'Unmasker in Chief' Samantha Power spewed anti-Trump bias in government emails

Former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power may share an unflattering stage with a text-loving FBI agent and his Donald Trump-hating paramour from the bureau. Fired agent Peter Strzok and ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page are infamous today for texting on FBI phones their anti-Trump sentiments while allegedly having an affair. They played key roles in the now-debunked Russia collusion investigation.

It turns out that Power — the diplomat whose authority inexplicably was used to unmask hundreds of Americans’ names in secret intelligence reports during the 2016 election — engaged in similar Trump-bashing on her official government email, according to documents unearthed by an American Center for Law and Justice lawsuit. The conservative legal group is run by Trump defense attorney Jay Sekulow. The discovery could add a new dimension — a question of political bias — to a long-running congressional investigation into why Power's authority was used to unmask hundreds of Americans' names in secret National Security Agency intercepts during the 2016 election. That practice of unmasking continues to grow today.

Power’s barbs toward Trump started as early as the GOP primaries, when she used her email to connect Oskar Eustis, the artistic director at the Public Theater in New York, with oft-quoted think tank scholar Norman Ornstein, the memos show. “Oskar, Norm will explain our political system, in a way that will fleetingly make it seem rational, though maybe not after Trump and Sanders win NH,” she wrote, predicting the future president and upstart socialist senator, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), would win the esteemed New Hampshire primary.

After Trump stunned the world with his general election win over Hillary Clinton, the observations of Power and those emailing her on her official government account turned more vitriolic. “I am discouraged and frightened. Electing a right-wing president is something, but such a morally repugnant bully!” read a Nov. 14, 2016, email to Power from a sender whose name the State Department redacted for privacy reasons. The email referred to former Trump strategist Steve Bannon as “an avowed racist” and predicted, “The worst is coming.”

There is no evidence in the released documents that Power responded or chastised the sender for using government email for such political animosity. But there is ample evidence she engaged in similar Trump-bashing. In December 2016, for example, when sent a news story about Trump’s effort to communicate a new policy direction for the U.N., Power snarkily replied: “This reflects the lack of understanding of history.” When Trump announced his intent to withdraw the U.S. from a global climate deal, Power emailed a colleague: “Lord help us all.” And when a routine diplomatic issue with Japan arose in late November 2016, Power emailed another colleague: “It is unreal how the Trump dynamic has changed things.” Perhaps most telling are Power’s efforts to arrange media interviews and speeches during her final days in office, clearly aiming to counter the incoming president’s agenda and fan the narrative that Trump might be dangerously soft on matters involving Russia and mercilessly hard on immigrants.

When Jorge Ramos, news anchor for the Spanish-language network Univision, floated an idea for an exit interview, Power suggested her anguish at seeing Democrats lose the election was receding the more she watched Trump in action. “If we do something, we will make it good,” Power wrote Ramos. “PTSD in retreat — Trump has vanquished it.”

Power and her staff spent time brainstorming a possible CBS “60 Minutes” interview as Trump’s transition period began. The idea was to parlay Power’s remarks at an upcoming citizenship event and the TV news magazine interview into forums to shame the president-elect on immigration. “Ambassador: Have a draft for your remarks for the naturalization ceremony on Tuesday, which has proven a useful and somewhat cathartic vessel to channel some post-Trump messages about who we are,” fellow State Department official Nikolaus Steinberg wrote on Nov. 11, 2016. Power responded: “Need to move out on 60 mins idea to seek maximum amplif.”

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/450490-unmasker-in-chief-samantha-power-spewed-anti-trump-bias-in-government

Repost..end of last bread

>>6848500

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Trump says he's 'very happy' some GOP senators have 'gone on to greener pastures'

President Trump on Wednesday said he is "very happy" that some GOP senators from earlier in his term are no longer in the Senate, telling a group of supporters that those lawmakers have "gone on to greener pastures." Trump went on a riff during a campaign-style speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition in which he complained about Democrats blocking his desired immigration policies before acknowledging he was unable to pass his agenda when Republicans held both chambers of Congress.

"But we didn’t have enough votes because it was very close. We needed 60 votes, and we had 51 votes, and sometimes, you know, we had a little hard time with a couple of them, right?" Trump said, referring to the GOP Senate majority during the previous Congress. "Fortunately, they’re gone now. They’ve gone on to greener pastures — or perhaps far less green pastures, but they’re gone," he said, without naming any senators. "I’m very happy they’re gone."

Earlier in his remarks, he alluded to the late Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) 2017 vote against what was known as a skinny repeal of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. "I’m keeping ObamaCare alive because I felt I should do that," Trump said. "We had a chance to terminate it, and a gentleman voted against it after campaigning for many years to repeal and replace. Then he voted against repeal and replace. Someday somebody will explain that to me." GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) also voted against the skinny repeal. Both are still serving in the Senate.

Trump has regularly gone after McCain, who died of brain cancer almost a year ago. The president often brings up McCain's ObamaCare vote. He also has accused McCain of being bad for veterans and complained that he was not properly thanked for approving some arrangements for McCain's funeral. Two other prominent Trump critics left the Senate at the end of the previous Congress. Former Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) decided not to run for reelection. Both senators voted in favor of the skinny repeal of ObamaCare but often took issue with the president's rhetoric.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/450446-trump-says-hes-very-happy-some-republican-senators-have-gone-on-to