February 28, 2018


News and Views


THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD -- TWO ARTICLES


https://www.yahoo.com/news/ap-source-wh-communications-director-hope-hicks-resigning-214244539--politics.html
White House Communications Director Hope Hicks resigning
Associated Press Zeke Miller and Jill Colvin, Associated Press
February 28, 2018 2 minutes 7 seconds ago

Photograph -- In this Feb. 27, 2018 photo, White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, one of President Trump's closest aides and advisers, arrives to meet behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee, at the Capitol in Washington. Hicks, one of President Donald Trump's most loyal aides, is resigning. In a statement, the president praises Hicks for her work over the last three years. He says he "will miss having her by my side." The news comes a day after Hicks was interviewed for nine hours by the panel investigating Russia interference in the 2016 election and contact between Trump's campaign and Russia. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, one of President Donald Trump's closest and most loyal aides, is resigning.

The departure of one of the president's longest-serving advisers, who worked as a one-woman communications shop during his winning campaign, came as a surprise to most in the White House — and cast a pall over the West Wing at a tumultuous time. The news comes a day after Hicks was interviewed for nine hours by the House panel investigating Russia interference in the 2016 election and contact between Trump's campaign and Russia.

In a statement, Trump praised Hicks for her work over the last three years, saying he "will miss having her by my side."

Hicks, who occupied the desk closest to the Oval Office in the West Wing, has been a central participant in or witness to nearly every milestone and controversy of the Trump campaign and White House. She began her White House tenure as director of strategic communications — a title that only partly captured her more expansive role as the president's gatekeeper to the press.

Hicks acknowledged to a House intelligence panel Tuesday that she has occasionally told "white lies" for Trump. But she said she had not lied about anything relevant to the Russia investigation. She has also been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller's team about her role in crafting a statement about Donald Trump Jr.'s 2016 meeting with Russians, as Mueller's expansive probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential misdeeds committed by those in the president's orbit moves ever closer to the Oval Office.

Hicks' departure leaves a vacuum in the White House communications team, and in the president's collection of trusted aides. The announcement came a day after a similar announcement about the impending departure of deputy communications director Josh Raffel, and just a few days after senior adviser Jared Kushner saw his security clearance downgraded — limiting his access to classified information.

White House officials and outside advisers suggested Hicks' departure would strengthen chief of staff John Kelly's control over what has been an oftentimes chaotijc West Wing.

In a statement, Kelly said Hicks had become "a trusted adviser and counselor," but behind the scenes the pair had occasionally clashed over her more informal role. Kelly had begrudgingly supported making Hicks communications director after the short-lived tenure of Anthony Scaramucci, in an effort to integrate her role into the rest of the White House's communications strategy.

Hicks said in a statement, "There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump." She added she wished Trump and his administration the "very best."

A former Ralph Lauren fashion model and public relations pro who worked for Trump's daughter Ivanka, Hicks, 29, had no political background when Trump asked her to serve on his campaign.

Before Wednesday's announcement, Hicks had not been happy for some time, according to two people with knowledge of her thinking who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. One person said Hicks had been increasingly feeling the stress of the position.

She was an unconventional campaign press secretary, rarely mixing it up with reporters, almost never giving interviews and, despite Trump's fondness for cable, staying off TV. She spoke at a rally exactly once in December 2016, after Trump beseeched her "to say a couple of words."

She said nine: "Hi. Merry Christmas everyone, and thank you, Donald Trump."

Within the White House, she was seen as a stabilizing force on Trump, who at times would grow unhappy when she was not around. As the West Wing was riven by rivalries in the early months of the administration, she allied herself with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in opposition, at times, to the nationalist forces led by then-chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Hicks, who has long tried to avoid media attention, was thrust into the spotlight recently when it was revealed she had been dating former Staff Secretary Rob Porter. He left the administration after accusations that he had abused his two ex-wives became public.

Hicks helped craft the White House's initial supportive response.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that Hicks would remain at the White House "for several weeks" and denied that Hicks' decision to leave had anything to do with her lengthy testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.

"Don't try to read more into it than exists," Sanders said. "This is something that she's been thinking about for a while."

Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey and Ken Thomas contributed from Washington. Jonathan Lemire contributed from New York.



HOW DEPRESSING. READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE. THERE’S MORE THERE.

“ANOTHER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL AT THAT CONFERENCE, FORMER TEXAS GOVERNOR RICK PERRY, WOULD JUST A HANDFUL OF MONTHS LATER DESCRIBE MR TRUMP'S POLITICS AS "A TOXIC MIX OF DEMAGOGUERY AND MEAN-SPIRITEDNESS AND NONSENSE" AND CALL HIS CANDIDACY A "CANCER ON CONSERVATISM". LAST WEEK, MR PERRY - NOW MR TRUMP'S ENERGY SECRETARY - WAS BACK AT CPAC, REFERRING TO HIMSELF AS "FOOTSOLDIER IN THE ARMY". DONALD TRUMP'S ARMY, THAT IS.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43220700
Where did the Republican Trump-haters go?
Anthony Zurcher
North America reporter
@awzurcher on Twitter
28 February 2018

Once upon a time there was an active, vocal resistance among conservatives to the prospect of Donald Trump's presidency. One year in, and the signs of dissent are rapidly fading.

