Title :
link :
WWW.MOEISSUESOFTHEDAY
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Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018
All Gave Some~Some Gave All
Pat Sajak Rips Liberals Who Threw a Fit at the SOTU Speech
BY CHRIS GOLDEN
During the State of the Union speech, congressional liberals showed us what they stood for: Nothing.
When the president announced the economy was stronger and African-American and Hispanic unemployment were at an all-time low, most of them didn’t stand.
When the president talked about unity, they didn’t stand.
It was pretty noticeable for everyone, including “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak. In a Twitter post, he roasted the Democrats over their decision to keep their seats during most of the president’s speech.
“What a great prank!” Sajak tweeted Tuesday. “Somebody put glue on half of the seats at State of the Union Address!”
It may have seemed that way, but it wasn’t entirely true. For instance, Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez stormed out of the speech when Republicans were chanting “USA! USA!”
This was all in spite of the fact that Trump’s first official State of the Union had a lot more talk about unity than the Democrats would have likely expected.
“I am extending an open hand to work with members of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, to protect our citizens of every background, color, religion, and creed,” Trump said on immigration.
When he talked about the Las Vegas shooting, Trump said, “But it is not enough only to come together in times of tragedy. Tonight, I call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground, and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people. This is really the key. These were the people we were elected to serve.”
This not only didn’t get many people standing on the Democrat side of the aisle, it got a rather pointed glare from Nancy Pelosi.
Most viewers approved of the speech. In fact, the first poll to come out after the State of the Union indicated 75 percent of the audience liked the president’s message.
Maybe staying glued to their seats wasn’t the best idea, particularly in an election year.
James Woods Calls Kennedy and Pelosi “Political Roadkill” in Epic Post-SOTU Tweet
BY V SAXENA
A petty attempt by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to slam President Donald Trump for his otherwise very well-received State of the Union address this week failed epically after conservative actor James Woods fired back with one of the most brutal replies in recent Twitter history.
“@realDonaldTrump may have painfully tried to deceive the American people into thinking he’s not an unstable person, but no one’s falling for it,” Pelosi tweeted early Wednesday morning, a couple hours after Trump delivered the speech.
“Rep. Joe Kennedy, on the other hand, embodied our values as a country and exemplified the optimism that Americans are seeking,” she added, referencing the widely ridiculed Democrat rebuttal delivered after the SOTU.
Look:
Nancy Pelosi ✔@TeamPelosi.@realDonaldTrump may have painfully tried to deceive the American people into thinking he's not an unstable person, but no one's falling for it.
Rep. Joe Kennedy, on the other hand, embodied our values as a country and exemplified the optimism that Americans are seeking. #SOTU
Rep. Joe Kennedy, on the other hand, embodied our values as a country and exemplified the optimism that Americans are seeking. #SOTU
12:49 AM - Jan 31, 2018
Just to be clear, a CBS News poll showed that a 97 percent majority of Republicans, 72 percent majority of Independents and a stunning 43 percent of Democrats approved of the president’s speech. Not Pelosi, though, who spent much of the speech making odd facial gestures that made it look as if she was munching on her dentures.
Conversely, the small number of Americans who tuned in for Kennedy’s rebuttal were too distracted by what People magazine described as “the Massachusetts representative’s shiny lips” to pay much heed to the nonsense he was spouting.
Considering the way the mainstream media still fawns over all things Kennedy, that story isn’t likely to be questioned too closely. But James Woods had a different take.
Now, cue his brutal reply:
Joe was drooling and you were chomping your dentures. Trump rolled over both of you like political roadkill. https://twitter.com/teampelosi/status/958577943462150145 …
2:00 PM - Jan 31, 2018
Ouch. He somewhat nailed it, though. I say only “somewhat” because, truthfully speaking, Trump rolled over the entire Democrat Party that night by demonstrating how much contemporary Democrats hate America.
“They grimaced. They groaned. They booed and hissed,” he wrote, describing the Democrats’ behavior during the SOTU. “And it wasn’t just that they disapproved of Trump on policy. It’s that they refused to stand for things they supposedly believe in because they hate Trump so much. Paid family leave? They sat. Infrastructure spending? They sat. Amnesty for 1.8 million illegal immigrants? They sat.
