Republican holds on in closely-watched Kansas special House election

Kansas state Treasurer Ron Estes held off a stronger-than-expected challenge from Democratic civil rights attorney James Thompson Tuesday night as the GOP won the first special congressional election since President Trump's inauguration.
The election was held to fill the House seat vacated by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, a former three-term representative of Kansas' 4th district.
Estes won 53 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Thompson. The Republican's margin of victory was just over 8,000 votes. By contrast, Pompeo won re-election in November by 31 percentage points and 85,000 votes.
In a speech to supporters in Wichita, Thompson vowed that he would run for the seat again in 2018 and argued that the result was evidence that no Republican district is safe.
The race had been closely watched nationally for signs of a backlash against Republicans or waning support from Trump voters in a reliably GOP district. Trump won 60 percent of the votes cast in the 17-county congressional district this past November.
The president himself entered the fray Monday with a recorded get-out-the-vote call on Estes' behalf and tweeted his support on Tuesday morning.
Other nationally known Republicans pitched in over the final days of the race. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas campaigned for Estes Monday in Wichita, while Vice President Mike Pence also recorded a get-out-the-vote call. The National Republican Congressional Committee spent roughly $90,000 in last-minute TV and digital ads.
Thompson reckoned that the high-profile support for Estes helped push him over the top, and claimed he could have won had national Democrats rallied to him sooner. Readers of the liberal blog Daily Kos donated more than $200,000 to Thompson in the final days of the race. Thompson was also backed by Our Revolution, the group that grew out of Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign.
"You fight," Thompson said when asked what the results should show Democrats. "You play every game."
All those GOP calls prompted Charlene Health, a 52-year-old homemaker and Republican in Belle Plaine, to cast a ballot for Estes.
"I wasn't even going to vote," she said as she left her polling site Tuesday morning. "I finally did. I realized this was important."
Alan Branum, 64, a retired construction worker is a Wichita Democrat who voted for Estes and plans to change his party affiliation to Republican since he leans more conservative. He thinks Trump has been been doing fine so far.

"I don't think it is fair people condemn him," he said of the president. "He hasn't been in long enough to make a judgment. People need to give him some time."
Estes supported Trump last year and backs the president's policies. He supports the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, backs funding for a wall on the border with Mexico, opposes funding for Planned Parenthood, and does not believe an independent investigation into Russian hacking of the election is needed.
Lucy Jones-Phillips, a 31-year-old insurance representative and Democrat, acknowledged she doesn't vote in every election, but said she voted for Thompson because she wanted to ensure supporters of Gov. Sam Brownback are not in office. She was especially upset when the Republican governor recently vetoed Medicaid expansion.
"I can't stand Brownback," she said as she left her polling site in Belle Plaine.
Thompson tried to tap into voter frustration with Brownback throughout the campaign, tying the state treasurer to the unpopular Republican governor. Thompson has called the Kansas congressional election more of a referendum on Brownback than on Trump.

But Thomas Hauser, 67, of Belle Plaine, a Republican who works in the information technology industry, said he crossed party lines in Tuesday's election to vote for Thompson. He also didn't vote for Trump in the last year's general election. Thompson appealed to Hauser in part because both men are ex-military but also because "I don't believe in the (GOP) line."
Republicans have represented the south-central Kansas district since 1994. The district has been hard hit by the downturn in the agricultural economy and the loss of hundreds of well-paying, blue-collar jobs in aircraft manufacturing plants.
With Estes' victory, Republicans are now defending three GOP-leaning seats in upcoming special elections in Georgia, Montana and South Carolina. Democrats are protecting a seat in a liberal California district.

