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FOX NEWS: Andrew Gillum: Police 'going too far' if they pull out gun, baton or stun gun

2018-10-26T02:13:00.009-05:00

Andrew Gillum: Police 'going too far' if they pull out gun, baton or stun gun

via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2EIqXWs

FOX NEWS: Does the political left only care about threats to liberals?

2018-10-26T02:13:00.007-05:00

Does the political left only care about threats to liberals?

The mainstream media and the left were quick to bash President Trump following the mail bomb scare, but where was the same concern when conservatives were being attacked? Reaction from House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, Florida Attorney General Pam Pondi and author and attorney David Limbaugh.

via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2OOmG8B

FOX NEWS: Trump commemorates the anniversary of the Beirut bombing

2018-10-26T02:13:00.005-05:00

Trump commemorates the anniversary of the Beirut bombing

The president speaks at a White House reception honoring the 35th anniversary of an attack in Beirut, Lebanon, that took the lives of over 200 U.S. service members.

via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2RdnwbR

FOX NEWS: Trump imposes sanctions on Hezbollah, says his administration has 'done a big number' on Iran

2018-10-26T02:13:00.003-05:00

Trump imposes sanctions on Hezbollah, says his administration has 'done a big number' on Iran

For the second time this year, President Trump on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on the Islamist terrorist group Hezbollah, as his administration continues its all-out economic squeeze on the beleaguered Iranian regime.

via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2PWy4fg

FOX NEWS: Nielsen's message to Democrats trying to abolish ICE

2018-10-26T02:13:00.001-05:00

Nielsen's message to Democrats trying to abolish ICE

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says it is 'irresponsible and dangerous' to suggest ICE does anything besides protect the security of the nation.

via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2z3zjSG

Turning the page: how India's state schools are being revitalised

2018-10-26T02:11:00.021-05:00

For years, efforts to improve India’s failing state system focused on teachers, classrooms and curricula. Now a training scheme for headteachers is reaping dividends

Until recently, Maniram Mandiwal felt like just another cog in the wheel. The headteacher of Rajasthan’s Shaheed Col Jayprakash Janu secondary school left work as soon as he could. He didn’t know any of his pupils by name, and took no interest in his staff. Mandiwal had spent a quarter of a century in teaching without ever experiencing a “special classroom moment”.

Recently, though, all that changed. With a class nearing its end, some of the children said: “Don’t go yet, sir, we’re enjoying this.” It was the first time he had heard such a thing. He was touched.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2OSYget

With a chance to unite, Trump turns to the politics of division

2018-10-26T02:11:00.019-05:00

Presidential historian & author Doris Kearns Goodwin joins to discuss Trump's anti-media rhetoric in the wake of pipe bombs being sent to CNN and several of Trump's critics.

from msnbc.com Latest Headlines https://ift.tt/2CJytxE

Trump ditches unity message, blames rivals for political toxicity

2018-10-26T02:11:00.017-05:00

The White House pointed a lot of fingers as Trump faces criticism for his rhetoric after multiple Trump critics were targeted with pipe bombs. The New York Times reports Trump was upset that critics linked his words with the bombs. Anita Kumar & Jeremy

from msnbc.com Latest Headlines https://ift.tt/2CHuPVl

Stokols: It's about wins & losses, not moral leadership for Trump

2018-10-26T02:11:00.015-05:00

Los Angeles Times White House reporter Eli Stokols discusses the calls for Trump to change his rhetoric saying, "This is about wins & losses, not moral leadership for this president."

from msnbc.com Latest Headlines https://ift.tt/2JfDJdI

Trump blames 'fake news' as Biden & De Niro are targeted by bombs

2018-10-26T02:11:00.013-05:00

The president took to Twitter to blame the media as more of his own critics become the targets of packages containing pipe bombs. Chuck Rosenberg, Berit Berger, & Eli Stokols join to discuss. Chuck Rosenberg, Berit Berger, & Eli Stokols discuss.

from msnbc.com Latest Headlines https://ift.tt/2PpPovW

Singer Jason Isbell explains backing Dems in 2018

2018-10-26T02:11:00.011-05:00

Four-time Grammy winning folk artist Jason Isbell is telling his fans that Jesus wouldn't support Donald Trump and is throwing his support behind Democrat Phil Bredesen in Tennessee. Isbell tells Cal Perry why electing Marsha Blackburn would be worse...

