Ted Cruz Signals Growing Frustration With ‘Spoiler’ Kasich

/4 Comments/in , /by

By Patrick Svitek. For nearly all of the 2016 Republican presidential campaign, you would have been hard-pressed to hear Ted Cruz mention fellow competitor John Kasich.

But now it’s a three-person race. And as Cruz tries to consolidate support from Republicans opposed to Donald Trump, the Texas senator is taking direct aim at Kasich, saying the Ohio governor is sabotaging the GOP’s hopes of defeating the billionaire.

“A vote for John Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump,” Cruz told reporters Saturday in Utah. “I don’t know if John Kasich is perhaps campaigning to be Donald Trump’s vice president, but he has been eliminated mathematically from having any chance of being the nominee.”

Cruz was similarly dismissive a day earlier in Arizona, where he told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Kasich’s role in the nominating process at this point “is essentially as a spoiler.” (Read more from “Ted Cruz Signals Growing Frustration With ‘Spoiler’ Kasich” HERE)

__________________________________

Cruz: Kasich Blocked Me From Winning Illinois

By Ryan Lovelace. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said he would have won the Illinois Republican primary over Donald Trump, if not for Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Cruz told Fox News that Kasich’s presidential bid has functionally served to deliver delegates to Trump.

“What he’s doing doesn’t make any sense unless he’s auditioning to be Trump’s vice president because he can only be a spoiler,” Cruz said. “I’ll give you an example: Illinois. We would have won Illinois without John Kasich. Trump had 38 percent in Illinois, I had 30 percent, Kasich had 19.” (Read more from “Cruz: Kasich Blocked Me From Winning Illinois” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Donald Trump Makes Wild Threat to Ted Cruz’s Wife

/28 Comments/in , /by

Donald Trump escalated his feud with Ted Cruz on Twitter Tuesday — but this time he also involved the Texas senator’s wife.

The real estate mogul tweeted that the Texas senator should “be careful” or he would “spill the beans on your wife” Heidi Cruz.

“Lyin’ Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a G.Q. shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin’ Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!,” he tweeted Tuesday evening, just minutes before polls closed in Arizona. Trump tweeted and deleted a similar version of the Tweet about 10 minutes earlier.

Trump appears to be referring to a Facebook advertisement targeted to Mormons that shows Trump’s wife, Melania, posing nude. That ad was produced by an anti-Trump super PAC, Make America Awesome, which has no known connection to the Cruz campaign. (Read more from “Donald Trump Makes Wild Threat to Ted Cruz’s Wife” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Court Rebukes IRS for Tea Party Targeting, Orders Release of Secret List

/3 Comments/in , /by

A federal appeals court spanked the IRS Tuesday, saying it has taken laws designed to protect taxpayers from the government and turned them on their head, using them to try to protect the tax agency from the very tea party groups it targeted.

The judges ordered the IRS to quickly turn over the full list of groups it targeted so that a class-action lawsuit, filed by the NorCal Tea Party Patriots, can proceed. The judges also accused the Justice Department lawyers, who are representing the IRS in the case, of acting in bad faith — compounding the initial targeting — by fighting the disclosure.

“The lawyers in the Department of Justice have a long and storied tradition of defending the nation’s interests and enforcing its laws — all of them, not just selective ones — in a manner worthy of the Department’s name. The conduct of the IRS’s attorneys in the district court falls outside that tradition,” Judge Raymond Kethledge wrote in a unanimous opinion for a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. “We expect that the IRS will do better going forward.”

Justice Department officials declined to comment on the judicial drubbing, and the IRS didn’t respond to a request for comment on the unusually strong language Judge Kethledge used.

