Republican running for Oregon governor wants top state Dems to resign over sexual harassment at Capitol

Knute Buehler, who’s running for governor in deep-blue Oregon, says two top Democrats should resign for allowing a culture of sexual misconduct in the state Capitol.  (Associated Press)

The Republican candidate in Oregon's race for governor is calling on two top state Democrats to resign after allegations that they allowed a pervasive atmosphere of sexual hostility to exist in the state Capitol.
Knute Buehler, who recently pulled even in the polls against Democratic incumbent Gov. Kate Brown in the deep-blue state, directed his criticism at Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek.
“For too long casual attitudes and unprofessional behavior has been accepted and tolerated in the Capitol. I am calling on Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek to step down,” Buehler, who’s also a state lawmaker, tweeted.
“Accountability and change begins with the people in charge who failed to prevent, failed to properly investigate and possibly covered-up serious allegations of sexual harassment within the Capitol,” he said in a statement.
The call for resignations comes after Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian on Wednesday filed a complaint accusing Courtney and Kotek of not doing enough to protect women from Republican Sen. Jeff Kruse and covering up a pervasive culture of sexual harassment at the state Capitol in Salem.
Kruse was forced to resign in February after an investigation found that he sexually harassed and groped a number of women in the Capitol over the years and ignored warnings about his behavior. Kruse reportedly escalated his inappropriate behavior after being told to stop touching women without their consent.
Buehler, who has a real shot this November to become the first non-Democrat governor of the state since late 1980s, was the first Republican lawmaker to urge Kruse to resign amid the sexual misconduct allegations.
REPUBLICAN CHALLENGER PULLS EVEN WITH ANTI-TRUMP DEMOCRAT IN SOLID BLUE OREGON’S GOVERNOR’S RACE: POLL

In this Feb. 13, 2015, file photo, Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney, left, and Speaker of the House Tina Kotek confer at the Capitol in Salem, Ore. The two fellow Democrats are being accused of covering up a pervasive culture of sexual harassment at the state capitol.  (Associated Press)

In the complaint, Avakian said that as early as March 2016, Courtney and Kotek "knew or should have known of Senator Kruse's conduct and the broader sexually hostile environment in the Capitol, but did not take immediate and appropriate action."
He also said other powerful officials in the state Capitol – such as top legislative lawyer Dexter Johnson and human resources chief Lore Christopher – told the harassed women not to tell anyone about them being harassed by Kruse or other officials, the Oregonian reported. The victims were also told that they had no standing to sue the harassers.
Courtney and Kotek signed a memo stating they will participate in any subsequent investigation about the allegations laid out by Avakian. “We welcome additional scrutiny and a thorough investigation related to the commissioner's complaint,” reads the memo, according to the publication.
The state House speaker said she takes every complaint seriously and encouraged “anyone with a complaint to come forward. We must do better.”
Kotek, meanwhile, criticized Buehler for calling for their resignation, accusing him of politicizing the situation.
“Let's not politicize this. This is about people's lives," Kotek said. “We want a workplace that is respectful and safe, where everyone can do their best to help the people of Oregon.”

Black pastors see Trump bringing 'new hope' -- but still need to convince their flocks

The Rev. John Gray, pastor of Relentless Church in Greenville, S.C., and other religious leaders meet with President Trump at the White House, Aug. 1, 2018.  (Associated Press)

Two black Christian pastors who were among a group of religious leaders meeting with President Trump at the White House this week are now facing backlash from congregants back home.
The Rev. Phillip Goudeaux of Calvary Christian Center in Sacramento, Calif., and the Rev. John Gray, head of Relentless Church in Greenville, S.C., came under fire from critics who say Trump's policies have harmed the black community.
But at Wednesday's event, dubbed “Meeting with Inner City Pastors,” many of the pastors who attended expressed sympathetic views toward Trump, with one pastor -- the Rev. Darrell Scott, of Cleveland -- calling Trump “the most pro-black president we’ve had in our lifetime.”

Pastor Phillip Goudeaux of Calvary Christian Center in Sacramento, Calif., has come under fire for attending a meeting with President Trump.  (Calvary Christian Center)

Scott also slammed former President Barack Obama for not trying to “prove something to our community” because “he got a pass.”
Goudeaux, a spiritual adviser to the family of Stephon Clark –  the unarmed black man who was fatally shot March 18 by two police officers in Sacramento -- praised Trump as well, saying the president restored “hope” to his community, but jokingly urged Trump to not give up on the state of California.
“Please don’t give up on California and Sacramento,” Goudeaux quipped, according to the transcript. “I’m right in the capital there, and we’re working in every area to try to make a difference in people’s lives.

