Tag: Trump wants to be a dictator

Schiff Says CIA, NSA Withhold Relevant Documents From Congress

On ABC’s This Week, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff confirmed a grim report that surface last week: The nation’s top intelligence officials are pushing Congress to cancel their usual annual testimony to Congress on the nation’s top national security threats because they don’t want to publicly contradict Donald Trump’s false intelligence claims.

“Unfortunately, I think those reports are all too accurate. The intelligence community is reluctant to have an open hearing, something that we had done every year prior to the Trump administration, because they’re worried about angering the president,” Schiff responded.

It isn’t an idle concern, from intelligence officials. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats was forced out of his position shortly after confirming to Congress that despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, the U.S. had no evidence Iran had an active nuclear weapons program. Trump had a public meltdown, which is a now-daily occurrence, and Coats was given the boot; in the latest degradation of this nation into a kleptocratic and autocratic state, government officials are now reluctant to testify in public about the true dangers facing the nation because if their pronouncements do not match Dear Leader’s political claims, Dear Leader will mark them as personal enemies. Continue reading.

Trump’s disturbing obsession with Adam Schiff is a flashing red warning sign

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump clearly hates a lot of people, but in recent weeks and months, he seems particularly obsessed with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).

As the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff oversaw the investigation of the Ukraine scandal that led directly to Wednesday’s upcoming impeachment vote. In this role, he inevitably drew the fire of Republicans and Trump defenders across the country, who conjured up repeated attacks on the process and Schiff’s credibility in an attempt to divert criticism from the president and to undermine the investigation’s damning revelations.

One moment that particularly outraged Trump defenders occurred when Schiff gave a mock-performance of Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Schiff exaggerated the facts and gave his own interpretation of the exchange, making clear that he was engaging in something of a “parody” of the president’s conduct. But Trump and Republicans have seized on the moment and accused the chair of lying, continually bringing up the remarks to malign the process. Continue reading

Trump has begun 2024 campaign and is eligible to serve third term, senior Republican says without providing evidence

There is no evidence to support claim and US constitution only allows presidents to seek re-election once

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee says he has been “named to head up” what would be an unconstitutional 2024 re-election campaign for Donald Trump.

Mr Huckabee, father of former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, made the explosive claim in a pair of tweets on Thursday afternoon in which he also said the US president was “eligible” for a third term due to congressional investigations into him.

“Greatly honored to be asked to chair @realDonaldTrump re-election campaign for @POTUS in 2024. Gives me lots of time to plan!” Mr Huckabee said without providing evidence.

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‘Nakedly authoritarian’: Trump taunts security guard for not being rough with woman protester

AlterNet logo“One of his ugliest and most troubling performances in recent memory,” one observer said of Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania.

During a campaign rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania Tuesday night, just hours after House Democrats unveiled articles of impeachment, President Donald Trump criticized an arena security guard for not being sufficiently rough while removing a woman who protested the event.

“Get her out. Get her out,” Trump demanded as his supporters pointed and yelled at the demonstrator, who was wearing a #MeToo hat and holding a sign that read, “Grabbing Power Back.”

“See, these guys want to be so politically correct,” Trump said of the security guard attempting to escort the demonstrator out of the arena. “You see that? I’ll tell you, law enforcement’s so great. That particular guy wanted to be so politically correct.”

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William Barr says ‘communities’ that protest cops could lose ‘the police protection they need’

Washington Post logoSpeaking to a roomful of police officers and prosecutors on Tuesday, Attorney General William P. Barr drew a parallel between protests against soldiers during the Vietnam War and demonstrations against law enforcement today.

But this time, he suggested, those who don’t show “respect” to authority could lose access to police services.

“Today, the American people have to focus on something else, which is the sacrifice and the service that is given by our law enforcement officers. And they have to start showing, more than they do, the respect and support that law enforcement deserves,” Barr said in pointed remarks delivered at a Justice Department ceremony to honor police officers.

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The more love Always Trumpers show, the more dangerous Trump becomes

Washington Post logoYou’ve heard of the Never Trumpers. That’s the president’s catchall slur for anyone who criticizes him or at least accurately attests to something unsavory he’s done.

But let’s talk instead for a moment about the true risk to our democracy: the Always Trumpers. These are people such as Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) and even the once-reasonable-sounding Rep. Will Hurd (R-Tex.), who excuse away any evidence of impeachment-worthy misdeeds no matter how damning.

