Trump says FBI's Strzok's text constitutes 'treasonous act': report

Congressional lawmakers are reportedly looking into whether Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were behind some leaks to the media on the Russia investigation; reaction and analysis from cybersecurity analyst Morgan Wright.

President Donald Trump said in an interview Thursday that the FBI agent who was removed from the Russian-interference probe and once referred to the president as a “loathsome human being” committed an act of “treason.”

Trump told the Wall Street Journal that the text message from Agent Peter Strzok, where he mentioned an "insurance policy" if Trump was elected, was tantamount to treason.

Strzok was removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe in July.
The agent had been deeply involved in the Clinton email inquiry and was in the room when she was interviewed by the FBI. He later helped investigate whether the Trump campaign worked with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
Strzok wrote a text message on Aug. 15, 2016, to Lisa Page, with whom he was romantically involved, saying, “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office -- that there’s no way he gets elected -- but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40."
"Andy" is believed to be a reference to FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
“A man is tweeting to his lover that if [Democrat Hillary Clinton ] loses, we’ll essentially do the insurance policy. We’ll go to phase two and we’ll get this guy out of office,” Trump told the Journal. “This is the FBI we’re talking about — that is treason. That is a treasonous act. What he tweeted to his lover is a treasonous act.”
Aitan Goelman, Strzok’s attorney, told the paper that it was “beyond reckless” for the president to accuse a man who “devoted his entire adult life to defending this country, of treason.”
“It should surprise no one that the president has both the facts and law wrong,” Goelman said.

Are #NeverTrumpers being consumed by their own fiery denunciations?

Time magazine's new cover, showing Donald Trump's yellowish hair on fire in a cartoonish blaze, symbolizes how the media view the president as a hot mess.

But some of the president's fiercest critics on the right are starting to recognize how their side’s animosity is burning out of control.

The relentless negativity of the #NeverTrumpers actually helps him by making his detractors seem obsessed and unwilling to credit him for just about anything. They give the president a big target, one that is widely distrusted by his base. And they can seem incredibly condescending toward the man in the White House.
This is not just an extension of liberal bias. Many in the #NeverTrump movement are on the right, having tried to block him from winning the Republican nomination and now convinced that he is damaging their movement.
David Brooks, the moderately conservative New York Times columnist, has been extremely harsh toward the president, likening him to a small child and generally rendering him as unfit for office. But in a bit of a reassessment, Brooks now says the critics have gone too far.
People who meet with the president, he says, are often surprised to find "that Trump is not the raving madman they expected from his tweetstorms or the media coverage. They generally say that he is affable, if repetitive. He runs a normal, good meeting and seems well-informed enough to get by ...
"The White House is getting more professional. Imagine if Trump didn't tweet. The craziness of the past weeks would be out of the way, and we'd see a White House that is briskly pursuing its goals: the shift in our Pakistan policy, the shift in our offshore drilling policy, the fruition of our ISIS policy, the nomination for judgeships and the formation of policies on infrastructure, DACA, North Korea and trade."
In other words, for all the sound and fury, the president is doing a reasonably good job.
But the anti-Trump movement—of which Brooks is a "proud member"—"seems to be getting dumber. It seems to be settling into a smug, fairy tale version of reality that filters out discordant information" and views Trump as "a semiliterate madman surrounded by sycophants who are morally, intellectually and psychologically inferior to people like us."
In perhaps the unkindest cut, Brooks says "the anti-Trump movement suffers from insularity. Most of the people who detest Trump don't know anybody who works with him or supports him."

That last point buttresses something I've been saying for a long time, that some of the opposition to the 45th president is not just ideological, not just stylistic, but cultural in nature. And those who suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, just like those who suffered from Obama Derangement Syndrome, may be deluded into thinking the whole world agrees with them.
Another #NeverTrumper, Bret Stephens, who joined the Times from the Wall Street Journal, hasn't softened his view of the president. But he does allow that "if the anti-Trump movement has a crippling defect, it’s smugness ... We're the moral scolds who struggle to acknowledge the skeletons in our own closet, the smart people whose forecasts keep proving wrong. We said Trump couldn't win. That the stock market would never recover from his election. That he would blow up NATO. That the Middle East would erupt in violence when Jerusalem was recognized as Israel's capital.
"The catastrophes haven't happened, and maybe that's just a matter of luck. But by constantly predicting doom and painting the White House in the darkest colors, anti-Trumpers have only helped the president. We have set an almost impossibly high bar for Trumpian failure."
It may well be that the Trump-bashing crowd lowers expectations to the point where the president can look good simply by presiding over, say, a substantive negotiating session on immigration.
But if some of the movement's own commentators are seeing its members as smug and insular, it suggests that the fire over the Trump presidency may be consuming them instead.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. 

