Ross Perot donated to Trump’s re-election campaign before death: report

In his last documented political act, self-made billionaire and two-time presidential candidate Ross Perot wrote out two checks to President Trump’s re-election campaign before succumbing to his battle with leukemia at the age of 89, according to a report.
Perot, who ran for president as a third-party candidate in 1992 and 1996, is largely credited with providing a road map for Trump's presidential campaign.

FILE: Ross Perot is shown on a screen in a paid 30-minute television commercial, during a media preview in Dallas.  (AP)

Like Trump, Perot ran as a billionaire populist against the Republican establishment. His focus on the North American Free Trade Agreement – rather than the national debt – and his use of cable news for laying out his agenda were both familiar elements of Trump’s campaign.
As Democratic strategist James Carville put it in a 2016 podcast: “If Donald Trump is the of Jesus of the disenchanted, displaced non-college white voter, then Perot was the John the Baptist of that sort of movement.”
ROSS PEROT ECHOED POPULIST SENTIMENTS 25 YEARS BEFORE RISE OF TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN SAYS
In 2000, Trump briefly considered running for president in Perot’s Reform Party before scrapping the idea. Perot’s model, of running as a third-party candidate in a two-party political system, taught Trump that he needed to run as a Republican in 2016 – a lesson that ultimately led to his victory.
In March, Perot wrote two checks of the maximum legal limit to Trump’s reelection campaign, including next year’s general election, the Boston Globe reported.

Kamala Camel Harris Cartoons

Trump showing new strength, even with some foes calling him ‘unpresidential’

Call it the Trump paradox.
So many Democrats, liberals and all-around detractors look at the last 2-1/2 years, and are convinced that he’ll never win reelection. They see chaos and confusion, they see endless Twitter rants, and they see a president who hasn’t cracked 50 percent in the major polls.
But here’s what they’re missing: There’s a significant chunk of the country that doesn’t like Trump’s behavior, but very much likes how things are going.
They particularly like the booming economy, which remains the greatest single indicator of whether an incumbent president will get a second term. If America isn’t mired in a major war — remember that Trump called off the airstrikes against Iran with 10 minutes to spare — then it’s the economy, stupid.
I get that the rising tide isn’t lifting all boats, that everyone doesn’t have a 401(k) plan. But with the lowest jobless rate in half a century, things certainly don’t look as dire as the Democratic candidates are painting them.
All of which leads me to an invaluable nugget in the new Washington Post/ABC poll.
What made headlines is that Trump has risen to his highest approval level in that survey, 47 percent — up from 42 percent in April. And that’s while he’s been dealing with the border crisis, the Kim Jong-un meeting, the trade war and other controversies.
At the same time, more than six in 10 of those surveyed say Trump has acted in ways that are unpresidential since taking office.
And here’s the zinger: “Roughly one-fifth of those who say he is not presidential say they approve of the job he is doing.”
That’s the key to his presidency, and one that many pundits fail to understand. Sure, lots of Americans think Trump at times goes too far, crosses the line, shatters the norms, and they’re uncomfortable with that. But they’re still satisfied with his performance — especially, I’m sure, conservatives who see him delivering on judges, social issues and deregulation.
Trump is underwater on numerous issues in the Post/ABC poll, but gets positive marks from 51 percent when it comes to the economy.
And while the survey shows Joe Biden beating Trump by 10 points, the president is 1 to 2 points behind Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris — a statistical tie — and actually tied with Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg.
There’s a reason that Biden is still leading the Democratic field; many of the party’s voters have reason to believe he’d run strongest against Trump.
Part of Trump’s appeal to his supporters — which drives his critics crazy — is that he’s always on offense. And that’s especially true against the press.
In a tweetstorm over the weekend, the president strafed some of his favorite targets, including the “failing” New York Times, for “writing phony and exaggerated stories about the Border Detention Centers.” (The Times and El Paso Times jointly published a lengthy investigation, based on dozens of interviews, which said some customs agents had gone to their bosses about the horrendous conditions at the Clint, Texas Facility.)
He also went after “Comcast Trump haters” at NBC and MSNBC, who do what they’re told by “Brian & Steve.” (Brian Roberts is chairman of the networks’ parent company and Steve Burke is NBC’s chief executive officer.) And he singled out “Lyin’ Brian Williams,” who “totally fabricated a war story.” (Williams, an MSNBC late-night host, lost his job as NBC anchor after telling a false story about his helicopter coming under fire in Iraq.)
The president also went after the weekend anchors at Fox News, declaring them worse than “Fake News” CNN. He tweeted that Fox, which failed to get the “very BORING Dem debates, is now loading up with Democrats and even using Fake unsources @nytimes as a ‘source’ of information.” That was most likely a reference to the Times’ Sunday story on conditions at the border.
Trump has tweeted critically before about Fox’s town halls with Democratic candidates, and seems annoyed that the race, which is now heating up, is getting significant airtime.
These are just the sort of attacks that rile up his base, which detests the media, and Fox’s news division is not exempt.
Perhaps the conflicted view of Trump is best captured by leaked cables from Britain’s ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch. (Trump tweeted that the administration will no longer deal with him, but of course he’ll be replaced when Boris Johnson takes over as prime minister.)
Darroch cabled London that Trump is “inept,” “insecure” and “incompetent,” and the White House “uniquely dysfunctional,” according to the Daily Mail.
And yet the tart-tongued diplomat also wrote that Trump may nonetheless “emerge from the flames, battered but intact, like Schwarzenegger in the final scenes of ‘The Terminator.’”
And that’s why, as the Post poll suggests, Donald Trump after the next election may still be back.

