Tag: GOP now the cult of Trump

Trump escalates campaign of retribution as Republican senators shrug

Washington Post logoPresident Trump escalated his campaign of retribution against his perceived impeachment enemies Tuesday, railing in the Oval Office about a decorated combat veteran who testified about the president’s conduct with Ukraine and suggesting the Defense Department should consider disciplining him.

“The military can handle him any way they want,” Trump said of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who was ousted from his position on the National Security Council last Friday and reassigned to the Pentagon.

Asked whether he was recommending the military take disciplinary action against Vindman for his House testimony in the impeachment proceedings, Trump replied, “They’re going to certainly, I would imagine, take a look at that.” Continue reading.

Legal expert stunned as Bill Barr delivers a ‘very strange’ response to DOJ accepting dirt from Rudy Giuliani

AlterNet logoThis Monday, U.S. prosecutors charged four Chinese military hackers over the 2017 cyberattack at Equifax. The hack caused a data breach that involved over 147 million credit reports.

In a press conference in the wake of the charges, Attorney General William Barr gave some opening remarks, then took one question from a reporter regarding recent comments made by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), where he said that Barr told him that the Justice Department “created a process that Rudy could give information and they would see if it’s verified.”

Responding to the reporter’s question, Barr said the DOJ “has the obligation to have an open door to anybody who wishes to provide us information that is relevant.” Continue reading.

Republicans Silent After Trump Fires Decorated Army Officer For Testifying

Republicans have been mostly silent since Donald Trump unceremoniously fired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a decorated Army officer and National Security Council staffer, and his twin brother on Friday afternoon.

Vindman was escorted from the White House Friday afternoon, a move largely seen as retaliation for Vindman’s congressional testimony during the House impeachment investigation. Vindman testified in November 2019 that he was troubled by Trump asking the Ukrainian government to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and relayed his concerns to NSC lawyers.

Vindman received the Purple Heart after he was injured by an improvised explosive device while serving in Iraq in 2004. Until Friday, he served as one of the NSC’s top Ukraine experts. Continue  reading.

Lindsey Graham: ‘I’m not going to be the Republican Christopher Steele’

He wants to move forward with investigations without relying on sources from Ukraine and Russia.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham addressed the president directly Sunday as he pledged to carefully investigate Joe Biden’s son.

“If he’s watching the show, here’s what I would tell the president: I’m going to get to the bottom of the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] process, because it was an abuse of power at the Department of Justice and the FBI,” the South Carolina Republican said on CBS‘ “Face the Nation.“

He added: “We’ll make sure Hunter Biden’s conflict of interest is explored, because it’s legitimate.” Continue reading.

Lindsey Graham’s tarring of Alexander Vindman

Washington Post logoGraham warned about Russia feeding propaganda through Ukraine. Then he engaged in his own conspiracy theory about Vindman.

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) gave his first Sunday show interview in the post-impeachment era of Donald Trump’s presidency. And it was something.

Over the course of a lengthy conversation with “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, Graham left open the possibility that Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, was being “played by the Russians.” He was also asked whether Trump knows that information from Ukraine could be Russian propaganda, and he could muster only, “I hope so.” And he indicated he is increasingly skeptical about allegations that originated in Ukraine and said the Judiciary Committee he chairs may not pursue them, after all.

The totality of it suggests that an influential senator has undergone a rather conveniently timed shift when it comes to Trump’s conspiracy theories about Ukraine. Now that the theories don’t need to be vouched for in the name of defending Trump, Graham appears to be distancing himself from them. Continue reading.

James Comey: As usual, Trump called me a sleaze. But the audience reaction to his rant was more upsetting.

Washington Post logoJames B. Comey is a former director of the FBI and former deputy attorney general.

The most important thing that happened during President Trump’s post-impeachment rant at the White House didn’t happen at the lectern.

Yes, as usual, he called me a sleaze and scum and a dirty cop and said he likely would no longer be president if he hadn’t fired me. Although I still can’t follow the logic of that last bit, it doesn’t matter.

