U.S. Rep. Max Rose,
a Jewish New York Democrat in his first term in Congress, apologized to
visibly frustrated constituents at a town hall in Staten Island on
Tuesday for not "protecting them" from fellow freshman Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar's repeated use of "anti-Semitic tropes." Rose's comments came as Minnesota Democrats are seriously considering
the prospect of supporting an unprecedented primary challenge against
the 37-year-old Omar in 2020, following bipartisan condemnation of
several of her remarks, according to officials and state
representatives. Earlier this month, the House passed a bipartisan resolution
condemning hate of all kinds in the wake of Omar's comments.
But Democrats kept Omar's name out of the resolution, which several
Republicans opposed as a watered-down, half-hearted effort. “As
a young congressman, I’ve got to tell you I’m sorry,” Rose told an
audience gathered by the Council of Jewish Organizations (COJO),
according to a video of the town hall posted on Facebook by Jewish Insider, which
first reported the comments. “You sent me to Congress to take
responsibility. You sent me to Congress to have your back ... and I
failed you. Because I know that Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s comments
really caused you all a lot of pain by bringing up anti-Semitic tropes.” Omar,
a Somali-American and one of two Muslim women in Congress, posted
on Twitter in 2012 that “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah
awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” She drew
condemnation in February even from fellow Democrats after she implied that Jewish politicians in the U.S. were bought. Omar
re-ignited the flames later that month when she once again suggested
that groups supportive of Israel were pushing members of Congress to
have "allegiance to a foreign country."
Democrat Max Rose won in an upset over Republican Rep. Dan Donovan
in New York's 11th Congressional District. Photo Credit: Pool / Staten
Island Advance via AP/Bill Lyons
Rose, 32, a U.S. Army veteran of the war in
Afghanistan and Purple Heart recipient, denied that his Jewish faith
affected his patriotism and called Omar's remarks "horrifying" -- but he
said she should not yet lose her seat on the powerful House Foreign
Relations Committee, a prospective move he called an unnecessary
"escalation." Republicans, earlier this year, stripped U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, of his committee assignments after he made remarks widely seen as supportive of white nationalism, although King denied those charges. “Certainly
as a Jewish combat veteran, I could tell you I don’t have dual
allegiance,” Rose said, as an attendee pushed him for answers on
Democrats' response to Omar's comments. “I have allegiance to the flag. I
have allegiance to the United States of America.” Rose continued:
“We have got to show her that there is a pathway for her to do the
right thing, and we have to be vigilant towards that. Believe me, she
understands that [removing her from her committee assignments] is a
possibility, and nobody is taking that off the table, but we are not
there yet.” Adding that “I am not satisfied with what I’ve seen
thus far, I’m not," Rose concluded by saying that he nevertheless
accepted Omar's apology. President Trump and top Republicans have characterized Omar's apology as half-hearted and insincere, saying that her repeated anti-Israel comments revealed her true feelings. "I
was horrified and sad when she made the comments," Rose said. "So
horrified that as a freshman member of Congress I stepped in front of my
party’s leadership and I was the first member of the Democratic Party
to criticize her. I did say that I accepted her apology. You know why I
did that? Because I am an adult. Because my goal was to continue the
quiet and non-glamorous actions of coalition-building and trying to
protect the people in this room from those comments being made.”
"I was horrified and sad when she made the comments." — U.S. Rep. Max Rose, D-N.Y.
Other
Democrats have offered less-than-flattering defenses for the
congresswoman. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised eyebrows earlier this
month when she said Omar “doesn’t understand” that some of the words she
uses are "fraught with meaning." Activists and officials
interviewed in Minnesota have said recently while they have not yet
recruited a viable alternative candidate to run against Omar, frustrations are mounting. “There’s
definitely some buzz going around about it, but it’s more a buzz of,
'Is anyone talking about finding someone to run against her?' than it is
anyone saying they’re going to run against her or contemplate it,"
state Rep. Ron Latz, a Democrat, told the Hill. "There’s definitely talk
about people wanting someone to run against her." And Omar Jamal, a Somali community activist, told the Washington Post
that he has been in touch with Jewish community leaders about Omar. He
said he supported her campaign but called her recent comments, "wrong,
period." "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."
