Mueller subpoenas Trump campaign for Russia-related documents, source says

Letting the Alligators run the swamp? 

Robert Mueller's investigators subpoenaed more than a dozen Trump campaign officials requesting Russia-related documents last month.  (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)

Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators have subpoenaed the Trump campaign for documents from a number of people as part of his probe of Russian interference in last year's election campaign, a source with knowledge of the investigation told Fox News late Thursday.

The subpoena, which was issued last month, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal reported that the special counsel's office is seeking documents and emails from more than a dozen campaign officials that reference certain Russia-related keywords. The paper described it as Mueller's first official order for the Trump campaign to produce information.
The source described the subpoena to Fox as a "cleanup operation" aimed at collecting any missing information and ensuring that Mueller had the same documents as the three congressional committees conducting their own investigations.
Separately, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said earlier Thursday that White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner -- President Trump's son-in-law -- hasn't been fully forthcoming with the panel's probe into Russian election interference, asking him to provide emails sent to him involving WikiLeaks and a "Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite."
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., sent a letter to Kushner's lawyer saying the collection of documents he has provided the committee is "incomplete." The committee gave Kushner a Nov. 27 deadline to provide the additional documents, including the emails and Kushner's security clearance form that originally omitted certain contacts with Russian officials.
The senators noted they have received documents from other campaign officials that were copied to or forwarded to Kushner, but which he did not produce. Those include "September 2016 email communications to Mr. Kushner concerning WikiLeaks." Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., corresponded with WikiLeaks that month and, according to The Atlantic, sent an email to several Trump campaign advisers to tell them about it.
Grassley and Feinstein wrote that other parties have produced documents concerning a "Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite" that Kushner forwarded but has not given to the committee. It is unclear what overture and dinner invite they are referring to.
The senators are also asking Kushner for correspondence with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is a subject of an investigation by Mueller.
Abbe Lowell, Kushner's lawyer, said in a statement that Kushner has been "responsive to all requests."
"We provided the Judiciary Committee with all relevant documents that had to do with Mr. Kushner's calls, contacts or meetings with Russians during the campaign and transition, which was the request," Lowell said. "We also informed the committee we will be open to responding to any additional requests and that we will continue to work with White House Counsel for any responsive documents from after the inauguration."
The new request is a sign that the panel is still moving forward with its probe into the Russian interference and whether Trump's campaign was involved.
In the letter to Kushner, the senators noted they had asked him to provide documents to, from, or copied to him "relating to" certain individuals of interest to investigators, but Kushner responded that no emails had been found in which those individuals were sent emails, received emails, or were copied on them.
"If, as you suggest, Mr. Kushner was unaware of, for example, any attempts at Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, then presumably there would be few communications concerning many of the persons identified in our second request, and the corresponding burden of searching would be small," the senators wrote.
The committee also asked for the additional documents related to Flynn, detailing a long list of search terms, and rebuffed Kushner's lawyer's arguments that his security clearance is confidential and unavailable because it has been submitted to the FBI for review.
The Senate and House intelligence committees interviewed Kushner in July. The Judiciary panel has also sought an interview with Kushner, but his lawyers offered to make the transcripts available from the other interviews instead, according to the letter. The senators say those panels haven't provided them with those transcripts, and ask Lowell to secure that access.
Then "we will consider whether the transcript satisfies the needs of our investigation," Grassley and Feinstein wrote.

Bill Clinton should have resigned after Lewinsky affair, New York Democrat says

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., listens to testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 28, 2009.  (Associated Press)

Recent news about prominent men facing allegations of sexual misconduct apparently has some Democrats reassessing the presidency of Bill Clinton.

The second-guessers include at least one Democrat who has long been considered a Clinton supporter.

On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., asserted that, in retrospect, Clinton should have resigned from the presidency after the disclosure of his extramarital affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.
“Yes, I think that is the appropriate response,” Gillibrand told the New York Times, when asked if Clinton should have left the White House.

"Yes, I think that is the appropriate response."

- U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., on whether President Bill Clinton should have resigned.

Gillibrand’s remarks were reported on the same day that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other prominent lawmakers from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill called for U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to face a Senate ethics investigation into his 2006 conduct with a Los Angeles radio host during a USO tour.
On Thursday, Gillibrand announced that she would donate $12,500 she received from Franken’s political action committee to Protect Our Defenders, a group working to end rape and sexual assault in the U.S. armed forces, the Hill reported.
Gillibrand’s comments Thursday made her the most prominent Democrat to link this year’s increasingly low tolerance for mistreatment of women to the Clinton years. The senator noted, however, that sexual misconduct was regarded less harshly in the 1990s than today.
The senator added that perhaps President Donald Trump’s past behavior and comments about women also deserve more scrutiny.
“And I think in light of this conversation, we should have a very different conversation about President Trump, and a very different conversation about allegations against him,” she said.
Gillibrand has been a U.S. senator since 2009, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives.
On Wednesday, Gillibrand and U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., introduced legislation to improve the prevention and reporting of sexual harassment on Capitol Hill, PBS NewsHour reported.

