Day: October 3, 2018

Democrats Boo Bredesen For Ducking Kavanaugh Question While Blackburn Calls for ‘Honest’ Answer

Jason M. Reynolds

Marsha Blackburn called on Phil Bredesen to be “honest” and tell Tennesseans how he would vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court after he dodged another opportunity to give his position. The Democratic former governor was booed by a mostly Democratic audience Monday in Chattanooga when he sidestepped the question about Kavanaugh. The video is available here. U.S. Representative Blackburn (R-TN-07) and Bredesen are running for the Senate seat that is being left empty by Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), who is retiring. Blackburn said, “Tennesseans are very clear: they want their next senator to confirm good constitutionalist judges and justices, and they support Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Phil Bredesen, under Chuck Schumer’s direction, has stayed neutral as long as he can. He won’t tell Tennesseans how he’d vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination because his past record of shredding evidence of sexual harassment is too shameful and embarrassing to take a stand. And Chuck Schumer, who has bought and paid for Phil Bredesen’s campaign won’t let him support Judge Kavanaugh. Eighty-five days is more than enough, Phil Bredesen should be honest with Tennesseans – that’s what leaders do.” During the Sept. 25 debate with Bredesen, Blackburn mentioned that when he was…

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Dr. Christine Blasey Ford Testified Under Oath She Had Never Coached Anyone on Taking Polygraph But Ex-Boyfriend Says ‘I Witnessed Her’ Coach Friend

Tennessee Star Staff

Fox News reported late Tuesday night that a person claiming to be the ex-boyfriend of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, has sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee in which he contradict’s her sworn public testimony. In questioning by attorney Rachel Mitchell, Dr. Ford stated unequivacily that she never coached anyone on how to take a polygraph test. Prosecutor Rachel Mitchell: “Have you ever given tips or advice to somebody who was looking to take a polygraph test?” Christine Blasey Ford: “Never.” pic.twitter.com/k5Pm424f22 — Ryan Saavedra 🇺🇸 (@RealSaavedra) September 30, 2018 In his letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee Ford’s ex-boyfriend stated that he witnessed Dr. Ford coach her friend on how to take a polygraph exam back in the 1990s: From approximately 1992 to 1998, I was in a relationship with her. . . During our time dating, Dr. Ford never brought up anything regarding her experience as a victim of sexual assault, harassment, or misconduct. Dr. Ford never mentioned Brett Kavanaugh. During some of the time we were dating, Dr. Ford lived with Monica L. McLean, who I understood to be her life-long best friend. During that…

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Commentary: Make Thursday A National Day Of Prayer For Brett Kavanaugh And Family

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Brett Kavanaugh, Mike Pence

by George Rasley   Throughout the ordeal of his confirmation millions of Americans have been praying for Judge Brett Kavanaugh and his family. President Trump made the point that prayer was a necessary element of the battle to confirm Judge Kavanaugh in a September 25 tweet: The Democrats are playing a high level CON GAME in their vicious effort to destroy a fine person. It is called the politics of destruction. Behind the scene the Dems are laughing. Pray for Brett Kavanaugh and his family! The Democrats are playing a high level CON GAME in their vicious effort to destroy a fine person. It is called the politics of destruction. Behind the scene the Dems are laughing. Pray for Brett Kavanaugh and his family! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 26, 2018 And it was not just the President who has been urging prayer for Judge Kavanaugh and his family. Political Commentator and Analyst @RyanAFournier tweeted to his over 500,000 Twitter followers: It takes a lot for a grown man, with a long & successful career in the judicial system, to choke up after every single word while in-front of millions on national TV. We need to continue to pray…

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Sen. Lamar Alexander Tells Tennessee Star Report Vote on Kavanaugh Will Be Held This Week

