Source: Charlotte Observer

The chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party said if early vote totals in Bladen County were leaked before Election Day, “this fact alone would likely require a new election” in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.

The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer reported Monday that early voting totals from Bladen County may have been leaked. Documents released by the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement show that early voting tabulations were run several days before the Nov. 6 election in Bladen County. A witness who signed that vote tabulation wrote in a sworn affidavit that the totals were “viewed by officials at the one-stop site who were not judges.”

“This action by election officials would be a fundamental violation of the sense of fair play, honesty, and integrity that the Republican Party stands for. We can never tolerate the state putting its thumb on the scale. The people involved in this must be held accountable and should it be true, this fact alone would likely require a new election,” Robin Hayes, the NC GOP’s chairman, in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.

Read more: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article222949325.html#storylink=latest_side

Source: Talking Points Memo

By Tierney Sneed
December 11, 2018 3:29 pm

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson signaled Tuesday that she thought a hearing on Paul Manafort’s alleged lies to investigators might be necessary before she proceeds to sentencing. She tentatively scheduled such a hearing for the morning of January 25.


Manafort’s attorney Richard Westling suggested that it was possible that the defense wouldn’t ask for a hearing.

“It’s news to me that you aren’t,” Jackson said.

The defense and prosecutors agreed to keep an informal discussion going about special counsel Robert Mueller’s accusations that Manafort lied after agreeing to cooperate with federal investigators. Manafort’s attorneys will file a briefing on January 7 indicating what, if any, aspects of those accusations the defense is disputing.

It may be possible, Jackson said, that “not much of a hearing is required.”

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/judge-tentatively-schedules-hearing-on-manaforts-alleged-lies-for-jan-25

---

Throw the book at him.......................

By Kate Riga
December 11, 2018 12:59 pm
President Donald Trump invoked House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) name 12 times in a 15-minute pool spray Tuesday, calling out “Nancy” again and again as the two of them, plus Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), sparred on border security.


Pelosi was mostly trying to shut down the debate until the press vacated the room, while Trump seemed to enjoy the attention, calling it “transparency.”

She did snap back when Trump made an allusion to the upcoming vote for her to gain the speakership, for which she has been whipping votes vigorously.

“Mr. President, please don’t characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting as a leader of the House Democrats who just won a big victory,” she quipped.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-called-pelosi-name

“Mr. President, please don’t characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting as a leader of the House Democrats who just won a big victory,” she quipped.

She just poked in right in the fucking eye............................

Source: Talking Points Memo

By Nicole Lafond
December 11, 2018 2:17 pm
Outgoing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) on Tuesday hinted that he would sign the legislation that the Republican state legislature has crafted in order to curb some of the incoming Democratic governor’s authority.


In a Facebook post, Walker outlined the “criteria” he would use to consider the legislation by explaining why certain aspects of the GOP power-grab are “reasonable.”

“Does it improve transparency? Will it make it easier for people to know what is going on in their government?” he said of the legislation. “For example, one of the bills calls for a report on people who receive a pardon by the governor. It seems reasonable that the public should know if a convicted felon is pardoned of his or her crime.”

While Walker doesn’t say outright that he plans to support state Republican’s efforts, it has been speculated that Walker would endorse the bills from the get-go.

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/walker-hints-support-gop-power-grab

---

If anyone thinks that this asshole will veto this legislation, just like the shit they are pulling in Michigan................they will not..........................they are fucking fascist...................KOCH funded libertarian fascists......................nothing more and nothing else..................fucking fascist...............

By Lisa Mascaro
December 11, 2018 3:34 pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is unloading on President Donald Trump after their Oval Office confrontation over government funding.

Speaking to Democratic lawmakers back at the Capitol, Pelosi boasted on Tuesday that she and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer goaded Trump to “fully own that the shutdown was his.”

Pelosi’s comments were described by an aide who was in the room but was not authorized to speak publicly.

Trump threatened again to shut down part of the government next week if Democrats did not agree to fund his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

According to the aide, Pelosi said: “It’s like a manhood thing for him. As if manhood could ever be associated with him. This wall thing.”

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/pelosi-wall-funding-manhood-thing-trump

She is going to "bird dog" the shit out of this asshole......................

Trump has nothing to show for his expensive border policies.

REBEKAH ENTRALGO
DEC 11, 2018, 11:50 AM

According to a scathing report released by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, the federal government doesn’t have much to show for its costly effort to increase border security staffing at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The report, first released last Thursday, details how the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has essentially mismanaged a a multimillion dollar hiring contract ordered to meet the demands of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

Last January, Trump signed an executive order directing DHS to amp up the number of agents on staff. In response, CBP granted Accenture Federal Services — which HuffPost notes is “a subsidiary of the global Accenture consulting company headquartered in the tax haven of Dublin” — a $297 million contract to hire 7,500 CBP officers, Border Patrol agents, and Air and Marine Interdiction Agents.

But according to the inspector general report, Accenture is “nowhere near” their hiring goals and CBP “risks wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on a hastily approved contract that is not meeting its proposed performance expectations.”

