Tag: Trump White House

Jared Kushner lacks security clearance level to review some of the nation’s most sensitive intelligence in White House role

The following article by Carol D. Leonnig, Josh Dawsey and Ashley Parker was posedon the Washington Post website July 12, 2018:

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner was granted a permanent top-secret security clearance in May. Credit: Jim Bourg Reuters

Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser and President Trump’s son-in-law, lacks the security clearance level required to review some of the government’s most sensitive secrets, according to two people familiar with his access.

For the first year of the Trump administration, Kushner had nearly blanket access to highly classified intelligence, even as he held an interim security clearance and awaited the completion of his background investigation.

But when White House security officials granted him a permanent clearance in late May, he was granted only “top secret” status — a level that does not allow him to see some of the country’s most closely guarded intelligence, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss security issues.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

Marc Short Creates Another Void in the White House

The following article by John T. Bennett was posted on the Roll Call website July 12, 2018:

Trump has ‘highest turnover of top-tier staff of any recent president,’ professor says

Marc Short, White House legislative affairs director, outside the Senate Republican policy lunches in the Capitol in January. Credit: Tom Williams, CQ Roll Call file photo

White House legislative affairs director Marc Short will leave his post this summer after helping President Donald Trump secure tax cuts, a Supreme Court justice, eliminate part of the Obama-era health law, open the Arctic for energy extraction, and nix a slew of federal regulations.

Short — with his signature shaved head — was the most visible Trump administration official on Capitol Hill, often chatting with reporters as he traversed the hallways going from meetings with leadership and rank-and-file members about the president’s legislative whims and demands. Affable yet firm, Short seemed eager to joust with reporters on cable news, the Hill and even under the blistering summer sun in the White House’s north driveway.

During a recent conversation on a hot day following a television interview on the White House grounds with Roll Call and other media outlets, Short would not deny speculation that he would soon leave his post. His coming departure marks only the latest in original Trump White House and administration departures, which the Brookings Institution and other experts say is much higher than past administrations.

View the complete article on the Roll Call website here.

Trump’s newest hire covered up massive sexual harassment at Fox News

The following article by Emily Crockett was posted on the ShareBlue.com website June 28, 2018:

Bill Shine covered up for the biggest slimeballs at Fox News. But he still has no idea what he’s in for at the Trump White House.

Former Fox News executive Bill Shine in 2017. Credit: Mark Lennihan, AP

Trump has found his new communications director, and it’s Bill Shine — the former co-president of Fox News who resigned in disgrace last year over allegations that he covered up for Roger Ailes’ and Bill O’Reilly’s sexual abuse of women.

It sounds like the perfect fit for Trump, in the worst possible way.

A president who is obsessed with his coverage on Fox News will be advised by a former Fox News head honcho who knows how the network operates from the inside. Continue reading “Trump’s newest hire covered up massive sexual harassment at Fox News”

Bill Shine Likely as Next White House Communications Director Image

The following article by Maggie Haberman, Michael D. shear and Katie Rogers was posted on the New York Times website June 27, 2018:

Bill Shine after a meeting with Donald Trump in 2016, at Trump Tower. Credit: Lucas Jackson Reuters

WASHINGTON — Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive who was close to Roger E. Ailes, the network’s ousted chairman, is expected to be offered the job of White House communications director, according to four people familiar with the decision.

Mr. Shine, who was forced out as co-president at Fox News last May for his handling of sexual harassment scandals at the network, has met with President Trump in recent weeks about taking the West Wing communications job, which has been vacant since Hope Hicks left the job in March. Continue reading “Bill Shine Likely as Next White House Communications Director Image”

The White House Bible Study group that influenced Trump’s family separation policy

The following article by Andrew L. Seidel was posted on the ThinkProgress website June 19, 2018:

“Jeff Sessions [will] go out the same day I teach him something and he’ll do it on camera.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and fellow members of Pres. Trump’s cabinet bow their heads in prayer during an event to mark the National Day of Prayer in the Rose Garden at the White House May 3, 2018. Credit: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

Attorney General Jeff Sessions ignited a public theological debate last week when he used the Bible, specifically Romans 13, to justify the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S. border. He likely took his cues from the White House Bible Study (WHBS), a weekly Bible study for members of the president’s cabinet organized by Ralph Drollinger of Capitol Ministries.

According to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, significant staff time and resources go into coordinating the Bible study every week. Documents also show that Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, who defended the policy during a press conference Monday, is heavily involved with the WHBS. In fact, she’s the only cabinet official whose direct email address appears on the electronic invitations to the WHBS.

