After two weeks of counting additional ballots Trump-backed Ohio republican candidate Troy Balderson was declared the official winner today by Franklin County officials.
Democrat Danny O’Connor said on Friday he called to concede to Balderson. The final vote count showed Balderson received 104,328 votes, or 50.12 percent, and O’Connor had 102,648 votes, or 49.32 percent, according to Franklin County.

(Via Fox) […] The Trump-backed Balderson had declared victory over Democrat Danny O’Connor on Aug. 7, but O’Connor had declined to concede because of the small margin.
According to the Associated Press, after final absentee and provisional ballots were counted, Balderson defeated O’Connor by 1,680 votes. […] The result fell 520 votes outside the window to trigger an automatic recount. (link)

Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivers the White House press briefing for Friday August 24th, 2018.  Video Added:

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Massive Hat-Tip to @almostjingo
Adam Waldman is the lawyer/lobbyist for Oleg Deripaska, the Russian billionaire who appears to be a key background player in the 2016 DOJ/FBI scheme against presidential candidate Donald Trump.  Additionally, Mr. Waldman represents the U.S. interests of Christopher Steele, a likely contract employee of Deripaska and author of the Clinton-Steele Dossier that was used by the DOJ/FBI during their counterintelligence operation against presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Because of his centrality, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley recently requested testimony from Mr. Adam Waldman, surrounding his contacts and engagements -with Deripaska, and by extension the DOJ/FBI- throughout the 2016/2017 operation to undermine and remove President Donald Trump.
In a response letter released August 18th (full pdf below) lawyers representing Mr. Waldman told Senator Chuck Grassley their client was “out of the country and not expected to return for several weeks.” SEE BELOW:

However, internet researcher/investigator almostjingo noticed that Mr. Waldman’s wife Barbara Sturm posted an instagram picture today of them dining with friends in New York last night, August 22nd:

(Link) Barbara Sturm second from left, husband Adam Waldman far right.

Whoopsie, apparently the letter from Mr. Waldman’s lawyers was intentionally false and simply an effort to avoid giving testimony to congress.  Adam Waldman cannot be “out of the country for several weeks” and simultaneously having dinner in New York last night.
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It is not coincidental that three events are occurring simultaneously:  (1) U.S.T.R. Lighthizer is conducting public hearings on Section 301 impacts; (2) a Chinese trade delegation is in the U.S. to re-initiate talks; and (3) U.S. President Trump conducts a roundtable meeting with congressional leadership over the Foreign Investment Risk Review and Modernization Act.

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[Transcript] 11:35 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much for being here this morning, and thank you to Secretary Mnuchin for joining us. And congratulations. You’re doing a great job. We appreciate it very much, Steve.
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Earlier today Senator Lindsey Graham provided a pathway for President Trump to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions after the mid-term election. To further bolster this likelihood, Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley affirmed he could now make room for a replacement confirmation in the lame-duck congressional session between the November election and January 2019.
The statement by Senator Graham is a considerable reversal given his prior admonishment that firing AG Sessions would result in “hell to pay”; and further underlines an increasingly visible acceptance by high-profile republicans that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been an abysmal failure.

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The Attorney General has been strong and effective on border security and immigration issues, mostly due to effective support for Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS). However, on the needed institutional reform Sessions has been frustratingly inept. Many who understand Main Justice politics openly say AG Jeff Sessions is actually scared of the apparatus under his authority.
Against the abject failure of the DOJ to accept oversight and commit to reform amid the obvious chaos from a highly politicized previous administration, in May of this year House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes threatened to hold Attorney General Sessions in contempt of congress.
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Yesterday President Trump sat down with Fox News morning host Ainsley Earhardt for an extensive interview surrounding current events.
During the interview President Trump expressed his frustration with current Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray, and the lack of focus on cleaning up the corruption within both organizations. Additionally, President Trump talks about wanting to stay uninvolved with the agencies, but will likely declassify documents so the American people can better understand the scale and scope of the corruption.

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In response to the criticism that AG Jeff Sessions “never took control” of the DOJ, the Attorney General put out a statement:
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The pesky thing about the truth is its figurative ambivalence to any feelings or emotions that surrounds it.  A few counter-intuitive media appearances by Michael Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, highlights this point succinctly.
Chuck Ross at the Daily Caller has been brilliantly monitoring the statements by far-left Clinton sycophant/convenient Cohen lawyer, Lanny Davis. Two big admissions today are toxic to the previously preferred media narrative.
In one interview Lanny Davis tells CNN, per his client, candidate Donald Trump had no knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting between Don Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya.

(Via Daily Caller) […] “So Michael Cohen does not have information that President Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians beforehand or even after?” CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Davis.
“No, he does not,” replied Davis, a longtime Clinton insider who started representing Cohen earlier this summer.

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Cristhian Rivera is the illegal alien who killed 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa.  Today it is revealed that Rivera used fraudulent and stolen identification to apply for work, a VERY common way for illegal aliens to gain employment in the U.S.
The farm where he worked ran the social security number through the authentication process, after completing the I-9 form; however, they did not use E-Verify which is connected to the Department of Homeland Security.

IOWA – […] Cristhian Bahena Rivera,  the 24-year-old immigrant accused of abducting and killing Tibbetts, allegedly used a different name and provided false identification when he applied for employment at the farm just outside of Brooklyn, his employer said Wednesday.

Rivera worked at Yarrabee Farms in rural Poweshiek County for four years, Lang said. Yarrabee Farms is owned by multiple generations of the Lang family, including Craig Lang, former Farm Bureau President and prominent Iowa Republican.

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When discussing or reviewing trade deals, particularly NAFTA, it is important to remember two baselines: (1) The trade reset is President Trump’s personal legacy initiative; it’s personal – ignore media banter – it’s personal; like, the most important thing he ever thinks about. Always. 24/7. (2) President Trump has no multinational corporations or financial interests with leverage/influence over his decision-making.

There are trillions at stake.

We begin:

“We are already looking at all the issues. We might close this, not in a matter of hours, but these days. We still have next week,” Jesus Seade, designated chief negotiator of Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, told reporters.

Here’s where it becomes important to note that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has twice asked Jesus Seade to remain AFTER hours when all other trade officials have concluded discussions. Closed-door conversations between Lighthizer and Seade; and no-one else. [Refer back to the two Trump baselines again]
Next, before reviewing the comments and presentations of the media regarding the U.S. Mexico NAFTA status; again reference the team approach, and the division of responsibility. Today, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross is meeting with the twitchy Chinese delegation – again, their arrival is not a matter of scheduling happenstance; it is directly related to the ongoing 301 hearings that began two-days-ago, Monday.
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White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders conducts the press briefing for Wednesday August 22nd, 2018. Anticipated start time 2:15pm EST.
UPDATE: Video Added

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