Trump supporter says he took beating after protesting Social Distortion singer's politics

Mike Ness, 56, is the lead singer of the punk rock band Social Distortion.  (Instagram)

A supporter of President Trump claims that Mike Ness, lead singer of the rock band Social Distortion, spat on him and repeatedly punched him in the head after he protested Ness's criticism of the president at a concert.
The confrontation allegedly took place July 17 at a show in Sacramento, Calif., when concertgoer Tim Hildebrand, 30, held up his middle finger to convey his disagreement with Ness.
The 56-year-old lead singer was “badmouthing President Trump and America,” Hildebrand told CBS 13 Sacramento.
“I pretty much said, 'I paid for your music, not your politics,'” Hildebrand told the station. “I stood pretty much with my silent protest with my middle finger up for the next two songs.”

“I pretty much said, 'I paid for your music, not your politics.' I stood pretty much with my silent protest with my middle finger up for the next two songs.”
- Tim Hildebrand, supporter of President Trump

But Ness didn’t seem to take kindly to Hildebrand’s nonverbal expression. Cellphone video appears to show the lead singer motioning toward a fan in the crowd, before removing his guitar and jumping off stage. He then repeatedly throws punches for a brief moment until the camera cuts out.
Hildebrand, a Republican, said Ness took “his guitar off, jumps off the stage and proceeds to punch me multiple times in the head.”
He told the station that the singer spat in his face and that the two argued before Ness attacked him, resulting in two black eyes, a busted lip and a concussion.
“I wasn’t able to defend myself because people in the crowd were holding me back,” he said.
Security dragged Hildebrand out of the venue, where he met with officers and filed a police report, according to the station.
Sacramento police said they were investigating the incident, the station reported.
Hildebrand told the New York Times that he wasn’t the only fan to express displeasure with Ness’ political statements during the concert, as others walked out and yelled expletives toward the stage.
“If you can speak your mind but you can’t take a response or rebuttal,” he told the paper, “it shows a lot about your character.”
Social Distortion did not immediately return Fox News’ request for comment.

Trump says Cuomo ‘having a total meltdown’ after gov's earlier remark that America ‘was never that great’

President Trump fired back at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo late Wednesday, saying the Democrat was having "a total meltdown" after he declared at an earlier bill-signing that America “was never that great.”
The Democrat made the seemingly off-hand comment as part of his rebuke of President Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan during the event in New York. But the line drew gasps from the crowd.
"We're not going to make America great again. It was never that great," Cuomo said.
In response to the remark, Trump tweeted, "Can you believe this is the Governor of the Highest Taxed State in the U.S., Andrew Cuomo, having a total meltdown!"
ANDREW CUOMO SHOCKS CROWD, SAYS AMERICA 'WAS NEVER THAT GREAT'
Cuomo fired back at the president on Twitter shortly after.
"@RealDonaldTrump: What you say would be 'great again' would not be great at all...We will not go back to discrimination, segregation, sexism, isolationism, racism or the KKK," the tweet said.
During Wednesday's event, Cuomo went on to say that the country had not yet achieved "greatness."
"We have not reached greatness, we will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged, we will reach greatness when discrimination and stereotyping against women, 51 percent of our population, is gone and every woman's full potential is realized and unleashed and every woman is making her full contribution," he said.

“We’re not going to make America great again. It was never that great,” Cuomo told the crowd in New York.  (AP)

Following the remarks, a spokeswoman for the governor stressed that he "believes America is great," which will become more evident "when every man, woman, and child has full equality. America has not yet reached its maximum potential."
"When the President speaks about making America great again - going back in time - he ignores the pain so many endured and that we suffered from slavery, discrimination, segregation, sexism and marginalized women's contributions," Cuomo's press secretary, Dani Lever, said in the statement. "The Governor believes that when everyone is fully included and everyone is contributing to their maximum potential, that is when America will achieve maximum greatness."
The New York Democrat is currently engulfed in a gubernatorial primary race against actress and activist, Cynthia Nixon. He is also considered a potential White House contender in 2020.