North Korea decries US carrier dispatch as parliament meets

PYONGYANG, North Korea –  North Korea's parliament convened Tuesday amid heightened tensions on the divided peninsula, with the United States and South Korea conducting their biggest-ever military exercises and the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier heading to the area in a show of American strength.
North Korea vowed a tough response to any military moves that might follow the U.S. decision to send the carrier and its battle group to waters off the Korean Peninsula.
"We will hold the U.S. wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions," a spokesman for its Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
The statement followed an assertion by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that U.S. missile strikes against a Syrian air base in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack carry a message for any nation operating outside of international norms. He didn't specify North Korea, but the context was clear enough.
"If you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point a response is likely to be undertaken," Tillerson told ABC's "This Week."
Pyongyang is always extremely sensitive to the annual U.S.-South Korea war games, which it sees as an invasion rehearsal, and justifies its nuclear weapons as defensive in nature. It has significantly turned up the volume of its rhetoric that war could be on the horizon if it sees any signs of aggression from south of the Demilitarized Zone.
"This goes to prove that the U.S. reckless moves for invading the DPRK have reached a serious phase of its scenario," the North's statement said, referring to the country by its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "If the U.S. dares opt for a military action, crying out for 'pre-emptive attack' ... the DPRK is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the U.S."
In Washington, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said President Donald Trump has been very clear that it's "not tolerable" for North Korea to have nuclear-armed missiles.
"The last thing we want to see is a nuclear North Korea that threatens the coast of the United States, or, for that matter, any other country, or any other set of human beings," Spicer said at the Tuesday news briefing.
Trump spoke last week with China's President Xi Jinping about the "shared national interest" in stopping its close ally, North Korea, from having nuclear capabilities, Spicer said, adding that it would be helpful if China was more outspoken on the matter.
"He would welcome President Xi weighing in on this a little bit more," Spicer said.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump also said that he tried to persuade Xi to put pressure on North Korea in exchange for a good trade deal with the U.S.
"I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!" Trump tweeted.
In a second tweet he wrote: "North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A."
North Korea's parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly, nominally the highest organ of government, opened Tuesday with the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, taking the center seat.
Foreign media are not allowed to attend parliamentary sessions. Initial reports from state media said the meeting went through domestic issues, with Premier Pak Pong Ju making a speech about the latest five-year economic plan, which was announced last year. Another closely watched category on the official agenda is organizational issues, which can mean new appointments to senior positions.
Like other attendees, Kim Jong Un was shown on the North Korean news late Tuesday holding up his assembly membership card to vote on state business.
This year's meeting kicks off what are expected to be major celebrations, including a large-scale military parade and fireworks, to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, North Korea's first leader and "eternal president," and Kim Jong Un's late grandfather.
Though the details of the April 15 anniversary — known as the "Day of the Sun" — have not been officially confirmed, Pyongyang residents have been out every day diligently practicing in the city's squares and parks for the mass event.
The North Korean parliament is often dismissed as rubberstamp because it tends to approve, rather than formulate, policies and laws, but its role is a bit more complex than the facade and spectacle presented to the nation by state-run media.
For one thing, the regularity of its meetings — it usually meets once or twice a year — is, in itself, a sign of stability.
"The SPA gatherings completely undercut any analysis or prognostications that the country is going to collapse. If they failed to convene an SPA session, that would be an indication that there is a fundamental problem among DPRK elites," said Michael Madden, editor of the North Korea Leadership Watch website.
"If there was an existential problem with the (ruling) Workers' Party of Korea and the political culture, then they wouldn't be convening so many people at one time in Pyongyang," Madden said.

China's Xi tells Trump he wants peaceful solution to North Korea

Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Trump in a phone call Wednesday that Beijing is willing to work with Washington on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, but wants to do so through peaceful means.
Xi told Trump that China insists on peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of the deployment of the USS Carl Vinson to the area and the conducting of the biggest-ever U.S.-South Korea military drills.
"China insists on realizing the denuclearization of the peninsula ... and is willing to maintain communication and coordination with the American side over the issue on the peninsula," Xi was quoted as saying by state media.
TRUMP WARNS CHINA ON NORTH KOREA: HELP SOLVE THE PROBLEM OR ‘WE WILL’
The call came after Trump warned in a pair of tweets Tuesday that North Korea “is looking for trouble” and vowed to get Kim Jong-Un’s regime under control with or without China’s help.
“I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!” Trump tweeted.
He added in a second tweet: “North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A.”
Trump and other U.S. officials have repeatedly called on China to leverage its status as North Korea's biggest economic partner and source of food and fuel aid to force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
China has said that it is in full compliance with sanctions enacted under U.N. Security Council resolutions and in February, suspending imports of coal from North Korea — a key source of foreign currency for Kim.
However, Beijing also said it will not countenance measures that could bring about a collapse of the regime that could release a flood of refugees across its border, destabilize northeast Asia and result in a U.S.-friendly government taking power in Pyongyang.
North Korea has drawn U.S. ire recently following a series of ballistic missile tests. There is also fear the country’s nuclear program is progressing.
Pyongyang said Monday it would “hold the U.S. wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences” if there was any further military action after the USS Carl Vinson arrives in the area of the Korean Peninsula.
Adding to tensions, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that activity appeared to be taking place at a North Korean nuclear test site ahead of the April 15 anniversary of the communist country's founding.

