12 Months of Trump: Year since election brings economic boom, deepening divisions, probe politics

A year ago today, President-elect Donald Trump – perhaps the only politician not shocked by his historic victory – rallied supporters with a vow to apply his bigger-and-better business style to the country as a whole.

“America will no longer settle for anything less than the best,” he declared. And after a divisive election, the next commander-in-chief pledged to be “president for all Americans.”

Twelve months later, the changes are seismic.
It is indisputable that the candidate who ran as the get-things-done, board-room executive was great for Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained nearly 29 percent since Election Day 2016. The S&P 500 is up 21 percent.
After a rocky first quarter, economic growth also has picked up to around 3 percent under Trump, while the unemployment rate has dipped from 4.8 percent in January to 4.1 percent.
Trump marked his election anniversary Wednesday with a tweet congratulating the "DEPLORABLES" who voted for him.
The Trump team and its allies on Capitol Hill are vowing a bigger economic shot in the arm soon if they can muscle through a massive tax overhaul in the coming weeks and months – aiming to unleash growth by slashing corporate tax rates, simplifying the tax system and boosting the standard deduction.
But the deal isn’t yet sealed, and congressional leaders are cautious given their repeated failure to pass an ObamaCare overhaul as promised during the campaign.
While the president has struggled to get his legislative agenda passed on Capitol Hill, Trump often boasts of his nomination – and the successful Senate confirmation – of Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court when talking up his accomplishments to conservative audiences.
Elsewhere, 12 months of Trump have brought mounting complications.
NOT-YET-UNITED STATES
In the days after Trump’s election, Gallup conducted a poll finding a record 77 percent of Americans think the country is divided on key values. The country hasn’t demonstrated much unification since then. Trump’s inauguration was countered with massive protests in cities across the country. Far-left activists have since rioted on college campuses and far-right demonstrators – including neo-Nazis – have taken to the streets, notably in Charlottesville where a counter-protester was killed in August.

Moderate Republicans are increasingly speaking out against the president, like Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who plans to retire.  (AP)

The president’s scorched-earth approach to politics – largely conducted via his Twitter account – also has fueled divisions on Capitol Hill, where moderate Republicans are increasingly speaking out against the president and bucking the White House on key votes like health care, even when it invites his Twitter wrath. The most outspoken are those, like Sens. Bob Corker and Jeff Flake, who plan to retire.
PROBE POLITICS
Meanwhile, a backdrop of investigations and grievances over those investigations has kept both sides of the political aisle in an outrage cycle.
In a stunning sequence of events that started with Trump’s firing of James Comey at the FBI, Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate Russian meddling in the election and possible collusion with Trump associates. The first indictments were announced last week, though they didn’t speak specifically to campaign collusion with Moscow. The investigation is ongoing, as are related congressional investigations – giving Democrats, especially book-touring Hillary Clinton, a hook for continuing to question the fairness of the 2016 race.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate Russian meddling in the election and possible collusion with Trump associates.

But Republicans have increasingly countered with allegations of their own, with some even calling for the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate Obama and Clinton-era controversies – including claims that the Clinton email case was mishandled and questions over how much the FBI relied on a research firm that commissioned an unverified anti-Trump dossier. It has recently emerged that the research was funded with help from the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party.
IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN
Nothing energized Trump’s base during the campaign like his promises to get tough on illegal immigration, build a wall and institute extreme vetting for refugees and others entering the country.

The Customs and Border Protection agency recently unveiled prototypes of a new wall design from several contractors.  (Reuters)

Implementing those policies hasn’t been easy, but the Trump administration has sought to make a hard break from the Obama years: Shortly after taking office in January, the president signed an executive order temporarily banning immigration from several majority-Muslim countries while restricting entry for some Syrian refugees. That led to protests across the country and federal court challenges, which forced the administration to revise the order. The ban expired last month, as the administration keeps pursuing revised rules.
Trump also tasked his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, with ramping up enforcement of immigration laws, including cracking down on sanctuary cities by threatening to deny them federal funding. Trump also announced plans to end DACA, the Obama-era executive action protecting young immigrants from deportation, while calling on Congress to pass a remedy. All of this has been complicated by Trump’s public criticism of Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
The wall along the southern border has yet to be built – and Mexico still insists it won’t pay for it, as Trump promised during the campaign – but the Customs and Border Protection agency recently unveiled prototypes of a new wall design from several contractors.
REGULATION ROLLBACK
Gridlock in Congress has not stopped the president from unraveling former President Barack Obama’s executive action legacy, with Trump portraying his regulatory rollbacks as a boon for business.

Gridlock in Congress has not stopped the president from unraveling former President Barack Obama’s executive action legacy.

That includes withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, green-lighting the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines, moving to roll back the Clean Power Plan and using the Congressional Review Act, an obscure rule-killing law, to wipe out a wave of last-minute regulations pushed through before he took office.
THE WORLD IS STILL A DANGEROUS PLACE
The president has spent a considerable amount of his time over the last 12 months dealing with threats – at home and abroad.
As the Islamic State orchestrated terror attacks and declared a caliphate in Iraq and Syria during the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump famously promised during to “bomb the sh-t” out of ISIS. Last month, after the liberation of Raqqa, the president boasted that “more progress” had been made “against these evil terrorists in the past several months than in the past several years.”
Tensions with North Korea, however, have escalated since Trump took office, with the president mocking leader Kim Jong Un as “Little Rocket Man” over the country’s nuclear program. During a speech in South Korea this week, the president warned North Korea: “Do not underestimate us. And do not try us." As for the nuclear threat from Iran, Trump announced last month that he would decertify the 2015 Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, while leaving to Congress whether to restore sanctions.

