Hope Hicks -- AKA Melanka (Melania+Ivanka)

[GrumpyGran]

20 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"House intel Republican: Hicks won't answer questions about time at White House"

  Reveal hidden contents

(CNN)White House communications director Hope Hicks does not plan to answer some questions about her time in the Trump administration while she appears Tuesday behind closed doors before the House Intelligence Committee, according to a Republican on the panel.

"There are some questions that she's not going to answer. I think anything dealing with the administration, from the time of the inauguration," GOP Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah told reporters.

Members of the panel are asking Hicks to answer their questions as part of their investigation into Russian meddling into the US election. Lawmakers are watching to see how forthcoming Hicks is after former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon declined to answer questions when he was interviewed by the committee earlier this month. Bannon said he had been instructed by the White House to invoke executive privilege on behalf of President Donald Trump, and he would not answer questions beyond the timeframe of the 2016 campaign.

Asked if Hicks was also invoking privilege for the transition, Stewart said those questions have not been asked. "We haven't gotten there yet," he said.

"We've still got a ways to go," he added.

Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, who is among the GOP members leading the investigation, told CNN ahead of the meeting that he expects Hicks to answer all questions, including during the transition and her time in the White House. He said he is not aware of any agreement to limit the scope of her testimony.

"We'll find out this morning," he said.

Hicks did not answer reporter questions on her way into the interview Tuesday morning. She was initially scheduled to appear before the committee last month, but her testimony was delayed over questions about whether she could discuss the presidential transition and her time at the White House.

The House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said Monday that he did not know whether Hicks will answer all of the committee's questions.

"We don't know at this point if she will testify completely or fully as others who have served in the administration have, or whether she will do what Steve Bannon did, which was stonewall," Schiff said. "We hope obviously she will be cooperative, but at this point I don't know what we can expect."

Schiff has called on the House panel to issue contempt citations to Bannon and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who also limited the scope of questions he would answer, although the Republican leading the committee's Russia investigation, Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, has not said yet if that step would be pursued.

Hicks has already been interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Hicks also met last year with special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation.

Hicks, a trusted Trump aide for years, was one of then-candidate Trump's first hires as he put together an improbable run for the White House. During the campaign, she was often by Trump's side and attended nearly every rally, while she was in frequent communication with other senior officials as they coordinated their tactics to win the White House.

The House panel plans to interview her about any knowledge she has of contacts that occurred between other Trump associates and Russians. And she is bound to be questioned about other controversies as well, namely the White House's involvement in crafting a misleading response last summer once a June 2016 meeting between Russians and Donald Trump Jr. was revealed in the press.

Hicks appears to have firsthand knowledge of a number of key events that have shaped the first year of the Trump White House, including being on Air Force One when the initial misleading statement about Trump Jr.'s meeting with Russians was crafted.

 

Oh, Hopey. A tragic mix of stupidity and arrogance. Don't worry, honey, there's a bus coming for you. 

[47of74]

Oh, Hopey. A tragic mix of stupidity and arrogance. Don't worry, honey, there's a bus coming for you. 

Would it be one with bars on the windows and places to attach chains, handcuffs, etc?

[GrumpyGran]

52 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

 

Would it be one with bars on the windows and places to attach chains, handcuffs, etc?

 

I was actually thinking of the one that's Dumpy's going to eventually throw her under.

[nvmbr02]

 

[NCLunaLovegoodFan]

Just breaking...

 

Hope Hicks To Resign as WH Communications Director

[fraurosena]

Has she flipped? 

 Please, Rufus, make it so! 

[formergothardite]

Is this an attempt to jump ship before it sinks? I think she might be in too deep for that unless she is willing to flip and tell all. 

[AnywhereButHere]

Another One Bites The Dust - Theme song for this administration.

I have a feeling poor Hopey was fired, but hey, she's no longer under the umbrella, so maybe she'll actually have to talk to Mueller and/or congress. No more "white lies" to hide behind.

[onekidanddone]

Daddy just drove his bus over Hopevnaka. Next stop: Fox News.

[Howl]

54 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Next stop: Fox News.

Yup, I'd give her about a week, unless she resigned to spend more time with Rob Porter or she wants to take some time away in a possibly futile attempt to try and reconcile with her soul.  

 

[GrumpyGran]

You don't think she was reading FJ, do you? And took me seriously about the bus coming to run her over? Maybe. Nah.

This will be interesting.   

[onekidanddone]

10 minutes ago, Howl said:

Yup, I'd give her about a week, unless she resigned to spend more time with Rob Porter or she wants to take some time away in a possibly futile attempt to try and reconcile with her soul.  

