Tag: Fox News

Trump Says Cruz’s Father Shouldn’t Be ‘Allowed’ To Say Mean Things About Him

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Donald Trump hit back hard Tuesday at Ted Cruz’s father after he made an appeal to “every member of the body of Christ” to vote for his son, and not the “wicked” – calling the comments “disgraceful” and “horrible.”

The Examiner reported that Rafael Cruz had been meeting for days with Indiana pastors, many of whom have since endorsed the Texas senator.

Speaking with the head of the American Family Association of Indiana, the elder Cruz had warned of the “wicked electing the wicked” and urged fellow Christians to come out to vote.

I implore, I exhort every member of the body of Christ to vote according to the word of God, and vote for the candidate that stands on the word of God and on the Constitution of the United States of America. And I am convinced that man is my son, Ted Cruz. The alternative could be the destruction of America.

But Trump unleashed on the Cuban-born Rafael Cruz, a pastor, after he made his religious appeal to Indiana and other voters to support his son in the Republican presidential nominating contest. Indiana is voting Tuesday.

I think it’s a disgrace that he’s allowed to do it. I think it’s a disgrace that he’s allowed to say it … You look at so many of the ministers that are backing me, and they’re backing me more so than they’re backing Cruz, and I’m winning the evangelical vote. It’s disgraceful that his father can go out and do that. And just — and so many people are angry about it. And the evangelicals are angry about it, the way he does that. But I think it’s horrible. I think it’s absolutely horrible that a man can go and do that, what he’s saying there.

In a sharp turn, the Republican presidential front-runner then abruptly invoked a tabloid story about Rafael Cruz’s supposed connection to John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

(h/t Fox News)

Reality

Trump has made the statement before that people shouldn’t be “allowed” to say negative things about him and that he would like to limit the freedom for people who disagree with him through litigation.

Also by claiming that Pastor Rafael Cruz shouldn’t preach about supporting a candidate (who happens to be his son) is the definition of a double-standard in the purest sense. Trump has had support from so many pastors who have used their position as a church leader to publicly preach about voting for Donald Trump that a new word was coined, “Trumpvangelicals“. These include Mike Murdock, Paula White, Robert Jeffress, and Joel Osteen, join the list of Kenneth Copeland, and 40 others who met with Trump at Trump Tower in September 2015.

There is also Rev. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, publicly supported Trump, supported his stance on rejecting the Iran deal, and supported Trump’s plan to ban Muslims from entering America.

At Trump’s Cleveland rally, Pastor Darrell Scott of New Spirit Revival Center Ministries performed a sermon to introduce Trump to the stage. Pastor Scott called Trump humble, blamed “liberal media for brainwashing” you for thinking Trump could possibly be an out-and-out racist, and directed people to vote for Donald Trump.

Jerry Falwell Jr. publicly endorses Donald Trump, compares him to King David, and produced radio advertisements evoking Bible passages:

“Donald Trump lives a life of loving and helping others as Jesus has taught in the great commandment.”

Trump: Lena Dunham Leaving for Canada Would Be a Great Thing For Our Country

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Lena Dunham and Donald Trump

Not only would Donald Trump not mind if certain celebrities were to flee the United States if he is elected president, the Republican front-runner said Tuesday that their opposition to his candidacy only increases his will to win.

During a telephone interview with “Fox & Friends,” Trump was asked about a tweet from Lena Dunham on Monday in which she vowed to leave the U.S. for Vancouver if he is elected.

Trump’s response: “Well, she’s a B-actor. You know, she has no — you know, no mojo.”

“I heard Whoopi Goldberg too. That would be a great thing for our country,” Trump said, as the show flashed a graphic of celebrities who it said would leave the U.S. for Canada, including Dunham, Jon Stewart and Rosie O’Donnell, with whom the Manhattan real estate mogul has feuded for years.

When co-host Steve Doocy pointed out O’Donnell’s name on the list, Trump remarked, “Now I have to get elected.”

“Now I have to get elected because I’ll be doing a great service to our country,” he said. “Now it’s much more important. In fact, I’ll immediately get off this call and start campaigning right now.”

