Trump team rips critics as ‘scum’ and witnesses as disloyal

The world is clearly spinning off its axis when Politico is questioning whether John Bolton has become a “hero of the Resistance.”
The reason is that as President Trump’s national security adviser, he “raised alarms about the politically questionable role informal actors were playing in shaping U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine.”
Whether people like Bolton, who clearly disagreed with his boss on a range of issues before being fired last month, isn’t the point. When faced with the unusual circumstances surrounding the private back-channeling over aid to Ukraine, he did his job—telling aides, according to testimony, that “they should have nothing to do with foreign policy” and should “brief the lawyers.”
As the impeachment drama has unfolded, people caught up in the investigation are drawing fire for being disloyal to Trump.
It was the president who tweeted: “Never Trumper Republicans, though on respirators with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our Country than the Do Nothing Democrats. Watch out for them, they are human scum!”
But—leaving the rough language aside—is everyone who offers information unhelpful to the president a Never Trumper? Bolton, a full-throated conservative hawk, was the president’s pick after two previous national security advisers were forced out.
In our tribal politics, does every former friend, aide and ally whose professional path diverges automatically get branded an enemy?
I got a taste of this yesterday when I said the closed-door testimony of William Taylor was a setback for the president. You know who agreed with me? John Thune, the Senate Republican whip, who said of Taylor’s testimony that “the picture coming out of it…is not a good one.”
I further noted that Taylor is a career foreign service guy, first named ambassador to Ukraine by George W. Bush, and lured out of retirement by Mike Pompeo to be acting ambassador. That hardly fits the resume of a Never Trumper.
But I got slammed by pro-Trump tweeters as unfair to the president as they insisted we didn’t know what Taylor had testified. Sorry, his lengthy opening statement was made public.
The president’s preferred narrative is that he’s constantly being undermined by the Deep State. And sometimes that’s true. The senior administration official dubbed Anonymous—who ripped Trump as amoral in a New York Times op-ed and is about to publish a book—is certainly no friend of the president.
But not everyone—certainly not John Bolton—fits under that umbrella. As the Times pointed out yesterday:
“The witnesses heading to Capitol Hill do not consider themselves part of any nefarious deep state, but simply public servants who have loyally worked for administrations of both parties only to be denigrated, sidelined or forced out of jobs by a president who marinates in suspicion and conspiracy theories.
“But it is also true that some career officials, alarmed at what they saw inside the corridors of government agencies, have sought ways to thwart Mr. Trump’s aims by slow-walking his orders, keeping information from him, leaking to reporters or enlisting allies in Congress to intervene.”
The paper has another piece on former top aide Steve Bannon and friends setting up a pro-Trump war room, built around a small radio show. And their message:
“Stop calling the inquiry a ‘witch hunt’ and a ‘deep state’ conspiracy, they said by way of guidance to the president and his advisers, because it’s deluding too many Trump supporters into a sense of complacency.
“Stop insisting that polls showing majority public support for the impeachment inquiry are ‘fake news’ — because they aren’t.
“Stop dismissing everyone who testifies about the Trump administration’s dealings with Ukraine as a radical unelected bureaucrat.”
Radical unelected bureaucrat was the phrase in a White House statement aimed at Bill Taylor.
Sometimes in politics, there’s a rough parting of the ways. Trump was friendly with Jeff Sessions, Rex Tillerson, Jim Mattis, Anthony Scaramucci, Omarosa, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen and many others, and now he’s not. Some of them betrayed him, or turned out to be crooks; others he simply soured on.
But those who are caught up in the Ukraine investigation are not necessarily anti-Trump backstabbers. They can also be people who tried to do the right thing and now want to tell the truth.

