Radio America Online News Bureau

Republicans

‘Wage the Battle’

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A strong America means secure borders, free trade, and putting American citizens first when focusing on national security and job creation, according to businessman turned congressional candidate Paul Nehlen.

Best known for his high-profile but unsuccessful primary challenge to House Speaker Paul Ryan in 2016, Nehlen is already running against Ryan in 2018 and is author of the brand new book “Wage the Battle: Putting America First in the Fight to Stop Globalist Politicians and Secure the Borders.”

The book focuses on several major goals, including restoring American sovereignty and reinvigorating American economic nationalism and an America-first foreign policy.

Nehlen has Fortune 500 business experience and points to success in bringing companies to the U.S. from all over the world.  He says America need policies that allow our workers to thrive because he knows they are second to none.

“Hands down, America is number one.  We have got just a fabulous workforce,” said Nehlen.  “There are pockets of great work forces out there.  I worked in Poland a lot.  They’re great.  But there’s nothing the American work forces can’t do, unless they are hamstrung by our government.”

He says convoluted government policies that play favorites in the economy is hurting our competitiveness.

“If, like Speaker Ryan, you try to give certain corporations a leg up on other small and mid-size businesses, you’re really undermining America.  We can’t have a strong military, we can’t have a strong nation unless we have strong trade,” said Nehlen.

Nehlen contends the current structure of our economy is a far cry from what it was intended to be.

“This country wasn’t founded on free trade deals.  This country was founded on protecting our manufacturing base, protecting our natural resources, and tilting the playing field in the favor of our manufacturers.  That’s not what’s happening now,” he said.

Instead, Nehlen says our current course has actually landed us in the midst of economic hostilities with multiple nations.

“We are literally at economic war with countries like China and South Korea and Taiwan, many of whom are manipulating their currency to undermine our ability to do business in the global marketplace.  That has to stop,” said Nehlen.

According to Nehlen, even the recent history of American trade agreements shows the government is choking the freedom out of our trade relationships.

“Back in 1985, we negotiated a free trade agreement with Israel and it was 13 pages long,” said Nehlen.  “Fast forward about 10 years, they passed NAFTA.  It’s 1,700 pages long.  Fast forward another couple decades, the Trans-Pacific Partnership comes along, 5,500 pages.  There is nothing free about trade that is described in 5,500 pages.  It just doesn’t happen.”

Nehlen is thrilled that Trump is more than making good on his pledge to eliminate two regulations for new one placed on the books, operating at a clip of scrapping approximately 16 regulations for every new one.  But he says that success has a lot of people wanting to share the credit, including the Speaker of the House.

“We see Speaker Ryan trying to take credit for that now.  He’s had 18 years in Congress and he’s abdicated his role to the executive branch.  Now he’s trying to take credit for what the executive branch is doing,” said Nehlen.

Congress has yet to approve funds for the construction of a border wall, which was one of President Trump’s most common promises on the campaign trail.  Democrats threatened to shut down the government when a spending bill was approved in April.  Now, reports suggest Republicans are still reluctant to approve the funds.

Nehlen is appalled.

“I’m disgusted with this Congress not voting on the wall and essentially just attaching some spending which will get us about 60 miles of new border fence,” said Nehlen.

“It’s ridiculous.  I’ve been to the border and there are areas of the border where there is – they call it Jurassic Park – the fencing looks like enormous spikes coming up out of concrete.  Adjacent to it is your normal, run of the mill barbed wire, put up by ranchers to keep their steer from going into Mexico because the water is inches deep.  To suggest we’ve got the border secured is absurd,” he said.

 

Getting the wall done is right at the top of an ambitious laundry list that Nehlen hopes to accomplish if elected to Congress.

“One would be to advocate for this wall.  Another would be to advocate for national reciprocity for anybody who has concealed carry.  If you leave your state and go to another state, you shouldn’t have to relinquish the ability to protect yourself,” said Nehlen.

