Trump failed to raise $6M at January veterans fundraiser, campaign manager says

The campaign manager for Donald Trump said the presumptive Republican presidential nominee didn’t raise the $6 million he said he did in January when he decided to host a fundraiser event and skip a Fox News debate.
Corey Lewandowski told The Washington Post Friday that the televised fundraiser for veterans only netted about $4.5 million. Lewandowski said the event fell short of the $6 million mark because some of Trump’s wealthy friends promised big donations, but backed out last minute.
“There were some individuals who he’d spoken to, who were going to write large checks, (who) for whatever reason ... didn’t do it,” Lewandowski told The Post by telephone. “I can’t tell you who.”
He also said that he wasn’t sure whether Trump’s own $1 million donation was counted toward the total.
The comments from Lewandowski are the first mention that Trump’s fundraiser netted less than he had touted. Lewandowski’s acknowledgement also comes over a month after The Wall Street Journal reported that most of the organizations targeted to receive the money have gotten less than half of that amount.
The Wall Street Journal, citing a survey of the 22 groups listed by Trump's campaign as prospective recipients for the money, reported in April that 19 organizations had obtained a total of $2.4 million from Trump's foundation or associates.

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Of the three other charities, one declined to disclose how much it had received, another said it needed to submit more paperwork before receiving any money, and the third didn't respond to questions by the Journal.
Fox Business Network first reported in late February that only a fraction of the pledged donations had made their way to the veterans groups.
At the time, FBN reported, several groups said they had not received any money. And seven of the 22 told Fox Business Network they had received a total of $650,000. Other groups did not respond to inquiries at the time.
Trump held the Jan. 29 benefit in lieu of attending a GOP debate hosted by Fox News. The real estate mogul had declined to appear at the debate, claiming that he had not been treated fairly by the network.
Lewandowski told The Post that Trump has decided on about two dozen groups that will get the remainder of the money. He urged the paper that Trump shouldn’t be blamed for falling short of the goal, despite touting the number in the weeks after the event.
“What he said was, ‘We hope to get $6 million.’ He said this at an event where we were trying to get money. It was a best guess,” Lewandowski said. “That was his goal. His goal was to get somewhere around $6 million.”
The Post reported that seven of the nine groups that Trump said donated money to the fundraiser had given the money as promised. The money added up to $3.78 million. Small donors added to the total to bring the number up to $4.45 million.
Out of 22 veterans groups that received the donations supposedly from the Trump fundraiser all told the paper that Trump didn’t personally donate to any of the charities.
Lewandowski said Trump made good on his promise to personally donate to veteran charities, but declined to reveal who he gave the money to and how much he gave.

College reverses decision, rehires famed Delta Force hero

Hampden-Sydney College

 

Retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin

When given the choice of standing alongside a decorated military hero or a bunch of militant LGBT activists – choose wisely.
The leadership of Hampden-Sydney College learned that lesson the hard way.
On May 19 I reported to you that the Virginia all-male college had chosen not to renew retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin’s contract – ending his stellar, nine-year career teaching leadership and ethics.Less than six hours later, the college reversed its decision and offered the retired general a one-year contract.
“Hampden-Sydney College is a fine school with a proud history of young men who have led our country, and I am honored to be a part of shaping the next generation of leaders,” Boykin told me. “I would like to thank the leadership of Hampden-Sydney College for the courage they have demonstrated in reversing their decision and allowing me to remain a part of the Hampden-Sydney community.”
The LGBT activists had wanted Hampden-Sydney to fire Boykin over a joke he made to a gathering of conservatives. They accused him of advocating for violence against gays and transgender people.
“The first man who goes into the restroom with my daughter will not have to worry about surgery,” Boykin told the crowd.
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The college acknowledged that LGBT activists had contacted the school – but denied their concerns were the “determining factor” in not renewing Boykin’s contract.
“Yes. They were of concern,” college spokesman Thomas Shomo told me. “They appeared to advocate or approve of violence.”
Shomo also told me Boykin is an “outspoken person who has many controversial views.”
For the record, forcing people to use the bathroom according to their God-given plumbing is not controversial. It’s common sense.
“This situation has been a great reminder of how our First Amendment principles are worth standing up for and defending,” Boykin told me.
I strongly suspect Hampden-Sydney had a bit of help with its decision to do the right thing. The readers of this column were among the hundreds (if not thousands) of people who publicly defended Gen. Boykin’s good name.
And that brings me to a very important point as we wage a battle for the soul of our nation – when patriots stand together – we can facilitate change.
“There is strength in unified numbers,” Boykin told me. “The radical left and LGBT activists completely underestimate the impact of freedom-loving Americans banding together to protect our First Amendment freedoms.”
And the general said those “unified voices” allowed him to return to the college.
I wrote extensively about this issue in my book, “God Less America.”  Consider what’s happened as a result of our silence: Atheists are rampaging across the fruited plain – waging war on religion, seeking to eradicate God from the public marketplace. The Obama administration has turned our bathrooms into cultural cesspools. And our public schools have been transformed into radical leftwing indoctrination centers.
The foundations of our nation have been ravaged – and many good people stood by and did nothing. Many churches were silent. We chose not to fight. 
“Never cave in when you know that you are standing for what is right and true, for these are the principles that made this nation great,” Boykin said. “Stand, even if it means you lose your job. Stand, even if it means you lose your life. The founding principles of this nation are worth defending, even if it costs you.”
Those are powerful and sobering words – steeped in truth. We must stand and we must stand together –with one, unified voice.
“When you stand, freedom prevails,” Boykin said.

Republican Oklahoma lawmakers urge Obama impeachment over bathroom directive

Is Idiot Obama bullying public schools over bathroom access?

 A group of Republican Oklahoma lawmakers introduced a resolution Thursday urging the state’s congressional delegation to start an effort to impeach President Obama over the White House’s directive to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their gender identity.
The Obama administration issued the recommendation to all public schools last week that transgender students must be allowed to use the bathroom of their choosing. The directive has caused fury among lawmakers across the nation.
Reuters reported the bill introduced in Oklahoma calls on the state’s members of the House of Representatives to file articles of impeachment against Obama, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Secretary of Education John B. King and several others.
Lawmakers on Friday also introduced a separate measure that would allow students to use religious grounds to have separate but equal bathrooms to segregate them from transgender students.
According to The Oklahoman, a state Senate committee approved a measure to grant religious accommodations for students who object to the transgender bathroom order. The bill now goes to the full Senate for consideration.
John Bennett, a Republican state representative, said in a statement that the White House’s policy on transgender bathroom usage was “biblically wrong,” and a violation of state sovereignty.
According to Reuters, advocates for Obama’s impeachment said that the president has “overstepped his constitutional authority.”
However, supporters of the transgender bathroom guidelines called the impeachment resolution a promotion of fear mongering.
"In a time when our state is facing an unprecedented economic crisis, our lawmakers should be focused on righting the ship rather than stigmatizing transgender youth," Troy Stevenson, executive director of the LGBT advocacy group Freedom Oklahoma, told Reuters in a statement.
The measure was introduced hours after Gov. Mary Fallin vetoed a bill that would have criminalized abortion procedures.

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Perino: Facebook recognizes its 'trust problem' with conservatives

