Tag: Hillary Clinton

“The witch-hunt is over,” Papadopoulos said. Declassification of surveillance material is paramount.” Alexander Downer's secret meeting with FBI led to Trump-Russia inquiry – report Read more Papadopoulos was one of Mueller’s first prosecutions. The 31-year-old from Chicago pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to 14 days’ prison for lying to the FBI about his contact with Russian nationals and Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud. Downer, in an interview with The Australian newspaper last year, claimed Papadopoulos had told him Russia might use “damaging” material they had on Trump presidential rival Hillary Clinton in the lead-up to the election. Downer said he passed the information back to Canberra “the following day or a day or two”. Papadopoulos’s book, Deep State Target, will be released on Tuesday and details his account of dealings with Downer, Thompson, Trump and others. In September last year Trump wrote on Twitter “key allies” had asked him not to release classified FBI documents related to the probe into Russian influence. “While the (Mueller) report is likely mired in classified material, and most will likely never be revealed to the public, I do hope what is public is what Alexander Downer’s and Erika Thompson’s roles were and why Downer has become so protected,” Papadopoulos said. Downer, Thompson and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was contacted for comment on Papadopoulos’s claims. Downer has previously shrugged off Papadopoulos’s spying accusation, telling BBC radio last year: “I’m not going to get into these sort of allegations.”

When Sen. Elizabeth Warren advocated for the move during a CNN town hall in Mississippi this week, she drew loud applause. The next day Beto O’Rourke seemed to endorse the concept. And Washington Gov. Jay Inslee called the Electoral College a vestige “of a bygone era.” The proposal is seen as a play to win support from younger voters, but it is panned by Republicans, who see it as sour grapes after popular vote winners Al Gore and Hillary Clinton lost the presidency because of the constitutional provision. [Bloomberg] Topping the news: A new ruling by a federal judge is aimed at halting recent oil and gas leases in Wyoming because of the failure to take climate change into account. [Trib] [DNews] -> Utah Sen. Luz Escamilla D-Salt Lake City, said she will join the city’s 2019 mayoral race. After an unexpected withdrawal from incumbent Mayor Jackie Biskupski, Escamilla will join a crowded, otherwise all-male field. [Trib] [Fox13] -> Tribune columnist Robert Gehrke backs up Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski’s claims of a family crisis as the reason she bowed out of a campaign for re-election and gives his perspective on where that decision leaves mayoral hopefuls. [AP] [WaPost] [NYTimes] ->Despite pleas from Republicans to desist, President Donald Trump continued his attacks on the late Arizona senator and veteran of war John McCain. [WaPost][NYTimes][Politico] -> After Trump attacked the husband of one of his top aides, Kellyanne Conway, via a series of twitter posts, Conway defended the president’s right to fire back at her husband’s criticism of him.

(Photo: Gerald Herbert, AP) Fox News says it has hired former Democratic National Committee chief Donna Brazile as a political commentator. Brazile had been let go from a similar role at CNN in 2016 after it was revealed that she had shared material about topics that would be addressed at a Democratic forum with Hillary Clinton's campaign. At Fox, Brazile will not have anything to do with any debates or town halls — if they ever happen. That's from a Fox News executive who spoke on condition of anonymity Monday because the person was not authorized to speak about contract details. Brazile says she knows she'll be criticized by progressive friends for signing with Fox, but that she believes it's important to talk with people you disagree with. She wrote about her decision to join Fox News in an editorial post, where she says the upcoming 2020 presidential election is a "consequential moment" for the country and that political debate is "hostile and disrespectful." "Will I agree with my fellow commentators at Fox News? Probably not. But I will listen," she wrote.

The Justice Department "negotiated" an agreement with Hillary Clinton's legal team that ensured the FBI did not have access to emails on her private servers relating to the Clinton Foundation, former FBI special agent Peter Strzok testified during a closed-door appearance before the House Judiciary Committee last summer, according to a newly released transcript. Under questioning from Judiciary Committee General Counsel Zachary Somers, Strzok acknowledged that Clinton's private personal email servers contained a mixture of emails related to the Clinton Foundation, her work as secretary of state and other matters. "Were you given access to [Clinton Foundation-related] emails as part of the investigation?" "My recollection is that the access to those emails were based on consent that was negotiated between the Department of Justice attorneys and counsel for Clinton." Strzok did not elaborate on whether prosecutors made any effort to secure a search warrant, which could have delineated precisely what agents could and could not search. But Strzok later said that agents had access to the "entire universe" of information on the servers when using search terms to probe their contents. The DOJ's goal, Chaffetz said, was to "make sure they hear no evil, see no evil -- they had no interest in pursuing the truth." The Clinton Foundation did not respond to Fox News' request for comment. Strzok, who was fired from the bureau after months of scrutiny regarding anti-Trump text messages between him and Page, confirmed he was involved in an extramarital affair when asked about it during his interview before the committee on June 27, 2018. But Strzok was also asked by Art Baker, the GOP investigative counsel for the committee, whether that affair could have made him "vulnerable to potential recruitment" by "hostile intelligence service[s]."