On Friday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference on the outskirts of Washington, DC, Donald Trump took the stage and reminded the packed hall just how far he'd come.

"Remember when I first started running?" the president asked. "People said, 'Are you sure he's a conservative?' I think I proved I'm a conservative."

Mr Trump then launched into nearly an hour and a half of his trademark campaign-style oratory, often acknowledging that he was deviating from his "boring" speech text. On script and off, however, it was clear his intended objective was to drive home the point that he has governed as a true conservative.

He boasted of his tax cuts, right-wing judicial nominations, regulatory rollbacks and defence of religious liberty.

Those are the sort of accomplishments attendees of this annual conference of young Republicans, grassroots activists, party functionaries, conservative media pundits, assorted merchants and special interests longed for through eight years of the Obama presidency, and now they're getting. That's got to make them thrilled, right?

Well, sort of.

A joke no more

According to straw poll of conference attendees, 93% approve of the job Mr Trump is doing in the White House. It's a number not too far from the 80% of Republicans across the US who continue to tell pollsters they support the president.

Media caption In 2018, a bullish Mr Trump joked about hiding his bald spot

That, as the president acknowledged, was not always the case. In 2016 - at the beginning of his long march to the Republican nomination and the presidency, Mr Trump abruptly cancelled an appearance at Cpac when faced with the prospect of a walkout from "never-Trump" conservatives.

Even worse, Mr Trump's 2015 Cpac speech was received by a sparse audience with a shrug. Someone in the crowd shouted a joke about Mr Trump's trademark phrase, "you're fired". People laughed. The man no one thought would really run for president paraded through the hallways of the convention with a phalanx of burly private security guards, looking more like a Las Vegas boxing promoter than a serious candidate.

That year's straw poll had Mr Trump as the presidential pick of just 3.5% of attendees, in eighth place, far behind libertarian-leaning Senator Rand Paul's 25.7%.

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Another Republican presidential hopeful at that conference, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, would just a handful of months later describe Mr Trump's politics as "a toxic mix of demagoguery and mean-spiritedness and nonsense" and call his candidacy a "cancer on conservatism".

Last week, Mr Perry - now Mr Trump's energy secretary - was back at Cpac, referring to himself as "footsoldier in the army". Donald Trump's army, that is.

'This is scary'

"Donald Trump hijacked the Republican Party," says Myra Adams, a conservative activist, commentator and consultant who has been coming to Cpacs since the late 1990s. "He was not a conservative by nature, but he slowly became a conservative."

She says that there have been things Mr Trump has done as president that have been "true conservative action" - and he mentioned quite a few during his speech. Throw in that he picked loyal conservative Mike Pence as his vice-presidential running mate, she adds, and there's a lot for Republicans to be happy about.

Media captionHow young conservatives view #NeverAgain
It's just the other stuff that has been concerning. She takes a deep breath and starts in.

"I think what conservatives, Republicans, Americans who care about this country don't like is the way he comports himself," she says. "And you can do amazing things on one hand with legislation and judges, but if you're tweeting and calling people names and getting facts wrong and basically making everything about you, and you have a White House that's in chaos, and you can't keep people, and you can't staff agencies, and you can't nominate ambassadors, and you just can't get it together as an administration, people look at that and say, oh my God, this is scary."

Adams says she finds herself in a quandary. She backed Ohio Governor John Kasich in the Republican presidential primary, but fell in line behind Mr Trump when he became the nominee. Since then, it's been a struggle.

"You take it day by day," she says. "You just kind of get out and watch the news and hope it's not going to be something crazy or some huge crisis."

Top marks
Adams may have her doubts, but on the main stage, in the smaller side sessions and throughout the convention halls of Cpac last week, however, one conclusion was unavoidable - the Republican Party is Donald Trump's party now.

In a panel discussion titled The Trump Report Card: Conservatives Grade the Administration, the participants took turns singing the president's praises.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Trump books for sale at Cpac
"On social and cultural issues, we've seen such a change on how conservative values are communicated on a national level,"said Lauren Ashburn, host of a Catholic news cable programme.

Trump and congressional Republicans have done "very good, amazing things that have changed the direction of the world," added Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Van Hipp, former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, was succinct. "It feels good to be an American again," he said.

Cracks in the foundation
Beneath this seeming veneer of universal approbation, however, there was some unease that goes beyond the concerns Adams has with presidential comportment. Mr Trump - the onetime New York Democrat - may have become a conservative, but the president is changing the Republican Party, as well.

Anti-immigration sentiment, once scarce at a conference that tilted toward libertarianism, is growing.

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During one session, David Bier of the Cato Institute was heckled when he asserted that statistics show immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. A liberal participant in a panel discussion on the "Trump effect on American politics" was booed when he suggested that Republicans should support citizenship for Mexican migrants whose cultural values might make them reliable conservative voters.

Then there's the race issue. In a Friday evening conference dinner, the communications director for the American Conservative Union, which hosts Cpac, said that Michael Steele, who served as Republican National Committee chair from 2009 to 2011, only got the job because "he's a black guy".

Mr Steele, on his radio show, said he was concerned about what those comments said about the Republican Party.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
The party of Reagan no longer?
"I disagree with the direction this president is taking in this country, because I call BS on a lot of it," he said. "Do you mean to tell me as a black conservative I can't be critical of the president?"

