April 1: Fox News: Trump vs. Freedom Caucus: Caucus targeted in Social Media
The list of House Freedom Caucus members being targeted by President Trump for sinking Republicans’ ObamaCare overhaul plan grew Saturday when the White House singled out Michigan GOP Rep. Justin Amash for a primary defeat. 

“Donald Trump is bringing auto plants & jobs back to Michigan,” tweeted White House social media Director Dan Scavino Jr. “@justinamash is a big liability. #TrumpTrain, defeat him in primary.”

Most of the ultra-conservative caucus’ roughly 35 members withheld their support for the Republican House leadership’s overhaul plan, which kept it from even getting a final vote in the GOP-led chamber, despite Trump’s rigorous deal making efforts.

March 26: The American Mirror: Pelosi confronted by constituents in townhall
Just how far left are the Indivisible activists?  Even Nancy Pelosi is too conservative for them.  The House Minority Leader found that out the hard way when her constituents attending a Saturday town hall meeting in San Francisco repeatedly shouted out and jeered as she said what they apparently thought were wobbly statements.  Several times, she clashed with her own constituents, who were largely sympathetic to her agenda.  When Pelosi told the group that she has supported a single-payer health scheme for 30 years, shouts and jeers erupted.  “Sorry?” a confused Pelosi said looking out into the crowd.  When Pelosi said “certain respects” of Obamacare have gone “to the left” of “Medicare for all,” many in the crowd weren’t buying that, either.

March 6: The Daily Caller:  Former Obama spokesman won’t
deny the Trump campaign was bugged by Obama’s administration
When pressed by ABC’s Martha Raddatz on Sunday, Josh Earnest opted not to categorically “deny that the Obama Justice Department” monitored Trump Tower during the 2016 election.  President Obama’s former press

February 18: Breitbart News: Trump invites supporter
on stage to speak at Melbourne FL rally
Trump returned to the site where he held one of many rallies in the Sunshine State — but this time as President of the United States. He was accompanied by his wife, first lady Melania Trump, before a crowd of at least 9,000 and another few hundred watching the rally on big screen televisions assembled outside the hangar on the airport grounds. secretary opened his interview by calling reports that “President Obama ordered a wiretap” false, yet backpedaled when the “This Week” guest host asked him to “categorically deny” that President Trump’s campaign headquarters was under surveillance.

February 21: Reuters: French rightwing presidential candidate
cancels meeting over head scarf requirement
French far-right National Front presidential candidate Marine Le Pen canceled a meeting on Tuesday with Lebanon's grand mufti, its top cleric for Sunni Muslims, after refusing to wear a headscarf for the encounter.  Le Pen, among the frontrunners for the presidency, is using a two-day visit to Lebanon to bolster her foreign policy credentials nine weeks from the April 23 first round, and may be partly targeting potential Franco-Lebanese votes.  Many Lebanese fled to France, Lebanon's former colonial power, during their country's 1975-1990 civil war and became French citizens.

February 16: McClatchy: Everyone seems angry as Congress Heads for its first break:
It’s going to be ugly for congressional lawmakers next week back home. If they go home. Congress Friday begins its first “district work period” – since Donald Trump became president January 20. It returns to Washington February 27.  “As I’ve told our staff in the district, ‘Be prepared next week that we go home, everywhere we go there’s going to be droves of people coming out,’ ” said Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee.  The anger is bipartisan and bifurcated and has already erupted in town hall meetings and at local congressional offices over the past few weeks.

“People are clearly upset,” Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, a nonpartisan government watchdog group said. “We have seen the impact on members of Congress – we have canceled town hall meetings. This is being talked about at kitchen tables throughout the country.”

February 16: The New York Post: Sorry Main Stream Media…
Trump’s  News Conference was the Greatest Show on Earth!
Amid feverish reports of chaos on his team and with Democrats fantasizing that Russia-gate is another Watergate, Trump took center stage to declare that reports of his demise are just more fake news.  Far from dead, he was positively exuberant. His performance at a marathon press conference was a must-see-tv spectacle as he mixed serious policy talk with stand-up comedy and took repeated pleasure in whacking his favorite pinata, the “dishonest media.”

January 31: The Hill: Democrats boycott Senate
confirmation hearings in an attempt to block votes
on Trump nominees:
Senate Democrats on Tuesday refused to attend a committee vote on two of President Trump’s more controversial nominees, effectively delaying their consideration, thus raising the question “Is this any way to govern?”
Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee boycotted votes to advance Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, and Steven Mnuchin, his selection to head the Treasury Department. The pair had been among some of the more contentious selections to join Trump’s Cabinet.

January 31: The Hill: White House blasts Democrats for boycotting confirmation hearings votes:
The White House on Tuesday blasted Senate Democrats for delaying a confirmation votes on two of President Trump’s nominees by refusing to attend committee votes.   Press secretary Sean Spicer called the move an “outrageous” example of partisan obstruction. “The idea that these highly qualified nominees .. are being stalled because Democrats are boycotting the committee vote is outrageous,” he told reporters. “The mere idea that they are not even showing up for these meetings is outrageous.”

January 21: The Wall Street Journal: New White House Website mirrors campaign pledges
The Trump administration overhauled the White House’s website Friday and published action plans that ranged from building a wall along the Mexico border to pulling back from trade deals, transforming a number of populist campaign themes into concrete agenda items.  The revised website created six different issue pages for energy policy, foreign policy, economic policy, expanding the size of the military, bolstering law enforcement, and rethinking trade.

The changes include removing language about climate change and the White House’s commitment to LGBTQ issues. The only speech listed on the website is President Donald Trump’s inaugural address from earlier Friday, pared back from the hundreds of speeches previously listed—just as the incoming Obama administration wiped the slate clean in 2009.

January 20: The Wall Street Journal[Noonan]: Trump Declares Independence:
The inaugural address was utterly and uncompromisingly Trumpian. The man who ran is the man who’ll reign. It was plain, unfancy and blunt to the point of blistering. A little humility would have gone a long way, but that’s not the path he took. Nor did he attempt to reassure. It was pow, right in the face. Most important, he did not in any way align himself with the proud Democrats and Republicans arrayed around him. He looked out at the crowd and said he was allied with them.

January 16: Fox News: Clinton Global Initiative lays off workers as donations dwindle
The Clintons are moving ahead with plans to downsize their controversial foundation’s network of offshoots, a decision carried out as the powerful family’s political influence wanes and its once-lengthy donor list shrinks.  In a decision announced last week, 22 additional employees are being laid off from the Clinton Global Initiative – known for its annual glitzy gathering of high-powered leaders and celebs. The layoffs are tied to a decision to shutter CGI that originally was announced in an Aug. 22 letter from former President Bill Clinton.

January 16: The Wall Street Journal: Democrats Seeking Leadership without Divisions:
The Democratic fissures exposed in last year’s presidential primary campaign between Clinton and Sanders have roared back to life, with party officials wary the split will hamper their ability to fight President-elect Donald Trump.  The divide was in full view in Phoenix, where Democratic National Committee members from western states gathered over the weekend for the first of four scheduled “future forums” for candidates running to lead the party.

In meeting rooms, hallways and at the bars of the Sheraton Grand hotel here, Democrats fretted the Clinton-Sanders fight has been rekindled in the race for DNC chairman, which pits Sanders surrogate Keith Ellison, a Minnesota congressman, against Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who was on Mrs. Clinton’s running- mate short list. They two men are widely seen as the leading candidates while five other candidates are running.

January 13: The Washington Examiner:  Pelosi Still Blames Bush for $9 Trillion in Debt
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi blamed former President George W. Bush and the Republicans on Friday for the more than $9 trillion that has been added to the national debt under President Obama's watch.  Pelosi argued that under Obama, the annual budget deficit, which contributes to the national debt, has been reduced dramatically, and said that without Obama's work, the national debt would be even higher. She also mostly blamed Bush for not paying for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

January 3: Reuters News Service: No proof Russian hacking influenced U.S. election: Trump spokesman 
No evidence has emerged to suggest Russian hacking influenced the outcome of the U.S. presidential election and it would be irresponsible to jump to conclusions before receiving a final intelligence report, Donald Trump's spokesman said on Monday.  "There is zero evidence that they influenced the election," Sean Spicer told Fox News.
Due to become White House press secretary when Trump enters the White House on Jan. 20, Spicer told CNN the president-elect would see the intelligence report once it was completed later this week. On Saturday, Trump warned against being quick to pin the blame on Russia for the hacking of U.S. emails.  "The idea that we're jumping to conclusions before we have a final report is irresponsible," Spicer told CNN.

January 3: The Daily Caller: House Intelligence Chair: No Proof Russians hacked election to get Trump elected
The intelligence community has no proof Russia hacked the 2016 presidential election to get Donald Trump elected, according to the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.  “There’s no proof that we have from intelligence sources that I’ve seen that show that the Russians were directly trying to help Trump,” said Rep. Devin Nunes during an interview with the Washington Examiner’s “Examining Politics” podcast Monday.
Nunes did not rule out that Russia possibly had a hand in the recent hacking of various political institutions. He noted that Russia is very much a major threat to U.S. interests and is capable of the “sophisticated” hacking required to breach U.S. government computer networks.

January 3: Bloomberg Business: Ryan Re-Elected tries to make peace with Trump
Paul Ryan was formally re-elected House speaker Tuesday as he intensifies his efforts to move past his differences with Donald Trump after a divisive campaign.  But Ryan’s victory was marred by controversy over a last-minute effort by Republicans to weaken the independent congressional ethics office, a reminder of the splits within the new Republican majority. Trump blasted Republicans for prioritizing the ethics change, leaving the caucus to reverse itself moments before formally opening the 115th Congress.  Ryan won resounding re-election with 239 votes -- clearing the 218 needed -- with only one Republican voting for someone else. But his relationship with the incoming president will face a test as he carves out his own agenda for Republicans in Congress.