President Trump has mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “Little Rocket Man.”  (AP)

In recent months, the president has flown on Air Force One to sites of deadly disasters in the country, including hurricanes in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico. He also traveled to Las Vegas last month after the massacre at a country music festival – the deadliest mass shooting in United States history. Democrats have reiterated their calls for new gun control measures in the wake of more mass shootings, including after the slaughter of a Texas church last weekend, but the NRA-backed president has suggested he has no appetite for restricting the gun ownership of law abiding Americans.
ORDER IN THE WEST WING?
There’s been no shortage of drama, rivalries and turnover inside the West Wing. Many aides -- including national security adviser Mike Flynn, chief strategist Steve Bannon, chief of staff Reince Priebus, press secretary Sean Spicer -- joined the White House at the beginning of the administration but have since been fired or resigned from their positions. Anthony Scaramucci lasted just 10 days in office. And the presence of Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as White House aides has complicated dynamics.
But some of that drama has calmed since this summer’s selection of retired Marine general and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly for White House chief of staff. Kelly has attempted to bring order to an unruly West Wing environment as the president pushes Congress to pass a tax reform package, a campaign promise Republicans acknowledge having to fulfill after failing so far to repeal ObamaCare.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has attempted to bring order to an unruly West Wing as chief of staff.

In an op-ed for USA Today on Wednesday marking the anniversary of the election, Vice President Pence argued that tax reform would pass in the Republican-controlled Congress by the end of the year.
“It has been a year of accomplishments, and we’re just getting started,” Pence said. “Before this year is out, we’ll pass historic tax cuts for the American people. And with President Trump’s leadership, I know: We will Make America Great Again.”

Donna Brazile on campaign tell-all: 'I wanted the American people to see what happened'

Part 1: Former interim DNC chair addresses claims that the Democratic National Committee slanted the nomination in favor Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders, dysfunction in the Clinton campaign and more. #Tucker

Former interim head of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile appeared to back away Wednesday from some of the most sensational claims made in her recently released tell-all about last year’s presidential election.

In an interview on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," Brazile described her book as a "forensic examination" of the failures of the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

"I wanted to write this book to tell my story," Brazile told host Tucker Carlson of her memoir, called "Hacks." "I wanted the American people to see what happened."
During a wide-ranging interview, Brazile said she leaked questions at a Democratic primary town hall to members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign because she didn’t want the candidates to be "blindsided."
"That’s the greatest spin I’ve ever heard" Carlson laughed in response. "I didn’t want them blindsided? That’s so good, you should do this for a living. That is hilarious."
"Wikileaks sought to divide us," Brazile responded. "These were active measures where you got to see the things I gave to Hillary. You never got a chance to see the things I gave to [Sen.] Bernie [Sanders] or [former Maryland Gov.] Martin O’Malley."
Previously released excerpts from Brazile's book accused Clinton's top male campaign staffers of sexist treatment. But on Wednesday night, Brazile ascribed her conflicts with campaign manager Robby Mook to "generational" differences.
"Remember, I come from the old school," Brazile said. "I come from the school [where] you actually knock on doors, you talk to people, you try to get their support [and] then you try to get them out on Election Day. Robby comes from a school that is a lot different … they do algorithms, they do data modeling."
Brazile called the Clinton campaign "condescending and dismissive" toward her and complained that she didn't have total control of the party's resources.
Another excerpt from Brazile’s book that has been made public accused her predecessor as DNC chair – Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz – of indulging in costly perks, including a “chief of staff and a body woman,” even as the party wrestled with a cash crunch that left it dependent on the Clinton campaign.
But on Wednesday, Brazile defended Wasserman Schultz’s handling of the DNC’s hacking that resulted in the release of a trove of emails by Wikileaks last summer.
“When [the hack] was brought to her attention, she immediately reached out to get cybersecurity experts on board … along with our cyber attorney, they provided the FBI with everything that they requested.”
When Carlson pressed her on why the DNC did not turn over its servers to the FBI, Brazile answered, “we were still running a party,” adding that the party spent “over $60,000” to assist the hacking investigation.
"After I received my FBI briefing in August, do you know what I wanted to do?” Brazile asked Carlson. "I wanted to go over to the Pentagon. I didn’t want to go back to the DNC. I wanted somebody to put yellow tape around the DNC. I was scared. We were under attack."

Political Cartoons 2017

Texas shooting: Gun laws aren't the problem, government incompetence is

In the wake of a Baptist church shooting that left 26 people dead Sunday, Democratic politicians and pundits once again took to social media and cable news to denounce those who they deem to be the true monsters in the entire situation –  National Rifle Association members and Christians offering thoughts and prayers.

The NRA was denounced a “terrorist organization” that was “drenched in the blood” of the victims of gun violence.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. – who looks like a pining presidential candidate – was of course out front in a rush to the microphones. He demanded that we all do “something,” without ever actually disclosing what that something might be. Apparently, what he really wants is confiscation of firearms from law-abiding Americans, who are now once again facing media backlash for a crime they had nothing to do with.
But as was revealed Sunday, in what is becoming a common theme in these mass shootings, no amount of background checking would have stopped the shooter in Sutherland Springs, Texas from purchasing his firearms, because the federal government failed to do it’s job properly. It’s not the first time.

If federal employees cannot perform the simplest of tasks of enforcing laws already on the books meant to keep people safe, then those employees need to be released and their agencies eliminated.

