Presumptuous Politics

Monday, November 7, 2016

Trump presses into Democrat territory in final stretch

Clinton vs. Trump: Closing arguments

Donald Trump is moving into Democratic territory in the final days of his improbable White House bid, hoping forays into Minnesota and Michigan on Sunday and Monday will give him enough support from still-undecided voters for a come-from-behind victory against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
“Hillary doesn’t come here. … Don’t vote for her,” Trump said at a rally Sunday in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which has not voted for a Republican presidential nominee in 44 years.
“The reason I’m here is because I know what’s going to happen in two days. We are going to win the great state of Minnesota and the White House. … We are going to be great for Minnesota.”
Beyond his attacks on Clinton, Trump made his larger case in Minnesota by warming residents about the spread of radical Islamic terrorism and the rising costs of ObamaCare, which Clinton supports and that Trump has vowed, if elected, to repeal and replace.
“We will not allow what has been happening to the great state of Minnesota to happen any longer,” Trump said. “We will make America great again.”
Polls show Trump closing Clinton’s lead in the final days of the race and having some momentum going into Election Day, on Tuesday.
The announcement by FBI Director James Comey on Sunday that the agency has concluded without charges a 10-day probe into recently-discovered Clinton emails while she was secretary of state was a blow to the Trump argument that Clinton, if elected, would assume the White House under federal investigation.
The Minnesota event was one of five that Trump would host Sunday.
Clinton made three campaign stops Sunday -- in Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Hampshire.
However, she was in Michigan on Friday and will return Monday.
President Obama will also be in Michigan on Monday, to headline a rally at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Clinton was up by nearly 12 percentage points in the state in late-October, but her lead has been cut to less than 5 points over the past 16 days, according to the RealClearPolitics polls average.
A Fox News national poll released Friday shows Clinton leading Trump by 2 percentage points, 45-to-43 percent, after being ahead by double-digits in some polls just a few weeks ago.
Trump has led only once since winning the GOP primary this spring -- by 1 percentage point, in late-July, after the Republican National Convention.
Top Clinton strategist Joel Benenson disagreed Sunday with the argument that the campaign has had to redouble its efforts in states like Colorado, Michigan, New Mexico and Virginia.
“We’re playing offense in every state,” he told Fox News.
Benenson also said that returning to Michigan was always in the plans, describing it as a “game day” state because it has no early voting.
“We have to make sure we get there in the last few days, keep people ginned up, getting them out to vote,” he said. “That's what you're seeing in some of these states.”
Benenson also suggests that a late fundraising surge has allowed for the final-hour TV ads in those states.
Trump, a first-time and outsider candidate, started Sunday in Iowa, then flew to Minnesota and Michigan before finishing in battleground states Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Michigan, which Trump will visit again Monday, has not elected a Republican nominee since the 1988 election.
The Virginia race appeared all but lost to Washington Republicans, considering that last month they began reallocating resources. However, Trump and running-mate Mike Pence have returned in the closing days, as the race with Clinton tightens.
“Our campaign is literally expanding the map,” Pence told “Fox News Sunday.” “We’re on offense, and the Clinton campaign is literally on defense trying to shore up blue states around the country.”
Estranged from much of the Republican establishment that he has vowed to dismantle if elected, Trump, with the exception of Pence, has essentially campaigned alone, though Trump’s children where active in get-out-the vote efforts this weekend.
“I don’t mind being an outsider,” Trump said Sunday in Iowa, another battleground state.
Comey said Sunday in a letter to Congress that there is no evidence in the newly discovered emails to warrant criminal charges against the Democratic presidential nominee.
Clinton's campaign, furious at Comey's handling of the review, welcomed Sunday's announcement.
"We're glad this matter is resolved," communications director Jennifer Palmieri told reporters.
As of late Sunday, Clinton had yet to mention the issue on the campaign trail.
Trump arrived at the Minnesota rally moments after Comey's latest letter went public.
He made no direct mention of the FBI's decision and continued to insist --without evidence -- that Clinton would be under investigation during her potential presidency.
Pence said at a rally in North Carolina: “The FBI last summer concluded that Hillary Clinton having classified documents on that private server was extremely careless. And I guess today, I don’t know if you heard, today they announced that they had not changed that conclusion. But you know, mishandling classified information is a crime.”
The new review involved material found on a computer belonging to Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman and estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
While Comey was vague in his initial description of the inquiry, he said Sunday that the FBI reviewed communications "to or from Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state."
As the campaign's final weekend drew to a close, more than 41 million Americans had already cast their ballots in early voting.
During remarks at a black church in Philadelphia on Sunday morning, Clinton urged voters to choose "unity over division" as she sought to close a caustic presidential campaign on an uplifting note. She warned that President Obama's legacy is on the line, part of her strategy to shore up black voters who may be less enthusiastic about her than the president.
"If we come together with the common vision, common faith, we will find common ground," Clinton declared.
Clinton then headed to New Hampshire with Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who delivered a stinging indictment of Trump at the Democratic convention. Her high-wattage allies also fanned out across the country, including Obama, who was joined by musical icon Stevie Wonder at a rally in Florida. NBA star LeBron James joined Clinton in Cleveland, Ohio.
Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told reporters Sunday that Trump planned to keep up the breakneck campaign pace through Election Day. After voting in New York Tuesday morning, Trump was expected to return to Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and New Hampshire later in the day, Conway said.

