Brian Stelter Cartoons

Throwing this cartoon in for the hell of it :-)

GOP candidates balance pros, cons of running with Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is hitting the road again. And while a campaign event with a president who draws TV cameras and raucous crowds can be gold for down-ballot candidates, these days its value can be debatable.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, facing a competitive North Carolina reelection contest, “is looking forward to campaigning” with Trump, Tillis’ spokesperson said. GOP Sen. Steve Daines tweeted, “Montana can’t wait to have you back, Mr. President!” after Trump promised to help him battle a strong Democratic challenger.

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Yet a spokesperson said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in the reelection fight of her life, “was at work in Washington” recently as Trump visited her state to open a marine conservation area to commercial fishing. The Senate wasn’t in session that day.

And while GOP Senate candidate John James appeared with Trump in May in Michigan, where polls have trended against the president, James demurred when asked about his 2017 comment that he backs Trump “2,000%.” James said he supports Trump, adding, “I’m looking forward to running my own race, being my own man.”

Trump is the GOP’s unrivaled beast, commanding the unswerving fealty of nearly all its voters. While some Republican candidates yanked their support late in his 2016 campaign after a decade-old video showed him boasting about groping women, he’s since proved that crossing him can be politically fatal.

Yet Trump’s divisive law-and-order response to protests against police killings of African Americans,the untamed coronavirus pandemic and the worst economy in decades have wounded him. His job approval rating dipped to a dangerously low 39% in the latest Gallup poll.

That’s jeopardized his November reelection, endangered the GOP’s Senate control and made a Republican House takeover highly unlikely. It’s also left nervous Republicans debating whether congressional candidates in tight races should link hands with him or create distance.

For most, there’s little question that homage to Trump is smartest. Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, seeking reelection in states Trump will likely carry, have no incentive to rebel.

Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., is also not straying. “Bring it on,” Perdue spokesperson Casey Black said of any efforts to attack his closeness with Trump.

Distancing from Trump would be “a stupid strategy,” said GOP pollster Neil Newhouse. “If the base sees you’re turning your back on the president, they will cut you off.”

Others Republicans face tougher choices. Tillis, Collins, and Sens. Cory Gardner in Colorado and Martha McSally in Arizona are from states Trump could well lose.

Republican candidates are “hostages,” said Trump critic Tim Miller, an aide to past GOP presidential contenders including Jeb Bush. But he said Trump’s recent problems, like retweeting a false conspiracy theory about an elderly Buffalo, New York, protester shoved to the ground by police, offer an opening.

“I’m not asking them to become Twitter trolls,” Miller said. “But I don’t see why they don’t take opportunities to put a little distance between themselves and the president.”

Trump has pushed his Capitol Hill allies to keep rank-and-file Republicans in line and vowed to retaliate against defectors, said three White House and campaign officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss private conversations.

White House aides bridled when Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Trump ally, tweeted support for Gen. Mark Milley. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had publicly defied Trump, saying it had been a “mistake” to participate as the president was photographed holding a Bible outside a church after peaceful demonstrators were forcibly cleared away.

After GOP Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska criticized Trump’s tweet about the manhandled Buffalo demonstrator, he unleashed his wrath at them on Twitter. Neither is running for reelection this year.

Colorado’s Gardner and Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, both in tough races, were among Republicans who didn’t answer reporters’ questions about Trump’s tweet.

“Anyone who wants to win in November should be running with the president,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Erin Perrine.

As Trump continues prodding the country to a partial reopening from coronavirus restrictions, he’s announced live rallies in Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, Arizona and North Carolina.

The White House will watch whether candidates attend and look for other signs of discontent, such as coded distancing in ads saying they’ll stand up to both parties.

No one expects Republicans to break drastically with Trump because of the price they’d pay with the party faithful. But some may feel freer to strike contrasts with him once they clear primaries, which Trump voters dominate. More candidates could stray if polling shows his prospects are bleak as Election Day nears.

With swelling public sympathy for the Black Lives Matter movement, some Republicans have opposed Trump’s refusal to remove Confederate leaders’ names from military bases. And some are preparing legislation changing policing practices, despite uncertainty over his support, .

In the House, Democrats hope to use allegiance to Trump that GOP candidates touted in primaries against them in general elections. That’s likely in suburban districts in states like California, Pennsylvania and Texas, in which voters tend to be more moderate.

