White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is holding a briefing Tuesday with reporters. The event is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. (ET). Watch live video below:
On Tuesday, Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee claimed that President Donald Trump's nominee for the top White House environmental post appears to be guilty of plagiarism more than a dozen times over.
As the Washington Examiner reports, environment and public works committee Democrats said that in written responses to the committee's questions, Kathleen Hartnett White, who is nominated for to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, gave answers to their questions that appeared to be copied "verbatim" from other Trump EPA officials, including the agency's administrator, Scott Pruitt. Those Democrats counted at least 18 instances that appeared to be copied from other EPA officials.
"We are troubled that it appears you have cut and pasted from the written answers of other nominees in your responses to questions that were submitted to you," those senators wrote in a letter to White published Tuesday.
Though the Republican majority of the committee advanced White in a party-line vote last month, she has not yet been confirmed by the full Senate.
A former chairwoman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, White's last employer was the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a group the Examiner describes as "a conservative think tank that has received funding from Koch Industries, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other energy companies."
Democrats on the Environment and Public Works Committee staunchly oppose White due to her "views contrary to established science on climate change."
You can watch an example of those views below, in a video of White discussing "the benefits of CO2," via the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
A discussion about the GOP assault on special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI went off the rails on Fox News Tuesday when guests implied that it was corrupt.
"This is an effort to undermine the credibility of Robert Mueller, who for many years, Republicans and Democrats have thought very highly of," commentator Marie Harf said. "As Americans, I said this many times, and if you like a broken record, but we should want to get to the bottom of Russian interference in her 2016 election. If there's anybody working with them or helping them."
She went on to say that it is clear Russia offered to help and the campaign met with people about help.
"People lied about that to the FBI," she continued. "I do not know where this investigation is going, but you are going to see as it gets serious, more attempts on the part of [Donald] Trump supporters to muddy the water chemic distract from that, and call for a special counsel, second one are exactly that."
Harris Faulkner tried to claim that the Trump dossier was "equally" questionable as the Russia investigation. Harf wasn't having it. The further the investigation continues, the more the dossier has been proven rather than disproven. Another commentator tried to claim that Mueller is being paid by the government and therefore is somehow unethical.
"There is no evidence that he has done anything inappropriate," Harf shot back. She went on to say that to put other questions on the same level as collusion with a foreign entity that invaded the United States and attempted to impact an election.
The other panelists alleged that there was no evidence that Russia involved themselves in the election. Both Harf and host Juan Williams exclaimed "No evidence!?"
The discussion devolved into a shouting match from there.
Watch the full video below:
A pro-Trump conservative went on CNN Tuesday to argue that all of the allegations being made against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore are the work of a grand conspiracy by both the Democrats and the Republican establishment to prevent genuine conservatives from taking power.
Eric Beach, the co-chair of the Great America Alliance PAC, argued that the real reason there has been such fierce opposition to Moore's candidacy is that he represents a real threat to establishment politicians. Beach pointed out that the Republican establishment had dropped $30 million in the GOP primary to boost the candidacy of Luther Strange, but had been soundly defeated.
"It's a war against conservatives, a war against the Trump agenda," he said.
Panelist Symone Sanders, however, quickly shot down this argument by saying that objections to Moore went well beyond his support for "conservative" policies.
"These talking points are trash," she said. "The problem with Roy Moore is, on top of the fact that he is an accused pedophile and sexual predator, he has had some big problematic things said about him in the past. He has done problematic things and was removed from the bench twice. He said that... he doesn't believe Muslims, people like Keith Ellison should be able to serve."
Sanders finished by hammering Beach for making such a shameless argument that attacks on Moore were attacks on all conservatives.
"He is beneath the office of the senate, no decorum for the senate," she said. "Don't spin this as a war on conservatism. This is a particular war against Roy Moore."
Watch the video below.
Kentucky state Rep. Dan Johnson (R) on Tuesday denied allegations that he sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl.
