Former Vice President Joe Biden, the current frontrunner in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, formally kicked off his campaign Saturday with a rally in Philadelphia in which he presented himself as the Democratic candidate most able to work with congressional Republicans.
The main slogan of the rally was “unity,” and campaign staff distributed hundreds of placards embossed with the word “United” with instructions to text the word to a specified phone number to enlist in the campaign.
The rally, generously estimated at 6,000, was smaller than those staged by some of Biden’s major rivals for the nomination, including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and California Senator Kamala Harris. It was dominated by supporters of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Democratic Party machines and the trade union apparatus.
Much of Biden’s address was Democratic Party boilerplate. He denounced Trump as the “divider-in-chief” and criticized the president’s attacks on immigrants and Muslims, but failed to offer any policy for the struggle against racism and bigotry, or the defense of the democratic rights of immigrants.
On virtually every question, Biden proclaimed that the first step was to “beat Trump.” This was his program for immigration, the environment, the defense of democratic rights and the expansion of access to health care. This mantra spared him from the necessity of actually elaborating alternative policies on any of these issues.
There was an obvious contradiction at the core of Biden’s address. While he predicated all social progress on the defeat of the Republican president, he presented his own major credential as the ability to work with virtually any Republican not named Trump, no matter how reactionary.
Joe Biden is the photo negative of Elizabeth Warren. They're both extremes.
Can we get someone who isn't willing to do the bidding of the Republican Party? Joe's too desperate to get along with the Republicans. By contrast, Elizabeth is always looking for a war with Republicans -- including Republican voters.
Can we just get rid of those two extemes? I think our politics would be much, much better if we could.
Please be sure to check out Kat's "Kat's Korner: Dionne's back and she's better than ever" which is a review of Dionne Warwick's new album She's Back. My husband ordered it from Amazon but, despite being Amazon Prime members, we apparently have to wait eight more days before it will arrive.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Monday:
Monday, May 20, 2019. 24 candidates are running for the Democratic
Party's presidential campaign and this go round we note Tulsi Gabbard,
Seth Moulton, Amy Klobuchar, Joe Biden, Kirsten Gillibrand, Pete
Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, is GOOGLE censoring PBS' THE NEWSHOUR, a
rocket attack on the Green Zone leads to speculation and panic, and much
more.
In the US, the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination is taking place. US House Rep Tulsi Gabbard is one of 24 candidates running for the nomination. On Sunday, she appeared on ABC's THIS WEEK:
Also appearing on the program was US House Rep and Iraq War veteran Seth Moulton who is also seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
Former US senator and former US Vice President Joe Biden is also seeking the nomination for president. George raised him
Before we move further, I'm not a George Stephanopolous groupie. I do know George -- going back to the 90s and the Clinton White House. Some people are upset that in his interview with Tulsi he asked about a report by THE DAILY BEAST. I agree the report is nonsense and b.s. (And the attacks on Stephen Cohen are ridiculous, I also know Stephen so smear with that as well. For those who don't know Stephen, he's an American citizen whose training and education has made him a Russian expert. He's also the husband of THE NATION's Katrina vanden Heuvel. Stephen doesn't deserve to be smeared by the hyper jingoists at THE DAILY BEAST.) I'm not going to fault George for raising that report. If there's something out there being said, raise the issue and give the person a chance to respond. That is the point of an interview or a debate or whatever. FAIR, among others, led an attack on George in 2008 -- that I did not participate in -- because he 'dared' to raise the issue of Bill Ayers in a debate. (I know everybody, don't I? Yes, I do know Bill. I've never liked Bill, he' simple-minded fool. His wife Bernardine, whom I also know, has always been the deep thinker in that pair and Bill's just been arm candy.) If George offers a characterization, then or now, that is incorrect, by all means rebute that, rebuke him for it. But I believe, on the left, we all got on board with Terry Gross and her all-I-did-was-ask attitude when Bill O'Reilly stormed out of an interview because she dared to ask a question.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is also pursuing the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. She appeared Sunday on CBS' FACE THE NATION.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. She's running for the Democratic presidential nomination, and she joins us this morning from New York. Senator, ten states have tightened restrictions on abortion in the past year, and others may follow. I know you flew to Georgia this week to protest it. This is one of the most emotionally charged, divisive issues in politics, and it's a fight the president wants to have because it resonates with his supporters. So why are you embracing it?
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: This is nothing short of an all-out assault on women's reproductive freedom, an effort to take away our basic human rights and civil rights, and make no mistake, the 30 states that are trying to unwind abortion rights are trying to get rid of Roe v. Wade. It- it- it's nothing more complex than that. And they do not believe that women should have the right to make the most intimate, personal life and death decisions. And I think it's untenable, and I hope America's women are paying attention because President Trump has started a war on America's women. And if it's a fight he wants to have, it's a fight he's going to have, and he's going to lose.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But you have said that if you're elected president you would codify Roe v. Wade. To do that, you would need a Congress that agrees to follow your lead on that. Are you assuming a- a Democratic Congress to follow you in 2020?
SEN. GILLIBRAND: I do. We already took back the House in 2018. Women across this country have- have been marching since President Trump became president, and then took their views and voices to the ballot box, electing 120 women to Congress who support women's reproductive freedom and reproductive rights. I think that trend is going to continue. We saw a surge in women's votes. I think that will continue in '20. And hopefully we can actually flip the Senate as well and take back the presidency.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Now the- the chairman of the Democratic National Committee Tom Perez has said every Democrat should support abortion rights. And that was met with some outcry because it was seen as- as a litmus test. Now for your party to win you need to be able to attract more people to it. Can you say that there is room in the Democratic Party for people who have a moral objection to abortion? Is- Is there room on your ticket for supporters like that?
