Yuanyuan Zhu was walking to her gym in San Francisco on March 9, thinking the workout could be her last for a while, when she noticed that a man was shouting at her. He was yelling an expletive about China. Then a bus passed, she recalled, and he screamed after it, “Run them over.”
She tried to keep her distance, but when the light changed, she was stuck waiting with him at the crosswalk. She could feel him staring at her. And then, suddenly, she felt it: his saliva hitting her face and her favorite sweater.
In shock, Ms. Zhu, who is 26 and moved to the United States from China five years ago, hurried the rest of the way to the gym. She found a corner where no one could see her, and she cried quietly. “That person didn’t look strange or angry or anything, you know?” she said of her tormentor. “He just looked like a normal person.”
As the coronavirus upends American life, Chinese-Americans face a double threat. Not only are they grappling like everyone else with how to avoid the virus itself, they are also contending with growing racism in the form of verbal and physical attacks. Other Asians-Americans — with families from Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar and other places — are facing threats, too, lumped together with Chinese-Americans by a bigotry that does not know the difference.
In interviews over the past week, nearly two dozen Asian-Americans across the country said they were afraid — to go grocery shopping, to travel alone on subways or buses, to let their children go outside. Many described being yelled at in public — a sudden spasm of hate that is reminiscent of the kind faced by Muslim-Americans after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
But unlike 2001, when President George W. Bush urged tolerance of Muslim-Americans, this time President Trump is using language that Asian-Americans say is inciting racist attacks.
Mr. Trump and his Republican allies are intent on calling the coronavirus “the Chinese virus,” rejecting the World Health Organization’s guidance against using geographic locations when naming illnesses, since past names have provoked a backlash.
Mr. Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he was calling the virus “Chinese” to combat a disinformation campaign by Beijing officials saying the American military was the source of the outbreak. He dismissed concerns that his language would lead to any harm.
“If they keep using these terms, the kids are going to pick it up,” said Tony Du, an epidemiologist in Howard County, Md., who fears for his son, Larry, 8. “They are going to call my 8-year-old son a Chinese virus. It’s serious.”
Mr. Du said he posted on Facebook that “this is the darkest day in my 20-plus years of life in the United States,” referring to Mr. Trump’s doubling down on use of the term.
While no firm numbers exist yet, Asian-American advocacy groups and researchers say there has been a surge of verbal and physical assaults reported in newspapers and to tip lines.
San Francisco State University found a 50 percent rise in the number of news articles related to the coronavirus and anti-Asian discrimination between Feb. 9 and March 7. The lead researcher, Russell Jeung, a professor of Asian-American studies, said the figures represented “just the tip of the iceberg,” because only the most egregious cases that would be likely to be reported by the media.
Mr. Jeung has helped set up a website in six Asian languages, to gather firsthand accounts; some 150 cases have been reported on the site since it started last Thursday.
Tony Du, an epidemiologist in Howard County, Md., said that hearing government leaders call the coronavirus the “Chinese virus” had made him afraid for his son, Larry, 8.Credit…Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times Benny Luo, founder and chief executive of NextShark, a website focused on Asian-American news, said the site used to get a few tips a day. Now it is dozens.
“We’ve never received this many news tips about racism against Asians,” he said. “It’s crazy. My staff is pulling double duty just to keep up.” He said he was hiring two more people to help.
No one is immune to being targeted. Dr. Edward Chew, the head of the emergency department at a large Manhattan hospital, is on the front lines of fighting the coronavirus. He said that over the past few weeks, he has noticed people trying to cover their nose and mouth with their shirts when they are near him.
Dr. Chew has been using his free time to buy protective gear, like goggles and face shields, for his staff, in case his hospital runs out. On Wednesday night at a Home Depot, with his cart filled with face shields, masks and Tyvek suits, he said he was harassed by three men in their 20s, who then followed him out into the parking lot.
“I heard of other Asians being assaulted over this, but when you are actually ridiculed yourself, you really feel it,” he said the following day.
A writer for The New Yorker, Jiayang Fan, said she was taking out her trash last week when a man walking by began cursing at her for being Chinese.
“I’ve never felt like this in my 27 years in this country,” she wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “I’ve never felt afraid to leave my home to take out the trash because of my face.” Attacks have also gotten physical.
In the San Fernando Valley in California, a 16-year old Asian-American boy was attacked in school by bullies who accused him of having the coronavirus. He was sent to the emergency room to see whether he had suffered a concussion.
In New York City a woman wearing a mask was kicked and punched in a Manhattan subway station, and a man in Queens was followed to a bus stop, shouted at and then hit over the head in front of his 10-year-old son.
People have rushed to protect themselves. One man started a buddy-system Facebook group for Asians in New York who are afraid to take the subway by themselves. Gun shop owners in the Washington, D.C., area said they were seeing a surge of first-time Chinese-American buyers.
At Engage Armament in Rockville, Md., most gun buyers in the first two weeks of March have been Chinese-American or Chinese, according to the owner, Andy Raymond.
More than a fifth of Rockville’s residents are of Asian ethnicity, and Mr. Raymond said buyers from Korean and Vietnamese backgrounds were not unusual.But Mr. Raymond said he was stunned by the flow of Chinese customers — in particular green-card holders from mainland China — that began earlier this month, a group that rarely patronized his shop before.
“It was just nonstop, something I’ve never seen,” he said.
Mr. Raymond said that few of the Asian customers wanted to talk about why they were there, but when one of his employees asked a woman about it, she teared up. “To protect my daughter,” she replied.
For recent immigrants like Mr. Du who are in close touch with friends and family in China, the virus has been a screaming danger for weeks that most Americans seemed oblivious to.
Mr. Du is trying to remain hopeful. He spends his weekends training to become a volunteer with Maryland’s emergency medical workers. He is part of a group of Chinese-American scientists who organized a GoFundMe account to raise money for protective gear for hospital workers in the area. In three days, they raised more than $55,000, nearly all in small donations.
But he said he was afraid of the chaos that could be unleashed if the U.S. death toll rises significantly.
Already a gun owner, Mr. Du, 48, said he was in the process of buying an AR-15 style rifle.
“Katrina is not far away,” he said, alluding to the unrest in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “And when all these bad things come, I am a minority. People can see my face is Chinese clearly. My son, when he goes out, they will know his parents are Chinese.”
For American-born Asians, there is a sudden sense of being watched that is as unsettling as it is unfamiliar.
“It’s a look of disdain,” said Chil Kong, a Korean-American theater director in Maryland. “It’s just: ‘How dare you exist in my world? You are a reminder of this disease, and you don’t belong in my world.’”
He added: “It’s especially hard when you grow up here and expect this world to be yours equally. But we do not live in that world anymore. That world does not exist.”
One debate among Asian-Americans has been over whether to wear a mask in public. Wearing one risks drawing unwanted attention; but not wearing one does, too. Ms. Zhu said her parents, who live in China, offered to ship her some.
“I’m like, ‘Oh please, don’t,’” she said. She said she was afraid of getting physically attacked if she wore one. “Lots of my friends, their social media posts are all about this: We don’t wear masks. It’s kind of more dangerous than the virus.”
A 30-year-old videographer in Syracuse said he was still shaken from a trip to the grocery store on Monday, when the man ahead of him in the checkout line shouted at him, “It’s you people who brought the disease,” and other customers just stared at him, without offering to help. That same day, he said, two different couples verbally abused him at Costco.
“I feel like I’m being invaded by this hatred,” said the man, Edward, who asked that his last name not be used because he feared attracting more attention. “It’s everywhere. It’s silent. It’s as deadly as this disease.”
He said he had tried to hide the details of what happened from his mother, who moved to the United States from China in the 1970s. But there was one thing he did tell her.
“I told her, whatever you do, you can’t go shopping,” he said. “She needed to know there’s a problem and we can’t act like it’s normal anymore.”
Throughout his life in business and politics, Donald J. Trump has created chaos. It’s his trademark management style. That it has served him well in his quest to become the richest and most powerful person on the planet will be hotly debated by historians for decades if not centuries to come. Unfortunately, chaos is the […]
In January of 2017, little more than a week before Donald Trump’s inauguration, I wrote a diary comparing U.S. Presidential Administrations by the number of people arrested, convicted, and imprisoned since Richard Nixon’s Administration.
The original diary was written as a warning to Trump, who was quickly putting up Administration nominees with little vetting and before their ethical reviews could be completed. I warned that many of those candidates might find themselves in legal jeopardy if they didn’t disentangle themselves from their conflicts of interest. I really felt that a lot of his appointees would blunder their way into indictments.
The diary, which was based on Wikipedia’s list of federal political scandals in the U.S., is the closest I’ve come to having something go viral. DK’s counters show that 349 people recommended it and it was posted to Facebook 11,133 times. Since then, I’ve seen numerous people post screen captures of the table comparing crimes by Administration. And lately, I’ve seen a modified version that adds Trump Administration – but inaccurately, or at least with a different methodology.
My initial report covered number of people indicted, convicted, and imprisoned. The modified table floating around uses the total number of indictments and total convictions for each indictment, artificially inflating the already-burgeoning Trump figures compared to his predecessors.
I planned to update my analysis after the midterms to give a full two years to Trump’s portion. Given the misinformation that’s spreading due to differing methodologies, I decided to expedite the update.
Nixon’s Presidency remains the most criminal, with 76 different individuals charged with felony indictments and 55 of them convicted or pleading guilty. But Trump is hot on his heels. Though we aren’t even two years into his Administration, already 35 individuals (including 28 foreign nationals) have been indicted – more than any administration except Nixon’s. And seven have been convicted and/or pleaded guilty, more than every Democratic Administration in the past 50 years combined.
Read on for:
How the Trump Campaign provides unprecedented complications for this analysis.
A breakdown of felony indictments, convictions, and imprisonments for members of the Trump Organization, Campaign, and Administration.
How the Trump data compares with other Administrations over the last 50 years.
A review of my methodology.
Details of all of the people included in the Trump data. (Please refer to the original article for similar details for past administrations.)
Revisiting the data used for the previous administrations.
Sources
Including Trump’s Company, Campaign, and Administration
When I wrote the original diary in January 2016, I really thought the biggest legal issues Trump’s Administration would face would come from unvetted conflicts of interest. I really expected that if there were any arrests, most would come from his Administration itself.
I wasn’t quite prepared for how many people involved with his campaign would end up being arrested. We knew there was some funny business going on with Russia. The only thing the campaign changed in the GOP’s platform – written largely by members of the religious right – was its stance on the Russian invasion of Crimea. There was funny stuff with Paul Manafort, who was forced to resign as Campaign Chair in August. And we knew before the inauguration that Mike Flynn had made suspicious calls to the Russian Ambassador during the transition. But what we knew before the inauguration versus what we know now … whew!
(That could change…soon. Trump’s FEMA Director, William “Brock” Long, is under criminal investigation. Former Health & Human Services Secretary Tom Price could still face an insider trading indictment for crimes similar to Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY). Former EPA Director Scott Pruitt and many others remain under criminal investigation. And so many others remain under investigation.)
The unprecedented degree of foreign interference with our elections complicates this analysis different than any previous Administration.
Trump complicates things
Under previous presidents, it was easy to focus on criminal activities of officials who were paid employees of the federal Executive Brach or paid by the president’s election campaign. (As far as I can tell, Nixon was the only previous president whose campaign staff faced felony indictments. Those individuals were included in my original report.) But under Trump, everything is complicated.
A lot of people involved the Trump Campaign worked for “free.” Not just his family, but others also Paul Manafort and others who hoped to used their role in the campaign to grift or get compensation from foreign nationals. I’ve certainly included them if they had an official campaign title or played a significant role in the campaign.
But what about illegal foreign influence? So far, 28 foreigners have been charged by Special Counsel Robert Mueller or by U.S. Attorneys acting on Mueller’s referrals. Should they be included? If it’s demonstrated that the Trump Campaign knew about their activities and actively conspired with them, then yes, they should be. But what if it’s never proven that the Trump Campaign knew about their activities, and the foreign efforts were completely independent?
