When Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and Donald Trump square off in Pennsylvania’s April 26 Republican presidential primary, they will find themselves competing for votes from a rapidly changing base.
At least 128,000 voters statewide have changed their registration since Jan. 1 to join the party. Nearly 85,000 of them had been Democrats; 42,000 were independents or third-party voters. The GOP has also racked up 55,468 more first-time registrants.
The changes reflect what experts are calling an unprecedented number of party switches before a primary election.
That raises questions: Are Democrats and other voters flocking to the GOP in support of one of its three candidates? Or could they be plotting to stuff the ballot boxes for a Republican they think their nominee can beat in November?
“I don’t think we can say there’s one reason here,” said G. Terry Madonna, the veteran pollster who directs the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College. “But in the Philadelphia suburbs, if people are switching, some of that would be strategic: Vote for Trump because he would be the weakest candidate against [Hillary] Clinton.” (Read more from “At Least 180K Join GOP as Pennsylvania Primary Nears” HERE)
Columnist and Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers threw cold water this weekend on speculation that Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump was the source for a National Equirer report accusing Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, of having multiple affairs.
When the story broke Friday, Cruz blamed Trump, who is friends with David Pecker, CEO of American Media, the company that publishes the Enquirer. Cruz has denied the allegations. Powers discussed the story’s origins over the weekend.
“The Daily Beast reported that it was shopped around by two — reporters by somebody who was a pro-Rubio person,” she said.
“I also happen to know that one of the people who was shopping the story around very aggressively was somebody who was completely anti-Trump, and was anti-Cruz also … but who was not a person who in anyway was supportive of Trump,” Powers added.
The Daily Beast had reported that, “A half-dozen GOP operatives and media figures tell that Cruz’s opponents have been pushing charges of adultery for at least six months now—and that allies of former GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio were involved in spreading the smears.” It reported that Breitbart News was shown some video, but declined to pursue the story on the grounds that the video was inconclusive . . .
“I knew nothing about it, I know nothing about it, ,” [Trump] said Monday on Fox and Friends. “I have no idea whether or not it’s true, but it’s likely he should try and blame me because he’s losing by a lot. I mean, I have many, many more delegates than him. I have millions of more votes than him in the primary. He’s losing by a lot, so he’s not going to blame Rubio, because Rubio’s out.” (Read more from “Fox News Guest Reveals Origin of Cruz Sex Scandal Story” HERE)
00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-03-30 00:49:482016-04-11 10:50:56Fox News Guest Reveals Origin of Cruz Sex Scandal Story [+video]
The FBI on Tuesday continued to investigate an incident in which 17 men were detained for reportedly firing off hundreds of rounds in a remote part of Apple Valley.
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies and an FBI agent responded to the scene Sunday morning and detained the men – reportedly all of Middle Eastern descent – who were camping out in the Deep Creek Hot Springs area Sunday morning, authorities said.
Feds & local law enforcement investigating after 17 men, reportedly Middle Eastern, fired 100s of rounds in Apple Valley. @KNX1070
A 911 caller reported hearing over 100 shots fired and seeing five to seven men wearing turbans and shooting “assault rifles, handguns, and shotguns,” according to a Sheriff’s Department statement…
Police scanner traffic posted online by the Victor Valley News Group described “a large group of subjects wearing turbans and chanting” at the scene.
“They were up all night chanting ‘Allah akbar’-type stuff,” an unidentified officer is heard saying on the audio recording. (Read more from “FBI Investigating Reports of 17 Men Chanting, Firing off Shots in California” HERE)
00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-03-30 00:48:472016-04-11 10:50:57FBI Investigating Reports of 17 Men Chanting, Firing off Shots in California
Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah are accusing the Justice Department of pursuing “frivolous prosecutions” against the pro-life movement and having, according to the senators’ offices, “what appears to be an exceptionally heavy bias” in favor of abortion clinics over houses of worship in a letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch Tuesday.
The letter concerns the Justice Department’s enforcement of the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a law that prohibits any use or threat of force and physical obstruction outside abortion clinics and places of religious worship. The law, however, does not criminalize peaceful protests or other First Amendment-protected activities outside abortion facilities or places of worship.
