Friday, January 29, 2016

TV Ratings: Fox News Debate Numbers Steady Without Donald Trump

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Donald Trump may have been conspicuously absent, but Thursday night’s Republican debate on Fox News Channel nevertheless scored a 8.4 rating, according to preliminary numbers from Nielsen. That's higher than the preliminary rating for the last Republican debate, Jan. 14 on sister net Fox Business Network.

Meanwhile, all the other cable news networks were covering Trump's competing event in Iowa, during which Trump boasted he raised $5 million for veteran's charities. The final numbers will show how a Trump-less debate stacked up with Trump coverage on competing networks. 

Fox News Channel still holds the record for debate ratings; 24 million tuned in to watch the first debate last August, after which Trump began targeting the network and anchor Megyn Kelly on social media and in myriad TV interviews. The last Republican debate on sister net Fox Business Network on Jan. 14, was watched by 11 million viewers.

Moderated by Kelly, Bret Baier and Chris Wallace, Kelly opened the debate from the Iowa Events Center by addressing “the elephant not in the room” and asking Cruz what kind of message Trump’s absence sends to Iowa voters.

Cruz did not take the opportunity to bash his rival instead opting for an attempt at humor: “I’m a maniac, and everyone on this stage is stupid fat and ugly and Ben you’re a terrible surgeon. Now that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way…”

“I kind of miss Donald Trump,” Jeb Bush added. “I wish he were here.”

The seventh debate in a wildly unpredictable GOP contest was marked by days of headlines over Trump’s defection after a public dustup with Fox News when the Republican front-runner re-started his (one-sided) social media feud with Kelly days before the debate.

But many political insiders also surmised that Trump sought to avoid direct confrontations about his past statements, particularly his support of abortion. Super PACs have for days been running attack ads in which Trump declares in a 1999 interview that he is “very pro-choice in every respect.”

COMMENTS

Former House Oversight chairman: 'FBI director would like to indict Clinton and Abedin'

www.washingtonexaminer.com

MANCHESTER — California Congressman Darrell Issa, who previously led an investigation into Benghazi as former chairman of the House Oversight Committee, says the FBI "would like to indict both Huma [Abedin] and Hillary Clinton" for conducting sensitive government business on an unsecure, private email server.

"I think the FBI director would like to indict both Huma and Hillary as we speak," the Republican heavyweight told the Washington Examiner Thursday, during a debate watch-party at Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's New Hampshire campaign headquarters.

"I think he's in a position where he's being forced to triple-time make a case of what would otherwise be, what they call, a slam dunk," Issa said, referring to FBI Director James Comey, who previously told the Senate Judiciary Committee he would conduct a "competent," "honest" and "independent" probe into Clinton's handling of classified information during her tenure as secretary of state.

Still, Issa suggested Clinton's wrongdoing is obvious.

"You can't have 1,300 highly sensitive emails that contain highly sensitive material that's taken all, or in part from classified documents, and have it be an accident," he said. "There's no question, she knew she had a responsibility and she circumvented it. And she circumvented it a second time when she knowingly let highly-classified material get onto emails in an unclassified format."

Issa's comments come just two days after former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, claimed he has friends in the FBI who "tell [him] they're ready to indict and they're ready to recommend an indictment."

"They also say that if the attorney general does not indict, they're going public," DeLay said Tuesday during aninterview on Newsmax TV.

Clinton, who turned over her private email server to the Justice Department in August, has repeatedly downplayed her growing email scandal throughout her presidential campaign. Last Wednesday, she described new revelations about the level of classified intelligence contained on her unsecure server as a "leak" by Republicans.

"This, seems to me, to be, you know, another effort to inject this into the campaign. It's another leak," the Democratic presidential hopeful toldNPR.

Despite mounting evidence against the former first lady and the FBI's alleged desire to recommend an indictment, according to Issa, the California congressman says it is unlikely Clinton will face criminal charges during the election cycle.

"I've worked with both the last attorney general... and this attorney general, and I really don't believe they'll do it," Issa told the Examiner. "Doing it, by definition, would end her run for president."

