Category: Ill-Tempered

Trump told 4 lies about the inspector general report in one short Fox News hit

President Donald Trump went on Fox & Friends to talk about the inspector general report on the FBI’s handling of the 2016 election on Friday. His comments contained at least four significant and demonstrable lies.

Let’s go through them.

Lie 1: the FBI was working against him during the campaign

“They were plotting against my election,” Trump said, in perhaps the biggest of the four lies.

This is not true. Inspector General Michael Horowitz was quite clear on this point in the report, which reviewed the FBI’s handling of both the Clinton email investigation and the early stages of the Trump-Russia probe. “We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative decisions we reviewed,” Horowitz concluded.

Trump did eventually confront this uncomfortable fact during the interview. He claimed the no bias conclusion was irresponsible, a throwaway line at the end of the report.

Lie 2: The IG “blew it” by concluding the FBI wasn’t biased

“It was a pretty good report, and then I say the IG blew it at the end,” Trump told Fox’s Steve Doocy. The IG report was a horror show. I thought that one sentence of conclusion was ridiculous.”

The conclusion said that the FBI wasn’t biased was not a throwaway conclusion at the end of the report, but a conclusion that’s examined in-depth and repeated with some frequency throughout the report. Chapters five and 12 of the more than 500-page report, for example, look at anti-Trump text messages sent by Peter Strzok, the FBI’s deputy director for counterintelligence, to see if Strzok had allowed his anti-Trump sentiments to affect the investigation.

Investigators took a deep look at Strzok’s conduct after they came across the texts that seemingly threatened the Trump campaign and examined internal FBI records of the meetings concerning Trump that Strzok was involved in. According to Horowitz, they found that “Strzok was not the sole decisionmaker for any of the specific investigative decisions examined,” nor was there any evidence that he exercised inappropriate influence over any investigative decisions.

The conclusion that there was no bias, in short, wasn’t “one line” — it was a conclusion they arrived at after examining a tremendous amount of evidence, and a major focus of the report.

Lie 3: Trump says the IG report says he did nothing wrong

The third Trump lie is that the IG report somehow exonerated him on the question of collusion with Russia during the campaign. “I did nothing wrong, there was no collusion, there was no obstruction. The IG report yesterday went a long way to show that,” Trump said. “I think that the Mueller investigation has been totally discredited.”

This is actually a number of different lies packed into three short sentences; a Russian nesting doll of lies, if you’ll pardon the metaphor.

The IG report did not come to any conclusions about the true nature of Trump-Russia ties. It only covered the appropriateness of the FBI’s conduct in 2016. It couldn’t come to any conclusions about obstruction of justice because Trump didn’t become president until 2017. Likewise, it couldn’t discredit the Mueller investigation because Mueller didn’t take over the investigation until President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey last May.

Lie 4: James Comey is a criminal

And that brings us to our final lie. Fox’s Doocy asked Trump a leading question — “Should James Comey be locked up?” — and the president responded as expected:

Certainly, they just seem like very criminal acts to me. What he did was criminal. What he did was so bad in terms of our Constitution, in terms of the well-being of our country.

Once again, Horowitz’s report closely examined questions raised by Comey’s conduct. He was harshly critical of the former FBI director — “In key moments, then Director Comey chose to deviate from the FBI’s and the Department’s established procedures and norms and instead engaged in his own subjective, ad hoc decisionmaking” — but there’s no evidence in the report that Comey violated any kind of criminal statute, let alone acted unconstitutionally.

In fact, the report concludes, Comey’s decisions during the Clinton email investigation, while questionable, came from his professional judgment and were not the result of any malign intent.

“Comey’s decision was the result of his consideration of the evidence that the FBI had collected during the course of the investigation and his understanding of the proof required to pursue a prosecution under the relevant statutes,” as Horowitz puts it when discussing his closing of the Clinton email case.

Trump’s characterization of the IG report is thus basically wrong in every way.

[Vox]

Trump threatened to send 25 million Mexicans to Japan

Donald Trump threatened Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe he would ship 25 million Mexicans to his country, one of a series of bizarre missives that jarred fellow leaders at last week’s acrimonious G7 meet, according to a report on Friday.

