Underdog Bill Lee surges to win Tennessee GOP gubernatorial primary; pivotal Senate race takes shape

Bill Lee and his wife, Maria, thank supporters at a victory party in Franklin, Tenn., after Lee defeated a crowd of better-known Republicans to take Tennessee's GOP gubernatorial nomination, Aug. 2, 2018.  (Associated Press)

Underdog conservative outsider Bill Lee upset a crowded field of well-funded, better-known candidates to win Tennessee's Republican gubernatorial primary Thursday, sending shockwaves through a state where he was down double-digits in polls as recently as last month.
U.S. Rep. Diane Black, who had the endorsement of Vice President Mike Pence, was the clear favorite in the race. Former state economic development chief Randy Boyd, who had the backing of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, was widely considered Black's chief rival.
But President Trump, who has a 56 percent approval rating in Tennessee, stopped short of endorsing any candidate in the race, including Black -- despite keeping her by his side and praising her at several events.
Lee, a businessman whose poll numbers surged dramatically in the last week of the campaign, took advantage of infighting among his rivals, as he traveled the state and touted his Christian values while Boyd and Black sparred.
On the eve of the primary vote, supporters of Black's campaign, perhaps realizing the threat posed by Lee's insurgent candidacy, released an attack advertisement suggesting Lee's company had terminated an employee and Army National Guard member for being deployed.
Lee strongly denied the allegations, and his company sent out a cease-and-desist letter concerning the messaging.

Rep. Diane Black, businessman Randy Boyd, state Rep. Beth Harwell and businessman Bill Lee are among the top Republican contenders in the Tennessee gubernatorial race.  (Campaign photos)

Harsh rhetoric in the campaign was backed by big money. The top four Republican contenders for governor, including Black, Lee, Boyd, and State House Speaker Beth Harwell, spent a combined $40 million of their own personal wealth fighting over who is more devoted to Trump, setting records and underscoring the president's continuing influence in state races. The candidates were seeking to replace the state's term-limited Gov. Bill Haslam.
Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, a moderate, won the Democratic primary for the state's governorship, defeating state House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh in a mostly cordial race. But the surprising results in the Republican gubernatorial primary contest will reverberate nationally, serving as a bellwether for Trump enthusiasm and establishment influence in a state that supported the president by double digits in 2016.

Karl Dean, who was favored to win the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Tennessee, celebrates his victory Thursday.  (AP)

Meanwhile, the Democratic and Republican Senate primaries on Thursday provided less drama, but posed perhaps even greater national significance.
U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn won the Republican nomination in Tennessee's open U.S. Senate race to replace the retiring Sen. Bob Corker, which holds major implications for Democrats' chances for overturning the 51-49 Republican Senate majority in November.

Phil Bredesen, left, and Marsha Blackburn were projected to win their respective primary battles and face off in a key Senate fight in November.  (AP)

Blackburn easily overcame minimal opposition in Thursday's primary. She and former Gov. Phil Bredesen, who won the state's Democratic primary on Thursday, have long looked past the primaries to their upcoming general election matchup.
Polls have shown Blackburn and Bredesen are neck-and-neck in the race, which Fox News currently assesses is a tossup. Blackburn could become the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate by Tennessee voters.
She calls herself a "hardcore, card-carrying Tennessee conservative" who would fight for President Donald Trump's agenda.

Former Gov. Phil Bredesen, front center, campaigning Wednesday in Memphis, Tenn., in his bid for U.S. Senate. Bredesen and Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn faced only nominal primary opposition in their race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Bob Corker.  (AP)

Bredesen is running as an independent thinker who says he will work with Trump when his ideas make sense for Tennessee and oppose him when they don't.

