Human remains have been found near the site of the Nashville Christmas Day explosion, according to reports.It’s not yet clear whether the remains are from someone connected to the blast or from a victim, CBS News and the Associated Press reported, citing law enforcement sources. Asked about the reports of remains during an evening press conference, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said that “we have found tissues that we believe could be remains.” The “tissues” still need to be examined, the chief told reporters. An RV parked in downtown Nashville blew up early on Friday after blaring a recording that warned a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes, according to police. Officers responding to what turned out to be a bogus report of shots fired came upon the vehicle and evacuated nearby buildings. At least three people were hurt in the blast and were being treated for non life-threatening injuries. Authorities didn’t immediately say whether anyone was inside the RV when it exploded. The blast shook nearby buildings and caused communications outages, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to temporarily ground flights out of Nashville International Airport. Nick Note: If their is no missing person report this hunk of human hamburger is the bomber or a stooge talked into flicking the switch. Or it was one hell of a pissed off suicide bomber. It will be easy to do a DNA match and figure out who this fool was… even if they never took a DNA test. What you may not know is all those DNA testing labs and services report ALL results to the FBI facial recognition DNA data base. So if anyone in the extended family submitted a DNA test to the police or one of those find out your ancestry testing service they got you. And you were not so smart doing that. You really give a shit about which jungle or tree your ancestors fell out of! I suggest you get a current life.
Major AT&T outage due to massive explosion in downtown Nashville
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) – AT&T customers are currently without service following a massive explosion that happened in downtown Nashville early Christmas morning. The outage began around 12 p.m. on December 25.
Widespread 911 issues in the Nashville area were reported after AT&T wireless and internet service were disrupted on Friday hours following a massive explosion downtown. AT&T internet and phone service were disrupted in the area about 12 p.m. Friday. The outages continued into the evening. Users around the country reported disruptions in service, but there was a concentration in the Nashville area and Middle Tennessee, growing in reach from Kentucky to Alabama as more reports came in.
The company said in a public statement around 5 p.m. that they were bringing disaster recovery efforts into the Nashville area in response to the explosion, including regional resources and National Disaster Recovery teams. The statement indicates there was damage to the facility and access to power was an issue. “Power is essential to restoring wireless and wireline communications, and we are working with law enforcement to get access to our equipment and make needed repair,” the statement said. “There are serious logistical challenges to working in a disaster area and we will make measurable progress in the hours and days ahead.
See AT&T outage map below:
Must Read Story: Graham: Trump extremely determined to pass $2,000 checks
https://youtu.be/pQPgiBmJufo
President Donald Trump spent part of his Christmas with ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, in Palm Beach, Florida, amid his awaited decision to sign the COVID-19 relief bill. Trump has previously expressed his support to provide Americans $2,000 in COVID relief funds, instead of the proposed $600 package. ‘After spending some…
President Donald Trump spent his Christmas golfing in Florida as a government shutdown looms and COVID-19 relief hangs in the balance. Earlier in the day, he renewed calls for $2,000 stimulus checks, instead of the $600 included in a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package passed in both houses of Congress and is awaiting Trump’s signature. In a Friday evening Tweet, Sen. Lindsey Graham doubled on Trump’s called for Americans $2,000 in aid.
“After spending some time with President @realDonaldTrump today, I am convinced he is more determined than ever to increase stimulus payments to $2000 per person and challenge Section 230 big tech liability protection,” Graham tweeted.
