WASHINGTON
(AP) — Pro-Trump groups raised more than $60 million in January and
have more than $200 million on hand for this year’s general election,
shattering fundraising records on the path toward a goal of raising $1
billion this cycle.
The
Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s campaign
have raised more than $525 million since the start of 2019 together with
two joint-fundraising committees. The RNC and the Trump campaign
provided the figures to The Associated Press. The January haul coincided
with most of the Senate’s impeachment trial, which resulted in the Republican president’s acquittal earlier this month.
RNC
Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said, “We already have 500,000 volunteers
trained and activated, and this record-breaking support is helping us
grow our grassroots army even more.”
Trump’s
2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said Democrats’ “shameful
impeachment hoax and dumpster fire primary process” have contributed to
the “record-breaking financial support” for Trump’s reelection.
“With
President Trump’s accomplishments, our massive data and ground
operations and our strong fundraising numbers,” Parscale said, “this
campaign is going to be unstoppable in 2020.”
The pro-Trump effort said it has gained more than 1 million new digital and direct mail donors since Democrats launched their push to impeach Trump
in September 2019. The investigations proved to be a fundraising boon
for Trump’s campaign, even as the president was personally frustrated by
the scar it will leave on his legacy.
The
Trump team’s haul and cash on hand were twice that of former President
Barack Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee at the
same point ahead of his 2012 reelection.
CAIRO
(AP) — Sudan’s transitional government said Thursday it has reached a
settlement with families of the victims of the 2000 attack on USS Cole
in Yemen, in a bid to have the African country taken off the U.S.
terrorism list and improve relations with the West.
The
settlement is the latest step from Khartoum to end its international
pariah status. Earlier this week, Sudan’s provisional rulers said they
had agreed to hand over longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir to the
International Criminal Court to face trial on charges of war crimes and
genocide during the fighting in the western Darfur region.
Also,
Sudan’s interim leader, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, earlier this month
met in Uganda with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who
announced that Israel and Sudan would normalize relations after decades
of enmity. Observers and Sudanese officials have said that the
settlement with the USS Cole victims was among the last hurdles faced by
Sudan on its path to being removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors
of terror.
At
the time of the Oct. 12, 2000 attack in the Yemeni port of Aden that
killed 17 sailors and wounded more than three dozen others, Sudan was
accused of providing support to al-Qaida, which claimed responsibility
for the attack.
Today,
Sudan’s interim authorities are desperate to have its listing by the
U.S. as a state sponsor of terror lifted, in order to receive an
injection of badly needed funds from international lending institutions.
Sudan’s justice ministry said that the agreement was signed with the
victims’ families last Friday but its statement gave no details of the
settlement.
There was no immediate comment from Washington.
Sudan’s
information minister and interim government spokesman, Faisal Saleh,
told The Associated Press over the phone that Justice Minister
Nasr-Eddin Abdul-Bari had traveled last week to Washington to sign the
deal, which included compensations for both those wounded and the
families of those killed in the attack.
He
said the figures could not be disclosed because the Sudanese government
is still in negotiations to reach a similar settlements with families
of victims of the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
More than 200 people were killed in the attacks and more than 1,000
were wounded.
Saleh said, however, that the American side is free to disclose the amount if it wishes to do so.
The
initial figures on the table had been in the billions, he said, but
Sudan’s interim government had “inherited an empty treasury.” He said he
hoped the international community would be sympathetic to the country’s
situation.
“We expect the United States and the world to understand and to be supportive instead of imposing more obstacles,” he said.
For
Sudan, being removed from the U.S. terror list will end the country’s
economic isolation and allow it to attract much-need loans from
international financial institutions in order to rebuild the economy
after the popular uprising last year that toppled al-Bashir and
installed the joint civilian-military sovereign council.
The
new Sudanese rulers say they were not responsible for the attack on USS
Cole and that they had negotiated the deal out of their desire “to
resolve old terror claims inherited from the ousted regime” of
al-Bashir.
In
the USS Cole attack, two men in a boat detonated explosives alongside
the U.S. destroyer as it was refueling in Aden. The victims’ families,
along with the wounded sailors, had sued the Sudanese government in U.S.
courts demanding compensations.
In
2012, a federal judge issued a judgment of nearly $315 million against
Sudan but last March, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that ruling on
the grounds that Sudan had not been properly notified of the lawsuit.
