Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 8-31-18

White House and Political News
Here’s House Republicans’ List Of All The Trump Scandals They’re Covering Up
Donald Trump Forced To Recognize McCain,
Re-Lowers White House Flag
It’s Not A Short List
Republicans on the Hill have again and again claimed that there is no Donald Trump scandal worth inves- tigating. But in a sign that maybe they aren’t operating totally on the level, Jonathan Swan at Axios reports that a “senior House Republicans office” has com- piled a spreadsheetof all the things they believe House Democrats will investigate if they win a majority in No- vember — and they are terri- fied of what these inquiries might turn up.
In total defiance of the (flawed) logic of the Madis- onian constitutional system, Republicans have used their control of the congressional agenda to stymie any kind of rigorous investigation into dozens of urgent scandals swirling around the Trump administration.
Swan reports that “it has churned Republican stom- achs” and includes the fol- lowing:
• President Trump’s tax returns
• Trump family businesses —
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
and whether they comply with the Constitution’s emol- uments clause, including the Chinese trademark grant to the Trump Organization
• Trump’s dealings with Russia, including the presi- dent’s preparation for his meeting with Vladimir Putin
• The payment to Stephanie Clifford — a.k.a. Stormy Daniels
• James Comey’s firing
• Trump’s firing of U.S. at- torneys
• Trump’s proposed trans- gender ban for the military
• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s business dealings • White House staff’s per- sonal email use
• Cabinet secretary travel, of- fice expenses, and other mis- used perks
• Discussion of classified in- formation at Mar-a-Lago
• Jared Kushner’s ethics law compliance
• Dismissal of members of the EPA board of scientific coun- selors
• The travel ban
• Family separation policy
• Hurricane response in Puerto Rico
• Election security and hack- ing attempts
• White House security clear- ances
The striking thing about it is that almost everything on this list is stuff that’s urgently worthy of investigation.
Congress should be look- ing into election security and Trump’s dealings with Rus- sia, especially since many Re- publican members of Con- gress in their own public statements have acknowl- edged that there’s something weird about Trump’s takes on these matters.
Trump Warns Of 'Left-Wing Violence' If Democrats Win Mid-Term Elections
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN
WASHINGTON (AP) — Glowering in public and near- silent for two days, Presi- dent Donald Trump relented under pressure Monday by tersely recogniz- ing Sen. John McCain’s “service to our country” and re-lowering the White House flag.
While much of the nation remembered McCain’s record as a war hero, long- time senator and presidential nominee over the weekend, Trump had nursed his griev- ances. McCain had been an infuriating foil in a long-run- ning feud over style and pol- icy that did not end with the senator’s illness and death.
Trump’s reluctance to par- ticipate in the national re- membrance was awkward and uncomfortable, even by the standards of a leader who acknowledges he doesn’t act like a typical president. The episode highlighted the out- sider president’s impulse to harbor personal resentments regardless of political reper- cussions.
Before Trump’s Monday afternoon statement, his only commentary on McCain’s death had been a perfunctory tweet Saturday. The lack of a formal statement — com- bined with the fact that White House flags were flown at half-staff only briefly — drew strong criticism from Repub- licans and veterans’ groups as well as Democrats.
When he finally did com- ment, in a printed statement, Trump was sparing with his praise for the six-term sena- tor: “Despite our differences on policy and politics, I re- spect Senator John Mc- Cain’s service to our country.”
Later, at an evening din-
ner honoring evangelical leaders, he said “our hearts and prayers” are going to the family “and we very much ap- preciate everything that Sen- ator McCain has done for our country.”
Earlier in the day, a stone-faced Trump sat mute as reporters at several photo sessions invited him to comment on McCain. As he was peppered with questions about McCain’s legacy, the usually talkative president made no response.
Publicly, Trump has fre- quently railed against Mc- Cain’s dramatic thumbs- down vote against the presi- dent’s efforts to repeal Pres- ident Barack Obama’s health care law. Privately, he has groused about such slights as his belief that Mc- Cain did not appreciate his endorsement in the senator’s 2016 re-election bid. Mc- Cain, for his part, recently slammed Trump’s Helsinki meeting with Russian Presi- dent Vladimir Putin as “one of the most disgraceful performances by an Ameri- can president in memory.”
Against that backdrop, the flag above the White House spoke volumes.
The Stars and Stripes were briefly lowered to half- staff over the weekend, then went back up to full height Monday while flags at the U. S. Capitol and elsewhere stayed at half-staff. Shortly before Trump issued his written statement, the flag was lowered again to half- staff.
That was after complaints had risen all day from both right and left, and then from a group the president as- suredly does not want to of- fend.
U. S. President Donald Trump has warned that his policies will be "violently" overturned if the Democrats win November's mid-term elections.
He told Evangelical lead- ers that the vote was a "refer- endum" on freedom of speech and religion, and that these were threatened by "vi- olent people".
He appealed to conserva- tive Christian groups for help, saying they were one vote away from "losing every- thing".
Mid-term elections are widely seen as a test of the president's popularity.
Mr. Trump has been bat- tling negative publicity after his ex-lawyer and former campaign chief were con- victed earlier this month.
An audio recording of Mr. Trump's closed-door meet- ing with Evangelical leaders at the White House was leaked to US media.
During the meeting, Mr. Trump said the mid-term elections were not just a ref- erendum on him but also "on
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
your religion, it's a referen- dum on free speech and the First Amendment [guaran- teeing basic freedoms]".
"It's not a question of like or dislike, it's a question that they will overturn everything that we've done and they will do it quickly and violently. And violently. There is vio- lence. When you look at An- tifa - these are violent people," he said.
Antifa - short for anti-fas-
cist - refers to groups of far- left protesters who fight far- right ideology and regularly clash with far-right demon- strators.
The U. S. president has previously criticized left-wing groups, infamously saying that there had been violence on "many sides" after a white nationalist killed a left-wing demonstrator at a white na- tionalist protest in Char- lottesville last year.
Urging the Evangelical leaders to use their influence to swing voters, Mr. Trump told them they had "tremen- dous power".
"In this room, you have people who preach to almost 200 million people. Depend- ing on which Sunday we're talking about," he said.
"Little thing: Merry Christmas, right? You could- n't say 'Merry Christmas'," he added, according to U. S. media reports.
"Nobody walked out of there thinking that the De- mocrats were going to shoot us all," she quoted Jerry Falwell Jr. as saying.
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