In the letter, obtained by The Daily Signal, the Republican senators write:
The [Justice Department’s] brazen pursuit (and subsequent online promotion) of—at best—frivolous prosecutions in the abortion context, combined with its failure to list any prosecutions or enforcement activities in the religious worship context, gives the distinct impression of a warped and biased enforcement of FACE by the [Justice Department].
Cruz and Lee reference the Civil Rights Division’s web page, which cites “more than 15 FACE actions in more than a dozen states” that the Justice Department has filed. The website also notes “ongoing investigations in other states,” along with “several FACE cases and settlement agreements concerning abortion clinic workers or abortion facilities.”
“Interestingly, it does not list a single case concerning the freedom of religious exercise at houses of worship,” Cruz and Lee write.
To further investigate the alleged double standard, Cruz and Lee are demanding that Lynch hand over a broad range of documents pertaining to the FACE Act dating back to January 2009.
For example, the senators requested that the Justice Department “identify the number of matters the [Justice Department] has investigated, looked into, or reviewed concerning potential FACE enforcement” with regard to access to both abortion facilities and houses of worship.
They are also seeking information about whether or not the Justice Department coordinated or closely communicated with abortion facilities or houses of worship in any of its investigations. Another request, for example, states:
Identify by date, location, and name of organization, every discussion, conference, or meeting (whether by e-mail, text message, phone, video or in person) between the DOJ and any abortion clinic or facility, abortion provider, parent organization or affiliate, concerning FACE enforcement with regard to access to abortion facilities.
According to the FBI, the U.S. experienced a “dramatic escalation in the number of acts of violence and harassment directed towards reproductive health care providers and clinics” in the mid-1980s. Since the passage of the 1994 FACE Act, “the number of violent crimes committed against reproductive health care providers and facilities has dramatically decreased.”
Most recently, Robert Lewis Dear Jr. was charged for attacking the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic on Nov. 27, 2015. The attacks left a police officer and two civilians dead.
Hans von Spakovsky, a legal expert at The Heritage Foundation who co-authored a book that discussed cases involving the 1994 FACE Act, said he has “not seen any evidence that there are more problems with violence at abortion clinics than at churches.”
“Look at the church burnings that have occurred in the past two decades,” he said. “The idea that one’s not more important than the other, I think, is not correct. And second, a number of the cases [the Justice Department] has filed have been clearly frivolous and meritless cases.”
Last year, The Daily Signal reported on several black churches in the South that have been affected by serious fires.
In their letter, Cruz and Lee specifically ask Lynch to state whether or not the Justice Department investigated, or will investigate, “the blocking of the entrance to, and interference with the religious exercise of members of the Los Angeles, Calif. house of worship shown in this video, particularly beginning at the 5:08 mark.”
According to the Catholic News Agency, the video depicts “violent assaults from opponents protesting the passage of the ballot proposal [Proposition 8] which rescinded a California Supreme Court decision that imposed same-sex marriage on the state.” The protests reportedly occurred at Mormon temples and Catholic churches.
The senators requested that the Justice Department provide the expected information no later than April 11. (For more from the author of “Sens. Cruz, Lee Accuse Justice Department of Favoring Abortion Clinics Over Churches” please click HERE)
00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-03-30 00:47:142016-04-11 10:50:57Sens. Cruz, Lee Accuse Justice Department of Favoring Abortion Clinics Over Churches
By Jack Davis. What the Ted Cruz campaign says in public and what it says in private are two very different things, according to a series of tweets from a top strategist for Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
The Friday tweets from strategist John Weaver follows tensions between the Ohio governor and the Texas senator over whether Cruz is telling New York Republicans Kasich won’t be on the ballot when the Empire State’s crucial April 19 Republican presidential primary rolls around.
Cruz has publicly said Kasich should withdraw from the race because he cannot win the nomination outright. “A vote for John Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump,” Cruz said Saturday.
But in a series of five tweets Friday, Weaver said the private conversations are all about finding ways the two campaigns can deny Trump the delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot . . .
Cruz camp is disingenuous about division of targeting re: Trump. On multiple levels, Cruz camp has reached out to us (and vice versa) 1/5
“They know what we know: only path to nomination for Cruz or us is through open convention. Only action to date has been unilateral by us re: AZ (which they knew in advance). Even Mitt has urged Cruz to work with us! To no avail,” he wrote.
