Sunday, August 9, 2015

Trump digs in, plows ahead, Trump hits Bush on his fundraising, Trump: 'I said nothing wrong whatsoever'


Donald Trump gave no ground on Sunday, insisting his crude remarks appearing to imply Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly was menstruating when she questioned him during the first Republican presidential debate were anything but.
Three weeks after two of his rivals demanded he quit the race for the GOP presidential nomination and three days after a record 24 million viewers tuned into the GOP debate in Cleveland that many establishment Republicans predicted might be the beginning of the end for him, Trump is still center stage.
And although his longtime political strategist, Roger Stone, left over the weekend, Trump offered few hints his campaign was in disarray. The master-of-shock has plowed through other recent controversies — suggesting undocumented Mexican immigrants were rapists and questioning Sen. John McCain’s standing as a war hero — and come away with even stronger polling numbers as he taps into wide-spread dissatisfaction with Washington’s political class.
“I said nothing wrong whatsoever,” Trump declared on CNN’s “State of the Union” two days after he had said of Kelly on CNN: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her — wherever.”


Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump criticized Republican rival Jeb Bush on Sunday for his lucrative fundraising, while vowing to be immune from outside influences should he be elected president.
“These are not people that are putting it up because they like the color of his hair,” Trump said on ABC’s “This Week,” referring to reports that the former Florida governor raised more than $100 million in early campaign funds. “These are people that are putting it up because they want something, and they’re going to get something.”
Trump, who says he plans to fund his own campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, appeared eager Sunday to pivot from his harsh criticism of Fox News host Megyn Kelly, which sparked a new round of outrage that he is sexist. He also sought to wave off claims that Republicans do not trust him because he’s shifted views on his past support of a single-payer health care system and some other issues, and he tried to position himself again as someone who can shake up the Washington establishment.
Trump claimed his promised resistance to lobbyists and donors is “one of the reasons that I’m killing everybody in the polls.” Still, his campaign has been thrown into damage control after his remarks about Kelly, who was one of the Fox moderators at Thursday’s GOP debate in Cleveland and has a strong following among conservatives.


Donald Trump is not backing off his harsh criticism of Fox News host Megyn Kelly and denies he suggested she was menstruating when asking him tough questions at the first Republican presidential debate.
“I said nothing wrong whatsoever,” Trump said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
In the first of several call-ins to the Sunday morning news shows, the billionaire real estate developer and entertainer said he was referring to Kelly’s nose when he said on CNN Friday: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her — wherever.”
“Only a deviant” would suggest his remarks were sexist, Trump said. “Only a sick person would even think about it.”
 
Taken From: Politico      http://www.politico.com/p/pages/2016-elections/

Biden Cartoon


Trump battles criticism from rivals, former campaign aide

It sounds like Republicans want to cherry-pick someone as the nominee.

ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump is showing no signs of curbing his battle with a Fox News television host, the Republican Party establishment and several presidential primary rivals who are accusing him of disrespecting women
Even a former Trump campaign aide suggests that the businessman's bid for the White House has become a side show.
Trump's unconventional, insurgent campaign has excited many anti-establishment conservatives while confounding Republican Party leaders already facing the prospects of a bruising fight among 17 candidates.
The latest controversy started Thursday night when Fox News debate moderator Megyn Kelly recounted Trump's history of incendiary comments toward women. Angry over what he considered unfair treatment at the debate, Trump told CNN on Friday night that Kelly had "blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever." That remark cost Trump a prime-time speaking slot at the RedState Gathering, the Atlanta conference where several other presidential candidates spoke to about 1,000 conservative activists.
RedState host Erick Erickson said in a statement that Trump had violated basic standards of decency, even if his bluntness "resonates with a lot of people." The Trump campaign retorted by calling Erickson a "total loser" who backs other "establishment losers."
Jeb Bush, the presidential favorite for many top Republican donors, said at RedState that Trump's bombast would hurt the GOP's chances with women, who already tilt toward Democrats in presidential elections. "Do we want to win? Do we want to insult 53 percent of our voters?" the former Florida governor asked.
A parade of other candidates criticized Trump as well. Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, seemed exasperated by it all, at one point snapping at reporters after being asked several Trump-related questions. "I'm running for president," he said. "I'm not running for social media critic of somebody else who's running for president."
By Saturday evening, Trump's campaign announced that he had fired one of his top campaign consultants. Roger Stone retorted on Twitter that he'd "fired Trump," not the other way around. According to an email obtained by the Associated Press, Stone wrote to Trump, "The current controversies involving personalities and provocative media fights have reached such a high volume that it has distracted attention from your platform and overwhelmed your core message."
Trump's campaign manager said he never received that message.
Among RedState attendees, opinions varied about whether Trump should be criticized for the remark he made about Kelly. But if there was anything close to a consensus, it was that the activists still want to hear from Trump and hope that other candidates heed his rise.
"It sounds like Republicans want to cherry-pick someone as the nominee," said Jane Sacco of New Port Richey, Florida, who was angry at Erickson's decision to dump Trump. "And," she added, "they want everyone to fall in line."