The Group of Seven summit gathering of top industrialized democracies finished in disarray after the US president abruptly rejected its consensus statement and bitterly attacked Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Behind the scenes, Trump’s counterparts were dismayed by verbal jabs on topics ranging from trade to terrorism and migration, The Wall Street Journal said, quoting European officials who were present.

At one point he described migration as a big problem for Europe then said to Abe: “Shinzo, you don’t have this problem, but I can send you 25 million Mexicans and you’ll be out of office very soon,” creating a sense of irritation in the room, according to an EU official.

The source added that when the topic turned to Iran and terrorism, Trump took aim at French President Emmanuel Macron, saying: “You must know about this, Emmanuel, because all the terrorists are in Paris.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also came under fire and was repeatedly described by Trump as a “brutal killer” in reference to the bloc’s antitrust and tax fines against US tech companies that have run into billions of dollars.

Bitter differences over trade dominated the summit hosted by Canada, with leaders of the world’s largest economies lining up against Trump’s threats to impose stiff tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.

After rejecting the joint statement, Trump and his top aides assailed Trudeau, accusing him of dishonesty and betrayal.

Trump on Friday rejected reports of discord, blaming the “Fake News Media” on Twitter for portraying a false picture while posting several photos of himself appearing to get along well with fellow G7 leaders.

[Yahoo]

Trump Blasts FBI’s Strzok and Page Over IG Report, Praises Himself For Firing Comey: ‘Good Instincts

President Donald Trump weighed in on the newly released inspector general’s report on the FBI’s investigations during the 2016 election, focusing on the texts exchanged between agent-cum-paramours Peter Strzokand Lisa Page.

“FBI Agent Peter Strzok, who headed the Clinton & Russia investigations, texted to his lover Lisa Page, in the IG Report, that “we’ll stop” candidate Trump from becoming President,” Trump said on Twitter. “Doesn’t get any lower than that!”

The text exchange between Strzok and Page has been exhibit A for the FBI’s critics that the agency was rankled with anti-Trump bias during the 2016 election, and the latest text exchange is certainly explicit. A few months before the 2016 election, Page texted Strzok that she feared Trump would win, and he reassured her: “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.”

Strzok was at the time serving as deputy head of counterintelligence at the FBI, and was working on the investigation into the Trump campaign’s Russia ties as well as the Clinton email probe. But the inspector general concluded that despite Strzok’s clear and inappropriate bias, the was no evidence that he acted on his disdain for Trump.

In a subsequent tweet, Trump took aim at James Comey, calling the IG report “a total disaster” for the former FBI director and “his minions.”

“Comey will now officially go down as the worst leader, by far, in the history of the FBI,” Trump wrote, before praising his “good instincts” for “firing him.”

He also shouted out the current FBI director, Christopher Wray.

Comey brutalized Clinton’s campaign days before election day by publicly announcing the Clinton probe was being re-opened, while the FBI went to great lengths to keep the Trump-Russia probe quiet.

[Mediaite]

GOP Chairwoman Accused of Threatening Republicans Who Don’t Support Trump

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel was accused of threatening Republicans who don’t support Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda over an ominous message she posted on social media yesterday.

On Wednesday evening, McDaniel took to Twitter to warn people of the dangers of opposing the president. “Complacency is our enemy. Anyone that does not embrace the @realDonaldTrump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake,” McDaniel wrote.

Following her post, social media users quickly criticized McDaniel’s tone as threatening.

“What in the actual hell…is this a threat, Ronna?” replied Meghan McCain, Sen. John McCain’s daughter and co-host of ABC’s The View.

Walter Michael Shaub Jr., the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, added: “That sounds like a threat.” MSNBC host Chris Hayes only had one word to say: “Gross.”

McDaniel’s message was posted the day after South Carolina’s Rep. Mark Sanford lost his primary. After being an outspoken critic of Trump, the president tweeted support for his opponent shortly before the polls closed.

“Mark Sanford has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to MAGA [make American great again]. He is MIA and nothing but trouble. He is better off in Argentina,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday afternoon. “I fully endorse Katie Arrington for Congress in SC, a state I love. She is tough on crime and will continue our fight to lower taxes. VOTE Katie!”