(h/t Politico)

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Trump Flip-Flops on North Carolina Transgender Bathroom Bill

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Donald Trump answers questions on transgender bathroom use.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is tweaking his stance on North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law less than a day after he voiced his opposition to the legislation and suggested the state should just “leave it the way it is.”

“I love North Carolina, and they have a law, and it’s a law that, you know, unfortunately is causing them some problems,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview Thursday night. “And I fully understand that they want to go through, but they are losing business, and they are having people come out against.”

“I think that local communities and states should make the decision,” he went on to say. “And I feel very strongly about that. The federal government should not be involved.”

“In other words, let the state decide,” Hannity responded. “Kind of like your positions on education, give it back to the states.”

“Yeah, let them decide,” Trump said. “Absolutely.”

Reality

Trump has been flip-flopping on more and more issues lately. This is probably because he caught heat from the far-right wing of the Republican party for not being as insensitive as he usually is.

The North Carolina bathroom bill is a solution in search of a problem. There have been 0 reported cases of sexual assault by transgender individuals in public bathrooms. Coincidentally there have been 3 cases of Republican lawmakers arrested for sexual assault in a public bathroom.

Bill O’Reilly Makes Racist Comment and Trump Doesn’t React

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Fox News host Bill O’Reilly told Donald Trump on Monday that “many” African-Americans aren’t qualified for the jobs that Trump is campaigning to bring back to the US.

During an interview with the Republican presidential frontrunner, O’Reilly pressed Trump about how he would win over voting groups who strongly oppose his candidacy. The Fox host then zeroed in on African-Americans.

Trump said he would win them over because “they’re going to have the jobs.”

“I’m telling you, it’s an economic message,” Trump said.

O’Reilly questioned how Trump would actually accomplish that aim.

“Many of them are ill-educated and have tattoos on their foreheads, and I hate to be generalized about it, but it’s true,” O’Reilly said. “If you look at all the educational statistics, how are you going to get jobs for people who aren’t qualified for jobs?”

Trump stayed on message, insisting that African-Americans would benefit from manufacturing jobs returning to the country under a President Trump.

“We’re going to bring jobs back,” Trump responded. “We’re going to have Apple computers made in this country.”

O’Reilly pushed back.

“But you have to have skills to make Apple computers,” he said.

“We will get the skills and develop the skills,” Trump said.

O’Reilly continued to push his point that some African-Americans were unqualified for the jobs Trump wanted to bring back.

“It’s more challenging for a poor child in Harlem without parental guidance in a school that’s falling apart than it is for some white kid out in Garden City,” he said. “You say you can bring jobs back, but if the kid isn’t qualified to do the job and can’t do the work — I mean — you’ve got to get into the infrastructure of the African-American community.”

Trump replied: “Well it is true. It’s about education, but it’s also about spirit.”

(h/t Business Insider)

Reality

The problem here is not so much what Trump said but what he didn’t say. It should come to no surprise that Bill O’Reilly would use racist slurs and stereotypes to frame loaded questions. What is surprising is a candidate for the President of the United States of America not reacting at all or even distancing themselves from such statements.

As a leading politician there are better ways to handle racist questions.

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Veterans’ Charities Receive Fraction of Money Raised by Trump Event

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More than two months after Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump claimed to have raised $6 million for veterans’ charities at a fundraiser held on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, most of the organizations targeted to receive the money have gotten less than half of that amount.

The Wall Street Journal, citing a survey of the 22 groups listed by Trump’s campaign as prospective recipients for the money, reported that 19 organizations had obtained a total of $2.4 million from Trump’s foundation or associates.

Of the three other charities, one declined to disclose how much it had received, another said it needed to submit more paperwork before receiving any money, and the third didn’t respond to questions by the Journal.

Fox Business Network first reported in late February that only a fraction of the pledged donations had made their way to the veterans groups.

At the time, FBN reported, several groups said they had not received any money. And seven of the 22 told Fox Business Network they had received a total of $650,000. Other groups did not respond to inquiries at the time.

Trump held the Jan. 29 benefit in lieu of attending a GOP debate hosted by Fox News. The real estate mogul had declined to appear at the debate, claiming that he had not been treated fairly by the network.

