KIRSTEN GILIBRAND FOR PREZ IN 2020? PERHAPS AS VICE-PREZ FOR HILLARY

KIRSTEN GILIBRAND FOR PREZ IN 2020? PERHAPS AS VICE-PREZ FOR HILLARY:

WALL STREET LIKES GILIBRAND & HILLARY.

NO PREZ CANDIDATE CAN WIN WITHOUT WALL STREET’S $UPPORT.

HILLARY CLINTON SHOULD RUN AGAIN AS DEMS’ TOP TICKET WITH GILIBRAND AS HER ROBIN.

WHY HAS EVERYONE GIVEN UP ON HILLARY?

SHE DESERVES ONE MORE CHANCE & I THINK SHE COULD WIN UNLESS TRUMP RUNS AGAIN.

TRUMP BORROWED OBAMA’S POLITICAL PLAYBOOK FOR CAMPAIGNING.

THIS TIME HILLARY WILL HAVE TO DO IT OBAMA’S WAY OR DEMS WILL LOSE AGAIN.

LAUGH IF YOU WANT BUT I’M USUALLY CORRECT EVEN IF I HAVEN’T RECEIVED ENOUGH CREDIT FOR MY POLITICAL COMMENTARY.

I’M JUST SAYING.


Sources: PBS, NBC News, The Week, Youtube


***** Kirsten Gillibrand 2020? Not with her Wall Street problem.


TThe presidential campaign was always here. Before man was, the campaign waited for him. And President Trump's first 100 days in office are almost up. So you know what that means: idle speculation about who will run in 2020!
Jokes aside, it is obviously too early to actually start running for the presidency, even in this wretchedly dysfunctional country. But it's not too early for ambitious politicos to start thinking about which policies to advocate for and what kind of reputation to cultivate. Laying the groundwork early has always been part of running for national leadership in every democracy.

One obvious proto-candidate is Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). She has a decent national profile, a couple of solid signature policies, and a lot of goodwill with the Democratic base for defying President Trump early. Plus, she would be able to claim that first female president ring that eluded Hillary Clinton. (Better still, she doesn't have one quarter of the baggage that Clinton had.)

There's just one big problem: Wall Street. If she wants to lock up the next Democratic presidential primary, she would be wise to make herself absolutely loathed by the bankster class.

The basic shape of a potential Gillibrand candidacy is outlined reasonably well in a sympathetic profile by Rebecca Traister. Gillibrand started her career in a conservative district in New York, taking office in 2006 as part of the great Democratic wave. She had been a lawyer for Big Tobacco in her early career, and started out as a Blue Dog conservative, holding pro-gun, pro-austerity, and anti-immigration positions.

She was thus thought to be a bad choice to fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat when Clinton was tapped to serve as secretary of state in 2009. But Gillibrand quickly moved left, reversing course on immigration and gun control, and helping kill Bill Clinton's odious policy on gays in the military. She was easily elected in a 2010 special election and reelected properly in 2012.

She has since been a fairly middle-of-the-road Democrat, but has made a bit of a national name for herself by advocating for paid family leave in the form of the FAMILY Act. As policy and politics, it could stand to be more aggressive, but it's still pretty good by Democratic Party standards. (At least it's not a rotten tax-advantaged savings account.) And since then, Gillibrand has garnered even more attention by consistently opposing President Trump in almost everything he's done — including voting against more of his Cabinet nominees than any other senator.

But her record on Wall Street will haunt her. Gillibrand, as usual for New York senators, has worked assiduously on behalf of the financial industry. In 2010 she briefly suggested filing an amendment making it harder to regulate derivatives trading, though she later backed down after a backlash. In 2011, she complained that derivatives regulation would make U.S. banks uncompetitive. In 2013, she and five other Democratic senators wrote to then-Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew arguing essentially for an indefinite delay of regulations on cross-border derivative trading. As Reid Pilfant wrote in 2012, she has "quietly overcome considerable skepticism about her on Wall Street to become a go-to advocate for the financial services industry in her own right."

Why is this bad? For one, Wall Street is a cancer at the heart of the American economy. Its share of GDP has roughly doubled since the 1950s, and approximately all of that growth has come at the expense of the rest of the economy. It went from about 8 percent of corporate profits to 20-40 percent while becoming less efficient at basic financial tasks.

How? By abusing contracts, tax law, and market power to dominate consumers and productive enterprises so as to extract quick cash. Most "markets" in this country have become monopolies or oligopolies — the deliberate result of mergers and acquisitions coordinated on Wall Street. A generation of pressure from finance means corporations are now mainly expected to think only about the next quarter's profits, and to immediately disgorge them all — or more than all — to shareholders and executives.

Pick some economic abuse disproportionately affecting women or minorities, and it's a safe bet that some finance goons will be up to their neck in it. And that's setting aside actual criminal actions, like systematic document fraud that kicked nine million people out of their homes.

Dodd-Frank was a step in the right direction, but about 1/40th the proper size. We need cricket bat regulation.

Bernie Sanders got tremendous political mileage out of arguing that big banks must be broken up, his signature call to to wrest political power away from the "millionaires and billionaires," and above all from his palpable contempt for the ultra-rich. By necessity, taking a credible populist stand now means a ferocious attack on Wall Street.

If Gillibrand tries to split the difference, and run a Clinton-style campaign of status quo finance plus moderate new social programs, she's likely to be outflanked by a more credible populist. What's more, she will not have Clinton's gigantic head start, nor her total lock on all the party insiders. And with Clinton's astonishing loss to Trump, electability arguments against such a challenger will be far less convincing.

It will be tough — Gillibrand is married to a banker — but a good first step would be to contemptuously refuse all donations from finance for her upcoming reelection campaign. She won in 2012 by 46 points, partly on the strength of gigantic donations from Goldman Sachs. A smaller margin of victory there would pay national electoral dividends.

GOV CUOMO UNVEILS GUN BILL TO CURB DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOMICIDES (HILLARY 2020)

GOV ANDREW CUOMO (NY) UNVEILS GUN BILL TO CURB DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOMICIDES:

HILLARY CLINTON NEEDS TO RUN AGAIN IN 2020 TO FIGHT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN.

ALL GOVERNORS SHOULD ADOPT GOV CUOMO'S INITIATIVE TO PREVENT MORE WOMEN FROM BEING BEATEN & MURDERED.

THE CYCLE OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE & SEXUAL HARASSMENT AGAINST WOMEN MUST BE STOPPED.


Sources: The Hill, YouTube


****** NY gov unveiling bill to remove firearms from those with domestic violence convictions


New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said he will announce legislation Wednesday to remove firearms from people who commit domestic violence crimes.

"Today I am announcing legislation to remove all firearms from those who commit any domestic violence crimes," Cuomo tweeted.

"Given the inextricable link between domestic violence and lethal gun violence, this legislation will require all domestic violence crime convictions, including misdemeanors, to result in the immediate removal of all firearms."

Cuomo said this year will be remembered as "the year of reckoning, when both the tragedy of mass shootings and cultural and institutional harassment of women became impossible to ignore."

"Let's make New York a safer state for all," he said.

Democratic lawmakers have pushed for new gun control measures after a series of mass shootings over the past year, including recent ones in Las Vegas and Texas.

More than 50 people were killed and more than 500 others wounded when a gunman opened fire at a country music festival in Las Vegas in early October. The following month, 26 people were killed after a gunman opened fire on churchgoers attending a Sunday service at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Police identified the suspect in the Texas shooting as Devin Kelley, who was discharged from the Air Force in 2014 for bad conduct after a domestic violence conviction. But the Air Force came under fire for failing to enter Kelley's domestic violence court-martial into a federal database used for background checks on gun sales.

