Trump to propose merging Labor, Education departments, report says

The Trump administration is set to propose merging the Labor Department with the Education Department, according to reports.  (REUTERS, File)

The Trump administration will propose merging the Labor Department with the Education Department as part of a larger effort to reorganize the federal government, The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday.
The formal announcement is planned for Thursday morning, but the Journal reports that any planned reorganization must be approved by Congress.
The reported proposal is a revival of long-held conservative ambitions dating back at least two decades. In the 1990s, Republican lawmakers proposed merging the Education and Labor departments with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The new agency would have been dubbed the Department of Education and Employment, but such plans never got off the ground.
According to the Journal, the Education Department is one of the smallest agencies of the federal government, with approximately 3,900 employees. The paper reports that its workforce has shrunk by 10 percent as the result of a hiring freeze instituted by President Trump soon after he took office.
The department was one of three government agencies Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry promised to eliminate during the 2012 campaign. The proposal was overshadowed when Perry, now the secretary of energy, forgot the name of one of the agencies during a televised debate.
The Labor Department has a reported 15,000 employees and has a variety of responsibilities, including compiling employment statistics and enforcing federal wage laws.

Immigration Cartoons

Backlash against border policy grows, but furor could help Trump in midterms

In the blink of an eye, the uproar over immigration has become a major midterm election issue.
And that's precisely the way President Trump wants it.
With some prominent Republicans and conservative media outlets slamming the president's policy of separating migrant families at the border, you might have thought the White House would be looking to quickly defuse the controversy.
That's not happening.
In fact, Politico reports that Stephen Miller and other top administration officials are planning a further crackdown on legal and legal immigration, with the goal, according to a Republican close to the White House, being "to arm Trump with enough data and statistics by early September to show voters that he fulfilled his immigration promises — even without a border wall or any other congressional measure."
The GOP plan had been to run on tax cuts and a booming economy. But the president has apparently decided that he needs to motivate his base voters to show up in what is shaping up as a tough election.
As Corey Lewandowski, who works for Mike Pence's PAC, told The New York Times: "People don't turn out to say thank you. If you want to get people motivated, you've got to give them a reason to vote. Saying 'build the wall and stop illegals from coming in and killing American citizens' gives them an important issue."
And the president stuck to his guns yesterday, saying that the problem is migrants who bring their kids to the border but that Congress can resolve the issue.
Obviously, pounding away at illegal immigration—from the day he came down the Trump Tower escalator—worked well for the president in the last campaign.
But just as obviously, the child separation issue makes the overall issue risky this time around, beyond the impact on the Hispanic vote. You can just imagine the 30-second ads, complete with audio now that ProPublica has put out the sounds of crying children being taken from their parents.
That's not likely to play well with suburban moms. And that's why some Republican lawmakers, including Ted Cruz, are speaking out against the practice. (Trump yesterday rejected Cruz’s bill to hire more immigration judges as a way of keeping detained families together.) GOP congressman Fred Upton said that "it's time for this ugly and inhumane practice to end," according to the Washington Post.
The press is aflame over this issue, which is drawing almost wall-to-wall coverage on cable news. White House reporters hammered Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen on Monday as she insisted the administration had no choice in the matter and was merely following the law. (A bunch of Democrats are urging her to resign.)
And many on the right are offering harsh criticism. Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, a Trump loyalist, said that family separation could become "the Republicans' new Katrina." A Wall Street Journal editorial decried "The GOP's Immigration Meltdown," saying "restrictionists may cost Republicans their majorities in Congress."
But other conservatives, including Fox’s Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson, are backing the president’s “zero tolerance” approach and saying the media aren’t devoting enough attention to crime and other problems created by some illegal immigrants.
Trump says he hates migrant kids being separated from parents but has no choice. (The media point out that's not true, but it's also true that conditions in the much-criticized warehousing facilities date to the Obama administration.) The president's wife says the administration must govern with "heart."
But while 66 percent in a Quinnipiac poll say they oppose the family separation policy, 55 percent of Republicans are backing Trump's stance. That's why an approach that is poison to a good chunk of the political and media world could be a bracing tonic for the president's supporters in the midterms.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author "Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press and the War Over the Truth." Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