MEET THE CANDIDATES: WHO ARE THE KEY PLAYERS IN TENNESSEE'S GUBERNATORIAL RACE?
The Blackburn-Bredesen showdown is among several races crucial to Trump’s plans to maintain control of the Senate, where Republicans are defending a narrow two-seat majority. If Democrats retake the Senate, it would deal a major blow to Trump's agenda, hampering his ability to appoint federal judges and all but killing the prospect of signature initiatives like a southern border wall.
Trump has endorsed Blackburn, an eight-term congresswoman, and traveled to Tennessee in May to campaign for her. Blackburn told Fox News at the time that Trump's support had helped her candidacy build "momentum."
Blackburn served on Trump’s transition team and has not shied away from embracing the president. She is one of the lawmakers who signed onto a letter nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In a Thursday appearance, Governor Haslam touted Blackburn's candidacy. The governor suggested that keeping Republican Senate control is important in part because Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander would lose his health committee chairmanship, among other leadership changes.
Bredesen, 74, has helped his viability in the red state by assuring voters that he is not hyperpartisan and promising he is not “running against” Trump. If elected, he will become the first Democrat to win a Senate campaign in the Volunteer State since Al Gore in 1990.
BATTLE LINES DRAWN AS DEMOCRATS HOPE TO FLIP CRITICAL TENNESSEE SENATE SEAT
A Harvard graduate worth tens of millions of dollars, Bredesen has touted his business credentials, saying they will help him win over “economic Republicans, the more traditional-minded Republicans" in November.
He also has received some high-profile support of his own. Corker, a Republican and frequent Trump critic, has praised Bredesen in the race, calling him a "very good mayor, a very good governor, a very good business person."
By contrast, Corker has often had harsh words for Trump. In a dramatic moment at a hearing in July, for example, Corker pressed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to explain what he characterized as Trump's "purposeful" efforts to sow misinformation and discord.
WATCH: POMPEO FIGHTS BACK AFTER CORKER HITS TRUMP FOR SOWING 'DISTRUST' ON PURPOSE
Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has previously acknowledged his attacks on Trump might not be endearing him to many of his constituents.
Tennessee, like its southern neighbors, was once dominated by Democrats. But it hasn't elected one to statewide office since 2006, and in 2012 Republicans secured supermajorities in both houses for the first time since Reconstruction.
Voters also decided on nominees for nine House races on Thursday.

Elizabeth Warren Native American Cartoons

'Calexit' co-founder: Elizabeth Warren might not be 'allowed in' proposed California spinoff reserved for Native Americans

The plan to break California off from the rest of the U.S. is back with a new twist. The leaders of Calexit have announced a new version of their plot to create an independent California: All federal lands in California will be returned to the Indian tribes, creating "the first ever autonomous Native American nation in North America." #Tucker
The co-founder of a movement calling for California to secede from America -- after giving away nearly half the state to form an "autonomous Native American nation" -- suggested Wednesday that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren might not be welcome in the proposed new territory.
Speaking on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," "Calexit" organizer Marcus Ruiz Evans said the issue ultimately would be up to the "brown-skinned" inhabitants of the California spinoff state.
"Elizabeth Warren would not be able to come in there, unless the Native people of the area say she's welcome," Evans said. "If they didn't do that, it doesn't matter what she says; she wouldn't be allowed in."
Warren has long been accused of falsely saying she is of Native American heritage to help in securing jobs, including one as a Harvard law professor. President Trump has repeatedly called Warren, a Wall Street critic and potential White House rival, “Pocahontas,” to highlight the controversy.
'REAL INDIAN' RUNNING AGAINST SEN. WARREN SUES AFTER CITY DEMANDS HE STOP CALLING HER 'FAKE INDIAN'

President Trump has suggested tossing a DNA testing kit at Warren during a presidential debate.  (AP)

Supporters of Trump, Evans said, shouldn't expect a much better reception.
"The primarily Trump voters will have to do what brown-skinned people tell them to do, because brown-skinned people will be in charge," Evans told host Tucker Carlson. "And if they don't like that, they're welcome to leave California."
Calexit's new plan to give Native Americans all federal lands in the state, running from the border with Mexico to the state boundary shared with Oregon, was announced earlier this week.
Because most of the federal land would include conservative-leaning portions of California, the plan would create a “buffer zone between Donald Trump’s America and the new independent California Republic,” Evans said in a statement Tuesday.
Evans explained to Carlson that while eastern California admittedly isn't the state's prime real estate, giving it away “would at least be a step in the right direction” -- and, he claimed, a better system than existing Native American reservations, which he said remain subject to federal interference.

