White House personnel official described Trump GOP nomination as 'end of the world'

President Trump secured the Republican presidential nomination on May 3, 2016, when he crushed a final “Never Trump” effort to stop him in the Indiana primary.

At the GOP Data Trust, a voter outreach organization based in Washington, the mood was bleak. It was clear Trump was heading for a blowout victory.

When Trump had delivered his victory speech shortly after 9 p.m., Data Trust staffer Courtney Mullen invited her colleagues to attend an “end of the world” happy hour to mark Trump’s triumph, which the party establishment had watched in horror.

Although Trump had already all but taken over the Republican party with a script-flipping populist message — opposed to illegal immigration, existing trade deals, and foreign wars — people such as Mullen and her boss, Data Trust President Johnny DeStefano, would soon work for him.

At 10:21 p.m., Mullen wrote to colleagues on the workplace chatting app Slack: “Heads up - the 'End of the World Happy Hour' has been added as an addition to the happy hour on Friday due to the nature of tonight's events and the inevitable truth that Trump will be our nominee.”

Her immediate superior at the time was Ellen Bredenkoetter, who wrote a response on the Slack channel at 12.19 a.m.: “#allthedrinks.”

The Slack messages were obtained by the Washington Examiner.

Since January 2017, Mullen has worked to review and approve Trump’s political appointees as a key mid-level staffer in the White House presidential personnel office, or PPO, which DeStefano led for a year before taking a promotion and additional duties at the White House.

Mullen, now 25, who has been in her role more than two years amid high turnover, earns $94,000 helping review potential candidates for suitability for about 4,000 presidential appointments, about 1,200 requiring Senate approval. Bredenkoetter, also 25, is now chief data officer at the Republican National Committee.

Among Trump supporters, there’s long been skepticism of the PPO, and the nearly three-year-old messages are likely to amplify concerns of anti-Trump bias within his administration.

Fear about a bias toward establishment picks emerged in 2017, when Trump selected DeStefano to lead the PPO. He had worked as an aide to former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, before leading Data Trust. Eyebrows raised with appointees with views at odds with some of Trump’s, such as former national security adviser H.R. McMaster, former foreign policy adviser Dina Powell, and Venezuela envoy Elliott Abrams.

“They have slow-walked pro-Trump people to the point that they drop out or lose interest,” a Trump ally close to the White House told the Washington Examiner. “They don’t like the pro-Trump crowd. They like to bring in Bushies."

A former White House official said DeStefano, 39, set the tone for the PPO with an “us versus them” mentality, often referring to Trump backers as “the MAGA people.”

The official said: “He’s always complaining about how ‘the MAGA people’ are coming after him. But wait, aren’t you supposed to be a MAGA person? Johnny is constantly disparaging the president. He’s always making these jokes that the president is erratic, is irrational.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/white-house-personnel-official-described-trump-gop-nomination-as-end-of-the-world

Gavin Newsom pushes for fee to clean up tainted water

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to charge California water customers up to $10 per month to help clean up contaminated water in low-income and rural areas, but he will face resistance from some legislative Democrats hesitant to impose new taxes.

The Democratic governor says up to 1 million California residents have some type of contaminated or unclean water coming through their taps that can cause health issues. He has called it “a moral disgrace and a medical emergency.”

“The fact that in California, in the fifth-largest economy, we have people who cannot drink their water, people who can’t even bathe in their water, there’s something absolutely wrong,” Democratic Assemblywoman Eloise Reyes said Wednesday during a hearing on Newsom’s plan.

The fee on water customers would affect households and businesses — an idea that lawmakers killed last session. Newsom wants to combine it with fees on animal farmers, dairies and fertilizer sellers to raise about $140 million per year.

A competing proposal by Democratic Sen. Anna Caballero would use money from the state’s multibillion-dollar surplus to create a trust fund to pay for water improvements.

Newsom’s plan could be difficult to pass because tax and fee increases require support from two-thirds of lawmakers.

Democrats hold 75 percent of the legislative seats, but some who represent moderate or agricultural districts may balk at the proposal, particularly after voters recalled a Democratic senator last year after he voted to raise the gas tax. Caballero, for example, represents an agricultural district previously held by a Republican.

https://www.chicoer.com/2019/03/21/california-governor-wants-10-fee-to-clean-up-tainted-water/

>>5819557 Former DEA official now working for OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma

notable

>>5819578

Don't presume my species you hater!