Senate panel OKs tax bill, drawing Trump, GOP closer to major legislative win

The Senate Finance Committee voted late Thursday in favor of the House GOP tax bill, paving the way for the first major legislative victory for the Trump administration.

The panel's 14-12 vote means the bill will likely reach the Senate floor sometime after Thanksgiving.

Earlier Thursday, the House passed its bill in a 227-205 vote.
"For the millions of hard-working Americans who need more money in their pockets and the chance of a better future, help is on the way," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.

"For the millions of hard-working Americans who need more money in their pockets and the chance of a better future, help is on the way."

“When the Senate returns after Thanksgiving, I will bring this must-pass legislation to the floor for further debate and open consideration," he added.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), slightly altered by Finance Committee Chairman and U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, during the four-day markup, would temporarily cut taxes for individuals and ax the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent.
It would also include a repeal of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate, adding an estimated $338 billion in revenue over 10 years. Earlier this year, Republicans failed to repeal the ACA, the 2010 health care measure commonly called ObamaCare.
“This is a good bill that delivers on our promise to provide middle-class tax relief and grow our economy,” Hatch told reporters before the Senate panel's vote, according to the Hill.
The earlier House vote drew praise on Twitter from President Donald Trump. “Big win today in the House for GOP Tax Cuts and Reform, 227-205. Zero Dems, they want to raise taxes much higher, but not for our military!” Trump tweeted.
Republicans celebrated the potential tax overhaul, claiming it would support the middle class in America, and denied Democratic Party lawmakers' accusations that the bill favors the wealthy and big corporations and will potentially leave millions of Americans without health insurance.
“I come from the poor people," said Hatch, 83, who was the first member of his family to attend college. "And I’ve been working my whole stinking career for people who don’t have a chance. And I really resent anybody saying I’m just doing this for the rich. Give me a break.”
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., meanwhile, called the bill “indefensible, partisan legislation," the Hill reported. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said the bill was “flawed.”
"It’s not surprising that a flawed process has produced a flawed product, but we can change course," Carper said in a statement, according to Business Insider. "I implore Chairman Hatch and our colleagues on the other side of the aisle: Let’s go back to the drawing board and start anew on a real bipartisan basis."

Hillary Clinton 2017 Cartoons

Senate Confirms Mark Esper as Army Secretary

OAN Newsroom

The Senate confirms President Trump’s pick for the Army’s top civilian post.
In an 89-to-six vote, senators approved the nomination of Mark Esper as army secretary.
Esper is a West Point graduate who retired as a lieutenant colonel after serving more than 20 years in the Army.
He also worked under the George W. Bush administration as deputy assistant defense secretary for Negotiations Policy.
Esper mostly recently worked at Raytheon, and was a top lobbyist for the defense contractor.
He has promised to recuse himself from all Raytheon matters as he fills the key Pentagon post.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: The incredible new chapter in the Hillary Clinton chronicles

The Department of Justice will soon commence an investigation to determine whether there should be an investigation (you read that nonsense correctly) of a scandal involving the Clinton Foundation and a company called Uranium One. It appears that FBI decisions made during the time that Hillary Clinton was being investigated for espionage will also be investigated to see whether there should be an investigation to determine whether she was properly investigated. (Again, you read that nonsense correctly.)

Only the government can relate nonsense with a straight face. Here is the back story.

