2 convicted Democrats seek political office while behind bars

Ron Reynolds, a sitting Texas state representative running for another term behind bars, is expected to be re-elected since nobody is opposing him. (Ron Reynolds)

Two Democrats are running for a political office despite being behind bars, with one of them expected to win in Texas and celebrate in jail.
Ron Reynolds, a sitting Texas state representative, is running for another term. He is expected to win because nobody is opposing him.
He’s a disbarred Missouri City personal injury lawyer convicted in 2015 on multiple misdemeanor charges for illegally soliciting people to his law practice, KPRC-TV reported.
He was sentenced to a year in jail but later released on an appellate bond. But last month, the appeal was rejected and Reynolds had to return to jail.

Texas State rep. Ron Reynolds

The Texas state law doesn’t prohibit individuals with misdemeanor convictions to run for office.
The convicted Texas lawmaker boasts of being supported by Democratic Senate Hopeful Beto O’Rourke, who’s trying to unseat Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. He even appeared in a campaign ad with O'Rourke, KPRC-TV reported. O’Rourke’s campaign didn’t distance from the lawmaker and said they trust the electorate.
Reynolds denies that being in jail would interfere with his day-to-day job as a lawmaker, despite expecting to be detained when the state Congress commences in January.
“Rep. Reynolds has full confidence that his experienced staff will be able to handle any immediate needs of his constituents, during his 4-6 month absence,” read the statement from Reynolds, the Texas Tribune reported last month.

A photo from the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office shows Steven Lamar Foster, Democratic candidate for Congress in Georgia's 14th District. (Whitfield County Sheriff's Office)

Steve Foster is a Georgia Democrat running for U.S. Congress, but he may not be what the party regards as part of the “blue wave” of Democratic candidates.
The former doctor was arrested last year for driving under influence and shouted “I hate this country” during the arrest, WSB-TV reported. He was sentenced last summer and is spending six months in county jail.
Foster seeks to unseat Republican Rep. Tom Graves, a popular lawmaker in Georgia’s 14th District who won with 75 percent of the vote in 2012.
But that doesn’t discourage Foster from continuing to run the campaign. “Look, I’m not withdrawing,” he recently told the Associated Press.

Hillary Clinton gets asked ‘painfully scripted’ questions on Colbert: report

A segment featuring Hillary Clinton aired on Friday's 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.'  ('Late Show' Twitter)

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" on Friday and was lobbed 'painfully scripted questions' and gave 'painfully scripted answers' during a segment called 'Just One Question," Mediaite reported.
Colbert, the host, said his staffers get excited when someone as knowledgeable as Clinton is in the building, so he gave them the OK to ask the former presidential hopeful a single question. The segment was edited and the workers were asked in various locations around the building. Clinton was inside a studio.
One assistant asked Clinton what her proudest moment was while she served as secretary of state. Clinton responded that it was working with U.S. diplomats.
A writer asked if she preferred 'The Rock' or Vin Diesel -- giving her an opportunity to showcase her knowledge about the characters in "Fast and Furious."
"What a tough question," she says. "The "Fast and Furious" movies prove that both are masters of high-octane action."
The audience laughs.
"And while 'The Rock' is an indispensable part of the later films, Vin Diesel is really the heart at the center of the Toretto family, and in the end, everyone is better off to look past what divides them and work together. You know, I like to say, stronger together."
The writer appeared to be happy with her answer and said, "You're a smart lady."
The audience laughed.
"Stronger Together" was a book written by Clinton and her former running mate Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
Clinton was asked if she'd make a prediction on the 2020 election and said she joked, saying she'd save that insight for her upcoming book, "What Will Happen: A Book of Predictions: Hillary Clinton and Paul the Psychic Octopus."
Her appearance on the friendly show may be another sign that she intends on staying relevant prior to 2020.
A longtime Clinton adviser is hinting that she may have one more presidential run brewing -- a statement greeted with glee from the White House.
"It's somewhere between highly unlikely and zero," Philippe Reines told Politico about the possibility that Clinton runs again in 2020, "but it's not zero."

