ELIJAH CUMMINGS DEFENDS HIS 23 YR BALTIMORE REPRESENTATION (SO DO THE RATS):
WAS TRUMP RIGHT? IS BALTIMORE STILL “THE WIRE”??
HOW MANY BLACK MEN HAS CUMMINGS HELPED TO (SECRETLY) INCARCERATE INSTEAD OF HELPING THEM TO BECOME GAINFULLY EMPLOYED?
CONGRESSMAN ELIJAH CUMMINGS (“THE BULLY”) IS KNOWN TO RETALIATE AGAINST ANYONE WHO DOESN’T AGREE WITH HIM OR CHALLENGES HIM.
IN FACT, MANY OF HIS CONSTITUENTS ARE AFRAID OF HIM WHICH EXPLAINS WHY HE’S BEEN IN PUBLIC OFFICE 23 YRS.
SO WILL CUMMINGS USE HIS CONGRESSIONAL JUDICIAL COMMITTEE POWER TO RETALIATE AGAINST PRES TRUMP OVER HIS BOLD TWEETS ABOUT BALTIMORE?
WILL CUMMINGS RETALIATE AGAINST ALL THE JOURNALISTS & BLOGGERS WHO REPORTED ON THIS STORY?
STAY TUNED.
Post Sources: Baltimore Sun, DW News, Fox News, NBC News, Turning Point USA, Washington Examiner, Youtube
**** The trouble with Trump's tweets about Baltimore is that they are true
President Trump’s recent tweets about Baltimore, rats, and the city’s political leadership have roiled Washington and prompted another round of cries of “racism” from the usual race hustlers, who are seeking out every camera they can find. But rather than focus on whether or not Trump is a racist, how about we focus on the man’s words? Are they true?
Yes, they are.
First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1995, Elijah Cummings has represented Maryland’s 7th Congressional District (which includes Baltimore City) for the past 23 years. Prior to that, Cummings was an elected member of Maryland's House of Delegates, representing District 39 (also Baltimore City) beginning in 1983. In all, Cummings has represented Baltimore for 36 years.
What has Baltimore to show for Cummings’ years of representation? Here are a few examples. In 2017, 13 high schools in the city of Baltimore were found to have zero students — not a single one — who were proficient in math. And out of the 3,804 students in all who took the state math proficiency test, only 14 were proficient.
Baltimore’s schools perform this poorly despite the fact that residents of Baltimore pay 3.2% city income tax, the maximum local income tax rate allowed by state law in an already high-tax state. Take that as further proof that throwing money at problems doesn’t necessarily solve them.
Crime in Baltimore is, simply put, out of control. With over 2,000 violent crimes per 100,000 people, in the year 2017 Baltimore was well within the most dangerous 1% of U.S. cities.
And then, there’s the rats, the mention of which generated much of the ire directed at Trump. He claimed that Baltimore is “rat infested," causing some left-wing pundits to claim he was using code to refer to “black and brown people.” Yet, once again, the issue is whether he was right. And he was. The city has a very real rat infestation problem.
Baltimore’s rats have long been the subject of commentary in the news and in social media. From both sides of the political aisle, everyone from Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders to Ben Carson and Baltimore’s former Mayor Catherine Pugh (who resigned in May amid federal and state corruption investigations) have been outed on the web for having publicly commented on the city’s filth and squalor in years past. A 2018 video has surfaced of Pugh touring her miserable city and nearly gagging on her own words as she exclaimed, “You can smell the rats … Oh my God, you can smell the dead animals.”
So, yes, there are rats. A lot of rats. So many rats that one citizen created a full feature-length documentary film about Baltimore’s rats. The city and county themselves launched the “Rat Attack Program” to battle the epidemic, sadly without much success.
On Monday, Baltimore’s local Fox broadcasting affiliate WBFF was reporting on Trump’s tweetstorm when, as if sensing its opportunity for two seconds of fame, a rat ran through the frame effectively photobombing the Fox45 reporter’s live shot!
As a black American pundit, I am often asked whether I think Trump is a racist. I do not, but the answer I always give is that I don’t care. What I care about is the truth.
The point is that the overarching focus on race accomplishes nothing. And if the focus is simply on truth, then in this case, Trump is unquestionably right.
That Baltimore’s political leadership has failed its constituents is inarguable. That's why those same political figures, along with the race hustlers of the day, repeatedly pull out the same card they’ve been playing for decades. They get away with it by accusing their own accusers of racism. They choose to focus on accusations of intent rather than substance of the issue.
Baltimore is steeped in squalor, and the black community there bears the brunt of its inept, corrupt political leadership. Trump hasn't had time to cause that in his less than three years in office. But in less than three seconds, his tweet has shone a glaring spotlight onto it, and that bright light is causing the rats to scurry.
TRUMP AS PRESIDENT - I WILL NOT CRITICIZE (MEXICO DEAL):
I WILL PRAY FOR PRES TRUMP BUT I WON’T PUBLICLY CRITICIZE HIM.
NO MAN IS PERFECT; ONLY GOD ALMIGHTY.
OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM WAS VERY BROKEN & CONGRESS REFUSED TO FIX IT.
HAVE WE BECOME SO POLITICALLY CORRECT, MEDIA DRIVEN AND DIVISIVE THAT WE NO LONGER CARE ABOUT WHAT IS LEGALLY & MORALLY CORRECT ACCORDING TO CONSTITUTIONAL LAW??
WHY CRITICIZE A LEADER WHO IS ONLY TRYING TO LEGALLY HELP BOTH AMERICAN CITIZENS & ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS EXPERIENCE THE AMERICAN DREAM?
GOD BLESS OUR NATION
GOD BLESS THE U.S. MILITARY
GOD BLESS MEXICO FOR AGREEING TO SIGN THIS DEAL.
Post Sources: CBS News, Fox News, Reuters, Washington Post
**** Trump’s big win leaves critics sputtering
Because President Trump emerges as a clear winner from his week-long confrontation with Mexico over our neighbor’s lax enforcement of its southern border, reflexive Trump critics will scramble to find some way of containing what is a clear Trump triumph, which came with assists by Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who conducted the key negotiations.
Already we have heard about long-term damage to trust between the North American allies, about investor nervousness and Trump’s unpredictability.
This sort of flailing-about to deny the obvious says nothing about Trump and much about those critics who can no more admit he played high-stakes poker and won a round on border security than they can admit that the president delivered a magnificent tribute to the heroes of Normandy on Thursday.
Much of the media has overheated now and, like an engine that has run too long without an oil change, has begun to seize up, stall, even melt.
That Trump has contributed to the slow wreck of American media is undeniable.
It’s a feature, not a bug, of his presidency to attack, attack, attack the media elites. And no matter how often center-right journalists counsel him to abandon the Stalinist “enemy of the people” rhetoric, he hasn’t because it triggers a flaming hatred among the ideologies of the left, with platforms and elites eager to signal each other that they are part of the tribe menaced by this Godzilla from Trump Tower.
Voters, though — not just the “Twitter Democrats” but voters of all ages and ideologies — are a pretty smart bunch. Assume for a moment that they know, generally, that tariffs are a lousy idea in terms of economic growth. Assume as well that they know that tariffs can be an instrument of national power in confrontations unrelated to economic growth.