“And then they sat some more. They sat when Trump touted the American flag. They sat when Trump touted American freedom. They sat when Trump touted low black unemployment rates. They sat when Trump cheered American opportunity.”
Shapiro believes they sat because they hate Trump more than they love America, but I contend they sat because they hate America, period. They hate American freedoms and liberties; they hate the American culture of entrepreneurship, innovation and success; and they most certainly hate American history.
And by putting their hatred of America on full display this Tuesday evening, the Democrats may have just turned themselves into “political roadkill” for real.
Please share this story on Facebook and Twitter and let us know what you think about James Woods’ brutal reply to Pelosi.
What do you think about the Democrats' behavior during the SOTU address?
The Problem of Identity Politics and its Solution” is the title of a speech delivered at Hillsdale College by Matthew Continetti. You can read it in its entirety by clicking on the link below. Its long but worth your time. I was fascinated by how it ended:
“We should also remember the words of a great American nationalist, Abraham Lincoln, at the close of his First Inaugural Address:”
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Trump Rages Over FISA Memo
If you’re like most of us here and have been paying attention to non-fake-news, then you like it when Trump gets mad. It isn’t that we enjoy seeing him have a bad time, it’s that when Trump gets mad he makes things happen… great things… things that make America great again.
That’s just what happened earlier this week when after a lot of efforts to get the bombshell FISA memo to be released so that Americans can see and know for certain just how screwed over they have been by Deep State Democrats over the previous decade or so.
If you’ve been paying attention, then you know that Trump’s policies have resulted in record lows in African-American unemployment, female unemployment, and Hispanic unemployment. And if you watched the State of the Union Speech and listened to any of the left wing response to it, then you know that Democrats are not very excited about Trump coming through on the things he promised us during the election.
Nancy Pelosi and a bunch of democrat quislings propped themselves up in front of a camera to show America how sad they are that things are going so well for Trump and the MAGA movement. You know the Dems have lost when they act sad instead of outraged. Everything they’ve done to stymie the recovery has failed, and now they’re hoping their crocodile tears are going to get a pity response and bring them back to the table. Fat chance!
If you’ll excuse us basking in the glow of a truly magnificent SOTU speech, how about when he said, “Americans are dreamers too!” Yes, we are Mr. President, and our dreams appear to be coming true.
Over the weekend of the 20th of January, while President Trump was en route to speak at Davos he reportedly expressed his extreme displeasure at the fact that the FISA memo is being withheld. And as we already talked about we all know what happens when Trump gets angry—things happen.
And that’s exactly what happened. On Monday, the House intelligence committee, voted to declassify the memo and release it to the public. The committee’s vote, spearheaded by Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, means the four-page document could be made public as early as today.
Under an obscure committee rule, the President now has five days following the vote to decide whether to allow the memo to be released to the public or object to it.
According to sources, Trump’s desire to see the memo released was shared with Attorney General Jeff Sessions by John Kelly, the White House Chief of Staff on Wednesday the 24th of January. This placed the administration at odds with the DOJ which said releasing the memo would be reckless if it was done before they had a chance to redact sensitive information.
Well, if you’ve ever seen an unclassified government document released under a Freedom of Information Act request, most of the time the redactions are so pervasive that you can’t make heads or tails of the information it contains. Sometimes whole pages are blanked out.
What good would it do if the memo was released and all we could see were four pages with one giant black rectangle covering each page? This is a part of the frustration Trump felt when he “erupted in anger” during his journey to Davos and got word that Associate Attorney General Stephen Boyd sent a letter of warning that it would be, in his words, “extraordinarily reckless” to release the classified memo written by House staffers and that it would undermine the Russian collusion investigation.
Of course, it would undermine the Russian collusion investigation! That’s because it proves the claims of the Russian collusion investigation are lies created by illegal means.
