January 15, 2018


News and Views


TWEETING WHILE DRINKING IS DANGEROUS ....

http://freebeacon.com/politics/rachel-maddow-show-sparked-fbi-investigation-death-threats-mcconnell-pruitt/
Rachel Maddow Show Sparked FBI Investigation Into Death Threats Against McConnell, Pruitt
Viewer drinking while watching Maddow says 'sorry' for threatening to murder Republicans
Rachel Maddow / Getty Images
BY: Elizabeth Harrington
January 12, 2018 5:00 am

Drinking while watching MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show led to death threats against Republicans Mitch McConnell and Scott Pruitt that sparked an FBI investigation.

An individual admitted to sending threatening tweets against the Senate majority leader and Environmental Protection Agency administrator, according to the EPA's inspector general investigation document, first reported by E&E News.

The unidentified person from Paragould, Ark., said they meant the threats as a "flippant comment" and sent the tweets when they were "drinking while watching the Rachel Maddow show."

The threats were serious enough for the Office of Investigations to open a joint inquiry with the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and the Tulsa Police Department in Oklahoma.

The case report was entitled, "Twitter Threat to Murder Administrator Scott Pruitt and Senator Mitch McConnell."

The tweets were directed at McConnell, and the individual said they also included Pruitt because they did "not like Administrator Pruitt's record of suing the EPA."

The individual sent the tweets on April 8, 2017. The episode, which aired on a Saturday, would have been a repeat of Maddow's Friday night show.

During that night's episode, Maddow discussed the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, calling McConnell and Republicans "radical" for ending the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.

"When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died on a ranch in western Texas last year, only a few hours had passed before the top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said that President Obama wouldn't be allowed to put a justice on the court to replace Justice Scalia," Maddow said. "He said, quote, ‘This vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.'"

Maddow lamented that Gorsuch would be sworn in, telling her viewers, "There's nothing anybody can do about it."

"Republicans got rid of Senate rules that have been there forever in order to get Neil Gorsuch confirmed to that seat," Maddow said. "It's done. He will be sworn in on Monday. "There's nothing anybody can do about it."

Maddow said Gorsuch's confirmation was "so radical" and brought on Dahlia Lithwick, a senior editor at Slate, to comment.

"What we learned and we learn when Mitch McConnell said that obstructing Merrick Garland was one of the proudest moments of his career, that this is about power now," Lithwick said.

Agents discovered the threatening tweets sent while watching the episode on April 9. The suspect was questioned on April 12. The individual was investigated for violating title 18 of the U.S. code for "influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a federal official by threatening."

The individual told special agents he or she was "very sorry" and "did not intend to threaten anyone."

The findings of the investigation were presented to the assistant United States attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas, which declined prosecution.

Pruitt has received an unprecedented number of death threats while serving at the EPA, necessitating a 24-hour security detail for the administrator that is costing taxpayers $2 million per year.

He has received five times as many threats as his predecessor, including direct death threats such as, "I'm going to put a bullet in your brain."

Request for comment from MSNBC was not immediately returned.

This entry was posted in Politics and tagged EPA, Rachel Maddow, Republicans, Scott Pruitt. Bookmark the permalink.



WHY IS SCOTT PRUITT SO VERY UNPOPULAR? THIS STORY MAY REVEAL PART OF THE REASON. IT IS VERY LONG, SO I HAVE INCLUDED ONLY THE FIRST SEVERAL PARAGRAPHS. IT SEEMS THAT PRUITT, ALONG WITH IMHOFF, WERE INVOLVED IN A DISASTROUS LAND DEAL, AND THE LAWSUITS FLEW. READ TO YOUR HEART’S CONTENT ON THE WEBSITE.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/06/scott-pruitt-tar-creek-oklahoma-investigation-215854
M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO
POLITICO INVESTIGATION
The Environmental Scandal in Scott Pruitt’s Backyard
It’s one of the dirtiest places in America. Former residents of Tar Creek, Oklahoma, want to know why Trump’s EPA chief didn’t prosecute allegations of wrongdoing during a federal buyout program.
By MALCOLM BURNLEY December 06, 2017

PICHER, Okla. — Tar Creek, Oklahoma, is breathtaking in a terrible way: At one time the world’s deepest source of lead and zinc, the three-town region is now a cratered landscape so poisonous that no one, aside from 10 holdouts, can live there. Mountains of ashlike “chat,” a toxic residue from lead-zinc milling, rise majestically among the remains of homes torn from their foundations. Abandoned pets forage around the ruins. A child’s teddy bear lies sprawled in a ghostly living room. A gorilla statue fronts an empty high school, atop a sign proclaiming “1A Football State Champs, 1984.”

