Russiagate - Lisa Page Heads to NBC

I'm shocked it took so long. But will they actually expose her to any unfriendly questioning, or will they just trot her out for the occasional anti-Trump tirade in a friendly panel discussion, with 4 liberals and David Brooks. WaEx, Former FBI agent Lisa Page joins MSNBC as legal analyst. Actually, I don't recall that she was really an FBI agent, IIRC she was a DOJ lawyer detailed to be Priestap's legal advisor, and she worked very hard to go around him.

Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page joined NBC News & MSNBC as a national security & legal analyst.

Page, who has been a target of President Trump's ire for years, joined Deadline: White House on Friday, where the network announced her new role.

In her first appearance in the role, Nicolle Wallace asked her about the federal response to the protests following the death of George Floyd. Floyd, a black man, died after a Minnesota police officer held his knee on Floyd's neck while also being restrained by three other officers. All of them have been arrested.

She specifically questioned the reasoning behind why a number of law enforcement officials in Washington are not wearing badge numbers, name plates, or any marking that would identify which agency they work for.

Page and Peter Strzok were key players in the FBI's investigation of the Trump campaign. In text messages, the two discussed the likelihood of a Trump presidency and how they could "stop it."

Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded that the texts sent between the two "potentially indicated or created the appearance that investigative decisions were impacted by bias or improper considerations." Horowitz, however, said there was no evidence that “improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative decisions."

Ace, NBC Hires... Russiagate Hoaxer Lisa Page

Amazing. . . .Not even hiding it. . . .They were in on the coup from the beginning, and they're putting money in the pockets of all their coup conspirators. . . . Maybe afraid of what the coup plotters will testify to if they flip.

Ed Driscol at Insty, REVOLVING DOOR REVOLVES: MSNBC and NBC News hire Lisa Page as a legal analyst. "UPDATE (FROM GLENN): This is as if the press had hired G. Gordon Liddy to do color commentary on Watergate." John Sexton at Hot Air, MSNBC And NBC News Hire Lisa Page As A Legal Analyst

Given the contents of Page’s texts and emails with Peter Strzok, MSNBC is obviously a perfect fit for her. CNN might have worked as well but with the hiring of Andrew McCabe they had already achieved their quota of disgraced former officials. GOP spokesperson Elizabeth Harrington is already mocking this.

They lied to the country for YEARS about "collusion"

They ruined people's lives, and spied, leaked, and lied

They tried to subvert the will of the American people and overthrow an election

And MSNBC hires them. The media is a joke.https://t.co/L8jmFMO14W

— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) June 5, 2020

Via rhe Wombat's In The Mailbox: 06.05.20 (Late Night Edition), Weasel Zippers: MSNBC Hires Lisa Page As Legal Analyst "You knew it had to happen, right? Unreal. Next to Weisman, Mueller’s guy who actually wrote the report." And finally Sundance at CTH,  Lisa Page Starts New Political Job as MSNBC Analyst…

The media are all-in in their visible resistance. . . The narrative engineering is going to get a lot worse in the coming months. . . . At this point it is simply absurd.

Speaking of which, she was there at the beginning. From John Solomon at JTN, 'Somebody cooked up the plot': The hunt for the origins of the Russia collusion narrative



News Thud, BREAKING: HSGAC votes to give Sen. Ron Johnson authority to subpoena Obama officials. At WaEx, Sen. Marsha Blackburn: Democrats give DOJ liars and conspirators a free pass

The Crossfire Hurricane investigation launched after Christopher Steele produced his now-infamous dossier; we later learned that dossier was based on information spread as part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The DOJ inspector general found that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe lied under oath three times in connection with unauthorized disclosures and illegally leaked information to the press. McCabe has never been charged with these crimes.

Contrast this sequence of events with the public railroading of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn was charged with lying to the FBI under the obscure Logan Act, and prosecutors controlling the case withheld vital Brady evidence from Flynn’s defense. The lead prosecutor was removed after he was exposed for violating Flynn’s constitutional rights.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because 10 years ago, federal prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence in their case against Sen. Ted Stevens. The two prosecutors who withheld that information are still practicing law at the DOJ, which makes it hard to believe that what happened to Flynn isn’t part of a pattern worth investigating.

Make no mistake: Flynn was targeted because he supported President Trump’s 2016 campaign, and he quickly became a victim of the double standards that drove the Obama Justice Department’s agenda. What happened there is outside of the rule of law — and this is the issue Democrats claim no longer matters.

