Presumptuous Politics

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Trump vows to deport 'criminal illegal immigrants ... within one hour' of swearing-in

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump vowed Saturday to deport "criminal illegal immigrants ... within one hour" of his inauguration if he is elected in November.
Trump's promise, made during a speech in Iowa, came after several days of accusations that the real estate mogul had backed down on his signature issue to appeal to undecided general election voters.
In an appearance on Fox News' "Hannity" Tuesday night, Trump told a town hall audience in Austin, Texas that he was open to "softening" current federal immigration law.
"There could certainly be a softening because we're not looking to hurt people," Trump said at the time. "We want to follow the laws, you know, we have very strong laws in this country. And you know Bush, and even Obama, sends people back. Now, we can be more aggressive on that but we want to follow the laws."
On Saturday, however, Trump said the media had "missed the whole point on immigration ... They take phrases and statements, chop them up, take them out of context and discuss them for days."
Trump also said that he was developing an "exit-entry tracking system to ensure those who overstay their visas, that they're quickly removed." The proposal echoed the language of Trump's former primary rival, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is now advising him.
"My priority is the well-being of 300 million American citizens, including millions of Hispanic citizens and legal residents who want a secure border, and I mean secure," said Trump, who maintained his vow to build a wall across America's southern border.
Trump touched off controversy during the GOP primary race by vowing to use a "deportation force” to round up and deport millions of illegal immigrants.
However, during his appearance on "Hannity" this week, Trump said his administration would be willing to "work with" illegal immigrants.
"They'll pay back-taxes, they have to pay taxes, there's no amnesty, as such, there's no amnesty, but we work with them," Trump said.
The Republican nominee's campaign has twice canceled scheduled speeches where Trump was expected to detail his immigration policy. Trump told Fox News Friday that he would deliver such a speech within the next two weeks.

As presidential nominee, Clinton gets first national security briefing

State Department and Clinton Foundation one in the same?

Hillary Clinton on Saturday received her first national security briefing, since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.
Clinton, who routinely received such briefings as secretary of state, was briefed at an FBI facility in White Plains, N.Y., near her family’s upstate New York home.
Clinton attended the roughly 2-and-half-hour meeting alone and did not speak with reporters afterward. She is expected to travel by motorcade later today to the Hamptons.
The campaing has yet to comment on the meeting but issued a short statement that in part said the candidate met with "a handful of officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence."
Republican nominee Donald Trump had his first briefing earlier this month.
The briefings have been customary for presidential nominees so the next commander in chief has an understanding of the country's national security apparatus.

In heartland Iowa, Trump vows to help farmers, urban minorities alike

Donald Trump walked a political tightrope Saturday -- promising in heartland Iowa to help farmers across the country by cutting taxes and federal regulations while continuing his stark appeal to potentially disaffected minority voters in U.S. inner cities.
“We are going to end this war on the American farmer,” Trump told the crowd at Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst’s influential “Roast and Ride” rally in Des Moines.
In a roughly 45-minute address in which Trump largely stuck to measured and prepared remarks, the Republican presidential nominee also repeatedly tried to distinguish himself from Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and appealed to evangelicals and others to assist him in helping minorities and winning the November election.
“Clinton wants to shut down family farms just like she wants to shut down the mines and the steel workers,” said Trump, warning her plan includes “radical” regulations and raising taxes on family farms, to rates as high as nearly 50 percent.
He again pointed out that Clinton in the mid-1990s said some black youths were “super predators” and returned to his argument in recent weeks that the Democratic nominee’s policies and those of fellow Democrats who for decades have run many U.S. cities have failed their minority residents, particularly African-Americans.
“I’ve spoken a lot in recent days about the deplorable conditions in many of our inner cities,” Trump said. “As a father, as a builder, as an American, it offends my sense of right and wrong to see anyone living in such conditions.
“I am running to offer a better future -- to the citizens of Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, and all across this great land. … Now is the time to put a new agenda into action that expands opportunity, ensures equality and that protects the rights of each and every citizen. … We are also going to end the discrimination that traps parents and kids in failing government schools.”
Trump earlier this week said Clinton was a “bigot” for having policies that hold down minorities.
Clinton responded during an interview Friday on MSNBC by claiming Trump has a “long history of racial discrimination" and that his campaign is "built on prejudice and paranoia."
Trump on Saturday also mentioned the fatal shooting Friday of 32-year-old Nykea Aldridge, the cousin of NBA star Dwayne Wade and a mother of four.
Aldridge was shot and killed while pushing a child in a stroller on Chicago’s South Side, the apparent victim of an attack by two males on another male.
“We send our thoughts and our prayers to the family,” said Trump who was criticized on social media because a tweet earlier in the day on the killing appeared only for political advantage, failing to include condolences.
Trump, who has for days struggled to find the right message on illegal immigration, returned to the matter Saturday, arguing that enforcing immigration law is a “civil rights issue” and that Clinton’s policies will allow amnesty for people living illegally in the United States and increase the risk of Islamic terrorists getting into the country.
“A vote for Trump is a vote to have a nation of laws. A vote for Clinton is a vote for open borders,” said Trump, who is trailing Clinton by 6 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics polls average.
Trump, who has promised if elected to deport all of the country’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, also said Saturday that the rights of American citizen are violated every time a black citizen, Hispanic citizen or any citizen loses his or her job to an illegal immigrant.
“Equal protection under the law must include the consistent application of our immigration laws,” said Trump, repeating his vow since the start of his campaign to build a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border. “My goal is to provide good jobs, good schools, and safety to every Hispanic community in the country. But we can’t do that if we don’t secure our border.
“On Day One, I am going to begin swiftly removing criminal illegal immigrants from this country -- including removing the hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal immigrants that have been released into U.S. communities under the Obama-Clinton administration. These international gangs and cartels will be a thing of the past. Their reign of terror will be over.”

