Trump Adviser Claims Father of War Hero Is a “Muslim Brotherhood Agent”

Roger Stone, an informal adviser to Donald Trump, took to Twitter on Sunday to claim that Khizr Khan, the father of a slain war hero who spoke at last week’s Democratic National Convention, is working for the Muslim Brotherhood.

The link that accompanied Stone’s tweet outlines a conspiracy theory that claims Khan is working to bring radical Muslims to the United States. The article Stone linked to also alleges that Khan’s son, Captain Humayun Khan, was a Muslim martyr who was killed “before his Islamist mission was accomplished.”

The article concludes, threateningly if not quite coherently: “What part of ‘they will be in the House of Islam by force in the near future’ don’t these democrats understand? More dead Americans?”

Of course, as with most low-budget far-right conspiracy sites, no actual evidence is ever presented.

Stone’s shocking tweets come just a day after Trump told ABC News that, like the Khan family, he has made many sacrifices. The Republican nominee also attacked Khan’s wife, who stood alongside her husband during his DNC address, suggesting that perhaps she “wasn’t allowed” to speak because of the couple’s Muslim faith.

(h/t Mother Jones, Slate)

Reality

The Muslim Brotherhood is a conservative Middle Eastern Islamic organization that may have some connections to terrorist activity; in the world of American far-right conspiracy theories, however, the Brotherhood is believed to be seeking to infiltrate and destroy the U.S. government.

Trump: Incorrectly States Putin is ‘Not Gonna Go Into Ukraine’

Donald Trump said in an interview Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t going to go into Ukraine, even though the Russian military has intervened in the nation’s affairs since 2014.

“He’s not going into Ukraine, OK, just so you understand. He’s not gonna go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down,” Trump said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” Host George Stephanopoulos pushed back, saying, “Well, he’s already there, isn’t he?”

“OK, well, he’s there in a certain way,” Trump responded.

“But I’m not there. You have [President] Obama there. And, frankly, that whole part of the world is a mess under Obama, with all the strength that you’re talking about and all of the power of NATO and all of this.”

(h/t The Hill)

Reality

Ukraine isn’t part of the NATO coalition, so US soldiers would have no legal right to show up on their sovereign lands to fight and defend against Russian troops, risking a much larger conflict.

Instead President Obama, along with European countries, enacted sanctions against Russia. The sanctions have been very effective, which contributed to the collapse of the Russian ruble and the 2014–15 Russian financial crisis.

The result being the Minsk and Minsk II diplomatic agreements where Russia agreed to pull their military out of Ukraine.

Media

Trump’s Racist Response to Criticism From Parents of Slain Soldier

Donald Trump’s first reaction to Army father Khizr Khan’s passionate Democratic National Convention speech was to question Khan’s wife’s silence, implying Ghazala Khan wasn’t allowed to speak during the speech because she is Muslim.

“If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me, but plenty of people have written that she was extremely quiet, and it looked like she had nothing to say,” Trump told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview published Saturday.

On Thursday at the DNC, Khan spoke of his son, U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed by a car bomb in 2004 while guarding the gates of his base in Iraq, saving the lives of his fellow soldiers and civilians. Khan’s son was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. At the DNC, Khan said Trump has “sacrificed nothing and no one.”

Trump rebutted Khan, telling Stephanopoulos that he has made sacrifices through his success as a businessman. He also questioned if Khan wrote his own speech, asking, “Who wrote that? Did Hillary’s scriptwriters write it?”

The Clinton campaign had offered the services of a speechwriter, but according to Politico, Khan declined, opting to write his address himself.

Trump said, “I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I’ve had tremendous success. I think I’ve done a lot.”

In an interview with Maureen Dowd of The New York Times on Friday night, Trump’s only response to Khan’s speech was simply: “I’d like to hear his wife say something.”

Ghazala Khan explained to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Friday that she was anxious during her husband’s speech, knowing her son’s photo would appear behind her.

“It was very nervous, because I cannot see my son’s picture and I cannot even come in the room where his pictures are, and that’s why when I saw the picture on my back, I couldn’t take it. And I controlled myself at that time, so it is very hard,” she said.

Khizr Khan also noted to O’Donnell that he could not have spoken at the DNC without his wife’s close support.

“Her being there was the strength that I could hold my composure. I am much weaker than she is in such matters,” Khan said.

