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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...time-to-pull-funding-from-flailing-candidates

GOP Braces For Impact As It Comes Time To Pull Funding From Flailing Candidates

As Republicans stare down the prospect of a possible shellacking in the midterm elections, party officials are deciding which candidates are not viable enough to devote precious resources to, according to a Friday Politico report.

As many as 45 Republican seats could be at risk, and the GOP currently holds a 23-seat majority in the House.

Per Politico, Reps. Barbara Comstock (R-VA), Keith Rothfus (R-PA) and Rod Blum (R-IA) are most at risk for the chopping block.

Behind the scenes, senior officials at the party’s campaign arm are examining factors like polling and fundraising to determine which candidates are a lost cause.

NRCC Chairman Steve Stivers reportedly warned candidates back in the spring to prepare for an inhospitable midterm terrain and that they would be cut off if they didn’t put in the work.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/white-supremacist-group-mollie-tibbetts-death-robocalls

White Supremacist Group Exploits Mollie Tibbetts’ Death In Robocalls


Iowa authorities confirmed Friday that recorded phone calls citing the slaying of an Iowa college student are being used to promote white supremacist views, but they said there’s little they can do despite an outcry from Hispanics and other groups.

Prosecutors have no authority to step in because there’s no apparent effort to deceive anyone for commercial purposes, said Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for the Iowa attorney general’s office.

Hicks said Iowa law addressing robocalls, or autodialing, bars using the equipment for fraudulent purposes, “but there are all kinds of exceptions for noncommercial purposes and for nonprofit organizations.” He called it a “really tricky First Amendment issue.”

It’s unclear how many of the robocalls have been made since they began Tuesday, two days after Mollie Tibbetts’ funeral in Brooklyn, Iowa.

Authorities have said the University of Iowa student was abducted while she was out for an evening run in Brooklyn on July 18. The man charged in her death, 24-year-old Cristhian Bahena River, is also suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. President Donald Trump and other politicians quickly noted that element of the case and called for changes to immigration law.

The robocalls reference comments Tibbetts’ father made in defense of Hispanics when he addressed friends and family at her funeral. The calls question whether his daughter would feel the same if she were still alive and describe Rivera as “an invader from Mexico.” The calls also reference immigrants living the U.S. illegally when saying: “We don’t have to kill them all, but we do have to deport them all.”

The calls were first reported by an Iowa political website, Iowa Starting Line.

The recordings say the calls are being paid for by The Road to Power, an Idaho-based group with a website and neo-Nazi podcast linked by officials to an Idaho man who, according to local media, distributed racist CDs in a high school parking lot in Sandpoint, Idaho, in December. The man didn’t return a phone message Friday from The Associated Press.

The caller ID shows a Brooklyn area code and local prefix, but Ted Atkinson with the Brooklyn Mutual Telecommunications Cooperative said it’s unclear where the calls are coming from.

Shortly after the River led investigators to Tibbetts’ body in a cornfield in late August, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said local residents were heartbroken.

“We are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community, and we will do all we can to bring justice to Mollie’s killer,” she said at the time . But on Thursday Reynolds said: “It’s unconscionable that somebody would take and utilize a tragic death like Mollie Tibbetts. It’s just ridiculous, unconscionable and repulsive.”

Nearly 100 people held a prayer vigil Thursday in Des Moines to support the Tibbetts family and urge Hispanic unity in the face of the robocalls.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...cist-ties-attended-high-level-policy-meetings

DHS Staffer Who Quit Over White Nationalist Ties Attended High Level Policy Meetings

Department of Homeland Security staffer Ian Smith — who resigned earlier this week after a report on his connections with white nationalist groups was published by the Atlantic — was reportedly involved in many White House immigration policy meetings, The Washington Post reported.

According to officials familiar with the matter who spoke with the Post, Smith was not “just some low-level schlub who didn’t do anything.” He worked as an immigration policy analyst for DHS and was involved in efforts to disadvantage legal immigrants who have used government benefits. He also reportedly worked on issues related to refugees and the temporary worker visa program.

