Democrat Sen. Mark Warner (VA) said during an interview this week that President Donald Trump deserves credit for allowing the United States to &#8220;punch back&#8221; at and use its &#8220;offensive capabilities&#8221; against Russia&#8217;s cyber attacks. He also noted that Trump has made it a lot easier to take action against Russia than former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, made the remarks on PBS&#8217;s &#8220;Firing Line with Margaret Hoover,&#8221; which aired on Friday.
&#8220;There are two main issues: There is the integrity of the election infrastructure, and then there’s the disinformation campaigns,&#8221; Hoover said. &#8220;In your view, which is more important?&#8221;
&#8220;I think they’re equally important and I think we have gotten better in both areas,&#8221; Warner responded.  &#8220;To give the Trump administration some credit here, [they allowed] for us to punch back in the cyber domain, which, both under Obama and Bush, we were reluctant to do.&#8221;
&#8220;You just said you want to give the Trump administration credit for going on the offense in the cyber domain,&#8221; Hoover responded. &#8220;There are reports that, in 2018, the United States took an offensive posture in cyber and actually was able to shut down Russian troll farms.&#8221;
&#8220;I’m not going to comment on the specifics,&#8221; Warner responded. &#8220;I can’t comment on things that fall into the intelligence realm, in terms of specific actions. What I can comment on is that President Trump made it easier for the United States government to use some of our offensive capabilities.&#8221;
&#8220;For decades in our country, we were afraid of going on offense on cyber because we were always afraid of cyber escalation,&#8221; Warner continued. &#8220;You shut down Moscow for 24 hours, you had a problem. You shut down New York for 24 hours, you have financial crisis that could permeate for months.&#8221;
&#8220;Consequently, I feel like, for many years, particularly our near-peer adversaries, like Russia and China — they were able to attack America in the cyber domain with very little fear of us punching back,&#8221; Warner concluded on the issue. &#8220;I think we’ve taken off some of those restraints. I think that is good, long term. We need to realize these challenges, particularly in the cyber domain, will be where the first shots of 21st century conflict will take place.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: Democrat Senator Mark Warner says Trump deserves credit for allowing U.S. officials “to punch back in the cyber domain” and use “offensive capabilities” against Russia over their cyber-attacks on the U.S., adds that Trump made it a lot easier to do than Bush or Obama did <a href="https://t.co/lns5YinXZU">pic.twitter.com/lns5YinXZU</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1195630040978870273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
Contrary to the media&#8217;s narrative that the president is a Russian asset, the administration has taken <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/09/25/on-the-record-the-u-s-administrations-actions-on-russia/">dozens</a> of substantial actions against Russia since taking power in 2017, including sanctions, expelling Russian diplomats from the U.S., arming Russia&#8217;s enemies, and condemning actions by Russia.
&#8220;After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, Ukrainian leaders desperately requested from President Barack Obama defensive anti-tank weapons systems that could fend off the invading Russian T-72 tanks in eastern Ukraine,&#8221; Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) wrote in an op-ed. &#8220;In 2015, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee — Democrats and Republicans — encouraged Obama to grant this request to help Ukraine defend itself. Obama refused. Soon after coming into office, Trump changed course, and the Ukrainians now have Javelin anti-tank weapons systems from the United States. Russian tank drivers have a lot more to worry about today.&#8221;
&#8220;The Trump administration has also replaced Obama’s reticence regarding U.S. troop deployments near Russia with a full embrace of the European Deterrence Initiative,&#8221; Sullivan continued. &#8220;In just more than two years in office, Trump has requested more than $17 billion for EDI compared with just $5 billion requested in Obama’s final three years in office. As a result, thousands of U.S. troops, along with other NATO allies, have deployed to Poland, the Baltics and Norway to deter further Russian expansion.&#8221;
Trump has also drawn praise from NATO for getting over $100 billion in extra resources secured for the organization, which is a major deterrent to Russian aggression.
&#8220;NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg thanked US President Donald Trump for his strong leadership and commitment to the Alliance in a meeting at the White House on Thursday (14 November 2019),&#8221; NATO <a href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_170796.htm">said</a> in a statement this week. &#8220;Mr. Stoltenberg highlighted rising defence investment across European Allies and Canada, amounting to more than $100 billion extra in recent years, adding that Allies are determined to keep up the momentum.&#8221;

Mark Warner

Top Democrat Senator: Trump Deserves Credit For Letting U.S. ‘Punch Back’ At Russia, Unlike Past Presidents

cybersecurity

Donald Trump

mark warner

Russia

Today in weird animal news: A Russian man tried to board a flight with his cat, Viktor (not pictured above), but the animal weighed more than the 18-pound limit for animals to be transported in the plane’s cabin. The Russian man, Mikhail Galin, refused to stow Viktor in the cargo area, so he instead hired a body-double to fool the airport scale and airline staff in order to smuggle his furry friend onto the flight.
NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/overweight-cat-body-double-flight-scam-leaves-owner-without-thousands-n1080621">reported</a> that Galin detailed his plot on his Facebook page after he and Viktor landed in Vladivostok from Moscow. “Photos showed Viktor standing on Galin’s lap, gazing out the window, as his owner sipped champagne,” the outlet reported, adding that Galin’s deception was “reminiscent of a bank heist or spy thriller.”
Galin and Viktor’s journey began in Latvia’s capital city of Riga. Galin told NBC that he flew from there on an Aeroflot flight to Moscow, where he would transfer to Vladivostok. Galin said he had no trouble bringing Viktor into the airplane’s cabin in Riga, but when he transferred in Moscow, things got hairy.
When Galin was asked to store Viktor in cargo due to his weight (Viktor weighs 22 pounds), he refused and forfeited his ticket. Galin then posted on Facebook asking for anyone in Moscow who owned a cat that looked like Viktor that weighed less than 18 pounds to help him.
“That is how he found Phoebe, the cat that would act a Viktor’s body double,” NBC reported. “Galin then used his Aeroflot miles to book a business class seat to Vladivostok the next day. That cat’s owners met Galin at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, where it was weighed in Viktor’s place.”
The owners then exchanged cats and Galin and Viktor were on their way.
After posting about the experience on Facebook, Aeroflot confirmed the details using security camera footage and revoked Galin’s frequent flyer miles. Galin had accrued 370,000 miles. Aeroflot also said that Galin removing Viktor from his cat carrier was part of the reason his miles were forfeited.
“In connection with several counts of deliberate violation of the air carriage agreement, Aeroflot has decided to exclude this passenger from the Aeroflot Bonus loyalty program,” the airline said. “All miles accumulated during his entire participation in the program will be cancelled.”
“The law is harsh, but it is the law,” Galin told NBC. “I violated the rules, and the carrier has every right to take action.”
The outlet reported that Russian parliament looked into Viktor’s predicament. Vladimir Burmatov, chair of the State Duma’s ecology committee, asked Aeroflot CEO Vitaly Savelyov “to return the nullified miles to the owner of the fat cat and revise the rules for transporting animals [toward] greater flexibility,” NBC reported.
Burmatov also suggested allowing pet owners to pay excess weight fees for animals that exceeded the limit.
NBC reported that Galin told them “Viktor has fully recovered from a bad case of air sickness and was now prepared to give interviews,” though the outlet did not interview the cat.

Cat in carrier

Russian Cat Was Too Fat For Flight, So Owner Hired A Body Double

animals

cats

On Tuesday, an MSNBC analyst ranted that President Trump is a Russian asset who had been compromised &#8220;as early as 1977&#8221; because his first wife, Ivana Trump, who hailed from Czechoslovakia, was under surveillance from the Czech intelligence agency, the STB.
As Joseph Wulfsohn reported for <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/msnbc-malcolm-nance-trump-russia-agent">Fox News</a>, retired U.S. naval intelligence operator Malcolm Nance, appearing on “Morning Joe” to push his book “The Plot to Betray America,” boasted that he could &#8220;predict&#8221; events that others could not see.
Nance breathed that Trump &#8220;had been under Russia intelligence surveillance for a very long time, as early as 1977, with his first wife, Ivana,” adding:
<blockquote>Ivana was from the Czech Republic, which at that time was Czechoslovakia. Their intelligence agency, the STB, had her communications between the United States and the Czech Republic under surveillance and they knew an enormous amount of information about Donald Trump between 1977 and the mid-&#8217;80s.
And then, in the mid-&#8217;80s, Donald was starting to express interest in building Trump Tower Moscow, but more importantly, there was word from her family that he was trying to consider running for president against George Herbert Walker Bush, who was, of course, the former director of the CIA and the vice president of the United States. So, Russia became very interested in him.</blockquote>
Nance called Trump a &#8220;useful idiot” who had been exploited by Russia President Vladimir Putin, continuing that Putin&#8217;s &#8220;job was to manipulate people. It was to turn people into traitors … By 2014, [Trump] was making enormous quantities of money from the Russian oligarchy, but that is when he came to Russia and it became very clear to the Russians, this man can go from a useful idiot&#8230; to an unwitting asset where he&#8217;s being used and he doesn&#8217;t know it.&#8221;
More from Nance: “They put a set of rose-colored glasses on his face. Donald Trump sees the world only through Moscow&#8217;s point of view because he knows that is where an enormous quantity of money that he cannot access exists and would be made available to him. Is he is a next step, a Russian asset, where he is aware of those activities? [Former Special Counsel] Robert Mueller said yes, that he was well aware that he was going to benefit from Russia.&#8221;
Wulfsohn noted, “According to journalist Yashar Ali, the network (MSNBC) <a style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;" href="https://yashar.substack.com/p/scoops-oprahmalcolm-nance-and-msnbc">notified</a> show bookers that they had to seek the approval of a higher-ranking booker in order to have Nance on their shows and was later ‘unbooked’ on several MSNBC programs by the top brass during the week the Mueller report was released.”
After the tragic shooting in El Paso, Texas in August, Nance <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-msnbcs-4-craziest-claims-about-trump-ryan-saavedra">ranted</a> that President Trump was to blame.  He <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/08/07/msnbcs_malcolm_nance_trump_giving_subliminal_orders_to_white_supremacist_foot_soldiers.html">said</a>:
<blockquote>These people feel that they are the foot soldiers and executors of what the disenfranchisement that the white race is feeling and Donald Trump is giving them subliminal orders in their head. They are no different than the mobilized, self-starting, self-radicalized terrorists of ISIS here in the United States and Europe, who take cars and drive down streets.</blockquote>
Video below:
<iframe src="http://cdn.jwplayer.com/players/2c1MFpTd-j24WUgGQ.html" width="300" height="270" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto"></iframe>

