Quantcast
Channel: BuzzFeed News
Viewing all 15742 articles
Browse latest View live

Sanders Brings In Former Manager To Run New Group, Staffers Quit

0
0

Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

Just three weeks after its launch, Bernie Sanders' new political organization has seen a change in top leadership followed by resignations from as many as eight staff members, two people close to the group said late Monday evening.

In the last week, the U.S. senator from Vermont brought on his former 2016 campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, to run "Our Revolution," a 501c4 nonprofit that began soliciting its first donations at the start of this month.

Weaver's entry came in the wake of a report by ABC News about the group's structure and whether it might violate campaign finance rules, one source said.

A 501c4 may accept unlimited cash without having to disclose donors, but as a senator, Sanders may not ask contributors for more than a certain amount — $2,700 to a campaign committee and $5,000 to a super PAC. Sanders, who is involved in the group's management, signed Our Revolution's first fundraising email.

As a many as eight staffers from a variety of departments have since quit over the appointment of Weaver, their former colleague on this year's campaign.

Under Weaver's management, Sanders won 22 states and raised hundreds of millions against Hillary Clinton. He has long been and remains the senator's close confidant, but could be seen as a polarizing figure among some staffers.

Those departing include Kenneth Pennington, the digital director during the campaign who served in the same role at Our Revolution, as well as Claire Sandberg, the digital organizing director for the campaign and group.

Other departures include the organization's two senior political staffers, two other organizing staffers, one other digital staffer, and one data staffer, according to one of the people close to the group.

The shakeup comes just days before Our Revolution's first event, a live-streamed "Organizing Kickoff" on Wednesday with watch parties planned across the country where Sanders will, his website says, "lay out the path forward for our movement."

Shannon Jackson, the aide who traveled alongside Sanders throughout the 2016 campaign, will remain the group's executive director.

Other staffers also plan to stay on at the organization.

Sanders announced the group about a month ago in an interview with USA Today, promising that it would help boost a range of at least 100 progressive candidates running for office this year, from school board to congressional campaigns.

The group has yet to make clear what its exact focus will be or in what way it will approach fundraising and advertising.

In the same interview, Sanders also signaled that he would launch two additional groups — a second focusing on campaign advertising and a third structured as an "education" group called the Sanders Institute. The senator and his aides have not spoken further about plans for efforts outside the existing 501c4 organization.

The future of Sanders' "political revolution" has been a subject of discussion and debate for months inside and around his campaign, going back well before the June 7 primaries effectively ended his race to become the Democratic nominee.

In May, worried that they'd seen "no evidence" of aides putting thought into plans beyond the primary, some Sanders allies helped put together a proposal urging the candidate to drop out and found a new entity. In June, a memo from the campaign titled "End Game" advocated for Sanders to keep an aggressive travel schedule throughout the fall in battleground states to campaign for Senate candidates.

For now, Our Revolution maintains a bare-bones website without much more than a fundraising solicitation. The page says that the group will "fight to transform America and advance the progressive agenda."


Report Aims To Explain "Outlier" Counties Imposing Most New Death Sentences

0
0

A map used by Justice Stephen Breyer in 2015 to illustrate that the death penalty is imposed rarely even within states that have the death penalty as a possible punishment.

The imposition of the death penalty — from prosecution to sentencing — has become a rarity mostly confined to a very small number of counties in America.

This point about counties was highlighted by Justice Stephen Breyer — with maps — in a 2015 dissenting opinion he wrote in a death penalty challenge relating to execution drugs.

"Geography also plays an important role in determining who is sentenced to death. And that is not simply because some States permit the death penalty while others do not. Rather within a death penalty State, the imposition of the death penalty heavily de­pends on the county in which a defendant is tried," he wrote at the time.

Now, a project out of Harvard Law School is attempting to explain why those counties exist — and how those counties exemplify larger problems that critics of the death penalty have described regarding the punishment.

The Fair Punishment Project has begun analyzing the 16 counties that imposed five or more death sentences between 2010 and 2015 and, on Tuesday, is releasing its first of two reports on its research. "Too Broken to Fix: Part I," about half of those counties, details the common problems it has found throughout the eight counties. Those problems — as detailed and defined by the Fair Punishment Project include: overzealous prosecution, inadequate defense, racial bias and exclusion, excessive punishments, and innocence.

Notably, this county-level diminishment of the death penalty across much of the nation has happened on the front end of the death penalty process while the end of the process — the pace of executions in America — has slowed nearly to a standstill: Only one execution has taken place in the entire country since May 11.

At the other extreme, one county in Arizona — Maricopa County — had 28 death sentences imposed between 2010 and 2015.

The county, according to the Fair Punishment Project's findings, stands out for its stark examples of the problems found across the counties that most often sentence people to death. The county, which includes Phoenix, is one of the largest in the nation and is perhaps best known for its chief law enforcement officer, Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio's harsh tactics against undocumented immigrants and other groups and support for racial profiling — policies often challenged successfully in court — have kept the county's law enforcement efforts in the national news in recent years.

However, Maricopa's former county attorney, Andrew Thomas, also provided his own share of news coverage during his tenure. Although he left office to run for Arizona attorney general, unsuccessfully, his actions as county attorney — relating to abuse of his power, particularly against political opponents — eventually led to him losing his law license in the state.

Against that backdrop, the Fair Punishment Project found that Maricopa County's death penalty process exhibited extreme examples of all five of the areas examined.

After Thomas was elected in 2004, for example, the report notes that he "began pursuing capital charges at nearly twice the rate of his predecessor" — a move that created a "backlog of capital cases" that "crippled the county's public defender system," according to a New York Times report from the time.

In the wake of that effort, according to Tuesday's report, courts found during the initial appeals that there had been misconduct in more than 20% of death sentence cases in the past decade.

The report also finds that those lawyers on the other side — the defense attorneys representing those now on death row at trial in Maricopa — often spent little time on preparing to present mitigating evidence, evidence that counsels against imposing the death penalty, during the sentencing phase of the trial.

In one case highlighted in the report, the defense lawyer, Herman Alcantar, "billed just 43 hours on mitigation-related activities, and his client ultimately waived the right to put on mitigation evidence at trial." Later attorneys, however, "discovered that [the defendant] was addicted to heroin at birth, endured head injuries from being thrown down flights of stairs and beaten with a broomstick, and had both neuropsychological impairments and symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome."

The report goes on to note that "[a] striking 70 percent" of the initial appeals heard over the past decade "involve defendants with the type of severe mitigation evidence that strongly suggests excessive punishment" — that being defendants either younger than 21 or those with intellectual impairment, brain damage, or a serious mental illness.

All of this was taking place, the report noted, in a county where the sheriff's office was determined by the Justice Department to aggressively engage in racial profiling. Between 2010 and 2015, "18 percent of the defendants from Maricopa were African-American" — three times the black population of Maricopa County.

Finally, the report notes, the county has had five people exonerated from death row in the modern death penalty era, which began when the U.S. Supreme Court ended a nationwide moratorium on executions in 1976.

Emily Bazelon, writing for the New York Times Magazine, first reported on the new project's work in a story published earlier Tuesday that will appear in the August 28 issue of the Magazine.

LINK: Read the full Fair Punishment Project report: "Too Broken to Fix: Part I"

Andrea Tantaros Names O'Reilly, Scott Brown In Sexual Harassment Suit Against Fox

0
0

Ilya S. Savenok / Getty Images

In an explosive lawsuit filed Monday against ousted Fox News CEO Roger Ailes and other top-level executives at the network, former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros through her attorney named several men who she alleges made unwanted advances toward her while she was at the channel — including host Bill O'Reilly and former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown.