Last month, a Democratic lawmaker introduced a billthat would require the Justice Department to conduct a study examining whether there is a correlation between individuals who have a history of domestic violence and mass shooters.

"If we look at the recent mass shootings in Sutherland Springs, Orlando, and the Congressional Baseball Game practice, we see a noticeable trend: all these shooters acted alone and had prior history of domestic violence," Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) said in a statement in November.

"Studies on the link between domestic violence at the early stages and mass shootings may help us prevent individuals from carrying out these horrific crimes in the future," he added.

HILLARY CLINTON SLAMS GOP TAX REFORM BILL (2020)

HILLARY CLINTON SLAMS GOP TAX REFORM BILL (2020):

I UNDERSTAND HILLARY'S ANGER ABOUT THIS LEGISLATION BECAUSE SHE REALLY CARES.

BUT WHAT IS HILLARY'S POSITION ON MEN SEXUALLY HARASSING WOMEN & ABUSING WOMEN??

AND YES SHE SHOULD RUN AGAIN IN 2020.


Sources: HuffPost, CBS News, Fox News, Youtube


***** Hillary Clinton Calls Senate Tax Bill 'Insulting Attack' On Americans


Hillary Clinton condemned the Republican tax bill that passed the Senate early Saturday morning during her appearance at a conference for young political activists later in the day.

“This could not be a more blatant and insulting attack on working Americans,” she reportedly told the audience at the Teen Vogue Summit in Playa Vista, California, where she was interviewed by “Black-ish” actress Yara Shahidi.

Clinton also criticized the bill for benefitting billionaires while eliminating cuts for teachers who buy school supplies for their students, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Shortly afterward, the former Democratic presidential candidate urged her social media followers to take an active role in the 2018 midterm election.

“This tax bill is only going to get worse as people learn more about it,” she said over Twitter. “There are 6 GOP Senators that have to run on it & 2 open seats in 2018.

We all need to get to work..”

Although President Donald Trump campaigned in part on a platform of tax cuts for the middle class, the GOP bill reserves its biggest benefits for the wealthiest Americans.

Republicans approved adding $1.5 trillion in national debt over 10 years on the belief it would be offset by economic growth. While many Americans will see some tax cuts, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, the richest 20 percent of households will reap 90 percent of the benefit of the tax cuts over those 10 years.

Senators voted 51-49 to narrowly pass the measure, with just one Republican, Bob Corker of Tennessee, joining Democrats to oppose it. The Senate legislation will likely be combined with the tax bill passed by the House last month; both chambers would need to approve the new version before it crossed Trump’s desk.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the bill’s passage marked “a great day for the country,” while Trump thanked Republicans for their “hard work and commitment.”

------------------------------------------



****** Tax bill: Senate passes sweeping tax overhaul in early morning vote


The Senate narrowly passed Republicans' tax reform legislation early Saturday morning with no Democratic support, following a marathon voting session overnight.

The bill, approved just before 2 a.m. in a 51-49 vote, next heads to conference, where House and Senate negotiators will work out the differences in their bills. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) was the only Republican to vote no on the measure. The House bill also passed with no Democratic support last month.

The legislation was officially released shortly before the vote, giving the public little time to examine the final details. Democrats were outraged, asking for more time to review the measure. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) claimed she was handed the amendments to be included in the bill not by any of her colleagues, but by a lobbyist. Lobbyists, her comment implied, saw the bill before Democratic members.

"Not a single member of this chamber has read the bill," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor before the bill passed. "It would be impossible."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who held a press conference after the bill's passage, suggested Democrats were only concerned about the legislative process because they were losing.

"You complain about process when you're losing," McConnell said. "And that's what you heard on the floor tonight."

McConnell also said he believes the bill will be revenue neutral, despite analyses suggesting it will add to the deficit.

"This is a great day for the country, it's been 31 years since we've done comprehensive tax reform," McConnell said.

President Trump hailed the bill's passage in a tweet Saturday morning, thanking Republicans for approving the measure.

Biggest Tax Bill and Tax Cuts in history just passed in the Senate. Now these great Republicans will be going for final passage. Thank you to House and Senate Republicans for your hard work and commitment!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017
The Senate bill permanently lowers the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent. Tax rates will also be cut for individuals, though their tax cuts will expire after a decade. The Senate bill keeps the same number of individual tax brackets, although it changes what those brackets are.

The Senate bill also repeals the individual mandate under Obamacare, something conservatives in Congress have long wanted. The House version does not touch the individual mandate.

The Senate bill, like the House bill, limits state and local income tax deductions to property taxes, with a cap of $10,000. The Senate bill increases the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000.

Republicans -- with the help of a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence -- approved a provision from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that expands a tax break for 529 contributions to K-12 schools. The Senate shot down an amendment From Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, to further expand the child tax credit in exchange for a corporate tax rate increase from 20 percent to just under 21 percent.

The Senate bill is expected to add more than $1 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years, according to a Joint Committee on Taxation analysis. Republicans had hoped the bill would pay for itself, and there was some concern late Thursday the bill would be held up for fiscal reasons.

The bill's passage is a major accomplishment for Republicans, who have been unable to pass significant or complex legislation since they took control of the House, Senate and White House in January.

HILLARY CLINTON PONDERS CHALLENGE OF 2016 ELECTION; SHE SHOULD RUN AGAIN IN 2020

HILLARY CLINTON PONDERS CHALLENGE OF 2016 ELECTION; SHE SHOULD RUN AGAIN IN 2020:

HILLARY LOST BECAUSE SHE HAD A BAD, MISMANAGED CAMPAIGN.

HILLARY HAD TOO MANY PEOPLE ON HER TEAM WHO JUST WANTED FAME & PAYCHECKS.

OBAMA DIDN'T REALLY WANT HILLARY TO WIN EITHER.

IF HILLARY HAD ME ON HER TEAM SHE WOULD HAVE WON.

TRUMP WON BECAUSE HE HAD A VERY WELL-FOCUSED CAMPAIGN, I SUPPORTED HIM AND HE DIDN'T WASTE MONEY.

I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE ELSE SAYS I STILL LIKE TRUMP BUT I WANT TO SEE HILLARY RUN AGAIN.

SHE WON'T REST UNTIL SHE RUNS AND WINS.

STOP BLAMING EVERYONE AND JUST RUN AGAIN TO WIN.

HILLARY BELONGS IN THE WHITE HOUSE AS THE FIRST WOMAN U.S. PRESIDENT.


Sources: NY Post, CNN, Youtube


***** Hillary Clinton still wants to challenge election results


Hillary​ Clinton just can’t face the fact that Donald Trump is in the White House and she’s not.

Ten months after her stunning defeat​ in the 2016 presidential election, the Democratic nominee held out the possibility of challenging the results if there’s solid proof of Russian interference beyond what has already been made public.

“I wouldn’t rule it out​,” Clinton told National Public Radio on Monday.


That seemed to floor the interviewer, Terry Gross.

“So what are the means, like, this is totally unprecedented in every way,” Gross said, grasping for a follow-up.

“It is,” replied Clinton.

But when asked how she would file such a challenge, Clinton was stumped.

“I don’t know if there’s any legal, constitutional way to do that​,” she admitted.

“There are scholars, academics, who have arguments that it would be, but I don’t think they’re on strong ground. But people are making those arguments. I just don’t think we have a mechanism,” she said.

