Donald Trump adviser Gen. Michael Flynn lashed out at Mark Cuban on Sunday, declaring that the anti-Trump billionaire should not be allowed to attend Monday night's presidential debate because he is "not a legitimate person."
In response the the news that Cuban will attend the first presidential debate of the 2016 general election, Trump tweeted over the weekend that he may invite Gennifer Flowers, who allegedly had an affair with Hillary Clinton's husband decades ago.
On Sunday, Flynn deflected questions from NBC's Chuck Todd about the invitation to Flowers.
"I would just go with what you have seen," Flynn said. "And we'll wait to see what happens tomorrow night."
"Was it appropriate to invite Mark Cuban?" the Trump adviser continued. "I mean, he's not a legitimate person. Why is he invited? I mean, again, I would leave this tit for tat. This is about the big issues this country is worried about."
Watch the video below from NBC's Meet the Press, broadcast Sept. 25, 2016.
Director and activist Rob Reiner unloaded on GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump on Sunday morning, comparing his campaign to the last gasp of the Confederacy fighting for white nationalism.
Appearing on MSNBC's AM Joy with host Joy Reid, the two watched a mash-up of clips from Trump's speeches interspersed with the bigoted ramblings of All in the Family's Archie Bunker, before noting the almost word-for-word similarities between the presidential nominee and television racist.
Pointing out that racial issues that flared up in the '60s and '70s had become "submerged" since that time, Reiner took Trump to task for "giving a bullhorn to this racist idea."
"I believe that what we've done, what we've seen, is the last throes of the Civil War," Reiner explained. "We're fighting the last battles, and Donald Trump is leading the way for white nationalism. And it's sad because people are hanging on to this idea of a white America, immigrant-free America. It's scary and sad, but I believe we will win it."
Asked "What is the worst case scenario" of a Trump presidency, Reiner didn't miss a beat.
"The worst case scenario is the Supreme Court," Reiner replied. "People don't talk about it all that much because it's not a sexy issue. But the fact of the matter is, if he has one, two, three appointments, that could change the direction of this country in a scary way for thirty, forty years. And we're talking about civil rights, voting rights. We're talking about women's rights, all of these things could be effected by the Supreme Court in a profound way."
"As far as the economy is concerned, what makes you think he's going to be able to handle the economy?" he continued. "He's been a complete and utter failure as a businessman."
CNN commentators Van Jones and Angela Rye took on two Donald Trump surrogates on Sunday after she suggested that complaints about systemic racism were overblown.
During a panel discussion about how the presidential candidates had responded to recent protests against police violence in Charlotte, Jones accused Trump of a "botched, zig-zaggy outreach to African-Americans."
"On the one hand, he sticks up for one of the shooting victims in Tulsa," Jones noted. "And then he turns right around and says, 'I want stop and frisk.' Stop and frisk is the most unpopular, the least effective and the most alienating policy -- period -- in policing in 20 years, found unconstitutional. And he reaches out for that."
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), a surrogate for Trump, cautioned the panel to "be careful about how they talk about these issues on TV."
"It is imperative that we support a thin blue line," she opined. "It is what separates us from order and anarchy."
Turning to Jones, Blackburn pushed back on claims of institutional racism.
"You cannot say all cops are bad," the Tennessee Republican insisted.
Rye interrupted: "It's very important when we talk about institutional racism to understand where that really comes from."
"And what gets dangerous is when we pretend that history isn't is what it is," she continued. "So as we commemorate the first national museum of African-American history and culture, let us also acknowledge the very treacherous history of law enforcement and black people that [have] roots back to 1704 when you had the very first slave patrol. That is our first interaction with law enforcement. The foundation of the institution is horrible for us."
"And you pass those tales down by generation to the point where kids like me growing up -- now, I'm 36 -- are afraid of the police. And that's not for nothing, there's a history there... So, we can't pretend like this came out of nowhere and this is a new phenomenon."
Turning back the presidential campaign, Trump surrogate Andre Bauer defended Trump's call for nationwide "stop and frisk" policy.
"In New York, it did work," Bauer said. "So, he's trying to come up with a way to to fix a problem as someone who is looking at it from a bigger picture than worrying about what polls the best."
"What African-Americans want is an effective and fair policing," Jones replied. "When someone says there's institutional racism, they are not saying every single police officer hates black people. What they're saying is, something is happening where there's a bias, where an African-American kid wearing a hoodie seems to be a threat; a white kid wearing a hoodie might be seen maybe as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. And there's an unfairness there."
