Archive for the ‘Mike Pence’ Category

Anderson Cooper astonished by Mike Pence downplaying MAGA riot: ‘That’s the guy rioters wanted to kill!’ – Raw Story

Trump properties sustained at least seven fires since he became president in 2017. There were other fires that date to before he assumed office. And his string of loser luck includes a 1989 helicopter crashthe only one of its kindthat killed three Trump casino executives whose lives Trump had insured for, he said at the time, $35 million.

Here is a catalog of the various fires that have occurred at Trump properties over the last few years:

Hudson Valley, 2021

Investigations are ongoing after a three-alarm fire broke out on Sept. 10 at a barn on Trump's private 300-acre, 18-hole Trump National Golf Course Hudson Valley in Dutchess County, New York, about 130 miles north of Manhattan.

On Sept. 14, the local East Fishkill Fire District chief, Frank Lacalamita, said:

"All I know is it's definitely not suspicious It's not like, 'Hey, listen someone did it.' It's not like that at all. The place has tons of cameras, there was nobody around there was nothing suspicious at all."

It took about two hours for 70 firefighters from at least seven local firehouses to extinguish the blaze. Firefighters found the 50-foot-by-100-foot barn structure that houses golf carts and their charging system engulfed in flames. The first responders finally cleared from the scene just before 1 a.m. on Sept. 11. Later that same day, Trump made a surprise visit to a New York City firehouse to make brief remarks and pose for pictures with 9/11 responders on the 20th anniversary of the Twin Towers terrorist attacks. There did not appear to be any mention of his own fire hours earlier.

New York City, January 2018

In January 2018, a fire broke out on the Trump Tower roof in Manhattan. A New York Fire Department spokesman referred to it as a "quick, easy and routine" electrical fire.

New York City, April 2018

Three months later, on April 7, one resident was killed and three people were injured after an explosion on the 50th floor of Trump Tower. Six firefighters were injured battling the four-alarm fire. Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro noted that the Trump Tower "upper floors, the resident floors, are not sprinklered."

The resident who died, Todd Brassner, 67, had tried to sell his $2.5 million condo unit, but after Trump became president there were no buyers. Rents plummeted in the 58-story concrete tower. The price fall began when Trump declared his candidacy in June 2015.

Commissioner Nigro said the blaze was a "very difficult fire," even though most of the damage was contained to Brassner's apartment 50C. Six firefighters sustained minor injuries but the lack of other injuries or damage seems incredibly lucky as reportedly the smoke alarms didn't function the night of the fire. Some residents complained that "the building did not announce there was a fire and they failed to say to evacuate."

One resident, Dennis Shields, a boyfriend of Bethenny Frankel of the Real Housewives faux-reality television shows, reported that he learned about the fire only because of a text from a childhood friend, Michael Cohen, who had been Trump's longtime attorney.

Shields said that "Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer, texted me and he said, 'Are you in the building?' and I texted him back, 'Yes.' He said, 'You better get out, there's a fire'," Shields told CBS News.

Sprinklers were not required when Trump Tower was built in the early 1980s. However, in 1999, then-mayor Rudy Giuliani's administration pushed for legislation to require older buildings to retrofit with sprinklers. Trump was among the real estate developers who successfully lobbied against adding fire sprinklers in existing New York high-rises, including Trump Tower. As enacted in 1999, the legislation required retrofitting high-rises with sprinklers only when renovations totaled 50 percent or more of the building's value, effectively eliminating the requirement except when a high rise is gutted and rebuilt.

According to public records, there were only two other four-alarm fires in Manhattan in 2018. Nine days after the fire, the FDNY declared the fatal four-alarm Trump Tower fire accidental, caused by multiple overloaded power strips. Brassner's apartment lacked a smoke detector.

Brassner had amassed artwork and other collectibles at more than $3 million. That included a 1975 Warhol portrait of Brassner valued at $850,000. The condition of Brassner's 100 vintage electric guitars and works of art is unknown.

Despite the extensive art collection and expensive condo, Brassner regularly failed to pay common charges for his property on the 50th floor and the Trump condominium board regularly placed liens on his apartment until the fees were paid. Public records show that between 2003 until 2013 the Trump Condominium put a lien on the Brassner's property for unpaid common charges almost every year. The unpaid amounts varied from $4,387.92 to $21,668.03 per year.

