Trump stands by statements on Mexican illegal immigrants, surprised by backlash

Republican presidential candidate and real estate mogul Donald Trump on Saturday stood by statements he made recently that too many illegal immigrants from Mexico are criminals but said he was surprised by the backlash and that his comments are causing financial concerns.
“The crime is raging and it’s violent. And if you talk about it, it’s racist,” Trump told Fox News, three days after a purported illegal Mexican immigrant deported five previous times allegedly killed a woman in San Francisco.
Trump first made his inflammatory remarks during his non-scripted, June 16 presidential announcement speech.
“When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending the best,” he said during the announcement. “They're not sending you, they're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they're telling us what we're getting."
Since then, a list of businesses have announced plans to cut ties with Trump’s vast business empire, while fellow Republican candidates and others have questioned Trump’s remarks.
NBC and Univision, for example, have decided not to air the Trump-owned Miss Universe Pageant, Macy’s is dropping his signature clothing line, New York Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio has ordered a review of Trump's city contracts and NASCAR is moving an annual banquet from the Trump National Doral resort in Miami. 
“I didn’t know it was going to be this severe,” Trump said Saturday, adding that he was surprised by the NASCAR decision, considering he has a good relationship with the group. “I am a whipping post.”
Still, Trump has drawn support from Americans who say he is openly confronting the severity of the immigration problem that others won’t publicly knowledge.
Trump also said Saturday that the problem isn’t limited to Mexico, that everybody entering the United States is not criminal or problematic and that his concerns are rooted in national security.
“It’s about safety,” he said. “Some of the people coming here are very violent people, not all.”
Trump and fellow GOP White House candidate and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio have publicly exchanged remarks since Trump’s presidential announcement, with Rubio saying Trump’s comments about Mexicans were “offensive, inaccurate and divisive.”
After Mexican illegal immigrant Francisco Sanchez apparently killed 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco in a random attack Wednesday, Trump, who has proposed build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, sent a direct tweet to Rubio, the son of Cuban parents who has made immigration reform a part of his presidential campaign.
“What do you say to the family of Kathryn Steinle in CA who was viciously killed b/c we can’t secure our border? Stand up for US,” Trump tweeted.
Federal officials said local authorities repeatedly released Sanchez, who was in their custody as recently as this spring.
On Saturday, Trump said Rubio was “weak on immigration” and that fellow GOP White House candidate and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry “could have done a lot more.”
He praised what he considers fellow candidate and Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz’s tough immigration stance, calling him “very brave.”

  Kathryn Steinle

  
Kathryn Steinle was shot Wednesday evening as she walked with her father and a family friend at Pier 14, one of the top tourist attractions in the city. Police arrested Sanchez about an hour after the shooting of the 32-year-old San Francisco resident.

 Sanchez

Sanchez has seven felony convictions and has been deported five times to his native Mexico, most recently in 2009, federal officials said.

Haley’s Charleston response, Confederate flag stand spark VP talk

First let's do away with the flags and then we can start burning all the books we don't like. 

What a great way FOR ME TO GET A FEW EXTRA VOTES.

