November 29, 2017

Corbyn: 'I hope our Government will condemn far-right retweets' by Trump

Source: The Hill



BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 11/29/17 09:30 AM EST

The U.K.'s Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn rebuked President Trump's retweets from an ultranationalist British political figure appearing to show violent acts by Muslims on Friday, saying the British government should condemn the retweets.

https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/935867651859079168

British MP David Lammy also issued a harsh condemnation of the retweets, saying the president was not welcome in the U.K.

https://twitter.com/DavidLammy/status/935842872238145536

The husband of murdered MP Jo Cox also spoke out, saying Trump "should be ashamed of himself.

https://twitter.com/MrBrendanCox/status/935842524383645696

Cox was murdered by Thomas Mair before the country's Brexit vote in 2016. Mair shouted "Britain first" during the attack.

The deputy leader of the ultranationalist Britain First Party Jayda Fransen disputed that the calls were related to their party. The tweets come after Trump retweeted a series of tweets from Fransen, who is seen as a controversial figure in the U.K.



Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/international/362301-uk-labour-party-leader-i-hope-our-government-will-condemn-far-right

November 29, 2017

WATCH: Matt Lauer's rude treatment of Hillary Clinton during debate makes more sense...

WATCH: Matt Lauer’s rude treatment of Hillary Clinton during debate makes more sense after his firing

TRAVIS GETTYS
29 NOV 2017 AT 09:36 ET

Matt Lauer’s widely criticized handling of a forum-style debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has gained an ominous layer of context after his firing for an alleged sexual assault of a colleague.

-snip-

Lauer was pilloried by professional critics and social media users alike for opening the Sept. 7, 2016, debate — which was hosted by a veterans group and ostensibly focused on national security — by asking Clinton about her emails.

Trump had made Clinton’s use of a private email server a focus of his campaign, and evidence has mounted since his election that Russia helped him promote the issue using hackers and social media “bots.” Lauer seemed to lob softball questions toward Trump — who faced allegations of sexual misconduct throughout his campaign — during his portion of the candidate forum, and repeatedly interrupted Clinton.

The now-disgraced NBC News anchor was also criticized for failing to challenge Trump’s claims about opposition to the Iraq War and other topics, while following up Clinton’s answers with probing questions.



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https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/watch-matt-lauers-rude-treatment-of-hillary-clinton-during-debate-makes-more-sense-after-his-firing/

November 29, 2017

Trump demands investigation of dead intern linked to 'low ratings Joe Scarborough' in Twitter...

Source: RawStory



Trump demands investigation of dead intern linked to ‘low ratings Joe Scarborough’ in Twitter rampage

BRAD REED
29 NOV 2017 AT 09:06 ET

President Donald Trump’s epic Twitter rampage continued on Wednesday when he demanded an investigation into an “unsolved mystery” surrounding MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.

The “unsolved mystery” Trump is referring to revolves around Lori Klausutis, a 28-year-old intern who was found dead in Scarborough’s office in 2001 back when he was still a Florida congressman.

A medical examiner concluded that Klausutis had suffered from heart problems that caused her to faint and fatally hit her head on a desk, where she was found dead hours later. Both police and the medical examiner said they found no evidence of foul play, or that Klausutis’ death was a suicide. There has never been any evidence linking Scarborough to her death.

Scarborough subsequently responded to Trump’s tweets by simply noting that the president’s mental health seems to be in a less-than-ideal state.

https://twitter.com/JoeNBC/status/935879100262240256

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Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/trump-demands-investigation-of-dead-intern-linked-to-low-ratings-joe-scarborough-in-twitter-rampage/

November 29, 2017

GOP voter support drops for House tax plan, poll says

Source: Politico




By TOBY ECKERT 11/29/2017 06:02 AM EST

Republican voter support for the House GOP tax plan eroded sharply in the past week, and ticked down among all voters, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult tracking poll.

