WASHINGTON -- Gov. Chris Christie's brother Todd is one of 15 New Jersey residents added Friday to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's fundraising team. "Victory finance chairs" were announced in 33 states, including New Jersey, as Trump and the Republican National Committee began raising money for the general election. The New Jersey list includes two…
Top lawmakers from both major U.S. political parties said on Sunday they trusted the Justice Department to appropriately handle its probe of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's private email server, after a heavily criticized meeting between Clinton's husband and the U.S. attorney general.
Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain said on CBS show "Face the Nation" that they would respect Attorney General Loretta Lynch's decision on whether to prosecute Clinton, the likely Democratic presidential nominee.
Congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, also said he respected the process, though he acknowledged Lynch's private meeting last week at an airport with former President Bill Clinton was unfortunate.
"I think both of them wish their airplanes had never come anywhere near each other," Schiff said on "Face the Nation," adding that he still had confidence in the DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to do a thorough investigation of Clinton's email use.
"If they say they are going to conduct this investigation by the book, I believe that's what's going to happen," said Schiff, who supports Clinton for the party's nomination.
Lynch said on Friday that she would accept whatever recommendations the career prosecutors working on the case made about whether to prosecute Clinton.
The lawmakers' endorsement for the process follows Clinton's meeting Saturday with investigators at the FBI's Washington headquarters, where she answered questions for three and a half hours as part of the probe into use of her private email server.
The FBI is investigating Clinton's email use and whether laws were broken as a result of a personal email server kept in her Chappaqua, New York, home while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
Lawmakers and political strategists speculated on Sunday that the FBI's interview of Clinton signaled its investigation could be nearing its end. But the FBI offered no information about the status of the probe or who its targets may be. Clinton has long insisted she is not a target.
Clinton herself said in comments to MSNBC on Saturday that she "was pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department in bringing its review to a conclusion."
Her rival, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, said it was "impossible" for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against her. The two have already begun an acrimonious battle ahead of the presidential election on Nov. 8.
Democrats are hoping the issue will be resolved before their four-day convention in Philadelphia that begins July 25, which is expected to culminate with Clinton's nomination for the presidential race.
It is unclear what Democrats would do if Clinton were to be indicted and if any contingency plan exists.
Not all lawmakers said they were confident the Justice Department could maintain impartiality. Tom Cotton, a Republican senator, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday he thought Lynch's meeting with Bill Clinton "raises questions about political interference in this investigation."
(Reporting By Emily Flitter; Editing by Mary Milliken)
There is no guarantee California will vote to legalize recreational marijuana in November, but political operative and father of four Daniel Conway has already staked his future on it.
Conway left his job as chief of staff to Sacramento's celebrity mayor, former Phoenix Suns NBA basketball star Kevin Johnson, to help start the marijuana investment company Truth Enterprises.
He is one of hundreds in the most populous U.S. state already pushing ahead with plans to enter a market experts say will be worth $4 billion by 2020.
"I'm someone of an age and of a demographic that sees the legalization and normalization of marijuana as inevitable," said Conway, 35. "This was a chance not just to build companies but to build an industry."
With a population of nearly 40 million people, and a thriving medical marijuana trade legalized 20 years ago, California already has the United States' largest legal marijuana market. Legalization of recreational pot would generate an estimated $1 billion in additional taxes per year.
If voters in November approve a measure to legalize and tax marijuana that qualified last Tuesday for the ballot, California would be the fifth U.S. state - and by far the largest - to allow marijuana for recreational use, joining Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, as well as the District of Columbia.
A similar ballot initiative failed in California in 2010, but recent polls show strong support for legalization. The latest effort is backed by mainstream leaders including Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, who helped negotiate the regulations and taxes it would impose.
Eight other states, including Nevada and Maine, also have recreational or medical marijuana proposals headed for their 2016 ballots. California's sheer size as the world's 6th largest economy means a decision by its voters to legalize marijuana could accelerate the trend elsewhere.