Ingraham: Is Team Obama behind Harris' surge?

Is former President Barack Obama behind Sen. Kamala Harris' recent surge?
Fox News' Laura Ingraham believes so and she made her case Monday night on "The Ingraham Angle."
It has been widely reported that the former president made it a point not to come out and support any of the Democratic candidates during the primaries. His former vice president, Joe Biden, has said he requested that his former boss not endorse him to be fair to other candidates.
Ingraham said there's already evidence that Obama is at least on the periphery playing a role in the Harris campaign. Some of his administration's alums are already working for Harris' campaign.
"And who doubts, come on, that Kamala and her team are in contact with the Obamas," Ingraham said.
Ingraham said that Harris will do anything to be president including unfairly smearing Biden.
"She'll say and do anything to win including bloodying up Biden with a vicious racial smear," Ingraham said.
The Fox News host said Harris needs to defeat Biden and win over black voters.
"He's the only real challenge standing in the way of her claiming the Obama mantle because what could be more historic following the first male African-American president than four years later the first female African-American president and to beat him she has to win over black voters," Ingraham said.
Ingraham blasted Harris' $100 billion housing plan that will fund down payments and closing costs African-Americans calling it "racial pandering" and asking about the wealth gap for Hispanics and Native Americans.
"Well this is clearly racial pandering of the worst sort but it's designed to appeal voters away from Joe Biden," Ingraham said.

Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders call for climate change emergency mobilization, seeks a re-do of failed Green New Deal

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders will introduce Tuesday a resolution declaring a climate change emergency, a move that comes after the Green New Deal failed to take off the ground earlier this year.
The resolution, also co-sponsored by Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer, will call for a wide-scale mobilization to combat the emergency and restore the climate “for future generations.”
“The global warming caused by human activities,” claims the draft resolution, according to the Mother Jones magazine, “has resulted in a climate emergency that … demands a national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization of the resources and labor of the United States at a massive-scale.”