Tar Creek is also part of the environmental legacy of one of the state’s—and nation’s—leading politicians, Senator Jim Inhofe, and his longtime ally, Scott Pruitt, the former Oklahoma attorney general who is now head of President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency. After the EPA struggled to clean up the area, in 2006, Inhofe endorsed a plan in which a trust overseen by local citizens would use federal dollars to purchase homes and businesses in the toxic region so residents could move elsewhere. Then, when the plan proved so problematic that it spawned more than a half-dozen civil lawsuits and an audit into possible criminal wrongdoing, Pruitt, as the state’s attorney general, invoked an exception to state freedom-of-information laws to keep the audit from being an open public record.
. . . .



AN ELDERLY ATTORNEY TAKES ON TRUMP. LOUIS CLARK OF A LEGAL NON-PROFIT GIVES HIM ADVICE TO CONTINUE TRYING, BUT TO GET HELP WITH HIS CASE. LOVITKY IS GOING AFTER TRUMP ON THE “HUNDREDS” OF BUSINESSES WITH WHICH HE IS INVOLVED, AND WHICH MAY WELL INVOLVE CONFLICTS OF INTEREST.

https://www.npr.org/2018/01/15/577623436/for-1-attorney-a-lonely-legal-fight-to-make-trump-comply-with-rules
POLITICS
For 1 Attorney, A Lonely Legal Fight To Make Trump Comply With Rules
January 15, 20185:00 AM ET
PETER OVERBY

Photograph -- Washington, D.C., attorney Jeffrey Lovitky has taken it upon himself to sue President Trump.
Peter Overby/NPR

President Trump marks his first year in the White House on Jan. 20. Since he took the oath, he's been dogged by questions about his hundreds of businesses and the conflicts of interest they pose.

In attempts to confront Trump and force him to address these conflicts, congressional Democrats, state attorneys general and watchdog groups have sued the president. So far, their cases have not advanced very far in court. A federal judge has dismissed one suit.

But there's another legal challenge to Trump, and that's coming from a lone attorney in Washington, D.C. — Jeffrey Lovitky, a solo practitioner who often sues federal agencies over complying with regulations.

Last year, he wound up suing Trump after combing through the president's personal financial disclosures. At the time, he told NPR it's not easy deciding to sue a sitting president.

"It is intimidating. I am intimidated. I mean, I would rather not be doing this," he told NPR last March.

Lovitky sued over an issue in the personal financial disclosure's list of liabilities. It's supposed to include just personal liabilities — mortgages and other debts. The lawsuit alleges that Trump commingled personal and corporate liabilities.

Among the biggest creditors on the list, Deutsche Bank is owed more than $130 million by Trump, on four loans.

Speaking with NPR last month, Lovitky said, "If the president is personally liable to Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Bank has a tremendous amount of leverage over the president, because every asset of the president could be attached by Deutsche Bank."

Subpoena For Deutsche Bank May Put Mueller On Collision Course With Trump
NATIONAL SECURITY
Subpoena For Deutsche Bank May Put Mueller On Collision Course With Trump

The Deutsche Bank loans are reported to be of interest to Department of Justice special counsel Robert Mueller as he investigates Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. The bank has declined to address these questions.

Lovitky filed a second lawsuit in December, naming two of Trump's top advisers, first daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. It says that in Kushner's disclosure, information is incomplete or missing for 32 companies, raising the possibility of hidden conflicts of interest.

"We don't know which types of companies they had a financial interest in, which in turn could affect how they perform their official duties," Lovitky said.

The White House calls the lawsuit frivolous. A spokesperson said Kushner's disclosure was certified by the Office of Government Ethics. Lovitky said that's also a problem.

"I don't believe either Ivanka Trump or Jared Kushner should receive a pass for this. And that's exactly what happened," he said.

Lovitky's first hurdle in both lawsuits is the question of legal standing. In the ethics cases filed last year, the Justice Department lawyers have led by challenging the plaintiff's standing to sue.

Standing involves questions of whether the disclosure problems hurt the plaintiff, and whether a lawsuit could fix it.

"It's a tall order to establish standing," said Louis Clark, executive director and CEO of the nonprofit Government Accountability Project, which helps whistleblowers. He said if Lovitky wins the battles over standing, things will get more serious.

"For that kind of challenge to be successful, you're really going to need some legal heft," Clark said of Lovitky's lawsuits. "I would hope that he would reach out and accept help from others who see the importance of what he's trying to do."

But at least so far, Lovitky stands alone, in what he sees as a mission.

"This is something that was not planned," he told NPR. He talked about duty — he was once an Army lawyer — and his career as a D.C. attorney.

"My entire legal background is essentially litigation against U.S. government officials," Lovitky said. "That's what I have done. So it's, I guess, my duty, my obligation to do it."



MY MIND KEEPS CHEWING AWAY AT THIS STORY WHICH BEGAN WITH SUCH HORROR IN OCTOBER, AND CONTINUES WITH A GOOD DEAL OF MYSTERY STILL, SINCE THE LAW ENFORCEMENT ORGANIZATIONS HAVEN’T PUBLISHED MUCH DETAIL.