"I don’t believe there will be any precedent in the United States that can compare to it except for maybe the Gold Rush," said Leslie Bocskor, whose Nevada-based private equity firm, Electrum Partners, advises and invests in marijuana-related businesses.
The lure of wealth in an uncharted industry is so great that thousands of people are jostling for position, said Bocskor.
Since January, 115 new California companies have joined the National Cannabis Industry Association, bringing total membership in the state to 330, said Deputy Director Taylor West.
New companies include cultivators, dispensaries, laboratories, law partnerships, accountants, software developers, insurers and more, she said.
Their challenge is to set up an infrastructure for a business that is not yet legal. Conway and his business partner, General Hydroponics CEO Ross Haley, for example, recently purchased farmland in Northern California that they hope to use to grow marijuana but would not say where before the measure is passed.
Newport Beach-based Terra Tech is trying to prepare for recreational sales while building a legal business within the state's medical marijuana marketplace, which has annual sales of $2.7 billion.
The company spent more than $800,000 designing and remodeling its Oakland dispensary to look more like a high-end lounge than a drab medical clinic, said CEO Derek Peterson. It also developed colorful packaging for its marijuana instead of dispensing it in prescription bottles.
Despite such optimism, passage of the California measure is not certain. It is opposed by many of the same law enforcement and health care groups who helped defeat the 2010 initiative.
But this time backers have the deep pockets of former Facebook president Sean Parker, support from Newsom - a Democrat expected to run for governor in 2018 - and a switch in attitude among voters who saw legalization come on line in other states.
The measure would allow adults age 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana, cultivate up to six plants and sets rules for commercial cultivation, manufacture and sale. It includes rules aimed at keeping cannabis products from children, preventing impaired driving and requiring licenses for sellers.
Newsom said he is backing it as a way to responsibly manage legalization, which he views as inevitable but necessary to handle carefully.
"As a guy with four kids, who doesn’t like the drug, doesn’t like the smell, doesn’t want my kids to think it’s normalized, this is my number one concern," Newsom said.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) lashed out at MSNBC host Alex Witt on Sunday after she claimed that former President Bill Clinton's impromptu tarmac meeting with Attorney General Loretta was "inexcusable."
During a Sunday discussion about Hillary Clinton's email server scandal on MSNBC, Republican strategist Susan Del Percio focused on Bill Clinton's recent decision to board the attorney general's plane unannounced on a tarmac in Phoenix.
"No one else would have seen the spouse of someone else under investigation," Percio said. "It does play into Donald Trump's issue that the system is rigged."
"As innocent as it may have been," Witt said, turning to Dean, "politically, isn't it almost inexcusable?"
"Here's what's inexcusable," Dean shot back. "We're spending all this time on television talking about a visit between Loretta Lynch and President Clinton. Why aren't we talking about how to get jobs back in America? Why aren't we talking about what we're going to do about healthcare? Why aren't we talking about foreign policy? This is ridiculous. This goes on and on and on and on. Nobody wants to take the serious issues seriously."
"Should it not have been done?" Witt pressed. "Should Bill Clinton have known better? Should Loretta Lynch have known better?"
"Maybe they should have known better, maybe all kinds of things should have happened," Dean replied. "Can't we starting talking about issues that effect the American people in this campaign? How long is this going to go on? When are we going to talk about substance? When are we going to talk about jobs? When are we going to talk about healthcare? When are we going to talk about education? When are we going to talk about prison reform?"
"When Bill Clinton stops doing unforced errors," Percio insisted.
"Nonsense!" Dean exclaimed. "This is crap. We ought be talking about serious stuff, not who did what to who. The reason this happens is because the right wing has got nothing on the Clintons, and all they can do is make up stuff like this."
Watch the video below from MSNBC, broadcast July 3, 2016.
Appearing on Meet The Press Sunday morning, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton (R) wanted no part in trying to make the case for a Donald Trump presidency, repeatedly sidestepping questions from host Chuck Todd.
