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National Border Patrol Council Vice President Art Del Cueto challenged Democrats critical of President Donald Trump‘s threat to close the southern border to travel there themselves and talk to agents on the ground.
On “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday, Cueto acknowledged the president’s threat to close the border is “an extreme measure” but said it is one of the best options.
“We support whatever the president’s able to do and at this point when you have a country that’s facilitating these individuals to come through, what else do you have as an option?” Cueto asked.
He added, “Because of what we’re seeing and the emergency and the overrunning in our facilities and the agents being removed from certain law enforcement positions so they can do processing and take care of these overcrowded cells, that seems to be one of the best options right now.”
Last week, Trump said he would close the border if Mexico does not “immediately stop” the surge. The administration has also threatened to cut direct aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala — the home of many of the recent migrants.
Last week U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said that the border was at its “breaking point,” and there are not enough agents to respond to the flow of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
“That breaking point has arrived this week at our border,” McAleenan said during a visit to the border in El Paso, Texas. “CBP is facing an unprecedented humanitarian and border security crisis all along our Southwest border.”
Trump tweeted Tuesday, “After many years (decades), Mexico is apprehending large numbers of people at their Southern Border, mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. They have ALL been taking U.S. money for years, and doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for us, just like the Democrats in Congress!
Trump declared a national emergency at the border in February, shortly after Congress refused to grant him the more than $5 billion he had demanded for a wall at the southern border. The declaration is meant to free up $3.6 billion in funding for barriers at the border. Democrats, and some Republicans, opposed Trump’s declaration and passed legislation to block the move — subsequently vetoed by the president.
According to Customs and Border Protection, more than 76,000 migrants were detained in February, marking the highest number of apprehensions in 12 years. That figure includes more than 7,000 unaccompanied children. More than 36,000 migrant families have arrived in the El Paso region in fiscal 2019, compared with about 2,000 at the same time last year, according to CBP data.
OBAMA’S IMMIGRATION CHIEFS SPEAK OUT ON ‘CRISIS’ AT SOUTHERN BORDER
Former Obama administration officials are publicly agreeing with President Trump’s assessment that there is a crisis at the southern border — even as some Democrats oppose Trump’s declaration of a national emergency.
“By anyone’s definition, by any measure, right now we have a crisis at our southern border,” former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on “Cavuto LIVE” on Saturday, citing recent statistics that “there were 4,000 apprehensions in one day alone this past week, and we’re on pace for 100,000 apprehensions on our southern border this month.”
“That is by far a greater number than anything I saw on my watch in my three years as secretary of Homeland Security,” he said.
Following President Trump’s threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border, several Democrats — including Rep. Filemon Vela Jr. of Texas and 2020 presidential candidate Julian Castro, also from Texas, — spoke out against the president’s plan.
2020 DEM JULIAN CASTRO CALLS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION TO BE TREATED AS CIVIL, NOT CRIMINAL, OFFENSE
“Instead of building a wall or closing the border or cutting off aid to the Central American countries, which is downright stupid, we should actually go in the other direction. We should choose compassion instead of cruelty,” said Castro.
“The idea that any president of the United States would ever suggest that we should shut down our ports of entry is just moronic,” Vela said.
Cueto responded to the comments by saying, “You can have a bunch of individuals saying ‘it’s the wrong thing to do, it’s the wrong thing to do,’ or saying it’s moronic and using their verbiage to slam the president, but in the end they’re not down here. They haven’t even bothered to come and speak to the agents and the boots on the ground and ask what is it that we need.”
He added, “I haven’t seen any of them down here working with us. I haven’t seen any of them down here, you know, asking to speak to any of us. I have an open invitation. They can come down and I’ll show them the issues of what’s happening down at the border right now.”
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Cueto then listed some of the issues: “We are getting overrun, our facilities are over capacity, we have agents that have been removed from certain areas that are patrolling the border and are defending our nation’s border so they can do some babysitting duties and take care of these individuals that are coming through.”
“We are definitely at a crisis and it’s an emergency,” Cueto said. “We welcome more agents coming down here to the southern border and assisting, but in the end, you know, something needs to be done about the overflow of these individuals that are coming into the country and if there is other countries that are facilitating this invasion, they obviously need to step up to the plate and start doing something about it.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Fox News Politics
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, charged Tuesday Democrats’ demands to see the full Mueller report without redactions showed they are “so committed to getting at this president” and “not focused on frankly doing what’s best for the country.”
“You got the chairman of the intelligence committee, Adam Schiff, saying ‘go ahead make public classified information’ and then you have the chairman of the judiciary committee saying ‘go ahead and make public grand jury material.’ Now that’s scary,” Jordan said on “Fox & Friends.”