Trump border wall funding plan countered by Democrat's $3.6B reversal bill

A senior Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee introduced a bill Thursday seeking to reclaim $3.6 billion in emergency funds the Trump administration reallocated to fund a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the Stopping Executive Overreach on Military Appropriations Act (SEOMA) would reinstate funding for 127 military projects in 26 states and territories, including an $89 million naval base project within her home state of Washington.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper last month signed off on $3.6 billion in Defense Department construction funds for 175 miles of wall on the border.
“The President’s decision to use a phony emergency declaration to take money away from our service members and their families is a gross abuse of executive power that hurts military families in my state and others, and puts our nation’s security at risk,” Murray said in a statement.
“We’re taking action to not only reverse President Trump’s reckless decision to ransack funds for critical military priorities and infrastructure projects that help keep our country safe, such as the pier and maintenance facility at Naval Base Kitsap in my home state of Washington, but also to make sure no President going forward can take reckless, harmful steps like this one.”
In August, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the government to use about $2.5 billion in Defense Department funds after that money had been frozen by lower courts while a lawsuit was proceeding. Trump had directed $155 million to be diverted to border facilities from FEMA disaster relief.
Co-sponsors of Murray's bill were Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Brian Schatz of Hawaii. The proposed legislation would also direct the Office of Government Ethics to review all current and future contracts related to the border wall to determine if the president, his family, or his top allies would personally profit from such contracts, or if there is any conflict of interest, the news release said.
Murray acknowledged the bill would likely not pass in the GOP-controlled Senate, but told the Kitsap Sun that there were lawmakers from both sides of the aisle who were interested in halting the border funding and redirecting it back toward the military projects. 
Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.

California Blackout Cartoons

Californians hit with 2nd round of sweeping blackouts

Democrat Controlled State.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Dangerously windy weather sweeping through the state brought power outages to Northern California as the state’s largest utility staged blackouts designed to prevent catastrophic wildfires.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. on Wednesday began rolling blackouts stretching from the Sierra foothills in the northeast to portions of the San Francisco Bay Area. A couple of counties kept their power until after midnight.

The blackouts impact a half-million people — or nearly 180,000 customers — in 15 counties, and PG&E warned that a second round of outages could occur over the weekend when winds return to the region.

In the south, where hot, dry Santa Ana winds were expected to hit Thursday, Southern California Edison warned that it might black out about 308,000 customers — perhaps 750,000 people — depending on the forecast.

San Diego Gas & Electric warned of power shutoffs to about 24,000 customers.

The utilities have said the precautionary blackouts are designed to keep winds that could gust to 60 mph (97 kph) or more from knocking branches into power lines or toppling them, sparking wildfires.

Electrical equipment was blamed for setting several fires in recent years that killed scores of people and burned thousands of homes.

“We understand the hardship caused by these shutoffs,” PG&E CEO Bill Johnson said Wednesday. “But we also understand the heartbreak and devastation caused by catastrophic wildfires.”

The latest outage comes two weeks after PG&E shut down the power for several days to about 2 million people in northern and central California.

The current outages will last about 48 hours, the utility said. But its seven-day forecast shows a likelihood of another planned blackout across a much larger area. The timing wasn’t clear but it could start as early as Saturday, when even heavier winds are expected to move through.

“This could be the strongest wind event of the season, unfortunately,” PG&E meteorologist Scott Strenfel said.

Strenfel called the current wind event a “California-wide phenomenon.” Conditions should begin easing in the northern part of the state around midday Thursday, when crews will begin inspecting lines to make sure they’re safe to re-energize.

That’s when Santa Ana winds were expected to begin whipping up in the south.

The small city of Calistoga, in the Napa Valley, known for its hot springs and wineries, was among those hit by Wednesday’s outage.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Michael Dunsford, owner of the 18-room Calistoga Inn, which has rented two powerful generators for the month at a cost of $5,000. Like many, he felt the outages need to be better managed, better targeted and less expansive.

“Right now, we have no wind. Zero. I don’t even see a single leaf blowing. Did they really have to cut the power right now?” he said, shortly after the lights went out Wednesday afternoon and he revved up the generators. “When the wind picks up to 40 mph maybe that’s a good time to close the power.”

“They’re not appreciating enough the impact this has on everybody,” he said about PG&E.

