Friday, October 18, 2019

"George Kent told congressional investigators in his closed-door testimony this week that Rudy Giuliani asked the State Dept. & the W.H. to grant a visa to the former Ukrainian official who Joe Biden had pushed to have removed when he was vice president."


Tulsi Gabbard SKIPPED the House vote condemning Trump on abandoning the Kurds. Well, that’s interesting.


The “resigning in disgrace” music is a nice touch.


Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is among those who pressed the State Department to investigate the Clinton email fiasco. Grassley’s office released the report publicly today, and his spokesman had no comment on the State's findings


Wow. #Erdogan tells news conference the letter sent by @realDonaldTrump telling him not to be a ‘tough guy’ wasn’t in line with diplomatic or political customs. He said they wouldn’t forget the lack of respect. “When the time comes necessary steps will be taken”


BREAKING: Florida federal court holds that the right to vote cannot be denied based on a person’s inability to pay fines and fees!


Imagine how irate Commander Babyfingers must be about Pompeo’s State Department giving Hillary a rightful pass on her emails...


Energy Department latest to reject House Dem subpoena in the impeachment probe; Department says information is “confidential” and that the probe is not “validly authorized,” echoing the WH line, adding it is “unable to comply with your requests for documents and communications”


Jill Stein used campaign donations to pay for her trip to an RT party in Moscow, according to the lawyer Stein's paying with money raised to recount the 2016 election.

ICYMI

Speaker Pelosi on Elijah Cummings: "In the House, Elijah was our North Star. He was a leader of towering character and integrity, who pushed the Congress and country always to rise to a higher purpose, reminding us why we are here."


Here's the thing: Tulsi Gabbard remains an active devotee of Butler and the Science of Identity cult, as do her husband, sister, and chief of staff. Here's what one of her former staffers told me:

ICYMI

"The cult completely runs her campaign. People who work in cult front business ops are now her campaign team. People who are not American citizens are actively working on her (Tulsi Gabbard's) campaign."


Tulsi Gabbard press event in Iowa is now more than an hour late. Her reps aren't answering emails about what's going on.


cartoon


Trump's associates are advising him not to fire Mulvaney, warning him that the acting chief knows too much


DiGenova and Toensing billed Firtash "about $1 million for their work...That includes costs for Lev Parnas, a Giuliani associate, as a translator." That's one expensive translator, given that Vienna has lots of Russian speakers and Parnas lives in Florida.


President Trump’s sham ceasefire announcement does nothing to stop the ISIS jailbreak or the mess he alone created in Northern Syria. — Chuck Schumer


Fact check: Trump parrots talking points from Putin, Erdogan on Syria


Right. Pompeo feels “victimized.” Zero sympathy.


TRUMP: "We have taken control of the oil in the Middle East -- the oil that we're talking about. The oil that everybody was worried about."


NEW: Giuliani asked the State Dept. to give a visa to the former Ukraine prosecutor who could deliver dirt on Biden. State Dept. said no, so Giuliani appealed to the WH. Visa wasn't granted.


Gen. McCaffrey on Trump’s claim the Kurds are happy: ‘It’s simply absurd, it’s cruel, it makes him look stupid’


‘I didn’t take this job to keep it’: GOP Rep. Rooney hints he’s open to impeachment


A State Department investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal found no systemic or deliberate “mishandling of classified information” by employees in their department


While it's been known & bubbling around that Russia favors her, what Clinton is alleging is full on. And she would know. Massive.


Judging by the president's Twitter feed, it seems that Mitt Romney has gotten under Trump's skin again.


Oleg Deripaska-Linked Firm Was Raided for Undisclosed U.S. Inquiry: Filings in U.K. reveal ‘live’ U.S. criminal investigation


You realize, Mr. President, that Mr. Erdogan has labeled our allies in the fight against ISIS as "terrorists."


John Kasich tells Ana Cabrera that Trump should be impeached. "I say it with great sadness. This is not something that I really wanted to do. ...But this behavior, in my opinion, cannot be tolerated."


