White House proposed releasing immigrant detainees into ‘sanctuary cities’ to target political foes

Why Not Do It ??

 

The Trump administration proposed releasing immigrant detainees onto the streets of “sanctuary cities”--including San Francisco-- on at least two occasions within the past six months as retribution against the president’s political enemies, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed Department of Homeland Security officials and emails.
The proposal was first floated in November amid reports of a large migrant caravan from Central America making its way to the southern border. The other time it was considered-- in February-- occurred during a standoff between Trump and Democrats over border wall funding.
It was rejected both times by immigration agencies, the report said. A Nov. 16 email from the White House to officials at several agencies reportedly asked whether migrants could be arrested and bused to “small-and mid-sized sanctuary cities” and other Democratic strongholds.
The White House and DHS did not immediately respond to Fox News early Friday for comment.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco was considered one of the areas targeted, according to the paper. Pelosi blasted the plan Thursday, calling it “despicable” to use “human beings — including little children — as pawns in their warped game to perpetuate fear and demonize immigrants.”
The proposal was intended to alleviate crowded detention centers, the White House told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). An ICE official responded the inquiry was littered with budgetary and liability issues, but said “there are PR risks as well.” Trump has repeatedly blasted “sanctuary cities,” areas where local authorities refuse to cooperate with immigration agencies.
“This was just a suggestion that was floated and rejected, which ended any further discussion,” a White House statement to the paper said.

Video of Candace Owens firing back at Ted Lieu nears CSPAN record

The viral clip of conservative commentator Candace Owens accusing Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., of distorting her comments in such fashion that he must “believe black people are stupid” has become the most-viewed C-SPAN Twitter video from a House hearing.
The Twitter video of the exchange so far accumulated nearly 6.8 million views and appears to be on track to be most watched C-SPAN clip from a House hearing on all platforms.
CANDACE OWENS EXPLODES AT TED LIEU MID-HEARING AFTER HE PLAYS SHORT CLIP OF HER HITLER COMMENTS
“In less than 24 hours, this video is the most watched C-SPAN Twitter video from a House hearing (4.47 million views),” tweeted Jeremy Art, C-SPAN’s social media senior specialist, before the video got another 2.3 million views.
He added that it’s not yet the most watched C-SPAN video from a House hearing ever as it still lacks a couple of millions views – 5 million at the time of the tweet, though the gap has been cut in half since – to be on par with a video from a House hearing in 2017 in which Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was criticized for not being able to “come up with one example of discrimination that you would stand up for students.”
In the explosive video, Lieu fired the first shot at Owens by playing a short audio recording of her previous remarks at a conference in December, which were widely circulated in February, where she argued that she doesn’t have a problem with “nationalism.”
“I think the definition gets poisoned by elites that want globalism. Globalism is what I don't want.  When we say ‘nationalism,’ the first thing people think about — at least in America — is Hitler,” she is heard saying.
“You know, he was a national socialist, but if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK then, fine. The problem is, he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize. He wanted everyone to be German. ...”
Owens fired back at Lieu, accusing him of intentionally misrepresenting her views to drive a false narrative.
“I think it’s pretty apparent that Mr. Lieu believes that black people are stupid and will not pursue the full clip in its entirety,” Owens said.

“I think it’s pretty apparent that Mr. Lieu believes that black people are stupid and will not pursue the full clip in its entirety.”
— Candace Owens

“He is assuming that black people will not go and pursue the full two-hour clip. He purposefully cut off -- and you didn't hear the question that was asked of me. He's trying to present as if I was launching a defense of Hitler in Germany, when in fact the question that was presented to me was pertaining to whether I believed in nationalism, and that nationalism was bad,” she continued.
Fox News’ Gregg Re contributed to this report.

