Brazile as DNC chair considered replacing Clinton with Biden after she fainted: report

Former DNC leader Donna Brazile says she considered replacing 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with then-Vice President Joe Biden after Clinton fainted in the closing weeks of the White House race, according to full review of Brazile’s upcoming book published Saturday.

Clinton fainted while attending an outdoor ceremony in New York City marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. But Brazile, then the interim Democratic National Committee chairwoman, had already known that Clinton has pneumonia, she writes in her upcoming book, according to The Washington Post, which received an advance copy.

The Post’s review of the book -- “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House” -- says Brazile writes in “wrenching detail” about the former first lady’s bout with pneumonia, including her seeing Clinton at a Manhattan gala two days before she collapsed.
Brazile said Clinton was already “wobbly on her feet” and had a “rattled cough,” according to the review.
Clinton's former campaign team said in an open letter posted Saturday on the blogging platform Medium that they were dismayed by Brazile's revelations.
"We were shocked to learn the news that Donna Brazile actively considered overturning the will of the Democratic voters by attempting to replace Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine as the Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees," reads the opening of the letter."It is particularly troubling and puzzling that she would seemingly buy into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate’s health."
The Post review was published two days after Brazile published excerpts of the book in Politico that including bombshell revelations about her taking over the DNC in the summer of 2016 with roughly $20 million in debt.
Brazile also made the startling claim Thursday that a joint fundraising agreement between the DNC and the Clinton campaign, which included Clinton’s input on hirings and spending, effectively rigged the primary contest against Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Brazile also writes, according to the Post review, that she wanted to replace Clinton and Vice Presidential Nominee Sen. Tim Kaine with a ticket of Biden and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker as his running mate. She purportedly thought they had the best potential to win over working-class voters and defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump, according to the book review.
But “I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her. I could not do this to them,” Brazile writes.
The Post review also states that Brazile, when frustrated with Clinton aides, would remind them that the DNC charter gave her the authority to initiate the replacement of the party's presidential nominee.
She said that if a nominee became disabled, the party chairman would oversee the replacement process, though it would ultimately require a meeting of the entire DNC.
The review also details Brazile's reported wide-ranging takedown of the Clinton campaign over such matters as perceived “inevitability” and a focus on analytics over truly understanding voters.
Brazile also reportedly says she cannot remember sending an email, as a paid CNN contributor, to the Clinton campaign sharing potential topics and questions in advance of a town hall event the cable news network was hosting, nor does she have a record of sending it. However, she nevertheless apologized. The email was released by WikiLeaks.

Trump, Japan's Abe meet before start of high-stakes diplomacy

U.S. President Donald Trump and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe greet one another at Kasumigaseki Country Club outside Tokyo, Nov. 5, 2017.  (Associated Press)

President Donald Trump's five-nation Asia trip got off to a low-key start Sunday as he enjoyed a round of golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The two leaders hit the links not long after a lunch of American-beef hamburgers, not long after Trump's arrival from Hawaii.

But the display of friendship from Abe will soon give way to high-stakes diplomacy. Still, the two men have struck up an easy rapport.
Their formal talks are set to begin Monday in Tokyo. Abe will be looking for a united front against North Korea and reassurances that the U.S. will stand by its treaty obligations to defend Japan if falls under attack.
Eager to forge a bond with Tokyo's crucial ally, Abe was one of the first world leaders to court President-elect Trump. He was the first to call Trump after the election, and rushed to New York days later to meet the president-elect and present him with a pricey, gold Honma golf driver.
The two men also met on the sidelines of an international summit in Italy this spring and White House officials said Trump has spoken with Abe by phone more than any world leader, aside from British Prime Minister Theresa May.
That bond was clear Sunday, as Trump and Abe exchanged glowing tweets about their game. Trump dubbed Abe and pro golfer Hideki Matsuyama -- who accompanied the two leaders -- as "wonderful people," while Abe called it a "round of golf with a marvelous friend."
From the time Marine One landed on the Kasumigaseki Country Club's driving range, Abe rolled out little touches to make Trump feel welcome. He presented a hat that had a version of Trump's campaign theme, this time reading "Donald and Shinzo: Make Alliance Even Greater."
The two passed up the region's famed Kobe beef in favor of the American version, which is favored by Trump, a famed picky eater.
When Trump hosted Abe in Palm Beach, Fla., earlier this year, they played at one of Trump's golf courses. For that outing, Trump brought along pro golfer Ernie Els, so this time Abe matched him by bringing along Matsuyama, whom Trump described on the plane ride to Asia as "probably the greatest player in the history of Japan."
Abe was behind the wheel of a golf cart as the two men were spotted moving from hole to hole, Trump in the passenger seat smiling and waving at those they passed.