Trump MAGA slogan 'code for Make America White Again,' black caucus leader says

The leader of the Congressional Black Caucus said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s comments on immigrants from Haiti and Africa are “proof” that his Make America Great Again slogan is code for “Make America White Again.”

U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., responded to Trump lamenting about "s---hole" countries during immigration negotiations with lawmakers in the Oval Office, Fox News confirmed. The Washington Post first reported the comments.

“President Trump’s comments are yet another confirmation of his racially insensitive and ignorant views. It also reinforces the concerns that we hear every day, that the President’s slogan Make America Great Again is really code for Make America White Again,” Richmond said in a statement.
Richmond also accused Trump of being more concerned with stemming the flow of African immigrants than helping Dreamers.
“Unfortunately, there is no reason to believe that we can negotiate in good faith with a person who holds such vile and reprehensible beliefs,” Richmond said.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., blasted President Trump after his comments on Haitian and African immigrants.  (Facebook)

The congressman's comments echoed remarks made by others in Congress.
“As an American, I am ashamed of the president,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said. “His comments are disappointing, unbelievable, but not surprising. We always knew that President Trump doesn’t like people from certain countries or people or certain colors.”
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said, “Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn't be heard in the White House.”
Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, whose parents were Haitian immigrants, urged Trump to apologize, saying his comments were “unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values.”
About a dozen people, both Republicans and Democrats, were in the room at the time Trump made the comments, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
Trump made the comments as Durbin was reading a list of temporary protected-status countries.
The president also suggested the United States should admit more people from countries like Norway instead, the Post reported. Trump had met with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and held a news conference with her Wednesday.
In a statement, the White House did not deny Trump made the comments.
“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” said Raj Shah, principal deputy White House press secretary.

DACA Cartoons 2017

Obama White House's lavish gifts from foreign friends revealed

Federal documents revealed that President Barack Obama, his family and a top official received gifts from the Cuban government and other foreign friends during his final two years in office.

Cuban cigars and rum, sculptures decorated in gold, precious gems and even jewelry adorned in diamonds and rubies — all of them among the many lavish gifts the Obama family and administration officials received from foreign governments while President Barack Obama was in office.

In most cases, the Obamas and other officials handed over the gifts to the National Archives.

Federal documents released on Wednesday revealed the gifts during Obama’s final two years in office included more than $2,000 worth of cigars, rum and other famous consumer products from the Cuban government.
Cuba gave the gifts after Obama attempted to ease tensions with the communist regime, a measure that included the easing of the U.S. ban on imported Cuban liquor and tobacco.
The documents released by the State Department’s Protocol Office revealed that Castro gave Obama 205 cigars of an unnamed brand, a humidor and cigar cutter along with the bottle of rum in 2015. The tobacco and liquor were accompanied by a carved wooden bust of Abraham Lincoln.
Obama’s deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, meanwhile, received cigars, jewelry and a music CD — a gift package worth $670.

The Obama family was given two Argentine national football team jerseys signed by star Lionel Messi that were valued at $1,700.  (File)

Government officials are allowed to accept presents from foreign leaders and governments if refusing them would cause embarrassment. But they generally must turn them over to the National Archives if the goods are worth more than a modest amount. Officials also could reimburse the government for their value.
According to the State Department’s documents, Obama and Rhodes turned over the cigars and rum to the Secret Service and the Archives.
In 2016, Castro gave First Lady Michelle Obama a white linen dress and a large decorated ceramic plate worth an estimated $1,190. The Obamas’ two daughters also received linen dresses from Castro, two prints and a Cuban music collection on CD valued at $1,164.
Among other unusual gifts given to Obama by foreign leaders during his final year in office were a gold and silver sculpture of a Bedouin group decorated with precious gems, and a silver tone letter opener and pen worth $56,720 from Saudi King Salman. In addition, the president got a black electric bicycle worth $1,499 from the president of Argentina, who also gave the first family two Argentine national football team jerseys signed by star Lionel Messi that were valued at $1,700.
The most expensive single gift reported in 2016, however, came from the king of Morocco. He presented the first family with an ornate gold-plated brooch adorned with diamonds and rubies, a gold clutch with an emerald and diamond clasp, diamond earrings and gold teardrop earrings with diamonds and emeralds. Those were estimated to be worth $101,200, and were turned over to the National Archives, according to the documents.

