President Trump Slams Democrats for Additional Articles of ‘Impeachment’ Threat

The Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee indicated on Monday that it might recommend additional articles of impeachment against President Trump if more evidence of “presidential misconduct” is uncovered in future witness testimony.

“The House Judiciary Committee held open the possibility Monday of recommending additional articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump as it pressed anew for the testimony of former White House counsel Don McGahn,” The Associated Press reported Monday.

McGahn’s testimony would involve how Trump handled Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, which found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and made no recommendation on obstruction of justice by the president.

In a court filing Monday, lawyers for the Democrat-controlled committee petitioned a federal appeals court to force McGahn to testify, maintaining that his testimony could provide them with evidence that Trump had obstructed justice during the Mueller investigation.

“If McGahn’s testimony produces new evidence supporting the conclusion that President Trump committed impeachable offenses that are not covered by the Articles approved by the House, the Committee will proceed accordingly — including, if necessary, by considering whether to recommend new articles of impeachment,” the filing reads.

McGahn’s testimony could also help the committee determine whether the FBI and Justice Department “are operating free from improper political interference,” lawyers for the committee wrote in the appeal.

The Democratic Judiciary Committee members subpoenaed McGahn long before the impeachment inquiry began. The Justice Department has requested that the appeals court dismiss the case, which it says comes down to a political dispute, while the Democrats insist that McGahn’s testimony “is critical both to a Senate trial and to the Committee’s ongoing impeachment investigations to determine whether additional Presidential misconduct warrants further action by the Committee.”

Trump responded to the news early Tuesday morning, posting a series tweets slamming the Democrats for trying to fortify their weak case for impeachment after the fact.

Citing Fox News political analyst Brit Hume, Trump tweeted: “Everything we’re seeing from Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer suggests that they’re in real doubt about the evidence they’ve brought forth so far not being good enough, and are very, very urgently seeking a way to find some more evidence. The only way to make this work is to mount some kind of public pressure to demand witnesses, but McConnell has the votes and he can run this trial anyway he wants to.”

Trump then tweeted out a quote from another Fox personality, “Fox and Friends” co-anchor Brian Kilmeade, who slammed the “tone deaf” Democrats for making their impeachment effort appear even more unfocused.

“The Dems are complicating matters again. Keeping Mueller out of it was the focus. Keeping it crisp [and] simple was the key, and now all of a sudden they are saying maybe we’ll go back and visit the Mueller probe, which is absolutely unbelievable, and shows they don’t care about the American public’s tone deafness — [and] it should be intolerable, because the American people have had it with this,” Trump tweeted, quoting Kilmeade.

“The Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats have gone CRAZY,” Trump added. “They want to make it as hard as possible for me to properly run our Country!”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrats-consider-impeaching-trump-again-trump-responds

Only 98 Turn Out for Biden Town Hall in Iowa; Protester Takes Microphone

Joe Biden may be the national frontrunner, but it doesn't seem as though he's inspired excitement amongst Iowans, at least according to the photo below of a town hall meeting in Ottumwa, Iowa, from Des Moines Register reporter Stephen Gruber-Miller:

Good morning from Ottumwa, where @JoeBiden is kicking off a two-day campaign swing through Iowa. The event started off with one of Biden's organizers recalling when she heard him speak about ending domestic violence. #iacaucus pic.twitter.com/PTs9tQibp1

— Stephen Gruber-Miller (@sgrubermiller) December 21, 2019

The American Mirror estimates from the photo that only 98 people turned out for the town hall event featuring the former vice president.

The Des Moines Register published dozens of photos from the event, but all are tightly composed, making assessing the attendance impossible. The photo published on Twitter was taken from the media section in the back, and clearly shows the entirety of the room's occupants.

That's not to say the event wasn't eventful.

Washington Post reporter Cleve R. Wootson Jr. posted video of a protester wearing a "Death by Medicine" shirt who interrupted Biden's town hall and succeeded in taking the microphone from Biden, who apparently let him speak.