Clinton got 3 million more popular votes than Trump but lost the presidency in the Electoral College, an institution she said should be eliminated.

“I do believe we should abolish the Electoral College, because I was sitting listening to a report on the French election and the French political analyst said, ‘You know, in our country the person with the most votes wins, unlike in yours.’ And I think that’s an anachronism. I’ve said that since 2000​,” she told NPR​.

Clinton insisted that if the roles were reversed — and Trump won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College — she would still be pushing for a full probe of Russia’s involvement in the election.

“Let me just put it this way — if I had lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College and in my first day as president the intelligence community came to me and said, ‘The Russians influenced the election,’ I would’ve never stood for it. Even though it might’ve advantaged me, I would’ve said, ‘We’ve got to get to the bottom of this.’ I would’ve set up an independent commission with subpoena power and everything else,” she said.

The NPR interview was part of a tour for Clinton’s new book, “What Happened,” in which she claims then-FBI Director James Comey cost her the election by announcing a new investigation into her ­e-mails 11 days before voters went to the polls.

In her chat with NPR, Clinton charged that Comey held her to a higher standard than Trump.

“Where I part company with him — and think he violated every rule in the book as a FBI director — was what he did on Oct. 28 [2016], because what he did then was to send a letter acting like he was reopening an investigation that had been closed to Congress, knowing it would be immediately leaked. And later on when asked, Well weren’t you also conducting an investigation into the Trump campaign and their connections with Russia? Yes. Well, why didn’t you tell the American people that?
Because it was too close to the election,” she claimed.

US POSTAL SERVICE ILLEGALLY FAVORED HILLARY DURING 2016 ELECTION & TARGETED GOP VOTERS' MAIL (HATCH ACT)

US POSTAL SERVICE ILLEGALLY FAVORED HILLARY DURING 2016 ELECTION & TARGETED GOP VOTERS' MAIL (HATCH ACT):

I WARNED EVERYONE THAT USPS MAIL CARRIERS WERE SPYING ON GOP VOTERS' MAIL IN 2015 & 2016.

ESPECIALLY IN STATES LIKE GEORGIA AND NORTH CAROLINA.

MANY PEOPLE DID NOT BELIEVE ME BUT NOW YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE.

IT'S TIME TO PRIVATIZE THE US POSTAL SERVICE & HOLD USPS WORKERS ACCOUNTABLE.


Sources: ABC News, Fox News, Washington Post


**** USPS takes hearing heat for 'favoring' pro-Clinton union's campaign work


The United States Postal Service took heat during a congressional hearing Wednesday for allegedly violating federal law by “favoring” a union doing pro-Clinton campaign work.

According to a report released Wednesday morning by the Office of Special Counsel, USPS engaged in “systemic violations” of the Hatch Act, a federal law that limits certain political activities of federal employees.

While employees are allowed to do some political work on leave, the report said the Postal Service showed a “bias” in favor of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) campaign operation, letting employees take leave without pay to participate in pro-Clinton campaign efforts.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard testimony from OSC and USPS officials on Wednesday, along with the USPS mail carrier who shared complaints with Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., in October 2016.

“’Postal Service leadership ‘took official actions with the intent of enabling’ the campaign activity of its union, and ‘with a clear understanding of what that activity involved,’” Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said in his prepared opening statement, citing the OSC report.

“Based on these findings, it is legitimate to wonder why no one will be held accountable, how Postal Service leadership allowed this systemic violation of the Hatch Act to go on for twenty years, and is this occurring in other federal agencies?”

Johnson was first notified of the “violations” in October 2016 by Tim Kopp, a letter carrier for the USPS and member of the NALC. Kopp thought the actions were “illegal” and was concerned the Postal Service “incurred unnecessary overtime costs” and “improperly coordinated” with NALC when it released several members for weeks of “union official” leave without pay to participate in partisan campaign work.

“I want things done fairly and I don’t want things done on a partisan issue—the union is always involved in highly political activities and I didn’t want this to be a partisan thing—I wanted this to be a thing where the general public does not lose trust in the postal service,” Kopp told the Senate panel Wednesday. “There are a lot of good employees, but the way this was done—it was a nightmare.”

According to the OSC report, roughly 97 NALC members requested the leave without pay to participate in get-out-the vote efforts in primarily 2016 battleground states: Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The NALC, which endorsed Clinton last June, compensated those USPS workers using the Letter Carrier Political Fund, the union’s PAC.

Officials at multiple levels apparently were involved.

According to OSC Acting Special Counsel Adam Miles, the NALC provided lists of letter carriers to participate in campaign activity to a senior headquarters USPS labor relations official, who then emailed the lists to other USPS officials across the country.

According to Miles, the local officials “interpreted the communications as directives” from USPS headquarters to release the carriers on union official leave without pay.

“The practice also put non-union employees, or union employees who supported other candidates, at a disadvantage,” Johnson said. “If those employees sought unpaid leave for several weeks for campaign activity, they would not have received the same treatment.”

The OSC found an “institutional bias” in favor of union-endorsed candidates, all of which were Democrats.

“USPS, through its longstanding practice of honoring these kinds of requests, failed to administer its programs in a politically neutral manner in violation of the Hatch Act,” The OSC report said.

Committee Ranking Member Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said that the USPS is “emblematic of a systemic problem not limited to one individual or one election cycle.”

“USPS has failed to implement sufficient controls to ensure compliance with the Hatch Act,” McCaskill said.

But USPS Postmaster General Megan Brennan told lawmakers that “senior postal leadership did not in any way guide union leadership in selecting the candidates for whom NALC employees could campaign” and that USPS “did not approve or choose candidates for the unions to support” or “ask the union to advocate for political candidates on behalf of the Postal Service.”

“I also note that our postal unions do not speak for the Postal Service, and the Postal Service does not speak for our unions,” Brennan wrote in her prepared testimony, insisting USPS did not seek to assist the NALC’s “favored candidates.”

Brennan said the practice to grant leave without pay for NALC political activity had been in place for approximately 20 years, but that all violations of the Hatch Act were “unintentional.”

“We will change our practice in consultation with the OSC and based upon OSC’s guidance.

This will ensure that we do not put our people in harm’s way and they do not unintentionally run afoul of the Hatch Act,” Brennan said.

“As we have previously communicated to both this committee and to the OSC, and as the OSC has acknowledged, the Postal Service has always been ready, willing and able to end or modify our practice as appropriate, consistent with OSC’s recommendation.”

VOTER FRAUD (2016) COMMISSION vs STATES & NETWORKS WHO PARTICIPATED IN VOTER FRAUD EFFORTS

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?

MASON: Chip Reid. Thank you, Chip.

COMEY APPEARS TO BE A LOYAL, REBELLIOUS OBAMA HOLDOVER (DRAIN THE SWAMP)

COMEY NOW APPEARS TO BE A LOYAL OBAMA HOLDOVER (DIVIDED FEDERAL GOVT):

TRUMP NEEDS TO DRAIN THE SWAMP OR RISK IMPEACHMENT.

Sources: Fox News, YouTube

**** Trump's personal lawyer to file complaint after Comey testimony , source says

President Trump’s lawyer will file a complaint with the Department of Justice’s Inspector General's Office and the Senate Judiciary Committee after it was revealed Thursday that former FBI director James Comey leaked memos to a friend in order to inform the media about conversations with the president, a source told Fox News.

is not clear when the attorney, Marc Kasowitz, will file the complaint. But the move appears to show that team Trump is trying to go on the offensive after Comey’s testimony.

