Month: August 2020

Categories
Donald Trump WTF?!

Pence Was Set To Take Over As POTUS After Trump Had A Medical Emergency In 2019: New Book

In November of last year, President Donald Trump was suddenly rushed to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in the middle of the night. He was reportedly having a medical emergency, and the issue was serious enough to alert Vice President Mike Pence that he needed to be ready to take over immediately if the president was placed under general anesthesia.


This startling revelation comes via the new book from Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Michael Schmidt of the New York Times. According to Gabriel Debenedetti, who has read the book and wrote a review for the Times, there were some tense moments when Trump was taken to the hospital so suddenly:

“Describing Trump’s unexpected November 2019 visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he reports the White House wanted Mike Pence ‘on standby to take over the powers of the presidency temporarily if Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized.’ (The vice president never had to take this step.)”


What exactly was Trump’s medical emergency? According to reporter Don Winslow, a White House insider has told him that the president has suffered a “series” of “mini-strokes” since taking office. He shared that information on Twitter in August:

And now we can also consider an excerpt from a forthcoming book written by noted journalist Seth Abramson, who provides new details regarding Trump’s unexpected visit to Walter Reed:

“On November 16, 2019, as President Trump is exhibiting cold-like symptoms, he is unexpectedly—and without any explanation to the public, either at the time or since—rushed to a U.S. military hospital, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

“Even the president’s attire for his unscheduled November 16 hospital visit is unusual, with HuffPost noting that ‘the president normally wears a suit and tie for most events, including visits to Walter Reed, but that Saturday [November 16] he wore an open-collared shirt and jacket as he climbed into the SUV, carrying a thick packet of papers under one arm.'”


Abramson then adds this interesting footnote:

“Not only were medical staff at Walter Reed ‘not given advance notice’ that the president would be coming to the facility, but Trump’s visit was ‘followed by a multi-day absence from the public eye.”

Now more than ever, the American public needs to see Donald Trump’s full medical record. It’s the only way we can make an informed decision regarding his fitness for the office.

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Russia Russia Investigation The Trump Adminstration

Federal Appeals Court Rules Charges Will Not Be Dropped Against Flynn For His Russia Crimes

By an overwhelming 8-2 vote, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. ruled Monday that criminal charges against former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn will not be dismissed, as had been requested by Attorney General William Barr and the Justice Department.


NBC News reports:

“A federal appeals court Monday rejected an effort by former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn to have his criminal case thrown out immediately.

By a vote of 8-2, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected Flynn’s motion for an order that would have directed the judge who handled the case to dismiss it. That sort of extraordinary order is available only when there’s no other option, the court said.”


Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI under oath on two occasions about conversations he had in 2017 with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak regarding the possibility of easing U.S. sanctions on the Kremlin.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that the charges against Flynn should be dropped, even though he admitted to having broken federal law. But it wasn’t until this year that his handpicked toady at the DOJ was in a position to make that a reality.


Trump could still pardon Flynn, but that would carry a political price and send the message that lying to federal agents is acceptable as long as such an offense is committed on behalf of Trump or his associates.

With the ruling from the appellate court, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan will now decide whether or not he will agree to drop the charges against Flynn. In the past, Sullivan has made it clear that he believes Flynn committed a serious offense against the United States, telling him in 2018:

“I am not hiding my disgust, my disdain for this criminal offense.

“Arguably, you sold your country out.”

Categories
Espionage The Trump Adminstration

Trump Was Warned That Jared Might Be A Potential National Security Risk: Report

If perhaps you were wondering just how big of a threat to national security the current president is, consider that his former White House counsel warned him that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was not deserving of a top-secret security clearance and could be a risk to U.S. national security, according to a startling new report from Axios:

“On Feb. 23, 2018, White House counsel Don McGahn sent a two-page memo to Chief of Staff John Kelly arguing that Jared Kushner’s security clearance needed to be downgraded, the New York Times’ Michael Schmidt reports in his forthcoming book, ‘Donald Trump v. The United States.’

“Schmidt reports directly from the confidential McGahn memo for the first time, describing how Kelly had serious concerns about granting Kushner a top-secret clearance in response to a briefing he had received related to the routine FBI investigation into Kushner’s background.”


At the time, Kelly was serving as White House Chief of Staff, which suggests he likely briefed President Trump on McGahn’s memo. But despite that and other warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies, Trump later acted unilaterally and gave Kushner — who serves as a senior adviser to the president — the top-secret clearance that should have been denied him based on the information provided by McGahn and other departments.

Kelly had already restricted Kushner’s access to the president’s daily briefing (PDB) because he worried that sources and methods used by U.S. intelligence to compile the PDB could potentially be compromised by Kushner.


McGahn was specific regarding why he was recommending that Kushner not be granted a top-secret clearance until other issues could be resolved:

“The information you were briefed on one week ago and subsequently relayed to me, raises serious additional concerns about whether this individual ought to retain a top security clearance until such issues can be investigated and resolved,

“Interim secret is the highest clearance that I can concur until further information is received.”


