Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz Cartoons

Wasserman Schultz avoids talking about her email controversy, with tough primary days away

With a tough primary election just days away, Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Saturday avoided talking about recently leaked emails that led her to resign from the Democratic National Committee and instead focused on the emails’ impact on party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
“When you talk to me about emails, I’m not sure which ones you’re talking about,” the six-term congresswoman told a reporter during an event in Miami Lakes, Florida, headlined by Democratic vice presidential nominee Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.
WikiLeaks released a trove of emails in late July -- before the start of the Democratic National Convention -- that showed DNC staffers appearing to support the nomination of the front-running Clinton over challenger Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The controversy led to Wasserman Schultz’s resignation as chairman of the committee and created more headwinds for her in the primary.
Sanders has endorsed and fundraised for challenger and law professor Tim Canova in the race Tuesday.  
And Canova has further sought to bring national attention to his long-shot bid by filing a federal complaint that argues the leaked emails show Wasserman Schultz used DNC resources to track his campaign.
A South Florida Sun Sentinel/Florida Atlantic University poll released earlier this week shows Wasserman Schultz ahead of Canova 50-to-40 percent.

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“If you mean (Clinton’s) emails, … I’ve been campaigning all over this community, all over the state and all over the country,” Wasserman Schultz also told the reporter Saturday. “There is not one person, (when) I go and campaign on behalf of Hillary Clinton that asks me about emails.”
Wasserman Schultz also said voters instead want assurances that the economy will be stronger and want to know what she and Clinton, if elected, will do to expand and strengthen Social Security.
“That’s what they care about,” she said before staffers arrived and the interview ended.
The main issues in race, in the state's 23rd Congressional District, a largely Democratic-leaning community in South Florida with a significant Jewish population, have been a mix of local concerns like the future of Social Security and national interests -- including Wasserman Schultz’s support for the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal.
Critics of the deal, in which Iran pledges to curtail its pursuit of a nuclear weapon in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, say it’s a threat to the national security of Israel.
“Nobody is more committed to the safety of Israel,” Wasserman Schultz said during her debate earlier this month with Canova.
Canova, who had said he supports the 2015 deal, said in the debate that he now doesn’t know how he would have voted had he been in Congress.
He has raised roughly $28 million for the race, in large part because of the national attention it has received.

Trump vows to deport 'criminal illegal immigrants ... within one hour' of swearing-in

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump vowed Saturday to deport "criminal illegal immigrants ... within one hour" of his inauguration if he is elected in November. 
Trump's promise, made during a speech in Iowa, came after several days of accusations that the real estate mogul had backed down on his signature issue to appeal to undecided general election voters. 
In an appearance on Fox News' "Hannity" Tuesday night, Trump told a town hall audience in Austin, Texas that he was open to "softening" current federal immigration law.
"There could certainly be a softening because we're not looking to hurt people," Trump said at the time. "We want to follow the laws, you know, we have very strong laws in this country. And you know Bush, and even Obama, sends people back. Now, we can be more aggressive on that but we want to follow the laws."
On Saturday, however, Trump said the media had "missed the whole point on immigration ... They take phrases and statements, chop them up, take them out of context and discuss them for days."
Trump also said that he was developing an "exit-entry tracking system to ensure those who overstay their visas, that they're quickly removed." The proposal echoed the language of Trump's former primary rival, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is now advising him.

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"My priority is the well-being of 300 million American citizens, including millions of Hispanic citizens and legal residents who want a secure border, and I mean secure," said Trump, who maintained his vow to build a wall across America's southern border.
Trump touched off controversy during the GOP primary race by vowing to use a  "deportation force” to round up and deport millions of illegal immigrants.
However, during his appearance on "Hannity" this week, Trump said his administration would be willing to "work with" illegal immigrants.
"They'll pay back-taxes, they have to pay taxes, there's no amnesty, as such, there's no amnesty, but we work with them," Trump said.
The Republican nominee's campaign has twice canceled scheduled speeches where Trump was expected to detail his immigration policy. Trump told Fox News Friday that he would deliver such a speech within the next two weeks.

