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Ex-adviser thinks Romney will run for Senate

September 27, 2020 | News | No Comments

A former senior adviser to Mitt RomneyWillard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyMilley discussed resigning from post after Trump photo-op: report Trump on collision course with Congress over bases with Confederate names Attorney says 75-year-old man shoved by Buffalo police suffered brain injury MORE said Tuesday that he believes the former GOP presidential candidate will launch a Senate bid in Utah, fueling speculation that he could vie to replace Sen. Orrin HatchOrrin Grant HatchBottom line Bottom line Bottom line MORE (R) this year.

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In an interview on CNN’s “New Day,” the adviser, Kevin Madden, conceded that he did not have any “inside information” on Romney’s plans, but noted that if the former Massachusetts governor wanted to dispel rumors of his candidacy, he would have done so.

Asked if Romney is running for the Senate seat, Madden replied: “I think he very much is.”

“I do think that if a rumor like this got out and Mitt Romney wanted to stop it, he could have,” Madden said. “And so far, since he hasn’t, I think he’s leaning toward running.”

Madden’s comments came after The New York Times reported on Sunday that Romney had sent a text message to a friend confirming that he is, in fact, planning to run for the Senate seat.

Hatch, the longest-serving Republican currently in the Senate, announced earlier this month that he would step down from the seat he has held since 1977.

That announcement spurred immediate chatter that Romney could run for the seat. If he entered the race and won, it would install one of President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE’s most vocal Republican critics in a Senate in which Republicans hold a narrow majority.

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Trump campaign finished 2017 with over $22M in the bank

September 27, 2020 | News | No Comments

President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE’s reelection campaign announced that it ended 2017 with $22.1 million in the bank, touting the “grassroots support” that boosted fundraising in his first year in office.

Trump’s campaign said it raised $6.9 million in the fourth fundraising quarter of 2017, which includes fundraising from October to the end of December. Of that total, about $2.1 million was from direct contributions and about $3.5 million came from the campaign’s joint fundraising committees with the Republican National Committee (RNC).

“Our latest FEC report is just one reflection of a fundamental reality: grassroots support for President Trump is stronger than ever,” Lara Trump, a senior adviser to his reelection campaign, said in a statement, referring to the Federal Election Commission.

The campaign also highlighted that 98.5 percent of contributions were $200 or less for all of last year.

“Never before has a President’s campaign committee raised so much in his first year in office, and never has a President enjoyed so much support from small donors who continue to rally around him,” Lara Trump’s statement said.

President Trump’s reelection campaign, along with other committees and federal candidates, need to file their fundraising reports with the FEC by midnight.

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Trump Is Endangering Nuclear Deal, Says Iranian Foreign Minister

September 27, 2020 | News | No Comments

As the United States and Iran mark two years since reaching their landmark deal on nuclear weapons, analysts say Iran has met its obligations stipulated by the agreement—while the U.S. has failed to do so.

The deal, forged in July 2015 by Iran and the Obama administration along with Germany and the four other members of the U.N. National Security Council, stipulated that sanctions on Iran would be lifted in exchange for its halting of nuclear development for the next decade and its compliance with continuous surveillance of its nuclear enrichment and storage sites, among other requirements.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was tasked with making sure Iran complied with the deal, and has reported that the country has done so. But with the introduction of a Senate bill that would impose new sanctions on Iran aimed at its ballistic missile program, the language of which the nonpartisan Arms Control Association calls “overly broad and imprecise,” critics say the U.S. has not met the deal’s terms, endangering the agreement.

In an interview on Sunday on “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that President Donald Trump has failed to hold up the United States’ end of the bargain by urging its allies to cut business ties with Iran, effectively enacting more sanctions.

“When…President Trump used his presence in the G20 meeting in Hamburg in order to dissuade leaders from other counties to engage in business with Iran, that is a violation of not the spirit but the letter of the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action], of the nuclear deal,” Zarif said.

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The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) also expressed dismay at the state of the deal, noting in a press release, “The JCPOA represented an opportunity for the U.S. and Iran to change course, broaden engagement, and end the policy of sanctions and antagonism. Unfortunately that opportunity has largely been squandered.”

