Todd
Starnes speaks with Marc Lotter, director of strategic communications
for the Trump 2020 campaign, about how the Democrats fared during their
most recent televised town halls.
The
Democratic Party's 2020 presidential field is a “blob of socialists,”
and they're making the party too “extreme,” the director of strategic
communications for President Trump's re-election campaign said Tuesday. Marc Lotter made the comments during an appearance on “The Todd Starnes Show.” “What
we're talking about right now is just a giant blob of socialists,"
Lotter told host Todd Starnes, "and they're trying to compete with each
other to see who can be the most radical, the most out of step, offer
the most free things that no one knows how to pay for. “And
whichever one of those 21, or 30 -- whatever it's going to end up being
-- candidates that emerges from their primary is going to be broke,
broken, battered," Lotter continued, "and inherit the keys to a Democrat
National Committee that is broke, still taking on millions of dollars
and that has no appreciable national program in place and they're going
to be competing against a president who's getting results.” Former Vice President Joe Biden
is expected to enter the Democratic field this week, making him the
20th candidate seeking the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential
nomination. Lotter touted the U.S. economy's performance under President Trump and also mocked Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for his appearance on a CNN Town Hall event Monday, where Sanders said felons should be permitted to vote, including the Boston Marathon bomber. “The
Democrat field last night out there talking about the Boston Marathon
bomber voting from prison -- a terrorist who killed Americans, allowing
that person to vote --- it’s a perfect example of how radical and
extreme the Democrat socialist party has become,” Lotter said.
Andy Byford arrives at the Bowling Green Station to begin his
first day as MTA New York City Transit President on Tue., January 16,
2018. Byford was only the 21st-highest earner in the MTA last year.
(Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit)
Riders get slapped with fare hikes — while these guys ride the gravy train. The Metropolitan Transportation
Authority’s top earner last year raked in a budget-busting $344,147 in
overtime — on top of his $117,499 salary, according to data released
Tuesday by the Empire Center fiscal-watchdog group. While delays
on the Long Island Rail Road hit a 19-year high in 2018, chief
measurement operator Thomas Caputo brought home a fat $461,646 paycheck —
more than anyone else at the agency, and $164,027 more than he earned
the year before. And yet the MTA couldn’t even explain how many hours Caputo worked last year, or what his overtime rate was. “Looking
into Caputo,” spokesman Shams Tarek told The Post Tuesday afternoon —
then failed to respond to multiple follow-up queries. After five
hours, all he could explain is what a chief measurement operator does —
claiming Caputo is “one of only a few people” who can operate an
“advanced track-geometry car,” which examines the rails for defects. Tarek said Caputo retired this month after 30 years on the job — and his hefty final pay year could give a boost to his pension. The
news comes right after the LIRR on Sunday hit riders with fare hikes of
up to $15 on monthly tickets and $5.75 on weeklies. Customers say the
humongous worker paychecks are a slap in the face. “This is
outrageous,” said Dini Morbillo, 56, a physician who spends $275 a month
on her LIRR pass and gasped when she heard what Caputo took home. “He is making more than me — who the hell is Thomas Caputo? Why isn’t there transparency?” Overtime
payments surged to more than $1.3 billion across the entire MTA last
year, up from $1.2 billion the year before, according to Empire Center
data. Of that, the LIRR shelled out $224.6 million for overtime, up nearly $50 million from the previous year’s $175.4 million. And yet that same year, the commuter rail line’s on-time performance dropped to its worst levels in nearly two decades. Nine of the top 10 overtime earners in the MTA in 2018 worked for the LIRR. They include surfacing foreman Dallas Bazemore III, who made $279,289 in overtime. Track worker Marco Pazmino earned a regular salary of just under $55,000, but fattened his pay with another $256,177 in OT. Meanwhile,
New York City Transit chief Andy Byford — the man charged with fixing
the Big Apple’s dilapidated subway system — was only the 21st highest
earner in the MTA last year, taking home $313,468. Even LIRR workers were outraged at what some of their colleagues are raking in. “This
guy is making almost $500,000?! Wow. I don’t even knowwh at a chief
measurement operator is; all I know is I want in that,” said one
customer-service worker, who wouldn’t give his name. “I’m in the wrong
department.” Tarek
justified the megasized paychecks by saying the agency has been working
on major upgrades recently, and claiming it is often cheaper to pay an
existing employee overtime than to hire another person for the same
work. Caputo couldn’t be reached for comment.
