Democrat Cartoons

Ballot harvesting bounty: How Dems apparently used election law change to rout California Republicans

An Orange County registrar pop-up voting location is seen at the Golden West College in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Amy Taxin)

A minor change in California’s election laws may had a major effect on last month’s midterm elections that saw Democrats steamroll their Republican rivals and claim all but seven of the Golden State’s 53 House seats.
Despite holding substantial leads on Election Day, many Republican candidates in California saw their advantage shrink, and then disappear, as late arriving Democratic votes were counted in the weeks following the election. While no hard evidence is available, many observers point to the Democrats use of “ballot harvesting” as a key to their success in the elections.
“Anecdotally there was a lot of evidence that ballot harvesting was going on,” Neal Kelley, the registrar for voters in Southern California’s Orange County, told Fox News.
In Orange County – once seen as a Republican stronghold in the state– every House seat went to a Democrat after an unprecedented “250,000” vote-by-mail drop-offs were counted, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“People were carrying in stacks of 100 and 200 of them. We had had multiple people calling to ask if these people were allowed to do this,” Kelley said.
Two years ago, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law AB1921, which legalized the so-called practice of “ballot harvesting.” Previously, only a family member or someone living in the same household was permitted to drop off mail ballots for a voter, but the new allowed anyone – including political operatives – to collect and return them for a voter.
California Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment, but in the past Democrats in the state argued that the bill, which was passed on a party line vote, was meant to make it easier for people to vote.
But following the drubbing they took in the midterms, some Republican leaders in Washington have expressed confusion over what happened in California.
“We were only down 26 seats (nationally) the night of the election and three weeks later, we lost basically every California race,” outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., told the Washington Post. “Point being, when you have candidates that win the absentee ballot vote, win the day of the vote, and then lose three weeks later because of provisionals, that’s really bizarre.”
Ryan added: “When you win the absentee ballots and you win the in-person vote, where I come from, you win the election…I’m not saying there’s anything nefarious about it, because I just don’t know, but we believed we were up about six seats in California the night of the election, now I think we lost just about every single one of those.”
While Ryan may have been taken off guard by the system in California, the state’s GOP was not.
“To say we were caught flat-footed by this is just not true,” Matt Fleming, a spokesman for the California GOP, told Fox News. “We were well aware of this, we even did it ourselves, we pay attention to election laws.”
Echoing Ryan, Fleming blamed the GOP’s losses in California on changing demographics in the state, a large cash infusion for Democratic candidates and a heightened enthusiasm among the Democratic base in the run-up to the election.
“Democrats’ desire to send a message to the president and the blue wave that occurred everywhere but in the US Senate, really affected the outcome,” he said.
Democrats say that ballot harvesting was only part of a larger ground game they employed to help win over voters in California.
“We beat Republicans on the ground, fair and square,” Katie Merrill, a Democratic consultant, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Many of the field plans included [ballot harvesting] as an option to deliver voters or their ballots” to the polls.
In one anecdote, Democratic volunteers in Orange County visited a home four times to speak with the owner’s 18-year-old daughter – a no preference voter – to see if she wanted them to pick up her ballot for her.
“We were not wasting time talking to people who weren’t going to vote for Democrats,” Merrill said.
Despite being stung by the Democratic ground game and ballot harvesting moves, some Republicans admitted they were – at least a little bit – impressed by how the Democrats pulled off their near sweep of the House in California.
“I have a little bit of professional admiration for how well the Democrats executed their plan,” Dale Neugebauer, a longtime Republican strategist, told the Chronicle.
“The Democrats are creating a new, highly efficient tool to turn out voters,” Neugebauer added. “If Republicans can’t find a way to match it, we’re going to lose more elections all over the country.”