January 3: McClatchyDC News: What ever happened to the smooth transition Obama promised?
“You better stop stealing money from your mother’s purse, young man, or I will punish you late this year or perhaps sometime in 2018,” said no parent who was serious about punishment. Yet that’s pretty much what President Obama did with his old-fashioned expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats over alleged political hacking by Moscow interests going back 18 months. In a very strange retro-response from a president​ who mocked Mitt Romney for suggesting in 2012 that Russia was America’s worst strategic threat. Obama said: “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”  As has often happened when Obama shoots from the hip (think his red line in Syria, ISIS is a JV squad). 

December 30: The Observer: Russian media response to Obama’s last minute anti-Russian actions
The silent, months-long contempt expressed by the Russian political class toward the departing White House Administration was suddenly interrupted on Thursday by U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement of a new set of anti-Russian sanctions.  In Russian media, in the political class and among government officials, the reaction in Moscow was fierce, vocal and pugnacious. 

Obama’s decision to expel Russian diplomats—in addition to sanctioning a number of Russian companies and individuals—is nothing but evidence of the agony of the outgoing administration, Konstantin Kosachev, head of the International Committee of the Russian Upper House of Parliament, said to RIA Novosti. “The leaving administration has no reason and no political or moral right for such drastic and disruptive steps with regards to bilateral relations with Russia. Forgive me for being harsh, but I just cannot find other words: this is the agony of not the lame ducks, but of political corpses,” the Russian Senator said. “[President Obama] put at stake the U.S.’s reputation as an adequate state that ensures policy continuity in the process of change of power.”

December 29: The Hill: Obama Under Pressure to Prove Russian Interference in U.S. Election:
The Obama administration is under intense pressure to release evidence confirming Russian interference in the presidential election before leaving office.  The administration up until now has provided little documentation to back up its official October assessment that the Russian government was attempting to interfere in the U.S. election. Nor has it corroborated subsequent leaks from anonymous officials contending that the CIA believes the campaign was an attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to ensure Trump's victory.  [In a related story, Obama announces sanctions against Russia]

December 27: The Hill:  Pardon the Interruption: Obama and Allegations Against Clinton:
In dashing through his last few weeks in office, will President Obama’s final acts be to pardon Hillary Clinton for any violations of federal law she might have committed while she was secretary of state?  It’s an interesting and complex question.  Until the statute of limitations runs out there is nothing that would restrict a Trump administration from prosecuting Clinton.  This leaves the door open to prosecution for either her improper handling of classified information on  a private server or allegations of “pay to play” arrangements between the secretary of state and donors to the Clinton Foundation, which might constitute bribery.

The benefit of being pardoned is that it eliminates even the possibility of federal prosecution. The downside is there is solid legal precedent that first it must be accepted by the person being pardoned and second it’s the equivalent to confessing to being guilty of the criminal activity.  From Obama’s perspective granting a pardon is a political and a personal one, not a legal one. But it is evident he is concerned about his  “legacy.”   Does he really want to pardon the person who served him as the Secretary of State for his entire first term in office – thereby tainting his own “legacy?” 

December 20: U.S. News: Clinton Campaign Tries to delegitimize Donald Trump
In a typical year, Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential campaign would go down as one of the most startlingly deficient endeavors in political history. But a postliminary campaign by Clinton allies to shape why the heavily favored and first major party female nominee lost to an eccentric billionaire reality television star is already bending the storyline in their favor through a concerted media offensive meant to undermine the president-elect, his tactics and the ultimate outcome.

The Clinton campaign's stunning and largely unforeseen loss has only hardened its own resolve to win the post-mortem of how it happened. In the six weeks since the election, her aides have cited white supremacy, FBI Director James Comey, the apparent Russian hacking of campaign emails and a delinquent press corps as primary reasons for Clinton's loss.

December 17: The Wall Street Journal:  Trump Rebuttal to Michelle O on Loss of Hope
President-elect Donald Trump took issue Saturday with First Lady Michelle Obama’s contention that she and others are now feeling the loss of “hope,” saying there is good reason for Americans to feel optimistic about the nation’s future.  Speaking at a rally in Mobile, Ala., Mr. Trump brought up Mrs. Obama’s comments toward the end of an hour-long address in which he laid out plans for his presidency and savored his surprise victory.

He made reference to part of a televised interview that aired Friday in which Mrs. Obama told Oprah Winfrey, “Now we’re feeling what not having hope feels like.”  Normally biting in his treatment of critics, Mr. Trump took a softer approach in his rebuttal. “Michelle Obama said yesterday that there’s no hope,” he said.  He went on to say that “we have tremendous hope and we have tremendous promise and we have tremendous potential.” 
Editor’s Comment: Freedom brings Hope while control and oppressive regulations brings despair and hopelessness.

December 12: The Wisconsin State Journal: Final Count in Wisconsin Increases Trump’s Lead by 131 votes:
Wisconsin’s historic presidential recount ended Monday resulting in a net gain of 131 votes for President-elect Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton, the Wisconsin Elections Commission said.  Trump added 844 votes to his total for the Nov. 8 election, while Clinton added 713.  Overall, the commission said, voters cast 2.976 million ballots. The recount resulted in a net increase of 837 ballots.

December 12: Reuters: Top U.S. spy agencies don’t embrace CIA assessment of Russia hacking the election:
The overseers of the U.S. intelligence community have not embraced a CIA assessment that Russian cyber attacks were aimed at helping Republican President-elect Donald Trump win the 2016 election, three American officials said on Monday.  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) does not dispute the CIA's analysis of Russian hacking operations.  However, it has not endorsed CIA assessment that Moscow intended to boost Trump over Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, said the officials.  The position of the ODNI, which oversees the 17 agency-strong U.S. intelligence community, could give Trump fresh ammunition to dispute the CIA assessment, which he rejected as "ridiculous" in weekend remarks, and press his assertion that no evidence implicates Russia in the cyber attacks.

December 9: The Daily Caller:  One in Clinton Camp Warned She Would Lose and was Ignored:
A major figure in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign warned she was in danger of losing the election days before the vote, but was ignored by the rest of her staff, a new write-up in Politico says.  In the end, though, Jake Sullivan was vindicated entirely. Clinton’s “Blue Wall” in the Rust Belt crumbled, and she suffered shocking defeats in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin by a combined margin of less than 100,000 votes. Had she won all three, should would have been the president-elect. In the case of Wisconsin, she lost narrowly after not bothering to visit the state a single time during the general election campaign.

December 9: The New York Post: Losing Campaign Cost $1.2 Billion:
Hillary Clinton and her supporters spent a record $1.2 billion for her losing presidential campaign — twice as much as the winner, Donald Trump, according to the latest records.  The president-elect, who confounded critics during the campaign by saying there was no need to raise or spend $1 billion or more, ended up making do with $600 million.

November 29: Roll Call: Rural Democrats: Party Ignored Rural Communities, Suffered the Consequences:Democrats in rural America have a blunt message for the rest of their party: We saw the electoral disaster coming — and it’s your fault.  Strategists and party officials say their warnings about the party’s lackluster outreach to rural voters went unheeded by Democratic leaders for years, culminating in this month’s shock defeat to Donald Trump.   A presidential candidate who actually performed poorly in many cities and suburbs nonetheless scored an upset victory because of a surge in support from small towns and rural areas.

November 17: The Hill:  Cruz Tells Friends he would be interested in the Attorney General Position:
Senator Ted Cruz has told confidants he’s interested in serving as attorney general in the Trump administration, according to two sources familiar with the conversations. Cruz also wandered into the office of Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon for an impromptu meeting, according to a source close to Bannon.  Cruz may not be the frontrunner for the job, which is a target for others in Trump’s orbit — including Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), an early supporter of the businessman. Cruz, in contrast, memorably fought with Trump while finishing second in the GOP primary.

November 17: The New York Post: How the Clinton Foundation brought down Hillary’s campaign:
The Clinton family foundation turned out to be a liability for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. But it wasn’t foreordained. Here’s how it happened.  Hillary’s sky-high favorable ratings were the result of a general lack of scrutiny in the previous four years.  When reporters were talked to about the Clintons’ vulnerabilities, to their credit, they were almost always interested in the Clinton Foundation. There were suspicions about the foundation unethically blurring the lines and bending the rules. The organization represented the intersection of politics and money, the favorite topic of any good political reporter.

In August 2013, the New York Post broke a story showing the Clinton Foundation had spent $50 million on private travel.. Former President Bill Clinton had apparently become addicted to private jets. The general election was still more than three years away, and already the Clinton Foundation was transforming from a well-meaning charity to a private slush fund enriching the Clintons, making a mockery of Hillary’s claim the next year that her family was “dead broke.”

November 17: Financial Times: U.S. Tech Groups Doing Some Soul Searching after Big Election Loss (Facebook, Google, and Twitter getting push back over “Fake News”)
Facebook, Twitter and Google have each, in their way, been cast in an unflattering light. They stand accused of helping to circulate fake news and conspiracy theories, most of it favoring the Trump camp, that may have worsened what was already a deeply partisan battle. And the raucous debate on Twitter often tipped into outright harassment and hate speech.   Under attack from outside and within — their deeply liberal workforces were guaranteed to be unsettled by any suggestion they played a part in the Trump victory — they have engaged in soul searching and some quick responses.

November 12: The New York Times: Obama’s Policies Face a Reckoning with History:
As he raced across the country before the election, Obama warned supporters about the stakes. “All the progress we’ve made over these last eight years,” he said, “goes out the window if we don’t win this election.”  Hillary Clinton, his anointed successor, did not win, and so now Mr. Obama will find out whether his prediction was just campaign hyperbole or if his legacy really has just gone out the window. Not only are specific initiatives like his healthcare and climate change programs at risk, but so, too, is the broader vision Mr. Obama articulated for America.

Suddenly, the progressive, post-racial, bridge-building society he promised has given way to an angry, jeering, us-against-them nation to be led by a new president.   In none of Mr. Obama’s worst-case scenarios when he came to office was this the way he imagined leaving.

