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Buzz Cut:
• Another day of damaging disclosures for Hillary
• Press boycotted Bush 41 canned campaign events
• Jeb hits Dubya on spending
• Heed the bugler’s call
• Shizzle but not sheezy? That’s ridic
ANOTHER DAY OF DAMAGING DISCLOSURES FOR HILLARY
If the first rule of scandal management is to completely purge the damaging information and cauterize the wound, Hillary Clinton is failing badly. We learned today that Clinton’s family foundation hid $26 million in foreign and corporate contributions as “revenue” on the grounds that the presumptive Democratic nominee or her husband or daughter gave speeches in exchange for the gifts. The donors include a Chinese energy consortium, a Nigerian newspaper and Citibank. And later today we will get the first wave of her emails from a secret server.
[The NYT has posted online the first tranche of emails it obtained from those surrendered by Clinton.]
“This is coming from individual who when she worked in State Department didn’t obey the law to begin with, which said she should have had an official email on an official government server. So she’s already broken the law once, so now we’re to trust her that the ones she turned over are all of emails? I personally won’t be satisfied till we look at the server.” – Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on “America’s Newsroom”
Power Play: Fins to the left? – Hillary Clinton briefly succumbed to press pressure to break her silence after a month of refusing questions. Will reporters get into a feeding frenzy know that they know she’ll flinch? National Journal’s Emily Schultheis and WashEx’s Sarah Westwood give Chris Stirewalt their take. WATCH HERE.
Press boycotted Bush 41 staged campaign events – There was a time when political reporters ransomed their coverage of a presidential campaign in protest of a candidate’s reliance on staged events. The Hoover Institution’s Bill Whalen reminds us of the 1992 race when the press became so fed up with then-President George H.W. Bush’s canned campaign they refused to cover the staged events. The fight got so bad that Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater was moved to say to the press corps: “I’m sick of all you lazy bastards.”
[Clinton is in New Hampshire today for more canned events.]
#mediabuzz – Chris Stirewalt, Mara Liasson and Susan Ferrechio look at how the press is (and isn’t) trying to bust the Clinton bunker and Kirsten Powers talks about her new book “The Silencing.” Watch “#mediabuzz” Sunday at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET.
No danger of that for Sheriff Joe… – “Because even among some of we Democrats, we’re sophisticated jerks lots of times.” – Vice President Joe Biden quoted by The Huffington Post about what he said was the snobbish nature among Democrats toward middle class Americans.
Scots, wha hae – Jim Webb is in South Carolina to participate in a parade and deliver a speech at the Greenville Scottish Games.
Maybe they meant ‘on TV’ – Gallup: “The American public estimates on average that 23% of Americans are gay or lesbian, little changed from Americans’ 25% estimate in 2011, and only slightly higher than separate 2002 estimates of the gay and lesbian population. These estimates are many times higher than the 3.8% of the adult population who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in Gallup Daily tracking in the first four months of this year.”
WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE…
On what historians believe was this day in 334 B.C. King Alexander III of Macedon led a combined army of Macedonians and Greeks to its first major victory in his conquest of the Persian Empire at the River Granicus (in modern day Turkey). At the time little was known of him to Persian King Darius, who thought his local commander could handle the 21 year-old upstart who was new to the throne. But after a stop at Troy to honor the Achilles with libations and a ritual naked run around the Greek hero’s sepulcher, the young king revealed a boldness in battle that would eventually lead him to conquer much of the ancient world and to one day earn the name Alexander the Great.
Historian Donald Wasson’s account of the one-hour Battle of Granicus between the 33,000 warriors details how between 1,500 and 3,000 Persians would fall to Alexander’s flanking maneuver (Macedonian/Greek losses were put at 120), and how after the battle the young king had little sympathy for Greek mercenaries fighting alongside the Persians. As for the spoils of victory, Alexander sent 300 suits of Persian armor home to Athens to remind the Greeks that Granicus was only one step in the war to avenge the Persian invasion of his homeland by Darius I and Xerxes decades before.
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POLL CHECK
Real Clear Politics Averages
Obama Job Approval: Approve – 44.8 percent//Disapprove – 50.0 percent
Direction of Country: Right Direction – 29.7 percent//Wrong Track – 62.1 percent
JEB HITS DUBYA ON SPENDING
WaPo: “Jeb Bush on Thursday put a bit more space between himself and his brother, part of a slow-motion and seemingly reluctant distancing effort as he moves toward a White House bid. After being asked by a questioner at a sports bar here whether there is any ‘space’ between the Bush brothers on issues, Jeb Bush pointed to the scale of government spending during the George W. Bush presidency. ‘I think that in Washington, during my brother’s time, Republicans spent too much money,’ Jeb Bush said. ‘I think he could have used the veto power — he didn’t have line-item veto power, but he could have brought budget discipline to Washington, D.C.’”
