President Trump's new lawyer has been busy,but is optimistic that legal challenges ranging from Stormy Daniels to the Russia investigation will be resolved in the president's favor.
"I have sort of a special relationship with the president," Giuliani told USA TODAY in a brief interview. "It's going to take some time, but I think we're going to be OK."
Giuliani disputed claims that a $130,000 payment to Daniels, an adult film star who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump, amounts to a campaign finance violation.
A day after disclosing that Trump had repaid Cohen for a $130,000 non-disclosure agreement with Daniels — and hours after Trump confirmed it via Twitter — Giuliani said the money had nothing to do with the 2016 campaign, even though the original payment came just days before the election.
"No one ever thought of it as a campaign contribution," Giuliani said. "It was a personnel settlement."
Trump's admission changes the story he gave reporters in April, when he said he knew nothing about the payment to Daniels and suggested they ask Cohen about it.
During a media blitz of recent days, Giuliani said Cohen paid the original amount in October 2016, and Trump did not know about it;
Trump gradually repaid Cohen in installments as part of his lawyer's retainer, but did not what the money was for; only recently did Trump learn that those payments were for Daniels' settlement, said Giuliani and other administration officials.
The former New York City mayor is also negotiating possible Trump testimony before Mueller, though he has said he is not sure that will happen.
The Trump legal team is demanding testimony of no more than two to three hours, with limited topics.
They are concerned that some Mueller prosecutors may want to entrap the president as part of investigations into obstruction of justice and Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Giuliani said he's been thrown "a couple of curve balls, but we've been hitting them."
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?
On Saturday night’s episode of the “Greg Gutfeld Show” on the Fox News Channel, Gutfeld slammed the liberal media’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner and praised President Donald Trump for choosing to bypass the event, which is usually attended by presidents on both sides of the aisle.
“He’s like the cool outcast at school who tells the snotty, rich kids, ‘I don’t want to go to your stupid party, I’ll throw my own, thank you very much! And I’m going to invite all my friends!'” Gutfeld said.
Gutfeld called Trump’s decision to hold a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a key swing state for Trump, a “stroke of brilliance” and referred to the Correspondents’ Dinner as an “orgy of preening self-importance.”
Trump’s rally in Harrisburg attracted thousands of supporters, and the president used the opportunity to jab the media.
“As you may know, there’s another big gathering taking place tonight in Washington, D.C., did you hear about it?” Trump said. “A large group of Hollywood actors and Washington media are consoling each other in a hotel ballroom in our nation’s capital right now.”
“They are gathered together for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner without the president,” Trump said. “And I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from Washington’s swamp, spending my evening with all of you and with a much, much larger crowd and much better people, right?”
Trump also took the opportunity to list the accomplishments his administration has achieved in its first 100 days.
“For the last 100 days my administration has been delivering every single day for the great citizens of our country, whether it’s putting our coal miners back to work, protecting America’s steel and aluminum workers or eliminating job killing regulations, we are keeping one promise after another and frankly the people are really happy about it,” Trump said.
NEW IMMIGRATION TRAVEL BAN SAME AS FIRST TRAVEL BAN (PROTECTS USA BORDERS):
TRUMP SAYS YES TO NATIONAL SECURITY, NO TO BEING POLITICALLY CORRECT.
TRUMP SAYS NO TO ISIL OPERATIVES POSING AS REFUGEES.
HIS PREDECESSORS ENFORCED SIMILAR
ANTI-TERRORISM TRAVEL BANS.
Sources: Fox News, NBC News, YouTube
***** Trump adviser says new travel ban will have 'same basic policy outcome'
Senior White House Policy Adviser Stephen Miller told Fox News' "First 100 Days" Tuesday that a revised version of President Donald Trump's travel ban would "have the same basic policy outcome."
Miller claimed that the new executive order would be "responsive" to federal court rulings which halted the original order and resolve "a lot of very technical issues that were brought up by the court."
However, Miller also insisted that the court ruling staying the original order was "flawed" and "erroneous" and that Trump's action was "clearly legal and constitutional."
