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Cory Booker’s early fundraising numbers are well behind those posted by other major Democratic candidates in the race to challenge President Donald Trump.  

The New Jersey senator, who campaigned Sunday in New Hampshire, said he raised over $5 million in the two months since he entered the 2020 primary, and has over $6.1 million cash on hand.

Booker announced the figure in an email to supporters. The sum puts him near the back of the pack in fundraising with roughly 10 months left before the start of Democratic primary voting. Of those candidates that have announced their figures, only entrepreneur Andrew Yang announced raising less than Booker.

Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke raised $6.1 million during his first 24 hours of presidential campaigning beginning March 14, edging Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ $5.9 million over the same period to top the Democratic field.

Booker said Sunday he feels “incredible” about the fundraising haul.

“Money is important, but it is definitely not going to be the barometer with which people make their decisions over who’s going to be the next president of the United States,” Booker said. “And I’m happy that we have the resources we need to be in this race.”

On the policy front, Booker on Sunday promoted a program known as baby bonds. It calls for newborns to get a savings account. The government would contribute up to $2,000 to the account annually until the child is 18. The amount would depend on their parents’ income.

Booker’s campaign says it’s expected that one in 10 kids in New Hampshire would receive the full $2,000 contribution annually. He said the plan would let kids use the fund to get training, to go to college, to start a business or to buy a home. Booker said the idea is to “create a fair playing field where everybody has a stake in this economy.”

Elsewhere in campaigning Sunday:

PETE BUTTIGIEG

The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, defended his experience ahead of an expected run for president, saying he isn’t someone who has “been marinating in Washington” for a long time.

Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about his qualifications, he said he would “stack up my experience against anybody,” though he acknowledged “it’s not as traditional.”

The Democratic field is full of senators and members of the House.

Buttigieg said “being a mayor of a city of any size means that you have to deal with the kinds of issues that really hit Americans.”

Buttigieg would not confirm that he plans to announce his candidacy at an event next Sunday in South Bend but said “the kind of thing we’re going to announce is the kind of thing you only get to announce once.”

Buttigieg was campaigning in New Hampshire this weekend.

MICHAEL BENNET

The Colorado senator was in New Hampshire, days after he made his prostate cancer diagnosis public. Bennet said earlier this weekend that he wasn’t dwelling on the diagnosis and spoke to voters about health care and partisan divides in Washington.

He also told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he hopes to announce a run for president “as soon as I can,” depending on his health.

“I have got to go through a procedure at the beginning of the upcoming recess,” Bennet said. “That starts later this week.  And then it’s going to be a couple of weeks for recovery. But I would like to get on with this.”

He added that he’s “looking forward to running in 2020.”

“This obviously was unexpected,” Bennet said. “But we caught it early.  It’s something that I think we’re going to be able to treat. And I don’t think it should keep me off the trail.”  
…

Intensified battles are expected in Washington this week over the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe and over lawmakers’ access to President Donald Trump’s federal tax returns. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, Democrats are demanding disclosure on both fronts and encountering resistance from Republicans as well as attorneys for the president.
…

Intensified battles are expected in Washington this week over the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe and over lawmakers’ access to President Donald Trump’s federal tax returns. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, Democrats are demanding disclosure on both fronts and encountering resistance from Republicans as well as attorneys for the president.
…

Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings, the silver-haired Democrat who helped shepherd South Carolina through desegregation as governor and went on to serve six terms in the U.S. Senate, has died. He was 97. 

 

Family spokesman Andy Brack, who also served at times for Hollings as spokesman during his Senate career, said Hollings died at his home on the Isle of Palms early Saturday.

Hollings, whose long and colorful political career included an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, retired from the Senate in 2005, one of the last of the larger-than-life Democrats who dominated politics in the South. 

 

He had served 38 years and two months, making him the eighth longest-serving senator in U.S. history.

Nevertheless, Hollings remained the junior senator from South Carolina for most of his term. The senior senator was Strom Thurmond, first elected in 1954. He retired in January 2003 at age 100 as the longest-serving senator in history. 

 

In his final Senate speech, made in 2004, Hollings lamented that lawmakers came to spend much of their time raising money for the next election, calling money “the main culprit, the cancer on the body politic.” 

‘Real, real trouble’

 

“We don’t have time for each other, we don’t have time for constituents except for the givers. … We’re in real, real trouble,” he said.

 

Hollings was a sharp-tongued orator whose rhetorical flourishes in the deep accent of his home state enlivened many a Washington debate, but his influence in Washington never reached the levels he hoped. 

 

He sometimes blamed that failure on his background, rising to power as he did in the South in the 1950s as the region bubbled with anger over segregation. 

 

However, South Carolina largely avoided the racial violence that afflicted some other Deep South states during the turbulent 1960s. 

 

Hollings campaigned against desegregation when running for governor in 1958. He built a national reputation as a moderate when, in his farewell address as governor, he pleaded with the legislature to peacefully accept integration of public schools and the admission of the first black student to Clemson University.  

“This General Assembly must make clear South Carolina’s choice, a government of laws rather than a government of men,” he told lawmakers. Shortly afterward, Clemson was peacefully integrated. 

 

In his 2008 autobiography, Making Government Work, Hollings wrote that in the 1950s “no issue dominated South Carolina more than race” and that he worked for a balanced approach. 

 

I was 'Mister-in-Between.' The governor had to appear to be in charge; yet the realities were not on his side,'' he wrote.I returned to my basic precept … the safety of the people is the supreme law. I was determined to keep the peace and avoid bloodshed.”

In the Senate, Hollings gained a reputation as a skilled insider with keen intellectual powers. He chaired the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and held seats on the Appropriations and Budget committees.

Troublesome remarks 

 

But his sharp tongue sometimes got him in trouble. He once called Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, the “senator from the B’nai B’rith,” and in 1983 he used a derogatory term for unlawful immigrants in referring to the presidential campaign supporters of former Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif.

Hollings began his quest for the presidency in April 1983 but dropped out the following March after dismal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire. 

 

Early in his Senate career, he built a record as a hawk and lobbied hard for military dollars for South Carolina, one of the poorest states in the nation. 

 

Hollings originally supported American involvement in Vietnam, but his views changed over the years as it became clear there would be no American victory. 

 

Hollings, who made three trips to the war zone, said he learned a lesson there. 

 

It's a mistake to try to build and destroy a nation at the same time,'' he wrote in his autobiography, warning that America is nowrepeating the same wrongheaded strategy in Iraq.” 

 

Despite his changed views, Hollings remained a strong supporter of national defense, which he saw as the main business of government.

In 1969 he drew national attention when he exposed hunger in his own state by touring several cities, helping lay the groundwork for the Women, Infants and Children feeding program. 

 

A year later, his views drew wider currency with the publication of his first book, The Case Against Hunger. 

 

In 1982, Hollings proposed an across-the-board federal spending freeze to cut the deficit, a proposal that was a cornerstone of his failed presidential bid.  

He helped create the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and write the National Coastal Zone Management Act. Hollings also attached his name to the Gramm-Rudman bill aimed at balancing the federal budget. 

 

Hollings angered many of his constituents in 1991 when he opposed the congressional resolution authorizing President George Bush to use force against Iraq. 

 

In his later years, port security was one of his main concerns. 

 

As he prepared to leave office, he told The Associated Press: “People ask you your legacy or your most embarrassing moment. I never, ever lived that way. … I’m not trying to get remembered.” 

After the Senate

 

He kept busy after leaving the Senate, helping the Medical University of South Carolina raise money for the cancer center that bears his name and lecturing at the Charleston School of Law. 

 

Hollings’ one political defeat came in 1962 when he lost in a primary to Sen. Olin Johnston. After Johnston died, Hollings won a special election in 1966 and went to the Senate at age 44, winning the first of his six full terms two years later. 

 

Ernest Frederick Hollings was born in Charleston, S.C., on Jan. 1, 1922. His father was a paper products dealer but the family business went broke during the Depression. 

 

Hollings graduated from The Citadel, the state’s military college in Charleston, in 1942. He immediately entered the Army and was decorated for his service during World War II. Back home, he earned a law degree from the University of South Carolina in 1947. 