South Carolina GOP Gov. Nikki Haley’s response to the Charleston massacre, highlighted by her call to remove the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds, has thrust her back into the national spotlight and re-ignited talk about what role she might play in the 2016 race. 
Not only is Haley poised to be a powerful surrogate, there's already chatter that she could make a solid Republican vice presidential candidate.
"She’d be on anybody’s list,” Mike Huckabee, one 14 GOP presidential candidates and a former Arkansas governor, told Fox News on Tuesday. “She’s done a terrific job in South Carolina.”
Haley has been a high-profile Republican since she won the governorship as part of the 2010 Tea Party wave.
But her call to remove the Confederate battle flag after a white male fatally shot nine black people June 17 inside an historic African-American church in Charleston, S.C., has Republican presidential candidates, political observers and others suggesting her leadership in the aftermath shows she could be a pivotal player in the presidential race.
In addition, the Republican National Committee, South Carolina's U.S. senators and several of the GOP White House candidates have followed Haley in calling for the flag's removal, amid many Southerners’ belief that the flag is part of their heritage, not a symbol of white supremacy.
Haley, an Indian-American and the state’s first female governor, insists her call to remove the flag was deeply personal and beyond politics, repeatedly telling reporters she couldn’t “look her children in the face” while allowing the flag to fly.
But in a presidential campaign season, the political implications are unavoidable.
Juleanne Glover, who has worked on Republican presidential campaigns for Arizona Sen. John McCain and Steve Forbes and is now a senior adviser for the international firm Teneo Strategy, agrees that Haley could be a top vice presidential pick.
But she also argues Haley could play a far bigger role in the White House race that would begin much earlier than when candidates pick a running mate in summer 2016.
Glover suggested Tuesday that Haley’s backing and physical presence at campaign stops across early-voting South Carolina could make or break a candidate’s White House bid and that her voice on such topics as women’s issues, education reform and long-term immigration policy could “create a platform for 2016.” 
“She could play a pivotal role in all of these issues and in the future of the party,” Glover said. “She’s an American success story with a biographical narrative that lends itself to a larger, inspirational story. Friends who know her well have always been evangelical about her potential. They are not surprised.”
The decision by Haley, an elected official, to end her previous support for the flag, which was moved from atop the state capitol dome in 2000, indeed put her at the forefront of the issue.
However, she was not the first high-profile Republican to speak out.
Haley made the announcement, amid mounting public outcry, five days after the incident and three days after 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and 2016 GOP candidate Jeb Bush called it a symbol of racism.
Within the crowded GOP field, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham support the flag being taken down, while Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum have not taken a specific public stance. The field is expected to swell to 16 candidates.
As a female and a minority official, the 43-year-old Haley indeed has the potential to become a major figure in the new guard of the Republican Party.
But some political observers suggest she is still a work in progress.
Haley was elected last year to a second term with roughly 56 percent of the vote, the largest margin of victory for a South Carolina gubernatorial candidate in 24 years. But she won in an overwhelmingly Republican state and would likely need to broaden her appeal to be selected as a running mate.
In addition, the former state legislator, who has an accounting degree from Clemson University, has largely focused on job growth and state economic development and less on race and women’s issues.
And she has occasionally clashed with Democrats and Republicans alike in the state legislature.
Haley upset black Democrats in part over her refusal to expand Medicaid under ObamaCare and for supporting a state voter-identification law they consider discriminatory.
However, the week before the Charleston church killings, Haley signed into a law a bill requiring police officers to wear body cameras that was championed by  Democratic state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, killed while leading a bible study inside the church.
She also got support from Pinckney, an ardent progressive, for an economic-development plan to dredge the Savannah River.
Still, College of Charleston political Professor Kendra Stewart said Haley has perhaps an even more “contentious” relationship with the GOP-controlled legislature, with which she has clashed over spending, ethics reform and state agency control.
Stewart said Haley also has offended assembly leaders by criticizing them publicly and vetoing their legislation, which has resulted in efforts to override her vetoes.
Glover thinks Haley has had to battle with the old guard in both parties to achieve her political goals but acknowledges “some of the legislative tussles have not always helped burnished her image.”
Another big issue is simply the political calculations of picking any vice presidential candidate -- which includes such factors as the Democrats’ presidential nominee and whether the GOP nominee is, for example, a strong conservative or more of a moderate who would gain wider appeal with somebody like Haley.
Stewart suggests that Haley’s odds increase if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination or if an East Coast moderate like Christie is the Republican choice.
“If Clinton wins, it would be wise for Republicans to have a female or non-white male on the ballot,” Stewart said. “She’s very appealing to the Republican Party’s more conservative base. She would add some strength to that part of the ticket.”