"From the point of view of Abe administration, the personal chemistry that exists between the two leaders is seen as an asset," said Mireya Sollis, chair in Japan Studies for the Brookings Center for East Asia Policy Studies.
She said that the Japanese believe it is already "seeing it pay off," including when Trump agreed to meet with the families of Japanese citizens kidnapped by the North Korean regime, an important issue for Tokyo.
Ever since Saudi Arabia delivered a lavish welcome on Trump's first international trip, leaders have tried to outdo themselves to impress the president, who has proven susceptible to flattery.
Before the game, Trump delivered a speech in which he hailed Japan as a "crucial ally" and warned adversaries not to test America's resolve.
"Japan is a treasured partner and crucial ally of the United States and today we thank them for welcoming us and for decades of wonderful friendship between our two nations," Trump told American service members at Yokota Air Base on the outskirts of Tokyo.
Though Trump did not mention North Korea by name during the speech, the spectre of its weapons program will loom large throughout Trump's five-nation Asia trip. The president warned of the consequences of crossing what he called the "most fearsome fighting force in the history of our world."
"Together with our allies, America's warriors are prepared to defend our nation using the full range of our unmatched capabilities. No one -- no dictator, no regime and no nation -- should underestimate, ever, American resolve," he told the troops.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe display hats bearing the slogan, "Donald and Shinzo: Make Alliance Even Greater."  (Associated Press)

And while there is worry in the region about Trump's unpredictable response to the threat posed by Kim Jong Un, Trump made clear he did not intend to tone down his bellicose rhetoric -- which included dubbing Kim Jong Un as "Little Rocket Man" -- even while in an Asian capital within reach of the North Korea dictator's missiles.
"There's been 25 years of total weakness, so we are taking a very much different approach" in dealing with the renegade regime in Pyongyang, he said, speaking to reporters on Air Force One.
Trump also said it is "expected" that he'll meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of an upcoming summit in Vietnam.
The easy rapport with Japan could be strained if Trump takes an aggressive approach on trade or the two men disagree on the need for a diplomatic approach to the threat looming in Pyongyang. 
During his campaign, Trump suggested Japan should acquire its own nuclear weapons to defend itself, hinted the U.S. might not come to the nation's defense, and accused Japan of "killing us" on trade. He has dropped that antagonist language almost entirely since the election, but tensions remain.
Japan was a chief proponent of the Trans Pacific Partnership, a trade deal Trump pulled out of.
Scott Seaman, a director for Asia of the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultant organization, noted: "everything is fine with Trump until you tell him no. So far, Abe hasn't told him no."

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Trump: DOJ must do 'what is right and proper' and investigate Hillary Clinton

President Trump opened up on Democrats with both Twitter barrels from high in the sky Friday, exploiting fractures in the rival party after top operative Donna Brazile revealed insiders plotted to steal last year's presidential primary from Bernie Sanders.

"Bernie Sanders supporters have every right to be apoplectic of the complete theft of the Dem primary by Crooked Hillary!" Trump tweeted from Air Force One, as he headed off on a 13-day tour of Asian nations.