“Continued sanctions, calls from the White House for nations to refrain from investing in Iran, and an increase in military encounters between the US and Iran all threaten the deal,” the NIAC added.

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Meanwhile, the grassroots disarmament organization Peace Action wrote on Thursday that the Iran deal should be held up as a model for diplomacy, as the U.S. weighs its options in handling growing concerns over North Korea’s nuclear capabilities—thus far, imposing sanctions and refusing to participate in talks with North Korea.

“One of the crucial features of negotiations with Iran was our willingness to negotiate without preconditions,” the group wrote. “Yet when it comes to growing concerns over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, the administration has instead opted for more ineffective sanctions and dangerous threats of military force. It’s time we apply the same diplomatic approach to North Korea that has proved successful with Iran.”

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'Classic Propaganda': Sinclair Broadcasting Pushes Aside Fox News to Become 'Trump TV'

September 27, 2020 | News | No Comments

During the 2016 Presidential campaign, the Sinclair Broadcasting group cut a deal with Jared Kushner for “good” coverage of the Trump Administration, which seems to have paid off.

Politico reported last December:

Sinclair would broadcast their Trump interviews across the country without commentary, Kushner said. Kushner highlighted that Sinclair, in states like Ohio, reaches a much wider audience — around 250,000 viewers[sic]— than networks like CNN, which reach somewhere around 30,000.

With Fox News suffering several major setbacks in the past year, Sinclair Broadcasting is making moves to become the new giant of right-wing media. Many are now calling Sinclair ‘Trump TV.’

David D. Smith built Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. into the largest owner of television stations in the U.S. after taking over his father’s television company (with his brothers) in the late 1980’s. With David as president and CEO, the Sinclair Broadcast Group blossomed to 59 stations in less than a decade. By 2014, that number had nearly tripled to 162. Smith stepped down earlier this year and became executive chairman. The Smith family has heavily funded conservative Republican candidates. David Smith’s Cape Elizabeth, Maine summer home, just 5 miles down the coast from Common Dreams’ Portland office, regularly serves as a meeting place for right-wing politicians like Trump’s HUD Secretary Ben Carson and conservative commentator Armstrong Williams.

Journalist David Zurawik, who has covered local television for roughly thirty years, is speaking out against Sinclair Broadcasting Group. In a recent segment on CNN on Sunday, Zurawik said: “They come as close to classic propaganda as I think I’ve seen in thirty years of covering local television or national television. They’re outrageous! Whatever the White House says, you know, President Trump believes there was voter fraud and he sets up this commission to get data from the states and the states rightfully push back because it’s very intrusive data — Boris Ephsteyn’s piece on it ends with, the states should cooperate with President Trump.”

And John Oliver took aim at the Sinclair Broadcasting group earlier this month, examining the far right station’s ownership of many local TV news stations:

“National cable news gets a lot of attention with their big budgets and their fancy graphics packages. Meanwhile, local news often has to do a lot more with a lot less.”

“They come as close to classic propaganda as I think I’ve seen in thirty years of covering local television or national television. They’re outrageous!”
– Journalist David ZurawikThe Sinclair Broadcasting group has close ties to the Trump administration and is forcing local stations to air pro-Trump news segments. Trump’s FCC chairman, Ajit Pai rolled back a key Obama administration regulation that had prevented Sinclair from further expansion. The green light from the Trump administration allowed Sinclair to purchase 42 more local stations from the Tribune Media company, extending its reach to 72 percent of American households.

Oliver went on to show clips of broadcaster Mark Hyman railing against “political correctness and multiculturalism”.

“Hyman is a commentator and former executive at Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Sinclair may be the most influential media company you’ve never heard of. Not only are they the largest owner of local TV stations in the country, they could soon get even bigger.”

“If the opinions were confined to just the commentary or the ad breaks, that would be one thing. But Sinclair can sometimes dictate the content of your local newscasts as well, and in contrast to Fox News, a conservative outlet where you basically know what you’re getting, with Sinclair, they’re injecting Fox-worthy content into the mouths of your local news anchors, the two people who you know, and who you trust, and whose on-screen chemistry can usually best be described as two people.

