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‘All the girls are lying?’ man yells at Roy Moore in church

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Republican Roy Moore continued on Wednesday to deny any knowledge of the accusers who have claimed in recent weeks that the former judge behaved inappropriately and molested teenage girls decades ago.

Speaking inside a nearly 150-year-old church in south Mobile County, Moore also accused one of the nine women who have come forward of having an agenda to stop his political career.

“The attacks have been false, numerous and vicious,” Moore said during a 22-minute speech interrupted twice by protestors, one who was anti-Moore and another who was a Moore supporter. The speech occurred less than two weeks before the Dec. 12 Senate special election pitting Moore against Democrat Doug Jones.

“I do not know any of these women,” Moore said. “I did not engage in sexual misconduct. It’s simply dirty politics. It’s a sign of our times.”

Moore referenced a report from the conservative One America News Network which criticized one of the accusers of having alleged family ties to drug dealers, and called the scandal that has threatened his political career as a “conspiracy.”

Moore’s continued denial of knowledge about any of the accusers also came one day after Leigh Corfman — the accuser who claims Moore touched her sexually when she was 14 and he was 32 — hand-delivered a letter to AL.com insisting that he stop calling her a liar.

“It may seem odd that having served the public in the state of Alabama for 40 years and counting my service in the Army, 50 years going back to West Point, never once has anyone stated anything that has (been alleged),” Moore said.

Clash of “protesters”

Moore’s speech was interrupted twice, once by a man who questioned why the former judge and his supporters did not believe any of the allegations raised in media reports. “The entire time, all the girls are lying?” the man shouted.

A bizarre back-and-forth ensued as the police escorted the man out of the Magnolia Springs Baptist Church.

A pro-Moore supporter then shouted that the former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice is a “man’s man. Does that look like the face of a molester?”

It was later identified that the pro-Moore supporter is the comedian Tony Barbieri, who is famous for his appearances as the character Jake Byrd on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Before the speech, Barbieri repeatedly interrupted individual interviews a TV crew was conducting with Moore supporters as they walked into the church.

Barbieri was later asked to leave after he stood up and shouted, “Does that look like someone who hits on teenage girls?”

Later, outside the church, a confrontation occurred between Theodore resident David Connolly, who attended the speech and accused the church of hosting a political rally while billing it as a religious service.

“I believe in giving everyone a chance to speak,” Connolly said while he was interviewed by a large throng of television media. “I heard what the man had to say and he uses Bible verses to twist in any way he can. This is embarrassing to Alabama and embarrassing to me.”

Moore supporters, who stood by and listened to Connolly, yelled back at him and accused him of being a plant for the Jones campaign. “How much are you getting paid?” one Moore supporter yelled.

Connolly replied, “Is that a serious question? Would you like to follow me home, sir? I don’t know of anyone who would pay for me to talk tonight.”

Protests aside, Moore’s supporters embraced the former judge’s opportunity to speak at the church. To them, Moore is the victim of a dirty politics, and they also question why the allegations made against him have surfaced weeks before the general election.

“Politics has just gotten ugly,” said Michael Griffon. “It’s always been ugly, but when it hits you this hard in the face, it’s just really seems very ugly to me.”

Lou Campomenosi, who heads up the Baldwin County Common Sense Campaign, said the tea party supporters with his group believe “this is part and parcel to the politics of personal destruction.”

“We are not going to say we believe these allegations, and they are allegations,” said Campomenosi. “It’s very unfair to drop these kind of things a very short time before an election. It’s not fair to Judge Moore. It’s not fair to the electorate. I think this is just a very real conspiracy to destroy a man … these people don’t like. Not just the liberal Democrats, but Mitch McConnell and the RINO swamp.”

Focus on issues

Moore, much like his appearance Monday in DeKalb County, outlined the sharp contrasts on issues between himself and Jones. He said he supports a complete overturn of the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court legalizing abortions, opposes transgender troops serving in the military and defunding Planned Parenthood.

“I would first overturn Roe v. Wade,” Moore said. “It’s an unconstitutional decision. There is no such thing as established precedent.”

In addition, he said federal judges “who put themselves above the Constitution should be impeached.”

Moore’s visit to Mobile County comes as his campaign has rebounded since the Nov. 9 Washington Post article was first published detailing the initial allegations against him.

He has pulled ahead of Jones in recent polling. A RealClearPolitics average of six recent polls in the Senate race shows Moore with a two-point advantage over Jones, after Jones had taken a brief lead last week.

Moore supporters inside the Magnolia Springs Baptist Church in Theodore, said they felt confident in the ex-judge’s campaign, and felt he would win the Senate election.

“I think he’s going to make it,” said Clyde Clark, a resident of rural Irvington.

Bannon coming

The Moore campaign also announced that former White House chief strategist and current Brietbart News executive chairman Stephen Bannon will join the former judge during a Dec. 5 rally in Fairhope. The two will appear on the same stage they shared during a pre-runoff rally in September days before Moore defeated Senator Luther Strange.

Dean Young, a campaign strategist for Moore, encouraged supporters to attend next week’s rally at Oak Hollow Farm – about an hour’s drive from the Theodore church – to “show the world” that “we stand for Judge Moore.”

