WTF Community

Who The Fuck Has Left The Trump Administration

General Discussion
#373

Maddow’s take on this is spot on . She ties it in to the bigger picture of the Trump administration’s flagrant, relentless corruption. This is Maddow at her finest: engaging, informative, inspiring. If you missed this segment, it’s really worth watching!

P.S. Glad to see that MSNBC is making more RMS clips available for viewing. I watch the show without fail on YouTube TV,* but sometimes I get frustrated when I want to share part of a show with a friend because MSNBC won’t provide the clip online – that seems to be changing bit by bit.

*YouTube TV is different from plain vanilla YouTube. It’s a service like Hulu and is actually pretty good – especially for news and commentary junkies. If you “record” an MSNBC show on their “virtual DVR in the cloud,” you can watch it later and skip through the ads – but, be warned, that’s not true for many of the other networks (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, etc.) – on those channels, you sometimes are forced to sit through the ads, even when you’ve “recorded” the program. Basically, I just subscribe to YouTube TV to watch MSNBC so it works for me.

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#374

And now Suzanne Israel Tufts has resigned from the federal government. Good. She was originally brought on board by Ben Carson to approve a $31,000 dining table for his office (and as a reward for working on the Trump campaign). She did such a good job enabling corruption at HUD that the powers that be decided she’d be the perfect person to quash the four ongoing investigations into Ryan Zinke’s corruption. She was just in the process of being put in “charge” of those investigations when, thanks to Democrats sounding the alarm, the whole thing backfired (see the Maddow show segment above). Now Tufts is exiting the government completely – probably to avoid more public scrutiny.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/10/19/trump-appointee-tapped-days-ago-to-run-interior-departments-watchdog-office-resigns-amid-controversy-over-handling-of-her-hiring/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.af3dc7d10716

A top Trump administration political appointee who just two days ago was on track to lead the Interior Department’s inspector general’s office resigned Friday from the federal government, according to an administration official.

Suzanne Israel Tufts was scheduled to be interviewed Friday morning for another inspector general position elsewhere in the government, according to a person with knowledge of the interview. But she did not show up for the appointment.

Her departure ends a madcap week, as the administration quickly scuttled an arrangement to make Tufts acting Interior watchdog amid media reports and scrutiny from Capitol Hill lawmakers. Tufts did not respond to messages left on her cellphone.

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#375

Yes, she did. I am usually tuned in right as it is scheduled, and also DVR it, but good to know that YouTubeTV is the source for getting more clips. I have looked on MSNBC’s Maddow’s Blog etc for video snippets, but you are right, they do not arrive until a day later.

I was looking for other sources where it may crop up…
and found another news aggregator with a SEARCH feature (aside from @Matt super CURRENT STATUS (v1.0) and came across a couple of them, which if you type in search MADDOW, there are a bunch of videos available including the one you listed. I am not sure when it is posted, but it does link to the MSNBC website. The two listed are not at all solely news about current political events, but offer a broad spectrum of stories. I was just interested in seeing that her specific video came up! :man_dancing:

So much content, and where to go…

Thanks for the tip on YouTubeTV.

:smile:

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#376

More departures expected…

The list includes Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who announced last month that she will depart by the end of the year, with no replacement in line. Trump is widely expected to oust Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom he has criticized for months. Others who appear most likely to depart, according to administration sources and White House advisers, include Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, a close ally of chief of staff John Kelly.

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#377

’Moving day’: White House staffers set to split for 2020 campaign
Trump’s reelection campaign is set to take shape months earlier than Barack Obama’s or George W. Bush’s did.

The first moves could come shortly after next week’s election, when senior Trump aides Bill Stepien, the director of political affairs, and Justin Clark, who oversees the Office of Public Liaison, are expected to take senior roles with the reelection effort, according to two people with knowledge of the plans. Both are heavily involved in the run-up to the midterms and held top positions on Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The list is almost certain to grow. Jessica Ditto, who has served as deputy communications director in the White House and on the Trump campaign, is widely expected to join the 2020 team in a communications role. Cabinet aides with political backgrounds — such as Jason Simmons, a Small Business Administration staffer who ran Trump’s North Carolina effort — are regarded as potential hires.

And on Thursday evening, the Trump campaign alumni group 45 Club is scheduled to meet at Morton’s steakhouse in downtown Washington to discuss how “members can get involved and engaged in 2020 after the midterms,” according to a copy of the invitation.

The coming wave has become known internally as “moving day,” a reference to the third day of a professional golf tournament, when players try to move toward the top of the field. The looming personnel moves provide a window into a White House that has begun looking beyond the midterms to Trump’s battle for four more years.

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#378

Here we go… Sessions has been forced out!!

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has resigned at the request of President Trump. The move follows months of Mr. Trump expressing his displeasure with Mr. Sessions in critical tweets.

The abrupt move ended Mr. Sessions’ tumultuous tenure as the nation’s top law-enforcement officer. Throughout, he couldn’t shake Mr. Trump’s displeasure over the special-counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

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Day 657
#379

Marcia Lee Kelly, a top White House operations official, is leaving, expected to become chief executive of the 2020 Republican convention; Trumo fundraiser Louis DeJoy is the likely finance chairman for the convention
https://www.wsj.com/articles/senior-white-house-operations-official-to-depart-1541179810 via @WSJ

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#380

Looks like they are stacking the deck for T.

