Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., believes a push for President Trump's impeachment by congressional Democrats will only lead to his re-election.
"To
my Democratic colleagues in the House, if you bring impeachment after
[Special Counsel Robert] Mueller issued his report ... then it's going
to blow up in your face," Graham told Fox News' Jeanine Pirro on
Saturday's installment of "Justice with Judge Jeanine."
"You're being unfair to the president and he's going to get re-elected," he said.
When asked about escalating tensions with Iran, Graham praised Trump for pulling out of the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal and for applying sanctions against the country.
He
urged the president to stand tough and not let Iran flex its muscle
over the Strait of Hormuz, an international shipping gateway between the
Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The waterway separates Iran and the
United Arab Emirates and is 21 miles across at its narrowest point.
The
strait is critical to the oil industry, with it being used to ship more
than 22 million barrels of oil and products per day in the first half
of 2018.
"To President Trump, do not let them take over the Strait
of Hormuz," Graham said. "Keep the pressure on and if they continue to
do this, sink their navy like Ronald Reagan did back in the '80s."
Iran threatened to close the strait earlier this year and the U.S. blamed the country for attacks on two oil tankers
in the Gulf of Oman earlier this week. Graham touted Trump's
confrontational style of diplomacy, saying it has yielded positive
results.
"He has put Iran on the run. He's taken on China. He's
got [Venezuelan President Nicolas] Maduro on the ropes," Graham said. "I
love this man's foreign policy."
Some Republicans
in Congress on Friday reintroduced a proposal calling for a ban on
burning the American flag – and they’ve already won an endorsement from President Trump.
“All
in for Senator Steve Daines as he proposes an Amendment for a strong
BAN on burning our American Flag. A no brainer!,” the president wrote in
a Twitter message Saturday.
The proposal is being sponsored in the Senate by Sens. Steve Daines of Montana and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and in the House by Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas.
It calls for the U.S. Constitution to be amended so Congress would have
“constitutional authority to ban the desecration of the United States
flag.”
“The American Flag is a symbol of freedom – and it should always be protected,” Daines wrote Friday.
Added Cramer: “A flag worth dying for is a flag worth protecting.”
“Adding
a Constitutional amendment to protect this symbol of freedom and
liberty is not an attack on another Constitutional amendment,” he
continued, “rather, it is an affirmation of the unifying principles our
nation stands for.”
The
amendment would be necessary because the Supreme Court has ruled in the
past that flag-burning is a form of free speech protected by the First
Amendment.
The new proposal was reintroduced Friday, which was Flag Day – and coincidentally President Trump’s 73rd birthday.
Critics on social media were quick to attack the proposal. Here are some samples:
According to the Washington Times,
amendments can be added to the Constitution if two-thirds of both the
House and Senate agree on a proposal and then three-fourths of the
states ratify it, or if two-thirds of state legislatures call a
convention to propose changes to the Constitution, and then
three-fourths of the states ratify the change.
Sponsors of legal immigrants
to the United States received word Friday that they’ll be on the hook
“for every dollar” if those immigrants end up receiving welfare funds or
other public support instead of earning a living and paying taxes.
The message came Ken Cuccinelli, a former Virginia
state attorney general who last week became acting director of U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) following his appointment
by President Trump.
“If
the sponsored immigrant receives any federal means-tested public
benefits, the sponsor will be expected to reimburse the
benefits-granting agency for every dollar of benefits received by the immigrant,” Cuccinelli wrote in a USCIS memo.
“If
the sponsored immigrant receives any federal means-tested public
benefits, the sponsor will be expected to reimburse the
benefits-granting agency for every dollar of benefits received by the
immigrant.” — Ken Cuccinelli, acting director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
'Enforceable contract'
In
addition, the same message instructed agents who work for USCIS to
remind applicants and sponsors that “the Affidavit of Support is a legal
and enforceable contract between the sponsor and the federal
government.”
Ken Cuccinelli, a former Virginia state attorney general, is now
acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
(Associated Press)
According to Cuccinelli, all federal agencies dealing
with immigration issues will be working to update or initiate
procedures and regulations to make sure that immigrants who are
ineligible for public benefits do not receive them, in accordance with a
May 23 directive from the president.
