Sometimes
it’s people taking to the streets in protest, as they did this weekend
in Chicago and its suburbs. Sometimes it’s governors banding together to
ensure their citizens have access to vaccines that have been thoroughly
vetted, as the governors of California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii
have.
The U.S. Tennis Association’s request
that broadcasters “refrain from showcasing any disruptions to the
President's attendance in any capacity" was an embarrassment. This is
not North Korea or Russia, and it is not ABC’s, ESPN’s or any other
broadcaster’s job to stroke President Donald Trump’s ego. His vice president, Cabinet secretaries and Republican House leadership have that covered.
As I noted last night, we're on to him and we're done with him. The Iraq War? We got to a tipping point in public opinion and the needed support was over for the Iraq War. Sadly, it didn't end then but serious players in Congress knew that they had to start planning and heed public will. We've reached that point with Donald Chump. He needs to get used to that booing.
His friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein has made it clear who's side he's on. He's not on the side of the American people. Despite years and years of pretending publicly to be outraged by pedophiles, despite QAnon and others -- Roseanne Barr -- pushing the lie going back to his first term that he was going after pedophiles and what they claimed was an international pedophile ring, he did nothing. He still does nothing to stop pedophiles. Epstein and Maxwell? Pedophiles. Epstein died in prison after his convictions. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Chump spent the summer moving her to a camp in Bryan -- one she didn't qualify for because it doesn't take sex offenders. He rescued her. And that and his refusal to release the Epstein files have combined to expose the reality of Chump to everyone and, at this point, only those with a non-functioning brain still trust him.
Lilly Phillips was interviewed on MSNBC's Alex Witt today and revealed that the survivors of Epstein and Maxwell are tired of waiting for Chump to do what he should have done and that they are compiling their own list of Epstein and Maxwell clients.
Maybe this will put a fire under Chump's fat ass and lead him to start releasing real papers -- not the ones that already in the public record that he tries to pretend are a 'new release.' As Lawrence O'Donnell and others have pointed out, the birthday book? The one with Chump's greeting per THE WALL STREET JOURNAL? Congress is getting it due to the Jeffrey Epstein estate -- not as a result of any move on the part of Donald Chump. Kendall Wright (ABC NEWS) reports:
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said Sunday that those who might be in the Jeffrey Epstein files need to be held accountable regardless of their social status.
"We
can't avoid justice just to avoid embarrassment for some very powerful
men," Massie told ABC News' "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos.
Appearing in the files is not indicative of wrongdoing or a crime.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna said there are enough votes in the House to
force a vote on his and Massie's discharge petition, a rare bipartisan
effort they've led to compel the Justice Department to release all
records related to the convicted sex offender.
Instead of releasing information, Chump and his administration are protecting pedophiles. Tom Winter (NBC NEWS) reports:
The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal judge overseeing the case of deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to deny a request from NBC News to unseal the names of two associates who received large payments from him in 2018, court documents show. The Justice Department cited privacy concerns expressed by the two individuals as the reason for not making their names public.
The
first associate received a payment of $100,000 from Epstein and the
second associate received a payment of $250,000, both in 2018, days
after the Miami Herald began publishing a series of investigative
stories where victims criticized a plea deal he received in Florida in
2008.
As
part of the plea agreement, Epstein secured a statement from federal
prosecutors in Florida that the two individuals would not be prosecuted.
The
payments became public after Epstein was indicted and arrested in New
York in 2019 and asked to be released on bail. Federal prosecutors in
New York filed a memorandum on July 16, 2019, that argued Epstein should
remain in jail to prevent him from tampering with witnesses.
They
cited the payments he made to the two individuals, which began two days
after the Miami Herald began publishing its stories on Epstein’s plea
deal, also known as a nonprosecution agreement, or NPA.
Prosecutors
wrote that on Nov. 30, 2018, Epstein “wired $100,000 from a trust
account he controlled, to an individual named as [REDACTED] a potential
co-conspirator — and for whom Epstein obtained protection in — the NPA.”
Prosecutors also wrote that “this individual was also named and featured prominently in the Herald series.”
Prosecutors
added that “the same records show that just three days later, on or
about December 3, 2018, the defendant wired $250,000 from the same trust
account to [REDACTED], who was also named as a potential co-conspirator
— and for whom Epstein also obtained protection in — the NPA.”
Chump has demonstrated that MAGA really stands for Make America Groom Again. It's a party for pedophiles. That's why they are rallying around Chump.
Saturday, THE DAILY BEAST's Joanna Coles spoke with Cleo Glyde about when Epstein introduced her to Chump.