Fromer CIA director John Brennan was reportedly given a $4,000 bottle of Remy Martin Louis XIII Grande Champagne Cognac.  (Remy Martin)

Expensive alcohol and tobacco products seemed to be the gifts of choice for U.S. officials, particularly those in the intelligence community.
Former CIA director John Brennan reported getting a $4,000 bottle of Remy Martin Louis XIII Grande Champagne Cognac, a $1,800 bottle of Siglo Rum and an unspecified number of cigars worth $500. The documents say those were turned over to the General Services Administration.

Gifts given to government officials must be turned over to the National Archives if the value of them is worth more than a modest amount.  (iStock)

An unnamed official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence received a similar bottle of $4,000 Remy Martin cognac. Curiously, the documents say the liquor was “retained for official use.”

Trump quiets his critics by floating immigration deal, but infuriates his base

Well, he didn't look like a guy who was utterly incapable of doing his job.

In fact, the president of the United States looked like he was grappling with a difficult issue with leaders of both parties—and with the cameras rolling.

Trump’s negotiating session was so unusual that even liberal pundits heaped praise on him for working on the sensitive subject for nearly an hour without kicking out the TV pool, which usually happens after a couple of minutes.
For Trump, actually doing the job—whether it leads to an immigration deal or not—sends a much better message than tweeting that he is a "stable genius."
Of course, much of his right wing exploded at the substance of what he was suggesting, that he could do a deal with the Dems on comprehensive immigration reform.
Still, it was a better narrative than one about Trump's mental stability, or even Oprah.
"After days in which his very fitness for office was debated," the New York Times said, "Mr. Trump appeared intent on demonstrating that he could handle the presidency. He was in command of the meeting while inviting input. He did not berate anyone. He did not call anyone derogatory nicknames. He signaled that he was open to compromise."
The paper added that the bar "was historically low" given the recent chatter about whether Trump is incapable of being president.
"He acted the part, listening intently and guiding the conversation with the control of a firm but open-minded executive," the Washington Post said. "He spoke the part, offering a mix of jesting bon mots and high-minded appeals for bipartisanship. And he looked the part, down to the embroidered '45' on his starched white shirt cuff.
"In short, President Trump on Tuesday tried to show that he could do his job."
And in more dramatic terms, the paper said Trump was trying to answer the question: "Is the 71-year-old mentally fit to be commander in chief?"
So let’s assume that Trump aced this particular class, although some detractors are saying it was just for show. The president himself said yesterday that he got rave reviews from two networks (CNN and MSNBC) for about two hours before they "went south," joking that the anchors must have received calls from their bosses.
But was it wise for him to talk about immigration legislation as a "bill of love," using the same word that caused the right to slam Jeb Bush during his primary run?
Trump said at the meeting that if the Democrats were willing to include funding for a border wall and an end to chain migration as well as legal relief for the dreamers, "I'll take the heat, I don't care. I don’t care--I'll take all the heat you want to give me, and I'll take the heat off both the Democrats and the Republicans. My whole life has been heat. I like heat."
Some conservative commentators, led by Ann Coulter, are apoplectic about what they see as the president abandoning his hard line on immigration. There’s no question that a deal would hurt Trump with at least part of his base.
But I've always maintained that Trump essentially ran as an independent candidate, one who was not part of the Republican establishment. In his first year, he went along with the GOP on just about everything, which was one reason he couldn’t get ObamaCare repealed. If he pushed through some bipartisan bills this year, I believe it would help him expand his base.
Of course, Trump has made feints in this direction before, especially on the dreamers, only to later insist on conditions that made a deal impossible. And the reason that Barack Obama and George W. Bush couldn’t push through a big immigration bill is that the politics are treacherous.
But if Trump tried moving down the bipartisan path, the second year of his presidency could look very different.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. 