“This is where they’re at because the Mueller report was not the bombshell that they had hoped it would be. But when you have the head of the intelligence committee, the head of the judiciary committee saying make public material that’s not supposed to get public, that’s not consistent with the law, that’s just wrong, just plain wrong.”
Democratic lawmakers, including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-NY and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, have been demanding access in full to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report in. Attorney General Bill Barr has said that he and the special counsel’s team are “well along in the process of identifying and redacting” sensitive material in the more than 300-page report and can likely have it to Congress by mid-April, “if not sooner.”
But Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are preparing to authorize subpoenas for the report this week, giving the panel the option to pursue that route if necessary.
TRUMP SAYS DEMS HAVE FORESAKEN MUELLER AFTER TREATING HIM AS ‘GOD-LIKE’
The report was first transmitted to Barr at the Justice Department last month. Barr issued a four-page initial summary of Mueller’s findings to Congress and to the public just days after. Barr’s summary said that the special counsel found no evidence of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians during the 2016 presidential election.
Immediately, Democrats began demanding to view the full Mueller report and underlying evidence that brought the special counsel to its decision.
Barr has indicated he does plan on sharing much of the report, noting that, with the help of the special counsel’s office, the Justice Department is reviewing material that “by law cannot be made public” — covering “material the intelligence community identifies as potentially compromising sensitive sources and methods; material that could affect ongoing matters, including those that the Special Counsel has referred to other Department offices; and information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties.”
“Bill Barr said he will err on the side of transparency, he wants to release as much possible but he’s going to do it consistent with the law, which is what we should expect from an attorney general of the United States of America, “ Jordan said on “Fox and Friends.”
“Understand that this report was not what they had hoped. First the Cohen hearing they had was a flop, then the Mueller report comes out, it’s not the bombshell they hoped. Remember what Bill Barr said special council Mueller found, no new indictments, no sealed indictments, no collusion, no obstruction. As definitive as you can get. And so now what they’re saying is ‘we want to find something, we have to find something, cause we’re so committed to getting at this president and not focused on frankly doing what’s best for the country.’”
On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump blasted Nadler and Schiff on twitter.
“There is no amount of testimony or document production that can satisfy Jerry Nadler or Shifty Adam Schiff. It is now time to focus exclusively on properly running our great Country!” Trump tweeted.
Minutes later, Schiff fired back.
“The House voted 420-0 to release the full Mueller report to the public. The American people overwhelmingly support the same. What are you afraid of, Mr. President?” Schiff tweeted.
The Judiciary Committee cited “historical precedent” for the full release of the Mueller report—specifically Watergate, when a judge ordered a 55-page grand jury roadmap to be provided to the committee; and during the Ken Starr investigation of former President Bill Clinton, when a 455-page report, along with evidence including grand jury material, was provided to the panel.
On September 9, 1998, on PBS’ “Charlie Rose,” Nadler said, “As a matter of decency and protecting people’s privacy rights, people who may be totally innocent, third parties, what must not be released at all,” when talking about the Starr report on Clinton. “It’s grand jury material. It represents statements which may or may not be true by various witnesses, salacious material, all kinds of material that it would be unfair to release.” The clip aired on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday.
The president took to Twitter Tuesday morning to respond to the statements Nadler made more than a decade ago.
“In 1998, Rep. Jerry Nadler strongly opposed the release of the Starr report on Bill Clinton. No information whatsoever would or could be legally released. But with the NO COLLUSION Mueller Report, which the Dems hate, he wants it all. NOTHING WILL EVER SATISFY THEM! @foxandfriends”
“This is now about President Trump who they’re out to get,” said Jordan. “Again, this is the chairman of the judiciary, the long history the judiciary has in protecting fundamental liberties, fundamental rights and following the law and yet you now have the chairman saying ‘I don’t care. I don’t care. Give me everything we want to make public.’ That is what is so wrong.”
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He added, “It’s because Bill Barr’s letter spelling out what the special counsel found and the principal conclusions of his report was so strong for the president, complete vindication for the president, they are now, Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff and others are now saying ‘We got to have stuff that’s not consistent with how the rule of law works and has historically worked in this great country.’”
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Speaking on “America’s Newsroom,” former White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday Democrats are undermining the Russia investigation because they didn’t like the outcome.
“The problem with the Democrats, they dug a hole so deep, they don’t know how to get out of it now and they’re doubling down,” Spicer said.
He made the comments as congressional Democrats stepped up calls for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report to be released in full — even preparing subpoenas for the report — despite complaining just over a year ago that Republicans were jeopardizing “sources and methods” with their decision at the time to release a memo on alleged government surveillance abuse.
