[Special] Former FBI Director James Comey to Testify Before Congress

As the country awaits James Comey's testimony today, June 8, let's take the time to go back about a month ago to when Comey was fired by Trump. After that, feel free to read Comey's prepared opening statement, with annotated notes by Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall.

NBC News: What You Need to Know About Trump, Comey and the Russia Probe by Benjy Sarlin

The Washington Post: Inside Trump’s Anger and Impatience — and His Sudden Decision to Fire Comey by Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker, Sari Horwitz and Robert Costa

Politico: Behind Comey’s Firing [Was] An enraged Trump, Fuming About Russia (the president deliberated for more than a week before ousting the FBI chief who was investigating Trump associates) by Josh Dawsey

The Washington Post: Why Trump Expected Only Applause When He Told Comey, ‘You’re fired.’ by Marc Fisher

The Atlantic: 'There Is a Real Risk Here Things Will Spin Out of Control' by Rosie Gray and McKay Coppins

The New Yorker: Donald Trump's Firing of James Comey is an Attack on American Democracy by John Cassidy   

The Atlantic: This is Not a Drill by David Frum 

The Washington Post: Did Trump Already Blow His Own Cover Story About Comey’s Firing? by Jennifer Rubin

Politico: Russia's Oval Office Victory Dance (the cozy meeting between President Trump and Russia’s foreign minister came at Vladimir Putin’s insistence) by Susan B. Glasser

CNN: Source Close to Comey Says There Were 2 Reasons the FBI Director Was Fired by Jake Tapper [1) Comey never provided Trump with any assurance of loyalty and 2) the FBI's investigation into possible collusion with Russia in the 2016 election was accelerating]

New York Times: Days Before Firing, Comey Asked for More Resources for Russia Inquiry by Matthew Rosenberg and Matt Apuzzo

Bloomberg: Why Trump Really Fired Comey (two things have always driven the president: self-aggrandizement and self-preservation) by Timothy L. O'Brien

Talking Points Memo: Some Key Fact Points to Get Our Bearing by Josh Marshall 

CNN: Full Transcript [of] President Donald Trump's News Conference

By CNN:

But much of it is not a - the distortion -- and we'll talk about it, you'll be able to ask me questions about it. But we're not going to let it happen, because I'm here again, to take my message straight to the people. As you know, our administration inherited many problems across government and across the economy. To be honest, I inherited a mess. It's a mess. At home and abroad, a mess. Jobs are pouring out of the country; you see what's going on with all of the companies leaving our country, going to Mexico and other places, low pay, low wages, mass instability overseas, no matter where you look. The middle east is a disaster. North Korea - we'll take care of it folks; we're going to take care of it all. I just want to let you know, I inherited a mess.

Beginning on day one, our administration went to work to tackle these challenges. On foreign affairs, we've already begun enormously productive talks with many foreign leaders, much of it you've covered, to move forward towards stability, security and peace in the most troubled regions of the world, which there are many. We have had great conversations with the United Kingdom, and meetings. Israel, Mexico, Japan, China and Canada, really, really productive conversations. I would say far more productive than you would understand.

We've even developed a new council with Canada to promote women's business leaders and entrepreneurs. It's very important to me, very important to my daughter Ivanka. I have directed our defense community headed by our great general, now Secretary Mattis. He's over there now working very hard to submit a plan for the defeat of ISIS, a group that celebrates the murder and torture of innocent people in large sections of the world. It used to be a small group, now it's in large sections of the world.

* * *

I'm here following through on what I pledged to do. That's all I'm doing. I put it out before the American people, got 306 electoral college votes. I wasn't supposed to get 222. They said there's no way to get 222, 230's impossible.

270 which you need, that was laughable. We got 306 because people came out and voted like they've never seen before so that's the way it goes. I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan. In other words, the media's trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on pledges that we made and they're not happy about it for whatever reason.

And - but a lot of people are happy about it. In fact, I'll be in Melbourne, Florida five o'clock on Saturday and I heard - just heard that the crowds are massive that want to be there. I turn on the T.V., open the newspapers and I see stories of chaos. Chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine- tuned machine, despite the fact that I can't get my cabinet approved.