Clinton directed her maid to print out classified materials

Clinton ordered maid to print out top secret information

Marina Santos

As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton routinely asked her maid to print out sensitive government emails and documents — including ones containing classified information — from her house in Washington, D.C., e-mails and FBI memos show. But the housekeeper lacked the security clearance to handle such material.
In fact, Marina Santos was called on so frequently to receive e-mails that she may hold the secrets to E-mailgate — if only the FBI and Congress would subpoena her and the equipment she used.
Clinton entrusted far more than the care of her D.C. residence, known as Whitehaven, to Santos. She expected the Filipino immigrant to handle state secrets, further opening the Democratic presidential nominee to criticism that she played fast and loose with national security.
Clinton would first receive highly sensitive emails from top aides at the State Department and then request that they, in turn, forward the messages and any attached documents to Santos to print out for her at the home.
Among other things, Clinton requested Santos print out drafts of her speeches, confidential memos and “call sheets” — background information and talking points prepared for the secretary of state in advance of a phone call with a foreign head of state.
“Pls ask Marina to print for me in am,” Clinton emailed top aide Huma Abedin regarding a redacted 2011 message marked sensitive but unclassified.

Clinton aide says Foundation paid for Chelsea’s wedding, WikiLeaks emails show

Clinton Foundation the best wedding gift for Chelsea?

