George Soros Cartoons

Gregg Jarrett: Trump vs. crooks, liars and the liberal media

President Trump’s speech in Phoenix brought out the usual cast of misfits and miscreants.

And no, I’m not just referring to the “Antifa” anarchists who were, for the most part, denied their typical practice of wielding clubs, hurling feces, throwing rocks, setting vehicles ablaze and destroying buildings.

I’m talking about chronic Trump critics like James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence.  Spouting off on CNN immediately after the speech, Clapper said he questioned the president’s “fitness to be in this office."

Lying to Congress is a felony. Yet Clapper managed to avoid prosecution for criminal perjury by hiding behind President Obama. So, when Clapper decries the “complete intellectual, moral or ethical void” of President Trump, the irony is lost on no one.

Clapper seems to be making a career out of trashing Trump.  He’s like a guy who can’t resist cramming a cannoli in his mouth every time he passes a pastry shop.  Whenever Trump speaks, Clapper starts yapping.  It is no coincidence that his mouth, and the lie that came out of it back in 2013, is what should have landed him behind bars.
While testifying before Congress, Clapper was asked, “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?”   The DNI responded, “No.”
It was a breathtaking lie, of course.  Soon thereafter, the story broke that the National Security Agency had, indeed, been doing exactly what Clapper denied under oath.  When confronted with his lie, he told a reporter, “I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or at least untruthful manner by saying ‘no.’”   Huh?
Later, Clapper apologized for his “clearly erroneous” answer, but explained he had simply forgotten all about the massive government operation to secretly collect metadata on hundreds of millions of U.S. citizens.  That’s like saying Christmas slipped his mind.
Lying to Congress is a felony.  Yet Clapper managed to avoid prosecution for criminal perjury by hiding behind President Obama. Obama’s pal, Attorney General Eric Holder, made sure the case was tossed in a broom closet somewhere, never to be seen again.

The pompous media has never understood why much of America does not embrace their liberal values. Most members of the press are too insular and dogmatic to ever conceive of any intelligent beliefs beyond their own.

So, when Clapper decries the “complete intellectual, moral or ethical void” of President Trump, the irony is lost on no one.  Clapper became the poster child for ethical decay when he served as the nation’s chief intelligence officer.
At roughly the same time Clapper was spewing his usual drivel, Hillary Clinton was attempting to sideswipe Trump with her own revisionist rubbish.
Clinton, who mangled her presidential aspirations with acts of self-immolation unmatched in modern political history, is at it again.  Old habits are hard to break.  You’ll recall that she famously blamed her husband’s infidelity with a young intern on a “vast right-wing conspiracy” two decades ago.  She has been playing the narcissistic “blame game” ever since.
Her latest incantation is really quite laughable.  In a breathless recitation of excerpts from her new book “What Happened,” Clinton bemoans that the mere sight of Donald Trump during the campaign made her skin crawl.  It is the tripe of dime novels, but no less hypocritical.
Wouldn’t Hillary want to crawl out of her own skin because of her self-destruction? Wouldn't she blame herself for the utterly unnecessary, but fatal, scandal of her own making? When she looks in the mirror, does she see a crook staring back? How could she not?
Like Clapper’s lies, Clinton managed to escape prosecution and prison for what appears to be a clear violation of the Espionage Act in the mishandling of classified documents.  Once again, Obama’s Justice Department provided cover, with a significant assist from then-FBI Director James Comey.
Perhaps Clinton’s most revealing line in her book is when she recounts her "lifetime of dealing with difficult men trying to throw me off.”  While it is intended to be a swipe at Trump, it sounds more like an angry confession of living a tortured life in the company of Bill Clinton.
There will be more self-serving excerpts to come.  Lucky us.
But Hillary Clinton and James Clapper are like pesky flies compared to the mainstream media.  Driven by its pronounced liberal bias, they immediately condemned Trump for denouncing them at the rally.  The president knows he can provoke them into revealing their prejudices.  And when he did so during the speech, they reacted like Pavlov’s dogs.
The gnashing of teeth at CNN was predictable, if not comical.  Calling the president “unhinged” and “wounded,” anchor Don Lemon declared that Trump “came out on stage and lied directly to the American people.  His speech was without thought, without reason, devoid of facts, devoid of wisdom.”  Lemon blathered on and on, but you get the picture.  He seemed to light up like a pinball machine when his guest, Clapper, launched into his “unfit for office” shtick.  Is it any wonder that the convention hall crowd began chanting, “CNN sucks?”
The pompous media has never understood why much of America does not embrace their liberal values.  Most members of the press are too insular and dogmatic to ever conceive of any intelligent beliefs beyond their own.
Which is why journalists never imagined that Trump would be elected president.  When it happened, they lapsed into something akin to “septic shock” from which they have yet to recover.  Likely, they never will.  They will persist in predicting Trump’s imminent demise and assert their own intellectual and moral superiority.
In so doing, they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction.  Not as a professional endeavor.  There will always be journalists.
But America will no longer hold them in respectable regard.
Gregg Jarrett is a Fox News legal analyst and former defense attorney.