There are 21 (!) separate PDFs of Epstein-related files in this trove.


Translated from Trumpist: "I'm a weak, incompetent man who has beclowned the Presidency."


REPS LIEU AND RICE CALL FOR INVESTIGATION INTO SUSPICIOUS FUTURES TRADING AROUND GEOPOLITICAL EVENTS, TRUMP STATEMENTS | Congressman Ted Lieu


Denied quid pro quo with Ukraine. Then admitted it. Then denied it. And they’re now selling shirts.


NEW VIDEO: Nashville “WOMEN FOR TRUMP” March


Remember @HillaryClinton Was %1000 on the nose regarding Trump and his Russian ties over 3 years ago.


To Win Giuliani’s Help, Oligarch’s Allies Pursued Biden Dirt


Elijah Cummings will lie in state in Statuary Hall on Thursday, Pelosi announces


One word that is not in this op-ed: "Trump." One word that is in this op-ed three times: "Obama."


It is not just that Donald Trump is a liar. It is not just that he is corrupt. It is that every day he finds new ways to lie in an attempt to cover up his own corruption.


Lawyers for Trump and his re-election campaign reportedly threatened to sue CNN in a letter, alleging the network has been falsely advertising itself as a news organization. A CNN spokesman said the letter was “nothing more than a desperate PR stunt


Jill Stein is trending, so a reminder that she's still spending 2016 recount money on generous salaries for her staff, including a campaign manager who gets almost $100K for a job he told me is "half time."


State Department probe of Clinton emails finds no deliberate mishandling of classified information


Sallie Mae flies more than 100 employees to Hawaii to celebrate $5 billion in sales while student debt crisis tops $1.6 trillion


Mulvaney aggressively insulted Camp David in his bizarre press briefing defending the unconstitutional decision to locate the G-7 Summit at a Trump property. As the Congressman who represents Thurmont, Maryland where Camp David is located, I had a few things to say about this:


RUSSIAN OLIGARCH OLEG DERIPASKA'S LONDON OFFICES RAIDED FOR UNDISCLOSED U.S. CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION; LINKED TO MANAFORT


Deadly Turkey air strikes shatter NE Syria truce


And of course he's already ignored it. No points for predicting something so obvious. Erdogan's attack is a classic "why not?" maneuver. The question is why the US president is endorsing it and ethnic cleansing.


I would love a president who never uses the phrase “ultimate solution”


The organizers of the “March for Trump” claim a bus line tried to kill their rally by not showing up. But the bus company says it was never paid thousands of dollars


Reminder that today is the deadline for Rick Perry and Mick Mulvaney to turn over subpoenaed documents to Congress on Ukraine. #FridayMorning You can keep track of all of it and see how that plays out with my daily updated impeachment cheat sheet here:


#BREAKING EU's Tusk says US-Turkey deal not real 'ceasefire'


'Dad stop the burning, I beg you': Horrifying footage reveals badly-burned Kurdish children in Syria amid claims Turkey is using banned weapons such as napalm and white phosphorus


Each week — and some days, it seems, each hour — brings more clarity to the picture of the Trump-Ukraine affair and impeachment inquiry it sparked. Here's a look at where things stand.


Clinton suggested the Russians are leveraging a number of top U.S. politicians. She suggested Russia had kompromat on Trump. She accused Jill Stein of being a "Russian asset." And she suggested Russia might back Tulsi Gabbard as a third-party candidate.


Trump is unstable—and unstoppable. Did no one in the White House have the nerve to tell him not to send his puerile letter to Erdogan? Evidently not. Just as no one had the nerve to tell him not to pressure Ukraine to intervene in the U.S. election.


My latest. Read This: "The Kurds Gave Their Lives to Defeat the ‘Islamic State.’ Trump Just Pissed It All Away."


Gen. Barry McCaffrey blasts Trump's 'inexplicable' policy in Syria


Retired Admiral William H. McRaven writes, "If our promises are meaningless, how will our allies ever trust us? If we can’t have faith in our nation’s principles, why would the men and women of this nation join the military?"