from msnbc.com Latest Headlines https://ift.tt/2RgBE3X

Trump denies cellphone use in tweet from iPhone

2018-10-26T02:11:00.009-05:00

Trump has ignored warnings from officials that Russian and Chinese spies are listening to calls made from his personal cellphone. Today the White House issued a carefully worded response and the President tweeted. Ali discusses national security...

from msnbc.com Latest Headlines https://ift.tt/2q9qMcN

Dodge City moves only polling site, gives voters wrong address

2018-10-26T02:11:00.007-05:00

Rachel Maddow updates the story of Dodge City, Kansas moving its only polling location outside town limits with the news that the official registration notices for that sole site lists the wrong location.

from msnbc.com Latest Headlines https://ift.tt/2JinVqy

Sealed court documents suggest battle over Mueller's authority

2018-10-26T02:11:00.005-05:00

Josh Gerstein, reporter for Politico, talks with Rachel Maddow about hints in court records that someone is challenging the validity of a subpoena from Robert Mueller.

from msnbc.com Latest Headlines https://ift.tt/2z7ze03

New data shows why NC Republicans want to end Sunday voting

2018-10-26T02:11:00.003-05:00

Rachel Maddow shares a graph of early voting data from North Carolina that shows the spike in Sunday voting among Democrats, a clear indication of why Republicans want to put a stop to the practice.

from msnbc.com Latest Headlines https://ift.tt/2CGRktt

McSally abandons anti-Obamacare zeal with election looming

2018-10-26T02:11:00.001-05:00

Rachel Maddow points out the stark contrast in Arizona Rep. Martha McSally's passion for killing Obamacare with her newfound campaign devotion to protecting health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

from msnbc.com Latest Headlines https://ift.tt/2qd4Ygj

Trumps charity bought his portrait because no one else would

2018-10-26T02:09:00.019-05:00

Well, this is embarrassing.

In what might be one of the most pathetic legal defenses ever argued in a court of law, a lawyer representing the Trump family admitted that Trump’s charitable foundation spent $10,000 on a portrait of him — but only because no one else wanted it.

Trump family lawyer Alan Futerfas offered the sad account on Thursday, during oral arguments in a case brought by the New York state attorney general against the Donald J. Trump Foundation.

The state attorney general’s office alleges that Trump and his three children operated the foundation “in persistent violation” of federal and state laws, including calling the organization a charity while using it as a “personal piggy bank” to fund their own excessive spending habits.

One example of this alleged misuse of funds took place in 2014, when an oil painting of Trump was put up for auction during a charity event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.

“So Mr. Trump donates $10,000 to start the bidding, and then when the bidding goes on and no one else bids, they’re stuck with the painting,” Futerfas told Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Saliann Scarpulla as he argued for the case to be dismissed.

When Trump’s personal charitable foundation placed the bid, it was only meant to “get the bidding started,” Futerfas claimed.

But as it turned out, no one else wanted the painting, so the charity was on the hook for the $10,000 bid. And while Trump could have footed the bill himself at that point, he chose instead to bill his charitable foundation for the cost.

That’s not the only time Trump has allegedly dipped into charitable funds for personal use.

The state’s lawsuit says he also used money from his charity to pay off debts and legal settlements, decorate one of his golf clubs, and make donations to benefit his presidential campaign.

Now, he’s trying to get the case dismissed — but his defense might just be worse than the charges.

Published with permission of The American Independent.

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GOP lawmaker used soldiers to defend his vote to hurt the poor

2018-10-26T02:09:00.017-05:00

Wisconsin's Dale Kooyenga voted to help companies prey on low-income citizens and saddle them with mountains of debt — and he made an absurd, insulting reference to military service members as an excuse to do it.

Wisconsin state Rep. Dale Kooyenga voted this year to help companies prey on low-income citizens by weakening oversight of the predatory rent-to-own industry.

And the absurd excuse he used to defend this vote?

“Sometimes a man wants a couch, or a female soldier wants a couch,” Kooyenga said, concocting a strange hypothetical situation where a soldier would seek out rent-to-own furniture while stationed somewhere.

Rent-to-own businesses sell products like furniture, electronics, and appliances that are paid for via weekly or monthly payments. But the industry has a notorious reputation for charging consumers high interest rates, using the lure of modern comforts and conveniences to lock low-income people into piles of debt.

One of Kooyenga’s fellow Republicans introduced a bill that would have exempted this predatory industry from oversight under the Wisconsin Consumer Act.

Under the bill, rent-to-own businesses would no longer be required to disclose their annual interest rates. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has found that rent-to-own interest rates can range from 100 to 350 percent.

