December 30, 2018

An 'atheist' empire? Trump aides rally evangelicals in China fight

Religious freedom is a growing theme of President Donald Trump’s confrontation with Beijing, and it's resonating with Christian leaders.

By NAHAL TOOSI 12/30/2018 07:30 AM EST

Vice President Mike Pence infuriated Beijing when he gave a speech in October warning that China had become a dangerous rival to the United States. While he focused on familiar issues such as China’s trade policies and cyber espionage, Pence also denounced the country’s “avowedly atheist Communist Party.”

Citing a crackdown on organized religion in the country, Pence noted that Chinese authorities “are tearing down crosses, burning Bibles and imprisoning believers.”

“For China’s Christians,” Pence said, “these are desperate times.”

Pence’s remarks, which also addressed the repression of Chinese Buddhists and Muslims, illustrated how religious freedom is a growing theme of President Donald Trump’s confrontation with Beijing, which some foreign policy insiders warn could develop into a new Cold War.

It is a subject that resonates in the U.S. heartland, some Christian leaders say — parts of which, including rural areas, are disproportionately at risk of fallout from Trump’s trade fight with the Asian giant.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/30/trump-china-evangelicals-trade-fight-1076488

December 30, 2018

John Kelly: judge me on what Trump didn't do while I was chief of staff

Retired general gives interview to Los Angeles Times

Statements on immigration and more likely to anger president

Martin Pengelly
@MartinPengelly

Sun 30 Dec 2018 08.13 EST Last modified on Sun 30 Dec 2018 08.15 EST

As Donald Trump attracted criticism for blaming the deaths of children in US custody on Democrats opposed to his demands for a border wall, outgoing White House chief of staff John Kelly said he had “nothing but compassion” for migrants attempting to enter the US without documentation.

“Illegal immigrants, overwhelmingly, are not bad people,” Kelly said, describing many migrants as victims misled by traffickers. “I have nothing but compassion for them, the young kids.”

Two young Guatemalan children have died in US custody this month. Amid debate, the causes of death remain unknown.

Kelly, a retired Marines general, spoke in an interview with the Los Angeles Times conducted by phone on Friday and published on Sunday morning. He will leave the White House on Wednesday. His remarks, jarring with those of the president, echoed those of his successor as homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, who visited the border this weekend.

In a statement released around the same time on Saturday that Trump tweeted that “any deaths of children or others at the border are strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies”, Nielsen said: “The system is clearly overwhelmed and we must work together to address this humanitarian crisis and protect vulnerable populations.”

Nielsen also called on Congress to “act with urgency”. That is unlikely during a standoff over funding for Trump’s wall which has now led to a nine-day government shutdown.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/30/john-kelly-donald-trump-los-angeles-times-interview

December 30, 2018

Shadows lengthen over Donald Trump's presidency with December pleas and sentences

Kevin Johnson, Bart Jansen and Brad Heath, USA TODAY Published 8:29 a.m. ET Dec. 30, 2018

Less than a month after declaring his long-shot candidacy for president in 2015, Donald Trump told a Las Vegas gathering he would get along “very nicely” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and there was no need to continue U.S. sanctions against Russia. “I know Putin,” Trump said at the FreedomFest libertarian conference. “I’ll tell you what: We get along with Putin.”

The encounter meant little in the early days of a campaign that many regarded as another Trump exercise in personal vanity. But three years later, the episode involving young Russian gun-rights activist Maria Butina marks one of the earliest known and most direct efforts in the Russian government’s campaign to probe the U.S. political system and Trump's unlikely ascendancy within it.

Earlier this month, Butina pleaded guilty to serving as an unregistered agent of the Kremlin. Although her case was not brought by Russia special counsel Robert Mueller, the disclosures in Butina's case were among several recent developments that have brought a series of federal investigations closer into focus.

The fast-moving events in the final weeks of 2018 also included documents outlining a wide range of criminal conduct implicating some of the president's former closest aides.

Together, these cases have offered vivid accounts of the forces that now threaten Trump's presidency.

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/12/30/forces-threaten-donald-trumps-presidency-robert-mueller/2347032002/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatodaycomwashington-topstories

December 30, 2018

Trump's Base Strategy Raises Questions About Re-Election

December 30, 2018 at 4:36 am EST By Taegan Goddard

“President Trump’s headstrong refusal to reopen the federal government without new border wall funding has set him on a risky and defiant path for 2019, relying on brazen brinkmanship to shore up his base support and protect him ahead of a challenging year for his administration,” the Washington Post reports.

