Santa Clara University Bans Conservative Group, Saying It Makes Liberal Students Feel ‘Unsafe’

At Santa Clara University, offended leftists are doing all they can to keep conservatives off campus.
Turning Point USA advertises itself as a group promoting “fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.” Some Santa Clara students went before the school’s student senate to apply to start their own chapter on campus. A small group of students made their pitch, and then students and faculty at the school delivered speeches opposing the group.
In the end, the senate rejected the proposal, saying the group would make students feel “unsafe.”
“It was a lot of repetitive stuff,” Caleb Aleva, one of the Turning Points USA activists, told The Daily Caller. “A lot of them are lying about being afraid or they are genuinely in fear because of this false sense of danger promulgated by the media that anyone who is vaguely conservative is a Nazi or a white supremacist,” he said.
David Warne, one of the student senators at Santa Clara, told The Daily Caller that the group was compared to the alt-right in a presentation. “The order of the presentation goes like this: White Nationalists—>Alt-Right—>Identity Evropa—>Richard Spencer—>Milo Yiannopoulos—>Turning Point USA,” Warne wrote. Identity Evropa recently appeared on campus, but Warne said no one believes the posters were put up by students.
A few of Turning Point’s 350 chapters around the country have helped co-host Milo events, but the group as a whole doesn’t associate with him. The group’s events at college campuses haven’t led to major demonstrations or to outbreaks of violence.
Turning Point USA spokesman Matt Lamb contacted Santa Clara’s assistant director of student organizations to find out why the group was rejected. He told The Daily Caller that the assistant director “told the club to re-apply next quarter.” He then added that “she also said that one reason the student senate likely rejected us was because of the ‘mood’ after the last election.”
The group was voted down by a margin of 16-10, and the next step for them is to appeal the decision to the judicial branch of the student senate or wait until the next quarter.

Conway: Travel ban part of Trump's 'responsibility,' 'authority' and 'duty'

Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway defended President Donald Trump's executive order halting travel to the U.S. from seven majority-Muslim nations Monday, saying that Trump "has a responsibility, the authority, and indeed, the duty to protect Americans."
Conway spoke to Fox News' "Hannity" hours after the Justice Department filed a brief with a federal appeals court seeking the ban's restoration three days after a federal judge in Washington state halted the order.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ASKS APPEALS COURT TO RESTORE TRUMP'S TRAVEL BAN 
Echoing the Justice Department brief, Conway argued that Friday's decision by U.S. District Court Judge James Robart was "overly broad."
"It’s a nationwide injunction," Conway said. "He referenced religion where, in fact, that has nothing to do with the executive order."
"The fact is," she added. "we don’t even know if these states that sued have standing. Individuals have standing and individuals usually need to show harm and damages."
Conway also argued that Robart was "wrong from the bench" when he stated that no one from the seven countries named in Trump's executive order — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen — had been arrested on terror charges in the United States since 2001. An Associated Press report described Robart's statement as "a step too far."
"This is the judge who … issued a nationwide injunction," Conway said, "and was just wrong from the bench in what he said about what this type of extreme vetting would provide or would have prevented had it been in place earlier."

US court to hear arguments on Trump's travel ban

A U.S. federal  appeals court Tuesday will hear arguments over President Trump’s controversial temporary travel ban, and whether Trump’s order should be restored after last week’s federal judge’s ruling.
The filing with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals came three days after a federal judge in Washington state halted Trump's order and granted a nationwide stay.
The Justice Department said U.S. District Judge James Robart's order was "vastly overbroad" and said Trump's executive order was "a lawful exercise of the President's authority over the entry of aliens into the United States and the admission of refugees."
The appeals court refused to immediately reinstate the ban, and lawyers for Washington and Minnesota -- two states challenging it -- argued anew on Monday that any resumption would "unleash chaos again," separating families and stranding university students.
VIDEO: JUDGE NAPOLITANO'S TAKE ON THE TRAVEL BAN LEGAL BATTLE 
Oral arguments were set for Tuesday afternoon. Whatever the appeals court decides, either side could ask the Supreme Court to intervene.
It could prove difficult, though, to find the necessary five votes at the high court to undo a lower court order; the Supreme Court has been at less than full strength since Justice Antonin Scalia's death a year ago. The last immigration case that reached the justices ended in a 4-4 tie.
The president's executive order has faced legal uncertainty ever since Friday's ruling by Robart, which challenged both Trump's authority and his ability to fulfill a campaign promise.
The State Department quickly said people from the seven countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — could travel to the U.S. if they had valid visas. The Homeland Security Department said it was no longer directing airlines to prevent affected visa holders from boarding U.S.-bound planes.
On Monday in Colorado, a graduate student who had traveled to Libya with her 1-year-old son to visit her sick mother and attend her father's funeral was back in Fort Collins after having been stopped in Jordan on her return trip. She was welcomed with flowers and balloons by her husband and other children.
Two Yemeni brothers whose family has sued over the travel ban, and who'd been turned away in the chaotic opening days of the order, arrived at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, where they were greeted by their father.
"America is for everybody," Aqel Aziz said after greeting his sons.
Syrian immigrant Mathyo Asali said he thought his life was "ruined" when he landed at Philadelphia International Airport on Jan. 28 only to be denied entry to the United States. Asali, who returned to Damascus, said he figured he'd be inducted into the Syrian military. He was back on U.S. soil Monday.
"It's really nice to know that there's a lot of people supporting us," Asali told Gov. Tom Wolf, who greeted the family at a relative's house in Allentown.
The legal fight involves two divergent views of the role of the executive branch and the court system.
The government has asserted that the president alone has the power to decide who can enter or stay in the United States, while Robart has said a judge's job is to ensure that an action taken by the government "comports with our country's laws."
His Friday ruling triggered a Twitter rant by Trump, who dismissed Robart as a "so-called judge." On Sunday, Trump tweeted, "Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!"

