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Post by the Scribe on Apr 1, 2020 23:53:16 GMT
Apr 23, 2019 0:57:17 GMT -5
Trump's obsession to undo President Obama's existence is an extension of similar efforts by republiconservatives to do the same thing from the day he was inaugurated in the secret Caucus Room meeting of angry white leadership. As you will see by the end of this running thread that racism is behind it all. It is remarkable how these mouth breathers just cannot get over a black man taking the presidency by popular vote. This contempt is only equaled by a woman also taking the popular vote. We can add sexism and contempt for women to their list.
On January 20, 2009, the night when the Obama's were attending inaugural balls and most Americans were out celebrating the end of the Bush years, a group of powerful Republicans were planning the end of Obama presidency before it even got going.
At the Caucus Room restaurant right here in Washington, DC - GOP leaders drew up a plan to intentionally sabotage Obama at every point possible. The whole thing was orchestrated by Republican propaganda mastermind Frank Luntz and over the course of four hours, a group of the most powerful conservative lawmakers in the country committed to a plan of action.
They promised each other that they would filibuster and obstruct any and all legislation supported by the new President, Barack Obama. They would do everything possible, for as long as it took, to make his a "failed presidency." On the guest list for this “invitation only” meeting were Republican Senators like Jim DeMint, Jon Kyl, Tom Coburn, John Ensign and Bob Corker. Also in attendance were Congressmen Paul Ryan, Pete Sessions, Jeb Hensarling, Pete Hoekstra, Dan Lungren and - you guessed it - Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy. www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2014/06/caucus-room-conspiracy-alive-and-well www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2014/11/dems-duped-caucus-room-conspiracy
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:09:06 GMT
WHITE HOUSE Trump’s Obama obsessionThe president finds his predecessor to be a convenient foil as he wades through persistent controversy.
By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE 03/04/2017 11:55 AM EST Updated 03/04/2017 01:01 PM EST
“This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” Trump tweeted of Obama on Saturday morning. | Getty
Donald Trump just can't quit Barack Obama.
From entering politics as the chief promoter of the birtherism conspiracy — complete with claims of mysterious calls coming in to him with new information to detectives he claimed he sent to Hawaii but were never heard from again — to waking up Saturday morning tweeting, “How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones,” Obama’s always there for Trump.
There’s a political advantage to it: To the Republican base and the pro-Trump media that powered the president’s campaign, Obama is just as infuriating a figure now as he was six weeks ago.
And there’s a diversionary advantage to churning up a new controversy that this time takes away airtime and mindshare from the questions of just how many top administration officials had just how many undisclosed meetings with Russian officials. But there also seems to be a true sense in Trump’s mind that Obama is practically sitting beneath the floorboards of the West Wing, chipping away at his presidency.
So much for Trump trying to make them out as buddies.
“I was tough on him, he was tough on me, and I like him, he likes me. I think he likes me. I mean, you're going to have to ask him, but I think he likes me,” Trump said in an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News shortly after the inauguration. A few weeks later in an interview with Bill O’Reilly, that had morphed into, "We get along. I don’t know if he’ll admit this, but he likes me.”
“This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” Trump tweeted Saturday morning.
And it’s not just the Russia furor that has Trump bringing up Obama. The list goes on: complaints about a rocky transition that Trump backtracked on the day he made them, crowds at the inauguration that he said were bigger than Obama's despite immediate evidence to the contrary, insisting that the raid in Yemen in which a Navy SEAL was killed was put through by Obama though it was ordered by Trump.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer did not respond Saturday morning to questions about whether he knows of a reason why Obama is on the president’s mind so much, or whether Trump still thinks he has a good relationship with Obama. Obama’s current spokespeople also declined to respond about the current status of the relationship, or whether they’ve continued to talk on the phone as they were doing with some frequency during the transition.
Kevin Lewis, a spokesman for Obama, aggressively pushed back against Trump's accusations. "A cardinal rule of the Obama Administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice," Lewis said in a statement. "As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false."
The Obama circle continues to be frustrated that Trump’s comments are taken seriously, in the same way they were when Trump was taking potshots from the sidelines while Obama was in the White House.
“No President can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you,” tweeted Ben Rhodes, the former deputy national security adviser who’s working for Obama in his new office.
Responding to Trump’s tweet that “I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!” Rhodes tweeted, “No. They couldn't. Only a liar could do that.”
Exasperated and annoyed, Obama aides try to cast their problem with Trump continually pulling their old boss into the conversation as about more than politics.
