Archives for FUBAR

GOP doubts on Trump competency increasing

by JULIE PACE and BILL BARROW | August 19, 2017 | 2 Comments

President Donald Trump’s racially fraught comments about a deadly neo-Nazi rally have thrust into the open some Republicans’ deeply held doubts about his competency and temperament, in an extraordinary public airing of worries and grievances about a sitting president by his own party. Behind the high-profile denunciations voiced this week by GOP senators once considered Trump allies, scores of other, influential Republicans began to express grave concerns about the state of the Trump presidency. In two dozen interviews with Associated Press reporters across nine states, Republican politicians, party officials, advisers and donors expressed worries about whether Trump has the self-discipline
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Trump struggles, flounders, fails

by JULIE BYKOWICZ | August 19, 2017 | 1 Comment

For Susan Bro, mother of the woman killed at a rally organized by white supremacists, the president of the United States can offer no healing words. She says the White House repeatedly tried to reach out to her on Wednesday, the day of Heather Heyer’s funeral. But she’s since watched President Donald Trump lay blame for the Charlottesville violence on “both sides.” “You can’t wash this one away by shaking my hand and saying ‘I’m sorry,’” she said in a television interview on Friday. In moments like this, of national crisis or tragedy, presidents typically shed their political skin, at
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Bannon out, returns to Breitbart

by JONATHAN LEMIRE and JILL COLVIN | August 19, 2017 | 1 Comment

Steve Bannon, the blunt-spoken and divisive strategist who rose from Donald Trump’s conservative campaign to a top White House post, was pushed out by the president Friday, capping a turbulent seven months marked by the departure of much of Trump’s original senior staff. A favorite in the farther-right portions of the Republican Party, Bannon had pressed Trump to follow through on some of his most contentious campaign promises, including his travel ban for some foreigners and his decision to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement. He returned as executive chairman to Breitbart News, which he led before joining
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Bannon gone from Trump White House

by JILL COLVIN and JONATHAN LEMIRE | August 18, 2017 | No Comments

Steve Bannon, a forceful but divisive presence in President Donald Trump’s White House, is leaving. Trump accepted Bannon’s resignation on Friday, ending a turbulent seven months for his chief strategist, the latest to depart from the president’s administration in turmoil. White House spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday would be Bannon’s last day on the job. “We are grateful for his service and wish him the best,” she said in a statement confirming reports of Bannon’s departure. A combative and unorthodox Republican, Bannon was a key adviser in Trump’s general election campaign, but he has been a contentious presence in
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Trump: ‘How dare you question me’

by JONATHAN LEMIRE and DARLENE SUPERVILLE | August 18, 2017 | 3 Comments

With prominent Republicans openly questioning his competence and moral leadership, President Donald Trump burrowed deeper into the racially charged debate over Confederate memorials and lashed out at members of his own party in the latest controversy to engulf his presidency. Out of sight, but still online, Trump tweeted his defense of monuments to Confederate icons — bemoaning rising efforts to remove them as an attack on America’s “history and culture.” And he berated his critics who, with increasingly sharper language, have denounced his initially slow and then ultimately combative comments on the racial violence at a white supremacist rally last
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Did Bannon just go off the deep end?

by DARLENE SUPERVILLE | August 17, 2017 | No Comments

President Donald Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon says there’s no military solution to the threat posed by North Korea and its nuclear ambitions, despite the president’s recent pledge to answer further aggression with “fire and fury.” In an interview with The American Prospect posted online Wednesday, Bannon tells the liberal publication that the U.S. is losing the economic race against China. He also talks about purging his rivals from the Defense and State departments. Bannon is also asked about the white supremacist movement, whose march on Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend led to deadly violence. He dismisses them as “losers,” ″a
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GOP leaders tap dance around Trump

by STEVE PEOPLES and THOMAS BEAUMONT | August 17, 2017 | 1 Comment

One after another, the nation’s most powerful Republicans responded to President Donald Trump’s extraordinary remarks about white supremacists. Yet few mentioned the president. The Senate’s top Republican, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, condemned “hate and bigotry.” House Speaker Paul Ryan charged that, “White supremacy is repulsive.” Neither criticized the president’s insistence that there were “very fine people on both sides” of a violent weekend clash between white supremacists and counterdemonstrators. The nuanced statements reflect the party establishment’s delicate dance. Few top Republican officeholders defended the president in the midst of an escalating political crisis. Yet they are unwilling to declare all-out
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Trump and Republican racism

by STEVE PEOPLES and BILL BARROW | August 16, 2017 | No Comments

The statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia, was the focus of an emotional debate in the state’s Republican primary election weeks before it became a flashpoint in the nation’s struggle over race. Corey Stewart, an outsider candidate for governor sometimes compared to President Donald Trump, seized on possible removal of the Confederate general’s memorial as an “attempt to destroy traditional America.” Stewart, who said in an interview Tuesday that such an action “hits people in the gut,” found unexpectedly strong support, forced his main opponent to defend the statue and almost won. Now the fight over “traditional America”
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Trump returns to his racist base

by JULIE PACE and JONATHAN LEMIRE | August 16, 2017 | No Comments

President Donald Trump defiantly blamed “both sides” for the weekend violence between white supremacists and counter-demonstrators in Virginia, seeking to rebuff the widespread criticism of his handling of the emotionally-charged protests while showing sympathy for the fringe group’s efforts to preserve Confederate monuments. In doing so, Trump used the bullhorn of the presidency to give voice to the grievances of white nationalists, and aired some of his own. His remarks Tuesday amounted to a rejection of the Republicans, business leaders and White House advisers who earlier this week had pushed the president to more forcefully and specifically condemn the KKK
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Bye, bye to Steve Bannon?

by JONATHAN LEMIRE and JULIE BYKOWICZ | August 16, 2017 | No Comments

President Donald Trump is saying “we’ll see what happens” with top strategist Steve Bannon. The president refused to express confidence in Bannon during an impromptu news conference Tuesday. “He’s a good person. He actually gets very unfair press in that regard,” Trump said. “But we’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon.” Bannon was a key general election campaign adviser and has been a forceful but contentious presence in a divided White House. The former leader of conservative Breitbart News has drawn fire from some of Trump’s closest advisers, including son-in-law Jared Kushner. Though Bannon has survived being on the outs
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