Joe Biden's reversal this week on the Hyde Amendment regarding abortion funding was a surrender to the “exceedingly radical” wing of the Democratic Party, American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp argued Friday on Fox News' "Hannity."
Biden
said Thursday he could “no longer support" the amendment, which he had
backed as recently as Wednesday, saying it makes a woman's right to an
abortion "dependent on someone's ZIP code.”
“The saddest thing of
all,” Schlapp told "Hannity" guest host Dan Bongino, "is to watch him
stumble through that statement. Clearly, he doesn’t know what to say or
what to do.”
Matt Schlapp, left, had some sharp words to say Friday regarding Joe Biden's reversal on the Hyde Amendment.
Schlapp added that abortion “is not health care” and
said the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized
abortion nationally, doesn’t mean taxpayers should have to pay for
abortion services.
Biden, a Roman Catholic, had long supported the
Hyde Amendment and has said he personally opposes abortion. So his
reversal this week smacked of political expediency, Schlapp argued.
“This
is an open-borders, Green New Deal, socialist Democratic Party that
believes in post-birth abortion, late-term abortion,” Schlapp said.
“They are exceedingly radical and Joe Biden is trying to go along to get
that brass ring.”
“This is an open-borders, Green New
Deal, socialist Democratic Party that believes in post-birth abortion,
late-term abortion. They are exceedingly radical and Joe Biden is trying
to go along to get that brass ring.” — Matt Schlapp, American Conservative Union
Another "Hannity" guest, Trump 2020 campaign national press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, agreed with Schlapp.
“Joe
Biden is Puppet Boy,” McEnany said. “There is someone pulling his
strings. It’s pathetic. He has no convictions, no principles, no
message.”
She said actress Alyssa Milano -- who tried to prevent
passage of Georgia's pro-life law -- and low-level Biden staffers
appeared to have steered the former vice president away from “whatever
principles he had left.”
“This is quite a modest thing to be for,”
Schlapp added. “They have become radicalized. This is not your
grandfather’s Democratic Party.”
Other 2020 Democrats, like Sens. Elizabeth Warren
and Kirsten Gillibrand, have said the Hyde Amendment disproportionately
affects poor women who can’t access abortion through government-funded
health care.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
was schooled by an FBI counterterrorism official earlier this week
after she incorrectly suggested Muslims get charged with terrorism
because they are treated as foreign, while white supremacists get “off
the hook.”
The New York Democrat used a hearing on Tuesday to
suggest that Muslims are being treated differently in the U.S.,
including getting charged with terrorism for criminal acts, while white
supremacist attackers avoid being charged with “domestic terrorism” for
similar crimes.
Michael
McGarrity, the assistant director of the Counterterrorism Division of
the FBI, fired back at the freshman Democrat, explaining that the
authorities can’t charge people with a “domestic terrorism” charge
simply because such a charge does not exist in U.S. laws.
“You're
using the word ‘charge,’ as I said before there's no domestic terrorism
charge like 18 USC § 2339 ABCD for a foreign terrorist organization,”
McGarrity explained. “What we do both on the international terrorism
side with the homegrown violent extremists and domestic terrorism, we'll
use any tool in the toolkit to arrest them,” McGarrity said.
“You're
not going to find an actual charge of domestic terrorism out there if
you look at Title 18--,” he added after repeated questioning by the
Democrat.
Ocasio-Cortez went on to point out to the San Bernardino
shooting or the Orlando pulse nightclub shooting as the cases where the
perpetrators were “charged as domestic terrorist incidents,” a claim
that is incorrect.
“So, because the perpetrator was Muslim they’re
— doesn’t it seem that because the perpetrator is Muslim that the
designation would say it’s a foreign organization?” Ocasio-Cortez asked
during the hearing.
According to ABC News,
which detailed how Ocasio-Cortez conflated two different terms, in
neither of the two cases people were charged as “domestic terrorists”
and were instead charged as “homegrown violent extremists,” a term given
to criminals in the U.S. who draw inspiration from “foreign terrorist
organizations” such as ISIS or Al-Qaeda.
