Sunday, September 18, 2016

Obama Birther Cartoons





Media jump gun on branding Trump claim on Clinton birther role 'false'


Donald Trump’s claim Friday that Hillary Clinton and her 2008 campaign “started” the Obama birther controversy touched off a series of instant fact-checking from media outlets who branded the claim “false” – but it seems they may have jumped the gun.     
“Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it,” Trump said in Washington, D.C. Friday, referring to theories President Obama was not born in the United States. “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period.”
Media outlets immediately branded his claim about Hillary Clinton's involvement as an outright falsehood.
“Trump admits Obama born in U.S. but falsely blames Clinton for starting rumors,” declared The Washington Post.
“Trump drops claim but falsely accuses Clinton of starting it,” said The New York Times.
However, that assertion was itself cast into doubt when former McClatchy D.C. Bureau Chief James Asher tweeted that long-time Clinton confidante Sidney Blumenthal had encouraged him to investigate the rumor that Obama was not born in America.
His version of events raises questions about the Clinton campaign’s denials that it had anything to do with the controversy, but media outlets didn’t suggest any gray area.
Clinton 2008 campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle seemed to muddy the waters even further when, in denying that there was a connection, admitted that there was an Iowa volunteer who forwarded an email promoting the conspiracy.
“There was a volunteer coordinator, I believe in late 2007, I think in December, one of our volunteer coordinators in one of the counties in Iowa. I don't recall whether they were an actual paid staffer, but they did forward an e-mail that promoted the conspiracy,” she said on CNN, adding that Clinton herself made the decision to fire the person “immediately.”
Trump’s campaign immediately jumped on the Doyle interview, saying it vindicated Trump.
“With Clinton’s 2008 campaign manager admitting on national television and on Twitter that they promoted the rumors surrounding now-President Obama’s heritage, Mr. Trump has been fully vindicated,” spokesman Jason Miller said in a statement.
“Not only was a Clinton campaign worker blamed and fired over the activity, we have now been informed that Secretary Clinton was aware of what was going on, with Clinton’s campaign manager even apologizing to Obama’s campaign manager,” he said.
Clinton meanwhile, continued to blast Trump for his involvement in the controversy, tweeting: President Obama’s successor cannot and will not be the man who led the racist birther movement. Period.

In tightening race, Trump returns to touting tough immigration policy, ends wild week of accusations, innuendos

What's behind the Trump surge in swing states?
Donald Trump returned Saturday to the heart of his presidential campaign -- promising to stop problems that illegal immigration has created for Americans, after a freewheeling few days in which he flung accusations and attacks at Democratic rival Hillary Clinton over gun control and the President Obama’s citizenship.

Trump delivered his law-and-order message to a gathering in Houston of Remembrance Project families, dedicated to helping themselves and others after killings at the hands of illegal immigrants.
“Your stories are not featured in the news. You have no demonstrators taking to the streets on your behalf. You have no special interests taking up your cause, and politicians ignore your cries for help. But I never will,” Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, said amid more recent polls showing him essentially deadlocked with Clinton in the White House race.
A Fox News poll released Thursday shows Clinton ahead of Trump by just 1 percentage point among likely voters in a four-way ballot. Clinton receives 41 percent and Trump 40 percent, with Libertarian Gary Johnson at 8 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 3 percent.
In the head-to-head matchup with Clinton, Trump leads by 1 percentage point.
Clinton, whose single-digit lead has slipped since mid-August, spoke Saturday evening in Washington, D.C., at a Black Caucus Foundation’s awards dinner, her third day on the campaign trail after taking off a few days to recover from pneumonia.
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Trump, a first-time candidate, nabbed the GOP nomination from a field of experience politicians in large part with a tough immigration stance that included a vow to “build a wall” along the southern border to keep out dangerous illegal immigrants and to deport the estimated 11 million people now living illegally in the U.S.
After struggling in recent weeks to find an immigration policy that would appeal to voters in the general election, Trump has essentially returned to his hardline positions, while trying to portray Clinton, a former secretary of state, as soft on illegal immigration.
“The matter of this country refusing to take back their deported citizens came before Hillary Clinton’s (State Department) desk,” Trump said Saturday. “But she failed to take forceful action and ignored the federal law requiring her to suspend visas to countries that don’t take back their citizens.”
He also said she has declined Remembrance Project’s offers to meet and argued Clinton, if elected, would extend President Obama’s “open border” polices and attempts to delay deportation through executive action.
“She will only meet with the donors and the special interests and the open border advocates,” Trump said. “Her plan calls for total amnesty in the first 100 days. …  Sanctuary Cities, ignoring visa overstays, closing detention centers and a virtual end to immigration enforcement in the United States.”
His comments follow a wild past few days in which the Clinton and Trump camps exchanged attacks -- with Trump again using innuendo to go after Clinton and attract free publicity.
On Wednesday, Trump declined to say definitively that President Obama was born in the United States -- roughly eight years after stoking controversy about his citizenship, then dropping the issue in 2011 when the president made public his birth certificate documents.
Trump on Friday declared the issue over, but not before suggesting that the Clinton campaign, in its hard-fought 2008 Democratic presidential primary against Obama, was pushing the rumor that he was born in Kenya.
Clinton said on Twitter that Trump pushing the birther issue was “deplorable.” And on Saturday, the campaign told Fox News that neither Clinton nor the 2008 campaign suggested Obama was born outside of the U.S.
Trump also made the statement at the end of a campaign event at his new luxury hotel in Washington, D.C. -- after suggesting beforehand to expect a “major announcement.”
And he mused aloud about what might happen if Clinton’s Secret Service detail no longer carried weapons, an apparent effort to further suggest Clinton, if elected, would further take away Americans’ rights to own guns.
"I think her bodyguards should drop all weapons. Disarm immediately," Trump said. "Take their guns away, let's see what happens to her."
Trump made a similar suggestion in May about her Secret Service detail.

