June 2017

at June 25, 2017 0
Trump and Comey sacked FBI director saga

According to  CNN President Donald Trump finally, grudgingly, had no choice but to come clean.

His admission, on Twitter Thursday that he did not secretly record his conversations with fired FBI Director James Comey -- after earlier raising the possibility that he did -- capped a six-week charade that damaged his presidency and cast doubt on his personal credibility.



Comey former FBI director


It was a surreal new twist to a presidency that has often already stretched the limits of credulity, and has challenged conventions on the decorum and gravity expected in the behavior of the person who holds the office itself.

Trump: I did not make recordings of Comey


After weeks of speculation, the President delivered a mea culpa, a step that he had little choice to make, in a somewhat resentful manner, in keeping with his reluctance to ever publicly admit error.

"With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea ... whether there are "tapes" or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings," Trump wrote in a pair of tweets.

With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea...

With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea...

...whether there are "tapes" or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings

His statement was followed by a now-typical attempt by the White House to avoid accountability on an embarrassing episode. Trump's choice of Twitter to deliver his message did not expose him to cross-examination or questioning from journalists. The White House, meanwhile, banned live television coverage of its daily briefing, allowing only an audio recording to be broadcast afterward.

There's little doubt that the entire tapes issue represents a serious misstep by the President that put his White House on a perilous political and legal path.

"James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!" Trump tweeted on May 17.

James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!

The tweet caused an uproar, immediately raising comparisons with the Watergate-era taping system that caused the downfall of President Richard Nixon, and demands for Trump to immediately hand over any recordings.
'Lordy, I hope there are tapes'

If it was an attempt to intimidate Comey, as many have speculated, it backfired spectacularly.

Comey testified to the Senate intelligence committee earlier this month that he saw Trump's tweet and woke up in the middle of the night a few days later, suddenly twigging that any tapes could provide corroboration of his version of conversations with Trump that left him feeling deeply uncomfortable.

"Lordy, I hope there are tapes," said Comey in the hearing.

The former FBI chief said that as a result of the tweet he asked a friend to share the content of his memos with a reporter, in the hope that it would lead to the appointment of a special counsel.

That special counsel -- Robert Mueller -- who was appointed as a direct result of what now looks like a deeply ill-advised Trump tweet, now poses a serious threat to his entire presidency with an investigation into alleged collusion by campaign officials with Russian interference in the US election, that could branch off in unpredictable directions.

One clear effect of Trump's tweet on Thursday means that the accounting of what happened in conversations between the President and Comey now relies on one man's word against the other. There apparently are no tapes that could confirm what exactly happened in those chats.

But Comey has already handed the special counsel his contemporaneous memos of conversations in which he said Trump asked him to go easy on former national security adviser Michael Flynn, asked him for a pledge of loyalty and wanted him to publicly say that the President himself was not under investigation.

It will now be left to Mueller to decide whether Trump's actions in his interactions with Comey amount to an attempt to obstruct justice.

The original tweet may be considered as evidence as Mueller tries to work out whether the President was trying to intimidate Comey.

WH responds to Trump's Comey tape tweet 01:22
No regrets

Still, the White House stuck to the line that despite the damaging fallout of the tapes episode, the President had no regrets.

"I don't think so," said White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, when asked whether Trump now wishes he had not issued the original tweet.

Sanders would not divulge many other details about Trump's motivation in warning of possible tapes of Comey, or why he inflicted a six-week-long mystery on the nation, a period that included him taunting reporters, saying that they were "going to be very disappointed" when the truth was revealed.

"I don't think it was a game," Sanders said, in the off-camera briefing, and appeared to suggest the President's original intent was to press the fired former FBI director to tell the truth.

"I certainly think that the President would hope that the former director would tell the truth, but I think it was more about raising the question of doubt, in general," she said.

But an associate of Trump who spoke to the President this week, told CNN's Jeff Zeleny that "if he doesn't regret this, he should."

The person also said that Trump was amused by all media obsession over the original tweet, raising the possibility that, as so many times before, the President is using conspiracy theories and sparking outrage to dominate the political conversation in Washington -- with himself at the center of the storm.

