McCain defends the free press

MoonHowler

NBCnews.com:

Sen. John McCain is taking a veiled swipe at President Donald Trump’s ongoing attack on the fourth estate, cautioning that “how dictators get started” is by shutting down the press.

The Republican Arizona senator, in an exclusive interview on Meet the Press airing Sunday, admitted that the relationship between the media and elected officials can sometimes be tense — highlighted by the Trump administration’s repeated sparring with reporters and the president calling news organizations “fake news.”

Half-jokingly, McCain said, “a fundamental part of that new world order was a free press. I hate the press. I hate you especially. But the fact is we need you.”

His defense of the media came in response to a Friday tweet from President Donald Trump in which he called certain news outlets “the enemy of the American People.”

What educated, informed people exist in an echo chamber, only hearing one side of an issue?  Perhaps that is the root of Trump’s problem–his problem with inaccuracy and ignorance.  He only listens to one side of an issue.   How can the media be “the enemy of the American people?”  This current time isn’t the only time in American history where the press brought down candidates, or elected officials.

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John McCain’s smack-down on Sean Spicer

MoonHowler

 

Washingtonpost.com:

Donald Trump took on Sen. John McCain’s status as a war hero and won the GOP nomination anyway.

Sean Spicer took on John McCain’s expertise on military matters and got this:

The White House press secretary took an extraordinary position Wednesday, saying anyone who questioned the success of the raid in Yemen that led to the death of a Navy SEAL was doing a disservice to the SEAL’s memory. The target was McCain.

Then NBC News tracked down McCain (R-Ariz.) to get his response to Spicer. And it was something.

“Many years ago when I was imprisoned in North Vietnam, there was an attempt to rescue the POWs,” McCain began, mentioning details of his biography that everyone knows but McCain included for emphasis.

He continued: “Unfortunately, the prison had been evacuated. But the brave men who took on that mission and risked their lives in an effort to rescue us prisoners of war were genuine American heroes. Because the mission failed did not in any way diminish their courage and willingness to help their fellow Americans who were held captive. Mr. Spicer should know that story.”

McCain then walked away, punctuating the comment.

Senator McCain–you go, guy!  Despite what Trump says, John McCain is a war hero.  Unlike Trump, he does know quite a bit about war and military raids.  He is certainly not someone that either Trump or Spicer should blow off.

The arrogance and stupidity are simply amazing.

Trump trashes Republican Governor Martinez of NM

MoonHowler

 

NYtimes.com:

ALBUQUERQUE — Donald J. Trump is unlikely to win the general election unless he improves his dismal standing among Hispanics and women. But his efforts to win over those two crucial constituencies is off to a rocky start.

On Tuesday night, Mr. Trump purposefully attacked Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico, who in addition to being the most prominent Hispanic woman in American politics, also happens to be the chairwoman of the Republican Governors Association.

Appearing at a campaign rally in Albuquerque, the largest city in Ms. Martinez’s state, Mr. Trump unleashed a blistering assault on the governor, who skipped the event, by saying she was “not doing the job.”

He faulted her by falsely asserting she was allowing Syrian refugees to settle in the state, and blamed her for Albuquerque’s unemployment numbers as well as the increase in the number of New Mexico residents on food stamps.

“It’s your governor’s fault,” Mr. Trump told thousands of booing supporters. “We have to get your governor and get going. She’s got to do a better job, O.K.? Your governor has got to do a better job.”

The swipes at Ms. Martinez, delivered in two separate instances during his speech, seemed designed to send a message: If the presumptive Republican nominee is attacked, critics can expect Mr. Trump to hit them back far harder.

What is this guy’s problem?  Ms. Martinez is highly respected.  Trump gets low marks with both women and Latinos.  These kinds of unprovoked attacks certainly will harm him politically with these two groups.

Hopefully those who must say they support Trump to stay in good graces with their party will just go behind the curtain on election day and write in Mickey Mouse or some other more deserving candidate.

Meanwhile Trump continues to try to buy his ticket to the White House.  I simply will have no respect for any Republican who caves and supports this man.  There is just something evil about him.

Virginia Republican Convention: WTF?

MoonHowler

corey2

Washingtonpost.com:

HARRISONBURG, Va. — Supporters of Ted Cruz dominated a slate of delegates that Virginia Republicans chose Saturday at their state convention, further demonstrating the Texas senator’s mastery of the delegate-selection process.

Of the 13 national delegates picked by party activists here, 10 are Cruz supporters and three support Donald Trump. The tally represents the biggest chunk up for grabs of the 49 total delegates who will represent the state at the national convention in Cleveland this summer.