MY THEORIES –PADDOCK HAD LOUD NIGHTMARES, ACCORDING THE EARLY NEWS ACCOUNTS LAST YEAR; AND THOUGH SHE PROBABLY WASN’T INVOLVED WITH HIM IN ANY PLOT, SHE KNEW OR SUSPECTED WHAT HE PLANNED TO DO, THAT IT WOULD HAPPEN IN LAS VEGAS AND WHEN. PERHAPS HE GAVE HER SOME SIGN, A GOODBYE LETTER, SAYING THAT HE WAS ABOUT TO ACT. AS A RESULT, THE MOMENT SHE HEARD NEWS REPORTS OF THE SHOOTING, SHE SECURED AND THEN CLOSED HER FACEBOOK ACCOUNT, THINKING THE SHOOTER WAS VERY LIKELY PADDOCK. WHETHER DIRECTLY INVOLVED OR NOT, SHE KNEW THE POLICE WOULD SUSPECT HER AND CHARGE HER AS AN ACCESSORY. NOTHING ELSE EXPLAINS HER ACTIONS AND THEIR TIMING.

I THINK THE EMAIL ACCOUNT TO WHICH PADDOCK WAS SENDING A MESSAGE ASKING ABOUT GUNS WAS PROBABLY A GUN SHOP; THOUGH IT WOULD BE EXCITING IF HE WERE COMMUNICATING WITH AN ILLEGAL ARMS DEALER – A MILITIA OR THE KKK OR OTHER SHADOWY GROUP -- WHO CONSPIRED WITH HIM TO MAKE THE ATTACK. PERHAPS THEY WERE MOTIVATED BY A MANIACAL HATRED OF “THE GOVERNMENT.”

DANLEY MAY HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THE PLOT SIMPLY BECAUSE PADDOCK TOLD HER, OR SHE MAY EVEN HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN A MINOR WAY. SOMETHING, AT ANY RATE, CAUSED HER TO ACT IMMEDIATELY TO PROTECT HERSELF FROM THE LAW EVEN BEFORE PADDOCK’S NAME WAS ANNOUNCED BY THE POLICE. THERE ARE, SOMETIMES, WOMEN IN THE MEMBERSHIP OF FAR-RIGHT ORGANIZATIONS AS IS QUITE LIKELY ABOUT PADDOCK, SO MAYBE SHE WAS COMPLICIT. THERE CERTAINLY ARE WOMEN WHO ARE RACIST, AND THERE IS A GREAT DEAL MORE OVERT ACTIVITY OF THIS KIND IN THE LAST TEN YEARS OR SO. SEE: https://timeline.com/the-kkk-started-a-branch-just-for-women-in-the-1920s-and-half-a-million-joined-72ab1439b78b.

MAYBE SOMEONE WILL WRITE THIS UP AS A THRILLER SOMEDAY. TRUE CRIME STORIES ARE REALLY MORE ENTHRALLING THAN MYSTERY NOVELS TO ME. FOR MORE ABOUT RIGHTIST AND XENOPHOBIC GROUPS IN THE USA IN HISTORY, SEE THE INFORMATION ON TIMELINE.COM. IT RANGES FROM THE EVILS OF YOGA TO MISCEGENATION TO BLACK MIDWIVES.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/14/578020814/unsealed-documents-show-the-las-vegas-shooters-girlfriend-acted-swiftly
Unsealed Documents Show The Las Vegas Shooter's Girlfriend Acted Swiftly
January 14, 20187:12 PM ET
VANESSA ROMO

Photograph -- Newly released court documents suggest the Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, acted quickly after the Oct. 1 shooting to conceal her relationship with Paddock.
Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

Newly released court documents show the Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend deleted her Facebook account before police announced the identity of the gunman behind the deadliest mass shooting in modern history.

Marilou Danley was in the Philippines visiting family when Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured another 557 in the Oct. 1 attack. She made changes to her Facebook account's privacy and personal settings at 12:30 a.m., about 2 1/2 hours after the first volley of bullets rained down on people attending a music festival on the Las Vegas strip. The first calls about the shooting rolled in at 10:08 p.m., according to police.

At 2:46 a.m., her account was deleted entirely.

But it wasn't until nearly an hour after that — 3:30 a.m. — that police released Paddock's name to the public.

As the New York Post reports, the documents suggest Danley acted quickly after the shooting to conceal her relationship with Paddock.

Danley, who also lived with Paddock, has been adamant that she knew nothing about his plans to conduct the attack.

Several hundred pages, including more than a dozen search warrants and affidavits, were unsealed Friday by a U.S. judge in Nevada in response to a lawsuit filed by several media outlets, despite requests from law enforcement agencies that they remain sealed.

The documents lay out what investigators had learned about Paddock in the days following the shooting. But they do not provide a motive for what prompted the 64-year-old professional gambler to murder and terrorize concertgoers from 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel before killing himself.

