We Celebrate Trump's First Anniversary as President, While Comey and Brazile Scribble on the Tombstone of the Democrat Party

THE REAL NEWS TODAY IS -- a happy celebration. On November 8, 2106, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. One year ago, we were glued to our TVs, waiting for the critical states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin to fall into the Trump column. They did, although it was late into the night when the mainstream media conceded that Trump had won. President Trump's election proved that the ordinary people of our great country are commited to the legacy of liberty and personal responsibility under law bequeathed to them by the Founders. The American Thinker wrote last weekend that : "The arguments, assertions, aspersions from the anti-Trump crowd that President Trump is an authoritarian figure who would undermine freedom in America is a perversion of reality, a damnable lie reflecting sheer malevolence....The Founders drafted our Constitution not so that the American people would have the right to agree with their overlords. Indeed, the concept of 'overlord' is contrary to the idea that the people of America are a free people and that they are the source of governing authority. And the notion of 'freedom of the press' enshrined in the First Amendment is not consistent with the notions of a neo-totalitarian media to whose dictates the American people must adhere. The free people of the United States should mark November 8 as a kind of Independence Day, for with the election of Donald J. Trump as President, we declared our independence from those who would bind us in the chains of 'political correctness' and decry political diversity as indicative of mental defect, if not downright criminal behavior." • Find some way, however small, to celebrate November 8. It way well, in some future America, be remembered as the day on which Americans took back their constitutional Republic and broke the chains of their Progressive tormenters. • • • HILLARY'S EMAIL AND URANIUM ONE AND RUSSIA COLLUSION STORIES ARE CRUMBLING. • • • COMEY'S FIRST JUDGMENT WAS RIGHT. TheHill's John Solomon wrote on Tuesday that : "An early draft of former FBI Director James Comey’s statement closing out the Hillary Clinton email case accused the former Secretary of State of having been ‘grossly negligent' in handling classified information, new memos to Congress show." Comey's initial choice of phrase -- which would have led to the prosecution of Hillary Clinton for violation of federal law -- was changed to the non-prosecution accusation that Clinton had been “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information when Comey announced in July 2016 there would be no charges against her. The change is significant, since federal law states that gross negligence in handling the nation’s intelligence can be punished criminally with prison time or fines. • The draft, written weeks before Comey's announcement that there would be no charges, was described to Solomon by multiple sources who saw the document both before and after it was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee this past weekend. The sources said the memos show that at least three top FBI officials were involved in helping Comey create and edit the statement, including Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, General Counsel James Baker and Chief of Staff Jim Rybicki. When Comey announced his decision not to charge Clinton in July 2016 -- shortly after she had secured the Democratic nomination to run for President against Donald Trump -- he said agents decided not to pursue criminal charges under the statute because they could not prove she intended to violate laws like the Espionage Act. But Comey harshly criticized Clinton for setting up a personal email server outside the State Department's security apparatus and then using it to transmit classified information, saying : “Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of the classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information. There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton's position or in the position of those with whom she was corresponding about the matters should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.” • Comey’s decision to not to seek criminal charges has been controversial since it was announced, with politicians and legal scholars alike debating whether intent was necessary to pursue criminal charges. Comey testified before Congress that while he was aware of the gross negligence statute he did not believe any federal prosecutor would purse that standard : “I know the Department of Justice, I know no reasonable prosecutor would bring this case. I know a lot of my former friends are out there saying they would. I wonder where they were in the last 40 years, because I'd like to see the cases they brought on gross negligence. Nobody would, nobody did." But Comey also publicly stated that the FBI found some evidence of criminality during the email probe : “Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.” • Will Congress find "gross negligence" and will it lead to a DOJ investigation and charges being brought against Hillary? And what about Huma Abedin, who, evidence shows, transferred