Cher Cartoons

Pres. Trump Backs Long-Term ‘Strong Dollar’ Policy

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin showing his wife, Louise Linton, a sheet of new $1 bills, the first currency notes bearing his and US Treasurer Jovita Carranza’s signatures.

The U.S. dollar bounces back after a two day slide as President Trump says he backs the “strong dollar” policy.
The president said he supports a longer-term strength of the dollar against its major competitors.
He added, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s “weaker dollar” comments have been misunderstood, suggesting there’s no disagreements within the administration over the economic policy.
The president made his remarks in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Previously, Secretary Mnuchin said short-term dollar weakness will boost U.S. economy.
“We are doing so well, our country is becoming so economically strong again, and strong in other ways too, by the way, that the dollar is going to get stronger and stronger, and ultimately I would wanna’ see a strong dollar,” said President Trump.
Following the president’s comment, the dollar bounced-back from its three year slide against the Euro.

Ex-chairman of Missouri Democratic Party pleads guilty in corruption case

A former Democratic Party chairman and prosecutor in Missouri was convicted of wire fraud Friday after admitting he exploited campaign funds for personal use, such as trips to California's wine country and Las Vegas.

The Kansas City Star reported that Mike Sanders pleaded guilty to the federal corruption charge, along with his aide and chief of staff, Calvin Williford, who also pleaded guilty to the same charge at a separate hearing that same day.

With a guilty plea, former Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders’ downfall is complete https://t.co/a7H7bsRcyh

— The Kansas City Star (@KCStar) January 26, 2018

Williford also testified that the pair had a scheme involving a printing company that would create phone invoices and distribute the money to Williford and other workers on Sanders’ campaigns to bypass the Missouri Ethics Commission.
Sanders admitted to converting roughly $62,000 in campaign funds for personal use through a kickback scheme using an old high school friend named Steve Hill.
Hill told the Star in December that Sanders delivered checks to him for campaign work that he never performed, and would keep 10 percent while Sanders pocketed the rest for what he said was political purposes. Authorities later found that not to be the complete story, according to the paper.
For example, in one instance Sanders’ used $4,550 in kickback money he obtained from Hill in 2012 to pay his federal taxes from 2010, the paper reported.
Sanders, who served as the chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party from 2010 to 2013, cut off the checks in late 2013 after Hill told him the FBI was investigating, the paper reported. He also worked as a Jackson County prosecutor starting in 2002, prior to becoming county executive in 2007.
Williford and two other unidentified conspirators were also tied to the kickback scheme.
Both Williford and Sanders, who were released on signature bonds pending sentencing, could face up to five years in prison, as well as a fine of up to $250,000, according to the paper.

French Oil Company CEO Tells Pres. Trump Company Will Invest More Due to Tax Reform

U.S. President Donald Trump, addresses a plenary session during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 26, 2018. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP)

One of the world’s biggest oil companies is making a big investment in the U.S. in response to the new tax law.
French oil giant Total made the announcement on Thursday at the World Economic Forum.
The company’s CEO told President Trump he is working on a big project in the Gulf of Mexico, and is investing two billion dollars into the renewable energy sector.

❄️🏔 Happy to represent French companies at the #Davos diner hosted by President @realDonaldTrump. It was very interesting and casual. That’s what Davos is for: share ideas, exchange views, work on issues and make things go forward. @Total #WEF18 #WEF pic.twitter.com/HmKYUYrOBn

— Patrick Pouyanné (@PPouyanne) January 25, 2018

Total is the world’s fourth largest oil company and already invests around one billion dollars into the U.S. each year.
This comes as numbers show the U.S. economy ending 2017 on a high note, growing 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter.
The economy grew a total of 2.3 percent last year, well ahead of the 1.5 percent growth in 2016.
Economists say President Trump’s newly passed tax law will continue to create more jobs and boost economic growth through the end of this year.

Self-proclaimed feminist stars keep attacking Sarah Sanders for her looks

Iconic singer Cher made fun of White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders' fashion choices on Twitter comparing Sanders to a "sister wife." Defenders were quick to call Cher out, claiming she was hypocritical for bullying another woman.

Hollywood women have banded together like never before on issues including pay inequality and sexual harassment, declaring that women all over the world need to stick together and be supportive of one another. But experts say several stars aren't practicing what they preach when it comes to Donald Trump's press secretary, Sarah Sanders.

