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White House calls FBI probe into Clinton’s classified emails a ‘criminal investigation’

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White House calls FBI probe into Clinton’s classified emails a ‘criminal investigation’ – to glee of Republicans – on the same day Obama endorses her

Within an hour of Barack Obama’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton, his spokesman acknowledged that she faces a ‘criminal investigation’
The misstep sent Republicans cackling to reporters
Clinton faces the possibility of prosecution for housing classified documents on a private email server
She used the homebrew setup for all her emails – including sensitive government matters – when she was secretary of state
White House press secretary Josh Earnest insisted that the endorsement wouldn’t be interpreted inside the FBI as a signal to let her off the hook
See more of the latest news on the FBI probe into Hillary Clinton’s emails

By DAVID MARTOSKO, US POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 16:22 EST, 9 June 2016 | UPDATED: 04:46 EST, 10 June 2016

Barack Obama’s spokesman described the FBI’s probe into Hillary Clinton’s classified email scandal as a ‘criminal investigation’ on Thursday, less than an hour after the president endorsed his embattled former secretary of state to succeed him.

Josh Earnest told reporters during a White House press briefing that Obama was committed to keeping his hands off the investigation, trusting career investigators and prosecutors to follow evidence wherever it leads.

‘That’s what their responsibility is,’ Earnest said. ‘And that’s why the president, when discussing this issue in each stage, has reiterated his commitment to this principle that any criminal investigation should be conducted independent of any sort of political interference.’

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3634074/White-House-calls-FBI-probe-Clinton-s-classified-emails-criminal-investigation-glee-Republicans-day-Obama-endorses-her.html#ixzz4BApAWQn1

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White House struggles to explain weak economy as Obama boasts of job growth

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By Dave Boyer – The Washington Times – Thursday, April 28, 2016

The White House labored Thursday to explain a first-quarter economic report showing the weakest growth in two years, even as President Obama was trumpeting his mastery of the economy in a New York Times Magazine interview.

The Department of Commerce reported that U.S. gross domestic product rose 0.5 percent in the first quarter of 2016, the third straight sluggish start to a year. Consumer spending and business purchases both fell, continuing trends that could have ominous implications for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as she tries to claim the mantle as Mr. Obama’s successor.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/apr/28/wh-struggles-explain-weak-economy-obama-boasts/

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VIDEO: WH Censors French President Saying ‘ISLAMIST Terrorism’

Francois Hollande

by Craig Bannister

The White House website has censored a video of French Pres. Francois Hollande saying that “Islamist terrorism” is at the “roots of terrorism.”

The White House briefly pulled video of a press event on terrorism with Pres. Obama, and when it reappeared on the WhiteHouse.gov website and YouTube, the audio of Hollande’s translator goes silent, beginning with the words “Islamist terrorism,” then begins again at the end of his sentence.

Even the audio of Hollande saying the words “Islamist terrorism” in French have, apparently, been edited from the video.

According to the official White House transcript of Hollande’s remarks, Hollande refers to “Islamist terrorism.” The audio of the bold text in brackets is missing from the video – the only point in the video were the audio is absent:

“We are also making sure that between Europe and the United States there can be a very high level coordination.

“But we’re also well aware that the roots of terrorism, [Islamist terrorism, is in Syria and in Iraq.  We therefore have to act both in Syria and in Iraq, and this is what we’re doing within the framework of the coalition.]  And we note that Daesh is losing ground thanks to the strikes we’ve been able to launch with the coalition.”

https://mrctv.org/blog/video-wh-censors-reference-islamist-terrorism-french-president

 

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Bloomberg says he is eyeing 2016 run for the White House

VH1 Save The Music Foundation Holds A Press Conference

Oliver Ralph in London, Demetri Sevastopulo in New Hampshire and Matthew Garrahan in New York

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire media owner and former New York mayor, has stated for the first time that he is considering a run for US president, a move that would dramatically reshape the 2016 race for the White House.

Speaking to the Financial Times, the founder of the eponymous financial information group criticised the quality of the debate in the presidential race. He said that he was “looking at all the options” when asked whether he was considering putting his name forward.

“I find the level of discourse and discussion distressingly banal and an outrage and an insult to the voters,” Mr Bloomberg said in an interview, before adding that the US public deserved “a lot better”.

https://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/b6d1fc34-ce9f-11e5-831d-09f7778e7377.html#axzz3zcl8e9uu

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Military Support Offered In Benghazi — Why Would White House Say No?

hillary-clinton-what-difference-does-it-make

12/10/2015 05:14 PM ET

Scandal: The administration says there just wasn’t enough time to send military help for the four Americans murdered by terrorists in the Benghazi attacks. Newly released emails show that’s another lie.

