Omar, Tlaib say critics charge 'anti-Semitism' against them as way to end debate over Israel's policies (BS)

Both are Muslims.

Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., left, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. (Associated Press)

Two outspoken freshmen congressional Democrats appeared at a progressive town hall this week, where they accused some of their Jewish colleagues of leveling anti-Semitism charges following their criticisms of Israel in order to shut down any debate over that U.S. ally's policies.
Speaking at the Busboys and Poets restaurant in Washington, U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan also touched on a variety of other issues.
“It is about the Benjamins!,” an audience member shouted at one point, referring to Omar’s now-deleted tweet linking U.S. congressional support for Israel to Jewish influence and lobbying. She apologized after a firestorm of criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.
“I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK to push for allegiance to a foreign country,” Omar stated afterward, according to New York magazine.
Omar, 37, an immigrant from Somalia, and Tlaib, 42, a Palestinian-American from Detroit, have been criticized since taking office in January over their comments about Israel, support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and remarks that some have deemed anti-Semitic.
Tlaib in January was accused of invoking an anti-Semitic slur when she criticized legislation designed to punish companies that participate in the BDS movement, which aims to pressure Israel through economic means.
The moderator began the discussion by asking what “we as a community here can do to support you criticizing Israel for some of the war crimes that it has done so that it’s not seen as ‘you’re anti-Semitic’? Because you’re not criticizing the religion, you’re not criticizing Jewish people, you’re criticizing the government policies,” according to Jewish Insider.
“What I’m fearful of — because Rashida and I are Muslim — that a lot of our Jewish colleagues, a lot of our constituents, a lot of our allies, go to thinking that everything we say about Israel to be anti-Semitic because we are Muslim,” Omar said.
“To me, it’s something that becomes designed to end the debate because you get in this space of – yes, I know what intolerance looks like and I’m sensitive when someone says, ‘The words you used Ilhan, are resemblance of intolerance.’ And I am cautious of that and I feel pained by that," she continued. "But it’s almost as if, every single time we say something -- regardless of what it is we say -- … we get to be labeled something and that ends the discussion. Because we end up defending that and nobody ever gets to have the broader debate of what is happening with Palestine.”

"It’s almost as if, every single time we say something -- regardless of what it is we say -- … we get to be labeled something and that ends the discussion.
— U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

Omar elaborated that she doesn’t equate her Jewish colleagues' criticism of Palestinians as Islamophobic and that longtime members of Congress fought against apartheid in South Africa but still turn against her and Tlaib when they bring up support for Palestinians.
“So I know many [members of Congress] were fighting for people to be free, for people to live in dignity in South Africa… So I know that they care about these things. But now that you have two Muslims who are saying, here is a group of people that we want to make sure that they have the dignity that you want everybody else to have, we get to be called names and we get to be labeled as hateful. No, we know what hate looks like!”
The restaurant made news when a waitress was given a $450 tip on a $72.60 bill by a group of Trump supporters following his inauguration.

Cuomo appeals to Bezos to bring Amazon back to NYC: report

It may be more proof that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn’t the darling of all Democrats in New York.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., has reportedly penned a full-page letter to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as he clings to hope that he can win back the tech giant and lure it to New York City, where it recently scrapped plans to build a second headquarters campus, a report said Thursday.
AMAZON PULLS OUT OF PLAN TO BUILD NYC HEADQUARTERS AFTER BACKLASH
The open letter, signed in support by more than 70 unions and politicians, including former Mayor David Dinkins, urged Bezos and Amazon executives to reconsider its decision to pull out of the project, the New York Times reported. The letter, paid for by the Partnership for New York City, was set to appear in Friday’s edition of the Times.
“We know the public debate that followed the announcement of the Long Island City project was rough and not very welcoming,” the letter reads. “But when we commit to a project as important as this, we figure out how to get it done in a way that works for everyone.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., has reached out to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in a plea to win back the tech company, a report said Thursday. (Associated Press)

