The drumbeat for Democratic National Committee boss Tom Perez to be “held accountable” for recent party failures appears to be getting louder. The latest Democrats to criticize Perez include U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., all backers of 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Recent
party setbacks have included the vote-count fiasco at Monday’s Iowa
caucuses and Tuesday night’s disclosure that two officials on the host
committee of the party’s upcoming national convention in Milwaukee had
been fired over non-specified allegations that they oversaw a work
environment where staff members were not being “respected.” IOWA MESS HAS PEREZ FACING DEM PARTY STORM, RESIGNATION CALLS Previously,
Democrats such as former Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Rep.
Marcia Fudge of Ohio, Washington state Democratic chairwoman Tina
Podlodowski and party strategist Neil Sroka spoke out against Perez’s
leadership. “He doesn’t lead on anything,” Fudge told Politico. On Friday, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar and Jayapal shared their views on the party chairman. “What’s
happened in Iowa is a complete disgrace and someone needs to be held
responsible,” Ocasio-Cortez said outside the U.S. Capitol, according to
the outlet. “I think there’s a conversation needed around taking
responsibility for Iowa and ensuring that this bungled process never
happens again.”
“What’s happened in Iowa is a complete disgrace and someone needs to be held responsible.” — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Queen Snake
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is seen in New York City, April 5, 2019. (Getty Images)
Omar mentioned Perez by name in her remarks. “I
would say Tom Perez should be held accountable for this failure,” Omar
told The Hill. “I believe it all starts from the top. These are things
that Tom should do and should have done. If this was happening in my
home state, we would be having a very serious conversation about what
accountability would look like for our own chair."
“I believe it all starts from the top. These are things that Tom should do and should have done." — Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
Princess Snake
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 6, 2019. (Associated Press)
Omar noted that the DNC had years to prepare for the
Iowa caucuses and said it was “devastating” that more precautions
weren’t in place to prevent this week’s vote-count situation. Jayapal called the Iowa caucuses a “national embarrassment,” and said others deserved blame in addition to Perez. “I’m sure there is shared blame to go around,” Jayapal told The Hill.
“But Tom Perez is the head of the DNC, and I do think that there
clearly was not the process in place to make sure all these [protocols]
were going to be followed.”
"Tom Perez is the head of
the DNC, and I do think that there clearly was not the process in place
to make sure all these [protocols] were going to be followed." — Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.
Mommy Snake
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 30, 2019. (Associated Press)
The criticism of Perez followed a Twitter message the
DNC leader posted Thursday, in which he blamed Iowa’s state-level
Democratic Party for the caucus problems. “Enough is enough,”
Perez wrote. “In light of the problems that have emerged in the
implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure
public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic
Party to immediately begin a recanvass.” Podlodowski accused Perez
of throwing Iowa officials “under the bus” after a long silence from
the national DNC amid the vote-counting problems. Neither news
organizations nor the Iowa Democratic Party have been able to call a
winner in Monday's Iowa caucuses while Pete Buttigieg and Sanders are
both claiming victory in the state. As of late Friday, Buttigieg
held a narrow lead in state delegate equivalents (SDEs), which help
decide how many delegates a candidate gets to bring to the Democratic
National Convention in Milwaukee later this year Sanders, on the
other hand, led in the popular vote from both the "first alignment" and
the "second alignment" phases of the caucuses. Those numbers could
change, however, as the IDP has noted many irregularities in its vote
count and it is highly likely candidates will call for reexaminations of
the numbers, as Perez already has. Meanwhile, DNC convention host
committee members Liz Gilbert and Adam Alonso were fired Tuesday
evening after initially being placed on leave following allegations made
in a Jan. 30 letter signed by committee staffers, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. “Every
employee has a right to feel respected in their workplace,” the host
committee said in a statement, the outlet reported. “Based on the
information we have learned to date, we believe the work environment did
not meet the ideals and expectations of the Milwaukee 2020 Host
Committee Board of Directors. Accordingly, Liz Gilbert and Adam Alonso
are no longer employed by the organization, effective immediately.” The staffers alleged that Alonso “consistently bullied and intimidated staff members,” in particular the women, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, and accused Gilbert of allowing “a culture that coddles male senior advisers and consultants.” Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Tyler Olson contributed to this story.