“You may not realize it’s happening because Sinclair and its digital news subsidiary Circa not only produce and send packages to their stations; they even write scripts that local anchors use to introduce the pieces. For example, this Tuesday night, anchors at Sinclair stations all over the country introduced a story about Michael Flynn like this.”

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Oliver’s footage then showed multiple Sinclair broadcasters in different locales introduce a report about Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, by downplaying the investigation as just a “personal vendetta” against Flynn.

They are called “must-runs,” and they are sent every day to all the local stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting — video reports that are centrally produced by the company. Station managers around the country must work them into the broadcast over a period of 24 or 48 hours.

Today, the Portland Press Herald (Maine) :

Marc McCutcheon of South Portland was watching WGME’s evening newscast as he has for half a century when something came on that shocked him.

In the midst of the local news, a taped commentary from President Trump’s former special assistant Boris Epshteyn appeared on the screen, trumpeting the administration’s position with what he thought selective use and abuse of facts.

McCutcheon, a small-business owner and political independent, describes the experience as “surreal,” “extremely jarring” and “so out of place with the friendly, local broadcast from news people I’ve come to trust over the years.” There was no rebuttal, no context, no alternate point of view – a situation he found concerning.

WGME-TV (Channel 13) and WPFO-TV (Channel 23) each carry the segments nine times a week on orders from their owner, the Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcasting Group, the nation’s largest owner of local television stations and an aggressive, unabashed disseminator of conservative commentary supporting the Trump wing of the Republican Party.

“It’s unheard of to have one company pushing one specific agenda reaching so many people and doing it in a way designed to evade local input,” says Craig Aaron, president and CEO of Free Press, a Washington-based group that opposes media consolidation. “The idea of having local stations offer an array of viewpoints is great, but what we get with Sinclair is one set of political leanings being broadcast everywhere.”

Epshteyn, a 34-year-old Russia-born investment banker, is a friend and former Georgetown University classmate of the president’s son Eric Trump who ascended rapidly within Trump’s campaign.

“Bottom Line With Boris” commentaries echo the White House’s own talking points. After former FBI director James Comey said in televised congressional testimony that the president had pressured him to let go of parts of his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Epshteyn asserted to Sinclair viewers that Comey’s appearance had been more damaging to Hillary Clinton than the president.

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#DefendDACA: Nationwide Rallies Demand Protection for Young Immigrants

September 27, 2020 | News | No Comments

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Immigrant rights advocates are staging protests in at least 40 cities across the country Tuesday, calling on lawmakers to uphold the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, ahead of a fast-approaching deadline that could mean an end to the Obama-era law.

Tuesday marks the fifth anniversary of DACA, which allows hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children to receive work permits and live in the country without fear of deportation. After repeatedly threatening to round up undocumented immigrants during his 2016 campaign, President Donald Trump announced in June that he would keep the DACA program for the time being. Led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, ten Republican-led states have threatened to sue Trump unless he ends the program by September 5.

Indivisible, United We Dream, and other advocacy groups planned protests to demand continued protection for young immigrants who work, pay taxes, and contribute to the economy.

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In Washington, D.C., dozens of demonstrators marched down Pennsylvania Avenue despite rainy weather, chanting “Move, Trump, get out the way,” and “All these racist politicians, we don’t need them.”

Demonstrations were planned in Austin, Texas at Paxton’s office and in states with high populations of undocumented immigrants including California, Arizona, and New Jersey. Constituents showed up at the offices of Republican senators such as Rob Portman of Ohio, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Susan Collins of Maine.

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At Collins’s office in Portland, Maine, a group of protesters urged the senator to defend young immigrants who are protected by DACA, many of whom have lived in the U.S. for most of their lives.

“I think it’s important to stand up for people who would be affected by [an end to DACA] especially with all the national hostility that’s being directed at people of color and immigrants,” said Clare DeSantis, one of Collins’s constituents. “They contribute a lot to our community despite often getting very little in return.”