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris,
D-Calif., is now backtracking after initially saying “we should have
that conversation” about allowing criminals currently in prison -- such
as the Boston Marathon bomber -- to vote. Appearing at a televised town hall event following 2020 Democratic frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. -- who made headlines by advocating for voting rights for felons serving time. -- Harris was also asked to weigh in. “I think we should have that conversation,” Harris told CNN anchor Don Lemon. Well, that conversation appears to have ended. Sanders
had said that those convicted of sexual assault and of crimes like
terrorism -- like Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev -- should be
able to vote in order for the U.S. to sustain a “vibrant democracy” and
to increase voter turnout. But on Tuesday, while speaking to a
press gaggle in New Hampshire, Harris expanded on her remarks at the CNN
town hall and gave what her national press secretary Ian Sams called a
“thoughtful answer.” Harris called the issue of allowing felons to
vote in prison “complex” and said she was going to “talk to experts”
about the matter. She added that there was “a lot of work to do” regarding 6 million people who are currently in prison without voting rights. “Do
I think that people who commit murder, people who are terrorists should
be deprived of their rights? Yeah, I do. I’m a prosecutor,” Harris
said. “There has to be serious consequences for the most extreme types
of crimes.” Also during Monday night’s town hall, Harris joined
her colleague, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in calling for
President Trump’s impeachment. She also vowed to take executive action
on gun control if Congress doesn’t act in her first 100 days in office
as president.
Conservative talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh said Monday that former Vice President Joseph Biden is the Democrats' best chance to defeat President Trump in 2020 but has no chance to win the primary. "Here's
the thing: Joe Biden is probably the best chance they've got, and he
doesn't have a chance. They're probably -- Joe Biden? And crazy Bernie
[Sanders]? And mayor Pete [Buttigieg]? Three white guys, two of them are
brontosauruses from 'Jurassic Park,' and that isn't going to sit well
with the rest of this party, which has gone so far left," Limbaugh said
on "The Story with Martha MacCallum." Limbaugh also said Biden may not be fully committed to running in 2020. "I
don't think, Biden is putting off his announcement, I don't know how
badly he really wants this, and you have to really want this if you are
going to have any chance of winning it," Limbaugh said. Fox
News learned Tuesday that Biden's long-awaited 2020 presidential bid
announcement has been pushed back from Wednesday to Thursday, with plans for the former vice president to follow up with an appearance in Pittsburgh next week. The
radio host also went after 2020 candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren,
D-Mass., criticizing her proposals including forgiving student loans. "Pocahontas
is not going to be the nominee. These Democrats are all in the process
of trying to out-leftist or out-liberal each other, and they're in a
contest of who can give away the most," Limbaugh said. He
continued, "None of this is real, none of this can happen. This is
disinformation, and it is really, I think it is an indication of just
how little they think of their own voters, that their own voters don't
even want to work. They don't even want to achieve. They don't even want
to pursue excellence. They just want to have their hands out and vote
for whoever is going to give them the most. What a way to ruin a life." Limbaugh
took time to address Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report, defending
Trump and accusing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of
colluding with the Russians. "Hillary
Clinton and her pals in the Obama Department of Justice and the FBI,
they are the ones who colluded with the Russians. They are the ones that
gave us this entirely, totally bogus Steele dossier," Limbaugh said. "Talk
about irony, for Hillary Clinton to be talking about impeaching Donald
Trump. Hillary Clinton needs to be investigated, she needs to be
indicted, and she needs to be in jail -- and many of her co-conspirators
in this whole sordid affair, which amounted to nothing more than a
silent coup to overturn the election results in 2016." Fox News' Paul Steinhauser, Nick Kalman and Martha MacCallum contributed to this report.