The Full Story (February 17, 2017)

CNN: Ethics Office [Says] White House Should Investigate Conway for Ivanka Trump Plug

By Jill Disis:

The Office of Government Ethics is recommending that the White House take disciplinary action against Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser to President Trump, for endorsing Ivanka Trump's products in a TV interview.

Walter Shaub, the director of the ethics office, wrote in a letter to the White House that there is "strong reason to believe" Conway violated ethics standards and that disciplinary action is warranted. He suggested that the White House open an investigation.

Shaub likened what Conway did to appearing in a TV commercial.

Conway gave the endorsement on Fox News Channel last week, one day after the president attacked the Nordstrom department store chain for treating his daughter unfairly. Nordstrom has said it dropped her line of clothing and accessories because they weren't selling well.

"Go buy Ivanka's stuff, is what I would tell you," Conway told Fox News. "It's a wonderful line. I own some of it. I fully -- I'm going to just, I'm going to give a free commercial here: Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online."

Shaub sent the letter to the White House after a bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House Oversight Committee asked the agency to look into Conway.

The Full Story (February 14, 2017)

CNN: At Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tackles Crisis Diplomacy at Close Range

By Kevin Liptak:

The launch, which wasn't expected, presented Trump with one of the first breaking national security incidents of his presidency. It also noisily disrupted what was meant to be an easygoing weekend of high-level male bonding with the more sobering aspects of global diplomacy.

Sitting alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with whom he'd spent most of the day golfing, Trump took the call on a mobile phone at his table, which was set squarely in the middle of the private club's dining area.


As Mar-a-Lago's wealthy members looked on from their tables, and with a keyboard player crooning in the background, Trump and Abe's evening meal quickly morphed into a strategy session, the decision-making on full view to fellow diners, who described it in detail to CNN.

* * *

Swanning through the club's living room and main dining area alongside Abe, Trump was -- as is now typical -- swarmed with paying members, who now view dinner at the club as an opportunity for a few seconds of face time with the new President.

But as he sat down for the planned working dinner with Abe, whose country is well within range of North Korea's missiles, it was clear his counterpart felt it necessary to respond to the test. The launch occurred just before 8 a.m. on Sunday morning in Japan.

Trump's national security adviser Michael Flynn and chief strategist Steve Bannon left their seats to huddle closer to Trump as documents were produced and phone calls were placed to officials in Washington and Tokyo.

* * *

On Saturday night, the patio was lit only with candles and moonlight, so aides used the camera lights on their phones to help the stone-faced Trump and Abe read through the documents.

Even as a flurry of advisers and translators descended upon the table carrying papers and phones for their bosses to consult, dinner itself proceeded apace. Waiters cleared the wedge salads and brought along the main course as Trump and Abe continued consulting with aides.

The Full Story (February 13, 2017)

See Also: Washington Post's Trump Turns Mar-a-Lago Club Terrace into Open-Air Situation Room

CNN: US Investigators Corroborate Some Aspects of the Russia Dossier

By Jim Sciutto and Evan Perez:

None of the newly learned information relates to the salacious allegations in the dossier. Rather it relates to conversations between foreign nationals. The dossier details about a dozen conversations between senior Russian officials and other Russian individuals. Sources would not confirm which specific conversations were intercepted or the content of those discussions due to the classified nature of US intelligence collection programs.

But the intercepts do confirm that some of the conversations described in the dossier took place between the same individuals on the same days and from the same locations as detailed in the dossier, according to the officials. CNN has not confirmed whether any content relates to then-candidate Trump.

The corroboration, based on intercepted communications, has given US intelligence and law enforcement "greater confidence" in the credibility of some aspects of the dossier as they continue to actively investigate its contents, these sources say.

Reached for comment this afternoon, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said, "We continue to be disgusted by CNN's fake news reporting."

Spicer later called back and said, "This is more fake news. It is about time CNN focused on the success the President has had bringing back jobs, protecting the nation, and strengthening relationships with Japan and other nations. The President won the election because of his vision and message for the nation."

