Rigged: Inside the 72 Hours Establishment Democrats Took it from Bernie, Gave it to Biden

In the time of span of 72 hours, between the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday, establishment Democrats rushed to consolidate behind former Vice President Joe Biden in a transparent effort to thwart the candidacy of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

The machinations started on Saturday, only minutes after polls closed in the Palmetto State. Biden, who had flopped in the first three nominating contests, was declared the instantaneous winner after exit polls showed a rout, thanks to strong support from black voters. Even though the margin of victory remained unknown for hours, many in the media and pundit class jumped to claim South Carolina had resuscitated the former vice president’s hopes for the nomination. None espoused that argument more so than Terry McAullife, a former governor of Virginia and one time chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Shortly after South Carolina was called, McAullife appeared on CNN, where he serves as a political commentator, to discuss the results. Instead of offering insight, however, the former governor took the opportunity to endorse Biden live on the air. “I’ve thought long and hard about this,” McAullife told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “For me it’s an electability issue … I’m going all in on Joe Biden, I think he has the best shot of beating [President] Donald Trump.”

The endorsement was not totally unexpected, as McAullife’s wife was already a well known bundler for the former vice president. It did, however, strike many as overly partisan, especially given that McAullife also used the live-TV endorsement to urge Democrats to consolidate behind Biden. “I’m hoping, tomorrow actually, some of the candidates decide to get out,” McAullife said, right after having suggested Sanders would cripple down ballot Democrats. “If you do not have a pathway, let[‘s] not wait until Super Tuesday.” When pressed as to whom he meant, the former governor specifically confessed he was talking about Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. “I don’t want to tell people they should get out, because they’ve worked for a year,” McAullife said. They’ve gotten a lot of support, but I think Pete [Buttigieg] and Amy [Klobuchar] and Tom Steyer need to make that decision for themselves.” Even as the former governor spoke, the Democtat field was already shrinking. Steyer, who had poured more than $252 million into his underdog campaign, was informing staffers of his decision to exit the race after placing third in South Carolina. Neither Steyer’s exit nor McAullife’s endorsement surprised many, but it did signal what lay ahead.

First, Biden’s looming cash crunch was likely to disappear thanks to McAullife’s fundraising prowess, honed during his tenure at the helm of the DNC. Second, and more importantly, McAullife’s backing ensured that Biden no longer had to fear losing Virginia, a state both Sanders and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg had high hopes for on Super Tuesday. The latter seemed to be proven when several high-ranking Virginia officials announced their backing of Biden on Saturday night, including Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), a power broker within the commonwealth’s black community. With Virginia appearing to be a lock and money no longer a problem, other establishment Democrats began to fall in line behind Biden. Most notably, Sunday saw former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announce her endorsement. Wasserman Schultz, apart from being a Florida congresswoman, had infamously been forced to resign her DNC post after it was revealed she worked to the benefit of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the 2016 primaries.

The list of endorsements grew larger on Monday with the addition of former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Reid’s endorsement was perplexing, since he had pointedly refused to support Biden during his own state’s presidential caucuses two weeks earlier. All told, prior to South Carolina, Biden only had the backing of one high-profile member of the establishment, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC). After winning the Palmetto State’s primary, the former vice president found himself as the clear favorite among establishment Democrats.

https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/03/05/rigged-inside-the-72-hours-establishment-democrats-took-it-from-bernie-gave-it-to-biden/

Tom Cotton: DHS ‘Prioritizing Cheap Foreign Labor’ with H-2B Visa Hike

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) says Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Chad Wolf is “prioritizing cheap foreign labor” with his announcement to bring more H-2B foreign visa workers to the United States to compete against working class Americans for jobs.

On Thursday, Wolf said DHS would allow American businesses to import an additional 35,000 H-2B foreign visa workers to fill U.S. jobs in the construction, fishing, meatpacking, restaurant, and hospitality industry. Cotton said Wolf’s decision — which marks the third consecutive year that Trump’s DHS has increased the H-2B foreign visa workflow — merely prioritizes “cheap foreign labor” over working class and blue-collar Americans. “Raising the limit of H-2B visas means prioritizing cheap foreign labor over paying better wages for American workers to do the same jobs,” Cotton said. “We need true reform that supports American employment and wage growth over low-cost foreign labor.”