Assume that voters know our competition with China is far more than an economic race, but rather a complex geopolitical rivalry that both sides wish to keep contained short of open conflict and that is waged through proxies, cyber-confrontations, intellectual-property battles, freedom-of-the-seas disputes and the relative size and power of our armed forces and those of our allies.
In that context, tariffs on Chinese goods are just part of an overall negotiation toward a new normal that is in everyone’s interest.
So “tariffs bad, free trade good” is simplistic. “Free trade is good and agreed-upon international conventions are required for genuinely free trade and tariffs may be necessary to achieve those conventions” is accurate. And widely understood.
“Alliances are good” is simplistic. “Alliances in which allies actually do what they promise with regard to percentage of GDP spent on national defense while not increasing dependence on Russian natural gas” is complex but accurate.
Hard as it is for the Manhattan-Beltway echo chamber to believe, sounding sophisticated isn’t actually being sophisticated. Trump’s record is mixed, but not this week.
This week, even as Joe Biden began to melt (the headline in Saturday’s Times of London online edition was “Democrats raise doubts over Joe Biden’s stamina for presidential nomination race” — never a good sign when the neighbors notice these things), Trump put together back-to-back big successes. Historian and classicist Victor Davis Hanson speculates that Trump’s enemies are so addicted to hating him that, in a classic addict pattern, all behaviors are bent in service of the addiction.
This weekend and next week will separate the outrage addicts from the serious journalists. Trump would be very well advised to take this tariff weapon off the table with regard to Mexico.
It probably wouldn’t work a second time unless the Mexicans failed to deliver even a halfhearted effort.
It’s not the sort of threat you can use twice, and doing so would undo the enormous win he can rightfully paint this to be at rally after rally as Campaign 2020 gets underway.
If Trump invited Democrats back to the White House for immigration reform and border security talks right now, urging them to be as serious as the Mexican government has been about the border crisis, it might actually work.
House Democrats passed an immigration bill last week. Senate Republicans could quickly pass their own version to get a joint House-Senate conference with White House participation.
Everyone could win: the United States and Mexico, the president and the House speaker, both parties, the undocumented in this country seeking regularization, and the desperate and easily exploited poor of Central America.
CHARLAMANGE THE GOD TAGS KEVIN HUNTER AS DONKEY OF THE DAY (“DO DO BROWN” FROM BROWNSVILLE”):
CHARLAMANGE SAYS KEVIN USED WENDY’S MONEY TO BUY SHARINA HUDSON A PUSH PRESENT (GOLD FERRARI)....WENDY HAD IT TOWED.
CHARLAMANGE REVEALED IT WAS KEVIN HUNTER WHO FED LIES TO THE MEDIA ABOUT CHARLAMANGE BEING A RAPIST.
CHARLAMANGE WRAPPED UP HIS “DONKEY OF THE DAY” SEGMENT BY STATING THAT KEVIN SHOULD HAVE BEEN KISSING WENDY’S FEET INSTEAD OF KISSING SHARINA HUDSON’S BUTT.
I CONCUR.
HATS OFF TO WENDY & CHARLAMANGE & ARMON WIGGINS :-)
BE CAREFUL HOW YOU DISRESPECT PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY YOUR LEGAL WIFE.
KARMA IS A B___TCH.
ALIENATION OF AFFECTION
Post Sources: THE BREAKFAST CLUB, Daily Mail, Youtube
***** Charlamagne Slams Kevin Hunter Amid Wendy Williams Divorce Scandal
Donkey of The Day For April 17th, 2019 goes to none other than Kevin Hunter the soon to be ex husband of Wendy Williams.
While there are many reports going around, it has been confirmed that Wendy Williams served up a whole plate of divorce papers to Kevin Hunter the other day in their apartment, it was then soon after this that he issued an apology to Williams breaking his silence for the first time saying: "28 years ago I met an amazing woman: Wendy Williams. At the time, I didn't realize that she would not only become my wife, but would also change the face of entertainment and the world," the statement began. "I have dedicated most of our lives to the business empire that is Wendy Williams Hunter, a person that I truly love and respect unconditionally".
Adding on to the drama it was also reported that Hunter was fired from her his executive producer roll on The Wendy Williams Show. However these reports are false but a statement from TMZ revealed his time may be up soon, "Reports that Kevin Hunter has been fired are not accurate. He has not been fired, but as we reported, it's just a matter of time. He WILL be gone from the show ... but it hasn't happened yet".
In today's Donkey of The Day Charlamagne Tha God revealed why he dislikes Kevin including reports that Hunter raped his own artist, stopping him from getting bags as well as telling DJ Envy & Angela Yee false statements about him before the BREAKFAST CLUB was formed.
WENDY WILLIAMS TOWS SHARINA HUDSON’S GOLD FERRARI KEVIN BOUGHT W/ HER MONEY:
HOW YOU DOING SHARINA THE ADULTRESS??
WIVES WHO HAVE BEEN CHEATED ON ARE CELEBRATING.
FORGIVENESS DOES NOT ELIMINATE CONSEQUENCES.
ALIENATION OF AFFECTION
KARMA IS A B__TCH.
I LOVE YOU WENDY & I’M PRAYING FOR YOUR SUCCESS.
YOU ARE MY SHERO.
Post Sources: Daily Mail, Armon Wiggins Show, ET Canada, Youtube
***** EXCLUSIVE: Wendy Williams' estranged husband Kevin Hunter apologizes in vain as he is FIRED from her show and has been given 48 hours to clear out from their marital home while the $215K Ferrari he bought for his baby mama is towed away
* Kevin Hunter was fired as executive producer on Wendy Williams' show after she served her philandering husband divorce papers last week
* The 47-year-old was also fired as Wendy's manager and he was given 48 hours to remove his belongings from their New Jersey home, a source told DailyMail.com
* The TV show host decided she had enough after Hunter's baby mama Sharina Hudson was photographed by DailyMail.com driving around a brand new Ferrari
* Hunter and Hudson had been living the high life at a hideaway in New Jersey, going for dinner dates, dressing in designer gear and driving flashy new cars
* 'Wendy saw the photos of him and Sharina on the Daily Mail... she was furious. That's what tipped her over the edge, she was like, he's gotta go', a source said
* Hunter publicly apologized in vain on Tuesday, admitting he was not 'proud of his recent actions' and was 'trying to right some wrongs'
* Hunter's statement came as the $215,000-plus gold Ferrari Portofino he gifted Hudson was seen being towed away - a day after he was hit with the papers
* Wendy was seen apartment hunting in NYC on Tuesday as she revealed Monday she was moving out of her sober living home and was ready to start a new life
*
Kevin Hunter has been fired as an executive producer on his estranged wife Wendy Williams' show, as the $215K Ferrari he bought for his baby mama is towed away, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Williams decided she finally had enough of her philandering husband of nearly 22 years and served him divorce papers at her TV studio in Manhattan last Thursday.
The 47-year-old was fired from the show and as Wendy's manager, a source on the show confirmed to DailyMail.com.
The source also said Hunter had been given 48 hours to remove his belongings from their marital home in Livingston, New Jersey as she was seen apartment hunting in New York City on Tuesday.
Wendy reached her tipping point after learning Hunter had been living the high life with his decade-long mistress Sharina Hudson, who gave birth last month, splurging on Rolls-Royces, Ferraris and gifting her with diamonds.
Hunter released an apology on Tuesday admitting he was not 'proud of his recent actions' and was 'trying to right some wrongs' while taking 'full accountability' for what he had done.