One affidavit includes email exchanges between centralpark1@live.com, a Microsoft account that FBI authorities believe belonged to Paddock, and centralpark4804@gmail.com. (It is unclear if the FBI knows who is responsible for the latter account.) The messages were sent on July 6, 2017.

The affidavit reads:

"...[centralpark1@live.com] sent an email to centralpark4804@gmail.com which read, 'try an ar before u buy. we have huge selection. located in the las vegas area,' Later the day, an email was received back from centralpark4804@gmail.com to [centralpark1@live.com] that read, 'we have a wide variety of optics and ammunition to try.' And lastly, [centralpark1@live.com sent an email to centralpark4804@gmail.com that read, 'for a thrill try out bumpfire ar's with a 100 round magazine.' Investigators believe these communications may have been related to the eventual attack that occurred at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas."

The exchanges took place nearly three months before the onslaught. And CNN reports that "investigators at the time of the filing had been unable to determine if Paddock was sending emails between two accounts both belonging to himself, or was communicating with someone else."

In addition to the two email addresses, the FBI requested and was granted warrants to search Paddock and Danley's Facebook and Instagram accounts. Paddock's Amazon account is also under investigation, as well as a locked phone that was found in his room at the Mandalay Bay.

The FBI has said repeatedly that Paddock acted alone. Danley has not been charged with a crime. She has been questioned by investigators several times.

The New York Post reports, "a Nevada judge is due to hear arguments Tuesday about whether Las Vegas police search warrant documents should remain sealed."

Correction
Jan. 14, 2018
A previous version of this story was missing the 12:30 a.m. time stamp, when investigators noted that the privacy settings on Marilou Danley's Facebook account had been changed.



“THE WKKK RECRUITED GENTILE, FEMALE, NATIVE-BORN CITIZENS OLDER THAN 18, SO LONG AS THEY WERE NOT CATHOLIC, SOCIALISTS, OR COMMUNIST.”

THE SUBJECT OF WOMEN AND THE KKK WAS THE FIRST THING I SEARCHED, BUT I FOUND SO MUCH MORE ON TIMELINE.COM THAT I AM RECOMMENDING THIS SITE FOR THOSE WHO ARE CONCERNED ABOUT OUR CURRENT NATIONAL SITUATION, AND WHO MAY DESIRE TO BECOME MORE PERSONALLY INVOLVED. FOR THIS AND DOZENS MORE PERTINENT ARTICLES ON AMERICAN ETHNIC AND RACIST PARANOIAS, GO TO THE WEBSITE BELOW, TIMELINE.COM. WHAT WE ARE EXPERIENCING IS NOT NEW AT ALL, BUT I’M JUST DISHEARTENED AND SURPRISED TO SEE HOW STRONG IT IS TODAY.

MOST AMERICANS CAN READ AND WRITE, AT LEAST, BUT TOO MANY OF US JUST DON’T WANT TO (EXCEPT FOR BREITBART, THAT IS). THAT’S AN AILMENT THAT CAN’T BE CURED. I TEND TO VIEW AN EDUCATION AS SOMETHING THAT OPENS THE MIND AND HEART, BUT THAT CLEARLY ISN’T ALWAYS THE CASE. NONETHELESS, WITHOUT EDUCATION WE HAVE NO HOPE AS AN ADVANCED SOCIETY. SEE WHAT THIS ARTICLE SAYS ABOUT THE “WKKK.”

https://timeline.com/the-kkk-started-a-branch-just-for-women-in-the-1920s-and-half-a-million-joined-72ab1439b78b
The KKK started a branch just for women in the 1920s, and half a million joined
The platform mingled racism, nativism, and…feminism?

Laura SmithFollow
staff writer @timeline. Bylines @nyt @slate @guardian @motherjones Based in Oakland. Nonfiction book, The Art of Vanishing out from Penguin/Viking in 2018.
Jun 28, 2017

Photograph -- A contingent of women Ku Klux Klan members from Pennsylvania arrive in Washington D.C. for a march in 1926. (Bettmann/Getty Images)

Not long after American women won the right to vote, a woman in Greene County, Indiana received an invitation to hear a lecture. All “the better known and educated women” had been asked to come, so naturally, she accepted. The topics ranged from the Bible and the importance of education, to upholding “the American way.” The lecturer, also a woman, then asked the group if they would like to join a secret society dedicated to protecting those things.

“Why not,” the woman would later recall thinking. “It seemed a fun thing to do with our friends.” They were then given white robes and pointed white hoods that obscured their faces. One night they met and marched silently down the road, an enormous cross engulfed in flames looming in the darkness behind them.

Women have long been overlooked and under credited, and their contribution to horror is no exception. The 1920s marked the heyday of the Women of the Klu Klux Klan — the autonomous arm of the notorious white supremacist group — springing, in a strange twist, out of a climate of hopefulness after suffrage when women felt emboldened to take part in civic life. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, with delegates in every state, the organization’s numbers reached half a million during this decade.