Kasowitz is focusing on part of the testimony where Comey said he leaked the private conversation he had with Trump in order to prompt the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russian interference.

“I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night, ‘cause it didn’t dawn on me originally that there might be corroboration for our conversation; there might be a tape,” Comey said. “And my judgment was I needed to get that out in the public square so I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. Didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. So I asked a close friend of mine to do it.”

Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor and close friend of Comey, has confirmed he leaked contents of one of Comey’s memos to The New York Times. Richman served with Comey in the Southern District of New York and at the FBI.

Kasowitz said in a statement that "Comey’s excuse for this unauthorized disclosure of privileged information and appears to entirely retaliatory. We will leave it the appropriate authorities to determine whether this leaks should be investigated along with all those others being investigated."

Comey, during his testimony, accused the Trump administration of “spreading “lies, plain and simple” about him and the FBI in the aftermath of his abrupt firing last month, declaring that the administration “defamed him and more importantly the FBI.”

In that testimony he had already disclosed that Trump demanded his "loyalty" and directly pushed him to "lift the cloud" of investigation by declaring publicly the president was not the target of the FBI probe into his campaign's Russia ties.

Comey said that he declined to do so in large part because of the "duty to correct" that would be created if that situation changed. Comey also said in his written testimony that Trump, in a strange private encounter near the grandfather clock in the Oval Office, pushed him to end his investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

SUSAN RICE'S MATA HARI SPYING ON TRUMP TEAM DETAILED & POLITICAL

SUSAN RICE'S SPYING ON TRUMP TEAM WAS EXTREMELY DETAILED & POLITICAL: (MATA HARI)

SPYING ON TRUMP IN 2016 HAD NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH RUSSIA.

GOOGLE IS TRYING TO HIDE THIS STORY.

MANY AMERICANS & US SOLDIERS WERE SPIED ON UNDER OBAMA WHILE ISIL OPERATIVES HAD FREE REIGN.

IS CONGRESS AFRAID TO INVESTIGATE RICE BECAUSE SHE IS A BLACK WOMAN??

LET THE CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS BEGIN.


Sources: Fox News, The Federalist, Alex Jones, PBS, YouTube


****** Reports in unmasking controversy were detailed, had info about 'everyday lives'



The intelligence reports at the center of the Susan Rice unmasking controversy were detailed, and almost resembled a private investigator’s file, according to a Republican congressman familiar with the documents.


This is information about their everyday lives," Rep. Peter King of New York, a member of the House Intelligence committee said. "Sort of like in a divorce case where lawyers are hired, investigators are hired just to find out what the other person is doing from morning until night and then you try to piece it together later on.”

On the House Intelligence Committee, only the Republican chairman, Devin Nunes of California, and the ranking Democrat Adam Schiff, also of California, have personally reviewed the intelligence reports. Some members were given broad outlines.

Nunes has consistently stated that the files caused him deep concern because the unmasking went beyond the former national security adviser Mike Flynn, and the information was not related to Moscow.

Schiff said in a statement, “I cannot comment on the content of these materials or any other classified documents, and nothing should be inferred from the fact that I am treating classified materials the way they should be treated - by refusing to comment on them. Only the Administration has the power to declassify the information and make it available to the public."

Former National Security Adviser Rice is under scrutiny after allegations she sought to unmask the identities of Trump associates caught up in surveillance - such as phone calls between foreign intelligence targets. Rice denies ever having sought such information for political purposes and has defended her requests as routine.

But the most recent government data shows that unmasking or identifying Americans happens in a limited number of cases. The Office for the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the 17 intelligence agencies, said "...in 2015, NSA disseminated 4,290 FAA Section 702 intelligence reports that included U.S. person information. Of those 4,290 reports, the U.S. person information was masked in 3,168 reports and unmasked in 1,122 reports."

The report said "NSA is allowed to unmask the identity for the specific requesting recipient only under certain conditions and where specific additional controls are in place" and those conditions were met for "654 U.S. person identities" in 2015.

That means Americans were identified in 26 percent of the cases, or roughly one in four intelligence reports.

During his March 20 testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, NSA director Admiral Mike Rogers said only 20 individuals within the agency are authorized to approve those requests.

“They receive specific training, there are specific controls put in place in terms of our ability to disseminate information out of the databases associated with U.S. persons,” Rogers said at the time. What it appears to suggest is that the NSA itself agreed that the instances in which Rice requested unmasking warranted that action.

FBI Director James Comey was less direct. "I don't know for sure. As I sit here, surely more, given the nature of the FBI's work," he testified.

"It would be nice to know the universe of people who have the power to unmask a U.S. citizen's name," South Carolina Republican congressman Trey Gowdy pressed. "Because that might provide something of a roadmap to investigate who might've actually disseminated a masked U.S. citizen's name."

Rice told NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell that the reports were requested by the Obama administration, which announced a probe into the Russian election hacking in early December. Two months earlier in October, before the election, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Homeland Security Department put out a joint statement about Moscow's interference.

Rice told Mitchell, "Fulfilling the president's request for such a report, they went back and scrubbed more reports. They began to provide more such reports to American officials, including myself."

Given the late fall timeline, it is not clear the intelligence reports Rice discussed during the NBC interview, are the same files reviewed by Nunes and Schiff.

Speaking to Fox News Wednesday, President Trump said he believed the former national security adviser may have committed a crime when she sought the identities of the Trump team members. The allegation was first reported by the New York Times.

While not commenting on the individual case, a former senior intelligence official explained the request must be approved by the NSA. Rice would have understood that there is an extensive government paper trail, that can be audited within the NSA, that shows who requested the unmasking, on what basis, and whether it was granted. This raises more questions about Rice, her motivation and whether it was authorized higher up, offering cover.

If approved, the former senior intelligence official said, only the requester, in this case Rice, would receive the information. Based on Fox News’ reporting, the information was shared beyond Rice, but it is not clear if those who received it had a “need to know.”

A spokeswoman for Rice, Erin Pelton, said in an email to the New York Times on Wednesday, “I’m not going to dignify the president’s ludicrous charge with a comment.” Pelton works for Mercury LLC, a crisis management firm.

At the height of the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack fallout, and questions about whether Rice and a former senior intelligence official had misled Congress about the role of an internet video in the deaths of four Americans, Mercury LLC was also tasked with handling the Fox News media inquiries.

CNN vs TRUMP (MORE DISTRACTION MEDIA BIAS DRAMA)

CNN vs TRUMP (MORE DISTRACTION MEDIA BIAS):

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 WINS ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTE WITH FAR FEWER DEFECTORS THAN HILLARY

TRUMP WINS ELECTORAL COLLEGE WITH FAR FEWER DEFECTORS THAN FOR HILLARY CLINTON:

MANY OF OBAMA'S SUPPORTERS VOTED FOR TRUMP.

IT'S A MATTER OF TRUST.

IT'S A NEW DAY AMERICA.


Sources: CNN, NPR, Fox News YouTube


***** Donald Trump Secures Electoral College Win, With Few Surprises.
More Electors tried to defect from Hillary Clinton than from Donald Trump.


‘Faithless’ Electors Mostly Came From States Clinton Won.

~ Votes for:
Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump
Another candidate


WASHINGTON
Clinton
Four of the state’s electors broke ranks to vote against Clinton. Three voted for Colin Powell, and one for Faith Spotted Eagle.
Yes
8
0
4

Donald J. Trump will be the next president of the United States.

That's been the case since Nov. 8, when Trump won 306 electoral votes, despite losing the national popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million.

And on Monday, the result was ratified by Electoral College voters, who gathered in state capitols across the United States to formally vote for president.

