Conservative Blogger
Sunday, February 4, 2018
WH Deputy Secy On Possible Deputy AG Firing: ‘We Expect No Changes’
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| Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein listen the national anthem during the opening of the summit on Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking at Department of Justice in Washington, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. President Donald Trump, dogged by an unrelenting investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia, lashes out at the FBI and Justice Department as politically biased ahead of the expected release of a classified Republican memo criticizing FBI surveillance tactics. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) |
During an interview on Friday Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah reaffirmed the white house confidence in Rosenstein, after the President declined to give reporters a definitive answer on the matter.
Rosenstein’s primary role for the investigation is to oversee Special Counsel Robert Mueller during his Russia probe, which is in turmoil after the release of the House Intelligence Committee memo showed a violation of FBI surveillance of the Trump Administration.
Shocking memo reveals how Comey disgraced an honorable FBI
The information contained in the memo
released by House Republicans on Friday that accused FBI and Justice
Department officials of improperly obtaining permission to surveil a
former Trump campaign adviser shows a tragic failure of leadership on
the part of former FBI Director James Comey.
But importantly, the memo does not in
any way reflect on the outstanding work of the more than 35,000
dedicated men and women of the FBI.
It pains me – as a former FBI executive who loves and
respects the organization – to say that Comey’s short tenure at the FBI
has proven to be the worst thing to happen to the agency since Director
L. Patrick Gray was fired during the Watergate scandal.If the facts stated in the memo are true – despite the highly political nature of congressional committees – then there was either incompetent or deliberate manipulation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court to get approval of the surveillance.
Even new agent trainees at the FBI Academy know better than to use paid opposition research and newspaper articles to support use of one of the most sensitive and intrusive surveillance techniques in the investigative toolbox. If they do use such information, the FISA judge should have been apprised of the origins of the research.
FBI agents are also taught to never mislead any court of law. It’s unlikely the surveillance warrant would have been issued if the FISA judge was aware that political opponents (the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee) had financed the information used to obtain approval of the surveillance.
FISA applications go through extensive reviews at multiple levels of executive management at the FBI and Justice Department. They are signed by the most senior FBI and Justice Department executives before they are presented to the FISA court for approval.
The 2016 FISA approvals in question were signed by none other than FBI Director Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. The buck stops there. They were the top two officials in the FBI at the time.
McCabe, enabled by Comey, created an attitude among his inner circle that flaunted well- established laws and regulations. Comey usurped the role of the Justice Department in publicly exonerating Hillary Clinton from wrongdoing in her handling of government emails when she was secretary of state.
At the same time, Comey took highly conflicted Attorney General Loretta Lynch off the hook to formally recuse herself from the Hillary Clinton probe as a result of Lynch’s own inexcusable and inept conduct in meeting former President Bill Clinton while his wife was under Justice Department and FBI investigation.
With his conduct, Comey set in motion a cascading set of events that resulted in the FBI becoming a pawn in a political firestorm. He justified making up his own rules because he felt righteous.
Comey permitted leaks and allowed bias to infect two of the most important investigations ever conducted by the FBI. He clearly permitted his lead investigative agent to predetermine the outcome of the Clinton investigation, while allowing the agent’s biased actions and anti-Trump texts to complicate the role of Special Counsel Robert Mueller in actually getting to the truth of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page – who were carrying on a romantic affair when they traded numerous text criticizing then-candidate Trump – are now star witnesses for the defense in any indictments that come out of Mueller’s office.
Mueller is an honest, fair and non-political professional who took a bullet for his country as a Marine in Vietnam. He is our best chance to learn the truth. And the truth should be good enough for everyone. He served for 12 years as FBI director with many accomplishments, no terrorist attacks on his watch and not a hint of controversy.
Current FBI Director Chris Wray has now taken the helm and is trying his best to right the ship. This is no time for him to resign. He has a lot to overcome in a very difficult task. He must maintain his independence from the president while navigating political controversy coming at him from every direction.
Wray is very deliberately cleaning out the remnants of the Comey cabal on the FBI’s 7th Floor. He has apparently been given a preview of the Department of Justice inspector general’s investigation of the conduct of several FBI officials during the Clinton investigation. This inspector general is the same person who outed the Strzok and Page texts.
Now information is circulating that the Republican memo made public is just the tip of the iceberg. Ex-FBI Agents are picking up information that the inspector general’s report will be far more graphic in detailing the misconduct of McCabe, Strzok and others more serious that what is in the memo released Friday.
The Republican congressional memo outlines potentially serious misconduct on the part of the Comey leadership team. Going forward, the FBI should err on the side of transparency. Director Wray should make every effort to declassify the documents and affidavit supporting surveillance approved by the FISA Court.
Such information has been released before. It is better for the FBI to release the information than to have it come from a political body like Congress. Let the public decide for themselves without political spin.