And, perhaps as a testament to the power of the #metoo movement, the most dramatic break came on Saturday. Conservative columnist Mona Charen was roundly booed - and received a security escort from the conference - because she condemned "sexual harassers and abusers of women who are in our party, who are sitting in the White House, who brag about their extramarital affairs, who brag about mistreating women."

In a New York Times column on Sunday, Charen lamented what she said Mr Trump has done to the conservative movement.

"What happened to me at Cpac is the perfect illustration of the collective experience of a whole swath of conservatives since Donald Trump became the Republican nominee," she wrote. "We built and organised this party - but now we're made to feel like interlopers."


Media captionWhy these women are sticking with Trump
She compared the Trump presidency, for traditional conservatives, to an episode of the old science fiction television programme The Twilight Zone.

"Politicians, activists and intellectuals have succumbed with numbing regularity, betraying every principle they once claimed to uphold," she wrote.

She also insisted that, although it felt that way at Cpac, she's not alone.

There are still voices in the Never Trump ranks - columnists and commentators like Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard and John Podhoretz of the New York Post, Republican consultants Rick Wilson and John Weaver, and a handful of active and former politicians, including Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, Ohio's Mr Kasich and the elders of the Bush family.

"When I ran for office, I said he is a chaos candidate and would be a chaos president," Bush said last May. "Unfortunately, so far chaos organises the presidency right now."

Satisfaction and swag
In a massive hall a floor below the main Cpac stage, the conference's exhibit "hub" is full of booths for various conservative organisations, vendors, think tanks, publishers and groups with something to sell - either ideologically or materially.

In one stall a person wearing prison garb and a Hillary Clinton mask poses for photos. In another, a woman dressed Kim Jong-un waves an inflatable rocket. The National Rifle Association offers special discounts to join - $600 (£431) for a lifetime membership that comes with an engraved knife.

Image caption
A woman at the 2018 Cpac conference dressed as Hillary Clinton in prison garb

On the edge of the room, a group of students from Princeton University holding bags full of conference swag stand and chat. Two are wearing camouflage hats from the NRA. One is bedecked in political buttons, including "socialism sucks" sticker in Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 Democratic campaign colours.

They gave the president generally positive reviews.

"He's had a lot of great conservative successes over the last year or so. I tend to support him," says Will Crawford of Rome, Georgia. "I don't support every single thing he does, but in general I'm happy with his presidency so far."

Allison Berger of Madison, New Jersey, says she's learned to appreciate Mr Trump's draw as a public speaker - and as president.

"He was not my first, or second, or third, or fourth choice during the primaries," she says. "But I've been very happy he's governed very conservatively so far."

At Cpac and across the US, for most Republicans, at least for now, that seems to be enough.


FUNNY HOW THAT PARTICULAR WHITE HOUSE HAS SO MANY WHITE LIES. WE OUGHT TO CALL THEM THE FAKE PRESIDENCY.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43216954
Trump-Russia: Communication director Hope Hicks 'admits white lies''
2 hours ago February 28, 2018

Photograph -- White House Communications Director Hope Hicks leaves the US Capitol after the closed-door meeting Reuters
Photograph -- The 29-year-old former model has been at Mr Trump's side for years GETTY IMAGES
Photograph -- Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES Image caption -- Admiral Mike Rogers


White House communications director Hope Hicks has reportedly admitted telling what amounted to white lies for President Donald Trump.

But in her testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, she denied lying about anything relevant to the Russia investigation, US media report.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers said Ms Hicks deflected some questions in the nine-hour hearing.

The 29-year-old former model has been by Mr Trump's side for years.

Who is Trump's 29-year-old media director?
She is seen as a key witness in the ongoing inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
The 29-year-old former model has been at Mr Trump's side for years

Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, said afterwards that Ms Hicks answered questions about her role in Mr Trump's campaign.

She also discussed matters relating to the transition period between the election and the inauguration, according to the California Democrat.

But Mr Schiff said she would not answer any questions about events since Mr Trump became president.

Ms Hicks reportedly refused to answer questions about a 2016 meeting between members of the Trump campaign and a Russian lawyer at the Trump Tower.

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Donald J. Trump
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WITCH HUNT!

7:49 AM - Feb 27, 2018
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“I’ve been skeptical about the collusion and obstruction claims for the last year. I just don’t see the evidence....in terms of the collusion, it’s all a bit implausible based on the evidence we have.” Jonathan Turley on @FoxNews

7:28 AM - Feb 27, 2018
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When reports of the meeting first emerged, the president's eldest son Donald Trump Jr released a statement saying the meeting was held to discuss Russian adoptions.

But in a later statement, he said the meeting had been held after members of the campaign were offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government.

Ms Hicks was with the president on Air Force One while they were penning the initial statement, which the White House has acknowledged Mr Trump had a role in drafting.

"All of our questions about what went into that statement went unanswered," Mr Schiff told AP news agency.

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"We got Bannoned," said Democratic representative Dennis Heck as he emerged from the session.

He was referring to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who declined to answer questions about anything other than the Trump campaign during his testimony earlier this month.

During Tuesday's White House news briefing, press secretary Sarah Sanders said that "we are co-operating because as the president has said repeatedly there is no collusion, and we're going to continue to cooperate, and hopefully they'll wrap this up soon".

