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They say history repeats itself, but what they don't tell you is that sometimes it doesn't take very long. President Trump and his closest staffers are seemingly making the exact same missteps as Hillary Clinton. Here's a look. Jeva Lange

The private email server

Hillary Clinton famously used a private email server while serving as secretary of state, an act Trump once claimed "disqualifies her from seeking presidency." But Trump's senior White House staff use a private Republican National Committee server, Newsweek reports. This isn't explicitly illegal but it's led to some scrutiny in the past, such as when 22 million emails vanished under former President George W. Bush, or when the Russians possibly compromised the RNC server at the same time as their hack on the Democratic National Committee. Any emails that aren't forwarded from the private server to a White House address are also in violation of the Presidential Records Act. "Given how hard the Trump campaign hammered Clinton [on] her own use of a private email server during her tenure [...] this is not a good look," Engadget writes.

The personal email account

While government officials have not always used .gov accounts, Clinton's usage was ruled as "more serious" in 2016. "The audit did note that former Secretary of State Colin Powell had also exclusively used a private email account. ... But the failings of Clinton were singled out in the audit as being more serious than her predecessor," The Associated Press reported last May. This past Thursday, Twitter users noticed that Trump's @POTUS Twitter account appeared to be linked to the personal Gmail account of his White House social media director, Dan Scavino. Scavino has apparently fixed that, but linking to a commercial email address made the Twitter account more vulnerable to hacking.

The ties to Teneo

Trump's former spokesman, Jason Miller, turned down a White House position in December, citing commitments to his family. On Friday, Axios reported Miller was taking a position with Teneo Strategy, a company that once put the Clintons in hot water. The Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee scrutinized for years whether Teneo had "improper access to the highest levels of U.S. government" when Clinton was secretary of state, Reuters reports. While Miller does not have a job in the White House, he assured in December that he looks "forward to continuing to support the president-elect from the outside after my work on the transition concludes."

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President Trump and his staff are literally repeating all of Hillary Clinton's mistakes - The Week Magazine

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Tellis, who is reportedly close to being selected as President Trumps United States ambassador to India, supported Clinton for president to undermine Trumpduring the campaign as part of a group of Republicans who tried to tank his candidacy post-primary. Tellis has even been openly opposed to the Trump administrations America First doctrine, making the news he is even being considered for thetop diplomatic position in one of the biggest countries in the world even more puzzling.

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Tellis, 55, is a former Bush administration White House official and former senior adviser at the U.S. embassy in New Delhi from 2001 to 2003. He also worked on the National Security Council as a special assistant to president George W. Bush, and as senior director for Strategic Planning and Southwest Asia during the early part of the Bush administration. He is anIndian scholar who went on be a senior fellow at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, among other positions.

But, during the 2016 presidential electionafter Trump was officially nominated at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in JulyTellis joined a group of rogue Republicans who publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton for the presidency.

Together for America is launching to lead the Hillary for America campaigns recruitment and outreach to the growing number of Republicans and Independents who are stepping forward to endorse Hillary Clinton for president, the Clinton campaign said in the release that listed the Republicans who abandoned their nominee, the man who would become president of the United States. The list of nearly 50 endorsements includes three former Cabinet Secretaries, six current or former Members of the House and Senate, six former Ambassadors, five former leaders in the armed forces, nearly 20 senior Republican administration officials and numerous business or community leaders.

The argument the Clinton campaign put forward in this release is that voters were increasingly seeing that Clinton understands the complex and volatile world we live in and has the experience and temperament to be president and lead the nation as Commander in Chief and that Donald Trump does not.

These endorsements send a strong signal to Republican and Independent voters that respected leaders are putting country over political party in this election, the Clinton campaign release said.

The release even quotes Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, the disgraced leader whose emails would later be published on WikiLeaks, praising so-called Republicans like Tellis for undermining the GOP nominee and instead backing Clinton. Podesta said:

Americans are looking to the next president to help bring us together to tackle the big challenges facing the country and Hillary Clintons bi-partisan support is the latest proof that she can work across the aisle to make us stronger together. Hillary Clintons experience and temperament make her a steady leader for this unique moment while Donald Trump is unfit, lacks the temperament, and is too dangerous to be in the Oval Office and the Situation Room. Regardless of party, voters are increasingly concerned that Trumps tendency to bully, demean and degrade others sends the wrong message to our children.