Bush family wants funeral that avoids anti-Trump sentiment: report

The Bush family contacted the White House this past summer saying that President Trump would be welcome at George H.W. Bush’s funeral and assured Trump that the focus would be on the 41st U.S. president’s life rather than their disagreements, The Washington Post reported, citing a former administration official.
"This will be about the celebration of the noble public service that George H.W. Bush gave. It’s not going to be about anybody else. I don’t think it’s going to be about Trump," a former Bush associate told Politico.
A person close to the funeral preparations told The Post that the tone of Wednesday’s funeral at the Washington National Cathedral will reflect the sense of propriety of Bush, who "wouldn't want anyone there to feel uncomfortable, including the incumbent president."
“If anybody at any time knew anything about the 41st president of the United States, they would completely and totally understand that he would welcome the current occupant 100 percent,” an aide in the office of the former president told the publication. “This is the way the country says goodbye to presidents.”
Trump had the final say over important funeral details, the person said, including providing Air Force One to carry the former president’s body from Texas to Washington for the funeral and back to Texas on Thursday for another service and burial.
The Trump White House has accommodated all the Bush family’s requests for the state funeral. The Bush family will be able to stay at Blair House, the official guesthouse across the street from the White House, a person familiar with the planning told The Post.
First lady Melania Trump, who represented the White House at former first lady Barbara Bush’s funeral in April, was struck by the Bush family’s graciousness toward her, one official told The Post. She conveyed that to the president, who did not attend that funeral, the official said.

Eric Trump blasts Kellyanne Conway’s husband for showing ‘disrespect’ towards wife

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Eric Trump took to Twitter late Monday to call out White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s husband George Conway.

President Trump's son, Eric Trump, took to Twitter late Monday to call out White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s husband George Conway-- a fierce critic of President Trump—who earlier suggested that a tweet from the president was tantamount to witnesses tampering.
Eric Trump did not specify what prompted the tweet, but wrote, “Of all the ugliness in politics, the utter disrespect George Conway shows toward his wife, her career, place of work, and everything she has fought SO hard to achieve, might top them all.”
The rare public rebuke came after Conway's husband-- an attorney-- responded to a tweet from the president praising the longtime Republican operative Roger Stone. Stone said in an interview he would never testify against the president. Stone told ABC on Sunday that he'd be forced to "make things up, and I’m not going to do that."
The president praised Stone’s comment in a tweet, saying, that his longtime ally will "not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about "President Trump." Nice to know that some people still have guts!”
Conway's husband responded on Twitter to the president's praise for Stone and referenced the statutes of tampering with a witness and obstruction of justice.
George Conway responded to Eric Trump's tweet by retweeting a user who wrote, "Of all the ugliness in politics, the utter disrespect the Trumps show toward the rule of law, the presidency and its place of work, and everything this nation has fought SO hard to achieve might top them all. Donald Trump is(sic) terrible person and frankly his actions are horrible."
The Washington Post reported last month that Conway's husband told a podcast that the Republican Party has become a "personality cult," and he would prefer to move to Australia than vote for Trump. Conway was asked recently about her husband’s criticism of Trump and said, "It doesn’t affect me or my job at all."
Her husband has also downplayed their differences of opinions, according to the Post.
"If I had a nickel for everybody in Washington who disagrees with their spouse on something that happens in this town, I wouldn’t be on this podcast. I’d be probably on a beach somewhere," he said.

Caravan migrants begin to breach border as frustration with slow asylum process grows

At least two dozen Central American migrants-- disillusioned and frustrated with the asylum-seeking process-- breached the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday just before dusk by scaling a 10-foot metal fence, Reuters reported.
Other migrants managed to squeeze through the fence on the beach.
Karen Mayeni, a 29-year-old Honduran mother with three children aged between six and 12, told Reuters that she’s only observing others penetrating the border and “waiting to see what happens.” The woman will decide her family's next action “in a couple of days,” she said.
TIJUANA MAYOR SAYS ARREST CARAVAN ORGANIZER, VOWS TO STOP FUNDING MIGRANTS
About 90 minutes later, she and her children were seen on the U.S. side of the border, the outlet reported.
Some migrants reportedly tried to escape the capture by the U.S. Border Patrol, but most were caught. It remains unclear how many migrants managed to escape the detention.
The migrants are part of the caravan that traveled towards the U.S. in an effort to enter the U.S. – some illegally, others legally in the hope of applying for asylum – citing issues such as rampant violence in their home countries.
But the plans were curbed by the Trump administration’s decision to send troops to protect the border from illegal entry and impose a new policy that requires every migrant seeking asylum to remain in Mexico where their case will be heard. The rule was struck down last month by a federal judge.
Thousands of migrants are currently residing in Tijuana, a Mexican border city, that’s increasingly warning about the crisis caused by the sudden influx of the migrants.
Mayor Juan Manuel Gastélum told Fox News that his city cannot continue providing support for the migrants, saying already-stretched city resources were emptied since the crisis began.
“In those six hours that the border was closed, we lost approximately 129 million pesos,” he said, referring to recent clashes at the border. “That's not fair. How do you think people from Tijuana feel towards those people who are making problems?”
ONE-THIRD OF MIGRANTS IN CARAVAN ARE BEING TREATED FOR HEALTH ISSUES, TIJUANA HEALTH OFFICIAL SAYS
Migrants residing in the camp are also suffering and are exposed to health problems, Tijuana's Health Department said last week.
The spokesman told Fox News that out of 6,000 migrants currently residing in the city, over a third of them (2,267) are being treated for health-related issues.
There are three confirmed cases of tuberculosis, four cases of HIV/AIDS and four separate cases of chickenpox, the spokesman said.
At least 101 migrants have lice and multiple instances of skin infections, the department’s data shows.
There’s also a threat of Hepatitis outbreak due to unsanitary conditions, the spokesman said. The thousands of migrants are being sheltered at the Benito Juarez Sports Complex near the San Ysidro U.S.-Mexico Port of Entry, despite the place being capable of providing for 1,000 people.

