What the hell are we waiting on? All Charges were false.
The White House sent the FBI’s supplemental background investigation into Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the Senate early Thursday.
Senators were allowed to begin viewing the FBI report from a secure location inside the U.S. Capitol beginning at 8 a.m. EST Thursday.
“With Leader McConnell’s cloture filing, Senators have been given ample time to review this seventh background investigation,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement. “This is the last addition to the most comprehensive review of a Supreme Court nominee in history, which includes extensive hearings, multiple committee interviews, over 1,200 questions for the record and over a half million pages of documents.”
He went on to say that the White House is “fully confident” that Kavanaugh will get confirmed to the Supreme Court.
The New York Times is reporting that the FBI reached out to 10 individuals and interviewed nine of them. Kavanaugh’s first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, was not one of those interviewed, her lawyers said in a statement late Wednesday.
“An FBI supplemental background investigation that did not include an interview of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford – nor the witnesses who corroborate her testimony – cannot be called an investigation,” Blasey Ford’s lawyers’ statement said. “We are profoundly disappointed that after the tremendous sacrifice she made in coming forward, those directing the FBI investigation were not interested in seeking truth.”
The White House reportedly gave the FBI free reign over who they wanted to investigate earlier this week. Prior to this order, the FBI had only interviewed four people, three of whom were people that Ford alleged were at the party. The fourth was Deborah Ramirez, the second accuser.
“I want them to do a very comprehensive investigation, whatever that means, according to the senators and the Republicans and the Republican majority,” President Trump said on Monday.
Investigative counsel Rachel Mitchell, cross-examining Christine Blasey Ford at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, demolished her claim that she could not testify on Monday because she was afraid of flying.
Ford and her attorneys refused a Monday hearing, arguing that she was afraid to fly. One of her friends even claimed that her fear of flying was a result of the alleged assault by Judge Brett Kavanaugh over 35 years ago.
The GOP has been told that Ford does not want to fly from her California home to Washington, according to the Republican senator, which means she may need to drive across the country. Ford has reportedly told friends she is uncomfortable in confined spaces, indicating a physical difficulty in making the trip by plane.
Committee chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) then offered to travel to California to interview Ford, relieving her of the need to fly. She declined. There was talk of having Ford drive across the country to make the hearing.
Yet under questioning by Mitchell, Ford admitted that she had, in fact, flown across the country to make the hearing. She had also flown to the east coast for a vacation with family in August. She also admitted flying frequently for her work and for her hobbies, including surfing vacations in Hawaii, Costa Rica, and French Polynesia. Ford, laughing nervously, said that it was easier to fly for vacations.
Critics had speculated that the sole reason Democrats, and Ford, were refusing a Monday hearing — or even a compromise Wednesday hearing — was because a Thursday hearing would make it almost impossible for the Senate to hold a confirmation vote on Judge Kavanaugh before the Supreme Court begins its new session on October 1.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley on Tuesday raised the possibility that next week’s high-stakes open hearing to examine the sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh could be canceled if the accuser doesn’t accept the committee’s invitation.
Grassley, R-Iowa, scheduled a hearing for Monday for Kavanaugh and accuser Christine Blasey Ford to answer questions from senators about the allegation. But Grassley said during a Tuesday radio interview that his office has reached out several times to Ford and her attorneys to discuss her allegation, but has heard nothing back.
“We have reached out to her in the last 36 hours three or four times by email and we have not heard from them, and it kind of raises the question, do they want to come to the public hearing or not?” Grassley said on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
Asked whether there would be a hearing if Ford did not agree to appear, Grassley suggested he couldn’t see a reason to hold one.
“What would be the purpose of the hearing if Dr. Ford doesn’t want to respond?” Grassley said.
In the case Ford accepts the invitation, Grassley said he is considering the possibility of having an independent questioner ask all the questions to Ford.
Ford, a California-based professor, revealed her identity over the weekend in a Washington Post report. She said that Kavanaugh, while in high school, pinned her down, tried to remove her bathing suit and put his hand over her mouth when she attempted to scream. Kavanaugh has denied the allegation.
