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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livew...lent-anti-islam-group-the-backbone-of-britain

Bannon Calls Founder Of Violent Anti-Islam Group ‘The Backbone’ Of Britain


Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Sunday called the founder and former leader of a violent far-right British group “the backbone of this country,” after a heated radio interview.

Bannon was talking about Tommy Robinson – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – the founder of the English Defense League, an anti-Islam group known for street violence.

Robinson was jailed in May after allegedly breaching the peace, and subsequently pleaded guilty to contempt of court, after filming outside a child sex abuse trial in violation of a court’s order — it wasn’t the first time he’d broken the law by filming outside a trial.

Since then, Robinson’s become something of a cause célèbre for the American far-right, including President Donald Trump’s son. Reuters reported Friday that former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, now serving as the U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, complained about Robinson to Britain’s ambassador to the United Sates in a recent meeting.

Brownback, in Reuters’ words, “told [British Ambassador to the United States Sir Kim] Darroch that if Britain did not treat Robinson more sympathetically, the Trump administration might be compelled to criticize Britain’s handling of the case.”

According to Theo Usherwood, the political editor of Leading Britain’s Conversation, Bannon told him after the end of an interview: “Fuck you. Don’t you fucking say you’re calling me out. You fucking liberal elite. Tommy Robinson is the backbone of this country.”



Bannon defended Robinson, though in less forceful language, during the recorded portion of the interview.

“I don’t know if Tommy’s like that,” Bannon said, asked about a previous statement that he didn’t think Robinson was Islamophobic.

“He and I disagree about the religion of Islam, okay?” Bannon added. “But I don’t think Tommy’s a bad guy. I think he’s a solid guy, and I think he’s got to be released from prison.”

Usherwood pressed Bannon: Robinson broke the law, he said. Usherwood contrasted Bannon’s support of the extremist Brit with the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy of criminally charging everyone, including asylum-seeking parents traveling with children, apprehended on the U.S. border with Mexico.

“According to the interpretation of that judge,” Bannon said. “A lot of people say that that law is way too restrictive.”

“It’s just free speech,” he said, referring to Robinson’s filming outside the courthouse.

President Trump, during recent visit to the United Kingdom, told The Sun: “Allowing the immigration to take place in Europe is a shame.”

“I think you are losing your culture,” he added, echoing a common white nationalist talking point. “Look around. You go through certain areas that didn’t exist ten or 15 years ago.”
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...ease-of-violent-British-white-nationalist-Why

Trump team, Republican lawmakers press for release of violent British white nationalist. Why?

It is not immediately clear why members of the Republican hard-right have been pushing so vigorously for the release of a British white nationalist currently jailed in Leeds, England for violating specific orders of a British court. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, more commonly known as "Tommy Robinson", is British white nationalist leader repeatedly arrested for violence; he pleaded guilty in 2012 to illegally entering the United States using false paperwork after he had been barred from this country over past drug charges. His followers have likewise engaged in multiple acts of violence and have a penchant for tossing out Nazi salutes. It was surprising, then, when U.S. white nationalist Rep. Steve King piped up last month with an insistence that Robinson be freed from his British jail.

Now the case has apparently escalated, with the Trump administration attempting to itself intervene on Robinson's behalf.

[U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback] told [British ambassador Sir Kim Darroch] that if Britain did not treat Robinson more sympathetically, the Trump administration might be compelled to criticize Britain’s handling of the case, according to the two sources in contact with organizers of the planned pro-Robinson demonstration.
The white nationalist Brownback joins ex-White House adviser and prominent mainstreamer of white nationalist viewpoints Steve Bannon in a new and apparently orchestrated effort to demand Robinson's release. After an interview in which Bannon declared that "he's got to be released from prison", LBC interviewer Theo Usherwood reported Bannon launched into a post-interview tirade in which he praised the violent white nationalist as "the backbone of this country."

Robinson has still more Republican allies, however. A rally yesterday demanding Robinson's release featured an unusual name on the list of featured guests: U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar.

While Reuters reports that Gosar refused comment for their own story, The Independent confirmed that Gosar indeed addressed the rally. Also speaking via videotape: infamous Dutch white nationalist Geert Wilders.

Gosar's inclusion as rally speaker on Robinson's behalf is especially curious because Robinson's supporters have a history of violence; after a June 9th rally devolved into both Nazi salutes and violence against police officers, this new rally was allowed to take place only with substantial restrictions and with a heavy police presence.

Rep. Gosar, who was the subject of recent ridicule after he warned FBI agent Peter Strzok that as "a dentist", "I read body language very, very well," has yet to explain his interest in Robinson or why he addressed Robinson's gaggle of white nationalists, white supremacists and open Nazi supporters in an attempt to secure their leader's prison release. It remains, as of yet, a mystery.

At least, we will all pretend it is a mystery. It would be explained quite efficiently if we simply presumed all individuals involved, from Sam Brownback to Rep. Gosar, were specifically interested in the Robinson case as an effort to normalize and immunize violent white nationalist leaders so that they may engage in further violence; if we are not supposed to assume those intentions, Rep. Gosar and others ought to pipe up with their alternative explanations.

If nothing else, it seems incumbent upon Rep. Gosar to use his expertise as a trained and licensed dentist to suss out the "body language" of what Robinson's supporters mean to say. When Robinson’s allies flash the straight-armed Nazi salute, Mr. Gosar: What does that mean? Can you parse it out for us?

