding, water and cologne.
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Do you suppose being President will cause him to change his business practices? After all he's promised that we will all become well off under his economic plan....whatever that may be. ::)
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Imo it's two different things. In one, he was competing to make money. In the other, he would be competing to make the American Public money as CiC.
He can do both in a lifetime, yes.
Worst case scenario would be other super-rich people viewing it as hypocrisy in some twisted attempt to understand it.
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Imo it's two different things. In one, he was competing to make money. In the other, he would be competing to make the American public money as CiC.
He can do both in a lifetime, yes.
Worst case scenario would be other super-rich people viewing it as hypocrisy in some twisted attempt to understand it.
I'm confused. Are you suggesting he can continue to farm out his manufacturing and Real Estate business, hide his supposed wealth in foreign banks to avoid paying taxes while tightening up the same opportunities he enjoys? If he can pull this off without pissing most of the country off, he's genius.
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I'm confused. Are you suggesting he can continue to farm out his manufacturing and Real Estate business, hide his supposed wealth in foreign banks to avoid paying taxes while tightening up the same opportunities he enjoys? If he can pull this off without pissing most of the country off, he's genius.
That's on him. We'll see how he handles it, if he wins, because I'm sure he will take a non-stop beating over it otherwise.
Just the fact that he states he wants to fix these issues as a whole, is good enough for me, for now.
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Trump is the man selling the elixir that cures all disease.
Uneducated non-minoroties over 30 love the shit
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Trump is the man selling the elixir that cures all disease.
Uneducated non-minoroties over 30 love the shit
I'm willing to gamble, because it's the safest bet. And if that doesn't say what terrible shape we're in, I really don't know what could.
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I'm willing to gamble, because it's the safest bet. And if that doesn't say what terrible shape we're in, I really don't know what could.
nothing 6 coinflips can't fix
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That's on him. We'll see how he handles it, if he wins, because I'm sure he will take a non-stop beating over it otherwise.
Just the fact that he states he wants to fix these issues as a whole, is good enough for me, for now.
I have property in Florida that's a real bargain. I would give you a great deal on it because you're my buddy. It's beautifully unspoiled. ;)
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I have property in Florida that's a real bargain. I would give you a great deal on it because you're my buddy. It's beautifully unspoiled. ;)
I'll have it assessed.
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After watching a recent interview with Julian Assange I absolutely cannot stand him. Talk about punchable faces!
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/world/europe/wikileaks-julian-assange-russia.html?_r=0
http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/07/29/wikileaks-hacked-dnc-emails-julian-assange-intv-ac.cnn/video/playlists/dnc-email-hack/
Yes, I agree. And he's an agent of some sort imo.
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Trump backer Mark Burns’s painfully bad attempts to defend his inflated resume
by Aaron Blake
Mark Burns's very bad week just got much worse.
Days after the top Trump backer and Republican convention speaker was forced to apologize for tweeting a cartoon of Hillary Clinton in blackface, CNN did some digging into his apparently inflated bio claims.
The televangelist on Friday night admitted to overstating some of his claims on his Facebook page. Then, on Saturday morning, CNN aired this brutal interview with Burns, in which he struggles to explain his readily apparent résumé inflation.
It gets tough to watch at certain points.
Here's a recap:
1. Confronted with an apparently bogus claim that he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, Burns initially says he "started the process" of joining the fraternity. Then he argues that such facts were added to his bio by a hacker. "Obviously this has been manipulated or either hacked or added," Burns says. So a hacker altered his bio and just happened to use the same fraternity that Burns began the process of joining?
2. When asked about the bio's claim that he served six years in the Army Reserve, Burns says he did. When confronted with records that indicate he was actually in the National Guard, Burns says, "It is Reserves. The Army South Carolina National Guard is Reserves." If you want to know the difference between the two, see here.
3. When confronted with his claim to have graduated with a bachelor of science degree from North Greenville University, Burns tries to argue that the interview was and had been off the record.
BURNS: I asked you just a moment ago, as we opened up this — and first of all, I said we were off the record.
VICTOR BLACKWELL: I didn't agree to that.
BURNS: Yeah, but I did. I did.
BLACKWELL: We're still rolling. I'm still asking you questions on the record.
BURNS: I'm off the record. I'm off the record, because I think this is not fair that you — this is not fair at all. This is not what I agreed to. I thought we were doing a profile, and all the sudden you're here to try and destroy my character.
Note to any future interview subjects: You are not off the record unless the journalist agrees to it. And if you are on camera and you'd prefer to be off the record, you had better make sure it's not rolling.
4. Asked about his claim to be pursing a master's degree from Andersonville Theological Seminary, where he enrolled in 2008 but hasn't advanced, Burns's explanation shifts. Now standing and swaying, he explains: "Do you know how old this [bio] is? This hasn't been updated — I think there's an updated profile on me that's on the website."
So asked whether the information is simply old or had been tampered with, Burns says: "These are old information. This is extremely, extremely old information."
Then, perhaps predictably, Burns walks away, mid-interview.
He later posted this statement on his Facebook page:
As a young man starting my church in Greenville, South Carolina, I overstated several details of my biography because I was worried I wouldn’t be taken seriously as a new pastor. This was wrong, I wasn’t truthful then and I have to take full responsibility for my actions. Since that time I should have taken steps to correct any misrepresentations of my background. We all make mistakes, and I hope that the measure of my character and the quality of my works speak for what kind of person I am.
I do also want to set the record straight about why this attack is happening — because I am a black man supporting Donald Trump for President. For too long, African-American votes have been taken for granted by Democratic politicians, and enough is enough. It’s a shame that the political insiders and the media choose to attack me because I’m not going to stay silent about Hillary Clinton’s pandering to our community. Instead, I’m going to tell people that there is another option — an option that represents a positive vision that will unify our country. That’s why I have and will continue to tirelessly support Mr. Trump.
-- Pastor Mark Burns
[ Invalid YouTube link ]
::)
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After convention stumble, Melania Trump has largely vanished from campaign
By Mary Jordan and Stephanie McCrummen
It was late July when voters last heard from the potential first lady of the United States. Melania Trump delivered her speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, and then later stood with her husband, balloons dropping, waving to the crowd in what is starting to feel like a premature farewell to the campaign trail.
Since then, she has not spoken publicly and has largely vanished from view, leaving a trail of questions and voids in her personal biography.
It was only Wednesday night — after a seven-week absence — that Melania Trump appeared at a campaign event, sitting in the audience as her husband addressed a national security forum.
Her long silence followed the fiasco over her convention speech, parts of which turned out to have been plagiarized. Then she took her website down after revelations that there was no record she had obtained a college degree, as her site had claimed. And while the issue of illegal immigration is central to her husband’s platform, neither Melania Trump nor the Trump campaign has produced documentation to prove how the Slovenian immigrant got a visa to work in the United States or how she obtained her green card in 2001. Melania Trump has said she has been “at all times in full compliance” with immigration laws; Donald Trump has said his wife is “so documented.”
Even as the campaign declines to fill in details of her life story, Melania Trump has deployed an attorney to beat back news reports probing her past. Last week, the former fashion model filed a libel suit against a blogger and a British newspaper for reports, since retracted, suggesting that she once worked as an escort.
Otherwise, the woman who could oversee a White House staff and command a global platform on behalf of the United States has said almost nothing. A news conference at which her husband promised to address immigration questions has yet to happen. And there is no sign that Melania Trump will play a significant role in the final stretch of her husband’s campaign — a striking departure from tradition in which candidates’ spouses serve as key surrogates in the effort to turn out voters.
The Trump campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment, nor did it respond to specific questions about her past, or her future involvement in the campaign.
In many ways, Melania Trump’s approach to campaigning is in keeping with a paradoxical pattern in her life — one in which she has both sought the spotlight and recoiled from its glare. The 46-year-old has been comfortable with public exposure on her own terms, posing nude at times and once even talking on Howard Stern’s radio show about her sex life with Donald Trump. And yet, as a model and as a political spouse, she has also remained private to the point of reclusiveness.
Her official Twitter account — once a stream of Manhattan sunrises, Dover sole lunches at the Ralph Lauren Polo Club, and Melania lounging on a piano, a beach or a private jet — has become a series of statements pushing back against what is being written about her.
“Not a lot of people know me,” she told The Washington Post in an interview in April. “Only I know my story, and I see people who want to have maybe five, 15 minutes of fame, and they say, ‘Oh, I met her for five minutes.’ . . . I read a lot of stories, and they are not correct stories.”
Several people who have known Melania over the years say she has often been a solitary figure, cultivating few close friendships outside of her immediate family as she moved from the concrete apartment blocks of the former Yugoslavia in the late 1980s to Trump’s gold-leafed penthouse in Manhattan in the late 1990s.
She left Slovenia as communism was crumbling, joining a wave of young Eastern European women headed for Milan and Paris. It was a startling change for many young women who grew up in small and rural areas, according to people who worked in fashion.
“It was like, ‘Wow!’ It was a chance to go out with a guy with a Porsche,” said Vincenzo Di Sarli, an Italian working in the international fashion business. “Many of them got married with these guys.”
Melania, born Melanija Knavs, began calling herself Melania Knauss as she started her modeling career. She kept trying to make a name for herself, albeit with limited success at first, according to people familiar with her career at the time.
Bernarda Jeklin, who ran a Slovenian women’s magazine, met Melania when she was 22 and entered the magazine’s Face of the Year contest. Jeklin said Melania did not stand out in the crowd of so many promising models.
“She was really quite anonymous,” said Jeklin. “She was very, very introverted. She didn’t talk to other competitors. She preferred to be in her own world.”
Melania placed as a runner-up, which helped her get more work when she returned to Milan. For several years, she modeled for catalogues and walked runways in Paris and other European capitals. During that time, she also met a wealthy Italian businessman, Paolo Zampolli, who said he saw enough potential in Melania to invite her to join a modeling agency he was financing in New York. Zampolli said he arranged Melania’s work visa and she said she moved to New York in 1996.
By then, she was 26 and stood out from other recruits, who were typically 18- or 19-year-olds dressed in jeans and T-shirts, according to others who worked at Zampolli’s Metropolitan agency. By contrast, Melania showed up at the agency already polished, always dressed exquisitely and expensively and carrying herself with a certain remove.
Michele August, a former booking agent for Metropolitan, said that Knauss was a “very kind, gentle soul” and was “nothing but professional.” Still, August said, it was difficult to re-book her because she was “kind of icy looking, not approachable.”
“She was sexy, she wasn’t high fashion,” August said. “You didn’t book her for Vogue. She was more commercial lingerie.”
The 1990s nightlife of New York models was full of parties and invitations to nightclub openings where booze, cocaine and wealthy men were plentiful. According to August and others who worked at Metropolitan at the time, Melania was ambitious about making a name for herself but largely stayed away from the party scene. Her roommate from those days said that Melania often just stayed home.
“She would come out in her bathrobe and her glasses and slippers and watch ‘Friends,’ ” said Matthew Atanian, a photographer who shared a Union Square apartment with her in Manhattan. “She kept pretty quiet and to herself,” he added. He also said she talked by phone to her mother and sister in Slovenia every day.
An exception came in 1998, when she attended a Fashion Week event hosted by Zampolli — and met Donald Trump.
The same year, when she was 28, Melania made another leap into the spotlight by holding her own news conference in Paris. Journalists from Slovenia were flown in for free for the day to meet her, according to two of the journalists who made the trip.
The journalists said they had never heard of Melania Knauss before, but Dusan Nograsek, one of the journalists at that meeting, recalls her describing herself as one of the world’s top 50 international models.
“It was very unusual for models to do such a thing,” said Nograsek, who, along with others, wrote about Melania. “She was beautiful, likable, nice, natural. She acted as if she’d be standing on the red carpet in no time.”
At the same time, Melania’s association with Trump was leading to higher-profile assignments, including the January 2000 cover of British GQ, where she famously posed nude on a fur rug in a photo shoot on Trump’s plane. She was in the 2000 swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated, and when she married Trump in 2005, she was photographed wearing a $200,000 gown on the coveted cover of Vogue.
The transition to political wife was clearly not easy.
Earlier this year, Melania Trump had seemed willing to give campaigning a try — and got good reviews. In February, she surprised people when she took the microphone at a primary victory party in South Carolina and told cheering supporters in her accented English that her husband “will be the best president.”
She went on MSNBC and CNN and addressed a crowd in Milwaukee after Donald Trump heralded the “exciting” presence of his wife on the campaign trail, saying, “She’s never done this before.”
At the same time, she seemed reluctant, telling The Post in April, “I am not part of the campaign” and that her 10-year-old son, Barron, was her main priority.
Recently, Melania Trump’s absence has become conspicuous enough to spawn such Twitter hashtags as #WhereisMelania and #FreeMelania as people try to figure out where she was and how she was doing.
On Wednesday night, she finally appeared, sitting in the crowd at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York as her husband spoke at an NBC forum. Television viewers could only catch glimpses of her as cameras panned across the audience.
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Lying about college degree, the Q about the possible earlier marriage, working before she had a work visa, stealing a speech from the most hated non-hilary woman on the planet...
Trump's #1 issue being immigration, it's like they went out of their way to be stupid on this one.
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If she came here legally (I am all but certain she did not) why not show the documentation to prove it and end the controversy? What type of visa did she have? When did she get it? How could she "work" as a model if she did not have the correct visa type? She is a liar plain and simple. In 2016, the first lady should have a college degree. I don't care how confused you are or what language you speak, you KNOW whether or not you graduated from college. Melania's website (since taken down) claimed she had a bachelor's degree from University of Ljubljana. She does not.
She will forever be associated with the quote, "I wrote it myself... with as little help as possible." ::)
Pathetic.
Like children, trophy wives should be seen--and not heard.
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If she came here legally (I am all but certain she did not) why not show the documentation to prove it and end the controversy? What type of visa did she have? When did she get it? How could she "work" as a model if she did not have the correct visa type? She is a liar plain and simple. In 2016, the first lady should have a college degree. I don't care how confused you are or what language you speak, you KNOW whether or not you graduated from college. Melania's website (since taken down) claimed she had a bachelor's degree from University of Ljubljana. She does not.
She will forever be associated with the quote, "I wrote it myself... with as little help as possible." ::)
Pathetic.
Like children, trophy wives should be seen--and not heard.
You'll need to ask Bill Clinton, since he was in charge at the time.
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(https://prowhiteparty.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/hillary-clinton-has-seizure-when-talking-to-reporters-imgur.gif)
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(https://prowhiteparty.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/hillary-clinton-has-seizure-when-talking-to-reporters-imgur.gif)
(https://i.redd.it/b4l9x2queikx.jpg)
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If she came here legally (I am all but certain she did not) why not show the documentation to prove it and end the controversy? What type of visa did she have? When did she get it? How could she "work" as a model if she did not have the correct visa type? She is a liar plain and simple. In 2016, the first lady should have a college degree. I don't care how confused you are or what language you speak, you KNOW whether or not you graduated from college. Melania's website (since taken down) claimed she had a bachelor's degree from University of Ljubljana. She does not.
She will forever be associated with the quote, "I wrote it myself... with as little help as possible." ::)
Pathetic.
Like children, trophy wives should be seen--and not heard.
How could Killary be president if she can't remember almost anything, bleach bit classified emails, not know what the "C" stood for in emails. smash blackberry's and other devices with hammers, etc?
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How could Killary be president if she can't remember almost anything, bleach bit classified emails, not know what the "C" stood for in emails. smash blackberry's and other devices with hammers, etc?
To be clear - you're telling us Trump is good, or just sticking with "Trump isn't as bad as Hillary"?
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After Trump’s reversal, prominent birthers want to move on
By David Weigel
A few hours after Donald Trump's announcement that he had renounced "birtherism," Andy Martin was pleased with how it went.
"He handled it as well as he could," said Martin, a lawyer, writer and frequent candidate who began asking questions about Barack Obama's birth certificate in 2004. "His supporters don't really care about the issue any more, but the Democrats -- did you see the Congressional Black Caucus press conference today? The Democrats are losing their minds. This may be a case where Trump profits off the backlash."
Orly Taitz, a dentist and lawyer who long ago surpassed Martin as the face of birtherism, took a similar position on Trump's reversal. "The media is attacking Trump on the birther issue and many conservatives and my supporters are attacking him from the other side on the same issue," she wrote on her blog. "My word to my supporters: let Trump win the election. There are only 8 weeks left. Now is not the time to talk about Obama, he is not running for president, Clinton is."
All day Friday, Taitz updated her blog as journalists called her and dutifully reported on the pass she was giving the Republican nominee.
With four months to go before President Obama leaves the White House, the movement to prove that he lied about his birth -- by hiding his true paternity, by posing as a foreign student to get into college -- had already petered out. Philip J. Berg, a Pennsylvania attorney who filed the first high-profile suits against Obama, quit his law practice to avoid being disbarred. Wiley Drake, a California pastor who amplified the coverage of the lawsuits, was focused on his fringe candidacy for president. Larry Klayman, the legal gadfly who had filed petitions for the president to be deported, was focused on uncovering the "truth" about Hillary Clinton's health. Jerome Corsi, the author of "Where's the Birth Certificate?," gruffly told a radio interviewer that he was "not getting into it" and "not weighing in."
Trump's fitful five-year quest to prove that something was amiss with the president's citizenship, something he admitted he was doing to curry conservative favor, ended with no apparent backlash from the right or the fringes. Breitbart, the conservative site that gave Trump's campaign its current CEO, covered Trump's Friday press conference with a gleeful story about the media getting played. (For several hours, the story was illustrated with an unexplained photo of a gorilla.)
Four years earlier, in its Obama series titled "The Vetting," Breitbart had uncovered an old publisher's note that described a young author, Barack Obama, as "born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia." The site's editors were careful to say that the story was not that Obama may have been foreign, but that his persona had shifted over time. While some members of the "birther" movement maintained a desire to force the president from office, their greatest relevance really came in the weeks before and after the 2008 election, when they thought they'd found a loophole to save the country from Obama. For the seven years following, they were focused more on what's now termed "trolling" -- getting under the skin of liberals.
Trump's press conference did not end the movement, so much as it asked for a pivot. In his crisp statement, Trump insisted that "Hillary and her campaign" were the authors of birtherism, then dropped the topic with no questions. This is untrue -- Martin was raising questions about Obama's birth certificate in 2004. Since then, even some conservatives who winced at the birthers have latched onto the story that Clinton hanger-on Sid Blumenthal, who for a while in 2008 was an unpaid "senior adviser" to the campaign, told an editor at McClatchy to pursue the rumor that Obama was born in Kenya.
Blumenthal has denied this. Given when the meeting took place, it's impossible to credit "the Clinton campaign" with a rumor that had boiled online for years. (Previously, the fact that Phil Berg had supported Clinton in the 2008 primary was cited as evidence that Clintonworld started the rumor.) But most Trump's defenders are on board for the new story line -- that birtherism does not matter anymore, and that to the extent it does, it is Hillary Clinton's fault.
"Hillary was the first birther," Corsi insisted Friday.
"I at no time said Obama was born anywhere but Hawaii," said Martin, noting that he was more interested in whether the Communist writer Frank Marshall Davis was the president's real father.
Taitz, who Martin dismissed as a "crazy," was the only prominent birther still raising questions. In a rundown of the interviews she'd done on Friday, Taitz repeated the eight questions she had about the fraud the president might have committed.
"When media is corrupt, when the Department of Justice is corrupt, the country becomes a banana republic or even worse, a tyranny," she wrote. "For now, let’s concentrate on the election, let’s help Trump get elected, we’ll renew this conversation later."
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Donald Trump Clung to ‘Birther’ Lie for Years, and Still Isn’t Apologetic
By MICHAEL BARBARO
It was not true in 2011, when Donald J. Trump mischievously began to question President Obama’s birthplace aloud in television interviews. “I’m starting to think that he was not born here,” he said at the time.
It was not true in 2012, when he took to Twitter to declare that “an ‘extremely credible source’” had called his office to inform him that Mr. Obama’s birth certificate was “a fraud.”
It was not true in 2014, when Mr. Trump invited hackers to “please hack Obama’s college records (destroyed?) and check ‘place of birth.’”
It was never true, any of it. Mr. Obama’s citizenship was never in question. No credible evidence ever suggested otherwise.
Yet it took Mr. Trump five years of dodging, winking and joking to surrender to reality, finally, on Friday, after a remarkable campaign of relentless deception that tried to undermine the legitimacy of the nation’s first black president.
In fact, it took Mr. Trump much longer than that: Mr. Obama released his short-form birth certificate from the Hawaii Department of Health in 2008. Most of the world moved on.
But not Mr. Trump.
He nurtured the conspiracy like a poisonous flower, watering and feeding it with an ardor that still baffles and embarrasses many around him.
Mr. Trump called up like-minded sowers of the same corrosive rumor, asking them for advice on how to take a falsehood and make it mainstream in 2011, as he weighed his own run for the White House.
“What can we do to get to the bottom of this?” Mr. Trump asked Joseph Farah, an author who has long labored on the fringes of political life. “What can we do to turn the tide?”
What he could do — and what he did do — was talk about it, uninhibitedly, on social media, where dark rumors flourish in 140-character bursts and, inevitably, find a home with those who have no need for facts and whose suspicions can never be allayed.
And he mused about it on television, where bright lights and sparse editing ensure that millions can hear falsehoods unchallenged by fact-checking.
“Why doesn’t he show his birth certificate?” Mr. Trump asked on ABC’s “The View.” “I want to see his birth certificate,” he told Fox News’s “On the Record.”
And so it went.
The essential question — Why promote a lie? — may be unanswerable. Was it sport? Was it his lifelong quest to court media attention? Was it racism? Was it the cynical start of his eventual campaign for president?
It might not matter. He kept doing it, even as his most senior aides assured the public that he had long since abandoned the fallacy.
He had not. He was disingenuous until the very end, telling a Washington Post reporter just 72 hours before that he was unready to concede the president’s place of birth. But he treated the weighty topic, as he does so much else, like a television cliffhanger, promising a major declaration on Friday.
And then, around 11 a.m. Friday in Washington, he gave up the lie. But he conjured up a bizarre new deception, congratulating himself for putting to rest the doubts about Mr. Obama that he had fanned since 2011. “I finished it,’’ he declared, unapologetically. “President Obama was born in the United States — period.’’
Surrounded by, and in many ways shielded by, decorated veterans in his new Washington hotel, he could not resist indulging in another falsehood — that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, had started the so-called birther movement. She did not.
Much has been made of Mr. Trump’s casual elasticity with the truth; he has exhausted an army of fact-checkers with his mischaracterizations, exaggerations and fabrications. But this lie was different from the start, an insidious, calculated calumny that sought to undo the embrace of an African-American president by the 69 million voters who elected him in 2008.
In the end, it seemed, Mr. Trump’s plot to diminish Mr. Obama did not succeed. On Friday, the president of the United States seemed much bigger.
“I was pretty confident about where I was born,” Mr. Obama said from the White House, a wry smile crossing his face. “I think most people were as well.’’
And the president had this to say about the myth heedlessly spread by the man seeking to replace him: “My hope would be that the presidential election reflects more serious issues than that.”
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fU apologize. O fag shoulda released his bc years ago
Donald Trump Clung to ‘Birther’ Lie for Years, and Still Isn’t Apologetic
By MICHAEL BARBARO
It was not true in 2011, when Donald J. Trump mischievously began to question President Obama’s birthplace aloud in television interviews. “I’m starting to think that he was not born here,” he said at the time.
It was not true in 2012, when he took to Twitter to declare that “an ‘extremely credible source’” had called his office to inform him that Mr. Obama’s birth certificate was “a fraud.”
It was not true in 2014, when Mr. Trump invited hackers to “please hack Obama’s college records (destroyed?) and check ‘place of birth.’”
It was never true, any of it. Mr. Obama’s citizenship was never in question. No credible evidence ever suggested otherwise.
Yet it took Mr. Trump five years of dodging, winking and joking to surrender to reality, finally, on Friday, after a remarkable campaign of relentless deception that tried to undermine the legitimacy of the nation’s first black president.
In fact, it took Mr. Trump much longer than that: Mr. Obama released his short-form birth certificate from the Hawaii Department of Health in 2008. Most of the world moved on.
But not Mr. Trump.
He nurtured the conspiracy like a poisonous flower, watering and feeding it with an ardor that still baffles and embarrasses many around him.
Mr. Trump called up like-minded sowers of the same corrosive rumor, asking them for advice on how to take a falsehood and make it mainstream in 2011, as he weighed his own run for the White House.
“What can we do to get to the bottom of this?” Mr. Trump asked Joseph Farah, an author who has long labored on the fringes of political life. “What can we do to turn the tide?”
What he could do — and what he did do — was talk about it, uninhibitedly, on social media, where dark rumors flourish in 140-character bursts and, inevitably, find a home with those who have no need for facts and whose suspicions can never be allayed.
And he mused about it on television, where bright lights and sparse editing ensure that millions can hear falsehoods unchallenged by fact-checking.
“Why doesn’t he show his birth certificate?” Mr. Trump asked on ABC’s “The View.” “I want to see his birth certificate,” he told Fox News’s “On the Record.”
And so it went.
The essential question — Why promote a lie? — may be unanswerable. Was it sport? Was it his lifelong quest to court media attention? Was it racism? Was it the cynical start of his eventual campaign for president?
It might not matter. He kept doing it, even as his most senior aides assured the public that he had long since abandoned the fallacy.
He had not. He was disingenuous until the very end, telling a Washington Post reporter just 72 hours before that he was unready to concede the president’s place of birth. But he treated the weighty topic, as he does so much else, like a television cliffhanger, promising a major declaration on Friday.
And then, around 11 a.m. Friday in Washington, he gave up the lie. But he conjured up a bizarre new deception, congratulating himself for putting to rest the doubts about Mr. Obama that he had fanned since 2011. “I finished it,’’ he declared, unapologetically. “President Obama was born in the United States — period.’’
Surrounded by, and in many ways shielded by, decorated veterans in his new Washington hotel, he could not resist indulging in another falsehood — that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, had started the so-called birther movement. She did not.
Much has been made of Mr. Trump’s casual elasticity with the truth; he has exhausted an army of fact-checkers with his mischaracterizations, exaggerations and fabrications. But this lie was different from the start, an insidious, calculated calumny that sought to undo the embrace of an African-American president by the 69 million voters who elected him in 2008.
In the end, it seemed, Mr. Trump’s plot to diminish Mr. Obama did not succeed. On Friday, the president of the United States seemed much bigger.
“I was pretty confident about where I was born,” Mr. Obama said from the White House, a wry smile crossing his face. “I think most people were as well.’’
And the president had this to say about the myth heedlessly spread by the man seeking to replace him: “My hope would be that the presidential election reflects more serious issues than that.”
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Why even Republicans think Clinton won the first debate
By James Hohmann
The consensus that Donald Trump badly lost the first debate gelled overnight. Liberals predictably panned the GOP nominee’s performance on Long Island, but some of the harshest reviews are coming from conservative thought leaders who had been starting to come around.
-- Instant reaction:
Republican pollster Frank Luntz conducted a focus group of undecided voters in Pennsylvania. Sixteen said Hillary Clinton won. Five picked Trump, per CBS News.
In a Florida focus group organized by CNN, 18 of 20 undecided voters picked Clinton as the winner.
Not one of 29 undecided voters in an Ohio focus group organized by Park Street Strategies thought Trump prevailed, while 11 picked Clinton and the rest said neither. By a two-to-one margin, the group thought Clinton had the better tone and, by a three-to-one margin, they thought she came across as more knowledgeable candidate on the issues.
A CNN/ORC flash poll found that 62 percent said the Democrat won, compared to 27 percent who picked Trump. That’s on par with 2012, when Mitt Romney was seen as the winner of the first debate.
In a separate instant-poll from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, 51 percent said Clinton won and 40 percent picked Trump.
Eight in 10 insiders in the key battleground states thought Clinton performed better, including 57 percent of Republicans, according to the Politico Caucus survey.
-- Trump’s surrogates in the spin room were downbeat, and the candidate himself has already begun making excuses: “They gave me a defective mic,” he complained to reporters during a gaggle. “Did you notice that? My mic was defective within the room. I wonder, was that on purpose?” There was no clear problem with his microphone during the debate, Jose DelReal notes.
Trump was supposed to stop by the Nassau County Republican Committee’s watch party on his way home. He skipped it. Clinton, meanwhile, celebrated with hundreds of supporters in Westbury.
And Rudy Giuliani, a top Trump surrogate, even suggested that Trump should skip the next two debates unless he gets concessions. “If I were Donald Trump I wouldn’t participate in another debate unless I was promised that the journalist would act like a journalist and not an incorrect, ignorant fact checker,” he said.
Trump brought 20 minutes of material to a 90 minute show.
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) September 27, 2016
From the chief strategist of John Kasich’s 2016 campaign:
I have never seen a more unprepared candidate in a major moment. #Malpractice
— John Weaver (@JWGOP) September 27, 2016
Trump’s web site was not even ready for the deluge of traffic. It crashed.
-- Trump got worse with each passing exchange. “In the early stages, Clinton and Trump seemed evenly matched, but the longer it went on, the more she was able to score against him,” writes Dan Balz, The Post’s chief correspondent.
Trump took the stage subdued, trying to show he’s serious, but he became peeved as he allowed Clinton’s attacks to get under his skin. “Within minutes of the opening bell, Clinton’s attacks forced domesticated Donald to go feral – he bellowed, interrupted her repeatedly, grunted, and toward the bedraggled end, became muted and pouty,” writes Politico’s Glenn Thrush.
“’I did not! I did not! I do not say that,’ he shouted as Clinton accused him of calling climate change a hoax, which he has said on numerous occasions,” Jenna Johnson recounts. “‘Facts!’ he yelled as Clinton began to question the accuracy of his assertions. ‘Wrong! Wrong!’ he said as Clinton stated that he initially supported the Iraq War, which he had. ‘Where did you find it? Oh really?’ Trump said as Clinton referred to a beauty pageant contestant who has accused Trump of calling her ‘Miss Housekeeping’ because she is Latina.”
“Trump needed to conceal his temper … and appear ready to be president. He didn’t,” writes conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin. “There were too many instances in which the real Donald showed through. Clinton wasn’t emotive, but she was cool and efficient in drawing blood.”
“If her goal was to get under Trump’s skin — you know, sniff out his weakness, and bait him into losing his temper — it worked,” adds conservative columnist Matt Lewis. “She got under that thin skin by talking about his inherited wealth and questionable status as a billionaire.”
-- Trump played to his base. He did nothing to win over fresh converts or reassure recalcitrant Republicans. Sean Hannity’s audience is not who he needs to win over.
“Unpersuaded college educated white women didn’t come away from this debate — at least not in large numbers — feeling reassured by Trump,” conservative Jonah Goldberg writes in National Review. “Clinton was narrowcasting at the voters she needs. Trump was broadcasting to the voters he already has. … If you’re truly pro-Hillary or pro-Trump it doesn’t matter what you thought tonight. Your vote is baked in. But if you’re on the fence or thinking about not voting at all, your impression matters — a lot. And in this regard, I think Clinton was the winner.”
“Hillary was well-informed and unflappable; Trump got across his major themes but was probably too Trump to widen support,” National Review executive editor Rich Lowry concludes. “I thought Trump might save a weak substantive performance with some big moments, but he didn't have any that cut his way.”
“It is hard to imagine that there was a single moment in the debate that would have convinced a wavering college-educated woman in the Philadelphia or Cincinnati suburbs to vote for Trump,” writes Roll Call columnist Walter Shapiro. “In fact, Trump seemed to be debating with the single-minded goal of turning his gender gap into a canyon. … In 1973, a trash-talking, over-age self-described ‘chauvinist pig’ named Bobby Riggs took on Billie Jean King in a tennis match in the Houston Astrodome that was billed as The Battle of the Sexes. King won in straight sets. History repeated itself Monday. … Clinton defeated Trump in straight sets.”
-- Clinton’s performance, in contrast, will excite her base and put a pause to some of the recent bedwetting about a tightening race.
“Clinton’s calm dissection of her foe reassured jittery supporters,” writes liberal Post columnist E.J. Dionne. “Clinton shifted the contest her way during her party’s convention. She did it again during Monday night’s debate.”
“Clinton was not great at times; her language was occasionally stilted; she missed some obvious moments to go in for the kill; but she was solid and reassuring and composed,” New York Magazine’s Andrew Sullivan concludes. “I was afraid that Trump’s charisma and stage presence and salesmanship might outshine Hillary Clinton’s usually tepid and wonkish instincts. I feared that the facts wouldn’t matter; that a debate would not take place. And it is to Clinton’s great credit that she prepared, and he didn’t, and that she let him hang himself.”
“The contrast between an obviously and eminently qualified public servant and a ranting bully was as stark as any presidential debate in American history,” adds Jonathan Chait, his colleague at the magazine.
Trump’s failure to offer an improved explanation for his years challenging Barack Obama’s legitimacy could also help galvanize African American voters. “He has a long record of engaging in racist behavior, and the birther lie was a very hurtful one,” Clinton said during the debate, twisting the knife. “Barack Obama is a man of great dignity, and I could tell how much it bothered him and annoyed him that this was being touted and used against him.”
-- The Republican nominee also made a series of demonstrably untrue claims, which will make it harder for him to credibly prosecute the case that Clinton is not trustworthy.
“Trump repeatedly relied on troublesome and false facts that have been debunked throughout the campaign,” The Post’s Fact Checkers, Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee, conclude. “Clinton stretched the truth on occasion, such as when she tried to wiggle out of her 2012 praise of the Trans Pacific Partnership as a ‘gold standard.’ But her misstatements paled in comparison to the list of Trump’s exaggerations and falsehoods. Trump once again asserted that the 2008 Clinton campaign was responsible for spreading the myth that President Obama was born in Kenya, when that is false. He claimed that ‘thousands’ of American jobs will leave the country when Ford shifts small-car manufacturing to Mexico, but no one here will lose their jobs. He also falsely claimed that he was against the Iraq War, when all available evidence demonstrates that he supported it until the rest of the country began to turn against it in 2004. He also once again falsely said he started his business with a ‘small loan’ from his father.”
The biggest whopper was when, despite all evidence to the contrary, Trump vehemently denied that he had supported the Iraq War at the outset. Peter Wehner, who has served in three Republican administrations, said Trump “self-destructed” as he baldly lied about his opposition to the invasion. “Mr. Trump not only denied reality; he denied reality that was captured on tape, meaning it’s indisputable,” Wehner writes in the Times. “No matter. He lives in his own make believe world. [And] for Trump to then follow up his tirade by insisting that he has the right temperament to be president shows you how unbalanced he is. The unmasking continues.”
-- Influential journalists in key battleground states are covering the debate as a loss for Trump. Three examples:
“Experts: Round 1 to Clinton” is the headline in the Des Moines Register. “He was loose with facts, short on details and exactly the sort of undisciplined non-politician that helped him win the GOP nomination,” writes Register columnist Kathie Obradovich.
“He had his best moments in the opening minutes, when he emphasized his opposition to foreign trade deal,” Henry J. Gomez writes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “Clinton turned the one portion of the evening that could have turned into a disaster for her – a question about her irresponsible email practices while secretary of state – into a quick moment of contrition. And that was the end of it. She frequently had Trump on the defensive.”
“I thought Trump started out pretty well, but gradually got worse throughout the debate,” writes Reno Gazette-Journal columnist Jon Ralston, the dean of the Nevada press corps. “By the end, he was sputtering about Rosie. Clinton killed him on taxes, birtherism and misogyny. And he was so rattled, he didn't bring up her weaknesses very much. Clinton clearly won.”
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Trump BROUGHT UP the miss piggy thing on FOX morning news today. THis is what he said THIS MORNING on tv:
"She was the worst we ever had. She gained a massive amount of weight. We had a real problem"
WTF... Almost 40% of Americans are overweight. Unreal. He's shitting on a woman, a latina, and on overweight people - all at once.
Clinton had a slick commerical produced and ready. Trump walked right into it - and then went on TV to give it traction. If he's not working for her, then he's the easiest person to manipulate in the history of politics. He brought the shit up!!
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So, since the start of this thread, August 17, how have the polls trended?
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So, since the start of this thread, August 17, how have the polls trended?
Trump is right around the highs he had in July of this year.
National average of 44.1% for Trump, and 47.6% Hilary.
He's closed the gap, but he is still only at 44%, and I don't think he's hit a 45% average EVER.
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Trump is right around the highs he had in July of this year.
National average of 44.1% for Trump, and 47.6% Hilary.
He's closed the gap, but he is still only at 44%, and I don't think he's hit a 45% average EVER.
Probably going to drop down after being so disrespectful and not shaking Lester's hand, right?
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Probably going to drop down after being so disrespectful and not shaking Lester's hand, right?
probably going to drop because he let hillary off the hook.
he's talking about Rosie, but doesn't bring up the wall, clinton foundation, etc.
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Trump complains debate was unfair as Clinton builds on strong performance
By Philip Rucker, Robert Costa and Matea Gold
Hillary Clinton moved to capitalize Tuesday on a sharp-edged debate performance that exposed vulnerabilities for Donald Trump, excoriating his values and character in an effort to expand her coalition of women, minorities and young voters.
Trump, meanwhile, scrambled to move his campaign forward. While the Republican nominee insisted that he was not unnerved, he and his advisers grasped at excuses to explain why he did not perform better at the first presidential debate Monday night.
Trump on Tuesday was unrepentant and eager to defend his past, denigrating a former beauty pageant winner whom he targeted as his latest foil and vowing to attack Clinton over her husband’s marital infidelities in their next showdown.
In a country divided over two historically unpopular candidates, Trump’s turn is unlikely to shake his core support. But Democrats said they felt assured that Trump’s hot temperament, scattered demeanor and series of statements that left him exposed to further scrutiny would make it increasingly difficult for him to win over the undecided voters he has been courting, especially moderate white women.
“I look back as a former practitioner and say, ‘Is there anything Donald Trump did to convince somebody who wasn’t in his column to be for him?’ ” said David Plouffe, President Obama’s former campaign manager. “I have a hard time thinking there’s many of those people. I don’t think he lost anybody. But that’s not his challenge now. He’s got to add.”
Clinton was ebullient as she returned to the campaign trail Tuesday in Raleigh, N.C., and strove to keep alive the controversies that marred Trump’s debate performance.
“The real point is about temperament and fitness and qualification to hold the most important, hardest job in the world, and I think people saw last night some very clear differences between us,” Clinton told reporters aboard her campaign plane en route to North Carolina.
Trump did little to change the subject. In a Tuesday morning interview on Fox News Channel, he said debate moderator Lester Holt, the anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” was biased, and the Republican complained about the quality of his microphone. Clinton jabbed him for that, telling reporters, “Anybody who complains about the microphone is not having a good night.”
Trump also disparaged a former Miss Universe pageant winner, Alicia Machado, for her physique. In the debate, Clinton raised Trump’s past comments about the Venezuela-born woman, who was crowned Miss Universe at age 19 in 1996.
“He called this woman ‘Miss Piggy,’ and then he called her ‘Miss Housekeeping,’ because she is Latina,” Clinton said in one of the debate’s more electric exchanges.
The next morning, Trump offered an indignant defense of how he dealt with Machado when he was a partner in the company that owned the Miss Universe contest.
“She was the worst we ever had,” he said on Fox, adding: “She gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem.”
The Clinton campaign sought to advance the story across media platforms, releasing a Web video featuring the beauty queen-turned-actor, now a U.S. citizen who lives in California, and arranging a conference call for reporters with Machado, who described the election as “like a bad dream.”
Like Trump’s feud this summer with the Muslim parents of a dead U.S. soldier, the Machado episode rapidly emerged as a microcosm of the campaign — and a test of whether Trump can expand his support beyond his base of aggrieved white voters, most of them men.
Mike Murphy, a veteran Republican strategist who has been critical of the party’s nominee, said Trump’s comments about Machado were “hugely tone deaf.” The debate overall, he said, was for many Republicans “an ‘Oh, crap’ moment. If you thought he had a spring in his step for the last few weeks and was getting back in the hunt, that’s pretty much gone.”
Few of Trump’s supporters went so far as to crown him the victor. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who has been a weather vane for the Republican leadership during this election season, was supportive though muted at a Tuesday news conference. He told reporters that Trump gave a “unique, Donald Trump response to the status quo.”
