Y’all, At this point, it is a race to see who will bring down this presidency! In lane 1 is Mueller, armed with the insane truth about the links between Trump and Russia and building an airtight case. In lane 2 are the American people voting for a tsunami of Democrats who will be willing and able to do the kind of oversight into this president that can bring him and his cheating ways to a halt.
Someone is going to get there first. Who will it be?
Because I really believe that both of those are on a path towards the beginning of the end of this nightmare.
Neither is happening by luck: it is our pressure that is keeping Mueller’s investigation going and it is 100% our grassroots energy that is propelling these candidates forward.
We stop trying, this all goes away. But that is just fine, because we are just getting started!
If the last few days showed us anything (other than Trump being 100% Putin’s puppet, of course) it is that many Americans do have the capacity to be disappointed by trump. They do have the ability to have their attitudes changed. And they do have the ability to speak out against him.
I am not naive enough to think that this shift among his people will last, but I do think it shows something important. There are seeds of doubt out there. There is an ability to wake up from the spell for many. There is a chink in his armor.
And that is important because, as you will see in the Mueller section of this diary, A LOT of really bad stuff is likely to come out about Trump. It can and will make a difference in his future and the future of our country.
Keep fighting, friends. One way or another, we are going to win this war.
People Are Finally Seeing What We Have Seen for Months
Hoyer: Trump committed 'treason' in Helsinki
House Minority Whip
Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday accused
President Trump of committing treason during the president's meeting a day earlier with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.
“I agree with
John Brennan, who said that it was nothing short of treasonous,” Hoyer told reporters in the Capitol, referring to the former CIA director.
“It is the duty of every patriot who loves their country to stand up and speak out against this dangerous and dishonest behavior,” he added. “The emperor has no clothes, no ethics, no integrity, no common sense.”
For Republicans, ‘The Dam Has Broken.’ But for How Long?
Mr. Trump returned to the White House on Monday night as protesters outside the gate shouted, “Welcome home, traitor.” Even Dictionary.comtrolled the president, tweeting out a definition: “Traitor: A person who commits treason by betraying his or her country.”
It later said that searches for “treason” had increased by 2,943 percent. By Tuesday afternoon, the word “traitor” had been used on Twitter 800,000 times and the word “treason” about 1.2 million times.
In interviews with conservatives and Trump supporters across a half-dozen states, there were many theories about the president’s performance — he was tougher in private; he is cutting a mega-deal; he has a plan — and more than a few questions about his news conference with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, which left congressional Republicans and at least some voters struggling to endorse their leader’s approach.
“You’re essentially putting Russia first,” said Chris Ford, 26, a Republican in Dallas, tweaking a president who already had only his “lukewarm” support, as of this week. “It’s hard to see how that’s putting America first.”
Among voters, Mr. Trump’s conduct seemed to reinforce a common theme of any midterm election, but perhaps especially this one: Americans tend to prefer constraints on the party in power.
But at least a handful of swing voters appeared to process Mr. Trump’s comments with alarm.
Louis Ballard, of Bardstown, Ky., said he had grown disaffected with the Republican Party after decades of support. The summit, he said, was just “another layer of displeasure.”
In 2016, Mr. Ballard could not bring himself to support Mr. Trump or Hillary Clinton, choosing to write in Lamar Jackson, then the star quarterback for the University of Louisville.
This fall, he said, he has a different plan: “Straight Democrat.”
Welcome to the resistance Mr Ballard!
Even Fox News hosts were aghast after Trump’s summit with Putin
President Trump’s performance at Monday’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin was “disgusting” and “wrong,” Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto said.
Trump's acceptance of Putin’s denials of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was “lame,” Fox News anchor Brit Hume said.
Trump “threw the United States under the bus” in Helsinki, Fox News reporter John Roberts said.
Fox News did not ride to the president’s rescue after the summit, joining a bipartisan scrum of lawmakers and political commentators who condemned Trump’s comments alongside the Russian leader.
