Victoria Jones created and edits Quick Morning News. She is chief White House correspondent with Washington DC-based Talk Media News, where her insight and analysis are made available to over 400 news talk radio stations around the country and internationally.
• Donald Trump, in Michigan Monday night, slammed Hillary Clinton for losing the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama in 2008. “She was favored to win and she got schlonged. She lost. I mean, she lost.” Schlong is a crude Yiddish term for a penis (true colors. he’s being challenged by a genuine opponent, and he’s actually saying that she got fu##ed)
• On her late return to the lectern after using the bathroom during a commercial break at the debate: “I know where she went. It’s disgusting. I don’t want to talk about it. It’s disgusting.” Trump often comments on Clinton’s pantsuits and insinuates she’s in a lesbian relationship with close aide Huma Abedin (she should ramp it up, have fun – see if he’ll actually openly allege she’s a lesbian)
• Trump is furious that Clinton said during the debate that he had become ISIS’s “best recruiter.” “They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists,” she said. He demanded an apology on Monday: “She lies about emails, she lies about Whitewater, she lies about everything.”
• No such footage has been found, although the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors terrorist activity online, found at least five examples of ISIS sympathizers sharing content about Trump on social media. “Hell no, Hillary Clinton will not be apologizing to Donald Trump,” Brian Fallon, the Clinton campaign press secretary said earlier on Monday
• Winner! Donald Trump – Fact-checking website Politifact has given its “Lie of the Year” to the GOP 2016 frontrunner for his “various statements” throughout his campaign. Politifact found that about 3/4 of the 77 Trump statements it reviewed were “mostly false,” “false” or “pants on fire.” (Politifact)
Grand Jury: No Charges in Death of Sandra Bland (NYT,AP, me)
• Grand jurors in Texas on Monday declined to indict anyone in connection to the July death of a Chicago-area woman, Sandra Bland, who was found hanged in her cell at the Waller County jail. But prosecutor Darrell Jordan said that “the case is still open” and that grand jurors would reconvene next month to discuss other aspects of it (ie the trooper)
• Bland, who was 28 and black, was pulled over 10 July for an improper lane change. Cannon Lambert, a lawyer for the Bland family, said Monday night that the family was frustrated with the grand jury process. “We would like very much to know what in the heck they’re doing, who they’re targeting, and if it has anything to do with Sandy and her circumstances.”
• The medical examiner ruled Bland’s death a suicide, a finding that was met with suspicion by family members and activists. During the traffic stop, Trooper Brian Encinia ordered Bland out of her car after she refused to put out a cigarette. Bland at first declined to leave her vehicle, leading to a physical struggle
• At one point, Encinia pulled out a stun gun and yelled, “I will light you up.” In a scuffle out of the camera’s view, Bland indicated she was on the ground: “You just slammed me, knocked my head into the ground.” “####, I got epilepsy,” Bland said. Encinia responded: “Good.” He was placed on admin leave after her death (should have been fired and charged)
• It’s Christmas! The IRS doled out $46 million in improperly vetted tax refunds during the 2013 tax year, according to a report by the Treasury IG for Tax Admin released Monday. Govt inspectors blamed a programming error and incomplete reviews for the release of millions of dollars through potentially fraudulent claims (Hill)
• Six American Resolute Support troops were killed in Afghanistan on Monday when a suicide bomber on a motorbike struck their patrol near Bagram air base, a U.S. official said, in the latest high-profile attack claimed by Taliban insurgents. Three other Resolute Support troops were wounded – Two Americans, one Afghan. Deadliest day for international troops since August
• The attack underlined the Taliban’s ability to hit high-profile targets linked to the U.S.-backed govt, which wants to reopen the peace process aimed at ending the 14-year-long insurgency. Sunday, Taliban forces in Helmand took the district of Sangin as they tightened their grip on the volatile southern province
• For the Taliban, the only forces able to stop their advances are foreign troops. Indeed, many in Afghanistan already speak of making plans for the country once U.S. troops leave at the end of next year, as is scheduled (once they’re out, it’s the Taliban’s playground – or ISIS’s – if it beats the Taliban to the punch)
• In October, the Long War Journal concluded the Taliban has control of 20% of the country and has influence in half of it. “We’ve known for a while that they are striking at soft spots,” one U.S. defense official explained to the Daily Beast. But the official couldn’t say why U.S. troops were suddenly considered to be soft targets (rather disturbing)
• President Obama plans to host a UN summit meeting next year on the global migrant crisis and to spend his final year in office working to spur other countries and the private sector to contribute more humanitarian aid, UN ambassador Samantha Power said Monday (NYT)
