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Kellyanne Conway says critics employ Hatch Act to 'silence' her support for Trump

Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway responded to critics Monday after formally defying a Hatch Act-related subpoena from the House Oversight Committee.
Her opponents are concerned about her effectiveness at her job and hoped to silence her, Conway said Monday on "Hannity."
"I'm concerned that there's such a weaponization and politicization of this thing called the Hatch Act," she said.
The Hatch Act limits political activity by federal workers. Congress approved the Hatch Act in 1939 to limit partisan activity by federal employees to ensure the government functions fairly and effectively.
The Office of Special Counsel -- separate from the office formerly run by Special Counsel Robert Mueller -- opened two cases focused on allegations Conway violated the Hatch Act by engaging in “both official and political activity” -- during her media appearances and on her Twitter account, @KellyannePolls.
The report stated, "Ms. Conway regularly participated in official media interviews in her capacity as a White House spokesperson to answer reporters’ questions about the Administration. Beginning in February 2019, Ms. Conway, during official media appearances, engaged in a pattern of partisan attacks on several Democratic Party candidates shortly after they announced their candidacy for President,” detailing instances involving Sens. Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren, and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke.
The OSC stated that in one Feb. 19 interview on "Fox & Friends," Conway “insinuated that Senator Booker was ‘sexist’ and a ‘tinny’ ‘motivational speaker,’” and claimed Warren, D-Mass., was “’lying’” about her ethnicity.
Conway said that no matter how heavy the pressure is on her to keep a low profile, she will continue to publicly support the president's policies.
"They're not going to silence me," she said. "They're not going to take away my First Amendment rights."
Conway also “attacked” O’Rourke for not “thinking the women running are good enough to be President.”
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report

Acting CBP Commissioner: Some critics either misinformed or lying about agency, actions

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are being wrongfully criticized and attacked by misinformed or intentionally misguided people, according to Mark Morgan, the acting CBP commissioner said.
Law enforcement and the intelligence community are likely successfully tracking potential threats against the agency and its infrastructure, Morgan claimed Monday on "The Ingraham Angle."
"It's absolutely dangerous," he said of some of the opposition to the agency's mission of border enforcement.
"I have full confidence that the law enforcement mechanisms and intelligence agencies are watching these groups."
"A lone wolf or violent extremist are very hard to prevent," he said, referring to a 69-year-old Antifa activist shot and killed by Washington state police after attacking an ICE facility in the Evergreen State.
The group Seattle Antifascist Action described assailant Willem Van Spronsen a "good friend and comrade" who "took a stand against the fascist detention center in Tacoma" and "became a martyr who gave his life to the struggle against fascism."
Van Spronsen was armed with a rifle and incendiary devices when he launched his assault on the Northwest Detention Center around 4 a.m. Saturday, according to the Tacoma Police Department. Employees reported he was throwing 'incendiary devices' and setting vehicles on fire and the first officers on the scene said he was wearing a sachet and carrying flares.
In light of van Spronsen's attack, Morgan slammed some of the rhetoric from agency opponents and critics.
"The rhetoric that's out there from our own elected leaders -- they're attacking the men and women of ICE, they're attacking the men and women of CBP," he said.
"It's unjust, it's unfair, it's misinformed, and outright sometimes, they're just lying to the American people and it's undoubtedly fueling this."
Of the comparison between border detention facilities and World War II-era concentration camps, Morgan said the two are completely different.
"In the concentration camps, the Nazis were killing people. Customs and Border Protection are saving lives," he said.
Fox News' Travis Fedschun contributed to this report.

Hannity: 'The radicals are in charge'