Section 230 is “a provision in a 1996 law that protects companies on the internet like Twitter and Facebook from being regulated as publishers of third-party content like tweets and Facebook posts.” It is part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 and allows the aforementioned internet companies to govern content on their platforms. Trump has regularly railed against this provision and vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act due to the fact that it did not include changes to Section 230. Trump, at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach for the holidays, had no events on his public schedule after throwing the future of a massive COVID-19 relief and government funding bill into question. Failure to sign the bill, which arrived in Florida on Thursday night, could deny relief checks to millions of Americans on the brink and force a government shutdown in the midst of the pandemic. The White House declined to share details of the president’s schedule, though he was expected to golf Friday with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally. White House spokesman Judd Deere said Trump was briefed on the explosion in downtown Nashville early Friday that authorities said appeared to be intentional, but the president said nothing publicly about it in the hours after. Trump tweeted that he planned to make “a short speech to service members from all over the world” by video conference Friday to celebrate the holiday, but declared: “Fake News not invited!” Without giving details, the White House said only that Trump would work “tirelessly” during the holidays and has “many meetings and calls.” Trump’s vacation came as Washington was still reeling over his surprise, eleventh-hour demand that an end-of-year spending bill that congressional leaders spent months negotiating to give most Americans $2,000 COVID relief checks – far more than the $600 members of his own party had agreed to. The idea was swiftly rejected by House Republicans during a rare Christmas Eve session, leaving the proposal in limbo. The bipartisan compromise had been considered a done deal and had won sweeping approval in the House and Senate this week after the White House assured GOP leaders that Trump supported it. If he refuses to sign the deal, which is attached to a $1.4 trillion government funding bill, it will force a federal government shutdown, in addition to delaying aid checks and halting unemployment benefits and eviction protections in the most dire stretch of the pandemic. “Made many calls and had meetings at Trump International in Palm Beach, Florida. Why would politicians not want to give people $2000, rather than only $600?” he tweeted after leaving the golf course Friday afternoon. “It wasn’t their fault, it was China. Give our people the money!”
Trump’s decision to attack the bill has been seen, at least in part, as political punishment for what he considers insufficient backing by congressional Republicans of his campaign to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election with unfounded claims of voter fraud.
“At a meeting in Florida today, everyone was asking why aren’t the Republicans up in arms & fighting over the fact that the Democrats stole the rigged presidential election?” Trump tweeted Thursday. “I will NEVER FORGET!” he later added. Trump for weeks now has refused to accept the results of the election and has been pushing new, increasingly outrageous schemes to try to overturn the results. He has been egged on by allies like his lawyer, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who accompanied the president to Florida aboard Air Force One. Meanwhile, the nation continues to reel as the coronavirus spreads, with record infections and hospitalizations and more than 327,000 now dead. And millions are now going through the holidays alone or struggling to make ends meet without adequate income, food, or shelter thanks to the pandemic’s economic toll. To mark the holiday, the president and first lady Melania Trump tweeted out a pre-recorded video message in which they wished Americans a Merry Christmas and thanked first responders and members of the military. “As you know, this Christmas is different than years past,” said Mrs. Trump, who focused on the acts of “kindness and courage” the pandemic had inspired. Trump hailed the vaccine doses now being delivered and thanked those responsible. “It is a truly a Christmas miracle,” he said. Meanwhile, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have been trying to salvage the year-end legislation to try to prevent a shutdown. Democrats will call House lawmakers back to Washington for a vote Monday on Trump’s $2,000 proposal, though it would probably die in the Republican-controlled Senate. They are also considering a vote Monday on a stop-gap measure at least to avert a federal shutdown and keep the government running until Democrat Joe Biden is inaugurated Jan. 20. In addition to the relief checks, the COVID bill that passed would establish a temporary $300 per week supplemental jobless benefit, provide a new round of subsidies for hard-hit businesses, restaurants and theaters and money for schools, and provide money for health care providers and to help with COVID vaccine distribution. Nick Note: This is fiendishly cleaver. He holds up a bill everyone want to get what he wants. $2000 happy checks, Liability protection from Covid19 law suits AND the big one rolling back protections under Section 230 for his enemy big internet social media companies. This is also payback because Republicans did not rally to his battle cry of election fraud. The strategy is brilliant as i mentioned earlier. If he vetoes the relief