Video shows DHS boss Kirstjen Nielsen being heckled, harassed at DC restaurant

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, Jan. 16, 2018.  (Associated Press)

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was accosted by an angry socialist mob and forced out of a Mexican restaurant in Washington on Tuesday evening amid backlash over the federal government's “zero-tolerance” stand at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The video, posted by the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, shows a group of protesters harassing Nielsen at MXDC Cocina Mexicana, a restaurant near the White House.
“Shame!,” one protester shouts at Nielsen.
“If kids don’t eat in peace, you don’t eat in peace,” another yells.

“Kirstjen Nielsen, you’re a villain! Lock her up!”

“Kirstjen Nielsen, you’re a villain! Lock her up!” a third says.
“How can you enjoy a Mexican dinner as you’re deporting and imprisoning tens of thousands of people that come here seeking asylum in the United States?” another person is heard yelling. “We call on you to end family separation and abolish ICE.”
Another protester had a problem with Nielsen’s choice of where to dine.
“In a Mexican restaurant, of all places!,” the heckler shouts. “The f-----g gall!”

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen seen dining Tuesday evening while the security guards are keeping the protesters away.  (Facebook)

The protesters also played an audio clip of crying children at the facilities after being reportedly taken away from their parents who attempted to cross the border illegally.
“How does that make you feel?” one socialist activist asks. “Do you hear the babies crying?”
A separate video captures Nielsen eventually leaving the restaurant. Some protesters are seen speaking with police officers, another video shows.
The group defended its actions Tuesday, saying “We will not stand by and let Secretary Nielsen dine in peace, while she is directing her employees to tear little girls away from their mothers and crying boys away from their fathers at our border.”
“Secretary Nielsen and everyone else who has carried out these brutal and cold-blooded orders to rip apart families should never be allowed to eat and drink in public again. These barbarous acts must end and those at the helm must be held accountable. While Secretary Nielsen’s dinner may have been ruined, it is nothing compared to the horrors she has inflicted on innocent families,” the statement posted on Facebook added.
DHS press secretary Tyler Q. Houlton said Nielsen was having “a work dinner” at the time and faced protesters who “share her concern with our current immigration laws that have created a crisis on our southern border.”
“[Secretary Nielsen] encourages all – including this group – who want to see an immigration system that works, contributes to our economy, protects our security, & reflects our values reach out to Members & seek their support to close immigration loopholes that made our system a mess,” Houlton continued.
“The Secretary has been working with Members of Congress for months in search of a solution and she will continue to do so this week.”

“The Secretary has been working with Members of Congress for months in search of a solution and she will continue to do so this week.”
- Tyler Q. Houlton, press secretary, Department of Homeland Security

The Trump administration has been facing a backlash over the rollout of the “zero-tolerance” policy that led to at least 2,000 young children being separated from their parents after they crossed the border illegally.
Top Republicans in Congress are scrambling to come up with a legislative solution to the controversy. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told Fox News that a solution could be coming in a "matter of days."

Immigration tensions boil over as Dems accost Trump, intern curses at president

Tensions over illegal immigration and family separations at the border boiled over on Capitol Hill Tuesday night, as President Trump was met with profanity and heckling, blue-faced Democrats on his way to a meeting with House Republicans.
First, as President Trump's entourage made its way to House Speaker Paul Ryan's office, a congressional intern yelled, "Mr. President, F--k you!" across the Capitol Rotunda.
It was unclear whether Trump heard the remark. The incident occured after visiting hours.
Then, several members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) gathered outside Trump's meeting with senior Republican officials. When Trump emerged, the representatives heckled him until some were blue in the face, holding signs and screaming.

Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, center, and other Democratic lawmakers shouted at Trump.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

TRUMP HUDDLES WITH HOUSE GOP AS OUTRAGE OVER BORDER SEPARATIONS ESCALATES
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., the chair of the CHC, called the separation of children from their families at the border the "worst thing" she has ever seen in her career.
"This is an unusual commander-in-chief ... it appears to me he doesn’t care about the consequences," Grisham said. "He uses incredibly offensive language to defend his policies."
Grisham defended her colleagues' decision to shout at the president and stage a dramatic protest as he left the meeting with Republican officials.

Trump met with top GOP leaders to talk immigration on Capitol Hill Tuesday night -- and got a wild reception.  (AP)

"This is a very unique set of circumstances, and it requires a unique set of extraordinary efforts," she said.
The outward hostility by members of Congress to a sitting president was highly unusual, and drew comparisons to Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who made international headlines by interrupting former President Barack Obama in 2009 and shouting, "You lie."
But Grisham told Fox News the treatment of Trump was different, because the policies at the border are particularly "inhumane."
Two congressmen -- Juan Vargas, D-Calif., and Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla. -- also engaged in a verbal altercation in the hallway outside Trump's meeting.

"This is a very unique set of circumstances, and it requires a unique set of extraordinary efforts."

Then, during his discussions with House GOP members, Trump made a dismissive remark concerning Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., who recently lost a key primary in a race that became a referendum on his repeated, harsh criticisms of the president.
Two sources in the meeting room told The Associated Press that Trump joked: "I want to congratulate Mark on a great race."
A senior House Republican who is a Trump supporter told Fox News that the president's comment was "unnecessary" and "poor form." Another senior GOP lawmaker called it a "low blow."
Another GOP member told Fox News the room got "pretty quiet" after the remark and some attendees booed in a low tone of voice.
Despite the brouhaha, top Republicans said there had been progress on a legislative solution to the separation of illegal immigrant children from their parents at the border.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told Fox News that a solution could be coming in a "matter of days."
Fox News' Chad Pergram, Samuel Chamberlain and Anne Ball contributed to this eport.
Gregg Re is an editor for Fox News. Follow him on Twitter @gregg_re.

FBI may have modified witness reports, misled DOJ watchdog with 'false information,' GOP Rep says

The FBI may have "edited and changed" key witness reports in the Hillary Clinton and Russia investigations, a top House Republican charged in a hearing into FBI and Justice Department misconduct Tuesday.
Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C, also raised the possibility that the FBI misled the DOJ watchdog in an attempt to hide the identities of FBI employees who were caught sending anti-Trump messages.
The House Judiciary and Oversight committees were questioning Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz over his bombshell report into FBI and DOJ misconduct during the Hillary Clinton email probe.
"The other thing that I would ask you to look into, there is growing evidence that 302s were edited and changed,” Meadows told Horowitz. “Those 302s, it is suggested that they were changed to either prosecute or not prosecute individuals. And that is very troubling.”
OTHER HEARING DRAMA: DEM REP WARNS OF GOP PLOT TO OUST DEPUTY AG ROSENSTEIN 'ON FRIDAY'
So-called "302s" are reports on witness interviews compiled by federal investigators. Horowitz said later he has additional information suggesting that the witness reports were changed after-the-fact in both the Clinton and Russia probes -- a particularly alarming possibility given the IG report's findings of bias in those investigations.
Horowitz suggested that the IG is reviewing information concerning modified 302s, saying his office intended to "follow up" on the matter.
In a dramatic moment, Meadows then directly asked Horowitz whether two anonymous FBI employees identified as making anti-Trump statements in the IG's report were named Kevin Clinesmith and Sally Moyer.
Horowitz refused to confirm the employees' identities, which the FBI has declined to publicly reveal, citing the supposed sensitivity of their counterintelligence matters.
But Meadows suggested that justification may have been a sham.

"If that’s the reason the FBI is giving, they’re giving you false information."

