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Mon. Sept.4, 2017
~All Gave Some~Some Gave All~ God Bless America~
Robert Mueller Pulled This Trick That Proved He Is Out To Get Trump
Donald Trump and his supporters have long maintained that Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is a witch hunt.
The media has tried to refute these claims by citing Mueller’s reputation as an alleged “straight shooter.”
But Mueller just made one move that proved he is out to remove Trump from office.
Mueller has expanded his investigation into alleged Russian meddling to probe Trump associates and their financial dealings that are unrelated to the 2016 campaign.
The special counsel has zeroed in on Paul Manafort and his work as a political consultant for foreign clients including a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.
Mueller and his team are digging into Manafort’s financial records and could be seeking to bring money laundering charges against Trump’s former campaign chairman.
What cemented the fact that this was a political witch hunt designed to embarrass Trump was the revelation that Mueller’s team was working with New York’s Democratic Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, on coordinating their investigations against Manafort.
Politico reports:
“SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT MUELLER’S TEAM IS WORKING WITH NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN ON ITS INVESTIGATION INTO PAUL MANAFORT AND HIS FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS, ACCORDING TO SEVERAL PEOPLE FAMILIAR WITH THE MATTER.
THE COOPERATION IS THE LATEST INDICATION THAT THE FEDERAL PROBE INTO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S FORMER CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN IS INTENSIFYING. IT ALSO COULD POTENTIALLY PROVIDE MUELLER WITH ADDITIONAL LEVERAGE TO GET MANAFORT TO COOPERATE IN THE LARGER INVESTIGATION INTO TRUMP’S CAMPAIGN, AS TRUMP DOES NOT HAVE PARDON POWER OVER STATE CRIMES.
THE TWO TEAMS HAVE SHARED EVIDENCE AND TALKED FREQUENTLY IN RECENT WEEKS ABOUT A POTENTIAL CASE, THESE PEOPLE SAID. ONE OF THE PEOPLE FAMILIAR WITH PROGRESS ON THE CASE SAID BOTH MUELLER’S AND SCHNEIDERMAN’S TEAMS HAVE COLLECTED EVIDENCE ON FINANCIAL CRIMES, INCLUDING POTENTIAL MONEY LAUNDERING.”
Schneiderman is a diehard Trump hater who brought a lawsuit over Trump University against the President.
He is also investigating other Trump business deals, and after the election he positioned himself as a leader of the anti-Trump resistance.
Politico reports:
“THE TRUMP UNIVERSITY SUIT EVENTUALLY WAS SETTLED FOR $25 MILLION DAYS AFTER THE ELECTION, DESPITE THE THEN PRESIDENT-ELECT’S REPEATED PLEDGES NEVER TO SETTLE.
SCHNEIDERMAN COULD HAVE LEFT IT AT THAT. BUT SCHNEIDERMAN HAS LET IT BE KNOWN THAT TRUMP IS STILL IN HIS CROSSHAIRS. IN THE DAYS SINCE NOVEMBER 9, SCHNEIDERMAN FIRED OFF A LETTER WARNING TRUMP NOT TO DROP WHITE HOUSE SUPPORT OF OBAMA’S CLEAN POWER PLAN, INTRODUCED A BILL IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE TO GIVE NEW YORKERS COST-FREE CONTRACEPTION IF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT IS DISMANTLED, THREATENED TO SUE AFTER TRUMP FROZE EPA FUNDING OF CLEAN AIR AND WATER PROGRAMS, AND JOINED A LAWSUIT THAT ARGUES THAT TRUMP’S EXECUTIVE ORDER ON IMMIGRATION IS NOT JUST UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND UN-AMERICAN, BUT IT BRINGS PROFOUND HARM TO THE RESIDENTS OF NEW YORK STATE.
HE HAS A RECORD OF GOING NOT ONLY AFTER TRUMP, BUT GOING AFTER PEOPLE NOW IN TRUMPWORLD. HE’S ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE CLEAN POWER PLAN FIGHT FROM OKLAHOMA ATTORNEY GENERAL SCOTT PRUITT, SINCE NAMED HEAD OF THE EPA, AND WHO SCHNEIDERMAN LABELED A “DANGEROUS AND UNQUALIFIED CHOICE.” HE’S GONE AFTER REX TILLERSON, WHO AS CEO OF EXXONMOBIL DEFENDED HIS COMPANY FROM A SCHNEIDERMAN INVESTIGATION; SINCE THE ELECTION HE’S BEGUN INVESTIGATING A REVERSE-MORTGAGE BUSINESS ONCE LED BY STEVEN MNUCHIN, THE NOMINEE TO BE THE NEXT TREASURY SECRETARY.”
Now Schneiderman could be working with Mueller to use criminal charges to pressure Manafort.
As President, Trump’s pardon power does not extend to state crimes.
If the state of New York brings charges against Manafort – and not the special counsel – only the New York AG would have the power to lessen the charges in exchange for cooperation.
