Elijah Cummings dead at 68

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the powerful House Democrat who represented Baltimore for more than two decades and was a vocal critic of President Trump, died early Thursday after battling health problems, his office said in a statement
Cummings, who was 68, died at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, his hometown. As chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, he was one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington, and played a key role in the House Democrats' ongoing efforts to impeach Trump.
"This is a terrible tragedy," Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, tweeted. "Elijah is one of the most honest, thoughtful, decent people I ever met in politics. His moral compass was unfailing throughout his life in and out of politics. My deepest thanks to Elijah’s family for lending him to our country for all these years."
Cummings has not returned to work after an undisclosed medical procedure that he said would only keep him away for about a week.
In the House, Cummings built a substantial power base. At the time of his death, he was chairman of the influential House Oversight Committee and a leading voice in the Congressional Black Caucus. He played a key role in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
Cummings was born on Jan. 18, 1951. In grade school, a counselor told Cummings he was too slow to learn and spoke poorly, and he would never fulfill his dream of becoming a lawyer.
"I was devastated," Cummings told The Associated Press in 1996, shortly before he won his seat in Congress. "My whole life changed. I became very determined."
Cummings, a sharecropper's son-- one of seven children-- led multiple investigations of the president's governmental dealings, including probes in 2019 relating to the president's family members serving in the White House.
He clashed with Trump after the president criticized his district as a "rodent-infested mess" where "no human being would want to live."
Cummings replied that government officials must stop making "hateful, incendiary comments" that only serve to divide and distract the nation from its real problems, including mass shootings and white supremacy.
"Those in the highest levels of the government must stop invoking fear, using racist language and encouraging reprehensible behavior," Cummings said in a speech at the National Press Club.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Elizabeth Warren Cartoons

Takeaways: Warren under fire, 70s club ignores age issue

A dozen Democratic presidential candidates participated in a spirited debate Tuesday over health care, taxes, gun control and impeachment. Takeaways from the three-hour forum in Westerville, Ohio.

WARREN’S RISE ATTRACTS ATTACKS

Sen. Elizabeth Warren found Tuesday that her rise in the polls may come with a steep cost. She’s now a clear target for attacks, particularly from more moderate challengers, and her many plans are now being subjected to much sharper scrutiny.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg slammed her for not acknowledging, as Bernie Sanders has, that middle-class taxes would increase under the single-payer health plan both she and Sanders favor.

“At least Bernie’s being honest with this,” Klobuchar said.

“I don’t think the American people are wrong when they say what they want is a choice,” Buttigieg told Warren. His plan maintains private insurance but would allow people to buy into Medicare.

Candidates also pounced on Warren’s suggestion that only she and Sanders want to take on billionaires while the rest of the field wants to protect them. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke told Warren it didn’t seem like she wanted to lift people up and she is “more focused on being punitive.”

And they piled onto her signature proposal, a 2% wealth tax to raise the trillions needed for many of her ambitious proposals. Technology entrepreneur Andrew Yang noted that such a measure has failed in almost every European country where it’s been tried.

THAT 70s SHOW

The stage included three 70-something candidates who would be the oldest people ever elected to a first term as president — including 78-year-old Sanders, who had a heart attack earlier this month. Moderators asked all three how they could do the job. None really addressed the question.

Sanders invited the public to a major rally he’s planning in New York City next week and vowed to take the fight to corporate elites.

Biden promised to release his medical records before the Iowa caucuses next year and said he was running because the country needs an elder statesman in the White House after Trump.

Warren, whose campaign has highlighted her hours-long sessions posing for selfies with supporters, promised to “out-organize and outlast” any other candidate — including Trump. Then she pivoted to her campaign argument that Democrats need to put forth big ideas rather than return to the past, a dig at Biden.

__

ONE VOICE ON IMPEACHMENT

The opening question was a batting practice fastball for the Democratic candidates: Should Trump be impeached?

They were in steadfast agreement. All 12 of them. Largely with variations on the word “corrupt” to describe the president.

Warren was asked first if voters should decide whether Trump should stay in office. She responded, “There are decisions that are bigger than politics.”

Biden, who followed Sanders, offered a rare admission: “I agree with Bernie.”