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Media Bias Cartoons

Hillary's 'alt-right' speech: A desperate retread that stinks like month-old left overs

In a flashback to her claims that the constant bimbo eruptions which plagued her husband's presidency were the result of a "vast right wing conspiracy" Hillary Clinton went total tin-foil hat Thursday in her paranoia laced speech about the alt-right.
As someone involved in the so-called conservative movement, let me assure Mrs. Clinton that in reality, there is no such thing. Unlike the Soros network where there is a central hub driving narratives through various channels, conservative groups couldn't coordinate a Sunday picnic.
No, Hillary's problem is that she sold access to the Secretary of State using the Clinton Foundation as the conduit.
Hillary's problem is that she put America's national security at risk through her email server with multiple classified documents left unsecured. There are many who believe that the recent hanging of an Iranian nuclear scientist as a spy was the direct result of her cavalier handling of America's secrets.

Hillary's problem is that she symbolizes everything that is wrong with our political system between providing access for favors, venal attacks on those you perceive as your enemies, and worst of all, policies that continue growing government at a time when Americans are tired of being left behind while the corporate cronies and elites prosper.

Hillary's problem is that every time she claims that Donald Trump can't be trusted, every thinking American remembers the four men she abandoned in Benghazi and the political lie she told to cover up Al Qaeda's responsibility.
And Hillary's problem is that she symbolizes everything that is wrong with our political system between providing access for favors, venal attacks on those you perceive as your enemies, and worst of all, policies that continue growing government at a time when Americans are tired of being left behind while the corporate cronies and elites prosper.
Hillary has a Hillary problem. And this old dog has not learned any new tricks. When she gets trapped she lashes out with the same tired B.S. that worked more than two decades ago in the hopes that a new generation will eat it up.
Unfortunately for Hillary, America has grown up since she played a headband wearing Tammy Wynette in 1992, and rode that victimhood to popularity.
America now knows that it was Hillary who went after Bill's sexual abuse victims with the vicious precision of a seasoned hit woman. Rather than working as a champion for women, Hillary's career has been one of shaming, blaming and defaming her husband's victims.
America knows who and what Hillary Clinton is, and her only political chance is to fool voters one more time by creating a KKK boogie man out of a few cranks she dredged up. Meanwhile, she's attempting the old magic trick of distracting the people from the real threat she would continue to create as she lets tens of thousands of poorly and hurriedly vetted Muslims from Middle Eastern terrorism breeding grounds into the country many of them see as the Great Satan.
Hillary's desperate, retreaded vast right wing conspiracy speech Thursday smells like month old left overs, and her only hope is that her moldy fare distracts people from the corruption that undergirds everything she does and the danger that her presidency represents.
As Roger Daltry once famously sang, "We won't be fooled again."