Maranda Richmond told Louisville Public Media that when Johnson was her preacher years ago, he sexually assaulted after she went to sleep at a New Year's party.
Louisville Public Media detailed Richmond's encounter with Johnson that night.
That night, she woke after settling in on the sofa. She was groggy, unfocused. But she saw Johnson kneeling above her. He gave her a kiss on the head. She thought it fatherly, nothing out of the ordinary, simply one last goodnight gesture.Then he started to stroke her arm. He slid his hands up, under her shirt and bra, and groped her. He stuck his tongue in her mouth. Then, he forced his hands down her pants, underneath her underwear, and penetrated her with his finger.
She begged her pastor to stop and tried to force him off, quietly. She remembers not wanting to awaken Sarah. But Johnson was a big man, roughly twice her weight.
He told her she’d like it. She said no, she didn’t. She pleaded with him: go away, go away.
Johnson held a press conference in the pulpit of Heart of Fire Church on Tuesday to counter Richmond's accusations.
The press conference began with Johnson and his supporters singing a Christian hymn about baby Jesus.
"O come, all ye faithful / Joyful and triumphant / O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem," they sang. "Come and behold Him / Born the King of Angels!"
He then went on to deny the allegations.
"There's no perfect people," Johnson said. "This allegation concerning this lady, this young girl, absolutely has no merit"
"I don't want to blast this girl, I have compassion for her," the lawmaker insisted.
Johnson connected his case to the sexual misconduct allegations against Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore and President Donald Trump.
"It is the season. Last election it seemed to be racism. This election it seems to be sexual impropriety," Johnson complained. "People want to go back over my whole entire life."
The lawmaker added: "There's no reason I would resign"
Watch the press conference below.
After President Donald Trump attacked Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), the women of "The View" noted that his phrasing was downright "infantile."
"Whoa," co-host Joy Behar said after Whoopi Goldberg read Trump's tweet aloud. Members of the audience could be heard saying "wow" after the tweet appeared on the screen behind the women.
"What is that tweet implying, may I ask?" Behar requested. "What do you think? Is it sexual favors?"
Sara Haines noted that the language used was obviously loaded, but "it's a little ironic in a sexual harassment conversation to use that."
"I think it's disgusting!" Sunny Hostin exclaimed. "I mean, if my 15-year-old tweeted that out about one of his classmates, his phone would be snatched. He would be in so much trouble at home. And we've got the United States president doing that? I'm like, it's so -- it's so beneath the dignity of the office. It's so infantile."
Goldberg harkened back to Roy Moore, saying that she hopes the Ethics Committee investigates him but also that they should investigate Trump.
Meghan McCain noted that yesterday she came home and turned on the news only to see coverage of Trump's tweets and the fight between press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the press.
"And I'm like, there was a terror attack in New York today!" McCain said.
"And wildfires in California!" Behar chimed in.
"Why aren't we talking about those?" McCain replied.
Watch the full conversation below:
One of the armed militants who took over an Oregon wildlife sanctuary nearly two years ago is running for Congress.
Jon Ritzheimer, who was sentenced last month to a year and a day in prison for his role in the standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, has filed paperwork necessary to run for the U.S. House seat vacated by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), reported the Phoenix New Times.
The military veteran must also spend another 12 months in a residential re-entry center once his prison term ends, after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to impede federal employees from carrying out their work at the refuge through intimidation, threats or force.
Ritzheimer also won't be allowed to possess or use firearms after his felony conviction.
He still hopes to be elected to the House of Representatives to finish the two-year term for Franks, who resigned last week over sexual harassment allegations by his staffers -- who say he asked some of them to serve as surrogate mothers.
Ritzheimer's wife is auctioning off one of the only two firearms not seized by the FBI to help pay court-ordered restitution to victims of the armed standoff in early 2016.
The auction is being hosted on the same website briefly used last year by George Zimmerman in an attempt to sell off the gun he used to kill Trayvon Martin in 2012.
The Arizona primary will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 27, and the general election is set for Tuesday, April 24.
