The Texas House
of Representatives has preliminarily approved a measure that says any
doctor who does not care for an infant born alive after an abortion will
be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars and possibly serve prison
time in cases of gross negligence, a report said.
The “Born Alive” act passed 93 to 1 mostly along party lines, the Dallas Morning News reported and will now advance to the state Senate. Democrat Harold Dutton cast a “no” vote while 50 other Democrats voted “present, not voting.”
Did former first lady Michelle Obama mean to demean divorced fathers?
Obama,
in an interview with late-night host Stephen Colbert, compared America
to a teenager and life under President Trump to living with a divorced
father.
“Sometimes you spend the weekend with a divorced dad. That
feels like fun but then you get sick," Obama told Colbert. "That is
what America is going through. We’re kind of living with divorced dad.”
Fox News’ Sean Hannity said Tuesday that Obama's comments were "demeaning and insulting."
Hannity was upset with the characterization and discussed it with Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera and Tammy Bruce.
Rivera agreed with Hannity that the comments were “demeaning and insulting” but called the comments a “rare misstep.”
“She's
equating, she's reduced us to a sexist stereotype with a bad parent who
gives candy and lets the kids watch too much TV because we have a
guilty conscience about the breakup of the marriage. I think it's a rare
misstep though Sean, in fairness,” Rivera said.
“No passes here on that,” Hannity said.
Bruce called out Obama for using gender stereotypes and not only insulting to divorced fathers but women as well.
“The
problem here is it's not just insulting to men and for every woman and
man out in that audience who didn't quite know why she was insulting
them but it relies also on the other side of the coin which is the
gender stereotype of women that all women are supposed to be either
great mothers or only women can raise children or only women can be good
parents,” Bruce said.
President Trump
offered his thoughts Tuesday night on which two Democratic contenders
he thinks will be left standing in the 2020 Democratic presidential
primary.
Out of the crowded pool of contenders, Trump predicted on Twitter that former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders will be the final two in the battle to be the party’s nominee.
“I
believe it will be Crazy Bernie Sanders vs. Sleepy Joe Biden as the two
finalists to run against maybe the best Economy in the history of our
Country (and MANY other great things)!” he wrote. “I look forward to
facing whoever it may be. May God Rest Their Soul!”
While Sanders, I-Vt., confirmed in February that he would be running again for president, Biden has yet to formally enter the race.
The president’s prediction came after he targeted Sanders in a separate tweet, speaking about the lawmaker’s finances.
“Bernie
Sanders and wife should pay the Pre-Trump Taxes on their almost
$600,000 in income,” Trump wrote. “He is always complaining about these
big TAX CUTS, except when it benefits him. They made a fortune off of
Trump, but so did everyone else - and that’s a good thing, not a bad
thing!”
Shortly ahead of a Fox News town hall Monday night, Sanders’ presidential campaign released
his 2018 returns. According to the figures, Sanders and his wife Jane
paid a 26 percent effective tax rate on $561,293 in income, and made
more than $1 million in both 2016 and 2017. Nearly $400,000 of his
income last year came from book sales.
Sanders later fired back at the president for his remarks, tweeting that Trump seemed “scared of our campaign.”
“He should be,” he continued. Fox News’ Jennifer Earl and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx speaks at a news
conference, in Chicago. Foxx has asked the county's inspector general to
review how her office handled "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett's criminal
case. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx described “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett as
a “washed up celeb who lied to cops” in texts messages released Tuesday
by her office in response to a public-records request by the Chicago
Tribune.
Foxx compared Smollett’s case to her office’s pending
indictments against R&B singer R. Kelly in text messages to Joseph
Magats, her top assistant, on March 8, the paper reported
“Pedophile
with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16
(counts),” she wrote. “… Just because we can charge something doesn’t
mean we should.”
"On a case eligible for deferred prosecution I
think it’s indicative of something we should be looking at generally,”
Foxx continued.
Smollett, who is openly gay, was indicted on 16
counts of disorderly conduct on suspicion of staging a Jan. 29 hate
crime attack on himself. He claimed two men beat and shouted slurs at
him and wrapped a noose around his neck.
Foxx
and Magats continued to communicate via text message about aspects of
the investigation. On March 3, Magats reported that he gave Foxx’s phone
number to Michael Avenatti, who had joined the case, according to text
messages.
“……..
so Michael Avenatti reached out. Apparently he’s coming in to represent
the Nigerian brothers in Smollet. I gave him your office number,”
Magats wrote.
Foxx issued a statement on Feb. 19 recusing herself
from high-profile case. Prosecutors, last month, argued that Foxx never
formally recused herself amid questions over her office’s decision to
drop the charges against Smollett.
That decision created a firestorm of protest from local officials.
The
communication between Foxx and Magats raised questions of whether she
continued to take a role in the case after stepping away. In a statement
Tuesday night, Foxx defended her messages to Magats.