The new GDP numbers are terrible. No wonder Hillary won’t talk about the economy

No wonder Hillary doesn't want to talk about the economy. ‎
We got revised GDP numbers from the Commerce Department on Friday and the economy actually did slightly WORSE than originally estimated. Growth was 1.1 percent in the second quarter of this year and less than 1 percent for the first six months of 2016. The business sector of the economy has sunk recession territory. Profits are srinking (down 2.4 percent last quarter) so how long can the stock market rise?
The consumer is keeping the economy out of negative territory, but that's only because we are spending more than we are earning.
How long can that go on? About as long as the housing bubble could inflate without bursting.
For years the polls have shown that Americans are hyper-concerned about the economy and job security. That was when the economy was growing at a meek 2 percent. Now at 1 percent, we aren't just treading water, more families are being plunged underwater.
This is some recovery. Under Reagan we had growth rates quarterly of 5, 6 and even 7 percent. Economists in the '80s worried about overheating. Too much growth. Now growth is nowhere to be seen - except for those at the very top of the income ladder.
The Democrats who keep saying how well the economy is doing seem to be living in an alternative universe. And that's probably because so many of the leftwing pundits and economists live and work in Washington DC, which really is doing just fine - thank you. DC is booming thanks to the tribute taxpayers from real America send each month to the capital. Three of the five wealthiest counties are around DC. That tells you everything about who is getting rich off liberal government expansion policies.
Hillary says that what the economy really needs now is a tax increase. Crazy. ‎A new study by the National Center for Policy Analysis says that Hillary's economic plan will eventually shave 1 percent off GDP. That would technically sink the economy down to zero growth.
Oh and there was more wonderful news this past week. The deficit is now climbing again to an estimated $600 billion this year. The red ink is headed back to $1 trillion on current course. Some states are facing 20 percent or more rise in Obamacare premiums this year.
The Financial Times reports that we are still 1 million manufacturing jobs short of where we were in 2007.
So much for morning in America.
Trump must hammer Hillary and Obama on these abysmal economic developments. What is needed? ‎Tax cuts. Deregulation. American energy production. Repeal of Obamacare. He should talk about little else if he wants to win.
The appeal of Hillary's "four more years" agenda is in mortal peril given the flimsiness of the economy. We are moving in the wrong direction. Two of three voters have been saying this for years. ‎ The burger flipper economy has flattened wages as Census Bureau data tells us.
Could it get worse? Here's ‎how economist David Tuerck described Hillary's jobs plan in his NCPA study: ‎"What we have here is a plan to destroy hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs just to pad government payrolls while, in the process, doing almost nothing to improve tax fairness."
The one percent growth economy is the new normal thanks to liberal governance. With Hillary's tax and spend agenda, a 2017 recession could be on the way.

Second State Dept. unit conducted probe into mysterious deletion

A second unit within the State Department -- led by its top internal auditor -- conducted a separate probe into the mysterious deletion of a critical exchange about Iran from the department's video of its December 2, 2013 daily press briefing, Fox News has learned.
In an email to Fox News Friday afternoon, Doug Welty, a spokesman for the State Department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG), confirmed that investigators there launched their own "preliminary assessment" of the case, including conducting their own interviews with State Department employees and their own review of emails and other documents.
Last week, the State Department's Office of the Legal Advisor (OLA), the department's top attorney, released a report that found -- after a three-month investigation that included email and document reviews and interviews with nearly three dozen DOS employees -- that it was impossible to determine whether the deletion was caused by a technical glitch or by willful misconduct.
Welty's statement marked the first public confirmation by any officials at the State Department that OIG had been reviewing the case separately from OLA.
House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told Fox News he and his colleagues were "very frustrated" by the investigative efforts of both OLA and OIG, and that they plan, as part of House Republicans' own investigation into the matter, to press both offices for access to their raw investigative files. The first request the lawmakers make will be for voluntary production by the offices.
In presenting the OLA's findings to reporters last Thursday, State Department spokesman John Kirby said there was "no evidence" as to why the edit was made -- despite the fact that the OLA report itself acknowledged, in a section titled "Evidence of Purposeful Editing," that the individual who ordered the edit specifically mentioned "a Fox network reporter and Iran" while issuing the order to the subordinate technician who carried it out.
"The results of our preliminary assessment show that limited evidence exists surrounding the December 2 DPB (daily press briefing) and that the available facts are inconclusive," said Welty of OIG. "However, the identification of the missing footage prompted the Department to improve its video policies. Specifically, the Department explicitly prohibited DPB content edits and is currently working with NARA to schedule the DPBs for disposition as federal records."
OIG indicated that due to the paucity of evidence -- the State Department has said it can no longer access the relevant telephone records for the technician -- additional investigation would likely be fruitless. "No further work by OIG would add clarity to the events surrounding the missing footage," Welty said, "or effect any additional change at the Department."
Officials at OIG privately briefed key congressional Republicans on their work last week, making it clear the internal auditors would not carry the investigation any further.
At the briefing in question, then-State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked by Fox News’ James Rosen about an earlier claim that no direct, secret talks were underway between the U.S. and Iran – when, in fact, they were.
Psaki at the time seemed to admit the discrepancy, saying: “There are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress. This is a good example of that.”
However, Fox News later discovered the Psaki exchange was missing from the department’s official website and its YouTube channel. Eight minutes from the briefing, including the comments on the Iran deal, were edited out and replaced with a white-flash effect.

