Sen. Lindsey Graham Defends McCain Without Rebuking Trump

Famously a loyal friend to the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. – long a target of President Donald Trump criticism in a storied political rivalry – while also being a notable defender of President Trump's policies, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., responded to the president's latest attacks this weekend.
"As to @SenJohnMcCain and his devotion to his country: He stepped forward to risk his life for his country, served honorably under difficult circumstances, and was one of the most consequential senators in the history of the body. (1/2)," Sen. Graham tweeted Sunday.

"Nothing about his service will ever be changed or diminished. (2/2)," he concluded.
Sen. Graham's tweets come amid continued attacks from President Trump, rebuking the late Sen. McCain for his pushing the infamous Christopher Steele dossier in election campaign meddling in 2016 and his casting the deciding vote against a skinny repeal and replacement of Obamacare.

As much as Sen. McCain was an adversary of President Trump before and after his election, Sen. Graham has remained loyal to both, including rejecting the Senate's passing of a resolution to unravel the president's national emergency on the southern border.

"Totally support President @realDonaldTrump's VETO," Sen. Graham tweeted Friday. "President Trump is right to declare an emergency on our southern border and he's right on the law allowing him to reallocate funds to secure our southern border. #BuildtheWall."

Graham's seemingly polar defenses for President Trump and Sen. McCain tend to be rooted in common sense – or uncommon sense – similar to that he tweeted in the follow up to the above.
"Question: How can President Trump be accused of 'going around Congress' using a statute . . . passed by Congress?" Sen. Graham also tweeted Friday.
 2019 Newsmax.

Trump Blasts GM for Ohio Plant Closure, Urges Reopening

President Donald Trump stepped up his pressure on General Motors to reopen an Ohio manufacturing plant that recently closed and put 1,700 people out of work.
Trump's arm-twisting came in two separate tweets on Saturday and Sunday .
He called on GM to reopen its Lordstown plant or find another owner, while insisting that the Detroit automaker "must act quickly."

He also blasted GM for letting down the U.S. and asserted "much better" automakers are coming to the country.
Trump praised Toyota for its investments in the U.S. in an apparent attempt to depict GM as being less committed to its home country than the Japan automaker.
GM didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.
The Lordstown closure has become a hot-button issue in an area of Ohio that is expected to be critical for Trump if he seeks re-election as promised in 2020.

Trump prevailed in Ohio in the 2016 election, a win that helped him win enough electoral votes to become president despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.
That may be one reason why Trump joined a coalition of Ohio lawmakers in efforts to get the Lordstown plant running again. The tweets marked some of his most pointed criticism of GM so far.

Trump has skewered several other U.S. companies for not doing more to help their country's economy, but his remarks so far have been more bark than bite.
For instance, he has publicly called upon Apple to shift most of its manufacturing from China to the U.S., but the Silicon Valley company continues to make its iPhones and most other products overseas.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, last week expressed doubts GM will reopen its Lordstown plant, but said the automaker indicated it's in talks with another company about using the site.

More than 16 million vehicles were made at the Lordstown plant during its 53-year history until GM closed it earlier this month as part of a massive reorganization. The company also intends to close four other North American plants by early next year.

De Blasio Calls Obama's Early Days in Office a 'Lost Window'

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday criticized former President Barack Obama during a small gathering as he mulls a run for president, saying that Obama's early days in office were "a lost window."
Minutes later, in front of a larger audience, de Blasio praised the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature legislative achievement, calling it "progress." Obama pursued the health care legislation during his first two years in office and has been criticized at times for focusing more on health care than the struggling economy.

A handful of people were present in a second-floor private room of a Concord restaurant when de Blasio compared Obama to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in 1933 amid the Depression and immediately began a series of actions that came to define the modern presidency's focus on a 100-day agenda. The mayor said Roosevelt was the only person who "had a greater head of steam and political momentum and capital coming into office."
"He, to his great credit, did the 100 days and the reckless abandon and understood that you had to achieve for people to build the next stage of capital to use for the next thing," de Blasio said. "Obama, I think, nobly went at health care, but it played out over such a long time and it got treated politically as such a narrow instead of universal item, tragically, that it was a lost window. And I'm not saying anything I don't think a lot of people feel."

By contrast, de Blasio promoted 2009's Employee Free Choice Act as the kind of legislation worth pursuing by a new president, which raised another matter critical of Obama. The proposed law would have made it easier for workers to join unions, but it became one of labor's grievances against Obama when he didn't press for its passage as Democrats controlled Congress — the same period in which he pushed for the health care law.

