demmiblue
demmiblue's JournalTrump conservative critics launch PAC to fight reelection
Source: AP
NEW YORK (AP) — A small group of President Donald Trump’s fiercest conservative critics, including the husband of the president’s own chief adviser, is launching a super PAC designed to fight Trump’s reelection and punish congressional Republicans deemed his “enablers.”
The new organization, known as the Lincoln Project, represents a formal step forward for the so-called Never Trump movement, which has been limited largely to social media commentary and cable news attacks through the first three years of Trump’s presidency. Organizers report fundraising commitments exceeding $1 million to begin, although they hope to raise and spend much more to fund a months-long advertising campaign in a handful of 2020 battleground states to persuade disaffected Republican voters to break from Trump’s GOP.
The mission, as outlined in a website that launched Tuesday coinciding with a New York Times opinion piece, is simple: “Defeat President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box.”
The group is led by a seven-person advisory council that features some of the GOP’s most vocal Trump critics. Most, but not all, have already left the Republican Party to protest Trump’s rise.
Read more: https://apnews.com/513cab63a1b3317f6342daf888a10763
Trump administration rejects Senate resolution recognizing Armenian genocide
Source: The Hill
The State Department on Tuesday rebuked the Senate’s latest move to recognize the mass killing and deportation of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during the first half of the 20th century as genocide, releasing a statement that the administration continues to view the events as “one of the worst mass atrocities.”
“The position of the Administration has not changed,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. “Our views are reflected in the President’s definitive statement on this issue from last April.”
The global Armenian Remembrance Day is marked on April 24 each year and was commemorated by President Trump with a statement recognizing that beginning in 1915, more than 1.5 million Armenians were “deported, massacred or marched to their deaths” under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
The president did not describe the events as a genocide.
Read more: https://thehill.com/regulation/international/474869-trump-administration-rejects-senate-resolution-recognizing-armenian
Rep. Elissa Slotkin: How I reached my decision on impeachment
I did not make that call lightly. Over the past year, while an increasing number of my colleagues started calling for impeachment and pro-impeachment protesters started rallying at my events, I remained unconvinced. While the President had said and done some seriously troubling things, I ultimately believed that the American people would render a judgment at the ballot box in 2020.
That changed with the events surrounding the President’s actions with Ukraine.
In September, I called for an inquiry because of the simple fact that it seemed that the President had used the power of his office to pressure a foreign leader to provide him information for personal political gain.
https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/2019/12/16/elissa-slotkin-trump-impeachment/2661079001/
https://twitter.com/BrianAbelTV/status/1206610241883901958
They are showing some of her town hall right now on MSNBC.
Corporations paid 11.3 percent tax rate last year, in steep drop under President Trump's law
The 2017 tax law lowered the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, but in practice large companies often pay far less than that due to deductions, tax breaks and other loopholes.
In the first year of the law, the actual amount corporations paid in federal taxes on their incomes — their so-called “effective rate” — was 11.3 percent on average, possibly its lowest level in more than three decades, according to a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank.
From 2008 to 2015, under the previous tax code, the corporations’ effective rate was about 21 percent, according to ITEP’s prior research.
The report also found that 91 corporations in the Fortune 500, many worth billions of dollars, paid no federal taxes last year.
The findings come amid an explosion in the federal deficit, which this year rose to close to $1 trillion. In October, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the deficit had grown $205 billion, or 26 percent, in the past year, an unusual occurrence during a period of strong economic growth.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/16/corporations-paid-percent-tax-rate-last-year-steep-drop-under-president-trumps-law/
Fun facts about this account retweeted by the president: --Account is 1 day old --First tweet was...
—Account is 1 day old
—First tweet was retweeted by the president
—Follows no one
—Claims to be a Jewish Trump supporter from Boro Park
—Profile picture is from a NYTimes story about Jewish Trump supporters in Borough Park
https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1206592010691452928
Almost 3,00 followers, too.
Freshman Democrats push for Amash as impeachment manager
Source: WaPo
A private campaign is underway to draft Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) as an impeachment manager in the Senate trial of President Trump, a bid to diversify House Democrats’ appeal to voters with a rare conservative voice.
A group of 30 freshman Democrats, led by Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), has asked House leaders to consider the libertarian, who left the Republican Party earlier this year, for the small group tasked with arguing its case for removing Trump in the upper chamber, according to several Democratic officials.
The thinking, according to these people, is that Amash would reach conservative voters in a way Democrats can’t, potentially bolstering their case to the public. He also would provide Democrats cover from GOP accusations that they’re pursuing a partisan impeachment; Amash is one of the most conservative members of the House and a vocal Trump critic.
“To the extent that this can be bipartisan, it should, and I think including Representative Amash amongst the impeachment managers is a smart move both for the country, for the substance and for the optics,” Phillips said, adding that Amash brings an array of qualifications: He’s an attorney, a constitutionalist and “the first and only member of the Republican conference, when he was a Republican, to show courage,” Phillips added.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/freshman-democrats-push-for-amash-as-impeachment-manager/2019/12/15/759e5280-1f54-11ea-86f3-3b5019d451db_story.html
Ex-Trump Aide Is Expected to Return to White House
Source: NYT
A close aide to President Trump who was dismissed last year by the White House chief of staff at the time is expected to rejoin the West Wing, according to three people familiar with the move.
John McEntee, who shadowed Mr. Trump as his body man, is slated to come back in a similar role, the people familiar with the move said. His return will mean a familiar presence with whom Mr. Trump is comfortable as he heads into the 2020 re-election campaign, and he is likely to divide duties with one of his successors, Nick Luna.
...
In March 2018, on the orders of the chief of staff at the time, John F. Kelly, Mr. McEntee was marched out of the West Wing, with no time to collect his belongings, people in the building said then. His security clearance had been denied at least in part because of an online gambling habit, people with knowledge of the decision said, a move that came as Mr. Kelly sought to overhaul the process for granting such clearances.
Secret Service officials said then that they were looking into the matter involving Mr. McEntee, but no action was ever pursued, according to an administration official.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/14/us/politics/john-mcentee-white-house.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Man videotaped slapping reporter's rear on live TV charged
Savannah police spokeswoman Bianca Johnson in Savannah confirmed that Thomas Callaway, 43, of Statesboro was charged in connection with the incident that occurred while WSAV-TV reporter Alex Bozarjian was broadcasting live as runners streamed past her on a prominent bridge in the coastal city.
“The conduct displayed toward Alex Bozarjian during her live coverage of Saturday’s Savannah Bridge Run was reprehensible and completely unacceptable,” the Savannah television station said in a statement Friday evening. “No one should ever be disrespected in this manner. The safety and protection of our employees is WSAV-TV’s highest priority.”
Jail records showed Callaway was booked Friday afternoon. His attorney, Joseph Turner, declined to comment in an email late Friday to The Associated Press.
https://apnews.com/5ec02755b5876a9b0f07061062fc07fa
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