February, 2019 | últimas notícias

Fox News’s Napolitano: Democrats want Northam to resign so they can ‘tarnish Trump as a racist’ | TheHill – The Hill

Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano said Tuesday that Democrats want Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) to resign so they can continued to “tarnish” President TrumpDonald John Trump Trump to nominate senior Treasury official Malpass to lead World Bank: report Senate GOP warns Trump against using national emergency for border wall Ruth Bader Ginsburg attends musical production in first public appearance since surgery MORE as a “racist.”

“Why do they want him out? They want to be able to tarnish Donald Trump as a racist. Because of the comments he made after the Charlottesville, Va., murder and racial clash took place,” Napolitano said on “Fox & Friends,” referring to the 2017 white nationalist rally that turned deadly after a man rammed a car through a crowd of counterprotesters.

Trump faced significant pushback at the time after saying “many sides” were responsible for the Charlottesville violence.

Napolitano added that Democrats likely think they’d “lose standing” to criticize Trump if Northam stays on as governor.

Fox analyst: Dems want Northam out so they can continue to “tarnish Donald Trump as a racist” pic.twitter.com/sLVlezqsp8

— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) February 5, 2019

His comments come days after a photo surfaced showing a man wearing blackface standing next to another dressed in a Ku Klux Klan robe on Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook page.

Northam apologized for the photo last week, but on Saturday denied that he was in the picture in question.

“When I was confronted with the images yesterday, I was appalled that they appeared on my page, but I believed then and now that I am not either of the people in that photo,” he said in a press conference.

Northam has faced growing calls from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers to resign over the photo. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said Monday that Northam’s “moral authority has collapsed” and that his ability to govern is “nonexistent.”

Northam has so far refused to step down. He said in a Cabinet meeting on Monday that if he resigned he would be leaving office as a “racist for life,” according to CNN.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/media/428493-fox-news-legal-analyst-democrats-want-northam-to-resign-so-they-can-tarnish

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Trump inaugural committee subpoenaed: what we know about the investigation – Vox.com

President Trump’s inaugural committee received a sweeping subpoena from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York — meaning criminal investigations into the inauguration’s money are heating up.

The scope of documents requested in the subpoena and potential crimes investigators are probing are both remarkable — investigating everything from false statements to money laundering. Investigators are said to be interested in the inaugural committee’s spending, its donations, whether any donations came from illegal foreign sources, and potential corruption involving favors for donors.

Since last year, there have been reports that special counsel Robert Mueller was investigating potential foreign donations to the inaugural committee. But in December, news broke that federal prosecutors in New York were overseeing a broader probe into the inauguration and its money.

Trump’s inaugural committee raised a truly astonishing $106.7 million, double the previous record set by Barack Obama’s 2009 inaugural, and there have long been many questions about where that money came from, and where it went.

Rick Gates, the former Trump campaign aide who helped run the inaugural committee and struck a plea deal with Mueller in February, has also been cooperating with SDNY prosecutors, per the Wall Street Journal. Michael Cohen, who helped fundraise for the inaugural, is another major figure, though it’s not entirely clear whether he’s helping out with the investigation or whether he’s a target of it.

What the subpoena demanded from Trump’s inaugural committee

The Wall Street Journal reports that the documents the government is demanding from the inaugural committee include:

“All documents related to the committee’s donors and vendors”
All records related to “benefits” provided to donors
Documents related to the financier Imaad Zuberi and his company Avenue Ventures LLC. (He is the only donor specifically named in the subpoena. The Daily Beast has previously reported on Zuberi’s connections to Michael Cohen.)
Documents related to donations “made by or on behalf of foreign nationals,” including communications about possible donations from foreign individuals
Documents related to “donations or payments made by donors directly to contractors and/or vendors.” (The Journal reports that there was some discussion on the inaugural committee about having donors pay vendors for the inauguration directly — which could violate disclosure laws.)
The New York Times reports that the subpoena also asks for documents about Stripe, a startup that processes credit card payments, for which Jared Kushner’s brother is an investor.

Meanwhile, CNN reports that the subpoena specifically names several different offenses that investigators are probing:

Conspiracy against the United States
False statements
Mail fraud
Wire fraud
Money laundering
Inaugural committee disclosure violations
“Violations of laws prohibiting contributions by foreign nations and contributions in the name of another person, also known as straw donors.”

What we know about the investigations into Trump’s inauguration

Three Justice Department offices have reportedly been investigating aspects of Trump’s inauguration.

1) Special counsel Robert Mueller: Between April and June of last year, both CNN and ABC News reported that Mueller’s team was questioning witnesses about potential foreign donations to the Trump inaugural — specifically, about “donors with connections to Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar,” per ABC.

It is unclear if Mueller is still investigating this, and he may have since referred some or all of it to another Justice Department office.

2) SDNY US Attorney’s Office: In April, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York had Michael Cohen’s residence and office raided for documents. SDNY’s current probe into the Trump inauguration grew out of this investigation and raid and is being led by the public corruption unit, per the Wall Street Journal.

