GOP Tops Democrats in Fundraising Haul

By David Kamioner | January 31, 2020

The impeachment drama may be annoying in some ways and a national calamity in others. But it certainly hasn’t dulled the fundraising acumen of the president and the Republican National Committee.

They pulled off their best ever non-election year by smashing their former numbers for December.

The GOP raised $26.5 million in the last month of 2019. That’s a $6 million gain on their November number and their best December ever. The increase is likely caused by a backlash effect from the presidential impeachment.

RELATED: Trump Wins Witness Vote 51-49, Acquittal Looks Solid

In 2019 the Republicans and Trump together raised $463 million, with an end of the year cash on hand balance of $194 million and $0 debt. The RNC raised $241 million of that amount.

The Democrats were $6.5 million in debt as of November of 2019.

Democrat contenders for the top also raised steep amounts, by Dem standards, in the last quarter of 2019. Biden raised $22.7 million. That puts him below Buttigieg at $24.7 million. Warren only raised $21.2 million. She was bested by the party cash leader, Bernie Sanders, at $34.5 million. For socialists, Sanders’ minions seem to have found at least enough money to pay for his Quixotic run for the White House.

These numbers may seen like a lot to you. But as a former political campaign director I can tell you a modern national campaign can go through $100 million before the voting even starts. No? Look at Michael Bloomberg’s media purchases just up to this point, before the first voting starts in Iowa.

He has already well surpassed that mark.

What’s it spent on? Mostly media, logistics, and personnel. Television ad buys don’t come cheap in media markets like New Jersey that boast really only two markets, New York City and Philadelphia. Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago political ad prices, even sometimes the cable buys?

Fougedaboudit.

It also takes a small army of drivers, advance staff, stage crews, digital nerds, oppo jocks, pollsters, media lounge lizards, graying honchos, and a host of others to run a modern presidential campaign. And they all want to be fed, housed when on the road, flown or bused about in a timely manner, and paid semi-well.

RELATED: Ilhan Omar Launches Bill To Stop Trump From Carrying Out ‘Muslim Ban’

In return they will usually work like dogs seven days a week without much sleep. They will run on caffeine and hate and their only solace is that somehow, some way, the coiffed idiot they have hitched their star to doesn’t politically auger into a mountain and they end up with a cushy staff job at some obscure DC federal agency.

These men and women are the true deciders of America’s political fate, because if they drop the ball their clients do too and history is changed.

Welcome to your republic.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Rand Paul Says President Trump Would Be ‘Going Against The Law If He Didn’t Investigate The Bidens’

Republican Senator Rand Paul asserts that President Donald Trump had a legal obligation to investigate potential corruption committed by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

Paul appeared on Fox News Thursday night program “The Story with Martha MacCallum” after making news earlier in the day by reading a question that had been censored by Chief Justice John Roberts on the Senate floor. Paul’s question cited the “original legislation” providing money to Ukraine as having included a provision to “investigate corruption.”

RELATED: Ted Cruz: Democrats Made ‘Very Serious Strategic Error,’ Hunter Biden Testimony Now Needed

Rand Paul: Trump NOT Asking Ukraine to Investigate Bidens Would Be Breaking the Law

“Did you think there was anything wrong with the phone call?” asked host MacCallum. “Did you see it as a request for a political favor in the coming election against somebody who is likely running against the president?”

“The original legislation that we gave money to Ukraine said that the president has to investigate corruption,” Paul responded. “And so I think there is a lot of evidence that the Bidens are corrupt and that there was corruption, so he would actually be going against the law if he didn’t investigate the Bidens. I think he did what was completely in compliance with the law and this is just partisanship thing gone amok, and ultimately the Democrats are going to regret they did this because they are making it very, very hard for the country to have anything that we can do together.”

Paul was likely referring to a 1998 treaty that former president Bill Clinton signed with Ukraine that called for “Mutual Legal Assistance” to investigate corruption. Fox News host Jesse Watters brought up this fact during a debate back in September with fellow “The Five” co-host Juan Williams, saying that Trump had a “firm legal underpinning” to pursue an investigation into the Bidens.

RELATED: Schiff: Calling Hunter Biden to Testify an ‘Abuse’ of Impeachment Process

Paul an Ally of Trump

Rand Paul has consistently opposed the Democrats impeachment scam, including questioning whether Donald Trump’s enemies have conspired against the President long before the Ukraine phone call was a twinkle in liberal eyes.

Not to mention, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Joe and Hunter Biden are corrupt!