For now, I’ve separated the indicted individuals into groups. You can decide for yourselves which merit including.
Felonies by Presidential Administration
Donald Trump is continuing the GOP’s trend of being the party with the most corrupt Administrations. We can measure this with more that fevered tinfoil hat conspiracies of pizza parlor pedophile rings. We can actually use indictments, convictions, and incarcerations as an impartial, statistical measure.
Trump Campaign & Administration Felonies
To date, more people in the Trump camp – including foreign nationals – have been indicted for felonies than any administration in the last 50 years except Nixon’s. These include seven Americans and 28 foreign nationals.
Felony Indictments in the Trump Campaign & Administration (to date)
# of People Imprisoned: The initial number includes everyone whose sentence includes prison time, even if they have not yet reported to prison (e.g., George Papadopoulos). The +[number] represents other individuals who have been convicted and/or pleaded guilty, and whose sentences are expected to include prison time, but because they have not yet been sentenced, we don’t yet know for sure.
Trump Organization, Campaign, or Administration: For every previous Administration, this would be everyone: people who worked with the President before they ran, during their campaign, and after inauguration. For Trump, the loose affiliation of outsiders complicates how we identify these individuals. This section currently includes Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, and Michael Cohen.
Outside campaign consultant (U.S. national): These are U.S. citizens were not an official part of the Trump Campaign, but who provided illegal assistance to the campaign (specifically, Richard Pinedo and W. Samuel Patton).
Foreign assistance to Trump Campaign: This includes 26 Russians indicted for hacking the DNC servers and for other U.S. election-related crimes. It does not include the three Russian companies that were also indicted.
Foreign, direct connection unclear: This includes Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch citizen who has already served his prison sentence, as well Maria Butina, a Russian national who remains in U.S. custody. Both were arrested as part of the Mueller investigation, but it’s not yet clear whether they were involved in crimes relating to Trump, or got scooped up while investigating Trump’s corrupt associates.
For more details about the specific people involved, see People Included in the Trump Data below.
Comparing Administration Felonies
Number of Individuals with Felonies by Presidential Administration
President
Party
Years in Office
# People Indicted
# People Convicted
# People Imprisoned
Convictions Per Year
Donald Trump
R
1.7*
7 [35]**
6 [7]
2 (+3) [3 (+4)]
3.5 [4.1]
Barack Obama
D
8
0
0
0
0
George W. Bush
R
8
16
9
9
1.1
Bill Clinton
D
8
3
2
2
0.25
George H. W. Bush
R
4
1
1
1
0.25
Ronald Reagan
R
8
26
16
8
2.0
Jimmy Carter
D
4
1
0
0
0
Gerald Ford
R
2.4
1
1
1
0.4
Richard Nixon
R
5.6
76
55
15
9.8
* Through September 17, 2018. ** Number in [brackets] includes foreign nationals.
This includes individuals associated with each President’s private business, campaign, or appointed executive office. For Trump, the top number represents Americans, while the second number in [brackets] represents both Americans and foreign nationals.
If you don’t include foreigners involved in the Trump Campaign, Team Trump already has more people indicted and convicted that any Democratic President in the last 50 years.
Felonies by Presidential Administration in the last 50 years (through September 17, 2018), excluding foreign nationals.
And if you do include foreign nationals, the Trump camp has more indictments than any other President regardless of party except Nixon. And we’re not even two years in yet.
Felonies by Presidential Administration in the last 50 years (through September 18, 2018), including foreign nationals.
Note that Trump’s figures currently skew heavily towards “Indicted but not yet Convicted” because of trials that are still pending, and because of the high number of Russians who may continue to evade arrest.
Note also that Clinton’s numbers have changed slightly since the last article. Please refer to Revisiting Past Administrations below for more details.
Comparing Political Parties by Felonies
Over the last 50 years, Republican Administrations have been far more felonious than Democratic Administrations, whether or not you include foreign influence.
President’s Party
# People Indicted
# People Convicted
# People Incarcerated
Democratic
4
2
2
Republican
127 [155]
95 [96]
26 [37]
* The number in [brackets] includes foreigners arrested for crimes committed on behalf of the candidate or president. The first number only represents U.S. citizens.
Of course, Republicans have held the Presidency for 29.7 of the last 50 years versus 20 years for Democrats. But even if we normalize by averaging the numbers by year, Republicans still come off pretty bad.
President’s Party
# People Indicted
# People Convicted
# People Incarcerated
Democratic
0.20
0.10
0.10
Republican
4.28 [5.22]
3.20 [3.23]
1.21 [1.25]
* The number in [brackets] includes foreigners arrested for crimes committed on behalf of the candidate or president. The first number only represents U.S. citizens.
Felonies by President’s Party in the last 50 years (through September 17, 2018). Excludes foreign nationals.Felonies by President’s Party in the last 50 years (through September 17, 2018). Includes foreign nationals.
Not all scandals are included, just those involving felonies.
This covers the total number of people indicted, convicted, and imprisoned. If someone is charge with 18 felonies, they are still only counted as one person indicted.
This only covers felony indictments, convictions, and prison sentences. It does not include misdemeanors.
Guilty pleas count as a conviction both in a legal sense and in my data. They also count as an indictment even if the plea is entered simultaneously (like with Michael Cohen).
Imprisonment only includes incarceration as a penalty for conviction. People who were held pending bail (or if bail is revoked or denied) are not included.
My data only includes individuals. The three companies that have been indicted as part of Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation are not included in these tallies.
This includes all crimes the individuals committed during their association with the President, even if the crimes didn’t involve that President.
This covers everyone involved in higher levels of the President’s election campaign and/or Administration.
Not all “scandals” are included
The term “scandal” can be subjective. When Clinton’s Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, said that masturbation could help avoid the spread of AIDS, it was a scandal in that it made headlines and ultimately forced her resignation, but it wasn’t criminal – and some would argue that she was right to say it. Benghazi was tragic, but was it really a scandal justifying ten separate investigations that may have cost upwards of $30 million?
In the end, I decided that the criminal justice system provided the closest thing to an impartial, empirical source. For that reason, only scandals involving indictments are included.
That means quite a lot of Trump Administration scandals are not (yet) included, like the abuse of funds by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, and Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin. Should any of them later be charged with a crime – Price’s insider trading activities similar to Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) make him a strong possibility – they will be included with future updates.
People indicted vs. total indictments
My data has focused on the number of people indicted, convicted, and imprisoned, not the total number of indictments or the total number of charges they were convicted for.
In the Nixon Administration, for example, Secretary of Commerce Maurice Stans pleaded guilty to five felonies. In my table, this counts as only one of the people indicted under Nixon as well as one of the people convicted under Nixon. (He paid a fine but was not incarcerated.)
I counted by number of people rather than number of charges for a few reasons. First, the number of indictments can change. If a person is indicted under a dozen charges, for example, but then makes a plea bargain where they plead guilty to two of the charges under a superseding indictment, does that now change the dozen indictments to two? Or should the table reflect initial charges, even those later dropped by prosecutors?
Keeping track of all of these changes would be hard enough for current events. It’s even more challenging to do that reaching back to the Reagan and Nixon Administrations. Focusing on individuals rather than charges was, in my mind, both easier and more illustrative of the breadth of criminal behavior by Administration.
Imprisonment
The imprisonment data is only meant to include people who have been incarcerated as part of their penalty for conviction. It is not meant to cover people who are jailed while waiting to make bail, or for whom bail was denied or revoked.
Paul Manafort is included under Trump’s imprisonment stats. On June 15, 2018, his bail was revoked following additional charges of witness tampering. This would normally not count under my incarceration criteria. But following his convictions on August 21st in Virginia and his subsequent guilty plea on September 14th in D.C., he remains in custody pending his cooperation with Robert Mueller and subsequent sentencing. This time will count towards his total incarceration time, and I have therefore included him as one of the three people already imprisoned.
The imprisonment data also includes George Papadopoulos, who has been sentenced to 14 days but has not yet reported for custody. It also includes Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch citizen who served 30 days before being deported. (See the Trump complicates things section for further discussion about including van der Zwaan and other foreign nations.) It does not yet include Michael Cohen, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, or Richard Pinedo, who have all pleaded guilty but have not yet been sentenced.
Individuals, Not Corporations
Federal prosecutors almost always only indict individuals, not companies. Individual executives may be charged, but it’s rare for the company itself to be charged. Enron and its accounting firm, Arthur Anderson LLP, are notable examples where the companies were charged because of pervasive, willful corporate fraud and corruption.
In the Trump/Russia investigation, Special Counsel Mueller has indicted three Russian companies: Internet Research Agency LLC, Concord Catering, and Concord Management and Consulting LLC. These companies are not included in my charts, but the 13 Russian individuals simultaneously charged are included. (See Trump complicates things for more about the inclusion of foreign nationals.)
Guilty Pleas
As a reminder, a guilty plea counts as both an indictment and a conviction. Sometimes the plea is concurrent with the indictments (e.g., Michael Cohen). Sometimes the indictments are sealed and kept secret from the public until a guilty plea is filed (e.g., George Papadopoulos). Sometimes the guilty plea comes long after indictments (e.g., Rick Gates) or even after conviction of some of the charges (e.g., Paul Manafort). But in any event, a guilty plea is always part of an indictment and counts as a conviction.
Crimes that don’t involve the President
Many of Trump’s defenders have tried to argue that so far, those indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices do not directly allege that President Trump has committed crimes himself. While that isn’t strictly true (Michael Cohen, for example, said that Trump personally ordered him to commit two of the crimes he pleaded guilty to), it’s also not relevant for this analysis. Quite a lot of the indictments included in the previous analysis had nothing to do with the President. The point was to try to show whether a culture of unethical and criminal behavior was fostered or allowed to fester in a campaign or Administration, and whether or not the President really did pick the best people and did a proper vetting.
Administration v. Campaign
My original article used the term “Administration” to include both White House officials as well as other Cabinet and Executive Branch officials (such as Mike Espy, Clinton’s Secretary of Agriculture). It was intended to be broad, but it was nevertheless imprecise because it did not explicitly state that it included campaign officials.
This was an oversight in terminology but not in data. The crimes under the Nixon Administration included several people involved with Nixon’s re-election campaign but not his administration, including Jeb Stuart Magruder, Herbert L. Porter, G. Gordon Liddy, Donald Segretti, and the Watergate burglars themselves. Note: Michael Cohen was employed by the Trump Organization and also served as Deputy Finance Chair for the Republican National Committee. He pleaded guilty to election-related crimes directly involving the candidate, and therefore counts as part of the campaign regardless of who paid his salary.
To my knowledge, Nixon was the only other president before Trump where members of the campaign were criminally indicted and convicted. Please let me know if you are aware of others.
Who isn’t included
The goal is to include people who committed crimes on behalf of the President, or whose crimes may represent a failure in the vetting process. This doesn’t include civil service or career federal employees, nor local and regional campaign workers unless they have a direct relationship with the candidate. Anne Aroste, a Social Security Administration employee arrested in June for embezzling $680,000 in benefits, doesn’t count towards the Trump Administration arrests. Nor am I counting Ralph Shortey, a former Republican state senator in Oklahoma and the Oklahoma state chair for the Trump Campaign, who just accepted a 15-year sentence in a plea bargain over a case involving child pornography and sex with a 16- or 17-year-old boy. In my mind, they’re too far removed from Trump himself, and including them complicates data collection for previous presidencies.
Nor do I include problematic family members unless their crimes directly involve the President’s business, campaign, or Administration. Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy, Bill Clinton’s half-brother Roger, and Neil Bush – the son of one President and brother of another – committed crimes that don’t seem to directly relate to the President. That said, if Donald Trump, Jr. ends up getting arrested over the Trump Tower meeting with Russian operatives, that would count as a campaign-related arrest. If Jared Kushner is arrested for using his White House position for personal enrichment, that would be a ding on the Administration. And the whole Trump family, including President Trump himself, is being investigated over the illegal actions of the Trump Foundation. Should arrests be made for family members relating to the President’s campaign, business, or Administration, they’ll be included. If Tiffany were to be arrested for shoplifting, it wouldn’t be.