SDNY sent the subpoena to the inaugural committee this week, and appears to be leading the investigation.

3) EDNY US Attorney’s Office: To complicate matters further, New York Times reported that the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York “is separately investigating whether inaugural officials helped foreigners illegally funnel donations to Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee using so-called straw donors to disguise their donations.”

Rick Gates and Michael Cohen are key figures

The inaugural committee was chaired by billionaire real estate investor Tom Barrack, a longtime close friend of Trump. But according to reports at the time, Barrack turned to Rick Gates — Paul Manafort’s right-hand man, who remained on the Trump campaign after Manafort was fired — to handle much of the fundraising and planning work.

Eventually, Mueller indicted Gates for financial and lobbying crimes connected to his work with Manafort. And in February 2018, Gates cut a deal — pleading guilty and pledging his full cooperation with the government. This cooperation has reportedly included providing information about the Trump inauguration.

Another key figure is Michael Cohen, who also cut a plea deal with prosecutors — but his role in the investigation may be somewhat different.

Cohen pleaded guilty to financial and campaign finance violations brought by SDNY in August, and to lying to Congress related to the Russia investigation in November, but he never committed to cooperate with the government.

Instead, Cohen said he would voluntarily provide information, rather than committing to testify accurately about any crimes he might know about. This became a sticking point during his sentencing; Mueller’s office said they found Cohen’s information useful, but SDNY chided him for not fully committing to cooperate.

And notably, Imaad Zuberi — the only inaugural donor mentioned in the subpoena by name — discussed his inaugural contributions with Cohen and talked with him about business afterward. So it’s not entirely clear whether Cohen is helping out with this investigation of the inauguration — or whether he’s a target of it.

For more on investigations into President Trump, follow Andrew Prokop on Twitter and check out Vox’s guide to the Mueller investigation.

Source Article from https://www.vox.com/2019/2/5/18211600/trump-inauguration-investigation-subpoena-sdny

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Rep. Andy Biggs: How Trump can turn a home run State of the Union into a grand slam – Washington Examiner

Tuesday night, President Trump will give an excellent State of the Union speech. It will be positive and proclaim all of the wonderful accomplishments of his administration. But, if the president wants to turn a home run speech into a grand slam speech, he will announce that, pursuant to the authority delegated to him by Congress in Title 10 of the United States Code, he is directing the secretary of defense to immediately begin construction on a border wall.

He ought to then outline specifics of our drug crisis and how our entire southern border is an active drug trafficking corridor. Democrats will squirm as their duplicity is called out. More than 70,000 deaths in this country are caused by drug overdoses — most due to opioids. Tens of thousands more are addicted, wreaking havoc on families and communities.

In 2017, tons of heroin and cocaine were seized coming across the southern border, and enough of the synthetic opioid fentanyl to kill every man, woman, and child in the country. The most recent example was this past week when 245 pounds of fentanyl and 395 pounds of methamphetamine were seized in Nogales, Ariz.

Trump could continue by talking about the humanitarian crisis of an open border that sees drug and human traffickers sexually abusing countless men, women, girls, and boys entering the U.S., according to Doctors Without Borders.

The president can discuss the devastation of the lives of the victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens, the gang members who cross into the U.S., and the high number of illegal aliens who comprise the violent offenders in our state and federal prisons.

By outlining the aspects of what an active drug trafficking corridor looks like, the Trump administration is in a strong position to immediately build a border wall.

Of course, the president will hit the highlights and successes of his administration’s policies. The economy is robust. More people than ever, of every ethnicity, are working. Almost twice as many jobs were created in January as were forecasted by economists.

The military has been rebuilt. America’s prestige in the world is ascendant. Relationships that were allowed to deteriorate under the previous administration, such as the U.S.-Israel alliance, have been strengthened and restored.

Foreign trading partners, particularly China, have realized that they can no longer take advantage of the United States.

The Democrats have tried to impede every policy of this administration but have specifically focused on trying to delegitimize Trump and his associates. Democrats have such personal animus against the president that they have iterated no policy ideas except the bizarre, such as raising personal income tax rates to 90 percent, passing government-funded healthcare with no way to pay for it, and passing voting laws that allow illegal aliens to vote — among a host of additional bad ideas designed to elect Democrats in unfair and nontransparent elections.

Trump might mention that Congress has failed to address the border crisis, and every day that we wait for the legislative branch to take action (that will never happen) is another day that thousands more illegally cross our border. He could also mention the three additional caravans heading to our border, being facilitated by the governments of Central America and Mexico, and responding to Democrats’ obstinate refusal to address this crisis. He should announce that we are suspending foreign aid to these countries until they help stop the flood of illegal aliens pouring into the United States.

Most certainly, he can rely on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s outspoken denial of a crisis and her failure to protect Americans by refusing to build a border wall.

Mentioning these things, and expanding on them, will be a home run for President Trump’s speech. But, if he wants to hit a grand slam, one that will go down as one of the best speeches in the annals of State of the Union addresses, he simply has to announce that border wall construction will begin the day after his speech.