It was a stunning, if temporary, turn for Trump’s preferred network. He deliberately takes Fox News’s questions over CNN’s, speaks regularly by phone with Fox host Sean Hannity and has turned “Fox & Friends” into a vehicle for his agenda and talking points.
Even Kilmeade!
On Monday, Trump had said on Twitter that “our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!”
It incensed “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade.
“That’s by far the most ridiculous tweet of late, and that is insulting to past administrations. He can’t be saying that going into the Russian summit,” Kilmeade said.
And Gingrich!
Gingrich: Putin press conference was 'most serious mistake' of Trump's presidency
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), a longtime supporter of President Trump, declared on Monday that Trump's performance at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin was "the most serious mistake of his presidency."
George Will → This sad, embarrassing wreck of a man
America’s child president had a play date with a KGB alumnus, who surely enjoyed providing day care. It was a useful, because illuminating, event: Now we shall see how many Republicans retain a capacity for embarrassment.
But just as astronomers inferred, from anomalies in the orbits of the planet Uranus, the existence of Neptune before actually seeing it, Mueller might infer, and then find, still-hidden sources of the behavior of this sad, embarrassing wreck of a man.
GOP lawmaker renews call for Trump to release tax returns after Putin summit
Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) is renewing his call for President Trump to release his tax returns after the president's controversial press conference with Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week.
Sanford told The Washington Post’s Robert Costa on Tuesday that he doesn’t know if Putin has any compromising information on Trump, but said he wants more information about Trump’s finances in light of the president's comments while standing alongside Putin the previous day
The contemptible remarks that Trump delivered alongside Vladimir Putin seemed to mark a turning point, even for some of his most ardent defenders.
what happened in Helsinki on Monday will not be so easily forgotten. Just as the President’s comments following the torchlit white-supremacist march last year in Charlottesville made it clear that racism was at the core of his character and his political strategy, the contemptible remarks he delivered alongside Vladimir Putin seemed to mark a turning point, even for some of his most ardent defenders. In the course of a single European journey, Trump set out to humiliate the leaders of Western Europe and declare them “foes”; to fracture long-standing military, economic, and political alliances; and to absolve Russia of its attempts to undermine the 2016 election. He did so clearly, repeatedly, and with conviction. Republicansin Congress (but not enough of them) and a selection of commentators on Fox News declared that Trump’s performance in Helsinki had been disgraceful.
And from yesterday’s “no” answer to question about Russia’s interfering → Fox News Host: Trump ‘Sounds Insane’ on Latest Russian Meddling Denial
The president left a normally supportive Fox News host baffled after saying Russia is not still trying to interfere with U.S. elections.
With one simple contraction—“wouldn’t”—President Donald Trump got Fox News back on his side. And then hours later, with the word “no,” he seems to have lost them all over again.
Asked by a reporter, during a Wednesday afternoon cabinet meeting, if Russia is “still targeting the U.S.,” Trump replied: “Thank you very much, no.”
From there, with his arms folded defiantly, he declared, “There's been no president ever as tough as I have been on Russia.”
After playing that clip on Fox News’ Outnumbered, co-host Melissa Francis seemed utterly baffled as she said that when the question was asked of Trump, “All he said was ‘no,’ which sounds insane.”
“It does sound insane,” agreed the panel show’s lone Democrat for the day, Jake Maccoby, a former speechwriter for Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch.
Yes, they will forget about this in time. But this showed a real chink in their armor. And that chink (discomfort with helping Russia) is likely to get a lot of play in the months to come.
Trump’s Walk Back Was Pathetic
Trump Tanks His Own Putin Walk-Back During One of the ‘Worst Moments of His Presidency’
It was approaching mid-morning Tuesday, and Donald Trump’s team had one choice: He had to clean up the mess he had left for them following his disastrous press conference abroad. If they had to beg, so be it.
