Rep. Dan Crenshaw blasts NY Times writer, other critics: 'They have succeeded in politicizing 9/11'

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, addressed a New York Times op-ed writer who accused him of not supporting the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund on Wednesday, calling the writer's initial accusation "inexcusable."
"That is a pretty inexcusable thing to say, you're going to stand on the graves of 9/11 victims and claim that I am not a patriot and I have not defended this country against the perpetrators of 9/11, that I have not defended this country to prevent another 9/11 from happening. It's an inexcusable accusation from the get-go," Crenshaw said on "Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream."
New York Times contributing op-ed writer Wajahat Ali claimed on Twitter that Crenshaw hadn't sponsored the fund's renewal while praising the involvement of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
"Anytime a Republican says they are 'patriots' ask them if they voted to fund the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund. You know who's for it? Ilhan Omar. You know who hasn't sponsored it? Dan Crenshaw," Ali wrote in the now-deleted tweet.
"Hey 'journalist,' maybe you should check your facts. I am a co-sponsor. Nice try though," Crenshaw tweeted in response.

"It's actually really sad because they have succeeded in politicizing 9/11, they politicized this bill for the victim compensation fund and its shameful, it's absolutely shameful."
— Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas

Crenshaw dismissed the tactic, calling it "dishonest" and "cynical." He also blamed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., for starting the trend.
"They know it's dishonest and we cannot get to this place in politics where you are seeking out something somebody hasn't cosponsored yet and claiming you are against it. They know the public doesn't understand that, they think you're voting against it," Crenshaw told Bream.
Earlier Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee passed a reauthorization bill for the 9/11 Victims’ Compensation Fund, a day after comedian Jon Stewart lambasted lawmakers for failing to attend a hearing on the bill.
Crenshaw also addressed another tweet from Ali where he called on Crenshaw to address his condemnation of  Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and her comments about 9/11.
"Thanks for letting me know. I'm glad you did and I have no problem correcting and updating the record with facts. Now try it with your comments about Ilhan Omar. You'll feel better. Sincerely, a fellow patriot," Ali tweeted.
In April, Crenshaw criticized Omar for describing 9/11 as "some people did something." The congressman called Ali's comments "shameful."
"Defending the indefensible comments by Ilhan Omar regarding 9/11 -- which is where all of this materialized. It's actually really sad because they have succeeded in politicizing 9/11, they politicized this bill for the victim compensation fund and it's shameful, it's absolutely shameful," Crenshaw said.
Fox News' Andrew O'Reilly and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

Stacey Abrams visits Hollywood to urge against boycott over Georgia's 'heartbeat' abortion law

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams flew to Los Angeles this week to encourage Hollywood executives and industry officials not to go through with boycotting Georgia over the state’s new heartbeat abortion law.
The film industry has threatened to boycott Georgia due to the controversial law, which makes abortions illegal once a fetal heartbeat can be detected. That typically occurs around six weeks into a pregnancy, often before women realize they are pregnant.
Though she doesn’t hold office, Abrams told Atlanta’s WSB-TV that her “mission is to make sure these jobs stay in Georgia.” She met with executives, producers, actors and low-level behind-the-scenes staffers to convince them that pulling business from Georgia would be premature.
“I don’t disparage boycotts. They have their function. But this is a situation where the political realities are that a boycott won’t have the intended effect,” she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“I don’t disparage boycotts. They have their function. But this is a situation where the political realities are that a boycott won’t have the intended effect.”
— Stacey Abrams