Critics believe Mueller’s hope is that since Manafort cannot count on a pardon from the President, he would be forced to cooperate with investigators on providing information about collusion with Russia as his only means of receiving a lesser sentence.
Mueller teaming up with one of the leading anti-Trump partisans in America proves his investigation is a sham.
Its goal is not to discover the truth.
Mueller’s only purpose is to take down Trump.
BOOM! American Manufacturing Expanded in August at Fastest Pace in Six Years
by JOHN CARNEY
American factories accelerated in August at the fastest pace of expansion since 2011, data from the Institute for Supply Management showed Friday.
The ISM purchasing manufacturers surveyed showed all six of the biggest manufacturing industries ramped up activity in August.
The monthly purchasing managers index rose 2.5 points to 58.8, reflecting employment rising to its highest level since June of 2011, an increase in production and rising inventories. Economists had expected a reading of 56.5. Any reading over 50 indicates growth.
Exports and new orders continued to show strong growth, although these slowed from July.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday that manufacturing employment increased the most since 2012.
The sustained gains in manufacturing reflect rising consumer spending and business investment. The ISM number from Friday suggests that third quarter economic growth may be greater than previously thought. Some economists believe that the economy could be growing at a four percent pace right now.
Ship of Fools IV: Another Green Arctic Expedition Scuppered by Ice
A sailing expedition to the North Pole to raise awareness of global warming has been forced to turn back, 590 nautical miles short of its destination, after the yachts found their passage blocked by large quantities of an unexpected frozen white substance.
A meeting of the four skippers was held led by Erik de Jong, with Pen Hadow present, and it was agreed further northward progress would increase considerably the risks to the expedition, with very limited scientific reward. The decision to head south, back to an area of less concentrated sea ice in the vicinity of 79 degrees 30 minutes North, was made at 18.30 (Alaskan time).
Concentrated sea ice? In the Arctic Circle? Whoever would have imagined?
As usual, on these occasions, the expedition leaders are covering their embarrassment by billing their failure as a great success.
Arctic Mission has undertaken an extensive oceanographic, wildlife and ecosystem research programme during the voyage, led by Tim Gordon of the University of Exeter (UK). This has included work on acoustic ecology, copepod distributions and physiology, microplastic pollution surveying, inorganic carbon chemistry, seabird range expansion and microbial DNA sequencing. Scientific findings will be released following comprehensive data analysis and formal publication in peer-reviewed journals in 2018/19.
It is believed Arctic Mission has sailed further north from the coastlines surrounding the Arctic Ocean than any vessel in history without icebreaker support.
Well maybe. But that wasn’t the original point of the expedition when it was announced in the Sunday Times earlier this summer:
It is a polar record Pen Hadow wishes were impossible to achieve. The explorer, who was the first person to walk solo across the pack ice from Canada to the North Pole in 2003, will now try to highlight climate change by becoming the first to sail there in a yacht.
Hadow, 55, said it would be a bittersweet achievement to achieve the feat because it would mean that the polar ice cap had shrunk to record lows. “I’m very conflicted,” he said. “If we do reach the North Pole by sail, I think the image would be iconic for the rest of the century and a call to action,” he said. “If 50ft yachts can do this, imagine what commercial shipping can do.”
This is not the first time Hadow has been denied the “bittersweet achievement” of pinning Arctic melt on “climate change.” In 2009 – with encouragement from the Prince of Wales – Hadow led the Catlin Arctic Survey expedition which had to be cancelled less than halfway into its 800 mile trek because the equipment broke in the freezing temperatures.
His latest failure comes a year after yet another sailing expedition – this one called The Polar Ocean Challenge, led by veteran explorer David Hempleman-Adams – was also frustrated by unexpectedly large quantities of ice.
That was Ship of Fools II.
Ship of Fools I was, of course, the glorious December 2013 expedition to Antarctica – led by an Australian alarmist called Chris Turney, one of the correspondents in the Climategate scandal – which had to be called off after becoming stuck in ice which Turney insisted could not have been predicted.
Then earlier this summer, we learned of Ship of Fools III – a Canadian research expedition which had to be cancelled because, you guessed it, of “unprecedented” summer sea ice.
Why are these hapless fools such suckers for punishment?
Short answer: because that’s where the money is.
The Arctic is a mightily beautiful place to visit – as I once saw myself on a 300-mile trip on a skidoo round Svalbard – but it has been pretty well explored. So the only way these days you’re going to get sponsors to stump up for your icebergs ‘n’ polar bears jolly is if you can persuade them it’s all about “raising awareness” and “saving the planet.”
Rapacious corporations love to soften their image by having it associated with cuddly, caring green projects – especially if it accords with their business model. Insurance companies like Catlin – which sponsored Hadow’s previous expedition – for example have a strong vested interest in bigging up the climate threat because then they can persuade more clients to insure against the weather disasters which, supposedly, will become more likely as the planet heats up due to man’s selfishness, greed and refusal to amend his lifestyle…
The other problem, of course, is misreporting in the mainstream media which for years has been quoting “experts” assuring us of the Arctic ice’s imminent disappearance.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Arctic ice is stubbornly refusing to follow the alarmists’ doomsday narrative.