Impeachment
I chose not to include Bill Clinton’s impeachment, as impeachment is an inherently political process. (Nixon’s wouldn’t be included regardless, as he resigned before the U.S. House completed impeachment proceedings.) This is discussed in greater detail under Revisiting Past Administrations below. If you disagree, add one more for Clinton under Indictments (as impeachment by the House is the equivalent of a Grand Jury indictment), but nothing else under Convictions, as the U.S. Senate failed to achieve the 2/3rds vote necessary convict him and remove him from office.
People Included in the Trump Data
The following individuals are included in the Trump portion of the table.
Paul Manafort — Office: Campaign Chair, Trump Presidential Campaign. Crime: 2 counts: conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice; 18 counts: filing false tax returns (×5), failure to report foreign bank and financial accounts (×4), bank fraud conspiracy (×5), and bank fraud (×4). Result: convicted and pleaded guilty, cooperating, not yet sentenced
Rick Gates – Office: Deputy Campaign Manager, Trump Presidential Campaign; deputy chair, Donald Trump Inauguration Committee; founder of pro-Trump America First Policies organization. Crimes: 2 counts: conspiracy against the United States and false statements; 23 counts: assisting in the preparation of false tax returns (×5), subscribing to false tax returns (×5), filing a false amended return, failure to report foreign bank and financial accounts (×3), bank fraud conspiracy (×5), and bank fraud (×4). Result: pleaded guilty, cooperating, not yet sentenced
George Papadopoulos – Office: Foreign policy Adviser, Trump Presidential Campaign. Crime: 1 count: false statements (negotiated before indictment). Result: pleaded guilty, cooperated, sentenced to 14 days in prison, a $9,500 fine, 200 hours of community service, 12 months’ probation
Michael Flynn – Office: Adviser, Trump Presidential Campaign; National Security Adviser. Crime: 1 count: false statements (negotiated before indictment). Result: Pleaded guilty, cooperating, not yet sentenced
Michael Cohen – Office: VP, Trump Organization; Special Counsel to Donald Trump; Deputy Finance Chair, Republican National Committee. Crime: 8 counts: tax evasion (x5); false statements; unlawful campaign contributions; excessive campaign contribution (negotiated before indictment). Result: pleaded guilty, cooperation agreement under negotiation, not yet sentenced
Outside campaign consultants (U.S. nationals)
Richard Pinedo – Operated Auction Essistance, a web-based business that brokered bank account numbers, enabling people who had been barred from websites like eBay and PayPal to return to those websites under a different identity. Crimes: 1 count identity fraud (negotiated before indictment). Result: pleaded guilty, not yet sentenced
W. Samuel Patton – American political consultant affiliated with Russian intelligence operative Konstantin Kilimnik. Crime: unregistered agent of a foreign principal. As part of his guilty plea, Patten admitted that he laundered a $50,000 contribution from Kilimnik to the Trump inauguration committee, by having the money transferred from a Cypriot bank to his company and from there to an unnamed American who sent it to the committee. Result: pleaded guilty, cooperation unclear, not yet sentenced
Foreign assistance to Trump Campaign
Dzheykhun Aslanov – 8 counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft (×6). Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Gleb Vasilchenko – 8 counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft (×6). Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Irina Kaverzina – 7 counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, and aggravated identity theft (×6). Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Vladimir Venkov – 7 counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, and aggravated identity theft (×6). Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Anna Bogacheva – 1 count: conspiracy to defraud the United States. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Maria Bovda – 1 count: conspiracy to defraud the United States. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Robert Bovda – 1 count: conspiracy to defraud the United States. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Mikhail Burchik – 1 count: conspiracy to defraud the United States. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Mikhail Bystrov – 1 count: conspiracy to defraud the United States. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Aleksandra Krylova – 1 count: conspiracy to defraud the United States. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Vadim Podkopaev – 1 count: conspiracy to defraud the United States. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Sergey Polozov – 1 count: conspiracy to defraud the United States. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Yevgeny Prigozhin – 1 count: conspiracy to defraud the United States. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Konstantin Kilimnik – 2 counts: obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Boris Antonov – 10 counts: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, aggravated identity theft (×8), and conspiracy to launder money. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Dmitriy Badin – 10 counts: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, aggravated identity theft (×8), and conspiracy to launder money. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Nikolay Kozachek – 10 counts: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, aggravated identity theft (×8), and conspiracy to launder money. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Aleksey Lukashev – 10 counts: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, aggravated identity theft (×8), and conspiracy to launder money. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Artem Malyshev – 10 counts: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, aggravated identity theft (×8), and conspiracy to launder money. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Sergey Morgachev – 10 counts: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, aggravated identity theft (×8), and conspiracy to launder money. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Viktor Netyksho – 10 counts: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, aggravated identity theft (×8), and conspiracy to launder money. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Aleksey Potemkin – 10 counts: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, aggravated identity theft (×8), and conspiracy to launder money. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Ivan Yermakov – 10 counts: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, aggravated identity theft (×8), and conspiracy to launder money. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Pavel Yershov – 10 counts: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, aggravated identity theft (×8), and conspiracy to launder money. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Aleksandr Osadchuk – 11 counts: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States (×2), aggravated identity theft (×8), and conspiracy to launder money. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Anatoliy Kovalev – 1 count: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States. Result: Arrest unlikely (outside U.S. jurisdiction)
Foreign, direct connection to Trump unclear
Maria Butina – 1 charge: acting in the United States as an agent of a foreign government (the Russian Federation), without prior notification to the Attorney General, a conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States. Result: held without bail due to be an extreme flight risk, trial pending
Alex van der Zwaan – 1 charge: making false statements to the FBI. Result: Fined $20,000 and sentenced to 30 days in prison
Revisiting Past Administrations
In revisiting this article, I noticed there are some changes in the original Wikipedia article that helped form a basis for my research. I have made a few adjustments as a result.
Obama Administration
The original Wikipedia entry did not include (to the best of my recollection) any discussion of General David Petraeus’ leak of confidential information to his mistress/biographer. Because he ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor (see the Petraeus subsection in the next section), it still isn’t included as I’ve only included felonies. I will revise this if it appears that other misdemeanors have been included with the rest of my data, or if there’s strong sentiment that he should be included.
Clinton Administration
There’s a new entry for Darleen A. Druyen, Principal Deputy United States Under Secretary of the Air Force, that did not appear in the Wikipedia page when I accessed it more than 18 months ago. Druyen pleaded guilty of a felony for inflating contract prices for Boeing, her future employer. Since she served nine months in jail as part of her sentence, this adds one more to indictments, convictions, and imprisonments under the Clinton Administration.
Explaining methodology of original article
In the comments of my original article and subsequently on Twitter, some people have questioned a few items in my report. I want to address them here.
Impeachment
Some have questioned why I didn’t include President Bill Clinton’s impeachment. I went back and forth on this. The impeachment process is inherently political, and many Americans believe that Clinton’s impeachment was an overreach based on politics rather than the merit of the underlying criminal allegations. Other political but not criminal scandals weren’t included (such as appointees who resigned for misuse of helicopters, traveling first class, or other abuses).
Bear in mind that an impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives should be considered to be the equivalent of an indictment. Treat the House as the equivalent of a Grand Jury deciding whether to grant the prosecutor permission to go forward with charging a defendant. The charges would then be tried before the U.S. Senate, with Senators serving as the equivalent of the trial jury.
In the end, I chose not to include it. If you disagree, add one more under the Clinton Administration for indictments. The Senate did not reach the necessary 2/3rds vote (which would have to be unanimous in a criminal trial), so Convictions and Imprisonments would remain the same. Nothing would change with the Nixon Administration. When Nixon was warned that his own party was defecting (nearly two-thirds of Republican Senators were already signaling that they would convict him and remove him from office, along with probably all of the Democratic Senators), he chose to resign before the U.S. House could finish their impeachment proceedings.
Petraeus
Some have questioned why Obama’s pristine record isn’t marred by General David Petraeus, Director of the CIA, who was accused of giving classified information to Paula Broadwell, his official biographer who was later discovered to be his mistress. Petraeus wasn’t included because (though I failed to make this clear in the original article), all of the data I included is about felony indictments and convictions. Petraeus pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, and therefore isn’t included.
(If I’ve mistakenly included misdemeanors elsewhere, please let me know and I investigate revising.)
Starting with Nixon
In my original article, I mentioned that I started with Nixon for a number of reasons. Nixon was elected about 50 years ago, and it seemed like a nice, round number to start with. In addition, not including the only president forced to resign due to his criminal behavior would be a bizarre choice.
I could have gone back farther. Many view the modern presidency as everything after World War II, which could have been a good place to start. But while there were resignations under scandal in previous post-war administrations, none of them involved anyone getting indicted. If we extend it back to the turn of the 20th century, there was one Executive Branch conviction under Franklin Roosevelt, one or two under Calvin Coolidge, three convictions under Warren Harding, and one under William McKinley. Eight other Administrations in the 20th century (Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson) did not have any Executive Branch indictments.
With that, I maintain that Nixon remains a logical place to start.
Using Wikipedia as a source
I know that high schools and universities would never allow Wikipedia to be cited as a primary source. I could track down all of the original sources in the Wikipedia entries. That would confirm the ones included, but wouldn’t necessarily validate any omissions.
I am not a professional historian. I welcome critiques that can provide citable data showing what I may have missed, and I will update this article again if need be.
Partial List of Sources
Faturechi, Robert, “Tom Price Intervened on Rule That Would Hurt Drug Profits, the Same Day He Acquired Drug Stock,” ProPublica, March 31, 2017.
Hakim, Danny, “New York Attorney General Sues Trump Foundation After 2-Year Investigation,” The New York Times, June 14, 2018.
Hsu, Spencer S., “Special counsel Mueller initiates sentencing process for 2nd cooperating defendant,” The Washington Post, May 29, 2018.
“List of federal political scandals in the United States,” Wikipedia, accessed most recently on September 18, 2018.
“Michael J. Hogan,” Wikipedia, accessed most recently on September 18, 2018.
Miroff, Nick; Wan, William, “Embattled FEMA chief Brock Long facing possible criminal investigation,” The Washington Post, September 17, 2018.
“Petraeus scandal,” Wikipedia, accessed most recently on September 18, 2018.
RoyalScribe, “Comparing presidential administrations by arrests and convictions: A warning for Trump appointees,” DailyKos, January 11, 2017.
Savage, Charlie, “The different ways Donald Trump Jr could be in trouble with the law,” Independent(UK), August 7, 2018.
Scotti, Ciro, “Investigating Clinton: How Many Millions Were Spent on Email, Benghazi Probes?” The Fiscal Times (found under Yahoo Finance), July 5, 2016.
Siegel, Benjamin; Katersky, Aaron, “Rep. Chris Collins arrested on insider trading charges,” ABC News, August 8, 2018.
“Special Counsel investigation (2017-present),” Wikipedia, accessed most recently on September 18, 2018.
Venook, Jeremy, “Is Kushner Companies Taking Advantage of Its Connection to the President?” The Atlantic, May 9, 2017
Trump’s rhetoric will make the pandemic worse. Words are now a matter of life and death Trump used to flirt with anti-vaxxers. Now he is demanding a coronavirus vaccine
This is what Donald Trump told the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference, recounting what he said to pharmaceutical executives about the progress toward a vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). Anthony Fauci, the longtime leader of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been telling the president repeatedly that developing the vaccine will take at least a year and a half – the same message conveyed by pharmaceutical executives. Apparently, Trump thought that simply repeating his request would change the outcome.
