Chelsea Clinton defends Omar, says Trump never said sorry for ‘white nationalism’ embrace

Birds of a feather flock together :-)

Chelsea Clinton on Tuesday called out Vice President Mike Pence for saying that Rep. Ilhan Omar’s apology for earlier Twitter posts called anti-Semitic was "inadequate," and blasted President Trump for peddling hate.
Clinton, who was critical of Omar's tweets, posting that "we should expect all elected officials, regardless of party, and all public figures to not traffic in anti-Semitism," but said on Tuesday that Trump is a "far more powerful person" and has never apologized "for his embrace of white nationalism & anti-Semitic & Islamophobic hate."
Omar said she had no intention of offending anyone, including Jewish Americans, when she insinuated that lobbyists were paying lawmakers to support Israel. Trump called her apology "lame" and said she should resign from Congress or at least not be allowed to serve on committees.
Pence tweeted Tuesday that Omar's comments were a disgrace. He said "those who engage in anti-Semitic tropes should not just be denounced, they should face consequences for their words."
The freshman Democratic posted tweets on Sunday that suggested that members of Congress support Israel because they are paid to do so. In a pair of tweets, Omar criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.
"It's all about the Benjamins baby," she wrote, invoking slang about $100 bills. Asked on Twitter who she thought was paying members of Congress to support Israel, Omar responded, “AIPAC!”
Left-wing historian and Politico Magazine contributing editor Joshua Zeitz tweeted: "I'm one of those American Jews who opposes the occupation [of the West Bank and Gaza Strip], laments Israel's anti-democratic drift, and doesn't regard the country as especially central to my Jewish identity. And I knew exactly what the congresswoman meant. She might as well call us hook-nosed."
Omar supports a movement known as BDS, for “boycott, divestment and sanctions” aimed at Israel. And it’s not the first time she’s fought accusations of anti-Semitism. She insists her rejection of the Israeli government refers to its stance toward Palestinians and is not directed at Jewish people.
Omar has expressed regret for tweeting in 2012: “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” She said the statement came in the context of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain and the Associated Press contributed to this story.

Ted Cruz wants ‘El Chapo’ and drug lords to pay for border wall

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz thinks convicted Mexican drug cartel Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán should finance President Donald Trump’s long-promised border wall.
“America’s justice system prevailed today in convicting Joaquín Guzmán Loera, aka El Chapo, on all 10 counts,” Cruz tweeted Tuesday shortly before the Sinaloa cartel boss was convicted on drug trafficking, weapons violations and money laundering charges in a  federal courtroom in Brooklyn, N.Y. “U.S. prosecutors are seeking $14 billion in drug profits & other assets from El Chapo which should go towards funding our wall to #SecureTheBorder.”
Trump’s has said the construction of a wall would cost around $5.7 billion.
The Texas Republican then urged his colleagues to pass the Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order Act – or El Chapo Act – which would divert drug proceeds from cartel bosses to fund border security.
Cruz first introduced the bill in April 2017 and reintroduced it in January. The reintroduction puts pressure on lawmakers to put in place a border security spending bill.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Monday tentatively agreed to provide $1.4 billion for border barriers, including 55 miles of new fencing along the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Drug proceeds could go a long way in securing the southern border, Cruz said.
“Fourteen billion dollars will go a long way to secure our southern border, and hinder the illegal flow of drugs, weapons, and individuals,” Cruz said of his bill in a January news release. “By leveraging any criminally forfeited assets of El Chapo and other murderous drug lords, we can offset the cost of securing our border and make meaningful progress toward delivering on the promises made to the American people.”
Supporters of the wall argue it will deter criminals from entering the U.S. illegally while opponents say the wall would have a minimal impact on the flow of people and drugs into the country.