All 19 groups that confirmed receiving money from the Trump event got checks in the mail. Sixteen charities saw donations arrive in late February in increments of $50,000 or $100,000. The other three reported smaller donations in March, with those amounts averaging between $5,000 and $15,000.

Keith David of the Task Force Dagger Foundation told the Journal that he was confused about whether a $50,000 check from Trump associate Stewart Rahr’s foundation was tied to the Iowa event. He said he had been informed by a Trump representative that it was.

“It’s a little weird,” David said. “It looks like it’s from a totally separate organization.”

Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, told Fox News that Trump has in fact “given to the 22 groups we originally announced and many others.”

“Additionally, we are continuing to distribute the money raised as it comes in and we are expanding the list of groups receiving contributions,” she said in a statement. “If the media spent half as much time highlighting the work of these groups and how our Veterans have been so mistreated, rather than trying to disparage Mr. Trump’s generosity for a totally unsolicited gesture for which he had no obligation, we would all be better for it. He has raised millions of dollars for the Vets, and rather than being thanked, he is attacked. As Mr. Trump said, ‘No good deed goes unpunished.’”

She did not say how much money raised at the event had been distributed, or how much each group has received. 

The Journal, citing the Trump Foundation’s tax returns, reported that the nonprofit had given just $180,000 to veterans’ charities over the past decade. Hicks said that amount did not include personal donations by the candidate.

At least one prominent charity declined to receive any money from the January fundraiser. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) founder Paul Rieckhoff called the event a “political stunt”.

(h/t Fox News)

Trump Makes Up The Name of a Federal Agency He Would Axe

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Republican frontrunner Donald Trump had a Rick Perry moment during a Fox News town hall Monday night when he vowed to do away with the “Department of Environmental,” an agency that does not exist.

When asked by Fox host Sean Hannity if he would eliminate any federal departments as President, Trump responded “largely, we can eliminate the Department of Education,” a common refrain among conservatives.

But he went on: “Department of Environmental, I mean, the DEP is killing us environmentally, it’s just killing our businesses.”

(h/t Talking Points Memo)

Reality

Let’s put aside for a moment that the DEP does not exist, it’s not even a correct acronym for “Department of Environmental”.

I think what Trump is referring to is the EPA, or the Environmental Protection Agency. When Trump claims that they (the EPA) are “killing us”, he has got that backwards. It is the Environmental Protection Agency who is preventing billionaire business owners, like Donald Trump, from killing us. For example:

Gaffes like this killed former Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s chances for the nomination in 2012, when he struggled to come up with the EPA as one of the three agencies he would shutter until Mitt Romney stepped in with an assist.

Instances like these help prove how unqualified Donald J. Trump is for the Presidency of the United States of America.

Devil’s Advocate

Maybe Trump is so efficient, he eliminated the department before anyone was able to hear about it?

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Trump Repeats Debunked Wall Claims in Fox News Town Hall

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During a Wisconsin Town Hall with Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren, Trump again repeated comments long debunked, and never addressing those criticisms.

On immigration, Trump says he is “totally in favor of immigration” but people have to come in legally. He says he will build a wall and Mexico will pay for it. “It’ll be so easy,”

To much applause from the Fox News audience, Trump went on to claim it would take around $10 billion to build.

Reality

As we’ve documented, the Great Wall of Trump won’t be around $10 billion but instead closer to $25 billion plus maintenance costs of $750 million per year.

The claim that he can use a trade deficit with Mexico to force them to pay for a wall should enlighten you that Donald Trump does not understand how the world works. A trade deficit, which is also referred to as net exports, is an economic condition that occurs when a country is importing more goods than it is exporting.

The deficit equals the value of goods being imported minus the value of goods being exported, and it is given in the currency of the country in question. For example, assume that the United States imports from Mexico $800 billion dollars worth of goods, while exporting to Mexico only $750 billion dollars. In this example, the trade deficit, or net exports, with Mexico would be $50 million dollars.

In our example the holder of that $50 million dollars is the private (and probably some public) companies operating in Mexico, not the Mexican government. Essentially Trump is demanding that the Mexican government to pay for a wall with money that he should know it doesn’t have ownership of.

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Links

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/04/03/live-updates-trump-holds-wisconsin-town-hall/

Trump Doubles Down on Nuclear Talk

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Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday doubled down on his promise to not rule out using nuclear weapons in Europe.