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Pence takes two wounded war veterans to Super Bowl 51

Vice President Mike Pence picked up two wounded war veterans at Andrews Air Force Base on his way to Houston for the Super Bowl on Sunday.
Marine Staff Sgt. Anthony Mannino, Jr. and Army Staff Sgt. Frederick Manning flew aboard Air Force Two on the way to the game. Mannino was wounded while serving in Iraq in 2008 and Manning was hurt in Afghanistan last year, according to The Hill.
Mannino brought along his wife Diane and Manning brought his nurse from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Army Sgt. First Class Charles Stanley. Mannino was pulling for the Patriots to win their fifth Super Bowl, while Manning was hoping the Falcons would win their first.
“We’ve got Falcons fans. We’ve got Patriot fans,” Pence said. “There’ll be a winner on this plane on the way back.”
Mannino told the Indy Star on Sunday that he thought the initial call was a mistake. Manning added that he didn’t get any sleep Saturday before the game.
“I was like, `This is the White House? Are you sure you’ve got the right person?’” Mannino said.
After the group landed in Houston, the conclave went to Pappas BBQ in Houston for a pulled pork sandwich and some BBQ sauce.
Pence gave Pappas BBQ two thumbs up as he left to go to NRG Stadium.
"It was just great," he said, rubbing his stomach. "That's some Texas BBQ.”

Federal workers turn to secret messaging to oppose Trump policies, nominees

Some federal employees are gearing up for a cyber-battle against President Trump, and they are creating a hidden messaging system to elude detection.
According to POLITICO, employees of agencies that seem on the chopping block of the new administration are setting up new email addresses and turning to encrypted messaging apps to hold group conversations with other anti-Trump staffers, and to communicate with the press.
They’re also using these cloak-and-dagger methods to work on letters that take exception to Trump policies, POLITICO reported.
Career employees at the State Department have amassed some 1,000 signatures on a memo that expresses condemnation of Trump’s executive order that imposes a travel ban on immigrants and that puts a hold on refugee admissions from seven Muslim-majority countries deemed hotbeds of terrorist activity.
Employees of other agencies, such as the Labor Department and Environmental Protection Agency, also have turned to off-the-grid messaging to urge U.S. senators to oppose Trump Cabinet nominees and warning against the president’s plans to make cuts in some agencies.
Such off-grid communication can work, and stay within legal boundaries, say experts, so long as it is done during personal time and on personal equipment.
“It could work, but it depends on whether they are using their office computers or networks,” said Jim Lewis, director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to Fox News. “If they are, they’ll be detected, even if they use encryption. If they are using private accounts or devices, it would require a warrant to find them and they aren’t violating any law if they stick to opinion.”
Lewis served as a Foreign Service officer with both the State and Commerce departments.
“Illegal surveillance would lead to a lawsuit against the [agency] that conducted it [and] the workers would win,” Lewis added. “Encryption is a problem in that it can hide communications between two people but can be a handicap if you want to share material widely.”
Some State Department employees see it as their civil duty to flag any policies or proposals that they believe will be detrimental to their agency’s role, POLITICO said.
“I think we all have to look within ourselves and say ‘Where is that line that I will not cross?’” one Foreign Service officer said about opposition toTrump's ban, according to POLITICO.
One of the most high-profile acts of dissent occurred when Acting Attorney General Sally Yates ordered the Department of Justice’s lawyers not to defend the ban order in court.
Trump abruptly fired her.
Recently, news surfaced about a Secret Service agent who last year said in a Facebook post that she would not sacrifice her life for Donald Trump if he became president.
Employees of the National Parks Service raised eyebrows when the agency’s Twitter account had a retweet of photos showing crowds at Trump’s and Barack Obama’s inaugurations.
The agency removed the retweet and described it as an error.
But so-called “unofficial resistance teams” at the park service, EPA and NASA have been apparently using alternative accounts to take jabs at Trump and his policies.
One tweet, cited by POLITICO, said: “Can't wait for President Trump to call us FAKE NEWS. You can take our official twitter, but you'll never take our free time!”
Many of the federal workers turning to under-the-radar means of communicating are using Signal, a smartphone app that can be used to send encrypted messages.
“It seems Trump is going after people who oppose things that he’s doing, so it makes sense that federal workers would be concerned about making their political ideas known,” said Jonathan Katz, director of the Maryland Cybersecurity Center at the University of Maryland.“The [Signal] app is well-designed, it’s secure, it would be difficult to collect widespread information from it,” Katz said to Fox News. “But if [the government] wants to target a specific individual, it could do that.”