Todd pressed the Arkansas senator by pointing out that his own views about how to handle the Middle East were much more similar to Hillary Clinton's than they were to the much more vague views of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
"In many ways, what you outline as a foreign policy is the exact opposite of Donald Trump and seems really closer to Hillary Clinton," Todd asked. "Or Hillary Clinton seems closer to you. How do you explain this?"
"Well, I can assure you that I'm not very close to Hillary Clinton. I think she's disqualified herself from commander-in-chief by her cavalier attitude towards our nation's secrecy laws. And she has been responsible for many of the worst decisions of the Obama administration," Cotton replied. "She was literally present when we pressed the reset button with Russia just a few months after Russia had invaded Georgia. In 2011, when our commanders said they needed more troops in Iraq and when every Iraqi leader wanted a new agreement to keep those troops there, she couldn't achieve that even though she was secretary of state."
Uncharacteristically undeterred, Todd pressed the senator about Trump, asking, "Okay, fine, but you just gave the case against Clinton. What's the case for Trump? You just did a whole speech, by the way, earlier this weekend. You didn't even mention his name. You laid out a strong case against her. But you did not make a case for him. Make the case for him."
"Well, Chuck, the case against Hillary Clinton's judgment in foreign policy is very strong to say nothing of her support for Obamacare or immigration or the fact that she would--" Cotton beagan before being cut off.
"Okay, but what's the case for Donald Trump?" Todd pushed. "I understand the case against Hillary Clinton. What's the case for Donald Trump?"
"Donald Trump can ultimately make the case for himself. But Donald Trump, like most Americans, like most Republicans, believe in protecting America's core national interests," Cotton parried.
Noting his avoidance, Todd pointed out, "You don't come across as an enthusiastic Trump supporter. Is that fair?"
"Maybe I don't just demonstrate enthusiasm much in life, Chuck, especially in such dangerous times as these," Cotton flatly replied.
Watch the video below via NBC:
Appearing on Meet the Press, Labor Secretary Tom Perez -- rumored to be on Hillary Clinton's short list for vice president -- took a series of shots at presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, belittling his business credibility and foreign policy knowledge.
The bemused Obama administration figure alternately called Trump a "fraud" on putting Americans first, a “train wreck” on trade and the "outsourcer in chief" when it comes creating jobs in the U.S.
"Donald Trump is a fraud," Perez told host Chuck Todd. "Listening to him talk about how he's going to put American first again, he's spent his entire career putting his own profits first."
"Donald Trump has said that wages are too high in America, Donald Trump has said that a low minimum wage is good for America. Donald Trump makes his suits in Mexico, when I've been to a plant in Ohio that uses union labor to make their suits," Perez exclaimed. "Donald Trump has said repeatedly that, 'I'm going to put America first.' But then you look at the reality of what he has done -- he has fought collective bargaining in Las Vegas. The people on the strip who organized the Trump Hotel did it over his dead body."
Turning to foreign policy, Perez smirked when asked by host Todd about Trump's views.
"Well, I haven't run a Ms. Universe pageant, and I don't own any golf courses in Scotland, Chuck, so I don't have what Donald Trump has, and I'm very sorry about that,” Perez replied.
Watch the video below via NBC:
In an interview with the Daily Beast on a retrospective of his films, acclaimed documentarian Ken Burn spent the majority of his time discussing the candidacy of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and what it says about America.
Burns was promoting the SundanceNow Doc Club collection that will be showing a collection of his films and, as talk turned to the issues of race in the U.S., Trump's over-the-top demagoguery naturally came up.
Discussing Burns' film The Central Park Five -- about five black teens who were wrongly convicted of assaulting a white woman in New York City -- Burns recalled how Trump reacted at the time.
