Tonight President Donald J. Trump will be holding a high-energy MAGA rally at the Energy Aviation Hangar in Montoursville, PA. (North-Central PA) The President is expected to speak at 7:00pm EDT with pre-event speakers ongoing.
RSBN Livestream Link – GST Livestream Link – NBC Livestream Link
Louisiana congressional representative and house minority whip Steve Scalise discusses current trade and economic initiatives from President Trump’s agenda. Representative Scalise outlines the importance of the challenge to China and the benefits within the USMCA agreement.
Beyond the economics, Scalise notes the recent report about running for Louisiana governor stemmed from a short, off-the-cuff, conversation with President Trump and he dismisses the seriousness of the discussion.
Most media have avoided highlighting how Jerry Nadler has not demanded testimony from presumed author of the special counsel report, Robert Mueller. It is likely the Judiciary Committee’s lack of interest surrounds the fact they know Mueller was a figurehead with no substantive control over the small group led by Andrew Weissmann. The special counsel probe, with sunlight upon Mueller, would be a risk to Nadler.
AG Bill Barr has no issue with Mueller testifying; likely because he too knows Mueller appearing for testimony without his “small group” handlers could lead to a full collapse of the special counsel/media narrative. Meanwhile, the White House delivers a response to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler following his subpoena for former White House Counsel Don McGahn:
WHITE HOUSE – At the President’s direction, the White House has been completely transparent with the Special Counsel’s investigation. The Special Counsel received more than 1.4 million documents and hours and hours of interviews from White House officials, including more than 30 hours from former Counsel to the President, Don McGahn. The Democrats do not like the conclusion of the Mueller investigation – no collusion, no conspiracy, and no obstruction – and want a wasteful and unnecessary do-over.
CTH noted yesterday that things in/around the Michael Flynn investigation could get very interesting…. not because of what is visible, but rather because of what is likely to surface.
Today, President Trump draws attention to Michael Flynn being under DOJ/FBI investigation during 2016; AND specifically, that candidate Trump and President-elect Trump was never notified of the potential issues:
The backstory issues within the Flynn case may soon surface; so it’s worth a few minutes to describe where this could be heading. Specifically, how a series of data-points are coming together and building toward a strong probability Flynn was under a FISA surveillance warrant during a key part of the 2016 election campaign.
By now everyone is aware General Michael Flynn was under FBI investigation throughout a significant portion of 2016. There are strong indications Flynn was under surveillance even as far back as early to mid 2015.
Yesterday when Judge Sullivan instructed the DOJ to turn over recordings and transcripts of the Flynn-Kislyak phone call, there was a part of Sullivan’s order that indicated his suspicion there was more than just a singular record of a December 29th, 2016, intercept.
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Things are going to get interesting in the Michael Flynn sentencing review; not because of the recently release documents [Here – and Here – and Here] but rather because it appears Judge Sullivan suspects what we’ve previously outlined.
In addition to the documents, Judge Sullivan is asking the DOJ to provide the transcript of the 12/29/16 call between Mike Flynn and Ambassador Kislyak.
Why is this important? Because it appears Judge Sullivan suspects the transcript of the phone call will match statements from Flynn to the FBI. Ergo Flynn did not lie to the FBI.
Since reviewing the November 30th, 2017, pleading we’ve been pointing out how the FBI admits to intercepting the Flynn-Kislyak call, but the FBI never put a factual transcript in the court record. Why not?
It’s a long, but necessary, story.
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Mrs. Susan Thornton, the former acting assistant secretary of state in the Trump administration, tells her Beijing audience to stop negotiating until President Trump is removed from office in 2020.
(BEIJING) […] “I want to be optimistic,” said Thornton, whose 27-year career in Washington ended in July. “I tell all our foreign counterparts they should keep steady, keep their heads down and wait. [They should] try to not let anything change dramatically.”
“If this skeptical attitude towards talking diplomacy continues in this administration, you might have to wait till another administration,” Thornton said at an event held by National Committee of US-China relations and Shanghai’s American Chamber. (read more)
There was a prescient article written in Politico when Thornton announced her exit from the State Department. (more…)
Today President Trump is delivering remarks from the White House on “Modernizing Our Immigration System for a Stronger America.” A new immigration proposal from President Donald Trump focuses on bolstering border security and rethinking the green card system.
The shift would favor people with high-level skills, degrees and job offers instead of relatives of those already in the country. The anticipated start time is 2:30pm EDT:
WH Livestream Link – Global News Livestream – Fox Business Livestream
Reuters/Ipsos national polling shows there are only four or five viable Democrat candidates in the race. Biden and Bernie lead, and everyone else is way far behind.
With this level of inability to gain traction, if there isn’t another walk-on ‘chosen’ candidate, the 2020 primary is going to be a complete mess. [Poll pdf here]
(Via Reuters) […] The poll released on Wednesday found 29% of Democrats and independents said they would vote for Biden in the state nominating contests that begin next year. That is up from 24% who said so in a poll that ran in late April, days before Biden announced his bid.
CTH was wondering how long it would take for President Trump to point out the brutally obvious…. Thanks to some advanced planning that everyone ignored, there are multiple trade alternatives to China:
Perhaps now people will reference President Trump’s long-game strategy which has been evident since his marathon Asia trip in November 2017.
Long before media pundits starting noticing/considering how serious President Trump was about structurally resetting the entire landscape of a U.S-China trade relationship, President Trump quietly and methodically laid the groundwork with personal visits to: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (Japan); President Moon Jae-in (S-Korea); President Tran Dai Quang (Vietnam); and President Rodrigo Duerte (Philippines).
Oh, how quickly the media forgot.
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If this were anyone except Judiciary Committee member John Ratcliffe, it would be easier to ignore…. but it’s not. John Ratcliffe is a very tempered and deliberate voice; he has a strong reputation in DC and doesn’t speak in riddles, hype, or disingenuous terms.
During an interview with Maria Bartiromo discussing the recent comments by former FBI Director James Comey, Ratcliffe replied [Must Watch at 04:10 ]:
[@04:10] “Gosh, y’ know, as I listen to that, Jim Comey is proud and wouldn’t change a thing? Really? He’s proud that he put Peter Strzok in charge of investigating Donald Trump? The same Peter Strzok who, while he was investigating Donald Trump, promised to “f*ck” him and to “stop” him? He’s proud of his hand-picked deputy director, Andrew McCabe who lied under oath; lied to the inspector general, and has been criminally referred for that?
And we know Jim’s proud of himself, but the inspector general found him insubordinate, and many of us believe that he either is or should be under investigation for violating the espionage act; for recording his conversations with President Trump in the oval office, and then intentionally leaking classified information to start this investigation”…
Note: “is, or should be”. So there’s a possibility of “is”.
Remember, Ratcliffe is one of only a handful of people who saw, and continues to see, all of the highly classified intelligence documents (fully unredacted) currently under consideration for declassification by President Trump. Ratcliffe was also strongly considered for the U.S. Attorney General position. This is a deliberate man.
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