Amazon pulled out of the deal early last month after facing harsh, vocal opposition from several of the state’s lawmakers, most notably from freshman congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez. Criticism included tax breaks and subsidies worth up to $3 billion for the company and the potential for rising real estate costs in the area.
The letter went on to state that Cuomo “will take personal responsibility for the project’s state approval,” and Mayor Bill de Blasio “will work together with the governor to manage the community development process.”
Cuomo and de Blasio were largely responsible for helping bring Amazon to New York in a deal that would have seen 25,000 jobs, paying approximately $150,000 per year enter Long Island City. To some, it appeared to be a remarkable collaboration by two Democrats who rarely seem to get along.
According to a December Quinnipiac University poll, 57 percent of New York City residents support Amazon’s arrival in the region, compared to just 26 percent who oppose the deal, Fox Business previously reported.
Cuomo has also reached out to Bezos directly by phone since the deal fell through, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“I’ve had many conversations with Amazon. I hope that they reconsider,” Cuomo said Thursday at an unrelated event on Long Island, the paper reported.
But the governor added that Amazon has yet to show any signs it has changed its mind, according to the paper.
Fox News' Chris Ciaccia contributed to this report.

Ocasio-Cortez warns of 'list' for moderate Dems who vote with Republicans: report

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., listens to questioning of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, at the House Oversight and Reform Committee. (Associated Press)

After more than two dozen moderate Democrats broke from their party's progressive wing and sided with Republicans on a legislative amendment Wednesday, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reportedly sounded the alarm in a closed-door meeting Thursday and said those Democrats were "putting themselves on a list."
The legislation that prompted the infighting was a bill that would expand federal background checks for gun purchases, the Washington Post reported. But a key provision requiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be notified if illegal immigrants attempt to purchase guns saw 26 moderate Democrats side with Republicans.
According to the Post, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scolded her wayward center-leaning colleagues, telling them: "We are either a team or we’re not, and we have to make that decision.”
But Ocasio-Cortez reportedly took it a step further. She said she would help progressive activists unseat those moderates in their districts in the 2020 elections, the report said. Her spokesman Corbin Trent told the paper that she made the "list" comment during the meeting.
“She said that when activists ask her why she had to vote for a gun safety bill that also further empowers an agency that forcibly injects kids with psychotropic drugs, they’re going to want a list of names and she’s going to give it to them,” Trent said, referring to ICE.

Michael Cohen Cartoons

Under hyperpartisan questioning, did Michael Cohen damage Trump?