When President Donald Trump fired FBI Director Jim Comey last spring, the attorney general’s stated purpose for recommending the firing was Comey’s dropping the ball in the investigation of Clinton's email when she was secretary of state. After a year of investigating her use of her own computer servers to transmit and store classified materials instead of using a government server to do so -- and notwithstanding a mountain of evidence of her grossly negligent exposure of secret and top-secret materials, which constitutes the crime of espionage -- the FBI director decided that because no reasonable prosecutor would take the case, it should be dropped. Weeks later, the DOJ ratified Comey’s decision.
At the same time that Clinton was failing to safeguard state secrets, she was granting official State Department favors to donors to her family’s charitable foundation. There are dozens of examples of this so-called “pay to play,” the most egregious of which is the Uranium One case. This involved a Canadian businessman and friend of former President Bill Clinton's, Frank Giustra, who bundled donations from various sources that totaled $148 million, all of which Giustra gave to the Clinton Foundation.
At the same time that Giustra made this extraordinary donation, he was representing a client that needed federal permission to purchase a 51 percent stake in Uranium One, which then controlled about 20 percent of America's licensed uranium mining capacity. Secretary Clinton freely gave Giustra’s client the State Department’s approval, and it soon acquired the remaining approvals to make the purchase. Giustra’s client is a Russian corporation controlled by the Kremlin.
When the FBI got wind of the Giustra donation and Secretary Clinton’s approval and the Kremlin involvement, it commenced an investigation of whether Clinton had been bribed. At some point during former President Barack Obama’s second term, that investigation was terminated. We do not know whether the investigating FBI agents learned that the Clinton Foundation was not even registered as a charity by the states in which it was doing business or authorized by them to receive tax-free donations.
At the same time that the FBI was looking into Uranium One, American and British intelligence agents were surveilling Donald Trump. The belated stated purpose of that surveillance was to ascertain whether the future president or his colleagues were engaged in any unlawful activity by accepting campaign favors from foreign nationals or were improperly assisting foreign intelligence agents to interfere with the presidential election.
One of the foreign nationals whose communications were captured during that surveillance was Sergey Kislyak, then the Russian ambassador to the United States. He spoke with Michael Flynn, then the national security adviser to President-elect Trump. Mysteriously, portions of a transcript of those intercepted communications were published in The Washington Post.
Another foreign national who caught the FBI’s attention is a former British intelligence agent named Christopher Steele. Steele had compiled a dossier about, among other things, alleged inappropriate behavior by Trump in a Moscow hotel room years earlier. After offering Steele $50,000 to corroborate his dossier, the FBI backed down.
After being confronted by irate Republican members of the House and Senate judiciary committees, who demanded to know why the investigations of these matters had been terminated, Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed that he has asked career DOJ lawyers to commence an investigation of all of the above to determine whether an independent counsel should be appointed to investigate all of the above.
This is the investigation to determine whether there should be an investigation. This is also the DOJ's reluctance to do its job.
Can the government investigate itself? The short answer is yes, and it has done so in the past. But it hardly needs an investigation to determine whether there should be an investigation. The job of the DOJ is to investigate probable violations of federal law. Sessions should not shy away from this and should not push it off to another independent counsel.
We have one independent counsel already because his target -- let’s be candid -- is the president of the United States. That is a potato too hot for the DOJ. But Hillary and Bill Clinton, the FBI's tampering with the political process, and the use of intelligence-captured communications for political purposes are not. It is profoundly the duty of the DOJ -- using its investigatory arm, the FBI -- to investigate all this.
Whatever Comey’s motive for not prosecuting Hillary Clinton and the DOJ’s ratification of it, the current DOJ is not bound by these erroneous decisions.
The evidence in the public domain of Clinton’s espionage and bribery is more than enough to be presented to a grand jury. The same cannot be said about FBI involvements with the Steele dossier or the use of intelligence data for political purposes, because we don’t yet know who did it, so we need aggressive investigation.
But none of this presents the type of conflict that exists when the president is a target, and none of this requires an independent counsel. All of this simply requires the DOJ to get to work.
That is, unless the lawyers in the leadership of this DOJ are fearful of investigating their predecessors for fear that their successors might investigate them. Whoever harbors those fears has no place in government.
Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel.

Tipping point? Conservative media outlets bailing on Roy Moore

'MediaBuzz' host Howard Kurtz explains how and why journalists and reporters in recent stories like the Roy Moore and Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandals get sources to go on the record.

The media tide is turning against Roy Moore as even some prominent voices on the right are urging him to drop out of the U.S. Senate race in Alabama.

The mounting allegations against the former judge have already undermined his attempts to paint himself as the victim of runaway reporting by the Washington Post. And whoever set up a robocall in Alabama from fictional Post scribe named "Bernie Bernstein," offering money for dirt on Moore, is a moron.

The real Post, meanwhile, reports on two more accusers describing unwanted overtures by Moore when they worked at the local mall. One, a high school senior, said Moore pursued her at Sears, called her while she was in trig class, and eventually got "a date that ended with Moore driving her to her car in a dark parking lot behind Sears and giving her what she called an unwanted, 'forceful' kiss that left her scared."
Alabama Media Group quotes another woman as saying that in 1991, when Moore was a married attorney, he grabbed her buttocks when she went there with her mother as part of a custody case. "He didn’t pinch it; he grabbed it," the woman said.
Ivanka Trump, meanwhile, told the AP: "There's a special place in hell for people who prey on children. I've yet to see a valid explanation and I have no reason to doubt the victims' accounts."
All this is unfolding as there is a pronounced shift on the right. The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial page, no fan of the Republican establishment, says Moore should drop out:
"Mr. Moore's credibility has fallen below the level of survivability ... The sensible move would be for Mr. Moore to step away from the campaign and allow Alabama’s Republicans to put forth a more credible candidate to run as a write-in against Democrat Doug Jones."
And if he doesn't, and President Trump doesn't try to force him out, says the Journal, "then the GOP will be better off if Mr. Moore loses ... Democrats and the media will make Mr. Moore the running mate of every Republican in 2018."
Sean Hannity, who had withheld judgment on Moore—and conducted the only interview with him on his radio show—sounds ready to jump ship.
"For me, the judge has 24 hours," Hannity told Fox viewers Tuesday night. "He must immediately and fully come up with a satisfactory explanation for your inconsistency ... You must remove any doubt. If you can’t do this, then Judge Moore needs to get out of this race."
Hannity noted that when he asked Moore whether he had dated teenage girls, he said "not generally."
But the tipping point may have been the presser held by Beverly Young Nelson, who said Moore locked her in a car and sexually assaulted her when she was 16. For one thing, we saw a woman on television choking back tears as she recounted what happened. But perhaps more important, Moore said he had never met Young—and yet he had signed her yearbook, at a time when he was 30: "To a sweeter more beautiful girl I could not say Merry Christmas. Christmas 1977. Love, Roy Moore, D.A."
For Alabama Media Group, publisher of the Birmingham News and two other papers in the state, this is a tipping point.
"Roy Moore simply cannot be a U.S. senator," an editorial declares. "Even if his party and many of its adherents still think it possible, it is unthinkable--for his state, and his country.
"Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is a consideration for the courtroom, not the ballot box. When choosing our representative before the rest of the world, character matters."
So what does it mean that Moore has lost most of the media, the RNC, and Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan?
No one can force Moore out of the race. He's on the ballot for the Dec. 12 special election. He owes nothing to Beltway Republicans who opposed him in the primary in favor of the appointed senator, Luther Strange. He's still popular in Alabama and the latest poll has him a few points ahead of Democrat Doug Jones.
But does there come a point where so much of the media and political universe is aligned against you that it makes no sense to soldier on? Especially when McConnell is saying the Senate might refuse to seat him?
At a public appearance the other day, Moore asked: "Why do you think I'm being harassed from media and by people pushing forward allegations of the last 28 days of this election?"
The answer is that there are inconsistencies in his account. And Moore is losing even media figures who ordinarily would be staunchly behind him.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

