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2016 Democratic Primary Tag

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 19, 2015 21 Comments
Forget the primary debates, Snoop Dogg has already decided for whom he'll cast his ballot next November -- Hillary Clinton. During an interview with Bravo this past Sunday, a caller dropped a political question into the mix. Noting that Snoop was a Ron Paul supporter in 2012, this particular caller was curious to learn Snoops views on the coming 2016 election. "I like to be politically correct, but sometimes I'm politically incorrect," a shaded Snoop responded. "I would love to see a woman in office because I feel like we're at that stage in life to where we need a perspective other than the male's train of thought, and just to have a woman speaking from a global perspective as far representing America -- I would love to see that. So I'll be voting for Mrs. Clinton." There's a sexist case to be made here -- choosing a political candidate based on sex rather than merit is certainly not congruent with progressive thinking.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 16, 2015 24 Comments
The Clinton Foundation is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad couple of months.  There were the pay to play accusations from Haiti, the numerous other pay to play "coincidences," the rather cozy relationship with "journalist" donor (and former employee) George Stephanopoulos, reports of $30 million from books and speeches in 16 months, and even the email controversy is being linked to the Foundation as part of "one big, hairy deal." It doesn't end there.  Jonathan Allen at Vox reports that in a Friday afternoon Clinton financial disclosure "news dump" is evidence that Hillary "personally took money from companies that sought to influence her":
During Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State, Corning lobbied the department on a variety of trade issues, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The company has donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to her family's foundation. And, last July, when it was clear that Clinton would again seek the presidency in 2016, Corning coughed up a $225,500 honorarium for Clinton to speak.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 13, 2015 7 Comments
New polling released by Gallup shows a steady upward tick in Hillary's unfavorability rating. While Hillary's approval ratings have hovered around 50%, her unfavorability rating has steadily increased since March. Now up a full 7 points since her presidential candidacy announcement, is Mrs. Clinton's campaign facing imminent danger? Hillary Clinton Favorability Ratings Trends 2016 President

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 13, 2015 17 Comments
I love the Equal Pay debate. It's one of the simplest tests of political acumen. Caleb Bonham decided to chat it up with a few Hillary supporters who love Mrs. Clinton because she's, "doing a great job fighting for what should have happened a long time ago." "What should've happened a long time ago," being Equal Pay. There's just one problem with this whole Hillary the Salary Saint schtick -- while serving as one of New York's Senators, Mrs. Clinton paid year-round female employees 72 cents for every buck she paid their male counterparts. Oops? hillary clinton these are difficult hard choices Those numbers come report from the Washington Free Beacon, who analyzed the wages of then Senator Clinton's staff.
During those years, the median annual salary for a woman working in Clinton’s office was $15,708.38 less than the median salary for a man, according to the analysis of data compiled from official Senate expenditure reports.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 07, 2015 10 Comments
Campaign work is filthy business sometimes. Manipulating the media cycle is a full time job---especially if your boss is a corrupt career politician who may or may not have made deals with foreign governments in exchange for speaking fees. Hillary Clinton's staff did a bang up job pivoting away from that whole "corrupt career politician" thing this week by flogging Clinton's newfound enthusiasm for immigration policies that are even more radical than the ones President Obama has backed. Meet the Press host Chuck Todd pointed out today how Clinton's team used controversy to distract the public from controversy---and succeeded. Watch here:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 06, 2015 16 Comments
Forget about brunch, flowers, and sweetly worded, glitter-laden greeting cards this Mother's Day. One unfortunate soul lucky mother will get a very special surprise this Mother's Day -- a phone call from Hillary Clinton on your behalf! Though it's not clear whether that call will come from a Blackberry or an iPhone, or how many devices she has to choose from... Taking a break from her grueling yoga-filled schedule, Hillary will set aside a few minutes to chat it up with your Mom.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 04, 2015 15 Comments
Hillary Clinton has finally agreed to testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi. Today, Hillary's attorney David Kendall informed Chairman Gowdy that Mrs. Clinton will testify before Congress, but only once. In a letter released to the public on March 31, the committee officially requested Mrs. Clinton's presence for questioning. Committee Chairman Gowdy requested two interviews, a "private transcribed interview related to her email arrangement as well as her public appearance before the Committee." In his response, Mrs. Clinton's attorney David Kendall wrote there was, "no basis, logic, or precedent for such an usual request," saying Mrs. Clinton would be, "prepared to stay for the duration of the Committee's questions on the day she appears." Hillary is not willing to further disclose correspondence, nor is she willing to allow a neutral third-party to inspect her email server(s). She and her counsel maintain the State Department's records should satisfy any queries the Select Committee might have. And so the record retention ball gets lobbed back into the Department of State's court. Also relevant here is the OIG report released shortly after the revelation that Hillary had her own special private email server. As we discussed back in March:
The report also concluded that State Department employees were intentionally avoiding creating official email records, “because they do not want to make the email available in searches or fear that this availability would inhibit debate about pending decisions.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 01, 2015 5 Comments
Friday afternoon, the former Speaker of the House and Debate Moderator Smack-downer Supreme, Newt Gingrich, joined 'Clinton Cash' author Peter Schweizer for a Facebook open forum.