"Here's the reality," Miller said. "We’ve got a serious problem in our country of terrorism, radicalization and serious problems of people joining ISIS, joining terror groups, joining Al Qaeda and committing or attempting to commit acts of crime and terror against our nation."
Miller indicated the revised order would apply to the same seven majority-Muslim countries — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya — as the previous order.
Miller spoke to host Martha MacCallum at the top of an hour-long immigration town hall in Jacksonville, Fla. hours after Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly directed agency heads to hire thousands more immigration officers, end so-called “catch-and-release” policies and begin work on the president’s promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Senior White House Policy Adviser Stephen Miller told Fox News' "First 100 Days" Tuesday that a revised version of President Donald Trump's travel ban would "have the same basic policy outcome.
Miller spoke to host Martha MacCallum at the top of an hour-long immigration town hall in Jacksonville, Fla. hours after Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly directed agency heads to hire thousands more immigration officers, end so-called “catch-and-release” policies and begin work on the president’s promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Through a show of hands, most of the town hall audience indicated that they supported Trump's tough stance on illegal immigration.
"I think [Miller's] main argument was right on point," said audience member Jack Capra. "Securing our borders is a national security issue [and] it's the federal government's job to keep our citizens safe from external and internal threats. I think immigration is a big contributor to that."
However, immigration attorney Francisco Hernandez told MacCallum that Trump's ordered immigration enforcement changes had "written a blank check that he can't cash."
"He’s going to have to get the money from somewhere," Hernandez said, "and we don’t have the money."
In last year's presidential election, a Fox News exit poll found that 10 percent of Florida voters said immigration was the biggest issue facing the country. Of those voters, 69 percent backed Trump over Hillary Clinton.
SWEDEN'S IMMIGRATION CRISIS vs TRUMP (TRUMP IS NOT LYING, THE MEDIA IS):
SWEDEN'S RAPE & VIOLENCE STATISTICS DID INCREASE DUE TO IMMIGRANTS FROM SOME MUSLIM COUNTRIES.
MAINSTREAM MEDIA NEEDS TO STOP LYING AND STOP TRYING TO UNDERMINE TRUMP.
Sources: Fox News, Ann Horowitz, National Review, WND, YouTube
****** Rape and Violence on the rise in Sweden (TRUMP was right!)
In a disturbing new short video, Ami Horowitz examines an alarming trend: growing immigration to Sweden has coincided with an alarming uptick in rape and violence, and some areas of the country have become downright dangerous to visit.
Horowitz begins by reminding viewers that Sweden has always had a reputation of being a “harmonious and liberal society,” but in the past five years, rape has been on the rise. Why? One possibility that people are reluctant to talk about is Sweden’s growing population of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries with very different cultures from liberal Sweden.
A Swedish journalist in the video tells Horowitz that Sweden brought in over 190,000 refugees last year alone.
The video takes us to a northern suburb of Stockholm, Rinkeby — essentially now an immigrant enclave. Some police and journalists steer clear of the area, but Horowitz ventured in at his own risk.
Several residents he interviewed told him that they believe that Sweden has a responsibility to adapt to their more traditional culture, rather than the other way around.
After some time, Horowitz and his crew were threatened by residents and told to leave. He remained, with only audio equipment, and was then assaulted.
We then learn that immigrants are flowing to Sweden, in part, because the government benefits they receive there are all-encompassing — including housing, food, and education. In interviews, the immigrants say that in large part because of these benefits “life is good” for them in Sweden.
It ends with one woman saying there should be no limit to how many immigrants Sweden takes in.
Many on the Left might view Sweden as a compassionate template for the United States to follow in the midst of the refugee crisis abroad. Unfortunately, the consequences of such open-ended, welcoming policies would be disastrous here, just as they have been in Sweden. It’s a sad, and awful reality because so many innocent individuals are truly suffering — but there are ways we can help from afar, and these are worth pursuing.
At the end of the video, Horowitz speaks with Swedish citizens on the street, asking them if they think the uptick in rape and violence is in any way related to the influx of Muslim refugees. They seem to find the idea offensive, saying that there is no relationship between the two and that to say otherwise would be racist.