Kushner is known to have business connections to nations that may be hostile to the United States, including China and Russia. He also is known to be closely aligned with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who has been accused of ordering the gruesome assassination and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Trump administration is a threat to U.S. national security and must be removed from office this November. If we don’t rid ourselves of them, the United States may soon become little more than a satellite of countries that both Kushner and Trump share ties with.

Categories
Donald Trump Elections

Trump’s Approval Rating Among Republicans Drops After His Disastrous GOP Convention

Four nights of gloom, doom, lies, and attempts to humanize President Donald Trump did absolutely no good. Matter of fact, the 2020 Republican National Convention appears to have made Trump even weaker than he was before a single GOP speaker ever uttered a word.


The new ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that Trump’s approval rating has fallen since the convention ended on Thursday evening:

“Less than one-third (31%) of the country has a favorable view of the president in the days after he accepted the Republican nomination for the second time — a stagnant reality for Trump. His favorability rating stood at 32% in the last poll, taken a week earlier, right after the Democratic National Convention.

“Trump’s favorability dipped slightly — by four points among Republicans in the newest survey.”

Clearly, Trump got no bounce from the angry, strident convention put forth by the Republican Party.

In contrast, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden saw his approval rating rise, the classic post-convention polling bounce:

“In the new survey, which was conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, Biden’s favorability remains higher than his unfavorability, 46% to 40%, solidifying his improvement in favorability from last week, when attitudes about the Democratic nominee improved to a net positive from his slightly underwater position prior to the convention.

“Biden’s favorability ticked up from 40% in an Aug. 13 poll to 45% just after the Democratic convention.”


The main issue dragging down Trump’s poll numbers, is, as you’d expect, his tepid response to the coronvirus pandemic which has claimed the lives of over 183,000 Americans and continues to infect thousands more each day.

63 percent of Americans surveyed disapprove of the way the president has handled COVID-19 and its impact on the nation.

Overall, the two parties appear to be moving in opposite directions, ABC notes:

“Taken together, the last two weeks set up a general election between an incumbent ticket facing a favorability deficit, while views of the Democratic ticket have bounced into positive territory during the convention season.”


The tone and tenor of the GOP convention did not sit well with most voters:

“Only 34% of the country felt that this year’s GOP convention maintained the right balance between criticizing Democrats and touting their own party’s achievements, compared to 45% who believed the same about the Democrats following their convention.

“Almost 2 in 3 Americans (62%) felt that the Republicans spent too much time criticizing their opponents.”

Meanwhile, polls in key battleground states such as Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin all show Biden ahead of Trump, in some cases by as much as six percentage points. If Trump loses three of those states, he’ll have no path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

Incumbent presidents usually try to present a positive, upbeat message when they seek reelection. That’s what Reagan and Obama did with great success. Trump’s nasty, negative convention alienated voters, and that could spell doom for him on Election Day.

Categories
Donald Trump The Trump Adminstration

These Leaked Details From A New Tell-All Book About Melania Are Sure To Upset The White House

A highly anticipated book will be released next Tuesday, and it promises to pull the curtain back on the real Melania Trump, along with other details about the Trump administration that are almost certain to be embarrassing, revealing, and potentially damaging with the 2020 election now just two months away.


Some of the juicier excerpts from Stephanie Winston Wolkoff’s new book Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady, were obtained by Politico, and they’re certain to set off new debate about both the current president and his wife. For example:

  • Donald Trump wanted his inauguration to look like a North Korean military parade. When discussing the parade with Winston Wolkoff and Ivanka during the transition, Trump said: “I want tanks and choppers. Make it look like North Korea,” he told them. Winston Wolkoff wrote: “He really wanted goose-stepping troops and armored tanks? That would break tradition and terrify half the country.”
  • Melania and Donald Trump are not fans of Valentine’s Day or of being very sentimental towards each other. Winston Wolkoff said she never remembers Melania telling her that her husband had sent her flowers or taken her out for Valentine’s Day. She also never mentioned planning a sweet surprise for Donald either.
  • Melania doesn’t place a high importance on other people’s wants and desires, according to the book. Winston Wolkoff says that she has sometimes said over the years: “Pleasing anyone else is not my priority!”


Wolkoff also reports that the president’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, was instrumental in getting Donald and Melania’s son, Barron, into a prestigious Manhattan prep school, Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School. Cohen served on the board of the school, so it was a snap for him to make sure Barron gained admission.


Everything we learn about this president and his family seems to confirm our worst fears about them: They’re distant, self-obsessed, two-faced, and overall terrible people who are hollow and ugly on the inside. Granted, we all have our faults, but the Trumps are more like something out of a psychological drama that winds up with Shakespearean tragedy at the end of the day. Let’s just hope they don’t take the country down in flames with them.