Underscoring how candidates tailor their messaging, Tillis ran ads before his North Carolina primary emphasized his endorsement by Trump. Now, his most recent spot emphasizes the battered economy as he tells the camera, “My job is fighting for your job.”

Arizona’s McSally has appeared with Trump often and shown no signs of distancing from him. Instead, she’s focused on accusing her Democratic challenger Mark Kelly, the former astronaut, of being soft on China, whom she blames for the pandemic.

It’s battleground state candidates like McSally whose tactics prompt debate about handling Trump.

He’s caused “heartburn” for Republicans, “but that doesn’t change his political control over the party,” said Scott Jennings, a GOP consultant.

Countered former Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, another Republican tactician, “Some of these senators have to be more than Trump’s twin brothers to win.”

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Associated Press writers Gary Robertson in Raleigh, N.C.; Paul Weber in Austin, Texas; Bob Christie in Phoenix; Matthew Brown in Billings, Mont.; David Eggert in Lansing, Mich.; Sara Burnett in Chicago; and Benjamin Nadler in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Steve Hilton says voters must decide: 'Reform the police with Trump, or abolish the police with Democrats'

The 2020 presidential election will be a referendum on the country's commitment to "reform the police with Trump, or abolish the police with Democrats," Steve Hilton argued Sunday.

"My great fear is that because the Democrats have been shouting the loudest about justice and equality, people who support the right causes, equal opportunity for Americans of all races, will vote the wrong party," Hilton said on "The Next Revolution."
"Democrats' past record on policing is bad enough, but their new policies are even worse," he continued. "'Defund the police' is becoming their actual position... This is about abolishing the police."
Hilton praised President Trump for signaling his commitment to police reform in the wake of George Floyd's May 25 death, but urged the administration to take on "real reform -- not window dressing, like the bill the House Democrats published this week."
He went on, "What we need is real accountability so when there are rules that are broken, there are serious consequences."
Hilton called for a national database of complaints "so bad cops can't be fired in one place and hired in another."
He also urged Trump to encourage police departments across the country to dispatch "alternative responders when that’s more appropriate for the situation."

Hilton explained, "We shouldn't be asking our brave police to solve all of society's problems."
He called the growing movement to defund the police "an opportunity for the president to create a clear and winning dividing line for the election: reform the police with Trump, or abolish the police with Democrats."

President Trump's re-election campaign said Sunday that Brian Stelter, the media reporter at CNN, was “sexist and demeaning” during an interview Sunday with its senior legal adviser and an apology from CNN and the reporter is in order.
“This kind of on-air meltdown and lashing out is completely unprofessional, yet it’s what we’ve come to expect from the leftists who hate President Trump,” Ali Pardo, the campaign’s deputy communications director, said in a statement. “It would be great if so-called journalists would refrain from personal attacks and putting words in the mouths of the children and grandchildren of strong, smart, and independent women.”
Stelter’s interview with Jenna Ellis took a bizarre turn Sunday when they began to discuss Trump’s use of the term “fake news media.” Ellis praised Trump’s courage to use his platform to challenge the embraced narrative in the press.
Stelter responded, “You understand that someday you’re going to regret this, right?” he said. “Someday you’re going to regret this when your kids and your grandkids look back at this time.”
Ellis, a constitutional law attorney, fired back, “Oh, now you’re going with personal attacks, that’s when you know you lost the debate, Brian.”
Neither CNN nor Stelter responded to an after-hours Fox News email. Stelter, a frequent Twitter user, later tweeted that his “Twitter mentions are still exploding” and retweeted David Brody, the chief political analyst, who said, “Did you see @brianstelter getting totally destroyed by @jennaellisesq today on @CNN? It was thorough domination. She called him an activist, not a journalist.”
Ellis insisted in the interview that Stelter is better defined as an activist rather than a journalist because he has an agenda and that agenda “is anti-Trump.”
Stelter later retweeted a political reporter at the network who defended him and said the "Reliable Sources" host made the comment after Ellis lied.
"Note that Ellis was lying about CNN’s poll," Eric Bradner, a political reporter, tweeted. "The 14-pt Biden lead is among registered voters."
CNN recently reported that the Trump campaign demanded that the news outlet retract a poll that showed him trailing by 14 points among registered voters. CNN said it stood by the poll. 
Ellis and Michael Glassner, the chief operating officer for the campaign, told the network in a statement earlier this week that, "It's a stunt and a phony poll to cause voter suppression, stifle momentum and enthusiasm for the President, and present a false view generally of the actual support across America for the President."
Ellis said on Sunday, “The only reason CNN published this because it’s junk science." She said, “No pollster in the world would stand behind this as a legitimate poll, according to industry standards.”
“That’s a normal polling procedure,” Stelter said.
The poll in question was among a sample of 1,259 respondents and conducted via phone from June 2-5, 2020, according to CNN. Fifty-five percent of responders said they would vote for Biden, compared to 41 percent for Trump.
The letter, which was addressed to CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker, noted that only 25 percent of participants were Republicans and was conducted prior to positive economic news that was released on Friday. Politico reported that the overall poll featured 1,259 adults — 1,125 of them registered voters.
Ellis later tweeted that no other poll shows such "false numbers" as CNN's.
Even before Trump was elected into office, he has accused much of the media to have a bias against him. His favorite targets are CNN, MSNBC and the New York Times. Trump’s critics say his attacks are unfair and the media is just doing its job during a turbulent presidency. Trump supporters ask what happened to these reporters’ teeth during the Obama administration.
Pardo, from the Trump campaign, wrote that she has had enough of these “liberal activists masquerading as journalists” who constantly insult conservative women “for having the audacity to think for ourselves and go against the fake news narrative they are pushing that day.”
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report