“I think he gave a spirited argument,” Ryan said, “and I think he passed a number of thresholds.”
Trump’s backers insisted that the debate would not damage his standing in the close race with Clinton. Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) said, “As far as the temperament, that’s how he’s been for the last 15 months. It got him to the top. . . . He does have the feistiness that I think 51 percent of the American people will like.”
William J. Bennett, who served in President Ronald Reagan’s Cabinet, said of Trump: “When he loses his temper a little bit, many people see that as passion and as someone who’s engaged in the fight and in what he believes. People forgive that — and a leopard can’t change his spots.”
It will take several days before the political impact of Monday’s debate becomes clear, but many Republicans said they were bracing for Clinton to get a bump in the polls. An estimated 84 million people watched the clash at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., making it the most-watched presidential debate in history.
The event reverberated around the globe. Former Mexican president Vicente Fox said Trump’s behavior should alarm world leaders because he revealed himself to be “ignorant” and “dangerous.”
“When he speaks about the geoeconomic situation and the geopolitical situation and terrorism, he’s absolutely ignorant, and he’s only provoking us democratic leaders from around the world to reject everything he’s proposing,” Fox, who watched the debate on Mexican television, said in a telephone interview. “He is an imperialistic gringo.”
In the United States, the risk for Trump is that a negative impression sets in on shows such as NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” on social media and in workplace conversations.
Democrats sought to taunt Trump on his uneven performance, particularly given his regular attacks on Clinton’s “stamina” and appearance.
“He seemed unable to handle that big stage, and I really did feel that by the end, with the kind of snorting, the water gulping and the leaning on the lectern, that he just seemed really out of gas,” said Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
Trump previewed an even more combative second debate, Oct. 9 in St. Louis, by saying he might “hit her harder,” perhaps over former president Bill Clinton’s affairs.
“I really eased up because I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings,” Trump said on Fox, saying he would have brought up “the many affairs that Bill Clinton had” but held back because the Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea, was in the audience.
“I didn’t think it was worth the shot,” he said. “I didn’t think it was nice.”
Hillary Clinton shrugged off the threat, telling reporters: “He can run his campaign however he chooses. I will continue to talk about what I want to do for the American people.”
Clinton campaigned at a community college gymnasium in Raleigh to whoops and loud applause. “One down, two to go,” she said of the debates.
During a campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla., Tuesday evening, Trump said that Clinton is “a woman that I think is virtually incompetent, certainly as secretary of state.” He called her incompetent repeatedly throughout the rally.
“We’re going to get rid of that crooked woman. She’s a crooked woman. She’s a very, very dishonest woman,” Trump said.
For Democrats, Trump provided what Plouffe called “an embarrassment of riches” at the debate — a series of controversial statements and unresolved, damaging questions. He seemed to affirm that he paid no income taxes; he made side remarks and pained expressions while Clinton praised the vibrancy of African Americans; he said it was a smart business strategy to profit from the housing crash.
Vice President Biden seized on that last point at a rally for Clinton in Philadelphia, where he charged that Trump has no “moral center.”
“This is a guy who said it was good business for him to see the housing market fail,” Biden said. “What in the hell is he talking about?”
Clinton and a brigade of high-profile surrogates plan to continue using Trump’s debate comments against him. She will campaign in New Hampshire on Wednesday with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), hoping to energize young voters there with a discussion of college affordability, while first lady Michelle Obama will stump across Pennsylvania on Thursday.
“He put a lot on the table — a lot of things that are not true and a lot of views that we think are counter to where most voters are,” said Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s communications director. “It won’t end tomorrow. There’s a lot that will live on from this debate.”
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Trump stumbles into Clinton’s trap by feuding with Latina beauty queen
by James Hohmann
It might be Hillary Clinton’s most cunning move since the start of the general election. The Democratic nominee set a trap for Donald Trump in the final minutes of the first debate, and he walked right into it.
The GOP nominee’s decision to take the bait and rehash his past attacks of a former Miss Universe for gaining too much weight is now dominating the conversation. And the controversy is helping the Clinton campaign galvanize Latinos and prevent undecided women from moving toward Trump.
Even as Trump proclaimed victory in New York, he allowed during a Fox News interview yesterday that he let himself get a little too irritated “at the end, maybe” when Clinton brought up Alicia Machado. Machado alleges that Trump called her names such as “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping” when she gained weight after winning the Miss Universe crown in 1996.
Trump could have brushed off the question and moved on the next morning, but instead he engaged. “She was the worst we ever had. The worst. The absolute worst. She was impossible,” Trump said of Machado on Fox. “She was the winner, and she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem. We had a real problem.”
-- Operatives in Brooklyn had been working with Machado since the summer. They had a video featuring her story ready to go. Cosmopolitan had a photo spread of her draped in an American flag – to go with a profile – in the can. Machado had also conducted an interview with The Guardian that was “apparently embargoed for post-debate release,” according to Vox. And the Clinton super PAC Priorities USA turned a digital ad to highlight the insults by early afternoon.
The Clinton press shop then set up a conference call for Machado to respond to what Trump said on “Fox and Friends.” Speaking with reporters, Machado recounted how Trump “always treated me like a lesser thing, like garbage” and that his new words are like “a bad dream.” She said in a mix of Spanish and halting English that she watched the debate with her mother and daughter and cried as Clinton recounted her story, Ed O’Keefe reports.
Campaign calls like these are usually gimmicky ploys that get little attention, but this one played prominently in every news organization’s second-day coverage about the debate. Megyn Kelly, against whom Trump leveled gendered attacks against last year after she moderated a debate, then interviewed Machado in primetime on Fox News last night.
-- Opposition researchers also gleefully pushed Trump quotes about her from the 1990s. Here are two examples (more are in the social media speed read):
In 1997, Donald told Howard Stern that Machado was an “eating machine” who “ate a lot of everything.” “You whipped this fat slob into shape,” the radio host told Trump. “I don’t know how you did it. I see all these diet plans, everything else. God bless you.” When asked if Trump had “gotten her down to 118,” he said she is going to be there soon. (Via Buzzfeed)
Around the same time, Trump told Newsweek: “We’ve tried diet, spa, a trainer, incentives. Forget it, the way she’s going, she’d eat the whole gymnasium.”
-- “Morning Joe” extensively covered the spat today. Joe Scarborough said “this was all people were talking about” at his daughter’s parents night. Mike Barnicle said when he was picking up a prescription at the Duane Reade drugstore, the woman behind the counter – unprompted – referenced the "Miss Piggy" controversy. "She is furious, behind the counter, she's furious,” he recalled. "Of all the things he's done in this campaign, this is the one that could linger,” Mark Halperin chimed him. “The Clinton campaign cannot believe he's giving them the political opportunity...This is exactly what they would want to happen...They couldn't script it any better!” Barnicle agreed: “The Miss Housekeeping phrase is just as lethal to Donald Trump as Miss Piggy.” NBC’s “Today” show did their own segment this morning too.
-- New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait predicts Trump’s criticism of Machado will have the same staying power as his attacks on Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who spoke at the Democratic National Convention: “What truly made the set piece work was Trump’s response, which Clinton could not have scripted better if she tried. Unlike the previous allegations, he did not deny them, but instead burst out — three times! — ‘Where did you find this?’ I have seen villains in Disney movies presented with damning evidence react this way, but I have never seen an actual human being do it, until now.”
-- Importantly, this story has also broken through across non-traditional outlets:
It was the second story on Telemundo’s evening newscast and the third story on Univision’s.
“Donald Trump Continues to Body Shame the Former Miss Universe He Called 'Miss Piggy'” is the headline on People Magazine’s home page.
“Alicia Machado Opens Up About Trump's Treatment of Her: ‘He’s Not a Good Person,’” is the headline in The Hollywood Reporter.
The Palm Beach Post, in the heart of a key swing state, has a listicle in today’s edition: “Alicia Machado: 5 things to know about Trump’s latest target.”
-- The gender dynamic is perhaps the most dominant theme in the mainstream media’s post-debate commentary:
“Trump’s interruptions of Clinton are familiar to women” is the headline on the front page of the Boston Globe. Their story, about HRC getting interrupted 51 times during the debate, quotes women in a range of professions talking about how they’ve experienced the same thing.
“Last night’s debate, or the mansplaining Olympics” by Alexandra Petri is the most read story on the opinion section of The Post’s web site.
“Although she would never talk about it in the way that Trump discusses the victimization of being audited, Clinton carries the ever-expanding knowledge of what it’s like to be dismissed, disrespected, and treated unfairly,” Jia Tolentino writes in The New Yorker. “This is precisely why she was so calm and steely last night—so Presidential. It’s why she can express genuine solidarity with people like Alicia Machado, people whom Trump can barely see.”
“When I watch, I sometimes feel like Ingrid Bergman — not European and glamorous, but unnerved, as though I’m being gaslit,” said New York Times Magazine staff writer Susan Dominus. “Trump tries to gaslight an entire country when he plays fast and loose with the truth or insists on logic-defying connections — each of which is an apt tactic for someone who often questions the mental health of women who dare to criticize him. If they are women with big careers … they are ‘neurotic.’ He called the Rev. Faith Green Timmons, a pastor who calmly and boldly interrupted him at her church in Flint, Mich., ‘nervous,’ which is apparently the black woman’s (or middle-class woman’s) version of neurotic. These women are not just wrong to Trump; they are suffering from a kind of mental or medical condition. Women, he clearly believes, or wants us to believe, are emotional, guided by feelings rather than reason, which presumably makes them unfit to lead (or unfit to give Trump a hard time).”
“The idea that we should trust men who hate us in private to protect us in the public sphere is the ultimate insult to our intelligence,” adds Post blogger Alyssa Rosenberg.
-- This feud helps Clinton with two crucial constituencies:
-- Galvanizing Latinos: Beauty pageants are as big as the Super Bowl is for us in Latin America, and it was no coincidence that Machado emerged as a surrogate on National Voter Registration Day. The campaign is working to encourage Latinos and other less-engaged groups who dislike Trump to get on the rolls. “This was about consolidation,” Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg told Greg Sargent. “One of the big things (that has been) holding her back was the failure to consolidate Democrats.”
James Downie, who watched a dial group of 100 likely voters during the debate, elaborates: “After the debate, though there was only a small shift in the group toward Clinton, they had a much more favorable view toward her, and a number of voters who had come in as ‘weak’ Clinton supporters left as ‘strong’ Clinton supporters."
-- Expanding the gender gap. Around this time four years ago, Mitt Romney was running ads in Northern Virginia to reassure women that he was not as anti-abortion as the Obama campaign was making him out to be. A female narrator noted that the former Massachusetts governor supports contraception and is okay with abortions in the case of rape, incest and life of the mother. Trump, who said at one point this year that women who get abortions should be punished, has made no concerted or direct effort to improve his standing with women.
The New York Times interviewed women in Pennsylvania’s Chester County (a suburban area where Romney beat President Obama in 2012 by less than 1 point) about the debate. Trip Gabriel reports that several dozen of the women he spoke with consistently said Trump had failed to win them over, and in several cases they said he had repelled them. His lead illustration is Nancy Groux, an undecided Republican who hungers for change in Washington. “I truly want to like him,” she said. “I keep looking for something in him. But I can’t have my children grow up and look at him as someone to respect.”
Making matters worse, Trump surrogates keep going out of their way to give Clinton more fodder for women’s outreach. “After being married to Bill Clinton for 20 years, if you didn’t know the moment Monica Lewinsky said that Bill Clinton violated her that she was telling the truth, then you’re too stupid to be president,” Rudy Giuliani told reporters at Hofstra University.
When in 2012 Rush Limbaugh called law school student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” for testifying before Congress that employers should cover birth control for women, Romney had a press avail to say that he disagreed and that those were not the words he would have used. Yesterday, reacting to the debate, Limbaugh said on his radio show: “Hillary came off exactly as many people see her: a witch with a capital B.” I’d bet you $10 that Trump will not denounce this offensive comment if asked about it today.
-- Ratings: Monday’s debate was the most-watched ever, with 84 million viewers tuning in to see it live. That broke a record set by Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in 1980. No debate since then had exceeded 70 million viewers. For context, twice as many watched Monday as watched Bill Clinton debate Bob Dole in 1996. Experts predicted there would be a big dip in viewers after the first half hour, but what’s most striking about the overnight numbers was that most stayed with it for the full 90 minutes. That means they saw the final half hour, when the Machado exchange happened. (AP)
-- Establishment Republicans once again, privately, are slamming their heads against the wall because of their standard bearer’s embarrassing lack of self-discipline. In the Capitol, many GOP leaders tried to avoid discussing the debate and its aftermath with reporters:
• Paul Ryan: “I was working out and working this morning, I didn’t watch. I wasn’t watching Fox News this morning. So I’m not going to comment on something I didn’t see.”
• Marco Rubio: “I didn’t see (the debate), guys. I was on an airplane.”
• Mitch McConnell offered just nine words during an afternoon news conference before moving on: “On the debate, I thought he did just fine.”
• Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) waved off a reporter who approached him about the debate as an aide curtly said, “We’re not talking about that,” according to the Globe.
• John McCain would only say that he thought it was “very interesting” as he hurried toward an elevator.
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Donald Trump’s weight problem: He can’t stop talking about ‘fat’ people
by By Katie Zezima and Jose A. DelReal
Donald Trump has a serious weight problem: He can’t seem to stop criticizing the girth of others.
For decades, Trump has commented on other people’s bodies, particularly women who he believes had gained too much weight or were, in his word, “fat.” The recurring habit flared again this week when the Republican presidential nominee attacked the size of a Miss Universe winner, claiming she had gained “a massive amount of weight” while she wore the pageant’s crown and that “it was a real problem.”
Trump called actress Rosie O’Donnell a “fat pig” and said she has a “fat, ugly face.” He said singer Jennifer Lopez has a “fat a--” and said reality television star Kim Kardashian had “gotten a little large” during her pregnancy. He kept a “fat photo” of one employee whose weight fluctuated in a drawer and told an overweight executive, “you like your candy,” according to the employees. When a reporter complimented his wife, Melania, on her appearance shortly after giving birth, Donald Trump replied: “She’s lost almost all the baby weight.”
Trump also mocks the weight of men, but usually in a more jocular way than his remarks about women. Trump reportedly told a producer on “The Apprentice” that “everybody loves a fat guy,” and he has joked about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s size on the campaign trail.
Trump’s comments about weight, along with a long line of other incendiary comments about women, present another serious challenge for him in attracting female voters in November. Trump needs to gain support from moderate suburban women to ascend to the White House, but so far he has found little success with female voters, many of whom find the Republican nominee offensive and unacceptable. According to an ABC News-Washington Post poll released this week, 55 percent of women surveyed said they plan to vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s obsession with weight carries some irony for a candidate who boasts about his unhealthy eating habits, dining regularly on McDonald’s hamburgers and buckets of KFC fried chicken on his private jet. By his own public accounting of his medical health, Trump is just five pounds shy of being considered obese under the body mass index.
“I work out on occasion . . . as little as possible,” Trump said at a 1997 news conference during which he mocked the weight of reporters.
Trump has long commented on women he believes are attractive, including his daughter, Ivanka, whom Trump said has a “very nice figure.” But he also has singled out celebrities for verbal abuse about their weight, including O’Donnell and Kardashian. He said Kardashian has a “bad body” and that she shouldn’t dress “like you weigh 120 pounds,” a comment he made while she was pregnant.
Tim Miller, a longtime Republican strategist and a staunch Trump opponent who worked for Jeb Bush during the GOP primary campaign, said Trump’s insults about weight and other physical characteristics and his general lack of discipline raise serious questions about his temperament.
“He’s a middle schooler who is filled with insecurities and insults people to try to deal with his insecurities,” Miller said.
Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist, tweeted: “I’ve struggled w/weight issues all my life. And I agree. A man who shames and bullies a woman for her weight, isn’t even fit to be a man.”
Trump’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday about his history of remarks about people’s weight.
The latest controversy erupted at the tail end of Monday night’s first presidential debate, when Clinton brought up Alicia Machado, who was crowned Miss Universe in 1996 at a time when Trump was a partner in the group that owned the pageant. During her reign, Machado was caught up in a tabloid- and Trump-fueled uproar over her weight.
In 1997, Trump publicly claimed the Venezuelan pageant queen had gained up to 60 pounds, but she said it was no more than 19. Machado says she gained the weight when she returned to eating normally after suffering from anorexia and bulimia before the competition. Trump went so far as to ambush Machado in a New York gym, where he held a news conference criticizing her weight as she sat on a stationary bike and jumped rope in front of dozens of television cameras.
“We’ve tried diet, spa, a trainer, incentives. Forget it, the way she’s going, she’d eat the whole gymnasium,” Trump told Newsweek at the time.
Machado, now a U.S. citizen, says Trump called her “Miss Piggy” in reference to her weight and “Miss Housekeeping” in reference to her ethnicity — both of which were highlighted by Clinton on the debate stage Monday.
In a conference call arranged by Clinton’s campaign Tuesday, Machado said Trump “always treated me like a lesser thing, like garbage.”
Trump has reacted angrily, telling Fox News on Tuesday: “She was the worst we ever had, the worst, the absolute worst, she was impossible. She gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem. We had a real problem. Not only that, her attitude.”
Trump surrogate Kayleigh McEnany said on CNN that Trump didn’t force Machado to work out, and she defended the candidate for calling Machado an “eating machine” in 1997.
“I like to eat. I like to eat. That is not necessarily a sexist thing,” McEnany said.
Some Trump allies also highlighted news reports about a 1988 incident in Venezuela in an attempt to undercut Machado’s credibility. The reports said Machado was suspected of driving the getaway car after her then-boyfriend allegedly shot a man and then threatened the judge in the case; no charges were ever filed against her. Machado brushed off the case on CNN on Tuesday, calling the reports “speculation.”
Trump sought to put the controversy to rest Wednesday, stating during an interview several times that in fact he had “saved her job.”
“I saved her job because they wanted to fire her for putting on so much weight,” Trump told Bill O’Reilly on Fox News on Wednesday. “And it is a beauty contest, you know. I mean, say what you want, they know what they’re getting into. It’s a beauty contest. And I said don’t do that.
“And you know what happened? Look what I get out of it. I get nothing,” Trump added later.
Trump’s latest comments about Machado’s weight were widely pilloried, with Democrats and some Republicans saying the sharp-tongued businessman had again gone too far.
In a radio interview Wednesday, President Obama said Trump insults women “in terms of how he talks about them and talks about their weight and talks about how they look instead of the content of their character and their capabilities.”
Katie Packer, a GOP strategist who opposes Trump, said: “He only seems to place value based on physical appearance. To so publicly humiliate and denigrate a woman who was at least beautiful enough to become Miss Universe sends a signal that he has pretty specific standards for what he considers to be ideal.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a prominent Clinton surrogate, responded Wednesday with a sarcastic tweet referencing Trump’s size.
“The D women Senators have talked & we’re concerned about Donald’s weight,” she tweeted. “Campaign stress? We think a public daily weigh-in is called for.”
In a letter released this month from his personal doctor, Trump, 70, was listed as being 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighing 236 pounds, making him overweight and on the verge of being obese for that height. The note said he was overall “in excellent physical health.”
At a rally this week in Melbourne, Fla., some women who support Trump were not bothered by his comments on Machado.
“I think it’s nonsense. It’s a business. He ran beauty pageants — so what?” said Ellen Kaufman, 56. “I think we all like a thing of beauty, we all like to look at pretty people. . . . Bill Clinton certainly liked to look at pretty people.”
But Andrea Franz, 54, of Boston, who attended a Clinton rally in Durham, N.H., Wednesday, said Trump’s remarks are emblematic of his general views on women.
“The fact that does he honestly believe at some level, that he is a superior person and that the women he’s talking to are not — that they’re fat, or they’re whatever. . . . It just showed his colors,” she said.
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Trump wanted to fire women who weren't pretty enough, say employees at his California golf club
By MATT PEARCE
Donald Trump wanted only the pretty ones, his employees said.
After the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes opened for play in 2005, its world-famous owner didn’t stop by more than a few times a year to visit the course hugging the coast of the Pacific.
When Trump did visit, the club’s managers went on alert. They scheduled the young, thin, pretty women on staff to work the clubhouse restaurant — because when Trump saw less-attractive women working at his club, according to court records, he wanted them fired.
"I had witnessed Donald Trump tell managers many times while he was visiting the club that restaurant hostesses were 'not pretty enough' and that they should be fired and replaced with more attractive women,” Hayley Strozier, who was director of catering at the club until 2008, said in a sworn declaration.
Initially, Trump gave this command “almost every time” he visited, Strozier said. Managers eventually changed employee schedules “so that the most attractive women were scheduled to work when Mr. Trump was scheduled to be at the club," she said.
A similar story is told by former Trump employees in court documents filed in 2012 in a broad labor relations lawsuit brought against one of Trump’s development companies in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The employees’ declarations in support of the lawsuit, which have not been reported in detail until now, show the extent to which they believed Trump, now the Republican presidential nominee, pressured subordinates at one of his businesses to create and enforce a culture of beauty, where female employees’ appearances were prized over their skills.
A Trump Organization attorney, in a statement to The Times, called the allegations “meritless.”
In a 2009 court filing, the company said that any “allegedly wrongful or discriminatory acts” by its employees, if any occurred, would be in violation of company policy and were not authorized.
Employees said in their declarations that the apparent preference for attractive women came from the top.
“Donald Trump always wanted good looking women working at the club,” said Sue Kwiatkowski, a restaurant manager at the club until 2009, in a declaration. "I know this because one time he took me aside and said, ‘I want you to get some good looking hostesses here. People like to see good looking people when they come in.’ ”
As a result, Kwiatkowski said, "I and the other managers always tried to have our most attractive hostesses working when Mr. Trump was in town and going to be on the premises."
Trump has struggled to win the support of female voters as he seeks the nation’s highest office. In the past, he has insulted women’s appearances, sometimes calling them “pigs” or “dogs.”
Trump’s record with women got renewed attention after this week’s presidential debate, when Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton told the story of a former beauty pageant winner who said Trump called her “Miss Piggy” when she gained weight.
Trump has previously defended himself by saying he has “great respect for women” and “will do far more for women” than Clinton. He has also said that “all are impressed with how nicely I have treated women.”
As part of the lawsuit over a lack of meal and rest breaks at Trump’s golf club about 30 miles south of downtown Los Angeles — his largest real estate holding in Southern California — several employees said managers staffed Trump’s clubhouse restaurant with attractive young women rather than more experienced employees in order to please Trump.
The bulk of the lawsuit was settled in 2013, when golf course management, without admitting any wrongdoing, agreed to pay $475,000 to employees who had complained about break policies. An employee’s claim that she was fired after complaining about the company’s treatment of women was settled separately; its terms remain confidential.
A public relations firm working for the Trump campaign referred questions about the lawsuit to one of the attorneys who represented the Trump National Golf Club in the case.
“We do not engage in discrimination of any kind and have always complied with all wage laws, including by providing our employees with meal and rest breaks,” said the attorney, Jill Martin, assistant general counsel for the Trump Organization.
The former employees’ statements primarily describe the club’s work culture from the mid- to late 2000s. The Times spoke at length to one of the ex-employees, who described in detail the allegations about workplace culture. The person declined to be quoted by name, citing a fear of being sued.
In their sworn declarations, some employees described how Trump, during his stays in Southern California, made inappropriate and patronizing statements to the women working for him.
On one visit, Trump saw “a young, attractive hostess working named Nicole ... and directed that she be brought to a place where he was meeting with a group of men,” former Trump restaurant manager Charles West said in his declaration.
“After this woman had been presented to him, Mr. Trump said to his guests something like, 'See, you don't have to go to Hollywood to find beautiful women,'” West said. “He also turned to Nicole and asked her, ‘Do you like Jewish men?’"
One of the few older people on the wait staff who served Trump, Maral Bolsajian, said she was “uncomfortable” when he visited, calling his behavior toward her “inappropriate.”
"Although I am a grown woman in my forties, Mr. Trump regularly greeted me with expressions like 'how's my favorite girl?'" Bolsajian said in a declaration. "Later, after he learned (by asking me) that I was married — and happily so — he regularly asked, 'are you still happily married?' whenever he saw me."
Trump also asked her to pose for photos with him, said Bolsajian, who added that she felt she “had little recourse given that Donald Trump is not only the head of the company but also one of the most powerful, well-known people in the United States.”
Bolsajian said, “In short, I consistently found Mr. Trump to be overly familiar and unprofessional.”
The lawsuit focused on the course’s high-pressure work culture. Employees said they were not allowed to take the breaks required under California law.
The statements about Trump’s preference for young, attractive employees were filed in support of a separate claim for retaliation, lodged after former restaurant host Lucy Messerschmidt, then 45, contended that she had been fired for complaining about age discrimination.
Jeffrey W. Cowan, a Santa Monica attorney who represented the employees in the lawsuit, said the case targeted Trump’s development company, VH Property Corp., but “the evidence certainly suggested” that the club’s work culture flowed from Trump.
Although Trump was mostly absent from the course he purchased in 2002, workers said his company maintained a rigorous work environment that often left workers exhausted.
Employees said managers urged them to hurry through brief meal breaks, sometimes even expressing impatience with bathroom breaks.
"My manager insisted that because this was Trump's golf course, it had to be top-notch," one employee said in a declaration. "He was concerned that if Trump observed employees eating or resting, Trump would not be pleased."
Another employee said his manager “seemed obsessed with the fact that this was Donald Trump's golf course,” believing that “Mr. Trump wouldn't like it if he saw employees sitting around because he would think the golf course was inefficient and overstaffed." A valet described a stretch where “someone got fired every week.”
One busboy said in a declaration that he took up smoking so that he would have an excuse for going outside for a break.
In response, Trump’s company filed declarations from more than a dozen other employees who said they regularly were offered lunch breaks of at least 30 minutes for every five-hour shift, and were counseled by managers if they didn’t take them.
Lili Amini, general manager, said in a declaration that the company implemented a firm policy about such breaks in 2009.
Employees said managers started instituting breaks after the class-action lawsuit was filed.
Female employees said they faced additional pressures.
Strozier, the former catering director, said Vincent Stellio — a former Trump bodyguard who had risen to become a Trump Organization vice president — approached her in 2003 about an employee that Strozier thought was talented.
Stellio wanted the employee fired because she was overweight, Strozier said in her legal filing.
"Mr. Stellio told me to do this because 'Mr. Trump doesn't like fat people' and that he would not like seeing [the employee] when he was on the premises,” wrote Strozier, who said she refused the request. (Stellio died in 2010.)
A year later, Mike van der Goes — a golf pro who had been promoted to be Trump National’s general manager — made a similar request to fire the same overweight employee, Strozier said.
“Mr. van der Goes told me that he wanted me to do this because of [the employee's] appearance and the fact that Mr. Trump didn't like people that looked like her,” Strozier wrote.
When Strozier protested, Van der Goes returned a week later “and announced he had a plan of hiding [the employee] whenever Mr. Trump was on the premises,” Strozier wrote.
West, who worked as a restaurant manager at the club until 2008, wrote that Van der Goes ordered him “to hire young, attractive women to be hostesses.” West also said Van der Goes insisted that he “would need to meet all such job applicants first to determine if they were sufficiently pretty."
Van der Goes, who worked at the club until 2008, did not respond to requests for comment, though he defended Trump in a February interview with the Santa Clarita Gazette.
“He’s not a racist. He’s not a bigot,” said Van der Goes, who called Trump “an astute businessman and a marketing genius.”
Employees said several women quit or were fired because they were perceived as unattractive.
A server, John Marlo, recalled seeing a co-worker crying in 2007. The woman had wanted to be promoted to server.
"She told me that she was upset because a manager had told her that she couldn’t be a server because of she had acne on her face,” Marlo said in a declaration. “According to her, she was qualified for the job and wanted it, but couldn't get it solely because of her acne."
The woman quit soon after, Marlo wrote.
Messerschmidt, the employee who said she was fired in retaliation for complaining about age discrimination, said in 2008 that one of her managers, Brian Wolbers, changed her schedule to give her time off during one of Trump’s visits because Trump "likes to see fresh faces" and "young girls."
Wolbers did not respond to a request for comment.
Gail Doner, who worked as a food server from 2007 to 2011, wrote that she was 60 and had often been frustrated by the inefficiency of the restaurant’s young, inexperienced hostesses, who “usually were not competent but were kept anyway.”
“The hostesses that were the youngest and the prettiest always got the best shifts,” Doner wrote.
Meanwhile, Doner — who had 20 years of experience working for wine vendors, and was at “the top of [her] game” while working for Trump National — said managers slowly cut back her shifts until they stopped scheduling her at all, “effectively firing [her].”
“It did not appear to me that this reduction in shifts was happening to any of the younger, more attractive female food servers," Doner said. She added: “I chose not to fight to get my job back because by that point I was fed up with the toxic environment and the way that I was treated.”
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He is an idiot no doubt, so is Hillary for touting her husbands accomplishments when he is the most infamous adulterer in history and then calling trump sexist
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He is an idiot no doubt,t
why, trump?
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Trump wanted to fire women who weren't pretty enough, say employees at his California golf club
By MATT PEARCE
Donald Trump wanted only the pretty ones, his employees said.
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He is an idiot no doubt, so is Hillary for touting her husbands accomplishments when he is the most infamous adulterer in history and then calling trump sexist
Adulterer vrs sexist.....I don't see where there is any connection. They are two entirely different things.
Some people see President Clinton's accomplishments as being completely separate from his philandering's. It makes me laugh when folks act offended by his sexual escapades.
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Adulterer vrs sexist.....I don't see where there is any connection. They are two entirely different things.
Some people see President Clinton's accomplishments as being completely separate from his philandering's. It makes me laugh when folks act offended by his sexual escapades.
What is funny about Clinton disgracing the office?
Also, do you have a problem with the fact he was Commander in Chief screwing around his wife, while members of the military are disciplined or even dismissed from the service for doing the same thing?
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With Alicia Machado, Trump found his first pageant media circus. Many, many others followed.
By Caitlin Gibson
It’s fair to say that beauty pageants had lost a lot of their buzz by the time Donald Trump got into the business. But the mogul had no trouble making headlines when — just months after his 1996 purchase of the Miss Universe organization — he publicly fretted that the reigning queen was putting on too much weight.
“This is someone who likes to eat,” he declared as he beckoned a fleet of journalists to come watch Alicia Machado work out at a gym — an event she later said she went along with only under threat of losing her crown.
The episode, which Hillary Clinton cited to scathing effect in Monday night’s debate, marked the first of many scandals, small and large, to blow up in the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants during the 19 years Trump owned them.
Trump’s reactions varied dramatically, but he rarely hesitated to put himself at the center of the action, seeming to relish a role as a moral arbiter, issuing emphatic public statements and, sometimes, final judgments.
He sent one Miss USA to rehab in the middle of her reign. He fired a Miss Universe for missing too many events. A handful of lower-level contestants drew public scoldings from him; others received his benevolent public defense.
None of their perceived crimes or misdemeanors had ever really posed much of a threat to the reputation of these pageants, which have always thrived on a racy, va-va-voom image far apart from earnest, baton-twirling Miss America. But their sagas invariably drew ample media attention, bringing a dusty old format into the reality TV age — and offering an unusually tabloid-friendly venue for Trump to cement his tough-talking businessman image even before his reality show “The Apprentice” debuted.
“We thought she was very beautiful and very nice,” he told the New York Daily News after firing Miss Universe 2002, Russia’s Oxana Fedorova, who was said to have skipped too many appearances. “But she just wasn’t able to fulfill her duties. So we had no choice but to terminate her.” Miss Panama Justine Pasek was tapped to fill out the rest of her term, and Trump himself crowned her at a news conference.
He also fired Katie Rees, Miss Nevada 2007, who had risque photos surface soon after she was crowned. He went on TV and threatened to sue Sheena Monnin, Miss Pennsylvania 2012, after she resigned her crown and went public with claims that the Miss USA contest was fixed. He admonished Jenna Talackova, a transgender contestant in the Miss Universe Canada 2012 competition, who advocated for new contest rules that would allow trans contestants around the world to participate; Trump declared she should stop stirring up controversy and concentrate on competing: “That should be her focus.”
On one occasion, Trump managed a mini-crisis with a striking level of restraint. When Rima Fakih, the first Arab American and Muslim Miss USA, was crowned in 2010, Trump notably ignored an instant uproar from critics outraged by her ethnic heritage and proudly posed for photos with her in his office. Later, he shrugged off an outcry over photos showing Fakih pole-dancing, saying he was too busy to answer questions.
Matt Rich, a public relations executive and former consultant with the Miss Universe organization, said Trump showed great concern whenever trouble arose over the years.
“He had a bundle of other companies that he’s running, but he is a good enough administrator that he understood when it was time for him to get involved, and when it wasn’t time,” Rich said in an interview.
Which is one way to look at it. In a recent interview with CNN, Miss USA 2002 Shauntay Hinton explained that she barely knew Trump at all: “He would only come around if there was scandal involved.”
In 2006 and 2007, Trump played ringmaster in two separate media circuses that gave Miss USA perhaps its greatest visibility ever.
Tara Conner, a blond beauty queen from Kentucky who was crowned Miss USA 2006, only made it a few months into her reign before rumors and reports about her drug and alcohol use, as well as “indiscretions” with men, began to make the rounds.
She was summoned to Trump’s office, and she asked him for a second chance. But he didn’t give her an answer then. With Conner — and the public — waiting in suspense, he called a news conference.
Conner, who sat beside the lectern with her head bowed, said she was certain she was about to be publicly fired. But Trump had a different plan.
“I’ve always been a believer in second chances,” he announced. “Tara has tried hard. Tara is going to be given a second chance.”
Conner wept. She agreed to go to rehab. She thanked him for his compassion. And the spectacle, of course, made headlines. “I think the public liked it,” Trump later told Oprah Winfrey.
He showcased his capacity for forgiveness again the following year, when Miss California 2007 Carrie Prejean sparked a firestorm during the Q&A portion of the Miss USA competition by declaring that she was opposed to same-sex marriage. Soon after those remarks went viral, suggestive photos — showing Prejean posed topless, her arms over her chest — started to circulate.
Another news conference was called. Trump commended Prejean for her honesty and declared that the photos were perfectly fine. “We’re very proud of her,” he said, according to the New York Times. (Even after Prejean was abruptly fired by state pageant officials for “breach of contract” issues weeks later, Trump still had kind words: “Carrie is a beautiful young woman and I wish her well as she pursues her other interests,” he said in a statement.)
Rich says Trump’s involvement in the competitions came from a genuine investment in the contestants. “He cared about these women, about these people, and their potential,” he said.
Trump certainly cared about the way the pageant’s various dramas played out before the cameras, beginning with Machado, the first Miss Universe crowned after Trump took over the pageant in 1996. Her weight gain was in violation of her contract, Rich says, and she would have been fired if Trump hadn’t given her the chance to lose the extra pounds. So he told her to hit the gym — and invited a flock of reporters to watch. (In various interviews, Trump claimed she had gained as many as 50 pounds; Machado said she had only added about 19 pounds to a frame that was “skeletal” at her crowning.)
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5 weeks before the election, at 3am, the repub nominee told America to go look for a disgusting sex tape about an American citizen.
This is one for the record books. Will never top this.
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5 weeks before the election, at 3am, the repub nominee told America to go look for a disgusting sex tape about an American citizen.
This is one for the record books. Will never top this.
And he's still within the margin of error and leading in some swing states.
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Coach,
Do u believe trump has dropped in polls since the debate, or he's still kicking butt with no ill effect from the debates, as trump claims ?
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No way he hasn't hurt himself.
9/15 - Fox News Poll Trump +1
9/30 - Fox News Poll Clinton +5
It has to be taking a toll on his favorability and overall numbers.
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Anyone care to place a wager on the outcome of this election? 8)
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Trump was being Trump back in August and he was way down in the polls. Kellyanne Conway became his campaign manager, got him to read off the teleprompter, and his polls went up. "Maybe smart people can keep him under control." Then Trump started acting himself again, and he crashed.
Clinton will win with over 350 EVs
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Anyone care to place a wager on the outcome of this election? 8)
Not a bit.
The US populace seems far too fickle for any gambling.
Trump was being Trump back in August and he was way down in the polls. Kellyanne Conway became his campaign manager, got him to read off the teleprompter, and his polls went up. "Maybe smart people can keep him under control." Then Trump started acting himself again, and he crashed.
Clinton will win with over 350 EVs
You're saying bigger than Obama 2012?
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You're saying bigger than Obama 2012?
I think at the moment she has 323.
Compared to 2012, she's added North Carolina, but is behind in Iowa and Ohio. I think those two may swing back to her. That's 347. So my math was off. Less likely she could pick up Arizona and one of Nebraska's congressional district (they, like Maine, distribute their EVs differently). But if Trump continues to crash and burn, Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia and Indiana are in play. Really crash and burn, then Missouri and Texas are in play. And if there is anyone that would vote religious conviction over party ID, then Utah would not go for Trump.
My official prediction is same states as Obama'12 plus North Carolina.
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I think at the moment she has 323.
Compared to 2012, she's added North Carolina, but is behind in Iowa and Ohio. I think those two may swing back to her. That's 347. So my math was off. Less likely she could pick up Arizona and one of Nebraska's congressional district (they, like Maine, distribute their EVs differently). But if Trump continues to crash and burn, Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia and Indiana are in play. Really crash and burn, then Missouri and Texas are in play. And if there is anyone that would vote religious conviction over party ID, then Utah would not go for Trump.
My official prediction is same states as Obama'12 plus North Carolina.
Lol
Wanna put a monetary wager on this?
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Lol
Wanna put a monetary wager on this?
lol you would put $ on trump?
it's illegal to bet on the election in the US of course. But Trump would be a scary bet - he's the boxer than just keeps doing bonehead stunts, staying up all night.... really trying to destroy his chances.
He wants to be elected president in 5 weeks... and he's up at 3 am telling people to check out the sex tape of an american citizen. He's either lost his mind, OR he's tanking the election. I mean, go check out the disgusting sex tape... unreal.... doesn't seem to be it'd be a safe bet with a man that reckless.
Trump is gonna start plummeting in the polls. Then he won't WANT to be at the debate. AT the debate, he'll be the only person in the room who WANTS to talk about bill affairs. Moderators don't. Hilary doesn't Republicans don't. His staff sure doesn't. Just trump wanting to burn bridges and shit on everything. No issues, just shit talking about affairs 2 decades ago.
He's trash. He's complete trash.
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He's trash. He's complete trash.
And still he's a million times better than that POS crook Hillary Clinton!
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What is funny about Clinton disgracing the office?
Also, do you have a problem with the fact he was Commander in Chief screwing around his wife, while members of the military are disciplined or even dismissed from the service for doing the same thing?
I do not have a problem with the Commander in Chief committing adultery, because I am not his spouse. As for Article 134 in the military code. It is an archaic law. "You may be surprised to learn that adultery is not listed as an offense in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The UCMJ is a federal law, enacted by Congress, to govern legal discipline and court martials for members of the armed forces. Articles 77 through 134 of the UCMJ encompasses the "punitive offenses" (these are crimes one can be prosecuted for). None of those articles specifically mentions adultery." https://www.thebalance.com/adultery-in-the-military-3354158
(https://www.thebalance.com/adultery-in-the-military-3354158)"In fact, court martial on adultery charges alone are almost unheard of....." http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/12/what_happens_to_cheating_soldiers.html
(http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/12/what_happens_to_cheating_soldiers.html)
"The impeachment of Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, was initiated by the House of Representatives on two charges, one of perjury and one of obstruction of justice, on December 19, 1998. The charges stemmed from his extramarital affair with former White House Intern Monica Lewinsky and his testimony about the affair during a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by Paula Jones. He was subsequently acquitted of these charges by the Senate on February 11, 1999. Two other impeachment articles – a second perjury charge and a charge of abuse of power – failed in the House." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton)
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And he's still within the margin of error and leading in some swing states.
-Not leading in very many "swing states" lately.
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-Not leading in very many "swing states" lately.
Polls come Monday - one week after debate - will start to really suck for trump.
By Thursday (10 days after), the new taking point on getbig will once again be "polls don't matter and they're all lies anyway!"