The post Rand Paul Says President Trump Would Be ‘Going Against The Law If He Didn’t Investigate The Bidens’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

Thursday Night, the Hour Grew Late For Democrats in More Ways than One

By David Kamioner | January 31, 2020

As news of the Bolton and Schiff videos, clips that destroyed their witness argument, closed in on the Democrats the president’s opponents got stranger and more rabid. They knew they were likely to lose the whole match on Friday and they began to lash out at the GOP legal team, themselves, and at their real enemies, the voters of the United States of America.

Developments included:

  • GOP attorney Pat Cipollone made the argument that if a partisan impeachment like this was to remove the president from office for the vague charge of “abuse of power” then all future presidents, GOP and Democrat, would be subject to the same type of witch hunt.

RELATED: Impeachment Trial Could Be Over Friday Night

  • Elizabeth Warren, in a question, tried to impugn the credibility of Chief Justice John Roberts. Roberts sighed after he read the question and even Adam Schiff defended Roberts during his response to the question.
  • The Democrats made repeated attempts to classify any negative information as “conspiracy theories”, even going as far as to label the legal record and established facts as such.When they didn’t do that, when repeatedly shown the record, they just merely punted the question and went back to their tired redundant talking points.
  • The GOP team made the point that numerous people, including Joe Biden, thought there was no need for witnesses in the 1998 Clinton impeachment trial.
  • Democrats consistently fell into GOP traps when it came to the CIA informer. When a GOP senator hinted at Ciaramella, a member of the Democrat legal team would whine about it, thus talking about the subject and using up their time. Which is exactly what the GOP team wanted them to do.
  • The Democrats began to insinuate that the American people are not fit to decide the presidency. Thus the Dems had the duty to it for them through impeachment. We’ll see those clips again.
  • As Schiff and his pals watched the day grow later, the pressure started to get to them in a very obvious manner. We heard more about “Russian propaganda” and “baseless smears.”The GOP legal team was hitting nerves and it was showing in the words and demeanor of all the Democrats in the room.

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  • In the last question, and we’ll have more on this later, Jerry Nadler bolted out of his seat and stole the podium from Adam Schiff. Schiff seemed stunned by the move and tried to call after Nadler, as Nadler made his way to the podium. Nadler ignored him and proceeded to throw a tantrum.

The trial resumes, perhaps for the last day, Friday afternoon.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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The post Thursday Night, the Hour Grew Late For Democrats in More Ways than One appeared first on The Political Insider.

Rush Limbaugh Touts Polls Showing Trump Surging Since Dems Began Impeachment

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh shared several polls showing President Donald Trump surging since Democrats began their push for impeachment.

“Schiff had all the witnesses, and they don’t have any facts,” he explained. “It’s been going on since October.”

And it’s only making life harder on their party in the upcoming election …

“In an ABC News/Washington Post poll, Trump has surged by double digits in head-to-head matchups against his competitors,” Limbaugh relayed.

“Against the four most likely winners of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, in October Trump was down 56 to 39 against [Biden],” he continued. “As of now, the gap has closed 13 points. Trump is down four points to [Biden], 50 to 46.”

Limbaugh further noted that the polls show Trump closing the gap between him and “crazy Bernie [Sanders]” – from 14 points to just two.

RELATED: Gallup Poll: Race Relations See Double-Digit Increase Since Trump Entered White House

A Record Obama Would Envy

Limbaugh expanded on the matter, touting a recent Gallup poll, as covered here at The Political Insider, which indicates satisfaction with race relations and the position of minorities in America have significantly increased since President Trump took office.

Gallup discovered a trend demonstrating double-digit improvements in several categories – including how Americans view the nation’s economy, security from terrorism, military strength and the state of race relations in our country.

The position of blacks and other racial minorities in the nation also rose 9 percent since Trump’s first day in office.

The President is making headway with minorities, something that could seal his victory in 2020.

Gallup reveals that in general, Americans haven’t been this satisfied with the direction of the country in nearly 15 years.

The survey finds that Americans are overwhelmingly more satisfied with the state of the country than they were in the final days of the Obama-Biden presidency:

  • 68% of Americans are satisfied with the U.S. economy, up 22 points since Trump took office.
  • 68% of Americans are satisfied with the nation’s security from terrorism, up 18 points since Trump took office.
  • 81% of Americans are satisfied with the nation’s military strength and preparedness, up 15 points since Trump took office.

RELATED: CBS Reporter Bombshell: Obama WISHES He Had Trump’s Record With Minorities

Race Relations

Limbaugh explained exactly why race relations actually deteriorated under Obama, America’s first black President.