November 12: The Hill: There are Differences between Trump and Capitol Hill
but the reduction of regulations isn’t one of them!
Here are just a few of the regulations Congress and the new White House could focus on.  (1) The Clean Power Plan: Repealing the EPA’s plan which has been a centerpiece to outgoing president Obama’s climate change policy.  (2) The Clean Water Rule: Known as the Waters of the United States this rule expanse the reach of the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to include non-navigable waters such as a pond on a farmer’s land. (3) The Overtime Rule: Which goes into effect December 1st, increases pay for salaried workers who work more than 40 hours per week.

November 11: The Daily Caller: Anti-Trump Rallies Funded by Left-Wing “Charity”
A left-wing charity organization with unknown sources of money is providing the funding for protests around the country — some of which have turned into violent riots — that have threatened a divided nation’s ability to unify after a contentious presidential election.  The Progress Unity Fund is a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization — the same classification as the Red Cross. The group’s mission is to “provide a progressive alternative to mainstream charities,” according to its IRS filings.

The fund provides the financial backing for Act Now To Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, a left-wing activist group that began organizing “emergency protests” immediately after Trump’s election.  But ANSWER describes Progress Unity Fund as its “fiscal sponsor.” And the group is asking its supporters to financially support the next round of anti-Trump protests — Trump’s January 20 inauguration — by donating to the Progress Unity Fund.

November 11: ABC News (Arizona): Anti Trump Protestor Paid $3,500 to rally against Trump
For months now, rumors have circulated that individuals were being paid to protest at rallies held by presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Today a man from Trump’s rally in Fountain Hills, AZ back in March has come forward to say that he was paid to protest the event.  “I was given $3,500 to protest Donald Trump’s rally in Fountain Hills,” said 37-year-old Paul Horner. “I answered a Craigslist ad about a group needing actors for a political event. I interviewed with them and got the part.”

“As for who these people were affiliated with that interviewed me, my guess would be Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” Horner said. “The actual check I received after I was done with the job was from a group called ‘Women Are The Future’. After I was hired, they told me if anyone asked any questions about who I was with or communicated with me in any way, I should start talking about how great Bernie Sanders is.” Horner continued, “It was mostly women in their 60’s at the interview that I went to. Plus, all the people that I communicated with had an AOL email address. No one still has an AOL email address except people that would vote for Hillary Clinton.”

November 11: The Daily Caller: Clinton Campaign can’t accept defeat; blames FBI not Clinton’s actions.
A Clinton campaign official is blaming FBI director James Comey for Hillary Clinton’s monumental loss to Donald Trump on Tuesday.  Clinton campaign official Navin Nayak said “Comey’s letter in the last 11 days of the election both helped depress our turnout and also drove away some of our critical support among college-educated white voters — particularly in the suburbs.”   On Oct. 28, Comey sent a letter to Congress in which he said that new evidence had been found that may relate to the FBI’s closed investigation of Clinton’s emails. He suggested that the investigation was being reopened. The Clinton campaign blasted Comey for issuing a vague letter that provided few details about what the new evidence might be.  Comey attempted to redress those grievances on Sunday, when he sent out another letter stating that the new evidence did not change the FBI’s decision in July to not charge Clinton with mishandling classified information.  But Nayak said that Comey’s follow-up letter may also have hurt Clinton and helped Trump.

November 9: Breitbart News: Anti Trump rallies organized by George Soros’s  MoveOn.Org:
Anti-Trump rallies – organized by MoveOn.Org and allies – were a move by the left wing George Soros organization to  show their continued rejection of President-elect Donald Trump. 
[See related story about protestor being paid to protest against Trump]

“This is a disaster. We fought our hearts out to avert this reality. But now it’s here,”  MoveOn.Org staff wrote to members on Wednesday. “The new president-elect and many of his most prominent supporters have targeted, demeaned, and threatened millions of us—and millions of our friends, family, and loved ones. Both chambers of Congress remain in Republican hands. We are entering an era of profound and unprecedented challenge, a time of danger for our communities and our country. In this moment, we have to take care of ourselves, our families, and our friends—especially those of us who are on the front lines facing hate, including Latinos, women, immigrants, refugees, Black people, Muslims, LGBT Americans, and so many others. And we need to make it clear that we will continue to stand together.”

November 9: The Daily Caller:  The Joke’s on Us (The Mainstream Media)
Journalists flatly admitted they completely failed to understand the 2016 presidential election following Republican nominee Donald Trump’s win Tuesday.  “To put it bluntly, the media missed the story,” Margaret Sullivan wrote in The Washington Post.  “We were all wrong,” Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman wrote in Politico’s Playbook newsletter. “That seems obvious, right?  But we were more than wrong. We were laughably oblivious. The entire Washington political-media complex completely missed the mark. Not by inches or feet, but by miles.”  Jim Rutenberg added in The New York Times: “The news media by and large missed what was happening all around it, and it was the story of a lifetime. The numbers weren’t just a poor guide for election night — they were an off-ramp away from what was actually happening.”

November 9: Los Angeles Times:  Trump Victory ensures conservative Supreme Court
Donald Trump’s presidential victory preserves the Supreme Court’s narrow conservative majority by clearing the way for the new president to choose a jurist next year to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.  And with Republicans maintaining control of the Senate, Trump will have a free hand in selecting someone with strong conservative credentials, confident his nominee will be confirmed.  The election dashes the hopes of liberals, who lost their best opportunity in more than 40 years to create a majority on the high court.

November 8: Fox News: Election Night Returns
Clinton appears to have wn 228 Electoral Votes;
Trump has gotten 290, with 270 needed to win the election.  Not all of the returns are in at this point but it appears that Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States.

Clinton appears to have garnered 60.8 million votes with Trump getting 60.3 million of the popular vote nationwide.
However, it is the Electoral Votes that determine the outcome of the election. The founding fathers set it up this way so that smaller states would have say in the selection of the President. 
[Editor's Note: Some states do not count absentee ballots unless the vote count is close.  Texas is not one of those states.  Absentee votes tend to favor Republican candidates. So it is entirely possible that Mr. Trump also won the popular vote in addtion to the Electoral Vote count.]

October 28: The Washington Free Beacon: Congress: Attorney General “Pleads the Fifth” on secret Iran payments:
Attorney General Loretta Lynch is declining to comply with an investigation by leading members of Congress about the Obama administration’s secret efforts to send Iran $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year, prompting accusations that Lynch has “pleaded the Fifth” Amendment to avoid incriminating herself over these payments, according to lawmakers and communications exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) initially presented Lynch in October with a series of questions about how the cash payment to Iran was approved and delivered.  In an Oct. 24 response, Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik responded on Lynch’s behalf, refusing to answer the questions and informing the lawmakers that they are barred from publicly disclosing any details about the cash payment, which was bound up in a ransom deal aimed at freeing several American hostages from Iran.

October 25: Gateway Pundit: Trump on Track to Win More Black Votes than Any GOP Candidate since 1960
In the past month the number of black voters for Donald Trump has increased significantly.  At the beginning of October 9% of African Americans supported Trump. 

October 25: Fox News: TEA Party-tied group calls for delay in Speaker Vote as Ryan Faces Unrest
An influential conservative group is urging the Republican-led House to postpone its looming leadership vote, potentially offering House Speaker Paul Ryan a chance to get his ‘house’ in order at a time when his detractors are renewing threats to oust him in the aftermath of the “chaotic” 2016 election.  The Tea Party-tied FreedomWorks sent a message Monday to the House Republican Caucus telling members to wait until December to decide on a speaker.  FreedomWorks leader Adam Brandon said Tuesday the push does not reflect support for Ryan; only a call for members “to reassess and reflect” after a “historically long, chaotic election cycle.”

October 17: Fox News: “Quid pro quo”: FBI files show top State official tried to
“influence” bureau on Clinton emails
A senior State Department official and friend of Hillary Clinton proposed a “quid pro quo” to convince the FBI to strip the classification on an email from Hillary Clinton’s server – and repeatedly tried to “influence” the bureau’s decision when his offer was denied, even taking his plea up the chain of command, according to newly released FBI documents.  (By changing the classification from Secret to unclassified it would make it appear that Hillary Clinton did not handle classified information on her personal server.)  Notes from an interview with an unnamed FBI official reveal the State Department Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy tried to horse-trade with the FBI, offering additional slots for the bureau overseas if they would de-classify a particular email marked “SECRET.”

According to the documents, the unnamed individual said he was “pressured” to “change the classified email to unclassified.”  “[Redacted name of agent] indicated he had been contacted by PATRICK KENNEDY, Undersecretary of State, who had asked his assistance in altering the email’s classification in exchange for a ‘quid pro quo,’” the 302 states. “[The agent] advised that in exchange for marking the email unclassified, STATE would reciprocate by allowing the FBI to place more Agents in countries where they are presently forbidden.”

October 17: Liffezette.com: WikiLeaks: Politico Reporter Offered Clinton Camp Chance to edit story.
The latest trove of emails released by WikiLeaks Monday proves even further collusion between large, ostensibly mainstream media outlets and the Democratic Party.  In an astonishing email, Politico chief White House political correspondent and senior staff writer Glenn Thrush ran his latest article by Hillary Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta to make sure nothing offended the Clinton henchman.

The revelation comes on the same day as the release of a new report by the Center for Public Integrity, which showed that the vast majority of politically active journalists have donated money to the Clinton campaign.

October 12: The Washington Times: Clinton campaign mocks Catholics,
Southerners, and Latino’s in recently released emails
Long before Hillary Clinton called millions of Americans a “basket of deplorables,” her top campaign advisers and liberal allies openly mocked Catholics, Southerners and a host of other groups, according to newly released emails that offer a stunning window into the vitriol inside the Clinton world less than a month before Election Day.  The emails, published by WikiLeaks after a hack of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s private account, also show Clinton campaign officials and Democratic leaders disparaging supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders as “self-righteous” whiners, calling Hispanic party leaders such as Bill Richardson “needy Latinos,” labeling CNN anchor Jake Tapper “a d—k” and even lambasting longtime Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal.  The sheer number of insults in the email trove has left the Clinton campaign, along with outside organizations such as the Center for American Progress that were routinely involved in the brutal bad-mouthing, unable or unwilling to respond. Instead, they have blamed the hack on Russia and have refused to even confirm that the emails are genuine, though they also haven’t denied their authenticity.