“The
President has made it a priority to ensure that every individual who
seeks to come to the United States is self-sufficient, temporarily or
permanently,” Cuccinelli wrote.
“The principle of self-sufficiency has been enshrined in our
immigration laws since the 1800s, and we as an agency must ensure that
immigrants who become part of this great country abide by this
principle.”
“The President has made it a priority to
ensure that every individual who seeks to come to the United States is
self-sufficient, temporarily or permanently.” — Ken Cuccinelli, acting director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Cuccinelli
took over at USCIS last Monday, coming to the job with a reputation as a
hardliner on immigration issues. For example, he has been an advocate
for denying citizenship to American-born children of parents living in
the U.S. illegally and for limiting in-state tuition at public
universities to citizens or legal residents.
He replaced Lee Francis Cissna, who reportedly had lost President Trump’s confidence.
Critical of McConnell, others in GOP
But Trump likely named Cuccinelli an acting director because his chances of winning Senate confirmation were said to be slim, Roll Call reported.
The
outspoken Cuccinelli, as president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, a
political action committee that has opposed many incumbent Republicans,
has been critical of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others
in the GOP. “Mitch
McConnell has filled the Senate with people like Lisa Murkowski, John
McCain, Shelley Moore Capito, Lamar Alexander and Dean Heller who all
promised the voters they would repeal Obamacare, but when the time came
to do it they refused,” Cuccinelli wrote in an August 2017 fundraising
memo, according to Roll Call. “Instead of admitting his mistake,
McConnell is blaming the President for having ‘excessive expectations’
even though he was the one who set those expectations with years of
empty promises!”
Trump’s appointment of Cuccinelli came as the
president is dealing with a growing crisis as tens of thousands of
Central American migrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border each month,
overwhelming the system, and he has struggled to deliver on his
signature issue of reduced immigration and tighter border security. Fox News’ Andrew O’Reilly and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
In this April 30, 2019 photo, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway
talks with reporters outside the White House in Washington. (AP
Photo/Evan Vucci)
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 1:20 PM PT — Friday, June 14, 2019
Allegations of misconduct against Kellyanne Conway come to a head,
following claims of Hatch Act violations. In an interview Friday, the
president declared he has reviewed Conway’s alleged misconduct and will
not fire the White House counselor despite calls from a government watch
dog group to do so.
“No, I’m not going to fire her, I think she’s a terrific person,
she’s a tremendous spokesperson,” he stated. “She’s been loyal…she’s
just a great person.”
The remarks came after the Office of Special Counsel sent an official
report to the White House Thursday, urging Conway be removed from the
federal government. U.S. officials alleged Conway repeatedly violated
the lesser-known Hatch Act, which is a law prohibiting federal officials
from using their authority to interfere with or sway elections.
The 17 page document reportedly outlined more than half a dozen
television interviews and tweets from Conway, which reportedly violated
the act by projecting opinion on current presidential candidates in her
official capacity. However, the president said he received a very strong
briefing on the matter and “based on” what he’s seen believes she
should not be dismissed.
“I would certainly not think based on what I saw yesterday — how
could you do that?” he asked “They have tried to take away her speech,
and I think you’re entitled to free speech in this country.”
The White House has called the counsel’s allegations “deeply flawed”
and argued the law was applied too broadly in Conway’s case, which
potentially interferes with First Amendment rights.
Conway has firmly denied these violations and called them “political fuel” back in May.
“We’ve got outside groups who have political agendas trying to file
actions against me…doesn’t make them true and it doesn’t make them
relevant,” she stated.
Moving forward, the House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing on
Conway’s actions June 26th. It’s unclear whether she will appear amid
the president’s ongoing refusal to allow current and former White House
advisers to testify to Congress.
Three Years Later and the Liberal Media is still CRYING.
Outgoing White House press secretary Sarah Sanders
is getting undue criticism because a reduction in daily briefings
doesn't give TV reporters more personal airtime, a Sanders predecessor
claimed Friday.
President Trump
is one of the best-accessible presidents when it comes to engaging with
reporters and their critiques are unfounded, Sean Spicer said on Fox
News' "The Ingraham Angle."
