Trump's Singapore summit, a first step, being trashed by many pundits

On this, perhaps, we can all agree: It is better that President Trump is talking to Kim Jong Un than exchanging threats over nuclear war.
And so the Singapore sitdown, the first ever between the leaders of America and North Korea, was a step in the right direction.
There are all kinds of legitimate criticisms to be leveled at the process. But I've really been struck by the relentless negativity of many liberal commentators. On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews went off on Trump moments after the first handshake, because he dared put his hand on Kim's back. Jeremy Bash, an Obama aide turned NBC commentator, pronounced the display of U.S. and North Korean flags "disgusting."
This much is undoubtedly true: If Barack Obama had held a groundbreaking summit with the leader of North Korea, the liberal precincts of the media would be nominating him for another Nobel Prize.
We don't have to guess about that, since they largely supported Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, from which Trump recently withdrew. (That admittedly had a whole regimen of inspections and verification, but Trump and Kim are just starting out).
And they cheered Obama's meeting with Fidel Castro and resumption of diplomatic relations with Cuba, despite the repressive nature of that regime.
Trump may have been a bit too fulsome in his praise, but there's really no dispute that Kim is an awful human being who kills and jails his opponents.
When ABC's George Stephanopoulos, scoring the first broadcast-network interview with Trump in a year, asked about Kim's "police state," with "forced starvation, labor camps, he's assassinated members of his own family," the president replied: "George, I'm given what I'm given. Okay?"
The fact is, American presidents negotiated with the old Soviet leaders, who crushed human rights, and continue to meet with China, which is also a repressive dictatorship. The world is full of bad guys. That doesn't mean the United States should refuse to engage.
The online and print coverage has followed a similar pattern. "It sure looks as if President Trump was hoodwinked in Singapore," wrote New York Times columnist Nick Kristof. "Trump made a huge concession — the suspension of military exercises with South Korea ... In exchange for these concessions, Trump seems to have won astonishingly little."
The criticism didn't all come from the left. While Salon called Singapore "Trump and Kim's Big Nothing Summit," The Weekly Standard's headline was "A Summit About Nothing": "In reality, the meeting in Singapore was no negotiation. Nor was it ever going to be one: You don't hash out the end of a 60-year conflict and the elimination of a complex nuclear weapons program over the course of 45 minutes."
That's true. It's also true that you don't eliminate a complex nuclear program without the negotiations starting somewhere.
It's easy to feel uneasy about Kim's intentions, the horrifying nature of his regime, and whether he'll ever give up his nukes. But the approaches of the last 30 years haven't worked either.
Nate Silver, the left-leaning data analyst, had a striking observation on Twitter: "90% of the punditocracy's commentary on the Singapore summit seems to be constructed with the goal of convincing people that Trump shouldn't get any credit for it—rather than rationally analyzing the merits and demerits of the 'deal.'"
Perhaps, along with a skeptical, wait-and-see attitude, the press might give the president the benefit of the doubt before pronouncing the effort a failure.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author "Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press and the War Over the Truth." Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

California 'three states' plan OK'd for November ballot

An initiative to divide California into three states has received enough signatures to qualify it for the November ballot, the California secretary of state's office confirmed Tuesday.
The three-states campaign, dubbed “Cal-3,” submitted more than 600,000 signatures.
Tim Draper, a billionaire Silicon Valley venture capital investor, sponsored the ballot measure to divide America’s most populous state into three jurisdictions, the Mercury News of San Jose, Calif., reported.
-- California would be made up of six mainly coastal counties, including Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
-- Northern California would include 40 counties from Santa Cruz to the Oregon border, including San Francisco and Sacramento, the state’s current capital.
-- Southern California would comprise 12 counties, including Fresno, Kern, Orange and San Diego counties.
“California government has rotted,” Draper told the Mercury News last month. “We need to empower our population to improve their government.”

“California government has rotted. We need to empower our population to improve their government.”