Richard Fording, a political science professor at the University of Alabama, said the Bannon appearance is meant to keep the conservative GOP base “mobilized for the future” with the 2018 midterm elections coming up.

Bannon, since he left the White House in August, has signaled he plans to campaign to unseat establishment candidates and have them replaced with insurgents who are loyal to President Donald Trump’s nationalist agenda.

“For (Bannon), it’s all about the policy and short of a conviction in court, he’s going to be supporting candidates who are board with him,” Fording said. “If Roy Moore wins, there is a good chance he will be greatly indebted to Steve Bannon. There is a lot of upside for Bannon.”

Senate GOP votes to begin debate on tax bill

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The Senate voted to begin debate on its tax cut bill Wednesday, edging Republicans closer to their first major legislative victory under President Trump as they seek to finish the chamber’s work on the measure by the end of the week.

Senators voted 52-48 to take up the House-passed legislation, which is being used as a vehicle for the Senate bill.

No Republicans voted against proceeding to debate, a huge accomplishment for GOP leaders who struggled earlier this year to corral their members around legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare. No Democrats voted for the measure.

GOP Sens. Susan CollinsSusan Margaret CollinsGOP in furious push for tax-reform votes Rand Paul to vote for Senate GOP tax bill The Hill’s Whip List: Where Republicans stand on Senate tax bill MORE (Maine), Steve DainesSteven (Steve) David DainesTrump: Dems ‘want big tax increases’ GOP Senate ‘no’ votes float tax-reform fix GOP in furious push for tax-reform votes MORE (Mont.) and Jeff FlakeJeffrey (Jeff) Lane FlakeGOP in furious push for tax-reform votes The Hill’s Whip List: Where Republicans stand on Senate tax bill Dictionary.com picks ‘complicit’ as 2017 word of the year MORE (Ariz.) all said they would agree to start debate before it began, despite various worries about the legislation.

In another sign of GOP momentum, Sen. Lisa MurkowskiLisa Ann MurkowskiGOP in furious push for tax-reform votes The Hill’s Whip List: Where Republicans stand on Senate tax bill This week: Senate Republicans take up tax reform MORE (Alaska) said she would vote for the tax package — and that she would help manage the floor debate given a section of the bill that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellGOP Senate ‘no’ votes float tax-reform fix Women, Dems leading sexual harassment discussion in Congress: analysis FreedomWatch sues to remove Mueller MORE (R-Ky.) urged senators to vote to start debate, promising they’d have time to amend the bill on the Senate floor.


“I encourage any member who thinks that we need to fix the problems of our outdated tax code to vote to proceed to the legislation,” he said in a floor speech. “I urge them to vote for the motion to proceed and offer their amendments. … The bottom line is this: we must vote to begin debate.”


Trump, a day after visiting the GOP conference, sold the bill on Wednesday during a stop in Missouri, where Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskillClaire Conner McCaskillFranken seeks to head off calls for resignation ‘Fed up’ women voters are preparing to run for political office Lawmakers take to Twitter to spread the Thanksgiving cheer MORE is up for reelection.


“This week’s vote can be the beginning of the next great chapter for the American worker,” he said, adding that the tax cuts would ensure a “merry Christmas” for the country.

The GOP’s goal is to get a final bill to Trump’s desk by the end of the year, which would give him and his party a significant win at the end of a difficult year.

If the Senate can approve its legislation this week, Congress would have the month of December to work out differences between the Senate and House bills.

The vote starts the clock on 20 hours of additional debate on the tax legislation before a freewheeling “vote-a-rama.”

During that process, any senator can demand a vote on any amendment, with hundreds of potential changes typically being filed. The vote-a-rama is expected to take place on Thursday. Several senators who could make or break the tax plan remain on the fence, despite agreeing to start debate.

It appears these Republicans are likely to vote for the final bill, though thorny talks about how to safeguard GOP economic estimates that the bill will not bust the budget could be a problem.

Deficit hawks — led by Sens. Bob CorkerRobert (Bob) Phillips CorkerGOP in furious push for tax-reform votes Two Budget Committee GOP senators threaten to vote against tax bill State Dept official in charge of Tillerson’s agency overhaul resigns after three months MORE (R-Tenn.) and James LankfordJames Paul LankfordGOP in furious push for tax-reform votes The Hill’s Whip List: Where Republicans stand on Senate tax bill Senate vote on tax cut looms next week MORE (R-Okla.) — want to include a  “trigger” that would increase taxes if the economic growth Republicans are predicting will pay for their tax plan falls short.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the Senate bill would add about $1.4 trillion to the deficit in its first 10 years before taking economic effects into account. Republican leaders say they expect increased economic growth to create additional revenues that would offset some or all of the deficit increases.

Corker before the procedural vote said they have a deal “in principle” but declined to go into details until the agreement was locked down in writing.

Asked if he would support the legislation without the fiscal backstop, he said that the “trigger is very important to me.”



“I think each of us has to understand in a bill like this there are going to be things you like and things you don’t. You’ve got to decide on balance if it’s better for the country,” he said.

The idea of a trigger has sparked a backlash among conservatives and outside groups, who oppose allowing tax hikes to snap into place.

Sen. Dean HellerDean Arthur HellerKeeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers will prevent more senseless tragedies The Hill’s Whip List: Where Republicans stand on Senate tax bill Another perfect storm: Why we must act before flood insurance runs dry MORE (R-Nev.), who is facing a competitive reelection race next year, expressed concerns that a trigger would undermine tax certainty businesses need to make investments.



