Understanding Donald Trump

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1. Wait, What? says:

   November 12, 2018 at 11:10 pm

   The article is as blunt and clear as can be.

   So again (sorry – and again and again) … This is who he is and no one in Washington cares.

   Everyone in the GOP has sold their soul, integrity, and dignity to the devil who gets them seats on the Supreme Court, judges, distrust of the media, tax reductions for the rich, and lathered up rallies whenever they need a shot at immigration, Hillary, or liberals.

   “Those bomb things.” “The synagogue should have had more security.” “it’s raining.”

   How many groups of people can he offend and still no one says a word.

   Well – thank goodness for articles like the one posted, this blog, and other courageous voices.

   As a poster being held by a young activist reacently stated:

   “First they came for the journalists – we don’t know what happened after that.”

   Reply
   • dianeravitch says:

     November 12, 2018 at 11:13 pm

     great line.

     Reply
2. Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

   November 13, 2018 at 12:09 am

   Great article. Thanks.

   Reply
3. Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

   November 13, 2018 at 12:22 am

   Just read that on 11/10/18, he tweeted “Happy 243rd Birthday to our GREAT U.S. Marine Corps with a picture of himself. It was another photo op. Good grief. He IS predictable. There was no rain in the picture.

   https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/10/1811852/-Trump-tweets-Happy-Birthday-Marine-Corps-the-response-was-withering-criticism-of-his-laziness?detail=emaildkre.

   Reply
4. carolmalaysia says:

   November 13, 2018 at 5:08 am

   Everything is all about him. He exists in his own made-up world. How unfortunate that the rest of us have to listen to him prattle.

   He is the most powerful person in the world with no grasp of reality. He is ignorant and has no desire to learn.

   Reply
5. Jimmy Kilpatrick says:

   November 13, 2018 at 7:17 am

   so, I guess your in love with the same folks that came for your relatives and sent them yo the ovens? Do you really think this socialist democrat are any different? Just wait and see who will be next. The problem isn’t Trump is’s the lack of understand of the direction this country is headed in Diane.

   Reply
   • carolmalaysia says:

     November 13, 2018 at 7:32 am

     Jimmy Kilpatrick: The direction of the country will change if Democrats get back into power. I’m tired of the lies that continue to flow from the Orange One and his sycophantic loyalists in Congress. Trump may not have started the mess but he certainly contributes to the increased hatred that has taken over the country. A HUGE part of this nation’s problem is Trump.
     ……

     12 Trump Administration Targets House Democrats Are Preparing to Investigate
     By Colby Itkowitz, The Washington Post
     12 November 18

     Now that Democrats will control the House, they have free rein to launch as many investigations into President Trump and his administration as they would like. They plan to hold back on any impeachment proceedings — despite nearly two-thirds of voters in battleground states who supported Democratic candidates wanting them to start — until they see what is uncovered in Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

     But they still have plenty of other ways to keep themselves busy.

     Democrats understand that a significant message from voters last week was for them to provide a check on the Trump White House. Over the past week, incoming committee chairs have said they are planning to utilize their newfound power to this end but will do so strategically. Soon-to-be House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) said Sunday on ABC’s This Week, “I’m not going to be handing out subpoenas like somebody’s handing out candy on Halloween.”

     Candy or not, there is a lot to chew on. Here is a list, and it is nowhere near exhaustive, of the areas the Democrats plan to investigate and hold hearings on when they take over in January.

     Russian interference

     Yes, Democrats will wait for Mueller’s report, but incoming House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) has said he would look at how the House’s probe into potential meddling was incomplete and seek to fill in any remaining gaps. His predecessor, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), has been accused of trying harder to find a government conspiracy against Trump rather than wrongdoing by Russia and the Trump campaign.

     In an interview with the Fix, Schiff said that “it’s not my intention to sit by idly while we await Mueller.”

     “It may be that there is a report before we even take the gavel, and if that’s the case we’ll be guided by what their findings are. It’s my hope they’ll be shared with Congress and the American people. This is too big an issue to be swept under the rug, but if the Mueller report is not available, we intend to push forward with important investigative work. The reality for us is: Republicans walked away from the investigations. They decided to dedicate themselves to the president’s defense, but we never walked away from it. That will be our intention, to finish this work, and we’ll now have power to compel people to testify.”