“The latest overtures in the wake of the midterm elections, which brought about sweeping Democratic gains and the end of GOP control of Congress, stand in stark contrast to the historical behavior of modern presidents, who have moved at least briefly toward the political center after being humbled at the ballot box.”

“But Trump — counseled by a cadre of hard-line lawmakers and sensitive to criticism from his allies in the conservative media — has instead focused on reassuring his most ardent supporters of his commitment to the signature border pledge that electrified his followers during his 2016 presidential run even though it is opposed by a majority of voters.”

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https://politicalwire.com/2018/12/30/trumps-base-strategy-raises-questions-about-re-election/

December 30, 2018

Giuliani rips Mueller: 'It's time to put up or shut up'

Source: The Hill


BY JOHN BOWDEN - 12/30/18 07:00 AM EST

President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani is seeking to put pressure on special counsel Robert Mueller to submit his report on whether the investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia has found collusion, saying Mueller should "put up or shut up."

In an interview with New York radio host John Catsimatidis airing Sunday, Giuliani claimed that Mueller's team has known since "May or June" that there is no evidence to support the allegation that members of Trump's campaign knowingly worked with Russians during the 2016 election.

“It should have been wrapped up probably in May or June. That’s when they figured out they had no evidence of collusion," Giuliani asserted, adding, "Collusion is not a crime, by the way."

"You have to show a conspiracy to hack [the Democratic National Committee]," he added. "They don’t have any evidence of that - which is the reason they don’t submit a report, because they are embarrassed."

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/423194-giuliani-rips-mueller-its-time-to-put-up-or-shut-up

December 30, 2018

Putin tells Trump that Moscow is open for dialogue

Source: Reuters



DECEMBER 30, 2018 / 4:38 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

Vladimir Soldatkin
3 MIN READ

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin told his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump in a New Year letter on Sunday that Moscow was ready for dialogue on a “wide-ranging agenda”, the Kremlin said following a series of failed attempts to hold a new summit.

At the end of November, Trump abruptly canceled a planned meeting with Putin on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Argentina, citing tensions about Russian forces opening fire on Ukrainian navy boats and then seizing them.

Trump and Putin also failed to hold a full-fledged meeting in Paris on the sidelines of the centenary commemoration of the Armistice. The two leaders held their one and only summit in Helsinki in July.

“Vladimir Putin stressed that the (Russia - United States) relations are the most important factor for providing strategic stability and international security,” a Kremlin statement said.



Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-usa-dialogue/putin-in-new-year-letter-to-trump-says-moscow-is-open-for-dialogue-idUSKCN1OT07W

December 29, 2018

'He's still in prison': Trump lifts Turkey sanctions but Americans remain detained

The move baffled those who say the U.S. has otherwise been working hard behind the scenes to free those still held in Turkey.

By ELI OKUN 12/29/2018 07:07 AM EST

When the United States celebrated the release of American pastor Andrew Brunson in October, Kubra Golge was hurt.

Like Brunson, her husband, former NASA scientist Serkan Golge, was detained in Turkey on what the U.S. government considers trumped-up charges, locked up during a family vacation.

“I was really disappointed,” she told POLITICO. “He’s still in prison.”

In fact, Golge is one of several Americans still being held in Turkey, some for dubious reasons. Several U.S. Consulate workers are also detained.

So human rights activists were struck when, a month after Brunson’s release, the Treasury Department lifted sanctions on senior Turkish officials. In exchange, Turkey also agreed to roll back its own penalties on two U.S. Cabinet heads. The move baffled those who say the U.S. has otherwise been working hard behind the scenes to free those still detained in Turkey.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/29/trump-lifts-turkey-sanctions-americans-detained-1076618

December 29, 2018

Trump Hasn't Ordered Afghan Troop Withdrawal, White House Says

By Shannon Pettypiece and Bill Faries

December 28, 2018, 4:32 PM EST Updated on December 28, 2018, 5:14 PM EST

Official last week said 7,000 U.S. troops were coming home

Latest Pentagon report describes conflict as at ‘an impasse’

Donald Trump hasn’t ordered the Pentagon to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, a White House spokesman said, contradicting reports last week that he’s directed the military to pull 7,000 soldiers out of a conflict he’s long criticized.