Tantaros went public with sexual harassment allegations against Ailes in early August, claiming he made sexually charged comments on her appearance and asked her to "turn around" so he could get a look at her.

In the lawsuit, Tantaros's attorney Judd Burstein describes Fox News as a "a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency, and misogyny" and describes Ailes as a "sexual predator" who "did not act alone." Tantaros alleges Ailes retaliated against her for rebuffing his advances by removing her from The Five and ordering the Fox News media relations department to turn against her.

Fox News says the network does not comment on pending litigation. A source with knowledge of the legal proceedings told BuzzFeed News earlier in August that Tantaros was removed from Fox News air over a contract dispute involving her book.

The lawsuit names several men who Tantaros claims made unwanted sexual comments or advances toward her, including O'Reilly, Brown, Fox News correspondent John Roberts, on-air guest Ben Collins, and actor Dean Cain. None of these men, however, are named as defendants in the case.

Tantaros claims O'Reilly began sexually harassing her in February 2016, when he invited her out to Long Island where it would be "very private."

From the lawsuit: "O’Reilly ('O’Reilly'), whom Tantaros had considered to be a good friend and a person from whom she sought career guidance, started sexually harassing her by, inter alia, (a) asking her to come to stay with him on Long Island where it would be 'very private,' and (b) telling her on more than one occasion that he could 'see [her] as a wild girl,' and that he believed that she had a 'wild side.'"

Tantaros claims Fox News executive vice president Dianne Brandi informed her that she would no longer appear on the O'Reilly Factor after her complaints.

Former Sen. Scott Brown is also mentioned in the lawsuit; Tantaros claims he made sexually inappropriate comments on the set of Outnumbered and put his hands on her lower waist at lunch. Tantaros claims she reported his behavior to then–Fox News executive vice president Bill Shine, but nothing was done. Shine is now co-president of the network.

"Brown made a number of sexually inappropriate comments to Tantaros on set, including, and in a suggestive manner, that Tantaros 'would be fun to go to a nightclub with,'" the lawsuit reads.

"After the show was over, Brown snuck up behind Tantaros while she was purchasing lunch and put his hands on her lower waist. She immediately pulled back, telling Brown to 'stop.' Tantaros then immediately met with Shine to complain, asking him to ensure that Brown would never be booked on the show again. Shine said that he would talk to Scott. Thereafter, Shine and Scott ignored Tantaros’s complaint, and continued to book Brown on Outnumbered."

Brown denied the allegations in a lengthy statement to BuzzFeed News.

"There were never any circumstances of any kind whatsoever in which I had any interaction with her or any other employee at Fox, outside the studio," Brown said. "If there was ever a chance encounter at a restaurant, or public place, all interactions were professional and cordial. All interactions and contacts were in the studio in NYC and always in full view of all staff, personnel and talent."

"In the 3 years I have been working there, I treat all people there the same, whether they be male or female," Brown said, adding, "If I am asked to make a witness statement of some sort, I look forward to that opportunity."

Tantaros also details a spring 2015 meeting with Shine in which he told Tantaros that Ailes was a "very powerful man" and that Tantaros needed to "let this one go." Shine told BuzzFeed News through a spokesperson earlier this month that Tantaros never made any complaints to him about Ailes sexually harassing her.

Tantaros' allegations come amid a flood of detailed allegations from former employees against Ailes, who resigned last month in the wake of former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson's sexual harassment suit against him.

Read the full complaint below:


Texas Leads Four Other States, Nonprofits In Lawsuit Over Transgender Health Rule

0
0

Health and Human Services Department Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell speaks at a news conference on June 22, 2016 in Washington, DC.

Allison Shelley / Getty Images

Five states, led by Texas, and several nonprofit medical groups, all of which are religiously affiliated, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the Obama administration's efforts to ensure health care coverage to transgender people under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

"On pain of significant financial liability, the [Health and Human Services Department's] Regulation forces doctors to perform controversial and sometimes harmful medical procedures ostensibly designed to permanently change an individual’s sex—including the sex of children," the complaint in the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit also contains claims challenging abortion-relation coverage protections in the same regulation, specifically highlighting the lack of a religious exemption in the regulation or underlying ACA provision.

The lawsuit was filed in the same division of the Northern District of Texas — the Wichita Falls Division — as the state's prior multi-state lawsuit challenging the Obama administration's other pro-transgender policies was filed. The judge in that division, US District Court Judge Reed O'Connor, issued a preliminary injunction on Sunday preventing the administration from advancing its efforts to protect transgender people under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

The new lawsuit — also assigned to O'Connor — alleges that a regulation under the ACA similarly "redefines 'sex' to include 'an individual’s internal sense of gender, which may be male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female, and which may be different from an individual’s sex assigned at birth.'"

The HHS regulation, the lawsuit alleges, "not only forces healthcare professionals to violate their medical judgment, it also forces them to violate their deeply held religious beliefs."

Specifically, the ACA provision — Section 1557 — prohibits discrimination in federally-funded health benefits, including based on sex. Over the course of 2015 and this year, HHS proposed and finalized a regulation interpreting the definition of "sex" in that provisions to include "gender identity" — defined as "internal sense of gender, which may be male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female" — as well as "sex stereotyping" and "termination of pregnancy."

The lawsuit alleges that the rule affects the states' efforts to protect standard of care, authority over medical facilities, and efforts to comply with other federal laws that they allege conflict with the new rule. The rule affects the medical groups' "medical, ethical, and religious concerns" due to their "infusion of faith into healthcare." Specifically, the rules, the lawsuit alleges, will require the groups "to provide insurance coverage for services that violate [their] religious beliefs."

The lawsuit claims that the rule violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) because the new rule is "not in accordance with law"; is "in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority, or limitations"; and is "arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion" — specifically in violation of the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the First, Fifth, Tenth, and Fourteenth amendments and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Additionally, the lawsuit claims independent related constitutional violations.

The Texas Attorney General's Office has led a series of multi-state efforts challenging federal policies put forth by the Obama administration, including its successful effort to stop the administration's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) immigration executive action — a case that went all the way to the US Supreme Court earlier this year.

The religiously affiliated nonprofit groups, meanwhile, are represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The Becket Fund has been one of the key groups backing religious-based challenges to the Affordable Care Act, including, most notably, the Hobby Lobby challenge to the HHS contraception mandate rule issued under the ACA.

Read the complaint:

Trump Campaign Chief: Hillary’s “Casual Relationship" With Truth Is Like Bill's With Women

0
0

View Video ›

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway says Hillary Clinton has a casual relationship with the truth similar to her husband Bill Clinton's relationship with other women.

"Hillary Clinton is a bore who many voters think is not trustworthy and not honest. Her husband’s problem was that he had casual relationships with other women," Conway told British interviewer Matt Frei. "Hillary’s problem is she has a casual relationship with the truth”

The comments are in the ITN Productions documentary President Trump: Can he really win?, which is set to broadcast on Tuesday evening on British Channel 4 at 9 p.m. in the UK.

"The more people see her, the more they're reminded what they don't like about her and what they don't trust about her," she said. "It's not about who I like, it's like look at the record. You think you would know who Hillary Clinton is if she wasn't married to Bill Clinton, prove it."

On Friday, Conway told radio host Sean Hannity she would be helping the Trump campaign pivot to substance.

"We’re gonna pivot to the substance,” she said. “I challenge them, I challenge Robby Mook and Hillary Clinton to meet us on the substance. If I can do anything in this campaign as his campaign manager, it’s gonna be to, people want to talk about the silly pivot, let’s pivot to the issues. Let’s talk about what’s bothering Americans. What they want the next president of the United States to do.”

