Trump-basher Mark Sanford, who president called 'nothing but trouble,' ousted in key South Carolina primary

Incumbent Republican South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford, a frequent Trump critic who the president lambasted earlier in the day as "nothing but trouble" and "very unhelpful," was ousted in Tuesday night's primary by state Rep. Katie Arrington.
On a key primary night with elections also held in Maine, Virginia, Nevada and North Dakota, the results in South Carolina were an unmistakably positive referendum on President Trump's tenure.
Arrington's shock win was also a dramatic rebuke of Sanford's heated "Never Trump"-style rhetoric and scandal-pocked career. It signaled that the president's base in the state remains solidly behind him ahead of November's midterm elections, despite withering criticism from both inside and outside the Republican party.
State Rep. Katie Arrington, a relative political newcomer who secured Trump's backing, repeatedly bashed Sanford for deriding the president and even ran advertisements featuring video clips of Sanford's Trump criticisms.
ALSO ON TUESDAY: PRO-TRUMP FIREBRAND WINS IN VIRGINIA SENATE PRIMARY

Mark Sanford, a frequent Trump critic, went head-to-head in Tuesday's South Carolina primary with Trump backer Katie Arrington, a relative political newcomer.  (Sanford state portrait, Arrington campaign photo)

Earlier Tuesday, as the ballots were being counted, Sanford acknowledged in an interview that his criticisms of Trump had hurt him in the primary.
“Well I think it has probably hurt me in this race," he said. "But again, there are no free lunches in life.  I think there are times I have had to oppose the president because of stands I have had for a long time."
The coastal 1st Congressional District is Republican-leaning, but contains sizable liberal pockets such as Charleston County, which went for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Sanford has warned that Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs will be "disastrous," called the president intolerant and untrustworthy, and even appeared to blame him for the shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice last year.
"I would argue that the president has unleashed — it's partially, again, not in any way totally — but partially to blame for demons that have been unleashed," Sanford said, after gunfire from a disaffected progressive loner nearly took the life of Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.
Even before Trump took office, Sanford said the billionaire businessman should “just shut up” and “quit responding” to anyone critical of him on a personal or professional level.
Sanford resigned as governor in 2011 after finally acknowledging that he was having an extramarital affair. In June 2009, he disappeared from public view for six days and later claimed that he had been hiking on the Appalachian Trail.
He later admitted that he had in fact traveled to Argentina to meet a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.
But he staged a political comeback in 2013, winning the House seat in the district he had earlier represented for six years.
As voters headed to the polls Tuesday, Trump reminded them of Sanford's rhetoric, as well as the affair.

TRUMP MOCKS 'VERY UNHELPFUL' SANFORD, SAYS HE'S 'BETTER OFF IN ARGENTINA'
"I fully endorse Katie Arrington for Congress in SC, a state I love," tweeted Trump, who was traveling aboard Air Force One on the way back from his historic one-on-one meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "She is tough on crime and will continue our fight to lower taxes. VOTE Katie!"
By contrast, Trump said that Sanford "has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to [Make America Great Again]. He is MIA and nothing but trouble. He is better off in Argentina."
Other key races in NV, VA, and SC
Voters in Virginia also handed a big win Tuesday to pro-Trump Senate candidate Corey Stewart, the firebrand who has vowed to wage a "vicious" and "ruthless" fight against incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine.
Stewart said he plans to campaign like Trump and appeal to blue collar voters.

Corey Stewart, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and Chairman of Prince William County Board, addresses his supporters at the Electric Palm restaurant on election night  (Washington Post via AP)

Chants of "lock her up" rang out at Stewart's victory speech Tuesday night.
TRUMP-BACKED CANDIDATE WINS IN NEVADA GUBERNATORIAL PRIMARY
Also in Virginia, voters decided that state Sen. Jennifer Wexton will take on vulnerable Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock in November in the northern Virginia congressional district. Wexton, who won a six-way primary, routed her well-funded competition in a race called early in the evening.
Comstock fought off a challenge from Shak Hill, who attacked the two-term incumbent as insufficiently conservative and weak in her support of President Donald Trump.