White supremacist
attackers could be charged as “homegrown violent extremists” as long as
they are tied to a foreign terrorist organization as designated by the
U.S. government, though no such case has ever been found.
“No, that is not correct, that is not correct ... Some of the definitions I think we’re using, we’re talking past each other.” — Michael McGarrity
“No,
that is not correct, that is not correct,” McGarrity responded, adding
that the law doesn’t differentiate between religions while noting that
the FBI would normally classify those radicalized by the global Jihad as
foreign terrorists.
“Some of the definitions I think we’re using, we’re talking past each other,” McGarrity added.
Ocasio-Cortez
later took a victory lap on social media, saying “First the FBI witness
tried to say I was wrong. I tried to be generous + give benefit of
doubt, but then we checked. I wasn’t.”
“Violence by Muslims is
routinely treated as ‘terrorism,’ White Supremacist violence isn’t.
Neo-Nazis are getting off the hook,” she added.
She didn’t disclose the information she “checked” and how the FBI official was wrong during the hearing.
Since the February release of controversial Democratic Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders', I-Vt., Green New Deal, many 2020 presidential candidates have released their own proposals to tackle the issue of climate change.
The original Green New Deal has been supported by many candidates, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas.
It has been hailed by the left as a framework for dramatically cutting
the United States’ dependence on fossil fuels -- amid a recent report
warning of the economic costs climate change would cause in coming years.
But conservatives have slammed the Green New Deal itself, which could cost as much as $93 trillion, or approximately $600,000 per household, according to a new study co-authored by the former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, as an unworkable and enormously expensive scheme.
Which
begs the question -- just where do those Democrats with dreams of 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue stand on the issue? Do they support the
controversial Green New Deal, and what are their own climate platforms?
Here’s what some have come up with so far…
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden
speaks during the I Will Vote Fundraising Gala Thursday, June 6, 2019,
in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
The 22-page
outline released by former Vice President Biden proposes reaching
net-zero carbon emissions and achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2050.
It calls for an investment of $1.7 trillion of federal funds over the
next 10 years, plus private-sector and state and local investments
adding up to more than $5 trillion dollars. The money would be paid
partially by undoing President Trump’s tax cuts.
Biden’s plan
refers to Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, after facing criticism from
Democratic presidential rivals about his commitment to environmental
protection. Biden has repeatedly insisted his stance is not moderate. In
a statement, he pledged to “not only recommit the United States to the
Paris Agreement on climate change,” but to “go much further.”
Former President Barack Obama had pledged the U.S. would lower its emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
Biden
would design “environmental justice” programs to help the poor and
minorities who would face disproportionate economic harm from pollution.
Biden also promised to provide retraining and new economic
opportunities for coal, oil, gas, and other industrial workers displaced
by the decline of the fossil fuel industry.
His most aggressive
initiative in the plan is the call to compel other
countries—particularly China—to reduce emissions. Biden would aim to
combine climate change policy with trade policy using the imposition of
“carbon tariffs” on goods imported from heavily polluting economies.
Hours after the rollout, many noted the similarities between Biden’s plan and the plans of other candidates.
Republicans reacted by accusing Biden of the same offense that hampered
his presidential campaign in 1988. Tweeting from a state visit to the
UK, the president weighed in: “Plagiarism charge against Sleepy Joe
Biden on his ridiculous Climate Change Plan is a big problem, but the
Corrupt Media will save him. His other problem is that he is drawing
flies, not people, to his Rallies. Nobody is showing up, I mean nobody.
You can’t win without people!”
The campaign, which had no
response when asked by Fox News about the Trump tweet, said earlier on
Tuesday that it was a mistake: "Several citations, some from sources
cited in other parts of the plan, were inadvertently left out of the
final version of the 22-page document. As soon as we were made aware of
it, we updated to include the proper citations.”
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.,
waves before speaking during the 2019 California Democratic Party State
Organizing Convention in San Francisco, Saturday, June 1, 2019. (AP
Photo/Jeff Chiu)
On Tuesday, Warren unveiled a plan to tackle climate change she dubbed the “Green Manufacturing Deal.”