October 12: Breitbart News:
Hillary Tried to Silence me after the rape: Broaddrick
Juanita Broaddrick, the woman who accused Bill Clinton of raping her twice in a hotel room in 1978, recounted an alleged encounter with Hillary Clinton in which Broaddrick says the future presidential candidate attempted to intimidate her into being silent about the alleged rapes.  Broaddrick said she believed that Hillary Clinton knew that her husband had raped her during their encounter.

Oct 10: The New York Post: Clintons nearly drove top staffer to suicide, email claims
Chelsea Clinton was “more concerned” about an article in The Post “about her father and a multitude of women over the years” than about the health of two senior Clinton Foundation officials — one of whom threatened to kill herself, according to an explosive WikiLeaks email released Monday.  In a December 2011 email exchange, Bill Clinton’s closest aide, Doug Band, told other Clinton aides that he had to talk foundation COO Laura Graham out of driving her car into the water on Staten Island because she was under such stress caused by “WJC and CVC as well as that of her family.” The reference appears to be to William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton and Chelsea Victoria Clinton.

“She was on Staten island in her car parked a few feet from the waters edge with her foot on the gas pedal and the car in park. She called me to tell me the stress of all of this office crap with wjc and cvc as well as that of her family had driven her to the edge and she couldn’t take it anymore,” Band wrote to Hillary Clinton’s then-State Department chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, along with Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff, John Podesta, and Justin Cooper, the aide who helped set up and maintain Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

October 10: InfoWars: Wikileaks Emails: Clinton Campaign Insiders Fear Bill’s Sex Life could Sink Hillary:
A new Wikileaks email dump released today reveals that some Hillary campaign insiders are petrified that Bill Clinton’s sordid sexual past could severely damage Hillary’s chances.  The revelation is of particular note because it dovetails with Donald Trump holding a press conference yesterday before the debate with three of Bill Clinton’s sexual abuse victims.

The email, which is marked “confidential,” was sent to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta by prominent left-wing journalist Brent Budowsky. It includes details of Budowsky’s exchange “with someone in the media,” who told him that, “there are people close to the Clintons who says WJC’s (William Jefferson Clinton) sex life could be damaging to her.”  Although Budowsky stresses his view that the more Bill Clinton the better for Hillary, he adds that, “there were people purportedly close to the Clintons pushing the line that the less WJC the better.”

October 9: Fox News: Trump has News Conference with Clinton Victims by his side:
Trump held a news conference a hour before the second debate and was flanked by Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick, who have each previously accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault. Some have also accused Hillary Clinton of intimidating them.   “Actions speak louder than words,” Broaddrick said. “Mr. Trump may have said some bad words but Bill Clinton raped me and Hillary Clinton threatened me. I don’t think there’s any comparison.”  Also present was Kathy Shelton. Hillary Clinton defended the man who raped a then 12-year-old Shelton in 1975.  “Hillary put me through something that you would never put a 12 year old through,” Shelton said. “And she says she’s for women and children.”

October 9: The Daily Mail: Trump keeps his campaign alive with
barnstorming come back after confronting Hillary with four Clinton Sex Victims
The debate night that will be discussed for generations in Political Science classes – and Women's Studies seminars – ended with Republican Trump landing more punches than Democrat Hillary Clinton, and successfully deflecting attention successfully away from a two-day-old crisis about graphic sexual language that threatened to derail his White House bid.   Clinton established herself as a superior bureaucrat Sunday night with more mature knowledge of foreign policy minutiae and a more intelligible way of communicating details about how laws are made.  But Trump won on points in what has become the Year of the Outsider, playing to a national television audience that polls show are weary of Washington's same-old same-old and eager for new blood.

He had Clinton playing defense for most of the 90-minute clash, saying she would be 'in jail' if he ran the Justice Department – a reference to her classified email scandal – and declaring that she had 'tremendous hate in her heart' when she branded 'half' his supporters as 'deplorables.'  He even bested her on her recollection of her own tenure at the helm of the U.S. State Department.  Trump recalled that Clinton was secretary of state when President Barack Obama drew his now-infamous rhetorical 'red line' in Syria, ineffectively warning Bashar al-Assad not to use chemical weapons against insurgents and civilians.  Clinton insisted she had retired from the government by the time that happened. Not so: Obama dared Assad to cross his line in August 2012, six months before Clinton’s term ended.

October 2: Heat Street: October Surprise Thwarted? Wikileaks Cancels highly Anticipated on Tuesday
Wikileaks has abruptly canceled a much-anticipated announcement on Tuesday, according to NBC News. The announcement had been expected to be founder Julian Assange’s long-promised document dump on Hillary Clinton.  NBC reported that the Tuesday announcement  was canceled due to “security concerns”.

October 2: The Washington Examiner: Bill Clinton’s accuser Kathleen Willey:
Hillary was complicit in his sexual misconduct
One of many women who have accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct is speaking out, saying Hillary Clinton shouldn't be exempt from criticism over her handling of the affairs that nearly ended her husband's presidency in the 1990s.  Kathleen Willey — a former volunteer White House aide who accused Bill Clinton of making aggressive, unwanted advances during a private meeting in 1993 — said she holds Hillary Clinton responsible for smearing her and the many other women who have come forward with stories about their treatment at the hands of her husband. "This no longer about Bill Clinton's transgressions or his infidelities or girlfriends or sex ... it's not about that anymore," Willey told the Washington Examiner. "What it's about is the actions that his wife has taken against the women that he has raped and assaulted."

October 2: The Daily Caller:  Kathleen Willey says another Clinton Woman to step forward
A woman is expected to step forward and tell her story about her experiences with Bill Clinton in Arkansas Kathleen Willey announced on her Facebook page Sunday night.  The woman was an Arkansas TV reporter and is expected to tell radio host Aaron Klein her story Sunday night. This is a developing story.  Willey is a former White House aide who, in 1998, claimed on “60 Minutes” that Bill Clinton had sexually assaulted her on November 29, 1993, during his first term as President.

October 2: The American Mirror: Hispanic man films white woman being beaten over Trump yard sign:
A pair of California men went on an apparent Donald Trump yard sign-stealing spree this week and filmed several of their exploits for the enjoyment of their Twitter audience.  One citizen IDed Lemoore, California residents Angel Mendoza and Rolando Vega as the culprits, and combined their videos into a single one, likely in case they were deleted.  The first video shows a woman being beaten on the front lawn of a home while she tries to protect a Trump sign.

September 30: Politico: Clinton’s Take on Sanders; leaked 
Hacked audio of a conversation between Hillary Clinton and donors during a February fundraising event shows the Democrat nominee describing Bernie Sanders supporters as "children of the Great Recession" who are "living in their parents’ basement."  Speaking at a Virginia fundraiser hosted by former U.S. ambassador Beatrice Welters, Clinton says in a clip released by the Free Beacon that many of her former primary opponent's supporters sought things like “free college, free health care,” saying that she preferred to occupy the space "from the center-left to the center-right" on the political spectrum.

September 30: Fox News: Clinton’s Treatment of Women
Donald Trump’s campaign is signaling that Bill Clinton’s history of affairs and alleged sexual misconduct – as well as Hillary Clinton’s treatment of the women involved – is now fair game, after his Democratic opponent took the first shot by calling out his own negative comments toward women at Monday’s debate. 

September 30: Real Clear Politics:  Trump to Obama; Warning: Don’t Pardon Hillary
At a campaign rally in Novi, Michigan Friday evening, Donald Trump asked President Barack Obama not to "pardon Clinton and her co-conspirators" if any charges were filed related to the email scandal.  "Mr. President," Trump said. "Will you pledge not to issue a pardon to Hillary Clinton and her co-conspirators for their many crimes against our country, and against society itself. No one is above the law."

September 30: McClatchy DC: Obama’s Political Correctness: Jerusalem isn’t in Israel… Right!
The White House forgot its own policy on Jerusalem Friday — at least temporarily.  The administration initially sent out a copy of President Barack Obama’s remarks at former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres’ funeral in Jerusalem, indicating that the remarks had been given in Jerusalem, Israel. But later Friday afternoon, the press office sent out a correction to the previous email, striking out “Israel” from the header of the transcript.

U.S. policy has long refrained from recognizing any nation’s sovereignty over Jerusalem. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital, with Israel declaring in 1980 the city was its undivided capital. A 2015 Supreme Court decision reaffirmed U.S. practice that forbids Americans born in Jerusalem to list Israel as their country of birth on passports.  The U.S. embassy in Israel is in Tel Aviv, but the country maintains a consulate in Jerusalem. Congress passed a law in 1995 calling for the embassy to be moved to Jerusalem, but presidents since then have used their waiver authority to prevent the change.

September 26: The Hill:  Senate to vote on 9/11 veto on Wednesday:
The Senate is moving forward with a pledge by leadership to try to override President Obama's veto of legislation that would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia in court.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) set the vote on overriding the veto, along with two hours of debate, for Wednesday.  The showdown could end with lawmakers nixing the president's veto for the first time in his administration. 

September 26: The Hill: House to vote the week on contempt for former Clinton staffer:
The House will vote this week on a resolution to hold former State Department IT technician Bryan Pagliano in contempt of Congress, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters Monday.  “We’ll be taking up contempt on Bryan Pagliano for his lack of attending,” McCarthy said, referring to a committee hearing Pagliano skipped.  McCarthy provided no further details on plans for the vote.  Pagliano was responsible for setting up Hillary Clinton’s private email server during her tenure as secretary of State.

September 26: UPI: State Polls: Trump Edging Out Clinton in Electoral College
Donald Trump would earn enough votes to win the presidency in the Electoral College based on UPI/CVoter's state tracking poll released Monday.  Trump would amass 292 votes and Clinton would get 246 with 270 needed to secure the oval office.  But the candidates' leads are narrow enough -- 5 percent or less -- in 12 states to classify them as swing states, meaning 156 electoral votes could be up for grabs. If the battleground states are not counted, the race would be tied 191-191.