Over time, because of her own accomplishments, she advanced: presidential candidate, secretary of state, the first woman to be nominated by a major party for the White House. Representative Debbie Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, who succeeded her husband in Congress in 2015, says she believes that she and Mrs. Clinton are emblematic of changing times for women in politics. “Some people would like to say she got it because she had the last name,” referring to her seat in Congress. The Center for American Women and Politics counts 47 widows elected or appointed to Congress in their husband’s place. That was so infuriating.” She had to dissociate herself from her father’s vote against civil rights legislation during her own campaign. Male leaders may have provided women with national exposure and political networks, but as Mrs. Clinton found, their conduct and record could also be liabilities. “You never know with Hillary Clinton, had she not met Bill Clinton, she might well have been a political woman in her own right and maybe life would have been simpler for her,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics. Because so many women are running in 2020, with their range of political experience, ideology and race, the coming election may be a truer test of gender attitudes. People are feeling threatened.” Terry Shumaker, who worked on both Clintons’ New Hampshire campaigns, said Mrs. Clinton’s popular vote victory was more of a landmark in shifting attitudes than is often recognized. She made it possible for people to envision a woman being president.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, on his first trip to Iowa after announcing he'll run for president, on March 7, 2019, in Council Bluffs. — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders kicked off his second Iowa campaign the same way he concluded his first. Sanders walked onto the stage at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs Thursday evening as a frontrunner: A December Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll showed the senator polling at 19 percent, second only to former Vice President Joe Biden, who was the preferred candidate for 32 percent of likely Democratic caucusgoers polled. Three years ago, Sanders called for a "political revolution" fueled by working and middle-class Americans. More: Iowa Poll: Biden, Sanders top early look at possible Democratic hopefuls in 2020 caucuses While Sanders has not abandoned his long-held political platform, he said his policy proposals — like instituting a $15-per-hour federal minimum wage, providing Medicare to all Americans and free public college for all — are now mainstream tenets within the Democratic party. "Those ideas that we talked about here in Iowa four years ago that seemed so radical at the time — remember that?" Cyndie Poffenbarger said Sanders is best equipped to defeat President Donald Trump in 2020. "More people know him this time." Wearing a "Bernie 2016" cap and a "Bernie 2020" T-shirt, Poffenbarger said Sanders stands out in a wide field of Democratic presidential candidates. "I followed him for like 10 years before he ever ran for president," she said.

It is a safe bet that, if Hickenlooper's Presidential campaign breaks out from the pack and becomes important enough to warrant vigorous opposition, that opposition will invoke Dunlap's survival, and Hickenlooper's opposition to the death penalty.

Cohen should know better than anyone, but we already had reason to worry. In 2016, when polls showed Hillary Clinton with a wide lead, Trump claimed the election was rigged against him. For Trump, losing is the deepest form of humiliation, and humiliation is intolerable Throughout the summer of 2016, Trump’s claim of election rigging was echoed on Fox News. Newt Gingrich spoke of “a long tradition on the part of Democratic machines of trying to steal elections”. (Among all voters, only 34% predicted a rigged election; 60% rejected the idea.) Play Video 3:32 Even after the election, Trump refused to accept that he had lost the popular vote. Still claiming election fraud, he established a presidential commission to find it. Typically, when an election is over, the peaceful transition of power reminds the public that our allegiance is not toward a particular person but to our system of government. Just last week, Steve Bannon, another of Trump’s bottom-feeders, predicted that “2019 is going to be the most vitriolic year in American politics since the civil war, and I include Vietnam in that”. We should take seriously Michael Cohen’s admonition that if Trump is defeated in 2020, he will not leave office peacefully.

David Paterson's surprise appointment of second-term U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to fill Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate seat on Jan. 23, 2009, the New York Times helpfully phoneticized her name for its readers: "JILL-uh-brand." Political consultant Morgan Hook, who was a news producer for Albany's CBS6 at the time, recalled interviewing Gillibrand about voting with Republicans against a Democratic bill that would fund U.S. efforts in Iraq. Her advice that he use the occasion to speak out on behalf of people with disabilities, Paterson said, cemented his decision. She wrote in her 2014 autobiography that, during the interview, he told her, "You know, throughout this process, I have heard the nastiest things about you and you have reflected none of that. Previously, she had expressed support only for civil unions. Schumer, along with President Barack Obama, helped clear the Democratic field for Gillibrand's election, according to reports at the time. Tellingly, at a 2009 fundraiser, as Gillibrand thanked her supporters, she had noted that she might face a Democratic challenge the following year. Velazquez, a New York City Democrat who has not endorsed a candidate for 2020, said she found Gillibrand's evolution on the issue sincere. Gillibrand has long supported Medicare for all. Editorial boards jumped on her when she announced her exploratory committee for president three months later.

The Klobuchar comment came out of nowhere for the former Democratic presidential nominee: Only three days earlier, Ms. Klobuchar had been sitting in Mrs. Clinton’s Washington home, the latest in a line of 2020 Democrats who had sought her private counsel ahead of their campaigns. “How many candidates have lost their campaign? She has a stature in this party that she has earned.” At a time when Democrats are driven by their desire to defeat Mr. Trump, Mrs. Clinton knows the strengths and weaknesses of the crowded primary field more intimately than perhaps anyone. “She knows almost everybody who’s running, and with most of the people she has a close relationship,” said Mr. Hickenlooper, who interviewed to be Mrs. Clinton’s running mate in 2016 and had dinner with her last year, as he prepared for a possible presidential bid. A notable name not to consult Mrs. Clinton is Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, whose once close relationship with the Clintons deteriorated after she said President Bill Clinton should have resigned over his sexual relationship with a White House intern. Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said, “She’s been meeting with our 2020 candidates and telling them one thing: They can count on her to help get the 65 million-plus Americans who voted for her to vote for our nominee.” But even as she offers supportive words, Mrs. Clinton has given the impression that she harbors a faint hope she could still become president one day. And while several candidates and their advisers said they would welcome her endorsement, they acknowledge it could come with political risk, as Mrs. Clinton remains a representation of the party’s old guard. I hope I will be able to earn that in the future.” The two are now supposed to meet soon, according to a person familiar with the matter. She has specifically warned female candidates of the gendered expectations they will face, in particular on national security. “At the same time, it’s clear we want to go with a laser focus on winning back Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.” A few days after her talk with Mrs. Clinton, Ms. Klobuchar pushed a message of “heartland economics” in Iowa.