CNN INTENSIFIES ATTACKS AGAINST TRUMP AS DIRECTED BY OBAMA & SOROS TO UNDERMINE HIM.
TRUMP STRIKES BACK; WARNS WH LEAKERS; DEFEATS ELIZABETH WARREN IN 2020 POLLS.
Sources: Fox News, Boston.com, CNN
******* Trump blasts ‘out of control’ media, defends agenda at heated press conference
President Trump’s feud with the media turned into an all-out war Thursday afternoon.
His early presidency beset by damaging leaks and a burst of staff turmoil, Trump used a hastily called press conference to blast the media’s coverage of his administration in his strongest terms yet. He claimed the press is “out of control,” reports on his team’s ties to Russia are “fake,” and news outlets are attacking him because they oppose his agenda.
"The media’s trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on the pledges that we made, and they’re not happy about it," Trump declared at the White House.
The president spoke and took questions for more than an hour and 15 minutes, even joking with some reporters toward the end and saying he was having fun. In a bid to preempt negative coverage of his remarks, Trump insisted he was not "ranting and raving." But he lamented that the "tone" of coverage of his administration is one of "such hatred."
"The public doesn't believe you people anymore," he said.
Trump, who is dealing with the roughest stretch of his nascent presidency so far, unleashed the battery of accusations after first announcing his newest pick for labor secretary. After his original nominee withdrew, Trump nominated law school dean and former federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta for the post Thursday.
has had a tremendous career," Trump said, noting he's been through Senate confirmation three times for past positions.
But Trump pivoted to tout his administration's record so far and to blast the media for allegedly underplaying progress made.
"The press honestly is out of control," Trump said, vowing to take his message "straight to the people."
Amid a court fight over his controversial immigration executive order, which he maintained is “lawful,” Trump said he would announce a "new and very comprehensive order to protect our people."
He also staunchly defended his administration’s work on everything from the economy to energy to security. "This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine,” he said.
The press conference was held days after Michael Flynn resigned as national security adviser over a controversy regarding his past contacts with Russia’s ambassador. Those contacts emerged in news reports. Fast food chain CEO Andrew Puzder also withdrew from consideration for labor secretary on Wednesday amid deepening scrutiny of his personal and professional past.
Trump on Thursday personally denied having any contact or connections with Russia, saying: "I have nothing to do with Russia. I have no deals there. I don't know anything."
While acknowledging he sought Flynn’s resignation, he also said Flynn was just doing his job by contacting Russia. He said Flynn was asked to resign because he was dishonest about the details of the call with Vice President Mike Pence.
And he dismissed recent reports that campaign aides had been in contact with Russian officials before his election. Trump called the reports a "ruse" and said he had "nothing to do with Russia." Trump added, "Russia is fake news. This is fake news put out by the media."
In a free-wheeling event that, before Trump, would have been unprecedented in a modern presidential news conference, the president by turns teased and lambasted members of the press corps.
Toward the end of the press conference, Trump summed up his complaints by suggesting he was being blamed for problems that have existed for years: “I didn’t come along and divide this country. This country was seriously divided before I got here.”
He also blasted Senate Democrats for holding up his Cabinet nominees.
His latest pick for Labor Department might have an easier time. If confirmed, Acosta would be Trump’s first Latino Cabinet member. According to top GOP sources, Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and other Hispanic leaders are enthused about the pick.
Acosta currently is dean of Florida International University College of Law. He previously served as the first Hispanic assistant attorney general and as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, as well as on the National Labor Relations Board.
In the wake of the Flynn reports and other damaging stories, Trump also has vowed to root out those leaking sensitive information.
“We’re going to find the leakers. ... They’re going to pay a big price for leaking,” Trump said at a meeting ahead of the press conference.
TRUMP'S EXECUTIVE CABINET TEAM OF RIVALS SHOWS STRONG LEADERSHIP:
TRUMP DOESN'T WANT A TEAM OF "YES MEN" AND BUTT KISSERS.
MSM NETWORKS (CNN) APPLAUDED OBAMA'S "TEAM OF RIVALS", SILENT WHEN TRUMP DID LIKEWISE.