While the Greene County woman may have been naive, her fellow WKKK members were savvier. “Women were major actors in the klan, responsible for some of its most vicious, destructive results,” writes Kathleen Blee in Women of the Klan. According to Blee, the organization was chillingly effective — perhaps even more so than their male counterparts — in large part because they were better at public relations. (One of the women involved in the founding of the WKKK had originally been enlisted by the KKK to help clean up its image).

If the WKKK was more successful in advancing their xenophobic agenda, it was because they were better than the men’s group at hiding their white supremacist mission behind a facade of social welfare. “Are you interested in the Welfare of our Nation? As an Enfranchised woman are you interested in better government? Should we not interest ourselves in better education for our children?” their pamphlets read. They organized parades and food drives, with the benefits often funneled directly to Klan families. Drawing from the church-supper tradition, their gatherings could, on first glance, be mistaken for sorority events. One Indiana woman Blee interviewed described them as “a way to get together and enjoy.” But simultaneously they lobbied for national quotas for immigration, racial segregation, and anti-miscegenation laws — and proselytized the “eternal supremacy” of the white race as an opposition to the “rising tide of color.”

The WKKK served to normalize the extremist actions of the men’s KKK, but also advanced a version of the white Protestant agenda that was all their own. As increasing numbers of immigrants crossed the United States borders simultaneous with women’s suffrage, the WKKK’s nativism mingled with a strange breed of feminism. Their pamphlets announced “new days of freedom” for women. The male KKK wasn’t on board. They fiercely opposed changes in gender roles and used the symbol of the white damsel in distress to galvanize racist fury. Black men were a threat to their pure, Protestant women, and the KKK would protect them. This trope was most starkly captured by the scene of D.W. Griffith’s 1915 pro-KKK film, Birth of a Nation, where a white woman heroically leaps off a cliff to avoid being tainted by a black man (played by a white actor in blackface). In 1871, the KKK’s first Grand Wizard told a crowd, “Ladies were ravished by some of these negroes, who were tried and put in the penitentiary, but were turned out in a few days afterward.” Now the WKKK wanted to “stand alongside our men and help with protecting” instead of being “patted on the head and told not to worry.”

Blinded by smoke from burning crosses, 1956. After the 1920s, women in the KKK continued to emphasize their klan’s flamboyance and ritual. (Bettmann/Getty Images)

The WKKK recruited gentile, female, native-born citizens older than 18, so long as they were not Catholic, socialists, or communist. They needed to be a resident in a Klan jurisdiction for six months and endorsed by at least two Klanswomen. Blee explains that contrary to the stereotype of right wing extremists, members of the WKKK were not socially marginal, from the “downwardly mobile sectors of society who focus their resentments against society on racial, ethnic, and religious minorities.” In fact, many came from stable, middle-class communities.

Like their male counterparts, the WKKK made a fetish of cultish flamboyance and ritual: they referred to themselves as an “invisible empire,” and had a language all their own. The world outside Klan activities was the “alien world.” Days of the week were not Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, etc., but “desperate, dreadful, desolate, doleful, dismal, deadly, and dark.” There were similarly melodramatic codes for months of the year, and they reorganized historical time to relate the American Revolution and the Klan’s birth.

As the 1920s came to a close, the racism and violence of both the KKK and WKKK became harder to conceal. As one WKKK leader admitted in The New York Times, “the actual working out of the ideals has not been so good.” By the end of the decade, the organization had dispersed, though no doubt, the women continued to channel their xenophobic ideologies into other forms of civic engagement such as PTAs, school boards, and local and national politics. As Blee noted, “the political lesson of Klan history for those working toward a more just and egalitarian society, is the ease with which racism and intolerance appealed to ordinary people in ordinary places.”

This article is part of our White Terror U.S.A. collection, covering the shameful history of white supremacy in America.

History shapes the world around us — from national elections to cultural debates to marches in cities across the country. At Timeline, we spread knowledge of the past to help shape a better future. If you want to do the same, please share this and other Timeline stories and join us on Facebook and Twitter.



GRAHAM REFUSES TO GO ALONG WITH THE REPUBLICAN LINE, AND PRAISES DURBIN FOR SPEAKING OUT BOLDLY. I LIKE GRAHAM. HE’S A REPUBLICAN WITH A DIFFERENCE, AND GUTS.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/graham-my-memory-hasn-t-evolved-meeting-where-trump-referred-n837796
POLITICS JAN 15 2018, 3:37 PM ET
Graham: ‘My memory hasn’t evolved’ on meeting where Trump referred to ‘shithole countries’
by BENJY SARLIN

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told a South Carolina newspaper on Monday that his "memory hasn’t evolved" about the White House meeting in which President Donald Trump reportedly referred to African nations as "shithole countries."

In an interview with The Post and Courier, Graham seemed to challenge the accounts of fellow Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, who attended the bipartisan meeting last Thursday with Graham and have given shifting defenses of the president’s comments. After initially staying quiet, the two Trump-allied lawmakers issued a joint statement the day after the meeting saying they did not “recall” what the president had said. But in separate TV interviews Sunday, they outright denied that Trump had made the comments.