“I do not support triggers,” he said at an event hosted by groups — backed by GOP mega-donors Charles and David Koch — which oppose the idea. “I think it takes away the kind of certainty that we have put in this bill through the efforts of the Finance Committee over the last three months.”


Leaving a closed-door caucus lunch, members floated a backstop that would enact automatic spending cuts. But Corker said on Wednesday evening that the “trigger” would be limited to automatic tax increases, though the details of the agreement were still being worked out. 

Meanwhile, GOP Sens. Ron JohnsonRonald (Ron) Harold JohnsonTrump: Dems ‘want big tax increases’ GOP Senate ‘no’ votes float tax-reform fix GOP in furious push for tax-reform votes MORE (Wis.) and Daines have pushed for more parity between corporations and pass-through businesses.

Pass-throughs are businesses, such as partnerships and sole proprietorships, that have their income taxed through the individual system on their owner’s returns. Many small businesses are pass-throughs.

Just before voting, Daines said that the pass-through deduction would be increased from 17.4 percent to 20 percent, by not allowing big companies to deduct state and local taxes. He said the Senate Finance Committee has worked out a plan for paying for the larger deduction.

Collins said she is a “yes” on starting debate after winning a commitment from McConnell to include funding for ObamaCare’s cost-sharing reduction payments and reinsurance in a must-pass bill by the end of the year.

“I still would prefer that the individual mandate [repeal] were not in the bill,” she said of the tax bill’s elimination of ObamaCare’s mandate that people buy insurance. “It complicates this whole issue and when you pull one piece of the Affordable Care Act out it has an impact on premiums.”

Sens. Mike LeeMichael (Mike) Shumway LeeGOP tax agenda is a grave threat to people in poverty The Hill’s Whip List: Where Republicans stand on Senate tax bill Congress poised to jam through reauthorization of mass surveillance MORE (R-Utah) and Marco RubioMarco Antonio RubioFranken seeks to head off calls for resignation GOP tax agenda is a grave threat to people in poverty Rubio: Al Franken ‘should consider resigning’ MORE (R-Fla.) said they plan to offer an amendment that would further expand the child tax credit and pay for it by bringing the corporate rate in the bill from 20 percent to 22 percent. The White House said it opposes the amendment’s increase in the bill’s corporate rate. The corporate rate is currently 35 percent.

This story was updated at 6:44 p.m.

North Korea has shown us its new missile, and it’s scarier than we thought

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This Nov. 29 image provided by the North Korean government on Thursday shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and what it calls the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (Korean Central News Agency via AP)

TOKYO — A day after its latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch, North Korea released photos of what it’s calling the “Hwasong-15.” And the collective response from missile experts was — not to get too technical — whoa.

The missile and its launcher truck  do, at first blush, appear to support North Korea’s claim that this missile is much more technologically advanced than previous iterations.

Although there is still much that can’t be gleaned from the photos and North Korea does have an inglorious record of exaggeration, analysts generally agree that the Hwasong-15 marks a significant leap forward in North Korea’s missile development.

“This is a really big missile, much larger than I expected,” said Scott LaFoy, an imagery analyst for the specialist website NK News. “I believe one of my professors would have referred to it as a big honking missile.”

Several analysts noted that the missile looked like the American Titan II, which was initially an ICBM but was then later used by the U.S. Air Force and NASA as a space launch vehicle.

So, to break down what the initial pictures show:

THE TRUCK

The transporter erecter launcher, or TEL, has nine axles, making it one axle longer than the TEL used to launch the previous iteration of the intercontinental ballistic missile. North Korea claims to have made these trucks itself but analysts believe they are modified versions or based on the Chinese lumber truck, the WS51200.

For some perspective, this is what it looks like next to Kim Jong Un. The tires are nearly as tall as he is.

“We’ve seen heavy vehicle extensions before but this would this would be a very large step forward for their heavy vehicles industry,” said LaFoy, estimating that the truck was about twice as long as an American school bus. “We know that this is pretty difficult. It took China a while to figure this out.”

THE NOSE CONE

The nose cone of the Hwasong-15 is much blunter than of the previous iteration, the Hwasong-14. This is likely an effort to slow down the missile slightly as it screams through the atmosphere, which lowers the heat inside the missile and means that the warhead doesn’t have to withstand quite as much variation in temperature during flight.

This might be an effort to overcome issues with the re-entry vehicle — the part of the missile that protects the warhead during launch and brings it back into the Earth’s atmosphere. This is one of the parts of the missile that North Korea has not yet proven it has mastered.

The size of the nose cone and re-entry vehicle on the Hwasong-15 supports North Korea’s claim that the missile can carry a “super large heavy warhead.” But experts think the missile tested this week was carrying a light, mock warhead.

The Hwasong-14 and 15 missiles are likely to have carried only very small payloads, which exaggerate the range that a North Korean missile can fly, said Michael Elleman, senior fellow for missile defense at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Basically, the heavier the warhead, the shorter the distance it can travel.