Clinton's full State Dept. schedule won't be released until after Election Day

WASHINGTON – Seven months after a federal judge ordered the State Department to begin releasing monthly batches of the detailed daily schedules showing meetings by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state, the government told The Associated Press it won't finish the job before Election Day.
The department has so far released about half of the schedules. Its lawyers said in a phone conference with the AP's lawyers that the department now expects to release the last of the detailed schedules around Dec. 30, weeks before the next president is inaugurated.
The AP's lawyers late Friday formally asked the State Department to hasten that effort so that the department could provide all Clinton's minute-by-minute schedules by Oct. 15. The agency did not immediately respond.
The schedules drew new attention this week after the AP analyzed the ones released so far. The news agency found that more than half the people outside the government who met or spoke by telephone with Clinton while she was secretary of state had given money — either personally or through companies or groups — to the Clinton Foundation. The AP's analysis focused on people with private interests and excluded her meetings or calls with U.S. federal employees or foreign government representatives.
The AP's reporting was based on official calendars covering Clinton's entire term plus the more-detailed daily schedules covering roughly half her time as secretary of state. The AP first asked for Clinton's calendars in 2010 and again in 2013. It then sued the State Department in federal court to obtain the detailed schedules, and the department so far has provided about half of them under court order.
Clinton has said the AP's analysis was flawed because it did not account fully for all meetings and phone calls during her entire term as secretary. She also said the analysis should have included meetings with federal employees and foreign diplomats. The AP said it focused on her meetings with outsiders because those were more discretionary, as Clinton would normally meet with federal officials and foreign officials as part of her job.
Clinton said she met with people outside government regardless of whether they gave money or charitable commitments to her family's charity.
"These are people I would be proud to meet with, as any secretary of state would have been proud to meet with, to hear about their work and their insights," Clinton said this week on CNN.
With the foundation drawing continued attention, Clinton promised Friday to put in place additional safeguards to prevent conflicts of interest with the charity should she win the White House.
The foundation issue, along with continued focus on her use of a private email server, has dogged Clinton politically throughout the week, drawing strong criticism from opponent Donald Trump.
Former President Bill Clinton said last week that if she is elected president, the foundation will no longer accept foreign or corporate donations.
The State Department is now estimating there are about 2,700 pages of schedules left. Under its process, it is reviewing and censoring them page-by-page to remove personal details such as private phone numbers or email addresses. In some cases it has censored names of people who met privately with Clinton or the subjects they discussed.
A State Department spokeswoman, Elizabeth Trudeau, declined to discuss the ongoing case and noted the agency is struggling with thousands of public records requests.
In court, the AP in December had asked U.S. District Judge Richard Leon to order the State Department to produce specific percentages of the remaining schedules every 30 days under a formula so that all would be released before the presidential primary elections were complete.
Instead, because the State Department said it did not know how many pages were left, Leon ordered it in January to release at least 600 pages of schedules every 30 days. Each 600-page group covers about three months of Clinton's tenure.
Under the present rate, a government attorney working on behalf of the State Department notified the AP's lawyers, it will take about four and one-half months — or until Dec. 30 — to release all the remaining schedules through the end of Clinton's term, in February 2013. The government's notice late Thursday was the first time the State Department has provided the AP with a measure of how many pages were remaining and when it expected to complete the job.
It was unclear whether the judge will reconsider his earlier decision and order faster results. In the AP's lawsuit over other Clinton-related files, Leon has said it would be "ridiculous" to allow the State Department to delay until even weeks before the election. He also cited "mounting frustration that this is a project where the State Department may be running out the clock."