The American people, Congress and the president should sit back and allow Special Counsel Mueller to do his work. This nation has an interest in making sure that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intelligence thugs and mobbed-up oligarchs do not influence our political processes.
It’s time to find out what really happened.
Chris E. Swecker served 24 years in FBI as Special Agent. He retired from the Bureau as Assistant Director with responsibility over all FBI Criminal Investigations. He currently practices law in Charlotte, N.C.
Trump, GOP upbeat about turn in midterm numbers, vow to use Pelosi 'crumbs' comment on stump
Congressional Republicans once bracing for the
possibility of a Democratic “tsunami” in this year’s elections now
appear on the offensive -- bolstered by new polls suggesting Americans
like their recent tax cuts and the opportunity to pounce on Democratic
House leader Nancy Pelosi's remark about the resulting bonuses and
paycheck increases amounting to “crumbs.”
“Nancy Pelosi has stayed in the
spotlight. Her 'crumbs' comment is something I think we can use pretty
effectively,” Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers, chairman of the National
Republican Congressional Committee, said at this week’s GOP policy
retreat at the Greenbrier resort, in West Virginia.
To be sure, Republicans have in recent years made a
familiar target of Pelosi, arguing that the Democratic Party, under the
liberal California Democrat, has lost touch with working-class
Americans.Stivers made his comments a day after a Monmouth University poll showed that 47 percent of registered voters now favor or would pick a Democratic candidate in this year’s congressional races, compared to 45 percent who would support a Republican. That’s compared to Democrats’ 51-to-36-percentage-point advantage in the school’s so-called generic poll in December.
"The generic congressional ballot is prone to bouncing around for a bit until the campaign really gets underway,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “But Democrats who counted on riding public hostility toward the tax bill to retake the House may have to rethink that strategy."
Stivers said Thursday that Republicans will continue to tout the benefits of their tax plan to Americans -- including three million workers who have already receiving a bonus -- and that it will be part of the their larger 2018 campaign slogan, “The Great American Comeback.”
He also pointed to the president’s improved approval rating and Republicans last year winning six special House elections.
However, Stivers acknowledged that history is not on Republicans’ side, considering the political party that controls the White House has over roughly the past eight decades lost about 26 House seats in midterm elections, as Democrats need to gain 24 to retake control of the lower chamber. (All 435 House seats are up for reelection this year.)
Another concern is that nearly 38 House Republicans have already announced that they will not seek re-election -- including nine committee chairmen.
“It’s not all rainbows and unicorns,” Stivers said about being in Congress, which continues to have low approval ratings.
However, he said the GOP’s 2018 recruited class has been “pretty good.” Stivers also said that the GOP's winning the special Georgia House election last year proves that Republicans, despite pollsters’ predictions, can win in the kind of suburban districts that helped Trump prevail in 2016.
“I think we are going to hold the House, and I think things are going to be OK,” he said.
While the numbers have buoyed Republicans -- including Trump, who in his speech at the retreat alluded to the new polling numbers -- Democrats remain enthusiastic.
"Democratic candidates across the country are out-hustling and out-organizing Republican incumbents, many of whom have not faced a competitive challenge in a very long time and are struggling to find those old campaign muscles,” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said Friday, pointing to Republican incumbents trailing their Democratic challengers in fundraising in dozens of House races.
While the Monmouth polls created a huge buzz this week among Republican, particular those in the House, a Morning Consult poll a week earlier had already suggested Democrats’ hopes of retaking the Senate, despite trailing by just a 51-49 member margin, were dimming.
The poll, taken last year from October through December, shows a decline in net approval ratings for nine of the 10 Democratic incumbents running in states Trump won in 2016. Among them is Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, whose net rating fell by roughly 18 percentage points by the end of the year, the most of any of the Democratic incumbents.
There are 34 Senate seats up for reelection, but Democrats are defending incumbents in 26 of them.
Trump: Declassified memo 'vindicates' him, shows Russia investigation a 'witch hunt'
President Trump said the recently released memo
alleging intelligence abuse during the FBI investigation into the 2016
Trump campaign “totally vindicates” him.
Among his first statements following
Friday’s release of the now-declassified memo by Republicans in control
of the House Intelligence Committee, Trump suggested Saturday the
revelations in the document prove the ongoing probe is a “witch hunt.”
“This memo totally vindicates ‘Trump’ in probe,” Trump
tweeted Saturday. “But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their
[sic] was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used
because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING,
collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!”The four-page memo, written by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., alleges intelligence abuse by the Department of Justice and the FBI during the 2016 presidential campaign. Particularly, it alleges that the two agencies requested a surveillance warrant using a disputed anti-Trump dossier funded by Democrats.
The memo said former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified to the committee that “no surveillance warrant would have been sought” from the FISA court “without the Steele dossier information.”
The memo said it was not disclosed that the dossier was authored by an outspoken Trump critic and former British spy, Christopher Steele.
