April 5, 2019

Beto O'Rourke compares Trump's rhetoric on immigration to that of Nazi Germany

By Holly Bailey and John Wagner April 5 at 8:49 AM

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Democratic White House hopeful Beto O’Rouke said Thursday that some of President Trump’s inflammatory remarks on immigration are reminiscent of language used in Nazi Germany.

Speaking at a town hall meeting at a college here in a heavily conservative enclave in the far western corner of Iowa, O’Rourke criticized “the rhetoric of a president who not only describes immigrants as ‘rapists’ and ‘criminals’ but as ‘animals’ and ‘an infestation.’”

“Now, I might expect someone to describe another human being as ‘an infestation’ in the Third Reich. I would not expect it in the United States of America,” the former congressman from Texas added, drawing an enthusiastic response from a crowd of about 150 people, including dozens of young people.

In his presidential announcement speech in 2015, Trump famously referred to some Mexicans crossing the U.S. border as “rapists” and as “bringing crime.”

At a White House event last year, Trump described immigrants as “animals,” later clarifying that he was referring to members of the MS-13 gang, most of whose members are from Central America.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/beto-orourke-compares-trumps-rhetoric-on-immigration-to-that-of-nazi-germany/2019/04/05/66ce763a-5796-11e9-9136-f8e636f1f6df_story.html

https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1113992157902397440

April 5, 2019

Biden to make 1st appearance since complaints about behavior

By JULIE PACE and THOMAS BEAUMONT
30 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — In countless conversations over the past year, former Vice President Joe Biden, his advisers and his broad network of friends and family have openly discussed the vulnerabilities he would face if he ran for president. A voting record that is sometimes at odds with the Democratic Party’s leftward shift. His age. And the affectionate brand of politics that has made him beloved by many Democrats and a target of Republicans for years.

What Biden likely didn’t expect was to be confronting those issues so fully before even launching a campaign.

On Friday, Biden will make his first public appearance since several women began recounting encounters with him that left them uneasy. The first was Nevada politician Lucy Flores , who said she was uncomfortable when Biden kissed her on the back of the head backstage at a 2014 campaign event. Her account was countered by scores of women — from prominent lawmakers to former Biden staffers — who praised him as a warm, affectionate person and a supportive boss.

It’s unclear whether he will address the situation in his remarks to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He said in a cellphone video released Wednesday that he understood “social norms have begun to change” and “the boundaries of protecting personal space have been reset.”

more
https://apnews.com/f9bb1b8c385044ffb74b2c725c3dd83b?utm_medium=AP_Politics&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow

April 5, 2019

Add social media to the list of things souring Americans on politics

April 5, 2019, 8:42 AM EDT

By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Ben Kamisar

WASHINGTON — How much has social media ruined American politics and political journalism?

Well, check out these numbers from the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll:

57 percent of Americans say social media does more to divide the country than unite it;

61 percent say social media does more to spread unfair attacks and rumors against public figures and corporations instead of holding them accountable;

55 percent say it does more to spread lies and falsehoods rather than news and information;
and a whopping 82 percent of Americans say social media does more to waste time – instead of using it well.

more
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/add-social-media-list-things-souring-americans-politics-n991276?cid=public-rss_20190405

April 5, 2019

In New Documents, Cohen Says Trump "Instructed" Him To Lie

Source: Buzzfeed News



In a memo submitted to Congress, the president's former lawyer asks for time to help congressional investigators review new evidence.

Emma Loop
BuzzFeed News Reporter

Jason Leopold
BuzzFeed News Reporter

Anthony Cormier
BuzzFeed News Reporter

Reporting From Washington, DC

Posted on April 5, 2019, at 12:16 a.m. ET


WASHINGTON — Attorneys for Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former fixer, submitted documents to lawmakers Thursday night accusing Trump and his team of lawyers of instructing Cohen to lie to Congress about when negotiations ended to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

In a 12-page memo sent to top House Democrats, Cohen’s attorneys said Trump “encouraged Cohen to lie and say all Moscow Tower project contacts ended as of January 31, 2016 using ‘code’ language — telling Cohen during various conversations that there was ‘no collusion, no Russian contacts, nothing about Russia’ after the start of the campaign.’”

