President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly claimed that nobody respects women more than him, referred to Stormy Daniels as “Horseface” in a tweet on Tuesday.
Trump compared the adult film entertainer — who he allegedly had an affair with — to a horse in response to a federal judge’s dismissal of Daniels’ defamation lawsuit. The White House has said Trump believes Daniels lied about being threatened to keep quiet about their relationship in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011.
The defamation suit is separate from the Stormy Daniels lawsuit against Trump and others related to the “hush payment”
Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ attorney, called Trump “a disgusting misogynist and an embarrassment to the United States” in response on Twitter.
Daniels claims her affair with Trump, which included unprotected sex, started just months after First Lady Melania Trump gave birth to the couple’s only child in 2006. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, admitted to paying Daniels $130,000 in a hush payment weeks before the 2016 election. Cohen eventually reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors after investigations into payments that were made to numerous women who claimed to have affairs with Trump.
Despite repeatedly asserting his unparalleled respect for women, Trump has a long-documented history of sexism and misogyny, including mocking the physical appearance of Republican rivals, commenting about his desire to date underaged girls, rating the attractiveness of women, telling a mother that she was “disgusting” for breastfeeding, mocking the looks of a woman who accused him of sexual assault, referring to women as “a beautiful piece of ass,” comparing an Olympic champion to a “linebacker,” saying “Women, you have to treat them like shit,” claiming he goes “through the roof” if dinner isn’t ready when he gets home, dropping numerous creepy remarks about his own daughter Ivanka, tweeting that Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, calling pregnancy an “inconvenience,” and referring to a Miss Universe winner as “Miss Piggy.”
It looks like the Saudi prince is trying to clear his name by throwing certain operatives under a bus.
Source tells NYT the Saudis are preparing to describe a scenario that would protect MBS from blame.
The source said the royal court would soon put out a narrative that an official within the kingdom's intel services carried out the killing of Khashoggi. https://t.co/bjAMUJQ3bU
2/ One source: report will likely conclude that the operation was carried out without clearance and transparency and that those involved will be held responsible.
One source: report is still being prepared and cautioned that things could change.
As this unfolds, it is worth noting that Khashoggi was I believe 59 and portly. it is pretty hard to see how an interrogation could have led to his accidental death. Torture, maybe. But again, a police or military team can pretty easily take custody of someone without killing them.
Even if you assume that the plan was to return him to Saudi, again, we’re talking about multiple members of a trained elite force dealing with a middle aged man. “Oops” is not a persuasive explanation.
Also, why the bone saw?
Another point: it sounds like Saudi Arabia is coming up with a “rogue killers” defense, which is exactly what Trump was saying this morning. Were they running it by him? Was he the advance PR man?
"Look, this guy thought that murdering a dissident on his own initiative would impress the crown prince, and that — why would he think that? That's so weird right? Thinking that? The ideas some nutjobs get, I tell ya. Hoo man. Anyway…" https://t.co/jYfQoPgWIMpic.twitter.com/9nYbbzAC6C
CNN is reporting that the Saudi preliminary report “could change”, meaning, I assume, this is a trial balloon and they still can backtrack and deny any knowledge.
UPDATE — Looks like the Turks got some kind of deal to keep their mouth shut
Saudis about to admit to “accidental” murder. Why? It’s likely Turks were about to release audio of the killing. What next? Will be declared “a rogue” & “unfortunate” loyalists act by King Abdullah. All banished to Mecca so cannot be interrogated. Trump & MBS will claim victory. https://t.co/qBNSCUcfSt
Fielding a question on the White House lawn, Donald Trump showed that he is always ready to believe a dictator … even when it requires saying something utterly ridiculous. Asked about the disappearance, and suspected murder, of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump was ready to say who it wasn’t.
Trump: The king firmly denies any knowledge of it.
And, just like Vladimir Putin denying that Russia hacked the 2016 election, the word of a dictator that oversaw 48 beheadings in just the first four months of 2018 was enough for Donald Trump. And, just as with the Russian hacking, Trump has an alternative theory.
Trump: He didn’t really know. Maybe … I don’t want to get into his mind, but it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. Who knows?
Rogue killers. Or maybe it was China. Or a 400 pound man in his parents’ basement. Who knows?
Trump: We’re going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial.
Well, okay then. If the guy who sends a man out with a sword to lop of the head of half a dozen people a week tells you he did not send out someone to chop up Khashoggi on the floor of the Saudi consulate and send his dismembered body out in bags … honestly the ghastliness of this crime could not be worse. Except that Trump is making it worse. He won’t believe American scientists when they tell him about climate change. He won’t believe American generals when they advise him on military situations. But Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Mohammed bin Salman—he believes them.
This is a frequent Trump tactic where he “confronts” the authoritarian leader with an accusation, they deny it, and he then tells the press this and promptly moves on to other things
Most striking part of this tweet: Trump emphasizes that Jamal Khashoggi — a Washington Post contributor and Virginia resident — is not an American citizen. https://t.co/0qZzZc2KQZ
And he’s hardly a visitor. Khashoggi has a green card, i.e. the US gov’t has designated him a permanent resident with the right to apply for citizenship after a certain # of years.