 

If she knows what is good for her she will run like hell from Porter. That is if she can. Once a wife beater, always a wife beater. I have no respect for her choice of boss, but shit nobody should end up with a guy like 'ole Rob.

Edited February 28, 2018 by onekidanddone

[hoipolloi]

[faraway]

Meh, the rope has tightened and she's probably just running to get out of the picture ASAP. She most likely felt untouchable in her position and now realized shit will eventually hit the fan. Since everyone from Dumpy's camp is publicly praising her it doesn't seem she's about to flip.

[formergothardite]

1 hour ago, faraway said:

Since everyone from Dumpy's camp is publicly praising her it doesn't seem she's about to flip.

Not yet. I bet she will crumble fast, though, when Mueller puts the pressure on her. 

Didn't she just get called to testify in front of the House? I think that probably freaked her the fuck out and she realized how bad things are so she decided to run. It is too late for that. 

[PreciousPantsofDoom]

On 12/09/2017 at 12:04 PM, fraurosena said:

Or she'll be ousted just after she's been interrogated by Mueller et al.

Looks like you totally called that all the way back in September!

Edited March 1, 2018 by PreciousPantsofDoom
Need to finish thoughts before clicking submit button

[47of74]

9 hours ago, GrumpyGran said:

I was actually thinking of the one that's Dumpy's going to eventually throw her under.

In other words, the prison bus that's gonna be driving him to his new home. 

[Howl]

Hicks met with Mueller on Dec. 8, 2017 and I read somewhere that she worked for months to prepare for that testimony. 

I'm wondering now if she told some carefully scripted little white lies to Mueller that are getting ready to bite her in the ass.  I don't think Mueller makes a distinction between little white lies, and um, actual lies. 

Edited March 1, 2018 by Howl
Moved rest of post to Trump topic.

[fraurosena]

5 minutes ago, Howl said:

I'm wondering now if she told some carefully scripted little white lies to Mueller that are getting ready to bite her in the ass.

If she did lie, then she'll either join the likes of Papadapoulos, van der Zwaan and Gates and make a deal with Mueller and spill everything she knows.. or she'll do a runner and hide abroad somewhere obscure where no one will be able to trace her. 

And if she does suddenly take off, I wouldn't be surprised if she got paid to hide either, and that's why they're all singing her praises in the WH right now. 

I'm hoping for the former option though, and that she's singing like a canary to the Mueller team.

[GreyhoundFan]

A good one from Dana Milbank: "Hope Hicks told the truth about lying for Trump. Now she’s gone."

Spoiler

For a brief but glorious moment, we had Hope.

On Tuesday, White House communications director Hope Hicks did what for the Trump White House was extraordinary, if not unprecedented: She admitted to lawmakers that working for President Trump required her to lie.

On Wednesday, she announced her resignation.

There was no connection made between those two events by Hicks or by the president in announcing her departure, which was characterized as entirely voluntary and under consideration for some time. Yet, whether the two events were connected or not, Hicks had done something that is incompatible with serving in this administration: She told the truth about the lies.

Trump has been racking up whoppers faster than Norwegians won Olympic medals. The Post’s Fact Checker team, which has had to staff up to keep pace with the prodigious presidential output, clocks him averaging nearly 5.9 false or misleading claims a day. Those around him, in turn, are forced to lie as they repeat the president’s untruths, or to justify his falsehoods. There are lies, damned lies — and then there is the Trump administration.

Perhaps inadvertently, Hicks drew attention to this when the 29-year-old former model and fashion adviser to Ivanka Trump, who had no experience in politics before joining the Trump campaign, spoke about lying for Trump. To be sure, Hicks admitted only to telling “white lies,” as the New York Times put it, and “after extended consultation with her lawyers” she asserted that she had not lied about the Russia probe.

Still, this is a considerable admission, for when you are the communications director for the president of the United States, your white lies are rather more consequential than the usual white lies of the “yes, I’m listening,” “you look great” and “I was stuck in traffic” variety.

What’s important is Hicks recognized she was lying.

It’s exceedingly rare for an official in the Trump White House to admit to making a false statement, and even then it is almost always blamed on incomplete information. To admit to lying — that is, knowing the truth but saying the opposite — means Hicks knew the difference between fact and fiction.

The president, I’m convinced, doesn’t see such a distinction. He believes what he is saying in the moment — whatever it is — even if it is easily disproved or contradicts what he has said previously. Hence, he isn’t necessarily “lying.” He just may not know truth from fiction — which is hardly reassuring.

This is how Trump can say, with apparent sincerity, that a record number of people attended his inauguration, that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote because of fraud, that Barack Obama bugged Trump Tower, that the tax cuts would cost him a fortune, that he saw thousands of Muslims celebrating the 9/11 attacks in New Jersey, that there are 30 million immigrants in the United States illegally, that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the Kennedy assassination.