A guy talking about medical errors interrupted Biden’s remarks in Ottumwa. ‘Make it quick,’ Biden said, then handed him the mic. pic.twitter.com/vJMkoxiRA6

— Cleve R. Wootson Jr. (@CleveWootson) December 21, 2019

President Trump had a rally in Iowa last year. Here's video of the people who showed up:

Beautiful evening in Iowa. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.! #MAGA???? pic.twitter.com/Zi0rwyajrz

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 10, 2018

Just sayin'.

https://pjmedia.com/election/watch-only-98-turn-out-for-biden-town-hall-in-iowa-protester-takes-microphone/

Half Of France's National Train System "Grinds To A Halt" As Labor Unions Strike On Christmas Week

French labor unions won't be giving any presents to citizens who want to travel by train this Christmas.

That's because strikes by transport workers against the government's pension-reform plan have shut down half of national train services this weekend, with 59% of services expected to be cut on December 23-24, according to Bloomberg.

French railway company, SNCF, has suspended its unaccompanied minor service, canceling about 6,000 tickets for children this week. Four out of five trains were also suspended in the greater Paris area and the capital's metro system also stopped, with the exception of two automated lines.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged the unions to come to a truce for the holiday week at the same time public support for the strike during the holiday had fallen to 51%. This is down from 63% just five days prior. However, a poll on Thursday showed 55% of respondents thought the labor unions were "wrong" to strike during the holiday period.

Macron commented: “Strikes are protected by the constitution. But there are times in a nation’s history when it’s also good to know when to call a truce to respect families and family life.”

Some unions are calling for truces, others aren't. And the strikes seem to be having an impact. Polls show 57% of people reject Macron's pension reform, which is higher than when the protests started on December 5. Some unions have called for a new day of demonstrations on January 9.

Macron's administration has had better success with tax and labor laws, but the French people are "wedded to their pension system", making reform a difficult task. Macron aims to merge 42 separate regimes into a single, universal points-based system. The plan also seeks to raise the age for full benefits from 62 to 64. Workers have stood in stark opposition to the changes while the French government aims to phase out special retirement plans for sectors ranging from train conductors to dancers at the Paris Opera.

Macron has tried to lead by example, but to no avail:

Le Parisien newspaper reported on Sunday that Macron will also give up his right under a 1955 law to a set pension for life granted to French presidents once they finish their mandate and will instead switch to a points-based calculation. He will also abandon the right to a post for life at France’s Constitutional Council, which brings with it 13,500 euros ($14,957) in compensation, the paper said.

Meanwhile, the strikes are resulting in a surge of bookings for car-sharing services, which has, in turn, led to hundreds of miles of traffic jams around the French capital.

Car sharing bookings have "doubled" since the start of the protests and have beaten records, ride hailing company BlaBlaCar said. The company says it'll have 2 million seats available between Dec. 20 and Jan. 5, which works out to the equivalent of 5,000 TGV high speed trains - but, you know, moving much slower.

Nicolas Brusson, chief executive officer of BlaBlaCar, said: “We see a real solidarity of drivers, more people are offering seats than ever.”

SNCF says it'll try to keep the main lines running on December 23 and December 24. Union leaders met with French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Wednesday and Thursday, but said that talks failed to advance. 69% of people polled said they expect the government to push through with reforms without caving to protests.

One French union, the CFDT, called for a truce over the holiday. Laurent Berger, the leader of the CFDT, said: “Everyone should be able to travel freely to do what they need to do during the holiday season.”

We'll check back in on Easter.

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/half-frances-national-train-system-grinds-halt-labor-unions-strike-christmas-week

State Department Opens Massive Security Training Center, Simulated City With Floods, Protests, Other Disasters

The newly-opened Foreign Affairs Security Training Center in Blackstone, Va., is a massive 1,350-acre compound that was approved by Congress.

The facility was built to provide comprehensive lifesaving security training to State Department personnel and members of the foreign affairs community, according to Fox News.

Michael Evanoff, assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, told the network the center will help teach U.S. personnel how to respond in the event of an attack.

“Training is the bedrock to protecting lives,” Evanoff said. “If you are a trained foreign service officer and you go through the training we give you, you’ll be better prepared to react.”