The memo addresses issues that have been at the center of the recently concluded two-year investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with Trump’s campaign. Attorney General William Barr has stated that the report, which has not been made public, did not find that the Trump campaign "conspired or coordinated with Russia."

The more than 100 pages of documents included with Cohen’s memo claim to lay bare a “conspiracy to collude” with the Russian government during the campaign, along with an array of other crimes by the president.



Read more: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmaloop/in-new-documents-cohen-says-trump-instructed-him-to-lie

April 5, 2019

Donny Deutsch Defends the 'Genuineness' of Joe Biden's Hugs: 'What America Needs Right Now'

by Colby Hall | Apr 5th, 2019, 7:37 am 61

Morning Joe has recently been the go-to cable news show for viewers eager to see earnest and faithful defenses of former Vice President Joe Biden, which frequent contributor Donny Deutsch took to a new, almost absurd level Friday morning.

Biden recently released a video in which he acknowledged his public displays of affection made some women feel uncomfortable after several women publicly decried Biden’s alleged crossing boundaries of personal space.

Mika Brzezinski has on numerous occasions called out the accusers, particularly their cowardice in not confronting her “friend” Joe Biden at the time, and publicly called for Biden to continue to hug her affectionately upon next meeting. But Deutsch took his defense of Biden’s behavior to a new, almost “Dear Leader” level.

“This country needs a hug, a metaphorical hug right now,” Deutsch opened. “There’s this weird irony about his hugging people. But the essence of what’s behind it. Mika, you know him personally. Is the genuineness of what a hug is and let’s not lose its of — that’s what this country needs right now, not an invasion of space but a heartfelt hug.”

America needs a hug and Joe Biden is just the guy to do it. It’s not clear if this was a paid political advertisement by Biden 2020, but it was so over the top, even the Biden campaign would likely distance themselves from it.

video
https://www.mediaite.com/election-2020/donny-deutsch-defends-the-genuineness-of-joe-bidens-hugs-what-america-needs-right-now/

April 5, 2019

Trump Is Already Plotting His Post-White House Tell-All Memoir

The president is ‘excited’ about penning a dishy book. So much so that he keeps talking about the scores he plans to settle.

Asawin Suebsaeng, Maxwell Tani
04.05.19 5:14 AM ET

As he navigates turbulent domestic and international affairs, President Donald Trump has been keeping one eye on an opportunity that awaits him in his post-White House career.

Since at least mid-2017, Trump has been talking about the post-presidential memoir he will write; or, more likely, have ghostwritten on his behalf. He is planning on it being explosive and assumes (not without reason) that it will be a New York Times bestseller. And since the early days of his administration, he has conveyed his eagerness to get started on the project.

“He sounded excited about it,” said one person who was present last year when the president made comments about writing a memoir. “He said it would sell better than even The Art of the Deal.”

Another source, who is a friend of Trump’s, said the president has casually discussed how such a book could be used to dish dirt and settle scores with his foes in the media, the Democratic Party, non-loyal Republicans, law enforcement, and even individuals in his own administration. Trump, according to this person, noted that this memoir could help “correct” the “fake news” already published in popular books and newspapers, and give him the opportunity to spin a juicy yarn on his time at the heights of power.

more
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-white-house-the-president-is-already-plotting-his-post-presidential-tell-all-memoir?ref=home

April 5, 2019

Domestic terrorism story renews fears over Trump's coddling of white nationalists

DHS says it is improving threat detection; critics see a lack of willpower.

By Joe Davidson
Columnist
April 5 at 7:00 AM

Department of Homeland Security officials reacted with fury to a Daily Beast story Tuesday saying that the agency “has disbanded a group of intelligence analysts who focused on domestic terrorism.”

The article renewed fears that the reported action was another Trump administration ploy to downplay violence by white nationalists. DHS hit back, in writing and by phone, insisting that the story was inaccurate.

The unit has not been disbanded, said David J. Glawe, DHS undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, but restructured to be more efficient.