The Always Trumpers represent a sprawling group of lackeys and co-conspirators, willing to aid, abet and (most importantly) adore President Trump no matter what he’s credibly accused of. Come hell or high crimes, Always Trumpers always truckle to Trump.

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Trump is surrounded by yes-men who are afraid to tell him ‘what he doesn’t want to hear’: Former economic adviser Gary Cohn

AlterNet logoThe United States’ last two presidents were criticized by some of their supporters for being overly deferential to advisors: there were liberals and progressives who believed that President Barack Obama became overly reliant on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on economic policy and some conservatives who believed that President George W. Bush was too quick to defer to the neocon war hawks in his administration on foreign policy. But President Donald Trump has had the opposite problem: a tendency to grow angry and defensive when challenged by advisers — and Gary Cohn, Trump’s former chief economic adviser, fears that being surrounded by yes-men could prove problematic for Trump.

Trump’s administration, according to the Brookings Institution, has had an 80% turnover rate. Appearing on former Obama adviser David Axelrod’s podcast, “The Axe Files,” Cohn (who resigned from the Trump Administration in March 2018) asserted that Trump, at this point, might be lacking the constructive criticism he needs in the White House.

“We had an interesting nucleus of people when I was in the White House — the initial team,” Cohn told Axelrod during the interview. “We were not bashful. It was a group that was willing to tell the president what he needed to know, whether he wanted to hear it or not.”

Continue reading here.

Amazon’s formal challenge to huge Pentagon award uses videos that mark potential influence exerted by Trump

Washington Post logoThe e-commerce giant followed through with the threat it made week ago, challenging the Defense Department’s decision to award the lucrative contract to rival Microsoft

Amazon on Friday cited comments by President Trump at a rally and to journalists as it pursues its challenge to the Pentagon’s surprise decision to award a lucrative contract to rival Microsoft last month.

For the first time, Amazon directly linked the president’s comments to the award of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, also known as JEDI, to Microsoft last month. Though Amazon filed its protest under seal, it also notified the Court of Federal Claims that it intends to use four videos as exhibits, including one of Trump at a February 2016 campaign rally in Texas, as well as one of a Fox News host urging him to prevent the Pentagon from awarding the contract to the online retail giant.

“I have respect for Jeff Bezos, but he bought The Washington Post to have political influence … he owns Amazon … he wants political influence so that Amazon will benefit from it,” then-presidential candidate Donald Trump said at the campaign rally in Fort Worth, Tx. “That’s not right. And believe me, if I become president, oh do they have problems. They are going to have such problems.”

View the complete November 23 article by Jay Greene and Aaron Gregg on The Washington Post website here.

Trump Says Whistleblower’s Attorney Should Be ’Sued For Treason’

Speaking to reporters Friday morning, Donald Trump suggested that the lawyer representing the whistleblower may have committed treason. Trump did not provide any evidence to back up his claim.

After demanding that the whistleblower be identified, Trump attacked the whistleblower’s lawyer.

“The whistleblower is a disgrace to our country,” Trump said. “And his lawyer, who said the worst thing possible two years ago — he should be sued. And maybe for treason. Maybe for treason. But he should be sued.”

View the complete November 8 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

Commerce Department aides knew Alabama hurricane forecasters were not responding to Trump, but still rebuked them

Washington Post logoSenior aides at the Commerce Department forced the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to publicly rebuke its weather forecasters in Birmingham, Ala., for contradicting President Trump’s comments about the threat Hurricane Dorian posed to that state, even after NOAA informed them that the agency’s meteorologists were not aware at the time they were contradicting the president, according to three officials familiar with the matter.

The NOAA officials spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity surrounding ongoing investigations into the agency’s actions regarding Hurricane Dorian. NOAA and its National Weather Service are part of the Commerce Department.

According to emails released via a Freedom of Information Act request from The Post and other news organizations, Julie Kay Roberts, NOAA’s deputy chief of staff and communications director, was told on Sept. 2 about the motivation behind a tweet that the National Weather Service office in Birmingham had sent at 11:11 a.m. the day before. When forecasters there tweeted that “Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian,” they were responding to an influx of calls from worried residents and not to an earlier tweet from Trump.

View the complete November 7 article by Jason Samenow and Andrew Freedman on The Washington Post website here.