Trump went on profane rant about ‘krauts’ after getting into argument with Angela Merkel: bombshell book

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CNN on Wednesday reported that a new book written by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker claims that former President Donald Trump used an ethnic slur to rant about Germans after getting into an argument with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

While discussing the new book — titled I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year — reporter Jamie Gangel paraphrased an excerpt that detailed Trump’s “strained” relationship with Merkel, with whom he regularly clashed over foreign affairs.

While discussing the new book — titled I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year — reporter Jamie Gangel paraphrased an excerpt that detailed Trump’s “strained” relationship with Merkel, with whom he regularly clashed over foreign affairs. Continue reading.

Trump joked about Jamal Khashoggi’s grisly murder in phone calls to Saudi prince: report

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Former president Donald Trump cracked a joke about the grisly murder of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives, according to a new report.

The October 2018 murder of the U.S.-based journalist set off a crisis inside the White House, and Trump personally called Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father King Salman seeking answers about the slaying in Turkey, reported Yahoo’s “Conspiracyland” podcast.

“The president had multiple calls with MBS and with King Salman, specifically asking them, did you know anything about this?” said Kirsten Fontenrose, then the director of Gulf affairs at the National Security Council. “The president would flat-out ask, I mean, up to a dozen times on any individual phone call, whether it was with King Salman or with MBS or both of them, ‘Did you have any knowledge of this operation?’ ‘Did you know this was going to happen?’ ‘Did you give this order?'” Continue reading.

Trump translator says listening to calls with Putin ‘felt like eavesdropping on two friends chatting in a bar’

The Russian translator who was the only American to hear several secret conversations between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin would of course never expose what the two world leaders said in private, but she did reveal one disturbing fact about their relationship.

Putin attacked America in the years leading up to the 2016 presidential election, helped Trump win the White House, and has benefitted from his mysterious relationship with the billionaire real-estate mogul turned disgraced and twice-impeached president. Russia has since attacked the U.S., including with its cash-for killing U.S. soldiers bounty program, and its continued attacks on American elections.

Russia is considered America’s enemy by most national security experts, but Trump never treated it as an enemy. His highly-criticized meeting with Putin in Helsinki, during which he said he had no reason to believe Russia attacked the 2016 election, made that clear. Continue reading.

Biden says Trump should not receive intelligence briefings because of his ‘erratic behavior’

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President Biden, in an interview with the “CBS Evening News With Norah O’Donnell,” said former president Donald Trump should not receive intelligence briefings, citing his “erratic behavior unrelated to the insurrection.”

“I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings. What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?” Biden said when questioned. The White House has been reviewing whether the former president, now out of office, should get the briefings.

Separately, Biden pledged Friday “to act fast” on securing passage of his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, making clear that he and Democrats in Congress are willing to move forward without Republican support. He pointed to a disappointing jobs report for January to argue that the cost of the legislation is justified. Continue reading.

Calls for impeachment, prosecution of president after pro-Trump mob storms Capitol

Trump tells supporters to go home but continues to assert election was stolen

Politicians and lawyers on Wednesday called for President Donald Trump to be impeached again and charged with crimes, even as law enforcement tried to regain control of the Capitol from hundreds of Trump supporters who invaded and interrupted the counting of electoral votes for president.

The day started with Trump, who continues to make false claims that he won the November election, telling a rally of his supporters near the White House, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” 

Trump for days had talked up the gathering, which also saw his lawyer Rudy Giuliani tell the crowd he was seeking “trial by combat” over the election. Continue reading.

‘Stop the tape!’: CNBC’s Shep Smith demands producers cut off Trump’s dangerous video live on air

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CNBC host Shep Smith told his producers to stop playing a video clip of President Donald Trump live on air Wednesday, objecting to the fact that the president pushed his disinformation campaign to claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

Trump posted the video on Twitter Wednesday afternoon after a group of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress gathered to count the votes of the Electoral College. The rioters attacked police, broke through barriers, and occupied the federal building, blocking the ceremony and forcing the officials to go into lockdown. At least one person was reported to be shot. The insurrectionists had been stirred up by Trump’s false insistence that the election had been stolen and his delusional belief that somehow Congress could overturn the result during the counting. It was clear, however, that Congress would affirm Joe Biden’s win.