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-has-nothing-to-show-for-his-expensive-border-policies-19c90f29e0de/

And this asshole thinks that people on food stamps should go hungry....................

Pelosi to Trump: "What the president is representing in terms of his cards over there is not factual."

RYAN KORONOWSKI
DEC 11, 2018, 3:26 PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) issued a strong rebuke of President Trump Tuesday, saying any conversations between the White House and Democratic leaders regarding Trump’s proposed border wall should be based in fact.

Trump met face to face with Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to try and avert a shutdown, which will occur if Congress cannot reach an agreement to continue funding the government by December 21. The president invited cameras in for a photo op at the beginning of the conversation, which quickly devolved into a fight over funding for the border wall, one of Trump’s central campaign promises.

Trump needs 10 Democratic votes in the Senate — as well as the House GOP, which has proven adversarial on the issue — to pass a bill containing $1.6 billion in wall funding. On Tuesday, Pelosi reminded the president of that fact, prompting Trump to respond that the wall’s effectiveness would convince Democrats to sign off on the agreement.

“It’s been very effective,” he said. “…If you look at San Diego, illegal traffic dropped 92 percent once the wall was up. El Paso, illegal traffic dropped 72 percent, then ultimately 95 percent once the wall was up. In Tucson, Arizona, illegal traffic dropped 92 percent. Yuma, it dropped illegal traffic 95 to 96 percent.”

https://thinkprogress.org/fact-checking-trump-in-oval-office-pelosi-schumer-government-shutdown-border-wall-funding-d2d18c8b57f5/

Its been two fucking years..........and now adults have come into the room .................and the racist could not stand having a woman with character fact check him..................his day glow head almost went into complete melt down mode...............


January 3, 2019 cannot get here fast enough.........................

By Dan Desai Martin - December 11, 2018

Trump's pathetic whining can't hide the chaos and instability he's created in the White House.

Trump’s criminal background, legal troubles, and general buffoonery are making it difficult for him to find anyone willing to become his next chief of staff.

Trump humiliated outgoing chief of staff John Kelly by announcing Kelly’s exit days before the two men agreed Kelly would make the announcement. And Trump’s top pick to replace him, Nick Ayers, publicly turned down the job over the weekend.

Once again, the White House is in chaos due to Trump’s own short-sightedness and instability. And once again, Trump is avoiding responsibility by whining at the media for accurately reporting on that chaos.

“Fake News has it purposely wrong,” Trump says. “Many, over ten, are vying for and wanting the White House Chief of Staff position. Why wouldn’t someone want one of the truly great and meaningful jobs in Washington. Please report news correctly. Thank you!”

https://shareblue.com/chief-of-staff-trump-begs-press-please-stop/

You want the press to play nice...........................your brother-n-law gave information to a fucking regime that had a journalists killed asshole.......................do you fucking know how many journalists have been killed asshole........................

https://cpj.org/data/killed/2018/?status=Killed&motiveConfirmed%5B%5D=Confirmed&type%5B%5D=Journalist&start_year=2018&end_year=2018&group_by=location

By Cameron Joseph
December 11, 2018 6:00 am
The new head of House Democrats’ efforts to retain their newfound majority made it clear she’s not content to just play defense in 2020 — and had a pair of candidates in mind to help her party expand the map who fell just short in 2018.

Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL), the newly elected head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said that she hoped both Minnesota’s Dan Feehan and Illinois’ Betsy Dirksen Londrigan run again after losing close races last month.

“I hope they both run,” she told TPM in a brief sit-down in her office Monday afternoon.

Feehan lost a hotly contested race in a southern Minnesota district to Rep.-elect Jim Hagedorn (R-MN) by 1,300 votes, one of only two seats Republicans flipped this past election, in a formerly swing district that President Obama carried twice but President Trump won by almost 15 points in 2016.

Londrigan also came up just short in bid against Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) in a traditionally swing district that had trended towards the GOP in recent years. The close call was driven by heavy turnout in the district’s two Democratic strongholds, the state capitol of Springfield and the college town of Champaign. The result came as something of a surprise — Davis himself hadn’t expected a close race just months before the election, and national strategists in both parties didn’t have the race at the top of their target lists on election day.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/new-dem-campaign-chief-wants-pair-of-close-call-candidates-to-run-again

By Josh Kovensky
December 11, 2018 11:18 am
GOP operative Roger Stone “doesn’t recall” any further contacts with Trump campaign chairman Stephen K. Bannon about Wikileaks during the 2016 beyond what was reported by the New York Times last month, he told TPM on Capitol Hill Tuesday.


Notably, Stone would not flat-out deny that he had additional communication with Bannon beyond the emails released by the Times showing the two communicating in early October 2016 about an impending release of hacked Clinton campaign emails by Wikileaks.

“So the point would be what?” Stone asked rhetorically as he continued to answer TPM’s question about contact with Bannon.

He insisted that he did not lie to Congress without prompting, telling TPM, “Perjury needs to be material.”

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/rogert-stone-dodges-bannon-wikileaks

Hey asshole, do you remember deleting your emails.........................the special prosecutor remembers.................your going to jail............................