classified information to the unclassified laptop of her husband? And what about the Hillary lawyers who reviewed her server without having the needed classified clearances? We haven't made much progress since January 2016 when the server scandal surfaced. Dare we hopet hat finally the wheels of justice are turning? • • • DONNA BRAZILE'S BOMBSHELL ACCUSATIONS. Donna Brazile, the former Democratic National Committee acting chairman, has revealed in her new book that the DNC worked with the campaign of Hillary Clinton to rig the party’s primary against Bernie Sanders. Brazile, who served as the DNC interim head during the 2016 election, shared details in a Pölitico article about the 2015 agreement that helped ensure Clinton would win the presidential nomination by taking on the DNC multi-million dollar debt and offering financial assistance in exchange for more control over the committee. Brazile says : “The agreement -- signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook with a copy to Marc Elias -- specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised. Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff.” Brazile says that while she believes the agreement was not illegal, “it sure looked unethical. If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead. This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party’s integrity.” Even after informing Sanders of the discovery, Brazile was able to successfully convince the Democratic socialist to back Clinton : “I urged Bernie to work as hard as he could to bring his supporters into the fold with Hillary, and to campaign with all the heart and hope he could muster. He might find some of her positions too centrist, and her coziness with the financial elites distasteful, but he knew and I knew that the alternative was a person who would put the very future of the country in peril. I knew he heard me. I knew he agreed with me, but I never in my life had felt so tiny and powerless as I did making that call.” • Brazile’s comments come from her new book, “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House,” and Brazile seems to be trying to distance herself from the corruption within the Democrat Party, although Brazile owns a share of that corruption -- DNC emails published by WikiLeaks last year revealed Brazile shared town hall and debate questions with the Clinton campaign during her time as a CNN commentator. • Brazile’s book excerpt explained that a candidate’s team will take over the party once “the party chooses the nominee. If the party has an incumbent candidate, as was the case with Clinton in 1996 or Obama in 2012, this kind of arrangement is seamless because the party already is under the control of the president. When you have an open contest without an incumbent and competitive primaries, the party comes under the candidate’s control only after the nominee is certain. When I was manager of Gore’s campaign in 2000, we started inserting our people into the DNC in June. This victory fund agreement, however, had been signed in August 2015, just four months after Hillary announced her candidacy and nearly a year before she officially had the nomination." • Donna Brazile puts the corrupt agreement right at Hilary' feet : "The joint fundraising agreement (JFA) between Amy Dacey, former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook, Hillary’s campaign manager, brought together the DNC, Hillary Victory Fund, and HFA [Hillary for America]. It basically treated Hillary as the 2016 Democrat presidential candidate." The agreement states that HFA would “raise and invest funds into the DNC via the Victory” and in exchange, HFA required “the appropriate influence over the financial, strategic, and operational use of these JFA-raised funds.” The DNC had the final decision on hirings, but only between candidates that HFA deemed acceptable by HFA : “The DNC will alert HFA in advance of mailing any direct mail communications that features a particular Democratic primary candidate or his or her signature.” This contradicts other parts of the agreement that state that the items between the parties will not “violate the DNC’s obligation of impartiality and neutrality through the Nominating process” and that all of these activities listed would only “be focused exclusively on preparations for the General Election and not the Democratic Primary.” The DNC also agreed that it would ask a “State Party to become a participant in the Victory Fund” if asked by said State Party. But Brazile’s book excerpt in the Politico article claimed that the states only “kept 1% of the $82 million they had amassed from the extravagant fund-raisers Hillary’s campaign was holding.” The Clinton campaign then agreed to make a $1.2 million payment to the DNC, which was in debt at the time, along with a monthly allowance. The agreement said that the DNC would spend this money on “data, technology, analytics, research, and communications operations as directed by (HFA).” The DNC said it would hold responsibility for these special projects, but “HFA will determine (in consultation with the DNC) the Special Project’s scope, strategy, staffing, budget, and manner of execution.” • • • DEMOCRATS SQUEAL IN PAIN. Hillary’s supporters are whining that Sanders’ campaign