Republicans, many of whom also want the report released, are deferring to Attorney General Bill Barr who says he needs time to vet with his team what information can and cannot be made public. Democrats have shown little patience for that process, blasting Barr for releasing only a four-page summary and imposing an April 2 deadline for Barr to turn over the full report to Congress, demanding “full transparency.”
Barr said he would provide the report, which is more than 300 pages long, to Congress by mid-April. He said the report will exclude sensitive information, including material that “by law cannot be made public.”
“In the meantime, Barr should seek court approval (just like in Watergate) to allow the release of grand jury material,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff tweeted on Friday.
Barr’s summary said the special counsel found no evidence of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians during the 2016 presidential election. Schiff has faced GOP pressure to step down from his post for his repeated allegations of collusion during the course of that investigation, but fellow Democrats have stood by him.
DEMS WHO FUMED AT NUNES FOR JEOPARDIZING ‘SOURCES AND METHODS’ NOW DEMAND MUELLER REPORT IN FULL
“I think that we can’t let Democrats off the hook as to where they started this dialogue, which is that we need to protect Robert Mueller, he has the highest degree of integrity and professionalism and we need to let the chips fall where they may with respect to his investigation. The chips have fallen. Mr. Mueller has made it very clear that there was no collusion,” said Spicer.
He added, “The reality is, is that he issued his report, it said there was no collusion, our attorney general Barr has said he will release it to Congress somewhere around mid-April and they’re still not satisfied.”
Spicer said Barr doesn’t have to release the report to Congress according to law. He said the issues with it include the fact that the report contains grand jury testimony and classified information, which the attorney general “has to protect by law just as he would with any other citizen.”
“So Attorney General Barr is going above and beyond what he is required to do and I think Democrats recognize that they’re playing a losing hand and so that the only way to do this is to pivot further away from what they originally started at, which was just allowing Mueller to investigate this issue. Once he came up with a conclusion that wasn’t what they wanted, they had to pivot to something else,” said Spicer.
On Monday, President Trump tweeted, “Now that the long awaited Mueller Report conclusions have been released, most Democrats and others have gone back to the pre-Witch Hunt phase of their lives before Collusion Delusion took over. Others are pretending that their former hero, Bob Mueller, no longer exists!”
Schiff, D-Calif., is one of several Democrats who blasted then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., during the last Congress for releasing a GOP memo on alleged abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in February 2018. The memo described the unverified Trump “dossier” as critical for obtaining surveillance warrants to spy on a Trump campaign aide.
SCHIFF FACES MOUNTING GOP CALLS FOR RESIGNATION OVER COLLUSION CLAIMS
The GOP memo, which was also four pages long, was released March 24 in an unredacted and declassified format, with White House approval.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at the time that Trump’s decision to release an unredacted version of the memo was a danger to national security.
Schiff, who was the ranking member of the committee at the time, joined with Democrats on the committee to declare the GOP memo “risks exposure of sensitive sources and methods for no legitimate purpose.”
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Spicer said once the conclusions of the report didn’t come out the way Democrats wanted, “then they entirely flipped themselves on their argument that they have been espousing for the longest time.”
He added, “Here we are with the Democrats not getting an outcome that they like on the Mueller report so what do they do? They say suddenly that this individual, Bob Mueller, that they revered, his work isn’t good enough, it needs to go further, we need to investigate more, we need to see all the other underlying evidence. Where is the concern about them undermining the attacks? The conclusion was clear, there was no collusion, but since they won’t accept that, they continue to attack the process and the person.”
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Mayor Pete Buttigieg: What to know
What to know about Pete Buttigieg and how, despite only two terms as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, he plans to capture the democratic presidential nomination.
Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg says he raised more than $7 million since he launched his presidential exploratory committee in January.
The South Bend, Indiana mayor appeared to be the first Democratic White House hopeful on Monday to reveal his or her fundraising figures from the January through March period, the first quarter of fundraising since the kickoff of the 2020 presidential race.
THE MAD DASH FOR CAMPAIGN CASH
“You’re going to see bigger numbers from other campaigns today and in the next few days. That’s okay,’ Buttigieg told supporters in an email and on social media. “This has always been an underdog project. But with a first fundraising report like this, we certainly cannot be ignored.”
The fundraising haul is the latest evidence that Buttigieg, who was considered a long shot for the Democratic nomination when he first jumped into the race, has become a legitimate contender over the past month, amid a surge in contributions from supporters, growing crowds at his events and rising coverage by the political media.
Buttigieg didn’t reveal the number of supporters who contributed, the amount of the average donation, or his campaign’s cash on hand. He teased that he would “be back later this afternoon with a complete analysis of some of the more meaningful metrics.”
