Tag Archives: Presidential Campaign 2016

Hillary for America Campaign Issues Alert to Be on Lookout for ‘Trump’s 7 Deadly Lies’ in Debate

Hillary for America campaign has issued 19 pages of Donald Trump’s lies, including the seven the Republican presidential candidate uses most often, as a guide to be used in the upcoming debate at Hofstra University, Long Island, on Monday, September 26 © 2016 Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Hillary for America campaign has issued 19 pages of Donald Trump’s lies, including the seven the Republican presidential candidate uses most often, as a guide to be used in the upcoming debate at Hofstra University, Long Island, on Monday, September 26 © 2016 Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

By Karen Rubin, News & Photo Features

The Hillary for America campaign has issued 19 pages of Donald Trump’s lies, including the seven the Republican presidential candidate uses most often, as a guide to be used in the upcoming debate at Hofstra University, Long Island, on Monday, September 26.

The campaign is calling out the moderator, Lester Holt, of the first Presidential Election debate, as well as reporters and viewers to hold Trump to account.

For his part, Trump has warned the moderator will be “afraid” to attack Hillary Clinton and that if he is attacked, it is only proof that the system is “rigged” against him.

Expectations are so skewed that the fear is Trump only has to appear calm, even if ill-informed or shallow and lacking in any real understanding of policies, while Hillary Clinton has to be perfectly in command but also “attractive” and not too “studied” or scripted. In this, Hillary, a trail-blazer for women’s rights, will experience the same kind of gender-bias as when she became Arkansas’ First Lady and wanted to be known as Hillary Rodham, instead of Mrs. Clinton, and when in 1992, campaigning for her husband, Bill Clinton, she said she didn’t want to back cookies and stand by her man like Tammy Wynette.

A misplaced comma in a phrase could cost her the debate while the big question for Trump is whether he will be able to resist his verbal tick of calling her “Crooked” Hillary.

But Donald Trump’s, who has used his background as a Realty TV star as his strongest advantage in the campaign so far has won PolitiFact’s “Liar of the Year” award, after it rated 70 percent of his claims as “four Pinnochios” or “Pants on Fire.”

“Debates are about each candidate laying out their vision for America, not making things up. Donald Trump has shown a clear pattern of repeating provably false lies and hoping no one corrects him. Voters and viewers should keep track: any candidate who tells this many lies clearly can’t win the debate on the merits,” said HFA Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri.

The campaign issued a handy guide to  Trump’s Seven Deadly Lies

 1.  FALSE: Trump opposed the Iraq War.

Washington Post: Trump: “I was totally against the war in Iraq.” // Four Pinocchios.” 

As our timeline shows, Trump was not ‘totally’ against the Iraq War. Trump expressed lukewarm support the first time he was asked about it on Sept. 11, 2002, and was not clearly against it until he was quoted in the August 2004 Esquire cover story. (We even made a video documenting how this is a bogus claim.) Yet he repeatedly claims he opposed the war from the beginning — and thus, earns Four Pinocchios.”

  1. FALSE: Trump opposed intervention in Libya.

Factcheck.org: Donald Trump on Libya, May 20 interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”:  I would have stayed out of Libya.” // False.

“Trump’s claim that he ‘would have stayed out of Libya’ doesn’t square with his comments at the time. In February 2011, Trump, referring to Gadhafi, said that the U.S. should go into Libya ‘on a humanitarian basis’ and ‘knock this guy out very quickly, very surgically, very effectively and save the lives.’”

  1. FALSE: Clinton supports open borders.

PolitiFact: Trump says Clinton wants to create ‘totally open borders.’ // False

“This is a huge distortion of Clinton’s proposals. Clinton has praised work already done to secure the border, and she said she supported a 2013 bill that would have invested billions more in border security while creating a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants. Her plan calls for protecting the border and targeting deportation to criminals and security threats.”

  1. FALSE: Clinton wants to get rid of the Second Amendment.

ABC News: “Claim: Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment” // False.