“I don’t want to take cards off the table; I’d never do that,” Trump said during a phone interview on “The O’Reilly Factor,” adding, “the last person to press that button would be me.”

Guest host Eric Bolling acknowledged not ruling out using nuclear weapons against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but he pressed Trump about the possibility of using them in Europe.

“Europe is a big place. I’m not going to take cards off the table,” Trump said.

Trump raised eyebrows Wednesday for insisting during a town hall on MSNBC that he wouldn’t take nukes off the table in any situation, including in Europe.

The businessman has argued that he wants to remain unpredictable on foreign policy matters and has suggested a U.S. military presence in Japan and South Korea be replaced by their own nuclear arsenals.

White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Thursday it’d be “catastrophic” if countries like Japan and South Korea obtained nuclear weapons, citing opposition to nuclear proliferation.

During his Fox News interview, Trump appeared to tout his opposition to the Iraq War in an attempt to cast himself as cautious on major foreign policy decisions.

“The last person that wants to play the nuclear card, believe me, is me,” Trump said.

Reality

Yes, Europe is a big place. That we can agree on.

Current US nuclear policy says we will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear opponents. That has been US policy for about a half-century. Just because that is policy doesn’t mean it is a great idea or anything, but what it does mean is that before you throw that policy under the bus, a policy which undergirds many of our defense alliances, you need to have some really good reason for doing so. “Not taking any cards off the table” is not such a reason.

This policy, as well as the nuclear non-proliferation policy, which tries to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of new countries, such as Iran, has helped to keep nuclear weapons from being used for over 65 years. Allowing new countries to obtain nuclear weapons would be bad to destabilizing in some cases.

Also side note, at the 2 minute mark in the media clip below Eric Boling admits to taking orders from the RNC.

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Links

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/274862-trump-wont-rule-out-nukes-in-europe

http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2016/03/31/donald-trump-sure-might-use-nuclear/

Trump Tweets Megyn Kelly Claims He Won’t Go On Her Show

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Twitter

On Saturday morning, Trump claimed that “crazy” Megyn Kelly said he won’t go on her show yet she gets good ratings from negative pieces about him.

Crazy @megynkelly says I don’t (won’t) go on her show and she still gets good ratings. But almost all of her shows are negative hits on me!

Reality

Trump has had an issue with Kelly since she moderated a Republican presidential debate in August. He accused her of being unfairly harsh on him by asking him valid questions about past sexist and misogynist comments. Fox News is standing by its anchor, calling the attacks on her “sexist verbal assaults.”

“Donald Trump’s vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land,” the network said in its statement.

“Megyn is an exemplary journalist and one of the leading anchors in America — we’re extremely proud of her phenomenal work and continue to fully support her throughout every day of Trump’s endless barrage of crude and sexist verbal assaults,” the statement continued. “As the mother of three young children, with a successful law career and the second highest rated show in cable news, it’s especially deplorable for her to be repeatedly abused just for doing her job.”

Trump Tweets Boycott of Megyn Kelly’s Show

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Twitter

On Friday, leading Republican Presidential candiate Donald Trump called for a boycott of Megyn Kelly’s show saying she is “sick” and “overrated”.

Everybody should boycott the @megynkelly show. Never worth watching. Always a hit on Trump! She is sick, & the most overrated person on tv.

Reality

If a President Donald Trump we to call for the boycott of a journalist, it would be a clear violation of the freedom of the press as defined in the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

Trump has had an issue with Kelly since she moderated a Republican presidential debate in August. He accused her of being unfairly harsh on him by asking him valid questions about past sexist and misogynist comments. Fox News is standing by its anchor, calling the attacks on her “sexist verbal assaults.”

“Donald Trump’s vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land,” the network said in its statement.

“Megyn is an exemplary journalist and one of the leading anchors in America — we’re extremely proud of her phenomenal work and continue to fully support her throughout every day of Trump’s endless barrage of crude and sexist verbal assaults,” the statement continued. “As the mother of three young children, with a successful law career and the second highest rated show in cable news, it’s especially deplorable for her to be repeatedly abused just for doing her job.”

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