The manner of Trump's admission that there were no tapes, was consistent with the way in which he has dealt with climb-downs that are personally embarrassing to him during his time in office.

News from CNN
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at June 25, 2017 0

United State President Trump banned camera in White House


The White House has been prohibiting cameras at some press briefings, so on Friday CNN got creative and sent a sketch artist.

Bill Hennessy, the network's regular sketch artist for Supreme Court proceedings, headed over to the White House on Friday afternoon and drew Press Secretary Sean Spicer's afternoon briefing.

He didn't have his usual easel, but he stood in the back of the briefing room to document the scene.
Hennessy's sketches aren't exclusive to CNN; other news outlets may also use them.

Some conservative media voices dismissed it as a stunt, but CNN argued that the sketch session did serve a journalistic purpose, in the same way that courtroom sketches do.

Sketch by CNN artist 



Gallery: A White House press briefing as told by CNN's sketch artist

CNN equated the briefing to a Supreme Court argument -- an on-the-record event at which cameras are banned.

Sketches are also common in courtroom trials. The idea is to paint a picture for viewers who couldn't be in the room.

The video camera that can be seen on the right side of some of Hennessy's sketches was turned off during the Friday briefing. It was one of several pieces of video equipment that remained in the briefing room at their normal locations, even as recording was banned.

Hennessy has been a Washington-based courtroom sketch artist for decades. He has covered a wide range of cases, including the Clinton impeachment proceedings, terror suspect trials, and Guantanamo Bay detainee hearings. He worked for CNN at the Supreme Court on Thursday.
Hennessy's presence highlighted the significant change in White House access that has taken place recently.

Press secretaries for Democratic and Republican presidents have held on-camera briefings on a regular basis for the past quarter century.


But the Trump White House has been cutting back on the frequency and the length of on-camera briefings.

Spicer and his deputy Sarah Huckabee Sanders have only held four on-camera briefings in June. Most of their Q&A sessions have been held off-camera.

The White House has also prohibited live audio broadcasts of the briefing. On Thursday and Friday, CNN aired the briefing audio in its entirety shortly after it ended.

Spicer was asked on Friday afternoon about the rollback in access.
"Some days we'll do it" on camera, he said. "I think it's great for us to come out here and have a substantive discussion about policies. I don't think that the be all and end all is whether it's on television or not."




Adapted from CNN
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at June 18, 2017 0

Beyonce Music star gives birth to twins


Beyonce



Beyoncé and Jay Z have welcomed twins, a source close to the couple says.

There was no immediate word on the gender of the babies or their names.


The superstar singer and her mogul husband, who married in 2008, are also parents to a five-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy.

Queen Bey announced her pregnancy in February on Instagram.
"We would like to share our love and happiness. We have been blessed two times over. We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes. The Carters, " she posted.



Entertainment Weekly, Us Weekly and People magazines confirmed the news, but the date of birth and gender of the babies are not yet publicly known.

Beyonce, who is married to rapper Jay-Z, announced her pregnancy in an Instagram photo in February - the most-liked post in history on the network.

The couple already have a daughter, Blue Ivy, aged five.

There has been no official confirmation of the birth from Beyonce and Jay-Z themselves.

Other photos Beyonce posted after her pregnancy announcement showed her swimming under water, reclining on a bed of roses and sitting naked on a floral throne.
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    at June 18, 2017 0

    Marriage ceremony called off because no beef in rice


    A marriage ceremony was called off in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur after the groom's family issued an ultimatum to the bride's family - if there's no beef on the menu, get ready to call off the wedding, according to a news report. They also asked for a dowry.


    Marriage ceremony can be called off for a number of reasons, but beef is rarely one of them. But that's what happened in Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, where the bride's family cancelled the wedding because the groom's family wanted beef on the menu, the news agency ANI reported today.
    It wasn't just that the groom's family gave the his in-laws an ultimatum - serve beef or get ready to call off the ceremony - but they also wanted dowry, the report said.
    This comes just weeks after a man in Uttar Pradesh's Kuhedi village refused to get married after noticing that only vegetarian dishes were served at the ceremony, and the bride tied the knot with one of the guests instead


    And that happened after the panchayat gave the impromptu wedding the go-ahead
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    at June 18, 2017 0

    Trump had the absolute worst week in Washington


    (CNN)Donald Trump hasn't had a lot of good weeks since being sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. But this was his worst one yet. This was the week the investigation of Russia's involvement in the 2016 election reached the Oval Office -- and Trump himself.

