October 2, 2018

Trump's family separation policy was flawed from the start, watchdog review says

Source: The Washington Post


By Nick Miroff, Maria Sacchetti and Seung Min Kim

October 1 at 8:44 PM

The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” crackdown at the border this spring was troubled from the outset by planning shortfalls, widespread communication failures and administrative indifference to the separation of small children from their parents, according to an unpublished report by the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is the government’s first attempt to autopsy the chaos produced between May 5 and June 20, when President Trump abruptly halted the separations under mounting pressure from his party and members of his family.

The DHS Office of Inspector General’s review found at least 860 migrant children were left in Border Patrol holding cells longer than the 72-hour limit mandated by U.S. courts, with one minor confined for 12 days and another for 25.

Many of those children were put in chain-link holding pens in the Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas. The facilities were designed as short-term way stations, lacking beds and showers, while the children awaited transfer to shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trumps-family-separation-policy-was-flawed-from-the-start-watchdog-review-says/2018/10/01/c7134d86-c5ba-11e8-9b1c-a90f1daae309_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0200b8292570

October 2, 2018

Old Trump tweet criticizing Cruz spotted on truck going around Texas

BY ARIS FOLLEY - 10/02/18 07:50 AM EDT



A billboard truck has been spotted making the rounds in Texas bearing a photo of an old tweet from President Trump.

In the tweet, then-candidate Donald Trump criticized his then-opponent, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R), in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

“Why would the people of Texas support Ted Cruz when he has accomplished absolutely nothing for them,” Trump’s tweet reads.

The bottom of the advertisement reads, “Paid for by MadDogPac.com and USA Latinx.”

According to KHOU, the advertisement was paid for by money raised by Houston-based Latino community organizer Antonia Arellano and Parkland, Fla., shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg.

https://twitter.com/AntonioArellano/status/1046796813922181120
https://twitter.com/AntonioArellano/status/1046797393944043520

more
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/409394-old-trump-tweet-criticizing-cruz-spotted-on-truck-going-around

October 2, 2018

Amazon raising minimum wage to $15 an hour

Source: The Hill



BY ARIS FOLLEY - 10/02/18 07:29 AM EDT

Amazon announced early Tuesday that it is increasing its hourly minimum wage to $15 per hour for all full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees across the United States.

“We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO, said in a statement.

“We’re excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us,” he added. The new hourly minimum wage rate is scheduled to take effect on November 1 and will benefit the more than 250,000 employees working at the retail giant.

“We will be working to gain Congressional support for an increase in the federal minimum wage. The current rate of $7.25 was set nearly a decade ago,” Jay Carney, Amazon's senior vice president of global corporate affairs, said in the statement.

Read more: Link to source

October 2, 2018

Dems rebuild blue wall in Midwest

BY REID WILSON - 10/02/18 06:00 AM EDT

The Midwestern states that handed President Trump the White House two years ago now appear poised to deliver a sharply negative verdict against his party, thanks in no small part to voters’ dissatisfaction with the way Trump has handled his job.

Trump won Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016, two of the “blue wall” states that had voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1992. He cruised to victory in Iowa and Ohio, swing states Barack Obama won twice. And he came within 45,000 votes of winning Minnesota, a state that last voted Republican when Richard Nixon was on the ballot.

His wins added to a rightward drift that has happened in the Midwest in recent years. Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature in all five of those states, and the party owns most of the U.S. House seats in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana and Ohio.

“The Midwest used to be what was referred to as the blue wall, with working class and middle class communities” voting Democratic, said Jim Ananich, the Democratic minority leader in the Michigan state Senate. “Obviously, that fell apart in 2016.”

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/409304-dems-rebuild-blue-wall-in-midwest

October 2, 2018

REVEALED: Trump personally directed legal effort to silence Stormy Daniels and enlisted son Eric...

Source: RawStory



REVEALED: Trump personally directed legal effort to silence Stormy Daniels — and enlisted son Eric to help

BRAD REED
02 OCT 2018 AT 07:33 ET

A new report from the Wall Street Journal reveals that President Donald Trump personally directed an effort earlier this year to keep adult film star Stormy Daniels quiet before she could go public with her story about their affair.

According to the Journal, Trump began as early as this past February to coordinate with former “fixer” Michael Cohen to file restraining order against Daniels as a way to enforce the nondisclosure agreement that she signed in exchange for hush money back in 2016. “Mr. Trump told Mr. Cohen to coordinate the legal response with Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons, and another outside lawyer who had represented Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization in other matters,” the Journal reported. “Eric Trump, who is running the company with his brother in Mr. Trump’s absence, then tasked a Trump Organization staff attorney in California with signing off on the arbitration paperwork.”

The revelations about Trump’s involvement, as well as the Trump Organization’s role in pursuing an arbitration hearing, directly contradict statements made earlier this year by both the Trump White House and the Trump Organization.

The Journal also reports that Eric Trump personally signed off on a statement that denied the Trump Organization’s formal involvement in the Daniels case, even though it was directly involved in the effort to silence Daniels.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/revealed-trump-personally-directed-legal-effort-silence-stormy-daniels-enlisted-son-eric-help/

October 2, 2018

Lindsey Graham Tells Hannity: NBC Has 'Been a Co-Conspirator in the Destruction of Kavanaugh'

by Joe DePaolo | Oct 1st, 2018, 9:55 pm

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), on Monday, ripped NBC for its coverage of the sexual misconduct claims against Brett Kavanaugh.