     On a related topic, Schiff wrote in a Washington Post op-ed last month that his committee would address “allegations the Russians may possess financial leverage over the president, including perhaps the laundering of Russian money through his businesses.”

     Matt Whitaker

     If new acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker does not recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation because of his outspoken critiques of Mueller and the probe’s merits, and if Whitaker is still in the position by the time the new Congress convenes, House Democrats are prepared to investigate his conflicts of interest.

     Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the likely next chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he plans to summon Whitaker to testify as his panel’s first witness and is prepared to subpoena him if necessary. And Schiff, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said that if Whitaker does not recuse himself, his actions related to the investigation will be scrutinized for any interference.

     “If he has any involvement whatsoever in this Russia probe, we are going to find out whether he made commitments to the president about the probe, whether he is serving as a back channel to the president or his lawyers about the probe, whether he’s doing anything to interfere with the probe. Mr. Whitaker needs to understand that he will be called to answer. And any role that he plays will be exposed to the public,” Schiff said.

     Hush money

     The House Oversight Committee plans to investigate Trump’s role in paying Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, who alleged they had affairs with him, to stay quiet before the 2016 election. Cummings sent a letter in September to the White House and the Trump Organization requesting documents related to the hush payments but never received them. Now that Democrats are in the majority, they have more leverage to demand that information.

     Tax returns

     Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), who will take over the gavel of the powerful tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said that if Trump does not voluntarily release his tax returns, Neal will file a legal request with the Treasury Department that they be released to a small group in Congress. Neal said last week he expects the issue to end up in federal court.

     He also told our Post colleagues that “he could obtain the returns using a 1924 law that gives heads of the congressional tax-writing committees the right to request any American’s tax returns. The panel could then make them public with a simple majority vote.”

     Emoluments clause

     There are already two lawsuits underway alleging Trump has violated the emoluments clause in the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign governments via dignitaries staying at the Trump hotel in Washington. One of the lawsuits was brought by Democratic members of Congress, and a judge in September ruled they had legal standing to do so. But as the lawsuits make their way through the courts, Cummings has said a potential violation of the Constitution for personal financial gain is one issue he plans to have his committee investigate.

     And Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), a senior member of the transportation committee, which has jurisdiction over government properties (the hotel is in the former U.S. Post Office building), said the panel will investigate the Trump hotel, telling Bloomberg TV last week: “We have a constitutional responsibility. . . . Did the president receive money from a foreign government? Think Saudi Arabia. Think Kuwait.”

     Security clearances

     Democrats want to know how certain individuals, such as Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former staff secretary Rob Porter, were working at the highest level of the White House without security clearances. They will also probe Trump’s decision to revoke security clearances from John Brennan, the former Central Intelligence Agency director, and other Trump critics.

     Media targeting

     Schiff thinks Democrats should probe whether Trump used his office to try to punish companies associated with CNN and The Washington Post.

     Schiff pointed to Trump’s effort to block AT&T from purchasing Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, and his desire to get the U.S. Postal Service to increase shipping costs for Amazon, whose chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns The Post.

     “The president is not only castigating the press but might be secretly using instruments of state power to punish them,” Schiff said in an interview with The Post on Sunday. “That’s a great threat to press freedom.”

     Brett M. Kavanaugh

     While some Democratic voters would love to see the new House majority take up impeachment charges against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Nadler said Sunday that that is not the path he plans to take. Instead, he said he intends to use the power of his committee to investigate why the FBI did not do a more thorough job looking into the allegations of sexual misconduct made against Kavanaugh during his confirmation process.

     Nadler said on ABC’s “This Week” he would be examining “the process by which the FBI was stifled in its investigation by the White House.”

     Family separations

     There remain many unanswered questions about the White House’s “zero tolerance policy” at the border that resulted in the separations of thousands of children from their parents. Many children remain separated, and Cummings’s oversight panel intends to probe the lapses that occurred, both in how it is that children are still in government custody as well as reports that children were mistreated while in government care.

     Health care

     Democrats made health care, and specifically protections for people with preexisting conditions, a cornerstone of their midterm campaign platform. Now Nadler wants to launch an investigation into the Trump administration’s decision not to defend the Affordable Care Act against a lawsuit that, if successful, would bring down the entire law.