He would also slam on the brakes when it comes to refugee resettlement.

“Nine voluntary organizations – they’re not really voluntary – are getting paid by U.S. taxpayers to move people, predominantly Muslim – 99-plus percent I might add – to the United States.  We are funding our own demise right now.  It has got to stop,” said Nehlen, who also wants Congress to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

“We have got to get the Muslim Brotherhood out of the United States.  We have got to root them out.  That will roll back 60 years of their efforts to undermine the United States from within,” said Nehlen.

One reviewer declared Nehlen’s book a plan of action for Trump-like candidates.  It’s a label Nehlen welcomes.

“I am very flattered by that.  That is exactly why I wrote the book, because we need hundreds of good, righteous candidates who believe in securing the border and putting American workers, American retirees, and American children first,” said Nehlen.

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GOP Obamacare Debacle, Scaramucci’s Loose Screw, Politics Plunge NFL Ratings

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America condemn Republican Senators John McCain, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski for failing to deliver on their campaign promises to repeal and replace Obamacare during a vote late Thursday night, while also stressing the mistakes made by GOP leaders and the major flaws in the “skinny repeal”.  Jim mocks new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci for threats and vulgar comments about his colleagues, underscoring already fractious conditions in the new administration.  In an attempt to end the week on a good note, Jim and Greg discuss a new poll showing that more fans stopped watching the NFL last season because of the national anthem protests than for any other reason.

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Sessions Supporters Rally, Healthcare Hypocrisy, Will Spicer Dance With Stars?

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud Republicans for backing Attorney General Jeff Session even in the midst of President’s Trumps invective against him, including the warning from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley that there is no time left in 2017 to consider another person as attorney general. They express their continuing disgust as six Senate Republicans who voted to repeal Obamacare in 2015 refused to do so now. And they fume as former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor admits Republicans never believed they could repeal Obamacare if they took back control of Congress but used voter anger and expectations to win elections. Finally, rumors are swirling that former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer might join the cast of the ABC reality show, Dancing With the Stars.

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‘They Have Promised This for the Last Four Election Cycles’

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Republican hopes of repealing or even drastically reforming Obamacare appear more bleak than ever after enough lawmakers emerged in the past day to scuttle an amended health care bill and sink a promised vote on a repeal bill.

Nonetheless, free market health advocates believe there is a way for this Congress to make headway while the GOP still controls the levers of power in Washington.

Moderates and conservatives are glum Tuesday.  Senate Republican leaders were clinging to hopes of squeaking their amended bill through, even after Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., announced their plans to vote against the motion to proceed to the bill, albeit for completely different reasons.

However, on Monday evening, Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, publicly opposed the plan for not doing enough to eliminate taxes, reduce premiums, or kill regulations.  With all 48 Democrats firmly opposed, four GOP defections spelled defeat for the legislation.

“I think there are just too many factions within this Republican caucus and with only two votes to spare, there just was not enough room for differences of opinion,” said Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner.

She says moderates were not willing to give up the federal Medicaid dollars.

“You’ve got the moderates who are very worried about losing the incredibly generous Medicaid match that their states are getting.  Most of them are from states that expanded Medicaid.  Remember, the federal government initially paid a hundred percent of the cost of the usually joint federal-state program if the states would put more people on their Medicaid rolls,” said Turner.

She says conservatives had their own reasons to balk at the larger GOP bill.

“Many conservatives are worried, rightly, about the regulations in Obamacare that are so difficult to reach through this narrow pathway that the Senate has to pass legislation with only a simple majority of votes,” said Turner.

“There’s some conservatives, like Rand Paul, who feel that any effort to try to do something else to provide subsidies to people going forward is really perpetuating Obamacare,” said Turner.

In response, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would bring forward a bill to repeal much of Obamacare and trigger a two-year sunset to give lawmakers time to craft a replacement.  While hailed by conservatives, those hopes were also soon dashed as Collins and Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, revealed they would not vote on a repeal without seeing a replacement bill.

