George Kent, a senior State Department official, arrives for his impeachment inquiry deposition on Oct. 15. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
He just can’t get over Hillary Clinton.
Before giving U.S. military aid to Ukraine, President Trump wanted “nothing less” than for the European country to announce an investigation targeting Clinton in addition to one targeting Joe Biden and his son, according to a senior State Department official.
George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs, made the bombshell revelation during his closed-door deposition on Oct. 15, testifying he was told that Trump used Clinton’s name as “shorthand” for the investigation he wanted President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch into a debunked right-wing conspiracy theory claiming anti-Trump Ukrainians interfered in the 2016 election.
Kent’s deposition, a transcript of which was released Thursday, marks the first time Clinton’s name has come up in the context of Trump’s desired Ukrainian investigation of the 2016 U.S. election. The mention suggests Trump wanted the probe to target the former Democratic presidential candidate one way or another.
Kent said Gordon Sondland, Trump’s handpicked ambassador to the European Union, had conveyed the Clinton message to him and other diplomats after speaking to the president on Sept. 7.
Hillary Clinton on Tuesday joined the rising chorus of Democrats calling for at least an impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump following reports thatTrumppressured Ukraine’s government to look into unsubstantiated theories about the family of his leading 2020 challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden.
Clinton, a sharp critic of Trump since narrowly losing to him in the 2016 presidential election, made the impassioned call during an exclusive interview with PEOPLE set to be published in next week’s issue.
“We are in a crisis,” Clinton said.
She told PEOPLE she was now supporting Trump’s impeachment. “I did not come to that decision easily or quickly,” she said, “but this is an emergency as I see it. … This latest behavior around Ukraine, trying to enlist the president of Ukraine in a plot to undermine former Vice President Biden or lose the military aid he needs to defend against Trump’s friend Vladimir Putin — if that’s not an impeachable offense, I don’t know what is.” Read more >>>>
When Hillary visited The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Friday evening, she was greeted with a standing ovation. She addressed many of the same issues she spoke about with Rachel Maddow. I will not revisit those.
On the subject of the Mueller investigation, she did say something on this show that she did not say the other night. It is an important point. She cited a difference between crimes committed prior to assuming office and those committed in office. It is an important distinction. She said a president can be the subject of a criminal investigation. When asked if he can be indicted, she made a distinction between actions before taking office and after taking office. If before, she believes he can be indicted. If after, it then falls under the impeachment process.
While she does have a paperback edition of What Happened out that contains an updated supplement, her real reason, I think, for hitting the talk show circuit is to emphasize that: 1) indeed our democracy is in critical condition and 2) no caped crusader, including her, is going to come swooping in to save it. She made these points on both TV appearances.
We are the only ones who can save it, and there is only one way we are going to be able to do that: get out the vote. Notice I did not say "vote." I said "get out the vote." That means that we have to work as hard as we did in 2016 to get people to the polls. We have to convince them of the importance of this election and talk to them about the candidates who have pledged to address the issues closest to us. We have to remind people toregister before deadlines. We also have to remind people to check their registrations to be sure they have not been purged - sad as that is to say. Finally, we have to make sure we get our friends, families, and neighbors to the polls. When Democrats vote, Democrats win.
Standing ovation
On the Judiciary Committee's Watergate legal team.
The Plot to Subvert an Election, from New York Times reporters Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti, does not contain everything we know about the Russian incursion into our culture and our 2016 election. This compilation is, however, comprehensive enough to provide a good, quick survey course on the subject.
Because, as Rachel Maddow pointed out this week, Hillary Clinton was relentlessly in the bull's eye of the Russian efforts, the entire anthology should be of interest to her 2016 supporters and voters and to Democrats in general. We know it has not stopped. We know they are still doing this in the run-up to the primaries that are almost upon us. Worse, we know that the primaries are not and will not be the prime target. 2020 will be. The presidential election will be - once again. We had better be prepared.
The Russian leader thought the United States, and Hillary Clinton, had sought to undermine his presidency.
The Russian leader believed the United States had relentlessly sought to undermine Russian sovereignty and his own legitimacy. The United States had backed democratic, anti-Russian forces in the so-called color revolutions on Russia’s borders, in Georgia in 2003 and Ukraine in 2004. It had funded pro-democracy Russian activists through American organizations with millions in State Department grants each year.