Sunday was the last day candidates can bring in campaign cash in the first fundraising quarter for the 2020 presidential race. Starting as early as Monday morning, as witnessed by Buttigieg, the candidates will start reporting their fundraising hauls, and the numbers will be repeatedly analyzed and scrutinized.
PETE BUTTIGIEG ENJOYING CAMPAIGN TRAIL SURGE
Fundraising is considered an important barometer of a candidate’s popularity and a campaign’s strength. The cash can be used by a candidate to build an organization and hire staff and consultants, increase voter outreach efforts, travel and fund ads.
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Congress needs to do its job and close loopholes that encourage illegal immigration, former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director and Fox News contributor, Tom Homan said Friday.
“The Congress has failed the American people. The Democratic leadership, show me one thing they’ve done to solve this crisis down at the border,” Homan said on America’s Newsroom.
“What have they done to address the surge at the border? The only one who is doing anything is this administration. The president has done executive actions, declared national emergencies. He’s getting sued every time he does executive action to try to stem the flow of the tide. The 9th circuit has got him tied up every time he turns around.”
On Friday, President Trump, whose 2016 campaign promise was to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, threatened to close the Southern Border next week if Mexico does not “immediately stop” the record-breaking surge of illegal immigrants flooding into the United States.
Trump’s warning comes as Customs and Border Protection officials say March is on pace to exceed 100,000 border apprehensions — the highest monthly total in a decade. According to CBP, this week alone, agents have more than 12,000 migrants in custody.
“The DEMOCRATS have given us the weakest immigration laws anywhere in the World. Mexico has the strongest, & they make more than $100 Billion a year on the U.S.,” Trump tweeted Friday. “Therefore, CONGRESS MUST CHANGE OUR WEAK IMMIGRATION LAWS NOW, & Mexico must stop illegals from entering the U.S. through their country and our Southern Border.”
“Mexico has for many years made a fortune off of the U.S., far greater than Border Costs. If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States throug[sic] our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week,” he continued.
“This would be so easy for Mexico to do, but they just take our money and ‘talk.’ Besides, we lose so much money with them, especially when you add in drug trafficking etc.), that the Border closing would be a good thing!”
Trump also threatened to close the border at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan Thursday.
“What needs to be done is Congress needs to close the loopholes. Congress needs to do their job instead of Democratic leadership asking to abolish a federal law enforcement agency for enacting laws that they don’t think work. Why don’t they do their job and fix the laws so they do work and close the loopholes that entice these people to come?” Homan asked.
The president’s tweets and comments threatening to shut down the southern border come after similar warnings earlier in the week, with Trump accusing Mexico and Central American nations of doing “nothing” as illegal immigration surges.
Trump’s initial warning came following comments made by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAlleenan, who said this week that the border was at its “breaking point,” noting that there are not enough agents to respond to the flow of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
SENATE VOTES TO BLOCK TRUMP’S BORDER EMERGENCY DECLARATION, IN BIPARTISAN REBUKE TEEING UP VETO
Meanwhile, the president, declared a national emergency in a bid to free up funding for the barrier along the border. This month, the president issued his first veto on a Democrat-backed measure to cancel the emergency.
On Tuesday, House Democrats failed to override Trump’s veto, allowing Trump to move forward with the issue.
Trump had declared the border emergency under a law that lets him shift budget funds to address dire situations. His plan is to shift an additional $3.6 billion from military construction projects to work on border barriers. Congress voted this year to limit spending on such barriers to less than $1.4 billion, and Democrats accused Trump of ignoring lawmakers’ constitutional control over spending.
New Jersey Democrat Rep. Jeff Van Drew takes a stand on the issue that most Democrats don’t, saying he believes the border needs some kind of barrier to solve the crisis.
“We are not an open border country. Period. I do not believe in that. I do not believe it’s good for our security. I do not believe it’s good for the economic health of the country and I don’t think it’s something we should do,” he said Friday.
“At the same time take I also believe that we should take care of the Dreamers. These were folks that were here since they were little children and they should go through a process where they learn about America, swear the oath, take the test and become Americans.”
“This congressman put politics aside for a moment and talked to Fox News about what he thinks needs to be done to fix the border,” Homan said in response.
“I agree with most of everything he said and that’s what needs to happen. I don’t care if you are Republican or Democrat, there is no downside on securing our border.”
“I don’t care if you are Republican or Democrat your number one responsibility is protect this nation, protect our sovereignty and secure our border. So I agree with the congressman,” Homan continued.
Homan offered a “controversial” solution to the problem, saying he has “done it and it worked.”
“ICE needs to get out there right now and look for these family groups and these single adults who enter this country illegally. They had their due process, they demand to claim asylum, they demand to see a judge. Ok, we’ve done that at great taxpayer expense. They’ve been ordered removed by a federal judge,” said Homan.