SEN. GILLIBRAND: So for voters across America and for individuals, of course you can have your personal views on any issue. There's nothing wrong with having a religious perspective on this issue. But what I do not accept is any Democratic leader or candidate to not believe in full civil rights and human rights for women. We cannot have Democrats who are running for office who do not believe in basic health care and civil rights for women. It- it's just untenable, and it's unacceptable, and I will not support a candidate, and I do not believe any candidate running for president should be undermining women's reproductive freedom and our basic human rights.
As noted, Joe Biden is seeking the nomination as well. Saturday, he declared at a rally, "If American people want a president to add to our division, lead with a clenched fist, a closed hand, a hard heart, to demonize your opponents, to spew hatred, they don't need me. They've got President Donald Trump." This was apparently news, it was featured on, among others, NBC's MEET THE PRESS.
As we noted last Wednesday:
Who's in the lead right now?
Former Vice President Joe Biden.
Now he has huge name recognition -- more than any of the other 23 candidates. That is true. So he's going to be in the lead for that reason alone. And that lead traditionally lasts through August or September and then it gets chipped away bit by bit. (As Hillary discovered in 2008.)
But Joe has something else besides name recognition. He's got his public stances. Democrats are aware that he gave Bully Boy Bush an award not that long ago, they're aware that he's always brown nosing Republicans, they're aware that he reaches so far across the aisle that he almost falls over.
And yet he's in the lead currently -- among Democrats.
What might that say?
It might say that after the huge divisions of the last years, Democrats are looking for the nation to come together. The negative spin on Joe is that he's a caver. The positive spin on that same trait is that he's mature and willing to get things done. Currently, how are Democrats seeing Joe's interactions with the GOP? Apparently, they see it as his maturity and part of his ability to get things done.
The 24 candidates seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination also includes Senator Bernie Sanders who appeared on NBC's MEET THE PRESS with Chuck Todd:
When we go over this sort of coverage, we usually consider including FOX NEWS. Why? FOX NEWS puts their Sunday special on broadcast TV. If it's an Iraq issue, we may wander over to CNN (we don't wander over to MSNBC because MSNBC is unaware of the Iraq War). But in terms of the race for president, we generally look at the coverage from ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX (which has carried FOX NEWS in the past -- that may change now that ABC owns FOX and now that FOX NEWS is no longer partners with FOX). We're about to include it for two more reasons. Unlike the idiot Princess Bubble (Elizabeth Warren), I don't believe the country needs more walls and more divisions. Second, six women are seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination -- Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, Marianne Williamson, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar -- and one of the six spoke with Chris Wallace on Sunday.
WALLACE:But first, we want to talk about all of that with a candidate who's already had her FOX town hall, Senator Amy Klobuchar, joining us from the campaign trail across the state in Nashua, New Hampshire, for a "FOX News Sunday" sit down.
Senator, welcome back.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, D-MINN., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: thanks, Chris, it's great to be on.
WALLACE: Eight states now, eight states, have passed tight new restrictions on abortion, that pro-life groups have been pushing and as they say, dramatically restrict rights of abortion. Alabama would ban abortions at any point except on matters of the extreme health of the woman.
My question is, if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, when you become president, what would you do?
KLOBUCHAR: If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, I would make sure that we are codifying Roe v. Wade into law.
But I think it's really important for the Fox News viewers to understand exactly what's happening here. These aren't nuances anymore. This is a case where the laws that they have passed in these states would actually make it so that no one could get an abortion, and at the same time, while we would reduce the number of abortions because of making contraception more available all over the country through Planned Parenthood and other ways, they've also moved to defund Planned Parenthood.
So, this is dangerous. It is a place that we have never seen. I think people have always warned that this could happen and it's actually happened. And when I talk to people, whether they are pro-choice or they are personally opposed to abortion, a lot of them, Chris, don't think we should go this direction. Seventy-three percent of Americans don't want to overturn Roe v. Wade.
You have a situation here where they would actually put doctors in prison 99 years, that's what the Alabama law says. This is a law that they passed that would mean that if someone was raped, if a college student was raped, she wouldn't have a choice in the pregnancy from a rape.
I don't think the majority of Americans are where the Republicans are on this issue right now.
WALLACE: But, Senator, pro-life advocates are pushing back. There's a group called Restoration PAC, and they are no running an ad on Facebook that we are showing right now showing what it calls the "Party of Death". Six Democratic senators running for president, including you, who have opposed restrictions in the later stages of pregnancy.
You talk about the extreme, as you call it on one side -- let me make the case, and you can answer it on the other side, because folks say that one of the concerns is that a number of Democratic senators are not willing to see restrictions on late-term abortions, abortions after 24 weeks as we enter the third trimester. Now, that's only 1 percent of all abortions in the country, but even 1 percent is 6,000 abortions after 24 weeks when a fetus might well be viable.
Are you OK with that?
KLOBUCHAR: I'm OK with the law, Chris, and what the law says is that in that third trimester, it is allowed to protect the health and the life of the mother.
But that's not what the president said, Chris. The president misled the American public. What he said at a rally was basically a doctor would be holding a baby and kill that baby.
That's illegal under the law. That is already a crime. I know this. I'm a former prosecutor.
WALLACE: Forgive me, Senator --
KLOBUCHAR: No, I think --
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: Are you OK -- let me ask you, I understand that the argument against infanticide, and that's an overstatement. What I'm asking you is, are you OK with abortions after 24 weeks?