A Wisconsin public school teacher was reportedly placed on leave this week after he allegedly called Rush Limbaugh's advanced cancer diagnosis "awesome" and said he hopes the radio host's death is painful. "limbaugh
absolutely should have to suffer from cancer. it's awesome that he's
dying, and hopefully it is as quick as it is painful,” Travis Sarandos,
who teaches in Milwaukee, allegedly tweeted Monday, according to the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. RUSH LIMBAUGH ECHOES LOU GEHRIG IN RETURN TO RADIO, SAYS HE'S ‘ONE OF THE LUCKIEST PEOPLE ALIVE’ Sarandos
was replying to another tweet whose author said they hoped Limbaugh
recovered quickly and would advocate for affordable health care for
everyone, the newspaper reported. The teacher's tweet sparked a backlash after local radio host Mark Belling posted it on his blog Tuesday. Milwaukee Public Schools first said Sarandos did not speak for the district but later confirmed he had been placed on leave. Limbaugh announced on his radio show Monday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. On
Tuesday night, President Trump awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal
of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, during the State of the
Union address at the U.S. Capitol. Limbaugh returned to his show
Friday after missing three shows for treatments. He said those
supporting him since disclosing his diagnosis have made him feel like
"one of the luckiest people alive." Sarandos has since deleted his Twitter account, the Journal Sentinel reported.
And people wonder what the hell's wrong with the kids now a days?
A 60-year-old diagnosed with coronavirus in Wuhan, China, has reportedly become the first U.S. citizen to die of the novel virus. The patient died at Jinyintian Hospital in Wuhan on Thursday, The New York Times reported. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing confirmed the patient’s death Friday night but gave few other details. CORONAVIRUS IN CHINA GROW TO 722, MORE THAN 34,500 CASES REPORTED “We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,” a spokesman for the embassy said, according to the Times. “Out of respect for the family’s privacy, we have no further comment.” On Friday, the Chinese government reported 86 fatalities on the mainland in the viruses' deadliest day so far, the Washington Post reported. The fast-spreading virus has killed more than 700 and infected more than 34,500 in China as of Friday. A Japanese citizen "highly suspected" of having coronavirus has also died, Japan's foreign ministry reported, according to NBC News. Chinese
officials are still trying to stem the flow of infections in the
mainland as the virus continues to spread globally. The country's
ruling Communist Party is also dealing with public anger over the death of a doctor who was detained and threatened by authorities for spreading early warnings of the illness in December. As of Friday, 72 countries have implemented travel restrictions, according to the World Health Organization. So far 12 patients have been diagnosed with the virus in the U.S., but some have already been released from the hospital. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP President
Trump on Friday tweeted that he had a “good conversation by phone with
President Xi of China. He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on
leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus. He feels they are doing
very well, even building hospitals in a matter of only days. Nothing is
easy, but he will be successful.” Fox News' Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
Speaker
of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., holds a news conference the
morning after the impeachment of President Donald Trump ended in
acquittal, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020. (AP
Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Donald Trump’s impeachment ended with a reminder of why House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi resisted the idea for so long — an acquittal
everyone saw coming, followed by a bombastic presidential victory lap
and a bump in his poll numbers just as the 2020 campaign officially
began.
Now Democrats have to decide how to navigate the legislative and political landscape that they’ve helped reshape.
Pelosi’s
nationally televised ripping of her copy of Trump’s State of the Union
address Tuesday night underscored the acrid atmosphere that will make
partisan cooperation on any issue difficult. Major legislative
compromises were always going to be hard this election year, but the
impeachment fight only deepened partisan bitterness and made progress
less likely.
“Because
we have to,” No. 2 House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said
when asked how Congress and Trump could cooperate on health care and
other issues. He added, “I’d be foolish to be optimistic because we have
not done that so far.”
