US politics general thread

[OrbitalDawn]

Longtime Trump aide fired over financial crime investigation

President Donald Trump's longtime personal aide John McEntee was fired because he is currently under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes, a source familiar with his firing told CNN.

...

Minutes after news of his departure broke, the Trump campaign announced McEntee would be joining the reelection effort as a senior adviser for campaign operations.

Of course.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein and other State Department officials said Tuesday morning that Tillerson hadn’t learned he was dismissed until he saw Trump’s early-morning tweet, and hadn’t discussed it directly with Trump. Goldstein said the former Exxon Mobil CEO was “unaware of the reason” he was fired and “had had every intention of staying.”

Then Goldstein, hours after making those comments, was fired, too.

Circus.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Roger Stone claimed contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2016, according to two associates

In the spring of 2016, longtime political operative Roger Stone had a phone conversation that would later seem prophetic, according to the person on the other end of the line.

Stone, an informal adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, said he had learned from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that his organization had obtained emails that would torment senior Democrats such as John Podesta, then campaign chairman for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The conversation occurred before it was publicly known that hackers had obtained the emails of Podesta and of the Democratic National Committee.

Makes you think.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Family of slain DNC staffer sues Fox News over retracted story

The family of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, who was killed in 2016, has filed a lawsuit against Fox News, an investigative reporter and one of the network's contributors over a story about Rich and allegations that he was involved in a conspiracy, according to the lawsuit.

Rich was shot and killed in Washington, D.C., in July 2016. Police said he was shot several times in the back and later died at a local hospital. Rich was 27 years old and worked as a voter-expansion data director for the DNC at the time.

The May 16, 2017, Fox News article, which allegedly contained "false and fabricated facts," according to the lawsuit, fueled conspiracy theories that Rich was murdered in connection with a massive WikiLeaks data dump of 20,000 DNC emails days after his death.

In the suit, which was obtained by ABC News, Rich's parents, Joel and Mary Rich, claim that Fox News investigative reporter Malia Zimmerman and contributor Ed Butowsky reached out to the family under false pretenses to support stories that Seth Rich leaked DNC emails to WikiLeaks.

The lawsuit claims that Fox News, Zimmerman and Butowsky are liable for the harm caused by the report because they "aided and abetted the intentional infliction of emotional distress" caused by the story about Seth Rich and alleges that Fox News provided with a national platform to develop what the lawsuit dubs a "sham story."

 

[The_Assimilator]

Family of slain DNC staffer sues Fox News over retracted story

I hope Fox and all the lying a**holes associated with it get taken to the cleaners.

 

[rietrot]

So...

> UK directly accuses Russia of poisoning ex-spy with nerve agent
> White House refuses to directly accuse Russia of the same
> Rex Tillerson directly accuses Russia of the same
> Tillerson is fired the very next day, while in the middle of a diplomatic mission to Africa, and finds this out from Trump's Twitter
> White House claims Tillerson was informed of his termination on Friday
> Goldstein, aide to Tillerson, contradicts White House's claims re Tillerson firing date, is also fired

You really cannot make this circus or its convenient timing up.

Welkom to the real world were you can't just do what you want. These guys should get their act together before the make statements in public that contradict the WH.

 

[crackersa]

Welkom to the real world were you can't just do what you want. These guys should get their act together before the make statements in public that contradict the WH.

Problem is that the WH changes its stance so often. Just 10 minutes beforehand, their statements were in line.

 

[crackersa]

I hope Fox and all the lying a**holes associated with it get taken to the cleaners.

So why was the guy killed?

 

[rietrot]

Problem is that the WH changes its stance so often. Just 10 minutes beforehand, their statements were in line.

No for the last couple of months they've been trying to not blame Russia for everything. These guys blaming Russia for everything isn't part of the WH staff.
So how can Tillerson be expected to keep his job after accusing Russia of poisoning someone without any evidence? And even if he did have evidence it is still not his place to be warmongering.

 

[crackersa]

No for the last couple of months they've been trying to not blame Russia for everything. These guys blaming Russia for everything isn't part of the WH staff.
So how can Tillerson be expected to keep his job after accusing Russia of poisoning someone without any evidence? And even if he did have evidence it is still not his place to be warmongering.

I was being sarcastic


And if it happened on US soil, would be a whole different story. Trump makes statements all the time and proven to have lied or just be out right wrong.

 

[rietrot]

I was being sarcastic

yeah. But the idea that Trump's WH flip flops on issues is brought up quite offen so there was something to that sarcasm.

And if it happened on US soil, would be a whole different story. Trump makes statements all the time and proven to have lied or just be out right wrong.

There's certain protocols to follow and I would expect they investigate and prove Russian is really guilty before they just fire off some nukes and start WW3.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018...-one-does-not-give-24hrs-notice-nuclear-power

The UK is certainly making a mess of it. Someone should be calm and reasonable. This does have the potential to escalate badly.

 

[Aquila ka Hecate]

I believe Conor Lamb has won in Allegheny District, although I can't find a news link to it yet.

 

[cerebus]

I believe Conor Lamb has won in Allegheny District, although I can't find a news link to it yet.

Not officially yet but it looks like he will win:

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/13/politics/pennsylvania-special-election-lamb-saccone/index.html

 

[rietrot]

Not officially yet but it looks like he will win:

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/13/politics/pennsylvania-special-election-lamb-saccone/index.html

Awesome to see another GOP territory fall to the Dems. Ryan and his establishment friends must be pretty worried at this stage.

 

[C4Cat]

No for the last couple of months they've been trying to not blame Russia for everything. These guys blaming Russia for everything isn't part of the WH staff.
So how can Tillerson be expected to keep his job after accusing Russia of poisoning someone without any evidence? And even if he did have evidence it is still not his place to be warmongering.

He was speaking in support of the UK investigation which does claim to have evidence. This is what was actually said:

"We have full confidence in the UK's investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said.

"We agree that those responsible -– both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it -– must face appropriately serious consequences. We stand in solidarity with our allies in the United Kingdom and will continue to coordinate closely our responses."

Before issuing the statement, Tillerson called his British counterpart Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to discuss the investigation into last week's attempt to kill former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the southwest of England.

Speaking during a flight back from Africa, Tillerson told reporters that British Prime Minister Theresa May's statement that the attackers had used a military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia appeared accurate.

"It appears that it clearly came from Russia. Whether it came from Russia with the Russian government's knowledge is not known to me at this point," he said.

"But you take a substance like was used, which is an extremely dangerous substance into another country, into a public place, where you know many others are going to be exposed is just -– it's almost beyond comprehension that a state, an organized state would do something like that.

"But this is a substance that is known to us and does not exist widely. It is only in the hands of a very, very limited number of parties. And I don’t want to say anything further than that."

Asked whether the apparent attack on a NATO member would trigger an allied response, Tillerson said: "It certainly will trigger a response. I'll leave it that." DM

 

[Xarog]

Welkom to the real world were you can't just do what you want. These guys should get their act together before the make statements in public that contradict the WH.

The news reports I read say Tillerson was fired before he made comments about Russia wrt this poisoning affair.

 

[buka001]

The news reports I read say Tillerson was fired before he made comments about Russia wrt this poisoning affair.

I don't believe Tillerson was fired because of his comment regarding the UK poisoning, as his dismissal been coming since December, when Trump called out rumours about it being Fake News. I guess CNN got that spot on.

The timing was a mere coincidence.

But Tillerson's aide (who was fired because of it) contradicted the Whitehouse statement.

 

[Xarog]

I don't believe Tillerson was fired because of his comment regarding the UK poisoning, as his dismissal been coming since December, when Trump called out rumours about it being Fake News. I guess CNN got that spot on.

The timing was a mere coincidence.

But Tillerson's aide (who was fired because of it) contradicted the Whitehouse statement.

I don't really fault the White House for having implemented a zero tolerance policy with regard to leaks at this point. As far as I can tell, the disagreement is mundane, and yet nevertheless it is a careless breach of protocol.

 

[The_Assimilator]

I don't really fault the White House for having implemented a zero tolerance policy with regard to leaks at this point. As far as I can tell, the disagreement is mundane, and yet nevertheless it is a careless breach of protocol.

Is that what they call it in alternative facts land? "Careless breach of protocol"?

The rest of us call it for what it is: an orange manbaby acting like an autocrat by throwing his weight around to fire someone who has the TEMERITY to disagree with his claims.

 

[rietrot]

Is that what they call it in alternative facts land? "Careless breach of protocol"?

The rest of us call it for what it is: an orange manbaby acting like an autocrat by throwing his weight around to fire someone who has the TEMERITY to disagree with his claims.

Were do you work that you can talk shît about your employer in public to the point of causing reputation damage and not get fired.