Tag: Trump wants to be a dictator

Government official confirms stunning report about Trump administration ‘violations’

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A career employee for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is confirming details about many of the Trump administration’s violations, behaviors, and practices. 

A new report published by Politico highlights the days following the departure of Tom Novotny, who previously served as the Assistant Surgeon General in the U.S. Public Health Service and Deputy Assistant Secretary for International and Refugee Health. Joshua Prasad, who served as a public health adviser under Novotny, penned a letter about his Sept. 13, 2017 meeting where he claims he was “pushed to resign or be fired himself, and then swiftly marched out of the building by security.”

The timing of Prasad’s firing raised red flags. The termination is said to have gone into effect on Sept. 15, 2017 just one day before “Prasad’s protections as a career civil servant would have kicked in, which would have made it nearly impossible for the Trump administration to swiftly fire him.” Continue reading.

Pence seeks rejection of lawsuit that aimed to expand his power to overturn the election

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Vice President Pence asked a judge late Thursday to reject a lawsuit that aims to expand his power to use a congressional ceremony to overturn the presidential election, arguing that he is not the right person to sue over the issue.

The filing will come as a disappointment to supporters of President Trump, who hoped that Pence would attempt to reject some of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college votes and recognize votes for Trump instead when Congress meets next week to certify the November election.

The filing came in response to a lawsuit from Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) and a number of Republicans in Arizona, who argued that an 1887 law that governs how Congress certifies presidential elections is unconstitutional. The suit argues that the Constitution gives the vice president, in his role as president of the Senate, sole discretion to determine whether electors put forward by the states are valid. Continue reading.

Trump’s last days: Report says president personally pressured more than 150 Republicans to overturn election

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President Donald Trump’s last days are filled with chaos, erratic decisions and impulsive behavior, according to insiders familiar with his battle to overturn the outcome of the election. 

According to Politico, many of the president’s advisors have repeatedly urged him to concede and let go of his losing battle, but he has adamantly pushed back. It has been reported that Trump has now shut down his campaign team and ignored White House staff only relying on the advice of those who have no problem pushing his dangerous agenda.

Now, he has reportedly spoken to more than 150 Republican leaders across all of the battleground states he lost as he attempts to pressure and strong-arm them into overturning the presidential election. Although the Electoral College has already cast its votes solidifying Biden’s win, Trump is still working to overturn the election without substantial evidence of widespread voter fraud. Continue reading.

Trump trashes McConnell to fellow Republicans

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President Trump lashed out at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday night for acknowledging Joe Biden won the election, sending a slide to Republican lawmakers taking credit for saving McConnell’s career with a tweet and robocall.

Why it matters: It’s an extraordinary broadside against McConnell by the sitting president and most popular Republican in the party, ahead of a crucial runoff election in Georgia on Jan. 5 that will determine control of the Senate.

  • “Sadly, Mitch forgot,” reads the top of the slide sent to Republican senators by Trump’s personal assistant, written in red for emphasis. “He was the first one off the ship.”

Between the lines: While both the message and its delivery targeted McConnell, they also carried a subtle warning to other Republicans who may follow suit as the president grasps at the last straws of his election-fraud claim. Continue reading.

Undercutting Trump, Barr says there’s no basis for seizing voting machines, using special counsels for election fraud, Hunter Biden

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Outgoing Attorney General William P. Barr said Monday that he saw no basis for the federal government seizing voting machines and that he did not intend to appoint a special counsel to investigate allegations of voter fraud — again breaking with President Trump as the commander in chief entertains increasingly desperate measures to overturn the election.

At a news conference to announce charges in a decades-old terrorism case, Barr — who has just two days left in office — was peppered with questions about whether he would consider steps proposed by allies of the president to advance Trump’s claims of massive voter fraud.

Barr said that while he was “sure there was fraud in this election,” he had not seen evidence that it was so “systemic or broad-based” that it would change the result. He asserted he saw “no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government,” and he would not name a special counsel to explore the allegations of Trump and his allies. Continue reading.

‘Up to no good’: Why this retired 4-star general is sounding the alarm over Trump’s acting Pentagon chief

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Four star Army General Barry McCaffrey (Ret.) is sounding the alarm on reports acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller has banned Pentagon brass from holding meetingswith Biden transition team officials, leaving career military staff “stunned.”

“Pentagon abruptly halts Biden transition—- MAKES NO SENSE. CLAIM THEY ARE OVERWHELMED. DOD GOES OPAQUE. TRUMP-MILLER UP TO NO GOOD. DANGER. —-” tweeted McCaffrey, who is a well-known and highly-respected NBC News and MSNBC military analyst.

Reports from Axios and Business Insider both say Pentagon officials are feeling “overwhelmed” by the number of meetings they’ve attended with Biden staff, and Miller has decided to order a two-week break for the holidays. Continue reading.

Inside Trump’s pressure campaign to overturn the election

No president has ever made such expansive and individualized pleas. 

It started with a phone call.

In mid-November, President Donald Trump rang Monica Palmer, the Republican chair of an obscure board in Michigan that had just declared Joe Biden winner of the state’s most populous county.

Within 24 hours, Palmer announced she wanted to “rescind” her vote. Her reasoning mirrored Trump’s public and private rants: The Nov. 3 election may have been rife with fraud. Continue reading.

Trump calls Bolton ‘one of the dumbest people in Washington’ after former aide weighs in on martial law report

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President Trump blasted John Bolton as “one of the dumbest people in Washington” after his former national security adviser expressed alarm over a report that Trump considered a suggestion to implement martial law.

“What would Bolton, one of the dumbest people in Washington, know? Wasn’t he the person who so stupidly said, on television, ‘Libyan solution’, when describing what the U.S. was going to do for North Korea?” Trump asked in a tweet early Sunday. “I’ve got plenty of other Bolton ‘stupid stories.’”

Bolton on Saturday reacted to a report that Trump had discussed a proposal by the president’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, to “rerun” the presidential election under military supervision, calling it “appalling.”  Continue reading.

Trump suggested naming Sidney Powell as special counsel on election in Oval Office meeting, reports say

During a White House meeting Friday, President Donald Trump floated the idea of naming conservative attorney Sidney Powell as a special counsel to investigate his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden, according to multiple media reports. 

In the Oval Office meeting, which was first reported by The New York Times, Trump discussedwith his advisers the possibility of appointing Powell to investigate election fraud claims and to potentially seize voting machines that Trump claimed were rigged against him.

Most of the advisers at the White House meeting, which included Powell, opposed the ideas. According to the Times, among those objecting to the suggestion of Powell as special counsel were Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani – who joined by phone – White House counsel Pat Cipollone and chief of staff Mark Meadows. Continue reading.

Even as Trump vows to keep fighting, his aides are quietly starting to move on

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Vice President Pence has begun looking for a new home in the Washington suburbs, and he’s planning a valedictory foreign trip to begin the day Congress counts the electoral college votes.

Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has discussed opening a consulting firm with other White House aides and allies.

Top economic adviser Larry Kudlow has told friends he is planning to return to broadcasting, and he has his next gigs lined up. Continue reading.