Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, September 1. Note that David Duke and other “white nationalists” (aka, virulent racists) praised Trump’s vile immigration speech.
Blood and Race and Trump (“This was as wild and as unbridled a speech as I’ve seen from Trump. Even if you couldn’t understand English, it would be stunning to watch the slashing hand gestures, the red face, the yelling. It’s hard to imagine any presidential candidate in living memory giving such a speech. And again, this is if you didn’t know what the words even meant.”)
Revealed: Conway, Bannon Members of Secretive Group (“The two political operatives chosen earlier this month to lead Donald Trump’s presidential campaign after two former managers departed have been members of the secretive Council for National Policy (CNP), Hatewatch has learned”)
Dominion to ask for new power line approval through Alexandria (First, Dominion should be required to: a) max out on energy efficiency, which they’re not even CLOSE to doing; b) push for rooftop and community solar, which they’re far from serious about.)
Hillary for America Chair John Podesta released the following statement in reaction to Donald Trump’s meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto:
“Donald Trump has made his outlandish policy of forcing Mexico to pay for his giant wall the centerpiece of his campaign. But at the first opportunity to make good on his offensive campaign promises, Trump choked. What we saw today from a man who claims to be the ultimate ‘deal maker’ is that he doesn’t have the courage to advocate for his campaign promises when he’s not in front of a friendly crowd. We know who he is. After today’s trip, we still know where Trump stands: an immigration plan that would deport 16 million people, end birthright citizenship, repeal DACA/DAPA and build a $25 billion wall and stick the American taxpayers with the bill.”
TRUMP SAID GETTING MEXICO TO PAY FOR THE WALL WOULD BE “EASY”
Trump: “We’re Going To Build The Wall And Mexico Is Going To Pay For The Wall, Believe Me, One Hundred Percent. Believe Me. That’ll Be Very Easy. That Will Be Very, Very Easy. Politicians Think We’re Joking, We Don’t Joke. We Don’t Joke.” TRUMP: “We’re going to build the wall and Mexico is going to pay for the wall, believe me, one hundred percent. Believe me. That’ll be very easy. That will be very, very easy. Politicians think we’re joking, we don’t joke. We don’t joke. This is a movement. This is a movement, and movements don’t joke. Believe me. It’s getting worse now as thousands of recent border crossers are being relocated to the State of Virginia, and you don’t know who they are, you don’t know where they come from.” [Trump Campaign Rally, Fredericksburg VA, 8/20/16; VIDEO 33:34]
Trump: “We’re Going To Build The Wall. That Wall Will Go Up So Fast, Your Head Will Spin. And You’ll Say, ‘You Know, He Meant It.’ And You Know What Else I Mean? Mexico Is Going To Pay For The Wall.”“Responding to chants of ‘Build that wall,’ Trump assured the crowd that he would seal the southern border, a plan that is popular among his overwhelmingly white loyalists but offensive to many Latinos and Asians whose votes he needs in Colorado, Nevada and Florida. ‘Don’t worry. We’re going to build the wall,’ he said. ‘That wall will go up so fast, your head will spin. And you’ll say, “You know, he meant it.” And you know what else I mean? Mexico is going to pay for the wall.’” [Los Angeles Times, 8/22/16]
TRUMP WAS WILLING TO START A TRADE WAR WITH MEXICO OVER PAYING FOR THE WALL
Trump On What He Would Do If Mexico Would Not Pay For A Wall: “I Don’t Mind Trade Wars.” BLITZER: “If the — if the Mexicans don’t pay for the wall, will you start a trade war with Mexico?” TRUMP: “Well, you know, I don’t mind trade wars when we’re losing $58 billion a year, you want to know the truth. We’re losing so much. We’re losing so much with Mexico and China — with China, we’re losing $500 billion a year. And then people say, ‘don’t we want to trade?’ I don’t mind trading, but I don’t want to lose $500 billion. I don’t want to lose $58 billion.” [Republican Primary Debate, Houston TX, 2/25/16]
Trump Suggested He Would Be Willing To Cut Off Trade With Mexico If They Did Not Pay For The Border Wall. TRUMP: “We have a trade deficit with Mexico, $58 billion a year. The wall is going to cost approximately $10 billion. Believe me, they will pay in one form or another–” MATTHEWS: “If not — or else what?… So we cut off Japan, we cut off — this is the — this is your strategy in every case. We could walk, no more trade with Mexico.” TRUMP: “You have to always– Oh, absolutely.” MATTHEWS: “No more troops in Europe.” TRUMP: “And by the way, when I say no more trade, once you — once they know that you are really willing to go that extra length, there will always be trade, but we’ll make good deals. We’re making the worst trade deals.” MATTHEWS: “Yeah, but the bottom line is always we walk.” TRUMP: “You have to be able to walk, yes. It’s unlikely that you’ll have to, but you have to be able to walk.” [MSNBC Town Hall, MSNBC, Green Bay WI, 3/30/16; VIDEO 00:58:41]
TRUMP HAS SUGGESTED TENSIONS WITH MEXICO OVER PAYING FOR THE WALL COULD BECOME PHYSICAL
Trump On Whether He Would Go To War With Mexico To Make Them Pay For The Wall: “When I Rejuvenate Our Military, Mexico’s Not Going To Be Playing With Us With War, That I Can Tell You.”WOODWARD: “If they say no, would you be willing to go to war to make sure we get the money to pay for this wall?” TRUMP: “Trust me, Bob, when I rejuvenate our military, Mexico’s not going to be playing with us with war, that I can tell you. Mexico isn’t playing with us with war. Look, I have great relationships with the Mexican people. Look, you can see I’m winning every single poll in these primaries when they go out, when the polls come back with Hispanics. I have thousands of Hispanics that work for me and tens of thousands that have worked for me over the years.” [Morning Joe, MSNBC, 3/9/16]
Sadly, the party of voter suppression and disenfranchisement – that would be the Virginia GOP, formerly the “Party of Lincoln” but now the “Party of Donald Trump” – has acted exactly as you’d expect them to act. Disgustingly.
