Розділ: Політика
H.R. McMaster Book ‘Battlegrounds’ Coming Out in April
Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, President Donald Trump’s second national security adviser, will have a book out April 28. First announced in the summer of 2018, “Battlegrounds” will focus on national security and foreign policy, including his contentious time with Trump.In announcing the release date Thursday, HarperCollins called “Battlegrounds” a “groundbreaking reassessment of America’s place in the world, drawing from McMaster’s long engagement with these issues, including 34 years of service in the U.S. Army with multiple tours of duty in battlegrounds overseas and his 13 months as national security adviser in the Trump White House.”McMaster clashed with Trump on policy toward Russia, Iran and elsewhere before being forced out in March 2018. He was replaced by John Bolton, who also fought with Trump before departing last September. Bolton’s memoir, “What Happened in the Room,” is expected next month.McMaster has written a previous book, the acclaimed “Dereliction of Duty,” which sharply criticized the political leadership during the Vietnam War.
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By Polityk | 02/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Finally on Debate Stage, Bloomberg Has to Answer to Democratic Rivals
Michael Bloomberg waited until November to launch his campaign to be the Democratic Party’s nominee in the 2020 presidential election.His opponents in Wednesday night’s debate in the Western state of Nevada did not wait at all to attack his political record as the former mayor of New York City, allegations of sexism and sexual harassment, and his status as a multibillionaire.Before Wednesday, people across the United States were largely aware of Bloomberg’s campaign through television ads, which have saturated airwaves since November at a cost of nearly $400 million of his own money.But the debate put him on stage with the top contenders for the Democratic nomination for the first time, meaning he had to answer questions in real time about his past and why he should be the one to oppose President Donald Trump in November.From left, Democratic presidential candidates, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., participate in a Democratic presidential primary debate, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas.The pushback began with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.“In order to beat Donald Trump, we’re going to need the largest voter turnout in the history of the United States. Mr. Bloomberg had policies in New York City of stop and frisk, which went after African American and Latino people in an outrageous way. That is not a way you’re going to grow voter turnout,” Sanders said.Bloomberg countered by casting doubt about the electability of Sanders, the front-runner in national polls.“If he goes and is the candidate, we will have Donald Trump for another four years, and we can’t stand that,” Bloomberg said.Democratic presidential candidates, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, left, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., talk during a break at a Democratic presidential primary debate, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas.Whatever momentum Bloomberg may have felt from the first exchange of the debate was immediately challenged by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who said she will support whoever is the party’s eventual nominee but that the party would “take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.”“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against, a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse faced lesbians. And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump, I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg. Democrats are not going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns, of harassing women, and of supporting racist policies like redlining and stop and frisk,” she said.While Bloomberg was the initial focus on the debate, as the night went on he was not as involved as the other candidates who each had taken part in eight debates dating back to June of last year.Warren, Sanders, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden all spoke more than Bloomberg. Tallies of speaking time showed the gap between the leader — Warren — and Bloomberg was about three minutes.From left, Democratic presidential candidates, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., participate in a Democratic presidential primary debate, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas, hosted by NBC News and MSNBC.Bloomberg and Warren sparred several times, including pointedly about the allegations against Bloomberg and his company of sexism and sexual harassment, and the number of non-disclosure agreements people involved in those accusations have signed, agreeing not to discuss them publicly.“None of them accuse me of doing anything other than maybe they didn’t like a joke I told,” Bloomberg said. “These would be agreements between two parties that wanted to keep it quiet. And that’s up to them. They signed those agreements, and we’ll live with it.”Warren countered that Bloomberg at that moment could announce he was releasing the signatories from those agreements in the name of transparency.Bloomberg declined to do so, saying the agreements were made consensually, “and they have every right to expect that they will stay private.”WATCH: Bloomberg Targeted in Debate DebutSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyHis campaign said the attacks against Bloomberg meant he was “a winner,” and that he “was the grownup in the room.”“He was just warming up tonight,” campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said in a statement. “We fully expect Mike will continue to build on tonight’s performance when he appears on the stage in South Carolina next Tuesday.”The same six candidates have qualified for that debate ahead of what will be the last contest Bloomberg decided to skip as he focused his first electoral efforts on the 14 states where voters will cast ballots on March 3.
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By Polityk | 02/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Bloomberg Targeted at Democratic Presidential Debate
Six U.S. Democratic presidential candidates squared off in a contentious debate late Wednesday, with billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg the target of sharp attacks from his challengers in their first face-to-face encounter.Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota immediately accused Bloomberg of trying to buy the Democratic nomination by spending nearly $400 million of his own money on a massive national political advertising campaign, even as he skips party nominating contests in four states this month where Democrats are casting the first votes to eventually pick a nominee in July.Klobuchar said she did not think American voters look at Republican President Donald Trump and say “we need someone richer” like Bloomberg, the world’s 12th richest person.Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., waits to do an interview after a Democratic presidential primary debate, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas, hosted by NBC News and MSNBC.Bloomberg, in his first political debate since 2009, when he last ran for mayor of the country’s largest city, responded that he did not inherit wealth like Trump, but earned it by founding and operating his eponymous business information company.“Now I’m spending that money to get rid of Donald Trump, the worst president the country has ever had,” Bloomberg said.Sanders, who is leading in the national polls and won the popular vote in the first two primary tests this month in Iowa and New Hampshire, argued that he was best equipped to attract the largest voter turnout in history to unseat Trump in the November general election.However, Bloomberg swiftly attacked Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, as unelectable in November’s national election against Trump, in part because of Sanders’ proposed government-funded universal health care program, “Medicare for all,” that could possibly eliminate private insurance coverage for 160 million Americans.Democratic presidential candidates, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, left, listens as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speak during a Democratic presidential primary debate, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas.“I don’t think there’s any chance of the senator beating President Trump,” Bloomberg said. “If he goes and is the [Democratic] candidate, we will have Donald Trump for another four years, and we can’t stand that.”Bloomberg also absorbed attacks for a policy he adopted as New York mayor from 2002 to 2013, a police tactic called “stop and frisk,” where authorities randomly stopped people on city sidewalks they believed posed a threat, often young black and Latino men, to frisk them in an effort to get guns out of crime-ridden neighborhoods.Sanders, the current front-runner, called the policy “outrageous.” Former Vice President Joe Biden described the policy as “abhorrent,” saying that the administration of President Barack Obama, of which he was part, contested it and Bloomberg defended it.WATCH: Bloomberg Targeted in Debate DebutSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Democratic presidential candidates participate in a Democratic presidential primary debate, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas, hosted by NBC News and MSNBC.But Bloomberg refused, saying he would not release the women from the agreements because he said they also wanted them to remain sealed.Biden chided Bloomberg as well, saying, “This is about transparency, this is what you did to me.”“I have no tolerance for the kind of conduct the ‘Me Too’ movement has exposed” of powerful men abusing and harassing women in the workplace, Bloomberg said. He cited the number of female executives he employs and that they are paid the same as men.Democratic presidential candidate and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is intervened after a Democratic presidential primary debate, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas, hosted by NBC News and MSNBC.Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg expressed dismay about the possibility that after the voting in 14 states on March 3, dubbed Super Tuesday, when a third of the delegates to July’s national nominating convention will be picked, only two viable candidates will remain, Sanders and Bloomberg.“We could wake up two weeks from today, the day after Super Tuesday,” Buttigieg said, “and the only candidates left standing will be Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg, the two most polarizing figures on this stage. And most Americans don’t see where they fit if they’ve got to choose between a socialist who thinks that capitalism is the root of all evil, and a billionaire who thinks that money ought to be the root of all power.”Buttigieg, in an effort to keep himself at the forefront among the contenders after strong showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, attacked Klobuchar for not knowing the name of Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, when she was asked to name him in an interview this week. Buttigieg said his experiences as the mayor of the fourth largest city in the Midwestern state of Indiana were as qualifying to be president as the years Klobuchar has spent in Washington.“Are you saying I’m dumb or are you mocking me, Pete?” Klobuchar retorted. She pointedly said hello to the Mexican leader by name.Throughout the evening, the candidates repeatedly auditioned for the role of Democrat most capable of toppling Trump.Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a Democratic presidential primary debate, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas, hosted by NBC News and MSNBC.Biden argued that he was the most experienced politician on the stage, with a sterling track record as a former senator and vice president; Warren claimed to have the most detailed agenda and plans for overhauling the health care system, education and social welfare while dismissing Klobuchar for writing her health care plan on a “post-it” note; while Sanders boasted of his skills at turning out record numbers of voters and Bloomberg argued that his experience as a mayor and businessman made him unparalleled as the Democratic challenger.“This is a management job, and Donald Trump is not a manager,” he said.Wednesday’s debate was in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Western state where Democratic caucus voting is going on this week through Saturday, when most of the balloting occurs. Bloomberg is neither on the ballot in Nevada nor the ballot next week in the Atlantic coastal state of South Carolina. He is instead concentrating on the states voting March 3, when he will be on the ballot.With his frequent ads on U.S. airwaves and social media, Bloomberg has climbed to second or third in national polls of Democrats, trailing only Sanders and sometimes Biden, with Warren, Klobuchar and Buttigieg trailing.Until Wednesday night, the 78-year-old Bloomberg had not qualified for any of the debates since he announced his candidacy in November. The other Democratic candidates had already engaged in eight debates since mid-2019.Bloomberg’s rustiness as a debater showed, with the other candidates butting in to contradict their opponents, while Bloomberg rarely interjected himself into the raucous exchanges. Pressed to say when he would release his tax returns, something Trump has refused to do, Bloomberg said it would take several weeks.“It just takes us a long time and unfortunately or fortunately … I make a lot of money, and we do business all around the world, and we are preparing it. The number of pages will probably be thousands of pages. I can’t go to TurboTax. But I’ve put out my tax return every year for 12 years in City Hall.”Sanders edged Buttigieg in voting in the first two Democratic contests, in the rural, mostly white states of Iowa in the U.S. heartland and New Hampshire in the northeastern part of the country.The Democratic candidates are facing a much more diverse electorate in Nevada, where the population is about 29% Hispanic, 10% African American and 10% Asian.
