Sarah Sanders eyes possible run for governor of Arkansas

FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 6, 2019, file photo, Fox News contributor Sarah Sanders makes her first appearance on the "Fox & Friends" television program in New York. Former White House press secretary Sanders is laying the groundwork for a possible run for governor of Arkansas in 2022. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) — With paid speeches, a book coming out and appearances on cable news, Sarah Sanders is following the traditional route for former press secretaries after leaving the White House as President Donald Trump’s chief spokeswoman. But she’s also getting reacquainted with her home state of Arkansas and laying the groundwork for a potential governor’s race in three years.

Sanders has begun headlining Republican Party dinners around Arkansas, allowing her to reconnect with the state she called home before joining the Trump White House and offer GOP insiders a preview of what she’d look like as a candidate for the job her dad, Mike Huckabee, held for more than a decade. Speaking to a ballroom packed with more than 500 people in Hot Springs last week, the former press secretary known for her televised sparring with reporters joked about being greeted by applause when she comes to the podium.

“It’s very different than what I’m used to,” she said.

Sanders and her husband, a political consultant, moved to Little Rock in late July with their three children. Since leaving the White House, she’s joined Fox News as a contributor and announced that she has a book coming out next year about her time as press secretary. She’s also delivered paid speeches and is working as a consultant for several corporations. She waived her speaking fees for local GOP speeches.

Trump has encouraged her to run for governor in 2022, when Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson is barred by term limits from seeking reelection.

Sanders says she’s seriously looking at running for governor and is taking steps needed in case she decides to do so, but that her GOP appearances are about helping the party next year and aren’t about 2022.

“I think there are two types of people that run for office: people that are called and people that just want to be somebody, that want a title. I feel like in some ways, I’ve already hit a pretty good political title,” Sanders told The Associated Press in an interview.

“If I do (run), it will because I feel called to do it and because I feel I can offer something to the state and I can do something to help move the state further ahead and grow it in a positive way and I fit what the state needs at that time,” she said.

Sanders’ speeches are so far drawing sold-out crowds, with more than 600 attending an event she headlined in northwest Arkansas earlier this month. At the Hot Springs event, Sanders talked about her time in the White House, while also a mother. She told a crowd that included several people in red “Make America Great Again” hats about her toddler getting ahold of her phone and sending an emoji-laden tweet from her official White House account, and choked up when she talked about visiting troops overseas with the president on Christmas last year.

“Probably the biggest thing she has is 100 percent name ID and that’s so difficult to obtain,” said Sen. John Boozman, whose 2010 campaign Sanders managed. “I think almost every Arkansan knows who Sarah Huckabee Sanders is.”

Sanders is looking at a race that was already drawing some of the state’s top GOP figures. Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin in August said he’s running and has appeared in TV ads paid for by a nonprofit promoting lower taxes and STEM education. Another potential candidate, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, is frequently on TV in public service announcements on vaping and other issues. Another potential candidate is state Senate President Jim Hendren, who is Hutchinson’s nephew. No Democrats have announced or said they’re taking a look at the race.

Sanders remains a blank slate on many state issues that would likely come up in a heated primary. They include the state’s Medicaid expansion, which has sharply divided Republicans since it was approved six years ago. Sanders steered clear of state policy in her Hot Springs speech and said she wants to avoid distracting from Hutchinson’s agenda.

“It’s time to let the governor do his job and I don’t think it’s helpful for me to try to play a game from the side. That doesn’t help him. That doesn’t help the state,” she said.

Such reticence may not be enough for some Republicans if Sanders moves closer toward a gubernatorial bid.

“If she wants the role of governor, she needs to start speaking on the issues that confront our state and let us see what it is she would do and why she should be the candidate we would support,” Republican state Rep. Les Warren said.

What’s next in impeachment: Judiciary Committee up next?

WASHINGTON (AP) — After two weeks of public hearings, Democrats could soon turn the impeachment process over to the House Judiciary Committee. They’re moving “expeditiously” ahead as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has instructed.