However, the ballot measure faces long odds.
A SurveyUSA poll found that 72 percent of registered California voters opposed the proposal, while only 17 percent support it, the report said.
Even if voters approved the plan, it would still require approval from the California Assembly and Senate, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Then the plan would have to overcome likely court challenges -- and still win approval from Congress, the Hill reported.
Steven Maviglio, a Democratic political consultant who opposes breaking up the Golden State, told the Mercury News that Draper’s initiative was taking the wrong track.
“Splitting California into three new states will triple the amount of special interests, lobbyists, politicians and bureaucracy,” Maviglio said in an email. “California government can do a better job addressing the real issues facing the state, but this measure is a massive distraction that will cause political chaos and greater inequality.”
If passed, it would be the first division of a U.S. state since 1863 when West Virginia was created, the Times reported. California, admitted to the Union on Sept. 9, 1850, has faced more than 200 attempts at boundary reconfiguration, divisions and even secession over the course of its history, the report said.
Draper previously proposed splitting the state into six separate states in 2012 and 2014, but election officials invalidated many of the signatures his campaign collected, the Hill reported.

Tim Draper previously proposed splitting California into six states.

Last summer, Draper formally submitted the three-states proposal.
“Three states will get us better infrastructure, better education and lower taxes,” Draper told the Times in an email. “States will be more accountable to us and can cooperate and compete for citizens.”
Analysts from the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics predict that the new California and Northern California would be Democratic-leaning, while Southern California would be a swing state.
"This measure would cost taxpayers billions of dollars to pay for the massive transactional costs of breaking up the state, whether it be universities, parks, or retirement systems,” Maviglio told the Times.
Meanwhile, Shaun Bowler, a political science professor at the University of California at Riverside, told the Mercury News that “this isn’t as easy or straightforward as its supporters want to make out.”
But Draper remains optimistic.
“These three states,” Draper told the Mercury News last month, “create hope and opportunity for Californians.”

Republicans push for House vote to force DOJ to release documents on Trump investigation

Republican lawmakers on Tuesday said that they will be pushing for a vote on a resolution that compels the Department of Justice to cease the delays and finally release all remaining documents related to the Trump campaign probe.
Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Jim Jordon, R-Ohio, both members of the House Freedom Caucus, told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that they will push for a vote on the resolution, which will be filed on Wednesday, that would encourage Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to comply with their requests at the House intelligence committee.
“It's all about compelling DOJ to turn over documents so we could do proper oversight. If they have nothing to hide, turn over the documents,” Meadows said on “The Ingraham Angle.”

"It's all about compelling DOJ to turn over documents so we could do proper oversight. If they have nothing to hide, turn over the documents."

Jordan said the resolution is different from other the committee requests because it would come from the entire Congress.
“[It’s] one thing for us to say, one thing for the chairman of subpoena – it's another thing if the House of Representatives would actually go on record and say, 'Mr Rosenstein, we as the House, a majority of the House, say you're not giving us the information we need,” he said.
ROSENSTEIN THREATENED TO ‘SUBPOENA’ GOP-LED COMMITTEE IN ‘CHILLING’ CLASH OVER RECORDS, EMAILS SHOW
The resolution comes in the wake of a bombshell report that Rosenstein threatened to “subpoena” emails, phone records and other documents from lawmakers and staff on a Republican-led House committee during a meeting earlier this year.
The reviewed emails recalled a January 2018 closed-door meeting involving senior FBI and Justice Department officials and members of the House Intelligence Committee.
“The DAG [Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein] criticized the Committee for sending our requests in writing and was further critical of the Committee’s request to have DOJ/FBI do the same when responding,” the committee's then-senior counsel for counterterrorism Kash Patel wrote to the House Office of General Counsel. “Going so far as to say that if the Committee likes being litigators, then ‘we [DOJ] too [are] litigators, and we will subpoena your records and your emails,’ referring to HPSCI [House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] and Congress overall,” the email added.
The Republican-led intelligence committee is seeking a vast array of documents related to the potential abuses of intelligence and memos that kick-started the investigation into the Trump campaign and whether it colluded with the Russian government.
NUNES SETS DEADLINE FOR DOJ TO PROVIDE DOCUMENTS ON ALLEGED FBI INFORMANT, CLAIMING ‘OBSTRUCTION’
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., sent a letter last week to Rosenstein demanding to the requested documents concerning the FBI's alleged informant looking into any Russian ties to President Trump's 2016 campaign.
"DOJ continues to obfuscate and delay its production using an array of tactics, such as incorrectly categorizing the requested documents as Gang-of-Eight-level material in order to limit access," wrote Nunes, referring to an April 30 subpoena for the documents.
The so-called Gang-of-Eight refers to Republican and Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress as well as top lawmakers from the intelligence panels. "Such conduct by DOJ is unacceptable because the Gang-of-Eight is a legal fiction that has no basis outside of the confines of Presidential approval and reporting of covert actions.”