In Greenland, for example, the ice sheet since last September has grown at close to record rates.
As Tony Heller notes – using the latest data from National Snow and Ice Data Center – it looks as though there are never going to be any of those “ice free summers” the alarmists promised us.
This is both good news and bad news.
It’s bad news for the mainstream media and especially for Environment Correspondents. Their opportunities for writing stories about the dread plight of the Arctic – and embarking on fun freebies to experience it at first hand – are likely to diminish with each passing year. Soon, it’s quite possible, green hacktivists will have forgotten what it’s like to see the Aurora Borealis from the deck of a Munich Re sponsored research vessel or to hear kittiwakes mewling over the bluey-white ice floes at midnight when it’s still as bright as day or the ratta-tat-tat on their keyboards as they bash out yet another thousand words on the vanishing polar bear. They might not even have jobs which enable them to make the most of their 2.2 in Whale-Watching, Bunny-Hugging and Misanthropy from the University of Easy Access: they might have to get one more suited to their talents, like picking up empty bottles for Greenpeace at pop festivals.
It’s good news for us, though. Me especially. I don’t even have to go looking for stories, like journalists used to have to do in the old days. They just sail right past my nose like this latest dumb-assed Arctic failure expedition just did. I open us all a big bag of popcorn and write it up for Breitbart for our amusement and delectation. And it’s not even as though I’m going to get any competition. About the only people covering this stuff are skeptical bloggers. Most of the mainstream media are looking away, pretending it’s not happening, because it just doesn’t suit their alarmist narrative.
Louis Farrakhan’s Jesus Is Not Our Jesus
Experts say don’t be misled by Nation of Islam’s Christian references—on Facebook or elsewhere.
KATE SHELLNUTT
More than 1 million Facebook users have watched Louis Farrakhan proclaim that the living Jesus will save him from death, and that he will pay a price for his former teachings as the leader of the Nation of Islam.
Yet what seemed to some Christian outsiders like a move toward biblical repentance was, according to expert observers, actually a common tactic in Farrakhan’s messaging: using Christian language to apply to the African American movement’s own theology.
“It sounds like, because he used Jesus, that he’s talking about the biblical Jesus,” said Atlanta preacher Damon Richardson, who was born and raised in the Nation of Islam but found Jesus—the Christian one—at 16.
“I’ve got pastors and friends who are sharing the video, saying, ‘Hallelujah, praise God for this conversion,’ and they are not doing the research.”
Farrakhan gave his remarks earlier this month at a Washington church where he has guest-preached for decades, and posted a clip on Facebook which has been viewed by more than 1.3 million people. The 84-year-old minister said:
I thank God for guiding me for 40 years absent my teacher. So my next journey will have to answer the question. I'm gonna say, I know that my redeemer liveth. I know, I'm not guessing, that my Jesus is alive. I know that my redeemer liveth and because he lives I know that I, too, will pass through the portal of death yet death will not afflict me.
So I say to the devil, I know I gotta pay a price for what I’ve been teaching all these years. You can have the money, you can have the clothes, you can have the suit, you can have the house but, me, you can’t have.
His language rings familiar for churchgoers. But Richardson, an urban apologist speaking on Facebook in response, said the clip offers a lesson in the importance of using sound hermeneutics—including understanding how a message was originally intended and received.
Farrakhan restructured the Nation of Islam in the 1970s following its longtime leader and his mentor Elijah Mohammad, who died in 1975. He ultimately declared Mohammad as a new savior sent from Allah.
“When he says, ‘I know that my redeemer lives,’ this is a reference to the fact that he believes Elijah Mohammad, while physically absent, is physically alive,” Richardson said. (This is a shift in the Nation of Islam’s theology, since founder Wallace Fard Muhammad was originally seen as the savior and was even honored with a holiday called “Saviours’ Day.”)
“When [Farrakhan] says, ‘I know I’m going to have to pay a price for what I’ve been teaching all these years,’ this is not a denouncing of the teaching. This is an affirmation that he believes what he has been teaching is right,” Richardson said. “The price is death, imprisonment, or some sort of persecution for exposing the identity of the devil, who the Nation of Islam teaches is the white man.”
Even after Christians’ due diligence on Farrakhan’s latest remarks reveal that he has not moved away from his own teachings, they can continue to pray for him and all in the Nation of Islam, said apologist and church planter D. A. Horton.
The Nation of Islam began as a black nationalist and Islamic movement to “teach the downtrodden and defenseless black people a thorough knowledge of God and of themselves.” In a 2000 interview with CT, theologian Carl Ellis described the Nation of Islam among several groups with “a theology based on the historical core cultural issues of African Americans—dignity, identity, significance, empowerment—along with various doctrines that claim God is black and the white man is the devil.”