KLOBUCHAR: To protect the life and the health of the mother. That is exactly what the Supreme Court ruling says, and I am OK with that. But I just think it's really important, Chris, for your Fox viewers to know, because there's so much misinformation out there that what these laws do is extreme.
There are a number of Republicans who said they are opposed to them. They are extreme. Then you have the president misleading the public and telling them that this is about basically killing a baby after a baby is born. That is not what this is about, that is a crime.
So, I think what people have to understand here is that we are at a point where a number -- it is not just Alabama. This has happened in Ohio. This has happened in Missouri. This happened in Georgia.
WALLACE: Right.
KLOBUCHAR: There's a law that's being passed in Michigan that the Democratic governor is going to veto. This is happening across the country and people need to know what's really going on here. This is a violation of civil rights.
[. . .]
WALLACE: As you know, New Hampshire, where we both are, although in different parts of the state, is among the five states with the highest rate of opioid-related deaths in the country, twice the national average. You have released a hundred-billion-dollar, 10-year plan to deal with mental health and substance abuse. You know, they all sound roughly the same. Prevention, treatment, recovery.
So I guess I want to ask you, just focus on one thing, one thing that you think that makes her plan dramatically different from all the other Democratic plans to deal with this problem.
KLOBUCHAR: This is an issue that no presidential candidate has taken on really in history, and I would emphasize here the mental health aspect of it. One in five Americans have problems with mental health. For me, the mental health addiction issue comes from my heart. My dad struggled with alcoholism his whole life, had two DWIs and then a third right before I got married.
And at that point in the '90s, he was facing either jail or treatment. He chose treatment and in his words, he was pursued by grace.
And I think every American has that right to be pursued by grace, and what I've done here is layout a thorough plan so we have beds for people who have extreme problems with mental illness, so that we have counselors for people to talk to. We've had a 30 percent increase in suicides, including farmers, including veterans, including students in this country in 15 years.
And, Chris, the other thing that's unique about my plan is I show how I'm going to pay for it. I figure if you're running for president, you better be addressing real problems with real solutions and show how you're going to pay for it. I would pay for it by taking on the pharma companies that got a bunch of people addicted to begin with, and you can do it simply with a fee -- a per milligram fee on the opioids that are being sold and then there's going to be a major master settlement with those companies that profited off of people's addictions, that got people hooked, and that's where you get the hundred billion dollars.
[. . .]
WALLACE: Senator, I want to talk a little 2020 politics in the time we have left and I want to put up the Real Clear Politics average of the latest polls. In Iowa, you're in eighth place with 3 percent support, and here in New Hampshire, you're also in eighth place with 1-1/2 percent support.I understand that it's very early. We are still months away from people voting their in New Hampshire. I guess the question I have is, why do you think you have not gained as much traction so far in the campaign as other candidates, for instance, Mayor Pete, who's going to be here for the town hall this evening?
KLOBUCHAR: Oh, Chris, I think being in the top ten in a 25-person race when you're from the middle of a country in a state that's not so big, at some of my colleagues, I think that's pretty good, and I wouldn't count me out.
Everything I've done in my life, whether it's taking on 48-hour hospital stay for new moms and babies when people didn't think I could get that done, I got it done. Or when I was the first woman to run for D.A. in my state, of the biggest county, I got it done in the next time around, no one even ran against me. Then I go run for U.S. Senate, running against the congressman and win big time.
I am someone that takes on challenges and finds a way to get there. No one thought I could raise money when I was running for Senate. I finally just called everyone I know in my life and I raised an all-time Senate record --
WALLACE: Right.
KLOBUCHAR: -- $17,000 from ex-boyfriends. And as my husband has pointed out, it's not an expanding base.
I will find a way to win. No one thought a peanut farmer from Georgia was going to win. Jimmy Carter's pointed out to me that he had less support at this point than I do. No one thought a guy --
WALLACE: Senator --
KLOBUCHAR: -- named Barack Obama could become president.
This is -- you know politics, Chris.
WALLACE: Senator Klobuchar --
KLOBUCHAR: It is a long road.
Amy Klobuchar's saying 25 candidates so I may have missed someone, I thought it was 24. Okay, Mayor Bill de Blasio became the 24th last week. Amy may be counting one of the six that are not considered 'major' candidates or she may be mistaken about the number or she may know someone who's about to declare but hasn't yet. However, at present there are 24 including her. Good for Amy for going on FOX NEWS, as Whoopi Goldberg has observed, if you want to be president, you need to be willing to speak anywhere and to put your campaign before all the voters.
And Mayor Pete Buttigieg went on FOX NEWS yesterday with his town hall as he seeks the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
If FOX NEWS publishes a transcript, we'll quote from it but I really don't have time to stream that town hall. The only one I've watched so far was Bernie Sanders and Ava and I caught that because we were on a campus speaking about the wars and the students asked us to watch the townhall with them later that day so we did.
One thing I do see -- from spot streaming the video above -- is that Pete is calling for an end to the electoral college. If we had direct election of the US president by the people, Al Gore would have been president following the 2000 election (also true, he would have been president if all the votes had been counted) and Hillary Clinton would have been the president following the 2016 election. We have a system that allows the electoral college to determine the president. I believe the electoral college should be abolished. Unless and until it is, the people's choice really doesn't matter because the electoral college has the last say.
Pete took his campaign to FOX NEWS and you should be willing to take your campaign everywhere. But what happens when you take it somewhere and people don't know about it? Friday, Tulsi Gabbard appeared on THE NEWSHOUR (PBS). Today, the interview can be found in a GOOGLE NEWS search. That was not the case as late as Saturday night. Was there some sort of glitch or was GOOGLE NEWS censoring? If they were censoring, were they trying to maintain that PBS' THE NEWSHOUR is 'fake news' or was it an effort to suppress news of Tulsi's campaign?