The only hint of dissonance came from Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who was one of the last Democratic House members to back an impeachment inquiry. She lamented that some Democrats had been calling for Trump’s impeachment since right after the 2016 election, undermining the party’s case against him.

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KLOBUCHAR: MINNESOTA NOT-SO-NICE

Klobuchar has faded into the background in previous debates, but she stood out on the crowded stage.

She also went on the attack. She chided entrepreneur Andrew Yang for seeming to compare Russian interference in the 2016 election to U.S. foreign policy. But her main barbs were reserved for Warren. “I appreciate Elizabeth’s work but, again, the difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something you can actually get done,” she said.

After Warren seemed to suggest other candidates were protecting billionaires, Klobuchar pounced. “No one on this stage wants to protect billionaires,” Klobuchar said. “Even the billionaire doesn’t want to protect billionaires.”

That was a reference to investor Tom Steyer, who had agreed with Sanders’ condemnation of billionaires and called for a wealth tax — despite the fact that his wealth funded his last-minute campaign to clear the debate thresholds and appear Tuesday night.

Klobuchar also forcefully condemned Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds in Syria.

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BOOKER THE PEACEMAKER

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker has been trying to campaign on the power of love and unity. It hasn’t vaulted him to the top of the polls, but it drew perhaps the biggest cheers from the crowd Tuesday night.

As candidates bickered over their tax plans, Booker shut it down. “We’ve got one shot to make Donald Trump a one-term president and how we talk about each other in this debate actually really matters,” he said. “Tearing each other down because we have a different plan is unacceptable.”

Later, as candidates tussled over foreign policy and Syria, Booker again tried to bring the debate back to morals. “This president is turning the moral leadership of this country into a dumpster fire,” he said, before launching into a furious condemnation of Trump’s foreign policy.

The New Jersey senator’s inability to break out of the pack has puzzled Democrats who long saw him as a top-tier presidential candidate.

Warren comes under attack from all sides at Dem debate, as Biden defends son's business practices

Rising Democratic co-frontrunner Sen. Elizabeth Warren came under attack from all sides during Tuesday night's presidential debate, as former Vice President Joe Biden defiantly defended his son's business practices overseas and vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
All of the 12 Democrats onstage in Westerville, Ohio, meanwhile, backed the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Trump. In a sign of apparent disunity and hesitation among Democrats, though, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said only minutes before the debate began that there would be no vote on formally commencing the inquiry.
The debate marked the first time the candidates met since Pelosi's news conference last month at which she unilaterally declared the inquiry had begun -- a move that the White House has said is legally insufficient. The candidate lineup set a record for most politicians on a single debate stage, topping the 11 Republican candidates who assembled in 2016.
JOE BIDEN DEFENDS SON HUNTER'S UKRAINE WORK: 'MY SON DID NOTHING WRONG. I DID NOTHING WRONG'
"Sometimes there are issues that are bigger than politics, and I think that's the case with this impeachment inquiry," Warren, D-Mass., asserted at the outset of the debate, when asked why Congress should bother with the process given the impending election.
Biden has been at the top of the crowded field for months, but has come under withering assault from the White House concerning his son Hunter's lucrative overseas business dealings.
The elder Biden faced something of a timid confrontation over the issue during the debate, when CNN anchor and debate moderator Anderson Cooper broached the topic by stating, without evidence, that President Trump's accusations of misconduct by the Bidens were "false."
But Cooper pressed Joe Biden on Hunter's admission in a televised interview earlier in the day that he made a mistake by obtaining a lucrative role on the board of a Ukraine company, with no relevant expertise, while his father was vice president and handled Ukraine policy. (“I know I did nothing wrong at all. Was it poor judgment to be in the middle of something that is a swamp in many ways? Yeah,” the younger Biden said Tuesday morning.)
Joe Biden recently pledged that no members of his family would engage in foreign deals if he were to be elected president -- a tacit admission, Republicans said, of previous poor judgment or even wrongdoing.
"Look, my son's statement speaks for itself," Biden said. “My son did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. I carried out the policy of the United States government which was to root out corruption in Ukraine, and that’s what we should be focusing on.”
Biden insisted he never discussed Ukraine matters with Hunter, although Hunter separately told The New Yorker magazine that the dealings had come up in one instance.
He concluded: "The fact of the matter is, this is about Trump's corruption. That's what we should be focused on."