With little evidence, Mr. Putin believed this American meddling helped produce street demonstrations in Moscow and other cities in 2011, with crowds complaining of a rigged parliamentary election and chanting, “Putin’s a thief!”
And Mrs. Clinton, then secretary of state, cheered the protesters on. Russians, she said, “deserve the right to have their voices heard and their votes counted, and that means they deserve free, fair, transparent elections and leaders who are accountable to them.”
The two tangled again the next year when Mr. Putin pushed for a “Eurasian Union” that would in effect compete with the European Union. Mrs. Clinton sharply dismissed the notion, calling it a scheme to “re-Sovietize the region” and saying the United States would try to block it.
We must remain wary of social media presences that play to the disaffected. What we saw, among many other ploys from Russia in 2016, were seemingly American accounts admonishing Bernie Sanders supporters not to vote for Hillary Clinton. Also from the article:
The Russian operation also boosted Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate who had dined with Mr. Putin in Moscow, to draw votes from Mrs. Clinton. It encouraged supporters of Mr. Sanders to withhold their votes from Mrs. Clinton even after he endorsed her.
If you are a disaffected Hillary voter, I caution you to be wary of "Hillary supporters" masquerading as Americans on social media. Typically, they praise HRC to the skies but also embed lies within their posts and/or the comment threads, e.g. claiming that Guccifer was not Russian (refuted in the Mueller July 13 indictmentand in this article) or that Russian organized crime deals exclusively in politics and not in weapons or drugs. (They will sell you a mothballed USSR military submarine to transport drugs, if you have the money. With a nuclear weapon if you have even more money. This is documented.)
There are several writers of varied levels of English Language Proficiency (ELP). The "ops," i.e. sock puppets, troll, bot controllers, access content from databases on cloud platforms as outlined in the July 13 Mueller indictment. The ultimate plan is very likely to skew the 2020 top line vote in ways that would dismay Hillary Clinton and re-elect Donald Trump.
This is not a short read, but it can be taken in episodes if necessary for a weekend read. It is rich with graphs, stats, videos. It is well worth the time. You will not likely find this much information on the subject all in one piece. It is probably also well worth a bookmark.
Have a lovely weekend. Fall is coming.
I've written a new afterword for "What Happened" breaking down what we've learned since it was published, how we got here, and how we can heal our body politic. The new edition is available today: https://t.co/RPyFsw96xT
Donald Trump refuses to be subject to the law. The legitimacy of our elections is in doubt. The president is waging war on the truth. The administration is undermining the national unity that makes democracy possible. And then there's the breathtaking corruption.
We should be clear about this: The increasing radicalism and irresponsibility of the Republican Party, including decades of demeaning government, demonizing Democrats, and debasing norms, is what gave us Donald Trump.
Whether it was stealing a Supreme Court seat, gerrymandering congressional districts to disenfranchise African Americans, or muzzling government climate scientists, Republicans were undermining American democracy long before Trump made it to the Oval Office.
First: We’ve got to mobilize turnout in the midterms. There are fantastic candidates all over the country who’ll do great things, and we could finally see some congressional oversight of the White House.
Then, we need to do some housecleaning. Just as Nixon’s abuses of power led to reforms, post-Trump all future presidential candidates should be required by law to release their tax returns. They also should not be exempt from ethics requirements and conflict-of-interest rules.
We need to improve and protect our elections, from instituting paper ballot backups to repairing the Voting Rights Act, getting secret money out of politics, and—you won't be surprised to hear my support for this—abolishing the Electoral College.
Above all, we need to find a way to restitch our fraying social fabric and rekindle our civic spirit. We need to bring back civics education in our schools. We need systemic economic reforms that reduce inequality and give a strong voice to working families.
Democracy works only when we accept that we’re in this together.
We can’t just ask, “Am I better off than I was four years ago?” We have to ask, “Are we better off? Are we as a country better, stronger, and fairer?” Ultimately, healing our country will come down to each of us.
In one of his final appearances on the Senate floor, Senator John McCain urged his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get back to regular order. Hillary Clinton echoed that imperative on The Rachel Maddow Show last night. Appearing on the anniversary of the release of her book, What Happened, and upon the release of the paperback edition with a new afterword (also published in The Atlantic), Hillary addressed, among other topics, the Kavanaugh confirmation logjam, the Special Counsel probe, the Manafort deal, and the ongoing Russian influence not only in our elections but in our very interactions.
