Governor blasts GOP in defense of ‘infanticide’ remarks

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (Wikimedia Commons)

One day after he sparked outrage by apparently defending infanticide after a botched abortion, Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam accused Republicans of spreading “misinformation” about his comments and the late-term abortion bill that prompted the discussion.

“We’re here to set the record straight. Virginia Democrats are on the side of ensuring women get the health care they need,” he said, according to CBS News.

He said Republicans were being uncivil in their response to the bill, which would allow abortion up to the point of birth if the mother’s “health” was at risk.” That exception is typically broadly interpreted, meaning a third-trimester abortion could be allowed in virtually any case.

“These comments that have made, the questions that have been asked, are nothing more than political points,” Northam said.

He said the majority-male legislators in the House of Delegates should not interfere in women’s reproductive health choices. New York’s state legislature passed a bill similar to Virginia’s last week that was signed by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Mark Herring, the Democratic attorney general, insisted claims by Republicans that Northam supports infanticide “would be laughable if it wasn’t such a grotesque” idea.

The governor discussed the bill Wednesday in an interview with WTOP radio in Washington.

“When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of obviously the mother, with the consent of the physicians, more than one physician, by the way,” Northam said.

“And it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus that’s non-viable. So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother. So I think this was really blown out of proportion.”

Trump: ‘Terrible’ comments

President Trump said in an interview with the Daily Caller that Northam’s comments were “terrible” and would “lift up the whole pro-life movement like maybe it’s never been lifted up before.”

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted, “This is horrific.”

The Republican Party of Virginia said Thursday that Northam’s short press conference that went nowhere and said nothing,” charging him with attempting “to pull the wool over Virginia’s eyes.”

“Northam didn’t talk about the horrendous interview he did yesterday, but rather went out of his way to say that it was the fault of Republicans that his unedited, on-camera words were interpreted the way they were,” the party statement said.

“Governor Northam’s press conference was a disaster,” said RPV Chairman Jack Wilson. “He only took three questions and still dodged every single one of them. Ralph Northam needs to own up to his abhorrent comments and stop gas-lighting the women of Virginia.”

With Republicans holding a narrow majority in Virginia’s House of Delegates, the bill is unlikely to pass soon. In a 5-3 vote Monday, a subcommittee tabled it.

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Rand Paul’s attacker must pay $585,000 in damages

(Townhall) The man who violently attacked Senator Rand Paul while he was mowing his lawn in Kentucky, leaving him severely injured, has been ordered by a jury to pay $580,000 in damages. Paul filed a lawsuit against Rene Boucher after suffering a number of broken ribs and long term damage to his body in 2017.

“A Kentucky jury on Wednesday awarded $375,000 in punitive damages and $200,000 for pain and suffering, plus $7,834 for medical expenses,” the Associated Press reported Wednesday. “Paul said afterward that he hopes the jury’s verdict sends a “clear message that violence is not the answer.”

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Former Dem Party boss charged with falsifying absentee ballots

(Stamford Advocate) John Mallozzi, the city’s former Democratic Party chief, was arrested Wednesday on charges of absentee ballot fraud in the 2015 municipal election. He allegedly forged ballots for relatives, Spanish-speaking residents and Albanian-Americans new to the election system, according to the State’s Attorney’s Office.

Mallozzi was charged with 14 counts each of filing false statements and second-degree forgery. He turned himself in to Stamford police on the charges, both Class D felonies punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000 per count.

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Trump to tap Herman Cain for Fed board?

(Reuters) U.S. President Donald Trump is considering former pizza chain executive and presidential candidate Herman Cain for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, a senior administration official said on Thursday.

Cain met with Trump at the White House on Wednesday, the official said. A decision on the nomination, which would need Senate approval, is not final.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Through an assistant, Cain declined to comment. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.

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Florida guv to eliminate Common Core by executive order

(WFTS) Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday he is issuing an executive order to eliminate Common Core from Florida schools.

“One of the things we would constantly hear about on the campaign trail is frustration from parents with Common Core and the testing,” said Gov. DeSantis at a news conference at Ida S. Baker High School in Cape Coral.

The Governor said he wants to work with the Florida Department of Education, as well as speak with teachers and parents about their experiences with Common Core.

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House Dems raise pay for federal employees guilty of sexual misconduct

(Daily Signal) The House’s Democratic majority voted Wednesday to give pay raises to federal employees who were disciplined for sexual misconduct.

