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President Donald Trump's allies are preparing an extensive campaign to fight back against James Comey's publicity tour, trying to undermine the credibility of the former FBI director by reviving the blistering Democratic criticism of him before he was fired nearly a year ago.

The battle plan against Comey, obtained by CNN, calls for branding the nation's former top law enforcement official as "Lyin' Comey" through a website, digital advertising and talking points to be sent to Republicans across the country before his memoir is released next week. The White House signed off on the plan, which is being overseen by the Republican National Committee.
"Comey is a liar and a leaker and his misconduct led both Republicans and Democrats to call for his firing," Republican chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement to CNN. "If Comey wants the spotlight back on him, we'll make sure the American people understand why he has no one but himself to blame for his complete lack of credibility."

Trump promotes totally unhinged episode of Hannity

Trump and Hannity want you to believe that Mueller is part of a "DEEP STATE CRIME FAMILY."

At 8:48 p.m. on Wednesday, President Trump asked his 51 million Twitter followers to tune in to Sean Hannity’s Fox News broadcast, promising it’d be a “big show.”

Hannity, who recently dined with Trump at his private resort in Florida and is regular communication with the president, began the show by attacking former FBI director James Comey — the subject of an ABC interview set to air Sunday.

Hannity seemed unaware that the logic he was using to attack Comey could be viewed as very incriminating for Trump.

Alluding to an ABC teaser of its interview with Comey where Trump is compared to a mob boss, Hannity said, “Really? Mob boss. Let’s think about this, of all the people, the former head of the federal bureau of investigation, the person responsible for taking down actual criminal gangs — shouldn’t James Comey know better than to make an outrageous comparison like that?”

Hannity then began to smear Comey for his alleged involvement in “the Clinton crime family” and “the Mueller crime family.” Special Counsel Robert Mueller — a Republican and former FBI director who was appointed by Republican president George W. Bush — came under fire for failed prosecutions from nearly two decades ago.

By the end, Hannity was linking his attacks on Comey, Clinton, and Mueller under the single heading of “DEEP STATE CRIME FAMILY.”

Hannity’s monologue was followed by a panel discussion with two lawyers Trump has relationships with — Alan Dershowitz and Joseph diGenova. The three teamed up to attack Mueller, with diGenova going as far as to say that “what Bob Mueller is doing and has done is destroying the Department of Justice, and for Jeff Sessions to sit there like a bump on a log and do nothing about it is disgraceful.

Dershowitz, echoing a Trump talking point, went on to accuse Sessions of “wrongful conduct” by not informing Trump that he might have to recuse himself from investigations of the Trump campaign for contacts with Russia before taking the job as attorney general.

With Trump’s legal team in chaos, he’s turned to cable news personalities like Dershowitz and diGenova for advice.

Trump is using Hannity as a mouthpiece at a time when he’s without a White House communications director. Hope Hicks’ last day in that role was late last month, and she hasn’t been replaced.

Trump, who routinely live-tweets Fox News programming, was reportedly watching cable news on Monday night as news of an FBI raid on the home, office, and hotel room of his personal attorney circulated.

Lawmakers have taken notice of Trump’s TV habit. During a Fox News interview earlier in the evening on Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) twice directly appealed to Trump and tried to give him advice.

Aaron Rupar
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@atrupar
15h
During a Fox News interview, @LindseyGrahamSC addresses President Trump directly.

"Mr President, if you're watching, I think you're going to be fine unless you screw this up. Let the process play out. I don't believe you colluded w/the Russians, but Mueller will soon tell us."


Aaron Rupar
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@atrupar


At end of interview Graham addresses Trump directly for a second time, this time to give him advice on Syria.

"Mr President, you said Assad would pay a big price. To me a big price means he cannot do this again ever, that he will never sleep well at night.

In a tweet posted Thursday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) alluded to the power people have to persuade Trump during TV interviews while defending Mueller.


Senator Hatch Office
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@senorrinhatch


Anyone advising the President — in public or over the airwaves— to fire Bob Mueller does not have the President or the nation’s best interest at heart.

Full stop.

Trump, however, refuses to publicly acknowledge his taste for TV.

“Believe it or not, even when I’m in Washington or New York, I do not watch much television,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One in November. “Primarily because of documents. I’m reading documents. A lot.”