CAN YOU SAY MEDIA BIAS??
Sources: The Economist, Fox News, YouTube
The late Pres Abraham Lincoln received notoriety for creating a "Team of Rivals" when selecting members of his executive cabinet.
Barack Obama was hailed and lauded by the Mainstream Media for following in Lincoln's footsteps, especially when Obama nominated his former 2008 opponent Hillary Clinton for the role of Secretary of State.
Now in the year 2016, President-Elect Donald J. Trump is building his own executive cabinet "Team of Rivals" leadership fleet.
But wait!
Where is the Mainstream Media?
Obama was praised for his "Team of Rivals".
So why is the MSM silent when Trump practices the same brilliant leadership strategy?
----------------------------------------------
***** The next administration
Donald Trump has a team of rivals too
THE president-elect’s first administration hires had all been middle-aged white men who had backed him to the hilt when others wrinkled their noses.
But with a pair of nominations announced on November 23rd he rang the changes. He named Nikki Haley, the Indian-American governor of South Carolina, to be his ambassador to the United Nations, and Betsy DeVos, a billionaire Republican benefactress, as his education secretary.
As The Economist went to press, he was also reported to have invited Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon whom he defeated in the Republican primaries, and who is black, to be his secretary of housing and urban development.
All three possible appointments are intriguing, perhaps Mrs Haley’s especially. She is a first-generation American—her parents migrated from the Indian state of Punjab in the 1960s—who converted from Sikhism to Christianity before her marriage, yet still occasionally attends gurdwara.
Sparky, personable and, at the age of 44, an acknowledged Republican star, she could be the first Indian-American to hold a cabinet office. She is also a former opponent of Mr Trump’s.
She criticised him implicitly last January, when giving the official Republican rebuttal to Barack Obama’s last state-of-the-union speech. “It can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices,” she warned:
Americans “must resist.” She then criticised Mr Trump explicitly after he failed to disavow the support of a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Having distinguished herself by the alacrity with which she had lobbied to remove the Confederate flag from government buildings the previous year, after a racist massacre of black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, Mrs Haley’s condemnation carried moral weight.
It is smart of Mr Trump, who once derided her for her criticisms, to try to harness that. Her nomination is evidence that he can in fact bury a grudge. There is speculation he might also be trying to head off a potential challenger in 2020; that would be smart, too.
Mrs DeVos, an heir by marriage to the Amway direct marketing fortune, is another former critic of Mr Trump. She gave money to three of his rivals in the primaries—including Jeb Bush, an establishment figure Mr Trump humiliated—and said the reality television star did “not represent the Republican Party”.
In some ways the epitome of the well-heeled Republican elite he railed against on the trail, Mrs DeVos is also a crusader for the pro-choice school reforms, including an expansion of charter schools and vouchers to make private education more widely accessible, he has called for.
Amid uncertainty about what Mr Trump means to do with power, given the sketchiness of his platform and his apparent abandonment of a couple of big campaign promises, Mrs DeVos’s appointment is a rare clue to a Trump policy agenda. Teachers’ unions decried it; Mr Bush, one of Mr Trump’s most indefatigable Republican opponents, warmly applauded.
Mr Carson’s nomination, if he agrees to it, would be rather odd, but that is now expected of the retired medical whizz.
Backed by a devoted following of evangelical Christians, he briefly led the Republican primary field, yet seemed unaware of what the job of president entailed; his brilliant brain seemed resistant to remembering almost any detail of foreign policy. When reported to be in the reckoning for a cabinet role, his business manager said that was the “last thing he would want”, because he “feels he has no government experience.”
This was not a great recommendation for a job that includes responsibility for the federal government’s efforts to alleviate urban poverty.
MAINSTREAM MEDIA PUNDITS WERE NOT ABLE TO STEAL THIS ELECTION FOR DEMS.
THE VOTERS & ELECTORAL COLLEGE GAVE TRUMP HIS VICTORY.
Sources: NY Post, National Review, Bravo, YouTube
Exactly one week after Donald Trump was elected by the people, as our nation's 45th US President, Democrats and angry Hillary supporters are still scratching their heads in awe, wondering "HOW did this happen?"
