UPDATED, 12:20 PM: The back-and-forth continues between Morgan Freeman and CNN over the news org’s expose about him. Here is the actor’s attorney Robert Schwartz’s response to CNN’s latest statement:
“We presented CNN with objective evidence, including videotapes and on-the-record denials by the claimed “victims,” that the alleged incident that gave rise to the story never happened. We proved to CNN, beyond any doubt, that the whole story was built on fakery. The credibility of the entire CNN attack on Mr. Freeman has now been undermined. And in choosing to ignore all of the evidence that we presented, CNN has confirmed our concerns about its reporters, its lack of oversight, and its gross misconduct in unjustifiably attacking Mr. Freeman.”
PREVIOUSLY, 9:18 AM: CNN has rebutted Morgan Freeman’s demand for a retraction, saying it stands by its report that multiple women accuse him of harassing them or behaving inappropriately on set, while promoting his movies, and at his production company.
“The unfounded accusations made by Mr. Freeman’s lawyer are disappointing and are difficult to reconcile with Mr. Freeman’s own public statements in the aftermath of the story,” the cable news network said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon.
“CNN stands by its reporting and will respond forcefully to any attempt by Mr. Freeman or his representatives to intimidate us from covering this important public issue,” the network added.
Hours earlier, Robert M. Schwartz of Irell & Manella, has emailed a 10-page letter to CNN chief Jeff Zucker, implying that this might become a lawsuit.
In its report, published last week, the cable news organization said eight women have come forward with allegations of sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior. CNN interviewed 16 people for its report, including some who said they witnessed the behavior.
One production assistant said she was subjected to unwanted touching and comments about her figure and clothing on a nearly daily basis, including one incident in which the 80-year-old actor allegedly “kept trying to lift up my skirt” while inquiring if she was wearing underwear.
Freeman, who has lost endorsements and has said he is devastated by the accusations, initially apologized and but then clarified. In his letter to Zucker, Schwartz wrote, “It has been said that ‘A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.’ In just the few days since CNN published the article on Mr. Freeman, it has traveled all the way around the world and back, millions of times. If CNN has any decency, or any allegiance to journalistic integrity, it will immediate retract the article and issue a public apology to Mr. Freeman.”
JOHN CONYERS IGNORED CLUES IT WAS TIME TO LEAVE OFFICE GRACEFULLY:
GOOD POLITICIANS KNOW HOW TO GET ELECTED & KNOW WHEN IT'S TIME TO LEAVE.
JOHN CONYERS' CONGRESS SEAT IS NOT A MONARCHY:
HIS SEAT BELONGS TO ALL MICHIGAN VOTERS NOT THE CONYERS' FAMILY.
TERM LIMITS
TERM LIMITS
TERM LIMITS
Sources: Politico, CNN, Fox News, Washington Post, YouTube
***** John Conyers Was An Icon. Then He Lost His Way.
It’s time to reckon with the legacy of a man who saw so much and stayed too long.
When, in that brief pillow of time between the Kennedy assassination and the escalation of the war in Vietnam, a 35-year-old John Conyers first ran for Congress, he had a method of connecting with voters—“a pet theory of personality projection,” Simeon Baker wrote in a 1965 profile in Ebony magazine: “Using his good looks as bait and charm as the sticking power, [Conyers] wooed women to support him.” “Sex appeal,” oozed a photo caption in the accompanying spread, was the bachelor’s “greatest asset in winning women’s votes.”
It’s indicative of the era in which the piece was written that Ebony framed Conyers’ political support among women this way despite the fact that the few women Baker includes in the story don’t seem to agree with the depiction. “Sure, he’s good-looking,” said one female supporter, but “what converted him into a winning candidate was his ability to make people feel important.”
“He became a symbol of the new middle-class Negro,” Baker wrote. “He vowed to represent people who are caught between the VIP class of Negro life and the lower class which is dependent on relief, low-income housing, and welfare.”
That John Conyers burned out a long time ago. And this week, any hope that something of the steady glow of a pilot light remained has been extinguished. On Tuesday morning, on the friendly airwaves of a Detroit radio station, Conyers resigned in disgrace following accusations from half a dozen women alleging various forms of sexual harassment, unwanted touching, assault—and the revelation, first reported by BuzzFeed, that his office used taxpayer money to try and cover it up.
It is an ignoble and overdue end to what has been, by any measure, a momentous public life. Conyers’ service in Congress has spanned 10 presidencies and 52 years—he’s been in the House for more than one-fifth of the entire existence of the U.S. Congress. In 1964, he went to Jim Crow Mississippi during Freedom Summer and offered legal representation to black voting-rights activists; one year later, he supported the Voting Rights Act as a member of House of Representatives. He was the only congressman ever endorsed by Martin Luther King Jr., and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Rosa Parks worked as an aide to him for 23 years. He introduced single-payer health-care legislation long before Bernie Sanders claimed “Medicare for All” as his own. He served on the Judiciary Committee during the Watergate hearings, and was one of the original 20 names on President Richard Nixon’s “enemies list.” He was the top Democrat on the committee two decades later, when a president was impeached for the first time since Reconstruction. He was still on the committee a decade after that, when the nation elected its first black president—another young black attorney whose appeal was, in no small part, his ability to make people feel like they too were part of something larger than themselves. All of this is why House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called him an “icon” even as she was trying to nudge him into retirement.
Yet even as many black Detroiters saw Conyers as their champion against the elite and powerful few, Conyers—or, perhaps more accurately, those he surrounded himself with—sought to entrench themselves in the VIP class he once scorned. There can be no doubt that Conyers’ ordeal is of his own making—the accusations against him are serious and profoundly disturbing. But the political fallout from his surprising, bizarre nosedive off the national stage this week throws new light on the actions of those he’s depended on for decades, and whose influence has skyrocketed as old age has ravaged him. And in their slipshod attempts to build a Conyers dynasty, they’ve diminished the man who would be its patriarch.
The highlights of Conyers’ long career are, by now, somewhat familiar. But less known, at least nationally, are the lows.
There are, at age 88, natural questions about his mental state; he sometimes seemed confused in House proceedings, and even when he joined Mildred Gaddis’ morning show to resign on Tuesday, the host essentially had to remind him why he’d called in. For decades, the non compos mentis question has hung over Conyers—there was an incident in the early 1990s when he was supposedly found in the very early morning standing in the middle of Livernois Avenue in Detroit, barefoot and waving at cars. It was reportedly routine for staff members to find him in various states of undress—“his closet is in his office,” his former communications director explained to CNN—and at least one former staffer has alleged he showed up to a meeting clad only in underwear. Knowing this, there’s the inevitable question of why his inner circle wouldn’t step in as stewards. The answer, perhaps, is that they were too invested in his success.
There’s his bizarre relationship with his decades-younger wife, Monica, a roving tempest prone to Trumpian outbursts. The couple married in 1990—she’d been an intern in his office a year earlier—when the congressman was 61 and his bride was 25. From the beginning, the couple were dogged by rumors that their's was a marriage of convenience, or that one party was simply taking advantage of the other. Initially, at least, nobody seemed sure who was taking advantage of whom.
In 2005, Monica Conyers was elected to Detroit’s city council largely on the strength of her husband’s name. Her tenure in public office was memorable for its volatility. There was the time she threatened to shoot an aide to the mayor of Detroit; the time she had to be restrained during a city council meeting after an argument broke out and she made fun of another council member’s need for a hearing aid; the time she petulantly addressed city council president Ken Cockrel Jr. as “Shrek,” a “Li'l Marco”-esque jab at Cockrel’s gleaming bald pate and prominent ears; and her encore, a televised argument with an eighth-graderover whether this was or was not an appropriate way for a role model to act.
More damning were her crimes. In 2009, she pleaded guilty to federal charges that she’d accepted bribes from a wastewater-treatment contractor—making her the first Conyers forced from office. Though she’d later try, unsuccessfully, to withdraw her guilty plea, she was sentenced to three years in federal prison. After serving two, she was released into a halfway house, and in 2015, filed for divorce from the congressman, which apparently didn’t take; the couple renewed their vowsin 2016.
Last week, amid a glut of reporting on the assault and harassment allegations against her husband, Monica, once a mainstay of metro Detroit’s nighttime news broadcasts, emerged from the couple’s family home in the city’s University District/Palmer Park neighborhood to ask, angrily and rhetorically, whether the reporters outside would “go and stalk white people’s houses,” or whether “you just come to the black neighborhoods and stalk our houses?”