 

The next year, he was elected to the state House at age 26. He was elected lieutenant governor six years later and governor in 1958 at age 36. 

 

As governor, he actively lured business, helped balance the budget for the first time since Reconstruction and improved public education. 

 

Hollings had four children with his first wife, the late Patricia Salley Hollings. He is survived by three of his four children. His second wife, “Peatsy,” died in 2012. 

 

A funeral home handling arrangements said that after a three-hour visitation April 14 in Charleston, the senator’s body will lie in repose April 15 at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, with a funeral to follow the next day at the Citadel in Charleston.
…

Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings, the silver-haired Democrat who helped shepherd South Carolina through desegregation as governor and went on to serve six terms in the U.S. Senate, has died. He was 97. 

 

Family spokesman Andy Brack, who also served at times for Hollings as spokesman during his Senate career, said Hollings died at his home on the Isle of Palms early Saturday.

Hollings, whose long and colorful political career included an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, retired from the Senate in 2005, one of the last of the larger-than-life Democrats who dominated politics in the South. 

 

He had served 38 years and two months, making him the eighth longest-serving senator in U.S. history.

Nevertheless, Hollings remained the junior senator from South Carolina for most of his term. The senior senator was Strom Thurmond, first elected in 1954. He retired in January 2003 at age 100 as the longest-serving senator in history. 

 

In his final Senate speech, made in 2004, Hollings lamented that lawmakers came to spend much of their time raising money for the next election, calling money “the main culprit, the cancer on the body politic.” 

‘Real, real trouble’

 

“We don’t have time for each other, we don’t have time for constituents except for the givers. … We’re in real, real trouble,” he said.

 

Hollings was a sharp-tongued orator whose rhetorical flourishes in the deep accent of his home state enlivened many a Washington debate, but his influence in Washington never reached the levels he hoped. 

 

He sometimes blamed that failure on his background, rising to power as he did in the South in the 1950s as the region bubbled with anger over segregation. 

 

However, South Carolina largely avoided the racial violence that afflicted some other Deep South states during the turbulent 1960s. 

 

Hollings campaigned against desegregation when running for governor in 1958. He built a national reputation as a moderate when, in his farewell address as governor, he pleaded with the legislature to peacefully accept integration of public schools and the admission of the first black student to Clemson University.  

“This General Assembly must make clear South Carolina’s choice, a government of laws rather than a government of men,” he told lawmakers. Shortly afterward, Clemson was peacefully integrated. 

 

In his 2008 autobiography, Making Government Work, Hollings wrote that in the 1950s “no issue dominated South Carolina more than race” and that he worked for a balanced approach. 

 

I was 'Mister-in-Between.' The governor had to appear to be in charge; yet the realities were not on his side,'' he wrote.I returned to my basic precept … the safety of the people is the supreme law. I was determined to keep the peace and avoid bloodshed.”

In the Senate, Hollings gained a reputation as a skilled insider with keen intellectual powers. He chaired the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and held seats on the Appropriations and Budget committees.

Troublesome remarks 

 

But his sharp tongue sometimes got him in trouble. He once called Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, the “senator from the B’nai B’rith,” and in 1983 he used a derogatory term for unlawful immigrants in referring to the presidential campaign supporters of former Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif.

Hollings began his quest for the presidency in April 1983 but dropped out the following March after dismal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire. 

 

Early in his Senate career, he built a record as a hawk and lobbied hard for military dollars for South Carolina, one of the poorest states in the nation. 

 

Hollings originally supported American involvement in Vietnam, but his views changed over the years as it became clear there would be no American victory. 

 

Hollings, who made three trips to the war zone, said he learned a lesson there. 

 

It's a mistake to try to build and destroy a nation at the same time,'' he wrote in his autobiography, warning that America is nowrepeating the same wrongheaded strategy in Iraq.” 

 

Despite his changed views, Hollings remained a strong supporter of national defense, which he saw as the main business of government.

In 1969 he drew national attention when he exposed hunger in his own state by touring several cities, helping lay the groundwork for the Women, Infants and Children feeding program. 

 

A year later, his views drew wider currency with the publication of his first book, The Case Against Hunger. 

 

In 1982, Hollings proposed an across-the-board federal spending freeze to cut the deficit, a proposal that was a cornerstone of his failed presidential bid.  

He helped create the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and write the National Coastal Zone Management Act. Hollings also attached his name to the Gramm-Rudman bill aimed at balancing the federal budget. 

 

Hollings angered many of his constituents in 1991 when he opposed the congressional resolution authorizing President George Bush to use force against Iraq. 

 

In his later years, port security was one of his main concerns. 

 

As he prepared to leave office, he told The Associated Press: “People ask you your legacy or your most embarrassing moment. I never, ever lived that way. … I’m not trying to get remembered.” 

After the Senate

 

He kept busy after leaving the Senate, helping the Medical University of South Carolina raise money for the cancer center that bears his name and lecturing at the Charleston School of Law. 

 

Hollings’ one political defeat came in 1962 when he lost in a primary to Sen. Olin Johnston. After Johnston died, Hollings won a special election in 1966 and went to the Senate at age 44, winning the first of his six full terms two years later. 

 

Ernest Frederick Hollings was born in Charleston, S.C., on Jan. 1, 1922. His father was a paper products dealer but the family business went broke during the Depression. 

 

Hollings graduated from The Citadel, the state’s military college in Charleston, in 1942. He immediately entered the Army and was decorated for his service during World War II. Back home, he earned a law degree from the University of South Carolina in 1947. 

 

The next year, he was elected to the state House at age 26. He was elected lieutenant governor six years later and governor in 1958 at age 36. 

 

As governor, he actively lured business, helped balance the budget for the first time since Reconstruction and improved public education. 

 

Hollings had four children with his first wife, the late Patricia Salley Hollings. He is survived by three of his four children. His second wife, “Peatsy,” died in 2012. 

 

A funeral home handling arrangements said that after a three-hour visitation April 14 in Charleston, the senator’s body will lie in repose April 15 at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, with a funeral to follow the next day at the Citadel in Charleston.
…

President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that a Democratic victory in 2020 could “leave Israel out there,” as he highlighted his pro-Israel actions in an effort to make the case for Jewish voters to back his re-election.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Trump touted his precedent-shredding actions to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and recognition last month of Israeli sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel seized from Syria in 1967.

“We got you something that you wanted,” Trump said of the embassy move, adding, “Unlike other presidents, I keep my promises.”

The group, backed by GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson, supported Trump’s 2016 campaign and is preparing to spend millions on his 2020 effort.

“I know that the Republican Jewish Coalition will help lead our party to another historic victory,” Trump said. “We need more Republicans. Let’s go, so we can win everything.”

​Adelson and standing ovations

Jewish voters in the U.S. have traditionally sided heavily with Democrats — and are often ideologically liberal — but Republicans are hoping to narrow the gap next year, in part as Trump cites actions that he says demonstrate support for Israel.

Trump earned standing ovations for recounting both the embassy move and the Golan Heights recognition.

Trump noted it had long been a priority for Adelson and his wife, Miriam.

“That is the most important thing that’s ever happened in their life,” Trump said. “They love Israel.”

​Attacking Dems, mocking Omar

Trump’s speech comes weeks after he suggested Democrats “hate” Jews. His remark followed an internal fight among Democrats over how to respond to comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., that some criticized as anti-Semitic.

Trump mockingly thanked Omar as he began his speech, before adding, “Oh, I forgot. She doesn’t like Israel, I forgot, I’m sorry. No, she doesn’t like Israel, does she? Please, I apologize.”

He also accused Democrats of allowing anti-Semitism to “take root” in their party.

Despite his criticism of Democrats, Trump has faced his own criticism from the Jewish community. Trump was slow to condemn white supremacists who marched violently in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. The previous year, he circulated an image of a six-pointed star alongside a photo of Hillary Clinton, a pile of money and the words “most corrupt candidate ever.”

When he addressed the RJC in 2015 he said he didn’t expect to earn their support because he wouldn’t take their money. 

“You want to control your politicians, that’s fine,” Trump said at the time. Ultimately, the group and many of its donors backed Trump.

Before Trump’s appearance, people assembled for the event carried signs with “We are Jews for Trump” and “Trump” written in Hebrew. Dozens of men and several women wore red yarmulkes with “Trump” in white that were distributed at the event.

