Breaking News: Steve Bannon Removed from National Security Council
Trumps Russia denials just fell apart as after months of denying that they knew Mike Flynn had Russia connections, White House officials admitted that they knew Flynn had problems which is why Steve Bannon was on the NSC.
Rosie Gray of The Atlantic tweeted:
sr WH official tells me Bannon was only on NSC to keep an eye on Flynn & "de-operationalize NSC from Rice" & that he never went to a meeting
Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) April 5, 2017
Same official says the president made the decision, this was the deal from the beginning, and "we all knew Flynn had issues"
Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) April 5, 2017
The White House claimed that Flynn was let go because he lied to Vice President Pence, but it turns out that this wasnt true. Bannon was named to the National Security Council on January 29, so the Trump administration knew about Flynn, and they were worried enough to send Steve Bannon in to keep an eye on him.
The Trump administrations Russia denial continue to be contradicted by facts. What is clear is that the White House is going to try to change the subject from their potential collusion with Russia during the presidential campaign to Susan Rice. If the Susan Rice distraction doesnt stick, they are going to throw Mike Flynn under the bus.
Trump hasnt been telling the truth about Russia, and the removal of Steve Bannon is another crack in the administrations wall of denial.
bannon removed from nsc, steve Bannon, Steve Bannon removed from National Security Council, Trump Russia scandal
RACHEL MADDOW SHOW Racist red flags follow Trump Breitbart hire, Steve Bannon
Donald Trumps senior adviser Steve Bannon said the media should "keep its mouth shut"after being "humiliated"by a surprising election outcome.
"The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for awhile," Mr Bannontoldthe New York Times.
"I want you to quote this,"Mr Bannon added.
"The media here is the opposition party. They dont understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States."
Mr Bannon, who said last July that he had founded Breitbart as a "platform for the alt-right", was propelled into the White House as Mr Trumps right-hand man, and has been a key adviser on appointees to the cabinet and policy.
He said the media got the election "dead wrong"and they represented the "opposition party"to Mr trumps administration.
mr bannon rarely gives interviews - apart from to Breitbart - and tends to stay out of the spotlight.
His comments come off the back of press secretary Sean Spicers angry rant at the media on Saturday, blaming them for accurately reporting Mr Trumps relatively small inauguration crowd size.
"It was the largest crowd size in American history. Period," he said.
Mr Trumps senior adviser, Kellyanne Conway, defended her colleague and said Mr Spicer had just provided reporters with "alternative facts".
In a heated interview with NBC, Ms Conway said the government "might have to rethink its relationship with the press".
Mr Trump, during his first official stop at the CIA headquarters, said he had a war with the media, labeling them as the "most dishonest people"he had ever met.
During the campaign and after the election, the President has routinely called individual reporters "sleazes" and "liars".
He has called BuzzFeed"a failing pile of garbage", CNN is "fake news", and ranted against Vanity Fair for giving his restaurant a bad review.
Steve Bannon Lays Out His AMAZING Political Philosophy
"The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for awhile," Steve Bannon said during a rare interview with The New York Times on Wednesday.
"I want you to quote this," Bannon told the Times. "The media here is the opposition party. They don"t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States."
the remarks from bannon, a right-wing populist and former executive at the aggressively anti-mainstream media website Breitbart, come as tensions between Trump"s White House and the media are running high.
Many members of the media believe the Trump White House is untruthful and disingenuous, pointing to its baseless claims about the size of his inauguration crowd and millions of illegal votes in the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, members of Trump"s White House charge the media with being unfair to the new president, citing one inaccurate report -- falsely stating that Trump had removed Martin Luther King"s bust from the Oval Office -- as evidence of unfair treatment.
"They said, "Martin Luther King"s bust was taken out of the Oval Office", by me," Trump said in an interview with Sean Hannity that will air Thursday night. "That"s a very serious charge. They"re not saying the bust is taken out, what they"re saying is I"m a racist... Then, when it was revealed that they were wrong, nobody even talks about it."
The Trump White House also appears to resent the media for what it sees as biased coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign, and for its failure to anticipate his victory.
In his interview with the Times, Bannon said "the elite media got it dead wrong, 100 percent dead wrong," calling it "a humiliating defeat that they will never wash away, that will always be there."
