Conservative Blogger
Friday, July 15, 2016
Obama confronts race issues bigger than police
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| Hume: Racial tensions have grown worse under Obama admin |
America's fraught debate about tensions between blacks and police spilled over Thursday into hang-wringing about societal problems beyond any one person's capacity to fix — even the president. At a town hall meeting recorded to be broadcast in prime time, Obama cautiously offered suggestions, but no surefire solutions.
The good news, Obama said, is at least people are finally talking about the problems. Calling for "open hearts," he urged Americans not to cloister themselves in separate corners.
"Because of the history of this country and the legacy of race, and all the complications that are involved with that, working through these issues so that things can continue to get better will take some time," Obama said.
More time than Obama has left in office, he readily conceded.
As 32-year-old Philando Castile's funeral was underway in St. Paul, Minnesota, Obama took a question remotely from Diamond Reynolds, Castile's girlfriend, who livestreamed the aftermath of his shooting bypolice on Facebook. She said she's scared for her daughter's future and asked the president, "What do we do?"
Choosing his words carefully, Obama said it's key for officers to get to know the community they're protecting. Also critical, he said, was to better train police to avoid "implicit biases."
"We all carry around with us some assumptions about other people," Obama said. If people are honest with themselves, he added, "oftentimes there is a presumption that black men are dangerous."
He offered a rare reflection on how he felt racism had affected him personally, recalling how as a young boy in Hawaii, a female neighbor didn't recognize him and refused to ride in the same elevator. "In that sense, what is true for me is true for a lot of African-American men," he said.
Another questioner, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, came with a different viewpoint. He implored Obama to more strongly condemn those who call for killing police, and to grant a national law enforcement group's request that the White House be lit up with blue lights in solidarity.
The White House has declined that request, and Obama insisted he's condemned anti-police rhetoric plenty already.
In a particularly tense moment at the end of the town hall, the daughter of a man who died in apolice confrontation started screaming after being denied a chance to question the president. Erica Garner, daughter of Eric Garner, later met briefly with Obama in private, the White House said.
The question-and-answer session at a Washington theater capped a dizzying week for the president as he sought to connect with the public in a series of hastily arranged appearances: a meeting with police, a summit with law enforcement leaders and Black Lives Matter activists, a trip to Dallas to honor five white officers killed in a revenge attack.
In each instance, Obama has said he's trying to shift the conversation away from talking points and entrenched accusations of blame, while acknowledging the U.S. is "not even close to being there yet."
Obama, who cut short a Europe trip after the Dallas killings, has found himself squarely in the middle of the crisis. A reluctant mediator between blacks and the police, he's avoided explicitly taking sides.
Even still, some law enforcement leaders have accused Obama of scapegoating police. Some of Obama'scritics have even suggested he's partially to blame for attacks on police.
Obama has long been wary of the expectation that, as the first black president, he's uniquely qualified to play peacemaker. After George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida, Obama called for national soul-searching but suggested he needn't be the referee.
Instead, he's tried to encourage more places to adopt policing recommendations developed earlier by his administration. He's called for assigning police officers to the communities where they live, improving training on how to avoid confrontation, expanding access to statistics about police interactions, and ensuring transparent investigations and due process after deadly incidents.
Yet in a reflection of how the policing issue has unmasked broader inequalities, Obama has also insisted that the problem can't be solved while African-Americans still struggle disproportionately with joblessness, drugs, poverty, and lack of access to education, health care and healthy food.
"We expect police to solve a whole range of societal problems that we ourselves have neglected," Obamasaid. He said prominent incidents sometimes "the catalyst for all the other stuff that may not even have to do with policing coming out."
Obama has been blunt about the limitations of presidential words or pat policy proposals. Acknowledging "deep divisions" about the right solutions, he predicted this week there would be more tensions "this month, next month, next year, for quite some time."
To that end, the National League of Cities and U.S. Conference of Mayors called for local officials to hold "100 community conversations race relations, justice, policing and equality." And in Congress, lawmakers were forming a task force to examine police accountability and aggression toward police.
"I think we need to listen and learn, instead of just starting to throw bombs at each other," said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Tim Tebow: Speaking slot at Republican National Convention 'a rumor'
CLEVELAND – Thursday morning he was among the biggest stars featured on Donald Trump's convention lineup. Thursday night, Tim Tebow declared his attendance at next week's Republican National Convention was nothing more than "a rumor."
"I wake up this morning to find out that I'm speaking at the Republican National Convention," Tebowsaid in a video posted on Facebook. "It's amazing how fast rumors fly. And that's exactly what it is, a rumor."