Every year, U.S. companies are allowed to import 66,000 low-skilled H-2B foreign workers to take blue-collar, non-agricultural jobs. For some time, the H-2B visa program has been used by businesses to bring in cheaper, foreign workers and has contributed to blue-collar Americans having their wages undercut. In a January letter, Cotton, Richard Blumenthal, Dianne Feinstein, Chuck Grassley, and Dick Durbin pleaded with Wolf not to increase the number of H-2B foreign visa workers.

Meanwhile, Breitbart News published a full list of the 123 Republicans and the 66 Democrats in the House and Senate who urged DHS to allow American businesses to import more H-2B foreign visa workers. The list included Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Tim Scott (R-SC), and Rand Paul (R-KY), as well as Representatives Dan Bishop (R-NC), Doug Collins (R-GA), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Lee Zeldin (R-NY), and Ken Buck (R-CO).

Late last year, the Labor Department banned a South Dakota construction company from using the H-2B visa program after they discovered the employer was importing foreign workers in order to cut labor costs, then forcing those foreign workers to pay for their own housing, visa fees, and transportation costs — all of which are supposed to be covered by H-2B visa employers.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/05/tom-cotton-dhs-prioritizing-cheap-foreign-labor-with-h-2b-visa-hike/

https://www.grassley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2020-01-15%20CEG%20et%20al%20to%20DOL%2C%20DHS%20-%20H-2B%20Visa%20Program.pdf

Judge demands unredacted Mueller report, questions Barr's 'credibility'

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hand over to him a copy of the unredacted Mueller report and accused Attorney General William Barr of misrepresenting its findings in the days before it was submitted to Congress last year. Judge Reggie B. Walton, a federal district court judge in Washington, said that he could not reconcile Barr's public comments in April 2019 about the report with the actual findings that former special counsel Robert Mueller outlined. "The inconsistencies between Attorney General Barr’s statements, made at a time when the public did not have access to the redacted version of the Mueller Report to assess the veracity of his statements, and portions of the redacted version of the Mueller Report that conflict with those statements cause the Court to seriously question whether Attorney General Barr made a calculated attempt to influence public discourse about the Mueller Report in favor of President Trump despite certain findings in the redacted version of the Mueller Report to the contrary," Walton wrote in his decision. "These circumstances generally, and Attorney General Barr’s lack of candor specifically, call into question Attorney General Barr’s credibility" as well as the DOJ's arguments in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, Walton added. A DOJ spokeswoman did not respond when asked for comment.

The judge, who was appointed to the court by former President George W. Bush, said he would review the full report to determine whether the redactions made by the DOJ are subject to a FOIA request. The unredacted version will not be released to the public in the meantime. After Mueller submitted his long-awaited report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the DOJ waited nearly a month before releasing to the public a redacted version in April. During that time, Barr summarized the findings publicly as clearing Trump of any wrongdoing and concluding that neither he nor his campaign had colluded with Russia for assistance during the presidential race. Mueller criticized Barr's framing of his report, writing in a letter to the DOJ last year that it “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office’s work and conclusions." The report said that while the investigation had not been able to establish proof that the campaign had conspired with Russia, it found "multiple links between Trump campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government."

Walton is presiding over a pair of consolidated FOIA lawsuits brought by Buzzfeed journalist Jason Leopold and the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center. The judge said that Barr's public statements about the report has caused him to doubt the DOJ's arguments that the redactions should remain in place. "The Court has grave concerns about the objectivity of the process that preceded the public release of the redacted version of the Mueller Report and its impacts on the Department’s subsequent justifications that its redactions of the Mueller Report are authorized by the FOIA," Walton wrote. He ordered the DOJ to hand over the unredacted report by March 30.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/486219-judge-orders-doj-to-hand-over-unredacted-mueller-report