Conservative Blogger
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Criticize Donald Trump? Sure. Question his sanity? That's nuts.
It has come to this: Critics are calling Donald Trump crazy, and he’s calling Hillary Clinton the devil.
Most. Bizarre. Campaign. Ever.
Now Trump didn’t directly call his opponent Satan, although a Google search brings up images of HRC with horns or a pitchfork. He said at a rally in Pennsylvania that Bernie Sanders, in endorsing his rival, “made a deal with the devil. She’s the devil.” A pretty common phrase, but one that should be avoided in a presidential campaign. How do you escalate from the gates of hell?
But the latest media assault on Trump isn’t just colloquial, as in, hey, the guy is acting nuts lately. Some pundits are flat-out questioning his sanity.
This new effort to put Trump on the couch follows his war of words with Khizr Khan, the Muslim father whose son was killed in Iraq and who denounced the nominee at the Democratic convention.
Now it’s fair to question whether Trump overreacted to Khan’s speech, whether he should have brushed it off, whether he fueled the story, whether it makes sense for a presidential candidate to be debating sacrifice with a couple who lost their son in wartime.
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Gene Robinson, the liberal Washington Post columnist and MSNBC contributor, felt compelled to declare:
“I am increasingly convinced that he’s just plain crazy.”
Leaving aside Trump’s policies, Robinson writes, “at this point, it would be irresponsible to ignore the fact that Trump’s grasp on reality appears to be tenuous at best.” He adds: “What kind of man has so little empathy for a grieving mother’s loss? Is that normal? Is it healthy?”
Robinson appeared yesterday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” and Joe Scarborough—who had a friendly relationship with Trump during the primaries—went off on him:
“I’ve known him for a decade. I’ve never seen him act like this before,” the former GOP congressman said. “It’s unhinged, it’s not the Donald Trump I’ve known for over a decade.”
Scarborough said he has been talking to plenty of Republicans and conservatives, “and everybody was asking me about his mental health.”
There are others. Foreign policy expert Robert Kagan, also writing in the Post, says: “One wonders if Republican leaders have begun to realize that they may have hitched their fate and the fate of their party to a man with a disordered personality.”
So: A businessman who beat 16 other GOP candidates, including governors, senators and a Bush, to win the nomination, is off his rocker?
A guy who built a successful business and global brand based on his last name is a nutjob?
A performer who created a reality TV show that was a hit for NBC for 14 years is a loony tune?
And how is this screwball running a competitive race with a former first lady, senator and secretary of State? Post-convention polls are giving Clinton a lead of 6 to 9 points, but Trump is still within striking distance, especially in key swing states.
Trump, for his part, has been assailing the “dishonest people” of the press, saying at a rally:
“We are going to punch through the media. We have to! The New York Times is totally dishonest. Totally dishonest. The Washington Post has been a little bit better lately but not good….
“And CNN. CNN is like all Trump all the time. All Trump all the time. You walk out of an interview and you say, 'that was a good interview' and then you get killed for the rest of the weekend. So they are so biased toward Crooked Hillary.”
Some of this has been bubbling up for awhile, on the right as well as the left. The Weekly Standard’s Steve Hayes wrote this in late July:
“Yes, Donald Trump is crazy. And, yes, the Republican party owns his insanity.” Hayes was writing about Trump linking Ted Cruz’s father to Lee Harvey Oswald, saying, “This isn't the behavior of a rational, stable individual.”
And Salon carried this headline: “Maybe Donald Trump has really lost his mind: What if the GOP frontrunner isn’t crazy, but simply not well?” That was back in April. But now it’s growing louder.
The Democrats have intensified their effort to marginalize Trump as a dangerous and dangerously unfit candidate, as we saw in Philadelphia. And now we’re in mental health territory.
The price of running for president is opening your entire life to fierce scrutiny: your judgment, your policies, your background, your temperament. All that serves as a test of how you’d handle the pressures of the presidency.
But arguing that Donald Trump doesn’t have all his mental faculties? That’s crazy.
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.
Terror-weary Germans turn on Merkel over refugee policy
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| Germany on high alert after series of terror attacks |
Although Germany has so far been spared the kind of atrocities that shook Brussels, Paris and Nice in the last year, there have been 15 deaths and dozens injured in attacks in Germany since July 18. Two of the attacks have been linked to ISIS, and many suspect the others bore hallmarks of terrorism. Politicians from both the left and the right have assailed the once-enormously popular chancellor’s plan to integrate more than a million refugees from war zones in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
The sharpest criticism comes from Bavaria, which has been the entry point for most of the refugees. Leaders of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavaria-based sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) are demanding tighter border controls and an annual upper limit on the number of migrants.
The left-wing opposition party, Die Linke, has also voiced criticism. Its co-leader, Sahra Wagenknecht, as quoted by Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, said the violence shows that the task of integrating the huge number of refugees “is harder than Merkel with her frivolous ‘we can do it’ slogan of last autumn would have us believe.”
Merkel’s government denies that the terrorist attacks reveal flaws in the immigration program that began a year ago, in August 2015. But most Germans do not share Merkel’s optimism.