Her plan would pump $2 trillion into green jobs and technology innovations in the United States. It would also eliminate the Department of Commerce and several other smaller agencies.
Warren
would pay for her program with proceeds from her proposed new tax on
corporate profits and by ending tax subsidies for oil and gas companies.
She would also roll back some provisions of the GOP’s 2017 tax law.
The
plan is part of a new series of policies Warren will continue to roll
out that focus on investing in American jobs and innovation.
The
plan is also meant to emphasize Warren's support for reaching the goals
of the Green New Deal. Warren released a plan earlier this month on
protecting public lands, which would roll back many of the president’s
environmental policies, halt offshore drilling, and restore the original
boundary lines for two national monuments.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg supports the Green New Deal as well, but has not released his own plan.
In May Buttigieg told “Fox News Sunday’s” Chris Wallace, "What the
Green New Deal gets right, is it recognizes that there's also an
economic opportunity. Retrofitting buildings means a huge amount of jobs
for the building trades in this country.” If the U.S. cannot go
carbon-free by 2030, he says he supports going net carbon-free. During a
town hall on MSNBC on Monday, Buttigieg told Chris Matthews and an
inquisitive eighth grader he would call for a carbon tax, building
retrofits, better soil management, and a quadrupling of federal funding
for energy and research development.
Washington state Governor Jay Inslee speaks during a news
conference to announce his decision to seek the Democratic Party's
nomination for president in 2020 at A&R Solar in Seattle,
Washington, U.S., March 1, 2019.
(Reuters)
Last month, Washington State
Gov. Jay Inslee released a plan hailed by Ocasio-Cortez as the “gold
standard.” It would meet, and even exceed, the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change targets for carbon reduction.
The “Evergreen
Economy Plan” begins on day one of his administration. By 2030, it aims
to reach 100 percent zero emissions from new vehicles, zero carbon
pollution from all new commercial and residential buildings and would
require total carbon-neutral power across the country.
By 2035, it proposes completely clean, renewable and zero-emission energy nationwide.
In
his 38-page proposal, Inslee seeks to accomplish his plan’s goal
through tax incentives for using clean technologies, direct government
construction, federal funding of private efforts, regulatory mandates,
and use of public land and cooperation with private companies.
Additionally,
the plan adds more initiatives like green infrastructure and gradual
de-carbonization of existing buildings. Inslee promised to raise the
minimum wage and protect collective bargaining power for unions, ensure a
"just transition" and jobs for workers in the fossil fuel industry, and
mandate employers follow guidelines for gender pay parity.
Calling
for a $9 trillion investment in green jobs over 10 years, Inslee said
his plan would create eight million well-paying jobs for Americans in
the transition.
"These folks who have worked in the coal industry are deserving of incredible respect and dignity," Inslee told ABC News.
"They
are people whose contributions of multiple generations have literally
built the economy of the United States, people who are doing really hard
work, and are deserving of our respect and what we've done in the state
of Washington, which is to make sure that as we go through this
transition, that we also make sure we are caring for and embracing these
communities to make sure they have a future as well,” he said.
Former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke gestures during a campaign
stop at Keene State College in Keene, N.H., Tuesday, March 19, 2019.
O'Rourke announced last week that he'll seek the 2020 Democratic
presidential nomination. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
O’Rourke announced his own four-pillar plan to combat climate change just days before Governor Inslee.
The
Texan’s plan labels climate change “the greatest threat we face.” He
plans to invest $5 trillion over 10 years in infrastructure and
innovation and set a goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
His
emission reduction goal is also in line with the Green New Deal.
According to the proposal, O’Rourke’s mobilization would be “directly
leveraged by a fully paid-for $1.5 trillion investment” and the bill he
would introduce to Congress would be funded by "changes to the tax code
to ensure corporations and the wealthiest among us pay their fair share
and that we finally end the tens of billions of dollars of tax breaks
currently given to fossil fuel companies.”
