Avenatti, mulling WH run, tells anti-Trump Dems in New Hampshire to 'fight fire with fire'

Michael Avenatti headlined a Democratic Party event in Greenfield, New Hampshire.  (Fox News)

Michael Avenatti took aim at President Donald Trump and called on Democrats to “fight fire with fire” as he headlined a Democratic Party event Sunday in the state that holds the first primary in the race for the White House.
The Los Angeles-based attorney, best known for representing adult-film actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against the president, told Fox News and other news organizations that “I’m absolutely being serious” as he mulls a run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
And his message to other potential Democratic White House hopefuls is that the 2020 “election is going to be a brutal, knockdown, street fight, and if someone’s not up for that type of campaign, they need to stay home and not seek the nomination.”
He also brushed aside any concerns that his law firm's legal issues could hurt him politically.
Headlining the Hillsborough County Democrats summer picnic and fundraiser, Avenatti repeatedly fired away at the president, saying to big applause that “Donald Trump does not have the knowledge, wisdom, compassion or fortitude to serve as president of the United States.”
But he added that “this president, no matter how corrupt or cruel he is, he knows how to fight.”
Avenatti said that Democrats “have a tendency to bring nail clippers to a gunfight” and he told the crowd of party officials, candidates and activists, “I believe that our party, the Democratic Party, must be a party that fights fire with fire. I believe we cannot be the party of turning the other cheek.”
And as he did during a stop last weekend in Iowa – the state that holds the first-in-the-nation caucus – Avenatti modified a slogan made famous by former first lady Michelle Obama, urging that “when they (Republicans) go low, we hit harder.”
He closed his nearly 25-minute speech with a variation of Trump’s signature campaign line, saying, “We will make America gracious again. We will make America fair again. We will make America dynamic again. We will make America respected. And above all else, we will make America America again.”
Avenatti arrived in New Hampshire from Florida, where he headlined a Democratic Party event in Tampa Saturday night. He told reporters he’s headed back to Iowa in a few days and announced he’d return to New Hampshire in late September.

I don’t think [President Trump is] very quick on his feet. I don’t think he’s that intelligent and I think he’d be completely outclassed.
- Michael Avenatti

Pushing back against charges that his political testing of the waters is a publicity stunt, Avenatti argued, “I’m not going to go out and do this and give speeches like this and talk to people on some lark. I’m going to seriously consider this because the 2020 election is a critical election, I would venture to say the most critical in modern times.”
Avenatti warned, “If the Democratic Party proceeds to nominate the person who would be the best president, that is going to be a mistake.”
He said 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton “was the most qualified individual to ever run for the White House in the history of our nation.”
LIZ PEEK: IS AVENATTI READY TO RUN? HIS LEFT-WING MEDIA ALLIES CERTAINLY THINK SO!
But he added that “all the experience in the world, all the qualifications in the world, all of the policy positions in the world, they don’t mean anything if you can’t beat Donald Trump in the general election, period.”

Avenatti said, “Donald Trump doesn’t want to debate me on a national stage. That’s for sure. There’s no question about that.”  (Fox News)

Asked how he would take the fight to the president, a confident Avenatti claimed, “Donald Trump doesn’t want to debate me on a national stage. That’s for sure. There’s no question about that.”
“I think he’s a bully and I think he doesn’t like people who punch back and I think I’d be incredibly effective against him,” Avenatti added. “I don’t think he’s very quick on his feet. I don’t think he’s that intelligent and I think he’d be completely outclassed.”
AVENATTI: 'I'M EXPLORING A RUN FOR THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES'
Avenatti’s firm Eagan Avenatti was settling a case with the Internal Revenue Service over $880,000 in unpaid payroll taxes. The firm had defaulted on millions of dollars in debt and had fallen years behind in paying its payroll taxes.
Asked by Fox News if he was concerned his firm’s legal issues could affect his hopes of running for the White House, Avenatti said, “I’m not worried about it. Show me anybody who’s had great success and I’ll show you somebody that’s had great challenges.”
On policy, Avenatti told the crowd that as president, he’d push for Medicare for all, ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, and what he called “sensible gun control in America,” adding, “We should never have another school shooting on U.S. soil.”
He also called for investing in public school teachers and securing the nation’s borders “while at the same time honoring the values and principles that founded this country.”

