Presumptuous Politics

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Ted Cruz Cartoons

Trump taps Latino lawmaker from Kentucky to deliver ‘hopeful’ message to Hispanics

Kentucky State Sen. Ralph Alvarado is an unlikely primetime speaker at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night.
The 46-year-old doctor of internal medicine became the first Hispanic to ever be elected to the Kentucky General Assembly in 2014. On Wednesday night, he will join Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz as the only Latinos to speak at the GOP convention.
“It’s a primetime spot,” Alvarado said. “It’s a bit surreal still for me.”
Alvarado calls himself a Reagan-ite , someone who was inspired by President Ronald Reagan as a child of immigrant parents who came to California in pursuit of the American Dream.
His father came to the U.S. from Costa Rica in 1963. He was sponsored by an epidemiologist friend from Berkeley, California and then went on to teach himself English from a dictionary while working as a clerk for 25 cents an hour. Alvarado’s mother came from Argentina in 1967 for a college education.
As a child of two immigrant parents, Alvarado believes second, third and fourth generation Latinos do not care as much about immigration as the media would have them believe. Trump has famously pitched a strict immigration platform, highlighted by the need to build a wall. Despite the mogul's proposals, Alvarado is going to tell Latinos that Trump is better on immigration than his challenger Hillary Clinton.
“He talks about the wall, but he talks about a big beautiful door on the front of that wall,” Alvarado said. “He wants to widen the opportunity for legal immigration into the country.”
The Hispanic conservative knows that his job at the RNC is to deliver a hopeful message to America Wednesday-- but one particularly targeting Latinos, a voter group the Republican nominee is struggling with. It’s a tough job considering many Latino groups and Spanish language media have denounced Trump for what they believe are racist and offensive comments.
“There have been comments that I can’t agree with,” Alvarado said. “There’s things that he said that none of us like to hear, obviously with the judge…I know a lot of those things come from frustrations.”
Alvarado believes Latino immigrants can relate to the Republican message of the American Dream and who will choose Trump over Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee who he says evokes corrupt Latin American governments.
“We have two distinct choices this year,” Alvarado explains. “At this point we have somebody who is brutally honest, perhaps to a fault, and we have someone who is brutally dishonest and looks into the camera and looks at Americans at home and tells them complete lies and things that aren’t true, that commit crimes and are left off the hook.”
He believes the message of jobs, economic security and low taxes can resonate with Hispanic voters.
“Most of our families have left countries due to corrupt governments due to, frankly, politicians that are flat out liars. We escaped that - that’s why those countries don’t succeed people leave their home countries for the hope of what America is."
Alvarado admits he’s feeling anxious but he’s ready to deliver a powerful and positive message.
“I’m just grateful for the opportunity,” he said.

Mystery surrounds sources of many Bill Clinton speaking fees

By all accounts, it was the most popular gala the Lady Taverners had ever held. Over 1,000 people packed the Park Lane Hilton in London on Oct. 30, 2009, with the crowd overflowing into the hallways, to listen to President Bill Clinton speak on the power of giving.
While Clinton’s speech helped raise a substantial sum for the prominent cricket charity, his staggering $290,000 speaking fee was not covered by the group, according to organizers. The fee also was not covered by “World Management Limited,” the marketing company Hillary Clinton listed as the payment source in her federal financial filings.
It was bankrolled by a wealthy British businessman named Robert Whitton—a name you won’t find included in the Clintons’ public disclosure forms.
A review by the Washington Free Beacon found that Hillary Clinton often listed small foreign speaking firms as the sources of her husband’s lecture payments in her Senate and State Department disclosures, even though the actual paychecks came from undisclosed third parties.