Rep. Andy Biggs, a Republican, represents Arizona’s 5th District in Congress. You can follow him on Twitter: @RepAndyBiggsAZ.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/rep-andy-biggs-how-trump-can-turn-a-home-run-state-of-the-union-into-a-grand-slam

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Photos: Bay Area stuns with snow-covered hillsides after unusually cold storm – SFGate

@lee.panich found a winter wonderland in the Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve. Snow fell across the Bay Area on Feb. 5, 2019.

@lee.panich found a winter wonderland in the Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve. Snow fell across the Bay Area on Feb. 5, 2019.

Photo: Instagram / Lee.panich

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@lee.panich found a winter wonderland in the Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve. Snow fell across the Bay Area on Feb. 5, 2019.

Photo: Instagram / Lee.panich

Everywhere hillsides and mountain peaks rise above the landscape, there was snow to be seen around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Residents woke Tuesday morning to the unlikely sight of mountaintops frosted in powder sugary-snow after a cold storm dropped down from the Northwest, pushing temperatures down into the 20s and 30s and delivering snow.

Snowfall on the Bay Area’s highest mountain peaks above 4,000 feet elevation occurs annually, but with this storm the snow levels dropped remarkably low with accumulation down to 1,000 feet and snow that didn’t stick as low as 400 feet.

MORE: National Weather Service confirms dusting of snow on Twin Peaks

SFGATE readers are sending in images of their snow-covered cars, backyards and roads as well as lots of snowy views of Mt. Tamalpais, the East Bay hills, Mt. St. Helena and the Santa Cruz mountains that saw more than eights inches of accumulations in some spots.

San Francisco resident Jeanette Flodell, who shared an image of the Marin hills taken from the city, shared, “For a brief second, I thought I had teleported back to Scandinavia, and wanted to bring out the x-country skis!”

Rob Ferber of the Santa Cruz Mountains sent in an image taken from Skyline near Bear Gulch early Tuesday morning, and wrote, “It is snowing now!”

Please take a look at readers’ photos in the gallery above and email your images to agraff@sfgate.com and we’ll add them to the gallery.

While temperatures are forecast to remain chilly with highs in the 40s Tuesday, the snow is unlikely to last long as the skies clear and the sun shines over mountaintops.

Source Article from https://www.sfgate.com/weather/article/snow-San-Francisco-Bay-Area-snowfall-photos-13590570.php

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Among 2020 Democrats, a debate over ‘Medicare-for-all’ – AOL

WASHINGTON (AP) — “Medicare-for-all” is quickly becoming a rallying cry for many Democratic White House hopefuls, but there are growing questions about how to pull off such a dramatic switch to a government-run health care system.

The debate over scrapping private insurers has heated up in recent days since Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California, a supporter of “Medicare-for-all,” told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “Who of us has not had that situation, where you’ve got to wait for approval, and the doctor says, well, I don’t know if your insurance company is going to cover this? Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on.”

But since her nationally televised remarks, several of Harris’ rivals have pointedly spoken about their plans to work toward universal health care in more pragmatic, incremental ways. Those Democrats portray the single-payer health care proposal they’ve backed as only one strategy to achieve universal coverage, while emphasizing the importance of other, less sweeping paths.

Among the skeptics, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said “Medicare-for-all” would “bankrupt for us for a very long time.”

Uniting Democrats is a desire to guarantee coverage for all, including an estimated 29 million people who remain uninsured. Some are backing a plan that would let people buy into Medicare, with tax credits from the Obama-era Affordable Care Act.

At the forefront of the debate is Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ ‘Medicare-for-all” bill, which holds out the promise of health care as a right, the potential for national savings from reduced administrative costs and government price-setting, and no more copays, deductibles or surprise medical bills. His plan envisions a four-year transition, phasing in the change by age groups. Simultaneously, some big tax increases would be taking effect.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, left, listens as Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, speaks during a health care bill news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017. Fifteen Senate Democrats are flirting with a single-payer health-care system that would expand Medicare coverage to all Americans, marking a shift within the party on what was once viewed as a politically treacherous issue that attracted little support from lawmakers. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Senator Kamala Harris, a Democrat from California, speaks as Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, left, listens during a health care bill news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017. Fifteen Senate Democrats are flirting with a single-payer health-care system that would expand Medicare coverage to all Americans, marking a shift within the party on what was once viewed as a politically treacherous issue that attracted little support from lawmakers. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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But there would be enormous challenges to put in place a single-payer health insurance with the government fully in control of the $3.5 trillion U.S. health care system, experts say. And polls show a looming political problem because many people don’t yet realize it would mean giving up their private coverage. Another issue: Sanders’ office says his plan would cover abortion, a major change from current federal laws and policies.

In addition to Harris, Democratic Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have signed onto the Sanders bill.

Gillibrand, who crafted language in Sanders’ bill that allows people to buy nonprofit insurance coverage during the transition, emphasized the importance of that bridge.

“If more people buy into Medicare over whatever your transition period is, you will disrupt the insurance market . because you’ve created more competition for lower prices and quality care,” Gillibrand told The Associated Press.