I am answering questions now with Peter Schweizer. It is a great privilege to have Peter preview his book, Clinton Cash,...

Posted by Newt Gingrich on Friday, May 1, 2015
Both Gingrich and Schweizer took questions from respondents in real time. Questions ranged from the Constitutionality of accepting foreign donations to smarmy troll attempts to slander Gingrich (which he answered).

Turns out, compiling 'Clinton Cash' was an awful lot of work

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 01, 2015 9 Comments
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has announced his bid for the Democratic nomination in 2016 and the left couldn't be happier about it. After all, who needs a socialist in disguise like Elizabeth Warren when you can have a candidate who openly identifies as one? Sanders has come out swinging at Hillary Clinton and some far left publications are making legitimate points about his candidacy. Patrick Caldwell of Mother Jones:
Bernie Sanders Has Already Taken More Press Questions Than Hillary Clinton Unlike Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders didn't use a splashy, big-budget video to announce his campaign. Instead, the Vermont senator opted for a series of one-on-one television interviews Wednesday followed by a low-key launch event outside the US Capitol Thursday morning. "I believe that in a democracy, what elections are about are serious debates over serious issues," he said Thursday. "Not political gossip, not making campaigns into soap operas. This is not the Red Sox vs. the Yankees, this is the debate over major issues facing the American people."
Watch Sanders talk about his challenge to Hillary Clinton in the clip below: Progressives are fired up.