    The Washington Post reported Wednesday night that Trump himself is under investigation by special counsel Bob Mueller for the possibility that he obstructed justice in his decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey.
    Trump seemed to confirm that story -- his White House hadn't denied it but instead condemned the leak from which it sprang -- in a Friday morning tweet. "I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt," wrote Trump. His aides scrambled in the wake of that tweet to make clear the President was simply saying he had read the reports that he was under investigation but had not been told it separately.
    Whatever.
    The point is that Mueller's investigation is broadening, not narrowing. And Trump's attitude toward the investigation is getting worse and worse. Between Thursday morning and Friday morning, Trump sent a series of tweets that suggest he is extremely frustrated with his current position.
    "They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice," Trump tweeted Thursday morning. By that afternoon, Trump was re-litigating the 2016 election; "Why is that Hillary Clintons family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at, but my non-dealings are? he tweeted.
    It's not clear whether Trump doesn't grasp the severity of the circumstances he now faces or simply doesn't care. But he is now in a place that he can't tweet or talk his way out of. Mueller continues to hire investigators as the probe widens. And, short of firing Mueller -- which would be political suicide for Trump -- he just has to wait and see how it plays out.
    The problem for Trump -- and Congressional Republicans -- is that Mueller's investigation is going to take time. And with the investigation reaching all the way up to Trump -- and with Trump regularly tweeting about it -- it's nearly impossible for the White House to compartmentalize.
    The "cloud" that Trump has been complaining about for months got bigger and darker this week. And he is outside without an umbrella.

    Donald Trump, for your refusal to stop digging yourself into a hole, you had the Worst Week in Washington.

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    at June 18, 2017 0

    Commission on Civil Rights to probe Trump


    Washington (CNN)The US Commission on Civil Rights announced Friday that it will investigate the Trump administration's enforcement of civil rights, saying it has concerns about the impact of proposed budget and staff cuts across the federal government.

    The independent government agency, which is tasked with monitoring federal civil rights enforcement, unanimously approved a two-year probe into whether the cuts will allow federal civil rights offices to perform their duties under the law.

    "Along with changing programmatic priorities, these proposed cuts would result in a dangerous reduction of civil rights enforcement across the country, leaving communities of color, LGBT people, older people, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups exposed to greater risk of discrimination," the commission wrote in a statement announcing the investigation.

    The commission cited proposed staff decreases in several departments and agencies as well as the actions of the Justice Department and the Education secretary in its reasons for taking the assessment. The administration's budget would reduce money for civil rights-related offices in several agencies, making cuts of 15% and 23% in some cases, and would eliminate the EPA's Environmental Justice program and the nonprofit Legal Services Corp., which supports civil legal aid for low-income Americans, the commission said.

    The Justice, Education and Labor departments and the Environmental Protection Agency were among seven agencies and departments that the commission listed as of special concern.
    The commission also criticized the Just Department's decision to place Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers at courthouses, saying it was a "dangerous impediment to access to justice for all Americans."

    The agency also said the revised priorities of the department's civil rights division "do not mention the need for constitutional policing or to combat discrimination against the LGBT community or people with disabilities," adding that the budget request calls for cutting 121 positions, including 14 attorneys.

    The commission also called out Education Secretary Betsy DeVos by name, citing her "repeated refusal" in congressional testimony to promise that the department would enforce federal civil rights laws. Further, the administration's proposed budget would cut 46 staff positions at the department's civil rights office, which investigates sex, race disability and age based complaints, the statement said.

    Committee Chair Catherine E. Lhamon said in the statement on the investigation: "For 60 years, Congress has charged the commission to monitor federal civil rights enforcement and recommend necessary change. We take this charge seriously, and we look forward to reporting our findings to Congress, the President, and the American people."

    The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the commission's announcement.


    Adapted from cnn
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