Georgia’s law won’t take effect until January but it is expected to be challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court, where it could test the precedent set by Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that made abortion legal throughout the U.S.
Abrams, therefore, urged filmmakers to wait before potentially wreaking havoc on the state’s economy.
Direct film spending in Georgia reached $2.7 billion in 2018, and the approximately 450 projects shot in the state in 2018 supported roughly 92,000 jobs, the newspaper reported. Because Georgia has one of the nation’s most generous tax-incentive programs for filmmakers, Hollywood also saves big money by shooting movies there -- roughly $800 million in 2018.
Hollywod also invested in Georgia by funding studios, soundstages and equipment that wouldn’t be easy to pull out should a boycott ensue.
Abrams made national headlines as the first black female gubernatorial candidate to be nominated by a major party when she ran in 2018. She ultimately lost but refused to concede to Republican Brian Kemp who signed the heartbeat bill into law after taking office. Some expect a Kemp-Abrams rematch in 2022.
Kemp said the backlash from Hollywood does not change his position: He supports life and the film industry tax credit. He canceled a trip to visit Hollywood in May given wind of potential protests.

How much do polls showing Dems trouncing Trump really mean?

The media, which are always enamored of polls, are really loving them right now.
That's because they show President Trump getting his butt kicked.
And while the latest numbers certainly aren't good for the president, I'm going to flash a giant yellow warning light here.
It's early, as everyone knows, but the problems run deeper than that.
The pundits are agog over a new Quinnipiac University survey that shows Joe Biden clobbering Trump, 53 to 40 percent.
Not only that, but other Democrats beat Trump by lesser margins: Bernie Sanders (51 to 42 percent). Kamala Harris (49 to 41). Elizabeth Warren (49 to 42). Pete Buttigieg (47 to 42). Cory Booker (47 to 42).
The Q poll is widely respected, but here's the thing:
If Joe or Bernie or Kamala or one of the others is up against Trump in November of 2020, he or she is not going to be seen by the public as the same person as during the current campaign spring training period.
The eventual nominee will have endured a year and a half of denunciations by Trump, his campaign, his allies, and his surrogates. That's along with millions of dollars in negative advertising by pro-Trump and independent groups and constant attacks from conservatives in the media.
In short, the person on the ballot will be fairly battered and bloodied.
And the Republicans have no monopoly on this. The Obama camp, the Democrats and liberals in the media pounded Mitt Romney, long before he became the nominee, as a heartless executive, flip-flopper and goofball.
Now by this logic, Trump will also be more scuffed up by the fall of 2020 than he is now. But that will be nothing new. He's been pounded by the press and his opponents since the last campaign, and while he'll have to defend his record, all the personal controversies — his business record, women, hush money — are pretty well known.
By contrast, no Democrat running, including Biden, has been through the searing scrutiny of running at the top of the ticket. So the race will tighten. Nobody is going to win by 13 points.
Meanwhile, Trump tried to push back hard on a New York Times piece which said: "After being briefed on a devastating 17-state poll conducted by his campaign pollster, Tony Fabrizio, Mr. Trump told aides to deny that his internal polling showed him trailing Mr. Biden in many of the states he needs to win."
Politico had reported earlier that the polling showed Biden ahead of Trump in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
The president never explicitly denied the Times account. But when asked by a reporter yesterday, he said "there were some fake polls" put out by "the corrupt media ... We have some internal polling, very little, and it's very strong."
Was he denying that the Fabrizio polls were "devastating"?
Or was he going after other surveys, such as the much-touted Quinnipiac poll? It wasn't clear.
If it's the latter, the university said that it stands by its numbers after 25 years of independent polling.
"We're used to this," Quinnipiac said. "Whoever is on the wrong side in a poll attacks the poll."
Kellyanne Conway, a career pollster, offered some caveats yesterday.
"When the president says we have some of the best numbers we ever had," the White House counselor said, "he means among Republicans and he also means among some of the individuals who voted for him last time."
Obviously, it will take more than just winning Republicans for Trump to get to 270.
Conway added that when "the president says he has the best numbers ever, he is also talking about the unemployment numbers, growth numbers, the optimism numbers."
For all the back and forth, it's clear that an incumbent president who's not higher than 42 percent has his work cut out for him.
But the latest polls are more than ephemeral. They reflect a political landscape that may be radically changed once people start voting.