Pence: Will use 'all legal means at our disposal' to reinstate immigration ban

Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that the federal judge who halted President Trump’s temporary immigration ban “made the wrong decision” and vowed to use “all legal means at our disposal” to protect Americans.
“From the outset of his campaign and administration, the president of the United States has made it clear to put the safety of the American people first,” Pence said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We are going to win this argument.”
Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 27 that temporarily halted immigration from seven mostly Muslim nations and the United States’ Syrian refugee program. The order follows his steadfast argument that radical Islamic terrorism poses a major threat to Americans’ safety.  
On Friday, a federal judge in Seattle imposed a temporary restraining order on Trump’s ban, in response to a case filed last week by Washington state and Minnesota challenging Trump’s constitutional authority to unilaterally impose such a sweeping ban.
On Saturday night, a federal appeals court denied a Trump administration request to lift the restraining order and allow the immigration ban to continue.
“Under statutory law and under the Constitution, that authority belongs to the president,” Pence also said Sunday.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told “Fox News Sunday” that she has “no doubt” that the legal issue will ultimately go to the Supreme Court.
Pence also supported the new sanctions Trump imposed on Iran after the country last week launched a medium-range ballistic missile.
“They have flouted the U.N. security resolution,” he said. “What we are seeing here is a hostile action, belligerent action, taken by the Iranians. And we just are not going to put up with it anymore."

Trump: Leaked transcripts of Mexico, Australia calls 'disgraceful'