After the fatal fire, the Trump Condominium board placed a new lien on Brassner's apartment, for $52,213.38 and sued his estate for $90,000. (Residential Board of Trump Tower Condominium v. Aaron Brassner, as executor of the estate of Todd R. Brassner, 159812/2018.)

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 2018

On April 28, 2018, a fire broke out at the Trump Tower in Baku. The blaze started at the top floor of the building and burned through about 20 stories before firefighters extinguished the flames by midafternoon. Hours later firefighters were called back to battle a second fire.

A Russian news portal posted a video showing that the fire rekindled in the evening, this time burning through much of the building.

After 10 years of construction with Ivanka Trump in charge for her father, the corruptly financed Baku Trump Tower was still not finished when it caught fire.

The New Yorker magazine reported in March 2017 that the tower appeared "to be a corrupt operation engineered by oligarchs tied to Iran's Revolutionary Guard." The Trump Organization had extensive involvement and oversight on the project with Trump staff visiting monthly.

When the Trump Organization got involved in the project, they knowingly signed on even though any form of due diligence would have revealed that the project had been financially entangled with an Iranian family tied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. In his reporting in The New Yorker, Adam Davidson wrote that he spoke with more than a dozen contractors who described behavior on the project as "nakedly corrupt."

One contractor confirmed his firm was always paid in cash, and that he witnessed other contractors being paid in the same way. He said, "They would give us a giant pile of cash," adding, "I got $180,000 one time, which I fit into my laptop bag, and $200,000 another time." Once, a colleague of his picked up a payment of $2 million. "He needed to bring a big duffel bag," McDonald recalled.

New York City, March 2017

Just six weeks after Trump became president, a fire broke out on the 47th floor of the Trump International Hotel overlooking Central Park and Columbus Circle. The high rise had been a corporate office before being retrofitted as a hotel with Trump's name on it. The fire was deemed not suspicious.

Las Vegas, April 2017

In April 2017, a 28-year old man was arrested at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas after officials found four separate devices used to ignite different firesone in the pool restroom area and on the 17th floor of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.

The pool deck fire was confined to two toasters and "various combustible materials," the Fire Department said. The 17th-floor fire was, similarly, confined to two toasters and "various combustible materials," the Fire Department said.

Fire officials said toasters, towels and other materials set aflame on the 17th floor were quickly extinguished by hotel security personnel. Firefighters extinguished the restroom fire.

Clark County (Las Vegas) Fire Department spokesman John Steinbeck said the multiple devices were placed intentionally to set off fires, but the fires don't appear to be politically motivated.

Las Vegas, May 2017

Two months later, in May 2017, a tourist from Colorado was arrested for deliberately setting a fire near the lobby of the same Trump Las Vegas hotel. He dropped a burning paper towel into a restroom trash can. The judge ordered the 28-year-old man to be released from jail after five days behind bars and sentenced him to 50 hours of community service.

Other Fires in Trump's Orbit Prior to his Presidency

In addition to the fires at Trump's properties, some other fires have occurred in the wake of some of the more controversial time periods in Trump's life. These incidents seem to sit on the periphery of Trump's orbit.

Roy Cohn's Testimony Burned

In case you want to peruse Trump's testimony in the disbarment case of the infamous Roy Cohn, you are out of luck.

In January 2015, a CitiStorage facility in Brooklyn went up in flames. Among the records lost were Cohn's disbarment proceedings including the transcript of Trump's testimony where he attested to the good character of the ruthlessly villainous lawyer whom Trump has called his second father.

That fire in a 1.1 million cubic feet facility housed records from many government agencies, including the New York State court system, municipal Children's Services and the Health and Hospitals Corp., as well as medical records from several local hospitals and documents from law and financial services firms.

Arson or Accident?

A four-alarm fire erupted at Trump Tower in 1982 when it was under construction. The fire burned the top three floors, which were to become Trump's triplex residence.

Fire Chief John Fogarty said the blaze was "definitely, absolutely, positively arson." But seven hours later Deputy Fire Commissioner John Mulligan declared it accidental, caused by fires used to keep concrete warm. Trump Tower is made of concrete, not steel girders.

The Stormy Daniels Explosions

Back in 2009 Stormy Daniels, the stripper with whom Trump had what she characterized as a very quick sexual encounter in 2006, explored a run for the U.S. Senate in Louisiana. Two explosions persuaded her to back off. Daniels' real name is Stephanie Clifford.