When the bill was introduced, Democrat Gordon Hintz, the minority leader of the Assembly, slammed it as “an opportunity to profit off of the least fortunate in our society.”

But Kooyenga didn’t see things that way. He didn’t just vote for the bill; he also made the absurd, insulting argument that Wisconsin should hurt poor people because soldiers might want a couch — when soldiers themselves are also frequent victims of predatory industries.

The Wisconsin Catholic Conference blasted the proposed bill in a statement. “We know from our charitable work that those who are least able to pay for goods often end up paying the most,” the group noted.

The legislation passed the Assembly, with Kooyenga’s help, but was later killed in the Senate.

The shameful vote, and the even more shameful excuse he used to support it, is yet another black mark on Kooyenga’s record.

Kooyenga has pushed a tax plan that would lower rates for the super-wealthy while increasing taxes for the poor. He has even received backing from the multi-billionaire right-wing Koch Brothers for his work to help the super-rich get richer.

At every turn, Kooyenga has consistently advocated against Wisconsinites who struggle to make ends meet.

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Republicans are running for cover weeks before Colorado Senate election

2018-10-26T02:09:00.015-05:00

Local Democrats are surging while Republicans scramble.

The wheels appear to be falling off for Colorado Republicans this midterm election cycle, and Trump’s not helping as Republicans scramble to blunt the looming losses in November.

Why are Republicans running for cover weeks before election? Probably because Trump’s approval rating among crucial independent voters in the state stands is at a dismal 32 percent, according to a recent poll.

Democrats enjoy a 13-point lead among independent voters when asked which party they want to control Congress next year as well.

The poll also found that 59 percent of Democratic voters are extremely interested in Election Day, compared to 47 percent of Republicans.

Polls are showing Democrats are on the verge of winning the governor’s race — again — and flipping a U.S. House seat, as well as having a good chance of winning the state’s attorney general contest and taking control of the Colorado Senate from GOP the first time in a decade, there’s a lot on the line for Republicans.

The bad taste Trump leaves could help Democrats running in crucial toss-up races for the Colorado Senate, where five campaigns will likely decide which party runs the committees next January.

The Trump disdain could be especially helpful in District 20 where Democrat Jessie Danielson is running against conservative Christine Jensen, who refuses to say where she stands on Trump and his radical agenda. Hillary Clinton won the district by nearly 10 points in 2016.

Another Trump flashpoint could come in District 24, which pits Democratic Faith Winter against Republican Beth Martinez Humenik, who won her seat in 2014 by just 900 votes.

The political terrain has gotten so bad that supporters for one of the state’s staunchest conservatives members of the Colorado Senate, Tim Neville, were recently caught faking an endorsement from the state’s sitting Democratic governor.

How bad is bad? Last week, Vice President Mike Pence flew out to Denver to speak at a luncheon hosted by a conservative super PAC, and when he landed at nearby Buckley Air Force Base, not a single Colorado politician was there to greet him.

Not one.

That only happens when there’s a blue wave sweeping the state.

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Descendant of refugees could help flip Michigan blue

2018-10-26T02:09:00.013-05:00

President Barack Obama says Mari Manoogian represents 'what's best in the American spirit.'

Republican control in Michigan could come to a very abrupt, very blue halt in November.

Democrats need to gain a net of nine seats in the state House to regain control for the first time since 2010, and Mari Manoogian, the descendent of Armenian refugees, is working to make that happen.

Manoogian is running in an open House seat in a traditionally conservative area of Oakland County. The seat was previously held by a Republican, but Manoogian, who grew up in the area and graduated from the local Seaholm High School, is working to flip the seat from red to blue.

In a year when national elections are often the focus, Manoogian has managed to break through as one of the Democrats’ brightest local rising stars.

It’s not just her background: great-granddaughter of refugees who fled the Armenian genocide and daughter of a local union president. Even during college, Manoogian knew a life of public service was in her future. She snagged an internship with John D. Dingell, a well-respected longtime Michigan congressman at the time, and after graduation went on to work at the State Department.

But while her experience may be global, Manoogian’s heart lies in her community. And her dedication to improving her local community has earned her the endorsement of quite a few eye-popping names.

President Barack Obama endorsed Manoogian, saying she represents “what’s best in the American spirit.” He goes on to say that Manoogian is “running to expand opportunity for all of us and to restore the dignity, honor, and compassion that should be the essence of public service.”