~ American Liberty Report
Under Trump, US Oil Production Hits Level Not Seen Since the Nixon Administration
U.S. oil production hit a historic milestone, pulling more than 10 million barrels per day out of the ground last November, according to the latest federal data.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday that crude production hit 10.038 million barrels per day, nearly beating the all-time record of 10.044 million barrels per day hit in November 1970, during the administration of former President Richard Nixon.
It’s good news for President Donald Trump’s agenda, which promotes U.S. “energy dominance.”
Trump touted the impacts of his regulatory rollbacks in his first State of the Union address Tuesday night.
“We have ended the war on American energy — and we have ended the war on clean coal,” Trump said.
“We are now an exporter of energy to the world.”
Indeed, the Trump administration has rolled back regulations on energy production and offered up more parcels for drilling.
However, almost all of the oil production gains came from hydraulic fracturing operations on private and state lands.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration
“Just a decade ago, our net imports were 60 percent of total demand. Now, they’re 20 percent,” economist Daniel Yergin told CNBC.
“U.S. oil production, in fact, was half of what it is now a decade ago, during the financial crisis in 2008. But the high oil prices of 2008 were also the catalyst that propelled the U.S. shale industry, which has used evolving new technologies to extract oil from places once thought impossible.”
In just a few years, the U.S. is now poised to overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s second-largest oil producer.
Analysts project that U.S. oil production could top 11 million barrels per day next year.
Saudi production currently sits at 10.6 million barrels per day.
“The U.S. could add upwards of 2 million barrels a day from where we are today by the end of 2019,” Yergin said.
“U.S. oil production, in fact, was half of what it is now a decade ago, during the financial crisis in 2008. But the high oil prices of 2008 were also the catalyst that propelled the U.S. shale industry, which has used evolving new technologies to extract oil from places once thought impossible.”
In just a few years, the U.S. is now poised to overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s second-largest oil producer.
Analysts project that U.S. oil production could top 11 million barrels per day next year.
Saudi production currently sits at 10.6 million barrels per day.
“The U.S. could add upwards of 2 million barrels a day from where we are today by the end of 2019,” Yergin said.
Black Writer: Black Caucus’ Behavior During SOTU Shows They Are ‘Slaves’ to Democratic Party
It’s safe to say political commentator Candace Owens isn’t a fan of the Democratic Party or the Congressional Black Caucus, especially after the behavior they displayed during President Donald Trump’s recent State of the Union address.
After the ceremony, Owens, otherwise known as Red Pill Black, posted a series of tweets bashing the Democratic Party’s treatment of black Americans and blatant disrespect for the accomplishments achieved under the Trump administration.
Candace Owens@RealCandaceOPhew. Turns out it's not just the triumphs of black people that Democrats hate; It's
America in general.
9:40 PM - Jan 30, 2018
The young conservative continued her Twitter rant by stating that members of the Congressional Black Caucus who remained seated during the standing ovation would have stood if the announcement came from former President Barack Obama. She added that those members who sat idly during the ovation “are nothing more than slaves to the Democratic Party.”
If Obama had announced that black unemployment was at an all time low, the black caucus would have leapt to their feet and erupted into cheers. Their silence last night proves that they do not hold black interests. They are nothing more than slaves to the Democratic Party.
8:41 PM - Jan 31, 2018
The YouTube star also came to the defense of black conservatives who are often ostracized and ridiculed for sociopolitical beliefs that differ from 87% of the black community that politically aligns with the Democratic Party.
“For too long, blacks that have been trying to help the black community have been labeled coons, while those that wish to destroy it have been celebrated as heroes,” Owens wrote. “That chapter is coming to an end.
“BlackAmerica is on the brink of an ideological revolution. We can’t be stopped.”
For too long, blacks that have been trying to help the black community have been labeled coons, while those that wish to destroy it have been celebrated as heroes. That chapter is coming to an end. BlackAmerica is on the brink of an ideological revolution. We can't be stopped.
Owens’ diatribe came after cameras captured multiple members of the Congressional Black Caucus refusing to applaud and commemorate the various accomplishments achieved under the Trump administration.
During one moment in particular, Trump announced that “African American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded.”
The majority of the crowd stood to its feet and applauded the significant announcement.
