The response came only a few hours later in an email from Wade Boese, chief of staff for an undersecretary of state: “The true answer is simply that S staff ( Cheryl Mills) added him,” Mr. Boese wrote. “Raj was not on the list sent to S; he was added at their insistence.”
Category Archives: 2016 presidential campaign
Now it’s Personal
I got the idea for this from a Bloomberg article about a deposition by Hillary aide Huma Abedin.
Huma testified to Judicial Watch lawyers that she advised Hillary to get on the State Department email server. The reason being some of her important messages were ending up in spam files.
Hillary rejected that advice because she didn’t want to “risk the personal being accessible.”
Abedin testified that “the personal” referred to non-government messages Clinton was also exchanging via the e-mail address rather than any improper treatment of government records.
Now It’s Personal
Kimberly Strassel reported in the WSJ that Hillary’s personal emails weren’t all about Chelsea’s wedding plans, her mother’s funeral, or yoga. Some were about a Chicago Securities trader named Rajiv K. Fernando. He landed on the International Security Advisory Board. The board has “the ability to access the nation’s most sensitive intelligence.” Nobody knew how Fernando got there:
Mr. Fernando had no background that would have qualified him to sit on the ISAB alongside the likes of former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, former Defense Secretary William Perry, a United Nations chief weapons inspector, members of Congress, and nuclear scientists. That Mr. Fernando didn’t belong was apparent. “We had no idea who he was,” one board member told ABC News. So how exactly did he get there?
We now finally know, thanks to State Department internal emails that the government was forced to turn over to the watchdog group Citizens United. And thanks to ABC News, which began digging into Mr. Fernando’s bizarre appointment when it first happened.
In August 2011, ABC requested a copy of Mr. Fernando’s resume from the State Department. This, the internal emails show, sent a press aide reeling to find answers to how a trader had ended up on the ISAB. Even the aide noted that it was “natural to ask how he got onto the board when compared to the rest of the esteemed list of members.”
Clinton Lynch Grandchildren Caper
The Clinton Lynch Grandchildren Caper has taken on a life of its own.
According to Observer.com AG Loretta Lynch was minding her own business on the tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. Then Bill Clinton dropped in for a visit.
The FBI and secret service knew Clinton and Lynch would both be passing though. They hoped to get Clinton out before Lynch touched down in order to avoid a motorcade traffic jam. No such luck. Clinton’s Motorcade dawdled, then Bill then stepped out, strolled over to Lynch’s plane, and walked in. No one threw him to the ground.
Grandchildren Conference
He spent about 30 minutes with Lynch talking “grandchildren.”
As Attorney General it’s up to Lynch to decide whether to prosecute Bill’s wife Hillary based on the FBI investigation of her private email server. Lynch admits her impromptu meeting with Bill was “bad optics.” She says she plans to accept whatever action the FBI and Justice Department recommends.
Now the ball’s in FBI Director Comey’s court. He won’t be talking “grandchildren.”
Campaign Funding
Hillary is crushing The Donald in Terms of campaign funding. According to the most recent FEC filing the Trump campaign only had $1.3 million in cash on hand compared to $42 million for the Clinton campaign.
Campaign Funding Leader Board
The NYT has a chart showing all the money raised so far by every candidate from Hillary ($334.9 million) all the way back to Jim Gilmore ($ 0.4 million). It’s Hillary in a landslide in the money game.
This isn’t my favorite Trump. Spent too much time drawing him. He reminds me of Caitlyn Jenner.
British Independence Day
It’s to the the “back of the queue” for the U.K., if President Obama is to be believed. The Brits ignored him and other experts and decided they’d had enough of the bureaucrats in Brussels.
EU commissions regulate everything from the bend of bananas to the curvature of cucumbers.
British Independence Day
Gerard Baker discussed Brexit in a WSJ front page analysis, Britain Fires a Shot Heard Round the World. He compared it to the populist movement that gave the Republican Party The Donald as presumptive nominee for president of the United States.
Tea Party Nation, a leading umbrella group, congratulated the British on their “Independence Day” and said in a statement “the land that gave us Magna Carta decided they wanted freedom and not a socialist dictatorship.”
Megan McArdle in Bloomberg had this to say about global elites and populist movements:
In many ways, members of the global professional class have started to identify more with each other than they have with the fellow residents of their own countries. Witness the emotional meltdown many American journalists have been having over Brexit.
Journalists aren’t the only one’s melting down over Brexit. The Dow and the British Pound celebrated “the freedom from socialist dictatorship” by plunging 600 points and 11% respectively.
Trump to Media: You’re Fired
The Donald brags about not spending money to win the nomination thanks to free media coverage. But apparently he’s had enough. He revoked the Washington Post’s press credentials because he didn’t like a headline.
“I am no fan of President Obama, but to show you how dishonest the phony Washington Post is, they wrote, ‘Donald Trump suggests President Obama was involved with Orlando shooting’ as their headline,” Trump wrote. “Sad!”
CNN says the headline (which was changed before Trump complained) came from an interview he did with Fox News.
“Look, we’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind,” Trump said of Obama. “And the something else in mind — you know, people can’t believe it. People cannot, they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can’t even mention the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ There’s something going on. It’s inconceivable. There’s something going on.”
Last night he said, “Obama is more angry at me than he was at the shooter.”
The Post isn’t alone. He’s also told The Des Moines Register, Univision, The Huffington Post, Politico, The Daily Beast, and Buzz Feed to buzz off.