Attorneys for Virginia House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford), Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment, Jr. (R-James City), and four Virginia voters will file a contempt motion today against Governor Terence R. McAuliffe (D) with the Supreme Court of Virginia. The petitioners are requesting an order from the Court requiring the Governor and other respondents to show cause for why they should not be held in contempt for violating the Supreme Court’s July 22 decision in Howell v. McAuliffe.
In granting a writ of mandamus against Governor McAuliffe and other respondents, the Court ruled that the governor replaced a general rule with a categorical exception, effectively suspending the constitutional prohibition on felon voting and violating the Constitution of Virginia’s anti-suspension provision. The contempt motion argues that the effect of the August 22 action is practically the same as the first set of executive orders, resulting in another unconstitutional suspension of the laws.
“‘The practical effect’ of Governor McAuliffe’s August 22 decision to issue over 200,000 individual restoration orders is precisely the same: his newly announced process will effectively suspend Virginia’s general constitutional prohibition against felon voting for over 200,000 felons,” reads the motion. “In both scenarios, the Governor has ‘effectively reframe[d] Article II, Section 1 to say’ what he wants it to say rather than what the People of Virginia actually inscribed in their Constitution. This Court did not reduce the suspension clause of the Constitution to a printing requirement. The Court held instead that the suspension clause is an ‘essential pillar of a constitutional republic,’ whose protections do not depend upon how many reams of paper and autopen machines the Governor deploys to work his will.”
Aside from being anti-democratic (small “d”) and fundamentally unAmerican, what Republicans are doing here is wildly hypocritical and also with no basis in Virginia’s constitution or law. On the first point, recall the howls from right wingers at “liberal activist judges” whenever a ruling has come down from the courts that they don’t like? Yet now, Virginia Republicans are effectively urging the (conservative) Virginia Supreme Court to become right-wing activist judges.
As for the Republicans’ complaint having no merit, the fact is that the “plain language” of Virginia’s constitution clearly states that the governor has full power “to remove political disabilities consequent upon conviction for offenses committed prior or subsequent to the adoption of this Constitution.” Which is exactly what Gov. McAuliffe has been doing – or trying to do! – with ex felons. (Note that the Supreme Court’s July ruling stated clearly: “All agree that the Governor can use his clemency powers to mitigate a general rule of law on a case-by-case basis.”)
Finally, I’d repeat a point McAuliffe frequently makes, that the vast majority of states automatically restore voting rights to ex-felons once they’ve “served their time and paid their debt to society.” There’s no reason that shouldn’t be the case in Virginia as well, other than Virginia Republicans not wanting minorities to vote, since they know that the vast majority of African Americans and Latinos vote Democratic nowadays. Pathetic, but sadly not surprising.
P.S. As a smart attorney told me a few minutes ago, the Virginia Supreme Court “is making decisions based on no record; typically the court has evidentiary hearings, allows cross examination, etc…You can’t just come to court and say X is true, give me relief.”
This piece will run in newspapers in Virginia’s 6th District.
Most of the criticism of our trade deals has focused on the very real problem of jobs and decent wages for American workers. But we hear curiously little about what, in the long run, would likely prove the worst thing about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): a provision that would seriously erode our national sovereignty.
This provision would establish what is called the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), through which corporations could sue governments over various things, including “expropriation.” The problem is that “expropriation” includes any regulation that negatively affects the future profits of corporations.
The effect would be to make money-making not only the most important thing but the only thing. “Infringing on future profits is presented as a theft deserving of compensation,” as one article describes it.
Although the global corporate system is structured to be concerned only with profits, human beings have many other values as well. People want their society not only to be productive, but also to do such things as protect the public health, prevent the poisoning of the water and the air, and assure that workers are safe on the job. People elect governments to protect those other values.
But the TPP — by treating “infringing on future profits [as] a theft deserving compensation” – would penalize and intimidate governments trying to balance profit-maximization with other values.
(Already, under previous such agreements, Australia and Britain have been sued by tobacco companies for requiring plain packaging on cigarettes as a way of impeding people becoming addicted to nicotine.)
The “courts” established by the TPP would render decisions to which there would be no appeal. These decisions would be made by panels of corporate lawyers, whose conflicts of interest would not be tolerated in judges in American courts.
TPP strips from our democratically-elected government powers granted by our Constitution and hands them over to the global corporate system.
For nearly half a century, I have studied pathologies of power systems—how difficult it is for peoples to control their destinies because the systems in which they live take control and drive societies toward outcomes the people would never have chosen.
Every age produces its own form of inhumane power, against which people must struggle to live decent lives.
In Europe, in the anarchy following the collapse of the Roman order, warlords emerged to dominate local populations. With no order above these localities, no one was secure, and these warlords – eventually to be called “nobles” – were compelled to build their castles and towns on difficult but defensible hilltops. It was a time ruled by the sword, and the dominant people were those best at hacking their enemies to pieces.
Over centuries, the local areas under the sway of the warlords got consolidated into larger nation-states. The descendants of the warlords who’d conquered and ruled small areas were now refined “aristocrats,” who could exploit the common people through their long-established control over the land. But meanwhile they themselves were brought into subjugation to kings who exercised absolute power by supposed “divine right.” Although cities were no longer built like fortresses, the scourge of war continued among these larger states, and their peoples remained powerless to choose their destinies.
The America’s democratic revolution provided its people with the means of ruling themselves, creating an order based on “the consent of the governed” and on a notion that human beings had been created equal.
The revolution to enable people to rule themselves has been enormously successful, beginning on this continent and then spreading outward across the planet.
But, when it comes to pathologies of power, we’re not out of the woods yet.
The TPP is a step toward a dystopian future shaped not by the people, making decisions collectively according to their full range of values and concerns, but by a system structured around the values of Mammon. It is a sterile future threatened by a global corporate system essentially answerable to no one. Like a machine on automatic pilot.
This corporate system — having already undertaken to steal our democracy here at home (e.g. in the decision handed down by corporate-allied Supreme Court justices in Citizens United, giving corporate wealth greater power over elections at the expense of the citizenry) – now seeks to use TPP to take power directly from government itself.
Over the years we’ve had more than a few false alarms about losing our sovereignty. (70 years in the UN have not decreased our sovereignty, and the Agenda 21 issue was just a fantasy based on a misunderstanding.)