Smith also regularly sat in on White House immigration policy meetings, led by Stephen Miller, in place of his boss Michael Dougherty, according to the Post.

The former DHS staffer resigned on Tuesday after the Atlantic reported on the content of emails he sent in 2014 and 2015, in which he appeared to be familiar, if not friendly, with several well-known white nationalists and racists, like Richard Spencer and American Renaissance founder Jared Taylor.

In one email from 2015, described by the Atlantic, Smith was invited to a dinner party at a real-estate agent’s home, who has taken photos with prominent white supremacists. In explaining the details of the event — like what time guests should arrive — the host, Ben Zapp, said “so it’s settled — we know my home shall remain judenfrei,” the German word for “free of Jews” used by Nazis to describe areas where Jewish people had been killed or removed during World War II.

“They don’t call it Freitag for nothing,” Smith responded, according to the Atlantic, using the German word for Friday. “I was planning to hit the bar during the dinner hours and talk to people like Matt Parrot [sic], etc. I should have time to pop by though.”

Parrott is the former spokesperson for the Traditionalist Worker Party, a neo-Nazi group that dissolved this year after its leader Matthew Heimbach was arrested for attacking Parrott when he caught his former spokesperson having an affair with his wife, Jessica Parrott, as TPM has reported.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/doj-lawyer-former-lawyer-russian-intelligence-trump-over-barrel

DOJ Lawyer: Steele Said Russian Intelligence Believed It Had Trump ‘Over A Barrel’

WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior Justice Department lawyer says a former British spy told him at a breakfast meeting two years ago that Russian intelligence believed it had Donald Trump “over a barrel,” according to multiple people familiar with the encounter.

The lawyer, Bruce Ohr, also says he learned that a Trump campaign aide had met with higher-level Russian officials than the aide had acknowledged, the people said.

The previously unreported details of the July 30, 2016, breakfast with Christopher Steele, which Ohr described to lawmakers this week in a private interview, reveal an exchange of potentially explosive information about Trump between two men the president has relentlessly sought to discredit.

They add to the public understanding of those pivotal summer months as the FBI and intelligence community scrambled to untangle possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. And they reflect the concern of Steele, a longtime FBI informant whose Democratic-funded research into Trump ties to Russia was compiled into a dossier, that the Republican presidential candidate was possibly compromised and his urgent efforts to convey that anxiety to contacts at the FBI and Justice Department.

The people who discussed Ohr’s interview were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the closed session and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Among the things Ohr said he learned from Steele during the breakfast was that an unnamed former Russian intelligence official had said that Russian intelligence believed “they had Trump over a barrel,” according to people familiar with the meeting. It was not clear from Ohr’s interview whether Steele had been directly told that or had picked that up through his contacts, but the broader sentiment is echoed in Steele’s research dossier.

Steele and Ohr, at the time of the election a senior official in the deputy attorney general’s office, had first met a decade earlier and bonded over a shared interest in international organized crime. They met several times during the presidential campaign, a relationship that exposed both men and federal law enforcement more generally to partisan criticism, including from Trump.

Republicans contend the FBI relied excessively on the dossier during its investigation and to obtain a secret wiretap application on Trump campaign aide Carter Page. They also say Ohr went outside his job description and chain of command by meeting with Steele, including after his termination as a FBI source, and then relaying information to the FBI.

Trump this month proposed stripping Ohr, who until this year had been largely anonymous during his decades-long Justice Department career, of his security clearance and has asked “how the hell” he remains employed.

Trump has called the Russia investigation a “witch hunt” and has denied any collusion between his campaign and Moscow.

Trump and some of his supporters in Congress have also accused the FBI of launching the entire Russia counterintelligence investigation based on the dossier. But memos authored by Republicans and Democrats and declassified this year show the probe was triggered by information the U.S. government received earlier about the Russian contacts of then-Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos.