The announcement of the last-minute hearing evoked memories of the 1991 Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, where senators scrambled to arrange a hearing after Thomas was confronted with sexual harassment accusations by law professor Anita Hill. Thomas denied the accusations and was narrowly confirmed.
During television appearances on Monday, Ford’s attorney, Debra Katz, indicated her client was “willing to take whatever it takes to get her story forth,” and would testify before the committee under oath. But Katz has not confirmed that Ford will show up for Monday’s open hearing, which would be aired live on television.
Speculation about whether Ford will ultimately accept the invitation follows reports she was reluctant to go public with her accusation after tipping off congressional Democrats.
Grassley, announcing the Monday hearing, said it would “give these recent allegations a full airing.”
White House spokesman Raj Shah said Kavanaugh is willing to testify.
“Judge Kavanaugh looks forward to a hearing where he can clear his name of this false allegation. He stands ready to testify tomorrow if the Senate is ready to hear him,” Shah said.
Democrats have called for delaying Kavanaugh’s vote until there is a full FBI review of the matter.
But Grassley told Hewitt on Tuesday that the FBI investigation “is closed” and that the FBI is not doing any further investigation.
Meanwhile, Kavanaugh was spotted Tuesday arriving at the White House for meetings – as he did the day before.
President Trump on Monday stood by Kavanaugh, calling him one of the “finest people that I have ever known” while acknowledging a “little delay” may be necessary before the nomination is voted on in the Senate.
In his first public comments on the controversy, the president also criticized Democrats over the timing of the allegation.
“I wish the Democrats could have done this a lot sooner because they had this information for many months,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “And they shouldn’t have waited until literally the last days. They should have done it a lot sooner.”
The president said he’s open to delaying the confirmation proceedings in Congress while the allegations are investigated.
“If it takes a little delay it’ll take a little delay,” Trump said. “It shouldn’t certainly be very much.”
Kavanaugh has forcefully denied the sexual assault accusations Ford alleged took place while the two were in high school.
“This is a completely false allegation. I have never done anything like what the accuser describes — to her or to anyone,” Kavanaugh said in a statement. “Because this never happened, I had no idea who was making the accusation until she identified herself yesterday.”
All 10 Democrats on the committee on Monday have urged Grassley to postpone the vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination. Multiple sources told Fox News Thursday’s committee confirmation vote has been postponed amid the newly scheduled hearing.
Look up idiot in the dictionary and you may see this picture.
President Donald Trump’s actions and words in office have tarnished America’s image and the very idea of the country far more than the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough on Tuesday, which marked the anniversary of strikes in New York and Washington D.C.
Scarborough, a frequent critic of Trump, was expounding on an op-ed he wrote for The Washington Post and described how the country was able to rebuild and come together after the attacks. Unlike the way in which he claimed the president had damaged the nation’s image around the globe.
“Forget about knocking down buildings in the financial district. Forget about running planes into the Pentagon. Those are tragedies, but those tragedies bring us closer together. America is an idea, you gut America of that idea that’s when you do the most harm,” Scarborough said.
He specifically noted the president’s travel ban on immigrants from predominantly Muslim-majority countries, as well as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s refusal to speak about the ban during his confirmation hearings.
“The accumulation of that, the retweeting of neo-Nazi videos, Charlottesville. I mean I could go on and on, what he said about majority black countries. That is tearing more at the fabric of America than attacks on the Twin Towers did. We rebuilt from that. We became stronger because of that. But this seems to me a far graver threat to the idea of America,” Scarborough said.
Scarborough also pointed to failed American policies since the attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives at New York’s Twin Towers, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. The country has since fought two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with troops still stationed in each Middle East nation and no end in sight.
“Sixteen years of strategic missteps have been followed by the maniacal moves of a man who has savaged America’s vital alliances, provided comfort to hostile foreign powers, attacked our intelligence and military communities, and lent a sympathetic ear to neo-Nazis and white supremacists across the globe,” Scarborough wrote in The Post op-ed.
Scarborough continued: “For those of us still believing that Islamic extremists hate America because of the freedoms we guarantee to all people, the gravest threat Trump poses to our national security is the damage done daily to America’s image. ”
The president started Tuesday morning by firing off a tweet regarding his ongoing feud with the FBI and Justice Department over the Trump-Russia probe, rather than a message commemorating the lives lost on 9/11.