Self-proclaimed activist Chelsea Handler wrote in an op-ed for Thrive in Dec. 2016: "Let's stop it with the dialogue about how women look or what they wear, or if they've gained or lost weight. We are more guilty of this with each other than most men are."

Cher has often spoken out about the sexualization of women, declaring at the Women's March on Jan. 20 that she "believe[s] in this movement."
But both stars recently attacked Sanders solely over her looks.

Cher tweeted to Sanders on Tuesday to "stop dressing like a sister wife." After fans slammed Cher for the hurtful tweet, she followed up by admitting it was "kinda mean" but "so funny."
Handler has gone even further than Cher by mocking Sanders' "summer whore lipstick" and calling her a "harlot" on her Netflix show. Comedian Fortune Feimster even wore exaggerated makeup to play Sanders for a skit on Handler's now-defunct series.

Comedian Fortune Feimster portrays Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Chelsea Handler's Netflix show.  (Netflix)

And "Saturday Night Live" took a similar swipe at the press secretary's outfits by putting the show's Sanders character in a revealing outfit to dance provocatively to a pop song in a November 2017 episode.

Aidy Bryant as White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders during "Press Conference" on Saturday, November 4, 2017.  (NBC)

The show has also dressed the Sanders character, played by Aidy Bryant, in a bright pink dress to mock the press secretary's frequent color choice.
Penny Nance, President and CEO of Concerned Women for America, told Fox News Cher's recent insults proves Hollywood feminists don't play by their own rules when it comes to conservative women.
"Cher's attack on Sarah is yet another example of how liberal women in all types of powerful positions stand up for only those women who adhere to their ideology," Nance told Fox News. "If you're a conservative woman, prepare to be thrown out of the feminist tent. Their message is that some women will be supported. That some women will be empowered. That some women will [be] trusted. But they don't support all women and especially those of us who support life."

"They don't just attack her for being conservative. They dare to treat her as if she's not a woman"

Dan Gainor, vice president of business and culture at the Media Research Center, echoed Nance's comments adding that the recent attacks on Sanders' looks are "especially offensive."
"They don't just attack her for being conservative. They dare to treat her as if she's not a woman. They blast her clothes and say she dresses like a 'sister wife,'" Gainor said. "...Chelsea Handler called her a 'harlot' with 'summer whore lipstick.' And these are women doing this. Imagine the media outrage if conservatives dared to treat a liberal woman with such disgust."
He added, "Liberals hate anyone who doesn't side with them."

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders speaks to members of the media on July, 21. 2017.  (AP)

Branding and public relations expert Scott Pinsker told Fox News these stars are hurting their brands by attacking Trump's press secretary.
"An awful lot of women in America look more like Sarah Sanders than the Hollywood starlets who are bashing Trump and his supporters on all the award shows," Pinsker explained. "If you want to disagree with Ms. Sanders' political positions, that's perfectly legitimate, but mocking her for being normal-looking isn't exactly empowering to women."

FBI Hillary Cartoons

FBI officials worried about being too tough on Hillary Clinton during email investigation, texts show

FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were concerned about being too tough on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the bureau’s investigation into her email practices because she might hold it against them as president, text messages released on Thursday indicated.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley released new messages between bureau officials Page and Strzok, who were having an affair and exchanged more than 50,000 texts with each other during the election.

“One more thing: she might be our next president,” Page texted Strzok on Feb. 25, 2016, in the midst of the presidential campaign, in reference to Clinton.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley released new messages between bureau officials Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, who were having an affair and exchanged more than 50,000 texts with each other.  (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

“The last thing you need [is] going in there loaded for bear,” she continued. “You think she’s going to remember or care that it was more [DOJ] than [FBI]?”
Strzok replied that he “agreed” and he had relayed their discussion with someone named “Bill.”
Strzok not only worked on the Clinton case, but was assigned to the special counsel’s probe into Russia and the Trump campaign after a number of anti-Trump texts were discovered on his phone. Page also briefly worked on the special counsel investigation.
DOJ RECOVERS MISSING TEXT MESSAGES BETWEEN ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENTS STRZOK AND PAGE
Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said Thursday in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray that the exchange, among others, concerned him.
“The text messages that were provided raise serious concerns about the impartiality of senior leadership running both the Clinton and Trump investigations,” Grassley said.

FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were concerned about being too tough on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the bureau’s investigation into her email practices because she might hold it against them as president, newly released text messages indicate.

During the campaign, the FBI investigated Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Then-FBI Director James Comey decided against recommending prosecution, but faulted Clinton and her associates for being “extremely careless” with classified information.
“It's clear that [Strzok and Page] did not want her charged,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” He added, “They wanted her to be the president of the United States.”
Republicans, arguing some top officials at the FBI are politically biased against Trump, have seized on the texts, including one where Strzok and Page spoke of a “secret society” within the Department of Justice and the FBI and Strzok spoke of an “insurance policy” against a Trump win.
“The fix was in even before they interviewed the target of the investigation,” Gowdy, R-S.C., said.
New texts released by Grassley on Thursday also indicated that FBI officials believed FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe should be recused from the Clinton investigation because of his family’s ties to Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is close with the Clintons.
In an October 28, 2016 text exchange, Page told Strzok that then- FBI Chief of Staff James Rybicki thought McCabe should not have participated in the probe.
“Rybicki just called to check in,” she wrote. “He very clearly 100% believes that Andy should be recused because of the ‘perception.’”
“God,” Strzok replied.

New texts released by Grassley on Thursday also indicate FBI officials believed FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe should be recused from the Clinton investigation because of his family’s ties to Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is close with the Clintons.

Asked by Page why McCabe should be recused now, if not before, Strzok said: “I assume McAuliffe picked up.”
McCabe eventually recused himself from the Clinton probe one week before the election.
“If McCabe eventually recused himself one week before the election, why did he not do so sooner?” Grassley asked Wray in the letter.
Grassley also told Wray he was concerned that Page and Strzok were transmitting government records on personal systems inappropriately. In a June 2017 message, Strzok wrote of typing a document on a “home computer.”
The senator said Page and Strzok also referenced other conversations “via iMessage, presumably on their personal Apple devices.”
“It appears that Strzok and Page transmitted federal records pertaining to the Clinton investigation on private, non-government services,” Grassley said. “It is important to determine whether their own similar conduct was a factor in not focusing on and developing evidence of similar violations by Secretary Clinton and her aides.”
The new messages surfaced the same day the Justice Department’s inspector general said he recovered a number of missing text messages between Strzok and Page.
Fox News has learned from U.S. government officials that the inspector general recovered the texts by taking possession of "at least four" phones belonging to Strzok and Page.

Congressional Black Caucus tried to bury 2005 Obama-Farrakhan photo, photographer says

Obama with Farrakhan in 2005: The hidden pic

Photojournalist Askia Muhammad released a photo this week showing former President Barack Obama and the controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan from Obama's years as a state senator -- and the photographer revealed Thursday that the Congressional Black Caucus had pressured him for more than a decade to keep it hidden.

Muhammad told the Trice Edney News Wire last week that he believed that the image “absolutely would have made a difference” in the 2008 presidential campaign had it been made public.

The image taken in 2005 at a Congressional Black Caucus meeting on Capitol Hill showed then-Senator Obama, a young Democrat from Illinois, smiling side-by-side with Farrakhan.
Muhammad told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that the same day he snapped the photo, the CBC contacted him.
“A staff member from the black caucus called me and said ‘we have to have the picture back,’ and I was kind of taken aback. And we talked a couple of times on the phone after that, and I said ‘Okay, I will give the picture back to Minister Farrakhan’s chief of staff,’” he said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
He added that after he gave the original copy to Farrakhan’s staff, he kept his own copy but remained quiet.
“I gave the original disk to him and in a sense swore myself to secrecy because I had quietly made a copy for myself,” Muhammad said. “It’s my picture, it’s my art, and it’s my intellectual property. I owned it and I wanted to keep it.”
He said the CBC called him  while he was still on Capitol Hill and he believed that it was because “they sensed the future.”
“Minister Farrakhan and his reputation would hurt someone trying to win acceptance in the broad cross-section,” he said, referring to the possibility at the time that the young senator was being considered for a presidential run.
Muhammad also said that Obama had, at some point, people from the Nation of Islam working on his staff and in his offices.
“In fact he had people from the Nation of Islam working on his staff and in his office in the Chicago, his Senate staff. The members of the Nation of Islam helped him in his Senate campaign and on the South Side of Chicago.”
The Congressional Black Caucus did not immediately reply to Fox News’ request for a comment.               