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By Polityk | 02/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Bloomberg Targeted in Debate Debut
All eyes were on Michael Bloomberg Wednesday night, as six Democratic Party hopefuls took the debate stage in Las Vegas. Mike O’Sullivan reports the billionaire newcomer to the presidential race quickly became a target, as did frontrunner Bernie Sanders.
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By Polityk | 02/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Confidant Stone to be Sentenced Thursday
Roger Stone, a friend and confidant of President Donald Trump, is set to appear before a federal judge Thursday to be sentenced for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction of justice stemming from the 2016 Russian election meddling probe. Prosecutors had recommended seven to nine years in prison. But Attorney General William Barr and other top Justice Department officials overruled their own prosecutors and recommended a lighter prison sentence. Three of the prosecutors withdrew from the case in protest and a fourth quit the Justice Department outright. But it is up to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to decide how long Stone will be locked up. Berman has refused to delay Stone’s sentencing but has said she could put off an order for Stone to begin his sentence while Stone’s lawyers pursue a request for a new trial.FILE – Donald Trump walks to the federal courthouse in Newark, N.J., with Roger Stone, who was then director of Trump’s presidential exploratory committee, Oct. 25, 1999, for the swearing-in of Trump’s sister as a federal judge.Complaint about juror That request came after Trump tweeted his belief last week that the foreperson on the Stone jury was “unambiguously” biased — an opinion he retweeted Tuesday after a commentator on Fox News also said Stone deserved a new trial. “Madam foreperson, your (sic) a lawyer, you have a duty, an affirmative obligation to reveal to us when we selected you the existence of these tweets in which you were so harshly negative about the president and the people who support him,” Trump said in his own tweet. “Pretty obvious he should get a new trial. I think almost any judge in the country would order a new trial. I’m not so sure about Judge Jackson, though,” he added. Trump’s public comments about the Stone case and his open criticism of a federal judge are at the center of allegations of political influence into what has historically been an independent Justice Department. Barr and the department recommended a lighter sentence after Trump complained in a tweet that a sentence in the range of seven to nine years would be “horrible” and “unfair.” Judges ‘concerned’A national association of federal judges was to hold an emergency meeting Wednesday, but it was canceled and there was no information available on rescheduling. U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe, president of the Federal Judges Association, said the judges were “concerned about the attacks on individual judges.” Rufe declined to give more details but said the jurists “could not wait” until their spring meeting to discuss the matter. She said the Federal Judges Association had no interest in getting involved in the Stone case but did support Jackson. “We are supportive of any federal judge who does what is required,” she said. Former President Barack Obama appointed Jackson, and Trump has been notoriously critical of nearly every major decision and policy his predecessor made. Trump also complained last week about Jackson’s decision to place former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in solitary confinement. FILE – Attorney General William Barr speaks at the National Sheriffs’ Association Winter Legislative and Technology Conference in Washington, Feb. 10, 2020.Trump congratulated Barr last week for “taking charge” of the Stone case. Both denied that Trump asked him to intervene. Barr is scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee next month. Calls for Barr to resignMore than 2,000 former Justice Department officials have called on Barr to resign, saying his handling of the Stone case “openly and repeatedly flouted” the independence of the judicial branch. Barr told ABC News last week that Trump’s tweets made it “impossible” for him to do his job, saying he would not be “bullied or influenced by anybody, whether it’s Congress, a newspaper editorial board or the president.” Trump acknowledged that he had made Barr’s job “harder” but called him a man of “great integrity” who was up against people who “don’t want to see good things happen.” Mary Motta and Masood Farivar contributed to this report.
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By Polityk | 02/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Las Vegas Debate a Major Test of Bloomberg Campaign’s Gamble
Mike Bloomberg will confront the greatest test of his presidential campaign when he faces five Democratic rivals in a debate in Las Vegas that could fundamentally change the direction of the party’s 2020 nomination fight.The debate debut for the billionaire former mayor of New York is poised to offer fresh insight into whether his unconventional campaign strategy — bypassing early voting states such as Nevada and spending hundreds of millions of dollars to spread his message on the airwaves — is sustainable.Wednesday night’s debate comes at a pivotal point in the campaign as moderate voters are struggling to unify, with some increasingly looking to Bloomberg to become the clear alternative to progressive Bernie Sanders. And lest there be any doubt, all the participants expect a hostile reception for Bloomberg, who formally registered as a Democrat in 2018 and has faced relatively little national scrutiny in his surprisingly swift rise from nonpartisan megadonor to top-tier presidential contender.”He is going to have a giant target on his back from all sides,” said Democratic strategist Brian Brokaw. “It’ll either all come together brilliantly or could fall apart very quickly. … The stakes are just incredibly high for him.”Bloomberg’s campaign released a list of more than a dozen debate guests hours before the 9 p.m. EST event, featuring survivors of gun violence from several states. They include one man present at the 2017 shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 dead and hundreds more injured.FILE – A cameraman walks across the stage during setup for the Nevada Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, Feb. 18, 2020.The stakes are high for every candidate on stage just days before Nevada’s next-up presidential caucuses, the third contest in the Democrats’ chaotic 2020 primary season. After more than a year of campaigning, there is little clarity in their urgent search for a nominee to run against President Donald Trump in November.Longtime establishment favorite Joe Biden, a former two-term vice president, is fighting to breathe new life into his flailing campaign, which enters the night at the bottom of a moderate muddle with former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Sanders, a Vermont senator, has emerged as the progressive wing’s clear preference after two contests as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is struggling to regain energy around her campaign.Some Democrats fear that the conditions are ripe for a bare-knuckles brawl on national television that could carve new scars into a divided Democratic Party that must ultimately come together this fall if it hopes to deny the Republican president a second term.Bloomberg’s rivals have already indicated they will lean into his explosive comments on race and gender in addition to their charge that he’s using a fortune earned from a career on Wall Street to buy the presidency. Bloomberg’s rise in national polls has been fueled almost exclusively by an unprecedented national advertising campaign, carefully controlled campaign events and a sprawling national organization that has likely already cost him more than half a billion dollars.Alexandra Rojas, executive director of the Sanders-allied Justice Democrats, called Wednesday Bloomberg’s first “public moment of accountability.””It’s going to be a chance to finally bring scrutiny to Bloomberg’s record as a Republican plutocrat,” she said.Bloomberg vs. SandersBloomberg has been preparing for the debate behind closed doors for weeks, including prep sessions that feature senior aides playing his leading competitors. They expect him to come under attack early and often from multiple rivals.FILE – Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign event at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Feb. 18, 2020.His team was working to lower expectations ahead of his performance, suggesting his debate skills are rusty after more than a decade since his last election.Bloomberg hasn’t been on a debate stage since 2009. His team notes he never faced more than one rival at a time over three elections for New York City mayor.Despite the challenges, senior adviser Tim O’Brien signaled that Bloomberg welcomed a fight against Sanders, whom the campaign perceives to be the race’s clear front-runner.”I think you’re going to see us go toe-to-toe with Bernie Sanders on important issues,” O’Brien said in an interview, raising questions about Sanders’ personal wealth, record on criminal justice and gun control.Sanders welcomed the fight as well.The Vermont senator railed against Bloomberg and “a system that allows billionaires to buy elections,” while campaigning in Nevada on the eve of the debate.”Here is the message: Anyone here worth $60 billion, you can run for president, and you can buy the airwaves. My friends, that is called oligarchy, not democracy.”While the same age and race, Bloomberg and Sanders are ideological opposites.Bloomberg is one of the world’s richest men, having generated a net worth estimated at $60 billion after a career on Wall Street. He has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to combat climate change and gun violence and promote immigration reform in recent years, yet he takes a decidedly pragmatic approach that celebrates incremental improvement backed by data.Sanders has a net worth estimated at $2.5 million thanks to book sales and the value of his home, but he has spent a lifetime in politics as an uncompromising democratic socialist demanding a political revolution to transform the nation’s politics and economy. He measures his success largely by the impact he’s had on the public debate, which has warmed to his calls for a $15 minimum wage, universal health care and sweeping action on climate change.Voters will not formally judge Bloomberg’s performance until next month.He is not technically competing in Nevada’s Saturday caucuses or any of the four primary contests scheduled for this month, preferring to invest his time and resources in the delegate-rich states that begin voting in March. In the modern era, such a strategy has never worked. Yet it’s never been attempted by someone as wealthy as Bloomberg, who has already invested more than $400 million into a national advertising campaign and hired more than 2,000 campaign staffers.Other candidatesThe focus on Bloomberg on the debate stage, of course, means there will be less oxygen for others at a critical moment.Buttigieg essentially tied in Iowa with Sanders and was a narrow second-place finisher in New Hampshire, yet many establishment leaders remain skeptical of the 38-year-old’s limited experience and ability to assemble a multiracial coalition to defeat Trump. Buttigieg needs a strong performance to help blunt Bloomberg’s momentum.FILE – Democratic presidential candidate, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks as attendees raise their hands to ask questions during a campaign event at Durango Hills Community Center in Las Vegas, Feb. 18, 2020.Klobuchar surged into the top tier of the race with a strong debate performance in New Hampshire. But with a significantly smaller national brand, she faces lingering questions about the strength of her organization and appeal among minority voters.Warren may have the most to gain Wednesday night, having been pushed from the top tier after a bad performance in New Hampshire’s primary last week. She remains popular with her party’s far-left wing, though it’s unclear if or when she will win a primary contest.And Biden is betting everything on a comeback fueled by minority support in Nevada and South Carolina in the next two weeks.A top Biden official described the former vice president as eager to confront Bloomberg on the debate stage. But Biden is also targeting Sanders.He previewed one line of attack over the weekend, seizing on Sanders’ support for a 2005 law that granted gun makers civil immunity. Biden also hammered his strength with the powerful Culinary Union, which hasn’t endorsed a candidate but claimed that Sanders’ “Medicare for All” proposal would threaten their current health care coverage.Amid the infighting, Democratic National Committee member Robert Zimmerman fears that his party may lose sight of its chief mission in 2020: defeating Trump.”It’s going to get much nastier,” Zimmerman said of Wednesday’s debate. “The candidates have an obligation to unite the party, and they’re not going to get there by throwing around charges of racism and personal slurs.”