Mike Pence Asked About Clinton's Health: "Hillary Is In Hiding"

0
0

David Becker / Reuters

w.soundcloud.com

Mike Pence said Tuesday Hillary Clinton is "in hiding" when asked by radio host Laura Ingraham if Clinton was physically up to the task of running for or being president.

"Well, Hillary is in hiding and Trump is everywhere. I mean it is remarkable for me campaigning with Donald Trump, and for Donald Trump, around the country to see the energy level that he has," said Pence. "This campaign really is on a roll. You've been covering it with wonderful detail."

Pence cited Trump's recent speeches to show his high energy level.

The Indiana governor was asked in the context of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani saying this weekend that voters should go line to look for information on Hillary Clinton’s health.

Colin Powell Stands By Clinton Email Comments, But Says He Won't Comment Further

0
0

Paul Morigi / Getty Images

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says he's done commenting on Hillary Clinton's use of private email at the State Department, but stands by comments he made over the weekend about Clinton's email usage.

"I have no further comment," Powell told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday. "I have no further comment. She was using email long before the so-called dinner and I’m not commenting anymore on it. Goodbye.”

Powell added he had not announced who he would be supporting in the presidential race.

He told the People magazine last week of Clinton that, “Her people have been trying to pin it on me.”

A source familiar with the former secretary of state's thinking however noted the vast difference between Powell's use of personal email and Clinton's.

Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct State Department business and had a private server located in her home, in addition to a separate setup for sending and receiving classified information. (Clinton received classified information through her personal email account, however.) The source noted Powell used a State Department computer for classified emails and separately used a private account for non-classified emails.

Clinton, the source said, was already using email from the beginning of her tenure at the State Department so a dinner early in that tenure where it was reported Powell had urged her use private email was irrelevant.

Scott Brown: "I Have Never Touched Andrea Tantaros Except To Shake Her Hand"

0
0

Fox News

w.soundcloud.com

Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown in a radio interview on Tuesday denied acting inappropriately toward former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros after she mentioned him in a sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News.

In a court filing on Monday, Tantaros, through her lawyer, claimed Brown touched her "lower waist" and told her she "would be fun to go to a nightclub with."

"I never have touched Andrea Tantaros except to shake her hand and say good morning," Brown told The Howie Carr Show. Brown added that he never had any social conversations with Tantaros and that he never even exchanged emails with her.

"I'm baffled as to why, I guess, I'm even mentioned in this," Brown added later in the interview.

Brown said the good news was that he's not a named defendant, adding, "I think what she's doing in terms of referencing well-known public figures, is to, kind of, I don't know, back up her claim that there was some type of playboy atmosphere."

"I never saw it," Brown said of the "playboy atmosphere," noting everyone at Fox News he observed was always professional.

Asked what his wife said when he told her about the complaint, Brown said his wife knows where he's coming from after 30 years of marriage.

"She knows I was sexually abused as a kid and these things are pretty personal and I take those types of sexual innuendo and all that stuff pretty seriously and don't perpetuate that kind of narrative," Brown said.


Trump Often Claimed To Be "The Largest Real Estate Developer In New York.” He Isn't.

0
0

View Video ›

youtube.com

It's one of Donald Trump's most self-aggrandizing claims: that he is by far the biggest developer in New York City.

“I'm the biggest developer in New York by far, there's nobody even closer," Trump said on Fox News in 1997. And on the pilot episode of The Apprentice: “My name is Donald Trump and I’m the largest real estate developer in New York."

Trump has repeated the claim to Larry King, Howard Stern, and Neil Cavuto, among others. Reporters and rivals, however, have been challenging Trump on the claim for years.

"Trump has never been the largest real estate developer by any measure," Trump Nation biographer Timothy O' Brien said this year in a video for Bloomberg. Another biographer, Wayne Barrett, who wrote The Deals and The Downfall on Trump in early 1990s was more emphatic.

"He manages the largest city-owned golf course, so if grass square footage is the measure, he's right up there," said Barrett. "But the Times established he's not among the city's top 10 real estate power players, which he readily conceded when pressed, hyping instead the international projects of others who paid to use his name. Trump Tower is the face of his empire and all he owns there is his own apartment and the tax subsidized commercial space. The claim is as inflated as his hair."

Others in the real estate business, like Richard S. LeFrak, have called the claim false. The Times noted in 1999 that when Trump makes the statement, it "makes other real estate titans roll their eyes."

"'He's a dear friend of mine, but it wouldn't be accurate for him to say that,'' LeFrak said to the New York Times in 2004.

The NY Observer, owned by Trump's son-in-law, only put Trump as the fourteenth most powerful person in New York City real estate in 2013. Trump didn't even crack the top 10 in power rankings of real estate developers and power brokers from three different publications — Commercial Observer, the New York Post, and the Real Deal.

In 2004, the Times pointed out "the relatively invisible Leonard Litwin of Glenwood Management," Elghanayan brothers of Rockrose Development, and Stephen M. Ross of Related Companies had developed more units than Trump. "These are all private residential developers and owners; even they look small compared to some of their commercial counterparts," the Times wrote.

As Times real estate reporter Charles V. Bagli stated matter of factly in the article, "As far as his central claim to fame, he is not the largest developer in New York." Trump reportedly insisted in five follow-up phone calls he was the biggest developer.

Searches of available transcripts and articles reveal Trump started making the claim following the release of his 1997 book, Art of the Comeback. In the book, Trump sought to right his image after his period of financial ruin in the early '90s.

"By some measure— height, perhaps— Donald Trump may have been the 'largest real estate developer in New York,' but many builders could reasonably claim to have accomplished more," wrote Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio in his book Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success. "The company controlled by Jerry Speyer, to cite one example, owned $ 10.5 billion in real estate. Trump was by far, though, the most successful real estate showman in America, and by the end of the first episode of The Apprentice, he was a genuine TV star."

Here's a list of examples of Trump making the claim, found via transcript searches:

“I'm the biggest developer in New York by far, there's nobody even closer.” (Fox News: The Crier Report 1997)

“And the city's hot. And I'm now the biggest developer in New York. So, I think that's sort of cool.” (Fox News: Cavuto 1998)

“The city's the hottest city, and I'm the biggest developer in the hottest city in the world right now.” (CNN: Larry King Live 2000)

“My name is Donald Trump and I’m the largest real estate developer in New York.” (NBC: The Apprentice season 1, 2003)

“Hey, look, I'm the biggest developer in New York, by far. There's nobody close. I'm building buildings all over the place.” (CNN: Larry King Live 2004)

“I am the biggest and best developer in New York; my show, The Apprentice, went to number one and was nominated for four Emmys; my book How to Get Rich became the number one business book of the year (by far); my ninety-second-a-day radio show became the number one biggest launch of a new show in the history of radio (over three hundred stations), and so on.” (Donald J Trump: Think Like a Billionaire 2004)

“Well, first of all and by far, I'm a real estate guy. That's what I love. I'm the largest developer in New York by far.” (CNN: Larry King Live 2005)

“I'm building buildings all over the world right now -- all over the world. I'm probably the largest real estate developer there is. And I'm having a lot of fun doing it.” (CNN: Larry King Live 2007)

“Although I'm the largest developer in Manhattan, I decided to go across the Hudson River to Jersey City because I saw incredible potential there. I am good at predicting trends, and I think Jersey City has a big future ... or I wouldn't be there.” (Donald J. Trump. Trump 101: The Way to Success 2008)

In North Carolina, Republicans Try To Fend Off Political "Tsunami"

0
0

Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images

RALEIGH, N.C. — Republicans in North Carolina, once a solidly red state in presidential elections, are gearing up to avoid what they believe could be their worst election year in decades.

