Tag: Trump vindictiveness

Top cybersecurity official ousted by Trump

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President Trump ousted Christopher Krebs, the top U.S. cybersecurity official, on Tuesday evening, disagreeing with Krebs’s statement affirming the security of the 2020 election.

Trump, who has refused to accept his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential election earlier this month, said on Twitter that Krebs had been terminated “effective immediately.” Trump said a recent statement by the cyber chief about the security of the election was “highly inaccurate” and claimed, without evidence, that “there were massive improprieties and fraud — including dead people voting.”

“Poll Watchers not allowed into polling locations, ‘glitches’ in the voting machines which changed votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more,” the president wrote. “Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.” Continue reading.

Defense secretary sent classified memo to White House about Afghanistan before Trump fired him

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In the run-up to the election, President Trump’s tweet saying that all U.S. troops in Afghanistan should be “home by Christmas!” raised alarm among senior U.S. officials who had been working on a more gradual withdrawal.

The existing plan, tied to precarious negotiations with the Taliban insurgent group to sign a peace deal with the Afghan government, had not yielded the progress that American officials wanted. While the Pentagon was on its way to reducing the number of troops to fewer than 5,000 this month, negotiations appeared to stall and the Taliban continued to launch attacks across the country.

After consulting with senior military officers, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper sent a classified memo to the White House this month expressing concerns about additional cuts, according to two senior U.S. officials familiar with the discussion. Conditions on the ground were not yet right, Esper wrote, citing the ongoing violence, possible dangers to the remaining troops in the event of a rapid pullout, potential damage to alliances and apprehension about undercutting the negotiations. Continue reading.

Trump fires Defense chief Mark Esper

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President Trump on Monday announced he had fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper, a stunning move that comes days after Joe Biden was projected to have won the presidential race. 

“I am pleased to announce that Christopher C. Miller, the highly respected Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (unanimously confirmed by the Senate), will be Acting Secretary of Defense, effective immediately,” Trump said in a series of tweets. “Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.”

Esper had long been seen as out the door, regardless of who won the election. But firing him now gives Trump a chance to flex his executive powers at a time he is trying to project strength amid his electoral defeat. Continue reading.

Washington braces for unpredictable post-election period

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President Trump’s time left in office is ticking down after Democrat Joe Bidenwas projected as the president-elect on Saturday, setting the stage for an unpredictable lame-duck period.

Trump is unlikely to concede the race in the immediate future, but people close to him believe he will ultimately leave the White House when his term ends. What happens in the roughly 70 days until Inauguration Day remains uncertain, however, even to many people close to the White House and the Trump campaign.

The president is expected to pursue legal challenges to the election results in key battleground states, even though some initial lawsuits have already been rejected and others would not change the outcome. There are also rumblings he could fire agency heads in the coming days, and some White House staffers have started circulating their resumes elsewhere. Continue reading.

Defeated Donald Trump is already tearing our government apart

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America is entering a very dangerous time. For his next 11 weeks in office, Donald Trump will be in a position to exact revenge, a word that by his own account is his entire life philosophy. We should all hope that he goes into one of his down emotional periods for an extended time so that lethargy, not blind rage, dominates his behavior until Jan. 20.

Through phony charges of ballot-box stuffing, firing officials, issuing pardons to friends and family and other acts Trump can do great damage between now and Inauguration Day, when his shield against criminal prosecution vanishes. He can also hobble the transition to a Biden administration.

Trump’s first act of post-election political vandalism came in the wee hours Wednesday morning. He claimed the election was being stolen (video at 8:00) through “a major fraud on our nation.” He has yet to show a scintilla of evidence to support that lie. Continue reading.

This is the face of radical-Republican contempt

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Joe Biden just won more votes than anyone else in American history, but the next four years may go down in history as the stymied presidency. That’s because it looks highly unlikely that the Democrats will get a majority in the Senate, leaving the chamber under the iron-fisted control of Mitch McConnell, patron saint of polluters and profiteers.

Even before noon on Jan. 20, 2021, Donald Trump will be in a position to do enormous harm that will complicate the Biden presidency. Indeed, we should expect Trump is already looking for ways to use his last eight weeks in office to punish our nation—or at least the states that voted for Biden.

That assessment comes not from me, but from Trump himself. His life philosophy is a single word: revenge. Continue reading.

Trump administration rejects, then approves, emergency aid for California fires, including biggest blaze in state history

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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Fueled by extreme heat and dry, windy conditions, wildfires ravaged California in September, blazing through almost 1.9 million acres, destroying nearly 1,000 homes and killing at least three people. One wildfire, the Creek Fire, became the largest single inferno in California history and grew so fierce it spun up fire tornadoes with 125-mph winds.

On Friday, the request for federal assistance to help pay for the recovery from a half-dozen of those fires spun up a tornado of its own. Like the proverbial tempest, the storm over the money had been contained in a teapot by the day’s end.

The day began with news that the Trump administration had refused to grant California an emergency declaration that would make hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding available for areas devastated by the Creek Fire and five others. Federal officials said the most recent application did not meet the criteria for federal relief. Continue reading.

Trump administration rejects California’s disaster assistance request for wildfires

The Trump administration has rejected California’s request for a disaster declaration for six destructive wildfires that burned hundreds of thousands of acres across the state, including a massive central California wildfire that has become the single largest in state history.

“The request for a Major Presidential Disaster Declaration for early September fires has been denied by the federal administration,” Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, confirmed to CNN. The state plans to appeal the decision.

The denial comes after California Gov. Gavin Newsom requested financial aid from the federal government in a September 28 letter to the Trump administration outlining the financial impact of the wildfires.  Continue reading.

Critics warn of ‘transparent effort to retaliate’ after DOJ issues subpoenas in criminal probe of John Bolton’s memoir

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a criminal investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton disclosed classified information in his recent book.

The DOJ convened a grand jury, which issued subpoenas to Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Bolton’s memoir “The Room Where It Happened,” according to The New York Times. The grand jury also issued a subpoena to Bolton’s literary agency Javelin, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Trump administration previously tried to block the release of the book — which was highly critical of the president — over claims that it contained classified information. The move was ultimately unsuccessful. Nevertheless, Trump’s handpicked director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe referred the matter to the DOJ’s national security division last month, which opened a criminal investigation, according to The Times. Continue reading.

Justice Dept. Opens Criminal Inquiry Into John Bolton’s Book

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Investigators are examining whether the former national security adviser illegally disclosed classified information.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether President Trump’s former national security adviser John R. Bolton unlawfully disclosed classified information in a memoir this summer, an inquiry that the department began after it failed to stop the book’s publication, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The department has convened a grand jury, which issued a subpoena for communications records from Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Mr. Bolton’s memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.” The Javelin Agency, which represents Mr. Bolton, also received a subpoena, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

The inquiry is a significant escalation of the turmoil over the publication of the book, whose highly unflattering account of Mr. Bolton’s 17 months in the White House prompted Mr. Trump to attack him and call for his prosecution even as the Justice Department sued earlier to try to stop its release. Continue reading.