The FBI’s investigation was already under way by the time it received Steele’s dossier, and Ohr was not the original source of information from it.

One of the meetings described to House lawmakers Tuesday was a Washington breakfast attended by Steele, an associate of his and Ohr. Ohr’s wife, Nellie, who worked for the political research firm, Fusion GPS, that hired Steele, attended at least part of the breakfast.

Ohr also told Congress that Steele told him that Page, a Trump campaign aide who traveled to Moscow that same month and whose ties to Russia attracted FBI scrutiny, had met with more senior Russian officials than he had acknowledged meeting with.

That breakfast took place amid ongoing FBI concerns about Russian election interference and possible communication with Trump associates. By that point, Russian hackers had penetrated Democratic email accounts, including that of the Clinton campaign chairman, and Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign associate, was said to have revealed that Russians had “dirt” on Democrat Hillary Clinton in the form of emails, according to court papers. That revelation prompted the FBI to open the counterintelligence investigation on July 31, 2016, one day after the breakfast but based on entirely different information.

Ohr told lawmakers he could not vouch for the accuracy of Steele’s information but has said he considered him a reliable FBI informant who delivered credible and actionable intelligence, including his investigation into corruption at FIFA, soccer’s global governing body.

In the interview, Ohr acknowledged that he had not told superiors in his office, including Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, about his meetings with Steele because he considered the information inflammatory raw source material.

He also provided new details about the department’s move to reassign him once his Steele ties were brought to light.

Ohr said he met in late December 2017 with two senior Justice Department officials, Scott Schools and James Crowell, who told him they were unhappy he had not proactively disclosed his meetings with Steele. They said he was being stripped of his associate deputy attorney post as part of a planned internal reorganization, people familiar with Ohr’s account say.

He met again soon after with one of the officials, who told him Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein did not believe he could continue in his current position as director of a drug grant-distribution program — known as the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force.

Sessions and Rosenstein, Ohr was told, did not want him in the post because it entailed White House meetings and interactions, the people said.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores declined to comment.
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approval_ratings.jpg


https://crooksandliars.com/2018/08/donald-trumps-approval-ratings-tank-while

Donald Trump's Approval Ratings Tank, While Disapproval Ratings Reach An All Time High Of 60%

It looks like Donald Trump daily twitter rants, weekly rallies and unhinged interviews where he rants against the press, Robert Muller and the Special Counsel, Jeff Sessions and Democrats is falling flat with potential voters. A poll by ABC/Washington Post posted on Friday showed a marked drop in the polls for Trump - only 36% approve, while 60% disapprove! That is a shocking number.

There were some other interesting trends that were discovered in this wide ranging poll, as reported by the Washington Post:

This poll was conducted during the week of Aug. 26 to 29, directly following Paul Manafort's conviction and Michael Cohen's plea deal.

  • 49% of Americans say Congress should begin IMPEACHMENT proceedings!
  • 53% say that Trump has tried to interfere with Mueller's investigation (ie Obstruction of Justice)
  • 60% disapprove of Trump’s job performance
  • Only 36% approve of Trump's performance
The numbers get worse for Trump when you break it down by party and demographics:

  • Only 78% of Republicans approve of his performance
  • 93% of Democrats disapprove
  • 59 percent of independents disapprove
  • Only 45% of White people approve
The gender gap is enormous:

  • Only 54% of men disapprove of his performance
  • A shocking 66% of women disapprove
And in terms of Mueller's investigation:

  • 63% support the investigation, with 52 % say they support it "strongly"
  • Only 29 % oppose the probe
When broken down by party:

  • 61% of Republicans oppose the Mueller probe
  • 85% of Democrats support it
But the most critical support block: 67% of independents support it - and that is dangerous for Trump

Regarding Manafort: 2/3 of those polled oppose a pardon for Manafort, with 53% "strongly" opposing it.