“What I like about where the Democrats are today is, we have four or five versions of ‘Medicare-for-all’,” she added. “I think we all want to get to single payer. And I think the best way to do it is what I wrote in Sen. Sanders’ bill.”

Booker, who declared his own candidacy on Friday, told a satellite radio show that day that he is “a big believer in ‘Medicare-for all’- but I believe that if we give people a quality public option, we’re going to be able to get more people into the system.”

And Warren, for her part, told Bloomberg TV last week that “multiple bills on the floor in the United States Senate” would accomplish her core priority of ensuring that “every American has health care at a price they can afford.”

Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sherrod Brown of Ohio also describe universal health care as an ultimate goal, but neither has signed onto Sanders’ legislation. Brown has called for the expansion of Medicare to those over 50 as a more workable first step, while Klobuchar said in a recent interview that “on health care, there’s a lot more that unites us in the Democratic Party.”

“One, we do not want to repeal” Obamacare, she added. “Two, we want to expand Medicaid . three, we want to improve on that as well as get to universal coverage.”

Others are less sanguine about a single-payer approach. “We can’t pay for it, it eliminates choices, most versions…would make private health care coverage for almost all health care needs illegal, and it will diminish quality and access,” said former Maryland Rep. John Delaney.

Among non-candidates, Kathleen Sebelius, former Health and Human Services secretary under President Barack Obama, said Democrats should debate a full range of options.

“I think this is a great opportunity to put plans on the table and hopefully not have an early litmus test that says we only want to talk about one idea,” said Sebelius. “I want to talk about 15 ideas.”

A long-time supporter of single-payer said Democrats should tread carefully. Now retired from political office, former Democratic congressman Jim McDermott of Washington said, “A single-payer system would be best if we had a magic wand, but in the real world it is going to be extraordinarily difficult to make this change.”

The last industrialized nation to transition to a single-payer system was Taiwan in 1995. Princeton health policy analyst Tsung-Mei Cheng, who studied the Taiwan experience, said she believes the Democratic candidates are doing poorly explaining pros and cons.

“I don’t think that the full information that would really help voters is out there,” she said. “You need to offer more specifics, and first of all about financing.”

___

Associated Press writers Elana Schor and Juana Summers contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/02/04/among-2020-democrats-a-debate-over-medicare-for-all/23661509/

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Trump to Nominate David Malpass to Lead the World Bank – The New York Times

During congressional testimony in 2017, he said those benefiting from the World Bank’s lending practices were “the people who fly in on a first-class ticket to give advice to governments.”

The United States has privately tested Mr. Malpass’s selection with other major bank shareholders and received positive feedback, according to one of the administration officials. They presented Mr. Malpass as a constructive reformer who, despite his criticisms, will work with other shareholders.

If confirmed, Mr. Malpass would fill the position being vacated by Jim Yong Kim, who abruptly announced last month that he would resign his post as World Bank president nearly three years before his term’s expiration.

Mr. Malpass, 62, who served on Mr. Trump’s transition team, was the chief economist at Bear Stearns, the defunct investment bank, from 1993 until its collapse in 2008. In 2010, Mr. Malpass ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for the United States Senate in New York. He previously worked as the deputy assistant secretary of state under President George Bush and as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury under Mr. Reagan.

The process of choosing a successor to Mr. Kim was overseen by Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary; Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff; and Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter. The president personally met with finalists for the position.

Others whose names were considered included Indra K. Nooyi, the former chief executive of PepsiCo; Ray Washburne, the president of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; and Heidi Cruz, a Goldman Sachs executive and the wife of Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas.

Ms. Trump’s role in the process has drawn some criticism from ethics watchdogs, who said that it could pose a conflict of interest for the president’s daughter to be involved in international economic matters when she has not completely divested from her assets.

The choice of Mr. Malpass was reported earlier on Monday by Politico and other news outlets.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/business/world-bank-david-malpass.html

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The incredible turnover in Trump’s Cabinet in 1 photo – CNN

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By Zachary B. Wolf and Joyce Tseng, CNN

Updated 8:55 AM ET, Tue February 5, 2019

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

(CNN)When President Donald Trump delivers his second official State of the Union address he’ll be speaking to a very different audience. Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the newly elevated House speaker, will be behind him; a new Democratic majority, the most diverse Congress in history, will be before him.

Former cabinet members highlighted
1st row: White House chief of staff John Kelly, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Veterans Secretary David Shulkin, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Steven Breyer, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Neil Gorsuch, Gen. Joseph Dunford, Gen. David Goldfein

2nd row: US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, US Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer, EPA Director Scott Pruitt, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, HHS Secretary Alex Azar, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/05/politics/sotu-photo-comparison-2017-2019/index.html

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Russia to Build New Missile Systems After Breakdown of U.S. Nuclear Pact – The Wall Street Journal

MOSCOW—Russia said it was working to develop new missile systems, including a long-range rocket that would travel faster than the speed of sound, in the first concrete indication of its response to the breakdown of a Cold War-era nuclear treaty.