That voting continues, but by early evening, Trump went over the 270 needed, according to the Associated Press, which tracked results from capitol to capitol. That was despite a pitched effort by some on the left who wrote letters to Trump electors trying to persuade them to switch their votes or not vote at all and keep Trump short of the 270 needed.

Not only did it not happen, but more electors tried to defect from Hillary Clinton Monday than from Trump, by a count of seven to two, as of Monday afternoon. Three Democratic electors tried to vote for Bernie Sanders instead of Clinton — one in Maine, one in Minnesota and one in Colorado. The electors' votes, however, were disallowed because of state rules binding them to the statewide popular vote winner.

Four more electors in Washington state defected from Clinton. Three voted for Colin Powell and one for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American who gained some notoriety for her protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The Electoral College gathering is usually a formality — a chance for political activists to gather amid pomp and circumstance to formalize their party's victory in each state.

But the fact Clinton won the national popular vote by such a large margin, combined with the unconventional and unpredictable — and to many, threatening — way that Trump carried himself before and after winning the White House, led to an unprecedented effort to lobby electors to vote for someone else.

Electors found themselves inundated by letters, petitions, tweets and Facebook posts, urging them to cast a ballot for an alternative candidate.

Many people behind the lobbying campaign cited a Federalist Paper written by Alexander Hamilton, which frames the Electoral College as a safeguard against "foreign powers" that try to "gain an improper ascendant in our councils" — a potentially relevant line, in the midst of revelations that Russia attempted to disrupt this year's election by hacking and releasing Democratic emails.

Hollywood celebrities even got in on the act, recording video pleas to electors. But, unsurprisingly, that effort had no effect on Trump electors.

Maine elector David Bright announced Monday morning that he would cast a ballot for Sanders. But Bright ultimately changed his vote to Clinton, after his initial ballot was ruled out of order.

A Minnesota elector, Muhammad Abdurrahman, tried to vote Sanders, according to Minnesota Public Radio reporter Brian Bakst. He was replaced by another elector who cast a ballot for Clinton.

A similar situation happened in Colorado, too, with an attempted Sanders vote being swapped out for someone who cast a ballot for Clinton.

Two Texas electors defected from Trump — one went for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the other for former Texas Rep. Ron Paul. The Kasich defector, Chris Suprun, told The Hill beforehand his plans. Another Texas elector, Art Cisneros, resigned instead of voting for Trump. He spoke to NPR earlier this month.

Many Republican electors dismissed the pleas to "vote their conscience," pointing out that their consciences were perfectly fine with Trump.

With protesters heckling from the gallery of Pennsylvania's House chamber, Pennsylvania elector Robert Gleason seemed to pointedly respond to their efforts.

"My fellow electors," Gleason said, "let us always remember this shared moment when we stood up for our constitutional system, followed our conscience, answered the call of Pennsylvania voters, and did our part by electing the next president and vice president of the United States, Donald Trump and Mike Pence."

There are two more steps in the process. States will submit a "certificate of vote" to the Federal Register by Dec. 28. Then, on Jan. 6, Congress will formally tally the Electoral College's votes in a joint session and make it official.

ELECTORAL COLLEGE INTIMIDATION - DEMS FORCING ELECTORS TO BACK HILLARY IS WHY SHE LOST

ELECTORAL COLLEGE INTIMIDATION:

ELITE DEMS TRYING TO FORCE ELECTORS TO SUPPORT HILLARY IS EXACTLY WHY SHE LOST NOV 8:

RUSSIA DIDN'T HELP ELECT TRUMP, IT WAS AMERICAN VOTERS.

INCLUDING MANY BLACK VOTERS WHO WERE SICK & TIRED OF GOV'T CORRUPTION, UNEMPLOYMENT, INTIMIDATION AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.


Sources: Fox News, Daily Dot, Jim Beckwith, YouTube


Russia didn't help elect Trump.

It was American people who were tired of gov't Corruption and Propaganda from MSM.

The American people made their choice of whom they TRUST to lead our nation Nov 8, 2016.

Thus Trump's victory was legit!

This includes many, many BLACK people who publicly stated they were supporting HILLARY due to Fear but instead voted for Trump.

Black voters who publicly declared their support for Trump or any GOP candidates were Blacklisted & Punished. So they hid it until Nov 8.

Everyone and their Mother knew Trump had a 99% chance of winning but many were FORCED into believing LIES from MSM.

The only "FAKE NEWS" is Propaganda reported as "Factual" from MSM networks heavily funded by Obama Admin & Congress.

Elite DEMOCRATS trying to FORCE electors into flipping their support from Trump to Hillary is exactly why she LOST!

American voters who were sick & tired of Gov't Corruption, Intimidation, Unemployment,
Civil Liberties stripped supported Trump.

Trump's Team of Rivals shows STRONG Leadership. It also reveals Trump doesn't want to surround himself with "Yes men" and butt kissers.

--------------------------------------------

****** Eric Bolling: 'Russia Didn't Elect Trump, America Did'

Saturday on Cashin' In, host Eric Bolling fired back at critics of President-elect Donald Trump who have questioned the legitimacy of his election victory.

Bolling listed the sequence of reasons that have been given to doubt Trump's election, from allegations of interference against FBI Director Jim Comey, to voter fraud in the Rust Belt, to Russian hacking.

He said the House Intelligence Committee canceled a closed-door meeting with electors after the CIA refused to make an official available to brief them on any evidence linked to Russia.

He questioned whether the agency found new evidence that absolves Moscow of any involvement, and cited a recent Fox News Poll that said 59 percent of voters thought Russia was not involved.

"The Russians didn't elect Donald Trump, America did," he said.

RUSSIA TO OBAMA: PROVE KREMLIN INTERFERED IN DEMS' 2016 ELECTION LOSS

RUSSIA TO OBAMA: PROVE THE KREMLIN INTERFERED IN DEMS' 2016 ELECTION LOSS:

IS OBAMA & KEY DEMS TRYING TO START WORLD WAR 3 (ARMAGEDDON)??

YES......OBAMA WANTS WAR WITH RUSSIA, IRAN, CHINA AND SYRIA.

I THINK YOU KNOW WHY (CALIPHATE).


Sources: CNN, NBC, Fox News, End Times Prophecy News, Jim Beckwith, News Max, YouTube


**** Russia Challenges US to prove campaign hacking claims or shut up


Story highlights:

Dmitry Peskov said US accusations of hacking "look unseemly" without proof

US intelligence agencies have pinned blame on Russia for election-related hacking

The United States must either stop accusing Russia of meddling in its elections or prove it, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was "indecent" of the United States to "groundlessly" accuse Russia of intervention in the US election campaign, Russian state news agency Tass reported.

"They should either stop talking about that or produce some proof at last. Otherwise it all begins to look unseemly," Peskov reportedly said about the latest accusations that Russia was responsible for hacker attacks.

President Barack Obama on Thursday vowed retaliatory action against Russia in the light of allegations that it meddled in the US presidential election campaign.

"I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action and we will at a time and place of our own choosing," he told NPR.

What is known about the hacking

• Data and thousands of emails were stolen from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, among other targets.

• US intelligence agencies in October pinned blame on Russia for campaign-related hacking.

• WikiLeaks, which published much of the information obtained by hacking, has refused to reveal its sources.

• The United States has not alleged that Russia interfered with the voting process on Election Day.

'Sophisticated tools'

A US official familiar with the election-related hacking told CNN Thursday that the operation was carried out with sophisticated hacking tools, suggesting that Putin was involved.