Both Capito and Murkowski voted for the same repeal bill in 2015 despite the absence of a replacement plan.  President Obama vetoed the earlier repeal.

Turner says lawmakers act differently when a bill has no chance of becoming law than when it does.

“They knew President Obama was going to veto it, so there’s a difference between messaging and governing,” said Turner.

With Senate leaders unable to bridge the narrow divide between conservatives and moderates and the straight repeal apparently headed to defeat, many on the right believe it’s time to move on to other priorities.

Turner says that is not an option.

“They can’t not do something on repealing Obamacare.  They have promised this for the last two election cycles.  Every single member is going to have to go to his or her constituents and explain why, after all of this debate over Obamacare, they can’t get it done,” said Turner.  “They known they have to do something.”

President Trump now suggests he may just let Obamacare collapse and blame Democrats since they did nothing to solve the problem.  Turner says that strategy won’t work.

“They are going to be blamed for the millions of people that would lose coverage if nothing is done because these exchanges are failing, insurance companies are signing up to provide coverage next year because they are losing so much money providing so-called insurance under Obamacare rules that don’t work,” said Turner.

“Republicans own it.  How can you have the White House and both houses of Congress and say that you don’t own this problem,” said Turner.

That being said, Turner is also slamming Democrats for asserting that Republican promises to repeal Obamacare are creating uncertainty among insurers and that is why premiums and deductibles are skyrocketing, rather than the Obamacare provisions themselves.

“That is just so completely beyond the realm of reality.  The reason that costs are going up under Obamacare is because of the flawed structure of the bill that, for one thing, encourages people to wait until they’re sick to sign up for coverage and that provides all sorts of opportunities for people to drop coverage and game the system,” said Turner.

She still holds out hope that lawmakers will send power back to the states to address health care problems in the most effective way.

“Washington-centralized solutions are not the answer, whether Republicans are developing them or Democrats are developing them,” said Turner.

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‘All Because of This Stupid Obamacare’

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Senate Republican leaders are still scrambling to craft a health care bill capable of attracting 50 GOP votes, and while  success appears elusive right now, a prominent House conservative still believes a good bill can get passed thanks to the pressure from voters and the resolve of President Trump.

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the revised Senate GOP will be revealed on Thursday.  The first bill was shelved after several conservatives said it didn’t do enough to repeal Obamacare, while half a dozen or more moderates worried that it didn’t provide enough Medicaid spending or other federal assistance.

Democrats are increasingly brazen about their pursuit of single payer, a euphemism for government-run health care.  They also accuse Republicans of seeking to repeal various Obamacare taxes as a means of benefiting the rich while millions of poor people scramble for coverage which would no longer be mandatory.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, says that’s complete fiction.

“It’s the rank-and-file, middle class and people that are just struggling to get by, that have been hurt more over the last eight years than in the last hundred years.  They’re the ones whose health care is hurting.  It’s not the rich guys.  We’re not going to help them.  They’re all set,” said Gohmert.

“We’ve got to help that just don’t have much, that are often referred to as poor and the middle class, that are working and doing everything to provide for health care for their families,” said Gohmert, who says those families are very stressed over skyrocketing premiums they can’t afford and don’t even provide much in benefits because their deductibles are also stratospheric.

However, Gohmert is fully aware of the problems the GOP is having in cobbling together 50 votes for anything in the Senate.  While he says most Republicans have good intentions, others are gumming up the works with demands for big spending.

“There are others, including some Republicans, who say, ‘If we’re going to give people their freedom back, then you’re going to have to give us this many billions of dollars.  Those people, if they want their freedom, when it comes to health care, they’re going to have to pony up tens of billions of more dollars before we let them have their freedom back,” said Gohmert.

“Really?  Republicans are going to make people buy their own freedom?  That’s just untenable,” said Gohmert.