As the public face of her embattled husband over the past few weeks, she was joined by Sam Riddle, a Detroit political consultant and huckster known throughout the metro region for his attention-grabbing stints on local news shows—and of course, for his role as a top aide to Monica Conyers, where he helped facilitate bribes that landed Conyers in prison. For years, Riddle “seemed to play the role of Clyde Barrow to Monica Conyers’ Bonnie Parker,” Pulitzer-winning journalist Charlie Le Duff wrote in his book, “Detroit: An Autopsy.” In Riddle’s own trial on the bribery charges, federal prosecutors offered a wiretapped 2007 call in which Councilwoman Conyers told Riddle, “You’d better get my loot.” Faced with prosecution in 2009, Monica said she regretted working with Riddle: “If I was smart, I would have listened to my husband, and he never would have worked for me.”
To Michigan politicos, there’s another reason why Riddle’s re-emergence amid the sad coda of Conyers’ career is a flummoxing twist of events, especially given the very specific accusations the congressman has faced: In 2010, Riddle was sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of felonious assault and a gun crime after pulling a shotgun on his girlfriend during a domestic dispute. The mind strains to imagine a rationale for hiring someone with such a background to act as your “family spokesperson” under any circumstance, let alone when you’re facing allegations that you’ve assaulted women.
Across Detroit, there are still a great many people who see in Conyers a man who fights for them, a lion in winter. At a hastily organized rally on Monday, a cavalcade of black Detroit’s leaders came out to voice their unwavering support for him. The Rev. Wendell Anthony, the longtime head of Detroit’s chapter of the NAACP, spoke for many when he questioned why Conyers was being held to a different standard than other national politicians accused of sex crimes: “[I]f we’re going to raise this unholy and unlawful guillotine, calling for the head of John Conyers, then in fairness we must begin with the president of the United States.” “For those in the U.S. Congress to call for his resignation is shameful,” thundered Wayne County Executive Warren Evans as Riddle stood behind him. “Until we know what happened, I can’t fathom why a [Nancy] Pelosi or a [Michigan Congressman Dan] Kildee would ask for the resignation of a man who has not been given due process.”
It wasn’t all supposed to end this way. For more than a year, it was an open secret that when Conyers left office, he would be replaced by his great-nephew Ian, a sitting state senator from Detroit. In recent weeks, as the elder Conyers first voiced his intent to retire at the end of his current term, Ian’s candidacy became a surer and surer thing, culminating in the younger Conyers telling the New York Times in a Tuesday morning scoop that the congressman was going to announce his retirement and that he, Ian, was launching a congressional campaign.
The news jolted Detroit. And it led an irate Monica Conyers, the self-appointed carrier of the torch, to hatch a sloppily arranged change to the succession plan—one in which she would play a central role instead of being pushed aside.
On Tuesday, as John Conyers resigned, he stunned observers by endorsing his and Monica’s son, John Conyers III, as his successor. Conyers III, a 27-year-old who has never held elected office, is no stranger to controversy and comes pre-loaded with his own political scandal.
In 2010, he reported two laptops and $27,000 in concert tickets were stolen from a Cadillac Escalade he’d apparently been using for personal purposes despite the fact that its lease was registered to his father’s congressional office and was being paid with taxpayer money. Other photos online showed Conyers III, then 20, seated behind the wheel of the Cadillac while holding a bottle of Moët. More recently, NBC News reports that on Feb. 15, 2017, Conyers III was arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of domestic violence; his girlfriend called law enforcement after he, in the words of the police report, “body slammed her on the bed and then on the floor where he pinned her down and spit on her,” before allegedly swinging a knife at her and cutting her arm.
His mother’s intervention sets up the spectacle of a free-for-all primary in which at least two members of the Conyers family seem intent to run.
In a since-deleted tweet, Ian Conyers suggested that Conyers III’s candidacy wasn’t the former congressman’s true wish, and, by name, pinned the credit/blame for the endorsement as someone else’s preference: “Monica - I spoke to my great uncle Thursday night via phone from hospital. His advice Run!”
The fight over John Conyers’ legacy will not end soon, perhaps not even in our lifetimes. But to some degree, its demise comes from the liberalism Conyers championed over more than a half-century—the belief that we can use our collective power to repair the wrongs of the past.
Conservatism has long had a posture that favors standing athwart history yelling stop, a belief in preserving the old way of doing things, standing up for tradition, living up to the nation’s past glories, working to make America great again. Liberalism isn’t so much about restoring the way things used to be as it is about overcoming history. And it’s because of this—and the forward march of progress—that what is acceptable to one generation of Democrats is no longer acceptable to another.
The present always stands in judgment of the past, and one generation’s liberal heroes become another’s problematic figures. Woodrow Wilson was a visionary idealist who sought to make the world safe for democracy—until he was remembered as a racist reactionary with Lost Cause sympathies.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the man who lifted the nation from the depths of the Great Depression, fought the powerful and moneyed, and expanded the scope of what we believed government could and should do—until the exclusion of black Americans from the New Deal and the internment of Japanese-Americans became stains on his legacy.
We now find ourselves in the middle of such a reckoning, as the sins of the past catch up to the reputations of the present.
Al Franken was the progressive intellectual with a scathing wit, the left’s answer to bloviating talk radio on the right—and he’s also a man accused of forcing himself on at least seven women.
Bill Clinton was The Natural, the man from Hope who charted a course for a new type of Democrat, oversaw an economy that gained 23 million new jobs, balanced the budget and built a bridge to the 21st century—and he’s also preyed on women, with errant sexual behavior ranging from the consensual-but-inappropriate (as with the Lewinsky affair) to charges of harassment (as with Paula Jones) and accusations of rape (as with Juanita Broaddrick).
John Conyers was a civil-rights hero, a voice in the wilderness who advocated far-left positions before they were fashionable, a champion for Detroiters—especially black Detroiters—who felt and still feel locked out of the room where decisions get made.
But whatever else he was, Conyers is also the man Courtney Morse says propositioned her when she was an intern, who after his advances were rebuffed, raised the specter of Chandra Levy; the man Elissa Grubbs says groped her in a church and regularly undressed in front of female staff; the man Marion Brown saysstroked her legs, propositioned her in a hotel room and “violated” her body.
And where once those abuses wouldn’t have been career-ending, today, people are starting to listen to what women are saying.
“He made people … believe in their own strength,” a Conyers campaign aide told Ebony in 1965. “He … showed them the value of sticking together.”
And that’s exactly what his accusers have done.
-----------------------------------------------
****** John Conyers could be replaced by his son — who has his dad's name but not his political resume
The son of Rep. John Conyers Jr. — the embattled congressman who announced his sudden retirement Tuesday — may be headed for his father’s seat, carrying on a decades-long political dynasty in Michigan.
Conyers (D-Mich.) resigned Tuesday amid allegations of sexual harassment.
In doing so, the erstwhile dean of the House endorsed his eldest son, John Conyers III, to take his place representing Michigan’s 13th Congressional District — even though the 27-year-old has never run for political office.
Tuesday evening in a statement posted on Twitter the younger Conyers said that he had not decided whether to enter the race but hoped “to come to a decision by the new year — once I have taken the time to thoroughly listen to our community.”
Conyers was one of his father’s fiercest defenders as the 88-year-old faced increasing pressure from Democratic leaders to step aside when a growing number of female former aides accused him of mistreatment and unwanted advances.
“It’s very unfortunate to see him fight so long for so many people and to automatically have the allegations assumed to be true,” John Conyers III told reporters last week, according to NBC affiliate WDIV. “And of course, with sexual assault, women are to be believed. But in this instance, he has no history of this.
“And I think that if we’re not going to make [Sen.] Al Franken resign when we have evidence of him groping a woman while she was asleep … it’s disconcerting to me to see the way my father is being treated after he’s given so much to this country, not just for black people but for people alike.”
Of his father, he added: “He fights for everyone.”
Here’s what we know about John Conyers III.
He lacks political experience
Steve Hood, a political consultant in Detroit, told the Detroit Free Press that not much is known about Conyers, at least in political circles.
Conyers is from Detroit and attended Morehouse College as well as New York University, according to his contributor bio on HuffPost.
That bio, whose details The Washington Post has not yet confirmed, identifies Conyers as “a partner at Detroit’s first minority run hedge fund” and “a seasoned multi-discipline consultant who has provided fundraising and social media services to both political and business clients.” It also says he served as an intern in the Department of Community Outreach in the Israeli Embassy in Washington. “John is committed to melding community engagement, entertainment and politics,” the bio states.