“No criticism of the president was going to be permitted. Even warranted policy criticism would not be permitted because it was going to be called racist,” Limbaugh elucidated. “So race relations got far more friction with Obama in the White House.”

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has, in the past, concurred that any media narrative that race relations are actually worse under President Trump than they were in the past is ridiculous.

“It sure doesn’t feel worse than when I grew up in Jim Crow Alabama. So let’s drop this notion that we’re worse race relations today than we were in the past,” Rice asserted in an interview with NBC’s ‘Today’ show.

Polling at the time of Obama’s election showed just how the former President was given a lot of credit to work with when it came to race relations and how he utterly squandered it by the time he left office.

One such survey a month prior to the 2016 election showed a majority of Americans believed race relations had worsened under Obama. 54% said the divide had grown worse, while a very low 16% said it had gotten better.

By contrast, in May of 2009, mere months into Obama’s first term, 32% of all Americans believed race relations had improved, while only 6% said they had gotten worse.

That is a massive 64-point turnaround. Obama took the racial harmony that led to his historic election and turned it into a wedge that divided the entire nation.

Just another mess President Trump is cleaning up to keep America great.

The post Rush Limbaugh Touts Polls Showing Trump Surging Since Dems Began Impeachment appeared first on The Political Insider.

Bolton Video Guts Democrat Witness Strategy

By David Kamioner | January 30, 2020

Well, well.

One thing about DC is that everyone has said everything at one time or another for every reason.

So it is with former temporary Democrat savior and darling John Bolton. The Democrats wanted him on the witness stand in the senate impeachment trial of President Trump because, in an illegally leaked book passage to gin up book preorders, Bolton claimed that the president directly told him that Ukrainian military aid was completely tied to a political hit on Joe Biden by the Ukrainians.

Turns out, it was all a gimmick to sell books.

RELATED: Rand Paul and Justice John Roberts Battle Over Whistleblower

We know this because the president and the busy bees on his opposition research staff have unearthed a video in which former Trump National Security Advisor Bolton makes no mention of any quid pro quo in the Ukrainian matter. None.

They also found clips of Schiff personally trashing Bolton.

Given the Democrats obsessed on Bolton and his supposed damning indictment of the president during the entire Wednesday session of the trial they have some explaining to do when the Thursday session rolls around. No doubt Jay Sekulow and Alan Dershowitz can’t wait to hear it.

The first video is an August 2019 clip from Radio Free Europe. In the interview Bolton says the presidential relationship with Ukrainian president Zelensky was “warm and cordial.” He says not a word about misconduct on the part of President Trump. He even makes the GOP president’s case by saying fighting corruption in Ukraine was a “high priority” for Trump.

But now, with Bolton needing cash for a post White House career, he changes his tune. Well golly, what a surprise.

Seeing the clip the President Trump tweeted: “Game over.”

And what of the honesty and credibility of prospective Democrat star witness Bolton? Let Adam Schiff explain it to us, “This is someone who’s likely to exaggerate the dangerous impulses of the president toward belligerence, his proclivity to act without thinking, and his love of conspiracy theories,” Schiff said to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on March 22, 2018.

RELATED: Wednesday Senate Trial Got More Heated as it Got Later

And in 2005…
“And particularly given the history, where we’ve had the politicizing of intelligence over WMD [weapons of mass destruction], why we would pick someone who the very same issue has been raised repeatedly, and that is John Bolton’s politicization of the intelligence he got on Cuba and other issues, why we would want someone with that lack of credibility, I can’t understand,” Schiff said, emphasis mine.

The GOP legal team will most probably be ready with those clips at the trial on Thursday. Fun will ensue.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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SHOWDOWN: Rand Paul Vows to Fight after Justice John Roberts Blocks Question Naming Whistleblower

Tensions were on the rise Wednesday evening as Chief Justice John Roberts blocked a question from Senator Rand Paul that would have identified the alleged whistleblower at the center of the impeachment trial.

Roberts’ actions prompted shouting from the Kentucky Senator as he vowed to “fight for recognition.”

Sean Davis, a co-founder of the Federalist, reported that Roberts, at the behest of Democrats, “previously vowed to ban any questions about the whistleblower whatsoever, named or not.”

“Roberts’ arbitrary and unilateral censorship of senators and Senate business raises serious questions about whether he would similarly ban any and all motions to subpoena by name the whistleblower … to compel his testimony,” Davis said.

GOP senators previously suggested having the whistleblower testify should witnesses be approved for the trial.

