Presumptuous Politics

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Report: Clinton's jobs push as senator fell flat, helped donors

Hillary Clinton’s jobs record as a New York senator – which her campaign has made a centerpiece of her pitch to voters – is coming under fresh scrutiny, with a new report claiming her economic initiatives fell flat for workers, while benefiting deep-pocketed donors.
The Washington Post report found that, as a senator from 2001-2009, the now-Democratic presidential nominee was unable to pass “big ticket legislation” that she introduced to benefit upstate New York, as job growth stagnated and manufacturing jobs fell by almost 25 percent.
The Post cites U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers showing upstate New York lost jobs during Clinton’s first term, with Albany losing more than 31,000 payroll jobs between October 2001 and December 2006.
Former officials told the Post that smaller-scale projects also fell flat despite positive news coverage, with jobs failing to materialize and others leaving the state ahead of her failed 2008 presidential run.
Republican rival Donald Trump seized on the report Monday, citing the “devastating” findings as he delivered an economic address in Detroit.
“She was all talk, no action,” he said.
The report casts doubt on Clinton’s claim to be a pragmatist who can overcome Washington gridlock and give the economy a lift. Her campaign has cited her work in New York as a blueprint for her presidency, and has used her record to try and neutralize Trump’s selling point that he has a record as a job creator and knows how to boost the economy.
Further, the Post notes that a number of the companies Clinton worked with in upstate New York also contributed to her campaign and the Clinton Foundation – the Clintons' charitable wing that has come under scrutiny for its financial dealings amid accusations of “pay-to-play.”
In the Senate, for instance, Clinton struck up a relationship with Corning – an upstate glass and high-tech product manufacturer. The Post reports that while Clinton helped steer money to Corning through legislation and federal grants, Clinton’s efforts did not reverse the economic decline of Steuben County, where Corning is based.
Meanwhile, employees of the company have donated to Clinton’s campaign; the company paid $225,500 for her to speak in 2014; the chief executive co-hosted a 2015 fundraiser for her; and the company has given over $100,000 to the Foundation, the Post reported.
Clinton also cited her role in creating an “eBay university” to train budding entrepeneurs to sell products on eBay. The relationship with the company followed a similar pattern – then-CEO John Donahoe hosted a 2015 fundraiser for Clinton; eBay paid $315,000 for a 20-minute Clinton speech in 2015; and eBay’s charitable wing gave more than $50,000 to the Foundation.
Campaign spokesman Glen Caplin told the Post: “It’s no surprise that people who saw that work wanted to support her election campaigns and efforts to make a difference in people’s lives around the world.”

Parents of 2 Benghazi victims sue Hillary Clinton for wrongful death, defamation

The parents of two of the four Americans who died in the Benghazi attack in 2012 filed a lawsuit Monday against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, alleging her "reckless handling" of classified information contributed to their deaths.
The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch USA on behalf of Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, and Charles Woods, the father of Tyrone Woods, for allegedly wrongfully causing the death of their sons as well as for defamation and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
The lawsuit suggests that Clinton's use of a private email server contributed to the deaths of Smith and Woods, adding that terrorists were able to "obtain the whereabouts of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and thus the U.S. State Department and covert and other government operations in Benghazi, Libya and subsequently orchestrate, plan, and execute the now infamous September 11, 2012 attack."
"Having used a secret private email server that we now know was used to communicate with Ambassador Christopher Stevens with confidential and classified government information, and which we also now know was likely hacked by hostile adversaries such as Iran, Russia, China and North Korea aligning with terrorist groups, it is clear that Hillary Clinton allegedly negligently and recklessly gave up the classified location of the plaintiffs' sons, resulting in a deadly terrorist attack that took their lives,” Klayman said in a statement announcing the suit.
In addition to the wrongful death and negligence charges named in the suit, the parents also claim that Clinton defamed them in statements to the media, according to court documents.
"During her campaign for President, Defendant Clinton has negligently, recklessly, and/or maliciously defamed Plaintiffs by either directly calling them liars, or by strongly implying that they are liars, in order to protect and enhance her public image and intimidate and emotionally harm and silence them to not speak up about the Benghazi attack on at least four separate occasions," Klayman wrote in his complaint.
Patricia Smith has previously spoken out against Clinton, most recently at the Republican National Convention in July.
Clinton's campaign has not yet responded to requests for comment about the lawsuit.
In an interview last week on "Fox News Sunday," Clinton denied telling family members of those killed that the attack was sparked by an anti-Islam video, and was not terrorism.
She instead suggested the family members misunderstood her because they were overwhelmed by grief.
“I understand the grief and the incredible sense of loss that can motivate that,” Clinton said. “As other members of families who’ve lost loved ones have said, that's not what they heard. I don't hold any ill feeling for someone who, in that moment, may not fully recall everything that was or wasn't said.”

