Fox News:
President-elect Donald Trump, in his first television interview since his surprise election victory, repeated his vows to build a wall across America's southern border, deport criminal illegal aliens, and repeal and replace ObamaCare.
But Trump also appeared to back off from [committing] to build a solid wall, telling CBS' "60 Minutes" the barrier might look more like a fence in spots.
"Certain areas, a wall is more appropriate," Trump told interviewer Lesley Stahl. "I'm very good at this, it's called construction."
Trump emphasized that securing the border is his very first immigration priority, but he also promised to deport people living in the country illegally who had committed crimes beyond their immigration offenses.At least he has his priorities straight. It is impossible to deal with an immigration problem without a secure border.
"What we are going to do is get the people that are [criminals] and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers," Trump said. "We have a lot of these people. Probably two million, it could be even three million. We are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate.
After the border is secured and after everything gets normalized," Trump added, "we're going to make a determination on [other undocumented immigrants] ... But before we make that determination ... we want to secure our border.
Regarding Obamacare:
The real estate mogul also echoed remarks he made to the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, in which he said he favors keeping the prohibition against insurers denying coverage because of patients’ existing conditions, and a provision that allows parents to provide years of additional coverage for children on their insurance policies.
"It'll be just fine. We're not going to have, like, a two day period and we're not going to have-- a two-year period where there's nothing," Trump said.It will be interesting to see if Trump pursues a plan favored by Ben Carson, which was high deductible health insurance combined with health savings accounts. That would be a far better solution.
On Hillary Clinton:
Trump also appeared to back away from his promise to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, over her use of a private email server. Trump made such a promise during the second presidential debate against Clinton during a rhetorical duel that ended with Trump saying if he was president, "you'd be in jail."I am relieved he said that. It is time to move past that.
"She did some bad things, I mean she did some bad things," Trump said, to which Stahl responded, "I know, but a special prosecutor?"
"I don't want to hurt them, I don't want to hurt them," Trump said. "They’re, they’re good people. I don't want to hurt them."
On the protests against him:
Trump touched on the protests that have broken out across the nation since his election, [complaining] that the coverage represented a "double standard."There seems to be a common view that it is ok to hate Trump, so anything in service to that is considered good, even if it chips away at the foundations of our country, namely the peaceful transition of power following an election.
"If Hillary had won and if my people went out and protested, everybody would say, 'Oh, that's a terrible thing,'" he said. "And it would have been a much different attitude. There is a different attitude."
Finally:
However the president-elect said that he was "saddened" by reports that some of his supporters had harassed minorities since Tuesday's vote.
"And I say, 'Stop it.' ... I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it."Contrary to what the MSM says, Trump is no racist. Sexist, yes, but not racist.
Speaking of misunderstanding Trump...
Fox News:
New York Times publisher vows to 'rededicate' paper to reporting honestly
The publisher of The New York Times penned a letter to readers Friday promising that the paper would “reflect” on its coverage of this year’s election while rededicating itself to reporting on “America and the world” honestly.
Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., the paper’s embattled publisher, appealed to Times readers for their continued support.
Sulzberger does fine until he says, "We believe we reported on both candidates fairly during the presidential campaign." If so, why does this letter even have to be sent? Why would you have to "rededicate" yourself to your "fundamental mission"?Letter to NYT readers from Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Dean Baquet pic.twitter.com/jORqzx3BA9— Sydney Ember (@melbournecoal) November 11, 2016
On the topic of biased reporting...
Talking Points Memo:
Pretty scary headline. Unfortunately, that isn't what Ryan said during an interview with Bret Baier on Fox's Special Report (quoted from the TPM article):
BRET BAIER: Let's tick down these things. You have a debt ceiling coming up. How is that going to work?The article even says:
PAUL RYAN: Thankfully, we're doing it with a republican president and congress. We can tackle our fiscal issues. We can tackle the oppressive taxes that are stifling job creation and business and making America uncompetitive. Having a debt limit, which occurs -- March is around the time this occurs. With president-elect trump -- with president trump and a congressional republican and congressional senate democrats in the minority and senate republicans in the majority makes a world of difference better. We can use this as an opportunity to get good things done.
BRET BAIER: Your solution has always been to put things together including entitlement reform. That is Paul Ryan's plan. That's not Donald Trump's plan.
PAUL RYAN: Well, you have to remember, when Obamacare became Obamacare, Obamacare rewrote medicare, rewrote medicaid. If you are going to repeal and replace Obamacare, you have to address those issues as well. What a lot of folks don't realize is this 21-person board called the ipap is about to kick in with price controls on Medicare. What people don't realize is because of Obamacare, medicare is going broke, medicare is going to have price controls because of Obamacare, medicaid is in fiscal straits. You have to deal with those issues if you are going to repeal and replace obamacare. Medicare has serious problems [because of] Obamacare. Those are part of our plan.
...I've heard a few people say that it's not 100% clear here that Ryan is calling for Medicare Phase Out. It is 100% clear. Ryan has a standard, openly enunciated position in favor of Medicare Phase Out. It's on his website. It's explained explicitly right there.So click the link and go to Ryan's website, where Ryan says:
We have to save Medicare to avoid disruptions in benefits for current seniors and to strengthen the program for future generations.Josh Marshall, the TPM writer, is lying.
Speaking of insincerity...
USAToday:
Colin Kaepernick has no regrets about sitting out Tuesday's presidential election.
The San Francisco 49ers' polarizing quarterback did not vote and said Wednesday he "didn't really follow" the results as Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States.
"I've been very disconnected from the systematic oppression as a whole," Kaepernick told reporters in a conference call Wednesday. "So, for me, it's another face that's going to be the face of that system of oppression.
"And to me, it didn't really matter who went in there, the system still remains intact that oppresses people of color."
Kaepernick became one of Trump's targets when he refused to stand for the national anthem, later opting to kneel instead, to protest police brutality and racial injustices. Trump suggested in August that Kaepernick "find a country that works better for him," with the quarterback responding that the sentiment was "ignorant."That is a rich sentiment, coming from a multi-millionaire football player. He has it so rough, doesn't he?
Continuing:
But Kaepernick spoke out against both Trump and Hillary Clinton after the first presidential debate.
"It was embarrassing to watch that these are our two candidates," Kaepernick said. "Both are proven liars, and it almost seems like they're trying to debate who's less racist.
"And at this point ... you have to pick the lesser of two evils. But in the end, it's still evil."Agreed! But that is why you vote for a third party candidate. Don't complain about the state of the country if you don't at least vote. It makes your protest appear insincere.
No comments:
Post a Comment