With Donald Trump at a historic low in the state in some polls, Gov. Pat McCrory still reeling from the bathroom bill fallout, and Sen. Richard Burr trying to overcome low-name recognition and fundraising, top Republicans are becoming increasingly concerned not only about Trump losing the must-win state — but about him losing by a wide enough margin to wipe out recent years of GOP gains made in the state.

"It certainly has the potential to be one of the worst elections we've seen in a long time," said Carter Wrenn, a veteran GOP strategist in the state. Wrenn said looking at Trump's troubles and latest polling, the question on Republicans' minds across the state has been: "How bad could it get?"

Although the state has voted for a Republican president all but twice since 1968, the national tea party wave in 2010 brought the state legislature and governor's mansion under Republican control for the first time since Reconstruction. North Carolina then moved rapidly to the right with several conservative reforms that caused an uproar among liberals in the state.

Now, over the last few weeks as the possibility of tough election losses sinks in, top Republicans and some donors — who have had much to celebrate over the last six years — are trying to plot contingency plans to make up for the lack of field organization and advertising dollars from the Republican Party's nominee to boost down-ballot candidates, sources say.

Their fear is that a Trump loss by more than four or five points could put a dent in the party's super majorities in the state legislature and a Democrat in the governor's mansion, reversing the political course of the state.

"I do think that people need to be very open eyed about what could potentially go wrong," said one such top Republican who has been involved in discussions. “The sky isn't falling, but it's cloudy and we need to get in gear. It's going to require a different level of organization and intervening from the top of the ticket than we've seen, and it's going to require support from outside groups."

A new outside group called N.C. Means Jobs — set up by Charlotte businessman Richard Alexander — is in the works, with plans to launch an ad campaign focused on touting the economic improvements in the state under McCrory and the GOP-controlled legislature, BuzzFeed News has learned. The effort would help distinguish the Republican brand in the state from Trump. Other similar proposals for outside spending are also being floated.

On field efforts, the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, which has a large presence in North Carolina, has been knocking on doors and delivering mail thanking McCrory for tax reform and opposing Medicaid expansion. Art Pope, a major donor in the state who also worked in the governor’s administration, was a founding board member of the group.

Over a two-week period in August, AFP knocked on 25,000 doors in the state. For now, the group is focused on the governor’s race, but officials have hinted they could start spending on the tightening Senate race on behalf of Burr, as well. “We’re watching closely and think the race may provide an opportunity to advance good policy in the state,” said Levi Russell, spokesman for the group.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is still hiring staff and doesn't have field offices yet. The state director for the Trump campaign was recently replaced after he was accused of pointing a gun at another staffer. Trump’s North Carolina team — which has been expanding quickly in the last two weeks — is still working out of the state party office in downtown Raleigh. It is now looking for office space to open two Trump victory offices in the state, sources say.

As the campaign gets its operations set up, the state Republican Party is trying to fill in the gaps. On Monday afternoon, volunteers — many of whom were college students — knocked on doors near downtown Raleigh, targeting low-propensity Republicans and unaffiliated voters and distributed Trump-Pence door hangers.

Despite polls showing concern among Republicans in the state about the top of the ticket, Michael Hoxie, president of Students for Trump at N.C. State University, said Republicans on campus were passionate about Trump, and he quickly brought up the primary as evidence — much like the nominee himself does. "If you look at the primary, he still pretty soundly won," Hoxie said in between knocking on doors.

And Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of N.C. GOP, pointed to Republicans outpacing Democrats in voter registrations in the state as a sign that any concern is premature. “I think we always have reason to worry,” he said calling a recent NBC poll that showed Trump down by nine points in the state as “B.S.” “What I’m hearing is normal, healthy discussions around election time.”

With Trump's team still not assembled in the state and a barrage of advertising from the Clinton campaign and super PAC portraying him as unfit to be president, a significant portion of self-identified Republican voters — about 15% — haven't committed to voting for their party's nominee, based on recent public polls and those seen by insiders in the state.

“The electorate is as fluid is as I have ever seen it,” said Andy Yates, another GOP strategist in the state, who is working on several state legislative races. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump won by more points than Romney did or lost by more than 10 points.”

But with fewer than 80 days left to go, those potential crossover Republican voters, mostly suburban moms, is a large enough contingent to cause panic on the right and optimism on the left.

“I really believe a tsunami is building,” said Brad Crone, a Democratic strategist in the state.

Already, Trump’s drag on down-ballot races is showing with Democrat Deborah Ross — who is still largely unknown in the state — now in a tied Senate race with Burr. Both campaigns went up on TV this week, and an outside group linked to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced a $1.5 million ad buy, airing positive spots on behalf of Burr.

In the senator's hometown of Winston-Salem on Tuesday afternoon, Ross repeatedly portrayed the incumbent as a self-interested, career politician while talking to a small group of mostly seniors about Social Security and Medicare at a public library.

Although she would have to ride a Democratic wave to defeat Burr, she also made an effort to distance herself from her own party’s top-of-the-ticket troubles. “I would tell Hillary Clinton to her face that she handled her email in the wrong way,” Ross said when asked about newly released emails that show Clinton’s close relationship with donors. “I mean it was wrong. No two ways about it... The mess has to be cleaned.”

Ross did not mention the GOP presidential nominee during the event, but it was the Trump effect on the Republican Party in part that led Mary Miller, a retired Winston-Salem resident, to Ross’ event.

“I was a Republican for 50 years, but then the Republican Party got so out of control and angry I just couldn’t be a part of it,” she said.

Burr does not have any public events this week, and his campaign declined an interview request.

His longtime political strategist Paul Shumaker maintained that North Carolina has a history of ticket-splitting, which is only going to increase with influx of unaffiliated voters in the state.

“North Carolina is going to be competitive. That's nothing new,” he said, stressing that both party’s presidential nominees have problems for down-ballot candidates. “The revelation of new Clinton emails has the potential to change the dynamic in this race.

“There's a long ways to go here.”

Mike Pence: Trump Immigration Policy Will Reflect "Compassion And Humanity"

0
0

Alex Wong / Getty Images

w.soundcloud.com

Donald Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, sought to clarify the Republican nominee' position on undocumented immigration on Wednesday, saying people should "stay tuned" for Trump to outline his policy but that it would reflect "compassion and humanity."

"He's made it very, very clear and been very consistent: we're gonna have secure borders, we're gonna build a wall, we're gonna enforce the laws of this country and do so vigorously," Pence told radio host Mike Gallagher. "Individuals who have committed crimes in this country are gonna go, and they're gonna go very quickly, to be processed by a justice system and out of this country."

"Beyond that, stayed tuned, another ones of these major speeches is coming up. Donald Trump will address the issue of immigration," Pence added. "I guarantee that he is gonna be a man of his word, securing our borders, enforcing our laws, whatever else we do will be tough but fair, and it will reflect the kind of compassion and humanity that the American people would expect and frankly that proceeds out of the character of this good man."

On Tuesday evening, Trump said on Hannity that, "there could certainly be a softening" of his position on immigration because "because we're not looking to hurt people." Over the weekend, Trump told Hispanic Republican activists he was open to a humane way to deal with undocumented immigrants in the country.

Rendell: Emails Show Clinton Foundation, State Department Firewall "Ineffective"

0
0

Robin Marchant / Getty Images

w.soundcloud.com

Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell said in a radio interview on Tuesday that the firewall between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state was "ineffective," creating a "bad perception" for the Democratic nominee.