Michael Cohen came to Capitol Hill with a double-barreled message: He is "ashamed" of what he did for Donald Trump and here are all the terrible things the president has done.
With his words being carried by the broadcast networks as well as cable outlets, Cohen repeatedly clashed with Republicans who assailed him as a liar and crook, while Democrats tried to draw out his allegations for maximum impact.
The president's former lawyer mostly maintained his composure, though he angrily pushed back at a couple of GOP members of the House Oversight Committee who aggressively attacked him. At one point he emotionally denounced the critical lawmakers for using the same untruthful tactics that he employed for a decade in protecting Trump.
The bottom line: the daylong extravaganza probably did little to change the minds of Trump supporters who view him as a pathetic convicted criminal, or Trump opponents who view him as a reformed sinner now shining a light on the president's dark deeds.
He said he had no evidence of Russian collusion, but did paint the president as a con man who made racist statements, approved hush money payments and was told in advance by Roger Stone about the Wikileaks dump of Democratic emails (quickly denied by Stone).
Among the surprises: Cohen says he has been offered book deals, TV deals, and a movie option, but hasn't taken any of them, since he's headed off for prison. Some also aimed their firepower at Clinton loyalist Lanny Davis for representing Cohen, who said Davis is not being paid for his services. Cohen also lashed out at Trump for tweets about his family, saying the president was trying to "intimidate" him in the hope that "something bad will happen" to him, his wife or his children.
To say this was a highly negative portrait of the man he loyally served as "fixer" is an understatement. But it's also fair to say that with the exception of the disputed call from Stone, Cohen brought no bombshell charge.
The president's role in reimbursing Cohen for paying Stormy Daniels is significant, but that had already come out. His recollection of Trump disparaging "s---hole" countries run by black leaders was reported in a different context.
Cohen said he assumed that Don Jr. was referring to the infamous Trump Tower session when he whispered to his dad that an unspecified meeting was on, but had no proof.
Then there was the other Trump Tower, the one that was to be built in Moscow. Cohen said the president kept asking him about it and lied about his lack of knowledge. But that story, too, has been reported.
Cohen's assertion that Trump had him threaten schools not to release the boss's grades may be embarrassing, but is hardly high crimes and misdemeanors.
And then there was the question of whether the president told him to lie to Congress, as reported by BuzzFeed in a story that prompted a denial from Robert Mueller's office.
"Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That's not how he operates," Cohen said. Instead, he said, "Mr. Trump had made clear to me, through his personal statements to me that we both knew were false and through his lies to the country, that he wanted me to lie."
Ranking member Jim Jordan, the most aggressive Republican, asked why Cohen didn't have Lanny Davis deny the BuzzFeed account when he appeared on television that day.
"Because I didn't think it was his responsibility to do that," Cohen said. "We are not the fact checkers for Buzzfeed."
When Cohen felt that Jordan was unfairly disputing his account of the charge to which he had pleaded guilty, the witness briefly looked unnerved and declared, "Shame on you!"
The GOP denunciations of Cohen and the hearing itself grew repetitive as the day wore on. At one point, Chris Christie said on ABC, "There hasn't been one Republican yet who's tried to defend the president on the substance."
In one of the more surreal moments, there was even a Democratic question about the mythical pee tape, with Cohen saying he has no reason to believe it exists.
Before Cohen's testimony began, the president weighed in from Vietnam, saying "he was just disbarred by the state Supreme Court for lying & fraud. He did bad things unrelated to Trump. He is lying in order to reduce his prison time."
The bottom line: Trump's image definitely got scuffed up yesterday, but by a guy who had soiled his own reputation. I don't think the ball moved very much.

Trump abruptly cuts short North Korea summit after dispute over sanctions: 'Sometimes you have to walk'

President Trump abruptly walked away from negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam and headed back to Washington on Thursday afternoon, saying the U.S. is unwilling to meet Kim's demand of lifting all sanctions on the rogue regime without first securing its meaningful commitment to denuclearization.
Trump, speaking in Hanoi, Vietnam, told reporters he had asked Kim to do more regarding his intentions to denuclearize, and “he was unprepared to do that.”
“Sometimes you have to walk,” Trump said at a solo press conference following the summit.
Trump specifically said negotiations fell through after the North demanded a full removal of U.S.-led international sanctions in exchange for the shuttering of the North's Yongbyon nuclear facility. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that the United States wasn't willing to make a deal without the North committing to giving up its secretive nuclear facilities outside Yongbyon, as well as its missile and warheads program.
“It was about the sanctions,” Trump said. “Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that. They were willing to denuke a large portion of the areas that we wanted, but we couldn’t give up all of the sanctions for that.”
"I'd much rather do it right than do it fast," Trump added, echoing his remarks from earlier in the day, when he insisted that "speed" was not important. "We're in position to do something very special."
Both leaders motorcades roared away from the downtown Hanoi summit site within minutes of each other after both a lunch and the signing ceremony were scuttled. Trump's closing news conference was moved up, and he departed for Washington on Air Force One several hours ahead of schedule.

"Sometimes you have to walk."
— President Trump on his dealings with North Korea

The president said he trusted Kim's promise that he would not resume nuclear and missile testing, but that the current U.S. sanctions would stay in place.