​Israel’s election

Trump also took credit for eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians and for pulling the U.S. out of several U.N. organizations, the U.N. Human Rights Council and UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias in their agendas.

Trump criticized some 2020 Democrats who have suggesting they would re-enter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew the United States. The agreement was fiercely opposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has cheered as Trump re-imposed stringent new sanctions on the country that Israel regards as an existential threat. Trump is closely aligned with Netanayu, who’s seeking to return power in Tuesday’s national election.

Trump predicted that election is “gonna be close,” adding it features “Two good people,” seemingly referring to Netanyahu and his chief threat to Netanyahu’s coalition, former Israeli army chief of staff, Benny Gantz.

Trump met privately with Adelson before speaking, according to an official. Adelson has cancer and has been in poor health, but he and his wife attended Trump’s remarks, receiving a standing ovation when they entered the ballroom.

The Adelsons gave Trump’s campaign $30 million in 2016. They followed that by contributing $100 million to the Republican Party for the 2018 midterm elections.

Introducing Trump, former Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., the chairman of the RJC, led the audience in an adapted version of the Passover reading “Dayenu,” as he recounted what Trump had done for Israel.

Jewish voters

Stuart Weil, a Jewish man from Fresno, California, said Americans have traditionally been very supportive of Israel but “the progressive, liberal wing of the Democratic Party” is changing that.

Weil, who wore a blue Trump-style hat that read, “Making Israel & America Great Again,” says he’s a Republican because of the party’s strong stance on Israel.

According to AP Votecast, a survey of more than 115,000 midterm voters and 3,500 Jewish voters nationwide, voters who identified as Jewish broke for Democrats over Republicans by a wide margin, 72 percent to 26 percent, in 2016.

Over the past decade, Jewish voters have shown stability in their partisanship, according to data from Pew Research Center. Jewish voters identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party over the Republican Party by a roughly 2-1 ratio.
…

Giving himself credit for tough diplomacy, President Donald Trump is describing a burst of activity by Mexican authorities to keep Central American migrants from getting to the U.S. border.

That’s an apparent mirage as Trump retreats from his latest threat to seal off the U.S. from Mexico.

Trump was wrong when he said last week that Mexico was doing “NOTHING” about migrants coming north. Mexico markedly tightened migration controls during the Obama administration and detained more than 30,000 foreigners in the first three months of this year.

And it’s not evident now that Mexico has suddenly cracked down as a result of his threat, “apprehending everybody” and making “absolutely terrific progress” in just a matter of days, as Trump put it Friday. Mexico’s apprehensions of foreigners have not surged.

During his visit to the border in Southern California Friday, Trump denounced a landmark immigration case he blamed on “Judge Flores, whoever you may be.” The case in question was named for Jenny Flores, a migrant teenager from El Salvador in the 1980s, not a judge.

Trump’s recent statements on border matters and how they compare with the facts:

Mexico

Trump, on why he is pulling back on sealing the border imminently: “Because Mexico has been absolutely terrific for the last four days. They’re apprehending everybody. Yesterday they apprehended 1,400 people. The day before was 1,000. And if they apprehend people at their southern border where they don’t have to walk through, that’s a big home run. We can handle it from there. It’s really good. … Mexico, for the last four days, it’s never happened like that in 35 years.” —remarks to reporters Friday.

Trump: “Mexico has brought people back, they’ve told people you can’t come in. And that’s happened really, they’ve done, as I understand it, over 1,000 today, over 1,000 people yesterday, over 1,000 people the day before that. Before that they never did anything.” — remarks to reporters Thursday.

The facts: This depiction of Mexico going from strikeout to home run is inaccurate at both ends.

Mexico reports that its interception and detention of migrants from the south are “about average” in recent months. Over the first three days of April, it apprehended 1,259 foreigners — not 1,000 or more a day, as Trump claimed.

“There is no very substantive change,” Mexico’s foreign secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, said this week. “There has not been a drastic change.”

“I don’t know what (Trump) was referring to,” he added.

Mexico is requiring migrants to register with authorities, but that’s been the case since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office Dec. 1, Ebrard said. 

“What Mexico is doing as far as the review of the southern border — well, it’s the same thing it has been doing since this government began.” On Thursday, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S., Martha Bárcena, told The Associated Press her country is working to make its own border “more orderly” but “migration will never be stopped.”

Mexico took a substantial step in 2014, implementing a “Southern Border Plan” that established checkpoints and raids to discourage migrants from riding trains or buses from Guatemala. Its detention of foreigners, almost all Central Americans, surged to 198,141 over the next year, from 127,149. Last year, it detained 138,612.

The White House has refused to substantiate Trump’s claim about Mexico’s migrant apprehensions. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday credited Mexico with the “will” to help stem migration, but he did not cite results. Even as Trump claimed a Mexican crackdown, Pompeo said the U.S. needs to see action from Mexico, telling Fox News that it’s “one thing to talk about it.”

Trump has abandoned his vow to shut the border imminently. He now says that if Mexico does not continue cooperating on migrants, he will try to put heavy duties on autos from Mexico and revive his border-closure threat if that doesn’t work.

The Flores settlement

Trump: “The Flores decision is a disaster, I have to tell you. Judge Flores, whoever you may be, that decision is a disaster for our country, a disaster.” — remarks at a meeting with local officials in Southern California.

The facts: There’s no Judge Flores involved. Jenny Flores , a 15-year-old El Salvador native, was held in what her advocates said were substandard conditions, contending she was strip-searched in custody and housed with men. They launched a class-action lawsuit on behalf of migrant children in the country illegally. Her mother was a housekeeper in the U.S. who feared deportation if she picked up her daughter.

The case worked its way to the Supreme Court, which sided with the government and against the girl’s advocates. But the case gave rise to an agreement in 1997 setting conditions for the detention of migrant children and the codifying of those conditions in law a decade later. It generally bars the government from keeping children in immigration detention for more than 20 days and guides how they are to be treated.
…

Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner has been ordered to register as a sex offender as he nears the end of a 21-month prison sentence for having illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl. 

 

A New York City judge on Friday designated Weiner a Level 1 sex offender, meaning he’s thought to have a low risk of reoffending. 

 

Weiner must register for a minimum of 20 years. He’s required to verify his address every year and visit a police station every three years to have a new picture taken. 

 

Weiner didn’t attend Friday’s court hearing. He’s in a halfway house after serving most of his sentence at a prison in Massachusetts. He’s due to be released May 14. 

 

Before being sentenced, the Democrat said he’d been a “very sick man.”
…

Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner has been ordered to register as a sex offender as he nears the end of a 21-month prison sentence for having illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl. 

 

A New York City judge on Friday designated Weiner a Level 1 sex offender, meaning he’s thought to have a low risk of reoffending. 

 

Weiner must register for a minimum of 20 years. He’s required to verify his address every year and visit a police station every three years to have a new picture taken. 

 

Weiner didn’t attend Friday’s court hearing. He’s in a halfway house after serving most of his sentence at a prison in Massachusetts. He’s due to be released May 14. 

 

Before being sentenced, the Democrat said he’d been a “very sick man.”
…

Former CIA operative, author and activist Valerie Plame said Friday she is considering a 2020 run for an open U.S. congressional seat in New Mexico.

Plame told The Associated Press she is spending time with residents and will make a decision soon. The seat is currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Rey Lujan, who is stepping down to run for U.S. Senate.

“Right now, I am going around and meeting with people,” said Plame, a Democrat. “I have a lot to learn and I would like another opportunity to serve my country.”

Plame became a national figure after her identity as a CIA operative was leaked by an official in President George W. Bush’s administration in 2003 in an effort to discredit her then-husband Joe Wilson.

Wilson is a former diplomat who criticized Bush’s decision to invade Iraq. Plame left the agency in 2005.

Plame says she’d be honored to represent the sprawling district, which covers all of northern New Mexico, parts of the Navajo Nation and a large portion of state’s east side.

She would face several Democratic contenders if she decides to run. State Rep. Joseph Sanchez and businessman Mark McDonald have already announced they are candidates and Santa Fe District Attorney Marco Serna is considering a bid.