But as the camera panned over the crowd, something noticeable stood out — a majority Democrats and black caucus members remained seated with dejected looks on their faces.
The conservative commentator also took several other jabs at Democrats during her Twitter tirade.
She warned her followers that “radical islamists” aren’t the only threat to America.
“If you think radical islamists are the only threat to America, you must not be watching the #SOTU,” Owens tweeted Tuesday night. “Holy crap, Democrats.”
Candace Owens@RealCandaceOIf you think radical islamists are the only threat to America, you must not be watching the #SOTU. Holy crap, Democrats.
9:46 PM - Jan 30, 2018
While Owens may have been the most vocal about her disdain for the behavior of Democrats, she wasn’t the only person to voice opposition to the stunt.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., aired his grievances with the decision on Wednesday.
“I was very, very upset when I saw the Republicans never, ever stood up with Barack Obama, and there was things I didn’t agree about President Obama in his speech,” he told MSNBC.
“But I was taught in West Virginia there’s a little bit of respect, and you should show that. And I did that then, and I did it last night,” he continued. “I think the Democrats were wrong in not showing respect. That’s just me.”
Pollster Frank Luntz After Watching SOTU: ‘Tonight, I Owe Donald Trump an Apology’
By Erin Coates
A former President Trump hater admitted that he owed the president an apology after the State of the Union address Tuesday night.
Frank Luntz, a pollster who has had many feuds with Trump in the past, tweeted his appreciation for his former adversary and said, “Tonight, I owe Donald Trump an apology.”
Tonight, I owe Donald Trump an apology. Tonight, I was moved and inspired. Tonight, I have hope and faith in America again. It may go away tomorrow… But tonight, America is great again. #SOTU
Luntz’s Twitter feed was filled with praises for Trump’s speech.
This speech represents the presidential performance that Trump observers have been waiting for – brilliant mix of numbers and stories, humility and aggressiveness, traditional conservatism and political populism. Only one word qualifies: Wow. #SOTU
In a different Tweet, the pollster acknowledged his past criticism of the president but added “tonight is Donald Trump at his very best. He’s personalized his language and policies better than I’ve ever seen.”
In August 2015, Luntz conducted a focus group and trashed Trump, The Washington Times reported. In response, the then-businessman took to the media to accuse the pollster of taking revenge.
“I watch this guy do a really negative report on me, and the only reason he did it, in my opinion, is because I didn’t want to hire him commercially,” Trump said to Business Insider. “I think it’s disgusting… I think he uses his power at Fox to maybe — to get work.”
Lutz denied the accusations and said, “This guy has got considerable support, and he’s going to have considerable support all the way through. He’s also got considerable enemies, and he doesn’t like it when anyone says that he’s not great.”
Politico also did a report in 2015 on the feud “with Trump calling on Fox News to fire Luntz from overseeing its post-debate focus groups, and Luntz launching a profanity-laden tirade to describe the real estate showman turned renegade presidential candidate.”
Now, it seems that Luntz has changed his tune.
This speech is going to have a measurable impact on Trump's favorability and popularity. He's saying exactly what people want to hear. Whoever told @TheDemocrats to sit on their hands made a huge mistake. #SOTU
9:47 PM - Jan 30, 2018
“This speech is going to have a measurable impact on Trump’s favorability and popularity,” he wrote.
Lutz acknowledged that many of his 246,000 followers probably will not agree with his sudden change of heart. He told them to “Tune into @Morning_Joe now, then come back to yell at me on Twitter…”
On “Morning Joe,” the pollster debated with Joe Scarborough over the speech.
“Why is it that everything he says drives the left nuts?” Luntz asked. “Just because Republicans criticized Barack Obama — we all agree that it went too much, it was hyper-partisanship — we have that right now from the Donald Trump speech and that’s wrong.”
“This speech is going to have a measurable impact on Trump’s favorability and popularity,” he wrote.
Lutz acknowledged that many of his 246,000 followers probably will not agree with his sudden change of heart. He told them to “Tune into @Morning_Joe now, then come back to yell at me on Twitter…”
On “Morning Joe,” the pollster debated with Joe Scarborough over the speech.