Trump-basher Mark Sanford, who president called 'nothing but trouble,' ousted in key South Carolina primary

Incumbent Republican South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford, a frequent Trump critic who the president lambasted earlier in the day as "nothing but trouble" and "very unhelpful," was ousted in Tuesday night's primary by state Rep. Katie Arrington.
On a key primary night with elections also held in Maine, Virginia, Nevada and North Dakota, the results in South Carolina were an unmistakably positive referendum on President Trump's tenure.
Arrington's shock win was also a dramatic rebuke of Sanford's heated "Never Trump"-style rhetoric and scandal-pocked career. It signaled that the president's base in the state remains solidly behind him ahead of November's midterm elections, despite withering criticism from both inside and outside the Republican party.
State Rep. Katie Arrington, a relative political newcomer who secured Trump's backing, repeatedly bashed Sanford for deriding the president and even ran advertisements featuring video clips of Sanford's Trump criticisms.
ALSO ON TUESDAY: PRO-TRUMP FIREBRAND WINS IN VIRGINIA SENATE PRIMARY

Mark Sanford, a frequent Trump critic, went head-to-head in Tuesday's South Carolina primary with Trump backer Katie Arrington, a relative political newcomer.  (Sanford state portrait, Arrington campaign photo)

Earlier Tuesday, as the ballots were being counted, Sanford acknowledged in an interview that his criticisms of Trump had hurt him in the primary.
“Well I think it has probably hurt me in this race," he said. "But again, there are no free lunches in life.  I think there are times I have had to oppose the president because of stands I have had for a long time."
The coastal 1st Congressional District is Republican-leaning, but contains sizable liberal pockets such as Charleston County, which went for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Sanford has warned that Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs will be "disastrous," called the president intolerant and untrustworthy, and even appeared to blame him for the shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice last year.
"I would argue that the president has unleashed — it's partially, again, not in any way totally — but partially to blame for demons that have been unleashed," Sanford said, after gunfire from a disaffected progressive loner nearly took the life of Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.
Even before Trump took office, Sanford said the billionaire businessman should “just shut up” and “quit responding” to anyone critical of him on a personal or professional level.
Sanford resigned as governor in 2011 after finally acknowledging that he was having an extramarital affair. In June 2009, he disappeared from public view for six days and later claimed that he had been hiking on the Appalachian Trail.
He later admitted that he had in fact traveled to Argentina to meet a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.
But he staged a political comeback in 2013, winning the House seat in the district he had earlier represented for six years.
As voters headed to the polls Tuesday, Trump reminded them of Sanford's rhetoric, as well as the affair.

TRUMP MOCKS 'VERY UNHELPFUL' SANFORD, SAYS HE'S 'BETTER OFF IN ARGENTINA'
"I fully endorse Katie Arrington for Congress in SC, a state I love," tweeted Trump, who was traveling aboard Air Force One on the way back from his historic one-on-one meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "She is tough on crime and will continue our fight to lower taxes. VOTE Katie!"
By contrast, Trump said that Sanford "has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to [Make America Great Again]. He is MIA and nothing but trouble. He is better off in Argentina."
Other key races in NV, VA, and SC
Voters in Virginia also handed a big win Tuesday to pro-Trump Senate candidate Corey Stewart, the firebrand who has vowed to wage a "vicious" and "ruthless" fight against incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine.
Stewart said he plans to campaign like Trump and appeal to blue collar voters.