“You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to ‘preserve, protect, and defend it.’” — Abraham Lincoln


What does Russia's election hacking in 2016 have to do with the oil and gas industry? Everything, @Maddow explains.


All roads lead to Putin. According to Mulvaney, Trump is still adamant that Russia should be re-admitted to G7 and Putin should attend the gathering at Trump's Doral resort.


Turkey’s Cease Fire in Syria lasts 5 days - til Erdogan meets Putin in Sochi 10/22 Putin was accused of pocketing billions from Sochi Olympics, invaded Ukraine amid uproar, got sanctioned, and helped Trump win to lift sanctions. Time is a flat circle.


PLEASE. You’re not fighting for America; you use taxpayer $ to enrich yourself and cover your own ass. Abroad, you’ve made Putin, Erdogan, Assad and ISIS happy. Those aren’t American values- it’s greed and cowardice.


"You have to really look at [Rudy] Giuliani, [Lev] Parnas, [Igor] Fruman and the rest of the three amigos etc. really as a racketeering enterprise at this point..." says Kenneth McCallion, a lawyer who was questioned in the Giuliani investigation.


Gallup poll: 52% Majority of Americans now support Trump's impeachment, removal A 6 point rise


I heard #MarkZuckerberg's ‘free expression’ speech, in which he referenced my father. I'd like to help Facebook better understand the challenges #MLK faced from disinformation campaigns launched by politicians. These campaigns created an atmosphere for his assassination.


Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructs the National Security Council to consider dispatching the military to the Strait of Hormuz, a report says


Gordon Sondland was part of the RNC fundraising leadership team alongside Steve Wynn, Elliott Broidy, Michael Cohen and Louis DeJoy.


Mick Mulvaney’s bombshell press briefing in 2 minutes


The Parkland school shooter's death penalty trial is set to begin in January 2020, according to a court order


White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney insists he didn't reveal a Ukrainian quid pro quo. Twitter erupts.


A smart "political person" told me yesterday they believe Trump will resign, not because of impeachment, but because Congress is one gavel drop away from getting his taxes. SCOTUS push is risky for him in that case. If they rule against him, his big nightmare comes true.


Ray Dalio says the world is in a 'great sag' and echoes the 1930


My daughter on Brexit, Trump, the planet: “I wish elderly people would quit breaking things because they are bored or upset.”


Trump said at his campaign rally in Dallas that he had to let Kurdish allies and Turkish forces "fight a little while" before the U.S. could halt Turkey's deadly attack on northern Syria.


Opinion: Trump is spinning out of control. We must stop pretending otherwise.


Hours before his death, the late House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings signed two subpoenas for documents related to a temporary end to a policy change that allowed some immigrants with severe health issues to remain in the US


Donald Trump told Texas supporters at a rally in Dallas that next year's election puts "the survival of American democracy itself" at stake


The Trump Organization on Thursday said it was “honored” to have been chosen by its owner, the president, for this event


Well, the WH has given up on the charade that Trump isn’t profiting off the presidency. THREAD Mulvaney: "[Doral] is not the only place [the G7] could be hosted."


Mark Zuckerberg's speech today shows how little he learned from 2016, and how unprepared Facebook is to handle the 2020 election.


"At one dinner party, Mr. Sondland said his job was 'to destroy the European Union,' one senior European official said."


Trump “seems to believe" that American qualities "are unimportant or show weakness. He is wrong," writes retired Adm. William McRaven in a NY Times op-ed.


America has needlessly unleashed a new cross-border conflict, empowered its enemies and betrayed its friends


The hotelier at the Heart of Trump’s impeachment inquiry


Former Trump national security official on Trump & Syria: ‘This is just obscene’


Recognizable names like Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff are the public faces of the fast-moving impeachment inquiry. But it's the legal mind many haven't heard of who is advising and helping to coordinate the impeachment fight behind the scenes.


Intelligence Committee member: ‘Each and every’ impeachment witness ‘brings new insights’


Sean Hannity says he knows what Mick Mulvaney's problem is: “I just think he’s dumb. I really do."