O’Rourke also plans to
re-enter the Paris agreement on his first day in office and would "set a
first-ever, net-zero emissions by 2030 carbon budget for federal lands,
stopping new fossil fuel leases, changing royalties to reflect climate
costs, and accelerating renewables development and forestation.”
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker speaks during a town hall meeting in Rock Hill, S.C., on Saturday.
(AP)
Sen. Booker
has released the specifics of what he calls his “environment justice
plan.” Booker says the proposal would take "immediate steps" to
strengthen the power of the Environmental Protection Agency. During a
campaign stop in Columbia, South Carolina, Booker told his crowd: "Right
now, under this president, the number of actions that are being taken
against polluters has gone dramatically down.”
U.S.
Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has made top headlines for some
controversial topics. Here is everything you need to know about her
journey from being born in Somalia to becoming a U.S. Representative.
Rep. Ilhan Omar,
D-Minn., repeatedly violated state rules when she used campaign funds
to pay for personal out-of-state travel as well as help on her tax
returns and must reimburse her former campaign committee nearly $3,500, Minnesota campaign finance officials ruled Thursday.
The Minnesota
Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board said the
first-term congresswoman also must pay the state a $500 civil penalty
for using campaign money to travel to Florida, where she accepted an
honorarium.
"Rep.
Omar must personally reimburse the Omar committee $3,469.23," the
report concludes. "This reimbursement payment is the total amount of
campaign funds that were used for purposes not permitted by statute in
2016 and 2017. Rep. Omar must provide documentation within 30 days from
the date of this order showing the deposit of the reimbursement into the
Omar committee’s account."
Additionally, conservative commentators pointed out that the Board's report
revealed Omar and her current husband, Ahmed Hirsi, filed joint tax
returns in 2014 and 2015, when Omar was reportedly married to another
man. Omar engaged in a civil marriage with Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009,
and the couple separated in 2011 without formally petitioning for
divorce until 2017.
Prior to her marriage with Elmi, Omar had
reportedly wed Hirsi in the Muslim "faith tradition," but the couple
separated shortly afterwards. Omar did not officially marry Hirsi until
2018, after reconciling with him and splitting with Elmi.
Tax experts say the IRS only permits joint filings if a couple is in a state that legally recognizes the couple as married.
"Time to get federal IRS officials involved?" asked conservative blogger Michelle Malkin. "What say you all?"
"A sitting congresswoman may have filed EIGHT YEARS of fraudulent, felonious, tax returns," added writer David Steinberg, who authored a Twitter thread flagging the issue.
'The
crisis committee had Frederick & Rosen prepare releases for Rep.
Omar and Mr. Hirsi to sign in order for Frederick & Rosen to obtain
Rep. Omar’s and Mr. Hirsi’s filed joint tax returns for 2014 and 2015,"
the report notes. "Frederick & Rosen then reviewed the documents
obtained from the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of the Omar
committee. However, there is no substantive evidence in the record to
show that the services benefitted the Omar committee, and the Omar
committee has failed to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that
the services from Frederick & Rosen were a permitted noncampaign
disbursement under Minnesota Statutes section 211B.12. Rep. Omar must
reimburse the committee the $1,500 that was paid to the Kjellberg Law
Firm for the services from Frederick & Rosen, Ltd."
That reference to Omar and Hirsi's joint filing, however, was not investigated or addressed further in the report.
The
board found that Omar's campaign bought her a plane ticket to Boston,
where she spoke at a political rally; paid for a hotel in Washington,
D.C., where Omar participated in an interview for the United Nations
Foundation's Girl UP conference; and covered her travel to Chicago to
accept an award and attend a fundraising luncheon.
Under
Minnesota law, campaign trips must be related to serving in office. Omar
was a state representative from Minneapolis at the time of the
violations. She was elected to the U.S. House last November.
Republican
state Rep. Steve Drazkowski initially raised the complaints against
Omar, suggesting that she used $2,250 in campaign funds to pay a lawyer
for her divorce proceedings. Omar has said those payments to her
attorney were campaign-related fees.