Devon Archer, far left, with former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, far right, in 2014. Archer served on the board of the Ukrainian company Burisma Holdings with Hunter, and began serving before this picture was taken. Joe Biden has denied ever speaking to his son about his overseas business dealings.

Later on, as the debate heated up, Biden remarked: “These debates are kinda crazy." In a head-turning moment, he also stumbled over his words, saying wealthy individuals might be found "clipping coupons in the stock market."
Separately, asked about Trump's policy in Syria, Biden appeared to give an extended answer in which he meant to talk about Turkish President Recep Erdoğan -- but kept referencing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad instead.
Asked about his health toward the end of the debate, Biden vowed to release his medical records before the Iowa caucuses are held, and said his age (76) gives him "wisdom."
Hunter Biden obtained other high-paying board positions domestically and internationally, with no relevant expertise, while his father was a senator and vice president. For example, Hunter became an executive at the financial services company MBNA just two years after leaving law school. MBNA sources told Fox News this week that the company was trying to curry favor with Joe Biden, who was shepherding a bill favored by MBNA to passage in the Senate.
Meanwhile, Warren has climbed to co-front runner status but faces new questions about her dubious claims to Native American ancestry.
She was under attack from all sides at the debate for refusing to answer whether her "Medicare for All" plan would raise taxes for the middle class.  Warren once again dodged the issue, insisting only that "costs will go down" for the middle class.
"I appreciate Elizabeth's work, but again, the difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something you can actually get done," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said to Warren. "At least Bernie’s being honest here. ... I’m sorry, Elizabeth.”

“These debates are kinda crazy."
— Joe Biden

South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg also lambasted Warren on health care: “Your signature is to have a plan for everything, except this," he said.
Buttigieg specifically knocked Warren for the nonanswer, saying her failure to offer a direct answer is "why people are so frustrated with politicians" and arguing that "Medicare-for-All" would "unnecessarily divide this country."
"We heard it tonight," Buttigieg said. "A yes-or-no question that didn't get a yes-or-no answer."  He said he wanted a plan that could be summed up as "Medicare-for-All" if you choose it, not whether you want it or not.
Former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke also pressed Warren on the tax issue, to no avail. (Later on, O'Rourke had no answer when Cooper asked how he could confiscate Americans' firearms, given that the government has no way of knowing where the vast majority of AR-15s are located. He said only that he believes Americans "will do the right thing" voluntarily.)
Sen. Bernie Sanders, who wrote the "Medicare-for-All" legislation that Warren has embraced, said it was "appropriate to acknowledge taxes will go up."
Sanders, who Fox News has confirmed will soon be endorsed by New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also spoke about his recent heart attack: “But let me take this moment, if I might, to thank so many people from all over this country, including many of my colleagues up here, for their love, for their prayers, for their well wishes. ... And I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I'm so happy to be back here with you this evening.”
Also during the debate, Democrats also piled onto Warren for her signature proposal, a 2 percent wealth tax to raise the trillions needed for many of her ambitious proposals. Technology entrepreneur Andrew Yang noted that such a measure has failed in almost every European country where it's been tried.
The event, hosted by CNN and The New York Times, was on the campus of Otterbein University, just outside Columbus in Ohio, a state that has long helped decide presidential elections but has drifted away from Democrats in recent years.