According to his Facebook page, Conyers is a managing partner at the Detroit hedge fund EIA Alpha Partners Fund Management and an owner/partner at Palette Agency in Los Angeles.
He caused public headaches for his father in 2010
In 2010, MLive.com reported that John Conyers III was cited for speeding in his father’s Cadillac Escalade — or rather, the government-leased vehicle his father used as a member of Congress.
There were also reports that year that the younger Conyers had driven the vehicle to a rap concert and that it was broken into, according to the news site. The then-20-year-old reported to policethat two laptops had been stolen from the Escalade, along with tens of thousands of dollars worth of concert tickets.
After the incident, the elder Conyers apologized.
“I have just learned about the inappropriate use of a congressional vehicle by my son over the Thanksgiving holiday,” he said in a statement at the time, according MLive.com. “I am sorry it happened and will make sure that it does not happen again.”
The Detroit Free Press reported that the congressman said he reimbursed the Treasury Department more than $5,600 for his son’s unofficial use of taxpayer money.
A photo on social media at the time showed his son in a Cadillac with a bottle of French champagne, according to an MLive.com article. The story’s headline: “The fabulous online life of John Conyers III, or why his family needs to do damage control immediately.”
He’s an opinionated writer
In a HuffPost op-ed, under the headline “Orange Watergate: The Inevitable Impeachment of the 45th President,” Conyers wrote that the “reactionary and cavalier nature of the president will ultimately be his down fall.
“As his approval ratings tumble and confidence wanes, expect the weight of possible impeachment to make his already poor decision making worse. Self-preservation is ultimately the downfall of the narcissist.”
In the wake of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Conyers wrote that the national debate should be about gun control, not mental illness, explaining: “I have dealt with Major Depressive Disorder since I was 15 years-old. I’ve not once thought about murder. I know right from wrong.
“My friends with bi-polar and depression and multiple personality disorder don’t think about hurting others, if anything we think about hurting ourselves.”
“So if you grapple with mental illness do not let the medias stigmatization of our ailments make you self-conscious,” he wrote in his October op-ed. “As much as they love to make us their scapegoats, It’s not our fault. You, as well as I, know we know right from wrong. When they need someone to blame they look to us first, when it’s time to lend their hand to help us they’re nowhere to be found.”
He’s a rapper
In a 2013 song, “Rich Glorious,” Conyers talked about his battles with the media amid his mother’s 2012 bribery conviction, as well as the Cadillac mishap, according to Roll Call.
“Hey f— making a living, boy, I’m trying to make history. So picture me letting the news nitpick at me,” Conyers said in the rap video, which showed an image from a news story about the incident.
He’s not the only Conyers vying for the congressional seat
State Sen. Ian Conyers, John Conyers Jr.’s great-nephew, has declared his intention to run in the special election.
Ian Conyers, who represents the 4th district in the state senate, graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor’s degree in government and a master’s in urban and regional planning, according to his biography.
He worked for then-District Mayor Adrian Fenty, who appointed Conyers as a community outreach and service specialist in Ward 6, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In 2012, Conyers served as a regional field director for President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, according to his online resume.
Four years later, the political operative became a politician, winning a special election to replace former state Sen. Virgil Smith. He later told Georgetown’s alumni newsletter: “We dispelled the myth that seniors and middle-aged voters don’t believe in young people.”
After John Conyers Jr. endorsed his own son for his seat, Ian Conyers told the Free Press he was surprised, saying: “I didn’t expect him to make an endorsement.”
Hood, the political consultant, described it as “a family in disarray.”
“You have the potential for two Conyers to go for the seat,” he told the newspaper.
He isn’t guaranteed the seat
Political insiders say the seat does not belong to anyone — a Conyers or not.
“There’s no guarantee that anyone named Conyers is going to be the next congressman representing Detroit,” said Sam Riddle, political director for the Michigan branch of the National Action Network. “We are on the verge of the biggest free-for-all politically you’ve ever seen in Detroit. There should not be an automatic ascension to that congressional seat because your last name is Conyers. The people in Detroit deserve the best candidate possible be elected to that seat represents poorest and blackest city.”
VOTER FRAUD (2016) COMMISSION vs STATES & NETWORKS WHO PARTICIPATED IN VOTER FRAUD EFFORTS:
YES SEVERAL STATES DID TRY TO HELP HILLARY DEFEAT TRUMP (UNFAIR ADVANTAGE).
YES SEVERAL MEDIA NETWORKS SUCH AS CNN PRACTICED BIASED REPORTING DURING THE 2016 ELECTION SEASON.
VOTERS LEGALLY CHOSE TRUMP FAIR & SQUARE SO WHY ARE DEMOCRATS STILL ANGRY?
TRUMP WILL WIN THIS BATTLE TOO.
Sources: Fox News, Newsbusters, Washington Post, Youtube
****** ABC, NBC Skip First Meeting of Voter Fraud Commission, CBS Misleads
On Wednesday, President Trump’s bipartisan Commission on Election Integrity, led by Vice President Mike Pence, assembled for the first time. The commission’s responsibility was to investigate possible election fraud and other election related criminal behavior. Despite the importance of this commission, ABC and NBC failed to give the commission any time at all during their evening broadcasts.
CBS was the only network in the Big Three to mention it, but they were skeptical and mislead on its intentions.
“While Congress and the Special Counsel are investigating Russian election hacking, President Trump has set up a panel to investigate election fraud with little evidence there is any,” announced Anchor Anthony Mason during CBS Evening News.
Reporter Chip Reid wasted no time in trying to tear down the commission by equating it to a ploy designed to beef up the President’s ego. “Critics say the President created this commission in a desperate effort to prove that he did win the popular vote,” he chided. “Today Vice President Mike Pence, who is heading the commission, tried to quash that idea.”
“Numerous studies have found that voter fraud in U.S. elections is extremely rare, and today some of the five Democrats on the 12-member panel agreed,” Reid argued, before playing a clip of one Democratic judge from one Alabama county. “In my 16.5 years in the Jefferson County probate judge position, that I have not seen evidence of voter fraud in Jefferson County,” Judge Alan King explained to his colleagues.
But that’s not entirely accurate, according to Hans von Spakosky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission, a member of the conservative Heritage Foundation. “We are up to almost 1,100 proven cases of voter fraud,” he told the rest of the commission during the first session.
“Democratic critics of the commission say it's all but ignoring two crucial issues, first, suppression of the minority vote,” Reid said, to wrap up his report. But he was clearly just repeating back Democratic talking points because what he didn’t mention was that Trump requested that they go after voter suppression as well.
In a speech to the commission, Trump told them: “Any form of illegal or fraudulent voting whether by noncitizens or the deceased, and any form of voter suppression or intimidation must be stopped.”
Fox News Channel’s Special Report also dedicated a segment to the bipartisan Commission on Election Integrity. Correspondent Doug McKelway noted both the opposition to the commission and the findings of Spakosky.
The cable news channel also released the results of a new poll they conducted showing bipartisan support for greater voting fraud protections:
A Fox poll released tonight suggests that all this partisan rhetoric is not reflected in public opinion. It finds that most Americans would like to see stricter voting requirements. Six and ten Democrats virtually all Republicans and almost 9-in10 independents would like to see a photo I.D. as a voting requirement.
ABC and NBC may not agree with the necessity of the commission, but it was clearly important since CBS thought it was worth the solid two minutes they gave it. CBS’s omission of Trump’s statement against voter suppression and the findings of apparent voter fraud does little to lend them credibility.
~ Transcript below:
CBS Evening News
July 19, 2017
6:36:45 PM Eastern
ANTHONY MASON: While Congress and the Special Counsel are investigating Russian election hacking, President Trump has set up a panel to investigate election fraud with little evidence there is any. Here's Chip Reid.
CBS Evening News
July 19, 2017
6:36:45 PM Eastern
ANTHONY MASON: While Congress and the Special Counsel are investigating Russian election hacking, President Trump has set up a panel to investigate election fraud with little evidence there is any. Here's Chip Reid.
[Cuts to video]
DONALD TRUMP: This issue is very important to me.
CHIP REID: Trump kicked off the first meeting of his election integrity commission today, but its origin goes back to November when he won the Electoral College while losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by almost three million votes. Mr. Trump has refused to believe it, insisting that millions of people illegally voted for Clinton, but he has cited no evidence. Critics say the President created this commission in a desperate effort to prove that he did win the popular vote. Today Vice President Mike Pence, who is heading the commission, tried to quash that idea.