"He shamefully took out a full-page ad in all of the New York dailies asking for a restoration of the death penalty for two 14-year-old, two 15-year-old, and one 16-year-old innocent children," Burns explained. "While New York State laws would not have permitted their execution, just the fact that there was a rush to judgment ought to be complete evidence of how temperamentally unsuited he is for the office he now seeks."
After interviewer Marlow Stern noted that the teens were later exonerated and received a $41 million settlement from the city -- which Trump criticized -- Burns explained it was all about race.
"Of course it was [racially motivated]. I found no outrage at the 'preppie killer,'" Burns said. "The problem was that the initial idea of the crime was that there were these 'wilding' black youths—a wolf pack—that attacked this innocent blond woman, and that’s always been the primal fear of Americans as they tolerated slavery and then tolerated Jim Crow."
Burns then went off on Trump, calling him a "super-predator."
"I find Donald Trump more of a super-predator. This idea that he can attack and attack and attack whole groups of people, and that we live in a media culture where that’s permitted to be tolerated—it’s the spectacle and not the truth of it," he said. "An amoral internet permits a lie to travel around the world three times before the truth can get started, and we live in a place where lying is OK—where a lassitude develops where it doesn’t matter what the truth is—and that’s how it’s possible for someone like him to be advanced who is so clearly temperamentally unsuited and has no idea about governing."
"The Republican Party has been extraordinarily successful at getting many groups of people to vote against their self-interest," he continued. "Evangelicals are voting for Donald Trump. What part of Donald Trump reminds you of Jesus Christ? Trump lusts after his own daughter on national radio, talks about women’s bodies and breasts in such a disparaging way, and mocks them. How is this in any way Christian? When you make the 'other' the enemy, how is that Christian?"
Burns comments about Trump and his daughter Ivanka stem from remarks the New York businessman made in 2006 interview where he stated, “I don’t think Ivanka would do that [pose for nude photographs] inside the magazine [Playboy]. Although she does have a very nice figure. I’ve said that if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps, I would be dating her.”
The whole interview can be read here.
An Iowa woman, born seven years before women were given the vote, says she plans to stick around long enough to vote for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, adding a Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster.
In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, 103-year-old Ruline Steininger spoke about campaigning for Clinton during the Iowa caucuses saying she never thought she'd live to see a woman president in her lifetime.
Steininger, who will be voting in her twentieth presidential election, said the candidacy for Clinton is very special to her.
"She's our only hope. We certainly don't want Trump for a president," she said before adding, "Hillary is the best qualified candidate we have had in a long long time."
"Ruline, you were born seven years before American women got the right to vote," Amanpour stated. "Did you ever think you would see this day, with an American woman in the position that Hillary is?"
"I never thought we'd see a woman president of the United States, but this is the year" Steininger replied.
Amanpour than read from the woman's Christmas card from this past year to her friends and family, where she wrote: "The chances are high that my vote will be absent. After giving this problem much serious thought and consideration, I've come to the decision that I must live to do my part November 2016. I can die later."
Asked whether she was surprised that Donald Trump could be a "legitimate candidate," Steininger was quite blunt.
"I'm shocked. I don't know what has gotten into people," she replied. "If he's elected president, it's going to be a national disaster which we will likely take years to recover from."
She added, "The only way to stop Trump is to vote for Hillary."
Watch the video below via YouTube:
While most people were taking the 4th of July holiday weekend off, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump was up bright and early on Twitter, claiming he has filled his speakers roster for the GOP convention before turning his Twitter guns on Hillary Clinton with a graphic that has people scratching their heads.
The day after the Clinton campaign announced it had raised more than $68.5 million for Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee and state parties in the month of June, Trump took a back-handed shot at Clinton for her fundraising prowess using a Star of David on a field on money graphic.
(UPDATE: The Trump campaign deleted the tweet, and replaced it with another featuring a circle instead of the Star of David. No explanation was given.)
The tweet, which can be seen below, reads: "History made. Most corrupt candidate ever," with a "Fox News Poll" banner, accompanied by a photo of the former Secretary of States next to the religious symbol.