The winner will then face an August primary and regular November general election if he or she wishes to keep the seat won in February.
Ritzheimer first gained national attention for a series of anti-Muslim rallies he organized in starting in 2015, and for plotting to kidnap a U.S. Senator and arrest her for backing the Iran nuclear deal.
He also made apparent threats in late 2015 against a Muslim community in upstate New York identified as a terrorist training camp by right-wing media, which was targeted in another violent plot by failed congressional candidate Robert Doggart.
Ritzheimer turned up a short time later in Oregon, where he helped organize and recruit for the weeks-long standoff that left militant LeVoy Finicum dead.
He gained internet notoriety in viral videos explaining to his children that he was risking his life in Oregon because "daddy swore an oath," and he also angrily lashed out at an online campaign to send sex toys to the holed-up militants.
Brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy were acquitted for their roles in leading the occupation, although some militants like Ritzheimer took plea deals on various charges.
Every bride wants her "special day" to be flawless. But one woman's wedding reception went so badly she's threatening to sue.
Laura Sanchez told WBRC in Alabama that her reception at The Cedars Club in Birmingham was unacceptable.
“I thought it was going to be the most perfect day of my life until about 7:30 pm,” she told WBRC.
First, the event was interrupted by the staff saying that the DJ was plugged into the wrong power box. Then she was reprimanded for not having enough police officers to cover her guests. Finally, the president of the club shut the reception down.
“And at that moment, the president of the Cedars Club and her granddaughter walked into my reception and said, 'This gotta stop--everyone got to go,’” Sanchez recalled. She explained that despite paying for the adequate officers and having the DJ comply, the club disrespected her.
“My guests said one of the ladies said, ‘There are too many Mexicans in here and we can get them deported,’” she said.
A video of Sanchez's encounter with the club president has since gone viral.
Club rental manager Tori Toner said that the guests violated the contract and never fixed mistakes. She said that they had no choice but to end the party. Toner further said none of her staff made racist comments and blamed Sanchez's family for being racist and physically attacking her staff.
After "nasty voicemails" left on her phone, Toner said she intends to file a police report. Sanchez, however, has already filed a lawsuit against the business.
“The ultimate thing I'd like to see is the place be shut down and not be able to rent again,” she said. “I just want them to go out of business.”
The video has spread so far that it's prompted many to leave reviews on Google and Wedding Wire.
"This place needs new management. Very poorly ran. To interrupt a reception right in the middle of it is probably the most unprofessional thing a venue owner can do," wrote Braden Kober.
"As a business owner, but most importantly as a human being, you do not treat people that way in one of the most important days in the person's life," Carmen Torres also wrote.
You can see the video from Sanchez's family below:
Fox News' Tomi Lahren on Monday delivered an angry rant at the multiple women who accused Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of molesting them when they were teenagers by claiming that the women in question were likely lying.
"I'm a woman who is sick and tired of women who make things up to ruin someone's life!" Lahren fumed. "Crying 'rape' or 'assault' for revenge or political gain hurts actual victims of rape and assault!"
Lahren went on to say that she was now "suspicious" of all of Moore's accusers after accuser Beverly Young Nelson said that she added notes to the bottom of Roy Moore's signature on her high school yearbook that her attorney, Gloria Allred, had originally claimed were written by Moore himself. Despite this discrepancy, however, Nelson still stands by her allegations that Moore signed her yearbook.
Additionally, Lahren did not mention that Nelson's story was not part of the Washington Post's original reporting on sexual misconduct allegations against Moore, which was highly detailed and included dozens of corroborating sources.
Lahren also lashed out at Hollywood celebrities whom she said had been brandishing their "pitchforks" for Moore despite the recent scandals surrounding many famous movie moguls and actors. Lahren failed to note, however, that Hollywood bigwigs such as Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey have lost jobs because of their actions.
Lahren concludes her rant by admitting she doesn't know whether Moore really molested teenagers -- but she encourages people to vote for him anyway because he'll help pass an "America first" agenda.