The source said while Putin's "fingerprints" were not on the hacking, "the nature of the operation was such that this had to be approved by top levels of the Russian government."

Russian cyberhacking activity has continued largely unabated since the election, including against US political organizations, US officials briefed on the investigation told CNN.

US President-elect Donald Trump dismissed the US intelligence community's assessment, in comments Sunday.

He suggested that there was no proof Russia had hacked the election, saying the snooping in Democratic Party servers and emails of Clinton campaign staffers could have been done by China or even someone sitting in New Jersey.

Clinton: Putin grudge was behind hack

Clinton said Thursday night that Putin's alleged involvement in the hacking of Democratic organizations during the 2016 election stemmed from a longtime grudge the Russian President has held against her.

Meanwhile, her campaign chairman, Podesta, issued a scathing rebuke of the FBI.

He wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that the bureau's "seemingly lackadaisical response to the very real Russian plot to subvert a national election" by comparison with its overzealous investigation of Clinton's emails "shows that something is deeply broken" there.

Russian hacking and the 2016 election, explained

Saakashvili: It's déjà vu

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told CNN Friday that he was not surprised by the US claims against Russia.

"Well I almost was, like, vindicated when the same administration in Washington suddenly started to speak about Russian involvement in the election," he said, speaking in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

"Because we, for me, it's déjà vu. They were the same people telling us, "no, no, it cannot possibly be true." And now it came to their doorsteps. And of course he [Putin] does all those things. Of course he is a great master."

RUSSIAN CYBER ATTACKS - DEMS' NEW EXCUSE FOR HILLARY'S 2016 LOSS

RUSSIAN CYBER ATTACKS - DEMS' NEW EXCUSE FOR HILLARY'S 2016 LOSS:

IT WASN'T RUSSIA BUT THE NSA & DHS.

HILLARY LOST BECAUSE NOT EVEN THE FEDS TRUST HER.

HILLARY LOST DUE TO BLUE COLLAR WHITE VOTERS & MANY LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYED BLACK VOTERS CASTING BALLOTS FOR TRUMP.


Sources: Fox News, Sean Hannity, Alex Jones, Gateway Pundit, Youtube


***** Judge Napolitano Says It Was The NSA, Not The Russians Who Hacked DNC


Back in August, Judge Napolitano made some comments regarding the DNC hack.

On his show “Judge Napolitano’s Chambers”, Judge Nap shared his own thoughts on the leaked DNC emails:

The DNC and Clinton campaign decided to blame of all people, the Russians! They accused Vlademir Putin of being in cahoots with Donald Trump and having his intelligence services hack the DNC to expose e-mails to make Mrs. Clinton look bad and thereby benefit Donald Trump. But the Russians had nothing to do with it.

….a former high ranking NSA official who developed a software that the NSA now uses said the NSA hacked the DNC…the members of the intelligence community simply do not want Hillary Clinton to be President of the United States because she doesn’t know how to handle State secrets.

The left has been beating this ‘Russian drum’ for several months now. Russian hacking is one of the many false narratives that the left has been pushing in order to deny President Elect Trump his fully earned legitimacy.

In order to keep the Marxist agenda alive, the left must continue to foment civil unrest and division. The leftists need to get used to the new Republican party because the days of capitulating are over.

-----------------------------------------------


****** REPORT: FBI Director Comey Tells Trump That Russians Didn't Influence the Election

FBI Director James Comey has informed President-elect Donald Trump that there is "no credible evidence that Russia influenced the outcome of the recent U.S. presidential election by hacking the Democratic National Committee and the e-mails of John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign" according to a report from author and journalist Ed Klein.

Citing sources who were briefed on Comey’s conversations with Trump, Klein reports that Comey said that the only member of the U.S. intelligence community who was ready to assert that the Russians sanctioned the hacking was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan, who "takes his marching orders from President Obama."

"In Comey’s view, the leaks to the New York Times and The Washington Post alleging that the Russians tried—and perhaps even succeeded—in tilting the election to Trump were a Democratic Party effort to delegitimize Trump’s victory," Klein writes.

If Klein's reporting is accurate, this would be a powerful blow to the current left-wing narrative that the Russian government intervened on behalf of the President-elect during the 2016 presidential election

KEITH LAMONT SCOTT'S MURDER vs CHARLOTTE'S FAKE RACIST PROTESTS (2016 POLITICS)

KEITH LAMONT SCOTT'S MURDER vs CHARLOTTE'S FAKE RACIST PROTESTS:

RACIALLY MOTIVATED RIOTS ARE SMOKESCREENS FOR WHAT ELITE ARE REALLY DOING.

DEMOCRATS' CONTINUED AGENDA TO DIVIDE POLICE AND BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA.


Sources: Charlotte Observer, Alex Jones, Wall Street Journal, WSOC, Russia Today, YouTube


In September 2016 a 43-yr old Black Man was shot and killed in Charlotte, NC by a Black
Police Officer.

Charlotte Police Officials and Charlotte-Mecklenburg District Attorney Andrew Murray, state forensic video evidence shows Keith Lamont Scott brandishing a firearm prior to being shot and killed by CMPD.

However Mr Scott's widow and other witnesses state he was not holding a gun.

Nevertheless there will be no charges filed against the CMPD Officer who shot Mr Scott.

So do I believe the CMPD Officer who shot Mr Scott should be reprimanded because perhaps he acted too quickly in using DEADLY FORCE towards Mr Scott?

Yes!

Do I believe DEMOCRAT Leaders who are still angry DONALD TRUMP defeated HILLARY CLINTON on Nov 8th, election night are using RACISM to keep BLACK Voters stirred up and divided so that more BLACK people will be shot by the Police as a means of covering up something more sinister at the hands of ELITE DEMOCRAT Government leaders?

Yes!

It's time for BLACK America to wake up and realize we are being Bamboozled with Political RACE WARS while the ELITE are stealing more MONEY from BLACK American communities.

It's time for BLACK America to wake up and realize we are being Fooled with Political RACE WARS while ELITE Leaders are putting more BLACK Men in PRISON and giving all the JOBS to people from other countries.

Wake Up BLACK People!

Stop Being So Gullible!
------------------------------------------------


***** Attorneys for Keith Lamont Scott family own some blame for shooting protests

From Jerry Sennett, a retired deputy chief for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department who now lives in Stanley, N.C.:

The fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott was certainly tragic for both the Scott family and the police officers involved. No police officer who I ever worked with in my 30-year career with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department ever wanted to be in a position to have to use deadly force or take a life. Unfortunately those situations do occur and I am glad that the SBI investigation and the presentation to the public by District Attorney Andrew Murray cleared up the facts of this case. I hope CMPD and the citizens of Charlotte can move forward and repair some of the damage caused by this situation.

I do believe the Scott family attorneys bear some responsibility for the unrest that occurred following the shooting. They knew or should have known that the information being put out on social media by the family was incorrect. Mr. Scott was never shot with his hands up or while holding a book, did indeed purchase a stolen gun and was a convicted felon.

The attorneys consistently criticized CMPD and the City of Charlotte for not being transparent with the community. As officers of the court, they did nothing to diminish or to correct the misinformation that caused injuries and senseless destruction in the aftermath of the Scott shooting.

Police officers are held to higher standard. Maybe it is time the Scott family attorneys stop placing the blame on others and take responsibility for their actions and the outcome of this tragic situation.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------


***** Charlotte police chief weighs in DA’s Keith Lamont Scott decision

Charlotte’s Police Chief Kerr Putney says the ordeal surrounding the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott this summer has been tough on his department and its officers.