Hillary Clinton said in a statement Saturday: “I was very moved to see Ghazala Khan stand bravely and with dignity in support of her son on Thursday night. And I was very moved to hear her speak last night, bravely and with dignity, about her son’s life and the ultimate sacrifice he made for his country.”

Clinton’s statement did not mention Trump by name. “This is a time for all Americans to stand with the Khans, and with all the families whose children have died in service to our country,” Clinton said. “And this is a time to honor the sacrifice of Captain Khan and all the fallen. Captain Khan and his family represent the best of America, and we salute them.”

Khan clarified to O’Donnell that the other message in his speech was directed toward Republican leaders House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, calling on them to denounce Trump.

“There is so much at stake, and I appeal to both of these leaders: This is the time. There comes a time in the history of a nation where an ethical, moral stand has to be taken regardless of the political costs,” Khan said. “The only reason they’re not repudiating his behavior, his threat to our democracy, our decency, our foundation, is just because of political consequences.”

Khan vowed that he will continue to pressure McConnell and Ryan to stop Trump, calling it a “moral imperative” to do so. Otherwise, he said they will “sink the ship” of the Republican Party.

Ryan has previously rebuked Trump’s proposed plan to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the U.S. On Saturday, a spokesperson for Ryan said the House speaker does not support the proposal and has spoken out about it.

“The speaker has made clear many times that he rejects this idea, and himself has talked about how Muslim Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country,” spokesperson AshLee Strong said.

(h/t NBC News)

Reality

If Donald Trump wants to be the commander-in-chief, which will place him at the head of the armed services of the United States of America, then he has a few things to learn because he is so wrong here.

First, insulting the mother of an Army Captain who gave up his life to defend this country is a despicable act and is beneath the office Trump is trying to seek. Because an attack on one parent of a fallen armed forces member is an attack on all parents of fallen armed forces members.

Second, when you join the Army, Navy, Marines, or Air Force, you are entered into a brotherhood (and sisterhood) where labels do not apply. You are not white or black, you are a soldier. You are not gay or straight, you are a soldier. And you are not Christian or Muslim, you are a soldier.

Media

Trump responds to father of fallen soldier.

Trump: Muslim Soldier Was a Hero, But His Father ‘Has No Right’ to Criticize Me

Donald Trump praised a Muslim U.S. soldier killed in Iraq but in the same breath continued to criticize the man’s father, who spoke out against Trump at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

After a day of backlash over the GOP presidential nominee’s comments regarding the family of Humayun Khan, Trump released a statement late Saturday night honoring him.

“Captain Humayun Khan was a hero to our country and we should honor all who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our country safe. The real problem here are the radical Islamic terrorist who killed him, and the efforts of these radicals to enter our country and do us further harm,” Trump said.

“While I feel deeply for the loss of his son, Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things. If I become President, I will make America safe again.”

Khan’s father, Khizr Khan, a lawyer who immigrated from Pakistan, addressed the Democratic convention last week, asking what Trump had sacrificed and whether he had ever read the Constitution.

Trump lashed out at Khan and his wife, Ghazala, who stood at his side on the stage, on Saturday.

The GOP nominee said he had “made a lot of sacrifices” through his work and raised questions about Khan’s speech and why his wife hadn’t spoken, suggesting that she “wasn’t allowed” because of her Muslim faith. Ghazala Khan later said she was too upset to take the microphone.

The comments immediately sparked backlash from both Republicans and Democrats.

In his Saturday statement, Trump bashed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for her Middle East foreign policy record and the attack on U.S. personnel in Benghazi and warned against radical Islamism and immigration from certain countries.

“Given the state of the world today, we have to know everything about those looking to enter our country, and given the state of chaos in some of these countries, that is impossible,” he said.

(h/t The Hill)

Reality

This is yet another example of Donald Trump’s ignorance of the United States Constitution. There are no set of rights just for Donald Trump and another set of rights for everyone else. Khazir Kahn and his wife have the exact same rights of equal protection and free speech Trump does.

Trump Rescued by Firefighters Before Blasting Colorado Springs Fire Marshal

When it comes to first responders, Donald Trump plays favorites. It’s no secret that the Republican presidential nominee likes police officers. A lot. But firefighters — that relationship may be just a bit more complicated.

Since Trump’s campaign began, a series of fire officials across the country have become his unwitting nemeses, as Trump publicly grumbles about their enforcement of the capacity restrictions at some of his rally venues.