     Education Secretary Betsy DeVos

     The Education and Workforce Committee under Democratic control are going to demand more answers from DeVos, who has largely avoided oversight of her work at the Education Department. Inside Higher Ed called her “one of the biggest losers of the midterm elections,” explaining:

     Democrats will focus on decisions by DeVos on two major higher education rules. She’s proposed a more restrictive overhaul of the borrower-defense rule, which allows defrauded students to seek loan forgiveness, and a repeal of the gainful-employment rule, which holds higher ed programs accountable for graduating students with debt they can’t repay.

     https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/11/07/democratic-house-will-trigger-tougher-oversight-devos
     Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke

     Our Post colleagues reported last week that Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who will take over the House Natural Resources Committee, wants to investigate Zinke “on his personal conduct and management decisions.”

     On Wednesday, Grijalva said he and his colleagues want the interior secretary to provide answers on several fronts. Last month, the Interior Department’s acting inspector general, Mary Kendall, referred that inquiry, which is examining whether Zinke used his office for personal gain, to the Justice Department.

     “This is our check and balance, our constitutional obligation and our jurisdiction,” Grijalva said. “Us exercising our oversight and accountability responsibilities is not asking for a war with the administration.”

     Reply
   • dienne77 says:

     November 13, 2018 at 7:57 am

     If you really think the Democrats are anything approaching socialist, it’s not worth having a serious conversation with you.

     Reply
   • Threatened Out West says:

     November 13, 2018 at 9:01 pm

     What a disgusting comment you have made. Referring to the Holocaust in such a flippant manner is wrong. Period.

     Reply
6. dienne77 says:

   November 13, 2018 at 7:56 am

   “if there is a purpose here, it’s the theater of it….”

   Yes, exactly. So why do the media and the Democrats and the liberals keep dutifully playing their parts? They are letting Trump be the puppet master. I’m having a hard time believing that all of these supposedly smart people can’t find a better way to interact than accepting the role Trump has assigned. I have to wonder if it is in any way connected to the Democrats’ constant complaining about Trump’s horribleness while at the same time supporting most of the worst of his policies. Because they don’t disagree with Trump so much as they wish he weren’t so blatantly coarse about it? Because they too benefit from the theater?

   BTW, somewhat off-topic, somewhat related, but a surprising take from Maureen Dowd. The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/opinion/sunday/dick-cheney-donald-trump-vice-movie.html

   Reply
   • LisaM says:

     November 13, 2018 at 8:31 am

     YES….exactly!

     Reply
7. carolmalaysia says:

   November 13, 2018 at 8:03 am

   Someone wrote this Tweet supposedly from DJ Trump. He doesn’t use words like ‘expedited’ or “alleviate’. Someone with some humanity was in the WH. Who got through to Trump???
   ……………………………

   Donald J. Trump
   ✔
   @realDonaldTrump
   I just approved an expedited request for a Major Disaster Declaration for the State of California. Wanted to respond quickly in order to alleviate some of the incredible suffering going on. I am with you all the way. God Bless all of the victims and families affected.

   99.7K
   7:19 PM – Nov 12, 2018
   Twitter Ads info and privacy

   45.4K people are talking about this

   Reply
8. carolmalaysia says:

   November 13, 2018 at 8:35 am

   This is slightly off topic but something that bothers me greatly. There is always money for war and the military complex but budgets are constantly being cut for agencies that help people. I believe that if people had decent living conditions the ‘necessity’ for war would end. All people are the same.

   Trump believes there is some type of glory in building up the military and updating our nuclear capabilities. He is still upset over the cost of the military parade [false news] in which the military would honor him. After all, Kim Jong Un gets parades.
   ….

   An American Veteran Who Can Never Leave Afghanistan
   by Rory Fanning

   …In truth, I just can’t stop thinking about that war, which should have ended 14 years ago for me and never really began for most Americans. Still, there must be an awful lot of ex-soldiers like me in this country who sometimes find themselves in Afghanistan when the rest of the country is anywhere but. Given that 15.7%, or nearly 500,000, of the 2.77 million soldiers deployed to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan or Operation Iraqi Freedom are said to have PTSD, the odds seem good.

   No matter how much the media (and Americans more generally) choose to ignore that war, if I’m thinking about Afghanistan on this night here in my garage, undoubtedly tens of thousands of vets like me are reflecting on or grappling with their experiences in similar ways. I’m not the only one trying to navigate the contradiction of being a parent and being a vet. Of that I have no doubt.

