Hillary Campaign Plane

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump and his Republican allies say Hillary Clinton is weak, lacks stamina and doesn’t look presidential.

 Intent on undermining his Democratic rival, Trump and GOP backers are increasingly relying on rhetoric that academics and even some Republican strategists say has an undeniable edge focused on gender. His criticism of Clinton goes beyond “Crooked Hillary,” and complaints about her use of a private email server as secretary of state and her foreign policy decisions.

Clinton, Trump said in a speech last week, “lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS and all the many adversaries we face.”

 He has repeatedly called attention to Clinton’s voice, saying listening to her gives him a headache. Last December, he mocked her wardrobe. “She puts on her pantsuit in the morning,” he told a Las Vegas audience. At rallies and in speeches, the billionaire mogul has also used stereotypes about women to demean Clinton, who stands to become America’s first female president if she wins in November.

A frequent point of criticism: Clinton doesn’t look like a typical president.

“Now you tell me she looks presidential, folks,” he said at a recent rally in New Hampshire.

“I look presidential,” he insisted.

Trump’s allies have piled on. Running mate Mike Pence often uses the word “broad-shouldered” to describe Trump’s leadership and foreign policy style, a tacit swipe at Clinton. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani argued that all of the miles Clinton logged during as secretary of state resulted in more harm than benefit.

“Maybe it would’ve been better if she had stayed home,” said Giuliani, who more recently questioned Clinton’s health, suggesting an internet search of the words “Hillary Clinton illness.”

“She is the first woman from a major party running for president, so gender is always at play,” said Dianne Bystrom, the director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University.

Clinton pushed back Monday against insinuations she’s in poor health, saying on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” that campaign is like an “alternative reality” where she has to “answer questions about am I alive, how much longer will I be alive, and the like.”

Continue reading, The AP

By Justin Fishel

The Obama administration acknowledged for the first time today that a $400 million payment to Iran was used as “leverage” in the release of several American prisoners.

Earlier this year, when White House announced that Americans had been freed from Iran, it also said that a separate, decades-old financial dispute over the sale of U.S. weapons to Iran had been settled, resulting in a $1.7 billion payment.

The first installment of that payment came in a $400 million cash delivery made up of Euros and Swiss Francs. State Department spokesman John Kirby said today that payment was withheld on Jan. 17 until just after the Iranians released the prisoners, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian.

“Because we had concerns that Iran may renege on the prisoner release…we of course naturally…sought to retain maximum leverage until after the Americans were released,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said today.

“It would have been foolish, imprudent and irresponsible for us not to try to maintain maximum leverage. So if you’re asking me was there a connection in that regard in the end game? I’m not going to deny that.”

The admission comes after the White House vigorously denied earlier this month that there was any quid pro quo or ransom for the U.S. prisoners. The administration has maintained that paying ransom is against U.S. policy and that this money belonged to the Iranians independently of the situation with the prisoners.

The administration has also previously stated that these negotiations were unrelated to each other and were fully disclosed at the time they occurred.

Continue reading, ABC News

Trump Milwaukee Bump August 18

By Robert Romano

After delivering his Milwaukee speech promoting law and order on Aug. 16, Donald Trump has increased support among blacks by nearly 10 points — the LA Times/USC daily tracking poll finds.

In the speech, Trump asked for blacks’ support — “I am asking for the vote of every African-American citizen struggling in our country today who wants a different future” — and they responded.

The result marked a jump from 4.8 percent support on Aug. 15 — to 14.3 percent on Aug. 16 and 14.6 percent on Aug. 17.

That is nothing short of a political earthquake, representing more than a million potential voters suddenly swinging in Trump’s direction. That’s huge.

Democrats got 95 percent of the vote of blacks in 2012, 99 percent in 2008, 93 percent in 2004 and 95 percent in 2000, according to Gallup. It is a vital constituency for Democrats. One they simply cannot win without.

Even though he would still lose the vast majority of those votes, if a swing that dramatic were to hold true on Election Day, Democrats would be wiped out in a massive landslide. They would be roadkill.