NBC News called out over tweets about Trump’s Tulsa event and a 'packed' rally in Brooklyn

NBC News was called out late Sunday over a pair of tweets it sent about an hour apart that critics said showed bias when reporting on President Trump rallies and the protests that have emerged in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody.
NBC News first tweeted a link to a protest in Brooklyn and wrote, “Rally for Black trans lives draws packed crowd to Brooklyn Museum plaza.” About an hour later, the news outlet tweeted out another story, “President Trump plans to rally his supporters next Saturday for the first time since most of the country was shuttered by the coronavirus. But health experts are questioning that decision.”
Twitter users pointed out that it was only in the Trump tweet that mentioned the health risk of attending a rally during a global pandemic. Mark Hemingway, a senior writer at RealClearInvestigations, pointed out the tweets and wrote, “Little over an hour apart.”
Brian Stelter, the CNN anchor, retweeted Hemingway and wrote, “He has a fair, important point. Also: every time a reporter raises health concerns about Trump’s rally in Tulsa, the Trump camp is just going to bring up the recent protests in response…”
NBC News did not immediately respond to an after-hours email from Fox News. But the tweets come as the country is trying to emerge from devastating coronavirus lockdowns that have been blamed for essentially shut down much of the U.S. economy since March in order to prevent the disease transmission.
States and cities issued stay-at-home orders and modified church services to limit any spread. These orders were, in many cases, enforced with police departments.
Trump supporters have called out the apparent hypocrisy of Democrats who once insisted on these crackdowns, but who’ve encouraged these new demonstrations.
Rep. Val Demings, D. Fla., last week, told her Twitter followers that she would join a rally “to speak with our community as America grieves.” A few days later, she came out against Trump’s plan to hold rallies and called the decision “irresponsible and selfish.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had previously lashed out at protesters calling to reopen the state, saying, "you have no right to jeopardize my health ... and my children's health and your children's health."
Cuomo said he now "stands" with those defying stay-at-home orders: "Nobody is sanctioning the arson, and the thuggery and the burglaries, but the protesters and the anger and the fear and the frustration? Yes. Yes, and the demand is for justice."
Dr. Ashish Jha, director of Harvard’s Global Health Institute, called the upcoming Trump rally “an extraordinarily dangerous move for the people participating and the people who may know them and love them and see them afterward.”
Trump supporters coming from neighboring cities and states could carry the virus back home, Jha said. “I’d feel the same way if Joe Biden were holding a rally.”
The Trump campaign itself acknowledges the risk in a waiver attendees must agree to absolving them of any responsibility should people get sick.
Health officials in New York have recently said that there has been little evidence that the Floyd protests in the city had any influence over the latest transition numbers. But warned that they will have a better understanding in the next two weeks.
“It is too soon to tell what public health impact the protests of the last few weeks will have on New York,” said Professor Summer McGee, the dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven, in Connecticut, told the New York Post.
“We will have a much better picture of things in another week or two because positive tests and hospitalization lag behind exposure by a few weeks.”
The NBC tweet prompted debate on Twitter. Some said that the fight for civil rights is a more important social cause than a planned campaign rally, and point out that most of these protests are outdoors compared to the indoor Tulsa rally. Others called out hypocrisy.
“To justify this, Democrats have decided to claim being outside with masks is now safe,” tweeted Glenn Greenwald, a writer at the Intercept. “Would have been nice to have known that when the super-awesome Grim Reaper guy was shaming people for being at deserted beaches & billions were subjected to stay-home orders,  but here we are.”
Fox News' Gregg Re and the Associated Press contributed to this report