TRUMP SUGGESTS SLOWLY TOSSING DNA TESTING KIT AT WARREN DURING PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Another Calexit co-founder, Louis Marinelli, told Fox News he is well-aware that many conservatives support California leaving the rest of the country.
“We would love to see official numbers on nationwide support for Calexit,” he said, adding that, “on a constant basis ... people [are] emailing how they want California to secede, or as they put it: break off and fall into the ocean.”
Calexit is distinct from Cal 3, a prominent parallel effort to split California into three states, purportedly to improve its governance.
The California Supreme Court earlier this month blocked the Cal 3 proposal from the November ballot, saying it was too significant a change to the state’s structure to be undertaken by a ballot initiative. Instead, the court ruled, the state’s constitution required action by the legislature.
The move was a setback not just for Cal 3, but also for Calexit, whose organizers say is often confused for Cal 3 and could face similar legal objections.

Mueller responds to Trump attorneys' request for parameters of potential interview

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has finally responded to a letter from President Trump's outside attorneys about what the scope and format of a potential interview with the president would be, sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News on Wednesday.
The sources said Mueller has agreed to cut the number of questions for Trump from an initial list of 49 and is willing to have some questions answered in writing – though he wants other questions answered orally.
However, the sources added that Mueller has not agreed to the president's demands to limit his questioning to matters related to allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The special prosecutor still wants to ask the president about obstruction of justice and other topics.
The sources also said talks with the special counsel about a possible interview are continuing, but as one source said: "There is still a long way to go."
While the Trump legal team's current posture is still not to have the president sit for an interview with Mueller, a source familiar with the investigation told Fox News, “never say never.”
Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, speaking to reporters following an appearance at a Republican congressional campaign event in New Hampshire, said the president's legal team had received "a letter back" from the special counsel's team on Tuesday and "now we're in the process of responding to their proposal."
"I'm not going to give you a lot of hope it's going to happen," Giuliani said of a potential Trump-Mueller sitdown, "but we're still negotiating."
On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop Mueller's "Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further."
Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation last year, handing off that responsibility to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Trump has asserted previously that Mueller has too many conflicts of interest for him to fairly lead the investigation, citing his ties to fired former FBI Director James Comey as well as what the president called a "very nasty & contentious business relationship" in a tweet earlier this week.
Democratic lawmakers said Wednesday that Trump's Sessions tweet amounted to obstruction of justice. But White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the message represented "the president's opinion" and not an order to the Justice Department.
"If he wanted to obstruct [the investigation], he'd obstruct it, just end it," Giuliani said of Trump in New Hampshire. "Then you'd all battle whether he has the legal right to do that, which I think he does. But he's not going to do that. He's made it clear he wants it to run its course."

Feinstein was 'mortified' by FBI allegation that staffer was spy for China: report

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein fired a staffer a few years back who was allegedly part of an effort to spy and pass on political intelligence to the Chinese government.
The staffer, based in the Democrat's San Francisco office, was suspected of delivering political intelligence, though nothing top secret, to officials based at the local Chinese Consulate, Politico reported.
The FBI informed Feinstein, the then-chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, about five years ago about the staffer and allegations that the staffer was a spy. The source who confirmed the incident to the San Francisco Chronicle said “Dianne was mortified” upon learning about it.
The suspected spy served as the lawmaker’s driver in California, but took on other roles as well, including helping out in her San Francisco office and being Feinstein’s liaison to the Asian-American community in the state. He attended Chinese Consulate events on behalf of the senator.
A former official said that the spy’s handler “probably got an award back in China” for his efforts to penetrate Feinstein’s office and pass on intelligence.
The driver was reportedly recruited years ago after he being befriended on one of the trips to Asia by someone from China’s Ministry of State Security, the country’s intelligence and security agency, the Chronicle reported.
“He didn’t even know what was happening — that he was being recruited,” a source told the publication. “He just thought it was some friend.”
The FBI wasn’t able to charge the individual, possibly because he was passing on political intelligence rather than classified materials – making the prosecution nearly impossible.
“They interviewed him, and Dianne forced him to retire, and that was the end of it,” the Chronicle’s source said. “None of her staff ever knew what was going on. They just kept it quiet.”