Clinton campaign ropes off reporters at New Hampshire parade

Campaign aides for Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton on Saturday roped off reporters from the candidate as she walked and talked with potential voters during a July Fourth parade in New Hampshire, sparking frustration from the press corps and outrage from the state Republican Party.
“Hillary Clinton continues to demonstrate her obvious contempt and disdain for the Granite State’s style of grassroots campaigning,” New Hampshire Republican State Committee Chairman Jennifer Horn said in a statement. “The use of a rope line at a New Hampshire parade is a sad joke and insults the traditions of our first-in-the-nation primary.”
Reporters were reportedly allowed to get close to Clinton but were later herded away by campaign aides concerned about crowd control.
“Spectacle of Clinton as candidate -- press being pulled along with a rope,” tweeted New York Times presidential campaign correspondent Maggie Haberman.
The campaign responded to the outrage, telling CNN: “While the GOP might want to spin a good yarn on this, let’s not get tied up in knots. We wanted to accommodate the press, allow (Clinton) greet voter (sic.) And allow the press to be right there in the parade with her, as opposed to preset locations.”
However, the optics of reporters being corralled along at the event, in Gotham, N.H., did not look good and added to the criticism that Clinton, unlike other 2016 presidential candidates, is shielded from reporters and their questions and as a public figure is cloaked in secrecy. 
“Never underestimate @HillaryClinton’s capacity to fritter away natural advantages with poor judgement,” tweeted Politico politics reporter Glenn Thrush.
Reporters and potential voters are often kept at a distance from presidential candidates at large events by what is called a “rope line.” The event Saturday was also marked by at least one person heckling Clinton about what exactly she did as secretary of state before the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed.
Though Clinton, also a former first lady and U.S. senator, is the clear Democratic front runner, primary challenger Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Independent, has been drawing large crowds at campaign events in New Hampshire. 
He released the following statement Saturday on the Clinton campaign’s use of a rope line to protect the Democrat frontrunner on a public street at Gorham’s annual Independence Day parade:
“Today, Republican presidential candidates marched in parades across New Hampshire that were open to the public without obstruction from their staff. Their efforts to reach out to voters and engage in retail campaigning stand in sharp contrast to Secretary Clinton’s arrogant and shameful behavior.”

Happy 4th of July Cartoon

The real reason America is exceptional

 

An American Flag flies at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, N.J., Tuesday, June 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

As the first rays of morning light wash over the eastern seaboard -- a flag is unfurled with broad stripes and bright stars.
 A soldier stands guard over sleeping heroes - known only to their Maker.

 

Now Playing The Common Man: A proud American

A resting place for the Common Man.
A farmer in the heartland gathers his crop as golden wheat shimmers in the breeze. A rancher gallops along the Texas Hill Country -- herding his cattle to the stockyards. A river boat captain pilots his boat down the muddy waters of the Mississippi.

We are an uncommon nation established by common men.

A job for the Common Man
In a Tennessee church house a candle flickers -- a preacher prays on bended knee -- asking God to bless our land -- to shed his grace on thee.
A prayer for the Common Man.
When the floodwaters rise and the storm clouds billow -- we stand ready to help -- feeding the hungry -- mending the wounded -- rebuilding homes and lives.
Goodwill for the Common Man.
And in some distant land a soldier stands guard defending our nation -- tending Lady Liberty's flame. They are young men and young women from our big cities and small towns -- willing to sacrifice their lives so that we can be free.
A protector for the Common Man.
We are the sons and daughters of the Common Man.
We are noble people forged by freedom’s fire.
We are an uncommon nation established by common men.
We are proud Americans and this is our fanfare.

Oregon launches program to tax drivers by the mile

David Hastings is a rare American. This long-time hybrid car owner from Oregon wants to pay higher taxes for roads and bridges and says the current 30 cents per gallon state gas tax barely affects him.
"I've been free-loading on the highways for 20 years driving electric cars or hybrid cars, getting at least 40 miles to the gallon. So I haven't been paying my share," Hastings said.
Now, Hastings will pay more thanks to OReGO -- the first pay-by-the-mile program in the U.S. 
Oregon’s Department of Transportation has been working on it for 15 years as a way to eventually replace the gas tax, which has been flat due to an influx of high mileage vehicles and people driving less.
Right now the program is voluntary and being capped at 5,000 participants, but an ODOT official told Fox News the ultimate goal is to make it mandatory and change the way states pay for roads -- forever.
"We're trying to make up for a growing deficit, really, because inflation's eating away at our ability to buy asphalt and rebar and the things we need to maintain the roads," said Tom Fuller of the Oregon Department of Transportation.
According to a national usage fee alliance, 28 states are in various stages of following down the same road. However, there are also privacy concerns. Two of the three OReGO systems track and store a car’s every move.
"To put a GPS monitor in everybody's car, the government already knows too much about us as it is," Jeff Kruse, a Republican lawmaker told Fox News.
Others are raising questions about the cost. Getting the gas tax is cheap, but OReGO vendors will eat up 40 cents of every dollar collected, and for those not used to paying any gas tax, it could be a whole new sticker shock – every month.
Jeff Allen, of “Drive Oregon,” supports the one and a half cent per mile usage fee -- to a point.
"We need to be subsidizing and incentivizing electric cars and not putting more taxes or fees on them, not discouraging people from buying them in any way," Allen said.