“As usual, they want it both ways, appearance of attempt to work together/victim, but no action. To question @JohnKasich motivation is underhanded, and opposite of what they say in private. Facts are JK best positioned in most states moving forward & in general election,” Weaver wrote. (Read more from “Ted Cruz Was Just Hit With ANOTHER Huge Accusation” HERE)
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Ted Cruz Still Won’t Say If He’ll Back Donald Trump
By Theodore Schleifer. Ted Cruz Still Won’t Say If He’ll Back Donald Trump. Ted Cruz for a third time would not say that he would support Donald Trump as the GOP presidential nominee, the latest sign that his pledge to do so may be softening.
Cruz late last week began signaling that his unconditional support for the Republican front-runner was not as ironclad as previously. But asked by CNN’s Sunlen Serfaty on Monday if he would definitively say that he would not support Trump, the Texas senator left his answer ambiguous.
“I’m not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my family,” Cruz said. “Donald Trump is not gonna be the nominee. We are gonna beat him for this nomination.” (Read more from “Ted Cruz Still Won’t Say If He’ll Back Donald Trump” HERE)
00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-03-29 01:38:492016-04-11 10:50:58Ted Cruz Was Just Hit With ANOTHER Huge Accusation
A new study shows that knowledge of government surveillance causes people to self-censor their dissenting opinions online. The research offers a sobering look at the oft-touted “democratizing” effect of social media and Internet access that bolsters minority opinion.
The study, published in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, studied the effects of subtle reminders of mass surveillance on its subjects. The majority of participants reacted by suppressing opinions that they perceived to be in the minority. This research illustrates the silencing effect of participants’ dissenting opinions in the wake of widespread knowledge of government surveillance, as revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013.
The “spiral of silence” is a well-researched phenomenon in which people suppress unpopular opinions to fit in and avoid social isolation. It has been looked at in the context of social media and the echo-chamber effect, in which we tailor our opinions to fit the online activity of our Facebook and Twitter friends. But this study adds a new layer by explicitly examining how government surveillance affects self-censorship.
Participants in the study were first surveyed about their political beliefs, personality traits and online activity, to create a psychological profile for each person. A random sample group was then subtly reminded of government surveillance, followed by everyone in the study being shown a neutral, fictional headline stating that U.S. airstrikes had targeted the Islamic State in Iraq. Subjects were then asked a series of questions about their attitudes toward the hypothetical news event, such as how they think most Americans would feel about it and whether they would publicly voice their opinion on the topic. The majority of those primed with surveillance information were less likely to speak out about their more nonconformist ideas, including those assessed as less likely to self-censor based on their psychological profile. (Read more from “Mass Surveillance Silences Minority Opinions, According to Study” HERE)
00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-03-29 01:33:572016-04-11 10:50:59Mass Surveillance Silences Minority Opinions, According to Study
One of the alleged mistresses who the National Enquirer claims Sen. Ted Cruz had an affair with dismissed the charge as “BS.” Further, she does not believe the other four women the tabloid supposedly uncovered had affairs with him either. Two of the five women have already publicly called the allegations false.
The Gateway Pundit obtained an exclusive statement from one of the women. “It’s ridiculous. Anyone with half a brain knows it’s false,” the anonymous woman said. “I don’t think the article is true. I can’t see Cruz being like that… All I know is it’s not me. There’s a reason they don’t use my name. They know it’s BS.”
A National Enquirer teaser used pixelated pictures of five women, but named none of them, though it promised to do so in its print edition. According to the tabloid: “‘Private detectives are digging into at least five affairs Ted Cruz supposedly had,’ claimed a Washington insider.”
Various Twitter users believe they have matched the photos to three of the women, who include former Cruz senate staffer Amanda Carpenter, a former deputy campaign manager with Carly Fiorina’s campaign, and Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson.
After a Trump supporter raised the allegation against Carpenter on CNN (which is not reporting on the story) on Friday, she labeled it “tabloid trash” adding if people want to make such “categorically false” charges, they should speak to her lawyer.
Pierson took to Twitter to shoot down the allegation against her.