Perino: Facebook is taking conservatives' concerns seriously

Dana Perino, co-host of Fox News Channel’s “The Five,” says that Facebook recognizes that it has a ‘trust problem’ with conservatives following her meeting Wednesday with the social network’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Perino, former White House press secretary for President George W. Bush, was among a group of leading conservatives invited to the meeting at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., following a Gizmodo report that stories about conservative topics were prevented from appearing in Facebook’s trending module. “FOX & Friends Weekend” co-host and Daily Caller founder Tucker Carlson also attended the meeting.
“They acknowledged that they have a trust problem with a significant portion of their customer base and that they were trying to figure out a way, at least a first step, to open a dialogue so that they can try to fix it in the long run,” said Perino, speaking on “The Kelly File” following the meeting.
Among others who attended the special meeting, according to Facebook, were radio host Glenn Beck, American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks, Tea Party Patriots CEO Jenny Beth Martin and Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center.
Related: Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg meets with conservatives on reported bias
Perino told Megyn Kelly that there were lots of concerns raised during the meeting that had nothing to do with the particular issue of Trending Topics, noting that the module is a relatively new part of Facebook’s business. “There were lots of concerns raised about their policy on community standards – who gets blocked and for what,” she told Megyn Kelly. “We were kind of pushing on an open door because they recognize that they have a problem and it’s based on trust.”
In a Facebook post afterward, Zuckerberg did not directly respond to allegations that Facebook employees suppressed conservative stories on its "trending topics" feature. But he said, "I know many conservatives don't trust that our platform surfaces content without a political bias."
"I wanted to hear their concerns personally and have an open conversation about how we can build trust. I want to do everything I can to make sure our teams uphold the integrity of our products," he wrote.
In his post, Zuckerberg also noted that Fox News drives more interactions on its Facebook page than any other news outlet in the world. "It's not even close," he added.
Related: Facebook says there is 'no evidence' of anti-conservative bias on Trending Topics
In the meeting, Facebook maintained that it does not have any “direct specific evidence” that conservative news was suppressed on Trending Topics, according to Perino.
The Fox News host said that she found the Facebook executives at the meeting to be “pretty genuine and sincere.”
S.E. Cupp, a columnist with the New York Daily News who attended the meeting, said Zuckerberg, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Vice President Joel Kaplan and board member Peter Thiel mostly listened to the 17 conservatives who attended.
Speaking on the “The Kelly File,” Carlson said that conservative comments at the meeting “ran the gamut.”
Related: Government requests for Facebook data on the rise, report says
“The problem is that conservatives don’t believe in the type of action that would force a business to comply,” he added.
Not every conservative figure invited to the Facebook meeting attended. American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp declined the invitation. In a statement, Schlapp said that the "deck is stacked" against conservative opinion at Facebook, adding that CPAC content "egregiously underperforms" on Facebook compared to Twitter and other platforms by factors of 10.
The trending section, which appears to the right of the Facebook news feed, was introduced in January 2014. Facebook describes the module as a product “designed to surface interesting and relevant conversations in order to help you discover the best content from all across Facebook.”

Judge orders ethics classes for 'deceptive' DOJ attorneys

A federal judge has ordered annual ethics classes for Justice Department attorneys as a punishment for being "intentionally deceptive" during litigation over President Obama's executive immigration orders.
"Such conduct is certainly not worthy of any department whose name includes the word 'Justice,'" U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen wrote in a withering order released Thursday.
Justice Department attorneys misled the court about when the Department of Homeland Security would begin implementing President Obama's executive order granting "deferred action" to illegal immigrants whose children are citizens. In doing so, they tricked the 26 states who filed a lawsuit into "foregoing a request for a temporary restraining order," according to the judge.
The facts of the deception are not in doubt, Hanen emphasized. "[DOJ] has now admitted making statements that clearly did not match the facts," he said in the May 19 opinion, first noted by the National Law Journal. "It has admitted that the lawyers who made these statements had knowledge of the truth when they made these misstatements ... This court would be remiss if it left such unseemly and unprofessional conduct unaddressed."

As punishment, Justice Department attorneys who wish to appear in any state or federal court within the 26 states that brought the lawsuit have to undergo annual ethics training. "At a minimum, this course (or courses) shall total at least three hours of ethics training per year," he wrote.

House GOP defeats LGBT measure, Dems shout 'shame'

As Democrats shouted "shame," seven House Republicans switched their votes and defeated a measure on Thursday meant to protect gay rights.
The vote was 213-212. President Barack Obama has issued an executive order that bars discrimination against LGBT employees by federal contractors, and Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., had offered an amendment to a spending bill that would have prohibited using taxpayer dollars to violate the order.
The vote for Maloney's amendment peaked at 217, one short of the majority needed for passage, before it began a slow, sporadic decline. Members of the Republican whip team, whose job is to round up needed votes, were stalking the House chamber's aisles where GOP lawmakers seat, openly pleading for support.
"Need two more votes," Rep. Steve Russell, R-Okla., one of the GOP whips, said loudly as he prowled among Republicans.
Democrats were outraged, loudly chanting, "shame, shame" in the House chamber. In the end, 29 Republicans joined 183 Democrats backing the measure, but it was not enough.
"This reveals them for who they are. They are bigots. They are haters," said Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y.
The No. 2 House Republican, Kevin McCarthy, rejected the suggestion the vote was held open for an inordinate time so Republicans could switch their vote.