Mueller Cartoons

After Cohen plea deal, Giuliani questions ethics, tactics of Mueller’s Russia investigation

President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani took to the airwaves Sunday to question the ethics and tactics of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the presidential election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign.
“This isn’t a search for the truth. It’s a witch hunt,” Giuliani told host John Catsimatidis in an interview with AM 970 in New York. “This is what is wrong with these special prosecutors and independent counsels. They think they are God.”
Giuliani added: “They seem to want to prosecute people at any cost, including the cost of ethical behavior and the rights of people.”

President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, far left, is questioning the ethics and tactics of special counsel Robert Mueller, second from right, who is investigating Russian interference in the presidential election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign, in light of the surprise plea agreement Thursday with Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer. (AP, File)

Giuliani accused Mueller of crossing boundaries for the purpose of “intimidating” Trump’s allies into saying “what he believes (is) his version of the truth,” in light of the surprise plea agreement Thursday with Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer.
Cohen confessed in his guilty plea that he lied to Congress about a Moscow real estate deal he pursued on Trump’s behalf during the heat of the 2016 Republican campaign. He said he lied to be consistent with Trump’s “political messaging.”
Cohen said he discussed the proposal with Trump on multiple occasions and with members of the president’s family, according to documents filed by Mueller.
There is no clear link in the court filings between Cohen’s statements and Mueller’s central question of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. And, nothing said in court on Thursday, or in associated court filings, addressed whether Trump or his aides had directed Cohen to mislead Congress.
Still, the case underscored how Trump’s business entity, the Trump Organization, was negotiating business in Moscow well beyond the point that had been previously acknowledged, and that associates of the president were mining Russian connections during the race.
“They obviously exerted a lot of pressure on him. Mr. Cohen unfortunately has a history of significant lies in the past,” Giuliani added in the interview Sunday.
Giuliani previously had said that Trump’s business organization voluntarily gave Mueller the documents cited in the guilty plea “because there was nothing to hide.”
Trump on Thursday called Cohen a “weak person,” who was lying to get a lighter sentence, and stressed that the real estate deal at issue was never a secret and never executed.
“There would be nothing wrong if I did do it,” Trump said of pursuing the project. “I was running my business while I was campaigning. There was a good chance that I wouldn’t have won, in which case I would have gone back into the business, and why should I lose lots of opportunities?”
He said the primary reason he didn’t pursue it was “I was focused on running for president.”
Cohen is the first person charged by Mueller with lying to Congress, an indication the special counsel is prepared to treat that offense as seriously as lying to federal agents and a warning shot to dozens of others who have appeared before lawmakers.
DEMOCRAT BLAMES TRUMP FOR GM PLANT SHUTDOWNS
Cohen told two congressional committees last year that the talks about the tower project ended in January 2016, a lie he said was an act of loyalty to Trump. In fact, the negotiations continued until June 2016, Cohen acknowledged.
Speaking of Mueller's team, Giuliani said: “They want (Manafort) to give certain forms of evidence that would implicate the president in things that Mr. Manafort says are untrue.”
“And they are pressuring him, and creating a real risk that the man might commit perjury,” he said to Catsimatidis. “This kind of pressure can create the risk of tainted testimony.”