His groveling statement came after the flashy $215,000-plus gold Ferrari Portofino he gifted Hudson was seen being towed away - a day after Wendy hit him with the divorce papers.
The source said: 'Kevin had expected to stay on at the show and as Wendy's manager. He ran the show with an iron fist, he was the guy who kept the vultures away.
'But when Wendy saw the photos of him and Sharina last week on the Daily Mail going out for dinner and her driving around in a Ferrari she was furious.
'That's what tipped her over the edge, she was like, "he's gotta go". She now wants him out of her life completely, she's given him 48 hours to clear his office and clear his belongings out of the house.
'Wendy's sister Wanda came up from Florida over the weekend and she's helping get everything in order. Wendy means business, she's cleaning house.'
A day after DailyMail.com published photos of the new Ferrari that Hunter gifted Hudson, it was loaded onto a truck and taken away.
A Ferrari dealership from Greenwich, Connecticut, picked the golden car up, as two men who appear to be helpers for Hunter looked on.
Hunter's statement on Tuesday read: '28 years ago I met an amazing woman: Wendy Williams. At the time, I didn't realize that she would not only become my wife, but would also change the face of entertainment and the world.
'I have dedicated most of our lives to the business empire that is Wendy Williams Hunter, a person that I truly love and respect unconditionally.
I am not proud of my recent actions and take full accountability and apologize to my wife, my family and her amazing fans. I am going through a time of self-reflection and am trying to right some wrongs.
'No matter what the outcome is or what the future holds, we are still The Hunter Family and I will continue to work with and fully support my wife in this business and through any and all obstacles she may face living her new life of sobriety, while I also work on mine.
'I ask that you please give me and my family privacy as we heal. Thank you.'
On Monday, Wendy kicked off her Hot Topics segment by revealing she was just a few days away from moving out the sober living facility she has called home for the past few weeks, and is ready to start a new life for herself and her son Kevin Jr. - the son she shares with Hunter.
DailyMail.com exclusively revealed in early March the TV host had been living in the sober home in Queens, New York, to battle an addiction to alcohol and prescription pills, her downward spiral sparked by learning Hunter was still seeing Hudson.
Meanwhile, Hunter has been spending time with Hudson, who recently gave birth, at a hideaway in Edgewater, New Jersey.
The two seem to be living the high life, going out for dinner dates and driving new luxury vehicles.
Hunter was seen driving a new maroon convertible Rolls-Royce last Saturday to pick up Hudson and take her out to dinner, with the massage therapist proudly showing off her post baby pooch.
The 33-year-old, whose hair was freshly curled, carried a $5,200 quilted Chanel purse while wearing a chunky diamond chain necklace and diamond studs.
While Hunter treated his baby mama to a Ferrari, he seems to have also treated himself to new cars, including the luxury Rolls-Royce.
Hudson was seen driving her new sports car last Monday, exiting the flashy vehicle in a $1,260 Thom Browne tracksuit that showed off her post-baby body.
And Kevin has spared no expense on his own duds as well, seen one day in a $1,500 Fendi vest, $490 Fendi hat, $770 Fendi pants and $515 Fendi sunglasses.
The couple have been hiding out in New Jersey weeks after Hudson was secreted away to Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia to give birth in order to avoid media attention.
Hunter has been seen at the secret hideaway chauffeuring Sharina around.
Kevin was served with divorce papers from Wendy last Thursday morning at the TV studio, according to TMZ.
Extra security was hired in case Kevin, known to have a temper, got enraged on set. But there were apparently no outbursts.
The split will most likely be contested as Hunter is an executive producer on Williams' TV show and told Hudson that he couldn't afford to split from Wendy because she paid all the bills, a source previously told DailyMailTV.
In New Jersey, parties can file fault or no-fault. Fault allows a judge to dock alimony based on the seriousness of the offense. Proving will not be hard for either side in this case.
Reasons for fault include adultery, abandonment, physical or emotional abuse, and alcohol or drug abuse.
The Wendy Williams Show said in a statement: 'Wendy and her family have been a part of Debmar-Mercury for over 10 years. We respect their privacy regarding personal matters. As always, we remain committed to bringing an entertaining and topical show to our viewers.'
A personal representative for Williams said: 'Thank you to everyone for respecting the family's privacy during this time. Kevin is supportive of Wendy and they are working through this process together. No additional comment will be provided at this time.'
REGARDLESS OF WHAT LIES THE RACIST MAINSTREAM MEDIA POSTS, KIM CAN NEVER BE REPLACED IN DIDDY’S LIFE NOR THE LIVES OF HIS CHILDREN.
KIM PORTER WAS NOT A “BABY MAMA”, SHE WAS A BEAUTIFUL, INTELLIGENT, LOVING MOTHER WHO DIED MUCH TOO SOON.
I’M NOT JUDGING BUT I KNOW DIDDY TRULY LOVED KIM AND HE SHOULD HAVE MARRIED HER.
I’M JUST SAYING.
PLEASE EVERYONE PRAY FOR ALL OF DIDDY’S CHILDREN.
Post Sources: Instagram, People, Youtube
”For the last three days I’ve been trying to wake up out of this nightmare. But I haven’t. I don’t know what I’m going to do without you baby. I miss you so much. Today I’m going to pay tribute to you, I’m going to try and find the words to explain our unexplainable relationship. We were more than best friends, we were more than soulmates. WE WERE SOME OTHER SHIT!! And I miss you so much. Super Black Love 🖤”
CHRISTINE FORD vs BRETT KAVANAUGH - 36 YRS AGO WHO REMEMBERS ALL DETAILS ACCURATELY?
DIDN’T THIS INCIDENT OCCURR IN HIGH SCHOOL?
I’M NOT MOCKING CHRISTINE FORD NOR AM I TRYING TO SOUND HYPOCRITICAL BUT WHY IS IT ALWAYS LIKE THIS FOR GOP SCOTUS COURT NOMINEES? WHY??
I WAS TRYING TO REMAIN SILENT BUT I HAD TO SPEAK UP.
THIS DRAMA IS NOT ABOUT PROTECTING WOMEN, IT’S STRAIGHT POLITICAL THEATER.
Post Sources: BBC News, Fox News, NBC News, Washington Post, Youtube
***** Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh hearing: Key takeaways so far
With a seat on the Supreme Court hanging in the balance, Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh are appearing in front of senators to state their case and share their stories. Here are some of the key takeaways so far.
Everyone knew what Christine Blasey Ford was going to say before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday morning. Her formal opening statement was released to the public on Wednesday evening.
Reading what she was going to say and hearing her speak it, in a quiet, sometimes faltering voice, are two very different things, however.
The committee hearing began with statements by Republican chairman Chuck Grassley and ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein, and the exchanging accusations of political obfuscation and procedural misconduct threatened to cover the proceedings in a political fog.
For a taut 20 minutes, however, Ms Ford cut through the fog with searing emotion. She spoke of traumatic memories and decades of shame; of a civic duty to come forward and recent months of hounding media and death threats.
The images of her speaking - the first glimpse the public at large has had of her besides a few grainy photos - will linger well beyond Thursday's hearing or even Brett Kavanaugh's ultimate professional fate.
Once Ms Ford concluded, the fog descended again. Thanks in large part to a disjointed format that featured five-minute segments alternating between veteran sex-crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, a surrogate questioner for the Republicans, and Democratic senators, there was little flow to proceedings.
