Radio America Online News Bureau

Archives for June 2017

Comey Pounds Press, Tory Gamble Gone Wrong, Bernie’s Anti-Christian Bias

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David French of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America point out former FBI director James Comey’s evaluation of how untrustworthy much of the media was when reporting on Russia and the 2016 elections. They also discuss the major political disaster that befell British conservatives in the snap election Thursday, badly weakening the party and strengthening the position of the Labour Party’s far-left leader. And they decry Bernie Sanders’ blatant disregard for the 6th Amendment when questioning President Trump’s nominee for deputy budget director about his Christian beliefs.

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‘Trump Had a Good Day,’ Political Troubles Persist

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Thursday’s highly anticipated testimony of former FBI Director James Comey delivered devastating blows to the legal accusations against President Trump, but a former federal prosecutor says the political damage inflicted by Comey and the overall investigation could end up being a major wound.

In the hearings before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey confirmed that Trump is not and never was personally under investigation by the FBI as part of the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections and, critically, that there is no evidence of collusion between Trump and his team and Russia.

He also said Trump never directly ordered him to cease any probe and that media reports suggesting extensive communications between the Trump campaign and the Russian government were almost entirely false.

However, Comey also said he took Trump’s overtures on behalf of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn as a directive.  He also indicated that he started keeping memos only when Trump was elected to protect himself if there were any future dust-ups.

In his opening statement, Comey also slammed Trump for changing his public explanation for firing him, initially indicating that it was about the handling of the Hillary Clinton case before admitting it was about the Russia probe.  Comey then called Trump a liar for publicly suggesting that FBI personnel had lost confidence in him.

Between the media hype and the Democratic talking points leading into Thursday, Trump critics were preparing for an event that would be the tipping point towards his legal or political downfall.  They didn’t get it.

“If you just look clinically at the legal facts that came out, Trump had a good day as far as the allegations we’ve been looking at over the last six months,” said former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy, who led the prosecution of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and others for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and planning to attack other landmarks.

“The testimony undermines the case for obstruction of justice, which I’ve been trying to argue was not strong at all to begin with.  There’s still no evidence of collusion and they acknowledged Trump was not the subject of an investigation,” said McCarthy.

He says the definitive remarks on collusion may well be the biggest stories of the day.

“Today probably puts to bed the notion that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Putin regime.  So Comey, who would have had every motivation to suggest such collusion if there had been any, really was very clear on the fact there was no evidence of that,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy says the intense politicization of Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 elections has distracted officials from focusing on the actual, ongoing threat.

“What I’ve been concerned about is that our consideration of Russia has become so hyper-politicized that a lot people have a motivation to downplay it.  To me it’s very serious, so I hope we can put the politics part of that aside and start to focus on the Putin regime, which is a real problem for the United States,” said McCarthy.

But while Trump’s legal concerns ought to be greatly eased, McCarthy warns Comey’s blistering attack on Trump’s character may do lasting damage.

“Even in not formally or informally accusing Trump of not committing a crime, Comey paints a very unflattering portrait of the president as somebody who is conniving, dishonest, and a real operator in a sense,” said McCarthy.

“I’m not smart enough to know how this is going to play itself out, but I wonder if people will care more about the fact that there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of criminal wrongdoing or even deeply inappropriate behavior that straddles the line of the law versus how unflattering the portrait of the president painted by Comey is,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy notes Hillary Clinton never faced any charges over her private server or for mishandling top secret classified information, but the revelation of her conduct ended up carrying immense political consequences.

Shortly after Comey finished his public testimony, Trump’s personal attorney Marc Kasowitz, publicly highlighted what he sees as Comey’s exoneration of Trump while simultaneously disputing Comey’s assertion that Trump demanded a loyalty pledge or asked for the Flynn probe to be dropped.

McCarthy says it makes sense for Kasowitz to point out the testimony that boosts Trump’s legal standing, but he says accusing Comey of not telling the truth in other areas was not smart.

“I wouldn’t be asking for a credibility contest between Trump and Comey.  Trump has a long, long history of not having at 7 p.m. the position he took at 7 a.m. and he may have changed it two or three times in between.  Whereas, Comey has contemporaneous notes and is pretty solid as he moves from event to event to event even when he tells the same story multiple times,” said McCarthy.

