Pete Buttigieg slams Pence for work with Trump, asks how he ‘became a cheerleader for the porn star presidency’

Pete Buttigieg is the 37 -year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind.

Pete Buttigieg, the little-known 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., said in an interview Sunday that Vice President Mike Pence has in effect become a "cheerleader for the porn star presidency" and questioned aloud when the former Indiana governor "stopped believing in scripture" and started to believe in Trump.

The "porn star" reference is an apparent shot at Trump’s alleged extra-marital affair with the former porn star Stormy Daniels, which the president has denied. Buttigieg told CNN’s Jake Tapper in Austin that Pence's "interpretation" of scripture is different from his.

"My understanding of scripture is that it's about protecting the stranger and the prisoner and the poor person and that idea," he said. "That's what I get in the gospel when I'm at church and his has a lot more to do with sexuality ... and a certain view of rectitude."
Buttigieg, who is in the second tier of Democratic candidates for president, is a Rhodes scholar who was first elected mayor of his hometown in 2011 at age 29, making him the youngest mayor of a U.S. city with at least 100,000 residents. A lieutenant in the Navy Reserve, he served a tour in Afghanistan in 2014.
Buttigieg raised his national profile with an unsuccessful 2017 run for Democratic National Committee chairman, saying the party needed a new start. He withdrew from the race before a vote when it became clear he didn’t have the support to win.
Amid his campaign for a second term, Buttigieg came out as gay in a column in the local newspaper. He went on to win re-election with 80 percent of the vote. In 2018, three years to the day after the column ran, he married his husband, middle school teacher Chasten Glezman.
The Associated Press contributed to this report

NYC mayor seen flapping to R. Kelly’s ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ amid child abuse claims

Mayor de Blasio got himself into a real Space Jam on Sunday when he was caught on video flapping his arms to a version of R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly” while visiting a church in South Carolina.

An 18-second video shows de Blasio standing on the left side of the chapel as a female choir member belts out the refrain of the late 1990s mega-hit by the since-disgraced R&B superstar, who is facing sexual abuse charges tied to four underage victims.

The mayor moves his arms from front to back, then holds them out by his side and waves them up and down before clasping his hands.
“I wonder if the @NYCMayor realizes who sings this song,” tweeted NY1 reporter Courtney Gross, who captured the video.

VideoThe clip shows a sizeable number of women churchgoers remaining seated, despite the encouragement of their pastor, whose gestures appear to urge the congregation to stand up and join in. Kelly was indicted last month in Chicago on 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse against four underage victims between 1998 and 2010.In an email, de Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips insisted: “The Mayor wasn’t the church’s DJ and he certainly can’t be expected to recognize every R. Kelly track.”

“I Believe I Can Fly” was featured in the 1996 move “Space Jam,” which starred Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny in a combined live action/animated comic adventure at the peak of the legendary Chicago Bull’s playing career.
The movie grossed more than $250 million in global ticket sales, and “I Believe I Can Fly” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s “Hot R&B/Hip-Hop” chart and No. 2 on the “Hot 100.”
Aside from the linkage of the once revered song to the Kelly sex scandal de Blasio’s arm flapping also evoked imagery from critics who’ve likened the 6-foot-5 pol to various avian characters.
During the mayor’s 2017 re-election campaign, challenger Bo Dietl repeatedly derided him as “Big Bird,” while a 2015 profile in The Atlantic magazine said his “hooded eyes and dour countenance” was reminiscent of “Sam the Eagle, the Muppets’ harrumphing, censorious patriot.”