September 24: The Daily Mail: Debate Rules: No Stepstool and No breaks for coughing or fainting spells
Short Hillary (5’4”) wanted to debate a tall Trump (6’2”) on a step stool, the Commission on Presidential Debates said no!  But Hillary will have a “custom-made podium” which will accommodate the difference in stature.  She also won’t get commercial breaks for any coughing fits or fainting spells.

September 24: The New York Post: Bill Clinton’s Gennifer Flowers will be front row center at the first debate!
When Hillary Clinton takes the podium at Monday night’s first presidential debate, she could be staring down an old romantic rival sitting in the front row.  Gennifer Flowers, who carried on a 12-year affair with Bill Clinton when he was attorney general and  governor of Arkansas, might attend the debate at Hofstra University as Trump’s guest.   “Ms. Flowers has agreed to join Donald at the debate,” her personal assistant, Judy Stell, wrote in an e-mail to BuzzFeed, according to the Web site.  It was a shot at Clinton’s decision to seat Cuban, a frequent Trump critic, in the front row as her debate guest, and a signal that the Republican nominee might dredge up past Clinton scandals as ammunition.

September 17: Yahoo.Com: Presidential Race Tightens in Projected U.S. Electoral College Vote:
An election analysis conducted in the Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project shows that the race has tightened considerably over the past few weeks, with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump projected to win Florida, an essential battleground state, if the election were held today.  The project, which is based on a weekly tracking poll of more than 15,000 Americans, shows that the 2016 presidential race could end in a photo finish on Nov. 8, with the major-party candidates running nearly even in the Electoral College, the body that ultimately selects the president.  If the election were held today, the project estimates that Clinton has a 60 percent chance of winning by 18 electoral votes. Last week, the project estimated that Clinton had a 83 percent chance of winning the election.

September 16: The Daily Caller: Just 5.7% of the Clinton Foundation Funds went to Charitable Grants:
Just 5.7 percent of the Clinton Foundation’s massive 2014 budget actually went to charitable grants, according to the tax-exempt organization’s IRS filings. The rest went to salaries and employee benefits, fundraising and “other expenses” IRS filings show. But less than $5.2 million of that went to charitable grants.

September 14:  Breitbart.Com:  Doctors Raise Concerns Over Clinton’s Pneumonia Diagnosis and Treatment:
Dr. Jane Orient, Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons said “Most people with pneumonia are sick in bed and they have a fever and it’s very hard for them to be up and about.   I would have advised her to cancel the event.”  Clinton’s staff initially blamed the abrupt exit from the 9/11 memorial and subsequent stumbling on Hillary being overheated even though the temperatures in New York City that day were in the 70s with a light breeze blowing.  Dr. Orient continues to be concerned for Clinton’s lingering cough, saying “Now, I don’t think this pneumonia begins to explain the terrible cough that she’s had for months on end,” she stated. “Interestingly enough, people haven’t been talking about her cough this weekend.” “Now, I don’t think this pneumonia begins to explain the terrible cough that she’s had for months on end.”

Flash Back: Politico: February 25, 2008:  Obama Slams “smear photo”
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe accused the Clinton campaign Monday of "shameful offensive fear-mongering" by circulating a photo as an attempted smear. Plouffe was reacting to a banner headline on the Drudge Report saying that aides to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) had e-mailed a photo calling attention to the African roots of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL).  "The photo, taken in 2006, shows the Democrat front-runner dressed as a Somali Elder, during his visit to Wajir, a rural area in northeastern Kenya," the Drudge Report said. The photo created huge buzz in political circles and immediately became known as "the 'dressed' photo," reflecting the Drudge terminology.

September 6: The Daily Caller: Republicans on Capitol Hill Gain Confidence in Trump
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said he is pleased Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is holding up against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.  “Trump is getting better,” Graham told reporters Tuesday pointing to the recent polling. “You can see a more disciplined message. If he can hold it together for another 8 weeks.”  Graham, who ran against Trump in the primary and doubted that the New York billionaire could beat Clinton, appeared impressed that Trump could withstand the amount of political attacks he had taken so far. “He’s had massive political body blows that would knock anybody else out. If he can cross the lines in the eyes of the public and be ready for the job, then I think you’re gonna have one hell of a race,” Graham added.

September 4: PageSix.com: CNN’s Dr. Drew loses show after discussing Hillary’s Health!
Dr. Drew’s show was cancelled just eight days after he (Drew Pinsky) discussed Clinton’s health on a radio program, saying he was “gravely concerned not just about her health, but also her health care.”  CNN, the sister network to the one Pinsky’s program is on, “… is so supportive of Clinton, network honchos acted like the Mafia when confronting Drew,” inside sources have said.   

September 3: The Washington Examiner: From FBI fragments; Did Clinton’s Team
destroy evidence covered by a subpoena?
The incomplete records of the Hillary Clinton email investigation released by the FBI raise questions about the conduct not only of Clinton but of her top aides and the staffers working under their direction. Perhaps the most serious is whether the Clinton team destroyed evidence which they were under legal order to save and produce to congressional investigators.

Out of a massive investigation, the FBI has released two documents: a heavily-redacted version of its summary report and a write-up from agents' July 2 interview with Clinton. The rest, including reports from interviews with other players, remains secret.  Upon release of the documents Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC)  said, "The FBI selectively releasing Secretary Clinton's interview summary is of little benefit to the public unless and until all relevant documents and witness interview summaries are released," Gowdy said. "The public is entitled to all relative information, including the testimony of the witnesses at Platte River Networks, the entity which maintained the private server. The public will find the timeline and witness responses and failures to respond instructive."

September 2: National Review: The Clinton Emails: The Gift that keeps on Giving!
Some of the notes from the FBI interview with Hillary Clinton are mind boggling reading.  Most bracing is the fact that Mrs. Clinton had her server wiped clean sometime between March 25 and 31, 2015, only three weeks after the New York Times on March 3 broke the story of the server system’s existence. David notes that, at the same time the Democrats’ Janus-faced presidential nominee was outwardly taking the position that she “want[ed] the public to see my email,” she was having her minions frantically purge her emails behind the scenes.  And remember; there were 30 Benghazi-related emails on the server she had purged, emails she never turned over to the Department of State while she continually claimed that the surrendered all of her government emails.

August 31: The American Mirror: Many empty seats and Hillary’s Speech to Veterans:
Hillary Clinton’s speech to the American Legion looked good for the cameras pointing towards the stage, but a crowd shot showed dozens of empty seats in the audience.  This was not as they were waiting for Clinton. She’s at the podium and on the big screen. This is during her speech. This was not as they were waiting for Clinton. She’s at the podium and on the big screen. This is during her speech.

August 30: The Hill: Polls tighten in the Presidential Race
Donald Trump is gaining some ground on Hillary Clinton in the polls, leaving the Democrat with a smaller lead heading into the crucial month of September.  Clinton opened her largest margin on Aug. 9, when she had a 7.6 percentage point advantage over Trump in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls. At the time, she was consistently reaching 50 percent support.  But Clinton’s lead has shrunk since then, to 4.3 points and she’s fallen short of the 50 percent mark in the last six national polls. The Democratic presidential nominee has settled into the mid-40 percent range, presenting an opportunity for her Republican rival.  Despite the improving picture for Trump, Clinton remains the favorite to win.

August 30: The Hill:  Trump to Meet with Mexican President in private meeting:
Donald Trump says he will meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Wednesday, hours ahead of a high-profile immigration speech the GOP nominee is scheduled to give in Arizona.  I have accepted the invitation of President Enrique Pena Nieto, of Mexico, and look very much forward to meeting him tomorrow.  The Washington Post first reported Tuesday night that Trump was considering the last-minute trip to Mexico City. Trump tweeted confirmation shortly before he took the stage for a rally in Washington state Tuesday night, but he did not mention the visit in his remarks. 

August 30: The Daily Caller: Obama’s Doctor thinks Hillary should undergo a thorough neurological examination
President Obama’s longtime doctor, David Scheiner, said Tuesday that Hillary Clinton should undergo a “thorough neurological examination” to see if she has lasting damage from a Dec. 2012 concussion she suffered after a fall.  Scheiner also raised numerous questions during an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett over Donald Trump’s health.
Clinton has claimed to be in good health as well. She released a two-page letter from her doctor which addressed her Dec. 2012 fall. Clinton suffered a concussion and a blood clot and was slow to recover.

August 30: Fox News: Clinton Team digging for ways to trip up Trump at debate
With the first presidential debate just a few weeks away, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has more than two-dozen staffers digging deep into Donald Trump's background and looking for ways to get under his skin.  Their quest for damaging

August 30: US News:  A Candidate’s Death Could Delay or Eliminate the Presidential Election
The presidential election could be delayed or scrapped altogether if conspiracy theories become predictive and a candidate dies or drops out before Nov. 8. The perhaps equally startling alternative, if there's enough time: Small groups of people hand-picking a replacement pursuant to obscure party rules.  "There's nothing in the Constitution which requires a popular election for the electors serving in the Electoral College," says John Nagle, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, meaning the body that officially elects presidents could convene without the general public voting.

August 27: Associated Press:  US State Dept. to withhold Clinton calendars until after the election:
Seven months after a federal judge ordered the State Department to begin releasing monthly batches of the detailed daily schedules showing meetings by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state, the government told The Associated Press it won't finish the job before Election Day.  The department has so far released about half of the schedules. Its lawyers said in a phone conference with the AP's lawyers that the department now expects to release the last of the detailed schedules around Dec. 30 (weeks after the November 8th election).  The AP's lawyers late Friday formally asked the State Department to hasten that effort so that the department could provide all Clinton's minute-by-minute schedules by Oct. 15. The agency did not immediately respond.