“No Comment Comstock” Continues to Dodge Trump Support from Local, National Press
70 Days Before Election, “No Comment Comstock” Rebuffs Three Major Outlets
McLean – Over the weekend, Rep. Barbara “No Comment Comstock” refused to answer questions from the New York Times and the largest local paper in her district, the Loudoun Times Mirror, after the latter broke the newsthat her long time mentor and former Virginia 10th district representative Frank Wolf endorsed Donald Trump.
Comstock was a “trusted aide” to former Rep. Wolf, serving as senior legislative aide in his office from 1990 to 1995, and has been described by the Loudoun Times Mirror as Wolf’s protégé. She’s has called him the “conscience of Congress,” and stood with him during her 2014 election, yet now is completely silent on Wolf and his support for the GOP ticket.
This is not new. News Channel 8’s Bruce DePuyt has long tried to get answers from Comstock on basic questions like who she will be voting for in November. Each time, he has gotten the same response Rep. Comstock seems to give every journalist: no comment.
Comstock’s retreat comes days after her top lieutenant Loudoun County Republican Committee Chairman Will Estrada confirmed Comstock’s support for Trump, telling the BBC, “Barbara is doing what a lot of voters are doing – they support the principles that Donald Trump stands for as a Republican…”
“’No Comment Comstock’ lacks the political courage to say no to Trump, and now lacks even the basic courage to explain her own support of Trump to reporters and her constituents,” Bennett spokesman Robert Howard said. “If she refuses to answer a basic question like who she is voting for this fall, how can she expect voters to trust her to represent them?”
New requirements for persons without Social Security Numbers to re-verify their identities are aimed at migrant taxpayers and citizens with family members from outside the United States. The “Protecting Americans Against Tax Hikes” (PATH) Act makes it next to impossible for many to file taxes for this and future years.
“The Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) program is critical to allow millions of people to meet their tax obligations.” – Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen.
This is a complex situation. Individuals without Social Security Numbers are assigned ITINs used to file their taxes. Following the passing of PATH this past December (Merry Christmas!), countless taxpayers have no idea they can no longer claim the Child Tax Credit or the American Opportunity Tax Credit (even though both of those were made “permanent by PATH); at least until they complete a time consuming and potentially expensive bureaucratic paper drill based upon the following schedule:
ITINs that have not been used on a federal tax return at least once in the last three years are no longer be valid unless renewed by the taxpayer
ITINs issued prior to 2013 that have been used on a federal tax return in the last three years must be renewed starting this fall on a rolling renewal schedule unless the ITIN has already expired:
ITINs issued before 2008 will remain in effect until January 1, 2017
ITINs issued in 2008 will remain in effect until January 1, 2018
ITINs issued in 2009 or 2010 will remain in effect until January 1, 2019
ITINs issued in 2011 or 2012 will remain in effect until January 1, 2020
“ITINs are for federal tax purposes only and are not intended to serve any other purpose. ITINs that are only used on information returns filed with the IRS by third parties do not need to be renewed. An ITIN does not authorize one to work in the United States or provide eligibility for Social Security benefits or the Earned Income Tax Credit. ITINs are not valid identification outside the tax system and do not establish immigration status.” (IR-2016-100, Aug. 4, 2016)
But here is the nuance in the law that changes the ITIN program into a national ID that certifies that the holder is not a resident of the United States: the required documentation to obtain or renew an ITIN “…includes such documentation as the Secretary may require that proves the individual’s identity, foreign status, and residency.” So, while we can’t require citizens to carry national IDs, we have a better way to sort out non-citizens through self-identification. By the way, the distinction between residency for tax purposes and for immigration purposes is confused by interpretation and the deemed intent of this phrase in the act.
On any given day, if you want some serious insanity, you can always count on social media to deliver. Today, one of the craziest things I came across on the “intertubes” is by Fairfax County School Board member Elizabeth Schultz (R), best known recently for her frenzied crusade against protections for transgender students in the Fairfax County Public School system. But if you follow her Twitter feed, you’ll quickly find that her extremism goes far beyond LGBT-related issues.
For instance, a recent tweet by Schultz urged people to “Seriously, watch this NOW.” I was curious, so I clicked on the video. Big mistake! Seriously, the video is almost beyond belief as to how bad – laughably so, if this kind of thing could be laughed at and not taken deadly seriously – it is. It gets even worse when you do a bit of Googling on the guy behind it, far-right-wing radio host Dennis Prager.
But first, here are a few “highlights” from the video Schultz so strongly recommends.
Prager argues that after-school clubs for LGBT, African-American or Latino kids “cultivate narcissism” and should all be abolished and banned.
He declares, “We will end all self-esteem programs”
He further asserts that schools should “no longer honor race or ethnicity.”
And check out this tirade against…science, reason and modernity, pretty much: “I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. No more time will be devoted to racism, sexism, Islamophobia, homophobia, global warming, tobacco or gender identity. No more classes will be devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as no more than a health issue.”
Yes, among other things this lunatic actually lumped in global warming (a scientific fact) and tobacco (an important crop in American history, among other things) as constituting “politics and propaganda.” You can’t make this crap up.
So who is this wacko Dennis Prager, the person who Fairfax County School Board member Elizabeth Schultz believes everyone needs to watch “NOW?” A few minutes of Googling tells the story:
Prager’s a rabid anti-gay bigot: A few sample quotes include “The indiscriminate sex that characterizes much of male homosexual life represents the antithesis of Judaism’s goal of elevating human life from the animal-like to the Godlike”; “While the typical lesbian has had fewer than ten “lovers,” the typical male homosexual in America has had over 500″; “Even if the majority of men became incapable of making love to women, it would still not be normal. Men are designed to make love to women, and vice versa. The eye provides an appropriate analogy: If the majority of the population became blind, blindness would still be abnormal. The eye was designed to see.”; “The Enemy of Women: Yet another reason for Judaism’s opposition to homosexuality is homosexuality’s negative effect on women”; “Judaism cannot make peace with homosexuality because homosexuality denies many of Judaism’s most fundamental principles. It denies life, it denies God’s expressed desire that men and women cohabit, and it denies the root structure that Judaism wishes for all mankind, the family.”