Posted by Jay Caruso on April 30, 2015 6 Comments
Peter Schweizer's "Clinton Cash" has the Democratic Party---and Hillary Clinton's campaign team---really nervous. The book has shone a spotlight on Hillary's time as Secretary of State, and on the connection between deals presented to the state department by foreign interests (government and business) and donations made to the Clinton Foundation. Schweizer has said several times his role as an author was to establish a pattern of behavior by Bill and Hillary Clinton as it related to donations made to the Clinton Foundation, and paid speaking gigs for Bill that often topped $500,000 apiece. Critics however, have lashed out at Schweizer and his book, claiming it is nothing but a political hack job due to the lack of a "smoking gun." There is no evidence of any quid pro quo, so therefore, the book is just partisan mudslinging. Schweizer is quick to point out that he is an author, not a prosecutor, and his job was merely to report on what he believed was a pattern of behavior. He said it is up to those with subpoena power to look into the issue further and determine if there was any criminal behavior. That being said, the "smoking gun" argument doesn't really pass the sniff test, because there are plenty of politicians who have been indicted and/or convicted of crimes without the presence of a "smoking gun." Here are just a few:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 29, 2015 12 Comments
The Los Angeles Daily News reports that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will officially toss his hat into the presidential ring Thursday. The self-described 'democratic socialist' is currently 73-years-old, making Sanders just a few years older than Hillary Clinton who is now 67. Former Rhode Island Governor, Lincoln Chafee, who seems to have dropped off the map after kind of sort of announcing candidacy, is 62-years-old. Though he's registered as an independent, all accounts suggest Sanders will run on the Democratic ticket. According to Vermont's NPR News Source, the first to report Sanders' forthcoming candidacy:
VPR News has learned from several sources that Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders will announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday. Sanders will release a short statement on that day and then hold a major campaign kickoff in Vermont in several weeks. Sanders' entry into the Democratic race ensures that Hillary Clinton will face a challenge to win the support of the liberal wing of the party. Sanders' basic message will be that the middle class in America has been decimated in the past two decades while wealthy people and corporations have flourished.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 25, 2015 27 Comments
David Frum's naive delight in what he seems certain is Elizabeth Warren's completely pure and altruistic populism leads him to insist that she'll run for president, despite her repeated statements that she will not.  He writes,
By now Warren knows (assuming she didn’t know before she arrived there) that the only thing the Senate can offer somebody like her is the velvety asphyxiation of every idealistic hope. If what you like best is the sound of your own voice and the deference of those around you, then a senatorship is a wonderful job. If you’re in politics to accomplish things, the institution must be almost unbearable. Can Warren bear it? The endless talk, talk, talk? The scoldings from White House aides whenever she says or does something they deem unhelpful? The merciless editing of her speech at the next Democratic National Convention —and the surgical exclusion from the innermost council of the party leadership? That’s the “unique role in the national conversation” in which a Hillary Clinton led Democratic party will cast Elizabeth Warren. Warren's got nothing to gain from staying put in the Senate except drudgery, ineffectuality, and humiliation.
She's simply too good for the Senate, and her beautiful soul can only be quashed and trampled in the Senate quagmire.  The only way to save herself--and America!--is to run against and beat Hillary for the Democrat nomination, and if she is as sincere as Frum believes her to be, she has no other choice but to run.  Frum explains:
If a politician expresses ideas that are shared by literally tens of millions of people—and that are being expressed by no other first-tier political figure—she owes it to her supporters to take their cause to the open hearing and fair trial of the nation. It would be negligent and irresponsible not to do so. Elizabeth Warren belongs to that unusual group who stick by their principles even when it might cost them something, including an election. But if you’re willing to lose for your principles, surely you should be willing to try to win for them?
However, what if Warren is not sincere but is, instead, inauthentic?