Some of the frustration was being taken out on PG&E employees, the company’s CEO said.

Johnson said Wednesday that a PG&E employee was the target of what appeared to be a deliberate attack in Glenn County. He said a projectile that may have come from a pellet gun hit the employee’s front window. The employee wasn’t hurt.

“There is no justification for this sort of violence,” Johnson said. “Wherever you see crews they are there to help you.”

Mandatory evacuations were prompted east of Geyserville after a wildfire sparked in northeastern Sonoma County along the Lake County line late Wednesday.

The Press Democrat reports that according to dispatch reports, the Kincade fire spread to about 1,000 acres by 11 p.m.

Cal Fire spokesman Will Powers said the blaze near the Geysers area was burning at a “dangerous rate.”

Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore said PG&E was better this time about getting information to people who would be affected, but he was still astonished by the need to resort to largescale blackouts.

“I am a big believer in shutdowns to prevent fires. But the thing that erodes public trust is when it doesn’t make sense,” he said. “You say, ‘God, I know if we can put a man on the moon ... we can manage a (power) grid.’”

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Associated Press writers Janie Har in San Francisco and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Reeker expected to testify this weekend in impeachment inquiry

Ambassador Philip Reeker is expected to appear in closed session before three Democrat-led House committees conducting an impeachment investigation into President Trump on Saturday, a congressional source told Fox News.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State Philip Reeker is expected to appear in a closed session Saturday. (State Department)

Reeker’s testimony was originally scheduled for Thursday but members did not want to question the witness during a ceremony where the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., will lie in state at the Capitol. Cummings’ funeral will be in Baltimore on Friday.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who is the top-ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee, wrote a letter to Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of state, demanding that the deposition be rescheduled to a business day to allow more GOP lawmakers to attend.
Jordan called on Reeker to explain the reasoning behind the rare Saturday deposition. He said he regrettably had to ask Reeker directly for the information because he has "no confidence" that Rep. Adam Schiff, as the leader of the impeachment inquiry, is "operating fairly or in good faith."
Former Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Charles Kupperman is expected to appear in a closed session on Monday and Timothy Morrison, a special assistant to the president, is expected to appear in a closed session next Thursday. The Committees are in ongoing discussions with other witnesses.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Laura Ingraham makes the case for another Hillary Clinton presidential run

Laura Ingraham made the case for yet another Hillary Clinton presidential run Wednesday saying the Democratic field has proven its weakness and that she might be a "stronger candidate."
"Just a few months ago, I dismissed the idea of Hillary 2.0 kind of out of hand. She wouldn't be that arrogant and ungracious toward the current field. No way," Ingraham said on "The Ingraham Angle." But then the weakness of the Democrats sleep surprised even me.  Nothing's working."
Clinton in recent weeks has privately stated she would enter the 2020 presidential race if she were certain she could win, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Ingraham spoke of the weakness among the Democratic frontrunners, in particular former Vice President Joe Biden.
"The walking, talking gaffe-a-matic machine known as Joe Biden may have dropped in the polls for a few weeks, but now he's back on top. And what seems to be the grudging recognition that the other top candidates, Warren and Sanders, are just not going to cut it in key battleground states where common sense still means something," Ingraham said. "I mean, who doesn't think that Hillary is a stronger candidate than that goofball Biden."
The host made the case for why Clinton may be a possibility.
"She has instant name recognition, a massive fundraising apparatus that could be reactivated, and her old campaign team would quickly reconstitute," Ingraham said.
Ingraham laid out what could be pushing Clinton to run and what could also be stopping her.
"A combination of Hillary's pride, her desire for revenge, a weak Democratic field and a consultancy class that can sell sand in the desert may be pointing us toward another Trump-Clinton face off," Ingraham said. "Of course, Hillary is smart enough to know that the only thing worse than losing once to Donald Trump would be losing twice to him. And that, too, is a distinct possibility."

