Jared Kushner met with the leaders of Jordan and Israel on Wednesday to outline the administration's Mideast peace plan on the first day of a five-country tour through the region. Kushner
first discussed the “Deal of the Century,” a plan for
Israeli-Palestinian peace, with King Abdullah II in Jordan before
heading to Israel for a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
The Jerusalem Post reported. The administration has been working on the plan for two years.
White House adviser Jared Kushner listens during a
proclamation signing with President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the
White House in Washington, March 25, 2019. (Associated Press)
After the meeting in Jordan, Abdullah reiterated “the
need to achieve just, comprehensive and lasting peace on the basis of
the two-state solution," Jordan's state news service said, according to
Al Arabiya. It’s not clear if the plan calls for a two-state solution, and it fails to address Israeli occupation, according to Al Arabiya. U.S.
Ambassador David Friedman, who attended the Kushner-Netanyahu meeting,
said the U.S. believes in “Palestinian autonomy,” according to The Post. Kushner will leave on Thursday for Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. The Trump administration has invited Arab leaders to a peace summit at Camp David in September to further discuss the plan. Israeli officials were involved in planning the summit but Netanyahu does not plan to attend.
Former Vice President Joe Biden
dominated the debate stage and weathered the attacks of nine opponents
for the Democratic presidential nomination Wednesday night, emerging the
clear winner and standing by his promise not be “overly polite.” In possibly the most contentious Democratic primary debate thus far, frontrunners Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris
of California sparred with each other and the other candidates over the
issues of health care, immigration, race relations and climate change. Following Harris’ and
Biden’s heated exchange over busing to achieve school integration in
the first debate, Biden was far more aggressive than in his previous
debate performance in responding to attacks from every candidate on
stage. The
former vice president delivered his message compellingly and
convincingly. Even during his less strong moments, Biden remained the
focal point of the conversation, speaking for over 21 minutes – more
than any other candidate on stage. On health care, in particular,
Biden displaying his in-depth policy knowledge while also rebutting
repeated attacks from Harris. Biden gave a strong defense of his
pragmatic plan to strengthen ObamaCare, while the confusion and lack of
clarity around Harris’ plan hindered her position.
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Biden also successfully took aim at what he has called Harris’ “have it every which way approach.” Health
care “is the single most important issue facing the public,” Biden said
to Harris. “To be very blunt ... you can't beat President Trump with
doubletalk on this plan.” Darkhorse candidate New York City Mayor
Bill de Blasio focused his efforts on attacking Biden directly,
particularly during the discussions over immigration and race relations.
But the attacks failed to create the searing moment that de Blasio had
hoped for and did not seem to damage Biden in any meaningful way. On
another front, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii scored points against
Harris while addressing criminal justice reform and race. Gabbard took
aim at the racial implications of Harris’ tough-on-crime record as a
California attorney general, leaving Harris without a rebuttal on an
issue that the senator commanded during the last debate.
Despite
Biden’s strong performance and solid frontrunner status, it is clear
that the party has seismically shifted away from the centrist Democratic
Party of the 1990’s, making his path to the nomination far from
certain.
Gabbard told Harris: “When you were in a
position to make a difference and an impact in these people's lives, you
did not and worse yet in the case of those who are on death row, you
blocked evidence from being revealed that would have freed them until
you were forced to do so.” “There's no excuse for that and the people who suffered under your reign as prosecutor, you owe them an apology,” Gabbard added. At best, Harris met expectations but fell short of being the focal point of the night as she was at the debate last month. The
only substantive losers were minor candidates such as Sen. Kirsten
Gillibrand of New York and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. Both have
consistently polled at or below the 2 percent threshold and did not get
the debate moment that they likely needed to enhance their candidacies
in order to qualify for the next round of debates. Although
businessman Andrew Yang did not have a resounding debate moment, the
universal-basic-income advocate will likely still secure a spot in the
fall debates due to the strength of his grassroots support. Moreover,
despite Biden’s strong performance and solid frontrunner status, it is
clear that the party has seismically shifted away from the centrist
Democratic Party of the 1990’s, making his path to the nomination far
from certain. Though Biden controlled this debate in many ways,
his two leading opponents were absent from the stage of the CNN debate
in Detroit. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of
Massachusetts, both competing for the support of the far left, debated
Tuesday night. Under
attack for being too moderate, Biden delivered a powerful response when
asked how he can appeal to progressives in the Democratic Party. He
drew on his past success in winning elections and scoring major
achievements in governing during his long career and emphasized his
clear appeal to Midwest and working-class voters. “I was asked to
manage an $87 billion plan that would be spent in a total of 18 months
that revived this state and many others … and it kept us out of a
depression,” Biden said, referring to his work as vice president to help
the auto industry and the country as a whole climb out of the Great
Recession shortly after he took office with former President Barack
Obama. Biden
said he led the economic recovery effort with just a fraction of 1
percent waste or fraud, “and our administration pushed bailing General
Motors out saving tens of thousands of jobs here in this state.” Ultimately,
the strength of Biden’s performance made it clear that he is prepared
to combine the policy knowledge and experience necessary to take on
President Trump and potentially win in November 2020. He clearly remains
the candidate who will be tough to beat for the Democratic presidential
nomination.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
agreed that Israel is “criminal” in its treatment of Palestinians, whom
she said have no other choice but to “riot” against the Jewish state. The
New York Democrat made her remarks during an appearance on the hip-hop
program “Ebro in the Morning” with Ebro Darden, where they touched on a
variety of issues concerning the freshman congresswoman. The host asserted that “corrupt” governments in Israel, the United States, Russia and Saudi Arabia were “all working in concert.” “How
do you have white supremacist Jews?” Ebro asked. “How do you have
people like Stephen Miller? How do you have these individuals who are
legit aligning with racism and white supremacy, but they're Jewish? And
it's something that most people can't wrap their brains around. But it's
a real thing.”