Been hearing the ridiculous “rogue killers” theory was where the Saudis would go with this. Absolutely extaordinary they were able to enlist the President of the United States as their PR agent to float it. https://t.co/ChRFyleneR
President Trump did a couple campaign rallies last week, met with Kanye West, and did LOTS of golfing this weekend, as Americans are still dying from Hurricane Michael. The official death toll stands at 18, but somewhere between 30 and 50 are being counted as missing in Mexico Beach Florida, alone. Access is still a problem as roads are still blocked.
This is another of Trump’s Katrinas. Puerto Rico was the other one.
In his first non-Fox interview in months, Trump talked to Leslie Stahl for “60 Minutes”. Here’s a highlight of the insanity
Climate change
“I think something’s happening. Something’s changing and it’ll change back again. I don’t think it’s a hoax, I think there’s probably a difference. But I don’t know that it’s manmade. I will say this. I don’t want to give trillions and trillions of dollars. I don’t want to lose millions and millions of jobs. I don’t want to be put at a disadvantage.”
“I’m not denying climate change. But it could very well go back. You know, we’re talking about over a millions of years. They say that we had hurricanes that were far worse than what we just had with Michael.”
Reality check: The vast majority of scientists do believe that climate change is a real — and dangerous — phenomenon, highlighted by last week’s report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that warned of potential catastrophe unless the world took “unprecedented” steps to combat the issue.
The Mueller investigation
Asked if he’d pledge to not shut down the investigation: “Well, I — I don’t pledge anything. But I will tell you, I have no intention of doing that. I think it’s a very unfair investigation because there was no collusion of any kind. There is no collusion. I don’t want to pledge. Why should I pledge to you? If I pledge, I’ll pledge. I don’t have to pledge to you. But I have — I have no intention of doing that.”
North Korea
Pressed by Stahl with Kim Jong-un’s history of torture, Trump responded: “Sure. I know all these things. I mean — I’m not a baby. I know these things.”
And asked about his declaration of “love” for Kim: “Look. Let it be whatever it is. I get along with him really well. I have a good energy with him. I have a good chemistry with him. Look at the horrible threats that were made. No more threats. No more threats.”
Russia
On Vladimir Putin’s alleged assassinations of political enemies: “Probably he is, yeah. Probably. I mean, I don’t — “
On meddling during the 2016 election: “They — they meddled. But I think China meddled too.”
His regrets as president
“The press treats me terribly. I thought very strongly that, you know, the one great thing will happen is the press will start treating me great. Lesley, they treat me worse. They got worse instead of better. Very dishonest. … I regret that the press treats me so badly.”
“I could have been earlier with terminating the NAFTA deal. The problem was, I was getting to know the leaders. I was getting to know countries. I didn’t want to do it right out of the box. So I waited a little while, but I could have done trade a little bit earlier.”
He also said that it didn’t matter how Dr. Christine Ford was treated during the Kavanaugh hearings. Why not? Because “we won”, Trump said.
Trump’s appearance on 60 Minutes seems to be a tactic for the upcoming election.
Trump team seems to have decided it needs to saturate the media space and political bandwidth w/Trump to greatest extent possible.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren released the results of a DNA test today that “strongly support” her claims of Native American ancestry, hitting back at President Donald Trump for mocking her and showing her seriousness about a 2020 presidential run.
The DNA test, conducted by Stanford University professor Carlos Bustamante, showed Warren’s likely Native American ancestry dates back six to 10 generations.
The release of the results were part of a rollout from Warren’s campaign showcasing her heritage while offering evidence that she did not benefit professionally from it. She was hired as an educator, Warren argued, because “she was an award-winning legal scholar and professor.”
The rollout, which came with a slick video showing Warren talking about her family with her older brothers, provided a glimpse into how Warren may take on Trump on the campaign trail, as she proactively tries to defuse one of his major attack lines against her.
But I am focusing on the Trump promise. So is Warren…
By the way, @realDonaldTrump: Remember saying on 7/5 that you’d give $1M to a charity of my choice if my DNA showed Native American ancestry? I remember – and here's the verdict. Please send the check to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center: https://t.co/I6YQ9hf7Tvpic.twitter.com/J4gBamaeeo
Trump flatly and falsely denies ever promising he'd donate $1m if @SenWarren could prove she's Native American, as she now has: "Who cares? I didn't say that. Nope, you better read it again." https://t.co/EXeywoukYBpic.twitter.com/NaTORPzfMl
If only there was some — I don’t know — VIDEO evidence of Trump making that promise….
“We will take that little kit — but we have to do it gently. Because we’re in the #MeToo generation, we have to do it gently,” the president trolled. “And we will very genlty take that kit, and slowly toss it, hoping it doesn’t injure her arm, and we will say: I will give you a million dollars to your favorite charity, paid for by Trump, if you take the test and it shows you’re an Indian.”
This week as Republicans celebrated the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, polling told a different story: more Americans disapprove of the confirmation, are concerned about Kavanaugh politicizing the court and believe there should be further Congressional investigation. Under Mitch McConnell’s Senate leadership, a record number of Trump judicial nominees have been pushed through, including restacking 15 percent of circuit court judges.