DailyMail.com editor-at-large and former CNN anchor Piers Morgan appeared on "Hannity"
Monday night where he lambasted Democrats and the mainstream media for
their reaction to the Mueller Report's release last week, calling it "a
disgrace." "Mueller was the savior, the man on the white horse
riding into town to take down President Trump on collusion with Russia,
he would be exposed as a traitor and this would be the end of his
presidency. And then Mueller report comes out and it turns out it was
all nonsense. It was to quote Donald Trump, it was 'fake news,'" Morgan
told host Sean Hannity. Last week, Attorney General William Barr
released a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report
that revealed the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia. Morgan
criticized The New York Times, The Washington Post and cable news
outlets for pushing the "obstruction of justice" narrative after the
Mueller report did not result in charges against the president. "We
are supposed to believe now that Donald Trump committed repeated
obstruction of justice over a crime that he now, as we all know, did not
commit? He is trying to obstruct people from investigating something he
says he said he didn't do and Special Counsel has confirmed he didn't
do. It is ridiculous, it is a farce, it is making a mockery of America,"
Morgan said. The British television presenter also mocked
liberals unable to cope with the fact that Trump beat Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton in 2016. "The liberals here are refusing to
accept results in 2016. 'But Hillary won the popular vote.' Who cares?
It's not about the popular vote," Morgan said. Morgan also went
after his old employer CNN, saying he still had friends there but
wondering aloud if they are continuing their coverage for monetary
reasons. "I
don't know why they have done that other than it gives them a lot of
money, I guess. I think it damages their credibility and I wish they
weren't doing it," Morgan said. Morgan warned the media and
Democrats that if they continue to cover President Trump in the same
vein that they are essentially guaranteeing him a second term. "If
the Democrats, fueled by the media, try to continue to fight this, and
I'm telling you what will happen, Donald Trump will get reelected and he
will have four more years of this," Morgan said.
Democratic presidential Candidate Sen. Kamala Harris,
D-Calif., speaks at the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority South Central
Regional Conference in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Sen. Kamala Harris on Monday night pledged
that, if elected president, she will sign a series of executive orders
on gun control if Congress fails to pass comprehensive legislation in
her first 100 days in the Oval Office. During a town hall hosted
by CNN, Harris said that if a bill from Congress did not make it to her
desk, she would unilaterally mandate background checks for customers purchasing a firearm from any dealer who sells more than five guns a year. Dealers
who violate the law, she said, would have their licenses revoked. The
other executive orders would prohibit fugitives from purchasing a
firearm or weapon, as well as close the loophole that allows some
domestic abusers to purchase a firearm if their victim is an unwedded
partner. “There are people in Washington, D.C., supposed leaders,” Harris said,
“who have failed to have the courage to reject a false choice which
suggests you’re either in favor of the second amendment or you want to
take everyone’s guns away.” She
continued, “we need reasonable gun safety laws in this country,
starting with universal background checks and a renewal of the assault
weapon ban, but they have failed to have the courage to act.” The proposal is Harris’ second policy announcement since launching her presidential campaign, the New York Times reports. The former California attorney general previously proposed a federal increase in teacher pay.
2020 presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., saw a couple of viral moments during a televised town hall on Monday night. The
first: what critics and analysts have called her “please clap” moment.
Klobuchar was boasting that in each of her elections she won every
congressional district in her state, including that of former Rep.
Michele Bachmann, a Republican. After the audience didn’t react to her victories, Klobuchar gave them permission to be excited. “It’s when you guys are supposed to cheer, okay?” Klobuchar grinned, which prompted applause and some laughter. Many
on social media have drawn comparisons to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush,
who famously told a town hall crowd to “please clap” on the campaign
trail during the 2016 election. Later on, the Minnesota Democrat had an awkward encounter with CNN anchor and town hall moderator Chris Cuomo. While
discussing how to address climate change with rural voters, Klobuchar
stressed how important it was and told Cuomo that she wanted to “finish”
her thought before he interrupted. She then, however, felt a little creeped out by Cuomo’s presence. “I feel you creeping over my shoulder,” Klobuchar told the CNN anchor. She jokingly clarified, “not in a Trumpian manner.” Klobuchar
was referring to the second presidential debate in 2016. Former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton later accused then-candidate Donald
Trump of being a “creep” for approaching behind her on the debate stage
and claimed her “skin crawled” in her memoir, “What Happened.”