bill The House and Senate can easily override his veto. But if he does not sign it and it becomes what is known as a pocket veto. Normally a pocket veto expires in 15 days and the bill would automatically become law. EXCEPT for one little problem. THIS 116 session of congress expires and the 177 session begins on January 3rd. But the Constitution states if the president does not sign a bill within 10 days of receiving it (excluding Sundays) and Congress adjourns during that time, The bill is considered vetoed. Because Congress has already adjourned by that point, it does not have the ability to override this veto. In repeat they canot overide the veto. That is why Trump is sitting back doing nothing. He has got a rocket launcher to both the Republicans and democrats heads. All the masses wanted for Christmas was their happy checks. Trumps rides into town on a white horse demanding a more then tripling of the happy checks… oh yes and a few little extra things the masses could care less about. Their is not time to override his veto and this session of congress is expiring in a week. BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT he has got them by the balls. And i can tell you for a fact congress does not know what to do. Their only choice is to cave in to Trumps demands or deny the masses their happy check. And that will mean the public will lash out in the Georgia run off elections and the Republicans will lose the senate. This is game, set, match and check mate all rolled into one. I have a question for you. Why did not the talking heads and blogaspheer assholes tell you about this? Well they cannot tell you anything that they are not spoon fed because they are idiots. And the Senate on both side of the aisle does not want you to know how fucked the Republicans are…. And that is one of the reasons why you keep me around. Oh i almost FORGOT to mention the stock market will be devastated when they figure out their will be no happy check robin hood and el toro assholes coming to town with more buy everything in sight money. AND Wall Street will be devastated when they scratch their asses and figure out BIG JOE AND SWEET KAMALA HARRIS ARE COMING TO TOWN WITH Bernie’s WAY!. Meaning workers of the world unite against you slave trader capitalist pigs,,,,,
Trump slams Senate for blocking $2,000 check proposal
he COVID-19 relief deal remains in limbo over Christmas after House Republicans rejected President Donald Trump’s demand for $2,000 stimulus checks on Thursday, while the president spent the day golfing in Florida. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put forward a unanimous consent request to raise direct payments that was quickly blocked by Republicans in a rare Christmas Eve session of the House. The White House reportedly told congressional Republicans to vote for the $900 billion stimulus package, but Trump surprised lawmakers when he branded the bipartisan deal a “disgrace” on Tuesday—a day after it overwhelmingly passed through the House and Senate following months of stalemate. The president hinted that he wouldn’t sign the legislation unless it was amended to raise stimulus payments from $600 to $2,000, an idea that was quickly embraced by Democrats who had been pushing for higher payments. But he left Washington, D.C. for Florida on Wednesday without clarifying whether he does intend to veto the bill. “I don’t know what’s going to happen next. And that should be scary for the American people right now,” Democratic Rep. Andy Kim told CNN. “That we have a president who’s unhinged here and playing politics with our lives.” Without the president’s signature, desperately needed aid including unemployment benefits and eviction protections are at risk. Two expanded unemployment programs from the CARES Act expire on December 26 and without additional aid, millions of struggling Americans would be pushed into poverty next month. And because the coronavirus relief package was tied to a $1.4 trillion government spending bill, the federal government is heading for a shutdown next week unless an agreement is reached. Lawmakers will return to the House for a recorded vote on a standalone bill for $2,000 stimulus checks on Monday. In a statement after Thursday’s session, Pelosi said: “To vote against this bill is to deny the financial hardship that families face and to deny them the relief they need. Hopefully by then the President will have already signed the bipartisan and bicameral legislation to keep government open and to deliver coronavirus relief.” She accused House Republicans of “cruelly” depriving Americans of the $2,000 payments the president had agreed to support and urged Trump to get them on board. “If the President is serious about the $2,000 direct payments, he must call on House Republicans to end their obstruction,” she said. Trump, meanwhile, spent Thursday golfing and railing against Republicans including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for failing to back his efforts to subvert the results of the presidential election. McConnell has stayed largely silent since Trump threatened to upend the coronavirus relief package unless stimulus payments were increased, which the majority leader and Republicans had resisted during negotiations. In his first tweet since telling Americans on Monday they can “rest assured that more help is on the way, immediately” after the deal passed through Congress, McConnell shared a video Friday morning wishing Americans “a healthy and Merry Christmas.” Nick Note: This is called laying land minds. If you understand the man it makes perfect since. He fells the Republicans have betrayed him and wants pay back. Stay tune for even more Trump fun!