Black Lives Matter activists push Sanders off stage at Seattle event

Sanders Takes a back Seat.

Black Lives Matter activists stole the spotlight away from Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Saturday in Seattle, prompting Sanders to leave without giving his speech.
Sanders was just about to address several thousand people who gathered shoulder to shoulder at Westlake Park when two women took over the microphone. Organizers couldn’t persuade the two to wait and greed to give them a few minutes.
The women spoke about Ferguson and the killing of Michael Brown. They also held a four minute moment of silence.
When the crowd asked the activists to allow Sanders to speak, one activist called the crowd "white supremacist liberals," according to event participants.
After waiting about 20 minutes while the women talked, Sanders was pushed away again when he tried to take the microphone back. Instead, he waved goodbye to the crowd and left the stage with a raised fist salute. He shook hands and posed for photos with supporters for about 15 minutes, and then left.
“I am disappointed that two people disrupted a rally attended by thousands at which I was invited to speak about fighting Social Security and Medicate,” Sanders said in a statement later Saturday. “I was especially disappointed because on criminal justice reform and the need to fight racism. There is no other candidate who will fight than me.”
Sanders did end up speaking to a crowd Saturday night at the University of Washington campus about his commitment to criminal justice reform as well as addressing income equality.
He addressed the protesters' concerns in his speech saying, "No president will fight harder than me to end institutional racism and reform the criminal justice system. Too many lives have been destroyed by war on drugs, by incarceration; we need to educate people. We need to put people to work."
Saturday afternoon's fireworks weren't the first time Black Lives Matters activists disrupted the Vermont senator’s event.
Last month in Phoenix, protesters affiliated with the movement took over the stage at a Phoenix event and disrupted an interview with Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
In his campaign, Sanders has chiefly focused on issues like the middle class, climate change and criminal justice reform. In addition to advocating a $15-an-hour minimum wage and raising taxes on the rich, Sanders also supports a massive government-led jobs program to fix roads and bridges, a single-payer health care system, an expansion of Social Security benefits and debt-free college.
Sanders will hold a campaign rally at the University of Washington this evening. He will be driving to Portland on Sunday and is scheduled to hold a Sunday night rally at Portland's Moda Center, which has a capacity of about 19,000 and is home of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers. The event had originally been scheduled at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which can handle about 12,000.
Sanders heads to an event in Los Angeles on Monday.

Clinton campaign Abedin's history at State Department poses liability for Clinton White House bid


Anthony Weiner's Wife.