MIKE PENCE: Let me be clear: This commission has no preconceived notions or preordained results. We're fact finders.
REID: Numerous studies have found that voter fraud in U.S. elections is extremely rare, and today some of the five Democrats on the 12-member panel agreed. Judge Alan King of Alabama.
ALAN KING: In my 16.5 years in the Jefferson County probate judge position, that I have not seen evidence of voter fraud in Jefferson County.
REID: The commission got off to a rough start last month when it asked the states for detailed information on voters, including address, political party, even voter history. More than 20 states refused, citing privacy concerns. Mississippi's Republican secretary of state wrote that the commission “can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico.” Today President Trump raised vague suspicions about the states that have not complied.
TRUMP: If any state does not want the share this information, one has to wonder what they're worried about.
[Cuts back to live]
REID: Democratic critics of the commission say it's all but ignoring two crucial issues, first, suppression of the minority vote, and second, Russian meddling in the presidential election. Anthony?
I THOUGHT CNN (TED TURNER) WAS DOWN WITH BLACK PEOPLE, NOT TRYING TO KEEP BLACK PEOPLE DOWN??
Sources: AJC, NY Post
***** Black employees file racial discrimination class-action lawsuit against CNN, Turner
Former and current black employees on Tuesday filed a class action lawsuit against Atlanta-based CNN, Turner Broadcasting and New York based parent company Time Warner for racial discrimination.
“As a result of the current discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of DeWayne Walker vs. CNN, Time Warner & Turner, we have uncovered stories involving abuse of power, nepotism, revenge, retaliation and discrimination,” said Daniel Meachum in a press release.
The press release provided a photo of DeWayne Walker, a CNN producer who sued CNN individually in January for $50 million for racial discrimination and retaliation for filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
He accused CNN of not promoting him over 13 years because he is black, skipped over frequently for promotions in favor of white employees.
According to his LinkedIn page, Walker is an integrated marketing manager at CNN.
Walker is not actually a plaintiff in this particular case but is a client of Meachum’s and his individual lawsuit is still active. Celeslie Henley, a former executive administrative assistant at CNN, and Ernest Colbert Jr., a senior manager at TBS, are the only named plaintiffs though Meachum said 20 to 30 other unnamed current and former Turner employees helped him out with information about their experiences.
“This discrimination represents a company-wide pattern and practice,” the lawsuit asserts, “rather than a series of isolated incidents.” He said the company has been discriminating against blacks for more than 20 years.
The 40-page lawsuit filed in the United States District Court in the Northern District of Georgiasaid blacks – especially black males – are discriminated against in evaluations, compensation and promotions.
Blacks receive “disproportionately lower scores on evaluations,” the lawsuit alleges.
It says based on data provided by Turner, blacks are terminated at a higher rate than whites and promoted at a significantly slower rate. And the lawsuit said written and unwritten policies and practices for performing evaluations and promotions discriminate against blacks. Those policies “allow supervisors to essentially handpick candidates through word of mouth for available positions and make promotion decisions on the basis of subjective criteria,” the lawsuit said. “This system prevents qualified African-Americans from competing equally for positions or even knowing that they are available.”
Meachum said at a press conference Wednesday morning at his downtown Atlanta office that he has been collecting information about CNN and Turner for three years before filing the class-action suit.
“Upon information and belief,” the suit says, “African-American employees have had to endure racial slurs and prejudicial biases from superiors such as, ‘it’s hard to manage black people’ and ‘who would be worth more: black slaves from times past or new slaves.’ ”
Meachum said he is “outraged as an African American lawyer to have to sit down and go through the facts with people telling what I’ve been told these past three years.”
While blacks make up 30 to 35 percent of CNN’s mid-level managerial and staffing positions, the lawsuit said, “they are drastically under-represented at higher pay grades and senior positions, while still being required to generally labor three times as long as Caucasians [for promotions.].”
And even blacks in the highest positions are not in the more crucial departments, the lawsuit said. In the Media Group Division, the Legal Division and Strategy Division, for instance, not a single black person is represented at the top levels, it said.
Henley, 44 of Fairburn, worked at CNN for seven years as an executive administrative assistant. She alleged that she was mistreated in the workforce based on race, sex and pregnancy. She said she worked far longer hours than her white counterparts.
And she said she was treated significantly worse after coming back from maternity leave. She said she was fired as retaliation for complaining to HR in early 2014.
Colbert, 44, of Ellenwood, has worked at TBS for almost 20 years. He claimed in the lawsuit that he was consistently paid below grade level compared to comparable white employees.
He also said he failed to receive a proper job description for nine years and was given senior-level managerial work without being properly compensated.
He was promoted in August, 2016 to senior manager but said he is still underpaid compared to his white counterparts with comparable jobs. “Additionally, years of Mr. Colbert’s positive performance evaluations have been nullified due to TBS’s failure to maintain Mr. Colbert’s personnel file,” the lawsuit said.
In the lawsuit, Colbert said he repeatedly requested to be promoted to a higher pay grade. A white person who had held his position previously was promoted to a job grade several levels above Colbert’s while performing the same job duties, he said.
The class action covers all blacks employed in salaried and mid-level managerial positions in the United States at any time between April, 1997 to the present.
“I’ve seen people at Turner that have worked there for 14, 15 years with a total raise over that time of $5,000 to $6,000. That’s horrible,” Meachum said. “That is not the face that I think Turner and CNN wants to put on. That’s the reality of the people who work there.”
At least three others have filed individual lawsuits against CNN over the past three years.
In October, 2014, a field producer in Los Angeles Stanley Wilson filed a $5 million wrongful termination suit against CNN.
Former CNN writer/producer Ricky Blalock filed a lawsuit in December 2015 over racial discrimination.
He left the company soon after.
In October, 2016, former producer and writer Omar Butcher sued CNN for racial and religious discrimination.
When I asked CNN president Jeff Zucker about the lawsuits last month, he declined to comment. A CNN spokeswoman today declined to comment about the latest lawsuit.
Meachum, who represents Walker, showed up on “Real Housewives of Atlanta” to help out Cynthia Bailey this season with her divorce to Peter Thomas. (She has yet to file. He said they are trying to put the entire divorce together and have it all agreed upon before filing anything.) Meachum also represented actor Wesley Snipesfor many years.
TRUMP vs SEKULOW: DEMOCRATS CREATE MORE DRAMA (FAKE INVESTIGATIONS):
ARE DEMS USING FAKE SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS TO HELP ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS??
FAKE INVESTIGATION PROBES COULD DERAIL TRUMP'S "MAKE AMERICA GREAT" AGENDA.
Sources: CNN, Fox News, Meet the Press, Youtube
***** Trump lawyer Sekulow: President has no knowledge of being investigated
Jay Sekulow, a member of President Trump’s legal team, said Sunday he has no knowledge of the president being the target of a federal probe, following Trump's recent statement suggesting that he is being investigated.
“The president has not been notified by anyone that he is under investigation,” Sekulow told “Fox News Sunday,” in a heated exchange with host Chris Wallace about whether Trump could be under investigation without knowing.
“You don’t know that he's not under investigation,” Wallace said.
Sekulow responded: “I can’t read minds.”
Sekulow also said that Trump’s tweet that led people to believe he was under investigation was in response to a Washington Post story in which unnamed sources said the president was being investigated.
The FBI and two congressional panels are investigating whether the Trump campaign or presidential transition team colluded with Russia during or after the 2016 White House race.
Jay Sekulow, a member of President Trump’s legal team, said Sunday he has no knowledge of the president being the target of a federal probe, following Trump's recent statement suggesting that he is being investigated.
“The president has not been notified by anyone that he is under investigation,” Sekulow told “Fox News Sunday,” in a heated exchange with host Chris Wallace about whether Trump could be under investigation without knowing.
“You don’t know that he's not under investigation,” Wallace said.
Sekulow responded: “I can’t read minds.”
Sekulow also said that Trump’s tweet that led people to believe he was under investigation was in response to a Washington Post story in which unnamed sources said the president was being investigated.
The FBI and two congressional panels are investigating whether the Trump campaign or presidential transition team colluded with Russia during or after the 2016 White House race.
Before Trump fired James Comey as the FBI director, Comey told the president he was not a target in the agency investigation. The Post story suggests the FBI probe, now being led by special counsel Robert Mueller, includes whether Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey.