Fox News' Sean Hannity focused Monday night on the change within the Democratic Party, declaring once again that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is now the leader and that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is "powerless."
"They are on the verge of an all-out civil war. Nancy Pelosi has lost complete control of her radical socialist base. Freshman Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman Tlaib and Omar and Ayanna Pressley are now running the show," Hannity said on his television show.
"Speaker Pelosi is now totally powerless."
Hannity was reacting to past comments made by the four congresswomen who responded to President Trump's controversial tweets Sunday calling for the progressive congresswomen to "go back" to where they came from.
Trump doubled down Monday calling out the lawmakers for their Anti-American "hate."
Hannity warned that "radicals" within the Democratic Party will use identity politics to attack any that oppose them including other Democrats to "reshape America."
"It does not matter what Speaker Pelosi says, what she does. The radicals who are in charge, anyone who opposes them of course quickly labeled xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist, sexist, and a bigot and want dirty air and water," Hannity told his audience.
"The so-called 'squad' of far left freshmen congresswomen are now using identity politics even against members of their own party. The end goal is to fundamentally reshape America."
The Fox News host also pointed out the influence this "wing" has on the Democratic presidential candidates.
"The base of the Democratic Party is so powerful that every 2020 hopeful has adopted their fringe socialist policies. And if they don't adopt it completely they are trashed by many of the four," Hannity said.
Hannity blasted the four congresswomen for calling for the impeachment of President Trump Monday during a press conference and for their vision of the country.
"They don't want to improve this country. They want to remake this country into something we all know will fail," Hannity said. "They want to impeach the one person that's been standing in their way."
Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report.

Extra protection sought for certain lawmakers after Trump's comments about 'squad' (Crying Dems)

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., was seeking extra protection for members of Congress on Monday after President Trump’s tweets and remarks about the progressive “squad.”
Trump’s remarks apparently were directed at four congresswomen: Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. All are American citizens and three of the four were born in the U.S.
Far from backing down, Trump on Monday dug in on comments he had initially made a day earlier on Twitter that if lawmakers “hate our country,” they can go back to their “broken and crime-infested” countries.

The House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., right, is seeking extra protection for members of Congress. The letter is addressed to Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger, left, because, this year, he heads the Capitol Police Board. (Getty, File)

“If you’re not happy in the U.S., if you’re complaining all the time, you can leave, you can leave right now,” he said.
In the letter for House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving and Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger, Thompson argued that the Capitol Police Board should meet to “analyze the current threat environment and set thresholds for enhanced safety of Members.”
Thompson asked for a meeting within 48 hours and a classified readout of the meeting.
The letter was addressed to Stenger because he has headed the Capitol Police Board this year.
Thompson said security officials should set “thresholds for enhanced security for certain targeted Members, and evaluate threat streams with law enforcement partners in Member districts. Being proactive in this instance is vital to the safety of not only these targeted Members, but all Members of Congress.”
Fox News has been told that despite Thompson’s pleas, other lawmakers have faced more serious threats than members of the squad ahead of Trump's tweets.

American Townhall Cartoons

O’Rourke says he and wife descended from slave owners, has ‘more personal connection’ to slavery

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke revealed on Twitter Sunday that he and his wife Amy are both descended from slave owners.
“Something that we’ve been talking about in town hall meetings – the legacy of slavery in the United States – now has a much more personal connection,” O’Rourke said. “I was recently given documents showing that both Amy and I are descended from people who owned slaves.”
O’Rourke included a link to a medium.com article he wrote titled “Rose and Eliza,” in reference to two slaves one his distance relatives owned.
“A paternal great-great-great grandfather of mine, Andrew Cowan Jasper, owned these two women in the 1850s,” O’Rourke wrote.

Democratic presidential candidate, former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke speaks at the Manchester Democrats annual Potluck Picnic at Oak Park in Manchester, N.H. (AP)

He added that records also showed that an ancestor of his wife, Amy, owned slaves while another was part of the Confederate Army.
O’Rourke noted that he’s spoken about the legacy of slavery in the U.S. while campaigning, but that such discussions now have “a much more personal connection.”
O’Rourke’s disclosure comes as discussions of reparations for slavery have become a hot-button issue among Democratic candidates for the 2020 presidential election.
Last month House Democrats held a hearing on reparations for slavery for the first time in more than a decade. The panel’s aim was to “examine, through open and constructive discourse, the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.”
Fox News Gerren Keith Gaynor and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trump, after tweet backlash, hits Dems 'sticking up for' people bad-mouthing America

