Trump says Texas church shooting result of 'mental health problem,' calls gunman 'deranged'

Nov. 6: President Trump issued a statement on the Texas church shooting during a news conference with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.  (Reuters)

President Trump on Monday said the mass shooting at a Texas church is the result of a "mental health problem at the highest level" and called the gunman a “very deranged individual.”

Trump was at an even with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo and responded to questions about the shooting Sunday at a Texas church that killed at least 26 and wounded 20.

“This isn’t a guns situation,” Trump said. “This is a mental health problem at the highest level. It’s a very, very sad event.”
Authorities on Monday were working to determine a motive in the shooting that occured at around 11:30 a.m. at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, which is about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio.
Multiple sources told Fox News the gunman was 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley.
Kelley lived in a suburb of San Antonio and didn't appear to be linked to organized terrorist groups, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. The official said investigators were looking at social media posts Kelley may have made in the days before Sunday's attack, including one that appeared to show a semiautomatic weapon.
Authorities said the gunman wore black tactical gear and a ballistic vest when he pulled into a gas station across from the church. He crossed the street and started firing a Ruger AR rifle at the church, said Freeman Martin, a regional director of the Texas Department of Safety, then continued firing after entering the white wood-frame building, where an 11 a.m. service was scheduled.
Wilson County Sheriff Joe D. Tackitt Jr., whose territory includes Sutherland Springs, said there was likely "no way" for the church congregation to escape once the shooting started.
"You've got your pews on either side. He just walked down the center aisle, turned around and my understanding was shooting on his way back out," said Tackitt, who said the shooter also carried a handgun but that he didn't know if it was fired.
Tackitt described the scene inside the church as "terrible."
"It's unbelievable to see children, men and women, laying there. Defenseless people," Tackitt said. "I guess it was seeing the children that were killed. It's one thing to see an adult, but to see a 5-year-old ..."
As he left, the shooter was confronted by an armed resident who "grabbed his rifle and engaged that suspect," Martin said. A short time later, the suspect was found dead in his vehicle at the county line.
Several weapons were found inside the vehicle and Martin said it was unclear if the attacker died of a self-inflicted wound or if he was shot by the resident who confronted him. He said investigators weren't ready to discuss a possible motive. Martin said 23 of the dead were found in the church, two were found outside and one died after being taken to a hospital.
The man who confronted Kelley had help from another local resident, Johnnie Langendorff, who told KSAT TV that he was driving past the church as the shooting happened.
"I was strictly just acting on what's the right thing to do," Langendorff said.
Gov. Greg Abbott called the attack the worst mass shooting in Texas history.
Among those killed was the church pastor's 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle Pomeroy. Pastor Frank Pomeroy, and his wife, Sherri, were both out of town when the attack occurred, Sherri Pomeroy wrote in a text message.
"We lost our 14-year-old daughter today and many friends," she wrote. "Neither of us has made it back into town yet to personally see the devastation. I am at the charlotte airport trying to get home as soon as i can."
Federal agents swarmed the small rural community of a few hundred residents, including ATF investigators and the FBI's evidence collection team.
Later Sunday, two sheriff's vans were parked outside the gate of a cattle fence surrounding the address listed for Kelley on the rural, western outskirts of New Braunfels, north of San Antonio.
Ryan Albers, 16, who lives across the road, said he heard intensifying gunfire coming from that direction in recent days.

KSAT via AP  (Investigators arrive at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Tex.)

"It was definitely not just a shotgun or someone hunting," Albers said. "It was someone using automatic weapon fire."
The church has posted videos of its Sunday services on a YouTube channel, raising the possibility that the shooting was captured on video.

Shocking Donna Brazile expose drives Hillary camp into chaos, may throw crucial Virginia governor race to the GOP

Donna Brazile's scathing review of Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential campaign sent more shock waves this weekend through the Democratic Party, with members eager to bury the Clinton era ahead of Tuesday’s key Virginia governor’s race and other upcoming elections.