“I know what was said and I know what I said,” Graham said Monday.

Durbin disputes Trump's 'shithole' denial: 'He said these hate-filled things' Play Facebook Twitter Embed
Durbin disputes Trump's 'shithole' denial: 'He said these hate-filled things' 2:42

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who attended the meeting, said Friday that Trump did use the vulgar language as reported and described the president as saying "things which were hate-filled, vile and racist.” He reiterated his version of events to reporters on Monday, according to Chicago TV station WMAQ, saying "I stand behind every word I said."

While Graham has not directly confirmed Trump's remarks, he issued a statement praising Durbin after the lawmaker spoke to reporters Friday. Graham also noted he told Trump in the meeting that America is “not defined by its people, but by its ideals.”

In a separate interview with the TV station WIS on Monday, Graham urged Trump to find a “bipartisan solution” for about 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who are facing deportation after a White House decision to cut off their protections by ending the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“It’s going to take you, Mr. President, working with Republicans and Democrats to get this done,” Graham said. “It’s not going to be done on Twitter, by tweeting, it’s going to be done by talking and understanding.”

Graham also lamented that “the discourse right now is pretty low.”

“It’s pretty embarrassing when you have to take your children out of the room just to report the news,” he said.

Image: Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks to reporters
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks to reporters following a vote on Capitol Hill on Jan. 11, 2018 in Washington. Zach Gibson / Getty Images file

Trump defended himself Sunday, telling reporters he is “not a racist” while adding that DACA talks were flagging because Democrats “don’t want security at the border, and they don’t want to stop drugs.”

While a White House spokesman did not deny the "shithole" remarks after the first reports leaked Thursday, Trump later tweeted that he used "tough" language in his immigration meeting, but not the specific phrase.

On Monday, Trump said in a tweet that Durbin "totally misrepresented" the exchange.


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals can’t get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.

3:28 PM - Jan 15, 2018
20,907 20,907 Replies 10,747 10,747 Retweets 36,358 36,358 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy

The White House rejected a proposal by Graham and Durbin, along with other Republican and Democratic senators, that would have put young undocumented immigrants on a path to citizenship while providing $2.8 billion for border security, including $1.6 billion for a wall.

On Twitter, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney criticized Trump’s comments in the immigration meeting as “inconsistent [with] America’s history and antithetical to American values” on Monday. Romney is reportedly considering running for Senate in Utah this year.


Mitt Romney
✔
@MittRomney
The poverty of an aspiring immigrant’s nation of origin is as irrelevant as their race. The sentiment attributed to POTUS is inconsistent w/ America’s history and antithetical to American values. May our memory of Dr. King buoy our hope for unity, greatness, & “charity for all.”

9:47 AM - Jan 15, 2018
3,468 3,468 Replies 10,921 10,921 Retweets 47,276 47,276 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy

The fallout over Trump’s alleged remarks continues abroad as well, where leaders and diplomats representing Haiti, El Salvador and a multitude of African countries have expressed outrage. On Monday, Nigeria’s foreign minister confirmed to Reuters that the government had summoned the United States ambassador to clarify Trump’s remarks.

BENJY SARLIN TWITTEREMAIL
TOPICS POLITICS, WHITE HOUSE
FIRST PUBLISHED JAN 15 2018, 1:56 PM ET


NORWEGIANS SAY, “HELL, NO! WE WON’T GO!” IN CASE YOU DON’T RECOGNIZE THAT CHALLENGING COMMENT, IT’S A CHANT THAT WAS USED BY STUDENTS AND OTHERS IN ANTI-WAR RALLIES OF THE VIETNAM WAR ERA. THEY WERE PROTESTING THE DRAFT.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/norway-trump-s-comments-immigration-rejected-backhanded-praise-n837451
NEWS JAN 15 2018, 3:03 AM ET
In Norway, Trump’s comments on immigration rejected as backhanded praise
by GABE JOSELOW and RAGNHILD ÅS HARBO

OSLO, Norway — On a quiet winter morning, Ingvild Rosseland walked her two dogs through a snowy forest in Huk, a public park in the capital of Norway — a country recently designated by President Donald Trump as not being a "shithole."

The president used the vulgarity while referring to immigration from African nations, and told a group of lawmakers that the United States should have more people coming from places like the Scandinavian nation, according to a Democratic aide.

“It’s nice that people want us,” Rosseland, 40, said as she walked along the frozen banks of the inner Oslo Fjord, “but I didn’t react to it as a compliment."

Image: Ingvild Rosseland speaks while walking her two dogs through a snowy forest in Huk, a public park that runs along the frozen banks of the inner Oslo fjord, in the capital of Norway.
Ingvild Rosseland speaks while walking her two dogs through a snowy forest in Huk, a public park in Oslo, Norway. Krister Sorbo / for NBC News

Many in Norway have been saying "thanks but no thanks" to what they perceive as backhanded praise from the U.S. president, which came the same day he had met with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

Gina Barstad, 31, a representative to parliament for the opposition Socialist Left Party said Trump’s comments say a lot about his “lack of understanding about the conditions in other countries, both in Haiti and in Norway.”