While Republicans still mostly back the plan, their support dropped to 59 percent from 66 percent based on what they generally know about it. GOP opposition grew to 12 percent from 9 percent, and the GOP undecided grew to 28 percent from 25 percent. The number of registered voters overall who said they support the bill, which passed the House earlier this month, fell to 36 percent from 39 percent, while opposition rose to 36 percent from 31 percent.

Democrats continue to be overwhelmingly opposed to the plan — 58 percent, up from 52 percent the week before. Support among independents stood at 30 percent, which was unchanged.

After being read a list of provisions included in the House bill, Republican support rose to 62 percent, which was still down from 69 percent after respondents were told about the same provisions the week before. Overall voter support hit 38 percent under those circumstances, which is down from 41 percent.



Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/29/poll-gop-voter-support-house-tax-plan-267884

November 29, 2017

Matt Lauer Reportedly Fired After Sexually Assaulting NBC Staffer During Rio Olympics

by Ken Meyer | 9:01 am, November 29th, 2017

Page Six has published a new report claiming that Matt Lauer sexually assaulted a female staffer during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. This comes shortly after the TODAY anchor was fired from NBC after becoming the latest public figure to be accused of sexual misconduct.

According to Page Six, Lauer was fired after a network employee complained to NBC chiefs about an incident that happened when they were covering the games last year in Brazil. “An NBC staffer come forward with a claim that Matt sexually assaulted her at the Olympics,” a source said. “There have been rumors about Matt having affairs with subordinates at NBC for years, but those were believed to be consensual. This incident in Rio was not.”

When NBC announced that Lauer was fired from the network this morning, they released a statement where they hinted that there was the reason to believe his sexual misconduct towards a female co-worker was not a single occurrence. “While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over twenty years he’s been at NBC News,” the network said, “we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”

After the news broke, there were rumors among media figures that several news outlets are preparing to release stories about the victims of Lauer’s sexual abuse. It is quite possible those reports will be released in the coming days.

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https://www.mediaite.com/online/matt-lauer-reportedly-fired-after-sexually-assaulting-nbc-staffer-during-rio-olympics/

November 29, 2017

The origin of the 'Pocahontas' insult is a newspaper's reporting. The same paper just called...

The origin of the ‘Pocahontas’ insult is a newspaper’s reporting. The same paper just called Trump’s attack ‘coarse.’

By Callum Borchers November 28 at 5:16 PM

-snip-

The Boston Herald was first to report in April 2012 that when Harvard Law School students complained about a lack of diversity among the faculty, in the mid-1990s, the school countered with a tally of professors that it claimed were racial minorities, including Warren.

The tabloid's cover featured a close-up photograph of Warren's face and an all-caps headline: “HARVARD FLAW.”

Though its reporting represents the origin of President Trump's pejorative nickname for Warren, “Pocahontas,” the Herald on Tuesday printed a cover that criticized the president for using the nickname during Monday's White House ceremony to honor World War II-era Navajo code talkers.

https://twitter.com/BHsciacca/status/935367772686692352/photo/1

On MSNBC Monday night, the Herald's chief Washington reporter, Kimberly Atkins, said, “There are very few things that I take personally in covering Washington as a reporter. But today it really stung. I mean, as a person of color who has been on the receiving end of racial slurs, to see the president go to that length ... really was bad, not just optically. It was bad for America. It's a sad day today.”

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/11/28/the-origin-of-the-pocahontas-insult-is-a-newspapers-reporting-the-same-paper-just-called-trumps-attack-coarse/?undefined=&utm_term=.2f16a210e1be&wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1

November 29, 2017

Inside the White House, Michael Flynn pushed proposal from company he said he had advised

By Greg Jaffe, Carol D. Leonnig, Michael Kranish and Tom Hamburger November 28 at 7:35 PM

The week after President Trump’s inauguration, national security adviser Michael Flynn forwarded a memo written by a former business associate and told his staff to fashion it into a policy for President Trump’s approval, according to two people familiar with the exchange.