Ms Hicks has already testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee and met Robert Mueller, the Department of Justice special counsel, according to US media sources.

Mr Mueller is investigating whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, or obstruction of justice.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Trump tweeted to call the investigation a "WITCH HUNT!"

During the campaign, Hope Hicks served as press secretary. She took over as the head of the White House communications team last August, after the abrupt firing of Anthony Scaramucci.

US intelligence agencies have said Russia directed cyber-attacks against Hillary Clinton Democrats during the 2016 election.

On Tuesday, National Security Agency (NSA) Director Mike Rogers testified in a separate hearing to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Admiral Rogers said his agency has not yet been given specific authorisation from the White House to counter alleged Russian efforts to disrupt US elections.

"Clearly, what we've done hasn't been enough," Mr Rogers told the Senate Armed Forces Committee.

He said the US response to date "has not changed the calculus or the behaviour on behalf of the Russians".

Mr Trump declared last week that he has been tougher on Russia than his predecessor, Barack Obama.


HOW DEPRESSING. READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE. THERE’S MORE THERE.

“ANOTHER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL AT THAT CONFERENCE, FORMER TEXAS GOVERNOR RICK PERRY, WOULD JUST A HANDFUL OF MONTHS LATER DESCRIBE MR TRUMP'S POLITICS AS "A TOXIC MIX OF DEMAGOGUERY AND MEAN-SPIRITEDNESS AND NONSENSE" AND CALL HIS CANDIDACY A "CANCER ON CONSERVATISM". LAST WEEK, MR PERRY - NOW MR TRUMP'S ENERGY SECRETARY - WAS BACK AT CPAC, REFERRING TO HIMSELF AS "FOOTSOLDIER IN THE ARMY". DONALD TRUMP'S ARMY, THAT IS.”


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43220700#
Where did the Republican Trump-haters go?
Anthony Zurcher
North America reporter
@awzurcher on Twitter
28 February 2018

Once upon a time there was an active, vocal resistance among conservatives to the prospect of Donald Trump's presidency. One year in, and the signs of dissent are rapidly fading.

On Friday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference on the outskirts of Washington, DC, Donald Trump took the stage and reminded the packed hall just how far he'd come.

"Remember when I first started running?" the president asked. "People said, 'Are you sure he's a conservative?' I think I proved I'm a conservative."

Mr Trump then launched into nearly an hour and a half of his trademark campaign-style oratory, often acknowledging that he was deviating from his "boring" speech text. On script and off, however, it was clear his intended objective was to drive home the point that he has governed as a true conservative.

He boasted of his tax cuts, right-wing judicial nominations, regulatory rollbacks and defence of religious liberty.

Those are the sort of accomplishments attendees of this annual conference of young Republicans, grassroots activists, party functionaries, conservative media pundits, assorted merchants and special interests longed for through eight years of the Obama presidency, and now they're getting. That's got to make them thrilled, right?

Well, sort of.

A joke no more
According to straw poll of conference attendees, 93% approve of the job Mr Trump is doing in the White House. It's a number not too far from the 80% of Republicans across the US who continue to tell pollsters they support the president.


Media captionIn 2018, a bullish Mr Trump joked about hiding his bald spot
That, as the president acknowledged, was not always the case. In 2016 - at the beginning of his long march to the Republican nomination and the presidency, Mr Trump abruptly cancelled an appearance at Cpac when faced with the prospect of a walkout from "never-Trump" conservatives.

Even worse, Mr Trump's 2015 Cpac speech was received by a sparse audience with a shrug. Someone in the crowd shouted a joke about Mr Trump's trademark phrase, "you're fired". People laughed. The man no one thought would really run for president paraded through the hallways of the convention with a phalanx of burly private security guards, looking more like a Las Vegas boxing promoter than a serious candidate.

That year's straw poll had Mr Trump as the presidential pick of just 3.5% of attendees, in eighth place, far behind libertarian-leaning Senator Rand Paul's 25.7%.

One shooting, two Americas
Seven things Trump's $500bn spending splurge tells us
A smoother Trump with same hard edge
Another Republican presidential hopeful at that conference, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, would just a handful of months later describe Mr Trump's politics as "a toxic mix of demagoguery and mean-spiritedness and nonsense" and call his candidacy a "cancer on conservatism".

Last week, Mr Perry - now Mr Trump's energy secretary - was back at Cpac, referring to himself as "footsoldier in the army". Donald Trump's army, that is.

'This is scary'
"Donald Trump hijacked the Republican Party," says Myra Adams, a conservative activist, commentator and consultant who has been coming to Cpacs since the late 1990s. "He was not a conservative by nature, but he slowly became a conservative."

She says that there have been things Mr Trump has done as president that have been "true conservative action" - and he mentioned quite a few during his speech. Throw in that he picked loyal conservative Mike Pence as his vice-presidential running mate, she adds, and there's a lot for Republicans to be happy about.


Media captionHow young conservatives view #NeverAgain
It's just the other stuff that has been concerning. She takes a deep breath and starts in.

"I think what conservatives, Republicans, Americans who care about this country don't like is the way he comports himself," she says. "And you can do amazing things on one hand with legislation and judges, but if you're tweeting and calling people names and getting facts wrong and basically making everything about you, and you have a White House that's in chaos, and you can't keep people, and you can't staff agencies, and you can't nominate ambassadors, and you just can't get it together as an administration, people look at that and say, oh my God, this is scary."