Rachel began the interview quoting from the piece that ran in The Atlantic, and asked Hillary why she is afraid of losing our country. Hillary responded saying that putting aside ideological concerns we have to defend our democracy. Degrading the rule of law, de-legitimizing elections, attacking truth and reason, undermining our unity ... is a crisis. She said the authoritarian tendencies, left unchecked could result in the erosion of our institutions to an extent that we have never imagined here. We are not there yet, she contends, but that is because there is an election. "We need a new Congress, and we need a new Republican party."
With a new Congress, Hillary thinks we need an agenda broader than one of impeachment. She listed policy changes already made, and said those need to be addressed. If people do not go out and vote, she thinks we will see more dismantling of institutions.
She believes that she was clearly a part of the puzzle where Russian interference was concerned in 2016, but she thinks they are playing a longer game of undermining democracy here and globally. She said, "Foreign money, foreign interference in our elections, I don't care if it's from the right, the left, the center, up, down; I don't care where it's from. It's wrong. It's illegal,and the American people deserve to know. If it happened so we can try to prevent it." ¹
Rachel replayed a clip from a year ago where Hillary said we have to depend on those around Trump to be our first line of defense against him doing something that might have serious repercussions. The Times op-ed of September 5 and Bob Woodward's Fear appear to show that remark to have been predictive.
Her prediction now is that after the election Trump will wholesale fire people. She said he is close to being uncontrollable. She is hoping people will see that we need checks and balances and will vote accordingly. While she has not heard any specifics of invocation of the 25th Amendment, she thinks there are private discussions in the White House, and that people are worried.
It was a broad, extensive interview and thought-provoking. Hillary has warned us in the past. Once again she is sounding the alarms. Yes, we must get out the vote. But we must do more. We need to hold the government accountable. First, we must hold the line. Then, we must repair the damage. That demands advocacy. It is going to take more than a village. It is going to take the whole country.
¹Please bear this comment in mind and take it very seriously to heart if you are one of those who defends a "Hillary supporter" whom you suspect or know not to be American but who insists upon not only impersonating an American but also insists upon telling Americans how to think and how to vote. Proxies, trolls, sock puppets, and bots take every side. There is a purpose to this alleged support. Do not be duped.
In her signature style, Hillary breaks down Trump era attacks on and failures of the system in language anyone can understand. She offers a clear line of defense and suggests a path forward. It is a must-read. Take a few minutes to hear her out.
It’s been nearly two years since Donald Trump won enough Electoral College votes to become president of the United States. On the day after, in my concession speech, I said, “We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.” I hoped that my fears for our future were overblown.
They were not.
In the roughly 21 months since he took the oath of office, Trump has sunk far below the already-low bar he set for himself in his ugly campaign. Exhibit A is the unspeakable cruelty that his administration has inflicted on undocumented families arriving at the border, including separating children, some as young as eight months, from their parents. According to The New York Times, the administration continues to detain 12,800 children right now, despite all the outcry and court orders. Then there’s the president’s monstrous neglect of Puerto Rico: After Hurricane Maria ravaged the island, his administration barely responded. Some 3,000 Americans died. Now Trump flatly denies those deaths were caused by the storm. And, of course, despite the recent indictments of several Russian military intelligence officers for hacking the Democratic National Committee in 2016, he continues to dismiss a serious attack on our country by a foreign power as a “hoax.”
Trump and his cronies do so many despicable things that it can be hard to keep track. I think that may be the point—to confound us, so it’s harder to keep our eye on the ball. The ball, of course, is protecting American democracy. As citizens, that’s our most important charge. And right now, our democracy is in crisis.
I don’t use the word crisis lightly. There are no tanks in the streets. The administration’s malevolence may be constrained on some fronts—for now—by its incompetence. But our democratic institutions and traditions are under siege. We need to do everything we can to fight back. There’s not a moment to lose. Read more >>>>
So strange that these are the demeanors of folks supporting Donald Trump at one of his rallies when he is the installed president presumably making all their dreams come true. Why are they so angry?
They won, right? Shouldn't they be happy?
The other question is: Why is Trump having rallies? There's this N-word that has been floating around - not the one you think.