China has rightfully taken criticism for squelching attempts by scientists to report information during the outbreak. Now, the United States government is doing similar things. Informing Fauci and other government scientists that they must clear all public comments with Mike Pence, the vice-president, is unacceptable. This is not a time for someone who denies evolution, the climate crisis and the dangers of smoking to shape the public message. Thank goodness Fauci, Francis Collins, the director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and their colleagues across federal agencies are willing to soldier on and are gradually getting the message out.
While scientists are trying to share facts about the epidemic, the administration either blocks those facts or restates them with contradictions. Transmission rates and death rates are not measurements that can be changed with will and an extroverted presentation. The administration has repeatedly said – as it did last week – that virus spread in the United States is contained, when it is clear from genomic evidence that community spread is occurring in Washington state and beyond. That kind of distortion and denial is dangerous and almost certainly contributed to the federal government’s sluggish response. After three years of debating whether the words of this administration matter, the words are now clearly a matter of life and death.
And although the steps required to produce a vaccine could possibly be made more efficient, many of them depend on biological and chemical processes that are essential. So the president might just as well have said, “Do me a favor, hurry up that warp drive.”
I don’t expect politicians to know Maxwell’s equations for electromagnetism or the Diels-Alder chemical reaction (although I can dream). But you can’t insult science when you don’t like it and then suddenly insist on something that science can’t give on demand. For the past four years, Trump’s budgets have made deep cuts to science, including cuts to funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the NIH. With this administration’s disregard for science of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the stalled naming of a director for the Office of Science and Technology Policy – all to support political goals – the nation has had nearly four years of harming and ignoring science.
Now, the president suddenly needs science. But the centuries spent elucidating fundamental principles that govern the natural world – evolution, gravity, quantum mechanics – involved laying the groundwork for knowing what we can and cannot do. The ways that scientists accumulate and analyze evidence, apply inductive reasoning and subject findings to scrutiny by peers have been proven over the years to give rise to robust knowledge. These processes are being applied to the Covid-19 crisis through international collaboration at breakneck, unprecedented speed; Science published two new papers earlier this month on Sars-CoV-2, and more are on the way. But the same concepts that are used to describe nature are used to create new tools. So, asking for a vaccine and distorting the science at the same time are shockingly dissonant.
A vaccine has to have a fundamental scientific basis. It has to be manufacturable. It has to be safe. This could take a year and a half – or much longer. Pharmaceutical executives have every incentive to get there quickly – they will be selling the vaccine after all – but thankfully, they also know that you can’t break the laws of nature to get there.
Maybe we should be happy. Earlier in his administration, the president declared his skepticism of vaccines and tried to launch an anti-vaccine taskforce. Now he suddenly loves vaccines.
But do us a favor, Mr President. If you want something, start treating science and its principles with respect.
H Holden Thorp is the editor in chief of Science
Do Us a Favor by H Holden Thorp, in SCIENCE 367: 1169 (13 March 2020), was republished with permission from AAAS
Trump’s mismanagement helped fuel coronavirus crisis Current and former administration officials blame the president for creating a no-bad-news atmosphere that stifled attempts to combat the outbreak.
On Friday, as coronavirus infections rapidly multiplied aboard a cruise ship marooned off the coast of California, health department officials and Vice President Mike Pence came up with a plan to evacuate thousands of passengers, avoiding the fate of a similar cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, which became a petri dish of coronavirus infections. Quickly removing passengers was the safest outcome, health officials and Pence reasoned.
But President Donald Trump had a different idea: Leave the infected passengers on board — which would help keep the number of U.S. coronavirus cases as low as possible.
“Do I want to bring all those people off? People would like me to do it,” Trump admitted at a press conference at the CDC later on Friday. “I would rather have them stay on, personally.”
“I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault,” Trump added, saying that he ultimately empowered Pence to decide whether to evacuate the passengers.
For six weeks behind the scenes, and now increasingly in public, Trump has undermined his administration’s own efforts to fight the coronavirus outbreak — resisting attempts to plan for worst-case scenarios, overturning a public-health plan upon request from political allies and repeating only the warnings that he chose to hear. Members of Congress have grilled top officials like Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield over the government’s biggest mistake: failing to secure enough testing to head off a coronavirus outbreak in the United States. But many current and former Trump administration officials say the true management failure was Trump’s.
“It always ladders to the top,” said one person helping advise the administration’s response, who noted that Trump’s aides discouraged Azar from briefing the president about the coronavirus threat back in January. “Trump’s created an atmosphere where the judgment of his staff is that he shouldn’t need to know these things.”
Interviews with 13 current and former officials, as well as individuals close to the White House, painted a picture of a president who rewards those underlings who tell him what he wants to hear while shunning those who deliver bad news. For instance, aides heaped praise on Trump for his efforts to lock down travel from China — appealing to the president’s comfort zone of border security — but failed to convey the importance of doing simultaneous community testing, which could have uncovered a potential U.S. outbreak. Government officials and independent scientists now fear that the coronavirus has been silently spreading in the United States for weeks, as unexplained cases have popped up in more than 25 states.
“It’s a clearly difficult situation when the top wants to hear certain answers,” said one former official who’s briefed the White House. “That can make it difficult for folks to express their true assessment — even the most experienced and independent minds.”
While Trump last week allowed hospitals and labs to start developing their own coronavirus tests, wrongly blaming Obama administration regulations for a delay, the same move could have been made weeks ago had the president and his advisers felt it was necessary, said two officials.
The White House press office declined to comment on the record, referring questions to HHS.
The health department said that Trump had been responsive to the department’s concerns and understood the seriousness of the coronavirus threat from the first day he was briefed.
“The President took early and decisive actions like instituting travel restrictions and utilizing the quarantine authority” to protect Americans from the outbreak, an HHS spokesperson said.
HHS also stressed that Azar and Trump had a good working relationship.
“The Secretary always offers the President his honest assessment, and always insists when briefing the President on public health issues that the relevant experts participate,” the spokesperson said.
Trump-inspired disorganization plagues early response
As the outbreak has grown, Trump has become attached to the daily count of coronavirus cases and how the United States compares to other nations, reiterating that he wants the U.S. numbers kept as low as possible. Health officials have found explicit ways to oblige him by highlighting the most optimistic outcomes in briefings, and their agencies have tamped down on promised transparency. The CDC has stopped detailing how many people in the country have been tested for the virus, and its online dashboard is running well behind the number of U.S. cases tracked by Johns Hopkins and even lags the European Union’s own estimate of U.S. cases.
After senior CDC official Nancy Messonnier correctly warned on Feb. 25 that a U.S. coronavirus outbreak was inevitable, a statement that spooked the stock market and broke from the president’s own message that the situation was under control, Trump himself grew angry and administration officials discussed muzzling Messonnier for the duration of the coronavirus crisis, said two individuals close to the administration. However, Azar defended her role, and Messonnier ultimately was allowed to continue making public appearances, although her tone grew less dire in subsequent briefings.
Trump’s defenders can point to many coronavirus crises that, so far, have been failures of bureaucracy and disorganization. The president didn’t lock out a government scientist from CDC. He didn’t know that officials decided to fly back coronavirus-infected Americans aboard planes with hundreds of others who had tested negative, with Trump bursting in anger when he learned the news.
But Trump has added to that disorganization through his own decisions. Rather than empower a sole leader to fight the outbreak, as President Barack Obama did with Ebola in 2014, he set up a system where at least three different people — Azar, Vice President Mike Pence and coronavirus task force coordinator Debbie Birx — can claim responsibility. Three people who have dealt with the task force said it’s not clear what Birx’s role is, and that coronavirus-related questions sent to her have been rerouted to the vice president’s office.
In response, Pence’s office said it has positioned Birx as the vice president’s “right arm,” advising him on the response, while Azar continues to oversee the health department’s numerous coronavirus operations.
Trump on Friday night also shook up White House operations, replacing acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney with Rep. Mark Meadows, a longtime ally. The long-expected ouster of Mulvaney was welcomed in corners like the health department, given that Mulvaney had been one of Azar’s top critics. But the abrupt staff shuffle in the middle of the coronavirus outbreak injects further uncertainty into the government’s response, said a current official and two former officials. It’s not yet clear what Mulvaney’s departure will mean for his key lieutenants involved in fighting the outbreak, like Domestic Policy Council chief Joe Grogan, for instance.
“Every office has office politics — even the Oval Office,” said one individual. “You’d hope we could wait to work it out until after a public health emergency.”
Health officials compete for Trump’s approval
The pressure to earn Trump’s approval can be a distraction at best and an obsession at worst: Azar, having just survived a bruising clash with a deputy and sensing that his job was on the line, spent part of January making appearances on conservative TV outlets and taking other steps to shore up his anti-abortion bona fides and win approval from the president, even as the global coronavirus outbreak grew stronger.
“We have in President Trump the greatest protector of religious liberty who has ever sat in the Oval Office,” Azar said on Fox News on Jan. 16, hours after working to rally global health leaders to fight the United Nations’ stance on abortion rights. Trump also had lashed out at Azar over bad health-care polling that day.
Around the same time, Azar had concluded that the new coronavirus posed a public health risk and tried to share an urgent message with the president: The potential outbreak could leave tens of thousands of Americans sickened and many dead.
But Trump’s aides mocked and belittled Azar as alarmist, as he warned the president of a major threat to public health and his own economic agenda, said three people briefed on the conversations. Some officials argued that the virus would be no worse than the flu.
Azar, meanwhile, had his own worries: A clash with Medicare chief Seema Verma had weakened his standing in the White House, which in December had considered replacements for both Azar and Verma.
“Because he feels pretty insecure, about the feuds within his department and the desire to please the president, I don’t know if he was in the position to deliver the message that the president didn’t want to hear,” said one former official who’s worked with Azar.
The jockeying for Trump’s favor was part of the cause of Azar’s destructive feud with Verma, as the two tried to box each other out of events touting Trump initiatives. Now, officials including Azar, Verma and other senior leaders are forced to spend time shoring up their positions with the president and his deputies at a moment when they should be focused on a shared goal: stopping a potential pandemic.
“The boss has made it clear, he likes to see his people fight, and he wants the news to be good,” said one adviser to a senior health official involved in the coronavirus response. “This is the world he’s made.”
President swayed by flattery, personal appeals
Trump’s unpredictable demands and attention to public statements — and his own susceptibility to flattery — have created an administration where top officials feel constantly at siege, worried that the next presidential tweet will decide their professional future, and panicked that they need to regularly impress him.
The most obvious practitioner of this strategy is Azar, who became Trump’s second health secretary after the first, Tom Price, failed to bond with Trump and was ousted over a charter-jet scandal. Azar decided early in his tenure to have “zero daylight” with the president, said three individuals close to him, and the health secretary routinely fawns over the president in his TV appearances on Fox News. “No other president has had the guts, the courage to take on these special interests,” Azar told Fox News host Tucker Carlson in December after Trump pushed new price transparency on the health care industry.
Azar’s team also has insisted upon using background photos for his Twitter account that always show him with the president — sometimes silently standing behind Trump while he speaks. Azar is alone among Cabinet members in this practice; secretaries like HUD’s Ben Carson, Transportation’s Elaine Chao and Treasury’s Steven Mnuchin opted for bland Twitter backgrounds that show their headquarters.
“The Secretary respects the President and values their strong relationship,” said an HHS spokesperson, when asked about Azar’s approach to working with Trump and use of Twitter photos.
Other health officials have modeled similar behavior as Azar. Asked by Trump if he wanted to make a “little statement” on Friday, CDC Director Redfield responded by praising the president’s “decisive leadership” and visit to CDC headquarters amid the outbreak. “I think that’s the most important thing I want to say,” Redfield said.
At least one health official has offered a more subtle reminder of her loyalties. Verma wore an Ivanka Trump-brand pendant to some meetings and events with the president, before it was stolen in 2018.
Health officials also have to guard their words and predictions, worried that the president will fixate on the wrong data point or blurt out damaging information in public. Trump on Friday told reporters that he’d initially scrapped a trip to the CDC because of a possible coronavirus case at the agency. The announcement came as a surprise to CDC staff, including those preparing for Trump’s visit, because they hadn’t been briefed on the potential coronavirus case, POLITICO first reported.