"So, I guess the greatest word I can say for you, Mr. President, is that you have given this country expectations, given us a new hope, a new excitement to believe that things are getting better and are going to get better."
- Pastor Phillip Goudeaux

“So, I guess the greatest word I can say for you, Mr. President, is that you have given this country expectations, given us a new hope, a new excitement to believe that things are getting better and are going to get better,” Goudeaux continued. “And we appreciate that leadership, your tenacity to keep pushing in against all the opposition that comes against you. Thank you so much.”
Gray, meanwhile, was skeptical about attending the meeting with Trump and initially thought he would decline the invitation.
“My wife told me ‘If you go, no one will hear what you say. They won’t understand why you’re there. And any good that could come out of it will get lost in translation,’” Gray wrote on Facebook. “I had not one thing to gain by being there. Not. One.”
Gray said he eventually decided attending the event and even led the prayer so he could speak out about prison reform.

"That could greatly end up benefiting many people who look just like me."
- Pastor John Gray on his decision to attend the meeting

“That could greatly end up benefiting many people who look just like me,” he said. “The pain of so many is too real. The hurt. The isolation. The sense of disenfranchisement. The real hate that has bubbled to the surface of the national discourse.
"I myself have been vocal about my personal disagreements with key policy decisions of this administration,” he added.

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with inner city pastors in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018.  (Associated Press)

But despite their open-minded approach, the two pastors were still facing condemnation from their communities.
Tre Borden, who works in the Sacramento area and attended the Calvary Christian Center when he was young, shared a photo of Goudeaux and called him and other religious leaders “shameless” and “contemptible” for attending the meeting, the Sacramento Bee reported.
“The majority of people in Phillip Goudeaux’s Del Paso congregation are poor and black,” he told the publication. “For him or any other black religious leader to align himself with Trump and his policies in this day and age is extremely distressing and hypocritical. How can he possibly think our current president is helping people who are on the margins of society?”
Gray is reaching out to many people who are criticizing him on social media. His Facebook posts concerning the meeting drew thousands of comments, many of which were critical.
“The pain of those who have been hurt is real. And I would be a dishonorable man not to acknowledge that,” Gray wrote. “But I will honor what I believe was the mandate on my life to be there and available to God should He choose to give me voice,” he added, noting that his comments on social media about why he attended didn’t “invalidate the visceral reaction of those who can’t imagine why I would be in the room.”

Pompeo presses Turkey on release of pastor, North Korea on keeping denuke promise

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday pushed Turkey to release a detained American pastor whose case prompted the Trump administration to slap sanctions on senior Turkish officials, and said North Korea is still lagging behind on its promise to denuclearize.
Pompeo made the remarks before attending separate meetings with top Turkish and North Korean officials on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian security conference in Singapore.
He urged the Turkish government to release Andrew Craig Brunson, the American pastor detained in Turkey since December 2016 on espionage and terror-related charges, which both Brunson and the U.S. vehemently deny.
The administration is also seeking the release of several detained local employees of the U.S. diplomatic missions in the Turkey.
Pompeo said the administration’s actions on Wednesday – imposing sanctions on Turkey's justice and interior ministers – were a sign of how seriously the U.S. is treating Brunson’s case.
“The Turks were on notice that the clock had run out and it was time for Pastor Brunson to be returned and I hope they'll see this for what it is: a demonstration that we're very serious,” he told reporters.

"The Turks were on notice that the clock had run out and it was time for Pastor Brunson to be returned and I hope they'll see this for what it is: a demonstration that we're very serious."
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

“We consider this one of the many issues that we have with the Turks,” Pompeo continued, but didn’t elaborate.
The U.S. government has been uneasy over Turkey’s military actions in Northern Syria and the plans to purchase an advanced air defense system from Russia.
“Brunson needs to come home as do all the Americans being held by the Turkish government,” he added. "Pretty straightforward. They've been holding these folks for a long time. These are innocent people.”
In terms of North Korea, Pompeo criticized the communist state for lagging behind on plans to honor the agreements made in Singapore during a summit in June between Kim Jong Un and President Trump.
The top diplomat said there was “still a ways to go before” achieving the goal of ridding the North of its nuclear weapons. As of now, the country is still in violation of numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions, Pompeo said.

"To the extent they are behaving in a manner inconsistent with that, they are in violation of one or both the UN Security Council resolutions, we can see we still have a ways to go to achieve the ultimate outcome we're looking for."
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

“Chairman Kim made a commitment to denuclearize,” Pompeo told reporters. “The world demanded that [he] do so in the U.N. Security Council resolutions. To the extent they are behaving in a manner inconsistent with that, they are in violation of one or both the U.N. Security Council resolutions, we can see we still have a ways to go to achieve the ultimate outcome we're looking for.”
The remarks came after the White House said Thursday that Trump received a new letter from the North Korean leader in the wake of concerns that not enough progress has been made in getting rid of the nuclear weapons. Trump reportedly replied by letter to Kim.
The administration didn’t provide the contents of their letters, with White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying only that the letters addressed the commitment to work toward North Korea's “complete denuclearization.”

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.”