April 2, 2019

Fairfax Accuser Meredith Watson: 'I Feel Guilty' For Not Speaking Out Before He Assaulted Vanessa...

Fairfax Accuser Meredith Watson Tears Up: ‘I Feel Guilty’ For Not Speaking Out Before He Assaulted Vanessa Tyson

by Ken Meyer | Apr 2nd, 2019, 8:45 am

In the second half of her interview with CBS, Meredith Watson burst into tears as she spoke about Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and the broader implications of his alleged sexual assault against her.

After Watson described how Fairfax supposedly raped her when they were in college together in 2000, she said she has nothing to gain by going public, even as Gayle King brought up several scrutinized elements of her past. She countered those arguments by saying “I don’t have to defend myself because nothing in my life that happened after that night is relevant to what happened that night.”

The conversation eventually moved on with King asking Watson how she felt when Vanessa Tyson became the first woman to come forward with the claim that Fairfax sexually assaulted her. Since Tyson claims her assault happened in 2004, Watson said “I feel guilty” because Tyson’s ordeal might not have happened if she went public about Fairfax earlier.

“It happened to her after it happened to me,” Watson said through tears. “Had I had the strength or the courage to say something in 2000, maybe it never would have happened to her. and I know the pain that she’s had to live with since it happened, and nobody should have to go through this, and I feel awful.”

video
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/fairfax-accuser-meredith-watson-tears-up-i-feel-guilty-for-not-speaking-out-before-he-assaulted-vanessa-tyson/

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Second Fairfax Accuser Meredith Watson Speaks Out on Alleged Rape: ‘A Huge Betrayal, He Was my Friend’

by Ken Meyer | Apr 2nd, 2019, 8:17 am

CBS’ Gayle King followed up her interview with Vanessa Tyson on Tuesday by speaking to Meredith Watson, the second woman who accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault.

In the interview, Watson started by recalling how she knew Fairfax during their college years and would frequently hang out with one another. She remembered that “I was not worried at all” when they were spending time together as Fairfax neared graduation in 2000, but then she described Fairfax locking the door to their room, turning off the lights and physically stopping her from leaving.

“He did things that you shouldn’t do to someone without their permission,” Watson said before emphatically saying “he forcibly sexually assaulted and raped me.”

Fairfax has claimed that his night with Watson was consensual, but she countered “if you have to hold someone down, it’s not consensual.” Watson also told King she told several close friends about what Fairfax allegedly did to her, and that she was “so humiliated” that she didn’t want to talk about it anymore after that.

“It was a huge betrayal,” Watson said through tears. “He was my friend. I don’t understand how you do that to somebody that you have been a friend to and has confided in you about things. I don’t understand how you do that.”

Watson would clarify that she confided in Fairfax that she was raped once before, which was why “I would never have expected anything like this from him.” She described how she avoided Fairfax after their encounter, but when she eventually confronted him and asked why he did it, she claimed he said “I knew because of what happened to you last year, if I got you in the right situation, you would be too afraid of say or do anything about it.”

video via CBS
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/second-fairfax-accuser-meredith-watson-speaks-out-on-alleged-rape-a-huge-betrayal-he-was-my-friend/

April 2, 2019

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders against increasing number of Supreme Court justices

APRIL 1, 2019 / 5:28 PM / UPDATED 6 HOURS AGO

Ginger Gibson
3 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is against expanding the nine-member Supreme Court, a proposal some liberal activists have advocated to effectively reverse President Donald Trump’s appointment of conservative judges.

“My worry is that the next time the Republicans are in power they will do the same thing, I think that is not the ultimate solution,” Sanders said in response to a question at a forum on Monday organized by public employee unions and other liberal groups.

Sanders said he would consider proposals that created term limits for Supreme Court justices or would rotate judges between the highest court and the lower-level appeals courts.

Trump has also ruled out expanding the number of judges ahead of the election.

more
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-sanders/u-s-senator-bernie-sanders-against-increasing-number-of-supreme-court-justices-idUSKCN1RD3AL

April 2, 2019

Kushner: Democrats Continuing to Talk Russia 'Nonsense' Is 'An Embarrassment for Our Democracy'

Jared Kushner: Democrats Continuing to Talk Russia ‘Nonsense’ Is ‘An Embarrassment for Our Democracy’

by Josh Feldman | Apr 1st, 2019, 11:06 pm

Jared Kushner ripped Democrats for talk of Russia and collusion in his interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham tonight.

