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Trump Goes Straight After Comey, McGabe In New Tweets

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(Via Zerohedge)

It has been a scorched earth weekend in the PR war between Donald Trump and the FBI.

In the aftermath of the report that the FBI’s top lawyer – and suspected FBI leaker – James Baker, had been reassigned, and at the same time as news hit that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was set to retire as a result of the “Trump Insurance Policy” debacle (but only once he becomes eligible for pension benefits), Trump lashed out at top FBI officials on Saturday and Sunday, his latest in a stream of criticism aimed at an agency that has seen a sudden spike in high profile departures after Peter Strzok’s publicly disclosed text message revealed a stunning climate of extreme anti-Trump bias at the FBI – including one still to be determined “Trump Insurance Policy” – just as Trump had suggested all along.

Trump swiped at multiple agency officials in a string of tweets Saturday afternoon, suggesting that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe may have been compromised by political donations and ripping former FBI Director James Comey as a leaker.

“How can FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, the man in charge, along with leakin’ James Comey, of the Phony Hillary Clinton investigation (including her 33,000 illegally deleted emails) be given $700,000 for wife’s campaign by Clinton Puppets during investigation?” Trump tweeted.

The tweet was followed moments later by a comment on reports that McCabe is looking to retire from the bureau in the coming months as reported yesterday, in the aftermath of the “Trump Insurance Policy” fiasco. Trump noted that McCabe may seek retirement in March, when he would receive his full pension benefits. Trump wrote that the deputy bureau chief was “racing the clock to retire with full benefits,” adding, “90 days to go?!!!”

Rounding off the Saturday tweetstorm was a reference to reports that James Baker, the FBI’s top lawyer, had been reassigned. Trump reacted to that development with a simple “Wow” on Twitter, though news of Baker’s reassignment had surfaced days earlier.

The tweets Saturday from Trump, who has repeatedly jabbed at McCabe by citing his wife’s ties to prominent Democrats, came after the FBI deputy testified for many hours behind closed doors on Capitol Hill this week, responding to questions from lawmakers on three congressional panels probing the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and the bureau’s work. As we reported, Congressional investigators said that McCabe dodged questions on the “Trump-Russia” dossier, and his testimony “contained numerous conflicts with the testimony of previous witnesses” so much that the House Intelligence Committee is planning to issue new subpoenas next week to Justice Department and FBI Personnel.

“It’s hard to know who’s telling us the truth,” said one House investigator after McCabe’s questioning – which was reportedly spearheaded by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC). When asked about funding for the “Trump dossier”, McCabe claimed he could not recall whether or not the Clinton campaign and the DNC funded the report – despite the alleged existence of documents which McCabe signed establishing his knowledge of its financing and provenance. Curiously, ahead of McCabe’s Thursday appearance in front of the House Judiciary Committee for a “transcribed interview,” the DOJ announced that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe “will not be in a position to discuss matters that are within the scope of the investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III.”

On Sunday, Trump’s feud with the FBI resumed, when the president used a tweet to quote Fox, stating that that FBI’s Andrew McCabe, “in addition to his wife getting all of this money from M (Clinton Puppet), he was using, allegedly, his FBI Official Email Account to promote her campaign. You obviously cannot do this. These were the people who were investigating Hillary Clinton.”

To be sure, Democrats argue that the Republican criticisms of McCabe and the FBI are an effort to undermine Mueller as his investigation ramps up, and to give Trump cover should he try to remove Mueller, a step the White House insists is not on the table. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, responded to Trump’s criticisms Saturday afternoon. “FBI would set a dangerous precedent if it forced out dedicated career public servants in capitulation to Trump and (White House) pressure,” Schiff tweeted. “President has already removed one top FBI leader — Comey — over Russia; McCabe would be another.”

None other than James Comey, now in active marketing mode for his upcoming book, tweeted that “Sadly, we are now at a point in our political life when anyone can be attacked for partisan gain. James Baker, who is stepping down as FBI General Counsel, served our country incredibly well for 25 years & deserves better. He is what we should all want our public servants to be” to which some twitter commentators had a sarcastic response…

As a reminder, what really happened according to the Washington Post, Baker, the FBI’s general counsel, communicated with Mother Jones reporter David Corn in the weeks leading up to the November 2016 election. Corn was then the first to report the existence of the Trump dossier on Oct. 31.

Meanwhile, some Republicans have called for McCabe’s ouster, accusing him of political bias, particularly over the fact that his wife received hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to her 2015 Virginia state Senate campaign from a super PAC led by a Clinton ally. At the same time, Benjamin Wittes, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and friend of Comey, cautioned in a tweet on Saturday that the deputy director’s exit from the FBI may not be part of any kind of larger “purge” at the bureau. Then again, if more evidence of FBI collusion against Trump emerges, the “purge” – or the draining of the FBI/DOJ swamp as some have dubbed it – may just be getting started.

Further stoking the PR war between Trump and the FBI, a number of Republican lawmakers have questioned the FBI’s objectivity and fairness in recent months, particularly regarding McCabe’s work at the agency, while recent revelations that FBI Peter Strzok – who was in charge of the FBI’s probe into Hillary’s email server and was leading the investigation into Trump’s Russian collusion – had sent text messages critical of Trump during the presidential race, only served to undescore speculation that the FBI may have been the critical cog in the “deep state’s” plan to avoid a Trump presidency.