Barbara Comstock is one of the GOP's more vulnerable representatives in Congress; she will face state Sen. Jennifer Wexton in November.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Comstock's district is considered a prime target for Democrats as they hope to retake the House in November.
Voters in Virginia also decided that former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger will face hard-right conservative Representative Dave Brat in November. Hillary Clinton carried Comstock's district by nearly ten points in 2016, and Trump's win in Brat's district was relatively narrow.
Meanwhile, Archie Parnell has won the Democratic nomination in a South Carolina congressional district despite revelations from a divorce filing last month that he beat his wife more than 40 years ago.Parnell's win sets up a rematch with U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman. Parnell lost by just 3 percentage points in a special election last year.
In Nevada, Trump-backed candidate Danny Tarkanian, the son of legendary UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, defeated Scott Hammond and television reporter Michelle Mortensen.
Tarkanian, a businessman, had been running in the primary against GOP Sen. Dean Heller, when Trump reached out and asked him to switch races so that Heller could run without intra-party opposition.
Elsewhere in Nevada, Sharron Angle, the conservative who once ominously threatened to "take out" then-Sen. Harry Reid, lost her race against Rep. Mark Amodei.

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Larry Kudlow, National Economic Council director, hospitalized after suffering heart attack, Trump says

Larry Kudlow, the National Economic Council director, has been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack, President Trump said Tuesday from Singapore.
"Our Great Larry Kudlow, who has been working so hard on trade and the economy, has just suffered a heart attack," Trump tweeted ahead of his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "He is now in Walter Reed Medical Center."
Kudlow, 70, a conservative commentator, had replaced Gary Cohn who resigned in March.
“Earlier today National Economic Council Director and Assistant to the President Larry Kudlow, experienced what his doctors say, was a very mild heart attack," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
"Larry is currently in good condition at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and his doctors expect he will make a full and speedy recovery," Sanders continued. "The President and his Administration send their thoughts and prayers to Larry and his family."
Kudlow has long been known as a respected business and economics commentator, getting his own CNBC show in 2011. Since then, he’s hosted a variety of shows on the network, including “The Kudlow Report” and “Kudlow & Cramer.”
He also served as associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during the Reagan administration. A former chief economist for a Wall Street firm, Kudlow battled addiction and took time off from Bear Stearns for a stint in drug rehab.
His commitment to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings reportedly was a contributing factor in why he ultimately ruled out a Connecticut Senate bid in 2016.
In recent days he has been a vocal critic of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his interactions with Trump during the G7 summit following a debate between the two leaders over tariffs.
He called Trudeau's post-summit press conference, in which he said Canada wouldn't be “pushed around” by the U.S. after Trump had already left the meeting, a “sophomoric, political stunt for domestic consumption.
“Karen and I are praying for our dear friend @Larry_Kudlow tonight,” Vice President Mike Pence tweeted in reply to the president's announcement.

Teachers reportedly fearful after MS-13 infiltrates Maryland school

The violent gang MS-13 has infiltrated a predominantly Hispanic school in Maryland, bringing terror and the campaign to recruit young students, with teachers calling the situation a “ticking time bomb.”
William Wirt Middle School in Riverdale has reportedly become a battleground after the gang established its presence at the school.
Fighting, drug dealing, pro-MS-13 graffiti and attempts to recruit immigrant children from Central America have become an everyday occurrence, The Washington Post reported.

“We now have two to three fights per day. At this point, it’s completely out of control.”

“We now have two to three fights per day,” one school employee told the paper, who didn’t reveal his name over fears to lose the job or be targeted by the gang. “At this point, it’s completely out of control.”
School teachers claimed at least a dozen of members of the gang are in the school. The violent activities prompted the school to call the police over 70 times in the 2017-2018 school year.
In one alleged incident, an eighth-grader claimed to have been raped by a schoolmate who was in the gang. The alleged assault took place off of school grounds and she initially reported the crime to the police, but later backtracked out of fear of retaliation by the gang.
The authorities concluded the alleged crime was unfounded, but told The Post that the girl lives now in fear the gang will physically attack her.
MS-13 is the notorious El Salvadorian street gang started in Los Angeles in the 1980s. It has since expanded and includes Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans and other Central and South Americans.
The gang’s motto is “rape, control, kill” and gained notoriety after numerous brutal crimes across the U.S.