While serving in the U.S. Air Force, shooter Devin Patrick Kelley was convicted of domestic assault against his wife. He pleaded guilty to multiple charges stemming from incidents including physically striking his wife and choking and kicking her. He also pleaded guilty to assaulting his stepson, severely enough to crack the young child’s skull.
Kelley’s court-martial conviction should have disqualified him immediately from purchasing any kind of firearms. So what happened? The Associated Press reported:
“Under Pentagon rules, information about convictions of military personnel in crimes like assault is supposed to be submitted to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Investigation Services Division for inclusion in the National Criminal Information Center database. For unspecified reasons, the Air Force did not provide the information about Kelley as required.”
The AP report continued: “Acknowledging its mistake, the Air Force said in a written statement that the top two Air Force officials – Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein – have ordered a review of the Kelley case by the Air Force Office of the Inspector General.”
Because of a law passed in 1996, it’s illegal for anyone convicted a domestic abuse crime to purchase a firearm, something some of our dutiful lawmakers in Congress seem to not be aware of.
Because Kelley’s court records were never submitted the FBI database, Kelley sailed through several background checks and purchased up to four known firearms. Great work, guys.
This also appears to not just be a bad slip in judgment but a systematic problem. The Trace reported: “… the military has no distinct charge for domestic violence, notes Grover Baxley, a former judge advocate general who now practices military law as a civilian. ‘We see this all the time,’ Baxley said. ‘There is no specific domestic violence article.” Instead, military prosecutors charge abusers with other offenses, like assault. A scan of active records shows that the Department of Defense has just a single misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence on file with the National Criminal Instant Background Check System, or NICS.”
A chart accompanying the report shows a startling statistic. The military has submitted “zero records for members subject to domestic violence restraining orders” to federal authorities. This isn’t one or two bad apples falling through the cracks. This is a tree shaking them all to the ground.
But even when the FBI has all the data needed to flag someone from purchasing a gun, there have been examples of gross incompetence as well.
Dylann Roof shot and killed nine people during evening services at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015.
Roof was not legally permitted to own a firearm due to an unlawful drug possession charge from earlier that year. Roof’s record listed the wrong arresting agency and because of this error, he was able to legally purchase the weapon he used in the shooting. Victims of family members killed by Roof have filed suit against the U.S. government because of this avoidable error.
Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people and then committed suicide at the school in 2007, was under years of mental health observation. In 2005 he was accused of harassing female students and ordered by a court-appointed special justice, who declared him mentally ill, to attend treatment.
The justice declared that Cho “presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness.” Because Cho was never actually institutionalized, his state records were never sent to the FBI database, and he was able to purchase his weapons. Families of the victims settled with  Virginia for $11 million in damages over the lapse.
A 2012 report from Mayors Against Illegal Guns found similar lapses in the background check system. As NPR reported: “The Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined why states aren't submitting records in a July report. Some cited bureaucratic barriers, others technical ones, like switching from paper-based to computer systems. And some states contend it violates their laws to forward mental health records to the federal database. A few states are changing their laws.”
It should not matter if these incidences are occurring because of a political correctness stigma around mental health, or just dumb laziness. If federal employees cannot perform the simplest of tasks of enforcing laws already on the books meant to keep people safe, then those employees need to be released and their agencies eliminated.
The National Rifle Association and lawful gun owners are not involved in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. During the shooting in Texas, a former NRA instructor was instrumental in stopping Kelley’s rampage – a rampage that could have been prevented had our government not been asleep at the wheel again. But sure, let’s turn over our health care to the government now.

If our government cannot perform simple tasks like filling our criminal record forms and entering information into databases, then why in the world would we burden federal employees with new gun laws that do nothing but restrict the constitutional rights of citizens and vendors in full compliance with the law?
Start with enforcing the federal laws on the books before attempting one of those “conversations” about curtailing rights. When our government gets that right, then we can have a larger discussion about the Second Amendment.

Stephen L. Miller has written for Heat Street and National Review Online. Follow him on Twitter at @redsteeze.

Trump blames Gillespie for loss in VA race: He 'did not embrace me'

President Trump criticized Republican Ed Gillespie within moments of his projected loss in Tuesday's Virginia gubernatorial race, suggesting he fell short because he did not “embrace” Trump's agenda. 

“Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for. Don’t forget, Republicans won 4 out of 4 House seats, and with the economy doing record numbers, we will continue to win, even bigger than before!” Trump tweeted from Seoul, South Korea on Tuesday night, minutes after the gubernatorial race was called for Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam.

The president repeatedly had urged voters to support Gillespie leading up to Tuesday's vote. The Republican nominee, though, kept a certain distance from the president throughout the campaign, even as he adopted some of the president's tough immigration policies.
But while Gillespie tried to strike a balance in the swing state -- the only southern state Trump lost in last year's presidential election -- Democrats worked hard to tie Gillespie to the president at every turn.
One controversial ad showed minority children seemingly being chased by a driver in a pickup truck, decked out with a Confederate flag and a “Gillespie for governor” bumper sticker. The ad concluded with a scene of a Charlottesville-like rally, with a narrator asking: “Is this what Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie mean by the ‘American Dream?’”
The ad was removed after extensive backlash.
Other mailers from Northam’s camp boasted that he is “standing up to Trump and Gillespie’s politics of fear and hate.”

 (Mailer from the Northam campaign sent to Virginia voters this campaign season. )

Northam campaigned with Democratic power players like former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden and even had a fundraiser headlined by Hillary Clinton.
Meanwhile, Gillespie garnered Republican support with a fundraiser hosted by former President George W. Bush. He was also joined by Vice President Pence on the campaign trail, but not Trump.
The Trump-referendum strategy has not been particularly successful for Democrats in House special elections this year, which the president referenced in his tweet Tuesday night. He referred to special elections in Kansas, Montana, Georgia, and South Carolina—Republicans won all four of those races.

Democrats Northam, Murphy win gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey

Democrat Ralph Northam, left, won the gubernatorial race in Virginia as Democrat Phil Murphy, right, won in New Jersey.

Democrats rode to victory in Tuesday's hotly contested gubernatorial elections, as Ralph Northam defeated Republican Ed Gillespie in Virginia and Phil Murphy beat Republican Kim Guadagno in New Jersey.
The victories -- especially the win in Virginia -- are a shot in the arm to the beleaguered Democratic Party, which has lost four special congressional elections to Republicans since Donald Trump was elected president a year ago.
Northam, Virginia's lieutenant governor, won with the support of federal government employees and non-white voters, according to the Fox News Voter Analysis.
Northam garnered 54 percent to Gillespie's 45 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reported.
As he began his victory speech late Tuesday night in Fairfax, Northam was briefly ushered off stage by security after several pro-sanctuary cities protesters in the crowd began heckling him. Once he returned to the stage, Northam vowed to work to unite the state.