“After the
indictment became public, I reached out to Joe to discuss reviewing
office policies to assure consistencies in our charging and our use of
appropriate charging authority,” Foxx said in a statement obtained by USA Today.
“I was elected to bring criminal justice reform and that includes
intentionality, consistency, and discretion. I will continue to uphold
these guiding principles.”
A representative for Smollett did not immediately return a Fox News request for comment Tuesday night.
The
text messages also appeared to show that prosecutors notified Chicago
police moments before the charges were dropped against Smollett, the
Tribune reported.
“Eddie just called. (He) needed to know how to
answer questions from press,” Foxx texted Magats, referring to Chicago
Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. She said Johnson seemed “satisfied”
with her explanation that Smollett had completed community service and
turned over his $10,000 bond money to the city.
John and Mayor Rahm Emanuel held a news conference that morning blasting the prosecutor’s decision, calling it a “whitewash of justice.”
The city has sued Smollett for the $130,000 in police overtime spent investigating the alleged hoax.
Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez
raised eyebrows during an interview Sunday when she said the
possibility of cutting military or economic aid to Israel is "on the
table" after the election of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ocasio-Cortez was on Yahoo News’ “Skullduggery”
podcast when she said Netanyahu's election comes during a disturbing
trend of "authoritarianism across the world" and called the leader a
"Trump-like figure."
Netanyahu has pledged to “apply sovereignty”
to Jewish settlements in the West Bank. He told Israeli Channel 12 TV
that, “we will go to the next phase to extend Israeli sovereignty."
"I
will impose sovereignty, but I will not distinguish between settlement
blocs and isolated settlements," he continued, The Associated Press
reported. "From my perspective, any point of settlement is Israeli, and
we have responsibility, as the Israeli government. I will not uproot
anyone, and I will not transfer sovereignty to the Palestinians."
The
annexation of large parts of the West Bank could damage hope for an
Israeli-Palestinian deal on the terms of a Palestinian state on lands
Israel captured in 1967. The New York Times reported that American officials have discouraged any Israeli attempt to extend sovereignty in the disputed territory.
Trump
has recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital early in his term. The
Palestinians, who seek Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as their capital,
suspended contact with the U.S. Trump has also recognized Israeli
sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a plateau Israel captured from Syria
in 1967. The move was viewed in Israel as a political gift from Trump
to Netanyahu.
This is not the first time that the freshman representative talked about the tension in the region.
Ocasio-Cortez
in July was forced to explain her comment on PBS’ “Firing Line” when
she referred to the “occupation of Palestine.” Republicans took the
comment to criticize her knowledge on the region. The host of the show,
Margaret Hoover, asked a follow-up question and Ocasio-Cortez admitted,
“I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue,” but said she
believed in a two-state solution.
Former White House Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci says Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is losing steam in New York while appearing on “Hannity” Monday.
Scaramucci
said New Yorkers are getting tiring of Ocasio-Cortez following her role
in Amazon pulling their headquarters from Queens, and that she will be
challenged during the next election.
“They'll find somebody to
challenge her in that district… somebody more moderate I think will take
her lights out. I don't know, she destroyed herself with this whole
Amazon thing,” Scaramucci said.
Speaking with CBS News' Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes" Sunday, Pelosi downplayed Ocasio-Cortez’s role in the Democratic Party.
"You have these wings, AOC and her group on one side," Stahl told Pelosi.
"That's like five people," the speaker responded. AOC, RASHIDA TLAIB LEAP TO DEFENSE OF ILHAN OMAR AFTER HER 'SOME PEOPLE DID SOMETHING' 9/11 REMARKS
Scaramucci said New Yorkers are “tired” of the congresswoman.
“So,
she's colorful she's got some interesting ways to attract attention to
herself but I think I think New York's getting tired of it,” Scaramucci
told host Sean Hannity. Fox News's Nicole Darrah contributed to this report.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld
on Monday formally declared his candidacy for White House, setting him
off on an extreme uphill climb to defeat incumbent President Donald
Trump for the Republican nomination.
“It is time for patriotic men
and women across our great nation to stand and plant a flag. It is time
to return to the principles of Lincoln – equality, dignity, and
opportunity for all. There is no greater cause on earth than to preserve
what truly makes America great. I am ready to lead that fight," said
Weld in a statement as he launched his bid to try and topple Trump, who
remains very popular with Republicans.
Weld, a very vocal Trump
critic, also released a three-minute-long video highlighting his
achievements during his two terms as governor of Massachusetts in the
1990s.
The
video also showcased clips of some of Trump’s most controversial
moments, from the infamous “Access Hollywood” video of Trump using lewd
language to boast of his sexual groping and kissing of women without
their consent, to the president’s comments in the wake of the violence
in Charlottesville, Va., where he said “there were very fine people on
both sides” of the clashes between supporters and protesters of the
city’s Confederate monuments.