“I set up the current- and emerging-threat centers to focus online 24 hours a day, seven days a week, looking at the deep Web, the surface Web to identify those threats,” he said during an interview. “And this year alone, I’m up over 40 percent of identifying threats to persons or property from that capability,” which provides leads to law enforcement nationally. “That capability did not exist in the department.”

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/05/domestic-terrorism-story-renews-fears-over-trumps-coddling-white-nationalists/

April 5, 2019

Elizabeth Warren will back ending the Senate filibuster

By MJ Lee and Phil Mattingly, CNN

Updated 8:00 AM ET, Fri April 5, 2019

(CNN) - Sen. Elizabeth Warren is set to call Friday for eliminating the filibuster, publicly endorsing for the first time a drastic change to Senate rules that would allow Democrats to pass sweeping, progressive bills with only a simple majority if they controlled the Senate in the future.

The Massachusetts Democrat, who's running for president, plans to make the announcement at a conference hosted in Manhattan by the National Action Network -- a civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton. According to excerpts of her speech shared by her presidential campaign, Warren will describe the filibuster as having been used for generations as "a tool to block progress on racial justice" and will rally Democrats to join her in the cause.

"When Democrats next have power, we should be bold and clear: We're done with two sets of rules -- one for the Republicans and one for the Democrats," Warren plans to say. "And that means when Democrats have the White House again, if Mitch McConnell tries to do what he did to President Obama and puts small-minded partisanship ahead of solving the massive problems facing this country, then we should get rid of the filibuster."

She is expected to reference a bill passed in the Senate last year that made lynching a federal crime, and point out that it was first introduced in 1918.

"It nearly became the law back then. It passed the House in 1922. But it got killed in the Senate -- by a filibuster. And then it got killed again. And again. And again," Warren will say. "More than 200 times. An entire century of obstruction because a small group of racists stopped the entire nation from doing what was right."

more
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/05/politics/elizabeth-warren-2020-senate-filibuster/index.html

April 4, 2019

Dr. Martin Luther King jr. - How Long? Not Long

April 4, 2019

It must be Pete Buttigieg Day in the media, articles about him are everywhere...

Pete Buttigieg shows how to campaign on values in the age of Trump

By Jennifer Rubin
Opinion writer
April 4 at 10:15 AM

One of the most horrifying spectacles of the Trump era is the moral and spiritual sell-out of evangelical Christians who have made a Faustian bargain with President Trump. They condone or ignore his alleged sexual predation, bigotry, cruelty, lies, abject materialism and egomania. For some judicial appointments, they not only tolerate a host of non-Christian qualities but deify him, becoming the most devoted foot soldiers in the Trump cult. (These were the people who vilified President Bill Clinton for sexual immorality and decided that Jeb Bush wasn’t sufficiently supportive of the pro-life movement.)

Thanks to Trump, his evangelical excuse-mongers and his right-wing media chorus, the Republican Party has become a mostly male, white-grievance party, which is indifferent to real discrimination against women and minorities, to trauma inflicted on migrant children, to those who may lose health-care coverage — really to anyone who is not a devoted Trump fan. The question for the party is no longer whether something is conservative or even good for Americans (or true!), but whether a position helps Trump. It’s idolatry plain and simple.

Into this vacuum of values and faith steps savvy Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

During a remarkable interview with USA Today’s Kirsten Powers, Buttigieg explained, “The left is rightly committed to a separation of church and state . . . but we need to not be afraid to invoke arguments that are convincing on why Christian faith is going to point you in a progressive direction.” Not since the civil rights movement has the left truly embraced faith as a motivation and justification for policies toward the powerless. He continued:

When I think about where most of Scripture points me, it is toward defending the poor, and the immigrant, and the stranger, and the prisoner, and the outcast, and those who are left behind by the way society works. And what we have now is this exaltation of wealth and power, almost for its own sake, that in my reading of Scripture couldn’t be more contrary to the message of Christianity. So I think it’s really important to carry a message (to the public), knitting together a lot of groups that have already been on this path for some time, but giving them more visibility in the public sphere.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/04/buttigieg-shows-how-campaign-values-evangelicals-have-only-themselves-blame/