"The mainstream media has not fired or terminated anyone associated with following our campaign," Bannon told the Times. "Look at the Twitter feeds of those people: they were outright activists of the Clinton campaign."
"That"s why you have no power," Bannon said. "You were humiliated."
CNNMoney (Los Angeles) First published January 26, 2017: 4:25 PM ET
Donald Trump’s Appointing Steve Bannon As Chief Strategist Courts Controversy | TODAY
Steve Bannon, the Breitbart boss and Trump campaign CEO, runs a website that filters so-called alt-right, white nationalist views into the mainstream. He has been accused of racism and anti-Semitism. And now, as the newly appointed chief strategist and senior counselor to the President-elect, his opinions will be whispered into the ear of the leader of the free world.
A former US Navy officer, Harvard business school graduate, Goldman Sachs investment banker and Hollywood producer, Mr Bannon started his fourth or fifth career as a right-wing provocateur by releasing a handful of polemic documentaries. He became executive chairman of Breitbart News in 2012, a job he will quit to take up his new post in the Trump White House.
The ultra-conservative site is known for such liberal-baiting headlines as Would you rather your child had feminism or cancer? and Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy. It has described the confederate flag as a symbol of a glorious heritage and accused President Obama of crying phony fascist tears over the children killed in a mass shooting.
In 1996, Mr Bannon was charged with misdemeanor domestic violence and battery after an incident involving his ex-wife. The case was dismissed when prosecutors were unable to contact her. A decade later, in a 2007 court filing, the same ex-wife accused him of making anti-Semitic comments about a private school to which the couple planned to send their daughters.
As they discussed the Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles, she claimed, Mr Bannon went on to say the biggest problem he had with Archer is the number of Jews that attend. He said that he doesnt like Jews and that he doesnt like the way they raise their kids to be whiny brats and that he didnt want the girls going to school with Jews.
Mr Bannon pleaded not guilty to the domestic violence charges. The couple ultimately did send their daughters to Archer, and, after the court documents emerged this year, he denied the whiny brats conversation had ever taken place. Many, however, have found some of his on-the-record remarks plenty offensive enough.
John Weaver, the chief strategist for Mr Trump"s former Republican primary rival, Ohio Governor John Kasich, was among those who expressed dismay and revulsion at Mr Bannon"s appointment to a White House role, describing him in a tweet as a "racist" and "anti-Semite".
In 2010, in an interview to promote a film about right-wing female firebrands such as Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter, Mr Bannon said their success undermined the progressive narrative, explaining: Thats one of the unintended consequences of the womens liberation movement that, in fact, the women that would lead this country would be feminine, they would be pro-family, they would have husbands, they would love their children. They wouldn"t be a bunch of dykes.
Now 62, Mr Bannon has made a habit of antagonising the Republican establishment as much as he does the liberal left. At a conservative gathering in 2013, he reportedly called for a populist uprising within the GOP. Its going to be an insurgent, centre-right populist movement that is virulently anti-establishment, and its going to continue to hammer both the progressive left and the institutional Republican Party, he said.
He was, it now appears, describing the Trump campaign. It is perhaps no coincidence that Mr Trump has also been accused of anti-Semitism. In the final days of the election, the Trump campaign released an ad that contained several arguably anti-Semitic tropes, including claims of a global conspiracy and images of the Jewish financiers George Soros and Lloyd Blankfein. In a 60 minutes interview aired on Sunday evening, Trump called on his supporters to "stop" harassing minorities, saying "don"t do it. That"s terrible." But the news of Mr Bannon"s appointment, which broke on the same night, will do little to calm fears.
In a recent profile of Mr Bannon for The Atlantic, Conor Freidersdorf compared Mr Bannon to a Jacobin, the most ruthless and radical group involved in the French Revolution. Trump is not his idea of a good president of the United States, Mr Freidersdorf wrote. Trump is his guillotine.
Speaking to Bloomberg on Thursday, Mr Bannon resisted such a comparison. This is not the French Revolution, he said. They destroyed the basic institutions of society and changed their form of government. What Trump represents is a restoration a restoration of true American capitalism. The president-elect, he added, is the leader of a populist uprising.
Corey Lewandowski, Mr. Trumps first campaign manager, has also been mentioned for chief of staff, despite having been fired by the campaign in June. But Mr. Trumps children, who feuded publicly with him during the campaign, may resist.