Protesters greet Pelosi with expletives during Florida campaign stop

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was confronted during a campaign stop in Coral Gables, Fla., on Wednesday, with protesters cursing at her and calling her a communist.
The incident was caught on camera, showing Pelosi calmly entering Florida Democratic House candidate Donna Shalala’s headquarters as she gets surrounded by the protesters. She did not engage with them.
“Look at Nancy Pelosi right here – f---ing communist. Get the f--- out of here. F--- you and your f--king Democrats,” the protesters shouted in both English and Spanish while carrying anti-communist signs.
“You don’t belong here,” one person was also heard yelling. “Socialism sucks,” said another.
GRAPHIC LANGUAGE
The video of the confrontation was uploaded on YouTube and titled “Nancy Pelosi was heckled at a Miami Restaurant by Trump Supporting Cuban Americans,” but it actually occurred outside the campaign stop for Shalala, The Washington Post reported.
The protest was organized by Nelson Diaz, the chairman of the Republican Party in Miami-Dade County, the Post reported. Some protesters reportedly wore signs of Proud Boys, a notorious right-wing group that is often accused of participating in violent scuffles with their opposition.
FLORIDA DEM CANDIDATE UNDER FIRE FOR EVENT INVITING REP WHO PRAISED CASTRO
The protest was in response to Pelosi attending an event with Shalala that was also supposed to feature California Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee, a liberal lawmaker who drew the fury from the local Cuban community for praising the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Lee once said after Castro’s death that “we need to stop and pause and mourn his loss,” and called it “very sad for the Cuban people.”
Shalala’s campaign eventually dropped Lee after the outcry and the event included just Pelosi.
The hostile episode, which followed months of public harassment of mostly GOP lawmakers, drew bipartisan condemnation.
“I don’t agree with Nancy Pelosi’s agenda, but this is absolutely the wrong way to express those disagreements,” tweeted Republican Rep. Steve Scalise, who last year was seriously wounded after a shooting at a congressional baseball team practice. “If you want to stop her policies, don’t threaten her, VOTE! That’s how we settle our differences.”
A spokesman for Pelosi, Drew Hammill, told the Post that Republicans and President Trump are responsible for inciting such mob behavior.
“It is deeply sad but unsurprising that we now see that ugliness rearing its head,” she said. “It is stunning that Republicans have the gall to call courageous survivors of sexual assault a ‘mob’, at the same time they incite and condone violent actions like this. Republicans must condemn this vile and dangerous conduct, and stop the reckless and dangerous rhetoric that encourages it."

Bernie Sanders Cartoons

Trump praises 'tough cookie' Montana rep who 'body slammed' reporter last year, urges voters to 'never forget Benghazi'

President Trump hosted his third wide-ranging rally of the midterm season in Montana on Thursday night, where he urged voters to "never forget Benghazi" and praised Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte, who pleaded guilty to body slamming a reporter last year, as a "tough cookie."

Only three other sitting presidents have ever visited Missoula, where between 6,000 and 8,000 people were attending the event at the Minuteman Aviation hangar, according to The Misssoulian.
"I love these hangars," Trump said at the opening of the rally, as the crowd chanted "USA!" He continued: "I love a hangar. There's nothing like a hangar. You get out of the plane, you walk over, and you have massive crowds." Later, Trump remarked repeatedly that he was underneath a "beautiful, beautiful, big sky."
He quickly turned to Gianforte, advising the crowd: "Never wrestle him. Any guy that can do a body slam, he's my kind of guy."
Gianforte, who is running against Democrat Kathleen Williams, was required to undergo anger management classes for pummeling Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs the day before his election. He was sentenced to community service and fined $385 last year.

"Never wrestle him. Any guy that can do a body slam, he's my kind of guy."
— President Trump on Rep. Greg Gianforte