Despite bruising primary ­losses around the country, Cruz is betting that Trump will not make it to the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the party’s nomination, and he is working to woo delegates who would be loyal to him at a brokered convention.

Cruz came in a distant third in Virginia in the March 1 primary but had enough supporters among the 2,610 party activists who filled an arena at James Madison University on Saturday to win critical delegates.

 

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A sniveling coward? Sounds like the locker room

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

While courting voters in Wisconsin Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) used strong words for rival Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. He said Trump is “a sniveling coward” who has a problem with women.

DANE, Wis. — Donald Trump’s ability to roil the presidential race with a few swipes of a smartphone was revealed again in Wisconsin. Before a visit to a factory, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) — the only Republican currently stumping here — had to field questions about the week’s second late-night Trump tweet that mocked the senator’s wife, Heidi.

“Our spouses and our children are off bounds,” Cruz said. “It is not acceptable for a big, loud New York bully to attack my wife. It is not acceptable for him to make insults, to send nasty tweets — and I don’t know what he does late at night, but he tends to do these at about 11:30 at night, I assume when his fear is at the highest point.”

The source of Cruz’s ire seemed, as has become Trump’s habit, petty and puerile. Trump, who has no public appearances scheduled until a March 29 rally in nearby Janesville, was angered by a Web ad from the tiny Make America Awesome PAC, allegedly targeted at Mormon voters, that displayed a salacious photo of the mogul’s wife, Melania, from a magazine shoot and warned that she could become first lady unless Utahans caucused for Cruz.

The PAC has no relationship to Cruz, but on Tuesday night, Trump warned that he would “spill the beans” about Heidi Cruz; on Wednesday night he retweeted someone who compared an unflattering photo of Mrs. Cruz to a glamorous one of Mrs. Trump.

It just sounds like locker room talk to me.  How unseemly.  How ungentlemanly.  How rude.  How unpresidential.

A PAC seemed to have started off the firestorm of insults.  These PACS are really out of control and have been for several decades.  If we want to start with campaign reform, then there is one of the places to start.  PACs seem to answer to no one.  They can do what they want to do with little, if any, accountability.

Congress needs to get off its do-nothing rear and draft some legislation to hold PACs accountable.

Theory: Where did Trump come from?

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

The Republican establishment began losing its party to Donald Trump on May 24, 2000, at 5:41 p.m., on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Urged on by their presidential standard-bearer, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, and by nearly all of the business lobbyists who represented the core of the party’s donor class, three-quarters of House Republicans voted to extend the status of permanent normal trade relations to China. They were more than enough, when added to a minority of Democrats, to secure passage of a bill that would sail through the Senate and be signed into law by President Bill Clinton.

The legislation, a top Republican priority, held the promise of greater economic prosperity for Americans. But few could predict that it would cause a series of economic and political earthquakes that has helped put the GOP in the difficult spot it is in today: with the most anti-trade Republican candidate in modern history, Trump, moving closer to clinching the party’s nomination.

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Ben Carson: No Cujo analogies!!!

MoonHowler


Politico.com:

Ben Carson likened Syrian refugees fleeing the country’s bloody civil war and Islamic State violence to dogs on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters following a campaign stop in Mobile, Alabama, Carson stressed that the United States wants smart leaders who care about people, but noted there should always be a balance between safety and humanitarian concerns.

“For instance, you know, if there is a rabid dog running around your neighborhood, you’re probably not going to assume something good about that dog, and you’re probably gonna put your children out of the way,” Carson said. “Doesn’t mean that you hate all dogs by any stretch of the imagination.”

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Trump continues his unpresidential sexist rant at Megyn Kelly

MoonHowler

Washigntonpost.com:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Friday night that Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly “had blood coming out of her eyes” when she  aggressively questioned him during Thursday’s presidential debate.

“She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions,” Trump said in a CNN interview. “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. In my opinion, she was off base.”

In Thursday’s debate, Kelly questioned Trump over his history of offensive statements about women.

Calling in to CNN for a 30-minute interview on Friday night with Don Lemon, Trump hurled insults at Kelly, calling her a “lightweight,” and bashed her co-moderators, Chris Wallace and Bret Baier, as well as other Fox talent.

“I just don’t respect her as a journalist,” Trump said of Kelly. “I have no respect for her. I don’t think she’s very good. I think she’s highly overrated.”

Trump said he is considering skipping the next debate hosted by Fox News Channel, scheduled for January in Iowa, because he believes he was treated unfairly by the network’s moderators.

 

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