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By Polityk | 02/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Super PACs Aid Warren, Klobuchar Whether They Like It or Not
Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar are getting help for their presidential bids from separate super PACs, whether they like it or not. Persist PAC started running ads Wednesday in Nevada to support Warren. The Massachusetts senator has made lessening the influence of unlimited spending a centerpiece of her campaign. Kitchen Table Conversations PAC is running ads in Nevada and South Carolina to help Klobuchar. The Minnesota senator has rejected contributions from corporate political action committees. It’s the type of spending that Democrats lined up against at the start of the campaign. But as outside groups backed other candidates and billionaire Mike Bloomberg joined the race, making multimillion-dollar ad buys across the United States, the groups and supporters such as Emily’s List said they needed to jump in and help boost the campaigns of the top two women still in the race. Senator Warren is the best candidate to take on Donald Trump and win, and we're going to ensure primary voters and caucusgoers hear her message,'' said Joshua Karp, a spokesman for Persist PAC. He said the ad buy was over $1 million. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts speaks at a "Care In Action" campaign rally, Feb. 18, 2020, in Las Vegas.The ad portrays Warren as a fighter who took on Wall Street, and it includes images of President Barack Obama, who chose her to set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Warren campaign said her positionhasn’t changed,adding that she hasmade clear that she thinks all of the candidates should lock arms together and say we don’t want super PACs and billionaires to be deciding our Democratic nominee.” Warren is third in the delegate count for the Democratic nomination, after finishing third in Iowa and fourth in New Hampshire. She has said the race remains wide open'' and has begun campaigning in states that will vote in the Super Tuesday contests on March 3. Kitchen Table Conversations PAC, the group supporting Klobuchar, is led by two Minnesota-based strategists. The group says it's launchingsix-figure buys” to run TV and digital ads in Nevada and South Carolina. More ads are expected, the group said in a news release. Health care storyThe first ad tells the story of how Klobuchar was kicked out of the hospital shortly after her daughter was born with a health issue, then fought to change state law to allow women and their babies to have longer hospital stays. Klobuchar has said that experience launched her career in politics. Klobuchar had a surprising third-place finish in New Hampshire after coming in fifth in Iowa. She is hoping the momentum will help her when Nevada holds its caucuses Saturday and in the February 29 primary in South Carolina. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota speaks during a candidate forum on infrastructure at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Feb. 16, 2020, in Las Vegas.Emily’s List, which supports women in politics, said it’s giving $250,000 each to the pro-Klobuchar and pro-Warren PACs. Vice President Christina Reynolds said the group has been impressed by the campaigns the women are running and wants to help amplify their messages. Reynolds and others have said in recent weeks they believe gender bias has made it more difficult for the campaigns to break through. She said Wednesday that the group decided it was time to help, working under the rules and laws in place rather than those Democrats may wish to see. “While we respect their views and agree on the need for campaign finance reform, we believe this election is too important and we want to do what we can within the bounds of existing law to support them,” Reynolds said. A super PAC may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, including from corporations and unions, to campaign independently for candidates for federal office.
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By Polityk | 02/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Ex-Governor Blagojevich Returns to Chicago, Maintains Innocence
Rod Blagojevich returned home to Chicago early Wednesday, shaking hands and signing autographs after President Donald Trump cut short the 14-year prison sentence handed to the former Illinois governor for political corruption.Blagojevich landed at O’Hare airport hours after walking out of a Colorado prison where he served eight years, promising to work for judicial and criminal justice reform while maintaining his innocence.”I didn’t do the things they said I did and they lied on me,” Blagojevich, a one-time contestant on Trump’s reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice,” told WGN-TV as he walked through the airport greeting travelers who welcomed him home.Blagojevich, 63, hails from a state with a long history of pay-to-play schemes. He was convicted in 2011 of crimes that included seeking to sell an appointment to Barack Obama’s old Senate seat and trying to shake down a children’s hospital.Trump, who announced clemency for 11 people on Tuesday, called Blagojevich’s punishment excessive.”That was a tremendously powerful, ridiculous sentence in my opinion and in the opinion of many others,” Trump told reporters in Washington.Blagojevich told WGN-TV he learned of his commutation when other inmates told him they saw it on the news, insisting he “had no inkling it was coming.”FILE – A supporter of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich makes a sign thanking President Donald Trump at the Blagojevich home in Chicago, Feb. 18, 2020.Trump had said repeatedly in recent years that he was considering taking executive action in Blagojevich’s case, only to back away from the idea.”I’m profoundly grateful to President Trump and it’s a profound and everlasting gratitude,” Blagojevich told WGN. “He didn’t have to do this, he’s a Republican president and I was a Democratic governor.”Blagojevich was rushed by media and supporters as he exited the airport in Chicago early Wednesday, signing a few autographs before getting into a white SUV and speeding out of the airport toward his home in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood. There he was rushed through a crowd of journalists and supporters to his front door.The silver-haired former governor stopped briefly on his porch and said he was happy to be home with his wife and children before disappearing into the house, where he and his family planned a “homecoming press conference” later Wednesday.Blagojevich was famously fastidious about his dark hair as governor, but it went all white because hair dyes are banned in prison.’Wrong message’Some in Illinois, including the current governor, said Tuesday that setting Blagojevich free was a mistake.Trump “has abused his pardon power in inexplicable ways to reward his friends and condone corruption, and I deeply believe this pardon sends the wrong message at the wrong time,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a written statement.FILE – Journalists gather in front of the home of Patti Blagojevich, wife of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago, Feb. 18, 2020.Many Republicans agreed.”In a state where corrupt, machine-style politics is still all too common, it’s important that those found guilty serve their prison sentence in its entirety,” said the chairman of the Illinois GOP, Tim Schneider.Trump made clear that he saw similarities between efforts to investigate his own conduct and those who took down Blagojevich.”It was a prosecution by the same people — Comey, Fitzpatrick, the same group,” Trump said. He was referring to Patrick Fitzgerald, the former U.S. attorney who prosecuted Blagojevich and now represents former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired from the agency in May 2017. Comey was not at the FBI or anywhere in the Department of Justice during the investigation and indictment of Blagojevich.Blagojevich’s convictionThe Illinois House in January 2009 voted 114-1 to impeach Blagojevich, and the state Senate voted unanimously to remove him, making him the first Illinois governor in history to be removed by lawmakers. He entered prison in March 2012.Blagojevich’s wife, Patti, went on a media blitz in 2018 to encourage Trump to step in, praising the president and likening the investigation of her husband to special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election — a probe Trump long characterized as a “witch hunt.”Blagojevich’s conviction was notable, even in a state where four of the last 10 governors have gone to prison for corruption. Judge James Zagel — who sentenced Blagojevich to the longest prison term yet for an Illinois politician — said when a governor “goes bad, the fabric of Illinois is torn and disfigured.”After his Dec. 9, 2008, arrest while still governor, Blagojevich became known for his foul-mouthed rants on wiretaps. On the most notorious recording, he gushed about profiting by naming someone to the seat Obama vacated to become president: “I’ve got this thing and it’s f—— golden. And I’m just not giving it up for f—— nothing.”Prosecutors have balked at the notion long promoted by Blagojevich that he engaged in common political horse-trading and was a victim of an overzealous U.S. attorney. After Blagojevich’s arrest, Fitzgerald said the governor had gone on “a political corruption crime spree” that would make Abraham Lincoln turn over in his grave.A joint statement from Fitzgerald and the lead prosecutors at Blagojevich’s trial, none of whom work in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago anymore, stopped short of criticizing Trump’s decision. But they highlighted the convictions, including for trying to shake down the children’s hospital, saying, “Mr. Blagojevich remains a felon.”Mueller — a subject of Trump’s derision — was FBI director during the investigation into Blagojevich.Trump expressed some sympathy for Blagojevich when he appeared on “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2010, before his first corruption trial started. When Trump “fired” Blagojevich as a contestant, he praised him for how he was fighting his criminal case, telling him, “You have a hell of a lot of guts.”Blagojevich’s first trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict, except for a single conviction, for lying to the FBI.At his second trial in 2011, Blagojevich testified, describing himself as a flawed dreamer grounded in his parents’ working-class values. He sought to humanize himself to counteract the seemingly greedy governor heard on wiretap recordings played in court. He said the hours of FBI recordings were the ramblings of a politician who liked to think out loud.He was convicted on 18 counts. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in 2015 tossed out five of the convictions, including ones in which he offered to appoint someone to a high-paying job in the Senate.The appeals court ordered the trial judge to resentence Blagojevich but suggested it would be appropriate to hand him the same sentence, given the gravity of the crimes.”I’ve made a whole bunch of mistakes but I didn’t break any laws,” Blagojevich told ABC 7 Chicago in Denver before boarding his Tuesday night flight. “I crossed no lines. And the things I talked about doing were legal and this was routine politics and the ones who did it are the ones who broke the laws and the ones who frankly should meet and face some accountability.”
