A Consummate Moment at Loewe

You could read the rest of this, or you could just settle for WOW!

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DC Appeals Court Rules Don McGahn Can Defy A Subpoena From Congress

The decision effectively guarantees "future presidential stonewalling," the dissenting judge wrote.

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Border Security Key to Curbing Coronavirus, Cuccinelli Says

Defending the southern border is a key part of protecting the United States from the coronavirus, a top U.S. immigration official said Friday.

A border crisis could exacerbate a pandemic, said Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy of homeland security secretary and a member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force. But the disease doesn’t currently pose a major threat in the U.S., he added. 

“When you are talking about a pandemic, and you have a border crisis … we do not have facilities that can quarantine tens, scores, hundreds or thousands of people,” Cuccinelli said at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. 

“I’m not prepared to put my folks at risk, any more than any of you are,” he said of Department of Homeland Security personnel. “So, to prioritize their safety and health when we don’t have tools to necessarily deal with this, it limits our options rather dramatically.” 

Joining Cuccinelli on the CPAC stage was Rich Valdes, host of the “This Is America” podcast and an associate producer of Mark Levin’s nationally syndicated talk-radio show.

The Brooklyn-born Valdes noted that he is Hispanic but stressed the need to look out for the interests of the U.S.

“We have to defend America,” Valdes said. “With the coronavirus, it is so important that we have a firm grip on our borders.”

Cuccinelli, former attorney general of Virginia, said Trump has pushed the task force on the virus to act decisively.

“The president has been very aggressive about this. Only this week, he formally spoke about it, but has been whipping us with wet noodles for weeks now,” Cuccinelli quipped.

“Make no mistake about it, whether it’s border security or the coronavirus, President Trump has made your safety and the safety of America his No. 1 priority,” he said.

Vice President Mike Pence, who spoke Thursday at CPAC, is Trump’s point man on the coronavirus. The president is scheduled to appear Saturday at the conference.

Cuccinelli said the threat of the virus is low now in the U.S., but that could change. 

“We have concerns [that] as it spreads outside of China, it becomes much harder to control in the United States. … We do need to err, as the president said, as a society on the possibility this could get worse,” he said. “He has had us preparing for that. … It is a daunting undertaking across the entire government.”

CPAC, the largest annual national gathering of conservative activists, runs through Saturday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington.

The post Border Security Key to Curbing Coronavirus, Cuccinelli Says appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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Trump a Pragmatist and Washington Had to ‘Adapt,’ Kushner Says

President Donald Trump has “grown and grown” in popularity over the course of three years in office because he has taken on Washington, son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner told conservative activists Friday.

“He didn’t adapt to Washington. Washington adapted to him,” Kushner told the annual Conservative Political Action Conference just outside Washington, prompting a huge round of applause. 

The president, his son-in-law added, is a “pragmatist.”

Kushner said Trump did not come to Washington to score political points. Instead, he said, “This is an action president.”

“When he was elected, his favorability rating was 37% on Election Day, according to Real Clear Politics. Now it’s up to 46%,” Kushner said. “When people see Washington fighting against him, most people don’t like Washington so they like the fact that he’s fighting Washington.”

Kushner shares the title of senior adviser with his wife, first daughter Ivanka Trump.

The president has followed a clear model, he said. 

“Tell people what you’re going to do, do it, and tell them you did it,” Kushner said. 

The president’s senior adviser noted that the economy is expanding and the job market is growing because of Trump’s commitment to lower taxes and deregulation. 

“The president’s ideology, as I see it, is a pragmatist,” Kushner said. “What I find every day is, people talk about things as one way or the other. We have people who are ideologues. The president is more of a pragmatist. He’s looking to bring the better idea.”

CPAC, the largest annual national gathering of conservative activists, runs Thursday through Saturday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington.

The post Trump a Pragmatist and Washington Had to ‘Adapt,’ Kushner Says appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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Socialism, Not Coronavirus, Seen as Real Threat to Economy

The stock market is taking a hit amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, but the disease doesn’t pose a real danger to the economy, chief White House economist Larry Kudlow said Friday in an appearance before an annual gathering of conservative activists.  

“A virus is not going to sink the economy,” Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council,  said at the Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC. “What … could sink the American economy is the socialism coming from our friends on the other side. That’s the greatest fear that I have.” 