Though its numbers aren’t as high as during the 1960s and 1970s, the group under Farrakhan continues to have a presence in major cities and a closer relationship with some black churches who ascribe to black liberation theology, according to Richardson.
“His relationship with the black church has grown over the year because of his tendency to use Scripture and Christian language,” Richardson said in an interview with CT. “It’s the skin of the truth, stuffed with a lie.”
Farrakhan has made hundreds of references to Jesus over the course of his ministry and incorporated God’s son in his teaching, including attributing the light shining from the east (Matt. 24:27) to Elijah Mohammad.
Many Nation of Islam speakers also follow the “language, symbols, and rhythm of black church culture” in their style, according to Washington pastor Thabiti Anyabwile.
“It is definitely a deceptive means that the Nation of Islam will use to lure unsuspecting Christians,” said pastor Ernest Leo Grant II, who has written about the need for a new approach to defending the Christian faith in the inner city.
Grant, who leads Epiphany Fellowship of Camden, New Jersey, listed the Nation of Islam, along with Moorish Science Temple of America and Black Hebrew Israelites, as the top sects offering urban African Americans an alternative to Christianity.
Farrakhan in particular “is known for appropriating and transposing Christian terms to make them more appealing,” Grant said. “Evangelicals should be concerned about the Nation of Islam in general because they are causing some to fall away.”
Christian rapper Sho Baraka spoke on The Calling podcast about his own upbringing in the Nation of Islam, and the need for theological training to address similar cults and sects that appeal to African Americans.
The growing field of urban apologetics—with an eye toward poverty, justice, diversity, violence, and a city’s cultural distinctives—has worked to train leaders to serve that mission.
“Sadly, in the black community, we have conceded these issues either to liberation theology or to black nationalist groups like the Nation of Islam,” Christopher Brooks, a pastor in Detroit where the Nation of Islam began, told CT in 2013. “There needs to be a strong evangelical voice in our urban areas that says, ‘Here is what the gospel has to say about justice.’”
Rep. DeSantis: House GOP Eager to ‘Take a Sledgehammer to the Tax Code’
Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Friday’s Breitbart News Daily for a look ahead at the battle for tax reform and the potential return of an Obamacare repeal.
“We’ve talked about a lot of principles,” DeSantis said of preparations for political war in the House. “There’s a rough outline. The biggest fight, up until the August recess, had been over the inclusion of a border adjustment tax. I was opposed to that, and many were opposed to it. I basically made the argument it’s not good policy, but even more importantly, it will kill tax reform because you’re just not going to pass it if that’s in there.”
“The Speaker, to his credit, he took it out at the end of July, and so you have kind of the other components, which I think we could rally around,” he reported.
“I hope it’s not the same thing that happened in health care,” said DeSantis. “In health care, you had leadership I think in both the House and the Senate drafting the bill with leadership staffers, lobbyists from the health insurance industry, and you actually had Politico and the industry groups would get the text of the bill before an individual senator, an individual member of Congress, and then it was kind of thrust out there. I think that makes it less likely that tax reform will actually happen.”
“I would recommend that the president really line up specifics on what he wants, and then submit that to the Congress because, if the president’s doing it, people are more likely to rally around it. If it’s done kind of in secret, with different key staffers, and then says, ‘hey, here’s our bill, take it or leave it,’ that’s going to cause friction because members want to be involved,” he observed.
“I’m hoping that the process will be better. I think it will be because they’ve been working on tax reform for a long time. We’ve been having meetings throughout the last several months. I think the more the president can settle on the key things he wants, I think that makes the path in the House much clearer,” he said.
DeSantis said conservatives “are not going to be the problem on tax reform.”
“A lot of us were put on this Earth to cut taxes. We really want to take a sledgehammer to the tax code,” he said. “I think the thing that will potentially make it more difficult for conservatives is if we get caught up in trying to please the Congressional Budget Office.”
“Whatever estimates they do just have not been accurate in the past, so don’t do your policy to please some budget geek in the Congressional Budget Office,” he elaborated. “Do it so that you’re maximizing economic growth. Good policy I think trumps some synthetic analysis. If we’re doing that, I think we’re going to be in really good shape, and I think you’ll see huge support from conservatives for this.”
Marlow noted that an Obamacare repeal is actually back on the congressional radar screen, with a new effort led by former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania gathering support from both prominent Republican politicians and conservative think tanks.
“I think the attractiveness of it is that, with Lindsey Graham doing it, he can probably get McCain to vote for it,” said DeSantis, referring to Senator Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) approval of the Santorum effort and Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) notorious eleventh-hour rescue of Obamacare from the previous repeal effort.
“Obviously, we were one vote short of even doing the ‘skinny’ repeal. My question is, okay, you’re going to block-grant the Obamacare to the states, let states run their own Medicaid programs. I think that’s great. Conservatives have wanted to do that for a long time. Is that also going to be combined with, say, a Cruz consumer freedom amendment so that we can also run our own insurance markets?” he asked.
