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July 2019

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Tulsi Gabbard Breaks With 2020 Democrats, Says Decriminalizing Illegal Crossings ‘Could Lead To Open Borders’ By Tristan Justice

By on July 23rd, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/07/23/tulsi-gabbard-breaks-candidates-says-decriminalizing-border-crossings-lead-open-borders/

2020 presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) said she is “looking at” supporting other candidates in their calls to decriminalize illegal U.S. border crossings but that she is concerned such a policy would lead to open borders.

“That’s something that I’m looking at,” Gabbard told the hosts on ABC’s “The View” on whether she supports the policy. “I think decriminalizing could lead to open borders. We need safe, secure borders in this country.”

Rival 2020 candidate and former secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro was the first to advocate for the policy that the other Democratic presidential candidates rapidly adopted.

During the second night of last month’s presidential primary debates in Miami, nearly every candidate raised his or her hand when asked if they supported eliminating legal penalties for those who ignore U.S. immigration laws. The only candidates who did not raise their hand were U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and former Vice President Joe Biden, who raised his hand half-way in a gesture to the moderators to explain his stance on the issue.

Other prominent Democrats have come out to criticize the proposal. Former U.S. secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, who served under President Barack Obama, blasted the idea in the Washington Post as “tantamount to open borders.”

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Journalist Who Peddled Shoddy Kavanaugh Story Defends Al Franken-Mollie Hemingway

By on July 23rd, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/07/23/journalist-who-peddled-shoddy-kavanaugh-story-defends-al-franken/

Of all the people in the world who are in a position to write an article poo-poohing Al Franken’s problems or fretting about journalistic excesses, Jane Mayer may be the very worst choice.

A reporter known for slinging unsubstantiated allegations of improper behavior against conservatives has developed a sudden appreciation for due process and journalistic fact-checking. At least for Democrats. The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer published a robust defense of former U.S. senator Al Franken, who resigned under intense pressure in 2017 after eight women publicly detailed unwanted groping and kissing from him.

Mayer argues that the former Minnesota senator should not have resigned, since one of his accusers was conservative and was associated with political opponents of Franken. As for the other seven, Mayer suggests their complaints about unwanted kisses and groping didn’t rise to the level of seriousness that a Senate resignation would indicate. Yes, Mayer reports, he was known for the unsolicited kissing of women on the mouth, but, we’re assured, he is “a social—not a sexual—’lip-kisser.’” Well, there you go.

Mayer expresses concern that “in an era when women’s accusations of sexual discrimination and harassment are finally being taken seriously, after years of belittlement and dismissal, some see it as offensive to subject accusers to scrutiny. ‘Believe Women’ has become a credo of the #MeToo movement.” Franken learns that “being on the losing side of the #MeToo movement, which he fervently supports, has led him to spend time thinking about such matters as due process, proportionality of punishment, and the consequences of Internet-fuelled outrage.”

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Cory Booker Explains Why he Would Never Punch Trump By Jim Treacher

By on July 23rd, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/cory-booker-would-never-punch-trump-that-fat-old-body-shamer/

I’m old enough to remember when fantasizing about physically attacking the President of the United States was considered racist. Why, I’m so old that I can actually remember when late-night TV was worth watching! But neither of those things is true anymore, as you’ll see in this clip from last night’s Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Here’s ostensible presidential candidate Cory Booker talking about how he would never, ever punch Donald Trump, no matter how desperately he wants to:

.@CoryBooker: “My testosterone sometimes makes me want to feel like punching [Trump], which would be bad for this elderly, out-of-shape man that he is if I did that — a physically weak specimen.”

Let’s take a moment to imagine any Republican going on national TV and saying something like this about a Democratic POTUS. And let’s take another moment to contemplate the amusing idea of Cory Booker possessing testosterone.

Anyway, Booker would never punch Trump. That would be beneath him. But what’s wrong with getting a round of applause from a liberal NYC audience, and a warm, friendly smile from Seth Meyers, for talking about punching Donald Trump?

Plus, Trump is old and out of shape. What does Booker look like, a body-shamer?

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Beto O’Rourke: ‘What we saw in North Carolina last week was almost an impromptu Nuremberg rally’ By Faris Bseiso

By on July 23rd, 2019

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/23/politics/beto-orourke-trump-rally/index.html

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said in an interview Monday that a campaign event held by President Donald Trump last week “was almost an impromptu Nuremberg rally,” implicating Trump supporters with an invocation of Nazism.

“Yes, President Trump is a racist. What we saw in North Carolina last week was almost an impromptu Nuremberg rally, inciting hatred and ultimately, I think implicit in that, is violence against people based on the color of their skin, based on their religion, based on their difference from the majority of Americans,” O’Rourke told ABC News. “And it is in keeping the President who describes Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals, who describes asylum seekers as animals or an infestation, who says that Klansmen are ‘very fine people.’ It’s very clear the path that he is taking us on.”
O’Rourke was referring to a campaign event held in Greenville, North Carolina, in which the President doubled down on his racist rhetoric against progressive minority members of Congress — including Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia but has since become a naturalized US citizen — which was met with chants from a crowd yelling “send her back.” Trump stood there at length as the crowd chanted, though he later claimed he disapproved of their chant.