Iran's ex-president Ahmadinejad asks Obama to 'fix' $2B Supreme Court ruling

Iran's former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter on Monday to President Barack Obama, asking him to "quickly fix" a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing families of people killed in attacks linked to Iran to collect damages from some $2 billion in frozen assets.
While writing that his letter "is by no means of (a) political nature," Ahmadinejad's message to Obama arrives amid swirling speculation that the hard-line politician may run as a candidate in Iran's presidential election next year.
It also comes as average Iranians largely have yet to see the benefits of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers -- something a discontent Ahmadinejad and other hard-liners could mine in any potential campaign against moderates.

In the letter, posted on a website associated with the former president's office, Ahmadinejad focuses on the Supreme Court's decision in April. The court's 6-2 ruling allows families of victims of the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut and other attacks linked to Iran to collect monetary damages from Iran.
At risk for Iran is $1.75 billion in bonds, plus accumulating interest, owned by Iran's Bank Markazi and held by Citibank in New York.
"It is the clear expectation of the Iranian nation that the particular case of property seizure ... be quickly fixed by your excellency and that not only the Iranian nation's rights be restored and the seized property released and returned, but also the damaged caused be fully compensated for," the letter said.
"I passionately advise you not to let the historical defamation and bitter incident be recorded under your name," Ahmadinejad added.
Ahmadinejad's letter was delivered to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which has overseen America's interests in the country in the years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and U.S. Embassy takeover. Embassy officials declined to comment.
It's unclear what steps Ahmadinejad expects Obama to take. There was no immediate comment from the White House regarding the letter.
The timing of the letter, however, is interesting as Ahmadinejad's name continues to circulate as a possible challenger to moderate President Hassan Rouhani in Iran's coming May 19 election. Rouhani's administration negotiated the nuclear accord, which put limits on Iran's atomic program in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.
While Ahmadinejad previously served two four-year terms, Iranian law calls only for a one-term cooling-off period before he's eligible to run again.
How Iranians would react to another Ahmadinejad run, however, remains to be seen if and when it happens.
Under his presidency, Iran found itself heavily sanctioned over the nuclear program as Ahmadinejad questioned the scale of the Holocaust and predicted the demise of Israel. His disputed 2009 re-election saw widespread protests and violence. Two of his former vice presidents have since been jailed for corruption.

Monday, August 8, 2016

Cash to Iran Cartoons

Cotton says cash to Iran sends 'dangerous' message to bad guys worldwide

Sen. Tom Cotton suggested Sunday that he’ll accept President Obama’s explanation that the roughly $400 million in cash to Iran amid the country holding several Americans captive was part of a decades-old settlement, but said the move sends a “dangerous” message to terrorists and others around the world.
“He said this payment was not a ransom,” the Arkansas Republican and major critic of Obama’s recent Iran nuclear deal, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“It doesn't really matter though what President Obama says. It matters what the Iranians think and it matters what dictators and terrorists and gangsters all around the world think. And they clearly think that this was a ransom payment … That's why it's so dangerous.”
Cotton also accused administration officials of stonewalling Congress and the American public about the specifics of the deal and the cash delivery roughly six months ago, continuing his criticism last week of the settlement.
“We didn't know the cash payment, for instance,” Cotton said. “We didn't know that it was paid for with bills that could be easily laundered or used for terrorism or support for Iran's allies throughout the region. And we didn't know that the Department of Justice opposed it. … There are still a lot of questions left to be answered. And the Obama administration continues to stonewall on this.”
The first-term senator also used a litany of strong words to describe the money delivery, in Euro notes, and how the administration behaved, including acting like a “third world gun runner” and a “drug cartel to the world’s most dangerous terror state.”
News reports surfaces Tuesday about of the money being flown to Tehran in an unmarked aircraft -- on pallets and wrapped in cellophane. Within hours, the administration said the delivery and the release of the hostages were unrelated.
And Obama said Thursday at the Pentagon: “We announced these payments … many months ago. They were not a secret. It was not a nefarious deal. … We do not pay ransom for hostages."
The administration had announced in January that the U.S. government would give roughly $1.7 billion to Iran and release frozen Iranian assets in connection with a failed, 1970’s-era arms deal, instead of potentially paying more through arbitration.
On Sunday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine tried to end the controversy, arguing in part that the only new news was Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump thinking there was a video of the cash delivery.
“There's just no 'there' there,” Kaine, of Virginia, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” also insisting that the timing of the delivery and hostage release did not look like the paying of ransom.
“Nope,” he said. “We don't pay for hostages. We don't negotiate for hostages.”