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By Polityk | 02/19/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Top US Diplomat Says He Will Discuss Human Rights with Saudi Leaders
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he plans to discuss human rights issues with Saudi leaders during a visit to the country, particularly the plight of a Saudi-American doctor who is facing charges there.Pompeo arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for a three-day visit, when he will meet with King Salmon, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, the U.S. State Department said.Pompeo said he will speak with the Saudi leaders about Saudi-American physician Walid Fitaihi, who was detained in November 2017 amid the Saudi prince’s unprecedented anti-corruption crackdown that detained ministers, senior princes and businessmen.“I’m sure I’ll bring up that issue and a wide range of human rights issues, as well,” Pompeo told reporters in Addis Ababa before flying to Saudi Arabia.About 200 people were detained for weeks and months in a hotel in Riyadh and forced to relinquish billions of dollars in assets to the Saudi government.Fitaihi, who was detained on unspecified charges, was freed last summer. But he and seven of his relatives who are also U.S. citizens have been prohibited from leaving Saudi Arabia while he stands trial, according to U.S. Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel and Republican Congressman Michael McCaul.The two U.S. lawmakers, members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, submitted a letter to Pompeo on Tuesday urging him to discuss Fitaihi’s case with Saudi leaders. They said Fitaihi was detained without being charged for nearly two years. Ahmed Fitaihi told members of the U.S. congress his father had been tortured and had infrequent contact with his family while he was detained.Saudi Arabia, and the crown prince in particular, are under close global scrutiny for alleged human rights abuses. The prince’s reputation was tarnished after Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in 2018 inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi was living in exile and writing about the prince’s crackdown when agents employed by the prince murdered him.Pompeo said he will also discuss economic and security issues with Saudi leaders, particularly security matters involving Iran.After departing Saudi Arabia, Pompeo will visit Oman — a close U.S. ally who also has relations with the Saudi Kingdom and Iran.Pompeo ended a three-day tour of Africa Wednesday before leaving for Saudi Arabia.Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
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By Polityk | 02/19/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Nevada Provides Next Test for US Presidential Candidates
The U.S. presidential contest has moved to another state. Arid, sparsely-populated Nevada holds its nominating caucuses Saturday, and already thousands have cast their ballots in early voting. Candidates are competing for the votes of 200,000 union members. As VOA’s Carolyn Presutti reports from Las Vegas, securing union backing is more challenging than in previous election years.
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By Polityk | 02/19/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Bloomberg Makes Debate Stage After Unprecedented Campaign Ad Spending Spree
After skipping the first two presidential primary contests, billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg will be on the election debate stage for the first time Wednesday night in Las Vegas. Bloomberg has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on political ads on TV, radio and social media, raising his name recognition and poll numbers enough to qualify for the debate. VOA’s Steve Redisch has more on Bloomberg’s spending strategy.
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By Polityk | 02/19/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Sanders’ Campaign to Request Iowa Recount
Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign plans to ask for a partial recount of the Iowa caucus results after the state Democratic Party releases the results of its recanvass.Sanders campaign senior adviser Jeff Weaver told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that the campaign has had a representative in contact with the Iowa Democratic Party throughout the recanvass process. “Based on what we understand to be the results, we intend to ask for a recount,” Weaver said.Slim margin separates Sanders, ButtigiegThe campaign expects that the already slim margin separating Sanders from Pete Buttigieg for the lead in Iowa will remain small enough that a recount would make a difference in the outcome.The caucuses were roiled by significant issues in collecting and reporting data from individual precincts on caucus night. There were also errors in the complicated mathematical equations used to calculate the results in individual caucus sites that became evident as the party began to release caucus data throughout the week.The AP reviewed the last reported results of the Iowa caucuses and decided that it remains unable to declare a winner based on the available information. The results, the AP says, may not be fully accurate and are still subject to potential revision.In a recanvass, the Iowa Democratic Party would only update their reported results; they would not correct errors in the math, and party officials have said publicly that the only opportunity to correct the math would be a recount.In a recount, party officials use the preference cards that caucusgoers filled out outlining their first and second choices in the room on caucus night and rerun all the math in each individual precinct.The Iowa Democratic Party states in its Recount and Recanvass manual that “only evidence suggesting errors that would change the allocation of one or more National Delegates will be considered an adequate justification for a recount.”Errors must be significantThat means the errors must be significant enough to change the outcome of the overall caucus.Iowa awards 41 national delegates in its caucuses. As it stands, Buttigieg has 13 and Sanders has 12. Trailing behind are Elizabeth Warren with eight, Joe Biden with six and Amy Klobuchar with one.The 41st and final delegate from Iowa will go to the overall winner. The caucus won’t formally come to an end until the recount is completed.In its recanvass request, the Sanders campaign outlined 25 precincts and three satellite caucuses where it believes correcting faulty math could swing the delegate allocation in Sanders’ favor and deliver him, not Buttigieg, that final delegate.
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By Polityk | 02/19/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Homeland Security Waives Contracting Laws for Border Wall
The Trump administration said Tuesday that it is waiving federal contracting laws to speed construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, moving the president closer to fulfilling a signature campaign promise in an election year but sparking criticism about potential for fraud, waste and abuse.The Department of Homeland Security said waiving procurement regulations will allow 177 miles (283 kilometers) of wall to be built more quickly in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The 10 waived laws include a requirement for open competition and giving losing bidders a chance to protest decisions.FILE – Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf listens during a press conference in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Jan. 9, 2020.The acting Homeland Security secretary, Chad Wolf, is exercising authority under a 2005 law that gives him sweeping powers to waive laws for building border barriers.”We hope that will accelerate some of the construction that’s going along the southwest border,” Wolf told Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.”Secretaries under President Donald Trump have issued 16 waivers, and President George W. Bush issued five, but Tuesday’s announcement marks the first time that waivers have applied to federal procurement rules. Previously they were used to waive environmental impact reviews.The Trump administration said the waivers will allow at least 94 miles (150 kilometers) of wall to be built this year, bringing the Republican leader closer to his goal of about 450 miles (720 kilometers) since he took office and made it one of his top domestic priorities. It said the other 83 miles (133 kilometers) covered by the waivers may get built this year.”Under the president’s leadership, we are building more wall, faster than ever before,” the department said in a statement.Taxpayer safeguardsCritics say the waivers do away with key taxpayer safeguards. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said the president’s “cronies are likely to be the beneficiaries.”Charles Tiefer a professor at University of Baltimore School of Law who specializes in government contracts, said the government “can just pick the contractor you want and you just ram it through. … The sky’s the limit on what they bill.”Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, said waiving a law for contractors to provide the government with certified cost data — such as how much they pay for labor or parts — could lead to grossly inflated prices.”It’s equivalent to buying a car without seeing a sticker price,” Amey said. “This could be a recipe for shoddy work and paying a much higher price than they should.”Administration officials say providing cost data can be onerous and difficult.Waiver authority Congress gave the secretary power to waive laws in areas of high illegal activity in 2005 in legislation that included emergency spending for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and minimum standards for state-issued identification cards. The Senate approved it unanimously, with support from Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The House passed it with strong bipartisan support; then-Rep. Bernie Sanders voted against it.The waiver authority has survived legal challenges. In 2018, a federal judge in San Diego rejected arguments by California and environmental advocacy groups that the secretary’s broad powers should have an expiration date. An appeals court upheld the ruling last year.The waivers, to be published in the Federal Register, apply to projects that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will award in six Border Patrol sectors: San Diego and El Centro in California; Yuma and Tucson in Arizona; El Paso, which spans New Mexico and west Texas, and Del Rio, Texas.The move came five days after Defense Secretary Mark Esper approved a $3.8 billion request from Homeland Security to pay for walls in those same areas, and the Pentagon acknowledged that more cuts could be coming to provide additional funding. The Pentagon’s decision stripped money from major aircraft and procurement programs that touch Republican and Democratic districts and states.The Defense Department transferred $6.1 billion to wall construction from its counter-narcotics and construction budgets after Congress gave Trump only a portion of what he wanted. The administration has been able to spend Pentagon money during legal challenges.The administration said the waivers will apply to contractors that have already been vetted. In May, the Army Corps named 12 companies to compete for Pentagon-funded contracts.Those shortlisted companies are Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. of Dickinson, North Dakota, whose leader has sought publicity on conservative media; Texas Sterling Construction Co., of Houston, a unit of Sterling Construction Co.; a joint venture Caddell Construction Co., of Montgomery, Alabama, and Gibraltar Construction Co. of Annapolis, Maryland; Barnard Construction Co. of Bozeman, Montana; West Point Contractors Inc. of Tucson, Arizona; Southwest Valley Constructors Co. of Albuquerque, New Mexico, a unit of Kiewit Corp.; Bristol Construction Services LLC of Anchorage, Alaska; Randy Kinder Excavating Inc. of Dexter, Missouri; CJW Construction Inc., of Santa Ana, California; Burgos Group LLC of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Posillico Civil Inc. / Coastal Environmental Group Inc. of Farmingdale, New York; and Martin Brothers Construction Co. of Sacramento, California.