When Police are no longer allowed to Police Cartoons

Europe reopens many borders but not to Americans, Asians

BERLIN (AP) — Europe is taking a big step toward a new normality as many countries open borders to fellow Europeans after three months of coronavirus lockdowns — but even though Europeans love their summer vacations, it’s not clear how many are ready to travel again.

Tourists from the U.S., Asia, Latin American and the Mideast will just have to wait, for now.

The European Union home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, told member nations last week that they “should open up as soon as possible” and suggested Monday was a good date.

Many countries are doing just that, allowing travel from the EU, Britain and the rest of Europe’s usually passport-free Schengen travel area, which includes non-EU countries like Switzerland.

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Europe’s reopening won’t be a repeat of the chaotic free-for-all in March when panicked, uncoordinated border closures caused traffic jams that stretched for miles. Still, it’s a complicated, shifting patchwork of different rules. And although tourist regions are desperately counting on them, a lot of Europeans may decide to stay close to home this summer.

That’s something tourism-dependent Mediterranean countries such as Greece are keen to avoid. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged Saturday that “a lot will depend on whether people feel comfortable to travel and whether we can project Greece as a safe destination.”

Greece has emphasized its handling of its outbreak, which saw only 183 deaths. Overall, Europe has seen more than 182,000 virus-linked deaths this year, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University that also shows Europe has had 2.04 million of the world’s 7.8 million infections.

Spain, which isn’t ending restrictions on domestic travel for another week and will restart foreign tourism in full on July 1, is allowing thousands of Germans to fly to its Balearic Islands for a two-week trial run starting Monday — waiving its 14-day quarantine for the group.

Border checks in some places have already wound down. Italy opened its borders on June 3 and towns on the German-Polish border celebrated early Saturday as Poland opened the gates. At midnight, the mayors of Goerlitz, Germany and Zgorzelec, Poland cut through chains on a makeshift fence that had divided the towns.

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Germany, like France and others, is lifting remaining border checks on Monday and scrapping a requirement that arrivals must prove they have a good reason to enter. It also is easing a worldwide warning against nonessential travel to exempt European countries – except, probably, Finland, Norway and Spain, where travel restrictions remain, and Sweden, where the level of new coronavirus infections is deemed too high.

Many German regions have reimposed a quarantine requirement for arrivals from Sweden, whose virus strategy avoided a lockdown but produced a relatively high death rate.

Czech authorities will require arrivals from Sweden to show a negative COVID-19 test or to self-quarantine – along with travelers from Portugal and Poland’s Silesia region.

Austria is opening up Tuesday to European neighbors except Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Britain — and keeping a travel warning for Italy’s worst-hit region of Lombardy. France is asking people from Britain to self-quarantine for two weeks.

Britain recently introduced a 14-day quarantine requirement for most arrivals, to the horror of its tourism and aviation industries, which say the move will hit visits to Britain hard this summer.

Denmark is opening up only for tourists from Germany, Norway and Iceland — and only if they can prove that they’re staying for at least six nights. Norway also is keeping shut its long border with Sweden.

“I realize this is a big disappointment. But the restrictions are based on objective criteria that are the same for everyone,” Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said. “If we open too quickly, the infection can get out of control.”

With flights only gradually picking up, nervousness about new outbreaks abroad, uncertainty about social distancing at tourist venues and many people facing unemployment or pay cuts, this may be a good summer for domestic tourism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz are both planning to vacation in their homelands this year.

“The recommendation is still, if you want to be really safe, a vacation in Austria,” Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told ORF television, recalling the scramble in March to bring home thousands of tourists as borders slammed shut. “In Austria, you know that you don’t have to cross a border if you want to get home, and you know the infrastructure and the health system well.”