Telliss name appears on the list below that quote, alongside the names of other top Republicans who were backing Clinton as part of the Never Trump movement, including former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, former U.S. Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT), and former Hewlett-Packard CEO and failed California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman,

Trump has been reportedly blocking other Never Trump Republicans from getting administration posts, not selecting people who signed various letters against him for different spots in government. But Tellis somehow seems to be slipping through unnoticed, off the Trump teamsor the presidentsradar.

Transition sources said Trump is close to selecting Ashley Tellis, a former White House official and renowned India expert, to be the next U.S. ambassador to India, the Washington Posts Josh Rogin wrote in early January.

Last week, the Hindustan Times in India added that the foreign policy establishment there hopes Trump picks this Never Trump Clinton supporter.

Ashley Tellis, a Mumbai-born scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is an authoritative voice on India-U.S. ties and is tipped to be Donald Trumps envoy to New Delhi, Sushil Aaron wrote in the Indian outlet. India will hope his appointment will come through, not only because he has been a consistent advocate of close ties but also because he has offered firm public advice to Trump about the need for continuity in policy towards Delhi.

But whats perhaps most puzzling about this guy might being considered is that even after Trump crushed Clinton on Nov. 8, winning a landslide 306 electoral votes to shock the world and win the presidency, Tellis has continued publicly criticizing the now president of the United States and his policies.

According to the Indian Expresswhich published a piece on Telliss criticisms the day before President Trumps inaugurationTellis is now publicly warning that Trumps America First strategy has the potential to damage the U.S.-India relationship and that Trump should instead strengthen Indias alliance to cope up with the challenges posed by China.

The Indian Express was quoting from an op-ed that Tellis wrote on Asia Policy by the National Bureau of Asian Research, titled: Avoiding the Labors of Sisyphus: Strengthening U.S.-India Relations in a Trump Administration.

In it, Tellis wrote that that Trumps election could interrupt the dramatic deepening in U.S.-Indian ties to the disadvantage of both nations.

If this outcome were to materialize, it would not be necessarily because Trump harborsany particular animus toward India, Tellis wrote.

Tellis quoted several different statements Trump made about India throughout the campaign.

During the election campaign, he admittedly did complain that India is taking [U.S.] jobs and that the United States was being ripped off by many Asian countries, including India, Tellis wrote. But he also declared that he was a big fan, and that ifelected President, the Indian and Hindu community will have a true friend in the White House.'

Tellis went on to argue in this piece that Trump has probably unsettled views on India as a whole, and his comments about the country taking U.S. jobs away are part of a nationalist agenda that is understandableeven defensible, but that Trump in his view has not thoroughly thought this issue through. He even mocked Trump for condemning what he laughed off as pernicious globalism. Tellis wrote:

The variety of positions expressed by Trump suggests that the potential threat to the continuing transformation of U.S.-India relations comes less from his views on Indiawhich are probably unsettledthan it does from his iconoclastic convictions about the relationship between the United States and the world. Throughout the campaign, Trump emphatically affirmed his opposition to the existing international order, arguing that the United States, far from being its beneficiary, was in fact its principal victim. To remedy the inconveniences flowing from this pernicious globalism, his America-first campaign promoted an agenda that rejected multilateral free trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, demanded that allies bear a greater share of the burdens associated with their defense, and eschewed U.S. military intervention in virtually all instances other than to avert direct threats to the U.S. homeland.

If Trump does overlook all of this and names Tellis to the position, he would replace Richard Verma. Verma, in 2015, was named U.S. ambassador to India by former President Barack Obama.

Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope@AdelleNaz

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'Never Trump' Hillary Backer Aiming to Sneak into Administration as US Ambassador to India - Breitbart News

NBCs Chuck Todd confessed that he and others in the mainstream news media played down just how despised Hillary Clinton was in the heartland due to the fear of appearing sexist.

Whats more, he admitted, the mainstream media failed to tell the stories of all Americans.

Where I think political correctness got in the way of what we all knew as reporters and didnt fully deliver was how hated the Clintons were in the heartland, the Meet the Press host admitted Thursday to former Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer in a interview for the 1947 podcast.

And I think it was a fear of, Oh, is it going to look like its sexist, anti-woman if we say that? he added, pointing out that on the hustings he saw numerous Hillary for Prison signs adorning the front yards of rural America.