Friday, August 26, 2016

Bias Media Cartoons

EpiPen price hike puts bipartisan heat on Democratic senator's daughter

Good Old Democrats

The mounting congressional scrutiny of pharmaceutical giant Mylan over its 400 percent price hike for EpiPen has created an awkward situation on Capitol Hill for Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin -- his daughter runs the company at the center of the scandal.
Colleagues on both sides of the aisle, as well as Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, are now slamming Mylan and demanding investigations into why prices were jacked so high on the lifesaving allergy treatment drug.
The uproar over the increase has become a public relations nightmare for Mylan, CEO Heather Bresch and Manchin, who finally broke his silence on the subject Thursday.
“I am aware of the questions my colleagues and many parents are asking and frankly I share their concerns about the skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs,” Manchin said in a written statement. “Today I heard Mylan’s initial response, and I am sure Mylan will have a more comprehensive and formal response to those questions.”
Manchin, a former West Virginia governor who has served in the U.S. Senate since 2010, said he would work with his “colleagues and all interested parties to lower the price of prescription drugs and to continue to improve our health care system.”
But his comments come days after his colleagues called out his daughter’s company.
Several senators – including Amy Klobuchar, whose daughter uses an EpiPen – have pressed the Food and Drug Administration for answers and asked if alternatives to the EpiPen are in the works.
Klobuchar also wants the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing to investigate the enormous increase in the price of EpiPens. The Minnesota senator sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission to look into whether Mylan violated antitrust laws.
For its part, the company said Thursday it is voluntarily reducing the patient cost of EpiPen through savings cards which will cover up to $300 for a two-pack of EpiPen, but some say it’s not enough.
Admittedly, Manchin is in a tight spot. In the past, he has taken the lead in going after pharmaceutical companies.
He played a big role in pushing to get controversial painkiller Zohydro ER permanently shelved despite the FDA approving the powerful opiate.
Manchin, whose home state leads the nation in prescription overdoses and abuse, worked with both Republicans and Democratic lawmakers to overturn the approval.
At the time, some questioned his motives, since his campaign to kill Zohydro could benefit his daughter’s company.
Though the Mylan epi-scandal hits close to home, Klobuchar believes the senior senator’s connections in Congress won’t deter his colleagues from pursuing answers.
“I think we have an obligation to the American people to do our job regardless of who is related to who at a company,” she told reporters Wednesday. “And I have never seen Senator Manchin intervene himself in any of these cases involving this company. I’ve never seen that happen. I know him very well.”
On Monday, Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Mark Warner, D-Va., also sent a letter to Bresch demanding an explanation.
Bresch tried to defend the company's pricing in an interview with CNBC. She seemed to struggle to justify the jump in price but said lowering the price wasn’t an option.
“Had we reduced the list price, I couldn’t ensure that everyone who needs an EpiPen gets one,” she said. She argued that much of the $608 price for a two-pack goes to other middle men in the health care consumer chain.
But Grassley said in a statement that the price is still what Medicare and insurers have to pay, regardless of the pledge to offset the cost for some patients.
Another fact not lost on angry customers is that as the price for EpiPens grew, so did Bresch’s own compensation, which spiked more than 671 percent to $18.9 million last year.
The price hike debate has also made it to the campaign trail.
Clinton called the company’s pricing strategy “outrageous” and a “troubling example of a company taking advantage of its consumers.”

BIAS ALERT: Media looks inward, deems slanted Trump coverage warranted

BIAS ALERT: Media consumed with Trump

Donald Trump’s claim that the “crooked media” has it in for him has prompted much soul-searching with the Fourth Estate, and its conclusion appears to be that he's right -- and that's just fine with some news organizations.
“I’m not running against Crooked Hillary,” Trump told a crowd in Fairfield, Conn., last week. “I’m running against the crooked media.”
Lately some, including The New York Times, Vox and Bill Moyers’ website, have not only owned up to Trump's accusation, they've embraced it.
“If you deplore media cowardice, you might think this is a good thing, not because Trump is a mortal danger to this country, although he is, but because it means the press is doing its job,” Neil Gabler wrote on the journalism website of Moyers, the longtime PBS newsman who cut his teeth as a spokesman for Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. “Call it partisan bias if you like. I call it journalism.”
Ezra Klein, the Vox writer who as a Washington Post staffer organized a secret society of left-wing reporters dubbed “JournoList” that was shut down after it was exposed in 2010, acknowledged that the press is not giving Trump traditional treatment.
“The media has felt increasingly free to cover Trump as an alien, dangerous, and dishonest phenomenon,” Klein wrote last week.
New York Times’ media critic Jim Rutenberg wrote that journalists who personally oppose Trump had an obligation to “throw out the textbook” when it came to coverage of The Donald.
“If you’re a working journalist and you believe that Donald J. Trump is a demagogue playing to the nation’s worst racist and nationalistic tendencies, that he cozies up to anti-American dictators and that he would be dangerous with control of the United States nuclear codes, how the heck are you supposed to cover him?” Rutenberg wondered in a front-page article earlier this month.
When it comes to covering Trump, it’s only fair to be unfair, according to The Atlantic.
“All things considered, the press has responded defensibly to the unusual challenges of covering a brazen, habitual liar,” Conor Friedersdorf wrote in a recent column titled, “The Exaggerated Claims of Media Bias Against Donald Trump.”
If Trump is confused by the media’s stance that it has been fair by being biased, he can take comfort in a new study on his treatment by the press since he entered the political arena.
Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy tracked his coverage by CBS, Fox, the Los Angeles Times, NBC, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. It concluded that through its coverage of Trump, both good and bad, the media helped him get the Republican nomination.

