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https://www.mediaite.com/online/tru...-once-brought-a-rape-melania-sign-to-a-rally/

Trump Retweets Pizzagate Conspiracist Who Once Brought a ‘Rape Melania’ Sign to a Rally

President Donald Trump retweeted a missive from Jack Posobiec on Sunday night, an internet personality perhaps best known for bringing a sign that said “Rape Melania” to a protest and touting the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.

The tweet from Posobiec called out Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) for hypocrisy on the issue of family-based immigration, known to its critics as “chain migration”

Posobiec’s tweet is a pretty blatant misrepresentation of Durbin’s comments: it links to a video in which Durbin uses the term “chain migration” — a term he recently asked the president to reconsider using — but does not show the senator calling for an end to the practice. Instead, the video shows Durbin reassuring his Republican colleagues that an extension of the DREAM Act would not allow for “what is known as chain migration.”

People who spend too much time on the internet will have the displeasure of knowing who Posobiec is, but for the uninitiated, here’s a brief explainer:

Once a volunteer for the Trump campaign, Posobiec gained fame amongst internet supporters of the now-president, particularly after he pushed the Pizzagate conspiracy, which alleged associates of Hillary Clinton ran a child sex-trafficking ring out of D.C.’s Comet Ping Pong.

After the absurd conspiracy theory got out of hand — it culminated with some nutcase opening fire in the establishment with an assault rifle — Posobiec retreated, denying ever having touted the theory.

Crack-pottery aside, Posobiec has also deployed some unconventional methods of protest: Buzzfeed reported last year that Posobiec attempted to smear an anti-Trump protest by joining the crowd with a sign reading “Rape Melania.”

And that wasn’t the last protest we saw from Posobiec: after it was revealed that New York’s Shakespeare in the Park was performing Julius Caesar with a Trump-like character in the lead role — including a brutal assassination scene — Posobiec showed up to one of the performances and shouted “You’re all Goebbels!” repeatedly at the crowd.

He was widely mocked online, as it sounded to many like the young internet activist was shouted “You’re all gerbils!”
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/report-trump-pledges-to-campaign-for-midterms

Report: Trump Pledges To Campaign For Midterms As GOPers Fear Tough Fight

President Donald Trump promised last week to campaign for Republican members of Congress after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) warned him that the political landscape is not in their party’s favor, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed White House officials, that McCarthy explained the political landscape to Trump in a slide presentation while the President was at Camp David last weekend. According to an unnamed official cited in the report, McCarthy warned Trump of potential outcomes ranging from a scenario where Republicans lose control of the House to another where Republicans maintain control but lose seats.

Amid a wave of impending Republican retirements, most recently including Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Trump’s own approval ratings, which are at a historic low for a president barely finished with his first year in office, Republicans are taking up a defensive position.

“We are going to have a very challenging cycle,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) told reporters last week. “There’s no question the majority’s at risk.”
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kushner-warned-wendi-murdoch-china

WSJ: US Warned Kushner That Wendi Murdoch May Be Boosting Chinese Gov’t

U.S. counterintelligence officials told White House senior adviser Jared Kushner in early 2017 that Wendi Murdoch may be leveraging her relationship with him to help advance the interests of the Chinese government, the Wall Street Journalreported Monday night, citing people familiar with the matter.

Officials were worried that Wendi Murdoch was lobbying for a Chinese garden at the National arboretum in Washington, D.C., according to the Wall Street Journal. The Obama administration originally backed the plans for the garden, but changed its stance over concerns that a tower planned for the garden could be used for surveillance, per the Wall Street Journal.

A spokesman for Murdoch told the Wall Street Journal that she is unaware of the FBI having concerns about her and has no knowledge of the planned garden.

The officials who delivered the warned to Kushner did not give him details about their concerns about Murdoch, the Journal reported. Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump, was not present for the warning, according to the Journal. A spokesman for Kushner and Trump told the Wall Street Journal that the warning about Murdoch came as part of a “routine senior staff security briefing.”

Kushner and Trump have been friends with Murdoch for years. Wendi Murdoch used to be married to Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/muller-bannon-subpoena

NYT: Mueller Subpoenas Steve Bannon In Russia Probe

Special counsel Robert Mueller issued a subpoena to former White House adviser Steve Bannon last week, calling on him to testify before a grand jury, the New York Times reported Tuesday, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.

Mueller will likely let Bannon skip a grand jury testimony if the former Trump adviser agrees to sit for a less formal interview with Mueller’s team in their offices, the person familiar with the matter told the New York Times.

As the New York Times noted, Bannon does not appear to have much firsthand knowledge of the main incidents Mueller would be interested in for the Russia probe. However, as a one-time member of Trump’s inner circle, Bannon likely has information on some of the wheelings and dealings of the Trump team that could prove useful to Mueller’s team.

Bannon also sat for an interview with the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday as part of the committee’s Russia probe.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/misleading-trump-admin-report-links-immigration-terrorism

Misleading Trump Admin Report Links Immigration, Terrorism

The Trump adiminstration wants everyone to know that many of the people convicted by the U.S. of international terrorism weren’t born in America.

That unsurprising finding, itself obtained through a brazen sleight of hand, is the key revelation in a new report released Tuesday by the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The ten-page paper was written in response to an executive order issued last year by President Donald Trump that directed the government to report numbers on foreigners in the U.S. who have been charged with terrorism. It aims to build support for the Trump administration’s strict immigration policies.

“This report reveals an indisputable sobering reality—our immigration system has undermined our national security and public safety,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a press release accompanying the report.

The report finds that of the 549 people convicted in the U.S. of international terrorism since 9/11, 402, or nearly three out of four, are “foreign-born.” But to get to that number, it includes foreigners who committed crimes on foreign soil before being extradited to the U.S. — cases which have no bearing on immigration issues.

Of course, that’s just the most obvious problem with the report. Michael German, formerly an FBI counterterrorism agent and now a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security program, said the report’s use of the term “international terrorism” exclusively refers to Muslim groups. Neo-Nazis, the Klan, anti-abortion terrorists and other terrorists, aren’t counted by the report as international terrorists even if they were foreign born.

“International terrorism” is an internal phrase used by the FBI and it refers exclusively to Muslim terrorist groups. “Domestic terrorism just means ‘not affiliated with Muslim groups.’ If you’re a Neo-Nazi terrorist in the United States, even if you’re Canadian or French, you’re a domestic terrorist.”

The authors of the report suggested that they had sought information not just about the immigration status of terrorists themselves, but of their families, especially of American citizens. “Information pertaining to the citizenship status of the parents of these 147 [American-born] individuals was not available at the time of this report’s issuance,” reads one footnote.

The report comes as the White House and Congress are engaged in a heated debate over the potential for an immigration overhaul. A hard line on immigration was the most prominent policy stance of Trump’s presidential campaign.
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