Scott Beason and Michael Hart revive conservative talk radio 92.5 WYDE
Two of Alabama’s favorite conservative talk radio hosts are back on-air!
Trump campaign readies lawsuit against Alabama-native Cliff Sims over tell-all book
President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign said Tuesday the campaign was preparing to file a lawsuit against former White House staffer, Alabama’s own Cliff Sims for violating his non-disclosure agreement in writing his new tell-all book about his time in the Trump White House. “The Trump campaign is preparing to file suit against Cliff Sims for violating our NDA, ”tweeted Michael Glassner, the chief operating officer for the Trump 2020 campaign, Tuesday morning. The Trump campaign is preparing to file suit against Cliff Sims for violating our NDA. https://t.co/Xl1N95fPkH — Michael Glassner (@michaelglassner) January 29, 2019 Glassner’s Tweet follows Trump’s own, which dubbed Sims a “low level staffer” he hardly knew. “A low level staffer that I hardly knew named Cliff Sims wrote yet another boring book based on made up stories and fiction. He pretended to be an insider when in fact he was nothing more than a gofer. He signed a non-disclosure agreement. He is a mess!,” said Trump. A low level staffer that I hardly knew named Cliff Sims wrote yet another boring book based on made up stories and fiction. He pretended to be an insider when in fact he was nothing more than a gofer. He signed a non-disclosure agreement. He is a mess! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2019 Sims, the former Yellowhammer Multimedia CEO and a virtually unknown former aide in Trump’s communications shop, has written a tell-all book titled ‘Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House’ about his time in the administration that hit the bookshelves Tuesday. But Sims’ isn’t letting the President’s tweet stop him. He pushed back later Tuesday morning with a tweet of his own. ““Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House” is out today, written by the most famous “gofer” in the world! Enjoy! https://amzn.to/2Lm2xlp” wrote Sims. “Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House” is out today, written by the most famous “gofer” in the world! Enjoy! https://t.co/Eovn8jMVhk pic.twitter.com/V013bIe0r2 — Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) January 29, 2019
Cliff Sims: Presumed leaker, liar, exaggerator according to WH reports
“Who is this guy?” That’s what President Donald Trump is asking his aides this week about Alabama-native and former Yellowhammer Multimedia CEO Cliff Sims. Sims, a virtually unknown former aide in Trump’s communications shop, has written a tell-all book about his time in the administration that’s scheduled to be published Tuesday, and Trump is trying to figure out exactly who the guy is. “Who is this guy? Why is he writing this book? He wasn’t even in meetings,” sources told POLITICO Trump was asking around the White House. Sims role in the White House and the sleight of hand he’s using to describe his time there may to be just another magic trick, using an analogy once described by a former blogger and classmate of his, West Honeycutt. In a now deleted editorial, available in archive mode, on the blog Sweet Home Alabama, Honeycutt described Sims early years in Alabama politics saying, “For the past several years, Alabamians have been wooed, wowed, tricked and duped.” Sentiments that Trump officials now believe Sims are trying to use on the American public and media. But from Sims’ perspective, Trump should know he is. At least that’s what he’s insinuating to the world in his memoir, ‘Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House’ and on the media tour he’s currently on to promote the book. Nevertheless, Sims former colleagues have little good to say about him. “Basically every warring faction has come together,” to push back against Sims, a former senior White House official told POLITICO. “You wouldn’t believe the text chains. The best part is the president is sort of chomping at the bit to tap this guy and tweet something to the effect of, ‘I didn’t know who this guy was. He taped videos.’” Presumed leaker In the book, Sims details how he sat down with Trump to create what Sims dubbed an “enemies list” of possible leakers in the administration. “Give me their names,” he said, his eyes narrowing. “I want these people out of here. I’m going to take care of this. We’re going to get rid of all the snakes, even the bottom-feeders.” Only in retrospect did I see how remarkable this was. I was sitting there with the President of the United States basically compiling an enemies list — but these enemies were within his own administration. If it had been a horror movie, this would have been the moment when everyone suddenly realizes the call is coming from inside the house. The President proceeded to name White House staffer after White House staffer. Almost no one was deemed beyond reproach—not his chief of staff, not senior aides, almost no one other than those with whom he shared a last name. He wanted me to help him judge their loyalty. How, I wondered, had it come to this? But now, current White House officials are claiming Sims was the actual “enemy” and leaker the White House was trying to pinpoint. Fired? News broke in May 2018 that Sims left the White House for a “promotion” at the State Department. But Inside Alabama Politics (IAP) later revealed they discovered Sims was not promoted, but rather fired by the White House; he was never offered a new gig. Now, the Trump administration is claiming Sims was caught recording the president on his government cell phone and then sending it to his personal cell phone. Ultimately the Secret Service caught on and then-Chief of Staff John Kelly fired him. While Sims doesn’t own that he was fired in his new book — rather he explained to Good Morning America on Monday that when he decided to resign he forwarded videos and photos from his government phone to his personal phone as momentos — he does say that he had hoped to work Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after his White House exit, but was thwarted by Trump’s then-chief of staff, John Kelly. ‘When I was leaving the White House, I looked at my government phone. It’s on my government phone. If you want to hide something, you don’t put it on your government phone. Looking through pictures and videos -just things I wanted save when I left. I emailed it to myself when I resigned,” he told Good Morning America. He proffered his resignation letter as proof things went down according to his word. “Actually, I thought they might try to set something up like this. And I brought my resignation paper for the White House. Reason for resignation? To pursue another opportunity in the administration,” Sims added.