Democrats
must also decide how vigorously to continue investigations, including
into impeachment’s focus: Trump’s effort to pressure Ukraine’s leaders
to bolster his reelection by seeking dirt on rival Joe Biden. The
GOP-controlled Senate acquitted Trump on Wednesday of both articles of
impeachment, with Utah Sen. Mitt Romney the sole lawmaker defying party
lines.
Former
White House national security adviser John Bolton could still have
damaging information about Trump and has expressed a willingness to
testify if subpoenaed. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold
Nadler, D-N.Y., told reporters Wednesday that House panels would likely
summon Bolton and pursue other Trump probes as well.
“When you have a lawless president, you have to bring that to the fore, you have to spotlight that,” Nadler said.
Even
as they consider the path ahead, neither Pelosi nor Democrats
controlling the House are second-guessing their decision to impeach
Trump.
Pelosi
stood as a bulwark against impeachment for months as pro-impeachment
sentiment rose steadily in her caucus, but when Trump’s dealings with
Ukraine came to light in September, the floodgates were forced open.
“Once Ukraine happened, we had no choice but to proceed,” said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt.
“And had we not (acted),” Welch added, “there would have been a huge price to pay politically.”
While
that’s a popular view with Democrats’ dominant liberal wing, many think
an overemphasis on Trump investigations risks feeding the Republican
narrative that overreaching Democrats are obsessed with pursuing him.
They also worry about detracting from Democrats’ focus on pocketbook
issues that helped them capture House control in the 2018 elections.
“I’m
hoping that’s a side show, and the big show is let’s work for the
American people” on issues like health care and infrastructure,” said
Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., co-chairman of the Blue Dog Coalition, which
represents around 25 moderate House Democrats.
Assessing impeachment’s political impact ahead of November’s elections is at least as fraught.
Democrats
say say despite Trump’s acquittal, the trial trained prolonged
attention on his sordid behavior and lashed GOP senators to him with
their votes absolving him. They say that will weaken their reelection
bids of GOP senators in swing states like Colorado, Maine and Arizona.
“This
reinforced the view that Trump is unethical and lacking in integrity,”
said Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin. “And it’s exposed a number of
Republican senators as hacks beholden to the president and Mitch
McConnell,” the Senate majority leader from Kentucky whom Democrats love
to target.
Republicans
counter that the effort has electrified GOP voters just months before
Election Day, citing a Gallup Poll showing Trump with a 49% job approval
rating, the highest of his presidency. They say Pelosi made tactical
errors that exposed Democrats’ impeachment drive as a blatantly
political exercise, in the process weakening more than two dozen House
Democrats from Trump-won districts.
“The
President has his highest approval rating since he’s been in office,”
said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “I can tell you as a poll
watcher who’s looking at polls in certain Senate races every one of our
people in tough races, every one of them, is in better shape today than
they were before the impeachment trial started.”
Republicans
were especially critical of House Democrats’ decision to not fight more
in the courts to obtain testimony and documents. Democrats said they
dropped such efforts because Trump could have forced legal battles
lasting months, effectively derailing the impeachment effort.
Republicans said that decision made it easy to portray Democrats as
caring less about a serious investigation than politics.
“You didn’t even bother to pull all the levers,” said Scott Jennings, a longtime political adviser to McConnell.
Many
Democrats say there would have been no way to prevent Republicans from
complaining that the investigation was political and lacked sufficient
evidence.
“They’d
have said that if you’d produced volumes more evidence,” said John
Lawrence, Pelosi’s chief of staff for eight years ending in 2013.
And
while Democrats collected compelling evidence against Trump, they made
the mistake of thinking they’d win by appealing broadly to voters, said
Brendan Buck, a GOP consultant who’s advised congressional leaders.
Republicans prevailed by aiming their arguments at the GOP’s core
conservative supporters, a tactic that has driven Trump’s presidency.
“Democrats seemed to play by the old rules and the president played by the new rules,” Buck said.
One
moderate House Democrat said Democrats facing difficult reelection
fights from Trump-leaning districts think Pelosi made tactical decisions
that could jeopardize them.