Republican calls grow for second look at Clinton case

More than seven weeks after FBI Director James Comey’s July 5 announcement closing the case on Hillary Clinton’s personal email use, Republican calls are growing for prosecutors to take a closer look – at everything from perjury questions to the tangled dealings with Clinton Foundation donors during the candidate’s tenure leading the State Department.
And on Thursday, Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy pointed out another potential problem with the bureau’s original email investigation.
After viewing the FBI’s tightly held file on the case, the South Carolina congressman told Fox News it doesn’t appear investigators asked Clinton about the issue that was the basis for not pursuing charges – known as “intent.”
During Comey’s congressional testimony last month, he said while Clinton was “negligent” and “careless” in her use of personal email for official business, “What we can’t establish is that she acted with the necessary criminal intent.”
But Gowdy said that in reviewing the FBI’s interview file, “I didn’t see any questions on the issue of intent.”
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has steadily racked up endorsements from fellow Republicans for his call earlier this week to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the ties between the family foundation and her State Department.
Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., a Trump supporter, was the latest to back that call late Wednesday, saying in a statement “we need an independent prosecutor to investigate the corrupt Clinton Foundation.”
The newest calls follow an Associated Press report Tuesday that more than half of the non-government people with whom Clinton met as secretary of state donated to her family foundation.
The Clinton campaign said the AP relied on “utterly flawed data” and “cherry-picked a limited subset of Secretary Clinton's schedule to give a distorted portrayal of how often she crossed paths with individuals connected to charitable donations to the Clinton Foundation.”
Asked Wednesday about the calls for a special prosecutor, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest suggested there was little need.
“President Obama and the administration have complete confidence in the independent career prosecutors at the Department of Justice and the FBI who devoted significant time and attention to investigating Secretary Clinton's email practices,” he said. “… I just think it's hard for anybody to make a very persuasive case that somehow there hasn’t been enough investigating, particularly when you layer on top of that all of the congressional hearings and testimony that's gone on with regard to Secretary Clinton's tenure at the State Department.”
The calls for a special prosecutor come after House Republicans already were looking to the FBI to examine whether Clinton committed perjury during her 2015 congressional testimony on her email practices.
In a letter obtained by Fox News, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., asked U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips to look at “four pieces of sworn testimony” they claimed were “incompatible with the FBI's findings.”
Among those discrepancies, they said Clinton testified there was “nothing marked classified” on her emails, yet Comey said a “very small number” of emails had markings indicating classified information.
The Justice Department Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, Peter Kadzik, confirmed in an Aug. 2 letter to both committees they had the perjury investigation request and the department would "take appropriate action as necessary."

Assange vows Clinton email release, as storm clouds gather for candidate

Assange

With 75 days before voters pick their new president, email revelations are threatening to overtake Hillary Clinton’s campaign – with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hurling another log on an already raging fire with a vow to release “significant” Clinton documents.
In an exclusive interview Wednesday night with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, Assange was asked whether new information culled from Clinton emails would be released before the general election: "Yes, absolutely.”
Asked whether it could be an election game-changer, Assange told Kelly, “It depends on how it catches fire."
Dana Perino, former White House press secretary under the George W. Bush administration and co-host of Fox News’ “The Five,” predicted Assange would release the files before the third presidential debate, since “it is the one everyone pays attention to.”

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Tim Kaine Cartoons, Alias Hillary's silent running mate :-)

After Clinton bounce, polls indicate tightening race in key battlegrounds

Hillary Clinton's lead declines among likely voters

Hillary Clinton’s post-convention bounce may be coming back down to earth – at least in some parts of the country – as new polls show a tightening race against Donald Trump in several battleground states, especially when Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is factored in.
A Monmouth University Poll released Wednesday showed Clinton holding onto just a 2-point lead in North Carolina.
She leads Trump 44-42 percent in the state, while Johnson is pulling 7 percent. The poll also shows Trump with a double-digit lead among independents.
North Carolina is one of several battleground states considered critical to Trump’s hopes of capturing the presidency in November. He still trails in most swing state polls, but the latest from Monmouth University marks an improvement over a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist survey showing him down by 9 points in the state.
“North Carolina has given us tight presidential races over the last two cycles and this year appears to be no different,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, another poll released Wednesday, by Florida Atlantic University, showed Trump leading by 2 points in Florida, 43-41 percent. Just last week, Monmouth University showed Trump down by 9 points in the state.
And a separate Monmouth University Poll released Monday showed Clinton holding a 4-point lead over Trump in Ohio. The survey likewise showed Johnson, who is expected to appear on the state’s ballot, pulling a sizable amount of support, with 10 percent.
Trump still has a long way to go in the polls, considering Clinton has a far more substantial lead in swing states like Pennsylvania and Virginia.
But the slight movement in his favor comes as the Republican presidential nominee has been barnstorming the country at rallies, town halls and fundraisers – yet Clinton has mostly stuck exclusively to private fundraisings events over the past week.
She was making a swing Wednesday through Silicon Valley to raise cash, while Trump was holding rallies in Florida and Mississippi.
Trump has been hammering Clinton at these stops over a string of reports about the overlap between the Clinton Foundation and State Department under her tenure. Most recently, the Associated Press reported Tuesday that more than half of the people outside government who met with Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money to the foundation.
"It is impossible to figure out where the Clinton Foundation ends and where the State Department begins," Trump told supporters in Austin on Tuesday night.
The Clinton campaign countered that the AP report “relies on utterly flawed data” and “cherry-picked a limited subset of Secretary Clinton's schedule to give a distorted portrayal of how often she crossed paths with individuals connected to charitable donations to the Clinton Foundation.”
The latest Monmouth University Poll in North Carolina was conducted Aug. 20-23. The poll of 401 likely voters in the state had a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.