Trump could have Skipped the debate, done nothing but read from a TelePrompTer, and he'd be leading strong. His mouth and irrational late night tweets. I could seriously see him invading some nation on a whim in the middle of the night. Doesn't care about how lives are affected by his actions and words.
America hates Hillary n but they know what to expect. Can anyone here truly say they junk they know what trump will do?
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Can anyone here truly say they junk they know what trump will do?
You always attempt to do so.
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You always attempt to do so.
cause i dont think a tiger can change his stripes.
he's a lifetime liberal for 60 years, then this obama dude beats his wedding buddy, and suddenly he's the anti-obama voice.
i'm not buying it. Trump's legacy will be a nice network, with his voice being 100x more influential on a daily basis than rush or anyone else, plus 8 years of clinton rule.
i've said, on getbig, since 2011 that trump is a dem plant. Seeing him this week - 5 days of slut shaming, fat shaming, and 3 am porno posts? He keeps making my point over and over.
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cause i dont think a tiger can change his stripes.
he's a lifetime liberal for 60 years, then this obama dude beats his wedding buddy, and suddenly he's the anti-obama voice.
i'm not buying it. Trump's legacy will be a nice network, with his voice being 100x more influential on a daily basis than rush or anyone else, plus 8 years of clinton rule.
i've said, on getbig, since 2011 that trump is a dem plant. Seeing him this week - 5 days of slut shaming, fat shaming, and 3 am porno posts? He keeps making my point over and over.
;) Well, you better unite against him!
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I do not have a problem with the Commander in Chief committing adultery, because I am not his spouse. As for Article 134 in the military code. It is an archaic law. "You may be surprised to learn that adultery is not listed as an offense in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The UCMJ is a federal law, enacted by Congress, to govern legal discipline and court martials for members of the armed forces. Articles 77 through 134 of the UCMJ encompasses the "punitive offenses" (these are crimes one can be prosecuted for). None of those articles specifically mentions adultery." https://www.thebalance.com/adultery-in-the-military-3354158
(https://www.thebalance.com/adultery-in-the-military-3354158)"In fact, court martial on adultery charges alone are almost unheard of....." http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/12/what_happens_to_cheating_soldiers.html
(http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/12/what_happens_to_cheating_soldiers.html)
"The impeachment of Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, was initiated by the House of Representatives on two charges, one of perjury and one of obstruction of justice, on December 19, 1998. The charges stemmed from his extramarital affair with former White House Intern Monica Lewinsky and his testimony about the affair during a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by Paula Jones. He was subsequently acquitted of these charges by the Senate on February 11, 1999. Two other impeachment articles – a second perjury charge and a charge of abuse of power – failed in the House." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton)
Dude. Where are you getting your info? Adultery is a crime in the military. Countless service members have been punished for adultery.
And I wasn't asking about you being his spouse. I was asking about the hypocrisy of the Commander in Chief engaging in conduct that resulted in punishment for his subordinates.
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Trump scrambling after tax discovery caps a week of ‘self-sabotage’
By Philip Rucker
Donald Trump is scrambling to rescue his campaign after a week in which the Republican nominee’s White House hopes were effectively set ablaze by his own erratic behavior and the discovery that he may not have paid federal income taxes for as many as 18 years.
Reeling from a New York Times report that Trump may have canceled out years of income taxes by declaring a $916 million loss on his 1995 return, his allies mounted a vigorous defense Sunday by arguing that the revelation was proof of the businessman’s “genius.”
With only five weeks until Election Day and voters in some states, including battleground Iowa, already beginning to cast ballots, Hillary Clinton and her campaign will labor this week to keep Trump in a downward trajectory.
But Trump hopes to recover by driving a contrast, starting Monday at campaign rallies in Colorado, between how he and Bill and Hillary Clinton made their fortunes. Trump plans to argue that he built a global real estate empire and employed thousands of people, while the Clintons got rich delivering paid speeches to financial institutions and other corporate interests, according to his aides.
“We’re going to shine the spotlight very brightly on how the Clintons made their money,” senior adviser Jason Miller said. “They were so broke when they left the White House that they couldn’t pay either of their mortgages, they haven’t invented anything, they haven’t won Powerball, they haven’t so much as billed a single hour of legal work, yet they’re worth a couple hundred million dollars.”
Asked about Trump’s plans to portray Clinton as a compromised multimillionaire, communications director Jennifer Palmieri laughed.
“He has a lot to answer for,” Palmieri said, alleging that Trump’s businesses have cheated contractors and outsourced jobs.
Clinton plans to deliver a sweeping economic address Monday in Toledo, where she is expected to highlight inherent unfairnesses in the economy that allow some businesses to take advantage of ordinary Americans. Clinton also will hold a town hall meeting Tuesday in the Philadelphia suburbs, where she and daughter Chelsea will make a pitch to female voters by touting child-care initiatives.
Clinton will get a lift from an array of star surrogates — including President Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and Sens. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) — who are fanning out across swing states in the South and industrial Midwest to solidify Clinton’s support among young and minority voters and convince anyone who is undecided that Trump is temperamentally unfit for office.
“Donald Trump’s campaign is showing all the signs of entering a spiral,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said. “At a very critical stage in the campaign, he is making our own arguments for us about his lacking the temperament to be president. As he continues to lash out and go low, as he flails to keep things together, we are intending to focus on her affirmative vision.”
The Clinton team is taking little for granted, acknowledging that momentum could shift back in Trump’s favor. “We certainly are planning for that. We are not expecting that he stays in the frame of mind he was at 3:20 a.m. Friday,” Palmieri said, referencing an erratic series of overnight tweets by Trump last week.
On Tuesday night, the task of generating needed momentum for the Republican ticket will fall to Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who will debate Clinton’s running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.), for the first and only time at Longwood University in rural Farmville, Va.
But the only person who can resuscitate Trump’s candidacy is Trump. The proudly unpredictable and often undisciplined nominee had been surging in the polls last month and turned the race with Clinton into a dead heat, only to fall into what was perhaps the most difficult week of his general-election campaign.
Trump turned in a shaky debate performance, feuded for days with a Latina former beauty queen over her weight gain, slipped in national and state polls, fired off a series of middle-of-the-night Twitter tirades and speculated without evidence in a rambling speech Saturday night that Clinton may have cheated on her husband.
“What we’re seeing is somebody who’s blowing himself apart in real time,” said Peter Wehner, who served in the administrations of the last three Republican presidents and who opposes Trump. “It’s a pretty extraordinary thing to see. It’s a political death wish, as if at some deep level he doesn’t want to be president.”
Wehner added, “It’s gnawing on him that he could become what he has contempt for, and that is a loser.”
Mo Elleithee, a Democratic strategist who runs Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service, said, “Political operatives and strategists are going to study this week for generations as the textbook case of self-sabotage.”
The best opportunity for Trump to rebound before a massive national audience is likely to be next Sunday, when he debates Clinton for the second of three times, at Washington University in St. Louis.
Ahead of the first debate, Trump refused to do mock debates and did not study as rigorously as Clinton. In preparation for the St. Louis debate, Trump has blocked off time in his schedule this week for preparation sessions.
Trump spent Sunday at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., huddling with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and other advisers, as well as family. Over salads and sandwiches, they helped coach Trump on the town hall format in St. Louis, when unlike in the first debate the candidates will move freely onstage and field questions from voters in the audience.
“He’s in a good mood and feeling very comfortable,” Giuliani said of Sunday’s session.
The political talk shows Sunday were dominated by discussion of the Times report, based on portions of Trump’s 1995 tax returns mailed to the newspaper anonymously, that showed he may have taken advantage of special rules for real estate investors that legally allowed him to use his $916 million loss to offset $50 million a year in taxable income for as many as 18 years.
Trump’s year-by-year returns would show how much he paid in federal income taxes, but he has refused to release them. For four decades, all presidential nominees have released years’ worth of tax returns, including Clinton.
The Clinton team moved Sunday to exploit the tax discovery to underscore their central argument against Trump’s qualifications and temperament. Clinton officials argued that he took advantage of loopholes that ordinary workers cannot.
Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who has sparred with Trump over his taxes and business record, issued a caustic statement on Sunday: “Trump is a billion-dollar loser who won’t release his taxes because they’ll expose him as a spoiled, rich brat who lost the millions he inherited from his father,” he said.
Trump’s leading surrogates, Giuliani and Christie, offered a different assessment. They said Trump’s avoidance of taxes demonstrated his business acumen and smarts. They did not dispute the Times’s findings, nor has Trump’s campaign.
“He’s a genius — absolute genius,” Giuliani said on ABC’s “This Week.” “This was a perfectly legal application of the tax code, and he would’ve been a fool not to take advantage of it.”
Christie, who chairs Trump’s presidential transition project, proclaimed on “Fox News Sunday” that “this is actually a very, very good story for Donald Trump.”
“What it shows is what an absolute mess the federal tax code is, and that’s why Donald Trump is the person best positioned to fix it,” the governor added. “There’s no one who’s showed more genius in their way to move around the tax code.”
Trump’s tax plan — which would cut rates for high-income people like him and eliminate the “carried interest” loophole that benefits hedge fund managers, among other things — does not address the rule he may have taken advantage of with his tax filings. He and his campaign have not said whether Trump plans to eliminate or change it.
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And he's still within the margin of error and leading in some swing states.
You said this 4 days ago. Do you still feel the same? IMHO, the LA times poll is starting to be 8 or 10 points off everyone else.. it's what rasmussen was in 2012... that one feel-good poll that was adored by millions on FOX and Drudge daily. And wrong as shit.
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Dude. Where are you getting your info? Adultery is a crime in the military. Countless service members have been punished for adultery.
And I wasn't asking about you being his spouse. I was asking about the hypocrisy of the Commander in Chief engaging in conduct that resulted in punishment for his subordinates.
I provided links for each of the quoted replies. Additionally, I checked with my son-in-law who held a command position and who is retired from the military. He confirmed that while adultery is a crime (Article 134), few are ever charged with it unless there are additional crimes involved.
You misinterpreted my reference to the spouse, which is probably a failure on my part because I didn't make it absolutely clear. What I should have wrote was that IMO adultery is primarily a matter between spouses, e.g. husband and wife. Contracts between employees and employers sometimes have morals clauses, i.e. the military.
This is the article adultery falls under:
http://www.treningmozga.com/tests_iq_en/01_0001/pics/tests_iq_en_01_0001_30.png
§934. Art. 134. General article
Though not specifically mentioned in this chapter, all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces, all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces, and crimes and offenses not capital, of which persons subject to this chapter may be guilty, shall be taken cognizance of by a general, special, or summary court-martial, according to the nature and degree of the offense, and shall be punished at the discretion of that court.
(Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 76.)
Historical and Revision Notes Revised section Source (U.S. Code) Source (Statutes at Large)
934 50:728. May 5, 1950, ch. 169, §1 (Art. 134), 64 Stat. 142.
The words “shall be” are inserted before the word “punished”.
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I provided links for each of the quoted replies. Additionally, I checked with my son-in-law who held a command position and who is retired from the military. He confirmed that while adultery is a crime (Article 134), few are ever charged with it unless there are additional crimes involved.
You misinterpreted my reference to the spouse, which is probably a failure on my part because I didn't make it absolutely clear. What I should have wrote was that IMO adultery is primarily a matter between spouses, e.g. husband and wife. Contracts between employees and employers sometimes have morals clauses, i.e. the military.
This is the article adultery falls under:
http://www.treningmozga.com/tests_iq_en/01_0001/pics/tests_iq_en_01_0001_30.png
§934. Art. 134. General article
Though not specifically mentioned in this chapter, all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces, all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces, and crimes and offenses not capital, of which persons subject to this chapter may be guilty, shall be taken cognizance of by a general, special, or summary court-martial, according to the nature and degree of the offense, and shall be punished at the discretion of that court.
(Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 76.)
Historical and Revision Notes Revised section Source (U.S. Code) Source (Statutes at Large)
934 50:728. May 5, 1950, ch. 169, §1 (Art. 134), 64 Stat. 142.
The words “shall be” are inserted before the word “punished”.
I clicked on the link you just posted and got nothing.
I know adultery is a crime in the military, which is what I said. Article 134 has numerous offenses, including bribery, bigamy, writing bad checks, child endangerment, false swearing, etc.
Service members are punished for adultery all the time. Oftentimes there are other acts of misconduct, but not always. There is no blanket statement any person (including your son-in-law) can make about how service members are punished. There can be big variations based on the who is in command from top to bottom. Commanders have an enormous amount of discretion when it comes to discipline. Unless the service member is high profile, the public isn't going to hear about the various forms of punishment being administered.
If you actually look online, you can find numerous instances of service members being punished for adultery. Here is one it took me about 30 seconds to find. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/25/local/la-me-ln-marine-adultery-20130425
Which brings me back to my original point about the hypocrisy and unfairness of a Commander in Chief engaging in conduct that his subordinates are punished for.
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Adulterer vrs sexist.....I don't see where there is any connection. They are two entirely different things.
Some people see President Clinton's accomplishments as being completely separate from his philandering's. It makes me laugh when folks act offended by his sexual escapades.
Lol but they are part and parcel with trump? Sorry hildog you can't have it both ways.
An adulterer and sexist both mistreat women. You can get on trump for being a dick to what's her face and then act like billy isn't just as big of a dick of what he did.
I think it's funny when people silver line and excuse his shitty behavior and then excuse Hilary's looking past them to criticize trump for his treatment of women
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I clicked on the link you just posted and got nothing.
I know adultery is a crime in the military, which is what I said. Article 134 has numerous offenses, including bribery, bigamy, writing bad checks, child endangerment, false swearing, etc.
Service members are punished for adultery all the time. Oftentimes there are other acts of misconduct, but not always. There is no blanket statement any person (including your son-in-law) can make about how service members are punished. There can be big variations based on the who is in command from top to bottom. Commanders have an enormous amount of discretion when it comes to discipline. Unless the service member is high profile, the public isn't going to hear about the various forms of punishment being administered.
If you actually look online, you can find numerous instances of service members being punished for adultery. Here is one it took me about 30 seconds to find. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/25/local/la-me-ln-marine-adultery-20130425
Which brings me back to my original point about the hypocrisy and unfairness of a Commander in Chief engaging in conduct that his subordinates are punished for.
Yes the person in the example you linked was punished. This "female Marine convicted of attempted adultery and lying to investigators got a letter of reprimand and the loss of $3,000 in pay."
Are you suggesting President Clinton should have been given a letter of reprimand plus a small fine? If I remember correctly, his accusers sought impeachment. Apparently people who likely have more legal expertise than you do, decided not to impeach President Clinton. -Don't think this is fair? Probably it isn't. Who gave you the impression that life is fair? Furthermore, your theory suggests that you believe Monica was completely truthful in testifying about this event. Don't be so naive.
Aside from you searching for validation via the internet, what personal experience do you have with regards to adultery and the military? Aside from President Carter, who said, "I've committed adultery in my heart many times," can you name a President about who you have firsthand information regarding their sex lives that proves they never committed adultery?
What is more, what does President Clinton's past affairs have to do with this election? He is not the one seeking the Presidency.
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Yes the person in the example you linked was punished. This "female Marine convicted of attempted adultery and lying to investigators got a letter of reprimand and the loss of $3,000 in pay."
Are you suggesting President Clinton should have been given a letter of reprimand plus a small fine? If I remember correctly, his accusers sought impeachment. Apparently people who likely have more legal expertise than you do, decided not to impeach President Clinton. -Don't think this is fair? Probably it isn't. Who gave you the impression that life is fair? Furthermore, your theory suggests that you believe Monica was completely truthful in testifying about this event. Don't be so naive.
Aside from you searching for validation via the internet, what personal experience do you have with regards to adultery and the military? Aside from President Carter, who said, "I've committed adultery in my heart many times," can you name a President about who you have firsthand information regarding their sex lives that proves they never committed adultery?
What is more, what does President Clinton's past affairs have to do with this election? He is not the one seeking the Presidency.
Wait. So now you are trying to say the punishment the service member received wasn't severe? You apparently don't know that a written reprimand can end a service member's career. It can lead to an inability to get promoted, which can result in separation. It can lead to an administrative separation regardless of whether it affects a promotion.
In any event, my initial question, which you have tried to contort, is whether you have a problem when a Commander in Chief engages in conduct that his subordinates are punished for. That punishment can range from an oral reprimand to jail. Here is another example that took about an additional 30 seconds to find. http://www.stripes.com/news/stuttgart-gi-is-jailed-discharged-for-adultery-1.47301 I'm sure I could find about 50 more, but I'm not going to waste my time.
And to recap, you are the one who tried to separate Clinton's screwing around from his official duties as president:
Adulterer vrs sexist.....I don't see where there is any connection. They are two entirely different things.
Some people see President Clinton's accomplishments as being completely separate from his philandering's. It makes me laugh when folks act offended by his sexual escapades.
What I have tried to help you understand is that his "philandering's" were not separate from his "accomplishments" as president, because he was Commander in Chief engaging in conduct that his subordinates were being punished for. I realize now that you are a true believer and the facts don't matter to true believers. I'm sorry I tried to help you. :-\
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Very off topic, but I don't think that anyone's sexual escapades should be grounds for anything... Unless you can show that these escapades endangered the lives of the US Citizens or Military.
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Very off topic, but I don't think that anyone's sexual escapades should be grounds for anything... Unless you can show that these escapades endangered the lives of the US Citizens or Military.
I disagree, particularly when we're talking about people who hold public office. I think it's reasonable to assume that a person being dishonest in their private life might be dishonest in their public life as well.
And regarding Clinton, he brought that foolishness into the White House.
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Didn't he (Clinton) lie about it, as well?
That was dumb.
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Didn't he (Clinton) lie about it, as well?
That was dumb.
To the public.
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To the public.
(https://s3.postimg.org/kbvj5g8w3/Clinton_051614.jpg)
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I disagree, particularly when we're talking about people who hold public office. I think it's reasonable to assume that a person being dishonest in their private life might be dishonest in their public life as well.
Sexual harassment is always wrong, but there is no evidence that Clinton sexually harassed anyone while in the white house. And it would not be cheating on your spouse if you've established ground rules ahead of time. Many people have various forms of open relationships.
LBJ was supposedly the most sexually promiscuous president of modern times.
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Very off topic, but I don't think that anyone's sexual escapades should be grounds for anything... Unless you can show that these escapades endangered the lives of the US Citizens or Military.
good luck finding too many politicians today that aren't on wife #3, or who have a string of public affairs.
those are usually the ones screaming the loudest about it. Newt impeaching clinton, while banging his own secratary. Rudy on the news hating on the clinton's marriage when he's on #3. Trump promising to talk shit about clinton's 41-year imperfect marriage when he's on #3 himself.
I don't understand why the audience doesn't stand there, mouths afar, then respond with "who the F are you to..."
It's like OJ giving a lesson on knife safety. Sorry, you LOST the ability to throw that stone.
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Sexual harassment is always wrong, but there is no evidence that Clinton sexually harassed anyone while in the white house. And it would not be cheating on your spouse if you've established ground rules ahead of time. Many people have various forms of open relationships.
LBJ was supposedly the most sexually promiscuous president of modern times.
It was stupid (or worse) for him to get himself into a situation which he knew was going to cause him to lie.
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Let's not forget this is the guy who so freely lied about NAFTA.
He's a liar, IOW. That's what he does.
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Sexual harassment is always wrong, but there is no evidence that Clinton sexually harassed anyone while in the white house. And it would not be cheating on your spouse if you've established ground rules ahead of time. Many people have various forms of open relationships.
LBJ was supposedly the most sexually promiscuous president of modern times.
LMFAO- GTFO
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Wait. So now you are trying to say the punishment the service member received wasn't severe? You apparently don't know that a written reprimand can end a service member's career. It can lead to an inability to get promoted, which can result in separation. It can lead to an administrative separation regardless of whether it affects a promotion.
In any event, my initial question, which you have tried to contort, is whether you have a problem when a Commander in Chief engages in conduct that his subordinates are punished for. That punishment can range from an oral reprimand to jail. Here is another example that took about an additional 30 seconds to find. http://www.stripes.com/news/stuttgart-gi-is-jailed-discharged-for-adultery-1.47301 I'm sure I could find about 50 more, but I'm not going to waste my time.
And to recap, you are the one who tried to separate Clinton's screwing around from his official duties as president:
What I have tried to help you understand is that his "philandering's" were not separate from his "accomplishments" as president, because he was Commander in Chief engaging in conduct that his subordinates were being punished for. I realize now that you are a true believer and the facts don't matter to true believers. I'm sorry I tried to help you. :-\
1. Show me where I wrote that this punishment wasn't severe.
2. Why bring up President Clinton's past behavior at this particular time? I fail to see how it is relevant.
3. Your assessment that facts don't matter to me is way off base. Most of my responses to you are quotes from other sources. If any of these "facts" are invalid, take issue with those who originally stated them. When I post a personal opinion, I identify it as such.
4. I did not solicit your help nor is it welcomed.
P.S. You did not answer the one question I asked you.
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LMFAO- GTFO
LBJ did whip his dick out.
Didn't FDR die in his mistress's arms?
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;) Well, you better unite against him!
(http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=614927.0;attach=691407;image)
Another fat feminist legbeard..
(http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/1709/production/_89879850_8890a377-4c4f-423f-a5b2-c637560ed86c.jpg)
(http://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/155461_LW_LINDYWEST_05-1020x709.jpg)
(http://amysmartgirls.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/lindy2.jpg)
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LBJ did whip his dick out.
Didn't FDR die in his mistress's arms?
There is no EEOC, HR manual, labor handbook, etc - that says its ok for a 50 CEO to bang fat interns and shove cigars in their twats.
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It was stupid (or worse) for him to get himself into a situation which he knew was going to cause him to lie.
Yes this is stupid. Unfortunately, adultery is not at all uncommon. It appears that more folks admit to having an affair than don't. http://www.statisticbrain.com/infidelity-statistics/
One usually makes a choice whether to lie or be truthful. Legal counsel most often advise their clients to offer nothing incriminating. It is a prosecutor's responsibility so establish guilt, i.e. innocent until proven guilty.
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Yes this is stupid. Unfortunately, adultery is not at all uncommon. It appears that more folks admit to having an affair than don't. http://www.statisticbrain.com/infidelity-statistics/
One usually makes a choice whether to lie or be truthful. Legal counsel most often advise their clients to offer nothing incriminating. It is a prosecutor's responsibility so establish guilt, i.e. innocent until proven guilty.
Adultery one thing - stick a fat intern in the cooch w cigars as POTUS whole different thing
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Adultery one thing - stick a fat intern in the cooch w cigars as POTUS whole different thing
Can you provide a link which verifies that this is, in fact, true?
Everyone has their limits. Don't impose yours on other folks.
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Yes this is stupid. Unfortunately, adultery is not at all uncommon. It appears that more folks admit to having an affair than don't. http://www.statisticbrain.com/infidelity-statistics/
One usually makes a choice whether to lie or be truthful. Legal counsel most often advise their clients to offer nothing incriminating. It is a prosecutor's responsibility so establish guilt, i.e. innocent until proven guilty.
He took a suggestion from himself to lie, I'm sure. Wasn't at all a hard sell, no doubt.
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Sexual harassment is always wrong, but there is no evidence that Clinton sexually harassed anyone while in the white house. And it would not be cheating on your spouse if you've established ground rules ahead of time. Many people have various forms of open relationships.
LBJ was supposedly the most sexually promiscuous president of modern times.
I didn't say anything about sexual harassment.
What evidence is there that Hillary condoned Bill screwing around, particularly when Hillary attacked these women?
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1. Show me where I wrote that this punishment wasn't severe.
2. Why bring up President Clinton's past behavior at this particular time? I fail to see how it is relevant.
3. Your assessment that facts don't matter to me is way off base. Most of my responses to you are quotes from other sources. If any of these "facts" are invalid, take issue with those who originally stated them. When I post a personal opinion, I identify it as such.
4. I did not solicit your help nor is it welcomed.
P.S. You did not answer the one question I asked you.
1. The fact you underlined the punishment.
2. I was responding to your contention that Bill Clinton's private misconduct were separate from his job as president.
3. Facts clearly don't matter to you, like trying to contend that service members are rarely punished for adultery. You don't know what the heck you're talking about.
4. I already apologized for trying to help you. I will not make that mistake again. :)
What questions did I not answer?
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The Sleaziness of Donald Trump
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
And so we have now heard the Republican nominee for president of the United States bragging about repeated sexual assault.
Donald Trump — a man who aspires to represent the highest ideals of the nation to his fellow citizens and the world — is heard on a videotape obtained by The Washington Post talking about how he would force himself on women. He could even grab them between their legs, he boasted.
“And when you’re a star they let you do it,” he said.
In a statement released after the video became public on Friday, Mr. Trump tried to minimize the conversation as “locker room banter.” As if the problem were just his words rather than his actions.
“I apologize,” he added, “if anyone was offended.”
If? Well, maybe it’s reasonable for him to wonder. This is a man who has said many outrageous things, after all, proudly violating all conventions of civic discourse with gutter attacks on women and the disabled, immigrants and minorities. He said that Senator John McCain was not a war hero and that fat women were disgusting.
Yet, those kinds of remarks have not deterred the millions of Americans who fervently support him. And the Republican establishment has remained staunchly in his corner. So it is perhaps quite understandable that Mr. Trump might wonder whether anyone might be so sensitive as to actually be offended.
But has he gone too far, at last?
Gov. Mike Pence, you are proud to be a Christian conservative. Is this a man you would want at your dinner table, let alone in the Oval Office?
Speaker Paul Ryan, you couldn’t possibly want Donald Trump as a role model for your children. Why do you diminish yourself by urging him on the country?
Senator Kelly Ayotte, you said this week in your race for re-election from New Hampshire that Mr. Trump was a role model for children. Then you said you’d misspoken but you still planned to vote for him, even though you weren’t actually endorsing him. Will you continue to tie yourself in knots like this?
The tape was made “many years ago,” Mr. Trump noted in his statement on Friday. It was made in 2005. He was then 59 years old. It would be hard for anyone to argue that the man he was then is not the man he is now.
Mr. Trump also noted that Bill Clinton had “said far worse to me on the golf course.” Who knows if that is true, and why should anyone care? Mr. Clinton is not running for president, and, at least until now, Republican politicians have not treated his private behavior as the standard by which they should be judged.
We elect our presidents in the hope that they will do their best for us, including to try — whatever their flaws and ours — to represent the best in us. There is no such hope for Donald Trump.
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That Utah guy, Rep Jason Chaffetz, who denounced Trump the night this went down hours after the expose': he's a major player. He led a huge witch hunt against Hillary.
By going against Trump, he's given ALL Republicans "cover" to say, "Oh, I'm not with 'that guy' either!"
The GOP needs to cut the wart off this cancer quickly. They'll individually go down with them possibly and the GOP will most CERTAINLY be tarnished as radical losers forever. Win or lose, I think the GOP will need to start over.
They are fucked.
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That Utah guy, Rep Jason Chaffetz, who denounced Trump the night this went down hours after the expose': he's a major player. He led a huge witch hunt against Hillary.
By going against Trump, he's given ALL Republicans "cover" to say, "Oh, I'm not with 'that guy' either!"
The GOP needs to cut the wart off this cancer quickly. They'll individually go down with them possibly and the GOP will most CERTAINLY be tarnished as radical losers forever. Win or lose, I think the GOP will need to start over.
They are fucked.
People can't seem to get it through their head that Trump is here because the GOP has already failed severely. Nobody trusts them to do anything to begin with as they haven't been doing anything for years.
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3 big questions Donald Trump will have to answer about this lewd video
By Aaron Blake
Donald Trump issued a more extensive apology late Friday for a newly unearthed video of him talking in graphic and lewd terms about trying to have sex with a woman, among other topics.
But given that we're headed for a debate in a little more than 36 hours — and given that Trump is still defiant in his apology, also using the opportunity to start attacking the Clintons for Bill Clinton's behavior — it's likely the video will be a significant focus of the questioning at the debate and going forward.
Trump spoke to reporters in various interviews Saturday to declare that he's not dropping out of the race, as many in the party are now urging him to do.
But there remain plenty of big, unanswered questions. And if and when Trump does get these questions — at the debate or otherwise — here's what he should be asked.
1. Did he actually pursue a married woman?
While Trump's comments are lewd, there is also the fact that he said he was pursuing a woman he admitted was married.
“And I moved on her very heavily in fact,” he said. “I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture. I took her out furniture. I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there, and she was married.”
This is a pretty detailed story — taking the woman furniture shopping — for Trump to have made it up whole-cloth. Did Trump know the woman was married when he “moved on” her? Does or did he often do this?
(“Access Hollywood,” whose hot mic Trump was caught on, has identified the married woman as its then-host Nancy O'Dell, who also hosted Trump's Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants. O'Dell was married to her husband in June 2005, just months before the video was probably taped. But she had previously been married, so it's still not clear what time period Trump was referring to.)
2. Was he married to Melania Trump at the time?
Trump told the story at a time when he was married to Melania Trump. They married in January 2005, and the video appears to have been shot around Sept. 16, 2005, according to The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold.
Trump also alludes in the video to Melania being “okay" with him kissing and hugging other women when he greets them.
But was the particular story he tells about pursuing a woman about a time when he was also married to Melania Trump, or dating her? The two married in 2005 but met in 1998.
Trump's history of infidelity is well-documented, and this certainly invites questions about whether it continued.
3. How often does he talk like this?
Trump said in his apology that “anyone who knows me knows these words don't reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize."
But the Associated Press recently reported on employees of his NBC reality show, “The Apprentice," saying Trump often spoke in very similar terms during the production of that show. From the AP's report Monday:
In his years as a reality TV boss on “The Apprentice," Donald Trump repeatedly demeaned women with sexist language, according to show insiders who said he rated female contestants by the size of their breasts and talked about which ones he'd like to have sex with.
...
Eight former crew members recalled that he repeatedly made lewd comments about a camerawoman he said had a nice rear, comparing her beauty to that of his daughter, Ivanka.
...
Randal Pinkett, who won the program in December 2005 and who has recently criticized Trump during his run for president, said he remembered the real estate mogul talking about which female contestants he wanted to sleep with, even though Trump had married former model Melania Knauss earlier that year: "He was like 'Isn't she hot, check her out,' kind of gawking, something to the effect of 'I'd like to hit that.'"
The Trump campaign issued a full denial in response to the AP report. "These outlandish, unsubstantiated, and totally false claims fabricated by publicity hungry, opportunistic, disgruntled former employees, have no merit whatsoever," Trump spokesman Hope Hicks said at the time.
But the behavior described in the AP report is very similar to the behavior we now see with our own eyes on the newly unearthed video. The claims of the people the AP talked to don't seem very "outlandish" anymore.
Stories like this have a tendency to snowball, and Trump has been wearing a microphone for a large portion of the past few decades. If he spoke like this frequently, now would be a good time to say so.
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John McCain Withdraws Support for Donald Trump After Disclosure of Recording
By ALAN RAPPEPORT
Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, withdrew his support on Saturday for Donald J. Trump as the Republican Party descended into chaos. On Friday, a recording was released showing showing Mr. Trump speaking about women in lewd and degrading terms.
A defiant Trump says he will not step aside as his wife, Melania, released a statement.
Though he faced calls from many in his party to step aside, Mr. Trump vowed in an interview that he would “never drop out of this race in a million years.” He later took a stronger stance on Twitter.
Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, said in a statement on Saturday that although his words about women were “unacceptable and offensive” to her, she hoped that “people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world.”
Mr. Trump showed up just before 5 p.m.in the lobby of Trump Tower, accompanied by his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, and his eldest child, Donald Trump Jr. Security officials stopped reporters and attempted to bar them from getting near him as he went outside and immersed himself in a waiting crowd out of supporters, who had gathered hours earlier for a rally.
“Hundred percent,” Mr. Trump told reporters who yelled questions about whether he would stay in the race. He ignored other quetsions about his repsonse to the defections by Republicans.
Prominent Republicans rescind endorsements and distance themselves from Trump.
•Mr. McCain, who has criticized Mr. Trump repeatedly, officially withdrew his backing. “I have wanted to support the candidate our party nominated,” he said in a statement. He added: “But Donald Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy.”
• House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said he was “sickened” by Mr. Trump’s behavior and disinvited him from an event in Wisconsin on Saturday. There, he referred obliquely to the episode. “There is an elephant in the room. That is not what we are here to talk about today.” (Here’s how Mr. Ryan and Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, have condemned Mr. Trump in past statements.)
• Former primary opponents such as Carly Fiorina and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio said Mr. Trump stand down. Mr. Kasich declared that the warning signs were right and that he would never vote for Mr. Trump.
• Mr. Trump’s most strident defender, his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, called the remarks from the 2005 video indefensible.
• We are also tallying the number of Republican leaders who say they won’t vote for Mr. Trump.
Some Republicans want to dump Trump. Can they?
Experts say that swapping out a presidential nominee at this stage of the game would be virtually impossible unless Mr. Trump dies, becomes incapacitated or decides to quit.
Trying to change the Republican National Committee’s rules with so little time until Election Day would be a logistical nightmare, and those rules do not give the party the power to change the nominee because people are unhappy.
If Mr. Trump did decide to drop out, the logistics would also be challenging because ballots have been printed and voting has already started in many places. We break it down in our Q. and A.
Still, as unlikely as that scenario appears to be, that remains the best hope for finding a new nominee.
Ardent Trump backers put focus on Bill Clinton.
A defiant Mr. Trump signaled in his overnight apology that he was ready to take the fight over his treatment of women back to the Clintons, particularly former President Bill Clinton.
Mr. Trump accused him of abusing women, and insisted that Hillary Clinton had enabled him.
Mr. Trump’s supporters on cable news have generally acknowledged that his comments in the video were offensive, but they have quickly pivoted the discussion back to Mr. Clinton’s past.
Sean Hannity, the Fox News host who is one of Mr. Trump’s staunchest allies, devoted most of his show on Friday evening to allegations of abuse by Mr. Clinton.
That Sunday debate will be must-see television.
The showdown between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton on Sunday night takes on even greater importance following Mr. Trump’s latest controversy. Unless he speaks beforehand, it will be his first chance to publicly take questions about his behavior on the recording. The audience could approach 100 million.
Many Republicans who have yet to denounce Mr. Trump have suggested that the debate will be a make-or-break moment for him.
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the only people this would affect is girly men and they wouldnt vote for trump anyway so it doesnt make any difference.
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John McCain Withdraws Support for Donald Trump After Disclosure of Recording
The dinosaur who is "worried about his re-election"...
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He took a suggestion from himself to lie, I'm sure. Wasn't at all a hard sell, no doubt.
Personal opinions aren't facts.
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What questions did I not answer?
I actually asked you a couple of questions, but this is the one I am most interested in knowing your answer to: Aside from you searching for validation via the internet, what personal experience do you have with regards to adultery and the military?
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the only people this would affect is girly men and they wouldnt vote for trump anyway so it doesnt make any difference.
Which definitely explains why some Getbiggers have not problem with these kinds of remarks. Fortunately, you won't carry the vote....if you even vote at all.
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GOP consumed by crisis as more Republicans call on Trump to quit race
By Jenna Johnson, Sean Sullivan and Robert Costa
The Republican Party plunged into an epic and historic political crisis Saturday with just a month to go until Election Day as a growing wave of GOP lawmakers called on defiant presidential nominee Donald Trump to drop out of the race in the wake of a video showing him make crude sexual remarks.
The fallout from the tape published by The Washington Post — in which Trump bragged in obscene language about forcing himself on women sexually — threatens to endanger the party’s hold on both houses of Congress in addition to the White House, which many Republicans now fear is lost. The episode also comes ahead of Sunday’s second presidential debate in St. Louis, which was already a crucial moment but could determine how widely the damage spreads.
By midafternoon Saturday, more than two dozen Republican lawmakers had called on Trump to leave the race, often touting vice presidential candidate Mike Pence as an alternative. Others including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the 2008 GOP nominee, said they could no longer vote for Trump but stopped short of calling on him to drop out. Still, the Republican Party’s top leadership — including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and party chairman Reince Priebus — continued to support Trump even as they denounced his comments.
Trump, who offered a qualified apology for the remarks in an overnight video statement while also attacking former president Bill Clinton, told The Post he would not drop out under any circumstances.
“I’d never withdraw. I’ve never withdrawn in my life,” Trump said in a Saturday morning phone call from his home in Trump Tower in New York. “No, I’m not quitting this race. I have tremendous support.
“They’re not going to make me quit, and they can’t make me quit,” Trump added, speaking of those who have urged him to step aside. “The Republicans, you’ve got to remember, have been running for a long time. The reason they don’t win is because they don’t stick together.”
In the 2005 videotape, Trump boasted in vulgar language about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women during a conversation caught on a hot microphone, saying that “when you’re a star, they let you do it. They let you do anything.”
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her allies seized on the video as another in a long line of disqualifying remarks and actions by Trump, and increased their pressure on Republican candidates to disavow their support of him or risk being tied to him on Election Day. Democrats are now openly confident they will win the Senate and increasingly optimistic that they could even flip control of the House, which seemed out of reach just a few days ago.
Clinton does not plan to do any interviews or make any further statement herself until the debate Sunday, when she plans to quickly address Trump’s fitness for office, said a close aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe some of the internal discussions. Several Clinton associates said she will not detail the particulars of Trump’s comments, instead attempting to show her fitness for high office by contrast.
Another burst of offensive remarks by Trump emerged Saturday as CNN aired a review of hours of newly uncovered audio from shock-jock Howard Stern’s show. Trump spoke of his daughter Ivanka’s breasts, three-way sex and not dating women who are older than 35. He also described barging in on nude Miss Universe beauty pageant contestants in their dressing room, characterizing his visits as inspections.
Several Democrats said they think Trump will come into Sunday’s town-hall-style debate with the mind set of a “wounded animal,” a factor that could make him more dangerous to Clinton — and to himself.
“I’ve never seen a candidate walk into a debate with this much at stake,” said longtime Clinton ally James Carville. “He’s overweight, he’s old, he’s tired and he’s crabby. And he’s going to have a very long hour-and-a-half.”
Trump and his surrogates signaled that the nominee could defend himself by attacking Bill Clinton, whom Trump has accused of abusing women and making comments while golfing with Trump that are more crude than the ones Trump made in 2005. On Saturday night, Trump retweeted two messages from an account labeled as belonging to Juanita Broaddrick, who alleged in 1999 that Bill Clinton had raped her in April 1978. The tweets accused Bill Clinton of being a “rapist” and accused Hillary Clinton of threatening her; the Clintons have repeatedly denied the allegations.
Some news coverage of Trump included warnings of graphic material or profane language, another sign of how ugly the election has become and, given Trump’s threats to invoke Bill Clinton’s infidelities, how much worse it might get.
Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative and outside Trump adviser, said Saturday that he and the InfoWars conspiracy website were selling 10,000 T-shirts with Bill Clinton’s face next to the word “rape,” a dark parody of President Obama’s 2008 “Hope” posters. He worried that Trump had missed a “prime opportunity” to attack Hillary Clinton over the affairs, but said there was still a way for Trump to litigate it.
“It’s not about adultery,” Stone said. “It’s about Bill hiring heavy-handed private detectives. It’s about violence against women. I know you and your colleagues want this to be about infidelity, but it’s about Hillary Clinton enabling attacks on women.”
A growing number of elected lawmakers and other prominent Republicans said they simply cannot vote for Trump, given the video. McCain, who is up for reelection in November, said Saturday that he and his wife would not vote for Trump and will instead “write in the name of some good conservative Republican who is qualified to be president.” McCain had supported Trump even though the businessman joked about him being captured during the Vietnam War and then refused to apologize.
Many said they would like to hand the ticket over to Pence, but experts said it would be almost impossible logistically for the party to replace its nominee a month from the election. Among those calling for Trump to drop out is the third-highest ranking Republican in the Senate, John Thune of South Dakota, who tweeted Saturday: “Donald Trump should withdraw and Mike Pence should be our nominee effective immediately.”
Condoleezza Rice, who was secretary of state during George W. Bush’s administration, posted on Facebook: “Enough! Donald Trump should not be President. He should withdraw. As a Republican, I hope to support someone who has the dignity and stature to run for the highest office in the greatest democracy on earth.”