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta swore during congressional testimony in 2013 that “without an adequate warning, there was not enough time given the speed of the attack for armed military assets to respond” to Benghazi.

Killed by terrorists in the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks were U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.

In a televised interview, also in 2013, Panetta, who served as the Obama defense secretary for nearly two years, said “you cannot just simply call and expect within two minutes to have a team in place. It takes time.”

So the administration’s official line has been that no help was sent because events happened too quickly.

But the facts are catching up with the story. Emails released this week by Judicial Watch show that a Defense official offered armed intervention that could in the official’s opinion have provided help. “We have identified the forces that could move to Benghazi,” chief of staff Jeremy Bash said in an email sent to State Department leadership. “They are spinning up as we speak.”

Read More At Investor’s Business Daily: https://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/121015-784759-military-support-offered-in-benghazi-but-administration-did-not-want-it.htm#ixzz3u3bHtfoY

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Christie bashes White House over Syrian refugee plan

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November 22, 2015, 09:50 am
By Cory Bennett

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie on Sunday continued his assault on the White House’s approach to admitting Syrian refugees into the United States.

“The FBI director himself said they cannot vet these folks,” Christie told Jake Tapper in an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The New Jersey governor has drawn criticism for his opposition to taking any refugees in his state, even widows and “orphans under five.”

Everyone from President Obama to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have gone after Christie for his remarks. The issue has been in the spotlight as Congress considers a bill to restrict Syrian immigration in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has taken credit for the attacks, which killed about 130 people, and reports have since emerged suggesting at least one of the attackers may have entered Europe by using a Syrian passport.

https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/261036-christie-bashes-white-house-over-syrian-refugee-plan

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‘Everyman’ Walker runs for the White House

GOP 2016 Perfect Candidate

July 12, 2015 6:22 pm

‘Everyman’ Walker runs for the White House

Megan Murphy in Washington

He drives a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He brags about wearing a sweater he bought for $1 at Kohl’s department store.

He touts his humble upbringing as a small-town minister’s son, and how he proposed to his wife over ribs at a local barbecue joint. Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, has criss-crossed the country for months regaling crowds with his everyman, “regular Joe” shtick.

On Monday, as he becomes the 15th Republican to enter the race for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination, his backers are hoping he can convince voters not only that he is the most authentic candidate, but one who can rise to meet the most complex economic and foreign policy challenges facing the country.

“He’s a Midwesterner, he is a governor, and he is an average Joe,” said Larry Sabato, a politics expert at the University of Virginia. “People can relate to that. And if you pretend to be something you’re not, you’re going to be unmasked.”

Since surging into the top tier of the crowded field with a barnstorming speech at a GOP event in Iowa in January, Mr Walker’s workmanlike approach has been damaged by a series of public gaffes, and amid whispers from senior Republicans that he is not ready for prime time.

Having first risen to national prominence on the back of a crackdown on public sector unions and a conservative fiscal agenda rooted in boosting jobs and slashing the size of government, Mr Walker is expected to cite his record in Wisconsin as a template for broader reform.

https://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c441755c-28af-11e5-8613-e7aedbb7bdb7.html#axzz3fg7lzqAA

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WHITE HOUSE BLAMES WHITE MALE RESENTMENT FOR OBAMA FAILURES ON GUNS, RACE

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It is perfectly emblematic of the empty, hashtagging political era that the primary role of government after a mass murder would be as a semiotic interpreter for the nation.

As governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton celebrated his state’s Confederate heritage with a special star in his state’s flag. Now his wife is running for president as an ardent foe of Confederate remembrance. The GOP consensus of 20 years ago was that the display of the Confederate battle flag was up to the ones displaying it. Now they are falling over each other to denounce its public display.

None of it makes much difference in the lives of Americans or on the question of good governance.

These are things that politicians do not as part of leadership but of followership – public cues intended to show voters that a candidate is “one of them.” But they do not do much to shape outcomes. Quite the opposite. These are things you do when you can’t do anything real.

Is racism a problem in America? Not nearly what it was, but of course it is. Is it something that the federal government is going to be able to remedy? Not a chance. Are mass killings, regardless of the ideological fixation of the killer, an ongoing problem? America ranks fourth in the world for mass-shooting fatalities, so there’s certainly a problem. Is it likely to be fixed by legislation? Almost certainly not.