August 27: Infowars: Report: Google Censors “Hillary Clinton Health Problems” search results:
Google users who were attempting to search for information regarding the health of Hillary Clinton were given suggestions that had nothing to do with the issue; Twitter postings revealed this weekend.  Google users when typing in “Hillary Clinton’s he” were finding their auto-complete suggestions going to her ‘health plan” “healthcare plan” and “headquarters” while avoiding “health” or “health issues.”  By contrast Microsoft’s Bing.com and Yahoo’s search engines suggested links to discussions of Hillary Clinton’s health issues.  [Read the column on Questions about Hillary’s Health]

August 24: Real Clear Politics: Former UK Independent Party Leader:
Anything is Possible if enough Decent People Fight the Establishment:
Former leader of the UK Independent Party Nigel Farage, credited for Brexit, addressed the audience at a Trump campaign rally in Jackson, Mississippi on Wednesday night. "You can beat the pollsters, you can beat the commentators, you can beat Washington," Farage said to cheers. "If you want change, you better get your walking boots on."  "Anything is possible if enough decent people want to fight the establishment.”

Farage also took a shot at President Barack Obama for campaigning against Brexit.   "The big card the prime minister (David Cameron) decided to play in the referendum is he got a foreign visitor to come to London to talk to us. Yes, we were visited by one Barack Obama. And he talked down to us. He treated us as if we were nothing," Farage said.

August 24: United Press International:  Trump and Hillary: A one point spread:
The UPI/CVoter daily presidential tracking poll released Wednesday shows Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by less than 1 percentage point for the third day in a row.  The online poll shows 48.35 percent for Clinton to 47.48 for Trump.  Both candidates edged up slightly in the newest data compared to data collected a day earlier, though Trump has gained considerable ground on Clinton over the past seven days, the poll's full sample size.
Trump has gained 3.3 percentage points in the past week, while Clinton has lost 2.3 points, leaving the race in a virtual tie.  The UPI/CVoter online tracking poll surveys at least 200 people each day, leading to a sample size of at least 1,400 people during any seven-day span.

August 21: The New York Post:  Clinton Campaign Make Desperate Plea for Funds
Campaign manager Robby Mook has written a panicky pitch to Hillary Clinton supporters warning that fundraising numbers are dipping – even adding “that’s how elections are lost.” “Our poll numbers are holding steady, which is good. We’re growing our field organization, building out neighborhood teams in communities all over the country — which is even better,” Mook wrote. “But that’s happening at a time when our fundraising levels are, frankly, dipping.” Mook appears to attribute lower fundraising numbers with overconfidence.

August 24: The LA Times: Clinton exploring the outer limits of fundraising
like no presidential nominee ever has
If there were a moment in this presidential race when Hillary Clinton could act on her stated outrage over the obscene amount of money in politics, it is probably now, having eclipsed her rival Donald Trump in terms of cash in the bank and blocked off his most direct paths to victory. But Clinton isn’t tapping the brakes.

August 21: The New York Post: American Journalism is Collapsing Before Our Eyes:
Donald Trump may fix his campaign and Hillary Clinton may become the first female president. But something else happening before our eyes is almost as important: the complete collapse of American journalism as we know it.  The frenzy to bury Trump is not limited to the Clinton campaign and the Obama White House. They are working hand-in-hand with what was considered the cream of the nation’s news organizations. 
The shameful display of naked partisanship by the elite media is unlike anything seen in modern America. The largest broadcast networks — CBS, NBC and ABC — and major newspapers like The New York Times and Washington Post have jettisoned all pretense of fair play. Their fierce determination to keep Trump out of the Oval Office has no precedent.

August 20: The Los Angeles Times:
Daily Presidential Polling Numbers
The USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times "Daybreak" poll tracks about 3,000 eligible voters until election day, asking on a regular basis about their support for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump or other candidates as well as their likelihood of actually casting a ballot.  The data is updated each day based on the weighted average of poll responses over the previous week. That means results have less volatility than some other polls, but also means the poll lags somewhat in responding to major events in the campaign.

August 19: Lifezette.com: Trump Plays Role of President in Louisiana
In a move timed to complement his campaign revamp, Donald Trump today landed in Louisiana to witness first-hand the devastation wrought by flooding not seen there since Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast in 2005.  Trump's arrival on the scene helps him on a number of levels; most importantly, it provides a dramatic contract to Hillary Clinton and President Obama, both of whom have neglected to visit the region where more than a dozen have died and tens of thousands have been forced out of their homes.

August 18: The Daily Signal:  Voter Fraud is Real, Here are some examples:
The topic of voter fraud is popping up much more frequently.  Progressives insist that voter fraud is a myth, a charade meant to justify repressive voting laws. The facts, however, tell a different story: Voter fraud is real, and if we ignore it, we leave our ballot boxes open to fraudsters who would rather steal elections than risk losing in a fair and open contest.
- Kentucky: Ruth Robinson, the former mayor of Martin, was sentenced to 90 months' imprisonment on a variety of charges that included vote buying, identity theft, and fraud.
- Texas: Guadalupe Rivera and Graciela Sanchez illegally “assisted” absentee voters in Rivera’s 2013 re-election bid for city commissioner. Rivera won the election by 16 votes, but the result was invalidated after a judge determined that 30 absentee ballots had been submitted illegally.
- Iowa: Erin Venessa Leeper registered and voted in a 2015 school board election. As a convicted felon, however, she was ineligible to do so, and pleaded guilty to perjury last May. She was ordered to pay a $750 fine, plus $240 in court costs, and was sentenced to a suspended five-year prison term and two years of probation.

August 16: The New York Times: Trump Questions Hillary Clinton’s stamina
First there was “low energy.” Now increasingly it’s “no stamina  As Mr. Trump faces an uphill battle in the general election campaign against Hillary Clinton, the Republican presidential nominee is trying to reprise the winning formula that got him this far, slipping it into rallies and speeches that his opponent appears too tired to lead the country.  In a prominent national security address on Monday, Mr. Trump could not have been more explicit when he said that Mrs. Clinton “lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS, and all the many adversaries we face.”

August 16: Heatstreet.Com: One photo of Hillary propped up on a pillow is no big thing but
bunches of similar photos in different venues raises some eyebrows.
Hillary is being propped up by a pillow, and it’s hardly the first time this has happened. In fact, the former secretary of state used to include propping cushions on her list of demands during her lucrative time on the paid celebrity speaking circuit.  According to the Washington Post, for one speech at UCLA, a public university that she graciously offered a discounted rate of $300,000, Hillary demanded that “chairs be outfitted with two long, rectangular pillows — and that two cushions be kept backstage in case the chair was too deep and she needed additional back support.”

August 16: The Washington Times: Trump pushes law and order agenda in direct appeal to black voters
Republican Donald Trump made his most direct appeal yet Tuesday for black voters in the presidential race, pushing forward an agenda to restore law and order and revitalize inner-city neighborhoods that he said suffer from years of misguided Democratic policies.  In a speech delivered not far from Milwaukee neighborhoods rocked by anti-police riots, Mr. Trump laid the blame for urban despair and conflict between police and minorities at the feet of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“I am running to offer you a much better future,”  Trump said in a speech in West Bend, Wisconsin. “Crime and violence is an attack on the poor and it will never be accepted in a Trump administration.”  He said the policies holding back minority neighborhoods were part of the “rigged system” led by Mrs. Clinton, who he said pandered to black voters but didn’t really care about their suffering.

August 16: Washington Free Beacon: Clinton: Illegal Tapped to
Run Voter Registration Drive is Tied to George Soros:
An illegal immigrant who was tapped by the Hillary Clinton campaign for a new effort to register Latino voters is tied to a multi-million dollar voter registration effort funded by George Soros.  The Immigrant Voters Win PAC was established to fund the Families Fight Back campaign. Soros and other liberal donors vowed to spend $15 million on the effort.  Soros cut a $3 million check to the PAC on March 11. He was the only funder of the PAC until late May when the Civic Participation Action Fund, a group that seeks to advance “racial equality, economic opportunity, and civic engagement,” added a $1 million donation.

August 14:  The Washington Times:  Obama Administration provides Clinton’s
first line of defense amid scandals:
Just as stunning as the unending stream of reports of scandal and subterfuge that has come to define Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state is the Obama administration’s tireless effort to keep a lid on it.  Whether it’s the Justice Department taking a pass when afforded the opportunity to investigate or the State Department steadfastly defending every controversy, President Obama’s Administration has emerged as a first line of defense for the woman who would carry on his legacy.

The kid-glove treatment of Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, has helped shield her from bad headlines as Republican nominee Donald Trump has been battered by the news media over his remarks on the stump and rants on Twitter.

August 14: The Washington Examiner:  Hillary drafts illegal dreamers to get people registered to vote
Hillary Clinton's campaign on Sunday announced a program to recruit undocumented "Dreamers" into a voter registration army even though they are not allowed to vote.  Celebrating the four-year anniversary of President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Clinton launched "Mi Sueno, Tu Voto" (My Dream, Your Vote), to rally and "secure commitments" from immigrants who can vote.

The DACA program created so-called "Dreamers," the children of illegal immigrants who the president has offered renewable two-year work visa and deportation deferral. The goal for many in the program is amnesty.  "We may not have the right to vote, but 'Mi Sueno, Tu Voto' will help ensure that our stories are heard and it will send a clear signal to Donald Trump that we cannot be silenced," said Astrid Silva, Nevada Dreamer and immigrant rights activist.

August 12: Fox News: Carly’s Comeback? Is she eyeing a run for RNC Chair?
Former Hewlett Packard CEO and 2016 presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina is reportedly eyeing up a new political run – this time to replace Reince Priebus as chair of the Republican National Committee – although some fear her refusal to back Donald Trump may hurt her chances.
 
Fiorina, who was largely seen as an unlikely candidate for the GOP nomination when she announced her candidacy last year, surprised many commentators with a strong run.  Fiorina has been spending the time since then campaigning for Republican House and Senate candidates, and has not endorsed Trump.
A number of outlets, including Time and Politico, reported Tuesday that the Fiorina is mulling a bid to replace Priebus after the November election – and is reaching out to state party chairs offering to help “in any way” as a way of laying the groundwork for a run.

