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[BigBallss bringing you the real news and not the propaganda you like to hear. You don’t like it? Watch Fox News or read PB. ]
Basically, the contractor fawked us. There was no vandalism, just astounding incompetence. $15 mill down the drain.
THE MONEY SHOT: Prosecutors in a Friday court filing blamed the damage on flawed installation work and said the Interior Department had not shared critical information in a timely manner.
“Standing on the basin of the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool in early May, President Donald Trump promised to fix the leaks and other problems that had long plagued one of the capital’s most recognizable landmarks.
“It’s going to last, I would say 50 years,” he said. “It’ll last, it’s going to last a long time.”
Trump vowed to finish the job in time for July Fourth celebrations on the National Mall. He and his aides cast the project, launched with a multimillion-dollar no-bid contract and without the normal review process, as a demonstration of how quickly the longtime real estate magnate could transform Washington.
Trump’s changes instead lasted a few days. The basin’s coating began to visibly peel, with chunks of Trump’s new pool liner, tinted “American Flag Blue,” littering the surface and algae blooms clouding the water.
Since then, the administration’s response – to blame “vandals” for the damage – has morphed into a political headache, raising questions about what leaders in the administration knew as the government pursued criminal charges against four people, including former U.S. Olympian David Hearn.
The president is furious at one of his most ardent supporters, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the nation’s capital, for dropping vandalism charges against the four people in recent days. Prosecutors in a Friday court filing blamed the damage on flawed installation work and said the Interior Department had not shared critical information in a timely manner.
Trump lashed out at Pirro on social media and delivered a “very pointed” message in a phone call Saturday, a White House official said. On Monday, he renewed the criticism from the Oval Office, saying she had “folded like an umbrella.”
The Reflecting Pool project, intended as a showcase for Trump’s ability to quickly get things done, has instead become a speed bump in his second term. Its problem-riddled rollout comes as Trump presses ahead with larger and more complex projects that would remake Washington’s skyline, including a new White House ballroom and a 250-foot-tall triumphal arch.
The pool was drained again July 10 for more repairs.
Government records “strongly suggest that a rushed and botched installation by AIC, the primary contractor,” led to the visible damage in the pool’s new liner, Pirro and one of her deputies wrote in the filing Friday. Pirro accused the Interior Department of withholding relevant documents that would have scuttled the investigation.
The pool’s problems had sparked tirades from Trump inside the White House, and the president soon grew angry for another reason: Pirro did not give the White House a heads-up about dropping the charges, a White House official said. The president spoke with her by phone Saturday to discuss the decision, a call first reported by CNN.
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