'A bomb went off in New York': Trump, Clinton respond to Manhattan explosion


Donald Trump appeared to pre-empt New York City officials when he declared Saturday evening that a "bomb went off" in New York City before officials had released details.
"I must tell you that just before I got off the plane a bomb went off in New York and nobody knows what's going on," Trump said, minutes after stepping off his plane during a rally at an airport hangar in Colorado Springs, Colo.
He continued: "But boy we are living in a time -- we better get very tough, folks. We better get very, very tough. It's a terrible thing that's going on in our world, in our country and we are going to get tough and smart and vigilant."
The Republican presidential nominee made the comments around 9:10 p.m., shortly after the explosion in Manhattan's crowded Chelsea neighborhood and as emergency officials were responding to the blast.
Local authorities have said they believed the explosion, which injured 29, was an "intentional act," but declined to answer questions about the cause at a news conference that began about two hours after Trump spoke.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said then that it was "too early to determine specifically what the incident was caused by" and that the investigation was still underway.
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A spokeswoman for Trump did not respond to an email asking whether Trump was briefed about the incident before taking the stage.
Trump's rival Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, sought to present a more cautious response, underscoring the difference between the two candidates' styles.
Clinton was briefed on the incidents shortly after her speech to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner in Washington.
After landing in suburban New York City, Clinton told reporters she had been briefed "about the bombings in New York and New Jersey and the attacks in Minnesota." She said, "we need to do everything we can to support our first responders — also to pray for the victims. We have to let this investigation unfold."
Clinton was referring to a pipe bomb that exploded in a New Jersey shore town and reports of a shooting and a stabbing at a Minnesota mall.
Clinton, asked about Trump's saying that a "bomb" had gone off in New York, said it was "important to know the facts about any incident like this," adding, "I think it's always wiser to wait until you have information before making conclusions, because we are just in the beginning stages of trying to determine what happened."

Explosion In New York City Believed To Be 'intentional,' Mayor Says; 29 Injured


DEVELOPING: An explosion that injured at least 29 people in New York City late Saturday appeared to be "intentional, as sources told Fox News a second device -- a pressure cooker -- was found four blocks away.
"Tonight, New York City experienced a very bad incident," de Blasio said at a news conference near the scene in Chelsea. "We have no credible and specific threat at this moment."
De Blasio tried to calm any fears among nervous New Yorkers, saying the explosion had no terrorist connection and wasn't related to a pipe bomb explosion at a charity run in New Jersey earlier Saturday
The blast, which happened at around 8:30 p.m. on West 23rd Street in the city's Chelsea neighborhood, appeared to originate from a construction toolbox in front of a building, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. A garbage can was found mangled nearby.
Less than three hours after the explosion, investigators located a pressure cooker at West 27th Street that was attached to wiring and a cellphone, a law enforcment source told Fox News. It was not clear what was inside the device. Police advised residents of the block where the pressure cooker was found to stay away from windows facing 27th Street.
Early Sunday, police said that the pressure cooker had been removed from the area and would be taken to the department's firing range in the Bronx for further analysis.
New York Police Department spokesman J. Peter Donald said several people were taken to hospitals with injuries. One of the injured suffered a puncture wound that was considered serious. Officials said the other injuries were minor, described as scrapes and bruises. All of the injured were expected to survive, the FDNY reported.
Witnesses said the explosion blew out the windows of businesses and scattered debris in the area. One witness told Fox News the explosion sent a "big cloud of black smoke" into the air as people ran from the scene. Another said a fireball shot into the air as a nearby building shook.
A National Guard member near the scene told Fox News the explosion was so loud that he put on his uniform and raced to the area.
Chris Gonzalez, visiting from Dallas, was having dinner with friends at a restaurant in the area.
"We felt it, we heard it, the restaurant went real quiet, the 26-year-old Gonzalez told the Associated Press. "It wasn't like jolting or anything, everyone just went quiet."
Rudy Alcide, a bouncer at Vanity Nightclub at 21st Street and 6th Avenue, said he, at first, thought something large had fallen.
"It was an extremely loud noise, everything was shaking, the windows were shaking, it was crazy," he said. "It was extremely loud, almost like thunder, but louder."
Fox News was told there had been no prior intelligence suggesting Saturday's events may have been imminent. Sources also said it did not appear to be a gas explosion.
The FBI and NYPD would not rule out terrorism as a possible factor but said it was too early to determine the exact cause, law enforcement sources told Fox News. Police did not say whether they had any potential suspects.
Police counterterrorism officers, a bomb squad and firefighters rushed to the scene.
"All hands are on deck," de Blasio said at a news conference Saturday night.
The blast happened in front of a residence for the blind, near a major thoroughfare with many restaurants and a Trader Joe's supermarket.

"We are closely monitoring the situation and urge New Yorkers to, as always, remain calm and vigilant," Gov. Andrew Cuomo responded.
The FBI and Homeland Security officials, along with the ATF arson and explosive task force are also at the scene.
The White House said President Barack Obama has been apprised of the explosion in New York City and will be updated as additional information becomes available.

The explosion came hours after a pipe bomb exploded in Seaside Park, N. J., shortly before thousands of runners participated in a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors. No injuries were reported.

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