“My concern about Trump isn’t his day-to-day nonsense, it’s the notion that he could be governed by conspiracy theories and paranoia in a time of actual crisis,” said Bill Burton, former deputy White House press secretary for Obama. “All the rest of this is just the mutterings of a man deeply in over his head.”
“No surprise he’s trying to change the subject, but this kind of diversionary maneuver works better in a campaign than in government when you have to deal in facts, and in this area, some very bad facts,” said Anita Dunn, who was a White House communications director for Obama.
Trump greets former President Barack Obama during the presidential inauguration.
Trump accuses Obama of ‘wire tapping’ Trump Tower phones
By ELI STOKOLS
Trump’s accusation of his predecessor Saturday hit a new high, but not one out of step even in a week centered on an address to a joint session of Congress that was strategically less aggressive and to many seemed like the high point of his presidency so far.
Asked during his pre-address interview on "Fox & Friends" about the protests going on at Republican lawmakers’ town halls, Trump said, “I think he is behind it.” Asked about the leaks of national security information, Trump said, “I think that President Obama is behind it because his people are certainly behind it.”
And then, in the speech to Congress, Trump tweaked some statistics as he urged, “we must honestly acknowledge the circumstances we inherited,” including the number of people out of the workforce, the debt racked up under Obama, the trade deficit and “a series of tragic foreign policy disasters.”
There are elements of undeniable truth to Trump’s claims: Organizing for Action, the group formed out of Obama’s old campaign apparatus, is helping organize some of the protests, and some of the leaks appear to have been coming from people in career positions who served during the Obama administration. As has been made partially public, there was a massive intelligence investigation into the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia, elements of which have continued to leak. And despite Obama’s efforts toward a smooth transition and so far holding to the presidential tradition of not criticizing his successor, he couldn’t have been clearer that he didn’t want Trump anywhere near the Oval Office.
But even as Trump has lodged severe claims against his predecessor, the president has not offered evidence directly implicating Obama, who’s spending most of his days in his new Washington office setting up his foundation and preparing to write a book for which he signed a multimillion-dollar deal this week.
If there was a wiretap, after all, Trump now has the authority as president to make it public. Matt Miller, a former Justice Department spokesman under Attorney General Eric Holder, tweeted, “By confirming it publicly, Trump has also pretty much guaranteed no one can be charged for leaking the existence of this FISA warrant. Oops!”
As is usually the case, Trump’s supporters in the conservative media gave him all he seems to feel he needs. The Twitter fury that Trump greeted the world with Saturday morning appears to have wormed its way from conservative radio host Mark Levin to White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s former Breitbart News website to the president pecking out on his phone, “Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
Very quickly, he got an echo from a reliable source.
“What did OBAMA know and when did he know it??” Hannity wrote on Twitter.
Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.
www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-obama-obsession-235681
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:10:13 GMT
The 1 Reason Donald Trump Is So Obsessed With Barack ObamaAramide Tinubu | June 13, 2018
It’s been evident from the beginning that President Donald Trump has a fixation on former President Barack Obama. Fundamentally different men, the two have had very different experiences in the White House and with the public overall. However, Trump can’t seem to keep his predecessor’s name out of his mouth.
We now know why Trump is so obsessed with Obama.
Unraveling a legacy
President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama The two men are very different, both politically and otherwise. | Jack Gruber/Pool/Getty Images
Obama was not perfect, but few presidents are. However, what he was able to do was unite the country in a way that hadn’t been seen for decades. Since Trump isn’t anywhere near as beloved, he has devoted much of his time and energy to undoing everything Obama has put in place. From affordable birth control and health care for women to policies that combat global warming and welcome immigration, Trump wants it all gone.
Political analyst David Gergen told CNN host Don Lemmon that, Trump’s various deals and policies are, “more about blowing up the former president’s legacy than anybody wants to admit.”
Polls and numbers that don’t add up
If there is one thing that Trump despises, it’s being disliked, but with his racist, misogynistic, and ignorant views, he hasn’t been able to escape the wrath of the public or Hollywood. He’s so disturbed by his low approval ratings that he will try anything to combat them.
In fact, in summer 2017, Trump shared an unverified poll that said 61% of the public believed he was a better president than Obama. OK, sir.
Next: The infamous turkey pardon
The turkey drama
Poor Trump couldn’t even let us all enjoy Thanksgiving without trying to make a dig at Obama. During the Presidential Turkey pardon in 2017, he quipped,”As many of you know, I have been very active in overturning a number of executive actions by my predecessor. However, I have been informed by the White House counsel’s office that Tater and Tot’s pardons cannot, under any circumstances, be revoked.”