The board found the
payment was actually reimbursement to two other law firms for work
related to immigration and tax documents. The board also determined that
$1,500 spent to correct an issue on Omar's tax return was not a
campaign-related expense and must be returned.
According to the
board, evidence indicates that the $2,250 was not payment for Omar's
marital dissolution. The board directed Omar to file an amended report
with more information about the law firm payments.
Omar had called the claims politically
motivated. In a statement, her congressional campaign said she is "glad
this process is complete" and that she intends to comply with the
board's findings.
Omar also claimed, "We have been collaborative
in this process and are glad the report showed that none of the money
was used for personal use, as was initially alleged."
However, the report specifically found that there was "some personal benefit to Rep. Omar from the [legal] services."
Drazkowski
said in a statement that the results provide "no reassurance to
Minnesotans," and the report "raises even more troubling questions." Fox News' Sam Dorman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The news – plus barbs from social media trolls and other critics -- may be too much for CNN’s Don Lemon to bear much longer.
The host of “CNN Tonight” told an audience in New York City on Thursday that the current “level of toxicity” in society – which he attributed to the Trump presidency – has him questioning whether he’ll still be on the air when the 2020 presidential election rolls around, according to reports.
“I
don’t know if it’s worth this level of toxicity,” the 53-year-old Lemon
said about continuing in his current position, the Daily Beast
reported.
“I’m
10 years older than when he rode down the escalator in July 2015,”
Lemon added, referring to Donald Trump's campaign announcement four
years ago.
Lemon made the remarks at the Financial Times’ “Future of News” conference.
The anchor also spoke about the negative, unsolicited feedback he sometimes receives.
“I
was doing a shoot in the park the other day and someone shouted at me,
‘I’m sick of watching you. We built this country. I can’t wait for CNN
to fire your black a--, you f----t,'” he recalled, according to
Deadline.
“So, all of those sorts of people call you on the phone
and say those things, or they write you. I don’t go on social media
anymore, it’s so toxic,” he added.
Lemon went on to blame the Trump era, and even the president himself.
“I’m
black and gay on cable television in prime time — a unicorn — and I’m a
target of the right, a target of white extremists, neo-Nazis and of the
president,” Lemon said, according to Deadline.
He added later, “ I wonder how long I will continue to do this particular job,” the Daily Beast reported.
Lemon speculated he might be happier as a celebrity chef, or perhaps doing journalism “in a different way.”
Mexican authorities stop a migrant caravan that had earlier
crossed the Mexico - Guatemala border, near Metapa, Chiapas state,
Mexico, Wednesday, June 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
Mexican authorities stop a migrant caravan that had earlier
crossed the Mexico - Guatemala border, near Metapa, Chiapas state,
Mexico, Wednesday, June 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
Meanwhile, some 200 Mexican military police,
immigration agents and federal police blocked the advance of about 1,000
Central American migrants who were walking north along a southern
Mexico highway on Wednesday, once again showing a tougher new stance on
attempts to use the country as a stepping-stone to the U.S.
The
group of migrants, including many women and children, set out early from
Ciudad Hidalgo at the Mexico-Guatemala border and was headed for
Tapachula, the principal city in the region. State and local police
accompanied the caravan.
The officials blocked the highway near the community of Metapa, about 11 miles from Tapachula.
Unarmed
agents wrestled some migrants who resisted to the ground, but the vast
majority complied and boarded buses or immigration agency vans. Some
migrants fainted and fell to the ground. One young man who collapsed was
taken for medical attention.
That afternoon, in Mexico City,
police detained Irineo Mujica, the head of migrant aide group Pueblo Sin
Fronteras, and Cristobal Sanchez, a migrant activist.
Vice
President Mike Pence, monitoring the talks from his travels in
Pennsylvania, said the U.S. was "encouraged" by Mexico's latest
proposals but, so far, tariffs still were set to take effect Monday.