Rendell, the chair of the Philadelphia host committee for the Democratic National Convention last month, was asked about an AP analysis showing that a large proportion of people from private interests who met or spoke on the phone with Clinton at the State Department were Clinton Foundation donors.

"No, I agree," Rendell said, when the host argued that newly released emails between Clinton Foundation and State Department employees show there was no firewall.

“I don’t know if it was a lie," Rendell told host Rich Zeoli on 1210 WPHT Philadelphia radio. "But it was pretty ineffective. But look, the bottom line is, what they did, I wouldn’t have done, it creates a bad perception. But will it hurt her? It’s obviously not gonna help. I think people have decided that they’ve made their judgment.

"And again, remember, one thing we shouldn’t lose sight of is no one who donated to the Clinton Foundation, not one dime wound up in Hillary Clinton’s pocket or Bill Clinton’s pocket or Chelsea Clinton’s pocket. Where that money wound up is helping 10 and a half million fight off AIDS and not die from the AIDS virus.”

Earlier in the interview, Rendell defended Clinton by comparing the controversy to the one during the primary over her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs.

"So, look, does it look good?" he said. "No. Absolutely not. And they should’ve been more thoughtful about it. But is it a major problem? I don’t think unless there’s a connection, it’s a major problem. It’s like Bernie Sanders during the primaries, remember he kept saying, 'You gave all those speeches for Goldman Sachs and all these other people and you didn’t do it for nothing, you know, you did it,' and Hillary Clinton said to him in one of the debates, she said, ‘Senator, find me one incident where I did something for someone who gave me money for giving a speech that was improper. And of course he couldn’t. And he didn’t.”

Rendell has previously been critical of the perception created by the Clinton Foundation, saying last week that it should be disbanded if she becomes the president. Bill Clinton has said he would step down from the foundation's board if Clinton wins and that the foundation plans to scale back operations.

Trump Super PAC Chair: Trump Would "Lose Badly" If Election Was Today

0
0

Fox Business

w.soundcloud.com

Ed Rollins, chairman of a pro-Donald Trump super PAC, says the Republican nominee would lose badly if the election was held today.

"If we're sitting here three weeks from now after Labor Day and it's in the same position, we're gonna have a hard uphill battle," Rollins said on the Laura Ingraham Show on Wednesday. "He'd lose badly today. He has a chance. He's got a new team in there, Kellyanne's (Conway) a great talent who's been the campaign manager. She knows how to drive a message. She knows how to develop a message. Bannon is a very effective communicator."

Rollins said Trump needed to shift the election back to being about Hillary Clinton.

"So far, it's been all about him, and with his ego he kind of likes that," said Rollins. "At the end of the day, it's got to be about her. He's got to make her the unacceptable alternative."

Charities Raise Millions At Trump's Mar-A-Lago Club — But For A Steep Fee

0
0

Marc Serota / Reuters

Lavish galas and balls are a hallmark of the social scene in Palm Beach, Florida — and often all put on to raise money for big-name charities. One of the largest and most popular venues for these events is Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, where money is raised each year for charities like the American Heart Association.

Trump has pointed to the money raised at the club as evidence of his own philanthropy, telling CNBC in 2011, “I believe there is more money in that club for charity than any other place in Florida. I mean, the place has been amazing, the kind of money we raise on a weekly basis, and I just believe that you have to give back and if you don't give back, you’re not being honest with yourself.”

As the owner of Mar-a-lago, Trump brings in millions of dollars in revenue for his company by hosting these major charity events each year. Though a Mar-a-Lago employee said she could not share pricing information with a non-member, a BuzzFeed News review of charity tax records and local fundraising permits shows that the price tag to hold events there usually ranges between $200,000 and $350,000, depending on factors like the number of attendees. Smaller events, like luncheons and receptions, tend to run outside groups under $100,000. The fees for services provided by Mar-a-Lago — the venue, food, and drinks — can comprise more than half the total price for the major events.

While Trump has often bragged about the money he personally donates, investigations by BuzzFeed News and the Washington Post have raised questions about his claims of charitable giving. A Washington Post investigation was only able find $10,000 in personal charity donations from Trump over the last seven years. Most donations from Trump to charity are through his namesake Trump Foundation, to which he hasn’t donated since 2008.

Mar-a-Lago is appealing for charities looking to host big events in part due to its size. Other than The Breakers, a resort, it is the only venue in town capable of holding 600-plus guests, according to a spokesperson for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which has held its annual gala at Mar-a-Lago every year since 2011.

One of the charities most loyal to Trump’s club, the Palm Beach Police Foundation, which supports the local police department, has spent an average of $261,777 each year on its annual ball, held at Trump’s club every year since the charity was founded in 2006. Where the organization’s tax records show fees for the price of the facility, those range from $125,000 in 2007 to $235,362 in 2012 to $276,463 in 2013.

Asked whether he agrees with the Republican nominee’s suggestion that hosting charity events at Mar-a-Lago is part of how he gives back, John Scarpa, the foundation’s president, said in an interview with BuzzFeed News that the resort has granted his organizations what he estimates is a 10 to 12% discount on food. He says the club also provides some free amenities, such as heaters for the pre-dinner poolside cocktails (the Policeman’s Ball is in January). Trump, Scarpa said, donates a private helicopter trip to his Doral Golf Course to be sold at the event’s auction, an item that he called a “really good money-maker for us.”

During at least three years, the Palm Beach Police Foundation has lost money at Mar-a-Lago, losing more than $278,000 between its dinners in 2006, 2007, and 2010. Roger Craver, a charity expert who spoke with BuzzFeed News, said that losing money as a new charity was not uncommon. Scarpa, who said he considered the events a success, did not respond to a follow-up request for comment on the lost money.

Trump is frequently involved with events hosted at his club, donating his time and celebrity by acting as event chairman or serving as a charity’s sponsoring member (charity events must have a member sponsor them in order to be held at the private club).

He has also sometimes pledged money, like when he pledged $50,000 during a live auction at one 2012 American Heart Association event. Trump's foundation tax record from that year shows a donation to the American Heart Association of $65,000.

Even after he stopped putting his own money into his charitable organization, Trump has made large donations from the Donald J. Trump Foundation to groups which host events at Mar-a-Lago. The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has received $386,000 from Trump’s foundation since 2008, when it first held its gala at Mar-a-Lago, including donations in 2009 and 2010, when it moved to The Breakers, before returning the following year. The Trump foundation has also been particularly generous to the Palm Beach Police Foundation, with records showing total contributions of $250,000.

Trump’s foundation has also donated $203,500 over the years to the American Cancer Society, which has held its annual ball at Mar-a-lago every year since 2007. While the charity’s 990s don’t show the price of that event, a 2008 article in the Sun Sentinel reported that they value around $300,000, a number that is approximately in line with price estimates on town fundraising permits from other years. In one year, Trump served as the ball’s honorary chairman.

A spokesperson for Trump's campaign did not return repeated requests for comment on this story.

Though some charities contacted by BuzzFeed News would not provide detailed statements on their events at Mar-a-Lago or Trump’s presence at them, Scarpa of the Palm Beach Police Foundation said that when Trump and his wife Melania attend the Policeman’s Ball, it generates excitement.

“A lot of people love to have their picture taken with him,” Scarpa said.

He added, though, that he doesn’t think Trump’s presence has much of an impact on attendance.