That
includes her one-month delay in formally sending the House’s
impeachment articles to the Senate. That fed the GOP argument that the
effort was political, said the Democrat, who spoke on condition of
anonymity to describe private conversations.
This
Democrat said lawmakers also recoiled at Pelosi’s decision to sign the
impeachment articles and distribute pens as mementos to colleagues. The
Democrat said voters in their districts often cited that televised
ceremony as evidence that impeachment was politically motivated.
“They
ran as, ‘I’m not just a regular Democrat, I’ll reach across party
lines,’” said former Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who once ran the House GOP’s
campaign organization. “And here they are impeaching the president like
this.”
One
thing many from both parties agree on: By November, impeachment could
well be superseded by other issues and will likely be conflated into an
overall referendum on Trump.
“My honest guess is that the public will very rapidly turn to kitchen table issues,” said former Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.
The
Treasury Department complied with a Republican-controlled Senate
inquiry into Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine and handed over
highly sensitive financial records and "evidence' of questionable
origin," a report on Thursday said. Biden, the son of former Vice
President Joe Biden, has been a favorite target for President Trump and
other Republicans who use him as an example of an extreme case of crony
capitalism. He once held a $50,000-a-month job with Ukrainian gas giant,
Burisima Holdings while his father served under then-President Obama.
His father was tasked with handling Ukraine policy at the time. SEE IT: JOE BIDEN HAS TENSE EXCHANGE WITH NBC'S SAVANNAH GUTHRIE Joe Biden, who is running for president, has consistently said his son did nothing wrong. Yahoo News first reported that the Treasury Department began to turn over the documents related to the Senate inquiry late last year. Sens.
Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee,
and Ron. Johnson, R-Wisc., the chairman of the Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee, requested the records in the form of a
suspicious activity report, also known as a SARs. They also requested
financial records through FinCEN, which is a branch of the Treasury
Department that eyes money laundering. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who
sits on the Finance Committee, told Yahoo News that the swift response
from Treasury is a "blatant double standard" considering how the Trump
administration responded to Democrats' effort to obtain documents and
witness testimony in his impeachment trial. "The administration
told House Democrats to go pound sand when their oversight authority was
mandatory while voluntarily cooperating with the Senate Republicans’
sideshow at lightning speed," a spokesman from Wyden told the website. Grassley
refused to identify what information Treasury provided when reached by
the New York Times, but said through a spokesman, "It's unfortunate that
Democrats whom we’ve kept in the loop on our investigations would
recklessly seek to interfere with legitimate government oversight." Grassely and Johnson announced in a letter Wednesday
they are also seeking “records of Hunter Biden’s travel while he was
under U.S. Secret Service protection as they continue to investigate
potential conflicts of interest to boost his business ventures in
Ukraine and China." TUCKER CARLSON SAYS HUNTER BIDEN CASE JUST A SLICE OF BROADER PROBLEM IN DC "We
write to request information about whether Hunter Biden used
government-sponsored travel to help conduct private business, to include
his work for Rosemont Seneca and related entities in China and
Ukraine," the senators wrote, referring to the company co-founded by the
younger Biden. Trump's impeachment trial was based on a phone
call he had with his Ukrainian counterpart where he asked him to
investigate the Bidens' dealings in the country. Democrats alleged that
Trump withheld military funding in order to put pressure on Kiev. Trump
denied any wrongdoing, was impeached in the House and acquitted in the
Senate impeachment trial. CLICK HERE FOR THE ALL-NEW FOXBUSINESS.COM The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to an after-hours email from Fox News. Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report
The White House
is reportedly weighing options to dismiss Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman
from the National Security Council (NSC) in an effort to shrink its
foreign policy bureaucracy, a report said. Bloomberg reported
that the White House plans to frame it as part of an NSC staff
downsizing, not a retaliation. Vindman gave testimony last year during
President Donald Trump's impeachment proceedings. Vindman
was an important witness for the Democrats in July and raised concerns
over Trump's phone call with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky. VINDMAN ACCUSES TRUMP OF MAKING IMPROPER UKRAINE 'DEMAND,' SAYS HE ALERTED INTEL OFFICIAL
National Security Council aide Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman is sworn