“Nothing has changed since Comey said the president is not a target,” Sekulow also said Sunday.
Sekulow said Trump has never accused Deputy Attorney General Rob Rosenstein of “doing anything wrong,” and has expressed no opinion about him.
Rosenstein wrote a letter that seemed to support Trump firing Comey.
He told Congress last week that he would not fire Mueller “without good cause,” amid speculation Trump wanted to get rid of Mueller.
He also said he couldn't say whether Trump has discussed Mueller, citing attorney-client privileges.
SUSAN RICE WAS OBAMA'S #1 TRUMP INTEL SPY (UNMASKING):
OTHER OBAMA ADMIN EXECUTIVE CABINET LEADERS WERE ALSO INVOLVED.
THEY SHOULD ALL BE INVESTIGATED & JAILED FOR TREASON.
Sources: Fox News, Bloomberg News, Alex Jones, YouTube
**** Susan Rice requested to unmask names of Trump transition officials, sources say
Multiple sources tell Fox News that Susan Rice, former national security adviser under then-President Barack Obama, requested to unmask the names of Trump transition officials caught up in surveillance.
The unmasked names, of people associated with Donald Trump, were then sent to all those at the National Security Council, some at the Defense Department, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-CIA Director John Brennan – essentially, the officials at the top, including former Rice deputy Ben Rhodes.
The names were part of incidental electronic surveillance of candidate and President-elect Trump and people close to him, including family members, for up to a year before he took office.
It was not clear how Rice knew to ask for the names to be unmasked, but the question was being posed by the sources late Monday.
"What I know is this ... If the intelligence community professionals decide that there’s some value, national security, foreign policy or otherwise in unmasking someone, they will grant those requests," former Obama State Department spokeswoman and Fox News contributor Marie Harf told Fox News' Martha MacCallum on "The First 100 Days." "And we have seen no evidence ... that there was partisan political notice behind this and we can’t say that unless there’s actual evidence to back that up."
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, asked about the revelations at Monday’s briefing, declined to comment specifically on what role Rice may have played or officials’ motives.
“I’m not going to comment on this any further until [congressional] committees have come to a conclusion,” he said, while contrasting the media’s alleged “lack” of interest in these revelations with the intense coverage of suspected Trump-Russia links.
When names of Americans are incidentally collected, they are supposed to be masked, meaning the name or names are redacted from reports – whether it is international or domestic collection, unless it is an issue of national security, crime or if their security is threatened in any way. There are loopholes and ways to unmask through backchannels, but Americans are supposed to be protected from incidental collection. Sources told Fox News that in this case, they were not.
This comes in the wake of Evelyn Farkas’ television interview last month in which the former Obama deputy secretary of defense said in part: “I was urging my former colleagues and, frankly speaking, the people on the Hill – it was more actually aimed at telling the Hill people, get as much information as you can, get as much intelligence as you can, before President Obama leaves the administration.”
Meanwhile, Fox News also is told that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes knew about unmasking and leaking back in January, well before President Trump’s tweet in March alleging wiretapping.
Nunes has faced criticism from Democrats for viewing pertinent documents on White House grounds and announcing their contents to the press. But sources said “the intelligence agencies slow-rolled Nunes. He could have seen the logs at other places besides the White House SCIF [secure facility], but it had already been a few weeks. So he went to the White House because he could protect his sources and he could get to the logs.”
As the Obama administration left office, it also approved new rules that gave the NSA much broader powers by relaxing the rules about sharing intercepted personal communications and the ability to share those with 16 other intelligence agencies.
Rice is no stranger to controversy. As the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, she appeared on several Sunday news shows to defend the adminstration's later debunked claim that the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks on a U.S. consulate in Libya was triggered by an Internet video.
Rice also told ABC News in 2014 that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl "served the United States with honor and distinction" and that he "wasn't simply a hostage; he was an American prisoner of war captured on the battlefield."
Bergdahl is currently facing court-martial on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy for allegedly walking off his post in Afghanistan.
WHITE HOUSE FIRES CNN, NY TIMES, LA TIMES & POLITICO VIA BRIEFING EXCLUSION:
MAINSTREAM MEDIA LIBERAL BIAS vs TRUMP.
TRUMP WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL BECAUSE HE'S A FEARLESS NY MEDIA GENIUS.
Sources: CNN, Alex Jones, Washington Post, NY Times
****** White House blocks CNN, New York Times from press briefing hours after Trump slams media
The White House on Friday barred news outlets — including CNN, the New York Times, Politico and the Los Angeles Times — from attending an off-camera press briefing held by spokesman Sean Spicer, igniting another controversy concerning the relationship between the Trump administration and the media.
The Wall Street Journal, which did participate in the briefing, said in a statement that it was unaware of the exclusions and "had we known at the time, we would not have participated, and we will not participate in such closed briefings in the future."
The Washington Post did not have a reporter present at the time of the gaggle.
CNN's Sara Murray went on air to describe what happened:
We lined up.
We were told there was a list ahead of time, which is sort of abnormal, but we put our name on a list. And then when we went to enter, I was blocked by a White House staffer, who said we were not on the list for this gaggle today.
Now, normally, if you were going to do something like this — an extended gaggle, off camera — you would have one person from each news outlet.
As you know, we have multiple people from CNN here every day. So, if you're going to do something beyond a pool, which is sort of the smallest group of reporters that then disseminates the information, you would have one person from every news outlet.
That is not what the White House was doing today. What the White House was doing was handpicking the outlets they wanted in for this briefing.
So Breitbart, the Washington Times, the One America News Network — news outlets that maybe the White House feels are more favorable were all allowed in, whereas I was blocked from entering, Politico was blocked from entering, the New York Times, the L.A. Times. All of these news outlets were blocked from going to a gaggle.
White House Correspondents' Association President Jeff Mason called in to CNN to say the organization is “still getting information about” the decision, adding:
They clearly wanted to have a gaggle that was not on camera and was not the full press corps today. We don't object to there being briefings like that that aren't always on camera, but we have encouraged them when they want to do something like that ... [to] still do it in the press room and do it in a place where all the reporters have a chance to ask questions.
So, we've made that clear, and we're going to continue to have discussions with them about that. And we're not happy about how this happened today.
The Post's Executive Editor Marty Baron issued the following statement:
“It’s appalling that the White House would exclude news outlets like the New York Times, CNN, Politico, the Los Angeles Times, and BuzzFeed from its publicly announced briefings. This is an undemocratic path that the administration is traveling. There is nothing to be gained from the White House restricting the public’s access to information.
We are currently evaluating what our response will be if this sort of thing happens again.”
White House deputy communications director Raj Shah insisted this was all much ado about nothing.
But New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet declared that “nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties.”
BuzzFeed editor in chief Ben Smith, whose outlet also was excluded, added this: "While we strongly object to the White House's apparent attempt to punish news outlets whose coverage it does not like, we won't let these latest antics distract us from continuing to cover this administration fairly and aggressively."
Ben Wizner, director of the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union called the White House's move "yet another disturbing example of the Trump administration’s contempt for the vital role a free press plays in our democracy."
White House press secretary Sean Spicer himself had previously criticized the idea of limiting media access to the White House.
Two months ago, in a panel discussion, he said open access for the media is “what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship.”
recent days, the president has grown increasingly critical of what he calls the "fake news media. Hours before the limited-access gaggle, Trump devoted much of an address at the Conservative Political Action Conference to bashing the media.
“A few days ago, I called the fake news media the enemy of the people, and they are,” the president said. “They are the enemy of the people.”
Fox News anchor Bret Baier quickly discouraged gloating on the right, noting that his network's rivals showed solidarity when the Obama White House tried to freeze out Fox News eight years ago.
In 2009, the Obama administration attempted to exclude Fox News from a round of TV interviews with “pay czar” Kenneth Feinberg. Jake Tapper (then of ABC, now of CNN) stood up for one of his network's “sister organizations” during a press briefing.
“Can you explain why it's appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one?” Tapper asked Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary at the time.
Rival networks refused to conduct interviews with Feinberg unless Fox News was granted one, too.
Fox Business Network told The Post that one of its reporters, Blake Burman, also was blocked from participating in the gaggle.
Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts said on air that his network will join others in protesting the exclusion of certain outlets.
