Why Some Republicans Insist Trump Never Said Shithole

Behind the discrepancy: A senior GOP source familiar with the matter told CNN that instead of hearing the President say "shithole," some Republicans heard Trump say "shithouse."

Two Trump allies came out publicly on Sunday to dispute that Trump decried immigrants coming from "shithole countries" and sought to cast doubt on Durbin's public account of the meeting.

Georgia GOP Sen. David Perdue said Sunday that there had been a "gross misinterpretation" of Trump's remarks in a private meeting, where sources told CNN Trump made the demeaning and dismissive comment about immigrants from Haiti and Africa and added that the US should get more people from countries like Norway, a predominantly white and wealthy nation.

"I'm telling you he did not use that word, George, and I'm telling you it's a gross misrepresentation," Perdue told moderator George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week."

Perdue and Arkansas GOP Sen. Tom Cotton said in a Friday statement that they did not recall the "shithole" comment, and Cotton on Sunday also accused Durbin of misrepresenting Trump's comments.


http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/15/politics/donald-trump-dick-durbin-oval-office-meeting/index.html

Tweet of the Day

Democrats in droves seek to topple GOP in Californias congressional races

For California Democrats, the flood of candidates looking to unseat GOP members of Congress could be too much of a good thing.

There already are 43 Democrats, many of them with plenty of campaign cash, lined up to challenge Republicans in the top seven districts targeted by their party. And with more than seven weeks to go before the March 9 filing deadline, that number could grow.

For Democratic leaders, it’s the more the merrier, especially in a state where President Trump — and Republicans in general — are increasingly unpopular.

“I think it’s a good thing,” said Drew Godinich, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “As (New Mexico Rep.) Ben Ray Luján said, ‘No party ever lost an election due to too much energy and momentum.’”

The last thing Democratic leaders want is to hear discouraging words from California, which is key to their efforts to flip 24 GOP congressional seats and win back control of the House in November. The seven seats on the top of the party’s priority list — two in the Central Valley, one in Los Angeles County and four all or partially in Orange County — make up a big chunk of that wish list.

The campaign committee, invading the GOP stronghold of Orange County, has even moved its western headquarters to Irvine in an effort to show just how serious it is.

“In January 2016, the leader of the Orange County party was begging Democrats to get on board and run for Congress,” Godinich added. “Now we have multiple viable Democrats there who could compete and win.”

But that new enthusiasm comes with its own problems, said Tony Quinn, a former GOP consultant who is now an editor of the nonpartisan California Target Book, which looks at political races across the state.


http://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Democrats-in-droves-targeting-California-s-12497966.php?utm_campaign=twitter-premium&utm_source=CMS%20Sharing%20Button&utm_medium=social

I feel terrible for the person to hit the Missile Warning button in Hawaii.

Sounds like it was a pre-programmed message in the state alert system. Maybe it should not have been so easy.

Republicans concede that a handful of once-competitive governorships are nearly out of reach

Much of the GOP anxiety stems from the way a handful of potentially competitive races have broken strongly toward the Democratic candidate. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham is now heavily favored to replace Republican Gov. Susana Martinez in New Mexico, while multiple top New York Republicans have passed on challenging Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo. According to top strategists from both parties, similar skepticism about GOP chances has overtaken the races in Pennsylvania — where Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is running for reelection — and Maine, where Republican Gov. Paul LePage is vacating his seat.

While Republicans still see a clear opportunity to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy in Connecticut, they acknowledge they will likely need to spend more resources than they hoped to defend their seats in Ohio, Michigan, Florida, New Hampshire, Illinois and even Maryland, where Gov. Larry Hogan remains popular despite the state’s heavily liberal skew.

Add in the costs of competing in expensive battlegrounds like Nevada, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Colorado, and it means they are less likely to spend extensive money or resources to flip once-vulnerable Democratic seats in Rhode Island or Oregon.

Meanwhile, Democrats are on the offensive, expanding their sights into races where they usually wouldn’t venture.

“This was always going to be a huge map, and a map with a lot of opportunity for us, regardless of the larger environment. [But] the suburban dynamic, the young voters dynamic, the fact that Democrats are so enthusiastic — all of those things we hoped would be true, and which were certainly true in Virginia and New Jersey — are making us look anew at some states,” acknowledged DGA executive director Elisabeth Pearson.


https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/14/governor-races-2018-midterms-republicans-340218

Journalists Offered Reward to Ask Donald Trump About U.S. Relations With Wakanda

President Donald Trump made waves in the news cycle earlier this week when he reportedly referred to several African-based countries as “sh*tholes” in a meeting with Congressmen and women as they put their heads together to work on immigration reform.

It only took a matter of minutes for Twitter to hop all over the story, and that’s when T’Challa and his kingdom of Wakanda were dragged into the mess.

Writer Sara Benincasa (@SaraJBenincasa) took to the microblogging platform to offer journalists three hundred dollars to ask President Trump his opinion on America’s current relationship with the nation of Wakanda.

“I am offering $300 to the journalist who very seriously asks Trump his opinion on our nation’s relations with Wakanda and gets the question and answer recorded live on video,” Benincasa tweeted.

https://twitter.com/SaraJBenincasa/status/952208167525498880

Now, before we get too far, we probably should clarify something, especially in this day and age. Wakanda is a fictional country, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as the home to Black Panther. The country made it’s Marvel debut in Fantastic Four #52 (1966), the same issue Black Panther himself first appeared.

Although its exact location has changed from time to time throughout the history of Marvel comics, the country is typically situated in northeastern Africa.


http://comicbook.com/marvel/2018/01/14/donald-trump-wakanda-black-panther/

Hey ICE, Birth tourism brings Russian baby boom to Miami

MIAMI — Lured by the charm of little Havana or the glamour of South Beach, some 15 million tourists visit Miami every year.

But for a growing number of Russian women, the draw isn't sunny beaches or pulsing nightclubs. It's U.S. citizenship for their newborn children.

In Moscow, it's a status symbol to have a Miami-born baby, and social media is full of Russian women boasting of their little americantsy.

It's really common," said Ekaterina Kuznetsova, 29. "When I was taking the plane to come here, it was not only me. It was four or five women flying here."

Ekaterina was one of dozens of Russian birth tourists NBC News spoke to over the past four months about a round-trip journey that costs tens of thousands of dollars and takes them away from home for weeks or months.

Why do they come?

"American passport is a big plus for the baby. Why not?" Olesia Reshetova, 31, told NBC News.


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/birth-tourism-brings-russian-baby-boom-miami-n836121

Cotton and Perdue basing denials on possibility that Trump said "shithouse" instead of "shithole"

CA-SEN: New poll has Feinstein well below 50% in the first round.

New 'Marvel's Black Panther' movie poster honors the heroic women of the film