Due to low voter turn out from Black voters who have historically supported Democrat presidential candidates, the Mainstream Media has tried to blame Hillary's defeat on Black voters.
However this synopsis couldn't be further from the truth.
In reality Trump's victory is due Mainstream Media BIAS against Trump during this campaign season.
In essence, the Media's ploy to demonize Trump
while building up Hillary backfired.
Thus today instead of praising a President Hillary Clinton, we are applauding President Donald J. Trump.
As NeNe Leakes once told her RHOA castmate Phaedra Parks "You never can win when you are dirty honey!"
Donald Trump on Tuesday went on a sustained frontal assault against the media during a contentious news conference.
The billionaire had called the news conference to announce an accounting of his at least $5.6 million in fundraising for veterans groups, but spent most of the 40 minutes criticizing and insulting reporters -- collectively and at times individually -- as "dishonest," "not good people," sleazy, and among the worst human beings he has ever met.
And he vowed the White House briefing room would be just as combative as the Trump Tower lobby, where the developer addressed reporters Tuesday, should he ascend to the Oval Office.
"Yeah, it is going to be like this," Trump said when asked if this is how he would behave with the press as president. "You think I'm gonna change? I'm not gonna change."
At one point, Trump fumed: "I'm the only one in the world who can raise almost $6 million for the veterans, have uniform applause by the veterans groups, and end up being criticized by press."
"I think the political press is among the most dishonest people that I have ever met, I have to tell you. I see the stories, and I see the way they're couched," he added.
The news conference did not mark a radical departure from Trump's relationship with the press, which has been strained throughout the brash mogul's year-long campaign -- but Tuesday was a surprise escalation, especially at a time when many supporters want him to start acting more presidential.
Over the last year, Trump has repeatedly called out individual reporters on Twitter and in interviews for everything from what he viewed as insufficient crowd camera shots to biased reporting. And attacking the press is a regular part of the presumptive Republican nominee's stump speech, during which he typically rips reporters as "scum," "slime," "dishonest" and "disgusting" — often prompting jeers from the crowd.
The news conference came four months after Trump claimed to have raised $6 million for veterans groups, but then dodged reporters' questions about which groups had received the donations.
Trump kicked off his litany of media attacks Tuesday by accusing reporters of cynically turning what should have been a positive story about his charitable work into a negative one.
Reporters had for months repeatedly asked Trump to provide an accounting of the donations, requests that were frequently rebuffed or side-stepped by Trump and his campaign staff.
Trump said Tuesday he didn't "want the credit" for his fundraising, "but I shouldn't be lambasted."
Hillary Clinton later told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead" that Trump did not deserve any credit for following through on his promise, arguing that he had only done so because of increased scrutiny of the donations from the media.
"Look, I'm glad he finally did it, but I don't know that he should get much credit," she told Tapper. "It took a reporter to shame him into actually making his contribution."
The subject of the news conference quickly turned away from the veterans donations as Trump accused reporters of writing stories they "know" to be false, and of spinning the truth.
He lashed out at individual reporters, calling ABC's Tom Llamas a "sleaze," referring sarcastically to CNN's Jim Acosta's live reports as a "beauty," and refusing at one point to call on CBS's Major Garrett.
Trump repeatedly blasted the media for the way it has covered his fundraising for vets.
"All of the money has been paid out," Trump said. "The press should be ashamed of themselves, and on behalf of the veterans, the press should be ashamed of themselves."
"There are so many people who are so thankful for what we did," Trump said, adding that the final figure could top $6 million once all the donations are in.
Trump listed the vets groups -- there were more than 40 -- that he said had received money and the amounts given to each. He said there were no administrative costs deducted from the donations.
Trump himself gave $1 million last week to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, a charity that helps support the families of fallen Marines and law enforcement officers to which Trump's foundation has previously donated.
Amid reporters' questions over the last few months, Trump and his campaign have repeatedly offered conflicting accounts of how much money was raised. The campaign has insisted it was working on disbursing the funds, but said it was waiting on some donors to make good on their pledges and also needed time to properly vet the charities in the running to receive the funds.
