What Had Happened Was (July 15th-21st, 2019)
A lightning fast weekly recap so you don't feel like an idiot on Monday
Here’s a catch-up of the major and interesting events of the week of July 15th, 2019. You can check in with a minimal time commitment, read about the big stuff and stay in the know before we’re on to the next. This week we had girl power, racist retaliation, Rand Paul doing the unspeakable, pedophiles denied bail and a major release of documents that could throw a wrench into Hope Hicks’ new L.A. lifestyle. Let’s dive right in.
The Squad
Last weekend, Trump fired off a series of racist tweets that were clearly directed at Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Although three were born in the U.S. and another is a naturalized citizen, Trump directed them to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” alluding that they go back to the countries where their ancestors are from.
"He would love nothing more than to divide our country based on race, religion, gender, orientation or immigration status, because this is the only way he knows he can prevent the solidarity of us working together." — Representative Ilhan Omar
By Monday afternoon, all four Congresswomen held a press conference to denounce the attacks, call for movement on Impeaching the President and to remind everyone “we should not take the bait,” and that Trump’s remarks were part of an effort to pit Americans against each other. Omar also noted that Trump has made divisive, sexist and racist statements both as president and during his campaign and that it was "complete hypocrisy" for him to call for his critics to leave the country. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a point to speak to all Americans, especially the children watching, to emphasize that “no matter what the president says, this country belongs to you.”
The term “The Squad” had been used by the Congresswomen previously, in social media posts to express solidarity, but after Rep. Pressley invited anyone who wanted to be a part of working for equality to join the squad, the movement became much bigger.
“We are more than four people. We ran on a mandate to advocate for and to represent those ignored, left out, and left behind. Our squad is big. Our squad includes any person committed to creating a more equitable and just world.” — Rep. Ayanna Pressley
The girl power was contagious and by the next day, several Congresspeople had taken to the House floor to denounce Trump. Rep. Al Green (D-TX) attempted to move forward on Impeaching Trump for his racist remarks (his third attempt) but that failed. Nancy Pelosi even took to the House floor to condemn Trump’s racist comments in order to formally add the incident to the record and a fight over House Decorum broke out. Members of the GOP argued that Pelosi had violated long-standing House rules in speaking negatively about Trump’s personal traits, and at one point, the person overseeing debate had to put down his gavel and leave out of sheer exasperation. Republicans continued to defend Trump all week in the media and on the House floor, but support for the “Squad” continued to grow as membership increased rapidly.
Attacks Continue for Omar
Now we get to the lowest point of the week. You would think that would have been when the President of the United States tweeted racist remarks at four sitting Congresswomen, but no. It digressed. As Republicans launched a defense in the media using a term their base doesn’t fully understand to rally support, the dog-whistle of “Socialism” abounded. Trump tried to deny that it was racist at all, which didn’t work. Then he tried to say that he meant that they should go back to their own cities, but that didn’t work either. So by Wednesday, he tripled down and alluded to Rep. Omar being married to her brother in the past and then trying to cover it up. Play the video below, he really said it.
He continued to escalate the rhetoric and pundits and supporters ran with the “if they don’t like it, they can go back to where they came from” rhetoric. By Wednesday evening, at his rally in North Carolina, he had amped up his ignorant supporters with a riff of criticism for Rep. Omar. The crowd’s Pavlovian response was to start chanting "Send her back! Send her back! Send her back!” while Trump stood back for 13 seconds to allow the crowd to carry on. By Thursday, Trump said he tried to stop it, that he would try to do so in the future and that he disavows the chant, but no one with any sense truly believes that.
The sad reality is that Trump attacked all four women and doubled down on his retaliation for the one Congresswoman who was not born in the United States. It was an intentional continued targeting of a Muslim woman he knew his base would easily attack, and they didn’t let him down.