Julian Assange, arrested for damaging leaks, claims to be a journalist

The images were stunning as we saw Julian Assange led away from his sanctuary of nearly seven years, looking haggard and disoriented with a Santa Claus beard.
And moments after British police took him from the Ecuadorean embassy, the media debate erupted.
Is this a fugitive from justice, a man who damaged America, which he detests, by releasing classified files about our troops?
Or is this a man functioning as a digital-age journalist, as his lawyers contend, who was blowing the whistle under the banner of press freedom?
I don't know how the legal case will shake out, or even whether U.K. authorities will extradite Assange to the U.S. But I do know this: Conservatives and liberals, at different times, have embraced Assange depending on his targets.
His abrupt arrest, once Ecuador got fed up with harboring him, was tied to a sealed indictment brought last year by the Trump Justice Department.
That was rooted in the document dump that the Wikileaks founder orchestrated back in 2010. The group teamed up with an Army private, Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning), who was sentenced to 35 years for leaking classified files.
Prosecutors say Assange agreed to help Manning solve a password on a Pentagon computer that allowed access to classified documents, and encouraged Manning to keep digging for information.
The leaks exposed abuse of detainees by the Iraqi military and higher-than-reported civilian death tolls in Iraq, as well as 250,000 diplomatic cables from U.S. embassies that included sensitive talks that embarrassed the country. A military judge convicted Manning of aiding the enemy.
When Barack Obama, overruling his Pentagon chief, commuted Manning's sentence after nearly seven years — this following a couple of suicide attempts — many liberal commentators approved of the move. But Paul Ryan called it "outrageous," and John McCain said Manning had engaged in "espionage" and put American troops at risk. (As president, Trump retweeted a message slamming Obama for "pardoning a traitor.")
But Republican attitudes toward Wikileaks flipped during 2016, when the group, accused by U.S. officials of working with Russia, hacked into a treasure trove of Democratic emails.
While Nancy Pelosi called the hacking an "electronic Watergate," candidate Trump at various times said: "Wikileaks has provided things that are unbelievable" about Hillary Clinton. "Boy, that Wikileaks has done a job on her, hasn't it?" "Wikileaks, some new stuff, some brutal stuff." And: "I love Wikileaks."
The president was a bit less effusive yesterday. He deflected reporters' questions on the arrest, saying, "I know nothing about Wikileaks. It's not my thing."
So Assange, once hated by the right and defended by the left, went through a metamorphosis when he was damaging the Hillary campaign — an all-too-vivid example of Washington's fickle loyalties.
Assange's lawyer played the media card yesterday, telling reporters that "this precedent means that any journalist can be extradited for prosecution in the United States for having published truthful information about the United States ... Publishing of documents, of videos of killings of innocent civilians, exposure of war crimes — this is journalism."
While the case might have legal implications for legitimate reporters who publish classified material — and typically withhold documents that could endanger lives, sources and methods — Assange is an activist who cares nothing for American national security. Instead, he is using journalism as a fig leaf for his reckless conduct.

Pelosi Cartoons

Trump Says He Will Call Up More Military at US-Mexico Border

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would have to mobilize more of the military at the U.S. border with Mexico after listening to stories about migrants crossing the border from people attending a Republican fundraiser.
"I'm going to have to call up more military," Trump said.
The president said some of the people crossing the border were ending up dead from the journey on Americans' ranches. He interrupted his discussion with Republican donors to bring in reporters to listen to the stories about the border.

"Many, many dead people," Trump said, referring to migrants who he said had died after making the journey. "Also they come in and raid their houses, and it's very dangerous," Trump said, referring to locals affected by the influx of migrants.
There are currently about 5,000 active-duty and National Guard troops near the border, though that number fluctuates.

"We support our federal partners," Pentagon spokesman Army Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Davis said when asked about Trump's comments.
Trump in February had deployed an additional 3,750 U.S. troops to the country's southwestern border to support Customs and Border Protection agents.
Later that month, Democratic governors of states including Wisconsin, New Mexico and California withdrew their National Guard troops, saying there was not enough evidence of a security crisis to justify keeping them there.

Trump, who drew sharp criticism for saying during the 2016 presidential campaign that Mexico was sending rapists and drug runners to the United States, said on Wednesday that those comments were tame compared to the stories he had heard since.
The president has made immigration a signature issue of his presidency and of his re-election campaign. He declared a national emergency over the issue earlier this year in an effort to redirect funding from Congress to build a wall along the U.S. southern border.

Earlier this week he announced that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was stepping down. White House officials said he wanted new leadership at the department to focus more closely on what he has called a border crisis.