This might be funny if it weren’t so sad.
Next: Asking the wrong questions
All about opposing Obama
Though Obama is a democrat and Trump claims to be a Republican, Trump can’t even seem to find a middle ground when dealing with the more liberal party. In fact, a European diplomat who spent a great of time with Trump in the White House noticed he only really cared about the Harvard Law graduate’s position on things.
The diplomat told Buzzfeed,“He will ask: ‘Did Obama approve this?’ And if the answer is affirmative, he will say: ‘We don’t.’ He won’t even want to listen to the arguments or have a debate. He is obsessed with Obama.”
Next: Hating what you can’t have
Genuine jealousy?
The Obamas were widely loved across the United States, and it’s no surprise the the controversial Trump might be a little jealous of their stardom. Where the Obamas were famous, Trump is infamous.
For proof, all you have to do is look as far as the the new Netflix deal the Obamas made.
Next: Wanting the praise
Taking credit where credit is not due
The main reason why Trump is obsessed with Obama is that he adores praise. It’s Obama’s work and policies that have put the United States in the great economic position that it’s in currently. Trump, of course, can’t accept this as fact.
If (or when) the economy takes a nosedive, Trump is going to have to answer for that.
Next: Is he a smart businessman?
It might be a marketing ploy
As a businessman, Trump knows that it’s all about your competitor. To him, his competitor is the ghost of the Obama administration. By shutting him down, Trump is marketing himself. It could be that he sees all press as good press.
His friend, Christopher Ruddy, had this to say to The Washington Post,“For the president . . . it’s about comparison to other players. Who’s the guy everybody’s going to compare him to? His predecessor. He just gets that intuitively, as a business guy and a bottom-line guy.”
Next: An obvious racist
Creating an (unfounded) scandal
Well before Trump even began to speak of getting into politics seriously, he went after Obama, claiming that he was not actually born in the U.S. In fact, it was Trump’s repeated appearances on Fox News that helped push the birther movement along.
Since the birther movement failed to discredit Obama, Trump is trying to do so with his own presidency. How ironic that he’s the one who has been riddled with scandals and sexual assault allegations.
Next: It doesn’t stop with the birther movement.
Bizarre claims
Trump’s constant dissing of Obama has lead to some truly bizarre claims beyond the birther movement — the sort you might expect to hear only from someone who is feeling insecure. So far, Trump has claimed — among many other things — that he has a higher IQ than Obama, that Obama never used the Oval Office, and that he’s tougher on guns than Obama.
Next: Fake news
Alternative views
Though we think Trump’s fixation on Obama is plain as day, Trump supporters, including Fox News host Sean Hannity, believe we’ve got it all wrong.
According to Hannity, Obama is the one with the obsession. On his show in December 2017. Hannity bellowed,
[Obama] is obviously sick, pathetic, and twisted in this obsession with President Trump. It’s kind of like everybody in the media. Every single chance Obama gets, whether it’d be here at home, overseas, it doesn’t matter. He’s trashing, trying to undermine the president. Maybe he can’t get over the fact that his record was atrocious. Maybe he needs to take his own advice and accept the results of the election.
We’d love to see the interviews and speeches where Obama supposedly trashed Trump. Then again, we all know Hannity, Trump, and the folks at Fox aren’t great with actual facts.
Follow Aramide on Twitter @midnightrami.
www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/the-1-reason-donald-trump-is-so-obsessed-with-barack-obama.html/
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:11:48 GMT
FRI, APR 26TH, 2019 BY REUTERSTrump heeds NRA, decides to pull U.S. out of Obama-era U.N. arms treatyBy Roberta Rampton
INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Friday announced at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting that the United States will drop out of an international arms treaty signed in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama but opposed by the NRA and other conservative groups.