“ICE needs to find these family groups and these single adults, find them, detain them and remove them. Because if those orders from a judge don’t mean anything, then there’s no integrity into our system.”
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Homan said he did this about three-and-a-half-years ago and “once we removed a large portion of family units, showing there is deterrence, there is some sort of consequence abiding our laws the numbers on the border went down.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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After releasing 12 years of tax returns on his campaign website, Washington governor and 2020 presidential candidate Jay Inslee urged President Donald Trump to do the same.
Inslee became the latest Democratic presidential candidate to release his tax returns, making the announcement on “Fox & Friends” Friday. Inslee said he had released 12 years of his personal tax records on his campaign website and called on the president to “come clean with the American People.”
“He’s got to show what he’s been hiding,” Inslee said. “Americans deserve that truth.”
Trump broke with decades of tradition by not releasing his tax filings during his 2016 campaign. He argued he couldn’t release his taxes because he was under an audit by the Internal Revenue Service, but being under audit is no legal bar to a candidate from disclosing taxes.
After his “Fox & Friends” appearance, Inslee tweeted: “Just now, on @realDonaldTrump’s favorite show, @foxandfriends, I announced I’m releasing 12 years of tax returns, and called on him to finally be transparent with the American people.”
WASHINGTON GOV. JAY INSLEE ANNOUNCES 2020 PRESIDENTIAL BID
Inslee announced his Democratic presidential bid earlier this month, which made him the first governor to enter an already-crowded field of senators and other hopefuls battling to challenge President Trump in 2020.
Tax returns paint a fuller picture of a presidential candidate’s financial situation, from income and revenues to the effective tax rate they pay to charitable donations and overseas holdings.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, became the first 2020 presidential candidate to unveil her 2018 returns when she disclosed the documents on Wednesday.
The 2020 hopeful urged her rivals to follow in her footsteps and make their returns public, as Democrats continue to slam Trump for not releasing his returns during his 2016 presidential run.
“Join me in calling on every presidential candidate to disclose their taxes. This is what transparency and accountability is all about,” Gillibrand said in a video.
Sen. Bernie Sanders has promised to release 10 years of his tax returns but hasn’t done so yet. He said he will make the returns public “soon.”
GILLIBRAND THE FIRST 2020 DEMOCRAT TO UNVEIL 2018 TAX RETURNS: SEE WHAT SHE MADE
Another White House contender, Sen. Elizabeth Warren highlighted that she has released the past decade of her tax returns and like Gillibrand, has urged the other candidates to do the same.
The Massachusetts Democrat has yet to release her 2018 returns. Her campaign told Fox News she will, once she files her 2018 returns.
The tax filing season doesn’t end until April 15.
On “Fox & Friends” Friday, Inslee also made the case for climate change. It is a topic his campaign is focused on with the goal of building “a national movement to defeat climate change,” according to Inslee’s website.
“This is a can-do nation. We put a man on the moon, we defeated fascism and we can use our smarts to build a clean energy economy like we are doing right today and we are doing it all across America,” said Inslee. “We need an inspirational leader, not a pessimistic one in the White House. I think I am ready for that job. This country needs that spark of optimism.”
TRUMP MOCKS GREEN NEW DEAL, POKES FUN AT ELECTRIC CARS DURING MICHIGAN RALLY
Inslee made the case for climate change on Fox & Friends Friday, after Trump’s visit to Grand Rapids, MI the day before for a campaign rally where he said, “I love campaigning against the Green New Deal.”
“No more airplanes, no more cows, one car per family, one car, you are going to love that in Michigan,” Trump said at the rally.
The Green New Deal, championed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., calls for the U.S. to shift away from fossil fuels such as oil and coal and replace them with renewable sources such as wind and solar power. It also calls for virtual elimination by 2030 of greenhouse gas emissions that have been tied to climate change.
Trump’s jabs came days after 42 Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., voted “present” on a non-binding resolution that would have begun debate on the Green New Deal. Not a single senator voted to break the filibuster, while 57 senators — including three Democrats and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine — voted “no.” In addition to Sanders, five Democratic presidential candidates who have previously backed the Green New Deal voted “present”: Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
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Democrats described the vote, orchestrated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as a “sham vote” meant to avoid a genuine debate on the effects of climate change.
The Associated Press Contributed to this report.
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The chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, said Thursday the absence of Democratic presidential candidates at The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC’s) annual policy conference earlier this week shows the party is “anti-Israel.”
“One of the things that is so crazy is Nancy Pelosi is now the moderate in the Democrat party. The San Francisco liberal is now the most reasonable member in her caucus,” McDaniel said on Fox & Friends.