Despite the rock road on Capitol Hill, Gohmert believes something effective can make it out of Congress, and he says the resolve of President Trump is the main reason for his optimism.

“One of the things that gives me that hope is having a president that says he’s not going to take no for an answer,” said Gohmert.

While Democrats expound on the horrors that would accompany a GOP health bill, Gohmert says there’s no theorizing about the damage done by Obamacare.  He says he hears about it all the time from constituents.

“Business owner after business owner in my district and from around the country have complained directly saying, ‘Look, this is killing us.  We want to hire more people, but we can’t because of Obamacare and that 50-employee limit you’ve got and the part time hours that were changed,” said Gohmert.

“People come up to me in tears saying, ‘Look, I’ve had to go to two part-time jobs now and I lost the benefits I had, all because of this stupid Obamacare,'” said Gohmert.

He also says seniors are feeling the brunt of President Obama’s slashing of more than $700 billion in Medicare spending.

“(Before Obamacare, if) they needed a procedure, they could get it done immediately.  Now, they’re given months to wait on a waiting list.  This is where rationed health care goes and it’s what happens when the government is put in charge of people’s health care,” said Gohmert.

Gohmert says he hears from many supporters who are resigned to single payer as a result of Republicans being unable to get a bill passed.  The congressman says he will never concede that.

“I’m not giving up.  There’s too many people in this Congress who want to do what we said.  We’ve just got to push the leaders of the Senate, and maybe our own leader some, to get it done effectively,” said Gohmert.

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‘Do What You Told the Voters You Were Going to Do’

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says it may not be possible to unite 50 Republicans on any health care overhaul and that the only action may be a collaboration with Democrats to adjust certain parts of the system, an evaluation that a leading House conservative finds unacceptable.

On Thursday, McConnell told a town hall-style event in Kentucky that political realities inside the Senate Republican Conference make it very difficult to find consensus.

“I’m in the position of a guy with a Rubik’s cube, trying to twist the dial in such a way to get at least 50 members of my conference who can agree to a version of repealing and replacing” said McConnell, according to NBC News. “That is a very timely subject that I’m grappling with as we speak.”

 

“If Republicans are not able to agree among themselves, the crisis will still be there and we’ll have to figure out the way forward at that point,” added McConnell, who later said that could mean working with Democrats to provide options for Americans in the individual insurance marketplace but have no plans available where they live.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who is also a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, says Republicans had an obvious path to avoiding this political mess.

“Sometimes we forget what our responsibilities are in Congress.  Some are pretty basic.  Do what you told the voters you were going to do.  We were very clear over the last six years when we told the American people we were going to repeal Obamacare.  That’s what we should have done.  That’s what the Freedom Caucus proposed,” said Jordan.

Jordan wanted the same approach in the House but didn’t get it.

“I actually introduced that clean repeal, the same bill we voted on [in 2015] that we put on President’s Obama’s desk, we thought we should put it on President Trump’s desk and have a two-year phaseout where we had time to do the replacement.  Unfortunately, that’s not the path that was chosen by our leadership,” said Jordan.

While congressional leaders insist Senate rules limit what legislation can pass with a simple majority of votes, Jordan says the passage of the 2015 repeal proves otherwise.  On December 3, 2015, the Senate approved the Obamacare repeal by a vote of 52-47.

All current Republican senators who were in office then voted for the repeal, with the lone exception of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

As many as 14 Republicans have expressed opposition or reservations about the Senate bill, which McConnell pulled off the Senate schedule late last month.  Some insist Congress must make good on vows to repeal and replace Obamacare and make sure that any legislation drives down the cost of premiums.

But moderates who are opposed to the measure are upset that there is not a greater role for government, as they demand more generous Medicaid expansion, Planned Parenthood funding, billions for opioid addition treatment or other priorities.

Despite the individual issues raised, Jordan says there’s a more discouraging fact behind the GOP’s inability to move this effort more smoothly.