Fully operational in December, the FASTC training campus features a rappel tower, a tactical maze, two smokehouses, an explosive demo range and live-fire shoot house.

More from Fox News:

The facility also features two high-speed driving tracks and another that can be flooded with 96,000 gallons of water to give agents hands-on training to mastering rough road conditions. They are taught how to drive an armored SUV through a controlled skid as well as how to speed away from an ambush in reverse, ram vehicles out of the way and drive through just about every surface imaginable, including sand, mud, clay, gravel, over big rocks, over little rocks, up asphalt hills, down stairs and over logs. They are also taught how to detect surveillance, provide emergency medical care and root out improvised explosive devices.

But perhaps most impressive is the military operations in urban terrain simulator, also known as MOUT. Based on blueprints from existing embassies, FASTC created an entire town on its campus to put agents through rigorous training on how to respond to everything from a post-election protest in a foreign country to a security threat on the chaotic streets of New York City. Paid actors play townspeople, protestors, journalists and merchants to add to the drill’s “real feel.”

Wendy Bashnan, deputy assistant secretary for training, said government employees must be ready for anything and the FASTC training they receive accomplishes that.

“The world is becoming more unstable,” she said, “with increasing terrorist attacks worldwide, growing instability in government and rising discontent in economically disadvantaged countries.”

In the face of numerous attacks on U.S. embassies and consulates over the years, the facility will train 2,000 special agents to protect U.S. diplomats and citizens around the world. Overall, 10,000 people are expected to be trained annually.

Fox News noted that during former President George W. Bush’s two terms, there were 20 fatal attacks on U.S.embassies that resulted in 87 deaths, with 24 being either U.S. embassy workers or U.S. civilians.

And there was the tragic Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya.

Four Americans died that fateful day, to include Ambassador Christopher Stevens, U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith and CIA security contractors Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.

Now, if only the State Department can build a facility to teach politicians to put the lives of U.S. personnel before political aspirations and election chances.

https://www.bizpacreview.com/2019/12/24/state-dept-opens-massive-security-training-center-simulated-city-with-floods-protests-other-disasters-868077

Christmas message from China “factory”: Get us out of this prison camp!

Christmas is a time of joy and discovery, especially for children, but young Florence Widdicombe got more discovery than anyone would wish. After buying greeting cards from UK supermarket giant Tesco, the six-year-old began writing out her Christmas greetings. What she found in one card, however, set off an international dispute over China’s prison-camp operations, trade policies, and called into question just how much the West is prepared to overlook in its relations with Beijing:

TRENDING:

Law prof: The Senate isn't required to hold an impeachment trial at all

After a 6-year-old girl found a plea for help from Chinese prison laborers inside a Christmas card she was preparing to send to friends, the U.K. grocery chain Tesco said it halted production at the factory in China where the cards were produced.

Tesco said it also launched an investigation of the Chinese supplier it hired to make the holiday cards, Zheijiang Yunguang Printing, after the Sunday Times raised questions about the factory’s labor practices. The newspaper reported the factory used forced labor to produce charity Christmas cards for the supermarket.

The potentially problematic source of the cards came to light when Florence Widdicombe, 6, of London was writing holiday cards to friends and found one that already had a message written inside. The statement read: “We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qinqpu prison China forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organization.”

Widdicombe and her family asked Tesco a few pointed questions about the sourcing of their greeting cards. After that, matters escalated quickly, although at first this appeared to be a prank. Once Tesco determined that it wasn’t a joke, they suspended orders from the supplier, which denies using prison labor:

A factory in China has denied it used forced labour after a six-year-old girl found a message from workers inside a Tesco charity Christmas card. The card supplier, Zhejiang Yunguang Printing, told China’s Global Times it had “never done such a thing”.

Tesco halted production at the factory over the message, allegedly written by prisoners claiming they were “forced to work against our will”.

The Chinese foreign ministry said the allegation was “a farce”.

Speaking to the nationalist newspaper Global Times on Monday, a spokesman for the card supplier said: “We only became aware of this when some foreign media contacted us. We have never done such a thing. Why did they include our company’s name?”