President Vladimir Putin has instructed Russia’s Defense Ministry to take retaliatory measures, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday, to what he said were U.S. plans to create land-based missiles with a range of more than 300 miles over the next two years, according to the ministry’s…

Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-to-build-new-missile-systems-after-breakdown-of-u-s-nuclear-pact-11549383167

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US says no evidence foreign meddling impacted 2018 elections – AOL

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top U.S. officials said on Tuesday that foreign actors did not significantly influence the 2018 congressional elections, despite reports of hacking attempts leading up to the November election.

The statement by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stands in contrast to the 2016 presidential election, which U.S. officials say was the target of a sophisticated Russian hacking and propaganda campaign.

The two agencies said the U.S. government has found no evidence that foreign governments or agents had an impact last November, when Democrats won control of the House of Representatives. Neither political campaigns nor electronic voting machines or other infrastructure was significantly affected, they said in a joint statement. They declined to provide further detail.

RELATED: Senate Intelligence Committee review of Russian election meddling

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The National Republican Congressional Committee, which works to elect Republican candidates, said it was the target of a hacking attempt last year.

U.S. prosecutors are investigating whether Donald Trump’s campaign worked with the Kremlin to win the 2016 election. Trump denies any collusion, and Moscow has also denied involvement.

U.S. intelligence officials warned last week that Russia and China are already targeting the 2020 presidential election. (Reporting by Tim Ahmann and Susan Heavey; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and David Gregorio)

Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/02/05/us-says-no-evidence-foreign-meddling-impacted-2018-elections/23662209/

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The incredible turnover in Trump’s Cabinet in 1 photo – CNN

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By Zachary B. Wolf and Joyce Tseng, CNN

Updated 8:55 AM ET, Tue February 5, 2019

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

(CNN)When President Donald Trump delivers his second official State of the Union address he’ll be speaking to a very different audience. Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the newly elevated House speaker, will be behind him; a new Democratic majority, the most diverse Congress in history, will be before him.

Former cabinet members highlighted
1st row: White House chief of staff John Kelly, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Veterans Secretary David Shulkin, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Steven Breyer, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Neil Gorsuch, Gen. Joseph Dunford, Gen. David Goldfein

2nd row: US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, US Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer, EPA Director Scott Pruitt, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, HHS Secretary Alex Azar, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/05/politics/sotu-photo-comparison-2017-2019/index.html

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Ralph Northam shouldn’t resign because of an old photo. He should resign because he’s an idiot – Washington Examiner

Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam should not resign because he was an idiot in the past. He should resign because he is an idiot in the present.

On Feb. 1, a 35-year-old photo reportedly showing Northam dressed either in blackface or Ku Klux Klan regalia first surfaced on the right-wing news site Big League Politics.

Competing newsrooms, including the Virginian-Pilot, soon confirmed that the photo came from Northam’s page in a 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook. He was 25 years old at the time of the book’s publication. A separate yearbook unearthed this weekend also shows Northam went by a few nicknames when he attended Virginia Military Institute, including “ coonman.”

Taken together, the blackface photo and the racial slur are not enough to disqualify Northam from office. It’s true there’s no “youthful indiscretion” defense for racist behavior the governor likely thought was funny when he was well into his 20s. But everyone deserves a mulligan for the dumb and awful things they did decades ago. Everyone deserves a chance to show they’ve changed.

The problem with Northam, however, is that he is too stupid to manage any of that.

After the blackface yearbook photo was published on Feb. 1, the governor immediately apologized for it.

“I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now,” he said.

However, by Saturday morning, after it became clear that his allies were not going to call it square after his apology, he adopted a new strategy: denial.

“When I was confronted with the images yesterday,” he said at a press conference, “I was appalled that they appeared on my page, but I believed then and now that I am not either of the people in that photo.”

The press conference got much worse. Much, much worse.

One reporter asked Northam why he apologized Friday if it wasn’t him in the yearbook photo. The governor responded, “I didn’t study it as well as I should. The first comment I made to the individual that showed it to me, I said this can’t be me.”

As to why he didn’t just say so from the beginning, Northam told reporters, “My word is important to me and my first intention … was to reach out and apologize. As you might imagine and understand, there are a lot of people that are hurt by this and I wanted to reach out to them. After I did that last night, I sat and looked at the picture. Today, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to classmates. My roommate and I am convinced that is not my picture.”

The governor also claims he “vividly” remembers donning blackface to look like Michael Jackson for a talent show in 1984, explaining that this memory makes him confident that he’s not the person featured in the medical school yearbook.

“I used just a little bit of shoe polish to put on my cheeks and the reason I used a very little bit because — I don’t know if anyone’s ever tried that — you cannot get shoe polish off,” he said.

As the governor recounted the talent show anecdote for reporters, Northam blanked on the name “Michael Jackson.” He had to be reminded by his wife, Pam, who whispered it in his ear.