Trump administration threatens to halt travel from countries defying DHS on deportation

The Trump administration is threatening to halt some travel from four countries refusing to cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security on deportations.

DHS officials confirmed to Fox News that letters have been sent to the State Department seeking the suspension of visas for some of those countries' citizens.

A State Department official explained to Fox News that "when we receive such notification, the Department of State works to implement a visa suspension as expeditiously as possible in the manner the secretary determines most appropriate under the circumstances to achieve the desired goal."
Government officials refuse to specify the countries that will be affected. But the dispute centers on countries refusing to accept nationals who have been deported or delaying their return.
It's also unclear who exactly could be affected by a visa suspension.
“The secretary [of State] is having conversations with those countries. We want to bring those countries into compliance. We want those countries to be able to take back their citizens," a State Department official said. "We are having different levels of conversations with those countries and imposing different things upon them based on what we think will work best with those countries.”

Arpaio Pardon May Be Ready for Trump’s Signature

President Trump says former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will be “just fine”.
He made the comments in front of thousands of supporters in Arizona on Tuesday night.
Once known as the ‘Toughest Sheriff in America’, Arpaio was recently convicted of criminal contempt. Reports suggested President Trump would pardon Arpaio during the Tuesday rally, but White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters it would not be addressed.
Now, the White House says the paperwork to provide a pardon for Arpaio is on the President’s desk and waiting for his signature.

Pres. Trump Signs Vet Disability Bill

President Trump touts the progress his administration has made in fixing the broken VA System as well as the work being done to take better care of the nation’s veterans.
He made the comments while speaking at the American Legion’s National Convention in Reno.
The President mentioned several bills he has signed as a part of his ten point VA Reform Plan, including the Accountability Bill, the Veteran’s Choice Bill, and the Forever GI Bill.
After the speech, President Trump signed the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act, aimed at helping veterans with disabilities.

mexico political cartoons

State Department issues travel warning for Mexico

The U.S. Department of State issued a travel warning Tuesday for Americans traveling to certain parts of Mexico.

The advisory cautions citizens to avoid traveling to certain locations due to increased criminal activity.

Areas such as Baja California Sur, where the popular tourist destination Cabo San Lucas is, and Quintana Roo, where Cancun and Riviera Maya are located, have seen a spike in homicide rates this year.
“U.S. citizens have been the victims of violent crimes, including homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery in various Mexican states,” the travel advisory states. The advisory notes that resort areas and tourist destinations in the country don’t typically have the same level of drug-related violence and crime seen in other parts of the country.
NAACP ISSUES OFFICIAL STATEWIDE TRAVEL WARNING FOR 'RACIST' MISSOURI
The notice adds that “gun battles between rival criminal organizations or with Mexican authorities have taken place on streets and in public places during broad daylight,” but that there’s no evidence to show criminal groups in Mexico have targeted Americans based on their nationality.
U.S. citizens traveling may come across government checkpoints, operated by military personnel or law enforcement officials, but in some areas, criminal organizations have created their own “unauthorized checkpoints” and have killed or abducted those who haven’t stopped at them. The warning states that Americans “should cooperate at all checkpoints.”
The advisory follows a March warning that cautioned U.S. college students from traveling to Mexico during spring break.

Trump goes on rampage against the media, sitting Arizona senators at Phoenix rally

A defiant President Trump rallied with his base for more than an hour Tuesday in Arizona, trashing the media over its coverage of his response to the recent violence in Charlottesville, Va., while criticizing the state’s Republican senators for not getting behind him.