Omar's comments threaten to divide district's Somali, Jewish residents: reports

Last week, Thomas Friedman, the columnist for the New York Times penned a column about his obvious connection to Rep. Ilhan Omar, the newly elected firebrand from Minnesota’s Fifth District—a Democratic stronghold.
Friedman was raised there. He called the district a "crazy mix of Minnesota Jews (we called ourselves "the Frozen Chosen”)" that welcomed Somali refugees like the 37-year-old "a half-century later" and elected her to Congress.
The Washington Post reported that Somali refugees started to arrive in the state back in 1993 and, despite their cultural differences, these groups came together to work for the common good. But recent comments by Omar has reportedly strained the relationship in the community.
Omar Jamal, a Somali community activist, told the Post that he has been in touch with Jewish leaders after Omar's comments viewed by some as anti-Semitic. He supported her campaign but called her recent comments, "wrong, period," according to the report.
"This is up to Ilhan Omar," he said. "She has really spoken in a very dangerous way, and it’s going to be up to her to reach out to people and fix this."
The paper reported that one Jewish leader showed Omar a picture of a cousin who was killed in WWII and said that is why questioning dual loyalty is offensive.
Avi S. Olitzky, a senior rabbi in St. Louis Park, which is in the Fifth District, told The Star-Tribune that Omar’s comments have been a clear attack on the Jewish community.
Omar has apologized for her comments and has support from her Democratic colleagues. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised eyebrows on Friday when she said the congresswoman “doesn’t understand” that some of the words she uses are "fraught with meaning."
Omar – who filled the House seat that was held by Keith Ellison -- also took aim at former President Obama in an interview with Politico on Friday, saying his message of “hope” and “change” was a “mirage.”
"Recalling the ‘caging of kids’ at the U.S.-Mexico border and the ‘droning of countries around the world’ on Obama’s watch," Omar charged that Obama "operated within the same fundamentally broken framework as his Republican successor,” the piece read.
“We can’t be only upset with Trump… His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies," Omar reportedly said. "They just were more polished than he was."
Omar’s rhetoric has been embraced by some. Her proponents see her attack on AIPAC as bold. Amber Harris, a constituent, told the Star-Tribune that the attacks against Omar are unfair and “obscene.”
“She’s trying to change the Democratic Party to what I think it should be,” she said.
Friedman, for his part, pointed out in his column that he has a lot in common with Omar, but said his dislike of Aipac is based on that fact that it has “let itself become the slavish, unthinking tool of Netanyahu, who opposes a two-state solution, I believe Aipac works against Israel’s long-term interests.”
He wrote that evidence that he's seen suggests that Omar's dislike for Aipac is based on a dislike for Israel.
"Ilhan Omar represents, among other neighborhoods, a significant and liberal Jewish community — my hometown," he wrote. “I can tell you that a vast majority of Jews there would be proud if their congresswoman used her links to American Jews and Muslims to be a bridge builder for peace in the Middle East and America, not just another Aipac/Israel basher. She is young and very new to the national spotlight. Friends of mine back home tell me her humanistic instincts are impressive and authentic. I don’t know if it’s her or her advisers, but she’s gotten herself into a bad place — a huge missed leadership opportunity.

World Ending in Twelve Years Cartoons

VP Pence campaigns for Kentucky gov. Bevin

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 3:20 PM PT — Saturday, March 9, 2019

Vice President Mike Pence’ campaigns for incumbent Kentucky GOP Governor Matt Bevin, as he seeks to earn a second term in 2019.

FILE – In this March 11, 2017 file photo, Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin address a group of business owners to gather support for the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act in Louisville, Ky. Pence will raise money for Bevin in Kentucky, one of three states that will elect governor’s in 2019 .(AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)

During a speech in Lexington Friday, Pence said the state is “growing” again and said that’s why residents need Bevin back in the statehouse for four more years.
He also pointed out per-pupil funding has reached it’s highest level in state history under Bevin.
Pence cited Bevin’s leadership while speaking about the country’s progress under the Trump administration.
“Jobs are coming back, confidence is back, it’s what you feel here in Kentucky, is happening all across America,” said Pence. “Under the leadership of President Donald Trump and leaders like Matt Bevin America is back, and we are just getting started.”
Bevin is facing at least three primary challengers for the GOP nomination, while four Democrats are running for governor as well.