The media -- including aggregators like GOOGLE NEWS? Out of control.
Take Carlo Munoz (WASHINGTON TIMES) and his alarmist 'report' yesterday that the US Embassy in Baghdad was targeted by a rocket attack. As we noted last night:
If it was an attack on the US Embassy it would be the first rocket attack on a US installation in Iraq since last September's attack on the US Consulate in Basra. AP is less alarmist than THE WASHINGTON TIME and notes that the US State Dept says the rocket landed "near" the Embassy. Rocket attacks on the Green Zone have taken place repeatedly during the ongoing Iraq War. Whether this was an attack on the US Embassy or some other target in the Green Zone or just on the Green Zone in general, no direct line can conclude that this was an attack carried about Iran or by proxies of Iran in Iraq.
REUTERS does not make the leap Carlo did. They notes the Green Zone has rocket attacks with some regularity, "The latest such incident was in September, when three mortar shells landed inside the Green Zone, causing no casualties." At a time when some in the US government are working overtime to start a war with Iran, Carlo needs to explain if his take is an attempt to start that war of if he just acts on paranoia and jumps to conclusions?
Here's the video report ALJAZEERA filed.
“I am against fuelling a war between Iran and the US. I am against including Iraq in this war and making it a platform for the conflict between Iran and America,” Iraqi populist cleric Moqtada Al Sadr said on Twitter.
Mr Al Sadr urged Iraqi leaders to take a serious stand to keep the country out of war.
“This war will be the end of Iraq; instead, we need peace and reconstruction,” he said.
Amer al-Hassani(AA) quotes Moqtada declaring, "Any party that would drag Iraq into the war and turn it into a scene for conflict will be an enemy to the Iraqi people. I'm against dragging Iraq into this war and making it a scene for the Iranian-U.S. conflict."
Also speaking on the issue is Barham Salih, the president of Iraq. He told CBS NEWS' Roxana Saberi, "Iraq has been living through hell for the last four decades. And certainly, Iraqis do not want to see this country yet again turn into a zone of proxy conflict."
I hope you registered, at the start of the video, when Gayle King noted that Roxana Saberi was the only US network correspondent in Iraq.
Kat's "Kat's Korner: Dionne's back and she's better than ever" went up Sunday.
In the US, the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination is taking place. US House Rep Tulsi Gabbard is one of 24 candidates running for the nomination. On Sunday, she appeared on ABC's THIS WEEK:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Up next, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, she
joins us from Washington D.C. this morning. Congresswoman thank you for
joining us right now.
REP. TULSI GABBARD (D), HAWAII AND 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Aloha, George, good morning.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And I want to begin, you know, you -- you’ve taken on
the idea – you said you’re running for president to end regime change
wars. I wonder what you thought about that line from Governor
Hickenlooper’s speech, that he said some Democrats are recoiling from
past American foreign policy mistakes by looking to withdraw from our
global leadership role.
Does that apply to you?
GABBARD: No, it doesn’t. You know, my focus has been coming from my
experience, you know, I enlisted in the Army National Guard after the
terrorist attack on 9/11, served as a soldier for over 16 years and
deployed twice in the Middle East, in Congress have served for over six
years on both the Foreign Affairs and the Armed Services Committee and
bring that experience to the forefront whereas president I will end
these counter productive and wasteful regime change wars, work to end
this new Cold War and nuclear arms race, recognizing how wasteful and
costly these are.
And take the trillions of dollars that we’ve been spending, would
continue to spend and invest those resources on serving the needs of the
American people, things like healthcare, education, rebuilding our
crumbling infrastructure, protecting our environment. There are many
urgent needs here that we need to address and we’ve got to get our
priorities straight.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You resigned your DNC post back in 2016 because you
thought Hillary Clinton had a hawkish interventionist foreign policy.
Does that apply to her colleague in the Obama administration, former
Vice President Biden?
GABBARD: We’ll see what Vice President Biden’s foreign policy vision is
for this country. We may agree on some issues, disagree on others. The
problem that I have seen is that across both Democrat and Republican
administrations, and especially in this Trump administration where,
right now, he is leading us down this dangerous path towards a war with
Iran …
STEPHANOPOULOS: He says he doesn’t want it.
GABBARD: He says he doesn’t want it but the actions of him and his
administration, people like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, tell us a very
different story. They are setting the stage for a war with Iran that
would prove to be far more costly, far more devastating and dangerous
than anything that we saw in the Iraq war, a war that I served in a
medical unit where every single day I saw firsthand the high human cost
of war.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, one of the actions they took this week was
evacuating, as you know, our diplomatic posts in Iraq because they were
concerned, based on the intelligence, that Iran may be looking to strike
U.S. interests. You don’t buy it?
GABBARD: I don’t. You know, we heard conflicting stories coming from the
British commander who is the co-commander of the fight against ISIS and
Al-Qaeda there in Iraq and Syria saying, hey, he hadn’t seen an
escalation of tensions or threats coming from these Iraqi – or these
Shia militias serving in Iraq. I think what we’re seeing, unfortunately,
is what looks a lot like people in the Trump administration trying to
create a pretext or an excuse for us to go to war against Iran, a war
that would actually undermine our national security, cost us countless
American lives, cost civilian lives across the region, exacerbate the
refugee crisis in Europe, and it would actually make us less safe by
strengthening terrorist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
Also appearing on the program was US House Rep and Iraq War veteran Seth Moulton who is also seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Washington Post reported this week that you -- in a
classified briefing you accused the Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney
of exaggerating the intelligence about the threat from Iran. Does that
apply to the administration as well?
