Thursday, March 10, 2016
Clinton, Sanders join in vow not to deport illegal kids, non-criminals at latest Dem debate
hypocrites? |
Their comments set up a showdown with Republican candidates Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who both have vowed to clamp down on illegal immigrants in the country.
Trump and Cruz, along with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will get their opportunity to address the thorny topic Thursday when they debate in the Sunshine State.
Clinton and Sanders squared off in their eighth debate Wednesday night held at Miami Dade College in Florida. The Univision/CNN debate is the final one scheduled this month between the candidates in the running for the 2016 Democratic nomination.
During the debate, both Clinton and Sanders vowed to push for immigration reform if elected president.
“The essence of what we are trying to do is to unite families, not to divide families,” Sanders said.
Clinton says she will extend President Obama’s executive orders shielding some illegal immigrants from deportation.
Clinton called the New York businessman “un-American” and said he traffics in “prejudice and paranoia.”
“You don’t make America great again by getting rid of everything that made America great,” Clinton said, referencing Trump’s campaign slogan.
Sanders said voters would “never elect” a candidate like Trump.
Clinton also slammed Trump’s plan to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“As I understand, he’s talking about a tall wall. A beautiful, tall wall,” Clinton said, adding that Trump’s plan to keep out immigrants and his claim he’ll get Mexico to pay for it is “a fantasy.”
Clinton then turned her sights on Sanders, accusing him of supporting legislation that would have led to indefinite detention of people facing deportation, and for standing with Minutemen vigilantes.
Sanders refuted the notion, which he called "ridiculous" and "absurd," and accused Clinton of picking small pieces out of big legislative packages to distort his voting record.
"No, I do not support vigilantes and that is a horrific statement and an unfair statement to make," he said, adding: "I will match my record against yours any day of the week."
Clinton also dodged early debate questions about ongoing investigations into her use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. When debate moderator Jorge Ramos of Univision asked her if she would drop out of the race if indicted over the handling of her email while secretary of state she replied,"Oh for goodness sake, that is not going to happen. I'm not even answering that question."
The FBI is investigation the possibility of mishandling of sensitive information that passed through Clinton's private email server.
Sanders, as he has in the past, declined to bite on the issue, saying, "The process will take its course." He said he'd rather talk about the issues of wealth and income inequality.
Clinton also defended her role in the deadly 2012 attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya.
She said Wednesday that her shifting explanations for the crisis in the early hours were because of changing dynamics and new information.
Clinton also said the investigation has been politicized by Republicans seeking to score points against her campaign.
"This was fog of war," she said, saying that she regrets the lives lost in the crisis.
She added: "I wish there could be an easy answer at the time but we learned a lot."
Sanders came into Wednesday night’s debate after a surprise primary win in Michigan Tuesday, where he had been trailing by more than 20 points in the polls.
Clinton vowed to keep fighting Wednesday, saying, “It was a very close race. I’ve won some and I’ve lost some.”
Sanders campaign officials made the case Tuesday night that the Vermont senator’s attacks on Clinton’s support for free trade deals had an impact in the Michigan race, and likely will be effective in upcoming contests in Ohio, Illinois and Missouri.
The Sanders camp maintains Clinton’s advantage in the South will go away after next Tuesday, as rural voters in other states take a closer look at their candidate.
Clinton, though she maintains a healthy lead overall, needs Florida’s 99 delegates up for grabs March 15 to help clinch the nomination.
Trump train still rolling as detractors desperately try to slow him down
What does it take to stop this guy?
That has got to be the lament within the wreckage of the Republican establishment after Donald Trump won Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii after enduring nearly two weeks of political carpet-bombing.
There was criticism by everyone from Romney to Ryan, harsh rhetoric from his rivals and Super PAC attack ads, along with comparisons to Nixon and David Duke from the #NeverTrump wing of the media. And yet Trump still rolled to victory in three of the four states voting Tuesday.
Ted Cruz managed to win the Idaho caucuses, Marco Rubio had another terrible night as he ponders a last stand in Florida, and John Kasich had a respectable finish in Michigan that he hopes to parlay into a win in Ohio.
But politicians winning their home states is a pittance compared to what Trump, against all odds, is managing to pull off. To carry his first industrial Midwest state, while also winning easily in a Deep South state, shows the breadth of his appeal.
The media chatter heading into Tuesday was all about whether Trump had peaked. The attacks were changing the tone of the campaign, the national polls were tightening, and he lost two out of four states to Cruz over the weekend (both caucus states, where the senator’s superior organization gives him an edge).
More pundits started writing about how Trump would fall short of the required 1,237 delegates and how the party could snatch away the nomination in Cleveland.
So why did Trump do so well?
As he noted at his news conference, advertising has never mattered less than in this campaign cycle. Jeb Bush’s PAC spent $100 million and he went nowhere. People are tired of negative ads, viewing them as politics as usual. (Trump airs them as well, but doesn’t spend much of his fortune doing so.)
Trump’s critics believe that if there could just be more exposes, more digging, more focus on his past liberal views or current shifting of positions, his candidacy would collapse of its own weight.
But Trump’s appeal is not tied to policy specifics. It’s the image of strength he projects, the force of his personality and the notion that his business success shows he can shake up Washington.
Of course he benefits from enormous media attention, but look at how he does it. The three cable news networks carried his 45-minute presser, blowing off Hillary’s speech, because it was anything but a canned political address. He took reporters’ questions, parried criticism of his companies, talked up his vodka and steaks—it was a show. And yesterday he did a round of morning shows, taking still more questions and getting into a tiff with George Stephanopoulos over why the ABC anchor focused on the negative by bringing up late deciders who seemed to break against him.
Maybe there is some kryptonite that can weaken this guy. But as he runs roughshod over the Republican Party, no one has been able to find it.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.
That has got to be the lament within the wreckage of the Republican establishment after Donald Trump won Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii after enduring nearly two weeks of political carpet-bombing.
There was criticism by everyone from Romney to Ryan, harsh rhetoric from his rivals and Super PAC attack ads, along with comparisons to Nixon and David Duke from the #NeverTrump wing of the media. And yet Trump still rolled to victory in three of the four states voting Tuesday.
Ted Cruz managed to win the Idaho caucuses, Marco Rubio had another terrible night as he ponders a last stand in Florida, and John Kasich had a respectable finish in Michigan that he hopes to parlay into a win in Ohio.
But politicians winning their home states is a pittance compared to what Trump, against all odds, is managing to pull off. To carry his first industrial Midwest state, while also winning easily in a Deep South state, shows the breadth of his appeal.
The media chatter heading into Tuesday was all about whether Trump had peaked. The attacks were changing the tone of the campaign, the national polls were tightening, and he lost two out of four states to Cruz over the weekend (both caucus states, where the senator’s superior organization gives him an edge).
More pundits started writing about how Trump would fall short of the required 1,237 delegates and how the party could snatch away the nomination in Cleveland.
So why did Trump do so well?
As he noted at his news conference, advertising has never mattered less than in this campaign cycle. Jeb Bush’s PAC spent $100 million and he went nowhere. People are tired of negative ads, viewing them as politics as usual. (Trump airs them as well, but doesn’t spend much of his fortune doing so.)
Trump’s critics believe that if there could just be more exposes, more digging, more focus on his past liberal views or current shifting of positions, his candidacy would collapse of its own weight.
But Trump’s appeal is not tied to policy specifics. It’s the image of strength he projects, the force of his personality and the notion that his business success shows he can shake up Washington.
Of course he benefits from enormous media attention, but look at how he does it. The three cable news networks carried his 45-minute presser, blowing off Hillary’s speech, because it was anything but a canned political address. He took reporters’ questions, parried criticism of his companies, talked up his vodka and steaks—it was a show. And yesterday he did a round of morning shows, taking still more questions and getting into a tiff with George Stephanopoulos over why the ABC anchor focused on the negative by bringing up late deciders who seemed to break against him.
Maybe there is some kryptonite that can weaken this guy. But as he runs roughshod over the Republican Party, no one has been able to find it.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.
Aligning Against Donald? Bush to meet with Trump rivals, as Fiorina backs Cruz
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, after ending his campaign last month, is returning to the 2016 fray to meet with the remaining not-Trump candidates in his home state on Thursday – potentially the first step in an effort to power-broker a consensus alternative to take on the Republican front-runner.
It’s unclear whether Bush plans to endorse anyone before Florida holds its all-important primary on Tuesday. But the former candidates sense a quickly closing window to pick their horse as Donald Trump racks up ever-more wins and delegates.
Another former candidate, ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina, announced her endorsement earlier Wednesday for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz during a surprise appearance in Miami.
Fiorina, who dropped out of the 2016 race in February, called Cruz a “leader and a reformer” and urged voters to rally around Cruz as the candidate who can challenge Trump.
“Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are two sides of the same coin. They’re not going to reform the system. They are the system,” she said.
Sources confirmed to Fox News that Bush plans to meet Thursday with Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich while the candidates are in Florida for a GOP debate Thursday night. He has no plans to meet with Trump.
Asked about the meeting, which was first reported by The New York Times, Kasich told reporters he doesn’t know Bush’s plans and whether he intends to endorse.
“I like Jeb. I’ve known him a long time. And I don’t try to pre-guess what’s going to happen in a meeting,” Kasich said, adding: “Of course I’d like his endorsement. I’d like everybody’s endorsement.”
The movement by former GOP candidates comes after Cruz walked away from Tuesday’s primary contests with just one win, in Idaho, compared with Trump’s three. The billionaire businessman won in Mississippi, Michigan and Hawaii, building his already substantial delegate lead over the field.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another former presidential candidate, already has announced his support for Trump, taking to the campaign trail to stump with him.
But Fiorina railed against Trump during her pep talk for Cruz on Wednesday. And it’s hard to imagine Bush would even contemplate backing Trump’s outsider bid.
While Bush was in the race, Trump was relentless in his criticism of Bush’s family, his “low energy” and the big-money super PACs supporting him – which could explain why Bush does not have plans to meet with Trump in Florida on Thursday.
In her remarks in support of Cruz, Fiorina argued Wednesday he’s the only GOP candidate who can beat primary front-runner Trump or Clinton.
Fiorina said the argument that Cruz has made too many enemies on Capitol Hill only proves he is taking on the “Washington cartel.”
“You have a very important job on Tuesday,” said Fiorina, referring to Florida’s primary, where Cruz is running behind Trump. “It’s time to take the party back. It’s time to take our government back. It’s time to take the country back. So it’s time to unite behind the only one who can, Ted Cruz.”
Florida Sen. Rubio, who has only won two contests to date, has vowed to come from behind to win his home state next week, though he, too, trails in the polls.
Trump says GOP opposition to him 'taking advantage of our country'
Trump: I was a member of the establishment, saw it was wrong |
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump pushed back Wednesday night against what appears to be a growing move among the party establishment — including a few of his former rivals — to at least slow down his march to the convention with enough delegates in hand to claim the nomination.
Speaking with Sean Hannity on a special Fox News town hall, Trump accused GOP lawmakers opposed to his campaign of "taking advantage of our country".
The billionaire businessman called his campaign a movement "of competence and common sense and low taxes and [secure] borders and it would be so foolish to give it away."
Trump was referring to a conference held by the conservative American Enterprise Institute at Sea Island off the coast of Georgia over the weekend, where one of the topics reportedly was stopping Trump from securing the Republican nomination.
The conference reportedly was attended by Senate Majority Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other key Republican congressmen.
"I know all these people," Trump told Hannity. "These are people that are taking advantage of our country. They don’t want to have strong borders. They want stuff flowing across the borders. They don’t want to have taxation when countries treat us unfairly because they benefit from that."
"Politicians will do what’s right for the people that gave them the money," Trump added later, "not what's right for the country."
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told Fox News that he would not drop out of the Republican presidential race before next week's Florida primary, saying "we're gonna fight this thing through Tuesday ... and we're going to go on."
Rubio denied multiple reports that he had discussed the possibility of dropping out before the winner-take-all contest.
Speaking with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, Rubio said: "I have never discussed dropping out with anyone on my team, or anyone on the planet Earth ... I'm the only one who can beat Donald Trump in Florida.”
A Fox News poll released Wednesday showed Rubio trailing Trump by 23 percentage points among likely Republican voters in Florida.
"I honestly don’t believe Donald Trump will be the nominee," Rubio said. "I continue to believe it's going to be me, and it's got to start here in Florida."
Rubio also dismissed the possibility that he would form a so-called "unity" Republican ticket with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump's closest challenger in the delegate race, calling it " the kind of drama that makes it interesting in TV to speculate about."
"At some point we're all going to team up," Rubio said in reference to the non-Trump candidates. "We're all going to be on the same team, I hope.”
Cruz told Kelly that Rubio and Kasich were "good, honorable people, but neither of them has a path to the nomination."
"Head-to-head, not only do I beat Donald Trump," Cruz said, "but I defeat him resoundingly."
Cruz also walked back his earlier opposition to a possible convention fight between himself and Trump if neither man reaches the required 1,237 delegates during the primaries.
"Look, [Ronald] Reagan and [President Gerald] Ford battled it out at a contested convention [in 1976]," Cruz said. "That's what conventions are for." However, Cruz restated his opposition to a so-called brokered convention, calling it "a fever dream of the D.C. establishment" and warning of "an open revolt" among Republican voters if it came to pass.
Cruz later turned his rhetorical fire against Trump and Rubio over immigration reform and the so-called "Gang of Eight" bill in 2013.
"When Marco Rubio stood with Barack Obama and [Sen.] Chuck Schumer and [then-Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid ... I stood with millions of Americans," Cruz told Kelly. "Not only was Donald Trump nowhere to be found, he was funding the Gang of Eight. He gave $50,000 to five of its members."
Cruz also accused Rubio of lowering the tone of the campaign, saying, "I have no views whatsoever on any part of Donald Trump’s anatomy", an apparent reference to Rubio jabbing Trump's "small hands" at a Virginia campaign stop.
For his part, Rubio told Megyn Kelly that he regretted the remark, saying "my kids were embarrassed by it, my wife didn’t like it, I don’t think it reflects [well]; that’s not who I am."
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has staked his campaign's future on victory in next Tuesday's Ohio primary, told Fox News' Greta van Susteren that he would "probably not" pick up enough delegates in other contests to overtake Trump, but noted that voters had only "picked about half the delegates [so far] this year ... anything is possible."
A Fox News poll released Wednesday showed Kasich leading Trump by five percentage points among likely Republican voters in the Buckeye State.
"We're going to win Ohio," Kasich told van Susteren. "That's not even a question for me. It's about what we do after that and all the places we have to go. But we're not taking it for granted."
Trump has 458 delegates to Cruz's 359 following Tuesday's contests, in which Trump won the Mississippi and Michigan primaries as well as the Hawaii caucus. Cruz also picked up a win in the Idaho primary. Rubio is a distant third with 151 delegates, while Kasich has 54.
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Hey, Republicans, stop hating on Trump voters
Will Republicans please stop insulting Trump voters? Just stop. I know that many hate Trump, but his voters too?
Mitt Romney derides Trump voters as “suckers.” Others have sneered that Trump has an army of “low information voters” who have been “duped,” and that “these people” shouldn’t be able to decide on the fate of a Grand Old Party. Trump’s voters, the political class screams, have “hijacked the Republican Party.”
Another conservative commentator complained the other day that many of these voters have never even voted before and they “are not even Republicans.” Huh?
Isn’t it a good thing that Trump is steering millions of new voters away from the Democrats and attracting them to the GOP? I thought we were told Republicans lost in 2012 because so many conservatives stayed home. Here they are.
The GOP’s mighty establishment wing – the people who get rich off the game of politics -- pretend that theirs is the party of the working class, of blue collar virtue, and hard work, but now that the workers they supposedly represent are in revolt, apparently the problem is the voters not the party. This is insanity.
This is like the executives at Coca Cola blaming the stupid public for not liking “New Coke.” What kind of a company blames its customers when things go wrong? Inside Washington, there are no term limits on stupidity.
Former House Republican majority leader Tom DeLay advised on Fox this past Friday that Republicans should do all they can to stop Trump from getting a majority (though he will likely have a plurality) and then at the convention, throw Trump and his troublemaking voters under the bus and pick someone who got millions of fewer votes than Trump did. Delay’s point is that the party and its delegates, not the voters, should choose who the nominee is. He seemed to be saying: it’s our club and we make the rules. (Funny, Republicans just a few weeks ago were guffawing that Democrats had rigged their primary process.)
The rules of the party apparently say that Delay is right. So the master plan is to let the elites decide what’s best for us.
Gee. I thought that’s what liberals do!
I’m no Trump enthusiast by any means – and I agree with some of what he says and believe that he is flat out wrong about the benefits of trade and immigration – which are substantial. Trump is often offensive and unpredictable.
But the Trump haters ought to get out and attend a Trump rally.
You will meet truck drivers, and soccer moms, and veterans, and taxicab drivers, and immigrants, and construction workers, and young people, and not a lot of Wall Streeters or political consultants. They are patriotic. They are seething in anger at both parties.
We've had eight years of a mostly failed Republican president followed by eight years of a failed Democrat in the White House.
Over this whole period many of these voters haven't seen a pay increase and many have seen their incomes fall -- while GOP political consultants rake in millions for losing.
The fact that four of the wealthiest counties in America are inside or near the Washington Beltway says everything voters need to know about how they are being bled dry by government.
Whenever I say anything nice about Trump I get scowls and lectures from my conservative friends in Washington that Trump voters don’t believe in the principles of the Republican Party.
Wait. The Republicans in Congress just passed a budget that spends tens of billions more than when Democrats ran Congress. The GOP budget increases the deficit. I thought that key principles of the GOP were less government, balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility.
The Republicans have only themselves to blame for this working class revolt. These are voters who are horrified by what Obama has done to our country and they put their faith in Republicans to fix things – and they didn’t. Worse, they haven’t even try.
And now the Republican brain trust is hatching a plan to effectively disenfranchise the Trump voters altogether. I hope I’m wrong, but when the GOP loses again with this strategy, and Hillary Clinton is being sworn into office, the party leaders will scratch their heads and ask: “Gee, where did all those Trump voters go?”
Iran test-fires 2 long-range missiles possibly capable of hitting Israel
Obama's Mess. |
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran reportedly test-fired two ballistic missiles Wednesday with the phrase "Israel must be wiped out" written in Hebrew on them, a show of force by the Islamic Republic as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel.
Such phrases have been emblazoned on missiles fired before by Iran, but this test comes as the country recently signed a nuclear deal with world powers, including America, and conducted another test the day before. Hard-liners in Iran's military have fired rockets and missiles despite U.S. objections since the deal, as well as shown underground missile bases on state television.
There was no immediate reaction from Jerusalem, where Biden was scheduled to speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who strongly opposed the nuclear deal.
The semiofficial Fars news agency offered pictures Wednesday it said were of the Qadr H missiles being fired. It said they were fired in Iran's eastern Alborz mountain range to hit a target some 870 miles away off Iran's coast into the Sea of Oman.
The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which patrols that region, declined to comment on the test.
Fars quoted Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard's aerospace division, saying the test was aimed at showing Israel that Iran could hit it.
"The 1,240-mile range of our missiles is to confront the Zionist regime," Hajizadeh said. "Israel is surrounded by Islamic countries and it will not last long in a war. It will collapse even before being hit by these missiles."
Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to immediately comment. Iran has threatened to destroy Israel in the past. Israel, which is believed to have the only nuclear weapons arsenal in the Mideast, repeatedly has threatened to take military action against Iran's nuclear facilities.
Hajizadeh stressed Iran would not fire the missiles in anger or start a war with Israel.
"We will not be the ones who start a war, but we will not be taken by surprise, so we put our facilities somewhere that our enemies cannot destroy them so that we could continue long war," he said.
The firing of the Qadr H missiles comes after a U.S. State Department spokesman on Tuesday criticized another missile launch that day, saying America planned to bring it before the United Nations Security Council.
A nuclear deal between Iran and world powers including the U.S. is now underway, negotiated by the administration of moderate President Hassan Rouhani. In the time since the deal, however, hard-liners in Iran's military have made several shows of strength.
In October, Iran successfully test-fired a new guided long-range ballistic surface-to-surface missile. It was the first such test since Iran and world powers reached a landmark nuclear deal last summer.
U.N. experts said the launch used ballistic missile technology banned under a Security Council resolution. In January, the U.S. imposed new sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the ballistic missile program.
Iran also has fired rockets near U.S. warships and flown an unarmed drone over an American aircraft carrier in recent months.
In January, Iran seized 10 U.S. sailors in the Gulf when their two riverine command boats headed from Kuwait to Bahrain ended up in Iranian territorial waters after the crews "misnavigated," the U.S. military said. The sailors were taken to a small port facility on Farsi Island, held for about 15 hours and released after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke several times with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
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