Rand Paul Denies 9/11 First Responders Relief
On Wednesday, Rand Paul (R-KY) shocked everyone as he blocked an attempt to extend much needed funding for the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund that provides critical support to First Responders, many of whom are very ill and even dying. Deep breath on this one, it’s bad. The reasoning for all of this: the budget was too out of control and we needed to cut spending somewhere in order to be able to allocate money to this fund.
Social media went nuts. People pointed out the hypocrisy of someone like Rand Paul, who could vote for Trump’s tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy having the nerve to deny First Responders like this. Others mentioned that costs could easily be curbed by just cutting out the President’s golf trips every weekend. Then there’s the ridiculous wall that serves no purpose that Rand undoubtedly supports and on and on. Needless to say, this move by Paul was hugely unpopular. I even had Trump supporters “re-tweeting” me, saying this was not the hill for Paul to die on and “quote tweeting” me to agree with me. I have never seen anything like it. Within a few hours Paul had tweeted out that his intention was not to deny funding, but to take time for an amendment that could re-allocate funding from somewhere else. As if.
But it wasn’t long before Senators like Schumer (as seen in the video above) pointed out that to make sick people have to attend another session just to see this proposal pass, is unconscionable and makes no sense. My personal take on the whole thing is that Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made a very public commitment to Jon Stewart and the other First Responders who forced his hand, so McConnell is using Paul to deny the funding to keep his own hands clean. Whatever the actual reasoning, the move was disgusting on an epic level and the outcry was intense.
Sexual Predators In Trump’s Orbit Stay in the Clink
On Thursday, a federal judge denied Jeffrey Epstein’s request to await trial under home detention at his Upper East Side mansion, calling the proposed bail package from his attorneys “irretrievably inadequate.” The financier is facing sex-trafficking charges in the Southern District of New York and has previously served an incredibly lenient sentence in Florida in 2008 for a felony conviction on similar charges.
“Mr. Epstein’s alleged excessive attraction to sexual conduct with or in the presence of minor girls — which is said to include his soliciting and receiving massages from young girls and young women perhaps as many as four times a day — appears likely to be uncontrollable.” — Judge Berman, on his bail decision for Epstein
It didn’t help that investigators found what was essentially a “go bag” in Epstein’s home after he was arrested that included loose diamonds as large as 2.38 carats, $70,000 in cash, a fake passport, a large diamond ring and a partridge in a pear tree. Epstein also has access to two private planes and owns a 72-acre private island in the Caribbean. Although Epstein’s attorneys tried to argue that he had never used the fake passport, SDNY prosecutors showed proof of the ingress and egress stamps on it for France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia.
Judge Berman also stated that he took the statement testimony of two of Epstein’s accusers (Annie Farmer and Courtney Wild) into account and said they had “movingly testified” in a hearing earlier in the week that they feared for their safety and the safety of others if Epstein were to be released. Epstein remains at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a highly secure facility in Manhattan, where he has been detained since his July 6 arrest at in New Jersey after his flight from Paris arrived.
Although Donald Trump tried to distance himself from Epstein this week claiming they had a falling out and weren’t close anymore, video surfaced this week of the two of them together perving out at Mar-a-Lago.
Another Trump associate, George Nader, who had met with individuals associated with campaign throughout the election and into the early days of the administration, was charged with new federal charges of sex trafficking for allegedly “engaging in sexual acts” with a 14-year-old boy he transported from Europe. This is in addition to the separate child-porn charges by the same prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia last month. Nader, who was a key cooperator in Mueller’s probe of foreign influence in the 2016 election, was arrested last month at Dulles airport where FBI agents found dozens of child-porn videos on one of Nader’s phones, some depicting children as young as 3 years old.