The proposal — to develop a “Marshall Plan” of investment in the Middle East — was being pushed by a company that Flynn said he had advised during the 2016 campaign and transition. The firm was seeking to build nuclear power plants in the region.

His advocacy for the project in the White House surprised some administration officials and raised concerns that Flynn had a conflict of interest. From August to December 2016, he said he served as an adviser to the company, IP3, reporting later on his disclosure forms that he ended his association with the firm just weeks before joining the administration.

To push the idea “in the first week of the administration without any policy process made no sense,” said a person familiar with episode who, like others with knowledge of the incident, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions. “It was a business proposal in the form of a policy paper.”

-snip-

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-white-house-michael-flynn-pushed-proposal-from-company-he-had-advised/2017/11/28/445da6f0-d454-11e7-b62d-d9345ced896d_story.html

November 29, 2017

Congressional Black Caucus chairman won't press Conyers to resign

Source: The Hill




BY MIKE LILLIS - 11/29/17 07:40 AM EST

The head of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) said late Tuesday that he won’t press embattled Rep. John Conyers to resign from Congress over allegations that the long-serving Michigan Democrat sexually harassed a handful of aides over the course of decades.

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), who huddled with Conyers and other CBC members Tuesday afternoon, said he wants Conyers to cooperate in a nascent ethics investigation surrounding the charges.

But the ultimate question of whether Conyers should step down before the ethics probe is over, Richmond said, should be Conyers’s alone to answer. “That’s a personal decision for him and his family,” Richmond told reporters in the Capitol after votes, before stepping into an elevator.

Richmond’s position reveals a split both within the Black Caucus and between CBC leaders and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is said to be working “with CBC to apply pressure to get Conyers to step down,” according to senior Democratic aide. The aide did not say which members of CBC share that sentiment, and a number of prominent lawmakers within the group are lining up in staunch defense of their long-time friend and ally.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/362282-congressional-black-caucus-chairman-wont-press-conyers-to-resign

November 29, 2017

Poll: Democrats more likely to believe allegations of sexual misconduct

Source: Politico




By STEVEN SHEPARD 11/29/2017 05:51 AM EST

More voters find allegations of sexual misconduct against prominent public figures credible than not credible, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

Few voters, in fact, say the allegations against the 10 men tested in the poll are not credible. The only public figures for whom more than 20 percent of voters say accusations of misconduct are not credible are three conservatives: President Donald Trump, former Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly and Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore.

That underscores a key partisan difference in how voters perceive the raft of allegations against prominent men in politics, media and entertainment: Self-identified Democratic voters are likely to believe the allegations against men at the same rate or a greater rate than the overall pool of registered voters, even when the man accused is a Democrat or a liberal.

But Republicans are significantly less likely to believe the accusations against Trump, O’Reilly and Moore. And with less than two weeks until Alabama voters pick the state’s next senator, the percentage of national Republicans who find the allegations against the twice-removed former state Supreme Court justice credible declined since last week.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/29/sexual-misconduct-democrats-poll-267201

November 29, 2017

CNN rolls clip pointing out similarities between 'The Apprentice' and Trump's Dem meeting stunt

CNN rolls stunning clip pointing out similarities between ‘The Apprentice’ and Trump’s Democrat meeting stunt

NN anchor Erin Burnett noticed that President Donald Trump’s Tuesday press conference resembled the staging used by Trump during his previous career as a reality-TV star.

“Tonight, Trump’s reality show,” Burnett narrated to set the scene.“President Trump — always the showman — an executive producer at heart, did not waste an opportunity to turn this situation into political theater, complete with empty chairs and name cards for Senator Schumer and Congresswoman Pelosi.

Burnett noted all of the similarities between the staging of today’s photo op and the board room set from the NBC show “The Appetence.”

“The only difference today was nobody was technically fired,” Burnett noted.



https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/cnn-rolls-hilarious-clip-pointing-out-similarities-between-the-apprentice-and-trumps-democrat-meeting-stunt/