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By Polityk | 02/19/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Barr Under Fire as Public Uproar Over Justice Department Decision Increases
A week after Attorney General William Barr overturned the Justice Department’s recommendation for a stiff prison sentence for U.S. President Donald Trump’s friend Roger Stone, the public uproar over political meddling in the U.S. system of justice rages.A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Stone will be sentenced Thursday while she decides whether to grant the presidential friend’s request for a new trial. Stone’s motion for a retrial came after Trump accused the jury forewoman in the case of “significant bias.”He was convicted last November of seven counts, including lying to Congress about his role in Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and tampering with a witness.Whether or not Stone is given a new trial, the decision to sentence him rests with Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Trump has railed at Jackson for subjecting another former associate to solitary confinement. The likelihood that she will send Stone to prison has heightened speculation that Trump could respond with a pardon for a friend he thinks has been unjustly prosecuted.FILE – This courtroom sketch shows Roger Stone talking from the witness stand as Judge Amy Berman Jackson listens during a court hearing at the U.S. District Courthouse in Washington, Feb. 21, 2019.Trump has not ruled out pardoning Stone. While he has the power to pardon anyone convicted of a federal crime for any reason other than impeachment, shielding a friend convicted of serious crimes from prison could raise new questions about the independence of the system of justice under his administration.If Trump were to pardon Stone, it would “turn this into a very, very big political event,” said David Axelrod, a former Justice Department prosecutor.”It would further undermine faith in law enforcement in this country and show normal people that if you’re a friend of the president or those in power, you may not be treated the same as average Americans,” Axelrod said.Pardoning powerHans von Spakovsky, another Justice Department official now with the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, said the president’s pardon power is near absolute and that it would not be out of the ordinary for a president to pardon a convicted friend.”He’s got the ability to do that and it can’t be questioned,” von Spakovsky said. “Neither Congress nor anyone else can overrule or somehow prevent a pardon issued by the president.”In 2001, just hours before leaving office, then-President Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive trader Marc Rich in one of the most controversial presidential pardons. Rich’s wife had pledged large sums of money to Clinton’s presidential library.FILE – Denise Rich, left, ex-wife of Marc Rich, presents U.S. President Bill Clinton with a saxophone as first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton applauds at the G&P Foundation gala in New York City, Nov. 30, 2000.”It was very clearly done for political reasons and not because this individual Marc Rich had somehow acknowledged wrongdoing or anything else,” von Spakovsky said.Trump and Stone have been friends for decades. In the 1980s, Stone, a self-described “political trickster” who has an image of the disgraced former President Richard Nixon tattooed on his back, encouraged Trump, then an up-and-coming New York real estate developer, to run for president.Last November, a jury found Stone guilty of obstruction of justice, witness tampering and lying to Congress about his efforts during the 2016 presidential election to obtain stolen emails of Hillary Clinton from the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.The controversy over Stone’s sentencing erupted last week when Barr and other top Justice Department officials overturned four career prosecutors’ recommendation that Stone receive seven to nine years in prison, in line with federal sentencing guidelines.Barr’s decision came shortly after Trump tweeted that the recommended sentence was “a miscarriage of justice” that could not be allowed to move forward, fueling concerns that Barr was carrying out the president’s wishes. The four prosecutors withdrew from the case in protest.Although both Trump and Barr later said they had never discussed the Stone case, the fury did not subside amid new reports that Barr had brought in outside prosecutors to oversee politically sensitive investigations and review a number of criminal cases, including the case of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.In an open letter issued Sunday, more than 2,000 former Justice Department officials called on Barr to resign. A national association of federal judges called an emergency meeting to address the controversy.”It is really a wake-up call to the country to make sure that we’re paying attention to the importance of having an independent Justice Department,” said Derek Cohen, a former senior Justice Department official who signed the letter.Trump’s pardonsWhether Trump will pardon Stone remains uncertain. But Trump has the authority to pardon him. The U.S. Constitution empowers the president “to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” A presidential pardon restores a convict’s civil rights, such as the right to vote.Since taking office, Trump has pardoned 18 convicted felons, including several well-connected figures in conservative circles. In 2017, he pardoned former Arizona Sheriff Joseph Arpaio a month after Arpaio was convicted of contempt of court for ignoring a judge’s order to stop arresting immigrants on suspicion that they were undocumented.FILE – Financier Michael Milken leads a discussion at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., April 30, 2018.On Tuesday, Trump issued full pardons to several prominent individuals, including Michael Milken, a former Wall Street financier, and Bernard Kerik, a former New York City Commissioner and business partner of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.Trump has previously expressed openness to pardoning his former associates, saying it was unfair that former campaign manager Paul Manafort got a stiff sentence while former FBI Director James Comey walked free. More recently, however, Trump batted away questions about an immediate pardon. Last week, he told radio talk show host Geraldo Rivera that he didn’t “want to talk about pardons right now.”The implications of pardoning Stone “are not good for our country and the independence of our judiciary moving forward,” said Cohen, the former Justice official. “In past administrations and past history, if presidents were to go out of their way and abuse or appear to abuse the pardon system to benefit their friends, that would be the sort of thing that one would expect either the voters or the Congress would have a problem with.”
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By Polityk | 02/19/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Stands by Attorney General Who Accused Him of Making Job ‘Impossible’
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he has total confidence in U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who last week said in an interview that Trump’s tweeting habit had made it impossible for him to do his job.”I do make his job harder … I do agree with that,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One. “The Attorney General is a man with great integrity.”Last week senior Justice Department officials withdrew an earlier sentencing recommendation for longtime Trump friend Roger Stone, who was found guilty in November of seven counts of lying to Congress, prompting upheaval within the department.More than 1,000 former department officials have now called for Barr to resign.Trump has used Twitter to attack the four prosecutors who had argued the case as well as the judge presiding over it.Barr said in an ABC Interview last Thursday that he cannot do his job “with a constant background commentary” and that it is “time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases.”While Trump offered words of support for Barr, he also spoke enthusiastically about tweeting. “Social media for me has been very important because it gives me a voice,” he said.