Dim Democrat Cartoons

Trump holds rally in Texas amid border wall debate

President Trump held a campaign-style rally Monday night in El Paso, Texas — just as possible 2020 contender and former U.S. Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke led a border wall protest roughly a half-mile away.
Trump's event, held at the El Paso County Coliseum for his first "Make America Great Again Rally" of the year, didn't identify the dueling rally nearby, in the town that sits along the U.S.-Mexico border, but the president did mention O'Rourke.
The "young man" with a "great name," "challenged us," the president said in reference to O'Rourke.
"We have, let's say, 35,000 people tonight, and [O'Rourke] has 200 people, 300 people — not too good," Trump told the crowd. It was not immediately clear how many people were at Trump and O'Rourke's events.
Trump added, "In fact, what I would do is, I would say that may be the end of his presidential bid, but he did challenge it."
The president announced his rally last week during his second State of the Union address, in which he alleged El Paso is now one of the nation's safest cities because of a "powerful barrier" that was put in place — a claim that others disputed.
He reiterated that point on Monday night. Speaking to the crowd, in front of a large red banner that read, "finish the wall," Trump said El Paso is one of the "safest cities" in America "thanks for a powerful border wall."
LAWMAKERS REACH 'AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE' IN BORDER SECURITY TALKS, WITH $1.3B FOR BARRIER
He claimed that El Paso, compared to Juarez, Mexico, just across the southern border, had far less murders than the nearby Mexican city, adding: "Walls work."
Moments before the president took the stage Monday, lawmakers reached "an agreement in principle" to fund the government and avoid another partial government shutdown. The deal includes around $1.3 billion for a barrier along the southern border.
Trump mentioned on stage that he didn't know details, as news of the deal broke just before his rally, but acknowledged that "progress [was] being made" for border security.
The White House last month agreed to a temporary spending bill to end a 35-day partial shutdown, although Trump said at the time that the move was not a "concession" and that he would not relent on his demands for a wall.
The talks had cratered over the weekend because of Democratic demands to limit immigrant detentions by federal authorities, but lawmakers apparently broke through that impasse Monday evening.
Trump — who touched on several topics throughout his rally — was interrupted several times throughout the event, seemingly by protesters. His supporters responded by shouting chants of "USA" and "finish the wall" over the disturbances.
The president brought up embattled Gov. Ralph Northam, D-Va., after speaking on Democrats' position on abortion. He said he liked Northam -- who is facing calls to resign after his medical school yearbook page featured one person in blackface and another in a KKK robe -- because he steers negative news coverage away from his administration.
“I like him,” Trump said. “Keeps us out of the papers. I’d like to find a few more guys like this one.”
Trump also mentioned Northam's first news conference regarding the ordeal — "He almost moonwalked!" — in which the governor recalled how he darkened his skin when he dressed as Michael Jackson once for Halloween.

Trump says Omar 'should be ashamed of' Israel comments, apology doesn't cut it

 Why in the hell did the Democrats vote this piece of trash into our government??

President Donald Trump on Monday said freshman Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar "should be ashamed of herself" over tweets suggesting that a powerful pro-Israel interest group paid members of Congress to support Israel.
"I think she should be ashamed of herself," Trump told reporters on Air Force One while flying to a campaign rally in El Paso, Texas, according to The Hill. "I think it was a terrible statement, and I don't think her apology was adequate."
DEM REP. OMAR APOLOGIZES FOR ISRAEL COMMENTS, CALLS OUT 'PROBLEMATIC' ROLE OF AIPAC, 'OTHER LOBBYISTS'
The Minnesota congresswoman "unequivocally" apologized earlier Monday after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats rebuked her.
Omar said she had no intention of offending anyone and thanked her colleagues for educating her on anti-Semitic tropes.
When asked what she should have said, Trump replied, "She knows what to say."

FBI scrambled to respond to Hillary Clinton lawyer amid Weiner laptop review, newly released emails show

Newly released internal FBI emails showed the agency's highest-ranking officials scrambling to answer to Hillary Clinton's lawyer in the days prior the 2016 presidential election, on the same day then-FBI Director James Comey sent a bombshell letter to Congress announcing a new review of hundreds of thousands of potentially classified emails found on former Rep. Anthony Weiner's laptop.
The trove of documents turned over by the FBI, in response to a lawsuit by the transparency group Judicial Watch, also included discussions by former FBI lawyer Lisa Page concerning a potential quid-pro-quo between the State Department and the FBI -- in which the FBI would agree to downgrade the classification level of a Clinton email in exchange for more legal attache positions that would benefit the agency abroad. There was no indication such a quid-pro-quo ever took place.
And, in the face of mounting criticism aimed at the FBI, the documents revealed that Comey quoted the 19th century poet Ralph Waldo Emerson by assuring his subordinates, "To be great is to be misunderstood."
The FBI did not respond to Fox News' request for comment on the released emails.
On Oct. 28, 2016, Comey upended the presidential campaign by informing Congress that the FBI would quickly review the Weiner laptop. The Justice Department's internal watchdog later faulted the FBI for failing to review the Weiner laptop through much of the fall of 2016, and suggested it was possible that now-fired FBI Agent Peter Strzok may have slow-walked the laptop analysis until other federal prosecutors pressured the FBI to review its contents.
On the afternoon of Oct. 28, Clinton lawyer David Kendall demanded answers from the FBI -- and the agency jumped into action, the emails showed.
Many of the emails found on the computer were between Clinton and her senior adviser Huma Abedin, Weiner's now-estranged wife. Despite claims by top FBI officials, including Strzok, several of those emails were determined to contain classified information.
"I received the email below from David Kendall and I called him back," then-FBI General Counsel James Baker wrote to the agency's top brass, including Comey, Page and Strzok, in an email. "Before doing so I alerted DOJ via email that I would do that."
Page and Strzok eventually were revealed to be having an extramarital affair, and Strzok was terminated after a slew of text messages surfaced in which he and Page derided Trump and his supporters using their government-issued phones. Republicans, citing some of those text messages, have accused Strzok and Page of orchestrating a coordinated leak strategy aimed at harming the president.
Although Kendall's email was redacted, Baker continued: "He said that our letter was 'tantalizingly ambiguous' and made statements that were 'inchoate and highly ominous' such that what we had done was worse than transparency because it allows people to make whatever they want out to make out of the letter to the prejudice of Secretary Clinton. ... I told him that I could not respond to his requests at this time but that I would discuss it with others and get back to him.