The German government, which helped fly 240,000 people home as the pandemic grew exponentially, also has no desire to repeat that experience.

“My appeal to all those who travel: Enjoy your summer vacation — but enjoy it with caution and responsibility,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. “In the summer holidays, we want to make it as difficult as possible for the virus to spread again in Europe.”

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Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Venezuela demands release of businessman connected to Maduro

MIAMI (AP) — Venezuela on Saturday demanded the release of a government-connected businessman who was detained in Cape Verde on U.S. corruption charges, calling his arrest an illegal act of aggression by the Trump administration aimed at piling new hardships on the crisis-wracked oil nation.

Alex Saab’s arrest Friday while en route to Iran was a major blow to President Nicolás Maduro’s government. U.S. officials believe he holds many secrets about how the socialist leader, his family and top aides allegedly siphoned off millions of dollars in government contracts amid widespread hunger in the oil-rich nation.

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It was unclear how American authorities, who had been targeting the Colombian businessman for years, finally caught up with him. The Justice Department declined to comment as did Saab’s American lawyer, Maria Dominguez.

A person familiar with the situation said the 48-year-old Saab was detained in the Atlantic Ocean archipelago when his San Marino-registered jet made a refueling stop on a flight to Tehran, where he was believed to be negotiating deals to exchange Venezuelan gold for Iranian gasoline. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Flight tracking data shows the aircraft, which the once globe-trotting Saab had used in the past, departed Friday from Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.

Adding to the intrigue, a private jet belonging to Presidential Aviation, a U.S. government contractor formerly owned by the Blackwater private security firm, was standing ready for a chartered flight Sunday from Cape Verde to Miami’s private Opa Locka airport.

Venezuela’s government energetically protested the arrest of Saab, who it said was traveling on a Venezuelan passport and was on a “humanitarian mission” to buy food and medical supplies. In a statement issued Saturday night, it said an Interpol arrest notice for Saab wasn’t issued until a day after his detention, violating international norms and disregarding the diplomatic immunity he enjoys as an “agent of a sovereign government.”

It said it would initiate all legal and diplomatic actions to secure his release. But coronavirus restrictions frustrated an attempt by Maduro’s nearest ambassador, in Senegal, to travel to Cape Verde.

As the Trump administration seeks to regain momentum in its faltering campaign to oust Maduro and install opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s president, it is increasingly going after top officials and business people connected to the embattled leader. In March, it indicted Maduro and more than a dozen other individuals on narcoterrorist, corruption and other criminal charges.

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Saab came onto the radar of U.S. authorities a few years ago after amassing a large number of contracts with Maduro’s government.

Federal prosecutors in Miami indicted him and a business partner last year on money laundering charges connected to an alleged bribery scheme that pocketed more than $350 million from a low-income housing project for the Venezuelan government that was never built.

Separately, Saab had been sanctioned by the Trump administration for allegedly utilizing a network of shell companies spanning the globe — in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Hong Kong, Panama, Colombia and Mexico — to hide huge profits from no-bid, overvalued food contracts obtained through bribes and kickbacks.

“Saab engaged with Maduro insiders to run a wide-scale corruption network they callously used to exploit Venezuela’s starving population,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the time of the sanctions. “They use food as a form of social control, to reward political supporters and punish opponents, all the while pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars through a number of fraudulent schemes.”

In private, U.S. officials have long described Saab as a front man for Maduro although he is not identified as such in court filings.

The U.S. Treasury Department alleges some of Saab’s contracts were obtained by paying bribes to the adult children of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores, — Yoswal, Yosser and Walter Flores. Commonly known in Venezuela as “Los Chamos,” slang for “the kids,” the three men are also under investigation by prosecutors in Miami for allegedly forming part of a scheme to siphon $1.2 billion from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, two people familiar with the U.S. investigation told The Associated Press.

News of the possible arrest broke late Friday but initially officials in the U.S. and Saab’s native Colombia were skittish about discussing the matter. Cape Verde has no extradition treaty with the U.S. and fresh on officials’ minds is the 2014 saga involving another high priority Venezuelan target, the late Hugo Chávez’s longtime spy chief, retired Gen. Hugo Carvajal.