“They don’t work in counterintelligence," Meadows said. "If that’s the reason the FBI is giving, they’re giving you false information, because they work for the [FBI] general counsel."
SEVEN KEY TAKEWAYS FROM DOJ IG REPORT ON CLINTON PROBE MISCONDUCT
In the IG report released last Thursday, the two unnamed anti-Trump FBI employees reacted with shock and dismay at Trump's election.
“I am numb," one wrote on Election Day. “Viva le resistance,” the lawyer wrote later, in response to what he would do now that Trump had won.
Gregg Re is an editor for Fox News. Follow him on Twitter @gregg_re.

Mexico's America Cartoons

Cal Thomas: No bias in IG report? People are more likely to believe pigs can fly

Inspector general found Comey 'insubordinate' in Clinton probe, while a Strzok text recovered last month, suggests the agent may have acted for political reasons much later than initially believed; Catherine Herridge goes in-depth for 'Special Report.'
Would you consider a jihadist biased against Jews? Could a member of a white supremacist group be accused of bias against non-whites?
The Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, and FBI Director Christopher Wray claim the 500-plus-page report found no “documented” evidence that political bias at the FBI directly influenced the findings in the Clinton investigation or the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute the former secretary of state. People in “flyover country” are more likely to believe pigs can fly than they are to accept that political bias did not expose a clear intent to damage presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Why does one need a document to prove bias? If the anti-Trump political beliefs of FBI employees, which are documented in text messages, did not influence their work then why is Director Wray ordering all of his employees to undergo training, including, reports CNN, “instruction ‘on what went wrong so these mistakes will never be repeated.’”?
Members of the media might also benefit from ethics training since the IG report found multiple incidents of journalists doing favors for FBI agents, presumably in return for information.
Huffpost writes, “Other instant messages showed FBI employees referring to Trump as ‘Drumpf,’ calling Trump supporters ‘retarded’ and ‘lazy POS’ … joking about Trump’s election signaling the fall of the Republic, and writing ‘Viva le resistance.’” How can anyone claim that people with such strong political views could approach their work objectively? If perception is reality, then a connection between bias and behavior is reality for average people, who include most citizens outside the Beltway.

Among the things people hate about Washington is that no matter how many higher-ups are alleged to have broken laws and violated ethics codes, few are held accountable.

“The damage caused by (the agents’) actions ... goes to the heart of the FBI’s reputation for neutral fact-finding and political independence,” says the report. This seems to suggest that the behavior of certain agents was not neutral and that the agents did not display political independence. Again, how could the agents’ political views be harmful if those views did not impact their work?
Another of many disturbing findings by the IG was that President Obama and 12 high officials in his administration exchanged unsecured emails with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, including times when she was overseas and presumably more vulnerable to hacks. Some of those emails, Horowitz says, contained classified information. President Obama claimed during a 2015 interview with CBS News that he learned Clinton was using an unsecured server when he read about it in the media. The IG report revealed this was not the case.
Numerous people, some unnamed, come in for strong criticism in the Horowitz report. Former FBI Director James Comey is cited for effectively taking matters into his own hands and becoming his own authority in public statements about Hillary Clinton’s emails. A Wall Street Journal editorial said of Comey: “The unavoidable conclusion is that Mr. Comey’s FBI became a law unto itself, accountable to no one but the former director’s self-righteous conscience. His refusal to follow proper guidelines interfered with a presidential election campaign in a way that has caused millions of Americans in both parties to justifiably cry foul.”
Among the things people hate about Washington is that no matter how many higher-ups are alleged to have broken laws and violated ethics codes, few are held accountable. The fix was in on Hillary Clinton even before she was interviewed with two of her lawyers present, which the IG report says violated accepted practices.
Horowitz and Wray are now testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. While Democrats will categorize the IG report as nothing, Republicans must burrow in and get even more facts than the disturbing, even disgusting ones he has already uncovered. The Justice Department should then hold accountable those people who broke the law and the rules.
Cal Thomas is America's most widely syndicated op-ed columnist. His latest book is "What Works: Common Sense Solutions for a Stronger America". Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribune.com.