At AIPAC, Speaker of the House Pelosi, D-Calif, said Israel has bipartisan support, looking to distance the Democratic Party from any suggestion it was anti-Semitic after freshman lawmaker Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., publicly criticized Israel and its leadership.
PELOSI, IN VEILED SWIPE AT OMAR, SAYS ANTI-SEMITISM IS ‘UN-AMERICAN’
“Support for Israel remains ironclad and bipartisan,” Pelosi said when addressing the pro-Israel lobbying group’s annual policy conference in Washington. “Assistance to Israel is vital because if you care about America’s security, you must care about Israel’s security.”
Pelosi stressed that no one should be allowed to make Israel “a wedge issue,” adding “to be anti-Semitic is to be anti-American.”
Pelosi’s remarks undercut Omar, a Somali-American and one of two Muslim women in Congress, who has encountered a wave of backlash over repeated anti-Semitic comments.
Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke and others did not attend AIPAC’s annual policy conference, a move that coincided with a moneyed progressive advocacy group’s call to boycott the event.
MoveOn.org, a group that spent around $3.5 million in the 2018 midterm elections, called on the 2020 Democratic candidates to skip the conference, even though in the past all presidential candidates viewed the AIPAC gathering as a crucial campaign stop.
“It is very alarming to see that the 2020 Democrats, none of those presidential candidates showed up to AIPAC,” McDaniel said Thursday. “AIPAC is bipartisan, it’s nonpartisan, it doesn’t prefer one party or the other. They won’t even show up. The Democrat party is now anti-Israel.”
“It is very alarming to see that the 2020 Democrats, none of those presidential candidates showed up to AIPAC. AIPAC is bipartisan, it’s nonpartisan, it doesn’t prefer one party or the other. They won’t even show up. The Democrat party is now anti-Israel.”
“The president has shown that he is a president that stands with Israel every step of the way,” McDaniel continued. She brought up several examples including the signing of the order this week recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
“Here’s the concern. If you allow this anti-Israel, anti-Semitism to seep into your party, (if) you don’t pounce it out the second that it comes in, this is dangerous for our country,” said McDaniel. “The Democrat Party is now saying ‘this can coexist peacefully in our party.’”
Josh Orton, an aide to Sanders, told media outlets that the leading candidate among the Democrats did not attend because “he’s concerned about the platform AIPAC is providing for leaders who have expressed bigotry and oppose a two-state solution” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Other candidates provided no explanation for their decisions not to attend the conference. Gillibrand and Harris, however, did meet with constituents representing AIPAC on Capitol Hill. Harris even posted on Twitter a picture of herself standing with AIPAC leaders.
The tweet said she met with California AIPAC leaders to “to discuss the need for a strong U.S.-Israel alliance, the right of Israel to defend itself, and my commitment to combat anti-Semitism in our country and around the world.”
The tweet resulted in some negative comments on the social media platform.
McDaniel also spoke out about President Trump pivoting to health care on Fox & Friends Thursday.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BACKS TOTAL OVERTURN OF OBAMACARE, WILL SUPPORT STATES CHALLENGING THE LAW
The Trump administration on Monday told a federal appeals court that the whole Affordable Care Act must be abolished, reviving the battle to repeal and replace it with something else and setting a path for a clash between President Trump and 2020 Democratic candidates embracing a “Medicare for All” system.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Capitol Hill Wednesday, “The president wants to go back to repeal and replace again. Make our day. The Republicans here in the Senate tried over and over and over again to deal with repeal and replace, they couldn’t because they have no replacement.”
“I think the president’s watching Democrats say to the American people ‘Medicare for all, Medicare for all’ what it really is, is a government takeover of your health care,” McDaniel said on Fox & Friends in response. “The president is saying there are things we do need to do to lower health care costs. We know ObamaCare is broken, the Democrat solution is a government takeover. The president is saying ‘let’s reduce the price of prescription drugs, let’s make sure we restore the doctor-patient relationship.’ These are the things that the American people want, that’s going to lower the cost of health care and he’s focused on that.”
Justice Department attorneys filed a letter with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans asking it to effectively strike down the ACA in its entirety, agreeing with the landmark ruling made by a federal judge in Texas last year.
The latest effort to completely invalidate the law may prove Congressional Democrats right, after they warned during the midterm election last year that Republicans are trying to repeal the law, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions, while Republicans denied such plans.
McDaniel called the president a “bold leader” and said he recognizes that the American people are currently concerned about health care. “Deductibles are still high, insurance prices are still high,” she said.