Trump continued: "I shouldn't say this -- it's nothing to be embarrassed about. I was in Rome with a lot of the leaders of other countries ... and I heard about it, and we endorsed Greg very early, but I had heard that he had body slammed a reporter. And he was way up, and I said, and this was the day of the election or just before -- 'This is terrible, he's going to lose the election.' And then I said, 'Wait a minute, I know Montana pretty well. I think it might help him.' And it did. He's a great guy. Tough cookie."
The president also took aim at his opponent in the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton, criticizing her for her email practices and telling the crowd to "Never Forget Benghazi."
His comments came days after a federal judge excoriated the State Department for "lying" by presenting the court with "clearly false" affidavits documenting their review of Clinton's emails and communications concerning the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
A State Department lawyer acknowledged that the government's review of the materials could be considered inadequate.
'SHOCKED', 'DUMBFOUNDED' FEDERAL JUDGE UNLOADS ON STATE DEPARTMENT LAWYER OVER CLINTON PROBE 'LIE'
With just weeks until the pivotal midterm elections, the president was primarily seeking to convince Montana to replace his longtime bitter rival, incumbent Sen. Democratic Jon Tester, with GOP state auditor Matt Rosendale. But his rally was also part of his long-running effort to help preserve Republicans' tenuous holds on the Senate and House of Representatives.
"This will be an election of Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order, and common sense," Trump said, referring to his successful Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh and a Central American migrant caravan approaching the U.S. border with Mexico.
U.S. and Mexican officials have agreed on a plan to handle the caravan, a senior administration official told Fox News on Thursday.
"I just want to thank the Mexican government because they're stopping it hopefully before it even gets to Mexico," Trump said to applause. "As you know, I'm willing to send the military to defend our southern border if necessary, all caused by the illegal immigration onslaught brought by the Democrats because they refuse to acknowledge or change the laws. And they figure everyone who's coming in is going to vote Democrat."
"I have caused the problem," Trump went on. "Because I have created such an incredible economy, I have created so many jobs. I have made this country, with you, so great, that everybody wants to come in. So they're all pouring in -- or trying to."
Losing one or both chambers in November's midterm elections, Trump himself has warned, could not only compromise border security and complicate his legislative agenda -- which top Republicans recently said might include another attempt at fully repealing ObamaCare -- but also empower Democrats to open a series of investigations and potentially even impeachment proceedings.
Trump emphasized that possibility in a previous rally in Montana just last month.
"I don't even bring it up," Trump told the crowd. "Because I view it as something that, you know, they like to use the impeach word. Impeach Trump. Maxine Waters, 'We will impeach him.' But he didn't do anything wrong. 'It doesn't matter, we will impeach him. We will impeach.' But I say, how do you impeach somebody that's doing a great job that hasn't done anything wrong?"
DEMS POISED TO MAKE HISTORIC IMPEACHMENT PUSH AFTER MIDTERMS
Fox News currently rates the Senate race in Montana, a state Trump won over Hillary Clinton by double digits in 2016, as lean Democrat -- and in the final weeks of the campaign season, there are renewed signs that Trump has made it his personal mission to push the state back into the Republicans' column.
Earlier this year, Trump called for Tester’s resignation for his role in torpedoing Dr. Ronny Jackson's nomination to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Jackson had been besieged by unproven and disputed allegations compiled by Tester’s office concerning his prescription-drug practices and use of alcohol. (Tester is the top Democrat on the Republican-controlled Senate Veteran Affairs Committee.)
The president repeated that line of attack this week, saying that Tester had treated Jackson more unfairly than Democrats who fiercely opposed Kavanaugh's nomination. Democrats promoted a series of uncorroborated sexual misconduct and rape accusations against the then-nominee.
"Ever since his vicious and totally false statements about Admiral Ron Jackson, the highly respected White House Doctor for Obama, Bush & me, Senator John Tester looks to be in big trouble in the Great State of Montana!" Trump wrote on Twitter Wednesday. "He behaved worse than the Democrat Mob did with Justice K!"
At Thursday's rally, Trump simply called Tester "disgraceful" and accused him of leading a "mob" to unfairly destroy Jackson's reputation.
JON TESTER CAMPAIGNS ON HUNTING, BUT HASN'T HAD HUNTING LICENSE IN SIX YEARS
"Tester said things about him that were a disgrace," Trump said, adding that "a series of lies" had ultimately derailed Jackson. He compared Jackson to Kavanaugh, saying both men were respected and had been wrongly maligned.
"The only thing keeping Tester's campaign alive, are millions and millions and millions of dollars from outside liberals and radical leftists who couldn't care less about Montana," Trump said. He added that Tester opposed his tax bill and wants "open borders."
He added that his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, was "so cool you wouldn't believe it" during a mid-flight scare this week, when smoke filled the cabin of her military jet.
Trump wrapped up the event by mocking Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren for "making a fool out of herself" by releasing the results of a disputed DNA test she claimed proved she likely had a recent Native American ancestor.
ANALYSIS: ELIZABETH WARREN'S DNA TEST IS A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
"She has so little Indian blood -- she has none -- that I can no longer call her Pocahontas," Trump taunted.
Thursday's rally comes two days after the Marine Corps veteran who served as Montana's GOP chairman from 2009 to 2015 warned potential protesters on Facebook that Trump supporters tend to carry guns.