The man named in the card rejects the denials from the supplier. Journalist Peter Humphrey spent time in Qingpu prison in Shanghai and says that Beijing is not telling the truth about it:

Peter Humphrey, a former fraud investigator and journalist, wrote an article about the note allegedly penned by foreign inmates in Shanghai’s Qingpu prison — where he himself was once held.

A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry denied there was any forced labour by foreign convicts at Qingpu and attacked Humphrey for inventing a “farce” to “hype himself up”.

Contacted by AFP for his response, Humphrey — who is now based in Britain — said: “It’s the kind of answer they have given to every allegation of human rights abuses that is ever mentioned.

“This is really completely to be expected, because nothing except lies ever comes back to the world when any such issue arises,” he said.

There’s an easy way to check who’s telling the truth, at least if everyone acts quickly. Send a team of investigators to Qingpu to see who’s there, and review the records to check whether foreigners have been transferred in or out recently. That could get done under the auspices of either the UN or the World Trade Organization if need be. That might not be terribly popular even outside of China, however, where Western nations just don’t ask questions about the cheap products that their businesses routinely source from China. To ask questions would be to get very uncomfortable answers, or threadbare lies.

For the moment, though, Humphrey’s own experience makes him a wee bit more credible than self-serving statements from those sources in China’s media mouthpieces. The UK should demand more accountability from China about the operation of those prisons and who is being held within them — and so should the US and other Western nations.

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2019/12/24/christmas-message-china-factory-get-us-prison-camp/

Trump says he hasn't thought about pardoning Roger Stone

President Trump said Tuesday he hadn’t thought about pardoning Roger Stone, but described his former associate as a “good person” and said he had been treated very unfairly.

“I hadn’t thought of it,” Trump told reporters in Palm Beach, Fla., on Tuesday when asked if he would pardon Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing a congressional inquiry in November.

“I think it’s very tough what they did to Roger Stone compared to what they do to other people on their side,” Trump continued.

Trump said Stone and his first national security adviser Michael Flynn — both of whom were charged in connection with former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation — had been “hit very hard” while claiming, without evidence, his campaign had been improperly targeted by “dirty cops.”

“Roger Stone was not involved in my campaign in any way other than the very, very beginning before I think, long before I announced,” Trump said.

“I’ve known Roger over the years, he’s a nice guy. A lot of people like him. And he got hit very hard, as did Gen. Flynn and as did a lot of other people,” Trump said. “Now they’re finding out it was all a big hoax.”

“We were spied on. My campaign was spied on,” the president continued.

Trump made the comments following a video teleconference with members of the U.S. military Tuesday morning.

Stone served briefly on Trump’s first presidential campaign but left in August 2015; still, he remained in contact with campaign officials about WikiLeaks, according to prosecutors, and was convicted of lying about those contacts.

Trump responded to Stone’s conviction on all seven counts of his indictment last month, claiming it as evidence of a “double standard” because his political rivals have not faced charges.

Stone is slated to be sentenced in February. Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., will be sentenced next month.

Trump has recently seized on a Justice Department inspector general report that found serious errors and omissions in an FBI surveillance application to wiretap his former campaign aide Carter Page in connection with the early Russia investigation. In one instance, an FBI lawyer altered a document used in the application, and the individual has been referred for possible criminal prosecution.

Trump claims that the watchdog report shows that his campaign was improperly targeted by the FBI.

Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department's inspector general, did not find evidence that political bias influenced the FBI’s decision to open investigations into associates of Trump’s campaign and found that the probe had an adequate predicate. Attorney General William Barr has disagreed with the latter conclusion.

Trump on Tuesday characterized the FBI agents who worked on the investigation as “dirty cops.”

“These were dirty people, these were bad people, these were evil people. And I hope that someday I’m going to consider it my greatest achievement or one of my greatest achievements — getting rid of them,” Trump said Tuesday.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/475856-trump-says-he-hasnt-thought-about-pardoning-roger-stone

>>7611145

Notable

>>7611152

Notable, Baker

>>7611172

Notable

>>7611200

Notable