A recent survey conducted July 26-29 by the pollster You Gov finds that only a little more than a quarter of the 1,017 persons polled have confidence in Merkel’s promise. The number of people who share Merkel’s optimism is the lowest it has been since the influx began. Another poll, conducted in April and May, finds that 73 percent of Germans fear terrorism.
On July 28 Merkel again asserted that the migrants would be integrated and democracy defended. She also announced that the Bundeswehr, for the first time ever, is preparing joint exercises with the police to address potential terrorist scenarios. And Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere reportedly will soon announce new security measures following the attacks.
Officials have long been warning that terrorists may have slipped into Germany with the refugees. At the peak of the influx, there were some 10,000 arriving each day. Authorities are investigating 59 cases with possible terrorist links.
Approximately 100,000 of the refugees are unaccompanied minors. These children and young people are especially vulnerable to recruitment by Islamic extremists, including ISIS.
There are also hundreds of thousands of traumatized and disaffected refugees, largely young men. They lack the language and work skills to get jobs, said Deidre Berger, Director of the American Jewish Committee’s Berlin office.
“These young people have been uprooted and have been cast adrift,” she said. “They are traumatized, and they have no structure in their daily lives.”
According to Berger, some of these young men are sent to shelters in small towns, which only accentuates their sense of isolation. Some flee to Germany’s big cities, thereby avoiding any official scrutiny.
Most of these boys experienced horrible human rights violations in the Middle East and during their escape to Europe,” said Karl Kopp, Director of Pro Asyl, a refugee advocacy non-profit organization, in a telephone interview.
According to Kopp, some of these minors have journeyed for as long as three years before reaching Germany, where they now face long waits before receiving asylum status. “They often end up in places where there is no tradition of caring for young people,” he said.
“Keep in mind that many of these teenagers don’t share Western democratic values and face identity problems in a new land,” said Duzen Tekkal, a freelance journalist and a candidate for Parliament in next year’s national elections. “Then the Salafists provide them with easy answers to recruit them,” said Tekkal who is a Yazidi, one of Iraq’s oldest ethnic and religious minorities.
The populist far-right party, Alternative for Germany, which achieved stunning success in state elections last spring, citing the recent terrorist attacks, charges that Merkel’s policy poses an increasing threat to Germany’s internal order and security. The party calls Merkel’s policy the greatest threat to Germany and Europe since the end of the Cold War.
When the refugees started coming to Germany last year, Merkel was hailed as a humanitarian. Germans greeted the refugees at train stations with cake and warm welcomes. Now many are having second thoughts.
Trump calls Obama 'worst president', 'a disaster' after 'unfit to serve' slam
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Tuesday that President Barack Obama was "the worst president, maybe in the history of our country" after Obama called Trump "unfit to serve" and "woefully unprepared to do this job" earlier in the day.
"I think he's been a disaster. He's been weak, he's been ineffective," Trump said on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor." "I believe I know far more about foreign policy than he knows. Look at Ukraine. He talks about Ukraine [and] how tough he is with Russia, in the meantime they took over Crimea."
Earlier Tuesday, Trump said that Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton have “single-handedly destabilized the Middle East” while putting the “country at risk” with Clinton’s use of a private email server.
"She is reckless with her emails, reckless with regime change, and reckless with American lives,” Trump said.
The real estate mogul also restated his concern that the November election would be "rigged". He told host Bill O'Reilly that recent court rulings striking down voter ID laws in Wisconsin and North Carolina meant that people would "vote 10 times, maybe. Who knows?"
"I am very concerned and I hope the Republicans are going to be very watchful," Trump said.
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“I think the Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president,” Obama said, adding, “He keeps on proving it.”
The president questioned whether Trump has “basic knowledge” on key issues. He went on to say that with past Republican nominees – including his former rivals John McCain and Mitt Romney – he never had doubts about their ability to do the job of president even though they disagreed on policy.
“Had they won I would have been disappointed, but I would have said to all Americans, this is our president,” Obama said, noting he was confident they would abide by certain rules and observe “basic decency.”
Obama added: “But that’s not the situation here ... There has to come a point at which you say, 'Enough.'"
Report: US airlifted $400 million to Iran as detained Americans were released
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| Report: Obama admin organized $400 million payoff to Iran |
The cash transfer was the first installment paid in a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran to resolve a failed 1979 arms deal dating from just before the Iranian Revolution.
State Department spokesman John Kirby denied the cash transfer was done to secure the release of the four Americans.
The negotiations over the [arms deal] settlement ... were completely separate from the discussions about returning our American citizens home," Kirby said in a statement. "Not only were the two negotiations separate, they were conducted by different teams on each side."
"The funds that were transferred to Iran were related solely to the settlement of a long-standing claim at the U.S.-Iran Claims Tribunal at The Hague," Kirby's statement concluded.
However, the Journal says U.S. officials acknowledge that Iranian negotiators on the prisoner exchange said they wanted the cash to show they had gained something tangible.
The Journal also reported that President Barack Obama did not disclose the $400 million cash payment when he announced Jan. 17 that the arms deal dispute had been resolved. The administration has not disclosed how the $1.7 billion was paid, except to say it was not paid in dollars.
