Mollie Hemingway | |
---|---|
Born | Mollie Ziegler August 3, 1974 |
Education | University of Colorado Denver (BA) |
Occupation(s) | Author, columnist, political commentator |
Spouse | Mark Hemingway (m. 2006) |
Mollie Ziegler Hemingway (born August 3, 1974) is an American conservative author, columnist, and political commentator. [1] [2] She is the editor in chief of the online magazine The Federalist and a contributor for Fox News. [3]
Initially, during the 2016 Republican primary, Hemingway was a pronounced critic of Donald Trump. However, over time, Hemingway turned into a vocal supporter of Trump, marking a significant shift in stance. [4] [5] [6] [7]
Mollie Ziegler was born in Denver, Colorado. Her father is a retired pastor of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and her mother is a retired schoolteacher. She earned a degree in economics from the University of Colorado Denver. [8]
In 2002, she moved to Gannett Publishing, where she worked at the Federal Times . [8]
Hemingway has written columns in publications such as the Wall Street Journal , National Review , The New York Times Magazine , and Ricochet. She was one of the founding members of The Federalist . [8] She has appeared multiple times on C-SPAN. In 2017, she became a Fox News contributor. [9] Her columns have been published in USA Today , The Los Angeles Times , The Guardian , The Washington Post , CNN, and RealClearPolitics. [10]
Early in the 2016 presidential campaign, she described then-candidate Donald Trump as "a demagogue with no real solutions for anything at all." [7] However, since then, she has been described as pro-Trump, with Politico describing her as "a reliably pro-Trump commentator", [4] while Salon called her The Federalist's "most reliable Trump defender". [5] The New York Times wrote in 2020 that Hemingway's columns "have earned presidential retweets and affirmation for their scathing criticism of Democrats and the news media, whom she accuses of lying about just about everything when it comes to the president." [7]
In May 2017, Hemingway defended Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. [11] In July 2017, after Comey testified to Congress, Hemingway questioned Comey's character, saying "this is not a choir boy here. [Comey] could teach masterclasses in how to cover your own behind and engage in typical Washington, DC shenanigans." [12]
In February 2018, she argued that Carter Page, a former Trump campaign advisor who had been subjected to intelligence surveillance since 2014, had his civil liberties violated. [13] Hemingway stated, "if the civil rights and civil liberties of Carter Page can be violated, they can be violated for anyone." [13] Page, who had relationships with numerous Russian citizens and held pro-Putin views, had been the subject of attempted recruitment by Russian intelligence since 2013. [13] In April 2019, the Mueller Report revealed that investigators found no direct evidence that Page coordinated Trump campaign activities with the Russian government. [14] [15]
In May 2018, Trump tweeted a quote attributed to Hemingway which gave credence to a conspiracy theory initiated by Trump in May 2018 that the Obama administration had placed a spy in his 2016 presidential campaign for political purposes, [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] and stated that the surveillance was "unprecedented and scandalous." [22] Vox countered statements such as Hemingway's, stating that while an FBI informant did meet with several Trump campaign advisers, the FBI didn't actually intend to spy on Trump, but was instead "most likely part of a legitimate counterintelligence operation targeted at Russia's election interference campaign..." [23]
In November 2018, Hemingway described Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as "a very Stalinist-type approach to criminal justice." [24]
In November 2019, Hemingway named the alleged whistleblower who exposed the Trump-Ukraine scandal. The Daily Beast wrote that naming the whistleblower "seemingly break[s] the network's policy of identifying the person." [25]
In June 2020, she accused the media of fabricating reports that law enforcement used tear gas and excessive force against peaceful protestors to clear a path for Trump to stage a photo op in front of St. John's Church. [7] Law enforcement later acknowledged that it did in fact shoot pepper-based irritants into the crowd [7] A June 2021 report by the inspector general confirmed that law enforcement's action was not for Trump's photo op but rather "to allow a contractor to safely install anti-scale fencing in response to destruction of Federal property and injury to officers that occurred on May 30 and May 31." [26]