Democrats blocked a Republican measure that would have prevented any federal employee disciplined for sexual harassment or other sexual misconduct from getting a salary increase.

House Republicans pushed the measure amid the “Me Too” movement of women who have been sexually assaulted or harassed, which has pointed to several male members of Congress for inappropriate behavior toward female employees.

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Sarah Sanders: God wanted Trump to be president

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders believes God wanted her boss to become president of the United States.

“I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times, and I think that He wanted Donald Trump to become president,” she said in an interview Wednesday with CBN News.

“That’s why he’s there, and I think he has done a tremendous job in supporting a lot of the things that people of faith really care about,” she added.

The interview in her West Wing office with CBN News Chief Political Analyst David Brody and Senior Washington Correspondent Jennifer Wishon also touched on other issues. They included immigration, anti-Semitism, the morality of a border wall, persecuted Christians in Syria, the White House press briefings, the state of the Democratic Party and her Christian faith.

Asked about the anti-Semitic statements of some freshmen Democrats in Congress, she pointed to party leadership.

“Where’s the leadership on the Democrats’ side to call this out? It is unbelievable that this is going totally unchecked, totally off the radar of most of the mainstream media,” she said.

Regarding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s view that a border wall is immoral, Sanders said “it’s very hard at this point to even take a lecture from Democrats on what is moral and what isn’t.”

She cited the New York law passed last week allowing late-term abortion and the proposal this week to remove ‘So help me God’ from the oath taken by witnesses testifying before the House.

Sanders said “the idea that protecting the people of your country, which is the fundamental duty of being president of the United States would in some way be immoral is a ridiculous charge.”

She said Trump will continue to have an active role in negotiations over funding the border well.

‘Most conservative president ever’

Sanders addressed concerns that pulling U.S. troops out of Syria will put persecuted Christians, Kurds and other ethnic minorities at risk.

“The president’s made clear that we support Christians, that we support the Kurds,” Sanders said. “He’s made that clear to Turkey, he’s made that clear publicly on a number of fronts, and just one of the reasons that the president has been tough on Iran is to make sure that people don’t feel threatened.”

She said the administration has supported the safe zones, “and the idea that the president is just stepping away and ignoring any potential problem doesn’t understand the fundamental decision that he’s made.”

She believes Trump is “the most conservative president that we’ve ever had.”

“You look at the judicial nominations alone; I think that will be one of the greatest legacies that the president has after his eight years in office is how he has completely remade the judiciary and started to stop this activist court that we’ve started to see over the last eight years,” she told CBN News.

“There’s a reason evangelicals are sticking with the president, and that’s because he’s delivered on all the things he said he would do.”

Seeking the ‘gotcha moment’

She addressed the decision to drastically reduce the frequency of White House press briefings.

“Whether or not there’s a daily press briefing, people in the administration, myself included, do regular interviews as I’m doing right now, after a lot of those interviews stop and take questions outside where anybody, any reporter is allowed to come and ask questions,” Sanders said.

“I think the White House, in general, is the most accessible when it comes to the media.”

She noted there was a briefing this week, but CNN and MSNBC didn’t cover it.

“So, I think that the biggest thing is that they just want to complain and attack this administration and this president, and they don’t want to cover all of the successes because that’s not good for the narrative that they’re trying to drive.”

She said the “sole purpose” of many in the press corps “is to find this gotcha moment, to catch you.”

“And I think if the briefing loses purpose and it isn’t a good resource for the American people to get information and answers to real questions then you do have to wonder if that’s the best form in order to put a message out.”

Sanders said her Christian faith helps her every day.

“The goal is to be the best version of who God created us and who he called us to be,” Sanders told CBN News.

“Some days I do that better than others, but the goal is always to be open about my faith. I think it’s part of the reason it gives me a sense of calm when I’m in that room.”

‘Mommy guilt’

As the mother to three children under the age of seven, Sanders was asked if she struggles with mommy guilt.

“Oh, every single day,” she said. “I mean, one of the hardest things I do every day is just go to work. My kids are clinging to me crying, ‘why are you leaving, why are you going to work?’ and to explain to a 6, 5, and 3-year-old what you do and why it’s important is nearly impossible.

She said her “amazing” husband “keeps our whole life afloat and without him, and without that support system it would be totally impossible to do this job.”

Sanders added that “at the same time I think it’s so important for our kids to see us engage on things that matter.”