“The United States will now lock arms with Iran, North Korea and Syria as non-signatories to this historic treaty whose sole purpose is to protect innocent people from deadly weapons,” said Oxfam America President Abby Maxman.www.politicususa.com/2019/04/26/trump-heeds-nra-decides-to-pull-u-s-out-of-obama-era-u-n-arms-treaty.html
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:12:31 GMT
That's ALL this is. Trump's continued obsession with Obama and his plan for vengeance and to erase everything Obama did. No surprise that the GOP and republiconservatives are solidly (and secretly) behind this as well. Small minds think alike especially when race, power, politics and religion is involved. They have built a coalition of haters bar(r) none (pun intended). In fact, conservatives are ALL obsessed with this in their DEPLORABLE NATION. ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/5464/deplorable-nation-tyranny-minority 'TREASON!': Trump says his campaign was spied on. Current and former FBI officials disagree. Dylan Stableford 10 hours ago www.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-his-campaign-was-conclusively-spied-on-145329255.html
President Trump on Friday claimed his campaign was “conclusively spied on” and suggested those responsible should be prosecuted for treason and sent to prison as Attorney General William Barr continued to defend his probe of the origins of the Russia investigation.
“My Campaign for President was conclusively spied on,” Trump tweeted. “Nothing like this has ever happened in American Politics. A really bad situation. TREASON means long jail sentences, and this was TREASON!”
President Trump talks with Attorney General William Barr during the 38th Annual National Peace Officers' Memorial Service in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)
Trump has long claimed the FBI spied on his campaign and that the federal investigation into his campaign’s contacts with Russia was part of an “attempted coup” against him.
But there is no evidence of any coup, critics say. And there is debate over whether the term “spying” should be used to describe court-approved surveillance or a lawful counterintelligence investigation.
The FBI began its investigation in July 2016, after Australia informed the United States that foreign Trump campaign policy adviser George Papadopoulos claimed that Russia had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. The FBI used an undercover investigator and a longtime informant in Britain to make contact with Papadopoulos.
In September 2016, Yahoo News first reported that former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was under federal investigation over a trip he had taken to Moscow two months earlier. The story, by Yahoo News chief investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff, was later cited in an FBI application for a surveillance warrant against Page. Isikoff’s reporting on Christopher Steele, the former British spy who prepared the controversial dossier about Trump, was also cited in the FBI’s application to wiretap Page.
Steele began working on the dossier in June 2016 for Fusion GPS, a Washington, D.C., research firm, on behalf of a Democratic client. The document, which was published online shortly before Trump’s inauguration, contained salacious but unverified allegations that Russians held compromising material on the president.
Trump and his allies have pointed to the dossier as evidence of surveillance abuses.
Barr said the dossier is a key part of his probe.
“It’s a very unusual situation to have opposition research like that, especially one that on its face had a number of clear mistakes and a somewhat jejune analysis,” Barr said in an interview with Fox News on Friday. “And to use that to conduct counterintelligence against an American political campaign is a strange — would be strange development.”
In April, Barr touched off a firestorm during a hearing on Capitol Hill by saying he believed “spying did occur” in the probe.
Earlier this week, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that spying is “not the term I would use.”
“Lots of people have different colloquial phrases,” Wray said during testimony on the FBI’s budget for 2020. “I believe that the FBI is engaged in investigative activity, and part of investigative activity includes surveillance.”
Wray’s remarks drew the ire of Trump.
“I certainly didn’t understand that answer,” the president told reporters. “I thought it was a ridiculous answer.”
But other former FBI officials have dismissed the spying claims.
In an interview with the Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery,” former FBI chief counsel Jim Baker said, “I believe what happened was lawful, at least based on every piece of information that I have.”
Baker said he plans to fully cooperate with Barr’s investigation “to help them figure out what happened.”
“I welcome scrutiny,” Baker said.
In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, Barr again said spying occurred in the Russia investigation.
“Government power was used to spy on American citizens,” Barr said. “I can’t imagine any world where we wouldn’t take a look and make sure that was done properly.”
Former FBI Director James Comey, whose dismissal by Trump led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, sharply disagrees.
“I have no idea what [Barr’s] talking about,” Comey said on “CBS This Morning” earlier this month. “The FBI doesn’t spy. The FBI investigates.”
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:15:27 GMT
'No credit!': Trump compares himself and his 'record-setting economy' to President Obama Kadia Tubman 4 hours ago www.yahoo.com/news/no-credit-trump-compares-himself-and-his-record-setting-economy-to-president-obama-171826872.html President Trump compared his record to that of former President Barack Obama while defending his new deal with Mexico to reduce illegal immigration, and in Trump’s opinion, it’s no contest.
“If President Obama made the deals that I have made, both at the Border and for the Economy, the Corrupt Media would be hailing them as Incredible, & a National Holiday would be immediately declared,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “With me, despite our record setting Economy and all that I have done, no credit!”