Springsteen says Trump is headed for second term, says democrats don’t speak same language

Bruce Springsteen-- the famous liberal rocker-- believes that President Donald Trump is headed for a second term at the White House.
In a Sunday interview with the British newspaper, The Sunday Times, the 69-year-old singer-songwriter said he hasn’t seen a democratic contender who could effectively win over blue-collar voters by speaking Trump’s language.
“I don’t see anyone out there at the moment … the man who can beat Trump, or the woman who can beat Trump,” Spring told the paper. “You need someone who can speak some of the same language [as Trump] … and the Democrats don’t have an obvious, effective presidential candidate.”
Springsteen expressed his disappointment that there wasn’t a stronger “blue wave” during the November midterms.
“I’d like to have seen a much more full-throated [rejection] of the past two years,” he said. “The country is very divided right now — there are a lot of people drinking the snake oil. So it’s a very difficult time here in the States.”
Springsteen’s comments come less than a week after an interview with Esquire in which he called the president a “deeply damaged at his core” and “dangerous.”
Trump “has no interest in united the country, really, and actually has an interest in doing the opposite and dividing us, which he does on an almost daily basis,” Springsteen told the magazine. “So that’s simply a crime against humanity, as far as I’m concerned.”
When asked by The Times if he’d consider running for president, Springsteen replied. “[N]ot in any way, in any form. I’d be terrible.”

Trump announces Chinese rollback of auto tariffs

President Donald Trump meets with China's President Xi Jinping during their bilateral meeting at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (AP)

President Donald Trump on Sunday announced that China had agreed to rollback its tariffs on American automobiles below 40 percent.
“China has agreed to reduce and remove tariffs on cars coming into China from the U.S. Currently the tariff is 40%,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
The announcement comes a day after Trump sat down with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina for negotiation talks and dinner.
Earlier this year, China’s tariff’s on U.S. imported automobiles stood at 15 percent from 25 percent, Politico reported. It then raised tariff rates to 40 percent amid the escalating trade war with the U.S.
The two leaders reportedly agreed on a 90-day cease-fire, during which Trump will delay the scheduled U.S. tariff increase while the world’s two most-powerful economies negotiate over the administration’s complaints that China systematically steals trade secrets and forces the U.S. to hand over sensitive technology as the price of admission to the vast Chinese market.
In return, China agreed to buy what the White House called a “not yet agreed upon, but very substantial” amount of U.S. products to help narrow America’s gaping trade deficit with China.
The timetable for China’s lowering of tariffs below 40 percent remains unclear.

3 charged, including exec with past ties to Clintons, in alleged scheme to defraud Pentagon

Three Northern Virginia men --including one who reportedly celebrated New Year's Eve in 1999 with the Clintons-- were charged last week for their alleged roles in a scheme to defraud the Pentagon after receiving an $8 billion contract in 2012 to provide food and supplies to troops in Afghanistan, the Department of Justice announced.
Federal prosecutors said the three—all executives connected to Anham FZCO, a defense contractor based in the United Arab Emirates--- knowingly gave false estimates of completion dates for a warehouse intended to provide supplies for troops in Afghanistan in order to win contracts. They allegedly provided "misleading photographs" to show that the project was further along than it was.
"Specifically, the indictment alleges that, in February of 2012, the defendants and others caused Anham employees to transport construction equipment and materials to the proposed site of one of the warehouse complexes to create the false appearance of an active construction site," a Department of Justice statement read.
The company won the contract in 2011 to build warehouses at Bagram Air Field, but as the deadline approached, prosecutors said one warehouse was a concrete slab in the ground, and construction did not yet start on the second one, Stars and Stripes reported.
Abdul Huda Farouki, 75, the former Anham CEO; his brother Mazen Farouki, 73; and Salah Maarouf, 71, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to eight counts each of fraud and violating sanctions against Iran, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. The men were charged in Washington, D.C.
Abdul Huda Farouki and his wife were Washington socialites and donated to the Clinton family charity, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Washington Post reported that the former CEO celebrated New Year's Eve with the Clintons in 1999 and was invited to a state dinner. The report pointed to a Bloomberg article that cited a government audit that found that Anham overbilled the Pentagon $4.4 million.
The Journal first reported on the company allegedly moving equipment in a military contract through Iran, a possible violation of sanctions. The government said that the former CEO fired off an email to a senior defense official that "falsely claimed" senior management at the company were unaware of the transshipments.
The company has denied all charges. Anham reportedly said it helped the U.S. save $1.4 billion by reducing prices. The company echoed the not guilty pleas and said it is confident the defendants would be exonerated.
"ANHAM continues to cooperate with the Justice Department. Nevertheless, the company continues to believe that the purported violations are without legal merit," the company said in a statement on its website, the paper reported.
Their next hearing is Dec. 6.