I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, however, was convicted of lying to investigators and obstruction of justice following the 2003 leak. President Donald Trump issued a full pardon to Libby last year.

In 2017, the Wilsons launched an unsuccessful crowdfunding effort to buy Twitter so Trump couldn’t use it. At the time, Plame said if she didn’t get enough to purchase a majority of shares, she would explore options to buy “a significant stake” and champion the proposal at Twitter’s annual shareholder meeting. Plame and Wilson divorced later that year.

Plame is the author of the memoir “Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House.”

The book was made into a 2010 movie starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts.
…

Former CIA operative, author and activist Valerie Plame said Friday she is considering a 2020 run for an open U.S. congressional seat in New Mexico.

Plame told The Associated Press she is spending time with residents and will make a decision soon. The seat is currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Rey Lujan, who is stepping down to run for U.S. Senate.

“Right now, I am going around and meeting with people,” said Plame, a Democrat. “I have a lot to learn and I would like another opportunity to serve my country.”

Plame became a national figure after her identity as a CIA operative was leaked by an official in President George W. Bush’s administration in 2003 in an effort to discredit her then-husband Joe Wilson.

Wilson is a former diplomat who criticized Bush’s decision to invade Iraq. Plame left the agency in 2005.

Plame says she’d be honored to represent the sprawling district, which covers all of northern New Mexico, parts of the Navajo Nation and a large portion of state’s east side.

She would face several Democratic contenders if she decides to run. State Rep. Joseph Sanchez and businessman Mark McDonald have already announced they are candidates and Santa Fe District Attorney Marco Serna is considering a bid.

I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, however, was convicted of lying to investigators and obstruction of justice following the 2003 leak. President Donald Trump issued a full pardon to Libby last year.

In 2017, the Wilsons launched an unsuccessful crowdfunding effort to buy Twitter so Trump couldn’t use it. At the time, Plame said if she didn’t get enough to purchase a majority of shares, she would explore options to buy “a significant stake” and champion the proposal at Twitter’s annual shareholder meeting. Plame and Wilson divorced later that year.

Plame is the author of the memoir “Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House.”

The book was made into a 2010 movie starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts.
…

Sen. Bernie Sanders made a trip to the Apollo Theater in Harlem to pay tribute to Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett and the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., but along the way slammed President Donald Trump as a racist.

The Democratic presidential contender was at the Jazz Foundation’s “A Great Night in Harlem” annual gala where Belafonte and Bennett were honored on Thursday night.

Sanders recounted the great strides King made toward racial harmony, but said that tolerance has lost steps over the past couple of years, and put the blame at the feet of Trump.

He said: “It’s hard to believe that we have a president of the United States who is, in fact, a racist.”

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.

 
…

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to nominate former pizza chain executive and Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, where he will help set interest rates for the world’s biggest economy.

“I have recommended him highly for the Fed,” Trump said in a press conference Thursday. “I’ve told my folks that’s the man.”

Trump has been a vocal and strident critic of the Fed’s rate hikes under Jerome Powell, whom the president picked two years ago to chair the U.S. central bank. Trump’s other Fed appointees have also supported the Powell Fed’s rate hikes, which the president has said hurt the economy.

This year the Fed has put rate hikes on hold, citing a slowing economy and risks from overseas. Trump, meanwhile, has continued to rail against the Fed, even as he has said he will nominate conservative commentator Stephen Moore, a proponent of rate cuts, for a second vacant seat on the Fed Board.

Asked if he is sending a signal to the Fed with the pair of nominations, Trump said: “None whatsoever. He’s a highly respected man. He’s a friend of mine. He’s somebody that gets it, and I hope everything goes well — but Herman Cain is a very good guy.”

Board members have a vote on setting interest rates every time U.S. central bankers meet, making them among America’s most powerful officials for economic policy. At full strength there are 19 Fed policymakers, including 12 regional Fed bank presidents.

Cain in February told Fox Business Network he believed deflation is a bigger worry, a view that suggests he is not inclined to support rate hikes aimed at keeping inflation in check.

Still, Cain’s policy views are not entirely clear: in the same February interview, he said he wanted to use wages as a factor in deciding monetary policy, which in the context of recently rising pay could suggest he would support rate hikes.

Cain’s history

Cain, who is 73, has little direct experience with monetary policy, but what track record he does have suggests a penchant for tighter, not looser, policy.

In the 1990s he served as a director at the Kansas City Fed, one of the 12 regional Fed banks that help process payments in the U.S. banking system and whose presidents take turns voting on rate policy. He chaired the board from 1995 to 1996, when its president was the famously hawkish Thomas Hoenig.

Minutes of meetings during that period, obtained by Reuters from the Fed, show that the bank’s directors were among those who repeatedly asked the Washington-based Board of Governors to raise rates when most of the boards of directors for the other Fed banks opposed any hike. The concern, according to the minutes, was that continued economic growth could produce price pressures that needed to be contained by tighter policy.

Cain made his fortune as chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza before launching a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

He led opinion polls for a while during the Republican nominating contests, buoyed by his signature 9-9-9 tax proposal, which would have levied a flat 9 percent corporate, income and sales tax.

Romney criticism

But his popularity slipped amid sexual harassment allegations from several women, which he denied as “completely false.”

Cain’s likely nomination drew criticism from Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney.

“I doubt that will be a nomination,” Romney told Politico. “But if it were a nomination, you can bet the interest rates he would be pushing for. … If Herman Cain were on the Fed, you’d know the interest rate would soon be 9-9-9.” 
…

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to nominate former pizza chain executive and Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, where he will help set interest rates for the world’s biggest economy.

“I have recommended him highly for the Fed,” Trump said in a press conference Thursday. “I’ve told my folks that’s the man.”

Trump has been a vocal and strident critic of the Fed’s rate hikes under Jerome Powell, whom the president picked two years ago to chair the U.S. central bank. Trump’s other Fed appointees have also supported the Powell Fed’s rate hikes, which the president has said hurt the economy.

This year the Fed has put rate hikes on hold, citing a slowing economy and risks from overseas. Trump, meanwhile, has continued to rail against the Fed, even as he has said he will nominate conservative commentator Stephen Moore, a proponent of rate cuts, for a second vacant seat on the Fed Board.

Asked if he is sending a signal to the Fed with the pair of nominations, Trump said: “None whatsoever. He’s a highly respected man. He’s a friend of mine. He’s somebody that gets it, and I hope everything goes well — but Herman Cain is a very good guy.”

Board members have a vote on setting interest rates every time U.S. central bankers meet, making them among America’s most powerful officials for economic policy. At full strength there are 19 Fed policymakers, including 12 regional Fed bank presidents.

Cain in February told Fox Business Network he believed deflation is a bigger worry, a view that suggests he is not inclined to support rate hikes aimed at keeping inflation in check.

Still, Cain’s policy views are not entirely clear: in the same February interview, he said he wanted to use wages as a factor in deciding monetary policy, which in the context of recently rising pay could suggest he would support rate hikes.

Cain’s history

Cain, who is 73, has little direct experience with monetary policy, but what track record he does have suggests a penchant for tighter, not looser, policy.

In the 1990s he served as a director at the Kansas City Fed, one of the 12 regional Fed banks that help process payments in the U.S. banking system and whose presidents take turns voting on rate policy. He chaired the board from 1995 to 1996, when its president was the famously hawkish Thomas Hoenig.

Minutes of meetings during that period, obtained by Reuters from the Fed, show that the bank’s directors were among those who repeatedly asked the Washington-based Board of Governors to raise rates when most of the boards of directors for the other Fed banks opposed any hike. The concern, according to the minutes, was that continued economic growth could produce price pressures that needed to be contained by tighter policy.

Cain made his fortune as chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza before launching a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

He led opinion polls for a while during the Republican nominating contests, buoyed by his signature 9-9-9 tax proposal, which would have levied a flat 9 percent corporate, income and sales tax.

Romney criticism

But his popularity slipped amid sexual harassment allegations from several women, which he denied as “completely false.”

Cain’s likely nomination drew criticism from Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney.