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Brennan ‘nuked’ after latest Trump-bashing

Ex-CIA Director John Brennan

John Brennan, the former CIA director whose security clearance was withdrawn by President Trump, has been bashing the president regularly on social media.

The latest example came this week when he accused Trump of “intellectual bankruptcy.”

Brennan even charged it is the president who is “the danger” to national security.

But this time he was “nuked” by Dan Bongino, reports the Twitter news site Twitchy.

“KABOOM: Dan Bongino drops a MASSIVE self-awareness nuke on Trump-triggered former CIA Director John Brennan,” the headline said.

“Former CIA Director John Brennan is again highly troubled, in a very dramatic way, about President Trump and his comments about the intel community, specifically in reference to Iran,” the site said.

Brennan had posted on Twitter: “Your refusal to accept the unanimous assessment of U.S. intelligence on Iran, No. Korea, ISIS, Russia, & so much more shows the extent of your intellectual bankruptcy. All Americans, especially members of Congress, need to understand the danger you pose to our national security.”

The president had said: “The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naïve when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong! When I became President Iran was making trouble all over the Middle East, and beyond. Since ending the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, they are MUCH different, but …”

Bongino charged Brennan has “weaponized the intelligence operation he headed to politically attack a political candidate he disagreed with.”

This guy weaponized the intelligence operation he headed to politically attack a political candidate he disagreed with. https://t.co/yc14Is4Tl9

— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) January 30, 2019

Bongino’s charge drew a flood of suggestions for Brennan, such as:  “Why is Brennan not under investigation? When can we see his house being raided by the FBI?”

A cartoon showed Brennan holding a “Trump Secret Campaign Files” folder and saying, “We were spying on Trump to protect him.”

Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, has presented evidence that Brennan was the “quarterback” in the Obama administration of a scheme to spy on the Trump campaign.

“You understand that John Brennan was the puppet master of the entire scheme to violate the civil liberties of Donald Trump and his team? John Brennan was that guy,” Bongino said in an interview last fall with the Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson.

Bongino pointed out that on Aug. 25, 2016, Brennan briefed then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on the Hill about elements in the still unverified “dossier” funded by the Democratic Party “that then made it into a letter from Harry Reid to the FBI.”

The salacious claims against Trump from Russian sources later were used as the basis for obtaining a warrant to spy on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page.

“And we’re supposed to trust this guy?” Bongino said of Brennan. “This guy should get off Twitter and hire a lawyer.”

Brennan’s security clearance was revoked last August by President Trump, who claimed the former CIA director “has recently leveraged his status … to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations, wild outbursts on the internet and on television, about this administration.”

Bongino noted Brennan told NBC’s Chuck Todd and others that he still has no hard evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton.

“Yet, he weaponized the government to attack Donald Trump,” Bongino said.

In a New York Times op-ed, Brennan called President Trump’s revocation of his security clearance “politically motivated” and an attempt to “scare others who might challenge him.”

He said Trump’s claims that his campaign did not collude with Russia are “hogwash.”

“The only questions that remain,” Brennan claimed at the time, “are whether the collusion that took place constituted criminally liable conspiracy, whether obstruction of justice occurred to cover up any collusion or conspiracy, and how many members of ‘Trump Incorporated’ attempted to defraud the government by laundering and concealing the movement of money into their pockets.”

However, as evidence, Brennan pointed to Trump’s comment in front of TV cameras during the 2016 campaign that the Russians should find Hillary Clinton’s “30,000 emails that are missing,” which appeared to be done in jest.

Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, then said: “I’m gonna tell you who orchestrated, who was the quarterback for all of this. It isn’t just (fired FBI agent Peter) Strzok. He’s a bit of a puppet. It’s not just Mueller, he’s a puppet.

“The guy running it was Brennan. And he should be in front of a grand jury,” the former New York City mayor said.

WND reported Trump revoked Brennan’s security clearance after Brennan accused Trump of being “treasonous.”

Usually former intelligence directors are allowed to keep their clearances so they can consult with their successors and as a courtesy.

However, Trump said neither reason could justify Brennan’s access to classified information.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., previously questioned Brennan’s security clearance

“If he has top-secret clearance as unhinged as he is now, he’s calling the president treasonous, saying he is for the death penalty of the president, this is alarming,” Paul said.