“How do you have white supremacist
Jews? How do you have people like Stephen Miller? How do you have these
individuals who are legit aligning with racism and white supremacy, but
they're Jewish? — Ebro Darden, host of “Ebro in the Morning”
He
added: “And what's going on with Israel and Palestine, while it's very,
very, deep, it is very, very, criminal, and it is very, very unjust.” But
rather than push back against the claims, Ocasio-Cortez agreed with
them, saying “Absolutely” and adding that “I think, too, where we're at
as a country when it comes to Israel-Palestine is very much a
generational issue.” She said the right-wing unfairly accuses her of anti-Semitism when she’s actually just being critical of the Israeli government. “Criticizing
the occupation doesn't make you anti-Israel, frankly. It doesn't mean
that you are against the existence of a nation,” she said. “It means
that you believe in human rights, and it's about making sure that
Palestinian human rights are equal to Israeli human rights, and there
are a lot of troubling things happening there.” Ocasio-Cortez went on to say that Palestinians also have no other choice but to resort to violence as they are “marginalized.”
"I
believe that injustice is a threat to the safety of all people, because
once you have a group that is marginalized and marginalized and
marginalized—once someone doesn't have access to clean water, they have
no choice but to riot, right?" — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“Jewish
people have been persecuted throughout all of human history, but I
don't think that by marginalizing Palestinians, you create safety,” she
said. “I believe that injustice is a threat to the safety of all
people, because once you have a group that is marginalized and
marginalized and marginalized — once someone doesn't have access to
clean water, they have no choice but to riot, right? And it doesn't have
to be that way.” The
Democrat’s remarks come at a time she and her fellow progressive
freshman colleagues are being accused of anti-Semitism for embracing the
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Two
other Democrats, Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, have recently
compared boycotts of Nazi Germany to the boycott of Israel.
A lengthy joke about cows, sex and women apparently turned out to be no laughing matter in North Carolina this week. It has prompted the resignation of the chairman of the state’s elections board. Bob Cordle reportedly told the joke Monday before hundreds of elections officials from across the state,
many of whom were women. On Tuesday he submitted his resignation to
Gov. Roy Cooper, who appointed him earlier this year. Both Cordle and
Cooper are Democrats. "I sincerely apologize to those who heard my
joke at the elections conference on Monday and all those affected by my
words," he wrote. He had said he believed the joke drew “a big laugh” when he told it, Raleigh’s WRAL-TV reported. Cordle
is the third state elections chairman to resign in North Carolina since
December, the News & Observer of Raleigh reported. After word spread that Cordle had told the joke, a blogger posted a version of the joke in a post titled, “How Did Bob Cordle Get To Be Chair of the NC State Board of Elections?”
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper speaks at the governor's mansion in Raleigh, N.C., Dec. 19, 2018. (Associated Press)
North Carolina’s elections board has faced a string of controversies in recent months, according to the News & Observer. Last
December, then-Chairman Andy Penry resigned over a string of social
media posts, including some that took shots at President Trump. Cooper
appointed Josh Malcolm to replace Penry, but Malcolm opted against
rejoining the board after allegations of election fraud in a U.S. House
race led to a power struggle between Cooper and Republican leaders in
the state General Assembly, the newspaper reported. Then Cooper appointed Cordle in February. After Cordle resigned, the spokesman for the state Republican Party blasted Cooper. “For a career politician who spent more than 30 years in state government, @RoyCooperNC continues to prove he has no idea what he’s doing,” Jeff Hauser wrote on Twitter.