MOULTON: Well, it does. And I’m not going to discuss the contents of the
classified briefing, but suffice it to say, Liz Cheney seems to think
that this is a slam dunk. And I disagree. I spoke with General Mattis
recently, former secretary of defense, who when the Baghdad Embassy was
attacked in -- in September decided the right course of action was not
to send a new carrier group to the Gulf, not to send 120,000 troops like
the administration is contemplating, because we need to avoid and --
and -- an incident like the Gulf of Tonkin incident that set off the
Vietnam war that would drag us into war.
But make no mistake, this is exactly what John Bolton wants to have
happen. He pushed America into Iraq under a weak commander in chief in
George W. Bush and he's pushing America into Iran today. And we have the
same situation with a commander in chief who dodged his own
generation's war, you know, got a -- got a medical -- got his -- his
father to use his connections to lie about his feet, lie about his bone
spurs and get out of serving his own generation's war. So he doesn't
have the credibility to keep us out of this one. And that's why this
situation is so dangerous.
Former US senator and former US Vice President Joe Biden is also seeking the nomination for president. George raised him
Before we move further, I'm not a George Stephanopolous groupie. I do know George -- going back to the 90s and the Clinton White House. Some people are upset that in his interview with Tulsi he asked about a report by THE DAILY BEAST. I agree the report is nonsense and b.s. (And the attacks on Stephen Cohen are ridiculous, I also know Stephen so smear with that as well. For those who don't know Stephen, he's an American citizen whose training and education has made him a Russian expert. He's also the husband of THE NATION's Katrina vanden Heuvel. Stephen doesn't deserve to be smeared by the hyper jingoists at THE DAILY BEAST.) I'm not going to fault George for raising that report. If there's something out there being said, raise the issue and give the person a chance to respond. That is the point of an interview or a debate or whatever. FAIR, among others, led an attack on George in 2008 -- that I did not participate in -- because he 'dared' to raise the issue of Bill Ayers in a debate. (I know everybody, don't I? Yes, I do know Bill. I've never liked Bill, he' simple-minded fool. His wife Bernardine, whom I also know, has always been the deep thinker in that pair and Bill's just been arm candy.) If George offers a characterization, then or now, that is incorrect, by all means rebute that, rebuke him for it. But I believe, on the left, we all got on board with Terry Gross and her all-I-did-was-ask attitude when Bill O'Reilly stormed out of an interview because she dared to ask a question.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is also pursuing the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. She appeared Sunday on CBS' FACE THE NATION.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. She's running for the Democratic presidential nomination, and she joins us this morning from New York. Senator, ten states have tightened restrictions on abortion in the past year, and others may follow. I know you flew to Georgia this week to protest it. This is one of the most emotionally charged, divisive issues in politics, and it's a fight the president wants to have because it resonates with his supporters. So why are you embracing it?
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: This is nothing short of an all-out assault on women's reproductive freedom, an effort to take away our basic human rights and civil rights, and make no mistake, the 30 states that are trying to unwind abortion rights are trying to get rid of Roe v. Wade. It- it- it's nothing more complex than that. And they do not believe that women should have the right to make the most intimate, personal life and death decisions. And I think it's untenable, and I hope America's women are paying attention because President Trump has started a war on America's women. And if it's a fight he wants to have, it's a fight he's going to have, and he's going to lose.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But you have said that if you're elected president you would codify Roe v. Wade. To do that, you would need a Congress that agrees to follow your lead on that. Are you assuming a- a Democratic Congress to follow you in 2020?
SEN. GILLIBRAND: I do. We already took back the House in 2018. Women across this country have- have been marching since President Trump became president, and then took their views and voices to the ballot box, electing 120 women to Congress who support women's reproductive freedom and reproductive rights. I think that trend is going to continue. We saw a surge in women's votes. I think that will continue in '20. And hopefully we can actually flip the Senate as well and take back the presidency.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Now the- the chairman of the Democratic National Committee Tom Perez has said every Democrat should support abortion rights. And that was met with some outcry because it was seen as- as a litmus test. Now for your party to win you need to be able to attract more people to it. Can you say that there is room in the Democratic Party for people who have a moral objection to abortion? Is- Is there room on your ticket for supporters like that?
SEN. GILLIBRAND: So for voters across America and for individuals, of course you can have your personal views on any issue. There's nothing wrong with having a religious perspective on this issue. But what I do not accept is any Democratic leader or candidate to not believe in full civil rights and human rights for women. We cannot have Democrats who are running for office who do not believe in basic health care and civil rights for women. It- it's just untenable, and it's unacceptable, and I will not support a candidate, and I do not believe any candidate running for president should be undermining women's reproductive freedom and our basic human rights.
As noted, Joe Biden is seeking the nomination as well. Saturday, he declared at a rally, "If American people want a president to add to our division, lead with a clenched fist, a closed hand, a hard heart, to demonize your opponents, to spew hatred, they don't need me. They've got President Donald Trump." This was apparently news, it was featured on, among others, NBC's MEET THE PRESS.
As we noted last Wednesday:
Who's in the lead right now?
Former Vice President Joe Biden.
Now he has huge name recognition -- more than any of the other 23 candidates. That is true. So he's going to be in the lead for that reason alone. And that lead traditionally lasts through August or September and then it gets chipped away bit by bit. (As Hillary discovered in 2008.)