Trump to lift ban on importing elephant trophies from Africa

Foreign tourists in safari riverboats observe elephants along the Chobe river bank near Zimbabwe.

The Trump administration on Wednesday announced that it will issue permits for elephant trophies from Zambia and Zimbabwe, reversing a 2014 ban under President Obama.

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official told ABC News that the agency received new information from the countries that the move would benefit conservation in the area.

“Legal, well-regulated sport hunting as part of a sound management program can benefit the conservation of certain species by providing incentives to local communities to conserve the species and by putting much-needed revenue back into conservation,” the FWS statement said.
The same department, under Obama, determined in 2015 that importing the trophies would not benefit the species in the area.
The National Rifle Association praised the FWS decision Wednesday, the New York Post reported. The paper reported that elephants — valued for their tusks — have been on the “threatened” species list since 1978.
“By lifting the import ban on lion trophies in Zimbabwe and Zambia, the Trump administration underscored the importance of sound scientific wildlife management and regulated hunting to the survival and enhancement of game species in this country and worldwide,” said Chris Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action.
Wayne Pacelle, president of the Human Society of the United States, called the Trump administration’s decision jarring, the Post reported.
“Remember, it was Zimbabwe where Walter Palmer shot Cecil, one of the most beloved and well-studied African lions, who was lured out of a national park for the killing. Palmer paid a big fee even though it did irreparable damage to the nation’s reputation.”
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have been known to hunt for big game. Several years ago, Trump Jr. was criticized for posting a photo of himself with a dead elephant’s severed tail.
“Reprehensible behavior by the Trump Admin,” tweeted the Elephant Project.
“100 elephants a day are already killed,” the group said. “This will lead to more poaching.”

Papa John's NFL Cartoons

Papa John's issues Twitter apology for 'divisive' NFL, anthem remarks

Papa John's Pizza is the fourth largest take-out and pizza delivery restaurant chain in the United States.

 Taking Supporting NFL Kneeling?

The Papa John’s pizza chain apologized Tuesday for comments made by CEO John Schnatter, who had blamed the NFL and protesting players for its sales struggles during football season.
In a three-tweet mea culpa, the Louisville-based company did a reversal and said it now supports players’ right to protest.
During an earnings call two weeks ago, Schnatter lashed out at kneeling players and league officials for not solving the controversy.
“The statements made on our earnings call were describing the factors that impact our business and we sincerely apologize to anyone that thought they were divisive. That was definitely not our intention,” Papa John’s tweeted.
“We believe in the right to protest inequality and support the players’ movement to create a platform for change. We also believe, as Americans, we should honor our anthem. There should be a way to do both.”
The pizza powerhouse ended with, “We will work with the players and league to find a positive way forward. Open to ideas from all. Except neo-nazis.”
The chain then used an emoji for the middle finger, “those guys.”
Some on Twitter weren’t buying Papa John’s apology.
“You don’t need to `work with’ them. They want to protest. They don’t need your permission or to compromise to benefit you,” according to Hollywood writer Rachel Kiley.
One Twitter user wanted to know if Schnatter had any role in flipping off Nazis.
Papa John’s responded: “He helped write this post – yes.”
In a conference call with investors, Schnatter – who appears in many TV ads for his company – blamed NFL leadership for not taking decisive action.
“Leadership starts at the top, and this is an example of poor leadership,” Schnatter said. “The NFL has hurt Papa John’s shareholders.”
He said NFL brass has had plenty of time to get ahead of the protests.
“This should have been nipped in the bud a year and a half ago,” Schnatter said. “The controversy is polarizing the customer, polarizing the country.”