Former President Bill Clinton’s top aide wrote in 2012 that Chelsea Clinton used Clinton Foundation resources “for her wedding and life for a decade” and a top Foundation donor was responsible for “killing” unfavorable press coverage – all as an internal Foundation audit uncovered numerous conflicts of interest and “quid pro quo benefits,” according to emails released Sunday by WikiLeaks.
Doug Band, founder of global strategies company Teneo and Bill Clinton’s personal assistant since the 1990s, wrote the Jan. 4, 2012, email to future Hillary Clinton presidential campaign chair John Podesta and two other Clinton aides after receiving word that Chelsea had told “one of the [President] bush 43 kids” and others about “an internal investigation of money within the foundation.” Band wrote such chatter was “not smart.”
“The investigation into her getting paid for campaigning, using foundation resources for her wedding and life for a decade, taxes on money from her parents….,” Band wrote. “I hope that you will speak to her and end this[.] Once we go down this road….”
EMAIL DETAILS HOW TOP AIDES MADE EX-PRESIDENT CLINTON RICH
The FBI reportedly is looking into The Clinton Foundation, although the extent and focus of the investigation is unclear. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, had previously said some of the “personal” emails she deleted from her secret, homebrew server – the subject of another FBI probe – were related to Chelsea’s wedding.
Band’s email, which was revealed after Podesta’s Gmail account was hacked and subsequently uploaded to WikiLeaks, came at a time of turmoil and upheaval within The Clinton Foundation. Aside from the internal audit, previous emails show a prolonged effort to untangle Teneo from the Foundation. When Band launched the company in summer 2011, he was still employed by the Foundation and Bill Clinton was listed as a Teneo adviser.
But after much haggling, Clinton’s and Band’s roles were clearly delineated: Band continued on as a personal aide to Clinton and Clinton became a Teneo client. During the back-and-forth that produced the final document spelling out each of the men’s roles, Band on Nov. 12, 2011 wrote an 11-page memo outlining how Teneo was created and how it had helped to enrich Clinton and the Foundation. In that draft of the memo, Band wrote he had “sought to leverage my activities, including my partner role at Teneo, to support and to raise funds for the Foundation.”
“I am sure I have done so imperfectly,” he added.
In another section of the memo, which was later deleted, Band wrote about billionaire hedge fund manager Marc Lasry as a “good example of the complex relationships a friend/supporter can have within the foundation.” Chelsea Clinton worked for Lasry, Lasry held Foundation fundraisers and Band was a paid adviser for Lasry’s firm, Avenue Capital, an investment company whose holding American Media Inc. publishes The National Enquirer.
But fundraisers and jobs weren’t Lasry’s lone contribution to Team Clinton.
“He has been helpful on a number of fronts, including … responding favorably to our requests to use his plane for Foundation and the Clintons’ personal purposes, killing potential unfavorable stories in the Enquirer [of which he owns a controlling share of the debt]…” Band wrote.
Less than a month after Band’s Teneo memo went out, lawyers from Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP, the firm contracted to run the internal Foundation audit, emailed a draft of a governance memorandum and recommendations to Podesta, who was serving as a special adviser to the Foundation, and Bruce Lindsey, then the Foundation’s CEO.
The audit draft noted substantial issues, including a Conflict-of-Interest Policy that had not been implemented, conflicts that were not disclosed in a timely fashion and board members not following the policy when they became aware of conflicts.
“In addition, some interviewees reported conflicts of those raising funds or donors, some of whom may have an expectation of quid pro quo benefits in return for gifts,” according to the Dec. 5, 2011, draft. Another section of the document noted that “interviewees also mentioned instances in which gifts and payments received by staff had not been properly disclosed.”
There were other problems, including 1,298 “complimentary” $20,000 memberships for the Clinton Global Initiative as opposed to just 500 paid memberships. Of the “complimentary” group, “276 were coded ‘discretionary,’” the audit noted.
“Interviewees informed us that there is no transparency into how the comp list is developed,” the document stated.
The lawyers conducting the audit also noticed problems in the Foundation’s IRS Form 990, the tax return document of an organization that is exempt from income tax. While charitable groups are allowed to pay board members and staff a reasonable salary, none of the reasonable compensation calculations identified by the lawyers were ever done, the 990 form showed. The lawyers also wrote the 990 indicated the Foundation had a written conflict-of-interest policy that was enforced.
“However, we did not find evidence of that enforcement,” the memo stated.
Other problems included a “very small” Foundation Board “comprised solely of ‘insiders’”; unsigned Board minutes that “appear to have been cloned from one year to the next; “material weaknesses” in the “segregation of accounting duties, review of journal entries, audit adjustments and financial statement preparation, and lack of Board meetings.”

'Disregarded ethics guidelines': Clinton document raised issues with 2010 Shanghai Expo