But Joe has something else besides name recognition. He's got his public stances. Democrats are aware that he gave Bully Boy Bush an award not that long ago, they're aware that he's always brown nosing Republicans, they're aware that he reaches so far across the aisle that he almost falls over.
And yet he's in the lead currently -- among Democrats.
What might that say?
It might say that after the huge divisions of the last years, Democrats are looking for the nation to come together. The negative spin on Joe is that he's a caver. The positive spin on that same trait is that he's mature and willing to get things done. Currently, how are Democrats seeing Joe's interactions with the GOP? Apparently, they see it as his maturity and part of his ability to get things done.
The 24 candidates seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination also includes Senator Bernie Sanders who appeared on NBC's MEET THE PRESS with Chuck Todd:
CHUCK TODD:
And joining me now for the first
time in a year on Meet the Press is Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Senator Sanders, it's good to have you back, sir.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS:
Good to be with you, Chuck.
CHUCK TODD:
Well,
let me start with something the vice president, former vice president,
said yesterday. And it was a fascinating way -- he was talking about his
climate change proposal. And he said, 'If you want to know what the
first and most-important plank in my climate proposal is it was," quote,
"beat Trump." You have said, if all the Democrats do is focus on Trump,
you lose. Essentially, Biden is saying, no, no, no, no, no. It is all
about Trump. Your reaction.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS:
Well,
I think Democrats have got to do a couple of things. Number one, it
goes without saying that we have got to beat, defeat Donald Trump, who,
in my view, is the most-dangerous president in the modern history of
this country. He's a pathological liar. He's a sexist and a racist, et
cetera, et cetera. But that is not enough. If we're talking, for
example, about climate change, what the scientists tell us is that we
have 12 years before irreparable damage is done to this planet. Beating
Trump is not good enough. You've got to beat the fossil fuel industry.
You have to take on all of those forces of the status quo, who do not
want to move this country to energy efficiency and sustainable energies.
Chuck, what the scientists tell us is that the future of the planet is
at stake. And we have a moral responsibility to make sure that our kids
live, and our grandchildren live, in a healthy and habitable planet.
That means massive investments in wind, solar, and so forth and so on.
So taking on Trump, of course you've got to do that. But you need a real
plan to transform our energy system.
CHUCK TODD:
Well,
I think another way of looking at it is you have to win, right? And you
have to -- I think one of the cases you need to make to the Democrats
is when -- you know, the former head of the Democratic Party in
Pennsylvania, and I gather that Joe Biden has a lot of support in
Pennsylvania. But here's what he said about you. He said this. "I'm
supremely confident Bernie Sanders could not win Pennsylvania. When
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren open their mouths, many, many
Democrats in Pennsylvania stick their fingers in their ears." Tell us
how you win Pennsylvania.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS:
Look,
you know, let me just say this to Ed, who I've known for many years,
and to the entire Democratic establishment. Let me tell this to Ed, that
there are millions of people who are sick and tired of that Democratic
establishment. What Ed should know is that a recent poll that came out
had me, if I'm not mistaken, eight point ahead of Trump in Pennsylvania.
We've had polls which have me way ahead of him in Michigan and
Wisconsin and, in fact, all over this country. Now, the reason that we
can beat, that my campaign can beat Donald Trump is we're going to
create the kind of excitement that we need to bring out the large voter
turnout. We're going to bring out young people, who not only are
interested and are going to fight for real climate change, they want to
raise that minimum wage to $15 an hour, a fight that I have been helping
to lead. They want healthcare for all through a Medicare-for-all,
single-payer program. They understand that it is absurd that young
people should be leaving college 50,000, 60,000, 100,000 dollars in
debt. They want public colleges and universities tuition free. They want
criminal justice reform. They want immigration reform. And the truth is
that our campaign, I think, can generate that excitement. Our
generation can talk to some, some of the Trump supporters, who now know
that they were lied to, when Trump said he was going to provide
healthcare to everybody and then tried to throw 32 million people off
their healthcare. I think we are the campaign that can beat Donald
Trump.
CHUCK TODD:
Senator, I would argue,
you made a very similar case against Hillary Clinton four years ago.
And you came up short. Why do you think, this time --
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS:
Hey, Chuck, Chuck, you know I --
CHUCK TODD:
-- especially when it seems like you have an exhaustive -- I'm just saying, you have, you have a part of the Democratic Party --
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS:
Chuck, let me just say --
CHUCK TODD:
-- that seems to be gravitating toward Biden. Go ahead.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS:
You
know, we came up short. Yeah, we took on the entire Democratic
establishment. We took on the Democratic National Committee. We took on
every Democratic governor. We took on every Democratic mayor. And we
ended up winning 22 states and 13 million votes and, in fact, bringing
forth an agenda that transformed the Democratic Party. Four years ago,
people were not talking about the issues they're talking about now. So I
understand that our campaign is unique in the sense that we're going to
try to win the Democratic primary. We're going to try to beat the --
Trump. But you know what else we're going to try to do? We're going to
try to transform the United States of America, deal with this massive
level of income and wealth inequality, deal with Wall Street, deal with
the greed of the drug companies and the insurance companies and the
fossil fuel industry. So our campaign has a different goal. It's to
transform this country. And we're taking on the entire establishment,
when we do that, including Ed Rendell.
When we go over this sort of coverage, we usually consider including FOX NEWS. Why? FOX NEWS puts their Sunday special on broadcast TV. If it's an Iraq issue, we may wander over to CNN (we don't wander over to MSNBC because MSNBC is unaware of the Iraq War). But in terms of the race for president, we generally look at the coverage from ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX (which has carried FOX NEWS in the past -- that may change now that ABC owns FOX and now that FOX NEWS is no longer partners with FOX). We're about to include it for two more reasons. Unlike the idiot Princess Bubble (Elizabeth Warren), I don't believe the country needs more walls and more divisions. Second, six women are seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination -- Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, Marianne Williamson, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar -- and one of the six spoke with Chris Wallace on Sunday.