Whereas here is what the 22nd evening of protest at the Kremlin Annex in Moscow-on-the-Potomac looked like last night.
Rosie O'Donnell brought 55 Broadway performers with her to sing.
I should point out that these artists did this on the one night a week that they have off. Broadway shows do not run on Mondays because at least one weekend day and also on Wednesdays they do both a matinee and an evening performance. So they did this on their only night off. They also said they would be back on another Monday. Thank you! Profusely!
The other day, Brassy Rebel said in a comment that we are in the Upside Down. Protesters are partying nightly having a great time. Rally-goers on the prevailing side appear miserable and angry. So what's up? And what's down?
Can't get to Moscow-on-the-Potomac for the protests? That's OK. These nice folks will put your name on the Kremlin Annex Sign! Easy as one-two-three! Then you are represented. If you do get to visit, you can highlight your name on the sign.
Use the link to add your name. Reminder-we're just the Kremlin Annex Sign people, not the #KremlinAnnex organizers. Follow @AdamParkhomenko for protest updates. We're not collecting $ for the sign - our sign-making needs are modest, as you can see. @yaddiya rocks. pic.twitter.com/00DjxYTErO
Tune in tonight! It's Robert Mueller's birthday. There will be bagpipes! I hope there will also be drums!
I don't know why I waited so long to post about this. I guess I thought people would know, but I discovered last night that a lot of people did not. Also, it is not about Hillary. That's OK. I think she has been there with us from the first night in spirit. It's a happy, optimistic, inclusive spirit. An American one.
“RESIST, INSIST, PERSIST, ENLIST.” – HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
It is a ludicrous idea: that a former Secretary of State should feel impelled to come to the defense of a former ambassador (to a huge, powerful country) against the president's wimpy response to a dictator. These are not normal times. Putin's demand was outrageous. Trump's response was, to quote Susan Rice, "Beyond outrageous."
Ambassador @McFaul is a patriot who has spent his career standing up for America. To see the White House even hesitate to defend a diplomat is deeply troubling. https://t.co/gI8K8Tjg3M
Special counsel Robert Mueller just released an indictment against 12 Russian intelligence officers.Alex Wong/Getty Images
Special counsel Robert Mueller just indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers, accusing them of interfering in the 2016 US presidential election.
They are charged with hacking the computer networks of members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. They allegedly coordinated to release damaging information to sway the election under the names “DCLeaks” and “Guccifer 2.0.” However, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to. ld reporters that it’s unclear if their efforts changed the outcome of the election.
(Proof he's an amateur or, really, a puppet. Experienced dictators know better than to leave home while a sh*tstorm is brewing at home. Even Putin knows he is in too deep and doesn't give a fig. THAT should light a fire under some kettles.)
BREAKING: Trump just announced his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Anti-abortion. Anti-healthcare. Thinks Trump is above the law. Here's what you need to know to take action now: https://t.co/RnmOSTwHiW#StopKavanaughpic.twitter.com/P2mtAtQFSW
What’s happening to families at the border right now is horrific: Nursing infants ripped away from their mothers. Parents told their toddlers are being taken to bathe or play, only to realize hours later that they aren’t coming back. Children incarcerated in warehouses and, according to more than one account, kept in cages. This is a moral and humanitarian crisis. Everyone of us who has ever held a child in their arms, and every human being with a sense of compassion and decency should be outraged.
Even as I warned this could happen on the campaign trail -- that Trump’s immigration policies would result in families being separated, parents being sent away from their children, people rounded up on trains and buses -- I hoped it would never come to be. But now, as we watch with broken hearts, that’s exactly what’s happening.
We can be heartbroken, but we shouldn’t be hopeless. There’s something you can do to help. Today, I’m asking you to take a stand on behalf of immigrant families by making a direct donation to the groups working to protect kids separated from their families by ICE.
The test of any nation is how we treat the most vulnerable among us. First Lady Laura Bush made that case eloquently in the Washington Post this weekend, writing: “This zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.” She’s absolutely right. We should be a better country than one that tears families apart, turns a blind eye to women fleeing domestic violence, and treats frightened children as a means to a political end.
Meanwhile, Jeff Sessions is trying to use the Bible to justify this cruelty. Let me say this: I went to a lot of years of Sunday school and even taught it from time to time, and what is being done using the name of religion is contrary to everything I was ever taught.