Posted by Amy Miller on April 24, 2015 24 Comments
When you've lost Chuck Todd, you've lost them all, Hil. Yesterday, Kemberlee Kaye covered the New York Times' nuclear bomb of a story about the Clinton Foundation's alleged status as a go between for a US-Russia uranium transfer. (Read the whole thing for background.) The piece went viral, candidates and pundits had a field day, and then...the unthinkable happened. NBC News' Chuck Todd officially gave the Clinton establishment the sideeye. Watch. Transcript via Real Clear Politics:
Look, for the life of me, and this is just political judgment, the Obama administration when they offered her the job looked at the [Clinton] Foundation and said, boy, there will be the appearance of influence. We better be careful here.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 23, 2015 22 Comments
They New York Times dropped a bomb. More like a daisy cutter, actually. The NYT's latest exposé into the sordid world of the Clinton family suggests a direct connection between the Clinton Foundation, Russian donations (that were not publicly disclosed), and the Russian acquisition of Uranium One. The events transpired while Mrs. Clinton was serving as Secretary of State. Point for Rand Paul who publicly predicted new, potentially disastrous revelations about the Clinton Foundation just weeks ago. The dots connected in the NYT story, links reportedly included in the upcoming book, "Clinton Cash", might be the most serious allegations in the litany of Clinton-family misdeeds thus far.
Beyond mines in Kazakhstan that are among the most lucrative in the world, the sale gave the Russians control of one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the United States. Since uranium is considered a strategic asset, with implications for national security, the deal had to be approved by a committee composed of representatives from a number of United States government agencies. Among the agencies that eventually signed off was the State Department, then headed by Mr. Clinton’s wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.
Coincidence, right?
And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock. ... Whether the donations played any role in the approval of the uranium deal is unknown. But the episode underscores the special ethical challenges presented by the Clinton Foundation, headed by a former president who relied heavily on foreign cash to accumulate $250 million in assets even as his wife helped steer American foreign policy as secretary of state, presiding over decisions with the potential to benefit the foundation’s donors.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 22, 2015 7 Comments
According to The Hill, one of Hillary Clinton's longstanding supporters has defected to Governor Martin O'Malley. The Miami Herald explains, "as Miami mayor, Manny Diaz backed Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. But now he's hosting a breakfast for former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a potential Clinton rival in 2016." To say that Diaz is excited about a potential O'Malley run is probably an understatement. Diaz told the Miami Herald, "He's not running yet, but I'll tell you, if he does run, I will endorse him. He's an old friend, and I'm very loyal to old friends."
Diaz praised O'Malley's work as Baltimore mayor and noted he visited him when he first got elected in Miami. Diaz ended up using Baltimore's 311 call system as a model for his own city. "He's very data-driven, results-oriented, 'let's see how we're doing, let's measure ourselves,'" Diaz said. Plus, he has a soft spot in his heart for executives: In 2008, as head of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Diaz said he met separately with Clinton and Barack Obama and urged them to run as "mayor of the United States." "When you look at what mayors do, and in this case what governor's do -- and he's been both, so he's actually run something," Diaz said. "He's run two governments."

Posted by Jay Caruso on April 22, 2015 13 Comments
When the Vice-President of a two term President seeks to reach the highest office in the land, they usually have a built-in advantage over all other contenders:
It's pretty much a truism in American political history: If the president is not running again and the vice president wants his party's nomination, it's his for the asking. That was the case in 1960, with President Eisenhower term-limited and Vice President Richard Nixon's path to the GOP nomination unimpeded. It was also true in 1968, when President Johnson decided not to run again and his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, won the Democratic nomination despite not having entered a single primary. The quests of Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy ended in assassination in Los Angeles and violence in Chicago, but considering the way things were back in '68, Humphrey may have had the nomination locked up from the beginning.

Posted by Amy Miller on April 21, 2015 10 Comments
Earlier today, I wrote about the importance of pointing out every time an official spokesperson gets testy with their press pool over fair-yet-tough questions. Marie Harf got herself in hot water yesterday when she hinted to the corps that the questions they were asking were far too complex to cover in a press briefing, then got caught lying about how much information she had about the Iranian nuclear deal. It was ugly, and told us a lot more about the State Department than Harf's policy bullet points. Today, Josh Earnest ran into a similar roadblock during the midday press briefing with the White House press corps. Earnest has a history of trying to run offense around tough questions, but it's only recently that the corps has responded with soundbite-worthy pushback. Today's little show involved a question about a comment Hillary Clinton made about small business growth under the Obama administration. She said that small business creation has "stalled out" in the United States, and ABC News correspondent Jon Karl wanted a response from the White House. Watch here, via Real Clear Politics:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 21, 2015 28 Comments
Perhaps Mrs. Clinton should read the newspapers like the current White House occupant, then she might find her self a bit more informed about the goings on in the country she hopes to rule run. Speaking in Keene, New Hampshire yesterday, Hillary said: "From my perspective, I want to be sure that we get small businesses starting and growing in America again. We have stalled out. I was very surprised to see that when I began to dig into it. Because people were telling me this as I travelled around the country the last two years, but I didn't know what they were saying and it turns out, we're not producing as many small businesses as we used to, and a recent world study said that we are forty-sixth in the world in the difficulty to start a small business. And we'll get into some of those."
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