In the final weeks before midterms, Democrats poured record donations to House candidates, and Beto O’Rourke, the Senate candidate from Texas, pulled in a record-smashing haul of $38.1 million for the last quarter. Republicans sought to counter Democrats’ enthusiasm by riling their base by vilifying the left as paid protestors or a “mob” that threatens violence against the right. These tactics serve as an acknowledgment that traditional issues like tax cuts and the economy no longer excite the Republican base.
The disappearance and likely death of WAPO contributor Jamal Khashoggi, allegedly at the hands of the Saudi crown prince, along with the vicious murder of popular Bulgarian journalist Victoria Marinova — both government critics — drew international attention to the threat to human rights and the free press. Trump tried to side-step U.S. involvement, while sharpening his attacks on his Democratic rivals as scary, bad, evil, radical, and dangerous — and billing himself as the only one who can save his base from disaster.
After U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley became the latest on the growing list of senior official departures, Trump flirted with the idea of elevating Ivanka Trump to the position, repeatedly. For the first time since taking office, Trump’s campaign rallies no longer garnered live broadcast on Fox News, indicating a falloff in ratings.
Swift wrote in her post, “I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent.”
On Monday, when asked about Swift’s statement, Trump told reporters, “I’m sure Taylor Swift…doesn’t know anything about her (Blackburn),” adding, “Let’s say that I like Taylor’s music about 25% less now.”
In Georgia, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is the Republican running for governor, announced 53,000 voter registrations were flagged and would be put on hold. Of those on hold, 70 percent are Black Americans.
Other option being considered includes new rules to withdraw from a 1997 federal court agreement that limits ICE custody of children to 20 days and imposes production quotas on immigration judges.
Trump has long and deep business ties to Saudi Arabia, which he bragged about on the campaign trail in 2015, while creating new foreign entities in the kingdom. The Saudis have purchased his yacht and apartments at his properties.
On Saturday, Trump vowed “severe punishment” if Saudi Arabia murdered Khashoggi, adding “Well, nobody knows yet, but we’ll probably be able to find out,” in an interview for “60 Minutes” set to air Sunday night.
Smith went to great lengths to remain secretive: donations were sent to a Washington, D.C.-based scholarship fund for Russian students, and he communicated using a Gmail account under the name “Robert Tyler.”
Nader, who is cooperating in the Mueller, probe, and Zamel have given differing accounts of whether Psy-Group carried out social media efforts to help the Trump campaign. Nader paid him $2 million after the election.
In a break from precedent, Trump apologized to Kavanaugh: “On behalf of our nation…for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure” and decried the “campaign of personal destruction.”
Unlike most who have departed from the regime, Hicks remains close with Trump, including traveling with him on Air Force One in August, and is held in high esteem by many in the West Wing.
The report found if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, the atmosphere will warm by as much as 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) over preindustrial levels by 2040.
The op-ed also contained incendiary statements, including “The truth is that the centrist Democratic Party is dead. The new Democrats are radical socialists who want to model America’s economy after Venezuela.”
USA TodayEditorial Page Editor Bill Sternberg pushed on Twitter, writing “The degree of fact-checking is also apparent in the many hyperlinks in the digital version.” The links do not back up the claims in the editorial.
On Thursday, Trump continued to attack the Fed, telling reporters the Fed’s monetary policy “is far too stringent,” adding “they’re making a mistake and it’s not right.”
The “Fox & Friends” co-hosts repeatedly tried to end the interview. Eventually, host Steve Doocy found an opening to end the interview, telling Trump, “Go run the country.”
Trump then praised Confederate General Robert E. Lee, calling Lee a “true great fighter” and “great general” and added Abraham Lincoln once had a “phobia” of Lee, whose support of slavery made his legacy contested.
Trump also evoked the notion of the mob, claiming from the moment Kavanaugh was announced as his nominee, “an angry Democratic mob was on a mission to resist, obstruct, delay, and destroy him.”
The head of a pro-Trump super PAC said “we’ve never seen anything like this before.” House GOP aides hoping to receive a late cash transfer from the Republican National Committee no longer expect that to happen.
A new proposal by the Trump regime’s Park Department could restrict protests by effectively blocking them along the north sidewalk of the White House and making it easier for police to shut them down.
Jamal Khashoggi, a well-known Saudi Arabian journalist and Washington Post columnist who has been critical of his country’s government, vanished last week.
His disappearance is straining Turkey-Saudi relations and could complicate Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s recent attempts to recast his government as forward-thinking and reform-minded — as well as his country’s close relationship with the US.
The 59-year-old veteran journalist was last seen on October 2 walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. He was there to obtain a document verifying his divorce so that he could marry his Turkish fiancée.
But what happened next is a mystery.
Turkish officials have said they have “concrete” evidence that Khashoggi never left the building and was murdered there; some have even put forth gruesome theories of how his body may have been dismembered and smuggled out.
The Saudi government, however, says it had nothing to do with his disappearance and maintains that he left through a back entrance, though it has provided no evidence to support that.
A Saudi official told me in an email on Monday that “Jamal’s disappearance is a matter of grave concern to us, and we categorically reject any allegations of involvement in his disappearance.”