Former U.S. attorney Joe diGenova told the Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity last July that Brennan is responsible for the spreading of false information about Trump and Russia among American intelligence agencies.

Scott Johnson at the Powerline blog charged Brennan with having “animus nakedly on display.”

“He is demented by hatred,” Johnson wrote. “Is this really the public role a former director of the CIA is to be playing?”

Russia expert Paul Kengor noted Brennan, responding to FBI probes of corruption and other problems, “uncorked an epic Twitter rant against Trump.”

Brennan wrote at the time: “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America. … America will triumph over you.”

Kengor highlighted Brennan’s radical background, noting the Obama CIA director voted for Communist Party candidate Gus Hall for president of the United States.

He wrote:

For those too young to remember, Gus Hall was the longtime hack and head of Communist Party USA, beginning in 1959 until his death in 2000. Not even Joe Stalin as a party general secretary came close to matching Gus Hall’s interminable tenure. Hall was unwaveringly dedicated to a global communist revolution and a truly Evil Empire that was ultimately and blessedly consigned to “the dustbin of history.”

Brennan once was probed for perjury because he had, under oath before the House Intelligence Committee, testified that the infamous anti-Trump “dossier” funded by the Democratic Party played no role in the intelligence community’s publicly released conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

Brennan further declared he did not know who commissioned the opposition-research document, even though senior national security and counter-intelligence officials at the Justice Department and FBI knew the previous year it was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

After Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., accused the CIA of spying on members of the Senate by hacking into computers used by her intelligence committee’s staffers, Brennan said, “Let me assure you the CIA was in no way spying on [the committee] or the Senate.”

However, a CIA inspector general’s report found the CIA was spying on the Senate, and Brennan was forced to privately apologize to intelligence committee chairmen.

Brennan also claimed in a 2011 speech that there had not been “a single collateral death” from U.S. drone strikes because of their “exceptional proficiency [and] precision.’” However, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that one U.S. drone strike alone had killed 42 Pakistanis, “most of them civilians.”

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Franklin Graham: Where’s ‘fact-checker’ for media?

Franklin Graham, chief of the worldwide Christian ministry Samaritan’s Purse, is rejecting the assumption that the media fact-checkers are always right, especially when they accuse President Trump of lying.

“Has he misspoken on some things? Sure. All of us do it. You do it and I do it,” he said in a recent interview with MSNBC.

The network started with questions about the legacy of his father, evangelist Billy Graham.

Franklin Graham said that would be his father’s faithfulness to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, that sin separates people from God, but He offered a reconciliation through Jesus to those who accept Him.

“If a person did that then God would welcome them into heaven,” he said. “That was his legacy. We’re still doing that today.”

But the questions from MSNBC immediately then turned political.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FFranklinGraham%2Fvideos%2F2287247194851191%2F&show_text=0&width=560

MSNBC’s commentator cited a recent commentary Franklin Graham had written about truth, and then claimed a fact-checker has stated President Trump has made 8,159 “false or misleading claims” in his first two years in office.

How does Graham reconcile that, he demanded.

Graham pointed out that there is a fact-checker for the president, “But I don’t know if you have a fact-checker for the media.”

MSNBC’s commentator interrupted Graham, stating, “You and I both know this president has said things over and over that aren’t true.”

Graham said, “I don’t know that. I don’t sit around and try to find every fault in the president every day, looking for everything he might have misspoken or mis-said. I don’t do that.”

Retreating, the MSNBC commentator said, “But you can acknowledge the president has said things that aren’t true.”

“I don’t think the president is sitting there behind the desk trying to make up lies,” Graham said. “I don’t believe that for a second. Has he misspoken on some things? Sure. All of us do it. You do it and I do it,” he said.

He said the president “is trying to do the best that he can under very difficult circumstances,” and since he was elected president, America owes him the effort of trying to work with him to fix the nation’s problems.

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Nunes: Criminal referrals coming over FBI bias

(Washington Examiner) Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said Wednesday that he plans to make criminal referrals as part of an investigation into alleged political bias in the FBI.

During an interview on Fox News, Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said even though he is no longer chairman and Democrats have taken control of the lower chamber and the panel, that won’t stop GOP investigators from making headway.

“A lot of people think just because Republicans are out of power that we are not conducting an investigation. We still are,” Nunes said. “Whether or not people will come in and interview with us, we don’t have gavels, we don’t have subpoena power. But we will still be trying to interview people and we will still be making criminal referrals.”

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