Breitbart is working hard to discredit Jeffrey Goldberg's Atlantic story about President Trump's disrespect for the military. Here's one story:
Former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Zach Fuentes denied to Breitbart News The Atlantic’s account of President Donald Trump’s comments about troops in Europe.
Fuentes unequivocally denied The Atlantic’s report last week, a huge blow to the establishment media narrative. Fuentes personally briefed President Trump on the weather situation that led to the trip being canceled. He is also a close personal confidante of former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
“You can put me on record denying that I spoke with The Atlantic,” Fuentes told Breitbart News on Monday. “I don’t know who the sources are. I did not hear POTUS call anyone losers when I told him about the weather. Honestly, do you think General Kelly would have stood by and let ANYONE call fallen Marines losers?”
Of course I think General Kelly would have stood by and let Trump say that. He's a military man who respects the chain of command -- too much in this case. Trump was the commander in chief. Kelly absolutely would have stood by.
If the name Zach Fuentes seems familiar to you, you might be recalling this story:
A former White House aide won a $3 million federal contract to supply respirator masks to Navajo Nation hospitals in New Mexico and Arizona 11 days after he created a company to sell personal protective equipment in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Zach Fuentes, President Donald Trump’s former deputy chief of staff, secured the deal with the Indian Health Service with limited competitive bidding and no prior federal contracting experience.
The IHS told ProPublica it has found that 247,000 of the masks delivered by Fuentes’ company — at a cost of roughly $800,000 — may be unsuitable for medical use. An additional 130,400, worth about $422,000, are not the type specified in the procurement data, the agency said.
What’s more, the masks Fuentes agreed to provide — Chinese-made KN95s — have come under intense scrutiny from U.S. regulators amid concerns that they offered inadequate protection.
This deal is now being investigated by the House of Representatives.
Previously, Fuentes tried to game the military retirement system.
After weeks of discussions about his future, Zachary D. Fuentes, the 36-year-old deputy White House chief of staff, had a plan.
Mr. Fuentes told colleagues that after his mentor, John F. Kelly, left his job as chief of staff at the end of the year, he would “hide out” at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House, for six months, remaining on the payroll in a nebulous role. Then, in July, when he had completed 15 years of service in the Coast Guard, Mr. Fuentes — an active-duty officer — would take advantage of an early retirement program.
The program, referred to as temporary early retirement authority, had lapsed for Coast Guard officials at the end of the 2018 fiscal year, and, according to people briefed on the discussions, Department of Homeland Security officials began pressing Congress in November to reinstate it. Administration officials said they had been told that Mr. Fuentes discussed the program with officials at the Department of Homeland Security, and after reporters raised questions with lawmakers of both parties, a provision to reinstate it was abruptly pulled from a House bill on Wednesday.
So Fuentes seems like a man of excellent character. Who else has Breitbart heard from?
U.S. Ambassador to France and Monaco Jamie McCourt told Breitbart News exclusively on Monday that the Atlantic story about President Donald Trump allegedly bashing troops is untrue.
Ambassador McCourt was there the day President Trump’s team called off the trip to the cemetery at Belleau Wood because of inclement weather....
“Needless to say, I never spoke to the Atlantic, and I can’t imagine who would,” McCourt told Breitbart News. “In my presence, POTUS has NEVER denigrated any member of the U.S. military or anyone in service to our country. And he certainly did not that day, either. Let me add, he was devastated to not be able to go to the cemetery at Belleau Wood. In fact, the next day, he attended and spoke at the ceremony in Suresnes in the pouring rain.”
That would be this Jamie McCourt:
There was a familiar name for Los Angeles Dodgers fans among a group of several U.S. ambassadors that reportedly sold their stocks while President Donald Trump publicly downplayed the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. It was not a welcome one.
CNBC reports that the group includes current France ambassador Jamie McCourt, whose divorce from husband Frank McCourt while they owned the Dodgers created a public spectacle rarely seen from MLB owners.
The group reportedly sold stocks worth millions of dollars in January and February while the coronavirus threat loomed, but had not reached the full-blown pandemic stage. Other politicians, including Atlanta Dream owner [and Republican senator] Kelly Loeffler, have previously landed in hot water for similar transactions.
Jamie McCourt's time with the Dodgers was not a happy one.
It’s not often see you a major North American sports team file for bankruptcy in the age of monstrous revenues, but that is the level of mess the McCourt divorce created for [Major League Baseball].
After buying the team alongside Frank McCourt in 2004, Jamie McCourt became president of the Dodgers in 2005. Among the most infamous moves under their leadership: paying a Russian “scientist and healer” six figures to watch Dodgers games and channel positive thoughts for the team. Yes, really.
Frank ... and Jamie [McCourt] were using the team as a personal piggy bank, funding a lavish lifestyle — they owned multiple extraordinarily expensive homes, including two next door to one another — and giving their children what appeared to be do-nothing jobs, all paid for with Dodgers revenues. More seriously, they were accused of using the Dodgers’ team charities as a means of enriching themselves and their friends, with very little apparent evidence that they were, in fact, engaging in substantive philanthropy. That led to a grand jury investigation by the State of California which resulted in the McCourts being required to give back substantial sums....
In ... 2009 ... the most expensive divorce in California history began with Frank accusing Jamie of having an affair with her personal driver — a Dodgers employee — and Jamie countering by seeking to set aside a post-nuptial agreement that named Frank the team’s sole owner....
Meanwhile, the Dodgers were on shaky financial footing. The debt service on the loans McCourt used to buy the team was high, as was team payroll. Attendance, while strong compared to the rest of the league, was low by Dodgers standards. And, as noted, a vast amount of money was being siphoned off from the team to fund the McCourts’ lifestyle and, increasingly, legal fees. As a result, the team could not meet payroll.... Commissioner Bud Selig ... appointed a league representative to oversee the day-to-day operations of the team....
As the months wore on, ... [Jamie] became amenable to settlement, taking $131 million from Frank to end the matter entirely....
Then something fun happened: two weeks after Jamie settled, Frank sold the Dodgers for $2.15 billion.... Frank was out from under his pile of debt and, somehow, had made more than a billion bucks in sheer profit despite the fact that he was, arguably, the most financially irresponsible owner in baseball history. Jamie, after years of claiming to be the real brains and authority behind the team and its rightful owner, turned on a dime and claimed that she had been financially unsophisticated, taken advantage of by her husband, and hopelessly misled about the state of the Dodgers....
Jamie McCourt has managed to do OK on her $131 million. She bought a winery in Napa Valley. The former securities lawyer and MBA holder also hit the lecture circuit for a while, talking about how she was a babe in the financial woods, ignorant of finances, taken advantage of by her husband and claiming that all she wants to do is to help prevent that from happening to other women.... this champion of women’s empowerment went on to chair noted feminist Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign in California, where he got just over 31% of the state’s vote, which was the worst a major party candidate has done there since 1924. Jamie was rewarded for those efforts by being named Ambassador to Monaco, proving that Frank is not the only McCourt who was adept at failing upwards.
Another witness of excellent character! Surely we ought to believe these fine, upstanding citizens!
Republished with permission from No More Mister Nice Blog.