Milwaukee and the LA Times/USC poll is a dramatic turn of events, potentially forecasting one of the most historic shifts in electoral behavior in a generation.

The Hillary Clinton campaign must be beyond panic with these findings.

How did Trump do it? Besides Hillary Clinton’s historically soft support from black, Trump’s carefully scripted, well-timed speech said blacks were those who were suffering the most by the riots in Milwaukee: “The main victims of these riots are law-abiding African-American citizens living in these neighborhoods. It is their jobs, their homes, their schools and communities which will suffer as a result.”

Trump added, promising to restore order in the cities, “There is no compassion in tolerating lawless conduct. Crime and violence is an attack on the poor, and will never be accepted in a Trump Administration.”

The speech was also very pro-police. “The problem in our poorest communities is not that there are too many police, the problem is that there are not enough police. More law enforcement, more community engagement, more effective policing is what our country needs.”

And pro-family. “For every one violent protestor, there are a hundred moms and dads and kids on that same city block who just want to be able to sleep safely at night. My opponent would rather protect the offender than the victim.”

That was a bold message, and for a significant segment of blacks, it struck a major chord.

10 points. That’s unbelievable. But it happened. You can measure it.

In principle, if Trump were to deftly deliver the same message again to a wider audience, he could begin to consolidate a growing base of supporters among blacks that did not exist three days ago. Could he grow that base?

Because, if the result were to be replicated in cities across America, November might not even be close.

Continue reading, Americans for Limited Government’s Net Right Daily

By Peter Sullivan

In a blow to the health care law, Aetna — one of the largest health insurers in the country — announced Monday that it will significantly scale back its presence on the ObamaCare marketplaces next year.

The move comes as a range of insurers have complained of financial losses on the ObamaCare marketplaces.
The company said it will scale back from participating in 15 states this year to just four states in 2017.

“As a strong supporter of public exchanges as a means to meet the needs of the uninsured, we regret having to make this decision,” Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said in a statement, citing a loss of $200 million in the second quarter.

The Obama administration argued the move is not a sign that the ObamaCare marketplaces are in trouble.

“Aetna’s decision to alter its Marketplace participation does not change the fundamental fact that the Health Insurance Marketplace will continue to bring quality coverage to millions of Americans next year and every year after that,” said the administration’s ObamaCare marketplace CEO, Kevin Counihan.

The move comes on the heels of pullbacks from other major insurers, including UnitedHealthcare and Humana.

The insurers have raised concerns about the sustainability of the ObamaCare marketplaces.

Continue reading, The Hill

 

Hillary & Huma Email perjury

By Stephen Dinan

Two top House Republicans accused Hillary Clinton of appearing to have lied to Congress, laying out a case Monday they said could sustain perjury charges against the former State Department secretary for her use of a secret email server.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz said the evidence collected by the FBI during its investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s email use contradicts what she herself told Congress in testimony last year.

Mrs. Clinton testified that she never sent or received information marked classified, but FBI Director James Comeysaid there were three such documents that were marked at the time.

Mrs. Clinton also said her lawyers “went through every single email” in deciding which ones to return to the government to comply with open-records laws, but Mr. Comey said that wasn’t true, and in fact the lawyers only used search terms and subject lines.

The two chairman also said the FBI showed Mrs. Clinton didn’t provide all of her work-related emails to the government, and also had more than one server that stored her messages.

Continue reading, Washington Times

By Sarah Farris, The Hill

The next president could be dealing with an ObamaCare insurer meltdown in his or her very first month.

The incoming administration will take office just as the latest ObamaCare enrollment tally comes in, delivering a potentially crucial verdict about the still-shaky healthcare marketplaces.

The fourth ObamaCare signup period begins about one week before Election Day, and it will end about one week before inauguration on Jan. 20. After mounting complaints from big insurers about losing money this year, the results could serve as a kind of judgment day for ObamaCare, experts say.

“The next open enrollment period is key,” said Larry Levitt, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The Obama administration has struggled for several years to bring young, healthy people into the marketplaces, which is needed to offset the medical costs of older and sicker customers.