The Full Story (February 10, 2017)

[Special] FBI Director James Comey Fired by White House

• New York Times: F.B.I. Director James Comey Is Fired by Trump by Michael D. Shear and Matt Apuzzo

President Trump on Tuesday fired the director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, abruptly terminating the law enforcement official leading a wide-ranging criminal investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s advisers colluded with the Russian government to steer the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

The stunning development in Mr. Trump’s presidency raised the specter of political interference by a sitting president into an existing investigation by the nation’s leading law enforcement agency. It immediately ignited Democratic calls for an independent prosecutor to lead the Russia inquiry.

Mr. Trump explained the firing by citing Mr. Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, even though the president was widely seen to have benefited politically from that inquiry and had once praised Mr. Comey for having “guts” in his pursuit of Mrs. Clinton during the campaign.

But in his letter to Mr. Comey, released to reporters by the White House, the president betrayed his focus on the continuing inquiry into Russia and his aides.

“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau,” Mr. Trump said in a letter to Mr. Comey dated Tuesday.

CNN: WH Official [Says] We'll Say 'Fake News' Until Media Realizes Attitude of Attacking the President is Wrong

By Chris Massie:

Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, said Monday that the administration will continue using the term "fake news" until the media understands that their "monumental desire" to attack the President is wrong.

"There is a monumental desire on behalf of the majority of the media, not just the pollsters, the majority of the media to attack a duly elected President in the second week of his term," Gorka, a former Breitbart editor who also holds a PhD in political science, told syndicated conservative radio host Michael Medved.

"That's how unhealthy the situation is and until the media understands how wrong that attitude is, and how it hurts their credibility, we are going to continue to say, 'fake news.' I'm sorry, Michael. That's the reality," he added.

Trump and his staff have repeatedly used the term "fake news" to discredit reporting on the presidential administration from mainstream outlets such as CNN and The New York Times, often offering no evidence to back up their disputes with those outlets' stories.

* * *

Gorka also sparred with a caller who contended that "every time you call everything fake news, it just turns everyone except your hardcore fans off."

"Not everything's fake news," the caller added.

"You know, I would beg to differ," Gorka shot back. "Every single organ that generates these kinds of stories comes from the same clique of media organs that predicted that Hillary (Clinton) would win and that Brexit wouldn't occur. I know what fake news is. And it's coming from those organizations. It's time that you yourself understood that as well."

The Full Story (February 7, 2017)

CNN: Trump's Pick for CIA Says He's Open to Waterboarding

By Ryan Browne:

President Donald Trump's pick to run the CIA, Rep. Mike Pompeo, has told Congress that he would consider bringing back waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation measures under certain circumstances.

In a series of written responses on Wednesday to questions from members of the Senate intelligence committee, Pompeo said that while current permitted interrogation techniques are limited to those contained in the Army Field Manual, he was open to making changes to that policy.

"If confirmed, I will consult with experts at the Agency and at other organizations in the US government on whether the Army Field Manual uniform application is an impediment to gathering vital intelligence to protect the country," he wrote.

The Full Story (January 21, 2017)

CNN: White House Press Secretary Attacks Media for Accurately Reporting Inauguration Crowds

By Brian Stelter:

"This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period," Spicer said, contradicting all available data.

Aerial photos have indicated that former president Barack Obama's first inauguration attracted a much larger crowd. Nielsen ratings show that Obama also had a bigger television audience.

Spicer said, without any evidence, that some photos were "intentionally framed" to downplay Trump's crowd.

He also expressed objections to specific Twitter posts from journalists. And he said, "we're going to hold the press accountable," partly by reaching the public through social networking sites.

His statement included several specific misstatements of fact in addition to the overarching one.

"This is the first time in our nation's history that floor coverings have been used to protect the grass on the Mall," Spicer said, claiming that this "had the effect of highlighting areas people were not standing whereas in years past the grass eliminated this visual."

In fact, coverings were used for Obama's second inauguration in 2013.

"This was also the first time that fencing and magnetometers went as far back on the Mall, preventing hundreds of thousands of people from being able to access the Mall as quickly as they had in inaugurations past," Spicer said.

In fact, a United States Secret Service spokesperson told CNN, no magnetometers were used on the Mall.

And Spicer said, "We know that 420,000 people used the D.C, Metro public transit yesterday, which actually compares to 317,000 for president Obama's last inaugural."

Spicer's number for ridership on Friday was actually low -- the correct number, according to Metro itself, was 570,557. But there were actually 782,000 trips taken for Obama's second inaugural in 2013.