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to questions about Tebow's departure from a convention program that the New York billionaire's team had long teased would be an extraordinary display of political entertainment. But instead of sports stars and celebrities, as promised, the campaign is relying heavily on the party's establishment for the four-day convention, which begins Monday.
The presumptive presidential nominee has approved a convention program that features at least 20 current or former elected officials, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a primary rival.
Still, there is no shortage of political outsiders.
Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder, may be the first-openly gay speaker featured at a national Republican convention. His appearance comes as party leaders refuse to soften the GOP's formal opposition to gay marriage.
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Mark Geist and John Tiegen, survivors of the deadly 2012 attack on the American diplomatic consulate in Benghazi, Libya, will speak.
"This impressive lineup of veterans, political outsiders, faith leaders and those who know Donald Trump the best — his family and longtime friends — represent a cross-section of real people facing the same challenges as every American household," said Trump spokesman Jason Miller.
Some of the GOP's biggest names are declining to participate in the convention.
Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, and the party's two most recent presidential nominees, John McCain and Mitt Romney, plan to skip the event, as does Ohio Gov. John Kasich, another Trump primary challenger.
Shrugging off such absences, Trump's team suggested the convention lineup would help highlight Trump's outsider appeal.
"We are totally overbooked. We have great speakers, we have winners, we have people that aren't only political people," Trump told Fox News Channel on Tuesday. "We have a lot of people that are just champions and winners."
He acknowledged in recent days that he'd stick a little closer to tradition.
"Look, I have great respect for the institution of the conventions. I mean to me, it's very important. So we're not going to change the wheel," he said on Fox.
Brady was initially floated as a possible speaker, but he won't appear. Neither will former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight or boxing promoter Don King, a Cleveland resident and passionate Trump supporter.
The program will feature people such pro golfer Natalie Gulbis, retired astronaut Eileen Collins, and Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White. Former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, author of the book, "Lone Survivor," about a 2005 firefight in Afghanistan, will make an appearance, along with a Wisconsin sheriff, David Clarke, who is a vocal critic of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The convention will highlight religious leaders such as Jerry Falwell Jr. and Haskel Lookstein, the New York rabbi who converted Trump's daughter Ivanka to Judaism.
Trump does not forget his business relationships, giving speaking slots to real estate investor Tom Barrack and even the general manager for Virginia's Trump Winery, Kerry Woolard.
In a nod toward party unity, Trump will feature several former presidential competitors, including Cruz, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Ben Carson and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Two finalists in Trump's search for a running mate made the list as well: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Newt Gingrich. The other finalist, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, was not included in the program obtained by the AP.
Trump says he is delaying VP announcement due to truck attack in France
Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump postponed a news conference scheduled for Friday in New York to announce his running mate after the deadly truck attack in Nice, France.
"In light of the horrible attack in Nice, France, I have postponed tomorrow's news conference concerning my Vice Presidential announcement," he wrote on Twitter Thursday, announcing his decision.
In a phone interview just after the announcement on Fox News' "On The Record with Greta Van Sustern," Trump said "we're living in a whole different world and there's no respect for law and order."
"There's no respect for anything or anybody And this has to be dealt with very harshly," he told Van Susteren.
Trump added that the world was going to have to smart and tough or "we're not going to have a society, we're not going to have a world anymore."
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Earlier on Thursday, sources familiar with the Trump campaign's vice presidential selection process confirmed to Fox News that steps are underway for Donald Trump to name Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate.
This comes as Pence gives his most public signal yet that he’s preparing for the announcement, abandoning his gubernatorial bid in Indiana. Sources say Pence, who faced a Friday deadline to make a decision, will not run for re-election.
The Trump campaign still insists an offer has not formally been made to anyone -- and nothing is final until the presumptive nominee announces his running mate.
But all signs seem to point to Pence.
The announcement originally set for Friday followed a very-public vetting process that included meetings in recent days with Pence, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, among others.
If Trump settles on Pence, who went from dark horse to leading contender in a matter of days, the pick presumably is aimed at galvanizing support from the party’s conservative base as Trump charges into the Republican nominating convention.
Consideration of Pence also has put Trump on the clock. Pence faced a Friday deadline to file paperwork to appear on the official state ballot as either a gubernatorial or vice presidential candidate. Under state law, his name could not appear on the ballot twice.
Pence, now in a tough re-election bid, spent 12 years in Congress including as the leader of the House Republican Conference.