Hannity praises Trump's 'genius setup' against Dems, claims president setting trap with 'nonstory' about foreign info

Fox News' Sean Hannity supported President Trump's comments Wednesday that he would be willing to listen to a foreign government if they approached him with information on a political opponent, calling it a "genius setup" by the president.
"In many ways that was a genius setup because the media mob will fall right into his trap, breathlessly spewing fake, phony outrage over a nonstory for days," Hannity said during his monologue on "Hannity" on Wednesday night.
Trump made the comments to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, adding that he would not necessarily contact the FBI if such an approach was made.
"I think I'd want to hear it. ... I think you might want to listen. There isn't anything wrong with listening," Trump said in the interview.
Hannity defended the president and blasted Democrats for being critical of the president's comments but not Hillary Clinton's past actions or possible misconduct that led to the Russia investigation.
"Listening is much different than, let's see, lying, spying, and paying for Russian lies and spreading it through the media by 'deep state' operatives and then using it as a basis for a FISA warrant," Hannity said.
"Why are they not outraged about Hillary paying for Russian lies, disinformation, Comey generously using the unverifiable data from Russia to spy on the Trump campaign and get a FISA warrant?" the host continued.
Hannity also said the president's comments should force those outraged by them to address why they have not been outraged by Clinton's conduct.
"This will all get another round of fake, phony, moral selective outrage over that interview," he said, "but it's a perfect setup because if they are outraged about that and how can you not be outraged over what I just said?"
Hannity said Democrats are concerned only about Trump and not about justice.
"They are worried about obstruction of justice but only if it's Trump, not Hillary," he said. "They are worried about underlying crimes but only if it's Trump, not Hillary. They are worried about believing but only if it bludgeons Trump, not the lieutenant governor of ... the Commonwealth of Virginia over serious sex allegations."
Fox News' Liam Quinn contributed to this report.

Rachel Maddow Cartoons

Trump Jr. to testify on Russia contacts before GOP-led Senate intelligence panel

Donald Trump Jr. will testify Wednesday behind closed doors before the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee, Fox News has learned, as part of what the president has called an "unfair" effort to subject his son to yet another interview on Russia-related matters.
Fox News is told that the interview will likely be relatively brief. “It’s not going to go on for three hours," a source familiar with the matter said.
Trump Jr. has already provided more than two dozen hours of testimony before Congress. He previously spoke with the intelligence committee staff in 2017, when he also sat for an interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The latest meeting comes after the committee's Republican chairman, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, subpoenaed him as part of the panel's Russia investigation. Burr received considerable blowback from some of his GOP colleagues for the move, but he told fellow senators that Trump Jr. had backed out of an interview twice, forcing the committee to act.
Fox News reported last month that Trump Jr. was prepared to make the committee hold him in contempt and had a defiant letter drafted and ready to send -- but at the last minute, the committee reached out to resolve the dispute. The draft letter cited Trump Jr.'s 20-plus hours of testimony under oath, and the thousands of documents that he has already given to congressional committees -- as well as Special Counsel Robert Mueller's exhaustive analysis of that testimony. Mueller found no evidence Trump Jr. committed a crime.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., right, joined by Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., left, at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 30, 2017. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (The Associated Press)