The comment came after Trump lashed out at the New York Times in a series of tweets for casting doubt on the breakthrough he claimed for his deal with Mexico to avoid tariffs and “stem the tide” of migrants on their way to the U.S. southern border. The Times disputed the credit he said he deserved, reporting that aspects of the agreement had already been agreed upon months before the president’s tariff threat.
The deal, the “U.S.-Mexico Joint Declaration,” which was released by the State Department after Trump’s announcement, outlined measures that would be taken by Mexico to reduce the surge of immigrants, mostly from Central America, passing through Mexico on their way to seek asylum in the U.S., including the “deployment of its National Guard throughout Mexico, giving priority to its southern border.”
“But the Mexican government had already pledged to do that in March during secret talks in Miami between Kirstjen Nielsen, then the secretary of homeland security, and Olga Sanchez, the Mexican secretary of the interior,” Times correspondents Michael D. Shear and Maggie Haberman wrote, pointing out that Mexico had already agreed to several other aspects of the deal months before Trump’s tariff threat.
Former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump (Photos: Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/Getty Images; Sarah Silbiger/ Getty Images)
On Sunday, Trump defended his deal, saying, “We have been trying to get some of these Border Actions for a long time, as have other administrations, but were not able to get them, or get them in full, until our signed agreement with Mexico.”
“For many years,” he continued, “Mexico was not being cooperative on the Border in things we had, or didn’t have, and now I have full confidence, especially after speaking to their President yesterday, that they will be very cooperative and want to get the job properly done.”
President Obama faced what he described as “an actual humanitarian crisis” at the border when a surge of unaccompanied Central American children arrived in 2014, and his administration placed them in temporary camps on military bases until the number of shelters contracted by the Department of Health and Human Services was expanded to properly house them.
Earlier, Obama and then Mexican President Felipe Calderon held talks to join forces against drug violence in Mexico, which was linked to illegal border crossings into the U.S. Around this time, in 2010, Obama signed a bill appropriating $600 million to boost border security.
But in recent months, alarming numbers of arrivals at the border have included unaccompanied children and families largely from Central America’s Northern Triangle (Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador) where violence and poverty have increased over the past few years.
“Immigration officers have made 266,000 arrests of criminal aliens in the last two fiscal years,” the White House said in a February statement, when Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border in order to unilaterally shift funds from other departments to build his long-promised wall.
As illegal immigration overwhelmed border officials and facilities, Trump responded with a threat of tariffs on Mexico that were scheduled to go into effect Monday, but he “indefinitely suspended” them in light of the newly announced U.S.-Mexico deal.
“There is now going to be great cooperation between Mexico & the USA, something that didn’t exist for decades,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “However, if for some unknown reason there is not, we can always go back to our previous, very profitable, position of Tariffs - But I don’t believe that will be necessary.”
He noted that one provision of the deal was being kept secret and would be disclosed “at the appropriate time.”
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:16:23 GMT
Trump administration rolls back Obama-era clean air rulesCNN Published on Jun 20, 2019 The Environmental Protection Agency has rolled back Obama-era clean air rules in an effort to keep President Trump's promise to help the coal industry. CNN's Bill Weir reports. #CNN #News
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:17:24 GMT
It appears that Trump is a more than willing proxy for the racist republiconservative party's attempt to erase Obama, seek revenge, get even and whatever else in their twisted minds is possible. One person's explanation: Why are Trump supporters obsessed with Obama and Hillary Clinton?Ted Wrigley, Philosophy, spirituality, science, mathematics, politics... Answered Jan 24, 2018 · Author has 4.6k answers and 3.7m answer views Let’s go back to the 2008 presidential election. The Bush administration is in complete collapse, because eight years of the implementation of conservative polices had effectively bankrupted the government and trashed the US economy. And when I say collapse, I mean collapse: the primary movers and shakers of the administration — the president, vice president, secretary of state, and etc — were obliged to retreat from the election because GOP leadership was worried they would taint any candidate they supported. These leaders spent most of their time in the run up to the election either avoiding the public eye as much as they could, or stepping into it only to point fingers at each other over who was to blame for the debacle.
So, while the GOP struggled to find someone untainted by the odor of failure to run for high office, without the support or participation of the sitting president, the Democrats — perhaps unwisely, in retrospect — decide to take advantage of the situation and push boundaries by running an African American candidate. This is no criticism of Obama, who was an excellent choice in his own right, and far better suited to the job than anyone since (perhaps) Kennedy. But to the Republican base (who were already suffering some significant cognitive dissonance because of the dismal failure of age-old conservative talking points and policies), that had to feel a bit like adding insult to injury. It enraged the full-fledged racists in the country — of which there are plenty — but also aggravated people with milder forms of culture-driven racism (the implicit segregationists and white-flighters).
