Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton played a vice-presidential game of “Who’d You Rather?” with Ellen DeGeneres yesterday, and the choices got really tough.
“We’ll keep switching until you narrow it down,” DeGeneres said.
“This is very helpful,” Clinton said. “Don’t tell anybody because we want it to be a big surprise.”
Early match-ups were easy for Clinton (Joe Biden easily beat billionaire Mark Cuban), but then things got tougher as the choices ramped up to George Clooney, Beyoncé, Leonardo DiCaprio and First Lady Michelle Obama.
It was a fun segment. Nice to see the lighter side of Hillary here.
An audit by the State Department Inspector General criticized not only former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but also former Secretary of State Colin Powell, for non-compliance over personal email use and preservation.
“At a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with Department issues before leaving government service,” says an audit by the State Department Inspector General, obtained by NBC News.
“Because she did not do so, she did not comply with the [State] Department’s policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act.”
The audit found that the non-compliance over personal email went beyond Clinton, and that former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, also failed to preserve government-related emails when he was secretary of state.
The State Department asked Powell to try to receive relevant emails from his internet provider, but “as of May 2016 the Department has not received a response” from Powell, the audit said.
Indeed, the report’s conclusion cites “longstanding, systemic weaknesses” in electronic record-keeping “that go well beyond the tenure of any one secretary of state.”
Clinton’s campaign spokesman tweeted out this statement:
GOP will attack HRC because she is running for President, but IG report makes clear her personal email use was not unique at State Dept
Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is doubling down on the thinking that bringing up decades-old allegations of sexual assault by Bill Clinton will somehow bring down Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the White House.
The Trumpster posted this video to his Instagram account with the caption, “Is Hillary really protecting women?”
Check the minor key music, the slow fade up of Bill Clinton with a cigar in his mouth, and then the sound of hysterical laughter apparently coming from Hillary.
First, Trump portrayed Hillary as “laughing” at the Benghazi attacks, and now he has her “laughing” at alleged sexual assaults?
In an effort to show inclusiveness, the DNC has given Sen. Bernie Sanders unusually high say in the make-up of the committee that will draft the party’s platform this year.
Sen. Bernie Sanders has been given highly unusual say over the drafting of the Democratic Party platform this year even if, as expected, he loses the primary contest to Hillary Clinton.
The two Democratic candidates have agreed with Democratic Party officials to a new apportionment of the 15-member committee that writes the platform, according to Democratic officials familiar with the compromise worked out this month.
Clinton has picked six members, and Sanders has named five — including a longtime activist on behalf of Palestinian rights, a potential sign of his plans to push the party’s policy on Israel in a different direction, the Democrats said Monday ahead of an expected announcement by the DNC.
The math is based on the number of popular votes each has received to date, one official said. Democratic Party Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will name four. The campaign choices were selected in consultation with the campaigns and the DNC from larger slates of 12 and 10 suggested by the campaigns.
DNC rules allow the chairman to pick the entire slate of 15 people who govern the platform that will be presented at the party convention in July.
The change was made to be inclusive of Sanders supporters after the strong liberal challenge he mounted during a long and sometimes bitter primary.
Though Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he doesn’t have the time to run for President of the United States, he thinks he can find the time to serve as potential Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton’s vice president.
In an excerpt of an interview that will air on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” on NBC, Cuban was asked if he would listen if the Clinton campaign came to him offering the vice presidency.
“Absolutely,” Cuban responded while adding that he would seek to alter some of Clinton’s platform were he to become her running mate.
“If she’s willing to listen, if she’s willing to, you know, hear other sides of things, then I’m wide open to discussing it,” Cuban said.
His hypothetical interest in being the country’s next veep comes a week after Cuban told The Washington Post that a group of conservative politicians had asked him to run as a third-party candidate in this year’s presidential election.
The band of Republican politicians, according to the Post, were attempting to block presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and believed that Cuban would resonate with voters.
Like Trump, the 57-year-old Cuban is a billionaire with a reality television show.
Although he said he would “put [Trump] in his place,” Cuban told the Post that he does not anticipate running for president this year, saying “there isn’t enough time.”