Drive-by shooting at US embassy in Turkish capital, no casualties: report

Turkish authorities on Monday responded to a drive-by shooting at the U.S. embassy in Ankara amid increased tensions between the two countries over the detained American pastor, Reuters reported.
There were no injuries, but a window in a security cabin was reportedly hit. The shooting occurred at about 5 a.m. local time.
The report said the embassy was set to be closed this week for Eid al-Adha festival.
Private Ihlas news agency said four to five rounds were fired from a moving white car and targeted security booth outside Gate 6.
Earlier Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration rebuffed Turkey’s offer to release pastor Andrew Brunson if the U.S. halted the investigation into Turkish bank Halkbank.
The Turkish government agreed to drop terrorism charges against the pastor in exchange of the U.S. government dropping fines totaling billions of dollars against the bank.
“A real NATO ally wouldn’t have arrested Brunson in the first place,” the official told the Journal.

Giuliani on dangers of Trump-Mueller interview: 'Truth isn't truth'

President Trump's personal attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, proclaimed Sunday that "truth isn't truth" while attempting to explain his reluctance to have Trump sit down for an interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team.
"I am not going to be rushed into having him testify so that he gets trapped into perjury," Giuliani said on NBC News' "Meet The Press." "And when you tell me that, you know, he should testify because he's going to tell the truth and he shouldn't worry, well that's so silly because it's somebody's version of the truth. Not the truth."
"Truth is truth," interrupted moderator Chuck Todd, to which Giuliani responded: "No, it isn’t truth. Truth isn’t truth."
An apparently exasperated Todd joked, "This is going to become a bad meme," before telling Giuliani, "Don't do 'truth isn't truth' to me."
"[If] they have two pieces of evidence," Giuliani shot back, "[and] Trump says I didn’t tell them and the other guy says that he did say it, which is the truth? Maybe you know because you’re a genius."
"At that point, you’re right," Todd answered. "... No, you’re right. I don’t read minds on that front."
Trump repeatedly has said that he is open to sitting down with Mueller's investigators. However, attorneys Giuliani and Jay Sekulow have cautioned against it.
Both sides have exchanged proposals for interview conditions, but no agreement has been struck. The president's lawyers also have said they would fight any attempt by Mueller to issue a subpoena to Trump.
Giuliani also accused the special counsel's office of illegally leaking to The New York Times that White House Counsel Don McGahn has been cooperating extensively with the Mueller probe. The Times published the story Saturday, drawing an angry response from the president on Twitter.
"The only other one that could've done it was McGahn," Giuliani said. "I mean, I didn't leak it to The Times and Jay Sekulow didn’t leak it to The Times, the president sure as heck didn't, so who could it be? It could be McGahn, and McGahn’s not doing it. He would've done it a long time ago if he was going to do it.
"They’re down to desperation time," Giuliani said of the Mueller team. "They have to write a report and they don’t have a single bit of evidence."
Earlier Sunday, Trump tweeted that McGahn was not, as he put it, "a John Dean type 'RAT,'" -- a reference to the White House counsel for Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal. Dean eventually cooperated with prosecutors and congressional investigators, providing key testimony that led to Nixon's resignation in the face of certain impeachment and removal from office in 1974.
Giuliani told NBC that Trump didn't raise executive privilege or attorney-client privilege during those interviews because his team believed — he says now, wrongly — that fully participating would be the fastest way to bring the investigation to a close.
"The president encouraged him to testify, is happy that he did, is quite secure that there is nothing in the testimony that will hurt the president," Giuliani said.
McGahn's attorney William Burck added in a statement: "President Trump, through counsel, declined to assert any privilege over Mr. McGahn's testimony, so Mr. McGahn answered the Special Counsel team's questions fulsomely and honestly, as any person interviewed by federal investigators must."

Border Wall & the Blue Wave Cartoons

FACT

The main source of income in Mexico?

Remittances from Mexican immigrants in the United States to their families back home are a major source of income in Mexico, second only to oil and surpassing even the tourism industry. Money sent back in 2004 totaled $16.6 billion, a 28 percent increase over the previous year.