Wednesday morning, the district attorney announced the officer involved in the shooting, Brentley Vinson, will not face criminal charges in the incident. Since then, there's been a hint of tension in the air. Protesters were already angry at the shooting. Now, some are furious at the decision not to charge the officer.

In a recent interview with WBTV, Putney addressed issues ranging from Officer Vinson’s return to work to the department’s pledge of more transparency.

“My focus is on this organization, this community and moving forward. We have a lot of healing to do. A lot of people are hurting," Putney said. "We have at least two families that have been devastated. We’re trying to pick up the pieces with our community and move forward.”

Putney said he has spoken with Vinson. He said the shooting hasn't been easy for the officer, despite being cleared.

"I wouldn’t categorize it as relief," Putney said. "Nobody puts on this uniform and comes to work any day of the week expecting to take a life. That’s not what we’re here for. It’s not what we’re about."

The chief said Vinson isn't back on the job yet.

"The internal investigation has to run its course then we can talk about how he returns to work."

TRUMP'S 2016 VICTORY WAS DUE TO MAINSTREAM MEDIA BIAS

TRUMP'S 2016 VICTORY WAS DUE TO MEDIA BIAS:

"YOU NEVER CAN WIN WHEN YOU ARE DIRTY"

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!"

Congrats to Mr Trump and God Bless!

https://www.google.com/amp/nypost.com/2016/11/13/donald-trumps-win-means-the-biased-media-needs-to-change/amp

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442199/donald-trump-victory-media-bias-and-failure

HILLARY'S PAINFUL 2016 ELECTION CONCESSION SPEECH

HILLARY'S PAINFUL CONCESSION SPEECH:

Sources: TIME, ABC News, YouTube


**** Hillary Clinton’s Concession Speech for the 2016 Presidential Election


Hillary Clinton conceded defeat in the 2016 presidential election on Wednesday morning, calling on her supporters to give Donald Trump “an open mind and the chance to lead.”

A day after her supporters gathered beneath a glass ceiling at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, she addressed a smaller crowd of staff and supporters in a ballroom at the New Yorker Hotel. Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta appeared without Clinton at her election night rally, announcing that she would wait to speak until all votes were counted.

After being introduced by her running mate Tim Kaine, she voiced gratitude and hope for the future. She appeared to choke up as she addressed women, in particular, nodding to the historic nature of her candidacy.

“I want you to know that nothing has made me prouder than to be your champion,” she said. “And to all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.”

Read her full remarks here:

KAINE: My wife, Anne, and I are so proud of Hillary Clinton.

(APPLAUSE)

I’m proud of Hillary Clinton because she has been and is a great history maker in every thing that she has done as a civil rights lawyer and first lady of Arkansas and first lady of this country and senator and secretary of state.

KAINE: She has made history. In a nation that is good at so many things, but that has made it uniquely difficult for women to be elected to federal office, she became the first major party nominee as a woman to be president and last night won the popular vote of Americans for the president.

(APPLAUSE)

That is an amazing accomplishment. It is an amazing accomplishment. I’m proud of Hillary Clinton because in the words of Langston Hughes, she’s “held fast to dreams.” She was inspired at a young age to an epiphany that if families and children do well, that’s the best barometer of whether society does well. In everything she’s done, she’s focused on that.

We know she would have made history as a president in one sense, but we never have had a president who’s made their whole career about the empowerment of families and children. And I was as excited about that in the Oval Office as I was excited to have my friend Hillary there and make history as the first woman president.

I’m excited and proud of Hillary because she has built such a wonderful team. There is a…

(APPLAUSE)

There’s a beautiful and kind of comical parable in the New Testament about a vineyard owner who hires people to work and says I’m going to pay you this for a full day. Then he hires people at noon, I’m going to pay you the same thing for the half day. Then he hires people one hours work, I’m going to pay you the same. And those who started earlier in the day said hold on, we don’t like this, that you’re treating everybody who came late just as well as you’re treating us.

I’m going to tell you something, here’s what I’ve come to know so well about Hillary. The team that she has assembled over the years of people that are so deeply loyal to her because she’s so deeply loyal to them is inspiring. But I’ve seen that same degree of loyalty and compassion and sensitivity extended to the most recent folks who have joined the team, the folks who came to the vineyard with just one hour to go. Her loyalty and compassion of Hillary and Bill to people, if you’re with you you’re with you. And that is just something so remarkable.

And finally, I’m proud of Hillary because she loves this country. (APPLAUSE)

Nobody — nobody had to wonder about Hillary Clinton, whether she would accept an outcome of an election in our beautiful democracy. Nobody had to ask that question. Nobody had to doubt it. She knows our country for what it is. She knows the system that we have and its warts and blemishes. She’s deeply in love with it and accepts it. She’s been in battles before where if it didn’t go her way she accepted it, but then woke up the next day and battled again for the dreams that she’s held fast to. And that love of country is something that I think is obvious to everybody, obvious to everyone.

I want to thank Hillary Clinton for asking Anne and I to join this wild ride. We — about a week before she asked if I would be her running mate, Anne and I went up to Westchester and we sat down with Hillary and Bill and with Chelsea and Mark and with Charlotte and Aiden for about three hours of conversation to try to determine whether we would be the right people to be on the ticket.

And when we got in the car to head back to the airport after the three hour discussion, I said to Anne, “Honey, I don’t know whether we’re going to be on this ticket or not, but I do know this, we’re going to remember that three hours for the rest of our life.” And now, we’ve — we’ll remember 105 days that we’ve had with this fantastic couple of public servants and all of you for the rest of our life.

I’ll just say this. Hillary and I know well the wisdom and the words of William Faulkner.

He said, “They kilt us but they ain’t whupped us yet.”

(APPLAUSE)
“They kilt us but they ain’t whupped us yet,” because we know that the work remains. We know that the dreams of empowering families and children remain. And in that work, that important work that we have to do as a nation, it is so comforting even at a tough time to know that Hillary Clinton is somebody until her very last breath is going to be battling for the values that make this nation great and the values that we care so deeply about.
KAINE: So now, please join me in welcoming Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)
Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.
(APPLAUSE)
Very rowdy group. Thank you, my friends. Thank you. Thank you, thank you so very much for being here and I love you all, too.
Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans. This is not the outcome we wanted or we worked so hard for and I’m sorry that we did not win this election for the values we share and the vision we hold for our country.
But I feel pride and gratitude for this wonderful campaign that we built together, this vast, diverse, creative, unruly, energized campaign. You represent the best of America and being your candidate has been one of the greatest honors of my life.
(APPLAUSE)

I know how disappointed you feel because I feel it too, and so do tens of millions of Americans who invested their hopes and dreams in this effort. This is painful and it will be for a long time, but I want you to remember this. Our campaign was never about one person or even one election, it was about the country we love and about building an America that’s hopeful, inclusive and big-hearted.
We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought. But I still believe in America and I always will. And if you do, then we must accept this result and then look to the future. Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.
Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power and we don’t just respect that, we cherish it. It also enshrines other things; the rule of law, the principle that we are all equal in rights and dignity, freedom of worship and expression. We respect and cherish these values too and we must defend them.
(APPLAUSE)

Now — and let me add, our constitutional democracy demands our participation, not just every four years but all the time. So let’s do all we can to keep advancing the causes and values we all hold dear; making our economy work for everyone not just those at the top, protecting our country and protecting our planet and breaking down all the barriers that hold any American back from achieving their dreams.
CLINTON: We’ve spent a year and a half bringing together millions of people from every corner of our country to say with one voice that we believe that the American dream is big enough for everyone — for people of all races and religions, for men and women, for immigrants, for LGBT people, and people with disabilities. For everyone.
(APPLAUSE)
So now, our responsibility as citizens is to keep doing our part to build that better, stronger, fairer America we seek. And I know you will.