In addition to President Obama, Manoogian is endorsed by Moms Demand Action, a group dedicated to gun safety issues. After a string of national gun violence tragedies — from Parkland, Florida, to Las Vegas, Nevada — gun safety is at the top of mind for many voters.

“Whether it’s preventing gun violence, or making sure we have clean drinking water, or we fix our dangerous roads, know that you can count on me to be your voice in Lansing when it comes to keeping our community safe,” Manoogian says.

Outside of the national spotlight, Manoogian earned the endorsement of a slew of local groups as well. Michigan teachers, through the AFT union, back her, as do unions for firefighters, police officers, the local UAW, and many others.

Whereas her Republican opponent, David Wolkinson, has praised the divisive and unpopular Trump, Mari Manoogian says she will fight for everyone in her community. And in the process, she could help turn Michigan’s House blue for the first time in almost a decade.

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NRA-backed lawmaker bragged about gun safety bills she knew would fail

2018-10-26T02:09:00.011-05:00

In Minnesota, NRA ally Sarah Anderson introduced a pair of gun safety bills she knew would never pass — and now she is demanding credit for her election-year stunt.

Minnesota state Rep. Sarah Anderson has been a longtime ally of the National Rifle Association (NRA). But since pro-gun extremism has become politically toxic in the suburbs, the Republican is now touting gun safety legislation she drafted in her bid to win re-election in House District 44A.

The reality is, however, that the bills Anderson put forward were an election-year stunt. They never had a chance of passing — and Anderson knew it.

On her official website, Anderson brags that she “authored [a] bill keeping guns away from domestic abusers.”

But those eight words do not tell the whole truth of what Anderson did.

First of all, the two gun-safety bills she co-authored — one incentivizing background checks for private gun sales, and one tightening laws regarding how people convicted of domestic violence can get firearms — were terribly written, Minnesota’s City Pages reports.

“They were tepid and of amateur construction, widely panned by everyone from gun enthusiasts to sheriffs to battered women activists,” City Pages notes.

And what’s more, the bills were put forward as the legislative session came to an end — which meant that by design, they had no chance of passing.

They had even less chance given how fiercely Anderson’s fellow Republicans opposed gun safety laws, City Pages points out. In particular, Anderson would have known that her bills would never make it out of committee given the staunchly pro-NRA Republicans who lead those committees.

Anderson was trying to have it both ways by pulling this stunt: placating the voters in her district who are clamoring for better gun safety, while not doing anything substantive that might anger her backers at the NRA.

Anderson has had a 93 percent rating from the gun extremists at the NRA for multiple years, including in 2015 and 2017. She got an “A+” rating from them in 2011.

By contrast, Anderson’s challenger, Democrat Ginny Klevorn, backs universal background checks and gun violence protective orders — real ones, not pretend bills designed to fail.

When it comes to gun safety, Klevorn is much more in line with Minnesota’s values than Anderson. 90 percent of Minnesotans have backed mandatory background checks, including private sales at gun shows.

Anderson wants Minnesota voters to give her credit for something she didn’t get done — and she’s hoping they’ll forget all the work she has done on behalf of the pro-gun extremists at the NRA.

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GOP lawmaker pushed voter suppression law to ‘allow’ Republicans to win

2018-10-26T02:09:00.009-05:00

Rep. Mike Turzai (R-PA) admitted voter suppression efforts in Pennsylvania were intended to help Republicans win.

While voter suppression efforts in Georgia are making headlines, Republicans north of the Mason-Dixon Line have also been strong proponents of denying the basic right to vote for partisan gain.

Rep. Mike Turzai (R-PA) spearheaded Pennsylvania’s voter suppression efforts, and he made no secret about his intent.

In a speech summing up legislative accomplishments in 2012, Turzai boasted, “Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”

At the time, Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and a Senate candidate in Utah, was challenging President Barack Obama. President Obama won the election and carried Pennsylvania, despite Turzai’s insidious efforts.

Without support from even a single Democratic lawmaker, Republicans in the House and Senate pushed through a draconian voter ID law, which was signed by the Republican governor.

Opponents of the law contended that the issue had nothing to do with voter fraud, but was simply a way to suppress Democratic voters. After all, “those who do not possess a state-approved photo ID are more likely to be in groups that tend to vote Democratic,” reports the New York Times.

Turzai nonetheless claimed the law was intended to stop voter fraud, which his spokesperson insisted was not at all a made-up claim used as cover to suppress Democratic voters.

“The fact is, fraud does exist,” Turzai’s spokesperson said, without any evidence to back it up.