in to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill
in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019, during a public impeachment
hearing of President Donald Trump's efforts to tie U.S. aid for Ukraine
to investigations of his political opponents. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Vindman had drawn applause from spectators during his
testimony before the House Intelligence Committee -- after expressing
his love for America when asked how he overcame his fear of retaliation. ALEXANDER VINDMAN DRAWS APPLAUSE DURING IMPEACHMENT HEARING TESTIMONY: 'THIS IS AMERICA ... HERE, RIGHT MATTERS' "Congressman,
because this is America. This is the country I have served and
defended, that all of my brothers have served. And here, right matters,"
Vindman said. "I knew I was assuming a lot of risk. [My father] deeply
worried about [my testimony]. Because in his context, it was
the ultimate risk." CNN reported that Vindman has been telling colleagues that he expects to be leaving the NSC and return to work at the Department of Defense. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP His departure is expected to be soon after Trump was acquitted in the Senate impeachment trial. Fox News' Alex Pappas, Nick Givas and the Associated Press contributed to the report
At this moment there is a bill pending in Congress called the New Way Forward Act. It’s received almost no publicity, which is unfortunate as well as revealing. The legislation is sponsored by 44 House Democrats, including Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. At roughly 4,400 words, it’s almost exactly as long as the U.S. Constitution. Like
the Constitution, this legislation is designed to create a whole new
country. The bill would entirely remake our immigration system, with the
explicit purpose of ensuring that criminals are able to move here, and
settle here permanently, with impunity. TUCKER CARLSON: TRUMP'S ACQUITTAL WAS AS PREDICTABLE AS 'TITANIC' - MAYBE NOW WE CAN HAVE OUR COUNTRY BACK You may think we’re exaggerating for effect. We’re not – not even a little. The
New Way Forward act is the most radical single piece of legislation
we’ve seen proposed in this country. It makes the Green New Deal look
like the status quo. A document produced by Democrats to promote the bill says: “Convictions … should not lead to deportation.” Keep
in mind, we’re not talking about convictions for double parking. The
bill targets felony convictions – serious crimes that send you to prison
for years. A press release from Rep., Jesus Garcia, D-Ill., is explicit
about this. Garcia brags that the bill will break the “prison to
deportation pipeline.” How does the bill do that? Under current U.S.
law, legal U.S. immigrants can be deported if they commit an “aggravated
felony” or a “crime of moral turpitude” – that is, a vile, depraved
act, like molesting a child. Under the New Way Forward Act, “crimes of
moral turpitude” are eliminated entirely as a justification for
deportation. And the category of “aggravated felony” gets circumscribed
too. What does that mean? Consider this: Under current law,
immigrants who commit serious crimes – such as robbery, fraud, or child
sexual abuse – must be deported, regardless of the sentence they
receive. Other crimes – less severe ones like racketeering – require
deportation as long as the perpetrator receives at least a one-year
sentence. But if this bill passes the House and Senate and is
signed into law by the president, there will no longer be any crimes
that automatically require deportation. None. And one crime –
falsifying a passport – will be made immune from deportation, no matter
what. Because apparently 9/11 never happened, and we no longer care
about fake government documents.
More from Opinion
If
you just renewed your driver’s license to comply with the Real ID Act,
you must feel like an idiot. Under the proposed legislation, the minimum
prison sentence for crimes that still require deportation would rise
from one year to five.We checked the Bureau of Justice
Statistics. According to federal data, crimes like car theft, fraud, and
weapons offenses all carry average prison sentences of fewer than five
years. And that’s just looking at averages. There are people who commit
rape, child abuse and even manslaughter and receive sentences of fewer
than five years. Lots of them. If the New Way Forward Act becomes
law, immigrants who commit those crimes and receive those sentences
would remain in the country. They’ll all be eligible for citizenship one
day, too. But even that is understating the law’s effect. Even a
five-year prison sentence won’t necessarily be enough to secure
deportation. The bill would grant sweeping new powers to immigration
judges, allowing them to nullify a deportation order. The only
requirement is that “the immigration judge finds such an exercise of
discretion appropriate in pursuit of humanitarian purposes, to assure
family unity, or when it is otherwise in the public interest.” In other
words, anti-American immigration judges – and many of them are exactly
that – would have a blank check to open the borders. No vote required.