If the Hwasong-15 was fitted with a half-ton payload and flown on a standard trajectory, it could probably fly about 5,300 miles, Elleman wrote for 38 North, a website devoted to North Korea, meaning that a 600 kilogram (1,320 pound) payload “barely reaches Seattle.”

Still, with its publication of this huge re-entry vehicle, Kim’s regime is clearly signaling that this is their ultimate goal.

ENGINES

The first stage of the Hwasong-15 — the bottom part that propels it off the launcher, sometimes called the “booster” — has two engines. “We’re trying to figure out what those may be and how powerful they are,” said David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

But the second stage looks like it can carry more than twice as much propellant as the Hwasong-14, since it is longer and has a larger diameter, Wright said. “The combination of those two things means it really is a new, more capable missile.”

The addition of two engines doubled the second stage thrust and allows the missile to reach a higher peak altitude, Elleman said. This missile reached a height of about 2,800 miles — or ten times as high as the International Space Station.

STEERING

The Hwasong-14 had only one nozzle and it used four vernier engines to steer the missile. But the newly unveiled Hwasong-15 has two nozzles and no verniers. That suggests the missile is steered by gimbaling, a more advanced way to control the missile.

“This is a sort of maneuvering which is pretty fancy. You lose the least thrust that way,” said LaFoy. “We knew they’d get there eventually but we didn’t think the North Koreans were there yet.”

NBC Receives at Least 2 New Complaints About Matt Lauer

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Representatives for Mr. Lauer did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

News of Mr. Lauer’s sudden downfall shook the television world, where he had established himself as one of the most powerful men in his industry. Even President Trump — who himself has denied multiple allegations of sexual misconduct — weighed in, seizing on Mr. Lauer’s firing to denounce NBC News’s coverage and call for other senior figures at NBC News to be ousted.

Mr. Lauer, 59, joins an ignominious group of media figures felled by the recent spate of harassment claims, including the studio mogul Harvey Weinstein, the comedian Louis C.K., the CBS host Charlie Rose and the political journalist Mark Halperin. Journalists at several news outlets had recently conducted interviews with former and current NBC employees about Mr. Lauer’s behavior, alerting the network to potential articles about him. But it was the formal complaint on Monday that prompted NBC to take action.

In an editorial meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Lack said that Mr. Lauer’s involvement with the woman who made the complaint began while they were in Sochi, Russia, to cover the Winter Olympics in 2014, and that their involvement continued after they returned to New York, according to two people briefed on the meeting.

Other “Today” hosts learned of Mr. Lauer’s termination around 4 a.m. on Wednesday; staff members were told just minutes before the show went on the air at 7 a.m. Savannah Guthrie, Mr. Lauer’s co-anchor, was visibly shaken when she delivered the news to viewers, describing Mr. Lauer as “a dear, dear friend” and adding that she was “heartbroken for the brave colleague who came forward to tell her story.”

Soon after announcing the dismissal, Ms. Guthrie gripped the hand of Hoda Kotb, who was rushed in as an emergency substitute host. The network did not name a replacement for Mr. Lauer.

Ari Wilkenfeld, a civil rights lawyer with the firm Wilkenfeld, Herendeen Atkinson in Washington, said on Wednesday that he represented the woman who had made the initial complaint to NBC, but declined to identify her. In a statement provided to The Times, he praised the courage of his client and said:

“My client and I met with representatives from NBC’s human resources and legal departments at 6 p.m. on Monday for an interview that lasted several hours. Our impression at this point is that NBC acted quickly, as all companies should, when confronted with credible allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace.”

The woman met with reporters from The Times on Monday, but said she was not ready to discuss it publicly.

Besides his “Today” perch, Mr. Lauer was a genial co-host of events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and the Winter and Summer Olympics, and he conducted countless interviews with celebrities. He also contributed to NBC News’s political coverage, although he was widely panned after a debate last year in which he appeared to go easy on Mr. Trump while asking aggressive questions of Hillary Clinton.

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The “Today” show caters to — and relies on — an overwhelmingly female audience, and Mr. Lauer is part of a cast that presents itself as a tight-knit family. Behind the scenes, however, the on-set environment could sometimes resemble a boys’ club, particularly in the years before Comcast completed its acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2013, according to interviews with more than half a dozen former staff members.

Jokes about women’s appearances were routine, the former employees said. One former producer recalled a director saying he “wanted some milk” in reference to one woman’s chest and making inappropriate comments about women over an audio feed with multiple people listening. Two former employees recalled colleagues playing a crude game in which they chose which female guests or staff members they would prefer to marry, kill or have sex with.

The former employees spoke anonymously because they feared their career prospects in the industry could be harmed.

Other current and former staff members, however, described a more professional work culture, and said they did not witness harassment. An NBC spokeswoman declined on Wednesday to comment on the “boys’ club” characterization, but pointed out that 13 of 19 senior-level female producers at “Today” had been promoted since 2015.

The woman who described the encounter in 2001 with Mr. Lauer in his office told The Times that the anchor had made inappropriate comments to her shortly after she started as a “Today” producer in the late 1990s.

While traveling with Mr. Lauer for a story, she said, he asked her inappropriate questions over dinner, like whether she had ever cheated on her husband. On the way to the airport, she said, Mr. Lauer sat uncomfortably close to her in the car; she recalled that when she moved away, he said, “You’re no fun.”