It was as if viewers were flipping back and forth between a CourtTV criminal cross-examination and a public-access television congressional hearing.
Democrats succeeded in gleaning a few memorable moments from Ms Ford. She said she was 100% certain that Brett - referring to Mr Kavanaugh repeatedly by his first name - was the teenager who assaulted her.
She also, in reply to a question by Vermont Democrat Pat Leahy, recounted how the enduring recollection she has from the incident was Mr Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, laughing as they stumbled down the stairs after the alleged attack.
Ms Mitchell, in her interrogation, pulled at a number of threads in Ms Ford's story.
Who drove her to and from the house on the night of the party?
Why did she tell Senate investigators that she couldn't meet them in Washington because she was afraid of flying if she frequently travelled by air for pleasure?
Did she or did she not share her 2012 therapist records with a reporter from the Washington Post?
That final line of questioning is key, since it's those records that help corroborate that Ms Ford had spoken about the assault well before Mr Kavanaugh became a candidate for the Supreme Court.
The other questions seemed more geared toward undermining Ms Ford's credibility - the kind of strategy useful during depositions or trials to undermine a jury's trust in a witness or, perhaps, force them to crack under the accumulated pressure of the interrogation.
Every five minutes, however, Democrats threw Ms Ford a lifeline.
In the end, however, Ms Mitchell herself seemed slightly exasperated by the format she was working under. When it comes to trying to arrive at the accurate recollection of trauma, she said, "there's no study that shows that this setting, in five-minute increments, is the best way to do that.
As the first half of the hearing drew to a close, the senators began to argue about entering various outside statements into the record, only to be interrupted by one of Ms Ford's lawyers.
"Can we be excused?" he asked.
With the partisan fog thick again, it's a sentiment many Americans may have shared.
CNN’s April Ryan said Omarosa Manigault Newman stabbed her in the back and attempted to end her career when their once-friendly relationship soured.
“It was really ugly. It was so ugly,” Ryan said during an appearance on SiriusXM’s “Karen Hunter Show” on Tuesday.
Manigault Newman has been on a media blitz in support of her new book, “Unhinged,” and she has played various secret recordings of Trump and his staffers that she said were collected during her time working in the White House.
Ryan was on “The Karen Hunter Show” to promote her own book, when was asked asked if there's a section on Manigault Newman -- whom she considered a friend before the former Trump aide turned on her.
"I talk about her taping me. I warned everybody. I talk about her taping me. We had that fight between the Oval Office and the press office,” Ryan said. “It probably stemmed from the fact that she was very upset with me because I ...wouldn't be in her wedding and people were telling me she was very upset that I chose not to be in her wedding.”
The CNN contributor said that in addition to the wedding party beef, Manigault Newman turned on her in order to help Trump go after the media.
“She stabbed in the back, the neck, the eyeballs and in the front. She tried to cut my head off and put it on a platter and serve it up to Donald Trump,” Ryan told Hunter.
The feud between Ryan and Manigault Newman goes back to at least February of last year, when The Washington Post published a story headlined, “‘This is . . . Nixonian’: Reporter was taped by White House in heated exchange”. The Post’s Paul Farhi wrote that Ryan then claimed Manigault Newman said the CNN political analyst “was among a handful of journalists on whom the White House was keeping ‘dossiers’ of negative information.”
At the time, Manigault Newman called Ryan a “liar” and admitted to having a tape, while Ryan said she was considering legal action regarding the recording.
Ryan -- she's White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, in addition to her gig at CNN -- then told the SiriusXM host that Manigault Newman attempted to spread lies about her relationship to Hillary Clinton.
“I was very upset about that and we'll take care of what she said and the lies that she was spreading that is career-ending and I was doing this for about 20 years, when she did this,” Ryan said. “She said I was taking money from Hillary Clinton. I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
The Post also reported that Manigault Newman sent Ryan a note citing an unnamed story that tied her to Clinton.
“This story suggests that as a reporter, you are (or were) a paid Clinton surrogate. I pray this is not true! This could be hurtful to your legacy and the integrity of your work,” Manigault Newman reportedly wrote to Ryan at the time.
Ryan told the radio host that Manigault Newman wanted to “kill” her career, and that the truth could be easily proven.
“Now, here I am, a divorced single mother of two girls who works hard, and it's not just about taking food off my table. You are hurting my children. I'm a fierce mama bear. She lied on me,” Ryan said.
Ryan also claimed that Manigault Newman urged Trump's former press secretary, Sean Spicer, not to call on her during White House briefings.
Manigault Newman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. And, perhaps, your potential leakers closer yet.
President Donald Trump's political operation has made a regular practice of providing soft landing-pads for discarded staffers, offering nebulous jobs at big salaries to aides who have been pushed out of his West Wing.
The revelation this week that former White Houseassistant Omarosa Manigault Newman was offered a high-paying job on Trump's re-election campaign in return for signing a non-disclosure agreement was the clearest demonstration yet of how a slot in the Trump orbit is being used to take care of loyalists — and protect against potential liabilities.
Manigault Newman, who contends in her new book that she was offered a hush-money contract with the Trump campaign paying $15,000 a month, is hardly the first erstwhile staffer to find a lucrative off-ramp in the expanse of pro-Trump political organizations. The former staff members have found a wide range of rehabilitation within Trump's orbit: his re-election campaign, the Republican National Committee, and outside groups that support both him and Vice President Mike Pence.
Keith Schiller, the president's former bodyguard who served for eight months as director of Oval Office operations, has been paid the same $15,000 by the Republican National Committee as a security consultant for its national convention — in 2020 in Charlotte.
John McEntee, Trump's former personal aide, is paid 14,000 a month by the Trump re-election campaign.
One-time Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski joined Pence's Great America PAC in May, and former press secretary Sean Spicer was announced in June to replace him as the "senior advisor and spokesman" for pro-Trump super PAC America First Action.
Manigault Newman told MSNBC's "Hardball" on Monday, "They told me I could work from home, I didn't have to come in if I didn't want to. ... I could choose between the RNC, America First or the Trump campaign." She says she said no.
Now she has released a book filled with unsavory White House inside stories — Trump says the ones about him are false — and has been playing recordings of the president and others on TV.
That's exactly what he wanted to avoid, and his presidential campaign filed an arbitration action against her on Wednesday, alleging she had breached a confidentiality agreement she had signed.
The outside groups have also become magnets for Trump backers who were not brought into the administration, like Katrina Pierson and Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
The all-in the-family approach to taking care of stalwarts is nothing new. But the systematic approach with which Trump White House veterans have been offered plush gigs is.
According to aides, it reflects a reality that for some the lucrative private sector jobs that are typically available to exiting White House officials never materialized, while for others, it serves as a way keep them nearby and quiet.
Some current and former staffers have struggled to find post-White House jobs — given the conflicted feelings on the Trump administration in Washington — making the campaign or a super PAC an attractive paycheck.
And Trump, despite his reality-television catch-phrase, is loath to fire anyone from his inner circle, preferring to keep receiving their public and private adoration.
"When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems," Trump tweeted about Manigault Newman on Monday. "I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me - until she got fired!"
Video that went viral over the weekend shows an officer punching a man multiple times and then tackling him
A Baltimore police officer caught on video repeatedly punching a man has quit the force, police said.