For at least one of Palm Beach’s big charity events, it seems that the downsides of Trump’s presence came to outweigh the benefits. In 2013, the Red Cross moved its annual ball to a competing venue, The Breakers. Asked why they moved the event, that year’s chairwoman Mary Ourisman, a former ambassador to Barbados and Republican fundraiser, told The Washington Post, “It had really become more about Donald Trump than about the Red Cross.”

Democratic Senator: GOP Senators Secretly Support Hillary Clinton

0
0

Allison Shelley / Getty Images

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said he thinks Hillary Clinton would possibly win the support of a majority of Republican senators in a secret ballot.

"From a Senate perspective, in a secret ballot, Hillary gets a lot of votes out of the Republican caucus. Potentially she even commands a majority of the Republican caucus in a secret ballot because people really do respect her," said Whitehouse.

"I can remember sitting down in the secure facility in the basement of the Capitol getting a briefing from her on a highly classified matter and a bunch of Republican senators were sitting in front of me," he continued. "Two of them, her very prominent antagonists in this election, and one looked over at the other and said 'boy, she's good.' The other one leaned back and said, 'yeah, she's really good.' And that's the Hillary that they know. Not the talking points Hillary or the caricature, but the real person."

The senator said after the election, Clinton would have a strong relationship with Republicans on Capitol Hill.

"I think that means that once the back-and-forth and the nonsense and the election is over, she has a very strong base of credibility, good will, confidence, and relationships to go to, particularly in the Senate," Whitehouse said. "Donald Trump, on the other hand, has such temperamental problems that it's hard to see how he would work with us. But he's also so badly damaged people who have tried to help him. Look at what he did to poor Chris Christie who tried to be his friend and is now almost a national laughingstock as a result of what he's done to him...Ted Cruz and him were all buds and next thing you know it's lying Ted and he's accusing Ted's dad of having something to do with he Kennedy assassination."

"His record is poisonous in terms of being somebody who you would ever want to put yourself out to take any kind of a political chance on because he turns on everybody at the first opportunity. With Donald Trump, it's all about only one thing and that is Donald Trump."


Trump Supporters React To Plans To More Directly Address Black, Latino Voters

0
0

Gerald Herbert / AP

TAMPA, Fla. — "What do you have to lose?"

It has become the signature phrase of the latest phase of Donald Trump's presidential campaign as he tries to win over skeptical black voters.

He’s been making the pitch repeatedly at rallies in recent days, at the same time offering softer language on his approach to immigration, promising a “humane and efficient” approach to those who are in the US illegally, rather than talking about mass deportation for all.

At a rally in Tampa, Florida, on Wednesday, the question appeared again, wrapped in a speech mostly delivered from the teleprompter, that stressed “jobs, jobs, jobs.” Trump promised that he would bring new employment opportunities to blacks, Latinos, and “all American citizens.”

So far, however, Trump has delivered his new message in majority-white cities. The crowd was also overwhelmingly white on Wednesday. But his latest rally followed a report in the Washington Post that the candidate will soon venture into the black and Latino communities that he is trying to win over.

In early September, the Post reported, Trump may visit poor neighborhoods in Detroit with Ben Carson, his primary rival who grew up in the city before making his name as a neurosurgeon. The article added that Trump plans to visit charter schools, churches, and business in urban Latino and black communities.

Some media commentators have suggested that Trump’s black and Latino outreach has two intended audiences: not only the communities he’s addressing, but also white voters — especially college graduates — who have been reluctant to back a candidate who has been widely perceived as biased against blacks and Latinos. (One poll in July, run for the Associated Press, indicated that 50% of Americans thought the label “racist” fitted Trump “very” or “somewhat” well.)

Arguably, that second group contains many more potential Trump supporters — and may hold the balance in the swing states, like Florida, where Trump has been polling badly in recent weeks.

BuzzFeed News asked people at the Tampa rally what they thought of his plans to reach out personally to black and Latino communities. The most common response: The Republican Party should have been doing this for years.

“Amen, brother! It’s about time,” said Jeremiah Fortson, 61. Together with his sister, Fortson runs an adult family care home in Plant City. He also is a longtime conservative Republican who supported Ted Cruz in the primaries before throwing his support behind Trump after the GOP convention.

Fortson blames the Democrats for problems that affect poor black communities, and wishes that his own party had done more to engage with black Americans.

“What Donald Trump’s doing right now, the Republicans should have been talking about for years," he said.

Phara McLachlan, the daughter of immigrants from Haiti who runs a management and technology consulting firm in Tampa, agreed.

“I think he’s doing what he should be doing, going out to communicate to folks,” she said.

But McLachlan, 39, and her husband Scott, 47, both graduates of the University of South Florida, rejected the idea that Trump’s black and Latino outreach is actually targeting educated white voters. That, they argued, was media spin.

“I don’t think he’s ever changed his message,” Scott McLachlan, who served as a combat engineer in Operation Desert Storm, told BuzzFeed News. “I think, originally, the media tried to misconstrue it. They purposely twisted his words and made them more harsh than what they were in reality.”

Sam Swies, a former president of an insurance company, grew up in Detroit and hopes that Trump does visit the city.

“We have a lot of people out of work,” he said. “We’ve lost business to every country and he promises to bring it back.”

Swies, 73, is on the Trump Committee in Central Florida, and came to the rally dressed as the Republican nominee, in suit and blond wig. He told BuzzFeed News that he now lives in a community of “120,000 people, on golf carts.”

James Williamson, a 73-year-old Vietnam veteran from Plant City, was pleased to hear that that Trump is planning to visit black churches.

“I have a lot of faith in the churches" to promote brotherhood, he said. “Trump is not a racist.”

Williamson grew up in Mississippi, where he witnessed the struggles of the civil rights era. He argued that Martin Luther King Jr.'s message of peace has gotten lost in racial tensions that have divided America. As a white American, Williamson said he has felt “afraid to show remorse” for the injustices of the old South.

But are the black and Latino communities of Detroit and other cities open to hearing what Trump has to say, if he comes to visit?

Fortson argued that the message of job opportunities is a good one, but conceded it may be an uphill struggle given what he sees as a biased media, and his own experiences talking politics with members of his own family.

One of eight children, Fortson is the only Republican.

“I can’t sway them in any way,” he said. “They can’t tell me why they’re Democrats. They just don’t want to talk about it.”

LINK: In Reversal, Trump Indicates To Hispanic Leaders Openness To Legalization For Immigrants

LINK: Trump’s Supporters Say His Shift In Immigration Tone “Makes Sense”


Ann Coulter Grapples With Trump Deportation Flip-Flop

0
0

Patrick Fallon / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Ann Coulter downplayed Donald Trump's shift on immigration on Wednesday night, saying there had not been a real reversal.

Coulter, who has been one of Trump's biggest defenders and whose book Adios America! may have inspired some of Trump's immigration policies, told reporters at a party for her new book In Trump We Trust at Breitbart News' house in Washington that there had not been a change in Trump's position.

Trump on Wednesday signaled openness to allowing some immigrants in the country illegally to stay, in an interview with Sean Hannity — a significant policy break.

"It’s not a reversal, there’s no change," Coulter said. "I'm annoyed with the rhetoric. I’m annoyed enough with what he actually did without the media being hysterical about things he didn’t do."

"He speaks in broad strokes," Coulter said. "Listen to Stephen Miller. He has the policy. He’s the brains of the operation." Miller is a top policy adviser to Trump who used to work for Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Trump endorser who has been one of the most vocal immigration hawks in the Senate.

Coulter said earlier this week that it was a "mistake" for Trump to talk about "softening" his immigration stances, and that "It sounds like it’s coming from consultants."