WALLACE:But first, we want to talk about all of that with a candidate who's already had her FOX town hall, Senator Amy Klobuchar, joining us from the campaign trail across the state in Nashua, New Hampshire, for a "FOX News Sunday" sit down.
Senator, welcome back.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, D-MINN., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: thanks, Chris, it's great to be on.
WALLACE: Eight states now, eight states, have passed tight new restrictions on abortion, that pro-life groups have been pushing and as they say, dramatically restrict rights of abortion. Alabama would ban abortions at any point except on matters of the extreme health of the woman.
My question is, if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, when you become president, what would you do?
KLOBUCHAR: If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, I would make sure that we are codifying Roe v. Wade into law.
But I think it's really important for the Fox News viewers to understand exactly what's happening here. These aren't nuances anymore. This is a case where the laws that they have passed in these states would actually make it so that no one could get an abortion, and at the same time, while we would reduce the number of abortions because of making contraception more available all over the country through Planned Parenthood and other ways, they've also moved to defund Planned Parenthood.
So, this is dangerous. It is a place that we have never seen. I think people have always warned that this could happen and it's actually happened. And when I talk to people, whether they are pro-choice or they are personally opposed to abortion, a lot of them, Chris, don't think we should go this direction. Seventy-three percent of Americans don't want to overturn Roe v. Wade.
You have a situation here where they would actually put doctors in prison 99 years, that's what the Alabama law says. This is a law that they passed that would mean that if someone was raped, if a college student was raped, she wouldn't have a choice in the pregnancy from a rape.
I don't think the majority of Americans are where the Republicans are on this issue right now.
WALLACE: But, Senator, pro-life advocates are pushing back. There's a group called Restoration PAC, and they are no running an ad on Facebook that we are showing right now showing what it calls the "Party of Death". Six Democratic senators running for president, including you, who have opposed restrictions in the later stages of pregnancy.
You talk about the extreme, as you call it on one side -- let me make the case, and you can answer it on the other side, because folks say that one of the concerns is that a number of Democratic senators are not willing to see restrictions on late-term abortions, abortions after 24 weeks as we enter the third trimester. Now, that's only 1 percent of all abortions in the country, but even 1 percent is 6,000 abortions after 24 weeks when a fetus might well be viable.
Are you OK with that?
KLOBUCHAR: I'm OK with the law, Chris, and what the law says is that in that third trimester, it is allowed to protect the health and the life of the mother.
But that's not what the president said, Chris. The president misled the American public. What he said at a rally was basically a doctor would be holding a baby and kill that baby.
That's illegal under the law. That is already a crime. I know this. I'm a former prosecutor.
WALLACE: Forgive me, Senator --
KLOBUCHAR: No, I think --
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: Are you OK -- let me ask you, I understand that the argument against infanticide, and that's an overstatement. What I'm asking you is, are you OK with abortions after 24 weeks?
KLOBUCHAR: To protect the life and the health of the mother. That is exactly what the Supreme Court ruling says, and I am OK with that. But I just think it's really important, Chris, for your Fox viewers to know, because there's so much misinformation out there that what these laws do is extreme.
There are a number of Republicans who said they are opposed to them. They are extreme. Then you have the president misleading the public and telling them that this is about basically killing a baby after a baby is born. That is not what this is about, that is a crime.
So, I think what people have to understand here is that we are at a point where a number -- it is not just Alabama. This has happened in Ohio. This has happened in Missouri. This happened in Georgia.
WALLACE: Right.
KLOBUCHAR: There's a law that's being passed in Michigan that the Democratic governor is going to veto. This is happening across the country and people need to know what's really going on here. This is a violation of civil rights.
[. . .]
WALLACE: As you know, New Hampshire, where we both are, although in different parts of the state, is among the five states with the highest rate of opioid-related deaths in the country, twice the national average. You have released a hundred-billion-dollar, 10-year plan to deal with mental health and substance abuse. You know, they all sound roughly the same. Prevention, treatment, recovery.
So I guess I want to ask you, just focus on one thing, one thing that you think that makes her plan dramatically different from all the other Democratic plans to deal with this problem.
KLOBUCHAR: This is an issue that no presidential candidate has taken on really in history, and I would emphasize here the mental health aspect of it. One in five Americans have problems with mental health. For me, the mental health addiction issue comes from my heart. My dad struggled with alcoholism his whole life, had two DWIs and then a third right before I got married.
And at that point in the '90s, he was facing either jail or treatment. He chose treatment and in his words, he was pursued by grace.
And I think every American has that right to be pursued by grace, and what I've done here is layout a thorough plan so we have beds for people who have extreme problems with mental illness, so that we have counselors for people to talk to. We've had a 30 percent increase in suicides, including farmers, including veterans, including students in this country in 15 years.
And, Chris, the other thing that's unique about my plan is I show how I'm going to pay for it. I figure if you're running for president, you better be addressing real problems with real solutions and show how you're going to pay for it. I would pay for it by taking on the pharma companies that got a bunch of people addicted to begin with, and you can do it simply with a fee -- a per milligram fee on the opioids that are being sold and then there's going to be a major master settlement with those companies that profited off of people's addictions, that got people hooked, and that's where you get the hundred billion dollars.
[. . .]