Graham calls for special counsel to investigate FBI's handling of Clinton emails, FISA warrant

Claiming that FBI investigations into Hillary Clinton's emails and the Carter Page FISA warrant were "corrupt to the core," U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham on Wednesday called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to handle both probes.
Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said FBI investigators were “in the tank” for Clinton and the FISA warrant process was abused -- possibly in a criminal fashion.
“What do you think Democrats would be saying if a Republican — if the RNC [Republican National Committee] -- hired a former British agent to go to Russia to get dirt on [Hillary] Clinton?” Graham asked Fox News' Laura Ingraham, host of “The Ingraham Angle.”
Graham said he's grown tired of talking about the Clinton email investigation and the 2016 FISA warrant to wiretap Page, the former Trump campaign adviser. He said an outside investigator could hopefully approach the issue with a nonpartisan perspective.
TRUMP REVOKES EX-CIA DIRECTOR'S SECURITY CLEARANCE
Democrats have said the FISA warrant application shows the Justice Department acted correctly in its probe. Democrats also point to ex-FBI Director James Comey's decision to announce the reopening of the Clnton email probe just days before the 2016 presidential election as an example of no bias.
Comey has since said that he was operating at the time in a world "where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump."
Graham's remarks came a day after former FBI agent Peter Strzok was fired over text messages that were critical of Trump.
Strzok vigorously defended himself at a combative House hearing in July, speaking publicly for the first time since the texts were revealed. He insisted that the texts — including ones in which he called Trump a “disaster” and said “We’ll stop” a Trump candidacy — did not reflect political bias and had not affected his investigations.
Strzok was also a lead investigator on the probe into Democrat Clinton’s email server in 2016.
Trump has repeatedly taken aim at Strzok on Twitter, saying his critical text messages showed that Mueller’s investigation is a hoax.

Stormy Daniels Cartoons

Desperate anti-Trump media elevate a strange trio to discredit the president

In the media’s latest tactic to take down President Trump in the court of public opinion, anti-Trump journalists are pinning their hopes on a porn star, a corrupt lawyer and a reality TV star. It almost sounds like the beginning of a bad joke – except this is unfortunately our present reality.
While legitimate questions may exist for the president, trying to legitimize this shady trio by giving them a media makeover isn’t going to give them credibility with the general public. This may be the mainstream media’s “dream team,” but Main Street USA will be a much harder sell.
President Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, secretly recorded a conversation with Trump prior to the election in 2016. They talked about paying for Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story, in which she claimed to have had an affair with Trump.
American Media Inc., which owns the National Enquirer, had agreed to pay for McDougal’s story about the alleged affair, though the Enquirer never ended up publishing it.
The president’s legal team claimed that the recording conveniently stopped prematurely, raising questions about what was not recorded. Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor emeritus, said: “There’s no indication of any crime being committed on this tape.”
So, once again, there’s no “there,” there.
Reality TV star Omarosa Manigault Newman, fired three times on “The Apprentice” by Donald Trump, was fired again last year, this time from the West Wing, allegedly over ethics violations.
Though she’s never earned the reputation of “playing well with others,” Manigault Newman left Pennsylvania Ave with the promise to tell her story. Translation: hell hath no fury like Omarosa scorned.
Manigault Newman breached national security protocols on her way out the door by recording her firing by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in the Situation Room, where recording devices are prohibited.
President Trump’s campaign filed for arbitration Tuesday against Manigault Newman, claiming she violated a 2016 nondisclosure agreement by leaking information from the Situation Room and by disparaging the president in her new gossip-filled book, “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.” Her surreptitious recordings of Kelly may also get her a visit from the FBI, the Secret Service or both.
The mainstream media, which salivates over all things anti-Trump, rolled out the red carpet for Manigault Newman. However, over the last couple of years when she was solidly on Team Trump – either on the campaign trail or in the White House – the media considered her a joke, especially when it came to her ongoing feud with CNN’s April Ryan.
The Brad Paisley song “Celebrity” comes to mind: ‘Cause when you’re a celebrity, it’s adios reality. You can act just like a fool, people think you’re cool, just ‘cause you’re on TV.”
Nobody thinks Omarosa’s cool, except for the liberal darlings in the mainstream media. When she’s effectively discredited she will have burned that bridge as well, and they’ll no longer have a use for her either.
The media’s other fan favorite is Stormy Daniels, the porn star and walking contradiction who’s suing the president and Michael Cohen for defamation, for denying her claim that she had an affair with Trump. Cohen paid her $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement.
Meanwhile, Daniels signed a letter in January saying: "I am not denying this affair because I was paid 'hush money' as has been reported in overseas owned tabloids. I am denying this affair because it never happened.”
Confused? Stormy appears to be too.
Most reasonable people find it difficult to take seriously accusations made by these three media darlings who are paraded out as if they are pillars of society, when in fact they are famous for their flexible morals. None of them are likely to even be trusted enough to be chosen to serve on a jury at this point.
If the media are truly interested in answering legitimate questions related to the president, this isn’t the way to get it done.
The reality TV star with a vendetta, the porn star who claimed she never had an affair with Trump before she claimed she did, and the attorney who violates confidentiality by recording his clients are weak arguments for a case against an unfair, biased media grossly obsessed with “getting Trump.”
History teaches that if you’re going to go after the king, you better destroy him; because if you don’t you’ll only make him stronger. If the media are so desperate to sink this low, the result will likely be a long, last laugh for President Trump – as in a two-term presidency.
Lauren DeBellis Appell, a freelance writer in Fairfax, Virginia, was deputy press secretary for then-Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., in his successful 2000 re-election campaign, as well as assistant communications director for the Senate Republican Policy Committee (2001-2003).