“Teachers feel threatened but aren’t backed up. Students feel threatened but aren’t protected. The school is a ticking time bomb.”
- A William Wirt Middle School educator

Officials at the school deny the problem of gang activity.
“The principal is aware of concerns about gangs in the community, but has not experienced any problems in school,” John White, a school spokesman told The Post.
But there are reportedly signs of the gang’s presence.
According to the police, ten MS-13 members clashed with a gang rival in February in the woods between William Wirt Middle School and Parkdale High School, another school in the area suffering from gang activity. The rival was hit in the head with a baseball bat and stabbed three times in the stomach.
Two months earlier, the two schools were on lockdown following a shooting between the gang rivals.
The situation has left teachers fearful of being alone with students. They reportedly informed the school officials of incidents involving suspected members of the gang, but they were ignored by the administrators, the report added.
“Teachers feel threatened but aren’t backed up. Students feel threatened but aren’t protected,” one educator said. “The school is a ticking time bomb.”

Weeping Dennis Rodman praises Trump's meeting with friend Kim Jong Un, blasts Obama for ignoring him

NBA star and friend of Kim Jong Un, Dennis Rodman, sobbed through an interview with CNN while reacting to the summit between President Trump and the North Korean dictator.
Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star and longtime friend of Kim Jong Un who has visited North Korea several times, broke down in tears during a televised interview early Tuesday as President Trump and Kim held a historic meeting in a hotel on Singapore's Sentosa Island.
In a dramatic interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo that quickly became emotionally charged, Rodman, wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat, blasted former President Barack Obama for not taking the North Korean leader seriously.
Five years ago, Rodman said, Kim told Rodman "certain things" to relay to Obama concerning potential negotiations, but the former president "didn't even give me the time of day -- he just brushed me off, but that didn't deter me."
Rodman, who admitted he was "naive" when he first visited the rogue regime, then started weeping and repeatedly dabbed away tears from his eyes as he recounted the blowback he received in the U.S. for visiting Kim.
"When I went back home, I got so many death threats," Rodman said, visibly shaking and crying. "And I believed in North Korea, and I couldn't even go home. I couldn't even go home, for thirty days. But I kept my head up."
It was a sharp turn in an interview that started with Rodman offering some advice to Trump in the form of an anecdote about trust.
"President Trump should understand the fact that the reason the Marshal of North Korea [Kim Jong Un] respects Dennis Rodman is the fact that he trusts me, and I gave him something for his birthday -- and I thought I couldn't pull this off -- and I said the day before his birthday, I'm gonna give you a present."
Rodman said he promised to bring a professional basketball team to North Korea, "even though I knew I couldn't do it."

But Rodman said he quickly realized that he needed to make good on his promise, or there would be a "problem."
After helping train North Korean basketball players and arranging to bring ex-NBA players to the country, according to Rodman, Kim approached him to say, "Dennis, you know, this is the first time someone ever kept their word to me in this country."
The moment was emotional, Rodman said. He encouraged Trump to show his "heart" to Kim -- a dictator who Rodman described as a "big kid" who just wants to have "fun."
Rodman then gave a hasty shout-out to Potcoin, a digital currency that caters to the cannabis industry and community, for sponsoring his trip to Singapore.

"If Trump can pull this off, more power to him."

