Look who's talking about the death penalty

'Squad' members Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar introduce bill to BAN federal death penalty

This coming from the woman who's religious beliefs are based on death and wholesale slaughter. "Some people did something"...I wonder who they were?

Omar in 2012... sending out the call.

It's like Pelosi said. The districts, they got elected in a ham sandwich could have won as long as it had a (D) next to its name.

Look who's talking about the death penalty

Mueller on Fusion GPS: ‘I’m not familiar with that’

How could he possibly conduct an investigation and not know Fusion GPS was the genesis of Russian Collusion?

What if Robert Mueller investigated the MLK assassination?

Mueller on Fusion GPS: ‘I’m not familiar with that’

Melania and Donald Trump Will Host Second State Dinner After Obamas Outpace Them

Kind of sad... and the best they could come up with? Newsweek is so desperate to revitalize their heroes they're going to use state dinners as a yardstick to judge Trump knowing he has run circles around the previous occupants in all meaningful categories. So much so Barry has tried taking credit for the economy.

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The Trumps on Monday announced they will hold their second state dinner in September, approaching their third year in the White House, at which point the Obamas had already held five.

And as a reward for their accomplishment, they got a $65 million book deal!

First Lady Melania Trump, as of late afternoon Monday, had not tweeted about the event, but the White House's announcement stated, "The President and First Lady will welcome Prime Minister and Mrs. Morrison of Australia to the White House on September 20, 2019, for an official visit, which will include a state dinner."

Melania Trump, who faced some criticism over how she planned the first state dinner for French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, is expected to follow tradition and take charge of the second state dinner as well.

"The First Lady and her staff are responsible for the elaborate planning and attention behind the glitter and ceremony of the state dinner," a White House Historical Association article states. "These formal dinners involve the creation of invitations and guest lists, menus, flowers, table settings, seating arrangements and entertainment for the evening. The First Lady works closely with her social secretary, the executive residence staff and the State Department to coordinate every detail of this very special event."

White House officials who work with Melania Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Newsweek on Monday about her plans for the second state dinner.

"The visit will celebrate our two countries' close friendship and shared history, and reaffirm our common vision for global peace, security, and prosperity," the White House's release on the matter stated.

Melania Trump was criticized in April 2018 for the first state dinner's small guest list that had no Democratic Congress members. She also raised eyebrows for choosing Clinton White House china for the main course and selecting cherry blossoms like the Obamas did.

The first lady's then-spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham at the time pushed back on doubts around Melania Trump's success at planning the event.

"We're probably not going to get the credit we deserve, but I know this team is great and she knows this team is great," Grisham told The New York Times. "We have not failed, and she has not failed."

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcome French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron as they arrive for a State Dinner at the North Portico of the White House in Washington, D.C., April 24, 2018. SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

While the Obamas were more welcoming to a variety of world leaders, President Trump seems happy to invite those who have long stood by him.

"There's no better or stronger or deeper relationship than the United States and Australia," Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has led the country for less than a year after the ousting of his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull, said at a working dinner with Trump before G20 summit last month.

President Trump agreed and added, "we were just talking about the battles that we fought together," apparently referring to global trade wars.

Melania and Donald Trump Will Host Second State Dinner After Obamas Outpace Them

Coming to a theater near you

Coming to a theater near you

Ilhan Omar Marriage Flummoxes Media Fact-Checkers

Taking 'All In The Family'
a step too far.

Media outlets scrambled to prove false the accusation Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) married her brother after President Donald Trump mentioned it, but none have been able to definitively reach an answer, largely due to Omar's unwillingness to provide information.

Trump was asked about the accusation that Omar's husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, was also her brother during a scrum with reporters last Wednesday and said he had heard talk that she married her brother but knew "nothing about it."

National media had largely kept away from judging the merits of the accusation that she was related to her second husband, which have circulated since her entry into politics in 2016, but after Trump's comment, many came to quick conclusions. CNN's Jim Acosta jumped in immediately to criticize Trump for diving in on "disgusting lies." The Daily Beast‘s Will Sommer published a lengthy piece on Friday that did little to nothing to debunk what he calls a "baseless smear."

