Mediaboss Marketing

"Gen. (David) Goldfein, would a significant reduction in funding to the State Department and other non-defense security agencies and programs make the Air Force job of defending America easier or harder?" Warren asked the Air Force chief of staff in June.

The Massachusetts Democrat and potential 2020 hopeful asked a version of the same question to Pentagon officials at 11 armed services hearings this year, getting the military brass to break repeatedly with the commander- in-chief's proposed deep cuts to the State Department.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker was picked for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this year in a similar vein. And freshman California Sen. Kamala Harris was given a seat on the intelligence committee, where the panel's must-see Russia hearings have already given a serious boost to her national profile.

A CNN review of the three senators' performances on their respective national security committees shines a light into their foreign policy worldviews and how they are building a national security portfolio ahead of the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign.

All three have used the committee hearings to hammer the Trump administration on the budget, on foreign policy, and on Russia but there are also some differences likely to emerge if they do take the plunge to run for president.

Warren has been a studious member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, attending all but one subcommittee hearing out of the 40-plus committee hearings so far this year. In addition to focusing on Trump's positions on the military budget and climate change, Warren has gone to bat for her home-state defense interests.

Booker has been less of a fixture on Foreign Relations, appearing to ask questions at just over a third of the panel's hearings, the second-worst attendance record among the 22 senators on the panel, according to a CNN review of the transcripts. But he was given the ranking member slot on the Africa and Global Health Policy Subcommittee, where he's been able to push for hearings on specific issues.

While the intelligence committee typically operates behind closed doors, the panel's investigation into Russia's election interference has vaulted it into the most high-profile congressional committee this year, and Harris' prosecutorial style was in the spotlight after she was interrupted twice by Chairman Richard of North Carolina Burr and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, both Republicans.

Warren's move to the Armed Services Committee this year sparked already mounting speculation that she's gearing up for a 2020 presidential run, as foreign policy is the biggest hole in her presidential resume.

It's been a common platform for the national stage: Hillary Clinton joined the panel in 2003 ahead of her first presidential run. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine passed over as President Barack Obama's vice president took a seat on the panel when he was elected in 2013, improving his vice presidential resume for 2016.

Warren's seat on the committee also gave her a ticket to join McCain, the panel's chairman, on a July congressional trip to Afghanistan. And she took her own foreign trip this past month to Germany, Estonia and Poland.

"A Defense Department report from two years ago observed global climate change will have wide-ranging implications for US national security interests over the foreseeable future," Warren said questioning Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. "In short, this DOD report describes climate change as a threat multiplier. Director Coats, do you agree?"

She has also weighed in on foreign policy issues like Syria and Afghanistan. At a February hearing with the top US commander in Afghanistan, she said she believed the US "should not be in Afghanistan forever."

"Our end goal must be to help Afghanistan build a self-sustaining force that's capable of securing the country so our US troops can come home," she said.

But Warren hasn't just been looking at national and international issues on the committee. She's been sure to tout Massachusetts and the technological prowess the state's companies and universities can provide to the military, particularly from the military's Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUX), a rapid-fire innovation hub set up by former Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

"Do you believe that DOD should strongly weigh the intellectual resources of a region when evaluating where to locate facilities such as DIUX and other research-based commands, especially in situations where the military is partnering with academic and technical organizations?" Warren asked James Mattis during his confirmation hearing for defense secretary in January.

The Massachusetts Democrat has also talked up a focus on technology over traditional military spending. "I think we should be budgeting our defense resources based on 21st century threats," she said. "I want us to invest smartly, not simply rolling out more of the last century's equipment off the production line."

Booker's seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is another path for senators harboring presidential ambitions it's the committee Obama served on ahead of his 2008 run.

In the early months of the Trump administration, the panel gave Booker a seat at the table for some of the most contentious confirmation hearings, including those of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson whose confirmation was very much in doubt for a time and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

Booker's first hearing was Tillerson's marathon confirmation, in which he went after the former Exxon CEO over his criticisms of the Obama administration's alleged weakness toward Russia after the invasion of Crimea. Booker hammered Tillerson for suggesting there should have been a show of military force and gave insight into his own worldview.

"You understand that if you put yourself in a defensive posture -- there's an old saying that if you pull a gun, you should be prepared to use it -- that that could've quickly escalated into a conflict," Booker said. "And you're gonna be making decisions about whether we should have commit American troops, commit European troops."