College boots ex-Delta Force hero after complaint from LGBT activists

Jerry Boykin is the kind of man you’d want teaching your sons – a good and decent man, an honorable man – a Christian man.
For the past nine years the retired lieutenant general has taught leadership and ethics at Hampden-Sydney College, a highly regarded, all-male school based in Virginia. By many accounts – he is beloved and deeply respected by students.
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But Gen. Boykin will not be returning to the classroom this fall. That’s because he tells me he's been fired.
The man who was one of the original members of Delta Force and once commanded all of the U.S. Army’s Green Berets – the man who served his nation with honor and distinction for more than 36 years – was ousted because of political correctness.
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In March, Gen. Boykin delivered a speech to conservatives and he referenced the national uproar over transgendered people using the ladies room.
He cracked a joke: “The first man who goes into the restroom with my daughter will not have to worry about surgery.”

Hampden-Sydney College | StartClass

Laughter ensued.
But militant LGBT activists were not laughing.
“I never said homosexuals. I never said transgenders,” he told me. “I was really talking about these perverts who would use this as a way to get into the bathrooms with our wives and daughters.”
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Boykin, who also serves as an executive vice president of the Family Research Council, tells me as many as 150 activists signed a letter written to the college demanding that he be fired.
“They claimed I was calling for violence against transgenders,” he told me. “Obviously it is not true. It was a figure of speech. It was meant to be humorous and it was humorous to the audience.”
You’d think that militant LGBT activists would enjoy a good rib-tickler. Apparently, they do not.
“Political correctness is absolutely out of control,” he said.
Boykin learned just recently that he would not be returning to the college – without warning.
“I was not given a chance to defend myself,” he said. “I was not given an opportunity to explain myself. That’s the sad part of it. The school is better than that.”
Apparently, they are not.
Unlike the cowardly actions of the school’s leadership, I decided to allow the school’s administration a chance to do what they denied to Gen. Boykin – a chance to explain what happened.
“His contract was simply not renewed,” said Thomas Shomo, the college’s director of communications. “We felt it was time academically for a change.”
Shomo said Boykin worked part time – teaching two classes a semester -- serving in a position that had been set up years ago for short-term residencies for professionals in the Wilson Center for Leadership.
So did the college have concerns about Gen. Boykin’s speech?
“Yes. They were of concern,” Shomo told me. “They appeared to advocate or approve of violence.”
But he denied the speech had anything to do with giving the boot to an American hero.
“The concerns about Jerry Boykin’s comments were not the determining factor in this decision,” Shomo said – noting that the timing of their decision was entirely coincidental.
I don’t know about you folks, but I feel like we’re knee-deep in Grade-A fertilizer.
“You know he [Boykin] is an outspoken person who has many controversial views,” Shomo said. “He has expressed those controversial views in various forms over the last nine years and the college has not reacted to those.”
Does the administration of Hampden-Sydney College truly believe that protecting women from would-be predators is a controversial view?
The general has many defenders – including former Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.
“At a time where young people are desperately seeking hope and inspiration, you would think General Boykin would be one of their most valued faculty,” Sen. Cruz wrote on Facebook. “But instead, he fell victim to the PC police.”
FRC President Tony Perkins blasted the college’s leadership.
“What a contrast between the easily intimidated leadership of Hampden-Sydney College and men, like Gen. Boykin, who have spent their lives facing real danger so that LGBT agitators could enjoy the freedoms and rights they want to deny others,” Perkins told me.
Fred Larmore, a 1974 graduate of the college and a former board member, told me that students and alumni are furious over the decision to oust Boykin.
“General Boykin got an extremely raw deal,” he told me.
Hampden-Sydney was founded in 1776. They take great pride in their motto: “Come here as boys so you may leave as men.”
“General Boykin is the perfect example of how that happens,” Larmore told me. “He is a role model for the students. There’s no question that he’s the real deal.”
What happened to Gen. Boykin should serve as a wake-up call to every freedom-loving patriot across the fruited plain.
There is a concerted effort afoot to silence any American who cherishes traditional American values.
“They [LGBT activists] are shrewd, they are very well organized and they are unified – which is something the Church is not,” Boykin told me. “The Church is not unified. Therefore, the church fights piecemeal battles rather than doing what the LGBT community did in my case. They came together and launched a major attack and they succeeded.”
So the question at hand – my fellow Americans – is what are we going to do about it?
General Boykin plans on fighting back.
“It makes me even more determined that I’m going to do everything I can to stop men from going into bathrooms with my daughters, my wife and my granddaughters,” he said. “I am going to be a very outspoken antagonist on this issue.”
Spoken like a true American patriot.
As for Hampden-Sydney College – it seems as if their leadership places a higher value on political correctness than duty and honor. 