Miami Prepares For First Democratic Debates Of The 2020 Presidential Election

WATCH: MSNBC Analyst Rants Trump Is A Russian Asset Under Surveillance Since 1977

MSNBC

The following is satirical.
This weekend, Germans celebrated the thirty year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The wall divided the German capital between a thriving, free, capitalist West Berlin and an East Berlin so mired in poverty, lack of services and government oppression that it was almost as bad as living in California.
The wall was built in 1961 when the Soviet socialists who ruled East Germany realized that if they taxed people at the levels proposed by Elizabeth Warren, those people would leave and take their wealth and productivity elsewhere. But the socialists had a plan for that, namely anyone who tried to leave would be shot dead.
This policy continued through 1988, when Bernie Sanders honeymooned among the Soviets. So as Berliners celebrate the fall of the wall, perhaps they should also remember the good times, like when Bernie sat bare-chested with their Soviet oppressors and sang, “This land is your land, and so is Po-land, and so is Czechoslovakia and so is Hungary and so is East Germany and &#8230;” Well, you know, the rest of the lyrics.
On a side note, Bernie returned from his visit to the Soviets and said of the USSR and the U.S. &#8212; and this is a real quote: “Let’s take the strengths of both systems. Let’s learn from each other.”
Which would’ve made for an interesting country seeing as the strengths of the U.S. are freedom and capitalism, and the strengths of the Soviet Union were socialism and its necessary results: poverty, oppression, slavery and mass murder.
The Berlin Wall finally collapsed when the Soviets were confronted by Ronald Reagan, a freedom-loving president the American press hated so much they attacked him constantly and even tried to organize his impeachment. Thank heavens, that couldn’t happen today.
In fact, as we celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, it’s nice to know that we have learned so much about the evils of socialism, it has been relegated to the dustbin of history — and the Democrat Party platform.

Berlin Wall Monument

Germans Celebrate 30-Year Anniversary of End of Democrat Party Policies [Satire]

Bernie Sanders

Communism

Democratic Party

Democratic Socialism

Socialism

Soviet Union

Attorneys for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) penned a letter to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday demanding that she retract her previous remarks suggesting that the Democratic presidential candidate is a &#8220;Russian asset&#8221; who is being &#8220;groom[ed]&#8221; to run as a third-party candidate.
&#8220;Your statement is defamatory, and we demand that you retract it immediately,&#8221; Gabbard&#8217;s <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gabbard-campaign-accuses-clinton-of-defamation-over-fabricated-russian-asset-claim-demands-retraction">lawyer wrote</a>, calling for Clinton to both verbally retract the comments and post her retraction to social media.
&#8220;In making the statement, you knew it was false. Congresswoman Gabbard is not a Russian asset and is not being groomed by Russia,” the letter continued. &#8220;Besides your statement, no law enforcement or intelligence agencies have claimed, much less presented any evidence, that Congresswoman Gabbard is a Russian asset. This fabricated story is so facially improbable that it is actionable as defamation.&#8221;
The letter comes less than a month after the twice-failed Democratic presidential candidate sat down with President Barack Obama&#8217;s former campaign manager, David Plouffe, during an appearance on his podcast &#8220;Campaign HQ.&#8221;
&#8220;I think they have got their eye on someone who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate. She is the favorite of the Russians,&#8221; Clinton said at the time. &#8220;They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far.&#8221;
&#8220;That&#8217;s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not because she&#8217;s also a Russian asset. Yeah, she&#8217;s a Russian asset — I mean, totally,&#8221; Clinton added. &#8220;They know they can&#8217;t win without a third-party candidate. So I don&#8217;t know who it&#8217;s going to be, but I will guarantee you they will have a vigorous third-party challenge in the key states that they most needed.&#8221;
While the former first lady refrained from naming the &#8220;Democratic primary&#8221; candidate to whom she was initially referring, Clinton&#8217;s spokesman Nick Merrill later confirmed that it was, in fact, Gabbard.
&#8220;If the nesting doll fits,&#8221; Merrill replied when asked directly about the congresswoman.
Clinton received widespread blowback for promulgating a conspiracy theory without any evidence to back up her contention. Gabbard subsequently fired back, calling Clinton &#8220;the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long.&#8221;
Gabbard, who is the first female combat veteran in America to launch a bid for the presidency, has been outspoken about the importance of the time that she has spent serving the United States as both a soldier and as a public servant.
In August, the Hawaii congresswoman took a two-week leave of absence from her presidential campaign in order to report for active duty with the Hawaiian Army National Guard and participate in a joint training exercise mission in Indonesia.
&#8220;[Gabbard is] a patriotic loyal American, a sitting four-term United States Congresswoman and a Major in the United States Army National Guard,&#8221; the letter continued, adding that &#8220;she is a loyal American who has taken an oath declaring her allegiance to the United States of America both as a soldier and as a member of Congress.&#8221;

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Calls On U.S. Government To Release 9/11 Documents Implicating Saudi Arabia In Attacks

Tulsi Gabbard Gets Lawyers Involved, Accuses Hillary Of Defamation, Demands Retraction

Hillary Clinton

Tulsi Gabbard

Never before released documents from Robert Mueller&#8217;s special counsel investigation obtained by <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/02/politics/mueller-investigation-notes-trump-stolen-emails/index.html">CNN</a> give a glimpse into why Mueller was forced to conclude that there was no evidence of &#8220;collusion&#8221; between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
The Mueller investigative team&#8217;s notes from an interview in May 2018 with former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates provides more details about the Trump campaign&#8217;s attempts to get access to the emails obtained by WikiLeaks and their belief that they were &#8220;likely carried about by the Ukrainians, not the Russians,&#8221; and that &#8220;the Democrats were pushing the Russia narrative&#8221; presumably for political purposes.
While Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee were funding an opposition research effort helmed by a former British intelligence agent that resulted in the infamous dossier filled with salacious, unverified, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/19/us/politics/steele-dossier-mueller-report.html">discredited</a> accusations against Trump largely based on Russian sources, the Trump campaign was attempting to get their hands on the hacked Democrat emails eventually released by WikiLeaks.
In the newly released notes of the Mueller team&#8217;s interview with Gates, the Trump campaign is described as &#8220;euphoric&#8221; about WikiLeaks&#8217; release of the hacked Democratic emails. But it is also clear from Gates&#8217; testimony, that the Trump campaign had no idea how the emails were obtained, who was behind it, or how to get access to them. In other words, it is painfully clear from Gates&#8217; statements that the Trump campaign was &#8220;colluding&#8221; with no one — and certainly not the Russians, who the campaign didn&#8217;t believe were likely behind the hacks.
The Trump campaign team &#8220;thought the Democrats were pushing the Russia narrative,&#8221; the notes state. The man described as having &#8220;the most Russia contacts of anyone on the campaign,&#8221; Mike Flynn, was &#8220;adamant the Russians did not carry out the hack.&#8221;
&#8220;Gates said Flynn had the most Russia contacts of anyone on the campaign and was in the best position to ask for the emails if they were out there,&#8221; the notes read. &#8220;Gates recalled Manafort saying the hack was likely carried about thy the Urkainians, not the Russians, which parroted a narrative Kilmnick often supported. Kilmnick also opined the hack could have been perpetrated by Russian operatives in Ukraine.&#8221;
&#8220;At some point, there was speculation the Mossad might have the emails,&#8221; read the Mueller notes. &#8220;Gates said there was never any mention of the Saudis or the Emirates having the emails. Manafort was generally skeptical of any offers of information coming the campaign’s attention.&#8221;
While the Trump team had no inside knowledge about who was behind the hacks or how to get special access to them, the notes suggest, the campaign certainly wanted to see the emails in hopes they would prove useful as opposition research.
&#8220;Gates recalled a time on the campaign aircraft when candidate Trump said, &#8216;get the emails,'&#8221; the notes detail. &#8220;Flynn said he could use his intelligence sources to obtain the emails.&#8221;
After two years and over $30 million spent on the effort, Mueller’s exhaustive report on alleged Trump-Russia &#8220;collusion&#8221; concluded that &#8220;the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.&#8221;
Below is an excerpt of the newly released notes from the Mueller investigation interview with Gates in May 2018:
<blockquote>Gates said there was also an inside job theory about how the emails were obtained fueled by the death of Seth Rich [Note: Seth Conrad Rich was an employee of the DNC who was fatally shot in Washington, D.C. on 7/10/2017]. Gates said he was never present at any talks suggesting the campaign push the inside job theory. The Trump campaign team also thought the Democrats were pushing the Russia narrative.
Gates said Donald Trump Jr. would ask where the emails were in family meetings. Michael Flynn, [Jared] Kushner, [Paul] Manafort, [redacted], [Corey] Lewandowski, Jeff Sessions and Sam Clovis expressed interest in obtaining the emails as well. Gates said the priority focuses of the Trump campaign opposition research team were Clinton’s emails and contributions to the Clinton Foundation. Flynn, [redacted], Sessions, Kushner, and Trump Jr. were all focused on opposition topics.
Gates said interest in the emails was ratcheting up in the April/May 2016 timeframe because it was likely the emails could help Trump’s campaign.
[redacted passage]
Trump Jr. Never communicated anything about the 06/09/2016 meeting with Gates. After the news broke about the 06/09/2016 meeting, Manafort asked Gates if he (Gates) was there. [Note: The 06/09/2016 meeting is a reference to the meeting that took place at Trump Tower arranged on the pretense that documents and information that would incriminate Hillary Clinton would be provided to the Trump campaign by a Russian government attorney later identified as Natalia Veselnitskaya.]
[redacted passage]
Gates said Trump was interested in the emails but remained composed with a healthy skepticism.
Gates recalled communication with Reince Preibus and [redacted]. The RNC was energized by Assange’s announcement on 06/12/206. Gates indicated that based on a conversation with Manafort, Gates knew the RNC was going to run the Wikileaks issue to the ground, they had more resources to commit to this effort. Trump and Kushner were initially skeptical about cooperating with the RNC, but the Wikileaks issue was a turning point.
[redacted passage]
Gates described the campaign response to the report as euphoric.
[redacted passage]
Gates said the RNC would put out press releases that would serve to amplify the Wikileaks releases. The RNC also indicated they knew the timing of the upcoming releases, Gates did not specify who at the RNC knew this information. Gates said the only non-public information the RNC had was related to the timing of the releases.
Gates recalled a time on the campaign aircraft when candidate Trump said, “get the emails.” Flynn said he could use his intelligence sources to obtain the emails. Flynn was adamant the Russians did not carry out the hack. To support this theory Flynn advices, based on his experience, the United States Intelligence Community (USIC) was not capable of figuring it out. Gates opined that Flynn’s assessment of the USIC derived from the negative way in which Flynn departed the USIC. Gates said Flynn had the most Russia contacts of anyone on the campaign and was in the best position to ask for the emails if they were out there.
Gates advised Trump Jr. and Manafort also had contacts with, “Russia types.” Gates clarified by saying Manafort’s connection with Russians was minimal aside from his relationship with Oleg Deripaska. Gates said Manafort primarily had contacts with Ukrainians. Gates recalled Manafort saying the hack was likely carried about by the Ukrainians, not the Russians, which parroted a narrative Kilmnick often supported. Kilmnick also opined the hack could have been perpetrated by Russian operatives in Ukraine.
Gates said based on prior business dealings, Kushner had the best China contacts. Manafort and Gates had discussions pertaining to Kushner’s Chinese contacts. Gates said there were numerous foreign requests to meet Trump after the nomination was secured.
At some point, there was speculation the Mossad might have the emails. Gates said there was never any mention of the Saudis or the Emirates having the emails. Manafort was generally skeptical of any offers of information coming the campaign’s attention.</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2019/11/02/politics/mueller-investigation-notes/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read the interview notes published by CNN here.</a>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/alleged-identity-of-whistleblower-leaked-whistleblowers-lawyers-release-statement-threatening-journalists">Alleged Identity Of Whistleblower Leaked; Whistleblower’s Lawyers Release Statement Threatening Journalists</a>

