Msnbc

Msnbc Poaches A Fox, Continues Writing Off Progressives

... director) and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Two days after the Clinton campaign staff exchanged emails strategizing to attack Sanders in the media by citing a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) retreat he attended several months earlier, MSNBC reporter and Center for American Progress alumnus Alex Seitz-Wald authored a piece  about Sanders using the same misleading talking points, which Clinton campaign staff  circulated  as a “must read.”. Wiki Leaks revealed Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails that showed former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz expressing anger at the unfavorable coverage she was receiving on the network in May 2016, and she made a phone call to MSNBC’S president, Phil Griffin, to halt it. In an  email  released by DC Leaks, MSNBC producer Sheara Braun corresponded with Clinton Campaign spokesperson Adrienne Elrod, describing a segment MSNBC aired every week to target millennials for the Clinton campaign. ...

On Health Care, Trump Seems Deeply Confused About Policy And Process

... would repeal the Affordable Care Act quickly and work out the details in a few years, while a growing number of rank-and-file GOP lawmakers don’t want to vote on repeal until the party has an alternative reform plan to replace “Obamacare.”. To help work out the differences, Republicans could probably use some presidential leadership. Unfortunately for the GOP, however, the party is stuck with Donald Trump – who made clear in a New York Times interview this afternoon that he has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about when it comes to the most rudimentary details of the debate. President-elect Donald J. Trump pressed Republicans on Tuesday to move forward with the immediate repeal of the Affordable Care Act and to replace it very quickly thereafter, saying, “We have to get to business. Obamacare has been a catastrophic event.”. Mr. Trump’s position undercuts Republican leaders who want a quick ...

Wednesday's Mini-report, 1.11.17

... the Alabama senator’s appointment as attorney general.”. * Rex Tillerson , Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of State, did not have an easy day: “After prodding, he acknowledged during Wednesday’s confirmation hearing that [Russia’s] cyber intrusion would not have happened without Putin’s sign off. But the longtime Exxon Mobil CEO told the committee he has not yet spoken to Trump about one Russia, one of the top foreign policy challenges facing the U. S. ‘That’s pretty amazing,’ Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez said.”. * More on this story tomorrow: “President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he has tapped David Shulkin, a physician who is currently serving in the Obama administration as VA undersecretary, to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.”. * Asia-Pacific : “Taiwan scrambled F-16 ...

On The Russia Scandal, Trump's Lies Start To Pile Up

... we know because we can read it ourselves.”. Note the series of events: Trump lied on Friday in his written statement, got called out for his public deception, and then repeated the identical lie on Saturday morning. On Sunday, Kellyanne Conway, who’ll soon be a senior advisor in the Trump White House, elaborated on the same lie, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper, “If you read the full report, [U. S. intelligence officials] make very clear – Mr. Clapper in his testimony made very clear on Thursday under oath – that any attempt, any aspiration to influence our elections failed.”. That’s spectacularly untrue. The report does not say that, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper did not testify to that to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Trump and Conway are telling a plain and demonstrable lie. What the intelligence does say is that Russia’s alleged cyber-attack did not  affect specific vote tallies. In other words, Moscow stole American materials and hatched a propaganda campaign, but Russian agents did not ...

Trump Gives Key White House Post To Son-in-law

... New York Times reported , “[B]ecause he plans to sell to his brother or to a family trust controlled by his mother, some ethics lawyers interviewed questioned how meaningful the divestiture would be.”. What’s more, just last week, Kushner was working on “a deal with a major Chinese financial group with close ties to the Chinese government. The Kushner family business has done billions of dollars of business with foreign companies that threatens to complicate his role at the White House.”. Finally, presidents usually appoint senior White House advisors who have some kind of political or governmental expertise. Kushner is the 36-year-old head of his family’s real-estate company, with no relevant experience in government. Indeed, the transition office’s press statement announcing Kushner’s role as a senior advisor to the incoming president said he’ll “work closely with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon to execute President-elect Trump’s agenda.” And while I’m sure they’ll try, Priebus and Bannon have as much ...

House Republican Still Has His Eyes On Hillary Clinton, Emails

... House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will continue its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email use at the State Department, Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz told reporters Monday. “This was never a political targeting from the beginning. Just because there’s a political election doesn’t mean it goes away. So of course I’m going to continue to pursue that,” Chaffetz said. This continues to be a bad idea. Clinton, a private citizen who hasn’t held public office in nearly five years, didn’t actually commit any crimes and the State Department has already changed its practices. Clumsy I. T. practices from several years ago may have inexplicably become one of the nation’s most important issues in the presidential campaign, and the political world’s preoccupation with this may have helped put an unqualified television personality in the Oval Office, but it’s difficult to make a substantive case to keep the issue alive in 2017. Besides, shouldn’t the House Oversight Committee be ...

Look At Trump's Heart, Not 'what's Come Out Of His Mouth

... the reporter’s physical disability. It led to an amazing exchange. …Cuomo called out Trump for mocking a disabled New York Times reporter during a 2015 rally. But Conway insisted that’s not what he was doing. “That is not what he did and he has said that 1,000 times,” she said Monday morning. “Why can’t you give him the benefit of the doubt?”. Cuomo shot back, “He can say it a million times but look at the video… he’s making a disgusting gesture on video.”. “Why is everything taken at face value?” she asked. “You can’t give him the benefit of the doubt on this and he’s telling you what was in his heart, you always want to go with what’s come out of his mouth rather than look at what’s in his heart.”. It’s a remarkable approach to defending the indefensible, and it’s hard to imagine Conway seriously believing her own rhetoric. It’s the closest I’ve ever seen a political figure come to literally asking, “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”. As a rule, “the benefit of the doubt” is earned, ...

Obama, Trump, And A Tale Of Two Appearances

... there are important differences between a farewell address and a press conference. Obama had a prepared text, while Trump was answering reporters’ questions. Nevertheless, the differences between the two men that emerged from these competing events were breathtaking in their scope. Even looking past the settings and substantive disagreements between Trump and Obama, it’s worth pausing to appreciate the gap between the two solely in tone and decency. At one point last night, the president declared, “In the course of a healthy debate, we prioritize different goals, and the different means of reaching them. But without some common baseline of facts – without a willingness to admit new information, and concede that your opponent might be making a fair point, and that science and reason matter – then we’re going to keep talking past each other, and we’ll make common ground and compromise impossible.”. About 12 hours later, the common baseline of facts was hard to ...

Fair To Say Hollywood Is Out Of Touch With America

... Is Out Of Touch With America. Posted By Ian Schwartz. On Date January 9, 2017. MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle holds a panel discussion with Daily Beast entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon and network contributors Toure and Steve Kornacki on Meryl Streep's anti-Trump Golden Globes speech Sunday night. Ruhle remarked it is "fair to say" that Hollywood is out of touch with America. Ruhle also argued "no one changed their vote last night" because of Streep's speech. Toure said Hollywood is "real America" too and represents "real Americans" as well. "It might be the American dream," Ruhle said of starlets becoming icons, "but it is fair to say there are many people in Hollywood that are now out of touch with that America.". "Well, sure, yeah," Toure acknowledged. "But are they not America too? I mean they come from everywhere and they make up a significant and valuable portion of America. So to diss them ...