An Audi belonging to Brian Welsh, a Democratic adviser to the Stormy Daniels Senate Exploratory Committee LLC., exploded just after a surveillance camera recorded a man opening the drivers' side door and throwing an object into the car. Welsh said he was uncertain if the explosion was connected to his work with Daniels.

Andrea Dube, who also worked on the Stormy Daniels political operation, tweeted that the same evening as the car bomb, the natural gas line feeding her home mysteriously exploded. The resulting fire nearly burning her house.

No matter how you look at it, that's a lot of fires afflicting Trump business interests.

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Anderson Cooper astonished by Mike Pence downplaying MAGA riot: 'That's the guy rioters wanted to kill!' - Raw Story

The Senates findings on the last days of Trumps presidency are grim. Will it matter? – The Guardian

Last week, the Senates judiciary committee released its staff report on Donald Trumps efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and bend the justice department to his will. Subverting Justice: How the Former President and his Allies Pressured DOJ to Overturn the 2020 Election lays out in grim detail the ex-reality show hosts concerted effort to weaponize the governments legal machinery in his desperate bid to cling to power.

One conclusion reads: President Trump repeatedly asked DOJ leadership to endorse his false claims that the election was stolen and to assist his efforts to overturn the election results. Another informs us that Trump allies with links to the Stop the Steal movement and the January 6 insurrection participated in the pressure campaign against DOJ.

As if we didnt already know. Dont expect the report to change hearts or minds.

On a Saturday night visit to Iowa, Trump told the crowd that he had not conceded defeat. Indeed, one day later, Steve Scalise, the No 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, refused to say that the election wasnt stolen. Trump has the Republicans in a hammerlock. The impact of the Senate report is likely to be negligible.

Since Trumps backers pillaged Congress back in January, the Republican party has selectively forgiven and forgotten. By the numbers, 57% of Republicans now believe too much attention has been paid to the 6 January riot. Only roughly a third of Republicans concede that storming the Capitol was about overturning the election. Too many Republicans still blame it on antifa.

The new normal is neither particularly normal nor new. As Americas cold civil war continues, hyper-partisanship is the rule, not the exception. And among Republicans, fealty to Trump is the acid test.

Look at Mike Pence, Trumps hapless vice-president and an aspiring 2024 presidential nominee. Even after having been kicked to the curb by his former boss and targeted for hanging by Capitol rioters, Pence continues to play political lapdog.

He is all too aware that Trump remains the Republican partys boss and that his future rests in Trumps hands. I know the media wants to distract from the Biden administrations failed agenda by focusing on one day in January, Pence told Fox News.

One day in January really?

Apparently, signs that screamed Hang Mike Pence were an illusion, as were the gallows near the Capitol. Then again, Pences brother Greg, a congressman from Indiana, voted against certifying the election despite his having seen first-hand what his sibling had endured.

Although the report will not change the political landscape, it is likely to have real consequences for Jeffrey Clark, a former assistant attorney general and the most senior justice department official to plot with Trump. The report recommends that the DC bars disciplinary counsel evaluate Clarks conduct to determine whether disciplinary action is warranted.

In plain English, the Senates Democrats are inviting the DC bar to strip Clark of his law license. Working for Trump frequently comes with a downside.

Tellingly, the committees Republicans do not offer a particularly full-throated defense of Clark. Instead, Senator Charles Grassley, the committees ranking Republican, intimated that Clark had failed to receive sufficient due process. Committee Democrats opted to release their report having not yet received requested government documents and having not yet heard from Jeffrey Clark, Grassley said.

Substantively, the Republican party appears ready to sacrifice Clark to spare Trump. The president listened to all data points, they wrote in a competing report, and the path advocated by Clark would be rejected. In all fairness, he wouldnt be the first person to thrown in a front of the proverbial bus for the sake of a sitting president.

Not surprisingly, where theres a raging dumpster fire, Rudy Giuliani is close by.

According to the committee, Mark Meadows, Trumps chief of staff, asked the justice department to investigate a theory pushed by Giuliani known as Italygate, which held that the Central Intelligence Agency and an Italian IT contractor used military satellites to manipulate voting machines and change Trump votes to Biden votes.