Unfortunately for them, members of Congress were not elected to ignore politically inconvenient scandals. The events of the past few months have exposed the country to fear, boredom, loneliness, confusion, and now anger — but the lockdowns and protests that loom large in the forefront of our minds must not be used as an excuse to give liars and conspirators a free pass.

Meanwhile at AmGreat, Julie Kelly complains that Ben Sasse Rescues Obamagate Conspirators

But thanks to opposition from his own party, Graham had to postpone a vote to issue the subpoenas until next week. Senate Democrats successfully hijacked the discussion to instead vent about police brutality and racism. “Instead of engaging in political partisan gains on behalf of this president what the American people want this committee to do is to be relevant to why they are shouting and marching and crying in the streets of our country,” California Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) scolded Thursday morning. “I would dare say the conversation we are having today is irrelevant to what…is happening on the streets of America today.”

Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) shared Harris’ disinterest in Graham’s attempt to call ObamaGate accomplices to account. Sasse, who has been silent on this unprecedented abuse of federal power against a political foe despite his spot on the Judiciary committee, ranted that “some of us have other work to do” and asked how much longer the meeting would last. “It’s bullshit the way people grandstand for cameras in here,” Sasse scolded. “The Senate doesn’t work…ninety percent of our committees are about people trolling for soundbites.” (Sasse gave a similar dramatic, weepy monologue to an empty Senate chamber during the Kavanaugh-Ford debacle in 2018.)

Sasse’s brief tirade was his only contribution to the meeting; he didn’t even bother attending Rosenstein’s 3-hour testimony on Wednesday. The Nebraska Republican spent more time authoring a statement to condemn the president’s “photo op” at St. John’s this week than he did exposing corrupt Obama-era Democrats.

This one has been misfiled for a few days, from Sister Toldja at Red State, Reporter Asks Kayleigh McEnany to Explain Obamagate and the Crimes Allegedly Committed, Immediately Regrets It



From Daniel Chaitin at WaEx, Democrat defends Robert Mueller's 'extensive brain cells' after Lindsey Graham warns against new testimony

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member from California, said there are "many outstanding questions that remain unanswered" and insisted Mueller was the "best suited" to answer them.

Graham showered praise on Mueller but cautioned against calling the former FBI director in to testify.

"Mr. Mueller is a great patriot who served this country for a long period of time. I'm not averse to having somebody from the Mueller team come and tell the committee what they did and how they did it. As a matter of fact, I think that's a really good idea. I'm not so sure Mr. Mueller would be the best person now, but maybe Mr. Weissmann," he said, referring to Andrew Weissmann, a former Justice Department and FBI official who was a top prosecutor on Mueller's team.

"I agree with you," he added. "I think we need to understand how the Mueller team worked. And I am very open to getting somebody from the Mueller team over here over the course of our inquiry."

Feinstein then offered a defense of Mueller's mental ability.

"I think Mr. Mueller is a man of extensive brain cells and can well recall the situation," she said. "I think this side would very much like to have him here."

Later on in the meeting, Graham signaled he would consent to their demand but with a word of caution.

"As to Mr. Mueller: If you want to call him, I will," Graham said, followed by a long pause. "I would just ask you to think twice about that. If you can find somebody else involved in the Mueller investigation that would serve your purposes, I am very open-minded to calling that person."

And Michael Flynn's lawyer is still working the judges. Sundance, Flynn Attorney Sidney Powell Discusses DC Appeals Court Filings

"Mostly Peaceful Protesters" Sack CNN Atlanta

Stacy McCain: Courageous Social Justice Activists Vandalize CNN Atlanta Headquarters. They probably didn't steal much, though, all that's inside is fake news. 

When they were rioting in Minneapolis, they were thugs and hoodlums, but attacking CNN? Civil rights heroes:

A protest erupted at CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta Friday amid nationwide demonstrations following the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd, with many of the protesters seen vandalizing the entrance of the building in videos posted to social media.
A crowd gathered in front of the CNN Center and grew over the course of several hours, initially breaking windows and spray-painting the CNN sign, and later throwing objects — including what appeared to be a firecracker that exploded — and reportedly shooting BB guns into the lobby.
The iconic CNN sign, a popular tourist destination in the downtown area, was covered with graffiti and others were seen jumping on top of the structure.
A CNN journalist captured footage of a window being shattered by the crowd, which can be heard sparking cheers.
Law enforcement eventually cleared the area, pushing the crowd further down the street.
Reporting from CNN correspondent Nick Valencia showed multiple police cars that were set ablaze and Georgia State Police entering the scene.
“This is terrible to witness, it’s terrible to witness,” Valencia told CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.

Terrible? No, it’s beautiful. Karma is a beautiful thing.