The case stems from the IRS‘ decision in 2010 to begin subjecting tea party and conservative groups to intrusive scrutiny when they applied for nonprofit status. (Read more from “Court Rebukes IRS for Tea Party Targeting, Orders Release of Secret List” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Cruz Push for Doubling of Immigrants Raised Again

/1 Comment/in , /by

Plans pushed by GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz under the immigration reform debate in 2013 that would have jumped the number of immigrants, including those from Muslim nations, were raised by the Trump campaign Tuesday.

Under the Cruz plan, yearly legal immigration would have gone from 740,000 to 1,675,000. He said his idea was to actually help kill the bill not boost the numbers.

“I was introducing a whole series of amendments, in part to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the Democrats. So, for example, the Democrats claimed they were supporting high-tech workers, so I introduced an amendment on that, every Democrat voted against it, which demonstrated that this was all a political endeavor for them, that what they were saying wasn’t true,” he told radio’s Laura Ingraham.

Donald Trump’s advisor Stephen Miller raised the issue on Fox Business, claiming the amendments would have “substantially increased” Muslim migration.

Secrets recently reported that the administration has approved more immigrants from Muslim nations over the next five years than the entire population of Washington, D.C. (Read more from “Cruz Push for Doubling of Immigrants Raised Again” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Hollywood Actor Makes Trump Endorsement [+video]

/5 Comments/in , /by

Scott Baio has endorsed Republican frontrunner Donald Trump for president.

The 55-year-old Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi star made his endorsement in an interview with Fox News’ Judge Jeanine Pirro on Saturday.

“It’s very simple,” Baio told Pirro of his reasons for supporting Trump. “Because when he speaks, I understand him. He speaks like I speak, he communicates with people very well. I want him, as any one person can do, to go into Washington and blow it up.”

The conservative actor said he was “fed up” with the Republican Party, who said “lied and conned and BS’ed me,” and added that he no longer considered himself a Republican but a “conservative Independent.” (Read more from “Hollywood Actor Makes Trump Endorsement” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Marco Rubio Rejected ‘Unity Ticket’ With Ted Cruz

/6 Comments/in , /by

Ted Cruz’s campaign has been exploring the possibility of forming a unity ticket with ex-rival Marco Rubio — going so far as to conduct polling looking into how the two would perform in upcoming primary states.

The motivation, hashed out in conversations among Cruz’s top aides and donors: to find a way to halt Donald Trump’s march to the Republican nomination.

It’s unclear whether Cruz’s campaign brass views a partnership with Rubio as realistic or quixotic. In Rubio’s orbit, according to three sources, it’s seen as an outright nonstarter — with Rubio telling his team he isn’t interested.

Yet in recent weeks, within Cruz’s camp, talk of a joint ticket has run rampant. Utah Republican Mike Lee, one of two senators to endorse Cruz, has emerged as an outspoken supporter of a unity ticket — and as a potential broker. The freshman, according to several sources briefed on the talks, has reached out repeatedly to Rubio to gauge his interest, but has been rebuffed.

Shortly before Lee endorsed Cruz on March 10, Lee and his advisers discussed the possibility of organizing a meeting between the Utah senator and Rubio in Florida, just days before the state’s primary, according to two sources. The meeting, though, never happened. (Read more from “Marco Rubio Rejected ‘Unity Ticket’ With Ted Cruz” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Major Republican Donors Fatigued by Presidential Race

/1 Comment/in , /by

Donald Trump-fueled tumult in the Republican presidential race is prompting some major donors to abandon the field for now and instead funnel resources into downballot races.

Some key political groups dedicated to promoting Republican congressional candidates say they’re seeing interest from donors who would otherwise be focused on the presidential race.

Ian Prior, a spokesman for the conservative Senate Leadership Fund super PAC and One Nation, a nonprofit group that also focuses on the Senate, told the Center for Public Integrity in an email that “there have certainly been consistent concerns with the tenor and tone of the Republican nominating process.

Consequently, Prior continued, “the fight to keep the Senate has become one where there has been increased interest, focus, and attention from the donor community.”