 August 10: The Gateway Pundit: Hillary Clinton Propped Up by Man to Keep From Falling Over while making a Campaign Speech:
A photo from April shows now-Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton being firmly held up by a man on her right side to keep her from falling over as she addressed an overflow crowd during a campaign stop in Los Angeles, while a man on her left side is seen urgently extending his arm to aid in propping up Clinton. Obscured behind Clinton is a third person whose extended hand can be seen reaching out to steady her left arm.

The man holding Clinton up has one hand clasping her right hand and his other hand grasping her bicep. Clinton is leaning forward speaking to the crowd using a microphone held in her left hand.

August 10: The Daily Mail: DNC’s Possible Leaker Murdered
The mystery surrounding the murder of rising Democrat star Seth Rich took a sudden sinister turn Wednesday with claims that he was responsible for the email dump that brought down close Hillary Clinton ally Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.  Julian Assange, the head of Wikileaks, the organization that released the emails, announced a $20,000 reward for information leading to Rich's July 10 death, hinting that Rich was responsible for leaking the documents.

The new theory suggests Rich, who was murdered in what looked like a botched robbery, was behind the leak.  Rich, 27, was gunned down on his way home in an affluent neighborhood of Washington D.C. last month while on the phone to his girlfriend.  He was still alive when he was found but died on his way to the hospital. Police still have no leads and are offering a $25,000 reward for information. 

August 8: Real Clear Politics: Video Discussing Possible Medical Issues Related to Hillary Clinton
The 'FOX News Medical A-Team' talks about a photo that caught internet buzz over the weekend from February that showed Hillary Clinton needing the help of aides to walk up a set of stairs and reports of Clinton health problems in general.

August 8: The Daily Caller: CNN asks: Will Trump Follow Drudge’s Lead and Question Hillary’s Health?
On CNN Newsroom Host Carol Costello and Donald Trump supporter Jeffry Lord discussed this past weekend’s banner on the Drudge Report that questioned Hillary Clinton’s health.

August 8: The Morning News: Hillary Clinton’s Seizures: A Bizarre Neurological Disorder?
Hillary Clinton’s health condition is being questioned as the presidential campaign enters the ultimate stages.  Along with last week’s perplexing “short-circuit” comment, Clinton seemed to have been projecting bizarre, erratic behavior on the campaign trail. There were uncanny signs that left some to ponder with the thought that she might be seriously ill.   There have been times when Hillary Clinton seemed to have multiple convulsions on camera that look alike seizures. According to some reports this included a series of apparent and incomprehensible coughing fits.. The video focuses on strange eye movements and overreaction to external stimuli. It talks about reports that the  former Secretary of State has difficulties standing up after giving a speech. 

All of this could be related to coughing fits known as Dysphagia, another side effect of strokes, which is a condition that involves choking on liquid food.  Another eccentricity projected by the Democratic nominee is the sudden bursts of laughter, which becomes socially uncomfortable. This again may be an after effect of a stroke.

August 4: Breitbart News: Speaker Ryan Running Scared in Primary Election?  No Debates, No open press events, Declining Fox News interviews:
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s policy record is collapsing among voters here under scrutiny from Republican challenger Paul Nehlen, so badly that Ryan is refusing to appear even on the Fox News Channel.  “We know Speaker Ryan, he’s been on this program many, many times,” Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy opened an interview with Nehlen on Thursday morning by saying. “We did invite Speaker Ryan to appear today, and he declined.” 

The fact that Ryan is shunning former media allies and generally refusing interviews except with his closest friends on local radio shows how terrified he and his team are ahead of next week’s primary showdown with Nehlen. No recent polling has been done on the race, so it’s unclear whether Nehlen is within striking distance here on Tuesday. But Ryan’s team is certainly taking nothing for granted, especially after last cycle’s embarrassing loss by then House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to now Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA).

August 2: NewsMax: Clinton Strategy: Continue to Assert She Told the Truth Regardless of what is true!
Senior Clinton Strategist Joel Benenson appeared on MSNBC to refute the multiple stories — including in the left-leaning Washington Post — that accuse Clinton of continued lying about her server.  The Washington Post story accuses Clinton — and her campaign — of parsing the facts to give straight-faced assertions of being truthful.

"Clinton is cherry-picking statements by Comey to preserve her narrative about the unusual setup of a private email server," Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote. "This allows her to skate past the more disturbing findings of the FBI investigation."  And The
Atlantic begged Team Clinton to quit spinning lies.

July 30: Reuters:  Clinton Campaign also Hacked
A computer network used by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign was hacked as part of a broad cyber attack on Democratic political organizations, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.   The latest attack, which was disclosed on Friday, follows two other hacks on the Democratic National Committee, or DNC, and the party’s fundraising committee for candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives.   A Clinton campaign spokesman said in a statement late on Friday that an analytics data program maintained by the DNC and used by the campaign and a number of other entities "was accessed as part of the DNC hack."

July 29: Politico: Trump: Hillary wants two of three debates during prime time NFL football games
Donald Trump says he wants three presidential debates. But he stands by his complaint that their scheduling is rigged to favor Hillary Clinton.   In an interview aired Sunday on ABC News' "This Week," Trump said: "Well, I'll tell you what I don't like. It's against two NFL games. I got a letter from the NFL saying, "This is ridiculous. Why are the debates against--" 'cause the NFL doesn't wanna go against the debates. 'Cause the debates are gonna be pretty massive, from what I understand, okay? And I don't think we should be against the NFL. I don't know how the dates were picked."

July 29: Fox News: Moment of Silence at Democratic Convention interrupted by Black Lives matter Jeering
A hard-won moment of silence for fallen police officers Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention was marred by chants from the crowd of “black lives matter!” in an ugly moment that angered law enforcement representatives and underscored the anti-cop climate that has gripped the nation.  After the mothers of black men who had been killed in racially charged incidents were welcomed onto the stage earlier in the week, Philadelphia’s Fraternal Order of Police chapter pressed the DNC to honor fallen cops. Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez was invited to speak about the five cops killed in her city July 7, and said she and her fellow officers took the job to "serve and protect, not to hate and discriminate."

July 27: News Now.com: Empty Seats Witness Hillary’s Breaking the Glass Ceiling Speech:
Much like a tree falling in the woods, what if the first woman is nominated as president of the United States and nobody's there to see it?   "This is amazing. This place is empty," left-wing filmmaker Josh Fox reported Tuesday night from the Wells Fargo Center, where Hillary Clinton was officially nominated as the Democratic candidate.  The seats were vacated by Sander’s supporters after Clinton cinched the nomination and after they learned of the DNC’s collusion to get Hillary nominated.  But you wouldn't know it from media coverage that predictably fawned over Clinton becoming the first female nominee.

July 23: The Hill: Clinton VP Pick could face Left’s Ire
The Virginia senator, chosen Friday to be Hillary Clinton’s running mate, will take the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where party leaders are hoping to send a message of unity — and highlight stark divisions in the Republican Party intensified by Donald Trump  — on the tails of a boisterous GOP gathering in Cleveland.  Kaine, for those purposes, is something of a gamble.  The moderate Democrat has backed abortion restrictions; supported fast-track authority for a controversial Pacific Rim trade deal; and just this week joined a push to deregulate some of the nation’s largest banks — all positions that are anathema to the liberals being wooed by the Clinton team heading into November.  Raising the stakes, the convention marks the end of a bruising Democratic primary contest between Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in which Sanders’s liberal supporters continuously bashed the former secretary of State for being too conservative on some of those same issues, including trade and her ties to Wall Street. 

July 23: Associated Press: Political Scandals Linger as Philly Readies for Convention
The streets are freshly swept, the hotel rooms are pristine, the party invitations have gone out and extra police patrols are assigned.  Philadelphia is ready for the Democratic National Convention.  Tougher to clean up and shine, however, is the state's political image, tarnished by recent political corruption cases that have implicated many Democrats across the state.  [Longtime Congressman convicted of money laundering; Former State Treasurer pleading guilty to attempted extortion; the Attorney General awaiting trial on charges of leaking secret grand jury material; not to mention Hillary Clinton’s emails]

July 23: Breitbart.Com: Progressives May Stay Home with Kaine Selection as VP Nominee
Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore was more than disappointed with Hillary Clinton’s selection of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) as her running mate, predicting Kaine would not excite the liberal base to go to the polls.  He contrasted Clinton’s pick with Indiana Governor Pence, Donald Trump’s running mate, who Moore predicted would excite the GOP base.

July 23: ABC News:  Sanders Campaign Chief: Someone Must Be Held Accountable for what the DNC Emails Show:
Bernie Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said his team was "disappointed" by the emails from the Democratic National Committee leaked through WikiLeaks, which seemed to reveal staff in the party working to support Hillary Clinton.   "Someone does have to be held accountable," Weaver said during an interview with ABC News. "We spent 48 hours of public attention worrying about who in the [Donald] Trump campaign was going to be held responsible for the fact that some lines of Mrs. Obama's speech were taken by Mrs. Trump. Someone in the DNC needs to be held at least as accountable as the Trump campaign."

Weaver said the emails showed misconduct at the highest level of the staff within the party and that he believed there would be more emails leaked, which would "reinforce" that the party had "its fingers on the scale."   "Everybody is disappointed that much of what we felt was happening at the DNC was in fact happening, that you had in this case a clear example of the DNC taking sides and looking to place negative information into the political process.

July 23: Associated Press: Hacked Emails Show DNC Hostility toward Sanders:
A cache of more than 19,000 emails from Democratic party officials, leaked in advance of Hillary Clinton's nomination at the party's convention next week in Philadelphia, details the acrimonious split between the Democratic National Committee and Clinton's former rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders.  Several emails posted by Wikileaks on its document disclosure website show DNC officials scoffing at Sanders and his supporters and in one instance, questioning his commitment to his Jewish religion. Some emails also show DNC and White House officials mulling whether to invite guests with controversial backgrounds to Democratic party events.

