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Homeland Security Chief: I Am ‘Not Aware’ of US Intel Report Saying Russia Interfered to Help Trump Win

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A January 2017 report that was approved by all U.S. intelligence agencies working on Russia found that not only Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election, but that Russia did so with the specific intent to help Donald Trump win the White House. Those agencies, Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which has the effect of speaking for the U.S. government’s intelligence community.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen just told reporters she has not seen the report, or its conclusion.

“I do not believe that I’ve seen that conclusion that the specific intent was to help President Trump win,” Nielsen, guardedly said Tuesday morning. “I’m not aware of that,” she said, according to reporters.

NBC News’ Marianna Sotomayor reports “Sec. Nielsen then tried to clarify her answer, saying its unclear that Putin/Russia favored Trump because Russian social media accounts actively rallied US citizens to attend pro-Hillary gatherings as much as pro-Trump ones.”

And while Russian hackers and trolls did instigate both pro-Trump and pro-Clinton rallies, they were done with the intent to sow discord and to further weaken American society.

Nielsen also tried to broaden the issue, diverting the report’s conclusion away from Trump.

“I do believe that Russia did and will continue to try to manipulate Americans’ perspective on a whole variety of issues,” she offered.

That report, an official U.S. government publication, also found that the Russian attack on America was done to harm Hillary Clinton, and to sow discord among Americans. Further, it made clear Russia will do this again.

It’s that last part that makes it so egregious for the Secretary of Homeland Security, whose number one priority is to protect the American “homeland,” to not have read the report, much less to not have acted on it.

The spokesperson for Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner released a statement in response to Nielsen’s remarks, lamenting, “I honestly can’t believe I have to keep doing this (via The Daily Beast’s Andrew Desiderio):

Some on social media called for Nielsen to resign, while others expressed shock and anger.

Hillary Clinton’s former foreign policy spokesperson:

Others:

 

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Sen. Bill Cassidy: ‘Roads and Bridges Are a Woman’s Problem’ Because They Are ‘Doing the Shopping’

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Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on Sunday insisted that infrastructure like roads and bridges is a “women’s problem” because they do the “shopping.”

Cassidy made the remarks on NBC’s Meet the Press, where he was arguing on behalf of a bipartisan infrastructure bill.

“If you go home and talk to constituents who are stuck in traffic for an hour and a half getting to work and an hour and a half getting home — three hours a day that they don’t spend with their family — they want a bridge coming to a town near them,” Cassidy explained.

“My wife says that roads and bridges are a woman’s problem if you will,” the senator added. “Because oftentimes it is the woman — aside from commuting to work — who’s also taking children to schools or doing the shopping. And the more time that she spends on that road, the less time she spends doing things of higher value.”

Watch the video below from NBC.

 

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Trump Claims Abandoning US Allies in Syria Is ‘Strategically Brilliant’ Despite Bipartisan Condemnation Amid Ethnic Cleansing

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President Donald Trump just praised his decision to withdraw U.S. Armed Forces from Northern Syria, opening the door for Turkey to begin ethnic cleansing of America’s now-former allies in the war against ISIS as “strategically brilliant.” U.S. troops have condemned the move, which has destroyed decades of U.S.-international diplomacy and military action, and resuscitated ISIS as a terrorist organization.

Experts have said Trump’s moves over the past week have strengthened Russia enormously.

(Watch the look on the note-taker’s face as Trump speaks.)

 

 

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Presidential Advisor Pierson: Was Lincoln Racist?

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Katrina Pierson

Senior advisor for President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, Katrina Pierson, has pushed back on criticism about the low number of Black peoplein the administration by comparing the Trump administration to that of President Lincoln more than 150 years prior. 

The comments came up on “Politics Nation” on MSNBC this Saturday, as host Reverend Al Sharpton attempted to get Pierson and panelist David Brock of Media Matters fo America to name a single black staff member of the President. 

“Historically, Republicans and Democrats have had major figures of the black community in the West Wing as part of their senior staff and administration,” said Sharpton. “Who are the blacks in the West Wing under President Trump?”

Pierson countered, “You mean those who took the job or those who were offered? Because those are two entirely different questions.” 

“Everything has to be made about race, reverend… I’m not going to participate if you’re going to continue to paint this president as racist.” 

Sharpton tried to move away from the discussion to a point, turning to Brock to ask how Trump could really ask for black votes without having black people in the West Wing. 

Pierson jumped in, “there’s plenty of black people in the West Wing.”

“Well, I asked you to name them,” replied Sharpton.

“I’m not going to participate in the attempt to make this all about race,” said Pierson. “It is ridiculous. How many black people were in Abraham Lincoln’s West Wing?”

“Is Abraham Lincoln a racist because he didn’t have a black person in his White House? This is insane. This is an insane discussion,” added Pierson.

“You can’t name a black in the West Wing because we can’t find one, Katrina,” responded Sharpton. “I pity you. I’d sympathize with you, but telling me you applied, and other people? Come on. It’s unthinkable in the 21st century that even a spokesperson for President Trump can’t name a black in the West Wing.”

There was not, technically a “west wing” staff under Abraham Lincoln, That did not start in its modern configuration until the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.

View the exchange below:

Image via screen capture from video source.

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