In 2001, the woman said, Mr. Lauer, who is married, asked her to his office to discuss a story during a workday. When she sat down, she said, he locked the door, which he could do by pressing a button while sitting at his desk. (People who worked at NBC said the button was a regular security measure installed for high-profile employees.)

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The woman said Mr. Lauer asked her to unbutton her blouse, which she did. She said the anchor then stepped out from behind his desk, pulled down her pants, bent her over a chair and had intercourse with her. At some point, she said, she passed out with her pants pulled halfway down. She woke up on the floor of his office, and Mr. Lauer had his assistant take her to a nurse.

The woman told The Times that Mr. Lauer never made an advance toward her again and never mentioned what occurred in his office. She said she did not report the episode to NBC at the time because she believed she should have done more to stop Mr. Lauer. She left the network about a year later.

On Wednesday, the episode in Mr. Lauer’s office was reported to NBC News after the woman told her then-supervisor, who still works at the network. The woman said an NBC human resources representative had since contacted her.

The woman, who was in her early 40s at the time, told her then-husband about the encounter, which The Times confirmed with him in a phone call. The couple was separated at the time, and later divorced. She also described it to a friend five years ago, which the friend confirmed to The Times.

NBC News has suffered other black eyes, as well. Last year, the network reviewed 2005 footage from the NBC-owned show “Access Hollywood” that revealed Mr. Trump bragging about grabbing women’s genitalia. But the footage was released first by a competitor, The Washington Post, embarrassing the NBC news division.

In recent weeks, NBC News was criticized for passing on an exposé of Mr. Weinstein by an MSNBC contributor, Ronan Farrow. Mr. Farrow’s reporting later appeared in The New Yorker, and helped set off the current wave of revelations about abuses by powerful men in media and entertainment.


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Trump veers past guardrails, feeling impervious to the uproar he causes

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President Trump this week disseminated on social media three inflammatory and unverified ­anti-Muslim videos, took glee in the firing of a news anchor for sexual harassment allegations despite facing more than a dozen of his own accusers and used a ceremony honoring Navajo war heroes to malign a senator with a derogatory nickname, “Pocahontas.”

Again and again, Trump veered far past the guardrails of presidential behavior. But despite the now-routine condemnations, the president is acting emboldened, as if he were impervious to the uproar he causes.

If there are consequences for his actions, Trump does not seem to feel their burden personally. The Republican tax bill appears on track for passage, putting the president on the cusp of his first major legislative achievement. Trump himself remains the ­highest-profile man accused of sexual improprieties to keep his job with no repercussions.

Trump has internalized the belief that he can largely operate with impunity, people close to him said. His political base cheers him on. Fellow Republican leaders largely stand by him. His staff scrambles to explain away his misbehavior — or even to laugh it off. And the White House disciplinarian, chief of staff John F. Kelly, has said it is not his job to control the president.

For years, Trump has fired off incendiary tweets and created self-sabotaging controversies. The pattern captures the musings of a man who traffics in conspiracy theories and alternate realities and who can’t resist inserting himself into any story line at any moment.

“In an intensely polarized world, you can’t burn down the same house twice,” said Alex Castellanos, a GOP campaign consultant. “What has Donald Trump got to lose at this point?”

Castellanos added that for many voters, and especially Trump’s base, there’s an “upside” to his bellicosity. “A strong daddy bear is what a lot of voters want,” he said. “Right or wrong, at least he’s fighting for us.”

On Wednesday, Trump took to Twitter before sunrise to share three unverified videos with his 43.6 million followers that seemed designed to stoke anti-Muslim sentiments. He then relished in the firing of Matt Lauer from NBC’s “Today” show for allegations of sexual misconduct and fanned unsubstantiated rumors about three other NBC and MSNBC executives and personalities.

Two days earlier, Trump used a ceremony honoring the World War II Navajo code talkers to deride Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) by using his nickname for her, “Pocahontas.” Native American leaders and other Americans have objected to the characterization as a racial slur.

Trump traveled on Wednesday to Missouri, where he pitched the tax overhaul plan. He explained that he did not mind that the bill might close loopholes for the wealthy like himself.

Trump and other wealthy Americans are poised to benefit from the plan, according to tax experts, because of cuts to estate and business taxes and other relief for real estate holdings. Trump has refused to release his tax returns, so it is impossible to say exactly how he would benefit.

White House chief of staff John F. Kelly and staff secretary Rob Porter follow President Trump to Marine One on Nov. 29, 2017, before departing for a presidential event in Missouri (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

In Missouri, he was talking about taxes, but he might as well been describing his mind-set.

“Hey, look, I’m president,” Trump said. “I don’t care. I don’t care anymore.”

Trump’s anti-Islam tweets on Wednesday — he retweeted videos first posted by a leader of the far-right Britain First party, an extremist group that targets mosques and Muslims — earned him a sharp rebuke from the British prime minister’s office.

The retweets also caught his West Wing team off guard. One aide said staffers were unsure exactly how to respond to — let alone defend — his tweets, while another noted that the tweets were unexpected but not necessarily out of character.

“He got pretty fired up this morning,” said the second aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment. “This was not planned.”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trump’s post as evidence that he wants to “promote strong borders and strong national security.” But she sidestepped questions on whether the president should give his Twitter endorsement to content whose authenticity was not verified.