Republicans look to deliver blow against ObamaCare tax

Despite the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding ObamaCare subsidies, opponents of the law remain poised to strike a key blow against another component of the health care overhaul in a matter of months. 
Republicans, with help from Democrats, have gained momentum in their long-running effort to repeal the law's controversial 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices. 
The House voted 280-140 to nix the tax, which went into effect in 2013, in June; the debate heads next to the Senate. While Republicans have tried dozens of times to unravel all or parts of the law through repeal legislation, this bill has bipartisan backing -- and, with a potential veto showdown on the horizon, supporters may even have a veto-proof majority. 
"Obviously, we are really heartened by the House vote -- I think more significantly, 46 Democrats joined with the Republicans in the House," said J.C. Scott, head of government relations for the trade group Advanced Medical Technology Association, of AdvaMed, which has been lobbying Congress hard for a repeal. It released surveys detailing the tax's negative impact on its member companies in 2014 and 2015. 
Scott said, "Clearly the congressional spirit is there on a bipartisan basis to get something done by the end of the year" in the Senate. 
"I think the will is there," he said. 

More on this...

• Sen. Barrasso: 'No end in sight' for ObamaCare costs

Indeed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., wants to see action on the repeal by the end of 2015, his office told FoxNews.com. 
A bill introduced in January by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has five Democratic co-sponsors, including the two liberal Democratic senators from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, as well as Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. 
The push has enjoyed bipartisan support from the beginning from lawmakers who think the tax has cost the country thousands of jobs in the medical device industry and is drying up resources for private research and development. 
"Both Republicans and Democrats understand how bad this tax really is and we owe it to the American people to ensure the development of life saving medical devices are not plagued by high costs that will, ultimately, be passed on to patients," Hatch said in January. 
The tax is supposed to help pay for ObamaCare, bringing upwards of $30 billion into the program over 10 years. It applies to all gross company sales of non-retail medical devices and supplies, from X-Ray equipment and MRI machines to bandages and surgical tools. Because it is a 2.3 percent tax on gross sales, the percentage it takes out of profits is much larger. 
The repeal push once had even liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on board when the Democrat-led Senate passed a non-binding budget amendment dealing with the issue in 2013. "When Congress taxes the sale of a specific product through an excise tax, as the Affordable Care Act does with medical devices, it too often disproportionately impacts the small companies with the narrowest financial margins and the broadest innovated potential," she said in 2013. 
It is not clear whether she is supporting Hatch's latest bill, given she has been a strong supporter of ObamaCare overall. 
But the number of Democrats who voted for repeal in the House, coupled with the support Democrats have shown for repeal in two previous non-binding budget resolutions in the Senate, indicate the latest bill at least has enough support to pass Congress. McConnell's office said pro-repeal lawmakers also believe they have enough votes in both chambers to override a veto, which the White House has threatened. 
Repealing the tax, the White House said in June, would amount to a "large tax break to profitable corporations." 
"This excise tax is one of several designed so that industries that gain from the coverage expansion will help offset the cost of that expansion," said the Office of Management and Budget in a statement. "Its repeal would take away a funding source for financial assistance that is working to improve [health care] coverage and affordability and would increase the Federal deficit by $24.4 billion over 10 years." 
Supporters of the tax say there is no real evidence it is killing more than 30,000 jobs, as claimed by the AdvaMed survey, or that it will ultimately shift jobs overseas. The Washington Post's Fact Checker gave these claims two "pinocchios" in 2014 and three on June 30 after reviewing them. 
The paper said the impact of the tax on companies is actually smaller -- closer to 1.5 percent -- because companies can claim a deduction on their federal income taxes. 
Fact Checker also pointed to a Congressional Research Service study that found the impact of the tax on jobs and R&D negligible, and pointed to another survey of medical device companies by the Emergo Group that found that nearly 57 percent said they did not make any significant staff cuts due to the tax, compared with 14 percent who did. 
When asked if the tax was squeezing funds for R&D, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters in January, "I don't think there's any reason why that medical device tax would in any way limit the kind of innovation that the president believes could revolutionize health care."