Reactions quickly spread across social media in Norway, with some bristling at the concept that Norwegians would want to move to the United States given the president’s comments.

Norwegian satirist Eirik Bergesen posted:


Eirik Bergesen
@eirikbergesen
Sorry, @realDonaldTrump, we Norwegians don’t want to emigrate to countries run like shitholes. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-attacks-protections-for-immigrants-from-shithole-countries-in-oval-office-meeting/2018/01/11/bfc0725c-f711-11e7-91af-31ac729add94_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_trumpmeeting-445pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.4d3fc857a2e6 …

5:33 PM - Jan 11, 2018

Trump attacks protections for immigrants from ‘shithole’ countries in Oval Office meeting
The president’s comments on immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and other nations surprised lawmakers.

washingtonpost.com
57 57 Replies 218 218 Retweets 443 443 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy

Speaking to NBC News, Bergesen added: “Why are we supposed to be better, because we’re predominantly white? Some of the richest people in the world?”

Bergeson, a former diplomat who worked in Washington, D.C., during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies, thinks even for someone known to be unconventional, Trump’s remarks fall flat for most Norwegians.

“He’s not flattering us, he’s not creating a wave of immigration, he’s just confusing us even more,” he said.

Related: African nations slam Trump's vulgar remarks as 'reprehensible and racist'

Norwegians do have it pretty good. The oil-rich country ranks No. 1 in the United Nations Human Development Index, with a high life-expectancy at 81 years and high incomes. The United States is 10th on the same list.

Even in the dead of winter, when the sun rises for only a few hours a day and heavy blankets of snow can be expected to sit on the eaves of homes until spring, Norwegians make the most of it — sledding in neighborhood parks or taking their skis onto the subway for a day trip to nearby resorts.

Image: People walk along a strip of designer storefronts in Oslo, Norway.
People walk along a strip of designer storefronts in Oslo, Norway. Krister Sorbo / NBC News

At a cozy café in the working class Tøyen neighborhood, Mette Brathen, a teacher, and her partner, Henning Velo, an engineer, sit down for a late breakfast, doing the crossword puzzle in a local paper.

The pair, both 45, say a lot of what makes Norway great comes from a socialist system that includes universal health care and prioritizes social welfare and the common good.

“We pay more tax, and that makes society able to care for people,” Velo said. “It’s not every person for himself, we work together.”

“But we have struck oil,” Brathen added. “We are lucky and sometimes I think we forget that. It’s luck we have this."

Norway, which first discovered oil off its shores in 1969, plows its revenue into a massive sovereign wealth fund that pays for state pensions and other expenses. The fund recently topped $1 trillion for the first time — about the same size as the economy of Indonesia.

“Before we struck oil,” Velo said, “we were a country that Trump would describe as a shithole. We were a poor country.”

Image: Mette Brathen, teacher, and her partner Henning Velo, an engineer, both 45, have a late breakfast in a caf? in the working class T?yen neighborhood.

Mette Brathen, teacher, and her partner Henning Velo, an engineer, both 45, have a late breakfast in a caf? in the working class T?yen neighborhood. Krister Sorbo / for NBC News

Despite having a predominantly native-born, white population, Norway also has a growing number of immigrants — including from some of those countries the president seemingly disparaged.

Nda Naa Kuorhor, 28, came to Norway from Ghana in 2015 to study the works of playwright Henrik Ibsen at the University of Oslo on a full scholarship.

Working part-time as a server at a downtown hotel café, she said: “It’s cool living here.”

Kuorhor said she has experienced some uncomfortable moments in Norway that she perceived as being racist — like people getting up from their train seat when she sits down — but she said she would not want to move to the United States.

“I prefer Norway because it’s peaceful,” she said. “I hear things about the United States, like it’s not safe.”

A NATO ally, Norway has long enjoyed good relations with the United States. Last year, the U.S. deployed Marines to the country for Operation Joint Viking. They worked alongside British and Norwegian soldiers in training exercises a few hundred miles from the border with Russia.

But the perception of the United States as a friendly place is starting to change for young Norwegians. And remarks from Trump aren’t helping.

“I hear things about the United States, like it’s not safe.”
At Gurken, a small but colorful Oslo bar, young urbanites gathered to escape the cold on a freezing Friday night, throwing back beer, wine and the house specialty, “Pina Colada Slush.”

Among the customers was Erlend Hovgaard, a 30-year-old consultant who works for a Norwegian design company in Oslo.

“I don’t feel privileged at all by being that group of people that Trump assess are special,” he said. “I don’t feel honored.”

Sebastian Reed, an amiable 33-year old graphic designer, agreed with the sentiment.

