Chuck Schumer Cartoons

Doug Schoen: The Democrats are at war -- with each other. And it could spell disaster in November

Eight states – Alabama, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota – will hold primaries Tuesday to pick candidates to run in the midterm general elections Nov. 6. But before turning our attention to those races, it’s useful to look back at primary results in May and see how they reveal a Democratic party in a deep state of division.
Voters in Democratic primaries are split between staunchly progressive and more moderate factions. In the struggle for leadership of the party, supporters of each faction are potentially fatally weakening the Democrats for November contests, and potentially for the 2020 elections as well. That could pave the way for President Trump to be re-elected.
There has been a dramatic change in the generic polling for Congress. Republicans now lead Democrats by 1 point, according to Reuters. Moreover, there has been a dramatic improvement in President Trump’s approval rating, with the Real Clear Average now up to 44 percent.

The Democrats must advance an agenda that is explicitly different from what party leaders are currently articulating and focus on long-term objectives to create a society of opportunity for all – not guaranteed outcomes achieved through wealth redistribution.

The reason why this is happening is because Democrats lack an agenda. The party, deeply split between its progressive and moderate wings, is divided on both message and tactics. This puts the party at risk not only at the ballot box, but in Republican-controlled state legislatures and governor’s offices throughout the country, with redistricting occurring after the 2020 census.
To be sure, the Democrats’ losses in 2010 doomed their chances this past decade. Republican majorities throughout the country continue to benefit President Trump as he prepares for 2020, when he has said he will run for re-election.
The lack of consensus between the two factions of the Democratic Party is clear, unambiguous and startling.
The progressive agenda focuses primarily on resisting President Trump at every step, labeling his every action a scandal, and calling for his impeachment without any vetted or verifiable evidence of wrongdoing. Progressives also advocate a redistribution of wealth without any long-term plan to fund policies such as Medicare-for-All or guaranteed employment.
The moderates offer a distinctly different worldview. They offer a plan for inclusive economic growth and an alternative set of policies to resolve the issues surrounding immigration and health care. At the same time, they reject party-line loyalty to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and calls for President Trump’s impeachment.
These positions allow the moderates to most effectively and persuasively articulate differences with the president, as well as find potential compromises with him.
One moderate Democrat, Rep. Conor Lamb, won a highly consequential special election in southwestern Pennsylvania’s 18^th District earlier this year by explicitly rejecting Nancy Pelosi’s announced bid for re-election as Democratic leader and calling for new leadership in Congress.
Lamb, however, remains in the distinct minority among a set of far-left candidates who are in ascendancy at the gubernatorial and congressional levels.

It would be a fundamental mistake for Democrats to pursue impeachment without evidence, based only on Russia’s broader election meddling scheme, which is now clear and unambiguous.