Leaders
of the House Democrats backed off the idea of immediately launching
impeachment proceedings against President Trump in an urgent conference
call Monday evening amid a growing rift among the party's rank-and-file members, presidential contenders and committee chairs on the contentious issue. Fox News is told by two senior sources on the private conference call that even House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters,
an anti-Trump firebrand, told fellow Democrats that while she
personally favored going forward with impeachment proceedings, she was
not pushing for other members to join her. House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, D-Calif., and her leadership team were clear there were no
immediate plans to move forward with impeachment, Fox News is also
told. Well-placed sources said it was a spirited 87-minute call
involving more than 170 Democrat members, including House Intelligence
Committee Chair Adam Schiff and House Oversight Committee Chair Elijah
Cummings. "We have to save our democracy," Pelosi said, according
to the sources. "This isn’t about Democrats or Republicans. It’s about
saving our democracy. If it is what we need to do to honor our
responsibility to the Constitution – if that’s the place the facts take
us, that’s the place we have to go." Pelosi asserted that more
investigations were needed: "We don’t have to go to articles of
impeachment to obtain the facts, the presentation of facts.” Waters'
hesitation and Pelosi's remarks signaled clearly that, for the time
being, any impeachment effort would struggle to gain steam. Just last
week, Waters, D-Calif., took a far more aggressive tone, charging that
"Congress’ failure to impeach is complacency in the face of the erosion
of our democracy and constitutional norms."
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said while she personally favored
impeachment proceedings, she was not pushing for other lawmakers to join
her. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Waters also has called Attorney General Bill Barr a "lackey," saying
he was not being "respectful" to Congress. Barr held a news conference
presenting Special Counsel Robert Mueller's conclusions and has referred
bluntly to the FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign as "spying," rankling Democrats even as he said the important issue was whether the spying was properly predicated. But
on the call Monday night, Waters took a more muted tone and said she
was simply saying what she personally thought -- not demanding
impeachment proceedings. Congress is currently on a two-week recess, and representatives are scattered across the country. The brewing fractures among Democrats were evident on the Sunday talk show circuit, as Schiff, D-Calif, told "Fox News Sunday" that the impeachment question presented a "very difficult decision" that would take "the next couple of weeks" to determine. “I'm
not there yet, but I can foresee that possibly coming,” Cummings,
D-Md., said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” House Majority Leader Steny
Hoyer, D-Md., said Democrats would be wise to instead focus on the
upcoming presidential election. “Obstruction of justice, if
proven, would be impeachable,” New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the chairman
of the House Judiciary Committee, said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,”
adding his committee would “see where the facts lead us.” Nadler issued a subpoena on Monday for documents and testimony from former White House Counsel Donald McGahn, who resisted Trump's calls to fire Mueller, according to the special counsel's findings. On
the conference call, Nadler discussed the subpoena and announced that
McGahn will be the first witness in a new series of public
hearings based on the Mueller report and Democrats' other related
document requests. Nadler said the hearings will aim to provide
the public with a robust understanding of what’s at stake in these
matters and an opportunity to hear from the key witnesses who could
speak directly to questions of obstruction, abuse of power and
corruption that may have been committed by the president or his allies. Meanwhile,
prominent progressive freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.,
and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat running for
president in 2020, wholeheartedly embraced the impeachment push. Pelosi recognized the intra-party split in a letter to Democrats on Monday, ahead of the conference call. “While
our views range from proceeding to investigate the findings of the
Mueller report or proceeding directly to impeachment, we all firmly
agree that we should proceed down a path of finding the truth,” Pelosi
wrote. “It is also important to know that the facts regarding holding
the president accountable can be gained outside of impeachment
hearings.” Pelosi added: “Whether currently indictable or not, it
is clear that the president has, at a minimum, engaged in highly
unethical and unscrupulous behavior which does not bring honor to the
office he holds." During the call, Pelosi urged colleagues to read the letter carefully. Mueller's 18-month-long probe found no evidence the Trump team conspired illegally with Russians, and debunked numerous conspiracy theories that mainstream media outlets had advanced on the topic. Democrats quickly pivoted
to focus on whether the president had illegally obstructed the Russia
investigation -- a question Mueller chose to allow Barr, the Justice
Department, and Congress to address. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani told "Fox News Sunday" that it was unfair for Democrats to expect that Mueller could ever "exonerate" Trump on obstruction. "You
do not apply a standard of exoneration to anyone," Giuliani told Chris
Wallace after saying the standard was "warped" and that the Mueller
report was full of "lies" told by disaffected Trump aides. "Whether it’s a president, an impeachment," Giuliani said, "you can’t exonerate. Exoneration means proving a negative." Fox News' Alex Pappas, Chad Pergram, Mike Emanuel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said while she personally favored
impeachment proceedings, she was not pushing for other lawmakers to join
her. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
CNN’s Scott Jennings once again took liberals to the cleaners on the Abrego Garcia case, the ‘Maryland man...