Murdered WaPo journalist, who was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, recorded the audio of his death via his Apple watch. His location was tracked as well. https://t.co/A3riiitNGb
Amid the ongoing investigation, relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey have quickly soured. The mystery is shaking Washington as well: Khashoggi is a US resident and had been living in self-imposed exile in Virginia for about a year — fearful, he said, that the Saudi government would target him for his dissident views.
If he was indeed murdered by his own government, it raises bigger questions about the safety of journalists, freedom of speech, and the future of Saudi relations with Turkey, the US, and others.
WaPo reported: “Before Khashoggi’s disappearance, U.S. intelligence intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture him, according to a person familiar with the information.”
Khashoggi used to enjoy close ties to the Saudi royal family. In the early 2000s, he served as an adviser to Saudi Prince Turki bin Faisal, the former director of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency, while the prince was the ambassador to Washington. Khashoggi also worked as the editor of a Saudi newspaper, Al Watan. But in recent years, he had taken a more critical tack, criticizing the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (also known as MBS).
The 33-year-old crown prince has tried to paint himself as a reformer by loosening restrictions on women driving and opening up cinemas in the Kingdom, but he’s also led a purge of opposition within his government under the guise of a crackdown on corruption and championed a bloody, brutal war with Yemen that’s left tens of thousands dead.
And despite his reforms, MBS hasn’t shown any willingness to tolerate political dissent or free speech. He’s even arrested some of the activists who championed the reforms he’s pushed through.
In June 2017, Khashoggi, fearing arrest, left the country. He resettled in the US, where he spent the past year living in self-imposed exile.
Khashoggi became a frequent contributor to publications like the Washington Post’s global opinions section and continued to criticize the Saudi government from afar. In a column published last September titled “Saudi Arabia wasn’t always this repressive. Now it’s unbearable,” he wrote of how his hope that the crown prince would be a reform-minded voice has now given way to fear of repression.
“I have left my home, my family and my job, and I am raising my voice,” he wrote. “To do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot. I want you to know that Saudi Arabia has not always been as it is now. We Saudis deserve better.”
Khashoggi also expressed concern about being targeted by the Saudi government for his views, telling journalist Robin Wright in August that the country’s new leadership would like to “see me out of the picture.”
And just three days before he disappeared into the Saudi consulate in Turkey, he told BBC Newshour in an off-air interview that he doubted he’d ever be able to return to his home country. “I don’t think I’ll be able to go home,” he told the BBC, saying that in Saudi Arabia, “the people who are arrested are not even dissidents.”
Three days later, his worst fears may have been realized.
Khashoggi first went to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on September 28 to file paperwork needed for his upcoming wedding to a Turkish woman, Hatice Cengiz.
On October 2, he returned to the Saudi Consulate at around 1 pm, according to Cengiz. She told the Washington Post that she waited for him by the gate outside, but that several hours later, even after the consulate had closed, there was still no sign of him.
Cengiz said that she called the consulate and spoke to a guard, who told her there was no one inside. She then called the police, as well as an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as Khashoggi had instructed her to do if anything should happen to him.
After several days of confusion and no sign of Khashoggi, Turkish officials said on Sunday that they believed the journalist had been murdered, according to the Washington Post.
Yasin Aktay, a friend of Khashoggi’s and adviser to the Turkish president, told Reuters that he believed Khashoggi had been killed inside the Saudi Consulate, and that Turkish authorities think 15 Saudi nationals were involved.
Turan Kışlakçı, the head of the Turkish-Arab Media Association and a friend of Khashoggi’s, told the Associated Press that Turkish officials he’d spoken with said Khashoggi had been murdered “in a barbaric way” and that they had evidence which they had not yet released. Other anonymous Turkish officials told news outlets that his murder had been “preplanned” and that his body had been moved from the consulate.
On Monday, Turkey requested an official search of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to find evidence of the apparent crime. Saudi officials said they would allow the consulate to be inspected.
Erdoğan has weighed in as well, saying that the disappearance was “very, very upsetting.” During a press conference on Monday, the Turkish president said the onus was on Saudi Arabia to prove that Khashoggi had indeed left the consulate. “The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying ‘he has left,’” Erdogan said, according to Reuters.
In a letter to journalists on Tuesday, Saudi Ambassador to the US Prince Khalid bin Salman wrote that the Saudi government had sent a security team to work with Turkey to uncover what happened and were cooperating with Turkish authorities.
“Jamal has many friends in the Kingdom, including myself, and despite our differences, and his choice to go into his so called ‘self-exile,’ we still maintained regular contact when he was in Washington,” he wrote. “Jamal is a Saudi citizen whose safety and security is a top priority for the Kingdom, just as is the case with any other citizen.”
But on Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that the Saudi Crown Prince had devised a plan to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and detain him, according to US intelligence intercepts of Saudi communications.
The Post also reported that two planes carrying a team of 15 Saudi men arrived in Istanbul from Riyadh on the day that Khashoggi disappeared, and left later that day. Experts have speculated that these men were part of an effort to capture him and bring him back to the Kingdom — an effort that may have gone badly wrong.
But here’s where it gets tricky.