Corey Stewart, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and Chairman of Prince William County Board, addresses his supporters at the Electric Palm restaurant on election night  (Washington Post via AP)

Chants of "lock her up" rang out at Stewart's victory speech Tuesday night.
TRUMP-BACKED CANDIDATE WINS IN NEVADA GUBERNATORIAL PRIMARY
Also in Virginia, voters decided that state Sen. Jennifer Wexton will take on vulnerable Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock in November in the northern Virginia congressional district. Wexton, who won a six-way primary, routed her well-funded competition in a race called early in the evening.
Comstock fought off a challenge from Shak Hill, who attacked the two-term incumbent as insufficiently conservative and weak in her support of President Donald Trump.

Barbara Comstock is one of the GOP's more vulnerable representatives in Congress; she will face state Sen. Jennifer Wexton in November.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Comstock's district is considered a prime target for Democrats as they hope to retake the House in November.
Voters in Virginia also decided that former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger will face hard-right conservative Representative Dave Brat in November. Hillary Clinton carried Comstock's district by nearly ten points in 2016, and Trump's win in Brat's district was relatively narrow.
Meanwhile, Archie Parnell has won the Democratic nomination in a South Carolina congressional district despite revelations from a divorce filing last month that he beat his wife more than 40 years ago.Parnell's win sets up a rematch with U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman. Parnell lost by just 3 percentage points in a special election last year.
In Nevada, Trump-backed candidate Danny Tarkanian, the son of legendary UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, defeated Scott Hammond and television reporter Michelle Mortensen.
Tarkanian, a businessman, had been running in the primary against GOP Sen. Dean Heller, when Trump reached out and asked him to switch races so that Heller could run without intra-party opposition.
Elsewhere in Nevada, Sharron Angle, the conservative who once ominously threatened to "take out" then-Sen. Harry Reid, lost her race against Rep. Mark Amodei.

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Larry Kudlow, National Economic Council director, hospitalized after suffering heart attack, Trump says

Larry Kudlow, the National Economic Council director, has been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack, President Trump said Tuesday from Singapore.
"Our Great Larry Kudlow, who has been working so hard on trade and the economy, has just suffered a heart attack," Trump tweeted ahead of his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "He is now in Walter Reed Medical Center."
Kudlow, 70, a conservative commentator, had replaced Gary Cohn who resigned in March.
“Earlier today National Economic Council Director and Assistant to the President Larry Kudlow, experienced what his doctors say, was a very mild heart attack," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
"Larry is currently in good condition at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and his doctors expect he will make a full and speedy recovery," Sanders continued. "The President and his Administration send their thoughts and prayers to Larry and his family."
Kudlow has long been known as a respected business and economics commentator, getting his own CNBC show in 2011. Since then, he’s hosted a variety of shows on the network, including “The Kudlow Report” and “Kudlow & Cramer.”
He also served as associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during the Reagan administration. A former chief economist for a Wall Street firm, Kudlow battled addiction and took time off from Bear Stearns for a stint in drug rehab.
His commitment to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings reportedly was a contributing factor in why he ultimately ruled out a Connecticut Senate bid in 2016.
In recent days he has been a vocal critic of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his interactions with Trump during the G7 summit following a debate between the two leaders over tariffs.
He called Trudeau's post-summit press conference, in which he said Canada wouldn't be “pushed around” by the U.S. after Trump had already left the meeting, a “sophomoric, political stunt for domestic consumption.
“Karen and I are praying for our dear friend @Larry_Kudlow tonight,” Vice President Mike Pence tweeted in reply to the president's announcement.