While Turzai had no problem sending his minion to lie to the press, the law was challenged in court and the truth emerged.

According to the Times, “in Pennsylvania’s case, the state could not point to a single incident” of voter fraud.

A Pennsylvania court struck down the voter ID law in a scathing 103-page opinion.

“The judge, Bernard L. McGinley of Commonwealth Court, ruled that the law hampered the ability of hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians to cast their ballots, with the burden falling most heavily on elderly, disabled and low-income residents, and that the state’s reason for the law — that it was needed to combat voter fraud — was not supported by the facts,” reported the Times.

The real reason for the law was abundantly clear.

“The type of problem that is addressed by voter ID laws is virtually nonexistent, which does raise the question of why they are passing these laws,” Witold Walczak, ACLU’s legal director, told the Times. “And the answer is that it is a voter suppression tool.”

Turzai’s efforts may have been overturned by the courts, but his intent — to deny eligible citizens of their most fundamental right in a democracy — is an anti-democratic stain that lives on.

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Outside GOP groups abandon fringe anti-immigrant Senate nominee

2018-10-26T02:09:00.007-05:00

Lou Barletta is seeing his desperate pleas for help fall on deaf ears.

Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) has literally begged outside Republicans groups to help him out — but even his own party is giving the fringe Senate nominee the cold shoulder.

“I have called the NRSC [National Republican Senatorial Committee] twice,” Barletta whined to Fox Business host Lou Dobbs last week. “I’m waiting for a call back.”

Barletta, one of the most extremist anti-immigrant politicians in the country, is running against incumbent Democrat Sen. Bob Casey.

Barletta has repeatedly reached out to Republican groups for help in his flailing campaign, according to the Pittsburg Post-Gazette — but he is being snubbed to a remarkable extent:

Outside spending organizations have poured millions into Senate races across the country while largely ignoring Mr. Barletta. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign arm of Senate Republicans, has spent more than $31 million on races across the country, including big chunks in Arizona, Missouri, Indiana and Montana — but none in Pennsylvania.

The Senate Leadership Fund, linked to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has raised more than $100 million this cycle and spent more than $56 million in support of Republican candidates — but none on Mr. Barletta.

Out of at least $87 million spent by major Republican groups, Barletta hasn’t received a single penny.

In recent polls, Barletta trails by double digits as Pennsylvanians are rejecting his radical agenda.

As the Post-Gazette notes, Barletta “staked most of his platform” on his record on immigration. PoliticsPA described his anti-immigrant stance as “hand-in-glove with the president.”

Nowhere is this alignment more evident than with Trump’s cruel family separation policy, which Barletta readily defended because he claimed it could have a deterrent effect on immigration.

“So if people knew when they came here what would happen, we would not have this situation,” Barletta told Pittsburg’s KDKA.

Trump’s policy essentially kidnapped children, some who were still breastfeeding, away from their parents as a cruel way to discourage immigrants from seeking a better life in the United States.

Neither the Trump administration nor Barletta cared that many of these families were fleeing violence and legally seeking asylum.

And even though Trump officials knew they risked inflicting lifelong trauma on children, they carried out and defended the unconscionable separations anyway.

Barletta isn’t the only Pennsylvania Republican to defend Trump’s policy of kidnapping and psychologically torturing young children.

Rep. Scott Perry also jumped to Trump’s defense, going so far as to make up stories about human trafficking to defend his monstrous position.

Barletta may have defended Trump — but it doesn’t look like national Republicans will defend Barletta’s floundering, xenophobic campaign in return.

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Kris Kobach is pants-on-fire lying about Medicaid costs

2018-10-26T02:09:00.005-05:00

Even the hacks who gave Kobach the idea for his Medicaid policy have no idea what he's talking about when he says it would save Kansas $2 billion.

Republican Kris Kobach is lying to Kansans about how much money his harmful policies could save, just two weeks before voters pick the state’s new governor.

Kobach is locked in a surprisingly close race for governor with Democrat Laura Kelly.

Part of Kobach’s closing pitch is not only to hurt low-income Kansans by ramping work requirements even further for participants in Kansas’ Medicaid program — but also to claim, without evidence, that he can save $2 billion by radically transforming the state’s health care safety net program.

He wants to do that by combining the state’s Medicaid program — which serves 400,000 disabled, elderly and women residents — with something called direct primary care.

That’s a system where patients can pay doctors an annual fee for unlimited primary care, and the doctors can charge less by not accepting health insurance.