The calls for Trump to step aside started Friday night, after several weeks of growing confidence among congressional Republicans that their candidates had distinguished themselves enough from Trump that they would maintain the majorities. But then they waited and waited for Trump to fully apologize for his comments, leading to a first wave of denunciations from those who had already said they wouldn’t vote for Trump or who had avoided taking a stance.
Sen. Mark Kirk (Ill.), who revoked his endorsement of Trump in June, called on Trump to drop out so that the party could “engage rules for emergency replacement.” Sen. Mike Lee (Utah), one of very few Republican senators who never endorsed Trump, called for the nominee to “step aside” and asked conservatives to find a new candidate.
“It’s occurred to me on countless occasions today that if anyone spoke to my wife, my daughter, my mother or any of my five sisters the way Mr. Trump has spoken to women, I wouldn’t hire that person. I wouldn’t hire that person, wouldn’t want to be associated with that person,” Lee said in a video filmed at his home in Utah. “And, I certainly don’t think I would feel comfortable hiring that person to be the leader of the free world.”
On Saturday morning, the calls increased and began to include some of Trump’s supporters and those from strongly Republican states.
“As disappointed as I’ve been with his antics throughout this campaign, I thought supporting the nominee was the best thing for our country and our party,” Rep. Martha Roby (Ala.) said in a statement. “Now, it is abundantly clear that the best thing for our country and for our party is for Trump to step aside and allow a responsible, respectable Republican to lead the ticket.”
Kelly Ayotte, the New Hampshire senator in a tight reelection race, who had said she supported but did not endorse Trump, tweeted Saturday morning that she would not vote for him and would instead write in Pence.
“I cannot and will not support a candidate for president who brags about degrading and assaulting women,” Ayotte said in a statement.
Some fundraisers for Trump worry that pledged donations might not come in during the final four weeks and that new donations might dry up. But GOP megadonors Robert and Rebekah Mercer, two of the most influential figures in Trump’s orbit, said Saturday that their support for the GOP nominee has not faltered: “We are completely indifferent to Mr. Trump’s locker room braggadocio.”
Trump was supposed to campaign Saturday in Wisconsin with Ryan, Priebus and other prominent Republicans, but Ryan rescinded the invitation on Friday. Pence was supposed to go in Trump’s place but decided against it to give Trump space to navigate the fallout from his statements, according to a campaign aide.
After avoiding questions about Trump’s comments at campaign events on Friday, Pence issued a statement on Saturday that said: “As a husband and father, I was offended by the words and actions described by Donald Trump in the eleven-year-old video released yesterday. I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them. I am grateful that he has expressed remorse and apologized to the American people.”
Trump’s wife, Melania, released a similar statement: “The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me. This does not represent the man that I know. He has the heart and mind of a leader. I hope people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world.”
In both New Hampshire and Ohio, the GOP chairs signaled there would be no repercussions from the party for any elected officials or others who make a clean break from the nominee.
New Hampshire GOP chair Jennifer Horn issued a statement condemning Trump’s “erratic behavior” and “outrageous comments.” She added, “There will be no repercussions from the party directed at those who choose not to support Donald Trump.
In Ohio, party chair Matt Borges said in an interview that the state party would be “fully supportive” of Sen. Rob Portman, who is running for reelection against former governor Ted Strickland.
“Rob needs to know that we are fully supportive of his campaign,” Borges said in a phone interview. “However he chooses to proceed there will be no ramifications from the state party.”
Trump said in a statement that he planned to spend Saturday preparing for Sunday’s presidential debate with the help of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and Priebus, who on Friday said that no one should ever talk about women the way that Trump did in 2005.
On Saturday morning, Trump broke an hours-long silence and tweeted: “Certainly has been an interesting 24 hours!” He tweeted again Saturday afternoon: “The media and establishment want me out of the race so badly - I WILL NEVER DROP OUT OF THE RACE, WILL NEVER LET MY SUPPORTERS DOWN!”
Meanwhile, Trump’s 2005 comments played again and again on cable news, upstaging even a dangerous hurricane. Some of Trump’s surrogates and prominent supporters came to his defense.
Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), a member of the party leadership who is facing a tough reelection battle, said Saturday that Trump’s comments were “absolutely unacceptable,” but he dismissed the idea that Trump could step aside 30 days before the election to make way for another nominee.
“I think that’s an unrealistic solution,” Blunt said. “The devastation of Obamacare, the out-of-control regulators, the foreign policy that our friends don’t trust us, make a third Obama term an unacceptable alternative.”
Asked whether he would vote for Trump, Blunt asked: “Didn’t I just say that?”
Dallas investor Doug Deason dismissed the episode as a manufactured media story.
“It’s just CNN and the press making a big deal out of nothing,” he said. “Anybody who is surprised about that or appalled or shocked is disingenuous. People knew that Trump was like that in those days. There’s probably more of it out there. He’s not like that anymore. He is a changed guy. We are a nation that believes in redemption and second chances, right? I don’t think he’s been that way for a very long time.”
Late Saturday afternoon, Trump emerged from Trump Tower with a swarm of U.S. Secret Service agents, surprising reporters who had staked out the lobby and delighting tourists and supporters hoping for a sighting.
As Trump waved at the crowd, reporters fired off questions: Will he stay in the race? What’s his message to his supporters? For the Republican Party?
“Tremendous support!” Trump said. “Tremendous support!”
When asked if he would stay in the race, Trump responded: “One hundred percent.”
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I just want to see how this is going to END. I'll give Trump one thing: he can put up a fight. I think he's going to go out swinging. What do you guys think?
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I just want to see how this is going to END. I'll give Trump one thing: he can put up a fight. I think he's going to go out swinging. What do you guys think?
I think if I made a side by side list of all the dumb things Trump has SAID vs all the lies Killary has told, Trump would look like a schoolgirl comparatively.
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The problem is that trump has no discipline and gets baited so easily into this stuff.
Hillcunt is a murdering witch and communist ahole. Trump is and always manages to take the focus of her and allows her to bide her time
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I just want to see how this is going to END. I'll give Trump one thing: he can put up a fight. I think he's going to go out swinging. What do you guys think?
I hope he goes off at the debate tonight... at this point and before this point in time, I think we all knew who we were voting for. fuck the undecided voter.. too much distance between these to fuck ups for anyone to be truly "undecided".... in the end, I think we are fucked one way or another. but I like Trumps vision of self destruction vs Hillarys any day.
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I hope he goes off at the debate tonight... at this point and before this point in time, I think we all knew who we were voting for. fuck the undecided voter.. too much distance between these to fuck ups for anyone to be truly "undecided".... in the end, I think we are fucked one way or another. but I like Trumps vision of self destruction vs Hillarys any day.
at least with Trump we go down fighting for ourselves rather than with Hildog we bend over, grab our ankles and let 3rd world savages rape us in the ass and take my paycheck
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Pence would destroy Hilary in a 1 on 1 matchup. Adding Carly to the vp slot mends a lot of fences.
Trump has so many negatives. He's a mess. Just hand it to pence and give him a chance against Hilary. It's not binary. There's still time for pence to beat Hilary.
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Personal opinions aren't facts.
Do you think it was a little devil on his shoulder, advising him?
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Donald Trump and Mike Pence’s relationship just took a nosedive
By Amber Phillips
Donald Trump and his No. 2, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R), aren't on the best of terms right now. And things just got even rockier.
In Sunday's presidential debate, moderator Martha Raddatz pointed out that just a week earlier, Pence appeared to contradict his own nominee on Syria.
Trump, in response, didn't seem to care much about what Pence thought.
Some background on the issue at hand: In the Oct. 3 vice presidential debate, Pence said the United States should consider striking a key Russian military ally, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. But far from striking Russian allies in Syria, Trump has indicated he'd be open to working with Russia in Syria.
But the disagreements between Pence and Trump go way beyond Russia. Throughout this campaign, Pence played the role of trying to course-correct Trump when Trump said something controversial. That often lead Pence to say something that indirectly contradicted Trump, on everything from whether to endorse congressional Republicans, release tax returns and how to talk about the family of a fallen solider. Seriously, we have a whole list of where they diverge.
Whether to attack or work with Russia in Syria was just one of several instances in the vice presidential debate where Pence claimed the Pence-Trump ticket supported or believed something it did not.
Sometimes it feels like Pence and Trump have been running parallel campaigns. But up until this weekend, neither candidate had acknowledged just how much they disagree. Now, the gloves are off.
On Saturday, Pence said he "can't defend" lewd comments Trump made about women while on a TV show in 2005. Pence's statement specifically referred to that audio, but as I wrote Saturday:
Pence may as well have been talking about this entire 2016 election. From the moment Pence accepted Trump's vice-presidential nomination this June, he's been in a sometimes-awkward, often-difficult, ultimately no-win situation: How does someone like Pence, a traditional social conservative with deep establishment roots, defend and champion the most untraditional and controversial major-party presidential nominee in modern history?
After watching Pence campaign these past few months, the answer seems to be a reality he acknowledged in part Saturday: He can't.
Trump, never one to back away from a fight, most definitely noticed his running mate didn't have his back. On Sunday night, it was his turn to throw a punch. And he did, by essentially dismissing the guy he shares a ticket with.
Publicly, at least, Pence remained seated on the Trump Train Sunday night.
But social media fired up when Trump so publicly disagreed with Pence. Stay tuned...
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Your long winded, tiresome posts are almost as boring as Hillary who is absolutely unlistenable. There's a reason no one shows up at her events.
And yes, she got destroyed in the debate.
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Your long winded, tiresome posts are almost as boring as Hillary who is absolutely unlistenable. There's a reason no one shows up at her events.
And yes, she got destroyed in the debate.
So did Bay's Hillary hopes.
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;)
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Pence would destroy Hilary in a 1 on 1 matchup. Adding Carly to the vp slot mends a lot of fences.
Trump has so many negatives. He's a mess. Just hand it to pence and give him a chance against Hilary. It's not binary. There's still time for pence to beat Hilary.
How would this work? Voting has already begun. It is too late to remove Trump from the ballot. Many folks will vote for him anyway. The republican party waited too long to see the sorry truth about Trump.
There were moments when I felt sorry for Trump during last night's clown show. He was so rattled that he came off looking like an angry child throwing a tantrum because he didn't get his way. By comparison, Hillary never once lost her composure.
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How would this work? Voting has already begun. It is too late to remove Trump from the ballot. Many folks will vote for him anyway. The republican party waited too long to see the sorry truth about Trump.
There were moments when I felt sorry for Trump during last night's clown show. He was so rattled that he came off looking like an angry child throwing a tantrum because he didn't get his way. By comparison, Hillary never once lost her composure.
Trump would agree to take the oath in Jan, have an iced tea and wave to the crowd for ten minutes, then immediately resign and let Pence be president. He's publicly vow it now, and his name on every ballot would mean Pence - and he'd keep his own supporters + the GOP/RNC.
And this would defeat Hillary - easily.
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Your long winded, tiresome posts are almost as boring as Hillary who is absolutely unlistenable. There's a reason no one shows up at her events.
And yes, she got destroyed in the debate.
Trump thanks you for the support. He sure needs it right now. You are just one of very few people who has the guts to suggest Trump "distroyed" Clinton last night. Even Trump knows he fucked it up. I wouldn't surprise me if he skipped the last debate, ten days from now.
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And this would defeat Hillary - easily.
No, it would not. There is a reason Pence took the VP job rather than trying to keep the governorship Indiana. He had no chance of winning reelection. His tenure as governor has been a series of bumbling mistakes.
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No, it would not. There is a reason Pence took the VP job rather than trying to keep the governorship Indiana. He had no chance of winning reelection. His tenure as governor has been a series of bumbling mistakes.
but the anti-hillary sentiment is SO high. it's a change election, but trump is unacceptable change.
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but the anti-hillary sentiment is SO high. it's a change election, but trump is unacceptable change.
The anti-Hillary sentiment is not high throughout the country. The electoral college would still favor Clinton. Some swing states might be closer, but she would still be favored to win.
Trump chose Pence for a reason (besides that no one else reputable would take the job), and that was to get the evangelicals to back him. But there is no way an extreme evangelical would win over moderates, especially moderate women.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/think-trump-is-scary-check-out-mike-pence-on-the-issues_us_57f137d5e4b095bd896a11db
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No, it would not. There is a reason Pence took the VP job rather than trying to keep the governorship Indiana. He had no chance of winning reelection. His tenure as governor has been a series of bumbling mistakes.
LOL - only a pansie fagget would support a pos like hillcunt - grow a sack
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I actually asked you a couple of questions, but this is the one I am most interested in knowing your answer to: Aside from you searching for validation via the internet, what personal experience do you have with regards to adultery and the military?
I personally know of several service members who have been investigated for and/or punished for adultery, but what difference does that make? I live on an island that probably has the highest concentration of service members in the country.
You still don't know what the heck you're talking about.
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Speaker Ryan says he will not defend or campaign for Trump
By Kelsey Snell, Juliet Eilperin and Mike DeBonis
A decision Monday by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan to not campaign with or defend Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump through the November election sparked a public feud with his party’s standard-bearer within a matter of hours, suggesting that a widening split within the GOP could reverberate long after the presidential race is decided.
Ryan’s move — and a blunt assessment of the race that he and other congressional leaders delivered during a conference call with House GOP lawmakers Monday morning — underscored the perilous choice Republican officials now face in the wake of Friday’s release of a 2005 videotape in which Trump made lewd comments about women:
They can remain in line with their nominee, which would please their base but could alienate swing voters critical to maintaining their hold on Congress. Or they could renounce Trump and offend Republicans eager for a direct confrontation with Hillary Clinton and her husband.
For his part, the speaker — who canceled an appearance with Trump after the videotape surfaced Friday — did neither. He won’t publicly campaign with Trump, but he also did not rescind his endorsement of his party’s controversial nominee or back away from his pledge to vote for him.
One GOP lawmaker said Ryan (R-Wis.) was confronted on the call by at least a half-dozen members from districts ranging from California to Ohio who bristled at any attempt to distance the party from Trump.
“He got huge pushback like I’ve never seen before from members from across the country just saying that was the wrong move — and even if it cost them the House,” said one lawmaker on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the private discussion.
Late in the call, after several members had criticized GOP leaders, Ryan got back on the line to assure them that he was not planning to rescind his endorsement. But that appeared to do little to assure the pro-Trump contingent.
“A number of people said: You can’t have it both ways. You’ve either got to get out and be wholly supportive . . . or it really doesn’t matter,” the GOP lawmaker said.
The lawmaker, who represents a safe Republican district where Trump is popular, told The Washington Post that he had heard much the same from his own constituents: “They’re just so fed up with Washington, D.C., that all the rest of this stuff is a side point. . . . They’re willing to overlook a whole lot to try to take back the country.”
But Rep. Charlie Dent — a moderate who does not support Trump — also spoke up on the call, saying, “Our nominee should step aside, though I realize it is probably logistically impractical at this moment.”
Dent said he warned his fellow Republicans: “Does anyone on the call not think there are worse revelations to come? I would be shocked if there were not more revelations, and what’s our plan when the next one hits?”
Trump lashed out at Ryan on Monday, tweeting that the speaker “should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration and not waste his time on fighting Republican nominee.” Within a matter of minutes, more than 6,300 people had favorited the tweet.
The widening chasm between GOP establishment leaders and Trump, who is now emboldened given his assertive debate performance Sunday night, has moved the party into uncharted territory in the final weeks of an already volatile and unpredictable presidential contest. Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, and his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, took to the airwaves Monday to make it clear that Trump intends to remain on the offensive for the duration of the campaign. And Trump’s senior communications adviser, Jason Miller, tweeted that “nothing’s changed” after the congressional call, because his candidate has always been a Washington outsider.
And in an interview Monday, former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), a close ally of Trump’s, said his performance would make it more difficult for Republicans to abandon him. “They’ve really raised the ante on Republicans who want to cut and run,” he said. “How can you have watched that debate without knowing he won?”
Some Republican lawmakers, such as Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (Calif.), questioned during the conference call Monday why GOP leaders hesitate to back Trump, citing Clinton’s weakness as a candidate.
In an email Monday, Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said that “there is no update on [the speaker’s] position at this time” in regards to endorsing Trump. But she added, “The speaker is going to spend the next month focused entirely on protecting our congressional majorities.”
In withdrawing his public support from Trump, Ryan is essentially giving other Republican lawmakers license to do the same if they oppose Trump’s statements and are concerned about their reelection chances. After the 2005 video emerged, Ryan said he was “disgusted” by Trump’s comments but did not withdraw his support.
“You all need to do what’s best for you and your district,” Ryan said on the conference call, according to two participants who spoke anonymously because of the private nature of the call.
With this move, Ryan at least partially joined a growing group of high-profile Republican lawmakers who have renounced their support of Trump following the disclosure Friday by The Post of an 11-year-old videotape of the businessman talking casually about kissing and groping women. That group includes Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) and John McCain (Ariz.), both in tough reelection races, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Utah).
Republicans who participated in the post-debate conference call Monday morning are becoming increasingly worried about their chances of holding on to their 30-seat House majority as Trump lags dangerously behind Clinton in the polls. One described the tone of the call as “nervous.”
An NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey released Monday showed Trump taking a big dip after the release of the videotape, with Clinton leading Trump by double digits among likely voters, 46 percent to 35 percent, in a four-way contest. Democrats had a seven-point lead on the question of which party voters would like to see control Congress.
Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the House GOP campaign arm, briefed lawmakers on the House battlegrounds, warning that the “ground is shifting,” according to a lawmaker on the call. Walden said that Republicans should continue to poll their races and that winning would be equivalent to “landing an airplane in a hurricane: You have to trust the instruments.”
The speaker plans to spend the next month, he told lawmakers on the conference call, “only campaigning for House seats and not . . . to promote or defend Trump,” according to a GOP lawmaker. Ryan plans to campaign in 17 states and 42 cities in October to help preserve his majority.
The House GOP call was an opportunity for members to check in after a chaotic weekend in which dozens of GOP lawmakers revoked their support for Trump after the release of the video. Lawmakers spent the weekend fielding a barrage of questions about their support for Trump, without any formal guidance from party leaders.
Ryan typically holds weekly sessions for his members, referring to the confabs as “family meetings” where members are invited to speak their minds. The meetings have become a mainstay for a House GOP that has been plagued by infighting and crises for more than a year.
Pence made his first campaign appearance since news of the videotape had broken, telling a group in Charlotte on Monday that it had been “an interesting few days.” He lauded Trump for apologizing during the debate for his vulgar remarks about forcing himself on women in 2005.
“It takes a big man to know when he’s wrong and admit it,” said Pence, adding, “Donald Trump last night showed that he’s a big man.”
The governor also brought up his Christian faith in his explanation of why he continues to stand by Trump, saying he believes in “grace” and “forgiveness.”
Pence made a similar pitch Monday while speaking on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends,” even as he made clear that his former colleagues in Congress should remember that voters, rather than elected officials, will determine who succeeds President Obama.
“My hope is that people across the country, including elected officials, believe in redemption as much as I do,” he said. “I’m happy to talk to any of my friends in leadership. But really, this election is really in the hands of the American people.”
Democrats suggested that any effort by Republicans to distance themselves from their nominee at this point in the race would not shield them from the repercussions of his candidacy this fall.
“I understand why they’re doing that, but Paul Ryan and other leaders in the Republican Party — there was a time where they could have spoken out. That time was this summer. And obviously it’s too late now,” Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri told reporters aboard the campaign’s plane Monday while en route to Detroit. “Somewhat of a civil war is breaking out in the Republican Party, but I think that Donald Trump didn’t become the nominee of his party on his own. These leaders help legitimize him and I think they have a lot to answer for, and the voters, I imagine, will hold them accountable.”
And even as the actions Trump described in the 2005 videotape continued to spark renewed controversy this week, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) told a reporter from the Weekly Standard that when it came to Trump’s allusions to forcibly kissing women and grabbing them by their genitals, ” I don’t characterize that as sexual assault.”
After someone tweeted in response that Sessions’s comments were akin to when then-Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) torpedoed his 2012 Senate bid to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) by referring to “legitimate rape,” McCaskill said that was “not fair to Todd Akin.”
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Trump’s truest believers start to worry: ‘You could easily lose’
As Donald Trump bounces from one controversy to another and Hillary Clinton gains in the polls, some of the GOP nominee’s most devoted supporters are pointing fingers at many people they say are to blame — including Trump.
By Jenna Johnson
AMBRIDGE, Pa. — The morning after the vice-presidential debate, Cathy Frasca woke at 5 a.m. and hand-wrote a four-page letter to Donald Trump that said: “It is obvious that you could easily lose this election.”
The 89-year-old grandmother urged Trump to release his taxes, ignore the controversies that Hillary Clinton tries to start, stop tweeting at 3 a.m. and remember that “Bill Clinton is not running for election, so please avoid using precious time to discuss his sex life.” Instead, Frasca wrote, Trump should tell voters about how he will improve the country.
“You know what to do but time is running out,” she wrote in closing. “My prayers are with you always.”
As Trump bounces from one controversy to another and Hillary Clinton gains in the polls, there is a growing realization among some of his most devoted supporters that he could lose the election. They still hope he will win, as the idea of another President Clinton angers and scares them. They blame the Republican Party for not doing enough to support its nominee, the media for focusing on comments Trump made years ago and Democrats who, they say, rigged the system. But they also place a little blame on Trump.
As Frasca watched the second presidential debate Sunday night, she was glad to see that Trump seemed better prepared and that he apologized for his “toilet talk” in 2005 when he told an “Access Hollywood” host that he could grope women and force himself on them sexually because he was famous. She was delighted to hear Trump tell Clinton that she should be in jail, but she didn’t understand why he dragged along women who have accused former president Bill Clinton of sexual assault or harassment.
On Monday morning, Frasca put on a yellow T-shirt featuring a screaming Hillary Clinton, flames and the message, “Liar! Liar! Pants suit on fire.” She and a few friends from her retirement community in Sewickley traveled a few miles north to a high school gym in this suburb of Pittsburgh for a Trump rally. Frasca brought along a copy of the letter she mailed to Trump Tower, just in case she got to meet the candidate.
At rallies like these, Trump can live in a world where he is still winning. He was introduced as “the next president” and greeted by a screaming crowd of 2,500 while, he said, “thousands and thousands” more waited outside. There were no polls showing Clinton with a double-digit lead, no debate moderators grilling him on the Syrian conflict, no party leaders telling him to tone it down. Here, Trump declared himself the winner of the debate, berated the media and attacked Clinton without any interruptions from fact-checkers.
Crowds like these are Trump’s case for not dropping out of the race. Crowds like these are his evidence that he can still win. Crowds are his polls.
But Trump has already won these people over, and if he wants to win the election, he has to dramatically broaden his following.
Outside the high school, a few dozen union workers and protesters gathered. One man held a sign that said, “Trump is a sexual pervert.” Three young women chanted: “Trump’s unfit!”
Jamie Young, 49, watched the commotion from a friend’s porch. She voted for Trump in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary and went to five of his rallies — and is now embarrassed that she did.
“The tipping point for me was this last video — it’s like, enough is enough. Enough is enough. I’ve had it,” said Young, an airport worker who now plans to write in Gary Johnson, the Libertarian nominee. “I believed that he was tough and he had a set — but his set is a little too big.”
Clinton supporter Marlene Monza, 65, brought along a mannequin dressed in a suit and wearing bright lipstick, along with a sign decorated with hearts: “This is the presidential look that has my vote!”
“This contest is not so much between him and her, it’s gender-based, because if we had a Democrat who was a 90-year-old man in a wheelchair on oxygen he would be 90 points ahead of Donald Trump right now,” said Monza, who remembers being asked at her first job interview if she had a boyfriend and, later, not being able to get a credit card in her own name.
Her friend Joan Verner, 73, almost started crying as she looked at a line of Trump supporters stretching more than a quarter of a mile. Verner brought along two black cats — Halloween decorations turned into political statements about Trump’s crude boast on the 2005 videotape about grabbing women “by the p---y.”
“I cannot believe all of the derogatory things that he has said about women,” said Verner, who has voted for Republicans and Democrats. “He does not have a nice thing to say about women. And they want to line up and vote for him?”
On the other side of the street, a Trump supporter in line screamed: “What about Bill Clinton? Clinton is still a rapist!” A vendor sold blue yard signs that said: “Trump that b---- before it’s too late.” Another sold T-shirts showing a cartoon Trump urinating on the word “Hillary.”
Pam Butler, 59, is worried Trump will lose. She blames the Republican establishment.
Butler, who lives in Evans City and works at the post office, was appalled to learn that House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) announced Monday he would no longer defend Trump or campaign with him. “I’m sickened by it, just sickened,” she said. “They’re going to regret it. . . . They’re going to regret it in the end. I hope they do. Their constituents are going to leave them.”
Ron Ritz, 69, blames the media for making a big deal out of Trump’s 2005 comments. Ritz said now that Trump has apologized, everyone needs to move on and focus on issues of greater importance — such as Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state and her response to the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.
“We are guys, and there are locker room statements, okay? There are girls that go to locker rooms and make statements, too,” said Ritz, an Air Force veteran who lives in Somerset County.
He said he had never expressed anything like what Trump said in the tape but admitted, “I have said things to guys that I would not say to a girl.”
Ritz said that the polls are not accurate and that he expects Trump to win — but that the Republican could lose because Democrats will use the names of dead people to pile up fraudulent votes.
“If things are done aboveboard and legally, the American people want Donald J. Trump. They do not like Hillary,” Ritz said. “Where I have been, I have not seen two Hillary signs — and hundreds of Trump signs. That’s a fact.”
In the high school gym, it seemed like Trump was polling at 100 percent. The screaming crowd reassured Frasca, the letter-writing grandmother who still hopes Trump will read her letter and adopt her strategy. If he wins, she has promised her neighbors that she will crack open an expensive bottle of Scotch that belonged to her late husband.
“I pray every night that he will be president,” she said. “And every night I worry that she will be president.”
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It amazes anyone from the LGBT community would back Hillary
Seeing as if Hillarys immigration plan of a 550% increase in Muslims comes in effect....the chance, of gays in the future being randomly stabbed, shot or blown up for their lifestyle choice will also go up 550% as a result.
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It amazes anyone from the LGBT community would back Hillary
Seeing as if Hillarys immigration plan of a 550% increase in Muslims comes in effect....the chance, of gays in the future being randomly stabbed, shot or blown up for their lifestyle choice will also go up 550% as a result.
Funny you mention that... Hillary and her cronies are fully aware.
"43% of gays in Berlin have experienced hate crimes perpetrated by Muslims in particular, while two thirds of Turkish high school students in Berlin display homophobia."
"If you think Amsterdam is the gay capital of Europe, you're half-right, but 10 years out of date. Today it's the gay-bashing capital of Europe."
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/295 (https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/295)
But we are all special snowflakes here in America. It won't happen to our gays.
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Said in such a compassionate tone, "death is the sentence"...
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(https://i.reddituploads.com/8ee2fd34d2024acfb32a84b5f3198ab8?fit=max&h=1536&w=1536&s=8145c6910658ca160729a253494261b7)
No likey! >:(
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Trump’s truest believers start to worry: ‘You could easily lose’
not on getbig.
Here, trump is actually leading by 14 points and there isn't a massive GOP civil war going on.
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not on getbig.
Here, trump is actually leading by 14 points and there isn't a massive GOP civil war going on.
(http://archive.is/jA8Pc/5143633b2232de428d5cbf82e3ee9b569837001c.gif)
Internet is serious business! >:(
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It amazes anyone from the LGBT community would back Hillary
Seeing as if Hillarys immigration plan of a 550% increase in Muslims comes in effect....the chance, of gays in the future being randomly stabbed, shot or blown up for their lifestyle choice will also go up 550% as a result.
You are obviously not very well informed about the LGBT community (among other things). ::)
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Trump declares war on GOP, says ‘shackles have been taken off’
In a blizzard of tweets one month before the election, the Republican nominee lashed out at party leaders, calling House Speaker Paul Ryan "weak and ineffective" and "disloyal" after Ryan said he would no longer campaign for Trump.
By Sean Sullivan
Donald Trump declared war on the Republican establishment Tuesday, lashing out at House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and other GOP elected officials as the extraordinary turbulence within the Republican Party intensified four weeks from Election Day.
One day after Ryan said he would no longer campaign on Trump’s behalf, the GOP nominee said as part of a barrage of tweets that Ryan is “weak and ineffective” and has provided “zero support” for his candidacy. Trump also declared that “the shackles have been taken off” him, freeing him to “fight for America the way I want to.”
Trump called McCain “foul-mouthed” and accused him with no evidence of once begging for his support. McCain is no longer backing Trump.
In perhaps the most piercing insult of all, Trump said his party is harder to deal with than even Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, whom conservatives loathe.
“Disloyal R’s are far more difficult than Crooked Hillary,” he wrote via Twitter, his preferred platform for igniting rhetorical fights against his foes. “They come at you from all sides. They don’t know how to win — I will teach them!”
The bevy of attacks directed at his fellow Republicans for his more than 12 million Twitter followers highlighted the fierce backlash that Ryan and his allies are bracing for during the final stage of a campaign that already has wreaked havoc on the party.
In backing away from Trump, Ryan and others are hoping to insulate themselves and their majorities on Capitol Hill from the baggage weighing down the nominee’s flagging campaign. For many, the breaking point was a 2005 video reported by The Washington Post on Friday in which Trump is heard making vulgar comments about physically forcing himself on women.
But in doing so, they are already absorbing counterattacks from Trump and his army of supporters. Many Trump boosters say they have been emboldened by the fight and are determined to exact punishment on the party establishment’s down-ballot candidates.
“I do think he’s going through one of those phases where he’s going to get his rebuttals out there for the circumstances that have unfolded starting yesterday morning. And I understand why he would feel frustrated,” Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said on CNN speaking of Trump, whom he supports.
Trump dispensed with his Twitter attacks Tuesday during a light day on the campaign trail. He is raising money in Texas in the afternoon and plans to hold a rally in Panama City Beach, Fla., in the evening.
Ryan said Monday that he would no longer defend or campaign with Trump. McCain pulled his support completely on Saturday in the wake of the 2005 video. Dozens of other Republican elected officials have gone even further, calling on Trump to leave the race.
“Paul Ryan is focusing the next month on defeating Democrats, and all Republicans running for office should probably do the same,” Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement responding to Trump’s attacks Tuesday.
While Ryan is wagering that turning his attention away from Trump will save many Republican House colleagues, some Trump loyalists are trying to ensure that the plan backfires.
Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson tweeted Monday that she could not keep her mobile phone charged “due to the mass volume of texts from people” who plan to vote for Trump but not other Republicans on the ballot.
Diana Orrock, a Republican National Committeewoman from Nevada, said she is not voting for Republicans who don’t support Trump — including Rep. Joe Heck (Nev.), who is running for a seat that is critical in the battle for the Senate majority.
“We just had part of our Nevada delegation who’s running withdraw their endorsement for Trump and I am going on the record and withdrawing my support for them,” Orrock said on CNBC. “Let the chips fall where they may.”
Some Republicans have agonized over how to deal with Trump during the final weeks of the race. Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), who ran against Trump in the GOP primary and is running for reelection in a key battleground state, issued a statement Tuesday saying he continues to support the nominee, whom he once called a “con man.”
“I disagree with him on many things, but I disagree with his opponent on virtually everything,” Rubio said. “I wish we had better choices for President. But I do not want Hillary Clinton to be our next President. And therefore my position has not changed.”
The sentiment that Trump is far from ideal but is better than the only realistic alternative is one many of his backers are clinging to as justification for maintaining their support.
“You don’t go after somebody who is, as Ronald Reagan would say, your 80 percent friend. What you do is stand with them,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said Tuesday in an interview with Fox Business Network. “And it is not helpful to have this kind of drama going on. What you need to do is say we have a binary choice.”
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You are obviously not very well informed about the LGBT community (among other things). ::)
Yes, I'm sure you think progressive liberals actually care about BLM, LGBT, Poor neighborhoods, etc ::)
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Predictwise has hrc win at 89% now.
http://predictwise.com/politics/2016-president-winner
Sam Wang of the election consortium has her at 97% (bayesian) or 95% (random drift)
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Predictwise has hrc win at 89% now.
http://predictwise.com/politics/2016-president-winner
Sam Wang of the election consortium has her at 97% (bayesian) or 95% (random drift)
what did they have brexit at??
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what did they have brexit at??
I was hoping "all the polls are actually wrong" from 2012 wouldn't be the defense in 2016.
If trump is running for president, things couldn't be going worse.
If trump is running for media empire and his own army of loyal diehard viewers, then things are going spectacularly.
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I was hoping "all the polls are actually wrong" from 2012 wouldn't be the defense in 2016.
If trump is running for president, things couldn't be going worse.
If trump is running for media empire and his own army of loyal diehard viewers, then things are going spectacularly.
Well at least you gave him a thourough answer to his question. ::)
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what did they have brexit at??
I saw an old article that showed it at a dead heat.
Not sure how accurate this is.
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Two Women Say Donald Trump Touched Them Inappropriately
By MEGAN TWOHEY and MICHAEL BARBARO
Donald J. Trump was emphatic in the second presidential debate: Yes, he had boasted about kissing women without permission and grabbing their genitals. But he had never actually done those things, he said.
“No,” he declared under questioning on Sunday evening, “I have not.”
At that moment, sitting at home in Manhattan, Jessica Leeds, 74, felt he was lying to her face. “I wanted to punch the screen,” she said in an interview in her apartment.
More than three decades ago, when she was a traveling businesswoman at a paper company, Ms. Leeds said, she sat beside Mr. Trump in the first-class cabin of a flight to New York. They had never met before.
About 45 minutes after takeoff, she recalled, Mr. Trump lifted the armrest and began to touch her.
According to Ms. Leeds, Mr. Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt.
“He was like an octopus,” she said. “His hands were everywhere.”
She fled to the back of the plane. “It was an assault,” she said.
Ms. Leeds has told the story to at least four people close to her, who also spoke with The New York Times.
Mr. Trump’s claim that his crude words had never turned into actions was similarly infuriating to a woman watching on Sunday night in Ohio: Rachel Crooks.
Ms. Crooks was a 22-year-old receptionist at Bayrock Group, a real estate investment and development company in Trump Tower in Manhattan, when she encountered Mr. Trump outside an elevator in the building one morning in 2005.
Aware that her company did business with Mr. Trump, she turned and introduced herself. They shook hands, but Mr. Trump would not let go, she said. Instead, he began kissing her cheeks. Then, she said, he “kissed me directly on the mouth.”
It didn’t feel like an accident, she said. It felt like a violation.
“It was so inappropriate,” Ms. Crooks recalled in an interview. “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.”
Shaken, Ms. Crooks returned to her desk and immediately called her sister, Brianne Webb, in the small town in Ohio where they grew up, and told her what had happened.
“She was very worked up about it,” said Ms. Webb, who recalled pressing her sister for details. “Being from a town of 1,600 people, being naďve, I was like ‘Are you sure he didn’t just miss trying to kiss you on the cheek?’ She said, ‘No, he kissed me on the mouth.’ I was like, ‘That is not normal.’”
In the days since Mr. Trump’s campaign was jolted by a 2005 recording that caught him bragging about pushing himself on women, he has insisted, as have his aides, that it was simply macho bluster. “It’s just words,” he has said repeatedly.
And his hope for salvaging his candidacy rests heavily on whether voters believe that claim.
They should not, say Ms. Leeds and Ms. Crooks, whose stories have never been made public before. And their accounts echo those of other women who have previously come forward, like Temple Taggart, a former Miss Utah, who said that Mr. Trump kissed her on the mouth more than once when she was a 21-year-old pageant contestant.
In a phone interview on Tuesday night, a highly agitated Mr. Trump denied every one of the women’s claims.
“None of this ever took place,” said Mr. Trump, who began shouting at the Times reporter who was questioning him. He said that The Times was making up the allegations to hurt him and that he would sue the news organization if it reported them.
“You are a disgusting human being,” he told the reporter as she questioned him about the women’s claims.
Asked whether he had ever done any of the kissing or groping that he had described on the recording, Mr. Trump was once again insistent: “I don’t do it. I don’t do it. It was locker room talk.”
But for the women who shared their stories with The Times, the recording was more than that: As upsetting as it was, it offered them a kind of affirmation, they said.
That was the case for Ms. Taggart. Mr. Trump’s description of how he kisses beautiful women without invitation described precisely what he did to her, she said.
“I just start kissing them,” Mr. Trump said on the tape. “It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”
Ms. Crooks and Ms. Leeds never reported their accounts to the authorities, but they both shared what happened to them with friends and family. Ms. Crooks did so immediately afterward; Ms. Leeds described the events to those close to her more recently, as Mr. Trump became more visible politically and ran for president.
Ms. Leeds was 38 at the time and living in Connecticut. She had been seated in coach. But a flight attendant invited her to take an empty seat in first class, she said. That seat was beside Mr. Trump, who did not yet own a fleet of private aircraft, records show. He introduced himself and shook her hand. They exchanged pleasantries, and Mr. Trump asked her if she was married. She was divorced, and told him so.
Later, after their dinner trays were cleared, she said, Mr. Trump raised the armrest, moved toward her and began to grope her. Ms. Leeds said she recoiled. She quickly left the first-class cabin and returned to coach, she said.
“I was angry and shook up,” she recalled, as she sat on a couch in her New York City apartment on Tuesday.
She did not complain to the airline staff at the time, Ms. Leeds said, because such unwanted advances from men occurred throughout her time in business in the 1970s and early 1980s. “We accepted it for years,” she said of the conduct. “We were taught it was our fault.”
She recalled bumping into Mr. Trump at a charity event in New York about two years later, and said he seemed to recall her, insulting her with a crude remark.
She had largely put the encounter on the plane out of her mind until last year, when Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign became more serious. Since then, she has told a widening circle of people, including her son, a nephew and two friends, all of whom were contacted by The Times.
They said they were sickened by what they heard. “It made me shake,” said Linda Ross, a neighbor and friend who spoke with Ms. Leeds about the interaction about six months ago. Like several of Ms. Leeds’s friends, Ms. Ross encouraged her to tell her story to the news media. Ms. Leeds had resisted until Sunday’s debate, which she watched with Ms. Ross.
When Mr. Trump denied having ever sexually assaulted women, in response to a question from Anderson Cooper of CNN, Ms. Ross said she immediately looked at Ms. Leeds in disbelief. “Now we know he lied straight up,” Ms. Ross recalled saying.
In the days after the debate, Ms. Leeds recounted her experience in an email to The Times and a series of interviews.
“His behavior is deep seated in his character,” Ms. Leeds wrote in the message.
“To those who would vote for him,” she added, “I would wish for them to reflect on this.”
For Ms. Crooks, the encounter with Mr. Trump was further complicated by the fact that she worked in his building and risked running into him again.
A few hours after Mr. Trump kissed her, Ms. Crooks returned to her apartment in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn and broke down to her boyfriend at the time, Clint Hackenburg.
“I asked, ‘How was your day?’” Mr. Hackenburg recalled. “She paused for a second, and then started hysterically crying.”
After Ms. Crooks described her experience with Mr. Trump, she and Mr. Hackenburg discussed what to do.
“I think that what was more upsetting than him kissing her was that she felt like she couldn’t do anything to him because of his position,” he said. “She was 22. She was a secretary. It was her first job out of college. I remember her saying, ‘I can’t do anything to this guy, because he’s Donald Trump.’”
Days later, Ms. Crooks said, Mr. Trump, who had recently married Melania, came into the Bayrock office and requested her phone number. When she asked why he needed it, Mr. Trump told her he intended to pass it along to his modeling agency. Ms. Crooks was skeptical, but relented because of Mr. Trump’s influence over her company. She never heard from the modeling agency.
During the rest of her year working at Bayrock, she made a point of ducking out of sight every time Mr. Trump came into view. When Bayrock employees were invited to the Trump Organization Christmas party, she declined, wanting to avoid any other encounters with him.
But the episode stuck with her even after she returned to Ohio, where she now works for a university. When she read a Times article in May about the Republican nominee’s treatment of women, she was struck by Ms. Taggart’s recollection of being kissed on the mouth by Mr. Trump.
“I was upset that it had happened to other people, but also took some comfort in knowing I wasn’t the only one he had done it to,” said Ms. Crooks, who reached out to The Times to share her story.