"What's going on in this country, I think it is a disgrace," the president said at the White House after the memo was released. "When you look at that, and you see that, and so many other things what's going on, a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves, and much worse than that."
Nunes told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Friday that the release of the memo was out of “an obligation to the American people.”
“I have an obligation to the American people when we see FISA abuse," Nunes said on “Special Report.” "These are secret courts that exist to target for foreigners, for catching terrorists, for catching people who might be bad actors and the American citizens that are represented before this court have to be protected, and the only place that can protect them is the U.S. Congress when abuses do occur.”
Trump has repeatedly argued that the investigation – which was taken by special counsel Robert Mueller in May – that the probe has found no collusion from his campaign and should be concluded.
Prior to the release of the memo Friday, Trump tweeted: “The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!”
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Pentagon announces plan to expand nuclear arsenal in face of Russian threat
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| The Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Pennsylvania returns to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Washington State, Dec. 27, 2017. It is one of eight ballistic-missile subs stationed at the base. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Amanda R. Gray) |
The Pentagon plans to develop two "low-yield"
nuclear warheads to be launched from ballistic-missile submarines and
warships, to send a message to Moscow -- which the Trump administration
accuses of amassing a stockpile of tactical nuclear weapons.
The new plan is outlined in Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's Nuclear Posture Review, released Friday afternoon.
"Expanding U.S. tailored response options will raise
the nuclear threshold and help ensure that potential adversaries
perceive no possible advantage in limited nuclear escalation, making
nuclear weapons employment less likely," the new review said.The Pentagon says Russia’s buildup of similar "low-yield" nukes is the reason it must match the threat.
“The United States would only consider the use of nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances,” said Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan. “Extreme circumstances could include significant non-nuclear strategic attacks,” he added without offering specifics.
Russian and Chinese officials were briefed by State Department officials Friday morning about the nuclear posture review.
It's the first such review in seven years, but much has changed since 2010, when the U.S. unilaterally reduced portions of its nuclear arsenal.
“Over the past decade, while the United States led the world in these reductions every one of our potential nuclear adversaries has been pursuing the exact opposite strategy,” said Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette. “These powers are increasing the numbers and types of nuclear weapons in their arsenal.”
After Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, it deployed nuclear-capable intermediate range missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the border with Poland, leaving NATO leaders feeling helpless.
"Russia's nuclear saber-rattling is unjustified, destabilizing and dangerous," said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in 2015. Any deployment of nuclear forces to Crimea would “fundamentally change the balance of security in Europe,” he added.
Russia is bound by a decades-long arms treaty, known as the INF, from deploying ground-launched intermediate-range missiles. The Pentagon has accused Russia of violating the treaty, noting that Russia is also developing nuclear depth charges, torpedoes and anti-aircraft missiles among its 2,000 tactical nukes.
“Russia is also developing at least two new intercontinental range systems, a hypersonic glide vehicle, and a new intercontinental, nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered, undersea autonomous torpedo,” according to the review.
The United States has possessed hundreds of tactical “low-yield” nuclear warheads for decades, but they can only be delivered from planes, including B61 gravity bombs, but are vulnerable because the jets must fly over the target to use them making them susceptible to anti-aircraft missiles and guns.
Currently, only the B-2 stealth bomber can penetrate sophisticated air defenses.
The Trump administration wants to build off the previous administration’s concern that the nuclear force needs to be modernized. It has mapped out plans for the U.S. to spend more than $1.2 trillion over the next 30 years.
In 1982, B-52 bombers were equipped with air-launched cruise missiles, but those weapons are now “more than 25 years past its design life,” according to the review. The newest B-52 is also more than 50 years old, one of the reasons the Pentagon wants a replacement bomber as well replacement for the aging air-launched cruise missile.
The Air Force has 46 nuclear capable B-52H and 20 nuclear-capable B-2A stealth bombers.
Its bomber fleet is not the only aging portion of America’s "nuclear triad."
The 400 Minuteman-III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) currently deployed across three Air Force bases in the Midwest were first deployed in 1970 with a planned 10-year service life. They are now expected to last until 2030.
The Navy has 14 Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines capable of carrying 24 Trident D-5 intercontinental ballistic missiles, but are roughly 30 years old.
The new posture review calls for each of these submarines to carry a small number of “low-yield” nuclear warheads, modified from more powerful ones currently inside the Trident missile.
The new missiles could be deployed in the next few years, officials say.
The Pentagon is worried Russia thinks it can use its smaller nukes against NATO in a limited war without a U.S. response.
“Effective U.S. deterrence of Russian nuclear attack … now requires ensuring that the Russian leadership does not miscalculate regarding the consequences of limited nuclear first use,” the review states.
The last nuclear posture review came out just months after President Obama set as a policy goal a world without nuclear weapons in a 2009 speech in Prague.