Two other names being discussed: Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trumps campaign manager, and David Bossie, a veteran conservative operative who became Mr. Trumps deputy campaign manager.
The president and the president-elect.
Mr. Trump, a man who once questioned the birthplace of the president, and Mr. Obama, who scorched Mr. Trump as unfit for the Oval Office, met the news media in that esteemed room, and at least for public consumption, let bygones and bygones.
Mr. Trump, who often labeled Mr. Obama the worst president in history during the campaign, this time called him a very good man.
For a full account, read here.
Video President Obama Meets With Trump
President Obama spoke with President-elect Donald J. Trump at the White House on Thursday to discuss the transition of power. President Obama said they had an excellent and wide-ranging conversation.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS on Publish Date November 10, 2016. Photo by Stephen Crowley/The New York Times. Watch in Times Video Trump on the Hill.
After the White House, it was on to Capitol Hill to meet with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, and the speaker of the House, Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin. Mr. Ryan only reluctantly endorsed Mr. Trump, called his attack on a judge of Mexican heritage the textbook definition of racism, and then stopped campaigning for him after a video emerged of the candidate bragging about sexual assault.
On Thursday, it was all smiles.
Donald Trump had one of the most impressive victories we have ever seen, and were going to turn that victory into progress for the American people, Mr. Ryan said, and we are now talking about how we are going to hit the ground running to get this country turned around and make America great again.
Mr. Trump added: We had a very detailed meeting, and were going to lower taxes, as you know, health care, were going to make it affordable. We are going to do a real job on health care.
Mr. Ryan then showed off the view from his balcony, pointing out the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue, which Mr. Trump converted into a luxury hotel.
Mr. Trump planned to spend Thursday night in Washington, aides announced. No word on whether h**l be in the new hotel.
Meantime, a new first lady arrives.
Michelle Obama welcomed Melania Trump to tea and a tour of the White House residence on Thursday, yet another extraordinary moment as the first lady, who bitterly denounced Mr. Trump and his treatment of women during the presidential campaign, welcomed his wife to her soon-to-be new home.
While Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump held their own 90-minute meeting in the Oval Office, the two women stepped out on the Truman Balcony, with sweeping views of the grounds and the Washington Monument, strolled through the State Floor with the resident curator, and even talked about raising children at the White House, said Josh Earnest, the press secretary.
When they were finished, Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Trump went to the Oval Office to meet their husbands before the Trumps departed for Capitol Hill, Mr. Earnest said.
Last call for health care?
Tens of thousands of Americans are rushing to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act after Mr. Trumps victory as revitalized Republicans vow to repeal the law.
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, reported that more than 100,000 people selected health plans on Wednesday through HealthCare.gov. It was, she said on Twitter Thursday, the best day yet in the current open-enrollment period, which began Nov. 1 and ends Jan. 31.
Even though premiums on the Affordable Care Act exchanges have increased sharply in many parts of the country, federal officials say most consumers can still find coverage for less than $100 a month, after subsidies help defray the cost.
Mr. Trump has said he will completely repeal Obamacare, but has not said in detail how he would replace it. Instead of the subsidies now available to most people buying insurance through the online marketplace, Mr. Trump wants to allow people to take tax deductions equal to their premiums.
Planning? Nah, thats bad luck.
Well figure it out on election night.
Thats what Mr. Trump told his advisers after they pressed him this year to name people to a transition team in-waiting that was supposed to give his campaign the appearance of being serious about winning.
So if Mr. Trumps fledgling transition looks a little seat of the pants, well, blame superstition.
Mr. Trump said he did not like the idea of planning ahead because he thought it might jinx him. Its bad luck, he told advisers, according to one senior aide who spoke to Mr. Trump about the matter.
Democrats: To the left, to the left
They love Bernie Sanders, they adore Elizabeth Warren, but as Democrats regroup from Mrs. Clintons defeat, the progressive wing of the party is looking to another candidate to lead the Democratic National Committee: Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota.
Donna Brazile replaced Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz as the committees interim leader over the summer after it emerged that the committee was favoring Mrs. Clinton over Mr. Sanders in the Democratic primary contest. Hacked emails released by WikiLeaks also showed that Ms. Brazile had been trying to help Mrs. Clinton.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee said on Thursday that Democrats would continue losing elections unless they aggressively take on corporate power and pointed to Mr. Ellison, who is one of two Muslims in the House and is co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
The Democratic establishment had their chance with this election, said Stephanie Taylor, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Its time for new leadership of the Democratic Party younger, more diverse, and more ideological that is hungry to do things differently, like leading a movement instead of dragging people to the polls.