He continued, "So do I think the Democrats are in an odd situation where the only thing they can do is hold their nose and hold back on and indictment?"

"Sadly, yes," Issa said.

COMMENTS

Obama: We Will Have a Democratic President Succeeding Me in 2016


by PAM KEY29 Jan 2016612

Thursday in Baltimore at the House Democrats annual retreat, President Barack Obama declared Democrats will win in November, including having a Democratic president succeeding him.

Obama said, “Obviously it is election season. The press has been focused on debates and divisions that they can drum up within the primary and within our party. I’m not worried about our party staying untied The other side may have some stuff to work out. But our trajectory is clear. And everyone is scouring my every word to find some deeper meaning, see if  I’m trying to put my finger on the scales. So let me simplify things Tonight I have an announcement to make about the presidential race. Democrats will win in November and we will have a Democratic president succeeding me. Just in case there is any confusion about that.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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Megyn Kelly Off-Camera on Trump: ‘Voldemort,’ ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’

by JEFF POOR29 Jan 2016921

Thursday immediately following Fox News Channel’s Republican presidential debate in Des Moines, IA, Megyn Kelly, the host of FNC’s “The Kelly File” interviewed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), one of the participants in the debate.

During that interview, Cruz made a reference to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who did not attend the debate and instead held a rival event during the debate at nearby Drake University in Des Moines, IA.

Cruz cited a conversation he had with Kelly, who has been engaged in a public feud with Trump, before going on air. According to Cruz, Kelly had apparently called Trump “Voldemort.”

“Well, you know, you were joking just before we went on air that it was sort of like Voldermort — he who must not be named,” Cruz said.

Kelly’s alleged reference was to Lord Voldemort, a fictional character in J. K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series and referred to as “you-know-who,” “he-who-must-not-be-named” and “the dark lord.” throughout the series.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

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The Nuclear Option: No Cure in Sight for Elites’ Donald Trump Derangement Syndrome

by CHARLES HURT29 Jan 2016131

Beware the latest nasty virus sweeping the East Coast, particularly the most elite citadels of New York City and Washington, D.C.

It is a fast-moving disease, highly contagious and attacks the nervous system. Early stages are inexplicable, fast eye-blinking, light palsy, stammering and overbearing snobbery. Sometimes redness of the face and shortness of breath accompany.

Later stages include total delusionment, dementia, inability to think clearly and, ultimately, a madness that cannot be contained.

Basic rule of thumb is that if you are blinking and twitching like Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus, Inspector Jacques Clouseau’s boss in Pink Panther, then it is still early and there is still hope.

In final stages, patients are often found wild-eyed, naked, frothing at mouth and writhing on the floor. This behavior has been likened to that of Antonio Salieri in the final scenes of “Amadeus.”

Researchers have yet to arrive at a scientific name for the debilitating disease but it is generally referred to as Donald Trump Derangement Syndrome (DTDS). It is found in its most virulent and highly contagious strain among media and punditry circles and top ranks of Republican Party leaders.

While researchers are still confounded about almost everything about DTDS, they do believe that early detection could be vital. Here are symptoms and remedies they recommend:

The disease-stricken often say things like, “He is Hitler!”

It is best to calmly explain to the person that Adolph Hitler exterminated six million Jews. Mr. Trump has not. Also, advise the patient to read “Mein Kampf,” and then read “Art of the Deal.”

Some victims, it is found, take the extermination of six million Jews more seriously and, instead, compare Mr. Trump to “Mussolini,” kind of a Hilter lite. Sometimes in their hallucinations, people suffering DTDS see a similarity in the ways both men purse their lips and speak.

Best remedy is to explain that Benito Mussolini was Hitler’s stooge and, to date, it is safe to say Donald Trump has never been anybody’s stooge.

Another symptom has people his hysterics over how “vulgar” Donald Trump is and talking about how he lacks the virtue and morals to be president.

Recommended remedy is to explain to victim how Lyndon Baines Johnson used to force reporters and staffers to join him in the bathroom to conduct business while he took care of his own business in front of them.