Adams says she finds herself in a quandary. She backed Ohio Governor John Kasich in the Republican presidential primary, but fell in line behind Mr Trump when he became the nominee. Since then, it's been a struggle.

"You take it day by day," she says. "You just kind of get out and watch the news and hope it's not going to be something crazy or some huge crisis."

Top marks
Adams may have her doubts, but on the main stage, in the smaller side sessions and throughout the convention halls of Cpac last week, however, one conclusion was unavoidable - the Republican Party is Donald Trump's party now.

In a panel discussion titled The Trump Report Card: Conservatives Grade the Administration, the participants took turns singing the president's praises.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Trump books for sale at Cpac
"On social and cultural issues, we've seen such a change on how conservative values are communicated on a national level,"said Lauren Ashburn, host of a Catholic news cable programme.

Trump and congressional Republicans have done "very good, amazing things that have changed the direction of the world," added Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Van Hipp, former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, was succinct. "It feels good to be an American again," he said.

Cracks in the foundation
Beneath this seeming veneer of universal approbation, however, there was some unease that goes beyond the concerns Adams has with presidential comportment. Mr Trump - the onetime New York Democrat - may have become a conservative, but the president is changing the Republican Party, as well.

Anti-immigration sentiment, once scarce at a conference that tilted toward libertarianism, is growing.

The people around Donald Trump
The porn star scandal Trump can't shake
During one session, David Bier of the Cato Institute was heckled when he asserted that statistics show immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. A liberal participant in a panel discussion on the "Trump effect on American politics" was booed when he suggested that Republicans should support citizenship for Mexican migrants whose cultural values might make them reliable conservative voters.

Then there's the race issue. In a Friday evening conference dinner, the communications director for the American Conservative Union, which hosts Cpac, said that Michael Steele, who served as Republican National Committee chair from 2009 to 2011, only got the job because "he's a black guy".

Mr Steele, on his radio show, said he was concerned about what those comments said about the Republican Party.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
The party of Reagan no longer?
"I disagree with the direction this president is taking in this country, because I call BS on a lot of it," he said. "Do you mean to tell me as a black conservative I can't be critical of the president?"

And, perhaps as a testament to the power of the #metoo movement, the most dramatic break came on Saturday. Conservative columnist Mona Charen was roundly booed - and received a security escort from the conference - because she condemned "sexual harassers and abusers of women who are in our party, who are sitting in the White House, who brag about their extramarital affairs, who brag about mistreating women."

In a New York Times column on Sunday, Charen lamented what she said Mr Trump has done to the conservative movement.

"What happened to me at Cpac is the perfect illustration of the collective experience of a whole swath of conservatives since Donald Trump became the Republican nominee," she wrote. "We built and organised this party - but now we're made to feel like interlopers."

Media captionWhy these women are sticking with Trump
She compared the Trump presidency, for traditional conservatives, to an episode of the old science fiction television programme The Twilight Zone.

"Politicians, activists and intellectuals have succumbed with numbing regularity, betraying every principle they once claimed to uphold," she wrote.

She also insisted that, although it felt that way at Cpac, she's not alone.

There are still voices in the Never Trump ranks - columnists and commentators like Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard and John Podhoretz of the New York Post, Republican consultants Rick Wilson and John Weaver, and a handful of active and former politicians, including Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, Ohio's Mr Kasich and the elders of the Bush family.

"When I ran for office, I said he is a chaos candidate and would be a chaos president," Bush said last May. "Unfortunately, so far chaos organises the presidency right now."

Satisfaction and swag
In a massive hall a floor below the main Cpac stage, the conference's exhibit "hub" is full of booths for various conservative organisations, vendors, think tanks, publishers and groups with something to sell - either ideologically or materially.

In one stall a person wearing prison garb and a Hillary Clinton mask poses for photos. In another, a woman dressed Kim Jong-un waves an inflatable rocket. The National Rifle Association offers special discounts to join - $600 (£431) for a lifetime membership that comes with an engraved knife.

Image caption
A woman at the 2018 Cpac conference dressed as Hillary Clinton in prison garb
On the edge of the room, a group of students from Princeton University holding bags full of conference swag stand and chat. Two are wearing camouflage hats from the NRA. One is bedecked in political buttons, including "socialism sucks" sticker in Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 Democratic campaign colours.

They gave the president generally positive reviews.

"He's had a lot of great conservative successes over the last year or so. I tend to support him," says Will Crawford of Rome, Georgia. "I don't support every single thing he does, but in general I'm happy with his presidency so far."

Allison Berger of Madison, New Jersey, says she's learned to appreciate Mr Trump's draw as a public speaker - and as president.

"He was not my first, or second, or third, or fourth choice during the primaries," she says. "But I've been very happy he's governed very conservatively so far."

At Cpac and across the US, for most Republicans, at least for now, that seems to be enough.



“MASSIVE FISA ABUSE”

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/02/28/trump-calls-sessions-surveillance-probe-decision-disgraceful/23373345/
Trump calls Sessions' surveillance probe decision 'disgraceful'
Thomson Reuters
JONATHAN LANDAY
Feb 28th 2018 10:49AM

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump launched a fresh attack on Wednesday against his attorney general, calling Jeff Sessions' decision to have the Justice Department inspector general - and not prosecutors - investigate alleged surveillance abuse "disgraceful."

