President Trump is the third president in US history to be impeached by the House Of Representatives. However, polls aren’t showing improvement in public support for the move by the Democrats.
I argued why impeachment isn’t a popularity contest, Mollie shouldn’t cite them as she previously said people should be skeptical of these polls, plus Trump should brag that he finally got more votes than a Clinton!
Thanks to Fox News at Night with host Shannon Bream for having me back on Wednesday, December 18, 2019 alongside the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway.
Susan Hendricks filled in for Carol Costello today on HLN Across America. I joined Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer of South Carolina to discuss the while-we-were-on-air unfolding press conference with President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland.
I didn’t mince words about the shameful state of the Republican party and their support of this president.
Remember:
The press conference followed a two hour one-on-one meeting between the two presidents and a working lunch with their aides.
In the press conference, Trump did not criticize Putin or the cyber-attacks that the US intelligence community says he coordinated to help Trump’s 2016 election campaign. “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump said.
Putin denied meddling and said Russia “doesn’t plan” to interfere in US domestic politics.
Putin presented Trump with a football from the World Cup. Trump said he would give it to his son, Baron. Republican senator Lindsay Graham, however, warned this could be a bad idea. “I’d check the soccer ball for listening devices and never allow it in the White House,” Putin said.
“Hey, just give him a chance — he’s our President-elect.” True, Donald J. Trump will be the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017. No, I won’t just get in line behind him.
Sorry, President-elect Trump supporters and those on the other side so quick move on, when you’ve been attacked the way I have in the vilest terms, with threats of violence and even death, when told that all my family should have died in the Nazi concentration camps, I hesitate to just “give him a chance.” Instead, I’ll warily watch his words and actions, because what I’ve seen of president-elect Trump thus far calls on my better judgement to do so.
At no other time in my public life have I received this kind of disgusting, degenerate, and hateful language for (calmly and civilly) opposing a candidate. All fanned by the flames from Stephen Bannon, under whose tutelage Breitbart became home to the alt-right and white nationalists while singing the praises of then candidate Trump.
What makes this so despicable is that I’ve heard these stories before.
I grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis. A pleasant metro area consistently ranked as a great place to live.
However, there are deep, dark shadows of a horrible, not-too-distant past. The most virulent Jew hating group of its time, the Silver Shirts, arose from hatred of the isolationist-era, late 1920s there. Jews were barred from parts of town, Jews were blocked from being on bank boards, Jews couldn’t join the automobile association or the country clubs. I heard these stories from my parents and grandparents and then read about it as I got older. Frighteningly, some of those restrictions lived into the 1970s.
It wasn’t until people like my great-grandfather helped support a man who wanted to right past wrongs. A great leader out of the white, Scandinavian-worked fields of Minnesota, was elected Mayor of Minneapolis in 1944. His name was Hubert Humphrey. He knew abusing the Jews out of xenophobia and hatred was wrong. And he lead the way forward out of that dark period.
This is why I’ve castigated Trump for picking Bannon as a senior advisor. Now more than ever, this is the time to come together, while appreciating our differences, and build sturdy bridges to cross our divides. It begins at the top.
Presently, I see Jewish friends defending Bannon as not being anti-Jewish because Jews worked for him at Breitbart. So what?
Maybe, Bannon is shrewd enough to realize that open Jew hatred in business today would isolate and affect his bottom line.
There is always the theory of multiple ethical selves which could be at play in Bannon’s case. This is a concept from the worlds of ethics and philosophy where we operate by different ethical rules in different situations. At home a person might be a loving parent and husband, but at work that same man is cold and ruthless. So, a spouse might find the husband to be supportive and warm, while his co-worker despises his brutal nature. I suspect the Jews who worked with Bannon saw his “friendly to Jews” ethical self. While the rest of us have seen his dark side.
Fanning the flames of hatred, xenophobia, and misogyny is as bad as committing actual acts based on those thoughts and feelings. As an analogy, that’s why our criminal justice system finds that ordering someone to kill another will convict both the killer and the boss of homicide.
While Bannon has the ear of the soon-to-be president, I will not stop speaking out against the hatred. No. I won’t be quiet. I won’t get in line.
While I appreciate what President-elect Trump said to Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes right after the election, imploring his fans to stop harassing people, this is merely a start, not an end. If he is serious about the damage and hurt to minorities in the United States, he’ll dump Bannon and apologize for his hateful rhetoric during the campaign.
I will acknowledge if Trump creates, signs, initiates, or changes something for the better. But no, I will not automatically fall in line behind him after 15 months of unapologetic slurs alongside fueling all kinds of hatred, followed by filling key positions in the White House with people like Bannon.
For those who want to ignore the language from the election season and say, “move on”, the ends do NOT justify the means (winning the presidency). The damage is done. To lead all of We The People, President-elect Trump needs to apologize for the hatred, the harsh words, the mockery, the insults, and bring that apology to life by distancing himself from those who are well known to sow the seeds of hatred and bigotry.
Only then will I get in line.
NOTE:In light of the horrific, anti-Jewish, anti-Israel United Nations resolution abstained by the Obama administration, I am positive that President Trump will be a better friend to Israel. However, I am a U.S.-born citizen and my concern is foremost here at home.
Please contact Pace Public Relations to book me for any media appearances for discussion
The election is over and Donald J. Trump won fair and square. The system is not rigged and the people spoke through their vote.
First off, don’t despair. President-elect Trump’s acceptance speech was conciliatory and sounded like a Democrat with trillions of dollars of spending for infrastructure. Who will take those jobs? I don’t know.
Further, I was glad to see Sec. Clinton and President Obama strike tones of working together. We need success from this new president or we face an even harder road ahead.