Julie Carr

On Tuesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – the men talked with Senator Lamar Alexander about getting the vote finalized after a seventh FBI investigation into Judge Kavanaugh is completed so that they can confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. “Well, Senator McConnell is determined to have the vote this week so we’ll get the FBI look at Judge Kavanaugh over the last 26 years.  We’ll see if it says what it said before.  We’ll have a day or two to read it, and then we’ll vote.  And so yes, I believe a vote will be this week sometime, maybe Friday or Saturday, but it will be this week,” Alexander said. At the beginning of the segment, Alexander commented in dismay regarding the issue of fairness and how the destruction of Kavanaugh’s reputation, which was excellent up until only ten days ago, has effected the nominee. “What people are overlooking is Judge Kavanaugh has been subjected to six background checks over the last 26 years in connection with the various federal positions he has.  And those background checks are extensive. The…

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Protesters Rip Pro-Kavanaugh Signs From Students In Texas

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by Neetu Chandak   Protesters ripped signs that supported Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and allegedly snatched a Make American Great Again hat from Texas college students on Tuesday. Young Conservatives of Texas at the University of Texas (YCTUT) held a rally to support Kavanaugh. Some of the signs YCTUT members held included “Confirm Kavanaugh,” “Kavanaugh for Justice” and “Witch Hunt!” according to a picture the group provided to The Daily Caller News Foundation. https://twitter.com/UTBarstool/status/1047181423420084224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw A video posted to Twitter shows one girl ripping signs that read “no campus kangaroo courts in Congress.” She then proceeds to shove YCTUT Chairman Saurabh Sharma. “Are you trying to assault me? This is assault,” Sharma said to the girl in the video. “Fuck you to every girl that has been sexually assaulted on this campus,” the girl said to Sharma. Sharma told TheDCNF that YTCUT officer Joshua Lambert had his Make America Great Again hat snatched, but a person in the crowd later returned it. Lisa Dreher, a reporter with the school’s paper, The Texan Daily, told TheDCNF that she saw a red hat flying and counter-protesters cheering. UTPD said student in pink jacket attempted to rip off MAGA hat if another student. Student talking…

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Commentary: Republicans Learning the Hard Way a Great Economy Ain’t Enough Anymore

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by Jeffery Rendall   In the 2016 presidential election’s stretch run Hillary Clinton famously asked during an interview, “Why aren’t I 50 points ahead?” American voters knew the answer and shared it with the former first lady and legacy Democrat presidential candidate on Election Day. Clinton did end up a couple points ahead (in terms of popular vote) but was way behind where it counted — in the Electoral College. By posing the ridiculous query Hillary exposed the severe case of denial she and all Democrats brought with them into the voting booth on November 8 of that year. The minority party’s collective fit continues to this day, most recently displayed by the Democrats’ heinous treatment of Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation process. Party members must go to sleep at night wondering, “What Happened?”, but until Democrats actually face reality their disorder will endure. For his part now-President Donald Trump appears baffled by a similar dilemma, the mystery of why Republicans aren’t way ahead in the polls despite extremely favorable objective factors. All the economic indicators are shooting through the proverbial roof these days, yet Republicans still lag behind where it counts – voter preference surveys. Trump proudly touted…

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Senator Jeff Flake Takes A Swipe At Trump During Speech In Presidential Battleground State

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by Grace Carr   Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake insinuated that President Donald Trump has created and is perpetuating party “tribalism” that is harming the nation in a Monday speech. “Tribalism is ruining us. It is tearing our country apart. It is no way for sane adults to act,” Flake said during a speech at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College. “The Republican Party is the president’s party right now,” Flake said in his speech, according to The Washington Post. “But it won’t always be. And it can’t be if we’re going to be a major political force in the future.” WaPo called the speech “an unmistakable shot at Trump.” “We Republicans have given in to the terrible tribal impulse that first mistakes our opponents for our enemies,” Flake said. “I had failed my tribe. I’ve been failing my tribe for some time now.” Flake ascended into the limelight after he struck a deal with Senate Democrats to investigate the allegations made against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Agreeing to advance the nominee for a vote on the Senate floor, Flake said Friday that he would only feel comfortable voting to confirm Kavanaugh after an FBI investigation — limited in scope and…

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Trump Proves Tariffs, Threat to Leave NAFTA Were Key Leverage to Negotiating USMCA, Puts Dems in Tight Spot