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan speaks at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Wednesday, March 20,
2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 11:35 AM PT — Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan recently reiterated the
need for a Space Force. While speaking at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies Wednesday, Shanahan said the force is needed to
protect the U.S. “We can’t afford to lose our margin of dominance,” he stated. “What
is vital is that we protect a $19 trillion economy and the systems our
military runs on.” The acting defense secretary said China and Russia already treat
space as a war fighting domain. He mentioned China is rapidly growing
its presence in space. Shanahan said their government put 38 rockets in
orbit last year, which is more than double the 17 the U.S. launched in
2018. The proposed Space Force would be a potential sixth military branch,
with about 15,000 to 20,000 personnel. It would be under the Department
of the Air Force (DAF), which is similar to the Marine Corps’
relationship with the Navy. The Pentagon has requested more than $72 million for fiscal year 2020
to set up the branch. It submitted its proposal to Congress, which must
authorize the new service. “To move forward effectively, space needs an advocate — that advocate will be the Space Force,” stated Shanahan.
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 10:39 AM PT — Tuesday, March 19, 2019
The Supreme Court recently issued a ruling on immigration, favoring
the Trump administration’s policy proposals. In a five-to-four vote
Tuesday, the nations highest court ruled to restrict parole or bail for
illegal aliens during their deportation proceedings. The Supreme Court said ‘catch and release’ may not be available for
criminal aliens, and those who are seen as potentially able to commit a
crime. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have
previously criticized ‘catch and release’ as well as weak immigration
laws. The ruling allows ICE to detain deportable aliens at any time, and is said to mark a major victory for President Trump. “We’re on track for a million illegal aliens to rush our borders,”
stated the president. “People hate the word invasion, but that’s what it
is, it’s an invasion of drugs and criminals…we capture them because
border security is so good.” The Supreme Court ruling also reverses last year’s decision of the
notoriously leftist Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which mandated to
release certain illegals from detention.
President Donald Trump jabbed Democrats, saying they are getting very
“strange” for a proposal to eliminate the Electoral College and change
the size of the Supreme Court. Trump’s comments came in a tweet shortly after midnight Wednesday. He wrote:
“The Democrats are getting very ‘strange.’ They now want to change
the voting age to 16, abolish the Electoral College, and Increase
significantly the number of Supreme Court Justices. Actually, you’ve got
to win it at the Ballot Box!”
His post on Twitter came after Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who is
seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, said Monday
that she would support abolishing the Electoral College. And some
Democrat candidates have also backed lowering the voting age and adding
more Supreme Court justices, Newsweek reported.
Trump's middle-of-the-night post followed on the heels of a pair of
tweets from late Tuesday that seemed to oppose the idea of eliminating
the Electoral College:
“Campaigning for the Popular Vote is much easier & different than
campaigning for the Electoral College. It’s like training for the 100
yard dash vs. a marathon. The brilliance of the Electoral College is
that you must go to many States to win. With the Popular Vote, you go
to....
“....just the large States
- the Cities would end up running the Country. Smaller States & the
entire Midwest would end up losing all power - & we can’t let that
happen. I used to like the idea of the Popular Vote, but now realize the
Electoral College is far better for the U.S.A.”
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D- Md. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., says the White House has “engaged in an
unprecedented level of stonewalling, delay and obstruction.” Cummings, who is chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, made his comments in a column posted by The Washington Post on Tuesday evening.
“In November, the American people voted overwhelmingly to put
Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives to start serving as a
truly independent check and balance on the executive branch,” he said.
“Since then, President (Donald) Trump and his allies have complained of
“Presidential Harassment,” decrying Democrats for having the audacity to
request documents and witnesses to fulfill our constitutional
responsibilities.
“The problem is that the White House is engaged in an unprecedented level of stonewalling, delay and obstruction.” Cummings claimed he has sent 12 letters to the White House on a
half-dozen topics. But the administration has refused to turn over any
documents and has not produced any witnesses for interviews.
He said his committee is reviewing White House security clearances,
“hush money” payments to silence women alleging affairs with Trump,
White House officials’ alleged use of personal email in violation of
federal law and other issues. Cummings maintained the refusal to produce any documents or witnesses
“to the primary investigative committee in the House reflects a
decision at the highest levels to deny congressional oversight
altogether.”
And he added: “If our committee must resort to issuing subpoenas,
there should be no doubt about why. This has nothing to do with
presidential harassment and everything to do with unprecedented
obstruction.”
It's a witch hunt, a vendetta, the worst presidential harassment in history.