The president also signaled during the Phoenix rally that he could soon pardon Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff in Maricopa County famous for his tough stance against illegal immigration.

But Trump was most animated when defending himself against accusations he wasn’t forceful enough in condemning the white supremacists and racists who were protesting in Charlottesville earlier this month. He blamed the media for distorting his comments.
At one point, the president pulled a piece of paper out of his jacket and re-read his initial statements condemning the racists involved the protests.
“Did they report that I said that racism is evil?” Trump asked of the media. The crowd yelled, “No!”
“You know why?” Trump asked. “Because they are very dishonest people.”
A 32-year-old counter-protester was killed in Charlottesville after police said a Nazi sympathizer rammed his car into a crowd. After the violence, the president faced criticism for blaming “both sides” for the unrest instead of just white nationalists.
As Trump continued to rail against the media’s coverage of him, the crowd began chanting: “CNN sucks!”
“These are sick people," Trump said of the media. "You know the thing I don’t understand? You would think … they’d want to make our country great again. And I honestly believe they don’t.”
The events in Charlottesville cast a shadow over the rally, with Phoenix’s Democratic mayor, Greg Stanton, asking Trump last week to delay his rally in wake of the violence.
The Charlottesville violence led cities across the country to consider removing Confederate statues, something Trump railed against Tuesday.
“They’re trying to take away our culture, they’re trying to take away our history,” he said.
A crowd of protesters formed outside the convention center Tuesday, but the president bragged that there were far more Trump supporters in attendance.
“All week, they’re talking about the massive crowds that are going to be outside,” Trump said. “Where are they?”
He then mocked liberal protesters who had been demonstrating.
“You know, they show up in the helmets and the black masks and they’ve got clubs and they’ve got everything,” Trump said.
Referring to the far-left militant protest group, Trump exclaimed: “Antifa!”
Leading up to the rally, it was believed Trump could announce a pardon at the rally for Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff convicted of a misdemeanor charge for not obeying a 2011 order from a judge to stop his anti-immigrant traffic patrols. Earlier Tuesday, the White House said the president would not be announcing a pardon at the rally.
But Trump suggested a pardon – which would be his first as president – could be forthcoming.
“I’ll make a prediction. I think he’s going to be just fine,” Trump said. “But I won’t do it tonight because I don’t want to cause any controversy. Is that OK?”
Without specifically naming them, Trump dinged the state’s two Republican senators, Jeff Flake and John McCain, with whom he has sparred recently.
McCain, a frequent Trump critic who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, irked the president by voting against the Senate’s recent plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
“One vote away – I will not mention any names,” Trump said of McCain.
Flake, who has battled with Trump on immigration, has been promoting a book that argues the GOP is in “denial” about the president.
Speaking of Flake, Trump said: “And nobody wants me to talk about your other senator, who's weak on borders, weak on crime. So I won’t talk about him.”
During his speech, Trump vowed to follow through on his promise to crack down on illegal immigration. He also said he isn’t giving up on repealing ObamaCare and expressed optimism about reforming the country’s tax codes.
Speaking of the failed attempt to pass health care reform legislation, Trump said: “It would’ve been great health care for Arizona. It would have been great.”
Tuesday's rally came a day after Trump announced plans to send more troops to Afghanistan – an announcement he highlighted during his speech. “Did anybody watch last night?"
“Last night, as you know, I laid out my vision for an honorable and enduring outcome in a very tough place, a place where our country has failed, Afghanistan,” Trump said.
The president also addressed the recent escalation of rhetoric with North Korea. Trump referenced the country’s leader and said he believes Kim Jong Un is “starting to respect us.” Trump expressed hope that “maybe something positive can come about.”

High-ranking administration officials and other recognizable conservatives warmed up the crowd before the president spoke, including Vice President Mike Pence and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.
Several of them painted a picture of a divided country.
"Our lives are too short to let our differences divide us," Carson said. "Our differences are nothing compared to our shared humanity and the values that unite us."
Alveda King, a niece of Martin Luther King Jr., and evangelist Franklin Graham both delivered prayers before Trump’s speech.
"We come tonight as a troubled nation,” Graham said. “We're broken spiritually, we're divided politically, we're divided racially."