An immigration lightning rod joins Team Trump.
Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and an ardent opponent of immigration, has been added to Mr. Trumps transition team, according to local news reports.
Mr. Kobach, who provided guidance on immigration policy to Mr. Trump during the campaign, will help the president-elect in the weeks before he takes office, according to The Wichita Eagle.
He told the paper he did not expect to get an offer to serve in the Trump administration, but just having him in a formal role in the new Washington could send shudders through the nations immigrants. Mr. Kobach has been one of the loudest anti-immigration voices in the Republican Party for years. He added Mr. Trumps call for a border wall along the southern tier into the partys platform over the summer.
Photo The British prime minister, Theresa May, at 10 Downing Street in London on Wednesday. Credit Toby Melville/Reuters A very special relationship with Britain.
Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain spoke by telephone on Thursday, affirming the special relationship between the two countries and agreeing to work closely together, according to a readout of the call provided by the British Embassy.
It was a meeting of the Brexits: the prime minister ushered into power after Britons voted to exit the European Union and a president-elect who has proudly proclaimed himself Mr. Brexit as big a political shock as the British vote.
The prime minister and President-elect Trump agreed that the U.S.-U.K. relationship was very important and very special, and that building on this would be a priority for them both, said Laura Palts, an embassy spokeswoman. President-elect Trump set out his close and personal connections with, and warmth for, the U.K.
Mr. Trump encouraged Brexit and has been supportive of Mrs. May. This year he clashed with David Cameron, Britains former prime minister, and Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, after they criticized his proposal to bar Muslims from entering the United States.
But on Thursday Mr. Trump told Mrs. May that Britain was a very, very special place for me and for our country and invited her to pay him a visit as soon as possible.
R.I.P., T.P.P.
Republican congressional leaders have confirmed what might seem obvious with Mr. Trumps triumph: Mr. Obamas far-reaching trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim nations is dead.
The Senate majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said flat-out No when reporters asked on Wednesday if the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership the largest regional trade deal in history would be considered in the lame duck Congress that convenes next week.
I think the president-elect made it pretty clear he was not in favor of the current agreement, Mr. McConnell said. Mr. Trump has the authority to negotiate better deals, as I think he would put it, Mr. McConnell added, but that prospect is unlikely given the difficulty of renegotiating a pact at least seven years in the making among a dozen countries.
One of the agreements strongest and best-placed Republican advocates, Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, echoed the Senate leader.
This important agreement is not ready to be considered during the lame duck and will remain on hold until President Trump decides the path forward, he said.
Pence and Pelosi chat.
The office of Representative Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that Mr. Pence had reached out on a phone call, and she congratulated him on his win. They agreed to meet in the coming weeks to talk more. Ms. Pelosi, the Democratic leader from California, is acquainted with Mr. Pence from his days in the House, where he was something of a rebel before joining the Republican leadership.
Photo Rudolph W. Giuliani with New York City police officers outside Trump Tower on Election Day. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times Lock her up?
Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, expressed interest on Thursday morning in being attorney general, telling CNN, I certainly have the energy, and theres probably nobody who knows the Justice Department better than me.
The next question: Would he actually make good on Mr. Trumps promise to put Hillary Clinton in jail?
Ms. Conway, the Trump campaign manager, left the door open on Wednesday. So did Mr. Giuliani on Fox News when he said Mr. Obama should not pardon Mrs. Clinton for allegedly mishandling classified information on a private server as secretary of state.
I dont like to see America become a country in which we prosecute people, you know, about politics, he said. On the other hand, there are deep and disturbing issues there in which if you dont investigate them
The Fox News hosts finished the sentence: Theyre going to continue.
Legal analysts say that a Trump attorney general would wield the power to open a new investigation, even with a special prosecutor. But he could not guarantee the outcome.
Of course, maybe Mr. Giuliani wont be in the Trump administration. He told The Timess Matt Apuzzo on Wednesday that he was not interested in returning to government. Instead, he and his friend Michael B. Mukasey, the former attorney general, would advise Mr. Trump on potential nominees. Between us, we can locate a lot of really good people.