Gingrich on Clinton's latest email explanation: new way to 'lie about lying'

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that Hillary Clinton’s latest attempt to explain her email scandal -- that her brain had a “short circuit” -- is a “very dangerous” excuse and a new way to “lie about lying.”
“She now has a fundamental way of saying, ‘I didn’t quite lie to you; I just short-circuited,' ” Gingrich, a Georgia Republican and top supporter of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, also told “Fox News Sunday.” "It’s one thing to lie, it’s another to lie about lying."
He was joined on the show by California Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra who, like other Clinton supporters, is trying to move past Clinton as secretary of state using a private email server and the related FBI investigation.
“While we want to make more of it, like [FBI Director James] Comey said, let’s move on,” said Becerra, who tried to turn the debate with Gingrich to Trump’s immigration policy, calling him an “immigrant basher.”
“He just wants his immigrants to be legal,” Gingrich told Becerra, who is joining others in questioning the legal status of Trump’s immigrant wife, Melania.
Gingrich and Becerra also sparred over each of their candidate’s economic policies and plans to defeat the Islamic State terror group.
Becerra repeated the argument that Trump’s plan would cost the U.S. economy a “breathtaking” 3.5 billion jobs. And he backed Clinton saying last week that Obama didn’t have enough time to fully execute is economic recovery plan, including a nearly $1 billion stimulus plan.
“He had a chance with $900 million and blew it,” Gingrich said. “You campaign on things being good enough. We’ll campaign on things should be better. And we’ll see who wins.”
Becerra criticized Trump’s plan to defeat ISIS, arguing it’s in large part based on allowing the U.S. military to torture detainees and “cozying up” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kasich hints at Trump endorsement, says Ohio victory 'really difficult'

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is long gone from the Republican presidential primary but on Sunday hinted about finally endorsing Donald Trump while also predicting Trump winning his home state will be “really difficult."

Kasich, whose only primary win was in Ohio, has created problems for the Trump campaign, despite conceding in May to the GOP presidential nominee -- refusing to endorse Trump or attend official events during the party’s nominating convention last month in Cleveland.
Such actions appear to have so far hurt efforts to create state party unity and Trump’s chances of winning Ohio, considering no GOP presidential nominee has been elected to the White House without winning the state.
“He's going to win parts of Ohio where people are really hurting," Kasich told CNN's "State of the Union." “But I still think it's difficult if you are dividing to be able to win Ohio. I think it's really, really difficult."
The so-called battleground state -- which voted in 2008 and 2012 for President Obama -- has 18 electoral votes, in the contest to get 270.
And the campaigns for Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton have already made several stops in Ohio since their respective party’s nominating conventions concluded a couple of weeks ago.
Winning Ohio and other so-called Rust Belt states, whose populations and economies have dwindled over recent decades with the decline of U.S. manufacturing, appears essentially in what would or could be Trump’s narrow path to victory.
"There will be sections he will win because people are angry, frustrated and haven't heard any answers,” Kasich also said Sunday. “But I still think it's difficult if you are dividing to be able to win Ohio."
Polls show Clinton and Trump deadlocked in the state.
Kasich on CNN also left open the possibility of endorsing Trump, a bitter primary rival, with less than 100 days remaining before Election Day.
"We still have time. That's something I think about a little bit but not a lot," he said.
Kasich also attempted to explain his decision not to attend the convention, saying, "If I weren't prepared to get up there and endorse the nominee, I thought it was inappropriate to go.”

Giuliani: Clinton refusal to seek police endorsement shows Dems as ‘anti-law enforcement party’

Hillary Clinton’s decision not to seek the endorsement of The Fraternal Order of Police is a sign that the Democrat presidential nominee leads “an anti-law enforcement party,” former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said on Sunday.
Giuliani, who supports Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, said on “Fox and Friends” that he sees an anti-police atmosphere developing in America, and he blames Clinton and the Democrat Party for fomenting those feelings.
“It comes right from the top, it includes Hillary, and she’s made herself a part of it,” Giuliani said. “You don’t even go talk to and seek the endorsement of one of the major police unions in the country?”
During her campaign, Clinton has voiced support for the Black Lives Matter movement, which grew out of recent controversial shootings of black men by police officers. Clinton also invited mothers whose sons were killed by police officers to speak on stage at the Democratic National Convention – though the same convention also featured a speech by Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez.
Still, Clinton's decision not to seek The Fraternal Order of Police’s stamp of approval makes Clinton just the second Democratic presidential candidate in at least the last 20 years not to do so. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, also did not seek the endorsement of the union, which represents 335,000 members. The FOP endorsed Bill Clinton in 1996, but has given the nod to Republicans in 2000, 2004 and 2008. The union did not endorse any candidate in 2012.
“We were talking to the highest levels of the campaign, and we had all indications that she was going to return the questionnaire,” FOP President Chuck Canterbury told The Hill on Friday. “And on the deadline date we were advised that they declined.”
Clinton’s campaign, speaking to The Hill, did not directly address why the form wasn’t submitted, but instead focused on how “Hillary and her team had engaged law enforcement throughout the campaign.”
“As she said from the beginning of her campaign, across the country, police officers are out there every day inspiring trust and confidence, honorably doing their duty, putting themselves on the line to save lives,” Clinton spokesman Jesse Ferguson said. “She believes we must work together to build on what’s working and to build the bonds of trust between police and the communities they serve – because we are stronger together.”
Trump has submitted his endorsement paperwork, and Canterbury stressed Trump’s “long history of being friendly to law enforcement.”
Giuliani said the choice not to submit the FOP questionnaire is indicative of the extreme left swing of the current Democrat Party and its presidential candidate.
“I think this only makes the point that the Democratic Party has gone so far to the left now – so far to the left – that it won’t even seek the endorsement of the major police organization in the country,” Giuliani said.