“[The president] is usually a shoot-from-the-hip and talk from the top of his head kind of guy,” said a senior Trump administration official who works on issues surrounding Russiandisinformation efforts. “I think he was more truthful yesterday than today and is capitulating to an angry caucus.” But, the official predicted, “people aren’t going to forget about this. It will be in the top-three worst moments of his presidency.”
As is typical with this president, he still could not help himself from ad-libbing and going off-message by walking back key parts of his West Wing’s stage-managed walk-back.
Trump spoke from the White House Cabinet room, reading from prepared remarks that included a handwritten—and misspelled—note in the margins: “THERE WAS NO COLUSION.
“The sentence should’ve been, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia,’” Trump tried spinning on Tuesday. “Sort of a double negative,” he said, at least somewhat self-aware.
It was the crisis-comms equivalent of snapping his fingers in front of a press pool and suddenly declaring Monday “Opposite Day.”
5 words that reveal Trump still isn't convinced Russia meddled in the 2016 election
President Donald Trump had one clear mission when he spoke to the press Tuesday afternoon before meeting with a handful of congressional Republicans: Clean up the damage he did on Monday when he broke with the intelligence community by suggesting that Russia might not have been behind the 2016 election interference and arguing that there was blame on both sides of the matter.
"I have a full faith and support for America's great intelligence agencies," Trump said, reading slowly from a page of written remarks -- a major break from his usual freewheeling style in these sorts of situations. Then, Trump added this: "I accept our intelligence community's conclusion that Russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place -- could be other people also."
Those five words not only totally undermine what Trump was trying to do with his post-Helsinki summit comments but also run afoul of the intelligence community's 2017 report on Russian interference in the election.
Let’s make fun of him a bit about this, ok? We need to have some fun in this. First, from WaPo
It is easy to see how this might be confusing. President Trump understands how you might have gotten confused.
This happens to the best of us, he is sure you understand. This often happens. “Not” is such a small word. Who among us has not forgotten to use the word “no” or “not” at a critical time? Who among us has not shouted “I OBJECT!” at a wedding when they meant “I DON’T OBJECT!” or “Please murder my spouse” when you meant “Please do NOT murder my spouse!” or “Please, hack the DNC and see if you can leak Hillary Clinton’s emails, Russia!” which maybe should have included a “not”? It can be so easy to forget a “not” at a crucial time, for instance in the sentence “I love you” or “It is possible that there were very fine people on both sides here in Charlottesville.”
Then from Adam Schiff:
And singer Richard Marx
And Darth Vader
and Trump himself:
Hee hee! 😉
Mueller is Going To Kick Trump’s Ass
Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina had ties to Russian intelligence agency, prosecutors say
The Russian woman arrested on charges of being a foreign agent had ties to Russian intelligence operatives and was in contact with them while in the United States, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. Maria Butina also had ties to wealthy businessmen linked to the Putin administration and appeared to have plans to flee the U.S., prosecutors said in a new court filing.
The indictment accuses Butina of conspiring with the unnamed “Russian official” to “infiltrate organizations active in American politics in an effort to advance the interests of the Russian federation.” The indictment does not name any organizations, but Helson’s affidavit frequently referred to her contacts with an unnamed “Gun Rights Organization,” “U.S. Person 1” and “Political Party 1.”
The gun rights organization is almost certainly the National Rifle Association, whom Butina began reaching out to in 2013 and meeting with both in the U.S. and Russia. “U.S. Person 1,” who the indictment claims provided Butina with a list of American contacts to help her agenda, is likely Paul Erickson, a Republican consultant who sought to organize a meeting between then-candidate Trump and Torshin at an NRA convention in 2016, and who the affidavit says first met Butina in Moscow in 2013.
“Political Party 1” is likely the Republican party. It is not mentioned in the indictment, but Helson’s affidavit cited a 2015 email in which Butina told “U.S. Person 1” that “Political Party 1 “ would likely obtain control over the U.S. government after the 2016 elections, that the party had a central role in the “Gun Rights Organization” and that the unnamed gun organization was “the largest sponsor of the elections to the U.S. congress, as well as a spnosor of the CPAC conference,” an annual conservative political gathering.