At some point in the coming weeks, the House intelligence panel will submit a report to the Judiciary panel, and then Democrats will consider drafting articles of impeachment on President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine and the administration’s attempts to block the investigation. The articles could cover matters beyond Trump’s efforts to push Ukraine to investigate Democrats, including special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, but no decisions have been made.

There could be several steps along the way, including a Judiciary committee vote, a House floor vote and, finally, a Senate trial.

What’s next in impeachment:

INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE WRAPS UP

Democrats on the House intelligence committee believe they have enough evidence to write a report and move forward. But it’s still unclear whether they will hear any last-minute testimony.

Democratic House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday he won’t foreclose the possibility of his committee undertaking more depositions and hearings in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. Schiff said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that his committee continues to conduct investigative work, but he won’t let the Trump administration stall the inquiry.

Schiff’s staff and others are compiling the panel’s findings to submit to the House Judiciary Committee, which is expected to open its own hearings to consider articles of impeachment and a formal recommendation of charges. He said his committee may need to file addendums to its report so that the Judiciary Committee can move ahead.

“The investigation isn’t going to end,” Schiff said.

Several potentially key witnesses — former national security adviser John Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, among others — have so far declined to provide testimony or documents on Trump’s orders.

Democrats have said they don’t want to get tied up in lengthy court battles to force those witnesses to cooperate with subpoenas. But they could still hear testimony if one of them changed their mind, or if other key witnesses emerged.

“We’ve heard and seen compelling evidence that the president committed serious wrongdoing,” says Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, a member of the intelligence panel. “There are other witnesses, including some principal witnesses that we would have liked to have heard from, but the evidence has been pretty damning that the president committed an impeachable act.”

Time is running short if the House is to vote on impeachment by Christmas, which Democrats privately say is the goal. The intelligence panel is expected to spend the Thanksgiving week writing, and maybe even completing, a report of evidence gathered through more than six weeks of closed-door depositions and public hearings.

Once the report is done, the panel could vote to pass it on to the House Judiciary Committee. That could happen as soon as the first week of December, when lawmakers return from the Thanksgiving break.

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JUDICIARY TAKES CHARGE

Pelosi has instructed the intelligence panel, along with other committees that have investigated Trump, to submit evidence to the House Judiciary Committee. That panel is then expected to hold hearings and vote on articles of impeachment — a process that could take up the first two weeks of December.

The articles of impeachment are expected to mostly focus on Ukraine, though discussions continue. Democrats are considering an overall “abuse of power” article against Trump, which could be broken into categories like bribery or extortion. The article would center on the Democrats’ assertion, based on witness testimony, that Trump used his office to pressure Ukraine into politically motivated investigations.

Additional articles of impeachment could include obstruction of Congress and obstruction of justice. The latter could incorporate evidence from Mueller’s report.

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HOUSE FLOOR VOTE

The Judiciary panel could take several days to debate the articles and then vote on them — sending impeachment to the House floor, where they could immediately be called up for consideration. Debate on impeachment would be handled similarly to any other bill or resolution.

If articles of impeachment reach the House floor, Democrats will be looking to peel off Republicans to make the vote bipartisan. So far, however, it appears few, if any, Republicans will break ranks. Not a single Republican backed the resolution launching the impeachment hearings.

Once an impeachment vote is done, Democrats would appoint impeachment managers for a Senate trial.

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SENATE TRIAL

House Democrats are hoping to be finished with an impeachment vote by Christmas, sending articles to the Republican-controlled Senate for a trial in 2020. Unless political dynamics change, Trump is expected to have the backing of majority Republicans in that chamber to be acquitted.

It’s still unclear how long a trial would last, what it would look like or what witnesses might be called. Top White House officials met Thursday with Republican senators to discuss strategy but made no decisions about the length of a trial or other tactics, two people familiar with the session said.

Participants in the meeting expressed more interest in voting as soon as they have the 51 votes needed to acquit Trump than in setting a specific timetable for the proceedings, according to one Senate GOP aide.