Possible Saudi involvement in the disappearance—and alleged murder—of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi presents the U.S.-Saudi relationship with its greatest crisis since 9/11. If the Saudis are proven guilty of this heinous crime, it should change everything about the United States’ long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia. Regrettably, it probably won’t.
The administration’s identification with Mohammed bin Salman, as a modernizer determined to open up the kingdom and tame its religious extremism has now been undermined by a crueler reality—that of a ruthless, reckless, and impulsive leader willing to repress and silence his critics at home and abroad.
Whatever happened to Khashoggi is first and foremost on the Saudis. But in kowtowing to Riyadh in a fanciful effort to make it the centerpiece of U.S. strategy in the Middle East, the Trump administration has emboldened MbS, as the crown prince is known, created a sense of invincibility, and encouraged him to believe there are no consequences for his reckless actions. And it is likely, unless confronted with incontrovertible evidence of Saudi responsibility for Khashoggi’s death or serious pressure from Congress, the president would be reluctant to impose them even now.
Trump’s enabling of Saudi Arabia began even before he became president. He talked openly on the campaign trail about his admiration for Saudi Arabia and how he couldn’t refuse Saudi offers to invest millions in his real-estate ventures. His predecessors may have gone to Mexico or Canada for their first foreign foray; Trump chose Saudi Arabia. In a trip carefully choreographed by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who quickly established close personal ties with the soon-to-be crown prince, Trump was feted, flattered, and filled with hopes for billions in arms sales and Saudi investment that would create jobs back home. Trump’s aversion to Obama’s Iran deal also fueled the budding romance. Trump used his anti-Iranian animus (even while he boasted he’d make a better deal with the mullahs) to energize his ties with Riyadh, and MbS was only too happy to exploit his eagerness. Reports that MbS saw Trump’s team, particularly Jared Kushner, as naïve and untutored should have come as no surprise.
Previous administrations—both Republican and Democratic—also pandered to the Saudis, but rarely on such a galactic, unrestrained, and unreciprocated scale. Through its silence or approval, Washington gave MbS—the new architect of the risk-ready, aggressive, and repressive Saudi policies at home and in the region—wide latitude to pursue a disastrous course toward Yemen and Qatar. The administration swooned over some of MbS’s reforms, while ignoring the accompanying crackdown on journalists and civil-society activists. Indeed, The Guardianand other outlets reported that MbS told Kushner in advance of his plans to move against his opponents and wealthy businessmen, including some royals, in what might be termed a “shaikhdown.”
The greatest foreign-policy success of MbS’s first year in power was his success at capturing of the heart and mind of the president. And there’s little doubt that U.S. permissiveness and willingness to give the Saudis the benefit of the doubt emboldened MbS to act without regard to external constraints and with the confidence that U.S. support could be taken for granted.
The U.S. has important national interests in the stability of Saudi Arabia, and Trump’s embrace of MbS has brought some returns. The upsides of U.S. support for MbS, however, are overwhelmed by the downsides of empowering him to screw up whatever he touches. Over the past two years, the policies pursued by the crown prince have undermined important American interests. For all the investment the administration has made in the U.S.-Saudi relationship, we are getting precious little in return.
In May of 2017, the Saudis promised to buy $110 billion worth of additional U.S.military weapons and equipment.Trump has cited those arms sales as a reason not to pressure the Saudis over Khashoggi’s disappearance. But there’s a lot less here than meets the eye.
The Saudis have also opened their checkbook to support U.S. aid initiatives in the Middle East. In response to American prodding, they have offered $100 million in reconstruction assistance to Syria. This is a welcome step, but they could be doing much more, as, for example, they’ve been doing in Iraq.
It is hard to assess the value of Saudi counterterrorism cooperation because most of it operates under a cloak of secrecy. Whatever contributions Saudis make in intelligence sharing and law enforcement, though, serves Saudi interests. It is not being proffered as a favor to the United States.The same is generally true for Saudi energy policy, where decisions on oil production and exports are largely driven by market forces and the kingdom’s own needs.
Against these modest gains, MbS’s mistakes weigh heavily. A Saudi-led military coalition is waging an inhumane campaign against the Iranian-supported Houthi rebels in Yemen, giving al-Qaeda and isis greater room to maneuver and handing Iran greater opportunities to spread its influence in Yemen. The wanton killing and destruction, much of it done with U.S. military support, has further sullied America’s reputation. The Saudis have resisted attempts by the UN to broker a political settlement of the dispute as well as UN investigative efforts to establish accountability for possible Saudi war crimes.
The administration’s efforts to turn the Gulf Cooperation Council into an effective anti-Iranian coalition have foundered over the bitter and unnecessary fight that Saudi Arabia (and the UAE) have picked with Qatar. Their joint blockade of Qatar pushed the gulf state to strengthen its ties with Iran, and has greatly complicated administration efforts to confront the Iranian challenge in the region by turning the GCC into a more military force and forming a new “Middle East Strategic Alliance.” The Saudis have made a number of unreasonable demands on Qatar, while rejecting U.S.efforts to resolve the dispute.