However, Trump and first lady Melania are scheduled to participate in a ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at the memorial for flight United 93.
No Matter What Liberals Say Or Do It Is Okay With Their Followers.
Birmingham, AL Mayor Randall L. Woodfin is facing a large amount of scrutiny after he said being a sanctuary city wouldn’t be enough and declared Birmingham a “welcoming city” during an interview with NPR’s “Code Switch.”
“I think ‘sanctuary city’ is narrowly tailored and isolated towards don’t have your police enforce certain things of rounding up and hurting people, which I agree with. We’re not going to do that. But ‘welcoming cities’ is more broadly about, how do we help our immigrant community? And as I go to Birmingham city schools, I can tell you our immigrant community continues to grow. So it’s – for me it has a broader positive impact, whereas sanctuary is don’t do this. Welcoming is, this is what we’re going to do,” said Woodfin during the interview.
Woodfin was also questioned on whether or not he would use the city’s resources for immigration enforcement.
“We’re not going to use our police to do anything around what I call rounding up people,” Woodfin told NPR.
Woodfin added, “We just don’t believe in that. I don’t believe in that as mayor. I’ve had a clear, direct conversation with my police chief. I’ve had a clear and direct conversation with my chief of our city jail. We’re not in that business.”
Woodfin also stated that Birmingham police would not ask for the immigration status of individuals.
Throughout the interview, Mayor Woodfin made it clear that ICE would not be enabled by the local police force in Birmingham.
Republicans across the state have taken to social media to challenge Woodfin’s notion and share their thoughts on the issue, especially Alabama Republican Chair Terry Lathan.
“[T]he Bham mayor condoning the breaking of our laws and demanding our law enforcement to do the same. Didn’t he pledge an oath to uphold the LAWS?” Lathan said in a tweet.
Lathan also shared her displeasure with Mayor Woodfin’s statements by tweeting “Apparently [Woodfin] wants to see government break our laws. That will make for an interesting city brochure.”
Ford Brown of Yellowhammer Radio in Birmingham shared his thoughts on the issue surrounding Woodfin’s comments and said, “I think that the biggest city in this state sets the tone for the rest of the state. What is Gov. Kay Ivey going to do about that?”
Democratic Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison wants ex-girlfriend Karen Monahan to know that the two “don’t have to destroy each other” over her claim that Ellison physically abused her.
Monahan, a liberal activist for Sierra Club, accused Ellison of physically and emotionally abusing her and claims to have a video of him dragging her off a bed, although she has yet to produce it.
Ellison is the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and on Tuesday won the party’s nomination for Minnesota attorney general. He has repeatedly denied Monahan’s allegations.
A reporter for local Minnesota station WCCO asked Ellison on Wednesday what he would say to Monahan if he could.
“I would say: we loved each other, we don’t have to destroy each other,” Ellison said.
“Is that what you think she is trying to do?” asked the interviewer.
“I don’t know, I don’t want to speculate on motive,” Ellison answered.
Monahan’s son Austin first aired the allegations against Ellison on Saturday and claimed to have witnessed the alleged video of Ellison’s abuse.
“I was using my moms computer trying to download something and I clicked on a file, I found over 100 text and twitters messages and video almost 2 min long that showed Keith Ellison dragging my mama off the bed by her feet, screaming and calling her a ‘fucking bitch’ and telling her to get the fuck out of his house,” Austin wrote in a viral Facebook post.
“Sitting all this time, watching what our mom went through and not being able to say or do anything was hard as hell. None of you know the hell our family has gone through. I don’t think half of you would even care,” Austin added.
“We watched her so called political friends stand by say or do nothing. People had an idea what happened and never reached out to my mom. The same people who are posting about social justice are ready to smear my mom, protect a person who abused her and broke the law.”
Like her son, Monahan has also said that she expects to be smeared for speaking out against Ellison.
“I was well prepared for the smears, etc. It is exactly what I wanted to bring to light,” she tweeted Monday.
“This issue is so much bigger than my story, but with each story that surfaces, we make a dent each time and it brings us closer to justice.”