That aide and a senior White House official said a trial lasting two weeks was discussed, but not agreed to. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private meeting.

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Associated Press writer Alan Fram contributed to this report.

Who is Rear Adm. Ken Braithwaite? Trump's choice for Navy secretary has distinguished career

President Trump has nominated retired Rear Adm. Kenneth Braithwaite to assume the position of Navy secretary after the Pentagon ousted Richard Spencer on Sunday amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the handling of a high-profile Navy SEAL case.
Trump had clashed with the Navy over its plan to convene a review board that could have led to the loss of SEAL Edward "Eddie" Gallagher's Trident pin. The president said Gallagher will retire with the pin, and he's chosen Braitwaite to replace Spencer.
The current U.S. ambassador to Norway and a retired Navy rear admiral, Braithwaite, 59, a native of Michigan, served on the Pentagon's Trump transition team and was nominated by the president to his current role in 2018, after the post had been vacant for nearly two years.
In his capacity as ambassador, Braithwaite scrimmaged with Norway in September after Trump expressed his displeasure that the country's defense spending was at 1.62 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) -- below the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries' pledge to spend at least 2 percent. Trump repeatedly has called on Oslo to boost its defense expenditures, noting the Scandanavian country's close proximity to Russia.

President Trump on Sunday nominated retired Rear Adm. Kenneth John Braithwaite to become the next Navy secretary.

"Norway is both a founding member of NATO and a key member of the alliance, and is financially capable of meeting these commitments," Braithwaite said. "I have emphasized that it is important for Norway to show leadership and reach the two-percent goal well before 2024."
Braithwaite, if confirmed, would report directly to the president and Defense Secretary Mark Esper to oversee all aspects of the Navy. A 1984 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy with a degree in political science, he later earned a Master’s degree in government administration from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995.
Braithwaite trained as a naval aviator, and after 21 years of military service, was the first of his class to earn a flag rank.
In his first assignment in 1986, he flew anti-submarine missions as a member of Patrol Squadron 17, stationed at Naval Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii, tracking Soviet submarines throughout the Northern and Western Pacific regions. After a two-year stint in Naval aviation, Braithwaite became a public affairs officer and rose to chief of public affairs for Naval Base Philadelphia in 1990.
He initially went to work on legislative affairs on Capitol Hill, including strategic communications and public affairs. His job titles included special assistant in the Navy’s Office of Legislative Affairs and director of public affairs aboard the aircraft carrier USS America, before leaving active duty and joining the reserves in 1993.
He assumed command of the Naval fleet tasked with providing support to the joint task force commander at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in October 2001, shortly after the terror attacks of Sept. 11.
Braithwaite deployed overseas several times in the Navy reserves. In 2003, he served a naval support role as part of the fleet involved in the initial invasion into Iraq.
A portion of his command supported the naval operations to capture the port of Umm Qasr in March 2003, which marked the first military confrontation during the Iraq War to regain control of a key port that played an important role in the shipment of humanitarian supplies to Iraqi civilians.
He later deployed to assist with relief efforts after a major 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.
Aside from his naval service, Braithwaite also served as executive and state director to U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania from 1997-2000.
A successful businessman, Braithwaite also served in executive positions at ARCO, a prominent American oil company, and Ascension Health in Washington, D.C.
In March 2007, Braithwaite was named the senior vice president of the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania and executive director of its Delaware Valley Healthcare Council lobbying group, which represented more than 50 acute-care hospitals and 50 other facilities providing health care services to Southeastern Pennsylvania. That same year, he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral.
Although Braithwaite's tenure in the Navy and public service has been seen as relatively free of controversy, he slammed then-President George W. Bush's proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid as "draconian" in 2008.
Braithwaite retired from the Naval Reserve in 2011 as a highly decorated rear admiral, his last post being vice chief of information and head of Naval Reserve public affairs.
He's married with two children. His father, Kenneth J. Braithwaite Sr., served in World War II and survived being shot in the head soon after storming Normandy Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Trump announced the nomination Sunday on Twitter, writing: "Admiral and now Ambassador to Norway Ken Braithwaite will be nominated by me to be the new Secretary of the Navy. A man of great achievement and success, I know Ken will do an outstanding job!"