The Baltimore police department said on Twitter late Sunday night that the interim commissioner, Gary Tuggle, accepted the resignation of the officer involved in the incident.
“This remains an active criminal investigation,” the department said.
Video that surfaced online and went viral over the weekend shows an officer punching the man around the head multiple times and then tackling him.
The city has not identified the officer, but a lawyer for the man who was punched told the Baltimore Sun the officer was Arthur Williams.
A second officer involved in the run-in has been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of an investigation, according to the department.
“I am deeply concerned by the conduct I witnessed today,” Tuggle said in a statement on Saturday. “I have zero tolerance for behavior like I witnessed on the video today. Officers have a responsibility and duty to control their emotions in the most stressful of situations.”
According to police, the incident happened around 11.45am on Saturday when two officers approached the man, who one of the officers “was familiar with”, for reasons that were not spelled out. They released him, and then approached him again to provide a citizens contact sheet, a form city cops are required to fill out after interactions with residents.
Things escalated after the man declined to provide identification, the department’s account says.
Video shows the man and one of the officers exchanging heated words before the confrontation turns physical, with the cop punching the man repeatedly before he falls to the ground, where the officer continues to throw punches and jumps on top of him.
The officer who threw the punches, who has been with the department for about a year, was suspended with pay before he resigned.
The man who was beaten was released from custody and was not charged with any crime.
The man, named as Dashawn McGrier, 26, had a previous run-in with Williams in June, and was at that time charged with assaulting the officer and other offenses, his lawyer, Warren Brown, told the Baltimore Sun. The lawyer said he was unfairly targeted in both incidents and was taken to the hospital for injuries suffered on Saturday.
“It seems like this officer had just decided that Dashawn was going to be his punching bag,” Brown said. “And this was a brutal attack.”
OMAROSA SAID "EVERYONE WILL BOW DOWN TO TRUMP" BEFORE SHE WAS FIRED BY JOHN KELLY.
OMAROSA CALLED TRUMP "TRAILBLAZER FOR WOMEN" BEFORE SHE WAS ESCORTED BY SECRET SERVICE OUT OF TRUMP'S ADMINISTRATION.
IF OMAROSA WILL TURN ON TRUMP.....A MAN WHO MADE HER FAMOUS, SHE WILL TURN ON ANYONE....SHE CAN'T BE TRUSTED & GIVES BLACK WOMEN A BAD NAME.
Post Sources: CNN, Twitter, MSNBC, Youtube
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
..."really bad things. Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work. When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems. I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me - until she got fired!"
Omarosa Manigault Newman and April Ryan traded barbs Sunday after the former reality TV star said the White House exploited American Urban Radio Networks' Washington bureau chief by leaking a colorful, unflattering story about her departure from the Trump administration.
"Don’t reference me or use my name. Keep my name out of your mouth," Ryan wrote on Twitter. "You have done enough. Your lies and crazy behavior are catching up to you. Can you say National Security breach? Lawyer up!"
Ryan's comments follow Manigault Newman's explosive interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," which aired a tape the former star of "The Apprentice" recorded in the Situation Room of White House chief of staff John Kelly talking to her about "leaving" her role in the Trump administration. The tape has raised concerns that Manigault Newman breached national security protocol by taking a recording device into what is supposed to be among the most secure parts of the presidential complex.
"He knew that John Kelly was going to take me into the Situation Room, and lock me in there, threaten me, and say that things were going to get ugly for me, and there would be damage to me reputation," Manigault Newman said Sunday, referring to President Trump. "And you know what, the next day there was damage to my reputation because they then put out a story using and exploiting an African-American reporter to say that I was running around the residence and trying to break into a Christmas party, which is ludicrous."
Ryan additionally slammed Manigault Newman as "evil" during a Sunday appearance on CNN's "Reliable Sources."
"She was complicit, but she was doing all this knowing that there was going to be a payoff in the end for her, and then once she got upset with him or he got upset with her or whatever happened, she decides to turn on him," Ryan said of Manigault Newman's initial support of Trump, despite now calling him "a racist, a bigot and a misogynist.” "She’s not a friend, she’s a liar, and I would say she’s evil," Ryan added.
Manigault Newman is promoting her book, "Unhinged," which is set to be released Aug. 14. Ryan also has a memoir coming out. Ryan's "Under Fire" will be widely available from Sept. 1.
April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks and a CNN contributor, called former Trump administration aide Omarosa Manigault Newman a "liar" and "evil" on Sunday.
Ryan, a frequent critic of the Trump administration, appeared on CNN's "Reliable Sources" where she told host Brian Stelter about her own dealings with Newman.
The former Trump aide and reality TV contestant said earlier on Sunday that she had provided NBC a recording she made of her firing from the administration. Newman had worked on Trump's campaign and then in the administration for about a year before White House Chief of Staff John Kelly fired her.
She had previously known the president from being on "The Apprentice," the reality TV show hosted by Donald Trump before he was won the 2016 presidential election.
Ryan first explained her current relationship with the former Trump aide.
"I've known Omarosa for years and we are not friends anymore," she said.
The CNN contributor said that while working in the Trump administration, Newman made moves to derail her career and reporting.
"She's not a friend; she's a liar and I would say she's evil," Ryan said.
"I hope she can respond to that at some point soon, calling her ‘evil,’" Stelter said.
"She will. I'm sure she will," Ryan said.
Newman has been making media appearances to promote her new book, Unhinged.
Ryan is not the only one to criticize Newman recently. Trump himself called her a "lowlife" on Saturday. The president followed up his comments on Monday via tweet, saying "Wacky Omarosa" was "vicious, but not smart" and "People in the White House hated her."
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway's husband, George Conway, a Democrat, also said that claims Trump made racial comments about him were untrue. Pollster Frank Luntz also said Newman's claims he heard Trump make racial slurs were "flat-out false."
JAMIE DIMON APPROVES OF TRUMP’S BOOMING ECONOMY (MORE JOBS, MORE MILITARY):
U.S. ECONOMY STRONGEST SINCE 2014.
TRUMP’S TRADE WAR YIELDS POSITIVE RESULTS FOR U.S. ECONOMY.
TRUMP KNOWS BUSINESS & BLOWS OFF TRADITIONAL, COUNTERPRODUCTIVE POLITICS.
MEDIA NEEDS TO FAIRLY GIVE THE PRESIDENT CREDIT WHEN IT’S DUE HIM, REGARDLESS OF PARTY.
GOD BLESS AMERICA
Post Sources: CNN, Fox News, 4-Traders, Youtube
***** US economy grows at fastest pace since 2014
The US economy roared into high gear in the spring, growing at the fastest pace in almost four years.
Second-quarter economic growth came in at an annual rate of 4.1%, the government said Friday. That was the best showing since the third quarter of 2014.
By many metrics, the United States economy is in excellent shape: Unemployment is near an 18-year low, factories are seeing more orders, and exports are surging.
Economists are generally predicting slower growth in the second half of the year, as the effects of the tax cut wear off and rising interest rates depress consumer spending.
Already announced tariffs are forecast to be only a slight drag on economic growth, unless more are imposed. And it seems that corporate executives are treading carefully, as surveys of business confidence and hiring expectations begin to flag.
The strong second-quarter growth reflectedlarge increases in orders of durable goods, investment in non-residential construction, exports, intellectual property, and government defense spending.
Weak home construction and increased imports, which subtract from economic growth, took it down a notch.