Leak: Aides were worried about Clinton Foundation conflicts

Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “disregarded ethics guidelines” to raise more than $72 million for the U.S. Pavilion at the World’s Fair in Shanghai in 2010, taking money from big-name contributors who later “received favorable treatment” from her State Department and also contributed to her namesake foundation, according to a 2015 internal Clinton research document revealed Sunday by WikiLeaks.
The 10-page portion of a vetting document prepared by Clinton’s campaign to examine her vulnerabilities before seeking the Democratic nomination for president was attached to an email examining a candidate for campaign treasurer Jose Villarreal. The March 11, 2015, email was made public after Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s Gmail account was hacked and the trove posted to WikiLeaks.
Villarreal, a deputy campaign manager in 1992 for Bill Clinton’s presidential run and a bundler and adviser during Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful 2008 White House bid, was appointed by Secretary of State Clinton as Commissioner General of the U.S. World’s Fair exhibition. That Shanghai Expo, however, was awash in controversy.
“When soliciting contributions, Clinton had little consideration for ethics, as the corporations who were featured in Shanghai also contributed to her foundation and received accolades from the State Department,” the document stated.
CLINTON AIDE SAYS FOUNDATION PAID FOR CHELSEA'S WEDDING
The FBI is reportedly investigating The Clinton Foundation, although the depth and focus of that probe is unclear.
Among the other charges the vetting document highlighted:

“Boeing contributed $2.25 million to the Shanghai Expo, while Clinton helped the company land a multi-billion [dollar] Russian deal”
“Procter & Gamble gave $3 million to the Shanghai & Expo [sic] & Millions to The Clinton Foundation; Was repaid with Corporate Excellence Award”
“Clinton solicited PepsiCo as one of the largest Shanghai Expo sponsors; PepsiCo committed same amount to Clinton Foundation projects”
“Alcoa, a Shanghai Expo contributor, pleaded guilty to foreign bribery charges facilitated by a major Clinton Foundation donor”
“Secretary Clinton was ‘Advocate-In-Chief’ for General Electric, which was one of the largest donors to the Shanghai Expo”

Each of those potential hits against Clinton appeared as a subsection in the document and was supported by numerous news clippings and quotes.
An April 1, 2015, memo from future campaign research director Tony Carrk to campaign-manager-in-waiting Robby Mook and soon-to-be communications director Jennifer Palmieri emphasized other issues with Villarreal, including a “cozy relationship with Wall Street” and problematic board memberships.
In a section on the Shanghai Expo, the document noted that Clinton “could not directly solicit funds.” However, Villarreal said Clinton’s involvement in the project was instrumental to securing funds.
“We knew how to get to the leadership of companies, and, of course, being able to suggest that this was a project that was very, very important to Secretary Clinton really, really helped in opening doors,” Villarreal told the authors of the book, “HRC.”
In a Jan. 12 email looking into a possible position for Villarreal, Mook told Podesta he wanted to wait to “formally consider” Villarreal because he worried “this vet is death by a few too many cuts…lobbyist, Walmart, Fanny Mae, PMI, and then the Expo work (which is a candidate vulnerability that’s already been written).”
Mook raised similar concerns to Podesta in the March 11 email.
“I was re-reading the self research documents and it looks like he’s snared up in the conflict of interest stuff at State…not the WORST thing in the world, but there’s a real argument here that he was at the nexus of foundation/state issues,” Mook wrote.
Villarreal was officially announced as campaign treasurer on April 12.

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Donna Rice Hughes: One woman's case for Donald Trump

This election has two distinctly different directions for America. My heart is heavy! I, like so many Americans, am concerned for the future of this land that I love.
We are at a crossroads. Every vote matters. Never, in my lifetime has there been so much division, so much hostility, so much frustration, so much blatant bias and so much lingering confusion.
As a college educated woman, I represent the demographic that is supposedly the swing vote in this election. As a pro-life Christian conservative, the choice for me is very clear but I realize the choice is not as clear to those who remain undecided. So it is to the undecided, particularly women and people of faith, I offer the following as guideposts to better discern how to make a wise and thoughtful decision.
There is no perfect candidate, and the media magnifies their flaws. For some, the choice is for the lesser of two evils, because of their personalities instead of their vision.

Supporting Mr. Trump for president does not mean I have ignored his past or indefensible comments, but I do accept his apologies. I completely understand why some women would still be undecided.