Kudlow, one of President Donald Trump’s top economic advisers, was joined on the CPAC stage by Ivanka Trump, senior adviser to the president as well as his elder daughter. 

This could be a great time to buy stocks low, Kudlow said of Wall Street’s jitters about the coronavirus. 

“Business investment is up. Personal income and consumer spending is up. All the Federal Reserve surveys are not showing a supply chain breakdown,” Kudlow said, adding:

The stock market is very fearful. But for the long-term investor, which you all should be—since I believe and Ivanka believes that the country is in good, safe hands right now–you might think about buying the dip.

Kudlow and the first daughter echoed other administration officials who have promoted the “blue-collar boom” under Trump, but also talked about specific demographics that got a boost.  

Referring to “what I affectionately call the snowflake boom,” Kudlow asserted that young Americans ultimately will reject socialism. 

“More millenials are working today, participating in the labor force, than ever before,” Kudlow said. “They may tell you they like socialism, but they don’t. They are not going to vote for it in private.” 

Ivanka Trump jumped even deeper into stats. 

“We want growth in this country to be inclusive. We have an incredibly low unemployment rate across every single demographic,” she said. “The unemployment rate today for disabled Americans is the lowest in history. … We have reached into the sidelines of the economy to pull people into the workforce.” 

The president’s daughter also said that women gained 70% of the new jobs created. 

“For the first time in history, there are more women working today in the labor force than there are men. We make up the majority of the workforce,” she said.  “Women are winning, but everyone is winning.”

CPAC, the largest annual national gathering of conservative activists, runs Thursday through Saturday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington.

The post Socialism, Not Coronavirus, Seen as Real Threat to Economy appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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Pompeo: On World Stage, Trump Has Achieved What Critics Said He Never Could

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo touted the Trump administration’s strong defense of religious liberty around the world Friday, while saying the president defies critics with achievements over “foreign policy built on fantasy.” 

Pompeo, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, said religious freedom is among American values promoted abroad by President Donald Trump. 

“Some people look at the killing of Christians in the Middle East and the persecution of Muslims in China and say that’s not our problem,” Pompeo said, adding:

What I say and what President Trump says is ‘Oh, yes it is, because God has blessed this country as a standard bearer of religious freedom.’ It’s important everywhere. When we spread freedoms, we are more prosperous, more secure, more stable. If we don’t defend religious freedom, no one else will. That’s why President Trump has made this essential to what it is we are trying to achieve.

Pompeo said the president has pursued a foreign policy that isn’t about ribbon cuttings and signing ceremonies:

You have to be clear about what you can do and you can’t do. No foreign policy built on fantasy ever works. The previous administration signed dangerous agreements that made Americans less safe, like the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris climate accord, and bad trade deals. … 

If there is no compliance or the agreements are flawed, you need to get out. They are just ink and paper. So we did. President Trump is a smart businessman and changed course.

Pompeo said critics have said for years that the Trump administration could never achieve exactly what it has done on the international stage, from crushing the Islamic State terrorist army to negotiating a better trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.  

“They said you can never successfully confront China on trade. Now we have a phase one trade deal. They said you can never get Mexico to control its border. Now there are thousands of Mexican troops at the border,” he said, adding: 

They said you could never defeat ISIS. Now the caliphate is gone. They said we would never free Pastor [Andrew] Brunson imprisoned in Turkey. They said Mexico and Canada will never renegotiate their [trade] deal. They said the North Koreans would never engage in conversations about their nuclear weapons. They said they wouldn’t release their hostages and that we wouldn’t get the remains [of U.S.] soldiers. 

We’ve done that. They said [exiting] the Iran nuclear deal would lead to runaway proliferation, but it has restored deterrence. They said taking out Qassim Suleimani would start World War III. It has actually made our world far safer. They said moving our embassy to Jerusalem would sit the Middle East alight. That didn’t happen, and our plan represents the best plan for peace in decades. 

CPAC, the largest annual national gathering of conservative activists, runs Thursday through Saturday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington.

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Trump again nominates Congressman Ratcliffe as his intelligence director

President Donald Trump said on Friday he again was tapping Republican Representative John Ratcliffe to be the nation's top spy, naming a loyalist whose first nomination he had dropped last year amid questions about a lack of experience and possible resume embellishment.

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