“When Trump made this same claim earlier in the cycle, Politifact rated the claim false after finding no evidence of Clinton ever advocating for the abolishment of the Second Amendment… Bottom line: there’s no evidence to support Trump’s claim.

PolitiFact: “Donald Trump falsely claims Hillary Clinton ‘wants to abolish the 2nd Amendment,’” // False.

“We found no evidence of Clinton ever saying verbatim or suggesting explicitly that she wants to abolish the Second Amendment, and the bulk of Clinton’s comments suggest the opposite. She has repeatedly said she wants to protect the right to bear arms while enacting measures to prevent gun violence.”

  1. FALSE: President Obama and Clinton founded ISIS.

Washington Post: “Is Obama the founder of ISIS?” // Absolutely not.

“Absolutely not. It’s like saying that Ronald Reagan is the founder of al-Qaeda because the arms he sent to the mujahideen in Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion led to the creation of al-Qaeda. It’s a ludicrous claim.”

Washington Post: “Trump also claims Hillary Clinton was a “co-founder” of ISIS. Does that make sense?” // No.

“No. Within the administration, Clinton was one of the loudest forces for keeping a residual force in Iraq and for intervening in Syria, such as arming the rebels. So the criticism especially does not apply to her, since she advocated a more hawkish policy than was undertaken by Obama.”

  1. FALSE: Clinton would allow 620,000 refugees into the U.S. with no vetting.

Washington Post: Trump: “This includes her plan to bring in 620,000 new refugees from Syria and that region over a short period of time.” // This is an “invented figure.”

“Trump has used this number before, but it stems from the unverified assumption that Clinton, who has called for 55,000 additional refugees from Syria, would continue at that pace for every year of her first term, on top of the Obama administration’s proposal for 100,000 refugees for fiscal year 2017. Trump then multiplies 155,000 times four years to reach 620,000 refugees. Clinton has never proposed such a “plan,” so this is an invented figure.”

Washington Post: Trump: “Under the Clinton plan, you’d be admitting hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East with no system to vet them, or to prevent the radicalization of the children and their children.” // “It’s false…”

“Trump has repeatedly made this “hundreds of thousands” claim, usually referring to Syria, but it’s false… Trump also falsely claims there is “no system to vet” refugees. The process actually takes two more years, after vetting that starts with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and then continues with checks by U.S. intelligence and security agencies.”

  1. FALSE: Trump will make Mexico pay for the wall.

NPR Fact Check: Trump: “And Mexico will pay for the wall. 100 percent.” // Mexican President “would not pay” for the wall.

“After his meeting with Donald Trump today, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto reiterated his insistence that Mexico would not pay for construction of a border wall. Peña Nieto said he made that clear to Trump during their meeting, although Trump told reporters that the issue of payment was not discussed. — Scott Horsley”

For the rest of the18 pages of Trump’s lies see The Briefing here.

“Our concern about Trump’s record of lying is what that means for how the debate unfolds and how viewers should judge,” Jennifer Palmieri said on a press call.

Trump should be expected to present his solutions – explain what his solutions are, demonstrate the knowledge and judgment. But so far, Trump has shown clear pattern of lying, expecting no one to correct them, she said.

“We have provided 19 pages of lies Trump has told during the campaign,” she said. Politifact has rated 70% of his claims as untrue; Factchecker gave him 47 ‘Four Pinnochios’ and rated 47 ‘Pants on Fire.’  He beat out all modern presidential candidates for fact checking – he was awarded the Lie of the Year and Trump was named the Liar of the Year.

“We think this warrants particular focus because his level of lying is unprecedented in American politics – reporters should keep this in mind,”

“Trump is a very unconventional, unusual, challenging candidate – recognize it’s true for press and moderators. It’s unprecedented in modern times to hold a conference to talk about special precautions because the opponent is a habitual liar, but we think it is necessary.

“When Trump has been chosen as Politifact’s Liar of the Year, for the moderator to let lies go unchallenged, gives Trump an unfair advantage. It is the role of moderator, particularly in this case, to call out those lies, and do so in real time.