   And what about all those Afghan families on the receiving end of so much American violence over the years? Surely, it’s not over for them either. I can only imagine what it must be like raising a kid or trying to live a normal life once soldiers have stormed your home in the middle of the night. How do you relax after that? How do you deal with screaming kids after that?…

   https://www.truthdig.com/articles/an-american-veterans-endless-trips-back-to-afghanistan/

   Reply
9. carolmalaysia says:

   November 13, 2018 at 9:42 am

   I’m sure this is making Trump even more frustrated. How dare CNN sue our great leader?
   ………………..

   The Washington Post
   Democracy Dies in Darkness
   News Alert Nov 13, 9:23 AM

   CNN sues Trump administration, asking court to restore Jim Acosta’s White House press pass after testy exchange with the president
   The unusual lawsuit, an escalation of President Trump’s long-running war of words with CNN, seeks a judge’s intervention after Trump banished Acosta from the White House grounds for an indefinite period.

   At a news conference last week, Acosta rebuffed a White House press aide’s attempt to remove a microphone from his hands during a heated exchange with the president. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders claimed Acosta was “placing his hands on a young woman” — and later tweeted a doctored video as evidence to support her claims — and cited that as the reason for the press pass suspension.

   Reply
10. retiredbutmissthekids says:

    November 14, 2018 at 1:00 am

    carolmalaysia: As to your “always money for war & the military complex,” it’s because this is $till a huge money-making industry. &–the greedy 1%, corporations, banks, Wall Street continue to stick their finger$ in every available pie–the education-indu$trial complex & now the newe$t monetized exploitation–the elder-indu$trial complex. “Market studies indicate an underserved population…w/the greatest need: assisted living & memory care.
    A funny LLC (by “funny” I mean run by a person who has been sued, charged w/fraud & has even dabbled in financial mismanagement to the tune of his LLCs’ gaining million$ being in collu$ion w/ Dallas, TX school administrators/school board president) is “purchasing” a small (< than an acre) office building/land parcel (none–building takes up almost the entire space) in which 44 residents will be crammed into a “luxury” & “boutique” (cutesy word for too small) assisted living/memory care facility (to the tune of $6K-$10K per resident PER MONTH).
    That’s the new 1% American Dream–cockroaches who prey on schoolchildren & the elderly for big $$$$$.

    Reply
11. carolmalaysia says:

    November 14, 2018 at 6:44 am

    Here is Donnie’s contribution to the US. He is bringing the haters out from under their rocks. This he can truthfully brag and own.
    ………………………..
    Hate crimes were up, significantly, in the US last year, according to just-released numbers from the FBI. Reported incidents rose 17% in 2017 compared to 2016. Of 7,106 single-bias hate crimes reported last year:

    59.6% of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ race/ethnicity/ancestry bias;
    20.6% were targeted because of sexual-orientation bias;
    1.9% were targeted because of gender identity bias;
    0.6% were targeted because of gender bias.

    Of 1,679 religious hate crimes reported, 58.1% were anti-Jewish, while 18.6% were anti-Muslim. The stats are a compilation of bias-motivated incidents submitted to the FBI by some 16,000 law enforcement agencies.

    Reply
12. carolmalaysia says:

    November 14, 2018 at 7:27 am

    Trump is having a hard time accepting that people don’t him. He misses his ‘campaign speeches’ and the roaring crowds. Too bad. It’s back to reality. I’m sure he’ll start his 2020 campaign speeches soon. He needs that upper. [I’m waiting for Mueller. He’s more realistic.]
    ………………………
    Five days of fury: Inside Trump’s bad Paris temper, election woes and staff upheaval
    Washington Post
    By: Josh Dawsey, Philip Rucker

    …”He’s just a bull carrying his own china shop with him wherever he travels the world,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said….

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12160072

    Reply
13. carolmalaysia says:

    November 14, 2018 at 12:00 pm

    Trump is proving his desire to be dictator. Only reporters who write how wonderful he is should be allowed come to the WH. Those who want answers to pressing problems should stay away. His need to control the press is scary.
    ……………………………………………

    Trump argues in court filing he can restrict reporter access to White House

    The Trump administration on Wednesday pushed back against CNN’s request to immediately reinstate reporter Jim Acosta’s press pass, arguing that reporters do not have a Constitutional right to enter the White House.

