Tag: Trump White House corruption

White House social media director tweets manipulated video of Biden

Washington Post logo

White House social media director Dan Scavino is no stranger to sharing manipulated video online. In March 2020, Twitter applied its “manipulated media” label for the first time to a deceptively edited video of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden that was posted by Scavino and retweeted by President Trump. The video was cut short to make it sound as though Biden inadvertently endorsed Trump for reelection.

On Sunday, Scavino shared another altered video targeting Biden. Let’s dig in.

The Facts

Scavino tweeted a manipulated video from his personal account that makes it look like Biden fell asleep during a TV interview. The video spliced together two different clips — one from a 2011 KBAK interview with actor Harry Belafonte and the other of Biden at a virtual town hall event with Hillary Clinton in April 2020.

The video has a photoshopped chyron that reads “On air: Joe Biden | The importance of this election.” A soundtrack of snoring has been added. Continue reading.

Watchdog Outfit Sues Over Kellyanne’s Violations Of Hatch Act

If Donald Trump won’t address the repeated Hatch Act violations of his senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, maybe the courts will do it for him.

Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics just filed a lawsuit seeking to hold Conway accountable for her dozens of violations of the Hatch Act, the federal law prohibiting government employees from campaigning while acting in their official government capacity. The group is asking a federal district court to require the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency, to comply with the law and file a complaint.

All of this is necessary because Conway hasn’t just broken the law, she’s absolutely reveled in breaking the law. And why wouldn’t she? After violating the Hatch Act at least 50 times on her Twitter account alone, she suffered no consequences whatsoever. In fact, she was emboldened by the charge that she broke the law, declaring in on Fox News in June that she had “First Amendment rights” to violate the act. Continue reading

New Documents Show Giuliani Urged Pompeo To Fire Ukraine Ambassador

When diplomat Marie L. Yovanovitch (former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine) publicly testified as part of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, she made it clear that Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, did everything he could to get her fired from her Ukraine post. American Oversight, a liberal watchdog group, filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain information about Yovanovitch’s firing —and internal U.S. State Department e-mails and documents released on Friday, the New York Times reports, show that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also played a significant role in Yovanovitch being fired.

“The e-mails indicate that Mr. Pompeo spoke at least twice by telephone with Mr. Giuliani in March as Mr. Giuliani was urging Ukraine to investigate Mr. Trump’s rivals, and trying to oust a respected American ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch, who had been promoting anti-corruption efforts in the country,” Edward Wong and Kenneth P. Vogel report in the Times. “Mr. Pompeo ordered Ms. Yovanovitch’s removal the next month.”

Wong and Vogel go on to report that “as part of the effort to oust her, Mr. Giuliani and his associates encouraged news outlets favorable to the president to publicize unsubstantiated claims about Ms. Yovanovitch’s disloyalty to Mr. Trump.”

View the complete November 25 article by Alex Henderson from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Trump encouraged Pence to stay at his golf resort in Ireland

Washington Post logoDOONBEG, Ireland — Vice President Pence arrived Monday in Ireland with an unusual itinerary: He would attend meetings with Irish leaders in Dublin during the day Tuesday — but spend two nights on the opposite side of the country, at a golf club owned by President Trump.

Pence spent both Monday and Tuesday nights at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, in a small town on Ireland’s southwest coast, returning to the village after meetings with Ireland’s top elected officials.

Pence defended that decision — which required him to fly to Dublin and back on Air Force Two — by saying that he wanted to visit Doonbeg so that he could have dinner with his family at Morrissey’s, a pub here owned by a distant cousin.

View the complete September 3 article by Robert Costa, David A. Fahrenthold and John Wagner on The Washington Post website here.