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“The president absolutely will make sure that we have pre-existing condition coverage,” McDaniel continued. “Democrats know it’s broken, too, that’s why they are saying ‘Medicare for all.’ That is not the solution.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Fox News Politics
Fox Business host Charles Payne argued Wednesday the childhood asthma crisis in some New York City neighborhoods has nothing to do with climate change, as like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. claimed.
“Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is very disingenuous,” Payne said on America’s Newsroom.
“You want to tell people that their concern and their desire for clean air and clean water is elitist? Tell that to the kids in the South Bronx, which are suffering from the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country,” Ocasio-Cortez, the Green New Deal‘s main sponsor in the House, said during a committee hearing on Tuesday.
GREEN NEW DEAL FAILS SENATE TEST VOTE AS DOZENS OF DEMOCRATS VOTE ‘PRESENT’
The Green New Deal calls for the U.S. to shift away from fossil fuels such as oil and coal and replace them with renewable sources such as solar power and wind. The proposed stimulus program calls for virtual elimination by 2030 of greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming.
Republicans have railed against the proposal, saying it would devastate the economy and trigger massive tax increases.
Payne said he has lived in Harlem and talked personally and statistically about the reasons why there are a number of asthma cases in the neighborhoods of Harlem and the South Bronx. He cited several studies including a Columbia University study from 2013 that stated cockroach and mouse allergens are more common in lower income housing and neighborhoods. Payne also brought up a New York Times study from 2003 in which social workers said they encountered furniture and carpets covered in dust in these areas.
AOC BRISTLES AS GOP LAWMAKER BLASTS GREEN NEW DEAL AS ‘ELITIST’ PET PROJECT OF RICH LIBERALS
“Those are the things that have contributed to the crisis of asthma in these neighborhoods. It has zero to do with C02 emissions per se or this climate change debate. She’s (Ocasio-Cortez’s) conflating the two,” said Payne. “It’s a way of also bringing race into the conversation. I think it’s disingenuous because I would love to see these issues addressed as well in a more concrete manner.”
The Green New Deal fell at the first hurdle Tuesday as the Senate failed to reach the 60 votes necessary to begin debate on the non-binding resolution, with 42 Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., voting "present." No senator voted to begin debate on the legislation.
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Payne also talked about the International Energy Agency’s most recent data on C02 emissions, which he said was released this week. Payne said “they went up” and said the reason is because of China and India’s use of coal.
“America, by the way, our C02 emissions, as a percentage of our GDP, down almost 50 percent in the last 20 years. We’re doing what we are supposed to do,” Payne said on America’s Newsroom. “It’s crazy to disrupt our economy by trillions of dollars when America is actually probably doing better on this than any other large growing economy in the world.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Fox News Politics
Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo weighed in on a hot new topic on the 2020 presidential campaign trail.
Several Democratic contenders are talking up plans to overhaul the Supreme Court, with some offering proposals to add up to 15 more members, but Yoo said that would be a disaster.
“I think this is, of all the crazy ideas that you are seeing kicked around by the Democratic progressive, progressive aggressive candidates this is the worst one,” Yoo said on "Fox & Friends" Wednesday.
Candidates including Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Sens.Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., have all signaled a willingness to embrace expanding the Supreme Court if they become president. Progressive groups are putting their money behind the message, as part of an effort to tap into lingering liberal anger over President Trump‘s two nominees confirmed to the high court.
2020 DEMOCRATS EYE DRAMATIC INCREASE IN SUPREME COURT JUSTICES: ‘ALL OPTIONS ARE ON THE TABLE’
“This is actually an effort to short circuit one of the Constitution’s restraints so that we don’t just have rule by the simple majority,” said Yoo.
“If you try to pack the Supreme Court you are just going to turn the Supreme Court and the judiciary just into another political actor and when Republicans get back in charge they’ll do the same thing, they will start adding more and more justices in the court to get the people they want there and soon the Supreme Court will just be like another branch of the legislature and not a serious small body that’s there to interpret the Constitution."
“I think this is, of all the crazy ideas that you are seeing kicked around by the Democratic progressive, progressive aggressive candidates this is the worst one.”
Neil Gorsuch was confirmed after former President Barack Obama’s choice — Judge Merrick Garland — remained in the Senate without a hearing or vote during the 2016 election year.
Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process was defined by allegations of sexual misconduct. Both were confirmed mostly along party lines.
Many Democrats think the solution would be to add more members while changing the rules for who can serve and for how long.
Among the proposals are rotating justices on and off the bench, as well as imposing term limits for currently life-tenured federal judges.
BETO O’ROURKE PITCHES DRASTIC OVERHAUL OF SUPREME COURT
O’Rourke floated the idea of having as many as 15 judges on the bench while speaking to supporters in Iowa earlier this month.
“What if there were five justices selected by Democrats, five justices selected by Republicans, and those ten then picked five more justices independent of those who chose the first ten?” he told supporters.