“Because if you still have Obamacare regulations jacking up premiums on the insurance markets, you’re not going to get relief to the consumers,” he explained. “So in a state like Florida, where we did not expand Medicaid, getting the block grant to run our traditional program is good — don’t get me wrong — but the thing that’s really hurting people here are the premium increases. You have to block-grant that portion of Obamacare as well. That’s kind of the issue I have.”
“I mean, look, if you just block-granted Medicaid and got rid of the individual and employer mandates, would that be better than the status quo? Yes, but I think the devolution should include the insurance apparatus and really devolving the regulatory responsibilities of states,” DeSantis argued. “Because then states can take the money, either from the stability fund that we had talked about in our bills to do kind of a high-risk mitigation for high-risk patients which could really lower premiums for other people. They could also figure out how to do individual market subsidies.”
“There’s a lot you could do there, and I think innovative governors would really have an ability to bring some real relief to people. I think it’s a promising approach. I would much rather the Senate move on that in early September, pass it, then the House will pass it. I mean, we are going to pass what they pass, and then the president would be able to sign it,” he said.
“It opens the door, I think, to really good health care reform. It doesn’t guarantee it. I mean, look, if you live in California, if you live in New York, you’re not going to see any changes from Obamacare — or in Illinois with those governments in place, the legislatures — but you have conservative states where you have good entrepreneurial governors and legislatures that want to change. I think you can see some progress,” DeSantis anticipated.
Marlow sought the congressman’s reaction to rumors that President Trump may repeal President Obama’s DACA amnesty program, despite widespread belief he had been intimidated out of pursuing that 2016 campaign promise.
“I think the president in the campaign was clear that DACA is not lawful,” DeSantis replied. “If you remember, Obama tried to do a legislative amnesty in 2010, with a Democratic Congress, and the bill failed. What he then did, he turned around a year and a half later and he basically did it through the bureaucracy. He was exercising lawmaking power.”
“DAPA was similar, it was just a less sympathetic class of recipients. But that is the president usurping Congress’s authority. I thought what they should have done on Day One is just say, ‘look, we’re not going to issue anything new because we don’t think it’s lawful, so we don’t want to be complicit in that,’” he said.
“And then you would have some people who have it, and should they rely on it if the government induced them to do it? You can argue about that, but certainly to do new work permits and new Social Security numbers when you don’t have lawful authority to do that — I don’t think that should have been done from Day One,” said DeSantis.
Marlow asked DeSantis for his estimate of how disaster relief in hurricane-ravaged Texas is proceeding.
“I think the government has done a much better job than they’ve done in some of these other storms,” he replied. “I think the president deserves a lot of credit. I think his FEMA director has been very strong.”
“What we’ve seen in these disasters as well, which the media doesn’t like to focus on, is a lot of times it’s the state and local officials who can make or break this stuff,” he continued. “Bush got blamed for Katrina, but if you look in Mississippi and Florida and Alabama, they had good governors who got everything done. It was just Louisiana which was a disaster because you had a bad mayor and a bad governor. So you look at people like Greg Abbott in Texas and they’re doing a very good job.”
“It’s a really, really tough situation, and we’ve got to help those folks,” said DeSantis. “I’m going to be involved in giving to private charity for sure, but obviously Congress, we’re going to be legislating the FEMA budget coming up, so I’m sure there’s going to be accommodations made for Texas.”
“We have seen some good leadership really from the ground level up, and so, in a really tragic situation, I think you’ve seen a lot of the best of America,” he said.
DeSantis mocked the media’s obsession with finding some way to criticize President Trump, no matter how bizarre the angle: “In defense of the media, had Melania not worn those high heels on the helicopter, wouldn’t everything be so much better? I mean, they’re really focusing on the core things here.”
“The media, they just keep burying themselves. I mean, it’s just unbelievable some of the things they did. I’m sure you guys have talked about that Politico cartoon where they’re basically trying to indict the people of Texas and all this stuff. I mean, it really is, these people just live in a different universe, and they’ve lost so much credibility,” DeSantis said ruefully.
Marlow proposed that, contrary to conventional pundit wisdom, the 2018 midterm election is looking good for Republicans because “the Democrats are so unappealing right now, and their behavior over the last week has clarified that for a lot of us.”
“I think the Democrats and the media is going to be the best Republican turnout operation in 2018,” DeSantis agreed. “The Trump voters are going to come out, even if they may be disappointed with their individual Republican senator, whoever is up, because they don’t want the media and the Democrats to get their way and win. I think that that will end up redounding to our benefit.”
Trump ramps up Russia tension with consulate shutdown
BY MORGAN CHALFANT
The Trump administration has retaliated against Russia for expelling American diplomats by shuttering Russia’s oldest consulate in the United States along with two annexes, the latest sign of tensions between Washington and Moscow rising despite Trump’s public desire for warmer relations.
The closures were positioned by the State Department as done in the spirit of “parity,” and administration officials have underlined the ultimate goal of improving relations with Russia. Moscow, however, has reacted by accusing the U.S. of escalating tensions, leaving the door open for further retaliation.