After Republicans threatened a vote to rebuke Roberts on the record, the Chief Justice retreated and said the actual name of the whistleblower would be the only thing earning a block.

Even that should be challenged.

 

RELATED: Watch: Rand Paul Obliterates Reporter Who Claims It’s Illegal To Out Whistleblower

Paul Fuming

Roberts move at the encouraging of Democrats, reportedly, left Paul fuming and vowing to engage in a fight to be heard.

“I don’t want to have to stand up to try and fight for recognition,” Paul was heard shouting during a break in the trial. “If I have to fight for recognition, I will.”

Reporter Niels Lesniewski said Paul’s complaint was “audible from the galleries above the chamber.”

Paul, who has been insistent on testimony from the whistleblower for the record, said “tbd [to be decided]” when asked if he would force the issue.

 

RELATED: Photo Emerges of Alleged Whistleblower Shaking Hands With Obama

Outing the Whistleblower

As Senator Paul has explained time and again, whistleblowers are protected by federal law from retaliation in the workplace but are not guaranteed anonymity.

“The whistleblower statute protects the whistleblower from having his name revealed by the inspector general,” Paul previously noted when threatening to out him. “Even The New York Times admits that no one else is under any legal obligation.”

He has noted that the whistleblower is a material witness in the case “because he worked for Joe Biden at the same time Hunter Biden was receiving $50,000 per month.”

The Political Insider has identified the alleged whistleblower as CIA officer Eric Ciaramella, a registered Democrat who worked with former Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan.

His identity is crucial because House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and his office have allegedly coordinated the effort with him to take down President Trump.

Ciaramella’s work history and coordination with Schiff’s office would indicate a political bias – not a concern over truth and justice – in trying to impeach the President, something that is thoroughly relevant to the trial.

Attorney to the whistleblower, Mark Zaid, was revealed to have discussed a coup and other devious secret plans to oust the President.

“Democrats must be accountable for their hoaxes and their crimes,” Trump said regarding the ‘coup.’

Roberts, by protecting Schiff and the whistleblower, is assuring they will not be held accountable. Paul must continue to fight this and his Republican colleagues must stand with him.

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Will Joe Biden’s Mistakes Overshadow His Experience

By Robyn Kenney | January 30, 2020

It’s clear in this sea of Democratic Presidential candidates that if Joe Biden fails to lock in the nomination, it’s nobody’s fault but his own.

Biden’s gaffes are often laughable, or even puzzling, like the odd stories he’s told about his youth:

However his recent aggression towards voters on the campaign trail show a more volatile side to Biden. Far from the friendly Joe of the Obama years who’s mistakes were usually more cringe-worthy than aggressive. 

RELATED: Warren Wants to Control Your Freedom of Speech

Try to watch this without laughing out loud: 

 

But lovable Joe Biden has shown a different side of himself; conveying either a lack of inhibition gone wrong, or perhaps, and more likely, a glimpse into a deep-seated arrogance that has given way to hostility. 

Watch the way Biden handles this man and takes hold of his jacket:

The problem still remains for the Democrats that Biden is their best shot at even coming close to beating Donald Trump. 

The former VP had the nomination teed up for him – but just like a high school athlete with a propensity to get into trouble who has a scholarship on the line – everybody around him is thinking, “Just get through the year without getting in trouble and it’s yours.”

That kid usually decides to participate in a senior prank that involves stealing farm animals and putting them on the roof of the school at night, gets suspended, and loses his free ride.

All Joe Biden has to do is not put a goat on the roof, and he will be fine. But he can’t help himself.

Biden has continued to argue with voters against the urging of his staff to move along, as heard in the video above. He presumably refuses to fully prepare for debates and media events, based on his responses to attacks from his opponents, and his overall verbal fumbling. 

Biden still has so much power over the other candidates, because as long as he’s moderately coherent and remains to appear confident in the wake of his mistakes – no one can beat his resume.

Joe Biden, by the fact that he served as Vice President for Barack Obama for eight years, with no major discord made public by the press or the administration, puts him light years ahead of any other democratic candidate. 

On paper, Joe wins. Just read his resume compared to that of say, Elizabeth Warren or Pete Buttigieg. 

Personality, presentability, and ethics aside, Biden should hands down be the nominee in this motley crew that has people subbing the phrase “voter enthusiasm” for “voter confidence”.

What about Bernie, they say. Well, Bernie’s a long-time, self-proclaimed socialist and if I have any faith in the voting population of this country to recognize the dangers of socialism it will be extremely rocked if Bernie won the nomination. 