The Full Story (January 21, 2017)

CNN: Trump's Cabinet Pick Invested in Company, Then Introduced a Bill to Help It

By Manu Raju:

Rep. Tom Price last year purchased shares in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing legislation that would have directly benefited the company, raising new ethics concerns for President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services secretary.

Price bought between $1,001 to $15,000 worth of shares last March in Zimmer Biomet, according to House records reviewed by CNN.

Less than a week after the transaction, the Georgia Republican congressman introduced the HIP Act, legislation that would have delayed until 2018 a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulation that industry analysts warned would significantly hurt Zimmer Biomet financially once fully implemented.

Zimmer Biomet, one of the world's leading manufacturers of knee and hip implants, was one of two companies that would have been hit the hardest by the new CMS regulation that directly impacts the payments for such procedures, according to press reports and congressional sources.

After Price offered his bill to provide Zimmer Biomet and other companies relief from the CMS regulation, the company's political action committee donated to the congressman's reelection campaign, records show.

The Full Story (January 17, 2017)

[Special] Editorial: Trump's Refugee Ban Explodes Upon Impact

President Trump signed an executive order which created a, to use the vernacular, shitstorm. Per CNN (1):

President Donald Trump's seismic move to ban more than 218 million people from the United States and to deny entry to all refugees reverberated worldwide Saturday, as chaos and confusion rippled through US airports, American law enforcement agencies and foreign countries trying to grasp Washington's new policy.

Trump's executive order bars citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for the next 90 days and suspends the admission of all refugees for 120 days.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed an appeal on behalf of two individuals held in limbo at JFK International Airport, and a federal Judge issued a stay against some portions of the ban.  As Mother Jones explains (2), the stay is temporary but it has stopped people from being deported for the time being.

Although the executive order only targets certain countries (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen), the executive order included a religious test which specifically favored Christians (3), and as the Washington Post revealed, Rudolph Giuliani said, "So when [Trump] first announced it, he said, 'Muslim ban.' He called me up. He said, 'Put a commission together. Show me the right way to do it legally.'"(4)

National Security experts thought the move was harmful to the U.S. Via Mother Jones:(5)

"Not only is it immoral and stupid, it's also counterproductive," says Patrick Skinner, a former CIA counterterrorism case officer who now works at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm. "We've got military, intelligence, and diplomatic personnel on the ground right now in Syria, Libya, and Iraq who are working side by side with the people, embedded in combat, and training and advising. At no time in the US's history have we depended more on local—and I mean local—partnerships for counterterrorism. We need people in Al Bab, Syria; we depend on people in a certain part of eastern Mosul, Iraq; in Cert, Libya. At the exact moment we need them most, we're telling these people, 'Get screwed.'"

Kirk W. Johnson, who spent a year on the reconstruction in Fallujah in Iraq with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), echoes Skinner's fears: "This will have immediate national security implications, in that we are not going to be able to recruit people to help us right now, and people are not going to step forward to help us in any future wars if this is our stance."

The move also led to a series of protests in cities and at airports across the country.(6) This is the second weekend of protests against Trump, and as a reminder, he has only been president for nine days. Despite these unprecedented level of mass protests against the President, GOP leaders are still supporting him.(7) As documented in The Atlantic:

CNN: Trump's Commerce Secretary Pick Backed Romney's '47%' Comments

By Jeremy Diamond:

Wilbur Ross, the billionaire investor whom Trump tapped late last month to lead the Commerce Department, backed Romney's damaging comments in a September 2012 interview with Indian TV station NDTV, according to video provided to CNN by the liberal research group American Bridge.

"I assume you are aware that he's correct. About 50% of Americans do not in fact pay any tax -- period," Ross said after the interviewer asked Ross if he agreed with Romney's comments. "Whether it's good politics or not is a different question, I'm not qualified to judge that. But it is an accurate statement."

Ross also argued in the 2012 interview that "a very high percentage of the unemployed people claim disabilities so that they can get more money."

He added that "40-some-odd percent of the ones who claim disability claim sudden mental disability."

Ross added: "So there's a lot of nonsense that goes on within the social programs."