Nearly 800,000 immigrants have been granted DACA status since the program was introduced by the Obama administration. The program is expected to add $230 billion to the GDP over the next decade due to the increased income tax revenue and other economic benefits it leads to, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress.

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Stores Accused of Price Gouging in Wake of Hurricane Harvey

September 27, 2020 | News | No Comments

In what is being denounced as a blatant attempt to “take advantage” of Hurricane victims to “make easy money,” several stores throughout Houston, Texas—the area hit hardest by Hurricane Harvey—are steeply hiking prices on bottled water, Grit Post‘s Ken Klippenstein reported Tuesday.

“It’s taking advantage of people in need to make easy money.”
—John McGovern, Houston residentCNBC has also reported that hotels are “tripling or quadrupling their prices” as Texans attempt to flee the devastating rain.

One image provided to Grit Post by Houston resident Patricia Isaac shows a 24-pack of Nestle bottled water priced at $13.99. There have also been reports of packs of water priced at $99.

“If this isn’t price gouging I don’t know what is,” Isaac said. “On a normal day you get this same case of water for maybe $4.99 or $5.99. With a city in a crisis, why do they want to double the price? This is ridiculous.”

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Kayleigh Lovvorn, a media relations official at the Office of the Texas Attorney General, told Klippenstein that the scattered reports of price gouging on social media are not merely isolated incidents.

“The Office of the Attorney General currently has received 550 complaints and 225 emails sent to an emergency address set up for consumers, and more are coming in pretty consistently,” Lovvorn said. “We have received complaints from consumers as well as some of our employees and investigators in the area concerning price gouging happening with hotels, grocers, fuel providers and (most frequently) fresh water. Unfortunately, price gouging like this can be common following natural disasters.”

Houston resident John McGovern concluded that the attempt of many stores to hike prices in the midst of a national disaster amount to “pure greed.”

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“It’s taking advantage of people in need to make easy money playing off fear. Best Buy doesn’t need to sell water at $43 a case. They don’t need the money.”

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Pushing Tax Cuts for Wealthy Amid Disaster, Trump Rebuked for Exploiting Storm Victims

September 27, 2020 | News | No Comments

Ahead of his planned trip to Florida on Thursday to visit areas ravaged by Hurricane Irma, President Donald Trump was fiercely rebuked Wednesday morning for once again exploiting the storm’s extensive damage to demand tax cuts for the nation’s corporations and wealthiest individuals.

Critics swiftly responded on Twitter, with many pointing out how the recent series of natural disasters demonstrates an urgent need for climate action, not giveaways for the nation’s most privileged.

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Some also noted that Trump’s tax plan would negatively impact those who have been among the hardest hit by the wildfires and storms.

This is the second time in the past week Trump has come under fire for using the recent hurricanes to call for “tax cuts.” At a cabinet meeting on Saturday, as the storm was barreling toward Florida, Trump said, “with what’s happened with the hurricane, I’m gonna ask for a speed-up” to pushing through his tax plan, a move that journalist and author Naomi Klein called “one for the shock doctrine record books.”

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'Sham': EPA Ripped for Holding Lone Public Hearing on Clean Power Plan Repeal in Coal Country

September 27, 2020 | News | No Comments

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday is holding its only public hearing on the Trump administration’s push to axe the Clean Power Plan in Charleston, West Virginia, smack dab in the middle of coal country—a location that green groups said gives the event “all the markings of a sham” designed to silence agency critics and elevate proponents of dirty energy.

“I know it’s no accident that they’re holding the hearing in a place where the coal industry still wields significant political power.”
—Mary Anne Hitt, Sierra Club

“I know it’s no accident that they’re holding the hearing in a place where the coal industry still wields significant political power,” Mary Anne Hitt, director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, wrote in an op-ed on Monday.

Nonetheless, environmentalists were determined to make their voices heard amid the crowd of fully-dressed coal miners in attendance at the start of the meeting on Tuesday.