House passes $700B defense bill amid North Korea threat

WASHINGTON –  House Republicans and Democrats joined forces Tuesday to decisively approve a defense policy bill that authorizes $700 billion to restock what lawmakers have described as a depleted U.S. military and counter North Korea's advancing nuclear weapons program.

Lawmakers voted 356-70 to pass the legislation, with 127 Democrats backing the measure. Once the defense bill clears the Senate, which is expected this week, the bill will be sent to President Donald Trump for his signature.

The defense bill for the 2018 fiscal year allots some $634 billion for core Pentagon operations and nearly $66 billion for wartime missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. The funding boost pays for more troops, jet fighters, ships and other weapons needed to halt an erosion of the military's combat readiness, according to the bill's backers.

Trump's 2018 request sought $603 billion for basic functions and $65 billion for overseas missions. But securing the higher amounts remains contingent upon Congress reaching an agreement to roll back a 2011 law that set strict limits on most federal spending. That's a lot harder than it sounds, however. Lifting the budget caps will face resistance from Democrats who also are seeking to increase the budgets for domestic agencies.

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, voted for the bill while also criticizing Congress for refusing to come to grips with its out-of-control approach to budgeting. Smith said it's inconsistent for Republicans to push for billions of dollars more in defense spending while also advocating tax overhaul legislation that will deepen federal deficits over the next decade.

Even if Congress had a "fit of fiscal responsibility" and decided to raise revenue instead of cutting it, Smith said, "we're still looking at needs within the national security budget ... that are wildly beyond the amount of money that we have."

Republicans insist tax cuts will essentially pay for themselves by spurring economic growth. But the Armed Services Committee chairman, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, urged his colleagues to focus on the military's immediate and substantial needs.

"It is morally wrong to send men and women out on missions with our military, for which they are not fully supported, fully trained, (and) equipped with the best equipment our country can provide," he said.

The defense legislation includes $12.3 billion for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency and orders a more rapid buildup of the nation's missile defenses as Pyongyang has refused to back away from developing nuclear missiles capable of striking the United States.

The bill includes money for as many as 28 additional Ground-Based Interceptors, which are anti-missile missiles that would be launched from underground silos in Alaska in the event the U.S. decided to try to shoot down a North Korean missile heading toward the United States. The interceptors are designed to directly hit the enemy missile outside the Earth's atmosphere, obliterating it by the force of impact.

Lawmakers also have required Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to develop a plan for increasing the overall number of so-called GBIs from 44 to 104. The bill also directs the Pentagon to procure more ship-based interceptors and missiles for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, a U.S. mobile anti-missile system.

North Korea's U.N. ambassador, Ja Song Nam, said in a letter Monday to Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres that the unprecedented deployment of three U.S. aircraft carrier groups "taking up a strike posture" around the Korean peninsula has made it impossible to predict when nuclear war will break out. The carriers are participating in joint naval exercises with North Korea.

"The large-scale nuclear war exercises and blackmails, which the U.S. staged for a whole year without a break in collaboration with its followers to stifle our republic, make one conclude that the option we have taken was the right one and we should go along the way to the last," Ja's letter reads.

The policy bill also grants U.S. troops a 2.4 percent pay raise, which is slightly higher than the wage increase the Pentagon had proposed.

Lawmakers also approved an increase of more than 20,000 active-duty and reserve troops from last year's level. The Army gets the largest boost and will receive 7,500 more active-duty Army soldiers and 1,000 additional reserve troops.

The defense bill provides money for 90 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, 20 more than Trump asked for, as well as 24 F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighters, 10 more than requested. The budget also includes three Littoral Combat Ships, two beyond the budget request. The ships are new to the fleet and operate in congested areas near the shore against small boats and mines.

China sending top envoy to North Korea, week after Trump visit pushing for action

China is sending a high-level special envoy to North Korea. The move follows President Donald Trump’s visit to China last week, where he pushed Beijing to use its influence to pressure Kim Jong Un into stopping his nuclear war threats.

China's official Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday that Song Tao, director of the ruling Communist Party's International Liaison Department, would travel to North Korea on Friday.

The announcement did not mention Trump or the U.S.
China remains the sole protector of the North Korean regime, a relationship that has been a source of friction between officials in Washington and Beijing. Trump has previously criticized China, saying its leaders were not using their influence in Pyongyang to help the U.S. convince North Korea to tone down its rhetoric and end its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success,” the president said in September.
Following last week's meetings -- which were part of Trump's five-nation Asia tour -- the president sounded optimistic in a Twitter message.
“President Xi of China has stated that he is upping the sanctions against #NoKo. Said he wants them to denuclearize. Progress is being made,” the president tweeted.
Song would become the first high-level Chinese official to visit North Korea since October 2015, when a member of the Communist Party Politburo committee met with Kim.
The International Liaison Department, in charge of the Chinese communist party’s relations with foreign political parties, has effectively taken the lead in conducting China's diplomacy with North Korea, Reuters reported.