Trump apologizes for Britain First retweets in interview, host says

President Trump attends a dinner with business leaders and heads of state during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.  (Reuters) 

President Donald Trump apologized for retweeting content from a far-right group called Britain First, according to Piers Morgan.

Morgan, the former CNN talk show host who conducted the interview for the U.K. television channel ITV, posted a photo Friday of their meeting in Davos, Switzerland, and said Trump claimed he did not know about Britain First.

“I don’t want to be involved with these people,” Trump told Morgan, according to the host’s tweet. “If you’re telling me they’re horrible racist people. I certainly apologize.”

BREAKING NEWS:
President Trump has publicly apologised for retweeting far-right group Britain First.
Says he didn't know who they were. 'I don't want to be involved with these people. If you're telling me they're horrible racist people. I certainly apologize.' pic.twitter.com/S1apSWC7rR

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 26, 2018

The furor erupted after Trump, who has almost 48 million Twitter followers, in November retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by a leader of Britain First. The tiny group regularly posts inflammatory videos purporting to show Muslims engaged in acts of violence, but without providing context or supporting information.
British Prime Minister Theresa May and Trump traded criticism at the time over the retweets and British lawmakers labeled the U.S. leader a hate peddler.

The U.K. ambassador in Washington complained to the White House, and May’s spokesman said the president was wrong to retweet the group’s content. Trump responded with a tweet urging May to focus on “the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom” instead of on him.
Trump told Morgan that he is “often the least racist person that anybody is going to meet. Certainly I wasn’t endorsing anybody.”
The full interview with Trump is scheduled to air Sunday on ITV.

Trump was talked out of firing Mueller last June, source says

President Trump told top officials this past June that he wanted to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, but was talked out of doing so by White House counsel Don McGahn and other aides, a source close to the White House told Fox News late Thursday.

The source could neither confirm nor deny a New York Times report :-) that Trump ordered Mueller's dismissal, but backed down when McGahn threatened to resign instead.

However, the source added that then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steven Bannon believed last summer that Trump would fire Mueller and were very worried about the political fallout.
TRUMP OPEN TO TALKING TO MUELLER
"They said, 'This is going to blow up,'" the source recounted to Fox.
White House lawyer Ty Cobb declined to comment on either the source's account or the New York Times report "out of respect for the Office of the Special Counsel and its process."
According to the Times report, which cited "four people told of the matter," Trump claimed that Mueller had three conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
Those conflicts included the fact that Mueller had been interviewed to replace the fired James Comey as FBI Director the day before he was appointed special counsel in May. Another alleged conflict Trump cited was that Mueller had once resigned his membership at Trump National Golf Club in northern Virginia in a dispute over fees.
The Times also reported that McGahn told White House officials that Trump would not carry out Mueller's firing on his own.
The Times also reported that Trump considered firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and elevating Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand to oversee Mueller's investigation. The report did not say what Trump's rationale for dismissing Rosenstein would be.
TRUMP SETS RED LINE FOR MUELLER ON RUSSIA PROBE, WARNS HE'LL EXPOSE 'CONFLICTS'
The response from Democrats was nearly immediate. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said that if the report in The Times is true, Trump has crossed a "red line."

"Any attempt to remove the Special Counsel, pardon key witnesses or otherwise interfere in the investigation would be a gross abuse of power, and all members of Congress, from both parties, have a responsibility to our Constitution and to our country to make that clear immediately," Warner said.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in early March after acknowledging that he had two previously undisclosed encounters with the Russian ambassador during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters that "I'd love to" talk to Mueller as part of the investigation, subject to his lawyers' approval. The president has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and told reporters that there was "no collusion whatsoever" and "no obstruction whatsoever."
In a July interview with The New York Times, Trump warned Mueller against expanding the special counsel investigation to his family's financial affairs.
"I think that's a violation. Look, this is about Russia," said Trump, who added that Mueller had "many other conflicts" in addition to his interview to run the FBI.
Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this report, along with The Associated Press.
Ed Henry currently serves as FOX News Channel’s (FNC) chief national correspondent. He joined the network in June 2011.