President Trump

Newly Released Mueller Docs: Trump Campaign Thought &#8216;Ukrainians, Not Russians&#8217; Behind Democrat Email Hacks; Trump: &#8216;Get Emails&#8217;

Michael Flynn

Robert Mueller

Ukraine

The woman believed to be the oldest person in the world has died at age 123 after living a life she described as being characterized by &#8220;hard work and optimism&#8221; despite living most of it under oppressive communist regimes.
According to the Russian Book of Records and Russian government officials, Tanzilya Bisembeyeva, a Muslim Kazakh whose death was announced Wednesday, was the oldest woman in the world, born before the last tsar of Russia and living a life that spanned three centuries.
Bisembeyeva was believed to have been the third-oldest person in Russia just months ago, but the two women who were reportedly older than her — Nanu Shaovawomen (128) and Koku Istambulova (129) — died earlier this year, leaving Bisembeyeva with the remarkable distinction.
Government-run Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, which first reported her death, quotes Astrakhan region official Nurgali Baitemirov, who said Bisembeyeva &#8220;died peacefully&#8221; and was buried in a family cemetery, where the &#8220;whole village came to see her depart on her last journey,&#8221; as reported by <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7630077/Oldest-woman-world-dies-aged-123-Russia.html">The Daily Mail</a>.
Bisembeyeva credited her &#8220;healthy&#8221; and active lifestyle, as well as her commitment to &#8220;hard work and optimism,&#8221; for her longevity. The Daily Mail notes that she reportedly won a labor award, didn&#8217;t smoke and ate &#8220;only natural foods.&#8221; She also apparently drank a lot of fermented milk.
&#8220;The secret of her long life, surviving the upheavals of the Russian revolution, when she was already 21, and the Soviet collapse, as well the tyranny of Stalin, was &#8216;optimism and hard work&#8217; &#8211; along with drinking kefir, or fermented milk,&#8221; the Mail reports.
Her son, Shintas, who is in his 70s — which means his mother had him when she was 53 — described her difficult life under Soviet rule and in largely impoverished conditions. &#8220;My mother has seen a lot during her long life. She has lived from Rasputin to Putin,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;My mother met my father [Musagali Bisembeev] in 1946,&#8221; said Shintas. &#8220;She was 50 and he was over 60 but he was a strong man. He worked at the collective farm and did as much as two men would do. After the war my parents lived in a soldier&#8217;s shelter and their first son died in his babyhood.&#8221;
&#8220;They were so poor that could not afford a proper house, and probably this is why their baby son died,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;You could not heat such room properly.&#8221; But later they had three more sons.
&#8220;Just think about it,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I was born when my mother was 53 and the youngest brother was born when she was 59. It still sounds incredible.&#8221;
They lived much of their life in poverty, Shintas notes, describing his upbringing as difficult and often characterized by hunger and work in the fields.
Her three boys went on to give Bisembeyeva ten grandchildren and over two dozen great-grandchildren.
As noted by The Daily Mail, verifying the ages of older Russians can be difficult due to a lack of consistent documentation. Skeptics of Bisembeyeva&#8217;s claim point to her unusually old age for having her three children as evidence that she may not have been as old as believed.
The previous oldest person in the world, Koku Istambulova, who reportedly reached the age of 129 before passing away earlier this year, offered a similar story of a lifetime of struggle as a Muslim under communist control to that of Bisembeyeva. Rather than a life filled with &#8220;optimism,&#8221; however, Istambulova described her experience as largely devoid of &#8220;happiness.&#8221;
&#8220;Why did Allah give me such a long life and so little happiness? I would have been dead long ago if not for Allah, who was holding me in his arms,&#8221; Istambulova <a href="https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/world-news/3338828/worlds-oldest-and-most-miserable-human-129-curses-allah-for-letting-her-live-so-long/" rel="nofollow">told</a> The Sun in October 2018. &#8220;It is hard to live when all who remembered you died long ago.&#8221;
One of her worst memories, she said, was the day she and her fellow Chechens were deported by Stalin&#8217;s government to Kazakhstan. &#8220;It was a bad day, cold and gloomy,&#8221; said Istambulova. &#8220;We were put in a train and taken no one knew where. Railway carriages were stuffed with people – dirt, rubbish, excrement was everywhere … On the way to our exile, dead bodies were just thrown out of the train.&#8221;
The day she pointed to as the one day she felt happiness was when first entered her home. &#8220;It was the day when I first entered my house,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It was very small and I stoked the stove with wood, but it was my home. I built it myself, the best house in the world. I lived there for 60 years.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lebrons-lakers-lose-amid-pro-hong-protests-china-state-tv-blackout">LeBron’s Opening Game Hit With Protests; China State TV Blacks Out NBA</a>

Tanzilya Bisembeyeva

&#8216;World&#8217;s Oldest Person&#8217; Dies

Islam

Stalin

On Sunday, new National Security Adviser Robert O&#8217;Brien debunked any conspiracy theories that were floating around about why the Trump administration informed Russia about the raid in Syria that resulted in U.S. forces killing ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, saying that the administration did not want Russian forces firing on U.S. forces.
&#8220;Look, I think today&#8217;s a great day for the United States of America, and a great day for the world. This was the number one wanted person in the world,&#8221; O&#8217;Brien said on NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Meet The Press.&#8221;
&#8220;He&#8217;s a brutal, vicious terrorist, killed many people. The president went into detail. We can talk some more about that,&#8221; O&#8217;Brien continued. &#8220;But it&#8217;s also important for the world to know that the United States has a long reach. And the men and women of our armed services executed this mission flawlessly. Took him down and his colleagues that are still alive should be worried.&#8221;
&#8220;The president said that there were a number of folks that helped,&#8221; host Chuck Todd said. &#8220;He thanked Russia first. He thanked the Kurds last. Should we read into that?&#8221;
&#8220;No, I don&#8217;t think you should read into that. I think what the president talked about is that it was a very dangerous mission for our troops. And the president made a courageous decision to send them far into enemy territory at night, a long range helicopter raid,&#8221; O&#8217;Brien responded. &#8220;It was a courageous decision of the president. But it was [the] incredible bravery and skill of our men and women in the armed forces and the intelligence community that executed the mission flawlessly. But they had to fly over areas where there was significant anti-aircraft capability, the Syrians, the Russians, the Turks, others. So I think we appreciated the fact that our helicopters and our planes weren&#8217;t molested.&#8221;
&#8220;On a policy front, Russia. Are they an ally of the United States in this fight in ISIS?&#8221; Todd asked. &#8220;And are they an adversary of the United States in this situation with Ukraine? How would you describe it?&#8221;
&#8220;Well, let me just make it very clear, Russia is not an ally of the United States,&#8221; O&#8217;Brien responded. &#8220;The president doesn&#8217;t believe that. I don&#8217;t believe that.&#8221;
Todd responded, &#8220;First country he thanked today.&#8221;
&#8220;Look, there are times when our interests overlap with the interests of Russia. Last night it overlapped,&#8221; O&#8217;Brien responded. &#8220;We didn&#8217;t want Russian air defense missiles being shot at our men and women who were executing this raid &#8230; and they don&#8217;t like ISIS, as the president pointed out.&#8221;
&#8220;Last night, our interests overlapped with Russia. When our interests overlap with Russia, there’s no reason we shouldn’t work with them,&#8221; O&#8217;Brien continued. &#8220;Russia is not an ally of the United States, and look, Russia presents a great danger to the United States, and something we keep an eye on every single day.&#8221;
New York Times reporter Charlie Savage debunked the notion that Trump was supposed to brief Democrats of the operation after many top Democrats tried to suggest that Trump was up to something nefarious by notifying Russia but not them about the raid.
&#8220;The not-briefing-Gang-of-8 thing is a red herring. Law requires briefing about covert intel activities, but this was a DOD raid in a war zone,&#8221; Savage tweeted. &#8220;(Bin Laden raid was CIA-controlled &amp; covert bc it violated Pakistani sovereignty, so Obama admin wanted deniability if UBL wasn&#8217;t there.)&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The not-briefing-Gang-of-8 thing is a red herring. Law requires briefing about covert intel activities, but this was a DOD raid in a war zone. (Bin Laden raid was CIA-controlled &amp; covert bc it violated Pakistani sovereignty, so Obama admin wanted deniability if UBL wasn&#8217;t there.)
— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) <a href="https://twitter.com/charlie_savage/status/1188499285119262721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
WATCH:
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vogkw-iWS7Y" width="720" height="385" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">﻿</iframe>