While nearly 47% of Americans did not pay any federal income tax around the time of Romney's statement, according to a 2011 finding by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, Romney did not just cite a statistic. Instead, the 2012 Republican nominee said at a private fundraiser that nearly half of Americans would vote for his opponent President Barack Obama because they depend on the government and believe they are "victims."

The Full Story (December 15, 2016)

[Special] Donald Trump, Watersports Champ

CNN: Intel Chiefs Presented Trump with Claims of Russian Efforts to Compromise Him by Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto, Jake Tapper and Carl Bernstein (January 10, 2017) -

Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.

The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump.

The classified briefings last week were presented by four of the senior-most US intelligence chiefs -- Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers.

One reason the nation's intelligence chiefs took the extraordinary step of including the synopsis in the briefing documents was to make the President-elect aware that such allegations involving him are circulating among intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress and other government officials in Washington, multiple sources tell CNN.

These senior intelligence officials also included the synopsis to demonstrate that Russia had compiled information potentially harmful to both political parties, but only released information damaging to Hillary Clinton and Democrats. This synopsis was not an official part of the report from the intelligence community case about Russian hacks, but some officials said it augmented the evidence that Moscow intended to harm Clinton's candidacy and help Trump's, several officials with knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.

CNN: Trump Picks Sessions For Attorney General

By Phil Mattingly, Eric Bradner and Tal Kopan

The former US attorney for the Southern District of Alabama and Alabama attorney general isn't without controversy. His appointment to a federal district court by then-President Ronald Reagan sank when a former Justice Department employee testified that Sessions had made racially tinged remarks.

He had denounced the 1965 Voting Rights Act and had labeled the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP "un-American" and said the organizations "forced civil rights down the throats of people."

A black Justice Department staffer said Sessions had called him "boy" and claimed he had thought the Ku Klux Klan "were OK until I found out they smoked pot."

Sessions was mentioned as a potential running mate for Trump and advised him on his selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who is now helming Trump's transition effort.

* * *

Sessions has also defended one of Trump's most controversial policy proposals: His ban on Muslims traveling into the United States.

The Full Story (November 18, 2016)

[Special] Donald Trump's Sexual Assault Allegations: November 2016 Edition

The flood of sexual assault claims was coming in at such a rapid rate that I decided to compile them and wait until the tide subsided, so I could then drop them in a single post. Since the American media and public are now obsessed with discussing FBI Director James Comey's unprecedented and unusual announcement about additional emails found on Anthony Weiner's computer which may or may not be classified and may or may not have been to/from Hillary Clinton and may or may not be duplicates of emails they already have, the sexual assault business is now merely the echo of a memory. Except here, of course, where I strive to chronicle all of the insanity of Donald Trump.

This post is not an essay so much as a link dump, so apologies for the lack of prose. Also, as a note, despite this being the "November Edition," there are no articles from November, save towards the end, where an article by Vocativ (linked in the last paragraph) highlights the GOP folks who disavowed Trump and then reaffirmed their support for him like the craven, spineless frauds they are. Below is a list of articles relating to Trump's sexual assaults that came out on or after the October Edition was published.

• Talking Points Memo: The Floodgates Open by Josh Marshall (October 12, 2016)
• Talking Points Memo: Four Decades Of Sexual Misconduct Allegations Against Trump by Kristin Salaky and Esme Cribb (October 13, 2016)
• New York Magazine: It Doesn’t Take a Conspiracy Theory to Explain the Timing of the New Trump Allegations by Eric Levitz (October 13, 2016)
• Washington Post: Woman Says Trump Reached Under Her Skirt and Groped Her in Early 1990s by Karen Tumulty (October 14, 2016)
• The Guardian: Donald Trump 'Grabbed Me and Went for the Lips', Says New Accuser by Molly Redden (October 16, 2016)
• Washington Post: The Growing List of Women Who Have Stepped Forward to Accuse Trump of Touching Them Inappropriately by Rosalind S. Helderman (October 22, 2016)
• Talking Points Memo: Trump On Adult Film Star Accuser - ‘I’m Sure She's Never Been Grabbed Before’ by Allegra Kirkland (October 24, 2016)

As Dana Milbank wrote for the Post, we knew this Trump all along: 

Republicans may be dismayed by the super-predator they saw and heard in the video (just as they purported to be stunned by Trump’s racist attack on Judge Gonzalo Curiel despite Trump’s long history of racism), but they have no business being surprised. What’s on that tape is entirely consistent with what we already knew.

