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Congress is back in session after a lengthy summer vacation, and members will try not to stare too conspicuously at Debbie Stabenow’s Jamaican flag-themed braids. Someone registered a Justice for Harambe PAC with the FEC, presumably to help realize the late gorilla’s lifelong goal of returning Evan Bayh to the U.S. Senate. And conservatives are raising questions about Hillary Clinton’s health ― questions that will multiply when they learn about all those times she coughed without covering her mouth around Vince Foster. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Tuesday, September 6th, 2016:
TRUMP’S BEAK ABSOLUTELY SOAKED - S.V. Dáte: “In all, just shy of $1 million went out the door on May 18. More than $600,000 of that went to Trump-owned businesses, with $423,000 of it going to Mar-a-Lago alone, which hosted that March 15 party, an earlier one on March 1 and a news conference on March 11. It’s unclear from Federal Election Commission filings what other expenses, if any, that payment covered ― it is listed as “facility rental/catering,” and the resort does not appear to have hosted any other campaign events. Trump’s campaign would not provide an explanation. Had Trump instead chosen to hold those events at the nearby West Palm Beach Marriott, he likely would have spent no more than $45,000 for all three, based on its estimates for catering the number of people who attended his parties. What’s more, the two-month delay in reporting those expenses may have violated Federal Election Commission rules, which require an expense to be disclosed in the same reporting period ― in Trump’s case, in the same month ― as it was incurred, said a campaign finance law expert.” [HuffPost]
TRUMP CAMPAIGN TRYING TO MOVE PAST QUID PRO QUO ALLEGATIONS - Donald simply gave to Pam Bondi out of the kindness of his heart and unwavering belief in her mission. “Donald Trump spoke to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi before his charity cut a 2013 check to support her re-election effort, but his campaign said Tuesday the two never discussed whether her office would join a lawsuit against Trump University. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks clarified details of the conversation one day after the Republican presidential candidate said he never spoke to Bondi about the issue, without providing specifics. Bondi, also a Republican, has endorsed Trump’s White House bid...Bondi’s spokesman told The Associated Press in June that she personally solicited the $25,000 donation from Trump during a 2013 phone call. The Donald J. Trump Foundation check arrived just days after Bondi’s office told a newspaper it was deliberating whether to join a proposed multi-state lawsuit against Trump University and its affiliates, a business that offered real-estate seminars scores of former students allege were a scam.” [AP]
CONGRESS BRACING FOR BUDGET FIGHT - President Trump is going to have a real swell time with the Freedom Caucus come September 2017. David Hawkings: “The central decisions are how long the year’s first continuing resolution should last, and what level of spending it should dictate. GOP conservatives want to act as soon as possible to postpone the entire budget battle for at least six months, even if that means continued spending at a rate they’ve complained vehemently about all year, and even though that would risk making a newly Democratic Senate and a new President Hillary Clinton the principal drivers of the debate...Democrats oppose the six-month CR almost unilaterally, because they don’t want to allow Republicans to extract themselves so easily from a fiscal tangle they’ve been in charge of making.” [Roll Call]
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HILLARY COUGHS, CLEARLY AS PART OF SOME ILLUMINATI SCHEME - Clearly the chemtrails aren’t spreading the mind control substances fast enough, so the (((they))) must now use Hillary’s respiratory system. Makes sense. Joe Concha: “NBC News is facing harsh criticism from Hillary Clinton’s campaign and her supporters for publishing an article on a coughing fit the Democratic presidential nominee experienced on Monday in Cleveland. The five-paragraph story, ‘Hillary Clinton Fights Back Coughing Attack,’ noted that Clinton quickly turned the coughing issue into a dig at her GOP rival, Donald Trump. ..Trump, however, said the story wasn’t getting enough attention outside of social media. ‘Mainstream media never covered Hillary’s massive ‘hacking’ or coughing attack, yet it is #1 trending. What’s up?’ he tweeted.” [The Hill]
Alternate headline: COUGH FLOP
CORPORATIONS TALK GREEN, ACT OTHERWISE - Richard Valdmanis and Grant Smith: “U.S. companies that have expressed the most fervent public support for President Barack Obama’s environmental agenda are also funding its biggest enemies - the scores of U.S. lawmakers who are climate change skeptics and oppose regulation to combat it, according to a Reuters review of public records. Ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential and congressional elections, the donations from companies including PepsiCo, Dupont, and Google reveal a disconnect between how these companies present themselves to the public on environmental issues, and how they manage their political contributions to support business-friendly policy...The Reuters review covered donations made during the 2016 election cycle by the political action committees (PACs) of 30 of the biggest publicly traded U.S. companies that signed Obama’s ‘American Business Act on Climate Change Pledge’ in 2015, a public promise to enact climate-friendly corporate policies and support strong climate change oversight like the global climate accord signed in Paris.” [Reuters]
