It’s a National Non-Emergency: Trump thread 91

[TheClaws]

Here we are in February 2019 - Trump has declared a National Emergency to funnel the funds for his border wall, he’s just come off a ridiculous SOTU that contained more lies than not, and he’s just tweeted this:

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 2h2 hours ago
More
“These guys, the investigators, ought to be in jail. What they have done, working with the Obama intelligence agencies, is simply unprecedented. This is one of the greatest political hoaxes ever perpetrated on the people of this Country, and Mueller is a coverup.” Rush Limbaugh

But here’s a reminder he’s not one of the sharpest tools in the box.

He has a great deal of them.

I saw that one about Matt Gaetz, lion. Upstanding character, isn’t he? Isn’t that witness tampering - sending something like that one the eve of Cohen’s testimony?

Matt Gaetz @mattgaetz
Hey @MichaelCohen212 - Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot...

Sorry, must correct my PP. Silly me for misunderstanding him!

Manu Raju @mkraju
·
1m
Rep. Matt Gaetz, speaking outside his office to reporters, repeatedly argued that his tweet on Michael Cohen is not a threat and it’s not witness tampering but “witness testing.” Per
@KilloughCNN

GOP leader Mitch McConnell, lawyer, is unsure if the emergency declaration is legal.

thehill.com/homenews/senate/431658-gop-leader-unsure-on-legality-of-trumps-emergency-declaration

This an an excerpt from Appeal to All Koreans Adopted at Meeting of C.C, DFRK. Primarily, the appeal is a lofty high-level goal-oriented document aimed at all North Koreans. This part in particular interested me as it indicates that KJU isn’t interested in US cooperation; ultimately they wish the US to leave so the Peninsula and NK can be fully self-reliant. Whether this is a a positive outcome is another thing.

I should make the point that if this is adopted at this meeting, then it is set in stone. It is the same as if it came from KJU himself. (Dated 26/02/2019)

‘Let us not allow joint military exercises with outsiders any longer and check and frustrate all acts escalating tension and destroying peace like the introduction of military hardware including strategic assets from outside.

‘It is necessary to comprehensively expand and develop cooperation and exchange between the north and the south and thus consolidate national reconciliation and unity and make all the compatriots substantially benefit from the mended relations between the north and the south.

‘Let us smash every sanction, pressure and challenge by outsiders by the concerted efforts of all the fellow countrymen and resolutely reject interference and intervention by outsiders to subordinate inter-Korean relations to their tastes and interests!

‘Let us actively search for ways for peaceful reunification based on an all-Korean agreement and make sincere efforts to realize it!’

'witness testing?

We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Jim Sciutto
‏
Verified account

@jimsciutto

'Breaking: House votes 245-182 to terminate President Trump’s National Emergency Declaration. 13 Republicans voted with all Democrats to pass the measure.'

Well.

Tomorrow may be indeed be interesting.

It is believed the Senate has enough votes to pass the measure. It isn't known if they have a veto-proof majority though.

Flipping heck.

'Thousands of US child migrants sexually abused'
The US health department has received more than 4,500 complaints of sexual abuse against detained migrant children from 2014-2018, documents show.
The Department of Justice reportedly received an additional 1,303 sex abuse complaints against unaccompanied minors during the same period.
Congressman Ted Deutch, who released the figures, said at least 154 claims are against facility staff members.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47377889?ocid=socialflow_twitter

Interesting statement to make on a few levels - calling a murderous dictator “my friend” is a little concerning, for one thing. And I really think it is simplifying issues somewhat to say NK could be like Vietnam - thriving like few places on Earth? - if they would just denuclearise. Trump seems to believe all you need to do is add a few golf courses, hotels and tourism, and voila! Problem solved.

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
4h4 hours ago
More
Vietnam is thriving like few places on earth. North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize. The potential is AWESOME, a great opportunity, like almost none other in history, for my friend Kim Jong Un. We will know fairly soon - Very Interesting!