When Friedman testified, Booker elicited an apology for the nominee's comments suggesting Obama was anti-Semitic and that Kaine was an Israel basher.

"Sir, you and I both from our family histories know a lot about people demeaning folks," Booker said. "We know a lot about hate speech and hate words."

Booker has raised the same concerns as Warren on the Trump administration's proposal to slash budgets for the State Department and US Agency for International Development, arguing they are just as important as the military in the fight against ISIS.

"It is outrageous to me that you have an administration on one side of their mouth want to talk about being tough against ISIS and against terrorism. But probably what I would say, if you're looking at a toolbox, one of the most critical assets we have is the activities being done to diplomacy, to USAID and through other CVE (countering violent extremism) efforts that are not about a military."

Booker has not appeared at nearly two-thirds of the foreign relations panel's hearings, including when Tillerson came back to the committee in June to discuss the State Department's budget.

But he has been given a platform to take leadership on Africa issues as the top Democrat on the Africa and Global Health Policy Subcommittee, which has held hearings on conflict minerals and the situation in South Sudan, the latter Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake gave Booker credit for scheduling.

Ordinarily, Harris' seat on the Senate intelligence committee would have given her access to key national security and intelligence issues but little opportunity to speak about them.

This is no ordinary year.

But Harris generated a wave of headlines of her own after her questioning of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. A former prosecutor, Harris approaches hearings with an aggressive tack that appeared to rankle McCain and the chairman, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr.

"Can you give me a yes-or-no answer, please?" Harris said to Rosenstin.

"Well, it's not a short answer, senator," he responded.

"It is either you are willing to do that or not ..." she continued, before McCain piped up: "Mr. Chairman, they should be allowed to answer the question."

Harris continued to press for a yes-or-no answer until Burr intervened.

"Would the senator suspend? The chair is going to exercise its right to allow the witnesses to answer the question, and the committee is on notice to provide the witnesses the courtesy which has not been extended all the way across extend the courtesy for questions to get answered," Burr said.

"I'm not able to be rushed this fast. It makes me nervous," Sessions said.

Harris' questioning style, in some ways similar to another prosecutor-turned-senator, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, was on display during confirmation hearings, too, where she asked nominees for specific commitments.

"Are you willing to commit to this committee that if you come across information that relates to that incident of Russia tampering with the 2016 election, and if you become aware that that information has not been shared with this committee, that you will share it with this committee because it is significant?" Harris asked CIA General Counsel Courtney Elwood at her April confirmation hearing.

As for Harris' foreign policy positions, the intelligence committee doesn't provide a platform like the Armed Services and Foreign Relations panels, but some of her worldview does come through, including concerns about military spending.

"As we invest in fighter jets and aircraft carriers, Russia is investing in state-run media from which it can push out fake news," Harris said at a March hearing. "As we consider investing more than $600 billion in our defense budget, Russia has approximately one-tenth of that amount in their budget and is developing its cyber warfare capabilities."

View original post here:
How potential 2020 Democrats are honing their foreign policy chops - CNN

Leading Democrats on Sunday morning talk shows defended moves by local governments to remove monuments of Confederate leaders, saying that the unrest in Charlottesville on Aug. 12 showed that the statues had become rallying points for white supremacists instead of educational tools about the nations history.

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said President Trump got this wrong when he expressed opposition to taking down commemorations to Confederate leaders. People dont need monuments to learn history, Cardin said on Fox News Sunday.

You dont need a monument offensive to certain parts of our history being glorified in order to appreciate history, Cardin told host Bill Hemmer.

Cardin said he supports actions this past week in Baltimore and Annapolis to remove statues of Confederate leaders. I think what Baltimore and Annapolis are doing is appropriate, Cardin said.

Jeh Johnson, homeland security secretary under President Barack Obama, said that the monuments had become rallying points for white supremacists.

I salute people taking down these monuments as a matter of public safety, Johnson said in an interview on ABCs This Week.

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney (D) said on the same program that he had changed his mind about the presence of Civil War monuments to Confederate leaders. As mayor of the city that served as the Confederate capital, Stoney, who is black, said that he once thought the monuments could be tools to teach and enlighten people but that now he also sees them as rallying points.

This is what happens when we turn history into nostalgia, said Christy Coleman, head of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond.

Stoney also took issue with Trumps comparison of statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson to Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Though all were slave owners, Stoney said that Washington and Jefferson did not take up arms against the United States of America.

