A National Security Threat….
Anderson Cooper: "It was a national security threat?"
Sally Yates: "Absolutely" https://t.co/eiQGyC6Xsa
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 17, 2017
Yates: "It doesn't seem like that’s a person who should be sitting in the national security adviser position" https://t.co/bOGWgNPuaK
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 17, 2017
Muslim Ban
Yates says she did not know about the travel ban executive order until her deputy told her, not the White House https://t.co/0CLTDUnKbz
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 17, 2017
Fired
Yates on how she got fired: "A letter received at my office door" and I had a strong suspicion as to what it was https://t.co/ohaZYmga4A
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 17, 2017
DOJ’s integrity
Sally Yates says resigning would have "protected my personal integrity" but not the DOJ's integrity https://t.co/ltZrKRQkJL
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 17, 2017
https://twitter.com/WajahatAli/status/864912218722316288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheobamadiary.com%2F2017%2F05%2F17%2Fchat-away-915%2F
https://twitter.com/ministter/status/864990450700234752
Immigration arrests up under Trump, including sharp rise for those without criminal records
By Maria Sacchetti
May 17 at 12:27 PM
Federal immigration agents are arresting more than 400 immigrants a day, including violent offenders, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday. The sharpest increase in arrests is among immigrants who have never been convicted of any crime.
In President Trump’s first 100 days in office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested 41,318 immigrants, up 37.6 percent over the same period last year, the agency said. More than three out of four of those arrested have criminal records.
Nearly 11,000 immigrants with no criminal convictions were arrested during that time period, compared with 4,242 during the same period last year.
Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan said in a conference call with reporters that morale and productivity are up among immigration agents because of a perception that the Trump administration is giving officers fewer restrictions and more leeway to do their jobs.
“Will the number of non-criminal arrests and removals increase this year? Absolutely,” Homan said. “That’s enforcing the laws on the books.”
Funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, public-service loan forgiveness would end and hundreds of millions of dollars that public schools could use for mental health, advanced coursework and other services would vanish under a Trump administration plan to cut $10.6 billion from federal education initiatives, according to budget documents obtained by The Washington Post.
The administration would channel part of the savings into its top priority: school choice. It seeks to spend about $400 million to expand charter schools and vouchers for private and religious schools, and another $1 billion to push public schools to adopt choice-friendly policies.
https://twitter.com/alneuhauser/status/864923728374894594
Clarke’s Black AZZ belongs in JAIL
https://twitter.com/adv_project/status/864880884427706369
https://twitter.com/samanthavicent/status/864891594226454530
https://twitter.com/KimChannel8/status/864559479651790854
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/864905804184506370
A disaster of epic proportions….
https://twitter.com/yashar/status/864897357497995267
The Real Lawless President
Republicans better start taking Trump’s monumental unfitness seriously.
by John Stoehr
May 17, 2017
Though he did more than any single person to sink Hillary Clinton’s campaign, I still believe former FBI Director James Comey more than I do the president of the United States. Donald Trump, as I enjoy saying, is a lying, thieving, philandering sadist. Comey is a lot of things, but not that. If he says Trump asked him to drop the case against Michael Flynn, and to consider jailing journalists for reporting leaks, I believe him.
Time will tell if this is the end or the beginning, but no one can doubt that according to a report last night in the New York Times, Trump appears to have interfered with an investigation and encouraged the prosecution of those who exercise their First Amendment rights.
The appearance, much less the fact, of violating the Constitution should have been enough to inflame the rage of a group of people who had previously savaged a previous president who, they said, violated the Constitution. Worse, they said, he was lawless.
When Barack Obama issued a 2014 executive order deprioritizing for deportation the children of undocumented immigrants, Republicans and their conservative media allies claimed — as Peter Wehner did in Commentary — that he was committing “an act of constitutional infamy.” For weeks and months leading up to the midterm elections of that year, they gnashed their teeth over his daring to defy Congress with “amnesty.”
………………………………………………….