“I think that’s an idea we should explore.”
He added the idea of adding term limits on those justices so that there’s “a more regular rotation through there.” O’Rourke said the court should “be able to reflect the diversity” of America.
President Trump fired back at such proposals. "I wouldn’t entertain that. The only reason that they’re doing that is they want to try and catch up," he said when asked about so-called court-packing schemes.
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“The size of the Supreme Court is up to Congress and this is something that progressives have tried before, FDR famously tried to pack the court in 1937, his own party actually stopped him,” Yoo said on Fox & Friends.
“We’ve stayed at nine justices in the court for about 130, 140 years and it’s because it’s a simple number."
Source: Fox News Politics
CONCORD, NH — The findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation report could make primary challenges to President Donald Trump even more difficult.
“There’s no question it’s a huge victory for the president and it undermines a core argument about Russian collusion,” said a longtime GOP strategist who’s a veteran of numerous White House campaigns.
ROBERT MUELLER’S INVESTIGATION BY THE NUMBERS
"I do think it’s going to make it more difficult to draw a contrast in a primary,” said the operative, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely.
Mueller’s nearly two-year-long investigation did not establish that members of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government to interfere in the election in favor of Trump and at the expense of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Mueller’s long-awaited findings also did not take a clear position on whether Trump obstructed justice, with no conclusions that the president committed a crime but also not exonerating Trump.
Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Sunday concluded, though, that Mueller’s report did not contain sufficient evidence to establish that Trump committed obstruction of justice.
The news doesn’t appear to do any favors for anyone mulling a primary challenge against a president who remains extremely popular among Republicans.
2020 DEMOCRATS DEMAND TO SEE THE ‘WHOLE DAMN REPORT’
But former two-term Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld wasn’t dissuaded.
Weld, who’s moving closer to taking on Trump in next year’s GOP primaries, said Barr’s Sunday announcement is “kind of neutral to my effort.”
Speaking with Fox News while campaigning Monday in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire, Weld explained that he “wasn’t really counting on the president getting caught in the soup for having said ‘I hope the Russians find more emails’ during the heat of the campaign. That never grabbed me as an indictable or impeachable offense, frankly.”
Asked if the news makes his longshot bid even longer, Weld quickly answered “no.”
And Weld – who set up a presidential exploratory committee in February – stressed that allegations of Russian collusion were “only one of the many, many questions that’s been raised about the President.”
WELD TAKES FIRST STEP TOWARDS PRIMARY CHALLENGING TRUMP
The former governor – who returned to the Republican Party after running as the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential nominee in 2016 – said he’ll pull the trigger on deciding on a primary challenge in April.
“I doubt there would be anything to prevent me doing this,” he added. “I’m feeling more comfortable with this all the time.”
He also said he could raise the money needed to launch a primary challenge.
“I’m looking for old school money, my rolodex of years past,” he said. “I have reason to believe we will be adequately funded.”
A top adviser to former two-term Gov. John Kasich of Ohio also downplayed the significance of the findings.
“At the end of the day, I don’t think this, a month from now, will have made much difference. And we haven’t seen the Mueller report. We’ve only seen the Barr memo,” John Weaver told Fox News. “And as usual, the White House and Trump world have gotten way over their skis, because I suspect the narrative written by Bob Mueller is a little bit different than the narrative written by the Attorney General.”
Kasich, a longtime vocal critic of the president who finished second to Trump in the 2016 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, is mulling a 2020 primary challenge.
Weaver suggested that Barr’s Sunday announcement is “not going to impact the governor’s thinking one way or another because we weren’t hinging our decision on any one thing like this.”
UPCOMING HOGAN TRIP TO NH STOKES PRIMARY CHALLENGE SPECULATION
The other possible primary challenger to Trump is two-term Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who’s heading to New Hampshire in April to speak at ‘Politics and Eggs,’ a must stop for White House hopefuls. Fox News reached out to a top Hogan political adviser but received no response.
A veteran New Hampshire-based GOP operative wasn’t as optimistic as Weld or Weaver.
Michael Dennehy – who served as a top adviser on Sen. John McCain’s 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns – said that the summary findings from the Mueller report and the announcement by Barr would make a primary challenge more difficult.
“Of those Republicans who are unhappy with the president, this removes arguably the biggest obstacle for the president in any potential primary campaign,” Dennehy said.
Coli Reed agreed that “trying to primary President Trump was always going to be an uphill climb.”
But the veteran GOP strategist added, “I doubt the events of the weekend are going to move the needle much in either direction. Trump’s numbers with Republicans have always been rock solid, even during some of the more tumultuous points of his presidency.”
Source: Fox News Politics
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