Even in Texas and Kentucky, where moderates emerged victorious, a solid third or more of the Democratic electorate remains committed to progressive causes and candidates.
In order to preserve the party’s chances in 2018 and capture a House majority last achieved in 2010, Democrats must adopt an explicitly moderate agenda.
When looking at the electorate, there is no evidence that formerly working-class Democrats who defected to President Trump in 2016 – or simply didn’t turn out for Hillary Clinton – will respond to a nearly socialist message from Democrats or to increasingly vitriolic attacks on the president.
Indeed, a set of April 2018 Remington Research Group surveys of voters in Iowa’s 1^st District, Wisconsin’s 3^rd District and Minnesota’s 8th District found that solid majorities of more than 60 percent in each district who previously voted for President Obama and defected to Donald Trump continue to support the Republican president.
The reason these voters see no incentive to return to the Democratic Party is because the leadership lacks a plan to effectively counter President Trump's initial success on economic revitalization by reducing taxes and cutting regulations. The stock market has made gains and unemployment has fallen below 4 percent for the first time since 2000.
Further, average U.S. household income recently reached a 50-year high. And much to the Democrats’ chagrin, the latest CBS/YouGov poll finds that 68 percent of the public credits President Trump for their personal economic success.
Given these circumstances, the Democrats must advance an agenda that is explicitly different from what party leaders are currently articulating and focus on long-term objectives to create a society of opportunity for all – not guaranteed outcomes achieved through wealth redistribution. This new agenda is needed to win back Obama voters who defected to Trump, especially working-class Midwestern voters.
In terms of specific issues, Democrats must recognize that increasing economic opportunities – particularly through vocational education and job training, with a focus on working Americans – is the key to winning.
Accordingly, Democrats should advocate for investment in our nation’s crumbling infrastructure as a central part of cultivating economic growth and job creation.
Democrats would also do well by working to take the issue of immigration off the table. According to a Harvard/Harris poll, 77 percent of Americans support legalization for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients, who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children by their parents. And 54 percent of Americans support a combination of physical and electronic barriers across the U.S.-Mexico border. Some 60 percent believe current border security measures are inadequate.
The Democratic leadership can and should achieve a compromise with President Trump and the Republicans on providing necessary funding to secure the Southern border and also create a pathway to citizenship for individuals who illegally entered the United States through no fault of their own, and since that time have contributed greatly to the American economy and our society.
On health care, with the repeal of the individual mandate and persistent attacks from Republicans on President Obama’s landmark Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), the key now is to expand coverage that is affordable, given that premiums continue to increase in jurisdictions nationwide.
By working with Republicans to enact fixes to the Affordable Care Act, rather than chasing an unfunded Medicare-for-All system, the Democrats can protect President Obama’s legacy, ensure Americans do not lose affordable coverage, and make sure they can obtain it.
Regarding potential impeachment of President Trump, the Democrats must only pursue this possibility if or when Special Counselor Robert Mueller produces a vetted report that indicates that there was direct and substantial collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, or an associated conspiracy charge.
It would be a fundamental mistake for Democrats to pursue impeachment without evidence, based only on Russia’s broader election meddling scheme, which is now clear and unambiguous.
If Democrats don’t want to squander their first real opportunity at controlling the House since 2010 – and likely their best shot for the foreseeable future – they must deliver a change in leadership, a change in policies, and a movement back to the moderate, inclusive message that won them control of government in the 1990s and the early 2000s.
Taking this path will do more than carry Democrats to victory in November. It will position the party for success in 2020 – after which redistricting decisions will be made nationwide – and beyond.

Douglas E. Schoen is a Fox News contributor. He has more than 30 years experience as a pollster and political consultant. His new book is "Putin's Master Plan". Follow him on Twitter @DouglasESchoen.

Melania Trump skipping G7, North Korea summits

WASHINGTON –  First lady Melania Trump will not join her husband at the G7 summit in Quebec later this week and there are "no plans" for her to travel to Singapore to meet with North Korea's leader later this month, a spokeswoman told Fox News late Sunday.
Mrs. Trump stayed behind Friday when President Donald Trump, and family-- including his daughters, eldest son and son-in-law-- went to the Camp David retreat for the weekend.
She hasn't made a public appearance since before her five-day hospital stay in mid-May for treatment of a kidney condition the White House only described as benign.
Mrs. Trump took to Twitter last week to dispel rumors circulating about her whereabouts.
"I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I'm doing," she tweeted on May 30. "Rest assured, I'm here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people!"
Stephanie Grisham, her spokeswoman, said earlier that the first lady has been meeting with staff and working on projects. Mrs. Trump is scheduled to join the president Monday in hosting a reception, closed to the press, for Gold Star families.
"She will not attend the G7 and there are no plans for her to travel to Singapore at this time," Grisham said.
The G7 summit will be held in Quebec on Friday and Saturday. The president plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore, the first leaders' summit between two countries that are still formally at war.