"The
president has been so much more accessible and engages so much more"
than past presidents, Spicer said. "I think the briefings serve a
utility. They should occur, but maybe not on a daily basis."
"As
you saw with Sarah, she's out there ... all the time on camera, talking
to the press," Spicer added. "They don't like it as much because it
doesn't work as well for their cable contracts and their YouTube views
and things like that."
Spicer claimed that reporters prefer formal White House press briefings because, "They can make it about them."
He
and fellow guest Ari Fleischer -- who served as press secretary under
former President George W. Bush -- added that the job of press secretary
is so much more than just holding briefings and making public
statements.
"There is a facilitation of access and interviews to
other government officials, to information that's coming in and out
of the White House, whether it's personnel, events or policies. So, the
press office is very busy all day long," Spicer said.
Fleischer said a good press secretary is a "happy warrior" who is close to the president and will stand by him.
On Thursday, Trump announced that Sanders will be leaving her position at the end of the month.
"After
3 1/2 years, our wonderful Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be leaving the
White House at the end of the month and going home to the Great State of
Arkansas," Trump said.
"She is a very special person with
extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job! I hope she
decides to run for Governor of Arkansas - she would be fantastic. Sarah,
thank you for a job well done!"
President Trump on Friday thanked U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., for blocking a bill that she called a “blatant political stunt.”
The
bill, known as the Foreign Influence Reporting in Elections Act, was
proposed by U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and required unanimous
consent, the Tennessean of Nashville reported.
“Thank you Senator @MarshaBlackburn
for fighting obstructionist Democrats led by Cryin' Chuck Schumer,” the
president tweeted. “Democrats continue to look for a do-over on the
Mueller Report and will stop at nothing to distract the American people
from the great accomplishments of this Administration!”
The bill
was prompted by remarks Trump made during an interview with ABC News'
George Stephanopoulos in the Oval Office this week where the president
said he would be willing to listen if a foreign government came to his
campaign with “dirt” on an opponent.
“I think I'd take it," Trump said. "If I thought there was something wrong, I'd go maybe to the FBI."
In a "Fox & Friends"" interview on Friday, Trump clarified himself, saying he would “of course, report dirt to the FBI.”
"My
colleagues on the left tried to rush this legislation through the
Senate without giving it a chance for the careful consideration and
debate needed to address such an important issue,” Blackburn said in a
statement Thursday, according to the Tennessean. “Of course action needs to be taken to protect the integrity of our elections, but let’s do this the right way."
Russians attempted to offer dirt on Hillary Clinton to the Trump campaign in 2016, the Mueller report found, but nothing came of it.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas slammed former top Obama adviser Ben Rhodes for questioning U.S. claims that Iran attacked oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz and downplayed the threat from the regime.
Rhodes,
a leading figure within the Obama administration who pushed for the
2015 nuclear deal with Iran, suggested the U.S. official assessment of
the tanker attacks shouldn’t be taken for granted, saying only an
international investigation can get to the bottom of the incident.
“This
definitely feels like the kind of incident where you'd want an
international investigation to establish what happened. Huge risk of
escalation,” Rhodes said in a tweet.
This prompted a stark rebuttal from Crenshaw, the freshman congressman and former U.S. Navy
SEAL officer, who blasted Rhodes for downplaying the danger posed by
the Iranian regime and doubting the intelligence community. “So,
do or don’t believe the Intel community? And you’re not really a trusted
source to weigh in on Iran,” Crenshaw wrote in a tweet. “You sold the
public the falsehood of a moderating Iranian regime - using your media
‘echo chamber’ (your words)- & ignoring the true danger Iran
presents in the region.”
“I’ve been watching for years as Iran
moves weapons to proxies around the region, looking for opportunities to
destabilize & wreak havoc, and then claim innocence. This is not
new. And the Administration is right to strengthen our regional presence
as a deterrence,” Crenshaw added.
Crenshaw refers to Rhodes’
now-infamous comments that the administration’s foreign policy team
built an “echo chamber” of experts to help sell the controversial Iran
nuclear deal.
“We created an echo chamber,” Rhodes told the New York Times Magazine in
2016 when asked about arms-control experts that appeared at think tanks
and were then used as sources for hundreds of reporters – whom the
article described as “clueless.”