“Why is it that everything he says drives the left nuts?” Luntz asked. “Just because Republicans criticized Barack Obama — we all agree that it went too much, it was hyper-partisanship — we have that right now from the Donald Trump speech and that’s wrong.”
Furor grows over Devin Nunes intel memo
Trump to allow release of controversial memo
BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS AND JONATHAN EASLEY
The furor surrounding a controversial Republican-drafted memo alleging surveillance abuses at the Department of Justice reached a fever pitch on Thursday as the White House signaled that the release could be imminent.
President Trump has viewed the memo and been briefed on its contents. A senior administration official said the president supports making the memo public and is expected to sign off on its release as soon as Friday.
“It’s in Congress’s hands after that,” the official said.
But even as Trump inches closer to approving its release, the document has divided Republicans on Capitol Hill and led to calls from top Democrats for the removal of House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who spearheaded the document.
Nunes, whose committee would ultimately release the document, is under pressure to deliver after conservatives hinted heavily that the document holds the key to putting a stop to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia and the president’s campaign.
The Department of Justice and the FBI have fiercely opposed the release of the memo on the grounds that it is misleading and could expose sensitive intelligence sources and methods. Nunes has fired back sharply at the FBI’s efforts to cast doubt on the veracity of the document, calling their objections “spurious” and doubling down on the need to release the memo.
The White House and the bureau have been wrangling over what redactions, if any, to apply to the document. Committee Republicans have said redactions are unnecessary.
The White House official insisted that the memo “doesn’t give away too much in terms of classification” and said that significant redactions appeared unlikely.
The drama took another unexpected turn on Wednesday night when Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, accused Nunes of altering the memo ahead of its release. Nunes says he only changed the memo to clean-up grammatical errors and to make additions that Schiff and the FBI had asked for.
Democrats have drafted their own counter-memo to rebut the Republican-drafted document. The majority on the House Intelligence Committee voted against making that document public earlier this week, although it could still be released.
But even as the embattled chairman has defended the memo, other senior Republicans have begun urging caution. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) this week pleaded with GOP members not to overplay the document’s findings and not to tie it to the Mueller investigation.
“What this is not is an indictment on our institutions, of our justice system. This memo is not an indictment of the FBI, of the Department of Justice. It does not impugn [Robert Mueller’s Russia] investigation or the deputy attorney general,” Ryan said Thursday at the Republican retreat in West Virginia.
“What it is, is the Congress’s legitimate function of oversight to make sure the FISA process is being used correctly,” he added. “If it wasn’t being used correctly, that needs to come to light and people need to be held accountable so this doesn’t affect our civil liberties.”
Then, on Thursday, Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune(R-S.D.) told reporters that Nunes should heed the FBI’s concerns and share the memo with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) before releasing it publicly, noting that Burr has been unable to obtain the document.
“There are important national security considerations they need to weigh, and hopefully they’re doing that,” Thune said.
Thune also said that if Republicans move forward in releasing the Nunes memo, they should release the document authored by Democrats at the same time.
The uproar over the Nunes document has stoked speculation that FBI Director Chris Wray, tapped to lead the bureau after Trump fired former director James Comey, could quit if the memo is made public. There is also speculation that Trump could fire deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing Mueller’s special counsel investigation after attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from the matter.
There is deep anger in the law enforcement community at Nunes and the Republicans, who had long been seen as allies of the FBI. Ron Hosko, a former assistant director at the FBI, expressed disbelief that the bureau is at the mercy of Schiff and the Democrats to defend its integrity.
“We have a cloud of the FBI and Justice Department and it was put there by Devin Nunes,” Hosko said. “I don’t believe it. It’s not what you’d expect from our Congress.”
How and when the Nunes document will be made public remains an open question. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), a senior member of the intelligence panel, told reporters earlier in the week that it will likely be read into the congressional record, something that can only be done when the House is in session. The chamber is scheduled to convene for a pro forma session at 4:30 on Friday afternoon.