Trump took to Twitter to criticize Sessions for not referring the allegations to Justice Department lawyers and instead assigning the probe to Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

"Why is A.G. Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate massive FISA abuse," Trump wrote, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which the government uses to monitor the communications of suspected foreign agents.

"Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey, etc.," Trump continued. "Isn't the IG an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? Disgraceful."


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!

9:34 AM - Feb 28, 2018
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Horowitz was sworn into his position in April 2012, during the Obama administration.

Trump's public criticism clashes with longstanding principle under which the Justice Department operates independently from the president.

SEE ALSO: Hope Hicks, Barack Obama among the most powerful in Trump's Washington, GQ says

Trump has crossed that line numerous times, for example by promising to have his 2016 presidential opponent Hillary Clinton investigated and criticizing court decisions on his immigration policy.

He has previously attacked Sessions, mostly notably for recusing himself from the Justice Department investigation, headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, into whether there was collusion between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential election campaign.

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LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/02/27/levi-sanders-son-bernie-sanders-running-congress-new-hampshire/377728002/
Levi Sanders, son of Bernie Sanders, is running for Congress in New Hampshire
Sean Rossman, USA TODAY Published 1:31 p.m. ET Feb. 27, 2018 | Updated 1:57 p.m. ET Feb. 27, 2018

Photograph -- Ex-Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., his wife Jane Sanders, and his son Levi Sanders at a primary night rally in Vermont in 2016. Levi Sanders is joining seven fellow New Hampshire Democrats and three Republicans running for the 1st Congressional District seat in 2018. Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter is stepping down after her term ends. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, AP)

Levi Sanders, the son of 2016 presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders, announced Monday he's running for Congress in New Hampshire.

Sanders, 48, seeks the seat of Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, who has held the seat for New Hampshire's 1st congressional district since 2017 (and on-and-off since 2007). She won't seek re-election in 2018.

More: Here are the members of Congress retiring at the end of 2018

Sanders' announcement of his campaign boasts some of the same themes as his father's presidential run: tuition-free college and healthcare without "out-of-pocket" expenses. He also aims to tackle the opioid epidemic, "sensible" gun legislation and equal pay for women.

Sanders is running as a Democrat, which makes eight Democrats vying for Shea-Porter's post, according to WMUR-9.

Sen. Sanders, an independent from Vermont, backed his son in a statement to WMUR.

"I am very proud of Levi's commitment to public service and his years of work on behalf of low income and working people," he told the Manchester television station. "Levi will be running his own campaign, in his own way, with his own ideas. The decision as to who to vote for will be determined by the people of New Hampshire's first district, and nobody else."

More: Indictment: Russians also tried to help Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein presidential campaigns

According to his campaign, Levi Sanders is a senior legal analyst and a specialist in Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income Benefits. He's lived in New Hampshire for 15 years with his family.

"For over 17 years, I have represented the working class who have been up by the system," he said in a statement. "It is time to demand that we have a system which represents the 99% and not the 1% who have never it [sic] so good."


SOME DETAILS, VIDEOS AND PHOTOS OF BERNIE’S EARLY ADULT LIFE
“'I REALLY DON'T WANT TO SAY MUCH,' SHE SAID. 'ALL I CAN SAY IS I BELIEVE IN BERNIE SANDERS AND I AM A STRONG SUPPORTER.'”


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3155396/Bernie-Sanders-1960s-love-life-revealed-wife-woman-son-sugar-shack-home-lived-revolutionary.html
EXCLUSIVE: Bernie Sanders' very 1960s love life revealed - his first wife, the woman who had his son, and the sugar shack home where he lived as a 'revolutionary'
By Martin Gould In Montpelier, Vermont, For Dailymail.com
PUBLISHED: 17:15 EST, 9 July 2015 | UPDATED: 21:46 EST, 6 March 2016


Democratic presidential candidate has said nothing about his family life in the 1960s when he was living in Vermont as a 'revolutionary'

He married a college sweetheart and they lived in a sugar shack on 85 acres of land, without electricity, but divorced after 18 months

Sanders then had his son with another woman, Susan Mott, long before he married his current wife

His Senate and campaign biographies say he is married with four children but do not make clear three are his stepchildren

For more of the latest on Bernie Sanders visit www.dailymail.co.uk/bernie

Bernie Sanders' bid for the White House was placed under a shadow Thursday as new questions arose as to why the self-described Democratic Socialist has kept his complicated early love life secret for so long.

Sanders has never discussed his first marriage nor the fact that his only natural-born child was with a second woman.

But Daily Mail Online has pieced together the fragments of his life as a revolutionary living in his adopted state of Vermont.

And they reveal that he was married to one woman, yet had his son Levi with a second - long before he went on to marry his current wife.