The cash flown to Iran consisted of euros, Swiss francs, and other currencies because U.S. law forbids transacting American dollars with Iran.
Since the cash was airlifted, Iran's Revolutionary Guard has arrested two more Iranian-Americans. Tehran has also detained dual-nationals from France, Canada and the U.K. in recent months.
"Paying ransom to kidnappers puts Americans even more at risk," Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said ina statement. "While Americans were relieved by Iran’s overdue release of illegally imprisoned American hostages, the White House’s policy of appeasement has led Iran to illegally seize more American hostages."
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Border Patrol's website offers advice on eluding ... Border Patrol
Immigrants who want to enter the U.S. illegally can learn how and where to avoid the Border Patrol from an advisory on the agency's own website, which critics say is evidence of the Obama administration's "schizophrenic" approach to enforcement.
Safety and sanctuary can generally be found at schools, churches, hospitals and protests, where Customs and Border Protection agents are barred under a "sensitive locations policy" from carrying out their duty of enforcing border security. In fact, the agency’s website states that actions at such locations can only be undertaken in an emergency or with a supervisor’s approval.
“The policies are meant to ensure that ICE and CBP officers and agents exercise sound judgment when enforcing federal law at or focused on sensitive locations, to enhance the public understanding and trust, and to ensure that people seeking to participate in activities or utilize services provided at any sensitive location are free to do so, without fear or hesitation,” the government website states in both English and Spanish.
Related Image
Agents are not allowed to contact a suspected illegal immigrant in a "sensitive location" under the department's guidelines.
(Associated Press)
“So, almost any illegal alien can escape arrest by either walking with a second person (a march), attending some type of class, or finding a nearby church, medical facility or school bus stop,” the Center wrote in a post bringing the advisory to light.
A “Frequently Asked Questions” section explains in detail what the Customs and Border Patrol’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, considers safe zones for illegal immigrants.
- Schools, such as known and licensed day cares, pre-schools and other early learning programs; primary schools; secondary schools; post-secondary schools up to and including colleges and universities; as well as scholastic or education-related activities or events, and school bus stops that are marked and/or known to the officer, during periods when school children are present at the stop;
- Medical treatment and health care facilities, such as hospitals, doctors’ offices, accredited health clinics, and emergent or urgent care facilities;
- Places of worship, such as churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples;
- Religious or civil ceremonies or observances, such as funerals and weddings;
- During public demonstration, such as a march, rally, or parade.
“This administration has systematically and maliciously attacked and deconstructed all phases of border enforcement,” said Dan Stein, president of Federation for American Immigration Reform. “It’s to the point now where virtually nobody has to go home. ICE is no longer carrying out its core mission, of finding, identifying and removing illegal aliens from the country.
“Agents are in a state of despair,” Stein added. “They are being turned into nursemaids, chaperones and bus drivers.”
Telling people suspected of breaking the law where they can seek refuge makes no sense, said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies.
“It's schizophrenic," Vaughan said. "What the Obama administration has done is to create sanctuaries for illegal aliens and to publicize them. That is fine for a social welfare agency, but not for a law enforcement agency. No law enforcement agency would ever want to broadcast where lawbreakers can go to be shielded from the consequences of their actions.”
The site does say the “sensitive locations policy” does not apply to places directly along the border, but warns its own agents that if they plan to move on a suspect in such a location near the border they “are expected to exercise sound judgment and common sense while taking appropriate action, consistent with the goals of this policy.”
The CBP website also provides a toll-free number and email address to allow illegal immigrants to report possible violations of the “sensitive locations” policy.
Obama meeting Singapore PM, looks to boost TPP trade pact
WASHINGTON – The prime minister of Singapore is joining President Barack Obama at the White House to celebrate the 50th anniversary of U.S. diplomatic relations with the Southeast Asian city state. But the two leaders will also discuss a shared cause with less rosy prospects — the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal.
Singapore, a close U.S. partner, is one of the 12 nations in the TPP, an agreement key to Obama's effort to boost U.S. exports and build strategic ties in Asia. But Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's Washington visit starting Tuesday comes as opposition to the TPP intensifies in the United States. Both Republican contender Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, who are competing to succeed Obama as president, are against it.
Speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce late Monday, Lee urged its ratification, saying the pact would give the U.S. better access to the markets that account for 40 percent of global economic output. He said it would also add heft add heft to Washington's so-called "rebalance" to the Asia-Pacific.
"For America's friends and partners, ratifying the TPP is a litmus test of your credibility and seriousness of purpose," he said.
His sentiments are shared by Obama, who told Singapore's The Straits Times in an interview published Monday that the U.S. can't "turn inward" and embrace protectionism because of economic anxieties that have been drawn out by the presidential election.
The Obama administration says it remains determined to try and win congressional approval for TPP, but the chances of achieving that in the "lame duck" session after the Nov. 8 election and before the new president takes office Jan. 20 appear slim because of the depth of political opposition, not least from Obama's fellow Democrats.
The deal would eliminate trade barriers and tariffs, streamline standards and encourage investment between the 12 countries that include Mexico, Japan, Vietnam and Australia. But critics say the pact undercuts American workers by introducing lower-wage competition and gives huge corporations too much leeway.