In October 2016, “U.S. Person 1” told Butina in an email that he had “been involved in securing a VERY private line of communication between the Kremlin and key ‘Political Party 1’ leaders through, of all conduits, the ‘Gun Rights Organization.’” Helson concluded that this email showed the American’s “involvement in Butina’s efforts to establish a ‘back channel’ communication for representatives of the Government of Russia.”
U.S. Person 1, or Erickson, has not been charged with any crimes, which is sometimes an indication that they are cooperating with an investigation.
This indictment of Butina is a big, big deal. We have known for a while that the Rs used the NRA to final money from Russia and she is a key to that. Also, the suggestion that Erickson has turned is HUGE too. He knows a lot and now Mueller knows all of that!
And things aren’t looking good for Manafort either:
Judge Denies Manafort’s Request To Move VA Trial Out Of Alexandria
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis on Tuesday denied a request by former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to move his upcoming trial away from Alexandria — a Virginia suburb of D.C. — and to Roanoke, Virginia, about a four hour drive away.
Judge denies Manafort's request to suppress evidence
A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request by President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort to suppress evidence seized by the FBI from his home as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe into whether Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia.
Wednesday’s decision marks the latest in a string of setbacks for Manafort, who is facing two criminal trials in Washington and neighboring Alexandria, Va. in connection with lobbying work he performed for the pro-Russia Ukrainian government.
Flip! Flip! Flip!
The Pod Save America boys got a lot of interesting information on the Mueller investigation this week:
Journalist March Wheeler (who spoke to the FBI) Says Mueller Has Trump’s Number
“Well, my part’s going to be a surprise for virtually everyone, but some of what I know was in public….
“I assume it must be true that there are many witnesses like me who were witnesses to stuff that nobody knows about, who were watching people who no one’s paying attention to who were part of this, and so yeah, I suspect that that kind of case is going to be pretty surprising and pretty strong.
“I mean, I’ve said that I never talked to Peter Strzok, who is the FBI agent that Trump attacked in Helsinki today. He wasn’t anywhere near the testimony I gave to the FBI; I wasn’t actually speaking to the Mueller inquiry when I did, and I can point to things that, between what I told the FBI and what I found, you know, shortly thereafter lying out there in public, I can get right to Trump, and I assume that’s true by a number of means, and therefore … Mueller is sitting on a lot, and he, I think, is going to roll it out. And if today is any indication, I mean, finally we’ve got Republicans saying this is beyond the pale, we cannot have a president subject himself to a hostile foreign power like Trump did today. I think we might see some momentum finally turning against Trump.”
Did you catch that? She alone has info she gave the FBI that can link right to Trump and she is sure that others do too. That is insane!
When asked if the revelations in Mueller’s report will ultimately be jaw-dropping, like The Sixth Sense, or a disappointment, like The Village, Wheeler said this:
“I think there are some big plot twists. I did a series some months ago when the questions that Mueller wants Trump to answer came out, and I laid it out. This is clear quid pro quo. They went to Trump and said, ‘We’ll help you. We want sanctions relief, we want Syria, throw in Ukraine, maybe we’ll throw in a Trump Tower.’ And that’s it; that is the basic equation we’re talking about.”
so this is a woman who knows a lot and has spoken to Mueller and she is certain that there is a quid pro quo and she has said elsewhere that everyone in the Trump tower meeting is implicated (i.e. Jr, Kushner, Manafort) and Trump himself. This is HUGE.
You can listen to it right here if you want to:
I know a lot of people have been skeptical about the extent of the trump/russia conspiracy, but honestly, after this week, can you really be skeptical anymore?
The only question is WHEN this will all come out and how many people it will take down.
I know how hard it is to wait for Mueller but he is going insanely fast for this kind of investigation. The truth WILL come out and Trump, and many others, will go down for this.
