What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Liep]

He's shaming a jewish reporter that asked a question about anti-semitism in USA.

The reporter specifically said he hadn't seen anti-semitism from Trump but was concerned about it generally. Trump then told him to be quiet and sit down and that he was the least anti-semitic person he had ever seen.

Just wow.

Transcript:

[The Brain]

Yes why didn't he respond in tweet form?

[grumbler]

Ocf course Trump is upset when people ask questions that require more than a "yes or no" answer.  Yes is a great word, the best, and no is  bigly important.  So unfair to yes and no to leave them out.  And Trump is the most popular president ever; anyone saying otherwise is a media and therefor failing bad.

I'm just sorry that Trump is too busy with national affairs to finish Timecube.

[Eddie Teach]

His health is astonishingly excellent except for the mind.

[grumbler]

His health is astonishingly excellent except for the mind.

According to the letter he wrote "from my doctor" that was full of Trumpisms.  The letter was just ordinary Trump stupidity, though.  The senile moments are more recent.

[jimmy olsen]

So...about Trump's new labor nominee 

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/alexander-acosta-trump-jeffrey-epstein-plea-235096

Trump's Labor nominee oversaw 'sweetheart plea deal' in billionaire's underage sex case

By Josh Gerstein
  | 02/16/17 02:22 PM EST
  |  Updated 02/16/17 03:17 PM EST

President Donald Trump's new nominee for secretary of labor, Alexander Acosta, could face a grilling in the Senate over claims that — while he was the top federal prosecutor in Miami — he cut a sweetheart plea deal in 2008 with a billionaire investor accused of having sex with dozens of underage girls.

As the U.S. attorney for Southern Florida, Acosta agreed not to file any federal charges against the wealthy financier, Jeffrey Epstein, if he pled guilty to state charges involving soliciting prostitution and soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Epstein ultimately received an 18-month sentence in county jail and served about 13 months — treatment that provoked outrage from alleged victims in the case.

Soon after the deal was cut in 2008, two women filed suit claiming that the decision to forgo federal prosecution violated a federal law — the Crime Victims Rights Act — because they and other teenagers Epstein paid for sex were never adequately consulted about the plea deal or given an opportunity to object to it.

Acosta is not a party in the suit, which names only the federal government as a defendant. In 2015, lawyers for the women demanded Acosta submit to a deposition in the case. The motion was withdrawn last year as settlement talks in the case went forward, but the case remains pending.

"There is good reason to believe that if the prosecutors had exposed their dealings to scrutiny by Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 and other victims, they would not have reached such a sweetheart plea deal," the alleged victims' attorneys wrote in a court filing last year.

Acosta acknowledged to the media in 2011 that he came under extreme pressure from Epstein's high-powered defense team, which included legal heavyweights such as Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr and Florida criminal defense attorney Roy Black.

Acosta said Epstein's defense mounted "a yearlong assault on the prosecution and the prosecutors."

"I use the word assault intentionally, as the defense in this case was more aggressive than any which I, or the prosecutors in my office, had previously encountered," the former U.S. attorney wrote. He said his office stuck to its opening position in the case, but he also acknowledged that the ultimate punishment in the case may have been more lenient than Epstein deserved.

"Some may feel that the prosecution should have been tougher," Acosta wrote in the letter, posted online by The Daily Beast. "Evidence that has come to light since 2007 may encourage that view. Many victims have since spoken out, filing detailed statements in civil cases seeking damages. Physical evidence has since been discovered. Had these additional statements and evidence been known, the outcome may have been different. But they were not known to us at the time."

Acosta indicated he did not approve of cushy treatment Epstein appeared to have received during his jail stint. "The treatment that he received while in state custody undermined the purpose of a jail sentence," the former prosecutor wrote.

Acosta's involvement in the saga could be personally or politically awkward for Trump, drawing fresh attention to his ties to Epstein — including the financier's tenure as a member at Trump's Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago.

"I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,'' Trump told New York Magazine back in 2002. "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life."

A Trump associate told POLITICO in 2015 that Trump and Epstein were not particularly close. "He was a member of one of Trump's clubs where he would visit with women and business associates, but there was no formal relationship," the source said.

[jimmy olsen]

Lol 

Trump's new pick for NSA turned him down.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/02/16/trumps-pick-to-replace-michael-flynn-as-national-security-adviser-turns-down-offer-people-familiar-with-decision-say/?utm_term=.5d1f43a8bdaa

[jimmy olsen]

Trump on the left and Harward on the right.