That's what President Donald Trump has shouted for two years about
the special counsel's Russia probe. Now, barring an eleventh-hour
surprise, Trump and his allies are starting to see it as something
potentially very different: a political opportunity. With Robert Mueller's findings expected any day, the president has
grown increasingly confident the report will produce what he insisted
all along — no clear evidence of a conspiracy between Russia and his
2016 campaign. And Trump and his advisers are considering how to
weaponize those possible findings for the 2020 race, according to
current and former White House officials and presidential confidants who
spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. A change is underway as well among congressional Democrats, who have
long believed the report would offer damning evidence against the
president. The Democrats are busy building new avenues for evidence to
come out, opening a broad array of investigations of Trump's White House
and businesses that go far beyond Mueller's focus on Russian
interference to help Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton. It's a striking role reversal. No one knows exactly what Mueller will say, but Trump, his allies and
members of Congress are trying to map out the post-probe political
dynamics. One scenario would have seemed downright implausible until recently:
The president will take the findings and run on them, rather than
against them, by painting the special counsel as an example of failed
government overreach and Trump himself as the victim who managed to
prove his innocence. The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Georgia Rep.
Doug Collins, said on the House floor last week that he had a "news
flash" for Democrats who had high hopes that the report would be
damaging to Trump. "What happens when it comes back and says none of this was true, the
president did not do anything wrong?" Collins asked. "Then the meltdown
will occur." Trump's tweeted version was even more graphic: The Democrats' House investigative committees were going "stone cold CRAZY." That was in reaction to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler's
document requests to 81 people, businesses and organizations related to
Trump. Nadler said his panel must look at "a much broader question"
than Mueller has. Adam Schiff, chairman of the intelligence committee, also said
there's much more to look into. Mueller, he said, "can't be doing much
of a money laundering investigation" if he hasn't subpoenaed Deutsche
Bank, which has loaned millions of dollars to Trump. Schiff's panel,
along with the House Financial Services Committee, is looking into money
laundering and Trump's foreign financial entanglements. "We have a separate and independent and important responsibility,"
Schiff has said. "And that is to tell the country what happened." The Russia probe, taken over by Mueller in May 2017, has posed a
mortal threat to the presidency since Trump was elected — a possible
case for collusion or obstruction of justice that could begin a domino
effect ending with impeachment. Those fears still exist, but as the
investigation winds down, other feelings have taken hold in the White
House, namely a cautious optimism that the worst is over, that no
smoking gun has been found. Even if Mueller's final report does not implicate the president in
criminal conduct, the investigation was far from fruitless. His team
brought charges against 34 people, including six Trump associates, and
three companies. His prosecutors revealed a sweeping criminal effort by
Russians to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and showed that
people connected to the Trump campaign were eager to exploit emails
stolen from Democrats. Trump, of course, has railed relentlessly against the probe, deeming
it a baseless "witch hunt," sometimes in all capital letters, and has
said it was based on unfounded allegations perpetrated by his "deep
state" enemies in the Department of Justice, as well as his foes in the
Democratic Party and the media. If the report proves anticlimactic, says former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich, a strong Trump ally, "there would no longer be any
justification for what the House Dems want to do. They have their
report, they had the guy they wanted writing it, and he had the full
power of the federal government behind him and they still didn't get the
president. "Trump can say: Here is the report. I didn't fire Mueller, I didn't
interfere with him. If you want to keep investigating me, it just shows
that it is purely partisan." In fact, Trump has told his inner circle that, if the report is
underwhelming, he will use Twitter and interviews to gloat over the
findings, complain about the probe's cost and depict the entire
investigation as an attempt to obstruct his agenda, according to
advisers and confidants. The president's campaign and pro-Trump outside groups will then
likely amplify the message, while his advisers expect the conservative
media, including Fox News, to act as an echo chamber. A full-throated
attack on the investigation, portraying it as a failed coup, could also
be the centerpiece of Trump campaign events, including rallies, they
say. While Trump's base has long been suspicious of Mueller, the
president's team believes independents and moderate Democrats who backed
him in the last election but have since soured may return to the fold
if convinced he has been unfairly targeted. In the meantime, the president and his surrogates will labor to link
the report with the mounting investigations launched by House Democrats. One of Trump's most ardent defenders, North Carolina Rep. Mark
Meadows, tweeted last month that Democrats will "keep investigating if
Mueller doesn't find what they want. Amazing." Meadows wrote in a separate tweet: "Their message is shifting. The
'Russian collusion' narrative is falling apart, and they know it." (The Associated Press.)