Democratic nominee Ralph Northam, left, defeated Republican Ed Gillespie, right, on Tuesday in the state's gubernatorial contest.  (AP)

“We need to close the wounds that divide, and bring unity to Virginia," he said. "Whether you voted for me or not, we are all Virginians. And I hope to earn your confidence and support as we move forward."
Speaking in Richmond, Gillespie told supporters he had conceded to Northam.
“Obviously, wish it had gone the other way, but I thank those who voted,” Gillespie said.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez celebrated the wins by saying voters in Virginia and New Jersey “rejected a Trump-Pence agenda” -- though the voter analysis suggested President Trump was not a major factor at the ballot box.
Meanwhile, Trump reacted to the results by saying Gillespie, whom he supported, did not adequately embrace him during the race.
"Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for," the president tweeted. "Don’t forget, Republicans won 4 out of 4 House seats, and with the economy doing record numbers, we will continue to win, even bigger than before!"
Ahead of Tuesday’s elections, the president repeatedly tweeted his support for Gillespie in the race to replace Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe in Virginia. Polling in recent weeks had seemed to show Gillespie gaining ground on Northam in Virginia, the only southern state lost by Trump in 2016.
FULL ELECTION DAY COVERAGE
Towards the end of the campaign, Gillespie, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, emphasized issues embraced by Trump during the presidential campaign, vowing to crack down on sanctuary cities and the MS-13 gang.
The race between Gillespie and Northam had gotten particularly nasty in recent weeks, with each side accusing the other of running ads that were out of line and racially tinged.
VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL RACE GUIDE
Last week, a liberal group called the Latino Victory Fund released a television ad showing immigrant and minority children in Virginia being chased down the road by a man in a pickup truck with a Confederate flag and a Gillespie bumper sticker. Republicans decried the ad, accusing Democrats of fear-mongering. The group behind it eventually took the ad down after last week’s terrorist attack by truck in New York.
Meanwhile, Democrats repeatedly protested ads from Gillespie accusing Northam of voting for bills that would lead to a threat increase from the MS-13 gang. In a video posted on Twitter after he voted Tuesday, McAuliffe warned about a possible Republican upset and called on voters to reject the “bigoted, racist ads that Ed Gillespie has run against Ralph Northam”
“I do not want you waking up like you did after the presidential election last November and saying, ‘how could this possibly happen?’” McAuliffe said.
VIRGINIA, NEW JERSEY GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES SPAR OVER SANCTUARY CITIES
Gillespie and Northam also sparred over the highly charged issue of removing Confederate monuments in the state. Northam's campaign attempted to tie Gillespie to the white supremacist violence this summer in Charlottesville, something Gillespie's campaign called an "ugly character smear."
Northam’s team portrayed the race as a referendum against Trump, labeling Gillespie “Trump's chief lobbyist” because of his former lobbying career.
The gubernatorial elections come as the national Democratic Party finds itself in disarray over former DNC interim chairman Donna Brazile’s new book claiming the DNC rigged the nomination for Hillary Clinton over rival Bernie Sanders in 2016.

Democratic nominee Phil Murphy, right, defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, left, in New Jersey.  (AP)

In New Jersey, Murphy -- a former Goldman Sachs executive and U.S. ambassador to Germany -- will succeed outgoing Republican Gov. Chris Christie, who has seen his approval numbers take a drastic hit and is term-limited after eight years in office.
Christie's deep unpopularity made Lt. Gov. Guadagno's campaign an uphill climb from the start.
Like Gillespie, Guadagno spent the campaign railing against sanctuary cities, releasing an ad drawing attention to Murphy’s comments in support of New Jersey being a “sanctuary state” and telling the story of an illegal immigrant who was convicted of killing several students in 2007.
“Murphy doesn’t have our backs,” the ad’s narrator said. Referencing criminal illegal immigrants, the narrator added: “He has theirs.”
Like Northam in Virginia, Murphy responded by accusing Guadagno of channeling Trump.
“Kim Guadagno should be ashamed of herself for the way she’s politicizing the deaths of three children and painting a community with the broad brush of a murderer, a tactic she must have gleaned from President Trump,” Murphy said in response to the ad. “To say the least, these are not New Jersey’s values.”

Trump, speaking in Seoul, warns North Korea: 'Do not underestimate us'

Speaking in front of South Korea’s National Assembly Wednesday morning, President Trump warned North Korea: "Do not underestimate us."

"Today, I hope I speak not only for our countries, but for all civilized nations, when I say to the North: Do not underestimate us. And do not try us," Trump said. "We will defend our common security, our shared prosperity, and our sacred liberty," the president said to cheers.

"We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction," he continued. "We will not be intimidated. And we will not let the worst atrocities in history be repeated here, on this ground we fought and died so hard to secure."
The comments contrasted remarks the president made earlier in the week, in which he appeared open to possible talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
During a news conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday, Trump argued that "it makes sense for North Korea to come to the table and make a deal that is good for the people of North Korea and for the world."
"I do see certain movement," Trump said.
But a day earlier, while in Tokyo, the president argued that "the era of strategic patience" with North Korea was finished and defended his previous rhetoric regarding the country.
That tone matched his speech on Wednesday.
"The world cannot tolerate the menace of a rogue regime that threatens with nuclear devastation," Trump argued, while advocating for "peace through strength."
"All responsible nations must join forces to isolate the brutal regime of North Korea," he said.
"It is our responsibility and our duty to confront this danger together - because the longer we wait, the greater the danger grows, and the fewer the options become," he continued. "And to those nations that choose to ignore this threat or, worse still, to enable it: The weight of this crisis is on your conscience."
TRUMP LANDS IN JAPAN, KICKING OFF FIRST ASIA TRIP
The speech in South Korea comes amid a 13-day trip to Asia that has already seen the president visit Japan and South Korea with stops in China, Vietnam and the Philippines still on the docket. 