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank criticized conservative panelists, including Hemingway, for concluding in a discussion that marriage is good for women. [27]
In 2016, New York Times writer Ana Marie Cox characterized Hemingway as "no fan of Donald Trump", despite writing for conservative publication The Federalist . Cox characterized Hemingway as surprisingly open on issues of marriage and sexuality for a conservative Christian, saying she "sound[s] a little bit like a feminist in talking about sex..." [2]
Charlotte Hays of the Independent Women's Forum described her as "a lightning rod in the debates about feminism and religious liberty" and, "a big deal in conservative-leaning intellectual circles of the nation's capital." [28]
Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine has said that Hemingway's work is becoming increasingly reactionary during the Trump era, adding that she has joined a cadre of conservatives whose "increasingly right-wing character has been mixed with a conviction that Democratic elections are inherently fraudulent, and that extra-legal processes can be justified as countermeasures". [29]
Hemingway has written three books:
She has contributed to four other books, including Dual Citizens: Politics and American Evangelicalism, The Seven Deadly Virtues: 18 Conservative Writers on Why the Virtuous Life is Funny as Hell, The Christmas Virtues: A Treasury of Conservative Tales for the Holidays, and Conservative Christmas Quotables. She authored the pamphlet, Imprimis – September 2017 – Russian Collusion?. [33]
Mollie Hemingway has been married to Mark Hemingway since 2006. They have two daughters. [34]
In Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer , the reporter Mollie Mullaney is based on both Mollie Hemingway and Calkins Media columnist J. D. Mullane. [35]
Robert Swan Mueller III is an American lawyer who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013.
James Brien Comey Jr. is an American lawyer who was the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 until his termination in May 2017. Comey was a registered Republican for most of his adult life; however, in 2016, he described himself as unaffiliated.
Mark Reed Levin is an American broadcast news analyst, columnist, lawyer, political commentator, radio personality, and writer. He is the host of syndicated radio show The Mark Levin Show, as well as Life, Liberty & Levin on Fox News. Levin worked in the administration of President Ronald Reagan and was a chief of staff for Attorney General Edwin Meese. He is the former president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, an author of seven books, and contributor to media outlets such as National Review Online. Since 2015, Levin has been editor-in-chief of the Conservative Review and is known for his incendiary commentary.
Benjamin Domenech is the Editor at Large of The Spectator World. He is also a television commentator, radio host, and publisher of The Transom, a daily subscription newsletter for political insiders. In 2013, he co-founded The Federalist, where he served as publisher and hosted The Federalist Radio Hour. He earlier had been a co-founder the RedState group blog. He joined Fox News as a commentator in 2021.
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Spygate is a disproven conspiracy theory peddled by 45th U.S. president Donald Trump and his political base on many occasions throughout his presidential term. It primarily centered around the idea that a spy was planted by the Obama administration to conduct espionage on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign for political purposes. On May 17, 2018, Trump tweeted: "Wow, word seems to be coming out that the Obama FBI 'SPIED ON THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN WITH AN EMBEDDED INFORMANT.'" In that tweet, he quoted Andrew C. McCarthy, who had just appeared on Fox & Friends repeating assertions from his own May 12 article for National Review.
Michael S. Schmidt is an American journalist, author, and correspondent for The New York Times in Washington, D.C. He is also a producer of a Netflix show. He covers national security and federal law enforcement, and has broken several high-profile stories about politics, media and sports. He is also a national security contributor for MSNBC and NBC News.
The Federalist is an American conservative online magazine and podcast that covers politics, policy, culture, and religion, and publishes a newsletter. The site was co-founded by Ben Domenech and Sean Davis and launched in September 2013.