I still believe in the vision we share for our country, and I won’t let scared children become victims of partisan politics. Alongside the organizations that Onward Together partners with, we can and will elect politicians and enact legislation to protect the most vulnerable among us -- but first, we have to address the urgent needs of families at the center of this crisis. Make a contribution today, and your donation will go directly to the groups doing this work right now: Donate now
Thank you,
Hillary
Hillary is doing a great job of using Twitter to let us know how she is thinking about current events.
What’s happening to families at the border right now is a humanitarian crisis. Every parent who has ever held a child in their arms, every human being with a sense of compassion and decency, should be outraged.
Despite what this White House claims, separating families is not mandated by law. That is an outright lie, and it’s incumbent on all of us – journalists and citizens alike – to call it just that.
Those who selectively use the Bible to justify this cruelty are ignoring a central tenet of Christianity. Jesus said "Suffer the little children unto me." He did not say “let the children suffer.”
We should be a better country than one that tears families apart, turns a blind eye to women fleeing domestic violence, and treats frightened children as a means to a political end.
I still believe in the vision we share for our country. We will elect politicians and enact legislation to protect the most vulnerable among us – but first, we have to address the urgent needs of families at the center of this crisis. Give today. Please. https://t.co/VEAP7b5qNo
While the president has falsely claimed that he has no choice on breaking up families because of a law passed by Democrats, Bush laid the blame squarely on the president's policies — namely, the Department of Justice’s "zero tolerance" policy with which it began.
On Friday, Department of Homeland Security officials told reporters that 1,995 children had been separated from their parents over a six-week period, from April 19 to May 31. Read more >>>>
Hillary Clinton on Monday slammed President Trump over his administration’s immigration policies and said he is lying about one that has resulted in the separations of migrant families.
“This is not happening because of the ‘Democrats’ law,’ as the White House has claimed,” she said during remarks in New York.
“Separating families is not mandated by law at all. That is an outright lie," she added. "It’s incumbent on all of us, journalists and citizens alike, to call it just that.”
Pictured: a two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker about to be taken from her mother and placed in a facility where the staff (according to an interview) "is not allowed to comfort her." (Long again. *Sigh.* Please read it anyway.)
We are now essentially torturing parents who legally seek asylum in the United States (and their children), by taking away their minor children, caging those children, and telling the parents they may never be reunited--all to "deter" them (and those like them) from exercising their legal rights under U.S. law. This new Trump "zero tolerance policy" (announced and implemented April 6, 2018 by Jeff Sessions) is evil and not based on our laws.
As some of you know, I used to be a lawyer, and in the 1980s I used to do pro bono political asylum work for Salvadorans fleeing death squads. U.S. law allows you to claim political asylum here if you have a "well-founded fear of persecution" in your home country that fits within specified categories. You can either present yourself at a point of entry and claim asylum (risky--you aren't afforded a lawyer and most asylum claims are turned down) or you can claim asylum as a defense to deportation.
Now on our southern border, the U.S. is (contrary to law) refusing to admit those legally claiming asylum (Chis Hayes/Beto O'Rourke interview, in comments.) They are forcing immigrants to cross into the U.S. illegally, and then arresting them and (even if they have a defense to being deported because of a potentially valid asylum claim) taking their children to be housed in a concentration camp--an abandoned Wal-Mart filled with cages or a new tent camp in 100 degree Texas heat on a military base. This is being done, per Jeff Sessions and Mitch McConnell, to "deter" them from seeking asylum--that is, as a punishment to them, to deter others from doing the same thing. Even though that thing (claiming asylum) is completely legal under U.S. law.
Accounts from Congressional Representatives and pro-bono attorneys reveal that parents are told that their children are being taken away "to get a bath" and then the children are not returned. When asked how they'll be reunited, parents are being told "your families do not exist anymore." Parents have been deported and they don't know where their children are. Because there are at least four federal bureaucracies involved (CBP, DHS, ICE, ORR in addition to private prison corporations and the DOJ) and there was no planning for implementing the policy none of attorneys representing them, the Customs and Border Patrol, nor U.S. Congressional Representatives can get confirmation that the children are even being kept track of by family.
Not surprisingly, one man, after learning that his child had been taken away, recently killed himself.
