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White House Bans CNN Reporter From Press Event – Here’s Why

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White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded in a statement Wednesday evening.

“At the conclusion of a press event in the Oval Office a reporter shouted questions and refused to leave despite repeatedly being asked to do so,” Sanders said. “Subsequently, our staff informed her she was not welcome to participate in the next event, but made clear that any other journalist from her network could attend.” . . .

Collins was serving as the pool reporter that day, a role that reporters from major networks take turns doing, during a meeting between Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission. She shouted some questions along with other members of the press following the photo-op.

“Did Michael Cohen betray you, Mr. President?” Kaitlan Collins asked, repeated the question, and then asked “Mr. President, are you worried about what Michael Cohen is about to say to the prosecutors? Are you worried about what is on the other tapes, Mr. President?” . . .

[Prior to the next press event:]

“They said ‘You are dis-invited from the press availability in the Rose Garden today,'” Collins said. “They said that the questions I asked were inappropriate for that venue. And they said I was shouting.” (Read more from “White House Bans CNN Reporter From Press Event – Here’s Why” HERE)

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House Democrat Wants to Run for President With the Yoga Vote

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Can the “yoga vote” carry Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, to the White House?

The midwestern Democrat, best known for unsuccessfully challenging Nancy Pelosi for leadership in the House of Representatives after the 2016 election, is reportedly preparing to run for president in 2020. Relatively young at 45 and representing “Trump country” in the Rust Belt near Youngstown, Ohio, the former college football star sounds like an ideal candidate to attract some of the Trump voters Democrats need to defeat President Trump. But in a potential field that is expected to be enormous, with Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and various blue-state governors and mayors all indicating a desire to run, how could Ryan differentiate himself?

The Intercept reports that he wants to do it with “yoga.”

Ryan has long been a champion of mindfulness, meditation, and similar pursuits, and has even created a “Quiet Time Caucus” in the House of Representatives. James Gimian, the publisher of Mindful magazine who knows Ryan, said he isn’t sure whether Ryan will run for president, but that the yoga vote has gone mainstream in recent years. “The so-called yoga voters are the kind of folks who realize that while they grew up with their mom saying, ‘Pay attention,’ nobody trained them in how to pay attention and use their mind to focus on what’s important,” he said. “That’s a growing population — it’s no longer just Lululemon yoga women.” He said that anybody who is negotiating the “emotional land mine of modern day living” could be someone Ryan’s message would resonate with.

Ryan, who was elected to Congress at age 29, is the author of the 2012 book “A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance, and Recapture the American Spirit.”

“It gets marginalized by calling it the yoga vote. I think it’s much bigger than that,” Gimian said. “His aspiration is to bring this kind of conversation to a wider office.”

The group Yoga Votes (“One body united for change”) puts the total number of people who do yoga in the U.S. at 20 million, and Ryan has done work with the group.

Asked about his chances, Ryan is said to have told one political operative, “I’m going to win.”

Well, at least he’s confident. The problem for Ryan, though, is that he’s probably not crazy-far-left enough for the Democratic base to win anything in the 2020 Democratic primary. He didn’t have the confidence of the Democratic caucus when he challenged Pelosi, and although he’s urged Democrats to focus on the middle of the country instead of the coasts, that is not the Democratic Party. (For more from the author of “House Democrat Wants to Run for President With the Yoga Vote” please click HERE)

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Watch as Trump’s Intel Director Is Stunned by News From the White House

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By The Blaze. At a forum Thursday, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats registered his shock when he was told the breaking news from the White House about Russian President Vladimir Putin. . .

Coats was being interviewed by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell when she asked him if he knew that President Donald Trump had invited Putin to the White House.

“We have some breaking news,” Mitchell said, “the White House has announced on Twitter that Vladimir Putin is coming to the White House in the Fall.”

“Say that again?” Coats said to laughter from the audience.

“You,” Mitchell added, “Vladimir Putin coming to the…”

(Read more from “Watch as Trump’s Intel Director Is Stunned by News From the White House” HERE)

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Trump: I’ll Be Vladimir Putin’s ‘Worst Enemy’ If Us-Russia Relationship ‘Doesn’t Work out’

By CNBC. President Donald Trump vowed Thursday that if his dealings with Russian leader Vladimir Putin don’t “work out, I’ll be the worst enemy he’s ever had.”

Trump made the statement during an interview at the White House with CNBC’s Joe Kernen that will air in full Friday at 6 a.m. ET on “Squawk Box.”

In the same interview, Trump blasted his predecessor, President Barack Obama, for having been a “total patsy” for Russia — while claiming he has been “far tougher on Russia than any president in many, many years.”

“Maybe ever,” Trump added.

But Trump also said he valued the opportunity to improve the United States’ relationship to Russia, even after American intelligence agencies have said that Russia repeatedly tried to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. (Read more from “Trump: I’ll Be Vladimir Putin’s ‘Worst Enemy’ If Us-Russia Relationship ‘Doesn’t Work out'” HERE)

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Report Claims Sarah Huckabee Sanders Is Leaving White House, Press Secretary Responds

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By CBS News. Two of the most visible members of the Trump administration are planning their departures, the latest sign of upheaval in a White House marked by turmoil.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders and principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah are both heading for the exits, according to sources inside the White House and close to the administration. Sanders, who has become a confidante of President Trump since the departure of former communications director Hope Hicks, has told friends that she plans to leave the administration at the end of the year.