Both Ms. Leeds and Ms. Crooks say they support Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president, and Ms. Crooks has made contributions of less than $200 to President Obama and Mrs. Clinton.
Ms. Crooks was initially reluctant to go public with her story, but felt compelled to talk about her experience.
“People should know,” she said of Mr. Trump, “this behavior is pervasive and it is real.”
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So one of the alleged incidents is claimed to have happened in 1980... Did this woman (and the others) report the assault to authorities? Were there other witnesses? Not that Trump would be above doing these things but the timing is suspect and it's a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation for Trump: if he ignores these allegations, he is presumed guilty. If he denies them, he is still presumed guilty. If he sues these women he will be criticized for trying to silence his alleged victims.
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It doesn't matter. At this point, because of Wikileaks, the media has been exposed as illegitimate. Between consulting Hillary before publishing editorials about her, to feeding her debate questions beforehand, the Liberal is to believed as much as the Pravda in the old Soviet Union.
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Yes, I'm sure you think progressive liberals actually care about BLM, LGBT, Poor neighborhoods, etc ::)
One thing you've made clear is that you don't care about (marginalized) folks.
Your comment brings to mind that politicians and their machines are all about getting elected. It matters not whether we're talking about republicans or democrats...they are almost without exception pandering and slimy people who will do or say anything to get themselves elected.
You may believe that there is a choice which will actually radically change all that is screwed up about our government, but you are wrong. You can vote for Trump or vote for Clinton, either choice will end up a being a huge disappointment. "Camelot" came and went. It is unlikely we will see the likes of it anytime soon....mainly because we are not as gullible and naďve as we once were.
Regardless of the above, you must vote (weigh in) on this election. To do otherwise, only further diminishes democracy, which weakens the little remaining power of the masses.
Let's face it, most of the populace in the U.S. will still be fucked! Sorry for the sad observation.
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One thing you've made clear is that you don't care about (marginalized) folks.
Your comment brings to mind that politicians and their machines are all about getting elected. It matters not whether we're talking about republicans or democrats...they are almost without exception pandering and slimy people who will do or say anything to get themselves elected.
You may believe that there is a choice which will actually radically change all that is screwed up about our government, but you are wrong. You can vote for Trump or vote for Clinton, either choice will end up a being a huge disappointment. "Camelot" came and went. It is unlikely we will see the likes of it anytime soon....mainly because we are not as gullible and naďve as we once were.
Regardless of the above, you must vote (weigh in) on this election. To do otherwise, only further diminishes democracy, which weakens the little remaining power of the masses.
Let's face it, most of the populace in the U.S. will still be fucked! Sorry for the sad observation.
Some! You are ALL fucked if Hillary gets into power.
Her dream is open boarders FFS! Millions of people from the 3rd world will pour into your country. Look at were these people come from...WHEN YOU BRING THE 3RD WORLD TO THE 1ST WORLD, YOU DON'T GET THE 1ST WORLD - YOU GET THE 3RD WORLD...Americans are right on the edge of losing it all, your freedom, EVERYTHING.
Right now the US is one election away from becoming a banana republic.
Trump maybe a bitter pill for some, but He's your ONLY choice, so suck it up! Because Hillary is a suicide pill for your civilization as you know it.
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Some! You are ALL fucked if Hillary gets into power.
Her dream is open boarders FFS! Millions of people from the 3rd world will pour into your country. Look at were these people come from...WHEN YOU BRING THE 3RD WORLD TO THE 1ST WORLD, YOU DON'T GET THE 1ST WORLD - YOU GET THE 3RD WORLD...Americans are right on the edge of losing it all, your freedom, EVERYTHING.
Right now the US is one election away from becoming a banana republic.
Trump maybe a bitter pill for some, but He's your ONLY choice, so suck it up! Because Hillary is a suicide pill for your civilization as you know it.
amen
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So one of the alleged incidents is claimed to have happened in 1980... Did this woman (and the others) report the assault to authorities? Were there other witnesses? Not that Trump would be above doing these things but the timing is suspect and it's a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation for Trump: if he ignores these allegations, he is presumed guilty. If he denies them, he is still presumed guilty. If he sues these women he will be criticized for trying to silence his alleged victims.
There is nothing "suspect" about the timing. In fact, it is perfectly logical. He has bragged about his ability to prey on women in an audio tape the entire country has heard. When confronted in public, he walks it back and says it was just "talk" and at the debate he flatly denied ever having done anything like that. Several women on the receiving end of his behavior heard the denial and decided to come forward. It is a logical progression of events. Your inability to connect those dots does not speak well of your ability to read simple fact patterns. ::)
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U-Va. College Republicans rescind support for Trump
By T. Rees Shapiro
The University of Virginia College Republicans have voted to rescind the club’s endorsement of Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump following the public release of remarks he made about women in a 2005 video.
The club voted 65 to 54 to drop its support for the candidate after a video published by The Washington Post showed Trump having an extremely lewd conversation about women. The group’s vote to remove its endorsement came after what was initially a contentious decision to support Trump, but the students wrote in a statement that they were compelled to reconsider after seeing Trump’s comments and after numerous high-profile party leaders abandoned his candidacy.
“The only message we wish to convey is that as a club, as the primary Republican organization on Grounds, we do not feel Donald Trump accurately represents the way we view and conduct ourselves,” the group’s executive board wrote in a statement, referring to U-Va.’s campus in Charlottesville.
A number of college Republican groups are reconsidering their stances on Trump. On Sunday, the chairman of the college Republican group at the all-male Hampden-Sydney College in southwest Virginia wrote a statement on Facebook indicating he planned to write in Trump’s running mate Mike Pence for president.
“In light of recent events, it seems to me he has gone from simply being an embarrassment to our party, to a potentially permanent stain on our brand and our country,” Tanner Beck wrote. “His rhetoric has gone from distasteful, to downright scary. His comments on women should infuriate anyone who has a mother or daughter. His temperament and disregard for women and minorities simply makes him unfit to hold the highest office of our land. He does not embody the values of our great nation, and for that reason, I join many others in asking Mr. Trump to step down.”
And the Harvard Republican Club declined to endorse the top GOP nominee for the first time since 1888, releasing a statement on Facebook in August saying it is “ashamed” of Trump and calling him a “threat to the survival” of the United States. Since it was posted Aug. 4, it has gotten 189,000 reactions on Facebook, more than 133,000 shares and nearly 17,000 comments. The Yale College Republicans endorsed Trump in August and told the Yale Daily News this week, after the video surfaced, that the group continues to endorse him.
Joanna Ro, a U-Va. senior studying psychology, became involved in politics in 2012 after working with the Republican ticket that included Mitt Romney and Paul D. Ryan. She said that once she was elected to become chairman of the college Republicans group on campus she got an up close look at how divisive politics can be.
“I guess it’s hard when your club is so split down the middle that with every decision we make we’re trying to represent the club as best we can and make not everyone happy but most of our club members happy,” Ro said. “But that is proving impossible. It’s like no matter what we do someone is criticizing us, and that’s definitely been hard.”
Ro said the decision to revoke the group’s endorsement of Trump has shown the divisiveness of his candidacy.
“It’s definitely been a rough ride,” Ro said. “This election has definitely brought out the worst in a lot of people.”
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Some! You are ALL fucked if Hillary gets into power.
Her dream is open boarders FFS! Millions of people from the 3rd world will pour into your country. Look at were these people come from...WHEN YOU BRING THE 3RD WORLD TO THE 1ST WORLD, YOU DON'T GET THE 1ST WORLD - YOU GET THE 3RD WORLD...Americans are right on the edge of losing it all, your freedom, EVERYTHING.
Right now the US is one election away from becoming a banana republic.
Trump maybe a bitter pill for some, but He's your ONLY choice, so suck it up! Because Hillary is a suicide pill for your civilization as you know it.
You scared little pussy. Are you not armed? 'Nuff said.
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If some "3rd world illegal" rolls up on you and commits a heinous act, you have the constitutional right to defend yourself. What are you worried about, man?
Besides, you are parroting fringe right winger talking points. Stop listening to that crap.
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Liberty University students protest association with Trump
By T. Rees Shapiro and Sarah Pulliam Bailey
Students at Liberty University have issued a statement against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as young conservatives at colleges across the state reconsider support for his campaign.
A statement issued late Wednesday by the group Liberty United Against Trump strongly rebuked the candidate as well as the school’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., for defending Trump after he made extremely lewd comments about women in a 2005 video. The students wrote that Falwell’s support for Trump had cast a stain on the school’s reputation.
“We are Liberty students who are disappointed with President Falwell’s endorsement and are tired of being associated with one of the worst presidential candidates in American history,” the statement said. “Donald Trump does not represent our values and we want nothing to do with him. … He has made his name by maligning others and bragging about his sins. Not only is Donald Trump a bad candidate for president, he is actively promoting the very things that we as Christians ought to oppose.”
The Liberty University student manifesto against Trump comes as college Republican groups across the country reconsider support for the candidate. On Tuesday the University of Virginia College Republicans announced that the group voted to rescind its endorsement of his candidacy for president. The chairman of the College Republicans at Hampden-Sydney College, Tanner Beck, posted a statement on Facebook noting that Trump “has gone from simply being an embarrassment to our party, to a potentially permanent stain on our brand and our country.”
Liberty was founded in Lynchburg, Va., by evangelical pastor Jerry Falwell Sr., whose sermons gave rise to a prominent conservative political movement, the Moral Majority. The small college Falwell created in 1971 has become an epicenter of evangelical Christian education in America and one of the largest universities by enrollment in the country.
The campus has also become a regular stop for politicians on the campaign trail. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) began his run for the presidency at Liberty. Trump gave a convocation address in front of the student body in January. A week afterward, Falwell Jr., endorsed Trump. In the months since, Falwell has vigorously defended his decision to support the Republican candidate.
“Jesus said ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged.'” Falwell wrote in an essay for The Post. “Let’s stop trying to choose the political leaders who we believe are the most godly because, in reality, only God knows people’s hearts. You and I don’t, and we are all sinners.”
The students at Liberty University wrote that they felt compelled to speak out in light of Falwell’s steadfast support for Trump even after the candidate’s comments about women and sexual assault.
“Because our president has led the world to believe that Liberty University supports Donald Trump, we students must take it upon ourselves to make clear that Donald Trump is absolutely opposed to what we believe, and does not have our support,” the Liberty students wrote. “We are not proclaiming our opposition to Donald Trump out of bitterness, but out of a desire to regain the integrity of our school.”
Falwell wrote a statement criticizing the student effort against Trump.
“I am proud of these few students for speaking their minds but I’m afraid the statement is incoherent and false,” Falwell wrote. “I am not ‘touring the country’ or associating Liberty University with any candidate. I am only fulfilling my obligation as a citizen to ‘render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s’ by expressing my personal opinion about who I believe is best suited to lead our nation in a time of crisis. This student statement seems to ignore the teachings of Jesus not to judge others but they are young and still learning.”
Dustin Wahl, a junior at Liberty, told The Post that he wrote the Liberty United Against Trump statement and said that more than 250 students, alumni and faculty have left signatures of support. Wahl said that some students have been frustrated with Falwell for a while and that the publication of Trump’s remarks from the 2005 video became a tipping point.
“Since the most recent sexual assault thing, we realized this is a time we can all get behind this and say ‘enough is enough.’ We do not support our president in his endorsement of Trump and we want the world to know because he’s giving Liberty University a bad name,” Wahl said. “It makes it seem like we’re about populist politics when we’re about the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is about gaining the integrity of our school. This is an effort to say Liberty is not Trump university.”
During the Republican primary, Trump won only about 8 percent of the vote in Liberty’s voting precinct, while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) won 44 percent and Cruz won 33 percent.
Wahl said that he attended the convocation on campus Wednesday which included an appearance by Trump’s running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Wahl said that very few students clapped when Pence spoke of Trump.
“It was pretty pitiful, Wahl said. “People associate our degree with the worst presidential candidate in modern history.”
Other college Republican groups in Virginia have had to carefully examine Trump’s candidacy.
Rachel Moss, a junior who is a member of the JMU college Republicans who also serves as communication director for the College Republican Federation of Virginia, said that “some students support Trump, some support Clinton, and others have recently withdrew support of Trump in light of the leaked audio tape.”
Moss said that instead the College Republican Federation of Virginia is encouraging college students to focus on congressional races “in order to engage as many students in the campaigning process as possible, since multiple chapters have publicly not endorsed Trump. We wanted to be respectful towards those chapters and members who do not support Trump, as well those who do by encouraging members to campaign for their congressmen.”
At Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., the college Republicans did not officially endorse Trump because the group “exists for the betterment of the Republican Party as a whole, not select Republican candidates,” said Caroline Bones, chair of the club.
Bones noted that “like the larger Republican Party, there is room for disagreements within our membership. We fully recognize that not every Republican supports Mr. Trump. We are not going to cast out those members of the organization. The goals of of our club and the Republican Party as a whole extend far beyond the 2016 presidential race.”
At Virginia Tech, the college Republicans did not formally endorse Trump but wrote in a statement to The Post that as a “partisan, Republican organization, our organization does support the Republican nominee for President.”
Elsewhere in the state, support for Trump on campus is unwavering.
John Rackoski, vice president of communication for the Virginia Commonwealth University college Republicans chapter, said that the group recently voted once again to “unanimously and emphatically” endorse Trump.
Rackoski said that “we are obviously disgusted by the nature” of what Trump said in the tape but that it “is no worse than the language we hear used in public on campus on a daily basis, from both men and women” and that “a firestorm has erupted over Trump’s dirty jokes told in private to other men over 11 years ago, which hurt no one.”
Rackoski said that elected Republicans who disavowed Trump after the lewd comments “were never behind him to begin with, and are engaging in the same political opportunism in disavowing him now that they did by endorsing Trump when his popularity was rising- it is all for show, calculated to help themselves politically, with no regard for the importance of this presidential election to the future direction of our country.”
The students at Liberty University ended their statement by noting that “while everyone is a sinner and everyone can be forgiven, a man who constantly and proudly speaks evil does not deserve our support for the nation’s highest office.”
The statement concluded: “We want the world to know how many students oppose him. We don’t want to champion Donald Trump; we want only to be champions for Christ.”
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If some "3rd world illegal" rolls up on you and commits a heinous act, you have the constitutional right to defend yourself. What are you worried about, man?
Besides, you are parroting fringe right winger talking points. Stop listening to that crap.
My sister is American so I all I worry about is her. Plus the USA is a great country as it is.
Me, I'm currently "living the dream" in a 3rd world shit hole South Africa right now...all I'm saying is you do not want your country to go down the toilet like it has here...and you're kidding yourself if you think it can't happen there.
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Some! You are ALL fucked if Hillary gets into power.
Her dream is open boarders FFS! Millions of people from the 3rd world will pour into your country. Look at were these people come from...WHEN YOU BRING THE 3RD WORLD TO THE 1ST WORLD, YOU DON'T GET THE 1ST WORLD - YOU GET THE 3RD WORLD...Americans are right on the edge of losing it all, your freedom, EVERYTHING.
Right now the US is one election away from becoming a banana republic.
Trump maybe a bitter pill for some, but He's your ONLY choice, so suck it up! Because Hillary is a suicide pill for your civilization as you know it.
You get it.
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Some! You are ALL fucked if Hillary gets into power.
Her dream is open boarders FFS! Millions of people from the 3rd world will pour into your country. Look at were these people come from...WHEN YOU BRING THE 3RD WORLD TO THE 1ST WORLD, YOU DON'T GET THE 1ST WORLD - YOU GET THE 3RD WORLD...Americans are right on the edge of losing it all, your freedom, EVERYTHING.
Right now the US is one election away from becoming a banana republic.
Trump maybe a bitter pill for some, but He's your ONLY choice, so suck it up! Because Hillary is a suicide pill for your civilization as you know it.
THIS!
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How Donald Trump’s and his campaign’s own words are coming back to bite them
By Aaron Blake
Four days ago, Donald Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway implored supporters to retweet her if they agreed that victims of sexual assault should be believed.
She was making a point about Hillary Clinton — using Clinton's own tweet from months ago and suggesting Clinton was being hypocritical by not supporting Bill Clinton's accusers. But Conway clearly seemed to come down on the side of believing accusers. She even highlighted Clinton's use of the word “every” in a tweet: "Every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported."
Today, Conway and the Trump campaign are faced with arguing that not every sexual assault accuser should be believed — specifically, the growing number of Trump's accusers. They were hit with new allegations on Wednesday night, including from two women who spoke on the record to the New York Times, one who spoke to the Palm Beach Post and a first-person account by a writer for People magazine.
And the Conway tweet wasn't the only thing the Trump campaign has said that makes its defense harder today.
In its response to the New York Times story — more details on all the accusations are here — the campaign stressed how old the alleged encounters were. One of them was more than three decades ago on an airplane, while the other was in 2003.
“To reach back decades in an attempt to smear Mr. Trump trivializes sexual assault, and it sets a new low for where the media is willing to go in its efforts to determine this election,” Trump spokesman Jason Miller said.
Top Trump backer Newt Gingrich suggested much the same on Thursday morning:
Newt Gingrich: "The New York Times goes back over 30 years to find somebody who had a bad airplane flight..."
Except ... the Trump campaign has in recent days begun pushing hard on the idea that other decades-old allegations — against Bill Clinton — are very salient to this campaign. And at Sunday's debate, Trump played up Hillary Clinton's defense of an accused child rapist in 1975 and her comments about it in the 1980s.
Finally — and perhaps most damningly, politically speaking — the new allegations sound strikingly similar to the behavior that Trump himself described on that 2005 “Access Hollywood” video that The Washington Post surfaced on Friday and which he now is arguing was just bluster. Some of them also line up with things he said while talking to Howard Stern.
In the “Access Hollywood” video, Trump brags about being able to go up to women and just start kissing them and even groping them.
“I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” Trump said on the tape. “Grab ’em by the p---y. You can do anything.”
People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff, in her piece about Trump allegedly forcing himself upon her in 2005, suggests that's essentially what happened to her:
We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat.
Rachel Crooks told the Times a similar story:
They shook hands, but Mr. Trump would not let go, she said. Instead, he began kissing her cheeks. Then, she said, he “kissed me directly on the mouth.”
It didn’t feel like an accident, she said. It felt like a violation.
“It was so inappropriate,” Ms. Crooks recalled in an interview. “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.”
And Jessica Leeds, who told the Times about her alleged airplane encounter with Trump, describes a sudden and surprising assault:
About 45 minutes after takeoff, she recalled, Mr. Trump lifted the armrest and began to touch her.
According to Ms. Leeds, Mr. Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt.
“He was like an octopus,” she said. “His hands were everywhere.”
One of the other allegations this week comes from Tasha Dixon, a former Miss Arizona, who has said in multiple interviews that Trump strolled into the contestant's dressing area even when they were naked — a claim echoed to BuzzFeed by contestants in the Miss Teen USA competition, where competitors are younger than 18 years old.
Trump's own comments on Stern's show, as reported by CNN over the weekend, show him copping to that very same type of behavior at his beauty pageants.
“I’ll go backstage before a show, and everyone’s getting dressed and ready and everything else,” he said, per CNN. “And you know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore I’m inspecting it. ‘Is everyone okay?’ You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible-looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.”
Trump has played off his lewd comments as “locker room talk” and claimed he hadn't actually engaged in the kinds of behaviors he talked about on the “Access Hollywood” tape, but the allegations made by these women sound a whole lot like what he was describing.
And when you combine that with how the campaign has pressed its case on allegations made against the Clintons — both by saying accusers should be believed and that decades-old misdeeds matter — it becomes much harder to set up a convincing political defense.
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Trump called himself a sexual predator. Kinda creepy, especially after he was in there with naked 15 year old girls. Sick.
WATCH: When Howard Stern Joked About Trump Being a Sexual Predator in 2006, He Said ‘It’s True’
Source: Mediaite
Today, Donald Trump gave a speech in West Palm Beach and in it, he insisted that allegations that he has groped and sexually assaulted women are baseless and untrue.
In a 2006 interview with Howard Stern, as his daughter Ivanka Trump, sat next to him, he laughed when he was called a “sexual predator.”
“It’s true,” he said.
-snip-
On that same show, he once gave Stern permission to refer to Ivanka as “a piece of ass.”
Read more: http://www.mediaite.com/online/watch-when-howard-stern-accused-trump-of-being-a-sexual-predator-in-2006-he-said-its-true/
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Surrogates explaining away Trump’s sexual behavior only seem to make things worse
By Katie Zezima
Waves of aides and surrogates have fanned out in recent days to defend Donald Trump after the release of a video in which he brags about forcing himself on women and subsequent allegations that he groped or kissed multiple women without their consent.
But in trying to justify or dismiss the reports, many of Trump’s defenders only seem to be making the situation worse.
Trump’s top supporters, many of them middle-aged or older men, have tried to explain away Trump’s behavior in terms that range from puzzling to offensive — angering people in both parties and complicating the Republican nominee’s attempts to move past the controversies.
Trump and his surrogates have brushed off his crude remarks about sexual assault on the 2005 videotape as “locker room” banter, infuriating many who say it is not how most men actually speak to one another. Some, including former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, have described Trump’s comments on the video as typical male behavior in general.
Others are also attempting to discredit the women accusing Trump of assault.
“The New York Times goes back over 30 years to find somebody who had a bad airplane flight,” said former House speaker Newt Gingrich, referring to a woman who alleges that Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt on a flight around 1980 when she was 38.
And some of Trump’s male supporters seem more than willing to lecture women on how they should put up with sexist talk.
“Ladies out there, this is what guys talk about when you’re not around. So if you're offended by it, grow up. Okay?” actor Scott Baio said on Fox News.
Baio added: “And by the way, this is what you guys talk about over white wine when you have your brunches. So take it easy with your phony outrage.”
On the tape, which was released by The Washington Post on Friday, Trump tells “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush he could grab women “by the p---y” because he is a “star” and bragged about trying to have sex with a married woman. Campaigning Tuesday in Colorado, Trump’s son Eric said conversations like that are “what happens when alpha personalities are in the same presence.” Eric Trump also said his father’s behavior wasn’t right and does not reflect his true personality.
Trump’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment about its surrogates.
Some Trump defenders, including Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), have said that Trump’s comments on the video do not describe assault.
“I don’t characterize that as sexual assault. I think that’s a stretch,” Sessions, a former Alabama attorney general, told the Weekly Standard.
Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer, when asked if Trump’s declaration described sexual assault, said: “I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer.”
On Tuesday, Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.) suggested he might still support Trump if the Republican nominee said he liked raping women; he quickly apologized.
Jerry Falwell Jr., a lawyer and chancellor of Liberty University, said he would still vote for Trump even if the allegations against him are true. He and others instead went after the New York Times, calling it biased against Trump. Liberty students are now protesting their school’s association with Trump.
The candidate’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said on WBT radio Thursday that he believes most Americans brushed off his father’s comments on the tape because they have said similar things.
“I’ve had conversations like that with plenty of people where people use language off color. They’re talking two guys among themselves ,” Trump Jr. said. “I think it makes him a human. I think it makes him a normal person, not a political robot.”
These varied attempts at defending Donald Trump have angered some Republicans, particularly many women.
“Jeff Sessions says that he wouldn’t ‘characterize’ Trump’s unauthorized groping of women as ‘assault.’ Are you kidding me?!” tweeted Wisconsin conservative activist Marybeth Glenn in declaring that she was leaving the Republican Party. “I’m sooo done. If you can’t stand up for women & unendorse this piece of human garbage, you deserve every charge of sexism thrown at you.”
In an impassioned speech at a Thursday rally for Clinton, first lady Michelle Obama said she has been shaken by Trump’s comments.
“This was not just a lewd conversation,” she said. “It was not just locker room banter. This was a powerful individual talking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior.”
One theme that has emerged from Trump’s surrogates over and over again is the contention that men routinely talk in boorish terms about women — and shock that many others do not agree. Giuliani and CNN host Jake Tapper, for example, got into a heated exchange this week when Tapper said he had been in many locker rooms and a fraternity, but had never heard a man talk like Trump on the tape.
Retired neurosurgeon and Trump backer Ben Carson said this week that when he was growing up, men were constantly boasting about their sexual exploits.
“I’m surprised you haven’t heard that, I really am,” Carson said to host Brianna Keilar.
“I haven’t heard it, and I know a lot of people who have not heard it,” Keilar said to Carson.
“Well maybe that’s the problem. Maybe that’s the problem,” Carson said.
The real problem, according to Republican strategist Katie Packer, is that Trump’s supporters do not grasp the reality that millions of women have been sexually assaulted or harassed and that it should not be taken lightly.
“I just think that these guys don’t get it, so they should quit talking about it,” Packer said. “For women in our party and decent men in our party, it’s an affront.”
Some of Trump’s female supporters have also taken up the cause of defending his behavior. Former New York lieutenant governor Betsy McCaughey tried to compare Trump’s comments on the “Access Hollywood” video to lyrics sung by Beyoncé, an artist Hillary Clinton admires.
On CNN earlier this week, Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes said Trump’s remarks were appropriate in a culture where the erotic novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” sold millions of copies and the movie “Magic Mike” about male strippers was successful. Republican strategist Ana Navarro, who opposes Trump, scoffed at the comparison.
“To compare running for president to an erotic film or an erotic movie, an erotic novel, it’s crazy,” Navarro responded. “If he wants to be held to that standard, great. Then go write ‘The Art of the Groping.’”
Others have taken umbrage at the idea that men in locker rooms talk about grabbing women without their consent.
“Just for reference. I work in a locker room (every day). . . That is not locker room talk. Just so you know,” tweeted Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Chris Conley.
Trump’s top evangelical supporters have stood by him during the tape fallout. They include Falwell, Faith and Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, who said his support of Trump has never been based on shared values.
Their defense of Trump has caused some Christian women to denounce both the Republican nominee and his evangelical supporters.
“Try to absorb how acceptable the disesteem and objectifying of women has been when some Christian leaders don’t think it’s that big a deal,” tweeted Beth Moore, an evangelist who said that she was one of many women who had been “sexually abused, misused, stared down, heckled, talked naughty to. Like we liked it. We didn’t. We’re tired of it.”
Katelyn Beaty, editor at large of Christianity Today, said it signals a divide between the leaders of evangelicalism and those in the pews, and a failure to take the experience of women in the pews into account. Many evangelical Christians have been leery of Trump, a thrice-married, brash-talking New Yorker.
Now, with fallout from the tape plunging the Republican Party into an unprecedented crisis, Packer said she does not understand why certain people are being allowed to defend it publicly.
“I don’t know where they get these surrogates from,” Packer said. “They have better people than this.”
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‘They’re Lies’: Melania Trump Rejects Women’s Claims That Husband Groped Them
By MAGGIE HABERMAN and ASHLEY PARKER
Melania Trump, who has been all but invisible as her husband confronts a campaign crisis over allegations that he sexually assaulted women, emerged on Monday to forcefully defend him and question the honesty of the women making the accusations.
Ms. Trump, in an extensive interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, said the women who had accused Donald J. Trump of groping and kissing them were lying, and likened her husband to a teenage boy who engages in macho boasting.
She echoed her husband’s complaint that he was the victim of a broad conspiracy between the news media and the Clinton campaign.
“I believe my husband, I believe my husband — it was all organized from the opposition,” Ms. Trump said. “They can never check the background of these women. They don’t have any facts.”
Her appearance comes as Mr. Trump and his aides grapple with the worst stretch of the campaign so far, after the airing 10 days ago of an “Access Hollywood” recording from 2005 that captured Mr. Trump bragging to the host Billy Bush that he kisses women without invitation and that he can grab women’s genitals because he is a “star.”
Ms. Trump, 46, called the exchange between Mr. Trump and Mr. Bush “boy talk,” and said Mr. Trump had been “egged on” by the host “to say dirty and bad stuff.”
But she stressed that she believed that Mr. Trump was simply being boastful and did not engage in the behavior he described.
“Sometimes I say I have two boys at home: I have my young son, and I have my husband,” she said with a slight laugh. “But I know how some men talk, and that’s how I saw it, yes.”
Mr. Trump’s aides have been eager for his wife to make a public show of support for him, especially after the “Access Hollywood” recording dominated several media cycles and drove some Republican elected officials to abandon his candidacy.
A week ago, Mr. Trump’s adult children, along with aides to his campaign, urged Ms. Trump to agree to a sit-down interview with her husband, an echo of the “60 Minutes” interview that Bill and Hillary Clinton did in 1992 after sexual infidelity allegations arose against Mr. Clinton. That appearance helped stabilize Mr. Clinton’s presidential campaign.
But Ms. Trump had little interest in it, and the idea died.
Ms. Trump has never enjoyed the political stage, and was stung by media coverage in July, when it was revealed that her anticipated Republican National Convention speech borrowed lines from Michelle Obama’s 2008 address to the Democratic National Convention. She has been absent from the campaign trail since, save for brief appearances at the first two general election debates, and has been spending time with the couple’s young son, Barron.
She put out a written statement of support for her husband after the tape surfaced. But with Mr. Trump’s favorability among women perilously low, his advisers wanted Ms. Trump to do more.
Seated in the family’s penthouse atop Trump Tower, Ms. Trump seemed occasionally ill at ease but determined to convey several points: that her husband is a gentleman, that the media is out to get him and that she is staying strong despite the ugliness. She showed an ability to remain on message that her husband sometimes lacks.
“I watched TV hour after hour bashing him,” Ms. Trump said of the television coverage the weekend the 11-year-old recording was first revealed.
She said her husband was defending himself against the accusations because “they’re lies.”
She also said her husband was approached by many women who were sexually forward with him.
“I see many, many women coming to him and giving the phone numbers and, you know, want to work for him or inappropriate stuff from women,” she said. “And they know he’s married.”
Ms. Trump steadily answered most of Mr. Cooper’s polite but probing questions, though she suggested that some information she would keep private, including the details of the conversation the couple had after the tape came out.
She also taped an interview for “Fox and Friends” that will appear Tuesday morning.
Mr. Trump has vehemently denied the claims of his accusers, calling them elements of a conspiracy led partly by news media outlets, particularly CNN and The New York Times. Yet despite Mr. Trump’s criticism of CNN and its reporting, and even as some of his supporters at a rally on Monday used an anti-CNN chant, Ms. Trump still selected Mr. Cooper to interview her.
Asked on Fox whether it was fair for her husband to bring up Mr. Clinton’s past, Ms. Trump said, “Well, if they bring up my past, why not?” She was alluding to a television ad run during the Republican Party’s nominating fight that featured a nude photo spread from Ms. Trump’s days as a model.
Speaking to Mr. Cooper, Ms. Trump repeatedly denounced what she saw as the meanness and inaccuracy of media accounts about her, and she said she would like to work to protect children from the toxic dangers of negativity and anger on social media.
She has withdrawn from her own social media accounts, Ms. Trump said, rarely posting during the campaign. “I see the negativity, and it’s not healthy,” she said.
But when asked whether she has advised the same to her husband, a frequent Twitter user who often attacks others on his feed, she replied, “That’s his decision. He’s an adult.”
“I give him many advices, but sometimes he listens, sometimes he doesn’t, and he will do what he wants to do at the end, and I will do what I want to do,” she said.
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Trump has a strong start in the debate — and then a killer mistake
By Dan Balz
LAS VEGAS — When the final presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump started, it seemed as if it might be the best of the three and certainly Trump’s best. By the end, it was the story of Trump in Campaign 2016 in microcosm, a series of angry exchanges, interruptions, insults that served to undercut the good he might have accomplished earlier.
In the opening minutes on Wednesday night, Trump seemed a different candidate from the Trump of the first two debates and the unshackled Trump on the campaign trail. He was more subdued, more focused on policy and substance, effective in making the case for himself and against his opponent. He appeared to have disciplined his worst instincts.
But that was only for a time. Then he became the campaign trail Trump, irritable when criticized, unwilling to accept the assessment of the intelligence community about Russian interference in the election, denying the accusations of nine women who said he had groped or kissed them against their will, and repeatedly lashing out at his rival.
Finally, it was the Trump who in the past few days has railed against a rigged election system. Asked directly by moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News whether, if he lost, he would accept the outcome of the election as legitimate, he hedged. He would decide at the time, he would “keep you in suspense.” It was, as Wallace suggested, an unprecedented departure in the history of the country. It was also a major mistake. Yet Trump seemed not to care at all.
In that sense, this final debate was what everyone expected, a repetition of what has come before. The likelihood is that it will do little to alter the trajectory of the campaign and that leaves Trump in a perilous position.
Clinton came to the last debate leading in the polls and looking to expand the electoral map. Yet the 90-minute forum was no cakewalk for her. She not only took fire from Trump, she took tough questions from Wallace on issues that had been treated lightly in the first two debates.
In some ways, when the focus was on the issues, whether abortion or immigration or taxes and spending, the debate might have been judged as the most even of the three. Certainly partisans on each side no doubt saw a decisive performance by their candidate.
It was remarkable how the two could carry on serious debate about some issues — what to do in the Middle East, the state of the Affordable Care Act — and then be so personal in their attacks almost with the next breath, as when Trump, near the end, uttered “such a nasty woman” as Clinton was talking about Obamacare.
Clinton could afford to play mostly to her constituency, given the state of the race. Trump needed to do more than make those in his coalition who most dislike Clinton cheer his attacks. But as he has repeatedly in the campaign, Trump managed to undermine his best moments with his worst, likely leaving him short of his goal — if it was his goal — to bring new voters to his side.
Through the course of the debates, Clinton has expanded her lead over Trump. Her margin in national polls has increased from about three points just before the first debate to an average of about seven points at the time the candidates took the stage Wednesday night on the campus of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. The same has happened to her advantage in the electoral college, to the point that Trump has no easy or obvious path to the 270 votes needed to win the election, short of a dramatic turnaround.
Polls and projections on the eve of Wednesday’s debate consistently estimated Clinton with enough states in her column to put her well over 270. Equally concerning for Trump is the fact that the remaining competitive states, in addition to predictable swing states that have consistently been battlegrounds in recent elections, include a handful of traditional Republican strongholds.
Arizona appears the most attractive target for Clinton among those red states. The Clinton campaign will send first lady Michelle Obama to Arizona on Thursday in an effort to take that state away from Trump. Georgia also appears competitive, though perhaps harder than Arizona for the Democrats.
Then there are Texas and Utah. Texas will be exceedingly difficult for Clinton to win, but three recent polls surprisingly put Trump’s margin in low single digits there. And then there is Utah, where Trump’s bombast has turned off voters and independent Evan McMullin’s candidacy scrambles the state of play.
Jim Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, made a telling observation during a panel discussion here on Tuesday night, pointing out the degree to which this campaign threatens to shatter the GOP’s southern block of states and create an almost solid blue line up and down the East Coast.
Messina noted that almost the entire Eastern Seaboard, from Maine to Florida, could end up in her column on Nov. 8, particularly if Clinton were able to widen her current lead. South Carolina is the one exception, still presumably for Trump. Other Southern coastal states — Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida — are either in play or already tilting strongly toward the former secretary of state.
That’s not to say all this will come to pass, only that at this point that Trump has managed to squander — through self-inflicted wounds — whatever assets he seemed to have before his latest descent began. He has run an undisciplined campaign, replete with wild charges, the promotion of conspiracy theories and fights with members of his own party. He did so again Wednesday night.
His travel schedule suggests either that there is no electoral map strategy inside his campaign or that Trump has overridden the advice of his advisers. He was in Colorado on Tuesday, rather than Arizona. He was recently in Wisconsin, which looks out of reach at this point. He will be in Ohio and Florida and North Carolina over the next few days, but also plans a stop in Virginia, despite no objective evidence that he has much chance there.
The debates have brought to a close an important chapter in the campaign. Trump and Clinton will continue to take aim at one another on the campaign trail, but the window for persuading voters is closing quickly. With voting now underway in a series of states and with more states to begin soon, the focus will increasingly shift to the more granular competition of turning out every vote.
Here too, Trump’s campaign is at a huge disadvantage, dependent either on the candidate’s ability to rouse organically a silent army of voters who have stayed on the sidelines in recent elections and will materialize at the polls this year or, more realistically, on relying on efforts by the Republican National Committee to function as his get-out-the-vote operation.
All of that may be immaterial to Trump. He will chart whatever course he chooses during the final 19 days, as he has done since he first announced his candidacy, as he did again in the final debate. But this election remains Clinton’s to lose and Trump hasn’t found a way to change that equation.
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Trump’s inner circle knows he has lost
By Jennifer Rubin
Hillary Clinton is going to win comfortably. The suspense on election night will be over which red states fall into Clinton’s lap and whether the GOP loses its Senate majority. Pundits, elected officials, activists, pollsters, the media and donors know it. The voters, by increasingly enormous margins, say Donald Trump is going to lose. (In this week’s CBS poll, 63 percent think Clinton will win.)
Even some of the people closest to Trump know the handwriting is on the world. Donald Trump Jr. (whose own obnoxious tweets, jokes and comments suggest he doesn’t have a political future, either) is already making excuses. Running for president, the Trump scion proclaimed, is a “step down” for his father. You do wonder why he is running, then. (Given all we now know about his business acumen, the lawsuits, the income in certain discrete years, his perch isn’t all that high.) In any event, it’s just a glaring rationalization, a pathetic attempt to tell everyone that even if Trump loses he wins.
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway has virtually checked out. She even went so far as to retweet The Post’s Bob Costa’s suggestion that “Bad hombres = Trump being Trump, Trump’s other answers = Conway-esque.” Usually, but not always, campaign staffers wait until after Election Day to throw their candidate under the bus and try to distance themselves from the wreckage. (A big exception was staffers on Sen. John McCain’s team, who started trashing Sarah Palin before Election Day in 2008.)
One of Trump’s most loyal flunkies, retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, could not even muster up the energy to defend Trump’s refusal to concede the election. Reports Slate’s Jeremy Stahl:
How to spin the possibility of Donald Trump refusing to accept the outcome of the election? “Who are you?” demanded Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, Trump’s military adviser who had once been considered a possible running mate. We were in the spin room after Wednesday’s presidential debate, and I’d asked if he thought Trump should say he would abide by the results of the vote. “Who are you?” he asked again. When I told him, he continued to walk away without answering the question.
Flynn later insisted that Trump would accept the results, directly contradicting Trump.
And you know it’s bad when even Bill O’Reilly (“You just can’t play to your base, because your base isn’t big enough to win. So that’s the mistake he made and I don’t know if he can recover from that.” ) and Sean Hannity (who tried to spin up reports about a House mutiny against Speaker Paul Ryan, I guess to cheer himself up) evince lack of hope.
Even during the debate Wednesday, Trump himself seemed resigned, sarcastically wishing Clinton “lots of luck” with Syria, although he still cannot imagine a concession speech. Even his latest denial about allegedly groping women sounds half-hearted: “Discredited political operative Gloria Allred, in another coordinated, publicity seeking attack with the Clinton campaign, will stop at nothing to smear Mr. Trump. Give me a break. Voters are tired of these circus-like antics and reject these fictional stories and the clear efforts to benefit Hillary Clinton.” The statement didn’t actually include a straight-up denial.
Down-ticket Republicans might be looking on with horror. The turnout! He’ll demoralize the base! The negative ads tying us to Trump! They should have thought of that months ago and dumped him. If they go down with the ship, it’s their own darn fault.
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Donald Trump is in a funk: Bitter, hoarse and pondering, ‘If I lose. . .’
By Jenna Johnson
FLETCHER, N.C. — As he took the stage here in this mountain town Friday afternoon, Donald Trump was as subdued as the modest crowd that turned out to see him. He complained about the usual things — the dishonest media, his “corrupt” rival Hillary Clinton — but his voice was hoarse and his heart didn’t seem in it.
He also promised to do all that he could to win, but he explained why he might lose.
“What a waste of time if we don’t pull this off,” Trump said. “You know, these guys have said: ‘It doesn’t matter if you win or lose. There’s never been a movement like this in the history of this country.’ I say, it matters to me if we win or lose. So I’ll have over $100 million of my own money in this campaign.”
“So, if I lose,” Trump continued as the crowd remained unusually quiet, “if I lose, I will consider this —”
Trump didn’t finish his sentence, but he didn’t really need to. After weeks of controversy and declining poll numbers, Trump and his campaign have settled into a dark funk. Even as he vows to prevail in the race, the GOP nominee’s mood has soured with less than three weeks to go until Election Day.
