Beltway Insider: Trump/Mueller Report, Pence Tours Nat’l Disasters, Immigration, Assange, POW Day, SL Crisis, 2020

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Category: Beltway Insider

Published on Sunday, 14 April 2019 17:13

Written by Janet Walker

President Trump returned to Washington, after touring his Border Wall, launching an explosive campaign against democrats who backed the collusion investigation, calling it both an attempted coup and an attempted take-down of the President.

According to Gallup, President Trump’s job approval, which was tracked for the month of February ending on March 10, 2019 decreased four percentage points to 39% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as President increased by three percentage points to 57%. Ratings are calculated monthly.

Trump Blasé on Mueller Report . . . He Says

President Trump briefly answered questions before his departure on Marine One. As most in Washington are waiting for un-redacted version of the Mueller Report, which Acting Attorney General William Barr has indicated he will provide as much of the report that the law allows.

Barr indicated he worked with members of Robert Mueller’s team to complete the rédactions as quickly as possible. As the finalized version, which will be released within hours, stated the president did not collude with the Russians, and was not as replete with criminal connections as many believed and expected.

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The President, who has appeared blasé on the report answered CBS White House Reporter Major Garrett before the departure on Marine One on the White House lawn.

“Well, the Mueller Report is interesting.  After $35 million and 18 angry Democrats, they found no collusion whatsoever.  I could have told you that and so could most people.  After wasting all this money and all this time they found no collusion. It was an illegal investigation and an attempted coup.  This was an attempted takedown of a President.  And we beat them.  So, the Mueller Report, when they talk about obstruction, we fight back.  What they did was against our Constitution and everything we stand for. There’s never been anything like it in the history of our country,” Trump said.

Department of Homeland Security

President Trump was also asked about the sudden vacancy in the Department of Homeland Security and the possibly of Stephen Miller being promoted to fill the spot.

As most know the president has special interest in Homeland Security as the Southern Border is such a hotly contested issue as of late, and certainly not one that no other president has seen. The most recent flare up, the Border Babies, which plagued the Obama Administration during the former President’s first term, didn’t derail him like many believed such a sensitive issue would.

Trump said, which many understand, as his belief in himself as the single most knowledgeable person to be handling the border, immigration and the crisis, said, “No, Stephen is an excellent guy.  He’s a wonderful person.  He’s a brilliant man.  And, frankly, there’s only one person that’s running it.  You know who that is?  It’s me.”

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It’s doubtful Trump will push for another quick fill of the DHS, with Miller an ally, and able to handle any flare up’s outside the border and willing to partner with Trump on all aspects of the current physical barrier along the southern border, it seems unlikely, that he would bring another potential conflict into the DHS until the Border Wall reaches some yet unknown milestone.

Immigration

Vice President Mike Pence had double duty this week visiting both the Southern Border and touring the remnants of catastrophic natural disasters, as historic floodwaters have destroyed most of Iowa’s rich farmland, made two separate appeals to Congress to push politics aside and remember the voters who elected them.

Pence, who largely a solid company man, he speaks when asked, carries the opinions of his employer and partners with him publicly even if they clash privately, spoke this week during a briefing with US Border Patrol in Nogales, AZ.

During the Vice President’s introduction Chief Villareal explained no longer is this just a border enforcement crisis, it is a humanitarian crisis. Attempting to cross the desert with heat at 120 degrees will cause death. No one wants to hear the continued horror stories of hardened criminals, prisons opened in central America and governments unloading the vilest and criminal at the border of the US, and yet these heinous criminals are intermingling themselves with family units, who also fear for their lives.

“I was told, this last Tuesday, 4,300 people were apprehended attempting to come into this country illegally.  It is the highest single day total ever recorded by Customs and Border Patrol.  Four thousand three hundred people a day.  And I know you have physical barrier in this area — in Nogales, I know — and the Tucson Sector used to be the epicenter, a decade ago, of illegal immigration.  And because of your work here and because of the presence of physical barriers, that’s diminished greatly.”

He continued, “In Central America, that human traffickers will take cash to bring them up here and tell them, “If you make it, the Americans have a system where you can vanish.” We have a broken system, a porous border. You saw the President’s determination to secure funding for a wall. And I know there’ll be 80 miles between Tucson and the Yuma Sector where we’ll be building physical barriers in the next year.  We call on Congress today to do your job just as the courageous men and women of our Customs and Border Patrol are doing their job every day.”  

Pence Tours Iowa

Pence, when visiting Iowa, took a step toward the campaign trial telling those present, “I would say to each of you, you know, Iowa is an important place, and every time there’s a presidential election coming up.  So, if you see Senator Elizabeth Warren, if you see Senator Amy Klobuchar, if you see Senator Cory Booker and others come to Iowa asking for your vote, ask them why they voted against disaster assistance for Iowa.  Okay?  Because there will be plenty of time for politics when 2020 comes around.  Right now, Iowa needs disaster assistance, and it’s time for Congress to act.

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With more than $1billion dollars in damage, Iowa alone, Nebraska, and the Midwest which has also seen record floodwaters, and catastrophic damage totally destroying at least the 2019 growing season, are awaiting precious FEMA assistance while democrats are playing politics.

Adios Ameigo - Ecuador Withdraws Political Asylum for Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange

Julian Assange, the Wikileaks Founder, who for the last seven years has been granted political asylum by the Ecuadorian government has apparently worn out his welcome and was physically removed from Ecuador’s embassy in the UK.

Assange, who refused to leave peacefully and instead had to be restrained and removed at the request of his former host, was immediately arrested.

The Assange saga that began nearly a decade ago, when he was questioned on two separation sexual crimes allegations, one rape and the other molestation. An arrest warrant was issued.