Shah is also considering his exit, but he has not yet settled on an exact date. Neither Sanders nor Shah responded to repeated requests for comment before this story was published. When reached Wednesday evening, both declined to comment on the record, and Sanders tweeted that she is “honored to work for @POTUS.” (Read more from “Report Claims Sarah Huckabee Is Leaving White House, Press Secretary Responds” HERE)

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Sarah Huckabee Sanders Denies Report She’s Leaving White House

By Washington Times. . .The network said Mr. Shah also is considering an exit, though he hasn’t settled on a date.

Mrs. Sanders denied the report in a tweet Wednesday night.

“Does @CBSNews know something I don’t about my plans and my future?” she said. “I was at my daughter’s year-end Kindergarten event and they ran a story about my ‘plans to leave the WH’ without even talking to me. I love my job and am honored to work for @POTUS.”

Mr. Shah also told people close to them that the report is fake news, a source told The Washington Times. (Read more from “Sarah Huckabee Sanders Denies Report She’s Leaving White House” HERE)

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White House Dinner ‘Entertainment’ Burned by Right and Left After Attacking Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Appearance

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Many reporters — even those typically associated with left-leaning media outlets — were left shocked and aghast at comedian Michelle Wolf’s bizarre and mean-spirited White House Correspondents’ Dinner monologue, after the feminist joked about abortion, CNN’s Jake Tapper, and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ weight and appearance as Sanders looked on from her seat at the head table.

Wolf told the Daily Beast ahead of the program that she was “excited” that Sanders “was finally able to go to prom,” and once on the dias excoriated the press secretary for her makeup, choice of outfit, and weight. “She burns facts & then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. ‘Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies.’ It’s probably lies,” Wolf said as Sanders looked on.

“I’m never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders, you know?” Wolf went on. “Is it Sarah Sanders? Is it Sarah Huckabee Sander? Is it Cousin Huckabee? Is it Auntie Huckabee Sanders? Like, what is Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? I know… Aunt Coulter.” . . .

Although the joke appeared to earn Wolf the respect of figures like CNN’s Brian Stelter, and progressive icon Joan Walsh — who compared the incident to Stephen Colbert’s 2005 “roast” of then-President George W. Bush without understanding that to be a “roast” the subject has to be in on the joke — most WHCD attendees were turned off by Wolf’s nastiness, even those reporters for whom Trump is a top target.

(Read more from “White House Dinner ‘Entertainment’ Burned by Right and Left After Attacking Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Appearance” HERE)

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Democrats’ IT Staffer Just Made a Terrifying Claim of the Power He Has over the White House

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The father of a Pakistani tech aide to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and other House Democrats transferred a USB drive to a Pakistani senator and former head of a Pakistani intelligence agency, according to the father’s former business partner, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported.

Investigators already have concluded the congressional IT aide, Imran Awan, and other family members made “unauthorized access” to House servers while working as highly paid IT administrators for House Democrats until Capitol Police began probing them in early 2017.

In the latest development, the former business partner, Rashid Minhas, said Imran Awan’s father, Haji Ashraf Awan, was giving data to Pakistani official Rehman Malik, reported TheDCNF, which traveled to Faisalabad, Pakistan, for the story.

Minhas said Imran Awan bragged he had the power to “change the U.S. president.” . . .

Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence, the ISI, often has been accused of supporting al-Qaida while also being a target of jihadists. When the U.S. closed in on Osama bin-Laden, the CIA director at the time, Leon Panetta, said he didn’t warn the ISI about the raid because he feared word might leak to the al-Qaida leader. (Read more from “Democrats’ It Staffer Just Made a Terrifying Claim of the Power He Has over the White House” HERE)

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Hope Hicks Leaving the White House

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White House communications director Hope Hicks will leave the White House in the coming weeks.

Hicks, 29, served as President Trump’s campaign spokesperson before following him to the White House. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed the news to the Washington Examiner Wednesday.

Sanders said the decision has “nothing at all whatsoever” to do with Hicks’ testimony to the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. That testimony lasted eight hours as a part of their investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia . . .

Sanders told a group of reporters Wednesday that Hicks “had been thinking about it before” the Porter controversy and said Trump “is not unhappy with her in any way” after Hicks reportedly testified that she told white lies on Trump’s behalf . . .

In an afternoon statement confirming her departure, Hicks said: “There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump. I wish the President and his administration the very best as he continues to lead our country.” (Read more from “Hope Hicks Leaving the White House” HERE)

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Get Killed or Get Arrested: What Is Happening Outside the White House?

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It’s a startling contrast that leaves a grieving family wanting answers: Why did federal authorities fire as many as 20 shots at an unarmed black mother with no criminal history who made a wrong turn into a White House gate – killing her in front of her toddler – and later take an armed white woman, who was a known security threat, into custody without firing a single shot?