JOHN MCCAIN ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT WANT TO DEPORT YOUR FAMILY - Ed O’Keefe: “McCain’s campaign launched his new Spanish-language website on Tuesday, a week after he won a heated Republican primary in hopes of scoring a sixth term...On the issue of immigration, there are stark differences between the two sites. McCain’s English-language site highlights his stance on ‘Homeland Security and Immigration Reform,’ while the Spanish-language site features McCain’s position on ‘Inmigracion.’ ...In English, McCain touts his work to reform the U.S. Border Patrol and to pass laws that ‘would address the crisis of unaccompanied children coming across Arizona’s border with Mexico.’ But in Spanish, there’s no reference to border security or dealing with unaccompanied minors. Instead, the Spanish site touts McCain as “the central figure who has brought together at the negotiating table Republicans and Democrats to work on immigration reform that is humane and sensible to the needs of the immigrant community…’” [WaPo]
PENTAGON STRATEGIZING AGAINST RYAN BUDGET - Austin Wright and Jeremy Herb: “The Pentagon has crafted a secret plan to play ‘hardball’ against House Speaker Paul Ryan’s defense spending proposal, according to a memo obtained by POLITICO that calls for pitting the House and Senate against each other, capitalizing on the ‘discomfort’ of one key Republican lawmaker and finding ways to undermine the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. The five-page strategy blueprint also suggests possibly enlisting top military brass to help make the case that the Republican speaker’s budget ‘gimmick’ would weaken the nation’s defenses. The memo, prepared for Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Deputy Secretary Bob Work, reads at times like an intelligence assessment of congressional leaders. It provides an unusually clear window into the tactics the Defense Department’s top officials are using in an increasingly partisan feud over their budget — particularly striking for an agency that seeks to avoid the perception of involvement in election-year politics.” [Politico]
GENERALS ENDORSE TRUMP - Unclear how many promises Trump had to make to General Ripper about bodily fluids to secure his endorsement. Maggie Haberman: “The letter in support of Mr. Trump, signed by 88 retired military figures, will come as the campaign prepares for a week focused on national security, with a forum hosted by NBC and MSNBC on Wednesday evening alongside Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee...[some] have been known for making controversial statements, like Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin of the Army, who was criticized by President George W. Bush for describing the battle against Islamist terrorists as a religious proxy fight between a “Christian nation” and the “idol” of Islam. Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney of the Air Force, who is also listed on the letter and is a Fox News military analyst, has previously submitted court documents challenging President Obama’s eligibility to serve as president, accusing him of not having been born in the United States, an accusation Mr. Trump himself once raised.” [NYT]
Context: “Sen. John McCain, a former Naval Aviator, was endorsed by 300 generals and admirals in his 2008 contest with Barack Obama. An even bigger number backed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 2012 via a full-page ad in the Washington Times.” [CNN]
Damn, Dallas Morning News: “The Dallas Morning News, which has endorsed the Republican nominee in every presidential election since 1964, lambasted real estate mogul Donald Trump in a scathing editorial published Tuesday. Listing the businessman’s transgressions against traditional conservative orthodoxy, including the principles of individual liberty, economic conservatism and a stronger national defense, the paper’s editorial board argued that Trump is ‘no Republican and certainly no conservative.’ ‘We have no interest in a Republican nominee for whom all principles are negotiable, nor in a Republican Party that is willing to trade away principle for pursuit of electoral victory,’ the editorial said.” [HuffPost’s Igor Bobic]
BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR - Here are puppies with no musical sense.
FOX NEWS REACHES SETTLEMENT WITH GRETCHEN CARLSON - Alana Horowitz Satlin: “Fox News has reached a settlement with former ‘Fox and Friends’ host Gretchen Carlson over allegations that the network’s disgraced former CEO sexually harassed her, the network said in a statement Tuesday. Fox will pay Carlson $20 million to end her lawsuit against Roger Ailes, Vanity Fair reported. Ailes received a $40 million severance package. ‘We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve,’ Fox said in the statement. Carlson had said in her lawsuit that Ailes made sexual advances toward her. She alleged her former co-host, Steve Doocy, also mistreated her. She said in a statement Tuesday that she was ‘gratified’ that Fox took decisive action after she filed her complaint.” [HuffPost]
Greta Van Susteren is also leaving the network: “Greta Van Susteren left Fox News on Tuesday after 14 years at the network, an abrupt departure that comes with just two months left before the 2016 election. It’s highly unusual for a network host to leave so suddenly, and the move was announced right after 21st Century Fox settled a lawsuit with former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson. Van Susteren said in a Facebook post she informed Fox News management on Thursday night that she was leaving, but she indicated she’d been considering the move for some time. ‘Fox has not felt like home to me for a few years and I took advantage of the clause in my contract which allows me to leave now,’ she wrote. ‘The clause had a time limitation, meaning I could not wait.’” [HuffPost’s Michael Calderone]
COMFORT FOOD
- This is what we want for Christmas.
- Metro once considered naming a station “Pooks Hill.”
- Using rubber chickens to make super fresh EDM.
TWITTERAMA
@delrayser: If Donald Trump doesn’t have crippling gout, why does he refuse to even say the words “uric acid crystals”? Hiding something!
@NickBaumann: “I was for Hillary but then I heard a rumor she was sick and I think Trump would be better than a sick person.” ― A Real Live Voter
@ryanbeckwith: Cybers, ranked:
- -punk
- -security
- -netics
- -crime
- -cafe
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