Pence rallies GOP to unite, accepts VP nod; Cruz withholds endorsement

CLEVELAND – Mike Pence quickly accepted the Republican vice presidential nomination and then showed why Donald Trump picked him as his running mate, harkening to his Midwestern roots to appeal to GOP voters to unite against Hillary Clinton – rallying the faithful ahead of Thursday night’s crowning of Trump as the party standard-bearer.
The Indiana governor dubbed the presumptive Democratic nominee “America’s secretary of the status quo,” and called 2016 a “time for choosing.”
His address was the rally point Republicans were hoping would come from Trump’s ex-primary rival Ted Cruz, who faced angry boos from the crowd Wednesday night as he stopped short of an endorsement in his own prime-time speech.
Though Cruz congratulated Trump on his win, some delegates prodded him toward the end to throw his support behind the nominee, chanting “Trump, Trump” – Cruz paused, but closed his address with no endorsement. Cruz urged Americans to vote their “conscience,” without naming Trump.
Republican Party officials later told Fox News the speech was “classless.” One senior GOP operative said, "I'm speechless."
Technical glitches with the arena’s monitors also created some problems. But Trump soon entered the arena, his son Eric delivered a speech returning the focus to the party’s presidential nominee – and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich delivered a rousing address to set the stage for Pence.
Gingrich even effectively delivered an endorsement on Cruz’s behalf. He told the restless crowd that since Cruz told Americans to vote their conscience for anyone who can uphold the Constitution, there’s only one choice.
“So, to paraphrase Ted Cruz,” Gingrich said, “if you want to protect the Constitution of the United States, the only possible candidate this fall is the Trump-Pence Republican ticket.”
Drawing a sharp contrast between Trump and Hillary Clinton, Pence then echoed the message of party leaders the night before: It’s Trump or Clinton in November, so pick a side.
“The choice couldn’t be more clear. Americans can elect someone who literally personifies the failed establishment in Washington, D.C., or we can choose a leader who will fight every day to make America great again,” Pence said.
He added, “It’s change versus status quo, and my fellow Republicans, when Donald Trump becomes president of the United States of America the change will be huge.”
Pence appealed to voters Wednesday to “resolve here and now that Hillary Clinton will never become president of the United States of America.”
Calling Trump the “genuine article” and a “winner” who “never backs down,” he also said Trump is the candidate to confront radical Islam, cut taxes, grow the economy, shrink the bureaucracy, enforce immigration law and appoint Supreme Court justices who will uphold the Constitution.
While Pence, met with chants of “We like Mike,” made an impassioned case for the billionaire businessman, all eyes were on Cruz Wednesday night amid speculation over whether the Texas senator would use the convention dais to formally endorse his former rival.
He didn’t. His only mention of Trump was to congratulate him.
It seemed toward the end he might be considering the crowd’s noisy appeals, but he concluded by saying, “We will unite the party, we will unite the country by standing together for shared values, by standing for liberty.”
Still, his speech included a few nods to Trump’s message, including a call to build a border wall. His appearance at all on the Cleveland stage represented a reconciliation of sorts, and even without an endorsement, he appealed to voters to get to the polls.
“To those listening, please, don’t stay home in November,” he said. “If you love our country … stand and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.”
The carefully worded speech was delivered at a time when Cruz is widely believed to be positioning himself for another presidential run, be it four or eight years down the road. He is no doubt mindful that a full-throated endorsement of Trump could haunt him in the next cycle – and it seemed unlikely by Wednesday morning he would deliver one, when Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort offered no expectation of that happening.
The non-endorsement reflected the nastiness of their own primary battle, one that saw Cruz and Trump square off all the way into May in a rivalry replete with name-calling and trash-talk.
Some delegates in the convention hall remained loyal to Cruz to the end, and he received the second-highest tally during the formal nomination proceedings Tuesday night.
Cruz centered his remarks Wednesday around what he called a “return to freedom.”
“Freedom means that every human life is precious and must be protected,” he said. “Freedom means Supreme Court Justices who don’t dictate policy, but instead follow the Constitution.”
Afterward, delegate reaction was mixed. One North Carolina delegate who spoke to FoxNews.com voiced disappointment with how Cruz was treated.
A Texas delegate said Cruz “hurt” the party by not endorsing.
A source close to Cruz responded to GOP officials who criticized the non-endorsement.
"It's not classless to compliment Trump for winning,” the source said. “It's not classless to highlight areas policy where they can work together like border security, trade or fighting ISIS. It's not classless to call on all his supporters to not stay home but turnout."
Another ex-primary candidate Marco Rubio made a brief appearance, via video message, right before Cruz spoke, saying, “The time for fighting is over.”
Former 2016 candidate and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker spoke shortly before Rubio, with the message, “America deserves better than Hillary Clinton.”

GOP officials rip Cruz for withholding Trump support, Gingrich gives endorsement on his behalf

Republican officials slammed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz Wednesday night after he failed to endorse presidential nominee Donald Trump during his convention speech.
One RNC official called Cruz's speech "classless," while a senior GOP operative on the convention floor told Fox News, "I could not believe it. I literally could not believe [Cruz] didn't endorse Trump. I'm speechless."
Cruz, a rival of Trump's during primary season, was booed off the stage after ignoring cries from delegates to formally back the party's presidential candidate.