President Trump and Kim Jong Un failed to reach an agreement on denuclearization. (Associated Press)

“No agreement was reached at this time, but their respective teams look forward to meeting in the future,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement prior to Trump's press conference.
Regardless, Sanders described the meetings between Trump and Kim as “very good and constructive.”
As for a potential third summit, Trump remained noncommittal.
Kim had signaled during an earlier, unprecedented question-and-answer session with reporters that he is "ready to denuclearize," reaffirming a commitment long sought by the Trump administration and the international community.
“If I’m not willing to do that, I won’t be here right now,” Kim said through an interpreter.
"That's a good answer," Trump replied.

President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un take a walk after their first meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, in Hanoi. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, in Hanoi. At front right is Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief. At left is national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, second from left. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Trump and Kim signed a document during last year's summit in Singapore agreeing to work toward the "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," but tensions have since flared between the two nations, and North Korea later said it would not remove its nuclear weapons unless the U.S. first reduced its own nuclear threat.
A working lunch was supposed to get underway between the two leaders in Vietnam on Thursday afternoon, after a whirlwind day on Capitol Hill that threatened to steal the spotlight from the second major summit between the two leaders. But neither Trump nor Kim showed up.
Earlier, history appeared to have been made when Kim answered questions from a foreign journalist -- almost certainly for the first time ever.
Asked by a member of the White House press pool about his outlook for Thursday's summit, Kim said: "It's too early to say. I won't make predictions. But I instinctively feel that a good outcome will be produced."
South Korea's Unification Ministry, which deals in affairs with North Korea, couldn't confirm whether it was the first time Kim answered a question from a foreign journalist.
Asked if he was willing to allow the U.S. to open an office in Pyongyang, Kim said through a translator, "I think that is something which is welcomable."
Reporters didn't get opportunities to ask questions of Kim during his three summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his four meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Kim ignored questions shouted at him during his first summit with Trump last June in Singapore.
Trump, speaking next to Kim at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel, said that "a lot of great ideas" are "being thrown about." He asserted that "when you have a good relationship, a lot of good things happen."
"I just want to say: I have great respect for Chairman Kim, and I have great respect for his country," Trump told reporters as he sat at a table across from Kim in Hanoi. "And I believe it will be something -- hard to compete with for other countries. It has such potential."
Kim, meanwhile, said the "whole world" was watching the talks and suggested that, for some, the image of the two "sitting side by side" must resemble "a fantasy movie."

People watch a TV screen showing U.S. President Donald Trump's press conference, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019. The nuclear summit between President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un collapsed Thursday after the two sides failed to reach a deal due to a standoff over U.S. sanctions on the reclusive nation, a stunning end to high-stakes meetings meant to disarm a global threat. The signs read: " Trump talks with North Korea about denuclearization." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Trump added that while reaching a lasting agreement was critical, "speed is not important." The two leaders then retired to begin their negotiations privately, but were photographed shortly afterward walking on the Metropole hotel's pool patio, where they were joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean official Kim Yong Chol.
The group then went into a glass-enclosed area and sat down around a table for more talks.
Last year, at the Singapore summit, Trump caught U.S. ally South Korea off guard by announcing the suspension of major U.S. military exercises with the South. Trump critics said he squandered critical U.S. leverage before the North had taken any concrete steps toward denuclearization.
For his part, Moon Jae-in said he plans to offer new proposals for inter-Korean engagement following the high-stakes nuclear summit. Moon's announcement is planned for a Friday ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of a 1919 uprising by Koreans against Japan's colonial rule and will likely include plans for economic cooperation between the rival Koreas.