The important thing was what happened in the audience, where there were plenty of intelligent people of deep commitment to religious principle. They laughed and smiled and clapped as a president of the United States lied, bullied, cursed and belittled the faith of other leaders. That was the deeply disturbing part of the East Room moment, and should challenge us all. Continue reading.

Four prosecutors quit Roger Stone case after DOJ sentencing reversal

The Hill logoThe four Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors who recommended Roger Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison left the case Tuesday after top officials sought to reduce their sentencing request.

Prosecutors Michael Marando, Adam Jed, Jonathan Kravis and Aaron Zelinsky all asked the judge in the case for permission to withdraw. Kravis left the DOJ entirely, announcing his resignation as an assistant U.S. attorney.

The four were involved in providing the initial sentencing guidance for Stone. But in a rebuke to the career prosecutors, the DOJ on Tuesday told the judge in the case to apply “far less” to Stone’s sentence. Continue reading.

The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President

How new technologies and techniques pioneered by dictators will shape the 2020 election

One day last fall, I sat down to create a new Facebook account. I picked a forgettable name, snapped a profile pic with my face obscured, and clicked “Like” on the official pages of Donald Trump and his reelection campaign. Facebook’s algorithm prodded me to follow Ann Coulter, Fox Business, and a variety of fan pages with names like “In Trump We Trust.” I complied. I also gave my cellphone number to the Trump campaign, and joined a handful of private Facebook groups for MAGA diehards, one of which required an application that seemed designed to screen out interlopers.

The president’s reelection campaign was then in the midst of a multimillion-dollar ad blitz aimed at shaping Americans’ understanding of the recently launched impeachment proceedings. Thousands of micro-targeted ads had flooded the internet, portraying Trump as a heroic reformer cracking down on foreign corruption while Democrats plotted a coup. That this narrative bore little resemblance to reality seemed only to accelerate its spread. Right-wing websites amplified every claim. Pro-Trump forums teemed with conspiracy theories. An alternate information ecosystem was taking shape around the biggest news story in the country, and I wanted to see it from the inside.

The story that unfurled in my Facebook feed over the next several weeks was, at times, disorienting. There were days when I would watch, live on TV, an impeachment hearing filled with damning testimony about the president’s conduct, only to look at my phone later and find a slickly edited video—served up by the Trump campaign—that used out-of-context clips to recast the same testimony as an exoneration. Wait, I caught myself wondering more than once, is that what happened today? Continue reading.

Lindsey Graham says DOJ is handling information from Giuliani on Bidens

Washington Post logoSen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that the Justice Department is vetting information that President Trump’s personal attorney has delivered regarding Hunter Biden’s work on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.

Graham, citing an early-morning conversation with Attorney General William P. Barr, said that Rudolph W. Giuliani is giving his information to national security experts and that he would back off his own plans to use the Senate Judiciary Committee as a vehicle to investigate the Biden family.

“The Department of Justice is receiving information coming out of the Ukraine from Rudy to see — he told me that they have created a process that Rudy could give information and they would see if it’s verified,” Graham, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Continue reading.

‘Not just chilling but frightening’: Inside Vindman’s ouster amid fears of further retaliation by Trump

Washington Post logoHe had been publicly vilified by President Trump, marched out of his national security office across from the White House, so Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman wanted only to get his mind off politics as he settled in to watch a television show with his grade-school-age daughter Friday evening.

Then his wife returned home with some news: Much of the country had just watched as former vice president Joe Biden implored the audience to give a standing ovation in Vindman’s honor at the nationally televised Democratic presidential debate in Manchester, N.H.

“Stand up and clap for Vindman. That’s not who we are! We’re not what Trump is!” Biden thundered in the name of the Army officer whom Trump had hours earlier ousted from the White House National Security Council in retaliation for his testimony in the House Democrats’ impeachment probe. Continue reading.