Daily Kos Petition & Mark Sumner / The Daily Kos – 2017-03-07 00:08:18
https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/petitions/sign-the-petition-to-jason-chaffetz-we-want-an-investigation-on-what-happened-in-yemen
Sign the Petition to Jason Chaffetz:
We want an investigation on what happened in Yemen
Daily Kos Petition
On January 29, 2017, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump signed off on a raid into Yemen, a raid that ended with the deaths of US Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens, an unknown number of civilians, and three wounded American military.
Early reports say that Trump was not even in the situation room during the raid, and that the raid itself was something of a catastrophic failure. Subsequently, video proof of the raid’s “success” turned out to be video from a decade ago.
In the Senate, Al Franken (D-MN) is leading a bipartisan movement to find out what happened in the Yemen raid. But in the House, Oversight Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz has refused to investigate. This is the same man who led SEVEN investigations into Benghazi and found nothing.
Tell Rep. Chaffetz and the rest of Congress to do their job and open up an investigation into the events in Yemen. Sign This Petition
Our Message to Rep. Jason Chaffetz:
A Navy SEAL died, and three American military were wounded, due to a botched raid in Yemen. Congress needs to fully investigate this catastrophe.
Trump Didn’t Bother to Show Up in the
Situation Room for Botched Yemen Raid
Mark Sumner / Daily Kos
(February 2, 2017) — During the campaign, it was easy to get tired of how many times Hillary Clinton repeated stories of tense nights in the Situation Room, where she along with President Obama and other members of his staff, waited for word on some military action from the far side of the world.
No one is going to get tired of hearing those stories from Donald Trump. Because for the first military action that Trump launched as commander in chief, he didn’t bother to show up.
According to Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Trump was not in the Situation Room for the raid.
The president was here in the residence. He was kept in touch with his national security staff. Secretary Mattis and others kept him updated on both the raid and the death of Chief Owens as well as the four other individuals that were injured. So he was kept apprised of the situation.
That Trump didn’t come down in PJs is completely understandable, considering that by 5 PM Trump was too fatigued to hold a civil conversation with the leader of an allied nation. The Yemen raid just didn’t happen within business hours.
And those earlier suggestions that President Obama had somehow cleared the raid? Completely false. Donald Trump was totally responsible for authorizing the botched raid. But he didn’t take that responsibility seriously enough to let it keep him out of bed while Navy SEALs were putting their lives on the line.
The raid ended with not just the death of US Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens and the wounding of three others, but the killing of an unknown number of civilians.
The US military has launched an investigation into the scale of civilian casualties in a botched special forces raid against a suspected al-Qaida base in Yemen, the first such mission to be approved by Donald Trump, as questions mount over the operation.
After initially denying there had been any civilian casualties in Sunday’s raid, US Central Command (Centcom), which is responsible for military operations in the Middle East and central Asia, acknowledged some of the dead may have included women and children, though claimed some of the women were armed.
Military insiders are pointing the finger at Trump, who apparently gave the mission the thumbs up after a dinner discussion with noted military experts Steve “leave no white man behind” Bannon and Jared “totally not nepotism” Kushner.
What did these experts on the world accomplish over a nice dessert?
US military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.
By this point in a Hillary Clinton administration, we would already be onto the third announcement of committees dedicated to investigating this tragedy and daily desk thumping for a special prosecutor. Yemenghazi!
But this really shouldn’t be called Yemenghazi. Because this looks like a situation where people really did die because of a miserable, thoughtless decision carried out by people who couldn’t be bothered to get up from dinner to give it serious study, or come down from the bedroom to see the results of their action.
Donald Trump Spends 31 Percent of Time on Vacation, Plays Golf 8 Times in 6 Weeks — on Taxpayer Dime
Mark Sumner / The Daily Kos
(March 6, 2017) — Donald Trump is that guy — the guy who treats the company credit card like it’s his personal mint and who buys the most expensive item on the menu because he knows someone else is picking up the bill. And who is paying for Trump’s extravagance? You are.
Over the last five weekends, the president has visited his luxury resort four times – each trip costs American taxpayers about $3 million – and as of last night, Trump had spent 31% of his presidency at Mar-a-Lago. He’s now played golf eight times since taking office six weeks ago.
Despite being president on 9/11 and starting the two longest-running wars in American history, George W. Bush found time to break the record for the amount of vacation time taken by a president.
Even so, Republican mythology insists that President Obama was a golf-obsessed loafer whose jaunts around the world cost taxpayers a fortune. In truth, Obama was never close to matching the lazy days of W and both of them were nose-to-the-grindstone compared to Trump.
Told that Donald Trump is actually spending more on travel and enjoying more downtime, conservatives were incredulous. The facts “can’t possibly be right,” one said. “That absolutely can’t be right.”
Oh, it’s right. And it’s one of the clearest signs of just how blatantly Donald Trump is willing to lie not just to America, but specifically to the people who supported him.
Here’s Trump during the campaign.
In October 2014, Trump whined via Twitter, “We pay for Obama’s travel so he can fundraise millions so Democrats can run on lies. Then we pay for his golf.” A year later, as a presidential candidate, Trump declared that if he were in office, he’d dispense with breaks. “I’d want to stay in the White House and work my ass off,” he told voters.
It was four months from the time he took office until Barack Obama played his first weekend game of golf. Four months, in fact, before he took his first day of vacation. Donald Trump didn’t make it even two weeks before he left town and violated his promise.
Why would Republicans be so convinced that Obama was constantly playing golf? Well
Bradd Jaffy ✔ @BraddJaffy
President Trump “has some meetings and may play a few holes of golf” today, White House aide says
(Quick reminder of previous Trump tweets)
8:16 AM – 5 Feb 2017
At the current rate, while Trump is spending your money to cover his amazing laziness, he’ll easily set a record. George W. Bush finished off with 65 vacation trips totaling 407 days off. That’s three times as much as Barack Obama, but Bush still only spent 14 percent of his presidency snoozing, brush-clearing, and learning to paint feet.
Trump is set to easily eclipse Bush’s eight-year total in his first term — assuming he completes a term.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