Trump, in announcing the tariffs last week, promised that they would swiftly increase if no action was taken. The president declared Wednesday evening that "not nearly enough" progress was being made in last-minute negotiations with Mexico.
"On
June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods
coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants
coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP," Trump said on May 30. "The
Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is
remedied, ... ..at which time the Tariffs will be removed. Details from
the White House to follow."
Fox News is told the tariff on all
goods by land, sea, and air from Mexico will hike to 10 percent on July 1
-- and potentially increase substantially from there.
"If Mexico
still has not taken action to dramatically reduce or eliminate the
number of illegal aliens crossing its territory into the United States,
Tariffs will be increased to 15 percent on August 1, 2019, to 20 percent
on September 1, 2019, and to 25 percent on October 1, 2019," Trump said in a statement released
later by the White House on Thursday. "Tariffs will permanently remain
at the 25 percent level unless and until Mexico substantially stops the
illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory."
The
statement added: "Thousands of innocent lives are taken every year as a
result of this lawless chaos. It must end NOW! ... Mexico’s passive
cooperation in allowing this mass incursion constitutes an emergency and
extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United
States."
Specifically, White House sources told Fox News that
Mexico would need to step up security efforts on the border, target
transnational smugglers, crack down on illicit bus lines and align with
the U.S. on a workable asylum policy. Mexico could use certain so-called
choke points on the southern border to curb illegal migration sharply,
according to the sources.
Arrests along the southern border have
skyrocketed in recent months, with border agents making more than
100,000 arrests or denials of entry in March, a 12-year
high. Immigration courts that process asylum claims currently have faced
a backlog of more than 800,000 cases and asylum applicants increasingly
have been staying in the U.S. even after their claims for asylum have
been denied.
More than 4,000 individuals have been apprehended at
the border with children who are not their own in recent
months, administration officials tell Fox News.
FILE - This May 29, 2019 file photo released by U.S. Customs and
Border Protection (CBP) shows some of 1,036 migrants who crossed the
U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, the largest that the Border Patrol
says it has ever encountered. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection via
AP, File)
And, Customs and Border Protection said it
apprehended or turned away over 109,000 migrants attempting to cross the
border in April, the second month in a row the number has topped
100,000.
In a dramatic moment, more than 1,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended by border agents near the U.S.-Mexico border
last week -- the largest ever group of migrants ever apprehended at a
single time, sources told Fox News. The group of 1,036 illegal
immigrants found in the El Paso sector included migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, according to sources.
The
Trump administration has heavily focused on asylum law reforms, making
the current reported Mexican overtures in that area particularly
important. Asylum law, conservatives point out, is intended to shield
individuals from near-certain death or persecution on account of
limited factors like religious or political affiliation — not poor
living conditions and economic despair.
Last year, the Justice Department eliminated gang violence and domestic abuse as a possible justification for seeking asylum.
Most
asylum applicants are ultimately rejected for having an insufficient or
unfounded personalized fear of persecution, following a full hearing of
their case before an asylum officer or an immigration judge. Fox News' John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump has taken the gloves off in his ongoing feud with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Speaking exclusively to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham
in Normandy, France, in an interview that aired Thursday, the president
first took time to pay tribute to the heroes who fought on D-Day 75
years ago, describing them as “incredibly brave people” who displayed
incredible “valor.”
Then, the president switched gears, slamming
Pelosi, D-Calif., as a “nasty, vindictive, horrible person” -- after
saying he had “tried to be nice to her.”
“I think she’s a
disgrace. I actually don’t think she’s a talented person, I’ve tried to
be nice to her because I would have liked to have gotten some deals
done,” Trump said on “The Ingraham Angle.”
“She’s
incapable of doing deals, she’s a nasty, vindictive, horrible person,
the Mueller report came out, it was a disaster for them.”
Trump then referenced former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, suggesting some Democrats hoped it would give them the so-called silver bullet to take him down.
More from Fox News Flash
“They
thought their good friend Bobby Mueller was going to give them a great
report and he came out with a report with 13 horrible, angry Democrats
who are totally biased against me,” the president told Ingraham.