“Nuclear weapons are the most dangerous legacies of the Cold War," Obama said in the Czech Republic capital. "The U.S. will take concrete steps ... [to] begin the work of reducing our arsenals and stockpiles."
Obama got rid of nuclear-tipped, sea-launched cruise missiles in 2011.
The Pentagon now wants to bring some of those weapons back.
“Every U.S. administration over the past six decades has called for a flexible and limited U.S. nuclear response options,” said the review. “Potential adversaries do not stand still. On the contrary, they seek to identify and exploit weaknesses in U.S. capabilities and strategy.” The U.S. nuclear arsenal cannot remain “fixed.”
Mattis spoke to reporters Friday morning, hours before the release of the Nuclear Posture Review.
"What we're trying to do is ensure that our diplomats and our negotiators are in a position to be listened to when we say we want to go forward on nonproliferation and arms control. At the same time, you do so by having an effective, safe deterrent,” said Mattis.
While not mentioning cyberattack directly, the Pentagon makes clear in this document that the U.S. reserves the right to use nuclear weapons to respond to any attack on infrastructure or population centers, even if that attack uses a conventional weapon.
It also addresses the nuclear threat from China, Iran and North Korea, in addition to Russia.
Any nuclear attack by Kim Jong Un would “result in the end of that regime,” the report says.
Greg Weaver, deputy director of strategic capabilities on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff said “there’s evidence the Russians think that their coercive nuclear use strategy has some prospect of success. We want to make sure that we disabuse them of that idea.”
The two new “low-yield” nuclear weapons are designed to do just that, Weaver said.
A sea-launched nuclear cruise missile could be fired from a warship or a submarine, but is still seven to 10 years from being fielded, said Dr. Robert Soofer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear policy, in a briefing with reporters ahead of the review’s release.
If Russia returns to compliance with its arms control obligation and reduces its tactical nukes, the U.S. “may reconsider the pursuit” of the sea-launched cruise missile, according to the report.
The Pentagon is hoping history will repeat itself. After the U.S. deployed intermediate-range missiles to Europe, the Soviet Union signed the 1987 INF treaty with the United States. President Reagan’s secretary of state, George P. Shultz, said if not for the deployment of the American missiles, “there would be no incentive for the Soviets to negotiate seriously for nuclear weapons reductions.”
Asked how the Russians were likely to respond to the Pentagon calling for “low-yield” nukes, Soofer replied, “I am sure they won’t respond well.”
Tillerson: Latin American Countries Should Not Rely on Chinese Investments
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| Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attends the US Qatar Strategic Dialogue at the State Department, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018, in Washington. |
He said China only seeks to enrich itself, and governments in the region should protect themselves against predatory actors.
The Secretary of State warned Latin American countries that Chinese investments often look good, but ultimately come at a heavy price.
“We do not seek short-term deals with lopsided returns, we seek partners with shared values and visions to create a safe, secure and prosperous hemisphere,” said Tillerson. “The U.S. approach is based on mutually beneficial goals to help both sides grow, develop and become more prosperous and do so by respecting international law.”
Tillerson also criticized Russia for selling weapons to authoritarian governments in Latin America.
He said Russia is undermining Democratic governments through arms sales, which is something Latin America must guard against in order to restore shared values in the region.
Trump's SOTU speech gets strong public support, journalists still hate him, and other outrageous media fiascos
President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech was met with strong public support. Seventy-five percent of Americans approved –
including 43 percent of Democrats, according to a CBS News poll
conducted right after the speech Tuesday. The news media have spent
nearly every second since telling those same voters why they were wrong.
It was a “Groundhog Day” moment with journalists playing the Bill
Murray role doing the same thing they’ve done every day of this
administration – criticizing President Trump.
Both CNN and MSNBC cited white nationalist nutball David Duke
as supporting President Trump’s immigration views. NBC’s Capitol Hill
Correspondent Kasie Hunt said Duke liked the president’s “Americans are
dreamers too” comment. And CNN Political Analyst Kirsten Powers enjoyed
mentioning that “white nationalists, David Duke praised him for saying
this.”
NBC’s “Today” Co-Host Savannah Guthrie falsely claimed Trump is “under criminal investigation right now for obstruction of justice.” And ABC News’ Chief Political Analyst Matthew Dowd was Bill Murray-esque, once again claiming, “I think we are as divided now as we were” in the 1860s.Perhaps Dowd can point on a map the locations of widespread red and blue armies, sieges or 750,000 deaths like we had in the Civil War.
MSNBC Host Rachel Maddow pretended President Trump “wants a war with North Korea.” And her fellow Host Joy Reid went further off the deep end, depicting traditional American values in the worst way. “Church ... family ... police ... military ... the national anthem ... Trump trying to call on all the tropes of 1950s-era nationalism.” If that’s the party line on the left, President Trump can count on being in the White House another seven years.