Carvajal was arrested in 2014 on the Caribbean island of Aruba, where he had been named Maduro’s consul, but managed to flee a U.S. drug warrant after intense diplomatic pressure from Caracas. Carvajal remains at large after having been jailed and later released in Spain.

Saab is believed to have expanded his reach into Venezuela’s vital oil industry as the OPEC nation’s economic crisis has deepened. Iran sent Venezuela several tankers of gasoline last month that government opponents say were purchased with gold and by shell companies controlled by Saab.

Last week, prosecutors in Colombia froze eight properties allegedly belonging to Saab, including a mansion in his Caribbean hometown of Barranquilla valued at more than $7 million, as part of their own money laundering investigation.

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Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.

Yankee go home: What does moving troops out of Germany mean?

BERLIN (AP) — After more than a year of thinly-veiled threats to start pulling U.S. troops out of Germany unless Berlin increases its defense spending, President Donald Trump appears to be proceeding with a hardball approach, planning to cut the U.S. military contingent by more than 25%.

About 34,500 American troops are stationed in Germany — 50,000 including civilian Department of Defense employees — and the plan Trump reportedly signed off on last week envisions reducing active-duty personnel to 25,000 by September, with further cuts possible.

But as details of the still-unannounced plan trickle out, there’s growing concerns it will do more to harm the U.S.’s own global military readiness and the NATO alliance than punish Germany.

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The decision was not discussed with Germany or other NATO members, and Congress was not officially informed — prompting a letter from 22 Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee urging a rethink.

“The threats posed by Russia have not lessened, and we believe that signs of a weakened U.S. commitment to NATO will encourage further Russian aggression and opportunism,” Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas wrote in a letter to Trump with his colleagues. Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, slammed Trump’s move as “another favor” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But Richard Grenell, who resigned as U.S. ambassador to Germany two weeks ago, told Germany’s Bild newspaper that “nobody should be surprised that Donald Trump is withdrawing troops.”

Grenell, who declined to comment for this article, said he and others had been pushing for Germany to increase its defense spending and had talked about troop withdrawals since last summer.

“Donald Trump was very clear we want to bring troops home,” he said, adding: “there’s still going to be 25,000 American troops in Germany.”

The suggestion that removing troops will punish Germany, however, overlooks the fact that American troops are no longer primarily there for the country’s defense, said retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who commanded U.S. Army Europe from 2014 until 2017.

Gone are the days when hundreds of thousands of American troops were ready to fight in the streets of Berlin or rush into the strategic Fulda Gap, through which Soviet armor was poised to push into West Germany during the Cold War.

“The troops and capabilities that the U.S. has deployed in Europe are not there to specifically defend Germany, they are part of our contribution to overall collective stability and security in Europe,” said Hodges, now a strategic expert with the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based institute.

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American facilities include Ramstein Air Base, a critical hub for operations in the Mideast and Africa and headquarters to the U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa; the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, which has saved the lives of countless Americans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan; and the Stuttgart headquarters of both the U.S. European Command and the U.S. Africa Command. There’s also the Wiesbaden headquarters of U.S. Army Europe, the Spangdahlem F-16 fighter base and the Grafenwoehr Training Area, NATO’s largest training facility in Europe.

Hodges said the facilities are a critical part of America’s global military footprint.

“What’s lost in all this is the benefit to the United States of having forward deployed capabilities that we can use not only for deterrence ... but for employment elsewhere,” he said. “The base in Ramstein is not there for the U.S. to defend Europe. It’s there as a forward base for us to be able to fly into Africa, the Middle East.”

Trump indicated last summer that he was thinking of moving some troops from Germany to Poland, telling Poland’s President Andrzej Duda during an Oval Office meeting: “Germany is not living up to what they’re supposed to be doing with respect to NATO, and Poland is.”

Duda has been trying to woo more American forces, even suggesting Poland would contribute over $2 billion to create a permanent U.S. base — which he said could be named “Fort Trump.” In the current plan, at least some Germany-based troops are expected to be shifted to Poland.

Following Trump’s comments last June, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher tweeted Aug. 8 that “Poland meets its 2% of GDP spending obligation towards NATO. Germany does not. We would welcome American troops in Germany to come to Poland.”

Grenell then tweeted: “it is offensive to assume that the U.S. taxpayers will continue to pay for more than 50,000 Americans in #Germany, but the Germans get to spend their surplus on #domestic programs.”