I think we underplayed it a little bit out of political correctness fears, Mr. Todd said. No member of the press corps wants to look like theyre singling out a group and making a group feel bad, right, whatever that [group] is.

If we sort of were straight-up honest and blunt about hey do we understand the level of hatred thats out there and you know, all the Hillary for Prison signs that are out there, we certainly would have at least made the viewer know, hey, you know, shes not well-liked in some places in this country in ways thats times 10 when it comes to Trump, he said.

I think youve put your finger on the point I was making earlier about the self selection of reporters who go into journalism, Mr. Fleischer replied. And, because I do submit theyre largely from the same liberal caste, they see things through the same type of ideological lens, theyre so much more susceptible to that damning political correctness that blinds them. And they dont see what you just said.

Mr. Todd rejected the premise that NBC News or the media in general is driven to undermine Donald Trumps presidency, but admitted there was a coastal bias in story selection during the 2016 presidential campaign that poorly served a national audience.

What do I think we did wrong in this election? The biggest thing is we didnt tell the stories of all Americans, Mr. Todd said. We told the stories of coastal Americans. And ultimately, thats like the larger trust issue.

We were more likely to do a story about the Dreamer that might get deported with new policies than we were about the 19-year-old opioid addict who feels hopeless in Rolla, Missouri. And, Im not, I dont pick on Rolla, Missouri, its, my point is that we just, we did not equally tell those stories very well, right, and, we were not, that is an out-of-touch issue.

Originally posted here:
Chuck Todd: Media knew how 'hated' Hillary was in heartland and we 'underplayed' it - Washington Times

The Clintons really are Freddy Krueger of politics. Every time you think theyre slayed and buried for good, they come back to life. Can we really be so lucky, as the Daily Mail reports, to have Hillary Clinton actually start a TV talk show as a platform for another run at the White House?

Hillary Clinton is considering another run for president and is mulling the idea of launching a television talk show to soften the ground for 2020.

Clintonwould be 73 years old if she were to challenge President Donald Trump again and win the White House the next time around.

Launching a TV program now would make her Americas second-oldest female news or talk show host on the small screen, after only Joy Behar of The View.

Oh please, please we must have this TV show!

Before this, of course, was the chatter that Hillary might run for mayor of New York City. Fairness compels me to suggest that shed be an improvement over Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-Managua), though thats like being the tallest building in Wichita. But what is it with the Clintons that they have to run for and hold some office?

Which brings me to the fine work of the great historian Allan Guelzo, who it turns out has a musical turn to him. Allan sends along this:

MRS. CLINTONS CONCESSION SONG (with apologies, albeit insincere ones, to Andrew Lloyd Webber) to the tune of Dont Cry for Me, Argentina:

Dont cry for me, New York City.

The truth is I never lived there.

I only used you as

Ambitions stepping-stone.

Thats why Im sounding

Like Eva Peron.

Now that Im seeing the Oval Office

Recede so indifferently into space

All I want is to weep and to faint and immunity.

I think youre just as

Disgraceful, deplorable, nasty and proud

As I ever privately thought

While publicly lying out loud.

Dont cry for me, New York City.

[chorus] I think Ive said too much.

Its time to ask if theres a BleachBit version 2

Be careful not to tell James Comey what you know

Or its the bus for you.

More:
Hillary Forever? - Power Line (blog)

This story has been corrected since it was originally published.

Donald Trump is in over his head. This comes as no surprise to the millions of people who could see that he was unprepared and unfit for the job of president of the United States and voted against him. Hes basically a celebrity heir to a fortune who was so entitled that he believed his privileged existence proved he was competent to run the most powerful nation on Earth. Thats the attitude of an aristocrat who ascended to the throne without having any idea what it actually takes to rule. Historys full of such men. It doesnt often work out well.

Trump managed to convince enough voters in just the right places that his business success,bornmostly of hype and relentless public relations over many years, qualified him for the Oval Office. Since the Protestant work ethic and the philosophy of virtuous capitalism still permeate American culture, its not uncommon for people to equate financial success with superior intelligence and character. Many individuals among the public undoubtedly assumed that Trumps persona at the rallies was somewhat of a salesmans act, that he was playing the role of demagogue to rile up the crowd. They assumed that behind closed doors he was a smart and able businessman, making tough decisions on the fly, handling many issues at once.