The coverage got so bad that CBS downplayed its own polling, reporting just once that 43 percent of Democrats liked the speech and skipping it the next day. That was better than CNN, where Political Director David Chalian tried to discredit his own poll by claiming the people who watch the speech are “fans of the person giving it.”
2. A Disaster for the Media: Even a deadly train crash brought out the worst in some prominent media figures. The train carrying Republican Senate and House members to a retreat slammed into a garbage truck, killing a passenger in the truck. Some in the media couldn’t resist making wildly inappropriate jokes.
Author Stephen King tweeted: “A trainload of Republicans on their way to a pricey retreat hit a garbage truck. My friend Russ calls that karma.” He added he was “sorry” one person died and later apologized for his hateful comment.
The Daily Caller’s Amber Athey compiled a nice list of the embarrassing statements. The Daily Beast’s Sam Stein asked: “Did they stage this metaphor?” He later erased the “insensitive” tweet. CNN commentator Keith Boykin referred to the accident as a “metaphor for American politics.”
CNN regular guest Jonathan Tasini, who the network calls a “Democratic strategist,” was thrilled by the accident and Rep. Trey Gowdy’s announced retirement. “Wow, btwn train full of Goopers hitting truck and this, God is working hard today to clean up the stink. Thank her. #TreyGowdy,” he tweeted. Tasini was mentioned by CNN 30 times in the past year, according to Nexis.
3. Media Struggle With #MeToo: “Morning Joe” long ago turned on Trump and has used almost any attack it could to discredit the president or his administration. Even that has limits.
Gossip troll/”Fire and Fury” author Michael Wolff took his act to the program on Thursday and got a rude awakening. That outlet wouldn’t tolerate him implying the U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is having an affair with Trump. Wolff tried to dance around it, despite having said Haley “seems to have embraced” the rumor that he started, according to The Washington Examiner.
MSNBC Host Mika Brzezinski didn’t let Wolff pretend he wasn’t tied to the rumor. When he hemmed and hawed, she stopped the segment and kicked him off air. “I'm sorry, this is awkward, you're here on the set with us, but we're done. Michael Wolff, thank you,” she concluded.
Wolff went off on her and her co-host on Twitter later, saying Trump was right in his many criticisms of Mika. He then added, “It really would be hard to gossip more eagerly off camera than Mika and Joe gossip.”
Brzezinski wasn’t Haley’s only defender in the press. New York Times editor and writer Bari Weiss called out the media for “slut-shaming” and added that when Haley was “smeared with the most base, sexist lie, it’s met with little more than a collective shrug.”
Haley needed the help after the Grammys credentialed Wolff’s book with a celebrity reading that included has-been politico Hillary Clinton. Matthew Dowd, who pretends to be “independent,” slammed Haley for calling the book reading “trash.” He then called on her to “have some integrity,” apparently lacking any understanding of the word’s meaning.
MSNBC Host Stephanie Ruhle attacked Haley for daring to criticize the Grammys when the award show staged the reading of Wolff’s much-questioned book. It was as if Ruhle ignored the left-wing rumors of the affair and acted shocked that Haley would object.
That wasn’t the only disastrous sex harassment problem the media were coping with. Former Boston Globe staffer Hilary Sargent skewered the paper for being unwilling to talk to ex-employees about its problems. She tweeted out a series of criticisms including this perfect one: “If you don't treat your colleagues who allege harassment and assault with the same respect as you treated the victims of abuse by the Catholic Church, then Spotlight was just a blip. It should be who you all are, through and through.”
“Spotlight” won three Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor, for attacking the Catholic Church for how it handled a sex scandal. Apparently, Globe management never watched it.
4. ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Portrayed a Conservative Pundit Getting Raped: Forget the hate that the left reserves for the right during award shows. They really abuse conservatives the rest of the time. This week, in an episode naturally titled “Info Wars,” the far-left crime drama made a conservative woman the victim of a horrible rape.
Imagine the media outcry if they misrepresented liberal beliefs and then depicted a prominent liberal being sexually assaulted. It’s a reminder of just how despicable Hollywood has become.
Friday, February 2, 2018
Surveillance memo could be declassified Friday; Trump warns Dems on DACA
The FBI said Wednesday that the bureau has “grave
concerns” about the classified memo that purportedly reveals government
surveillance abuses, but White House Chief of Staff John Kelly says it
is going public, anyway.
“With regard to the House
Intelligence Committee’s memorandum, the FBI was provided a limited
opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to
release it,” the FBI said in a statement. “As expressed during our
initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact
that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”
But earlier Tuesday, Kelly told Fox News in an exclusive interview the classified memo will be made public soon. Kelly said White House national security aides have been reviewing the memo.“It'll be released here pretty quick I think and the whole world can see it,” he said.
The bureau’s claim that the memo involves “omissions of fact” came a day after a source told Fox News that two senior FBI officials reviewed the memo and “could not point to any factual inaccuracies” in the memo itself.