Three veterans groups earlier Tuesday confirmed donations from the Trump Foundation. The Bob Woodruff Foundation and the Boston Wounded Vets Run each got $75,000. The Racing For Heroes Foundation also received what the group's president described as a "large" donation.
Clinton's campaign on Tuesday morning fired off a statement tweaking Trump over his accounting of the donations amid a multi-pronged push to counter Trump's news conference.
And Clinton herself clashed with Trump's description on Tuesday that she had done "nothing" on veterans' behalf, pointing to money she raised for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund alongside Arizona Sen. John McCain and work done to re-acclimate veterans returning from combat.
She said "of course" she had contributed personally as well. But she didn't provide further details, such as how much she donated and to whom.
I got coffee Wednesday in downtown D.C. — still semi-deserted after the weekend blizzard — with a man considered by many to possess one of the more incisive minds in conservative politics and talked about the same thing everyone else is discussing:
How did Donald Trump happen?
“I’ve given up trying to figure it out from here,” he said.
I’ve written about my conversations with Trump supporters. A team of CNN reporters talked to 150 people in 31 cities to try to figure this out. And while there are common themes, there is no one easy answer. It’s a complex mix of factors.
Similarly, the blame game now taking place inside the GOP over who is responsible for this situation does not resolve easily. With Trump seemingly poised to win the Iowa caucuses next Monday and the New Hampshire primary the week after that, people want a scapegoat.
Much of the finger pointing assumes there is one person or thing to blame. But in fact, there is much responsibility to go around and many theories about the case.
The meme of the moment is that Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie and all the fat cat Republican donors funding super PAC’s have allowed Trump to grow into an actual threat by attacking one another instead of him.
A series of ads have come out recently targeting Trump over his past support for partial birth abortion, for government-run healthcare and for sending Hillary Clinton to negotiate with the Iranians.They have sparked questions about why there was not a more concentrated, better-financed effort to make these critiques months ago.
This theory forgets that the very first salvos fired against Trump were in this lane, but they were laughed off by other Republicans. In August, Bush, the former governor of Florida and one-time frontrunner, robustly attacked Trump’s conservative credentials, but with little effect.
This was just one small step in the process of the last several months that has convinced many Trump is immune to any criticism. Trump has said so many things people thought would sink his candidacy, and has continued to rise in the polls instead. In fact, Republican operatives who have conducted focus groups in early primary states say that they have been unable to find any kind of issue or test ad that moves the needle with Trump supporters above a 50 percent disapproval mark.
So far, even though a super-PAC supporting Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has aired $2.5 million worth of ads hitting Trump, the frontrunner’s poll numbers have not suffered. Cruz, in fact, led Trump in Iowa until the two went head to head over the past few weeks, and now Trump has clearly regained the lead there.
So there’s an argument, based on some precedent, that concentrated fire on Trump from Rubio, the U.S. Senator from Florida, Christie, the governor of New Jersey, and Bush would not make much of an impact.
In addition, Rubio, Christie and Bush are spending most of their efforts attacking one another for a reason. There is a legitimate tactical reason for doing so, as they seek to be the one to emerge after the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 9 as the alternative to Trump and/or Cruz.
Despite allowances for strategy, some have singled out Right to Rise, the super-PAC supporting Bush, for spending $20 million on TV ads attacking Rubio, while spending only $5 million going after Trump. Bush backers say Rubio is Bush’s main competition in New Hampshire, but detractors charge it’s more personal than that. Bush, critics say, still resents Rubio, who was Bush’s protege in Florida politics, for not deferring to his elder.
“Clearly Right to Rise has just decided that if Jeb can’t win then they don’t want Marco to win. It’s very personal and it’s very vindictive. It’s not necessarily smart strategy,” said Katie Packer, who helped run Mitt Romney’s campaign for president in 2012 and this month formed a super-PAC that’s attacking Trump, but with very little money behind the ads so far.
Paul Lindsay, a spokesman for Right to Rise, said that “it’s still a jump ball in New Hampshire among the non-Trump candidates in this race.”