Andrew
C. Hall, a lawyer who represents survivors of the attack, said at the
time that the victims, though disappointed with the ruling, would
continue the case, along with a second related case filed by family
members of the 17 sailors who died in the attack.
It
wasn’t clear when the 76-year-old al-Bashir could be handed over to the
international court in the Netherlands. He faces three counts of
genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war
crimes for his alleged role in leading the deadly onslaught on civilians
in response to a rebel insurgency in Darfur. The indictments were
issued in 2009 and 2010, marking the first time the global court had
charged a suspect with genocide.
Saleh
also told the AP that the U.S. administration has set the overhaul of
the country’s security apparatus as another condition to remove Sudan
from the terror list.
“The
Americans believe the Sudan’s support for terror was carried out
through its security apparatus,” Saleh, said. “So they want to be
assured that there has been a radical change” in the way it operates.
Former House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy responded Thursday to the outrage by many Democrats over President Trump's defense
of Republican political consultant Roger Stone and his agreement that
the Justice Department should revise its sentencing recommendation
against Stone. "I’ve
had the same position whether it was Barack Obama or Donald Trump: I do
not think the chief executive should be weighing in
ongoing investigations or criminal prosecutions," Gowdy told "The Story." On Tuesday, Trump offered "congratulations" to Attorney General Bill Barr after the Justice Department submitted an amended filing seeking
a lighter sentence for the former Trump campaign adviser than
prosecutors initially recommended -- a move that comes as Democrats
accuse the White House of politicizing the department and followed the
withdrawal of all four prosecutors from the case in apparent protest. Democratic
lawmakers, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal,
called on Barr to resign Wednesday, while the House Judiciary Committee
announced it'll grill the attorney general during a March 31 hearing
over his handling of the sentencing. "I can tell you this: Bill
Barr was aware of this recommendation before President Trump
ever tweeted a single syllable, a single character. So the notion that
Barr was somehow motivated to move because of this tweet is
just factually wrong," said Gowdy, a Fox News contributor. "The notion that Barr should resign is about the dumbest damn thing I've ever heard," Gowdy added. "If
a United States Senator really believes that the head of the Department
of Justice cannot weigh in on what a proportional sentence is..." Gowdy
trailed off, adding that "there are child pornographers, people who rob
banks who do not get nine years."
"The notion that Barr should resign is about the dumbest damn thing I've ever heard." — Trey Gowdy, "The Story"
"Let the judge decide, I think two or three years is about right," he continued. Trump's
critics accused the president of hypocrisy over his handling of the
case after he criticized former President Bill Clinton for potentially
interfering with the Hillary Clinton email investigation during a 2016
meeting with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch. "The president
has the power to commute Roger Stone's sentence. He has the power to
pardon him, he can pardon him right now if he wants to," Gowdy fired
back. "He could do it by tweet tonight. He's the head of the
executive branch and people have a chance in November if they want
a different one." With that said, Gowdy reiterated his belief that the president should steer clear of ongoing investigations for the time being. "I am being consistent," he said. "I do not think presidents should weigh in on prosecutions."
Former
Memphis City Schools Board President Tomeka Hart revealed Wednesday
that she was the foreperson of the jury that convicted former Trump
adviser Roger Stone on obstruction charges last year -- and soon
afterward, her history of Democratic activism and a string of her
anti-Trump, left-wing social media posts came to light. Hart even posted specifically about the Stone case before she voted to convict, as she retweeted an argument mocking those who considered Stone's dramatic arrest in a predawn raid by
a federal tactical team to be excessive force. She also suggested
President Trump and his supporters are racist and praised the
investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which
ultimately led to Stone's prosecution. Meanwhile, it emerged
that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson had denied a defense
request to strike a potential juror who was Obama-era press official
with admitted anti-Trump views -- and whose husband worked at the same Justice Department division that handled the probe leading to Stone's arrest. And, another Stone juror, Seth Cousins, donated to former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke and other progressive causes, federal election records reviewed by Fox News show. The revelations came as Trump has called the handling of Stone's prosecution "ridiculous" and a demonstrably unfair "insult
to our country." They raised the prospect that Stone's team could again
seek a new trial, especially if Hart provided inaccurate responses
under oath on her pretrial questionnaires concerning social media
activity. The drama began when Hart confirmed to CNN and other
media organizations Wednesday that she had written a Facebook post
supporting the Justice Department prosecutors in the Stone case who abruptly stepped down from their posts on Tuesday,
saying she "can't keep quiet any longer." The prosecutors apparently
objected after senior DOJ officials overrode their recommendation to
Jackson that Stone face up to 9 years in prison. "I
want to stand up for Aaron Zelinsky, Adam Jed, Michael Marando, and
Jonathan Kravis -- the prosecutors on the Roger Stone trial," Hart wrote
in the post. "It pains me to see the DOJ now interfere with the hard
work of the prosecutors. They acted with the utmost intelligence,
integrity, and respect for our system of justice."
FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2019 file photo, Roger Stone, a longtime
Republican provocateur and former confidant of President Donald Trump,
waits in line at the federal court in Washington. A Justice Department
official tells the AP that the agency is backing away from its
sentencing recommendation of between seven to nine years in prison for
Trump confidant Roger Stone. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Hart added: "As foreperson [of the jury], I made sure
we went through every element, of every charge, matching the evidence
presented in the case that led us to return a conviction of guilty on
all 7 counts." Independent journalist Mike Cernovich, not CNN, then first reported
that a slew of Hart's other publicly available Twitter and Facebook
posts readily suggested a strong political bias. Some of Hart's posts
were written as Stone's trial was in progress. Hart, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2012, quoted someone in an August 2017 tweet referring to Trump as a member of the KKK. In January 2019, she retweeted a post by
pundit Bakari Sellers, who noted that "Roger Stone has y'all talking
about reviewing use of force guidelines," before suggesting that racism
was the reason for all the attention Stone's arrest had received from
conservatives. In August 2019, Hart called all Trump supporters "racist." "Gotta love it!" Hart wrote on Jan. 13, 2018, in response to a news report that a vulgarity had been projected onto the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. A week later, on Jan. 21, 2018, she shared an opinion piece entitled, "What’s so extremely, uniquely wrong about Trump’s presidency." On March 24, 2019, Hart shared a Facebook post
saying that Republicans who complained about Mueller's probe were
deliberately "ignoring the numerous indictments, guilty pleas, and
convictions of people in 45’s inner-circle," referring to Trump. And,
on Nov. 15, 2019 -- the day she voted to convict Stone on seven counts
of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to
Congress -- Hart tweeted two "heart" emojis,
followed by two pump-fist emojis. (None of Stone's charges accused him
of engaging in a criminal conspiracy with Russia or any other actors
concerning election interference; instead, his offenses related to his
statements concerning his contacts with WikiLeaks and others.) Hart's tweet linked to a Facebook post that has since been taken down from public view. If
Hart have provided misleading answers on her jury form concerning her
political or social media activity, her views on Trump and the Russia
probe, or other related matters, there could be grounds for Stone's team
to seek a new trial, legal experts told Fox News. Hart did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. The Memphis Commercial Appeal noted that she was a native of the city and had served a term as the president of its school board. Hart's posts surfaced the same day that Jackson, who oversaw the Stone case, unsealed her order from earlier this month denying Stone's request for a new trial. Stone's
team argued that an unnamed juror had misled the court concerning his
or her exposure to the media during the case, and also had some
potential bias because of his or her work with the IRS, which sometimes
has interfaced with the DOJ on criminal matters. But, Jackson shot
down the motion for a new trial, saying the juror's potential bias was
not demonstrated -- and even if it were, it wasn't significant enough to
warrant the drastic step of calling for a new trial. Courts allow
for a new trial, Jackson noted, when "a serious miscarriage of justice
may have occured." Bias is a permissible reason to remove a juror or
call for a new trial only in "extreme situations where the relationship
between a prospective juror and some aspect of the litigation is such
that it is highly unlikely that the average person could remain
impartial in his deliberations under the circumstances." Jackson,
who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, also took a
shot at Stone's team for failing to uncover the information sooner. "The
defense could have easily conducted the same Internet search included
in the instant motion and could have raised concerns at that time,"
Jackson wrote. Fox News reported earlier Tuesday that top brass at the DOJ were "shocked" that prosecutors handling the Stone case had recommended Monday night that Jackson sentence the 67-year-old Stone to between 87 and 108 months in prison. The prosecutors asserted in the Monday filing that
Stone's conduct post-indictment -- including violating the judge's
social media gag orders -- merited a sentence much longer than the 15 to
21 months that the defense said was actually advisable under the
federal sentencing guidelines. In a new, amended filing Tuesday afternoon,