Police: Explosion in Nashville believed to be ‘intentional’
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — An explosion shook the largely deserted streets of downtown Nashville early Christmas morning, shattering windows, damaging buildings and wounding three people. Authorities said they believed the blast was intentional. The FBI is leading the investigation. Metro Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said police responded to a call of shots fired just before 6 a.m. but found no immediate signs of a shooting, although officers noticed a suspicious vehicle and called for a hazardous unit. While they waited, the vehicle exploded. Aaron said three people were taken to area hospitals for treatment, although none were in critical condition. He said some people were taken to the department’s central precinct for questioning but declined to give more details. The FBI will be taking the lead in the investigation, said spokesman Joel Siskovic. Federal investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also on the scene. The FBI is the primary law enforcement agency responsible for investigating federal crimes, such as explosives violations and acts of terrorism. Black smoke and flames were seen early Friday billowing from the area, which is packed with bars, restaurants and other retail establishments and is known as the heart of downtown Nashville’s tourist scene. Buildings shook in the immediate area and beyond after a loud boom was heard. Buck McCoy, who lives near the area, posted videos on Facebook that show water pouring down the ceiling of his home. Alarms blare in the background and cries of people in great distress ring in the background. A fire is visible in the street outside. McCoy says he says he heard gun fire 15 minutes before the explosion rocked his building. McCoy said the windows of his home were entirely blown out. “All my windows, every single one of them got blown into the next room. If I had been standing there it would have been horrible,” he said. “It felt like a bomb. It was that big,” he told The Associated Press. “There were about four cars on fire. I don’t know if it was so hot they just caught on fire, and the trees were all blown apart,” he said. President Donald Trump has been briefed, according to White House spokesperson Judd Deere, who said that Trump, who is spending the holidays in Florida, will continue to receive regular updates. The U.S. Justice Department said Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen was also briefed and directed all department resources be made available to help with the investigation. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said on Twitter that the state would provide the resources necessary “to determine what happened and who was responsible. Please join @MariaLeeTN and me in praying for those who were injured and we thank all of our first responders who acted so quickly this morning.” Nashville Mayor John Cooper said the city was lucky that the number of injuries was limited. Nick Note: Well i guess we are having a Christmas blast
Coronavirus aid at risk as U.S. lawmakers block Trump’s changes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers on Thursday blocked attempts to alter a $2.3 trillion coronavirus aid and government spending package, rejecting President Donald Trump’s demand for extensive changes and leaving benefits for millions of Americans at risk. Democrats in the House of
Representatives sought to increase direct payments to Americans included in the bill from $600 to $2,000 per person as part of a coronavirus economic relief initiative, acting on one of Trump’s requests. Trump’s fellow Republicans, who oppose the higher amount, blocked that effort.
Republicans sought to change the amount of foreign aid included in the package, seeking to address another one of Trump’s complaints. Democrats blocked that request. The House then adjourned for the day. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber would hold a recorded vote on the stimulus-check increase on Monday. The flurry of activity on the House floor did nothing to break a standoff that threatens desperately needed assistance for millions of Americans and raises the prospect of a partial government shutdown at a time when officials are trying to distribute two coronavirus vaccines. Many Democrats say the $892 billion coronavirus aid package is not big enough to address a pandemic that has killed nearly 320,000 Americans, and they have welcomed Trump’s call for larger stimulus checks. “How ironic it would be to shut down the federal government at a time of pandemic crisis, the very time when government services are needed the most,” House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer said at a news conference.
Republicans opposed larger direct payments during negotiations as they sought to keep the overall price tag of the coronavirus aid below $1 trillion.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump was in Florida, where he was due to play golf on Thursday. The 5,500-page bill took months to negotiate and was supported by Trump’s administration. With the status quo unchanged, it was unclear whether Trump would sign the package into law or hold out for further action.
Without his signature, unemployment benefits for those thrown out of work by the pandemic are due to expire as soon as Saturday, and the U.S. government would be forced into a partial shutdown starting on Tuesday.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Thursday Democrats should be willing to address foreign aid and other elements of the bill that he has derided as wasteful spending. “House Democrats appear to be suffering from selective hearing,” he wrote in a letter to other House Republicans. Congress could keep operations running by passing a fourth stopgap funding bill before midnight on Monday. To successfully do that, lawmakers would need Trump’s cooperation at a time when he is still consumed by his November loss to Democrat Joe Biden, who is set to take office on Jan. 20. The stopgap bill would not include coronavirus aid, however. The House will also on Monday try to override Trump’s veto of an unrelated defense-policy bill.
