If U.S. Sen. Cory Booker wins the White House in 2020, he’d make history as the first vegan elected U.S. president. The
New Jersey Democrat recently told VegNews that he started experimenting
with a vegetarian diet around 1992 and then eliminated dairy foods as well, making his diet completely animal-free. “I
remember my last non-vegan meal was Election Day, November 2014,”
Booker, a former mayor of Newark, N.J., told the news outlet. CORY BOOKER COMPARES GREEN NEW DEAL TO GOING TO THE MOON, DEFEATING NAZIS These
days, Booker says, we may all be heading toward a vegan diet because,
in his view, meat consumption is not sustainable in the future. “You see the planet earth moving towards what is the Standard American Diet,” he told VegNews. “We’ve seen this massive increase in consumption of meat produced by the industrial animal agriculture industry. “The
tragic reality is this planet simply can’t sustain billions of people
consuming industrially produced animal agriculture because of
environmental impact. It’s just not possible, as China, as Africa move
toward consuming meat the same way America does because we just don’t
have enough land.”
"The tragic reality is this planet
simply can’t sustain billions of people consuming industrially produced
animal agriculture because of environmental impact. It’s just not
possible." — U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.
VEGAN ACTIVISTS STORM STEAKHOUSE, ARE MOCKED BY PATRONS MOOING AT THEM Booker says there are a number of goals he hopes to accomplish through legislation that would affect what people eat. “Legislatively,
I want to continue to be a part of a movement of folk who are fighting
against corporate interests that are undermining the public good and the
public welfare,” he says. “So, I’m going to continue supporting bills
that are about public health, whether it is pumping in all these
antibiotics into animals that are literally threatening the safety of
Americans. I believe that Americans do care about the cruelty to
animals, and that’s why you see public movement to stop pig crating,
which is harmful and violates our collective values as a country.” But don’t count U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., among those who share Booker’s meat-free vision. After Booker’s comments to VegNews were reported, the congresswoman – whose state is home to some 60 meat plants, according to the Wyoming Department of Agriculture – fired off a Twitter message that made it clear where she stands on the issue. “Hey @CoryBooker,” Cheney wrote. “I support PETA – People Eating Tasty Animals.”
Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton unloaded on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal and said the media were “complicit” in burying the most radical parts of the deal. Cotton, a staunch Republican, appeared on The Hugh Hewitt Show on Tuesday and discussed the widely ridiculed Green New Deal that aims to implement sweeping changes across the nation. UNION LEADERS WARN GREEN NEW DEAL MAY LEAD TO POVERTY: 'MEMBERS ARE WORRIED ABOUT PUTTING FOOD ON THE TABLE' But
what particularly caught Cotton’s eye was how the media became
complicit in hiding the now-infamous FAQ document circulated by the
Ocasio-Cortez office, which included lines such as promising a job to
“all people of the United States” – including those “unwilling to work”
– and making air travel industry obsolete. “I understand the
Democrats that proposed this immediately tried to retract that white
paper that went along with their resolution,” Cotton added. “And too
many people in the media have been complicit in the Stalin-like or 1984
technique of disappearing it, sending it down the memory hole.”
“And
too many people in the media have been complicit in the Stalin-like or
1984 technique of disappearing it, sending it down the memory hole.” — Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton
Hewitt asked whether the Democrats who immediately jumped to endorse the radical package have actually read what’s inside it. “Sure.
I mean, Hugh, it’s pretty remarkable that when these Democrats put out
the Green New Deal last week that you had many Democrats running for
president leap onto a proposal that was going to confiscate every
privately owned vehicle in America within a decade and ban air travel so
we could all drive or ride around on high-speed light rail, supposedly
powered by unicorn tears, yes,” Cotton said. Multiple
Democratic 2020 candidates such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker,
Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand have endorsed the deal.
Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton unloaded on Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal and said the media were “complicit” in
burying the most radical parts of the deal. (Associated Press)
Cotton finished the
interview the segment saying the Green New Deal, in essence, is what
Democrats believe in and want for the U.S. “But
this is where their heart lies,” he said. “They believe that Americans
driving around in trucks on farms, or commuting from the suburbs where
they can have a decent home into the city to work are a fundamental
threat to the world, and they have to have the power and the control of
those Americans’ lives to implement their radical vision for humanity.”
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.
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.
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.
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."
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, 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.”
Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton unloaded on Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal and said the media were “complicit” in
burying the most radical parts of the deal.