Democratic presidential candidate businessman Tom Steyer, left, and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., right, listen as Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks during a Democratic presidential primary debate hosted by CNN/New York Times at Otterbein University, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019, in Westerville, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Many of the candidates were struggling just to get noticed — trying to make up ground in a race that kicks off officially in just over three months with the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3. Buttigieg and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., are trying to crack the top tier.
In one possible indicator the debate was a lengthy one, Harris briefly mentioned her proposal to have Twitter take Trump's account down, and demanded that Warren explain why she felt that approach was unwise. Warren, who last week laughed openly when informed by a reporter of Harris' idea, responded that she wants Trump out of the White House, not just banned from Twitter.
Progressives and right-wing commentators alike were aghast at Harris' decision to again bring up the unrealistic and unpopular idea of somehow suspending Trump from Twitter.
"I cannot believe @KamalaHarris  is pushing this suspend Donald Trump's twitter account bullshit at a presidential debate," former Obama administration official and Pod Save America cohost Tommy Vietor wrote on Twitter. "It's so small ball. She is bigger and better than this."
Fellow Obama administration alumnus and podcast host Ben Rhodes added: "Seems like there are bigger issues in the world."
Also debating were Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, former Obama housing chief Julián Castro and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. Making his debate debut — and likely angling for a splash — was billionaire activist Tom Steyer.
Gabbard hit The New York Times and CNN for waging what she called a propaganda campaign against her, while also promoting endless "regime-change wars."
"The New York Times and CNN have smeared veterans like myself for calling for an end to this regime change war," Gabbard said. "Just two days ago, The New York Times put out an article saying I'm a Russian asset and an Assad apologist, and all these different smears. This morning, a CNN commentator said on national television that I'm an asset of Russia. Completely despicable."
Gabbard has criticized Trump for how he's conducted the withdrawal in Syria, but said Tuesday that while Trump has "the blood of the Kurds on his hands. ... So do many of the politicians in both parties who supported this regime change war."
Gabbard, who was one of the last Democratic House members to back an impeachment inquiry, additionally lamented that some Democrats had been calling for Trump's impeachment since right after the 2016 election, undermining the party's case against him.
The debate's foreign policy discussion concluded without any mention by the moderators of the ongoing push by China to censor American companies, including the NBA and Blizzard Entertainment, from making or tolerating pro-Hong Kong statements. Buttigieg briefly mentioned that the Hong Kong protests were not receiving support from the White House.
Yang's plan for a universal basic income spurred a discussion onstage concerning whether a federal jobs guarantee is a better plan -- something of a remarkable achievement for Yang, who has struggled in the polls while advancing his own unique agenda.
On abortion, the Democrats agreed they would support a federal law "codifying" the Supreme Court's holding in Roe v. Wade, which found a constitutional right to abortion, as a kind of defense in case the Supreme Court overturned Roe. At the same time, Biden emphasized he would not support "court packing," or passing a federal law to expand the size of the Supreme Court to load it with Democratic justices.
Buttigieg then said he did not support court packing, but wanted "reforms" to make the court less significant -- including possibly a "fifteen member court, where five of the members can only be appointed by unanimous agreement of the other ten." A similar idea was being debated in the Yale Law Journal, Buttigieg said, in a shout-out to the left-wing student publication.
Gabbard said that Democrats were right decades ago when they said abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare" -- highlighting a shift to the left among Democrats.
The 2020 field, which once had swelled to two dozen, has been shrinking as the Democratic Party's rules have mandated that candidates meet higher donor and fundraising thresholds to debate.
Just 10 White House contenders qualified for September's debate, but Gabbard and Steyer made Tuesday's lineup a record.
Earlier contests featuring 20 candidates were divided between two nights.
Author Marianne Williamson, who was not physically present at the debate on Tuesday because she failed to meet polling thresholds, remarked on Twitter as it unfolded: "No, they're not the only Democratic candidates for President of the United States."
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Tlaib set to endorse Bernie Sanders: reports

At least three members of the “Squad” of far-left freshman members of Congress will reportedly endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for president.
Fox News has learned that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., will appear with Sanders on Saturday in Queens, N.Y., at a “Bernie’s Back” rally designed to generate excitement for the senator’s campaign following his recent heart procedure. Rep. Ihan Omar, D-Minn., will also endorse the candidate, Fox News confirmed.
In addition, CNN reported that Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., will endorse Sanders as well. It was not immediately clear if Omar and Tlaib will appear at the same Sanders event.
"Bernie is leading a working class movement to defeat Donald Trump that transcends generation, ethnicity and geography," Omar was quoted as saying in a statement posted on Twitter by the Sanders campaign -- and that Omar retweeted on her own Twitter page.
"I believe Bernie Sanders is the best candidate to take on Donald Trump in 2020," Omar added.