The Saudis have also dampened Kushner’s hopes for making the “deal of the century.” King Salman made it clear to the White House that Saudi Arabia will not support the new American Middle East peace plan unless it explicitly designates East Jerusalem as the capital of an independent Palestinian state, a demand Netanyahu’s government is likely to reject.There was always too much magical thinking in the Trump administration’s conception of what the Saudis would do to reach out to Israel and pressure the Palestinians when it came to peacemaking. Now in the wake of the Khashoggi affair, Saudi decision-making on this and other issues may become even more inward looking.
All of this helps to explain why the Saudi role in the disappearance of Khashoggi is such a critical inflection point in U.S.-Saudi relations. Unlike 9/11, where there’s no compelling evidence that the senior Saudi leadership had foreknowledge or played a role in the attacks, the killing of Khashoggi could not have taken place without the express approval of the crown prince. Even if those looking for a way to defuse this crisis believe it can be dismissed as a rogue operation and those who perpetrated the killing handed over for trial (most likely magical thinking) nobody would ever believe that MbS didn’t bear responsibility for the affair. This single act—the culmination of a series of repressive actions against women activists, journalists, and family members—will make it nearly impossible to continue to mask the obvious: MbS may be committed to serious reform, but it will be directed from the top down by a ruthless and inexperienced leader who brooks no criticism or dissent and who’s prepared to go to murderous lengths to eliminate any opposition. The message to Saudis who believed they could criticize MbS with impunity was that no one can protect them. If the allegations of Khashoggi’s horrific killing are confirmed, it will mark MbS permanently and make it impossible for the administration to tout his reformist credentials.
Still, Saudi money can be persuasive. Next week, high-level U.S. financiers and government officials have been invited to the MbS-sponsored Davos in the Desert Conference to be held at the very same Ritz-Carlton where the regime detained and bilked scores of wealthy and influential Saudis under the guise of an anticorruption campaign. Who attends and who doesn’t may provide some measure of how the Khashoggi disappearance is affecting the kingdom. As of this writing, major media outlets (including CNN, NBC and the NY Times) as well as Richard Branson are skipping the conference. On the other hand, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchen is going.
Statement from Bloomberg spox on FII: “Bloomberg will no longer serve as a media partner for the Future Investment Initiative. As we do with every major event in the region, we plan to cover any news from our regional news bureau."
NEW: SAUDI ARABIA has paid nearly $9M to lobbying firms so far this year. But at least one firm ended its contract today, & others are considering following suit, as the country faces mounting backlash over its alleged assassination of JAMAL KHASHOGGI. https://t.co/7rUXrqx2Gkpic.twitter.com/FiIPvBHsvh
All of this is complicated by the fact that Trump has not assigned any ambassadors to Saudi Arabia or Turkey. Look at this notable exchange between a reporter and the State Department spokesman (Palladino)
Outside of the administration, pressure is growing. Congress recently fell four votes short of suspending U.S. military assistance to Saudi Arabia over civilian casualties in Yemen. A letter sent Wednesday to Trump by a bipartisan group of legislators triggered the Global Magnitsky Act, which will force the administration to investigate Khashoggi’s disappearance, and if the Saudis are found complicit, to impose sanctions. And journalists—having lost one of their own—will continue to be seized with this issue.
The question that remains to be answered, though, given the executive branch’s control of foreign policy, is how the Trump administration will respond over time. Will it recognize that the U.S.-Saudi relationship is out of control? That the Saudis are pursuing interests that do not coincide with ours, and that the Saudi leadership seems to feel confident that it can continue to use and abuse Washington’s support without attention or regard to American values or interests? And will it—out of frustration over Saudi behavior—ask the same question posed by Bill Clinton to his aides after his first meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu: “Who’s the fucking superpower here?”
On paper, MbS is committed to an agenda that would benefit Saudi Arabia and the region, particularly his seeming determination to moderate the extremist strain of Islam that the Saudis have exported for years, and to foster the kingdom’s emerging and largely covert ties with the Israelis. An enlightened and experienced leader pursuing reform in a political culture and region resistant to change would usually be worthy of U.S.support. But an impulsive and reckless 33-year-old leading a regime that’s repressing and imprisoning his subjects at home and perhaps killing them abroad is not. America cannot create the former; but it certainly has no business empowering the latter. The Trump administration should not fail to recognize the difference.
I still want to know how much money the Trump Organization has been paid by Saudi entities since Election Day 2016
Trump Hotel room revenue rose 13% in first 3 months of 2018 after a 2 year decline due to "last minute visit" by Saudi Crown Prince. Trump claims to donate foreign govt profits to Treasury under ethics agreement—but keeps details secret https://t.co/LQXUBLf4O8pic.twitter.com/XIFfAEjTZ4
With early voting starting Monday, a range of efforts to restrict voting in the Peach State could cause big problems at the polls.
Reports that Georgia is keeping 53,000 voter registrations on hold because of minor discrepancies have received widespread attention since Monday. But in fact, the state has recently adopted a range of controversial voting practices. The combined effect is to put voters – especially racial minorities – at risk of disenfranchisement as the state’s hotly contested governor’s race approaches. Early voting begins Monday.
Below is a summary of four of the four major voting issues that have contributed to problems in the Peach State.