the DOJ told Jackson that the government "respectfully submits that a
sentence of incarceration far less than 87 to 108 months' imprisonment
would be reasonable under the circumstances," but that the government
"ultimately defers to the court as to the specific sentence to be
imposed." Government officials wrote in the amended filing that
while it was "technically" possible to argue that Stone deserved the
severe federal sentencing enhancement for threatening physical harm to a
witness, such a move would violate the spirit of the federal
guidelines. It would place Stone in a category of the guidelines
that "typically applies in cases involving violent offenses, such as
armed robbery, not obstruction cases," the government argued, noting
that Stone's "advanced age, health, personal circumstances, and lack of
criminal history" also counseled against the harsh penalty. Specifically,
prosecutors said that although Stone allegedly had threatened witness
Randy Credico's therapy dog, Bianca -- saying he was "going to take that
dog away from you" -- it was important to recognize that Credico, a New
York radio host, has acknowledged that he "never in any way felt that
Stone himself posed a direct physical threat to me or my dog." The
government continued, "If the court were not to apply the eight-level
enhancement for threatening a witness with physical injury, it would
result in the defendant receiving an advisory guidelines range of 37 to
46 months, which as explained below is more in line with the typical
sentences imposed in obstruction cases." A
senior DOJ official confirmed to Fox News that senior leadership
officials there made the call to reverse the initial sentencing
recommendation, saying the filing on Monday evening was not only
extreme, but also substantially inconsistent with how the prosecutors
had briefed DOJ leadership they would proceed on the case. The "general
communication" between the U.S. Attorney's Office and the main DOJ had
led senior officials to expect a more moderate sentence, the official
told Fox News. “It's surprising that would be the line in the sand
-- an amended filing," a senior DOJ official told Fox News, adding that
the problem with the original sentencing recommendation was it told the
judge that the only way to serve justice was a lengthy sentence. “We're
backing off from, 'It has to be this,'" the DOJ source told Fox
News. “The amended filing says it's a serious crime, and prison time is
appropriate; we're just saying it doesn't have to be 87 to 108 months." Speaking
to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said he stayed out of internal DOJ
deliberations, but strongly opposed their initial sentencing
recommendation. "I stay out of things to a degree that people
wouldn't believe," Trump said. He added that the initial recommendation
was "ridiculous" and called it "an insult to our country." Later,
Trump took a shot at Jackson, writing on Twitter: "Is this the Judge
that put Paul Manafort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even
mobster Al Capone had to endure? How did she treat Crooked Hillary
Clinton? Just asking!" Fox News' Jake Gibson and Alex Pfeiffer contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Bernie Sanders won the young, the liberal and the disaffected in
New Hampshire. Their votes were enough to deliver him a victory in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, while Pete Buttigieg earned a slight edge among more moderate and conservative voters, with Amy Klobuchar close behind.
The New Hampshire Democratic primary revealed a mountainous ideological divide among Democrats, as voters try to identify which candidate will be most effective in challenging President Donald Trump in November’s general election.
A
majority of voters who considered themselves “very liberal” supported
Sanders, according to AP VoteCast. The 78-year-old Vermont senator, who
has championed universal government health care
and high taxes on the wealthy, also won support from voters younger
than 45 and had a slight advantage among those without a college degree.
Roughly 3 in 10 of those who deemed the U.S. economic system “very
unfair” favor Sanders to oversee the world’s leading financial power.
But
about 6 in 10 New Hampshire Democrats identified as moderate or
conservative. Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend,
Indiana, held a slight advantage with this group of voters. Roughly
another quarter of moderate voters went with Minnesota Sen. Amy
Klobuchar, while about 1 in 10 went for former Vice President Joe Biden.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sanders are avowed liberals.
AP
VoteCast is a wide-ranging survey of more than 3,000 Democratic primary
voters in New Hampshire conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at
the University of Chicago.