The governor also told members of the press that he won the talent show because he learned to “moonwalk” like Jackson. One reporter asked Northam if he could still do the dance move. The governor was fully prepared to answer that question with a dance demonstration, but he was again saved by his wife. It was only after she told him the circumstances were “inappropriate” that he declined to answer whether he can still “moonwalk.”

Remember: This press conference, which was meant to salvage Northam’s gubernatorial career, came just days after he caused a major headache for his office and his party when he seemingly endorsed post-birth abortions.

No one should be automatically disqualified from holding office because of something hateful he said or did decades ago. Everyone deserves the chance to show they’ve matured in wisdom and judgment and that they’ve learned from their past mistakes.

On Saturday, the Virginia governor showed he is nearly every bit as stupid and tone-deaf as he was in college. Northam had a chance to show he is not the man that he was 35 years ago, and he blew it with an idiotic, hair-brained attempt at crisis management that would make even Anthony Weiner blush.

The governor should not be chased from office for things he did 20 or 30 years ago. He should be chased from office because can’t be trusted with a book of matches.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/ralph-northam-shouldnt-resign-because-of-an-old-photo-he-should-resign-because-hes-an-idiot

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What to watch for at the State of the Union – NBC News

WASHINGTON — Halfway through his term, and with Democrats clambering into the nomination fight for the right to try to oust him in 2020, President Donald Trump will address Congress and the nation in his annual State of the Union address Tuesday.

It’s a chance for Trump to set his agenda for the year and beyond — to frame the story of his presidency so far as he gears up for another campaign.

He’ll do that at a moment that seems to call for some presidential spin. Trump is coming off a five-week partial government shutdown that he once promised he would be “proud” to force, in what turned out to be an ill-fated attempt to gain leverage over congressional Democrats in his quest to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.

Despite continued economic growth, his approval ratings have cratered in recent weeks, dropping under 40 percent in many surveys.

With all of that as a backdrop, he will, for the first time, address a joint session of Congress in which one of the two chambers — the House — is under the control of rival Democrats. His relations with them, already strained, deteriorated during the shutdown to the point that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., forced him to delay the State of the Union until after shuttered federal agencies had reopened.

The administration has promised Trump will deliver paeans to bipartisanship — but there are also signs he plans to throw some roundhouses.

Here are at least five questions likely to be answered when Trump steps up to the House rostrum Tuesday night.

Bipartisan — or just partisan?

Last week, an administration official previewing the president’s speech for reporters said that Trump would call on Republicans and Democrats in Congress to work with him in bipartisan fashion to accomplish joint goals for the country.

The only excerpt released from his speech: “Together we can break decades of political stalemate. We can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions, and unlock the extraordinary promise of America’s future. The decision is ours to make.”

Two days later, Trump’s campaign sent out an e-mail to his supporters that ripped Democrats.

“Ever since our incredible movement began, the Democrats have been against us. And over the past few weeks, they have taken their obstruction and radicalism to a whole new UN-AMERICAN level,” the email, under Trump’s name, read. “First, they REFUSED to put the safety of Americans at our Southern Border above their own political interests, and then they disinvited me from speaking at the PEOPLE’S State of the Union on the original date.”

Trump will talk about a host of issues on which there is some common ground between the parties, including certain enhancements for border security, transportation spending and lowering drug prices. But it would be a surprising twist if he didn’t take some shots at the Democratic side of the room.

Endless war, or ending wars?

Trump has been fighting the Washington foreign policy establishment over his plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Syria.

Most Republicans and many Democrats in the Senate have voted against a “precipitous withdrawal” from either country, but the Democratic presidential candidates found themselves siding with Trump — even if they disapproved of his methods and perceived motives — on the basic premise of winding down the U.S. presence on both fronts.

Tuesday’s speech is an opportunity for him to make his case to Congress directly and to the viewing public at home.

“We’ve been there for 19 years, almost, we are fighting very well,” he said of the Afghanistan war in an interview with CBS that aired over the weekend. “We’re fighting harder than ever before. And I think that they will — I think they’re tired and, I think everybody’s tired. We got to get out of these endless wars and bring our folks back home.”

A new plan on immigration?

Trump’s efforts to rewrite immigration laws have fallen apart in Congress. He hasn’t gotten any money for the wall he promised to build. He hasn’t been able to get new laws to crack down on illegal immigration. And he hasn’t been able to redesign legal immigration programs to limit the number of migrants and the criteria for allowing them into the country.

The biggest stumbling block has been the wall, which Trump has insisted on and has been unable to secure the funding for, even when his own party controlled both houses of Congress.

An administration official hinted Friday that Trump may lay out his vision for a deal.

“The president is definitely going to talk about immigration,” the official said. “He’s going to talk about where we are on that debate. And he’s going to try to present the path forward.”

Mary Kate Cary, a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush, said that because Trump talks to the public so often already through his Twitter account and frequent off-the-cuff remarks, he could use the State of the Union in a different way — “to speak directly to the Democratic congressional leadership who will be in the room about a deal on border security and DACA,” the Obama-era program providing deportation protection for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

So how will Democrats react — and how many will show?