Even before this tape emerged, we knew that his wife Ivana accused him at the time of their divorce of raping her (Trump’s lawyer asserted that there is no such thing as spousal rape). We’ve known for months that makeup artist Jill Harth filed a 1997 complaint accusing Trump of attempted rape and of groping her in his daughter Ivanka’s bedroom. We’ve seen complaint after complaint about his lewd behavior on set at “The Apprentice” and at his Miss Universe pageants.

But while people can question the he-said, she-said allegations against Trump, it’s harder to dispute the meaning of his own words.

Here, for the benefit of those Republicans feigning surprise about Trump’s video, is a partial catalogue of reported remarks Trump has made about women — remarks which, by embracing Trump as the GOP presidential nominee, office holders in the party have already condoned[.]

I won't reproduce the large volume of unfortunate quotations here; you can click the link for yourself. Suffice to say, the outrage (which has since subsided, and the opposition mustered by Republican officials has faded as they jump back onto the Trump train) came surprisingly late considering the man that is Donald Trump. As Bill Simmons noted, "But seriously - why did it take today for people to turn on Trump? He's been horrible this whole time."

[Special] Editorial: Trump Thinks People Like Him, Therefore Rigged Election is Only Explanation for Losing

Donald Trump, a man who has managed to say horrible things about women, immigrants, black people, Muslims, veterans...well, let's just say nearly everyone, while demonstrating an immense lack of understanding regarding foreign and domestic policy (or even the English language), while also showing he is thin skinned and wildly temperamental, assumes that the only way he can lose an election to be president of the the U.S.A. is because it was stolen from him.

Trump has been laying the groundwork for a "rigged election" for a while. During the third and final presidential debate, Hillary Clinton went through a history of Trump claiming contests were rigged against him, back through the primaries and even into the Emmys. Trump lashed out against the Emmys when his Apprentice reality show did not win an award, as is his style(1).

When the floodgates opened(2) with claims of sexual assaults against Trump, he lashed out against the media(3):

Trump, who spent the week launching tirades at Clinton, journalists and his own party, continued on Sunday to portray himself as the victim. He tweeted: “Polls close, but can you believe I lost large numbers of women voters based on made up events THAT NEVER HAPPENED. Media rigging election!”

In another post, he said: “Election is being rigged by the media, in a coordinated effort with the Clinton campaign, by putting stories that never happened into news!”

Trump's surrogates have gone out and promoted this claim as well, even as Republican officials try to downplay the storm.

CNN: Glenn Beck - Hillary Clinton is a 'Moral, Ethical Choice' for Republicans

By Naomi Lim:

"It is not acceptable to ask a moral, dignified man to cast his vote to help elect an immoral man who is absent decency or dignity," Beck wrote on Facebook in reference to Trump. "If the consequence of standing against Trump and for principles is indeed the election of Hillary Clinton, so be it. At least it is a moral, ethical choice."

Beck, who founded media venture TheBlaze after rising to prominence as host of his eponymous radio and TV show, campaigned for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz during the Republican primaries, and has consistently criticized Trump throughout the primary campaign and even after Cruz endorsed him.

He joined a growing chorus of conservative leaders over the weekend who are appealing to Trump to withdraw his candidacy for president, adding that a vote for the businessman was "validating his immorality, lewdness, and depravity."

The Full Story (October 11, 2016)

CNN: Donald Trump to Howard Stern - It's Okay to Call My Daughter A 'Piece of Ass'

By Andrew Kaczynski, Chris Massie, and Nate McDermott:

In more than one interview with Stern, Trump took part in conversations about Ivanka Trump's appearance, including one about the size of her breasts.

In an October 2006 interview, Stern remarks that Ivanka "looks more voluptuous than ever," and asked if she had gotten breast implants. Trump is willing to engage in the discussion about his own daughter, telling Stern that she did not get implants.

"She's actually always been very voluptuous," Trump responds. "She's tall, she's almost 6 feet tall and she's been, she's an amazing beauty."

The Full Story (October 9, 2016)