The global warming caused by human activities has resulted in a climate emergency that … demands a national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization of the resources and labor of the United States at a massive-scale.”
— The resolution

Ocasio-Cortez and Blumenauer, meanwhile, also wrote to fellow members of Congress urging them to declare climate change an emergency in a bid to “swiftly mobilize federal resources in response.”
The resolution, according to the outlet, details how climate change impacts public health and national security of the U.S., though it doesn’t make any exact recommendations how to address the so-called emergency.
The latest declaration comes after Ocasio-Cortez’s signature Green New Deal, a sweeping Democratic proposal for dealing with climate change, failed a test vote in the U.S. Senate back in March, with 42 Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., voting “present.”
Both the New York Democrat and her colleagues decried Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s move to bring the Green New Deal up for a vote, saying the Republicans purposely rushed the vote while McConnell only wanted Democrats to go on record to support the sweeping proposal that he himself called “a radical, top-down, socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy.”
The Green New Deal calls for the U.S. to shift away from fossil fuels such as oil and coal and replace them with renewable sources such as wind and solar power. It calls for virtual elimination by 2030 of greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming. Republicans have railed against the proposal, saying it would devastate the economy and trigger massive tax increases.
It remains unclear how the new resolution differs from the Green New Deal, though a spokesperson for Sanders told the magazine that unlike President Trump’s emergencies, the climate change declaration warrants the use of emergency powers.
“President Trump has routinely declared phony national emergencies to advance his deeply unpopular agenda,” the spokesperson said. “On the existential threat of climate change, Trump insists on calling it a hoax.”

Pelosi calls for Acosta to step down over Epstein plea deal, hits Trump

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late Monday called on Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta to step down for what she called an “unconscionable agreement” with Jeffrey Epstein, who was charged earlier with sex trafficking in New York City federal court.
Acosta, who was a U.S. attorney in Miami back in 2008, helped Epstein secure a plea deal that resulted in an 18-month sentence. He served 13 months. The deal was criticized as lenient because he could have faced a life sentence.
Pelosi said in a tweet late Monday that Acosta’s agreement with Epstein was kept from his “young victims” and prevented them from seeking justice. She said Trump was aware of the background when Acosta was appointed.
Acosta negotiated a deal that resulted in two state solicitation charges—a felony—and resulted in county jail. There were no federal charges. The Washington Post reported that Epstein was allowed to work from his office six days a week. The alleged victims were not told about the deal, the report said.
The Miami Herald called the allegations back then “stomach-turning.” They included allegations that the wealthy financier lured dozens of troubled girls to an estate in Palm Beach and had sex with them. The paper’s editorial called the allegations a “Ponzi scheme,” because he would allegedly use new girls to recruit more.
The Herald’s editorial said that in 2008, Acosta kept the alleged victims out of the process and failed to "even inform them of his lenient plea deal with Epstein. In February, U.S. Judge Kenneth Marra ruled that Acosta’s office broke the law by not telling Epstein’s victims of the sweetheart deal. In contrast, [U.S. Attorney Geoffrey] Berman, has issued a public call for women to contact his office to help him build his sex-trafficking case against Epstein.”
Acosta has defended the plea deal as appropriate under the circumstances, though the White House said in February that it was “looking into” his handling of the deal.
Epstein, the 66-year-old hedge fund manager, was charged in a newly unsealed federal indictment with sex trafficking and conspiracy during the early 2000s. He could get up to 45 years in prison if convicted. Prosecutors alleged that Epstein, who was arrested on Saturday, preyed on "dozens" of victims as young as 14.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., told Fox News that Epstein’s initial sentence was “absurd” and said it is not a time "for people to say, ‘oh, is a Republican or Democrat going to be implicated?’ Every American should stand on the side of those little girls."
Two White House officials told The Washington Post that Trump does not have plans to force out Acosta.
Epstein has pleaded not guilty.
Fox News' Gregg Re and the AP contributed to this report