“Trump’s going to lose a credibility contest with Comey and there’s no reason for his lawyer to get him into one,” said McCarthy.

Another key revelation from Comey centers on former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.  Comey confirmed he went public with his summary on the Clinton case and his recommendation not to prosecute because of Lynch’s clandestine meeting with Bill Clinton on an Arizona tarmac.  He also revealed that Lynch pressured him not to publicly describe the Clinton probe as an “investigation” but rather as a “matter.”

Nonetheless, McCarthy says Lynch is not in any legal danger.

“I don’t think she’s in any legal trouble.  I think Comey’s point, and it was a good one, is that it’s not one side that tries to massage and politicize law enforcement,” said McCarthy.

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Comey Confirms Trump Claim, Trump’s Major Missteps, Celebrating Comey Day

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America dive into all things Comey as the former FBI Director gives his much awaited testimony. They point out that Comey confirmed President Trump’s contention that he was told three times that he was not under FBI investigation. They also highlight Trump’s inappropriate demands for Comey’s loyalty and the inconsistent reasons given for Comey’s firing. And they have some fun as Washington loses its mind with excitement over a congressional hearing.

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‘All About Nothing’

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Politicians and media are salivating over Wednesday’s Senate testimony from the top figures in the intelligence community and the opening testimony expected Thursday from former FBI Director James Comey concerning the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, but a former House intelligence committee chairman says so far nothing has really changed.

On Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein joined Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

While each of the men seemed reluctant to say there had been no prodding from the Trump administration on the Russia investigation, all of them rejected the idea that Trump or his team did anything inappropriate.

“In the three-plus years that I have been director of the National Security Agency, to the best of my recollection, I have never been directed to do anything I believe to be illegal, immoral, unethical or inappropriate,” said Adm. Rogers.  “And to the best of my collection, during that same period of service, I do not recall ever feeling pressured to do so.”

Former House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra says that is the most important takeaway from Wednesday.

“What the senators did learn is exactly what they needed to learn, that the heads of these agencies and these departments did not feel any pressure at all from the president or from the White House to stop their investigations of what Russia did in the 2016 election, said Hoekstra, who served 18 years in the House.  He is now chairman of Hoekstra Global Strategies.

He says those hoping for a room full of smoking guns came up empty.

“It really ended up being all about nothing.  I think there were people expecting that they’d hear more about conversations between President Trump and some of these individuals who work with him and that there might have been a revelation that said they felt pressure from the president.  Really, nothing materialized today,” said Hoekstra.

However, Hoekstra says he is glad to see strong bipartisan cooperation from the Senate committee, a process he says ought to bring confidence to the American people that the investigation is being handled responsibly.

That’s also what Hoekstra expects to materialize on Thursday, when the immensely hyped Comey testimony takes place before the same Senate committee.  On Wednesday, the committee released Comey’s opening statement for Thursday.

Both parties are already seizing on different passages.  Trump critics cite Comey’s contention that Trump demanded loyalty from Comey and repeatedly asked Comey to find a way to ease up on former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

At the same time, Comey seems to confirm that Trump himself was never personally under investigation and that Trump’s comments to him, while awkward and possibly inappropriate, did not constitute obstruction of justice or any other crime.

In the end Hoekstra suspects few minds will be changed.

“What the American people will probably see as a result is that the talking heads, for the next 24-48 hours, will both claim victory and some justification for their points of view.  Then we’ll get to next week and something else will take over the headlines,” said Hoekstra, who says investigators should then focus on where the evidence is screaming for them to go.

“(Special Counsel Robert) Mueller’s got to focus on what the original intent of this investigation was: the Russians.  What did the Russians do, not what did Trump do or what did Hillary do, what did their teams do or anything.  What did the Russians do?  That’s where the focus will hopefully now move to,” said Hoekstra.

Hoekstra says the American people will be the ultimate judges on whether the Democrats take their accusations too far.  He admits Republicans would be fiercely critical if Comey had ever suggested President Obama had asked for his loyalty or to go easy on a political ally.

Still, he says Republicans could do themselves a world of political good by actually doing what they promised to do, rather than letting the Russia story suck all the oxygen out of Washington.