Nader has a substantial checkered past when it comes to criminal sex charges. In 1984, he was indicted for possessing child pornography in Washington, D.C. but the charge was ultimately dismissed on the basis of an illegal search. Nader also has a 2003 conviction in the Czech Republic for abusing minors, including a charge of transporting a minor boy to the U.S. for sexual purposes. Nader was caught again at Dulles airport in 1990 with child pornography and pleaded guilty. In 2018, Nader faced allegations of possessing and transporting child pornography when he was stopped again at Dulles airport and questioned about his time working with the Trump campaign. But, soon after Nader began cooperating with Mueller in the spring of 2018, those charges seemed to fade away as he departed for Dubai, where he lived until he attempted to re-enter the U.S. last month. It’s not likely that Nader will receive bail. Stay tuned.
Cohen Materials Released; Hope Hicks in Trouble
Previously sealed documents were released Thursday, including search warrant materials comprised of FBI notes. These materials were part of the evidence against Cohen that lead to his guilty plea last August for violating campaign finance law by arranging hush money payments for Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels.
According to these new materials, an F.B.I. agent wrote that in October 2016, Cohen “exchanged a series of calls, text messages, and emails” with Keith Davidson (Stormy Daniels’ attorney), David Pecker, Dylan Howard, Donald Trump and Hope Hicks in order to mitigate fallout from the Access Hollywood tape going public and to ensure that no other affairs stories got out. So this scheme was indeed a cover-up, and Trump knew about it the whole time and lied. Shocker.
Moreover, in attempting to hide the affairs, there was criminal behavior on the part of Michael Cohen, who admitted to knowingly violating campaign finance laws with the hush money payment. Cohen also claimed last year that he broke the law at Trump’s direction, and the newly released documents back up his statement. These documents also support certain aspects of Cohen’s Congressional testimony that was so quickly dismissed by Republicans as retaliation against the President. The bigger picture is that these new materials could serve as evidence for charges down the road, depending on who has immunity deals and who is still President of the United States.
The most disquieting aspect of the revelations within these newly released warrant materials is that Hope Hicks lied to Congress. The bombshell here is that Hope Hicks told Rep. Lee during her closed door Congressional testimony a few months ago that she was never “present” when Cohen or Trump discussed trying to buy Stormy Daniels’ silence toward the end of the 2016 campaign. (See below)
Ms. Jackson Lee: Were you ever present when Trump and Cohen discussed Stormy Daniels?
Ms. Hicks: No, ma’am.
Ms. Jackson Lee: You were never present when they discussed Stormy Daniels?
Ms. Hicks: No.
Ms. Jackson Lee: I’m going to say it again. Were you ever present when Trump and Mr. Cohen discussed Stormy Daniels, since it was all over the news that that occurred?
Mr. Philbin (attorney for Hicks): Let me just object to make--my understanding is this question is limited during campaign. That’s the line of questioning.
Ms. Jackson Lee: That’s correct, sir.
Ms. Hicks: So, no is my answer.
But clearly, these newly released materials prove otherwise—that Hicks was involved in several conversations during the campaign to silence Stormy Daniels. Hicks is now in danger of having perjured herself before Congress, which is a felony. Rep. Jerry Nadler sent Hicks a formal letter Thursday afternoon asking for her to “clarify [her] testimony on a voluntary basis, prior to…considering compulsory process.” She was given a deadline of August 15th to submit her clarifications formally, so stay tuned…
There you have it, the biggest stories from last week so that you’re all caught up and ready to hit the ground running on Monday. Get ready for Mueller’s testimony this Wednesday, and rumor has it that most of Congress has been doing mock-questioning sessions to prepare. This event has been labeled as a make or break situation for Democrats, but it’s really not. I don’t think he will reveal anything new that he hasn’t already put in writing in his report and this spin just feels like more media hype. Just in case, I will be live tweeting the entire session in the event that you are at work or something major does go down. Be sure to follow my feed on Twitter for all the live updates on Mueller in real time. Have a great week, everyone!
BREAKING: There is also a new Randy Rainbow video
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Amee Vanderpool writes the “Shero” Newsletter and is an attorney, contributor to Playboy Magazine, analyst for BBC radio and Director of The Inanna Project. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.