“When you boil it all down, read Byron York’s column a few months back, where he said that the reason that Republicans aren’t doing a full repeal is because some Republicans don’t want to repeal Obamacare.

Jordan suggests that fact can be seen in how some GOP members are worried about limiting Medicaid expansion just 18 months after backing a much more conservative approach.

“That bill said Medicaid expansion goes away after two years.  You don’t add to it.  You don’t phase it out.  It’s done.  It’s a two-year wind down and the expansion part is no longer the law.  That’s what we passed a year ago.  Now we can’t do it, so that’s the frustrating thing for all of us,” said Jordan.

But all hope is not lost.  Jordan says the Senate could be salvaged from a conservative perspective if lawmakers there embrace an amendment from Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah.

“The Cruz Amendment creates what we call freedom of choice or a consumer choice option, which would say as long as an insurance company provides one plan in each category that meets with all the Obamacare regulations, they could then also offer any other plan that consumers and patients also want,” said Jordan.

“That would be moving us back toward a market that would bring down premiums for so many families and just makes good common sense to me.  If that amendment goes in, I think the bill is good and you would see conservatives support it on the House side.  Let’s see if that amendment gets in the Senate bill,” said Jordan.

While some Republicans in Washington bemoan the complexity of the issue and the legislative process, Jordan says the business owners and families in his district see things very clearly.

“Traveling in our district, we hear from employers all the time.  Even this morning they said, ‘Here’s what’s happened to our health care costs.  These aren’t even people who are in the small group or the individual market.  They’re in the large group market.  They’re costs are going up too.

“They want changes.  They know what Obamacare has done.  They want changes there, they want changes in the tax code.  They want us to do what we said.  They want us to secure the border,” said Jordan.

“Let’s get after doing what we told them we were going to do.  After all, that’s what our job is.  We better get doing that and the sooner the better,” said Jordan.

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‘You Said It’s What You’re Going to Do’

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Senate Republican leaders are not offering an specifics on their health care reform bill but reports of critical concessions in at least three major areas leave skeptical conservatives worried that years worth of Obamacare repeal promises are wilting before our eyes.

In recent weeks, reports have described the difficulty of Republicans in cobbling together 50 or 51 votes to advance an Obamacare overhaul.  As a result, leaders are reportedly considering a more generous approach to Medicare expansion, effectively adopting the Obamacare approach to people with pre-existing conditions and, most recently, allowing tax payer funding of Planned Parenthood to continue.

Former Virginia Attorney General and current Senate Conservatives Fund President Ken Cuccinelli says efforts to make everyone happy appear to have taken any meaningful teeth out of the legislation.

“I’m concerned anytime (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell is talking the way he is.  A deal to Mitch McConnell to you and me means capitulation,” said Cuccinelli, who was also the 2013 Republican nominee for Virginia governor.

He says if McConnell embraces a badly watered-down bill, he is breaking promises he clearly made while running for re-election in 2014.

“I remember, ‘Root and branch.  We’re going to pull it out root and branch,'” said Cuccinelli, mimicking McConnell’s 2014 declaration.  “[He ] paid for over 30,000 anti-Obamacare ads in October alone for his re-election in 2014.  He apparently had no intention of keeping those promises.”

But it wasn’t just McConnell.  Every Republican senator has campaigned on addressing Obamacare, with the vast majority vowing to repeal and replace the 2010 law.  What has changed now that the GOP is in a position to do something about it?

“A lot of them lie.  That’s the sad truth that is now being brought home to us,” said Cuccinelli, who also has no use for the argument that dealing with Obamacare is far more complex than a simple repeal vote.

“They love to tell us how complicated it is.  What that means is, ‘You’re stupid and I’m the smart senator.  You don’t know what you’re talking about so you should just adopt my soft, unprincipled position that, oh by the way, is not what I campaigned on,'” said Cuccinelli.