Asked later by ESPN.com if he would consider running for president four years from now, Cuban replied, “No comment.”
It’s estimated that Cuban is worth in the neighborhood of $3 billion.
According to the latest CBS/New York Times poll, Hillary Clinton now holds a six point lead (47% – 41%) lead over Donald Trump, down from 10 points a month ago.
Contentious primary contests on both sides haven’t turned off many primary voters from voting for their party’s candidate in a likely November match-up between Trump and Clinton, even if these candidates are not their preferred primary choice.
Seventy-one percent of Republican voters who did not support Trump in the primaries would still vote for him against Clinton.
On the Democratic side, 72 percent of Sanders supporters would vote for Clinton against Donald Trump.
Real Clear Politics aggregates all current polls for the current presidential season here.
It’s worth noting that while Trump has seemingly clinched his nomination for the Repubs, Hillary continues to fight on two fronts – Trump for the general election, and a tenacious Bernie Sanders who continues to spar for the out of reach Dem nomination.
Former Secretary of State and current Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, during an in-depth one-on-one interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, that the Democratic nomination will be hers, saying, “I will be the nominee of my party. That is already done, in effect. There is no way that I won’t be.”
I’m sure the Bernie Bros’ heads will explode over that comment. But, the fact of the matter is – she will be the nominee.
Hillary also stated categorically that she feels Donald Trump is not qualified to be president of the United States:
Frankie J. Alvarez, Jonathan Groff and Murray Bartlett of LOOKING
Some news stories you may have missed:
• HBO will premiere the “wrap-up movie” of it’s now-cancelled gay series Looking July 23rd at 10PM. I was a big fan of the series, so I’ll definitely be watching 🙂
• 72% of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s own constituents don’t want to see him be Trump’s veep pick. With friends like these…
• RuPaul tells ABC News that he doesn’t think RuPaul’s Drag Race could ever go “mainstream.”
•Donald Trump says he would “protect all people” in the same breath he mentions he would rescind President Obama’s historic directives protecting transgender folks from discrimination. But he loves everyone, don’t you know…
• Frequent homophobe Azealia Banks got her butt booted from Twitter for her homophobic/racist rant on former One Direction member Zayn Malik.
• In addition to a win for Hillary Clinton, last night’s Kentucky primary also produced the state’s first openly gay Democratic Senate candidate.
• Ted Olson, who successfully argued for the demise of California’s Prop 8, has been brought on to author an amicus brief in support of the Department of Justice’s lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s hateful HB2 law.
• Hillary Clinton calls for the decriminalization of HIV. Just one more reason why #ImWithHer
Daily Kos ran this yesterday, and I think it speaks a lot to the animus some Bernie Sanders about the primary process so far.
According to Real Clear Politics there have been 21, 951, 362 votes cast in the 2016 Democratic primaries and caucuses. Of those votes Sen. Sanders is getting 43% of them while Clinton is getting 57% of them. Folks that is definitely not winning. In fact it is losing in a landslide. In 2008, for example, Clinton got around 47.8% of the vote while Obama got around 48.1% of the vote. For all of the talk about how Sanders is energizing the Democratic Party a significant majority of voters have not responded to his message.
Yet despite her lead in the popular vote there are many Sanders supporters who act as if her lead in delegates is somehow illegitimate. That somehow Sanders is being deprived of a victory by the way the rules are being applied.
Look Clinton’s lead in delegates is actually less than her lead in the popular vote. Right now she leads in delegates who are pledged to one candidate or the other, 1716 to 1433. This delegate count does not include super delegates. This means that Sanders is getting 46% of the delegates while only getting 43% of the vote. Clinton is getting only 54% of the delegates selected while she is receiving 57% of the vote. If anyone has a complaint with how delegates are being selected it is Clinton not Sanders.
Indeed it seems to be the position of the Sanders campaign that it doesn’t matter how big Clinton’s lead is in terms of the popular vote Sanders should still get the nomination. Why? Why should a political party nominate a person who is not winning the majority of the votes cast by that party’s primary and caucus voters?