Singapore, a city state of 5.7 million people, is heavily dependent on international trade for its prosperity. In 2004, it became the first Asian nation to strike a bilateral free trade agreement with the U.S. Last year, the bilateral trade in goods totaled $47 billion, with the U.S. enjoying a $10 billion surplus.
Singapore is also a strong advocate of the U.S. security role in Asia although it retains cordial ties with China too. Under Obama, the U.S. has deployed littoral combat ships in Singapore, and last December, deployed a P-8 Poseidon spy plane there for the first time, amid heightened tensions in the South China Sea.
Lee's meeting with Obama on Tuesday will be watched for reaction to an international tribunal ruling July 12 that invalidated China's historical claims to most of the disputed South China Sea. The U.S. says the ruling is binding but China has rejected it. Southeast Asian nations have been reluctant to speak out against Beijing.
Lee will be honored with a state dinner Tuesday evening — the first held for a Singaporean leader since October 1985, when Ronald Reagan hosted Lee's late father, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
The U.S. and Singapore opened diplomatic relations in 1966, a year after the U.S. recognized Singapore's independence from Malaysia.
Flood help weighs heavily in West Virginia governor's race
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| FILE - In this Tuesday June 28, 2016 file photo, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and Greenbrier owner Jim Justice, as he gestures during an interview at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. Justice, billionaire owner of The Greenbrier resort and Democratic nominee for governor, closed his hotel for business and opened it as a free shelter after the June 23 floods that killed 23 people, including 15 in Greenbrier County. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File) |
Jim Justice, billionaire owner of The Greenbrier resort and Democratic nominee for governor, closed his hotel for business and opened it as a free shelter after the June 23 floods that killed 23 people, including 15 in Greenbrier County.
Shooing away election talk, Justice said he put his gubernatorial campaign on hold for the two weeks following the floods to focus on victims. But a boost of good will from voters seems likely in return.
There's a long history of storms and other natural disasters making or breaking political leaders — President Barack Obama and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie drew praise for dropping partisan differences and working together after Superstorm Sandy in 2012, while then-President George W. Bush never fully recovered from his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.
Justice, on the other hand, is just a candidate — but he is also West Virginia's richest man. His stately, white-columned hotel turned out to be right in the middle of the flood's worst destruction, putting him in a situation with little precedent in modern politics.
"Candidates have said things, made appeals or, normally, they criticize the response of elected officials, saying 'it's too slow, it's too little,' and that's how they win favor," said Virginia Tech associate public policy professor Patrick Roberts, who specializes in disaster politics. "But I can't think of an instance where someone had the personal resources to really offer."
Dating back to 1778, the 710-room Greenbrier resort has long been one of the jewels of West Virginia'stourism industry, hosting presidents and royalty and holding a once-secret underground bunker built for Congress in case of nuclear attack during the Cold War.
The Greenbrier's golf course temporarily became a flowing brown river, just two weeks before it was to have hosted a PGA Tour golf tournament — an event that was ultimately canceled.
Justice swears the storm's political implications never occurred to him.
"I don't do many things from a standpoint of what I think would be politically correct," Justice said. "From this standpoint, that hasn't even entered my mind, honest to Pete."
Justice's rival in November, Republican nominee Bill Cole, also stepped in to help after the floods, but with less fanfare. He helped secure tetanus shots for Nicholas County, brought port-a-potties to Clendenin, ran public service ads for donations at his car dealerships and collected 30 tons of goods for victims.
Cole traveled into flood-ravaged regions essentially every day for two weeks. He made some campaign appearances that had been on the books for a long time, but said it was a 90-10 split in favor of flood work.
Still, his efforts were overshadowed by Justice, who announced the reopening of The Greenbrier at a news conference with a banner reading "God Bless The Great People of West Virginia" draped behind him.
"I really went out of my way not to publicize it," Cole said, "then all of a sudden, it was, 'Where are you?' ... 'Why aren't you doing something?'"
Cole, the state Senate president, added in an interview, "To me, the fine line also exists if I'm out there looking for the TV cameras to get interviewed, then am I really helping or am I just looking for earned media?"
Cole said he's not judging Justice's actions. He considers the flood off limits politically.
Whether Justice's intentions are pure, political or somewhere in between, no one disputes that he made an impact on a region in ruin. Among other efforts, he has raised $1.9 million for flood relief through his charity, Neighbors Loving Neighbors, including checks from celebrities like NBA legend Jerry West and PGA Tour golfer Bubba Watson.
Another indirect benefit: Republican attacks temporarily fell silent against Justice for being delinquent on his bills, taxes, coal mine fines and other obligations.
Local residents sang Justice's praises when they walked the resort's halls to grab a free lunch late last month.
"It's great PR," said Marybeth Beller, a Marshall University political science professor. "The photos that played out in the (Charleston) Gazette-Mail (newspaper) showed ordinary working-class West Virginians all of sudden being able to stay at The Greenbrier with their families. It was a tremendous mark of generosity."
And whether he thought about it or not, likely a mark of good politics as well.
Trump vs. Clinton: Will Americans vote for the party of anger or the party of entitlement?