Former Trump transition chairman and ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) dismantled the president’s latest round of attacks on Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday and laid out a clear defense of Monday’s raid on the office of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

After the raid, Trump threatened to fire Mueller and unleashed a Twitter tirade complaining that “attorney-client privilege is dead!”

But on ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday, Christie warned that firing the special counsel would be untenable. Noting that he had used the exact same process during his own time as a U.S. Attorney, he explained the high bar that had to have been satisfied before the “not that extraordinary” raid.

“They went to Justice at least twice on this. [Deputy Attorney General Rod] Rosenstein sent it to the U.S. Attorney in the Southern. He took an independent look at it,” he explained. “He could have just said, ‘I don’t see anything here,’ or ‘I’ll just serve some subpoenas,’ or take some less intrusive steps. He thought that either one of two things was happening: either he had evidence that Cohen was not cooperating with subpoenas that have already been served, and/or that Cohen was in the midst of destroying evidence.”

Christie noted that the request then needed to be approved by the head of the DOJ’s criminal division and the deputy attorney general again.

Christie shot down Trump’s claim that Monday’s raid was a fatal blow to attorney-client privilege. “There’s gonna be a taint-team… they’ll bring in a whole separate team of agents and assistant U.S. Attorneys who are gonna examine this. They’re going to separate this into stuff that’s privileged and stuff that isn’t.”

And then, he explained, they’d look at whether any of the privileged information showed evidence of an ongoing crime or fraud between Trump and Cohen.

“It’s gotta be a conspiracy-like situation, George, that they see clear evidence of,” Christie told host George Stephanopoulos.

Trump promotes totally unhinged episode of Hannity

Accusing Comey of being associated with Deep State crime family of the "Mueller family" and the
"Clinton family" is definitely unhinged.

I betcha republicans wish they had superdelegates now.

Hannity incites the base to engage in a civil war if Meuller indicts Trump (for anything, I guess)

The latest in our collection of Very Stable Genius photographs

The first step, these people say, would be for Trump to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the work of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and in recent days signed off on a search warrant of Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

STUNNING evidence from BBC journalist exposing White Helmets staging chemical attacks in Douma

Fmr UK Ambassador Peter Ford Says West Is Being Played By Jihadists, Assad Likely Not Behind Attack

Republicans Are Trying to Use Impeachment to Scare Their Base to the Polls

A teacher from the Florida high school where 17 people were shot dead two months ago has been arrested after leaving his gun in a public toilet.

Sean Simpson, 43, absentmindedly left the loaded weapon inside a cubicle, says Broward County Sheriff's Office.

It was found by a homeless man who fired a bullet into the wall before Mr Simpson snatched it from his hands.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School teacher previously said he was open to the idea of arming teachers.

Mr Simpson told police on Sunday he realised he had left the legally registered pistol in the toilet at the Deerfield Beach Pier after hearing a single gunshot.

After running back to the bathroom, the science teacher encountered a homeless man holding the gun, who, he added, appeared drunk.

Police arrested Mr Simpson and Joseph Spataro, 69, at the scene.

Mr Simpson was charged with failing to safely store a firearm, and was released after paying a $250 (£175) cash bond.

Mr Spataro, who told police he fired the Glock 9mm handgun to see if it was loaded, was charged with firing a weapon while intoxicated and trespassing.

Mr Simpson had voiced support for additional gun control measures after the mass shooting by a 19-year-old former student at his school on 14 February.

Last month, he attended the March for Our Lives protest in Washington DC.

Mr Simpson also previously expressed an openness to the notion of arming and training educators to fight back against school shooters.

"I know there are some of us that are willing to take the training if it was offered and probably be another line of defence," he said in an interview with MSNBC.

"But again that is a complicated subject and I'm not sure if it's the answer. I think it's easier to get these types of weapons out of the hands of people that aren't meant to do anything but kill."

A spokeswoman for the Broward County School Board said the district is not expected to take disciplinary action against him, according to WPLG-TV.

On Tuesday, the Broward School Board unanimously rejected the state's new programme to arm school staff, according to the Miami Herald.

... The British Syrian Society is an association set up to promote relations between Syria and the United Kingdom.

I believe Assad's wife is also British. [/color]