Trump Jr. had been concerned about an open-ended time and subject commitment, sources told Fox News in May. Ultimately, the panel agreed to limit questioning to one to two hours, with narrow room for followups. A source familiar with the discussions told Fox News the panel would not agree to limit topics.
Several Russia-related matters are expected to be on the agenda. Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, told a House committee in February that he had briefed Trump Jr. some 10 times about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow before the presidential election. Trump Jr. told the Judiciary Committee in 2017 he was only "peripherally aware" of the real estate proposal.
The panel is also interested in talking to Trump Jr. about that and other topics, including a campaign meeting in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer that captured the interest of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller's report, released in April, examined the meeting but found insufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime.
Trump said in May he believed that his son was being treated poorly.
"It's really a tough situation because my son spent, I guess, over 20 hours testifying about something that Mueller said was 100 percent OK and now they want him to testify again," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I don't know why. I have no idea why. But it seems very unfair to me."
Some Republicans have said Trump Jr. should not comply with the subpoena, which is believed to be the first subpoena targeting a member of the president's family.
Burr's home state colleague, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., tweeted, "It's time to move on & start focusing on issues that matter to Americans." Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a GOP member of the panel, said he understood Trump Jr.'s frustration. Cornyn's Texas colleague, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, said there was "no need" for the subpoena.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has defended Burr, saying "none of us tell Chairman Burr how to run his committee."
Still, McConnell made it clear that he is eager to be finished with the probe, which has gone on for more than two years.
It remains uncertain when the intelligence panel will issue a final report. Burr said last month that he hopes to be finished with the investigation by the end of the year.
Fox News' Jason Donner, John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Hannity slams NBC for adding Rachel Maddow as Democratic debate moderator

This has got to be a joke, right?

Sean Hannity decried NBC Tuesday over the decision to have Rachel Maddow moderate part of the Democratic debates this month.
“It literally includes the chief conspiracy theorist,” he said of the MSNBC host who will join Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie, Jose Diaz-Balart and Chuck Todd for the June 26 and 27 debates.
“Didn’t we tell you this would happen, that the media would refuse to hold any of their ‘fake news’ fanatics accountable?” Hannity mused.
He said NBC is rewarding Maddow’s “fake news” by giving her more air time and wondered how “real” reporters feel about being passed over by  “Tinfoil hat-Maddow, the single biggest liar, conspiracy theorist in the country, the person that pushed the Russiagate lies night after night.”
Maddow will co-host the second hour of both nights alongside Holt and Todd. Holt will host the entirety of the debate.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Hannity joked to guests Sean Spicer and Jesse Watters. “We’ll have a debate moderated by me, the Great One [Mark Levin], Rush Limbaugh, Jesse can join us, and Laura [Ingraham] and Tucker [Carlson]. How’s that?”
Spicer said he was “excited” to see Maddow at the debate because she’s “so extreme” that she will drag all of the candidates farther to the “extreme left.”
The New York Times even pointed out that opinion journalists are rarely chosen as debate moderators.

Virginia Democrat who was accused of having sex with teen secretary wins in state primary

This Is So Sick.

A Virginia Democrat, who was accused in 2014 of having sex with his teenage secretary he later married, won the Democratic primary on Tuesday for the state’s 16th Senate District.
Joe Morrissey, a former state legislator, defeated incumbent senator Rosalyn Dance by over 10 points despite Gov. Ralph Northam endorsing her in the final weekend of the campaign.
His victory in the primary comes even though he was sentenced four years ago and jailed over a scandal involving a minor. He was in his fifties at the time while the minor was 17 years old. She worked at his law office.

Joe Morrissey, right, with his daughter Bella, 3, celebrates his Democratic primary win in 16th District State Senate race with his supporters at the election party of Plaza Mexico in Petersburg, Va., Tuesday, June 11, 2019. (Daniel Sangjib Min/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)

Despite denying the wrongdoing, he pleaded guilty in 2015 to a misdemeanor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and admitted that prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction.
The Democrat spent six months in jail for the crime but managed to continue serving in the state legislature during the sentence.
Republicans immediately jumped on Morrissey’s victory in the primary, tweeting a mock congratulatory note and adding “You’ll fit right in with [Virginia Lt. Gov.] Justin Fairfax,” referring to sexual misconduct allegations against Fairfax by two separate women.
But despite the past legal problems, voter strongly endorsed Morrissey’s platform that consists of a number of progressive measures, including higher minimum wage and marijuana decriminalization.
“People try to blow things up more than what it is,” Voter Melvin Washington told the Associated Press. “Ain’t none of us perfect.”
Morrissey is posed to easily cruise to victory as the seat has long been held by Democrats and is considered a safe seat.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.