Embittered by his defeat to Biden, Trump is pressing Congress to dramatically alter the coronavirus and government-spending package, which passed by wide, bipartisan margins on Monday.
Trump sparked a record 35-day government shutdown two years ago when he rejected a federal spending bill over what he said was insufficient funding for building a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Nick Note: Pelose and Trump are running a demolition derby.
Mutant Covid strain’s full impact won’t be known for ‘several weeks’
Professor Peter Horby, chairman of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said today scientists were still exploring the new strain which is thought to spread 70% faster but is no more lethal.
Experts are looking into if the vaccine will still work and if recovered patients will have some degree of immunity caused by prior infection, as reports claim most of England will soon be living under tier four restrictions. There is no evidence the strain affects vaccines and treatments, although urgent work is underway to confirm this, England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty told the nation on Saturday.
Speaking during an evidence session of the Commons Science and Technology Committee on Wednesday, Nervtag member Professor Neil Ferguson said: ‘There is an enormous amount of work underway. ‘This is very early and it will take some weeks before we properly understand the characteristics of this virus, both in terms of the details of transmission but also in terms of clinical outcomes.’ Professor Horby added that scientists believe the new strain started from one person in Kent, and could have been caused by ‘random errors’ when the virus copies. He said: ‘What we don’t know yet is if there’s any difference in the severity of disease, the age distribution of cases, or most importantly whether there is any immune escape.’ A new strain of the Covid-19 virus has led to France closing ports to British goods for 48 hours from Sunday night. This has led to a number of UK supermarkets warning of potential food shortages just a few days before Christmas. Asked if a lax attitude towards lockdown measures could have caused the mutant strain to spread, Nervtag member Professor Neil Ferguson said corroboration of other data suggested otherwise. He said: ‘There was nothing special about what was going on in Kent and the south of England during lockdown compared with other areas of the country. ‘We saw the non-variant decline in a particular week and place, whilst the variant increased in the same week and place in the same population.’ Professor Peter Horby also denied suggestions that Boris Johnson overstated transmission rates of the mutant strain in order to cancel longstanding Government plans for Christmas. Preppers switch to ‘survival’ mode as they sit out Christmas rush to shops He said: ‘I don’t think there’s been any “egging up”, as far as I can tell. This is a new variant which is of concern.’ The prime minister said the strain could increase the UK’s R Rate by 0.4 as he cancelled Christmas for people in London and the south-east on Saturday afternoon. The festive bubble policy across tiers one, two and three has also been dramatically scaled back, with rules allowing three households to mix now restricted to Christmas Day only. Nick Note: My worst nightmare two more virulent mutations circulating that they will announce in 3 months the vaccines will not touch. Big pharma’s dream deal. they get to sell you a brand new vaccine. And this will happen over and over again
CDC: New COVID strain could be spreading in US uncharted
- The new coronavirus strain that was first detected in the United Kingdom could already be in the United States, the CDC said Tuesday.
- The agency said it doesn’t know why the new strain of the virus emerged, but it could have been “by chance alone.”
- “Alternatively, it may be emerging because it is better fit to spread in humans,” the CDC said.
The new coronavirus strain that was first detected in the United Kingdom could already be circulating in the United States without notice, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. Nick Bit: Do you want to know why the US did not “discover” this new mutation. Simple you can not find what you are NOT looking for. Big pharma does not want you to know the billion dollar golden shot may not work. The DNA sequencing to formulate your great white hope vaccine used the Whulan mutation which is three generations old.
While the variant hasn’t been found in the U.S. yet, the CDC noted that scientists haven’t sequenced the genetic coding for many Covid-19 infections here. The agency said “viruses have only been sequenced from about 51,000 of the 17 million US cases,” so the new strain could have slipped notice. “Ongoing travel between the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the high prevalence of this variant among current UK infections, increase the likelihood of importation,” the CDC said in a statement. “Given the small fraction of US infections that have been sequenced, the variant could already be in the United States without having been detected.”
watch now
The new coronavirus “mutates regularly,” the CDC noted, but the overwhelming majority of mutations are insignificant. The significance of the new variant found first in the U.K. has yet to be determined, but the CDC noted that based on early data from the U.K., the new strain could “potentially be more rapidly transmissible than other circulating strains.” The CDC noted that there have been several mutations of the coronavirus, saying scientists are studying how that’s affected its ability to spread or whether it’s made it more lethal or resulted in milder infections. Scientists are also looking at whether the changes make testing less effective, the CDC said adding that the Covid-19 tests are designed to detect the virus in multiple ways, “such that even if a mutation impacts one of the targets, the other PCR targets will still work.”