If you were hoping to see the mob dragging Brian Stelter’s lifeless corpse through the streets or parading with Jake Tapper’s head on a pike, however, you’ll be disappointed, because Jake works out of CNN’s D.C. bureau and Stelter’s in New York, not the Atlanta headquarters.

Unlike most of the people whose businesses have been damaged or destroyed by the vandals that CNN has rooted on, I have zero sympathy for CNN.

Chrissy has a Hissy

Let's here it from Stacy McCain, fresh from CPAC, #MeToo Takes Out Chris Matthews

As a journalist, Chris Matthews has always been a joke. His only qualification is that he’s a Democrat who used to work for Tip O’Neill. That partisan credential was not enough to save him:

Longtime “Hardball” host Chris Matthews resigned from his post at MSNBC on Monday night. Matthews’s sudden exit was reported by the New York Times.
As the Times noted, Matthews “faced mounting criticism in recent days over a spate of embarrassing on-air moments, including a comparison of Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign to the Nazi invasion of France and an interview with Senator Elizabeth Warren in which the anchor was criticized for a condescending and disbelieving tone.”
Over the weekend, GQ published a story by freelance journalist Laura Bassett, who accused Matthews of making several sexually charged comments to her behind-the-scenes of his show. Bassett reported her allegations without naming Matthews in a 2017 essay for HuffPost.
In his retirement announcement on air Monday night, Matthews said young people are improving standards in the work place, and about “how we talk to each other.”
“Compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men, including me, might have once incorrectly thought were OK, were never OK,” he said. “Not then and certainly not today, and for making such comments in the past, I’m sorry.”

Notice how the weasel implicates “some men” in his personal scandal. Where was this male solidarity from Matthews when Stormy Daniels was making the rounds with her smears against President Trump? Live by the #MeToo scandal, die by the #MeToo scandal, I suppose, and Matthews quit because the heat was about to get turned up:

He literally walked out on a commercial break. The Peacock, Chris Matthews announces retirement, mutually parts ways with MSNBC

Chris Matthews, one of the longest-tenured voices at MSNBC, announced his retirement during Monday’s night’s airing of his talk show, “Hardball.”

Matthews, 74, said he and MSNBC had mutually agreed to part ways. The decision followed a series of events that resulted in criticism of the host’s statements about Bernie Sanders, African-American lawmakers, and comments he had made to female journalists and coworkers.

“I’m retiring,” Matthews said. “This is the last ‘Hardball’ on MSNBC.”

Matthews was due to retire in the near future with the events of the past week playing a factor in the timing of the move, an MSNBC spokesperson said.

After MSNBC aired a commercial following the announcement, Matthews did not return to the program. Steve Kornacki, a political reporter for the network, took over the rest of the hour, and seemed shocked by the news. “That was a lot to take in,” he said, saying it had been an honor to work with Matthews, and then beginning a discussion about the coronavirus response.

Another torpedo aimed at Donald Trump circles aimlessly and finds a big fat target.

Former Fox News Babe Rising Star at State

At State Department, Heather Nauert's star is ascendant

When the ax fell on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, his spokeswoman was half a world away, a distance he and his inner circle preferred and enforced.
Now, it's Tillerson who's on his way out after his unceremonious firing by President Donald Trump, and Heather Nauert whose star is ascendant.

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Nauert are among the few women in the Trump administration with high-profile voices on foreign policy. Only three State Department officials — all men — now outrank Nauert, a former Fox News anchor who declined comment for this story.

Nauert's meteoric rise comes even though just a week ago she seemed not long for the job. Then Tillerson lost his.

She was denied the kind of close access to the boss that all recent successful State Department press secretaries enjoyed. So Nauert tried to defend Trump's top diplomat and explain his activities to reporters from around the world without being able to travel on any of Tillerson's international trips or attend most of his Washington meetings.

Frustrated at being sidelined, Nauert almost quit several times. She had been telling associates she was ready to move on.

The moment that Trump canned Tillerson by tweet, Nauert was in a Hamas-built tunnel on the border near the Gaza Strip, on a tour organized by the Israeli military to show U.S. officials the smuggling routes used by militants. Caught by surprise by the move back in Washington, Nauert cut the tour short and returned to Jerusalem to deal with the crisis. Soon, Trump also fired the undersecretary of state who publicly defended Tillerson.

A case of someone else's mistake making room at the top.

The president named Nauert to that suddenly vacant position, near the top of the hierarchy of American diplomacy. Nauert told associates she was taken aback and recommended a colleague for the job. But when White House officials told her they wanted her, she accepted.