Growth in the first quarter was revised up slightly, from 2% to 2.2%.
Personal consumption expenditures, a key metric that the Federal Reserve uses to decide whether to raise interest rates, also came in at a very strong 4%, although that may reflect a bounceback from last quarter's 0.5%.
For nearly two years, Republicans have watched uncomfortably, and often in silence, as President Trump has swatted away accusations that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential race, attacked his own intelligence agencies and flattered President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
On Monday, even for members of his own party, Mr. Trump apparently went too far.
The president’s extraordinary news conference with Mr. Putin in Helsinki, Finland, stunned Republicans across the ideological spectrum and the party’s political apparatus, leaving them struggling to respond after the president undermined his national intelligence director, blamed both the United States and Russia for poor relations between the two countries and seemingly agreed to Mr. Putin’s suggestion that Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, cooperate with Russia.
Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, declared, “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.” Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and Trump adviser, declared the news conference “the most serious mistake of his presidency.” Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and current Senate candidate from Utah, called it “disgraceful and detrimental to our democratic principles.”
The effect extended far beyond official Washington. One local official — Chris Gagin, the chairman of the Republican Party in Belmont County, Ohio — resigned his post, announcing on Twitter that he “did so as a matter of conscience, and my sense of duty.” Neil Cavuto, a Fox Business Network host, called Mr. Trump’s performance “disgusting,” adding, “I’m sorry, it’s the only way I feel. It’s not a right or left thing to me, it’s just wrong.”
Yet no Republican in Congress pledged any particular action to punish Mr. Trump, such as holding up his nominees or delaying legislation, nor did any Republican promise hearings or increased oversight.
It was left to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, to demand actual action. He called for increased sanctions on Russia; for Mr. Trump’s national security team to testify before Congress; for defense of the Department of Justice and other intelligence agencies; and for Mr. Trump to press Mr. Putin to extradite the 12 Russian intelligence agents who were indicted Friday.
“In the entire history of our country, Americans have never seen a president of the United States support an adversary the way President Trump has supported President Putin,” Mr. Schumer said.
He added: “A single, ominous question now hangs over the White House: What could possibly cause President Trump to put the interests of Russia over those of the United States? Millions of Americans will continue to wonder. The only possible explanation for this dangerous behavior is the possibility that President Putin holds damaging information over President Trump.”
Republican leaders largely tempered their remarks, confining their backhanded comments to denunciations of Russia and expressions of faith in American intelligence agencies. But even they appeared to have given up hope that they could shape the actions of an erratic and unpredictable president.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, concluded that Mr. Trump was unable to distinguish between the fact that Russia had interfered in the election and the accusation — as yet unproven — that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia.
“In the president’s mind, I think he’s conflating different things — the meddling and the collusion allegations for which there does not appear to be any evidence,” Mr. Cornyn said.
Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and a former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who has defended Mr. Trump amid the Russia inquiry, was not quite as charitable: “I understand in the bigger picture the president genuinely feels that he can establish better relations with Russia the way Nixon did with China,” Mr. King said in an interview, “but the nuance eludes him.”
And as to Mr. Trump’s openness to having Russia cooperate with Mr. Mueller’s investigation, Mr. King said, “It would be like bringing ISIS into a joint terrorism task force.”
At least one Republican, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, veered from the script and delivered a full-throated defense of Mr. Trump: “I think it’s a good idea to have engagement, and I guess I don’t quite understand all of the people who have gone completely deranged criticizing the president.”
Elected Republicans have been uneasy about Mr. Trump’s unorthodox views toward Russia and his willingness to embrace Mr. Putin since Mr. Trump first grabbed the attention of the party as its primary contest heated up in summer 2015. Many thought that once he was in office, surrounded by Washington’s national security experts, Mr. Trump would adopt the wary stance that has guided previous American presidents.
Instead, time and again he has defied those expectations, as he repeatedly called into question the collective conclusions of the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and other intelligence agencies, and ignored his own advisers’ advice in seeking a personal relationship with Mr. Putin.
For most Republicans on Capitol Hill and around the country, Mr. Trump’s stance toward Mr. Putin, coupled with his recent attacks on the United States’ allies in Europe, have presented a challenge: either defend the post-World War II international order, and risk angering a president who is immensely popular with their voters, or hold their tongues.
That challenge is especially tricky for Republican leaders, who must work closely with Mr. Trump and are especially reluctant to criticize him in public.
Hours passed on Monday before Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, commented. During a rare hallway interview in the Capitol, he uttered three terse sentences: “The Russians are not our friends. I’ve said that repeatedly, I say it again today. And I have complete confidence in our intelligence community and the findings that they have announced.” He refused to answer questions.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan was a bit more pointed. “The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally,” he said in a carefully worded statement. “There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals.”
Democrats wanted more than carefully calibrated statements.
“This is a disgraceful moment. The president’s party knows better,” John Kerry, the former secretary of state and senator, wrote in a statement. “America needs them to speak out with clarity and conviction not just in this news cycle, but until there’s common sense governing America’s foreign policy.”
Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, suggested on Twitter that if Republicans “were serious,” they would pass a long-stalled legislation protecting the jobs of special counsels such as Mr. Mueller.
But Republican leaders did not appear ready to go beyond measured phrases. Mr. Cornyn told reporters that it was “wishful thinking” to expect Mr. Putin to agree to the extradition of the 12 Russian agents. “Much of what Senator Schumer’s asking for, I think we’ve already done,” he added.
As Republican leaders struggled to come up with tactful ways to respond to a stunning news conference, responses from some of their colleagues signified a moment when Republicans could not defend their president.
Mr. McCain’s was undoubtedly the harshest.
“It is tempting to describe the press conference as a pathetic rout — as an illustration of the perils of under-preparation and inexperience,” said Mr. McCain, who has brain cancer.
“But these were not the errant tweets of a novice politician,” he continued. “These were the deliberate choices of a president who seems determined to realize his delusions of a warm relationship with Putin’s regime without any regard for the true nature of his rule, his violent disregard for the sovereignty of his neighbors, his complicity in the slaughter of the Syrian people, his violation of international treaties and his assault on democratic institutions throughout the world.”
Mr. McCain’s fellow Republican senator from Arizona, Jeff Flake, released his own rebuke: “I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican Alaska, struck a mournful tone: “Sadly President Trump did not defend America to the Russian president, and for the world to see. Instead, what I saw today was not ‘America First,’ it was simply a sad diminishment of our great nation.”
Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska and a frequent critic of Mr. Trump, echoed the sentiment. “Everyone in this body should be disgusted by what happened in Helsinki today,” he said Monday in a speech on the Senate floor.
Even for congressional Republicans used to avoiding commenting on the president’s outbursts, Mr. Trump’s performance in Helsinki was difficult to ignore. For those who are accustomed to speaking out against Mr. Trump, and those whose impending retirements have freed them to do so, it was yet another occasion for public hand-wringing.
Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the retiring chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he “did not think this was a good moment for our country.”
It was, he added, a very good moment for Mr. Putin.
“It was almost an approval, if you will, a public approval by the greatest nation on earth towards him,” Mr. Corker told reporters. “I would guess he’s having caviar right now.”
The first was a man who opened up about his mental health, his family, and his art in a nearly-two hour interview with radio host Charlamagne Tha God.
The second was a Kanye who appeared at the TMZ headquarters where he had this to say:
"When you hear about slavery for 400 years ... ...