[Newsweek]

‘Insulting and ridiculous and ludicrous!’ Mike Pompeo blows up at reporter for asking basic question on Korea

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday exploded at an unidentified reporter who asked him a very basic question about verifying the destruction of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.

Via Congressional Quarterly foreign policy reporter Rachel Oswald, a reporter questioning Pompeo about talks with North Korea asked him how he could make sure the country had committed to allowing inspectors in to verify denuclearization when there was nothing about verifying disarmament in the joint statement signed by both countries.

“I find that question insulting and ridiculous and, frankly, ludicrous,” Pompeo angrily responded. “I just have to be honest with you. It’s a game and one ought not play games with serious matters like this.”

The Trump administration has insisted that it wants North Korea to commit to the “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula. However, in the joint statement signed by the U.S. and North Korea, it only says that the country is committed to “working toward complete denuclearization.”

This distinction is important because it would give North Korea a loophole to argue that it does not need to allow inspectors into its facilities. What’s more, it could give North Korea the right to rebuild its nuclear weapons program even if it did actually go through with dismantling it.

[Raw Story]

Trump blasts media as America’s ‘biggest enemy’ for North Korea coverage

President Trump posted a series of tweets about his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un as he arrived back in Washington, D.C. Wednesday morning, including blasting the media as “our country’s biggest enemy” for its coverage of the historic summit.

“So funny to watch the Fake News, especially NBC and CNN. They are fighting hard to downplay the deal with North Korea,” the president wrote. “500 days ago they would have ‘begged’ for this deal-looked like war would break out.”

He continued: “Our Country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!”

While Trump’s meeting with Kim was historic, many critics say it fell short of expectations and the optimism the president had about the summit.

The two leaders signed a vague four-point statement in which North Korea reaffirmed its commitment to work toward “complete denuclearization” but the promise came without a timetable or mention of any verification of the North’s progress.

The joint statement was also less specific than the agreement North Korea signed at the so-called six-party talks in 2005. Then, Pyongyang promised to abandon all nuclear weapons, to return to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and to submit to international inspections.

Many say the summit, instead, gave more legitimacy to Kim as he stood as an equal alongside a U.S. president and posed for photos. Trump said he was “honored” to be there and described Kim, a despotic adversary, as a “talented” leader who could be trusted.

Past American presidents have refused face-to-face meetings with North Korea’s leadership over fears of legitimizing a totalitarian state that has admitted to state-sponsored kidnapping and sent thousands of its citizens to forced labor camps.

In Trump’s series of tweets after he landed at 6:10 a.m., he applauded his efforts and claimed North Korea was “no longer a nuclear threat” and everyone could “sleep well tonight.”

Trump has long disparaged members of the media as “fake news” and on multiple occasions called the press an “enemy of the American people.”

[USA Today]

President hits back at Robert De Niro after ‘F–k Trump’ jab

President Trump hit back at “Punchy” Robert De Niro on Twitter on Tuesday, two days after the “Raging Bull” star unleashed a torrent of obscenities at the commander-in-chief at the Tony Awards.

“Robert De Niro, a very Low IQ individual, has received to [sic] many shots to the head by real boxers in movies. I watched him last night and truly believe he may be ‘punch-drunk,’” Trump tweeted at 4:53 p.m.

”I guess he doesn’t realize the economy is the best it’s ever been with employment being at an all time high, and many companies pouring back into our country. Wake up Punchy!”

The “Godfather” star was bleeped at the Tony Awards when he dropped a series of F-bombs about Trump while introducing Bruce Springsteen.

“First, I wanna say, ‘F–k Trump,’” De Niro said. “It’s no longer ‘Down with Trump,’ it’s ‘F–k Trump.’”

The crowd at New York’s Radio City Music Hall cheered his remarks, though he was later criticized for stooping to Trump’s name-calling level.

A day later, De Niro apologized — not to Trump but on America’s behalf to Justin Trudeau, whom Trump insulted as “very dishonest & weak” after the Canadian prime minister threw shade on the president’s trade policies.

“I just want to make a note of apology for the idiotic behavior of my president,” De Niro said in Toronto on Monday for the groundbreaking of the Canadian Nobu restaurant, where he was dining with celebrity chef and business partner Nobu Matsuhisa, The Globe and Mail reported.