Weld, who recently returned to the
Republican Party after serving as the 2016 Libertarian Party nominee,
launched a presidential exploratory committee in February.
At
that announcement, as he headlined the “Politics and Eggs” speaking
series in New Hampshire, he called Trump “compulsive” and “irrational”
and argued that “we have a president whose priorities are skewed toward
promoting of himself rather than toward the good of the country.”
He
also lamented the state of the GOP, arguing “the president has captured
the Republican Party in Washington. Sad. But even sadder is that many
Republicans exhibit all the symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome, identifying
with their captor.”
After his announcement, Weld visited the
first-in-the-nation presidential primary state numerous times. He's set
to return Tuesday for a two-day swing in through New Hampshire.
Former
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, another vocal Trump critic, has been mulling a
GOP primary challenge against Trump. So has Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan,
who heads to New Hampshire next week to headline “Politics and
Eggs,” which is a must-stop for White House hopefuls.
The
president's re-election campaign adviser and daughter-in-law, Lara
Trump, said the president’s 2020 team hasn’t been worried at all about a
Republican primary challenge.
“I don’t know why someone would be dumb enough to challenge Donald Trump,” she told Fox News recently when asked about Weld.
“I
don’t know why anybody would waste their time and money on the
Republican end trying to challenge the president. We’re not worried
about that at all,” added Trump, who was interviewed before headlining
the New Hampshire GOP’s annual fundraising gala.
Bernie Sanders
took the stage at a fiery Fox News town hall in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
on Monday, and sparks flew almost immediately, as Sanders defiantly
refused to explain why he would not voluntarily pay the massive new
52-percent "wealth tax" that he advocated imposing on the nation's
richest individuals.
"We'll get through this together," Sanders said at one point, as tensions flared.
Sanders later admitted outright that "you're going to pay more in taxes" if he became president. Just minutes before the town hall began, Sanders released ten years of his tax returns, which he acknowledged showed that he had been "fortunate" even as he pushed for a more progressive tax system.
According
to the returns, Sanders and his wife paid a 26 percent effective tax
rate on $561,293 in income, and made more than $1 million in both 2016
and 2017. Sanders donated only $10,600 to charity in 2016 and $36,300 in
2017, the records showed, followed by nearly $19,000 in 2018.
But
pressed by anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum as to why he was
holding onto his wealth rather than refusing deductions or writing a
check to the Treasury Department, Sanders began laughing dismissively
and, in an apparent non sequitur, asked why MacCallum didn't donate her
salary. (“I didn’t suggest a wealth tax," MacCallum responded.)
"Pfft, come on. I paid the taxes that I owe," Sanders shot back. "And by the way, why don't you get Donald Trump up here and ask him how much he pays in taxes? President
Trump watches your network a little bit, right? Hey President Trump, my
wife and I just released 10 years. Please do the same."
Asked
whether Sanders' success -- and subsequent decision to hold onto his
cash -- wasn't an implicit endorsement of the capitalist system he has
repeatedly called dysfunctonal, Sanders rejected the notion out of hand.
"When you wrote the book and made the money, isn’t that the definition of capitalism and the American dream?” Baier asked, referring to Sanders' bestselling 2016 memoir "Our Revolution."
"No," Sanders replied flatly, after a pregnant pause.
"What we want is a country in which everyone has an opportunity. ... A
lot of people don't have a college degree. A lot of people are not
United States senators."
Sanders doubled down on his previous defenses of his wealth, which even some progressives have called hypocritical.
"This
year, we had $560,000 in income," Sanders said. "In my and my wife's
case, I wrote a pretty good book. It was a bestseller, sold all over the
world, and we made money. If anyone thinks I should apologize for
writing a bestselling book, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna do it."
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders addressing a rally in North Charleston, S.C., in March. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard, File)
On whether he supported abortions that occur up to the moment of birth, Sanders retorted, "I think that happens very, very rarely,
and I think this is being made into a political issue. At the end of
the day, I think the decision over abortion belongs to a woman and her
physcian, and not the government."
Sanders also said felons, including rapists and murderers, should be able to vote from prison. But he insisted he was not simply courting more potential Democrat voters.
The Tax Day town hall took place as Sanders emerged as the fundraising front-runner among
Democrats, and sought to further distinguish himself from a crowded
field of liberal candidates who have largely embraced his progressive
proposals, from a sweeping 'Medicare for All' overhaul to a higher
minimum wage and free public college education.
"I think Trump is a dangerous president, but if all we do is focus on him, we lose," Sanders said at the town hall.
Separately,
Sanders acknowledged that his proposed Medicare for All health care
overhaul -- which has also been embraced by other 2020 Democrat
hopefuls, including Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren -- would mean
that many Americans would "pay more in taxes."