Guns don't kill people, people kill people Cartoons

Democrat walks out of moment of silence for Texas massacre victims

California Rep. Ted Lieu that he would not join his colleagues who were observing the moment of silence in the chambers of the House of Representatives.

A junior Democratic congressman walked out of a moment of silence Monday night for victims of this weekend's mass shooting at a Texas church.

In a video posted to Facebook Monday evening, California Rep. Ted Lieu said that he would not join his colleagues who were observing the moment of silence in the chambers of the House of Representatives.

"I can’t do this again; I’ve been to too many moments of silences," Lieu said in the video. "In just my short period in Congress, three of the worst mass shootings in us history have occurred. I will not be silent.”
"I urge us to pass reasonable gun safety legislation, including a universal background check law supported by 80 percent of Americans, a ban on assault rifles and a ban on bump stocks,” Lieu added.
Lieu has been active on social media since the shooting.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and families affected by the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs," he posted on Twitter Sunday.
But just two hours later, after some of his followers objected to the measured nature of the tweet, Lieu unloaded on the National Rifle Association.
"I agree my prior tweet could be better," Lieu tweeted. "So here: I pray for the victims in TX. Also, screw the @NRA & can you help Dems take back the House."

Classy woman fired after flipping off Trump's motorcade

President Trump's motorcade drives through New York City during the United Nations General Assembly.

What a Classy Lady.

The woman who flipped off President Trump's motorcade last month said Monday that she was fired on Halloween for violating her employer's code of conduct policy -- but she vowed she would do it all over again if given the chance.
Juli Briskman, 50, now an ex-member of the marketing team at the government contractor Akima LLC, was on her bicycle on Oct. 28 when Trump's motorcade drove by her on a northern Virginia road.
A photo that quickly went viral showed her raising the middle finger of her left hand in defiance as the motorcade returned from the Trump National Golf Club.
"My finger said what I was feeling," Briskman, who had been on the job for just over six months, told CNN. "I'm angry and I'm frustrated."
Briskman's face was not visible in the photo, but she claimed she immediately confessed her involvement to her employer the Monday after the photo went viral.
Briskman said she was then promptly fired on Tuesday from the government contracting firm and escorted out of the building for violating the "code of conduct policy."
“They said, ‘We’re separating from you,‘” Briskman told the Huffington Post.  “Basically, you cannot have ‘lewd’ or ‘obscene’ things in your social media. So they were calling flipping him off ‘obscene.’”
Briskman, who claimed she was fired because her employer was worried about losing government contracts, said she has contacted the American Civil Liberties Union. She insisted she would flip off the president again if given the chance.
"Health care doesn't pass, but you try to dismantle it from the inside," Briskman told CNN. "Five-hundred people get shot in Las Vegas; you're doing nothing about it. You know, white supremacists have this big march and hurt a bunch of people down in Charlottesville and you call them good people."

Election Day: Trump factor looms large in Virginia, New Jersey governor's races

Virginia is one of only two states that have off-year governor's races on Election Day 2017. Here's why the Virginia race is getting national attention and how the "Trump effect" could impact the battle between Republican Ed Gillespie and Democrat Ralph Northam.

Democrats have worked feverishly all year to make nearly every local election a referendum on President Trump – and Tuesday's gubernatorial races are no exception. 

The Trump factor looms large in the marquee Virginia gubernatorial race, where Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam and his allies have churned out mailers and ads tying Republican rival Ed Gillespie to the Trump White House at every turn. 

The Trump-referendum strategy has not been particularly successful for Democrats in the House special elections so far this year. But this time, polls in New Jersey and Virginia’s gubernatorial races show the Democratic candidates in the lead.
In New Jersey, Democratic nominee Phil Murphy holds a substantial lead over Republican Kim Guadagno.
But the race in Virginia is considerably tighter. According to the latest Fox News Poll released Monday, Northam holds a 5-point edge over Gillespie, who says there is “no doubt” the polls are close.
In the final stretch, Gillespie questioned whether the Democrats' Trump-all-the-time strategy is a sound one.
FOX NEWS POLL: VIRGINIA GOVERNOR'S RACE REMAINS TIGHT
“They’ve known they’re in a close race for some time. They’ve been throwing the kitchen sink at us with awful and vile ads,” Gillespie said on Fox News’ “Daily Briefing” Monday.
The most controversial of those ads was run by a Democratic group, Latino Victory Fund. It showed minority children seemingly being chased by a driver in a pickup truck, decked out with a Confederate flag and a “Gillespie for governor” bumper sticker. The ad concluded with a scene of a Charlottesville-like rally, with a narrator asking: “Is this what Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie mean by the ‘American Dream?’”
The ad was removed after extensive backlash.
ELECTION DAY 2017: FULL COVERAGE
Other mailers boast that Northam is "standing up to Trump and Gillespie's politics of fear and hate."

This is one of numerous mailers from Virginia Democrats trying to link Republican candidate Ed Gillespie to President Trump.

It's a message the campaign stands by as polls are set to open.
“Independent groups are denouncing Ed Gillespie because he has run the most divisive, fear-mongering campaign in modern history,” Northam campaign spokeswoman Ofirah Yheskel said in a statement to Fox News. “It is not shocking that communities of color are scared of what his Trump-like policy positions mean for them.”
Northam has campaigned with Democratic power players like former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden and even had a fundraiser headlined by Hillary Clinton.
WHO ARE ED GILLESPIE AND RALPH NORTHAM?
Meanwhile, Gillespie has garnered Republican support, with a fundraiser hosted by former President George W. Bush. He was joined by Vice President Pence on the campaign trail—but not Trump. Trump, though, has repeatedly expressed his support for Gillespie on Twitter.
"The state of Virginia economy, under Democrat rule, has been terrible. If you vote Ed Gillespie tomorrow, it will come roaring back!" Trump tweeted Monday.
Despite Democrats' claims, Gillespie seems to be keeping a certain distance from Trump, while telling Fox News that he would work with “President Trump and Vice President Pence and the Cabinet.” He listed priorities for Virginia, like “building more ships” and “keeping Norfolk the largest base in the world.”
“In terms of working with the president and vice president, any governor of Virginia has to be able to work with the president of the United States,” Gillespie said Monday. “That’s always been our history given our proximity. I’ll be able to.”