"When you start talking about data, when you start talking about trends, and somebody says, 'Well you just hate all cops,' that shuts down the discussion as well," Jones observed. "This stop and frisk mess needs to end."
Watch the video below from CNN, broadcast Sept. 25, 2016.
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway attempted to do damage control over the weekend in response to Donald Trump's threat to invite alleged Bill Clinton mistress Gennifer Flowers to Monday night's debate.
After Trump learned that billionaire Mark Cuban would be attending the first presidential debate of the general election, the Republican nominee lashed out at Hillary Clinton on Twitter by suggesting he would invite Flowers.
"If dopey Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor fame wants to sit in the front row, perhaps I will put Gennifer Flowers right alongside of him!" he wrote.
But during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday, Conway attempted to walk back Trump's tweet.
"I cannot confirm that," Conway said. "And I can't believe how easily baited the Clinton campaign was. Basically, Mr. Trump was saying, look, if Mark Cuban is going to send out these texts that say the 'Humbling at Hofstra' and this is his big downfall, then Mr. Trump is putting them on notice that we can certainly invite guests that may get into the head of Hillary Clinton."
"But we have not invited her formally and we don't expect her to be there as a guest of the Trump campaign," she remarked, adding the assertion that Clinton's campaign had "exercised poor judgement" by responding to Trump's threat to invite Flowers.
Conway's argument seemed to flummox Tapper.
"You think that what's odd is Clinton campaign's reaction to Donald Trump tweeting about somebody that her husband had an affair with decades ago, not the fact that Donald Trump tweeted something about someone that the nominee's husband had an affair with decades ago," Tapper stammered.
"It seems odd that they would give it life and breath," Conway opined. "You just said three times in a row that Gov. Clinton had an affair with her. I didn't say it but now a lot of Americans know who Gennifer Flowers was."
"You say he only counter punches," Tapper pointed out. "That's kind of like the mythology of the Trump campaign. But the truth is he attacks people on their own all the time."
Watch the video below from CNN, broadcast Sept. 25, 2016.
Former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke quickly exited a protest calling for the removal of a Confederate statue on Saturday after he was chased and shouted down by protesters.
Duke, who is running for Senate in Louisiana, showed up on Saturday in New Orleans to counter the Take 'Em Down NOLA protest, which is calling for the removal of a statue of Andrew Jackson.
"I tell you one thing. It was built by the forefathers of the European Americans who created this country and who gave us our constitution," Duke told the crowd. "Who gave us our freedoms and they should not lose their rights and liberty in their own country. They should not have their statues taken down. They should not lose their culture of this society."
Defending his appearance at the rally, Duke insisted, "All I am is a person standing up for my people. I respect black people who stand up for their rights."
"Racist, fascist, anti-gay!" the crowd chanted. "Right-wing bigot go away!"
The chants continued until Duke had vacated Jackson Square.
In the end, protesters were not successful at toppling the Andrew Jackson statue. At least seven demonstrators were arrested during attempts to break through a line of police surrounding the statuye.
by Jeffrey Kaplan Jeffrey Kaplan is a recently retired Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin. He has written more than a dozen books and more than fifty articles on religious terrorism and political violence. His most recent article is on ISIS in Terrorism & Political Violence and his latest book is Radical…
Gennifer Flowers -- a woman with whom former Pres. Bill Clinton had an extramarital affair -- has announced that she is accepting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's invitation to sit in the front row of Monday night's presidential debate.
Within hours, Flowers announced that she would be happy to be there.
The move by the Trump team appears to indicate that Trump will be bringing up former Pres. Clinton's marital infidelities in an attempt to humiliate Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton at some point during the debate.
The New York Times endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for the White House on Saturday, saying she was more qualified than Republican rival Donald Trump to handle the challenges facing the United States.
"A lifetime’s commitment to solving problems in the real world qualifies Hillary Clinton for this job, and the country should put her to work," the Times said of the former secretary of state and U.S. senator from New York.
The panel on Saturday's edition of MSNBC's AMJoy came down hard on Donald Trump Saturday morning, using the comments of a racist former campaign volunteer in Ohio as an example of the type of voters the GOP presidential candidate's rhetoric attracts.
After sharing a clip of former Mahoning County campaign chair Kathy Miller saying "I don't think there was any racism until Obama got elected," the entire panel smiled and shook their heads before starting in.
"The Clinton campaign had an epidemic of pneumonia," remarked radio host Mark Thompson. "The Trump campaign has an epidemic of profound ignorance and stupidity, and that's what she represents, that's what he represents."