“It’s a disgrace. And I apologize to Justin Trudeau and the other people at the G7. It’s disgusting.”

De Niro is a seven-time Academy Award nominee, and won Oscars for playing Vito Corleone in “The Godfather Part II” and Jake LaMotta in “Raging Bull.”

In 2009, he was among the five recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors, presented by then-President Obama.

[Page Six]

Trump Slams Trudeau From North Korea Summit: His Mistakes Will ‘Cost Him a Lot of Money

President Donald Trump is standing by his criticism of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — warning Trudeau that his remarks at the G7 summit will “cost him a lot of money.”

Last Friday, Trump — feeling slighted by Trudeau, who took a tough stance toward U.S. tariffs by saying he wouldn’t tolerate being “pushed around” — launched an attack via Twitter, calling the leader “dishonest” and “weak.”

In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos which aired Tuesday, immediately following the president’s meeting in Singapore with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Trump appeared to take a softer tone toward Trudeau, admitting he likes him, but suggesting he wants to punish him for his remarks.

“I actually like Justin,” Trump said. “I think he’s good. I like him. But he shouldn’t have done that. That was a mistake. That’s gonna cost him a lot of money”

According to Trump’s account of the moment, G7 attendees were content following the conclusion of the meetings until Trudeau took his stand.

“Everybody was happy, and then he gave out a little bit of an obnoxious thing,” Trump said of the prime minister.

The president repeated his threats to make Canada pay during a press conference in Singapore after his visit with Kim ended

“I have a good relationship with Justin Trudeau,” Trump told the crowd. “I really did. Other than he had a news conference that he had cause he assumed I was in an airplane and I wasn’t watching. He learned, that’s going to cost a lot of money to the people of Canada.”

[Mediaite]

Media

Trump blasts ‘haters & losers’ in typo-filled tweet from Singapore

President Trump addressed the “haters & losers” in a typo-filled tweet from Singapore ahead of his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“The fact that I am having a meeting is a major loss for the U.S., say the haters & losers,” Trump tweeted on Monday evening, just hours before the scheduled summit.

The president then addressed his successes with the rogue nuclear nation, proclaiming that the arrangement was a win for the US.

“We have our hostages, testing, research and all missle launches have stoped [sic],” he added. “And these pundits, who have called me wrong from the beginning, have nothing else they can say!”

Critics have charged that Trump meeting a dictator could send the wrong message on human rights and other issues — especially after the president’s contentious meeting at the G7 in Canada.

But Trump concluded, “We will be fine!”

[New York Post]

Trump mocks press at North Korea summit

President Trump took a jab at the media on Tuesday in Singapore as he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un headed into their historic meeting.

“The press, they never stop,” Trump told Kim, as reporters yelled out questions to the two leaders.

Trump and Kim met in person for the first time Monday after months of back-and-forth, in the first meeting in history between a North Korean leader and a sitting U.S. president.

Trump has long criticized the media, even laying into American reporters while out of the country. At the Group of Seven summit in Quebec last week, Trump responded to a CNN reporter’s question by calling his network “fake news.”

The Associated Press reported that the Trump administration restricted journalists’ access to multiple portions of the summit, including photo ops, breaking longstanding traditions on covering the commander in chief overseas.

“AP is troubled by the decision to curb media access at the Singapore summit,” said the news outlet’s director of media relations, Lauren Easton. “It is a disservice to the public, which deserves prompt, accurate and complete reporting on what may be one of the president’s most consequential meetings.”

Trump and Kim shook hands and briefly sat down in front of reporters before heading into their one-on-one meeting.

“We’re going to have a great discussion and I think tremendous success,” Trump said. “We’re going to be tremendously successful, and it’s my honor, and we will have a terrific relationship.”

Kim, through a translator, spoke of the “obstacles” that had to be overcome to reach the day of the summit.

“I’ll tell you when they’re out,” Trump said to Kim, apparently referring to the press in the room.

Later, ahead of a working lunch with Kim and both men’s advisers, Trump told photographers and cameramen from Singapore’s “Host TV” to be sure they captured the attendees’ good side.

“Getting a good picture everybody?” Trump asked. “So we look nice and handsome and thin? Perfect.”

[The Hill]

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