The precise contents of the memo remain unknown. However, it’s believed to contain allegations that the FBI did not adequately explain to a clandestine court that some of the information used in a surveillance warrant application for Trump campaign adviser Carter Page came from what is known as the "Steele dossier," which is composed of opposition research partially funded by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Lawmakers that have reviewed the document have also said it will “name names,” an indication that it could raise new questions about the conduct of FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who disparaged Trump in private text messages.
Strzok was a central figure in the investigation into Clinton’s private email arrangement and the separate investigation into whether Trump officials had improper contacts with Moscow during the election. Strzok and Page were on Mueller’s special counsel team but were reassigned last year.
“There’s a problem with some of the people at the highest levels of the bureau and that needs to be investigated, and the American people need to understand why and that will be aided, not completely, but aided by the release of this memo,” House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) told reporters on Thursday.
Committee Democrats describe the document as a dangerous politicization of intelligence — a cherry-picked set of data points designed to damage Mueller’s investigation — and they have launched a broadside offensive against the document. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) is pressing Nunes on whether he worked with the White House to produce the memo in the first place, while Schiff is arguing that the memo should be withdrawn from the White House because it was edited after the vote.
It's unclear what changes were made. A spokesman for Nunes said that Democrats were "complaining about minor edits ... including grammatical fixes and two edits requested by the FBI and the Minority themselves."
Democrats say the changes are far more substantive. A committee source said the changes were "not cosmetic" and "try to water down some of the majority's assertions."
House conservatives are still pushing for the release of the memo.
“So the FBI is worried about omissions? Ok then — let's put all the documents out there. Tell Americans the full story. I don't think they want that either, though — they've been stonewalling Congress for a year. It's time for full transparency,” tweeted House Freedom Caucus chair Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), adding, “#ReleaseTheMemo.”
Meanwhile, Democratic leaders Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sent letters to Ryan on Thursday demanding that Nunes be removed from the Intelligence Committee. Nunes broke House rules, Pelosi wrote, when he “altered the contents of the reckless, partisan memo” in an effort to “discredit the investigations into the Trump-Russia scandal.”
“Chairman Nunes’ deliberately dishonest actions make him unfit to serve as Chairman, and he must be immediately removed from this position,” she continued.
“It is long overdue that you, as Speaker, put an end to this charade and hold Chairman Nunes and all Congressional Republicans accountable to the oath they have taken to support and defend the Constitution, and protect the American people.”
Ryan rejected that call on Thursday.
Pelosi and Schumer “are just playing politics and they are looking for a political distraction,” he said.
President Trump has viewed the memo and been briefed on its contents. A senior administration official said the president supports making the memo public and is expected to sign off on its release as soon as Friday.
“It’s in Congress’s hands after that,” the official said.
But even as Trump inches closer to approving its release, the document has divided Republicans on Capitol Hill and led to calls from top Democrats for the removal of House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who spearheaded the document.
Nunes, whose committee would ultimately release the document, is under pressure to deliver after conservatives hinted heavily that the document holds the key to putting a stop to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia and the president’s campaign.
The Department of Justice and the FBI have fiercely opposed the release of the memo on the grounds that it is misleading and could expose sensitive intelligence sources and methods. Nunes has fired back sharply at the FBI’s efforts to cast doubt on the veracity of the document, calling their objections “spurious” and doubling down on the need to release the memo.
The White House and the bureau have been wrangling over what redactions, if any, to apply to the document. Committee Republicans have said redactions are unnecessary.
The White House official insisted that the memo “doesn’t give away too much in terms of classification” and said that significant redactions appeared unlikely.
The drama took another unexpected turn on Wednesday night when Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, accused Nunes of altering the memo ahead of its release. Nunes says he only changed the memo to clean-up grammatical errors and to make additions that Schiff and the FBI had asked for.
Democrats have drafted their own counter-memo to rebut the Republican-drafted document. The majority on the House Intelligence Committee voted against making that document public earlier this week, although it could still be released.
But even as the embattled chairman has defended the memo, other senior Republicans have begun urging caution. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) this week pleaded with GOP members not to overplay the document’s findings and not to tie it to the Mueller investigation.