also signed a JFA with the DNC. But as Ed Morrissey at Hot Air points out, IT’S NOT THE SAME THING. ABC News correctly stated that the language differs between the two agreements, especially when it comes to giving power to the campaign to have a say in hiring and the budget. • TheHill reported on Sunday that : "Democrats are confronting the implications from excerpts of Brazile's forthcoming book, 'Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House,' including the possibility that the 2016 primary was rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton at the expense of her opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders. Some Democrats are calling for party reform, while others are downplaying Brazile's account." • And, Brazile is also back-pedalling. She told ABC's George Stephanopoulos in a Suday interview that the primary was not rigged : “I found no evidence, none, whatsoever. The only thing I found, which I said, I found the cancer, but I’m not killing the patient, was this memorandum that prevented the DNC from running its own operation." • Brazile has re-opened a party fissure that Democrats had sought to close after a contentious primary. But, Brazile defended her right to speak out, even though some Democrats have criticized her timing, coming just before Tuesday's very important governor elections in Virginia and New Jersey. She told Stephanopoulos : “George, for those who are telling me to shut up, they told Hillary that a couple months ago. You know what I tell them? Go to hell. I’m going to tell my story." • Tom Perez, the DNC current chairman, on Sunday dismissed a claim in the Brazile book about Clinton’s health, first reported by the Washington Post. He said that what he characterized as an inaccurate claim could cause others to question the book’s credibility : “Hillary Clinton was anything but incapacitated. She was tireless. She was a workhorse and frankly what saddens me about this as much as anything is I think people who read that charge, which is just without merit, are going to perhaps start wondering about other claims in the book.” This may be true, but in reverse -- Perez thinks it will damage Brazile's claims, but it is far more likely that Americans, already suspicious of Hillary's famous September 11, 2016, collapse, will take the medical claims as corroboration that Hillary was not physically well during the campaign. • House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a Sunday show interview that the Democrat Party must move forward, but also slammed the party’s use of super delegates, or officials who are not bound to a specific candidate and can choose the candidate they vote for at the nominating convention. As usual, Pelosi waffled on the facts : “Not knowing the facts of what it is, I would hope that there's another side to the story. But that -- again, that's neither here nor there. It's almost a waste of time, except for people to put their view of it on the record.” • Senator Elizabeth Warren said on TV that she believes the Democrats’ nominating process was rigged. Warren is part of the more leftist Progressive wing of the Democrat Party, which suported Sanders in the primary campaign, as is DNC deputy chairman Representative Keith Ellison, who was supported by Sanders in his losing bid against Hillary's Perez for the DNC chairmanship. Ellison called for transparency in the wake of Brazile's disclosure and vowed to work toward changes to prevent such a fundraising arrangement from taking hold in the future : “We must heed the call for our party to enact real reforms that ensure a fair, open and impartial nominating process in elections to come. I’m committed to working with Chairman Perez to make the DNC more transparent and accountable to the American people, whether that’s by ensuring that debates are scheduled far ahead of time or by guaranteeing that the terms of joint fundraising agreements give no candidate undue control or influence over the party." • On the GOP side, Speaker Paul Ryan weighed in Sunday on Brazile's bombshell, saying he doesn’t blame Democrats who are troubled by her description of the campaign’s relationship with the DNC : “I’ve never seen anything like that. I mean, we all said that the Clintons thought they lived above the rules, but this takes the cake. I mean this is pretty amazing. For them to basically be running the DNC in a primary. To see such a deck stacked is really pretty jaw-dropping to me. No wonder the Democrats are ticked off. I would be, too.” But, President Trump had the last word, tweeting : “The real story on Collusion is in Donna B's new book. Crooked Hillary bought the DNC & then stole the Democratic Primary from Crazy Bernie!” • • • CNN GOT ITS MARCHING ORDERS. Tucker Carlson revelaed on his Fox News show on Monday that CNN directed its employees to undermine and discredit Donna Brazile after her new book confirmed that the DNC worked with the Clinton campaign to rig the primary against Bernie Sanders. Carlson said, “According to highly informed sources we spoke to -- highly informed -- top management at CNN directed its employees to undermine Brazile’s credibility. Anchors and producers were vocally offended by her attacks on their friends, the Clintons. If you’ve been watching that