New York governor blasted for overreaction to Times Square bomb threat

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo sparked unnecessary fears on Sunday when he denounced a hoax bomb threat against Times Square, NYPD and City Hall sources told The Post.
The NYPD investigated a Saturday social media post threatening to blast Times Square with two pounds of explosives, determined the post was a hollow threat, and decided not to issue a statement on it, lest they stoke public fear — but that didn’t stop Cuomo from putting out a grandstanding press release on Sunday.
“There is no indication that this threat is credible, but with that said, state police will be on the ground working with NYPD and partners to step up patrols in the area during the day,” reads the statement, which a Cuomo spokesperson said was released out of an “abundance of caution.”
A City Hall source called the move “a classic Cuomo publicity stunt.”
While Cuomo pledged his state cops would work with NYPD, he never actually spoke with city cops before issuing his declaration, an NYPD source said, calling it an “odd way of addressing the situation without contacting PD.”
“Cuomo is always looking for attention, especially when it involves the city,” another police source added, noting that Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio “are clearly not friends.”
The threat went up on Reddit on Saturday and made a reference to “killing all minorities,” a high ranking police source told The Post.
Another law enforcement source said the poster threatened “they are bringing two pounds of explosives to Times Square in New York and ‘setting it off,’ warning people, ‘don’t go today.’ ”
No details were made available on how the NYPD determined the threat was not credible, but the department beefed-up patrols in Midtown on Sunday as a precaution.
Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy and Carl Campanile.

CNN Andrew McCabe Cartoons

Now works for CNN

Now works for CNN

Now works for CNN

Now works for CNN

Andrew McCarthy: How significant is report on FBI surveillance of Trump campaign aide?

Now works for CNN as part of the Deep State.

CNN reports that an FBI attorney tampered with documents related to the Carter Page application. How much does it matter?
this the tip of a scandalous iceberg? Or is it a signal that Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s much-anticipated report on investigative irregularities in the Trump-Russia probe will be much ado about nothing much?
A low-ranking FBI lawyer altered a document that was somehow related to the Obama Justice Department’s application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) for a national-security surveillance warrant. The application, approved by the FISC in October 2016, targeted former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page — an American citizen, former naval intelligence officer, and apparent FBI cooperating witness — as a clandestine agent of Russia.
Apparently, the document tampering made at least one of the application’s factual assertions seem more damning than it actually was. The FBI attorney, who has not been identified, is also said to have falsified an email in an effort to provide back-up support for the fabricated claim. The lawyer, who was reportedly pushed out of the bureau when the tampering incident came to light, was interviewed in Horowitz’s inquiry and is said to be a subject of the related criminal investigation being conducted by Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham.
The news was broken on Thursday night by CNN. That in itself is noteworthy. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is a CNN contributor, and former FBI General Counsel James Baker is a frequent CNN guest. The IG’s probe has scrutinized the conduct of both.
CNN commentators also include other former federal law-enforcement officials, who have ties to the bureau and to some of the former officials under scrutiny. CNN’s news story about the evidence tampering is sourced to “several people briefed on the matter,” who were not identified. The IG report is scheduled to be released on Dec. 9, and witnesses have recently been permitted to review a draft of it under tight restrictions.
The ‘premise’ of the investigation
CNN adds that some of the witnesses interviewed expect the IG’s report will “find mistakes in the FBI’s handling of the FISA process, but that those mistakes do not undermine the premise for the FBI’s investigation.” The network describes that premise as the conclusion “that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.”

Secretary of Navy says Trump’s tweet is not a formal order

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) — The secretary of the U.S. Navy said Saturday he doesn’t consider a tweet by President Donald Trump an order and would need a formal order to stop a review of a sailor who could lose his status as a Navy SEAL.