“What this is not is an indictment on our institutions, of our justice system. This memo is not an indictment of the FBI, of the Department of Justice. It does not impugn [Robert Mueller’s Russia] investigation or the deputy attorney general,” Ryan said Thursday at the Republican retreat in West Virginia.
“What it is, is the Congress’s legitimate function of oversight to make sure the FISA process is being used correctly,” he added. “If it wasn’t being used correctly, that needs to come to light and people need to be held accountable so this doesn’t affect our civil liberties.”
Then, on Thursday, Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune(R-S.D.) told reporters that Nunes should heed the FBI’s concerns and share the memo with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) before releasing it publicly, noting that Burr has been unable to obtain the document.
“There are important national security considerations they need to weigh, and hopefully they’re doing that,” Thune said.
Thune also said that if Republicans move forward in releasing the Nunes memo, they should release the document authored by Democrats at the same time.
The uproar over the Nunes document has stoked speculation that FBI Director Chris Wray, tapped to lead the bureau after Trump fired former director James Comey, could quit if the memo is made public. There is also speculation that Trump could fire deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing Mueller’s special counsel investigation after attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from the matter.
There is deep anger in the law enforcement community at Nunes and the Republicans, who had long been seen as allies of the FBI. Ron Hosko, a former assistant director at the FBI, expressed disbelief that the bureau is at the mercy of Schiff and the Democrats to defend its integrity.
“We have a cloud of the FBI and Justice Department and it was put there by Devin Nunes,” Hosko said. “I don’t believe it. It’s not what you’d expect from our Congress.”
How and when the Nunes document will be made public remains an open question. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), a senior member of the intelligence panel, told reporters earlier in the week that it will likely be read into the congressional record, something that can only be done when the House is in session. The chamber is scheduled to convene for a pro forma session at 4:30 on Friday afternoon.
The precise contents of the memo remain unknown. However, it’s believed to contain allegations that the FBI did not adequately explain to a clandestine court that some of the information used in a surveillance warrant application for Trump campaign adviser Carter Page came from what is known as the "Steele dossier," which is composed of opposition research partially funded by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Lawmakers that have reviewed the document have also said it will “name names,” an indication that it could raise new questions about the conduct of FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who disparaged Trump in private text messages.
Strzok was a central figure in the investigation into Clinton’s private email arrangement and the separate investigation into whether Trump officials had improper contacts with Moscow during the election. Strzok and Page were on Mueller’s special counsel team but were reassigned last year.
“There’s a problem with some of the people at the highest levels of the bureau and that needs to be investigated, and the American people need to understand why and that will be aided, not completely, but aided by the release of this memo,” House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) told reporters on Thursday.
Committee Democrats describe the document as a dangerous politicization of intelligence — a cherry-picked set of data points designed to damage Mueller’s investigation — and they have launched a broadside offensive against the document. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) is pressing Nunes on whether he worked with the White House to produce the memo in the first place, while Schiff is arguing that the memo should be withdrawn from the White House because it was edited after the vote.
It's unclear what changes were made. A spokesman for Nunes said that Democrats were "complaining about minor edits ... including grammatical fixes and two edits requested by the FBI and the Minority themselves."
Democrats say the changes are far more substantive. A committee source said the changes were "not cosmetic" and "try to water down some of the majority's assertions."
House conservatives are still pushing for the release of the memo.
“So the FBI is worried about omissions? Ok then — let's put all the documents out there. Tell Americans the full story. I don't think they want that either, though — they've been stonewalling Congress for a year. It's time for full transparency,” tweeted House Freedom Caucus chair Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), adding, “#ReleaseTheMemo.”
Meanwhile, Democratic leaders Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sent letters to Ryan on Thursday demanding that Nunes be removed from the Intelligence Committee. Nunes broke House rules, Pelosi wrote, when he “altered the contents of the reckless, partisan memo” in an effort to “discredit the investigations into the Trump-Russia scandal.”
“Chairman Nunes’ deliberately dishonest actions make him unfit to serve as Chairman, and he must be immediately removed from this position,” she continued.