And the Trump Tower meeting wasn’t the only treasonous meeting going on:
Seychelles meetings probed by Mueller included several Russians
Several Russians, some linked to the Kremlin, participated in meetings in the Seychelles in January 2017 and are subjects of an ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, according to the island's aircraft data and sources with knowledge of the meetings.
Again, another HUGE deal. Mueller has at least one solid informant on that meeting and it didn’t just involve the other players in this (e.g. Israel, the UAE, Saudi Arabia) it also included the key culprit: Russia.
Everyone who is in the know is convinced that Mueller has the goods and trump will be infamous as a traitor.
Don’t forget about Roger Stone. He is going down, for sure, and there is no reason to think he will be loyal to Trump —> Special counsel still investigating Roger Stone
Robert Mueller's special counsel's office appears to still be investigating Trump adviser Roger Stone and working on a case in court involving one of his former associates.
At least five prosecutors from Mueller's office and two attorneys representing Andrew Miller, a former Roger Stone associate, spent almost 90 minutes in a sealed court proceeding before Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the DC District Court Wednesday morning.
But Mueller is far from our only hope. November is just around the corner and with a lot of hard work, we are going to be ready!
Great Election News
ANOTHER race moved in our direction yesterday → Iowa's 3rd District race moves from 'lean Republican' to 'toss-up'
Election analysts at the Cook Political Report said Wednesday Iowa's 3rd District Congressional race is now considered a "toss up" between Democrat Cindy Axne and Republican incumbent Rep. David Young.
The race previously was rated "leans Republican."
The November elections keep getting more difficult for Republicans
The danger for the GOP isn’t that an event like Helsinki — or the trade war that may be having a particularly damaging impact on many pro-Trump areas of the country — will raise enough doubts about Trump to make Republican voters choose the Democrat in their House or Senate race in November (though that might happen in a small number of cases). It’s that those controversies will chip away at the cult of personality. If Trump is just like other politicians from your party — most of the time you’re happy about him but sometimes you aren’t — and not someone who inspires fervid devotion, then that means you might not come out to vote in an off-year election such as this one, if it’s raining or if you have a bunch of errands to run that Tuesday.
Numbers Looking Good For Beto
odious and treason-enabling Ted Cruz leading by just TWO POINTS.
Those are pretty swingy trends, and they moved heavily in O’Rourke’s direction during the worst of the forced-family-separation nightmare situation on the border. That effect is already starting to fade, as you can see, but these are impressionable voters, very winnable.
This is still Texas. This is still a tough state.
But Hillary Clinton made it a single-digit contest in 2016, and thanks to Treasonous Trump and his Republican enablers, it’s very winnable this year.
Senate Dems build huge cash edge in battlegrounds
Senate Democrats and supportive outside groups have built a massive cash advantage over Republicans 3½ months before the midterm elections, raising GOP concerns that they will squander a golden opportunity to grow their narrow majority.
All told, Democratic candidates in 10 of the most critical races are sitting on $75 million, while their Republican rivals hold $33 million in cash on hand, according to a review of campaign finance documents filed in recent days.
The gaps are widest in some of the red states President Trump carried by large margins in 2016.
And so are house Dems → Democratic House candidates dominate second quarter fundraising
Democratic House candidates dominated fundraising in the second quarter of 2018, a sign of enthusiasm among Democrats heading into November's midterm elections.
In 72 of 95 of CNN's
key House races, the leading Democrat outraised the leading Republican, including at least 40 Republican incumbents.
Of 21 races CNN rated as "toss up," the most competitive designation, Democrats held the fundraising edge in 17 contests.
Democrats also had the advantage among races considered more favorable to Republicans, leading 18 of 24 races rated "lean Republican" and 17 of 28 races rated "likely Republican." And Democrats led 20 of 22 races rated "lean Democrat" or "likely Democrat."
Poll: Corruption message gaining traction against GOP
The Trump administration's scandals threaten to take a toll on Republicans in battleground districts this fall, according to new polling suggesting “culture of corruption” messaging is gaining traction.