SWEDEN'S IMMIGRATION CRISIS vs TRUMP (TRUMP IS NOT LYING, THE MEDIA IS):
SWEDEN'S RAPE & VIOLENCE STATISTICS DID INCREASE DUE TO IMMIGRANTS FROM SOME MUSLIM COUNTRIES.
MAINSTREAM MEDIA NEEDS TO STOP LYING AND STOP TRYING TO UNDERMINE TRUMP.
Sources: Fox News, Ann Horowitz, National Review, WND, YouTube
****** Rape and Violence on the rise in Sweden (TRUMP was right!)
In a disturbing new short video, Ami Horowitz examines an alarming trend: growing immigration to Sweden has coincided with an alarming uptick in rape and violence, and some areas of the country have become downright dangerous to visit.
Horowitz begins by reminding viewers that Sweden has always had a reputation of being a “harmonious and liberal society,” but in the past five years, rape has been on the rise. Why? One possibility that people are reluctant to talk about is Sweden’s growing population of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries with very different cultures from liberal Sweden.
A Swedish journalist in the video tells Horowitz that Sweden brought in over 190,000 refugees last year alone.
The video takes us to a northern suburb of Stockholm, Rinkeby — essentially now an immigrant enclave. Some police and journalists steer clear of the area, but Horowitz ventured in at his own risk.
Several residents he interviewed told him that they believe that Sweden has a responsibility to adapt to their more traditional culture, rather than the other way around.
After some time, Horowitz and his crew were threatened by residents and told to leave. He remained, with only audio equipment, and was then assaulted.
We then learn that immigrants are flowing to Sweden, in part, because the government benefits they receive there are all-encompassing — including housing, food, and education. In interviews, the immigrants say that in large part because of these benefits “life is good” for them in Sweden.
It ends with one woman saying there should be no limit to how many immigrants Sweden takes in.
Many on the Left might view Sweden as a compassionate template for the United States to follow in the midst of the refugee crisis abroad. Unfortunately, the consequences of such open-ended, welcoming policies would be disastrous here, just as they have been in Sweden. It’s a sad, and awful reality because so many innocent individuals are truly suffering — but there are ways we can help from afar, and these are worth pursuing.
At the end of the video, Horowitz speaks with Swedish citizens on the street, asking them if they think the uptick in rape and violence is in any way related to the influx of Muslim refugees. They seem to find the idea offensive, saying that there is no relationship between the two and that to say otherwise would be racist.
CNN INTENSIFIES ATTACKS AGAINST TRUMP AS DIRECTED BY OBAMA & SOROS TO UNDERMINE HIM.
TRUMP STRIKES BACK; WARNS WH LEAKERS; DEFEATS ELIZABETH WARREN IN 2020 POLLS.
Sources: Fox News, Boston.com, CNN
******* Trump blasts ‘out of control’ media, defends agenda at heated press conference
President Trump’s feud with the media turned into an all-out war Thursday afternoon.
His early presidency beset by damaging leaks and a burst of staff turmoil, Trump used a hastily called press conference to blast the media’s coverage of his administration in his strongest terms yet. He claimed the press is “out of control,” reports on his team’s ties to Russia are “fake,” and news outlets are attacking him because they oppose his agenda.
"The media’s trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on the pledges that we made, and they’re not happy about it," Trump declared at the White House.
The president spoke and took questions for more than an hour and 15 minutes, even joking with some reporters toward the end and saying he was having fun. In a bid to preempt negative coverage of his remarks, Trump insisted he was not "ranting and raving." But he lamented that the "tone" of coverage of his administration is one of "such hatred."
"The public doesn't believe you people anymore," he said.
Trump, who is dealing with the roughest stretch of his nascent presidency so far, unleashed the battery of accusations after first announcing his newest pick for labor secretary. After his original nominee withdrew, Trump nominated law school dean and former federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta for the post Thursday.
has had a tremendous career," Trump said, noting he's been through Senate confirmation three times for past positions.
But Trump pivoted to tout his administration's record so far and to blast the media for allegedly underplaying progress made.
"The press honestly is out of control," Trump said, vowing to take his message "straight to the people."
Amid a court fight over his controversial immigration executive order, which he maintained is “lawful,” Trump said he would announce a "new and very comprehensive order to protect our people."
He also staunchly defended his administration’s work on everything from the economy to energy to security. "This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine,” he said.
The press conference was held days after Michael Flynn resigned as national security adviser over a controversy regarding his past contacts with Russia’s ambassador. Those contacts emerged in news reports. Fast food chain CEO Andrew Puzder also withdrew from consideration for labor secretary on Wednesday amid deepening scrutiny of his personal and professional past.
Trump on Thursday personally denied having any contact or connections with Russia, saying: "I have nothing to do with Russia. I have no deals there. I don't know anything."
While acknowledging he sought Flynn’s resignation, he also said Flynn was just doing his job by contacting Russia. He said Flynn was asked to resign because he was dishonest about the details of the call with Vice President Mike Pence.
And he dismissed recent reports that campaign aides had been in contact with Russian officials before his election. Trump called the reports a "ruse" and said he had "nothing to do with Russia." Trump added, "Russia is fake news. This is fake news put out by the media."
In a free-wheeling event that, before Trump, would have been unprecedented in a modern presidential news conference, the president by turns teased and lambasted members of the press corps.
Toward the end of the press conference, Trump summed up his complaints by suggesting he was being blamed for problems that have existed for years: “I didn’t come along and divide this country. This country was seriously divided before I got here.”
He also blasted Senate Democrats for holding up his Cabinet nominees.
His latest pick for Labor Department might have an easier time. If confirmed, Acosta would be Trump’s first Latino Cabinet member. According to top GOP sources, Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and other Hispanic leaders are enthused about the pick.
Acosta currently is dean of Florida International University College of Law. He previously served as the first Hispanic assistant attorney general and as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, as well as on the National Labor Relations Board.
In the wake of the Flynn reports and other damaging stories, Trump also has vowed to root out those leaking sensitive information.
“We’re going to find the leakers. ... They’re going to pay a big price for leaking,” Trump said at a meeting ahead of the press conference.
TRUMP'S EXECUTIVE CABINET TEAM OF RIVALS SHOWS STRONG LEADERSHIP:
TRUMP DOESN'T WANT A TEAM OF "YES MEN" AND BUTT KISSERS.
MSM NETWORKS (CNN) APPLAUDED OBAMA'S "TEAM OF RIVALS", SILENT WHEN TRUMP DID LIKEWISE.
CAN YOU SAY MEDIA BIAS??
Sources: The Economist, Fox News, YouTube
The late Pres Abraham Lincoln received notoriety for creating a "Team of Rivals" when selecting members of his executive cabinet.
Barack Obama was hailed and lauded by the Mainstream Media for following in Lincoln's footsteps, especially when Obama nominated his former 2008 opponent Hillary Clinton for the role of Secretary of State.
Now in the year 2016, President-Elect Donald J. Trump is building his own executive cabinet "Team of Rivals" leadership fleet.
But wait!
Where is the Mainstream Media?
Obama was praised for his "Team of Rivals".
So why is the MSM silent when Trump practices the same brilliant leadership strategy?
----------------------------------------------
***** The next administration
Donald Trump has a team of rivals too
THE president-elect’s first administration hires had all been middle-aged white men who had backed him to the hilt when others wrinkled their noses.
But with a pair of nominations announced on November 23rd he rang the changes. He named Nikki Haley, the Indian-American governor of South Carolina, to be his ambassador to the United Nations, and Betsy DeVos, a billionaire Republican benefactress, as his education secretary.
As The Economist went to press, he was also reported to have invited Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon whom he defeated in the Republican primaries, and who is black, to be his secretary of housing and urban development.
All three possible appointments are intriguing, perhaps Mrs Haley’s especially. She is a first-generation American—her parents migrated from the Indian state of Punjab in the 1960s—who converted from Sikhism to Christianity before her marriage, yet still occasionally attends gurdwara.
Sparky, personable and, at the age of 44, an acknowledged Republican star, she could be the first Indian-American to hold a cabinet office. She is also a former opponent of Mr Trump’s.
She criticised him implicitly last January, when giving the official Republican rebuttal to Barack Obama’s last state-of-the-union speech. “It can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices,” she warned:
Americans “must resist.” She then criticised Mr Trump explicitly after he failed to disavow the support of a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Having distinguished herself by the alacrity with which she had lobbied to remove the Confederate flag from government buildings the previous year, after a racist massacre of black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, Mrs Haley’s condemnation carried moral weight.