The day before Sessions’ remarks last Thursday, the White House Bible Study held a meeting centered on “The Importance of Parenting and the Course of the Nation.” The first paragraphs discuss “obedience to a nation’s laws” and cite Proverbs 28:4 and Romans 1:32[2] . (There are a number of spelling and Bible citation errors in the packet, including “1 Corinthians 9:27a,” as well as Romans 1:32, which may be a typo intended to cite Romans 13:2, the chapter Sessions used to justify the separation policy.) Continue reading “The White House Bible Study group that influenced Trump’s family separation policy”

Schiff: White House using migrant kids’ grief and tears to build border wall

The following article by Jacqueline Thomsen was posted on the Hill website June 17, 2018:

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on Sunday that the Trump administration is using the “grief, the tears, the pain” of immigrant kids as “mortar” to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“What the administration is doing, they’re using the grief, the tears, the pain of these kids as mortar to build their wall,” Schiff said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Continue reading “Schiff: White House using migrant kids’ grief and tears to build border wall”

New Book: Trump Team, Not Deep State, Revealed Flynn’s Talks With Russians

The following article by Spencer Ackerman was posted on the Daily Beast website June 7, 2018:

Obama aide Ben Rhodes writes that he learned about Mike Flynn’s parley with the Russian ambassador not from ‘unmasked’ surveillance intercepts but from Trump’s own people.

Credit: Elizabeth Brockway, Daily Beast

The Trump transition team told Barack Obama’s White House about Mike Flynn’s fateful conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to a senior Obama aide’s new memoir. That account stands in contrast to oft-repeated claims that the Obama team unmasked Flynn’s name after learning of the Kislyak conversation from surveillance intercepts.

Ben Rhodes, an Obama deputy national security adviser and a long-time right-wing bête noire, often features prominently in accusations from Donald Trump’s allies that the outgoing White House improperly “unmasked” Flynn from surveillance intercepts and then leaked his name to discredit him. In October, Rhodes testified behind closed doors to the House intelligence committee probe controlled by Trump ally Devin Nunes about unmasking.

But in his just-released book, The World as It Is, the former senior National Security Council staffer writes that the Obama White House learned about the Flynn-Kislyak talks from the Trump team itself. If Rhodes’ claim is true, then Obama aides had no need to “unmask” any surveillance intercept of Kislyak’s phone calls to determine Flynn was the interlocutor. Continue reading “New Book: Trump Team, Not Deep State, Revealed Flynn’s Talks With Russians”

Kelly Sadler, Aide Who Mocked McCain, Leaves White House

The following article by Katie Roger and Maggie Haberman was posted on the New York Times website June 5, 2018:

Kelly Sadler, a former communications aide for the president. Her off-the-cuff comments last month about the health of Senator John McCain ignited a firestorm. Credit: Leah Millis, Reuters

WASHINGTON — A White House communications aide who made headlines in May for cracking a macabre joke about the health of Senator John McCain has left the White House.

The aide, Kelly Sadler, made off-the-cuff comments about the Republican senator’s opposition to President Trump’s nominee for C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel, saying that it did not matter because Mr. McCain was “dying anyway.”

Mr. McCain, a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, has a malignant brain tumor and has been in treatment for several months. The joke was shared with the news media, igniting a firestorm in which the president personally promised to pursue leakers. Continue reading “Kelly Sadler, Aide Who Mocked McCain, Leaves White House”

Signs of sophisticated cellphone spying found near White House, U.S. officials say

NOTE:  A reminder as you read this article, President Trump has refused to use a secure cellphone because it was too much of a hassle for him.

The following article by Craig Timberg was posted on the Washington Post website June 1, 2018:

A federal study found signs that surveillance devices for intercepting cellphone calls and texts were operating near the White House and other sensitive locations in the Washington area last year.

A Department of Homeland Security program discovered evidence of the surveillance devices, called IMSI catchers, as part of federal testing last year, according to a letter from DHS to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on May 22. The letter didn’t specify what entity operated the devices and left open the possibility that there could be alternative explanations for the suspicious cellular signals collected by the federal testing program last year. Continue reading “Signs of sophisticated cellphone spying found near White House, U.S. officials say”

These Are The Real Republican Family Values

The following article by Terry H. Schwadron was posted on the DC Reports website May 29, 2018:

Trump Separates Immigrant Families, Losing Children in a Screwed-Up Detention System

In a weekend tweet, Trump criticized Democrats for a law that calls for separation of immigrant families who cross the border illegally, sending children into detention centers to assure that parents will show up for deportation meetings.

It is a horrible practice, but the policy is that of the Trump administration, not the Democrats, and it’s not a law.

In a tweet on Saturday, Trump urged Americans to “put pressure” on the Democrats to “end the horrible law that separates children from there [sic] parents.” Continue reading “These Are The Real Republican Family Values”