Also, many are going to say social media changed everything and traditional media lost its power. I disagree, this election was all about frustration with politics as usual, the perception of corruption, and the feeling that those in power simply don’t care about We The People. This was about the man and his message, not the medium on which it was carried.
President-elect Trump has both the House and Senate, like President Obama did, for at least his first two years. He has made some big promises, the question is will the GOP work with him on some of the big spending he is proposing.
Lastly, I am deeply concerned that President-elect Trump made it normal that people tap into their Jungian shadow. The levels of sexism, xenophobia, and downright hatred are scary. What will he do to tamp down the neo-Nazi crowd that so lovingly supported his candidacy?
I’ll have more to say on this topic today. Tune in to KGO 810 from noon to 2 p.m. Pacific time on AM 810 or online at www.kgoradio.com
There is a big to-do this week speculating about Donald Trump’s level of taxation based on his non-release of his tax forms. Even Mark Cuban the billionaire, who was front and center at the debate on Monday night, is jumping into the fray, with this quote:
“And I tell my tax lawyers and everybody, you know, take advantage of — do what the law recommends. But I’m not against paying taxes. And I’ll give you a perfect example. When the Dallas Mavericks were building a new practice facility, which we’re just opening, I had the opportunity to go to Dallas and and play different cities against each other to get different rebates and everything. I didn’t do it.”
Mr. Cuban realizes that was a choice, right?
We don’t have to pay any more than the minimum necessary under the tax code. If you don’t like the tax code, then blame your elected officials in Washington, D.C. They control how much we pay and are responsible for the 74,000+ page tax code.
Famously, Judge Learned Hand stated in Commissioner v. Newman in 1947 – “Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.”
Tune in to The Ethan Bearman Show weekdays from noon to 2pm Pacific Time on KGO 810 – www.kgoradio.com
The first presidential “debate” is tonight! Donald J. Trump will “debate” Sec. Hillary R. Clinton with Lester Holt moderating.
I use quotes around the word debate, because these aren’t really debates with rules that are followed. No microphone gets turned off when someone goes over time, for example.
Will anything about the “debate” change your mind? Or are these just publicity stunts now where each side will cherry pick what their candidate said while viciously attacking the opposing candidate? And they will all claim poor Lester Holt didn’t do a good enough job?
BTW, where is Governor Gary Johnson and why isn’t he going to be on stage? I think any candidate polling higher than 5% should be included in the debates. That’s the only way we’ll get viable third parties in this country. We really do need more than the broken duopoly which provides us what I think of as a false dichotomy of D versus R.
Tune in to The Ethan Bearman Show weekdays from noon to 2pm Pacific Time on KGO 810 – www.kgoradio.com
Birtherism is back in the news. Yesterday the Trump campaign stated that Donald Trump accepts that President Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen, born in Hawaii. And today we learn from The Washington Post that Trump himself denies that.
Here is the key part:
Trump refused to say whether he believes Obama was born in Hawaii. “I’ll answer that question at the right time,” Trump said. “I just don’t want to answer it yet.” When asked whether his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, was accurate when she said recently that he now believes Obama was born in this country, Trump responded: “It’s okay. She’s allowed to speak what she thinks. I want to focus on jobs. I want to focus on other things.”
Ugh.
The birthplace of a presidential candidate is a valid question. Because the qualifications for President are in The Constitution. Specifically U.S. Const. art. II, § 1, cl. 5.
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
We have the birth certificate, move on, acknowledge it, but instead Mr. Trump is feeding the bottom-feeders. This is a non-issue, even if Trump believes it, give it up.
Listen to The Ethan Bearman Show weekdays from noon to 2pm Pacific time on KGO 810 – www.kgoradio.com
EDIT: About two hours after I recorded the video, Mr. Trump gave a speech and announced, “President Barack Obama was born in the United States.”
The polls show a dead heat between Sec. Hillary Clinton and businessman Donald J. Trump, and I’ve spent plenty of time picking apart Clinton. Now we find out that the Trump Foundation, while not ethically challenged regarding our government, is deeply problematic.
The Washington Post editorial board goes as far as calling Trump a “scam artist” because of the problems with the Trump Foundation. From the article:
Mr. Trump does not appear to have given his own money to the Trump Foundation since 2008, and by then Trump funds had become a tiny slice of the organization’s revenue. Since then, the available records suggest, a charitable group that bears the billionaire’s name has been funded by others. That has not stopped Mr. Trump from claiming credit for doling out other people’s cash. He happily accepted an award from the Palm Beach Police Foundation in 2010 — then he cut the group off once the real source of the money, a New Jersey charity, stopped contributing to the Trump Foundation. Donations he promised on “The Celebrity Apprentice” would come out of his “own wallet” instead came from his foundation or a television production company. The story is the same with a 2009 TV contest called “Trump pays your bills!”, in which the Trump Foundation, not Mr. Trump, paid the winner’s bills.
Further, Newsweek‘s Kurt Eichenwald wrote a well researched piece documenting all of the conflicts of interest a President Trump will have due to his international business dealings. From his piece:
A close examination by Newsweek of the Trump Organization, including confidential interviews with business executives and some of its international partners, reveals an enterprise with deep ties to global financiers, foreign politicians and even criminals, although there is no evidence the Trump Organization has engaged in any illegal activities. It also reveals a web of contractual entanglements that could not be just canceled. If Trump moves into the White House and his family continues to receive any benefit from the company, during or even after his presidency, almost every foreign policy decision he makes will raise serious conflicts of interest and ethical quagmires.
Done with the broken duopoly yet? I suggest we need Governor Gary Johnson on the presidential debate stage to provide a third approach to running the United States of America.
You’ll want to listen to The Ethan Bearman Show weekdays noon to 2pm on KGO 810 and grab the podcasts at www.kgoradio.com