"To be great is to be misunderstood."
— Fired FBI Director James Comey, quoting Emerson

"I suggest that we have some kind of follow up meeting or phone call with this group either this evening or over the weekend to address this and probably other issues/questions that come up in the next 24 hours," Baker concluded. "Sound reasonable?"
In a partially redacted response, Strzok agreed to spearhead a conference call among the FBI's top officials the next day.

Comey sent a letter to Congress in November 2016 stating agents had concluded their review of "all of the communications" to or from Clinton while she was secretary of state that appeared on the laptop, and that the review did not change his assessment that Clinton should not be prosecuted. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

On Nov. 6 -- just two days before Election Day -- Comey sent another letter to Congress stating that agents had concluded their review of "all of the communications" to or from Clinton while she was secretary of state that appeared on the laptop, and that the review did not change his assessment that Clinton should not be prosecuted.
In an email also sent Nov. 6 and unearthed by Judicial Watch, Strzok wrote to the FBI's leadership: "[Redacted], Jon and I completed our review of all of the potential HRC work emails on the [Anthony Weiner] laptop. We found no previously unknown, potentially classified emails on the media.”
Strzok added that a team was coming in to "triple-check" his methodology and conclusions.
However, at least 18 classified emails sent from Abedin's account were found by the FBI on the Weiner laptop. And, despite Strzok's apparent claim, FBI officials later conceded they had not manually screened all of the nearly 700,000 emails on the laptop, but instead used computer technology to prioritize which emails to screen as Election Day rapidly approached.
“It is big news that, just days before the presidential election, Hillary Clinton’s personal lawyer pressured the top lawyer for the FBI on the infamous Weiner laptop emails,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “These documents further underscore that the fix was in for Hillary Clinton. When will the Justice Department and FBI finally do an honest investigation of the Clinton email scandal?”

An email from Lisa Page discussed an apparent attempt by the State Department to pressure the FBI to downgrade the classification level of a Clinton email. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Separately, another email from Page, apparently sent in response to a Judicial Watch lawsuit, discussed an apparent attempt by the State Department to pressure the FBI to downgrade the classification level of a Clinton email.
"Jason Herring will be providing you with three 302s [witness reports] of current and former FBI employees who were interviewed during the course of the Clinton investigation," Page wrote. "These 302s are scheduled to be released to Congress in an unredacted form at the end of the week, and produced (with redactions) pursuant to FOIA at the beginning of next week.
Page continued: "As you will see, they describe a discussion about potential quid pro quo arrangement between then-DAD in IOD [deputy assistant director in International Operations Division] and an Undersecretary at the State Department whereby IOD would get more LEGAT [legal attaché] positions if the FBI could change the basis of the FOIA withhold re a Clinton email from classified to something else."
Through it all, the trove of documents suggested that top to bottom, FBI brass were convinced they were acting appropriately.
In response to a press release from Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley that criticized the FBI for failing to provide unclassified information on its Clinton probe in a timely and thorough matter to Congress, Comey quoted Emerson's 1841 essay "Self Reliance."
"Outstanding. ... I should have added that I'm proud of the way we have handled this release [of unclassified information]," Comey wrote to his subordinates, including Strzok, on Sept. 2, 2016. "Thanks for the work on it. Just another reminder that Emerson was right when he said, 'To be great is to be misunderstood.' Have a great and quiet weekend."
Page forwarded the email along to her colleagues, including Strzok, and added a smiley face.
Trump fired Comey in 2017, leading to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation after Comey leaked a series of memos he recorded while speaking with Trump privately.
Comey acknowledged in closed-door testimony in December that as of July 2016, investigators "didn't know whether we had anything" implicating Trump in improper Russia collusion, and that "in fact, when I was fired as director [in May 2017], I still didn't know whether there was anything to it."