However, direct care has never been tried on the scale Kobach is advocating, and experts have no idea if it would even work with Medicaid patients.

What’s more, even the dubious “experts” Kobach cites on the matter have no idea what he’s talking about when he says the program could save $2 billion.

“The people who gave Kobach the idea say they haven’t calculated that direct primary care would save $2 billion for Kansas Medicaid,” Kansas City public radio station KCUR reports. “And Kobach’s campaign hasn’t provided an alternative source for that number.”

That might be because the whole notion is absurd, according to the former Kansas Medicaid director, Robert Day, who worked with both Republican and Democratic administrations.

“These people are idiots,” Day said, referring to the two people Kobach got the idea from, Steve Anderson and Josh Umbehr. “They know nothing about health care financing or costs. To make the statements they make, it’s just blatantly — it’s so untrue and unfactual that it staggers the mind they would even say something publicly like that.”

Meanwhile, Republican candidates across the country are actively lying to voters about their attempts to gut health care — even as GOP leaders in the Senate promise to try to dismantle Obamacare once again next year.

But Kobach’s record of fabrications is so unsavory, it inspired several high-profile Kansas Republicans to take the unprecedented step, in a deeply red state, of publicly supporting Kobach’s Democratic opponent.

Mike Hayden, the former GOP governor of Kansas, Mike Hayden, endorsed Kelly last week. Former Kansas Sen. Nancy Kassebaum has also bolted across the aisle to publicly reject Kobach.

In his current role as Kansas’ secretary of state, Kobach has earned a reputation for being completely untrustworthy.

After Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million votes to Hillary Clinton in 2016, he picked Kobach to co-chair a presidential commission to look into voter fraud, Kobach’s supposed area of expertise. Trump himself regularly lies and insists “millions and millions” of American voted illegally.

But Kobach’s commission turned out to be a sham, and was disbanded without finding any evidence whatsoever of widespread voter fraud.

It wasn’t surprising that Kobach couldn’t find this evidence. That’s because widespread voter fraud just doesn’t happen — and not only that, it’s completely crazy to imagine that it ever could happen, given how American elections actually work.

Kobach constantly makes things up and lie to voters. He lies about voter fraud, and now he’s lying about Medicaid.

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Sarah Sanders falsely claims Trump ‘has condemned violence in all forms’

2018-10-26T02:09:00.003-05:00

Trump has spent literally his entire political career encouraging political violence.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied to reporters about Trump’s history of encouraging political violence, and signaled that the recent string of attempted bombings of Trump’s favorite targets will not keep him from continuing to attack them.

During a press scrum on the White House driveway Thursday morning, Daily Mail correspondent Francesca Chambers noted Trump’s latest attempt to blame the media for the series of attempted bombings, and asked if Trump bears any responsibility or if he regrets any of his comments.

“Look, the president’s condemned violence in all forms, has done that since day one, will continue to do that,” Sanders claimed.

CBS News correspondent Chip Reid then listed a litany of Trump’s attacks on the people who were targeted by the package bombs, and asked if Trump will stop the attacks.

Sanders indicated that he would not, replying that Trump “is going to continue to lay out the contrasts between Democrats and Republicans.”

“The question is, is he going to continue insulting them?” Reid interrupted.

Sanders replied that Trump “is going to continue to lay out the case, and the differences between Democrats and Republicans.”

Sanders’ claim is absurd and dangerous. In addition to the constant attacks and smears against the people who were targeted by these bombing attempts, Trump has a long history of explicitly encouraging political violence.

At a campaign rally just last week, Trump explicitly praised Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte for assaulting a reporter, and even reenacted the attack onstage, to cheers and applause from the crowd.

To borrow Sanders’ phrase, Trump has been engaged in this campaign “since day one.” During the 2016 presidential campaign, he repeatedly encouraged violence against political protesters, and on at least two occasions promised to pay the legal fees of anyone who assaulted a protester.

Trump has also encouraged political violence by failing to condemn it, or by equivocating. When bodyguards for Turkish President Erdogan viciously beat protesters on U.S. soil, Trump apologized to Erdogan instead of standing up for Americans.

And when a woman was murdered by a white supremacist in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year, Trump said that there were “very fine people” among the neo-Nazi protesters who sparked the incident.

The combination of Trump’s smears against his critics and his explicit encouragement of violence is a recipe for disaster, and Sanders’ willingness to lie about it is not just a disgrace, it is a danger.

Published with permission of The American Independent.

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