He’s a huge fan of tobacco and smoking: “I warned 20 years ago that the war against tobacco was morally misguided”; “I have smoked cigars and a pipe since I was a teenager; my father, 93 years old, has smoked cigars nearly every day for about 70 years, and my sons and I have some of our most wonderful father-son talks over cigars.”
I mean, I could go on all day with this, but by now I’m confident that you get the idea – and also feel like you need to take a long, hot shower. As for the relevance to Virginia, again it’s that this extremist nutter is being strongly recommended by a member of the Fairfax County School Board, Republican Elizabeth Schultz. That should be truly disturbing to every Fairfax County parent (or non-parent, for that matter). The question is, how the heck did someone like Schultz – the LAST person you’d ever want dealing with the education of children! – get on the Fairfax County School Board in the first place, and when the hell are Democrats going to run a strong challenger against her?
Trump will meet with Mexico’s president (Bizarre; the central premise of Trump’s campaign is “build a wall” and “deport the ‘illegal’ immigrants.” Without that, what’s he got? The meaningless, nonsensical “make America great again” slogan?)
Supreme Court of Virginia may take up Confederate flag issue (“It takes one justice out of seven to decide whether the entire Supreme Court of Virginia will hear the Heritage Preservation Association’s appeal of the Danville Confederate flag case.”)
In Erie, Tim Kaine Calls Out Donald Trump for Failure to Disclose Financial Records, Foreign Business Dealings and Ties to Russia
In a speech today in Erie, Pennsylvania, Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Tim Kaine called out Donald Trump for his failure to disclose key information about himself. From standard financial information, to his foreign entanglements and ties to Russia, to his refusal to release credible information about his health, Trump has failed the test of disclosure that we expect of our presidential candidates.
Senator Kaine laid out details of Trump’s long track record of alleged fraud, pointing out the questions this raises regarding Trump’s ability to be Commander-in-Chief and promote a strong economy.
He called on Trump to come clean with the American public, adding, “You’ve got a right to know everything you need to know to judge whether a candidate will work for you – will work for the country – or is only in it for himself.“
Kaine’s remarks as delivered are below:
“Hey Erie! Good afternoon, what a beautiful day! And thank you to Boubacar Barry, give Boubacar a big round of applause, please.
Boubacar and I were visiting a while back and he said that he was working as a sheet metal worker’s apprentice when this convention center was built. What a beautiful day, and what a beautiful time to be together with you in Erie. Thank you so much for coming. Are we going to win ten weeks from today? Are we going to win Pennsylvania ten weeks from today?
Absolutely. It is such a treat to be here. Ever since I joined Hillary Clinton on this ticket, I have been traveling all over the country. I think I’m up to 25 states now in a little bit over 5 weeks, and we have been talking about our plans to create an economy that will grow for everybody, not just those here at the top. And we have started right here in Pennsylvania with a fantastic convention right here in Philadelphia. Wasn’t that a great convention?
And as soon as the convention was over, we hopped on a bus and started a tour across Pennsylvania, East, West, Central, then into Ohio. It’s great to be back, and you’re going to see both Secretary Clinton and I back an awful lot between now and November 8 because Pennsylvania is very, very important.
We’ve been talking about how to create this economy that grows for everybody. And while we’ve been doing that, the other guys have been talking about all kinds of things. Picking fights with a gold star family from Charlottesville, Virginia. Picking fights with other leaders in the party. We’ve been talking about jobs and growing this economy, and making it work for everybody. And that’s what we’re going to keep talking about because that’s what is the most important thing on Americans’ minds.
I thanked Boubacar, let me do a couple of other thank-yous. When I came in today I had a great visit with your Mayor, Joseph Sinnott. I was a mayor in Richmond, and I love mayors, so thank you for your service. Give your mayor a round of applause.
I also talked with the County Executive for Erie County, Kathy Dahlkemper, former member of Congress. She has done a great job.
I met two state representatives. Representative Bizzarro and also Representative Fabrizio. Give them a big round of applause. Two people who are dear to my heart, and I started my political career as a City Councilman in Richmond. Won my first race by 97 votes, and I visited with both Sonya Arrington and Curtis Jones, from the City Council. Give them a round of applause.
And I was very happy to hear my friend Katie McGinty come out and do a discussion about her Senate race about the importance of the presidential race. It will be so great to have Katie McGinty in the United States Senate, to join our good friend Bob Casey. Katie is doing an amazing job. She is a fighter, she is a fighter and that’s what it is going to take to win this election. So Katie, so glad that you’re here with us.
You know, I do want to say this, the first time I’ve been in Erie since I’ve been on the ticket. Just to tell you how proud I am to be on the ticket, I’m still kind of pinching myself. It’s now been a little bit over five weeks, but it still seems a little bit surreal. I am so proud to be the running mate for Hillary Clinton, because I agree with what President Obama said she is about the most qualified person that anybody has ever nominated to be a presidential candidate in this country. Path-breaking track record as First Lady of Arkansas, battling for maternal health and education. First Lady of the United States, the CHIP program that gives 8 million kids insurance.
A Senator from New York, I was governor at the time, we worked on military family support, we worked on support for the first responders in Virginia and New York who were injured in 9/11, those in Pennsylvania who were injured. She’s just a battler. Then she became Secretary of State, fought to make sure that women and children and their health and their advantages and opportunities was a fundamental part of American foreign policy.
So, this is one super qualified person. When she asked if I would do the job with her, I started to say yes right away, and she said, ‘no wait I want to tell you why first.’ [Laughter]. And I was like, I was too easy, I was like, ‘Absolutely, I’m there, I’m on the ticket.’ ‘No, I want to tell you why first.’ And this will tell you something about her. Because she had a lot of good people that she could have chosen and a lot of good people she could have picked, but just the way she was thinking about the job will tell you something about her. She said, ‘Look, anything we do with the Clinton Administration is not going to be measured by the bill signing. And it’s not going to be measured by what was the margin that is passed by Congress? It will be measured by whether it helps a neighborhood where somebody lives. It helps a workplace that’s trying to hire some new workers. Does it help a kid or a teacher in a classroom? That’s going to be the test of the Clinton administration.’