“Those telling me to shut up … I tell them, 'Go to hell.' I’m gonna tell my story,” Brazile, who ran the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 White House race, on Sunday told ABC’s “This Week.”

Brazile roiled the political world on Thursday when she published excerpts in Politico of her upcoming book that detailed a 2015 money deal between the Clinton campaign and the DNC that made winning the party’s presidential nomination nearly impossible for any other Democratic candidate.
NBC News published a memorandum Saturday detailing the joint-fundraising agreement that shows the Clinton camp would have input on such key DNC decisions as hiring and spending, in exchange for helping the group with its roughly $20 million debt.
The memo also made clear that other potential candidates could enter into a similar agreement with the DNC.
But Brazile suggested Sunday that the authority the Clinton camp had under the agreement went beyond “standard” joint-fundraising agreement and that a “separate,” undisclosed deal also existed.
“I could not control the purse strings of the Democratic Party,” she said. “I become chair, and I'm trying to write a check for something that I raised money (for.) And they're like, 'You have to get that signed off on from Brooklyn.' This wasn’t a standard joint fundraising agreement. … They had separate memo of understanding.”
A review Saturday by The Washington Post of the book -- “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House” -- resulted in former Clinton campaign staffers on Saturday penning an open letter, disputing Brazile’s accusations that the campaign was tone-deaf to middle-class voters, acted with a false sense of “inevitability” and in the closing weeks had “the odor of failure.”
According to the review, Brazile, who is African-American, also said she felt the campaign treated her like a “slave” and that she considered replacing Clinton with then-Vice President Joe Biden, after Clinton passed out during a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York City.
“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,” campaign members, including Robby Mook, John Podesta and Huma Abedin, in part said in 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. … Finally, we are pretty tired of people who were not part of our campaign telling the world what it was like to be on the inside.”
To be sure, the scathing criticism of one long-standing Democrat on other members of her own party comes at a bad time -- days away from the Virginia gubernatorial race featuring Republican Ed Gillespie against Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam.
The RealClearPolitics polls average shows Northam now leading by 3 percentage points, essentially a dead heat, after leading by nearly 7 points just weeks ago.
“Donna Brazile going off the reservation right now is bad for Democrats,” Republican strategist Rory McShane told Fox News on Sunday. “But we’ve seen this before in off-year elections like in Georgia and South Carolina, where Democrats believed they’d win. This is just the latest case of no message, no organization, no leadership.”
Tom Perez, the new DNC chairman, on Sunday, after The Post review of Brazile’s book, rushed to assure Democrats that he would clean up the group’s mess ahead of the next presidential election cycle.
“While we’ve made remarkable progress since last November, we still have a long way to go,” he said in a statement. “I am more committed than ever before to restoring voters’ faith in our democratic process because even the perception of impartiality or an unfair advantage undermines our ability to win. That is unacceptable. To that end, the new DNC under my leadership is committed to the task of making sure that our 2020 nominating process will be unquestionably fair and transparent.”
Liz Smith, who was a spokeswoman for Martin O’Malley, another 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, on Saturday told Fox News’ “America’s News Headquarters”: “I know Donald Trump and Republicans would like to use Hillary Clinton as a whipping boy. But she’s in our past. We are moving beyond her.”

Michael Goodwin: New York Times' rabid ­defense of Mueller resembles the debacle of its 2016 campaign coverage

May 14, 2014: Pedestrians wait for cabs across the street from The New York Times in New York. (AP)

A friend likens The New York Times to a 1960s adolescent who refuses to grow up.  In a perpetual state of outrage, it is a newspaper of college snowflakes who embrace all forms of diversity except thought.
It sees its liberal politics not as a point of view, but as received wisdom that cannot be legitimately disputed.
The fixation on conformity reached a new low last week when the paper rolled out a coordinated attack on those of us who believe special counsel Robert Mueller ought to resign. I say coordinated because the newsroom and the opinion page produced similar pieces on the same day, showing again how Executive Editor Dean Baquet has erased the barrier between news and opinion and turned every page into an opinion page.
In the Times’ view, there are only two reasons to question Mueller’s credibility: insanity or treason. And so we detractors stand accused of engaging in a conspiracy that will embolden adversaries like Russia and produce a “constitutional crisis.”
The animating impulse for the assault is obvious — the Times is locked into its mission of destroying President Trump, and, like Hillary Clinton, still cannot accept Trump’s election as legitimate.