Addressing Trump's comments on bringing back "stop and frisk," Thompson stated, "He's orange man speaking with forked tongue. He;s trying to appeal to moderate whites, moderate conservatives, to try and pretend as if he cares for the African-American community," before adding that Trump is also speaking in code to the alt-right racist community.
Host Reid turned to race relations expert Tim White, asking why "traditional Republicans are comfortable being in a coalition with the alt-right."
Wise unloaded on Trump.
"It's the same thing that propelled David Duke to 55 or 60 percent of the white vote in Louisiana in '90 or '91," he replied. "To his hardcore base he spoke to remind them that he's going to get tough with black folks."
Addressing Trump's rhetoric on the campaign trail, Wise stated, "Notice, every solution he has for people of color, quote unquote, are authoritarian and racist. Keep Mexican-American folk out of the country, and immigrants out. To block Muslim folk, many of the disproportionately people of color, keep them out of the country. And for black folks to control them with cops and so-called law and order. That is why it is accurate to say his policies are institutionally racist."
"People say, 'do you think Donald Trump is racist? '" he continued. "It's like asking if a drug dealer also used their own drugs and is an addict. I don't know if he gets high on his own supply -- but I know what he is selling."
People will be particularly fascinated to see if Trump dials down his bombastic rhetoric and perhaps even adds some substance to the vague policy pronouncements he has made so far. To a lesser extent, many will also be interested in whether Clinton can add the necessary zest to what some consider her lacklustre style, and whether she can prove she’s made a sterling recovery from her recent bout with pneumonia.
It’s possible that some voters may in fact change their minds based on what they see in the two’s only on-camera encounters. And yet, barring a true disaster or devastating triumph, it’s unlikely that anything the candidates say or do will make much difference to the overall result.
This might not seem all that surprising for these two candidates in particular. Leaving aside how long they’ve both been in public life, social media and the 24-hour news cycle have put Clinton and Trump under incredible scrutiny ever since they announced their respective candidacies – and their every sentence and gesture has already been analysed in the greatest detail.
Trump in particular has received more free publicity from the networks and Twitter than even he could afford, and it’s highly unlikely that he will say anything that the US public hasn’t heard before. Similarly, voters’ impressions of Clinton are apparently so deeply entrenched that she probably won’t change many people’s minds.
Yet there are also broader reasons why presidential TV debates are less important than we might imagine.
Looking the part
Even before the media environment became as saturated as it is today, debates were rarely, if ever, decisive in presidential elections. The exception was possibly the very first TV debate in 1960, which pitted the then vice-president, Richard Nixon, against John F. Kennedy.
At the time, the election was so close that the young, relatively inexperienced but highly telegenic Kennedy was able to reap the benefits of putting his case directly to viewers. He was the underdog; a relative unknown in comparison to Nixon and so had more to gain from such national exposure. Nixon, as the establishment figure, had a lot to lose.
In the end, Kennedy’s narrow victory may well have been because of his debate performances. But his success also demonstrated another important feature of television debates: that viewers take more notice of what they see than what they hear.
Notoriously, television viewers responded very favourably to Kennedy’s film-star good looks, but were turned off by Nixon, who refused to wear make-up and looked sweaty and uncomfortable under the studio lights. In contrast, those who listened on the radio believed that Nixon had come out on top. It seems that viewers saw Kennedy as more “presidential” than Nixon, especially given his calmness under pressure. Kennedy did work hard to exploit some of Nixon’s weaknesses on policy, but in the end, that turned out not to be the point.
Kennedy’s success was one of the reasons that neither of his two successors, Lyndon B. Johnson and then a resurgent Nixon, participated in any such events when they were running for the presidency. Although some debates were held in the primaries, there were no face-to-face contests between presidential candidates in 1964, 1968 or 1972.
The next debates were held in 1976, another tight campaign. These yielded a notorious moment in the second encounter between Gerald R Ford and Jimmy Carter, when the incumbent Ford appeared to throw the election away with a poorly judged remark declaring that there was no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. As myth has it, this gaffe stalled Ford’s polling surge; he ultimately lost the election.
Yet even this was not decisive. Although the comment did the president no favours, it’s highly debatable whether it in fact had an impact on the overall result; Ford actually closed the polling gap with Carter between the debates and the general election. People’s reactions to the debate had less to do with the substance of his remark and much more with the media’s constant replay and analysis of that moment, which continues to mar Ford’s reputation to this day.
Selective memory
This pattern has continued in the election cycles that have followed, as slips and awkward moments rather than substance provide the media with dominant themes. Many people recall vice-presidential candidate Dan Quayle’s cack-handed attempt to compare himself to Kennedy in 1988, or George Bush senior’s ill-judged glance at his watch when listening to a question in 1992; few probably remember much about what policies they discussed, or whether, if they won, they carried them out.