Let that sink in.

As the Senate report recedes from the voters consciousness, expect the Houses investigation to emerge as a focal point for all things Trump, with the ex-president seeking to block the cooperation and testimony of his former aides, including Meadows, all in the run-up to the midterms.

Beyond that, Trump is also invoking executive privilege to keep Steve Bannon, his 2016 campaign chairman, from testifying. To be sure, Bannon was not a member of the administration when 2021 rolled around. He had left the White House in the summer of 2017.

Instead, Bannon was goading Trump, telling him, according to Peril, the latest Bob Woodward book, co-authored with Bob Costa: People are going to go, What the fuck is going on here? Were going to bury Biden on January 6th, fucking bury him Were going to kill it in the crib, kill the Biden presidency in the crib.

For the record, Bannon had previously suggested that Anthony Faucis head be severed from its body. Whether Bannon is found to be in criminal contempt for refusing to testify before Liz Cheney and others is a live question.

The bottom line remains that Trump was never going quietly into the political night. Short of his own re-election, he viewed the process as rigged and corrupt.

How the House and the courts handle all this remains to be seen. Right now, the broader public is far from riveted, and the Republicans are either on board with Trump or simply cowed.

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The Senates findings on the last days of Trumps presidency are grim. Will it matter? - The Guardian

Pence-linked group steps up pressure on Congress in tax campaign | TheHill – The Hill

The Coalition to Protect American Workers, led by GOP strategists including Mark Short, who served as former Vice President Mike PenceMichael (Mike) Richard PencePompeo to headline fundraiser for Youngkin Pence-linked group steps up pressure on Congress in tax campaign Mellman: Your rights and my nose MOREs chief of staff, iswarning members of Congress against reversing President TrumpDonald TrumpStudy finds more than 9,000 anti-Asian attacks took place since March 2020 Biden marks fourth anniversary of Charlottesville Trump, House committee to appeal judge's order to hand over some tax records MOREs landmark 2017 tax reform law.

If any elected member of Congress tries to jeopardize the next American recovery in the name of higher spending, expansive social welfare programs, the green new deal and higher taxes, we will ensure that you are held accountable, the group wrote in a letter tolawmakers.

The group has a budget of between $25 million to $50 million to spend to oppose President BidenJoe BidenBiden urges Californians to vote against effort to recall Newsom Taliban's advance picks up speed, intensifying Afghanistan crisis Overnight Defense: Troopshead back to Afghanistan to aid diplomatic evacuation MOREs plan to increase the corporate tax rate to 28 percent and increase taxes on individuals earning more than $400,000 a year.

It is circulating its letter as Senate Democrats are preparing to put together a $3.5 trillion spending package that could raise taxes by the same amount, depending on whether moderates such as Sen. Joe ManchinJoe ManchinFamily of John Lewis joins rally pressing Biden to help end Senate filibuster Pence-linked group steps up pressure on Congress in tax campaign The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by AT&T - Pelosi refuses to budge on bipartisan infrastructure bill MORE (D-W.Va.) insist that it be entirely paid for so as not to add to the deficit.

The group warned that the Senates passage of a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill earlier this week begins a process to unwind [the] 2017 tax cuts and take away opportunities from families across the country.

Democrats in Congress have repeatedly expressed their intention to tie this bill to over $3 trillion in tax increases through a partisan reconciliation process, it wrote.

While we are disappointed to see that Congress has linked infrastructure to tax increases, the Coalition to Protect American Workers will continue undaunted in our mission to preserve the benefits of the 2017 tax cuts, it added.

The group is touting the economic benefits of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, one of Trumps biggest policy accomplishments, in what is certain to become core talking points of the Republican effort to defeat or whittle down the Democrats $3.5 trillion reconciliation package.

The results of the 2017 tax cut were rapid and extraordinary. In just over two years after the time that tax cuts were signed into law the U.S. added 5.3 million new jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent, which was the lowest rate in 50 years, it wrote.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellTaliban's advance picks up speed, intensifying Afghanistan crisis McConnell demands Biden commit to sending more troops back to Afghanistan Pence-linked group steps up pressure on Congress in tax campaign MORE (R-Ky.) has similarly cited statistics reflecting the strength of the U.S. economy before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the nationlast year to make clear that Republicans will vote in unison to oppose any unwinding of the 2017 tax law.