It is smart of Mr Trump, who once derided her for her criticisms, to try to harness that. Her nomination is evidence that he can in fact bury a grudge. There is speculation he might also be trying to head off a potential challenger in 2020; that would be smart, too.
Mrs DeVos, an heir by marriage to the Amway direct marketing fortune, is another former critic of Mr Trump. She gave money to three of his rivals in the primaries—including Jeb Bush, an establishment figure Mr Trump humiliated—and said the reality television star did “not represent the Republican Party”.
In some ways the epitome of the well-heeled Republican elite he railed against on the trail, Mrs DeVos is also a crusader for the pro-choice school reforms, including an expansion of charter schools and vouchers to make private education more widely accessible, he has called for.
Amid uncertainty about what Mr Trump means to do with power, given the sketchiness of his platform and his apparent abandonment of a couple of big campaign promises, Mrs DeVos’s appointment is a rare clue to a Trump policy agenda. Teachers’ unions decried it; Mr Bush, one of Mr Trump’s most indefatigable Republican opponents, warmly applauded.
Mr Carson’s nomination, if he agrees to it, would be rather odd, but that is now expected of the retired medical whizz.
Backed by a devoted following of evangelical Christians, he briefly led the Republican primary field, yet seemed unaware of what the job of president entailed; his brilliant brain seemed resistant to remembering almost any detail of foreign policy. When reported to be in the reckoning for a cabinet role, his business manager said that was the “last thing he would want”, because he “feels he has no government experience.”
This was not a great recommendation for a job that includes responsibility for the federal government’s efforts to alleviate urban poverty.
MAINSTREAM MEDIA PUNDITS WERE NOT ABLE TO STEAL THIS ELECTION FOR DEMS.
THE VOTERS & ELECTORAL COLLEGE GAVE TRUMP HIS VICTORY.
Sources: NY Post, National Review, Bravo, YouTube
Exactly one week after Donald Trump was elected by the people, as our nation's 45th US President, Democrats and angry Hillary supporters are still scratching their heads in awe, wondering "HOW did this happen?"
Due to low voter turn out from Black voters who have historically supported Democrat presidential candidates, the Mainstream Media has tried to blame Hillary's defeat on Black voters.
However this synopsis couldn't be further from the truth.
In reality Trump's victory is due Mainstream Media BIAS against Trump during this campaign season.
In essence, the Media's ploy to demonize Trump
while building up Hillary backfired.
Thus today instead of praising a President Hillary Clinton, we are applauding President Donald J. Trump.
As NeNe Leakes once told her RHOA castmate Phaedra Parks "You never can win when you are dirty honey!"
DONALD J. TRUMP WINS 2016 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL RACE; HILLARY CONCEDES:
TRUMP'S VICTORY WAS A REFERENDUM ON CORRUPTION.
Sources: Bloomberg Politics, CNN, Fox News, Youtube
Donald Trump will become the 45th president of the United States, CNN projects, a historic victory for outsiders that represents a stunning repudiation of Washington's political establishment.
The billionaire real estate magnate and former reality star needed an almost perfect run through the swing states -- and he got it, winning Ohio, North Carolina and Florida.
The Republican swept to victory over Hillary Clinton in the ultimate triumph for a campaign that repeatedly shattered the conventions of politics to pull off a remarkable upset. Clinton conceded to Trump in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Speaking at a victory party in New York, Trump was gracious toward Clinton and called for unity.
"We owe (Clinton) a very major debt of gratitude to her for her service to our country," Trump said. "I say it is time for us to come together as one united people."
He added: "I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans."
Trump won with 288 electoral votes compared to 215 for Clinton, according to CNN projections.
Trump's supporters embraced his plainspoken style, assault on political correctness and vow to crush what he portrayed in the final days of his campaign as a corrupt, globalized elite -- epitomized by the Clintons -- that he claimed conspired to keep hard-working Americans down.
His winning coalition of largely white, working-class voters suggests a populace desperate for change and disillusioned with an entire generation of political leaders and the economic and political system itself.
Now, Trump faces the task of uniting a nation traumatized by the ugliest campaign in modern history and ripped apart by political divides exacerbated by his own explosive rhetoric -- often along the most tender national fault lines such as race and gender.
Trump is sure to follow his own playbook
Trump will be the first president to enter the White House with no political, diplomatic or military executive experience. His victory will send shockwaves around the world, given his sparse foreign policy knowledge, haziness over nuclear doctrine, vow to curtail Muslim immigration and disdain for US alliances that have been the bedrock of the post-World War II foreign policy.
His promises to renegotiate or dump trade deals such as NAFTA and to brand China a currency manipulator risk triggering immediate economic shocks around the globe.
Global markets already began tumbling late Tuesday.
Trump, 70, will be the oldest president ever sworn in for a first term and will take the helm of a nation left deeply divided by his scorched-earth campaign. His victory was built on fierce anger at the Washington establishment and political elites among his grass-roots voters, many of whom feel they are the victims of a globalized economy that has resulted in the loss of millions of jobs.
His victory ends Clinton's crusade to become the first woman to ever rise to the nation's highest office. It's a humiliating chapter in the long political career of Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
Trump's win also deals a painful rebuke to President Barack Obama, whom he pursued for years with his birtherism campaign built on the false premise that Obama was born outside the United States. Now Trump will have the power to eviscerate Obama's political legacy -- including the Affordable Care Act, the latter's proudest domestic achievement.
But there are deeper, more fundamental questions about Trump's presidency that will be key to his capacity to unify a deeply divided country and appeal to Americans who will feel outraged and disgusted by his victory.
He's got the attention of the whole world
Trump's campaign was built on rage, falsehoods and singling out culprits for the ills of modern America, including undocumented migrants, foreign nations such as China and Muslim immigrants.
He mocked a disabled New York Times reporter, vowed to use the power of the presidency to put Clinton in jail and pledged to sue women who accused him of sexual assault.
Trump has promised to build a wall on the southern border and make Mexico pay for it, and to deport undocumented migrants. He has vowed to reintroduce interrogation methods for terror suspects that are more extreme than waterboarding.
So the demeanor that Trump will adopt as president and the manner in which he will behave will be closely watched -- not just in the United States, but among nervous leaders abroad.
One of the many uncertainties about Trump's coming presidency is how his White House will interact with Republicans in Congress — and whether he and GOP leaders will heal their rift from the campaign.
Republicans repelled a Democratic bid to recapture the Senate, giving the GOP control over Capitol Hill and the White House.
That means it would fall to the GOP either to rubber stamp policies likely to mark a break from conservative orthodoxy or to provide a check on the power of Trump, who has shown every sign he will use executive power aggressively.
House Speaker Paul Ryan will face intense pressure from pro-Trump members of his own coalition to cooperate with the new president.
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are likely to hold Trump's feet to the fire to ensure he lives up to his promise to appoint justices who could ensure a generational conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Clinton apparently failed to reassemble the diverse coalition that helped Obama win the presidency in 2008 and 2012.
The events of Clinton's terrible final week on the campaign -- the revival of her email controversy by FBI Chief James Comey and a damaging drip, drip, drip of revelations by WikiLeaks which her campaign says was orchestrated by Russian intelligence -- could have helped consign her to defeat.
There also is the question of Trump's temperament. Clinton repeatedly warned that he was unfit to control the nuclear codes because he could be baited with a tweet.
Obama passionately denounced Trump as intellectually and temperamentally unfit to succeed him in the Oval Office.
But now, he will be forced to greet his successor on the morning of Inauguration Day in January, and look on while he is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.
DONNA BRAZILE AXED BY CNN FOR CHEATING; BUSINESS AS USUAL:
Sources: Washington Post, Huffpost, CNN, The Wrap, Youtube
Although she was recently FIRED from her job at CNN as a Political Contributor, BLACK Journalist Donna Brazile holds her place as one of my favorite Media and Public Relations experts.
Did HILLARY CLINTON'S campaign instruct Ms Brazile to slip debate questions to Hillary's staff?
We may NEVER know the answer to that question.
If elected as President of the United States, will Hillary repay Donna Brazile's LOYALTY with a plum key role in her Executive Cabinet.
There's no guarantee.
Oh! The sacrifices one often makes to gain FAME and Prestige in the world of Politics and Entertainment.
***** ‘She was fired!’: CNN blows up with chatter of its own Donna Brazile
To its credit, CNN’s media-reporting team wrote a story for the company’s website on the resignation of Donna Brazile as a CNN contributor following revelations that in March she shared questions from a debate and a town-hall event with the Clinton campaign. It’s a bona fide scandal.