The result was a random and irrational hatred of all things Obama, as though Obama were responsible for both the insult and the injury. That random and irrational hatred blended in with the implicit/explicit racism of the Right, and with the overt propaganda of FOX punditry and the bizarre conspiratorial mindset of the Tea Party and rightist social media to produce — across all the Obama administration — the extreme reactionism and strange ideation that led directly to Trump. Trump supporters are, almost by definition, the loudest and craziest of the anti-Obama zealots. They don’t just hate Obama and Hillary, they hate everything that has the mildest sense of being liberal or Democratic.
www.quora.com/Why-are-Trump-supporters-obsessed-with-Obama-and-Hillary-Clinton
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:18:19 GMT
Why are Trump supporters obsessed with Obama and Hillary Clinton?Charlene Dargay, former propagandist, history buff, news junkie Answered May 22, 2019 · Author has 1.2k answers and 2.8m answer views www.quora.com/Why-are-Trump-supporters-obsessed-with-Obama-and-Hillary-Clinton
Trump supporters are obsessed with Hillary Clinton and former President Obama because Donald Trump is obsessed with Hillary Clinton and former President Obama. Trump is constantly, continually, endlessly bringing them up.
Why?
Because he will never forget that Hillary got more votes than he did. He is driven by a need to prove his legitimacy as president; he believe he is forever undercut by Hillary Clinton’s three-million-vote win in the popular vote. He must destroy all legitimacy around Hillary to erase the criticism by those who deem him an unworthy victor.
Because he will never forgive Obama for making him the butt of jokes at the White House Correspondents' dinner in 2011.[1][2]
Because it is impossible for Trump to believe that any woman or any African American is in any way better, or smarter, or more successful at anything than he is — a conviction shared by many of his white, male supporters.
Because Trump believes that the presidency is about him — “I’m the only one that matters”[3] — and in his view, Hillary and Obama are a major part of his broad set of grievances about the many ways that his special qualities are not being recognized.
Because fighting back is a vital part of Trump’s self-image, along with relentless self-promotion and waging total war against anyone perceived as a threat or a critic or as insufficiently adoring and appreciative of him.
Because he learned early in his campaign that cheap-shot applause lines such as “Lock her up” whipped his rally crowds into a frenzy. And he does love the roar of his adoring multitudes, feeding a seemingly unquenchable thirst for validation and veneration.
Because it’s easier — and safer — for Trump to keep his supporters focused on demonizing “Crooked Hillary” and the alleged incompetence of his predecessor than to chance his supporters taking too close a look at his own administration and results — or that he doesn’t have much in the way of positive messages, strategy, or platform for 2020.
Because by pushing his supporters’ buttons about two people they already despise makes Trump seem to be ‘one of them,’ ‘on their side’— and softens them up to believe whatever Trump tells them to believe[4][5][6][7] without question. Anything Trump says — even the most spectacular lies — becomes the truth for 35-40 percent of the country. Whatever alternative reality Trump creates becomes the only reality for ‘his people.’
But here’s the thing: Trump was a big supporter of Hillary Clinton until she became his convenient punchline; he repeatedly backed her Senate campaigns, and made a huge donation to the Clinton Foundation of more than $100,000. Trump’s own Foundation has received no money from him since 2008.[8] Hillary had a front-row seat at Trump’s most recent wedding, in 2005.[9] Trump’s own senior staff, in the guise of his daughter[10] and son-in-law[11] have used personal, unsecure communication devices to conduct official business by email.