The new role gives Nauert responsibilities far beyond the regular news conferences she held in the briefing room. She is overseeing the public diplomacy in Washington and all of the roughly 275 overseas U.S. embassies, consulates and other posts. She is in charge of the Global Engagement Center that fights extremist messaging from the Islamic State group and others. She can take a seat, if she wants, on the Broadcasting Board of Governors that steers government broadcast networks such as Voice of America.

Less than a year ago, Nauert wasn't even in government. Nauert, who was born in Illinois, was a breaking news anchor on Trump's favorite television show, "Fox & Friends," when she was tapped to be the face and voice of the administration's foreign policy. With a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, she had come to Fox from ABC News, where she was a general assignment reporter. She hadn't specialized in foreign policy or international relations.

If you're going to say that as a Fox News babe she's unqualified to work for the administration, I urge you to read about  Tommy Vietor’s journey with Obama: From van driver to National Security Council spokesman

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Nikki Nicole" ready for your digital pleasure.

#HerToo: MSNBC Anchor Admits to Homophobia

Stacy McCain on the recent discovery of Joy Reid's past accusations that Charlie Crist was gay: How Joy Reid’s Homophobic History Illustrates Vox Day’s Third Law of SJWs

Let me start by saying, I am proud to hate Charlie Crist. If hating Charlie Crist is wrong, I don’t want to be right. However, I don’t claim to be a “progressive” and I’m not employed by MSNBC:

Recently resurfaced internet archives show political commentator Joy Reid wrote a dozen blog posts in 2007, 2008, and 2009 that contained homophobic conspiracies and anti-gay jokes.
The MSNBC weekend host ran a blog called The Reid Report — which is the same name as her now-defunct cable news show — a decade ago while she wrote for the Miami Herald. As first resurfaced by Twitter user Jamie_Maz, Reid wrote numerous bigoted blog posts smearing, mocking, and attacking former Florida governor Charlie Crist. These rants included calling Crist “Miss Charlie” and sarcastically using the tags “gay politicians” and “not gay politicians” — despite the fact that the twice-married, heterosexual man has never come-out as gay.
Reid went on to spread the crackpot conspiracy theory that Crist was actually a closeted gay man who refused to come out for fear that his sexual orientation would hurt his political career. Additionally, the AM Joy host claims Crist’s marriages to women are part of this elaborate cover up.

Actually, it’s not a “crackpot conspiracy theory” to believe Crist is a closet case, and that his marriages were merely camouflage. This kind of gossip has long been widespread in Florida political circles. But this wasn’t why Tea Party conservatives hated Crist in 2009, when the then-Republican governor of Florida dishonestly secured the endorsement of both the state party chairman and the National Republican Senatorial Committee 15 months ahead of the 2010 GOP Senate primary. With Tea Party backing, Marco Rubio surged ahead to beat Crist, who eventually became a Democrat. (And the exposure of corruption of the state GOP apparatus sent some people to prison.) When Joy Reid started gay-baiting Crist in 2007, however, Crist was seen as a “rising star” in the GOP, and smearing him as a closet homosexual was obviously an attempt by Reid — then as now a partisan Democrat — to sabotage the career of a Republican.

I don't care much whether or not Charlie Crist is gay, but I was happy when he came out of the closet as a Democrat. The Republicans have too many squishes already.

The issue is not whether Joy Reid is a “homophobe” any more than the issue is whether Crist is gay. Indeed, I have argued that much of what is condemned as “homophobia” is neither wrong nor harmful. The real issue is that Reid is dishonest — a Democrat Party hack, masquerading as a journalist — and that she is an unscrupulous hypocrite, willing to do whatever she can to hurt Republicans, even if it means acting in direct contradiction to her own party’s alleged “principles.” (In fact, Democrats have no principle other than the pursuit of power.) Furthermore, Reid’s behavior illustrates Vox Day’s Three Laws of SJWs:

1. SJWs always lie.
2. SJWs always double down.
3. SJWs always project.

These laws were promulgated by Vox Day during the #GamerGate controversy, when self-described “social justice warriors” (SJWs) were attacking the alleged misogyny of the videogame industry. The third law, in particular — “SJWs always project” — was repeatedly proven correct, when SJWs were caught in sexist behavior, harassment and other wrongdoing of which they had accused #GamerGate activists.
. . .
Of course, now Joy Reid has issued an “apology,” but she’s not actually sorry for anything except getting caught. Joy Reid is a Democrat and an SJW, which means she has no moral standards whatsoever.

I never watch MSNBC, but it would be amusing to watch a present day interview of Crist by Reid. Would she apologize in person? Would he suck it up, knowing she previously attacked him not for being gay, but for being a Republican?