Some estimates put the total costs for the plan over 10 years at more than $32 trillion, and say it would necessitate historic tax hikes.
Sanders
began by deflecting when asked by Baier whether he was concerned about
the rising national debt, saying it was "ironic" that Republicans
weren't instead attacking the president.
"You're talking to the wrong guy," Sanders said. "We pay for what we're proposing, unlike the President of the United States."
Sanders more substantively discussed a plan to impose a "speculaton tax" on Wall Street.
"I
am concerned about the debt. That's a legitimate concern," Sanders
said. "But we pay for what we are proposing. In terms of Medicare for
All, we are paying for that by eliminating as I said before, deductibles
and premiums. We are going to save the average American family money."
When Baier polled the audience at the town hall -- which was clearly supportive of Sanders throughout -- most indicated they would support Sanders' health care plan, despite currently having private insurance they would lose.
Sanders also warned that climate change poses an existential threat, citing a recent United Nations report claiming
that only 12 years remain to make significant changes in global carbon
emissions to avert a climate catastrophe. The United Nations made the
same prediction in 1989, falsely warning that the world then faced a 10-year deadline that has come and gone.
On
immigration, Sanders said we "don't need to demonize immigrants" and
proposed "building proper facilities right on the border" and enacting
"comprehensive immigration reform." But he said it was "not a real
question" when MacCallum asked about the merits of Trump's proposal to send illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities.
The
77-year-old self-proclaimed 'democratic socialist' — the
longest-serving Independent member of Congress in history — has also
faced criticisms that he mght be too old to serve as president.
At
the town hall, Sanders acknowledged it was a "fair question," but said
to applause there is "too much focus on individuals and not enough focus
on the American people and what their needs are."
Over the weekend, Sanders sparred with progressive activist groups
that pointed out that he has since largely dropped his criticisms of
"millionaires and billionaires," opting instead to single out
"billionaires" only.
Earlier Monday afternoon, Sanders previewed
some of his messaging by asserting that President Trump's "tax policies"
will "raise taxes on millions of people."
In an article entitled "Face it: You (Probably) Got a Tax Cut,"
the New York Times credited liberal messaging with confusing large
swaths of the electorate into thinking that their taxes went up, when in
fact most saw significant tax savings under Trump's 2017 tax law.
DNC Chair Tom Perez in April 2017. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images, File)
The town hall marked the Vermont senator's first
appearance on Fox News Channel since he agreed to be a guest on Baier's
show in December 2018. He also participated in a Fox News Channel town
hall back in 2016 alongside his then-competitor Hillary Clinton.
Sanders ended the town hall by thanking Fox News for providing him the opportunity.
"Not
everybody thought I should come on this show," Sanders said at one
point. "Your network does not have a great deal of respect in my world,
but I thought it was important to be here.
Democratic
National Committee (DNC) chair Tom Perez has excluded Fox News from
hosting a Democrat primary debate. Some congressional Democrats have
called that decision inappropriate and unhelpful, and DNC leadership
later said it had no objection to Sanders appearing at a Fox News town
hall.
Asked whether he felt that the DNC would seek to tip the
scales against Sanders -- as leaked emails showed it did in 2016 --
Sanders was optimistic.
"I think we have come a long way since
then. We speak to the DNC every week," Sanders told Baier and
MacCallum. "And I think the process will be fair."
Since
announcing his presidential bid in February, Sanders has hauled in a
whopping $18.2 million in the first 41 days of his campaign. But,
although Sanders had a fundraising edge over his rivals, Democrats
generally haven't raised as much cash as they'd hoped by this point.
Many donors have been sitting on the sidelines to see how the contest
unfolds, signaling a drawn-out primary battle ahead.
The campaign
among Democrats has come into greater focus as declared White House
hopefuls reported their first-quarter fundraising totals. Early glimpses
provided by nine of the declared candidates showed that Democrats were
raising less money than they had in previous cycles and were coming up
short against the campaign bank account Trump has been building.
Democrats
collectively raised about $68 million since January, according to the
candidates who have already released their fundraising totals. That's
less than the $81 million Democrats raised during the same period in
2007, the last time the party had an open primary, according to data
from the Federal Election Commission. And, it paled in comparison with
the $30 million Trump raised during the first quarter.
"There is
no question that the numbers are not at the level that they were with
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in 2008 by a long shot," said Tom
Nides, a Clinton adviser and longtime fundraiser. "Am I worried? No, I'm
not worried. But I'm a little bit concerned." Fox News' Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders addressing a rally in North Charleston, S.C., in March. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard, File)
DNC Chair Tom Perez in April 2017. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images, File)
CNN’s Scott Jennings once again took liberals to the cleaners on the Abrego Garcia case, the ‘Maryland man...