“The EPA is having this hearing here because they think everyone in West Virginia opposes the Clean Power Plan,” Bill Price, an organizer for the Sierra Club in West Virginia, told The New Republic. “We’re going to show them differently.”

Repealing the Clean Power Plan (CPP)—a program designed to slash emissions from coal-fired power plans—has long been on EPA chief Scott Pruitt’s extensive pro-fossil fuel to-do list. In October, the EPA publicly unveiled its official proposal to roll back the CPP, a move green groups vowed to fight in court and in the streets.

On Tuesday, environmentalists took their fight straight to the EPA, arguing that contrary to Big Oil talking points, the CPP is vital for safeguarding public health and spurring job growth and innovation.

“We can have both” good jobs and a clean environment, David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council argued in his testimony. “We can—and we must—protect Americans’ health and preserve the stability of our climate.”

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“It is not the job of the EPA to protect the coal industry,” adds Dr. Jeremy Richardson, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “In fact, the EPA is bound by law to address air and water pollutants from producing and using coal. Many of these pollutants are hurting the health of communities right here in Appalachia, where acid mine drainage and coal ash contaminate our waterways, and are also causing harm around the country where people live downwind from coal-fired power plants.”

Stanley Sturgill, a 72-year-old former coal worker suffering from black lung also weighed in with an “emotional plea” in support of the CPP.

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While there have been some indications that the EPA is considering scheduling more hearings on its plan to scrap the CPP, the agency has already gone to great lengths to minimize public scrutiny. As Emily Atkin of The New Republic notes, the “EPA only gave the public two weeks to sign up for a speaking slot” at Tuesday’s event, “and publicized the hearing only by press release.”

By contrast, Pruitt has shown a remarkable openness to the views of big polluters, who hold positions that align with his own climate denial.

As a counter to the Pruitt’s narrow approach to discussion and debate, Sierra Club is holding its own “Hearing for Healthy Communities” in West Virginia on Tuesday “to remind Trump and his administration that he is out of step with the public and the world” and to collect comments to deliver to the EPA.

“Trump and Scott Pruitt are again putting polluter profits before the health and safety of our communities and the environment,” Sierra Club concluded in a statement, “despite overwhelming support of the Clean Power Plan, demonstrated by 4.3 million comments, and thousands rallying and testifying in support at listening sessions and public hearings.”

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Angry Leclerc says time gap issue led to botched final Q2 run

September 27, 2020 | News | No Comments

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A frustrated Charles Leclerc missed out on a spot in Q3 by just 0.043s, the Monegasque blaming a time gap issue for the botched opportunity.

Leclerc will line up P11 on Sunday’s Russian GP grid, but the Ferrari charger believes a spot among the top ten was in the cards until the time gap to Renault’s Esteban Ocon was underestimated, in his opinion, by the Ferrari pitwall on his final hot lap.

“They told me that I had Ocon behind me, about one or two seconds from me,” said a visibly irritated Leclerc.

“Instead I think it was further back, I think I had more margin.

2020 Russian Grand Prix – Qualifying results

“Now I am angry, everything is still fresh. I have to calm down. The race is tomorrow, the race is where they will award points.

“But for me, it’s a difficult weekend. In practice I hadn’t driven well, then I started to find the rhythm in qualifying. But I was not able to show the potential of the car, and I’m sorry”.

Earlier in the disrupted second segment of qualifying, Leclerc suffered a close call when he rounded Turn 4 at full speed only to discover his teammate’s crashed car stranded in the middle of the track!

©Ferrari

“It was quite scary, but hopefully he’s fine, and it was not much worse than that,” Leclerc said. “Now it’s more the disappointment of not going to Q3.”

Vettel, who was taking more risks than usual in a bid to make the Q3 cut, admitted he had already been given a warning by his SF1000 in Turn 2 that he was close to stepping over the limit, which he did two corners later.

“Already in Turn 2, I lost the car, and in Turn 4 I lost it again, and couldn’t catch it any more,” explained the German driver.

“In qualy I was struggling, especially in the first sector. I tried to obviously take a little bit more risk.