This is a huge weekend in The Bronx, with the rare “corpse flower” blooming at the New York Botanical Garden. The enormous plant flowers only once every 10 years and is noted for, as the garden gently puts it, the “infamous odor it releases during its brief 24-36-hour peak.”
Visitors say the odor resembles a “dead animal” or “rotting flesh,” while The Guardian newspaper found a 6-year-old boy who got a whiff and declared it “worse than a thousand pukes.”
Naturally, huge crowds are rushing to smell for themselves.
It could be a coincidence, but the bloom coincides with the start of the presidential general election, and there is another similarity as well: the contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is also a hold-your-nose affair that is attracting huge crowds.
Having spent most of the last two weeks at the parties’ spirited conventions, I return to earth not with an infamous odor but with an ominous feeling. It goes beyond the flaws that Clinton and Trump both feature and the devilish web of problems the next president will face.
My sense of dread stems from the fact that each party is speaking to a very different America. And not just about politics, but also about clashing concepts of pretty much everything.
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Here are some observations, and which party is which is obvious: We have the party of anger on one hand and the party of entitlement on the other. One party is fed up, the other wants to be fed. One wants free markets, the other wants free stuff.
These are vast generalizations, but they contain much more than a kernel of truth. These differences dictate the choice of nominees and the policies they pursue.
So one party wants lower taxes, the other wants higher taxes, one wants fewer regulations, the other wants more.
Go a step further, and it’s Blue Lives Matter vs. Black Lives Matter. One party vows to destroy radical Islam, the other refuses to say its name.
Conventions always aim to offer contrasts as motivation, but this year’s polarization is more dangerous because neither candidate has much crossover appeal. Trump and Clinton deserve each other because they share the distinction of having the highest negative ratings ever held by presidential nominees.
Business empress, now super-surrogate: Can Ivanka Trump be dad’s deal-closer?
If the response to her recent convention address is any gauge of her impact, pollsters suggest the Trump campaign may want to do whatever it can to get Ivanka on the trail.
“She [was] off the charts,” Lee Carter, a pollster with Maslansky + Partners, told Fox News in reviewing the focus-group reaction to Ivanka right after her speech. “The bottom line is she is an amazing spokeswoman for him.”
Ivanka is seen as someone who could make a powerful case for her dad, potentially softening his image among female voters and others with whom the Republican’s numbers have lagged.
Asked for comment on what's next for the influential Trump daughter – and mother of three – the campaign did not elaborate but suggested she'll play an important role.
“She will be an incredible asset to the campaign and we are grateful for her support,” Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told FoxNews.com.
The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.
Ivanka Trump's convention address in Cleveland was a clear message to independents and especially female voters as she touted her father’s record on hiring women, favoring quality over quotas and embracing talent.
“My father values talent. He recognizes real knowledge and skill when he finds it. He is color blind and gender neutral. He hires the best person for the job, period,” she told the audience at Quicken Loans Arena.
For many voters, it was their first chance to really hear from Ivanka.
But she's been an integral part of her father's business empire for years, and now the inner political circle – dual roles that could complicate efforts to deploy her on the trail.
Inside the Trump Organization, Ivanka primarily manages the real-estate components and is seen by many as the emerging face of the Trump brand. She is considered one of the few individuals Trump trusts to make deals on his behalf.
“I think her father really listens to her, and when I say listens to her I mean I think her father respects her a great deal, and not just because she’s his daughter,” businessman Carl Icahn told The New York Times.
Ivanka has publicly defended her father from claims of sexism and racism, while privately her influence over major campaign decisions is virtually unrivaled, a source with intimate knowledge of campaign operations told FoxNews.com. The source confirmed she played an influential role in the dismissal of former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
“She is less concerned about the politics of the campaign and more focused on protecting the Trump brand,” the source said.
Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner also played a critical role in his selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as Trump’s running mate, according to Time magazine.
Sarah Lenti, a Denver-based Republican consultant, suggested the Trump daughter proved an asset in Cleveland and should be deployed to whatever extent possible.
“I think [Trump] needs to play the woman’s card as much as possible. She was highly relatable and is extremely well-liked among working- and middle-class women,” Lenti said.
During a recent focus group of women, Lenti found a majority of them disliked both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump -- but related to Ivanka.
“They wanted to hear more from her on the issues. They were really impressed with her grace and what she has accomplished in life,” Lenti told FoxNews.com. “Older and middle-aged women don’t want to hear about abortion. They want to hear about how to balance work and life. [Ivanka] is a mom of three, she works a full-time job and she has her own business. She gets it.”
A clearer picture will emerge in coming weeks, but a CNN/ORC post-convention poll found Donald Trump made gains both in terms of his personal image and his ability to manage foreign policy.
He still has ground to make up with women. A post-convention CBS News poll showed Clinton expanding her lead among women (though trailing among men).
The Trumps may have a chance, however, to shift those numbers. A pre-convention, six-week Morning Consult poll found while Clinton led Trump 44-36 percent among women, as many as 21 percent were undecided.
