Tag: Trump White House

Republican lawmakers distance themselves from Trump on memo

The following article by Elise Viebeck and Shane Harris was posted on the Washington Post website February 4, 2018:

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said on Feb. 4 that the Republicans’ controversial Nunes memo won’t have an effect on the Russia investigation. (Reuters)

A fierce partisan battle over the Justice Department and its role in the Russia investigation moves into its second week Monday as Democrats try to persuade the House Intelligence Committee to release a 10-page rebuttal to a controversial Republican memo alleging surveillance abuse.

The panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), is expected to offer a motion to release his party’s response to the Republican document during a committee meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday. It was not immediately clear whether Republicans would join Democrats in voting for the document’s release, as some members of the GOP have expressed concerns about its contents. Continue reading “Republican lawmakers distance themselves from Trump on memo”

Gowdy: ‘I don’t’ think Rosenstein should be fired

The following article by Rebecca Morin was posted on the Politico website February 4, 2018:

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said: “I think it is fair to ask the deputy attorney general, ‘What did you know at the time you signed one of the applications?'” Credit: AP Photo

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said Sunday he doesn’t think Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be fired.

Rosenstein oversees special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe on whether Russia colluded with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Gowdy, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said during an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that it concerns him that Trump’s confidence in Rosenstein is faltering. He added: “The president has not sought my counsel on this.” Continue reading “Gowdy: ‘I don’t’ think Rosenstein should be fired”

Brennan: Trump White House has ‘a general insecurity’ about Obama Administration

On the February 4, 2018, “Meet the Press”:

Former CIA Director John Brennan says that he is “appalled” by the tenor of partisan fighting in Washington, and that it hurts the intelligence community.

View the post here.

Donald Trump Is Already Using The Nunes Memo To Undermine The Russia Investigation

The following article by Daniel Marans was posted on the Huffington Post website February 3, 2018:

Credit: Evan Vucci, AP

Just a day after the release of an underwhelming Republican-authored House Intelligence Committee memo alleging inappropriate law enforcement spying on Donald Trump’s campaign, President Donald Trumpis already using it to cast aspersions on the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump’s pronouncement, issued in a Saturday morning tweet, supports the widely held view that the four-page partisan memo was designed to help Trump scuttle special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference and to cover up Trump campaign officials’ potential collusion with Russia. Continue reading “Donald Trump Is Already Using The Nunes Memo To Undermine The Russia Investigation”

White House Plans To Withdraw ‘Conspiracy Theorist And Anti-Science Extremist’ Pick

The following article by Alexander C. Kaufman was posted on the Huffington Post website February 3, 2018:

Kathleen Hartnett-White’s views on fossil fuels and pollution proved too extreme for even some Republicans.

The White House plans to withdraw its controversial nomination of Kathleen Hartnett-White to lead the Council on Environmental Quality, HuffPost has confirmed.

Hartnett-White, a former Texas regulator, eked through the confirmation process last year with only Republican votes despite radical views on issues like climate change and a humiliating public hearing at which she struggled with basic science questions. Democrats sent her nomination back to the White House in December as part of a deal with the Republican majority to close out the legislative session. But President Donald Trump re-nominated her early last month. Continue reading “White House Plans To Withdraw ‘Conspiracy Theorist And Anti-Science Extremist’ Pick”

Donald Trump said 4 things that aren’t true in a single 47-word tweet

The following article by Chris Cillizza was posted on the CNN website February 3, 2018:

(CNN) — On Saturday morning, before heading out for a round of golf, President Donald Trump tweeted this:

“This memo totally vindicates ‘Trump’ in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!”

The “memo” in question is the one released by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-California, that alleges that a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele was the sole reason a FISA warrant was granted to surveil one-time Trump aide Carter Page. (Got all that?) Continue reading “Donald Trump said 4 things that aren’t true in a single 47-word tweet”

#YoMemoJokes trends nationwide, adding to Trump’s humiliation over memo failure

The following article by Caroline Orr was posted on the ShareBlue website January 3, 2018:

Twitter users mocking the failed memo pushed the hashtag to the top of the national trends list overnight.

Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci

As Donald Trump took to Twitter to try to convince Americans that the GOP’s overhyped memo was not as much of a failure as it appeared to be, Twitter users were busy elsewhere — tweeting jokes about the memo under the hashtag #YoMemoJokes.

The hashtag, a clever play on words, was pushed to the top trending hashtag nationwide overnight. As of 10:30 Saturday morning, it was still trending in the #2 spot nationwide. Continue reading “#YoMemoJokes trends nationwide, adding to Trump’s humiliation over memo failure”

Trump nominee for U.N. migration post called Muslims violent, Christians top priority

The following article by Aaron C. Davis and Jack Gillum was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2018:

Ken Isaacs, head of international relief for Samaritan’s Purse, is seen speaking about an outbreak of Ebola in West Africa in 2014. Isaacs has in recent years expressed controversial views about Muslims in social media posts. He is the Trump administration’s nominee to lead the UN International Organization for Migration. Credit: Alejandro Davila Fragoso/MCT

The Trump administration’s nominee to coordinate billions of dollars in assistance to migrants around the world has suggested in social-media posts that Islam is an inherently violent religion and has said Christians in some cases should receive preferential treatment when resettling from hostile areas.

In tweets, social media posts and radio appearances reviewed by The Washington Post, Ken Isaacs, a vice president of the Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, made disparaging remarks about Muslims and denied climate change — a driving force behind migration, according to the agency the State Department has nominated him to lead. Continue reading “Trump nominee for U.N. migration post called Muslims violent, Christians top priority”

Inside the FBI: Anger, worry, work — and fears of lasting damage

The following article by Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2018:

On Friday, FBI Director Wray sent a video message to those he leads, urging them to “keep calm and tackle hard.” (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

In the 109 years of the FBI’s existence, it has repeatedly come under fire for abuses of power, privacy or civil rights. From Red Scares to recording and threatening to expose the private conduct of Martin Luther King Jr. to benefiting from bulk surveillance in the digital age, the FBI is accustomed to intense criticism.

What is so unusual about the current moment, say current and former law enforcement officials, is the source of the attacks.

The bureau is under fire not from those on the left but rather conservatives who have long been the agency’s biggest supporters, as well as the president who handpicked the FBI’s leader. Continue reading “Inside the FBI: Anger, worry, work — and fears of lasting damage”

The Nunes memo shows the opposite of what Trump hoped it would prove

The following commentary by the Editorial Board of the Washington Post was posted on their website February 2, 2018:

The Nunes memo. Credit: Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg

EVEN TAKEN at face value, the infamous Nunes memodoes nothing to discredit the Russia investigation, which was President Trump’s transparent aim in authorizing its release on Friday. It also does little to show abuse of surveillance law, which was the pretext on which House leaders justified its disclosure.

The memo argues that the FBI may have abused special spying authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), obtaining a warrant to surveil former Trump adviser Carter Page using information from the controversial Steele dossier, a collection of allegations about Mr. Trump and his circle assembled by a former British intelligence agent with funding from Democrats. The memo claims that the FBI did not disclose the dossier’s full provenance in its application for a FISA warrant, suggesting that the warrant against Mr. Page — and, therefore, perhaps, the early stages of the Russia investigation — was tainted. Continue reading “The Nunes memo shows the opposite of what Trump hoped it would prove”