President Trump on Saturday denounced the leaks of transcripts of his telephone conversations with leaders of Australia and Mexico as “disgraceful” and said his administration was searching “very, very hard” for the leakers.
Trump, speaking exclusively to Fox News, accused “Obama people” of giving news organizations embarrassing details of his recent tense phone conversations with his Australian and Mexican counterparts, and said that the holdovers from the Obama administration still serving on his White House and National Security Council staff were being replaced.
“It’s a disgrace that they leaked because it’s very much against our country,” Trump said, without stating why he believed that career civil servants who work in Democratic and Republican administrations were the source of the leaks. “It’s a very dangerous thing for this country,” he said.
Trump said that media reports of what appeared to be angry exchanges between him and the two foreign leaders had been mischaracterized, and insisted that he had “positive” relations with both countries and their leaders.
Meanwhile, hours before a federal judge in San Francisco turned down the Trump administration’s request to reinstate travel restrictions on refugees and foreign travelers, President Trump defended his administration’s travel ban, saying the temporary halt was needed while the administration reviewed vetting procedures to prevent “people with bad intentions” from entering the country.
“I just want a safe country, and you can’t have a safe country with open and weak borders…you can’t,” he said.
Trump said that the FBI had informed him that the bureau had “1,000 investigations” ongoing into potential terrorist threats and lacked sufficient manpower to pursue them all.
Finally, he disputed press reports which characterized the sanctions he imposed last week on Iran as weak and ineffective. He said that punishing Tehran for violating United Nations Security Council restrictions on ballistic missile testing was “the right thing to do,” and argued that the sanctions were already beginning to constrain Iranian aggression. Iran, he said, was trying to undermine and destabilize U.S. allies by exporting sensitive technology to countries “around the world” and that such aggressive conduct had to be countered. The sanctions were already working, he asserted. “Have you noticed they’ve been very quiet in the last two days?”
Trump made these and other comments in a conversation with three journalists whom he had invited to join him after the 60th annual International Red Cross ball, a fundraiser for the charity that was held this year at his club, Mar-a-Lago.
In his first trip back to his home in Palm Beach since becoming president, Trump answered several questions on wide-ranging topics from this reporter, Christopher Ruddy, founder and chief of Newsmax Media, and Melanie Dickinson, president and publisher of the South Florida Business Journal, an online and print business publication. Trump and his wife Melania lingered on after the ball to mix with admirers and some of the estimated 800 Red Cross supporters attending the black-tie event at Mar-a-lago, which has become known as “The Winter White House.”
While wealthy supporters of the charity rubbed shoulders with one another and clustered around the table occupied by Trump and his wife, eager to congratulate him and take photos with First Couple, some 4,000 people turned out for an anti-Trump march in West Palm Beach. Hundreds of protesters made their way from Trump Tower in West Palm Beach to a staging area near Palm Beach on Bingham Island, and then to the entrance of the exclusive club, where they shouted anti-Trump slogans and yelled chants against the new administration’s policies. Many of the protesters, most of whom were peaceful, carried placards criticizing Trump, his immigration and other policies, and several of his wealthy Cabinet nominees. The protest was among the largest, if not the largest, in recent Palm Beach county history.
Inside the huge ornate ballroom, Trump seemed particularly insistent on disputing the notion that his travel restrictions now being challenged by several courts were unpopular. “They’re very popular,” he insisted. But, he added, he would have imposed them whether or not Americans approved of them. “I’m not doing it for popularity. I’m doing it because our country is like a sieve for people coming in,” he said.
He said that he had learned in his meetings with FBI officials that the bureau was having a difficult time staffing the more than 1,000 investigations it was conducting into potential threats to the country. “There’s no manpower to do them.”
Calls to FBI headquarters regarding the number of ongoing terror investigations were not returned on this Super Bowl Sunday. But last summer, James Comey, the FBI director, testified that the bureau had about 1,000 open terror-related investigations in 2016 and at least one in all of the 50 states. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who follows counter-terrorism efforts closely, confirmed that senior FBI officials have spoken of nearly 1,000 ongoing investigations. John Pistole, the former FBI deputy director, told Fox News last summer that the FBI lacked the resources and legal authority to maintain investigations “on everybody they talk to,” he said. The FBI had perpetrators of the terror attacks carried out in Orlando, San Bernardino, and Boston under surveillance for a time, but closed out their inquiries before the attacks.
Trump said Saturday night that many Americans did not realize the danger posed by America’s “open” borders and insufficient vetting. “You don’t realize it,” he said.
However, groups helping asylum seekers, refugees, and other civil and human rights groups point out that no Americans have been killed in domestic terror attacks by asylum seekers and refugees from the seven Middle Eastern countries with majority Muslim populations who would be barred from entering the U.S. for 120 days while the administration reviews its immigration and vetting policies.
Under Trump’s executive order, refugees from Syria would be permanently barred, exclusions whose legality several civil rights and civil liberties experts and groups have challenged. They also argue that political refugees are already among the most heavily vetted of all immigrants.
“I’m doing this because our country is like a sieve for people coming in,” Trump said.
One former CIA official said that while the administration’s implementation of its executive order was “clumsy, the concerns behind it are real.” But the constitutionality of the executive order seems headed for a Supreme Court challenge.
The FBI also did not return calls for comment Sunday on whether it was conducting an investigation into the leaking of transcripts of the president's telephone calls with foreign leaders. While White House press spokesman Sean Spicer recently said that the president had asked his team to “to look into this because those are very serious implications," Trump had not previously discussed his own view of the embarrassing leaks. His comments Saturday underscored his concern about what has become widespread early on in his administration — the unauthorized distribution of material highlighting numerous exaggerations and false statements by him and senior members of his White House and other incidents that seem to reflect incompetence or inexperience.
Trump seemed particularly anxious to reinforce his spokesman’s descriptions of his conversations with the leaders of Australia and Mexico as “candid," but respectful. Spicer noted that both leaders have disputed some of the details as reported.
Based on the transcripts, the Washington Post and several media outlets, for instance, reported that Trump hung up on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after an angry discussion of a refugee swap negotiated by former President Obama. In a recent interview, Turnbull called his discussion with Trump “frank” but said that Trump had agreed to abide by the refugee swap negotiated by former President Barack Obama. In one interview, he said it had been a "good week" for Australia.
In an earlier call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Trump apparently threatened to send the U.S. military to Mexico to stop drug cartels -- according to a transcript published by a Mexican news organization and the Associated Press. The White House later said the comments were intended to be “lighthearted.”