Rubio rips Hillary in N.H. – In an op-ed out today, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., challenges his potential opponent to, “…start having candid discussions with voters and the media…to answer to the widespread concerns regarding her tenure as Secretary of State and her cozy financial relationship with foreign leaders. If she believes that these are not issues voters should be concerned about, I challenge her to explain why.”
Walker brings thunder in Oklahoma – WiscNews: “The Oklahoma audience [at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference] erupted in cheers when [Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker] ticked off what he called ‘conservative reforms’ he pushed for in Wisconsin such as pushing the state to adopt right-to-work laws and requirements to ask for identification when voting, as well as de-funding Planned Parenthood. Walker on Thursday largely echoed speeches he has made on the stump in recent months, mentioning shopping for bargains at Kohl’s department stores and revealing he decided to seek a high state office to make Wisconsin a better state for his children.”
[Only halfway there on jobs promise – AP: “Gov. Scott Walker made it only about halfway toward fulfilling his signature 2010 campaign promise – repeated in the 2012 recall – that 250,000 private sector jobs would be created over four years under his leadership.”]
Christie and Graham audition – Day two of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Oklahoma gives moderates Jeb Bush, and Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., a chance to make their case to conservatives while Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., solidifies himself as the current favorite. Also on the docket today is Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Saturday’s speakers Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson wrap up the three-day event.
Power Play: Fiorina’s feisty campaign – Carly Fiorina’s big success in an Iowa candidate forum and with voters in New Hampshire is generating buzz. But can she convert it to votes? The Washington Examiner’s Sarah Westwood and the National Journal’s Emily Schultheis join Chris Stirewalt to discuss the potential for the sole female contender in the Republican field. WATCH HERE.
SANTORUM’S STICKY WICKET
Former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., told National Journal that he has a beef with the criteria for entry and number of participants in the first GOP presidential debate, which is being hosted by Fox News and Facebook in Cleveland on Aug. 6. It’s understandable since Santorum has a challenge unique to the GOP field. Some candidates on the bubble, like Carly Fiorina or Ben Carson, were relatively little known to GOP primary voters when they started, but have room to grow as voters get to know them better. Santorum, conversely, is well known to Republican voters from his second-place finish in 2012 but faring poorly in national polling. Even in the Iowa, where he has devoted years of intense effort and which launched his 2012 pursuit of Mitt Romney, Santorum was in a tie for 10th place in the latest Q poll.
HEED THE BUGLER’S CALL
As Americans commemorate the men and women in uniform who gave their lives in defense of our, “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace” introduces us to Tom Day, a man who has made it his mission to have a bugle player at every military funeral. 15 years later his organization is going strong. Mr. Sunday also sits down with former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., to talk about on his new campaign strategy for 2016. “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace” airs at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. ET on Fox News. Check local listings for air times in your area.
SHIZZLE BUT NOT SHEEZY? THAT’S RIDIC
NPR: “A new batch of 6,500 words are now available to Scrabble players, after publishing house Collins updated its widely used Official Scrabble Words list Thursday. The list includes tech jargon and slang, such as pwn, twerk and shizzle. Also added: aji (the pepper), coqui (the frog) and the more old-fashioned ixnay and zowee. (See a longer list at the bottom of this post.) With more than 276,000 words, Collins says its Official Scrabble Words reflects how English is used around the world, with words gleaned from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the U.K., and the U.S. The word list takes up 1,216 pages in hardback; it’s also an app.”
AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“The post office can record what’s on the outside of your envelope, who it goes to and who sent it. The closest analogy in the internet age is to record a phone call. Not the content, you’re not opening the envelope, but who made the call to whom and for how long, so, in principle, what we’re doing is something essentially the same.”– Charles Krauthammer on “Special Report with Bret Baier.” Watch here.
Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.
Chris Stirewalt joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in July of 2010 and serves as digital politics editor based in Washington, D.C. Additionally, he authors the daily “Fox News First” political news note and hosts “Power Play,” a feature video series, on FoxNews.com. Stirewalt makes frequent appearances on the network, including “The Kelly File,” “Special Report with Bret Baier,” and “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.” He also provides expert political analysis for Fox News coverage of state, congressional and presidential elections.