With the Mueller investigation completed, Kushner told Ingraham President Donald Trump has been “fully vindicated” and that he personally wasn’t worried.

Ingraham knocked House Intel Chairman Adam Schiff and other Democrats for talking as if “the report didn’t even come out.”

She ran a clip of Schiff saying a few days ago that “there’s ample evidence of collusion in plain sight” and that “that is not the same thing as whether Bob Mueller will be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the crime of conspiracy.”

Kushner said in response, “Talking about this nonsense further, especially two years and being wrong so many times, is just really not productive. And quite frankly, it’s kind of an embarrassment for our democracy.”

video
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/jared-kushner-democrats-continuing-to-talk-russia-nonsense-is-an-embarrassment-for-our-democracy/

April 2, 2019

Trump: 'The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Puerto Rico is President Donald J. Trump'

Source: Mediaite



by Colby Hall | Apr 2nd, 2019, 8:12 am

-snip-

On Monday, the Senate voted to end debate on a GOP disaster aid proposal. Democrats and the Governor of Puerto Rico had argued the GOP measure — backed by Trump — did not provide enough aid to the hurricane-ravaged area.

Monday evening Trump went on a Tweetstorm wherein he expressed great displeasure for what he described as “The Democrats today killed a Bill that would have provided great relief to Farmers and yet more money to Puerto Rico despite the fact that Puerto Rico has already been scheduled to receive more hurricane relief funding than any ‘place’ in history.'” He then blasted “politicians like the crazed and incompetent Mayor of San Juan,”

Tuesday morning Trump appeared to pick up where he left off, tweeting:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1113041708730802176
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1113044765405315073

Trump might not have his facts exactly right here, however, according to Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler, who tweeted in response:

https://twitter.com/GlennKesslerWP/status/1112923715455631361

Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-puerto-rico-is-president-donald-j-trump/

April 2, 2019

Trump turns 2020 election into a referendum on health care

April 2, 2019, 8:20 AM EDT
By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann

WASHINGTON — In a trio of tweets Monday night, President Trump simultaneously caved on health care and made the 2020 election a referendum on the issue.

“The Republicans,” he said, “are developing a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than ObamaCare. In other words it will be far less expensive & much more usable than ObamaCare. Vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans hold the Senate & win......back the House.”

Of course, we know Republicans don’t have a plan – at least one that could pass Congress in 2017-2018. And now Democrats are in charge of the House for at least the next year and half. But for the short term, Trump’s decision to punt on health care for the time being relieves some anxiety for congressional Republicans after Trump’s Justice Department said the entire Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, is unconstitutional.

Thought bubble for a GOP senator: “Phew, we don’t have to come up with another plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.”

But in the long term, at least through the 2020 election, Trump’s tweets allow every Democratic campaign to say, “The president wants the presidential election to be a referendum on health care!”

more
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/trump-turns-2020-election-referendum-health-care-n989926?cid=public-rss_20190402

April 2, 2019

Administration panics over plan to close the border

By ANNA PALMER, JAKE SHERMAN and DANIEL LIPPMAN 04/02/2019 06:13 AM EDT

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION is in a state of panic over PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S plans to close the southern border. We spoke to several senior administration figures who described a White House freaked out about the implications of closing the border -- both for the USMCA, the president’s top legislative priority, and because they believe it will result in an immediate spike in the cost of consumer goods.

WE HEAR … There are people in the White House who are trying to cobble together a plan to present to Congress that would seek to tighten immigration laws -- a way to beg the president off his close-the-border plan. Of course, you should be very, very skeptical anything would get through Congress, but the people who work for the president are trying to head off what they see as another self-inflicted wound.

EVIDENCE OF THE PANIC … AT 8:33 P.M. last night in London -- 3:33 p.m. in D.C. -- a U.S. Coast Guard G5 that DHS SECRETARY KIRSTJEN NIELSEN typically uses took off from Stansted Airport just 24 hours after it landed. NIELSEN was in London for meetings, and inside the White House, there was discussion all day Monday of bringing her back to the United States. This plane landed at DCA at 11:36 p.m. Nielsen came back to Washington for this.

more (on different topics)
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2019/04/02/administration-panics-over-plan-to-close-the-border-and-inside-john-harris-new-politico-role-419629

April 2, 2019

Americans Borrowed $88 Billion to Pay for Health Care Last Year, Survey Finds

Source: The New York Times



By Karen Zraick
April 2, 2019

Americans borrowed an estimated $88 billion over the last year to pay for health care, according to a survey released on Tuesday by Gallup and the nonprofit West Health.