At a February event in Madison, Ala., for instance, he complained at least twice that the fire marshal had closed the gates of the stadium where he said some 32,000 had come to hear him speak (local estimates put the figure of actual attendees at closer to 10,000). “Let them come in, Mr. Fire Marshal,” Trump said.

In a rare shift earlier this month, Trump had the opposite complaint: Phoenix officials, he said, “broke the fire code” by allowing too many people into the Convention Center room where he’d spoken.

Those numbers didn’t quite jibe with the count of 4,200 to 4,500 his campaign gave reporters at the event — or with the fire department’s own numbers, which fell squarely in the middle of that range.

“Once capacity was reached, we closed the doors. No rules or codes were broken, and no one was in danger at anytime,” Phoenix Fire Department spokeswoman Shelly Jamison told local station KPNX, adding that the Trump campaign had been offered the use of a larger room, but had declined.

So there have been a few fiery attacks over the past few months. But on Friday in Colorado, Trump had a much less heated encounter with the Colorado Springs Fire Department after he and nine others were trapped in an elevator at The Mining Exchange Hotel.

“The firefighters were able to secure the elevator, open the top elevator hatch, lower a ladder into the elevator, which allowed all individuals to self-evacuate, including Mr. Trump, onto the second-floor lobby area,” fire department spokesman Steven Wilch told Colorado station KRDO in a Saturday report. Trump was over an hour late to his event at the University of Colorado campus located in solidly conservative Colorado Springs — but he made it.

If you think that’s the sort of thing that might prompt him to mention the fire department in his remarks at that event, as you may have heard Friday, you’re right! “We have a fire marshal that said we can’t allow more people,” Trump said, as the crowd booed. “….The reason they can’t let them in is because they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Fire Marshal Brett Lacey, the candidate said, was “probably a Democrat, probably a guy that doesn’t get it.”

Trump went on. “Hey, maybe they’re a Hillary person. Could that be possible? Probably,” he said, calling the restriction a “disgraceful situation.”

“This is the kind of thing we have in federal government also, by the way,” he said, “and then you wonder why we’re going to hell. That’s why we’re going to hell.”

Lacey — who was named Civilian of the Year by the department in February for his role responding to a pair of deadly mass shootings in the city — said later that he didn’t mind the dig. He noted that he’d allowed a last-minute boost in the number of individuals allowed in the room, after the Trump campaign reportedly distributed too many tickets. But in an interview with Colorado’s KKTV, the marshal refused to fight fire with fire.

“Sometimes there are people that aren’t very happy with some of the rules and regulations were required to enforce,” Lacey said. “But it doesn’t bother me at all.”

Media

Donald Trump Says He Has One of the ‘Best Temperaments’ of Any Presidential Candidate

Republican nominee Donald Trump says that he’s refusing to play “nice guy” anymore.

As chants of “Lock Her Up” rang out at his rally in Colorado Springs — a rallying cry against Hillary Clinton — Trump seemed to agree with them.

“You know what? I’ve been saying– I’ve been saying let’s just beat her on November 8th, but you know what? No. no. You know what? I’m starting to agree with you,” he said, a departure from the demurral he usually gives when the chants break out.

“I’ve been nice, but after watching that performance last night, such lies,” he said. “I don’t have to be so nice anymore. I’m taking the gloves off, right, yes? Take the gloves off. … Just remember this, Trump is going to be no more Mr. nice guy. Tell Hillary I am not gonna be nice anymore.”

Trump, who has given his Democratic rival the moniker, “Crooked Hillary” and attacked her on multiple fronts, also told supporters Friday that he has “one of the best temperaments” of any previous presidential candidate.

“I think I have the best temperament, or certainly one of the best temperaments, of anybody that’s ever run for the office of president. Ever,” he the crowd today. “Because I have a winning temperament. I know how to win.”

(h/t ABC News)

Reality

Trump’s bragging about his temperament is almost laughable if he wasn’t the Republican presidential nominee. As of this date we have over 400 controversial incidents involving Donald Trump, and none of them highlight someone who is even-tempered.