Cohen's opening statement:

int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/636-michael-cohens-congressional-t/3a1530b333230e775df5/optimized/full.pdf?smid=nytcore-ios-share#page=1

Nancy Pelosi
@SpeakerPelosi
I encourage all Members to be mindful that comments made on social media or in the press can adversely affect the ability of House Committees to obtain the truthful and complete information necessary to fulfill their duties. (link: goo.gl/jVGQD6 )

Matt Gaetz
@mattgaetz
Speaker, I want to get the truth too. While it is important 2 create context around the testimony of liars like Michael Cohen, it was NOT my intent to threaten, as some believe I did. I’m deleting the tweet & I should have chosen words that better showed my intent. I’m sorry.

'He was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talking
with Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of Democratic National
Committee emails.'

Philip Rucker
@PhilipRucker
Just in: Rudy Giuliani calls Cohen testimony “pathetic” in text message to Washington Post and says, “If you believe him you are a fool.”

Renato Mariotti
@renato_mariotti
Giuliani says Cohen shouldn’t be believed because he associated with a criminal. What does that mean for Trump, who associated with Cohen?

Wendy Siegelman
@WendySiegelman
Maria Kalinovska, the ex wife of oligarch Dmitry Firtash, and her son has accused Firtash of hiding money starting in the early 2000s in offshore accounts prior to their divorce and is pursuing damages of 5 billion euros (over $5 billion) per a source
(link: <a class="break-all" href="https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=uk&u=ua.interfax.com.ua/news/general/568740.html&prev=search" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=uk&u=ua.interfax.com.ua/news/general/568740.html&prev=search )

Ouch:

'Mr. Trump is an enigma. He is complicated, as am I. He has both good and bad, as do we all. But the bad far outweighs the good, and since taking office, he has become the worst version of himself. He is capable of behaving kindly, but he is not kind. He is capable of committing acts of generosity, but he is not generous. He is capable of being loyal, but he is fundamentally disloyal.'

Rachel Maddow MSNBC
@maddow
New from Wall Street Journal:

Cohen to show Congress check signed by the President, reimbursing him for illegal hush money payments made to benefit campaign. Expense was allegedly falsely booked at Trump Organization as legal fees.

(link: www.wsj.com/articles/cohen-to-testify-that-trump-engaged-in-criminal-conduct-while-in-office-11551175201?mod=hp_lead_pos2 )

Re Cohen’s statement:

Sarah Kendzior
@sarahkendzior
I did an interview on
@RickSmithShow
hours ago warning that Trump strategy would be to have Cohen claim Trump had no political ambitions, that he didn't want to win, and play down long-term Russian mob ties. It's the safest narrative for all of them.

Now he has done just that.

Thread: mobile.twitter.com/sarahkendzior/status/1100624079982379008

Sarah Kendzior
@sarahkendzior
In his testimony, Cohen left out the part where he and fellow lifelong Russian mobster Felix Sater emailed each other in Nov 2015 about their plan to "get Trump elected" with help of the Kremlin. "Our boy can become POTUS and we can engineer it" wasn't about a brand or a tower.

Fatima Tlis
@fatimatlis
Moscow court sentenced an ex-top manager of Kaspersky Lab to 14 years in prison for state treason. He allegedly passed on to the Americans the info about the hacking of the U.S. Democratic Party servers in 2016. If Russia was not behind the hack as the Kremlin says, why treason?

'During the campaign, Mr. Trump said he did not consider Vietnam Veteran, and Prisoner of War, Senator John McCain to be “a hero” because he likes people who weren’t captured. At the same time, Mr. Trump tasked me to handle the negative press surrounding his medical deferment from the Vietnam draft. Mr. Trump claimed it was because of a bone spur, but when I asked for medical records, he gave me none and said there was no surgery. He told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters but rather offer simply
the fact that he received a medical deferment. He finished the conversation with the following comment. “You think I’m
stupid, I wasn’t going to Vietnam.”

I find it ironic, President Trump, that you are in Vietnam right now.

And yet, I continued to work for him.'

Oh dear.

U.S. Cyber Command operation disrupted Internet access of Russian troll factory on day of 2018 midterms

www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-cyber-command-operation-disrupted-internet-access-of-russian-troll-factory-on-day-of-2018-midterms/2019/02/26/1827fc9e-36d6-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html?utm_term=.2a0b532d3799

Ken Dilanian
@KenDilanianNBC
NBC News has confirmed
@nakashimae
's great scoop that U.S. Cyber Command blocked internet access at the IRA troll farm during the 2018 midterms, an operation that under normal circumstances would have to be approved by the president