Screaming “lawless” will never have the impact on Democrats that it has on Republicans, because “lawless” was never about the law or the Constitution. It was always about sending signals to Republican voters that President Obama was not like them and that everything he did was really truly an act of anti-American sabotage. Many of us thought this rhetoric was too hot for the midterms but it turned out to be a blazing success, not only for 2014 but for 2016 as well.
Principles still matter, and if the Republican care to avoid bankrupting their credibility among reasonably intelligent voters or risk their being swooped up by Democrats with big money on their side, they had better start taking President Trump’s monumental unfitness seriously. There’s more at stake than the future of the party.
Paul Ryan isn’t done carrying water for Donald Trump
05/17/17 12:48 PM—UPDATED 05/17/17 12:56 PM
By Steve Benen
This morning started to feel a little different. Donald Trump has been able to maintain steadfast support from Republicans through a series of brutal controversies, but the revelations from a memo written by former FBI Director James Comey changed things for many Republicans.
Suddenly, GOP lawmakers who are ordinarily eager to appear on television started turning down invitations. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made the case that we’re seeing a new Watergate. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) believes impeachment may be necessary. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) now wants an independent commission, and he’s not alone. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said, “While I’m no Comey fan, I won’t defend anyone who obstructs justice.”
Even Wall Street, which had largely shrugged off Trump’s recent scandals, fell sharply this morning as the prospect of political instability in the White House grew more real.
Some things, however, haven’t changed at all.
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedBen/status/864889940815040512
https://twitter.com/danpfeiffer/status/864872217221316608
https://twitter.com/anniekarni/status/864869455419068416
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/864870859936333827
That would be the only possible good outcome.
AMEN
Also among those traveling with the president: his trusted aide Hope Hicks, deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders and National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton, among others.
…………………………………………….
America’s Leading Authoritarian Intellectual Is Working for Trump
By Jonathan Chait
…………………………………….
Anton describes the government (pre-Trump) as “the junta.” This cannot be dismissed as mere rhetorical exaggeration. To Anton, the rising share of the nonwhite population is a foreign invasion: “The ceaseless importation of Third World foreigners with no tradition of, taste for, or experience in liberty means that the electorate grows more left, more Democratic, less Republican, less republican, and less traditionally American with every cycle,” he writes. He describes the children of immigrants as “ringers to form a permanent electoral majority.” The racial and political implications of this argument are both clear and extreme: Anton believes the white Republican base is the only legitimate governing coalition. Democratic governments are inherently illegitimate by dint of their racial cast.
Republicans change their tune on the mishandling of classified info
05/16/17 04:17 PM—UPDATED 05/16/17 05:32 PM
By Steve Benen
On July 5, 2016, then-FBI Director James Comey said Hillary Clinton wouldn’t be indicted over her email server protocols, but Comey nevertheless said the former secretary of state had been “extremely careless” in the way in which she handled classified information. For Republicans, that criticism was a launching pad.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), for example, almost immediately said Clinton’s “mishandling of classified information was disgraceful and unbecoming of someone who aspires to the presidency. There is simply no excuse…. Her actions were grossly negligent, damaged national security and put lives at risk.”
Asked today about Donald Trump sharing highly sensitive secrets with Russia, Rubio said the president’s careless is “less than ideal,” but the Florida Republican added, “It is what it is.”
Hmm. It’s almost as if Rubio has two entirely different standards. [Update: See below]
Two days after Rubio’s Clinton condemnation, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) called for intelligence agencies to deny Clinton intelligence briefings for the rest of the campaign season. The message was straightforward:
……………….
And yet, here we are, six months after the election, learning about a Republican president sharing classified information with a foreign adversary – for reasons that are still unclear – generating widespread yawns from many GOP lawmakers.
The American electorate just endured more than a year in which it was told repeatedly that putting sensitive information at risk was the single most important issue in the presidential election – it was the one thing Republicans pretended to care the most about – to the point that it could literally be the basis for impeachment.
I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I’m starting to think that maybe, just maybe, the GOP’s apoplexy wasn’t on the level.
LOOK. AT. THIS. ISH….
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/864679692401594369
oh Lord, SG2. what absolute evil.