The mutations, however, could potentially decrease the effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies in treating the virus, the CDC said. Monoclonal antibody treatments, like the ones received by President Donald Trump, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have been hailed as some of the few lifesaving tools in fighting the virus.
“Among these possibilities, the last—the ability to evade vaccine-induced immunity—would likely be the most concerning because once a large proportion of the population is vaccinated, there will be immune pressure that could favor and accelerate emergence of such variants by selecting for ‘escape mutants,’”
CDC said. “There is no evidence that this is occurring, and most experts believe escape mutants are unlikely to emerge because of the nature of the virus.” President Donald Trump’s coronavirus vaccine czar Dr. Moncef Slaoui said Monday that he expects Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Covid-19 shots will be effective against the new strain. Nick Note: What an asshole.. He “expects” the golden shots will be “effective” against the London mutation. They have the resources to test and find out. Maybe they do not want you to know
‘Disgrace To His Uniform’: Col. Wilkerson On Flynn’s Martial Law Election Plot
Nick Note: they are planning some evil shit! Flynn is the one man IF it happens could pull it off. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THIS PLOT
Some White House advisers fear Trump’s final days and you should too
(CNN)President Donald Trump has turned to a fringe group of advisers peddling increasingly dubious tactics to overturn the results of the election, creating a dire situation that multiple senior officials and people close to the President say has led to new levels of uncertainty at how Trump will resist the coming end to his tenure.
“No one is sure where this is heading,” one official said on Monday. “He’s still the President for another month.”
Conspiracist lawyer Sidney Powell, disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, onetime chief strategist Steve Bannon, hawkish trade adviser Peter Navarro and the eccentric founder of the retail website Overstock have all recently found themselves in the Oval Office or on the telephone advising Trump on new last-ditch efforts to reverse his loss.
That’s in addition to Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who has been feeding the President’s conspiracy theories for weeks and who, along with Powell, was seen again at the White House on Monday. In the process, Trump has mostly shunned those working inside the government, leading to growing fears of how he may lash out in the four weeks he has remaining in the White House — or at how he may resist leaving the building come Inauguration Day. Through it all, Trump has mostly abandoned the day-to-day running of government. At a Cabinet meeting last week, he spent much of the time complaining about his suspicions of voter fraud, according to a person familiar with the matter, leaving some attendees puzzled at the point of the gathering.
Indeed, Trump has spent his days singularly focused on the election results.
“We won this election in a landslide,” Trump claimed falsely during a Monday call to the activist Charlie Kirk, who broadcast the conversation using a microphone so attendees at a gathering of young conservatives in West Palm Beach, Florida, could all hear.
“The problem is we need a party that’s going to fight and we have some great congressmen and women that are doing it and we have others, some great fighters,” Trump went on. “But we won this in a landslide, they know it, and we need backing from, like, the Justice Department, and other people finally have to step up.” Sources close to the President describe particular worry among his advisers over what Powell — who only three weeks ago was unceremoniously dumped from his official legal team — may convince him to do in the coming days.
Trump’s idea, which he floated in a heated Friday meeting at the White House, is for Powell to essentially embed as a special counsel inside the White House Counsel’s Office, a proposal the counsel’s office has not looked kindly at.
“There’s high levels of concern with anything involving Sidney Powell,” one source close to the President said. “The lawyers are very worried.” Trump’s annual holiday trip to his Mar-a-Lago resort, where he will be surrounded by sycophants and devotees encouraging him to fight on, will likely only add grist to his election fraud fantasies, the official said. The trip to Florida is set to begin later this week, though Trump’s unpredictability has led some advisers to wonder whether it will remain on the schedule. If he does go, officials say it’s likely he will take meetings, in person and via phone, that his official advisers aren’t aware of.