In New Jersey, Democratic nominee Phil Murphy holds a substantial lead over Republican Kim Guadagno.  (AP, File)

In New Jersey, Lt. Gov. Guadagno is dealing not only with attempts to link her to Trump but to outgoing and controversial Gov. Chris Christie.
Murphy, a multimillionaire former Goldman Sachs executive and former U.S. ambassador to Germany, said the choice for New Jersey’s next governor couldn’t be clearer.
“On the one hand more of the same, another Chris Christie four years of failed politics, of failed politices for the middle class that was hollowed out and ravaged, where public education doesn’t get funded, infrastructure is ignored, we become more unfair by the day and we are caught in this awful us vs. them vortex,” Murphy said at a recent campaign event. “Or we can turn the page and change.”
Guadagno’s response? She reminds voters that Christie is no longer on the ballot.
Murphy, like Northam, also has welcomed big names on the campaign trail, with former Presidents Obama and Bill Clinton, and Biden, at campaign events.
There is much at stake in both gubernatorial elections, but whoever takes the governor’s mansion in New Jersey could have the added responsibility of appointing a senator—if Sen. Bob Mendendez, D-N.J., is convicted in his corruption trial and resigns.
Menendez maintains his innocence. But if he were to step down, the appointment decision would have serious implications for Trump's policy agenda in a closely divided Senate.
“With the Senate so evenly divided, the outcome of the New Jersey gubernatorial election, if Senator Menendez were to be convicted, could determine the Trump agenda and if it would move forward with greater ease in the Senate," said Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University.
Another race to watch Tuesday is in Utah, with the election to fill the House seat previously held by Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz who resigned from his post in June.

As kidnapped American professor's health dangerously deteriorates, pressure on Pakistan again mounts

It has been a year and three months since five gunmen disguised in Afghan military uniforms targeted an SUV on a main road near Kabul’s American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) — taking two foreign professors, U.S. citizen Kevin King, 60, and Australian Timothy Weeks, 48, as hostages.

But as King’s health dangerously declines, a spotlight again has been put on Pakistan and what role they can play in facilitating an urgent release. Najib Danish, the spokesperson of the Afghan Ministry of Interior, told Fox News that they believe the professors are being held in the border region — on the Pakistan side.

“The terrorists do not have the power to keep hostages for such a long time in Afghanistan because the people here would have let Afghan Forces know of their location by now,” he said. “We are sure the Pakistan government wants to take advantage of these professors and at some point will release them like the other couple. This is a game by Pakistan.”
Last week, the Afghan Taliban released a statement indicating that King is seriously ill and requires urgent medical attention.
“His illness has intensified, his feet have swollen and sometimes he becomes unconscious and his condition worsens every day,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said. “We have tried to treat him time to time but we do not have medical facilities as we are in a war situation.”

Professors Kevin King and Timothy Weeks are believed to be held by Haqqani in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan

The professors are believed to be under the captive authority of the Haqqani network, which works closely with the Taliban as a kidnapping moneymaking enterprise. Haqqani also held U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl and the recently released hiker Caitlan Coleman and her family — who were located in Pakistan following a grueling five-year captivity.
A senior Afghan intel source, connected to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), also affirmed to Fox News that the professors were kidnapped by Haqqani with the help of “internal circles,” which function like criminal gangs in Kabul. According to the source, they were held initially in the Arzo district of Logar province in the Speen Jomat area, just a few miles from the tribal area of Pakistan known as Parachinar, but were later shifted deeper inside the Kurram district inside the bordering tribal areas.
The NDS source also claimed that the Haqqani network continues to demand the release of one of their top commanders, Anas Haqqani, who was captured in 2014 and sentenced to death by Afghan officials and that there are some Afghan officials pushing for this maneuver under the belief it may make foreign visitors safer.
However, a well-placed U.S. official told Fox News that they are absolutely standing by their no-concession policy, and that there will be no such trades made. Nonetheless, they do believe King’s condition to be especially dire and are calling for the immediate release of the professors on humanitarian grounds, stressing that “time is of the essence.”

Kidnapped Professors: AustralianTimothy Weeks and American Kevin King

King is thought to have developed serious heart and kidney problems since being in captivity, and the Taliban have sought to make this public now as, according to a government source, it has proven to be a “burden” on them.
The Taliban, which did not provide proof of King’s deteriorating condition, indicated in their statement last week that the U.S. is running out of time to fulfil its demands and that the “Islamic emirate will not be held responsible” if he dies.

Taliban fighters  (The Associated Press)

Due to the sensitive nature of the situation, U.S. authorities closely connected to the case were not able to verify whether King and Weeks are likely inside Afghanistan or Pakistan territory. The U.S. State Department has persistently, and continues to, call for the immediate and unconditional release of the two hostages.
The Pakistan Embassy in the U.S. did not respond to a further request for comment, but Washington-based Pakistan Ambassador Aizaz Chaudhry assured Fox News in September that they do not allow insurgent groups to operate in their territory, and that the government has regained full control of the country — including the oft-considered lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Chaudhry also insisted that it is the Afghan government which needs to stop sending “mixed messages” to groups like the Taliban. The two neighboring countries long have had tensions over issues of security and terrorism, and which country is to blame for its export.
DOZENS OF AWOL AFGHAN TRAINEES IN THE US REMAIN UNACCOUNTED FOR, REPORT SAYS
GETTING TOUGH ON THE TALIBAN: TRUMP ADMIN SAID TO BE URGING CLOSURE OF THE MILITANT GROUP'S QATAR OFFICE

A video released of hostages Caitlan Coleman and husband Joshua Boyle while being held in captivity

The push for a release comes at a time of rocky relations between the U.S. and Pakistan. President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened this year to withdraw aid money to Pakistan, accusing the country of harboring militants. The pressure is said to have prompted Pakistan to conduct last month’s Coleman rescue operation — earning praise from the Trump team and avoiding another potential national embarrassment, akin to the 2011 raid in which U.S. forces killed Usama bin Laden inside Pakistani territory without the government’s authorization.
The last visual proof-of-life came in June with the release of a video by the Taliban, in which the two appeared haggard seemingly speaking into a laptop webcam with King pleading to President Trump: “Have mercy on me and get me out,” and “please do not send any commandos.”