President Donald J Trump

National Security Adviser Reveals Why Russia Was Alerted To Raid On ISIS Leader

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Islamic State (ISIS)

While Trump-haters keep obsessing over his tweets and &#8220;manners,&#8221; we are witnessing the Democrats&#8217; ongoing rejection of President Donald Trump&#8217;s constitutional right to govern and the people&#8217;s sovereign choice in electing him. Let&#8217;s check our priorities.
You may regard Trump&#8217;s tweet &#8220;#StopTheCoup&#8221; as political theater, but it&#8217;s not, and we need to take notice. Ever since Trump&#8217;s presidential announcement, leftists have been plotting and scheming against him.
The polite elites pooh-poohed this as fevered conspiracy hype while promoting their dream narrative that Robert Mueller had the goods on Trump for conspiring with Russia to steal the election. As soon as this myth was definitively obliterated — by none other than Mueller himself — the Trump-hunters turned to obstruction of justice as a fallback, though obstructing an investigation into something the alleged obstructer knew never occurred never made a lot of sense.
The mobs variously turned to other potential Hail Mary &#8220;high crimes&#8221; to oust Trump, like pursuing his tax returns based on no evidence of impropriety — another fishing expedition to find any impropriety that could substantiate their slander that Trump has committed impeachable offenses.
Though the sainted Mueller failed them, Democrats didn&#8217;t retreat like disgraced accusers and apologize to the country for their fraudulent witch hunt and their complicity in orchestrating it.
Unrepentant, they instantly pivoted to Ukraine-gate as yet another bogus charge in their ever-evolving crusade to oust Trump — and to divert attention from counterinvestigations that could finally expose some of them, and their allies, for doing what they&#8217;ve been falsely accusing Trump of doing: interfering with an election.
Take Rep. Adam Schiff, for example. How many times did this reckless, malicious buffoon swear, unchallenged, that he had solid evidence of Trump&#8217;s &#8220;collusion&#8221; with Russia? Has he ever been held accountable for his lies? Has anyone in the liberal media showcased his misconduct?
To the contrary, Schiff is conducting secret hearings in a private room in the congressional basement in hot pursuit of another witch hunt. His Star Chamber proceeding facilitates his selective leaking of witness testimony to make thirdhand hearsay sound like smoking guns and create the impression that this time, they really do have the goods on Trump.
Democrats act this way while not in control of both legislative chambers or the executive branch. Can you imagine what they&#8217;ll do if they defeat Trump and capture the Senate in 2020?
Well, I can imagine, and it horrifies me, which is why I have written my new book, &#8220;Guilty by Reason of Insanity: Why the Democrats Must Not Win,&#8221; to be released Oct. 29.
In the very beginning of the book, I dispel the myth that the political left and conservatives share the same goals for America but just have different ideas about how to achieve them. If this were ever true before, which I highly doubt, it is demonstrably false now. The left shows every day that it rejects the American idea and seeks to radically transform our system of government, our economy and our culture.
The two parties have distinctly different visions for America, based on conflicting worldviews. I write: &#8220;Some will object that all Americans want everyone to be prosperous, safe, free, and to live in harmony, but I&#8217;m not sure that&#8217;s even true anymore, given the left&#8217;s anti-Americanism, its intolerance and authoritarianism, its romance with socialism, its hysterical environmentalism, its preoccupation with identity politics, its radicalism on race and gender, its attempts to erase our borders, its culture of death, its devaluation of the Constitution, its hostility to Second Amendment rights, and much more.
&#8220;The Democratic Party is a vehicle of leftist extremism that poses an existential threat to America as founded — because it is at war with our first principles and traditions. It is anti-capitalist and rejects equality of opportunity in favor of a hierarchy of privileges for identity groups ranked according to their levels of alleged historical oppression. It&#8217;s a brazenly anti-life party that promotes gender anarchy, militant feminism, and hostility toward traditional male roles and masculinity itself. It prosecutes a vicious culture war punctuated by an ongoing assault on Christians&#8217; religious liberty.&#8221;
I go into great depth about the leftists&#8217; agenda and how they are conducting themselves, not only providing myriad examples of their insanity but exploring the intellectual and moral fallacies underlying their ideas on socialism, gender identity, race, immigration, abortion and America&#8217;s quintessential founding principles of liberty and limited government.
My goal, as with all of my books, was to make a comprehensive yet accessible case, and readers will have judge whether I succeeded. But I urge you read it because the stakes couldn&#8217;t be higher. The 2020 elections will be a referendum on everything we hold dear about this country. We must do a better job explaining our position, especially to young people mesmerized by the seductive allure of socialism and the other social justice causes of the Democratic Party, which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the radical left. I hope this book provides ample fodder for those who want to get in this fight to preserve America as founded.
David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His latest book is &#8220;Guilty By Reason of Insanity.&#8221; Follow him on Twitter @davidlimbaugh and his website at www.davidlimbaugh.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

Anti-Trump protesters.

LIMBAUGH: My New Book: &#8216;Guilty By Reason Of Insanity&#8217;

2020 Election

Adam Schiff

Impeachment

Progressivism

The U.S. Department of Justice&#8217;s administrative review into the origins of the Russia investigation has a taken a major turn into a full-fledged criminal investigation.
The review, led by U.S. attorney John Durham, has shifted from being an administrative review into being a criminal investigation, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/us/politics/john-durham-criminal-investigation.html">reported</a>, noting that the move gives Durham &#8220;the power to subpoena for witness testimony and documents, to impanel a grand jury and to file criminal charges.&#8221;
The Times immediately tried to frame the move as being seen by many that Trump is &#8220;using the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies.&#8221;
&#8220;Mr. Barr’s reliance on Mr. Durham, a widely respected and veteran prosecutor who has investigated C.I.A. torture and broken up Mafia rings, could help insulate the attorney general from accusations that he is doing the president’s bidding and putting politics above justice,&#8221; The Times added.
DOJ guidelines <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/ag/attorney-generals-guidelines-general-crimes-racketeering-enterprise-and-domestic#investigations">state</a> that federal investigators must have a &#8220;reasonable indication&#8221; that a crime has been committed before they can open up an investigation, and that &#8220;there must be an objective, factual basis for initiating the investigation; a mere hunch is insufficient.&#8221;
&#8220;Mr. Durham has indicated he wants to interview former officials who ran the C.I.A. in 2016 but has yet to question either Mr. Brennan or James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence,&#8221; The Times added. &#8220;Some C.I.A. officials have retained criminal lawyers in anticipation of being interviewed.&#8221;
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/john-durham-investigation-possible-fbi-misconduct-expanded-new-evidence-sources">reported</a> on Tuesday that Barr&#8217;s investigation had &#8220;expanded based on new evidence uncovered during a recent trip to Rome with Attorney General Bill Barr.&#8221;
&#8220;The sources said Durham was &#8216;very interested&#8217; to question former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan, an anti-Trump critic who recently dismissed the idea,&#8221; Fox News added. &#8220;The two Obama administration officials were at the helm when the unverified and largely discredited Steele dossier, written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, was used to justify a secret surveillance warrant against former Trump adviser Carter Page.&#8221;
The Daily Beast reported at the start of the month that Barr and Durham were interested in &#8220;what the Italian secret service knew about Joseph Mifsud, the erstwhile professor from Malta who had allegedly promised then-candidate Donald Trump’s campaign aide George Papadopoulos he could deliver Russian &#8216;dirt&#8217; on Hillary Clinton.&#8221;
&#8220;The Italian justice ministry’s public records show that Mifsud had applied for police protection in Italy after disappearing from Link University, where he worked and, in doing so, had given a taped deposition to explain just why people might want to harm him,&#8221; The Daily Beast continued. &#8220;A source in the Italian Ministry of Justice, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Daily Beast that Barr and Durham were played the tape.&#8221;
The Daily Beast added that another source with the Italian government confirmed that Barr and Durham &#8220;were shown other evidence the Italians had on Mifsud.&#8221;
Barr and Durham have also reached out to Australia and the United Kingdom as part of their investigation into the origins of the FBI&#8217;s investigation into the Trump campaign.