“I definitely don’t want to go to the U.S.," he said while holding a can of locally brewed beer.

“I would never live in a country with him as a president, pretty much.”

GABE JOSELOW
RAGNHILD ÅS HARBO
TOPICS NEWS, DONALD TRUMP, IMMIGRATION, POLITICS NEWS, WORLD
FIRST PUBLISHED JAN 13 2018, 12:04 PM ET



WHEN I WAS YOUNG IN THE EARLY ‘60S, OUR TOWN HAD AN AIR RAID SIREN IN CONNECTION WITH OUR HIGH DEGREE OF POLITICAL TENSION WITH RUSSIA AT THE TIME OVER THE SAME THREAT AS TODAY – NUCLEAR ATTACK. IT ALWAYS SOUNDED OFF ON A PRACTICE BASIS EVERY SATURDAY AT NOON. I’M GLAD TO SEE THAT “THE GOV” RIGHT NOW AREN’T DOING THAT, BECAUSE WE QUICKLY GOT TO THE POINT THAT WE IGNORED IT TOTALLY.

I JOKED AT THE TIME THAT THE CLEVEREST MOVE RUSSIA COULD MAKE WOULD BE TO ATTACK US AT NOON ON SATURDAY. WHAT EARLY ON, TO ME, WAS TRULY FRIGHTENING, BECAME FUNNY. IN THE SAME VEIN WAS THE GREAT COMIC MOVIE, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING,” WITH THE EQUALLY GREAT ALAN ARKIN AS THE LEAD ROLE. IT‘S A ROMP AND A LOVE STORY, BUT ALSO A STATEMENT OF OUR SITUATION IN THE 1960S. TO SEE SOME OF OUR BEST COMEDIC ACTORS OF THE TIME IN ONE OF THE BEST SCREENPLAYS, GO TO YOUTUBE AND WATCH THE MOVIE. HTTP://WWW.IMDB.COM/TITLE/TT0060921/.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hawaiian-emergency-worker-who-pushed-wrong-button-reassigned-n837776
NEWS JAN 15 2018, 4:07 PM ET
Hawaiian emergency worker who sent the wrong message is reassigned
by JACOB SOBOROFF and CORKY SIEMASZKO

HONOLULU —The worker who sent Hawaii into a panic by mistakenly sending a missile alert has a new job — and it's nowhere near the early warning system.

Richard Rapoza, spokesman for the Hawaii Emergency Management System, declined to say Monday what the worker's new duties are.

Hawaii's false missile alert under investigation Play Facebook Twitter Embed
Hawaii's false missile alert under investigation 2:58

“All we will say is that the individual has been temporarily reassigned within our Emergency Operations Center pending the outcome of our internal investigation, and it is currently in a role that does not provide access to the warning system,” Rapoza said.

Rapoza also declined to identify the worker and confirmed that members of the agency have received death threats as a result of the mishap.

The Federal Communications Commission is also investigating the mishap, which caused 38 minutes of terror Saturday morning for 1.4 million Hawaiians.

The snafu happened several weeks after Hawaii reinstated its Cold War-era nuclear warning system after North Korea ratcheted-up tensions by firing another ballistic missile.

At about 8:05 a.m. Saturday, the worker initiated an internal test by accessing a drop-down menu on a computer program that presented him with two options: “Test missile alert” and “Missile alert.” He was supposed to choose the first option. He chose the second.

At 8:07 a.m., cellphones across the archipelago pinged with the following all-caps warning: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

Within minutes, however, the U.S. Pacific Command was able to confirm that there was no threat, according to a state timeline of the fiasco.

Hawaii's false missile alert was 'wake-up call,' analyst warns Play Facebook Twitter Embed
Hawaii's false missile alert was 'wake-up call,' analyst warns 1:19
And by 8:20 a.m., the state’s Emergency Management Agency fired off a tweet that read: “NO missile threat to Hawaii.”

Another such warning was sent to cellphones at 8:45 a.m., some 38 minutes after the first mobile alert.

"False alarm," it said. "There is no threat or danger to the State of Hawaii."

But by then the damage was done.

Calling it “an honest mistake,” FCC chairman Ajit Pai said “two things went wrong.”

“No. 1, there was human error and the state of Hawaii did not have safeguards in place to prevent that human error from causing a false alert to go out,” Pai said on Fox News. “The second problem was that the false alert persisted for 38 minutes.”

The biggest danger from this incident, Pai said, is that it undermines “public confidence in a wireless emergency alerting system because when a real emergency hits, you want people to take that information seriously.”

“Most people are familiar with the story of the boy who cried wolf,” Pai said.

Jacob Soboroff reported from Honolulu, Corky Siemaszko reported from New York.

JACOB SOBOROFF
CORKY SIEMASZKO EMAIL
TOPICS NEWS, NATIONAL SECURITY, U.S. NEWS
FIRST PUBLISHED JAN 15 2018, 10:52 AM ET