For 400 years? That sounds like a choice."
The rapper went on to add:
"You were there for 400 years and it's all of y'all. It's like we're mentally imprisoned."
Provocative statements are second nature to the 40-year-old rapper. And this week he's been making headlines left and right, including proclaiming his love for President Trump.
But when he made his off-handed remark about slavery, TMZ employee Van Lathan took him to task for it.
An employee confronts him
"While you are making music and being an artist and living the life that you've earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives," Lathan said.
"We have to deal with the marginalization that's come from the 400 years of slavery that you said for our people was a choice."
Lathan added, "Frankly, I'm disappointed, I'm appalled, and brother, I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something to me, that's not real."
Kanye tries to explain
As his words lit Twitter on fire, Kanye tried to explain what he meant. Here is his series of tweets Tuesday evening:
"[T]o make myself clear. Of course I know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will.
My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved."
And then Kanye quickly made it about Kanye:
"[T]he reason why I brought up the 400 years point is because we can't be mentally imprisoned for another 400 years.
We need free thought now.
Even the statement was an example of free thought. It was just an idea.
Once again I am being attacked for presenting new ideas."
President Donald Trump is shaking up his legal team, again.
As negotiations continue with special counsel Robert Mueller on the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, the president has added a new lawyer and is considering making other changes.
The newest addition to the legal team has garnered attention for burnishing Trump on cable TV. Former federal prosecutor Joseph diGenova previously argued on Fox News that the Russia investigation was part of a “brazen plot” by FBI and Department of Justice staffers to frame Trump.
Trump’s legal team also reached out in recent days to noted D.C. powerhouse Ted Olson, solicitor general under President George W. Bush, but he declined within hours of the news becoming public. Trump is also reportedly in discussions with Emmett Flood, a veteran D.C. lawyer who worked with Bill Clinton during the impeachment.
The news contradicts Trump’s tweet on the subject earlier this month, in which he declared that he was not seeking to change his legal representation.
The Russia probe is not the only matter on which Trump is getting legal advice.
The president’s private lawyers are also currently working through separate lawsuits:
They are suing porn star Stormy Daniels for violating a hush agreement about her alleged affair with the president, while also defending Trump in a defamation lawsuit for calling former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos a liar after she accused Trump of sexual assault.
Former Playboy model Karen McDougal is also suing the parent company of the National Enquirer, whose chief executive is friendly with Trump, seeking to be released from a legal agreement that bars her from speaking about an alleged affair with the president as well. Trump’s lawyers are not involved in that case.
~ Here’s a look at the lawyers representing Trump in the various matters.
~ Don McGahn
McGahn is the current White House counsel, the top lawyer tasked with advising the president on legal issues about policies and legislation. But McGahn has been at the center of controversies over Trump’s challenged travel ban, executive orders and the scandal surrounding former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s tenure in the White House, and Trump at one point handed off responsibility of Russia-related issues to his personal attorney. Before becoming White House counsel, McGahn was Trump’s lawyer on the campaign, and he previously served as a commissioner with the Federal Election Commission. McGahn reportedly threatened to quit when Trump asked him in 2017 to fire Mueller, and the president backed down.
~ Ty Cobb
A former federal prosecutor and a white-collar defense lawyer at the law firm Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C., Cobb was at one point in charge of overseeing the legal strategy and media response to investigations into the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia. Trump has reportedly considered firing Cobb, who repeatedly said during 2017 that the Russia investigation would be finishing soon and encouraged the president to cooperate with Mueller. In September, Cobb was overheard by a reporter talking openly at a Washington restaurant about the investigation.
~ John Dowd
A noted white collar defense attorney in Washington, Dowd joined Trump’s legal team in June. He argued in December that a president cannot obstruct justice, a controversial legal theory that many experts disagree with. And in March, he told a reporter that he hopes Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will shut down the Russia investigation, a break from Cobb’s talk of cooperating with Mueller. The remark led to questions about whether the president’s legal strategy on the Russia investigation was moving to a more aggressive stance.
~ Michael Cohen
Cohen is a personal lawyer, spokesperson and close confidant of Trump’s. He’s been working for Trump for years, closely enough that he has hired his own lawyer to help him with the Russia probe. He’s known as a particularly aggressive advocate on Trump’s behalf, Trump’s “pit bull or consigliere,” as ABC puts it, for threatening legal action against critics, yelling at reporters and vigorously defending his boss on Twitter.
~ Jay Sekulow
Sekulow is on Trump’s personal legal team advising him on Russia issues, and one of the lawyers who often appears in television hits. On Sunday on ABC, Sekulow said of Donald Trump Jr.’s Russian meeting, “Well, I wonder why the Secret Service, if this was nefarious, why the Secret Service allowed these people in.” The Secret Service responded and said it did not vet the meeting. Sekulow is Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law & Justice and hosts his own talk show, and before joining Trump’s team he had spent his legal career representing conservative groups.
~ Joseph diGenova
Trump added Joseph diGenova, a Washington lawyer and former U.S. attorney, to his legal team in March. Two months earlier, diGenova had gone on Fox News and endorsed the conspiracy theory that the FBI and Justice Department framed Trump. “There was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and, if she didn’t win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime,” he said. “Make no mistake about it: A group of F.B.I. and D.O.J. people were trying to frame Donald Trump of a falsely created crime.” It also emerged that during the investigation of President Bill Clinton in 1997, diGenova published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal arguing that sitting presidents can be indicted, a legal question that may take on new relevance under Mueller’s investigation.
~ Marc Kasowitz
Trump’s personal attorney, Kasowitz has represented Trump for years, including in divorces, bankruptcy cases and the sexual misconduct allegations that surfaced during the presidential campaign. He’s known for a fiery temper—in an email outburst published by ProPublica, Kasowitz told an unidentified person, “”F–k you… And you don’t know me, but I will know you. How dare you send me an email like that. I’m on you now. You are f–king with me now. Let’s see who you are. Watch your back b—h.” Kasowitz then reportedly left Trump’s legal team, but he has recently been working with Trump on the Zervos lawsuit.
Lawmakers should continue to study the possibilities of requiring daily arrest logs from the state police and removing or modifying public record exemptions for domestic violence incidents, according to a working group created by a 2016 law.
An overhaul of the state's public records law that Gov. Charlie Baker signed on June 3, 2016 established a pair of panels to study additional measures and gave both deadlines of Dec. 30, 2017. The law also set a ten business day response window for records request responses, required state agencies and municipalities to designate records officers, and limited how much money public entities can charge to fulfill a request, among other measures.
One of the groups the law created — a 14-member commission tasked with examining "the accessibility of information concerning the legislative process" and the constitutionality of extending the public records law to the Legislature, the governor and the Judiciary — has until Dec. 1, 2018 to report findings. Lawmakers last month quietly pushed back the original Dec. 30, 2017 reporting date by adding language to a Cannabis Control Commission spending bill. The co-chairs of the State Administration Committee - Rep. Jennifer Benson of Lunenburg and Sen. Walter Timilty of Milton - are leading that group.
The other group, which filed its final report with the House and Senate clerks on Friday, was charged with exploring the topic of police department records.
"While the group could not reach consensus on proposed legislation, it highlighted areas of concerns in current statutes and recommended further examination of these laws," state supervisor of records Rebecca Murray, who chaired the working group, wrote in a message accompanying the report.