High-level Obama appointee billed public for at least $4,000 in cab rides: report

In an undated photo, Vikrum Aiyer, then chief of staff of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, poses with President Barack Obama.  (Facebook)

A high-ranking Obama administration official unlawfully billed taxpayers more than $4,000 for taxi rides from his home to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office headquarters, an internal investigation has found.

Vikrum Aiyer, who served as chief of staff of the agency, a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, forced the taxpayers to foot a bill for at least 130 unauthorized taxi rides – the majority of which occurred during a four-month period in 2016, according to a report released Tuesday by investigators, the Washington Post reported.

Aiyer previously served as President Barack Obama’s senior policy adviser at the National Economic Council. He allegedly impersonated other current and former high-ranking agency officials, using their names on taxi receipts to avoid being caught in the unauthorized scheme.
But the ruse was soon discovered after officials started raising questions. They confronted the Patent and Trademark Office’s then-communications director – one of the names Aiyer used to bill the rides – who told investigators that he did not use the taxis as he regularly drove to work.
“The evidence … establishes that Political Appointee knowingly used the Agency’s Cab Company account for impermissible purposes on a routine basis and that he took steps to conceal his unauthorized use of this account by providing false names and false location information,” Commerce Department Investigator General Peggy Gustafson wrote in the report, according to the Post.

In an undated photograph, Vikrum Aiyer (left) speaks with President Bill Clinton.  (Facebook)

Aiyer’s use of government money to pay for his commute violated federal policy prohibiting such practices.
He did not deny the findings during an interview with investigators in December 2016. Instead, he justified the practice by saying other officials allegedly did the same.
“Political Appointee said he thought it was permissible to provide incorrect trip origin or destination information because this was the ‘protocol that was imparted to [him] by [his] bosses at the time,’ and ‘because this is how … prior bosses approach[ed] it,’ ” investigators wrote, according to the Post.
Over two years, the government paid Alexandria Yellow Cab, a company contracted to provide authorized cab services to agency’s officials, well over $4,000 for Aiyer’s rides, the report said.
While most of the cab rides took him to and from work, investigators also found that Aiyer sometimes used the agency’s cab account to “facilitate his weekend social activity ... but he made it appear otherwise when arranging for these cabs.”

Seal calls out Oprah Winfrey for hypocrisy, calls her 'part of the problem'

Seal accused Oprah Winfrey of having some knowledge of disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein's alleged misdeeds, calling her 'part of the problem' in Hollywood in a fiery Instagram post Wednesday.  (Reuters)

Internationally renowned musician Seal trashed Oprah Winfrey on social media just days after her widely praised speech at the Golden Globe Awards on sexual misconduct in Hollywood, calling her a “part of the problem for decades.”
In a fiery Instagram post Wednesday, Seal republished a pair of photos of Winfrey with disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, including one in which she appears to be kissing the producer’s cheek. Overlayed on the photos, in all-caps, is the text: “When you have been part of the problem for decades, but suddenly they all think you are the solution.”
Seal added a sarcastic comment to the right of the photographs that suggested Winfrey knew Weinstein was mistreating women.
“Oh I forgot, that's right.....you'd heard the rumours but you had no idea he was actually serially assaulting young stary-eyed actresses who in turn had no idea what they were getting into. My bad,” Seal wrote.
He added the hashtag “#SanctimoniousHollywood” to the post.
On Tuesday, comedian and “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane also spoke out against Winfrey, cautioning that celebrity power does not alone qualify a candidate for the presidency.
“Oprah is beyond doubt a magnificent orator,” MacFarlane wrote. “But the idea of a reality show star running against a talk show host is troublingly dystopian. We don’t want to create a world where dedicated public service careers become undesirable and impractical in the face of raw celebrity.”
Juanita Broaddrick, the now-75-year-old retired nurse, has alleged former President Bill Clinton raped her during his 1978 campaign for Arkansas governor, and that his wife Hillary Clinton helped him cover it up. She brought that allegation to Orpah's attention.
“Hey @Oprah #GoldenGlobes,” tweeted Broaddrick Monday. “Funny I’ve never heard you mention my name. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?Guess not. My rapist was/is your friend, Bill Clinton.”