“They’d like to have better roads, better bridges, more income, more jobs and those sorts of things.  They’re sick and tired of Washington,” said Hoekstra, who says there’s not reason for the GOP not to plow ahead on its legislative agenda.

As for the ongoing intelligence probe, Hoekstra says we also need to dig deeper into reports of extensive Obama administration surveillance on American citizens.

“I think there should be a lot of focus on the surveillance issue.  This is an issue that I’m not totally comfortable with.  I’d really like to better understand where NSA has evolved in terms of monitoring and unmasking Americans, where that has evolved to over the last seven to eight years since I’ve left the Hill,” said Hoekstra.

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Venezuela Ignores Aid

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Venezuelan officials are depriving citizens of much-needed medication and food by forcing U.S. non-profit groups to stop sending supplies. According to Fox News, the Venezuelan government is shutting down already over-restricted channels of aid by confiscating deliveries of essential items. Many U.S. agencies either cannot ship supplies in or even receive shipping permits at all, and some say they may stop aid altogether if something doesn’t change soon. Venezuelan politics are currently in turmoil as elections near in July, decreasing the likelihood of suppliers’ ability to continue their aid.

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Comey Won’t Allege Obstruction, Gripe Sessions, ISIS vs Iran

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America start the day reacting to reports that former FBI director James Comey will not accuse President Trump of trying to obstruct justice. They also sigh as tensions mount between President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions after Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation. And they are a bit surprised to see ISIS attacking Iran, but also see some benefit in two detestable entities focused on each other rather than targets in the West.

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The British Battle on Terrorism

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Cherished freedoms make the fight against radical Islam more difficult in the United States and the United Kingdom but the battle can be won through the ideas and by putting an end to cultural coddling of radical ideologies, according to a terrorism expert with extensive ties to the UK.

Frustrations over recent, deadly terrorist attacks in London and Manchester are more aggravated by stories revealing one of the terrorists was featured in a documentary called “The Jihadis Next Door” and made no secret about his support for jihad and that more than 20,000 people in the UK are of concern to authorities.

However, Anglosphere Society Founder Amanda Bowman says rounding up these suspects is much tougher to do in a free society.

“The problem that we are dealing with in the United States and the United Kingdom is that you can’t actually detain people until they do something, because in our countries we respect the right to speak out,” said Bowman, who also ran the New York office of the Center for Security Policy for eight years.

“We are now, both in the U.S. and the UK and in western Europe, the victims of our own tolerant societies and what makes it so worthwhile to be American or to be British,” said Bowman.

 

But that tolerance has a limit, as British Prime Minister Theresa May said in the wake of the London attacks.

“There is, to be frank, far too much tolerance of extremism in our country.  So we need to become far more robust in identifying it and stamping it out, across the public sector and across society.  That will require some difficult and often embarrassing conversations,” said May.

Bowman says May is right on target but has also contributed to the problem at times.

“I think she in many ways has, like much of the UK, in the name of multiculturalism, has been tolerant for the intolerant,” said Bowman.

Bowman says there has to be much stronger resistance to the Islamist ideology behind the attacks.

“We tolerate the intolerable and we don;t stand up and make our values the values that they need to embrace if they want to be part of British society.  That’s a lesson for Americans as well,” said Bowman.

Bowman says May has a tough balancing act in getting tough on radical Islam while also reaching out to Muslims for cooperation on who is actually planning to carry out deadly attacks.  She says May and others should be pointing out that it is in the best interest of Muslims to root out the evil from their midst.

“What she’s recognizing she has to do is to galvanize the more tolerant Muslim population so that they take on this as their problem and not look upon it as our problem.  They have to stand up and be British before they’re Muslim,” said Bowman.

A big part of that, says Bowman, is gutting the allure of terrorism.

“Part of the problem is that for a lot of these young people, it all seems very glamorous and it’s not.  It’s just wicked and evil and deeply against everything we stand for,” said Bowman.

Bowman says it’s impossible for any nation to marshal the resources to monitor 20,000 people 24 hours a day, but she says having vigilant eyes in key places is important, especially in the mosques.

“If you see something in your mosque, say something.  Much of this radicalization, while much of it is online, a great deal of it happens in the privacy of mosques with radical imams.  The United Kingdom has allowed radical imams in the name of free speech to speak out and to galvanize and to inspire these terrible acts,” said Bowman.