Justin Walker, 37, was rated "not qualified" to be a lifetime federal judge. But Mitch McConnell wants him, so Republicans will confirm him anyway.


Propaganda 101: Accuse your enemy of that which you are guilty


Mulvaney announces impeachable offense Trump plans to commit


W.H. chief of staff admits ‘we held up the money’ to Ukraine


John Brennan on ‘all roads with Trump lead to Putin’


BREAKING — Turkish warplanes are striking residential areas in Serêkaniyê (Ras al-Ayn). The village of Mishrefa in western of the city was hit three times by Turkish airstrikes (ANHA)


A Republican source inside the Trump-Pelosi meeting described attendees as “shaken” and “shell-shocked” by the President’s demeanor. “He is not in control of himself. It is all yelling and screaming.”

ICYMI

Trump is dangerously out of control. And it’s getting much worse.


Statement from Jay Sekulow: "The President's legal counsel was not involved in acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney's press briefing."


At a rally in Texas, President Trump insisted he was smart to let Turkey attack America’s Kurdish allies, comparing the 2 warring sides to children on a playground


Jay Goldberg, a longtime friend and former lawyer for Trump, told @MSNBC that Rudy Giuliani has a book of his Ukraine contacts that hasn't yet been subpoenaed and if it is could be harmful to the president.


Perry, in Trump Ukraine scandal spotlight, resigns in video


Opinion: Trump takes another serving at the financial all-you-can-eat buffet


Trump helps Putin tick through Russia's world affairs wish list


Maddow reveals Trump’s Ukraine scandal is also an attempt to ‘unblame’ Russia for 2016 interference


Retired Adm. William McRaven says the US is under attack from President Trump, who he believes is working to "destroy" the country "from within" and "from without"


The US just ratified Turkey’s plan to effectively extend its border 30km into Syria with no ability to meaningfully influence facts on the ground. Turkey says it’s the entire border from the Euphrates to Iraq (450x30km) to be controlled by its military forces. Non-implementable.


Breaking: Reuters reports shelling and gunfire in Syris hours after Trump/Erdogan announced ceasefire.


The UN has reported an "unprecedented" number of civilians killed (1,174) or wounded (3,139) in Afghanistan from July to September, a 42% increase over the same period last year.


JUST IN: Zuckerberg defends allowing misinformation in campaign ads: It’s “something we have to live with"


Mitt Romney debunks Trump's Syria win, "America is diminished. Russia, Iran, and Assad are strengthened."


BREAKING: AP reporters see shelling, smoke in Syrian town at center of fight between Turkey and Kurdish forces despite cease-fire.


Maddow: Elijah Cummings 'genuinely, humblingly inspiring'


To any G7 members, their staffs, and loved ones coming to Trump’s Doral in Florida did you know bed bugs, probably the hardest pest to rid yourself of and often accompanying their bed companions back to their homes, were found in this resort? Not kidding. True. Enjoy.


So wrong. So sad. Kurds fought side by side with us against ISIS. They lost 11,000 fighters. They are not children. They do not deserve this ridicule.


Rick Perry put his fossil fuel buddies above protecting our planet from climate change and his political loyalties above our country and the law. I'm glad he's out as Secretary of Energy, but we can’t stop holding him accountable.


A surprise announcement from the Russian news service, TASS: According to the FSB in Russia, the US government has now agreed to carrying out joint cyber operations with Russian intelligence. What?


This is an obscene and ignorant statement. 200k innocent people displaced. Hundreds dead. Credible reports of war crimes. ISIS prisoners escaping. US evacuating and bombing its own positions or handing them to Russia. Two kids in a lot?


Erdogan expected a confrontational meeting, but the mood softened when it became clear the US officials were asking only for token concessions. In return for a brief pause in fighting, there would be no sanctions & no requirement for a Turkish withdrawal.


JUST IN: Federal judge rules Justice Dept improperly redacted court filing related to Mueller probe


"In exchange for nothing, not even the end of an endless war, the U.S. gave Recep Tayyip Erdoğan exactly what he wanted,"