"I believe Bernie Sanders is the best candidate to take on Donald Trump in 2020."
— U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

The endorsements would be a significant blow to the campaign of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who like Sanders has been representing the party’s progressive wing.
Word of the endorsements also followed Tuesday night’s Democratic debate in Ohio, where Warren was under attack from multiple candidates after rising in the polls in recent weeks.
Winning the OK of the “Squad” members was also viewed as crucial in attracting young voters, as the top three Democrats in the polls are all senior citizens – Sanders is 78, former Vice President Joe Biden is 76 and Warren is 70.
There was no indication that the fourth member of the Squad, Rep. Ayannna Pressley, D-Mass., was ready to make an endorsement – either of Sanders or any other candidate.
​​​​​​​Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Andrew Craft contributed to this report.

GOP’s Dan Crenshaw fires back after called ‘racist’ by Democrat who compared Trump to Usama bin Laden

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, the freshman Republican congressman from Texas, and a former Navy SEAL who was wounded in combat, defended himself Tuesday after a video showed an Illinois Democrat calling him “a racist.”
The Democrat, Rep. Sean Casten, an Irish-born lawmaker whose district covers suburbs west of Chicago, told an audience earlier this month that Crenshaw was “a racist” because the Texan proposed an amendment in Congress to prevent illegal immigrants from voting.
“The last amendment on the floor that day … came from Dan Crenshaw, the new Republican, the Navy SEAL with the eyepatch," Casten said, according to the Washington Free Beacon. “He came up with an amendment to say, ‘We're going to add a rider on this bill that says that illegals can't vote.' And I sat there and I said, ‘You know what? You're not allowed to vote if you're not a citizen.’ … Why are you doing that? The reason you're doing that is because you are a racist. Because you are trying to appeal to people who will vote for you if you stand up and oppose brown people."
Crenshaw responded Tuesday on Twitter, after video from Casten’s Oct. 5 remarks surfaced.
“When you can’t articulate a coherent argument, you resort to calling your political opponents racist,” Crenshaw wrote. “Can’t say I’m surprised. Just another day in Washington with the Democrat Party.”
Later, a Crenshaw spokeswoman added, in a statement to the Free Beacon: “If Rep. Casten is so deeply offended that our laws prohibit non-citizens from voting in federal elections, then he should be honest with his constituents and let them know how little he values the power of their vote.”
In a party-line vote, the Democrat-controlled House defeated Crenshaw’s proposal, the outlet reported.
Casten previously made headlines in June when he came out in support of the impeachment effort against President Trump.
The Democrat also drew criticism last year when he said Trump and 9/11 mastermind Usama bin Laden “have a tremendous amount in common.”
Crenshaw, during a September appearance on Fox & Friends, accused Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of deliberately tweeting about veterans issues in order to “make people angry.”

California 2019 Cartoons

Sen. Rand Paul calls for probe into Democrats’ Ukraine letter

As investigators continue to investigate talks with foreign governments, Senator Rand Paul says it’s crucial both sides of the aisle are held accountable. While speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Paul called for an investigation into the Democrat senators who requested information into former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort back in 2018.
“If anything’s consistent here, both parties have tried to involve themselves in Ukraine,” he stated. “So for example, four senators, Democrats, wrote a letter to the Ukrainian government and said if you don’t keep investigating Trump we may reconsider our bipartisan support for your aid.”
This comes after the Kentucky lawmaker was asked if he’s bothered by accusations President Trump’s personal attorney sought information on former Vice President Joe Biden. Paul pointed out that it shouldn’t just be one-sided, saying if you’re going to condemn the president then you also need to condemn the Democrat senators.
“Everyone is going after President Trump,” he said. “Someone needs to actually, in an objective way, evaluate a letter from four Democrats that said to Ukraine ‘if you don’t keep investigating Trump we will reconsider our bipartisan support for aid’ — that’s a threat and that’s the same kind of stuff they’re accusing Trump of.”
Democrat Senators Robert Menendez, Dick Durbin, and Patrick Leahy wrote a letter asking for Ukraine’s assistance into the Mueller investigation back in 2018. According to Paul, if Ukraine refused the Democrat leaders threatened to withhold aid from the country.
House Democrats have subpoenaed President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and are requesting he also turn over documents regarding Ukraine. Giuliani said President Trump did not extort money or engage with Ukraine, and claimed Biden did both to advance his corruption scheme in the country.