John Stossel: Social Security is going broke

Social Security is running out of money.
You may not believe that, but it’s a fact.
That FICA money taken from your paycheck was not saved for you in a “trust fund.” Politicians misled us. They spent every penny the moment it came in.
This started as soon as they created Social Security. They assumed that FICA payments from young workers would cover the cost of sending checks to older people. After all, at the time, most Americans died before they reached 65.
Now, however, people keep living longer. There just aren’t enough young people to cover my Social Security checks.
So Social Security is going broke. This year, the program went into the red for the first time.
Presidents routinely promise to fix this problem.
George W. Bush said he’d “strengthen and save” Social Security. Barack Obama said he’d “safeguard” it, and Donald Trump said that he’ll “save” it.
But none has done anything to save it.
“There is a plan out there to save it, but it requires some tough choices,” says Heritage Foundation budget analyst Romina Boccia.
Heritage proposes cutting payments to rich people and raising the retirement age to 70.
Good luck with that. Seniors vote. Most vote against politicians who suggest cutting benefits.
This summer, interviewing people for my new video about Social Security’s coming bankruptcy, was the first time I had heard the majority of such a group say they were aware there is a problem. One said, “We’re already at a trillion dollars (deficit) … (I)t’s almost like a big Ponzi scheme.”
Actually, more like a pyramid scheme. Ponzi schemes secretly take your money. But the Social Security trick is written into the law -- there for anyone who bothers to look.
Social Security isn’t the only hard choice ahead of us. Medicare will run out of money in just eight years. At that point, benefits will automatically be cut. Social Security hits its wall in 15 years.
Amazingly, as we approach this disaster, Democrats say -- spend even more.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., proudly announced, “Nearly every Democrat in the United States Senate has voted in favor of expanding Social Security.”
How would they pay for it? “Raise taxes on the wealthy!” is the usual answer.
I tried that on Boccia: “Just raise taxes on the rich!”
“There isn’t enough money, even that the rich would have,” she countered, “to pay for the $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities.”
One partial solution proposed by Heritage and others is to let younger workers put some of their Social Security money into their own personal retirement accounts.
“Imagine being able to own and control your own retirement dollars,” urged Boccia, with genuine excitement. “You could invest it in businesses, grow the economy, whatever rocks your boat.”
If history is any guide, private accounts would almost certainly pay retirees more than Social Security will ever pay.
“Even a conservative portfolio of stocks and bonds that got you about a 5 percent annual return, you would make many times more,” said Boccia.
She’s right. Money in government hands just sits there or gets spent wastefully; it’s rarely invested wisely.
Private accounts have been tried in a few countries. In Chile, the investment they created helped make Chile the richest country in Latin America. (Before, Chile was poorer than most.)
Yet even after that success, leftists in South America hold street protests against private accounts. They’re angry because capitalists get a slice of the pie.
I told Boccia that I couldn’t understand why people in Chile don’t loudly cheer private accounts because of the wealth they’d created.
“We lack gratitude,” she replied, “for what the free market provides. That is difficult to wrap your head around. It’s easy to think, ‘Here is the government. This is where I go.’”
But eventually, even governments run out of other people’s money.
Like most American politicians, Donald Trump campaigned saying, “I’m not going to cut Social Security … not going to cut Medicare.”
He and other politicians pretend they’re protecting people’s futures, but they are not. They’re ignoring the inevitable.
Better to fix old-age programs now -- rather than have them suddenly go bankrupt later.
John Stossel is the author of "No They Can't! Why Government Fails -- But Individuals Succeed." Click here for more information on John Stossel.