Fifty-four percent of voters across 48 Republican-held congressional districts said Republicans are “more corrupt” than Democrats, compared with 46 percent who said Democrats are “more corrupt.”
According to the online survey of 1,200 registered voters, conducted for the progressive Center for American Progress Action Fund from July 2-5, an even higher number of independents hold Republicans responsible for corruption: 60 percent.
Those are welcome numbers to Democrats who have struggled to find their messaging in the run-up to the midterms.
28 percent of young voters say they will certainly vote in the 2018 midterms
the article argues that this is bad news because it is too low, but I beg to differ. Yes it should be higher (and hopefully it will be) BUT:
There are other surveys with varied results; a recent poll conducted by the Associated Press and University of Chicago’s NORC found that 32 percent of young voters would certainly vote and 56 percent were likely to. Another poll by Cosmopolitan magazine and SurveyMonkey found that 48 percent of young voters were “absolutely certain” they’d vote in the midterms.
and even more important:
It’s actually a big improvement for Democrats compared to past midterms. In the 2014 midterms, when Democrats lost control of the Senate, only 13 percent of young voters participated.
Even a jump from the 13 percent that participated in 2014 to the 28 percent surveyed could have a serious impact on elections. Wasserman says part of the reason Donald Trump won in 2016 was the young voters didn’t turn out — and those who did cast ballots for third-party candidates. Young voter turnout in 2016 was slightly lower than in 2012, when President Obama’s support among millennials saw a significant drop from his first election in 2008.
People Standing Up For What is Right
‘Morally repugnant’: Homeland Security advisory council members resign over immigration policies
Four members of a Homeland Security advisory council have resigned in protest over the Trump administration's immigration policies, citing the “morally repugnant” practice of separating immigrant families at the border.
Richard Danzig, former secretary of the Navy in the Clinton administration, and Elizabeth Holtzman, a former Democratic congresswoman, were among the group that announced their resignation Monday in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
The group noted that the Department of Homeland Security did not consult its advisory council before implementing the policy, which separated more than 2,500 children until President Trump reversed his endorsement of the practice amid an international outcry and signed an order instructing the agency to stop doing so.
“Were we consulted, we would have observed that routinely taking children from migrant parents was morally repugnant, counter-productive and ill-considered,” the group wrote. “We cannot tolerate association with the immigration policies of this administration, nor the illusion that we are consulted on these matters.”
The Trump administration keeps losing family separation lawsuits
Federal judges delivered some heavy blows to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy this week, including a one-week pause on family deportations and mandatory counseling for children traumatized when they were taken from their families without having the opportunity to say goodbye.
U.S. District Judge Victor Bolden in Connecticut ruled on Friday that the government must come up with a long term plan to treat two kids for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who were separated from their parents for two months as part of the Trump administration’s policy.
At the same time, on Monday Judge Sabraw in San Diego blocked the Trump administration from deporting any parent who has been separated from their child for the next seven days.
White House Press show Solidarity
In todays WH press briefing, Sarah Huckabee Sanders went all Red Hen on NBC, and fortunately The Hill’s reporter gave up his turn to allow Hallie Jackson a follow-up.
The questioning was about the negation of yesterday’s walk back about Trump’s view on Russian attacks on the US.
NBC's Hallie Jackson noted that the White House has reversed course twice in the last three days on initial statements from the president.
"Why should this president have any credibility to Americans in what he says if in fact 24 hours later or in this case three hours later, the White House comes out and says 'Just kidding,'" Jackson asked.
Sanders said the framing of the question was unfair.
Sanders then attempted to move on to The Hill’s Jordan Fabian before Jackson could ask a follow up question. However, Fabian deferred his question back to Jackson so she could press Sanders on when Trump has been critical of Putin.
Some Help From The Right Wing
Republican senator proposes resolution backing US intelligence agencies
Notably Flake's measure is not legislation; it is a Senate resolution that would not become law. Flake said his goal is to bring the proposal to the Senate floor and have it pass with unanimous consent by this week or next.