“I lost the car already in 2 and again in 4. Not happy obviously, but yeah, compared to the morning session, I struggled quite a bit in the afternoon.”

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Five things to watch for at CPAC

September 26, 2020 | News | No Comments

Conservatives from across the country will meet outside Washington later this week for the right’s premiere annual event: the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

The American Conservative Union’s 45-year-old gathering, which will run from Thursday to Saturday, has long been the biggest game in town for conservatives, bringing thousands of like-minded activists, politicians and strategists all under one roof.

Now the event’s attendees are looking to grapple with what the conservative agenda should be — and how to achieve those goals in the Trump era.

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Here are five things to watch as CPAC kicks off.

Will CPAC become a rally for the Second Amendment?

CPAC organizers say they’re trying to be respectful of the victims of last week’s deadly high school shooting in Parkland, Fla. But they also know their audience: fervent defenders of the Second Amendment.

Organizers will have to walk a tightrope at this year’s conference, ensuring that gun rights advocates have a platform to voice opposition to gun control even amid a growing national discussion about gun violence.

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre will speak during the three-day conference, just as he has at every recent CPAC, an NRA spokesman confirmed.

But CPAC organizers kept LaPierre’s name off the schedule of speakers that was published at the start of the week. While CPAC hasn’t said why, obscuring when he speaks would make it harder for pro-gun control activists to protest the speech.

It’s unclear at this point when exactly LaPierre will take the stage. But the conference is coinciding with a number of anti-gun violence protests around the country, from Florida to Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday, high school students in Maryland walked out of class and marched to the U.S. Capitol to demand Congress act on gun control measures.

Rep. Mark MeadowsMark Randall MeadowsTim Scott to introduce GOP police reform bill next week House GOP delays police reform bill White House says Trump may issue executive order on police reform MORE (R-N.C.), the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and a CPAC speaker scheduled to take the stage just before President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE, said he believes attendees do want to find ways to stop violence in schools.

“I think the majority of the people I talk to are in a very somber mood and want to take the appropriate actions that will help our students learn in a safe environment,” Meadows told The Hill.

How much will conservatives attack the special counsel investigation?

The CPAC schedule is filled with events aimed at special counsel Robert MuellerRobert (Bob) MuellerCNN’s Toobin warns McCabe is in ‘perilous condition’ with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill’s 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE’s investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia.

There’s a Thursday session titled “What You Don’t Know about the ‘Dirty Dossier,’ Trump, and Russia,” where attendees can hear from conservative writer Steven J. Allen about how the Russia probe “remains unsubstantiated.”

At the “#TrumpedUp: Unmasking the Deep State” panel, conservative pundits including the Washington Examiner’s Byron York and frequent Sean Hannity guest Sara Carter will discuss what they see as a “deep state” — the FBI and other government officials — that they claim is seeking to destroy Trump and his allies.

The panel will be followed by a speech by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin NunesDevin Gerald NunesSunday shows preview: Protests against George Floyd’s death, police brutality rock the nation for a second week Sunday shows preview: Leaders weigh in as country erupts in protest over George Floyd death The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – George Floyd’s death sparks protests, National Guard activation MORE (R-Calif.), a Trump loyalist whose team authored a now-infamous GOP memo that Democrats view as a blatant effort to undermine Mueller’s Russia probe

CPAC attendees will also hear from a host of other Trump defenders who’ve railed on cable TV against the Russia probe, including former White House aide Sebastian GorkaSebastian Lukacs GorkaAppeals court blocks White House from suspending reporter Sunday shows preview: As states loosen social distancing restrictions, lawmakers address dwindling state budgets FBI director in ‘hot seat’ as GOP demands reforms MORE, Eric TrumpEric Frederick TrumpLara Trump: Twitter no longer ‘a platform for free speech’ Trump DC hotel did not request rent relief from GSA The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Mnuchin, Powell: Economy may need more boost; Trump defends malaria drug MORE, and prominent conservative media figures Hannity and Mark Levin.

