Robert Mueller's Russia investigation Cartoons

Pres. Trump Cites GOP Anger, Unity Over Clinton-Russia Dossier

In this Oct. 26, 2017, photo, President Donald Trump speaks during an event to declare the opioid crisis a national public health emergency in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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President Trump takes to Twitter to unleash a barrage of tweets about possible ties between Hillary Clinton and the Russia dossier.
The president tweeted Sunday, that there is unity and anger among republican leaders about the lack of an investigation into Clinton’s wrongdoings. He also condemned the Uranium One Deal and the destruction of her 33,000 emails.
He also suggested all the talk about Russia comes as the GOP is making big moves to pass tax reform, claiming it’s not a coincidence it’s all happening at the same time.

Americans' 401(k)s will be safe, GOP leaders set record straight

GOP leaders are trying to ease panicked Americans who are socking away thousands of dollars annually for retirement, after lawmakers floated the idea of drastically reducing the pre-tax limit on contributions to $2,400 as part of the forthcoming tax plan.
“I think 401(k)s are very important,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., during an interview on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures”. “The way we’ll look at the 401(k), we will protect it, we’ll expand the amount that you can invest, but we’ll also give you an option to actually not be taxed later in life, not to have that tax burden hovering over you in the future, but actually have greater income in the future.”
Currently, people under age 50 are able to save up to $18,000 per year in pre-tax savings in their 401(k), while those over 50 can save up to $24,000. After reports surfaced that 401(k) those contributions could be curbed as part of the tax plan, President Donald Trump set the record straight.

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“There will be NO change to your 401(k). This has always been a great and popular middle class tax break that works, and it stays!” he tweeted on Monday. He reiterated this view while talking to the press on Wednesday.

McCarthy’s comments on Sunday follow fellow lawmaker Kevin Brady, R-Texas, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, who last week dialed back on reports that contributions could be cut as part of the tax plan.

On Friday, Brady said he and fellow lawmakers are now looking into possibly raising contribution limits to $20,000 or higher.

John Boehner unleashed: Ex-House speaker curses at lawmakers, says congressman once held a knife to his throat

Ohio Republican John Boehner retired from Capitol Hill as speaker in 2015 — and now has harsh words for his House coworkers. (REUTERS/Yuri Gripas)

Former House Speaker John Boehner, who retired in October 2015, is no longer holding back his anger against several of his former colleagues in Congress.

The Ohio Republican talked to Politico Magazine in a lengthy profile Sunday about the widening political divide in America. But he saved his harshest words for conservatives who worked alongside him. Among them: Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who became the chairman of the House Oversight Committee after Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, announced his resignation from Congress, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who helped found the House’s Freedom Caucus, which frequently clashed with Boehner.

“Gowdy — that’s my guy, even though he doesn’t know how to dress,” Boehner said. “F--- Jordan. F--- [Jason] Chaffetz. They’re both a--holes.”
Boehner called Chaffetz a “total phony” who was more obsessed with self-promotion than the American people. Chaffetz resigned from Congress in June and joined Fox News as a contributor. He didn't immediately respond.
“Jordan was a terrorist as a legislator going back to his days in the Ohio House and Senate,” Boehner added to Politico. “A terrorist. A legislative terrorist.”

John Boehner called Rep. Jason Chaffetz, seen here in 2015, a “phony” only out for himself in a new interview. Chaffetz stepped down in 2017, and is now a contributer to Fox News. (REUTERS/Jim Bourg)

Jordan was taken aback.
“Oh, my goodness. I feel sorry for the guy if he’s that bitter about a guy coming here and doing what he told the voters he was gonna do. Wow. I feel bad for him,” Jordan told Politico. “But in the end, we were not doing what the voters elected us to do and what we told them we were going to do. We just weren’t. And I would argue the same thing is happening now.”

John Boehner said Rep. Don Young once pinned him against a wall with a knife to his throat. (Office of Rep. Don Young)

Boehner also recounted that before he was best man at Rep. Don Young's wedding, the Alaska Republican restrained him against a wall and held a 10-inch knife to knife to his throat during a fight over measures that fund projects in lawmakers’ home districts.
Boehner responded by staring Young in the eyes and saying, “F--- you.”
Young told Politico that Boehner’s recollection was “mostly true.”

Speculation swirls as Mueller indictment looms in Russia investigation

Speculation has escalated in Washington and across the country as lawmakers await the announcement of at least one indictment in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election — an announcement that could come as early as Monday.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., predicted Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week” that two prominent Trump campaign associates believed to be at the center of the investigation — former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort — could be indicted.