"All you protesters ... This is a concealed and open carry state, and we know how to use em."
— Fmr. Montana GOP chair Will Deschamps

“Also all you protesters, show up as well," the former state Republican chairman, Will Deschamps, wrote on the social media site. "This is a concealed and open carry state and we know how to use em."
He ended his message by noting that he is “USMC trained,” referring to his military service.
Trump has held more than two dozen rallies to benefit GOP candidates, and more than 350 rallies since beginning his presidential bid in 2015.
Trump's campaign has said it is paying all the bills for the rallies, including the costs of fueling and using Air Force One to ferry the president and his staff to and from the events.
The billionaire businessman can apparently afford it, and then some: New filings with the Federal Election Commission show Trump's campaign has already hauled in more than $100 million for his 2020 reelection effort, an unprecedented sum that owes to his early start on the campaign trail.
Thursday's rally was Trump's first stop in a three-date tour of western states that will include Arizona and Nevada.

While ripping Trump, media and Hollywood rush to cut ties to Saudis

The media and political criticism of President Trump for his handling of the crisis with Saudi Arabia is growing louder.
And I understand why his approach — slow it down, wait and see, we do a lot of business with the Saudis — is upsetting those who are outraged about the apparently gruesome murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi.
But the larger picture is that a whole lot of important people in this country have gotten cozy with the Saudis, despite their horrendous record on human rights and the treatment of women.
From Washington to Los Angeles, they have engaged in the typical rationalizations for representing a sleazy regime, as long as the oil money kept the coffers full.
And now, with the kingdom unable to explain why Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and never walked out, many of them are embarrassed.
The giant Hollywood firm Endeavor is giving the Saudis back a $400 million investment, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The CEO, Ari Emanuel, brother of Rahm, made the decision to return the dough, provided by a Saudi investment fund overseen by Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince who is suspected of either approving or acquiescing in the hit squad dispatched to deal with Khashoggi.
But Emanuel did this under pressure from high-profile clients of the company's WME agency, which represents such journalists as Ronan Farrow, Mika Brzezinski, Chris Matthews, and Scott Pelley. "Had Endeavor kept the money," the story says, "it likely would have led to departures."
The company declined to comment, but Farrow tweeted: "This was absolutely the right thing to do and I'm glad Ari Emanuel addressed it quickly."
Other Hollywood outfits still doing business with the Saudis include AMC, Imax and World Wrestling Entertainment, which either had no comment or say they're "monitoring the situation" — corporate-speak for doing nothing unless the pressure gets to be too great.
The administration made headlines when it pulled Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin from next week's big-deal Saudi investment conference. But under this harsh spotlight, lots of major media organizations are bailing as well. These include the owner of the L.A. Times, the CEO of Viacom and CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin.
What's more, CNN, CNBC, the New York Times, Bloomberg and Financial Ties have all withdrawn as sponsors of the conference. Those kinds of partnerships are what has lent the Saudi regime a sheen of respectability over the years.
And then there are the Beltway lobbyists.
Three major firms — the Glover Park Group, the Harbour Group and the BGR Group — have ended agreements they had to represent the kingdom. Those contracts were worth a combined $3.7 million.
But the Saudis, who spend $6 million a year on lobbying and promotion, still have deals with the likes of the blue-chip firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and the McKeon Group, headed by former House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon.
The Washington Post yesterday devoted its entire op-ed page to Khashoggi's final column. In recalling that a Saudi friend has been jailed for five years for "supposed comments contrary to the Saudi establishment," Khashoggi wrote that "Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate."
Those are chilling words. And the question for the president, the media companies, the lobbyists and others who deal with Saudi Arabia is whether much will change once the Khashoggi controversy inevitably fades.

‘Fantastic’ Beto O’Rourke gets endorsement from former Mexican President Vicente Fox

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox endorsed Beto O'Rourke in the Texas Senate race in a Twitter video on Thursday. (Twitter)

Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico who famously said his country will not (expletive) pay for President Trump’s proposed border wall on Thursday announced his support for the "great American” and “fantastic” Democratic Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke.
“Wow! What a candidate! What a man! Beto, you are fantastic,” Fox said in a video posted to Twitter. “You’re great! You’re an all-American.”
With just a few weeks left before the midterm elections, O’Rourke is in a tight race with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
Fox, who served as Mexico’s president from 2000 to 2006, has openly voiced his discontent for Trump and his immigration policies – including the hotly debated wall along the southern border.
“I’ve been an opponent and resistant (of Trump) because I feel as part of this nation — I am part of this nation — and I don’t like what I’m seeing,” Fox said during a speech at Northwestern University on Tuesday night, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The former Mexican president praised O’Rourke as compassionate and intelligent who understands Americans, “but you also understand we are human beings.”
“You are the enlightenment for Texas and I hope every single Mexican, Latin, every Hispanic in that great state of Texas is going to vote for you,” Fox said. “You deserve it because you are going to respond to the hope and expectations of Texas, understanding what they need and understanding what America needs.”
O’Rourke has some catching-up to do if he hopes to be the first Democratic Senator in Texas since 1993.
A CNN poll released this week shows Cruz with a 7 percent edge over his Democratic challenger among likely voters, with only 9 percent of Texas voters saying they could change their mind about who to support.
One of O’Rourke’s challenges is that he is running against Cruz, a Cuban-American who has held the seat since 2013, in a state with a large Hispanic population.
The El Paso congressman is a fluent Spanish-language speaker, who occasionally sprinkles the language in his speeches and talks about inclusion and representing everyone.
“That means going to every county in Texas, but it also means listening and speaking in English y tambien en Espanol,” O’Rourke, a Democrat, said during a rally at Rice University last week.
A recent Quinnipiac poll shows Cruz leading the Senate race by 9 points, but O’Rourke holds a 24-point lead among Hispanic voters.
Texas has routinely ranked near the bottom for voter turnout, and census data shows only 40 percent of Hispanics voted during the 2016 presidential election.
Trump renewed his support for Cruz on Wednesday, saying the GOP senator “has done so much for Texas” and bashing opponent Beto O’Rourke as a “flake” after the candidates sparred in a feisty Senate debate.
Fox News' Madeleine Rivera contributed to this report.

Ocasio-Cortez refuses to endorse Bernie Sanders 2020 run

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic socialist congressional candidate who has spent weeks campaigning with fellow socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, on Thursday refused to endorse his prospective candidacy in the 2020 presidential race.
Ocasio-Cortez, 29, worked as an organizer for Sanders' failed presidential campaign in 2016 before winning in a surprise upset over longtime establishment Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., in the state's 14th Congressional District primary in May.
"She’ll see what the field looks like," Corbin Trent, Ocasio-Cortez’s communications director, said in an interview with Politico. "She’s focused on 2018, [Bernie’s] focused on 2018. We’re all focused on 2018."
For his part, the 77-year-old Sanders did not endorse Ocasio-Cortez's run against Crowley. And in August, former President Barack Obama, in turn, initially declined to endorse Ocasio-Cortez even after her stunning primary win, underscoring the challenges facing progressives campaigning to the left of the Democratic Party establishment in hopes of taking their views mainstream. (Obama endorsed her earlier this month.)
Despite the back-and-forth snubs, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have nonetheless teamed up in the past several months to tout socialist and far-left candidates throughout the country during the midterm season, to varying degrees of success.

"She’ll see what the field looks like."
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s comms director Corbin Trent

For example, socialist-backed candidates have prevailed in Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Washington. But Abdul El-Sayed, an avowed populist who was vying to be Michigan's first Muslim governor, finished nearly 20 percentage points behind establishment Democrat Gretchen Whitmer in the state's August primary, despite the backing of both high-profile socialists.
Also in August, Fayrouz Saad, who was angling to become the first Muslim woman elected to Congress, finished in a distant fourth place in Michigan's 11th Congressional District primary, despite support on the stump from Ocasio-Cortez.
Similarly, in Missouri, Rep. Lacy Clay soundly defeated far-left progressive Cori Bush. And in Hawaii in August, a fiscally conservative Democrat, Ed Case, took down 29-year-old Kaniela Ing, a democratic socialist who had Ocasio-Cortez's endorsement.
For Sanders, who has kept the door open on running again for the White House in 2020, the defeats were a continuation of his recent losing streak. Over the past two years, several candidates he has backed in several important races -- including in gubernatorial primaries in Virginia and Ohio, and in several House races in Iowa and New Jersey -- have come up short.
Some former Sanders staffers, meanwhile, have said in interviews they hope to find another torchbearer in 2020 for the Vermont senator's beliefs.
“All the former staff I’ve talked to agree Bernie should focus on making sure the nominee is someone who continues what he started,” Keegan Goudiss, Sanders’ former digital advertising director, told Politico. “It’s a sure thing that he will be able to influence 2020 from the outside. But if he decides to run, I doubt many former staffers will return unless directly asked to. Either way, he misses capturing energy if he doesn't decide soon.”
The magazine quoted several other former Sanders staffers with a similar perspective on Sanders' future, although some did say they would support him running again for the presidency.
One of those people, Sanders spokesman Jeff Weavers, who also ran his 2016 campaign, wrote a book published earlier this year titled “How Bernie Won."
“Bernie Sanders is an extremely energetic and vigorous person, and has more energy, I would say, than people half his age,” Weavers said in an interview, dismissing criticisms that Sanders would be too old to compete in 2020.
His book concludes: “Run, Bernie, Run!”