“Jeb has arguably faced more scrutiny than any other candidate, and we think it’s important that New Hampshire Republican voters have information about the records of Rubio, [Ohio Gov. John] Kasich, and Christie before they make up their minds,” Lindsay said.
Conservative talk radio, however, is one group that could have damaged Trump’s credibility early in the primary process, but chose not to do so, said Ben Domenech, founder of The Federalist, a right-leaning news and commentary site.
“By not going after Trump early — by instead playing along with him — [Rush] Limbaugh and [Mark] Levin and [Laura] Ingraham helped protect him early on from conservative critiques,” Domenech said. Levin has of late come out strong for Cruz and taken on Trump.
Many Republicans point to the conservative media echo chamber — talk radio, Fox News, and pseudo-news sites like Breitbart and World Net Daily — to explain Trump’s rise.
“I think not a lot matters because voters feel like they have been misled, brainwashed and lied to for so long during the Obama term. We have talk radio and others on the far right to thank for this,” said a veteran Republican operative who worked on the party’s national campaign efforts over the last few years.
The anti-establishment wing of the Republican party, led by groups like The Heritage Foundation and by lawmakers such as Cruz, “went and told people over and over again that most ‘establishment’ Republicans were terrible, not pure and that they couldn’t get anything done, knowing that they were never in charge, they didn’t have the votes or the mechanisms to deliver,” said the GOP operative. “It wasn’t that they didn’t have the backbone.”
Packer added: “Talk radio doesn’t care about winning. They care about ratings. And talk radio doesn’t care about governing, they care about ratings. I’m not convinced they even want a Republican in the White House.”
But Dave Carney, a New Hampshire operative who ran former Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign, pointed out that establishment Republicans up and down the line ran campaigns in 2010, 2012 and 2014 promising voters that if they gained majorities in the House and Senate — which they got in 2010 and 2014 respectively — they would repeal Obamacare.
They knew perfectly well this was impossible without a Republican president, since it would require a veto-proof majority in the Senate to overturn President Obama’s certain veto of any such legislation.
The GOP operative involved with the party’s national campaigns acknowledged: “The far right opened this up and the establishment, a lot of them, jumped right in.”
Erick Erickson, one of the founders of RedState who has since started his own site called The Resurgent said that was backwards: the establishment had opened this can of worms, he argued.
“Look, Republican leaders fundraised in 2010 telling conservatives that if they got back the Congress, they’d repeal Obamacare,” Erickson said. “They won the House and the GOP said it wasn’t enough, they needed the Senate too.
In 2014, the GOP leadership actively opposed conservatives in primaries while saying if they took back Congress they’d repeal Obamacare and hold the President accountable.
They got back the Senate and said they needed the White House too. In the process, they handed the President a blank check to raise the debt ceiling, punted fights to judges, and broke most all of their promises while disparaging conservatives.”
Erickson, who vehemently opposes Trump and was one of the 22 conservatives who took part in National Review’s “Against Trump” issue, chuckled at the Beltway area angst.
“That’s so like them to say, nuh-uh, it was you guys who did it,” Erickson said. “[House Speaker] Paul Ryan has used that talking point to me twice in the recent weeks as an explanation for the GOP’s problems. Those talk radio shows and right wing websites have only pointed out the promises the GOP made on the campaign trail and how they were being broken. They just don’t like being exposed.”
In addition, the Republican party’s leadership in Congress and elsewhere was almost nonexistent on the same media channels – in particular Fox and talk radio – that were being filled by the voices of figures like Cruz. Former House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio was, like current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, not enthusiastic about frequent cable TV appearances.
By contrast, Ryan, the new Speaker, has moved aggressively since taking over from Boehner late last year to aggressively take his message into all corners of the media environment.
And yet for all this back and forth, how much of Trump’s support is actually from Americans who follow this debate and are animated by opposition to Obamacare? Some, no doubt.
But Domenech said that debate over whether the GOP overpromised and underdelivered on Obamacare and other conservative base concerns is secondary to what’s really driving Trump’s rise: a less partisan and less ideological anger among white working class voters over the economic and cultural impact of illegal immigration, of free trade, and at the elites who benefit at the perceived expense of blue collar workers.