What's worse? People who actually believe the trash in tabloids, or the ones who know it's false &spread it anyway? #stupidity on all levels
00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-03-28 02:14:212016-04-11 10:51:01Woman Named as Ted Cruz ‘Mistress’ Speaks out With Bombshell Statement – ‘They Know…’
By Del Quentin Wilber. Federal prosecutors investigating the possible mishandling of classified materials on Hillary Clinton’s private email server have begun the process of setting up formal interviews with some of her longtime and closest aides, according to two people familiar with the probe, an indication that the inquiry is moving into its final phases.
Those interviews and the final review of the case, however, could still take many weeks, all but guaranteeing that the investigation will continue to dog Clinton’s presidential campaign through most, if not all, of the remaining presidential primaries.
No dates have been set for questioning the advisors, but a federal prosecutor in recent weeks has called their lawyers to alert them that he would soon be doing so, the sources said. Prosecutors also are expected to seek an interview with Clinton herself, though the timing remains unclear.
The interviews by FBI agents and prosecutors will play a significant role in helping them better understand whether Clinton or her aides knowingly or negligently discussed classified government secrets over a non-secure email system when she served as secretary of State. (Read more from “Clinton Email Probe Enters New Phase as FBI Interviews Loom” HERE)
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FBI Says It Has Limited Records on Clinton Email Case
By Josh Gerstein. The FBI hasn’t traded any correspondence with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton or her representatives in the course of the law enforcement agency’s “active, ongoing investigation” of the private email account and server she used as secretary of state, an FBI official told a federal court on Friday.
Responding to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for FBI records about the probe, which is believed to have been underway for about nine months, FBI records official David Hardy said his agency had only a smattering of correspondence with the State Department about the matter and no records at all of authorizations to discuss the Clinton email inquiry with the media or other outside parties.
The suit, filed by Vice News reporter Jason Leopold, also sought copies of all emails and other files the FBI has managed to retrieve from Clinton’s server and backup devices such as thumb drives. The FBI appeared to acknowledge that some such records exist but said releasing them at this time could impair the probe.
“Any records responsive [to that request] still cannot be disclosed without adversely affecting the pending investigation,” Hardy said in a written declaration. The FBI official wrote that he was limited in what he could say publicly about the inquiry, but he added that the agency was submitting a classified declaration to U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss with more details about the probe. (Read more from “FBI Says It Has Limited Records on Clinton Email Case” HERE)
Talk of a contested convention and that Ted Cruz won the most delegates in Louisiana’s primary while losing the race in votes is proof of “what a crooked system we have and what a rotten political system we have,” front-runner Donald Trump said Sunday.
“I have millions of votes more than ‘Lyin’ Ted,'” Trump told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on the “This Week” program. “Millions. Millions of votes more. I have many, many delegates more. I’ve won areas and he’s trying steal things because that’s the way Ted works, okay?”
Further, said Trump, the Republican tabulation system is broken and unfair.
“I have so many millions of votes more,” he said. “I’ve brought people into the party by the millions. You understand that. They voted by the millions more. It’s one of the biggest stories in all of politics. And what do I have? I have a guy trying to steal people’s delegates. This is supposed to be America. A free America. This is supposed to be a system of votes. Where you go out, you have elections. Free elections. Not elections where I won. I won Louisiana. And now I hear he’s trying to steal delegates.” (Read more from “Trump: Contested Convention, Cruz’s Louisiana Win Proves ‘Crooked System'” HERE)
Few people in Washington think House Republicans this year will complete a budget . . .
Republicans have batted around dozens of ideas. They’ve conducted closed door meetings. Entertained options. And still, House Republicans aren’t much closer to solving the budget riddle than they were when conversations began over the winter.
“The leadership has been on a listening tour for three months,” said Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va. “We have to go back to constituents and say we made up for the crap sandwich. Made up for the barn cleaning.”
What Brat refers to is a plan President Obama forged last fall with then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to “clean the barn” for the next speaker.
Both houses of Congress approved the package, and Obama signed it into law. Only 79 House GOPers voted in favor of the measure in late October — including new House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. (Read more from “After Big Promises, House GOP Facing Reality of Not Passing Budget, and Backlash” HERE)
00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-03-28 02:10:372016-04-11 10:51:02After Big Promises, House GOP Facing Reality of Not Passing Budget, and Backlash
