Nov 2023 Mod notice:
There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.
If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations
and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines
before posting here.
Rumor-based, fear-mongering and/or inflammatory statements that damage the quality of the thread will be thumped. Off-topic posts will also be thumped. Repeat offenders may be suspended.
If time spent moderating this thread remains a distraction from moderation of the wiki itself, the thread will need to be locked. We want to avoid that, so please follow the forum rules
when posting here.
In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Reuters: Trump won't pursue Clinton probes on email, charity: aide indicates
During their bitter presidential campaign, the Republican Trump vowed to jail Clinton and crowds at his rallies chanted "Lock her up." He now believes she "has been through enough," MSNBC reported on Tuesday, citing an unidentified source.
Addressing the report in an interview with MSNBC, senior Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway did not deny it and indicated it was correct.
"Hillary Clinton still has to face the fact that a majority of Americans don't find her to be honest or trustworthy, but if Donald Trump can help her heal then perhaps that's a good thing," she said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.
During the campaign, opinion polls found that many Americans did not find Clinton trustworthy.
The FBI investigated Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state during President Barack Obama's first term, concluding earlier this year that her actions were careless but that there were no grounds for bringing charges.
The Clinton Foundation charity has also been scrutinized for donations it received while she led the State Department.
Clinton acknowledged her use of a private email server was a mistake and denied links between foundation donors and her work as secretary of state. There has been no evidence that foreign donors to the foundation obtained favors from the State Department while Clinton headed it.
Congress can pursue its own investigations regardless of whether Trump opts to appoint a special prosecutor, as he vowed during the campaign.
U.S. Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has said he will continue investigating Clinton's use of a private server.
Conway indicated Trump would frown on that.
"When the president-elect, who's also the head of your party now, tells you before he's even inaugurated he doesn't wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message - tone and content - to the members," Conway said on MSNBC.
The New York businessman has been holding meetings since his Nov. 8 election victory to build his administration and fill senior posts before he takes office on Jan. 20.
"He's thinking of many different things as he prepares to become the president of the United States, and things that sounds like the campaign aren't among them," Conway said.
NYT MEETING BACK ON
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump abruptly canceled a meeting with The New York Times, a newspaper he has frequently criticized, complaining on Twitter about inaccurate coverage and a "nasty tone."
Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told reporters hours later the meeting was still on.
On Monday Trump met with television anchors and news industry executives and reporters in a session The Washington Post described as a contentious but generally respectful.
Trump singled out reporting of his campaign by CNN and NBC that he considered to be unfair, the Post said, citing four participants at the meeting in New York.
Trump, who has never previously held public office, was quick to bristle at unflattering news coverage during the campaign, even as he remained accessible to certain reporters, including several from the Times.
"I canceled today's meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice," Trump said in an early morning Twitter post.
"Perhaps a new meeting will be set up with the @nytimes. In the meantime they continue to cover me inaccurately and with a nasty tone!" Trump wrote in a second post.
A spokeswoman for the Times said the newspaper was not aware the meeting was canceled until Trump's tweet, issued at about 6:30 a.m. EST (1130 GMT).
Trump has not held a news conference to talk about his priorities since his election, although on Monday he issued a short video message on his plans for his first days in office.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Frances Kerry)
CNN Money: Trump cancels New York Times meeting, then changes his mind
Trump is heading over to the Times' headquarters now, press secretary Hope Hicks told CNN Money around 9:45 a.m. A portion of the meeting will be an on-the-record interview, as the newspaper originally wanted.
"Mr. Trump's staff has told us that the President Elect's meeting with The Times is on again," Eileen Murphy, head of communications for the Times, said in a statement. "He will meet with our publisher off-the-record and that session will be followed by an on-the-record meeting with our journalists and editorial columnists."
The back-and-forth showed Trump's impulsive nature and his combative approach toward top news organizations.
Here's what happened:
Trump originally asked for the meeting with Times executives, and also agreed to meet on the record with reporters and columnists.
The Times announced the meeting on Monday.
But on Tuesday morning, Trump said on Twitter that the "terms and conditions" had changed at the last minute — a claim The Times denied, saying it was in fact Trump who had tried to alter the conditions.
"Not nice," Trump said in an early morning tweet. He called the newspaper "failing," a favorite insult.
In a second tweet minutes later, the president-elect said: "Perhaps a new meeting will be set up with the @nytimes. In the meantime they continue to cover me inaccurately and with a nasty tone!"
I cancelled today's meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
Perhaps a new meeting will be set up with the @nytimes. In the meantime they continue to cover me inaccurately and with a nasty tone!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
A front-page story in The Times on Tuesday questioned whether Trump's business deals will test a provision of the Constitution that blocks office-holders from accepting certain gifts and profits from foreign governments.