In response, Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated Germany’s commitment to “work toward” the 2% NATO defense spending benchmark — a goal it hopes to meet in 2031.

“There is a lot invested here, and I think that we, in very friendly talks, will naturally always continue to heartily welcome these American soldiers, and there are also good reasons for them to be stationed here,” she said.

NATO members agreed at a 2014 summit to “aim to move toward” spending 2% of GDP on defense. Since then, the year Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, overall NATO defense spending has grown annually.

Since his election in 2016, Trump has pushed for the 2% as a hard target, and repeatedly singled out Germany as a major offender, though many others are also below the goal.

NATO figures put Germany’s estimated defense spending for 2019 at 1.4%, and Poland’s at 2%. In dollar terms, however, Germany committed nearly $54 billion last year — NATO’s third-largest budget after the U.S. and Britain — while Poland spent slightly less than $12 billion.

Germany does need to spend more, Hodges said, but U.S. and NATO interests would be better served if Washington pushed Berlin to spend on broader military needs, like transportation infrastructure, cyber protection and air defense, that would be easier for Merkel’s government to justify to a largely pacifist population.

“We don’t need more German tanks, we need more German trains,” he said. “Why not be a little bit more strategic and think about what the alliance really needs from Germany?”

Howard Kurtz warns cancel culture is 'clearly spinning out of control,' reaching the 'point of absurdity'

Howard Kurtz: Cancel culture goes crazy

Children’s cartoon ‘Paw Patrol’ faces criticism for portraying police in positive light; reaction and analysis from ‘Media Buzz’ host Howard Kurtz on ‘America’s Newsroom.’

"Media Buzz" host Howard Kurtz told "America's Newsroom" Friday that while Americans should be more sensitive during a period of "national agonizing over racism and police brutality," so-called "cancel culture" is "clearly spinning out of control" if the target is a squad of cartoon canines.

"Look, I’d say this was 'Looney Tunes,' but then Bugs Bunny might get canceled and that Elmer Fudd with the shotgun -- clearly excessive violence," Kurtz joked to Ed Henry days after Warner Bros announced it would disarm Fudd in a new "Looney Tunes" cartoon series on HBO Max.

Kurtz described a bleak future for works that could find themselves subject to "cancellation" in the future, pointing to HBO's momentary decision to pull "Gone With the Wind" from the HBO Max film library. The 1939 film has long been accused of glorifying slavery in the American South.

HBO has since promised to return the film to its streaming service alongside “a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of” its racist depictions.

Clark Gable, left, and Vivien Leigh in a scene from "Gone with the Wind." (Turner Classic Movies via AP)

"It's absurd. It's a product of its time," Kurtz remarked. "Where it's going is, I'm afraid, that old books, old plays, old songs could end up being trashed because somebody today is offended."

"Should radio stations be barred from playing '[The Lady] is A Tramp?’" he asked. "I mean, it does reach levels of absurdity that I think don’t match the serious discussion we are trying to have in the wake of the tragic killing of George Floyd."

However, Kurtz added that one debate that should be take seriously concerns Confederate symbols.

"You have NASCAR banning Confederate flags at its events ... some in the military – though not the president -- want to rename bases for Confederate generals who were traitors, who were fighting to preserve slavery," he pointed out.

That said, cancel culture and "so-and-so-is-over-party" Twitter hashtags have also resulted in what the Fox News media analyst calls "confession culture."

"Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor at Condé Nast, apologizing to her staff for not hiring enough black employees and running stories and images that are hurtful or intolerant, maybe some in the white media power structure [are] having to grapple with a painful past," he stated.

"But, on this point, people who cheer because they want something canceled because their sensibilities are offended: this is insidious. It can go both ways, and it can go out of control," Kurtz warned.

"Sensitivity? Sure. But, it does seem to me we reaching the point of absurdity," he told Henry.

"I would much rather not be debating whether this statute should come down, whether this Disney theme park ride should be renamed, or a group should be renamed," he added, referring to country act Lady Antebellum's decision to change their name to "Lady A."

"Let's get into the serious business of reforming the police, not defunding the police, but, you know, how you translate the anger on the streets that we’ve seen in the protests into actual reform," Kurtz concluded. "That’s a hard thing to do. This other stuff is easy. And I do think it is getting a little bit ludicrous."