Trump tweets thanks to Kim Jong Un for returning remains of US war dead

In a pair of overnight tweets, President Trump sent his thanks early Thursday to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for returning 55 boxes presumed to contain the remains of Americans who served in the Korean War.
"Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen!" Trump wrote in one tweet. "I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter - l look forward to seeing you soon!"
The return of the remains was part of an agreement reached by Trump and Kim during a June summit in Singapore.
North Korea handed over the remains last week. A U.S. military plane made a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve the 55 cases.
Hundreds of U.S. and South Korean troops gathered for a repatriation ceremony at the Osan base in South Korea before the cases were put on military planes bound for Hawaii.
On Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence and the top commander of U.S. forces in Asia, Navy Adm. Phil Davidson, formally received the remains during the emotional and solemn ceremony in Hawaii.
Pence spoke during a ceremony at Hawaii's Hickam Air Force Base to mark the arrival of the remains on U.S. soil and the beginning of the long process of identifying them.

"They were husbands and fathers, brothers and neighbors — long gone, but never lost to the memory of their loved ones."
- Mike Pence, U.S. Vice President

"They were husbands and fathers, brothers and neighbors — long gone, but never lost to the memory of their loved ones," Pence said.
Some of the invited guests wiped tears from their eyes during the procession.

Robert Sanfilkippo, second right, sits next to his wife, Diana Brown Sanfilippo who has spent a lifetime searching for her father, 1st Lt. Frank Salazar who died 66 years ago in North Korea, who wipes her eyes as she sits in the audience with Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Second from left is Rick Downes, who was three when his father Hal went off to the Korean War, and he has been missing ever since.  (Associated Press)

Trump lauded Pence and the ceremony in an earlier tweet.
"Incredibly beautiful ceremony as U.S. Korean War remains are returned to American soil. Thank you to Honolulu and all of our great Military participants on a job well done," Trump tweeted late Wednesday night. "A special thanks to Vice President Mike Pence on delivering a truly magnificent tribute!"
Pence also said Trump was grateful Kim kept his word.
"We see today as tangible progress in our efforts to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula," the vice president said.

Military members carry transfer cases from a C-17 at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, Aug. 1, 2018.  (Associated Press)

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week that the return of the 55 cases was a positive step but not a guarantee that the bones are American soldiers.
At the repatriation ceremony in South Korea, the cases were draped in United Nations flags in a possible sign of that uncertainty. On Wednesday, however, the cases were draped in U.S. flags.
NORTH KOREA RETURNED 1 DOG TAG WITH 55 SETS OF SOLDIER REMAINS, US OFFICIAL SAYS
Nearly 7,700 U.S. service members were listed as missing and unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War. The Pentagon estimates that of the approximately 7,700 U.S. MIAs from the Korean War, about 5,300 are unaccounted for on North Korean soil.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will take the remains to a lab on the base where forensic anthropologists will study bones and teeth to identify their race, gender and age. Scientists will extract DNA and compare it to DNA samples collected from families of troops still missing from the war.
It could take months or years to determine their identities.

"(T)his is an international effort to bring closure for those families."
- Jim Mattis, U.S. Defense Secretary

"(T)his is an international effort to bring closure for those families," Mattis had said.

China Tariff Cartoons

Trump to propose 25-percent tariff on $200 billion of Chinese imports

The tariff battle between the U.S. and China could be about to heat up again.

The Trump administration plans to propose slapping a 25-percent tariff on $200 billion of imported Chinese goods.

This comes after initially setting them at 10 percent, in a bid to pressure Beijing into making trade concessions, a source familiar with the plan told Reuters.

President Trump's administration said on July 10 it would seek to impose the 10-percent tariffs on thousands of Chinese imports.

While the tariffs would not be imposed until after a period of public comment, raising the proposed level to 25 percent could escalate the trade dispute between the world's two biggest economies.

The source said the Trump administration could announce the tougher proposal as early as Wednesday.

There was no immediate reaction from the Chinese government.

In July it accused the United States of bullying and warned it would hit back.

Concerns have been that a trade war between Washington and Beijing could hit global growth.

Stock markets edged up globally on Tuesday on a report that the United States and China were seeking to resume talks to defuse the situation.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's Office declined to comment to Reuters on the proposed tariff rate increase or on whether changing them would alter the deadlines laid out for comment period before implementation.

In early July, the U.S. government imposed 25-percent tariffs on an initial $34 billion of Chinese imports.

Beijing retaliated with matching tariffs on the same amount of U.S. exports to China.