Jeff Sessions announced the new policy on April 6, 2018 (link in comments) but Trump now (1) claims, inaccurately, that it's "the Democrats'" prior law (a complete lie) and (2) tweeted today that he won't change the new policy unless Congress agrees to fund the wall and end political asylum and end "catch-and-release." (That is, we must make the current policy permanent and worse.)
Today, DHS revealed that almost 2,000 children have been taken from their parents in the last 6 weeks under the new policy. (Washington Post link.) Children are housed in cages on concrete floors. Many of the children don't have access to anyone who speaks their language. The staff has no training to deal with the children's trauma, and a whistle-blower recently explained that both the staff and the children are traumatized, while the CEO of the private prison company has been paid $1 million. (Chris Hayes, after the O'Rourke interview, in comments.)
Today, three medical organizations announced their unanimous denunciation of this new policy because separating young children from their parents and incarcerating them is permanently traumatic. (Link in comments)
So here we are, friends. This is a violation of the Fifth Amendment guaranty of due process of law. It's a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. It is a violation of international law. I would hope that any of those who continue to assist the implementation of this new policy are shunned by their congregations of faith until that changes. (Catholic bishops have already discussed assessing Canonical penalties to ICE agents ranging from refusing the sacrament of communion to excommunication.) I would hope that our courts ultimately order them to cease and desist, and if they fail to do so, that they are jailed for contempt of court. I hope they are ultimately prosecuted as international war criminals and they can never travel outside the U.S. In the meantime, every single one of them has violated his or her oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, and they deserve our horror and our contempt.
I've spent today in a funk, knowing that I needed to write this, and hating that fact. I have, despite every horrible thing up until the last nineteen months, been proud to be an American, choosing to concentrate on our lofty aspirations (equal protection, freedom of speech) rather than our tragic failings (slavery, segregation, white supremacy, McCarthyism.)
But this is simply unmitigated evil. And refusal to face it or to acknowledge it or to own it, is cowardice and a deliberate choice to enable evil. (Yes, friends, this _is_ America, today. This is exactly who we are, until we change it.)
We are terrorizing families. We are traumatizing children. We are violating our principles and our laws to further a racist ideology of our misguided rulers. We are doing evil. We need to do everything in our power to stop that. Now.
There is no law requiring separation of children from their parents. That is a lie to mask a tactic instituted by the Trump regime. This is a dangerous practice and wrong. Speak out! This country is on a very slippery slope.
Debra Messing
This little boy, who has been taken from his parents, has been assigned a number. #47 on his chest and arm. Like the Holocaust. •••••••••••••••••••••••••• The Keep Families Together Act S-3036 has the support of All Democrats EXCEPT Claire McCaskill (D-MO) 202-224-6154; Joe Donnelly (D-IN) 202-224-4814; Joe Tester (D-MT )202-224-2644; Doug Jones (D-AL)202-224-4124; Heidi Heitkamp (D-NV) 202-224-2043; Joe Marchon (D-WV) 202-224-3954. At this point, NOT ONE Republican has signed on to this bill that would prohibit children from being separated from their parents. PLEASE CALL your members of Congress. 202-224-3121. Look at this image. It should send chills up your spine. We must not let history repeat itself. We must speak loud and clear. #Wherearethechildren
The practice of separating families is malevolent. Putting children in detention centers is criminal and abusive. There is no reasonable defense whatsoever for this. It is a human rights violation. It is an abomination.
WASHINGTON ― The Justice Department’s internal watchdog just served up a hefty dose of reality to President Donald Trump and his allies.
On Thursday afternoon, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report 17 months in the making on the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation during the 2016 election.
Amid the unfolding special counsel investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump and his supporters have been waging war against the FBI and Justice Department. The new report is sure to give them fresh material.
But one takeaway from the document stands out: Despite Republican suggestions that anti-Trump forces within the FBI worked against Trump, the bureau’s public actions during the campaign hurt Clinton and helped Trump.
SNIP
Parkland students, you have shown so much courage in standing up for truth, for your right to attend school safely, & now against these disgusting smears. The good news is, it will only make you louder & stronger. https://t.co/yclbV9i2UX
Parkland student survivor Olivia Feller speaks out on conspiracy theories that outspoken survivors are hired "crisis actors": "People are just surprised that students can speak up with such eloquence and stand up for themselves." pic.twitter.com/VTryKArnkl
Parkland students and all students who are demonstrating for school safety are the new generation of leaders. They are going to vote. They are going to make sure their friends and family vote. They are going to run for office. I am going to vote for them. They are smart, articulate, and determined. They are going to win! They are a testament to our public school system held in much disdain by the Secretary of Education who grinned her way through heartbreaking testimony today.