“Whether it’s a real video, the threat is real, and that is what the president is talking about,” Sanders told reporters.

Jason Miller, a former Trump campaign adviser, said the media were overreacting to the president’s sharing of anti-Muslim videos. “A very small number of people, primarily in New York and Washington, are complaining about the origin of the tweets, and most of the rest of the country is talking about the need for stricter border security and the threat of radical Islamic terrorism,” Miller said.

Still, by sharing the videos, Trump created problems for himself. He undermined the administration’s legal strategy in defending the controversial entry ban by offering evidence of anti-Muslim bias. Federal judges have blocked various versions of the ban because it is akin to an unconstitutional ban on Muslims, which Trump had called for during the campaign.

One of Trump’s aides, deputy press secretary Raj Shah, also may have complicated the legal strategy. Aboard Air Force One on Wednesday, Shah answered a reporter’s question about whether Trump thinks Muslims are a threat to the United States by saying, “No, look, the president has addressed these issues with the travel order that he issued earlier this year and the companion proclamation.”

Trump also strained, at least temporarily, the special relationship with Britain. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May delivered a rare rebuke from 10 Downing Street: “British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far-right which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents: decency, tolerance and respect.”

On Wednesday evening, Trump responded on Twitter: “Theresa May, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!”

Trump’s advisers and friends said he feels emboldened, even invincible, to communicate as he chooses — especially on cultural issues, believing that his stances work for him politically by galvanizing his base.

Having long trafficked in conspiracy theories — his political rise was fueled by his role as one of the nation’s leading champions of the false claim that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States — Trump continues as president to promote falsehoods and reject facts.

Trump has recently told friends that he believes special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation will be winding down by the end of the year and that he will be exonerated, even though many experts and others close to the wide-ranging probe say that view is overly optimistic.

Trump has watched as other high-profile men’s careers have crumbled under the weight of public accusations of sexual misconduct. Yet Trump has faced no disciplinary repercussions, even after bragging on a 2005 tape about having sexually assaulted women. “Grab ’em by the p—y. You can do anything,” Trump told “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush, who lost his job over the incident.

During the 2016 campaign, more than 12 women publicly came forward with claims that Trump had sexually harassed or assaulted them. Yet Trump categorically denied the women’s accounts and won the election.

Trump occasionally has even speculated, in private conversations with advisers and friends over the past year, that the voice in the tape may not be his or that the tape may have been unfairly doctored.

Roger Stone, a former political adviser to and longtime friend of Trump’s, said the president is less strategic and more spontaneous with his controversial comments.

“I just think you’re seeing the president as way too Machiavellian,” Stone said. “He doesn’t necessarily have a strategy. His instincts on the news cycle and how to tweak his enemies is extraordinary. . . . He’s a master marketer, and the only thing worse than being wrong is being boring. We’re talking about this now.”

Trump feels especially liberated when he is at Mar-a-Lago, his lush seaside resort in Palm Beach, Fla., where he spent the Thanksgiving holiday, according to his friends. There, Trump enjoys a less structured and disciplined environment than at the White House, where Kelly attempts to tightly control whom the president sees and what information he receives.

In Palm Beach, friends and club members can approach Trump at will and plant ideas in the president’s head, which he sometimes repeats or acts on.

Two outside advisers to Trump suspected it was no coincidence that he returned to Washington on Sunday night and soon thereafter struck a pugnacious tone in his public comments.

“Mar-a-Lago stirs him up,” said one of the advisers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans struggled Wednesday to defend the president. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said Trump’s retweets of the videos were “particularly unhelpful.”

“We don’t want to take a fringe group and elevate their content,” Graham said. “I think it also is not the message we need to be sending right now where we need, you know, Muslim allies.”

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), an outspoken Trump critic, agreed: “I just thought it was highly inappropriate. Not helpful.”

GOP strategist John Brabender said Trump’s tweets distracted from his agenda to pass a tax cuts bill and focus on the nuclear threat from North Korea. But, Brabender said, “this is not new in Donald Trump’s world.”

“We’re seeing the message hijacked by the messenger,” Brabender said. “That’s been problematic for a long time and it’s still problematic. . . . Sometimes we all just scratch our heads.”

Sean Sullivan contributed to this report.

CNN reportedly boycotts White House’s Christmas party

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Trump CNN
President Donald Trump
walks alongside a CNN logo.
AP Images
/ Alan Diaz

  • CNN reportedly will boycott the White House’s annual
    Christmas party, due to President Donald Trump’s “continued
    attacks” on the press.
  • The party is meant for members of the press and White
    House officials to socialize.
  • “Christmas comes early,” White House press secretary
    Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted, following the
    announcement.

Citing President Donald Trump’s “continued attacks” on the press,
CNN is boycotting the White House’s
annual Christmas party, according to a Politico report Tuesday.

“CNN will not be attending this year’s White House Christmas
party,” a CNN spokesperson told Politico. “In light of the
President’s continued attacks on freedom of the press and CNN, we
do not feel it is appropriate to celebrate with him as his
invited guests.”

Despite not taking part in the festivities, the CNN spokesperson
said that they would provide coverage for the event: “We will
send a White House reporting team to the event and report on it
if news warrants.”