Murray wrote that she hopes the report "sets the groundwork for the Legislature to ensure the laws of the Commonwealth reach the necessary balance between the transparency of law enforcement in Massachusetts and the privacy of individuals."
Specifically, the law instructed the working group to review the exemption to the public records law that covers "investigatory materials necessarily compiled out of the public view by law enforcement," as well as the "the public interest" in releasing police documents such as arrest reports, and related privacy and confidentiality concerns.
The group was deadlocked on whether to recommend adding the state police into the law that requires all municipal police department to maintain a daily log of complaints, crimes and arrests, according to meeting minutes included in the report.
Entries in such logs are considered public records, with exceptions for incidents involving certain handicapped individuals, domestic violence, rape or sexual assault, and arrests for assault against a relative or household members.
Murray, Sen. Joan Lovely, attorney Jeffrey Pyle of Prince Lobel, Foxborough Town Clerk Robert Cutler, and Randall Ravitz, chief of Attorney General Maura Healey's appeals division, voted in favor of extending the log requirement to state police.
Voting against were Shannon Sullivan, a designee of Public Safety and Security Secretary Daniel Bennett; Capt. Michael Lyver, president of the state police Commissioned Officers Association of Massachusetts; Robert Ross, general counsel at the Executive Office of Administration and Finance; Jessica Katon, Sen. Richard Ross's constituent services director; and Salisbury Police Chief Thomas Fowler.
A 2014 law aimed at curbing domestic violence made it so police reports about domestic violence and rape were not deemed public records, and therefore not subject to disclosure requirements. Supporters said the move would increase confidentiality for victims.
The group voted 10-0 to not recommend changes to the disclosure exemption for reports of abuse involving household members, and 10-1 not to recommend changes to the exemption relating to domestic violence, with Robert Ambrogi of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association dissenting.
Instead, the panel suggested that the Legislature should study those issues, as well as the question of whether the state police should be subject to the daily log requirements and how that requirement would be fulfilled if so.
Prince George's County housing inspectors and family services officials are investigating conditions inside a county-funded safe house for domestic-violence survivors after residents reported living in mold- and pest-infested rooms, eating spoiled food and enduring cold nights without heat.
The county pays the private nonprofit Family Crisis Center Inc. of Prince George's County $385,000 a year to operate the 55-bed shelter, which is the only facility in the county that provides temporary housing for abused women and their children.
The Family Crisis Center, which also offers counseling and outreach services to domestic-violence victims, receives hundreds of thousands more dollars each year in state and local grants.
Residents of the shelter — whose location is kept private for security reasons — approached reporters during the weekend to say that their concerns had been ignored by the organization's executive director, Sophie Ford. The residents presented videos and photos of mold in bathrooms, broken windows and rust.
One young mother, who declined to give her full name out of fear for her safety, said that shelter staff members were friendly, but that there was never enough money for groceries.
"The food was like slop," said the woman, who asked to be identified by her first name, Jay. "It got so bad that my children wouldn't eat it, and I wouldn't let them. I went to the store nearby to buy whatever I could find."
Ford did not respond to requests for comment. But in a statement posted on the crisis center's Facebook page, the organization said it is investigating the complaints and making repairs to the century-old building. The statement denied that the safe house lacked heat or that any of its 46 residents consumed rotten food.
"It is our highest priority to protect our population," the statement said. "Therefore we take any and all complaints very serious. . . . These allegations strike at the core of our mission."
Elana Belon-Butler, director of the county's Department of Family Services, visited the crisis center facility on Monday and saw leaking shower heads, filthy air vents and other problems.
"I was not aware of the extent, severity and complexity of the issues," said Belon-Butler, adding that she is awaiting a complete report from inspectors. "I saw a number of things I am concerned about."
The county Department of Family Services conducts quarterly site inspections of shelters it contracts with, notifying the organizations ahead of arrival. Officials are reviewing past reports, including the one from the most recent Nov. 29 site visit. The shelter has been funded by the county since 1993.
"Specifically, what we are going to wait to see is whether or not there has been any violation of the grant agreement," Belon-
Butler said. "We are taking this very seriously."
Prince George's leads the state in domestic-violence-related homicides. The safe house is part of a network of services — including a year-old Family Justice Center focused on helping abuse victims — aimed at combating the violence.
The Family Crisis Center was paid $108,000 by the county this fall to expand services to southern Prince George's. Since 2012, the organization has won at least $630,000 in county grants. The shelter also received $1.2 million in the past two years from the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention.
A grant coordinator from the state inspected the shelter on Tuesday after WUSA-TV reported on the residents' complaints, agency spokesman Robert James said. No major problems were reported during two site visits earlier this year.
The state also investigated complaints about the shelter in 2015, James said. After several staff members were removed, he said, conditions improved.
Keiyauna Stanley, a former manager of the shelter, said she was fired in November after contacting the organization's board of directors about conditions at the house and unpaid utility bills.
Carolyn White Williams, the head of a nonprofit that donates toys and clothes to the women in the shelter, said, "The issues have been going on for a mighty long time."
White Williams, founder of Sister 4 Sister Inc., said she complained about insufficient funds and shelter mismanagement during a recent County Council oversight hearing but did not receive a response that satisfied her.
"My heart is with those women. It makes me really, really angry," she said.
County Council Chair Dannielle M. Glaros (D) called the allegations about the shelter "disturbing and unacceptable."
"We anxiously await more details from the inspections and the results of this investigation before determining the best next steps to support the needs of the residents of the Family Crisis Center," she said in a statement.
Prince George's County State's Attorney Angela Alsobrooks (D), who is running for county executive, successfully sought state funding this year to provide additional short-term housing options for domestic-violence victims.
Her spokesman, John Erzen, said Alsobrooks was motivated in part by long-standing concerns about the crisis center.
"We wanted to try and bring another option when people are looking to get out of dangerous situations," Erzen said.
Welcome to the BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ Blog. (Established 2008)
My name is Laurel. (Author & Publisher)
I Blog with a focus on POLITICS, Business, and occasionally Entertainment.
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Currently reside in CHARLOTTE, NC
I’m Nice but don’t get it twisted because my Mind is Sharp!
Since You’ve Chosen to Visit and Read the Contents of this Blog by Personal Choice, and of Your Own Free Will,
Please don’t ask me to Compensate you for Expressing individual commentary/ Posted Articles, which are protected by the First Amendment, citing Freedom of Speech & Freedom of Expression.
No Intentionally Malicious Slander, Libel or Defamation of Character content will be published and I will always Credit all Sources.
NOTE TO ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS, APPOINTED OFFICIALS & PUBLIC FIGURES:
Per the Landmark U.S. Supreme Court Case: 1964 case of New York Times v. Sullivan………
The Public has a Right to Criticize the People who Govern them, so the least Protection from Defamation is given to Public Officials. When officials are accused of something that involves their behavior in office, they have to prove all of the above elements of defamation and they must also prove that the defendant acted with “actual malice.” (For a definition of actual malice, see the “History of Defamation and the First Amendment, below.”)
People who aren’t Elected but who are Still Public Figures because they are influential or famous — like Actors, Actresses, Movie Stars, Singers & Entertainers, Journalists, TV Hosts, Bloggers, etc., — also have to Prove that Defamatory statements were made with Actual Malice, in most cases.
To the Associated Press and other Media Organizations:
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Laurel @BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ
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