William Barr

DOJ Administrative Review Into Russia Probe Takes Serious Turn

Department of Justice

President Donald Trump doubled down on his defense of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) on Monday after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seemed to suggest that the Democratic presidential candidate is an asset that the Russians are &#8220;grooming&#8221; in preparation of the 2020 election.
&#8220;Hillary Clinton, I don&#8217;t know if you&#8217;ve heard of her, she&#8217;s the one accusing everybody of being a Russian agent,&#8221; Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting. &#8220;Anybody that is opposed to her is a Russian agent &#8212; that&#8217;s a scam that was pretty much put down.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know Tulsi, but she&#8217;s not a Russian agent,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know Jill Stein. I know she likes the environment. I don’t think she likes Russians. If she does like them, I know she&#8217;s not an asset &#8212; [Clinton] called her an asset of Russia. These people are sick. There&#8217;s something wrong with them.&#8221;
While speaking with President Barack Obama&#8217;s former campaign manager, David Plouffe, during an appearance on his podcast &#8220;Campaign HQ,&#8221; Clinton contended that the Russians &#8220;have got their eye on someone who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate.&#8221;
&#8220;That&#8217;s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not because she&#8217;s also a Russian asset. Yeah, she&#8217;s a Russian asset, I mean, totally,&#8221; she told Plouffe. &#8220;They know they can&#8217;t win without a third-party candidate. So I don&#8217;t know who it&#8217;s going to be, but I will guarantee you they will have a vigorous third-party challenge in the key states that they most needed.&#8221;
Although Clinton initially refrained from revealing to whom she was talking about, her spokesman Nick Merrill later confirmed that it was, in fact, Gabbard. When asked if Clinton was referring to Gabbard, Merrill replied, &#8220;if the nesting doll fits.&#8221;
Gabbard swiftly fired back at the twice failed presidential candidate, calling her the &#8220;queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party.&#8221; She subsequently accused Clinton of launching a &#8220;concerted campaign&#8221; to smear the Hawaii congresswoman&#8217;s reputation and further challenged her to jump into the 2020 race for a third time.
&#8220;So now Crooked Hillary is at it again! She is calling Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard &#8216;a Russian favorite,&#8217; and Jill Stein &#8216;a Russian asset,'&#8221; Trump tweeted on Saturday. &#8220;As you may have heard, I was called a big Russia lover also (actually, I do like Russian people. I like all people!). Hillary&#8217;s gone Crazy!&#8221;
The president has been embroiled in Democrat-led allegations of having close ties to the Russian Kremlin since before he even took office. Special counsel Robert Mueller kicked off a years-long investigation that ultimately found that Trump&#8217;s 2016 presidential campaign did not conspire or coordinate with the Russian government in its election interference activities.
&#8220;I think that Tulsi Gabbard probably got helped quite a bit by this there. I think we were helped because it shows for two and a half years, we end up winning,&#8221; Trump said on Monday. &#8220;I had to go through two and a half years &#8212; if she would have done this earlier people would have realized what a scam it is. Everybody is a Russian, or a Russian agent, or a Russian asset.&#8221;

President Trump Calls Astronauts After First All-Female Spacewalk

President Trump Re-Ups His Defense Of Tulsi Gabbard: &#8216;It&#8217;s A Scam&#8217;

On Sunday, Democratic presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper.
During the segment, which touched on various topics, Tapper asked Buttigieg about the ongoing feud between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and fellow Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI).
On Wednesday, Clinton appeared on David Plouffe’s “Campaign HQ” podcast, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-gabbard-smacks-clinton-she-knows-she-cant-manipulate-me-if-im-elected-president">seemed to claim</a> that Gabbard was a “Russian asset.”
Here are Clinton’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-gabbard-smacks-clinton-she-knows-she-cant-manipulate-me-if-im-elected-president">exact words</a>:
<blockquote>I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on someone who’s currently in the Democratic primary, and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate. She’s a favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far, and that’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not, because she’s also a Russian asset.</blockquote>
A Clinton spokesperson later <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-gabbard-smacks-clinton-she-knows-she-cant-manipulate-me-if-im-elected-president">confirmed</a> that the former secretary of state was indeed speaking about Gabbard, telling CNN, &#8220;If the nesting doll fits.&#8221;
Buttigieg pivoted away from actually condemning Clinton when pressed by Tapper:
<blockquote>TAPPER: We&#8217;re running out of time, so I do want to flip to a different topic, which is the last Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, appeared to suggest that one of your fellow campaign nominees or campaign hopefuls, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, is a Russian asset.
[Tapper then played the clip of Clinton on David Plouffe&#8217;s podcast.]
TAPPER: So, Clinton&#8217;s spokesman confirmed that she was talking about Tulsi Gabbard there. Gabbard fired back, calling Secretary Clinton the “queen of warmongers,” “embodiment of corruption.” It went on from there. I know you don&#8217;t want to get in the middle of these two politicians fighting. But is it helpful to have the 2016 nominee suggesting that a congresswoman is a Russian asset?
BUTTIGIEG: I&#8217;d prefer to have the conversation be about policy, about what we&#8217;re going to do, and about how American lives are going to be different. When it comes to any of my Democratic competitors, that&#8217;s my focus, making sure that we make very clear the differences – and there are very real differences among us – and making it clear to voters what their choices are. That&#8217;s where I&#8217;d like to focus to be.
TAPPER: Right. But do you think Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian asset?
BUTTIGIEG: I don&#8217;t know what the basis is for that.
TAPPER: Well, I don&#8217;t either.
BUTTIGIEG: I consider her to be a competitor, somebody who I respect her service. I also have very different views than she does, especially on foreign policy. And I would prefer to have that argument in terms of policy, which is what we do with debates and what we&#8217;re doing as we go forward.
TAPPER: So when Donald Trump smears people, Democrats all stand up and say, you&#8217;re smearing someone. Stop it. Why don&#8217;t Democrats do that, to say that about Tulsi Gabbard? It seems like an obvious smear. I don&#8217;t see any evidence she&#8217;s a Russian asset. It seems like a wild accusation.
BUTTIGIEG: Yes, I think statements like that ought to be backed by evidence.</blockquote>
Buttigieg then swiveled to “corruption,” the “mixing of domestic politics and foreign affairs,” and the White House.
After the Democratic candidate concluded, even Tapper highlighted the non-answer. “An agile pivot from Mayor Pete Buttigieg,” Tapper stated.
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Following the brouhaha between Clinton and Gabbard, few Democratic presidential candidates have spoken out in support of Gabbard.
Andrew Yang tweeted: “Tulsi Gabbard deserves much more respect and thanks than this. She literally just got back from serving our country abroad.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Tulsi Gabbard deserves much more respect and thanks than this. She literally just got back from serving our country abroad.
— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1185371843957526528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
When asked on Saturday about the internecine fight, Beto O’Rourke said: “Tulsi is not being groomed by anyone. She is her own person, obviously has served this country, continues to serve this country in uniform, in Congress, as a candidate for presidency. So, I think those facts speak for themselves.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/BetoORourke?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BetoORourke</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TulsiGabbard</a>: &#8220;Tulsi is not being groomed by anyone. She is her own person. Obviously has served this country, continues to serve this country in uniform, in Congress, as a candidate for presidency so I think those facts speak for themselves.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/dKnOVExx3H">pic.twitter.com/dKnOVExx3H</a>
— The Hill (@thehill) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1185667486139764736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
Marianne Williamson also <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/marwilliamson/status/1185407428248006657">tweeted</a> her support, calling the claim against Gabbard “character assassination.”
As of publication, Gabbard stands at 1.2% in the polls according to the <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html">RealClearPolitics</a> national average of polling, while Yang, O’Rourke, and Williamson stand at 2.2%, 2.6%, and 0.6%, respectively.

Pete Buttigieg.

WATCH: Buttigieg Pivots When Asked About Hillary Clinton’s ‘Russian Asset’ Remark

Pete Buttigieg

Former Rep. Beto O&#8217;Rourke (D-TX) stated on Sunday that while he is sure that his Democratic primary opponent Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is not a being groomed by the Russians as previously suggested, be still believes that President Donald Trump is a &#8220;Russian asset.&#8221;
&#8220;I think the focus has to be on Donald Trump,&#8221; O&#8217;Rourke told MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin. &#8220;If we are talking about the country of Russia, there is a Russian asset in the White House right now. We know – and we all saw it in broad daylight, candidate Trump inviting [Russian President] Vladimir Putin to invade and be involved in our elections, which he did. And then we saw President Trump, after he had been sworn in on that stage in Helsinki, Finland, defending Vladimir Putin, instead of our intelligence community.&#8221;
&#8220;We learned after the Robert Mueller report [from the special counsel], his mendacity, his lies, his pressure on other witnesses to lie on his behalf all for this country, and, obviously, the list goes on,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;So, I think that’s where we as Democrats, really we as Americans, need to be focused right now. Holding that president accountable; making sure that the truth comes out; that we follow the facts as high as they go, as far as they lead, and at the end of the day that there be justice, rule of law, and a continuation of this democracy and this great country. All of that is on the line.&#8221;
O&#8217;Rourke&#8217;s remarks come less than a week after twice failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sat down with President Barack Obama’s former campaign manager, David Plouffe, during an appearance on his podcast &#8220;Campaign HQ.&#8221; During the interview, Clinton seemed to suggest that Gabbard is a &#8220;Russian asset&#8221; who is being groomed to run as a third-party candidate.
Clinton received widespread blowback for promulgating a conspiracy theory without any evidence to back up her contention.
&#8220;Tulsi is not being groomed by anyone. She is her own person,&#8221; O&#8217;Rourke responded on Saturday when questioned about Clinton&#8217;s claim. &#8220;Obviously has served this country and continues to serve this country in uniform in Congress as a candidate for the presidency, and so I think those facts speak for themselves.&#8221;
The Texas congressman reiterated his defense of Gabbard and stated that he stood by his previous comments. Mohyeldin, however, pressed O&#8217;Rourke further on whether he believes Clinton made a mistake going after a presidential candidate in her own party since Democrats are so often critical of Republicans for excusing the same behavior.
&#8220;Again, I think I could play into this false media narrative that seeks to pit Democrats against one another over a spurious allegation, or we can focus on the fact that there is a Russian asset in the White House right now doing the bidding of a foreign power against the interests of America,&#8221; O&#8217;Rourke replied. &#8220;I think thats the focus for this country and that is where I remain focused as a candidate.&#8221;