Ravi Hari (MINT) observes, "Glyde is not the first woman to recount awkward or inappropriate interactions involving Epstein and Trump. Stacey Williams, another former model and Epstein acquaintance, said Trump groped her at Trump Tower in Epstein’s presence."
It's all coming down around him, and he's too senile to grasp that.
As his dementia worsens, Chump may no longer be sure whether he's lying or not. Help him out, tell him he's lying. Non-stop. For example, George Chidi (GUARDIAN) reports:
As Donald Trump threatens to deploy national guard units to Chicago and Baltimore, ostensibly to quell violence, a pattern has emerged as he describes which cities he talks about.
Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Baltimore.
But not Jackson, Birmingham, St Louis or Memphis.
An analysis of crime trends over the last four years shows two things. First, violent crime rates in America’s big cities have been falling over the last two years, and at an even greater rate over the last six months. The decrease in violence in America is unprecedented.
Second, crime in large cities in the aggregate is lower in states with Democratic leadership. But the president focuses his ire almost exclusively on large blue cities in blue states, sidestepping political conflict with red Republican governors.
Saturday, we pointed out, "Juliana Kim (NPR) notes that
Chump is floating an APOCOLYPSE NOW assault on Chicago. I guess it's a
senior moment? He's that divorced from reality? People's lives are at
stake and he's trying to act like it's a movie. " AP notes:
In response to the post, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, called Trump a “wannabe dictator.”
Trump on Friday signed an executive order seeking to rename the
Defense Department the Department of War, after months of campaigning to
be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize. The renaming requires
congressional approval.
The illustration in Trump’s post shows him against a backdrop of the Chicago skyline [. . .]
This morning on THE TODAY SHOW, NBC filed this report.
Chump's referencing APOCALYPSE NOW and "Chicago about to find out why they call it the Dept of War." That last one. Chump's calling the Defense of Defense the Dept of War. Chump can call it whatever he likes, that's the thing about dementia. But it's the Dept of Defense unless Congress votes to change the name.
MARGARET
BRENNAN: And we're joined now by Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth.
She joins us this morning from Schaumburg, Illinois. Good morning to
you, Senator.
SENATOR TAMMY DUCKWORTH: Good morning.
MARGARET
BRENNAN: So you attended, as I understand, a demonstration yesterday in
Chicago where thousands of people were out on the street protesting
President Trump's vow to send in immigration agents. I know he's also
posted on social media suggesting troops will go in. Quote, "Chicago is
about to find out why it is called the Department of War." Vice
President Vance says there aren't plans to send in troops. Do you have
concrete indication, now, that there are plans to do so?
SEN.
DUCKWORTH: Let's make it clear the president of the United States
essentially just declared war on a major city in his own nation. This is
not normal, Margaret. This is not acceptable behavior. No, we don't
have any indications of them getting ready to send troops into Chicago.
In fact, I was out at Great Lakes base yesterday, naval training base,
and they were able to confirm that the only assistance they've been
requested to provide is just office space for ICE, but that no barracks,
no detention facilities, none of that is being requested or prepared in
order to support troops into Chicago.
MARGARET
BRENNAN: So, so then is this just, you know, social media trash talk?
When you say he's declaring war, is this tongue in cheek?
SEN.
DUCKWORTH: I think he's renaming the Department of Defense the
Department of War, and did he not just say that Chicago will find out
what it means to be at war? I don't- I take what the President of the
United States says very seriously, because that is the respect you have
to give to the office. And if that's what he's declaring, then let me
make it clear, it would be an illegal order to declare war on a major
city, any city within the United States, by the President of the United
States.
MARGARET
BRENNAN: Senator, I know you just mentioned you went out to the Great
Lakes Naval training session- station, I should say, and you said the
military leadership said they'll only get office space, ICE cannot bring
in lethal munitions, and the resources will not be diverted from
military training. So all of that together, did you breathe a sigh of
relief and say this won't have a real impact on the military?
SEN.
DUCKWORTH: Well, we're going to make sure that there's not an impact on
the military. We need to make sure that- as, you know, Great Lakes
naval training base is where every single recruit in the United States
Navy goes through to get that basic training, and then later on, some
advanced training. We need to make sure that not a single dollar, not a
single penny of the resources that they have that should be- that should
be directed towards training our nation's sailors and making them ready
to dare- do their jobs, none of that money needs to be diverted in
order to support ICE or any of Donald Trump's political, you know,
theater efforts. We need to focus on making sure we turn out the very
best sailors we possibly can out of the base.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So in terms of how Democrats are responding to this, this rhetoric, the Chicago Tribune faulted Governor Pritzker for his threats, to quote, "not stand idly by" if the guard went in. They wrote, "what does that threat actually mean? How about a conversation before the action or the response? Because it's all potentially harmful to collective health." It sounds like there's a lot of tension here. Is there an opportunity to work with the administration to avoid making this worse?
