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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livew...to-oust-mcmaster-as-national-security-adviser

NBC: White House Preparing To Oust McMaster As National Security Adviser

The White House is preparing to replace National Security Adivser H.R. McMaster as early as next month, NBC News reported Thursday, citing five unnamed people familiar with the discussions.

The move, according to NBC News, has been orchestrated by White House chief of staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis.

CNN reported last week, citing a half dozen unnamed administration and defense officials, that McMaster was considering options to return to the military.

McMaster became national security adviser after Michael Flynn’s ouster. Flynn was pushed out after reports revealed that he had spoken with Russia’s ambassador to the United States about sanctions before Trump took office and lied about the conversations to other senior administration officials. Since then, Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about those conversations, and he is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
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https://www.mediaite.com/online/orr...of-the-stupidest-dumbass-people-ive-ever-met/

Orrin Hatch: If You Love Obamacare, ‘You Are One of the Stupidest, Dumbass People I’ve Ever Met’

Tell us how you really feel, Orrin.

While delivering a speech on the recently passed tax bill at the American Enterprise, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) brought up how the new tax reform got rid of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.

Stating that Republicans had finally gotten rid of the mandate “that was established under that wonderful bill called ObamaCare,” Hatch pointed out he was being “sarcastic.” He then had some very strong words from both Obamacare and its supporters.

“That was the stupidest, dumbass bill that I’ve ever seen,” the Utah lawmaker told the audience. “Some of you may have loved it. If you do, you are one of the stupidest, dumbass people I’ve ever met. And there are a lot of them up there on Capitol Hill from time to time.”

Hatch’s comments drew some nervous laughter from the crowd. After his remarks drew notice, Hatch’s spokesperson Matt Whitlock told Deseret Newsthat the senator’s remarks “were obviously made in jest,” adding “but what’s not a joke is the harm Obamacare has caused for countless Utahns.”

Watch the clip above, via American Enterprise Institute (relevant part starts around 18:50).
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https://www.mediaite.com/online/tru...p-former-spox-katrina-pierson-for-major-role/

Trump’s 2020 Campaign Manager Expected to Tap Former Spox Katrina Pierson For Major Role

Earlier this week, the Drudge Report came out with a “WORLD EXCLUSIVE” that President Donald Trump was going to run for re-election in 2020 and that he had named Brad Parscale as his campaign manager. Parscale, as you may recall, was the 2016 campaign’s digital media director.

According to a Daily Beast report, it looks like Parscale won’t be the only familiar face from the 2016 run that will be involved in the 2020 campaign.

Knowledgeable sources say that among the senior staff Parscale is expected to assemble for Trump’s re-election effort is Katrina Pierson, a Trump loyalist and one of the 2016 campaign’s most prominent firebrands.

The sources further told the Beast that the ex-Trump campaign spokesperson was a “shoo-in for a position of her choosing” and that she could pick pretty much any post she wanted. They noted that it seemed most likely she’d take a communications job with the campaign.

During the 2016 election, Pierson became something of a notorious figure over her at-times off-the-rails TV segments in which she’d tend to make herself the story, rather than the candidate she was flacking for. Besides her whopper that the United States didn’t enter Afghanistan until Obama decided to go in, Pierson was well-known for mixing it up with anchors and hosts, leading to many of them mocking her to her face over her outlandish claims and defenses of Trump’s comments.

Following Trump’s election, Pierson was seen at Trump Tower as she reportedly vied for the White House press secretary gig. Per a senior Trump official, however, she was denied a spot in the administration when she badmouthed Sean Spicer after he was named press secretary.
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https://www.mediaite.com/online/wap...utal-detail-the-fall-of-the-house-of-kushner/

WaPo Report Describes Jared Kushner’s Diminished WH Role in Brutal Detail : ‘The Fall of The House of Kushner’

The latest report on the White House from the Washington Post kicks off with a curious piece of West Wing gossip: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump once went on a double-date with Hope Hicks and Rob Porter.

But now, Porter has been ousted after both his ex-wives accused him of domestic abuse, Hicks has resigned after a brutal few weeks of bad publicity, and Javanka’s position in the White House is battered and diminished.

The WaPo report describes — in brutal detail — how Kushner, once one of the most influential advisers in the White House thanks to his proximity to father-in-law President Donald Trump, has come crashing down to earth:

Once the prince of Trump’s Washington, Kushner is now stripped of his access to the nation’s deepest secrets, isolated and badly weakened inside the administration, under scrutiny for his mixing of business and government work and facing the possibility of grave legal peril in the Russia probe.

Kushner’s latest embarrassment came when it was reported that his security clearance was downgraded last week, just as his rivalry with chief of staff John Kelly reached a tipping point.

The Post reports:

Some colleagues privately mock Kushner as a shadow of his former self; one official likened the work of his Office of American Innovation to headlines in “The Onion,” the satirical news website. Others said fear of the Russia probe has made some officials wary of interacting with Kushner on sensitive matters. And his reputation as an interlocutor for foreign governments has been undermined by the lowering of his security clearance level, which generated embarrassing headlines worldwide.

While the president still supports Jared and daughter Ivanka in public, and privately takes issue with their maligning in the press, according to the Post “he also mused this week that everything might be better for them if they simply gave up their government jobs and returned to New York.”
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This is going to start happening more frequently. Scary how easily manipulated he is.

 
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/house-intel-republicans-claim-hicks-set-up-dems

House Intel Republicans: Hicks ‘White Lies’ Admission Was A ‘Setup’ By Dems

Reps. Chris Stewart (R-UT) and Tom Rooney (R-FL) say Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee questioned White House Communications Director Hope Hicks in a manner that forced her to acknowledge she sometimes tells “white lies” for President Donald Trump.

“It truly was just a setup of this witness, who was trying to be forthright and honest,” Stewart told CNN Friday. “The question was so broad. It was, ‘In any circumstances, regardless of what it might be, have you ever felt any pressure to be deceitful or to be dishonest regarding any subject?’ And she answered it honestly. And that is, anyone in that circumstance, there is none of us in our lives that can say we have always been 100 percent honest.”

On Tuesday, Hicks spent nine hours testifying in front of the House Intelligence Committee and reportedly admitted that she occasionally tells “white lies” for Trump.

Stewart also told CNN that Republicans interrupted the Democrats line of questioning to clarify whether Hicks had been untruthful in connection with the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and she answered saying “no, absolutely not.”

Rep. Rooney made similar claims on Wednesday, saying the line of questions — which was reportedly led by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) — was “bullshit” and a “trap.”

“They sent her down a rabbit hole that she could not get out of. And it was completely unfair,” Rooney told CBS News. “I think the fair representation is that it was a setup: Use an extremely gratuitously broad question to make her look bad and ignore the rest of the nine hours that we were down there,”

Swalwell countered Rooney’s comments and said it was simply “a question that is asked of every witness every day across America — and most people don’t have a hard time answering it,” he told CBS News.

Hicks resigned from her post at the White House a day after her interview with the House Intelligence Committee, but The New York Times and several other outlets report the decision was not because of the testimony and she’d been planning to leave for some time.
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