Yet the Erik Wemple Blog, a steady CNN watcher, hasn’t seen much coverage of Brazile’s actions on CNN airwaves.
Panel discussions, however, have a way of meandering. CNN host Brooke Baldwin moments ago convened former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter; commentator S.E. Cupp; and Trump supporter and former George W. Bush political director Matt Schlapp to break down the last days of the 2016 presidential race. All kinds of things got attention, including the role of women in the election, the need to shake up Washington, and reports that the race is getting tight.
Reacting to analysis that the Republicans are split over Trump, Schlapp pointed out that Donna Brazile was criticized by CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker for “leak[ing] two questions to the Clinton campaign to hurt the Bernie Sanders campaign.”
A bit later in the discussion, Nutter defended Brazile, saying, “Donna Brazile is doing a fantastic job at the DNC now and prior to that as a great political strategist and TV commentator.”
Schlapp interjected: “Hillary agrees with you!”
Nutter continued: “We can talk about questions and who got what questions. You know, I think it might not have been too much of a surprise if you’re in Flint, that you might get a question from somebody about the water.”
Schlapp: “Then why was she fired?”
Nutter: “Let me finish. She was not fired.”
Schlapp: “She was fired by CNN.”
Nutter: “You can say that three times and I’m going to say three times, she resigned on her own. That is the fact, so do not spread lies about someone’s personal business or how they conducted themselves.”
Schlapp: “Hey, Brooke, can you help me out here. I’m not lying. I’m not lying.”
Baldwin: “There was some sort of termination … That is way, way higher than my pay grade, Matt. So I really can’t address it, but I can tell you that [inaudible] did not help her out.”
The facts: CNN did indeed declare publicly that Brazile had “resigned.” Journalists everywhere, including Politico’s Jack Shafer, interpreted the timing and circumstances of the move as something other than voluntary. “CNN Dumped Donna Brazile. It Should Keep Going,” reads the headline on Shafer’s piece. Add to that Baldwin’s demi-confirmation on air, plus all the context, and it appears that Schlapp was speaking the unimpeachable truth.
Clinton on Trump: 'A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons'
As Hillary Clinton playfully batted away an avalanche of balloons Thursday night, she appeared proud, happy and reconciled to her historic moment.
She had accepted the Democratic nomination with "humility, determination and boundless confidence in America's promise," taking her place as the first woman to lead a major presidential ticket on a night pulsating with emotion.
Her speech lacked the poetic sweep of the President Barack Obama's address Wednesday, but it was in keeping with someone who presents herself as a practical, dogged, policy-oriented striver who gets knocked down and then gets straight back up.
The choice she defined for the nation in 2016 is stark: a "moment of reckoning."
The former first lady, senator and secretary of state set her sights on the White House and blasted Republican nominee Donald Trump, portraying him as a small man who got rich by stifling workers, who peddles fear and who lacks the temperament to be commander-in-chief.
She quickly reached out to disappointed Bernie Sanders voters at the end of a convention dedicated to healing the deep rift from their contentious primary race. With the Vermont senator watching from the arena, Clinton told his supporters: "I've heard you. Your cause is our cause."
President Barack Obama congratulated Clinton at the conclusion of her speech.
"Great speech," he tweeted. "She's tested. She's ready. She never quits. That's why Hillary should be our next @POTUS. (She'll get the Twitter handle, too)"
In the audience, Clinton supporters were moved to tears, including 16-year-old Victoria Sanchez.
"This is more than I ever could have imagined," she said. "I know that I have just lived history and I can follow in her footsteps. This changes my entire life."
After a lifetime in a polarizing political spotlight that has left her with plenty of enemies and dented approval ratings, Clinton set out to prove to voters that she could be trusted.
Dedicated fighter
She avoided any show of contrition for controversies like the one over the private email server she used for official business while secretary of state that has again provoked questions about her honesty and integrity among many voters.
Instead, she presented herself as a dedicated and indefatigable fighter for children, the disabled, blue-collar workers, women and the poor, while promising a backbone of steel as she vowed to take out ISIS.
Throughout a speech punctuated by roars of applause and watched by a misty-eyed former President Bill Clinton, she repeatedly returned to attack Trump -- who laid out a much darker vision of America's future at his own convention last week.
"Don't let anyone tell you we don't have what it takes," Clinton said. "Most of all, don't believe anyone who says: 'I alone can fix it,' " a reference to a part of Trump's acceptance speech last week.
"Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart," she said. "Bonds of trust and respect are fraying. It truly is up to us. We have to decide whether we all will work together so we all can rise together."
Turning to national security, Clinton warned that a president has to make decisions about war and peace, life and death.
"Ask yourself: Do you really think Donald Trump has the temperament to be commander in chief? Donald Trump can't even handle the rough-and-tumble of a presidential campaign."
She added: "A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons."
Trump hit back -- with a series of tweets.
"No one has worse judgement than Hillary Clinton - corruption and devastation follows her wherever she goes," he wrote. "Hillary's wars in the Middle East have unleashed destruction, terrorism and ISIS across the world."
Stephen Miller, Trump's senior policy adviser, blasted Clinton's speech as an "insulting collection of cliches and recycled rhetoric."
"She spent the evening talking down to the American people she's looked down on her whole life," he said.
Persuading Americans
But Clinton is working to persuade Americans that she understands their frustration and economic anxiety at a time when many of them still do not trust her. Her prime-time televised address is especially crucial because she has not so far generated the kind of passion among her supporters that Trump has garnered from his backers by channeling anger about the direction of the country.
She spoke of her wholesome middle class upbringing and said her family were builders of the American dream and not people "with their name on big buildings" -- another dig at Trump.
Clinton took pains to reach out to white blue-collar workers, many of whom have been left behind by economic globalization and technological change and have been attracted by Trump's anti-elite message.
"Right now, an awful lot of people feel there is less and less respect for the work they do," she said, and admitted that politicians had not done a good enough job of showing they understand.
One of the major themes of the Democratic convention has been an attempt to reintroduce one of the most famous women in the world to the American people. And she admitted that if many Americans knew little of the woman behind the image, it may be her fault.
"The truth is, through all these years of public service, the 'service' part has always come easier to me than the 'public' part," Clinton said.
Clinton also indicated she understood the need to reassure Americans shaken by a violent summer at home and an epidemic of terror attacks in Europe and the US. While Clinton and Obama have argued that ISIS is on the run, the economy is on the upswing, and Americans are safer than they have been in years, they are struggling to counter the dark image that Trump has painted of a nation in decline, chaos and disorder that resonates with many voters.
National security threats
Amid charges by Republicans that the optimistic mood of the Democratic convention has ignored the threat from ISIS and terrorism, Clinton was specific about the global national security threats that loom -- though she didn't use the term Islamic terrorism as the GOP repeatedly has called for.
"Anyone reading the news can see the threats and turbulence we face," Clinton said. "From Baghdad to Kabul, to Nice to Paris and Brussels. From San Bernardino to Orlando, we're dealing with determined enemies who must be defeated. No wonder people are anxious and looking for reassurance -- looking for steady leadership."
Following a spate of killings by police of African-American youths and massacres of police officers, Clinton laid out a firm stance on gun control, vowing that America should not have a president in the "pocket" of the gun lobby.
"I'm not here to take away your guns," she said. "I just don't want you to be shot by someone who shouldn't have a gun in the first place."
Ahead of her speech, retired four star General John Allen, the former head of US and international forces in Afghanistan, delivered a powerful address in which he told delegates that Clinton would be "exactly the Commander-in-Chief America needs."
'America will continue to lead'
"With her as our Commander-in-Chief, America will continue to lead this volatile world. We will oppose and resist tyranny and we will defeat evil. America will defeat ISIS and protect the homeland," said Allen, who was surrounded on stage by 37 military veterans.
Clinton delivered her speech at the end of a largely successful convention, which helped mend the party after her divisive primary against Sanders. The mood on the convention floor Thursday was festive and upbeat — in contrast to the discontent that festered on the opening night Monday when die-hard Sanders fans loudly make their disappointment known.
Samantha Herring of Walton County, Florida, was a Sanders supporter but has decided this week to work hard to elect Clinton.
"Is it hard? Yes. I loved Bernie, but that's why I have to vote for Hillary," said Herring, who made signs reading "He has my heart, but she has my vote."
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