In Coulter's new book, she writes that "There's nothing Trump can do that won't be forgiven. Except change his immigration policies."

Later on Thursday night, after the book party, Coulter tweeted several times critically about Trump: "Well, if it's 'hard,' then nevermind. Trump: '... to take a person who's been here for 15 or 20 years ....It's a very, very hard thing.'"

Coulter's party took place at Breitbart's "embassy," a Capitol Hill house the site has used as an office and base of operations for years. Breitbart's chairman Steve Bannon recently became the Trump campaign's CEO.

Breitbart's political editor Matt Boyle gave the introductory speech for Coulter ahead of the book signing.

Other prominent immigration hawks who support Trump were in attendance, such as blogger Mickey Kaus, who told BuzzFeed News that "It seems to me like dialing back on detentions is a reasonable thing to do. It’s not a crucial part of his message. There are other parts of his message that are crucial. But if you're going to do it, do it quickly and neatly and get it done with. I don’t understand why they’re dragging it out unless they have some strategy I can’t figure out."

"He has a very strong anti-illegal immigration message whether or not he deports everybody immediately or just enforces the immigration laws strictly and builds the law and puts in place e-verify and does it all before any amnesty, that's a very strong package, I'm for him doing that," Kaus said, adding that deportations are a "secondary issue" to preventing future illegal immigration.

Kaus said Trump is "still head and shoulders better than Hillary on this issue," but that "I just think this one particular issue he’s not handling as well as he should."

Clinton Latino Operation, Going Beyond Obama In '12, Readies Final Trump Battle Plan

0
0

Kena Betancur / AFP / Getty Images

In 2012, the Obama campaign's deputy Latino vote director Alida Garcia was frustrated that, while the campaign had Hispanic operatives training staff, it would not commit to the hiring of a full-time Latino vote director and a more robust program in Ohio.

The same can't be said four years later. The state Obama won by 104,000 votes features 199,000 eligible Hispanic voters in 2016. The Clinton campaign has added Latino vote directors in nontraditional states like Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, along with the quadrennial constants of Florida, Nevada, and Colorado.

"If you’re not investing and thinking about engaging Latino communities, you're basically leaving high percentage votes on the table," Garcia explained, of the opportunity Ohio Hispanics present in the traditional swing state.

That investment is happening without fanfare in places like the southside of Milwaukee, where the Wisconsin deputy political director is focused on speaking to local Hispanics; in Iowa, where the campaign is hiring a senior staffer to work on Latino outreach in conjunction with the state Democratic Party; and even in Nebraska, where it's organizing in the largely Latino south side of Omaha and has met with local Latino leaders.

But the campaign is also ramping up three higher-profile national programs aimed at Hispanics, all announced in just the last week. The "Mi Sueño, Tu Voto" (My Dream, Your Vote) program aims to connect DREAMer youth, whose temporary legal status and work authorization stems from an Obama immigration program Donald Trump has pledged to end, with neighbors and friends who will commit to vote to protect DREAMers.

This week, Clinton's vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine launched a small business program, named in the same style in Spanish, which translates to "Our Businesses, Our America." The campaign is connecting with small businesses in key states that will help register, re-register, and educate voters, but mostly serve as a trusted hub for Hispanic voters in their communities.

And BuzzFeed News has learned an upcoming Latino faith program will have similar goals, and include campaign surrogates attending service and speaking directly to churchgoers, after the campaign says its Latino vote teams in Florida and North Carolina saw their message connecting with Catholic and Evangelical communities in those states.

"I don’t think we’ve done a good job of utilizing this in our organizing efforts," states director, Marlon Marshall, conceded of faith outreach. A separate staffer said progressives have too often let conservatives occupy this space on their own.

The campaign also boasts that it has found success with slowly increasing but effective English-language ads aimed at Hispanics, an approach operatives clamor for that has in previous cycles been shelved in favor of traditional Spanish-language advertising. The ads are seen as recognition that the Hispanic electorate is an increasingly young one, and English is the ideal way to speak to them.

An ad before the Nevada primary showed Clinton's softer side, when she comforted Karla Ortiz, a young U.S. citizen girl who was scared her parents would be deported. Other ads have highlighted Clinton's economic plans, as well as contrasted the stories of Hispanic citizens and Trump's attack on a Mexican-American federal judge.

"We started that in earnest in the Texas primary," one Clinton staffer said. "The border media markets are 95% Hispanic, anyway, so if you're on an English-language general market station you should still be Hispanic."

"These programs are not just innovative but they are matching the moment in history," said Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, who said a few cycles ago the extent of Latino outreach was two to three weeks of Spanish-language ads.

Obama campaign veterans say the novel English-language ads, like the added Hispanic vote directors and the DREAMer program, are areas where the Clinton campaign is taking key steps to forge a strong Latino program, but that the ads must be followed by on-air investment by the campaign.

"To truly validate these efforts that were seen as experimental last cycle the campaign should ensure that they have the investment that they need," said Nathaly Arriola, a top Democratic operative in Hispanic outreach who worked for Obama in 2012.

Social media can't do it alone. While the Ortiz video has more than 250,000 views on YouTube, the Curiel ad has fewer than 100. To that end, a Clinton aide said the campaign is making English-language television buys for Latino households which will hit 16 of the top 20 programs watched by Hispanics and appear on eight of the top 10 cable networks they frequent.

"A lot of our ads are diverse," Marshall said. "You might watch an ad on CNN, but behind the scenes we used one of those different news stations that communities of color watch, in addition to CNN."

Amanda Renteria, the national political director and the campaign's highest-ranking Hispanic staffer, who began making calls to Latino business and civil rights leaders 18 months ago, said the English-language ads are not just about reaching Hispanics, but a message that "Karla Ortiz is not just someone Latinos are proud of, but our country is proud of."

"It's no longer true that you have to only talk about Latino issues in Spanish," she added, arguing that the stories appeal to the progressive base, too.

(An Obama veteran said the 2012 campaign likely outspent the Clinton operation on Spanish-language paid media, for a strategic reason: Mitt Romney needed to be defined on Spanish-language television early, whereas Trump negatively defined himself without the Clinton campaign needing to lift a finger.)

Democratic operatives say that the campaign's Hispanic staffers have at times complained of a need for reinforcements, but they credit the Clinton operation with hiring Latinos up and down the campaign. The idea for the DREAMer vote program was hatched during a campaign brainstorming workshop.

For many Democrats, the time for persuasion is ending and the time to whip get out the vote efforts is beginning. But Garcia, the former Obama staffer, said persuasion with Latino voters is never-ending.

"Democrats view persuasion as getting people who are not on your team, on your team, rather than spending time to get to base voters, and given where polling is, we are the base," she said of Latinos. "But getting out the vote in communities of color where there are challenges, where someone may have two or three jobs, they need to be persuaded to get out and vote."

During a week where Trump is trying to haphazardly pivot on immigration, a Buckeye state example Renteria used is illustrative of the high-stakes turns campaigns can take.

Golden Week — when Ohioans can register to vote and cast an early ballot in one trip — was something that Latino staff could educate Hispanic voters on, Renteria said in an interview Tuesday morning. But by the evening, the six-day period had been struck down in court, the latest twist in an ongoing effort that began when Gov. John Kasich got rid of Golden Week in February 2014.

Latino outreach in a state like Ohio is key, though, Cardona said.

"It almost becomes more critical in those areas that are not used to having someone talk to them about why it's important to vote, that are not used to the Latino vote mattering in their state," she said.

Where the common grassroots refrain is you need to make three voter contacts for them to vote, for Hispanics it may be four or five, Cardona argued.