Judge Jeanine Pirro, a close Trump friend who’s used her show on Fox News to attack Mueller, will be the keynote speaker during the Ronald Reagan Dinner on Saturday night.

“Robert Mueller is looking for people with an agenda against Donald Trump. Robert Mueller is the person who should be being investigated,” Pirro told Hannity last week on Fox.

What do conservatives want to see in the midterm elections?

Uncertainty about the 2018 midterms will hang over CPAC, with total Republican control of Congress on the line in November.

Republicans need to maximize turnout among their activist base in the fall if they’re going to keep up with a newly energized Democratic grass roots. But the party also needs to find a way to shore up its standing with independents, who polls show have been turned off by Trump and the GOP legislative agenda.

Expect a healthy dose of praise at CPAC for the GOP’s recent tax-reform plan. Republicans believe that legislation holds the ticket to stemming any anti-Trump exodus from the party and keeping moderates who see their paychecks going up on their side.

The main stage at CPAC will include a panel titled “One Man’s ‘Crumbs,’” a reference to House Minority Leader Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiTrump on collision course with Congress over bases with Confederate names Black lawmakers unveil bill to remove Confederate statues from Capitol Pelosi: Georgia primary ‘disgrace’ could preview an election debacle in November MORE’s (D-Calif.) claim that the tax law only provides the middle class with “crumbs” when compared to its benefits for the wealthy and big businesses. Republicans have been eager to seize on the “crumbs” remark as proof that Pelosi and other Democrats are out of touch.

Additional CPAC events emphasize other Trump administration decisions that conservatives believe aren’t getting enough play in the news — including government regulation cuts and the overhaul of the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules.

Will anyone criticize Trump?

The battle for the Republican Party has continued into the Trump presidency, prompting sharp comments and even retirements fromTrump critics in Congress.

But that dynamic is unlikely to be on display at CPAC, where it’s clear that the GOP is Trump’s party.

After being booed at CPAC in 2015, Trump skipped the event in 2016, only to return to applause shortly after his inauguration in 2017.

Expect the pro-Trump feeling to continue this year. Several events celebrate Trump’s impact on the GOP, including panels like “The Trump Effect on American Politics” with Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany and “We Refuse to be Suckers: The New Trump Doctrine.”

Along with speeches from Trump and Vice President Pence, the White House will also send a handful of top aides. White House counsel Don McGahn and White House counselor Kellyanne ConwayKellyanne Elizabeth ConwayGeorge Conway group hits Ernst in new ad George Conway group contrasts Trump, Eisenhower in battleground states ad Sunday shows preview: Protests against George Floyd’s death, police brutality rock the nation for a second week MORE are both scheduled to speak, as are four Cabinet members.

But while the CPAC speaker’s list is filled with Trump loyalists, a speaker or two could still criticize the president.

How does CPAC react to far-right French politician Marion Maréchal-Le Pen?

The most interesting news around CPAC often surrounds who’s invited — and who’s not.

Religious conservatives and gay Republicans once regularly clashed over whether gay GOP groups should be invited, while conservative British provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos lost a planned CPAC keynote last year after some apparently positive comments about pedophilia from Yiannopoulos resurfaced.

This year, an appearance by French politician Marion Maréchal-Le Pen has sparked outcry.

Maréchal-Le Pen is the granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the hard-right French nationalist party National Front.

Le Pen and his family became one of the most polarizing figures in French politics for his party’s platform and for comments questioning the Holocaust and disparaging Muslims. More recently, Maréchal-Le Pen’s aunt Marine Le Pen came in second in a bid as the National Front’s candidate for the French presidency.

Prominent establishment conservative have bristled at Maréchal-Le Pen’s inclusion, arguing that her identification with the party and her family history sends the wrong message.

Jonah Goldberg, a senior editor at National Review, questioned on Twitter whether she’s a “National Front Kardashian with better messaging.”

But Matt Schlapp, whose organization runs CPAC, has defended Maréchal-Le Pen, arguing on Twitter that she “has moved away from the politics of her forebearers.”

By GETAWAYTHEBERKSHIRES

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Author: GETAWAYTHEBERKSHIRES