Ilhan Omar Cartoons

Tom Steyer may launch 2020 presidential campaign this week: reports

California liberal billionaire Tom Steyer is reconsidering running for president in 2020 despite declining to enter the crowded race of Dems vying for the White House months ago, reports said.
Steyer, an environmentalist who's spent billions in ad dollars and other efforts to urge the impeachment of President Trump, told staffers last week he plans to formally launch his 2020 campaign Tuesday, three people familiar with his plans told Politico. Steyer would become the twenty-sixth Democrat competing for the party’s nomination to take on Trump.
He revealed his plan during a private conference call with his San Francisco office and two progressive organizations he funds, Need to Impeach and NextGen America, but has yet to make the bid public, the Atlantic also reported.
Steyer told people he would announce his 2020 campaign in January only to travel to Des Moines to declare he was not running. He instead used the trip to hold a town hall for his Need to Impeach group, which over the course of two years has grown to be the largest progressive-leaning organization in the country with 8 million members, the Atlantic reported.
At the time, the 62-year-old former hedge fund manager said he would not run because he was satisfied with Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s plan for the nation’s economy and supported Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s campaign’s focus on climate change. A source knowledgeable of Steyer’s plan said he’s still satisfied with Warren's campaign but is disappointed Inslee hasn’t broken one-percent in the polls, the Atlantic reported.
Steyer also is reportedly frustrated with House Dems for not scheduling impeachment hearings. A source told the Atlantic that Steyer’s campaign would challenge President Trump’s claim that the economy is thriving under his leadership. That person said Steyer would also challenge Trump’s identity as a billionaire turned politician, given that Steyer is a “self-made” billionaire himself.
Steyer touted with the idea of running for office in the past. He said he'd run for California governor in 2018 and the Senate in 2016 but failed to enter either race.

State driver’s license databases prove valuable for FBI, ICE for facial-recognition searches: report

Federal authorities have had access to millions of Americans’ photos without their consent or approval from Congress by tapping into state driver’s license databases and have turned into an “unprecedented surveillance infrastructure” that some critics see as an "ask-permission-later" system, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
The agencies reportedly using the databases include the F.B.I and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Most of the photos at the DMV are of citizens never charged with a crime and not the subject of an investigation.
“It’s really a surveillance-first, ask-permission-later system,” Jake Laperruque, a senior counsel at a government watchdog, told the paper. He said the FBI alone “does 4,000 searches every month, and a lot of them go through state DMVs.”
ICE did not immediately respond to an email from Fox News late Sunday. An agency spokesman told the paper that its "investigative techniques are generally considered law-enforcement sensitive.”
The FBI did not immediately respond to Fox News, but referred the paper to last month’s testimony of a top agency official who called facial-recognition critical to “preserve our security.”
The Post's exclusive report cited internal documents obtained by a public-records request by researchers from Georgetown Law. The report, citing a Government Accountability Office memo last month, also said that since 2011, the FBI has logged 390,000 facial-recognition searches in various departments, including the DMV.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., told the paper in an email that access to this information by law enforcement is often done in the “shadows” and with no consent.
The report said 21 states allow the practice, while cities like San Francisco have banned public agencies from the procedure.

UK Trade Minister to apologize after leaked cables call Trump 'inept' and 'clumsy': report

The U.K.’s Trade Minister on Monday said he will apologize to Ivanka Trump after leaked diplomatic cables showed Britain’s ambassador to the United States describing President Trump as “dysfunctional” and “inept.”
Britain’s Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox is scheduled to meet with Ivanka Trump during his visit to Washington, Reuters reported.
“I will be apologizing for the fact that either our civil service or elements of our political class have not lived up to the expectations that either we have or the United States has about their behavior, which in this particular case has lapsed in a most extraordinary and unacceptable way,” Fox told BBC radio.
Ambassador Kim Darroch described the Trump administration as “diplomatically clumsy and inept” and said he doubted it would become “substantially more normal,” in one of several memos published by the Mail on Sunday.
Trump condemned Darroch, asserting that he has “not served the U.K. well,” and saying: “We are not big fans of that man.”
Fox also cautioned that the leak of confidential memos could damage relations between the two countries.
“Malicious leaks of this nature are unprofessional, unethical and unpatriotic and can actually lead to a damage to that relationship which can therefore affect our wider security interest,” Fox said.
Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report.