Ivanka Trump's presence on the campaign trail inevitably creates a rivalry of sorts with the famous daughter on the other side of the aisle, Chelsea Clinton, who introduced her mother for the Democrats' closing convention night in Philadelphia last Thursday.
Two days earlier, Chelsea Clinton was asked during a Facebook Live event what she would like to ask Ivanka. Clinton said it would be how her father would pay for his proposals.
“How would your father do that given it’s not something he’s spoken about. There are no policies on any of those fronts on his website. Not last week. Not this week. The how question is super important,” she said.
“When you look at those issues that certainly affect our generation so strongly, I think my mom has stronger plans and a stronger record for actually delivering for women and families,” Clinton added.
In a recent interview with Politico, Ivanka acknowledged voters may view her as a product of heritage, not hard work:
“I don’t have a problem if somebody who has never met me wants to say that I wouldn’t be where I was today without my family because you know what? They may be right. They probably are right. Who the hell knows? It’s an impossible argument.”
Monday, August 1, 2016
Court ruling in murder of intern Chandra Levy reignites speculation on sensational Washington story
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| Charges dismissed against man convicted in Levy's death |
The conjecture may not be fair. But it will inevitably happen.
A decision by Washington D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert Morin to “dismiss without prejudice” the murder conviction of Ingmar Guandique is likely to foster enduring chatter theory, which hasn’t dissipated in the nation’s capital in 15 years.
In 2010, the feds convicted Guandique -- an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador -- in the murder of then 24-year-old Washington intern Chandra Levy nine years earlier. Now prosecutors appealed to the court to drop the conviction as the court prepared for a retrial this fall because their case against Guandique crumbled.
The U.S. Attorney told the court that his office “could no longer prove the murder case against Mr. Guandique beyond a reasonable doubt.” Prosecutors based their conviction on the testimony of what later proved to be an unreliable informant who coughed up information from the slammer.
Prosecutors halted their efforts against Guandique following the revelation of an illegally-taped conversation between gang leader Armando Morales and bit-part actress Babs Proller.
Morales’s information was key in the conviction of Guandique. Morales and Proller got to know each other when they were neighbors. Proller’s recording purportedly reveals he lied on the witness stand during Guandique’s 2010 trial, which earned him a 60-year sentence for murdering Levy.
" 'Homeboy, I killed that bitch, but I didn’t rape her,’ ” Morales testified in court about what Guandique told him about Levy. Morales asked for installation in the government’s witness protection program for his testimony.
“It is now clear that the jailhouse informant, who was central to the government case, was a perjurer who too easily manipulated the prosecutors,” said Guandique’s attorneys.
And so, the question today is the same as it was 15 years ago: Who killed Chandra Levy?
The disappearance and murder of Levy has and always will be a Capitol Hill story. That’s because at the time of Levy’s death, she was having an affair with then-Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif.
Carnival atmospheres frequently descend on Capitol Hill: Donald Trump meeting with House and Senate Republicans as he did a few weeks ago. A lineup of baseball stars like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa appearing at a hearing on doping. Bono and Alicia Keys cruising through the Capitol’s marble corridors in an effort to secure funding for AIDS research.
But no one has seen a journalism jamboree like the one that unfolded around Condit in the spring and summer of 2001. The Levy case engrossed the entire press corps. News crews from around the world encamped on the Capitol.
Reporters staked out Condit’s office. They stalked him near the House gym in the Rayburn House Office Building. They pursued him in and out at the House Agriculture Committee. They waited at all hours for Condit at his home in Washington’s Adams-Morgan neighborhood. They even hung out in front of the home of his chief of staff in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Va.
There were no suspects in the Levy case. But Condit was eerily mute. His quiet fomented disquiet. What did he know? What did he do? Did he do anything?
Prosecutors called Condit to testify in the 2010 Guandique case. When Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Haines presented Condit in court, she noted that the former congressman “was having an affair with Chandra Levy.” She later said those rendezvous had “nothing to do with the murder of Chandra Levy.”
But earlier this year, Guandique’s defense team planned to introduce evidence at a retrial that could implicate Condit.
“Condit was fully aware of the cost he could pay if his affair with Ms. Levy became public,” said the defense in court filings. “He therefore had an obvious motive to kill Ms. Levy in order to keep the relationship secret, and an equally powerful motive to cover up the circumstances of her death if she died while she was with him -- either through intentional conduct or otherwise.”
Back in 2001, all eyes -- including those of media and law enforcement -- focused on Condit.
The case baffled investigators. There was no murder weapon. They found no body (until 2002). No obvious motive. There was cryptic information from Levy’s computer internet searches about the Pierce-Klingle Mansion in the middle of Washington’s Rock Creek Park.
In May, 2002, a man searching for turtles (can this get any weirder?) stumbled upon Levy’s skeletal remains.
Notably on Levy’s computer, there was also a search for Baskin-Robbins. After leaving Congress, Condit operated two Baskin-Robbins franchises near Phoenix.
Baskin-Robbins later sued Condit and his family for failing to pay franchise and advertising fees to the company.
Police eventually ruled Condit out as a suspect. He conceded in an interview he had a tryst with a woman who was nearly three decades his junior. But authorities cleared Condit, despite finding him elusive. Flight attendant Anne Marie Smith also came forward, saying she too had an affair with Condit.