Company founded by Ocasio-Cortez in 2012 still owes $1,870 in taxes

Head of the Democratic Party, Miss Dull-brained

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to pass sweeping tax hikes on the wealthy, but the freshman lawmaker might want to take care of her own unpaid tax bill first.
Brook Avenue Press, a company she founded in 2012 to publish children’s books in The Bronx, owes the state $1,870.36 in corporate taxes, public records show.
The state slapped the company with a warrant on July 6, 2017, two months after Ocasio-Cortez announced her candidacy to run against Democratic incumbent Joe Crowley for the district that encompasses parts of Queens and The Bronx.
The state requires businesses to pay a corporation tax on a sliding scale based on revenue. The minimum payment last year was $25.
“The company probably got numerous letters from the state and probably ignored them,” one New York City accountant theorized.

“The company probably got numerous letters from the state and probably ignored them.”
— A New York City accountant's theory

Public records show the state dissolved the company in October 2016, which can happen when a business fails to pay corporate taxes or file a return.
The state Tax Department won’t comment on individual companies but typically files warrants as a last resort after trying to collect money.
“This is the first we’re hearing of it, and we won’t have any additional comment until we look into it,” Ocasio-Cortez’s spokesman, Corbin Trent, said Saturday.
Brook Avenue Press was set up to “develop and identify stories and literature in urban areas like New York, specifically communities like The Bronx,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a YouTube video posted in October 2011, months before she filed incorporation papers for the company in July 2012.
The company relied on cheap office space in a city-subsidized program to help small businesses in The Bronx.
Called the Sunshine Bronx Business Incubator, the program was housed in a renovated former printing plant in Hunts Point, where rates for office spaces and tech services in 2012 averaged between $99 for a “virtual office” and $275 per month for local start-ups.
Ocasio-Cortez was featured on the city’s website for the incubator, and The National Hispanic Institute named her a social entrepreneur in residence.
“You see a huge return on your investment here,” a 22-year-old Ocasio-Cortez told a reporter in July 2012. “People pay $500 an hour for consulting that we get for free by the water cooler.”
The tax warrant was issued to Brook Avenue Press at the incubator’s address on Garrison Avenue.
But despite her promise to work with “designers, artists and authors that really know the urban story and help develop stories for kids,” The Post could not find any books the publishing house produced.
Last week, Ocasio-Cortez signed on to a bill to tax stock trades and has previously called for a 70 percent tax on incomes over $10 million in order to help finance the Green New Deal, her environmental manifesto calling for “new national, social, industrial and economic mobilization” to save the planet.

Trump slams Ann Coulter as 'Wacky Nut Job' over her criticism of border wall progress

President Trump lashed out at conservative pundit Ann Coulter on Saturday, labeling her a “Wacky Nut Job” and insisting he was “winning on the Border” despite opposition from a hostile Democratic Party.
Coulter, one of Trump’s earliest supporters, has evolved into a persistent critic the president in recent months over his struggles to secure funding from Congress for his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Wacky Nut Job @AnnCoulter, who still hasn’t figured out that, despite all odds and an entire Democrat Party of Far Left Radicals against me (not to mention certain Republicans who are sadly unwilling to fight), I am winning on the Border. Major sections of Wall are being built...,” Trump tweeted.
....and renovated, with MUCH MORE to follow shortly. Tens of thousands of illegals are being apprehended (captured) at the Border and NOT allowed into our Country. With another President, millions would be pouring in. I am stopping an invasion as the Wall gets built. #MAGA,” he continued.
Coulter, whose books include “In Trump We Trust,” and "Resistance is Futile," did not reply to the president via Twitter on Saturday, but has been relentless in her criticism. In January, after lawmakers reached an agreement to end the 35-day partial government shutdown, she called Trump the "the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States."
During an appearance on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” she said Trump backed down on his demands for the wall in order to reopen the government without securing funding from House Democrats.
“I promise you the country would be run much better if I had a veto over what Donald Trump is doing. It’s crazy that I expect a president to keep the promise he made every day for 18 months,” Coulter told Maher over Trump's border wall promise.
During Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress in February, Coulter labeled the speech as “the lamest, sappiest, most intentionally tear-jerking SOTU ever.”
Coulter is scheduled to speak Monday at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches in Florida, not far from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Ocasio-Cortez, at SXSW, blasts FDR, Reagan and capitalism, says political moderates are 'meh'

Head of the Democratic Party, Dull-brained

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed political moderates at the South by Southwest Conference & Festivals in Austin, Texas, calling their views “misplaced” as she defended her progressive politics in a room full of supporters.

