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demmiblue's JournalCummings questions White House about Conway's private jet travels
Source: Politico
The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee wants the White House to provide details of private jet flights that counselor Kellyanne Conway took with former HHS Secretary Tom Price, who resigned last week in the wake of a scandal over his use of charter planes for official business.
Conway took several trips with Price on charter jets that were related to the administration's efforts to fight the opioid epidemic, a POLITICO investigation found. In a letter to the White House, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) asked that Conway provide documents related to all non-commercial flights she's taken since joining the administration.
Cummings is also seeking proof that Price paid back his portion of travel costs, which he vowed to do just one day before he resigned under pressure from President Donald Trump.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/04/white-house-kellyanne-conways-private-jet-travels-243447
Brooke Shields: Trump once used Americas richest man pick-up line on me
Source: The Hill
The star of “The Blue Lagoon” and “Suddenly Susan” disclosed the dating attempt by the future president during a Tuesday night interview with Andy Cohen on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live.”
“He called me. I was on location doing a movie and he called me right after he had gotten a divorce,” Shields, 52, said.
“And he said, ‘I really think we should date because you’re America’s sweetheart and I’m America’s richest man, and the people would love it,” Shields said between laughs.
http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/353812-brooke-shields-trump-once-used-americas-richest-man-pick-up
Trump knocks fake news coverage of his trip to Puerto Rico
Source: The Hill
President Trump early Wednesday criticized some of the news coverage of his trip to Puerto Rico, calling it “fake.”
“A great day in Puerto Rico yesterday,” he tweeted. “While some of the news coverage is Fake, most showed great warmth and friendship.”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/915523382686478337
Trump promoted his administration’s response during his visit to the hurricane-ravaged island on Tuesday.
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/353778-trump-knocks-fake-news-coverage-of-his-trip-to-puerto-rico
Tillersons Fury at Trump Required an Intervention From Pence
Source: NBC News
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was on the verge of resigning this past summer amid mounting policy disputes and clashes with the White House, according to multiple senior administration officials who were aware of the situation at the time.
The tensions came to a head around the time President Donald Trump delivered a politicized speech in late July to the Boy Scouts of America, an organization Tillerson once led, the officials said.
Just days earlier, Tillerson had openly disparaged the president, referring to him as a “moron,” after a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon with members of Trump’s national security team and Cabinet officials, according to three officials familiar with the incident.
While it's unclear if he was aware of the incident, Vice President Mike Pence counseled Tillerson, who is fourth in line to the presidency, on ways to ease tensions with Trump, and other top administration officials urged him to remain in the job at least until the end of the year, officials said.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/tillerson-s-fury-trump-required-intervention-pence-n806451
Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. Were Close to Being Charged With Felony Fraud
New York prosecutors were preparing a case. Then the D.A. overruled his staff after a visit from a top donor: Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz.Source: Pro Publica
In one email, according to four people who have seen it, the Trumps discussed how to coordinate false information they had given to prospective buyers. In another, according to a person who read the emails, they worried that a reporter might be onto them. In yet another, Donald Jr. spoke reassuringly to a broker who was concerned about the false statements, saying that nobody would ever find out, because only people on the email chain or in the Trump Organization knew about the deception, according to a person who saw the email.
There was “no doubt” that the Trump children “approved, knew of, agreed to, and intentionally inflated the numbers to make more sales,” one person who saw the emails told us. “They knew it was wrong.”
In 2010, when the Major Economic Crimes Bureau of the D.A.’s office opened an investigation of the siblings, the Trump Organization had hired several top New York criminal defense lawyers to represent Donald Jr. and Ivanka. These attorneys had met with prosecutors in the bureau several times. They conceded that their clients had made exaggerated claims, but argued that the overstatements didn’t amount to criminal misconduct. Still, the case dragged on. In a meeting with the defense team, Donald Trump, Sr., expressed frustration that the investigation had not been closed. Soon after, his longtime personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz entered the case.
Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/ivanka-donald-trump-jr-close-to-being-charged-felony-fraud
Exclusive: Trump EPA to propose repealing Obama's climate regulation - document
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will propose repealing the Clean Power Plan - the Obama administration’s centerpiece regulation to fight climate change - and plans to solicit input on a rule to replace it, according to an EPA document seen by Reuters.
The decision marks the agency’s first formal step to sweep away the rule intended to cut carbon emissions from power plants, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March launching the EPA’s review.
The Republican president has expressed doubts about the science of climate change and has blamed former Democratic President Barack Obama’s efforts to cut carbon emissions for hurting the coal mining and oil drilling industries.
The Clean Power Plan, or CPP, was challenged in court by 27 states after Obama’s administration launched it in 2015. It is currently suspended by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which set a deadline of Friday for a status report from the EPA on how it plans to proceed.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-epa-carbon-exclusive/exclusive-trump-epa-to-propose-repealing-obamas-climate-regulation-document-idUSKCN1C90BY
John Dingell, Tweeter Extraordinaire:
https://twitter.com/JohnDingell/status/915339615271342080https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/915294948773072896
Katy Tur tweet: I've got to see this tape-- (From the WH pool reporter w POTUS)
A perfect response that really encapsulates it all:
Ryan asked White House to reconsider ousting Price
Source: Politico
Speaker Paul Ryan last week urged the White House to reconsider ousting Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, his longtime friend who had come under fire for often using a taxpayer-funded private jet for travel, according to two people with knowledge of the call.
John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, called the Wisconsin Republican minutes before the departure was announced Friday afternoon. It was a heads-up call, one White House official said.
Ryan urged Kelly to reconsider and touted the Georgia Republican’s experience in Congress and work in the administration, one of the people familiar with the call said.
Price has long had the speaker’s ear on policy matters and was part of Ryan’s old “Jedi Council,” a group of fiscal conservative rabble-rousers who used to powwow when Republicans were in the minority.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/03/tom-price-ouster-paul-ryan-243413
Jedi Council?!
Fox & Friends guest blames CNN for mass shootings
Source: Think Progress
A forensic psychiatrist told Fox News on Tuesday morning that CNN was to blame for mass shootings like what transpired in Las Vegas.
“I think that CNN’s going to have to answer how they demonize gun enthusiasts and how CNN actually contributes to mass shooting,” Michael Welner said. “And I think that they do.”
Welner appeared on Fox & Friends to try to answer the question as to why Stephen Paddock opened fire on a Las Vegas concert Sunday night. Offering his perspective that Paddock did not seem to fit the profile of many other mass shooters, he concluded that he must have had a cause, and that cause must have been guns themselves.
“Absolutely, people who are gun enthusiasts and who are populists or nationalists in this country are dehumanized. They’re demonized,” Welner said, agreeing with the completely unfounded assumption that Paddock perceived the attendees of a country music festival as being gun-toting Trump supporters. “His mind-set is that they deserve to die.”
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/fox-news-cnn-mass-shootings-1ad50b45ba2c/
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