“Clinton has a responsibility to defend herself –  her own record. But given the historic record of how much Trump lies, it can’t be only on her to call him out if the moderator isn’t willing to stand up and challenge lies. We’ve provided 19 pages of them for helpful reference, plus the 7 he uses most often. This is unusual, but  that’s the year we are in, that’s the campaign Trump is running, and it requires that kind of role for the moderator.”

Palmieri said that Trump would probably do what he could to “get under her skin,” but “good luck.  We’ve all seen her endure tough questions – 11 hours during the Benghazi hearings. Trump may think he will be the first to get under her skin, but I doubt it.”

As for expectations of how Trump might perform, We had a dry run during the Commander-in-Chief forum which demonstrated that Trump could control his demeanor, and the concern is that will be the sole criteria for handing him the “win” in the debate.

“But maintaining demeanor and not becoming unhinged is not the standard for being considered President of the United States.” What should be the standard is that you demonstrate that you understand problems, have solutions, that you can explain them, that you have adequate knowledge, judgment to do the job “and that’s certainly what she is coming to the debate to do, and that’s what voters should judge Trump on as well.”

How Trump behaves and whether or not he maintains a calm demeanor is up to him, and we think that is within his power – I wouldn’t describe that as what we are pending a lot of time on. A good deal of our prep is thinking through the argument she would put forward that she would do – it is a useful exercise at debate as well as what closing arguments for last few weeks of campaign will be as well.

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© 2016 News & Photo Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. For editorial feature and photo information, go to www.news-photos-features.com, email [email protected]. Blogging at www.dailykos.com/blogs/NewsPhotosFeatures.  ‘Like’ us on facebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures, Tweet @KarenBRubin

 

Trump’s Hate Fest

Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland © 2016 Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland © 2016 Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

by Karen Rubin, News & Photo Features

Hatred pumped up by lies. That is what characterized the Republican National Convention. Not policy pronouncements that would solve the problems facing this country or the world. Platitudes. Slogans. Lies, beginning with Melania’s plagiarism (denied for days).

There was notable disinterest in the first two days of the Trump Republican Convention. The first night, Make America Safe offered no actual solutions around that theme, just one tirade after another against Hillary Clinton. Oh yes, we learned how Donald Trump holds high values and is trustworthy from  his third wife Melania, who plagiarized those lines directly from Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech to the Democratic National Convention. Barack Obama, Donald Trump. It’s all the same, apparently.

Oh yes, we learned what an adoring father Donald Trump was – writing notes on report cards – from Tiffany Trump, his daughter by second wife Marla, who grew up with her mother in California, so it is curious what father-daughter experiences she was referring to.

But the delegates did come together, like a frightening lynch mob, during the mock trial conducted by the guy auditioning for Trump’s Attorney General: Chris Christie, the guy who abused the power of his office, who obstructed justice and destroyed evidence and really did put lives at risk with Bridgegate. Five of his administration – including David Samson, Christie’s BPF (best political friend) and henchman, who Christie gave the plum appointment of heading the multi-billion dollar Port Authority of NY & NJ – have already been convicted. But Christie worked the mob to a frenzy. This must have been what the Salem Witch Trials were like.

By the end, the mob were screaming “Lock her Up” and one Trump aide, New Hampshire State Senator Al Baldasaro was actually being investigated by Secret Service, after he called for Hillary Clinton’s execution for “treason.”

You know who actually committed treason? David Petreaus, the former CIA Chief, who that same crowd would have cheered to have as a candidate for President.

The other irony was George W. Bush’s Attorney General Michael Mukasey accusing Clinton of violating the Constitution. This was the guy who was complicit as Bush shredded the Constitution over habeus corpus (remember that?), torture, lying to Congress and the American people to launch a preemptive invasion into a country that never attacked the US.

Indeed, it is a campaign built on hatred, on demonizing, vilifying, fear-mongering – and even just watching on TV was chilling: like watching a frenzied Nazi rally.