“Moderate is not a stance. It's just an attitude towards life of, like, ‘meh,’” the New York Democrat said Saturday during an interview with Briahna Gray, senior politics editor for the Intercept. “We’ve become so cynical, that we view ‘meh,’ or ‘eh’ — we view cynicism as an intellectually superior attitude, and we view ambition as youthful naivete when ... the greatest things we have ever accomplished as a society have been ambitious acts of visions, and the ‘meh’ is just worshipped now, for what?”

The self-declared Democratic socialist also criticized the treatment of minorities throughout American history, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, which she claimed was racist, to Ronald Reagan's policies, which she said "pitted" white working class people against minorities in order "to screw over all working-class Americans,” particularly African-Americans and Hispanics.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right, D-N.Y., speaks with Briahna Gray, a senior politics editor at the Intercept, during South by Southwest on Saturday, March 9, 2019, in Austin, Texas. (Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

"So you think about this image of welfare queens and what he was really trying to talk about was ... this like really resentful vision of essentially black women who were doing nothing, that were 'sucks' on our country," she said.

"So you think about this image of welfare queens and what [Reagan] was really trying to talk about was ... this like really resentful vision of essentially black women who were doing nothing, that were 'sucks' on our country."

— U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

"And it's this whole tragedy of the commons type of thinking where it's like because ... this one specific group of people, that you are already kind of subconsciously primed to resent, you give them a different reason that's not explicit racism but still rooted in a racist caricature," Ocasio-Cortez continued. "It gives people a logical reason, a 'logical' reason to say, 'Oh yeah, no, toss out the whole social safety net.'"
Other topics Ocasio-Cortez discussed included the Green New Deal and capitalism, which she said could not be redeemed because it puts profit “above everything else.”

“The most important thing is the concentration of capital, and it means that we prioritize profit and the accumulation of money above all else, and we seek it at any human and environmental cost… But when we talk about ideas like democratic socialism, it means putting democracy and society first, instead of capital first; it doesn’t mean that the actual concept of capitalistic society should be abolished,” she said."When we talk about ideas like democratic socialism, it means putting democracy and society first, instead of capital first; it doesn’t mean that the actual concept of capitalistic society should be abolished.During a Q&A session with the audience, television host and author Bill Nye the Science Guy stepped up to the microphone.“I’m a white guy,” Nye said. “I think the problem on both sides is fear. People of my ancestry are afraid to pay for everything as immigrants come into this country. People who work at the diner in Alabama are afraid to ask for what is reasonable. So do you have a plan to work with people in Congress that are afraid? That’s what’s going on with many conservatives especially when it comes to climate change. People are afraid of what happens when we try to make these big changes.” “One of the keys to dismantling fear is dismantling a zero-sum mentality,” Ocasio-Cortez replied. “It means the rejection outright of the logic that says someone else’s gain necessitates my loss and that my gain must necessitate someone’s loss. We can give without a take. We’re viewing progress as a loss instead of as an investment. When we choose to invest in our system, we are choosing to create wealth. When we all invest in them, then the wealth is for all of us too.” "When we choose to invest in our system, we are choosing to create wealth. When we all invest ... then the wealth is for all of us."The nine-day music and media festival has attracted many political figures this year. Several 2020 presidential candidates made appearances Saturday, including Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who is also considering a presidential bid, also made the pilgrimage.

Ohio's former Republican Gov. John Kasich -- a potential GOP challenger to President Trump -- also spoke at the festival Saturday.