Surrogate Silence: Dem officials mum as Clinton battles foundation allegations

As critical reports pile up about the access Clinton Foundation donors enjoyed with Hillary Clinton’s State Department – and Donald Trump and his allies hammer her over the allegations – few elected Democrats have rallied to the party nominee’s defense.
The fact that many of her usual allies are locked in tight House and Senate races may be contributing to the surrogate silence, as they focus on their own races. But, as the Trump campaign was quick to point out Wednesday, the Democratic nominee has even faced criticism from her own side.
Most recently, former Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell said in a Philadelphia radio interview that the so-called firewall between department and foundation officials was “ineffective” and the reported dealings create a “bad perception.” Comments like this, combined with a number of tough newspaper editorials, have left Clinton and her core team effectively on their own to combat a near-constant barrage of Trump condemnation.
On Wednesday, Trump called once again for a special prosecutor to investigate foundation donors getting special access to Clinton while she was secretary of state.
“She provided favors and access in exchange for cash,” Trump said at rally in Tampa. “She had a pay-to-play scheme. That’s why Congress or a special prosecutor should look into this.”
Trump’s comments came after the Associated Press reported Tuesday that more than half of the non-government people who met with Clinton while she ran the State Department donated to the foundation, either personally or through companies or groups, based on a review of agency calendars released to the wire service.
While few elected Democrats have been going to bat for Clinton over the past few days, Trump has enjoyed at least some back-up from elected Republicans -- who have been notoriously uneasy about locking arms with the billionaire businessman.
The campaign released a statement Wednesday from Rep. Dan Donovan, R-N.Y., backing his call for a special prosecutor.
And Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, asked Attorney General Loretta Lynch in a recent letter to investigate why the Justice Department declined to investigate the Clinton Foundation after recently released emails suggested donors sough preferential treatment while or after Clinton was secretary of state.
“This kind of conduct … reflects the worst concerns harbored by the public about the abuse of government office to benefit the powerful at the expense of the American people,” Cornyn wrote.
Republican strategist Rob Burgess said Wednesday that Clinton’s ethical issues have become a “liability” for some Democrats, though questioned whether they’d be able to avoid it.
"Try as they might, national Democrats will be unable to successfully distance themselves from the train wreck that is Hillary Clinton,” he said. “It seems that many Americans are referring to the old adage, 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.'”
Even Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton ally who has boasted about vacationing with the family, appeared to duck a foundation question Tuesday when asked about the issue on MSNBC.
He instead responded by questioning Trump’s trustworthiness.
“I would say first and foremost, Donald Trump has zero credibility talking about any of these issues until this man releases his taxes,” McAuliffe. “So the idea that he's calling for a special prosecutor is crazy. We need to know what is in Donald Trump's taxes.”
New Hampshire Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan, who is trying to upset first-term Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, also dodged multiple questions last week on CNN about whether she thought Clinton was honest and trustworthy. The campaign later clarified she indeed thinks Clinton is honest and trustworthy.
Late Wednesday, former President Bill Clinton stepped forward to defend his family's foundation, saying that it was "trying to do good things.
"If there's something wrong with creating jobs and saving lives, I don't know what it is," Clinton added. "The people who gave the money knew exactly what they were doing. I have nothing to say about it except that I'm really proud. I'm proud of what they've done."
Bill Clinton also said changes at the foundation are needed if Hillary Clinton becomes president that weren't necessary when she led the State Department. The foundation won't accept foreign donations, and he will stop personally raising money for the foundation, he said.
"We'll have to do more than when she was secretary of state, because if you make a mistake there's always appeal to the White House if you're secretary of state," Clinton said. "If you're president, you can't."
"You have to [make those changes] in a way that no one loses their job, no one loses their income and no one loses their life," he said. "That's all I'm concerned about. We'll do it as fast as we can."
Clinton campaign spokesman Brain Fallon on Tuesday said the AP report relied on "utterly flawed data" and said the AP "cherry-picked a limited subset” of Clinton's schedule.
Clinton ally and veteran strategist James Carville told “Fox and Friends” on Wednesday that nobody in the Clinton family has ever “taken a penny from the foundation and in fact have given it millions of dollars.”
“I think it is a terrific organization,” he said.
Clinton herself has been off the trail for almost a week to fundraise. Her running mate Tim Kaine has been the face of the campaign in public and has defended the nominee.
On Tuesday, the Virginia senator told an ABC affiliate while campaigning in Las Vegas that the foundation taking foreign donations while Clinton was secretary of state was appropriate because of the charitable work it does.