I just got off the phone with the President. He told me that his administration will not be sending any victims of the Coronavirus from the Diamond Princess cruise ship to Anniston, Alabama. Thank you, @POTUS, for working with us to ensure the safety of all Alabamians.— Richard Shelby (@SenShelby) February 23, 2020
Meanwhile, Trump’s political allies have tried to circumvent the policy process, causing further headaches for the overwhelmed health department. Alabama Republicans prevailed upon Trump to scrap an HHS contingency plan to potentially quarantine some coronavirus-infected Americans at a facility in their state last month.
“I just got off the phone with the President,” Sen. Richard Shelby tweeted on Feb. 23. “He told me that his administration will not be sending any victims of the Coronavirus from the Diamond Princess cruise ship to Anniston, Alabama.”
But Democrats in a California city facing a similar situation failed to get a similar guarantee, leading them to file a lawsuit that accused the administration of political favoritism.
“California must not have the pull to get taken off the list,” attorney Jennifer Keller, representing Costa Mesa, Calif., reportedly said during a court hearing last month. “Alabama does.” A federal judge later halted plans to transfer coronavirus-stricken patients to a facility in the city.
Meanwhile, the president has allowed feuds to fester and spill into public view. Azar, for instance, has battled with White House officials and Verma for months over policies, personnel and even seats aboard the presidential airplane. Those fights have been reignited amid the coronavirus crisis, when Azar clashed with longtime rivals like Grogan over funding the response and whether enough coronavirus tests were being performed.
They’ve also cast a long shadow over strategy, like Azar’s decision not to push for Verma to be added to the coronavirus task force that he oversaw for nearly a month. Verma instead was added to the task force on March 2, several days after Pence took over leading the effort. While Azar said he asked for Verma to join the task force, and an HHS spokesperson pointed to the secretary’s public statement, two people with knowledge of task force operations said that the White House officials had raised questions about her omission.
Officials call the original decision to exclude Verma from the task force short-sighted at best, given the virus’ potential threat to the elderly patients covered by the Medicare program and residents living in nursing homes that are regulated by Verma’s agency.
With Trump unwilling — or unable — to put a stop to the health department’s fights, they’ve occupied and gripped Washington during relative peacetime. When at war against a potential pandemic, there’s no room for these distractions, officials say.
“If this sort of dysfunction exists as part of the everyday operations — then, yes, during a true crisis the problems are magnified and exacerbated,” said a former Trump HHS official. “And with extremely detrimental consequences.”
For three long years the world has been treated to the sick joke of Donald Trump’s presidency. Some days were more sick than others. But now the joke is over.
So is the entire facade of the Trump White House: the gold-plated veneer of power and grift will be stripped bare by a global pandemic and recession.
Of all the obituaries we’ll read in the next several weeks, every one will be more meaningful than the political end of a former reality-TV star.
But make no mistake. The humanitarian crisis about to unfold will consume what’s left of this president and the Republican party that surrendered its self-respect and sense of duty to flatter his ego and avoid his angry tweets.
Trump was right about one thing, and only one thing, as the coronavirus started to spread across the world. The sight of thousands of dead Americans will hurt him politically. It will also hurt many thousands of Americans in reality.
Multiple reports have detailed how Trump did not just ignore the growing pandemic; he actively sought to block his own officials’ attempts to track and stop it. Why has there been such a disastrous lack of testing? Because the president didn’t want to know the answer, and because his staff were too busy fighting each other to do the right thing.
“The boss has made it clear he likes to see his people fight, and he wants the news to be good,” Politico reported one Trump health adviser saying. “This is the world he’s made.”
Never mind a world turned upside down by fear and death. Trump’s world is upended by his gobsmackingly childish comments about how the whole thing will blow over. “It’s going to disappear,” he told one reception inside the White House just two weeks ago. “One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
The only miracle of this presidency is that it’s taken so long for this country to wake up to the catastrophe.
How could we have known that Trump would deny the resources to deal with a disaster, deny the truth about the death toll, and denounce anyone daring to tell the truth?
It wasn’t hard to know. After Hurricane Maria devastated the American island of Puerto Rico in September of his first year in office, Trump gave himself a 10 for his response to the devastation. He also said he couldn’t keep the military in Puerto Rico forever, which was news to the national guard.
At the very time he was bragging about his response and trashing his own citizens, more than 3,000 Americans were dying on the island because of Trump’s botched response to the hurricane. Those Americans were our most vulnerable citizens: the sick and elderly, who lost power, lacked medicine or needed a hospital bed when the hospitals were stricken.
Those are the same Americans who face the greatest peril in the coming weeks from the same toxic mix of callousness and incompetence from the same sociopathic president.
This is everyone’s catastrophe and one man’s calamity. For Trump, there is no escaping the stench of failure that seeps through every unmade decision, every fumbled response, and every unhinged tweet.
This is a president who can’t formulate a coherent coronavirus policy, and can’t even read the words written for him on a prompter.
One paragraph from Wednesday’s disastrous Oval Office address managed to only worsen the political pathogen that is his presidency.
“There will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings,” he explained about his new travel ban from Europe, ignoring the reality that he limited all testing so there are no appropriate screenings.
“And these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval,” he added, wiping out many billions in transatlantic trade – and various other things – with one flap of his lips.
“Anything coming from Europe to the United States is what we are discussing,” he explained in case anyone had any doubt about his economic stupidity.
“These restrictions will also not apply to the United Kingdom.” Ah yes, the British immunity to coronavirus is a well-documented medical fact. British people who play golf on a Trump course are especially healthy individuals.
If Trump was trying to reassure the markets, he failed, like he always does. Even the Federal Reserve magicking $1.5tn out of thin air could not stop the stock market from suffering its worst single day since the 1987 crash.
“This was the most expensive speech in history,” one investment strategist told the Financial Times.
There is hope amid the horror: an election in just eight months when Americans can vote for a return to the once-normal life of a competent government. Joe Biden’s response on Thursday was a stark reminder of what presidents and vice-presidents used to sound like.
“We’ll lead with science,” the former vice-president said. “We’ll listen to the experts. We’ll heed their advice.” It all sounded so shockingly novel. “We’ll build American leadership and rebuild it to rally the world to meet global threats that we are likely to face again. And I’ll always tell you the truth.”
The truth: it’s getting harder to remember a time when we expected our leaders to say such things.
In the meantime, before January 2021, the world faces two deadly diseases: a pandemic and a pathetically incompetent president.
On Thursday, as schools shut down and troops took to the streets of a New York suburb, Trump of course bragged about himself in ways that made you wonder about his own medical condition.
“I mean, think of it: the United States, because of what I did and what the administration did with China, we have 32 deaths at this point,” he said in the Oval Office. “Thirty-two is a lot. Thirty-two is too many. But when you look at the kind of numbers that you’re seeing coming out of other countries, it’s pretty amazing when you think of it.”
And you know what? Instead of thinking about preparing thousands of new hospital beds, or millions of virus tests, Trump has probably committed the largest part of his brain to thinking about that number. That very tiny number, so small compared to the rest of the world, that represents the full measure of his compassion.
Why yes, the Christo-Taliban Reich-Wing Fascists sure do hate this shit. They sure do hate the fact that people are just getting sick and tired of all the bullshit hate they spread and spew from their foaming at the mouth rabid dog mouths on a daily basis.
These fuckers are no different than the Muslim Taliban they decry on a daily basis. They seek to force their Reich-Wing ChristoFascist bullshit upon all of us and then? Piss and shit their Cocksuckers for Christ panties when people stand up to them, especially? The people these scumbag shitstains on the underwear of humanity love to persecute.
This was taken from Gab, a Reich-Wing ChristoTaliban Fascist Traitor Trumpanzee and Russian Repugnant supporting and defending white supremacists, white nationalists and ChristoFascist scumbags.
The Reich-Wing ChristoTaliban crying about people standing up to these scumbags.
Liberal activist groups are pressuring donor-advised funds (DAFs) to blacklist conservative and Christian organizations in the name of fighting white supremacy and “hate.” On Tuesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), themselves far from immune from scandal, released a report urging this philanthropic sector — which held more than $121 billion in donor contributions in 2018 — to join the political warfare effort of isolating conservative voices from polite society. The report favorably cites Fidelity Charitable’s and Schwab Charitable’s decisions to ban contributions to the NRA, citing San Francisco’s resolution condemning the NRA as a “terrorist organization.”
“Straddling the intersection of public and private, the philanthropic sector — like tech companies — functions as a powerful platform for hate,” the report warns. The SPLC and CAIR pepper their report with mentions of specific white nationalist groups and terrorist attacks inspired by white supremacy, associating these things with SPLC-accused “hate groups.”
Yet the document, entitled “Hate-Free Philanthropy,” calls on donor-advised funds to blacklist SPLC-accused “hate groups” in the name of preventing white supremacist terrorism. The report calls on donor-advised funds to combat “hate-funding,” to “abandon the ‘pretense of neutrality’ in their giving strategies to expand their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and to work for “sector-wide reform” by coordinating with “academia” and “advocacy organizations.” I wonder which “advocacy organizations” they have in mind…
The report cites many sources that all trace back to the SPLC’s “hate group” list. It cites CAIR’s report on the “Islamophobia network,” which relies on the SPLC list. It cites the union-owned Amalgamated Bank effort to blacklist “hate groups” called “Hate Is Not Charitable,” which relies on the SPLC list. It cites the “Change the Terms” coalition, which aims to bully Big Tech into booting “hate groups” from the program, relying on the SPLC. It favorably cites GuideStar’s decision to adopt the SPLC “hate group” labels on its charity database website.
The SPLC and CAIR, long known for their liberal biases, claim that “leading figures from the sector argue that philanthropy has to shed the idea that it should be ‘neutral’ at all costs. Instead, philanthropy should recognize that taking no action in this climate of hate is an action in itself, and for that reason, it should play an active role in supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.” Funny how this “inclusion” looks a great deal like the exclusion of conservatives and the demonization of their views.
The report follows a one-day closed-door symposium involving more than three dozen “practitioners, advocates, and scholars in the philanthropic sector,” convened by the SPLC and CAIR in August 2019.
Donor-advised funds represent a huge slice of American philanthropy. As the report notes, there were 728,563 DAFs in 2018, and donors contributed $37.12 billion, using the funds to recommend $23.42 billion in grants to qualified charities. Charitable assets held by DAFs totaled $121.42 billion. When donors give money to DAFs, they get an immediate tax write-off. The DAF then directs the funds where the donor wishes. This provides anonymity, as the public report of the transaction shows the DAF contributing to the grantee, rather than the donor.
“Hate-Free Philanthropy” suggests this situation is unacceptable but acknowledges that legal reform efforts are unlikely. Instead, the report lays out three steps to help DAFs “to implement systems to screen out hate groups from DAF portfolios”: having a conversation about “hate groups” at the organization, expanding on “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies, and then “explicitly” endorsing “anti-hate policies and programs.”
The report acknowledges that “even beginning a conversation around hate groups can be controversial within some organizations due to its political nature.” The SPLC and CAIR dismiss this controversy in the name of “public safety.” “However, it is best for stakeholders to recognize that while there may be a legitimate degree of difference on what constitutes anti-social and polarizing activity, at a core level community foundations should understand the problem of hate within a public safety context.”
As for the “anti-hate policies and programs,” the report presents two examples: Amalgamated Foundation’s terms, which state that the foundation “may consult resources such as the Southern Poverty Law Center”; and the East Bay Community Foundation, which has a “Grand Due Diligence Policy” that prohibits “[g]rants to any organization then listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate Group map, as that list may be titled or revised from time to time.”
“Hate-Free Philanthropy” upholds Big Tech as a model for acting against “hate.” The report notes that internet companies once used First Amendment arguments to justify extending their platforms to a wide range of users. Yet tech companies are not the government, so the First Amendment does not restrict them. The report touts the “Change the Terms” coalition, which it claims “very carefully crafted its definition of hateful activity to cover types of speech that courts have said are not protected as free speech: incitement to violence, intimidation, harassment, threats, and defamation.”
