Tag: Trump bullying

Trump Tweet Threatens NPR Over Pompeo Tantrum

The cycle of Fox News coverage and President Donald Trump’s id repeated itself this weekend, this time involving the network’s coverage of the now-infamous blowup between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly.

In response to negative media coverage, Trump is now seconding a suggestion from Fox News personality Mark Levin — to end NPR’s funding, and even get rid of the organization itself.

Original controversy regarding Pompeo

Kelly’s interview of Pompeo on January 24 became heated when she asked him about the ongoing Ukraine scandal and impeachment, to which he replied that he had only come on to talk about Iran. (Kelly answered that she had confirmed with his staff that she would discuss both Iran and Ukraine.) Continue reading.

Schiff ‘has not paid the price’ for impeachment, Trump says in what appears to be veiled threat

Washington Post logoPresident Trump escalated his attacks on Rep. Adam B. Schiff on Sunday, issuing what appears to be a veiled threat against the California Democrat one day before Trump’s team is expected to deliver the crux of its defense in the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history.

“Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man,” Trump tweeted Sunday morning. “He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!”

Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is the lead impeachment manager in the Senate trial. Continue reading.

‘You’re a bunch of dopes and babies’: Inside Trump’s stunning tirade against generals

Washington Post logoThis article is adapted from “A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America,” which will be published on Jan. 21 by Penguin Press.

There is no more sacred room for military officers than 2E924 of the Pentagon, a windowless and secure vault where the Joint Chiefs of Staff meet regularly to wrestle with classified matters. Its more common name is “the Tank.” The Tank resembles a small corporate boardroom, with a gleaming golden oak table, leather swivel armchairs and other mid-century stylings. Inside its walls, flag officers observe a reverence and decorum for the wrenching decisions that have been made there.

Hanging prominently on one of the walls is The Peacemakers, a painting that depicts an 1865 Civil War strategy session with President Abraham Lincoln and his three service chiefs — Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, and Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter. One hundred fifty-​­two years after Lincoln hatched plans to preserve the Union, President Trump’s advisers staged an intervention inside the Tank to try to preserve the world order. Continue reading.

In New Filing, FBI Agent Strzok Uses Trump’s Boasting Against Him

Peter Strzok, the former FBI agent who was fired after texts showing his deep dislike for President Donald Trump were revealed, accused the government of violating his rights to privacy and free speech in a new court filing. The allegations, which are part of his lawsuit challenging his termination, used Trump’s own words against the Justice Department, arguing that the president’s claims undermine the administration’s argument in the case.

Strzok alleges that he was terminated because of his personal opposition to Trump, which is protected by the First Amendment. He has also argued, as has former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, that the release of his texts with Page constituted a violation of privacy. However, the Justice Department contends that its actions were within bounds because Page and Strzok’s communications occurred over their work phones and they discussed FBI business.

Page and Strzok’s extramarital affair was exposed in the publication of the texts, a fact which Trump has exploited in his effort to demonize the pair as part of a supposed “deep state” conspiracy against him. They also both worked on the Hillary Clinton email investigation and the Russia investigation, two highly politicized probes. Continue reading

Trump ‘Just Riffing’ When He Said Rep. Dingell’s Dead Husband Was in Hell, Says White House

Two Republican congressmen have called on Trump to apologize, but the press secretary this morning refused to say sorry for the president’s words.

Two Republican congressmen have called on President Trump to apologize after he suggested that the husband of Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI)—the late former lawmaker John Dingell—was in hell after she voted in favor of impeaching him.

The White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham made a rare TV appearance away from Fox News on Thursday to defend her boss on Good Morning America, but she said she had not spoken to him about making an apology.

At Trump’s rally in Michigan on Wednesday night, the president claimed that he gave the “A-plus treatment” when John Dingell died this year. Trump recounted his side of events, telling the crowd in Rep. Dingell’s home state that she had called him to express her gratitude. “‘John would be so thrilled. He’s looking down, he’d be so thrilled,’” Trump claimed Debbie Dingell said, before adding: “Maybe he’s looking up, I don’t know.” Continue reading

Trump, Macron hold tense meeting: ‘Would you like some nice ISIS fighters? I can give them to you’

The Hill logoPresident Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron held a tense meeting Tuesday on the sidelines of a NATO summit, with Trump at one point telling the French leader he could send him some “ISIS fighters” if he wanted them.

“Would you like some nice ISIS fighters? I can give them to you,” Trump said with a slight smile at the meeting, which was carried live on cable news. “You can take every one you want.”

“Let’s be serious,” Macron replied sternly, reasoning that most ISIS fighters came from Syria, Iraq and Iran and disputing Trump’s common refrain that the terrorist group had been defeated.

Continue reading here.

 

Lisa Page slams Trump’s ‘demeaning fake orgasm’ performance: It was ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump has repeatedly railed against Lisa Page, the former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attorney who, during the 2016 election, was critical of Trump in some text messages sent to FBI agent Peter Strzok. One of Trump’s anti-Page rants came during a rally in Minneapolis on October 11, when he resorted to a fake orgasm voice while insulting her — and Page, in an interview with the Daily Beast, is asserting that after the Minneapolis speech, keeping quiet is not an option.

“Honestly, his demeaning fake orgasm was really the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Page told the Daily Beast. “I had stayed quiet for years, hoping it would fade away, but instead, it got worse. It had been so hard not to defend myself, to let people who hate me control the narrative. I decided to take my power back.”

Although Trump’s comments about Page during the Minneapolis speech have been widely denounced as sexist, some at Fox News have vigorously defended the speech. Fox News’ Jeannine Pirro, an ardent Trump defender, told her colleague Stuart Varney, “That’s why he was elected president: because he speaks in a way that the ordinary Americans understand.”

Continue reading here.

Impeachment witnesses come under threats, harassment

The Hill logoTwo weeks of public testimony has revealed new, damaging details of the Trump administration’s dealings with Ukraine, but witnesses who come before Congress and the American people have had to pay a price.

Witnesses have endured harassment, threats and attacks on their personal character as they are suddenly thrust into public view.

Those who’ve given testimony have described such incidents in both closed and open hearings during the impeachment inquiry detailing their experiences related to the Ukraine scandal.

View the complete November 23 article by Rachel Frazin on The Hill website here.

Mitch McConnell Piously Urges ‘Civility’ In Politics

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called for “civility” on Monday after his reelection campaign publicly mused about the death of one of his rivals.

McConnell told Kentucky residents in a speech that America has a “behavioral problem” adding, “People are acting out and it’s not, I don’t think, limited to one ideological place or another. You’ve just got a lot of people engaging in bad behavior.”

Americans have to “learn how to behave better, how to be able to disagree without anger,” he said.

View the complete November 19 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

Trump’s 2020 Strategy: Fighting Dirty

“Never wrestle with a pig,” says the old maxim. “You both get dirty, and the pig likes it.” That’s the risk facing Democrats who hope to impeach and remove the president or defeat him at the polls. But sometimes, pig wrestling is a task that cannot be avoided.

Donald Trump is not typical of politicians or human beings. When accused of wrongdoing that they actually committed, most of them would either deny the behavior or admit and repent of it. Trump is unusual because his defense is not that he didn’t do it, or that it wasn’t bad, but that there are no standards of good and bad that mean anything.

The evidence is abundant that he tried to extort the president of Ukraine to come up with incriminating information about Joe Biden by withholding $391 million in security aid.

View the complete September 28 article by Steve Chapman on the National Memo website here.