The Russian government conducted foreign electoral interference in the 2016 United States elections with the goals of sabotaging the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. According to the U.S. intelligence community, the operation—code named Project Lakhta—was ordered directly by Russian president Vladimir Putin. The "hacking and disinformation campaign" to damage Clinton and help Trump became the "core of the scandal known as Russiagate". The 448-page Mueller Report, made public in April 2019, examined over 200 contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials but concluded that there was insufficient evidence to bring any conspiracy or coordination charges against Trump or his associates.
Sarah Elizabeth Huckabee Sanders is an American politician serving since 2023 as the 47th governor of Arkansas. Sanders is the daughter of Mike Huckabee, who served from 1996 to 2007 as Arkansas's 44th governor. A member of the Republican Party, she was the 31st White House press secretary, serving under President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2019. Sanders was the third woman to be White House press secretary. She also served as a senior advisor on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Sanders became the Republican nominee in the 2022 Arkansas gubernatorial election and won, defeating Democratic nominee Chris Jones.
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The Robert Mueller special counsel investigation was an investigation into 45th U.S. president Donald Trump regarding Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and was conducted by special prosecutor Robert Mueller from May 2017 to March 2019. It was also called the Russia investigation, Mueller probe, and Mueller investigation. The investigation focused on three points:
Peter Paul Strzok II is a former United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent. He was the Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division and led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Previously, he had been the chief of the division's Counterespionage Section and led the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email server.
This is a timeline of major events in the first half of 2017 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8 and the post-election transition, this article begins with Donald Trump and Mike Pence being sworn into office on January 20, 2017, and is followed by the second half of 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
This is a timeline of major events in first half of 2018 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, the transition, and the first and second halves of 2017, but precedes the second half of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021. These events are related to, but distinct from, Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections.
Reactions to the Special Counsel investigation of any Russian government efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election have been widely varied and have evolved over time. An initial period of bipartisan support and praise for the selection of former FBI director Robert Mueller to lead the Special Counsel investigation gave way to some degree of partisan division over the scope of the investigation, the composition of the investigative teams, and its findings and conclusions.
Crossfire Hurricane was the code name for the counterintelligence investigation undertaken by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from July 31, 2016, to May 17, 2017, into links between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia and "whether individuals associated with [Trump's] presidential campaign were coordinating, wittingly or unwittingly, with the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election". Trump was not personally under investigation until May 2017, when his firing of FBI director James Comey raised suspicions of obstruction of justice, which triggered the Mueller investigation.
The Mueller report, officially titled Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, is the official report documenting the findings and conclusions of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 United States presidential election, allegations of conspiracy or coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, and allegations of obstruction of justice. The report was submitted to Attorney General William Barr on March 22, 2019, and a redacted version of the 448-page report was publicly released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on April 18, 2019. It is divided into two volumes. The redactions from the report and its supporting material were placed under a temporary "protective assertion" of executive privilege by then-President Trump on May 8, 2019, preventing the material from being passed to Congress, despite earlier reassurance by Barr that Trump would not exert privilege.
The Russia investigation origins counter-narrative, or Russia counter-narrative, is a narrative embraced by Donald Trump, Republican Party leaders, and right-wing conservatives attacking the legitimacy and conclusions of investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, and the links between Russian intelligence and Trump associates. The counter-narrative includes conspiracy theories such as Spygate, accusations of a secretive, elite "deep state" network, and other false and debunked claims. Trump in particular has attacked not only the origins but the conclusions of the investigation, and ordered a review of the Mueller report, which was conducted by attorney general William Barr – alleging there was a "deep state plot" to undermine him. He has claimed the investigations were an "illegal hoax", and that the "real collusion" was between Hillary Clinton, Democrats, and Russia – and later, Ukraine.
The Mueller special counsel investigation was started by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was serving as Acting Attorney General due to the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He authorized Robert Mueller to investigate and prosecute "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump", as well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation" and any other matters within the scope of 28 CFR 600.4 – Jurisdiction.