<snip>

Asked about her retweet of Lib Hypocisy by BuzzFeed on Tuesday, Conway implied that she hadn't been in control of her account at the time. She said she "obviously" had no idea who Lib Hypocrisy was, adding, "I denounce whoever it is." The tweets were soon deleted.

Conway's move continues a long-standing pattern of Trump and his inner circle engaging with white nationalists and then claiming ignorance when confronted about it—as Mother Jones documented in multiple investigations since last summer. Other such "mistakes" include:

• Trump failing to disavow support from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke when asked about it repeatedly on CNN, and then blaming a "bad earpiece."
• Trump appointing a white nationalist leader as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, and then blaming a "database error" for the move.
• Trump tweeting an image of himself superimposed over a picture of WWII-era Waffen-SS soldiers, and then blaming a mistake by an intern.
• Gen. Michael Flynn sharing a #NeverHillary tweet that said, "Not anymore, Jews. Not anymore," and then claiming it was a mistake.

Donald J. Trump✔
@realDonaldTrump

This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign.

7:08 AM - 15 Feb 2017

Donald Trump is a man who likes conflict. He sees life, and politics, as a survival of the fittest. He has built a senior White House team designed to foment competition and conflict, with his four top aides forever fighting for his ear.

The dynamic between that quartet and Trump sits at the heart of understanding why the president does what he does and when. Aides rise in his estimation, then fall almost by the day. Trump seems to keep a running list in his head of who's up and who's down among his top advisers.

So why not keep our own running list — updated weekly — of who's the most powerful aide in Trumpworld at the moment?

That's exactly what I'm going to do. Today I unveil the White House Power Rankings, the definitive weekly guide to who's hot and who's not among the four top advisers in the Trump White House. Each week the power rankings will update based on a carefully-crafted formula — so, yes, this is my assessment based on my own reading of White House tea leaves — that includes what Trump has said about each, their influence on his policy (and tweets), their TV appearances and the media coverage of them.

Before we get to the inaugural rankings, let's meet the players!

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The New York Times and Newsmax Media both fell victim to a fake Twitter account that purports to be former national security advisor Michael Flynn, with both publications quoting tweets from the fake account about his recent resignation.

Flynn resigned from his position late Monday, after reports that Flynn discussed sanctions with Russia's ambassador — and then mislead Vice President Pence about the content of the talk.

Both the New York Times and Newsmax reported on the fake account, erroneously quoting the account's claim that Flynn viewed himself as the "sole scapegoat."

<snip>

While the Newsmax story is still live and no correction has been made, the New York Times issued a correction.

“Because of an editing error, an earlier version quoted three posts from an unverified Twitter account," the Times wrote.

The internet’s most hapless political blogger now has his own White House correspondent -- a regular contributor with little reporting experience but ample ties to “alt-right” harassment -- sitting in the White House press briefing room.

At the January 19 “Deploraball” event before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Gateway Pundit founder and “dumbest man on the internet” Jim Hoft announced that his outlet would have a White House correspondent with the Trump administration, and that Lucian Wintrich would fill the position. On February 13, Hoft posted a "reader alert" that Hoft and Wintrich will be attending the day's White House press briefing. Hoft confusingly wrote, "Please look for us and keep your fingers crossed that one of us is asked a question."

Hours later, Hoft tweeted a photo of himself and Wintrich standing behind the lectern in the White House press briefing room, displaying a hand signal associated with the racist “Pepe” meme. The tweet itself also included the hashtag "Pepe" and a frog emoji, commonly understood to invoke the hate symbol.



Hoft’s political blog has often served as the single source for completely unfounded reporting that nonetheless catches fire in the right-wing internet world, until it becomes what Kellyanne Conway might deem an “alternative fact.” The frequency with which he posts hoaxes and complete fabrications as fact suggests Hoft either has a reckless and total disregard for the truth or is so incompetent he cannot separate fact from fiction.

How Michael Flynn got back to the White House

April 2014: Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is relieved of duty as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Flynn will leave the position that summer and later allege that the firing stemmed from his criticism of then-President Barack Obama’s efforts to fight radical Islamic terrorism.

Dec. 10, 2015: Flynn participates in a celebration of the 10th anniversary of Russia Today, the Russian-state-backed television network. He is part of a panel discussion in Moscow, for which he receives compensation.

Feb. 26, 2016: Reuters reports that Flynn is advising Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. He would later tell The Washington Post that he was advising at least two campaigns.

Jul. 18: Flynn gives a speech endorsing Trump at the Republican National Convention. The New York Times editorial board later calls it “grotesque” for Flynn’s embrace of the convention crowd’s “lock her up” chant.

One of the worst winter tornado outbreaks in US history ravaged parts of the South last month, leveling homes and buildings and killing at least 20 people across Mississippi and Georgia. In total, 79 tornadoes ripped through seven states. Last week, seven tornadoes touched down in southern Louisiana, injuring 41 people. As officials and residents dug through the rubble, affected states began requesting aid from the federal government, standard practice in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Reconstruction is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. But if an influential conservative think tank gets its way, federal funding for future disasters may be cut sharply—even as disasters themselves become more frequent.

The proposal to cut disaster aid was part of a lengthy report released last year by the Heritage Foundation. Dubbed a Blueprint for Balance, the document argued that the federal government can save $10.5 trillion over the next decade by slashing funds for some programs and eliminating others. The blueprint calls for a funding cut for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Relief Fund, the primary mechanism through which states receive federal aid after natural disasters. It would shift the majority of the costs to state and local governments.

The Heritage Foundation is extremely influential in the world of conservative politics, and the Trump administration appears ready to lean on the think tank for policy ideas. Donald Trump's transition team was stacked with advisers from Heritage, and the organization helped the president compile a list of potential Supreme Court picks. The Hill reported in January that a series of massive budget cuts being considered by the Trump administration "hew closely" to the Heritage budget blueprint.

Currently, federal disaster aid is governed by the Stafford Act. Passed in 1988, the law authorizes the president to issue emergency or major disaster declarations at the request of a governor, before and after a catastrophe occurs. Those declarations then trigger aid to rebuild infrastructure and protect public health. FEMA incurs 75 percent of the disaster relief costs, and states pick up the rest of the tab. In recent years, when a disaster depleted FEMA's budget—after Superstorm Sandy in 2012, for example—Congress passed supplemental appropriations to cover the costs.

White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller appeared on ABC’s “The Week” on Sunday, spouting a bunch of false talking points on alleged voter fraud. (He also repeated similar claims on other Sunday talk shows.) To his credit, host George Stephanopoulus repeatedly challenged Miller, noting that he had provided no evidence to support his claims. But Miller charged ahead, using the word “fact” three times in a vain effort to bolster his position.

<snip>

The Pinocchio Test

Stephanopoulos is right. The White House continues to provide zero evidence to back up its claims of voter fraud. Officials instead retreat to the same bogus talking points that have been repeatedly shown to be false.

It’s pretty shameless to cite research in a way that even the researcher says is inappropriate, and yet Miller keeps saying 14 percent of noncitizens are registered to vote. The Republican governor of New Hampshire has admitted that he was wrong to say buses of illegal voters voted in the election, and yet Miller shamelessly suggests that is the case. Miller cites a supposed expert on voter fraud, Kobach, who has been mocked for failing to prove his own claims of voter fraud. Miller also repeats a claim about people being registered to vote in two states, even though that is not an example of voter fraud.

Miller earns Four Pinocchios — over and over again.