As presidential nominee, Clinton gets first national security briefing

State Department and Clinton Foundation one in the same?

Hillary Clinton on Saturday received her first national security briefing, since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.
Clinton, who routinely received such briefings as secretary of state, was briefed at an FBI facility in White Plains, N.Y., near her family’s upstate New York home.   
Clinton attended the roughly 2-and-half-hour meeting alone and did not speak with reporters afterward. She is expected to travel by motorcade later today to the Hamptons.
The campaing has yet to comment on the meeting but issued a short statement that in part said the candidate met with "a handful of officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence."
Republican nominee Donald Trump had his first briefing earlier this month.
The briefings have been customary for presidential nominees so the next commander in chief has an understanding of the country's national security apparatus.

In heartland Iowa, Trump vows to help farmers, urban minorities alike

Donald Trump walked a political tightrope Saturday -- promising in heartland Iowa to help farmers across the country by cutting taxes and federal regulations while continuing his stark appeal to potentially disaffected minority voters in U.S. inner cities.
“We are going to end this war on the American farmer,” Trump told the crowd at Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst’s influential “Roast and Ride” rally in Des Moines.
In a roughly 45-minute address in which Trump largely stuck to measured and prepared remarks, the Republican presidential nominee also repeatedly tried to distinguish himself from Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and appealed to evangelicals and others to assist him in helping minorities and winning the November election.
“Clinton wants to shut down family farms just like she wants to shut down the mines and the steel workers,” said Trump, warning her plan includes “radical” regulations and raising taxes on family farms, to rates as high as nearly 50 percent.
He again pointed out that Clinton in the mid-1990s said some black youths were “super predators” and returned to his argument in recent weeks that the Democratic nominee’s policies and those of fellow Democrats who for decades have run many U.S. cities have failed their minority residents, particularly African-Americans.
“I’ve spoken a lot in recent days about the deplorable conditions in many of our inner cities,” Trump said. “As a father, as a builder, as an American, it offends my sense of right and wrong to see anyone living in such conditions.

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“I am running to offer a better future -- to the citizens of Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, and all across this great land. … Now is the time to put a new agenda into action that expands opportunity, ensures equality and that protects the rights of each and every citizen. … We are also going to end the discrimination that traps parents and kids in failing government schools.”
Trump earlier this week said Clinton was a “bigot” for having policies that hold down minorities.
Clinton responded during an interview Friday on MSNBC by claiming Trump has a “long history of racial discrimination" and that his campaign is "built on prejudice and paranoia."
Trump on Saturday also mentioned the fatal shooting Friday of 32-year-old Nykea Aldridge, the cousin of NBA star Dwayne Wade and a mother of four.
Aldridge was shot and killed while pushing a child in a stroller on Chicago’s South Side, the apparent victim of an attack by two males on another male.
“We send our thoughts and our prayers to the family,” said Trump who was criticized on social media because a tweet earlier in the day on the killing appeared only for political advantage, failing to include condolences.
Trump, who has for days struggled to find the right message on illegal immigration, returned to the matter Saturday, arguing that enforcing immigration law is a “civil rights issue” and that Clinton’s policies will allow amnesty for people living illegally in the United States and increase the risk of Islamic terrorists getting into the country.   
“A vote for Trump is a vote to have a nation of laws. A vote for Clinton is a vote for open borders,” said Trump, who is trailing Clinton by 6 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics polls average.
Trump, who has promised if elected to deport all of the country’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, also said Saturday that the rights of American citizen are violated every time a black citizen, Hispanic citizen or any citizen loses his or her job to an illegal immigrant.
“Equal protection under the law must include the consistent application of our immigration laws,” said Trump, repeating his vow since the start of his campaign to build a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border. “My goal is to provide good jobs, good schools, and safety to every Hispanic community in the country. But we can’t do that if we don’t secure our border.
“On Day One, I am going to begin swiftly removing criminal illegal immigrants from this country -- including removing the hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal immigrants that have been released into U.S. communities under the Obama-Clinton administration. These international gangs and cartels will be a thing of the past. Their reign of terror will be over.”