So what’s with all the focus on the flag?

We get an insight into the thinking of the president and his party from a WaPo piece on his many frustrations with his administration’s failures on gun control and race relations:

“‘If you are a white man in America, this country is changing dramatically. You have always been in charge,’ said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity [to] be candid. ‘So there is something to white men feeling like something has been taken away from them.’”

Not one in 1,000 white males cares about the presence of a Confederate war monument on the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse. Not one in 1 million would share the racist worldview of the Charleston killer. The overwhelming majority are focused on keeping themselves and their families afloat in the face of enormous challenges.

But focusing on them as villains is revealing and attributing the resistance to gun control and other issues as a personal response to Obama’s African heritage is an unintentionally damning revelation.

There’s nothing the president can do about the real issues, so finding and blaming a boogeyman becomes job one

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/white-house-blames-white-male-resentment-for-obama-failures-on-guns-race/article/feed/2176323?custom_click=rss

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White House: Obama stands by use of N-word

Obama-Golf

President lectures about Racism , then uses the N-Word 

By Jordan Fabian

President Obama has no regrets about using the N-word to make a point during a recent discussion on race, the White House said Monday.

“He does not,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “The president’s use of the word and the reason he used the word could not be more apparent.”

The president’s phrasing renewed a debate over who is allowed to use the word and when it’s appropriate to say.

In a podcast released Monday, the president urged the nation to deal with the enduring problem of racism, saying it has not been “cured” simply because it is no longer acceptable to utter racial slurs publicly.

“Racism, we are not cured of it. And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say n—– in public,” he said on Marc Maron’s “WTF Podcast.”“That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don’t, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior.”

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/245716-white-house-obama-stands-by-use-of-n-word

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Nerd Prom: Film shows how cozy reporters are with White House

Barack Obama

BY EDDIE SCARRY | APRIL 10, 2015 | 12:44 PM

Reporters in the national press are all in bed with their powerful government sources, and that is proven each year during White House Correspondents’ Dinner week. That’s the conclusion of a new documentary directed by a former reporter at one of Washington, D.C.’s biggest news publications.

Patrick Gavin, who most recently worked as a journalist for Politico until leaving in 2014, chronicles in his film the evolution of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner from a small annual gathering of journalists and West Wing officials in the 1920s to the multimillion dollar week-long power-jockeying event it has become today.

“Nerd Prom: Inside Washington’s Wildest Week” is an indictment of the incestuous culture fostered by the Capitol’s elite journalists and the government officials they’re supposed to be holding accountable. In Gavin’s view, this connection is encapsulated by the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Gavin says in the movie that he created it to find out what the annual event is truly about. By the end, he’s bemoaning the loss of the dinner’s meaning, which is produced by the White House Correspondents’ Association and was originally intended to celebrate press freedom, as well as serve as a scholarship award ceremony for aspiring journalists.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nerd-prom-film-shows-how-cozy-reporters-are-with-white-house/article/2562825

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How the U.S. thinks Russians hacked the White House

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By Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz, CNN
Updated 7:06 PM ET, Tue April 7, 2015

The State Department computer system has been bedeviled by signs that despite efforts to lock them out, the Russian hackers have been able to reenter the system. One official says the Russian hackers have “owned” the State Department system for months and it is not clear the hackers have been fully eradicated from the system.

As in many hacks, investigators believe the White House intrusion began with a phishing email that was launched using a State Department email account that the hackers had taken over, according to the U.S. officials.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in a speech at an FBI cyberconference in January, warned government officials and private businesses to teach employees what “spear phishing” looks like.

“So many times, the Chinese and others get access to our systems just by pretending to be someone else and then asking for access, and someone gives it to them,” Clapper said.

The ferocity of the Russian intrusions in recent months caught U.S. officials by surprise, leading to a reassessment of the cybersecurity threat as the U.S. and Russia increasingly confront each other over issues ranging from the Russian aggression in Ukraine to the U.S. military operations in Syria.

https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/07/politics/how-russians-hacked-the-wh/index.html

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Dominance of national security shakes up race for White House

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By Alexander Bolton

The resurgence of Islamic terrorism and President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran is shaking up the race for the White House, pushing national security to the forefront of the GOP primary debate.