In more recent news about Joy Reid, she recently (correctly) blamed rural America for electing Donald Trump, and holding back the progressive program: Anti-Trump MSNBC host Joy Reid thinks rural Americans are 'core threat' to democracy

This is the core threat to our democracy. The rural minority -- the people @JYSexton just wrote a long thread about -- have and will continue to have disproportionate power over the urban majority. https://t.co/fzBHaZ9kzR

— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 26, 2017

No Joy, this was the fundamental compromise that made the Republic of the United States possible. Small states were afraid that big, heavily populated states (at that time New York and Pennsylvania principally) would try to rule the scarcely populated hinterlands. Hence the constitution gave each state two senators, and the electoral college slightly weighted in favor of small states by that "fudge." Otherwise the small states would not have agreed to join.

Well, Perhaps She has Personal Experience

MSNBC host: There are studies that show you are “literally” more likely to be beamed up by a UFO than find a case of voter fraud

There have been a lot of studies on this, right? There’s a lot of studies that show that you’re literally more likely to be beamed up into a UFO or be struck by lightning than to find in-person voter fraud. Why is it your party seems fixated on trying to go after early voting, trying to go after, you know, forcing people to bring a birth certificate, all things that just happen to impact minorities and people who tend to vote for the Democratic party?

There sure must be an awful lot of documented cases of beaming beamed up by a UFO, given the relatively commonness of voter fraud:



And  Al Sharpton & Democrats Honor Convicted Voter Fraud Felon Melowese Richardson at “Welcome Home” Party

A Hamilton County poll worker who has been held up nationally as an example of voter fraud took the stage at a local voting rights rally – outraging Republicans and dismaying even top local Democrats.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, keynote speaker at Thursday’s rally to kick-off the campaign for an Ohio Voters’ Bill of Rights Ohio Constitutional amendment, even hugged Melowese Richardson.

Richardson, a Democrat, was convicted of voter fraud after using her position as poll worker to vote more than once in the 2012 presidential election. She got a five year prison term, but was released earlier this month after local Democratic activists pressed for a fairer term.

Hmmm, Al Sharpton is another MSNBCer. Seems to be a pattern here.

Mummified Michigan woman seemingly voted in the afterlife, records show

The mummified remains of a Michigan woman whose death went unnoticed for six years appear to have turned up last week — along with a vote she supposedly cast from beyond the grave. A contractor found the body in question in a garage last Wednesday after the $54,000 in Pia Farrenkopf's bank account dried up and her house in Pontiac, outside Detroit, went into foreclosure, according to local media.

Authorities say they think the remains belong to Farrenkopf, whom they believe died in 2008. But the mystery turned even murkier Monday. Voting records show that Farrenkopf voted in Michigan's November 2010 gubernatorial election, the Detroit Free Press reported.

I wonder how she voted?  Will "Bring out Your Dead!" be the 2016 rallying cry for democrats?

'Toxic Little Queens' at MSNBC Rethink Baldwin Return

What? Those ‘Toxic Little Queens’ at MSNBC Don’t Want Alec Baldwin Back?

Evil Blogger Lady calls attention to the shocking news — shocking! — that the network suits aren’t eager for a return to Baldwinism:

Alec Baldwin is not welcome back at MSNBC because of his infamous angry behavior, network insiders say — including complaining that “the air at 30 Rock is too dry.”

Sources exclusively tell us that MSNBC chiefs are not exactly falling over themselves to get boisterous Baldwin back in the building. One insider said, “He would only show up at work an hour a week to prep for the show, and when he did turn up, he was in an angry mood, red-faced, and shouting at all the staff. And he said the air at 30 Rock was too dry, it was bad for his voice, he needed a humidifier.” . . .

According to Deadline.com, Baldwin’s last show hit a demo low, pulling in only 101,000 viewers aged 25 to 54 against 395,000 total viewers — a 41 percent drop from the 172,000 viewers 25 to 54 who watched the Oct. 11 debut. MSNBC suspended Baldwin this month after he hurled an anti-gay slur at a paparazzo. He apologized, “I did not intend to hurt or offend anyone with my choice of words.”

Moral of the story: You can’t be an overbearing egomaniacal a–hole on TV unless you deliver good ratings.

I think the rule of thumb at MSNBC is you can say almost anything shitty about a Republican woman, but don't dare cast any aspersions at our only reliable target audience, gay liberals. I think they need a lot more of Alec, as he reveals they way they think emote more than anyone else on staff.  It's the only thing I can imagine comparing the treatment of Martin Bashir and Alec Baldwin.  Bashir doesn't exactly draw a monstrous audience, either.