The development is the latest in Trump’s rocky relationship with Russia, one that has been consistently viewed in the context of the ongoing investigation into potential collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Moscow during the 2016 election.
Trump critics have hailed the new restrictions on Russian diplomats, which come as a response to a Russian order in July that the U.S. cut diplomatic personnel in the country to 455. That Russian order was itself a response to new penalties imposed on Moscow over election interference.
“It’s a necessary reaction given what Vladimir Putin did,” Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia under the Obama administration, told MSNBC. “We had to respond. I would have liked to see a bigger response, but this is better than no response at all.”
The State Department abruptly announced the move on Thursday, confirming that the U.S. had complied with Russia’s “unwarranted and detrimental” request to reduce its personnel. The new U.S. order gave Moscow just two days to close down the San Francisco consulate — the Kremlin’s oldest and most established in the country — as well as two trade annexes in Washington and New York.
“The United States hopes that, having moved toward the Russian Federation’s desire for parity, we can avoid further retaliatory actions by both sides and move forward to achieve the stated goal of both of our presidents: improved relations between our two countries and increased cooperation on areas of mutual concern,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. “The United States is prepared to take further action as necessary and as warranted.”
U.S. officials and Russian embassy personnel walked through the properties on Saturday to ensure they were vacated and to "secure and protect the facilities," a senior State Department official confirmed to Fox News.
"The Department of State can confirm that the Russian government complied with the order to vacate its Consulate and two annexes," the official said.
The U.S. and Russia now each maintain three consulates within one another’s respective borders, at a time when their relationship is widely perceived to be at its lowest point since the Cold War.
“The issue is, what do the Russians decide to do next?” said Steven Pifer, a retired Foreign Service officer who spent over 25 years with the State Department. “There’s not a large chance, but there’s a chance that you could end up with no consulates in either country.”
“There are probably a number in Moscow who don’t want to play that game,” Pifer, now a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pledged Friday that Russia “will have a tough response to the things that come totally out of the blue to hurt us and are driven solely by the desire to spoil our relations with the United States.”
Russia's foreign ministry drafted a formal "note of protest" to the United States' over the latest move, and summoned Anthony Godfrey, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, to receive it on Saturday.
The White House on Thursday cast the decision as a “firm and measured action” that had been made by Trump, but rejected the notion that the relationship is at a decades-low point.
“We want to halt the downward spiral and we want to move forward towards better relations," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. "But we're also going to make sure that we make decisions that are best for our country.”
The development has added further uncertainty to the president’s ultimate strategy toward Russia. Less than a month ago, Trump was seen “thanking” Russia for expelling the diplomats, a statement the White House later cast as sarcastic.
“It is reassuring for the countries most worried about Russian revisionism,” said Dalibor Rohac, an expert on Europe at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute. “But it hardly alleviates the worries about the ambiguous stance that POTUS has taken towards Russia.”
Trump raised eyebrows during the presidential campaign by repeatedly praising Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As recently as Monday, Trump declined to single out Russia as a “security threat” when asked about Moscow’s role in escalating the situation in the Baltic region.
“I hope that we do have good relations with Russia,” Trump told reporters at a joint press briefing with the president of Finland. “I say it loud and clear, I have been saying it for years. I think it's a good thing if we have great relationships, or at least good relationships, with Russia.”
Pifer said that he has been “puzzled” by Trump’s statements on Russia because he does not articulate the need for Russia to change its behavior when calling for warmer ties.
“While I agree with the sentiment, I am puzzled by his reluctance to be critical of Russia,” Pifer said.
Other administration officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have signaled to Russia that the U.S. stance will remain the same unless the Kremlin changes its policies on to Ukraine and other issues.
“You see the administration internally struggling given differences between the cabinet and the president,” said Peter Harrell, a former State Department official under Obama who worked on sanctions policy.
A senior administration official told reporters on Thursday that the U.S. welcomes the opportunity to improve relations in the event that Russia addresses certain “concerns.”Trump ramps up Russia tension with consulate shutdown
Trump ramps up Russia tension with consulate shutdown
The Trump administration has retaliated against Russia for expelling American diplomats by shuttering Russia’s oldest consulate in the United States along with two annexes, the latest sign of tensions between Washington and Moscow rising despite Trump’s public desire for warmer relations.
The closures were positioned by the State Department as done in the spirit of “parity,” and administration officials have underlined the ultimate goal of improving relations with Russia. Moscow, however, has reacted by accusing the U.S. of escalating tensions, leaving the door open for further retaliation.
The development is the latest in Trump’s rocky relationship with Russia, one that has been consistently viewed in the context of the ongoing investigation into potential collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Moscow during the 2016 election.
Trump critics have hailed the new restrictions on Russian diplomats, which come as a response to a Russian order in July that the U.S. cut diplomatic personnel in the country to 455. That Russian order was itself a response to new penalties imposed on Moscow over election interference.