WALLACE: Senator, I want to talk a little 2020 politics in the time we have left and I want to put up the Real Clear Politics average of the latest polls. In Iowa, you're in eighth place with 3 percent support, and here in New Hampshire, you're also in eighth place with 1-1/2 percent support.I understand that it's very early. We are still months away from people voting their in New Hampshire. I guess the question I have is, why do you think you have not gained as much traction so far in the campaign as other candidates, for instance, Mayor Pete, who's going to be here for the town hall this evening?
KLOBUCHAR: Oh, Chris, I think being in the top ten in a 25-person race when you're from the middle of a country in a state that's not so big, at some of my colleagues, I think that's pretty good, and I wouldn't count me out.
Everything I've done in my life, whether it's taking on 48-hour hospital stay for new moms and babies when people didn't think I could get that done, I got it done. Or when I was the first woman to run for D.A. in my state, of the biggest county, I got it done in the next time around, no one even ran against me. Then I go run for U.S. Senate, running against the congressman and win big time.
I am someone that takes on challenges and finds a way to get there. No one thought I could raise money when I was running for Senate. I finally just called everyone I know in my life and I raised an all-time Senate record --
WALLACE: Right.
KLOBUCHAR: -- $17,000 from ex-boyfriends. And as my husband has pointed out, it's not an expanding base.
I will find a way to win. No one thought a peanut farmer from Georgia was going to win. Jimmy Carter's pointed out to me that he had less support at this point than I do. No one thought a guy --
WALLACE: Senator --
KLOBUCHAR: -- named Barack Obama could become president.
This is -- you know politics, Chris.
WALLACE: Senator Klobuchar --
KLOBUCHAR: It is a long road.
Amy Klobuchar's saying 25 candidates so I may have missed someone, I thought it was 24. Okay, Mayor Bill de Blasio became the 24th last week. Amy may be counting one of the six that are not considered 'major' candidates or she may be mistaken about the number or she may know someone who's about to declare but hasn't yet. However, at present there are 24 including her. Good for Amy for going on FOX NEWS, as Whoopi Goldberg has observed, if you want to be president, you need to be willing to speak anywhere and to put your campaign before all the voters.
And Mayor Pete Buttigieg went on FOX NEWS yesterday with his town hall as he seeks the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
If FOX NEWS publishes a transcript, we'll quote from it but I really don't have time to stream that town hall. The only one I've watched so far was Bernie Sanders and Ava and I caught that because we were on a campus speaking about the wars and the students asked us to watch the townhall with them later that day so we did.
One thing I do see -- from spot streaming the video above -- is that Pete is calling for an end to the electoral college. If we had direct election of the US president by the people, Al Gore would have been president following the 2000 election (also true, he would have been president if all the votes had been counted) and Hillary Clinton would have been the president following the 2016 election. We have a system that allows the electoral college to determine the president. I believe the electoral college should be abolished. Unless and until it is, the people's choice really doesn't matter because the electoral college has the last say.
Pete took his campaign to FOX NEWS and you should be willing to take your campaign everywhere. But what happens when you take it somewhere and people don't know about it? Friday, Tulsi Gabbard appeared on THE NEWSHOUR (PBS). Today, the interview can be found in a GOOGLE NEWS search. That was not the case as late as Saturday night. Was there some sort of glitch or was GOOGLE NEWS censoring? If they were censoring, were they trying to maintain that PBS' THE NEWSHOUR is 'fake news' or was it an effort to suppress news of Tulsi's campaign?
The media -- including aggregators like GOOGLE NEWS? Out of control.
Take Carlo Munoz (WASHINGTON TIMES) and his alarmist 'report' yesterday that the US Embassy in Baghdad was targeted by a rocket attack. As we noted last night:
If it was an attack on the US Embassy it would be the first rocket attack on a US installation in Iraq since last September's attack on the US Consulate in Basra. AP is less alarmist than THE WASHINGTON TIME and notes that the US State Dept says the rocket landed "near" the Embassy. Rocket attacks on the Green Zone have taken place repeatedly during the ongoing Iraq War. Whether this was an attack on the US Embassy or some other target in the Green Zone or just on the Green Zone in general, no direct line can conclude that this was an attack carried about Iran or by proxies of Iran in Iraq.
REUTERS does not make the leap Carlo did. They notes the Green Zone has rocket attacks with some regularity, "The latest such incident was in September, when three mortar shells landed inside the Green Zone, causing no casualties." At a time when some in the US government are working overtime to start a war with Iran, Carlo needs to explain if his take is an attempt to start that war of if he just acts on paranoia and jumps to conclusions?
Here's the video report ALJAZEERA filed.
“I am against fuelling a war between Iran and the US. I am against including Iraq in this war and making it a platform for the conflict between Iran and America,” Iraqi populist cleric Moqtada Al Sadr said on Twitter.
Mr Al Sadr urged Iraqi leaders to take a serious stand to keep the country out of war.
“This war will be the end of Iraq; instead, we need peace and reconstruction,” he said.
Amer al-Hassani(AA) quotes Moqtada declaring, "Any party that would drag Iraq into the war and turn it into a scene for conflict will be an enemy to the Iraqi people. I'm against dragging Iraq into this war and making it a scene for the Iranian-U.S. conflict."
Also speaking on the issue is Barham Salih, the president of Iraq. He told CBS NEWS' Roxana Saberi, "Iraq has been living through hell for the last four decades. And certainly, Iraqis do not want to see this country yet again turn into a zone of proxy conflict."
I hope you registered, at the start of the video, when Gayle King noted that Roxana Saberi was the only US network correspondent in Iraq.
Kat's "Kat's Korner: Dionne's back and she's better than ever" went up Sunday.