Did Yellowhammer founder Cliff Sims get fired from the White House? That’s what IAP is saying
In 2017, Alabama’s own Cliff Sims was plucked from relative obscurity, running a statewide political blog, and given a plum job in the Donald Trump campaign and later White House where he served as special assistant to the president overseeing White House messaging strategy. News broke in May that Sims left the White House for a “promotion” at the State Department. But Inside Alabama Politics (IAP) on Friday revealed they discovered Sims was not promoted, but rather fired by the White House, and was never offered a new gig. IAP reported: The world can rest easier knowing Cliff Sims is not at the side of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, advising him during the negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other foreign matters. Especially since Sims, a 34-year old Enterprise native and former lead singer for a rock band called Moses, has zero foreign affairs experience. Politico reported Sims was officially offered a job working closely with Secretary Pompeo, however Sims was never offered a job, according to several sources. … A Senate insider familiar with Sim’s White House departure who spoke to IAP on the condition they remain anonymous said, “Cliff was fired, but it wasn’t the football incident, also reported by Politico, that got him fired, it was the leaks coming from the communications office. The leaks he was providing to some in the media.” Some also expect it was Sims, identified only as a White House junior aide, in a New York Times article last month, who allegedly taped meetings with the President and played those recordings to impress friends. Alabama Today has reached out to both Sims and the White House for confirmation. We will update this story accordingly should either respond.
Trump or Sessions: Where will Cliff Sims’ loyalties lie?
Alabama’s own Cliff Sims was plucked from relative obscurity, running a statewide political blog, and given a plum job in the Trump campaign and later White House. Sims’ financial disclosures show he took a financial hit in taking his new post as the Special Assistant to President Donald Trump and the White House Assistant Communications Director. In this role, he pulls a cool $115,000, whereas he previously banked somewhere around $330,435 between Yellowhammer Multimedia and Yellowhammer Strategies. Which begs the question — how did he get this job in the first place? All signs point to his close relationship to former Senator Jeff Sessions and his staff. So, with Trump now on the warpath against Sessions, who was once one of his most trusted advisers, where does that leave Sims? Should Trump push out one of his earliest supporters does Sims leave too, or does he stay? If he stays, does he risk being seen as betraying Sessions or risk being seen as a potential liability to Trump’s team and those behind the efforts to undermine Sessions? Here’s hoping the Russia investigation blows over sooner rather than later, and Sessions keeps his post. After the Obama administration, there’s much to be done in the attorney general’s office to get our nation back on track. If Russia stays the major issue of the day, chasing out Sessions, we will finally get our answer of both Trump’s and Sims’ loyalties.
Personnel Update: Elizabeth BeShears leaves Yellowhammer joins Jonathan McConnell campaign
Yellowhammer’s secret weapon and content writer extraordinaire Elizabeth BeShears has moved on. According to BeShears she left Yellowhammer (YH) News last week has accepted the position of director of communications with the Jonathan McConnell for U.S. Senate campaign. According to her Linked-In profile BeShears has been with YH for almost a year. She frequently wrote the majority of the content each day, combining aggregating with writing original stories. This big loss for Cliff Sims is a big gain for McConnell. BeShears is well known for her work with Alabama Policy Institute and Heritage Action. She is very well respected among the conservative grassroots community statewide and I’m willing to bet able to keep up with the self described fast pace and long hours McConnell described being used to in a Business Alabama article highlighting his business success last year. In that article McConnell said, “Work-play balance is tricky when he works as many as 100 hours a week and flies to Africa on a moment’s notice, but he’s close to his parents in Mobile and his sister, who lives in Montgomery and has three daughters”. That’s about the work ethic a statewide campaign requires but we at Alabama Today have no doubt BeShears is up for the job. McConnell announced his campaign on Nov. 6 with Emily York listed on his press release as communications director. York has since moved over to become the campaign director. McConnell will be facing an uphill battle against 81 year-old incumbent, six-term U.S. Senator Richard Shelby. According to OpenSecrets Shelby has over $19 million cash on hand for his reelection campaign.
