Tag: Bill Clinton

The Story: On Tuesday, June 8, Terry McAuliffe defeated his intra-party rivals in a primary to become the Democratic Party's nominee for the post of...

The Story: As the days tick down to the end of the single Presidential term of Donald Trump, speculation has become rampant about what pardons...

The Story: Though Mississippi has long been considered one of the most reliably Republican states in the United States, this year polls indicate a tight...

The Story: The impeachment of a US President was once a very rare event. A child born in 1870 might have lived to be a...

Democrats face mounting calls to impeach Donald Trump based on the damning revelations in the Mueller report, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she won’t endorse impeachment proceedings yet. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell says Democrats are making a “mistake” by focusing…

Because it matters not just for this president, but for all future presidents. Despite deciding not to run, he has continued to pursue impeachment. He continues to push on. “Let me assure you that whatever the issue and challenge we face, the Congress of the United States will honor its oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States to protect our democracy,” she told reporters this week. “We believe that the first article – Article I, the legislative branch – has the responsibility of oversight of our democracy, and we will exercise that.” The avenue is not impeachment. “The avenue is not impeachment,” he said this week. The New York representative, who has subpoenaed the unredacted report, has discussed impeachment repeatedly as it would originate with his committee. “The idea is not whether to debate articles of impeachment,” Nadler said. Kamala Harris: “I think that there is definitely a conversation to be had on that subject,” the California senator and presidential hopeful told MSNBC on Thursday, “but first I want to hear from Bob Mueller and really understand what exactly is the evidence that supports the summary that we have been given today.” Cory Booker: Speaking in Nevada on Friday, the New Jersey senator, who is also a member of the judiciary committee and a 2020 hopeful, said it was too soon to discuss impeachment because Congress has not seen the unredacted report and has not had a chance to interview Mueller. April 18, 2019 Beto O’Rourke: The 2020 contender and former Texas representative said he believed voters cared more about policy discussions than impeachment, telling reporters on Thursday: “I don’t know that impeachment and those proceedings in the House and potential trial in the Senate is going to answer those questions for people.” The full text of Robert Mueller's report on Trump and Russia Read more Elijah Cummings: The House oversight committee chairman told MSNBC on Friday the Mueller report revealed actions that were “at least 100 times worse” than those that led to Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998.

Howard Schultz explains that the reason he’s seriously considering an independent run for the White House is “the two-party system is broken.” And despite historical headwinds and what would be fierce opposition from the political machines of both those parties, analysts suggest the increasingly polarized climate could give the former Starbucks CEO an opening -- however narrow -- to mount a competitive bid in the 2020 cycle. And the deck remains very much stacked against a White House bid by an independent or third-party candidate. George Washington was the first – and last – independent to win the presidency. Alabama’s George Wallace was the last independent or third-party candidate to grab any electoral votes, as he won a bunch of southern states in the 1968 presidential election. Ross Perot illustrated how hard it is for an independent in the modern era to be competitive in the race for the states and their all-important electoral votes. The path for a third party or true independent is incredibly narrow and bordering the non-existent,” political scientist Wayne Lesperance said. Earlier this year, after Schultz announced he was considering an independent White House run, Bloomberg wrote that "the data was very clear and very consistent. But Lesperance, the vice president of academic affairs at New England College, highlighted that with the current unpredictable political climate and a displeasure by many in the middle with both the Democrats and Republicans, “the 2020 election represents one of the best opportunities for the right independent candidate to navigate a very narrow path” toward winning the presidency. “What would be needed is a candidate with virtually unlimited financial resources, a candidate whose position allows for a platform that attracts more centrists voters currently unhappy with the shifts to the right and left of the Republican and Democratic parties respectively, and a candidate that can overcome one of the greatest hurdles of all -- the notion that a vote for a third party candidate is a wasted vote,” he added. Democrats are doing all they can to keep him out of the race, worried he could help throw the election to Trump.

Worse yet, the top 0.1 percent has cornered about 20 percent of it, up from 7 percent in the mid-1970s. In fact, applicants from families in the top 1 percent are now 77 times more likely than in the bottom 20 percent to land in an elite college, and 38 of those schools admit more kids from families in that top percentage than from the bottom 60 percent. Individuals, companies, and organizations can, for instance, give money to political action committees (PACs) and Super PACs. PACs face no monetary limits on their independent efforts to shape elections, though they can’t accept corporate or union money or take more than $5,000 from individuals. They raised $1.6 billion and spent nearly $809 million. Nearly 78 percent of the money they received came from 100 donors. They, in turn, belonged to the wealthiest 1 percent, who provided 95 percent of what those Super PACs took in. It devoted $15 million to lobbying in 2018—and that’s not counting its campaign contributions, using various channels. Compared to other democracies, the United States appears to be in a league of its own when it comes to money’s prominence in politics. (Super PACs spent another $350 million to help Romney and $100 million to back Obama.)

What We’re Following Today It’s Wednesday, March 13. Ahead of the vote, a group of senators, led by the Utah Republican Mike Lee, is attempting to reach a last-minute agreement with the White House to limit the president’s power to declare future national emergencies in exchange for its support on the most recent declaration. Here’s what else we’re watching: Bad to Worse: A federal judge sentenced Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, to 43 months in prison, bringing his total jail time to roughly six and a half years. Both defense attorneys and the judge seemed to have messages for the president. + Here are four important takeaways from the sentencing, according to Paul Rosenzweig, who two decades earlier served as senior counsel in the investigation of President Bill Clinton. The U.S. joins many other countries in grounding the jets after one crashed in Ethiopia on Sunday. Beto’s Privilege: The Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke appears poised to jump into the 2020 presidential race any day now. In fact, he doesn’t question America’s right to conquer and occupy other countries at all. Sign up for our daily politics email here. We have many other free email newsletters on a variety of other topics.