The imagery, including the bed of money, was not lost on observers who called out the candidate, accusing him of appealing to his anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi supporters.
A sampling below with Trump's original tweet:
TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie's administration is freezing $100 million in aid to the state's depressed cities and social programs favored by Democrats until public employees heed his call to cut $250 million in their health benefits. Christie issued an executive order late Thursday holding in reserve $54 million in transitional aid to cities and $45…
In an interview with the Daily Beast, actor and comedian Denis Leary took some shots at presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, hammering him for building his campaign upon fear and bigotry while exploiting the memory of 9/11.
Trump has spent a considerable amount on his campaign attacking Muslims -- while invoking fears of terrorism dating back to the tragic day in 2001 -- which rankles Leary who is deeply involved in New York and Boston charities that support first responders.
As noted by the Beast's Marlow Stern, Leary has distributed millions of dollars through his Leary Firefighters Foundation and the Fund for New York’s Bravest, and when he hears Trump discuss 9/11 -- it gets under his skin.
“I think he’ll basically do anything to get the spotlight,” Leary explained. “Trump will take advantage of whatever the situation, the cause, or the event might be. Where was he before this? I’ve been downtown forever and been to a lot of 9/11 Memorial events—the 5th anniversary, the 10th anniversary, others—and I don’t remember seeing Donald Trump there once.”
Trump raised eyebrows earlier in the campaign when he stated that he witnessed "thousands" of Muslims celebrating on the day of the tragedy despite there being no evidence in the media of any such thing happening.
For Leary, this is integral to Trump's campaign.
“It’s all built on fear, noise, bigotry, and finger-pointing,” he said of Trump. “The guy loves to tweet."
Leary added that, like most of the country, he's not enamored with the choices coming in in November's election, saying, "But I look at all the candidates on both sides, and I’m thinking, ‘These are the people we have to choose from? What the f*ck is going on?’”
With California en route to becoming the world's fifth-biggest economy -- "Thanks, England!" he quipped -- Bill Maher closed Real Time on Friday by gloating over the economic failures gripping other states thanks to their own governors.
"After Arnold [Schwarzenegger] left office, we eliminated what scientists would call variables -- in this case, the Republicans," he explained. "Democrats from governor on down control every office and voting body in this state. So we can really study what happens when liberal policies are tried unimpeded. And the only thing I have to say to Republicans about that is: scoreboard, b*tches."
While the GOP argued that "cap-and-trade" policies would lead to a surge in utility prices, Maher argued, the fact was that California boasted some of the country's most affordable electric bills.
"I oughta know, because I use a lot of juice in my basement to grow my ... orchids," he joked.
By comparison, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's (R) tax cut-driven policies favoring the rich pulled that state into a recession.
"When he took office, [Brownback] said, 'We've got a different way and it works.' -- and by 'works,' he meant it works the night shift at Del Taco," Maher said, adding, "The band Kansas has more money."
Watch Maher's commentary, as posted online on Friday, below.
Real Time host Bill Maher had fun at Gary Johnson's expense on Friday when the Libertarian presidential nominee tried to present his party's views as hewing closer to the mainstream than Donald Trump's.
"When he started talking about going after 11 million undocumented workers, that's just crazy," Johnson said.
"Not just Libertarians feel that way," Maher replied. "All sane people feel that way."
"I think so," Johnson said in agreement. "I think most sane people are Libertarian -- it's just that they don't know it."
"Unfortunately, a lot of people who are not sane are Libertarian," Maher shot back. "I saw your convention. The vision of government is somewhere between colonial Williamsburg and Atlantis. Their economic theory is like Mad Max takes your gas and you die."
Johnson recalled getting booed at his party's national convention when he spoke out in favor of drivers' licenses, but added, "I don't think crazy is unique to the Libertarian Party."
Watch the interview, as posted online, below.
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