Independent senator raises specter of Trump’s impeachment
05/17/17 08:42 AM—UPDATED 05/17/17 09:34 AM
By Steve Benen
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) does not have a reputation as a partisan bomb-thrower. He’s one of only two independents in Congress, and he’s widely seen as someone with a moderate, even-keeled temperament.
And with this in mind, when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked the Maine senator yesterday whether he believes Donald Trump may soon face impeachment proceedings, King’s answer raised more than a few eyebrows.
‘You probably don’t leak the worst memo first’: Ex-DOJ official predicts Comey has more dirt on Trump. https://t.co/nGW7FlbbWi pic.twitter.com/z269szmD4n
— Russell Drew (@RussOnPolitics) May 17, 2017
BRING.IT.COMEY
Watch @JoyAnnReid connect the dots showing Pence is up to his neck in Trump’s Flynn scandal https://t.co/N4PF38FeNz pic.twitter.com/iregtCEgqF
— Raw Story (@RawStory) May 17, 2017
If true, this is nuts: Officials insert Trump’s name into briefings to keep him focused enough to read them.https://t.co/fB18eXKsXs pic.twitter.com/t6jeJTpmEe
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 17, 2017
NATO is scrambling to tailor next meeting to Trump—asking heads of state to speak 2-4 mins b/c of his attention spanhttps://t.co/perCj3M19S pic.twitter.com/6KtWyAvemv
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 17, 2017
*Sheera Frenkel reports on the response in Israel.
“We have an arrangement with America which is unique to the world of intelligence sharing. We do not have this relationship with any other country,” said the officer, who spoke to BuzzFeed News on condition of anonymity as he was not granted permission to speak to the press.
“There is a special understanding of security cooperation between our countries,” they said. “To know that this intelligence is shared with others, without our prior knowledge? That is, for us, our worst fears confirmed.”
“There has to be trust for this sort of arrangement. I cannot speak for Israel’s entire security apparatus, but I would not trust a partner who shared intelligence without coordinating it with us first,” said the officer.
Comey Kept a Paper Trail of His Conversations With Trump
by Nancy LeTourneau May 17, 2017 8:00 AM
When I saw this on Twitter a few days ago, I remember thinking that, if true, things could get very interesting.
Miller was right, according to the latest bombshell dropped by the New York Times (and corroborated by several other news outlets).
Here’s the story: according to a couple of associates of former FBI Director James Comey, he kept a paper trail of every conversation he had with Trump. They told the NYT about a meeting that was documented in one of them. On February 14th, the day after Trump was forced to fire Michael Flynn, Comey was at the White House for a terrorism threat briefing. After it concluded, the president asked everyone but Comey to leave the Oval Office. Here’s what happened next:
Buried in our story: Trump said to Comey that he should consider putting reporters in prison https://t.co/7nlT6gaY1G
— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) May 16, 2017
Sorta slick of Comey to make sure that this got out…..
for all those inclined to give him a pass…
tee hee hee
Good morning Rikyrah and 3Chics,
Fucka Comey. Graduate of the J Edgar Hoover School of Policing. Get dirt on everybody so noone can lay hands on you. I believe If Donnie hadn’t came for him, he would have let all this shit go by.
Donnie has come for all, Black and Brown, women, immigrants, environment, science, the Spooks (y’all can fill in the blanks) – but it will be the FBI that finally takes him out.
Tyren,
I said yesterday that I thought the IC is divided between the FBI and The Spooks. The Spooks did their job. They found out the info, and passed it onto the FBI. It’s always been the FBI that dropped the ball, and The Spooks went, WTF?!?!?
The Spooks have been drip, drip, drip, waiting for the GOP – and the FBI- to do the right thing.
The events of the past week have just erased all that. The Spooks see their access to help for their people around the globe dwindling because of this fool.
And Comey? His pride is hurt. Doesn’t matter to me. Let it be hurt if it helps us get rid of these people.