On Monday, a handful of Democrats announced that they wouldn’t attend the speech. For those who are in the chamber — especially the set who are running for president — eyes in the press gallery above the House chamber and watching at home will be trained on their reactions to key phrases in Trump’s speech.

They’ll be asked why they chose to stand, applaud, stay seated or roll their eyes at particular moments.

And in the spirit of Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.’s infamous “You lie!” outburst during President Barack Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress, there’s always a chance that someone on the Democratic side will decide to voice an opinion in the midst of the speech. Keep an early eye on the rabble-rousers in the freshman class for clues as to how Trump will be received.

After he’s done, Stacey Abrams, who lost a tight race for Georgia’s governorship last year, will deliver the Democrats’ official response to the State of the Union. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who is weighing a second bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, is set to give his own reply to Trump.

Watch the watchers

Traditionally, the president invites a series of guests whose presence is designed to underscore points he will make in his speech. Typically, he will pause during his remarks to recognize them and their stories.

Trump’s guest list, which was released by the White House Monday night, includes family members of a Reno, Nev., couple whom prosecutors say were murdered by an undocumented immigrant; felons who were released through a presidential pardon and the recent criminal-rehabilitation law Trump signed; a Homeland Security Department agent who works on human-trafficking cases; and survivors of last year’s synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh.

While lawmakers don’t have the same platform, they often use their spare tickets to make their own political points. For Democrats this year, guests will include Americans affected by immigration, the government shutdown, gun violence and the president’s tariffs, among other issues — a bid to send a message without saying a word.

Jonathan Allen is a Washington-based national political reporter for NBC News who focuses on the presidency.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/what-watch-state-union-n966861

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Trump Inaugural Committee Hit With Subpoena – NPR

President Donald Trump dances with first lady Melania Trump at the Liberty Ball in 2017. Federal prosecutors subpoenaed Trump’s inaugural committee Monday, reportedly to find out how the inauguration was funded, and by whom.

Evan Vucci/AP

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President Donald Trump dances with first lady Melania Trump at the Liberty Ball in 2017. Federal prosecutors subpoenaed Trump’s inaugural committee Monday, reportedly to find out how the inauguration was funded, and by whom.

Evan Vucci/AP

President Trump’s inaugural committee has received a subpoena from Justice Department investigators. The subpoena reportedly orders the committee to hand over a wide-ranging collection of documents related to how it was funded, and by whom.

The investigation is separate from the probe being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller into the Trump campaign’s possible ties with Russia, which has resulted in several indictments and guilty pleas. Mueller’s team has been expected to wind down its investigation soon; this new inquiry could mean continuing headaches for the president and fodder for his political opponents.

“We have just received a subpoena for documents,” a spokeswoman for the committee tells NPR. “While we are still reviewing the subpoena, it is our intention to cooperate with the inquiry.”

The subpoena reportedly seeks extensive information about who donated to the inauguration, who the vendors and contractors were, and if there are any foreign contributors, The Washington Post reports. Federal election law prohibits foreign nationals from donating money to an inaugural committee.

The documents are being requested by the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which opened its criminal investigation into the inaugural committee in December, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

The Journal found that prosecutors were looking at how the committee spent its money, who funded it, and whether those funders got anything improper in return. The inaugural committee raised a record $107 million in donations.

Monday’s subpoena also seeks “communications about payments made directly by donors to vendors — which would flout disclosure rules,” the Journal reported. Prosecutors are particularly interested in documents related to “a Los Angeles financier who gave $900,000 to the committee through his private-equity firm and once registered as a foreign agent working on behalf of the Sri Lankan government.”

That man, Imaad Zuberi, was the only individual named as part of the request for documents, according to The New York Times. Zuberi, who had raised money for President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, was reportedly trying to develop a relationship with Trump.

Prosecutors are also requesting information about who attended inaugural events, and whether they were promised photo ops with the president-elect, ABC News reports.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/02/05/691522377/trump-inaugural-committee-hit-with-subpoena

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VA lawmaker who’s known Northam for a decade: He ‘cannot effectively govern’ – CNN

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By Katie Bernard, CNN

Updated 9:27 PM ET, Mon February 4, 2019

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

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MUST WATCH

(CNN)Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam “cannot effectively govern” following the controversy over a racist photo on his 1984 medical school yearbook page, a Virginia lawmaker who’s known him for more than a decade said Monday.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/04/politics/va-lawmaker-northam-cnntv/index.html

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‘Green New Deal’ details emerge, as Ocasio-Cortez preps big reveal of WW2-level mobilization – Fox News

Video

Varney: Voters Won’t Buy Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Catastrophic Predictions’ on Climate Change

New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday unveiled new details on the so-called “Green New Deal” she plans to introduce in a matter of days, as she worked behind-the-scenes to rally congressional support for the proposal that could cost as much as $7 trillion.

Ocasio-Cortez, who is set to unveil the plan with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, told her fellow representatives in a letter that the Green New Deal calls for a “national, social, industrial and economic mobilization at a scale not seen since World War II.”