President
Trump’s campaign claimed victory on Tuesday after some of the top 2020
Democrats faced off on CNN in a debate that showed a major divide among
some candidates on how far left to take the country. “Same
radical Democrats,” the statement from Trump’s campaign, read. “Same big
government socialist message. Same winner of tonight’s debate:
President Donald Trump.” Trump
has been making an effort to attempt to overshadow early Democratic
debates. Last month, he mocked NBC News for technical issues during its
debate and posted a satirical video showing him appearing at the debate
to “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne. The
Democratic debate on Tuesday did not result in a clear winner, although
longshot political outsider Marianne Williamson was the night’s most
“Googled” candidate. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D- Mass., and Sen. Bernie
Sanders, I-Vt., were pulled into what was essentially a
two-and-a-half-hour fight with their more moderate rivals. The
result was the party's divide on full display, with the center-left
(and lower-polling) contenders fiercely arguing that policies like
"Medicare-for-all" and the Green New Deal. Fox News’ Edmund DeMarche, Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report
Fox News contributor Lawrence Jones traveled to Detroit, home of this week's Democratic presidential debates, to hear directly from residents how they view the performance of local politicians. Several of those residents, in interviews aired Tuesday on "Hannity," told Jones they rarely see lawmakers in the flesh. "The
leaders here, do you think they are representing the community
effectively?" Jones asked one woman who was on the front porch of her
home. "Who are they?" the woman responded. She told Jones she doesn't see them in her neighborhood very often. Another
woman told Jones that politicians and candidates often "talk a good
game" during campaign season but do little once elected. "It's hard when it comes up to campaign time to select someone," she said. She
added that crime and general conditions in the area make her want to
leave her neighborhood despite having lived there for decades. "I feel bad," she said. "I want to go," she said. "I've been here 66 years and I want to go." The first woman Jones spoke with concurred. "It's time to go, there's nothing here," she said. Recounting his trip to host Sean Hannity,
Jones said that he and his crew left the neighborhood for a while after
conducting interviews, then returned to find the quiet street a
homicide scene. "It's a depressing state here," he said. "There
has to be an opening for conservatives and Republicans to go into these
communities," Jones said. "I don't think these people care about party
at this point, they just want someone to fix their pain." Additionally, one resident Jones interviewed told him the recurrence of crime has affected her children's sleeping habits. "My
kids say, 'You all hear the gunfire?' and jump on the floor and that's
where they slept -- they refused to get back in bed because they heard
gunfire back there," she said.
President Trump signed a bill to extend health funding for the heroes
who responded to the tragic September 11th terrorist attacks. He signed
the 9/11 victims compensation bill, also known as H.R. 1327, during a
ceremony Monday. The move marked an end to weeks of congressional
debates.
“For your entire lives you have gone
far beyond your duty to us and today we strive to fulfill our sacred
duty to you. We love you, we honor you and we thank you. God bless you
all.” — President Trump
The bill will extend funds to pay for medical expenses of police
officers, firefighters, and other first responders who are experiencing
illnesses related their rescue efforts following the attack.
President
Donald Trump holds up H.R. 1327, an act ensuring that a victims’
compensation fund related to the Sept. 11 attacks never runs out of
money, after signing it in the Rose Garden of the White House as member
of the audience applaud and celebrate, Monday, July 29, 2019, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
“This critical legislation would fully fund the September 11th
compensation fund to make sure all those exposed and impacted by the
related illnesses are thoroughly compensated, and for those conditions
diagnosed in the future,” stated Senator Cory Garner (R-Colo.). Tens of thousands of responders reportedly stepped in that day to
help search for survivors and manage the clean-up of the area. However,
that effort exposed them to toxic debris in the air, including asbestos,
lead and pulverized concrete. One of those heroes and an advocate for the legislation was Luis
Alvarez, a retired New York Police Department detective who testified
before Congress last month to tell of his battle with cancer and nearly
70 rounds of chemotherapy. “This fund is not a ticket to paradise, it’s to help take care of our
families when we cant,” he stated. “You all said never forget, well I’m
here to make sure that you don’t.” Alvarez died two weeks later. This measure is the first time the funds will be guaranteed to first
responders. Previously, lawmakers had to vote to renew the fund every
few years. The plan will now allow families to file claims through the
year 2090 and accept financial assistance through 2092.
A New Jersey law which will allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives will go into effect on Thursday in the state. The
Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act permits adult patients with six
months or less to live to obtain and self-administer life-ending
medication. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed the bill into law on
April 12 after the Democrat-led Assembly and Senate passed the measure
in close votes. “Allowing
residents with terminal illnesses to make end-of-life choices for
themselves is the right thing to do,” Murphy said in an April 12 press release upon signing the bill. Supporters
hail its passage as a victory in the so-called "right to die" movement.
Those in opposition say it fails to protect the most vulnerable members
of society and want the state to put more effort into improving its
health care system. The law mandates a psychiatrist
or psychologist first assess whether a person has the mental capacity to
decide to end their own life, the Washington Examiner
reported. A physician can then legally prescribe the drug to their
terminally ill patients who can administer the drug themselves. The
act has “safeguards” in place to prevent abuse, including requiring
patients to submit two requests for the life-ending medication and
giving patients the option to rescind the requests. Fox News’ Frank Miles and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
White House adviser Jared Kushner listens during a
proclamation signing with President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the
White House in Washington, March 25, 2019. (Associated Press)