The report also praised iTunes, PayPal, and AmazonSmile for taking “measures to screen out hate from their platforms. iTunes blacklisted what the SPLC calls “hate music,” while PayPal blacklists “hate groups” and AmazonSmile — Amazon’s charity contribution arm — refuses to work with any SPLC-accused “hate group.”
The SPLC and CAIR praised GuideStar, which caused a scandal in 2017 by placing “hate group” labels on the webpages of nonprofits attacked by the SPLC. GuideStar removed the labels but faced two defamation lawsuits and employees reportedly faced harassment. The SPLC and CAIR claim, without evidence, that the “hate groups” were responsible for the harassment.
“The use of harassment, intimidation, and threats directed at GuideStar’s staff and leadership shows that groups that promote hate do not hesitate to intimidate and threaten those who seek to inform the public about their less-than-charitable activities,” the report warns. The report encourages DAFs to prepare to face violence should they act against “hate groups,” by installing alarms and surveillance systems.
“Threats are not always physical,” the report warns. “As GuideStar sadly experienced, they could come in the form of lawsuits and coordinated public relations attacks that can easily be interpreted as intimidating. Preparation for these kinds of attacks is equally important. Having in place a crisis management and communication plan, in addition to a physical security plan, is a good first step.”
The report mentioned GuideStar twice more, in both cases emphasizing the threat from “hate groups.” Referring to GuideStar’s labels, the report says, “this modest effort resulted in a campaign of hate and intimidation as well as spurious attempts at litigation by hate groups.” Further on comes this sentence: “As the GuideStar experience has shown, this could also lead to fringe groups and their supporters launching harassment and intimidation campaigns.”
Ironically, the SPLC and CAIR report warns against the problems of “hate-funding, polarization, and anti-social special interest practices,” when the SPLC’s “hate group” accusations have inspired an act of violence and have exacerbated polarization in America.
Donor-advised funds would be wise to ignore this report and reject its politically-slanted suggestions. While DAFs should seek to avoid funding white supremacist groups and organizations that advocate for violence, any reliance on the SPLC will skew their good-faith efforts, turning them into unwitting pawns of partisan political warfare.
It is Trump, the Repugnants and Trumpanzees along with the Reich-Wing News organizations such as Faux Nitwit Newsless, Breibart and others that is causing this hate, these lies, these bullshit acts to be done. Here is the proof.
‘No Blame?’ ABC News finds 36 cases invoking ‘Trump’ in connection with violence, threats, alleged assaults.
But a nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified at least 36 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.
In nine cases, perpetrators hailed Trump in the midst or immediate aftermath of physically attacking innocent victims. In another 10 cases, perpetrators cheered or defended Trump while taunting or threatening others. And in another 10 cases, Trump and his rhetoric were cited in court to explain a defendant’s violent or threatening behavior.
Seven cases involved violent or threatening acts perpetrated in defiance of Trump, with many of them targeting Trump’s allies in Congress. But the vast majority of the cases — 29 of the 36 — reflect someone echoing presidential rhetoric, not protesting it.
ABC News could not find a single criminal case filed in federal or state court where an act of violence or threat was made in the name of President Barack Obama or President George W. Bush.
The perpetrators and suspects identified in the 36 cases are mostly white men — as young as teenagers and as old as 75 — while the victims largely represent an array of minority groups — African-Americans, Latinos, Muslims and gay men.
Federal law enforcement authorities have privately told ABC News they worry that — even with Trump’s public denunciations of violence — Trump’s style could inspire violence-prone individuals to take action against minorities or others they perceive to be against the president’s agenda.
“Any public figure could have the effect of inspiring people,” FBI Director Chris Wray told a Senate panel in July. “But remember that the people who commit hate fueled violence are not logical, rational people.”
While asserting that “fake” media coverage is exacerbating divisions in the country, Trump has noted that “a fan” of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders opened fire on Republican lawmakers playing baseball in a Washington suburb two years ago. “Nobody puts … ‘Bernie Sanders’ in the headline with the maniac,” Trump said last year.
And, last week, Trump similarly insisted that the man who fatally shot nine people in Dayton, Ohio, three days earlier “supported” Sanders and other liberal causes.
But there’s no indication either of those shooters mentioned Sanders while launching their attacks, and no charges were ever filed because they were both fatally shot during their assaults.
In identifying the 36 Trump-related cases, ABC News excluded incidents of vandalism. ABC News also excluded several cases of violence — from attacks on anti-Trump protesters at Trump rallies to certain assaults on people wearing “Make America Great Again” hats — that did not establish explicit ties to Trump.
In conducting its review, ABC News did find several cases where pro-Trump defendants were charged with targeting minorities, or where speculation online suggested the defendants were motivated by Trump, but in those cases ABC News found no police records, court proceedings or other direct evidence presenting a definitive link to the president. So those cases were also excluded in the ABC News tally.
Nevertheless, last year Trump said he deserves “no blame” for what he called the “hatred” seemingly coursing through parts of the country. And he told reporters that he’s “committed to doing everything” in his power to not let political violence “take root in America.”
Crimes of Trumpanzees against others
Aug. 19, 2015: In Boston, after he and his brother beat a sleeping homeless man of Mexican descent with a metal pole, Steven Leader, 30, told police “Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported.” The victim, however, was not in the United States illegally. The brothers, who are white, ultimately pleaded guilty to several assault-related charges and were each sentenced to at least two years in prison.
Dec. 5, 2015: After Penn State University student Nicholas Tavella, 19, was charged with “ethnic intimidation” and other crimes for threatening to “put a bullet” in a young Indian man on campus, his attorney argued in court that Tavella was just motivated by “a love of country,” not “hate.” “Donald Trump is running for President of the United States saying that, ‘We’ve got to check people out more closely,'” Tavella’s attorney argued in his defense. Tavella, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to ethnic intimidation and was sentenced to up to two years in prison.
April 28, 2016: When FBI agents arrested 61-year-old John Martin Roos in White City, Oregon, for threatening federal officials, including then-President Barack Obama, they found several pipe bombs and guns in his home. In the three months before his arrest, Roos posted at least 34 messages to Twitter about Trump, repeatedly threatening African Americans, Muslims, Mexican immigrants and the “liberal media,” and in court documents, prosecutors noted that the avowed Trump supporter posted this threatening message to Facebook a month earlier: “The establishment is trying to steal the election from Trump. … Obama is already on a kill list … Your [name] can be there too.” Roos, who is white, has since pleaded guilty to possessing an unregistered explosive device and posting internet threats against federal officials. He was sentenced to more than five years in prison.
June 3, 2016: After 54-year-old Henry Slapnik attacked his African-American neighbors with a knife in Cleveland, he told police “Donald Trump will fix them because they are scared of Donald Trump,” according to police reports. Slapnik, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to “ethnic intimidation” and other charges. It’s unclear what sentence he received.
Aug. 16, 2016: In Olympia, Washington, 32-year-old Daniel Rowe attacked a white woman and a black man with a knife after seeing them kiss on a popular street. When police arrived on the scene, Rowe professed to being “a white supremacist” and said “he planned on heading down to the next Donald Trump rally and stomping out more of the Black Lives Matter group,” according to court documents filed in the case. Rowe, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to charges of assault and malicious harassment, and he was sentenced to more than four years in prison.
September 2016: After 40-year-old Mark Feigin of Los Angeles was arrested for posting anti-Muslim and allegedly threatening statements to a mosque’s Facebook page, his attorney argued in court that the comments were protected by the First Amendment because Feigin was “using similar language and expressing similar views” to “campaign statements from then-candidate Donald Trump.” Noting that his client “supported Donald Trump,” attorney Caleb Mason added that “Mr. Feigin’s comments were directed toward a pressing issue of public concern that was a central theme of the Trump campaign and the 2016 election generally: the Islamic roots of many international and U.S. terrorist acts.” Feigin, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of sending harassing communications electronically. He was sentenced to probation.
Oct. 13, 2016: After the FBI arrested three white Kansas men for plotting to bomb an apartment complex in Garden City, Kansas, where many Somali immigrants lived, one of the men’s attorneys insisted to a federal judge that the plot was “self-defensive” because the three men believed “that if Donald Trump won the election, President Obama would not recognize the validity of those results, that he would declare martial law, and that at that point militias all over the country would have to step in.” Then, after a federal grand jury convicted 47-year-old Patrick Stein and the two other men of conspiracy-related charges, Stein’s attorney argued for a lighter sentence based on “the backdrop” of Stein’s actions: Trump had become “the voice of a lost and ignored white, working-class set of voters” like Stein, and the “climate” at the time could propel someone like Stein to “go to 11,” attorney Jim Pratt said in court. Stein and his two accomplices were each sentenced to at least 25 years in prison.
Nov. 3, 2016: In Tampa, Florida, David Howard threatened to burn down the house next to his “simply because” it was being purchased by a Muslim family, according to the Justice Department. He later said under oath that while he harbored a years-long dislike for Muslims, the circumstances around the home sale were “the match that lit the wick.” He cited Trump’s warnings about immigrants from majority-Muslim countries. “[With] the fact that the president wants these six countries vetted, everybody vetted before they come over, there’s a concern about Muslims,” Howard said. Howard, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation, and the 59-year-old was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Nov. 10, 2016: A 23-year-old man from High Springs, Florida, allegedly assaulted an unsuspecting Hispanic man who was cleaning a parking lot outside of a local food store. “[H]e was suddenly struck in the back of the head,” a police report said of the victim. “[The victim] asked the suspect why he hit him, to which the suspect replied, ‘This is for Donald Trump.’ The suspect then grabbed [the victim] by the jacket and proceeded to strike him several more times,” according to the report. Surveillance video of the incident “completely corroborated [the victim’s] account of events,” police said. The suspect was arrested on battery charges, but the case was dropped after the victim decided not to pursue the matter, police said. Efforts by ABC News to reach the victim for further explanation were not successful.
Nov. 12, 2016: In Grand Rapids, Michigan, while attacking a cab driver from East Africa, 23-year-old Jacob Holtzlander shouted racial epithets and repeatedly yelled the word, “Trump,” according to law enforcement records. Holtzlander, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to a charge of ethnic intimidation, and he was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Jan. 25, 2017: At JFK International Airport in New York, a female Delta employee, wearing a hijab in accordance with her Muslim faith, was “physically and verbally” attacked by 57-year-old Robin Rhodes of Worcester, Mass., “for no apparent reason,” prosecutors said at the time. When the victim asked Brown what she did to him, he replied: “You did nothing, but … [Expletive] Islam. [Expletive] ISIS. Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you.” Rhodes ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of “menacing,” and he was sentenced to probation.
Feb. 19, 2017: After 35-year-old Gerald Wallace called a mosque in Miami Gardens, Florida, and threatened to “shoot all y’all,” he told the FBI and police that he made the call because he “got angry” from a local TV news report about a terrorist act. At a rally in Florida the day before, Trump falsely claimed that Muslim refugees had just launched a terrorist attack in Sweden.
Wallace’s attorney, Katie Carmon, later tried to convince a federal judge that the threat to kill worshippers could be “protected speech” due to the “very distinctly political climate” at the time. “There are courts considering President Trump’s travel ban … and the president himself has made some very pointed statements about what he thinks about people of this descent,” Carmon argued in court.
Wallace, who is African American, ultimately pleaded guilty to obstructing the free exercise of his victims’ religious beliefs, and he was sentenced to one year in prison.
Feb. 23, 2017: Kevin Seymour and his partner Kevin price were riding their bicycles in Key West, Florida, when a man on a moped, 30-year-old Brandon Davis of North Carolina, hurled anti-gay slurs at them and “intentionally” ran into Seymour’s bike, shouting, “You live in Trump country now,” according to police reports and Davis’ attorney. Davis ultimately pleaded guilty to a charge of battery evidencing prejudice, but in court, he expressed remorse and was sentenced to four years of probation.