The
scrum of conflicting ideologies could set up a bruising round of
election contests in the weeks ahead as Democratic voters choose whether
it is better to lean into an overtly liberal contender or embrace a
more moderate challenger. And once the nominee is picked, it is unclear
whether the Democrats can fully set aside their differences and bond
back together.
Only
15% of New Hampshire Democrats said they were “very confident” that the
process for picking a presidential nominee would be fair, a sign of
possible doubts lingering in voters’ minds at the state’s Tuesday
primary.
The
trouble tabulating results in last week’s Iowa caucuses, an issue that
has yet to be fully resolved, may have rattled the faith of some voters
amid uncertainty about who is the Democratic front-runner. The
skepticism was clearest among Sanders’ backers, with about 6 in 10
saying they had little or no confidence in the Democratic primary
process. Majorities of voters for every other top Democratic contender
described the primary process as fair.
The
results from AP VoteCast suggest that Sanders’ younger and generally
more liberal supporters distrust their fellow Democrats, a potential
reflection of the Vermont senator losing the 2016 nomination to Hillary
Clinton.
Matthew
Gage, a 40-year-old EMT attending a Sanders party in Manchester, New
Hampshire, said he was angered by the use of super delegates in the 2016
election and remains “suspicious” that the process is fair this time
around.
This year, he said, “I have more confidence only because there’s more eyes watching them and they know they can’t hide stuff.”
Yet
after months of campaigns and debates, New Hampshire voters are still
settling on the ideal moderate choice. Of the state Democrats who made a
decision in the days before the primary, about half went to Buttigieg
and Klobuchar.
The
only clear candidate on the outs in a state that is largely white and
older was Biden. He departed Tuesday for South Carolina, where there is a
significant population of African American voters who will test which
candidate appeals most to a diverse electorate that was largely absent
from the opening two contests.
Voters
see liabilities in many of the Democrats vying to run against Trump.
About 6 in 10 said a candidate with strongly liberal views would have
difficulty competing with the incumbent president, evidence that Sanders
and Warren may be struggling to make the electability argument outside
their base of supporters. But roughly 6 in 10 also said a gay nominee —
Buttigieg — would face greater hardship in the general election.
Still,
New Hampshire Democrats say they are willing to rally around their
party’s nominee. At least 6 in 10 said they would be satisfied with
Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders or Warren as their presidential candidate.
Fewer — half — said they would be pleased if Biden became the nominee.
Broader questions about fairness in U.S. society have been a central concern for the Democratic candidates.
An
overwhelming share of New Hampshire Democrats — nearly 8 in 10 — view
the economy as unfair. But there is little consensus on which candidate
would do the best job of stewarding the world’s largest economy.
Yet
among the roughly 2 in 10 who believe the economy is fair, there was an
opening for a Democrat whose name was not on the ballot in New
Hampshire. These voters gave a slight edge on leading the economy to
Mike Bloomberg, the former New York City Mayor with a personal fortune
in excess of $60 billion.
___
Associated Press writer Kathleen Ronayne in Manchester, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.
___
AP VoteCast
is a survey of the American electorate conducted by NORC at the
University of Chicago for The Associated Press and Fox News. The survey
of 3,111 voters in New Hampshire was conducted for seven days,
concluding as polls closed. Interviews were conducted in English or
Spanish. The survey is based on interviews with a random sample of
registered voters drawn from the state voter file. The margin of
sampling error for voters is estimated to be plus or minus 3.0
percentage points.
New Hampshire business owner Corina Cisneros, who moved to the state from Venezuela, said on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday that “socialism is not the answer for America.” Cisneros,
the founder of Cisneros Realty Group, was part of a panel of business
leaders speaking on “Fox & Friends” the morning after democratic
socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., declared victory after narrowly winning the Democratic primary in New Hampshire. With the economy surging in the Granite State, which has an unemployment rate of 2.6 percent, the sixth-lowest in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, host Brian Kilmeade asked the panel of business leaders if voters necessarily want a progressive in the White House. “This
is going to be my first presidential election,” Cisneros told Kilmeade.