These problems are coming to light this year, as insurers get their first full look at ObamaCare customer data. Some, like UnitedHealth Group, say they’ve seen enough and are already vowing to leave the exchanges.  

Levitt and other experts warn that if the numbers don’t improve this year, more insurers could bolt. That would deal a major blow to marketplace competition while also driving up rates and keeping even more people out of the exchanges.

Already, many insurers this year are proposing substantial rate hikes with the hopes of making up for higher recent medical costs. The average premium increase next year is about 9 percent, according to an analysis of 17 cities by the Kaiser Family Foundation. But some hikes are far higher: Blue Cross Blue Shield has proposed increases of 40 percent in Alabama and 60 percent in Texas.

Levitt said the premium hikes could be “just be a one-time market correction” in the still-new marketplace. But if insurers continue to lose money, it could be a sign of bigger problems.

Continue reading, The Hill

By Jonathan Swan, The Hill

Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association have formed a tight alliance.

Even as high-profile Republicans distance themselves from their presidential nominee, the NRA is sticking its neck out for Trump.

It did so most recently on Tuesday, defending Trump after he made a remark about “Second Amendment people” taking action against Hillary Clinton.

While critics accused Trump of inciting violence, NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker told The Boston Globe that Trump’s comment was only a “call to action for people who care about this issue to get to the polls.”

“There is something Second Amendment supporters can do,” Baker told the Globe. “All Americans who value their individual right to self protection must vote for Donald Trump and defeat Hillary Clinton.”

Trump and the NRA have been tight since May, when the gun rights group, known as the most powerful lobbying organization in Washington, offered an unusually early endorsement of the Republican nominee.

The alliance might seem strange at a glance.

Trump is a New York billionaire who once supported the federal assault weapon ban and a longer waiting period on gun purchases.

But allies of Trump and the NRA itself say the alliance makes sense for the nation’s most powerful lobbying group given the alternative: a Clinton presidency.

Continue reading, The Hill

By Richard Pollock, Daily Caller

Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly defended an embattled banker during an official visit to Bangladesh while Clinton Foundation officials tried to steer money from an Abu Dhabi oil company into the banker’s coffers.

A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation traced the convoluted payment by TAQA — formally known as the the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company — to Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank. Yunus is a long-time friend and Clinton Foundation donor.

The oil company deal eventually put as much as $500,000 into President Bill Clinton’s pockets via a speaking fee he got in Scotland.

The complicated set of international transactions is contained in a cryptic May 7, 2012, email chain between Cheryl Mills, then Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, and Amitabh Desai, the Clinton Foundation’s foreign policy director. The email chain was obtained by Citizens United, the conservative activist group that is the lead plaintiff in multiple federal Freedom of Information Act court cases.

Continue reading, DailyCaller.com

 

“I am suggesting that our sources take risks and they become concerned to see things occurring like that.”

 

BuzzFeed News Reporter

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange floated the possibility on Tuesday that a murdered Democratic National Committee staffer was an informant for the organization.

“Whistleblowers often take very significant efforts to bring us material and often at very significant risks,” Assange said in an interview to be aired Tuesday on the Dutch television program Nieuwsuur. “There’s a 27-year-old who works for the DNC and who was shot in the back, murdered, just a few weeks ago, for unknown reasons as he was walking down the streets in Washington.”

Seth Rich, a DNC employee who did voter outreach, was shot to death last month early in the morning in Washington, D.C. The case is unsolved and police have speculated it was an attempted robbery.

On Reddit, Rich’s death has become the source of theories about whether he was involved in the leaks of emails and files from the Democratic National Committee last month. US intelligence officials have linked the leak to a Russian hack, though there has been no official conclusion on the matter.

“I am suggesting that our sources take risks and they become concerned to see things occurring like that,” Assange added, when asked what he was alleging. “We don’t comment on who our sources are.”

Asked by interviewer Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal why he would speculate about someone being shot, Assange said it showed “our sources face serious risks.”

“We have to understand how high the stakes are in the US, and that our sources face serious risks. That’s why they come to us, so we can protect their anonymity,” he said.

Continue reading, Buzzfeed