Some examples include:

  • When Donald Trump got into a childish shouting match with Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz during the December CNN debate?
  • When journalists uncovered the fact that Donald Trump never donated money to veterans charities after four months of claiming he did, and his response was a full-frontal meltdown calling them dishonest, not good people, sleazy, and among the worst human beings he has ever met.
  • Remember when Donald Trump mocked a disabled reporter?
  • The many times Donald Trump ejected protests, mocked them as they left, and one time demanded security to take their coats as they were thrown out into the cold.
  • When Trump instigated a months-long feud between him and Fox News’ Megyn Kelly because she asked him a valid question about past sexist comments.

Media

Trump Accuses Clinton of Rigging Debate Schedule, Caught in Multiple Lies

Donald Trump accused Democrats of rigging the upcoming debate schedule because two of the contests are competing with NFL games. Then Trump said the NFL sent him a letter expressing their disgust with the schedule. The problem with Trump’s claims are that the Democrats aren’t in charge of scheduling the debates and the NFL refuted his claim they ever sent him a letter.

Trump late Friday accused Clinton of intentionally stacking debates against primetime programming to “rig” the election process, despite the fact that the schedule has been set since last September.

“As usual, Hillary & the Dems are trying to rig the debates so 2 are up against major NFL games. Same as last time w/ Bernie. Unacceptable!” Trump tweeted late Friday night.

This is not factual as preliminary debate schedule for the general election has been set since September, 2015, by the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

Then in an interview to be aired Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week,” Trump said: “Well, I’ll tell you what I don’t like. It’s against two NFL games. I got a letter from the NFL saying, “This is ridiculous. Why are the debates against–” ’cause the NFL doesn’t wanna go against the debates. ‘Cause the debates are gonna be pretty massive, from what I understand, okay? And I don’t think we should be against the NFL. I don’t know how the dates were picked.”

Pressed by host George Stephanopoulos on the dates, he said: “Hillary Clinton wants to be against the NFL. She doesn’t, maybe like she did with Bernie s– Bernie Sanders, where they were on Saturday nights when nobody’s home. But they’re against the NFL.”

“I saw the dates. Two– I think two of the three are against the NFL. So I’m not thrilled with that. But I like three debates. I think that’s fine. I think it’s enough. If somebody said, “one debate,” I’d rather have three. I think they’ll be very interesting.”

However an NFL spokesman confirmed the NFL did not send a letter to Trump, but added “obviously we wish they were not scheduled at the same time as two of our games.”

The schedule includes a Monday, Sept. 26 debate, which goes up against a game between Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints, and a Sunday night debate on Oct. 9 that will air concurrently with an NFL game between the Green Bay Packers and the Carolina Panthers.

(h/t Politico)

Trump Says He Would Like to ‘Hit’ DNC Speakers Who Disparaged Him

Donald Trump, after hearing speeches at the Democratic convention this week, said Thursday he wanted to “hit a number of those speakers so hard, their heads would spin.”

“They’d never recover,” he said.

Trump often uses the term “hit” to mean verbally attack, rather than physical contact.

The Republican nominee zoomed in on one speaker especially, though he didn’t mention his name.

“I was going to hit one guy in particular, a very little guy,” Trump said to laughs at a campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa. “I was going to hit this guy so hard his head would spin, he wouldn’t know what the hell happened.”

Trump said this individual “came out of nowhere” and had done work with Trump in the past. “He made deals with me. ‘Will you help me with this? Would you make this deal and solve the problem?’ I solved the problem,” Trump said.

His campaign did not respond to a request asking to clarify who Trump was talking about.
Several speakers this week have gone after Trump in Philadelphia, including Michael Bloomberg. The former New York City mayor made a surprise endorsement over the weekend for Hillary Clinton, and described Trump in his DNC speech Wednesday night as a “dangerous demagogue.”

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine also targeted Trump, mocking the businessman’s tendency to accentuate his promises with a plea of “believe me.”

“He said a lot of things about me, I never met the guy,” Trump said. “I mean the things that were said about me. I mean, should I go through some of the names?”
Trump recalled telling a friend this week that he wanted to retaliate against the people who slammed him at the convention, mentioning current New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio by name.

“I was going to say that de Blasio is the worst mayor in the history of the city, but I didn’t say it,” Trump said to laughs. “He’s a terrible mayor. I was going to say that, but now I won’t say it.”

Trump said his friend, who he labeled a “very great governor,” urged him to stay focused on attacking Clinton, not other Democrats.