Kansas gubernatorial hopeful calls out 'snowflake meltdown' after riding jeep with replica gun at parade

Republican Kansas governor hopeful Kris Kobach pictured with the jeep mounted with a replica of a gun that sparked the outrage.  (Twitter)

Republican Kansas governor hopeful Kris Kobach said he won’t “back down in the face of a snowflake meltdown and outrage culture” after being criticized for riding in a jeep mounted with a replica of a large gun at a parade on Saturday.
Koback, the state’s secretary of state, raised eyebrows on social media over the weekend after he attended the Old Shawnee Days parade, named after the Kansas City-suburb.
“Had a blast riding in the Old Shawnee Days Parade in this souped up jeep with a replica gun,” he tweeted. “Those who want to restrict the right to keep and bear arms are deeply misguided. The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
But many criticized the politician for riding a vehicle equipped with a large replica gun at the event attended by young children.
Pastor Johnny Lewis of Shawnee Community Christian Church criticized the candidate in a Facebook post, saying his six-year-old child “worries constantly about school shootings.”
“Why was that necessary, sir? My child didn’t need that today. Don’t care what your position is on second amendment that is completely unnecessary,” he said.

Kobach's vehicle for the parade equipped with a replica of a gun.  (Twitter)

Lewis also told the Kansas City Star that his concern wasn’t about Kobach’s support for gun rights, but rather about the potential upset he caused to young children who came to watch the parade.
“My greatest concern today was not Kris Kobach’s political position… It was that in a world where our children… live with anxiety about school shootings and do intruder drills regularly that any politician thought it was OK to drive through a crowd of children with an automatic weapon pointed at the crowd,” the pastor said.
Despite the backlash, Kobach remained defiant.
“The outrage over the replica gun on the back of a patriotic jeep is the left trying to attack guns and your #2A rights. I will not back down in the face of a snowflake meltdown and outrage culture,” he tweeted.
The city of Shawnee has since issued an apology for having Kobach to attend the event and causing upset over the display of a large replica gun.
"Please know that the safety of our residents is always our highest priority and we apologize if this made anyone feel unsafe or unsettled. We will be taking steps in the future to try to ensure something similar does not happen again,” the statement said.

Portland sees bloody fighting as Antifa activists storm Patriot Prayer rally

Violence broke out in downtown Portland, Oregon, on Sunday as Antifa activists stormed a Patriot Prayer rally. Police tweeted that "Weapons have been confiscated from protesters" and "Fireworks and bottles have been thrown at officers and participants."  (Portland Police/AP Photo)

Violence broke out in downtown Portland, Oregon, on Sunday as Antifa activists stormed a Patriot Prayer rally — about a year after similar dueling rallies triggered bloody fights and arrests.
Some protesters on Sunday hurled bottles and fireworks at police officers while others were caught with knives and other weapons, Portland Police tweeted. Officials encouraged people to get out of the immediate area "for their safety."
Many of the Antifa activists wore black and covered their faces. Some protesters said they were demonstrating against police brutality; one sign bluntly read "F--- the police."
Patriot Prayer, which bills itself as a peaceful First Amendment advocacy group, organized a rally — "Tiny's Freedom March," a going-away event for Tusitala John Toese, who's close with group leader Joey Gibson — for 5 p.m.
The Rose City Antifa scheduled a counter-protest for 4 p.m. "to show Patriot Prayer, just as we showed them last year, that their violence and hatred has no place in Portland."
The demonstrations came a year after the same two groups converged in downtown Portland for opposing rallies, KOIN reported. Last year's protests resulted in 14 arrests.
Police said Sunday that while the city respects "the right to assemble," anyone with weapons or anyone involved in violent activities was subject to arrest.
It was not immediately clear if Sunday's demonstrations downtown resulted in any arrests, but photos and videos posted to social media showed protesters fighting and clashing, while some apparently were doused with pepper spray.