The Times and other news organizations have also reported extensively on the unprecedented conflicts of interest posed by Trump's hundreds of business holdings around the world.
The Times also reported that Trump recently asked British politician Nigel Farage to oppose offshore wind farms that Trump believed would damage the view from one of his Scottish golf courses.
The Times said it only learned through Trump's tweets that the meeting was off.
"We did not change the ground rules at all and made no attempt to,"' Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told CNN Money. She said Trump's representatives had asked only for a private meeting, with nothing on the record. But she said the two sides later agreed to a small off-the-record session and a larger, on-the-record session with reporters and columnists. In a third tweet, Trump said The New York Times had "announced" that "complaints about them are at a 15 year high." In a November 19 column, the newspaper's public editor, Liz Spayd, said the number of complaints to her office is "five times the normal level." She said letters to the editor, which are not necessarily complaints about coverage, are coming in at the highest level since September 11, 2001.
"There is a searing level of dissatisfacton out there with many aspects of the coverage," she wrote.
Trump responded that he "can fully understand that," but he wondered why the paper would announce that complaints were up. The reason, simply, is that the role of the public editor is to critique the newspaper's coverage and serve as liaison between readers and the editors.
On Monday, Trump met off the record with executives and anchors from the nation's biggest television networks to Trump Tower. Sources told CNN that he complained about media coverage and was highly critical of CNN and other news organizations.
The sources said he also answered questions, listened to journalists' arguments about the importance of access, and committed to making improvements.
—CNN Money's David Goldman and Chris Isidore contributed to this report.
Crossposting another troper's post on the Global Terrorism Thread
:
It's currently being passed around the US Senate.
Welcome to the reign of Donald Trump.
@Cap, well it looks like the American people are falling for it. A new poll suggests that a small majority of Americans think that Trump will at least do a "fairly good" job as president.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/22/politics/donald-trump-presidency-poll-transition/index.html
Also, the GOP changing the constitution has been brought up before, though their main goal appears to be inserting a balanced budget amendment. Not the worst thing they could come up with, but still pretty fuck awful. They also want more decentralization, which we know is just code for wanting the right to treat wide parts of society like sub-humans.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/22/politics/constitutional-convention-explainer/index.html
Wait what?
Okay, after the sheer amount of signs that Viewers Are Goldfish on display during the campaign, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. But goddamn, Trump has already started using his position as President-Elect to promote his business interests.
That is not normal.
edited 22nd Nov '16 7:39:26 AM by CaptainCapsase
![]()
![]()
![]()
Something like that would never, never, never be supported by any Court, from the Rubyest of Conservative Red Districts to the Deepest of Liberal Blue Districts. Even a Pro-Trump Supreme Court would unanimously (or near-unanimously) say that a law like that would violate the Constitution.
edited 22nd Nov '16 7:39:41 AM by DingoWalley1
I don't make assumptions that Republicans have bottom lines anymore.
But not felony, worth 7-10 years in prison.
edited 22nd Nov '16 7:42:15 AM by blkwhtrbbt
Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for youThe ACLU, for one, is condemning the bill, saying:
![]()
![]()
![]()
The American Right has been bitching about people protesting in the streets and freeways, and occasionally tries to rein in those a little too enthusiastic about running people protesting there over.
Even if it has no chance of passing, that's still a pretty bad precedent.
I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot
I don't know much about it, but the name alone sounds pretty ominous. The religious right has ruined that phrase for me.
EDIT: You mean this atrocity
? I haven't seen any news about it in the past few days.
edited 22nd Nov '16 8:01:40 AM by henry42
One does not shake the box containing the sticky notes of doom!The GOP has been tossing around a bill that amounts to Jim Crow laws for LGBT people (and in some cases, women) with regards to accessing services, public spaces, hospital treatment, insurance, etc.
Yeah, that one.
edited 22nd Nov '16 8:04:09 AM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.The American people really can't afford to be complacent with the upcoming administration. At the very least, we need to keep a close eye on the legislation they try to pass. And of course, help out organizations that represent the groups of people who will likely suffer the most in Trumpland (ie, anyone who isn't rich, white, heterosexual, Christian, and male).
edited 22nd Nov '16 8:25:36 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedI wonder if the people who keep on trying to warn people that the Trump administration is going to be a travesty will end up being treated like The Cassandra. At least until it's too late.
From the trope page for The Cassandra:
Really hoping this doesn't become a case of History Repeats...(though I do think the odds of World War III actually happening in a few years are slim to none)
edited 22nd Nov '16 8:36:38 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised

Trump will not pursue his 'special investigation' on Hillary Clinton.
Well, I guess it's good we won't have to worry about any sort of Political Purge in the first few months of his Presidency at least...