"I would argue, we won't be fooled again," he said. "Employee Free Choice Act, or something like it, should be one of the very first things, because, grab that opportunity for structural change. Put that as a foothold, and a whole bunch of other things start to open up based on that."

De Blasio then spoke to about 40 people in a private room on the restaurant's first floor. He didn't mention Obama by name to the larger group but was more complimentary to the Affordable Care Act, commonly called "Obamacare."
Asked what he would do about the cost of prescription drugs, de Blasio said people's health should be put "first and in a collective way."
"Right now we have health care is a commodity and ... God bless the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act was progress, but it's still tethered to a health insurance company-based system," he said.

The Associated Press.

Political Party Traitor Cartoons

Pres. Trump: I told GOP leadership to vote for ‘transparency’ on Mueller report

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 2:50 PM PT – Sat. March 16, 2019

President Trump appears to explain why GOP lawmakers in the House of representatives voted with Democrats, in favor of publicly releasing the Mueller report.

In this March 15, 2019, photo, President Donald Trump speaks about border security in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, March 15, 2019, in Washington. Trump’s veto of a bipartisan congressional resolution rejecting his border emergency declaration is more than a milestone. It signals a new era of tenser relations between the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

In a tweet Saturday, the president said he told Congressional leadership to let all Republicans vote for transparency, in relation to the non-binding resolution.
The president also suggested the vote makes all Republicans look good, and it essentially doesn’t matter.
The resolution, which calls on the DOJ to publicly release “Mueller’s findings,” was approved unanimously in the House.
However, it was blocked from moving forward in the upper chamber by Senator Lindsey Graham.

Gillibrand makes it official, launching her 2020 White House campaign

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is officially running for president, formally declaring her candidacy Sunday morning.
“We need a leader who makes big, bold, brave choices. Someone who isn’t afraid of progress. That’s why I’m running for president. And it’s why I’m asking you for your support,” the New York Democrat says in a video announcing the official launch of her campaign.
The move comes two months after Gillibrand set up a presidential exploratory committee -- which allowed her to raise money and build a campaign structure -- and began introducing herself to voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina – three of the four states that kick off the primary and caucus calendar - as well as California and Texas, which hold contests immediately after the early voting states.
In her video – titled "Brave Wins" – the senator uses "The Star-Spangled Banner" to say that bravery has been a constant choice in the nation’s history, and so many Americans have chosen to be brave.
Gillibrand also takes aim at President Trump, claiming the Republican has promoted an “agenda of cowardice, hate and fear.”
“Brave doesn’t pit people against each other. Brave doesn’t put money over lives. Brave doesn’t spread hate. Cloud truth.
"Build a wall. That’s what fear does,” she charges in the video.
Gillibrand says that if America could land astronauts on the moon, “we can definitely achieve universal health care. We can provide paid family leave for all, end gun violence, pass a Green New Deal, get money out of politics and take back our democracy.”
Her announcement comes one day after Gillibrand wrapped up her third trip this year to New Hampshire, which holds the first primary in the race for the White House.
On Monday, Gillibrand heads to Michigan to join Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for a public event with a local women’s group, Fems for Dems. She’ll also hold a town hall. On Tuesday, Gillibrand heads to Iowa – which votes first in the presidential nominating calendar -- and later in the week makes a trip to Nevada, which is the first western state to vote.
Next Sunday, Gillibrand plans to give a speech outside the Trump International Hotel in New York City.
With her declaration, Gillibrand becomes the 14th major Democrat to officially launch a presidential campaign. She joins fellow Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington state, former Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, former San Antonio mayor and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas have also declared their candidacies. So have Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland, best-selling spiritual author Marianne Williamson of California and entrepreneur Andrew Yang of New York.
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg has launched a presidential exploratory committee.
The  52-year-old Gillibrand, who served in the House before her current tenure in the Senate, is known for spearheading efforts in the fight against sexual harassment and assault, and has become a prominent voice in the #MeToo movement. In her video, she touted taking “on the Pentagon to end sexual assault in the military.”
But a sexual harassment issue in Gillibrand’s own Senate office is now making headlines, with the reporting that a female aide in her mid-20s who was working in Gillibrand’s office resigned in protest last summer as she criticized the office’s handling of her sexual harassment complaint against a senior male adviser to the senator. That male adviser was recently terminated.