"If Trump can pull this off, more power to him," Rodman said.
Trump reached out to Rodman before the summit through a secretary to tell Rodman he is "very proud" of him, the basketball star claimed.
"We don't need a miracle, but we need the doors to be open so we can start fresh," Rodman said of the historic meeting between the two leaders.
"I just wanna bring sports to North Korea," Rodman said, before saying he'd like to be involved in bringing sports to North Korea. "That's it, sports. ... I'm just so happy to be here, man," he added, calling it "the world's day."
"Donald Trump should take a lot of credit for this. He went out the box and made this happen," Rodman added.
Rodman previously has spoken fondly of the North Korean dictator, even calling Kim “misunderstood” despite admitting that the despot is probably a “madman.”
Rodman frequently visited Kim in North Korea starting in 2013, when he held the despot’s newborn daughter who has never been seen in the public.
Rodman’s history with Trump is fairly brief. He’s twice appeared on “Celebrity Apprentice” and he gave a copy of Trump’s “Art of the Deal” to the North Korean sports minister during a visit to Pyongyang last June. Rodman has hoped to be the one to facilitate a relationship between Trump and Kim.
Cuomo and Rodman previously sparred four years ago in a heated confrontation, when Cuomo began asking questions about North Korea that Rodman said were inappropriate. Rodman began using profanity live on-air.

North Korea agrees to ‘complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula' after Trump-Kim summit

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a document on Tuesday stating that Pyongyang would to work toward "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula"— a historic concession, which was one of the requirements the U.S. sought at the summit in Singapore.
The historic agreement came after the two leaders held several meetings throughout the day. Trump was asked by a reporter if Kim agreed to denuclearize and he said, “We are starting that process very quickly.”
Trump did not refer to the document as a treaty or agreement. Trump said at a press conference that he will be ending joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea. He also said Kim agreed to destroy a 'major' missile testing site, but did not offer specific details.
The joint declaration states that the U.S. has committed to providing "security guarantees" to Pyongyang. 
It's unclear exactly what Trump has promised Kim in terms of security. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to say Monday whether guarantees might include withdrawing U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula.
Kim, who was sitting alongside Trump, said through a translator, “We had a historic meeting and decided to leave the past behind and we are about to sign a historic document.”
A reporter asked Trump if he would be willing to invite Kim to the White House and he responded, “Absolutely I would.”
Trump was asked by reporters in Singapore during his final appearance with Kim on Tuesday what surprised him most during their meetings.
Trump says Kim has a "great personality" and is "very smart. Good combination."
Trump also says he learned Kim is "a very talented man" and "loves his country very much."
Trump and Kim did not respond to a reporter who asked if they discussed Otto Warmbier.
Warmbier was an American student arrested in North Korean in January 2016 for stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. He was was sent home from North Korea in a coma and died soon after.
Trump said he is willing to meet with Kim "many times" in the process.
The summit marked the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.
In the run-up to the talks, Trump had hopefully predicted the two men might strike a nuclear deal or forge a formal end to the Korean War in the course of a single meeting or over several days. But in a briefing with reporters Monday, Pompeo sought to keep expectations for the summit in check.
"We are hopeful this summit will help set the conditions for future productive talks," the secretary of state said.
Kim has since left the island.

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Liz Peek: Negative Nancy Pelosi bummed out by booming Trump economy