And she said, ‘You’ve been a city councilman and mayor. And you’ve been a lieutenant governor and governor. You’ve been at the state and local level before you were in the Senate, and I just have a feeling that you can help me make sure that what we do is grounded in, ‘Does it help people, or is it just something that is a nice headline or brochure.’’ That tells you something about her. And when you have somebody that qualified say that to you, I’ve got to say it’s deeply, deeply humbling.
And I’ll go one further — here’s a reason that I was particularly excited to say yes. You know, if I’m honest with myself, I’ve been in politics now 22 years, I ran my first race in 1994. And I’ve been in all these different positions. My political career as a strong man in politics has been built upon the shoulders of strong women who are willing to support me. My wife Anne, who is campaigning in Pennsylvania today. She has supported me […].
I had to have women campaign managers and cabinet secretaries and agency heads and volunteers and donors. I just had all these fantastically strong women along the way who have been willing to support me, so I could be the guy with my name bumper sticker, my name on the yard sign, my name in the ballot booth. And when Hillary asked if I would play the Vice President on this ticket and be her VP and support her so that the Clinton administration could be transformative for this country, it just made me think of all the times when strong women have enabled me to be at the one on the top of a ticket.
And I am honored, as a strong man with a great career in politics, to support somebody who is going to make history as the first woman president of this country, and then make history every day thereafter doing the right thing for our nation. And I know a lot of strong men who feel just exactly like me. That we have been supported by strong women and that it’s great to support a strong woman.
There are a lot of issues in this campaign but I think the most important one is the one we laid out right at the start. And that is, we have got to make sure that we have an economy that works for everybody and not just a few. We have climbed down from the recession that we got into at the end of the Bush administration. President Obama, under his leadership, 15 million more new jobs, unemployment rate cut in half. And he should get a lot of credit because he hasn’t gotten help with one half of Congress and has had to do that work often on his own.
But we also know that there is more to do. That the growth we are experiencing coming out of the recession is still not shared as widely as it could be. That we have to make sure that everyone all over this country sees ladders of success that they can climb and that’s what Hillary and I are focused on. In the first 100 days of the administration we are going to introduce in congress a bill with a number of components, research, manufacturing, infrastructure. I was talking to your mayor and county exec about this back stage. We’re going to make the biggest investment in jobs since World War II. And last week, we rolled out how an awful lot of our job investment is going to be focused on small businesses, which are the engine of job growth in Erie, in Richmond, and all over this country.
This small business thing is personal to us. Both Hillary’s dad and mine owned small businesses. Hillary’s dad ran a drapery business that printed up draperies mostly for hotels in the Chicago area where she was raised. And my dad, and Boubacar told you a little bit about my dad, he ran an ironworker-organized welding and ironworking shop in the stockyards of Kansas City. These were small businesses with a few employees, like an awful lot of small businesses in this country. We know how important it is to help small businesses get off the ground.
So, last week we unveiled a very detailed plan about how do you start small businesses, how do we find the resources to help them grow, how do we find the skills for the workforce. And how do we help solve some regulatory and other issues that can also get in the small — in the way of small businesses. We’re really happy that we’re out talking about this important, fundamental backbone of our economy.
There was analysis done, an analysis done of the Trump economic plan and the Clinton economic plan. The analysis was not done by just like our own campaign staff, I’m not — I’m not going to tell you to ‘believe me’, as Trump says, I’m going to refer you instead to a company that’s called Moody’s Analytics. It’s one of the best non-partisan firms out there. And the director, their chief economist Mark Zandi was John McCain’s chief economist in his 2008 race.
So this is not just coming from Democrats, right? Zandi and Moody’s did an analysis of the two plans and here’s what they concluded: if the Hillary Clinton plan is implemented for our economy, in her first term alone, America would create ten and a half million new jobs and we would accelerate the economic recovery. That’s very, very positive. That’s the Hillary Clinton plan. The good news is, you can actually go read the plan at hillaryclinton.com. Read all the details. How she’ll do it, who will benefit by it, and how we’ll pay for it. All there, on the website.
Zandi also looked at the Trump plan, and here is that independent judgment of Trump. Under the Trump plan, we would face a ‘lengthy recession,’ and we would lose 3 and a half million jobs in the first term. So, it’s a difference between 10 and a half million gained, 3 and a half million lost — that’s the difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The difference is 14 million jobs for American workers. That’s the difference in this race.
Zandi even broke it down to Pennsylvania. He broke it down to all 50 states. And Pennsylvania, 414,000 new jobs under the Clinton plan, versus losing 135,000 jobs under the Trump plan. That’s a net difference of about 550,000 jobs right here in the Keystone State. We cannot afford to get this wrong folks. We’ve got to get it right.
And that’s why, that’s why I’ve been saying all along that the choice on the economy is very, very clear. With Hillary Clinton, you’re going to get a ‘you’re hired’ president. And with Donald Trump, you’re going to get a ‘you’re fired’ president. It’s no accident that when we think of Donald Trump, we think of those two words: ‘you’re fired.’ Uttered with glee, uttered with joy. And no surprise what the economists are telling us is that’s exactly the kind of plan that he would put on the table if he were president. America cannot afford a ‘you’re fired’ president. We need to elect Hillary Clinton, a ‘you’re hired’ president.
While we’re on the topic of jobs and getting hired, I’m actually in the market for a new job myself. I am interviewing for the job of Vice President. And that means that the American public — Pennsylvania voters, Virginians, everywhere — they ought to get a chance to take a look at my record. And Mike Pence’s record. And Hillary Clinton’s record. And Donald Trump’s record. The American public — Democrat, Republican, independent — deserves to know some basic facts about people who want to be elected to these highest offices. The burden is on us — not on you — to figure it out. The burden is on us who are on the ballot to prove to you that we’re up to that job.
And when someone’s trying out for the most powerful position in the world, looking at their past history and behavior is the best indicator of what they will end up doing.
Anybody can say some nice words when they want something. What have they done with their entire life? After all, we live in a world that’s chaotic and its uncertain. We need a president and a Commander-in-Chief who can effectively deal with the challenges that arise every day, some of which we know, some of which we can’t predict. They’ve got to be able to handle a crisis when it comes up and not bring on a crisis themselves.