Watch the video below.
MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle teared up as she reported on a pediatrician and late-night talk show host begging lawmakers not to let a children's health care insurance program run out.
Jimmy Kimmel brought his infant son, who recently underwent heart surgery, onto his program Monday night to urge Congress to continued funding CHIP, which covers about 9 million children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance.
Federal funding for the program has run out, and the Republican-led Congress doesn't appear eager to fix the problem.
"A pediatrician from the children's hospital in Philadelphia, one of the best children's hospitals in the country, wrote a piece for the Washington Post," Ruhle said, her voice beginning to crack. "I want to share what he wrote. 'Every day I see patients in my practice who stand to lose their health care if Congress does not act to extend CHIP funding. Those of us on the front lines of medicine who care for children and families with limited resources remember well the time that we turned children away solely because their families were working hard to raise themselves out of poverty.'"
Ruhle's eyes brimmed with tears as she turned to guest Eddie Glaude Jr., chair of the African-American studies department at Princeton University, and asked for help explaining why Republicans wouldn't fund the program.
"Help me, Eddie," she said, her voice breaking. "States had enough money for a few months, but it truly is running out. We're going to face January, and states like Colorado have warned people your kids won't be insured. Why don't they have money for this? This seems like such -- America voted for bipartisanship. They voted because they felt like President Trump was not an ideologue and he would be pragmatic. Help me understand why there wouldn't be the money for this."
Glaude offered a succinct and disturbing explanation.
"Well, there's kind of cruelty and callousness that kind of rule the day," he said.
Ruhle didn't understand how that translated into good politics.
"But who does that win for?" she said. "Who says, Right on, man -- don't help the kids? That's what I can't figure out."
Glaude said congressional Republicans, like Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), complain the federal government was broke -- but he said the GOP tax reform bill demonstrated a "value deficit."
"What do we value? What do we cherish?" he said. "How do we extend to our fellows dignity and standing -- and the most vulnerable among us, children?"
GOP strategist Steve Schmidt placed most of the blame on the party he's supported throughout his life, which he said had been corrupted by "greed and power."
"The hypocrisy and the rot are worthy of discussion, the meanness, the cruelty" Schmidt said. "But this is a very simple thing to understand, and it gives me no pleasure to say this. I've spent my life in the Republican Party, it gives me no pleasure to say this. This party has demonstrated a complete incapacity to govern. I think there will come a tsunami in 2018 that wipes it away."
Montgomery, Alabama schoolteacher Amanda Adams said on Tuesday that she cast her first ballot for a Democrat in 20 years because she could not bring herself to vote for accused child molester Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race.
In an interview with NBC campaign embed Vaughn Hillyard, Adams said that she was turning her back on the Republican Party.
"Normally, I'm a Republican voter and today I voted for [Democratic candidate] Doug Jones," Adams told Hillyard.
Adams said that she almost wrote in a friends name but decided Jones was the better choice.
"I gave it some thought, I chose Doug Jones," she concluded.
Watch the video below.
Megyn Kelly had another woman on her show that alleges President Donald Trump groped her 13 years ago while she was at Mar-a-Lago. Though she never reported it to authorities.
Unlike some accusers, Melinda McGillivray began telling friends and family about her encounter with Trump from the incident, the Palm Beach Post reported last October.
Photographer Ken Davidoff was with her at the time and vividly remembered McGillivray pulling him aside after the alleged incident.
"Donald just grabbed my ass!" Davidoff recalls her saying.
Davidoff had invited her to a concert at Mar-a-Lago where he was photographing the event. He took down names for
She recalled that they were standing in a "half moon shape" including Trump and his wife Melania. She said that he was standing about a foot away and that Trump would have had to reach out to grab her. She turned to look behind her and saw Trump looking at Ray Charles with an "expression of guilt."
She said that she then raced out the door behind Ray Charles trying to get away. She then sought out Charles and Davidoff asked if she wanted to get a photo with him and she refused, saying she wanted to leave immediately.