The further irony is how they keep using the frustration and anger that voters feel because of the dysfunction, inaction by the Republicans who have done everything to obstruct the very policies Obama has proposed to raise wages, create jobs (American Jobs Act), invest in infrastructure, to say that Trump is the guy because he will bring people together! How does that happen when his entire campaign is fueled by hatred, division, bigotry, racism, scapegoating.

It comes down to Trump’s new slogan, “I am the Law and Order candidate.” Except these people don’t respect the federal government (that is when a Democrat, a Black-American is in the Oval Office). Trump’s call to lift restrictions on guns (and his lie that Clinton wants to repeal the 2nd Amendment), is all about these people wanting to be arm themselves against the government – manifested in the slaying of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge. That is the realization of what they have advocated, only it becomes heinous when it is a black revolutionary, rather than a white man like Bundy, threatening to kill federal agents who come to arrest him for failing to pay $1 million in fees to the American people.

Not to mention that Trump doesn’t propose anything to actually make homes, communities, or the country safer. The RNC speakers threw out hollow phrases – about increasing wages, helping “everyone” succeed, improving education. How? How? How?

And yet, even as Trump’s VP pick Mike Pence was saying, “Vote for Trump because he will support our allies,” Trump was telling the New York Times he would not defend Balkan states, members of NATO, if Russia chose to “Crimea” them, and would tear up (uh, “renegotiate”) treaties.

The upside/downside Alice-in-Wonderland world (as so well visualized by Rudolph Giuliani, continues in every subject that was thrown out, like complete BS: Gingrich saying that Trump would invest in infrastructure, even as Republican platform promises to defund mass transit in favor of highways, cancel clean energy in favor of coal.

The lies and attacks It is all the tactic that the Republicans like that evil Machiavellian Karl Rove used so successfully of attacking opponents for the sins/crimes they have committed.

That’s Trump’s entire campaign strategy, why he is so ready to attack Bill Clinton for his adultery when Trump is a serial adulterer (didn’t bother the Preacher at the opening convocation who pronounced Trump ordained by Jesus, a true messenger of Jesus). Why Trump, who has built his business around fraud , bullying, cheating and taking advantage of others,needs to build on this fabrication of Hillary as “crooked”, a “liar”.

Their tactic is to set up a false narrative, one that strikes deeply, emotionally, and then strike it down. For example, this from a fund-raising letter from Eric Trump. “The Obama-Clinton liberals want us to sit back and accept the idea that America is no longer the leader of the free world. They want us to fall in line behind the United Nations. They want us to stop thinking of America as the “land of the free, home of the brave.” They want us to apologize for America.”

Complete and utter balderdash.

Trump has already proved himself to be as ignorant, idiotic, incurious and “from the gut” as George W (‘I’m the Decider”) Bush and as autocratic, paranoid and ruthless as Richard “Dirty Tricks” Nixon (“If the President does it, then it’s not illegal.)

Which means that Trump will be rallying the state elections officials to do whatever they can to suppress, impede, depress voting in Democratic neighborhoods – whether that means sending thugs to challenge voters’ credentials, too few machines or voting hours to accommodate people, or other deceptive tactics.

See next: A Compendium of RNC Lies

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News & Photo Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. For editorial feature and photo information, email [email protected]. ‘Like’ us on facebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures, Tweet @KarenBRubin

 

RNC Rocky Horror Show in Cleveland

Donald J. Trump makes brief appearance on the first night of the Republican National Convention to introduce his wife, Melania Trump © 2016 Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Donald J. Trump makes brief appearance on the first night of the Republican National Convention to introduce his wife, Melania Trump © 2016 Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

I write this column as the Republican National Convention that will coronate Donald Trump as its nominee for President, gets underway in Cleveland, Ohio. Tonight’s theme is “Keep America Safe.” To present this theme, he has on the program his wife and former NYC Mayor Rudolph Guiliani.

The Donald had just named his VP pick: Indiana Governor Mike Pence, cheering disgruntled Tea Party right-wingers who distrusted Trump’s bonafides as a rabid regressive.