The Sanders campaign did not respond to Daily Mail Online's queries about why the veteran senator has kept details of his early life so quiet nor how he expected them to remain secret during his run for the nation's highest office.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Future first lady? Bernie Sanders and his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders as he was about to give the speech officially announcing his candidacy for the White House

First wife: Deborah Messing, born Shiling, was Bernie Sanders' college sweetheart and they moved to Vermont but they divorced 18 months after marrying

Mother of his child: Susan Mott Glaeser, with whom Sanders had his son, Levi, in 1969

The Sugar Shack: Sanders and his first wife Deborah Shiling paid $2,500 for the property on 85 acres of land just outside the small hamlet of Middlesex. It had no electricity, but Deborah told Daily Mail Online there was water - 'too much' of it

His campaign website says that he 'lives in Burlington, Vermont with his wife Jane. He has four children and seven grandchildren'.

Sanders is making a long-shot bid to upset Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate in next year's presidential election.

If he were to be successful and beat the Republican candidate in November 2016, he would become only the second divorced president in history.

But unlike Ronald Reagan, whose first wife, Jane Wyman was an Oscar-winning actress who was still playing a leading role on television's Falcon Crest at age 72, Sanders' first wife, Deborah, lives a quiet life.

For 20 years she worked as a buyer for the Hunger Mountain Coop, a '20,000 square foot community-owned natural foods cooperative' in Vermont's capital, Montpelier.

Daily Mail Online has learned that Sanders married Deborah Shiling, who is three years his junior, on September 6, 1964.

Her father was Dr. Moses Shiling, at the time chief of pulmonary diseases at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. The ceremony was in the garden of her parents' home in Baltimore.

Deborah, now remarried and known by her married name of Deborah Messing, confirmed to Daily Mail Online that she had been briefly married to the 73-year-old presidential candidate.

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Activist: At the University of Chicago, where Sanders studied, he began his career which would lead to the run for the presidency. He was photographed at a racial equality sit-in in January 1962

Son: Levi Sanders, 46, is following in his father's liberal footsteps, posing with Barack Obama, then a senator, before he became president

Family: Levi Sanders (left) was among those on stage with Bernie Sanders as he announced his run for the presidency

Family: His campaign has also published this picture of the Sanders family. On his campaign and official website Sanders says that he is married with four children. In fact three are his wife's, who he treats as his own, while his son Levi is by another relationship

1974: The father of a five-year-old son, Sanders campaigned for the senate as an independent

'I really don't want to say much,' she said. 'All I can say is I believe in Bernie Sanders and I am a strong supporter.'

The couple met in college and moved to a sugar shack* without electricity on 85 acres of land in Middlesex, a small hamlet just outside the Vermont capital of Montpelier. They bought it for just $2,500.

But the marriage did not last, and Bernie and Deborah divorced in 1966 after 18 months. Soon afterwards Deborah married her current husband Bob, who she describes as 'a poet slash logger slash philosopher'.

They now live in a house on a steep hill less than a mile from the gold-domed statehouse that dominates Montpelier.

Sanders, now 73, went on to live with Susan Mott, and together they had a son, Levi, now 46. He was born in Brightlook Hospital, St. Johnsbury, Vermont on March 21, 1969, publicly available records show.

Daily Mail Online has been unable to find any record of Sanders marrying Mott.

Mott is now married to German immigrant Hendrik Glaeser, who has run a sign-making business in Burlington, Vermont's largest city, for some 30 years.

Their wedding certificate records her name as Susan Mott.

When approached by Daily Mail Online at her Burlington home, she said: 'I really don't want to do this.'

Asked whether she thought that Sanders could have kept his secrets as he ran for the nation's highest office, she smiled, saying: 'I am not a chatty person'.

Sanders eventually married Jane O'Meara in a civil ceremony in Burlington of May 28, 1988. They are still married and Sanders treats her three children, Heather, Carina and David as his own.

All reports about Sanders have previously said that Levi was the result of Sanders' first marriage, although the name of his first wife has never before been revealed.

In its biography, CNN says his first wife's name is 'unavailable publicly' and lists Levi as a child of that marriage.

Business: Susan Mott is now married to Hendrik Glaeser, who runs this sign business
Hendrik Glaeser, husband of Susan Mott Glaeser.
Business: Susan Mott, the mother of Bernie Sanders' son Levi, is now married to German-born Hendrik Glaeser, who runs this family business in Vermont

Still an ally: Messing, who was Bernie Sanders' first wife, is still a supporter and says he is a 'friend'

Packing them in: Sanders is filling large-capacity venues as he surfs an unexpected wave of support

History: Ronald Reagan was the first divorced president, with his second wife Nancy as first lady.

His Wikipedia page says: 'First wife (name and dates unknown).'

His official biography on the Senate website doesn't even mention a first wife at all and lists his children as Levi, Heather, Carina and David without differentiating between children and step-children.

Even people who have researched his life know little about the threads of his love life. In his book 'The Jews of Capitol Hill', Kurt F. Stone wrote: 'Sanders, his first wife and their son Levi, lived without electricity or running water in a converted sugar house,' when they first moved to Vermont.

However Deborah Messing told Daily Mail Online Levi was not born at that time — and the house had water. 'In fact we had too much water,' she said without elaborating.

Sanders has previously been reported to have styled himself a 'revolutionary' when he moved to Vermont.

The New York Times reported last week that he had written an article in an alternative newspaper headlined 'The Revolution Is Live Versus Death'.

Sanders told Chris Cuomo on CNN on Friday that he accepted that his personal life is going to be up for play in the election.

'I'm not being naive,' he said, 'I don't think I can avoid it.'