Government's hold on power hangs in balance no matter what Greeks decide, analysts say

Analysts say no matter what the Greeks decide in Sunday’s referendum vote, the government’s hold on power is more uncertain than its prime minister suggests.
Prime Minister Alex Tsipras is calling on voters to deliver a resounding “no” in the popular vote that he believes will give him strong leverage in his negotiations with creditors to swing a softer bailout agreement for Greece, which has been ravaged by years of austerity, recession and poverty.
A win for the No campaign could allow Tsipras to get a stronger grip on power. However, analysts don’t think that could be the case.
They say a “no” note could still plunge Tsipras’ position into uncertainty if negotiations drag on with creditors who see such the outcome as a Greek snub of the euro. Without a quick deal, banks could stay closed to keep their reserves from running dry.
"A deteriorating import-dependent economy will provoke a rapid decline in public support for the government and fresh elections may become inevitable, but this will take time," said Dimitri Sotiropoulos, political science professor at the University of Athens.
A vote for the Yes campaign could case Tsipras’ public mandate in doubt and force him to broaden his coalition government, political analyst George Sertzis said. The never government may have Syriza at its core, but the cabinet’s composition could change to include “respected personalities who can be recruited to fill that role.”
The radical left Syriza emerged from the political fringes in January as Greek voters sought an alternatives to what they saw as a bankrupt political establishment they blame for opening the door to half a decade of punishing salary and pension rollbacks, steep job cuts and hefty taxes.
Just a few years ago, the country's two main political forces, the right-wing New Democracy and the socialist PASOK parties, commanded some 80 percent of the vote between them. Now, with many Greeks seeing them as kowtowing to the lenders' diktats, their support was dwindled.
Tsipras' youth, unorthodox style and pledges to fight the good fight for the country's poorest endeared him to many and persuaded some that he could take on the institutional behemoths that decide the economic fate of entire nations.
However, the lack of results in Greek talks have diminished the government’s credibility in the eyes of Europe’s power circles.
"This government doesn't trust the institutions of the EU and the IMF, and those institutions trust the Greek government even less," said Sotiropoulos.
Tsipras’ gambit appears to rest on whether he can clinch a deal quickly so that banks can reopen and get money flowing to businesses once more. Tsipras told private TV station Antenna Thursday that he sees a deal emerging with lenders “within 48 hours” after the referendum.
His finance minister, Yianis Varoufakis, told Ireland's RTE radio Friday that an agreement with creditors "is more or less done" and that European officials had put forward "very decent proposals" this week.
The European Union and International Monetary Fund are unlikely to cave in on demands for tough austerity measures, notes Sotiropoulos.
The creditors may offer a vague pledge to consider restructuring Greece’s crushing debt, but that won’t likely happen until the government faithfully implements the terms of the deal for at least 12 to 18 months, said Sotiropoulos.
A 'no' win would be a Pyrrhic victory for the Greek government. You can't survive on Pyrrhic victories because you need funds to keep the country running," he said.
Sefertzis said Tsipras' political decline may come much faster even with a referendum "no" in his pocket as he would have little time to get to keep the country from economic collapse.
With the economy fledgling, Tsirpras’ hold on power would be a “matter of days rather than weeks,” said Sefertzis.
The latest opinion polls put the No and Yes camps in a dead heat as divisions have emerged even within the Greek government. A lawmaker from its right-wing junior coalition partner was kicked out for backing a "yes" vote.
Writing in the liberal daily "Ta Nea," pollster Elias Nikolakopoulos said any predictions about the outcome on Sunday "are exceedingly precarious" because party allegiances in this vote are fluid.
Speaking on Ireland's RTE radio, Varoufakis even suggested that a "yes" win is possible, albeit by a narrow margin. But even then, he insisted his party would come out "stronger and united."
"Syriza will remain the only credible party in the parliament, our young leader will remain the only credible leader of this nation," Varoufakis said.
There may be credence to that. Sotiropoulos said in case of a "yes" win, Syriza could remain part of any new national unity government given its large support.
He said it would make sense for Greece's creditors to compensate the country if a "yes" vote prevails by easing austerity, earmarking more developments funds and finding ways to alleviate the debt burden without necessarily resorting to write-offs.