And regarding Jeff Sessions, the beleaguered Attorney General who has served as Donald Trumps punching bag for months now:

  • 64% of Americans don't think Trump should fire Sessions
  • Only 19% support firing Sessions
  • And only 47% of Republicans support firing Sessions
In summary, none of these numbers are good for Trump. He is losing support of the Republican party across all areas and independents seem to be leaning more towards the Democrats. This is terrible news for him with under 70 days until the elections. But it is great news for the rest of us!
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https://lawandcrime.com/high-profil...s-misrepresented-russia-knowledge-under-oath/

Papadopoulos Sentencing Memo Suggests Sessions Misrepresented Russia Knowledge Under Oath

Court documents filed by attorneys for George Papadopoulos on Friday night suggest that Jeff Sessions lied under oath when questioned about his knowledge of Russian involvement in President Donald Trump‘s 2016 presidential campaign.

In a 16-page sentencing memorandum, Papadopoulos’ defense attorneys weave a semi-maudlin tale of a budding academic and would-be aide-de-camp eager to prove his worth amidst the competitive chaos of the Trump 2016 campaign.

“As a young man, George demonstrated a keen interest in politics, international relations, and diplomacy,” his defense attorneys write, eventually getting to the point:

In the summer of 2015, George attempted to step into United States presidential politics when he applied to work for Donald Trump’s campaign. George supported candidate Trump’s policy positions and believed that Mr. Trump was the only Republican candidate that had a chance of beating likely Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. When George failed to secure a position with the Trump campaign, he took up with candidate Dr. Ben Carsonas a foreign policy advisor…Still a stalwart supporter of Trump’s bid for the presidency, George doubled down on his efforts to join that campaign and, in early March 2016, he received an interview for the position of foreign policy advisor. During his meeting with a senior Trump campaign official, George learned that the campaign’s foreign policy focus would be improving relations with Russia. George landed the job despite having no experience with U.S. and Russian diplomacy.

Admittedly out of his element on the Russia equation, Papadopoulos, by way of his attorneys, notes that he leapt at an opportunity to bolster his non-existent diplomatic bona fides when it arose. The motion continues, “On March 14, 2016, George met London-based college Professor Joseph Mifsud while traveling in Italy. When Mifsud, then director of the London Academy of Diplomacy, claimed connections to the Russian Government, George thought he could utilize him and his connections to help the Trump campaign promote its policy objectives. Professor Mifsud paid young George little attention until learning of his position as one of Trump’s foreign policy advisors.”

Eventually, the Mifsud connection led Papadopoulos to meet with a woman he believed to be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “niece.” This woman, only ever identified as “Olga,” would later convince Papadopoulos that she and Mifsud “had the wherewithal” to arrange a meeting between the Trump campaign and officials with the Russian government. That meeting, of course, never occurred, but Papadopoulos apparently raised the potential tete-a-tete with various Trump campaign advisors–including the candidate himself.

The Russian promise, according to the memo, was explored during a March 31, 2016 “National Security Meeting” at the Trump Hotel. This meeting ultimately produced an infamous photograph–which is also referenced in the memo–of Papadopoulos at the table with Trump’s foreign policy inner circle during the campaign. Also at that meeting and in the photograph was then-Senator Jeff Sessions. Again the sentencing memo:

Eager to show his value to the campaign, George announced at the meeting that he had connections that could facilitate a foreign policy meeting between Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. While some in the room rebuffed George’s offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it.

During testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee on November 14, Sessions was asked whether he opposed Papadopoulos’ proposal. To which Sessions responded, “Yes, I pushed back.”

Law&Crime reached out to the Department of Justice for comment on this matter but no response was forthcoming at the time of publication.
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https://people.com/politics/pa-republican-county-official-called-nfl-players-baboons/

P.A. Republican County Official Resigns After Calling NFL Players 'Baboons' on Facebook: Reports

A Republican county official in Pennsylvania has resigned after posting a racist Facebook rant last year in which she called African American NFL players “baboons” and “over paid ignorant blacks” while suggesting they return to Africa, according to screenshots of the posts published by BeaverCountian.com.