Yeah Right :-)

 

 

New Mexico Completes More Than Half of Its Border Wall Section

A federal appeals court will hear arguments by the state of California that the Trump administration overreached by waiving environmental reviews to speed construction of the president’s prized border wall with Mexico. At issue Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018, before a three-judge panel in Pasadena, Calif., is a 2005 law that gave the Homeland Security secretary broad authority to waive dozens of laws including the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act. (AP Photo/Elliott Spagat, File)

OAN Newsroom

UPDATED 8:05 AM PT — August 18, 2018

New Mexico completes construction of more than half of its barrier-wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
U.S. Customs and Border Control confirmed this week more than 11 miles of wall west of Santa Teresa has been built since the beginning of August.
Officials touted support for the steel wall, saying the completed 20-mile structure will be more difficult to cross.
Environmentalists are suing over the project, claiming it interferes with wildlife.
The $73 million New Mexico project, which began earlier this year, is part of President Trump’s initiative to crackdown on illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

President Trump Blasts Social Media for Discriminating against Conservatives

President Donald Trump walks down the stairs as he arrives on Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., Friday, Aug. 17, 2018, en route to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Trump is calling out social media platforms for censoring and discriminating against conservative voices.
In a series of tweets today the president said censorship is very dangerous adding social media is shutting down opinions on the right but doing nothing to “weed out fake news.”

Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices. Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others…….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018

…..Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police. If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don’t watch at all..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018

….Too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018

He also stated “there is nothing so fake as CNN and MSNBC and yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed.”
He finished up saying “many voices are being destroyed, which cannot be allowed to happen anymore.”

Trump set to roll back restrictions on coal-burning power plants

The Trump administration is escalating an effort to revive the flagging U.S. coal industry with a planned move next week to replace restrictive Obama-era climate policies with new rules designed to help coal-burning plants run harder and stay open longer.
The proposed new rules, which the Environmental Protection Agency plans is expected to release within days, would be the latest in a series of reversals of policies the Obama administration adopted to slow climate change. It would replace the agency’s so-called Clean Power Plan for the electricity business with regulations that cede power to states, and could ultimately lead to more heat-trapping gases going into the atmosphere even as it sets parameters to boost efficiency at coal-fired power plants.
President Trump has repeatedly promised to support coal, an industry beset by a shrinking customer base, competition, falling prices and bankruptcies; the plan may be his administration’s most ambitious effort yet to kill regulations on coal’s behalf.
And yet plummeting costs of cleaner fuels including natural gas, wind and solar in recent years have driven consumers and power companies away from coal so dramatically, they may blunt the proposal’s ultimate effect. 
The Trump administration proposal would have to be submitted for a public rule-making process before taking effect. It would apply to the power industry at large, but is firmly targeted at coal.
Senior administration officials familiar with the proposal say it outlines technology that coal-burning plants can employ to produce more power from less fuel. It would also eliminate triggers that would mandate overhauls at plants, a rollback to encourage coal-burning units to make smaller improvements, which could extend the profitable lifespans of those plants by many years.

'Liberty or Death' gun-rights rally draws counter-protesters, forcing police to keep the peace

A man who was protesting with Patriot Prayer and other groups supporting gun rights is treated for an injury during a rally and counter-protest in Seattle, Aug. 18, 2018.  (Associated Press)

A demonstration in support of Second Amendment gun rights drew left-wing counter-protesters Saturday in Seattle, forcing dozens of police to keep the two sides separated.
Conservative groups Washington 3 Percenters and Patriot Prayer held their “Liberty or Death” rally outside Seattle City Hall, to oppose a city gun-control initiative, while a group of left-wing organizations rallied nearby.
The left-wingers -- including members of Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity, Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party -- yelled and used cow bells and sirens in an attempt to drown out speeches from the other side.

Supporters of Second Amendment gun rights stand during a playing of a recording of the national anthem outside City Hall in Seattle, Aug. 18, 2018.  (Associated Press)

One person on the gun-rights side, sporting a Donald Trump hat, was treated for an injury at the scene. A police spokesman told the Seattle Times that a total of three men were arrested for misdemeanor assault.
As tensions mounted, additional police arrived, including some in riot gear. Bicycle officers lined up their bikes as a type of moving barrier to keep protesters from entering the street.
The gun-control initiative would expand background checks, raise the age for people buying semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, and create standards for safely storing firearms.
On Friday a judge threw out 300,000 signatures necessary to put the initiative on the November ballot on the grounds that it did not meet election-law requirements. The Alliance for Gun Responsibility, the group behind the proposal, has appealed the motion.
Saturday’s protest came two weeks after police in riot gear in Portland, Ore., tried to keep right-wing and left-wing groups apart. The effort mostly succeeded, but police were accused of being heavy-handed, prompting the city's new police chief to order a review of officers' use of force.