Candace Owens: Hearing was a hoax, Democrats want African-Americans to fail

Conservative commentator Candace Owens appeared on Fox News' "Ingraham Angle" Wednesday and talked about her explosive House Judiciary Committee hearing confrontation with Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and called the entire hearing a hoax.
“I think in many ways people on the Right felt vindicated. I know there are a lot of moderate people that came over and realized that what I was talking about were actually real issues in black America,” Owens said on the “Ingraham Angle,” in her first interview since the hearing.
She said African-Americans in the U.S. are facing a plethora of issues and Democrats appear intent on trying to focus on items like white nationalism.

Turning Point USA director of urban engagement Brandon Tatum (left) with communications director Candace Owens (right). (Christopher Howard/Fox News).

Owens' appearance on Fox was tense. Civil rights attorney Leo Terrell confronted her over her remarks about Democrats.
“So you did a great job of promoting yourself and playing the victim,” Terrell told Owens.
“I'm not going to play these playground tactics with you. I'm going to keep the focus on black America,” Owens retorted.
“Just because you disagree with a Democrat you can not assume that Democrats want black people to fail,” Terrell said, annoyed with Owen’s comments.
“I did and I believe that.  And I will back it up with facts,” Owens said before Ingraham got control of the segment.
Fox News' Gregg Re and The Associated Press contributed to thsi report.

Dem 2020 candidate Andrew Yang stands by 'Freedom Dividend'

Democratic 2020 candidate Andrew Yang said in an interview Wednesday that his “Freedom Dividend,” a proposal that would give $1,000 a month to Americans who are over 18 years old, will encourage citizens to work.
Yang told TMZ that the plan is necessary to help American workers whose jobs have become automized. When asked if giving the dividend would incentivize workers, he cited the “Alaska Permanent Fund,” which was established in 1976 and pays residents a dividend from the state’s mineral revenue.
“In Alaska it’s wildly popular, has created thousands of jobs, has improved children’s health and has not decreased work levels in the slightest,” the 44-year-old entrepreneur and investor said.

Presidential candidate and entrepreneur Andrew Yang speaks during the National Action Network Convention in New York, Wednesday, April 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

With the exception of new moms who spent more time with their kids and teenagers who graduated high school at a higher level, numbers showed that most people continued to worked at the same level as they did without the dividend, Yang told TMZ.
“Most people want to work and a little bit of money won’t make a difference,” he said.
The “Freedom Dividend” would cost $1.8 trillion dollars a year, and planned to fund it with a value added tax that would get the American people “a slice of” all Amazon transactions, Google searches and robot truck miles, Yang previously told MSNBC.
Yang's presidential candidacy has recieved the support of some white nationalists, who believe he is "concerned with halting the decline of the white race," the Verge reported. Yang has rejected their support.

Sen. Cruz: None of us should be happy left-wing Silicon Valley billionaires silencing conservatives

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, spoke to Shannon Bream on “Fox News @ Night” Wednesday about a Senate Judiciary Hearing where he confronted Twitter and Facebook officials about censoring and shadow banning conservatives.
“None of us should be happy to have a handful of left-wing Silicon Valley billionaires censoring what is said and silencing conservatives, silencing Christians, silencing people of faith. That's not right. And we've got to act to stop,” Cruz told Bream.
Cruz led off Wednesday’s hearing of the panel's subcommittee on the Constitution by saying that "a great many people agree that the pattern, the anti-conservative bias and the pattern of censorship we're seeing from big tech is disturbing.”
Bream mentioned that the social media platforms were private companies prompting Cruz to admit “the remedy is complicated” and bring up one possible solution.
Cruz explained that “you can't sue Twitter and Google and Facebook if they commit libel, if they commit slander” because they’re viewed as  “neutral public forums.”
Cruz added, “Well they're now engaged as partisan left-wing political speakers have no reason on earth they should have a special immunity from liability that protects them in a way that nobody else does.”
Cruz also reacted to Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, who said Republicans were ‘harassing’ big tech over conservative bias that didn’t exist.
“If conservatives have had their content removed, maybe they should look at the content they’re posting,” Hirono added.