I appreciate the presidents opinion, Stoney said. But in Richmond I dont think that matters. We live here.

Trump provoked outcry from business leaders, Democrats and Republicans, and military leaders by failing to strongly condemn white supremacists and Nazis marching in Charlottesville. He said that both sides were to blame for violence there, which took the life of one woman. Further demonstrations took place Saturday in Boston, where white supremacists were vastly outnumbered.

Former congressman J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) urged congressional leaders to speak out against Trumps comments if they disagreed with them.

This is not a time for us to be afraid of being tweeted, Watts said on NBCs Meet the Press. This is not a time for us to suppress our convictions.

If theyre silent, they wear the cap ... saying we agree with that, Watts added.

Trump compromised his moral authority by insisting multiple times there was hatred and violence on both sides in last weekends Charlottesville attacks, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said Sunday on CBSs Face the Nation.

Scott praised Trumps speech Aug. 14, in which the president condemned the white supremacists that attacked a crowd of counterprotesters although the South Carolina senator said Trump should have delivered it directly after the attack instead of waiting two days.

But Scott said things then soured Tuesday, when Trump doubled down on his prior remarks that there was violence on both sides.

His comments on Tuesday started to compromise that moral authority we need the president to have for this nation to be the beacon of light to all mankind, Scott said.

But Scott didnt express clear support for removing monuments to Confederate leaders. I think thats definitely a local issue, he said.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) suggested his state could do better in Capitol Hills Statuary Hall, where each state is allowed to place two statues. Virginias two statues are of George Washington and Lee. Kaine suggested the state could replace Lee and choose from a list of candidates, including Pocahontas or Virginias first African American governor, L. Douglas Wilder.

From 2017 looking backward, I think Virginia could probably do better in the two people we chose to stand for us in Statuary Hall, Kaine said.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNNs State of the Union that Trumps response to Charlottesville was inadequate.

You know, the real challenge, I think, and job for the chief executive, in a country where race has always been such a difficult conversation, is to do everything possible to bring our country together, to help make us a more perfect union, Schiff said. And what the president did this week was as if he stood on a line dividing the country and pushed to separate one America from another with all his might. And that is not what this country needs.

Asked if Trump should apologize for his remarks, as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R) has urged, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) demurred, saying in some ways were looking backward.

Where I want to look now is what are we going to do to deal with the fundamental issues we have in the country? The issue of race. Theissue of police and community coming together and developing policing methods that can unify, Kasich said.

Asked why Trump has difficulty condemning white supremacists, Kasich said he was heartened by Trumps response to the dueling rallies in Boston on Saturday. A rally by white supremacists there was overwhelmed by tens of thousands of people protesting against them.

My understanding is the president came out and praised people, praised the police, praised the fact that the radicals were really marginalized, and that those who marched against hate, he praised, Kasich said. I feel positive about what he had to say about Boston from what I understand in the news reports.

Kasich played down reports that he is moving closer to mounting a primary challenge to Trump in 2020, saying that hes rooting for him to get it together.

Scott urged Trump to spend time with people who lived through the civil rights era if he wants to be able to speak with moral authority about racial issues.

We need the president to sit down with folks who have a personal experience if the president wants to have a better understanding and appreciation for what he should do next, Scott said. Without that personal connection to the painful past, it will be hard for him to regain that authority, from my perspective.

NBCs Meet the Press turned to one of the people who lived through the civil rights era, former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, who said that the past week had been a week of misunderstandings.

Young said that most of the issues that were dealing with now are related to poverty, but we still want to put everything in a racial contest, he said.

The reason I feel uncomfortable condemning the Klan types is theyre almost the poorest of the poor. Theyre the forgotten Americans. They have been used, abused and neglected. Instead of giving them affordable health care, they give them black lung jobs.

He added: They see progress in the black community and everywhere else and they dont share it.

Host Chuck Todd said that no one from the Trump administration would agree to come on the show to talk about Charlottesville.

Read more here:
Democrats say Confederate monuments are now white-supremacist rallying points - Washington Post

A group of four candidates for the Democratic nomination for governor in Iowa crowded into Davenport's Duck Creek Lodge on Sunday, as part of the annual Scott County Democratic Picnic.

Nate Boulton, Andy McGuire, Jon Neiderbach and John Norris all addressed the crowd of about 100 people who included local candidates, activists, families and children.