'If You Can't Do This Then Get Out': Hannity Gives Roy Moore 24 Hours To Explain 'Inconsistencies'

Sean Hannity said Tuesday that, in light of inconsistencies in his recollection of sexual misconduct allegations against him, Judge Roy Moore (R-Ala.) should be given 24 hours to fully explain the situations or bow out of his Senate race.
"You know I do not and will never rush to judgment, because we have seen the media and politicians get it wrong so many times," he said.
But, he said that in light of new information from an accuser of Moore's, the public should be troubled by a few things in the case.
Hannity said he had to ask Moore several times about whether he dated teenage girls as a man in his 30s, until the judge answered concisely.
Also, Hannity played tape of Moore saying an accuser who was flanked by attorney Gloria Allred made allegations about him that were "absolutely false," adding that he did not know the woman.
Hannity said a subsequent report showing the woman's old yearbook containing a note and signature from Moore appeared to corroborate the woman's allegation.

Liberal Safe Haven Cartoons

Politically motivated hotel opening in D.C. to be safe haven for liberals

The Trump International Hotel in D.C. is housed in the Old Post Office building down the street from the White House, has seen a burst of activity since opening its doors last fall.

An anti-Trump themed hotel marketing itself as a safe haven for liberals is planning to open in late spring 2018 in Washington, Bloomberg reported.

Boasting itself as the world’s first politically motivated hotel, the Eaton Workshop chain of hotels will be built around community engagement and integrating a liberal philosophy into every aspect of the guest experience. The Washington Hotel, Eaton’s flagship location, with subsequent sites planned in Hong Kong, San Francisco, and Seattle by 2019.

Katherine Lo, the founder of Eaton Workshop, told Bloomberg that the Washington location will include amenities that cater to public activism including TED Talks-inspired fireside chats and lectures, co-working space for progressive startups, activists, and artists, a writer’s residency, where investigative reporters can pursue stories and a multimedia studio where artists can create short films, podcasts, and other content in line with Eaton’s philosophy.
The lobby of the hotel will contain footage from the presidential elections of 2012 and 2016 posing the question: “How did our country get where it is today?” The minibar will include an activist toolkit that will include information on how to contact your congress member as well as material for making posters for demonstrations, Newsweek reported.
“And if we’d been open during this year’s Women’s March, I could have seen us putting poster boards and markers in the rooms,” Lo said.
Lo says that messages will be suited to each property. In Hong Kong, for instance, she wants to replace Bibles in nightstand drawers with copies of the U.N. Declaration for Human Rights.
Staff will be hired based not only for their experience in the service industry, but also for their track records in activism.
But despite proclamations of fostering diversity, Lo admits that Eaton Workshop isn’t for everyone. Lo told Bloomberg that, “the goal isn’t to bring together left and right.” Rather, the hotel will represent the antithesis of the Trump hotel, only a few blocks away from Eaton’s planned DC location.

Sessions directs prosecutors to 'evaluate certain issues' involving Uranium One and Clinton, leaves door open on special counsel

Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed senior federal prosecutors to evaluate “certain issues” requested by congressional Republicans, involving the sale of Uranium One and alleged unlawful dealings related to the Clinton Foundation, leaving the door open for an appointment of another special counsel.

In a letter first obtained by Fox News, the Justice Department responded to July 27 and September 26 requests from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and other committee members, who called for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the matters in question.

The letter comes on the eve of Sessions’ testimony before the same committee, scheduled for Tuesday.
“The Attorney General has directed senior federal prosecutors to evaluate certain issues raised in your letters,” Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd wrote.
“These senior prosecutors will report directly to the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General [Rod Rosenstein], as appropriate, and will make recommendations as to whether any matters not currently under investigation should be opened, whether any matters currently under investigation require further resources, or whether any matters merit the appointment of a Special Counsel,” Boyd wrote.
The Justice Department does not ordinarily confirm or deny investigations, and Boyd wrote that “this letter should not be construed to do so.”
The Justice Department’s letter specifically said that some of the topics requested by Goodlatte and other committee members were already being investigated by the department’s Inspector General’s office.
The letter specifically mentioned allegations related to the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email probe, including allegations that DOJ and FBI “policies or procedures” were “not followed in connection with, or in actions leading up to or related to” then-FBI Director James Comey’s public announcement to close the Clinton email “matter” on July 5, 2016, or the letter he sent lawmakers on October 28, 2016, about newly discovered Clinton emails, and that those “investigative decisions were based on improper considerations.”
“The Department has forwarded a copy of your letters to the IG so he can determine whether he should expand the scope of his investigation based on the information contained in those letters,” Boyd wrote. “Once the IG’s review is complete, the Department will assess what, if any, additional steps are necessary to address any issues identified by that review.”
While the Justice Department did not confirm or deny an ongoing investigation into Clinton matters, administration officials pointed Fox News to the attorney general’s testimony at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in January, raising questions over whether he would recuse himself from this investigation.
“With regard to Secretary Clinton and some of the comments I made, I do believe that that could place my objectivity in question,” Sessions said in response to committee Chairman Chuck Grassley’s, R-Iowa, asking whether he could approach a Clinton investigation “impartially.” Sessions added at the time, “I believe the proper thing for me to do would be to recuse myself from any questions involving those kind of investigations that involve Secretary Clinton and that were raised during the campaign or to be otherwise connected to it.”
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed in May as a special counsel to investigate accusations of collusion between Russia and officials close to President Trump.