Out of Control Political Correctness Cartoons

DNC gave Clinton control over campaign well before it was supposed to: docs

Both Republicans and Democrats are speaking out about Donna Brazile's allegations about Hillary Clinton. In her new book, the former interim Democratic National Committee chairwoman claims that Clinton's campaign took control of the organization's finances and operations resulting in tipping the nomination process in Clinton's favor over Bernie Sanders.

The 2015 deal between Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee in which the group effectively ceded immediate control to the Clinton campaign was supposed to take effect only if Clinton won the primary process - but in effect, they gave her control well before that, according to a copy of the agreement published this weekend.

The publishing of the agreement this weekend follows former DNC interim Chairwoman Donna Brazile’s bombshell accusation Thursday that the party’s 2016 presidential primary contest between Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders was rigged by the DNC to hand the nomination to Clinton.

Brazile, also a onetime Clinton confidante and CNN commentator, made the claims in an  article in Politico while touting a new book.
The agreement, in the form of a memo obtained by NBC News, shows the DNC gave the Clinton campaign input on hiring and spending decisions in exchange for money to help the cash-strapped group, including an initial $1.2 million payment.
Hillary for America “personnel will be consulted and have joint authority over strategic decisions over the staffing, budget, expenditures, and general election related communications, data, technology, analytics, and research," the Aug. 26, 2015, memorandum from campaign manager Robby Mook to DNC chief executive Amy Dacey states in part. “This does not include any communications related to primary debates -- which will exclusively be controlled by the DNC.”
Clinton didn’t effectively secure the party nomination until July 2016, after an unexpectedly strong challenge from Sanders, an Independent who temporarily joined the Democratic Party to run for the White House.
The memorandum also attempts to argue that nothing in the joint-fundraising agreement “shall be construed to violate the DNC’s obligation of impartiality and neutrality through the nominating process” and acknowledges the group “may enter into similar agreements with other candidates.”
President Trump and other Republicans immediately seized on the book excerpts to validate their belief that Clinton had stolen the election from Sanders. In addition, Trump has suggested the FBI and Justice Department look into the matter.
“I know Donald Trump and Republicans would like to use Hillary Clinton as a whipping boy,” Liz Smith, who was a spokeswoman for Martin O’Malley, another 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, on Saturday told Fox News’ “America’s News Headquarters.” But she’s in our past. We are moving beyond her.”
Smith also said new DNC Chairman Tom Perez has acknowledged problems with the 2016 campaign and has vowed to fix them.
Trump tweeted Friday: “The real story on Collusion is in Donna B's new book. Crooked Hillary bought the DNC & then stole the Democratic Primary from Crazy Bernie!,” “I always felt I would be running and winning against Bernie Sanders, not Crooked H, without cheating, I was right.”

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Brazile fired back on Twitter.
"Today’s lesson: Being quoted by Donald Trump means being MIS-quoted by Donald Trump. Stop trolling me," she tweeted with the hashtag #NeverSaidHillaryRiggedElection:
She also tweeted: "Mr President, please -- go back to attacking me. It’s better than having my own words scrambled and spewed out by you."
The Washington Post reported Saturday that Brazile also says in her upcoming book that she considered replacing Clinton with then-Vice President Joe Biden when Clinton fainted during a 9/11 memorial service in New York City.

Congressman, Native American: When political correctness runs amok -- erasing our history doesn't change it

Cherokee

Choctaw

Hemha Micco,Seminole Tribe.

Private Ephraim Kale, Catawba Tribe.

Creek Tribe

Republican Markwayne Mullin represents Oklahoma’s 2^nd congressional district.