    The claim came in a Justice Department legal filing hours before a federal court hearing on CNN’s lawsuit over the White House’s decision to pull Acosta’s press pass after a heated exchange with President Trump last week during a news conference…

    https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/416650-trump-argues-he-can-restrict-reporter-access-to-white-house

    Reply
    • dianeravitch says:

      November 14, 2018 at 12:25 pm

      No other president claimed the right to choose which reporters cover his news conferences.

      Reply
14. carolmalaysia says:

    November 15, 2018 at 7:00 am

    Poor Trump. I’ve been in a funk since he got elected. There’ll be no compassion from me. “Funk on”, Orange One.
    ……………………….
    For Trump, there’s no easy way out of his funk
    Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
    Updated 5:18 AM ET, Thurs. November 15, 2018

    Washington (CNN)By multiple accounts, Donald Trump is in one of the deepest funks of his presidency. The bad news is that the challenges and threats that are making his mood so dark are likely to get worse before they get better…

    Democrats are prepping a barrage of investigations that will make life in his White House a misery — from attempts to seize his tax returns and probe his business dealings to investigations into key policy areas like immigration.

    “He’s pissed — at damn near everyone,” a White House official told CNN on Wednesday…

    Check out this story on CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/15/politics/donald-trump-white-house-mood/index.html

    Reply
    • carolmalaysia says:

      November 15, 2018 at 9:03 am

      Donald J. Trump
      ‏
      Verified account

      @realDonaldTrump
      Follow Follow @realDonaldTrump
      More
      The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want. They are a disgrace to our Nation and don’t…

      Donald J. Trump
      ‏
      Verified account

      @realDonaldTrump
      Follow Follow @realDonaldTrump
      More
      ….care how many lives the ruin. These are Angry People, including the highly conflicted Bob Mueller, who worked for Obama for 8 years. They won’t even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side. A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!
      4:32 AM – 15 Nov 2018

      Reply
15. carolmalaysia says:

    November 18, 2018 at 6:56 am

    Comment: It’s easy to fact check Trump’s lies. He tells the same ones all the time

    By: Daniel Dale
    18 Nov, 2018 5:48pm

    Washington Post

    …People sometimes ask in response how I can blast out these corrections so quickly.
    But I have no special talent. My secret is that Trump tells the same lies over and over…

    I’m a Canadian reporter, the Washington bureau chief for the Toronto Star. I wasn’t sent
    here to cover the honesty beat. I do most of the fact-checking on my own time, spending
    weekday nights and painful Sundays staring at rally transcripts in my pajamas…

    If a car salesman told you 36 untrue things in 75 minutes, that would probably be the first thing you told your friends about your trip to the dealership. It should have been the first thing we all told our readers about Trump’s August rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

    This issue is so urgent because Trump is getting worse and worse. In 2017, he averaged three false claims per day. In 2018, it is about nine per day. In the month leading up to the midterms: a staggering 26 per day. By my count, he’s now at 3,749 false claims since his inauguration. The Post, which tracks both false and misleading claims, has tallied up to 6,420.

    Meanwhile, the press continues to blast out the lies unnoted. Two weeks ago, Axios and the AP uncritically tweeted his nonsense about the United States being the only nation to grant birthright citizenship. (They updated after they were criticized.) It happened again Monday, when Trump earned credulous tweets and headlines from ABC, NBC and others for his groundless assertion about “massively infected” ballots in Florida.

    There’s nothing especially strategic about much of Trump’s lying; he does it because that is what he has always done. But the president also knows the lies will be broadcast unfiltered to tens of millions of people — by some of the very outlets he disparages as “fake news.”…

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12162285

    Reply
16. carolmalaysia says:

    November 18, 2018 at 12:40 pm

    Trump is the best. He gives himself an A+. He has now, according to WaPo, told over 6,000 lies. Great job.
    ……………………………

    FoxNewsSunday
    ✔
    @FoxNewsSunday
    Trump rating himself on his Presidency and Economy “: I would give myself, I would – look, I hate to do it, but I will do it, I would give myself an A+, is that enough? Can I go higher than that?” #POTUSonFNS

    127
    8:28 AM – Nov 18, 2018
    Twitter Ads info and privacy

    80 people are talking about this

    Reply
17. carolmalaysia says:

    November 19, 2018 at 7:05 am

    Nobody is commenting on Pelosi. She is against Medicare for All and supported Trump’s putting more money into the military. I think we need someone more progressive. She’s 78 and it’s time for her to go. The fact that Trump supports her is definitely proof that she isn’t doing much for the Democrats.
    …………..