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Home News Politics Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: Sen. Kamala Harris ‘is not qualified to serve as commander-in-chief’By Seth McLaughlin –

By on July 23rd, 2019

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jul/23/tulsi-gabbard-kamala-harris-not-qualified-serve-co/

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday said Sen. Kamala D. Harris is not qualified to be president because she lacks the foreign policy credentials and temperament to lead the nation on the global stage.

“I think one of the things that I am most concerned with is Kamala Harris is not qualified to serve as commander-in-chief,” the Hawaii Democrat said on Outkick the Coverage with Clay Travis. “I can say this from a personal perspective as a soldier. She has no background or experience in foreign policy and she lacks the temperament that is necessary for a commander-in-chief.”

Ms. Gabbard, who served in Iraq as a member of the Hawaii National Guard, said she has seen firsthand what it is like to have presidents who lack foreign policy experience fall under the influence of the “foreign policy establishment” and the “military industrial complex.”

Lily Adams, spokesperson for the Harris campaign, dismissed Ms. Gabbard’s comments, suggesting she has blemishes on her record.

“Definite hard pass on taking national security advice from Assad’s cheerleader,” Ms. Adams said on Twitter.

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Spitting in the face of cooperation with Israel Unlike Israel, which has a burgeoning understanding with many of its Arab neighbors based on a shared interest to prevent the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons, the Palestinians have been kissing up to Tehran. Ruthie Blum

By on July 23rd, 2019

https://www.jns.org/opinion/spitting-in-the-face-of-cooperation-with-israel/

If further proof were needed to illustrate the futility of diplomatic overtures to the Palestinian Authority, Monday’s attack on a pro-Israel Saudi in Jerusalem is a good example.

As part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s regional strategy to forge ties with formerly hostile Muslim-Arab states, the Israeli Foreign Ministry invited a delegation of six media personalities from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt to see the Jewish state for themselves. Up close and personal.

As a precautionary measure for their safe return home, their identities were not disclosed.

The only exception was Mahmoud Saud, a law student and blogger from Saudi Arabia, who regularly tweets about his unabashed support for Israel in general and the Netanyahu government in particular. This is clearly why Saud not only agreed, but was proud, to be photographed with the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman and Likud Knesset member Avi Dichter.

At a meeting with Dichter at the Knesset on Monday morning, one member of the delegation said, “This visit to Israel is like touring a dreamland. If only we would be able to bring hundreds of people from our countries, so that when they go back they can tell what they saw and felt.”

Indeed.

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Andrew McCarthy: Mueller’s testimony will not give Democrats what they crave. Can they handle it?

By on July 23rd, 2019

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andrew-mccarthy-robert-mueller-democrats-trump-t

Prepare to be disappointed.

That should be Democrats’ mindset heading into Robert Mueller’s appearance this week before two House committees. The greater the anticipation of the testimony, the more the letdown is apt to be.

That is because the special counsel simply is not going to give them what they crave.

Democrats want Mueller to say he would have charged President Trump with obstruction of justice were it not for Justice Department guidance instructing that a sitting president may not be indicted. Mueller cannot say that without contradicting his report and his statements at a late May press conference.

He is not going to do that.

Mueller abdicated on the obstruction question. Mind you, at the time he took over the Russia-gate investigation on May 17, 2017, there were already strong indications that there was no cyber-espionage conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin to interfere in the 2016 election. In essence, what he assumed was more an obstruction than a collusion investigation. Indeed, just days earlier, according to former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, the FBI had opened an obstruction investigation against the president based on the May 9 firing of the Bureau’s then-director, James Comey.

I never believed a special counsel was legally or factually warranted. But if we assume for argument’s sake that a special counsel was necessary, then the single central issue he was needed to resolve was: Is there a prosecutable obstruction case against the president?

Yet, after putting the country through a nearly two-year probe, Mueller declined to answer that question.

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‘Mueller Time’ won’t be the moment Republicans or Democrats want By Andrew C. McCarthy

By on July 23rd, 2019

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/454309-mueller-time-wont-be-the-moment-republicans-or-democrats-want

Capitol Hill Republicans appear to be scratching their heads about instructions that special counsel Robert Mueller has received from the Department of Justice (DOJ), tightly restricting his congressional testimony, which is scheduled for Wednesday. 

They shouldn’t be. The Trump administration’s legal and political calculations are clear. 

As The Hill reported on Monday, with Mueller’s testimony less than 48 hours away, the Justice Department directed him to confine his testimony strictly to the four corners of his report. Specifically, Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer asserted, Mueller is to avoid “discussion about investigative steps or decisions made during your investigation not otherwise described in the public version of your report.”