In the wake of the violence, some hoped Trump would speak out to calm the situation. But while Trump did tell the rioters to go home in the video, he spent more time stoking the false claims that the election was stolen, and told those who were supporting him in the assault on the Capitol that he loved them and that they were “special.” It seemed at least as likely to rile up his supporters more than calm them down. Continue reading.

Why Congress Should Impeach Trump Again

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And this time, he should be convicted. The country cannot risk his becoming president again.

The emergence of an audio recording of President Trump pressuring the Georgia secretary of state to overturn the results of the election is a harrowing moment in the history of our democracy. And though the number of his days in office is dwindling, the only appropriate response is to impeach Mr. Trump. Again.

Whether he acknowledges it or not, President Trump is leaving the White House on Jan. 20 — but right now, there is nothing stopping him from running in 2024. That is a terrifying prospect, because the way he has conducted himself over the past two months, wielding the power of the presidency to try to steal another term in office, has threatened one of our republic’s most essential traditions: the peaceful transfer of power.

Fortunately, our founders anticipated we would face a moment like this, which is one reason Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution entrusts Congress with the power not only to remove a president but also to prevent him or her from ever holding elected office again. Mr. Trump’s conduct over the past two months has left our legislators with no choice but to use it. That impeachment inquiry would take time, far more than Mr. Trump has left in office. But it would be well worth it. Continue reading.

Trump and allies have sought to exclude 1 of every 10 votes in key states

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President Trump, his legal team and his allies have endorsed excluding nearly 1 out of every 10 votes in the states that decided the 2020 election.

That’s the latest count in light of a lawsuit the Trump campaign filed Tuesday in Nevada. The suit explicitly seeks to throw out 130,000 ballots in Democratic-leaning, Las Vegas-based Clark County over allegedly faulty signature-matching technology. Were the suit to succeed, 1 out of every 11 votes in the state would be invalidated.

That, of course, seems highly unlikely — and that goes double, given the Trump effort’s losing streak in court. But it’s emblematic of and similar in scale to the Trump team’s effort to exclude ballots in the states that mattered. To date, in fact, lawsuits and other efforts have sought the exclusion of nearly 10 percent of all ballots cast in six key states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The sum is now about 2.5 million votes out of just more than 25 million ballots cast in those states. Continue reading.

Trump has attacked democracy’s institutions, but never so blatantly as he did overnight

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For four years, President Trump has sought to undermine the institutions of a democratic society, but never so blatantly as in the early morning hours of Wednesday. His attempt to falsely claim victory and to subvert the election itself by calling for a halt to vote-counting represents the gravest of threats to the stability of the country.

Millions of votes remain to be counted, votes cast legally under the laws of the states. Until they are all counted, the outcome of the election remains in doubt. Either he or former vice president Joe Biden could win an electoral college majority, but neither has yet done so, no matter what he says. Those are the facts, for which the president shows no respect.

A president who respected the Constitution would let things play out. But Trump has shown once again he cares not about the Constitution or the stability and well-being of the country or anything like that. He cares only about himself and retaining the powers he now holds. And so he cries “fraud” when there is no evidence whatsoever of any such thing. Continue reading.

‘Deadly Sins’ Ad Busts The Myth That Donald Trump Is A Religious Man

“Trump’s connection with religion is like his connection with reality — it is nonexistent and he assaults it every day,” said the progressive PAC MeidasTouch.

President Donald Trump’s attempts at positioning himself as a religious man are roundly debunked in a new ad from the progressive PAC MeidasTouch.

The 2-minute spot released Friday, titled “Trump’s Deadly Sins,” shows how the president has repeatedly failed to adhere to the Ten Commandments.

“Trump’s connection with religion is like his connection with reality — it is nonexistent and he assaults it every day,” the PAC wrote on its websiteContinue reading.