“The president has not made a determination to drawdown U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and he has not directed the Department of Defense to begin the process of withdrawing U.S. personnel from Afghanistan,” Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in an emailed statement on Friday.

The statement came more than a week after a U.S. defense official, who asked not to be identified discussing the troop plans, said the Pentagon will withdraw 7,000 of about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan. That decision was widely reported in media outlets, including by Bloomberg News.

But the U.S. commander of international forces in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller, said Sunday he hadn’t received any orders to change troop levels in the country, according to Voice of America -- a statement the NSC appeared to belatedly confirm on Friday.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-28/trump-hasn-t-ordered-afghanistan-withdrawal-white-house-says?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic

December 29, 2018

As long as Matthew Whitaker is in place, the Russia investigation is in danger - WaPo Edit. Board

By Editorial Board December 28 at 7:25 PM

FOR MORE than a month, Americans did not know whether acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker had received the advice of Justice Department ethics experts on whether he should recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Now, there is an answer: He did. He just chose to ignore it.

Mr. Whitaker’s decision to oversee special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe, despite the opinion of dedicated officials that he ought to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, comes after the acting attorney general declined to request a formal review and instead brought in his own advisers to aid in an informal process.

This slippery strategy does not seem out of character for Mr. Whitaker, who has proved himself unfit for the position the Senate has not confirmed him to hold. There is, of course, his demonstrated antagonism toward Mr. Mueller’s effort. Then there is his involvement in a scam company. And don’t forget his alarming views on judicial power. A recent report from the Wall Street Journal revealing Mr. Whitaker’s already thin résumé to be slimmer still (he incorrectly claimed he was an academic all-American while playing football in college, when he really held a lower-level honor) may be the least of his disqualifications.

Mr. Whitaker could have assuaged these concerns somewhat by submitting to a formal review of his proper role. Instead, he chose to sidestep that process in favor of unofficial conversations — and then followed the advice not of the experts but of anonymous self-selected advisers who told him what he wanted to hear. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein reportedly will still manage the day-to-day of the investigation. But Mr. Whitaker will have the ability to block any significant action Mr. Mueller takes. And the country has even less reason to believe that he will be anything more than President Trump’s lackey.

The nomination of William P. Barr to return to the role of attorney general was a relief to observers concerned that Mr. Trump would leave Mr. Whitaker in place for the remainder of his term — and most likely a relief also to Mr. Whitaker, now operating under decreased scrutiny. Senators will have the opportunity to explore Mr. Barr’s own skepticism of Mr. Mueller’s work, as well as his commitment to the independence of the department he seeks to lead for a second time. But in the meantime, as long as Mr. Whitaker is in place, and as long as a law protecting Mr. Mueller is not, the Russia investigation is in danger.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/as-long-as-matthew-whitaker-is-in-place-the-russia-investigation-is-in-danger/2018/12/28/e82ce108-09fd-11e9-a3f0-71c95106d96a_story.html

December 29, 2018

Trump retreats from public view as government shutdown continues over border wall fight

By David Nakamura December 28 at 8:07 PM

President Trump remained out of public view Friday as the partial government shutdown reached the one-week mark, content to issue threats via Twitter amid a continuing standoff with Democrats over border wall funding.

Since arriving back at the White House early Thursday from a surprise trip to Iraq, Trump has had no public events, and aides offered few details about his schedule, other than saying the president was working and making phone calls.

In the evening, Trump left the White House for a short ride to Vice President Pence’s residence to join him, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner for a private dinner.

At a time when most of Congress has left town for the holidays despite the budget impasse, Trump has emphasized his decision to cancel a planned vacation at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and remain in Washington. But he has chosen not to use this time to engage in substantive negotiations over the budget or seize the public stage and make his case for funding the border wall. Instead, he has filled the silence with a rash of tweets that have blamed Democrats for the shutdown and cast illegal immigration as a threat to the country.

The president’s relatively low profile coincides with Republicans and Democrats digging in for an extended fight, with no breakthrough in sight. Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill said the president remained in touch with GOP leaders, but they said the only tangible talks Friday were between rank-and-file members of the two parties.

Congressional leaders have stayed mostly silent in recent days.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-retreats-from-public-view-as-government-shutdown-continues-over-border-wall-fight/2018/12/28/2da7b13a-0abd-11e9-a3f0-71c95106d96a_story.html