Wow, Ted Cruz got booed off the stage, didn't honor the pledge! I saw his speech two hours early but let him speak anyway. No big deal!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2016

The cacophany of noise and discontent was amplified when the nominee himself walked into the Quicken Loans Arena as Cruz was finishing his speech.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who spoke later in the evening, departed from his prepared text to attempt to recast Cruz's remarks as an endorsement of Trump.
Gingrich, a strong Trump supporter, noted what he described as the real estate mogul's "generosity" in allowing Cruz to address the delegates in Cleveland and said that the audience had "misunderstood" the point of the speech.
"Ted Cruz said you can vote your conscience for anyone who will uphold the Constitution," Gingrich said. "In this election there is only one candidate who will uphold the Constitution.
"So to paraphrase Ted Cruz," Gingrich added, "the only way to protect that is to vote for the Trump/Pence ticket."
By contrast, Gingrich's prepared remarks included only a single mention of Cruz, saying that the Texas senator's remarks "made the key point that we need to elect the Trump-Pence Republican ticket."
A source close to Cruz's inner circle acknowledged to Fox News that the end of the speech "was tough, but sometimes standing for principle means getting booed."
"It's not classless to compliment Trump for winning," the source added. "It's not classless to highlight areas of policy where they can work together like border security, trade or fighting ISIS. It's not classless to call on all his supporters to not stay home, but turn out."

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Kaine, Vilsack at top of Clinton's running mate list, sources say

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack have emerged as the top two choices to be Hillary Clinton's running mate on the Democratic ticket, campaign sources told Fox News Tuesday.
Kaine, long rumored to be on Clinton's shortlist of vice presidential candidates, still seems to be the leading contender. The former governor, who represents a key battleground state, is considered to be a safe choice for Clinton, someone who could help her appeal to moderates who have been turned off by Trump's rhetoric.
However, Vilsack, a former Iowa governor who is a longtime friend of the Clintons, is being described as a "strong" second choice.
Clinton senior adviser Karen Finney hinted in a CNN interview Tuesday that the former secretary of state would announce her running mate on Friday. However, Finney later tweeted that no date for the announcement had been set.
One person who appears to have fallen out of contention for Clinton's vice presidential slot is Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The liberal senator, who has consistently heckled Republican nominee Donald Trump on Twitter, is still expected to be a strong advocate for Clinton during the general election campaign.
Some Democratic sources have told Fox News that Trump's selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate has cleared the way for Clinton to pick a similarly low-key candidate for vice president.
On Friday, the Associated Press reported that Warren, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro met separately with Clinton in Washington D.C., a day after Clinton campaigned with Kaine.

Trump closes the deal, becomes Republican nominee for president

CLEVELAND – Donald Trump – the billionaire businessman who built a real estate empire, parlayed that success into a hit TV show and then shifted gears to become a convention-defying political sensation – closed the biggest deal of his life Tuesday in Cleveland, formally becoming the Republican nominee for president.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence joined him on the ticket shortly afterward, as he was easily nominated for vice president.
Trump's home state of New York put him over the top, with enough delegates to cross the threshold of the 1,237 needed to claim the nomination. Son Donald Trump, Jr., speaking for the delegation alongside other Trump family members, shouted, “Congratulations Dad, we love you” -- as the giant TV screen on the floor declared him “Over the Top.”
The nominee responded on Twitter, vowing to "work hard and never let you down."
Trump later addressed the convention hall via video message, saying: “This is a movement … but we have to go all the way.”
For the most part, the Republican convention roll call was a picture of unity, in sharp contrast to the unrest on the floor a day earlier.
Many delegates shouted “we want Trump” as they cast their votes for the billionaire businessman. Despite threats by anti-Trump forces to once again disrupt proceedings, protests were few and far between, and largely kept under control. The biggest disruption came at the end when Alaska's delegation challenged their tally. After some deliberation, GOP leaders delivered the final count -- putting Trump at 1,725 delegates, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 475, Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 120 and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 114.
In another unusual moment, the presiding officer awarded all of Washington, D.C.’s delegates to Trump, even though the delegation announced them going to Rubio and Kasich.
The roll call completes Trump’s ascent from a celebrity candidate once dismissed by some pundits as a sideshow to GOP standard-bearer now leading the party into an expected general election brawl against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in November. Trump, with an off-the-cuff, no-nonsense style, systematically defeated 16 other GOP rivals over the course of one of the rowdiest primaries in modern history to arrive at this moment.
With the nomination in hand, he formally shifts to the general election fight he’s effectively been waging for weeks. While he’s been drastically outspent so far by Clinton and the Democrats, the candidate has been fundraising and is expected to ramp up his operation heading out of the convention.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., one of Trump’s earliest congressional supporters, delivered the nominating address that kicked off the roll call Tuesday evening, calling Trump a “warrior and a winner.”
“He loves his country, and is determined to see it be a winner again,” Sessions said.
The nomination follows an at-times rocky first day for the Republican National Convention. Party officials grappled with an uproar on the floor on Monday as anti-Trump delegates tried to force a roll-call vote on rules that bound many of them to back Trump. The bid failed, but the anti-Trump forces caused a commotion on the floor.
And while the first night of speakers focused heavily on security and featured a mostly well-received speech from Melania Trump, that reception was muddied by subsequent controversy over passages that were similar to a speech Michelle Obama gave at the Democrats’ 2008 convention.
Trump’s campaign tried to brush past the controversy Tuesday, downplaying the similarities even as Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski criticized their handling of the matter. Lewandowski later made an appearance on the floor as a delegate for New Hampshire, announcing the bulk of his state’s delegates going to Trump, whom he called “my friend and the next president of the United States.”
Meanwhile, the second night of speakers includes senior establishment Republicans – a chance for party leaders to give a clear signal of party unity after the fractious primaries.
House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell addressed the audience, along with former Trump rivals – and now-allies – Ben Carson and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Ahead of the roll call, Pence made a surprise appearance at a conservative forum in downtown Cleveland where he delivered an impassioned appeal for unity.
“The time has come for us to come together,” Pence said.
He closed with a ringing endorsement of his running mate: “He loves this country. He believes in the American people and their boundless potential. He is unintimidated by the world but he is in awe of the people of this country.”