Following the announcement, White House press secretary Sarah
Huckabee Sanders appeared to be elated: “Christmas comes early!
Finally, good news from @CNN,” Sanders tweeted to Politico’s story.

The event, in which members of the press and White House
officials can escape from their ongoing, daily feuds, is being
overshadowed by Trump’s hostile stance towards certain networks,
particularly CNN.

“[Fox News] is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN,
but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major
source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD
very poorly,” Trump tweeted Saturday. “The outside
world does not see the truth from them!”

CNN reporters have since condemned Trump’s statement, one of many
about the network, and replied to his original tweet.

“At CNN we dodge bullets to bring you the news,” tweeted Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s
chief international correspondent. “Nothing fake about that.”

“If President Trump knew the facts, he would never have sent that
tweet,” Amanpour said in another tweet.

Gunman who fired shots from high-rise condo in downtown Reno is dead, authorities say

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A gunman with a hostage opened fire from the eighth floor of a luxury high-rise condominium in Reno onto the streets below, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

The man died Tuesday night after a SWAT team descended on him while he was barricaded at the Montage condo complex, Reno Police Deputy Chief Tom Robinson told reporters. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he was killed by police gunfire or his own. No one else, including the hostage, was hurt.

The gunman’s name has not been released. Robinson described him only as a young adult.

The luxury high-rise is surrounded by some of downtown Reno’s most popular casinos, and the gunfire brought eerie echoes of the Las Vegas shooting two months earlier that killed 58 people and injured hundreds more.

Stephen Paddock, the man who opened fire Oct. 1 from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino in Las Vegas onto an outdoor concert below, had owned a unit at the Montage. Records show he sold the property in December 2016.

“When you heard it’s coming from above, it reminds you of the guy shooting from Mandalay Bay,” said Mike Pavicich, who was in town on business from Las Vegas and was standing atop a parking garage at the neighboring Eldorado Resort Casino when the shots rang out.

“It’s scary, you know?” Pavicich told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “This is the same kind of town.”

Even before court victory, Trump’s pick to lead consumer watchdog began reshaping agency

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A federal judge on Tuesday refused to block President Trump’s pick to be the temporary leader of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, denying a request by a high-ranking agency employee that she be put in charge instead.

In turning down Leandra English’s request for a temporary restraining order, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly acknowledged that the case raised constitutional questions, but he ruled that White House budget director Mick Mulvaney can remain acting CFPB director. Former CFPB litigation counsel Deepak Gupta, representing English, said they would weigh their options to resolve an issue they say has left the six-year old agency and its 1,600 employees in legal limbo.

“There needs to be an answer, and there needs to be a final answer. There needs to be a resolution of this cloud of impropriety hanging over the bureau,” Gupta told reporters after the hearing.

The Trump administration applauded the decision and said the ruling supports its contention that Mulvaney is the rightful acting director.

“It’s time for the Democrats to stop enabling this brazen political stunt by a rogue employee and allow Acting Director Mulvaney to continue the Bureau’s smooth transition into an agency that truly serves to help consumers,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement.

Even before the decision, Mulvaney was moving aggressively to reshape an agency he has criticized in the past. On his first day in the office, he announced a 30-day freeze on the issuance of new rules and hiring. On Tuesday, he started a new Twitter account — @CFPBdirector — and posted a picture of himself at a desk with an American flag in the background. “Busy day at the @CFPB. Digging into the details,” the tweet said. On the agency’s website, Mulvaney is now listed as director with a note that says “Bio coming soon.”

“Anyone who thinks that a Trump administration CFPB would be the same as an Obama administration CFPB is simply being naive,” he told reporters Monday. “Elections have consequences at every agency, including the CFPB.”

That is probably just the beginning of the changes the CFPB could see under the Trump administration. Republicans and the banking industry have complained that the agency, created in reaction to the global financial crisis, lacks accountability and that its rulemaking has made it harder for consumers to get loans. House Republicans approved legislation this year that would strip the CFPB of many of its powers.

“I would expect a sea change,” said Alan Kaplinsky, head of the consumer financial services group for the law firm Ballard Spahr. It could be “a very significant shift in direction, but it won’t happen overnight.”

While Democrats and consumer groups acknowledge it is inevitable that a Trump nominee will lead the agency, they worry that the White House could leave Mulvaney as acting director for months, or longer, before nominating a permanent replacement.

Instead, they say, the Trump administration should be forced to nominate someone who would have to go through an extensive vetting and Senate confirmation process. Then there would be a better chance of securing a director who is less hostile toward the CFPB, they say.

“I do think there is a difference between Mulvaney, and the actions he would try to take as acting director, and a permanent, Senate-confirmed nominee,” said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform. “Some of the Trump nominees have been rejected.”

The tug-of-war over the leadership began last week after former CFPB director Richard Cordray resigned and promoted his chief of staff, English, who he said would run the department on an interim basis. Trump quickly appointed Mulvaney, a longtime critic of the bureau, to the job instead. Each camp claimed that the law was on their side and that they were in charge.

In court, English’s attorney argued that the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which established the agency after the financial crisis, laid out a specific plan of succession authorizing the deputy director to take over until a White House nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Also, they said, Mulvaney cannot wear two hats by simultaneously leading the independent financial regulator while serving as director the Office of Management and Budget.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate argued that Trump had authority under an earlier law, the 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act, and cited supporting opinions by the Justice Department’s office of legal counsel and the CFPB’s general counsel.