I agree with Rikyrah on Comey. To be very graphic, Trump’s reality show presidency needs its nuts cut off to become effectively neutered. If Comey’s got the scissors, well, he’s our man for the job. The long view matters, of course, but what have we got between now and 2018 that’s going to work? We’ve got the public’s growing outrage, that’s about it.
bwa ha ha ha ha ha ….I love you, Liza!
The president should resign.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) May 16, 2017
This is no longer about Trump. We know what he is. It’s about Congress and specifically Republicans in Congress. Who are they?
— David Frum (@davidfrum) May 16, 2017
And on top of criminal probe, Comey was overseeing a counterespionage investigation. In the words of @MalcolmNance: “This is a spy hunt.” https://t.co/mjdTPLSnmp
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) May 17, 2017
Me: hi Congressman have you seen this NYT story
GOP member: no
Me: ok I’ll summarize it
GOP member: [frantically pushes elevator button]
— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) May 16, 2017
Trump’s Russia leak rattles Republican patience
BY KATIE GLUECK
kglueck@mcclatchydc.com
…………………..
But to the extent that this issue — which follows Trump’s controversial firing last week of FBI Director James Comey — hampers the GOP’s ability to advance legislative priorities, that’s when rank-and-file members, and candidates running in 2018, may feel more political pressure from home.
“We could reach a tipping point where members of Congress run from Trump,” Conant said. “We’re not at that point yet, in part because there’s still hope we can pass health care and tax reform. I think the moment the agenda collapses is when there stops being common cause for President Trump and congressional Republicans.”
There’s no question, Republicans say, that the controversies of the last week have been a distraction at best — and have further discouraged Democrats from wanting to play a role in advancing virtually any element of a GOP agenda.
“Republicans now need to spend more time having their questions answered, as to all of the whys regarding the president’s decisions and actions, as opposed to focusing on a policy agenda,” Stutzman said. “You’re certainly getting close to Republicans on the Hill probably starting to assess how to move policy with a White House that is, to quote Sen. Corker, spiraling at the moment.”
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article150825922.html#storylink=cpy
‘I’m Not There at This Point’: Sanders Isn’t Ready to Jump on the Trump Impeachment Wagon Yet
by Justin Baragona | 11:16 pm, May 16th, 2017
This evening, CNN scheduled a town hall debate between Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich. Of course, when they scheduled the thing, the news cycle hadn’t been hit by the one-two punch of President Donald Trump’s classified info sharing with the Russians and the report that Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to stop the investigation of ex-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
So, obviously, the two former presidential candidates were asked the big question that has now bubbled up to the surface — is there sufficient grounds for impeachment?
“I don’t think we’re there,” Kasich answered. “I don’t think we know exactly what happened. The Russian investigation is very, very important.”
And Sanders pretty much agreed with his conservative stagemate. While acknowledging that there a lot of questions surrounding Russian interference in the election, he doesn’t think it has risen to impeachment just yet.
SIT YOUR ASSES DOWN SANDERS & KASICH!
GO THE FUCK AWAY
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) is facing more heat after an watchdog group filed an ethics complaint against him over a fundraising letter outing a local bank executive’s activism to her employer.
The complaint was filed by the Campaign for Accountability, some of whose advisory board members have ties to the Democratic Party.
The group, in its complaint, requested an investigation into whether Frelinghuysen violated House ethics rules by singling out Saily Avelenda in the postscript of a letter to a board member of the bank.
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/frelinghuysen-hit-with-ethics-complaint-over-outing-of-activist-to-her-employer/
Wow: @CBSThisMorning says it asked 20 GOP lawmakers to be a guest this AM to talk about Trump. And asked the WH for someone. ALL declined.— Ed O’Keefe (@edatpost) May 17, 2017
t tickles me that Dolt45 really thought that Comey was just another “public employee”.
Yeah, invite him to the WH, have a nice dinner, and ask him to obstruct justice. Donald thinks anyone will do anything for him, just for the asking.
MOSCOW (AP) – Putin says Russia is willing to hand over to US Congress, Senate records of Trump’s talks with Lavrov.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) May 17, 2017
Good Morning,Everyone😐😐😐
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone.