Conservative Blogger
Monday, March 21, 2016
Donald Trump's sister, like son, receives threatening letter
PHILADELPHIA – A threatening letter has been sent to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's sister, who's a judge in Philadelphia.
The letter was sent to Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, who sits on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.
The FBI said Sunday it's "aware of the incident and is working closely with the United States Secret Service and U.S. Marshals Service." It says no further details are available.
Law enforcement officials said Friday that Donald Trump's son Eric Trump received a threatening letter urging the candidate to exit the presidential race. Eric Trump has been campaigning for his New York real estate mogul father.
The money trail: Cruz trounces Kasich, Sanders outraises Clinton in February
John Kasich, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, the final three Republican candidates running for president, began this month with drastically different campaign fortunes, new fundraising reports show.
In one month, Cruz raised what Kasich has collected over the entire course of his longshot bid. Trump, a billionaire, has raised relatively little money as he "self-funds" his effort.
On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders outraised Hillary Clinton for the second month in a row. But the Vermont senator still started March with about half as much cash on hand as the former secretary of state.
The presidential candidates -- current and former -- were required to file their February campaign finance reports to the Federal Election Commission by Sunday, as they look ahead to the next series of nominating contests -- in Arizona, Idaho and Utah on Tuesday.
What we've learned on the money front:
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The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
Kasich, the Ohio governor, had about $1.3 million in available campaign cash as this month began.
That's far less than the $8 million in cash that Cruz's campaign had on hand as of the last day of February, although millions of those dollars are under lock until the general election.
Cruz, a Texas senator, continued to lap Kasich in fundraising. His $12 million in February roughly equals Kasich's entire campaign haul, dating to last summer.
Kasich's home-state win last week convinced him to stay in the race in the hope of emerging as a "consensus candidate" during a contested convention this summer. That could be triggered if Trump does not win enough delegates in the remaining primaries. Kasich has no mathematical path for winning the nomination outright.
Both candidates also benefit from outside groups known as super PACs. Several of Cruz's boosters reported beginning March with a collective $10 million left to spend. Add to that another donor-led super PAC funded by a $10 million contribution that remained mostly intact.
Kasich's super PAC, New Day for America, reported raising $3.2 million in February and ended the month with $2.5 million cash on hand.
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TRUMP DIGGING DEEPER INTO HIS POCKETS
The billionaire businessman loaned himself another $6.9 million, bringing the total amount he's loaned to himself to $24.4 million. Trump's campaign manager has said the candidate has no intention of trying to recoup the money he loans himself.
And while Trump continues to boast about self-funding his campaign, he collected about $2 million in new contributions in February, bringing his total raised this cycle to $9.5 million.
He continues to spend big on private airfare, including more than $640,000 to his own airline. And he spent $3.5 million on placed media, including Twitter and Facebook ads.
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TRUMP FIGHTERS
Three billionaires supplied more than 80 percent of the cash last month for a super political action committee dedicated to derailing Donald Trump. The group is called Our Principles.
February fundraising reports show the Ricketts family -- who own the Chicago Cubs and whose patriarch founded TD Ameritrade -- gave another $2 million last month, adding to their earlier $3 million investment. Paul Singer, a New York hedge-fund billionaire who backed Rubio, gave $1 million, and Arkansas investment banker Warren Stephens also chipped in $1 million.
The group has reported raising $7.8 million since its inception. FEC documents show the group has spent at least $16 million attacking Trump -- so far with little impact. The gap between reported income and expenditures means the majority of the donations to Our Principles arrived this month. Those donors will be disclosed next month.
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GOING BROKE FOR RUBIO
Wealthy donors handed over $25 million last month to a super PAC backing then-Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio. And the candidate's official campaign had its best month yet, raising about $9.6 million.
It still wasn't enough. Rubio, a Florida senator, ended his bid after an embarrassing loss to Trump last week in his home state.
Conservative Solutions PAC raised about $58 million in support of Rubio and it attracted a surge of donors in the days after one-time rival Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor, dropped out on Feb. 20.
Poultry magnate Ronald Cameron was Conservative Solution's top donor in February, contributing $5 million. Cameron had previously given $3 million to a group backing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, also once a 2016 presidential hopeful.
The insurance executive Hank Greenberg's C. V. Starr & Company Inc. and Starr International companies gave a total of $5 million to Conservative Solutions. Last year, C.V. Starr gave $10 million to a group backing Bush.
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DEMOCRATIC CASH
Sanders' campaign reported raising more than $43 million in February, outraising Clinton by about $14 million, federal fundraising reports show.
Sanders, whose online fundraising in small increments has set records, continued to draw substantial support from low-dollar donors. In February, more than 60 percent of his campaign's money came from people who had given $200 or less to federal candidates in this election cycle.
But the Vermont senator also reported spending about $41 million last month. He started March with about $17 million in cash, about half as much as Clinton's $31 million in available cash.
Clinton's supportive super PAC, Priorities USA, reported raising a little less than $5 million in February, half of its January haul. Still, the group began this month with $44 million to spend; representatives say they are preserving much of it for the general election.
The biggest donor last month to Priorities was Chicago media executive Fred Eychaner, who gave $2 million.
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CARSON CASH CONTINUED
One hallmark of a failing presidential candidate is the struggle to raise money.
That's why Bush had to lend his campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars last month, fundraising documents show. And it's why New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie appeared to end his bid owing roughly $200,000 more than he had in available cash.
Not so with political newcomer Ben Carson.
The retired neurosurgeon never won any of the early primary contests, and he suspended his campaign at the beginning of this month. Even so, in February he raised $5.7 million, and he had almost $5 million in cash at the start of March.
Carson was the top Republican fundraiser of the 2016 contest at the time he dropped out, but he also maintained above-average costs for raising that money.
Trump says he'll release list of potential Supreme Court justices
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| Carson on endorsing Trump: I wanted to stop open convention |
PALM BEACH, Fla. – Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says he's planning to release a list of judges that he would select from to fill Supreme Court vacancies if he's elected president in an effort to ease concerns about his picks.
"I am going to give a list of either five or 10 judges that I will pick, 100 percent pick, that I will put in for nomination. Because some of the people that are against me say: 'We don't know if he's going to pick the right judge. Supposing he picks a liberal judge or supposing he picks a pro-choice judge,'" Trump told a local gathering of Republicans in Palm Beach, Florida Sunday night.
He says the list would include judges "that everybody respects, likes and totally admires" — "great conservative judges, great intellects, the people that you want."
"I will guarantee that those are going to be the first judges that I put up for nomination if I win. And that should solve that problem," he said.
Trump aides did not immediately respond to questions about when he might release the names.
But the vow marks a rare moment of acknowledgement by Trump that he could be doing more to appease the many leaders in his party who still oppose his candidacy. While Trump has been amassing delegates, he remains deeply unpopular with many establishment Republicans who question his electability in the general election as well as his conservative credentials.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
The protester, who had been a carrying a sign with an image of a Confederate flag over an image of Trump, was assaulted by an African-American man while being led out by security. Another protester being had been wearing a Ku Klux Klan-style sheet.
"Now we don't condone violence," said Trump, "but why aren't they showing the Klan outfit walking up the stairs. Why aren't they showing that?" he asked, taking issue with the way the incident had been portrayed by the press.
"All it showed was this wonderful — 'cause I hear he's a very, very fine guy — this wonderful African-American man, swinging, swinging, swinging, and nobody knows why he did it. And I think it's very, very unfair."
Earlier Sunday, in a phone interview on ABC's "This Week," Trump accused the press of having a double standard when it comes to covering his events, criticizing supporters for committing violence while not holding protesters who block roads or hold signs with profanities to account.
"Let me just tell you, it's a very unfair double standard," he said.
Trump also spoke about President Barack Obama's historic visit to Cuba, criticizing him because Cuban president Raúl Castro did not greet his plane at the airport.
"Honestly, Obama should have turned the plane around and left," said Trump. "He should have said, 'Bye bye!'"
The billionaire businessman hosted the Palm Beach County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner in a glittering ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago club. Trump's appearance ended with Trump and former rival Ben Carson on stage, swaying along to a rendition of "Stand by Me" by singer Beau Davidson.
Trump reportedly to meet with top Republicans in Washington
Donald Trump will reportedly meet Monday in Washington with nearly two dozen influential Republicans, with the apparent hope of improving relations with the GOP establishment.
The Republican presidential front-runner will be in the nation’s capital to speak at the annual policy conference for AIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major pro-Israel group.
Trump’s meeting with Republican lawmakers and other party leaders, as first reported by The Washington Post, will be his first major discussion with them since last fall, when he was on Capitol Hill to protest President Obama’s Iranian nuclear agreement.
The off-the-record meeting was reportedly organized in part by Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has endorsed Trump.
The names of the attendees have not been released, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told “Fox News Sunday” that he’ll be in his home state of Kentucky on Monday, while Congress is on a two-week recess.
At least some factions of the so-called Republican establishment have tried to stop Trump from winning the nomination, in part by supporting other candidates, purportedly backing negative-advertising campaigns and speaking out against the billionaire businessman’s agenda, which includes a vow to dismantle the establishment’s grip on politics, government and wealth.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Me Gusta Trump: Portrait of a Hispanic Trump Voter
John Castillo grew
up in Lincoln Heights, the heart of Hispanic Los Angeles, in a
tight-knit Mexican-American family. His father’s name was Juan, but his
mother decided to name their son John. He attended Cathedral High
School, a Lasallian Catholic private school founded in 1925 in East Los
Angeles, one of the country’s most populous Latino communities. The
red-brick building, which sits on an old burial ground, overlooks
downtown Los Angeles. The school’s current population is two-thirds
Hispanic, and seventy per cent of its students receive financial aid.
Castillo did, too: he had to sweep floors after class to help cover his
tuition. Most of his friends were sons of immigrants. Many, he says,
became “cholos,” joining local gangs at an early age. “A few of them are doing life in prison,” Castillo says, casually.
Juan,
John’s father, was born in Tijuana and, in 1963, immigrated to the
United States with his parents and his brother. He was barely five years
old. The family moved to Los Angeles, where John’s grandfather, Manuel,
who had been a miner in Mexico, worked as a gardener. John’s
grandmother, Carmen, put in long hours as a seamstress at a sweatshop.
John’s father grew up to work “odd jobs,” until he settled as a bus
driver for the local transit authority. He married his high-school
sweetheart, a Latina from Los Angeles.
After
graduating from Cathedral, Castillo went to boot camp in San Diego: he
joined the Marine Corps in 1996 and remained on active duty for five
years, mostly working as a truck driver, carrying artillery. He served
in Japan and Singapore, and left a few months before 9/11. He felt at
home with the Marines. There were “un montón” (a bunch) of
Hispanics, he says now: “perhaps more than half.” Castillo remembers the
thrill of “loud, powerful, and motivating” weaponry. A tattoo on his
right forearm reads “USMC.”
After
the Marines, Castillo moved back to California and went to work for
U.P.S. He’s now an inspector for an aerospace company. He was once a
Democrat but is now a conservative and a Republican. The transition
happened in the Marines. “The way they scream at you, it hardens you,”
he says. “It makes you understand the importance of respecting the law.”
He also thinks travel helped him get rid of a “naïve” point of view
that he associates with liberal politics. He believes in the importance
of the Second Amendment. At thirty-eight years old, Castillo speaks
softly, wears wide-rimmed glasses, and has the build you’d expect from
someone who once carried hundred-pound shells for a living but now sits
inside a cubicle. When we last met, in Eagle Rock, in northeast Los
Angeles, he seemed concerned about crime in the area. “If you were
allowed to carry a concealed weapon here, you could protect yourself,”
he says. His Twitter bio reads “devout Catholic” and “lifelong pro
wrestling fan.” He’s also a fan of Spanish-language radio, and he
retweets Pope Francis and the W.W.E. with equal enthusiasm. And he is
also a passionate supporter of Donald Trump.
Fourteen per cent
of Hispanic voters say they will “definitely support” the Republican
candidate in November, and Castillo, who describes himself as an
“American of Mexican descent, in that order,” is not an anomaly in his
support for Trump. Although eighty per cent of Latino voters held an
unfavorable opinion of Trump in a recent Washington Post/Univision
poll, a fifth of Hispanic Republicans said they planned to vote for
Trump during the Party’s primaries. That level of support has remained
constant in states with a discernible Hispanic presence. According to
entrance and exit polls, Trump got just under half of the admittedly few
Hispanic Republican votes in Nevada and a quarter of them in Texas,
surpassing Marco Rubio in both instances. Rubio won Florida’s Latino
vote (seventeen per cent of all Republican voters) by a wide margin, but
Trump’s backing among Hispanics remained at twenty-six per cent.
Given
the fact that Trump has built his campaign around the recurrent
disparagement of Mexicans and immigrants, his support among Hispanic
Republicans has baffled well-known Latino voices in the United States
and Mexico. In an interview with Jorge Ramos, former Mexican President
Vicente Fox begged
Trump’s Latino supporters to “open their eyes.” “I’d like to know who
those Hispanics are,” Fox said, “because they are followers of a false
prophet.” Fox is far from alone. Last month, in an open letter
to the Latino community, twenty-two celebrities, led by the guitarist
Carlos Santana, accused Republicans of turning their backs on Hispanics.
“Latinos should understand that Donald Trump embodies the true face of
the entire Republican Party,” they wrote. Something similar happened at
the Latin Grammys, where the bands Los Tigres del Norte and Maná, both of whom are beloved by Latinos, displayed a banner that read “Latinos unite: don’t vote for the racists!” No prominent Hispanic has endorsed Donald Trump.
John
Castillo and others like him beg to differ. Over several recent
conversations, Castillo explained his support for Trump in meticulous
detail. At times, he sounded like the many white voters who have been
inspired by the candidate. He says he finds Trump relatable. “He speaks
like a regular person,” Castillo says. “If I were running for President,
that’s how I would talk.” He likes that Trump is not a politician. “I’m
pretty much fed up with career politicians,” he says. Castillo believes
Trump will manage to extricate the United States from unfair
agreements, and he likes the idea of Trump imposing tariffs on imported
goods. He firmly believes this will help “bring jobs back” Stateside. He
also likes the fact that a number of “world leaders” have expressed
concerns over a potential Trump Presidency: “He must be doing something
right if the élite doesn’t want him.”
Still,
Castillo knows that his Latino heritage and Donald Trump’s vow to
deport eleven million undocumented immigrants might seem irreconcilable.
“I do think about it often,” he admits. The dilemma is not exclusive to
Castillo. Trump’s Hispanic supporters are often called “traitors” or
worse on social media, which is why Castillo mostly refuses to talk
politics anywhere but Twitter, where he does so anonymously. (He never
posts anything on Facebook or LinkedIn, and at first refused to give me
his full name for fear of repercussions.) He’s also concerned about how
his views might be interpreted in the workplace: “They might fire me if
they knew I like Trump.” Castillo bristles at the idea that he might be
betraying his own people or his own family’s history. “I am not
anti-Hispanic at all,” he says. “What I am is anti-breaking-the-law.”
Castillo suggests a distinction: “People need to understand, illegal is
not a race.” When I ask him about Trump’s plans for deporting millions
of immigrants, he seems incredulous. He insists Trump is not
anti-immigrant nor would he ultimately expel that staggering number of
people from the country: “I think he will only deport some of the
criminals,” he says. “And then the other criminals will self-deport.” In
fact, Castillo doesn’t think Donald Trump is a racist at all: “If I
did, I wouldn’t support him,” he adds emphatically.
When
he’s not supporting Trump, Castillo obsesses over the gentrification of
traditionally Hispanic areas in East Los Angeles. He’s bothered by the
arrival of “rich,” young professionals to Lincoln Heights, where he grew
up, and Highland Park, where he lives now. “I’m going to be honest,” he
told me suddenly. “I hate the hipsters moving into our town. They’re
pushing Latinos out of the area. I love my town. I love my people.” When
I responded that plenty of those whom he wants to protect could
potentially be deported en masse by President Trump (there are a million
undocumented immigrants living in Los Angeles County, more than in any
other county in the United States), Castillo rejected the idea that his
views were contradictory. “I’d much rather live surrounded by my own
people than any other,” he says, “but illegal is illegal.” And yet,
there is a possibility that gives him pause: What if Trump keeps his
word and rounds up Castillo’s friends and neighbors? “If he were to try
that there would be riots and uprisings,” he says, blinking rapidly. “If
he did that I would fight back.”
Still,
John Castillo remains unapologetic: “I love my heritage,” he says, “I
love this country with all my heart. I served it.” He says he lives for
“God, family, and country.” For his Twitter profile picture, Castillo
has chosen Uncle Sam, index finger pointing directly from the screen.
The face, though, is Donald Trump’s. Castillo will vote for him in
California’s primary, on June 7th.
Director Clint Eastwood and Donald Trump! (2015)
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| 2015 |
We know that Clint Eastwood is a true patriot who makes bold, pro-American films. “American Sniper” – the box office smash hit about NAVY Seal Chris Kyle – has been viewed by millions around the world.
As was just reported…
“I will be in California this weekend making a speech for Clint Eastwood,” Trump, who’s seeking the Republican nomination for President, tweeted on Wednesday.This is big news! Donald Trump has been under fire for rejecting political correctness and speaking the truth about the Obama-created illegal immigration problem.
“Then to Arizona and Vegas. Big crowds. Discussing illegals & more!”
A Trump campaign spokeswoman described the event with Eastwood as “private” and declined to disclose more details.
Eastwood, who lives in California, is in a state which has been devastated by millions of illegals flooding in. They have committed countless crimes and spread disease. And that’s why Eastwood supports Trump!
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