Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Politico reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday rebuffed Democratic calls to slow down rapid confirmation of Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, even after a nonpartisan federal watchdog raised “great” concerns about moving ahead with hearings for nominees without their ethics reviews completed. Walter Shaub, the director of the independent Office of Government Ethics, laid out his warning in a …

The Hill reports: Incoming White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign did not need WikiLeaks to convince Americans they Hillary Clinton was an unlikable candidate. “We didn’t need WikiLeaks to convince the American people that they didn’t like her, didn’t trust her, didn’t find her to be honest,” Conway told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. …

The Guardian reports: German media and politicians have warned against an election-year spike in fake news after the rightwing website Breitbart claimed a mob chanting “Allahu Akbar” had set fire to a church in the city of Dortmund on New Year’s Eve. After the report by the US site was widely shared on social media, the city’s police clarified that …

CNN reports: Conservative author and television personality Monica Crowley, whom Donald Trump has tapped for a top national security communications role, plagiarized large sections of her 2012 book, a CNN KFile review has found. The review of Crowley’s June 2012 book, “What The (Bleep) Just Happened,” found upwards of 50 examples of plagiarism from numerous sources, including the copying with …

Jack Jenkins reports at Think Progress: One of the country’s largest Christian groups has issued a sternly worded condemnation of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet selections and policy agenda, warning that Trump will put America’s most vulnerable citizens at “greater risk” if he does not change. The National Council of Churches (NCC)—which represents 38 denominations and faith communities, or roughly 45 …

Reuters reports: Anarchist groups have threatened to shut down Republican Donald Trump’s swearing-in as U.S. president, but police in Washington said on Friday they believe the thousands of security officers assigned to the event will be able to head off any disruption. Dozens of activist groups plan to protest the Jan. 20 inauguration of the New York real estate developer, …

Buzzfeed reports: The FBI alerted the Democratic National Committee as recently as New Year’s Eve that hackers were once again trying to break into their computer systems, BuzzFeed News has learned. “There was activity the day after the president issued sanctions [against Russia], looking for ways to get into the servers,” one high-level source familiar with the investigation said. A …

Last night Rachel Maddow called Donald Trump an outright liar over and over again. It was a beautiful thing. Mediaite recaps: What really got the MSNBC host’s blood boiling is that it was apparent that “our new president will flat out lie to us.” Her basis for that statement was over Trump’s declaration following the meeting that Russian efforts to …

The Washington Post reports: In the frenzied final six weeks of work at the hotel, while Trump touted the project on the campaign trail, AES of Laurel, Md., claims it assigned 45 members of its staff to work 12-hour shifts for nearly 50 consecutive days to get the lights, electrical and fire systems prepared on time. “We had people there …

The Hill reports: Former Mexican President Vicente Fox on Friday knocked President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, reiterating that Mexico will not pay “for that f—– wall.” “Be clear with US tax payers. They will pay for it,” Fox told Trump in a tweet. Reports emerged Thursday evening that Trump was coordinating with House …

From the website of the Knights Of The Ku Klux Klan: When Donald Trump named Betsy DeVos as his pick for heading the Department of Education opponents of school choice, school vouchers, charter school, and parental control warned that could mean the end of public education as we know it. Those who voted for Trump see her choice as his …

The Hill reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a widespread influence campaign intended to help elect Donald Trump, the Intelligence Community (IC) said in a declassified report released Friday afternoon. “Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian …

The tech world is rightfully freaking out. Via Ars Technica: A Friday Twitter post from Wikileaks’ official “task force” declared intent to build a publicly searchable database revolving around a particular group of people: verified Twitter accounts. The task force neither clarified where this information would come from, nor did it clarify its reasons for mulling such a project. On …

Brian Tashman reports at Right Wing Watch: Yesterday, ex-Rep. Michele Bachmann appeared on Family Research Council President Tony Perkins’ “Washington Watch” radio show to discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, and in particular Perkins’ call for Trump to purge LGBT rights supporters from the State Department. Perkins said that under President Obama “our government has been perverted to be used …

It’s totally a coincidence that Wikileaks tweeted this exact thing just a few hours ago, right? Via Reuters: President-elect Donald Trump said on Friday that he would ask congressional committees to investigate NBC’s receipt of top secret information, apparently referring to a report on Russian hacking to influence the 2016 U.S. election. “I am asking the chairs of the House …

The New York Times reports: President-elect Donald J. Trump said in an interview Friday morning that the storm surrounding Russian hacking during the presidential campaign is a political witch hunt being carried out by his adversaries, who he said were embarrassed by their loss to him in the election last year. Mr. Trump spoke to The New York Times by …

Kellyanne Conway this morning delivered yet another of her now-classic and maddening dodge-and-weave interviews, talking in circles and evading questions. Mediaite recaps one of the bits: “I’ll ask you a third time!” Cuomo said at one point about the October joint report from the Homeland Security Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence: did the intelligence community …

Trump is again attempting to steal the day’s media narrative and distract from the Russian hacking story. The Associated Press reports: President-elect Donald Trump is taunting Arnold Schwarzenegger for bringing in low ratings in a spinoff of Trump’s old reality television show, “Celebrity Apprentice.” In an early Friday tweet, Trump refers to himself as a “ratings machine” and says Schwarzenegger …

The Week reports: Donald Trump’s transition team has approached leading House Republicans to let them know the president-elect prefers to have Congress pay for the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, House GOP officials told CNN Thursday. On Friday morning, Trump tweeted that “any money spent on building the Great Wall (for sake of speed), will be paid back by Mexico …

WOW. The Washington Post reports: Senior officials in the Russian government celebrated Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton as a geopolitical win for Moscow, according to U.S. officials who said that American intelligence agencies intercepted communications in the aftermath of the election in which Russian officials congratulated themselves on the outcome. The ebullient reaction among high-ranking Russian officials — including …