Democratic Presidential Candidates Attend &#8220;Union For All&#8221; Summit In Los Angeles

Beto Denies Tulsi Is A Russian Asset, But Still Maintains That Donald Trump Is One

Beto O'Rourke

On Friday evening, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) appeared on <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-suggests-russians-are-grooming-a-2020-democratic-candidate/">CBS News</a> and responded to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seeming to imply that she was a &#8220;Russian asset.&#8221;
<blockquote>CBS: What did you make of Secretary Clinton&#8217;s comments this week?
GABBARD: Let&#8217;s be clear about what this is about &#8230; that if anyone stands up and speaks out to end the regime change war policies our country has had for so long, the likes of which we&#8217;ve seen waged in Iraq, Libya, and ongoing in Syria, we will be labeled as foreign agents, we will be labeled as traitors to our country. So, really what this is, this is a message to every veteran in this country who has put their life on the line to serve our country, to every single American who believes strongly that we must end this long-standing foreign policy of being the world&#8217;s police and waging these regime change wars – which is really the legacy of Hillary Clinton – then we are traitors to the nation that we love. This is despicable on so many levels.</blockquote>
Gabbard was asked what she meant by the term &#8220;regime change wars.&#8221;
The congresswoman replied, claiming that the &#8220;long-held foreign policy of the United States, of which Hillary Clinton was a champion &#8230; for a very long time, of going around the world, acting as the world&#8217;s police, overthrowing and toppling dictators that we don&#8217;t like&#8221; is what she means by &#8220;regime change wars.&#8221;
Gabbard then claimed that the reason Clinton &#8220;and her minions&#8221; are attempting to &#8220;smear&#8221; her is because she opposes such foreign policy.
It was then brought up that Clinton never used Gabbard’s name in her remarks, but the congresswoman was having none of it. &#8220;Let’s not mess around here and pretend that it wasn&#8217;t something that it was,&#8221; Gabbard stated incredulously.
Despite attempts by the anchor to pivot the conversation, Gabbard stayed on message for the rest of the segment, noting that she is &#8220;running as a Democrat to take our party back, away from the control of people like Hillary Clinton and the warmongering and corrupt powerful establishment, and return our party into the hands of the people.&#8221;
&#8220;[Clinton is] doing this is because she knows that she can&#8217;t control me,&#8221; Gabbard concluded. &#8220;She knows that she&#8217;s not going to be able to manipulate me if I&#8217;m elected president, to be able to continue these warmongering policies that she has championed throughout her career.&#8221;
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JNjzBJWUyWI" width="720" height="385" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
The feud between Gabbard and Clinton blew up on Wednesday, when the former secretary of state appeared to claim that the Russians were &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-lights-up-hillary-clinton-for-suggesting-shes-a-russian-asset-the-queen-of-warmongers">grooming</a>&#8221; Gabbard during an appearance on David Plouffe’s &#8220;Campaign HQ&#8221; podcast.
&#8220;I&#8217;m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on someone who’s currently in the Democratic primary, and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate,&#8221; Clinton said.
&#8220;She&#8217;s a favorite of the Russians,&#8221; Clinton continued. &#8220;They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far, and that&#8217;s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not, because she’s also a Russian asset.”
Speaking with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hillary-clinton-tulsi-gabbard-a-russian-asset-being-groomed-for-third-party-run">CNN</a>, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill confirmed that the former secretary of state was indeed referring to Gabbard. &#8220;If the nesting doll fits,&#8221; Merrill reportedly stated.
Gabbard responded on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-lights-up-hillary-clinton-for-suggesting-shes-a-russian-asset-the-queen-of-warmongers">Twitter</a> on Friday, calling Clinton the &#8220;queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long.&#8221;

Tulsi Gabbard.

WATCH: Gabbard Smacks Clinton: She Knows She Can’t ‘Manipulate Me If I’m Elected President’

And then one blinked.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), who is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has gone head to head with Hillary Clinton for nearly a week. Clinton, the 2016 loser, claims Gabbard, a U.S. military veteran, is a &#8220;Russian asset&#8221; being groomed to ensure that President Donald Trump is re-elected. Gabbard has fired back, saying Hillary is the &#8220;queen of warmongers&#8221; and daring her to enter the 2020 race.
Now, Clinton has pulled out of an event in Washington, D.C., in which Gabbard was also set to appear. Clinton has backed out of a Friday appearance at Fortune magazine&#8217;s Most Powerful Women Summit, claiming she had a scheduling conflict, <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/hillary-clinton-fortune-summit-kirstjen-nielsen.html">S</a><a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/hillary-clinton-fortune-summit-kirstjen-nielsen.html">late.com</a> reported.
Clinton’s sudden exit came just hours after she said Gabbard was a &#8220;favorite of the Russians.&#8221;
The two-time loser sat down with David Plouffe, President Barack Obama’s campaign manager in 2008, on his &#8220;Campaign HQ&#8221; podcast on Friday. On the show, she said Gabbard is currently being prepped Russia to run as a third-party candidate in 2020 in order to help Trump win.
&#8220;They are also going to do third party again,&#8221; Clinton said. &#8220;I&#8217;m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third party candidate,&#8221; Clinton said, reportedly referring to Gabbard.
Plouffe asked Clinton about past third-party candidates like Jill Stein of the Green Party, who election analysts say helped Trump win a couple key states. Clinton returned to the mysterious candidate.
&#8220;She is a favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and ways of supporting her so far. That&#8217;s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not because she is also a Russian asset,&#8221; Clinton said. &#8220;They know they can&#8217;t win without a third-party candidate, and so I do not know who it is going to be but I can guarantee you they will have a vigorous third-party challenge in the key states that they most need it.&#8221;
The New York Times is also claiming Gabbard is a Russian asset.
&#8220;She is injecting a bit of chaos into her own party’s primary race, threatening to boycott that debate to protest what she sees as a &#8216;rigging&#8217; of the 2020 election. That’s left some Democrats wondering what, exactly, she is up to in the race, while others worry about supportive signs from online bot activity and the Russian news media,&#8221; The Times wrote Oct. 12.
For her part, Gabbard said it&#8217;s all fantasy.
&#8220;The New York Times and CNN have also smeared veterans like myself for calling for an end to this regime change war [in Syria]. &#8230; Just two days ago, The New York Times put out an article saying that I’m a Russian asset and an Assad apologist, and all these different smears,&#8221; she said Tuesday in the Democratic debate.
Gabbard also fired back at Clinton on Twitter. &#8220;Thank you @HillaryClinton,” she posted on Friday. “You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain.
&#8220;From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a &#8230; concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why. Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and &#8230; powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine, afraid of the threat I pose.&#8221;
Then Gabbard delivered a direct challenge to Clinton. &#8220;It’s now clear that this primary is between you and me. Don’t cowardly hide behind your proxies. Join the race directly.&#8221;
&#8220;Hillary Clinton is labeling me as a foreign agent and a traitor, smearing and undermining my campaign, both directly herself and indirectly through her proxies,&#8221; Gabbard said in a Friday night interview with <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-suggests-russians-are-grooming-a-2020-democratic-candidate/">CBS News</a>.
&#8220;The reason why she’s doing this is because she knows that she can’t control me. She knows that she’s not going to be able to manipulate me if I’m elected president to be able to continue these warmongering policies that she has championed,&#8221; Gabbard said.

Gabbard

CHICKEN: Hillary Clinton Bails Out Of D.C. Event That Tulsi Gabbard Is Attending

Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat representative from Hawaii and 2020 presidential candidate, has been the target of vicious conspiracy theories this week after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested she was a “Russian asset.”
It was Clinton’s campaign in 2016, along with the DNC, that sought help from Russia in finding dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump, culminating in the salacious Steele Dossier. Their smears have persisted in painting Trump and his supporters as Russian assets and bots and helped launch a two-year investigation into the Trump campaign, which found no collusion with Russia.
Clinton is now claiming Gabbard is a “Russian asset,” further watering down the term. The twice failed presidential candidate made the claim on the podcast “Campaign HQ with David Plouffe,” and her comments were quickly spread in the media, with supporters parroting her remarks.
Gabbard, a United States Veteran, has since defended herself from Clinton’s smears, calling the former First Lady “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-lights-up-hillary-clinton-for-suggesting-shes-a-russian-asset-the-queen-of-warmongers">The Queen of Warmongers</a>.”
“Great! Thank you [Hillary Clinton],” Gabbard tweeted in response to Clinton. “You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain.”
“From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why,” she continued. “Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine, afraid of the threat I pose.”
Gabbard’s husband, freelance cinematographer Abraham Williams, also defended his wife on Twitter, sharing a photo of her in uniform planting flowers at a veteran’s grave.
“I just want to share this photo as a reminder of where <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard">@TulsiGabbard</a>‘s loyalties lay. For anyone to smear my wife as an agent or asset of another country is offensive to all Americans, no matter where your political ideologies lay,” he wrote.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I just want to share this photo as a reminder of where <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TulsiGabbard</a>‘s loyalties lay. For anyone to smear my wife as an agent or asset of another country is offensive to all Americans, no matter where your political ideologies lay. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HillaryClinton?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HillaryClinton</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/QueenOfWarmongers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#QueenOfWarmongers</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tulsi2020?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Tulsi2020</a> <a href="https://t.co/rpnZ3stl4K">pic.twitter.com/rpnZ3stl4K</a>
— Abraham Williams (@abewilliamsdp) <a href="https://twitter.com/abewilliamsdp/status/1185382849702219777?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Gabbard also gave interviews to several media outlets Friday evening to defend herself. On <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-suggests-russians-are-grooming-a-2020-democratic-candidate/">CBS News</a>, Gabbard said Clinton was smearing her “because she knows she can’t control me.”
&#8220;Hillary Clinton is labeling me as a foreign agent and a traitor, smearing and undermining my campaign, both directly herself and indirectly through her proxies,&#8221; Gabbard said in the interview.
“The reason why she’s doing this is because she knows that she can’t control me. She knows that she’s not going to be able to manipulate me if I’m elected president to be able to continue these warmongering policies that she has championed,&#8221; she added.
Gabbard also brought up her status as a veteran to defend herself from Clinton’s conspiracy theory.
“This is a message to every veteran in this country who has put their life on the line to serve our country, to every single American who believes strongly that we must end this long-standing foreign policy of being the world&#8217;s police and waging these regime-change wars, which is really the legacy of Hillary Clinton, then we are traitors to the nation that we love,&#8221; Gabbard said. &#8220;This is despicable on so many levels.&#8221;