Kim Jong Un Cartoons

Spying on North Korea: US Air Force keeps eye on Kim Jong Un

OSAN AIR BASE, SOUTH KOREA –  The U.S. Air Force is busy in the skies over the Korean Peninsula, a range of aircraft including F-16’s running around the clock missions and exercises. The increase in provocations from North Korea focusing minds more.
“It keeps us on a heightened sense,” says US Air Force Col. James Brotree, “ There’s always something going on so we always have to make sure we do the right things.”
NORTH KOREA, SYRIA AND DECADES OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS
Many of these flights come from the Osan air base south of Seoul. And all those operations are run from an air operations center manned by U.S. and South Korean Air Force personel.
Osan is the base for updated U-2 spy planes that prowl the skies over the Korean peninsula. Most days ‎two planes will go on missions lasting some 10 hours, as high as 14 miles up.
EXPERT: WATCH TO SEE IF KIM JONG UN GOES INTO HIDING AFTER SYRIA STRIKE
All weight has been stripped away to get the plane down to its basics so it can always be “locked in” via signals and image intelligence on the conventional and unconventional doings of the Pyongyang regime.
“It can be a very tense time but that’s kind of what we do here,” U-2 squadron commander Lt. Col. Todd Larsen, “We do our daily mission but we’re always maintain our readiness.”
If trouble is spotted, other planes at the base, including F-16 jet fighters, could be called into action, as well as the A-10 “Warthog” or “Tank-killer” aircraft which has seen a lot of combat action in other hot spots.
It provides close air support for ground forces with missiles strapped to its wings and a very nasty nose cone machine gun.
“We go to the same air space that we’d be going to in a wartime situation just 30 miles to the north of us,” Major Jordan Hrupeck told me about his combat exercises. “We’re going there in defense of South Korea.”
None of the U.S. Air Force officers who spoke with us said they expected to be called upon to execute a “preemptive strike,” the so-called “military option.” But they did tell us, if provoked by the North, which is happening more these days, they are ready.

O'Reilly: 'A Damn Shame' No Countries Will Help US Fight Global Threats

In his Talking Points Memo on Monday, Bill O'Reilly said it was a "damn shame" that western nations won't help the United States combat threats like Syria, Iran or North Korea.
O'Reilly said the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia offer only limited assistance in "policing the world."
He said President Trump's strike against a Syrian airfield after a civilian gas attack is proof America will make sure world order is kept.
"It is a damn shame we are the only country to take that stance," he said.
O'Reilly questioned why Russia insists on being friendly with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and why China seems to allow North Korea to operate as it wishes.
He pointed to a CBS News poll that showed Trump's approval rating rising slightly, and added that the upward trend is likely to continue.

Tillerson faces biggest challenge yet in upcoming meeting with Russian counterpart