July 23: The Hill: Dems vote down change to Super Delegate Rules
The Democratic Rules Committee voted down an effort to abolish the role of unbound super-delegates in the presidential primary process, dealing a blow to Senator Bernie Sanders. Many Sander’s Supprters see the super-delegate system as unfair.  An amendment failed before the committee Saturday by a vote of 108-58.  The amendment received vocal support during discussion from several people who characterized the super-delegate system as "undemocratic" and contrary to the principle of "one person, one vote."

July 23: The Hill: Green Party Still open to Sanders becoming their Presidential Candidate:
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein once again welcomed Sen. Bernie Sanders(I-VT) into her party, suggesting in a series of tweets that he could leave the party that “betrayed” him.   “If @BernieSanders repudiates the Democratic Party that betrayed him, I'd welcome him into @GreenPartyUS to continue the revolution,” Stein posted on Twitter on Saturday afternoon.   Stein’s comments come in the wake of a massive leak of emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) this weekend that revealed party officials' plans to undermine Sanders's presidential campaign. 

July 23: The Hill: Clinton to call upon Black Lives Matter at Philly Convention:
The mothers of several African-Americans killed by police or gun violence will be put in the spotlight at the Democratic National Convention. The Mothers of the Movement will put presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement at center stage.

July 22: The Daily Caller:  Wikileaks Releases Nearly 20,000 Hacked DNC Email
Wikileaks has released nearly 20,000 emails it says are from the accounts of Democratic National Committee officials.  The release could cloud the upcoming Democratic party convention, which kicks off next week in Philadelphia.  It is unclear how Wikileaks obtained the records, but the release comes weeks after a hacker (or hackers) going by the name Guccifer 2.0 began releasing records obtained through the DNC’s computer systems. The hacker claims to be Romanian, but many suspect that the records were taken by a team of Russian hackers.  Guccifer 2.0 has said that they obtained DNC emails. Other documents released by the hacker(s) include internal planning memos and databases of Democratic donors.

July 21: Politico:  Newt Gingrich Explains Ted Cruz Comments:
Moments after Day 3 of the Republican National Convention ended, Sean Hannity sat down with Newt Gingrich to discuss Ted Cruz getting booed off the stage for refusing to endorse Donald Trump. "I had the text of what Ted Cruz was gonna say, and I thought it was funny," Gingrich said. "I mean, Ted gets up and he says, 'Look, vote your conscience for someone who will support the Constitution.' Well, in this particular election year, that by definition cannot be for Hillary Clinton. …there’s no other candidate that fits the criteria Ted Cruz set up."

July 19: The Hill: Several Democratic Senatorial Candidates to skip the convention:
When Democrats gather next week to crown Hillary Clinton as their presidential nominee, some of the party's top Senate challengers won't be there.   A handful of Senate Democratic hopefuls are planning to skip the convention because of conflicting schedules or to campaign in their home states.  Representative Kirkkpatrick (D-AZ), Cortez Masto (D-NV), Kander (D-MO), and Feingold (D-WI) who are in competitive Senate races that could determine which party controls the upper chamber next year. Democrats needs to pick up five Senate seats — four if they keep the presidency — to win the majority.

July 18: YouTube: Rudy brings down the
house at the Republian Convention in Cleveland:
On Monday, the former Mayor of New York City, Rudy
Giuliani spoke the National Republican Party Convention
and brought the house down with standing ovations. 
Speaking about the police shootings and gives some
personal glimpses into Donald Trump.  He also
addresses radical Islam and the Obama Iranian
Nuclear Deal.  [16 minute Video]

July 18: The Daily Signal:  Senate Leadership  Claims they are more productive than any year in recent history; But what are they really doing?
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) recently took to the Senate floor to boast that the institution was back to work.  His proof? A Washington Times report noting that the Senate has so far this year approved 73 bills that became law, compared to only 27 during the same period last year, and 53 in 2014 when the Democrats were in control.  However, the numbers don’t tell the entire story.  Lacking is a measure of content and content is more important that the quantity of bills enacted.

July 17: Reuters: Shootings Heighten Security Concerns for the Cleveland GOP Convention
Republican Donald Trump seized on the shooting deaths in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to bolster his case the United States is leaderless and he is the better candidate in the November 8th U.S. presidential election to restore law and order than his rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. It was not immediately clear there was a link between Sunday's shootings and recent unrest countrywide over police killings of black men, one of them a shooting in Baton Rouge about two weeks ago. D espite a lack of clarity about the motive and specifics of Sunday's incident, Trump said President Barack Obama "doesn't have a clue" on how to handle the problem after Obama voiced concern about inflammatory rhetoric on the campaign trail.  "Our country is a divided crime scene, and it will only get worse!" Trump said.

July 13: The Hill: Clinton torn between Caution/Risk VP Pick
Such criticism is at the center of the most important question facing her today. Who should she pick as her running mate?  Does the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee stick to her cautious impulses and pick Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine? Or does she seek to shake up her campaign with a riskier choice, such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren?  Most Clintonites aren’t expecting a surprise. They think she will pick Kaine.  “He checks off all the boxes,” said one longtime Clinton confidante.  It’s not just that Kaine would be a strong and safe surrogate for Clinton on the campaign trail, the confidante said. It’s that she’ll be able to work with him if she’s elected, something very important to Clinton.

July 13: The Hill: Trump down to Gingrich and Pence for VP
Newt Gingrich on Wednesday said Donald Trump’s field of possible running mates is down to two people.   “He clearly, I think, is down to two,” Gingrich said on Fox News’s “Hannity," predicting the choice is now between himself and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, knocking out other contenders like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions.  “Mike Pence is a great personal friend,” Gingrich said. "We’ve worked together on many projects over the years. He had a fine career in the U.S. House and ended up as the fourth-ranking Republican in the House. He’s done a fine job and been a very good governor of Indiana.”

July 11: The Washington Post:  In Bashing Trump Ginsberg Crossed a very important line
Generally you don't hear a Supreme Court justice bashing political figures.  In fact, you generally don't hear a Supreme Court justice talking at all — much less about the big political issues of the day.  Most justices aren't Ruth Bader Ginsburg, though. And in a new New York Times interview,  Ginsburg didn’t hold back when it comes to the 2016 election.  “I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” Ginsburg told the Times' Adam Liptak. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.”

Ginsburg is known for pushing the bounds of a justice's public comments and has earned something of a cult following on the left. But some say she just went too far.  "I find it baffling actually that she says these things," said Arthur Hellman, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. "She must know that she shouldn’t be. However tempted she might be, she shouldn’t be doing it."

July 9: The Hill: GOP Senator: Outrageous for Dems for blocking “Sanctuary Cities” bill:
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) said the Senate Democrats' blocking of his "sanctuary cities" bill is "just outrageous."  Toomey vowed to keep fighting for the passage of the bill that would limit federal grant funding for cities that don't comply with federal immigration law.  “Well, this week the Senate tried to take action on my legislation and indeed it was supported by a bipartisan majority, but unfortunately, a minority of the U.S. Senate — led by Minority Leader Harry Reid — blocked us from even debating the bill," Toomey said. “It’s just outrageous and this must not stand. The safety of the American people is too important...to allow sanctuary cities to remain, and this is why I will continue fighting to protect our communities."  Senators voted 53-44 on the bill Wednesday. Sixty votes were needed to overcome the procedural hurdle and formally start debate on the measure.

July 9: The Hill: Green Party Offers Sanders a Presidential Ticket
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein says Bernie Sanders can run for president on her party's ticket if he wants.  “I’ve invited Bernie to sit down explore collaboration — everything is on the table,” she told the Guardian Friday. “If he saw that you can’t have a revolutionary campaign in a counter-revolutionary party, he’d be welcomed to the Green party. He could lead the ticket and build a political movement.” Stein said she emailed Sanders about the offer but never received a response.

July 8: Breitbart.com: Hillary Blames Whites for Deaths of Dallas Police Officers:
Hillary Clinton used a CNN interview to completely embrace the Democrats’ claim that white people and cops must change to help reduce the number of exchanges with police. “I will call for white people, like myself, to put ourselves in the shoes of those African-American  families who fear every time their children go somewhere, who have to have ‘The Talk,’ about, you now, how to really protect themselves [from police], when they’re the ones who should be expecting protection from encounters with police,” Clinton told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.  “I’m going to be talking to white people, we’re the ones who have to start listening to the legitimate cries coming from our African-American fellow citizens,” she said.

July 8: CNN: Obama says U.S. “not as divided as some have suggested”
Frankly acknowledging a "tough week" in the United States after anxious days of shootings and racial tensions, President Barack Obama said Saturday that he did not believe the United States was "as divided as some have suggested." "There is sorrow, there is anger, there is confusion about next steps," Obama said during a news conference in Poland. "But there's unity in recognizing that this is not how we want our communities to operate. This is not who we want to be as Americans."

July 8: The Washington Examiner: Ginsburg: Everything on the Table if Trump Wins
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg believes "everything" will be up for grabs if Donald Trump is elected president and has the opportunity to appoint several justices to the high Court.  "I don't want to think about that possibility, but if it should be, then everything is up for grabs," Ginsburg said of the presumptive Republican nominee succeeding in his bid for the White House in an interview published Friday by the AP. 

The 83-year-old justice, who belongs to the court's liberal wing, said it's "likely that the next president, whoever she will be, will have a few appointments to make." Ginsburg is the oldest of the eight justices currently on the bench, while two of her colleagues – Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer – are closing in on 80.

July 5: The Daily Signal:  Confused Over who has the Majority in Congress?  You’re not alone!
In 2014, Republicans won a majority in Senate. However, if you’ve been watching the Senate lately, you’d be forgiven for wondering who is actually in charge.  Democrats demand—and receive—amendment votes, while Republican amendments are stifled. Appropriations bills, ostensibly written by Republicans, come to the floor lacking any GOP priorities, while conservative efforts to amend the bill are set up to fail.   

Go to Political Stories reported in the news up through June 1, 2016