“I doubt that will be a nomination,” Romney told Politico. “But if it were a nomination, you can bet the interest rates he would be pushing for. … If Herman Cain were on the Fed, you’d know the interest rate would soon be 9-9-9.” 
…

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio on Thursday became the latest Democrat to jump into the race for the party’s presidential nomination, joining a crowded field vying to challenge Republican Donald Trump in 2020. 

The pool of Democratic candidates for the White House is among the largest and most diverse ever.

It includes female U.S. senators, a current and a former governor, African-Americans, a Hispanic and a young gay mayor, and is likely to grow before the U.S. primary season gets underway next year. 

 

The Democratic nominating convention opens on July 13, 2020, in Milwaukee, Wis. Here are the party’s main contenders vying to be on the ballot. 

Tim Ryan

Ryan, 45, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio in November 2002 at age 29. He has won re-election seven times and currently serves on the Appropriations Committee.

Ryan launched his campaign for president on a platform of investing in public education and providing affordable health care. 

A moderate Democrat, Ryan mounted an unsuccessful challenge in 2016 for the Democratic leadership of the House against Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California. 

Beto O’Rourke

During a frenetic if failed campaign for the U.S. Senate last year in Texas, O’Rourke, 46, used his youth, energy and camera-friendly looks to become a media darling while setting fundraising records and drawing support from a range of celebrities. 

 

Despite a reputation forged in his three terms in Congress as a pragmatic centrist, O’Rourke launched his campaign in Iowa on a decidedly left-leaning platform, calling for health and immigration reform, a higher minimum wage and an all-out battle to curb climate change. 

 

His resolutely positive message, with calls for “kindness and decency” — along with criticisms of an “unfair, unjust and racist capitalist economy” — have drawn large and often youthful crowds wherever he appears.

​Kirsten Gillibrand

The New York senator, 52, had made a name campaigning against sexual abuse, especially in the military, even before the #MeToo movement gained national prominence. A fierce Trump critic, Gillibrand is making gender and women’s issues a hallmark of her campaign. 

 

She has called for a more egalitarian society and wants to improve the nation’s health and education systems.

Bernie Sanders

The self-described democratic socialist, 77, was an outsider when the 2016 Democratic primaries began. But he gave favorite Hillary Clinton a run for her money with his calls for a “political revolution” and battled her down to the wire. 

 

Sanders won passionate support among young liberals with his calls for universal health care, a $15 minimum wage and free public university education.

​Amy Klobuchar

The 58-year-old granddaughter of an iron miner, Klobuchar is a former prosecutor with an unpretentious demeanor. 

 

She has quietly gained attention in Washington as a centrist. Klobuchar is known for putting partisanship aside to pass legislation, something that has earned her a devoted following in Minnesota. 

 

Klobuchar has promised more stringent gun laws and set a target of universal health care.

Elizabeth Warren

At 69, the U.S. Senate’s consumer protection champion from Massachusetts is on the party’s left flank. She built her reputation by holding Wall Street accountable for its missteps.  

 

Warren is considered to have one of the best campaign organizations of any Democrat. Her campaign has been dogged, however, by her past claims of Native American heritage, and Trump mockingly refers to her as “Pocahontas.”

Cory Booker

The New Jersey senator, 49, announced his candidacy Feb. 1, evoking the civil rights movement as he promised to work to unite a divided America. 

 

Often compared to former President Barack Obama, Booker began his career as a community activist and rose to prominence as mayor of Newark, N.J. 

 

A talented orator, Booker was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2013, the first African-American senator from the Eastern state.

Kamala Harris

The barrier-breaking senator from California who aspires to be the nation’s first black female president announced her candidacy on a day honoring slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. 

 

The daughter of an Indian immigrant medical researcher mother and a Jamaican economist father, Harris, 54, began her career as a district attorney in San Francisco before serving as California’s attorney general.

​Pete Buttigieg

The South Bend, Ind., mayor, 37, joined the race with a resolutely forward-looking and optimistic message to counter Trump’s darker vision. 

 

A Rhodes Scholar, Buttigieg would be the first openly gay presidential nominee of either major party. 

 

A U.S. Navy Reserve officer, he put his mayoral duties aside to serve in Afghanistan in 2014.

Other candidates

Also in the race are former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, 44; U.S. Rep. John Delaney of Maryland, 55; U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, 37, of Hawaii; former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, 67; Jay Inslee, 68, the governor of Washington state; Wayne Messam, 44, the mayor of Miramar, Fla.; self-help author Marianne Williamson, 66; and technology executive Andrew Yang, 44.  

Waiting in the wings

Among the big Democratic guns who have yet to commit is former Vice President Joe Biden, who leads most surveys of Democratic voters. 

 

Biden, who combines experience and widespread popularity, would be expected to poll well in some of the blue-collar Midwestern states that propelled Trump to the presidency in 2016. 
…

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio on Thursday became the latest Democrat to jump into the race for the party’s presidential nomination, joining a crowded field vying to challenge Republican Donald Trump in 2020. 

The pool of Democratic candidates for the White House is among the largest and most diverse ever.

It includes female U.S. senators, a current and a former governor, African-Americans, a Hispanic and a young gay mayor, and is likely to grow before the U.S. primary season gets underway next year. 

 

The Democratic nominating convention opens on July 13, 2020, in Milwaukee, Wis. Here are the party’s main contenders vying to be on the ballot. 

Tim Ryan

Ryan, 45, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio in November 2002 at age 29. He has won re-election seven times and currently serves on the Appropriations Committee.

Ryan launched his campaign for president on a platform of investing in public education and providing affordable health care. 

A moderate Democrat, Ryan mounted an unsuccessful challenge in 2016 for the Democratic leadership of the House against Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California. 

Beto O’Rourke

During a frenetic if failed campaign for the U.S. Senate last year in Texas, O’Rourke, 46, used his youth, energy and camera-friendly looks to become a media darling while setting fundraising records and drawing support from a range of celebrities. 

 

Despite a reputation forged in his three terms in Congress as a pragmatic centrist, O’Rourke launched his campaign in Iowa on a decidedly left-leaning platform, calling for health and immigration reform, a higher minimum wage and an all-out battle to curb climate change. 

 

His resolutely positive message, with calls for “kindness and decency” — along with criticisms of an “unfair, unjust and racist capitalist economy” — have drawn large and often youthful crowds wherever he appears.

​Kirsten Gillibrand

The New York senator, 52, had made a name campaigning against sexual abuse, especially in the military, even before the #MeToo movement gained national prominence. A fierce Trump critic, Gillibrand is making gender and women’s issues a hallmark of her campaign. 

 

She has called for a more egalitarian society and wants to improve the nation’s health and education systems.

Bernie Sanders

The self-described democratic socialist, 77, was an outsider when the 2016 Democratic primaries began. But he gave favorite Hillary Clinton a run for her money with his calls for a “political revolution” and battled her down to the wire. 

 

Sanders won passionate support among young liberals with his calls for universal health care, a $15 minimum wage and free public university education.

​Amy Klobuchar

The 58-year-old granddaughter of an iron miner, Klobuchar is a former prosecutor with an unpretentious demeanor. 

 

She has quietly gained attention in Washington as a centrist. Klobuchar is known for putting partisanship aside to pass legislation, something that has earned her a devoted following in Minnesota. 

 

Klobuchar has promised more stringent gun laws and set a target of universal health care.

Elizabeth Warren

At 69, the U.S. Senate’s consumer protection champion from Massachusetts is on the party’s left flank. She built her reputation by holding Wall Street accountable for its missteps.  

 

Warren is considered to have one of the best campaign organizations of any Democrat. Her campaign has been dogged, however, by her past claims of Native American heritage, and Trump mockingly refers to her as “Pocahontas.”

Cory Booker

The New Jersey senator, 49, announced his candidacy Feb. 1, evoking the civil rights movement as he promised to work to unite a divided America. 

 

Often compared to former President Barack Obama, Booker began his career as a community activist and rose to prominence as mayor of Newark, N.J. 

 

A talented orator, Booker was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2013, the first African-American senator from the Eastern state.

Kamala Harris

The barrier-breaking senator from California who aspires to be the nation’s first black female president announced her candidacy on a day honoring slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. 

 

The daughter of an Indian immigrant medical researcher mother and a Jamaican economist father, Harris, 54, began her career as a district attorney in San Francisco before serving as California’s attorney general.