However Cuomo did not ask him directly about his first marriage or the birth of his son, merely claiming there were 'salacious' articles circulating about him.


[SUGAR SHACK* -- THIS IS NOT A LOVE NEST AS THE SONG SUGGESTS. IT IS A COMMERCIAL BUSINESS – SEE BELOW. AS A HOME, IT IS LESS THAN TOTALLY DESIRABLE, IN MY VIEW.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_shack]

A sugar shack (French: cabane à sucre), also known as sap house, sugar house, sugar shanty or sugar cabin is a semi-commercial establishment, primarily found in Eastern Canada and northern New England. Like the name implies, sugar shacks are small cabins or groups of cabins where sap collected from sugar maple trees is boiled into maple syrup. It is often found on the same territory as the sugar bush, which is intended for cultivation and production of maple syrup by way of craftsmanship (as opposed to global mass production factories built for that purpose in the 20th century).]



GOOD TRUMP SUGGESTIONS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS

"The video games, the movies, the Internet stuff, it's so violent,"

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/trump-meets-with-republicans-democrats-on-school-safety-live-stream-updates/
KATHRYN WATSON CBS NEWS February 28, 2018, 3:00 PM
Trump meets with Republicans, Democrats on gun control -- live updates
Last Updated Feb 28, 2018 3:43 PM EST

CBSN – TRUMP PUSHES FOR ONE BILL ON GUN CONTROL

President Trump and a number of Republican and Democratic members of Congress are meeting at the White House Wednesday to address school safety issues. The meeting comes in response to the Parkland shooting two weeks ago.

The White House's list of expected attendees includes Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas; Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia; Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut; Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida; Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania; Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee; Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Florida; Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Connecticut; Rep. Brian Mast, R-Florida; Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Florida; Rep. John Rutherford, D-Florida and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana.

Florida's Democratic senator, Sen. Bill Nelson, is not on that list.

On Wednesday, the president also intends to address community safety more broadly, according to the White House.

Mr. Trump has floated arming teachers, raising the age minimum for purchasing a firearm, addressing mental health issues and improving the background check system in the wake of the high school shooting that left 17 dead.

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School returned to campus for the first time Wednesday. Last week, Mr. Trump held a listening session with some of those students, and other students and families affected by school shootings. He has also met with governors on the topic.

Follow below for live updates.

Trump says some lawmakers are "petrified of the NRA"

President Trump reiterated that some in the room are afraid of the NRA, in even stronger terms this time.

"They have great power over you people," the president said. "They have less power over me."

Mr. Trump added that some lawmakers are "petrified of the NRA. You can't be petrified..."

Trump speaks out against video games, Internet content

Mr. Trump suggested some kind of ratings system for media content, in terms of how it terrorizes children.

"The video games, the movies, the Internet stuff, it's so violent," the president said, mentioning his son, Barron Trump. "I look at some of the things he's watching and I say, how is that possible?"

Trump warns against attaching concealed carry reciprocity to another bill

Republicans had hoped to add a provision for concealed carry reciprocity among states to a bill to improve the federal background checks system.

But Mr. Trump shot that idea down.

"If you add concealed carry (reciprocity) to this, you'll never get it passed," Trump said. "... We want to get something done."

Trump says states should have flexibility

President Trump said states can have some flexibility when it comes to some measures, such as whether they want to arm teachers.

But the data, Mr. Trump said, such as background checks, needs to be the same.

Trump says Republicans are "afraid of the NRA"

When Mr. Trump received a silent response from Republicans as he suggested raising the age for purchasing some firearms to 21, he said they aren't taking the idea seriously because they're "afraid of the NRA."

Trump suggests need to "take the guns away immediately" from mentally ill

President Trump said he wants to focus on those with mental health problems.

"We need to do something about the mentally ill not being able to buy a gun," Trump said, adding that maybe there might need to be a provision to "take the guns away immediately" if necessary.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, offered a "caution on mental health."

"I think we'e [sic] got to concentrate not just on those who have mental health issues but on those who show a danger to themselves or others," Grassley said.

Chris Murphy says "we will get 60 votes" on background checks bill

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, said they have a "unique opportunity" to get universal background checks.

Murphy said the Senate "will get 60 votes" on a simple background check bill.

Background checks do have near universal support among the American public.

The president seemed to agree with Murphy.

Trump says he wants just one bill
The president said he would prefer to see just one bill, rather than a number of different bills, as Cornyn spoke. Cornyn is backing legislation to improve the existing background check database.

"If we can get 60 votes for it Mr. President, I'm all for it," Cornyn said.

Trump says he's dealing with bump stocks by executive order
Interrupting comments from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the president said he would be dealing with bump stocks by executive order.

"We've got to stop this nonsense, it's time," Trump says
"I'm the biggest fan of the Second Amendment, many of you are," the president told those seated around the table.

Mr. Trump mentioned that he met with National Rifle Association (NRA) leaders over the weekend.

"We've got to stop this nonsense, it's time," he said.

Trump criticizes gun-free zones
President Trump said gun-free zones are harming the country, claiming 98 percent of mass shootings in the U.S. have occurred in gun-free zones since 1950.

"You've gotta have defense, too," he said.

The president said other reforms needed include improving mental health and strengthening background checks.

Kathryn Watson
Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital.