Politics

FEC Complaint Accuses DNC And Clinton Campaign Of Hiding Payments For Fusion GPS Trump-Russia Dossier

Courthouse News Service reports: A nonpartisan group of election law experts on Wednesday accused the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 president campaign of violating federal financial disclosure laws to hide payments for a dossier that alleged connections between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russia. In a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission, the Campaign Legal Center says the …

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REPORT: Trump Decides Not To Deport Fugitive Chinese Billionaire After Learning He’s A Member At Mar-A-Lago

Raw Story reports: President Donald Trump was reportedly on the verge of deporting billionaire Chinese fugitive Guo Wengui, but changed his mind after aides informed him that Guo is a fellow billionaire and a member in good standing at the president’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. According to Vanity Fair‘s Isobel Thompson, Guo is wanted on charges of rape, bribery and kidnapping …

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MIAMI: Private Prison Giant Parties At Trump Resort After Landing $110M ICE Detention Center Contract

The Washington Post reports: In recent years, the private prison company GEO Group has held its annual leadership conference at venues near its Boca Raton headquarters. But this year, the company moved its gathering to a Miami-area golf resort owned by President Trump. The event last week, during which executives and wardens gathered for four days of meetings, dinner receptions …

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POLL: Record-High Support For Legal Marijuana

Gallup reports: Americans continue to warm to legalizing marijuana, with 64% now saying its use should be made legal. This is the highest level of public support Gallup has found for the proposal in nearly a half-century of measurement. The trajectory of Americans’ views on marijuana is similar to that of their views on same-sex marriage over the past couple …

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POLL: Majority Of Whites Say Anti-White Discrimination Exists (But Most Say It’s Never Happened To Them)

NPR reports: A majority of whites say discrimination against them exists in America today, according to a poll released Tuesday from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. More than half of whites — 55 percent — surveyed say that, generally speaking, they believe there is discrimination against white people in America …

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Michael Bloomberg: Brexit Was The Single Stupidest Thing Any Country Did Until Trump’s Election [VIDEO]

The Guardian reports: Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire media mogul and former mayor of New York, has said Brexit is the “single stupidest thing any country has ever done” apart from the election of Donald Trump as US president. Bloomberg argued that “it is really hard to understand why a country that was doing so well wanted to ruin it” with …

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TEXAS: Republican House Speaker Joe Strauss To Retire After Battling Hate Groups On Transgender Rights

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, a San Antonio Republican, announced Wednesday he will not run for re-election in 2018, a decision that has the potential to upend the political balance of power of the state. Straus, who has lately been the most powerful moderate Republican in the Texas Capitol, said he will serve until the end …

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BOSTON: Right Wing Rally Organizer Sues Mayor For $100M Over Alleged Comments Linking Him With Nazis

Boston’s NPR affiliate reports: One of the organizers of a recent and controversial self-described “free speech” rally on Boston Common is suing Mayor Marty Walsh, saying the mayor slandered him by linking its participants with white supremacists and other hate groups. Brandon Navom [inset], of Lowell, said in the suit filed in Berkshire District Court that he lost his job …

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Junior Complains That Colleges Don’t Teach “Civility”

Lack of self-awareness is a Trump hallmark. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports: Brought in for the UNT Kuehne Speaker Series, Donald Trump Jr. spent a significant portion of his 30-minute speech admonishing American universities, with a notable exception of those in Texas. The oldest son of President Donald Trump said Tuesday that universities across the country, and specifically the University …

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ARIZONA: Bannon-Backed Pro-Trump Senate Candidate Kelli Ward Celebrates Jeff Flake’s Exit Announcement

The Hill reports: Arizona Senate candidate Kelli Ward (R), who was polling ahead of Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) in the GOP primary before he announced he wouldn’t run for reelection, touted her chances of being elected in 2018 in a Fox News interview today. “We need new leadership, new GOP leadership in Washington, D.C., and I look forward to being a …

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“Need To Impeach” Ad Hits Airwaves: Trump Is Mentally Unstable And Armed With Nuclear Weapons [VIDEO]

The ad below ran many times on CNN yesterday and first appeared Friday on YouTube, where it currently has over 800K views. TIME Magazine reports: California billionaire Tom Steyer has released an ad as the centerpiece of a $10 million campaign calling for President Donald Trump’s impeachment. “A Republican Congress once impeached a president for far less. And today, people …

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$300M No-Bid Puerto Rico Contract Awarded To Two-Man Company From Sec. Ryan Zinke’s Hometown

USA Today reports: A $300 million contract to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical infrastructure, which was awarded to a small, two-year-old Montana company that had only two employees when Hurricane Maria struck the U.S. territory, has sparked calls for an investigation from both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. In addition to its size and relative inexperience, the fact that …

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Senate Kills Obama-Era Rule Allowing Consumer Class Action Against Banks, Pence Casts Tie-Breaking Vote

Reuters reports: Banks, credit card issuers and other financial companies will be able to block customers from banding together to sue over disputes, after the U.S. Senate on Tuesday narrowly killed a rule banning the firms from using “forced arbitration” clauses. Republican Vice President Mike Pence appeared on the Senate floor at 10:11 p.m. EDT to cast the tie-breaking vote …

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Sen. Jeff Flake Cites McCarthyism In Brutal Editorial Blasting “Contagious Sickness” Of Trump Administration

Retiring Sen. Jeff Flake cited the most famous moment of McCarthy hearings today in a Washington Post editorial which continues his savaging of the Trump administration. An excerpt: In words that today echo from his time to ours, Joseph Welch delivered the coup de grace: “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you …

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POLL: Majority Says Trump Is Unstable, Dishonest

Politico reports: Reckless. Thin-skinned. Not honest. Not compassionate. Not stable. Those aren’t just the extraordinary, harsh judgments of President Donald Trump by two retiring, Republican senators on Tuesday — they are also shared by majorities of voters in a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. “As we have seen in past polls, most voters, 56 percent, say President Trump is reckless, while …

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Sen. Jeff Flake Savages “Outrageous, Not Normal” Trump In Exit Speech: I Won’t Be Complicit [VIDEO]

NBC News reports: Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., announced Tuesday he will not run for reelection next year, saying he was appalled by President Donald Trump and the direction of the Republican Party. “We must stop pretending that the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal,” Flake said in a passionate speech on the Senate …

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Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake Will Not Seek Re-Election

The Arizona Republic reports: Condemning the nastiness of Republican politics in the era of President Donald Trump, Sen. Jeff Flake on Tuesday announced he will serve out the remainder of his term but will not seek re-election in 2018. The bombshell, which Flake, R-Ariz., intended to detail Tuesday afternoon on the Senate floor, will further roil Republican hopes of keeping …

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FLORIDA: Black Caucus Demands Apology From “Empty Suit” John Kelly Over His Lies About Dem House Rep

Politico reports: Florida’s legislative black caucus on Tuesday bashed White House chief of staff John Kelly as “an empty suit” and called on him to apologize to Rep. Frederica Wilson for falsely accusing her amid a controversy concerning the death of an Army soldier who was a constituent of hers. The group’s news conference marked the seventh straight day that …

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Protester Gets Within Feet Of Trump In Senate Building, Throws Russian Flags, Shouts “Treason!” [VIDEO]

CBS News reports: President Donald Trump has arrived on Capitol Hill to lunch with GOP senators after sparring with several of them, as congressional Republicans turn to overhauling the tax code. The president arrived and was escorted by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as reporters shouted questions. The two are set to meet briefly before they head to Senate policy lunches …

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Griffin Rips Cooper As “The Spineless Heiress”

In a Daily Beast interview that’s mostly about Kathy Griffin’s very public feud with celebrity lawyer Lisa Bloom, we get this tidbit: When Kevin Frazier of Entertainment Tonight asked her whether she had spoken to Anderson Cooper, her longtime friend, co-host, and comic foil on CNN’s New Year’s Eve show, she shook her head, cried, and managed to blurt how …

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