The conversation happening in our nation in light of recent events is more about political correctness than the issue at hand. Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and terrorists are bad people.  The ideals of these groups are in opposition to everything our nation stands for and everything that holds true to our founding principles.  Their hatred of people dissimilar to them is un-American and it should not be tolerated under any circumstances.

Days ago, my colleague in the Senate, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, announced that he plans to introduce legislation that would remove all of the statues in the U.S. Capitol that honored Confederate soldiers.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has also called for the elimination of such statues.  I respect their rights as elected officials to put forth legislation they believe is in the best interest of their constituents, however I simply do not agree.

As a Cherokee, I can attest to the fact that Native Americans have been on the losing side of history.  Our rights have been infringed upon, our treaties have been broken, our culture has been stolen, and our tribes have been decimated at the hands of our own United States government.  Native Americans have faced centuries of atrocities to their people, their land, and their culture – all under various presidents who took an oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

When we censor our history by disguising our scars, we belittle the struggles our ancestors fought so hard to overcome. America doesn't cower behind political correctness. It defiantly and courageously moves forward, with its history as a reminder of where we have been.

Under President Andrew Jackson in 1830, our government passed the Indian Removal Act that drove thousands of Native Americans out of their homes on the treacherous journey better known as the Trail of Tears.  Under President Franklin Pierce in 1854, parts of Indian Territory were stolen from tribes to create the Kansas and Nebraska Territories.  Under President Abraham Lincoln, the Sand Creek massacre occurred in 1864 when the U.S. Army attacked the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes unprovoked, killing about 250 Native Americans.  The Dawes Act of 1887 gave President Grover Cleveland the power to take back tribal land and redistribute the land to native people as individuals, not as tribal members.  Under President Benjamin Harrison in 1890, the Wounded Knee massacre took the lives of 150 Native Americans.  Under President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907, Indian and Oklahoma territories were unified to create the state of Oklahoma after Congress refused to consider a petition to make Indian Territory a separate state.  President Roosevelt is even quoted as saying: “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every 10 are.”
Let me ask you this: Is history not an opportunity to learn from one’s mistakes?  When we fall short of the high standard we set for our nation and its citizens, we make mistakes.  What's most important is that our nation remembers and learns from them.  As soon as we forget about our history, we are bound to repeat the same errors.
Still, we have professional athletes like Colin Kaepernick who refuse to stand during the national anthem and others who stand in solidarity with him in protest of the United States.  To what end?  To protest this country, a country that I love and my friends have died to defend?  As an American, you have the right to protest me, or another individual, or a group, but I believe that protesting the United States for the mistakes it has made – when it gave you the freedom to do so in the first place – is disrespectful.  Any attempt to coerce the United States into erasing our history is disingenuous.  Especially, when our country has learned from the mistakes it has made and is determined not to repeat them.
Should we erase our history in the name of being politically correct?  Can we not all agree that it is what shaped our country to be the great nation it is today?  One that we know to be full of freedoms, liberties, and rights that other nations only dream of?
The removal of Confederate statues in the U.S. Capitol doesn’t change our history.  The removal of these statues merely attempts to disguise our ugly scars by hiding these statues out of plain sight.  In an imperfect world, full of imperfect leaders, there are countless statues that may not live up to our American values.  The statues of President Jackson and President Lincoln, both fervent oppressors of Native Americans, stand tall in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.  Still, these statues tell the history of the good and the bad of our nation.
America is – and will always be – a success story.  We have African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, and members of other ethnic groups elected to positions inside our governments.  The American free enterprise system is the greatest tool to lift people out of poverty ever created in human history and when applied properly, does not discriminate by race, religion, or skin color.  When we censor our history by disguising our scars, we belittle this process and the struggles our ancestors fought so hard to overcome.  America doesn't cower behind political correctness.  It defiantly and courageously moves forward, with its history as a reminder of where we have been.  Let us look boldly into our history and learn the lessons that made us the “shining city on the hill” and the example for all other peoples.
Republican Markwayne Mullin represents Oklahoma’s 2^nd congressional district. 

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."