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#381

President Trump has told advisers he has decided to remove Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and her departure from the administration is likely to occur in the coming weeks, if not sooner, according to five current and former White House officials.

Will repost more when this becomes final.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/world/national-security/trump-is-preparing-to-remove-kirstjen-nielsen-as-homeland-security-secretary-aides-say/2018/11/12/77111496-e6b0-11e8-bbdb-72fdbf9d4fed_story.html

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#382

The president has also decided to remove Mira Ricardel, the top deputy for national security adviser John Bolton, officials said. A National Security Council spokeswoman declined to comment.

John Kelly has been rumored to be on the chopping block as well. He has been rumored to be on the outs before, I guess we’ll find out if Trump has the courage to fire him this time.

Some insight from Maggie

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#383

If Nielsen goes I would wonder if Kelly would resign or follow soon after.

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#384

Melania Trump got her wish when the Trump administration said Wednesday that Deputy National Security Adviser Mira Ricardel was leaving the White House a day after the first lady called for Ricardel to be fired.

“Mira Ricardel will continue to support the president as she departs the White House to transition to a new role within the administration,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday. “The president is grateful for Ms. Ricardel’s continued service to the American people and her steadfast pursuit of his national security priorities.”

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#385

More ‘palace intrigue,’ with Melania calling the shots.

My speculation about why Melania took on that role -

  1. pundits are saying it is because The Donald is in a insane funk (my words) right now and can not handle much.

  2. Power play by Melania…see I can do this and well, trump T. Was Melania really just furious about seating arrangements on the trip to Africa? Probably, and there may have been some leaks coming from Ricardel.

  3. The WH is imploding…:boom:

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#386

@dragonfly9 For a guy famous for firing people, he doesn’t seem to actually fire people himself. He’s such a coward he had to have his wife fire Ms. Ricardel.

@SEPTGUY Same goes for Kelly, who usually fires people for Trump. Kelly won’t remove Nielsen for Trump and threatened to quit if somehow she was fired.

At the end of the day it always comes down to maintaining Trump’s faux tough guy image for his base. That’s all he cares about. The only work he has done is crafting this crazy Presidential persona.

He just wants to play the president on TV.

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#387

Yes, am aware of our cowardly lion…all growl, no bite. Can not fire people…

But Kelly also brought in Nielsen, and has allegiances to her and this standing up for what Kelly thinks is right maybe another component of WTF.

and yes

I am STILL wondering if Kelly was the NYT’s leaker, and perhaps all are aware that Kelly maybe the visible glue that can keep this President on track, even if T tweets at will, says horrid things, tries to enact horrible legislation etc. T wants it to appear that it is a smooth running operation, knows that Kelly does have cloutwithin the various factions.

Melania knows about which people to trust - a better people-sense. She is ultimately protecting her man. There were suggestions that Ricardel was leaking too.

In those few months on the job, Ricardel generated a long list of enemies and developed a reputation for shouting at subordinates, plotting against White House officials she disliked and leaking stories about her administration opponents to the press. One source familiar with the situation said Ricardel’s firing is due in part to her “bullying” of aides both above and below her.

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#388

Par for the course with this White House. :joy:

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#389

What does he mean they removed 3,600 employees?! What is he talking about?

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#390

Kirsten Fontenrose - Director NSC, of the Persian Gulf region.

Must be that her position on calling out anyone close to MBS was a bit too harsh for the NSC group, because they’d like to keep on supporting the Saudi’s as an ally, despite the heinous crime to kill Khashoggi ordered by MBS.

The official, Kirsten Fontenrose, had pushed for tough measures against the Saudi government, and had been in Riyadh to discuss a raft of sanctions that the American government imposed in recent days against those identified as responsible for the killing, according to two people familiar with the conversations. Specifically, she advocated that Saud al-Qahtani, a top adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, be added to the list, and he ultimately was.

The exact circumstances of her departure are murky, and it is unclear whether her advocacy for a hawkish response to the killing angered some in the White House. When she returned to Washington, according to the two people, she had a dispute with her bosses at the National Security Council, where she had served as the director for the Persian Gulf region.

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#391

It means that they are trying to spin their employment numbers by advocating that they are doing cost cutting measures, despite the true facts which is that they haven’t been able to fulfill all the jobs, nor are they attempting to fill them according to this June 2018 CNBC article, due to delays in confirming and finding candidates.

As of Monday, the White House had yet to put forward the names of candidates for 204 of the 665 key positions that require Senate confirmation, according to the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that advises incoming administrations.

The longest list of empty desks waiting to be filled is at the State Department, where more than 40 top jobs are vacant. Dozens of ambassadors appointed by the Obama administration were fired by Trump on Inauguration Day and have yet to be replaced.

The unfilled jobs also include key positions throughout the executive branch charged with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. Despite Trump’s campaign vows to “drain the swamp,” his administration has been slow to hire agency watchdogs, known as inspectors general, tasked with reviewing the way the government conducts its business and spends taxpayers’ money.

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#392

He was remarking specifically on the VA. Is he confused? Ignorant of the situation or just plain lying again? This fucking guy… what does he mean when says words?!

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