Category Archives: 2016 presidential campaign
White Lies of Hope
Republican Congressman Tom Rooney is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Here’s what he had to say to CNN about the committee’s Russian collusion investigation:
“It’s been going on for a year. We’ve interviewed scores of witnesses and now we’ve gotten to the point where we’re literally bringing people in for nine hours just so the Democrats can leak to the press something as ridiculous as ‘white lies.’ “
White Lies
Hope Hicks, the 29 year old White House communications director, was such a witness. Democrat Eric Swalwell asked if she ever lied for her boss. After consulting with here lawyer Hope confessed that yes she had. White lies. Like “the president is in a meeting” when he’s not really in a meeting.
She resigned the next day.
Trumponomics
President Trump yesterday announced a 25% tariff on imported steel. Good news for American steelmakers but not so good for American Steel users. He also slapped aluminum with a 10% charge.
The news came as a surprise to the stock market. The Dow displayed its displeasure with Trumponomics by tanking 420 points. And it opened this morning down another 320.
Trumponomics: Tax Cuts and Tariffs
The news from Dan Henninger in the WSJ yesterday morning (before Trump’s announcement) was that the president is obsessed with jobs.
Every president claims to be a jobs president, but after a year it is becoming clear that this may be the only thing Donald Trump thinks about. He may even impose tariffs soon on imported steel, seeing only the protected jobs in front of him and missing the larger loss of jobs in steel-using industries.
But the bigger surprise might be that Trump’s keeping his campaign promises, from tax cuts to tariffs.
Rigged Elections
It was Donald Trump and other Republicans who fretted about rigged elections – before Trump actually won one. But now the tables have turned.
By The Book
Susan Rice didn’t let the door hit her on the way out of the White House. Instead she sent herself an email.
It was time stamped 12:15 pm January 21 – the day of President Trump’s inauguration. And her self-message recapped a January 5 meeting President Obama held with top staffers.
By the Book
In that meeting Obama instructed his staff on the transfer of information to the new administration. Or the non-transfer of information as National Review’s Andrew McCarthy suspects.
At any rate, Susan Rice let the record show that President Obama insisted it be done “by the book.”
Adam Schiff Leaks
Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has prepared a four page memo. The memo is a summary of thousands of pages of information the FBI refused to turn over to the committee until it was threatened with contempt of Congress. The committee is responsible for oversight of the FBI.
Nunes says the public has a right know about the information in the memo. But the FBI is fighting its release.
The summary is said to reveal the quality of evidence the Justice Department presented to a FISA court. The FISA court has the power to authorize spying on Americans, including members of the Trump 2016 presidential campaign.
Adam Schiff
Adam Schiff is the ranking Democrat on the committee. He says Nunes is trying to distract from Special Counsel Mueller’s Russian collusion investigation by releasing classified information. And he now claims Nunes altered information in the memo.
Trey Gowdy says the memo will be an embarrassment to Schiff.
Until now Schiff has shown little interest in obtaining information about FBI efforts to spy on Americans. Except when it suites his purposes.