Bowman does expect May and the Conservative Party to win Thursday’s parliamentary elections, but by a much narrower margin than if the London and Manchester attacks had not taken place.  She says Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has his own issues in the wake of the attacks since he has aligned himself very publicly with some radical Islamic figures.

Thus, Bowman does not expect many May supporters to switch sides, but she does fear a substantial number will stay home.

 

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Reality Loses, Kaine’s Election Confusion, Trump’s Empty War Room

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America have a field day as government contractor Reality Winner is arrested for leaking classified information to the media. They also unload on Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, who tries to leave the impression that Russia manipulated the actual vote tallies in 2016 while also admitting that there is no evidence for it. And they discuss the Trump administration’s failed attempts to assemble a war room to push back against former FBI Director James Comey’s upcoming testimony.

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‘They Have to Do It By September’

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Republicans in the Senate have been pouring cold water on expectations of producing a health care reform bill anytime soon, but a leading health care expert says the GOP realistically has just over three months to get it done.

“If they’re going to do this with only 51 votes in the Senate, they have to do it by September,” said Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner.  “Frankly, I think they want to do it before the August recess so that they can get on with the rest of the agenda.”

The can officially start working on the bill now that House leaders have finally sent it to the upper chamber.  It was on hold while lawmakers waited on the Congressional Budget Office scoring of the bill to make sure their calculations on how the legislation would impact the deficit were accurate.  They were.

Despite moderate Republicans like Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Dean Heller, R-Nevada, saying the House bill was a non-starter for them, Turner suspects the final Senate version will end up looking pretty familiar.

“They will make some changes to the House bill and they will very much call it their own, but I think a lot of those structural elements of the safety net, the bridge to new coverage, the state flexibility on regulations and the Medicaid reform, I think we’re going to see all of that in there,” said Turner.

She says those four components are critical and are in the House bill: providing help for individual market consumers who no longer have reasonable coverage options, creating a transition to a market-based system, giving states more power to define plans and foster competition and changing Medicaid so it doesn’t devour state resources for all other priorities.

Turner says the House crafted it’s bill with Senate rules in mind.

“The House did try very hard to bend over backwards so that it’s version of the legislation complied with Senate rules,” she said.  “They didn’t want the Senate to have to change it too much.”

Still, Turner does expect the Senate to spend more tax dollars on providing for people with pre-existing conditions.

“The Senate is going to dial things back in different ways and probably provide even more protections than the House bill did for pre-existing conditions protections.  I do think that that has been an inflamed issue that is very much overstated,” said Turner.

“The House bill provided $138 billion to the states to be able to take care of people who have pre-existing conditions and have high health care costs.  All evidence is that would be more than enough to do it,” said Turner.

Turner also suspects the Senate may be less conservative in curtailing Medicaid expansion than the House bill.  And another issue that GOP moderates are likely to fight is the slashing of tax dollars for Planned Parenthood.

With the House bill passing precariously in May, it’s unclear what impact any substantial Senate changes will have on final passage.  But Turner warns the House that whatever they get back from the Senate – if they get anything back from the Senate – may be their one chance to get anything done this year and maybe in this Congress.

“I think everybody knows that whatever the Senate gets through, the House is going to have a very difficult time changing it.  I think it’s very likely going to be take it or leave it,” said Turner.

If we get to that point, Turner suspects voter outrage over the possibility of getting nothing done will likely compel passage of an imperfect bill.

“I don’t think any of them want to go back to the voters in 2018 next year and say, ‘Sorry, for four elections we told you we were going to repeal Obamacare and we just kind of couldn’t figure out how to do it.’  They all know they have to figure out how to do it,” said Turner.

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May Tougher on Terror, Known Wolf Overlooked, Trump’s Travel Ban Tweet Storm

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud British Prime Minister Theresa May for a much tougher statement following the London Bridge terrorism attack, while acknowledging the difficult free speech debate that is sure to follow. They also contemplate terror suspect profiling after one attacker appeared in the documentary “The Jihadis Next Door” and attempted to radicalize children in a local park, yet police let him go after questioning. And they express frustration over President’s Trump’s latest Twitter tirade over his travel ban.

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