Teachers reportedly fearful after MS-13 infiltrates Maryland school

The violent gang MS-13 has infiltrated a predominantly Hispanic school in Maryland, bringing terror and the campaign to recruit young students, with teachers calling the situation a “ticking time bomb.”
William Wirt Middle School in Riverdale has reportedly become a battleground after the gang established its presence at the school.
Fighting, drug dealing, pro-MS-13 graffiti and attempts to recruit immigrant children from Central America have become an everyday occurrence, The Washington Post reported.

“We now have two to three fights per day. At this point, it’s completely out of control.”

“We now have two to three fights per day,” one school employee told the paper, who didn’t reveal his name over fears to lose the job or be targeted by the gang. “At this point, it’s completely out of control.”
School teachers claimed at least a dozen of members of the gang are in the school. The violent activities prompted the school to call the police over 70 times in the 2017-2018 school year.
In one alleged incident, an eighth-grader claimed to have been raped by a schoolmate who was in the gang. The alleged assault took place off of school grounds and she initially reported the crime to the police, but later backtracked out of fear of retaliation by the gang.
The authorities concluded the alleged crime was unfounded, but told The Post that the girl lives now in fear the gang will physically attack her.
MS-13 is the notorious El Salvadorian street gang started in Los Angeles in the 1980s. It has since expanded and includes Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans and other Central and South Americans.
The gang’s motto is “rape, control, kill” and gained notoriety after numerous brutal crimes across the U.S.

“Teachers feel threatened but aren’t backed up. Students feel threatened but aren’t protected. The school is a ticking time bomb.”
- A William Wirt Middle School educator

Officials at the school deny the problem of gang activity.
“The principal is aware of concerns about gangs in the community, but has not experienced any problems in school,” John White, a school spokesman told The Post.
But there are reportedly signs of the gang’s presence.
According to the police, ten MS-13 members clashed with a gang rival in February in the woods between William Wirt Middle School and Parkdale High School, another school in the area suffering from gang activity. The rival was hit in the head with a baseball bat and stabbed three times in the stomach.
Two months earlier, the two schools were on lockdown following a shooting between the gang rivals.
The situation has left teachers fearful of being alone with students. They reportedly informed the school officials of incidents involving suspected members of the gang, but they were ignored by the administrators, the report added.
“Teachers feel threatened but aren’t backed up. Students feel threatened but aren’t protected,” one educator said. “The school is a ticking time bomb.”

Weeping Dennis Rodman praises Trump's meeting with friend Kim Jong Un, blasts Obama for ignoring him

NBA star and friend of Kim Jong Un, Dennis Rodman, sobbed through an interview with CNN while reacting to the summit between President Trump and the North Korean dictator.
Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star and longtime friend of Kim Jong Un who has visited North Korea several times, broke down in tears during a televised interview early Tuesday as President Trump and Kim held a historic meeting in a hotel on Singapore's Sentosa Island.
In a dramatic interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo that quickly became emotionally charged, Rodman, wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat, blasted former President Barack Obama for not taking the North Korean leader seriously.
Five years ago, Rodman said, Kim told Rodman "certain things" to relay to Obama concerning potential negotiations, but the former president "didn't even give me the time of day -- he just brushed me off, but that didn't deter me."
Rodman, who admitted he was "naive" when he first visited the rogue regime, then started weeping and repeatedly dabbed away tears from his eyes as he recounted the blowback he received in the U.S. for visiting Kim.
"When I went back home, I got so many death threats," Rodman said, visibly shaking and crying. "And I believed in North Korea, and I couldn't even go home. I couldn't even go home, for thirty days. But I kept my head up."
It was a sharp turn in an interview that started with Rodman offering some advice to Trump in the form of an anecdote about trust.
"President Trump should understand the fact that the reason the Marshal of North Korea [Kim Jong Un] respects Dennis Rodman is the fact that he trusts me, and I gave him something for his birthday -- and I thought I couldn't pull this off -- and I said the day before his birthday, I'm gonna give you a present."
Rodman said he promised to bring a professional basketball team to North Korea, "even though I knew I couldn't do it."