Throughout this time, Assange had built the website Wikileaks which received stolen government documents, from many and most famously from Chelsea Manning, a former United State Army solider and whistle-blower convicted of violations of the Espionage Act, who stole military secrets and sent them Assange.

He is expected to be tried in any number of nations for crimes against the state, possibly in the UK for Violations of the Secrets Act, and in the US if he is extradited should face similar charges.

President Declares POW Day

President Trump declared April 8, 2019 and forward, National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day. He added in his opening remarks that many who fight for liberty are “captured and imprisoned by foreign powers while serving their country.

He used the example of Louis Zamperini, a story many may know of both extraordinary survival against all odds, and extraordinary faith, a miraculous deliverance of addiction that dominated him after his return home.

Zamperini has credited his deliverance to the changing power of Jesus Christ who he heard the message of forgiveness at a Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles in 1949. The deliverance was miraculous and immediate and as the story is told, permanent.

President Trump, bypassing the countless of POW’s held in Vietnam, and in absence fueling the posthumous fight with former Arizona Senator John McCain, whom he has told crowds of cheering people was no hero because he was a POW.

“As a Nation, we must never forget or take for granted the traumatic ordeals of our former POWs.  With honor and valor, they served to keep our country safe, and they stayed the course — despite conditions that were often harsh and agonizing. Today, and every day, we renew our strong and abiding commitment to America’s former POWs and honor the tremendous debt of gratitude we owe to them for their courageous service and incredible sacrifices.  We also remember all those POWs who died while in captivity, selflessly giving their very lives for the sacred cause of liberty, “ Trump said.

The Proclamation reads - NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 9, 2019, as National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day.  I call upon Americans to observe this day by honoring the service and sacrifice of all our former prisoners of war and to express our Nation’s eternal gratitude for their sacrifice.  I also call upon Federal, State, and local government officials and organizations to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

Student Loan Crisis

The Student Loan Crisis, which will undoubtedly become on the foremost 2020 campaign issues, as the debt burden affects other sectors of the economy, and the nation’s educated, those who are underemployed or unemployed, are collectively carrying more than $1trillion dollars of debt.

Even as job growth as seen for the last nine years has seen unprecedented and continued gains, wages for the educated underemployed, who are now ten years older, moving them closer to age groups that will have difficulty securing an interview let alone a job, have not risen.

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The current administration has tossed around ideas for tackling the crisis and as expected they are so out of touch with reality that even the administrations strongest supporters are having a difficult time supporting the ideas.

With all the talk of limiting educational assistance, which is already written into the system, the crisis isn’t at the beginning of borrowing, the crisis is at the end, after the education is completed. In addition to the Universities who in good faith accepted money failed the student by not provide a transition from student life to employment life. Not all Universities receive failing marks, many are proactive and ensure each of their students who graduate have jobs.

The hard truth is when national economic crises strikes, and jobs are lost. When terminations and layoffs occur, Student Loans are usually the first to be placed on hold. The loans accrue interest. As most understand this cycle essentially, we are at the end of this scenario which included global recession, double digits unemployment, underemployed educated workers, student loans deferred and on forbearance for decades or more, which all adds up to former students facing more than $130K in debt on a original principal of $50K or less.

The president needs to enact an amnesty program which allows student borrows to repay the original principal or as much of it as possible over an 18month period with no accruing interest or erase the debt and restructure the entire program.

Election 2020 – Openly Gay Mayor Pete Buttigieg Announces his Candidacy, Trails Biden and Sanders who retain the Top Two Spots

In a recent first ballot test of the 2020 presidential primary, from the Hew Hampshire Institute of Politics, former Vice President Joe Biden, the undeclared 2020 presidential candidate, scored a solid 23% and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders landed second at 16%.

Newcomer to the race, openly gay and married, South Bend Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is expected to announce his 2020 Presidential candidacy, April 14, is also hitting double digits with a strong 11% showing, just 5 percentage points behind Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

The poll of 698 randomly-selected registered New Hampshire voters was conducted by landline and cellular phone between April 3 and April 8, 2019. The 326 Democratic respondents were asked who they would vote for if the presidential primary election were held today, as well as their impressions of 14 announced and potential candidates. 

The top six candidates in the crowded field of known and unknown candidates puts Joe Biden, who has not yet entered the race, leading the ballot test with 23%. Bernie Sanders comes in second at 16%, followed by Pete Buttigieg at 11%, Elizabeth Warren at 9%, Kamala Harris at 7%, and Beto O'Rourke at 6%. 

Bernie Sanders continues his 2020 Presidential primary campaign with a return to South Carolina. He will have two open air rallies,

Thursday, April 18, 2019, 5:30 p.m. Upstate Town Hall Meeting in Spartanburg with South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus Mount. Moriah Baptist Church, 445 S. Church St. Spartanburg, SC 29306. This event is free and open to the public.

Friday, April 19, 2019, 5 p.m. Rally in Greenville with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders The Peace Center Amphitheater, 101 W Broad Street Greenville, SC 29601. This event is free and open to the public.  

Census 2020 California Count

2020 also marks the year of the census, the numerical count of the population that occurs every ten years in America. The census provides information that effects every area of life in the United States, it determines the redistricting of neighborhoods, it adds or subtracts representation in Washington, and determines funding.

Over the next year additional messaging from #Census2020 will be seen throughout the United States as the agency gears up for its largest count in history of Census taking.

California is gearing up to ensure every person is counted. Messaging will begin to appear encouraging all to participate. It’s fast, easy and important. The exactness of the Census ensures increased representation in Washington, federal funding, more monies for schools and local communities.

For more information on President Donald Trump: www.whitehouse.gov

Sources: Whitehouse.gov, Wikipedia.com