FBI OFFICIALS REVIEW SURVEILLANCE MEMO, COULD NOT CITE 'ANY FACTUAL INACCURACIES'
The two officials – one from the bureau’s counterintelligence division and the other from the legal division – followed up after an initial review of the memo during a rare Sunday trip to Capitol Hill by FBI Director Christopher Wray.
One senior U.S. official told Fox News, though, that Wray "expressed concern about the accuracy of the memo" and told others in the meeting the memo "gives an inaccurate impression of the bureau's work on this matter."
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes reacted to the bureau’s written statement by saying: “Having stonewalled Congress’ demands for information for nearly a year, it’s no surprise to see the FBI and DOJ issue spurious objections to allowing the American people to see information related to surveillance abuses at these agencies.”
“Once the truth gets out, we can begin taking steps to ensure our intelligence agencies and courts are never misused like this again,” he added.
On Tuesday night, President Trump was overheard telling a GOP lawmaker at the State of the Union that he’s “100 percent” behind releasing the memo.
The House Intelligence Committee on Monday evening voted to release it, but Trump is able to object to the release. Lawmakers have said the memo details abuses involving FISA, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. A source close to the matter said the memo details the Intelligence Committee’s oversight work for the FBI and Justice Department, including the controversy over unmasking and FISA surveillance.
TRUMP OVERHEARD SAYING HE IS ‘100 PERCENT’ BEHIND RELEASING SURVEILLANCE MEMO
“The FBI takes seriously its obligations to the FISA Court and its compliance with procedures overseen by career professionals in the Department of Justice and the FBI,” the bureau said in its statement. “We are committed to working with the appropriate oversight entities to ensure the continuing integrity of the FISA process.”
Fidel Castro's oldest son commits suicide, Cuban state media report
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| Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, left, the oldest son of dictator Fidel Castro, killed himself, according to Cuban state media. (AP, File) |
The oldest son of the late Cuban dictator Fidel
Castro committed suicide at the age of 68, Cuban state media announced
on Thursday.
Fidel “Fidelito” Castro Diaz-Balart is the oldest son of Castro and his first wife, Mirta Diaz Balart.
Diaz-Balart was said to have killed himself Thursday
morning after receiving months of treatment for a "deeply depressed
state," according to official website Cubadebate. He reportedly "required a hospitalization regime then outpatient follow-up" as part of his treatment.Fidel Castro died in November 2016 at age 90. His brother, Raul, took over as Cuba's leader in 2008.
Before his death, Diaz-Balart was a scientific adviser to the Council of State and was the vice president of the Cuban Academy of Sciences.
Of all Castro's offspring, only Diaz-Balart, the angel-faced, blond boy from revolution-era photographs, was publically recognized. He bore a striking resemblance to his father, which earned him the nickname Fidelito, or Little Fidel.
Diaz-Balart was born in 1949 and brought to the United States in the 1950s after his parents divorced. His mother's family had ties to the Batista government, which Castro would eventually overthrow. As a result, the former Cuban leader wanted his son kept from his ex-wife's family, leading to an ongoing custody battle over the boy.
"I refuse even to think that my son may sleep a single night under the same roof sheltering my most repulsive enemies and receive on his innocent cheeks the kisses of those miserable Judases," Castro wrote to his half-sister Lidia in 1956.
While Castro was in Mexico preparing for the guerrilla war, he convinced his ex-wife to send Fidelito to visit him for two weeks. Once the boy was there however, Castro refused to send him back. Later, while the boy was out for a walk with Castro's sisters, three armed men in a car grabbed Diaz-Balart so he could be reunited with his mother.
As an adult Diaz-Balart rose to the top post at Cuba's Atomic Energy Commission before his father removed him for unpublicized reasons in the early 1990s.
Hurt: Pelosi Consumed With Hatred for Trump, Has No Vision for Her Party
On "America's Newsroom" on Tuesday, Fox News contributor Charlie Hurt said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif) over-the-top negative reaction to President Donald Trump's first State of the Union address shows that she has been consumed with "hatred" for the president.
"Without any basis on evidence, data and the rest, he makes these statements about newcomers to our country and equating it in a criminal way. What was that about?" Pelosi said during a press conference with Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday. "It was — I wouldn't say confusing. It was worse than that. It was dangerous what he said last night."
"And it is instilled fear," she continued. "What he is doing brings tears to the eyes of the Statue of Liberty, and instills fear in the hearts of the people who are concerned about our DREAMers."
Hurt said this is just more exaggeration from Pelosi after her now-infamous "crumbs" remark about the positive effects of the Republican tax cuts.
Pelosi Twitter tear targets 'obsessed' Nunes ahead of House intel memo's imminent release
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
unleashed a Twitter storm Thursday, blanketing her social media feed
with calls for the removal of U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the
House Intelligence Committee, which voted to release a contentious memo
on purported surveillance abuses.