“Next week, we plan to release a resolution that outlines the scope and scale of the Green New Deal,” Ocasio-Cortez said in the letter, adding that the country’s near-total economic transformation should take approximately ten years.

To raise awareness for the measure, Markey announced Monday he had invited Varshini Prakash, the co-founder of the Sunrise Movement environmentalist group, to be his guest at President Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night. (Several other Democrats announced guests apparently intended to highlight their opposition to various Trump administration policies, while Trump himself extended invites to the family of a couple allegedly murdered by an illegal immigrant and a child bullied at school for having the last name “Trump.”)

The Green New Deal proposal would lead to national net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, according to Ocasio-Cortez’s letter, “through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers,” while also generating millions of “good, high-wage jobs.” Details of the letter were first published by Bloomberg.

ANALYSIS: GREEN NEW DEAL IS MOST RADICAL LEGISLATION IN DECADES

Through it all, the Green New Deal would additionally “promote justice and equity by preventing current and repairing historic oppression to frontline and vulnerable communities,” according to Ocasio-Cortez.

December 10, 2018 – Washington, DC, United States – Protesters seen holding placards during the Sunrise Movement protest inside the office of US Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to advocate that Democrats support the Green New Deal.
(Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images via ZUMA Wire)

On Twitter Monday, Ocasio-Cortez reposted a claim from one of her advisers, Robert Hockett, arguing that “in this case, size matters” and that “the problems the Green New Deal addresses require solutions where bigger is better, imperative, and paraodixcally, more affordable.”

Hockett is a lawyer and law professor, and is not an expert in environmental policy.

Several analysts, meanwhile, have cautioned that the liberal firebrand is in over her head, even though the as-yet vague and uncertain details about the Green New Deal render a precise calculation impossible at the moment. Physicist Christopher Clack told The Hill that the cost would easily be into the trillions.

“It’s a daunting task, and I’m not sure that the authors of the Green New Deal fully comprehend how much they’ll need,” Clack said.

Institute for Energy Research president Tom Pyle was more blunt: “One hundred percent renewable energy defies the laws of physics. It would be impossible to achieve.”

And Paul Bledsoe, a strategic adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute, said progressives were overcompensating. “I understand the value of aspirational goals,” Bledsoe said. “My personal view is, that undermines the credibility of the effort.”

Nevertheless, approximately 70 Democratic lawmakers have so far tentatively endorsed a Green New Deal plan, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has vowed to address climate change, has not publicly signed onto the plan, even though scores of progressive activists — joined by Ocasio-Cortez — staged a sit-in at her House office late last year, demanding action on the climate.

While there is no legislative text yet available for the Markey/Ocasio-Cortez proposal, a draft circulated by Ocasio-Cortez last week called for a committee to be formed to create a plan, and lays out a framework that includes eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing and agriculture, while “dramatically” expanding energy sources to meet 100 percent of power demand through renewable sources.

FILE – In this Nov. 28, 2018, file photo, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., joined by from left, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio., and Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., speaks to media at Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, to announce her nomination by House Democrats to lead them in the new Congress. Pelosi has appointed Castor to lead a special committee on climate change that replaces one eliminated by Republicans in 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

To cover what would presumably be a gargantuan cost, it envisions financing by “the federal government, using a combination of the Federal Reserve, a new public bank or system of regional and specialized public banks, public venture funds and such other vehicles or structures that the select committee deems appropriate, in order to ensure that interest and other investment returns generated from public investments made in connection with the plan will be returned to the treasury, reduce taxpayer burden and allow for more investment.”

CRENSHAW, OCASIO-CORTEZ TRADE BARBS ON WEALTH TAX, NFL PROTESTS

As it stands, any such proposal would be almost certainly dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Senate, and also possibly the House — where it is not clear if a majority of Democrats would back a plan.

Even if Congress managed to pass a version of the Green New Deal, the White House could veto the legislation, and a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate would be needed to override the veto.

The Trump administration has made clear it would not accept Ocasio-Cortez’s proposals. In January, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders derided Ocasio-Cortez’s recent claim that the world will end in 12 years due to climate change, and suggested the Trump administration has little need for the progressive firebrand’s thoughts in general.

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“I don’t think we’re going to listen to [Ocasio-Cortez] on much of anything — particularly not on matters we’re gonna leave in the hands of a much, much higher authority — and certainly, not listen to the freshman congresswoman on when the world may end,” Sanders told Fox News’ “Hannity.”

Speaking at an event commemorating Martin Luther King Day that month, Ocasio-Cortez asserted that climate change constituted “our World War II” and added: “Millennials and people, you know, Gen Z and all these folks that will come after us are looking up and we’re like: ‘The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change and your biggest issue is, how are we gonna pay for it?'”

But conservative commentators have argued that most proposed solutions to global warming would do more harm than good, and also have accused climate activists of crying wolf. In 2006, a NASA scientist and leading global warming researcher declared that the world had only 10 years to avert a climate catastrophe — a deadline that has come and gone.

Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/green-new-deal-details-emerge-as-ocasio-cortez-preps-big-reveal

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