The problem many GOPers have with Trump (and what led to an opening gavel protest) isn’t his racism, misogyny, his adoration for despicable despots like Putin, Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Un, or even his deceit, his cheating of veterans, small businessowners, investors and failures as a businessman (Trump’s supposed advantage) – it is that Trump isn’t dependably anti-civil rights and anti-human rights – that is, not sufficiently and dependably a Christian conservative, that he can’t be counted on to strip women of their reproductive freedom, or to deny LGBT their rights and dignity. What is more, he has had the audacity to break with the Corporatists who own the Republican party in challenging trade agreements and the TPP.

But in picking Indiana Governor Mike Pence (over the bullying criminal Chris Christie or Newt Gingrich), they have a calmer, more politically astute, more solidly and dependably anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-gay autocrat who has already proved his bonafides by shutting down the government in order to extort the repeal of Obamacare.

According to Pence, Trump’s main attribute is that he has tapped into the frustration of Americans “like no other since Reagan.” Add to that “fear” and “anger” and you have the complete package. But while Trump has been able to corral the so-called “angry [white] voter by casting himself as the anti-establishment, outside-Washington guy (all non-National electeds do that), a businessman, not a politician, he tapped in Pence the poster boy for why voters feel so angry and frustrated, alienated and cynical over the dysfunction of government. When 66% of Americans say the country is on the “wrong track” for a sizeable proportion of the “wrong trackers,”  it’s not because of what Obama has done, but what Republicans have obstructed.

RNC_071816_42e2 (c) Karen Rubin-Mike PencePence, who spent six terms in Congress and was a central figure in the Tea Party, supported the government shut down, holding the entire nation hostage to Tea Party extortion to repeal Obamacare. The Tea Party would rather destroy the US economy, see people lose their jobs, homes, retirement, rather than support a woman’s right to choose or every Americans’ right to life-saving health care. He is part and parcel of the ruling elite responsible for stagnant wages, massive college debt, who voted for the Iraq War that contributed to the rise of ISIS (the list goes on and on).

Pence may be more reserved, more dignified, dare I say, more presidential in his demeanor that his boss, The Don, but his policies and rabid ideology are more venal.

The difference is that while Trump sounds like a bumbling, stumbling fool when he attempts to express any idea beyond bombastic sloganeering – and there are people who dismiss his most radical ideas saying “he doesn’t really mean it”, Pence not only speaks in controlled complete sentences, is effective at using political dodges, but has a record.

He is particularly abominable on Women’s Reproductive Rights. In his 12 years in the House of Representatives, Pence cosponsored legislation that would make abortion illegal nationwide in almost all cases and ban some of the most common forms of contraception; in 2006. He led the fight to defund Planned Parenthood, even bringing the federal government to the brink of a shutdown. He voted for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, a law to give separate legal status to an embryo or a fetus and voted to impose a new, impossibly complex national patchwork of parental-notification mandates on doctors and young women. In 2011, he co-sponsored a bill that allowed hospitals to refuse to perform an abortion on a woman who needed one to live and co-sponsored a federal personhood amendment, the “Life At Conception” Act.

He shut down the only HIV testing center in Scott County, Indiana — in the name of preventing HIV/AIDS. That county later experienced what the press called “an exploding HIV outbreak.”

Last year, Pence proudly signed the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” essentially making it legal for businesses in Indiana to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals and families.

He supports voucherizing Medicare, raising the eligibility age and privatizing Social Security.

He thinks climate change is a hoax.  “Global warming is a myth. The global warming treaty is a disaster. There, I said it.”

An advocate for gun rights, Pence voted to loosen restrictions on guns purchased across state lines; voted to keep victims from holding firearm manufacturers financially responsible for crimes committed at gunpoint; allowed guns to be brought onto school property; and at the NRA’s 2016 Leadership Forum, championed looser conceal carry regulations.

He’s been a consistent opponent of comprehensive immigration reform; in 2010, he opposed a pathway to citizenship; in 2009, he supported revoking birthright citizenship for children of immigrants; and in 2006, advanced an immigration proposal to deport millions of immigrant families.