Pence emerged relatively late in the vice presidential stakes.
But he moved almost immediately to the top of the list, considering he gives the Trump campaign much-needed social conservative credentials without the kind of political baggage that Democrats had hoped to exploit in other finalists like Christie or Gingrich.
Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser issued a statement saying the expected selection of Pence is “an affirmation of the pro-life commitments he’s made and will rally the pro-life grassroots.”
"Mike Pence would make an outstanding running mate,” GOP strategist Rob Burgess said.
Still, Pence is not without some negatives, particularly his handling last year of the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The original law, which he signed, allowed residents and companies being sued by a private party to cite their religious beliefs as a defense. However, critics argued the law would allow discrimination against gays and others.
The national and widespread criticism was so damaging it forced Pence and the state legislature to revise the law to clearly prohibit businesses from denying services to customers based on their sexual preference or gender choice. And it appeared to end Pence’s 2016 presidential aspirations.
The liberal MoveOn issued a statement Thursday calling Pence an “extreme right-wing” governor.
GOP leaders kill plan by anti-Trump movement to unbind delegates' votes
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| Battle to stop Trump being fought in RNC Rules Committee |
Party officials used a voice vote to reject a proposal by Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh to let delegates “cast a vote of conscience” and abandon the candidate they had been committed too through the state primaries or caucuses.
The amendment became a focal point of furious lobbying that’s pitted the so-called Never Trump movement against Trump’s campaign and top leaders of the Republican Party. On a 112-member rules panel dominated by party and Trump loyalists, the outcome was expected.
Unruh expected to collect signatures from 28 members to bring a vote to unbind the delegates on the convention floor in Cleveland next week. However, she was only able to collect 21.
She encountered overwhelming opposition from delegates arguing that it would be unthinkable for the party to abandon Trump after he overwhelmingly won GOP primaries and caucuses and garnered more than 13 million votes.
"You want to ignore what is really the grassroots, which is millions and millions and millions of voters who voted for Donald Trump," said Stephen Munisteri, a delegate and leading GOP figure from Texas.
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For good measure, the rules panel also approved language specifically stating that party rules allow delegates to be "bound" to candidates.
Despite their defeat, anti-Trump delegates say they believe current rules already free delegates to support anybody and have planned to contest balloting when the convention votes for its nominee next week.
While on a path to near-certain victory, Trump has drawn bitter opposition from Republicans who say he's not conservative and is an inept campaigner whose harsh statements will cause his defeat and losses by GOP candidates for Congress and elsewhere.
Earlier Thursday, talks between top party officials and recalcitrant conservatives broke down, increasing the odds of nationally televised clashes during next week's sessions on other GOP rules, a faceoff leaders have been hoping to avoid.
As Thursday's negotiations foundered, the alliance between the Trump campaign and leaders of the Republican National Committee showed its muscle and began rejecting conservatives' attempts to revamp party rules.
In one showdown, the rules committee voted 86-23 to reject an effort by conservatives to eliminate the RNC's ability to change party rules in years between national conventions. In another, the panel used a voice vote to defeat a plan to bar members of the RNC from being lobbyists — a profession that employs many of them in their home states — though it would have exempted lobbyists for nonprofit organizations.
In a gesture to conservatives, the rules panel voted to create a commission that by 2018 could propose changes to the GOP's presidential nominating process, which came under intense fire this year. Trump called the system "rigged" early on, and his opponents have demanded more power for delegates to select a fresh nominee.
The closed-door negotiations were aimed at finding middle ground that would have increased the chances for a smoothly functioning four-day gathering next week, averting televised battles among members of a party whose likely presidential candidate has already proven divisive. There's been talk of some Trump foes walking out of the convention if they feel they've been treated unfairly, a spectacle top Republicans would love to avoid.
But by late afternoon, Ken Cuccinelli — a leader of the conservatives who was an adviser to Cruz's presidential campaign — said GOP leaders he was negotiating with told him, "Sorry, we don't have a deal."
Those talks focused on conservatives' proposals, aimed at appealing to grassroots conservatives, that would take power from the Republican National Committee — consisting of 168 party leaders from around the country — and its chairman, who is currently Reince Priebus.
Both sides agreed that the bargaining broke down over an effort by conservatives to provide extra convention delegates to states with primaries closed to independent and Democratic voters, many of whom flocked to Trump in this year's voting.
Cuccinelli said he would win enough support — 28 of the rules committee's 112 members — to be allowed votes on several of his proposals by the full convention.
RNC chief spokesman Sean Spicer said he would not.
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