Of those experts, Rhodes said: “They were saying things that validated what we had given them to say.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blamed Iran for the "blatant assault" on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman earlier Thursday.
In
a news conference, Pompeo said: “This assessment is based on
intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute
the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact
that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and
proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication.”
He
charged that Iran was working to disrupt the flow of oil through the
Strait of Hormuz and this is a deliberate part of a campaign to escalate
tension, adding that the U.S. would defend its forces and interests in
the region, although he did not elaborate. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
U.S.
officials released a video Friday supposedly showing Iran’s
Revolutionary Guard removing an unexploded limpet mine from one of the
vessels.
The black-and-white footage, as well as still photos
released by the U.S. military’s Central Command on Friday, appeared to
show the limpet mine on the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous, before a
Revolutionary Guard patrol boat pulled alongside the ship and removed
the mine, Central Command spokesman Capt. Bill Urban said.
Rupert Murdoch poses with his sons, Lachlan and James, at his 2016 wedding at St. Bride's Church in London.
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
James Murdoch, son of Fox News founder and conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is planning to invest around $1 billion in media companies—possibly including a liberal-leaning outlet. As the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, the 46-year-old, a former 21st Century Fox chief who is also expected
to use his more-than-$2 billion haul from the sale of the company’s
entertainment holdings to Disney to fund a comic-book publisher, has
long played the role of black sheep of the Murdoch dynasty: left-leaning
and, according to The New York Times, “increasingly troubled by Fox News” in the age of Donald Trump.
But the possibility of funding a rival to the right-wing empire that
made his father a household name could represent a new course for the
younger Murdoch—and a complication of the Murdoch legacy.
Sources with “direct knowledge” of James’s plans told the Financial Times
that he “wanted to distance himself from the conservative media outlets
controlled for decades by his father but had yet to decide how exactly
he would invest in the news media.” They added that he was eyeing a
range of options, and that the process was “at an early stage.” (The F.T.
could not immediately reach James Murdoch for comment.) The potential
move would in part reflect the complex family dynamics between Rupert,
James, and Lachlan Murdoch, the latter of whom recently
took over at Fox. James had long sought to run the company, but struck
out on his own last year after the reins were handed to his brother.
The
report also embodies shifting political attitudes among a new
generation of Murdochs. Rupert, the right-wing kingmaker, is a close ally of the president—a regular Fox News viewer who at times has seemed to use his office to help the network
and hurt its rivals. But Lachlan, now the chair of the Fox Corporation,
is a libertarian conservative who “doesn’t like Trump,” as one of his
associates told my colleague Gabriel Sherman.
That has some MAGA fans inside Fox concerned that the older Murdoch
will lead the network in a less Trumpian direction. Trump himself has in
recent days expressed disappointment in his beloved channel, tweeting Tuesday that it was “weird” to see Bernie Sanders in a Fox-hosted town hall, and questioning the network’s hiring of former Democratic National Committee interim chair Donna Brazile. “What’s with @FoxNews?” Trump asked, slipping in a telltale “we” in his earlier tweet.Of course, any changes in the network’s direction under Lachlan are
likely to be minimal compared to what his brother might have planned.
“Lachlan is not James,” a Fox News staffer told Sherman last month.
James, whom the BBC once described
as having been regarded “as the brightest of the Murdoch brood but . . .
also something of a rebel,” has often seemed to reject the politics his
surname evokes. He has long been active on climate issues and has given money to the Clinton Foundation. He and his wife, a progressive who worked for the Clinton Climate Initiative and reportedly pushed for the ouster of former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, fund liberal-leaning causes like voting rights and climate science through their Quadrivium Foundation. And, according to The New York Times,
the younger Murdoch began to “object to what he felt [Fox News] had
evolved into at certain hours: a political weapon with no editorial
standards or concern for the value of truth and a knee-jerk defender of
the president’s rhetoric and policies.” Whether James Murdoch is toying
with the idea of funding a liberal outlet out of personal conviction, or
as a reaction to family drama, is unclear. Either way, the result would
be the clearest repudiation of his family empire yet.