But none of that matters to Trump’s supports. If Liberals hate him, then Trump must be doing something right …
Why Letting Go, for Trump, Is No Small or Simple Task www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/us/politics/trump-obama-wiretapping-motivation.html
Footnotes
[1] A History of Trump Being Trolled at the White House Correspondents' Dinner time.com/4756751/donald-trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner/
[2] Did the 2011 White House correspondents' dinner spur Trump to run for president? www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-white-house-correspondents-dinner-trump-20170226-story.html
[3] 'I'm The Only One That Matters,' Trump Says Of State Dept. Job Vacancies www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/03/561797675/im-the-only-one-that-matters-trump-says-of-state-dept-job-vacancies
[4] FactCheck.org
[5] www.washingtonpost.com/n... www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/?utm_term=.6dc1603e948f
[6] Donald Trump's file www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/
[7] Every false claim Donald Trump has made as president projects.thestar.com/donald-trump-fact-check/
[8] www.washingtonpost.com/p... www.washingtonpost.com/
[9] Trump has spent years courting Hillary and other Dems www.politico.com/story/2015/06/donald-trump-donations-democrats-hillary-clinton-119071
[10] The Ivanka Trump email controversy, explained www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/28/18116326/ivanka-trump-emails-hillary-clinton-gma
[11] Kushner used private email to conduct White House business www.politico.com/story/2017/09/24/jared-kushner-private-email-white-house-243071
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:20:22 GMT
I challenge ANY of you Trump fans to articulate EXACTLY why the Iran deal was bad with facts and not what Trump says is fact. Verifiable fact. They cut centrifuges from 19000 to 6000, Verifiable fact. They cut their uranium supply for 10000 kilograms to 300 kilograms. All of the intelligence services involved in the deal confirmed this. This means it would have taken Iran YEARS to return to those numbers and it would have sent off signals/red flags if they did. SCIENTISTS involved in the deal said that it had sufficient restrictions that made it impossible for Iran to obtain a weapon. IMPOSSIBLE. Yet he scraped it because his name wasn't on it. I guarantee his deal with NK will look similar to the one he JUST withdrew from. His name will be on it, so it's ok. If you believe everything he says it doesn't matter what anyone else says. But God help you when you see who you have been following. He will eventually open your eyes but only after it is too late. Obama is no saint and I have no illusion he is. Wake up and think for yourself.Leaked UK memo says Trump axed Iran deal to spite ObamaJILL LAWLESS JILL LAWLESS 5 hours www.yahoo.com/finance/news/leaked-uk-memo-says-trump-083912665.html
LONDON (AP) — A U.K. newspaper published more leaked memos from Britain's ambassador in Washington on Sunday, despite a police warning that doing so might be a crime.
In one 2018 cable published by the Mail on Sunday, U.K. ambassador Kim Darroch says President Donald Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Iran as an act of "diplomatic vandalism" to spite his predecessor, Barack Obama.
The memo was written after then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson visited Washington in a failed attempt to persuade the U.S. not to abandon the Iran nuclear agreement.
"The outcome illustrated the paradox of this White House: you got exceptional access, seeing everyone short of the president; but on the substance, the administration is set upon an act of diplomatic vandalism, seemingly for ideological and personality reasons - it was Obama's deal," Darroch wrote.
Darroch announced his resignation last week after the newspaper published cables in which he'd branded the Trump administration dysfunctional and inept. The White House responded by refusing to deal with him, and Trump branded the ambassador a "pompous fool" in a Twitter fusillade.
U.K. police are hunting the culprits behind the leak — and, contentiously, have warned journalists that publishing the documents "could also constitute a criminal offence."
Yet both Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, the two contenders to become Britain's next prime minister, have defended the media's right to publish.
"We have to make sure that we defend the right of journalists to publish leaks when they are in the national interest," Hunt said.
British officials have said they have no evidence that hacking was involved in the documents' release, and that the culprit is likely to be found among politicians or civil servants in London.
Police are investigating the leak as a potential breach of the Official Secrets Act, which bars public servants from making "damaging" disclosures of classified material. Breaking the act carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, though prosecutions are rare.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:22:42 GMT
Trump actually asked both senators from Alaska if they wanted him to change the name of Mt. Denali back to Mt. McKinley. Why? Because it had been renamed during Obama's presidency. The senators said no thanks.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:23:15 GMT
columbiaclimatelaw.com/resources/climate-deregulation-tracker/about/President Donald Trump has stated that he intends to undo most or all of the Obama administration’s efforts to address climate change. Many (CONSERVATIVE) members of Congress have expressed similar intentions.
The Climate Deregulation Tracker monitors efforts undertaken by the Trump administration to scale back or wholly eliminate federal climate mitigation and adaptation measures. The tracker also monitors congressional efforts to repeal statutory provisions, regulations, and guidance pertaining to climate change, and to otherwise undermine climate action. Finally, the tracker will monitor any countervailing efforts to advance climate change mitigation and adaptation in the face of these deregulatory actions.