“I need a formal order to act,” Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said, and referred to the tweet. “I don’t interpret them as a formal order.”

Trump insisted last Thursday the Navy “will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher’s Trident Pin,” inserting himself into an ongoing legal review of the sailor’s ability to hold onto the pin that designates him a SEAL.

The Navy on Wednesday notified Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher that he will face a review early next month to determine if he should remain on the elite force.

Gallagher was acquitted of a murder charge in the stabbing death of an Islamic State militant captive, but a military jury convicted him of posing with the corpse while in Iraq in 2017. He was then demoted to chief.

Spencer, speaking on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada, said if the president requests the process to stop, the process stops.

“Good order and discipline is also obeying the orders of the President of the United States,” he said.

Despite the differing views with the president over the appropriate handling of the case, Spencer told reporters that he has not threatened to resign over the issue. But he acknowledged that he serves at the pleasure of the president.

“The president the United States is the commander in chief. He’s involved in every aspect of government and he can make decisions and give orders as appropriate,” he said.

Gallagher’s lawyers have accused the Navy of trying to remove the SEAL designation in retaliation for Trump’s decision last week to restore Gallagher’s rank.

Gallagher filed a complaint with the inspector general accusing a rear admiral of insubordination for defying Trump’s actions. Rear Adm. Collin Green is the Naval Special Warfare commander.

Under the review procedure, a five-person board will convene Dec. 2 behind closed doors. It will include one SEAL officer and four senior enlisted SEALs, according to the two U.S. officials. Gallagher can appear once before the board on Dec. 4 but without his lawyers. He can dispute the evidence given to the board that will include his conviction and call witnesses.

Gallagher can appeal any final decision that will be made by the Naval Personnel Board, which will take into account Green’s input and the board’s recommendations.

Trump’s initial order in Gallagher only referred to restoring his rank, but it did not explicitly pardon the SEAL for any wrongdoing.

Green also notified three SEAL officers who oversaw Gallagher during the deployment — Lt. Cmdr. Robert Breisch, Lt. Jacob Portier and Lt. Thomas MacNeil — that they are also being reviewed, according to the officials.

Removing their Trident pins means they will no longer be SEALs but could remain in the Navy.

The Navy has revoked 154 Trident pins since 2011.

Tougher US asylum policy follows in Europe’s footsteps

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — Nkeze wasn’t home when Cameroonian militants came knocking, probably to deliver their signature ultimatum to join their separatist movement or have his writing arm cut off.

The 24-year-old economics student escaped to Douala, the country’s largest city, only to learn that the government wanted to arrest him for participating in a university protest. He then flew to Ecuador and traveled through eight countries to the U.S. border with Mexico, including a trek through Panamanian jungle where he saw corpses and refugees crying for shelter, food and water.

In his quest to settle with relatives in Houston, Nkeze now faces a potentially insurmountable obstacle: a new American ban forbids anyone from applying for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border if they traveled through another country to get there.

“When you find yourself on U.S. soil, you are well-protected,” Nkeze said, sounding upbeat as he waited in Tijuana for a chance to make his case. “You are protected by human rights.” He spoke to The Associated Press on the condition that he be identified only by his last name due to safety concerns.

The U.S. is increasingly aligning itself with wealthy countries in Europe and elsewhere to make asylum a more distant prospect.

On Thursday, American authorities sent a Honduran man from El Paso, Texas, to Guatemala. It marked the first time the U.S. government directed an asylum-seeker back to that country under the new policy, which gave him an option to file a claim there. He decided against filing a claim and returned to Honduras, according to Guatemala’s foreign ministry.

Asylum was once almost an afterthought, until an unprecedented surge of migrants made the United States the world’s top destination in 2017, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. The U.S. held its leading position last year, followed by Peru, Germany, France and Turkey.

Nearly half of the roughly 1 million cases in backlogged U.S. immigration courts are asylum claims, with most from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

Trump has called asylum “a scam” and declared that the country is “full.” In nine months, the administration returned more than 55,000 asylum-seekers to Mexico to wait for their cases to wind through U.S. courts. Another asylum ban on anyone who crosses the border illegally from Mexico is temporarily blocked in court.

It’s unclear how the ban will be rolled out.

The U.S. Homeland Security Department did not comment on Thursday’s initial flight, which got a bare-bones announcement from Guatemala’s foreign ministry. The U.S. has struck agreements with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras that aim to send back asylum-seekers who pass through their countries, but the Central American nations are woefully unprepared to accept large numbers.

The U.N. Refugee Agency said Tuesday that the ban is at odds with international law and “could result in the transfer of highly vulnerable individuals to countries where they may face life-threatening dangers.”

Asylum is designed for people fleeing persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political beliefs or membership in a social group. It isn’t intended for people who migrate for economic reasons, but many consider it their best hope of escaping poverty and violence.

The U.S. isn’t alone in asking other countries to block migrants. After about 1 million refugees traveled through Turkey and Greece to seek safety in Europe, the European Union agreed in 2016 to pay Turkey billions of euros to keep them in refugee camps.

The EU has also funded the Libyan Coast Guard to stop Africans from crossing the Mediterranean, where thousands have drowned. Libyan forces have kept refugees in squalid conditions and inflicted torture.

Since 2001, Australia has intermittently blocked boats from Asia and detained asylum-seekers on Christmas Island, a tiny Australian territory, or sent them to Papua New Guinea and Nauru, an island nation of 10,000 people. Australia pays detention costs.

The U.S. long resettled more refugees than any other country, raising its ceiling to 110,000 during President Barack Obama’s last year in office. That practice has been sharply curtailed since Trump took office, with the country planning to resettle no more than 18,000 refugees in 2020.

“There’s this race to the bottom around the world, and governments are looking to each other and trying to figure out what’s the harshest policy they can get away with,” said David FitzGerald, a sociology professor at University of California at San Diego and author of “Refuge Beyond Reach: How Rich Democracies Repel Asylum-seekers.”

Cameroonians hoping to follow Nkeze’s path face mounting obstacles. Ecuador, the main gateway from Europe, began requiring visas for Cameroonians and 10 other nationalities in August, including six in Africa. Under heavy pressure from Trump, Mexico is bottling up Cameroonians and other U.S.-bound asylum-seekers near its southern border with Guatemala.

Nkeze walked through Panama’s remote, mostly roadless Darien Gap in less than four days on his way to the U.S. After giving his tent and raincoat to a woman who was clinging to life, he slept on a stone and prayed for clear skies and morning light. Only about a dozen in his group of 40 men could keep up in a race to a refugee camp on the other side of the jungle.

When his 20-day transit permit in Mexico expired, Nkeze helped a friend at a Tijuana juice factory for a cut of his earnings and lived at a no-frills hotel in the city’s red-light district.

Even before the ban, asylum was difficult to get in the U.S. Judges granted only 21% of cases, or 13,248 out of 62,382, in the 2018 fiscal year. Nkeze can also ask for two variations of asylum, but they are even harder to obtain, with 3% succeeding under “withholding of removal” law and only 2% under the U.N. Convention Against Torture.

“They essentially want you to bring a note from your torturer before they are willing to let you stay in the U.S,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of immigration law practice at Cornell University.

Nkeze may have caught a break when a federal judge in San Diego ruled Tuesday that anyone who appeared at a U.S. border crossing before the ban was announced July 16 and waited for their names to be called should be exempt.

He waited for five months in Tijuana for his turn on a list of nearly 9,000 people seeking asylum at a San Diego border crossing.

When his name was finally called Nov. 12, he wore a Mexican flag pin on the chest of his jacket as Mexican authorities escorted him to U.S. border inspectors. He said it was a show of appreciation.

He was immediately taken into immigration custody and is being held in an Arizona detention center.

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Associated Press writer Sonia Perez D. in Guatemala City contributed to this report.