As far as this idea is concerned, #WeCallBS!
Trump suggests "concealed carry for teachers," says it would stop a shooter very quickly.
Everyone knows that Catholics confess. Not everyone knows that, before they do, they perform an examination of conscience: a mental inventory of their sins. It is a purposeful, conscious act. But it is not the only way for the conscience to bring past failures to the surface. Conversations revisiting the past can serve that purpose. Apparently that is what happened to Jeffrey Toobin.
Before posting this, I want to say that, among media personalities, Toobin is one that I found least offensive in the 2015-2016 election cycle, yet he feels some guilt.
Candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump stand on stage during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis in October 2016. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News)
So long as President Trump continues disgracing the Oval Office, thoughtful people will probe their own role in helping him get there.
Such appeared to be the motivation behind a mea culpa issued by CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on comedian Larry Wilmore’s “Black on the Air” podcast. In a discussion of presidential politics, Wilmore argued that Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016, was the victim of a “coordinated attack” coming from Republicans. “Benghazi was … the expression of that attack. In fact, what’s his name, was it [former Rep. Jason] Chaffetz who actually kind of agreed that that’s what they were doing, was weakening her as a candidate.” (Wilmore may have been referring to Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who said in 2015, ““Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.”)
No question about the attack on Clinton, responded Toobin, citing “all that bogus stuff about the Clinton Foundation” — perhaps a reference to the Uranium One story or even to the pre-election reporting of Bret Baier — later withdrawn — that there would be an indictment relating to the foundation. Read more>>>>
Perhaps it is time for other media personalities to examine their roles in the avalanche of false equivalences that preoccupied reportage during the election cycle. After all, their "normal" role is to communicate postions on issues and policies put forth by candidates. There was an imbalance to these false equivalences. Trump's bad behavior and prejudices were right out front for all to see. Of course they merited reporting. Bells and whistles should have gone off when the negatives they reported on the other side were obscure and lacked evidence.
Donald Trump was an unusually immoral candidate. Reporting his indiscretions and outrageous remarks should not have precipitated a hunt for transgressions on the other side so assiduous as to co-opt fictions being circulated by questionable sources. Their normal job should have been to question those sources and to report the excellent and extensive policies and plans Hillary Clinton was outlining at every campaign stop.
It is time for all of them to examine their consciences. We can thank Jeffrey Toobin for leading the way.
What a weekend it was! Millions on the march on Saturday were largely ignored by Sunday morning TV as the government remained in shut-down mode. The GOP, which espouses family values and a strong military, stubbornly resisted Claire McCaskill's efforts to continue military pay and suspend Congressional pay for the duration. Linda Sarsour, a Women's March organizer, insisted the marches would have occurred even if Hillary Clinton had been elected. Hillary supporters, of course, would never have turned out.
It was another weekend in the rabbit hole that is Trump's America.
Amy Chozick's editorialin last week's New York Times suggested that Hillary was fading from the political scene. Refreshingly, Gail Collins does not see things that way at all.
Question: Do you think Donald Trump spends more time thinking about Hillary Clinton than Hillary Clinton spends thinking about Donald Trump?
Sure does seem like it. The other day, Trump was discussing Russia at a news conference with the prime minister of Norway, when he suddenly announced that Clinton “was not for a strong military and Hillary, my opponent, was for windmills, and she was for other types of energy that don’t have the same capacities at this moment certainly.”
Yeah, it didn’t make any sense. But he really can’t seem to get past her. Recently while promoting tax cuts and a congressional candidate in Pennsylvania, Trump veered off to remind the crowd that during the campaign, Clinton had once called his supporters “deplorables.”
“Who would have thought that was going to turn into a landslide?” asked the president, alluding to a contest in which he lost the popular vote by 2.9 million. Read more >>>>
Many of the women who marched Saturday said specifically that they marched because of Hillary.
Hillary Clinton is not going anywhere. The events page at the website for her bookcontinues to forecast additional events in 2018. Moreover, Donald Trump seems unable to let her go.
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