Republicans press for whistleblower testimony, and for answers on a hearing delay

Just hours after dozens of House Republicans stormed a closed-door deposition in a secure area and disrupted Democrats' impeachment inquiry, House Oversight Committee ranking member Jim Jordan kept the pressure on Democrats by pushing for more transparency -- including public testimony from the whistleblower at the center of the probe.
In an initial letter to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Wednesday, Jordan -- joined by House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes and Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Michael McCaul -- called for the whistleblower to come out of hiding, so that his or her "sources and credibility" can be "fully assessed."
The committee chairs noted that Schiff had previously promised that the whistleblower would provide "unfiltered" testimony "very soon" concerning an Aug. 12 complaint.
But, the Republicans charged, Schiff abruptly "reversed course" after reports of the whistleblower's potential political bias emerged, along with evidence that Democratic congressional committee staff had spoken to the whistleblower before the complaint was filed.
The Republicans asserted that evidence has also emerged that "contradicts" the claims in the whistleblower's initial complaint, including that the Ukrainian president has said he felt no "pressure" during a July call with President Trump to investigate 2020 Dem front-runner Joe Biden, his son Hunter and Biden business interests in Ukraine.
Multiple apparent inconsistencies in the whistleblower's complaint, including the whistleblower's erroneous claim that Trump had asked Ukrainians to hand over a server, have previously prompted Republicans to demand more information on the person's sources.
The lawmakers further demanded testimony from any sources the whistleblower relied upon to draft the complaint, which contained only secondhand information.
The Republicans emphasized that they lack co-equal subpoena power with majority Democrats -- a key one-sided limitation that the White House has cited in explaining why it will not cooperate with the Democrats' probe.
House Republican Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., claimed that Schiff "fled with the testifying witness" when roughly 50 Republicans, including several not on one of those three committees, went "face-to-face and demand access to ongoing impeachment proceedings."
Some Republicans asked to be arrested by Capitol police officers, Fox News has learned, hoping that it would help them make their case that Democrats are abusing the impeachment process.
The whistleblower has acknowledged to the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) that bias against Trump might be alleged against him or her for a third, previously unreported reason, sources familiar with the ICIG investigation told Fox News on Wednesday.
Fox News has previously reported the whistleblower is a registered Democrat and had a prior work history with a senior Democrat. Though Fox News has learned that an additional element of possible bias was identified by the whistleblower, its nature remains unclear.
Separately, Fox News has obtained a letter from Jordan to Acting Assistant Secretary of State Philip Reeker, who was slated to come to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a deposition. Fox News reported Monday night that the deposition was rescheduled for Saturday, when the House would not be in session, ostensibly because House members did not want to conduct interviews during the ceremony Thursday in which the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who'd headed the House Oversight committee, will lie in state at the Capitol before his funeral in Baltimore on Friday.
In the letter, Jordan asserted that many members won't be able to attend the unusual Saturday session, and pushed Reeker to explain why the deposition was moved. Jordan asked Reeker “to testify on a business day to allow robust member attendance and participation," and suggested Schiff was hoping to continue to shroud the impeachment proceedings in unhealthy secrecy.
Jordan said he regrettably had to ask Reeker directly for the information, because he had he has "no confidence" that Schiff, as the leader of the impeachment inquiry, is "operating fairly or in good faith."
Jordan also asked Reeker about his "announced participation in a panel discussion sponsored by the Atlantic Council," which in 2018 received between $100,000 and $249,000 from Burisma -- the Ukraine natural gas company where Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son, obtained a lucrative role despite not having any relevant expertise. The Atlantic Council, Jordan noted, recently removed Reeker's name as a panelist at the event.
Specifically, Jordan asked Reeker why he was removed as a panelist, and who proposed rescheduling his testimony -- and why they picked a Saturday.
Fox News' Chad Pergram and Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.