The survey also found that one in four Americans have skipped treatment because of the cost, and that nearly half fear bankruptcy in the event of a health emergency.

There was a partisan divide when respondents were asked whether they believed that the American health care system is among the best in the world: Among Republicans, 67 percent of respondents said they believed so; that number was 38 percent among Democrats.

But Democrats and Republicans had similar responses about putting off medical treatment. Asked if they had deferred treatment because of the cost, 27 percent of Democrats said they had, compared with 21 percent of Republicans and 30 percent of independents.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/health/americans-health-care-debt-borrowing.html

April 2, 2019

Tucker Carlson: 'Chris Hayes Is What Every Man Would Be' if Feminists Had Absolute Power

The Fox News host also called Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ‘a moron.’

Justin Baragona
04.01.19 11:11 PM ET

Fox News host Tucker Carlson began his highly rated primetime show Monday night by taking potshots at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and MSNBC host Chris Hayes, labeling the progressive lawmaker a “moron” while mocking his cable news competitor’s masculinity.

Last week, Hayes hosted an MSNBC town hall event on the proposed Green New Deal, featuring Ocasio-Cortez. During the Friday night town hall, Ocasio-Cortez lectured an audience member who called former Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) a “moron” for saying the Green New Deal is “literally impossible,” exclaiming “that’s unacceptable” while pointing her finger at the offender.

Carlson, meanwhile, had no problems throwing out insults Monday evening during Tucker Carlson Tonight.

“Chris Hayes is what every man would be if feminists ever achieved absolute power in this country: apologetic, bespectacled, and deeply, deeply concerned about global warming and the patriarchal systems that cause it,” Carlson said of the All In host.

more
https://www.thedailybeast.com/tucker-carlson-chris-hayes-is-what-every-man-would-be-if-feminists-had-absolute-power?ref=home

April 2, 2019

Homeland Security Disbands Domestic Terror Intelligence Unit

Source: The Daily Beast



While the body counts from domestic terror attacks mount, the analysts looking into those attacks have been moved.

Betsy Woodruff
04.02.19 5:00 AM ET

The Department of Homeland Security has disbanded a group of intelligence analysts who focused on domestic terrorism, The Daily Beast has learned. Numerous current and former DHS officials say they find the development concerning, as the threat of homegrown terrorism—including white supremacist terrorism—is growing.

In the wake of this move, officials said the number of analytic reports produced by DHS about domestic terrorism, including the threat from white supremacists, has dropped significantly. People in and close to the department said this has generated significant concern at headquarters.

“It’s especially problematic given the growth in right-wing extremism and domestic terrorism we are seeing in the U.S. and abroad,” one former intelligence official told The Daily Beast.

The group in question was a branch of analysts in DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A). They focused on the threat from homegrown violent extremists and domestic terrorists. The analysts there shared information with state and local law enforcement to help them protect their communities from these threats.


Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/homeland-security-disbands-domestic-terror-intelligence-unit?ref=home

April 2, 2019

Democrats to make Republicans go on record defending Trump's Obamacare attack

Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY Published 6:02 a.m. ET April 2, 2019 | Updated 6:03 a.m. ET April 2, 2019

WASHINGTON – House Democrats will force Republicans on Tuesday to take a stand on President Trump's new position that the courts should completely overturn Obamacare.

Democrats are bringing up a resolution condemning the pending case as an "unacceptable assault on the health care of the American people."

It's Democrats' latest effort to take advantage of Trump's unexpected move last week to fully back a legal challenge to the 2010 Affordable Care Act without a ready substitute.

The decision surprised congressional Republicans who were focused on narrower health care measures – such as reducing the cost of prescription drugs – after failing in 2017 to come up with a replacement for the ACA.

more
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/02/obamacare-democrats-make-republicans-defend-donald-trump/3332652002/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatodaycomwashington-topstories