After triggering backlash over tweets urging progressive congresswomen to go back to their "broken and crime infested" home countries, President Trump appeared unbowed Sunday night, suggesting it was "so sad" to see Democrats sticking up for the lawmakers.
"So sad to see the Democrats sticking up for people who speak so badly of our Country and who, in addition, hate Israel with a true and unbridled passion. Whenever confronted, they call their adversaries, including Nancy Pelosi, 'RACIST,'" Trump tweeted. "Their disgusting language... and the many terrible things they say about the United States must not be allowed to go unchallenged."
He continued, "If the Democrat Party wants to continue to condone such disgraceful behavior, then we look even more forward to seeing you at the ballot box in 2020!"
Trump’s earlier attack drew a searing condemnation from Democrats who labeled the remarks racist and breathtakingly divisive. The president’s tweets led Democrats in large part to set aside their internal rifts to rise up in a united chorus against the president. Republicans remained largely silent.
Trump's tweets did not name any specific congresswomen. However, among his frequent targets is Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., the first Somali native elected to Congress and one of its first Muslim women. She was born in Somalia but spent much of her childhood in a Kenyan refugee camp as civil war tore apart her home country.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, was born in the Bronx, N.Y., and raised in suburban Westchester County. Trump's latest tweets appeared to reference Ocasio-Cortez; she had accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., of "singling out" women of color last week, although she later denied she was accusing Pelosi of racism.
Ocasio-Cortez had fired back at Trump's initial tweets. "You are angry because you can’t conceive of an America that includes us. You rely on a frightened America for your plunder," she tweeted, later adding: "But you know what’s the rub of it all, Mr. President? On top of not accepting an America that elected us, you cannot accept that we don’t fear you, either. You can’t accept that we will call your bluff & offer a positive vision for this country. And that’s what makes you seethe."
Omar, for her part, responded to Trump's latest tweets by quoting author James Baldwin: "There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who knows he is going under, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Nothing can help that man. What is left of that man flees from what is left of human attention."
Pelosi tweeted, "When @realDonaldTrump tells four American Congresswomen to go back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to 'Make America Great Again' has always been about making America white again. Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power."

Peter Thiel says FBI, CIA should investigate if Chinese intelligence infiltrated Google: report

Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel on Sunday called for the FBI and CIA to investigate whether Chinese intelligence had infiltrated Google, according to a report.
Thiel, who supported Trump in 2016 and Facebook board member, made the comments during a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington. He said the FBI and CIA needed to ask Google three questions to determine if the tech giant had been compromised by Chinese intelligence, Axios reported.

FILE: A Google Home Hub is displayed in New York.  (AP)

“Number one: How many foreign intelligence agencies have infiltrated your Manhattan Project for AI (artificial intelligence)?” Thiel reportedly asked. “Number two: Does Google’s senior management consider itself to have been thoroughly infiltrated by Chinese intelligence?”
Thiel then slammed Google for its decision to work with the Chinese military while refusing to renew a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.
“Number three: Is it because they consider themselves to be so thoroughly infiltrated that they have engaged in the seemingly treasonous decision to work with the Chinese military and not with the US military,” Thiel said.
Google has faced criticism over its work on a censored search engine – “Project Dragonfly” – that would allow it to return to China after leaving in 2010 over human rights concerns. The company dropped the project after members of the company's privacy team raised complaints.
Other reports said that Google decided not to renew its contract for Project Maven – a controversial military program that uses artificial intelligence to improve drone targeting – which expired earlier this year.
Google did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
Fox News' Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

Pelosi and Mnuchin have been chatting on the phone, possible indicator that there’s a debt-limit issue

