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UPDATED: Jill Stein Breaks $5 Million Mark for Fundraising Recount One Election Law Expert Suggests Is ‘BS’

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As Cash Pours in, Goal Has Nearly Tripled in Just Two Days

Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein announced Wednesday that she will contest the results of the election in three states where the margin was extremely close, and set up a fundraising campaign to pay for it.

She asked for “over $2 million by this Friday, 4pm central,” adding that the filing costs alone would total $2.2 million and “attorneys fees are likely to be another $1 million.”

The cash poured in, and the goal was raised to $2.5 million, then $4.5 million, and now, having just broken the $5 million mark*, the goal sits at a whopping $7 million, practically triple the first estimate.

The website’s claims of costs involved have also risen dramatically.

Initially, they were estimated at $1 million. Now, the attorneys fees are “likely to be another $2-3 million, then there are the costs of the statewide recount observers in all three states. The total cost is likely to be $6-7 million.”

Rick Hasen, considered the go-to expert on election law and campaign finance, Friday morning posted a short blog post titled, “Quote of the Day: Jill Stein Recount BS Edition.”

Hasan points to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer that quotes Adam Bonin, “election-law attorney who represents Democrats.”

“If there were something to do here, there are a lot of us who would be jumping on it,” Bonin tells the Inquirer.

Bonin said that while every election has “little hitches and glitches, I haven’t seen anything which would cause me to question the results.” Nor, he said, “have I ever seen evidence that would lead me to call the machines into question. . . . You can’t just go on a fishing expedition. You have to have allegations of specific fraud, or machines that didn’t accept votes.”

There are many people who want to see a different result from the election, but Stein can’t point to any credible reason as to why the recount is needed.

Some are pointing out that even Stein admits she can’t guarantee a recount will happen, but if it doesn’t, no refunds:

All this has left many to suggest this is merely a fundraising effort.

Calling the near-tripling of the fundraising goal “very fishy,” Talking Points Memo editor in chief Josh Marshall writes: “At best, I think this is basically a publicity stunt for Jill Stein. At worst, well … the ever-escalating goals speak for themselves. An election campaign really has no limit on how much money it can raise or spend. Recounts are finite. There’s only so much recounting you can do – even when you pile on ‘lawyers fees’ and fees for recount workers.”

*UPDATE: 1:04 PM EST –
Breaks $5 million mark:

Screen_Shot_2016-11-25_at_1.03.35_PM.png
 

 

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Trump ‘Laser-Focused’ on Affordability Says White House After Calling It a ‘Hoax’

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The White House says President Donald Trump has been “laser-focused on making America affordable” since taking office. Just one month ago, President Trump called affordability a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats.

President Trump has recently attempted to preserve his sweeping tariffs amid Supreme Court review, has engaged in foreign policy messaging involving Venezuela, Iran, and Greenland — including promoting himself as the “acting President of Venezuela” — and has responded sharply to protests involving federal officers.

The president campaigned on lowering the cost of living on “day one,” but nearly 51 weeks into his second term, inflation remains high.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that the president would travel to Detroit on Tuesday to deliver a speech about “all of the positive economic news that we continue to see as a result of his agenda.”

READ MORE: ‘Organized Gangs of Wine Moms’ Are Impeding Federal Agents Says Fox Columnist

“So tomorrow, he looks forward to traveling to the great state of Michigan, a state he won big, to not only tour a factory that produces Ford F-150s, and is going to be hiring more, and producing more trucks right here in the USA because of President Trump’s effective tariff policies,” Leavitt said.

Trump narrowly won Michigan, taking less than half of the vote and besting Vice President Kamala Harris by 1.4 percentage points.

Leavitt said that “mortgage rates that are falling under 6% for the first time in years,” “the national average of gasoline is the lowest that it’s been in five years,” and core inflation is “at its lowest level in five years.”

She suggested that “with a little bit of patience, the American people are going to continue to see that the best is yet to come,” and claimed that Trump “has a proven economic formula that works.”

Leavitt also said that Trump has a housing plan “in the works” and a healthcare plan “in the works,” and vowed that Americans will “continue to hear from the president, and he’ll continue to hit the road across the country to speak directly with the people he loves most, the American people.”

READ MORE: Trump ‘Losing Political Fight’ to Fed Chair: Analyst

 

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Trump DOJ Fires Attorney Who Refused to Prosecute James Comey

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The Trump Department of Justice has terminated a 64-year old attorney, the number-two official in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, after he refused to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey in a highly-controversial case.

MS NOW on Monday reported that Robert McBride, a senior DOJ prosecutor and former Navy lawyer, “was brought into the prominent satellite office of the Justice Department to serve as first assistant to U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan and took a more prominent role as her status was in question and after a judge ruled in late November that she was not legally appointed to run the office.”

McBride reportedly had held private meetings with judges, MS NOW reported, calling it a move that was “viewed as undermining the Administration.”

He had declined to prosecute Comey, sources said, reportedly telling top Justice Department officials that it would be difficult to do that and also run the office.

MS NOW’s Carol Leonnig added that McBride was also suspected of “gunning for” the top job.

The New York Times reported that there was a “disagreement about whether he would take charge of the Trump administration’s effort to re-indict James B. Comey,” and called McBride’s firing “the latest development in the fallout in the Justice Department over President Trump’s effort to punish Mr. Comey, the former F.B.I. director and his longtime nemesis, whom the president blames for past investigations of his conduct.”

The Times added that meeting with judges is considered “commonplace.”

 

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‘Screwed’: Trump Warns Supreme Court on Tariffs

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With many Americans awaiting a Supreme Court decision on the sweeping Trump tariffs and some experts believing the Court will rule on them any day nowpossibly as soon as Wednesday — the president is once again sending a clear warning to the justices: allow the tariffs or America is “screwed.”

During the November oral arguments, liberal and conservative justices appeared skeptical of the administration’s claim it has the power to impose global tariffs by declaring a national emergency.

President Trump has repeatedly said the tariffs are necessary for national security, and said that if the court does not allow them the U.S. would be in no position to give refunds of billions of dollars. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent late last week said refunds “won’t be a problem.”

Trump on Monday appeared to disagree.

READ MORE: ‘Organized Gangs of Wine Moms’ Are Impeding Federal Agents Says Fox Columnist

“The actual numbers that we would have to pay back if, for any reason, the Supreme Court were to rule against the United States of America on Tariffs, would be many Hundreds of Billions of Dollars,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday afternoon. It is possible the Court could rescind the Trump tariffs and not require refunds.

The president then added that “the amount of ‘payback’ that Countries and Companies would require for the Investments they are making on building Plants, Factories, and Equipment, for the purpose of being able to avoid the payment of Tariffs. When these Investments are added, we are talking about Trillions of Dollars!”

He claimed any negative ruling would create “a complete mess,” and make it “almost impossible for our Country to pay.”

Despite his Treasury Secretary’s remarks, Trump added, “Anybody who says that it can be quickly and easily done would be making a false, inaccurate, or totally misunderstood answer to this very large and complex question.”

“It may not be possible but, if it were, it would be Dollars that would be so large that it would take many years to figure out what number we are talking about and even, who, when, and where, to pay,” he claimed.

And he warned point-blank, “if the Supreme Court rules against the United States of America on this National Security bonanza, WE’RE SCREWED!”

READ MORE: Trump ‘Losing Political Fight’ to Fed Chair: Analyst

 

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