[HisMajestyBOB]

 

One comment on the WaPo article: "As an admiral, he recognizes a sinking ship when he sees one."

[jimmy olsen]

Lol 

https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/832384718624665600

A friend of Harward's says he was reluctant to take NSA job bc the WH seems so chaotic; says Harward called the offer a "shit sandwich."

[11B4V]

Lol 

Trump's new pick for NSA turned him down.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/02/16/trumps-pick-to-replace-michael-flynn-as-national-security-adviser-turns-down-offer-people-familiar-with-decision-say/?utm_term=.5d1f43a8bdaa

Well it speaks volumes. I was hoping to get a level headed person in there. Not room for another wacko. This is truly....so sad.

[11B4V]

Lol 

https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/832384718624665600

A friend of Harward's says he was reluctant to take NSA job bc the WH seems so chaotic; says Harward called the offer a "shit sandwich."

That no doubt is probably spot on.

[LaCroix]

So...about Trump's new labor nominee 

this is a good example of hating on anything loosely connected to trump

the guy was a federal prosecutor. he made deals when necessary. do you think a conservative federal prosecutor is going to go easy on child molesters just cuz?

[LaCroix]

also, grumbler

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/opinion/an-eminent-psychiatrist-demurs-on-trumps-mental-state.html?_r=0

Most amateur diagnosticians have mislabeled President Trump with the diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder. I wrote the criteria that define this disorder, and Mr. Trump doesn't meet them. He may be a world-class narcissist, but this doesn't make him mentally ill, because he does not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder.

damn I'm good

[jimmy olsen]

Tillerson's choice for #2 at State was rejected for not being 100% on board with Trump from day one. So it seems that Trump's going to trouble getting any one remotely qualified or experienced in a lot of these positions.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/13/politics/elliot-abrams-donald-trump-state-department/

Washington (CNN) — Elliott Abrams said Monday he guesses a certain top White House adviser's opposition to him is the reason President Donald Trump rejected him for a top State Department position.

"The only person on the White House staff that I know was opposed to my being hired was Steve Bannon so that's my guess. It's a guess," Abrams said, referring to White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Abrams described his meeting with Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and his failure to gain the approval of a President who he had publicly criticized in the leadup to the election in an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett on "OutFront."

"The meeting was fine," Abrams said. "(Trump) didn't say, 'Why did you say those mean things about me.' We talked foreign policy."

He said Trump told him Tillerson wanted him for the post, and when the meeting was over, he assumed everything was fine. But then he found out Trump had rejected him.

"Somebody, I think, put in front of the President, some of the things I'd said last year and perhaps riled him up," Abrams said.

Abrams was a former official under President Ronald Reagan. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanors stemming from the Iran-Contra affair and was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush. He went on to serve as deputy national security adviser for President George W. Bush, where he advocated for the Iraq War.

Given Abrams' past experiences and positions, he may have found himself strongly at odds with the Trump White House. The President made opposition to major foreign interventions a mainstay of his campaign and Bannon has a documented opposition to neoconservatives like Abrams.

Despite the potential ideological gap, Tillerson apparently wanted the seasoned Republican foreign policy hand to serve as his No. 2 in the State Department. Like Trump, Tillerson has no prior experience in government.

Sources told CNN that Abrams' failure to secure a prominent spot in the administration was due to his past criticisms of the man who now occupies the Oval Office.

In May, Abrams wrote in the neoconservative Weekly Standard that Trump was "someone who cannot win and should not be president of the United States."

What he says it means

Abrams said the hour-long meeting was not the job interview or potential "inquisition" he thought he might have had in store. Instead he said it was a discussion on the foreign policy issues of the day, like the visit from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and an upcoming call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with Tillerson doing most of the talking.

"It was as if I had been invited to a Tillerson-Trump meeting," Abrams said.

The former Reagan and Bush official said he walked into the meeting prepared to discuss his past criticism of Trump, but that he guessed Trump was not aware of it at the time.

Abrams said Trump's decision not to allow a critic into his administration was a "huge mistake."

"You have literally hundreds of qualified, experienced Republicans ready, willing and able to serve. And he's saying, 'stay out.' So it's going to be really hard to govern," Abrams said.

The one-time critic said he wanted to serve, saying both he and Tillerson thought he could have helped and that he wants the President to succeed. He also said Trump could succeed even in the face of past comments that Trump should never have the presidency.

"I just think it's really destructive for the President to go back to the primary season, and say, 'People who said tough things about me can't come into the administration,'" Abrams said. "He's hurting himself."

CNN's Jamie Gangel and Elise Labott contributed to this report.