Carla Maloney, the Beaver County Republican Committee’s secretary and elected member, allegedly wrote the posts last year in reaction to some players kneeling or remaining in the locker room during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice, reported The Beaver County Times.

“Tired of these over paid ignorant blacks telling me what I should believe in. I will tell you what I believe in and that is our Flag the National Anthem and America period end of story,” Maloney allegedly wrote, according to the screenshots shared by BeaverCountian.com. “You don’t like it here go to Africa see how you like it there,” she allegedly continued. “We are all Americans not African American not Hispanic American. WE ARE ALL AMERICAN.”

An hour after the first Facebook post, Maloney allegedly followed up her comments with another, writing, “What we have in this country right now is reverse racism. I am so sick of the name calling, rioting, shooting, and looting. I don’t know when but there will be another civil war in this country soon than later.”

Maloney posted the comments under the name Carla Belich Fueller, but legally changed her name to Carla Maloney in 2015, BeaverCountian.com reported.

A Beaver County Republican Committee official confirmed to the Beaver County Times that Maloney wrote the posts. Requests for comment from PEOPLE were not immediately returned by Maloney.

The chairman of the Beaver County Republican Committee, Chip Kohser, told the Beaver County Times he was aware of Maloney’s posts last year.

When reached by PEOPLE, Kohser answered questions by repeatedly noting that a statement would be issued by the committee by the end of the day, Friday.

The Beaver County Republican Committee shared a copy of Maloney’s resignation from both her post and the committee to Facebook later on Friday, writing alongside the letter, “Today the Beaver County Republican Committee has accepted Carla Maloney’s resignation from both her position as Secretary and from being an elected member of our committee. The views expressed in her posts are abhorrent and have no place in reasonable public discourse. We denounce these comments in the strongest terms possible.”

In her letter, Maloney wrote, “I apologize for my distasteful, inappropriate and insensitive social media posts. Those that know me know that I come from a diverse family that represents modern America.”

Maloney acknowledged that “the words were mine, and mine alone,” but claimed that her posts that “were made public were the result of an ongoing family dispute.”

“I know I am a better person than this and, as I step away from these public positions, I will work to show everyone who I truly am,” she said. “From the bottom of my heart, I again apologize for my remarks, my poor taste, and the problems they have caused.”

Kohser told the Beaver County Times he believes Maloney made the Facebook comments after Pittsburgh Steelers players stayed in the locker room during the national anthem before a September 24, 2017, game.

After someone else in the Facebook discussion posted “GO STEELERS,” Maloney reportedly replied by calling the players “baboons” several times.

“Steelers are now just as bad as the rest of the over paid baboons. You respect your flag, country and our national anthem. How many men and women have lost limbs or died to protect this country and you baboons want respect,” she allegedly wrote.

“If you want respect you need to earn it and so far you haven’t,” she continued, according to the Beaver County Times. “Stop watching, or going to a game and paying for over priced food, water and tickets. Let’s see how the baboons get paid when white people stop paying their salaries.”

Kohser told the BeaverCountian.com, “Obviously that banter is not how I believe and is not how I think the Republican Party as a whole believes.”

President Donald Trump has attacked players who kneel during the national anthem, declaring, among other things, that they should be “fired.”

Maloney is a big Trump supporter, as seen in Facebook photos published by BeaverCountian.com of her in pro-Trump garb and with the president’s son, Eric Trump.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...ll-likely-try-to-block-mueller-report-release

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/10/how-rudy-giuliani-turned-into-trumps-clown

Giuliani: Team Trump Will Likely Try To Block Mueller Report’s Release

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said that the administration may claim executive privilege to block Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein from releasing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report when the investigation is finished, according to a New Yorker report.


Giuliani claims that President Donald Trump’s original legal team—which has undergone many mutations since—cut a deal with Mueller that that the White House can object to public dissemination of information from the probe on the grounds of executive privilege.

When asked if the White House is likely to invoke this clause, Giuliani was frank: “I’m sure we will.”
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