“It’s a necessary reaction given what Vladimir Putin did,” Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia under the Obama administration, told MSNBC. “We had to respond. I would have liked to see a bigger response, but this is better than no response at all.”
The State Department abruptly announced the move on Thursday, confirming that the U.S. had complied with Russia’s “unwarranted and detrimental” request to reduce its personnel. The new U.S. order gave Moscow just two days to close down the San Francisco consulate — the Kremlin’s oldest and most established in the country — as well as two trade annexes in Washington and New York.
“The United States hopes that, having moved toward the Russian Federation’s desire for parity, we can avoid further retaliatory actions by both sides and move forward to achieve the stated goal of both of our presidents: improved relations between our two countries and increased cooperation on areas of mutual concern,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. “The United States is prepared to take further action as necessary and as warranted.”
U.S. officials and Russian embassy personnel walked through the properties on Saturday to ensure they were vacated and to "secure and protect the facilities," a senior State Department official confirmed to Fox News.
"The Department of State can confirm that the Russian government complied with the order to vacate its Consulate and two annexes," the official said.
The U.S. and Russia now each maintain three consulates within one another’s respective borders, at a time when their relationship is widely perceived to be at its lowest point since the Cold War.
“The issue is, what do the Russians decide to do next?” said Steven Pifer, a retired Foreign Service officer who spent over 25 years with the State Department. “There’s not a large chance, but there’s a chance that you could end up with no consulates in either country.”
“There are probably a number in Moscow who don’t want to play that game,” Pifer, now a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pledged Friday that Russia “will have a tough response to the things that come totally out of the blue to hurt us and are driven solely by the desire to spoil our relations with the United States.”
Russia's foreign ministry drafted a formal "note of protest" to the United States' over the latest move, and summoned Anthony Godfrey, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, to receive it on Saturday.
The White House on Thursday cast the decision as a “firm and measured action” that had been made by Trump, but rejected the notion that the relationship is at a decades-low point.
“We want to halt the downward spiral and we want to move forward towards better relations," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. "But we're also going to make sure that we make decisions that are best for our country.”
The development has added further uncertainty to the president’s ultimate strategy toward Russia. Less than a month ago, Trump was seen “thanking” Russia for expelling the diplomats, a statement the White House later cast as sarcastic.
“It is reassuring for the countries most worried about Russian revisionism,” said Dalibor Rohac, an expert on Europe at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute. “But it hardly alleviates the worries about the ambiguous stance that POTUS has taken towards Russia.”
Trump raised eyebrows during the presidential campaign by repeatedly praising Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As recently as Monday, Trump declined to single out Russia as a “security threat” when asked about Moscow’s role in escalating the situation in the Baltic region.
“I hope that we do have good relations with Russia,” Trump told reporters at a joint press briefing with the president of Finland. “I say it loud and clear, I have been saying it for years. I think it's a good thing if we have great relationships, or at least good relationships, with Russia.”
Pifer said that he has been “puzzled” by Trump’s statements on Russia because he does not articulate the need for Russia to change its behavior when calling for warmer ties.
“While I agree with the sentiment, I am puzzled by his reluctance to be critical of Russia,” Pifer said.
Other administration officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have signaled to Russia that the U.S. stance will remain the same unless the Kremlin changes its policies on to Ukraine and other issues.
“You see the administration internally struggling given differences between the cabinet and the president,” said Peter Harrell, a former State Department official under Obama who worked on sanctions policy.
A senior administration official told reporters on Thursday that the U.S. welcomes the opportunity to improve relations in the event that Russia addresses certain “concerns.”
“We have areas of contention between our two countries and concerns that the Russian side has not addressed,” the official said. “Certainly, if the Russian side wanted to address some of our concerns, we would always be willing to listen and keep an open mind because our fundamental goal is to find a way to improve the relations between our countries.”
The closure of the facilities is the latest in a tit-for-tat fight between the U.S. government and the Kremlin that was triggered when Congress passed a bill levying new sanctions against Moscow earlier this number. Trump was forced to sign the bill, which also restricts the president’s ability to ease sanctions on Russia, after it passed with a veto-proof majority.
For now, Moscow appears to still be considering its response. The administration gave Russia until Saturday to close down the facilities.
“The new steps push our bilateral relations even further into a dead end and contradict other high level announcements,” a Kremlin foreign policy aide told reporters on Friday.
“There have been words, but there's no readiness to cooperate yet. This is about further escalating tensions. We regret this and will calmly think about how we might respond.”
Trump says "water disappearing" as he helps load supplies during Houston...
Trump ramps up Russia tension with consulate shutdown
The Trump administration has retaliated against Russia for expelling American diplomats by shuttering Russia’s oldest consulate in the United States along with two annexes, the latest sign of tensions between Washington and Moscow rising despite Trump’s public desire for warmer relations.
The closures were positioned by the State Department as done in the spirit of “parity,” and administration officials have underlined the ultimate goal of improving relations with Russia. Moscow, however, has reacted by accusing the U.S. of escalating tensions, leaving the door open for further retaliation.