The wider Republican interest in this one particular British white nationalist remains a mystery as well. It was once a cause popular only among British white supremacists; from there, it escalated into a demand of multiple far-right U.S. Congressmen, the U.S. alt-right, and the Trump administration itself. This is a puzzling coincidence, and we look forward to each of Robinson's new powerful Republican supporters explaining themselves.

Trump may be able to pardon racist U.S. sheriffs, campaign finance scofflaws and far-right arsonists responsible for nearly killing federal firefighters, but this new Republican insistence on obtaining amnesty for a British white nationalist with a history of arrests for drugs and violence is, ahem, unusual even in that context.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/germany-trump-eu-foe-no-longer-rely-white-house

Germany After Trump Calls EU A ‘Foe’: ‘We Can No Longer Completely Rely On The WH’

Germany’s foreign minister told the German Funke newspaper group on Monday that his country can no longer “completely rely” on President Donald Trump’s White House following his characterization of the European Union as a “foe” on trade, Reuters reported.

“We can no longer completely rely on the White House,” Heiko Maas told the newspaper group. “To maintain our partnership with the USA we must readjust it. The first clear consequence can only be that we need to align ourselves even more closely in Europe. Europe must not let itself be divided however sharp the verbal attacks and absurd the tweets may be.”

In an interview broadcast on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Trump listed the EU as one of his biggest global foes and said the EU was “very difficult.”

“Well, I think we have a lot of foes,” Trump said. “I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldn’t think of the European Union, but they’re a foe.”
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livew...at-russian-election-interference-we-all-do-it

Sen. Rand Paul Shrugs At Russian Election Interference: ‘We All Do It’

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) displayed remarkable indifference to the news that Russians definitely tampered with the 2016 American presidential election, saying on CNN Sunday that “we all do it.”

“I think really we mistake our response if we think it’s about accountability from the Russians,” Paul told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “They are another country, they are going to spy on us, do spy on us. They are going to interfere in our elections, we also do the same…We all do it.”

He cited that the United States has allegedly tampered in other nations’ elections 81 times, saying “all countries that want to interfere in elections and have the ability to, they try.”

He added that the U.S. needs to step up protections of the election process, and blamed both Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama for exacerbating tensions with Russia that led to the 2016 hack.

Paul ended his interview by saying that NATO’s protection of sovereign countries and Russia invading them is a “chicken and egg” situation, voicing the Russian perspective that an expanding NATO is a threat.

Last week, Paul was one of two senators to vote against a motion affirming the importance of a strong and united NATO.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livew...us-intel-on-russian-meddling-at-putin-presser

Issa: ‘Fair’ For Trump To ‘Cast Doubt’ On US Intel That Russia Meddled In Election


Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said Monday that it was “fair” for President Donald Trump “to cast doubt” on the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 election while Trump stood next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a joint press conference Monday.

Referencing FBI agent Peter Strzok’s recent congressional testimony, and the “downgrading of Hillary Clinton’s criminal activity,” Issa said “for the President to cast doubt is not unreasonable.”

At the same time, he said, “we take those charges seriously, and so I personally would neither rule in nor rule out the validity of a very interesting and odd-timed indictment of people who can never be brought to justice, and for whom there’s even a question of, how do we know? Did we use spy technique in order to find out? Did we hack them in order to find out who they were?”

Issa called Putin “evil” and Russia an “adverse entity to the United States.”

“We don’t extradite our spies,” Issa said, asked if he was upset Trump didn’t ask Putin to hand over the 12 Russian intelligence officers recently charged in the course of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. “And vice versa,” he added.

“At the same time,” he said, “I want to see the information in those indictments go forward.”

“Let’s flesh this out and see if it’s real,” he added.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livew...ccessful-2016-campaign-at-putin-joint-presser

Trump Brags About ‘Clean,’ Successful 2016 Campaign At Putin Joint Presser


Standing at a podium next to Russian President Vladimir Putin after their one-on-one meeting, President Donald Trump took the opportunity to repeatedly brag about his 2016 victory and the “clean” campaign he ran.

“That was a clean campaign,” Trump said in response to a question about holding Russia responsible for the 12 officials who tampered with the election. “I beat Hillary Clinton easily and, frankly, we beat her and I’m not even saying from the standpoint, we won that race.”

Trump brought up his favorite topic again when he jumped in to answer a follow-up question for Putin about extraditing the 12 indicted Russians.

“As you know, the concept of that came up perhaps a little before, but it came out as a reason why the Democrats lost an election, which frankly, they should have been able to win, because the electoral college is much more advantageous for Democrats, as you know, than it is to Republicans,” Trump said. “We won the electoral college by a lot. 306 to 223 I believe. That was a well fought battle. We did a great job.”

He later added: “We ran a brilliant campaign. That’s why I’m President.”
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livew...-intel-on-2016-meddling-trump-rants-and-raves

Asked If He Believes Putin Or US Intel On 2016 Meddling, Trump Rants And Raves


President Donald Trump evaded and went on unrelated tangents Monday when asked if he believed American intelligence agencies’ assessments that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.

“Who do you believe?” the Associated Press’ Jonathan Lanier asked, after referring to Putin and the intelligence community’s clashing assertions.

Trump responded in part by saying “I don’t see any reason why it would be [Russia],” adding that he had “confidence in both parties” — that is, the intelligence community and Putin.

“I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump said later.

In between, he dipped and dodged by citing a number of unrelated stories, including the emails Hillary Clinton erased from her personal email server, and a debunked connection to a House Democratic staffer, who Trump referred to as “the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC,” and who federal prosecutors determined had no connection to the stolen Democratic emails.
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