All of these policies have been codified in the most regressive GOP platform ever proposed. 

Supports Trump’s Call to Expand Torture

In Congress, Pence derived those who opposed torture by saying that it was a “somewhat absurd thought that you could move people who have masterminded the death of 3,000 Americans by Oprah Winfrey methods.”

In his first interview after being named Trump’s VP, he told Leslie Stahl on “60 Minutes,”  (www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-trump-pence-republican-ticket ), he doubled down to make it clear he agreed with Trump’s policy to expand the use of torture, saying, “What I’m OK with– what I’m OK with is protecting the American people. …what I can tell you is enhanced information gleaned information that saved American lives and, I was informed, prevented incoming terrorist attacks on this country from being successful. The American people expect the president of the United States to be prepared to support action to protect the people of this nation, and I know Donald Trump will.”

RNC_071816_57e2 (c) Karen Rubin-Donald TrumpBut getting back to the theme of the RNC’s first night, making America Safe (again), restoring law and order – there is nothing that Trump or Pence have proposed that would actually accomplish that, or that either one have a clue – beyond the force of Trump’s strongman personality.

We got a taste of that during Lesley Stahl’s interview with Trump/Pence on “60 Minutes” (www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-trump-pence-republican-ticket/):

Pointing to the Nice terror attack, the Dallas and Baton Route police shootings – the world “spinning apart” (in Trump’s words), Stahl asks, “Are you ready for this world that we are facing today?”

Trump replies, “We’re both ready. I’ve no doubt. We need toughness. We need strength. Obama’s weak, Hillary’s weak. And part of it is that, a big part of it. We need law and order. We need strong borders.”

But when pressed about what that would actually mean – does he propose sending more American troops into the fight? How would “strength” have prevented the Nice terror attack, or the failed coup in Turkey?

“Well, as a president, I’m going to be– you know, they’ve been an ally and I stay with our allies. They have been an ally. But that was a quick coup. I was actually surprised to see how well it was handled. And you know who really handled it? The people. So, I mean, we can say what we want, but the people handled it. When they surrounded the army tanks and without the people, you would’ve never had it. The military would’ve taken over.” (No comment about how Turkey President Erdogan is using the coup to cement anti-democratic, autocratic control or how he is pushing to make Turkey an Islamic, not a secular, state.)

To which Pence chimes in, “But I truly do believe that the larger issue here is declining American power in the world. I truly do believe that history teaches that weakness arouses evil and whether it be the horrific attack in France, the inspired attacks here in the United States, the instability in Turkey that led to a coup. I think that is all a result of a foreign policy of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that has led from behind and that has sent an inexact, unclear message about American resolve. One of the reasons why I said yes in a heartbeat to run with this man, is because he embodies American strength, and I know that he will provide that kind of broad-shouldered American strength on the global stage as well.”

Melania Trump in her widely anticipated speech to the Republican National Convention, manages to lift whole sections from Michelle Obama’s speech to the 2008 Democratic National Convention © 2016 Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Melania Trump in her widely anticipated speech to the Republican National Convention, manages to lift whole sections from Michelle Obama’s speech to the 2008 Democratic National Convention © 2016 Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Since “Keeping America Safe” is the essence, really, of the Trump hate-filled campaign, it is really curious how the evening’s speakers did not cast an iota of detail how Trump/Pence would actually accomplish that, short of throwing around wounding sound bites. Indeed, most of the night was devoted to accusing Hillary Clinton of various crimes (Benghazi), but all the accusations were based on outright lies. And even Melania Trump’s speech was plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech to the Democratic National Convention (the part she intended about Donald’s values and trustworthiness), rather than reveal anything real about her husband’s qualities to be president, or shed any light on the need for comprehensive immigration reform.

–Karen Rubin, News & Photo Features

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News & Photo Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. For editorial feature and photo information, email [email protected]. ‘Like’ us on facebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures, Tweet @KarenBRubin