Democrat Swamp Cartoons

Republican blasts 'unethical tricks from the swamp,' rejects Dems' donations

A little-known Republican congressional candidate in Southern California has received $137,000 in campaign donations from Democrats from across the U.S. ahead of Tuesday's primary.
But John Gabbard -- a small business owner and Marine Corps veteran -- rejected the Democrats' help Friday, accusing the party of “bringing its classic unethical tricks from the swamp in Washington to the shores of Orange County.”
The Dems' backing of the GOP's Gabbard in California's 48th Congressional District seems to be part of an unorthodox strategy --- not to help Gabbard, but to ultimately help the Dems get one of their own candidates to emerge from Tuesday's primary and appear on the November ballot.
It's part of some $5.4 million that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent on congressional races in Orange County in recent weeks, the Orange County Register reported.
Under California primary rules, the top two vote-getters Tuesday, regardless of party, will face each other in November. So if two Republicans top the field, the Democrats would be shut out of the general election.
That GOP shutout is likely to happen in the 48th District, because two of the candidates are well-known former Orange County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh and incumbent U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, the Register reported.

"The [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] machine is bringing its classic unethical tricks from the swamp in Washington to the shores of Orange County."

John Gabbard, a GOP congressional candidate, is a small business owner and Marine Corps veteran.  (Facebook)

So the Democrats' best hope of getting one of their own -- either businessman Harley Rouda or stem-cell biologist Hans Keirstead -- to finish in the top two may be to back Gabbard, and hope he siphons enough votes away from Baugh or Roherabacher to eliminate one of them and help a Democrat advance.
Robocalls and radio ads funded by Democratic organizations have lavished praise on Gabbard’s wartime service, touting him as a man who has “traveled the world keeping America safe” and who “evacuated hundreds of Americans threatened during an African coup.”
At least one politcal watcher says Democrats are making a big mistake with their opposite-party financing.

"That's the kind of game plan that really turns voters off. That money would be so much better spent just on get-out-the-vote efforts."
- Jodi Balma, political science professor, Fullerton College

"That's the kind of game plan that really turns voters off," Jodi Balma, a political science professor at Fullerton College, told the Register. "That money would be so much better spent just on get-out-the-vote efforts."
Will the Democrats' plan work? Orange County voters will find out next week.

Obama-era FAA hiring rules place diversity ahead of airline safety, attorney tells Tucker Carlson

Activists inside the federal government decided that air traffic controllers weren't diverse enough and in recent years and in the first step of the hiring process, used a 'biographical questionnaire' to screen potential employees. One man is suing the FAA for its updated hiring practice. #Tucker
The safety of America's airline passengers is being compromised for the sake of diversity in hiring air traffic controllers, an attorney suing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" host Tucker Carlson on Friday.
During the Obama administration, the FAA replaced the previous hiring standards with rules designed to increase diversity among air traffic controllers, attorney Michael Pearson said.
“A group within the FAA, including the human resources function within the FAA -- the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees -- determined that the workforce was too white,” Pearson told Carlson. “They had a concerted effort through the Department of Transportation in the Obama administration to change that.”

"A group within the FAA ... determined that the workforce was too white. They had a concerted effort ... in the Obama administration to change that."

Pearson said there’s no data to support that increasing diversity in the ranks of air traffic controllers would make the flying public safer. Thus, Pearson said, he is suing the FAA for its revised hiring practices.
“It’s the safety of the national airspace that’s at risk here,” Pearson said.
Pearson, who said he was an air traffic controller in four of the nation's busiest facilities for nearly 27 years, asserted that much of the problem lies with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NACTA), the union that controls a large political action committee.
"They fund a lot of politicians,” Pearson told Carlson.
“Nothing will get passed in aviation unless they get blessing of the controller’s union,” he said, referring to legislation proposed in Congress. “Their position radically changed when the Obama administration came in.
“This is social engineering at its finest,” he added.
The FAA declined to send a representative to appear on the program, Carlson said.

Obama to headline pricey LA fundraiser for Democrats later this month

Back again to stir up more trouble for America.