“He said, ‘Don’t hit there. Don’t hit down. You have one person to beat. It’s Hillary Rodham Clinton,'” Trump recalled, adding that he initially objected to the advice. “I said, ‘But I really want to. I don’t like what they’re saying because a lot of it is lies. Not all of it but a lot of it is.’ I said, ‘I just really … it makes me feel good.’ ”

Ultimately, he said, he conceded and decided not to launch into verbal assaults against the Democrats.

“But every once in a while I still wake up, I say ‘boy, I wanna,'” Trump said, growling as he stopped himself from saying more. “Someday!”

(h/t CNN)

Reality

Donald Trump’s RNC speech borrowed heavily from Richard Nixon, using the dog whistle term “the law and order candidate.” And just like Nixon, it appears he’ll also have an enemies list.

Media

Post Reporter Barred, Patted Down by Police, at Rally for Trump Running Mate

Donald Trump’s campaign has denied press credentials to a number of disfavored media organizations, including The Washington Post, but on Wednesday, the campaign of his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, went even further.

At Pence’s first public event since he was introduced as the Republican vice-presidential candidate two weeks ago, a Post reporter was barred from entering the venue after security staffers summoned local police to pat him down in a search for his cellphone.

Pence’s campaign expressed embarrassment and regret about the episode, which an official blamed on overzealous campaign volunteers.

Post reporter Jose A. DelReal sought to cover Pence’s rally at the Waukesha County Exposition Center outside Milwaukee, but he was turned down for a credential beforehand by volunteers at a press check-in table.

DelReal then tried to enter via the general-admission line, as Post reporters have done without incident since Trump last month banned the newspaper from his events. He was stopped there by a private security official who told him he couldn’t enter the building with his laptop and cellphone. When DelReal asked whether others attending the rally could enter with their cellphones, he said the unidentified official replied, “Not if they work for The Washington Post.”

After placing his computer and phone in his car, DelReal returned to the line and was detained again by security personnel, who summoned two county sheriff’s deputies. The officers patted down DelReal’s legs and torso, seeking his phone, the reporter said.

When the officers — whom DelReal identified as Deputy John Lappley and Capt. Michelle Larsuel — verified that he wasn’t carrying a phone, the reporter asked to be admitted. The security person declined. “He said, ‘I don’t want you here. You have to go,’ ” DelReal said.

The security person wouldn’t give his name when DelReal asked him to identify himself. He also denied DelReal’s request to speak to a campaign press representative as he escorted the journalist out.

Officials of the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department were unavailable for comment Wednesday night.

Trump has banned nearly a dozen news organizations whose coverage has displeased him, but reporters have generally been able to cover his events by going through general admission lines.

The incident involving DelReal marks another in a series of run-ins between the news media and the campaign.

Reality

Donald Trump and his campaign have a history of being anti-1st-amendment, but yet super-pro-2nd-amendement. This should be very scary for anyone living in this country.

The roll of a free press is paramount to our liberty and separates us from authoritarian regimes, like Russia, who have state-run press. The job of journalists — at The Post and everywhere else — is to give voters the fullest and most accurate picture of the two people who want to represent all of us as president.

The problem with what Trump is doing is that he is revoking access because he disagrees with the coverage. Not because the Washington Post has the facts wrong. It’s because he doesn’t like how the facts are being presented.

So far Trump has revoked access to the following news outlets:

  • The National Review
  • The Daily Beast
  • Huffington Post
  • Buzzfeed
  • Washington Post
  • Politico
  • DMR

Trump Tweets Police Deaths Up 78%, When Actually Unchanged

Twitter

In a tweet Donald Trump repeated a previously debunked statistic that police officers killed in the line of duty by gunfire is up 78% this year. However the number of officers killed in the line of duty has not changed compared to last year.

Reality

This is a tragic stat which is why Donald Trump should not be dishonest with these figures.

The Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks officer deaths, reports that as of the time of Trump’s tweet 32 police officers have been killed by gunfire so far this year, while 21 were killed in line of duty by gunfire during the same period last year. That is a 52% increase.

But keep in mind that context is important. Overall the total number of officers killed in the line of duty compared to last year is unchanged, at 69.

Trump repeated a false statistic regarding officer deaths a week prior when he spoke at the Republican National Convention, but said police killed in the line of duty was up 50%, when at the time it was actually down 1%.

Donald Trump wants to claim Blue Lives Matter but he is willing to dishonor police by exaggerating real officer deaths to stoke fears for political gain.

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