May 3, 2017: In South Padre Island, Texas, 35-year-old Alexander Jennes Downing of Waterford, Connecticut, was captured on cellphone video taunting and aggressively approaching a Muslim family, repeatedly shouting, “Donald Trump will stop you!” and other Trump-related remarks. Police arrested downing, of Waterford, Connecticut, for public intoxication. It’s unclear what came of the charge.
Oct. 22, 2017: A 44-year-old California man threatened to kill Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., for her frequent criticism of Trump and her promise to “take out” the president. Anthony Scott Lloyd left a voicemail at the congresswoman’s Washington office, declaring: “If you continue to make threats towards the president, you’re going to wind up dead, Maxine. Cause we’ll kill you.” After pleading guilty to one count of threatening a U.S. official, Lloyd asked the judge for leniency, saying he suffered from addiction-inducing mental illness and became “far too immersed in listening to polarizing political commentators and engaging in heated political debates online.” His lawyer put it this way to the judge: “Mr. Lloyd was a voracious consumer of political news online, on television and on radio … [that are] commonly viewed as ‘right wing,’ unconditionally supportive of President Trump, and fiercely critical of anyone who opposed President Trump’s policies.” The judge sentenced Lloyd to six months of house arrest and three years of probation.
August 2018: After the Boston Globe called on news outlets around the country to resist what it called “Trump’s assault on journalism,” the Boston Globe received more than a dozen threatening phone calls. “You are the enemy of the people,” the alleged caller, 68-year-old Robert Chain of Encino, California, told a Boston Globe employee on Aug. 22. “As long as you keep attacking the President, the duly elected President of the United States … I will continue to threat[en], harass, and annoy the Boston Globe.” A week later, authorities arrested Chain on threat-related charges. After a hearing in his case, he told reporters, “America was saved when Donald J. Trump was elected president.” Chain has pleaded guilty to seven threat-related charges, and he is awaiting sentencing.
Oct. 4, 2018: The Polk County Sheriff’s Office in Florida arrested 53-year-old James Patrick of Winter Haven, Florida, for allegedly threatening “to kill Democratic office holders, members of their families and members of both local and federal law enforcement agencies,” according to a police report. In messages posted online, Patrick detailed a “plan” for his attacks, which he said he would launch if then-nominee Brett Kavanaugh was not confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, the police report said. Seeking Patrick’s release from jail after his arrest, Patrick’s attorney, Terri Stewart, told a judge that her client’s “rantings” were akin to comments from “a certain high-ranking official” — Trump. The president had “threatened the North Korean people — to blow them all up. It was on Twitter,” Stewart said, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Patrick has been charged with making a written threat to kill or injure, and he has pleaded not guilty. His trial is pending.
Late October 2018: Over the course of a week, Florida man Cesar Sayoc allegedly mailed at least 15 potential bombs to prominent critics of Trump and members of the media. Sayoc had been living in a van plastered with pro-Trump stickers, and he had posted several pro-Trump messages on social media. Federal prosecutors have accused him of “domestic terrorism,” and Sayoc has since pleaded guilty to 65 counts, including use of a weapon of mass destruction. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. “We believe the president’s rhetoric contributed to Mr. Sayoc’s behavior,” Sayoc’s attorney told the judge at sentencing.
Dec. 4, 2018: Michael Brogan, 51, of Brooklyn, New York, left a voicemail at an unidentified U.S. Senator’s office in Washington insisting, “I’m going to put a bullet in ya. … You and your constant lambasting of President Trump. Oh, reproductive rights, reproductive rights.” He later told an FBI agent that before leaving the voicemail he became “very angry” by “an internet video of the Senator, including the Senator’s criticism of the President of the United States as well as the Senator’s views on reproductive rights.” “The threats were made to discourage the Senator from criticizing the President,” the Justice Department said in a later press release. Brogan has since pleaded guilty to one count of threatening a U.S. official, and he is awaiting sentencing.
Jan. 17, 2019: Stephen Taubert of Syracuse, New York, was arrested by the U.S. Capitol Police for threatening to kill Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and for threatening to “hang” former President Barack Obama. Taubert used “overtly bigoted, hateful language” in his threats, according to federal prosecutors. On July 20, 2018, Taubert called the congresswoman’s Los Angeles office to say he would find her at public events and kill her and her entire staff. In a letter to the judge just days before Taubert’s trial began, his defense attorney, Courtenay McKeon, noted: “During that time period, Congresswoman Waters was embroiled in a public feud with the Trump administration. … On June 25, 2018, in response to Congresswoman Waters’ public statements, President Trump tweeted: ‘Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has … just called for harm to supporters … of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for Max!'” As McKeon insisted to the judge: “This context is relevant to the case.” A federal jury ultimately convicted Taubert on three federal charges, including retaliating against a federal official and making a threat over state lines. He was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.
Jan. 22, 2019: David Boileau of Holiday, Florida, was arrested by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office for allegedly burglarizing an Iraqi family’s home and “going through” their mailbox, according to a police report. After officers arrived at the home, Boileau “made several statements of his dislike for people of Middle Eastern descent,” the report said. “He also stated if he doesn’t get rid of them, Trump will handle it.” The police report noted that a day before, Boileau threw screws at a vehicle outside the family’s house. On that day, Boileau allegedly told police, “We’ll get rid of them one way or another.” Boileau, 58, has since pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of trespassing, and he was sentenced to 90 days in jail.
Feb. 15, 2019: The FBI in Maryland arrested a Marine veteran and U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant, Christopher Paul Hasson, who they said was stockpiling weapons and “espoused” racist and anti-immigrant views for years as he sought to “murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country.” In court documents, prosecutors said the 49-year-old “domestic terrorist” compiled a “hit list” of prominent Democrats. Two months later, while seeking Hasson’s release from jail before trial, his public defender, Elizabeth Oyer, told a federal judge: “This looks like the sort of list that our commander-in-chief might have compiled while watching Fox News in the morning. … Is it legitimately frustrating that offensive language and ideology has now become part of our national vocabulary? Yes, it is very frustrating. But … it is hard to differentiate it from the random musings of someone like Donald Trump who uses similar epithets in his everyday language and tweets.” Hasson faces weapons-related charges and was being detained as he awaits trial. He has pleaded not guilty.
March 16, 2019: Anthony Comello, 24, of Staten Island, New York, was taken into custody for allegedly killing Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, the reputed head of the infamous Gambino crime family. It marked the first mob boss murder in New York in 30 years, law enforcement officials told ABC News the murder may have stemmed from Comello’s romantic relationship with a Cali family member. Court documents since filed in state court by Comello’s defense attorney, Robert Gottlieb, said Comello suffers from mental defect and was a believer in the “conspiratorial fringe right-wing political group” QAnon. In addition, Gottlieb wrote: “Beginning with the election of President Trump in November 2016, Anthony Comello’s family began to notice changes to his personality. … Mr. Comello became certain that he was enjoying the protection of President Trump himself, and that he had the president’s full support. Mr. Comello grew to believe that several well-known politicians and celebrities were actually members of the Deep State, and were actively trying to bring about the destruction of America.” Comello has been charged with one count of murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon. His trial is pending, and he has pleaded not guilty.
April 5, 2019: The FBI arrested a 55-year-old man from upstate New York for allegedly threatening to kill Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., one of the first two Muslim women elected to the U.S. Congress. She is an outspoken critic of Trump, and Trump has frequently launched public attacks against her and three other female lawmakers of color. Two weeks before his arrest, Patrick Carlineo Jr. allegedly called Omar’s office in Washington labeling the congresswoman a “terrorist” and declaring: “I’ll put a bullet in her f—-ing skull.” When an FBI agent then traced the call to Carlineo and interviewed him, Carlineo “stated that he was a patriot, that he loves the President, and that he hates radical Muslims in our government,” according to the FBI agent’s summary of the interview. Federal prosecutors charged Carlineo with threatening to assault and murder a United States official. Carlineo is awaiting trial, although his defense attorney and federal prosecutors are working on what his attorney called another “possible resolution” of the case.
April 18, 2019: The FBI arrested John Joseph Kless of Tamarac, Florida, for calling the Washington offices of three prominent Democrats and threatening to kill each of them. At his home, authorities found a loaded handgun in a backpack, an AR-15 rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. In later pleading guilty to one charge of transmitting threats over state lines, Kless admitted that in a threatening voicemail targeting Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., he stated: “You won’t f—ing tell Americans what to say, and you definitely don’t tell our president, Donald Trump, what to say.” Tlaib, a vocal critic of Trump, was scheduled to speak in Florida four days later. Kless was awaiting sentencing. In a letter to the federal judge, he said he “made a very big mistake,” never meant to hurt anyone, and “was way out of line with my language and attitude.”
April 24, 2019: The FBI arrested 30-year-old Matthew Haviland of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, for allegedly sending a series of violent and threatening emails to a college professor in Massachusetts who publicly expressed support for abortion rights and strongly criticized Trump. In one of 28 emails sent to the professor on March 10, 2019, Haviland allegedly called the professor “pure evil” and said “all Democrats must be eradicated,” insisting the country now has “a president who’s taking our country in a place of more freedom rather than less.” In another email the same day, Haviland allegedly wrote the professor: “I will rip every limb from your body and … I will kill every member of your family.” According to court documents, Haviland’s longtime friend later told the FBI that “within the last year, Haviland’s views regarding abortion and politics have become more extreme … at least in part because of the way the news media portrays President Trump.” Haviland has been charged with cyberstalking and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. His trial is pending.
June 5, 2019: The FBI arrested a Utah man for allegedly calling the U.S. Capitol more than 2,000 times over several months and threatening to kill Democratic lawmakers, whom he said were “trying to destroy Trump’s presidency.” “I am going to take up my second amendment right, and shoot you liberals in the head,” 54-year-old Scott Brian Haven allegedly stated in one of the calls on Oct. 18, 2018, according to charging documents. When an FBI agent later interviewed Haven, he “explained the phone calls were made during periods of frustration with the way Democrats were treating President Trump,” the charging documents said. The FBI visit, however, didn’t stop Haven from making more threats, including: On March 21, 2019, he called an unidentified U.S. senator’s office to say that if Democrats refer to Trump as Hitler again he will shoot them, and two days later he called an unidentified congressman’s office to say he “was going to take [the congressman] out … because he is trying to remove a duly elected President.” A federal grand jury has since charged Haven with one count of transmitting a threat over state lines. Haven pleaded not guilty and was awaiting trial.
Aug. 3, 2019: A gunman opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 people and injuring 24 others. The FBI labeled the massacre an act of “domestic terrorism,” and police determined that the alleged shooter, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, posted a lengthy anti-immigrant diatribe online before the attack. “We attribute that manifesto directly to him,” according to El Paso police chief Greg Allen. Describing the coming assault as “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” the screed’s writer said “the media” would “blame Trump’s rhetoric” for the attack but insisted his anti-immigrant views “predate Trump” — an apparent acknowledgement that at least some of his views align with some of Trump’s public statements. The writer began his online essay by stating that he generally “support[s]” the previous writings of the man who killed 51 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand earlier this year. In that case, the shooter in New Zealand said he absolutely did not support Trump as “a policy maker and leader” — but “[a]s a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose? Sure.” Crusius has been charged with capital murder by the state of Texas.
Crimes Against Trumpanzees
Jan. 3, 2017: In Chicago, four young African-Americans — sisters Brittany and Tanishia Covington, Jordan Hill and Tesfaye Cooper — tied up a white, mentally disabled man and assaulted him, forcing him to recite the phrases “F–k Donald Trump” and “F–k white people” while they broadcast the attack online. Each of them ultimately pleaded guilty to committing a hate crime and other charges, and three of them were sentenced to several years in prison.