It was part of a mid-morning Twitter barrage in which Trump called for his own Justice Department to probe a range of scandals involving the Democratic Party and his vanquished 2016 presidential rival, Hillary Clinton.
“Everybody is asking why the Justice Department (and FBI) isn’t looking into all of the dishonesty going on with Crooked Hillary & the Dems,” Trump tweeted early Friday. “New Donna B book says she paid for and stole the Dem Primary. What about the deleted E-mails, Uranium, Podesta, the Server, plus, plus…”
In excerpts released Thursday from an upcoming book, Brazile, a longtime party stalwart and Clinton confidante, confirmed longstanding suspicions that the Democratic National Committee she once headed worked with Clinton to ensure she won the party's presidential primary over Sanders, the Vermont senator who built a huge following with his blend of Democrat politics and socialism.
"I always felt I would be running and winning against Bernie Sanders, not Crooked H, without cheating, I was right," Trump tweeted.
Brazile's explosive charge has sent shockwaves through the party.
“I had promised Bernie when I took the helm of the Democratic National Committee after the convention that I would get to the bottom of whether Hillary Clinton’s team had rigged the nomination process, as a cache of emails stolen by Russian hackers and posted online had suggested,” Brazile wrote in a book excerpt first published in Politico Magazine. “By Sept. 7, the day I called Bernie, I had found my proof and it broke my heart.”
The proof, according to Brazile, was a joint fundraising agreement document between the DNC, the Hillary Victory Fund and Hillary for America. It had been signed in August 2015, four months after Clinton announced her candidacy and a year before she officially secured the nomination over Sanders.
“The agreement –signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC and Robby Mook, with a copy to Marc Elias—specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised,” Brazile wrote. “Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decision on all the other staff.”
DONNA BRAZILE: I FOUND 'PROOF' THE DNC RIGGED THE NOMINATION FOR HILLARY CLINTON
Even before Friday morning's tweetstorm, Trump reacted to the allegations against Clinton on Thursday night on “The Ingraham Angle.”
“It’s illegal, number one, and it’s really unfair to Bernie Sanders,” Trump said. “I’m not a Bernie Sanders fan, although I must say I got a lot of his votes when he was thrown out. Many of those people voted for me because of trade because I agreed with him on trade…But that was, I thought that was terrible.”
"Pocahontas just stated that the Democrats, lead by the legendary Crooked Hillary Clinton, rigged the Primaries! Lets go FBI & Justice Dept.," Trump tweeted again. 'Pocahontas,' when used by the president, is typically in reference to Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
In an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN Thursday, Warren, D-Mass., was asked whether she believed the DNC was rigged, to which the senator simply responded, "Yes."
But on Friday, Trump took the opportunity to add the Brazile bombshell to a list of allegations and situations that he wants his Justice Department to investigate, including her “deleted E-mails” and “the Server,” pointing back to the months-long Clinton email investigation.
Trump also referred to “Uranium,” alluding to the controversial Obama-era Uranium One deal. The 2010 deal concerns the sale of Canadian mining company Uranium One to Russia’s Rosatom nuclear company. The U.S. was involved because the sale gave the Russians control of part of the uranium supply in the U.S. Clinton, at the time, was secretary of state.
TRUMP CALLS DNC PRIMARY-RIGGING 'ILLEGAL,' SLAMS 'FAKE' DOSSIER IN FOX NEWS INTERVIEW
Trump also referred to “Podesta,” though it is unclear if he was referring to Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta, or his brother, Clinton’s longtime confidante and 2016 campaign manager John Podesta.
This week, Tony Podesta stepped down from his lobbying firm, which was co-founded with his brother John, in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe expanding to question Podesta’s Foreign Agent Registration (FARA) filings, and whether he was in violation of that law.
A spokesperson for Podesta told Fox News that they were compliant with their FARA filings and were “fully” cooperating with Mueller’s team.
The president tweeted again, moments later, underscoring the need for a federal probe.
"....People are angry. At some point the Justice Department, and the FBI, must do what is right and proper. The American public deserves it!" Trump tweeted.

JFK files link MLK Jr. to multiple affairs, say he possibly fathered child out of wedlock

A dossier released as part of the JFK files says the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had affairs with multiple women, according to published reports.  (Associated Press)

A dossier on Martin Luther King Jr. claims the civil rights leader possibly fathered a child out of wedlock, and had an affinity for orgies.

The data, part of the JFK files recently released by the National Archives, also includes the assertion that singer Joan Baez was among the multiple women with whom King allegedly had affairs, the New York Daily News reported.

Described in the 20-page report is a "two-day drunken sex orgy in Washington, D.C." that was linked to an event that King attended, the Washington Examiner reported.
The dossier cites information obtained from “a responsible Los Angeles individual,” who was said to be a relative of King’s alleged lover -- who was described as the wife of a prominent black dentist. The source said King may have fathered a baby girl with the woman, the Daily News reported.
The informant was said to have met King in 1960, and claimed that King had affairs with multiple women, including Baez.
The 676 newly released JFK files also include a declassified memo that quotes a Soviet diplomat who doubted Lee Harvey Oswald’s capability to operate a rifle and assassinate President Kennedy, the Daily News reported.
President Trump tweeted last week for all remaining documents to be released, changing his initial stance to withhold certain files due to national security concerns. 
This is the third time this year the National Archives has released declassified JFK documents, adhering to a deadline set by Congress under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 that ordered the release of the files in 25 years.