“A couple of them worked for Hillary Clinton,
they then added five more, also Democrats. With all of that,
two-and-a-half years, think of it, from before I even got elected,
they’ve been going after me and they have nothing.”
Ingraham then
asked Trump if he cared whether or not Mueller would testify publicly
about his report. The president used the question as another chance to
unload on Pelosi.
“Let
me tell you, he made such a fool out of himself the last time she --
because what people don’t report is the letter he had to do to
straighten out his testimony because his testimony was wrong but Nancy
Pelosi, I call her nervous Nancy, Nancy Pelosi doesn’t talk about it,”
Trump told Fox News.
“Nancy Pelosi’s a disaster, OK, she’s a
disaster and let her do what she wants, you know what? I think they’re
in big trouble because when you look at the kind of crimes that were
committed, and I don’t need any more evidence, and I guess from what I’m
hearing there’s a lot of evidence coming in.
“And then ask Nancy,
why is her district [having] drug needles all over the place? It’s the
most disgusting thing what she’s allowed to happen to her district, with
needles, with drug addicts... with people living on the sidewalk.”
Trump continued, referencing Pelosi’s reported comment to fellow top Democrats that she would like to see him in “prison.”
“It
was a horrible, nasty, vicious statement while I’m overseas... She
didn’t want to – she is a terrible person and I’ll tell you her name,
it’s nervous Nancy because she’s a nervous wreck.”
Pelosi, as
Politico reported, made the remark while defending her stance against
impeaching the president in an evening meeting with House Judiciary
Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and other top Democrats.
“I
don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison,” she
said, according to multiple Democratic sources familiar with the
meeting. House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Oversight
Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal,
D-Mass., and Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., also
reportedly attended the meeting.
Trump also discussed his potential 2020 opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, during his interview with Ingraham.
After
being asked about Biden downplaying the potential threat of China to
the U.S. at a recent town-hall event, Trump said: “He just doesn't get
it, he just doesn't get it.”
“How happy would President Xi be to
have Joe Biden be the nominee of the Democratic party,” Ingraham
followed up, to which the president replied: “Well he wants him, he
wants him.”
Elsewhere during the president’s wide-ranging
interview with Ingraham, he said Mueller made “such a fool” out of
himself last week when he delivered his first and only public statement
about the Russia investigation.
“Let me tell you, he made such a
fool out of himself ... because what people don’t report is the letter
he had to do to straighten out his testimony because his testimony was
wrong,” Trump told Ingraham.
Trump was referring to Mueller’s
initial suggestion that the president was not charged with an
obstruction-of-justice offense because of longstanding Justice
Department policy.
“Charging
the president with a crime was not an option we could consider,”
Mueller said last week, citing an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion
stating that a sitting president could not be indicted.
“If we had
confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would
have said that. ... We concluded that we would not reach a determination
one way or the other about whether the president committed a crime,”
Mueller said. Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden
speaks during the I Will Vote Fundraising Gala Thursday, June 6, 2019,
in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.,
waves before speaking during the 2019 California Democratic Party State
Organizing Convention in San Francisco, Saturday, June 1, 2019. (AP
Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Washington state Governor Jay Inslee speaks during a news
conference to announce his decision to seek the Democratic Party's
nomination for president in 2020 at A&R Solar in Seattle,
Washington, U.S., March 1, 2019.
(Reuters)
Former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke gestures during a campaign
stop at Keene State College in Keene, N.H., Tuesday, March 19, 2019.
O'Rourke announced last week that he'll seek the 2020 Democratic
presidential nomination. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker speaks during a town hall meeting in Rock Hill, S.C., on Saturday.
(AP)
FILE - This May 29, 2019 file photo released by U.S. Customs and
Border Protection (CBP) shows some of 1,036 migrants who crossed the
U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, the largest that the Border Patrol
says it has ever encountered. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection via
AP, File)
CNN’s Scott Jennings once again took liberals to the cleaners on the Abrego Garcia case, the ‘Maryland man...