Each candidate has a distinctly different philosophy of the role of government and the issues we face. Secretary Clinton is a liberal- leaning Democrat and a refined career politician representing the political establishment. Mr. Trump is a successful business man, an outsider who speaks his mind and who often wears his emotions on his sleeve.
Supporting Mr. Trump for president does not mean I have ignored his past or indefensible comments, but I do accept his apologies. I completely understand why some women would still be undecided.
These issues are personal to me. I survived childhood sexual abuse and a date rape at age 22. As President of Enough Is Enough for the last 23 years, I have been on the frontlines fighting to prevent the sexual exploitation of children and women, fighting to stop the pornification of our culture, and fighting to curb sexual predation.
However when I met Mr. Trump two years ago at CPAC, he was a kind and gracious gentlemen. He applauded me in front of a crowd of people for taking the high road during the 1987 presidential scandal. He had not yet announced his presidency, but he told me that he had to run.
I immediately saw his passion for America, the conviction in his eyes, and a fire in his belly that was driving him to run in spite of the cost.
God is in the business of using flawed people who He humbled and molded into great leaders.
Our country is framed by our Constitution as one nation, under God. I believe the philosophy of Mr. Trump and Governor Pence most closely mirrors a government for the people and by the people. President Reagan said it best over 50 years ago, 'The issue of this election is whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them for ourselves.” Our parties themselves represent two distinctive worldviews.
We as Christians must closely examine each party platform to discover which position best line up with our Judeo-Christian worldview and the Word of God.
One of the most important and unavoidable issues is the issue of life. Abortion on demand is one of the great scourges on our nation.
I strongly believe that our Founders’ intent when writing the Declaration of Independence that all of humankind are endowed by their Creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, meant from womb to tomb.
The Trump/Pence ticket stands strong on so many of these issues that truly matter, from Israel to a prosperous thriving economy. I believe that they will lead America forward, and best solve the challenges of a failed economy, inexcusable unemployment, a broken immigration system, an unfair tax system, corruption in politics, unfavorable trade deals, shaky foreign policy, failed Obamacare, out of control national debt and a diminished military which must be strengthened in order to defend against radical Islamists terrorists and terrorist nations who have declared war on America and our ally Israel.
As CEO of Enough Is Enough (EIE), I also view Internet safety as a key issue since it’s the 4^th ranked health concern for U.S. children. This summer, as the “law and order” candidate, Donald Trump signed The Children’s Internet Safety Presidential Pledge, developed by EIE. The Pledge was sent to all Presidential Candidates, calling upon them, if elected President to make a pledge to defend the innocence and dignity of America’s children by enforcing the existing federal laws and advancing public policies designed to prevent the sexual exploitation of children online and to make the Internet safer for all. In all fairness to Secretary Clinton, she sent a letter supporting the goals of the Pledge which is encouraging.
In addition, I am encouraged that Mr. Trump has chosen a solid group of conservative, principled and talented leaders to serve by his side during his campaign. He has assembled an evangelical advisory council of top Christian leaders who are advising him on key issues; and, he is listening. Most of these people are not part of the political elite. We are not only voting for President and VP but we are in effect voting for over 7000 political appointees and individuals who will serve in his administration. In a recent article, Mariam Bell wrote: “We vote FOR the 4,000+ political appointees who will run all the agencies, departments and programs. We vote FOR the 3,000+ appointments to boards and commissions the next president will make. We FOR all those 300+ who will be appointed to the judiciary, including the Supreme Court — whose rulings will impact our country for the next fifty years, not just four. The next president will appoint a cabinet and has already selected a vice president.”
Finally it is perhaps the most crucial of all considerations for the voter. The President serves for only 4-8 years, a Supreme Court Justice serves for life with the average term being 30 years. Our next President will likely appoint at least 3 justices, who will determine the trajectory of our Nation for generations to come. Mr. Trump has committed to appoint pro-life constitutionalist judges like Antonin Scalia. Secretary Clinton on the other hand said she would appoint pro-abortion judges, claiming, “I will defend Planned Parenthood. I will defend Roe v. Wade, and I will defend women's rights to make their own health care decisions.” Code for I will not defend the sanctity of life for unborn Americans.
Former Attorney General Ed Meese said in a speech to the Federalist Society that “An activist jurisprudence, one which anchors the Constitution only in the consciences of jurists…. is a chameleon jurisprudence, changing color and form in each era.” He also said that a true approach “must respect the Constitution in all its parts and be faithful to the Constitution in its entirety.” Trump and Pence agree, and so do I.
Responsible citizens must vote. Every vote matters. It cannot be wasted. In the famous words of John F. Kennedy, ask not, what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Start by voting!
Donna Rice Hughes is CEO and President of Enough Is Enough®, a national bi-partisan non-profit organization that has led the fight to make the Internet safer for children and families since 1994. She is an author, speaker, media commentator and Emmy-winning producer of the "Internet Safety 101" TV series.