That’s why you voters tend to we ask candidates a few simple questions. You want to know if we’ll disclose our finances, so you can understand how we have managed their own household or business, and can see if we owe anyone anything. We want to make sure that candidates aren’t involved in any foreign entanglements that could impact our national security. And we want to know that they’re in good enough health to perform their duties.
When candidates are on the up-and-up, they have no problem disclosing information on all these points. You have a right to know, you have a right to expect. And a candidate that’s on the up-and-up has no problem giving you the facts. People who run for office, or people who are in public service, tend to have had to do this because they’ve had to file disclosures over the course of their campaigns. But we’ve never had a candidate quite like Donald Trump. He has no comparable public record, and so we know less about him than we know about other candidates in modern history.
And that makes these questions — about his finances, about his taxes, about his foreign connections, about his health — even more urgent than usual. Especially because he’s had his name connected to fraud allegations in everything from his bogus university to stiffing small business owners who went to work on Atlantic City casinos, some of whom went bankrupt when he didn’t pay them, to failed real estate deals that lined his pockets while others lost out, to possibly even inflating his own net worth.
We know that he’s been involved in multiple bankruptcies. We know that he’s been involved in hundreds, actually thousands, of lawsuits. And that would seem to make it a little more urgent that we actually get answers from him about basic questions that American voters have a right to know.
Donald Trump thus far has utterly failed to answer basic questions that American voters have a right to know. And today I want to take a little time to explain just how important that is.
First, on financial information, we expect presidential candidates to disclose key financial information about themselves and their business dealings. It gives us confidence in their judgment and performance of anybody looking to run the U.S. government, one of the most sizable operations in the world. You’re going to run that, we ought to know something about you and your financial acumen. That’s why every presidential candidate in the last 40 years has released their tax returns for the public to see. Hillary just released her recent tax returns, just like she’s done for every year going back to 1977. Almost 40 years. How’s that for transparency, folks? How’s that for transparency?
And once I was asked to join the ticket, my wife Anne and I released 10 years of tax returns so that the press and the public voters could analyze it and see what they wanted to learn about us. Donald Trump has encouraged others to release their tax returns, and Donald Trump even promised, he promised that if he ever decided to run for president, he would release his own tax returns.
[…] he’s under audit, and that prevents him from revealing the information. Richard Nixon released his tax returns when he was under audit. It’s hard to get kind of, not get over a low hurdle of the Nixon standard for ethics, but Donald Trump can’t even get over the Nixon standard for ethics.
And just recently, the head of the IRS said that there’s absolutely nothing — I’m sorry, the head of the IRS under George W. Bush, said there’s absolutely nothing that would stop you from releasing your tax returns when you’re under audit. We know what’s going on, folks. We are not gullible people. Trump’s hiding something. And the only question is what? We know that some years, he has not paid taxes at all, because he’s had to produce income statements some years for casino applications in the 70s, 80s, and 90s — didn’t pay any federal taxes.
We know he has been involved in multiple bankruptcies and thousands of lawsuits. Maybe he’s trying to hide that he’s not as charitable as he claims. Or maybe the self-described — these are his words – ‘king of debt’ is trying to hide how much money he actually owes, and who he owes it to.
This is a big deal folks. He promised he’d released his taxes and now he won’t — what is he trying to hide? When you are running for president, America voters have the right to know who might have you on the hook. The New York Times just did an investigation into Trump’s mountain of debt. They concluded that he and his companies are more than a half a billion dollars in debt to many banks, and through his business partnerships, he is also more in debt, including to the state owned Bank of China.
Now Donald will say he’s going to hold China to account. How can he do that when his accounts to China are in the red? How can he do that? Now with all this in mind, with all this in mind about Donald’s finances — what we know about them — and what we know about it being in […] to banks, including the Bank of China, is it any surprise that he is proposing a tax plan that gives trillions of dollars in tax breaks for Wall Street and the largest corporations? Is that any surprise? Is it any surprise that he is calling for the repeal of Dodd-Frank, the law that was passed to regulate the Wall Street institutions that tanked the American economy? Some of those institutions that he owes money to. Is it any surprise that he has a plan that would create new loopholes to help ultra-rich families like his, and to help investors who take on big debt-fueled projects like he does?
Let’s be honest, it would be pretty hard as president to rein people in when you owe them – big time. And in Trump’s case, it looks to be, from the Times reporting, that he’s on the hook for at least $650 million.
Even George W. Bush’s former chief ethics lawyer says that as president, the scope of Trump’s debt means that he would ‘be at the mercy of the banks.’ No one has ever entered the White House owing so much money to so many institutions all over the planet.
And he’s going to tell us now, he’s going to hold them accountable when he’s indebt to them, and he’s proposing to eliminate regulations that have kept them from tanking the economy? It just doesn’t add up. Until he releases his tax returns, there is not one reason for one voter in this country to trust Donald Trump. He cannot be trusted.
And it’s beyond just the financial situation. We want to know whether presidential candidates have any relationships entanglements that might potentially impact America’s national security.
This past March, at a Republican debate, Trump was talking about his business acumen, and he said that he was in the midst of making about 120 foreign deals. 120 foreign deals. That’s 120 potential conflicts of interest, 120 opportunities for business elsewhere or governments elsewhere to influence what he might do as president. The only way you can figure out whether those conflicts are serious is to get the information and learn about it.
I think he ought to level with the American people about who those deals are with, and what they’re all about – don’t you think that would be a good idea?
Here’s what we do know. We don’t know what all the deals are but here is what we do know. Trump’s son has said on the record that, ‘Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section’ of the Trump Organization’s assets. He has also said, ‘We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.’ So that is what we do know.
Recent investigations in the press have revealed that Trump’s been pursuing deals with Russian officials, oligarchs and developers with deep ties to Russia since the late 1980s. He got paid millions by an associate of Vladimir Putin’s to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow.
Don’t you think the American voters deserve to at least get to the bottom of why Trump’s relationship with Russia is so cozy? I mean, what does he have to hide? We deserve to get to the bottom of this. I know anybody with any connection to our veterans or military understands this so well. As long as he keeps hiding his tax returns we have no idea how he might stand to profit from Russia or what they might be holding over him.
All we know is that something strange is going on here. Because, Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, resigned within the last two weeks after allegation of corruption and ties to officials in Russia and Ukraine linked to Vladimir Putin. That he had failed to lawfully disclose. That is Trump’s campaign chairman.