But if the president is confused about reality, that can’t be true of all the people around him and supporting him who surely know better but are moved to falsify. Some make lies of omission, such as the memo by Rep. Devon Nunes (R-Calif.) that left the false impression that the FBI based much of the Russia probe on information provided by Democrats. Some lie to cover for Trump, such as Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) pretending they didn’t hear Trump refer to “s---hole countries.”

And some lie to cover their own tracks, such as Trump adviser Roger Stone, who testified under oath that he had communicated with WikiLeaks through an intermediary. The Atlantic got hold of private messages showing Stone communicated directly with WikiLeaks during the campaign.

Lying spreads like influenza among those in Trump’s orbit. Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Rick Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Alex van der Zwaan pleaded guilty to lying about his communications with Gates. Paul Manafort has been indicted over alleged lies to banks. Jared Kushner couldn’t get a security clearance after repeated failures of disclosure.

Then we have the likes of Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, joining with Trump in a feedback loop of falsehood. “ ‘School shooting survivor says he quit @CNN Town Hall after refusing scripted question,’ ” Trump tweeted last week after hearing this allegation on Carlson’s Fox News show. “. . . Just like so much of CNN, Fake News.”

But the question wasn’t scripted. The survivor’s father, Glenn Haab, has now admitted he doctored an email from CNN to make it look that way. CNN had said the allegation was bogus last week, but Carlson — and Trump — didn’t much care what the truth was as they amplified the false charge.

That’s why, under the category of baby steps, the admission by Hicks that she was lying for Trump was heartening. She knew that there was such a thing as truth, and that she was not telling it.

And, just like that, she’s gone.

 

[onekidanddone]

Ummm...Errrr...Who is this Maggie person? She sounds like TT's ghost writer 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

19 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Ummm...Errrr...Who is this Maggie person? She sounds like TT's ghost writer 

She's a well-regarded NYT writer. She was the one who wrote the early-on piece about Dumpy wandering around the WH residence in a bathrobe. She's been critical of Dumpy, but he seems to have a soft spot for her.

[fraurosena]

16 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Ummm...Errrr...Who is this Maggie person? She sounds like TT's ghost writer 

 

As @GreyhoundFan says, Maggie Haberman is a renowned journalist with the New York Times. She's usually quite good and well-informed, and I've quoted her here on FJ before, I believe. 

To be honest, I don't think Hicks departure had anything to do with yesterday's hearing either, but more likely is a result of Mueller's investigation, who is well aware of this little fact:

Lawmakers: Hope Hicks testified that Mike Flynn asked her to lie during the transition

Quote

Hope Hicks told lawmakers this week that disgraced national security adviser Mike Flynn had asked her to lie during the presidential transition.

The White House communications director, who tendered her resignation the next day, told the House Intelligence Committee that she had told “white lies” on behalf of the administration, reported CBS News.

Hicks repeated the phrase after a lawmaker used the words, and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) then “went through the phone book” and asked whether anyone else had asked her to lie, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL) told the network.

Those individuals included the president himself and “the entire Trump family,” the Florida Republican said, as well as Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Corey Lewandowski and Michael Cohen.

Rooney said Hicks gave a “blanket” response and declined to answer in each instance, and he complained that she shouldn’t have been asked the “bullsh*t question” in the first place.

“The whole line of questioning was a trap,” Rooney said. “They sent her down a rabbit hole that she could not get out of — and it was completely unfair.”

However, Hicks did comment on Flynn, who was forced out of the White House in February 2017 over his secret contacts with Russia and pleaded guilty in December to lying to FBI agents.

Swalwell told CBS News that Hicks specified that Flynn had never asked her to lie for him “in the campaign,” but his communications with the Russian ambassador came during the transition period.

The California Democrat asked if Flynn had asked her to lie during that period between the election and President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Hicks told Swalwell that Flynn had asked her to present information as true that she later learned to be false, and the lawmaker told CBS that she appeared to be selectively protecting Trump associates and administration officials.

The lawmakers did not say whether Hicks specified what misleading information Flynn had instructed her to disseminate.

Rooney, who recently announced he would not seek re-election, said the exchange and subsequent reports showed why Congress should end its investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia.

“(Leaks have) poisoned this whole investigation,” Rooney said. “Why would anyone come and interview with us anymore, ever again?”

 

 

[laPapessaGiovanna]

3...2...1..."She was just just the cousin of an aquaintance of the coffe guy, she cleaned rooms and ironed trousers, look there shiny!"

[fraurosena]

George Takei's tweet made me smile.