U.S Navy SEALs successfully killed Al Qaeda leader in Pakistan in 2011

An unsuccessful rescue attempt was made by U.S. Navy SEALs in the weeks after the initial kidnapping, but the hostages had been moved just prior to their ascendance into the mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan.
AUAF also is cooperating closely with authorities to push for a release, but acknowledged that efforts to have their staff members released so far have proven fruitless.
“We are really worried about their health and safety. They were here to teach the Afghan boys and girls, the future of this country and this has had bad effects on all our educational programs,” an official, who asked not to be identified, said. “We are still trying our best to release them, and we are talking to Afghan officials. No one has asked us for money yet, we just hope for their safe release.”
The students too have taken a vocal role in requesting that their professors be returned safely.
One student, Marzia, described King as someone “extremely passionate about teaching them about the world,” and another, Freshta, stressed that King and Weeks only ever wanted to see them do well.
“They came to Afghanistan as teachers, to help us. These innocent people have done nothing to harm anyone and they need to be reunited with their family, friends and colleagues,” she added. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and we will not feel good until they are safely back with us.”

Man hailed a hero for chasing Texas church gunman after massacre

Johnnie Langendorff said in a interview that he helped track down the gunman after the Texas church massacre.  (Fox San Antonio)

One of the men who said he helped tracked down the Texas church gunman on Sunday is being hailed a hero for potentially preventing more bloodshed after the deadly shooting.

Johnnie Langendorff told Fox San Antonio that he decided to track down the killer after seeing the gunman exchanging fire with a member of the community.

Multiple sources speaking to Fox News identified the gunman as 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley. The mass shooting unfolded around 11:30 a.m. at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, which is about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio. At least 26 people were killed and 20 wounded.
Langendorff said he arrived at an intersection near the church. He said he witnessed two men exchange fire and recognized one of them from the community.
“The shooter of the church had taken off, fled in his vehicle, the other gentleman came and said we need to pursue him. And that’s what I did, I just acted,” he told a local TV station Ksat.com.
Following a brief chase, the two caught up with the gunman.
“He got a little bit of a jump on us. We were doing about 95 (mph) down (Route) 539 going around traffic and everything. Eventually he came to a kind of a slowdown and after that we got within just a few feet of him and then he got off the road,” he said.
“He just lost control. That is when I put the vehicle in park and I was still on the phone to dispatch (police). The other gentleman jumped out and has his rifle drawn on him. He didn’t move after that.”
Police arrived within five to seven minutes to the location where the shooter stopped. “We led police to him,” he said, according to Ksat.com.
Langendorff said he was not aware at the time of the chase that the shooter had additional weapons in his vehicle and he might have prevented more deaths.

Trump says Texas church shooting result of 'mental health problem,' calls gunman 'deranged'

Nov. 6: President Trump issued a statement on the Texas church shooting during a news conference with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.  (Reuters)

President Trump on Monday said the mass shooting at a Texas church is the result of a "mental health problem at the highest level" and called the gunman a “very deranged individual.”

Trump was at an even with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo and responded to questions about the shooting Sunday at a Texas church that killed at least 26 and wounded 20.

“This isn’t a guns situation,” Trump said. “This is a mental health problem at the highest level. It’s a very, very sad event.”
Authorities on Monday were working to determine a motive in the shooting that occured at around 11:30 a.m. at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, which is about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio.
Multiple sources told Fox News the gunman was 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley.
Kelley lived in a suburb of San Antonio and didn't appear to be linked to organized terrorist groups, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. The official said investigators were looking at social media posts Kelley may have made in the days before Sunday's attack, including one that appeared to show a semiautomatic weapon.
Authorities said the gunman wore black tactical gear and a ballistic vest when he pulled into a gas station across from the church. He crossed the street and started firing a Ruger AR rifle at the church, said Freeman Martin, a regional director of the Texas Department of Safety, then continued firing after entering the white wood-frame building, where an 11 a.m. service was scheduled.
Wilson County Sheriff Joe D. Tackitt Jr., whose territory includes Sutherland Springs, said there was likely "no way" for the church congregation to escape once the shooting started.
"You've got your pews on either side. He just walked down the center aisle, turned around and my understanding was shooting on his way back out," said Tackitt, who said the shooter also carried a handgun but that he didn't know if it was fired.
Tackitt described the scene inside the church as "terrible."
"It's unbelievable to see children, men and women, laying there. Defenseless people," Tackitt said. "I guess it was seeing the children that were killed. It's one thing to see an adult, but to see a 5-year-old ..."
As he left, the shooter was confronted by an armed resident who "grabbed his rifle and engaged that suspect," Martin said. A short time later, the suspect was found dead in his vehicle at the county line.
Several weapons were found inside the vehicle and Martin said it was unclear if the attacker died of a self-inflicted wound or if he was shot by the resident who confronted him. He said investigators weren't ready to discuss a possible motive. Martin said 23 of the dead were found in the church, two were found outside and one died after being taken to a hospital.
The man who confronted Kelley had help from another local resident, Johnnie Langendorff, who told KSAT TV that he was driving past the church as the shooting happened.
"I was strictly just acting on what's the right thing to do," Langendorff said.
Gov. Greg Abbott called the attack the worst mass shooting in Texas history.
Among those killed was the church pastor's 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle Pomeroy. Pastor Frank Pomeroy, and his wife, Sherri, were both out of town when the attack occurred, Sherri Pomeroy wrote in a text message.
"We lost our 14-year-old daughter today and many friends," she wrote. "Neither of us has made it back into town yet to personally see the devastation. I am at the charlotte airport trying to get home as soon as i can."
Federal agents swarmed the small rural community of a few hundred residents, including ATF investigators and the FBI's evidence collection team.
Later Sunday, two sheriff's vans were parked outside the gate of a cattle fence surrounding the address listed for Kelley on the rural, western outskirts of New Braunfels, north of San Antonio.
Ryan Albers, 16, who lives across the road, said he heard intensifying gunfire coming from that direction in recent days.