Gingrich on the foreign policy challenges facing Trump

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not meet with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when the former Exxon Mobil CEO visits Moscow on Wednesday, a move that could signal tensions between Washington and the Kremlin.
The Kremlin’s decision to avoid the meeting is notable. In 2013, Putin personally awarded Tillerson  the Order of Friendship- which is a top state award in the country, Reuters reported.
A Russian spokesman did not indicate why the two will not meet.
Tillerson is emerging from the shadows with a leading public role in shaping and explaining the Trump administration’s missile strikes in Syria. And, he’s set for an even higher-profile mission, heading to Moscow under the twin clouds of Russia’s U.S. election meddling and its possible support for a Syrian chemical weapons attack.
SUSAN RICE'S CLAIM ON SYRIA GETS FOUR PINOCCHIOS
Tillerson was visible during last week’s announcement of the response to the gruesome chemical attack, fielding questions from reporters on and off camera, and then captured in an official White House photo seated next to President Trump as they heard the result of the 59 cruise missiles that struck a Syrian military base.
Tillerson was a prominent fixture during the most important foreign policy period in Trump’s young presidency: a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi that coincided with the strikes against Syria. He was by Trump’s side during his meetings with Xi and spoke publicly multiple times to address both issues.
It was Tillerson who delivered the Trump administration’s first blistering condemnation of Russia in the hours after the strikes. Standing in a cramped conference room alongside national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Tillerson said Moscow had “failed” to live up to its obligations under a 2013 agreement to strip Syria of its chemical weapons stockpiles. “Either Russia has been complicit or Russia has simply been incompetent in its ability to deliver on its end of that agreement,” he said.
On Sunday, he made his first network television interview appearances. In one interview, Tillerson said he sees no reason for retaliation from Russia for the U.S. missile strikes. Russia maintains a close political and military alliance with President Bashar Assad’s government and has been accused of supporting its attacks against Syrians opposed to Assad’s rule — something Moscow adamantly denies.
Tillerson said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Russians were not targeted by the strikes. He also said the top U.S. priority in the region hadn’t changed and remained the defeat of Islamic State militants.
Then he headed to Europe to gather with the foreign ministers of the other major industrialized nations before venturing on eastward to become the first Trump Cabinet member to visit Moscow — and possibly meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The criticism from the foreign policy establishment’s left and right that has dogged Tillerson’s tenure is dying down.
Tillerson had faced questions about whether he understood that his new position meant he was now the face of the United States to the world, that he had to answer no longer to a small group of top shareholders but to more than 320 million Americans.
The secretary of state must be “the spokesman for American foreign policy,” said Eliot Cohen, a senior State Department official during George W. Bush’s presidency. “This is the administration’s first crisis but it won’t be their last by a long shot, so he’s going to have to get used to this.”
Joining Trump at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Tillerson was supposed to focus on the informal summit with Xi. Instead, he was thrust to the forefront after photos of the bodies piled in heaps in Idlib, Syria, dramatically altered the agenda.
Only a week earlier, Tillerson had alarmed U.S. allies by indicating the U.S. was no longer interested in pushing for Assad’s removal from power.
In the hours leading up to Trump’s decision to order the strikes, Tillerson was among the most forward-leaning of Trump’s top aides in suggesting the U.S. would deliver an “appropriate response.” He challenged Russia publicly in a way Trump appeared scrupulously to avoid and said of Assad early Thursday: “It would seem that there would be no role for him to govern the Syrian people.”
After the cruise missiles crashed down in Syria, Tillerson was calm and commanding in a question-and-answer session with journalists.
Cohen, a conservative critic of Trump’s foreign policy who has chided Tillerson for his reticence, said he saw Tillerson growing into the job. “I suspect you’ll see more of him as he grows more comfortable in dealing with the press and in his relationship with the president and the administration’s national security team,” Cohen said.
Beyond Syria are disputes over Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
At the same time, Tillerson carries to Moscow the weight of FBI and congressional investigations into Russia’s interference in last year’s presidential election. The Trump campaign’s possible ties to the presumed Russian meddlers are also under scrutiny.
“This is going to be Tillerson’s biggest test to date,” said Julianne Smith, a National Security Council and Defense Department official under President Obama.

North Korea vows 'catastrophic consequences' for US aircraft carrier dispatch

North Korea is vowing tough counteraction to any military moves that might follow the U.S. move to send the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its battle group to waters off the Korean Peninsula.
The statement from Pyongyang comes as tensions on the divided peninsula are high because of U.S.-South Korea wargames now underway and recent ballistic missile launches by the North. Pyongyang sees the annual maneuvers as a dress rehearsal for invasion, while the North's missile launches violate U.N. resolutions.
"We will hold the U.S. wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions," a spokesman for its Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by the state-run Korean Central News Agency late Monday.
The statement comes just after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said U.S. missile strikes against a Syrian air base in retaliation for a chemical weapon attack carry a message for any nation operating outside of international norms.
He didn't specify North Korea, but the context was clear enough.
"If you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point a response is likely to be undertaken," Tillerson told ABC's "This Week."
Gordon Chang, a Daily Beast columnist and author of “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On The World,” said in an emailed statement to Fox News Friday that the U.S. strike on the Syrian airfield “tells North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un that he must now heed American military power, something that he probably dismissed before.”
“Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, disappeared from public view for about six weeks in 2003 at the time of the Iraq war. Kim Jong-Un loves the public spotlight, and it will be telling if he similarly goes into hiding,” the author said.
The airstrikes are “a warning to China’s People’s Liberation Army, which had grown dismissive of the U.S. Navy and Air Force.  Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader visiting Mar-a-Lago, almost certainly interpreted the strike as a sign of disrespect to him,” Chang said.
The North has long claimed the U.S. is preparing some kind of assault against it and justifies its nuclear weapons as defensive in nature.
"This goes to prove that the U.S. reckless moves for invading the DPRK have reached a serious phase of its scenario," the North's statement said. "If the U.S. dares opt for a military action, crying out for 'preemptive attack' and 'removal of the headquarters,' the DPRK is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the U.S."
North Korea's formal name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
U.S. Navy ships are a common presence in the Korean region and are in part a show of force. On Saturday night, the Pentagon said a Navy carrier strike group was moving toward the western Pacific Ocean to provide more of a physical presence in the region.
President Donald Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, described the decision to send the carrier group as "prudent."