SEN. DUCKWORTH: Well, they've not- they've not responded to any of our requests. I mean, I'll give you a very concrete example. Senator Durbin, myself, Senator Schneider- Congressman Schneider, sent requests into DHS to ask them to explain what exactly are you going to be doing at Great Lakes? And can we come look at your facility so we have a better understanding of what your operations are? And they replied, no, you can't. And in fact, gave their staff the day off on the day that we went to go look at the facilities, and locked the doors and left the base. Basically, they fled the base. This is not the action of someone that's doing something legal or that they're- that they're proud of. They literally gave the people the day off, locked the doors and left. Now the Navy allowed us onto the post. They allowed us to tour the outside of the facility and also where they would be storing the non-lethal munitions. But DHS did not show up. And we certainly have sent the administration multiple inquiries about what they are planning on doing. Who are they bringing into Chicago? Are they planning to bring the National Guard in? They've- none, none of that. They've not even reached out to local law enforcement to try to coordinate. You know, if they were truly, truly interested in fighting crime, then they would work with local law enforcement and ask them, what do you need? What help do you need? And we've not gotten any- any communications or feedback from the administration, whatsoever.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you in your armed services role about what is a significant geopolitical meeting this past week. You had a lot of America's adversaries gathering together. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un of North Korea, all of them in Beijing. And China and Russia seem to be deepening their work together. What do you think the signal to the United States here is?
SEN. DUCKWORTH: The signal to the United States is exactly what, you know, these authoritarian regimes want to send, which is that they are the new world power, that America is losing its ground, and that they have utter disrespect for the United States. I think it was very, very clear, and it, you know, it doesn't escape me, the fact that once this meeting happened, which was humiliating to Donald Trump, he immediately responds by saying, well, then I'm going to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War and declare war on Chicago. This is what Donald Trump does when something bad happens to him in the news cycle, or when the Epstein victims come together and have a very emotional press conference, he changes the topic and distracts us by saying things like, I'm going to send ICE into Chicago, I'm going to do this or do that. The American people cannot be fooled. We cannot be allowing him to distract us from what is truly happening, which is, this is a man who has driven our economy to a point where now there are more unemployed people than there are jobs. You know, we're not selling our agricultural products overseas. Our adversaries are united against us.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the unemployment rate is still low, but I hear you on a weaker than expected jobs number. Just very quickly, there was military action taken in America's backyard by the Trump administration. Vice President Vance says "killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military." He was talking about a strike on a drug boat- alleged drug boat, off the coast of Venezuela. What do you make of that show of force?
SEN. DUCKWORTH: It was an illegal- it was an illegal move by the Trump administration. There's a thing called due process in this country, and that needed to have happened. And the fact that it happened in international order- in international waters actually opens Americans to a similar action by our adversaries. You just- we were just talking about Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping and getting together and showing us- showing a show of force against the United States. Well, there's nothing now to stop them from doing something like that against Americans in international waters. And it could be civilians, and they could say, you know what? Those were drug boats. We're just going to go ahead and blow them out of the water. You're- he's setting a precedence here that puts Americans in danger.
Chump's cry of going to war on Chicago was so offensive -- and patently illegal -- that Chicago's ABC 7's Eric Horng, Michelle Gallardo, Maher Kawash, and Lissette Nuñez report he attempted to walk it back today. At TALKING POINTS MEMO, Josh Marshall observes, "Everyone is rightly shocked, disgusted, outraged by Trump's Truth Social
meme threatening to turn Chicago into a war zone. But where's the
National Guard exactly? Trump said he was doing this a couple weeks ago.
He said they were 'going in' right away a week later. Maybe he'll do it
tomorrow. I'm certainly not promising he won't. But where are they?" While everyone waits to see what happens next, AP reports:
The Rev. Marshall Hatch urged congregants of a prominent Black church
on Chicago’s West Side to carry identification, stay connected to
family and protest as the city readied for an expected federal
intervention.
“You need to start telling people about your whereabouts, so you
don’t disappear,” Hatch said during Sunday services at New Mount Pilgrim
Missionary Baptist Church. “We’re not going to despair. We’re not going
to feel threatened. We’re not going to give up and give in to fascism
and authoritarianism.”