“It’s demeaning to the American people.  It’s patronizing.  It’s elitist and it’s a lie,” said Cuccinelli.

Rather than try to mollify every critic, Cuccinelli says there’s a much simpler way for lawmakers to proceed – do what they promised voters they would do.

“They didn’t say, ‘We’re going to undo parts of it.’  They didn’t say, ‘This is complicated and I’m going to simplify it.’  They said they were going to repeal it.  There was a good article by one of the Fox (News) contributors a little while ago about simply doing what you say you’re going to do.

“Will some people not like it?  Yeah, some people will not like it, but you said it’s what you were going to do,” said Cuccinelli.

Cuccinelli points to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial effort to ease the grip of unions on state government as an example of honoring your word in a tough environment.

“We saw the largest protest in the state capital we have ever seen, 100,000 people.  They physically shut the place down with their obstruction.  Scott Walker and the Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature soldiered on and did what they said they would do,” said Cuccinelli.

He says the voters ultimately rewarded that consistency when opponents were able to put a recall election on the ballot.

“Guess what?  The people who had been largely silent, the people of Wisconsin, came back out and returned Scott Walker to office with essentially the same margin as his first election.  He got re-elected again three years after that,” said Cuccinelli.

“The moral of the story is even when people disagree with you, they respect it when you keep your word, even when it’s hard,” said Cuccinelli.

While the House has passed a bill, Cuccinelli says it also is not what voters were promised.  He says President Trump’s biggest mistake was to let GOP leaders lead the process.

“One of the mistakes…was for the White House to turn this over to (House Speaker) Paul Ryan.  What they got was a donor bill.  They did not get a repeal bill.  That’s what the House leadership does.  They caucus with donors,” said Cuccinelli.

Contending that repealing the burdensome regulations in Obamacare is of top priority, Cuccinelli points out that the House bill only address one and a half out of 24 key regulations in the law.

Cuccinelli was the first attorney general in the United States to challenge the Affordable Care Act in court after it was passed into law.  He doesn’t understand why Republicans in Washington don’t just vote on a full repeal.

“They ought to put a real repeal bill up and have a vote.  If you lose Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, that’s still 50 (votes).  And Rand Paul will vote for a real repeal.  He just won’t vote for the other junk.  Then the vice president can break that tie,” said Cuccinelli.

He also says it’s not out of the question for vulnerable Democrats up for re-election in red states next year to get on board.

Cuccinelli and other conservatives balked at the original version of the House’s American Health Care Act, or AHCA.  Most conservatives only got on board after amendments were added to ensure premiums would not increase, even in the short term.

Cuccinelli sees a lot of the same problems emerging in the Senate.

“If we get to an insurance situation instead of a mandate situation, then the bill may be OK.  But if you’re having community rating and forcing pre-existing conditions, it’s not insurance any longer.  It’s a welfare program, which is what Obamacare is right now.

“Until they move it from a welfare program to insurance, where risk is assessed and priced and the market can determine where people land, then it’s not going to be an acceptable bill,” said Cuccinelli.

And would these concessions impact costs to consumers?

“It isn’t going to lower premiums, critically.  All the while, Obamacare is crashing around their ears.  It’s amazing.  How destroyed does this concept have to be until they reject it.  This is classic government.  ‘If it’s broke, do more of what you did before,'” said Cuccinelli.

The reported consideration allowing taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood would be designed to assuage Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.  Cuccinelli says Murkowski’s stand on this component is particularly galling.

“Lisa Murkoswki has been against funding Planned Parenthood during her campaigns and has viciously fought for it after she’s elected.  This is not the first time for Sen. Murkowski to lie to Alaskans about this and to flip back to her pro-abortion position,” said Cuccinelli, asserting no one with that record should be a chairman in a GOP-run Senate.

 

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Why Comey Had to Go

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While the media and politicians from both parties look for deeper reasons for President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James B. Comey, a former Justice Department official says the decision was long overdue and needed for obvious reasons.

Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Victoria Toensing says she and others in the the justice and law enforcement community urged Trump to dismiss Comey from day one.

“It just came too late, 109 days too late.  Those of us in the swamp knew who the alligators were in the swamp, and we all tried to warn the White House and they didn’t listen to us,” said Toensing, who also served as a federal prosecutor.

And why did they implore Trump to fire him?

“Comey was a narcissist.  It was all about Comey and he delighted in wanting to bring down powerful people if they were Republicans,” said Comey.

Toensing also points to how Comey, during his days as deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration, tapped his close friend, Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the alleged exposing of a covert CIA operative.

That probe resulted in a criminal conviction for Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney.  But that’s not who Fitzgerald really wanted.

“Throughout that investigation, Scooter’s lawyer was told consistently by the Fitzgerald people, ‘If you give up Dick Cheney, this will all go away.’  They were trying to bring down Dick Cheney, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Comey was talking with Fitzgerald while he was doing this,” said Toensing, who represents Libby in his quest for a presidential pardon.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration released its rationale for the Comey firing, focusing on his public announcement that no charges should be filed against Hillary Clinton in the wake of the FBI probe into her use of a private, unsecured server through which she sent and received classified information while she served as Secretary of State.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein accused Comey of usurping the authority of the attorney general in making such a pronouncement and for exposing Clinton’s misdeeds when he was effectively closing the investigation.

But Toensing says Comey made far more mistakes, starting with his repeated misstating of the statute in question.  Comey insisted that intent to break the law was required to bring charges, while gross negligence is the standard laid out in federal law.  She also savaged Comey for refusing to impanel a grand jury to probe Clinton and for allowing the same attorney to represent multiple witnesses in the case.

“That’s called a conflict of interest, because that lawyer can get all of her clients together and they can all read from the same music.  You never do that,” said Toensing.

Toensing is also dismissing the intense reaction from Democrats, who she says are now appalled after calling for Comey’s head for months.  She says the idea that Trump fired Comey because of the ongoing Russia investigation is ridiculous and so are any comparisons to Richard Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre.”

“In Watergate, there was a crime.  There was a burglary.  There was a break-in.  What’s the crime here?  What’s the crime?  Do we have a crime?  No, there’s no crime,” said Toensing, noting that Russian involvement in U.S. elections is nothing new.

“That’s been going on since Richard Nixon.  Why is it all of a sudden an issue this time, just because Hillary lost?  If Hillary had won, there would not be any inquiry into whatever the Russians did regarding this election process,” said Toensing.

Toensing is also upset with congressional Republicans, both for not doing more at recent hearings to point out that Russian interference in elections is not the same as collusion with the Trump campaign.  She also says the past 24 hours show Democrats are far better at messaging than the GOP.

Finally, Toensing believes former New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly would be an ideal successor to Comey at the FBI and is someone who has worked for Republicans and Democrats.

“He is a lifetime career cop.  That’s what we need at the FBI now to gain confidence,” said Toensing.

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DNC Admits Rigging Primary, GOP Flops on Spending, Trump’s Maybes

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America get a kick out of the Democratic National Committee arguing in court that it can’t be sued for fraud because everyone knew the 2016 nomination process was rigged.  They also grumble at Republicans for giving the Democrats virtually everything they wanted on the latest spending bill.  And they express frustration with the media for running breathless headlines every time Pres. Trump says he’s considering something, but they also wonder what other things they could get Trump to publicly mull over.

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Three Martini Lunch 3/22/17

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America shake their heads as Republicans fight over health care reform after telling Americans it would be easy to repeal and replace.  They’re also disgusted as school officials in Maryland seem far more concerned about protecting the reputation of illegal immigrants than condemning the rape of a 14-year-old girl, allegedly by two teens in the U.S. illegally.  And they get a kick out of Susan Rice lecturing the Trump administration about the importance of being honest and factual with the public and our allies.

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