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Trump right to try

by Robert Romano   They said it couldn’t be done. Once again, President Donald Trump is racing circles around his critics and showing that his tariff policy and the threat of leaving NAFTA altogether were most effective inducements to trade concessions, having resulted in the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or the USMCA. The options for Canada and Mexico were to either give the U.S. the concessions it was demanding or else the U.S. would leave NAFTA. That the original NAFTA resulted in outsourcing is unquestioned. Since 1994, when NAFTA went into effect, the U.S. has had $1.033 trillion of goods trade deficits with Mexico and $923.4 billion with Canada, which is directly subtracted from the Gross Domestic Product. Its benefits were economically questionable, but politically it was unsustainable. Millions of lost manufacturing jobs later, and it created the political conditions necessary for Donald Trump to win the Electoral College in 2016 including the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. Trump transformed the electoral landscape of the U.S. on this issue, and then after he won, as President he threatened to leave the agreement if changes were not made. When push came to shove, all three sides were able to hammer out an accord…

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Jeff Webb Commentary: Stop Carping About Tariffs

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by Jeff Webb   The economic revival we have experienced since the election of Donald Trump is getting a new boost from what would traditionally be viewed as an unlikely source – trade tariffs. The multipronged attack by this administration on the sluggish economy of the previous eight years is based on reducing corporate and individual taxes, providing capital investment incentives, dramatically reducing strangling regulations and a full assault on unfair and one sided international trade relationships. It should now be clear that the president is using the threat of US tariffs to incent other nations to abandon their policies that have in many cases led to the elimination of millions of jobs and made it next to impossible for US companies to do business in their respective countries. Mr. Trump is playing the long game here.  He knows that addressing these unfair practices will help boost the overall economy and reverse the outflow of manufacturing jobs that has eviscerated the middle class in our country over the past 25 years.  It will also provide new markets for American companies and address the theft of intellectual property and technology. It is disingenuous to paint the picture that the president is…

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ACLU Launches Million Dollar Ad Campaign Likening Kavanaugh To Bill Cosby, Bill Clinton

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by Hanna Bogorowski   The ACLU took another step against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh Monday after it launched a million dollar advertisement campaign opposing his nomination and likening the judge to convicted sexual predator Bill Cosby. The campaign targets a handful of Republican senators, including Sens. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, as well as Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. The ACLU took the nontraditional step of opposing Kavanaugh’s nomination on Saturday, a move the supposedly non-partisan organization called “rare.” “In this instance, the national board held an extraordinary meeting, and has chosen to make an exception” to its policy of not supporting or opposing candidates for political offices or judicial office. The organization took this opposition one step further Monday when it announced it spent over $1 million in television advertisements urging said Republican senators to vote against Kavanaugh. “We’ve seen this before, denials from powerful men,” the ad begins, showing images of famous men accused of sexual assault, including disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and former President Bill Clinton. “America is watching,” it warns. NEW: When we said we're going to use the full force of the ACLU…

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Bill Lee Strong in Gubernatorial Debate with Karl ‘Marx’ Dean 

Chris Butler

CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this story, The Tennessee Star incorrectly referred to comments made by Mr. Dean and Mr. Lee in earlier debates as comments made in Tuesday’s debate in Memphis. The Star has corrected this story to reflect that those comments were made in the earlier forums. The Star will run a complete story on the Tuesday debate in Memphis between Mr. Dean and Mr. Lee tomorrow. The Star regrets the error. A Tuesday Tennessee gubernatorial debate in Memphis between Republican candidates Bill Lee and Democrat Karl Dean revealed, perhaps not unexpectedly, Lee is a conservative and Dean is a left-winger. That was most evident in how both men answered panelists’ questions during the televised event. This after various mainstream media outlets last week tried to portray Dean as a political moderate. This past week, The Associated Press and The Tennessean said Dean is a political moderate who admires Haslam. In a press release that came out after the debate, Tennessee Republican Party spokeswoman Candice Dawkins said Lee won the debate. She also said there is a disconnect between what Dean wants and what s good for Tennessee. “He spoke passionately about the importance of criminal justice reform and vocational education,…

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