If anything, the shortcomings of the TV debate format have become more pronounced in the current cycle. Although neither of the main candidates in this year’s election wants for national exposure, the primary debates have tended to favour the underdog and those who claim to be outsiders.
On the Republican side, Trump’s various moderate competitors were one by one hobbled and engulfed; Clinton, for her part, spent months slugging it out with her remarkably successful left-wing rival Bernie Sanders, never quite landing a televised knockout punch and ultimately only defeating him properly after six months of primaries.
While credible policy proposals seem to matter less than ever, things that would have once been considered catastrophic gaffes have become par for the course. Indeed, one could argue that Trump’s success so far is because he has built his campaign on half-truths and outright lies without care for the consequences.
So despite all the anticipation, this year’s debates probably won’t tell us very much about what will happen after the president takes office next January; the analysis will almost certainly focus less on what the candidates have to say and more on how they say it. Voters will no doubt tune in in great, possibly record-breaking numbers, but they’ll come away with precious little sense of what’s in store for their country.
Equally, the spectacles we’re about to witness might be pyrotechnic enough, but they’re unlikely to decide the result in November. And in the unlikely event that they do, it won’t be for the right reasons.
During the overtime portion of HBO's Real Time, host Bill Maher posed the question of how deeply was GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump damaging the Republican Party and what can they do to save themselves in case he wins.
Former Mitt Romney adviser Lanhee Chen admitted that the party is going through a "temporary correction."
"After this election, the Republican Party does have some soul-searching to do," he explained. "But to say that it is permanently changed, implies that I think this guy will have some permanent influence on how we think about the world, and I think, from the perspective of someone who hopes that isn't true -- I hope that isn't true."
Host Maher jumped in to ask, "Isn't their problem their voters?"
"I mean they didn't want Trump, a lot of them," he continued. "And we see a lot of these Vichy Republicans who go along because they don't want to upset the apple cart. They know better. They know where their bread is buttered, where their voters are. But you can get rid of the Trump, you can't get rid of the voter. That's who they want."
Chen parried that the GOP needs to expand their reach, only to have Maher shoot back, "But that's not what the base wants. The base is deplorable."
Writer Max Brooks, added that both parties in the past have taken stock and distanced themselves from extremists trying to hijack the party, including the GOP saying "no" to the John Birch wing, and the Democrats conceding the south over civil rights
Turning to the conservative Chen, Brooks advised, "This is the chance for you guys, who sleep in Reagan Underoos, to suddenly come out.”
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has postponed a trip planned for Sunday to Charlotte, North Carolina, which has seen sometimes violent protests after a black man was killed by police earlier this week.
"Hillary is grateful for, and intends to honor, the invitation from faith leaders to visit with the Charlotte community," her campaign said in a statement on Friday.
"After further discussion with community leaders, we have decided to postpone Sunday's trip as to not impact the city's resources," it said, adding that Clinton will visit the city on the following Sunday.
(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Sandra Maler)
The chaplain for a Florida-based Catholic law school bashed the idea of separation of church and state in a thinly-veiled call for supporters to vote for Republicans this year, Lifesite News reported.
"Somehow, [Christians] have come to buy the story that you cannot be political in church," Father Michael Orsi said during an event earlier this month. "Let me tell you right now, oh yes, you can, and oh, yes, you better be. Because you might not have a church to go to if you don't vote the right way in November."
The "story" is actually a federal law passed in 1954 banning churches from "any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office" as a requirement to being listed as a 501(c)(3) organization.
Orsi, who was photographed last month protesting outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Naples, rejected the concept, arguing that "the Bible is a political document.
He also contradicted himself, saying that Germany fell under Nazi control partly because churches refused to speak out against the threat against the country.
"Look [at] the result: millions of Jews, pastors, priests, homosexuals, gypsies all lost their lives because everyone was afraid," he said. "What are you afraid of, a couple of bucks? Your tax-exempt status? What’s that going to do to you? Your churches may be closed anyway."
At the same time, he warned the audience that appeals courts and the Constitution itself could be damaged if "a certain party" won the presidential election.
"I'm not going to vote for a candidate who decides that we can redefine the meaning of marriage," said Orci, referencing Democrat Hillary Clinton. "Our opponents believe once they destroy the family, once they destroy the churches, they can re-create society in their own image and their own likeness. That, my friends, is not just political. That is diabolical. Get it straight, for crying out loud -- the devil is in this."