“I'm proud to be an American citizen, and just to be in New Hampshire,
have my own business.” When Kilmeade asked Cisneros if it bothers
her that the American dream for Sanders' supporters is socialism, she
said, “It bothers me a lot because I lived socialism. I left
socialism. Socialism is not the answer for America.” Sanders narrowly edged former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg
to claim victory Tuesday. It was the second straight win in New
Hampshire for the populist senator, following his 2016 crushing of
eventual nominee Hillary Clinton. When Kilmeade asked Cisneros if she senses that Sanders' message resonates with the state overall she said, “No.” “The economy is doing great in New Hampshire,” she explained. “We have low unemployment.” “As
a Realtor, there is demand for housing,” she continued. “We're off the
charts in terms of demand. So the overall sensation in New Hampshire is
that we're doing great.” Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
It is easy to forget how far Democrats have come from former President Bill Clinton’s 1992 commitment that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” Even as late as 2008, then-Senator Hillary Clinton repeated the formula by affirming that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” In recent conversations with voters, Pete Buttigieg has shown how much more radical the Democrats have become on the issues of abortion and infanticide. Kristin
Day, a pro-life Democratic voter, recently put Buttigieg on the spot at
a Fox News Townhall event in January, when she said: “So, do you want
the support of pro-life Democrats, pro-life Democratic voters? There
are about 21 million of us. And if so, would you support more moderate
platform language in the Democratic Party to ensure that the party of
diversity, of inclusion really does include everybody?” When
Buttigieg told her that he was pro-choice and then gave a waffling
answer, moderator Chris Wallace asked if Day was satisfied with the
answer she received. She was not:
“No, I was not,
because he did not answer the second part of my question. And the
second part was, the Democratic platform contains language that
basically says that we don't belong, we have no part in the party
because it says abortion should be legal up to nine months, the
government should pay for it, and there's nothing that says that people
have a diversity of views on this issue should be included in the
party.
“In 1996, and I guess several years after that, there was language in
the Democratic platform that said that we understand that people have
very differing views on this issue, but we are a big tent party that
includes everybody. And so, therefore, we welcome you, people like me,
into the party so we can work on issues that we agree on.
“So my question was, would you be open to language like that in the
Democratic platform, that really did say that our party is diverse and
inclusive and we want everybody?”
Buttigieg’s radical stance
on abortion (he said that life begins when a baby takes its first
breath, i.e., after being born) approaches the pro-infanticide position
of Democratic Governor of Virginia Ralph Northam – who is, ironically, a
pediatric neurologist supposedly dedicated to saving babies. Speaking to Washington, D.C. radio station WTOP about late-term abortions, Northam said: “When
we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the
consent of obviously the mother, with the consent of the physician —
more than one physician, by the way — and it’s done in cases where there
may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that’s non-viable. “If
a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The
infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The
infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family
desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and
the mother.” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also fits perfectly
with the abortion-infanticide Democrats. His highest priority in 2019
was enacting the Reproductive Health Act. According to The Washington
Times, the law “decriminalizes abortion and drops most of the state’s
previous restrictions on abortions after 24 weeks. It also allows
midwives and nurse practitioners to perform abortions.” As
the newspaper reported, Cuomo thought passage of the law was so great
that One World Trade Center, the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the
Kosciuszko Bridge, and the Alfred E. Smith Building in Albany, “were lit
pink in celebration of the law.” Buttigieg, of course, is not that different from the other Democratic candidates on abortion. Former
Vice President Biden reversed his position on the Hyde Amendment, which
says taxpayers do not have to pay for abortions. By a majority of 57 to
36, Americans agreed in 2016 that their tax dollars should not be used
for abortions. Now, Biden is in favor of tax-paid abortions, as well as
for a litmus test on the issue of abortion for US Supreme Court
nominees. Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg also aligns closely
with the extremist pro-abortion group. When running for mayor, he
proposed that anyone studying to be a gynecologist or obstetrician
should be forced to learn how to perform abortions. (Under enormous
public pressure, he backed off and allowed moral and religious
exemptions). Allow me to answer Day’s question: The 2020
Democratic presidential candidates and the platform they’ll adopt in
Milwaukee will be radically pro-abortion – possibly including Governor
Northam’s infanticide phraseology. There will be no room for pro-life
Democrats. If rightly understood, this radical anti-life position
will cost Democrats the support of outspoken pro-life groups, including
many Protestant Christians, Mormons, Orthodox Jews, Catholics, and
Muslims. If
there indeed are 21 million pro-life Democrats, as Kristin Day
asserted, such an extreme position on abortion and infanticide
undoubtedly will lead to a landslide defeat à la George McGovern. This is the ordeal Democrats have coming down the road.