Leah Vukmir projected to win Wisconsin GOP Senate primary, face Baldwin in November

Wisconsin Sen. Leah Vukmir was projected to defeat political outsider Kevin Nicholson in Tuesday's GOP Senate primary, clearing the way for a closely watched general election battle against Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
Though pre-primary polls showed a close race between Vukmir and Nicholson, with about a third of Republican voters undecided, Vukmir -- a 15-year veteran of Wisconsin's legislature and an ally of Gov. Scott Walker -- was leading Nicholson by 14 percentage points when The Associated Press called the race.
National Republicans have targeted Baldwin, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, and outside groups already have spent millions on television ads attacking her in a state that went for President Trump in 2016. The race is one of a handful of key contests expected to decide which party will hold the Senate after November's midterm elections.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.  (AP, File)

Both Vukmir and Nicholson, a Marine combat veteran and a former Democrat, pledged not to raise taxes, to support the repeal of ObamaCare and back the building of a border wall with Mexico.
Neither Nicholson nor Vukmir initially supported Trump in 2016, but both got behind him in the general election. Trump did not endorse either of them in the primary, but retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan backed Vukmir, as did longtime Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner.
Two weeks before the primary, video of Vukmir badmouthing Trump in 2016 re-emerged and became fodder for TV ads attacking her loyalty to the president. Vukmir, who initially supported three others for president before lining up behind Trump, has insisted she's an ardent backer now.
Vermont was one of four states holding U.S. Senate primaries Tuesday, along with Connecticut, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is heavily favored to win a third term in November.  (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

In the Green Mountain State, Sen. Bernie Sanders was projected to win the Democratic nomination for a third term Tuesday – though Sanders was expected to decline the nomination and run as an independent in November’s general election.
With 83 percent of precincts reporting, the democratic socialist Sanders had received 94 percent of the vote compared to six percent for self-described Democratic activist Folasade Adeluola. Sanders, who received 65 percent and 71 percent of the vote in his first two Senate election victories, is a heavy favorite to win re-election.
Under Vermont law, Sanders cannot appear on the November ballot as both a Democrat and an independent. In his previous U.S. Senate races, in 2012 and 2006, he declined the Democratic nomination but accepted the formal endorsement of the state's Democratic Party.
Sanders' long-time political adviser Jeff Weaver told The Associated Press that the Sanders campaign is donating $150,000 to the Vermont Democratic Party.
Adeluola moved to Vermont from Indiana in 2017 to run against Sanders, whom she blamed for dividing the Democratic Party with his insurgent run for the presidential nomination against Hillary Clinton.
"I did not like the way Sen. Sanders caused the DNC to lose the White House,” Adeluola told the Burlington Free Press. "That is why I'm angry.” The paper reported that Adeluola, like Sanders, is registered as an independent candidate and plans to carry on through the November election.
In the Republican primary, perennial candidate H. Brooke Paige held a narrow lead over real estate broker Lawrence Zupan with 83 percent of precincts reporting. In a twist, Paige was also projected to win the Republican nomination for Vermont's lone U.S. House seat, currently held by Democrat Peter Welch.
In Connecticut, Matthew Corey was projected to easily defeat Apple computer executive Dominic Rapini to win the Republican nomination to face incumbent Sen. Chris Murphy. Corey, a Navy veteran who owns a window-washing business as well as a Hartford bar, described himself in a July Connecticut Post interview as a "blue-collar fella" who supports Trump's tax cuts and regulation rollbacks.
Murphy, a prominent gun control advocate and strident Trump critic, ran unopposed in the Democratic primary and already has raised approximately $13.5 million for his re-election campaign.
Unusually, both of Minnesota's Senate seats are up for grabs this year. In the regularly scheduled race, Democratic incumbent Amy Klobuchar was projected to easily win the party's nomination for a third term. She will face Republican state Rep. Jim Newberger, who was projected to defeat three other candidates in the GOP primary, but faces an uphill battle against the popular Klobuchar.

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., was appointed to replace Al Franken, who resigned over sexual misconduct allegations.

In Minnesota's other Senate primary, Democrat Tina Smith was projected to defeat challenger Richard Painter, a former ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. Gov. Mark Dayton appointed Smith to fill Al Franken's Senate seat earlier this year after Franken resigned over allegations of sexual misconduct.
In the Republican primary, state Sen. Karin Housley -- the wife of Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Housley -- was projected to defeat opponents Bob Anderson and Nikolay Nikolayevich Bey for the right to face Smith in November.
By Minnesota law, Franken's seat will be contested in a special election later this year and the winner of that contest will complete the remaining two years of Franken's term before coming up for re-election in 2020.