KSAT via AP  (Investigators arrive at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Tex.)

"It was definitely not just a shotgun or someone hunting," Albers said. "It was someone using automatic weapon fire."
The church has posted videos of its Sunday services on a YouTube channel, raising the possibility that the shooting was captured on video.

Shocking Donna Brazile expose drives Hillary camp into chaos, may throw crucial Virginia governor race to the GOP

Donna Brazile's scathing review of Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential campaign sent more shock waves this weekend through the Democratic Party, with members eager to bury the Clinton era ahead of Tuesday’s key Virginia governor’s race and other upcoming elections.

“Those telling me to shut up … I tell them, 'Go to hell.' I’m gonna tell my story,” Brazile, who ran the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 White House race, on Sunday told ABC’s “This Week.”

Brazile roiled the political world on Thursday when she published excerpts in Politico of her upcoming book that detailed a 2015 money deal between the Clinton campaign and the DNC that made winning the party’s presidential nomination nearly impossible for any other Democratic candidate.
NBC News published a memorandum Saturday detailing the joint-fundraising agreement that shows the Clinton camp would have input on such key DNC decisions as hiring and spending, in exchange for helping the group with its roughly $20 million debt.
The memo also made clear that other potential candidates could enter into a similar agreement with the DNC.
But Brazile suggested Sunday that the authority the Clinton camp had under the agreement went beyond “standard” joint-fundraising agreement and that a “separate,” undisclosed deal also existed.
“I could not control the purse strings of the Democratic Party,” she said. “I become chair, and I'm trying to write a check for something that I raised money (for.) And they're like, 'You have to get that signed off on from Brooklyn.' This wasn’t a standard joint fundraising agreement. … They had separate memo of understanding.”
A review Saturday by The Washington Post of the book -- “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House” -- resulted in former Clinton campaign staffers on Saturday penning an open letter, disputing Brazile’s accusations that the campaign was tone-deaf to middle-class voters, acted with a false sense of “inevitability” and in the closing weeks had “the odor of failure.”
According to the review, Brazile, who is African-American, also said she felt the campaign treated her like a “slave” and that she considered replacing Clinton with then-Vice President Joe Biden, after Clinton passed out during a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York City.
“We were shocked to learn the news that Donna Brazile actively considered overturning the will of the Democratic voters by attempting to replace Hillary Clinton,” campaign members, including Robby Mook, John Podesta and Huma Abedin, in part said in the letter. “It is particularly troubling and puzzling that she would seemingly buy into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate’s health. … Finally, we are pretty tired of people who were not part of our campaign telling the world what it was like to be on the inside.”
To be sure, the scathing criticism of one long-standing Democrat on other members of her own party comes at a bad time -- days away from the Virginia gubernatorial race featuring Republican Ed Gillespie against Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam.
The RealClearPolitics polls average shows Northam now leading by 3 percentage points, essentially a dead heat, after leading by nearly 7 points just weeks ago.
“Donna Brazile going off the reservation right now is bad for Democrats,” Republican strategist Rory McShane told Fox News on Sunday. “But we’ve seen this before in off-year elections like in Georgia and South Carolina, where Democrats believed they’d win. This is just the latest case of no message, no organization, no leadership.”
Tom Perez, the new DNC chairman, on Sunday, after The Post review of Brazile’s book, rushed to assure Democrats that he would clean up the group’s mess ahead of the next presidential election cycle.
“While we’ve made remarkable progress since last November, we still have a long way to go,” he said in a statement. “I am more committed than ever before to restoring voters’ faith in our democratic process because even the perception of impartiality or an unfair advantage undermines our ability to win. That is unacceptable. To that end, the new DNC under my leadership is committed to the task of making sure that our 2020 nominating process will be unquestionably fair and transparent.”
Liz Smith, who was a spokeswoman for Martin O’Malley, another 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, on Saturday told Fox News’ “America’s News Headquarters”: “I know Donald Trump and Republicans would like to use Hillary Clinton as a whipping boy. But she’s in our past. We are moving beyond her.”

Michael Goodwin: New York Times' rabid ­defense of Mueller resembles the debacle of its 2016 campaign coverage

May 14, 2014: Pedestrians wait for cabs across the street from The New York Times in New York. (AP)

A friend likens The New York Times to a 1960s adolescent who refuses to grow up.  In a perpetual state of outrage, it is a newspaper of college snowflakes who embrace all forms of diversity except thought.
It sees its liberal politics not as a point of view, but as received wisdom that cannot be legitimately disputed.
The fixation on conformity reached a new low last week when the paper rolled out a coordinated attack on those of us who believe special counsel Robert Mueller ought to resign. I say coordinated because the newsroom and the opinion page produced similar pieces on the same day, showing again how Executive Editor Dean Baquet has erased the barrier between news and opinion and turned every page into an opinion page.
In the Times’ view, there are only two reasons to question Mueller’s credibility: insanity or treason. And so we detractors stand accused of engaging in a conspiracy that will embolden adversaries like Russia and produce a “constitutional crisis.”
The animating impulse for the assault is obvious — the Times is locked into its mission of destroying President Trump, and, like Hillary Clinton, still cannot accept Trump’s election as legitimate.