The primacy of foreign policy could be a problem for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the libertarian Tea-Party favorite, who is set to launch his presidential campaign next week in Louisville. He proposed steep defense cuts when he first came to the Senate and has expressed wariness about foreign military interventions.

On the other hand, the new dynamic could help Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who have touted their experience on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, respectively, as they make the case for their candidacies.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/237910-dominance-of-national-security-shakes-up-race-for-white-house

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White House looking to creep into 401(k)s

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White House looking to creep into 401(k)s

By Jonathon M. Trugman

February 28, 2015 | 11:21pm

Last Monday, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at his side, President Obama attacked Wall Street, again, for essentially helping in what the federal government and businesses can no longer provide — a decent retirement.

Under the false pretense of calling for new and tougher so-called fiduciary standards for financial brokers, advisers and retirement plan representatives, the White House once again horned in on Wall Street’s compensation formulas.

However, what the president surely knows is that a vast majority of retirement plans — IRAs and 401(k)s — are in simple fee-based products like mutual funds. The commission-based accounts are for those who prefer to direct their brokers in certain purchases inside some of their retirement products.

The key to the White House’s interference is in its nuanced language.

Currently, a broker may make a recommendation that must be “suitable” for retirement account assets such as 401(k)s and IRAs.

However, the president wants to take it a step further and mandate that it be in an investor’s “fiduciary best interest.”

https://nypost.com/2015/02/28/white-house-looking-to-creep-into-401ks/

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White House: ‘It’s fair to say’ we were wrong on Paris unity rally #‎JeNeSuisPasObama‬

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White House: ‘It’s fair to say’ we were wrong on Paris unity rally

By Justin Sink – 01/12/15 01:54 PM EST

The White House erred in not sending a higher profile representative to this weekend’s solidarity march in France following a terrorist attack on a satirical newspaper, press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday.

“It’s fair to say we should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there,” Earnest told reporters at the White House.

“Had the circumstances been a little bit different, I think the president himself would have liked to be there,” Earnest added.

The White House said planning for the march had begun only 36 hours before the event, and that the security required for the president to visit would have been “onerous and significant.”

Still, Earnest said, there should be no doubt that the administration and the American people stood in solidarity with France, nor that the United States was “committed to a strong relationship. The United States is with France and committed to the same kind of values they are.”

The White House would not discuss whether it considered sending the president at any point.

Earnest said he did not know why Attorney General Eric Holder, who was in Paris earlier Sunday for a series of high-level counterterrorism meetings, was unable to stay to attend the march. He also said he did not know what the president, who remained at the White House throughout the day, did with his time.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/229217-white-house-we-were-wrong-on-paris

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Al Sharpton will attend Monday White House civil rights meeting

Plane Watchers

Al Sharpton will attend Monday White House civil rights meeting as White House proposes $263 million plan that puts body-worn cameras in police departments and reviews police ‘militarization’

Slain 18-year-old Michael Brown’s parents have demanded the use of more body-cams by police forces to document violent encounters with suspects
President will meet with ‘young … civil rights leaders’ and law enforcement officials after he holds a cabinet meeting about the Ferguson unrest
Civil rights meeting will focus on challenges posed by ‘mistrust between law enforcement and communities of color’
Speculation ran rampant that Al Sharpton would be in the White House Monday, and his representatives confirmed it before lunch
Cabinet meeting will concern the militarization of local law enforcement with equipment provided by the federal government
Task force will have four months to make recommendations to Obama about how to change the program that has moved $5.1 billion in ge

President Barack Obama will meet with controversial black pastor and MSNBC host Al Sharpton on Monday at the White House, and plans to demand 263 million from Congress to put 50,000 body-worn cameras in U.S. police departments in response to the August police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Brown’s parents have pushed the cameras as one solution to the distrust between police and criminal suspects following physical encounters. The White House said in August that it agreed with the idea in principle.

‘We support the use of cameras and video technology by law enforcement officers, and the Department of Justice continues to research best practices for implementation,’ the administration wrote in response to a public petition that attracted more than 154,000 supporters on the White House website.

The new initiative will provide 50 per cent of the funding for cameras, but will not pay for them entirely, at a cost of $75 million.

It will also provide new training resources and funds to study how to reform police practices.

It’s unclear why Officer Darren Wilson didn’t wear a camera during his fateful encounter with Brown. Members of the Ferguson Police Department were photographed wearing body cameras later that month during an August 30 rally.

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2855715/Obama-hold-White-House-meetings-Ferguson.html#ixzz3KgHIJVuN