Jessica Ford, 35, was arrested Feb. 23 after she intentionally rammed a White House security barrier with her white Chevy minivan. When Secret Service officers attempted to stop her, she reversed and struck the barrier two more times.

Authorities said she had a pistol in her hand while she was driving, though the firearm was reportedly pointed away from officers. When ordered to drop her weapon multiple times, Ford wouldn’t comply. So officers forcibly confiscated the weapon, which turned out to be a BB gun that resembled a Beretta 9 mm pistol. They pulled Ford through the driver’s side window and placed her in handcuffs – all without a single shot fired . . .

Carey – who had her 14-month-old daughter strapped into the back seat of her black Nissan Infiniti – had mistakenly driven up to a White House guard post and tried to make a U-turn so she could leave. Secret Service agents tried to stop her from leaving.

When Carey departed the post, federal officers pursued her, ultimately shooting her five times from behind in a volley of 18 bullets at the conclusion of a car chase. Carey died at the scene. Her daughter wasn’t harmed. (Read more from “Get Killed or Get Arrested: What Is Happening Outside the White House?” HERE)

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The Reason a Third White House Official Failed to Qualify for Security Clearance

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A top official in the Trump administration resigned this week after being told by the White House that he would not receive a permanent security clearance after he admitted to prior drug use.

George David Banks, who served as special assistant to the president for international energy and environmental policy, resigned from his position on Tuesday after admitting to smoking marijuana in 2013. Politico reports:

A former CIA analyst who also previously worked at the State Department and the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Banks emerged last year as the administration’s lead policy expert on the Paris climate change agreement, and he played a key behind-the-scenes role in the months-long internal debate over whether to remain in the pact.

A former Obama administration official who worked on personnel and vetting issues said the Obama White House usually only denied clearances when there was both past drug use and a lack of full disclosure.

Banks was among the nearly three dozen other White House officials operating on an interim security clearance while the administration evaluated the status of their permanent security clearance application. (Read more from “The Reason a Third White House Official Failed to Qualify for Security Clearance” HERE)

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Here Are the Eagles Players Who Will Skip Trump White House Visit After Super Bowl Win

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It’s customary for championship-winning teams from the major American sports to visit the White House and celebrate with the president.

But despite their Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday, some Philadelphia Eagles players have made it clear they have no intention of being part of this tradition.

Prior to their team’s 41-33 win over the Patriots in Super Bowl LII, Eagles wide receiver Torrey Smith and defensive end Chris Long said they didn’t want to visit the White House. Safety Malcom Jenkins said Monday that he too would boycott the White House visit.

Smith particularly cited President Donald Trump and the controversy surrounding NFL players who refuse to kneel during the playing of the national anthem. Trump has strongly criticized the anthem protests in a series of statements and tweets.

“We read the news just like everyone else,” Smith said Wednesday, according to NJ Advance Media. “You see Donald Trump tweet something. … We have those conversations in the locker room, just like everyone else does in the workplace. We’re very informed about what goes on, and we’re trying to continue to educate ourselves.”

“They call it the anthem protest,” he added. “We’re not protesting the anthem. It’s a protest during the anthem. I understand why people are mad, or may be offended when someone takes a knee.”

For Long, it’s the second time in as many years he will skip the White House visit. Last year, he was a member of the Super Bowl-winning Patriots, and he boycotted the customary trip then as well.

“No, I’m not going to the White House,” he said last week on the “Pardon My Take” podcast, as reported by USA Today. “Are you kidding me?”

During a media session, he would not detail his stance any further.

“I went through this last year with the Trump thing,” Long said. “I’m not going to get into it.”

On Monday, meanwhile, Jenkins appeared on CNN’s “New Day” to announce he would refuse to visit the White House.

“Nah, I personally do not anticipate attending,” Jenkins said.

After being asked if he had a message for Trump, Jenkins replied, “My message has been clear all year. … I want to see changes in our criminal justice system. I want to see us push for economical and educational advancement in communities of color and low-income communities.”

“And I want to see our relationship between our communities and our law enforcement be advanced.”

The relationship between Trump and NFL players has been strained all year, particularly after a September rally where the president called for the “sons of b—–s” who kneel during the anthem to be “fired.”

On Sunday, Trump released a statement prior to the Super Bowl, in which he emphasized the importance of honoring service men and women by standing for the anthem.

“We owe these heroes the greatest respect for defending our liberty and our American way of life. Their sacrifice is stitched into each star and every stripe of our Star-Spangled Banner,” Trump said.

“We hold them in our hearts and thank them for our freedom as we proudly stand for the National Anthem.”

No players kneeled during the anthem Sunday, though Jenkins, Smith and Eagles safety Rodney McLeod all raised their fists, as reported by New York Magazine.

Jenkins, Smith and Long might not be the only players who will skip the White House visit. Like Long, Eagles running back LeGarrette Blount was on the Patriots last year, and he too decided he did not want to take part in the tradition.

“I just don’t feel welcome into that house. I’m just going to leave it at that,” Blount said at the time. (For more from the author of “Here Are the Eagles Players Who Will Skip Trump White House Visit After Super Bowl Win” please click HERE)

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