Appearing on Hannity for the third time in the past six weeknights — a frequency fast approaching Sara Carter and Gregg Jarrett territory — the South Carolina Senator railed against NBC after host Sean Hannity invoked Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick‘s interview Monday night on MSNBC.

“Why does NBC run this?!” Hannity said.

“NBC, here’s the biggest offense to me, they’ve been a co-conspirator in the destruction of Kavanaugh, from my point of view,” Graham replied.

The Senator referenced a Sept. 26 piece run on the network’s website in which NBC News reported the existence of an unnamed fourth Kavanaugh accuser. The accuser sent an anonymous complaint to Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), and according to NBC, the Senate Judiciary Committee looked into the claim.

Graham accused the network of running the piece solely because Kavanaugh was nominated to the Court by a Republican.

more + video
https://www.mediaite.com/online/lindsey-graham-tells-hannity-nbc-has-been-a-co-conspirator-in-the-destruction-of-kavanaugh/

October 2, 2018

Nickname and shame: Trump taunts his 2020 Democratic rivals

The president hopes to shape the images — and psychology — of his would-be challengers just as he did to his 2016 GOP rivals. But some may welcome the attention.

By CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO 10/02/2018 05:04 AM EDT

“Crazy Bernie.” “Pocahontas.” “One Percent Biden.”

President Donald Trump, who humiliated his 2016 Republican opponents with sticky monikers like “Lyin Ted” Cruz, “Lil Marco” Rubio and low energy” Jeb Bush, is already salting the earth for Democrats lining up to run in 2020.

Even as he stumps for Republican midterm candidates, Trump is increasingly training fire at his own potential Democratic opponents: assigning them nicknames and mocking them at rallies, handicapping their prospects — and even trying to reshape the Democratic field.

“They got some real beauties going,” Trump said at a Monday rally in Johnson City, Tennessee, after slamming several potential Democratic contenders by name.

It’s an unusual approach: sitting presidents rarely seek to play a spoiler role in the opposing party’s nominating contests. But Trump has never been deterred by historical codes of conduct.

“He is a man who charges into the arena and dictates the terms of the contest,” said Brian O. Walsh, president of the pro-Trump group America First Action. “I would expect the same in 2020 across the board.”

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/02/2020-democrats-trump-nicknames-856800

October 2, 2018

'I am ashamed': Beto apologizes for 'demeaning comments about women'

Source: Politico



By ALEX ISENSTADT 10/01/2018 05:54 PM EDT Updated 10/01/2018 09:00 PM EDT

Texas Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke is apologizing for once criticizing a Broadway musical with actresses “whose only qualifications seem to be their phenomenally large breasts and tight buttocks.”

In 1991, the 19-year-old O’Rourke reviewed the Broadway musical “The Will Rogers Follies” for the Columbia Daily Spectator, the university’s student newspaper. Writing under the byline Robert O’Rourke, he panned the performance as “one of the most glaring examples of the sickening excesses and moral degradations of our culture.”

He went on to bemoan the bevy of “perma-smile actresses whose only qualifications seem to be their phenomenally large breasts and tight buttocks.”

The review in the Oct. 10, 1991, edition of the Spectator, which according to an archive search was the only article he wrote for the newspaper, offers another glimpse of the former life of the Texas Senate candidate, who has given Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) an unexpectedly serious reelection challenge. It also shows how drastically the sensitivities surrounding descriptions of women have changed over the past three decades: While it’s unclear whether O’Rourke was criticizing the musical’s use of scantily-clad women for effect or commenting on their bodies himself, his prose, in hindsight, is jarring either way.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/01/beto-orourke-musical-review-855385

October 2, 2018

McConnell Focuses Efforts on Three Senators

October 1, 2018 at 9:11 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

Politico: “McConnell’s focus right now is entirely on the triumvirate of GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jeff Flake of Arizona. McConnell needs two out of the three to back Kavanaugh in order for the nomination to succeed, and he is walking a fine line in addressing their concerns while continuing to press toward a final Senate vote.”

”McConnell has subtly tweaked his language on the Kavanaugh nomination. He’s a no longer vowing to ‘plow right through’ and confirm Kavanaugh, as he was just last week, crafting his message instead to appeal to the three Republicans who remain on the fence.”

”The Kentucky Republican is currently planning a move to end debate on the nomination by mid-week, forcing a critical procedural vote as early as Friday, which would set up a final vote on Kavanaugh by Sunday. But that timetable means the FBI investigation must be complete by Wednesday, and that’s where the situation become dicey for McConnell.”

###

https://politicalwire.com/2018/10/01/mcconnell-focuses-efforts-on-three-senators/

October 2, 2018

Miller Urged Trump to End Chinese Student Visas

October 2, 2018 at 7:08 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

“White House hawks earlier this year encouraged President Donald Trump to stop providing student visas to Chinese nationals, but the proposal was shelved over concerns about its economic and diplomatic impact,” the Financial Times reports.

“As the administration debated ways to tackle Chinese espionage, Stephen Miller, a White House aide who has been pivotal in developing the administration’s hardline immigration policies, pushed the president and other officials to make it impossible for Chinese citizens to study in the U.S.”

###

https://politicalwire.com/2018/10/02/miller-urged-trump-to-end-chinese-student-visas/