Huma Abedin -- a close aide to Hillary Clinton at the State Department and now a top campaign official -- is facing more questions about her activities at the agency, causing potential problems for Clinton’s presidential bid.
A federal judge ordered the State Department to have Clinton, Abedin and Cheryl Mills, another Clinton aide when she was secretary of state, confirm they have turned over all government records and describe how they used Clinton’s private server to conduct official business.
They had until Friday to turn over the information “under penalty of perjury.”
Clinton is already facing questions about using the server and private email accounts while she was the country’s top diplomat from 2009 to 2013.
The former secretary of state has turned over about 55,000 pages of private emails but deleted those she deemed personal, resulting in voters increasingly doubting her trustworthiness, according to recent polls.
Some emails show the extent to which Clinton's closest aides managed the details of her image. Abedin, for example, sent her an early-morning message in August 2009 advising Clinton to "wear a dark color today. Maybe the new dark green suit. Or blue."
Clinton later held a joint news conference with the Jordanian foreign minister. She wore the green suit, according to The Associated Press.
Abedin has for months been facing scrutiny about being part of a controversial State Department program that allowed her to work part time at the agency and have a private sector job.
She went from full-time deputy chief of staff for Clinton to a part-timer, then started working for Teneo, a consulting firm led by former President Clinton aide Douglas Band.
The agency’s inspector general’s office this spring confirmed an investigation on the matter and on email exchanges between Abedin and Clinton.
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has since 2013 led the effort to learn more about Abedin’s time at the State Department.
Last week, he sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and others asking about an investigation into possible “criminal” conduct by Abedin over her pay and her possibly violating rules that govern vacation and sick time.
The purported State Department inspector general report found Abedin was overpaid by nearly $10,000 because she violated such rules while at the agency.
The 39-year-old Abedin, vice chairwoman of the Clinton campaign, is contesting the findings and has requested an administrative review of them, while her lawyer calls the report “fundamentally flawed.”
The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request Saturday for comment.
Abedin is married to former New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, who resigned from Congress in 2011 over a sexting scandal.
Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told The Washington Times that only political insiders will even know Abedin's name.
“But she's another building block in the image of Clinton being conveyed to voters," he said. "More and more, the current Clinton campaign is starting to remind me of the Clintons in the 1990s. At times, their controversies came in waves and filled news pages. It's happening all over again for Hillary in this campaign."
Abedin made roughly $69,000 in the first quarter of 2015, which would put her on  pace to make $276,000 this year, according to news outlets’ analysis of federal reports.
The inspector general’s office has declined to respond to a request by FoxNews.com to verify the existence of the Abedin report and its finding.
Grassley and his staffers are also having problems getting information from the office.
And on Wednesday, he vowed to try to block -- or “place a hold” -- on the nomination of David Malcolm Robinson to become the State Department’s assistant secretary for conflict and stabilization operations until the agency complies with inquiries from the Republican-controlled Congress.
“The nominee is an innocent victim of the State Department’s contemptuous failures to respond to congressional inquiries,” Grassley said.

Trump camp says it has fired infamous strategist Roger Stone


Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has fired high-profile political adviser Roger Stone, a campaign spokesperson said Saturday.
“Roger wanted to use the campaign for his own personal publicity,” the spokesman told FoxNews.com. “He has had a number of articles about him recently, and Mr. Trump wants to keep the focus of the campaign on how to Make America Great Again."
To be sure, Stone has attracted his share of publicity as a behind-the-scenes guy, starting soon after he began working on the Committee to Re-elect the President, the successful 1972 fundraising effort for Richard Nixon’s second term.
And Stone's connection to Trump, particularly his rise from TV celebrity and New York real estate tycoon to the top of the 2016 Republican presidential field, has unsurprisingly become the subject of several recent news stories.
Stone’s departure was first reported early Saturday by The Washington Post. However, Stone said several hours later that he quit the campaign on Friday night, citing in part Trump’s “provocative” battles with the news media, politicians and others.
“Your initial and still underlying message -- is a solid conservative message,” Stone writes in a letter he has made public. “In fact, it catapulted you instantly into a commanding lead in the race. …  Unfortunately, the current controversies involving personalities and provocative media fights have reached such a high volume that it has distracted attention from your platform and overwhelmed your core message. With this current direction of the candidacy, I no longer can remain involved in your campaign.”
Stone also worked on a Ronald Reagan presidential campaign.
He is considered skilled in opposition research and so-called political “dirty tricks.” Stone reportedly has a tattoo of Nixon on his back and has written or co-written at least two book including “The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ,” published in 2013.
He also reportedly was once a lobbyist for Trump.

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