“The people who support Trump are not the tri-corner hat people. Those folks are with Cruz,” Domenech said. “The anger was always out there but I think it came from a different and more disengaged group of people. It’s so telling that so many of Trump’s supporters are disengaged non-primary voters — that’s not a description that applies to most talk radio listeners.”
“It’s broader frustration at both parties animated by frustrations over three factors, the same three specific policies that Trump stresses: immigration, foreign policy, and general corruption, cronyism, fat cats getting sweetheart deals,” he said.
As I emailed and talked with others, there seemed to be no end to the theories for Trump’s mind-blowing ascent to a potential nominee for president.
Former Romney campaign adviser and Boehner aide Kevin Madden said he “trace[d] the beginnings back to” then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s selection as 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 election, which Madden said “allowed a brand of national security and economic conservatism [to] fall victim to populism and anti-intellectualism.”
Matt Kibbe, the former head of FreedomWorks, the libertarian-leaning and Tea Party-linked advocacy group, said the GOP had been “continuously disenfranchising Ron Paul voters, Tea Partiers and grassroots conservatives.” In particular, he pointed to “the RNC rules changes that centralized power with party bosses, and the battles at the [2012] convention in Tampa.”
And then there is the celebrity and entertainment factor. That too, is a major element of Trump’s appeal. As media and technology analyst Nicholas Carr wrote this past spring, “Today, with the public looking to smartphones for news and entertainment, we seem to be at the start of the third big technological makeover of modern electioneering. The presidential campaign is becoming just another social-media stream, its swift and shallow current intertwining with all the other streams that flow through people’s devices.”
“As the Trump phenomenon reveals,” Carr wrote, “it’s only a particular kind of personality that works—one that’s big enough to grab the attention of the perpetually distracted but small enough to fit neatly into a thousand tiny media containers.”
Cable news channels also played a role in helping Trump rise, “Because ratings.”
It’s possible the political and media establishment could have done more to prevent Trump’s rise. But as most know, elite influence and power is much diminished. In previous eras, the question of who “allowed” a Trump-like figure to emerge would have been plausible, because the political and media establishments really did have significant influence over the process.
Now, because of the Internet and because of changes to campaign finance law, the media and the political parties are like gatekeepers tending old metal doors that have nearly been torn off the hinges. The gatekeepers are still there, and their broken gates swing back and forth in the wind, making squeaking noises that are audible to some who pass by.
But most people just walk past without paying much mind.
HE IDENTIFIES AS A WOMAN ON HIS VOTER REGISTRATION CARD.
WHY DIDN'T MAINSTREAM MEDIA REPORT THIS INFO??
~ We’re in the second day rounding up the media coverage of the Planned Parenthood shooting because, unlike normal people, several human beings insist on jumping to conclusions anytime a mass shooting occurs.
The “white Christian terrorist” refrain has been a constant drumbeat among the activists who smell blood in a terrible story that seems to confirm every outlandish bias they hold about pro-life Americans.
The media have reported that the motive is currently unknown for the Colorado Springs shooting yesterday:
Although it is not known what was the motive of the shooter Robert Lewis Dear or if the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs was even a target, there are already news stories surfacing that don’t add up to a profile of the stereotypical anti-abortion activist supposedly disturbed by the recent spate of Planned Parenthood undercover videos.
As reported earlier by IJ.com, a criminal background check reveals that Dear was arrested for offenses of “cruelty to animals” and for being a “peeping tom” (that latter offense was dismissed).
In addition, there is the question of why the supposed anti-abortion activist John Lewis Dear is identifying as a “female.”
Robert Lewis Dear, Jr. from Hartsel, Colorado is registered to vote in Park County, Colorado as a woman.
The Colorado Springs authorities confirmed the Hartsel, Colorado address.
Furthermore, Dear is not a registered Republican:
No Planned Parenthood staff or employees were reported shot or killed in the harrowing six-hour standoff.
The public is awaiting the motive for the heinous act of shooting twelve Americans.
The attack injured nine people and killed three others, including police officer Garrett Swasey, who was also a Christian pastor.
Post Sources: Independent Journey, Gateway Pundit, YouTube
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