One of the many activists was Troy Price, recently named the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party.

Price, a native of Durant, Iowa, fired up the crowd: "We won't back down," he said; "We'll continue to fight and win in 2018!"

Price saluted what he called a strong slate of candidates for governor, as well as several candidates who were present for school board and city council positions.

There is enthusiasm for the Democratic Party across Iowa, he said, vowing to change the course of the state party by organizing it "from the ground up, not the top down."

"We'll focus not only on Davenport, but on Blue Grass, and Durant, my hometown," he said, suggesting one of the candidates would take the governor's office, and a Democratic wave would retake the Iowa Legislature.

Rob Hogg, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, is a state senator and he promised an all-out effort to win both the Iowa House of Representatives, and Iowa Senate.

"We might be seeing a recurring nightmare at the national level, but we are living a recurring nightmare on the local level," Hogg said.

The first gubernatorial candidate to speak was Boulton, a native of Columbus Junction, Iowa. He is an attorney, a resident of East Des Moines, and state senator.

"Yes, the election of 2016 was rough, but we haven't given up," he said. "The path to victory in Iowa is to show Iowans, we are better than this."

Bolton challenged the crowd to think what the state would look like if public education was fully funded. He supports clean natural resources, as well as funding for tourism and the state's recreational areas.

Dr. McGuire, a native of Waterloo, is running for governor and also was chairman of the Democratic Party in 2016. Party losses last year were the result of a national wave of success by Republicans, she said, even as officials worked hard on the election.

A nuclear scientist, McGuire said she cares about Iowans, and supports health insurance as a personal right, not a choice. She also supports more funding for mental health issues in Iowa.

If elected, the mother of seven children and one grandchild, said she'd restore funding to Planned Parenthood. She also promotes respect for teachers: "I will see that we provide the best education to every child in every zip code in Iowa," she said.

Attorney Neiderbach, also of Des Moines, sees a bright future for Iowa, even as he agreed his last name is hard for people to spell. A former president of the Des Moines School Board, Neiderbach said many people feel the system is rigged against them.

He ran through several scenarios to prove his case, and advocated for campaign finance reform, saying that is "at the heart of all that is wrong in our democratic election system." He suggested 100,000 people each contribute $10 to a campaign.

It will take an army of Democrats to fight the GOP successfully, Neiderbach said. "Please consider me."

Norris was the final gubernatorial candidate of the day; a former aide to Senator Tom Harkin and President Barack Obama, Norris comes from a family farm in Red Oak, Iowa. He is a former chairman of Iowa Democratic Party who helped Tom Vilsack to be elected, the first Democrat to win the top job in more than 30 years. Vilsack encouraged Norris to get into the 2018 race, he said.

Many Iowans have lost faith in Gov. Kim Reynolds, Norris said. Sheis more interested in being on the Koch brothers' "Christmas list," than in improving education in Iowa, he said, referring to the billionaire family from Kansas.

He supports better stewardship for land and water in the state, a position he argues should cross party lines. He would like to see wages raised to $15 an hour, he said.

Norris started his campaign in Storm Lake, Iowa, to show his respect for two former governors: Vilsack, and Robert Ray, a Republican.

Vilsack's Vision Iowa program improved many amenities in Iowa, Norris said, and Ray was a champion of immigrants, inviting people of Laos to come to Iowa. That has proven to be a huge benefit to the state.

Emilyne Slagle, vice chairman of Scott County Democrats, was the event's emcee. By working deep into our grassroots," she said. "We will change Iowa from the ground up."

Read this article:
Democrats greet 4 gubernatorial candidates at picnic - Quad City Times

Deb Rasmussen of Independence, Iowa, foreground protests with Laura Wright and Jacob Krapfl outside an Iowa Tea Party event for U.S. Rep. Rod Blum in Dyersville, Iowa, Aug. 10, 2017. Mary Willie / for NBC News

Asked to name his proudest moments in Congress, Blum cites his push for term limits and a variety of bills curbing benefits for lawmakers, from pensions to flights to cars. Hes quick to note that used his first vote as a freshman to oppose John Boehner as Speaker.

"That took some courage," he said. "That hurt my fundraising, but it was a principled vote."

Winning back rural and blue-collar white voters may be a nice idea in theory, but in practice it also means running against dozens of incumbents who know their district and have built their own personas to match it.