    Even Trump said if she needs more votes in January, “I would help.”

    “I like Nancy Pelosi. She’s tough and she’s smart, but she deserves to be Speaker,” Trump said. “In a way, her own party is harassing her. There’s nobody else who can be Speaker.”

    Reply
    • dianeravitch says:

      November 19, 2018 at 9:19 am

      Trump supports her because he doesn’t support her.

      Reply
18. carolmalaysia says:

    November 20, 2018 at 6:54 am

    I’m sure tired of the lies, ignorance and hatred that is now accepted by the GOP. May people continue to dump the Orange Hair Monster.
    ………………………………………..

    Eugene Robinson: Rather than lick his wounds, Trump ramps up his bluster

    By Eugene Robinson | The Washington Post
    ·
    Published: 10 hours ago
    Updated: 10 hours ago

    …Republicans who might be inclined to sign up for another season of Trump’s fading reality show should pause and take stock. There should be no doubt, at this point, that the man is a giant loser who will drag the GOP down with him.

    “I wasn’t on the ballot,” he whined to Wallace. But he spent weeks on the campaign trail, begging supporters to vote as if he were. At almost every stop, he said that a vote for the GOP candidate would be “a vote for me.” The result? Millions more voted (BEG ITAL)against(END ITAL) Trump than for him. And this was just a warm-up for 2020.

    Trump has already robbed the GOP of any coherent philosophy. The party that once supported the military now abuses it as a scapegoat. The party that once stood for fiscal responsibility now manages the nation’s finances in a manner that drunken sailors would find imprudent. The party that once claimed to champion personal rectitude and Christian morality now winks at payoffs to paramours and porn stars. The party that once valued order now celebrates sybaritic chaos….

    https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2018/11/20/eugene-robinson-rather

    Reply
19. carolmalaysia says:

    November 20, 2018 at 7:48 am

    I do hope this isn’t true. Trump loves his newfound friend MbS. If this is true it is a new low for this country.
    ……………………………

    Pompeo handed Riyadh a plan to shield MBS from Khashoggi fallout, says source

    Saudi Arabia’s king and crown prince are shielding themselves from the Jamal Khashoggi murder scandal by using a roadmap drawn up by the US secretary of state, a senior Saudi source has told Middle East Eye.

    Mike Pompeo delivered the plan in person during a meeting with Saudi King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, last month in Riyadh, said the source, who is familiar with Pompeo’s talks with the Saudi leaders.

    The plan includes an option to pin the Saudi journalist’s murder on an innocent member of the ruling al-Saud family in order to insulate those at the very top, the source told MEE.

    That person has not yet been chosen, the source said, and Saudi leaders are reserving the use of that plan in case the pressure on bin Salman, also known as MBS, becomes too much.

    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudis-using-pompeos-plan-shield-leadership-khashoggi-fallout-says-source-1684431379

    Reply
    • dianeravitch says:

      November 20, 2018 at 10:54 am

      When Pompeo met with MBS, after the murder, the two were laughing and all smiles. This administration stands for nothing other than self-enrichment.

      Reply
20. carolmalaysia says:

    November 20, 2018 at 8:11 am

    So now Trump is setting rules for press conferences. Why isn’t there a set of rules and consequences when Trump calls people filthy names or encourages violence?

    Trump doesn’t want to explain why he does stupid things. Control the press. Freedom of the press means reporting and asking intelligent questions. Now that is not allowed.
    …………………

    Per White House letter to Acosta on Nov. 19, here are the new rules for press conferences at the White House.

    Please be advised of the following rules governing future press conferences:

    (1) A journalist called upon to ask a question will ask a single question and then will yield the floor to other journalists;

    (2) At the discretion of the President or other White House official taking questions, a follow-up question or questions may be permitted; and where a follow up has been allowed and asked, the questioner will then yield the floor;

    (3) “Yielding the floor’ includes, when applicable, physically surrendering the microphone to White House staff for use by the next questioner

    (4) Failure to abide by any of the rules (1)-(3) may result in suspension or revocation of the journalist’s hard pass.

    Article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/white-house-restores-jim-acostas-press-pass-cnn-drops-lawsuit_us_5bf31fb8e4b01909c8086d1d

    Reply
    • dianeravitch says:

      November 20, 2018 at 10:53 am

      Trump thinks he can mock and ridicule anyone at all, but there are “rules” for those who question him

      Reply

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