“It is long overdue that you, as Speaker, put an end to this charade and hold Chairman Nunes and all Congressional Republicans accountable to the oath they have taken to support and defend the Constitution, and protect the American people.”
Ryan rejected that call on Thursday.
Pelosi and Schumer “are just playing politics and they are looking for a political distraction,” he said.
The Numbers Are In: First Trump State of the Union Got the Best Ratings in 7 Years
By Jason Hopkins
Not only was President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address widely lauded, but it was viewed by a record number of viewers as well.
According to Nielsen ratings, Trump’s speech earlier this week was the most watched State of the Union address in seven years.
Roughly 45.6 million viewers tuned in to watch the Republican deliver his first SOTU speech as president on Tuesday night, surpassing the last six addresses to Congress given by former President Barack Obama.
Twelve networks aired live coverage of the speech from around 9:00 p.m. ET to 10:30 p.m. ET, with other media outlets also covering the speech to varying degrees.
Other ratings indicators reveal the speech received considerable attention from the U.S. public.
Trump’s speech was the top social program for that day, garnering 21 million total interactions across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Forty-one percent of the 21 million interactions occurred on Facebook alone. Another 52 percent took place on Twitter and 7 percent on Instagram.
Sixty-eight thousand Twitter interactions occurred at 10:04 p.m ET, right after Trump revealed his four-pillar plan on immigration — making it the highest social moment on the social media platform.
Top Twitter hashtags during the speech were: #stateoftheunion, #sotu, #maga and #stateofourunion.
Trump’s draw of 45.6 million viewers Tuesday night smashed then-President Obama’s final SOTU address in 2016, which only garnered a little over 31 million viewers.
The numbers may indicate that Americans are interested in a U.S. president’s very first SOTU speech.
In February 2009, when Obama gave his debut address to the Joint Sessions of Congress, 52,373,000 viewers tuned in. However, the 44th President saw his numbers decline almost every year afterward.
The excellent numbers for Trump come as his speech has been hailed by Republicans and independents alike.
According to a CBS News poll, 75 percent of respondents said they approve of Trump’s address, and only 25 percent said they disapprove.
CBS News ✔@CBSNewsThree in four Americans who tuned in to President Trump's #SOTU address tonight approved of the speech he gave, CBS News poll finds http://cbsn.ws/2BFHTGr
An overwhelming majority of Americans who tuned in felt that Trump was trying to unite the country, not divide it. Two-thirds of respondents said the speech made them feel proud and one-third said they felt safer.
Not only did respondents enjoy the speech, but most Americans gave approval for many of the policies the president addressed, stating their support for Trump’s proposals on national security, infrastructure and immigration.
Not only did respondents enjoy the speech, but most Americans gave approval for many of the policies the president addressed, stating their support for Trump’s proposals on national security, infrastructure and immigration.
CBS News ✔@CBSNews8 in 10 Americans who watched Pres. Trump's #SOTU address felt he was trying to unite the country, rather than divide it. Two-thirds said the speech made them feel proud, though just a third said it made them feel safer, CBS News poll finds http://cbsn.ws/2no7X4E
Anthony Salvanto ✔@SalvantoCBS#SOTU viewers liked what they heard on national security, infrastructure in our
@cbsnews @yougov poll
11:26 PM - Jan 30, 2018
Trump’s address boosted the credit given to him for the U.S. economy. Before the speech, 51 percent of Americans gave him thanks for the growing economy. Immediately following the speech, that number rose to 54 percent.
“Even in foreign policy and national security, this speech a perfect blend of strength and empathy. These heroic stories break our hearts, but sturdy our resolve,” said Republican pollster Frank Luntz.
“This is the Trump his voters wanted him to be.”
Trump’s address boosted the credit given to him for the U.S. economy. Before the speech, 51 percent of Americans gave him thanks for the growing economy. Immediately following the speech, that number rose to 54 percent.
“Even in foreign policy and national security, this speech a perfect blend of strength and empathy. These heroic stories break our hearts, but sturdy our resolve,” said Republican pollster Frank Luntz.
“This is the Trump his voters wanted him to be.”
G’ day…Ciao…
Helen and Moe Lauzier
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