Klobuchar hits Beto O'Rourke: 'I wasn't born to run' in 2020

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar took a swipe at fellow Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke — saying she "wasn't born to run" for the White House.
“It was probably more when I got to college. When I was growing up, in high school, that's not what girls thought they were going to do,” the Democratic senator said during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“My parents, I think, thought it was a possibility. But I really didn't. And so for me, it's something that’s happened over time, as I've realized I can do things,” Klobuchar reportedly said. “I can get elected to the secretary-treasurer of my high school class. I can move on from there. And so I think it's something that I didn't have from birth.”
Her reported comments appear to reference O'Rourke's statements about being "born" for a White House run in a glowing Vanity Fair profile that has drawn criticism.
"I want to be in it," O'Rourke said in the magazine's cover story. "Man, I'm just born to be in it, and want to do everything I humanly can for this country at this moment."
The Texan's comments to Vanity Fair, along with his decision to rule out a second Senate run last month, have been called emblematic of his white male privilege, amid a race with several viable female and African-American candidates, by critics within the Democratic Party.

Former Democratic Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke laughs during a live interview with Oprah Winfrey on a Times Square stage at "SuperSoul Conversations," in New York, on Feb. 5, 2019.  (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

“If a woman was presented with a similar choice: Do that less ambitious, but better-for-the-party thing, versus more ambitious but longer-shot thing, I don’t see people being super understanding when she takes the latter,” Jess McIntosh, a Democratic strategist and former Hillary Clinton aide, told The New York Times.
Klobuchar continued, saying, “But no, I wasn't born to run for office, just because growing up in the '70s, in the middle of the country, I don't think many people thought a girl could be president. I wasn't born to run. But I am running.”

Jeb Bush: Trump needs Republican challenger in 2020

Former 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush is seen above. (Getty Images) (Paul Marotta/Getty Images)

Jeb Bush believes a Republican should challenge President Trump for the nomination in 2020 — slamming the president's "dangerous" policies on trade and other issues.
In the latest salvo between the two former rivals, Bush, who ran unsuccessfully for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, made the comments Saturday during an interview with ex-Obama adviser David Axelrod.
“I think someone should run just because Republicans ought to be given a choice,” Bush said on CNN's "The Axe Files."  “It’s hard to beat a sitting president, but to have a conversation about what it is to be a conservative, I think it’s important.”
Bush, whose father George. H.W. Bush was the 41st president of the United States and his brother, George W. Bush, was the 43rd, reportedly added that Republican voters should be given more of a choice between different ideologies.
"And our country needs to have competing ideologies that people -- that are dynamic, that focus on the world we're in and the world we're moving toward rather than revert back to a nostalgic time," he said on CNN, seeming to take aim at Trump's "Make America Great Again" 2016 slogan.
Bush elaborated about his disagreements with Trump during the interview.
"We haven't had a major crisis to deal with, but this unilateralism or going-alone-ism I think is really dangerous," Bush said of Trump's foreign policy moves, according to The Hill.
"Our friends no longer believe they can trust the United States and our enemies, in many cases, feel emboldened by this approach," he reportedly added. "I think it defies the...bipartisan kind of consensus on foreign policy that has, by and large, kept America safe."
According to The Hill, Bush also critiqued Trump's ability to handle the more symbolic aspects of running the country, such as responding during moments of crisis.
However, he did praise Trump's tax policy, regulatory changes and judicial nominations.
“You can honestly say he’s done good things in terms of policy and applaud them,” Bush said. “I think the symbolic, you know the kingly duties of the presidency, that’s where he falls short, and it’s important.”
The interview is the latest in a series of back-and-forth jabs between the two men.
Bush blasted Trump in September 2018 as a bad role model for young children, telling the Detroit Free Press: “He is not my role model as it relates to values I would share with my children and grandchildren.”
During a June 2018 interview with CNBC, Bush criticized Trump for going negative, saying that candidates must be civil with one another.
"The kind of campaign [Trump] ran would have never been successful a decade ago or in the age of [Ronald] Reagan and Bush, for example," said Bush.
The ends don't justify the means, Bush said, referring to the way Trump goes negative. "It's not worth disparaging people."
Bush told Axelrod that Republicans need to "offer a compelling alternative" to Democratic ideas rather than just calling their ideas "bad."
So far, the only person to hint at challenging Trump for the 2020 GOP nomination is former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who formed an exploratory committee in February.