The congressman then refused to submit to a police polygraph.
Is there any reason this story wouldn’t consume media, in Washington or elsewhere?
Condit tried to run for re-election. He lost his primary to a former staffer, Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif. Condit’s son Chad ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2012.
Guandique turned to Levy’s parents when he appeared in court six years ago.
“I’m very sorry for what happened to your daughter,” he said. “But I had nothing to do with it. I am innocent.”
And still, no one knows who did it.
But one thing is clear: the recording Babs Proller made of Armando Morales is the lynchpin to clearing Guandique. That’s the only reason people in Washington are chattering about this case again.
In a final, warped twist, Babs Proller appeared briefly in an episode of “House of Cards.” In a non-speaking role, Proller appears sitting on the dais in the House chamber when President Frank Underwood addresses Congress for his State of the Union message. Proller’s position in the chamber is usually reserved for the clerk of the House during such elite meetings.
The entire Chandra Levy case revolves around quintessential Washington intrigue, even 15 years down the road. A congressman’s liaisons with an intern. Power. An unsolved murder. A media circus. All inside the Beltway touchstones worthy of the program, “House of Cards.”
It appears the government formed its case against Guandique on a house of cards. And perhaps it’s only appropriate that an actress who appeared on “House of Cards” helped immolate the prosecution and the conviction of Guandique.
Who killed Chandra Levy?
Well, it’s like something right out of “House of Cards.”
McConnell, Ryan weigh in on Trump-Khan controversy
The leaders of the Republican-controlled House and Senate on Sunday made statements regarding the firestorm of words between party presidential nominee Donald Trump and Khirz Khan, the Muslim father of an Army captain killed in the line of duty.
Khan, during a speech at last week’s Democratic National Convention, said Trump has "sacrificed nothing and no one" for America.
Trump responded by essentially saying he’s made many sacrifices but drew criticism by questioning why Khan’s wife, Ghazala, stood silently on stage during her husband’s speech.
“She had nothing to say,” Trump said on ABC. “Maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me."
Khan had said she didn't speak because she is still overwhelmed by grief and still cannot look at photos of her son without crying.
Since the controversy started late last week, Khirz Khan has called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan to condemn Trump’s remarks.
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Trump said this spring, in the aftermath of several terror attacks by radicalized Islamists, that Muslims should be temporarily banned from entering the United States. He has since scaled backed that position, to keeping out people from Syria and other countries that are hotbeds for radical Islamic terrorism.
However, neither McConnell or Ryan directly criticized Trump or his comments about Ghazala Kahn.
“Captain Khan was an American hero, and like all Americans I’m grateful for the sacrifices that selfless young men like Capt. Khan and their families have made in the war on terror,” said McConnell, of Kentucky. “And as I have long made clear, I agree with the Kahns and families across the country that a travel ban on all members of a religion is simply contrary to American values.”
Ryan, of Wisconsin, wrote: “As I have said on numerous occasions, a religious test for entering our country is not reflective of these fundamental values. I reject it. … Many Muslim Americans have served valiantly in our military, and made the ultimate sacrifice. Captain Khan was one such brave example.”
Washington Democrats almost immediatley criticized Ryan for also not pulling his endorsement of Trump.
Kahn said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he “appreciates” Trump calling his son a “hero,” but said the praise “sounds disingenuous.”
Trump on Sunday wrote two Twitter posts on the issue:
“I was viciously attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention. Am I not allowed to respond? Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!”
He then tweeted: “Captain Khan, killed 12 years ago, was a hero, but this is about RADICAL ISLAMIC TERROR and the weakness of our "leaders" to eradicate it!”
On Sunday, Ghazala Khan further defended her actions on stage and attacked Trump.
“Donald Trump said that maybe I wasn’t allowed to say anything,” she wrote in The Washington Post opinion section. “That is not true. My husband asked me if I wanted to speak, but I told him I could not. … When Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant. … Donald Trump said he has made a lot of sacrifices. He doesn’t know what the word sacrifice means.”
Trump’s original response sparked immediate outrage on social media -- both because they critiqued a mourning mother and because many considered them racist and anti-Muslim.
On Saturday, Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said: "The speaker has made clear many times that he rejects this idea, and himself has talked about how Muslim-Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country."
Hillary Clinton campaign spokeswoman Karen Finney tweeted: “Trump is truly shameless to attack the family of an American hero. Many thanks to the Khan family for your sacrifice, we stand with you.”
Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, later said in a statement: "I was very moved to see Ghazala Khan stand bravely and with dignity in support of her son on Thursday night. ... This is a time for all Americans to stand with the Khans and with all the families whose children have died in service to our country."
Karen Meredith, a member of Gold Star Families, a support group for families who lost loved ones in the Iraq War, said Capt. Humayun Khan’s parents “showed great courage” by standing up in front of the Democratic convention and that for Trump “to insult their culture by saying that is why she did not speak is offensive.”
On Sunday, Khizr Khan also attempted to persuade voters not to vote for Trump, saying, “I appeal to them not to vote for hate-mongering. Vote for freedom.”