His final debate performance this week was a bust, with him snarling that Clinton was “such a nasty woman” and gritting his teeth as he angrily ripped pages off a notepad when it was over. He is under fire from all quarters for refusing to say he will honor the election results if he loses, while 10 women have now come forward accusing him of groping or kissing them without consent. The capper to Trump’s bad stretch came Thursday night, when a ballroom full of New York City’s glitterati booed him as he gave remarks attacking Clinton at a charity roast.
The gloomy mood has extended to his signature rallies, which Trump used to find fun. During the primaries, he would bound onto rally stages bursting with energy and a sense of excitement that intensified as the crowds chanted his name and cheered his every word. He would regularly schedule news conferences, call into news shows and chat with reporters, eager to spar with them. He would say politically incorrect things and then watch his polling numbers soar. He used to be the winner.
But no more. In recent days, Trump has tried to explain away his slide in the polls as a conspiracy carried out by the media, Democrats and Republicans. If he loses, it will be because he was cheated, Trump has repeatedly told his supporters, urging them to go to polling places in neighborhoods other than their own and “watch.”
Trump’s supporters have concocted elaborate explanations for why he might lose, often involving massive voter fraud conducted by Democrats who will bus undocumented immigrants and people posing as people who have died to battleground states to vote illegally. There are also fears that election results in some states will be tampered with, and Trump’s backers have cheered his promise to challenge the election results if he doesn’t win.
“Since we can’t check to see if you voted in three states, you will. If you want to vote in three states, you will,” said Larry Lewis, 67, a former electrician who lives in Hendersonville, N.C.. He said he doesn't know anyone who has committed voter fraud but has gotten up to speed on the issue thanks to talk radio. “I mean, that is human nature. I have ultimate faith in human nature.”
Campaigning Friday in Cleveland, Clinton again criticized Trump for refusing to say he will honor the election results and joked about her time onstage debating him. “I have now spent 41/2 hours onstage with Donald, proving once again I have the stamina to be president,” she said.
After the debate Wednesday night, Trump flew to Ohio for a Thursday rally. He abruptly walked out of two local television interviews before taking the stage in front of a smaller-than-usual crowd. After it was over, he was back at the Columbus airport, slowly plodding up the steps to his personal jet. He was alone, holding a black umbrella as a light rain fell.
Hours later, Trump sat with his wife at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner to participate in the long-standing tradition of political candidates roasting each other. The dinner’s chairman, Alfred E. Smith IV, set the tone for the evening as he lashed Trump in a series of cutting jokes.
Trump went first, and his opening lines landed with such heavy bitterness that it prompted scattered, uncomfortable laughter.
“A special hello to all of you in this room who have known and loved me for many, many years. It’s true,” Trump said as he took command of the lavish dais, wearing a white tie and a black jacket that he kept tugging at.
“The politicians,” he continued. “They’ve had me to their homes, they’ve introduced me to their children. I’ve become their best friends in many instances. They’ve asked for my endorsement, and they always wanted my money, and even called me really a dear, dear friend, but then suddenly decided when I ran for president as a Republican, that I’ve always been a no-good, rotten, disgusting scoundrel. And they totally forgot about me.”
Over the next 15 minutes, Trump joked about the size of his hands and the size of his rival’s rally crowds, then compared himself to Jesus. He said the debate the night before had been called “the most vicious debate in the history of politics,” prompting him to reflect, “Are we supposed to be proud of that?”
He joked about prosecuting Clinton if he gets elected president, accused the media of working for her and brought up the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state.
“Hillary is so corrupt, she got kicked off the Watergate Commission,” Trump said, citing a false Internet rumor as the crowd turned on him and started to boo, something that simply doesn’t happen at lavish charity dinners at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. The face of one the guests sitting on the stage behind him was struck with horror.
“Hillary believes that it’s vital to deceive the people by having one public policy and a totally different policy in private,” Trump said, as the booing intensified. Trump would go on to accuse Clinton of “pretending not to hate Catholics” and mock the Clinton Foundation’s work in Haiti.
At one point, he wondered aloud whether the crowd was booing him or Clinton, to which someone in the crowd answered: “You!”
As Clinton took her turn, Trump sat at a table decorated with pale roses and white orchids with his arms tightly folded.
“Donald looks at the Statue of Liberty and sees a four, maybe a five if she loses the torch and tablet and changes her hair,” Clinton said, as the crowd laughed and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani mouthed, “What?”
Trump, his arms folded, cocked his head to the side and smirked as his wife looked elegantly pained.
A few minutes later, Clinton poked Trump for his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Maybe you saw Donald dismantle his prompter the other day, and I get that. They’re hard to keep up with, and I’m sure it’s even harder when you’re translating from the original Russian.”
Trump smiled and rocked in his seat, his face turning slightly red.
Clinton recognized former New York mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, saying it was a shame he didn’t speak, because “I’m curious to hear what a billionaire has to say,” referring to disputes about Trump’s actual net worth.
And she gave a shout-out to Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, saying: “She’s working day and night for Donald, and because she’s a contractor, he’s probably not even going to pay her.” Conway, who has become subtly critical of her boss, quoted Clinton in a tweet and wrote, “A shout out from @HillaryClinton at #AlSmithDinner.”
As Clinton finished speaking, she received a standing ovation from many in the crowd. Trump clapped, then briefly stood, then sat down again, as if unsure what to do. Lip-readers caught him telling her that she did a good job.
As the dinner ended, Trump shook hands with some of the others on the stage, while a line of people wanting to talk with Clinton grew. After a few minutes, Trump and his wife made their way toward the exit.
Before ducking out, Trump flashed the crowd a thumbs up.
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Their campaign schedules really are grueling...especially for people of their ages.
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Their campaign schedules really are grueling...especially for people of their ages.
So true. I dunno how they do it.
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It's amazing how Trump can make all these fatal mistakes and yet still be winning in the most current poll.
You Libs keep projecting what you wish were happening but reality has never been your strong suit.
Trump Expands Lead Over Clinton To 2 Points – IBD/TIPP Poll | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD
http://www.investors.com/politics/trump-ibdtipp-poll/
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So true. I dunno how they do it.
<sniff>
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It's amazing how Trump can make all these fatal mistakes and yet still be winning in the most current poll.
You Libs keep projecting what you wish were happening but reality has never been your strong suit.
Trump Expands Lead Over Clinton To 2 Points – IBD/TIPP Poll | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD
http://www.investors.com/politics/trump-ibdtipp-poll/
Who in the blue hell is IBD/TIPP?
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Guess ya never heard of Rasmussen either:
http://m.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2016/white_house_watch_oct21
Early results from their final debate are in, and Donald Trump remains barely ahead of Hillary Clinton in the White House Watch.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds Trump with a 43% to 41% lead over his Democratic rival. Five percent (5%) favor Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, while Green Party nominee Jill Stein earns three percent (3%) support. Another three percent (3%) like some other candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
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<sniff>
Ha ha ha ha touché!
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It's amazing how Trump can make all these fatal mistakes and yet still be winning in the most current poll.
You Libs keep projecting what you wish were happening but reality has never been your strong suit.
Trump Expands Lead Over Clinton To 2 Points – IBD/TIPP Poll | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD
http://www.investors.com/politics/trump-ibdtipp-poll/
Care to put your money where you mouth is? I seem to recall that not so long ago, you argued that credit scores weren't going to "mean squat" in the future and would effectively disappear. I suppose you still think that. ::)
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Care to put your money where you mouth is? I seem to recall that not so long ago, you argued that credit scores weren't going to "mean squat" in the future and would effectively disappear. I suppose you still think that. ::)
That wasn't me. I've never had a strong opinion about the subject of credit scores.
With regard to the election, I see it as a close race and think it can go either way depending on how many people show up on Election Day. Conversely, the MSM has painted the race as a forgone conclusion. Every time Trump has had a misstep, it's been presented as the final straw. Meanwhile, two weeks out, several Polls have the race a draw.
My "feeling" is that Trump is gonna win as this race is starting to resemble a game in which one team has a lead but can't put the other team away, and the team that was losing ends up pulling it out.
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That wasn't me. I've never had a strong opinion about the subject of credit scores.
With regard to the election, I see it as a close race and think it can go either way depending on how many people show up on Election Day. Conversely, the MSM has painted the race as a forgone conclusion. Every time Trump has had a misstep, it's been presented as the final straw. Meanwhile, two weeks out, several Polls have the race a draw.
My "feeling" is that Trump is gonna win as this race is starting to resemble a game in which one team has a lead but can't put the other team away, and the team that was losing ends up pulling it out.
At this point there is nothing Trump can do on his own to win...not enough time left.
IMO only a major bombshell (recorded) about Clinton can make the race tight.
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Care to put your money where you mouth is? I seem to recall that not so long ago, you argued that credit scores weren't going to "mean squat" in the future and would effectively disappear. I suppose you still think that. ::)
Because everything will be free?
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That wasn't me. I've never had a strong opinion about the subject of credit scores.
With regard to the election, I see it as a close race and think it can go either way depending on how many people show up on Election Day. Conversely, the MSM has painted the race as a forgone conclusion. Every time Trump has had a misstep, it's been presented as the final straw. Meanwhile, two weeks out, several Polls have the race a draw.
My "feeling" is that Trump is gonna win as this race is starting to resemble a game in which one team has a lead but can't put the other team away, and the team that was losing ends up pulling it out.
Credit scores were the primary determining factor for giving out sub-prime loans. How'd that work out?
Going forward, I think you're going to see your beloved credit scores not meaning squat.
It was you. And there went your credibility. :-X
FYI credit scores were not the determining factor for giving out sub-prime loans. The problem loans went to people who did NOT have good (prime) credit, hence the term sub-prime. Had loans been restricted to people with good/prime scores and not made interest only there would not have been a housing crisis. ::)
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Yeah, you're right. My credibility is shot because I didn't remember a post on a bodybuilding forum from Eight Fucking Years Ago. Excuse me for not taking this place that fucking seriously.
You should be embarrassed that you did remember that.
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Yeah, you're right. My credibility is shot because I didn't remember a post on a bodybuilding forum from Eight Fucking Years Ago. Excuse me for not taking this place that fucking seriously.
You should be embarrassed that you did remember that.
I am not embarrassed that you made a fool of yourself. Here is a prescription for you: extract foot from mouth. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. ::)
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Donald Trump, officially out of ideas, says he will sue his female accusers
By Aaron Blake
In Gettysburg, Pa., on Saturday, Donald Trump delivered what was billed by his campaign as a “groundbreaking contract with the American voter.”
It was nothing of the sort. In fact, these were the same ideas he's been spouting for weeks and months. About the only new and noteworthy things, in fact, were:
1. His threat to break up media companies.
2. His promise to sue the women who have accused him of sexual assault and other misconduct — after the election.
“Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign,” Trump said. “Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”
Yes, Donald Trump's big, new pitch to voters is that he's going to fight the media and sue people. Yuge.
Trump is losing by a sizable margin, which even he seems to recognize at this point. But instead of changing things up, he seems defeated and out of ideas when it comes to how to change his fortunes. As The Post's Jenna Johnson wrote Friday, Trump seems almost resigned to his fate, even musing about what a waste it would all have been if he loses.
His threat to sue the women who have accused him was the big news to come out of Saturday's rally. But as with many of his threats of litigation, it begs for a large dose of skepticism.
Trump also threatened to sue 10 days ago, when the New York Times broke a story about two Trump accusers. His campaign put out word that it was drafting a suit even that evening.
A lawsuit is being drafted now by Trump against the NYT. Very possible it could be announced tonight, though discussions ongoing.
— Robert Costa (@costareports) October 13, 2016
Apparently those discussions are still “ongoing,” because Trump hasn't filed the suit. Even as the Times responded by puffing out its chest and essentially telling the campaign to bring it on, there is still no suit, 10 days later.
At the time, many reports were skeptical of the lawsuit threat — in large part because it would open up Trump himself to on-the-record questions about his sexual past.
There is also the fact that, as Reuters reported, Trump has repeatedly threatened to sue newspapers over the past three decades, but he hasn't actually filed suit since 1984 — a suit that was later dismissed. Trump's lawyer also suggested unrealized legal action could be coming when the New York Times reported in early October on Trump's previously secret 1995 tax return, which showed him claiming a $916 million loss that would allow him to avoid paying federal income taxes for years afterward.
All of which is reason to be even more skeptical of his newly-threatened lawsuit.
Another reason to be skeptical is that he's threatening to sue the women after the election. While the Times threat was immediate and the lawsuit was supposedly imminent, Trump isn't even bothering with saying he'll file these suits quickly, for some reason.
He waited 10 days from the first accusations to make this threat, and now he's saying he'll do it after the election — at a time that, if he welshes on his promise/threat again, few people will probably notice or even really care (assuming he has lost the presidency, of course).
The threat to break up media conglomerates is also new, but it's also actually sort of old. It's unites two long-standing planks of his campaign — populism and hating the media. But again, Trump has already served notice just how anti-media he is. Upping the rhetoric on that doesn't really bring any new voters into the fold. And, also, he's, um, not going to break up the media companies.
In the end, this is the same Trump we've seen since the primaries, running a campaign that appeals to the base and does nothing to expand from there. In recent weeks, while facing a torrent of unhelpful revelations, he has chosen to do the very same things that helped him win the GOP nomination but made him the most unpopular presidential nominee in the process.
And the “groundbreaking” proposals he's putting forward today come from the same tired, ineffective playbook that made him competitive but never really gave him a good chance to win.
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Melania Trump takes a page from Hillary Clinton’s playbook
By Karen Tumulty
The last time the country heard from Melania Trump, she was discovered to have been channeling Michelle Obama, in a political convention speech that turned into a plagiarism controversy.
On Monday night, the glamorous, reclusive wife of the Republican presidential nominee went before a national television audience again — but this time her role model appeared to be Hillary Clinton.
Melania Trump did not actually utter the words “vast left-wing conspiracy,” of course. But her argument echoed one that the then-first lady used in the days after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke.
Donald Trump, his wife told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, was not the perpetrator but the victim — of a television personality determined to “egg on” his guest to “say dirty and bad stuff,” of “the left-wing media,” and of a smear “all organized from the opposition.”
Until now, Melania Trump has declined to fulfill the mundane tasks of political wives, saying her duties to her young son are more important than the demand that a spouse go along for the ride to “humanize” a candidate.
“It was my decision not to be on the campaign trail,” the Slovenian native insisted in English so heavily accented that CNN posted subtitles on some versions of the interview. “I don’t listen [to] anybody about what to do, what to say, when to say it, when to do interviews. If it would be, for example, for my husband or the campaign, they will have me on the trail all the time.”
Now, however, Melania has found herself in a time-honored duty for a political wife when a sex scandal hits — cleanup. It falls to her because no one else can do it.
Sometimes, they perform the role mutely, standing dolefully at a husband’s side as he confesses and promises never to do anything like that again. I forgive him, the wife’s presence is supposed to say, so you should too.
Melania Trump made that declaration herself.
“Those words, they were offensive to me and they were inappropriate,” she told “Fox and Friends” host Ainsley Earhardt in a second interview, which aired Tuesday morning. “And he apologized to me. I accept his apology, and we are moving on.”
But the more serious charge is that Donald Trump actually engaged in the kind of sexual assault that he boasted about on the now-infamous leaked audio from 2005.
Though at least nine women have now come forward to say that they have been the victims of precisely that kind of behavior, his wife says his word is enough for her.
It is the tack that Lee Hart took, when her husband, Gary, the front-runner for the 1988 Democratic nomination, was discovered to have been on a yacht named “Monkey Business” with a woman who was not her: “When Gary says nothing happened, nothing happened.”
“I believe my husband. I believe my husband,” Melania Trump said. “This was all organized from the opposition and with the details that they go — did they ever — did they ever check the background of these women? They don’t have any facts.”
She added that, when she heard the language her husband used on the video, “I was surprised because that is not the man I know.”
If it is true that Melania had not seen that side of Donald, it reveals only that she has never tuned into his many interviews on Howard Stern’s radio show.
The timing of her interviews with Cooper and Fox News was inexplicable, given that it adds a few more news cycles to a story that had begun to die down and comes at a moment when his campaign strategists are desperate to change the subject.
The New York Times has reported that Melania had resisted entreaties by his aides and his children to do a joint interview with her husband shortly after the “Access Hollywood” tape became public, in hopes that it would put the campaign back on track, as the Clintons had by sitting down with “60 Minutes” when allegations of infidelity threatened to derail Bill Clinton’s 1992 bid for the White House.
Instead, Melania issued a written statement. And when the allegations of sexual assault began, her response was to threaten a lawsuit against a former People magazine reporter — not over the central allegation that Donald Trump had pinned her against a wall and kissed her, but over a peripheral point in the first-person account.
“She wrote in the same story about me that she saw me on Fifth Avenue, and I said to her, ‘Natasha, how come we don’t see you anymore?’ I was never friend with her. I would not recognize her,” Melania told Cooper. “That’s why I sent them the letter, because it discredited the story.”
On Tuesday, however, People posted a story in which it quoted six friends and co-workers of writer Natasha Stoynoff corroborating her story.
One of them, her college friend Lisa Herz, said she was present at the chance encounter, and that Stoynoff and Trump had “chatted in a friendly way.”
Even as she defends her husband, Melania Trump is willing to go only so far.
In a moment where the script would appear to call for her to share a little more about “the man I know,” Melania offered no personal glimpses of their lives. There was nothing more revealing than what one might hear in a campaign ad — outside, perhaps, her observation that she feels like she is living with two boys, not one.
“As I always said, as my husband said as well, for a successful businessman, entrepreneur, entertainer . . . achieving so much in his life, being in so many shows, so many tapes, it’s very hard to run for public office,” Melania Trump said on Fox.
“And he did this anyway,” she added. “He said, I want to help American people. I want to keep America safe. I want to bring back jobs, bring back economy, so our children, our futures will be the best way possible.”
“Strategically odd” is how Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a political communication expert at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, described Melania Trump’s appearances.
“She is certifying the public person who is Donald Trump,” Jamieson said. “She’s not certifying her personal experience with him as an individual with the kind of stories you would ordinarily expect the defending spouse to be telling.”
But maybe that’s because Melania Trump agrees with Hillary Clinton on another point. “In a better world,” Clinton wrote in her White House memoir, “this sort of conversation between a husband and a wife would be no one’s business but their own.”
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It's amazing how Trump can make all these fatal mistakes and yet still be winning in the most current poll.
You Libs keep projecting what you wish were happening but reality has never been your strong suit.
Trump Expands Lead Over Clinton To 2 Points – IBD/TIPP Poll | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD
http://www.investors.com/politics/trump-ibdtipp-poll/
Interesting but odd since most of the mainstream polls have HRC clearly ahead.
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Guess ya never heard of Rasmussen either:
http://m.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2016/white_house_watch_oct21
Early results from their final debate are in, and Donald Trump remains barely ahead of Hillary Clinton in the White House Watch.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds Trump with a 43% to 41% lead over his Democratic rival. Five percent (5%) favor Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, while Green Party nominee Jill Stein earns three percent (3%) support. Another three percent (3%) like some other candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/2016_elections_electoral_college_map.html
Notice that HRC has more than twice as many electoral votes than Trump. She's only 9 votes away from the win.
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http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/2016_elections_electoral_college_map.html
Notice that HRC has more than twice as many electoral votes than Trump. She's only 9 votes away from the win.
Polls are BS until the day of the election....especially THIS election with all of the proven fraud going on.
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Yeah, you're right. My credibility is shot because I didn't remember a post on a bodybuilding forum from Eight Fucking Years Ago. Excuse me for not taking this place that fucking seriously.
You should be embarrassed that you did remember that.
Having a photographic memory is nothing to be embarrassed about.
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Polls are BS until the day of the election....especially THIS election with all of the proven fraud going on.
Proven by who, Trump? Heck in the debates he can't even remember his own lies.
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Have any of you voted yet? My ballot arrived in the mail on Thursday. I voted and mailed it in that same day. regardless of where you stand politically, be sure to vote. Otherwise, all you posts become just so much hot air....or worthless.
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Proven by who, Trump? Heck in the debates he can't even remember his own lies.
This makes me wonder if you even keep up.
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Have any of you voted yet? My ballot arrived in the mail on Thursday. I voted and mailed it in that same day. regardless of where you stand politically, be sure to vote. Otherwise, all you posts become just so much hot air....or worthless.
I vote the day of the election. You obviously vote blindly
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I vote the day of the election. You obviously vote blindly
How so? Anyway, I'll be headed home from Germany on November 8th. -Can't vote on the plane. ;)
Oregon is a vote by mail state, however registered voters can wait in line at the polls, hoping to get in before 8:00 p.m. when they close.
Did you know that much of the military personnel vote using mail-in ballots? Their mail-in ballots are the first to go out.
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How so? Anyway, I'll be headed home from Germany on November 8th. -Can't vote on the plane. ;)
Oregon is a vote by mail state, however registered voters can wait in line at the polls, hoping to get in before 8:00 p.m. when they close.
Did you know that much of the military personnel vote using mail-in ballots? Their mail-in ballots are the first to go out.
When I meant that you vote blindly I wasn't referring to when your sent your ballot. I was referring to you calling Trump a liar probably because of what you've been hearing in Killarys speeches and debates and not even taking into consideration that 95% of the accusations against Trump were debunked. That's what I meant about your blind vote.
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When I meant that you vote blindly I wasn't referring to when your sent your ballot. I was referring to you calling Trump a liar probably because of what you've been hearing in Killarys speeches and debates and not even talking into consideration that 95% of the accusations against Trump were debunked. That's what I meant about your blind vote.
It's useless explaining anything to that guy. He is out of the loop on pretty much every thread (not just political).
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Proven by who, Trump? Heck in the debates he can't even remember his own lies.
And of Hillarys endless lies ? You blame trump for things Hillary has done worse by a factor of 100000
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What if The Apprentice was rigged? *head explodes*
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Trump notes latest accuser is a porn star: 'Oh, I'm sure she's never been grabbed before.'
by Seema Mehta
Donald Trump on Monday defended himself against the latest allegations of sexual misconduct by pointing out that the accuser worked as an adult film actress.
"One said, 'He grabbed me on the arm.' And she's a porn star,” Trump said in an interview with a New Hampshire radio station. “Now you know, this one that came out recently, 'He grabbed me and he grabbed me on the arm.' Oh, I'm sure she's never been grabbed before."
Trump was referring to the allegations made Saturday by Jessica Drake, who accused Trump of kissing her without her consent. She also said a man – either Trump or someone representing him – later called her and offered her $10,000 and the use of his jet in exchange for sex.
Drake is the latest of several women to publicly claim in recent days that Trump kissed or groped them without their consent. The GOP presidential nominee said all of the women who have accused him of sexual misconduct, including Drake, are lying.
"These are stories that are made up. This is total fiction. You'll find out that, in the years to come, these women that stood up, it’s all fiction," Trump said. "They were made up. I don't know these women. It's not my thing to do what they say.”
During a speech on Saturday that was billed as a preview of how he would conduct his first 100 days in office, Trump said he would sue all the women who have accused him of misconduct. During the radio interview, he said he felt it was important to defend himself against the accusations because he feared women voters might otherwise believe them.
He squarely blamed the campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for the rush of allegations against him. Trump noted that Gloria Allred, the attorney representing three of the women, is a long-time Clinton supporter.
Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, said Sunday the campaign has not had any contact with any of the women who have come forward.
“These accusations are not coming from our campaign,” Mook said on CNN.
Allred is a Clinton backer and served as a delegate for her during the Democratic National Convention. But the Los Angeles-based attorney has a long history of going after politicians on both sides of the aisle over their treatment of women.
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It's useless explaining anything to that guy. He is out of the loop on pretty much every thread (not just political).
And yet, I am a political activist for several organizations and have been so for more decades than you've been around. Crazy, isn't it? How many $5,000 or $10,000 checks have you handed the candidates you or your organizations (if you belong to any) support? One of the corporations I chair has spent over $100,000 in this election cycle in support, with my authorization, of several candidates in this election.
If you mean I am "out of the loop" because I do not support Donald Trump for President, I am pleased to confirm that this is emphatically the truth. If you mean that I am out of the loop because I didn't see how turning my ballot around as soon as possible rendered my vote an uninformed or "blind" one.
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When I meant that you vote blindly I wasn't referring to when your sent your ballot. I was referring to you calling Trump a liar probably because of what you've been hearing in Killarys speeches and debates and not even taking into consideration that 95% of the accusations against Trump were debunked. That's what I meant about your blind vote.
I called him a liar because my memory isn't shot, thank goodness! He has contradicted himself on numerous occasions. This is often by saying something and later saying he never said it or that he was just kidding around, etc. You can verify this on your own by watching and listening to audio/visual recordings of his appearances.
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I called him a liar because my memory isn't shot, thank goodness! He has contradicted himself on numerous occasions. This is often by saying something and later saying he never said it or that he was just kidding around, etc. You can verify this on your own by watching and listening to audio/visual recordings of his appearances.
You mean something like this?
In a TV interview with NY1 News from 2008, Mr Trump was full of praise for the former Secretary of Sate.
"I think that she is a wonderful woman..." he said.
"I think her history is far from being over… I think she is going to go down at a minimum as a great senator. I think she is a great wife to a president."
"You know, Hillary is a very smart woman, very tough woman, that's fine," he added. "But she is also a very nice person. I know Hillary and I know her husband very well, and they are fine people."
He also had some warm words for Bill Clinton, who's record as president, including his alleged infidelity during his time in office, Mr Trump has slammed in recent weeks.
"Bill Clinton was a great president," he said.
"Look at what happened during the Clinton years, we had no war, the economy was doing great, everybody was happy. A lot of people hated him because they were jealous as hell."
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You mean something like this?
In a TV interview with NY1 News from 2008, Mr Trump was full of praise for the former Secretary of Sate.
"I think that she is a wonderful woman..." he said.
"I think her history is far from being over… I think she is going to go down at a minimum as a great senator. I think she is a great wife to a president."
"You know, Hillary is a very smart woman, very tough woman, that's fine," he added. "But she is also a very nice person. I know Hillary and I know her husband very well, and they are fine people."
He also had some warm words for Bill Clinton, who's record as president, including his alleged infidelity during his time in office, Mr Trump has slammed in recent weeks.
"Bill Clinton was a great president," he said.
"Look at what happened during the Clinton years, we had no war, the economy was doing great, everybody was happy. A lot of people hated him because they were jealous as hell."
And that's just for starters. ;) ;) ;)
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And yet, I am a political activist for several organizations and have been so for more decades than you've been around.
so you dress up like Donald Duck and get your ass beat for Clinton?
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so you dress up like Donald Duck and get your ass beat for Clinton?
You do have a vivid imagination, don't you? Just so you know, nobody's ever "beat my ass". I am a lot tougher than you think. :D
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And yet, I am a political activist for several organizations and have been so for more decades than you've been around. Crazy, isn't it? How many $5,000 or $10,000 checks have you handed the candidates you or your organizations (if you belong to any) support? One of the corporations I chair has spent over $100,000 in this election cycle in support, with my authorization, of several candidates in this election.
If you mean I am "out of the loop" because I do not support Donald Trump for President, I am pleased to confirm that this is emphatically the truth. If you mean that I am out of the loop because I didn't see how turning my ballot around as soon as possible rendered my vote an uninformed or "blind" one.
Lol, you are proud of giving away thousands of dollars to Hillary? Not sure if that can be topped...
That's truly disgusting that you would be proud of that.
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Lol, you are proud of giving away thousands of dollars to Hillary? Not sure if that can be topped...
That's truly disgusting that you would be proud of that.
Sorry about your problems with reading comprehension. Nowhere in that post did I suggest any of these campaign contributions were in support of HRC's campaign. Maybe you weren't aware that there are other political campaigns going on during the general elections. Just a guess, but it wouldn't surprise me if you don't know what house and senate districts you're in. What ballot measures are you supporting or not?
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Sorry about your problems with reading comprehension. Nowhere in that post did I suggest any of these campaign contributions were in support of HRC's campaign. Maybe you weren't aware that there are other political campaigns going on during the general elections. Just a guess, but it wouldn't surprise me if you don't know what house and senate districts you're in. What ballot measures are you supporting or not?
Doh! Owned him good. :-X
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Kellyanne Conway’s and Donald Trump’s relationship is becoming bizarre
In conflicting statements on topics such as whether the GOP nominee is behind in polls to the threat of voter fraud, Trump and his campaign manager have appeared to be on separate pages in recent weeks.
by Aaron Blake
It’s almost as if Donald Trump’s campaign manager isn’t even talking to her candidate these days. Almost.
On Sunday, Kellyanne Conway took to NBC’s “Meet the Press” and gamely and forthrightly acknowledged reality. “We are behind,” she said, adding that they were down one to four points in key states. (Which is actually a little rosy.)
On Monday morning, Trump appeared to agree with her, telling a local news reporter that he was “somewhat behind in the polls.” Conway was apparently happy with this comment. She tweeted the following at about 3:30 p.m.
NEW: .@RealDonaldTrump concedes he's 'somewhat behind' in the polls https://t.co/e6JR2oMb7O. (&don't count him out - #winning is his thing)
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 24, 2016
The problem? Her own candidate completely disagrees with her assessment that he’s actually behind, and he had already said so multiple times on Monday.
In a fiery and angry speech Monday afternoon in which he ripped into the media, the pollsters and all manner of alleged rigging of the election against him, Trump confidently declared, “We’re winning” multiple times. Remarkably, he said this just minutes before Conway’s tweet.
"Just in case you haven't heard...we're winning." -- Donald J. Trump
— Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) October 24, 2016
He added later: “Folks, we’re winning. We’re winning. We’re winning.”
And not only that; Trump had also said he was “winning” in a tweet Monday morning.
We are winning and the press is refusing to report it. Don't let them fool you- get out and vote! #DrainTheSwamp on November 8th!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2016
After all of this, Conway sends the tweet she did about Trump acknowledging his deficit? What? Did she not see what her own candidate was saying in his speech or what he tweeted?
This is hardly, of course, the only strange way in which Conway and Trump have appeared to be on separate pages in recent weeks.
There was the whole thing about her playing down the threat of voter fraud, even as he was doubling down. There was also her playing down the idea that Trump actually did mean it when he said he would put Hillary Clinton in jail, before Trump doubled down again. There was that time during Wednesday night’s debate when Conway appeared to disown Trump’s “bad hombres” comment and suggest that it wasn’t something she would want him to say. And then she denied rumors that she would leave the campaign, but also added a dangling “unless . . .”
Trump is certainly the chaos candidate in this race, but I like to think that the things he and his campaign do at least have somewhat of a strategic aim. In this case, I’m at a loss. What practical purpose is served by having you and your campaign manager publicly disagree about whether you are actually behind in the race — something that inevitably leads to stories like this one about how maybe your campaign is off the rails and has no direction.
One credible theory I’ve heard before is that Trump responds to the things he sees on the news, and one of the ways for Conway to keep him in line is to appear on the news shows herself and kind of steer Trump in the right direction that way.
But regardless of whether that’s the case, what we’re seeing from Conway and Trump these days is edging on bizarre. They are either deliberately creating the appearance of chaos for no discernible reason, or the chaos is real, and they simply can’t hide all of it.
Conway’s comments, as I’ve said before, are of a campaign manager defending a candidate who doesn’t exist. She’s not even defending Trump anymore; she’s defending the candidate she wishes he was.
But he’s still Donald Trump. And she doesn’t appear to know what to do with that.
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Imploded all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue.
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Imploded all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue.
LOL ;D
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Imploded all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue.
;D
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Imploded all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue.
:D
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Imploded all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue.
:D
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Imploded all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue.
:D
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Sorry about your problems with reading comprehension. Nowhere in that post did I suggest any of these campaign contributions were in support of HRC's campaign. Maybe you weren't aware that there are other political campaigns going on during the general elections. Just a guess, but it wouldn't surprise me if you don't know what house and senate districts you're in. What ballot measures are you supporting or not?
My bad. Thought that this was a thread on those involved in the election? I guess I was wrong that you are continually defending your Hillary love. Got me.
Congrats on voting for a criminal. You are despicable. You defend and defend. Gross.
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Imploded all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue.
;D MAGA!
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Bay no likey the outcome of the election.
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i remember how it felt in 2012 :D
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Bay no likey the outcome of the election.
Where is Bay? He hasn't posted in a while.
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Where is Bay? He hasn't posted in a while.
Shit, dawg, I'm still waiting on the Ted Cruz sex tape and the 25 illegitimate children to show up!
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Where is Bay? He hasn't posted in a while.
He should man up and come take his lumps. :)
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Shit, dawg, I'm still waiting on the Ted Cruz sex tape and the 25 illegitimate children to show up!
Me too. >:(
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He should man up and come take his lumps. :)
As if supporting on candidate over another is a contest. ::)
I supported Hillary over Trump. Neither were a great choice IMO. I'm not inclined to lose sleep over Trump winning the election. Someone wins every election, it may not be the person you were routing for, but you live with it because historically, these things have a way of working themselves out. How this particular presidency "plays out" might be rather interesting and unusual. Chances are, we will all survive the next 4 years.
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As if supporting on candidate over another is a contest. ::)
I supported Hillary over Trump. Neither were a great choice IMO. I'm not inclined to lose sleep over Trump winning the election. Someone wins every election, it may not be the person you were routing for, but you live with it because historically, these things have a way of working themselves out. How this particular presidency "plays out" might be rather interesting and unusual. Chances are, we will all survive the next 4 years.
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(https://i.sli.mg/8Ncevg.gif)
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(https://i.sli.mg/8Ncevg.gif)
Trump: "Sup, my nigg@?"
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(https://i.sli.mg/8Ncevg.gif)
Shameful
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Shameful
Really? Which part?
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Where is Bay? He hasn't posted in a while.
Yup, not since November 08, 2016. WTF? Hope he didn't wack himself, off himself, wack off himself...he's married isn't he? :-X
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(https://i.sli.mg/8Ncevg.gif)
What has this dindu done that warrants a meeting/handshake with Trump? Does Trump know him?
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What has this dindu done that warrants a meeting/handshake with Trump? Does Trump know him?
Just subjects, bowing to their king. :D
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Really? Which part?
Anyone who has Bruce Jenner as his mother in law needs to be nowhere near Trump right now.,
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Anyone who has Bruce Jenner as his mother in law needs to be nowhere near Trump right now.,
LOL
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Trump: "Sup, my nigg@?"
What's up is the apparently Kanye's hair is currently bleached. I'm not sure it suits him, but I doubt he gives a rat's ass what I think.
(http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article9446652.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/MAIN-Kanye-Main.jpg)
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LOL
So you think it's Kanye's fault that his step-father/mother-inlaw is transgender? I don't believe transgenderism is contagious.
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So you think it's Kanye's fault that his step-father/mother-inlaw is transgender? I don't believe transgenderism is contagious.
They are all a bunch of beta twinks and losers. Bruce Jenner is a fag and a disgrace to his sport
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id like to punch Kanye in his face. Ive wanted to ever since I saw the episode of punkd that he was in. been on my punch list for years
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They are all a bunch of beta twinks and losers. Bruce Jenner is a fag and a disgrace to his sport
Is being transgender the same as being gay? Maybe she's a lesbian/fag now that she's a she who prefers women over men.
Financially, they hardly seem like losers. The fact that people buy their personal public display via the reality show, etc. has more to do with the viewers and followers than it has to do with them. They trade dignity for cash, lots of it.
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Is being transgender the same as being gay? Maybe she's a lesbian/fag now that she's a she who prefers women over men.
Financially, they hardly seem like losers. The fact that people buy their personal public display via the reality show, etc. has more to do with the viewers and followers than it has to do with them. They trade dignity for cash, lots of it.
Kanye been in the news for having financial issues
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Kanye been in the news for having financial issues
Must be the expense of his wife's tendency towards spending huge sums of money.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's $11 Million Dream Home
(http://akns-images.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/201308/reg_1024.Kimye.Mansion5.mh.010813.jpg)
(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/03/30/23/32AAD95500000578-3516191-Love_it_or_list_it_Kim_Kardashian_and_Kanye_West_have_moved_into-a-172_1459375485117.jpg)
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Must be the expense of his wife's tendency towards spending huge sums of money.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's $11 Million Dream Home
(http://akns-images.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/201308/reg_1024.Kimye.Mansion5.mh.010813.jpg)
He is just living there - he dont own a damn thing.
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He is just living there - he dont own a damn thing.
California is a community property state.
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Hmm, something is fishy....
“Kanye is not $53 million in debt. He has several businesses and investments, from his clothing line to restaurants to music worth millions,” an insider tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. “He is a master in marketing and is doing everything he can to generate interest in his album, Tidal and his clothing line. From claiming Bill Cosby is innocent, to dissing Taylor Swift, to suggesting that he’s running for president and making wild claims about being in debt, Kanye is doing exactly what he set out to do — create tremendous buzz and interesting in his business endeavors. He will make millions and millions more from all this attention.”
http://hollywoodlife.com/2016/02/15/kanye-west-money-debt-broke-publicity-truth/ (http://hollywoodlife.com/2016/02/15/kanye-west-money-debt-broke-publicity-truth/)
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As if supporting on candidate over another is a contest. ::)
I supported Hillary over Trump. Neither were a great choice IMO. I'm not inclined to lose sleep over Trump winning the election. Someone wins every election, it may not be the person you were routing for, but you live with it because historically, these things have a way of working themselves out. How this particular presidency "plays out" might be rather interesting and unusual. Chances are, we will all survive the next 4 years.
It's not a contest. Never said it was. I am pretty confident, however, that had Clinton won he would have bumped this thread.
I agree we will survive. We survived Obama. We would have survived Clinton. We'll survive Trump.
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What's up is the apparently Kanye's hair is currently bleached. I'm not sure it suits him, but I doubt he gives a rat's ass what I think.
(http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article9446652.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/MAIN-Kanye-Main.jpg)
Failed attempt to look like his king, Trump.
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It's not a contest. Never said it was. I am pretty confident, however, that had Clinton won he would have bumped this thread.
I agree we will survive. We survived Obama. We would have survived Clinton. We'll survive Trump.
This.
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Amazon to create 100,000 full-time jobs in U.S.
Reuters ^ | 01/12/17
Posted on 01/12/2017 7:42:30 AM PST by Enlightened1
Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) said on Thursday it would create more than 100,000 full-time jobs in the United States over the next 18 months.
Seattle-based Amazon said it plans to increase its full-time U.S.-based workforce to more than 280,000 by mid-2018 from 180,000 in 2016.
"These jobs are not just in our Seattle headquarters or in Silicon Valley - they're in our customer service network, fulfillment centers and other facilities in local communities throughout the country," CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement.
Amazon had about 230,800 full-time and part-time employees as of Dec. 31, 2015.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
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Amazon to create 100,000 full-time jobs in U.S.
Reuters ^ | 01/12/17
Posted on 01/12/2017 7:42:30 AM PST by Enlightened1
Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) said on Thursday it would create more than 100,000 full-time jobs in the United States over the next 18 months.
Seattle-based Amazon said it plans to increase its full-time U.S.-based workforce to more than 280,000 by mid-2018 from 180,000 in 2016.
"These jobs are not just in our Seattle headquarters or in Silicon Valley - they're in our customer service network, fulfillment centers and other facilities in local communities throughout the country," CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement.
Amazon had about 230,800 full-time and part-time employees as of Dec. 31, 2015.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I can't handle this much implosion.
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Amazon has been growing since it's launch in 1995. Without doubt Trump will take credit for Amazon's decision to increase it's U.S. work force and his fan base will eat it up.
"And the margin pressure is rising as the price tag associated with warehouses is set to increase. The company said last month that it’s adding more than 5,000 full-time jobs in 17 U.S. warehouses. Those new hires will join more than 20,000 employees. Amazon said it’s also bringing on 2,000 staff for customer service, including part-time and seasonal workers." Bloomberg, August 2013.
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Amazon has been growing since it's launch in 1995. Without doubt Trump will take credit for Amazon's decision to increase it's U.S. work force and his fan base will eat it up.