The development is the latest in Trump’s rocky relationship with Russia, one that has been consistently viewed in the context of the ongoing investigation into potential collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Moscow during the 2016 election.
Trump critics have hailed the new restrictions on Russian diplomats, which come as a response to a Russian order in July that the U.S. cut diplomatic personnel in the country to 455. That Russian order was itself a response to new penalties imposed on Moscow over election interference.
“It’s a necessary reaction given what Vladimir Putin did,” Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia under the Obama administration, told MSNBC. “We had to respond. I would have liked to see a bigger response, but this is better than no response at all.”
The State Department abruptly announced the move on Thursday, confirming that the U.S. had complied with Russia’s “unwarranted and detrimental” request to reduce its personnel. The new U.S. order gave Moscow just two days to close down the San Francisco consulate — the Kremlin’s oldest and most established in the country — as well as two trade annexes in Washington and New York.
“The United States hopes that, having moved toward the Russian Federation’s desire for parity, we can avoid further retaliatory actions by both sides and move forward to achieve the stated goal of both of our presidents: improved relations between our two countries and increased cooperation on areas of mutual concern,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. “The United States is prepared to take further action as necessary and as warranted.”
U.S. officials and Russian embassy personnel walked through the properties on Saturday to ensure they were vacated and to "secure and protect the facilities," a senior State Department official confirmed to Fox News.
"The Department of State can confirm that the Russian government complied with the order to vacate its Consulate and two annexes," the official said.
The U.S. and Russia now each maintain three consulates within one another’s respective borders, at a time when their relationship is widely perceived to be at its lowest point since the Cold War.
“The issue is, what do the Russians decide to do next?” said Steven Pifer, a retired Foreign Service officer who spent over 25 years with the State Department. “There’s not a large chance, but there’s a chance that you could end up with no consulates in either country.”
“There are probably a number in Moscow who don’t want to play that game,” Pifer, now a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pledged Friday that Russia “will have a tough response to the things that come totally out of the blue to hurt us and are driven solely by the desire to spoil our relations with the United States.”
Russia's foreign ministry drafted a formal "note of protest" to the United States' over the latest move, and summoned Anthony Godfrey, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, to receive it on Saturday.
The White House on Thursday cast the decision as a “firm and measured action” that had been made by Trump, but rejected the notion that the relationship is at a decades-low point.
“We want to halt the downward spiral and we want to move forward towards better relations," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. "But we're also going to make sure that we make decisions that are best for our country.”
The development has added further uncertainty to the president’s ultimate strategy toward Russia. Less than a month ago, Trump was seen “thanking” Russia for expelling the diplomats, a statement the White House later cast as sarcastic.
“It is reassuring for the countries most worried about Russian revisionism,” said Dalibor Rohac, an expert on Europe at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute. “But it hardly alleviates the worries about the ambiguous stance that POTUS has taken towards Russia.”
Trump raised eyebrows during the presidential campaign by repeatedly praising Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As recently as Monday, Trump declined to single out Russia as a “security threat” when asked about Moscow’s role in escalating the situation in the Baltic region.
“I hope that we do have good relations with Russia,” Trump told reporters at a joint press briefing with the president of Finland. “I say it loud and clear, I have been saying it for years. I think it's a good thing if we have great relationships, or at least good relationships, with Russia.”
Pifer said that he has been “puzzled” by Trump’s statements on Russia because he does not articulate the need for Russia to change its behavior when calling for warmer ties.
“While I agree with the sentiment, I am puzzled by his reluctance to be critical of Russia,” Pifer said.
Other administration officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have signaled to Russia that the U.S. stance will remain the same unless the Kremlin changes its policies on to Ukraine and other issues.
“You see the administration internally struggling given differences between the cabinet and the president,” said Peter Harrell, a former State Department official under Obama who worked on sanctions policy.
A senior administration official told reporters on Thursday that the U.S. welcomes the opportunity to improve relations in the event that Russia addresses certain “concerns.”
“We have areas of contention between our two countries and concerns that the Russian side has not addressed,” the official said. “Certainly, if the Russian side wanted to address some of our concerns, we would always be willing to listen and keep an open mind because our fundamental goal is to find a way to improve the relations between our countries.”
The closure of the facilities is the latest in a tit-for-tat fight between the U.S. government and the Kremlin that was triggered when Congress passed a bill levying new sanctions against Moscow earlier this number. Trump was forced to sign the bill, which also restricts the president’s ability to ease sanctions on Russia, after it passed with a veto-proof majority.
For now, Moscow appears to still be considering its response. The administration gave Russia until Saturday to close down the facilities.
“The new steps push our bilateral relations even further into a dead end and contradict other high level announcements,” a Kremlin foreign policy aide told reporters on Friday.
“There have been words, but there's no readiness to cooperate yet. This is about further escalating tensions. We regret this and will calmly think about how we might respond.”
Trump says "water disappearing" as he helps load supplies during Houston...
G’ day…Ciao…
Helen and Moe Lauzier
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