Tulsi Gabbard’s Husband Shares Powerful Photo Reminding People Where Her Loyalties Lie

Dear Mr. Brin: Fifty years ago this week, when I was a 21-year-old college senior, I was in the Soviet Union, sent by the government of Israel to smuggle in Jewish religious items and smuggle out names of Jews who wanted to escape the Soviet Union and could then be issued a formal invitation to Israel.
I was chosen because I was a committed Jew and because I knew Hebrew and Russian. I was no hero, but the trip did entail risk. The Soviets did not appreciate people smuggling out names of Soviet citizens who sought to emigrate, information the Israeli government and activist groups in America used to advocate on their behalf.
My four weeks in the USSR were, of course, life-changing. This young American, lucky beyond belief to have spent his entire life in the freest country in the world, experienced what it was like to live in a totalitarian police state. People feared merely being seen speaking with a Westerner, lest the KGB arrest and interrogate them. People arranged to meet me at a certain tree in a certain park and only spoke to me while walking to avoid eavesdroppers. I met with Jewish engineers, doctors and professors who could find no work because they were known to the government to be &#8220;otkazniki,&#8221; or &#8220;refuseniks&#8221; — Jews who had applied for exit visas to leave the Soviet Union and been refused permission. I&#8217;m sure you know of them from your parents.
I left the Soviet Union angry and grateful — angry there are people who have the audacity to tell other people what they could and could not say, and grateful beyond measure to have been born in America, where no one could tell anyone what they could say. From that day to this, I have never taken freedom, especially freedom of speech, for granted.
Why I am writing to you about this?
Because, beyond my wildest dreams, two things are happening in America.
One is that for the first time in America&#8217;s history, free speech is seriously threatened.
In 1977, when Nazis sought to march in Skokie, Illinois — those terrible human beings chose Skokie because it was home to many Jewish Holocaust survivors — virtually every liberal and conservative organization, including Jewish organizations, defended the Nazis&#8217; right to march. Because in America — and only in America — it was understood that even if the most loathsome speech was not protected, all speech was at risk.
That has changed.
Today, decent people — people who abhor Nazism and every other form of evil, left or right; people like Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro and Ayaan Hirsi Ali — are shouted down, threatened, disinvited or never invited to speak at America&#8217;s universities.
The other thing that is happening is even more frightening. The company that you co-founded, Google, the greatest conduit of speech in world history, is also suppressing speech. I have asked myself over and over: How could the company founded by a man whose parents fled the Soviet Union do this?
It so boggles the mind that I have to hope you are simply not fully aware of what your company is doing.
So, in a nutshell, let me tell you what Google has done to one organization, Prager University (better known as PragerU). Every week, PragerU releases a five-minute video on virtually every subject outside of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Some of the finest minds in the world have presented these videos — including professors from Harvard, Stanford and MIT; four Pulitzer Prize winners; three former prime ministers; liberals; conservatives; Democrats; Republicans (including never-Trumpers); gays; and, of course, many women and members of ethnic and racial minorities.
Yet YouTube, which Google owns, has placed hundreds of our videos on its restricted list. In addition to the inherent smear of being labeled &#8220;inappropriate for children,&#8221; this means no family that filters out pornography and graphic violence, no school and no library can see those videos. Among those restricted videos is one during former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper defends Israel. Had someone told me 50 years ago that a company led by the son of Soviet Jewish refuseniks would suppress a video by a world leader defending the Jewish state, I would have told them they were out of their mind. That&#8217;s one reason I can only assume, or at least hope, that you are not fully aware of what your company is doing.
Or how about a video series I present on the Ten Commandments? YouTube is suppressing a number of those, too. When Sen. Ted Cruz asked a Google official why Google restricted one of my videos on the Ten Commandments, the official responded (it&#8217;s on YouTube) that it was because the video &#8220;contains references to murder.&#8221;
In fact, PragerU has repeatedly asked Google over the past several years why any of our videos are on the restricted list, and we have received either a runaround or silence. We have never received a substantive explanation. We have no desire to see government intervene in private business to protect free speech. But your company has availed itself of protections under law that shield it from liability for defamation, copyright infringement, etc. Your company&#8217;s arrogance is such that a vast number of Americans — liberals as well as conservatives — are worried that the major conduit of speech in the Free World doesn&#8217;t care about free speech.
Mr. Brin, along with millions of other Americans, I fought to bring your parents from a land with no freedom to the Land of the Free. None of us has ever asked for anything in return. It was our honor to work for liberty in general and for Soviet Jewry specifically.
What Americans most want from immigrants is that they help keep America free. I never had any doubt that those leaving the Soviet Union would fulfill that mission.
Until now.
Freedom of speech is the most fundamental of all freedoms. It&#8217;s what your parents yearned for and bequeathed to you. Please don&#8217;t help take it away from those who made it possible — the people of America.
Sincerely yours,
Dennis Prager
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in April 2018, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Exodus. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; comes to theaters fall 2019. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.

Sergey Brin.

PRAGER: An Open Letter To Sergey Brin

Free Speech

Google

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) fired back on Friday after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seemed to suggest that the Democratic presidential candidate is a &#8220;Russian asset&#8221; who is being &#8220;groom[ed]&#8221; to run as a third-party candidate.
&#8220;Great! Thank you [Hillary Clinton],&#8221; Gabbard responded to Clinton. &#8220;You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain.&#8221;
&#8220;From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine, afraid of the threat I pose.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&#8230; concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why. Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and &#8230;
&mdash; Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1185289627936219136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The Hawaii congresswoman&#8217;s remarks come only two days after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hillary-clinton-tulsi-gabbard-a-russian-asset-being-groomed-for-third-party-run">Clinton sat down with</a> President Barack Obama&#8217;s former campaign manager, David Plouffe, during an appearance on his podcast &#8220;Campaign HQ.&#8221;
&#8220;I think they have got their eye on someone who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate. She is the favorite of the Russians,&#8221; Clinton said. &#8220;They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far.&#8221;
&#8220;That&#8217;s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not because she&#8217;s also a Russian asset. Yeah, she&#8217;s a Russian asset &#8212; I mean, totally,&#8221; she added. &#8220;They know they can&#8217;t win without a third-party candidate. So I don&#8217;t know who it&#8217;s going to be, but I will guarantee you they will have a vigorous third-party challenge in the key states that they most needed.&#8221;
While the former first lady refrained from naming the &#8220;Democratic primary&#8221; candidate to whom she was initially referring, Clinton&#8217;s spokesman Nick Merrill later confirmed that it was, in fact, Gabbard.
&#8220;If the nesting doll fits,&#8221; Merrill replied when asked directly about the congresswoman.
Gabbard <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-tulsi-gabbard-rules-out-third-party-run-molly-prince">revealed in August</a> that she will not run for president on a third party ticket if she fails to win the Democratic Party&#8217;s presidential nomination. However, she challenged the twice-failed presidential candidate to jump into the 2020 race for a third time.
&#8220;It&#8217;s now clear that this primary is between you and me,&#8221; Gabbard said to Clinton. &#8220;Don&#8217;t cowardly hide behind your proxies. Join the race directly.&#8221;
Clinton famously lost the 2016 presidential election against President Donald Trump in a stunning upset. Even following her failed bid, she has been an outspoken critic of the president and his administration, and has repeatedly and publicly mulled over running for the Democratic nomination in the upcoming election cycle.
&#8220;Maybe there does need to be a rematch,&#8221; Clinton said earlier in the month. &#8220;Obviously, I can beat him again.&#8221;
While Trump won the Electoral College and ultimately the presidency, Clinton seized the popular vote. She has subsequently listed dozens of reasons for her loss, but maintains that she should have won and would win in a re-match against the president.
As of publication, Gabbard sits at 1.2% support among Democratic primary voters, according to the <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html">RealClearPolitics</a> national polling average.