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By Polityk | 02/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
President Trump Goes on Clemency Spree, and the List is Long
President Donald Trump has gone on a clemency blitz, commuting the 14-year prison sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and pardoning former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik, among a long list of others.Trump also told reporters that he has pardoned financier Michael Milken, who pleaded guilty for violating U.S. securities laws and served two years in prison in the early 1990s. Trump also pardoned Edward DeBartolo Jr., the former San Francisco 49ers owner convicted in a gambling fraud scandal who built one of the most successful NFL teams in the game’s history.Blagojevich, who appeared on Trump’s reality TV show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” was convicted of political corruption, including seeking to sell an appointment to Barack Obama’s old Senate seat and trying to shake down a children’s hospital. But Trump said he had been subjected to a “ridiculous sentence” that didn’t fit his crimes.Kerik served just over three years for tax fraud and lying to the White House while being interviewed to be Homeland Security secretary.“We have Bernie Kerik, we have Mike Milken, who’s gone around and done an incredible job,” Trump said, adding that Milken had “paid a big price.”Earlier, the White House announced that Trump had pardoned DeBartolo Jr., who was involved in one of the biggest owners’ scandals in the sport’s history. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to failing to report a felony when he paid $400,000 to former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards in exchange for a riverboat gambling license.He also pardoned Ariel Friedler, a technology entrepreneur, who pleaded guilty to accessing a computer without authorization; Paul Pogue a construction company owner who underpaid his taxes; David Safavian, who was convicted of obstructing an investigation into a trip he took while he was a senior government official; and Angela Stanton, an author who served a six-month home sentence for her role in a stolen vehicle ring.Blagojevich, a Democrat who hails from a state with a long history of pay-to-play schemes, exhausted his last appellate option in 2018 and had seemed destined to remain behind bars until his projected 2024 release date. His wife, Patti, went on a media blitz in 2018 to encourage Trump to step in, praising the president and likening the investigation of her husband to special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election — a probe Trump long characterized as a “witchhunt.”Blagojevich’s conviction was notable, even in a state where four of the last 10 governors have gone to prison for corruption. Judge James Zagel — who in 2011 sentenced Blagojevich to the longest prison term yet for an Illinois politician — said when a governor “goes bad, the fabric of Illinois is torn and disfigured.”Blagojevich became the brunt of jokes for foul-mouthed rants on wiretaps released after his Dec. 9, 2008, arrest while still governor. On the most notorious recording, he gushes about profiting by naming someone to the seat Obama vacated to become president: “I’ve got this thing and it’s f—— golden. And I’m just not giving it up for f—— nothing.”When Trump publicly broached the idea in May 2018 of intervening to free Blagojevich, he downplayed the former governor’s crimes. He said Blagojevich was convicted for “being stupid, saying things that every other politician, you know, that many other politicians say.” He said Blagojevich’s sentence was too harsh.Prosecutors have balked at the notion long fostered by Blagojevich that he engaged in common political horse-trading and was a victim of an overzealous U.S. attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald said after Blagojevich’s arrest that the governor had gone on “a political corruption crime spree” that would make Abraham Lincoln turn over in his grave.Mueller — a subject of Trump’s derision — was FBI director during the investigation into Blagojevich. Fitzgerald is now a private attorney for another former FBI director, James Comey, whom Trump dismissed from the agency in May 2017.Trump also expressed some sympathy for Blagojevich when he appeared on “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2010 before his first corruption trial started. As Trump “fired” Blagojevich as a contestant, he praised him for how he was fighting his criminal case, telling him: “You have a hell of a lot of guts.”He later poll-tested the matter, asking for a show of hands of those who supported clemency at an October, 2019 fundraiser at his Chicago hotel. Most of the 200 to 300 attendees raised their hands, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing several people at the event.Blagojevich testified at his 2011 retrial, describing himself as a flawed dreamer grounded in his parents’ working-class values. He sought to humanize himself to counteract the blunt, profane, seemingly greedy Blagojevich heard on wiretap recordings played in court by prosecutors over several weeks. He said the hours of FBI recordings were the ramblings of a politician who liked to think out loud.But jurors accepted evidence that Blagojevich demanded a $50,000 donation from the head of a children’s hospital in return for increased state support, and extorted $100,000 in donations from two horse racing tracks and a racing executive in exchange for quick approval of legislation the tracks wanted.He originally convicted on 18 counts, including lying to the FBI, wire fraud for trying to trade an appointment to the Obama seat for contributions, and for the attempted extortion of a children’s hospital executive. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in 2015 tossed five of 18 convictions, including ones in which he offered to appoint someone to a high-paying job in the Senate.The appeals court ordered the trial judge to resentence Blagojevich, but suggested it would be appropriate to hand him the same sentence, given the gravity of the crimes. Blagojevich appeared via live video from prison during the 2016 resentencing and asked for leniency. The judge gave him the same 14-year term, saying it was below federal guidelines when he imposed it the first time.Blagojevich had once aspired to run for president himself but entered the Federal Correctional Institution Englewood in suburban Denver in 2012, disgraced and broke. Court documents filed by his lawyers in 2016 portrayed Blagojevich — known as brash in his days as governor — as humble and self-effacing, as well as an insightful life coach and lecturer on everything from the Civil War to Richard Nixon. Blagojevich, an Elvis Presley fan, also formed a prison band called “The Jailhouse Rockers.”
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By Polityk | 02/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
White House Correspondents Dinner Gets the Joke Again
The White House Correspondents Association said Tuesday it will bring comedy back to this year’s annual dinner, a once light-hearted staple of the Washington calendar that has become deeply politicized under U.S. President Donald Trump.The WHCA said Saturday Night Live veteran Kenan Thompson will host the April 25 dinner, while Hasan Minhaj, the Peabody award-winning host of Netflix’s “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj,” will be the entertainer.”Kenan and Hasan are two of the most engaged and engaging entertainers in America. I’m thrilled they’ll help us celebrate the role of a free press in our democracy,” said Jonathan Karl, ABC News correspondent and president of the WHCA. “We’re looking forward to a lively evening honoring the most important political journalism of the past year.”In 2019, the swanky dinner held in a hotel near the White House featured a talk by historian Ron Chernow, suspending the tradition of having comedians let rip at the media and politicians.This followed an outcry from the White House over barbed jokes made the previous year by comedian Michelle Wolf. The disruption also reflected the often difficult relations between Trump and the journalists covering his administration, as well as accusations that the WHCA bash was self-indulgent at a time of economic crisis in the news media.Most years, presidents have attended the dinner, but Trump, who regularly insults journalists and deems the media the “enemy,” has skipped each one during his administration.
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By Polityk | 02/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Federal Judges to Hold Emergency Meeting on Trump Admin. Interference in Politically Sensitive Cases
A national association of federal judges will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday after Justice Department officials intervened in the case involving a close confident of U.S. President Donald Trump.The head of the independent Federal Judges Association, District Judge Cynthia Rufe, tells VOA the judges are “concerned about the attacks on individual judges” and it will be the main issue to be discussed.Rufe declined to give any more details, but said the jurists “could not wait” until their spring meeting.The Justice Department stunned the political and legal community last week when it overruled its own prosecutors and recommended a lighter prison sentence for Roger Stone — a longtime friend and confident of Trump who was convicted on lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice stemming from the Russian election meddling probe.Prosecutors in the case had recommended seven to nine years prison time for Stone — a recommendation based on sentencing guidelines for such crimes.But the Justice Department recommended a lighter sentence after Trump complained in a tweet that the seven to nine years would be “horrible” and “unfair.”Three prosecutors in the Stone case withdrew and a fourth quit the agency altogether.Stone is to be sentenced Thursday and it is up to Judge Amy Berman Jackson to decide how long he is to be locked up.This courtroom sketch shows former campaign adviser for President Donald Trump, Roger Stone talking from the witness stand as Judge Amy Berman Jackson listens during a court hearing at the U.S. District Courthouse in Washington, Feb. 21, 2019.Jackson has scheduled a Tuesday conference call with attorneys in the Roger Stone case, two days before the former Trump associate is set to be sentenced.Former President Barack Obama appointed Judge Jackson and Trump has been notoriously critical of many decisions and policies made by his predecessor. Trump complained last week about Jackson’s decision to jail former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in solitary confinement and not to try to prosecute former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.Judge Rufe says the Federal Judges’ Association has no interest in getting involved in the Stone case, but does support Jackson.”We are supportive of any federal judge who does what is required,” she said.The Roger Stone case has raised questions in Congress about political interference in what is historically suppose to be an independent judiciary.Trump congratulated Attorney General William Barr last week for “taking charge” of the Stone case. But both deny that Trump asked Barr to intervene.Barr is scheduled to appear before Congress next month.More than 2,000 former Justice Department officials have called on Barr to resign, saying his handling of the Stone case “openly and repeatedly flouted” the independence of the judicial branch.Barr told ABC News last week that Trump’s tweets “make it impossible for him to do his job,” saying he will not be “bullied or influenced by anybody, whether it’s Congress, a newspaper editorial board, or the president.”
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By Polityk | 02/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Kansas Elections Chief’s Security Plan Causes Local Unease
Kansas’ elections chief is pushing to make the state’s central voter registration database more secure by changing how counties tap into it, but some officials are nervous about what they see as a big project in a busy election year.Secretary of State Scott Schwab has told county election officials that he wants them to use dedicated tablets, laptops or computers not linked to their counties’ networks to access the state’s voter registration database. He says Kansas is getting $8 million in federal election security funds that could be used to cover the costs.Schwab, a Republican and former Kansas House member from the Kansas City area who became the state’s top elections official last year, contends such a setup will decrease the likelihood of foreign nationals, foreign governments or domestic hackers gaining access to voter registration records. His idea has bipartisan support.In September 2017, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told officials in 21 states that their election systems had been targeted by hackers before the 2016 presidential election. Kansas wasn’t on the list, but Schwab said in an interview last week that “every area of government gets pinged thousands of times.”Still, even some county election officials who agree that Schwab’s initiative would make voter registration records more secure see it as a huge undertaking, incorporating the different computer and voting systems of 105 counties.“We’d have to rewire our entire office,” said Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew, a Democrat who has held his elected post in northeast Kansas since 2005. “There’s serious logistical challenges.”Schwab told about two-dozen lawmakers during a recent Statehouse lunch that he does not think his initiative will be difficult to fulfill. He predicted that they would be required only to plug in a dedicated device and isolate it from the normal county network.“Right now, counties maintain that list on a county computer that can, maybe, be touched by the appraiser’s office, where some young intern clicks on an email that says, ‘Click here for a free X-Box,’” Schwab said. “This is probably the best way that we can defend our database.”Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, said the move is “probably a good idea,” and the secretary of state’s proposal has drawn support from his predecessor, conservative Republican firebrand Kris Kobach, who said it would be “an additional level of security.”Kobach successfully pushed for some of the nation’s toughest voter ID laws, including a now-on-hold proof-of-citizenship requirement for new voters, making Kansas a magnet for lawsuits.Schwab’s initiative raises eyebrows because he’s facing criticism on another front from Democrats and some officials of both parties in Sedgwick County, which is home to the state’s largest city, Wichita. Schwab has said it will take another year to implement a 2019 law that will permit counties to allow voters to cast their ballots at any polling place on Election Day.The Kansas Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee sued Schwab on Friday in state district court in Topeka, arguing that Schwab is “in dereliction of his clear legal duties.”Some Wichita-area officials wonder how Schwab can declare that the state isn’t ready for a “vote anywhere” system after they’ve prepared for it while also pushing counties to install new equipment with a different link to the state’s voter registration database.Hensley suggested that Schwab is being “kind of inconsistent.”“If we can do it for one situation, why not the other?” said state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, a Wichita Democrat and leading supporter of the “vote anywhere” law. “If we’ve got money and if we’ve got all the ways to implement it, I keep saying what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”Schwab’s initiative is a one reason Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman opposed and effectively killed a bipartisan bill this year to require her county to let voters cast their ballots at any polling place in this year’s elections. She said in an interview that her office is already going to have to change its operations because of Schwab’s security plans.“We’re running out of power outlets in our building,” Lehman, a Kobach appointee, added. “We’re in the bottom floor of a historic building built in the 1800s.”Schwab said counties shouldn’t need new work stations or staff, but his office is still in the early stages of planning, so county officials said they don’t have much information about what will be required.In Ellis County in western Kansas, the elected county clerk, Donna Maskus, a Democrat, called stand-alone computers “a good option but added, “It’s just getting all of that set up.”“You’re talking every county clerk in the state, and to me, that is a big project,” she said.