Trump’s go-to defense advisor, Retired General Michael Flynn, regularly appears on Russia’s government-funded propaganda channel, and he was paid to attend a gala in Moscow where he sat two seats down from Vladimir Putin himself.
Trump’s new campaign CEO, the new, his version three point zero or four point zero, campaign CEO Steve Bannon, runs an alt-right website that publishes articles advocating pro-Kremlin positions on Ukraine and other matters.
Recently, the acting former Acting CIA Director, Michael Morell, said that he believes that Trump is acting as ‘an unwitting agent’ of the Russian Federation. Now, all of this has some very real implications for what kind of president Donald Trump would be.
Do we really think he would help our allies block Russia from annexing more territory and destabilizing Europe? Where hundreds of thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of American soldiers live, do we really think Trump would stand up against them?
And just imagine if Russia were to engage in a cyber-attack to destabilize the American electoral process, as it has done with other nations… Would President Trump stand up to them? Well, you know, we actually know the answer to that one already. Because Trump has publicly encouraged Russia to commit espionage and hack his political rivals. He came out and said that publicly at a press conference.
And when he was challenged on it, he said, ‘Well I was just trying to be funny.’ That guy has a weird sense of humor, encouraging Russian cyber attacks on the American political process. Wow that’s just a laugh riot isn’t it? The guy — he is — there’s a wonderful phrase from the New Testament: ‘From the fullest of the heart the mouth speaks.’ When he opens and stuff comes out of it, you better believe it, because that’s the window into who Trump is. He’s encouraged Russia to already get in and screw around with our elections. And his close confidant, Roger Stone, says that he’s in contact with Julian Assange and Wikileaks – the group that’s helping spread stolen information, including stolen information from the United States.
Now these facts, they’re facts, they’ve all been reported, lead me to conclude that Donald Trump poses a unique threat to American democracy, unlike anything we’ve seen in any presidential election in my lifetime. And he can put these concerns to rest if he would be willing to disclose what other presidential candidates disclosed. This isn’t a partisan issue, because candidates of all parties do these disclosures. And there’s widespread alarm on the issue on both sides of the aisle. Dozens of prominent foreign policy experts have expressed the same concern.
They don’t understand why Trump is talking openly about abandoning our NATO allies. They don’t get why he suggests that America should just accept the Russian takeover of Crimea. They don’t understand why he’s celebrating the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the EU, even that could lead to a more fractured Europe. Our security professionals don’t understand Donald Trump’s behavior. It just doesn’t make sense unless there’s some material there that he’s not giving us that would suddenly make it very, very plain.
Every one of these positions stand in total opposition to decades of our longstanding national security interests. And until he explains these troubling ties on national security issues, there is not one reason why one American voter should trust Donald Trump.
Finally — and this is an interesting one — I was amazed that Donald Trump brought this into the election. Every presidential candidate should prove to the American public that their healthy enough to take on a very tough job. Right? They should do that. That’s fair, that’s fair. And for some reason recently, Donald Trump started to trade in internet conspiracy theories from the fringes of the internet, suggesting that Hillary Clinton is in poor health.
Can I give you an up close and personal on this? I have been on the trail with Hillary for five weeks, and I can barely keep up with her. I had been on the ticket for five weeks. She has been running on full speed for 17 months. I can tell you that Hillary Clinton is one tough, and one healthy person. Very, very tough, and very, very healthy.
But I thought it was interesting that Trump would start into this. Remember, Trump is the guy who released a medical note from his doctor that said, quote, ‘His physical strength and stamina are extraordinary.’ And it even said that at age 70, Trump would be, quote, ‘The healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.’ I’d like to see him go one-on-one with President Obama but that’s for another day.
According to his doctor, ‘Trump will be the healthiest individual elected ever to the presidency.’ Wow, that’s a strong statement. Well, this week we learned that Trump’s doctor admitted that he wrote that note in five minutes. Trump sent a limo over to pick up a letter from him. As the limo waited downstairs, he wrote this note up very quickly. And this is either too funny to be true or too true to be funny, I can’t decide. He says the words he used, he used them because, ‘He thought they would make his patient happy.’ I mean, is that the standard for what the American voter is entitled to, in terms of the information about the health of the guy running for president?
Hillary, on the other hand, has released a proper, detailed set of doctor’s notes and records, from a credible physician.
So here’s the bottom line. Hillary Clinton has met every test of disclosure we expect of presidential candidates – and in many cases has gone even further. Donald Trump has failed all of these tests miserably. I don’t know, I don’t even know that you could say fail, you would say incomplete or didn’t show up for class. He hasn’t even delivered the records at all!
I’ll tell you this, as I watch this thing, his Trump campaign just feels like Trump’s next big con, his next big con. He’s hiding his tax returns and his financial bill of health. He’s trying to cover up his web of foreign engagements and conflicts of interest. And he won’t release credible information about his health.
Donald Trump, it’s time for you to come clean. Release your tax returns. Explain your business interests. Start telling the truth. Because Americans, Democrat, Republican, and independent, are entitled to the truth. It’s like he thinks we are gullible. It’s like he thinks we are suckers. It is like he thinks we are marks and that he can con us.
Pennsylvanians aren’t gullible. Americans aren’t gullible. Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican or independent, you’ve got a right to know about the person who is running to be your president or Commander-in-Chief. You’ve got a right to know everything you need to know to judge whether a candidate will work for you, will work for the country, or is only in it for himself.
So Erie, I’m here to say, don’t get tricked by Trump. Don’t get tricked by Trump, America. Because that’s what he’s trying to do. And he thinks we’re gullible enough to let him get away with it. We’ve got to show him that we’re not gullible at all.
I’ll just conclude and tell you, we’ve got to win this thing. It’s ten weeks from today. And I feel good about winning. As I look at the polls, whether it’s Katie’s polls, or our polls in Pennsylvania or Virginia or elsewhere, I see a lot to like. After the convention we got a little bit of a bump. I wouldn’t trade places with the other guys right now. I like where we are.