Clearly, Republican lawmakers allied with the president want to press Mueller not about what is in his report but about matters he excluded — not just from the 448-page tome but, perhaps, from his investigation. 

They do not want to focus on evidence relating to the questions of collusion with Russia and obstruction of the probe, on neither of which Mueller recommended charges against the president. They want to home in on apparent investigative irregularities: Reliance on the unverified Steele dossier for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants; failure to inform the FISA court that the dossier was a Hillary Clinton campaign opposition research product; misleading the president on his status in the investigation (i.e., telling him that he was not under investigation while trying to make a case on him); the blatant investigative bias shown by texts between FBI officials; intelligence leaks to the media; consultations with Obama administration political officials regarding what information should be shared with President-elect Trump and his transition team, and so on.

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MARK STEYN: SPEAKING ILL OF THE TED- CHAPPAQUIDDICK 50 YEARS ON

By on July 23rd, 2019

https://www.steynonline.com/9565/speaking-ill-of-the-ted

This weekend we were busy marking the demi-centennial of Apollo 11’s moon landing with some thoughts on The Lost Frontier and some appropriately lunar music. But 1969’s giant leap for mankind coincided with one almighty flying leap for a very different kind of man: with his usual exquisite timing, Senator Edward Kennedy chose the day before Messrs Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin reached the Sea of Tranquility to drive Mary Jo Kopechne into a pond of tranquility, at least until he came flying off that bridge. And, by the time America was paying attention, Teddy had been fitted with his neck brace and the minders had everything under control.

Last year there was, very belatedly, a fine feature film about Chappaquiddick, which I reviewed here, and which contains a dialogue exchange taken almost verbatim from a ten-year-old column of mine:

As Joan Vennochi wrote in The Boston Globe:

‘Like all figures in history – and like those in the Bible, for that matter – Kennedy came with flaws. Moses had a temper. Peter betrayed Jesus. Kennedy had Chappaquiddick, a moment of tremendous moral collapse.’

Actually, Peter denied Jesus, rather than ‘betrayed’ him, but close enough for Catholic-lite Massachusetts. And if Moses having a temper never led him to leave some gal at the bottom of the Red Sea, well, let’s face it, he doesn’t have Ted’s tremendous legislative legacy, does he?

That bit turns up in the movie:

Joan Vennochi’s words are put in Ted’s mouth: He says defensively that all men are flawed – ‘Moses had a temper, Peter betrayed Jesus.’ And my cheap riposte – ‘Moses didn’t leave a girl at the bottom of the Red Sea’ – is given to the outraged Joe Gargan, already on his way out, supplanted by better, colder, harder fixers. When the guy gets out and leaves the girl at the bottom of the sea, it offends the natural order: Joe is telling him he’s not a man.

He wasn’t – and nor were those who went along with it. I have rarely been more disgusted by the public discourse of a free society than by the obsequies that attended Kennedy’s passing a decade ago. Yet, even so, I would not have bothered re-posting the column below were it not for the fact that they’re still doing it. On this fiftieth anniversary, the Associated Press, purveyors of unreadable J-school sludge to America’s dying monodailies, are still reflexively playing oleaginous courtiers to a dynasty that no longer exists. In a country that now vaporizes careers for an infelicitous tweet, Ted Kennedy killed a woman and dared us to call him on it. Thanks to the likes of the Associated Press, America failed that test:

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Republicans, Don’t Screw Up the Mueller Hearing By Julie Kelly

By on July 23rd, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/07/22/republicans-dont-screw-up-the-mueller-hearing/

Republicans will have a chance to redeem themselves this week after the farce they helped create: The special counsel investigation into alleged “collusion” between Russia and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Robert Mueller is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee in a public hearing for a total of five hours on Wednesday—not nearly enough time to plumb the depths of his 448-page report or to grill Mueller about his tactics and partisan team of investigators. Republicans will need to make the most of the limited time they have.

So, this seems like an appropriate time to remind Republicans that they are as much to blame as Democrats for foisting this costly, useless and destructive travesty on the American people.

With few exceptions, Republicans capitulated to every single Democratic demand and the ongoing media-manufactured hysteria about the urgency required to investigate so-called “election collusion.”

“Some of us very early on saw enormous conflicts [with Mueller], even conflicted as being a witness. We knew there was something wrong,” U.S. Representative Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), one of the few Republicans skeptical of the Mueller probe from the beginning, told me on Monday. “But once the inspector general report came out and revealed the bias and corruption at the top of DOJ and FBI, we started getting help.”

But Republicans should have been wary before Michael Horowitz released his report in June 2018. By the time Robert Mueller was appointed in May 2017, Republicans on Capitol Hill knew that the collusion accusation had been concocted by Obama loyalists in the government and Democratic political operatives.

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