Democrats hoping to see former President Barack Obama at a fundraiser in Los Angeles later this month might want to start setting aside some cash now.
General admission for the Democratic National Committee event, scheduled for June 28, starts at $2,700 and other admission options run as high as $100,000, the Hill reported.
The pricier tickets include such perks as premium seating, photos ops, and membership in the DNC’s National Finance Committee, the report said.
Obama has kept a relative low profile since leaving the White House in January 2017 -- although he has appeared at events related to the planned $500 million Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
In California, he has thrown his weight behind Democratic candidates and causes, including the re-election bid of longtome U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, which begins with Tuesday's California primary election.
In May, Obama was scheduled to appear at a Beverly Hills fundraising event for U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who's seeking a third term this year.
Meanwhile, Obama and former first lady Michele Obama last week announced a multiyear production deal with Netflix. The streaming service will serve as a platform for their production company, "Higher Ground Productions."
The June 28 Los Angeles fundraiser coincides with a concerted effort by Democrats to retake Congress in the 2018 midterm elections in November.
Obama, for his part, is expected to intensify his fundraising efforts on behalf of the Democrats, including raising money for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, Politico reported.

Clinton's 'a**-covering' speech on bin Laden raid made Biden furious, book claims

Hillary Clinton’s campaign claim in 2016 -- that she fully supported President Barack Obama’s decision to order the Navy SEAL raid that would eliminate Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden -- made Vice President Joe Biden furious, a new book says.
Biden, whom the book characterizes as willing to “fall on his sword” for Obama’s success, begrudged Clinton for misrepresenting her position on the decision, the book asserts.
“The a** covering, opportunistic version really rattled him,” an anonymous aide told Kate Andersen Brower, author of “First in Line: Presidents, Vice Presidents, and the Pursuit of Power.” An excerpt appeared this week in the Hill.

“The a** covering, opportunistic version really rattled him.”

Brower covered the White House for Bloomberg News during Obama's first term, and has written for several other news organizations, including Fox News.
During a Situation Room meeting with top Obama officials on whether to strike the compound believed to be holding bin Laden, Biden wasn’t the only one who voiced reservations about the plan, the excerpt says.
“My sense is that [Clinton] was not sold on the idea either,” says David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Obama, in the excerpt.

“My sense is that [Clinton] was not sold on the idea either.”
- David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama

Yet in January 2016, Clinton was touting her role in the bin Laden raid in a stump speech that, Politico wrote, left audiences "riveted."
“I was one of those who recommended the president launch what was a very risky raid ... because if all we had done was launch a missile and dropped a bomb, we never would have known [if bin Laden was dead],” Clinton told a crowd in Ames, Iowa, Politico reported.
“It was one of the most tense days of my life sitting there. For some of it we had the video but once they were inside we had no video, just an audio connection. ... And some of you who have followed this may know one of the helicopters hit the tail going into the courtyard and got disabled ... [but] because of the incredibly careful planning we didn’t leave anybody behind.”

"I was one of those who recommended the president launch what was a very risky raid."
- Hillary Clinton, on the campaign trail in Iowa, January 2016

Clinton has been the subject of other recent books dealing with the former U.S. secretary of state and U.S. senator's 2016 campaign loss.
Ben Rhodes, a former adviser to Obama, details in his memoir, “The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House,” that they’d run against Clinton in 2008 with the same message that Republican candidate Donald Trump would use eight years later.
That message: “She’s part of a corrupt establishment that can’t be trusted to bring change,” Rhodes writes in a preview featured in the New York Times.
Another memoir, “Chasing Hillary,” by Times reporter Amy Chozick, who followed Clinton on the campaign trail, writes of the Democratic nominee’s reaction the moment she learned of her defeat to Trump.
“’I knew it. I knew this would happen to me,’ she said, ... They were never going to let me be president,’” an excerpt in the New York Times reads.
But who was Clinton referring to as "they"? The former candidate has gone on to blame various groups for her election defeat -- including Democratic socialists, the "vast right-wing conspiracy," James Comey, white men and the press.