Hillary Runs Again Cartoons

Ninth Circuit blocks Trump administration birth control exemptions

A federal court on Tuesday blocked new rules established by the Trump administration that would have allowed employers with religious or moral objections to opt out of an Obamacare requirement that includes birth control coverage in employee health insurance plans.
Two out of the three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit concluded that a birth control exemption violated the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, which requires all employers to provide birth control coverage with no co-payment.
The Health and Human Services Department, Labor Department, and Treasury Department in 2017, started adopting new rules that allowed religious groups, including the Little Sisters of the Poor, to opt out of the requirement to provide birth control coverage for employees, the National Review reported. The rules were finalized in 2018 but have not been enforced.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra spearheaded a lawsuit with 13 other states against the religious exemption rules.
“It’s a simple concept: a woman and her doctor are the only people qualified to decide what’s best for her health. Today will serve as a reminder to the Trump Administration that politicians and employers certainly have no business interfering with women’s reproductive healthcare,” Becerra said in a statement, according to the Washington Times.
Tuesday's decision blocked the new rules from going into effect in California, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, New York, Illinois, Washington, Minnesota, Connecticut, North Carolina, Vermont, Rhode Island, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia, Bloomberg Law News reported.
Judge J. Clifford Wallace, who was nominated by President Nixon, wrote in the majority decision that “the religious exemption contradicts congressional intent that all women have access to appropriate preventative care and the exemption operates in a manner fully at odds with the careful, individualized, and searching review mandated by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”
Judge Andrew J. Kleinfeld, who was nominated by President George H. W. Bush, dissented, writing that the 14-state lawsuit was brought before the court in an effort to save states money, not to protect women's reproductive rights. He also wrote that a ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which blocked the implementation of the Trump administration rules nationwide, renders this case moot.
“The casual reader may imagine that the dispute is about provision of contraception and abortion services to women. It is not.” Kleinfeld wrote. “No woman sued for an injunction in this case, and no affidavits have been submitted from any women establishing any question in this case about whether they will be deprived of reproductive services or harmed in any way by the modification of the regulation. This case is a claim by several states to prevent a modification of a regulation from going into effect, claiming that it will cost them money.”

Hillary Clinton mulling 2020 run, citing weak Dem field, email vindication: reports

Speculation is growing that Hillary Clinton will make a last-minute entry into the 2020 presidential race after reports published Tuesday said members of the Democratic establishment doubted any of the party’s current top candidates can beat President Trump next November.
But those Democrats already running said Clinton is doing more harm than good for the party by taking aim at Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, in recent remarks.
Clinton in recent weeks has privately stated she would enter the 2020 presidential race if she were certain she could win, The New York Times reported Tuesday. The story, titled “Anxious Democratic Establishment Asks, ‘Is There Anybody Else?’,” said about a half-dozen Democratic donors gathered in New York City questioned whether former front-runner Joe Biden could stand strong against Trump, citing Biden’s lackluster debate performance in Ohio last week.
hey also raised concerns about Biden's fundraising struggles and his need to defend his family’s business dealings in Ukraine amid the ongoing Trump impeachment inquiry.
They also said Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were likely too liberal to win the general election.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, reported that Clinton was considering a 2020 rematch against Trump after the State Department concluded this week there was "no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information" regarding Clinton's use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state.
The same State Department report, however, dozens of individuals were at fault for mishandling classified information and found hundreds of security violations during her 2009-2013 tenure.
Clinton, the first woman to win a major party presidential nomination — and the national popular vote leader with almost 3 million more votes than Trump — remains a popular figure in her party, even after enduring criticism for losing key Midwestern states in 2016. For Republicans, she's perennial target -- currently in the Mississippi governor's race, where Democratic nominee Jim Hood, a longtime attorney general, is being attacked for acknowledging he voted for her over Trump.
Clinton’s supporters within the Democratic establishment have also passed around an op-ed published earlier this month in the San Francisco Chronicle by former Mayor Willie Brown titled: “Who should run against Trump? How about Hillary Clinton?” the Washington Post reported.
Both the Post and the Times reported that Clinton was not the only possible last-minute candidate on Democrats’ minds. Also being considered were: former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Disney chief executive Bob Iger, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and former first lady Michelle Obama.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.