Using the hashtag #RemoveNunes,
Pelosi wrote late Thursday: “RETWEET if you are concerned about
@DevinNunes’ obsession with prioritizing short-term politics over
America’s long-term national security!”
Underneath the post warning of Nunes’ “obsession,”
which Pelosi pinned to the top of her Twitter account, were four more
urgently worded posts – also made Thursday – calling for Nunes’
departure.“@DevinNunes’ deliberately dishonest actions make him unfit to serve as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,” she wrote Thursday. “@SpeakerRyan must immediately remove him from this position.”
Pelosi echoed that language in a letter she sent to House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday.
“Chairman Nunes’ deliberately dishonest actions make him unfit to serve as Chairman, and he must be immediately removed from this position,” Pelosi wrote in the letter.
Pelosi soon doubled down in a follow-up post on Twitter, this time employing an illustration: Nunes appears superimposed behind the words “NUNES MUST GO” in all-capital letters.
“@DevinNunes is putting our national security at risk, ignoring concerns from the FBI & DOJ to advance a conspiracy theory,” Pelosi tweeted. "RT if you know Speaker Ryan must #RemoveNunes immediately!”
Then, in the afternoon: “We have to be able to trust that the House Intel Chairman will put long-term national security before short-term politics. @DevinNunes has proven he can’t.”
Finally, Pelosi wrapped up Thursday’s anti-Nunes barrage by linking approvingly to a Washington Post editorial critical of the California Republican congressman.
The release of the House memo, which is reported to outline surveillance abuses, is likely to come Friday morning, Fox News is told.
President Donald Trump already had made clear he supports the release of the memo -- before U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, late Wednesday charged that Nunes made "material changes" to the memo since its review by committee members.
Thursday, February 1, 2018
ICE chief warns illegal immigration 'not going to be OK anymore': report
Acting ICE director Thomas Homan
addresses the White House briefing in Washington in 2017. He said this
week he will not back down from enforcing immigration laws.
(Reuters)
In a fiery speech to hundreds of law enforcement officers, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement excoriated the political enablers of illegal immigration on Wednesday, saying he’ll “never back down” from safeguarding the border.
Speaking at the Border Security Expo in San Antonio, Thomas Homan singled out sanctuary cities and the ongoing congressional debate over so-called “Dreamers.”
“If we get a clean DACA bill, shame on all of us,” Homan said, referring to the Obama administration’s contentious Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. "You can’t address DACA and reward people that brought children here illegally and not address underlying reasons of DACA.”
Homan, who said that he “100 percent support[s] the wall,” added that he is “sick and tired of the vilification of the men and women of ICE and the Border Patrol,” according to multiple accounts of his speech.
“If you violate the laws of this country, if you enter illegally, which is a crime, it’s not going to be OK anymore,” Horman said.
Sanctuary cities, Homan charged, endanger federal officers because they often force agents to make arrests in homes and workplaces – rather than controlled environments, like state jails.
"They [sanctuary cities] bankroll the very criminal organizations that have killed Border Patrol agents and killed special agents in ICE," Homan said, according to an account of his speech in the Washington Examiner.“If you violate the laws of this country, if you enter illegally, which is a crime, it’s not going to be OK anymore."
"It irritates me that a politician who has never held a badge and a gun, who doesn’t understand what we do every day, makes a decision of putting their own political careers ahead of the health and safety of a law enforcement officer," he said. "A shame!"
The approximately 40-minute speech came on the same day that ICE formalized a policy to send deportation agents to federal, state and local courthouses to make arrests.
The two-page directive said ICE will enter courthouses only for specific targets, such as convicted criminals, gang members, public safety threats and immigrants who have been previously deported or ordered to leave.
Family, friends and witnesses won't be picked up for deportation but ICE leaves a caveat for "special circumstances."
The policy, signed by Homan, says immigration agents should generally avoid arrests in non-criminal areas of the court, like family court and small claims, unless it supervisor approves.
ICE — in a not-so-subtle jab at sanctuary cities— said "increasing unwillingness of some jurisdictions to cooperate with ICE in the safe and orderly transfer of targeted aliens inside their prisons and jails has necessitated additional at-large arrests."
RNC Sets Fundraising Record in 2017
 |
| In this May 5, 2017, file photo, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel addresses Hispanic business owners and community members at the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce in Lansing, Mich. Republican senators are bucking President Donald Trump’s calls to revive the health care debate. And Trump just ousted his only top White House aide with deep links to the Republican Party. Trump’s fundraising prowess is the engine of the Republican National Committee and a lifeline for every Republican planning to rely on the party for financial help during next year’s congressional races. “The president is somebody who absolutely is an asset when it comes to fundraising,” Ronna Romney McDaniel said. |
The RNC announced on Wednesday it raised
nearly $133 million in 2017. That figure is more than double what the
Democratic National Committee raised last year.