Clinton Foundation Cartoons

Mexico says it's prepared for U.S. election surprise

The Mexican government has taken steps to cushion the economy from any turbulence arising from a Donald Trump victory in next week's U.S. presidential election, Finance Secretary Jose Antonio Meade said Friday. Those steps include drafting a 2017 budget "that brings us back to a primary surplus," putting aside funds to meet all sovereign debt obligations that come due during the first five months of next year, and presenting a new business plan for state oil company Pemex, Meade told Radio Formula.
"All this allows that this volatility we are already seeing does not affect any real (economic) variable," he said.
Polls show Democrat Hillary Clinton with a narrow lead over Republican candidate Trump with days to go before the Nov. 8 election.
The real estate mogul launched his campaign for the Republican nomination with a speech that featured a denunciation of Mexican immigrants to the U.S. as criminals and "rapists."
Since then, Trump has vowed to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico and to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"We are calm," Meade said Friday, adding that should Trump win, the Mexican government will closely monitor the reactions in financial markets.
"We are alert and we have instruments to react according to what we are seeing," he said, downplaying the likelihood of any dramatic announcements in Mexico on the day after the U.S. election, regardless of the outcome.
"It is not worth the trouble of hasty reactions before we have clarity about the scenario we are going to face," the finance secretary said.

Clinton Foundation admits it didn't notify State Department of $1 million Qatar gift

Bill's Birthday Gift

The Clinton Foundation has said it accepted a $1 million gift from the Qatari government without notifying the State Department that it had done so, an apparent violation of an ethics agreement Hillary Clinton signed when she became Secretary of State in 2009.
Under the terms of the agreement, Clinton promised the foundation would notify the State Department's ethics official if a new foreign government wished to donate or if a current foreign donor wished to "increase materially" its contributions.
PODESTA RELATIVE EARNED SIX-FIGURE FEES LOBBYING CLINTON'S STATE DEPARTMENT DURING HIS TENURE THERE
Qatari officials pledged the money in 2011 to mark former President Bill Clinton's 65th birthday. The following April, Amitabh Desai, the Clinton Foundation's foreign policy director, emailed several of his colleagues to say that the Qataris wanted to meet Bill Clinton "'for five minutes' in NYC to present [the] check." Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state until Feb. 1, 2013.
When contacted by Reuters, which first reported on the deal's ethical ramifications, Clinton Foundation spokesman Brian Cookstra said the $1 million gift did not constitute a "material increase" in the Middle Eastern nation's contributions.
ABEDIN IMPLICATED CLINTON IN FOUNDATION TRADE-OFF WITH MOROCCO AMID $12 MILLION COMMITMENT

Reuters, citing the foundation's own website, reported that Qatar's own government has directly given a total of between $1 million and $5 million over the years.
The State Department told the news agency it had no record of the Qatar donation and said it was up to the foundation to submit it for review.
The number of foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation has opened the Democratic nominee up to conflict-of-interest accusations and raises the possibility that donors gave money with the expectation of receiving political favors in return.
Republican nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly called for Clinton to return donations from countries like Qatar, which has a questionable human rights record.
Last year, the Foundation admitted that no complete list of donors to its health program, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, had been published since 2010, despite promises from Clinton two years earlier that such a list would be produced annually.
The email from Desai was part of a trove of hacked messages from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's account that were published by Wikileaks last month.

Monday, November 7, 2016

Related Image

Sunday, November 6, 2016