Pawlenty, who called Trump 'unfit and unhinged,' derailed in comeback attempt in Minnesota; battle lines drawn in Connecticut

Tim Pawlenty, right, had sharply criticized President Trump during the 2016 campaign after the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape.  (AP)

Tim Pawlenty -- who briefly ran for president in 2012 and had derided President Trump as "unhinged" -- was denied in his effort to stage a political comeback and become Minnesota’s governor again in the race to replace Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton.
County Commissioner Jeff Johnson won in Tuesday's Minnesota GOP gubernatorial primary despite Pawlenty's enormous fundraising and name recognition advantages. He also won despite his own history as the party's losing candidate for governor four years ago.
Pawlenty joins several other prominent Republicans -- including Reps. Martha Roby and Mark Sanford, as well as Sens. Jeff Flake and Bob Corker -- who have recently suffered major political consequences, at least in part, for opposing Trump.
Johnson had positioned himself as a more conservative candidate than Pawlenty. He branded the former two-term governor as part of the "status quo" and bashed him for calling Trump "unhinged and unfit for the presidency" in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election -- rhetoric that Pawlenty softened during the campaign.
Pawlenty was hoping to resurrect his political career after flaming out as a presidential candidate in 2011. He spent the intervening years as a Washington lobbyist.
KEITH ELLISON HANGS ON IN MINNESOTA DESPITE DOMESTIC ABUSE ALLEGATIONS

Tim Pawlenty, who had called Trump 'unhinged,' was dened in his bid to retake his old governorship on Tuesday.  (AP)

Democratic Rep. Tim Walz, meanwhile, won the party's three-way primary for the governorship, and will take on Johnson in November.
In all, voters in four states headed to the polls Tuesday to select nominees for critical gubernatorial, House, and Senate races in November, and several of the day's contests were broadly seen as an early indication of voters' views on Trump and the Republican Party.
In Connecticut, Madison businessman and political newcomer Bob Stefanowski won the Republican primary for governor, defeating four fellow GOP contenders and setting the stage for a pivotal battle with businessman Ned Lamont in November.
Connecticut is ground-zero for Republican efforts to continue their gains in progressive New England. Even though Connecticut voted for Hillary Clinton by double-digits in 2016, the state's governor, Dan Malloy, is deeply unpopular, with critics citing high taxes and an ongoing budget crisis. Malloy declined to seek a third term.
And in Wisconsin, Democrats making yet another effort to unseat Republican Scott Walker have nominated state schools chief Tony Evers. Evers emerged from a field of eight candidates in Tuesday's primary. He was the only candidate to have won election statewide before and now faces his biggest challenge against Walker, who has built up a huge financial advantage.
The 66-year-old Evers has been the state's education chief since 2009 and has clashed with Walker in the past on mostly education issues.Walker's campaign and Republicans criticized Evers for not revoking the license of a teacher who was caught viewing pornographic emails on his school computer.
Meanwhile, Christine Hallquist made history in Vermont Tuesday night as the first openly transgender nominee for a governorship from a major party in the nation's history, beating back her Democratic challengers in the state's primary.

Christine Hallquist was vying to be the first transgender gubernatorial nominee in the nation's history Tuesday.  (AP)

Hallquist defeated educator Brenda Siegel, who earlier was considered a frontrunner in the race, and environmentalist James Ehlers.
Hallquist, a former CEO of the Vermont Electric Cooperative, made no bones about the fact she wanted a place in the history books during the campaign.
She's appealed to Vermonters with a progressive message including a livable wage, Medicare for all, free public college education and high-speed broadband access — even to those who live on remote back roads.
"That's how I want to be known in Vermont," Hallquist, 62, told The Associated Press in an interview at her Burlington offices. "Nationally, I want to be known as the first trans candidate."

Gov. Phil Scott, in April, signing gun control legislation that drew fierce protests.  (AP)

Hallquist also defeated another candidate who was trying to make history: a 14-year-old boy, Ethan Sonneborn, who took advantage of the state constitution's lack of an age requirement to seek the governorship.
On the Republican side, first-term Gov. Phil Scott overcame businessman Keith Stern to win the GOP gubernatorial primary, surviving the major political fallout from his decision to sign the state's first major gun control laws earlier this year.
No sitting governor has been defeated in Vermont since 1962, and Scott's victory in November would continue Republicans' surprisingly strong hold on governorships in highly progressive New England. The GOP currently holds the governorships of four out of six states in the region, including Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
However, Scott may have a unique vulnerability. In April, he was heckled by a bevy of protesters calling him a "liar" and "traitor" as he signed sweeping gun regulations into law, citing the dangers posed by mass shootings.
The package of bills raised the age to buy firearms from 18 to 21, banned high-capacity magazines, and made it easier to take guns from people considered a danger to themselves or others and from people arrested or cited for domestic assault.
Scott's approval rating in the state tanked after he signed the measure, plummeting from 65 percent early in the year to 47 percent shortly after the bill took effect. His disapproval rating nearly doubled to 42 percent in that period.