Those voters didnot see what millions of others felt instinctively and that explains the shocked reaction and immediate resistance to his election: Trumps incessant bragging, his lack of empathy or remorse, his pathological lying and even his bizarre appearance have beensigns of an unstable personality. It was obvious to many of us that something was not right.

The presidential transition was a dumpster firewith endless resignations, rumors and public humiliations. Trumps refusal to deal responsibly with the intelligence communitys investigations ofRussian interference in the campaign was worrisome. Picking a fight withthe intelligence communityover this was downright alarming. Still, one couldnt help but think that the weight of the job might inspire Trumpsstaff and the people close to him to instill some discipline into the system and keep the new president focused once he took the wheel. That hasnt happened. The first days of the new administration have been a disaster.

From last Saturday through Tuesday night, its been one surreal event after another, starting with Trumps visit to the CIA headquarters where he stood in front of the Memorial Wall marked with 117 stars honoring agents who have died in the line of duty and acted like he was at a rally in a high school gym in Indiana.

He didnt seem to have a clue that he was being inappropriate. He compounded the bad impression by sending out his press secretary Sean Spicer to insist that the crowd for his inauguration was bigger than any in history. When Kellyanne Conway defended Spicer by saying he had simply offered alternative facts, members of the media were stunned. Its not that they assume officials always tell the truth. But they were clearly shocked that the White House would chastise them for reporting something that was obviously and provably correct.

When the president was reported to have told congressional leaders on Monday that he still believed 3 million to 5 million illegal votes had been cast in the election, causing him to lose the popular vote to Hillary Clinton,it became clear that Trumps erratic behavior was not stopping. Leaks have been pouring out from inside the nascent administration, giving a picture of an insecure, irrational man who is obsessed with his image and little else.

According to an article in The Washington Post, Trumps inner circle is overwhelmed bypower struggles and internecine battles while the president fulminates over every criticism.The New York Times has reportedthat his staff is concerned about his simmering resentment at what he thinks is unfair press coverage.Politicohas reported that aides are trying to minimize his incessant TV viewing, andaccording to areport by Axios, Trump is running his administration almost entirely in reaction to what he sees in the media. He sounds as if he is unable to handle the stress and is using avoidance mechanisms.

So what happens if President Trump cannot pull himself together and continues to psychologically unravel? There is a remedy other than impeachment. Even conservatives like David Frum have been talking about it for a while:

The 25th Amendment was added to the Constitution after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and provides for the replacement of the vice president if the office becomes vacant. (So it led indirectly to the presidency of Gerald Ford, the only American president who was never elected to any national office.) But Section4 is about something else entirely:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

A temporary transfer of power has happened ahandful of timessince the Kennedy assassination, once when Ronald Reagan had cancer surgery and twice when George W. Bush underwent colonoscopies. Most people have thought of the 25th Amendment as a way to deal with a president who has had a heart attack or a stroke and has become incapacitated,as Woodrow Wilson did, with his wife effectively assumingthe duties of the presidency for the remainder of his term.

But the language of the amendment clearly encompasses other scenarios besides physical incapacitation.This topic was a subject of discussiontoward the end of the Reagan administration, when it became obvious that the president was suffering a loss of cognitive ability. It wasnt invoked then but as we now know, Reagan was indeed suffering from the early stages of Alzheimers disease. Had it become more acute or obvious while he was in office, Congress might well have had to take action as laid out in the amendment.

Its obvious that Trump has a narcissistic personality, which in itself is not disqualifying. Hes not the first president to have one; nor will he be the last. But his issues seem to run deeper than that.Some observers have suggestedthat he shows the characteristics ofclassic psychopathy. And there are plenty of people who see his behavior as blatantly self-destructive.

Of course its an extreme long shot that members of Trumps Cabinet or the Republican leadership in Congress would ever take such a drastic step. (Although its not at all hard to imagine that in their hearts many of them would prefer President Mike Pence.) This would only happen if Trump really started to behave in a unhinged fashion. After all the bizarre behavior he has exhibited over the past 18 months, one cannot help but wonder: What could possibly count as going too far? Its almost too terrifying to imagine.

Excerpt from:
Don't look now: It's President Pence! Donald Trump can be deposed ... - Salon