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By Polityk | 02/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Rivals Target Bloomberg as He Rises in Democratic Presidential Race
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s name is not on any of the ballots for the first four U.S. Democratic presidential nominating contests, and he has yet to qualify for the candidates’ next debate on Wednesday night.But it is Bloomberg who has quickly become a key figure in the Democratic contest, rising to third in national political surveys of Democratic voters behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden.Bloomberg has also become the target of stinging barbs from his fellow Democratic rivals, as well as Trump, who mocked him last week as a “mass of dead energy,” and calling him “Mini Mike” for his short stature.In turn, Bloomberg called Trump “a carnival barking clown,” adding, “Where I come from, we measure your height from the neck up.”Democratic opponents have accused Bloomberg, said to be worth $62 billion, of trying to buy the party nomination.Bloomberg reportedly has spent nearly $400 million of his own money on a wide array of campaign ads, and has hired hundreds of campaign workers ahead of the March 3 voting in 14 states, known as Super Tuesday, when he will be on the ballot.People listen as Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg speaks at a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina, Feb. 13, 2020.Bloomberg accumulated his wealth as the founder of his eponymous business information company and also the Bloomberg News website.A late entrant in the Democratic race, he is skipping the four February contests, including Saturday’s caucuses in the western state of Nevada.Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, has increasingly attacked Bloomberg, who was New York’s mayor from 2002 to 2013.“Mayor Bloomberg, with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have the voter turnout we must have to defeat Donald Trump,” Sanders said at one rally.Sanders attacked Bloomberg’s “racist” policy of “stop-and-frisk” arrests of people in high-crime New York neighborhoods when he was mayor, a policy Bloomberg has apologized for as he runs for president.’Stop and frisk’A 2015 recording surfaced last week of Bloomberg saying the best way to reduce gun violence among young, minority men was to “throw them up against a wall and frisk them.”Bloomberg acknowledged over the weekend, “I’ve gotten a lot of grief for (stop and frisk) lately, but I defended it for too long, and because I didn’t fully understand the unintentional pain it caused young black and brown kids and their families. I should have acted sooner, and I should have stopped it. I didn’t, and I apologized for that.”Biden, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” news program Sunday, said, “Sixty billion dollars can buy you a lot of advertising, but it can’t erase your record.”On the same show, another presidential contender, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, said, “He just can’t hide behind the airwaves. I can’t beat him on the airwaves, but I can beat him on the debate stage, and I think people of America deserve that to make a decision.”Bloomberg said he will participate in the Wednesday debate in Nevada if he qualifies. He lacks one poll out of the four needed that shows him with at least 10% support of Democratic voters.Sexist commentsBloomberg has also drawn new scrutiny by major U.S. news outlets. Over the weekend, The Washington Post published a lengthy story of Bloomberg’s profane, sexist and misogynist comments targeting women who worked at his financial services company.Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told the “Fox News Sunday” show, “The way Michael Bloomberg treated employees — female employees, who were under his wing, who were relying on him for their livelihoods, for their health benefits, for their 401ks — to have created that kind of culture, that unsafe workplace, to feel like you’re being harassed because of your gender, that is problematic. I think you’re going to hear more of it.”The Bloomberg campaign denied some of the quotes attributed to him in the newspaper story, while the candidate offered a more general comment on his attitude toward professional women in the workplace.”I’ve depended on their leadership, their advice and their contributions,” he wrote on Twitter. “As I’ve demonstrated throughout my career, I will always be a champion for women in the workplace.”As for the sudden spate of attacks, the Bloomberg campaign was dismissive.“It’s not surprising that as Mike continues to rise in the polls, other candidates, including Donald Trump, start to get nervous,” it said.
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By Polityk | 02/17/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Early Voting Begins in Nevada in Democrats’ Search for Presidential Candidate
Presidential hopefuls head west to Nevada as early voting kicked off Sunday in the country’s next Democratic nominating contest. Voters are making their choice on who should face Republican President Donald Trump in the November national election. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi looks ahead to the third phase of the 2020 election cycle
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By Polityk | 02/17/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Early US Democratic Presidential Caucus Voting Starts in Nevada
Early voting has started in Nevada in the next U.S. Democratic Party presidential nominating contest, the third in a long string of state caucuses and party primary elections to pick a candidate to oppose Republican President Donald Trump in November’s national election.The bulk of the voting occurs at caucuses next Saturday in the western state, the first where the Democratic contenders will face a racially diverse electorate. Hispanic and African-American voters comprise a large part of the Nevada population, unlike the predominantly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire where the first votes were cast in the last two weeks.Pre-election polls show that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist who won the popular vote in both Iowa and New Hampshire, could also win in Nevada, home to the country’s gambling mecca in Las Vegas.Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks during his campaign launch of “Mike for Black America,” at the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, Feb. 13, 2020, in Houston.Bloomberg’s ascent in national presidential polling has drawn the attention of Trump, who has disparaged his candidacy. Bloomberg’s rise has also drawn new scrutiny to his tenure as mayor of the country’s largest city from 2002 to 2013 and his ownership of his eponymous business information company that made him a billionaire.Bloomberg has apologized for a “stop-and-frisk” policy he implemented on the streets of New York, an effort to curb crime, that he now acknowledges inordinately targeted minorities.The Washington Post on Saturday published a withering account of the 78-year-old Bloomberg’s life as a corporate chieftain, detailing countless profane, sexist and misogynistic comments targeting women who worked at his company, many of them in the years before he entered New York City politics.In response, a campaign spokesman said Bloomberg “simply does not tolerate any kind of discrimination or harassment, and he’s created cultures that are all about equality and inclusion.”
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By Polityk | 02/17/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Former US Prosecutors Call for Attorney General’s Resignation
More than 1,100 former U.S. prosecutors and Justice Department officials called Sunday for the resignation of Attorney General William Barr after he intervened to shorten the political corruption sentence for Roger Stone, a long-time confidant of President Donald Trump.FILE – In this Nov. 15, 2019, file photo, Roger Stone, left, with his wife Nydia Stone, leaves federal court in Washington, Nov. 15, 2019.Four career federal prosecutors, part of the Justice Department headed by Barr, had recommended that Stone be sentenced this week to up to nine years in prison after his November conviction on seven charges, including lying to Congress and witness tampering, linked to the long investigation of the 2016 election won by Trump.But Barr and top Justice Department officials expressed shock by the length of the suggested sentence and Trump called it a “miscarriage of justice.” Barr intervened and the Justice Department then said the initial recommendation “could be considered excessive and unwarranted,” but left it up to the judge hearing the case to decide what the appropriate sentence should be at Thursday’s hearing.The former prosecutors and Justice Department officials, who came from across the U.S. political spectrum, said in an open letter Sunday, “Each of us strongly condemns President Trump’s and Attorney General Barr’s interference in the fair administration of justice.”Barr told ABC News he did not talk to Trump about the Stone sentence, but the protesting former prosecutors said, “Mr. Barr’s actions in doing the president’s personal bidding unfortunately speak louder than his words. Those actions, and the damage they have done to the Department of Justice’s reputation for integrity and the rule of law, require Mr. Barr to resign.”Marc Short, the chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence, defended Barr in a CNN interview Sunday, saying that Barr “said the president has not called him directly to do these things.”A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment about the former prosecutors’ letter.After Barr intervened in the case, Trump praised him on Twitter, saying, “Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought.” The four prosecutors who had made the sentencing recommendation quit the case after Barr stepped in.In the ABC interview, Barr said that Trump’s frequent tweets about politically charged criminal investigations make it impossible for him to do his job, although he said that the president has never directly intervened with him in any case.”I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me,” Barr said.Trump, hours later, said he had never asked Barr to “do anything in a criminal case.” Trump asserted that as president he had “the legal right to do so” but had “so far chosen not to!”“The President has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case.” A.G. Barr This doesn’t mean that I do not have, as President, the legal right to do so, I do, but I have so far chosen not to!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – Former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn departs after his sentencing was delayed at U.S. District Court in Washington, Dec.18, 2018.Barr ordered a federal prosecutor outside of the main Justice headquarters in Washington to review the origins and evidence in the case against Michael Flynn, who for a brief period served as Trump’s first national security adviser at the outset of his presidency in 2017. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his contacts with Russia’s then ambassador to Washington in the weeks before Trump took office, but has never been sentenced and recently sought to withdraw his guilty plea.Trump has called the case brought against Flynn “very unfair.”FILE – FBI acting director Andrew McCabe listens during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 7, 2017.Meantime, Barr dropped a criminal investigation against Andrew McCabe, a former acting FBI director, whom Trump has often attacked, claiming he was part of a “deep state” of government officials determined to undermine his presidency. McCabe had been accused of lying to government officials about his role in a leak about a government investigation to the Wall Street Journal.White House adviser Kellyanne Conway declined, in an interview on the Fox News Sunday show, to say what Trump’s reaction was to ending the McCabe investigation.”He’ll still be a serial liar whether he’s prosecuted or not,” Conway said of McCabe.”This is small potatoes,” she said, declining to further discuss the outcome of the case.