​Pete Buttigieg

The South Bend, Ind., mayor, 37, joined the race with a resolutely forward-looking and optimistic message to counter Trump’s darker vision. 

 

A Rhodes Scholar, Buttigieg would be the first openly gay presidential nominee of either major party. 

 

A U.S. Navy Reserve officer, he put his mayoral duties aside to serve in Afghanistan in 2014.

Other candidates

Also in the race are former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, 44; U.S. Rep. John Delaney of Maryland, 55; U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, 37, of Hawaii; former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, 67; Jay Inslee, 68, the governor of Washington state; Wayne Messam, 44, the mayor of Miramar, Fla.; self-help author Marianne Williamson, 66; and technology executive Andrew Yang, 44.  

Waiting in the wings

Among the big Democratic guns who have yet to commit is former Vice President Joe Biden, who leads most surveys of Democratic voters. 

 

Biden, who combines experience and widespread popularity, would be expected to poll well in some of the blue-collar Midwestern states that propelled Trump to the presidency in 2016. 
…

President Donald Trump on Thursday retreated from his threat to immediately close the U.S. southern border with Mexico to thwart illegal migration, instead telling Mexico it has a year to curb the flow of illicit drugs and surge of migrants to the United States or he would impose tariffs on cars it was exporting to the U.S.

Trump backed off days of Twitter comments saying he was about to close the border after White House economic advisers and Republican lawmakers warned him that closing the border would significantly affect the U.S. economy, the world’s largest.

White House officials had tried to figure out a way that Trump could halt undocumented immigrants from entering the U.S. while not obstructing the flow of nearly $1.7 billion of goods and services crossing the border each day, along with nearly a half-million legal workers, students, shoppers and tourists.

Trump told reporters at the White House that Mexico “could stop” migrant caravans from the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador “right at their southern border” to halt their passage through Mexico to the United States.

After often attacking Mexico as doing “nothing” to stem the surge of migrants heading to the U.S., Trump in recent days praised the southern U.S. neighbor for getting tougher in stopping them before they could get to the U.S. to file for asylum protection.

As for Mexico’s future action against migrants, Trump said, “If they don’t do it, we’ll tariff the cars.”

He said Mexico has a “one-year warning to stop incoming drugs; otherwise we’ll close the border.”

Trump’s walk-back on immediately closing the border was his second retreat on a major policy issue in the last week.

A week ago, he said Republican lawmakers would adopt a new plan to repeal and replace the national health care policies that were the signature domestic legislative achievement of his Democratic predecessor, former President Barack Obama.

But when Trump’s legislative supporters in Congress said they had no intention of considering a new health care overhaul before the 2020 presidential election 19 months from now, the president changed his mind and said there would not be a health care vote until 2021, by which time he hopes to have won a second term in the White House.

Some of Trump’s most ardent supporters defended his call for closing the U.S.-Mexican border this week, but lawmakers who normally back his policies were not among them.

“Closing down the border would have a potentially catastrophic economic impact on our country,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said. “I would hope that we would not be doing that sort of thing.”

Economists outside the government also predicted economic havoc, with Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, saying “a full shutdown of the U.S.-Mexican border of more than several weeks would be the fodder for recessions in both Mexico and the U.S.”
…

It will be 10 months before U.S. voters begin the process of choosing a Democratic Party presidential nominee through the caucuses and primary elections that get underway in February of next year. But already 15 or more Democrats are busy campaigning to be the one to take on President Donald Trump next year.

The 2020 Democratic field is a diverse mix of women, men, minorities and contenders with varying levels of political experience.

In Washington this week, several Democratic presidential contenders auditioned for support before union and liberal activist groups at the “We the People” forum.

“The Trump administration is a walking, talking, living, breathing threat to national security, and we just have to call it out,” said Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to cheers from the audience.

Warren is one of several women candidates in the field who do not hesitate to criticize President Donald Trump, a group that includes Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.

“He somehow thinks that organized hate is more powerful than unorganized love. Well, maybe he’s right. But how do we respond to that? We organize, right! We organize and we win,” vowed Klobuchar.

​Diverse field

Several minority candidates have also stepped up to the 2020 stage, including California Senator Kamala Harris, former cabinet secretary Julian Castro and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, who often focuses on national unity as a theme.

“This election will be more than just taking one person out of office. This will be the beginning of the next era of America where dreams are not just words or songs but a reality for all!”

Unity is also a theme for former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, who officially announced his candidacy in his hometown of El Paso.

“Let those differences not define us or divide us. Let us agree going forward that before we are anything else, we are Americans first!” he said.

O’Rourke told Monday’s “We the People” forum that he would support eliminating the electoral college system for choosing a president, and would favor a direct popular vote instead to decide the outcome.

Poll surges

O’Rourke has risen into double-digit support in some recent polls. Other newcomers who have seen poll surges are South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and California Senator Kamala Harris.

The latest Quinnipiac University poll had former Vice President Joe Biden leading the Democratic race at 29 percent support, followed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders at 19 percent, O’Rourke at 12 percent and Harris at 8 percent.

In a recent Emerson poll of Iowa voters, Buttigieg had surged into third place with 11 percent support, trailing only Biden and Sanders and slightly ahead of Harris and Warren.

Biden is expected to join the race soon but is under fire after complaints from several women about unwanted close physical contact. On Wednesday, the former vice president posted a video on Twitter noting that “the boundaries of protecting personal space have been reset.” Biden added that he will be more “mindful about respecting personal space in the future.”

Biden is considered by many Democrats to be the front-runner but his lack of success in two previous campaigns has some party activists wary.

Scrutiny already

Given the intensive early candidate travel to key early voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, Democratic activists are already scrutinizing the contenders.

“Democratic voters are basically interviewing candidates on two topics,” said American University expert Bill Sweeney. “First and most importantly is their policy vision for the United States in the years ahead. And then secondly, are they the person to beat Trump in the 2020 election?”

Some of the newcomers to the national stage tend to focus on one or two key issues. In the case of Washington State Governor Jay Inslee, that issue is climate change.

“It is a unique moment because we are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we are the last generation that can do something about it,” Inslee told the Monday forum in Washington.

Despite all the newcomers in the 2020 mix, the one familiar face from the 2016 campaign is Bernie Sanders.

Sanders is once again offering bold promises on expanding the role of government in health care, free college education and economic fairness.

“And what I pledge to you, if elected president, is to be a president that will be traveling all over this country as part of a grass roots political movement,” Sanders told the “We the People” forum.

Sanders got some encouraging news this week. His fundraising totals for the first quarter of this year topped $18 million, leading the Democratic field. On Wednesday, O’Rourke reported that he has raised $9.4 million in donations during his initial period of campaigning, another sign he could be a contender with staying power.

Other top fundraisers included Harris who reported a $12 million haul and Buttigieg raised $7 million, an impressive total for someone virtually off the radar just weeks ago.

Lots of choices

With the final total of contenders likely to be somewhere between 15 and 20, Democratic activists will have plenty of different personalities and governing philosophies to choose from, said George Washington University analyst Matt Dallek.

“Do primary voters want someone who is not going to be a centrist like Bill Clinton? Who is not going to be as cautious as former President Obama? Who is really going to tackle income equality as the central issue?” he said.

For his part, President Trump says he is eager to take on whomever the Democrats nominate next year.

“We could lose the country, we really could. Because these people are stone cold crazy,” Trump told a Republican fundraiser in Washington on Tuesday.

The first big test in the Democratic race will come in the first candidate debates to be in Miami, June 26 and 27.
…

It will be 10 months before U.S. voters begin the process of choosing a Democratic Party presidential nominee in the caucuses and primaries that start in February 2020. But already 15 or more Democrats are aggressively campaigning to be the one to take on President Donald Trump next year. The 2020 Democratic field is a diverse mix of women, men, minorities and contenders with varying levels of political experience. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
…

Some investigators in the nearly two-year probe of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign say the findings in a report submitted by special counsel Robert Mueller are more damaging for the president than what has been suggested by Attorney General William Barr, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported late Wednesday.

Barr issued a four-page summary March 24 of the Mueller report and its investigation into allegations the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election in Trump’s favor. Barr said Mueller’s team found no evidence that Trump or anyone associated with his campaign conspired or coordinated with Russia.