I’m not that worried about it.

RELATED: Alan Dershowitz Hits Back at Elizabeth Warren

It seems in the end, we’re looking at Joe Biden vs. Elizabeth Warren.

Neither candidate is particularly trustworthy or captivating. And Joe Biden’s resume may hold more weight psychologically with the American voting public than we realize. 

There are new polls discussing the so-called trust factor of each candidate. In a recent survey from Quinnipiac University, the top trusted candidate was Sanders, followed by Biden, and then Warren.

Of course Sanders won “most honest” in this survey. He is literally always admitted that he wants to take everyone’s money and spread it around as he sees fit. No change in that platform.

You can trust Bernie to run the country off a cliff.

So unless I’m wrong about the majority of American voters being slightly weary of socialist policies; Sanders’ perceived honesty is a symptom of his maniacal radical views remaining consistent.  

People trust Warren less than Biden, not because Biden is proven to lie less than Warren, but because they trust him to run the show. They trust that he knows how to handle himself in the White House, to play it cool, and not run in the room with wild ideas about how to “fix” our entire economic system with a Robin Hood scheme. 

Biden knows what it’s like to be in high intensity situations and standby and listen. Warren is an intellectual egomaniac. It’s her way or the highway, and she has a lot of ideas.

If Joe Biden ever became the President of the United States, moderate Democrats can trust, for the most part, that he won’t be bullied by the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez agenda. He won’t go radical. 

Biden might pander to the far-left to keep things quiet, but if he were to become President, things wouldn’t be that different policy-wise then from then when Obama was in office. That scares conservatives, but is a relief to middle of the road Democrats.

RELATED: GOP Brings Out Three Big Guns in Senate Trial of Trump

When it comes to Burisma, or any other scandal, Biden has the connections, power, and money to cover up, or at least get away with most of it in the end. 

Look at Hillary and Benghazi. Or her email scandal. They made her sweat, but in the end she got away with everything. Other than the fact that she has to look in the mirror.

Scandal is not likely to bring down Joe Biden’s campaign, even if there’s truth to it. Only Joe can ruin his campaign – it’s his to lose. 

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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The post Will Joe Biden’s Mistakes Overshadow His Experience appeared first on The Political Insider.

Senate Impeachment Trial Moves Coming Fast and Furious, Biden Livid

By David Kamioner | January 29, 2020

Since the gavel went down in the Senate Tuesday afternoon the Hill has been abuzz with activity, plots, and counterplots. Here are the latest developments:

  • The Biden campaign is hopping mad with House managers and the Democrat Senate for possibly setting up a scenario where Joe Biden or his son Hunter would have to testify at the impeachment trial of President Trump.They know what it would do to their poll numbers and they have seen that Hunter is notoriously bad under pressure. His recent personal issues also do not play well with women. The Biden effort is putting tremendous pressure on Democrats not to permit witnesses at all, arguing that the numbers are just not there to remove Trump, why drag down Biden in a losing cause?

RELATED: GOP Brings Out Three Big Guns in Senate Trial of Trump

  • Word out of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office is that they may try a poison pill defense on witnesses. Oh sure, we’ll have witnesses, they say.And every one will be one the Democrats don’t want on the stand. Not only the Bidens, but Ciaramella, Comey, Brennan, Holder, Schiff, Nadler, and maybe even Hillary or Obama. With that prospect, they think the Democrats will think twice about witnesses.
  • Also, if witnesses are to be called, plots the McConnell office, they will be called at the same ratio they were called in the House. So, the GOP would have four witnesses to every one Democrat witness. Another poison pill gambit.
  • The White House may try to block any Bolton testimony by exerting executive privilege and then watch it play out in the courts. Bolton could testify anyway, but he may not want to go though the legal headaches of doing it.

RELATED: Bolton Manuscript Leaked, Romney and Collins May Vote Against the President

  • Internal GOP polling numbers say this process is helping them with swing voters, as the swings cannot believe the Democrats are blindly defending the Bidens when the evidence of corruption on Burisma and other issues is so overwhelming.
  • Rumor is that Senators Warren and Sanders have grown happy with the trial and the effect it is having on the Biden campaign. They want the trial to end, but not too quickly.

Correction: In a recent piece we stated “54 Republicans” are in favor of witnesses being called. There are only 53 Republicans in the Senate. It should have read “54 senators”. Mea culpa- DK

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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The post Senate Impeachment Trial Moves Coming Fast and Furious, Biden Livid appeared first on The Political Insider.