Blaming GOP establishment, Bannon speech warns of 'brutal 2018' race

In a blistering assault on the Republican establishment and President Donald Trump’s political adversaries, former White House advisor Steve Bannon predicted there will be an effort to impeach the president if Republicans lose the House.

“Donald Trump is a blunt force instrument,” Bannon said.

In a wide-ranging speech that touched on the rise of China, the dangers of Turkish President Recep Erdoğan and the threat from radical Islamic terrorism, the controversial political advisor said he thinks Trump’s opponents simply are working to throw him out of office.
“When I left the White House the very first thing I said is that I’m going after the Republican establishment, because they are trying to nullify this as much as the left.”
He warned that the political battle will play out through next year.
“The constitutional struggle that we are going to have in 2018 and the lead up to it, is going to be brutal, a brutal midterm election. It is going to be something unprecedented in American history,” Bannon predicted.
“If we get crushed, the first thing that they are going to do in the House of Representatives, they are going to impeach Donald J. Trump, I don’t care what they say.”
Bannon spoke at a New York City luncheon event sponsored by the Gatestone Institute, a “non-partisan, not for profit international policy council and think tank, dedicated to educating the public about what the media fails to report,” it says.
“Mr. Bannon seems concerned about international threats facing America,” said Gatestone’s President Nina Rosenwald, who invited him as part of the group’s fall lecture series. “We thought he might bring up topics that need addressing that nobody else is looking at.”
“We have the ability to put together a coalition that can govern for 50 years,” Bannon told the audience, but warned of a potential G.O.P. defeat because he believes that the ruling-party powers are not connected to average Americans.
“The establishment is not prepared, they don’t have a sense of urgency, and they don’t understand the working class people in Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Minnesota and in Iowa and Ohio. What we did we can replicate. We can replicate it, though, with hard work, and wisdom. And if we blow this, we are never going to get it back. You have to understand, it is never coming back. We have the ability to change this country.”
Bannon, who is supporting some insurgent candidates in upcoming Republican primaries, did not delve into the growing sexual misconduct allegations surrounding Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. Bannon supported Moore over President Trump’s primary pick, the incumbent Senator Luther Strange, and only mentioned the controversy briefly. He cited it as an example of what he considers the establishment’s panic. 
“They’re petrified of the opposition party. You know what my super power is? I don’t give a damn. I could care less what they say about me. I could care less. It’s about action. The Republican Party and the leaders of the Republican Party are cowards. You are writing your checks to cowards. Understand this. They are there for you when it’s easy. They are there to take your check. But when something comes up like the Iran situation, they will flip the Constitution of the United States so they can have some sort of conscience for voting for that — it’s outrageous.”
He said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “owes his job to Donald Trump,” noting that it was Trump’s wins that swept the G.O.P. into the Senate majority.
“Wisconsin, Missouri and North Carolina were all dead in the water. They were brought across the goal line by Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell had a terrible track record of picking people to run.”
Bannon also used his Gatestone appearance to remind the attendees of the Trump administration success against ISIS, both on the battlefield and squeezing the financial pipeline that supports terrorism.
“We crushed the Caliphate of ISIS ... in 2014, the ISIS Caliphate was eight million people. It had oil fields, it had wheat fields, it had taxation, and was recruiting actively in Europe and recruiting actively in the United States. He has physically destroyed the Caliphate. If you listen to the morning talk shows, you would think that all President Trump is doing is just following Obama’s plan. It couldn’t be farther from the truth. He told General Mattis, not a war of attrition, I want a war of annihilation. I want to physically destroy the Caliphate in Mosul, in Raqqa and other cities. He’s done that, and I don’t think he’s gotten the credit.”
“The region is starting to clean up the element in the region that works with, supports and finances exporting radical Islamic terrorism to Western Europe and the United States.”
He also warned that the U.S. has to face Iranian expansion in the Middle East.

Adelson, Bannon have reportedly broken ties over GOP direction

Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam Ochsorn. Adelson reportedly disagrees with Stephen Bannon on key GOP elections.

Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas billionaire and GOP megadonor, has reportedly broken ties with Stephen Bannon over President Trump’s former chief strategist’s campaign of challenging Republican incumbents in 2018.