Is Nancy Pelosi a secret agent for the Republican Party? Sometimes you have to wonder.  Her latest outburst, in which she derides the accelerating economy and declining unemployment, is so nonsensical that it demeans Democrats’ credibility, shows them to be remarkably out of touch with average Americans and underscores the poverty of their competing platform. It isn’t the first time Pelosi has given GOP candidates rich fodder for ridicule; remember how she compared thousand-dollar bonuses to “crumbs?” That’s a clip that will show well in midterm campaign ads.
Pelosi’s latest Twitter sensation came amidst her weekly press conference, at which she scorned the improving jobs situation. Here’s a direct quote: "(P)eople say, ‘Oh my goodness, ... people are saying the unemployment rate is down, why isn’t my purchasing power increasing? So, this isn’t just about the unemployment rate, it’s about wages rising in our country, so that consumer confidence is restored.”
Unhappily for Nancy, but happily for the U.S., consumer confidence doesn’t need “restoring” – it is actually booming. The Conference Board reported just this week that its Consumer Confidence Index rose 2.4 points in May, and reached its highest reading in more than 17 years. Lynn Franco, the Conference Board’s Director of Economic Indicators, said in a press release, “Overall, confidence levels remain at historically strong levels and should continue to support solid consumer spending in the near-term.” Take that, Nancy!
The Conference Board survey echoes other such measures, all of which point towards continued growth and nearly all of which moved sharply higher after Donald Trump was elected president. In December 2016, the confidence index rose to 113.7, the highest level since July 2007, beating expectations by a wide margin.  At the time, Franco noted that the so-called “expectations” part of the survey “hit a 13-year high.” The December 2016 report from the University of Michigan, which also tracks consumer sentiment, showed the highest optimism level since August 2001.
Those figures are impressive. Note that at no time during Barack Obama’s presidency did consumers feel similarly upbeat, despite the president’s personal popularity and his promises of “hope and change.” He delivered plenty of change; hope, not so much. Certainly the financial crisis helped keep optimism in check. But the recovery began, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, in June 2009. For the next seven and a half years the country was subdued by a thin overhang of anxiety and caution; that cloud lifted on November 8, 2016, and there has been no turning back.

Nancy Pelosi has probably not looked for a job for a very long time, so the good news on hiring may not matter much to her.

Confidence is key. With consumer spending accounting for 70 percent of the economy, how people feel about their prospects guides their decisions to buy a house or a car, whether to invest or to save. Instilling optimism about their personal outlook is essential to an expanding economy.
A recent Pew survey indicates that 58 percent of the country thinks the economy is doing well, the most since before the financial crisis, and up from 44 percent last year. That’s the biggest jump ever seen in this series, and only the second time that a majority of respondents said they were satisfied with the economy.  The assessment is shared almost equally by Republicans and Democrats. Recent polls show that, increasingly, Americans give Trump credit for the roaring economy, which has boosted his approval ratings.
What’s got people feeling more positive? Gallup reports that 67 percent of Americans think it is a good time to find a quality job, the highest in 17 years of polling on this topic and up 25 points since Trump was elected. That reading is not surprising, except to Nancy Pelosi apparently. All the indicators point to a tightening job market. For the first time ever there are more job openings than people looking for work. The vacancies are especially high in manufacturing, which is gratifying since for years liberal economists such as those who guided Obama’s economic policies have been telling us the U.S. could no longer compete as a producer. Over the past year, we’ve added 259,000 jobs in manufacturing.
Pelosi is concerned that wages are not rising. In fact, take-home pay is going up, above the rate of inflation, and more quickly than it did under Obama. Hourly wages rose 2.7 percent year-over-year in May, while average weekly income rose 3 percent. With inflation running at about 2 percent, that constitutes real growth, which is augmented by lower tax bills for most Americans. Part of the reason that wage gains have been sluggish is that we have seen little increase in productivity over the past decade. Higher output per worker allows wages to rise; that increase depends in part on capital investment by businesses.
Under Obama, businesses lacked confidence to invest for the future, so assaulted were they by onerous and costly regulations. Today, with tax cuts that encourage spending and Trump’s aggressive reduction in regulations, business spending has started to rise. It was up 9.2 percent in the first quarter, after a 6.9 percent increase in last year’s final three months. Productivity gains will surely follow, boosting wages.
Democrats have no response to the accelerating economy. They are relying on attacks on President Trump to retake the House this fall, a meager strategy. Republicans running for office will warn voters that the booming jobs market will disappear should Democrats take power, thanks to promises from Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues to raise taxes on businesses and the rich, and to revert to Obama’s anti-business playbook. They will ask themselves – are we better off than we were?
Nancy Pelosi has probably not looked for a job for a very long time, so the good news on hiring may not matter much to her. After all, she has served in Congress for 30 years. At some point, Democrats embarrassed by her slipping grip on our economic reality, may decide that’s quite long enough.
Liz Peek is a former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company. A former columnist for the Fiscal Times, she writes for The Hill and contributes frequently to Fox News, the New York Sun and other publications. For more visit LizPeek.com. Follow her on Twitter @LizPeek.