But let’s just be honest about this race. It’s going to be tough. It is going to be tough. It’s going to be tough because, whatever the polls say today, we’ve lived — we’re living in a season of surprises. Polls have been wrong, pundits have been wrong, primaries that were supposed to go one way came out another way, and most of us didn’t correctly predict that the Grand Old Party of Lincoln would nominate Donald J. Trump as their nominee. It’s been a season of surprises.
And second, we live in a world where after Citizens United, anybody can buy a 100 million, 200 million, whatever hundred million dollars worth of TV ads, call themselves ‘Citizens for Apple Pie,’ not tell you who they are, run an ad, put all kind of lies on the air and make it as negative as they can. You can’t even connect them with the lie. That’s what the Supreme Court and others have opened up the door, and we see that money being spent. You’ve seen the ads, Katie, you’ve had those ads run against you. I did too, when I ran for the Senate in 2012.
So you’ll see a lot of that in the next ten weeks. And, I mean add to this, Hillary’s trying to do something nobody’s ever done. If it were easy for a woman to be President of the United States, then a woman would have been President of the United States. It is — we live in a country where we know we haven’t had a woman president, but we also just ought to acknowledge: right now in Congress, 19% women. That’s the best we’ve ever been in this country and that ranks us about 75th in the world. Iraq is 26%, Afghanistan is 28%, Rwanda, number one, is like 65%. We’re good at so many things that we should feel proud about. But part of being proud and confident is also being able to acknowledge the things we are not so good at, and electing women to federal office has just not been one of the things that we’ve been good at.
So, whatever the polls, if you look at it, season of surprises, Super PAC money pouring in, trying to do something that’s never been done before. When you look at that, you’ve just got to say to yourself, ‘This is going to be very, very hard.’ The next 70 days will be extremely difficult.
Now I know most of you are probably already well gathering in. I love looking out and always seeing the House of Labor represented because the t-shirts tell me where the labor folks are. Labor is deeply involved in this. So many others are volunteering.
But if you are here and you’re not yet signed up to be part of the volunteer effort, head to the local field office here in Erie to volunteer. Okay there we go! Right there! They are waiting for you. One three west 18th street. 113 W 8th Street. You can also text ‘Together’ to 47246 to volunteer in Pennsylvania. You can register up to October 11th. Katie, is that right? October 11th. So plenty of time to register or encourage others to register.
So I will conclude and just say this, I am eight and zero in elections. I have never lost one and I am not going to lose this one. I am not going to lose this one.
I will be honest. I will be honest. Because when I say I am eight and zero in elections you may think, well heck I must be great. I barely win my elections. I mean, I run in tough real estate. When I run in tough elections, they are always close, I always make my friends and family extremely nervous. In Virginia, it’s is like how do you know a Tim Kaine supporter? They have chewed all their fingernails off.
But I will tell you the way I’ve won eight races. I will tell you the way I go to be eight and zero in a tough place. I’ve put this in the back of my head every time I’m getting ready to go out and run a race. I am the underdog until they call me the winner. I am the underdog until they call me the winner.
Now, Hillary Clinton is that same kind of person. I have gotten to know her quite well while I am going through this fox hole experience. She has that same attitude: ‘I am the underdog until they call me the winner.’ It is going to be tough, but we have something that they don’t have and that is you. We have volunteer energy, we got field offices, we got organization. The TV adds kind of wash out at the end of the day because the Americans watch them and they are just not sure they can believe anything on TV anymore. They will still believe a person-to-person contact; they will believe a word from a friend or a co-parishioner or somebody they’re in school with or somebody they work with.
Not only will they believe it; they’re hungry for that word, they’re hungry for somebody that they know to take the time to listen to them and answer their questions and talk about this important issue — who is the next president. And guess what? Even if they don’t know you, if you call them or talk to them at the door and say, ‘I’m a volunteer,’ and they don’t know anything about you other than that, what they will know is, ‘this person didn’t have to do this. It’s important enough for this person to volunteer,’ and they will open up to you in a way and give you the opportunity — to persuade them in a way — that no TV ad, no hundred TV ads, could ever do.
And so, let’s have that underdog mentality, that in some ways, that is a little bit who we are as Democrats. We are kind of underdog people who like fighting for underdogs. In my church, we kind of think of them as good Samaritan people; we like fighting for underdogs. If there’s somebody at the side of the road who need a hand, we’re not the folks that walk on by. We’re the folks that go over and help them out. There are people out there who need that, and our nation needs that right now. We cannot afford to get this wrong and Pennsylvania, the Keystone State, is key to us winning so thanks Erie for coming out, giving me such a great welcome today.
Let’s do all we can to make sure that Hillary Clinton is the next President of the United States. We’ll make history on November 8th, and then we’ll make history every day thereafter as we build that economy that works for everybody.
So, it’s not surprising that the Free Beacon has become the repository for all the oppo research the Barbara Comstock campaign wants to dump against their Democratic opponent, LuAnn Bennett. I’m not going to link to the stuff, but given its hard-right ideology, the Free Beacon’s stories on Virginia’s 10th CD should be assumed as heavily biased towards their fellow right winger, Barbara Comstock. Actually, after finding out this information, the Free Beacon’s stories on the 10th CD race should really be given no credibility at all (bolding added by me for emphasis):
In a letter released today, Media Matters chairman David Brock cautioned the media against relying on The Washington Free Beacon for accurate information, noting among other concerns that the site has hired a Republican research firm to obtain information for anti-Hillary Clinton stories. The firm, M Street Insight, has numerous Republican clients this cycle.
…The Free Beacon’s “reporting” fails to disclose that The Free Beacon paid a Republican opposition research firm for the information it falsely published as its own journalistic work from the University of Arkansas tapes.
…Reinschmiedt and Dan Comstock founded M Street Insight LLC in 2011. The two previously worked together for the Republican National Committee (RNC)…
Uh, so you might have noticed the name “Comstock” in there, and thought, “is that person any relation to Rep. Barbara Comstock?” Well, as it turns out, the answer is a resounding “yes.” Perhaps not surprisingly, Barbara Comstock’s son, Dan, followed in his mom’s footsteps and the family business of political “oppo research” and “attack dog” work — at the RNC and at his own political research firm, where one of his clients was (possibly still is, not sure about that)…yep, the Washington Free Beacon. Gotta love it, huh? On second thought, maybe not.