“Exact Match” Policy: In 2017, Georgia passed legislation requiring that information on voter registration forms match exactly with existing state records. Even a single digit or a misplaced hyphen could be enough to prevent registration and instead put the application on “pending” status. Georgia previously had a different version of this exact match process, but agreed in 2017 to discontinue the practice after civil rights groups brought suit – only to reinstate a different version of exact match later that year.
Reports indicate that approximately 53,000 people are now on pending status – and a vastly disproportionate number of them are African-American: seventy percent of the pending list, compared to 32 percent of the population. Civil rights groups sent a letter in July advising the state that the practice violates Federal law, but the state has not discontinued Exact Match.
What does being on pending status mean for voters? If they do not provide the additional information needed to resolve the discrepancies within 26 months, their pending registrations will be canceled. Importantly, voters who show up on Election Day should be allowed to vote a regular ballot by providing ID at the polls, and thus should not give up on voting just because their status is pending; however, the requirement could cause confusion on Election Day, if voters are wrongly given provisional ballots or given other misinformation. The ID requirement could also cause problems for voters trying to vote by absentee ballot. For those voters who do not cast ballots in 2018, they are at risk of removal prior to 2020 if they do not get off pending status within 26 months of registering.
Aggressive Voter Purges: A recent Brennan Center report on purges nationwide found Georgia to be one of the most aggressive purgers. Between the 2012 and 2016 elections, it purged 1.5 million voters – twice as many as in the 2008 and 2012 cycles. All but three of the state’s 159 counties saw purge rates increase. And we recently released new data showing that the trend has continued over the past two years, during which the state has purged 10.6 percent of its voters.
Purge rates do not prove voters are being removed erroneously. But we also found that provisional ballots went up as the purge rate increased in Georgia, as well as in other jurisdictions that used to get extra scrutiny under the Voting Rights Act. This suggests more voters are showing up to the polls after having been purged, because voters in those situations often get provisional ballots.
Voter Registration Drives Restricted: The governor’s race – which pits Secretary of State Brian Kemp against former state legislator Stacey Abrams – also recalls a controversial episode involving the Secretary of State’s office and the New Georgia Project (NGP), a civic group founded by Abrams in 2013. Prior to the 2014 election, Kemp’s office launched an investigation into voter registration forms submitted by NGP. After investigating approximately 87,000 forms, NGP was eventually cleared of wrongdoing – but not until after the group’s voter registration drive was disrupted. The group filed a lawsuit against Kemp for failing to process approximately 40,000 voter registration forms submitted by the group. The lawsuit was dismissed in part because Kemp promised to ensure registration applications would be sent to counties.
Kemp, a Republican, was also criticized for political statements about voter registration drives. “[Y]ou know the Democrats are working hard, and all these stories about them, you know, registering all these minority voters that are out there and others that are sitting on the sidelines,’ he said at the time. ‘If they can do that, they can win these elections in November.”
Polling Place Closures: Majority-black Randolph County, Georgia was sued for attempting to close seven of its nine polling sites. The county claimed a consultant had recommended the closures because of disability compliance issues. After a lawsuit, there county reversed course and kept the sites open.
The proposed polling place closures in a minority county were particularly concerning because in the past, similar tactics have been used to suppress minority votes. Prior to the 2013, polling place changes in Georgia (and other areas with a history of discrimination) had to be precleared by the Department of Justice or a federal court to make sure they did not result in a rollback of minority voting rights. But after the Supreme Courts’ 2013 Shelby County decision, that protection no longer exists.
The solution may come in a lawsuit filed yesterday by the Lawyers’ Committee and the Campaign Legal Center. The lawsuit alleges that the exact match system violates the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, and the U.S. Constitution. ALegal groups sued Kemp over the same issue before the 2016 presidential election, and a court ordered Kemp to restore the more than 40,000 registrations he put on hold that year.
“Georgia’s ‘exact match’ protocol has resulted in the cancellation or rejection of tens of thousands of voter registration applications in the past,” Danielle Lang, senior legal counsel with the Campaign Legal Center, said in a statement. “The reintroduction of this practice, which is known to be discriminatory and error-ridden, is appalling.”
Per pool, Kanye went on a 10 minute soliloquy that included saying he has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He then said that was a mis-diagnosis and he is sleep-deprived.
Trump's response: “I tell you what that was pretty impressive…That was quite something.”
President Donald Trump loves to brag about ratings, but he’s not getting them anymore.
As he’s ramped up his rally schedule ahead of the midterms, viewership numbers for the raucous prime-time events have been roughly similar to — sometimes dipping below — Fox News’ regular programming, and the network has recently stopped airing most evening events in full.
During three Trump rallies last week, Fox News showed clips and highlights from his speeches but stuck largely with its normal weekday prime-time programming. On Saturday, when “Fox Report Weekend” and “Justice with Judge Jeanine” would ordinarily air, the network showed Trump’s speech from Topeka, Kan., in full. But on Tuesday, a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was particularly hard to find — it was not aired live on any major network, and even C-SPAN cut away for other news. And on Wednesday night, as Trump took the stage in Erie, Pa., at 7 p.m., Fox News stuck with its coverage of Hurricane Michael.
Since Trump took office, CNN and MSNBC have mostly declined to air his campaign rallies, though, like Fox News, they’ll typically carry any presidential speeches or comments to reporters.