Vegas Crash Suspect: Stressed Out (AP,Reuters, me)
• A homeless woman accused of slamming a car carrying her 3-year-old daughter into a crowd of pedestrians on the Las Vegas Strip told authorities she was stressed out after being chased by security guards from parking lots where she had been trying to sleep before the crash – police report (she could have been near delirious from lack of sleep, who knows)
• Lakeisha Holloway, 24, resided in Oregon and had been in Las Vegas for about a week in her 1996 Oldsmobile. “She would not explain why she drove onto the sidewalk but she remembered a body bouncing off her windshield, breaking it,” the report quoted her as saying. Holloway’s daughter wasn’t hurt in the crash
• Police believe she was headed to Dallas to find her daughter’s father after they had a falling out. Holloway, who is being held without bail, will be charged with murder with a deadly weapon. Jessica Valenzuela, 32, of Buckeye, Ariz, was killed and at least 35 people were taken to hospitals. Her driver’s license was suspended in Oregon in 2012
• After a rough childhood that included a period of homelessness, Holloway had become an award-winning high school graduate and caring mother. That recent picture of success deepens the mystery of how the former Oregon woman wound up in a Las Vegas jail on suicide watch
• President Obama will feature in the opening episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” on 30 December on Crackle. Obama and Seinfeld drive a 1963 Corvette Stingray around the grounds of the WH and talk about the difference between presidential garbage and non-presidential garbage (WaPo)
• President Obama said in a Monday NPR interview that demographic changes, including “flatlining” wages and incomes, have meant that “particularly blue-collar men have had a lot of trouble in this new economy, where they are no longer getting the same bargain that they got when they were going to a factory and able to support their families on a single paycheck.”
• “You combine those things, and it means that there is going to be potential anger, frustration, fear – some of it justified, but just misdirected. I think somebody like Mr Trump is taking advantage of that. That’s what he’s exploiting during the course of his campaign.” Obama then addressed the issue of his blackness for some in the GOP (doesn’t usually go there)
• “If you are referring to specific strains in the Republican Party that suggest that somehow I’m different, I’m Muslim, I’m disloyal to the country etc. – which unfortunately is pretty far out there, and gets some traction in certain pockets of the Republican Party, and that have been articulated by some of their elected officials – – –(Obama now gives no fu*#s what people think)
• “what I’d say there is that that’s probably pretty specific to me, and who I am and my background. In some ways, I may represent change that worries them. That’s not suggesting that everybody who objects to my policies may not have perfectly good reasons for it,” he noted voters in coal areas may blame him for the loss of jobs
• Miss Universe conspiracies: 1) Miss Universe’s Snapchat may say that Steve Harvey should have said “Miss Universe – Colombia;” 2) Gets attention for Miss Universe pageant (needs it); 3) Gets attention for Steve Harvey (really? he looks stupid); 4) Something Donald something Trump something…; 5) Miss Germany (who?) said the girls said Miss Colombia won (meow meow) (WaPo, me)
• Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Monday bowed out of the 2016 race on the same day as the deadline hit for him to remove his name from the SC primary ballot – there had been speculation that Graham would want to avoid a potentially poor performance in his own state’s contest. The GOP field still has 13 (tick tick – Huckabee, Santorum, Paul)
• Graham started his campaign with this warning: “The radical Islamists are not tired of fighting you.” He mixed fear-mongering with humor, but it was clear he was starting from behind. Donald Trump mocked Graham and shared Graham’s cellphone number with the world. Then Graham made a crazy video in which he smashed the phone to make it stop ringing
• Graham was probably the only Republican candidate with a real sense of humor – and he used zingers. In October, he surveyed the GOP field: “On our side, you’ve got the No. 2 guy tried to kill someone at 14. And the No. 1 guy is high energy and crazy as hell. How am I losing to these people?” But his latest RealClearPolitics national polling average is only .5%
• He was clearly frustrated in the 15 Dec Republican debate. He forced himself to say that he would back Trump as the nominee, then joked that he might oversleep on voting day. Monday, expressing the belief that his campaign had made a real difference, he announced, “I have concluded this is not my time.” Who will he endorse? He’s not saying – yet
• Most Googled questions about Santa Claus: 1) Is Santa real? 2) Where is Santa? 3) Where is Santa right now? 4) How many reindeer does Santa have? 5) How to draw Santa 6) How old is Santa Claus? 7) Who is Santa Claus? 8) When will Santa be at my house? 9) Where does Santa live? 10) Is Santa really real? (Time, me)