Democratic Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard Visits &#8220;FOX &amp; Friends&#8221;

Tulsi Gabbard Lights Up Hillary Clinton For Suggesting She’s A Russian Asset: &#8216;The Queen Of Warmongers&#8217;

On Wednesday, twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton seemed to suggest that Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is &#8220;the favorite of Russians&#8221; and is being groomed for a third-party run in 2020.
&#8220;I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on someone who’s currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate. She’s the favorite of the Russians,&#8221; Hillary said, apparently referring to Gabbard, according to <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/hillary-clinton-appears-to-claim-russians-grooming-tulsi-gabbard-to-run-as-third-party-candidate">The Daily Beast</a>. &#8220;They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far.&#8221;
&#8220;That’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not because she’s also a Russian asset. Yeah, she’s a Russian asset — I mean, totally,&#8221; the Democrat continued. &#8220;They know they can’t win without a third-party candidate. So I don’t know who it’s going to be, but I will guarantee you they will have a vigorous third-party challenge in the key states that they most needed.&#8221;
The former secretary of state made the comments during an episode of the podcast &#8220;<a href="https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vaHEtcGxvdWZmZQ&amp;episode=OGE2M2FhMTgtZTZlMS0xMWU5LTk4YWEtNTM4NTJiZDViMzc5&amp;hl=en&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjzmZSA-KXlAhXmm-AKHZsMC_AQieUEegQIABAE&amp;ep=6&amp;at=1571406131757">Campaign HQ with David Plouffe</a>&#8221; without referring to Gabbard by name.
Following the podcast, however, a spokesman for Clinton appeared to confirm it was Gabbard to whom she was referring.
&#8220;Clinton spox [Nick Merrill], when asked if [Clinton] was referring to Gabbard: &#8216;If the nesting doll fits,'&#8221; CNN&#8217;s Dan Merica reported.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Hillary Clinton appears to suggest Russians are &#39;grooming&#39; Tulsi Gabbard for third-party run.
Clinton spox <a href="https://twitter.com/NickMerrill?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NickMerrill</a>, when asked if HRC was referring to Gabbard: “If the nesting doll fits.”
More here: <a href="https://t.co/MfnW3HAmCI">https://t.co/MfnW3HAmCI</a>
&mdash; Dan Merica (@merica) <a href="https://twitter.com/merica/status/1185225224234635265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
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As noted by The Daily Beast, Gabbard pledged in August to refrain from a third-party run if she were to lose the Democratic nomination.
Gabbard has yet to respond. 
As argued by The Daily Wire’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/curl-hillary-clinton-has-become-completely-delusional">Joseph Curl </a>earlier in the week, Mrs. Clinton’s behavior has become increasingly &#8220;delusional.&#8221;
For example, just last week, Hillary claimed she beat President Donald Trump in the 2016 election. 
&#8220;You know, it truly is remarkable how obsessed he remains with me,&#8221; she said of President Trump, as reported by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hillary-falsely-claims-she-won-2016-election-suggests-she-might-run-again">The Daily Wire</a>. &#8220;But this latest tweet is so typical of him. Nothing has been more examined and looked at than my e-mails. We all know that.&#8221;
&#8220;So maybe there does need to be a rematch. Obviously, I can beat him again,&#8221; Hillary claimed. &#8220;But, just seriously, I don’t understand, I don’t think anybody understands what motivates him.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Hillary Clinton coming down with a strong case of Stacey Abrams Syndrome and claiming she won the 2016 election. <a href="https://t.co/uTSj72IMN0">pic.twitter.com/uTSj72IMN0</a>
&mdash; Zach Parkinson (@AZachParkinson) <a href="https://twitter.com/AZachParkinson/status/1181746036911546368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Earlier this month, the former first lady called Trump an &#8220;illegitimate president,&#8221; adding that he’s &#8220;very insecure about it.&#8221;
&#8220;First, I do think that he knows that he’s an illegitimate president,&#8221; Hillary said of Trump, during an appearance on &#8220;The View.&#8221; &#8220;And because of that he’s very insecure about it.&#8221;
Trump &#8220;is someone who has to dominate and be, you know, the only voice in the room and the biggest guy on the block, the master of the universe, and he can’t stand any kind of questioning or any kind of dialogue,&#8221; she offered. 
Of course, as previously noted by The Daily Wire, it was Hillary who was absolutely rattled and deeply concerned for our democracy when Trump suggested in October 2016 that he would have to “look at” everything before conceding the presidential election if he were to lose. 
&#8220;That’s horrifying,&#8221; she said at the time about Trump’s remarks, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/20/us/politics/presidential-debate.html">The New York Times</a>. &#8220;Let’s be clear about what he is saying and what that means. He is denigrating — he is talking down our democracy. And I am appalled that someone who is the nominee of one of our two major parties would take that position.&#8221;
It&#8217;s &#8220;really troubling,&#8221; she added. &#8220;That is not the way our democracy works.&#8221;
Editor&#8217;s note: This article has been revised to clarify that while Clinton appeared to suggest in the interview that Gabbard was a &#8220;Russian asset&#8221; being groomed for a third party run, she did not specify that the Democratic candidate she referenced is Gabbard.

Hillary Clinton, Tulsi Gabbard

Hillary Clinton Implies Tulsi Gabbard Favored By Russians, Being Groomed For Third-Party Run

<div>
Russian President Vladimir Putin has used the Syrian Civil War to strengthen his strategic position against NATO and expand Russian influence in the Middle East.
Why is Russia Involved in the Syrian Conflict?
Since taking office, Vladimir Putin has been intent on restoring Russia as a great world power.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian military radically shrank and decayed. A strong navy is essential to project power and protect commerce but, despite 23 million miles of coastline, Russia does not have a single warm water port. Ports that are not frozen year-round are very shallow. In order for a Russian ship to access a world ocean, it must go through a chokepoint controlled by either a NATO member country or Japan, a close ally of the United States.
Putin has prioritized rebuilding the armed forces and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1356788000662?journalCode=tstc20#_i4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1356788000662?journalCode%3Dtstc20%23_i4&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHkWX4yQlDDZ0qE8UQxx_q8gARJQA">restoring</a> the Russian navy’s ocean-going capability in order to deter NATO, which he views as the greatest threat to Russia.
The Kremlin’s military strategy is designed to break out of “perceived NATO encirclement,” <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2015/10/06/us-russia-building-arc-of-steel-from-arctic-to-med/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2015/10/06/us-russia-building-arc-of-steel-from-arctic-to-med/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEvmaf9ato1RTP6xN3yYmV1AHODRA">according</a> to Adm. Mark Ferguson, commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Europe and the Allied Joint Force Command in Naples, by creating an “arc of steel from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.” In <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013/december/russian-navy-rebalances-mediterranean" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013/december/russian-navy-rebalances-mediterranean&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGy8X8ILTtYdhkU31jtSUCowetvOg">2013</a>, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu similarly stated the “Mediterranean region was the core of all essential dangers to Russia’s national interests” and established a naval department task force in the region on a “permanent basis.”
Tartus
During the Cold War, advanced ships from both the United States and Soviet Union were <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013/december/russian-navy-rebalances-mediterranean" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013/december/russian-navy-rebalances-mediterranean&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGy8X8ILTtYdhkU31jtSUCowetvOg">present</a> in the Mediterranean Sea. More recently, American ships have been focused in the Persian Gulf and Western Pacific.
Russia’s only naval base outside the former Soviet Union is in Tartus, Syria. After the Soviet collapse, it was only used occasionally by Russian ships, but the Kremlin expressed renewed interest in the facility in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/oct/08/syria.russia" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/oct/08/syria.russia&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGp1pPoaYKG_By5IRaBoVsLH4OBIQ">2005</a>. Tartus is used for maintenance and is capable of holding 11 warships at a time, including nuclear submarines. In 2017, Syria and Russia signed a new lease for 49 years, with plans for <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-russia-turning-syria-major-naval-base-nuclear-warships-19813" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-russia-turning-syria-major-naval-base-nuclear-warships-19813&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG5F5GWbWVrYyupsXG2FlxxEpz_qg">expansion</a>.
Without Tartus, all Russian ships must sail through the Bosporus Strait, which is controlled by NATO member Turkey.
Putin began providing weapons to Assad to “fight terrorism” in 2011. However, the anti-ship cruise missiles and advanced air-defense systems the Kremlin <a href="https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/the-new-cold-war-in-the-mediterranean" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/the-new-cold-war-in-the-mediterranean&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHX4sHEqDhcMJmRYVIaCZEfLZmRgg">provided</a> were not to fight ISIS — a group with no ships or planes. “These systems are aimed at denying NATO the ability to operate freely in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as helping to crush all opposition to Assad,” Frederick Kagan and John Miller <a href="https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/the-new-cold-war-in-the-mediterranean" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/the-new-cold-war-in-the-mediterranean&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHX4sHEqDhcMJmRYVIaCZEfLZmRgg">wrote</a>. “Russian submarines can threaten both seaborne and land targets and if they range the entire Mediterranean, no NATO capitol is safe,” Kagan and Miller continued.
The Kremlin has benefitted from the Syria conflict in a number of ways. Putin has used this regional instability to establish working relationships with Iran, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan; in every case, backing the status quo, as Leonoid Bershidsky <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/08/putins-russia-is-a-middle-eastern-country-a67624" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/08/putins-russia-is-a-middle-eastern-country-a67624&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEyaCEjEof3gn0W7B_1L2YQfb7zpQ">points out</a>. “Such a record endears Middle Eastern leaders to Putin: They can be reasonably certain he won’t pull a fast one on them. With the U.S., they can’t be so sure, since Washington has backed or directly performed several regime changes in the region,” Bershidksy <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/08/putins-russia-is-a-middle-eastern-country-a67624" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/08/putins-russia-is-a-middle-eastern-country-a67624&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEyaCEjEof3gn0W7B_1L2YQfb7zpQ">writes</a>.
Continued U.S. presence in Syria will not alter Russia’s strategic position in the Eastern Mediterranean. However, it is worth nothing that as U.S. credibility has decreased in the region, Russian credibility has actually increased.
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Morgan Wirthlin is Chief of Staff at the Center for Security Policy, located in Washington, D.C.
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