The closest thing to evidence against the claim presented in Sommer's piece is a reference to a time Omar showed a Star Tribune reporter pictures on her cell phone of immigration documents with a list of members of her family. Sommer's piece fails to mention that Omar declined to provide copies of any of the documents to the reporter or allow him to make a record of the information he was briefly allowed to view.

Omar didn't respond to requests for comment from the Daily Beast. Her congressional office currently is alerting reporters through auto-reply that it's not responding to press inquiries, including one from the Free Beacon, into whether any other outlets have been shown documents Omar purports to be evidence against the claim she married her brother.

That one time Omar allowed a reporter to view documents on a cell phone was also the extent of substantial evidence against the claim presented in the New York Times fact-check of Omar's marriage. (The Times also uses faulty math to indicate, based on their dates of birth, that it's impossible for Omar and Elmi to have the same mother. It's not.)

PolitiFact, perhaps wisely, didn't dive into the marriage question after Trump's Wednesday remark, but rather went to the Star Tribune to ask about its attempts to gather facts needed to reach a conclusion. The Minnesota paper's political editor told PolitiFact his interest in the marriage controversy began because his reporters "we're not getting a lot of answers" from Omar on her incorrectly filed tax returns, in which she claimed to be married to her current husband, Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi when she, in fact, was not.

"My interest as an editor began with the silence she has maintained about her improper tax filings," said editor Kevin Diaz. "She would say only that she had corrected the 2014 and 2015 tax filings and would not divulge anything about why she had filed taxes with a man she was not married to when she was separated but still married to someone else."

After reviewing the dearth of evidence collected by those suggesting that Elmi was Omar's brother, Diaz assigned two reporters to come to a conclusion.

"We felt as journalists if there was smoke, it's our job to look behind it to see if there's fire," Diaz said.

The paper's biggest impediment to finding the truth was Omar, Diaz added.

"What's really made it hard is that she's been unwilling to address any of these questions," Diaz wrote. "That has fueled the controversy."

"We've asked her these questions, and also asked her to make her father available. We've tried to reach Elmi. We've tried to reach her sisters. Her family could put this (the question of Elmi's relationship to Omar) to rest easily. No one will talk to us. I wish we could send a reporter to Mogadishu (Somalia) but we don't have the bandwidth."

(Why...because in all likelihood, it's probably true)

Diaz currently says there is "circumstantial evidence that begs for some kind of explanation from a member of Congress," but his team is unable to reach a conclusion either way without more information from Omar. The Free Beacon has also been unable to come to a conclusion.

There is substantial evidence that her marriage to Elmi wasn't legitimate. Official records show, for example, that Omar continued to live with her current husband while she was married to Elmi, who is now living in the United Kingdom.

There is also a significant amount of evidence, in the form of official documents and scrubbed social media posts, suggesting there's a lot more to the story.

The Times wrote on Thursday that "no proof has emerged" to substantiate claims regarding Omar's marriage. It also did not speak to Omar, though it's unclear whether it requested any information or comment from her for its fact-check.

Omar has consistently been unwilling to answer questions since the allegation first surfaced. Her team's first on-the-record statement regarding whether she was married to her brother, to a PowerLine reporter in August 2016, was a refusal to answer questions.

"There are people who do not want an East African, Muslim woman elected to office and who will follow Donald Trump's playbook to prevent it," a campaign spokesman said, months before she was first elected. "Ilhan Omar's campaign will not be distracted by negative forces and will continue to focus its energy on creating positive engagement with community members to make the district and state more prosperous and equitable for everyone."

Continuing her pattern of selectively choosing what she wants to comment on, Omar last week refused to answer whether she would denounce al Qaeda terrorists.

Her office's only recent comment on the marriage issue has been an attempt to dissuade "legitimate media outlets" from investigating it.

"Whether by colluding with right-wing outlets to go after Muslim elected officials or hounding family members, legitimate media outlets have a responsibility not to fan the flames of hate," her office said. "Continuing to do so is not only demeaning to Ilhan, but to her entire family."

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In other words, she whipped out the Islamophobe card.

Ilhan Omar Marriage Flummoxes Media Fact-Checkers