"And the margin pressure is rising as the price tag associated with warehouses is set to increase. The company said last month that it’s adding more than 5,000 full-time jobs in 17 U.S. warehouses. Those new hires will join more than 20,000 employees. Amazon said it’s also bringing on 2,000 staff for customer service, including part-time and seasonal workers." Bloomberg, August 2013.
::) ::) ::)
Liberal tears and angst are coal to this growing flame
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::) ::) ::)
Liberal tears and angst are coal to this growing flame
Don't they taste delicious
(https://i.sli.mg/VNsvJW.jpg)
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Michael Cohen Says He Arranged Payments to Women at Trump’s Direction
The former personal lawyer to President Trump pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.
By William K. Rashbaum, Maggie Haberman, Ben Protess and Jim Rutenberg
Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, made the extraordinary admission in court on Tuesday that Mr. Trump had directed him to arrange payments to two women during the 2016 campaign to keep them from speaking publicly about affairs they said they had with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cohen acknowledged the illegal payments while pleading guilty to breaking campaign finance laws and other charges, a litany of crimes that revealed both his shadowy involvement in Mr. Trump’s circle and his own corrupt business dealings.
He told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that the payments to the women were made “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.”
“I participated in this conduct, which on my part took place in Manhattan, for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016, Mr. Cohen said.
The plea represented a pivotal moment in the investigation into the president, and the scene in the Manhattan courtroom was striking. Mr. Cohen, a longtime lawyer for Mr. Trump — and loyal confidant — described in plain-spoken language how Mr. Trump worked with him to cover up a potential sex scandal that Mr. Trump feared would endanger his rising candidacy.
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of tax evasion and a single count of bank fraud, capping a monthslong investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors who examined his personal business dealings and his role in helping to arrange the financial deals with women connected to Mr. Trump.
The plea came shortly before another blow to the president: His former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was convicted in his financial fraud trial in Virginia. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, had built a case that Mr. Manafort hid millions of dollars in foreign accounts to evade taxes and lied to banks to obtain $20 million in loans.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have, for months, said privately that they considered Mr. Cohen’s case to be potentially more problematic for the president than the investigation by the special counsel.
But Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said in a statement after Mr. Cohen’s plea, “There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen.”
In federal court in Manhattan, Mr. Cohen made the admission about Mr. Trump’s role in the payments to the women — an adult film actress and a former Playboy playmate — as he pleaded guilty to two campaign finance crimes.
One of those charges stemmed from a $130,000 payment he made to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors said that Trump Organization executives were involved in reimbursing Mr. Cohen for that payment, accepting his phony invoices that listed it as a legal expense. The other charge concerned a complicated arrangement in which a tabloid bought the rights to the story about the former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, then killed it.
Mr. Cohen’s plea was announced by Robert Khuzami, the deputy United States attorney, along with senior officials from the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service. Addressing reporters outside the courthouse, Mr. Khuzami said that Mr. Cohen had “decided that he was above the law, and for that, he is going to pay a very, very serious price.”
The plea agreement does not call for Mr. Cohen to cooperate with federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Still, it does not preclude him from providing information to them later or to the special counsel, who is examining the Trump campaign’s possible involvement in Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign. If Mr. Cohen were to substantially assist the special counsel’s investigation, Mr. Mueller could recommend a reduction in his sentence.
Mr. Cohen had been the president’s longtime fixer, handling his most sensitive business and personal matters. He once said he would take a bullet for Mr. Trump.
As Mr. Cohen addressed the judge, admitting to the crimes he had committed, the packed courtroom remained silent. Even when Mr. Cohen made obvious references to Mr. Trump, referring to him as “the candidate” and “a candidate for federal office,” spectators seemed to listen raptly, with no gasps or audible reactions.
Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion for concealing more than $4 million in personal income from 2012 to 2016 and to one count of bank fraud, for failing to disclose $14 million in debts in an application for a $500,000 home equity line of credit. He also pleaded guilty to making an excessive campaign contribution and causing an unlawful corporate contribution during the 2016 election cycle.
He will be sentenced on Dec. 12 before Judge William H. Pauley III. Though Mr. Cohen faces a maximum of 65 years in prison, the plea agreement provides for a far more lenient sentence: The government calculated the sentencing guidelines at from 51 to 63 months and the defense put them at 46 to 57 months. A final guidelines determination will be made by the Probation Department, but the ultimate sentence will be determined by Judge Pauley.
Mr. Cohen’s attorney, Lanny J. Davis, said Mr. Cohen had put his family and country ahead of his loyalty to Mr. Trump. “He stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election,” Mr. Davis said. “If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”
Looming over the negotiations between prosecutors and Mr. Cohen has been the possibility of a presidential pardon. Mr. Trump reached out to Mr. Cohen by phone a few days after the F.B.I. raids, and they had dinner together a month earlier in March, at Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Cohen’s lawyer had loosely raised the issue of a pardon with an attorney for Mr. Trump several months ago, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.
By striking a deal with Mr. Cohen that includes prison time, federal authorities were aware of the risk that the president might pardon him, said another person briefed on the matter. But it is also possible that Mr. Cohen could eventually cooperate.
Prosecutors charged that Mr. Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Ms. Clifford was effectively a donation to Mr. Trump’s campaign, because by securing her silence it improved his electoral fortunes, and thus violated 2016 campaign finance law prohibitions against donations of more than $2,700 in a general election.
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to “causing” an illegal corporate donation to Mr. Trump through his involvement in a $150,000 payment American Media Inc. made to Ms. McDougal in late summer 2016 to buy the rights to her story, effectively securing her silence for the remainder of the campaign. Corporations are prohibited from coordinating political spending with candidates or their representatives. Mr. Cohen signed papers a month later to purchase the rights to her agreement from A.M.I., but the publisher backed out of the deal at the last minute.
The prosecutors filled in several blanks in a story that has been unfolding for months about the lengths to which Mr. Cohen went during the campaign to help his boss stave off embarrassing news about alleged affairs ahead of Election Day. And the charges confirmed that what might have seemed on the surface to have been only tawdry allegations involving an adult entertainment star and a former Playboy model may actually carry legal and political implications for a sitting president.
Prosecutors left little doubt that A.M.I. Inc., owner of The National Enquirer, became a de facto campaign proxy for Mr. Cohen in his efforts on behalf of Mr. Trump.
According to court papers, the publisher agreed in August 2015, months before the first primaries, to look out for damaging stories about Mr. Trump and his alleged affairs with women during talks with Mr. Cohen and “one or more” members of Mr. Trump’s campaign.
The tabloid company agreed to identify those stories “so they could be purchased and their publication avoided,” the prosecutors said on Tuesday — an inverted role for a tabloid scandal sheet such as The Enquirer, which went on to savage Mr. Trump’s opponents while promoting and protecting him.
That deal led to the arrangement with Ms. McDougal, which was struck in August 2016. But prosecutors also reported for the first time that A.M.I. was intimately involved in the arrangement with Ms. Clifford. The tabloid connected Mr. Cohen with the lawyer who had negotiated the McDougal contract, Keith Davidson. Mr. Davidson also had Ms. Clifford as a client and later hashed out the agreement for Ms. Clifford’s silence.
Prosecutors said in court papers that when Mr. Cohen initially failed to finalize the deal, an editor at A.M.I. — a likely reference to Dylan Howard, the company’s chief content officer — alerted Mr. Cohen that there was a risk that Ms. Clifford would sell her story to another media company, one that would publish it.
Mr. Cohen’s admission that he broke the law by paying off Ms. Clifford was a remarkable turnaround from the legal and publicity battle that he and his lawyers had waged against her. Ms. Clifford and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, have hounded Mr. Cohen since May, taunting him on social media and predicting his indictment. Mr. Cohen’s lawyers frequently fired back, accusing Mr. Avenatti of “fanning a media storm” and of “smearing” Mr. Cohen in a relentless series of televised appearances.
“I predicted this a long time ago before the warrants were even executed,” Mr. Avenatti said on Tuesday. “We feel extremely vindicated.”
Mr. Cohen’s plea culminates a long-running inquiry that became publicly known in April when F.B.I. agents armed with search warrants raided his office, apartment and hotel room, hauling away reams of documents, including pieces of paper salvaged from a shredder, and millions of electronic files contained on a series of cellphones, iPads and computers.
Lawyers for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump spent the next four months working with a court-appointed special master to review the documents and data files to determine whether any of the materials were subject to attorney-client privilege and should not be made available to the government.
The special master, Barbara S. Jones, who completed her review last week, issued a series of reports in recent months, finding that only a fraction of the materials were privileged and the rest could be provided to prosecutors for their investigation.
On Monday, the judge overseeing the review, Kimba M. Wood of Federal District Court in Manhattan, issued an order adopting Ms. Jones’s findings and ending the review process.
It was unclear on Tuesday what role the materials that Ms. Jones reviewed, which were made available to prosecutors on a rolling basis, may have had in the charges against Mr. Cohen.
One collateral effect of Mr. Cohen’s plea agreement is that it may allow Mr. Avenatti, Ms. Clifford’s lawyer, to proceed with a deposition of Mr. Trump in a lawsuit that Ms. Clifford filed accusing the president of breaking a nondisclosure agreement concerning their affair.
The lawsuit had been stayed by a judge pending the resolution of Mr. Cohen’s criminal case. Mr. Avenatti wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he would now seek to force Mr. Trump to testify “under oath about what he knew, when he knew it and what he did about it.”
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Michael Cohen Says He Arranged Payments to Women at Trump’s Direction
The former personal lawyer to President Trump pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.
By William K. Rashbaum, Maggie Haberman, Ben Protess and Jim Rutenberg
Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, made the extraordinary admission in court on Tuesday that Mr. Trump had directed him to arrange payments to two women during the 2016 campaign to keep them from speaking publicly about affairs they said they had with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cohen acknowledged the illegal payments while pleading guilty to breaking campaign finance laws and other charges, a litany of crimes that revealed both his shadowy involvement in Mr. Trump’s circle and his own corrupt business dealings.
He told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that the payments to the women were made “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.”
“I participated in this conduct, which on my part took place in Manhattan, for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016, Mr. Cohen said.
The plea represented a pivotal moment in the investigation into the president, and the scene in the Manhattan courtroom was striking. Mr. Cohen, a longtime lawyer for Mr. Trump — and loyal confidant — described in plain-spoken language how Mr. Trump worked with him to cover up a potential sex scandal that Mr. Trump feared would endanger his rising candidacy.
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of tax evasion and a single count of bank fraud, capping a monthslong investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors who examined his personal business dealings and his role in helping to arrange the financial deals with women connected to Mr. Trump.
The plea came shortly before another blow to the president: His former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was convicted in his financial fraud trial in Virginia. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, had built a case that Mr. Manafort hid millions of dollars in foreign accounts to evade taxes and lied to banks to obtain $20 million in loans.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have, for months, said privately that they considered Mr. Cohen’s case to be potentially more problematic for the president than the investigation by the special counsel.
But Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said in a statement after Mr. Cohen’s plea, “There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen.”
In federal court in Manhattan, Mr. Cohen made the admission about Mr. Trump’s role in the payments to the women — an adult film actress and a former Playboy playmate — as he pleaded guilty to two campaign finance crimes.
One of those charges stemmed from a $130,000 payment he made to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors said that Trump Organization executives were involved in reimbursing Mr. Cohen for that payment, accepting his phony invoices that listed it as a legal expense. The other charge concerned a complicated arrangement in which a tabloid bought the rights to the story about the former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, then killed it.
Mr. Cohen’s plea was announced by Robert Khuzami, the deputy United States attorney, along with senior officials from the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service. Addressing reporters outside the courthouse, Mr. Khuzami said that Mr. Cohen had “decided that he was above the law, and for that, he is going to pay a very, very serious price.”
The plea agreement does not call for Mr. Cohen to cooperate with federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Still, it does not preclude him from providing information to them later or to the special counsel, who is examining the Trump campaign’s possible involvement in Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign. If Mr. Cohen were to substantially assist the special counsel’s investigation, Mr. Mueller could recommend a reduction in his sentence.
Mr. Cohen had been the president’s longtime fixer, handling his most sensitive business and personal matters. He once said he would take a bullet for Mr. Trump.
As Mr. Cohen addressed the judge, admitting to the crimes he had committed, the packed courtroom remained silent. Even when Mr. Cohen made obvious references to Mr. Trump, referring to him as “the candidate” and “a candidate for federal office,” spectators seemed to listen raptly, with no gasps or audible reactions.
Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion for concealing more than $4 million in personal income from 2012 to 2016 and to one count of bank fraud, for failing to disclose $14 million in debts in an application for a $500,000 home equity line of credit. He also pleaded guilty to making an excessive campaign contribution and causing an unlawful corporate contribution during the 2016 election cycle.
He will be sentenced on Dec. 12 before Judge William H. Pauley III. Though Mr. Cohen faces a maximum of 65 years in prison, the plea agreement provides for a far more lenient sentence: The government calculated the sentencing guidelines at from 51 to 63 months and the defense put them at 46 to 57 months. A final guidelines determination will be made by the Probation Department, but the ultimate sentence will be determined by Judge Pauley.
Mr. Cohen’s attorney, Lanny J. Davis, said Mr. Cohen had put his family and country ahead of his loyalty to Mr. Trump. “He stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election,” Mr. Davis said. “If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”
Looming over the negotiations between prosecutors and Mr. Cohen has been the possibility of a presidential pardon. Mr. Trump reached out to Mr. Cohen by phone a few days after the F.B.I. raids, and they had dinner together a month earlier in March, at Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Cohen’s lawyer had loosely raised the issue of a pardon with an attorney for Mr. Trump several months ago, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.
By striking a deal with Mr. Cohen that includes prison time, federal authorities were aware of the risk that the president might pardon him, said another person briefed on the matter. But it is also possible that Mr. Cohen could eventually cooperate.
Prosecutors charged that Mr. Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Ms. Clifford was effectively a donation to Mr. Trump’s campaign, because by securing her silence it improved his electoral fortunes, and thus violated 2016 campaign finance law prohibitions against donations of more than $2,700 in a general election.
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to “causing” an illegal corporate donation to Mr. Trump through his involvement in a $150,000 payment American Media Inc. made to Ms. McDougal in late summer 2016 to buy the rights to her story, effectively securing her silence for the remainder of the campaign. Corporations are prohibited from coordinating political spending with candidates or their representatives. Mr. Cohen signed papers a month later to purchase the rights to her agreement from A.M.I., but the publisher backed out of the deal at the last minute.
The prosecutors filled in several blanks in a story that has been unfolding for months about the lengths to which Mr. Cohen went during the campaign to help his boss stave off embarrassing news about alleged affairs ahead of Election Day. And the charges confirmed that what might have seemed on the surface to have been only tawdry allegations involving an adult entertainment star and a former Playboy model may actually carry legal and political implications for a sitting president.
Prosecutors left little doubt that A.M.I. Inc., owner of The National Enquirer, became a de facto campaign proxy for Mr. Cohen in his efforts on behalf of Mr. Trump.
According to court papers, the publisher agreed in August 2015, months before the first primaries, to look out for damaging stories about Mr. Trump and his alleged affairs with women during talks with Mr. Cohen and “one or more” members of Mr. Trump’s campaign.
The tabloid company agreed to identify those stories “so they could be purchased and their publication avoided,” the prosecutors said on Tuesday — an inverted role for a tabloid scandal sheet such as The Enquirer, which went on to savage Mr. Trump’s opponents while promoting and protecting him.
That deal led to the arrangement with Ms. McDougal, which was struck in August 2016. But prosecutors also reported for the first time that A.M.I. was intimately involved in the arrangement with Ms. Clifford. The tabloid connected Mr. Cohen with the lawyer who had negotiated the McDougal contract, Keith Davidson. Mr. Davidson also had Ms. Clifford as a client and later hashed out the agreement for Ms. Clifford’s silence.
Prosecutors said in court papers that when Mr. Cohen initially failed to finalize the deal, an editor at A.M.I. — a likely reference to Dylan Howard, the company’s chief content officer — alerted Mr. Cohen that there was a risk that Ms. Clifford would sell her story to another media company, one that would publish it.
Mr. Cohen’s admission that he broke the law by paying off Ms. Clifford was a remarkable turnaround from the legal and publicity battle that he and his lawyers had waged against her. Ms. Clifford and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, have hounded Mr. Cohen since May, taunting him on social media and predicting his indictment. Mr. Cohen’s lawyers frequently fired back, accusing Mr. Avenatti of “fanning a media storm” and of “smearing” Mr. Cohen in a relentless series of televised appearances.
“I predicted this a long time ago before the warrants were even executed,” Mr. Avenatti said on Tuesday. “We feel extremely vindicated.”
Mr. Cohen’s plea culminates a long-running inquiry that became publicly known in April when F.B.I. agents armed with search warrants raided his office, apartment and hotel room, hauling away reams of documents, including pieces of paper salvaged from a shredder, and millions of electronic files contained on a series of cellphones, iPads and computers.
Lawyers for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump spent the next four months working with a court-appointed special master to review the documents and data files to determine whether any of the materials were subject to attorney-client privilege and should not be made available to the government.
The special master, Barbara S. Jones, who completed her review last week, issued a series of reports in recent months, finding that only a fraction of the materials were privileged and the rest could be provided to prosecutors for their investigation.
On Monday, the judge overseeing the review, Kimba M. Wood of Federal District Court in Manhattan, issued an order adopting Ms. Jones’s findings and ending the review process.
It was unclear on Tuesday what role the materials that Ms. Jones reviewed, which were made available to prosecutors on a rolling basis, may have had in the charges against Mr. Cohen.
One collateral effect of Mr. Cohen’s plea agreement is that it may allow Mr. Avenatti, Ms. Clifford’s lawyer, to proceed with a deposition of Mr. Trump in a lawsuit that Ms. Clifford filed accusing the president of breaking a nondisclosure agreement concerning their affair.
The lawsuit had been stayed by a judge pending the resolution of Mr. Cohen’s criminal case. Mr. Avenatti wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he would now seek to force Mr. Trump to testify “under oath about what he knew, when he knew it and what he did about it.”
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Paul Manafort Guilty of 8 Charges in Fraud Trial
By Sharon LaFraniere
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, was convicted on Tuesday in his financial fraud trial, bringing a dramatic end to a politically charged case that riveted the capital.
The verdict was a victory for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, whose prosecutors introduced extensive evidence that Mr. Manafort hid millions of dollars in foreign accounts to evade taxes and lied to banks repeatedly to obtain millions of dollars in loans.
Mr. Manafort was convicted of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the remaining 10 counts, and the judge declared a mistrial on those charges.
Kevin Downing, a lawyer for Mr. Manafort, said his client was “evaluating all of his options at this point.”
Jason Maloni, Mr. Manafort’s spokesman, said, “We expect to appeal.” Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mr. Mueller’s office, declined to comment.
The verdict was read out in United States District Court in Alexandria, Va., only minutes after Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer, pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to violating campaign finance law and other charges.
Mr. Manafort’s trial did not touch directly on Mr. Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election or on whether Mr. Trump has sought to obstruct the investigation.
But it was the first test of the special counsel’s ability to prosecute a case in a federal courtroom amid intense criticism from the president and his allies that the inquiry is a biased and unjustified witch hunt. And the outcome had substantial political implications, if only in denying Mr. Trump more ammunition for his campaign to discredit Mr. Mueller.
Before and during the trial, Mr. Trump both sought to defend Mr. Manafort as a victim of prosecutorial overreach and to distance himself from him, saying that Mr. Manafort had worked for him only relatively briefly.
After the verdict was announced, Mr. Trump said he felt “very badly” for Mr. Manafort and continued to maintain that the prosecution had been politically motivated.
“It doesn’t involve me,” Mr. Trump told reporters after landing in West Virginia for a rally on Tuesday evening. “It had nothing to do with Russian collusion.”
The trial focused on Mr. Manafort’s personal finances, in particular the tens of millions of dollars he made advising a political party in Ukraine that backed pro-Russia policies.
Defense lawyers had argued that Rick Gates, Mr. Manafort’s former right-hand man and the government’s star witness, was the real mastermind of the frauds. Mr. Gates had been charged along with Mr. Manafort in the case, but pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Mr. Manafort in exchange for the dismissal of a host of other charges and the possibility of a more lenient sentence.
The defense lawyers also suggested that Mr. Manafort had been targeted by prosecutors to pressure him into cooperating with Mr. Mueller’s inquiry into possible collusion by the Trump campaign with Russia in the 2016 election.
In his summation on Wednesday, Greg D. Andres, the lead prosecutor, told the jurors that the essence of the scheme was not complicated. “Mr. Manafort lied to keep more money when he had it, and lied to get more money when he didn’t,” he said.
Mr. Manafort faces a second criminal trial next month in Washington on seven other charges brought by the special counsel, including obstruction of justice, failure to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to launder money.
The trial in Alexandria drew lines of spectators that wound around the courthouse and was punctuated by moments of high drama. It examined in some detail Mr. Manafort’s sumptuous lifestyle, including his $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket and $1,500 dress shirts, and the meticulously landscaped flower bed in the shape of a giant “M” at his 10-bedroom Hamptons estate in New York.
Mr. Gates, who was on the stand far longer than any other witness, appeared confident when questioned by prosecutors. But his credibility came under assault during cross-examination by defense lawyers, who questioned him about his “secret life” with a paramour in a London flat.
Mr. Andres and Judge T. S. Ellis III, who presided over the trial, butted heads repeatedly. Mr. Andres complained that the judge interrupted every time the prosecution questioned a witness. Judge Ellis responded that Mr. Andres was so frustrated that he appeared on the verge of tears, which Mr. Andres denied.
As the prosecution wound up its case last week, the proceedings suddenly ground to a mysterious halt, raising hopes among Mr. Manafort’s allies that the judge might declare a mistrial. But after hours of secret discussions between the judge and the lawyers for both sides, the trial resumed.
Mr. Andres argued that the evidence of Mr. Manafort’s guilt was contained in documents that he himself wrote or signed and sent to his accountants, to loan officers and to Mr. Gates. While Mr. Gates was “no Boy Scout,” Mr. Andres said, his account was buttressed by other witnesses, including Mr. Manafort’s tax accountant.
Testifying under a grant of immunity, the accountant, Cynthia Laporta, said that she forwarded documents from Mr. Manafort to bank loan officers even though she believed they were false.
The defense said that Mr. Manafort had foolishly trusted Mr. Gates to handle his personal and business finances, and had relied on a phalanx of accountants and loan officers to flag serious mistakes in his financial filings.
Only after investigators from the special counsel’s office began “going through each piece of paper and finding anything that doesn’t match up to add to the weight of evidence against Mr. Manafort” did the discrepancies come to light, said Richard Westling, one of Mr. Manafort’s five lawyers.
Using multicolored flow charts in an attempt to simplify complex transactions, prosecutors tried to show that Mr. Manafort concealed more than $60 million in income in 31 foreign bank accounts opened in the names of shell companies.
The money came from Ukrainian oligarchs who paid Mr. Manafort to boost the political career of Viktor F. Yanukovych, a pro-Russian politician who, with Mr. Manafort’s help was elected president of Ukraine in 2010.
Financial analysts for the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service testified that Mr. Manafort transferred more than $15 million from those accounts to pay for landscaping, clothing, rugs, home renovations and entertainment systems. In 2012 alone, he wired enough money from the hidden accounts to purchase a loft in SoHo, a brownstone in Brooklyn and a residence in Arlington, Va., they said. Mr. Manafort also disguised some of his income as loans to avoid taxes, witnesses testified.
Prosecutors claimed that Mr. Manafort initiated another scheme after Mr. Yanukovych was forced out of office in 2014.
Defense lawyers acknowledged that Mr. Manafort had no income by the time the Trump campaign hired him in March 2016 as a volunteer, first to manage delegates to the Republican National Convention, then as campaign chairman. Still, he bought his annual season tickets to the New York Yankees, charging $210,600 to his American Express card that went unpaid for nearly a year.
In order to persuade three banks to loan him a total of $20 million, prosecutors said, Mr. Manafort added millions of dollars in fake income to his financial statements. Defense lawyers contended that the banks were well aware of Mr. Manafort’s overall financial situation, and gave him loans because he had a net worth of $21.2 million and valuable real estate as collateral.
Out of the jury’s earshot, Mr. Andres complained repeatedly to Judge Ellis that he was erecting unfair obstacles for the prosecution, interjecting when they tried to examine their witnesses on the stand. “The court interrupts every single one of the government’s directs, every single one,” he said.
The judge had criticized independent counsels this year, apparently conflating them with special counsels like Mr. Mueller, who operates under the supervision of the Justice Department. By the midpoint of the trial, he was markedly more polite to the prosecutors. He agreed to apologize to the jury for wrongly accusing them of making a courtroom mistake with a key witness.
Mr. Manafort’s lawyers said the prosecutors were engaging in overkill. “They had already thrown the kitchen sink at him,” one of them, Thomas Zehnle, told the judge at one point. “Now they are throwing the plumbing and the pipes.”
Without directly accusing the prosecutors of selective prosecution, they tried throughout the trial to sow doubt about their intentions. At the government’s request, Judge Ellis instructed the jury to “ignore any argument about the Justice Department’s motive or lack of motive,” a last-minute warning that might only have underscored the question.
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Michael Cohen Says He Arranged Payments to Women at Trump’s Direction
The former personal lawyer to President Trump pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.
By William K. Rashbaum, Maggie Haberman, Ben Protess and Jim Rutenberg
Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, made the extraordinary admission in court on Tuesday that Mr. Trump had directed him to arrange payments to two women during the 2016 campaign to keep them from speaking publicly about affairs they said they had with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cohen acknowledged the illegal payments while pleading guilty to breaking campaign finance laws and other charges, a litany of crimes that revealed both his shadowy involvement in Mr. Trump’s circle and his own corrupt business dealings.
He told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that the payments to the women were made “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.”
“I participated in this conduct, which on my part took place in Manhattan, for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016, Mr. Cohen said.
The plea represented a pivotal moment in the investigation into the president, and the scene in the Manhattan courtroom was striking. Mr. Cohen, a longtime lawyer for Mr. Trump — and loyal confidant — described in plain-spoken language how Mr. Trump worked with him to cover up a potential sex scandal that Mr. Trump feared would endanger his rising candidacy.
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of tax evasion and a single count of bank fraud, capping a monthslong investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors who examined his personal business dealings and his role in helping to arrange the financial deals with women connected to Mr. Trump.
The plea came shortly before another blow to the president: His former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was convicted in his financial fraud trial in Virginia. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, had built a case that Mr. Manafort hid millions of dollars in foreign accounts to evade taxes and lied to banks to obtain $20 million in loans.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have, for months, said privately that they considered Mr. Cohen’s case to be potentially more problematic for the president than the investigation by the special counsel.
But Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said in a statement after Mr. Cohen’s plea, “There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen.”
In federal court in Manhattan, Mr. Cohen made the admission about Mr. Trump’s role in the payments to the women — an adult film actress and a former Playboy playmate — as he pleaded guilty to two campaign finance crimes.
One of those charges stemmed from a $130,000 payment he made to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors said that Trump Organization executives were involved in reimbursing Mr. Cohen for that payment, accepting his phony invoices that listed it as a legal expense. The other charge concerned a complicated arrangement in which a tabloid bought the rights to the story about the former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, then killed it.
Mr. Cohen’s plea was announced by Robert Khuzami, the deputy United States attorney, along with senior officials from the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service. Addressing reporters outside the courthouse, Mr. Khuzami said that Mr. Cohen had “decided that he was above the law, and for that, he is going to pay a very, very serious price.”
The plea agreement does not call for Mr. Cohen to cooperate with federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Still, it does not preclude him from providing information to them later or to the special counsel, who is examining the Trump campaign’s possible involvement in Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign. If Mr. Cohen were to substantially assist the special counsel’s investigation, Mr. Mueller could recommend a reduction in his sentence.
Mr. Cohen had been the president’s longtime fixer, handling his most sensitive business and personal matters. He once said he would take a bullet for Mr. Trump.
As Mr. Cohen addressed the judge, admitting to the crimes he had committed, the packed courtroom remained silent. Even when Mr. Cohen made obvious references to Mr. Trump, referring to him as “the candidate” and “a candidate for federal office,” spectators seemed to listen raptly, with no gasps or audible reactions.
Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion for concealing more than $4 million in personal income from 2012 to 2016 and to one count of bank fraud, for failing to disclose $14 million in debts in an application for a $500,000 home equity line of credit. He also pleaded guilty to making an excessive campaign contribution and causing an unlawful corporate contribution during the 2016 election cycle.
He will be sentenced on Dec. 12 before Judge William H. Pauley III. Though Mr. Cohen faces a maximum of 65 years in prison, the plea agreement provides for a far more lenient sentence: The government calculated the sentencing guidelines at from 51 to 63 months and the defense put them at 46 to 57 months. A final guidelines determination will be made by the Probation Department, but the ultimate sentence will be determined by Judge Pauley.
Mr. Cohen’s attorney, Lanny J. Davis, said Mr. Cohen had put his family and country ahead of his loyalty to Mr. Trump. “He stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election,” Mr. Davis said. “If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”
Looming over the negotiations between prosecutors and Mr. Cohen has been the possibility of a presidential pardon. Mr. Trump reached out to Mr. Cohen by phone a few days after the F.B.I. raids, and they had dinner together a month earlier in March, at Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Cohen’s lawyer had loosely raised the issue of a pardon with an attorney for Mr. Trump several months ago, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.
By striking a deal with Mr. Cohen that includes prison time, federal authorities were aware of the risk that the president might pardon him, said another person briefed on the matter. But it is also possible that Mr. Cohen could eventually cooperate.
Prosecutors charged that Mr. Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Ms. Clifford was effectively a donation to Mr. Trump’s campaign, because by securing her silence it improved his electoral fortunes, and thus violated 2016 campaign finance law prohibitions against donations of more than $2,700 in a general election.
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to “causing” an illegal corporate donation to Mr. Trump through his involvement in a $150,000 payment American Media Inc. made to Ms. McDougal in late summer 2016 to buy the rights to her story, effectively securing her silence for the remainder of the campaign. Corporations are prohibited from coordinating political spending with candidates or their representatives. Mr. Cohen signed papers a month later to purchase the rights to her agreement from A.M.I., but the publisher backed out of the deal at the last minute.
The prosecutors filled in several blanks in a story that has been unfolding for months about the lengths to which Mr. Cohen went during the campaign to help his boss stave off embarrassing news about alleged affairs ahead of Election Day. And the charges confirmed that what might have seemed on the surface to have been only tawdry allegations involving an adult entertainment star and a former Playboy model may actually carry legal and political implications for a sitting president.
Prosecutors left little doubt that A.M.I. Inc., owner of The National Enquirer, became a de facto campaign proxy for Mr. Cohen in his efforts on behalf of Mr. Trump.
According to court papers, the publisher agreed in August 2015, months before the first primaries, to look out for damaging stories about Mr. Trump and his alleged affairs with women during talks with Mr. Cohen and “one or more” members of Mr. Trump’s campaign.
The tabloid company agreed to identify those stories “so they could be purchased and their publication avoided,” the prosecutors said on Tuesday — an inverted role for a tabloid scandal sheet such as The Enquirer, which went on to savage Mr. Trump’s opponents while promoting and protecting him.
That deal led to the arrangement with Ms. McDougal, which was struck in August 2016. But prosecutors also reported for the first time that A.M.I. was intimately involved in the arrangement with Ms. Clifford. The tabloid connected Mr. Cohen with the lawyer who had negotiated the McDougal contract, Keith Davidson. Mr. Davidson also had Ms. Clifford as a client and later hashed out the agreement for Ms. Clifford’s silence.
Prosecutors said in court papers that when Mr. Cohen initially failed to finalize the deal, an editor at A.M.I. — a likely reference to Dylan Howard, the company’s chief content officer — alerted Mr. Cohen that there was a risk that Ms. Clifford would sell her story to another media company, one that would publish it.
Mr. Cohen’s admission that he broke the law by paying off Ms. Clifford was a remarkable turnaround from the legal and publicity battle that he and his lawyers had waged against her. Ms. Clifford and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, have hounded Mr. Cohen since May, taunting him on social media and predicting his indictment. Mr. Cohen’s lawyers frequently fired back, accusing Mr. Avenatti of “fanning a media storm” and of “smearing” Mr. Cohen in a relentless series of televised appearances.
“I predicted this a long time ago before the warrants were even executed,” Mr. Avenatti said on Tuesday. “We feel extremely vindicated.”
Mr. Cohen’s plea culminates a long-running inquiry that became publicly known in April when F.B.I. agents armed with search warrants raided his office, apartment and hotel room, hauling away reams of documents, including pieces of paper salvaged from a shredder, and millions of electronic files contained on a series of cellphones, iPads and computers.
Lawyers for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump spent the next four months working with a court-appointed special master to review the documents and data files to determine whether any of the materials were subject to attorney-client privilege and should not be made available to the government.
The special master, Barbara S. Jones, who completed her review last week, issued a series of reports in recent months, finding that only a fraction of the materials were privileged and the rest could be provided to prosecutors for their investigation.
On Monday, the judge overseeing the review, Kimba M. Wood of Federal District Court in Manhattan, issued an order adopting Ms. Jones’s findings and ending the review process.
It was unclear on Tuesday what role the materials that Ms. Jones reviewed, which were made available to prosecutors on a rolling basis, may have had in the charges against Mr. Cohen.
One collateral effect of Mr. Cohen’s plea agreement is that it may allow Mr. Avenatti, Ms. Clifford’s lawyer, to proceed with a deposition of Mr. Trump in a lawsuit that Ms. Clifford filed accusing the president of breaking a nondisclosure agreement concerning their affair.
The lawsuit had been stayed by a judge pending the resolution of Mr. Cohen’s criminal case. Mr. Avenatti wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he would now seek to force Mr. Trump to testify “under oath about what he knew, when he knew it and what he did about it.”
Trump guilty of being a Alpha heterosexual male and liking women
Unlike you - you Queer arse fucking homo
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Michael Cohen Says He Arranged Payments to Women at Trump’s Direction
The former personal lawyer to President Trump pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.
By William K. Rashbaum, Maggie Haberman, Ben Protess and Jim Rutenberg
Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, made the extraordinary admission in court on Tuesday that Mr. Trump had directed him to arrange payments to two women during the 2016 campaign to keep them from speaking publicly about affairs they said they had with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cohen acknowledged the illegal payments while pleading guilty to breaking campaign finance laws and other charges, a litany of crimes that revealed both his shadowy involvement in Mr. Trump’s circle and his own corrupt business dealings.
He told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that the payments to the women were made “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.”
“I participated in this conduct, which on my part took place in Manhattan, for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016, Mr. Cohen said.
The plea represented a pivotal moment in the investigation into the president, and the scene in the Manhattan courtroom was striking. Mr. Cohen, a longtime lawyer for Mr. Trump — and loyal confidant — described in plain-spoken language how Mr. Trump worked with him to cover up a potential sex scandal that Mr. Trump feared would endanger his rising candidacy.
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of tax evasion and a single count of bank fraud, capping a monthslong investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors who examined his personal business dealings and his role in helping to arrange the financial deals with women connected to Mr. Trump.
The plea came shortly before another blow to the president: His former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was convicted in his financial fraud trial in Virginia. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, had built a case that Mr. Manafort hid millions of dollars in foreign accounts to evade taxes and lied to banks to obtain $20 million in loans.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have, for months, said privately that they considered Mr. Cohen’s case to be potentially more problematic for the president than the investigation by the special counsel.
But Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said in a statement after Mr. Cohen’s plea, “There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen.”
In federal court in Manhattan, Mr. Cohen made the admission about Mr. Trump’s role in the payments to the women — an adult film actress and a former Playboy playmate — as he pleaded guilty to two campaign finance crimes.
One of those charges stemmed from a $130,000 payment he made to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors said that Trump Organization executives were involved in reimbursing Mr. Cohen for that payment, accepting his phony invoices that listed it as a legal expense. The other charge concerned a complicated arrangement in which a tabloid bought the rights to the story about the former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, then killed it.
Mr. Cohen’s plea was announced by Robert Khuzami, the deputy United States attorney, along with senior officials from the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service. Addressing reporters outside the courthouse, Mr. Khuzami said that Mr. Cohen had “decided that he was above the law, and for that, he is going to pay a very, very serious price.”
The plea agreement does not call for Mr. Cohen to cooperate with federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Still, it does not preclude him from providing information to them later or to the special counsel, who is examining the Trump campaign’s possible involvement in Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign. If Mr. Cohen were to substantially assist the special counsel’s investigation, Mr. Mueller could recommend a reduction in his sentence.
Mr. Cohen had been the president’s longtime fixer, handling his most sensitive business and personal matters. He once said he would take a bullet for Mr. Trump.
As Mr. Cohen addressed the judge, admitting to the crimes he had committed, the packed courtroom remained silent. Even when Mr. Cohen made obvious references to Mr. Trump, referring to him as “the candidate” and “a candidate for federal office,” spectators seemed to listen raptly, with no gasps or audible reactions.
Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion for concealing more than $4 million in personal income from 2012 to 2016 and to one count of bank fraud, for failing to disclose $14 million in debts in an application for a $500,000 home equity line of credit. He also pleaded guilty to making an excessive campaign contribution and causing an unlawful corporate contribution during the 2016 election cycle.
He will be sentenced on Dec. 12 before Judge William H. Pauley III. Though Mr. Cohen faces a maximum of 65 years in prison, the plea agreement provides for a far more lenient sentence: The government calculated the sentencing guidelines at from 51 to 63 months and the defense put them at 46 to 57 months. A final guidelines determination will be made by the Probation Department, but the ultimate sentence will be determined by Judge Pauley.
Mr. Cohen’s attorney, Lanny J. Davis, said Mr. Cohen had put his family and country ahead of his loyalty to Mr. Trump. “He stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election,” Mr. Davis said. “If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”
Looming over the negotiations between prosecutors and Mr. Cohen has been the possibility of a presidential pardon. Mr. Trump reached out to Mr. Cohen by phone a few days after the F.B.I. raids, and they had dinner together a month earlier in March, at Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Cohen’s lawyer had loosely raised the issue of a pardon with an attorney for Mr. Trump several months ago, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.
By striking a deal with Mr. Cohen that includes prison time, federal authorities were aware of the risk that the president might pardon him, said another person briefed on the matter. But it is also possible that Mr. Cohen could eventually cooperate.
Prosecutors charged that Mr. Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Ms. Clifford was effectively a donation to Mr. Trump’s campaign, because by securing her silence it improved his electoral fortunes, and thus violated 2016 campaign finance law prohibitions against donations of more than $2,700 in a general election.
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to “causing” an illegal corporate donation to Mr. Trump through his involvement in a $150,000 payment American Media Inc. made to Ms. McDougal in late summer 2016 to buy the rights to her story, effectively securing her silence for the remainder of the campaign. Corporations are prohibited from coordinating political spending with candidates or their representatives. Mr. Cohen signed papers a month later to purchase the rights to her agreement from A.M.I., but the publisher backed out of the deal at the last minute.
The prosecutors filled in several blanks in a story that has been unfolding for months about the lengths to which Mr. Cohen went during the campaign to help his boss stave off embarrassing news about alleged affairs ahead of Election Day. And the charges confirmed that what might have seemed on the surface to have been only tawdry allegations involving an adult entertainment star and a former Playboy model may actually carry legal and political implications for a sitting president.
Prosecutors left little doubt that A.M.I. Inc., owner of The National Enquirer, became a de facto campaign proxy for Mr. Cohen in his efforts on behalf of Mr. Trump.
According to court papers, the publisher agreed in August 2015, months before the first primaries, to look out for damaging stories about Mr. Trump and his alleged affairs with women during talks with Mr. Cohen and “one or more” members of Mr. Trump’s campaign.
The tabloid company agreed to identify those stories “so they could be purchased and their publication avoided,” the prosecutors said on Tuesday — an inverted role for a tabloid scandal sheet such as The Enquirer, which went on to savage Mr. Trump’s opponents while promoting and protecting him.
That deal led to the arrangement with Ms. McDougal, which was struck in August 2016. But prosecutors also reported for the first time that A.M.I. was intimately involved in the arrangement with Ms. Clifford. The tabloid connected Mr. Cohen with the lawyer who had negotiated the McDougal contract, Keith Davidson. Mr. Davidson also had Ms. Clifford as a client and later hashed out the agreement for Ms. Clifford’s silence.