channel, you may have noticed CNN’s anchors suggesting that Donna Brazile cannot be trusted, precisely because she took part in efforts to break the primaries for Clinton." Carlson then played clips from CNN showing anchors going off the same talking points calling Brazile a liar. A Glenn Greenwald article also highlights how other journalists and networks have been spreading fake news designed to exonerate Hillary Clinton’s behavior, including the myth that the DNC-Hillary deal only applied to the general election. Carlson said : "The media loves a scandal but they can’t seem to downplay this one fast enough.” It has also been revealed that Brazile dedicated her book to murdered former DNC staffer Seth Rich, who many suspect was Wikileaks’ source for the DNC leaks. • Zero Hedge revealed on Sunday that excerpts from former DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile’s book, of course buried in a Washington Post overview of the various allegations, say that in the aftermath of Wikileaks’ decision to publish a cache of emails stolen from DNC servers, Brazile says she became increasingly paranoid about possible Russian efforts to sway the election. Surprisingly, she says top Democrats initially instructed her not to discuss her concerns with others. But, even more than the Russians, Brazile says she feared possible retribution from shadowy elements within the campaign and the Democrat Party who might blame her for the leak. Her fears only intensified, she says, after the mysterious shooting of former campaign staffer Seth Rich, who the authorities said was killed during a robbery, though many have speculated about a possible Democrat plot to kill Rich for his role in leaking the stash of DNC emails to Wikileaks. Brazile’s anxiety eventually spiraled out of control, to the point where she feared for her own life while serving as interim chairwoman of the DNC. • The Democrat Party is FRACTURED. Believe it. • • • DEAR READERS, American Thinker pointed out last Friday a key fact in the Brazile revelation : "Note that the attorney is Marc Elias, whose firm handled the payments to Fusion GPS for the Steele Russia Dossier used to smear Trump. Note the pattern : Hillary used money to control the DNC to beat Sanders and used over $10 million to collude with Russians to smear Trump." American Thinker observes that : "Brazile followed the money and easily concluded that Hillary controlled the DNC, which allowed her to control the primaries. Brazile did a better job of investigating Hillary than Comey and the FBI. Maybe Sessions should hire Brazile to follow the money from the Russians and Canadians to Hillary's foundation and Bill Clinton's speech gigs in Moscow for approving the sale of 20% of our uranium to the Russians. Brazile, as a CNN contributor, fed debate questions to Hillary. Thus, it is noteworthy that Brazile, a longtime Democrat operative, has come out to criticize Hillary. She has criticized Hillary in stronger terms than McConnell, Ryan, and most Republicans." • Tuesday's Virginia governor election may go some way to proving that Brazile's disclosure of a sordid and corrupt Hillary Clinton takeover of the DNC, depriving the Democrat Party of making a free and fair choice of its 2016 presidential candidate, will stick to Democrats trying to paint Republicans as "white supremacists" and "racist." Senate Democrats running for re-election in 2018 should be worried, because whether the Republican Gillespie wins is not really the question in a Virginia split north-south by Washington suburbanite Democrats and southern Virginia Republicans -- the real question is the margin. If Northam cannot beat Gillespie by a sizeable margin, those Democrat Senators should start looking for another job come November 2108. Why?? Only three of the 10 Democrat Senators up for re-election in 2018 are above a 50% approval rate in states that favored Trump in the 2016 presidential election, according to a new poll released Wednesday -- Senators Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Jon Tester of Montana -- that is not a good sign for the the Democrat Partyfuture of the Democrat Party. A Morning Consult poll showed that in West Virginia, 53% of voters approve of Manchin and 36% disapprove. The margin of error on the West Virginia poll was +/- two percentage points. In Montana, the survey showed 53% of voters in the state disapprove of the job Tester is doing. Tester’s approval rating is down 6% from the second quarter. The Montana poll has a margin of error of +/- four points. In the survey from North Dakota, 55% of voters approve of the job Heitkamp is doing and 32% disapprove. The North Dakota poll has a margin of error of +/- four points. The other 7 Democrat Senators are underwater. • The Democrat Party is fractured and moving further to the Progressive left while trying to defend its corrupt past, leaving its base of left-center voters out in the cold. The Political Correctness and Identity Politics pushed by ProgDems only leaves the Democrat base more out in the cold. Republicans need to follow President Trump's lead in connecting not only with the "Deplorables" of the GOP base but also in appealing to the Democrat left-center base to join the GOP in ousting the Swampy ProgDem cabal trying to steal America.