Bannon pledged to oust Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., from his leadership role while Adelson is “supporting Mitch McConnell 100 percent,” Andy Abboud, a spokesman for Adelson, told Politico.

The report comes out as Bannon has been seeking donors to contribute to his efforts to unseat members of the party whom he deems part of the “Republican establishment.”
Last month, Bannon told Fox’s Sean Hannity that “no one is safe.”
Bannon aides told Politico that they were not surprised by Adelson's decision, because of Adelson’s history of supporting mainstream Republicans rather than outsiders.
Bannon praised Adelson on Sunday night at the Adelson-funded Zionist Organization of America's annual dinner.
But Adelson and his wife Miriam did not attend the event. A person close to the couple told Politico that Adelson did not attend the event because he feared an appearance with Bannon could be perceived as an endorsement his 2018 efforts.

NFL November 2017 Rating Cartoons

Brady vows GOP tax plan will bring 'relief' to Americans of all income levels

Rep. Kevin Brady, the House’s top tax-code writer, on Sunday defended the chamber’s overhaul plan against criticism that many middle-class Americans will pay more and turn voters against the Republican Party, vowing relief for all Americans.

“Here is where I strongly disagree,” Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told "Fox News Sunday." “I believe there is tax relief all up and down the income level for families, regardless of what they earn.”

The lawmaker is defending the plan against criticism from congressional Democrats and two analyses, including one in The New York Times that concluded one-third of middle-class families will get a tax increase.
“They’re describing an America that doesn’t exist -- one where the economy never grows and one where your paycheck stays stagnant no matter what happens,” Brady said about The Times analysis. “I strongly disagree.”
Senate Democrats have also panned any GOP plan that will eliminate state and local tax deductions, warning that congressional Republicans representing suburban districts especially will face voter backlash for their support.
“The reality is many middle-class families are going to end up paying more," Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Commitee, told Fox on Sunday. “Folks in suburbs are going to get clobbered.”
The GOP-controlled House and Senate have each introduced separate plans, which must pass in each chamber before leaders can craft a compromise bill that gets passed by the entire Congress and put on President Trump's desk before the end of the year.
The major differences: The Senate bill wants to delay by one year a corporate tax cut, from 35 percent to a projected 20 percent. And the Senate bill wants to eliminate all state and local tax deductions.
“Everyone’s stressing the differences,” Brady said Sunday. “There are some, but there is far more common ground.”
He also essentially guaranteed the House plan will keep some state and local deductions and was optimistic about his committee voting on the plan in the coming days, with final passage before a self-imposed Thanksgiving deadline.
“That’s our goal,” Brady said. “That’s what we’re scheduled to do."
He also disagreed with analysis that the GOP plan will increase the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion, arguing that critics don’t take into account that the tax cuts will stimulate economic growth.
Brady repeated what House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and others in the GOP leadership have for months said about the plan, that it increases paychecks and allows Americans to decide what to do with their money before the IRS gets its hands on it.

Dems mum on whether Menendez should step down if convicted

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., arrives at a federal courthouse in Newark, N.J., for his federal corruption trial, Oct. 26, 2017.  (Associated Press)

Top Democrats on Sunday refused to say whether Sen. Bob Menendez should step down if he’s convicted of federal bribery charges.
“I’m not going to get into the hypotheticals on either of these situations, as I said, several steps removed,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) the Senate minority whip, said on CNN's "State of the Union," also referring to GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama. “I’m hopeful that, when all is said and done, that Bob Menendez will be returning to the Senate representing the state of New Jersey. ”
Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said he won’t comment on Menendez’s fate in the Senate until the federal jury in New Jersey announces its verdict.
“We’ll wait and see what happens,” he said on ABC's "This Week." The jury has not spoken yet.”
Pressed on whether Menendez , 63, should resign, Perez said jurors are still deliberating.
“The jury has not spoken yet, so I don’t like to answer what if questions,” he said.
Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland also said he would withhold weighing in on Menendez.
“We’re going to leave this decision to the jury. I’m not going to get ahead of the game,” Van Hollen told "Fox News Sunday." “I’m not going to speculate about what the outcome of that jury decision will be.”
Durbin said President Trump should address the scandal enveloping Moore, who was accused of molesting a 14-year-old Alabama girl when he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney in 1979.
The Washington Post reported last week that he also pursued romantic relationships with three other teens.
“President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party in America,” Durbin said on CNN. “It’s his responsibility to step forward and say more and do more when it comes to the situation in Alabama. ”
Trump is on the final leg of a 12-day trip to five Asian countries.
The Newark jury weighing the Menendez case will have to begin deliberations from scratch on Monday after a juror released last week said the senator is being “railroaded” and predicted a mistrial.
“It looks like a hung jury,” Evelyn Arroyo-Maultsby said last Thursday after being released due to a long-planned vacation.
Menendez has been on trial since September on charges that he provided a rich Florida doctor favors in exchange for lavish gifts — flights on a private jet, all-expense-paid vacations and $750,000 in campaign donations.