The attorney general also said Mueller did not conclude that the president illegally interfered with the investigation, but added that he was also not exonerated. Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided there was not enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of justice.

But the Times and the Post say Mueller’s investigators have told associates that Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry. The Post says the members of Mueller’s team believe the evidence they gathered on obstruction was “alarming and significant.” The Times says in its report that the investigators are concerned that because Barr’s summary was “the first narrative” of the team’s findings, the public’s views will be fixed before the final report is released.

The attorney general has vowed to publicly issue the report by mid-April after he and his staff take out any sensitive information, such as grand jury testimonies. But the Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday along party lines to authorize Chairman Jerry Nadler to issue subpoenas to obtain the full copy of Mueller’s final report and its supporting evidence.

While Trump has left it to Barr to decide whether to release the complete report, the president is expected to assert what is known as executive privilege over some portions of records other congressional committees are seeking as part of their investigation of the administration. That has set the stage for a showdown between Democrats in Congress and the White House, raising the specter that the issue may ultimately end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The committee also authorized Nadler to subpoena documents and testimony from five of Trump’s former aides, including former political adviser Steve Bannon and former White House counsel Donald McGahn.

Despite Barr’s determination that he was not fully exonerated by Mueller’s report, Trump has boasted that he has been fully cleared of any wrongdoing in the probe.
…

A handful of Democratic presidential candidates are touting the amount of money they’ve raised in the first fundraising period of a 2020 primary fight that will last into next spring. The totals for the first quarter, which ran through March 31, are the first measure of how candidates are faring.

Details for the entire field won’t be known until candidates file their required disclosures with the Federal Election Commission by April 15, but here are some takeaways from what the campaigns have released so far:

BERNIE REALLY IS A FRONT-RUNNER

Bernie Sanders joins former Vice President Joe Biden atop many polls of prospective Democratic primary voters. But Sanders has something Biden doesn’t have (yet): a campaign operation raking in cash.

The senator from Vermont, who showed surprising fundraising heft in his upstart challenge to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton four years ago, raised more than $18 million in the 41 days between his official campaign launch and March 31, giving him $28 million cash on hand.

Those totals are expected to lead the Democratic field, putting pressure on other heavyweights, including Biden, who is still deciding whether to run and who is navigating accusations that he’s acted inappropriately toward women.

Besides Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris of California put up an impressive $12 million haul. Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas didn’t offer a fundraising total Tuesday, but aides said he raised more than $1 million over the weekend and previously said he raised more than $6 million in his first 24 hours as a candidate.

Sanders’ haul shows that his base is just as enthusiastic as it was four years ago. In fact, it may be growing. The senator’s campaign noted that of his 525,000 unique donors, about 20% are new, about 100,000 are registered independents and about 20,000 are registered Republicans.

As impressive as Sanders’ fundraising has been, it’s not as large as previous presidential contenders who were more reliant on big donors.

In her first quarter as a candidate ahead of 2016, Clinton topped $45 million. In 2007, when then-Sen. Barack Obama and Clinton were beginning their long battle for the 2008 nomination, the favored Clinton opened with an initial fundraising quarter of $36 million, while the underdog Obama pulled in $26 million.

EXPECTATIONS GAME: MAYOR PETE WINS

Sanders’ fundraising haul set the curve for all candidates and will give pause to some of the other perceived heavyweights in the field, particularly his fellow senators Harris, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. (Harris is the only candidate of that group to release her fundraising totals.)

But the biggest winner may be Pete Buttigieg, an unlikely headline-grabber even among a group of lesser-known candidates that includes governors and members of Congress.

The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, raised $7 million, calling it “a great look for our first quarter.” That might be an understatement.

Such a sum ensures Buttigieg can finance a legitimate campaign operation for months as long as he’s not a profligate spender. (Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker learned in the 2015-16 Republican presidential campaign that being an early fundraising leader is no guarantee of success; he spent big, ran out of money and dropped out before the Iowa caucuses.)

Just as important as the bottom line: Buttigieg said he has almost 160,000 unique donors, a mark that meets the new grassroots fundraising thresholds that the Democratic National Committee has set for candidates to qualify for the initial summer debates.

SMALL DONORS RULE THE DAY

It’s a new day in Democratic politics, with small donors carrying the day.

Sanders touts that he’s held zero traditional fundraisers and has an average donation of $20 — less than 1% of the $2800 maximum. Sanders’ campaign says the senator got 88% of his money from donors who contributed $200 or less.

Buttigieg said his average contribution is about $36, with 64% of his total coming from those donating $200 or less. Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur who’s never held political office, has raised just $1.7 million, but his campaign says it’s come from about 80,000 donors averaging less than $18 per contribution.

This shift largely reflects politicians reacting to a progressive base that looks with suspicion and distrust on big-money donors.

For example, Warren is among the perceived favorites in the field but has promised she’ll be financing her campaign without leaning on traditional donors.

Harris isn’t eschewing high-dollar fundraisers. In a recent stop in Atlanta, she held one small-dollar event but also a high-dollar gathering sponsored by bundlers who’d pulled together at least $28,000 for her campaign. Yet when her campaign aides released fundraising totals for the first quarter, it wasn’t the big checks they touted. Rather, they emphasized that 98% percent of her contributors gave less than $100.

Gordon Giffin, a former Canadian ambassador under President Bill Clinton, recently hosted a fundraiser for Klobuchar in his metro Atlanta home. Traditional fundraising isn’t going away, Giffin said in a recent interview, “but that grassroots money can more than make up for it, and candidates have to prove they can do that.”
…

A handful of Democratic presidential candidates are touting the amount of money they’ve raised in the first fundraising period of a 2020 primary fight that will last into next spring. The totals for the first quarter, which ran through March 31, are the first measure of how candidates are faring.

Details for the entire field won’t be known until candidates file their required disclosures with the Federal Election Commission by April 15, but here are some takeaways from what the campaigns have released so far:

BERNIE REALLY IS A FRONT-RUNNER

Bernie Sanders joins former Vice President Joe Biden atop many polls of prospective Democratic primary voters. But Sanders has something Biden doesn’t have (yet): a campaign operation raking in cash.

The senator from Vermont, who showed surprising fundraising heft in his upstart challenge to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton four years ago, raised more than $18 million in the 41 days between his official campaign launch and March 31, giving him $28 million cash on hand.

Those totals are expected to lead the Democratic field, putting pressure on other heavyweights, including Biden, who is still deciding whether to run and who is navigating accusations that he’s acted inappropriately toward women.

Besides Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris of California put up an impressive $12 million haul. Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas didn’t offer a fundraising total Tuesday, but aides said he raised more than $1 million over the weekend and previously said he raised more than $6 million in his first 24 hours as a candidate.

Sanders’ haul shows that his base is just as enthusiastic as it was four years ago. In fact, it may be growing. The senator’s campaign noted that of his 525,000 unique donors, about 20% are new, about 100,000 are registered independents and about 20,000 are registered Republicans.

As impressive as Sanders’ fundraising has been, it’s not as large as previous presidential contenders who were more reliant on big donors.

In her first quarter as a candidate ahead of 2016, Clinton topped $45 million. In 2007, when then-Sen. Barack Obama and Clinton were beginning their long battle for the 2008 nomination, the favored Clinton opened with an initial fundraising quarter of $36 million, while the underdog Obama pulled in $26 million.

EXPECTATIONS GAME: MAYOR PETE WINS

Sanders’ fundraising haul set the curve for all candidates and will give pause to some of the other perceived heavyweights in the field, particularly his fellow senators Harris, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. (Harris is the only candidate of that group to release her fundraising totals.)

But the biggest winner may be Pete Buttigieg, an unlikely headline-grabber even among a group of lesser-known candidates that includes governors and members of Congress.

The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, raised $7 million, calling it “a great look for our first quarter.” That might be an understatement.

Such a sum ensures Buttigieg can finance a legitimate campaign operation for months as long as he’s not a profligate spender. (Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker learned in the 2015-16 Republican presidential campaign that being an early fundraising leader is no guarantee of success; he spent big, ran out of money and dropped out before the Iowa caucuses.)