Clinton pushes back on foundation controversy, says its been transparent

WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton defended her family's charitable foundation on Wednesday against criticism from Donald Trump, saying it had provided more transparency than her Republican rival's sprawling business interests.
Clinton called into CNN's "AC360" to address Trump's suggestions that the foundation started by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had been used to facilitate a pay-for-play scheme during her time at the State Department.
"What Trump has said is ridiculous. My work as secretary of state was not influenced by any outside forces. I made policies based on what I thought was right," Clinton said. She said the foundation had provided "life-saving work," adding that neither she nor her husband had ever drawn a salary from the charity.
"You know more about the foundation than you know about anything concerning Donald Trump's wealth, his business, his tax returns," Clinton said.
The phone interview came as her top campaign officials and allies are playing defense, arguing that the foundation has helped millions of people around the globe while Trump's business interests carry their own blind spots.
Before her interview, Clinton had largely ignored Trump's criticism of the foundation, with campaign officials figuring her late-summer advantage gives her few incentives to personally push back against the email criticism or allegations of pay-for-play.
Trump, helped by a revamped campaign team, has called for a special prosecutor to investigate the foundation and said it should be shut down immediately. The Republican nominee, who donated to the Clinton Foundation, has repeatedly charged that his opponent, while secretary of state, provided access to foundation contributors in exchange for donations to the charity at the heart of Bill Clinton's post-presidential legacy.
Clinton leads Trump in national and state polls, leaving many of her aides and supporters to conclude that addressing the issue isn't worth the risk to her electoral standing. But the issue is one that ties into voters larger questions about her trustworthiness — a problem that will follow her into the White House should she win.
Traveling in California, the Democratic nominee has kept out of the public eye for days, spending most of her time wooing celebrities, financial titans and technology moguls at private fundraisers. On Tuesday alone, she raised more than $6.2 million at four events in Southern California and the Bay Area.
Her last full-blown news conference was December 2015 in Iowa, more than 260 days. But the questions about emails and the foundation keep piling up, and she is certain to be challenged at the first debate with Trump on Sept. 26.
On Monday, the State Department said it was reviewing nearly 15,000 previously undisclosed emails recovered as part of the FBI inquiry, which was closed after investigators recommended against criminal charges.
On Tuesday, an Associated Press report found at least 85 people from private interests who met with or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to the Clinton foundation. Combined, the donors contributed as much as $156 million to the charity.
Pushing back, Clinton said of the AP report, "I know there's a lot of smoke and there's no fire." She said it excluded 2,000 meetings she had held with world leaders and U.S. government officials and came to the conclusion that meetings she held with philanthropists like Melinda Gates or Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was connected to the foundation. "That is absurd," she said.
"It is only now because she is running for president that the work of the Clinton foundation is being tarred," spokesman Brian Fallon told MSNBC earlier in the day. "If any American voter is troubled by the idea that the Clintons want to continue working to solve the AIDS crisis on the side while Hillary Clinton is president, then don't vote for her."
In the CNN interview, the former secretary of state reiterated her regret about her use of a private server, saying, "I've been asked many, many questions in the past year about emails. What I've learned is that when I try to explain what happened, it can sound like I'm trying to excuse what I did. And there are no excuses."
Clinton is not expected to discuss the issue during a Thursday speech in Reno, Nevada, which will be focused on attaching Trump to the so-called "alt right" movement within the Republican Party that has strayed from mainstream conservatism.
"Hillary Clinton is in a pretty strong spot right now in the campaign given the repeated missteps by Trump and quite frankly if I'm her it may not be a bad thing to let Donald Trump be the only candidate making news on any given day," said GOP strategist Ryan Williams, a veteran of Mitt Romney's presidential campaigns.
Bill Clinton announced that next month's Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York will be the final gathering. The meeting is scheduled for September 19-21, which means it will happen exactly one week before his wife's first presidential debate in New York.