“It’s scary,” said another administration official, who added that Trump appears “obsessed” with far-flung scenarios to overturn the election results that are seemingly untenable, both feasibly and politically.
One of those includes an effort led by Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory when Congress meets to formally ratify it on January 6. Trump met with Brooks and a number of other conservative House lawmakers at the White House on Monday for a discussion focused on the President’s baseless claims and conspiracy theories that the election was stolen from him, participants said. The lawmakers emerged confident that there was a contingent of House and Senate Republicans who would join the effort and prompt a marathon debate on the floor on January 6 that would spill into the next day. “I believe we have multiple senators and the question is not if but how many,” Brooks said, something that would defy the wishes of Senate Republican leaders, who are eager to move on and are urging senators not to participate since doing so could force them to cast a politically toxic vote against Trump.
In his moments of deepest denial, Trump has told some advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day, only to be walked down from that ledge.
The possibility has alarmed some aides, though few believe Trump will actually follow through. How such an episode might unfold isn’t clear, and federal law enforcement agencies have been loath to discuss the possibility. After news emerged of a heated Oval Office meeting Friday pitting Powell and Flynn against White House officials, including chief of staff Mark Meadows and White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Powell was seen exiting the executive mansion again on Sunday. She was also seen at the White House on Monday, though it wasn’t clear with whom she was planning to meet. She has been promoting an executive order allowing the federal government to seize voting machines in order to inspect them for fraud, a proposition that administration officials including acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf have warned is outside their authority.
Powell attended Friday’s meeting alongside Flynn, her client who Trump pardoned last month after he had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Flynn had suggested in a television interview last week that Trump could use the military to rerun the election in certain states, an idea that again arose during Friday’s meeting. They were joined by Patrick Byrne, the founder of Overstock.com, who tweeted afterward that he was disappointed in how Trump is being served by his White House team. “President Trump is being terribly served by his advisers. They want him to lose and are lying to him. He is surrounding by mendacious mediocrities,” Byrne wrote, adding later: “For the first time in my life I feel sorry for Donald Trump. He is standing up to his waist in snakes. Trust Rudy and Sidney only.” Byrne, who resigned from Overstock in 2019 after his comments about the “deep state” triggered a steep decline in the company’s stock price, did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. He has previously admitted in a series of interviews that he had an intimate relationship with accused Russian agent Maria Butina, which lasted from 2015 to 2018, and ultimately assisted law enforcement in their investigation of her.
More recently, he has emerged as a proponent of the debunked election fraud claims heralded by the President and Powell. He said last month he’d “funded a team of hackers and cyber-sleuths, other people with odd skills” to look into the claims. Friday’s meeting was a highly charged example of a recurring phenomenon: Trump’s outside advisers raising their voices in anger at White House aides, accusing them of disloyalty and weakness, while Trump looks on. Nick Note: My risk assessment is changing. Things are very fluid AND COULD SPIN OUT OF CONTROL. so here goes. I expect the US health care system to collapse as the number of patients DUE TO HOLIDAY MADNESS and the London mutated coronations that is more infections and deadlier who will need life support. Doctors in the hallways of Americas hospitals and tents will decide who will be left to die and who will get a CHANCE of medical care. This will be manly due to QUALIFIED staff shortages. The most dangerous animal in the world is one who is powerful has nothing to lose and his back is up against the wall. I have been told the state attorney in the southern district of NY is preparing to indite in STATE court Trump et all out of the reach of FEDERAL pardons. Trump is seriously considering doing an modified version of Adolph Hitler and seize power. And Russia will help by shutting down the internet with a cyber attack. (i know this sounds crazy). But their is more. Trumps craziness is alienating more conservative Republican voters. Inside polling i am privy to shows minority voters in Georgia are energized like never seen before. And said polling show a double defeat for the Republicans, Driving the Senate into of the welcoming arms of the Bernie Sanders Lefties. And just when you thought it could not get any worse it just did. Geneticists i am in contact with tell me the London mutation of the coronavirus is a massive mutation of the spike proteins. With significant changes to this proteins scientists said that although they have been instructed to tell you nothing indicates the vaccines will not work. Reality is their is a lot to indicate ALL the current vaccines are useless….. Have a nice day!