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By Polityk | 02/17/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Expected to Raise $10M During Mar-a-Lago Stop
President Donald Trump mixed reelection business with pleasure during a weekend stop at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, attending a fundraiser Saturday evening expected to raise $10 million for his campaign and the Republican National Committee. The event was believed to be his most expensive fundraiser ever, with invitations going to donors who gave $580,600 per couple, according to The Washington Post, which obtained an invitation to the event at the Palm Beach estate of billionaire investor Nelson Peltz. Pro-Trump groups have been shattering fundraising records on the path toward a goal of raising $1 billion this election cycle. Advocacy groups that have sought campaign finance reform said the Supreme Court paved the way for such fundraising hauls by striking down in 2014 the limit on the total amount of money an individual could give to all political party committees in a two-year election cycle. “The ability of Trump to raise these astronomical amounts of influence money from billionaires and multimillionaires is a direct result of the Supreme Court’s utter failure to understand the nation’s campaign finance laws or the implications of its decision,” said Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer in an op-ed published in Medium. In that 5-4 decision the Supreme Court found that limits on the total amount of money donors can give to all candidates, committees and political parties were unconstitutional. Senator Bernie Sanders has criticized some of his fellow Democratic presidential candidates for accepting campaign donations from the extremely wealthy, questioning whether those who accept the donations would stand up to those who provide them if the situation called for it.
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By Polityk | 02/16/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Looks to Rev Up His Base at Daytona 500
President Donald Trump is out to rev up his appeal with a key voting demographic — NASCAR fans — as he takes in the Daytona 500 on Sunday. NASCAR drivers may veer to the left during their trip around the oval racetrack, but their fans lean right, which helps explain the regularity with which GOP presidents have made their way to the track. Trump will be the second sitting president to attend the Daytona 500, after George W. Bush in 2004. Like Trump, he also attended the race during a presidential election year. Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush also visited the track at Daytona but during races other than the 500. This year, Trump will serve as grand marshal and give the command for drivers to start their engines. Two-part appealAri Fleischer, the White House spokesman under George W. Bush, said the visit should appeal to Trump on two fronts. There's a real sense of positive, overwhelming affirmation to hear the roar of the crowd. What politician doesn't want that?'' Fleischer said.Secondly, there’s what I call the reverberation effect. People watching at home, who hear the roar of the crowd for a president, that can drive them toward some sense of approval or fondness or liking for the president. Just in case anyone misses the point, Trump's reelection campaign will run a TV ad during the Fox broadcast of the race and fly an aerial banner near the speedway. FILE - Then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, accompanied by NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France, left, invites up former NASCAR driver Bill Elliott, right, to speak at a rally in Valdosta, Ga., Feb. 29, 2016.Trump scored a coup in 2016 when Brian France, then NASCAR's chairman and chief executive, endorsed him in the presidential race. While France's endorsement was a personal matter, some critics said it hurt NASCAR's efforts to boost its appeal among minorities. And Trump didn't help matters when he repeatedly claimed he had receivedNASCAR’s endorsement” rather than France’s. In 1984, Reagan became the first sitting president to attend a NASCAR race. That July, he started the Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway, where he gave the command, “Gentlemen, start your engines!” from aboard Air Force One. Later, the plane landed at Daytona International Airport behind the speedway in full view of the fans. It was at that race that Richard Petty captured his historic 200th victory. Reagan stuck around until the end and even did a few laps of radio play-by-play during the race, congratulated Petty and then ate chicken with drivers, crew members, NASCAR employees and their families in the garage area. FILE – In this Feb. 15, 2004, photo, then-President George W. Bush greets driver Matt Kenseth in the pits at the Daytona 500 NASCAR race in Daytona Beach, Fla.The senior Bush’s trip to Daytona occurred in 1992. As Reagan’s vice president, he also served as the honorary starter for the 25th running of the Daytona 500. President Barack Obama’s initial presidential campaign was presented with the opportunity to sponsor a car in a NASCAR race, but eventually declined that chance. However, Obama routinely invited the winners of the NASCAR Cup Series championship to the White House, a tradition Trump has continued. Penske honoredLast year, Trump took that outreach a step further, awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors, to Roger Penske, a businessman and founder of one of the world’s most successful motorsports teams. Democrat Bill Clinton didn’t get as friendly a NASCAR reception as the GOP presidents. During his visit to a NASCAR race as a candidate in September 1992, the question of his lack of Vietnam-era military service was still dogging his campaign. Many fans at the Southern 500 in Darlington, South Carolina, booed and heckled him. By contrast, when George W. Bush attended the Daytona 500, he received rock-star treatment. About 100,000 people are expected to attend this year’s race and millions more will watch on television. About 9 million people took in last year’s race on television.
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By Polityk | 02/16/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Sanders, Buttigieg Lead Muddled Democratic Race
The 2020 battle for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination is off to a fast though uncertain start, with strong showings in the first two contests by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.Buttigieg narrowly won the most delegates in the Iowa caucus voting while Sanders prevailed in a close race with Buttigieg in the New Hampshire primary.Sanders, a progressive candidate, is getting a strong challenge from several moderate contenders in what experts believe could be a long race before a nominee is decided.The race now heads to Nevada for caucuses on February 22 and to South Carolina for a primary on February 29. Both states feature more diverse voters than Iowa and New Hampshire. Latino voters will assert themselves in strong numbers in Nevada while one of the Democratic Party’s most reliable constituencies, African Americans, will finally get a chance to weigh in on the race in a big way in South Carolina.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is introduced by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner during his campaign launch of “Mike for Black America,” at the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, Feb. 13, 2020, in Houston.“I am the one who can beat Donald Trump and I think the most important thing for this country is to change the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue [the White House],” Bloomberg told reporters during a swing through Nashville, Tennessee.Bloomberg is skipping the first four Democratic nominating contests to focus on Super Tuesday and has been blanketing the airwaves with more than $300 million in TV ads that have raised his profile and poll ratings.The latest RealClearPolitics average of national polls in the Democratic race has Sanders in first place with 23 percent, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden at 19 percent and Bloomberg in third place with 14 percent. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Buttigieg and Klobuchar trail them.Biden’s strugglesBiden is pinning his hopes of a comeback on the South Carolina primary, betting his appeal to black voters will put him back in the race.A number of rivals are waiting in the wings if Biden continues to stumble, said George Washington University expert Matt Dallek.”And if Biden becomes less viable as the primary goes on over the next couple of weeks, Bloomberg stands with an insane amount of money and stands ready to potentially capitalize on that,” he said.Sanders and Klobuchar are already pushing back hard on Bloomberg and his wealth.“At this point in the campaign, we are taking on billionaires and we are taking on candidates funded by billionaires,” Sanders told supporters during his New Hampshire victory speech.Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., tours the Culinary Health Center, Feb. 14, 2020, in Las Vegas.Klobuchar is also trying to rally supporters by casting herself as a financial underdog in the Democratic field.“We know in our hearts that in a democracy, it is not about the loudest voice or the biggest bank account. It is about the best idea and about the person who can turn those ideas into action,” Klobuchar told supporters after her third-place finish in New Hampshire.Muddled pictureSanders and Buttigieg have done well in the early contests, but the overall picture for Democrats remains uncertain, according to Jim Kessler with the center-left Democratic-leaning group Third Way.“Muddled for sure,” he said. “I think this is a race that is going to stay open for a number of weeks, at least through Super Tuesday.”About 60 percent of Democratic voters in New Hampshire told pollsters their priority was finding the strongest candidate to take on Trump in November.That concern has shown up in Democrat surveys for months, according to University of Delaware expert David Redlawsk.“One question we were asking in surveys was, ‘How nervous are you that the Democrats will fail to nominate the strongest candidate?’ And somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 percent of our respondents said they were at least somewhat nervous about this,” he said.While Super Tuesday looms as a national test for the Democratic field, some analysts now believe it is possible that Democrats might not be able to settle on a nominee before the party convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July.“It is possible we could see a long contest that is splintered, with various candidates winning various primaries and nobody coming into the convention with a commanding lead,” American University presidential historian Allan Lichtman told VOA. “Then we may see something we have not seen in over half a century — a brokered convention, where the delegates actually pick the candidate, and then anything can happen.”For now, though, the Democratic field is focused on the contests later this month in Nevada and South Carolina, and a huge slate of states that will send voters to the polls on March 3.
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By Polityk | 02/15/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