Fox still provides livestreams of the campaign events online, but during a crucial period, with the midterms less than a month away, some in the White House are worried that the president is losing a prime-time megaphone to his base.
One senior White House official was unsure why the network would decide to cut away from presidential rallies, saying officials planned “to look into that” and wouldn’t be surprised if White House communications director Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive, was in touch with former colleagues about the trend.
The loss of national coverage is equally, if not more, concerning to the candidates on whose behalf Trump is traveling the country.
“It exposes us to a national audience that we normally don’t get to,” a Senate Republican campaign staffer said of the coverage of Trump rallies. “We tend to see lots of new sign-ups and small-dollar donations. There’s obviously folks streaming [rallies] online, but being able to be onstage with the president in front of a prime-time audience is huge for a campaign trying to reach conservatives across the country who will open up their wallets.”
A source close to Trump described the declining coverage as a “huge loss on the state and local level for Republicans because they’re certainly not going to get any of that on other cable networks.”
“If they stop taking them completely, that might create a problem,” this person said. “Trump is a massive consumer of the media, so he may be disappointed.”
Neither Fox News nor the White House responded to requests for comment.
But from Fox’s perspective, Trump is no longer a sure bet to beat Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham. For instance, on Aug. 30, Fox News’ 8 p.m. hour was mostly consumed by Trump’s rally in Evansville, Ind., earning 2.536 million viewers, according to Nielsen, compared to the 2.8 million viewers Carlson averaged at that time during 2018’s third quarter.
Right. It’s all about the green. No ratings, no advertising revenue.
And let’s face it. Even if you are a member of Trump’s base, his shtick is getting OLD. It’s the same broken record over and over again. How many times can you chant “Build A Wall!” and isn’t it embarrassing that he’s halfway through his four years and there’s no inkling of a wall except some prototypes?
Where I am, we are being hit by what’s left of Michael, but the wind and the rain is nothing to what hit the panhandle in Florida yesterday. Mexico Beach appears to be the hardest hit. Here’s what it was like yesterday:
And now…. people are just getting in there, to find this:
The death toll stands at two right now, but is likely to rise. One man was killed when a tree fell on a residence in Greensboro, Florida, Sgt. Anglie Hightower, a spokeswoman for the Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office, told NBC News.
An 11-year-old girl was killed near Lake Seminole, Georgia, when a metal carport used for boats was picked up by wind, crashed through the roof of the house she was in and struck her in the head, said Travis Brooks, director of emergency management for Seminole County.
And as this was happening in the South, Trump was in Pennsylvania doing this:
BIG UPDATE: Yikes, one of the outer bands is hitting here! I’m on the 16th floor of the Winston Tower and a window from a higher floor just sailed down and crashed on the plaza below. Here’s what it looks like from an office window:
FINAL UPDATE: As the storm moved the Georgia and the Carolinas, the total death toll was 11. Five were in Virginia.
Why? It’s the same story that has plagued markets for days now. Once-highflying tech has led markets lower as yields rise, with the 10-year Treasury note’s yield reaching its highest point in more than a decade yesterday.
and it closes more than 831 points down (about 3.15%).
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks suffer worst loss in 8 months as rising interest rates pull investors out of the market; tech stocks hit hardest.
Unlike Florence, which seemed to take her sweet time coming to the mainlaind, Michael just kind of sprang up in the past few days. It was a tropical depression in the Gulf Of Mexico, and very quickly moved to a Category 3. Today, as it makes landfall, it is a Category 4.
Here’s the latest:
• The hurricane is expected to be the strongest recorded storm to make landfall on the Panhandle. “This will be a catastrophic event the likes of which this region has never seen,” the National Weather Service office in Tallahassee, Fla., warned.
• The storm was about 65 miles south-southwest of Panama City, Fla., as of 10 a.m., moving toward the coast at 13 m.p.h., according to the National Hurricane Center
• The eye of Michael is expected to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday afternoon, tracking northeast across Georgia and the Carolinas on Thursday before moving off the Mid-Atlantic coast on Friday.
• Weather forecasters and government officials are particularly worried about a storm surge, which they said could reach 13 feet in some areas, in a relatively flat region that is particularly vulnerable to it.
• Flash flooding is also a concern. The Florida Panhandle and Big Bend region, southeast Alabama and parts of Georgia could receive four to eight inches of rain, with some spots getting as much as a foot.
• Governors in three states — Florida, Alabama and Georgia — have declared states of emergency, with mandatory evacuations in effect in coastal areas across the Florida Panhandle.
It will hit North Carolina tomorrow evening.
I have Hamilton tickets.
Updates throughout today below:
Category 4 Hurricane Michael as it approaches the Florida Panhandle with 145 mph winds.
• Less than 60 miles SSW of Panama City, FL • 14 feet of storm surge possible in some areas • FL Gov. Scott: "The worst storm that the FL Panhandle has seen in over a century." pic.twitter.com/rPeCtsqgTb
BREAKING: Cat. 4 Hurricane Michael makes landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, southeast of Panama City, with 155 mph winds – just 2 mph below Cat. 5 strength. https://t.co/yZjIQ6mvmspic.twitter.com/wEu7C8aPbj