The fact of the matter is that Sanders is losing the popular vote in the 2016 Democratic primaries and caucuses and unless that changes he should not be the Democratic Party’s nominee. On the other hand if he can overcome Clinton’s lead in the popular vote then he should be the Party’s nominee.
It’s also worth noting that while Sanders supporters are up in arms about “closed primaries” being unfair somehow, the fact is there have been 19 primaries open to independents, but Sanders only won 6 – two of which were his home stage of Vermont and New Hampshire. So, I’m not sure that “closed” primaries have been his biggest hurdle thus far.
Most importantly, I think folks should remember Clinton and Sanders are on the same side when it comes to the big picture.
Longtime AIDS activist Peter Staley with Hillary Clinton
Although Sen. Bernie Sanders cancelled his scheduled meeting with HIV/AIDS experts and activists, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today met with a diverse coalition of more than 70 leaders and organizations in the HIV community.
Longtime HIV/AIDS activist Peter Staley just posted this after taking part in the meeting:
We started about an hour late, but she stayed well beyond our budgeted 45 minutes — over an hour, in the end. A frank exchange. It was a first step in what we all agreed would be an ongoing process with her campaign. No surprise — she’s an HIV wonk.
Among other things, Hillary proposed expanding access to PrEP for prevention, protect HIV+ folks from discrimination, and increase HIV/AIDS research.
Via press release:
The meeting took place at the Hillary for America headquarters in Brooklyn, NY, where they discussed Clinton’s continued commitment to tackling the epidemic in the U.S. and globally, fighting discrimination against PLHIV and AIDS, and working together with HIV and AIDS experts and advocates to achieve an AIDS-free generation.
Hillary Clinton has been a longtime advocate in the fight to treat and prevent HIV and AIDS.
As First Lady, Clinton traveled the world to raise awareness on combating HIV and AIDS and assembled government officials and world leaders to increase funding for prevention and research efforts.
As Senator, Clinton introduced legislation to improve and expand global HIV and AIDS research, assistance, and education. She also co-sponsored the Early Treatment for HIV Act to extend Medicaid coverage to low-income people living with HIV.
As Secretary of State, Clinton began an ambitious campaign to usher in an AIDS-free generation. She oversaw a more than 200 percent increase in the number of people on antiretroviral treatment directly supported by the United States to reach over 6.7 million men, women, and children around the world.
Clinton has also emphasized HIV and AIDS in her philanthropic work. Almost 10 million people with HIV or AIDS around the world have benefited from more affordable medicine because of the Clinton Foundation. And since 2002, the Clinton Health Access Initiative has reduced the cost of HIV and AIDS medications in many countries from over $10,000 per person per year to just $100 to $200 per person per year.
During this campaign, Clinton has released specific policies to tackle the HIV and AIDS epidemic. As President, she will:
Cap out-of-pocket pharmaceutical expenses for people with HIV and AIDS. Clinton has announced a plan to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable and to achieve lower drug costs for Americans, including for medications that help treat HIV and reduce the risk of contracting AIDS. Clinton will ensure that Americans can get the care their doctors prescribe by requiring health insurance plans to cap covered out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $250 per month. She also will allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices and will stop direct-to-consumer advertising subsidies for drug companies—reinvesting those funds in research.
Expand the utilization of HIV prevention medications, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). While we work to diagnose and treat all Americans with HIV and AIDS, we also must work to prevent exposure. Decades of research are beginning to offer a promising path to prevention. Clinton will increase the CDC investment to ensure populations at greatest risk of infection have access to PrEP, and encourage states to follow suit. Protect those with HIV and AIDS from discrimination. Clinton will work with Congress to review and reform outdated and stigmatizing HIV criminalization laws—and call on states to do the same. And she is committed to continuing to aggressively enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act and other civil rights laws to fight HIV-related discrimination.
Continue to increase HIV and AIDS research and invest in the promising innovations that research is producing. Researchers at the NIH and elsewhere are poised to make even more progress towards curing HIV, developing long-acting treatments that do not require daily pill taking, and better understanding the social and structural factors that can impact a person’s ability to access HIV prevention and care services. As President, Clinton will increase funding to ensure this progress to continue.
