INTRODUCING GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS
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Monday. August 14th. Day 207.

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Trump Campaign Aide Repeatedly Tried To Arrange Meetings With Russian Officials: The Washington Post reports that a low-level foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign named George Papadopoulos sent at least six emails attempting to set up meetings between the campaign and Russian officials between March and September 2016. One of the emails had the subject line "Meeting with Russian Leadership – Including Putin" and offered to arrange "a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump." According to the email exchanges, which were among 20,000 pages of documents the Trump campaign has shared with congressional committees, higher level staffers rebuffed Papadopoulos' attempts to set up the meetings.

President Trump Considering Pardoning Anti-Immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio: President Trump told Fox News Sunday that he is considering pardoning former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt for disobeying judicial orders to stop targeted traffic stops on suspected undocumented immigrants. Trump told the conservative cable news network "he has done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration. He's a great American patriot and I hate to see what has happened to him."

President Trump Finally Condemns Hate Groups Behind Racist Violence In Charlottesville: In remarks made at The White House today, President Trump boasted about the US economy and finally explicitly condemned the hate groups behind the Unite The Right rally that left one dead over the weekend: "To anyone who acted criminally in this weeks racist violence…you will be held accountable…We condemn in the strongest possible terms, this display of hatred, bigotry, and violence… Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists."

 

White House Scrambles After Trump Fails To Condemn White Supremacists: Vice President Mike Pence insisted Sunday evening that President Trump condemns the white supremacists and neo-Nazis behind the unrest in Charlottesville over the weekend that left one counter-protester dead. On Saturday, Trump condemned violence on "many sides," without targeting the white supremacist alt-right groups that organized this weekend's gatherings. In his remarks, Pence said that Trump was clear in his condemnation and that the media was to blame for spending more time focusing on Trump than the white supremacists themselves.

Sunday evening, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the car attack resulting in one death "domestic terrorism." 

Earlier Sunday, an unnamed spokesman added to Trump's remarks after Republicans began to criticize the President's response: "The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred. Of course, that includes white supremacists, KKK Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups."

Merck CEO Quits Presidential Council Over Charlottesville Response: Monday morning, Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier quit President Trump's council on manufacturing citing Trump's lackluster response to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville: "America's leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal." Trump quickly attacked Frazier, who is African American:

 

 

Top Advisers Turn On Bannon On Sunday TV: On Sunday, national security adviser HR McMaster dodged three of Chuck Todd's questions asking whether or not he could work with Steve Bannon, former Breitbart head turned Trump adviser. The comments came along with criticism from former Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, who told ABC that Trump needs to "move away" from Bannon, who has ties to the alt-right. Two sources tell CNN that Trump's new Chief of Staff John Kelly has eyes on removing Bannon.

Mattis And Tillerson Say US Is Not Looking For Regime Change In North Korea: Amid rising tensions with North Korea, defense secretary James Mattis and secretary of state Rex Tillerson attempted Monday to diffuse the situation, insisting in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that America's goal in North Korea is denuclearization, not regime change. Last week, tensions between the country reached a fever pitch as President Trump and North Korea traded military threats on an almost daily basis.

<p>Benjamin Goggin is the News Editor at Digg.&nbsp;</p>

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