Sound shocking to you? We’re just
getting started. Current U.S. law makes drug addiction grounds for
deportation, because why wouldn’t it? This bill would eliminate that
statute. Current law also states that those who have committed
drug crimes abroad, or any “crimes involving moral turpitude,” are
ineligible to immigrate here. The New Way Forward Act abolishes that
statute. A Mexican drug cartel leader could be released from
prison, then freely come to America immediately. And if he wants, he
could come here illegally, and it wouldn’t be a crime – because, and you
were waiting for this, the bill also decriminalizes illegal entry into
America, even by those previously deported. According to a document promoting the bill, criminalizing illegal entry into America is “white supremacist.” By this point, you’re beginning to wonder if we’re making this up. We’re not. In fact, we’re barely halfway through the bill. The
legislation doesn’t just make it harder to deport legal immigrants who
commit crimes. It doesn’t just make it easier for criminals to legally
move here. The bill would also effectively abolish all existing
enforcement against illegal immigration. To detain illegal
immigrants, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would have to
prove in court that the illegal immigrants are dangerous or a flight
risk. But of course, ICE wouldn’t be allowed to use a detainee’s prior
criminal behavior as proof he or she is dangerous. That's banned. ICE
would have to overcome even more hurdles if the detainee claims to be
gay or transgender, under 21, or can’t speak English and an interpreter
isn’t immediately available. In other words, it would be much
harder to arrest an illegal alien than it is to arrest you. They’re the
protected class here. You’re just some loser who’s paying for it all. But
believe it or not, we saved the nuttiest part for last. What could be
more destructive than changing U.S. law, specifically to allow rapists,
child molesters, and drug dealers to stay in America? How about this:
Using taxpayer money to bring deported criminals back into America. That’s
right. This bill would not only abolish your right to control who lives
in your own country, but it invents a new right in return: the “right
to come home.” The bill orders the government to create a “pathway
for those previously deported to apply to return to their homes and
families in the United States,” as long as they would have been eligible
to stay under the new law. The Department of Homeland Security
must spend taxpayer dollars transporting convicted criminal illegal
aliens into the United States. Who will be eligible for these free
flights? Tens of thousands of people kicked out of this country for all
kinds of crimes. Sexual abuse. Robbery. Assault. Drug trafficking,
weapons trafficking, human trafficking. From 2002 to 2018, 480,000
people were deported for illegal entry or reentry into America. And
under this bill, you’d have to buy them all a plane ticket to come back.
The tickets alone would cost about a billion dollars, and that’s before
Democrats make you start paying for these criminals’ free health care,
too. Which they plan to. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR OPINION NEWSLETTER The
New Way Forward Act fundamentally inverts every assumption you have
about America. Under this legislation, the criminals are the victims.
Law enforcement is illegitimate. It’s racist, just like the country you
live in, and the only solution is to get rid of both. America would be
better off as a borderless rest area for the world’s worst predators and
parasites. This is a big deal. It’s hard to believe any American
would put these ideas on paper, much less pass them into law. Yet,
remarkably, the press has ignored it. Scores of Democrats have backed
it, but the bill hasn’t been mentioned in The New York Times, or on CNN,
or even in self-described conservative outlets like National Review. If
a lone Republican state legislator from Minot, N.D., had proposed a
bill this extreme, that would remake America this completely, the
president himself would be expected to answer for it. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP CNN
would demand the president “disavow,” even if he knew nothing about it.