"You have to explain that their vote does matter and here’s why: 'Your city in Ohio, your rural town in Iowa, will make the difference in us not electing Donald Trump,'" she said.

But it won't be enough to simply win, said former Harry Reid senior advisor Jose Parra, who hopes Clinton, with the Latino vote at her back, can run up the score.

"For everybody sake, including Republicans pissed at Trump, we need to win by a very clear margin," he said. "Sane Republicans need to go back to the RNC saying '[Trump's strategy] might work in a gerrymandered district in Alabama but it's going to turn us into a regional party.' It has to be a convincing win for Democrats. A one or two-point win and she's going to inherit a fractured country."

The Alt Right Is Having Its Best And Worst Week

0
0

WASHINGTON — On a day when the alt right is likely to become more famous than it’s ever been before, the movement is also facing a disorienting shift on its key issue by its favored candidate.

On one hand, Hillary Clinton is set to give a speech today tying Donald Trump to the movement — a moment that will undoubtedly raise their profile and which casts them as central characters in the election.

On the other, Trump has pivoted hard on immigration, reversing his stance on deportations. And Trump’s hard-line positions on immigration had been a key cause of the alt right’s devotion to him. On the week of possibly the alt right’s biggest victory, it’s also dealing with possible betrayal.

“Trump has been so good for my cause that I’m able to be very tolerant and patient with him,” said Richard Spencer, the president of the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think tank, in an email to BuzzFeed News. “My tolerance and patience is huge. No one is more tolerant and patient than I am.”

“It’s always been important that the alt right remain an independent force from Donald Trump,” Spencer said. “The moment Trump allows millions of Hispanics to stay — with or without citizenship — is the moment I’m off the train. For me, foreign policy is also a key issue, and thus I’m hesitant to say this. But I have to. If Trump ceases being a nationalist, then what’s the point?”

The alt right movement, which draws heavily from the meme-heavy internet culture popularized on 4chan and reddit, is a rejection both of the left and of mainstream conservatism. It found the closest thing it has to a mainstream political voice in the past year in Donald Trump, in whom the alt right found a reflection of its own ethno-nationalist impulses. The alt right has been a vocal presence online throughout the election, popularizing the “cuckservative” slur against non-Trump supporting Republicans and frequently harassing Jewish and other minority journalists.

The hiring of Breitbart chairman Steve Bannon as the Trump campaign’s CEO constituted another hopeful sign for the alt right. Under Bannon, Breitbart embraced “nationalist populism,” and Bannon has described Breitbart as a “platform for the alt right.”

But Bannon’s hiring has coincided with Trump’s “softening” on immigration, which has alarmed stalwarts like Ann Coulter, who criticized him on Twitter on Wednesday night after initially defending him. Trump’s suggesting on Wednesday that he would be open to allowing a path to legalization amounts to a stark reversal in his previous position which involved deporting all 11 million in the country illegally and using deportation forces.

The alt right internet has been intensely anticipating Clinton’s speech, with popular video blogger RamzPaul putting out a primer on the alt right ahead of time and an #AltRightMeans hashtag circulating on Twitter.

Spencer is hopeful about Clinton’s speech, writing on his site Radix Journal on Thursday that “Hillary is trying to push the GOP into permanent minority status by empowering the alt right—and, believe me, she will be empowering us today. The alt right is, in a way, what people wrongly accuse the GOP of being: a nationalist party for White people. Hillary’s alt right speech will try to force the GOP to become what it is.”

American Renaissance founder Jared Taylor sounded optimistic about Clinton’s speech drawing more people to the movement.

“If Hillary Clinton tries to discredit Donald Trump by pointing out that many in the alt right support him, it will be only the latest of countless attempts to blame him for our views,” Taylor wrote in an email. “Of course, if she wants to shine the spotlight on us, it will mean only that yet more Americans will find that we are a broad dissident movement represented by thoughtful, well-spoken people who have thought very carefully about race and immigration.”

“We welcome any opportunity to explain and defend our views,” Taylor said.

“We won't know if Donald Trump is softening on immigration until he delivers his next speech on the subject,” Taylor said (before Trump’s interview with Hannity on Thursday night in which Trump indicated he was breaking with his previous plan to enforce mass deportations). “I hope (Trump campaign CEO) Steve Bannon will encourage him to stick to his signature positions, but ultimately I'm sure Trump himself will decide, and his instincts appear to be very sound.”

Later, Taylor quoted back Trump’s remark that “to take a person who’s been here for 15 or 20 years and throw them and their family out, it’s so tough,” and said, “Let's hope Mr. Trump believes in tough love. I'll wait for his speech on immigration before I jump to any conclusions.”

Vdare founder Peter Brimelow defended Trump as being still better than Jeb Bush and said he expected him to “get back on track.”

“He gave two other great speeches (from our point of view) yesterday,” Brimelow wrote in an email. “This is not a conventional campaign (have you noticed?). I think he’ll probably get back on track esp. when he sees he’s not getting any credit. But wtf, He’s still better than Bush.”

Vdare is currently fundraising off of Clinton’s speech later today. “I, and my team at VDARE.com have weathered more than a decade of fact suppression and attacks against our character and livelihood, because I know what is at stake here,” Brimelow writes in his fundraising appeal. “Hillary wants to ignite a witch hunt against the alt right because she knows we are finally starting to make an impact on the public's thinking on immigration.”

White nationalist William Johnson, who was briefly a Trump delegate in California, said Clinton was doing the alt right a “great service” by giving the speech.

“I am encouraged by her speaking about it. Because once — our position, the alt right position — is just, moral and proper, and so if it is brought out then people can see and choose for themselves,” Johnson said.

On the question of Trump’s immigration shift, Johnson said, “It doesn’t worry me because, as I say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. You cannot make dramatic changes immediately and as a first step, taking a more cautious approach, is prudent.”

Occidental Dissent blogger Brad Griffin aka Hunter Wallace said he was “looking forward” to Clinton’s speech and “She’s publicizing us.”

Wallace said he wasn’t too concerned about Trump’s flip flop on immigration, arguing that Trump is doing this because he’s in the midst of a campaign. “If he actually, like Bush or Obama, tried to pass comprehensive immigration reform, then yeah, that would concern me and I would of course oppose it, but I don’t think it’s too serious. I think it’s just, you know, a campaign gesture.”

Jeb Bush Says He's Not Buying The Trump Immigration Shift

0
0

Sean Rayford / Getty Images

w.soundcloud.com

Jeb Bush says Donald Trump doesn't actually have any beliefs on immigration because it's all a game to Trump.

"Well, I can only say that whatever his views are this morning, they might change this afternoon, and they were different than they were last night, and they'll be different tomorrow," the former Florida governor said on WABC radio's Election Central with Rita Cosby.

Bush, who was one of Trump's most vocal critics when he ran against him during the Republican primary, continued, saying, "I can't comment on his views, because his views are... they seem to be ever, ever-changing, depending on what crowd he's in front of. Sounds like a typical politician, by the way, where you get in front of one crowd and say one thing, and then say something else to another crowd that may want to hear a different view. All the things that Donald Trump railed against, he seems to be morphing into — it’s kind of disturbing.”

"He doesn't believe in things, this is all a game," added Bush.

Trump has signaled a shift on his hardline immigration stance in recent days, telling radio host Sean Hannity that, “there could certainly be a softening” of his position on immigration because “because we’re not looking to hurt people.” Over the weekend, Trump told Hispanic Republican activists he was open to a humane way to deal with undocumented immigrants in the country. He also signaled that he supported legalization for some undocumented immigrants.

Viewing all 15742 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images