GOP brass rally party behind Trump after convention nomination

CLEVELAND – Republican congressional leaders, joined by vanquished primary candidates, immediately worked to rally the party behind Donald Trump Tuesday night after their national convention formally nominated him for president – with House Speaker Paul Ryan calling on voters to hit the polls like never before and “see this thing through.”
“Our candidates will be giving their all, they’ll be giving their utmost, and every one of us has got to go and do the same,” Ryan said from the convention podium in Cleveland.
Night Two of the Republican convention contained plenty of rhetorical body slams against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Chants from the crowd of "lock her up" were frequent. But the night was also an opportunity for the so-called GOP ‘establishment’ to make a very public show of unity and close the book on the raucous primary season.
Perhaps more than any other GOP leader on Capitol Hill, Ryan has had his share of scrapes with Trump over the nominee’s controversial remarks and tactics – but he closed his address Tuesday night with a call to action, saying, “Only with Donald Trump and Mike Pence do we have a chance at a better way.”
“Fellow Republicans, what we have begun here, let’s see this thing through, let’s win this thing, let’s show America our best and nothing less,” Ryan said.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a former primary rival turned supporter, later warned that the country “may never recover” from another Clinton presidency -- saying, “I’m proud to support Donald Trump.”
“Now is the time for us to rise up and take America back,” Carson said.
The speeches came on the heels of Republicans formally nominating Trump for president, with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence named to the ticket as his running mate.
Trump afterward addressed the convention hall via video message, saying: “This is a movement … but we have to go all the way.’
While party leaders called for unity, many of the convention speakers focused heavily once again on Clinton.
“Hillary Clinton has changed her position so many times, it’s impossible to tell where the conviction ends and the ambition begins,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was considered for running mate before Trump ultimately chose Pence, delivered one of the toughest speeches of the night on Clinton. His address was frequently interrupted by chants from the crowd of “lock her up.”
“We cannot promote someone to commander-in-chief who has made the world a more violent and dangerous place with every bad judgment she has made,” Christie said. “The facts of her life and career disqualify her.”
Clinton fired back on Twitter:
But Christie got a positive response inside the hall.
"The way he delivered the speech, I think, spoke to the undecided. He presented the case against Hillary Clinton in a way the average person would understand," said Phil Phillips, of the Alabama delegation.
Even as some of the addresses were more Clinton than Trump, the day’s proceedings as a whole served to restore a sense of party unity at a convention that faced some disruptions a day earlier, when anti-Trump delegates tried to force a roll-call vote on rules that bound many of them to back Trump. The bid failed, but the anti-Trump forces caused a commotion on the floor.
For the most part, protests were few and far between, and largely kept under control, during the roll call for the nomination Tuesday evening. Trump’s home state of New York put him over the top in the delegate count, with Donald Trump Jr. delivering the news on behalf of the delegation.
“Congratulations, Dad, we love you,” he shouted, as the giant TV screen on the floor declared him “Over the Top.”
He and Trump daughter Tiffany later addressed the convention, continuing to give Republicans a better picture of Trump as a man and father.
Donald Trump Jr. touted his father’s drive to tackle challenges and described the look in his eyes “when someone says it can’t be done.” He said he saw that look when his father was told he couldn’t “possibly succeed in politics.”
He paused and said with a chuckle, “Yes, he did.”