But when one-fifth of the Democratic caucus backs a bill demanding that
you pay to import illegal alien felons, it’s a non-event in American
media. They don’t think you should know about it. That’s dangerous. Whether
the press cares or not, these are the stakes of the 2020 election. A
growing wing of the Democratic Party views America as essentially
illegitimate – a rogue state, in which everything must be destroyed and
remade: our laws, our institutions, our freedoms, our history and our
values. That’s the point of all this, of course. An entirely new
country, in which resistance is crushed, and they’re in charge forever. Adapted from Tucker Carlson’s monologue on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Feb. 6, 2020.
MANILA,
Philippines (AP) — The Philippine foreign secretary warned Thursday
that abrogating a security accord with Washington would undermine his
country’s security and foster aggression in the disputed South China
Sea.
The
warning came after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened last month to
give notice to the U.S. to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement,
which allows American forces to train in the Philippines, if the
reported cancellation of the visa of his political ally, Sen. Ronald
dela Rosa, was not corrected within a month.
“I’m
warning you ... if you won’t do the correction on this, I will
terminate the ... Visiting Forces Agreement. I’ll end that son of a
bitch,” the brash-speaking Duterte said in a Jan. 23 speech.
Dela
Rosa served as Duterte’s first national police chief and enforcer of
the president’s deadly anti-drugs crackdown in 2016. Thousands of mostly
poor suspects have been killed under the campaign, alarming the U.S.
and other Western governments and human rights watchdogs.
Dela Rosa and later Duterte have said Dela Rosa’s visa was canceled, but U.S. officials have not addressed the matter.
Foreign
Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. used a televised Senate hearing to
enumerate what he described as crucial security, trade and economic
benefits the accord provides. The U.S. is a longtime treaty ally, a
major trading partner and the largest development aid provider to the
Philippines.
“While
the Philippines has the prerogative to terminate the VFA anytime, the
continuance of the agreement is deemed to be more beneficial to the
Philippines compared to any predicates were it to be terminated,” Locsin
said.
The
accord, known by its acronym VFA, took effect in 1999 to provide legal
cover for the entry of American forces to the Philippines for joint
training with Filipino troops.
A
separate defense pact subsequently signed by the allies in 2014, the
Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, allowed the extended stay of
U.S. forces and authorized them to build and maintain barracks and
warehouses and store defense equipment and weapons inside five
designated Philippine military camps.
Terminating
the VFA would affect more than 300 joint trainings and other activities
this year with U.S. forces “which the Philippine military and law
enforcement agencies need to enhance their capabilities in countering
threats to national security,” Locsin said.
The
U.S. provided more than $550 million in security assistance to the
Philippines from 2016 to 2019, Locsin said, adding that there may be a
“chilling effect on our economic relations” if the Philippines draws
down its security alliance with Washington.
American
forces have provided intelligence, training and aid that allowed the
Philippines to deal with human trafficking, cyberattacks, illegal
narcotics and terrorism, Locsin said, citing how U.S. military
assistance helped Filipino forces quell a disastrous siege by Islamic
State group-aligned militants in southern Marawi city in 2017.
U.S. military presence has also served as a deterrent to aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea, Locsin said.
China, the Philippines, Vietnam and three other governments have rival claims to the strategic waterway.
Duterte
first threatened to abrogate the VFA in late 2016 after a U.S. aid
agency put on hold funds for anti-poverty projects in the Philippines.
The 74-year-old leader, who has been harshly critical of U.S. policies
while often praising China and Russia, has walked back on his public
threats before.
Aside
from threatening to take down the VFA, Duterte has said would ban some
U.S. senators from entering the Philippines. He apparently was referring
to American senators who sought to ban unspecified Philippine officials
from entering the U.S. for their role in the continued detention of
Phillippines opposition Sen. Leila de Lima, a vocal critic of Duterte’s
deadly campaign against illegal drugs.
Duterte
has publicly accused de Lima of receiving money from drug traffickers
and called for her detention. De Lima has dismissed the allegations as
fabricated charges designed to muzzle dissent under Duterte.
Duterte
has also barred his Cabinet officials from traveling to the U.S. and
turned down an invitation by President Donald Trump to join a special
meeting the U.S. leader will host for leaders of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations in March in Las Vegas, according to presidential
spokesman Salvador Panelo.