Prosecutors said in court papers that when Mr. Cohen initially failed to finalize the deal, an editor at A.M.I. — a likely reference to Dylan Howard, the company’s chief content officer — alerted Mr. Cohen that there was a risk that Ms. Clifford would sell her story to another media company, one that would publish it.
Mr. Cohen’s admission that he broke the law by paying off Ms. Clifford was a remarkable turnaround from the legal and publicity battle that he and his lawyers had waged against her. Ms. Clifford and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, have hounded Mr. Cohen since May, taunting him on social media and predicting his indictment. Mr. Cohen’s lawyers frequently fired back, accusing Mr. Avenatti of “fanning a media storm” and of “smearing” Mr. Cohen in a relentless series of televised appearances.
“I predicted this a long time ago before the warrants were even executed,” Mr. Avenatti said on Tuesday. “We feel extremely vindicated.”
Mr. Cohen’s plea culminates a long-running inquiry that became publicly known in April when F.B.I. agents armed with search warrants raided his office, apartment and hotel room, hauling away reams of documents, including pieces of paper salvaged from a shredder, and millions of electronic files contained on a series of cellphones, iPads and computers.
Lawyers for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump spent the next four months working with a court-appointed special master to review the documents and data files to determine whether any of the materials were subject to attorney-client privilege and should not be made available to the government.
The special master, Barbara S. Jones, who completed her review last week, issued a series of reports in recent months, finding that only a fraction of the materials were privileged and the rest could be provided to prosecutors for their investigation.
On Monday, the judge overseeing the review, Kimba M. Wood of Federal District Court in Manhattan, issued an order adopting Ms. Jones’s findings and ending the review process.
It was unclear on Tuesday what role the materials that Ms. Jones reviewed, which were made available to prosecutors on a rolling basis, may have had in the charges against Mr. Cohen.
One collateral effect of Mr. Cohen’s plea agreement is that it may allow Mr. Avenatti, Ms. Clifford’s lawyer, to proceed with a deposition of Mr. Trump in a lawsuit that Ms. Clifford filed accusing the president of breaking a nondisclosure agreement concerning their affair.
The lawsuit had been stayed by a judge pending the resolution of Mr. Cohen’s criminal case. Mr. Avenatti wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he would now seek to force Mr. Trump to testify “under oath about what he knew, when he knew it and what he did about it.”
If you take from the heading. It’s not illegal
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Paul Manafort Guilty of 8 Charges in Fraud Trial
By Sharon LaFraniere
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, was convicted on Tuesday in his financial fraud trial, bringing a dramatic end to a politically charged case that riveted the capital.
The verdict was a victory for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, whose prosecutors introduced extensive evidence that Mr. Manafort hid millions of dollars in foreign accounts to evade taxes and lied to banks repeatedly to obtain millions of dollars in loans.
Mr. Manafort was convicted of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the remaining 10 counts, and the judge declared a mistrial on those charges.
Kevin Downing, a lawyer for Mr. Manafort, said his client was “evaluating all of his options at this point.”
Jason Maloni, Mr. Manafort’s spokesman, said, “We expect to appeal.” Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mr. Mueller’s office, declined to comment.
The verdict was read out in United States District Court in Alexandria, Va., only minutes after Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer, pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to violating campaign finance law and other charges.
Mr. Manafort’s trial did not touch directly on Mr. Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election or on whether Mr. Trump has sought to obstruct the investigation.
But it was the first test of the special counsel’s ability to prosecute a case in a federal courtroom amid intense criticism from the president and his allies that the inquiry is a biased and unjustified witch hunt. And the outcome had substantial political implications, if only in denying Mr. Trump more ammunition for his campaign to discredit Mr. Mueller.
Before and during the trial, Mr. Trump both sought to defend Mr. Manafort as a victim of prosecutorial overreach and to distance himself from him, saying that Mr. Manafort had worked for him only relatively briefly.
After the verdict was announced, Mr. Trump said he felt “very badly” for Mr. Manafort and continued to maintain that the prosecution had been politically motivated.
“It doesn’t involve me,” Mr. Trump told reporters after landing in West Virginia for a rally on Tuesday evening. “It had nothing to do with Russian collusion.”
The trial focused on Mr. Manafort’s personal finances, in particular the tens of millions of dollars he made advising a political party in Ukraine that backed pro-Russia policies.
Defense lawyers had argued that Rick Gates, Mr. Manafort’s former right-hand man and the government’s star witness, was the real mastermind of the frauds. Mr. Gates had been charged along with Mr. Manafort in the case, but pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Mr. Manafort in exchange for the dismissal of a host of other charges and the possibility of a more lenient sentence.
The defense lawyers also suggested that Mr. Manafort had been targeted by prosecutors to pressure him into cooperating with Mr. Mueller’s inquiry into possible collusion by the Trump campaign with Russia in the 2016 election.
In his summation on Wednesday, Greg D. Andres, the lead prosecutor, told the jurors that the essence of the scheme was not complicated. “Mr. Manafort lied to keep more money when he had it, and lied to get more money when he didn’t,” he said.
Mr. Manafort faces a second criminal trial next month in Washington on seven other charges brought by the special counsel, including obstruction of justice, failure to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to launder money.
The trial in Alexandria drew lines of spectators that wound around the courthouse and was punctuated by moments of high drama. It examined in some detail Mr. Manafort’s sumptuous lifestyle, including his $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket and $1,500 dress shirts, and the meticulously landscaped flower bed in the shape of a giant “M” at his 10-bedroom Hamptons estate in New York.
Mr. Gates, who was on the stand far longer than any other witness, appeared confident when questioned by prosecutors. But his credibility came under assault during cross-examination by defense lawyers, who questioned him about his “secret life” with a paramour in a London flat.
Mr. Andres and Judge T. S. Ellis III, who presided over the trial, butted heads repeatedly. Mr. Andres complained that the judge interrupted every time the prosecution questioned a witness. Judge Ellis responded that Mr. Andres was so frustrated that he appeared on the verge of tears, which Mr. Andres denied.
As the prosecution wound up its case last week, the proceedings suddenly ground to a mysterious halt, raising hopes among Mr. Manafort’s allies that the judge might declare a mistrial. But after hours of secret discussions between the judge and the lawyers for both sides, the trial resumed.
Mr. Andres argued that the evidence of Mr. Manafort’s guilt was contained in documents that he himself wrote or signed and sent to his accountants, to loan officers and to Mr. Gates. While Mr. Gates was “no Boy Scout,” Mr. Andres said, his account was buttressed by other witnesses, including Mr. Manafort’s tax accountant.
Testifying under a grant of immunity, the accountant, Cynthia Laporta, said that she forwarded documents from Mr. Manafort to bank loan officers even though she believed they were false.
The defense said that Mr. Manafort had foolishly trusted Mr. Gates to handle his personal and business finances, and had relied on a phalanx of accountants and loan officers to flag serious mistakes in his financial filings.
Only after investigators from the special counsel’s office began “going through each piece of paper and finding anything that doesn’t match up to add to the weight of evidence against Mr. Manafort” did the discrepancies come to light, said Richard Westling, one of Mr. Manafort’s five lawyers.
Using multicolored flow charts in an attempt to simplify complex transactions, prosecutors tried to show that Mr. Manafort concealed more than $60 million in income in 31 foreign bank accounts opened in the names of shell companies.
The money came from Ukrainian oligarchs who paid Mr. Manafort to boost the political career of Viktor F. Yanukovych, a pro-Russian politician who, with Mr. Manafort’s help was elected president of Ukraine in 2010.
Financial analysts for the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service testified that Mr. Manafort transferred more than $15 million from those accounts to pay for landscaping, clothing, rugs, home renovations and entertainment systems. In 2012 alone, he wired enough money from the hidden accounts to purchase a loft in SoHo, a brownstone in Brooklyn and a residence in Arlington, Va., they said. Mr. Manafort also disguised some of his income as loans to avoid taxes, witnesses testified.
Prosecutors claimed that Mr. Manafort initiated another scheme after Mr. Yanukovych was forced out of office in 2014.
Defense lawyers acknowledged that Mr. Manafort had no income by the time the Trump campaign hired him in March 2016 as a volunteer, first to manage delegates to the Republican National Convention, then as campaign chairman. Still, he bought his annual season tickets to the New York Yankees, charging $210,600 to his American Express card that went unpaid for nearly a year.
In order to persuade three banks to loan him a total of $20 million, prosecutors said, Mr. Manafort added millions of dollars in fake income to his financial statements. Defense lawyers contended that the banks were well aware of Mr. Manafort’s overall financial situation, and gave him loans because he had a net worth of $21.2 million and valuable real estate as collateral.
Out of the jury’s earshot, Mr. Andres complained repeatedly to Judge Ellis that he was erecting unfair obstacles for the prosecution, interjecting when they tried to examine their witnesses on the stand. “The court interrupts every single one of the government’s directs, every single one,” he said.
The judge had criticized independent counsels this year, apparently conflating them with special counsels like Mr. Mueller, who operates under the supervision of the Justice Department. By the midpoint of the trial, he was markedly more polite to the prosecutors. He agreed to apologize to the jury for wrongly accusing them of making a courtroom mistake with a key witness.
Mr. Manafort’s lawyers said the prosecutors were engaging in overkill. “They had already thrown the kitchen sink at him,” one of them, Thomas Zehnle, told the judge at one point. “Now they are throwing the plumbing and the pipes.”
Without directly accusing the prosecutors of selective prosecution, they tried throughout the trial to sow doubt about their intentions. At the government’s request, Judge Ellis instructed the jury to “ignore any argument about the Justice Department’s motive or lack of motive,” a last-minute warning that might only have underscored the question.
I don’t blame you for being naive. You only have one gear, leftist. But let’s start here and feel free to dispute it..
This is a guilty plea. It’s not an adjudication,” Levin explained. “Prosecutors and Cohen cut a deal. It’s a plea bargain. It’s not a precedent. … They obviously had more on Michael Cohen, or Michael Cohen wouldn’t have cut a deal.”
“Let’s say a candidate says, ‘Get a nondisclosure agreement, pay the funds out of my pocket, because I don’t want this person to attack me during the campaign for something that occurred before the campaign.’ That’s perfectly legal. That’s not a campaign expenditure.”
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Michael Cohen Says He Arranged Payments to Women at Trump’s Direction
The former personal lawyer to President Trump pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.
By William K. Rashbaum, Maggie Haberman, Ben Protess and Jim Rutenberg
Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, made the extraordinary admission in court on Tuesday that Mr. Trump had directed him to arrange payments to two women during the 2016 campaign to keep them from speaking publicly about affairs they said they had with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cohen acknowledged the illegal payments while pleading guilty to breaking campaign finance laws and other charges, a litany of crimes that revealed both his shadowy involvement in Mr. Trump’s circle and his own corrupt business dealings.
He told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that the payments to the women were made “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.”
“I participated in this conduct, which on my part took place in Manhattan, for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016, Mr. Cohen said.
The plea represented a pivotal moment in the investigation into the president, and the scene in the Manhattan courtroom was striking. Mr. Cohen, a longtime lawyer for Mr. Trump — and loyal confidant — described in plain-spoken language how Mr. Trump worked with him to cover up a potential sex scandal that Mr. Trump feared would endanger his rising candidacy.
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of tax evasion and a single count of bank fraud, capping a monthslong investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors who examined his personal business dealings and his role in helping to arrange the financial deals with women connected to Mr. Trump.
The plea came shortly before another blow to the president: His former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was convicted in his financial fraud trial in Virginia. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, had built a case that Mr. Manafort hid millions of dollars in foreign accounts to evade taxes and lied to banks to obtain $20 million in loans.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have, for months, said privately that they considered Mr. Cohen’s case to be potentially more problematic for the president than the investigation by the special counsel.
But Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said in a statement after Mr. Cohen’s plea, “There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen.”
In federal court in Manhattan, Mr. Cohen made the admission about Mr. Trump’s role in the payments to the women — an adult film actress and a former Playboy playmate — as he pleaded guilty to two campaign finance crimes.
One of those charges stemmed from a $130,000 payment he made to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors said that Trump Organization executives were involved in reimbursing Mr. Cohen for that payment, accepting his phony invoices that listed it as a legal expense. The other charge concerned a complicated arrangement in which a tabloid bought the rights to the story about the former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, then killed it.
Mr. Cohen’s plea was announced by Robert Khuzami, the deputy United States attorney, along with senior officials from the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service. Addressing reporters outside the courthouse, Mr. Khuzami said that Mr. Cohen had “decided that he was above the law, and for that, he is going to pay a very, very serious price.”
The plea agreement does not call for Mr. Cohen to cooperate with federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Still, it does not preclude him from providing information to them later or to the special counsel, who is examining the Trump campaign’s possible involvement in Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign. If Mr. Cohen were to substantially assist the special counsel’s investigation, Mr. Mueller could recommend a reduction in his sentence.
Mr. Cohen had been the president’s longtime fixer, handling his most sensitive business and personal matters. He once said he would take a bullet for Mr. Trump.
As Mr. Cohen addressed the judge, admitting to the crimes he had committed, the packed courtroom remained silent. Even when Mr. Cohen made obvious references to Mr. Trump, referring to him as “the candidate” and “a candidate for federal office,” spectators seemed to listen raptly, with no gasps or audible reactions.
Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion for concealing more than $4 million in personal income from 2012 to 2016 and to one count of bank fraud, for failing to disclose $14 million in debts in an application for a $500,000 home equity line of credit. He also pleaded guilty to making an excessive campaign contribution and causing an unlawful corporate contribution during the 2016 election cycle.
He will be sentenced on Dec. 12 before Judge William H. Pauley III. Though Mr. Cohen faces a maximum of 65 years in prison, the plea agreement provides for a far more lenient sentence: The government calculated the sentencing guidelines at from 51 to 63 months and the defense put them at 46 to 57 months. A final guidelines determination will be made by the Probation Department, but the ultimate sentence will be determined by Judge Pauley.
Mr. Cohen’s attorney, Lanny J. Davis, said Mr. Cohen had put his family and country ahead of his loyalty to Mr. Trump. “He stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election,” Mr. Davis said. “If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”
Looming over the negotiations between prosecutors and Mr. Cohen has been the possibility of a presidential pardon. Mr. Trump reached out to Mr. Cohen by phone a few days after the F.B.I. raids, and they had dinner together a month earlier in March, at Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Cohen’s lawyer had loosely raised the issue of a pardon with an attorney for Mr. Trump several months ago, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.
By striking a deal with Mr. Cohen that includes prison time, federal authorities were aware of the risk that the president might pardon him, said another person briefed on the matter. But it is also possible that Mr. Cohen could eventually cooperate.
Prosecutors charged that Mr. Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Ms. Clifford was effectively a donation to Mr. Trump’s campaign, because by securing her silence it improved his electoral fortunes, and thus violated 2016 campaign finance law prohibitions against donations of more than $2,700 in a general election.
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to “causing” an illegal corporate donation to Mr. Trump through his involvement in a $150,000 payment American Media Inc. made to Ms. McDougal in late summer 2016 to buy the rights to her story, effectively securing her silence for the remainder of the campaign. Corporations are prohibited from coordinating political spending with candidates or their representatives. Mr. Cohen signed papers a month later to purchase the rights to her agreement from A.M.I., but the publisher backed out of the deal at the last minute.
The prosecutors filled in several blanks in a story that has been unfolding for months about the lengths to which Mr. Cohen went during the campaign to help his boss stave off embarrassing news about alleged affairs ahead of Election Day. And the charges confirmed that what might have seemed on the surface to have been only tawdry allegations involving an adult entertainment star and a former Playboy model may actually carry legal and political implications for a sitting president.
Prosecutors left little doubt that A.M.I. Inc., owner of The National Enquirer, became a de facto campaign proxy for Mr. Cohen in his efforts on behalf of Mr. Trump.
According to court papers, the publisher agreed in August 2015, months before the first primaries, to look out for damaging stories about Mr. Trump and his alleged affairs with women during talks with Mr. Cohen and “one or more” members of Mr. Trump’s campaign.
The tabloid company agreed to identify those stories “so they could be purchased and their publication avoided,” the prosecutors said on Tuesday — an inverted role for a tabloid scandal sheet such as The Enquirer, which went on to savage Mr. Trump’s opponents while promoting and protecting him.
That deal led to the arrangement with Ms. McDougal, which was struck in August 2016. But prosecutors also reported for the first time that A.M.I. was intimately involved in the arrangement with Ms. Clifford. The tabloid connected Mr. Cohen with the lawyer who had negotiated the McDougal contract, Keith Davidson. Mr. Davidson also had Ms. Clifford as a client and later hashed out the agreement for Ms. Clifford’s silence.
Prosecutors said in court papers that when Mr. Cohen initially failed to finalize the deal, an editor at A.M.I. — a likely reference to Dylan Howard, the company’s chief content officer — alerted Mr. Cohen that there was a risk that Ms. Clifford would sell her story to another media company, one that would publish it.
Mr. Cohen’s admission that he broke the law by paying off Ms. Clifford was a remarkable turnaround from the legal and publicity battle that he and his lawyers had waged against her. Ms. Clifford and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, have hounded Mr. Cohen since May, taunting him on social media and predicting his indictment. Mr. Cohen’s lawyers frequently fired back, accusing Mr. Avenatti of “fanning a media storm” and of “smearing” Mr. Cohen in a relentless series of televised appearances.
“I predicted this a long time ago before the warrants were even executed,” Mr. Avenatti said on Tuesday. “We feel extremely vindicated.”
Mr. Cohen’s plea culminates a long-running inquiry that became publicly known in April when F.B.I. agents armed with search warrants raided his office, apartment and hotel room, hauling away reams of documents, including pieces of paper salvaged from a shredder, and millions of electronic files contained on a series of cellphones, iPads and computers.
Lawyers for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump spent the next four months working with a court-appointed special master to review the documents and data files to determine whether any of the materials were subject to attorney-client privilege and should not be made available to the government.
The special master, Barbara S. Jones, who completed her review last week, issued a series of reports in recent months, finding that only a fraction of the materials were privileged and the rest could be provided to prosecutors for their investigation.
On Monday, the judge overseeing the review, Kimba M. Wood of Federal District Court in Manhattan, issued an order adopting Ms. Jones’s findings and ending the review process.
It was unclear on Tuesday what role the materials that Ms. Jones reviewed, which were made available to prosecutors on a rolling basis, may have had in the charges against Mr. Cohen.
One collateral effect of Mr. Cohen’s plea agreement is that it may allow Mr. Avenatti, Ms. Clifford’s lawyer, to proceed with a deposition of Mr. Trump in a lawsuit that Ms. Clifford filed accusing the president of breaking a nondisclosure agreement concerning their affair.
The lawsuit had been stayed by a judge pending the resolution of Mr. Cohen’s criminal case. Mr. Avenatti wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he would now seek to force Mr. Trump to testify “under oath about what he knew, when he knew it and what he did about it.”
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LOL ;D
Many will secretly vote for Trump, but never admit to it. Some will even lie and say they voted for Hillary.
Pretty sad when admitting to voting for Trump is politically incorrect, but saying that you voted for a criminal it's okay and socially accepted.
Are you talking about yourself? Did you just make this up out of thin air? If not what are you basing it on?
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Trump will be fine. Settle down. You guys weren't into politics when Clinton was in office I take it? It went on for YEARS and nothing happened. Posturing for elections. Same as it ever was.
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Trump will be fine. Settle down. You guys weren't into politics when Clinton was in office I take it? It went on for YEARS and nothing happened. Posturing for elections. Same as it ever was.
People have let their political hatred of the opposite party turn into hatred for this country. How many people in the media and on TV have openly hoped for this country to fail so they could get Trump out of office? This isn't like the Clinton days, where everyone on both sides was watching to see what happened, this is politically driven by liberals still upset that killary lost the election to Trump after the media brainwashed them into thinking she had a 93% chance of winning. :D
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People have let their political hatred of the opposite party turn into hatred for this country. How many people in the media and on TV have openly hoped for this country to fail so they could get Trump out of office? This isn't like the Clinton days, where everyone on both sides was watching to see what happened, this is politically driven by liberals still upset that killary lost the election to Trump after the media brainwashed them into thinking she had a 93% chance of winning. :D
Ha more fool them that fell for the propaganda for clinton.
Fucking very sad & weird they would want their country to fail
Just to oust the president - just how fucked up is there thinking
& their minds.
Thank fuck Killary didn’t win - America & the world would’ve been
Far Worse off.
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Michael Cohen Says He Arranged Payments to Women at Trump’s Direction
The former personal lawyer to President Trump pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.
By William K. Rashbaum, Maggie Haberman, Ben Protess and Jim Rutenberg
Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, made the extraordinary admission in court on Tuesday that Mr. Trump had directed him to arrange payments to two women during the 2016 campaign to keep them from speaking publicly about affairs they said they had with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cohen acknowledged the illegal payments while pleading guilty to breaking campaign finance laws and other charges, a litany of crimes that revealed both his shadowy involvement in Mr. Trump’s circle and his own corrupt business dealings.
He told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that the payments to the women were made “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.”
“I participated in this conduct, which on my part took place in Manhattan, for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016, Mr. Cohen said.
The plea represented a pivotal moment in the investigation into the president, and the scene in the Manhattan courtroom was striking. Mr. Cohen, a longtime lawyer for Mr. Trump — and loyal confidant — described in plain-spoken language how Mr. Trump worked with him to cover up a potential sex scandal that Mr. Trump feared would endanger his rising candidacy.
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of tax evasion and a single count of bank fraud, capping a monthslong investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors who examined his personal business dealings and his role in helping to arrange the financial deals with women connected to Mr. Trump.
The plea came shortly before another blow to the president: His former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was convicted in his financial fraud trial in Virginia. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, had built a case that Mr. Manafort hid millions of dollars in foreign accounts to evade taxes and lied to banks to obtain $20 million in loans.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have, for months, said privately that they considered Mr. Cohen’s case to be potentially more problematic for the president than the investigation by the special counsel.
But Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said in a statement after Mr. Cohen’s plea, “There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen.”
In federal court in Manhattan, Mr. Cohen made the admission about Mr. Trump’s role in the payments to the women — an adult film actress and a former Playboy playmate — as he pleaded guilty to two campaign finance crimes.
One of those charges stemmed from a $130,000 payment he made to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors said that Trump Organization executives were involved in reimbursing Mr. Cohen for that payment, accepting his phony invoices that listed it as a legal expense. The other charge concerned a complicated arrangement in which a tabloid bought the rights to the story about the former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, then killed it.
Mr. Cohen’s plea was announced by Robert Khuzami, the deputy United States attorney, along with senior officials from the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service. Addressing reporters outside the courthouse, Mr. Khuzami said that Mr. Cohen had “decided that he was above the law, and for that, he is going to pay a very, very serious price.”
The plea agreement does not call for Mr. Cohen to cooperate with federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Still, it does not preclude him from providing information to them later or to the special counsel, who is examining the Trump campaign’s possible involvement in Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign. If Mr. Cohen were to substantially assist the special counsel’s investigation, Mr. Mueller could recommend a reduction in his sentence.
Mr. Cohen had been the president’s longtime fixer, handling his most sensitive business and personal matters. He once said he would take a bullet for Mr. Trump.
As Mr. Cohen addressed the judge, admitting to the crimes he had committed, the packed courtroom remained silent. Even when Mr. Cohen made obvious references to Mr. Trump, referring to him as “the candidate” and “a candidate for federal office,” spectators seemed to listen raptly, with no gasps or audible reactions.
Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion for concealing more than $4 million in personal income from 2012 to 2016 and to one count of bank fraud, for failing to disclose $14 million in debts in an application for a $500,000 home equity line of credit. He also pleaded guilty to making an excessive campaign contribution and causing an unlawful corporate contribution during the 2016 election cycle.
He will be sentenced on Dec. 12 before Judge William H. Pauley III. Though Mr. Cohen faces a maximum of 65 years in prison, the plea agreement provides for a far more lenient sentence: The government calculated the sentencing guidelines at from 51 to 63 months and the defense put them at 46 to 57 months. A final guidelines determination will be made by the Probation Department, but the ultimate sentence will be determined by Judge Pauley.
Mr. Cohen’s attorney, Lanny J. Davis, said Mr. Cohen had put his family and country ahead of his loyalty to Mr. Trump. “He stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election,” Mr. Davis said. “If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”
Looming over the negotiations between prosecutors and Mr. Cohen has been the possibility of a presidential pardon. Mr. Trump reached out to Mr. Cohen by phone a few days after the F.B.I. raids, and they had dinner together a month earlier in March, at Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Cohen’s lawyer had loosely raised the issue of a pardon with an attorney for Mr. Trump several months ago, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.
By striking a deal with Mr. Cohen that includes prison time, federal authorities were aware of the risk that the president might pardon him, said another person briefed on the matter. But it is also possible that Mr. Cohen could eventually cooperate.
Prosecutors charged that Mr. Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Ms. Clifford was effectively a donation to Mr. Trump’s campaign, because by securing her silence it improved his electoral fortunes, and thus violated 2016 campaign finance law prohibitions against donations of more than $2,700 in a general election.
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to “causing” an illegal corporate donation to Mr. Trump through his involvement in a $150,000 payment American Media Inc. made to Ms. McDougal in late summer 2016 to buy the rights to her story, effectively securing her silence for the remainder of the campaign. Corporations are prohibited from coordinating political spending with candidates or their representatives. Mr. Cohen signed papers a month later to purchase the rights to her agreement from A.M.I., but the publisher backed out of the deal at the last minute.
The prosecutors filled in several blanks in a story that has been unfolding for months about the lengths to which Mr. Cohen went during the campaign to help his boss stave off embarrassing news about alleged affairs ahead of Election Day. And the charges confirmed that what might have seemed on the surface to have been only tawdry allegations involving an adult entertainment star and a former Playboy model may actually carry legal and political implications for a sitting president.
Prosecutors left little doubt that A.M.I. Inc., owner of The National Enquirer, became a de facto campaign proxy for Mr. Cohen in his efforts on behalf of Mr. Trump.
According to court papers, the publisher agreed in August 2015, months before the first primaries, to look out for damaging stories about Mr. Trump and his alleged affairs with women during talks with Mr. Cohen and “one or more” members of Mr. Trump’s campaign.
The tabloid company agreed to identify those stories “so they could be purchased and their publication avoided,” the prosecutors said on Tuesday — an inverted role for a tabloid scandal sheet such as The Enquirer, which went on to savage Mr. Trump’s opponents while promoting and protecting him.
That deal led to the arrangement with Ms. McDougal, which was struck in August 2016. But prosecutors also reported for the first time that A.M.I. was intimately involved in the arrangement with Ms. Clifford. The tabloid connected Mr. Cohen with the lawyer who had negotiated the McDougal contract, Keith Davidson. Mr. Davidson also had Ms. Clifford as a client and later hashed out the agreement for Ms. Clifford’s silence.
Prosecutors said in court papers that when Mr. Cohen initially failed to finalize the deal, an editor at A.M.I. — a likely reference to Dylan Howard, the company’s chief content officer — alerted Mr. Cohen that there was a risk that Ms. Clifford would sell her story to another media company, one that would publish it.
Mr. Cohen’s admission that he broke the law by paying off Ms. Clifford was a remarkable turnaround from the legal and publicity battle that he and his lawyers had waged against her. Ms. Clifford and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, have hounded Mr. Cohen since May, taunting him on social media and predicting his indictment. Mr. Cohen’s lawyers frequently fired back, accusing Mr. Avenatti of “fanning a media storm” and of “smearing” Mr. Cohen in a relentless series of televised appearances.
“I predicted this a long time ago before the warrants were even executed,” Mr. Avenatti said on Tuesday. “We feel extremely vindicated.”
Mr. Cohen’s plea culminates a long-running inquiry that became publicly known in April when F.B.I. agents armed with search warrants raided his office, apartment and hotel room, hauling away reams of documents, including pieces of paper salvaged from a shredder, and millions of electronic files contained on a series of cellphones, iPads and computers.
Lawyers for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump spent the next four months working with a court-appointed special master to review the documents and data files to determine whether any of the materials were subject to attorney-client privilege and should not be made available to the government.
The special master, Barbara S. Jones, who completed her review last week, issued a series of reports in recent months, finding that only a fraction of the materials were privileged and the rest could be provided to prosecutors for their investigation.
On Monday, the judge overseeing the review, Kimba M. Wood of Federal District Court in Manhattan, issued an order adopting Ms. Jones’s findings and ending the review process.
It was unclear on Tuesday what role the materials that Ms. Jones reviewed, which were made available to prosecutors on a rolling basis, may have had in the charges against Mr. Cohen.
One collateral effect of Mr. Cohen’s plea agreement is that it may allow Mr. Avenatti, Ms. Clifford’s lawyer, to proceed with a deposition of Mr. Trump in a lawsuit that Ms. Clifford filed accusing the president of breaking a nondisclosure agreement concerning their affair.
The lawsuit had been stayed by a judge pending the resolution of Mr. Cohen’s criminal case. Mr. Avenatti wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he would now seek to force Mr. Trump to testify “under oath about what he knew, when he knew it and what he did about it.”
Rational thought does not exist for many Getbiggers, including some of the moderators. You're probably wasting your time posting anything that makes sense.
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Rational thought does not exist for many Getbiggers, including some of the moderators. You're probably wasting your time posting anything that makes sense.
LOL. This thread was started more than two years ago. In that time, not a day has gone by without you dummies whining and saying that Trump was done. But I’m sure this is going to be the one that brings him down.
These are not issues that are going to resonate with the public. The Cohen deal is a campaign finance violation that nobody even understands. Manafort was some deal 10 years ago involving a banking transaction that nobody understands.
People understand when some piece of shit Mexican illegal kills a beautiful young woman. That they understand.
You want to talk about implosions. Look at what the idiot Elizabeth Warren said yesterday and the backlash she’s receiving. And how about baby Mario Cuomo. America was never that great. Is that not an implosion?
These are two of the biggest stars in the Democratic Party.
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....But I’m sure this is going to be the one that brings him down.[/u]
We hope this is the beginning of the end for Trump and his band of criminals and patsies. I'm not going to hold my breath though. Trump claimed he could "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody" and not "lose any voters." -Scary thought, but definitely possible.
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We hope this is the beginning of the end for Trump and his band of criminals and patsies. I'm not going to hold my breath though. Trump claimed he could "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody" and not "lose any voters." -Scary thought, but definitely possible.
Donald is infinitely better choice than Killary & her crooked lying cohorts
FFS Never have a woman in charge it’s not the Natural Order
It’s not their place to be in charge.
That’s Very fucked up Human society & thinking.
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We hope this is the beginning of the end for Trump and his band of criminals and patsies. I'm not going to hold my breath though. Trump claimed he could "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody" and not "lose any voters." -Scary thought, but definitely possible.
We, as in left-wing kooks. The left has been exposed. No one has time for a bunch of America hating social justice warriors. We’re tired of it.
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We, as in left-wing kooks. The left has been exposed. No one has time for a bunch of America hating social justice warriors. We’re tired of it.
Your definition of "we" is much broader than mine. I only speak for people I actually know and none of them are left-wing kooks. Some of them are registered democrats and some are staunch republicans, who up until now voted and supported politicians strictly on their party affiliation.
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Who bumped this thread?? lol
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We hope this is the beginning of the end for Trump and his band of criminals and patsies.
Funny you would have that opinion of Trump while supporting killary and obama. ::)
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Funny you would have that opinion of Trump while supporting killary and obama. ::)
Yes it definitely is funny. I suspect the last laugh may be on you though.
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Yes it definitely is funny. I suspect the last laugh may be on you though.
Maybe. Maybe not. I won't root for the failure of the country like you liberals though.
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Maybe. Maybe not. I won't root for the failure of the country like you liberals though.
Who's rooting? I prefer being hopeful that all this will pass in due time, however it works out. Of course that would leave a lot of people with nothing to talk about. ;)
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I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration
I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.
It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.
The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
I would know. I am one of them.
To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. 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.
That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.
The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.
Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.
In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.
Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.
But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.
From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief’s comments and actions. Most 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.
“There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.
The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.
It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.
The result is a two-track presidency.
Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.
Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.
On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.
This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state.
Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.
The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.
Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.
The Times is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose 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. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process here...
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Am I the only one that’s heard that there’s a grand jury investigation into Rosenstein and the FISA applications? Or that Trump is finally going to release the redacted FISA report.
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I don’t particularly like Trump as a person or as a President, but if what Woodward’s book and the anonymous editor allege are true, these officials are basically staging a coup. That’s just wrong and it should scare us all.
If cabinet officials believe the President isn’t fit to serve, they should invoke the 25th Amendment and let things take their Constitutionally mandated course. They shouldn’t hide documents from the President or work against him as part of some “steady State”. We have a Republic with officials which we elect to lead.
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To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.
LOL...maybe Trump is behind this to set up the stage to execute some plan of his, all while trolling the media and the left at the same time. You know, kinda like Rachel Maddow's not-so-big reveal of Trump's tax returns. ;D
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Am I the only one that’s heard that there’s a grand jury investigation into Rosenstein and the FISA applications? Or that Trump is finally going to release the redacted FISA report.
"The Deputy Attorney General is allegedly under investigation for a number of violations related to FISA warrants. As such, he may not be able to use FISA warrants currently."
"Rumors abound that Rosenstein is in for serious issues, and this may just be the tip of the iceberg." https://conservativedailypost.com/tag/joe-digenova/
"Former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Joe diGenova blasted the Mueller probe..." insider.foxnews.com/tag/joe-digenova
"Is an investigation" is a far cry from allegedly and rumors.
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LOL...maybe Trump is behind this to set up the stage to execute some plan of his, all while trolling the media and the left at the same time. You know, kinda like Rachel Maddow's not-so-big reveal of Trump's tax returns. ;D
This is a real possibility, IMO.
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This is a real possibility, IMO.
Except that nothing Trump has done indicates he has the ability to do anything but react on his emotions at the time. To hope he is this mastermind troll who only pretends to be semi illiterate and hardly capable of putting a coherent sentence together is just like you said, rooting for an underdog. He really is as dumb as he seems
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Except that nothing Trump has done indicates he has the ability to do anything but react on his emotions at the time. To hope he is this mastermind troll who only pretends to be semi illiterate and hardly capable of putting a coherent sentence together is just like you said, rooting for an underdog. He really is as dumb as he seems
For someone you say is so dumb
He’s doing quite well I’d say....
Very Wealthy
Famous
POTUS
And seems to be Happy enough
Plus He winds a lot of Lilly Livered Yogurt Knitting Liberal Leftist up & ruins their days.
Keep going Donald.
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/fox-news-analyst-goes-off-075409063.html
Stoddard also disputed the op-ed’s claim that “the root of the problem is the president’s amorality.”
“It’s not his amorality, it’s his temperament. He’s impulsive and erratic. He changes his mind quickly. He lies frequently. He’s not judicious. And he’s not measured. And he doesn’t have the temperament for the hardest job on the planet.”
Stoddard said that’s the main concern of those around the president.
“It’s not that he’s amoral,” she continued. “It’s that the way that he conducts himself as commander-in-chief makes everyone scared and that’s why they’re thwarting his agenda.”
Spot on
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For someone you say is so dumb
He’s doing quite well I’d say....
Very Wealthy
Famous
POTUS
And seems to be Happy enough
Plus He winds a lot of Lilly Livered Yogurt Knitting Liberal Leftist up & ruins their days.
Keep going Donald.
He is doing quite well. Having been born into wealth and inheriting a construction company that was well established certainly didn't hurt. However, he is out of his comfort zone and how he survived in private business doesn't apply well to his current job.
"The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their "level of incompetence". In other words, employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another."
I've observed it many times in my career, I believe I am observing it now.
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He is doing quite well.
“He is doing quite well”
Was all you needed to say after Calling him Dumb.
And answering my post.
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“He is doing quite well”
Was all you needed to say after Calling him Dumb.
And answering my post.
In some regards, considering his disabilities, he is doing quite well. In others, he is faltering bigly.
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In some regards, considering his disabilities, he is doing quite well. In others, he is faltering bigly.
I’m very glad you agree he’s doing well.
Can you even begin to imagine what would be happening now had Killary won
Likely America’s & the Worlds worst Nightmare.
Thankfully Donald Won.
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I’m very glad you agree he’s doing well.
Can you even begin to imagine what would be happening now had Killary won
Likely America’s & the Worlds worst Nightmare.
Thankfully Donald Won.
:)
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I’m very glad you agree he’s doing well.
Can you even begin to imagine what would be happening now had Killary won
Likely America’s & the Worlds worst Nightmare.
Thankfully Donald Won.
In your opinion, are you among the majority or one of the minority with regards to how your country feels about Trump? On a larger scale, where do most Europeans stand on the U.S. presidency?
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In your opinion, are you among the majority or one of the minority with regards to how your country feels about Trump? On a larger scale, where do most Europeans stand on the U.S. presidency?
Amongst those I know the majority like trump & what he’s doing.
Overall though I’d say it’s probably like it is in the USA
It’s split.
The immigrant Muslim issue is getting bigger & bigger more people are getting
Annoyed & fed up with it.
The BBC is very Leftists biased & doesn’t report truthfully what’s going on in UK
Or In Europe.
Like in America even with the MSM pushing the Liberal Leftists Agenda the The Right Pro
White Man is ever getting more Supporters.
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I don’t particularly like Trump as a person or as a President, but if what Woodward’s book and the anonymous editor allege are true, these officials are basically staging a coup. That’s just wrong and it should scare us all.
If cabinet officials believe the President isn’t fit to serve, they should invoke the 25th Amendment and let things take their Constitutionally mandated course. They shouldn’t hide documents from the President or work against him as part of some “steady State”. We have a Republic with officials which we elect to lead.
I agree. As much as I understand it.. it's not the right way to handle it
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Amongst those I know the majority like trump & what he’s doing.
Overall though I’d say it’s probably like it is in the USA
It’s split.
The immigrant Muslim issue is getting bigger & bigger more people are getting
Annoyed & fed up with it.
The BBC is very Leftists biased & doesn’t report truthfully what’s going on in UK
Or In Europe.
Like in America even with the MSM pushing the Liberal Leftists Agenda the The Right Pro
White Man is ever getting more Supporters.
-Couple of interesting web searches with regards to Muslims in Portland. There are approximately 7 Muslim community centers in the Portland Metro area. None of them near where I live.
I know this proves I live and insulated life. But it is not by design so much as it is just coincidence and economics. My wife and I moved to Portland over 50 years ago because we wanted to get away from intrusive family, be able to afford a house and in general, lead a quieter life. A lot has changed since we moved here.
Portland Is the Most Livable City in America — Except if You’re Muslim https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/08/portland-is-the-most-livable-city-in-america-except-if-youre-muslim/ (https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/08/portland-is-the-most-livable-city-in-america-except-if-youre-muslim/)
How many Muslims do you know? https://pamplinmedia.com/fgnt/36-news/335256-215102-how-many-muslims-do-you-know (https://pamplinmedia.com/fgnt/36-news/335256-215102-how-many-muslims-do-you-know)
Most people don't know a Muslim. Mosque leader wants to change that, one shopper at a time https://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/index.ssf/2017/06/muslim_washington_square_mall.html (https://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/index.ssf/2017/06/muslim_washington_square_mall.html)
Religion in Portland, Oregon
29.6% of the people in Portland are religious:
- 0.9% are Baptist
- 0.7% are Episcopalian
- 7.9% are Catholic
- 2.0% are Lutheran
- 1.1% are Methodist
- 2.5% are Pentecostal
- 1.0% are Presbyterian
- 3.8% are LDS
- 9.2% are another Christian faith
- 0.1% are Jewish
- 0.1% are an eastern faith
- 0.0% affilitates with Islam
https://www.bestplaces.net/religion/city/oregon/portland (https://www.bestplaces.net/religion/city/oregon/portland)
This was a horrible incident which happened not long ago.
"We stand together here as one": Muslims in Portland thank community after deadly stabbing https://www.cbsnews.com/news/muslims-thank-community-for-support-after-fatal-stabbing/
(https://www.cbsnews.com/news/muslims-thank-community-for-support-after-fatal-stabbing/)