May 11, 2017: Authorities arrested Steven Martan of Tucson, Arizona, after he left three threatening messages at the office Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz. In one message, he told McSally he was going to “blow your brains out,” and in another he told her that her “days are numbered.” He later told FBI agents “that he was venting frustrations with Congresswoman McSally’s congressional votes in support of the President of the United States,” according to charging documents. Martan’s attorney, Walter Goncalves Jr., later told a judge that Martan had “an alcohol problem” and left the messages “after becoming intoxicated” and “greatly upset” by news that McSally “agreed with decisions by President Donald Trump.” Martan, 58, has since pleaded guilty to three counts of retaliating against a federal official and was sentenced to more than one year in prison.
April 6, 2018: The FBI arrested 38-year-old Christopher Michael McGowan of Roanoke, Virginia, for allegedly posting a series of Twitter threats against Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., over several months. In one posting in December 2017, McGowan wrote to Goodlatte: “I threatened to kill you if you help Trump violate the constitution,” according to charging documents. In another alleged post, the self-described Army veteran wrote: “If Trump tries to fire [special counsel Robert] Mueller I WILL make an attempt to execute a citizens arrest against [Goodlatte] and I will kill him if he resist.” In subsequent statements to police, he said he drinks too much, was “hoping to get someone’s attention over his concerns about the current status of our country,” and did not actually intend to harm Goodlatte, court documents recount. A federal grand jury has indicted McGowan on one count of transmitting a threat over state lines, and it’s unclear if he has entered a plea as he awaits trial.
July 6, 2018: Martin Astrof, 75, approached a volunteer at the campaign office of Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., in Suffolk County, New York, and “state[d] he was going to kill supporters of U.S. congressman Lee Zeldin and President Donald Trump,” according to charging documents. Astrof was arrested and ultimately pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment. He was sentenced to one year of probation.
Feb. 15, 2019: Police in Falmouth, Massachusetts, arrested 41-year-old Rosiane Santos after she “verbally assault[ed]” a man for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat in a Mexican restaurant and then “violently push[ed] his head down,” according to police reports. Apparently intoxicated, “she stated that [the victim] was a ‘motherf—-r’ for supporting Trump,” one of the responding officers wrote. “She also stated that he shouldn’t be allowed in a Mexican restaurant with that.” Santos was in the United States unlawfully, federal authorities said. Police arrested her on charges of “simple assault” and disorderly conduct. She has since admitted in local court that there are “sufficient facts” to warrant charges, and she has been placed on a form of probation.
Feb. 25, 2019: An 18-year-old student at Edmond Santa Fe High School in Edmond, Oklahoma, was captured on cellphone video “confronting a younger classmate who [was] wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat and carrying a ‘Trump’ flag,” according to a press release from the local school system. “The [older] student then proceeds to grab the flag and knock the hat off of his classmate’s head.” The 18-year-old student was charged in local court with assault and battery, according to Edmond City Attorney Steve Murdock. The student has since pleaded guilty and was placed on probation, Murdock added.
April 13, 2019: 27-year-old Jovan Crawford, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, and 25-year-old Scott Roberson Washington, D.C., assaulted and robbed a black man wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat while walking through his suburban Maryland neighborhood. Before punching and kicking him, “The two suspects harassed [the victim] about the hat and asked why he was wearing it. [The victim] told them he has his own beliefs and views,” according to charging documents filed after their arrest by Montgomery County, Maryland, police. Crawford later received a text message noting that, “They jumped some trump supporter,” the charging documents said. Crawford and Roberson have since pleaded guilty to assault charges and are awaiting sentencing.
Despite liberals frequently referencing God, the Bible, and Jesus, there is no “Religious Left.” It is an oxymoron because the two “sets of belief systems” are mutually exclusive. The Bible speaks of such people, Paul wrote, “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for […]
Bible believing “Jesus” followers must not be “confused” merely by a person’s quoting of “Scripture,” remember Satan himself quoted Scripture to Jesus during the “temptation”and frequently twists it in today’s society to “deceive” Christians who do not yet have a “firm foundation in God’s word.”
AMR ResponseFunny isn’t it? How one of the first modes of attack against the Christian Left is to denigrate and dehumanize them? That is the first line of attack along with projection by the ChristoFascist Reich-Wingers of their actions upon the Christian Left. Blame the Christian Left for what the ChristoFascists of the Reich-Wingers do.
It is the same trick that Adolph Hitler and his Aryian White Supremacist ChristoTaliban “Positive Christianity” Nazis did during WWII.
It is the same line of attack the ChristoTaliban invaders of this country and put the original inhabitants the Native Americans to death in their mass genocide against us. They demonized us, projected all their evil upon us and then it made it easier for other Christians to slaughter us.
It is the same line of attack the ChristoTalibans used against the Pagans when they invaded their countries in their forced conversion programs.
It is the same line of attack the ChristoTalibans used to put to brutal deaths those they proclaimed as witches, heretics and our scientists whom proved the religious Reich-Winger ChristoFascists wrong in their teachings and theology.
It is the same line of attack the ChristoTalibans used to go to war against each other. Catholics calling Protestants not True Christians and Protestants doing the same to Catholics, each demonizing and dehumanizing each other which made it easier for them to get their brain-washed and mind controlled zombie Christian followers to go out and slaughter each other just because they worshiped the same God and Jesus Christ in different ways.
This is the same kind of attack against the Christian Left, of which? There are many more True Christians in their midsts than there ever will be in the ChristoTaliban Fascist Reich-Wingers like the idiots of Andelino’s Reich-Wing blog. And this is why the Fake Christians like Andelino attack the True Christians of the Christian Left.
ChristoTalibans like this fool always play the projection and dehumanization game to denigrate and defame their opponents.
“Gay” South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg “implied” those who oppose the minimum wage “taunt” the Creator who said in Leviticus 20:13 “If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be […]
I really love hypocrite pieces of shit who call themselves Christians like this assclown. He will cherry pick his buybull verses to spew his hate against Mayor Peter Buttigieg, while defending his Adulterer in Chief Donald J Trump.
And now, while yes, this ChristoTaliban hypocrite buybull does condemn homosexuals? That is contained in only three verses throughout the whole buybull. But? How about all those verses on adultery huh?
Seems ChristoFascist Talibans like this Cocksucker for Commie Christ will call out a homosexual, but defend and praise an adulterer, a proven pathological liar, a proven pervert, and a proven scumbag like Donald J Trump. But let’s see what their own buybull says about adulterers shall we?
Donald J Trump the adulterer in chief and his Trumpanzees taunt Jesus Christ and God with their support of this piece of shit.
Bible Verses Against Adultery
Leviticus 20:10 If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Deuteronomy 22:22-24 If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
Matthew 5:25-30 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Matthew 5:31, 32 It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Malachi 3:5 Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
Malachi 2:14-16 But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
Luke 18:18-20 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’”
Mark 7:23 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.
Romans 13:9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Romans 7:2,3 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
Bible Verses Against Harming Foreigners and Immigrants
Leviticus 19:33,34 : ‘When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.’The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 24:22: ‘There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the LORD your God.'”
Exodus 22: 21: You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Exodus 23: 9: “You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:18-19: He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 24:17: “You shall not pervert the justice due an alien or an orphan, nor take a widow’s garment in pledge.
Deuteronomy 27:19: ‘Cursed is he who distorts the justice due an alien, orphan, and widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.
Malachi 3:5: “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
Hebrews 13:2: Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Psalms 146:9: The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
Matthew 25:35: For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
Jeremiah 7:5-7: “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
Jeremiah 22:3-5: Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.
Ezekiel 47: 21-23: “So you shall divide this land among you according to the tribes of Israel. You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. They shall be to you as native-born children of Israel. With you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. In whatever tribe the sojourner resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance, declares the Lord God.
1 Kings 8:41-43: “Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name’s sake (for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.
Zechariah 7:10: Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”
Numbers 15:15,16: For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a statute forever throughout your generations. You and the sojourner shall be alike before the Lord. One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.”
Bible Verses Proving Trump, Trumpanzees and Repugnants are NOT Christians
Matthew 25: 35-40: 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Matthew 19: 16-30: 16 A man came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to have eternal life?” 17 Jesus answered, “Why do you ask me about what is good? Only God is good. But if you want to have eternal life, obey the law’s commands.” 18 The man asked, “Which ones?” Jesus answered, “‘You must not murder anyone, you must not commit adultery, you must not steal, you must not tell lies about others, 19 you must respect your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor the same as you love yourself.’ 20 The young man said, “I have obeyed all these commands. What else do I need?” 21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, then go and sell all that you own. Give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come and follow me!” 22 But when the young man heard Jesus tell him to give away his money, he was sad. He didn’t want to do this, because he was very rich. So he left. 23 Then Jesus said to his followers, “The truth is, it will be very hard for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom. 24 Yes, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.”
Matthew 22:36-40: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 7: 21-23: 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Yes, the hypocrisy of these Twisted Trumpanzee Fascist pigs is just never ending. They will call out Mayor Peter Buttigieg on the fact he is an open homosexual, who is married, who actually served honorably in the military, not unlike their piece of shit hero Donald J Trump, Commander Bone Spurs who is a proven adulterer, who is a pedo pervert towards young girls and his daughters, who is a proven thief and con-artist, a proven tax cheat and fraud, a proven bigot and racist. He certainly is no fucking Christian.
Ahhhh yes, here we have the infamous Trumpanzee Repugnant Andelino spewing all kinds of shit about Nancy Pelosi in their Nancy Pelosi Derangement Syndrome, which is typical of Trumpanzees and their hypocrisy of lies.
But there is a cure for these Trumpanzees Nancy Pelosi Derangement Syndrome, as well as their President Barack Obama Derangement Syndrome and all their other Democrat and Liberal Derangement Syndromes. And that cure is a self inflicted, full frontal lobotomy. Just like their hero, Commander Bone Spurs should do to really Make America Great Again.
So lets look at the video of Traitor Trump shall we?
Trump mispronounces words in front of 100,000-strong crowd in India
Trump has testy exchange, insults female reporter: During a Rose Garden news conference called to highlight the revamped US-Canada-Mexico trade agreement, President Donald Trump insulted a female reporter telling her that she “never” thinks even before she had a chance to ask her question.
Things That Go “Bing” With President Trump: Donald Trump has a way with words — just ask him. During his campaign, Trump famously stated that he had “the best words.” And there are a few he likes to use a lot, like the onomatopoeic “bing.
Getting Worse: Trump Visibly Struggles to Speak: Donald Trump visibly struggles to speak in recent video from the long weekend, raising more questions about his cognitive state
Trump tells Howard Stern that he regularly drops by pageant dressing rooms: In an interview with Howard Stern, Donald Trump claims he is able to see naked beauty pageant contestants in their dressing rooms because he owns the pageants
Full tape with lewd Donald Trump remarks (Access Hollywood): This video was taken directly from the website of Access Hollywood, and it is longer than the version published by the Washington Post.
Donald Trump’s comments about daughter raise eyebrows: Donald Trump has raised eyebrows for comments he’s made and how he has acted towards his daughter Ivanka. CNN’s Deborah Feyerick reports.
Trump’s Awkward Moments With Ivanka: There are a lot of aspects of Donald Trump’s personal life that have made headlines during the course of his administration, but his ways of displaying affinity for eldest daughter Ivanka Trump may be the most unusual. Unlike his other children, Donald Trump has given Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner official positions in the West Wing, which means the scrutiny surrounding their personal history is even more heightened. Not only are there several photos of them together in positions that are not typical for a father and a daughter, but Donald Trump has also publicly spoken of her in terms that many find to be totally inappropriate. Here are just some of the times Donald Trump acted inappropriately when it came to how he treated Ivanka
Pelosi’s constant “brain freezes,stammering, stuttering, glassy looking wide eyes, wrong pronunciation of simple words” are all a result of all the “demons” she is hosting inside, which are trying to manifest themselves all at once, just like a computer that has to many tasks going on and freezes up.
At an appearance in San Francisco, Nasty Nancy Pelosi told her story that the “spirits of women’s of rights activists” Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Alice Paul…
Atheist Militants Rising 
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