President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One after a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, in Hanoi. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

It was widely presumed that Trump made the decision during his private talks with Kim — his description of the war games as "very provocative" seemed to be in line with North Korea's view of the drills as rehearsals for invasions. Both Washington and Seoul have insisted for years that the exercises were routine and defensive in nature.
Bong Young-shik, an analyst at Seoul's Yonsei University, was less worried, saying that the criticism Trump faced in Singapore could make him less likely to make huge, impulsive decisions during his private meetings with Kim this time around.
"There's always a certain level of risk in this kind of meeting, but it's hard to say Trump will be dragged into a decision by Kim just because of what happened in Singapore," Bong said.
Former President Barack Obama was known to occasionally hold impromptu chats with leaders on the sidelines of major global summits with only their interpreters at their sides.
At former President Ronald Reagan's first meeting with then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva in November 1985, the two men met alone with only trusted interpreters. Only 15 minutes had been allotted for the discussion, but it went on for an hour.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Kamala Harris ‘mischaracterized’ past SF policy on undocumented minors, CNN says

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., listens to a question at a campaign event in Portsmouth, N.H., Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. (Associated Press)

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris “mischaracterized” a 2008 San Francisco policy regarding undocumented minors when she participated in a CNN podcast earlier this week, the network asserted Wednesday.
Harris -- a California Democrat who is seeking the party's 2020 presidential nomination -- made the comments while speaking to an audience in Iowa on Sunday on “Political Party Live,” the network reported.
According to CNN, host Misty Rebik asked Harris about a past report by the network that claimed Harris backed a San Francisco policy of reporting arrests of undocumented juveniles to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Harris responded by saying the notification of ICE was an “unintended consequence” of the city policy, enacted by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom. (Newsom is now governor of California, while Harris is a U.S. senator after being the district attorney of San Francisco from 2004-2011 and then attorney general of California from 2011-2017.)
CNN reported Wednesday, however, that the ICE-notification component was part of the policy itself, not an “unintended consequence.”
Ian Sams, a spokesman for Harris, responded to the network’s assertion that Harris had “mischaracterized” the matter.
"As Governor Newsom has said, the initial policy was intended to protect the sanctuary status of San Francisco, which Senator Harris has always supported and defended," Sams said in a statement. "We have said this policy should have been done differently, but as Senator, Harris is focused on protecting Dreamers, fighting this president's attempts to build a vanity project on the southern border, exercising more oversight of ICE, reforming our immigration system with a path to citizenship, and reuniting families separated by this administration. Those will be her priorities should she be elected president."
The question of whether city police departments will alert federal immigration authorities about undocumented immigrants who are charged with crimes has been a focus of the “sanctuary cities” debate between liberal-leaning cities and the Trump administration.
Last March, Harris contended that ICE officials were potentially overstepping their authority by pursuing illegal immigrants who pose no safety threat to the public.
Thomas Homan, who was then acting director of ICE, responded by saying, “We're not abusing our authority, we are enforcing the law."
After Newsom left the mayor's job in 2011, his successor changed the policy so that police would report to ICE only unaccompanied juvenile undocumented immigrants who were arrested, the report said. Then two years later San Francisco passed an ordinance that blocked ICE from receiving any information about people under arrest, except in limited circumstances.

Trump 'impressed' that Cohen told House panel he saw no collusion between campaign, Russia

President Trump, speaking in Vietnam on Thursday after the abrupt end of his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, said he was actually “impressed” with his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who told a U.S. House panel grilling him Wednesday that there was no collusion between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia.
But Cohen told members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee that while he didn't know of "direct evidence" of improper collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, he had his “suspicions.”
Trump, responding to a question about Cohen’s hearing from ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, said that he thought the Cohen hearing could have been held a few days after his second summit with Kim and that Cohen “lied a lot” but didn’t “lie about one thing.”
“I was actually impressed that he didn’t say, ‘Well, I think there was collusion,’” Trump said. "He said ‘no collusion.’ I was impressed by that.”
Other than that, Trump said Cohen’s performance at the hearing was “pretty shameful.”
Cohen told the committee members he was aware of a Trump adviser’s talks with WikiLeaks about stolen Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 campaign and alleged that as Trump's personal attorney for 10 years he oversaw an array of illicit schemes.
“He is a racist. He is a conman. And he is a cheat,” Cohen testified, setting the tone for the hearing. After outlining numerous alleged misdeeds by Trump, Cohen expressed regret and repeated the refrain, “yet I continued to work for him.”
Fox News’ Alex Pappas contributed to this report.