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Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg meets with conservatives on reported bias

Matt Schlapp: I refused to be Facebook's PR pawn

LOS ANGELES –  Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday held a wide-ranging discussion with a group of conservative commentators who said afterward the Facebook CEO acknowledged the giant social network has a problem reaching conservatives.
The meeting at Facebook's Menlo Park, California, headquarters came about after a report accused the company of harboring a bias against conservative views.
S.E. Cupp, a columnist with the New York Daily News who attended the meeting, said Facebook executives "were very clear to acknowledge that there is a problem and the problem is a serious one."
Cupp said Zuckerberg, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Vice President Joel Kaplan and board member Peter Thiel mostly listened to the 17 conservatives who attended.
While the Facebook executives did not comment further on an internal investigation into allegations of political manipulation, they explained how difficult it would be for Facebook employees to inject bias into what stories make it into the "trending topics" section of the site or on individual users' news feeds, Cupp said.
The Facebook team also said any such tampering would be "philosophically against both the mission of the company and Mark's personal mission," Cupp said. "I believed them."
Rob Bluey, editor in chief of the website The Daily Signal, made similar comments to Fox News' Greta Van Susteren shortly after the meeting ended.
"They certainly acknowledged that there was a problem with getting the message out to conservatives," he said.
Facebook spokesman Andy Stone confirmed that was the tenor of the meeting.
In a Facebook post afterward, Zuckerberg did not directly respond to allegations that Facebook employees suppressed conservative stories on its "trending topics" feature. But he said, "I know many conservatives don't trust that our platform surfaces content without a political bias."
"I wanted to hear their concerns personally and have an open conversation about how we can build trust. I want to do everything I can to make sure our teams uphold the integrity of our products," he wrote.
Among others in attendance, according to Facebook, was radio host Glenn Beck, American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks, Tea Party Patriots CEO Jenny Beth Martin and Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center.
Bozell said in a statement afterward that the meeting was "very productive."
"There has been a serious issue of trust within the conservative movement about this issue, but everyone in that room, on both sides, wants to see it restored," he said.
Zuckerberg invited the group after the tech blog Gizmodo claimed that Facebook downplays conservative news subjects on its trending feature. Facebook denied the report, which relied upon a single anonymous individual with self-described conservative leanings. The company said it is investigating the matter.
Cupp said the viewpoints of the conservatives and the Facebook executives were aligned on issues such as data security, privacy, deregulation and free markets.
"We have a lot more in common than public perception would have you believe," she said.
Facebook's trending topics are most visible on the desktop version of the social network, although it is possible to access them on mobile too.
On browsers, the topics appear on the top right corner, separate from the news feed containing updates from your friends and family. On mobile devices, users can tap on the search bar to see the top trends, but they can't see separate categories.
Topics that appear as trending can have a self-fulfilling effect, as more Facebook readers see and share the items, and other news organizations decide to write their own stories.