He also implied that about of a third of the responses he’s gotten from Americans are from Republican politicians but said he would not disclose names.
Clinton acknowledges hard work ahead, frustrated by America’s ‘caricature’ of her
EXCLUSIVE: Hillary Clinton acknowledges that Americans have a legitimate concern about her trustworthiness, particularly related to her email scandal and the Benghazi terror attacks, but criticized those who have attempted to undermine her Democratic presidential campaign and make a “caricature” out of her, in an exclusive interview with “Fox News Sunday.”
“I think that it's fair for Americans to have questions,” Clinton said, in an interview taped Saturday. “Every time I run for an office, though, oh my goodness, all of these caricatures come out of nowhere. And people begin to undermine me because when I left office as secretary of state, 66 percent of Americans approved of what I do.”
According to a Gallup poll cited by Poltifact, Hillary Clinton had a favorability rating of 64 percent when she left her role as secretary state in February 2013. Her rating declined following criticism over the deadly attack of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi and her handling of emails while at the State Department.
On the issue of two-thirds of Americans having concerns about her trustworthiness, Clinton repeated what she has often said, “I know that I have work to do.”
In the wide-ranging interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, Clinton said that evidence shows that the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin hacked into Democratic National Committee emails and appeared to time their damaging release to her party’s nomination convention last week.
She stopped short of saying that Putin wants Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has “praised” Putin, to win the White House.
However, Clinton, in her first interview since she accepted the presidential nomination Thursday, said the Putin government appears to have made a “deliberate effort to try to affect the election,” which “raises national security issues.”
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.”
Clinton again said she “made a mistake” by using a private server system to send and receive official emails when she was secretary of state. But she held firm that she did not communicate classified information and appeared to shift the blame onto the roughly 300 people with whom she communicated via email.
“I relied on and had every reason to rely on the judgments of the professionals with whom I worked,” Clinton said. “So in retrospect, maybe some people are saying, ‘Well, those -- among those 300 people -- they made the wrong call.’ At the time, there was no reason, in my view, to doubt the professionalism and the determination by the people who work every single day on behalf of our country.”
She also disagreed with the assertion that FBI Director James Comey, at the conclusion earlier this summer of the agency’s investigation into the matter, said she misled the public when she said she never transmitted classified information.
“That's not what I heard Director Comey say,” Clinton said. “Comey said that my answers were truthful and what I've said is consistent with what I have told the American people.”
In an appearance earlier this month before the House Oversight and Government Reform panel, FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers, “there was classified material emailed,” in response to questions about Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., asked the FBI director: “Secretary Clinton said there was nothing marked classified on her e-mails, either sent or received. Was that true?”
“That’s not true,” Comey replied.
In a press briefing prior to his House testimony, Comey said, “Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
In the "Fox News Sunday" interview, Clinton, who is in a close race with Trump for the White House, also said that she would not attempt to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling on Second Amendment rights, instead urging Congress to enact tighter gun-control measures.
Team Trump: Debate schedule instant replay of Dems' blindside on Sanders
The Commission on Presidential Debates on Sunday issued another statement in an apparent effort to end criticism by Donald Trump’s campaign about two of the events being scheduled during televised NFL games -- and suggested Trump is fighting a losing battle.
“It is impossible to avoid all sporting events, and there have been nights on which debates and games occurred in most election cycles,” the commission wrote. “A debate has never been rescheduled as a result.”
Two of the three debates scheduled in September and October will be televised during NFL games.
On Sept. 26, the night of the first debate, ESPN will carry the Monday night game featuring the Falcons vs. the Saints. On Oct. 9, the second debate will air opposite the Sunday night game featuring the Giants vs. the Packers on NBC.
The commission said officials started working on the debate scheduled more than 18 months ago to identify potential scheduling conflicts with religious and federal holidays, baseball league playoff games, NFL games and other events.
“As a point of reference, in a four-year period, there are four general election debates … and approximately 1,000 NFL games."
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“The CPD believes the dates for the 2016 debates will serve the American public well,” the commission also said.
Trump said Saturday that the football league complained in a letter to him about the debate schedule.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy acknowledged Saturday that the league would like at least one of the debates rescheduled but tweeted: "We did not send a letter to Mr Trump."
The issue follows criticism that the Democratic National Committee intentionally scheduled primary debates on a Saturday night to minimize audiences as a way of protecting frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
And recently leaked emails show that the DNC indeed intended to undermine the campaign of Clinton primary rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“You know, Hillary Clinton wants to be against the NFL,” Trump told ABC’s “This Week," "maybe like she did with Bernie Sanders, where they were on Saturday nights when nobody's home."
Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort seemed to suggested on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the dates are still being negotiated.
“We're going to sit down with the commissioner and talk with them,” he said. “The DNC hack showed you that the Clinton campaign was working to schedule debates against Sanders which have the least possible viewing audience. ... So, I'm not sure what the dates are going to be, ultimately. … But we're not going to fall ploy to the Democrat -- to the Hillary Clinton ploy that she did against Bernie Sanders.”
The Clinton campaign has not comment on Trump's assertion.
Trump did allow that three debates were "fine" and that he'd rather have three than one.
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