But Rodman said he quickly realized that he needed to make good on his promise, or there would be a "problem."
After helping train North Korean basketball players and arranging to bring ex-NBA players to the country, according to Rodman, Kim approached him to say, "Dennis, you know, this is the first time someone ever kept their word to me in this country."
The moment was emotional, Rodman said. He encouraged Trump to show his "heart" to Kim -- a dictator who Rodman described as a "big kid" who just wants to have "fun."
Rodman then gave a hasty shout-out to Potcoin, a digital currency that caters to the cannabis industry and community, for sponsoring his trip to Singapore.

"If Trump can pull this off, more power to him."

"If Trump can pull this off, more power to him," Rodman said.
Trump reached out to Rodman before the summit through a secretary to tell Rodman he is "very proud" of him, the basketball star claimed.
"We don't need a miracle, but we need the doors to be open so we can start fresh," Rodman said of the historic meeting between the two leaders.
"I just wanna bring sports to North Korea," Rodman said, before saying he'd like to be involved in bringing sports to North Korea. "That's it, sports. ... I'm just so happy to be here, man," he added, calling it "the world's day."
"Donald Trump should take a lot of credit for this. He went out the box and made this happen," Rodman added.
Rodman previously has spoken fondly of the North Korean dictator, even calling Kim “misunderstood” despite admitting that the despot is probably a “madman.”
Rodman frequently visited Kim in North Korea starting in 2013, when he held the despot’s newborn daughter who has never been seen in the public.
Rodman’s history with Trump is fairly brief. He’s twice appeared on “Celebrity Apprentice” and he gave a copy of Trump’s “Art of the Deal” to the North Korean sports minister during a visit to Pyongyang last June. Rodman has hoped to be the one to facilitate a relationship between Trump and Kim.
Cuomo and Rodman previously sparred four years ago in a heated confrontation, when Cuomo began asking questions about North Korea that Rodman said were inappropriate. Rodman began using profanity live on-air.

North Korea agrees to ‘complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula' after Trump-Kim summit

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a document on Tuesday stating that Pyongyang would to work toward "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula"— a historic concession, which was one of the requirements the U.S. sought at the summit in Singapore.
The historic agreement came after the two leaders held several meetings throughout the day. Trump was asked by a reporter if Kim agreed to denuclearize and he said, “We are starting that process very quickly.”
Trump did not refer to the document as a treaty or agreement. Trump said at a press conference that he will be ending joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea. He also said Kim agreed to destroy a 'major' missile testing site, but did not offer specific details.
The joint declaration states that the U.S. has committed to providing "security guarantees" to Pyongyang. 
It's unclear exactly what Trump has promised Kim in terms of security. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to say Monday whether guarantees might include withdrawing U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula.
Kim, who was sitting alongside Trump, said through a translator, “We had a historic meeting and decided to leave the past behind and we are about to sign a historic document.”
A reporter asked Trump if he would be willing to invite Kim to the White House and he responded, “Absolutely I would.”
Trump was asked by reporters in Singapore during his final appearance with Kim on Tuesday what surprised him most during their meetings.
Trump says Kim has a "great personality" and is "very smart. Good combination."
Trump also says he learned Kim is "a very talented man" and "loves his country very much."
Trump and Kim did not respond to a reporter who asked if they discussed Otto Warmbier.
Warmbier was an American student arrested in North Korean in January 2016 for stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. He was was sent home from North Korea in a coma and died soon after.
Trump said he is willing to meet with Kim "many times" in the process.
The summit marked the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.
In the run-up to the talks, Trump had hopefully predicted the two men might strike a nuclear deal or forge a formal end to the Korean War in the course of a single meeting or over several days. But in a briefing with reporters Monday, Pompeo sought to keep expectations for the summit in check.
"We are hopeful this summit will help set the conditions for future productive talks," the secretary of state said.
Kim has since left the island.

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