MUELLER HAS FILED CHARGES IN RUSSIA-TRUMP ASSOCIATES PROBE: MULTIPLE REPORTS
“Well, you know, there are two people I think just from press reporting that it is likely to be, either Mike Flynn or Paul Manafort,” Schiff said. “We haven’t been informed of who it is, and I don’t think it would been appropriate for Bob Mueller to tell us.”
Manafort has been the subject of an investigation into his dealings in Ukraine several years ago — for which he did not file as a foreign agent until June 2017.
Flynn was a Trump surrogate during the campaign and briefly served as national security adviser before being fired for failing to fully disclose his conversations with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s former ambassador to the United States.
The Wall Street Journal reported at least one person could be taken into custody as early as Monday.
Meanwhile, House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., told “Fox News Sunday,” ”We don’t know who’s being charged. … We don’t know what they are being charged for. We don’t know the time period.”
He added it was “kind of ironic that the people charged with investigating the law and executing the law would violate the law.”
GOWDY SLAMS MUELLER TEAM OVER LEAKS ABOUT CHARGES IN TRUMP-RUSSIA PROBE
Speaking on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. — who has publicly feuded in recent days with President Trump — said he had “no knowledge” regarding the indictments, and that he’s focused on doing his job for the American people.
“I don’t know the substance. I have no knowledge. Like you, we’ll wait and see what happens,” Corker said Sunday. “But most of us are focused on the policies we have to deal with on behalf of the American people, and right now you know that’s been a sideshow.”
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also told “Face the Nation” that Mueller’s investigation “from the very beginning … has gone along two tracks. One is the independent counsel’s investigation to see if there’s criminal wrongdoing, and it looks like we’re going to find out as early as tomorrow about some indictments in that area.”
On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump was “confident” Mueller would soon “close” his investigation.
The Justice Department’s special counsel’s office declined to comment on the reports of filed charges.

Michael Moore Cartoons

Trump slams Michael Moore for Broadway 'bomb'

Michael Moore's one-man show 'The Terms of My Surrender' ended its 13-week run on Broadway this past Sunday.  (AP)

President Donald Trump has mocked left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore, tweeting Saturday that the director's one-man Broadway show was "a TOTAL BOMB".

Moore, the director of several documentaries including "Roger and Me," "Bowling for Columbine," and "Farenheit 9/11," responded later Saturday with a tweet of his own.

Moore's show, "The Terms of My Surrender," ended its 13-week run Oct. 22. The website BroadwayWorld.com reported that it took in $4.2 million at the box office, less than half of its potential take.
The show, which combined Moore's autobiography with calls for political action against Trump and other Republicans, was a critical disappointment as well. The New York Times described "Terms of My Surrender" as "shaggy and self-aggrandizing."
"You don’t have to disagree with Mr. Moore’s politics to find that his shtick has become disagreeable with age," wrote reviewer Jesse Green, who compared the show to "being stuck at Thanksgiving dinner with a garrulous, self-regarding, time-sucking uncle."
Moore has been an outspoken critic of Trump. In August, Moore led the show's audience to Trump Tower to protest the president's reaction to deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va. That same night, he compared the president's supporters to accomplices in a rape during an interview with CNN.
"If you hold down the woman while the rapist is raping her, and you didn't rape her, are you a rapist?" Moore said at the time. "Let's cut the BS and start speaking honestly."
This week, Moore told the Wall Street Journal in an email that the show was "the most artistically gratifying experience of my life" and said there were "talks happening about taking this show on the road."

Trump critic Matt Taibbi facing backlash over Russia memoir

Little Weasel

Matt Taibbi, a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, is facing backlash over a 2000 memoir he co-authored.  (Penguin Random House)

Rolling Stone magazine journalist Matt Taibbi won a lot of praise from the anti-Trump crowd earlier this year, when he released a book titled “Insane Clown President.”

But now many of those admirers may be wondering who the real clown is.

After receiving backlash over a 2000 memoir that details his past behavior toward women, Taibbi now says the book was a fictional “satire.”
Taibbi abruptly canceled his scheduled appearance at a humanities festival in Chicago on Saturday after negative reaction to an interview he recently gave to an NPR reporter.
According to Reuters, NPR asked Taibbi about the memoir he co-authored, called “The Exile: Sex, Drugs and Libel in the New Russia.”
The book details the exploits of Taibbi, 47, and another staffer while they worked for an English-language newspaper in Russia.
The memoir includes anecdotes in which Taibbi and co-author Mark Ames seem to have mistreated – possibly even assaulted – some women they encountered in Russia, Reuters reported.
According to an excerpt published by the Chicago Reader, Taibbi and Ames refer to attractive Russian women as being “usually available to the highest bidder,” and often willing to engage in “condomless sex.”
But in a Facebook post last week, Taibbi wrote that the memoir was really fictional and that his intent was to poke fun at the idea of Americans living in Russia.
“I regret many editorial decisions that I made back then, and putting my name as a co-author on a book that used cruel and misogynistic language to describe many people and women in particular,” Taibbi wrote. “I hope readers can forgive my poor judgment at that time.”
Co-author Ames also posted that the book was fictional.
“I never raped, harassed, assaulted anyone, and it sickens me that I’m dragged into having to make this sort of denial,” Ames wrote, according to Reuters.
The Chicago Reader’s Aimee Levitt, however, notes that Twitter users have pointed out that the book contains a note at the beginning, saying it was nonfictional.
“To fail to acknowledge Taibbi's earlier work is to say that what he and Ames wrote about doing didn't matter, how those women felt didn't matter, and, by extension, to say we don't matter, and you, our female readers, don't matter,” Levitt writes. “But we do. And you do.”