President Trump didn't have a serious challenger in the New Hampshire primary, but he still turned out enough voters to more than double former President Barack Obama's 2012 vote total
in the state, indicating that the Republican base is all-in on Trump as
he prepares to face the eventual Democratic nominee in a reelection
battle this November. With 87 percent of precincts reporting,
Trump secured more than 120,000 votes in the Granite State. In 2012,
Obama managed just 49,080 total votes in New Hampshire. The gap between
the two presidents is likely to increase as more precincts report their
totals Wednesday. It also dwarfs the total of other incumbent
presidents: then-President George W. Bush received 53,962 votes in the
largely-uncontested GOP primary in New Hampshire in 2004. And in 1996,
incumbent President Bill Clinton received 76,797 votes in New
Hampshire's primary. It follows a coordinated effort by the
Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign to drive up turnout
for Trump in New Hampshire -- something the other incumbents didn't do.
Trump himself revved up his supporters at a packed and fiery rally in
Manchester, N.H., on Monday, the eve of the state's primary.
President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
"Nine
months from now, we are going to retake the House of Representatives,
we are going to hold the Senate, and we are going to keep the White
House," Trump said to thunderous applause. "We have so much more
enthusiasm, it's not even close. They're all fighting each other." In
the line to get into Trump's Monday rally, many of his voters seemed to
have a zeal uncommon for supporters of an incumbent president. Jay
McDonald of North Providence, R.I., said he “100 percent" supported
Trump four years ago and "nothing’s changed.” McDonald said he’s "maybe
more angry that they could do that [impeachment] to a president and get
away with it over nothing." "Hopefully he picks up more voters – the independent people – over that,” McDonald said. Democrats
largely owned the turnout in New Hampshire Tuesday -- first and second
place finishers Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg combined for almost
140,000 votes with 87 percent reporting -- but the Democratic primary is
still wide open and there was almost nothing at stake for Trump in the
New Hampshire race. His only primary challenger on the ballot was former
Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who had less than 10 percent of the GOP
vote with 87 percent in. The throngs that showed up for Trump's
Monday rally at Southern New Hampshire University were more than the
school's venue could hold with its 11,000 capacity, and the president
took the opportunity to tout his accomplishments and knock Democrats in
front of the large audience. "To support working families, we have
reduced the cost of child care, expanded paid leave, and given 40
million American families an average of $2,200 more in their pockets
thanks to the Republican child tax credit," Trump asserted. "We are the
party of equal opportunity for all Americans. He added: "While the
extreme left has been wasting America's time with this vile hoax, we've
been killing terrorists, creating jobs, raising wages, enacting fair
trade deals, securing our borders, and lifting up citizens of every
race, color, religion, and creed!" The
Trump campaign also touted a record turnout for an incumbent in the
Iowa caucuses, which came on the same night that Democratic turnout fell
well below expectations. About 176,000 Iowa Democrats attended
their precinct caucuses, a slight uptick from 2016 but fewer than
expected. That total is nowhere near the party's 2008 numbers, when
roughly 238,000 Iowans participated in the kickoff clash among Hillary
Clinton, Barack Obama, onetime Iowa favorite John Edwards, and a handful
of others. “It was lower than I expected,” said former Iowa
Democratic Party executive director Norm Sterzenbach, who has been
advising Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s campaign. “It was definitely
lower than what the conventional wisdom was.” The
New Hampshire numbers come as the president's supporters have been
fired up in recent days: Just last week Trump was acquitted of two
articles of impeachment, gave a largely well-received State of the Union
and ran up the score in Iowa. Meanwhile, Democrats have been running
attack ads on each other, dealing with the fallout of House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tearing up Trump's speech at the end of the
State of the Union and roiling from an Iowa caucus debacle that still
does not have an official winner. When asked about the Democratic
field outside of the president's New Hampshire rally, one of Trump's
fervent supporters, Air Force Veteran Mike Grunwald, gave a frank
assessment of the party's chances to unseat Trump in November. "They're all going to lose," he said. Fox News Gregg Re and Paul Steinhauser, as well as the Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