The tracker will also provide links to related news items, such as updates about federal agency appointments, the removal of climate data from federal websites, and federal actions with indirect implications for climate change.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:23:59 GMT
Trump Deflects Mueller Testimony By Suggesting A Probe Into Obama's Book DealHuffPost Carla Herreria,HuffPost 7 hours ago www.yahoo.com/news/trump-deflects-mueller-probe-obama-book-deal-234004600.html
President Donald Trump on Friday sniped at Democrats over the investigations he’s been threatened with and deflected the issue by saying former President Barack Obama should be investigated instead.
Sitting in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that they should be concerned about Obama’s book deal but didn’t specify which one.
“I think it’s a disgrace what the Democrats are doing,” Trump said of the calls for investigations into his 2016 campaign and possible obstruction of justice.
“Let’s look into Obama the way they looked at me. They could look into the book deal that President Obama made,” Trump continued. “Let’s subpoena all of his records.”
He also called for lawmakers to investigate his 2016 presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, which he’s been insisting on for years.
In 2017, Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama signed a joint book deal with Penguin Random House reportedly worth more than $65 million, according to the Financial Times.
The former president is working on a memoir as part of that deal, which is expected to be released in 2020 as the presidential campaigns heat up. Michelle Obama published her popular memoir, “Becoming,” last year.
There are two other books under Barack Obama’s belt, both written before his presidency. “Dreams From my Father,” a memoir, was published in 1995, and “The Audacity of Hope” was released in 2006.
This is the first time Trump has publicly claimed a conspiracy involving Obama’s book deal, making the rant appear to be a distraction after former special counsel Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony Wednesday.
Before two House committees in back-to-back hearings, Mueller testified that Trump could be charged with obstruction of justice after he left office and said that the president had not been entirely truthful in his written answers for the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Mueller also refuted Trump’s claims of “total exoneration” on the allegations investigated, confirming that the report did not exonerate Trump from any crimes.
Trump continues to claim that the special counsel probe yielded nothing incriminating and said as much again Friday.
“I watched Bob Mueller and they have nothing. There is no collusion, there is no obstruction, they have nothing. It’s a disgrace,” Trump said.
Related Coverage
Robert Mueller: Court Fight Over A Trump Subpoena Would've Taken Too Long
Eric Swalwell: Mueller 'Gave Us Everything We Need' To Impeach Donald Trump Right Now
House Judiciary Committee Is Investigating Possible Impeachment Of Donald Trump
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:25:14 GMT
Sounds like Trump is using anything he can for an excuse to play golf or go on vacation at taxpayers expense. Frankly, it probably has more to do with global warming lol but he would never admit that.Trump blames White House air conditioning on ObamaThe Associated Press wtop.com/national/2019/07/trump-blames-white-house-air-conditioning-on-obama/ July 26, 2019, 6:21 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — In President Donald Trump’s view, even the inadequate air conditioning at the White House is Barack Obama’s fault.
Trump offered the new gripe about his predecessor as he explained in the Oval Office Friday why he’ll be spending some time at his New Jersey resort in August.
The president says “it’s never a vacation” when he goes to Bedminster, New Jersey, and that he would rather be at the White House.
He says that some of his time away from the White House gives crews time to do maintenance work.
He says, for example, “The Obama administration worked out a brand new air conditioning system for the West Wing. It was so good before they did the system. Now that they did this system, it’s freezing or hot.”
Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.Evidently poor AIR CONDITIONING runs in the family. (or should I say AC "doesn't" run in the family)
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 2, 2020 0:26:15 GMT
Ever notice that conservatives blame others for the things they do all the time? It is called pre-emptive projection.POLITICS 02/27/2017 11:22 pm ET Trump Blames Obama For His Political Protester Problem “I think he is behind it. I also think it’s politics.” headshot By Rebecca Shapiro
Jon Passantino ✔ @passantino Trump says Obama is "behind" the protests at GOP town halls and leaks coming from the White House
2,510 7:48 PM - Feb 27, 2017 Twitter Ads info and privacy 3,327 people are talking about this President Donald Trump sat down for an interview with “Fox & Friends” and said that former President Barack Obama and “his people” are behind recent town hall protests.
In recent weeks, activists have planned protests at Republican lawmakers’ events around the country. Protesters have shown up at Democratic lawmakers’ events, too. Last week, demonstrators rallied outside an event featuring Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) after the senator did not hold a town hall meeting when Congress was in recess.
“I think President Obama is behind it because his people are certainly behind it,” Trump said in a preview of the interview. But, he said, “that’s politics, and it will probably continue.”
The president added that he also thought it was possible Obama and “that group” were behind “some of the leaks” coming out of the White House.
Trump’s interview will air in full at 6 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.”
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