In another incident she went to see Huey Lewis and the News and went to the restroom. When she came out Trump was there. McGillivray said that he suggestively asked her "so, how's the weather." At that point, Melania came around the corner seemingly angry. McGillivray said that Melania stuck her nose in the air, threw her shawl around herself and stormed off.
"He has to face the music, he can't get away with this. I demand an investigation," she told Kelly, demanding the Congressional Ethics Committee intervene.
"I think it's important that we hold this man to the highest of standards," she continued after the break. "If 16 women have come forward, why hasn't anything been done? Where is our investigation. I want justice."
Through tears, she said that she was intimidated and hurt when she came out and was immediately attacked. She said that it was important to do it for her daughter.
"I did this for myself, for my daughter, for my country," she continued. "People need to know the truth. The truth will set you free. We have liberties in this country and I'm going to talk."
Trump's allies have attacked McGillivray for a criminal past, but she told Kelly that she's worked hard to turn her life around, go to college and have a daughter she cares for.
While other women who have come forward have been attacked for being "politically motivated," McGillivray said that she isn't political and is registered as an independent voter.
Kelly interviewed three women Monday who also accused Trump of sexual harassment or assault.
Watch the video below:
Part 1:
Part 2:
President Donald Trump implied a senator was willing to exchange sex for campaign contributions -- which left MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski and two other panelists "shaking in anger."
The president denied nearly two dozen sexual misconduct allegations against him Tuesday morning, and less than an hour later appeared to sexually harass Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in a follow-up tweet.
“Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office ‘begging’ for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump,” Trump tweeted. “Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!”
Brzezinski read the tweet aloud before a live "Morning Joe" audience Tuesday in Alabama, and she and MSNBC contributors Katty Kay and Elise Jordan denounced the president and his enabling advisers.
"I just want to say something beyond the fact that is reprehensible that the president of the United States would say something so derogatory and disgusting about a woman," Brzezinski said. "We're not surprised, Mr. President, you do it all the time. You treat women terribly and you treat the women around you even worse. You treat women like punching bags because it's fun for you, because you are intimidated by women. That's your problem, OK, but for the people who work for you, you need to act. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, good luck today in the briefing. Don't lie, and do not defend the president of the United States for what he did. If you do, you have no -- you should resign."
Brzezinski said the president's implication was clear and unmistakable.
"Let's just say it -- he's suggesting Kirsten Gillibrand would have sex with him in order to get campaign contributions," Brzezinski said. "The president tweeted that this morning."
She and co-host Joe Scarborough called on the women working for Trump to make the president delete that tweet.
"Maybe it's Ivanka Trump, maybe she will finally stand up for what is right since her father just literally sexually harassed in a cruel way a woman on Twitter," Brzezinski said. "Ivanka, you stepped in there to talk for women, to speak for women, to have a platform for women. Where are you today?"
Jordan, a former Bush White House and State Department aide who advised Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on foreign policy, was barely able to contain her anger.
"It just makes my blood boil, it makes my blood boil," Jordan said. "Kirsten Gillibrand may be on the other side of the political aisle, but she's a class act, she's a brilliant woman, she's had a great career. She's an inspiration, and he's trying to silence her by insinuating, in parentheses, (she) would do anything -- it's so gross and beneath the office."
BBC anchor Kay said Trump attacked women to provoke a reaction and draw his supporters closer.
"It's obscene the implication coming from somebody who's in the Oval Office, and would do anything for them," Kay said. "The language is appalling, but he likes the fact that this then creates a bias. That's what is sick about it."
The panelists agreed Trump was clearly worried that his accusers coming forward Monday on TV had reopened the years-long sexual misconduct allegations against him.
"You can just be sure that the fact the three of us here are literally shaking in anger, that tweet meant a lot," Brzezinski said. "That tweet said so much about his character. That tweet said so much about how this White House is run. That tweet was one of the worst things I've seen so far in this presidency, actually."
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