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Pence-linked group steps up pressure on Congress in tax campaign | TheHill - The Hill

We’re not going to the moon anytime soon, but Joe Biden won’t kill Trump’s dream – Mother Jones

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There are some troubling policies and practices from the Trump years that President Joe Biden has chosen to carry forward, even as hes aggressively worked to undo others. In at least one case, though, theres an unrealistic and expensive Trump-era goal that Biden is pushing forward with, even in opposition to his own experts: A 2024 human landing on the moon.

Thats according to a new piece published Friday by Marina Koren in The Atlantic. Koren convincingly argues that the proposed lunar landing in late 2024which the Trump administration saw, at least partially, as a political feather for Trumps cap, along with the creation of Space Forceis clearly behind schedule. Delays in the development in the modern redesign of the spacesuit, along with budget overruns coupled with budget shortfalls, may make the 2024 no longer a realistic target, Steve Jurcyzk, the acting NASA administrator in February, told Ars Technica. As such, Koren argues, the Biden administration could slough off the 2024 goal easily enough.

Instead, the administration is pushing forward with the 2024 goal, even if its a stretch and a challenge, according to current Administrator Bill Nelson.

Koren points out that Biden has plenty to deal withthe pandemic, infrastructure, climate changeand noted in an earlier piece that 2018 polling found the public preferred that NASAs main focus be climate research. In 2019 just 8 percent of Americans said a moon landing should be the agencys top priority, with a majority supporting climate research and national security-related missions.

Perhaps the answer has more to do with national security than national pride. On the same day that Biden met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva to discuss election meddling, human rights, and ransomware, the Chinese government was showing off its success in getting its new space station operational. Former Vice President Mike Pence said in 2019 that there was a new space race afoot akin to the 1960s, and the stakes are even higher.

Even still, NASAs internal investigator said this week that the 2024 landing is not feasible. Koren reported that a NASA spokesperson said that the budget and timeline for the mission are being evaluated and that the agency will provide an update later this year. Safety is a priority, the spokesperson said, and NASA will put humans on the moon when it is safe to do so.

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We're not going to the moon anytime soon, but Joe Biden won't kill Trump's dream - Mother Jones

‘Bring out the gallows’: Intelligence official warns of ‘alarming uptick’ in calls for violence on ‘Trump Reinstatement Day’ – Raw Story

A top U.S. intelligence official is reporting an "alarming uptick" in "incredibly dangerous" online chatter calling for violence associated with former president Donald Trump's false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, CNN reported Friday.

The report comes on the same day (Aug. 13, or "Reinstatement Day") when some QAnon followers believed Trump would somehow return to the White House.

John Cohen, the chief of intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security, said the chatter is "strikingly similar to what was out there before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol," according to CNN anchor Pamela Brown.

Alex Marquardt, CNN's senior national security corespondent, called the report "really disturbing news."

"What he's saying is that some of this online chatter, so on social media and in different online platforms, they include phrases like, 'The system is broken.' They call on people to take action into their own hands and to 'bring out the gallows,'" Marquardt said. "It is hard to underestimate how significant these comments can be because as you know, on Jan. 6, we heard calls by the Capitol insurrectionists to hang Mike Pence. There were actually makeshift gallows on the national mall."

According to Marquardt, Cohen said the concern is not only that the chatter is similar to before Jan. 6 it's that there has been an "uptick in these calls for violence."

Cohen also said while the chatter is associated with "a number of conspiracy theories," they all revolve around Trump's false claim of widespread election fraud, known as the "big lie."

"And that lie simply won't die, because people continue to talk about it," Marquardt said. "We still see the former president going around the country saying that the election was stolen from him. People like Mike Lindell, a big supporter of the former president, saying he has proof that the election was illegitimate which of course has been widely debunked."

Marquardt noted that the DHS has repeatedly warned in recent months about the threat of violence associated with Trump's false claim.

"There is no specific threat, they say, but they have said it could lead to deadly violence, and now you have the head of intelligence at DHS pointing to these comments and saying they are incredibly dangerous and they are growing," he said.

Read more here, and watch below.

CNN on DHS intelligence chief's warningwww.youtube.com

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'Bring out the gallows': Intelligence official warns of 'alarming uptick' in calls for violence on 'Trump Reinstatement Day' - Raw Story