Flake said Tuesday the President threw "basically the whole country under the bus" with his comments and called it disgraceful and "shameful."
Beyond reaffirming support for US intelligence agencies, Flake said the resolution would call for "some kind of hearing or briefing by those involved" in the private Trump-Putin meeting in Helsinki, "to try to find out what happened in that private meeting."
Sinclair’s plan to take over local news just hit an unexpected roadblock: Trump’s FCC
The stars once seemed to be aligned for Sinclair Broadcast Group to expand its local TV empire.
Sinclair — known for forcing its 193 local TV stations to air pro-Trump segmentsand anti-media screeds — currently has a deal in place to purchase Tribune Media, which would extend its reach to about 72 percent of Americans. And until this week, it seemed Sinclair had the allies in the right places (read: the Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission) to get this deal done.
But on Monday, FCC Chair Ajit Pai released a statement saying he has “serious concerns about the Sinclair/Tribune transaction.” It’s a surprising rebuke, given Pai’s track record of pushing policies that help Sinclair.
The core issue here is the FCC rule preventing a single media company from reaching more than 39 percent of American homes — which, to be clear, is far fewer people than Sinclair sought to reach with the Tribune deal.
So Sinclair planned to skirt this rule. The company would sell off stations to get under the 39 percent limit — but the Smith family, which owns Sinclair, brazenly arranged to sell the stations to friends and business associates, with the agreement that Sinclair would keep control of the advertising and programming arms of those stations.
The hope was that even if Sinclair was under the 39 percent limit in the eyes of the FCC, Sinclair’s programming would actually reach nearly three in four Americans.
But that plan may now be in trouble. In his statement, Pai said that Sinclair’s strategy would “allow Sinclair to control those stations in practice, even if not in name, in violation of the law.”
He’s now proposed that the deal be sent to an administrative law judge — a step that could kill the deal.
North Carolina Republicans’ Latest Judicial Power Grab May Have Backfired Spectacularly
In 2016, Democrat Mike Morgan won a hotly contested seat on North Carolina’s state Supreme Court, flipping the court to a 4–3 liberal majority. Ever since, Republicans in the state have engaged in a great deal of chicanery to prevent Democrats from winning another seat in 2018. For a while, they appeared destined to succeed. But a last-minute twist may thwart their carefully laid plans, allowing yet another progressive Democrat to flip a Republican-held seat in the November election.
From a Texas Republican state representative → It’s time to impeach the president
But verily I say unto you today, if we do not stop this man now, today, over 500 days into his presidency, we will be equally culpable in what he has planned for our great nation. President Trump thinks you are a fool. He believes you will never abandon him. And he believes that that there is almost nothing that he can do that would cause you to abandon supporting him.
But what he doesn’t know is that you are not a fool. You, like me, are an American. And no man will own your heart and mind like this president thinks he owns you.
Today is the day we take back our America. Today is the day we say “NO” to anyone who revels in abusing those weaker than them for political points.
Today is the day we stand up and fight for the American values that Reagan taught us: truth, justice, peace, civility, comity and righteousness.
That is it for today. Keep fighting and working for November. Some great ideas on actions you can take can be found here.
We are better than what this president suggests we are. We eschew ugliness and divisiveness. Donald J. Trump is no longer our leader. It is time to push him into the ash bin of history.
Today, I ask you to impeach Trump.
That is it for today. Lots of good news, right?
Keep fighting! Call your reps TODAY and let them know you are furious about Russian interference and Trump’s behavior at the summit. Ask them for hearings and money for election security.
And keep your focus on November! Here are some ideas:
Donate to ActBlue
Donate to Swing Left
Send postcards to voters in other districts
Sign up to go door to door in your district
Sign up to drive people to the polls
Find your local Democratic Party and volunteer!
Find more ideas here
As always, I am super proud and super lucky to be in this with all of you ❤️ ✊ ❤️