Or have them read the memoir detailing how John F. Kennedy took the virginity of a teenage intern within minutes of meeting her while she was touring the White House.

It is advised not to get into the known exploits of Bill Clinton because, well, it is just so disgusting that it could trigger other complicating illnesses, such as vomiting.

A startling recent symptom has one member of Congress demanding to know whether Donald Trump has repented for past sins. The best remedy for this is to remind members of Congress they are not preachers and ordering people into the confessional booth is both very creepy and unconstitutional and totally violates the separation of church and state in America.

Some victims of DTDS are found agonizing about how Donald Trump threatens to destroy the Constitution.

It is best to advise these people that Donald Trump is the most litigious person to ever run for president and that the very foundation of litigiousness is the Constitution. He probably reveres the Constitution more highly than anybody suffering from DTDS.

Sadly, researchers do not have the slightest hope of a cure for those in advanced stages of the disease. The only known Hail Mary prescriptions have been to either send them to Syria as DTDS refugees or allow them to sneak across the Mexican border before the Trump Wall and Casino is built.

Scientists, meanwhile, are hurriedly developing an 8-year, slow-release Ambien that can be taken now so that the patient wakes up in the final months of the Trump administration, once America has been Made Great Again.

Charles Hurt can be reached at charleshurt@live.com and on Twitter via@charleshurt.

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Fox’s News Corp Is a Major Donor to the Clintons

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by PATRICK HOWLEY29 Jan 2016357

The parent company of Fox News has helped to finance the career of Hillary Clinton. In fact, the company has helped a lot.

21st Century Fox/News Corp. ranks ninth on the list of the top “corporate and union donors to the Clintons over two decades,” according to a little-noticed list compiled byThe Wall Street Journal in 2014. The list counts donations from “companies, foundations, and employees.”

21st Century Fox also ranks as the 13th biggest contributor to Hillary Clinton during her political career, according to a database maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics. The database credits the Rupert Murdoch-owned company as having pitched in $340,936 to her campaigns. That puts Fox just below Lehman Brothers, but eleven spots below second-place Goldman Sachs, on the pro-Clinton list.

“The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organizations’ PACs, their individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals’ immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates,” the database notes.

Murdoch’s charitable foundation and his son James are also contributors to the Clinton Foundation, which is nowreportedly being examined by the FBI, which is investigating Hillary Clinton for possible Espionage Act violations regarding her private email use and also possible instances of public corruption regarding the Foundation.

The News Corporation Foundation is listed on the Clinton Foundation website as a donor to the tune of between $500,001 and $1,000,000, placing it alongside progressive donor heavyweights like Peter Lewis and Paul Newman’s foundation.

James R. Murdoch, meanwhile, is listed as a Clinton Foundation donor to the tune of between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000.

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump skipped Thursday night’s Fox News debate, which included Megyn Kelly as a moderator. Kelly has a track record of targeting Trump on the debate stage.

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POLITICO: Megyn Kelly Just Did Trump’s Dirty Work for Him, Kneecapped Rivals

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by BREITBART NEWS29 Jan 2016100

This article was originally published by Politico:

Donald Trump skipped last night’s Fox News debate in a fit of pique over the “very biased” Megyn Kelly. But since the shocking things he does and says always seem to work out for him, someone else used his pet issue of immigration to tie his top Republican rivals into knots. And that someone else was Megyn Kelly.

Kelly flummoxed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), currently polling second and third in Iowa, with brutal video montages that vividly demonstrated their flip-flops on immigration reform. To make things even more delicious for Trump, his other favorite bullying target, “low-energy” Jeb Bush, helped twist the knife into Rubio. And another one of his punching bags, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), helped deliver the beatdown to Cruz.
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It’s hard to see how the debate could have gone any better for Trump if he had actually participated. Meanwhile, Democrats who hope to expand their majorities among Latino voters had to enjoy watching two Cuban-American Republicans scrambling to walk back their previous flirtations with reform.


Read the rest of the article here.

 

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