Sean Hannity slams ‘garbage compromise’ on preliminary agreement on border security

Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, on Monday blasted the “garbage compromise” after congressional negotiators said they reached an “agreement in principle” on border security funding that includes more than $1.3 billion for physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border.
During his Monday night broadcast, Hannity broke into President Trump’s speech in El Paso, Texas, to criticize the reported deal to avoid a second government shutdown.
“By the way, on this new so-called compromise,” Hannity said. “I’m getting details. $1.3 billion? That’s not even a wall, a barrier… We will get back into this tomorrow. Any Republican that supports this garbage compromise, you will have to explain—look at this crowd, look at the country.”
The $1.3 billion would be used for a physical barrier, which would span for about 55 miles of new wall, sources said. The miles would be located in the Rio Grande Valley. The source said it would be up to border patrol to decide what to use as a barrier, which could include steel slats.
Lawmakers have until 11:59 p.m. Friday to get the agreement through both houses of Congress and signed by Trump before several Cabinet-level departments shut down and hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed in what would be the second partial government shutdown this year.
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said during news show appearances Sunday that another shutdown remained on the table, although he also said Trump probably would be willing to compromise over how much of the $5.7 billion for wall construction he’s demanded would be allocated. “Someplace in the middle,” Mulvaney said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Chelsea Clinton Cartoons

Warren says Trump 'may not even be a free person' in 2020

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and President Donald Trump (Photo: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall and AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Senator Elizabeth Warren targeted President Donald Trump during a campaign speech in Iowa on Sunday when she considered a run against the sitting president and suggested that he "may not even be a free person" in 2020.
Warren, who officially announced her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on Saturday, made the remark at the Veterans Memorial Building in Cedar Rapids in front of a crowd of several hundred. The Massachusetts senator argued that Democrats should resist the urge to respond to "a racist tweet, a hateful tweet, something really dark and ugly" when choosing whether or not to spar with Trump.
“By the time we get to 2020, Donald Trump may not even be president,” she continued. “In fact, he may not even be a free person.”

When asked to clarify her statements, Warren pointed to the multiple open investigations into the president, which includes the Russia probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and two additional investigations led by federal prosecutors in New York and Democrats who won back the majority in the House of Representatives this past November.
Warren's comments come after President Trump took a jab at her on Twitter shortly after she announced her presidential campaign.
"Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President," he tweeted. "Will she run as our first Native American presidential candidate, or has she decided that after 32 years, this is not playing so well anymore? See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!"

California governor to reduce National Guard presence at border

Show Boat

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at the California Legislative Black Caucus Martin Luther King Jr., Breakfast, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is slated to pull several hundred National Guard troops from the state’s border with Mexico on Monday in an apparent rebuff to President Donald Trump’s characterization of the region being under siege by Central American refugees and migrants, according to reports.
The move comes despite his predecessor’s agreement – along with other past and current border state governors – to send troops to the border at the Trump administration’s request. Former California Gov. Jerry Brown originally approved the mission through the end of March, but qualified that the state’s troops “will not be enforcing federal immigration laws.”
Newsom’s plan will require the National Guard to immediately begin withdrawing troops but still give it until the end of March to do so. According to excerpts from his Tuesday State of the State address, he will call the “border emergency” a “manufactured crisis,” and will say that “California will not be part of this political theater.”
Newsom's order will require around 110 National Guard troops to help the state prepare for its next wildfire season while another 100 members will be deployed to focus specifically on combating transnational crime, according to excerpts from his speech. A spokesman for Newsom said his office will separately request federal funds for the expansion of the state's counterdrug task force program, The Los Angeles Times reported.
California has repeatedly styled itself as the flagship resistance state to the Trump administration’s policies. Newsom, who is just a month into his governorship, has held up the state as an antidote to what he’s characterized as a corrupt Washington, a message he will likely try to convey in his State of the State speech on Tuesday.