The Speaker of the House doesn’t talk to the Treasury Secretary on a Saturday night, then send him a letter, and, then blast out a press release, unless it’s urgent.
But that’s what happened Saturday night.
This is all about Washington’s second favorite, semi-annual acrobatic regimen: a fight over increasing the debt ceiling. Washington’s favorite exploit is a battle over funding the government. The latter will come in less than two months. But the former is here now – a little sooner than everyone thought.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin have become phone friends of late. They’ve burned up the lines more than teenyboppers singing “Telephone Hour” in Bye Bye Birdie.
Pelosi appears to prefer to work with Mnuchin on this issue – and do it telephonically.
The House Speaker has little use for acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. Multiple Congressional sources tell Fox that Mulvaney infuriated Democrats during the last set of bicameral, bipartisan meetings on the debt ceiling on Capitol Hill. Three weeks ago, a clearly agitated Pelosi told reporters she refused to “waste time” on Mulvaney’s characterization of her remarks in the session. She also said that Mulvaney “has no credibility” on the debt ceiling “whatsoever.”
That said, Mulvaney appears to be the administration official most in tune with the id of President Trump. So, lawmakers ignore Mulvaney - and Mr. Trump’s impulses - at their peril.
Still, Pelosi apparently prefers to use the phone to engage Mnuchin. And perhaps, the same is the case for Mnuchin when it comes to discourse with Pelosi. There’s a reason why Ambrose Bierce described the telephone as “an invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable keep his distance.”
To wit, regarding communications between Pelosi and Mnuchin:
The duo spoke last Wednesday night about an urgent need to raise the debt limit.
Pelosi and Mnuchin talked twice last Thursday. They spoke midday on Friday. Then the duo chatted for 12 minutes Saturday night.
Mnuchin sent Pelosi a letter underscoring the need hike the debt ceiling in the next couple of weeks. The Speaker responded with her own missive to the Treasury Secretary Saturday night.
The nation’s top political leaders don’t chat this often and volley communiques between one another - especially on a Saturday night – unless there’s a problem.
The problem is that a vote to increase the debt limit is one of the most onerous ballots lawmakers can cast. The problem is that no one wants to vote to authorize more debt. But the problem is that Congress must lift the debt threshold soon or risk a downgrade in the nation’s credit rating, rattle the stock market or send a shock through the bond market.
The problem is that Mnuchin is imploring Congress to raise the debt ceiling right away – before lawmakers abandon Washington for most of August and the traditional summer recess. That’s because few in Washington paid close attention to this issue until a few days ago. That’s when Mnuchin suggested the government could “run out of cash in early September, before Congress reconvenes.” Government reserves will soon dwindle to about $250 billion. The accelerated timetable is partly due to diminished revenues, attributable to the new tax law.
One could spot a signal that government coffers are going dry the other day: the yield of short-term Treasury bill yields. The return on a Treasury bill maturing in mid-September is now higher than those ripening in mid-August. People are also not investing in shorter-term government securities - another sign of possible trouble.
If Congress and the Trump Administration don’t act soon, federal cash reserves could wane and the government could scuffle to meet liquidity needs.
By sending out a letter on a Saturday night, Pelosi is trying to sound an alarm, emphasizing to lawmakers the need to expeditiously raise the debt ceiling.
Official Washington has long known about the need to raise the debt ceiling. The sides were talking months ago about marshaling a two-year agreement on the spending caps and mixing it with the debt limit. Back in May, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) suggested they were so close that an accord could just be hours away.
But then talks melted.
In her Saturday night epistle to Mnuchin, Pelosi insisted the sides cut a deal on “spending priorities.” This is a reference to stalled efforts to lift mandatory spending caps Congress imposed in a 2011 package to boost the debt ceiling. In Washington, the caps are commonly referred to as “sequestration.” Sequestration hits defense especially hard because the Pentagon commands the largest chunk of money doled out by Congress each year. President Trump wants more for defense. Democrats are willing to bend a little. But that’s why Pelosi is pushing for “parity.” In other words, Pelosi is requesting a parallel increase in funding for all non-defense programs, too.
Just a few days ago, a senior Congressional source told Fox that it looked like the sides may have to agree to a short-term extension of the debt limit. Technically, the spending cap issue doesn’t need to be resolved until mid-January. But Pelosi is coupling these issues now.
Meantime, many Congressional Republicans don’t want to just increase the debt limit unless it’s attached to something . Even if failing to address the debt ceiling issue threatens the market or the ability of the federal government to borrow. That’s why some on the GOP side have hoped for an imminent caps deal. A failure to latch the debt ceiling increase to a caps agreement could be an issue for some Senate Republicans.
This prompted some chatter about hooking the debt ceiling increase to the bill to fund the health coverage of sick 9/11 first responders. The House approved the plan 402-12 on Friday. McConnell promised to tackle the issue in the next couple of weeks. As he left the Capitol Friday afternoon, 9/11 first responder advocate Jon Stewart specifically spoke against Scotch taping the 9/11 bill to another measure or vice versa. But, when it comes to legislating, you don’t get style points.
And so, everyone in Washington has a problem without a lot of time to solve it. It’s possible Congress could nuke part of the August recess if something doesn’t come together quickly.
Expect more phone calls between Pelosi and Mnuchin.
Raising the debt ceiling is a monumental Congressional task. And while policymakers may negotiate this over the phone, hiking the debt ceiling is a subject so significant that you can’t just phone it in.