I am so grateful to stand with all of you. I want to thank Tim Kaine and Anne Holton for being our partners on this journey.
(APPLAUSE)
It has been a joy getting to know them better, and it gives me great hope and comfort to know that Tim will remain on the front lines of our democracy representing Virginia in the Senate.
(APPLAUSE)
To Barack and Michelle Obama, our country owes you an enormous debt of gratitude.
(APPLAUSE)
We — we thank you for your graceful, determined leadership that has meant so much to so many Americans and people across the world.
And to Bill and Chelsea, Mark, Charlotte, Aidan, our brothers and our entire family, my love for you means more than I can ever express. You crisscrossed this country on our behalf and lifted me up when I needed it most — even four-month-old Aidan who traveled with his mom.

I will always be grateful to the creative, talented, dedicated men and women at our headquarters in Brooklyn and across our country.
(APPLAUSE)
You poured your hearts into this campaign. For some of you who are veterans, it was a campaign after you had done other campaigns. Some of you, it was your first campaign. I want each of you to know that you were the best campaign anybody could have ever expected or wanted.
(APPLAUSE)
And to the millions of volunteers, community leaders, activists and union organizers who knocked on doors, talked to neighbors, posted on Facebook, even in secret, private Facebook sites…
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)

… I want everybody coming out from behind that and make sure your voices are heard going forward.
(APPLAUSE)
To everyone who sent in contributions as small at $5 and kept us going, thank you. Thank you from all of us.
And to the young people in particular, I hope you will hear this. I have, as Tim said, spent my entire adult life fighting for what I believe in. I’ve had successes and I’ve had setbacks. Sometimes, really painful ones. Many of you are at the beginning of your professional public and political careers. You will have successes and setbacks, too.
This loss hurts, but please never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.
(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: It is — it is worth it.
(APPLAUSE)
And so we need — we need you to keep up these fights now and for the rest of your lives.
And to all the women, and especially the young women, who put their faith in this campaign and in me, I want you to know that nothing has made me prouder than to be your champion.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, I — I know — I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but some day someone will and hopefully sooner than we might think right now.
(APPLAUSE)
And — and to all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.
Finally…

(APPLAUSE)
Finally, I am so grateful for our country and for all it has given to me. I count my blessings every single day that I am an American. And I still believe as deeply as I ever have that if we stand together and work together with respect for our differences, strength in our convictions and love for this nation, our best days are still ahead of us.
(APPLAUSE)
Because, you know — you know, I believe we are stronger together and we will go forward together. And you should never, ever regret fighting for that. You know, scripture tells us, “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
So my friends, let us have faith in each other, let us not grow weary, let us not lose heart, for there are more seasons to come. And there is more work to do.
I am incredibly honored and grateful to have had this chance to represent all of you in this consequential election.
May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America.

TRUMP WINS 2016 US PRESIDENTIAL RACE - IT'S A REFERENDUM ON CORRUPTION

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.

TRUMP WINS INDIANA AND KENTUCKY; HILLARY TAKES VERMONT

Sources: CNN, Youtube

BLACK NC VOTE DOWN 9% - GOP VOTE UP 31% (BAD FOR DEMS)

BLACK NC VOTE DOWN 9% - GOP VOTE UP 31%:

BAD FOR DEMOCRATS.

OBAMA'S BLACK VOTER COALITION IS ANGRY

Sources: Newsobserver, YouTube


****** African-American early vote down in NC, a rarity in the Southeast


African-American turnout for early voting in Tuesday’s election dropped 9 percent compared to four years ago, making North Carolina unusual among Southeastern states.

The state Republican Party highlighted the decline in black voters Monday, while trumpeting the increase in Republicans who cast early ballots.

Political scientists, politicians, and public interest groups were left to wonder about the reasons behind the drop in black early-voter turnout in a year when overall participation in early voting hit an all-time high. Going into Election Day, more than 3.1 million people have already voted. Nearly 32 percent of the early vote was Republican this year, up slightly from 31.5 percent four years ago.

The state GOP in a press release pointed to the decline in African-American early voting, saying it was part of the crumbling of President Barack Obama’s voter coalition.

Republicans made a “massive effort” to get GOP voters to cast early ballots, state GOP executive director Dallas Woodhouse said. The Republican National Committee sent out mailers with early voting sites and hours. Phone bank callers and volunteers knocking on doors emphasized early voting, he said.

Woodhouse in August urged Republicans on local boards of election to limit early voting hours and locations.

That never happened, Woodhouse said. Counties that had limited early voting sites in the first week expanded in the second week to more than make up for it.

The State Board of Elections said early voting hours increased 16 percent from 2012, and there were more than 21 percent more locations.

“There were more hours and sites than ever before,” Woodhouse said. “The Democrats might have to accept that there’s a lot of their own people who don’t like their candidate.”

An internal memorandum from Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign noted that African-American turnout spiked in the last two days of early voting, and that Latino turnout had nearly doubled from four years ago.

“Early voting turnout in North Carolina was unprecedented because the people of this state understand the high stakes of this election,” North Carolina campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement that also called Republican rival Donald Trump “temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief.”

North Carolina stands out among some other southeastern states where African-American turnout was up — Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida — said Michael McDonald, an associate professor of political science at the University of Florida.

Changes in early voting in the state, such as moved or reduced voting locations, and purges of voter rolls may be a factor, he said. It’s possible that fewer African-Americans are engaged, but with turnout higher in the other states, that cannot be the entire explanation, McDonald said.

“There are other things going on here other than enthusiasm,” he said.

“It turns my stomach to see those kinds of declines in a particular group of people who have had difficulty voting in the past.”

Chris Kromm, executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies, a left-leaning public interest research center headquartered in Durham, said a combination of factors may have contributed to the decrease.

Early voting locations were limited in the first week in some large counties, including Mecklenburg and Guilford. Kromm counted 17 counties with significant early voting changes.

“Having fewer options — counties where hours and sites were reduced or reshuffled. That’s where we saw the lower numbers,” he said.

Concerned get-out-the-vote efforts by the Democratic Party and independent groups contributed to the late surge in early voting and helped close the gap in Mecklenburg, parts of the Triangle and other areas, Kromm said.

Other counties did not get as much attention, and “that’s where the gap continued to be pretty sizable.”

In some counties, Hurricane Matthew was a likely factor.

Kromm mentioned Robeson County, where communities were devastated by flooding and where early voting hours were reduced. African-American early voting dropped 25 percent in Robeson.

“These individual pieces add up,” he said.

A News & Observer analysis found African-American turnout declined in other counties hit hard by the hurricane and flooding. Turnout for black voters was down nearly 15 percent in Edgecombe County, and more than 20 percent in Nash, Northampton and Halifax counties.

State Sen. Joel Ford, a Charlotte Democrat, put some of the blame on the state the Democratic Party and candidates who are not talking about issues of interest to African-American voters, such as affordable housing, community policing and unemployment.

“If the folks who are running statewide have not hit the panic button, they should between now and Tuesday,” he said. “We need to make sure those folks get out.”

Dave Miranda, spokesman for the state Democratic Party, said no one is panicking.

“I think our candidates have been talking about issues that apply to African-Americans and all voters,” Miranda said.