But Blums policies are very different than his opponents, which could give them an opening. Hes a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and dismisses Democratic proposals for a higher minimum wage and single-payer health care as "redistribution."

"it's a zero-sum game, you're taking from somebody to give to somebody else," he said. "You grow the economy, it's not a zero sum game."

Whether theres a national wave building or not, there are signs that the tide might be reaching Blums district.

Democrats have pilloried him for his vote in support of the House GOP health care bill and activists have flooded his town halls, including a particularly contentious one in Dubuque, to protest the decision. They're demanding he hold more public meetings.

Democrats are hoping that the same message that fueled his rise taking on entrenched elites could work against him now that his party holds power at the state and federal level alike. In Iowa, Republicans won unified control of state government and passed a collective bargaining law this year that unions bitterly opposed.

"There is going to be no disconnect in 2018, because they control everything," Finkenauer said. "Not one thing those Republicans have done, that Rod Blum has done in the U.S. House, has made anyone that I knows life better."

Democrats got a morale boost last week when Phil Miller, a veterinarian,

In downtown Dubuque, it wasnt hard to find voters still down on both parties.

Gail Stoffel, 60, was a former "diehard Democrat" who backed Al Gore and John Edwards in prior elections. But she loathed Hillary Clinton, whom she viewed as corrupt, and saw 2016 as a "lesser of two evils" contest.

Stoffel wouldnt say how she voted, but Trumps campaign pledges not to cut Medicare and Social Security, which she depends on, resonated with her. So did his pledge to crack down on drugs, an epidemic that had claimed the life of her son.

Stoffel is skeptical that Blum wants what she does. Asked if she might identify as a Democrat again, though, Stoffel shook her head.

"Hillary did too much damage," she said.

Benjy Sarlin reported from Dubuque, Iowa, and Alex Seitz-Wald from Washington, D.C.

Go here to read the rest:
Democrats Could Win 50 House Seats. Here's How - NBCNews.com

White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 24, 2017.

Jim Bourg / Reuters

Last Updated Aug 19, 2017 4:54 PM EDT

Maryland Democrats are demanding a slew of records from Kushner Companies LLC after reports that its subsidiaries' apartment complexes receiving public housing payments are getting judges to order the arrest of delinquent renters and making rent payments unnecessarily difficult for tenants.

President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner stepped down as CEO of Kushner Companies when he joined the White House, but retains a significant financial stake in the business. The firm has received $6.1 million in federal rental subsidies through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for three apartment complexes in Maryland since January 2015, according to a recent Baltimore Sun report.

Those subsidies help tenants pay their rent. But the Sun reported Kushner Companies is "the most aggressive [firm] in Maryland" in using a debt collection tactic that urges judges to arrest people who fail to appear in court for unpaid rent, and has sought the civil arrest of more than 100 former tenants. The New York Times and ProPublica also recently reported Kushner Companies doesn't allow residents to pay rent with money orders, requiring individuals and families without checking accounts to visit a local Walmart or cash express company and pay $3.50 for every transaction.

"If these reports are accurate, they raise very serious and troubling concerns about whether Kushner Companies and its subsidiaries are complying with HUD's housing quality standards to ensure the safety and health of their own tenants," Maryland Democratic Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, and four other Maryland Democrats in the House, wrote to Kushner Companies on Friday.

But the Democratic members are also interested in any communication between the president's son-in-law and his company, or between the White House and Kushner Companies, that could reveal potential conflicts of interest.

Play Video

The controversial EB-5 visa program grants green cards to wealthy foreigners in exchange for a $500,000 investment in U.S. jobs. President Trump'...

The senators and representatives gave Kushner Companies until Sept. 8 to provide the following records:

Kushner Companies insists it is complying with federal housing laws and regulations.

"We are in compliance with the requirements of the federal housing choice program," said Emily Wolf, general counsel for Kushner Companies, in a statement. "We exercise our legal rights under the relevant provisions of Maryland law only as a last resort after all other reasonable attempts to collect rent payments are unsuccessful."

This isn't the first time Kushner's business ties have drawn scrutiny.Kushner Companies was recently subpoenaedover its use of EB-5 visas, a federal investment-for-visa program, to fund developments. In May,Kushner's sister highlighted her White House connectionsto potential EB-5 investors in China.

2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Go here to see the original:
Maryland Democrats demand records from Kushner Companies-owned housing - CBS News