The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC that may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, has so far reported raising about $13.8 million during the 2015 election cycle. One Nation does not disclose its donors. (Read more from “Major Republican Donors Fatigued by Presidential Race” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Controversy About Obama Supreme Court Nominee’s College Years Could Change Everything

/1 Comment/in , /by

Following the unexpected death of U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia earlier this year, Republican legislators have repeatedly insisted they will not hold a hearing for any nominee picked by President Barack Obama to replace the conservative jurist. Nevertheless, Obama subsequently selected Merrick Garland, the 63-year-old chief judge of the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, to join the bench of America’s highest court.

Since the nomination, Garland has faced some criticism from conservatives for his record on Second Amendment rights. In recent days, another aspect of the Harvard-educated legal scholar’s past has surfaced, leading some Americans to believe he might harbor resentment toward the U.S. military.

During his time in college, Garland served on the Harvard Committee on Housing and Undergraduate Life, a position that allowed him some influence in campus culture. It was in this capacity, reports indicate, that he agreed to hold a controversial vote to continue an existing ban on Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs at Harvard.

The ban, enacted during the U.S. military’s involvement in the Vietnam War, was about to be rescinded in 1973 at the request of the university’s then-president. When a group of socialist students approached the CHUL to float a referendum that would continue the ROTC injunction, Garland was reportedly interested conducting a vote on the issue. (Read more from “Controversy About Obama Supreme Court Nominee’s College Years Could Change Everything” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Border Agents: DHS Has ‘No Intention’ of Deporting Illegals

/3 Comments/in , /by

A top Homeland Security official told Border Patrol agents the Obama administration has “no intention of deporting” many of the illegal immigrants caught trying to sneak into the country, ordering instead that they be released so they don’t clog up the courts, a leading advocate for agents testified to Congress.

Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the orders are a new “catch and release” policy, which he said “amounts to amnesty” because it means many illegal immigrants are never asked to leave the country.

It also suggests the Border Patrol is being ordered to break President Obama’s own enforcement priorities, which say new illegal immigrants — defined as those who came after Dec. 31, 2013 — are priorities for deportation, and are supposed to be arrested and processed.

Mr. Judd provided his testimony in written answers released Monday by the House Judiciary Committee, saying that even in some criminal cases, agents are ordered to let illegal immigrants go without ever issuing them a Notice to Appear, or NTA, which is what puts them into deportation proceedings.

Mr. Judd said they took their case directly to Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who told them not to bother. (Read more from “Border Agents: DHS Has ‘No Intention’ of Deporting Illegals” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Missouri Soldier’s Conviction for Obama Comments Is Upheld

/6 Comments/in , /by

The nation’s highest military appeals court has upheld the court-martial conviction of a Missouri man whose racist-sounding diatribe against President Barack Obama raised tough free-speech questions.

The former soldier, who at one point claimed to have connections to Missouri’s Ku Klux Klan, forced a closely divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces to clarify the law governing speech by members of the military. Soldiers, in sum, face more restrictions than civilians do.

“The right of free speech in the armed services is not unlimited and must be brought into balance with the paramount consideration of providing an effective fighting force for the defense of our country,” Judge Kevin A. Ohlson noted.

In its 3-2 decision released Friday, the military appeals court rejected defense arguments that the First Amendment protected Eric L. Rapert, of Sikeston, in southeastern Missouri, when he railed against Obama on the night of the 2012 election.

In ruling against Rapert, the court also distinguished the Uniform Code of Military Justice from federal law, whose ambiguities prompted the Supreme Court in 2015 to dismiss the conviction of a Pennsylvania man who’d posted threatening-sounding statements on his Facebook page. The military court found that the military justice code already required a determination of Rapert’s state of mind, something the U.S. Supreme Court said was lacking in the Pennsylvania case, where the defendant argued his postings were fictitious. (Read more from “Missouri Soldier’s Conviction for Obama Comments Is Upheld” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.