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said the numbers reflect voters’ optimism
and continued support as President Trump fulfills his promises to the
American people.The RNC is said to have almost $40 million on hand, while the DNC has under $7 million on hand with more than $6 million dollars of debt.
Nashville council may probe whether mayor's affair was 'on taxpayers' dime'
 |
| Nashville Councilwoman Tanaka Vercher, left, has asked the council's lawyer to determine her authority to investigate the finances of Mayor Megan Barry, top right, who admitted having an extramarital affair with Sgt. Robert Forrest, her former security chief. |
The Nashville city council's budget chairwoman is
reviewing her options to probe Democratic Mayor Megan Barry’s possible
misuse of taxpayer funds during her extramarital affair.
Councilwoman Tanaka Vercher, who
heads the budget and finance committee, has asked the council’s lawyer
to determine her authority to investigate Barry’s expenses during her
tryst with with her former security chief, the Tennessean reported.
Barry racked up more than $33,000 in travel expenses
combined between her and the security officer, Sgt. Robert Forrest, from
January to late October 2017, and has said all of the trips were
business-related.According to a review by the Tennessean, Forrest accumulated more than $7,000 in overtime working on trips attended by Barry and others.
And in 2017, Forrest and Barry went on nine trips together – including one excursion to Greece -- that they said were "business related."
Forrest said Jan. 17 he would retire Wednesday after 31-plus years with Metro Nashville Police. He spent 14 years of that tenure supervising the mayor's security detail over three administrations.
“Right now the perception is — whether it’s true or not — that this affair occurred on taxpayers’ dime,” Vercher said, the Tennessean reported.
Barry vowed during a Wednesday news conference to cooperate with any investigators reviewing her conduct."Right now the perception is — whether it’s true or not — that this affair occurred on taxpayers’ dime.”
“Absolutely,” Barry said. “Our records are available for anybody to look at.
“There were no policies that were violated,” she added. “Nothing illegal happened. The records will absolutely show that the expenses matched what the overtime expected.”
The popular mayor, who was elected in 2015, said she plans to continue in office.
Trump critic and GOP pollster Frank Luntz: 'I owe Donald Trump an apology'
Conservative pollster Frank Luntz reconciled his
2015 public row with Donald Trump, saying Tuesday that he now owes the
president an apology after his State of the Union address.
“Tonight, I owe Donald Trump an
apology. Tonight, I was moved and inspired. Tonight, I have hope and
faith in America again. It may go away tomorrow. But tonight, America is
great again,” Luntz wrote in a series of tweets.
“Even in foreign policy and national security this
speech (is) a perfect blend of strength and empathy. These heroic
stories break our hearts, but sturdy our resolve. This is the Trump his
voters wanted him to be,” Luntz continued.The pollster’s praise for Trump did not stop there. He added that Trump's SOTU address “represents the presidential performance that Trump observers have been waiting for — brilliant mix of numbers and stories, humility and aggressiveness, traditional conservatism and political populism.”"This is the Trump his voters wanted him to be."
“Only one word qualifies: Wow,” Luntz wrote, admitting in another tweet that he has “criticized the President’s language a lot in recent months.
Luntz famously got into the public spat with then-candidate Trump in 2015 after he ran a focus group following the first Republican presidential debate that torched Trump’s prospects of becoming the Republican nominee for president.
Trump accused the top Republican pollster – describing him as “unfair” and “terrible” – of running biased focus groups because he once refused to hire Luntz’s research firm for the campaign.
"This has been going on, he's putting the arm on me all the time, and then he does these polls that are totally in violation of every other poll that was done," Trump told Business Outsider back then.
"I watch this guy do a really negative report on me, and the only reason he did it, in my opinion, is because I didn't want to hire him commercially.”
Luntz denied the accusations at the time, saying he was focused only on conducting accurate focus groups, noting that Trump "launches an attack on everyone who is even remotely critical."
"If the group had said Donald Trump won this debate ... I would be the world's greatest pollster," Luntz told the publication. "Because it didn't, I'm not."
During the presidential election night in 2016, Luntz asked not be called a Republican anymore because of Trump. “I am not part of this,” he told a Yahoo News host.
“I’m not part of that system, I’m not part of that negativity. This is not something I was involved in this year," he said. "I will leave it to others to explain and to try to get themselves out of this mess.”
But not everyone accepted Luntz’s embrace of Trump. MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brezezinski, who had the pollster on the show Wednesday, criticized him for asking why people cannot give deserved credit to Trump.
“I think because he’s literally screwed everybody in that room over a few times too many. He’s been vulgar,” she said. “He’s been racist and accused one of the senators in that room of giving sexual favors for money. He’s insulted the wife of a Republican senator in that room in the worst way possible.”
She added: “You tell me that that room is supposed to respond like this (begins clapping her hands) to the great dictator.”
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