Kelly, a Trump appointee who joined the federal court in Washington in September, sided with the Trump administration, allowing Mulvaney to stay in place for now. “On its face, the VRA does appear to apply to this situation,” Kelly ruled.

The independent structure of the agency, which Democrats fought to keep under Cordray, now gives Mulvaney a freer hand to operate. Instead of having to consult a multi-member board, the acting director can make many changes alone, industry experts and consumer advocates note. While English would have been likely to keep the status quo, they say, Mulvaney can now make significant changes without much oversight — such as abandoning investigations or shrinking the agency’s budget.

The CFPB, for example, has been working on rules for the past few years to address bank overdraft fees and the tactics used by debt collectors. It has also finalized regulations targeting the billions of dollars in fees collected by payday lenders offering high-cost, short-term loans. Those regulations don’t go into effect until 2019, giving Mulvaney time to alter the rules or get rid of them, consumer advocates say. “The payday rule is certainly at risk,” Donner said.

The agency has also announced cases against dozens of financial institutions that are pending in court or under investigation. Mulvaney or another Trump appointee could decide to abandon or rethink those efforts.

“I think he [Mulvaney] will take a fresh look at all of the CFPB pending investigations and decide whether or not CFPB should continue them,” said Kaplinsky, who has represented firms against the agency.

The industry is also looking toward more fundamental changes to the way the agency operates. The banking industry, for example, has been critical of a CFPB database of consumer complaints against financial institutions. They say the database sometimes includes incorrect information or unproven grievances. Community banks have rumbled that the agency unfairly hobbles them with the same regulatory burdens as their much larger competitors.

Before the Tuesday court hearing, protesters assembled outside the CFPB’s Washington offices, holding signs and chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Mick Mulvaney has to go” as employees entered and exited the building. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who came up with the idea for the CFPB, told the crowd that the fight was not about politics. “This is about what is fair. This agency has forced the biggest banks in the country to return more than $12 billion directly to people they’ve cheated,” she said. “Some of those people were Democrats and some of those people were Republicans. It didn’t matter.”

Staff writer Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report.

Man arrested, to be charged in string of Tampa murders

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Tampa police said Tuesday night they had arrested a 24-year-old man and that he would be charged with murder in four shooting deaths in the Seminole Heights neighborhood that had stoked fears of a serial killer in the area. 

Howell Emanuel Donaldson III, 24, will be charged with four counts of first degree, premeditated murder in the killings of Benjamin Edward Mitchell, Monica Caridad Hoffa, Anthony Naiboa and Ronald Felton, Tampa police chief Brian Dugan said in a press conference Tuesday.

tampa-howell-emanuel-donaldson.jpg

An arrest photo released by the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office shows Howell Emanuel Donaldson III, who has been charged with four counts of premeditated murder for a series of Tampa, Florida area killings.

Donaldson was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon at a McDonald’s after another employee said he handed a gun to a manager, who then reached out to an officer in the building, CBS affiliate WTSP reports. 

“When I think I found out there was a gun, and when we looked at his description, it was a little ore than what we really had,” Dugan said. “It just felt right. I kinda had a feeling that we were going to get a break.”

Investigators are still determining Donaldson’s connection to the neighborhood, Dugan said.

“We’re not sure why he was in this neighborhood,” he said. “We’re not aware what he ties are and we don’t know what his motive is. But there is a lot more to go.”

Police have been searching for the person – or people – responsible for shooting and killing four in the Seminole Heights neighborhood since Oct. 9. Police have said the shootings happened within close proximity to one another, aren’t robberies and could be the work of a serial killer. 

Police had increased patrols in the neighborhood and released surveillance videos of a hooded suspect. In a security video taken moments after 22-year-old Benjamin Mitchell became the first victim on Oct. 9, the suspect is running from the scene.  

“I’ve come up with four reasons why this person is running,” Dugan said last month. “One, they may be late for dinner. Two, they’re out exercising. Three, they heard gunshots. And number four, they just murdered Benjamin Mitchell.”

Two days after Mitchell was shot, Monica Hoffa, 32, was gunned down. And on Oct. 19, Anthony Naiboa, 20, was shot after taking the wrong bus home from his new job. Police patrolling nearby heard the gunshots and rushed to the scene to find Naiboa dead.

Police found the body of Ronald Felton, 60, in the street on Nov. 14.  Police said Felton had been walking across the street to meet someone when the gunman came up behind him and fired.   

Seminole Heights is a working-class neighborhood northeast of downtown Tampa that’s slowly becoming gentrified. Run-down homes sit next to renovated, historic bungalows, and trendy restaurants have sprung up near auto body shops.

Residents and business owners have said there are car burglaries and fights between kids, but nothing like this. 

The department has received more than 5,000 tips. Dugan says he’s optimistic but acknowledged previous leads have led to nothing.

Donaldson’s arrest happened during the kick off for the first annual “Light the Heights” event, WTSP reports. 

The holiday-themed effort to light every home with Christmas lights is the latest to brighten up the area with light – as well as some holiday cheer.

“We have a goal of having every house in our neighborhood lit up to bring a positive light to our neighborhood,” organizer Courtney Bumgarnar told WTSP.