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Politics

Bannon An ‘Oppurtunist’ – Trump Jr & Newt Gingrich

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(Via Zerohedge)

In the course of less than a day, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon has gone from simply “former Trump strategist” to “radioactive backstabber,” after The Guardian reported that Bannon, in Michael Wolff’s new book “Fire and Fury, called a June 2016 meeting at Trump tower involving Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”


“Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.”

In response, President Trump issued a four-paragraph scorching reply, saying Bannon had “lost his mind.” Donald Trump Jr. also responded, calling his father’s former chief strategist “backstabbing, harassing, leaking, lying & undermining the President,” adding “Steve is not a strategist, he is an opportunist.”

Newt Gingrich chimed in on Fox News, telling Neil Cavuto, “I think that Bannon thinks he’s extraordinarily important. But the fact is, Trump had won the nomination without Bannon. Trump would have won the presidency without Bannon. And Trump has governed without Bannon.”

So I think there’s an exaggerated sense of who Steve is. And I think, remember, this is a guy who got fired. So you have a guy who has been fired who is trying to claim a bunch of things, which he apparently did not claim at the time.

And I think you have to just say, you know, it’s noise. It has nothing to do with — the things that matter to America and the things that matter to the American people have no relationship to the kind of noise that we’re going to spend all day today with.

And luckily for the president, he’s really come to distinguish between the things that matter and the things that don’t. The meeting this weekend at Camp David matters with the Republican leadership. Steve Bannon saying a bunch of junk doesn’t really matter in the long run. It will disappear. -Newt Gingrich

Trump Jr. also replied to a tweet by conservative pundit Bill Mitchell, which quotes a portion of Bannon’s book, reading:

“On Election Night, when the unexpected trend , Trump might actually win, seemed confirmed, Don Jr. told a friend that his father, or DJT, as he calls him, looked as if he had seen a ghost. Melania was in tears—and not of joy.”


Trump Jr. responded: “Another good one. Anyone who knows me or follows me knows that’s about as far from something I would say or how I speak as possible… What a joke.”

And earlier in the day, Trump Jr. tweeted “Andrew Breitbart would be ashamed of the division and lies Steve Bannon is spreading!,” after tweeting “Wow, just looked at the comments section on Breitbart. Wow. When Bannon has lost Breitbart, he’s left with . . . umm, nothing.”

And now, it appears as though Bannon may have lost any hope of cobbling together political capital. As US News reports;

Despite his blatant miscalculation and the animosity he stirred among traditional Republicans, Bannon’s enduring influence was that he purportedly had a direct line to Trump – the White House confirmed they spoke by phone last month – and could help mold the president’s thoughts on policy and political strategy.

Now, that line appears lacerated.

“Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look,” Trump said in the statement. “Steve doesn’t represent my base – he’s only in it for himself.”

The extraordinary breakup between the two larger-than-life comrades led to immediate fallout across the Republican Party. GOP leadership rejoiced at Bannon’s fall from grace, with allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reveling in and sharing the president’s takedown.

Bannon’s split from the Trumps puts wealthy GOP donor Robert Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah Mercer in an awkward spot – as the financier have financially supported Breitbart, while also supporting President Trump and his GOP causes. Mercer announced in November that he was selling his stake in his company to his daughters – while at the time, making it clear that while he occasionally discusses politics with Bannon, he’s not always aligned with him.

And as Trump Jr. said earlier today – when Bannon has lost Breitbart, “he’s left with … ummm, nothing.”

In September, Bannon appeared on 60 minutes where heb called himself a “street fighter” and “declared war on the GOP” for trying to “nullify the election.” Bannon also said that the Trump administration made the “original sin” of embracing the establishment. “I mean, we totally embraced the establishment … Because ya had to staff a government.”

Bannon also said he was going to be Trump’s “wing man outside for the entire time, to protect [Trump] and to “make sure his enemies know that there’s no free shot on goal.”

Well – it looks like Bannon just took a shot on his own goal, and will be cast into radioactive irrelevancy for time immemorial.

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Iowa

Blexit / WalkAway: Majority of Non-White Voters Plan To Vote Republican in Iowa’s 1st District According to NYT Poll

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In what seems to be a testament against a “blue wave”, according to a NYT poll taken back in September, it shows that 45% of non-white participants, the majority, plan to vote Republican. With 42% voting Democrat are 13% undecided. Non-white people were 7% of those polled entirely.

What also is interesting is it shows 52% white people voting Democrat, with 37% voting Republican, and 11% Undecided. Showing a higher rate of non white people voting for Republicans than white people.

Now overall this poll also showed Abby trouncing Blum, and while we disagree with the polling numbers to that extent because it seems that they may have over sampled Democrats, although we can’t tell because the poll data does not show party affiliation.

No matter how you frame it, it shows the media’s race baiting narrative hasn’t worked in Iowa’s first district as much as they hoped and non white people are a powerful force within the Republican party.

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Media

Bill Maher Brings On Vaccines Skeptic, Gets Railed By Media

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This past Friday Bill Maher brought on a “questionable” guest as his first on his show ‘Real Time’ on HBO. The guest in question —, is a known Vaccine Skeptic. It was quickly noticeable from the crowd reaction, which is usually sporadically either clapping or laughing, often mocked by Bill himself, was very quiet and toned down, most likely thrown off guard. This issue, like many Bill champions on his show, are issues he prides as fringe on both sides of the aisle, the far-left and far-right often being huge skeptic of establishment Scientist and Doctor opinions.

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