Just as important as the bottom line: Buttigieg said he has almost 160,000 unique donors, a mark that meets the new grassroots fundraising thresholds that the Democratic National Committee has set for candidates to qualify for the initial summer debates.

SMALL DONORS RULE THE DAY

It’s a new day in Democratic politics, with small donors carrying the day.

Sanders touts that he’s held zero traditional fundraisers and has an average donation of $20 — less than 1% of the $2800 maximum. Sanders’ campaign says the senator got 88% of his money from donors who contributed $200 or less.

Buttigieg said his average contribution is about $36, with 64% of his total coming from those donating $200 or less. Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur who’s never held political office, has raised just $1.7 million, but his campaign says it’s come from about 80,000 donors averaging less than $18 per contribution.

This shift largely reflects politicians reacting to a progressive base that looks with suspicion and distrust on big-money donors.

For example, Warren is among the perceived favorites in the field but has promised she’ll be financing her campaign without leaning on traditional donors.

Harris isn’t eschewing high-dollar fundraisers. In a recent stop in Atlanta, she held one small-dollar event but also a high-dollar gathering sponsored by bundlers who’d pulled together at least $28,000 for her campaign. Yet when her campaign aides released fundraising totals for the first quarter, it wasn’t the big checks they touted. Rather, they emphasized that 98% percent of her contributors gave less than $100.

Gordon Giffin, a former Canadian ambassador under President Bill Clinton, recently hosted a fundraiser for Klobuchar in his metro Atlanta home. Traditional fundraising isn’t going away, Giffin said in a recent interview, “but that grassroots money can more than make up for it, and candidates have to prove they can do that.”
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Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot’s resounding victory was a clear call for change at City Hall and a historic repudiation of the old-style, insider politics that have long defined the nation’s third-largest city.

Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor who’d never been elected to public office, defeated Cook County Board President and longtime City Council member Toni Preckwinkle on Tuesday with backing from voters across the city. Late results showed Lightfoot, 56, winning every one of the city’s 50 wards.

Lightfoot also made history, becoming the first black woman and the first openly gay person to be elected Chicago mayor. Chicago will become the largest U.S. city to have a black woman serve as mayor when Lightfoot is sworn in May 20. She will join seven other black women currently serving as mayors in major U.S. cities, including Atlanta and New Orleans, and will be the second woman to lead Chicago.

“Out there tonight a lot of little girls and boys are watching. They’re watching us, and they’re seeing the beginning of something, well, a little bit different,” Lightfoot told a jubilant crowd at a downtown hotel. “They’re seeing a city reborn.”

She pledged to make Chicago “a place where your zip code doesn’t determine your destiny,” to address the city’s violence and to “break this city’s endless cycle of corruption” that allows politicians to profit from their office.

Lightfoot emerged as the surprising leader in the first round of voting in February when 14 candidates were on the ballot to succeed Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who decided against running for a third term.

She seized on outrage over a white police officer’s fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald to launch her reformer campaign. She got in the race even before Emanuel announced he wouldn’t seek re-election amid criticism for initially resisting calls to release video of the shooting.

Joyce Ross, 64, a resident of the city’s predominantly black West Side who is a certified nursing assistant, cast her ballot Tuesday for Lightfoot. Ross said she believes Lightfoot will be better able to clean up the police department and curb the city’s violence.

She was also bothered by Preckwinkle’s association with longtime Alderman Ed Burke, who was indicted earlier this year on charges he tried to shake down a restaurant owner who wanted to build in his ward.

“My momma always said birds of a feather flock together,” Ross said.

Preckwinkle said she called Lightfoot Tuesday night to congratulate her on a “hard-fought campaign.”

“While I may be disappointed I’m not disheartened. For one thing, this is clearly a historic night,” she told a crowd gathered in her South Side neighborhood. “Not long ago two African American women vying for this position would have been unthinkable. And while it may be true that we took two very different paths to get here, tonight is about the path forward.”

That path will have major challenges. Chicago has been losing population, particularly in predominantly African American neighborhoods hit hardest by violence and a lack of jobs.

The new mayor will take over a city that faces massive financial problems. She will have just a few months to prepare a new budget, which in 2020 is expected to have a roughly $250 million deficit. Lightfoot also will take over the worst-funded public pensions of any major U.S. city. Chicago’s annual payments to the retirement systems are slated to grow by $1.2 billion by 2023.

She has expressed support for a casino in Chicago and changing the state’s income tax system to a graduated tax, in which higher earners are taxed at a higher rate — two measures lawmakers have tried for unsuccessfully for years to pass.

Violence and policing will also continue to be an issue, and one that has proven to be politically difficult.

The Chicago Police Department must implement a federally monitored consent decree approved in January. It followed the McDonald killing and a U.S. Justice Department review that found a long history of excessive use of force and racial bias by officers.

While voters also elected several newcomers over City Council veterans, Lightfoot will have to work with a council that has a sizable number of members who are the type of politicians she railed against during her campaign.
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Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot’s resounding victory was a clear call for change at City Hall and a historic repudiation of the old-style, insider politics that have long defined the nation’s third-largest city.

Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor who’d never been elected to public office, defeated Cook County Board President and longtime City Council member Toni Preckwinkle on Tuesday with backing from voters across the city. Late results showed Lightfoot, 56, winning every one of the city’s 50 wards.

Lightfoot also made history, becoming the first black woman and the first openly gay person to be elected Chicago mayor. Chicago will become the largest U.S. city to have a black woman serve as mayor when Lightfoot is sworn in May 20. She will join seven other black women currently serving as mayors in major U.S. cities, including Atlanta and New Orleans, and will be the second woman to lead Chicago.

“Out there tonight a lot of little girls and boys are watching. They’re watching us, and they’re seeing the beginning of something, well, a little bit different,” Lightfoot told a jubilant crowd at a downtown hotel. “They’re seeing a city reborn.”

She pledged to make Chicago “a place where your zip code doesn’t determine your destiny,” to address the city’s violence and to “break this city’s endless cycle of corruption” that allows politicians to profit from their office.

Lightfoot emerged as the surprising leader in the first round of voting in February when 14 candidates were on the ballot to succeed Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who decided against running for a third term.

She seized on outrage over a white police officer’s fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald to launch her reformer campaign. She got in the race even before Emanuel announced he wouldn’t seek re-election amid criticism for initially resisting calls to release video of the shooting.

Joyce Ross, 64, a resident of the city’s predominantly black West Side who is a certified nursing assistant, cast her ballot Tuesday for Lightfoot. Ross said she believes Lightfoot will be better able to clean up the police department and curb the city’s violence.

She was also bothered by Preckwinkle’s association with longtime Alderman Ed Burke, who was indicted earlier this year on charges he tried to shake down a restaurant owner who wanted to build in his ward.

“My momma always said birds of a feather flock together,” Ross said.

Preckwinkle said she called Lightfoot Tuesday night to congratulate her on a “hard-fought campaign.”

“While I may be disappointed I’m not disheartened. For one thing, this is clearly a historic night,” she told a crowd gathered in her South Side neighborhood. “Not long ago two African American women vying for this position would have been unthinkable. And while it may be true that we took two very different paths to get here, tonight is about the path forward.”

That path will have major challenges. Chicago has been losing population, particularly in predominantly African American neighborhoods hit hardest by violence and a lack of jobs.

The new mayor will take over a city that faces massive financial problems. She will have just a few months to prepare a new budget, which in 2020 is expected to have a roughly $250 million deficit. Lightfoot also will take over the worst-funded public pensions of any major U.S. city. Chicago’s annual payments to the retirement systems are slated to grow by $1.2 billion by 2023.

She has expressed support for a casino in Chicago and changing the state’s income tax system to a graduated tax, in which higher earners are taxed at a higher rate — two measures lawmakers have tried for unsuccessfully for years to pass.

Violence and policing will also continue to be an issue, and one that has proven to be politically difficult.

The Chicago Police Department must implement a federally monitored consent decree approved in January. It followed the McDonald killing and a U.S. Justice Department review that found a long history of excessive use of force and racial bias by officers.

While voters also elected several newcomers over City Council veterans, Lightfoot will have to work with a council that has a sizable number of members who are the type of politicians she railed against during her campaign.
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