HILLARY WINS FLORIDA, NORTH CAROLINA, & OHIO (HER CORONATION)

HILLARY WINS FLORIDA, NORTH CAROLINA, & OHIO:

I'M NOT SURPRISED.

SANDERS IS HELPING HILLARY. HE'S ACTUALLY HER DEBATE COACH.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, PBS, Youtube

**** Hillary Clinton Easily Wins in Ohio, Florida and North Carolina

Bernie Sanders looks for victories in the remaining states, Illinois and Missouri.

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton won a critical victory in Ohio’s presidential primary on Tuesday—and completed her sweep of the South with victories in Florida and North Carolina—as she took full command of a contest that has been far closer than expected at the start.

Rival Bernie Sanders was still hoping for wins in Illinois and Missouri on Tuesday. But the former secretary of state and New York senator was certain to widen her delegate lead.

“We are moving close to securing the Democratic Party nomination and winning this election in November,” Mrs. Clinton told cheering supporters in Florida. She boasted that she has won more votes that any candidate in either party and put forth a hopeful message about the ability to tackle the nation’s problems, saying, “You voted for our tomorrow to be better than our yesterday.”

In Ohio, Mrs. Clinton received 58.0% of the vote while Mr. Sanders garnered 41.5% with 40% of the vote counted. With 96% of Florida precincts reporting, Mrs. Clinton had 64.5% of the vote compared with 33.2% for Mr. Sanders. In North Carolina, with 53% of the precincts in, the former secretary of state had 55.4% versus 40.2% for Mr. Sanders..

With 214 pledged delegates at stake, Florida was the night’s biggest prize, while Ohio had 143 pledged delegates up for grabs. They will be awarded proportionally.

Heading into Tuesday, Mr. Sanders was ramping up his attacks on Mrs. Clinton, and has vowed to fight all the way to the summer convention. But he may now face increasing pressure to back off and revert to his earlier role as a candidate primarily driving a progressive, populist message rather than pursuing a likely path to the nomination.

Mrs. Clinton had been expected to easily win Florida, but Ohio was closely fought. Mr. Sanders had hoped to parlay a victory last week in Michigan to the neighboring state. Both have seen a drain in manufacturing jobs, and Mr. Sanders put the blame squarely on free-trade agreements that Mrs. Clinton has long supported.

Mrs. Clinton completed a sweep of the South, where strong support from African-Americans pumped up her totals. But her Ohio win was more important, showing she could win in the industrial Midwest.

Coming into Tuesday’s voting, Mrs. Clinton already had a commanding lead: Her 768 pledged delegates, those chosen by voters, was 214 more than Mr. Sanders. Including so-called superdelegates, who are party leaders who can vote for anyone, she had 1,235—more than double her rival’s take and more than half the number needed for the nomination, according to a tally by the Associated Press.

The Sanders campaign now looks ahead to contests next week in Arizona, Utah and Idaho, three states where aides have hoped to do well. But the next big delegate hauls aren’t awarded until April: first in Wisconsin, and then the giant prize of New York.

“In the states that are coming down the pike, we have great opportunities to win many of them, so we’re feeling really good,” Mr. Sanders said at lunchtime Tuesday in Chicago.

The question now is what tone he will adopt in coming days. In the leadup to Tuesday’s contests, the Vermont senator targeted Mrs. Clinton’s record of support for free-trade deals, and for the backing she receives from an outside super PAC.

In Florida, Mrs. Clinton’s advantage was on display Tuesday in Miami, home to large populations of Hispanic and African-American voters who have gravitated to her campaign.

The CIA Has Lied To Congress Two Times, Five Times, etc.,....Will Panetta Apologize To Speaker Pelosi?

MSNBC----

(NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports the latest on the feud between House Democrats loyal to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and CIA Director Leon Panetta.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(Former CIA agent, Jack Rice talks with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann about new Congressional testimony that CIA briefers deceived Congress.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

WASHINGTON - CIA Director Leon Panetta told Congress last month that senior CIA officials have concealed significant actions and misled lawmakers repeatedly since 2001, the chairman and other members of the House Intelligence Committee said in letters revealed Wednesday.

Exactly what actions Panetta disclosed to the House Intelligence Committee on June 24 are unclear, but committee chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said that the CIA outright lied in one case.

"These notifications have led me to conclude that this committee has been misled, has not been provided full and complete notifications, and (in at least one case) was affirmatively lied to," Reyes wrote in a letter Tuesday to Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the committee's senior Republican. A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press.

Investigation being considered
Reyes said in the letter that he is considering launching a full investigation.

Panetta brought the matters to the committee's attention, CIA spokesman George Little said Wednesday.

"It is not the policy or practice of the CIA to mislead Congress. This agency and this director believe it is vital to keep the Congress fully and currently informed. Director Panetta's actions back that up," Little said in a statement to the AP. "It was the CIA itself that took the initiative to notify the oversight committees."

Seven Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee sent a letter to Panetta on June 26 asking that in light of his disclosure he revise a statement he made in May to CIA employees that it was not CIA policy or practice to mislead Congress.

The cryptic letter and CIA statement came on the eve of a House debate on an intelligence bill. The debate is expected to revive a partisan argument that has raged on and off for months about whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew in the fall of 2002 about the CIA's use of waterboarding weeks earlier.

Waterboarding is an interrogation technique the CIA used on three prisoners in 2002 and 2003. It is a form of simulated drowning that President Barack Obama has called torture.

Did the CIA lie to Pelosi?

Congressional aides expect much of the debate on the House intelligence bill to be diverted into a discussion of what Pelosi knew about the CIA's harsh interrogation program and why, if she was briefed on it, she didn't formally object to it.

Pelosi told reporters in May she had not been informed that waterboarding had been used against terrorism suspects, even though it had been. When asked whether she was accusing the CIA of lying to her, she said, "Yes."

The CIA sent lawmakers a chart in May describing the 40 congressional briefings it gave on the interrogation techniques. But that document was found to include several errors, leaving in question exactly what Pelosi was told.

The GOP seized on her accusation that the CIA misled Congress, contending that the California Democrat's remarks have demoralized the intelligence community. House Republicans have repeatedly demanded that a bipartisan panel investigate her allegations.

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., one of the authors of the June 26 letter to Panetta, said the June revelation to the committee bolsters Pelosi's case.

"If people are saying, 'Heaven forbid the speaker said the CIA deceived Congress' — anyone who has served any time on these committees and is straightforward will say, 'Yes, of course,'" Holt told the AP.

Concerns about compromising security:

House Republicans oppose at least one provision in the intelligence authorization bill, and they have an unusual ally: the White House.

Obama's aides have said they will recommend he veto the bill if it includes a Democratic-written provision requiring the president to notify the intelligence committees in their entirety about covert CIA activities.

Under current law, the president is only obligated to notify the top Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate and the senior Democratic and Republican members on each chamber's intelligence committee.

Democrats want to open the briefings to all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees unless committee leaders agreed otherwise. That would be about 40 lawmakers, depending on shifting membership rosters, instead of the eight required by law.

They claim the Bush administration sought to undermine congressional oversight. However, the White House is concerned that briefing more lawmakers might compromise the most sensitive U.S. intelligence operations.

Sources: MSNBC, Day Life, Zimbio