Keith Olbermann argues claim that Trump did more damage to the US than bin Laden

Keith Olbermann (left) and Meghan McCain got into a heated debate on "The View" Friday morning about Olbermann's claim that President Trump has done more to hurt the U.S. than Usama bin Laden.  (Reuters/Getty) 

Keith Theodore Olbermann (/ˈoʊlbərmən/; born January 27, 1959) is an American sports and political commentator and writer & Anti- Trump Hack ( Hack, exposed or offered to common use for hire; to turn prostitute.)

A conversation on "The View" got intense Friday morning after Keith Olbermann defended his recent tweet saying that President Trump and his family have done more damage to the U.S. than Usama bin Laden.

Olbermann was grilled about his claim that Trump has hurt the country more than bin Laden and the Islamic State combined, as he suggested in a Nov. 1 tweet to Donald Trump Jr.

"View" host Meghan McCain was in visible disbelief.
“3,000 people died on 9/11. I mean, the comparison is absurd,” McCain said about Olbermann’s claims, to which he responded by saying more people died during the Iraq War than 9/11 and “we didn’t need to be there.”
BIN LADEN FILES REVEAL FONDNESS FOR ‘FUNNY CATS,’ ‘CHARLIE BIT MY FINGER’ VIDEOS
“You think that bin Laden did less to damage America than President Trump?” McCain asked, to which Olbermann immediately replied, “Yes.”
McCain went on to say, “rhetoric like that is so damaging,” before defending her brother’s service in the Iraq war, saying the comparison between Trump and bin Laden, the latter of whom “was dedicated to the destruction of … everything that we hold dear,” was unbelievable.
“How do people like us find common ground,” McCain asked, adding that she was exhausted with the behavior on both sides of politics.
“Do you want President Trump to fail? Do you want America to fail? I’m genuinely curious,” McCain said.
TRUMP’S ASIA TRIP COULD BE AN INCREDIBLE SUCCESS IF HE DOES THIS
The heated back and forth was cut off by a commercial break and Olbermann was unable to reply, but upon return, the conversation took a somewhat more upbeat swing with Olbermann labeling McCain’s father his “favorite person in American politics in the 21st century." The former MSNBC host also said that he owes McCain and former President George W. Bush an apology “based on what we’ve seen in the last two years in this country.”
Olbermann continued saying he “would happily take a third term of George W. Bush rather than this,” adding that he didn’t think Trump was “stable,” and would even prefer Vice President Pence in the Oval Office.
“My attitude towards this administration is, we’re stuck with it, or I’m stuck with it from my view, no matter what happens going forward for at least four years… I’m accepting that,” Olbermann said. “I’ll take President Pence, I’ll carry him to the White House on my shoulders if need be.”

Trump visits Pearl Harbor ahead of first official tour of Asia

Before embarking on his first official visit to Asia, President Donald Trump flew to Hawaii on Friday, where he and first lady Melania Trump visited Pearl Harbor, the site where U.S. forces came under surprise attack from the Japanese in 1941.

The president and first lady also made a solemn visit to the USS Arizona Memorial, where they tossed flower petals into the water above the battleship’s sunken hull.

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President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump watch as a wreath is positioned at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Nov. 3, 2017.  (Associated Press)

The memorial, which is accessible only by boat, straddles the wreckage of the battleship on which more than 1,000 Navy personnel lost their lives during the attack that drew the U.S. into World War II.

Trump did not speak publicly while at Pearl Harbor, but expressed anticipation earlier in the day, before a briefing with leaders of the U.S. Pacific Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the region.

"We are going to visit very shortly, Pearl Harbor, which I've read about, spoken about, heard about, studied, but I haven't seen. And that is going to be very exciting for me," he said.
A total of more than 2,300 sailors, soldiers and Marines died as a result of the attack, as did 68 civilians, according to the National Park Service.
During his visit in Hawaii, Trump was expected to meet with the U.S. Pacific Command to discuss the escalating threat from North Korea. He was also scheduled to meet with the governors of Alaska, Hawaii and Pacific U.S. territories, which are all relatively close targets if North Korea opts for a missile strike aganst the U.S.
Trump will head to Japan on Saturday, then make subsequent stops in South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, where the looming crisis in North Korea will likely remain a key topic of discussion.
The president plans to attend the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) conference in Vietnam and the East Asian Summit in the Philippines, for which he recently tacked on an extra day to his trip.