Donald Trump
Head of Secret Service’s Denver district under fire for anti-Trump Facebook post
DENVER – The head of the U.S. Secret Service’s Denver district is under fire for an October Facebook post in which she said she would not “take a bullet” for Donald Trump.
The post was made by Kerry O’Grady, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Denver district. It was made before Trump won the presidency and does not specifically mention him by name, but came to light in a story published Tuesday by the Washington Examiner.
By the time the post was made, the presidential field had been narrowed down to Trump, Hillary Clinton, Jill Stein and Gary Johnson.
In her position, she is in charge of coordinating advance teams for presidential trips to the area.
“Despite the fact that I am expected to take a bullet for both sides…this world has changed and I have changed,” O’Grady wrote, in part, in the post, which has since been deleted. “And I would take jail time over a bullet or an endorsement for what I believe to be disaster to this country and the strong and amazing women and minorities who reside here.”
She also wrote that she was in a “struggle to not violate the Hatch Act,” and wrote, “Hatch Act be damned. I am with her.”
The Hatch Act prohibits some executive branch employees, including Secret Service agents, from engaging in political activity or speech for a certain candidate or cause on social media.
The Examiner reports there has been at least one official complaint levied against her speech. Attempts to reach O’Grady for comment Tuesday were unsuccessful. But she told the Examiner repeatedly that she would perform her duties and that she was proud to serve the office of the president.
The U.S. Secret Service told the Examiner it was “aware of the postings” and “looking into the matter.”
Report: Peyton Manning to speak at Republican retreat in Philadelphia
DENVER – Former Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning will be among the speakers at a joint House-Senate Republican retreat scheduled to start Wednesday in Philadelphia, according to Politico.
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are also both expected to speak at the retreat, as is British Prime Minister Theresa May.
The retreat was set for Republicans on the Hill to hammer out a new agenda the party seeks to install, as it will hold the presidency, House and Senate for at least the next two years.
Manning donated to Jeb Bush during the Republican primaries, and had a picture taken with Donald Trump Jr. while the Trump campaign was in Mississippi.
While he has not publicly supported Trump, Manning has a history of donating to Tennessee Republicans, and gave money to George W. Bush in 2004 and Mitt Romney in 2012 for their presidential bids.
One of the Tennessee Republicans Manning has supported, Sen. Bob Corker, said he was looking forward to having Manning at the retreat and will introduce him to his colleagues.
“Peyton is a long-time friend, and I am excited to welcome him to this year’s congressional Republican policy retreat in Philadelphia,” said Corker in a statement. “Passing meaningful legislation takes a great deal of teamwork, a skill Peyton has certainly mastered throughout his football career.”
But Trump praised Manning in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” last year, saying he is a “very good guy.”
Manning has not publicly discussed what he will talk about at the retreat.
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Trump’s pick for Air Force secretary, Heather Wilson, an Academy graduate and NM congresswoman
DENVER – President Donald Trump is planning to nominate Heather Wilson as Air Force Secretary.
The White House said Monday it would nominate Wilson, a graduate of the Air Force Academy and former New Mexico congresswoman, to the post.
Wilson served as New Mexico’s 1st congressional district representative from 1998 to 2009 and was the first female veteran elected to Congress. She currently serves as the President of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
She was among the first women admitted to the Academy and eventually became a Vice Wing Commander before graduating as a Distinguished Graduate. She then was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and went to Oxford University.
She served in the Air Force until 1989 until she was picked to serve on National Security Council staff, and later founded a private defense company, Keystone International, and worked in the Gary Johnson administration before being elected to Congress.
While there, she served as chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence and was a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and also served on the House Armed Services Committee.
But she was at the center of a 2015 settlement involving Albuquerque, N.M-based Sandia Labs after she allegedly lobbied members of Congress and the Obama administration for an extension of the contract with the federal government.
She was also paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for consulting with three contractors involved in other federal laboratories, but no one could document her work, according to the Washington Post.
She denied lobbying for the Sandia Labs contract.
“Heather Wilson is going to make an outstanding Secretary of the Air Force. Her distinguished military service, high level of knowledge, and success in so many different fields gives me great confidence that she will lead our nation’s Air Force with the greatest competence and integrity,” President Trump said in a statement.
The same news release said Wilson plans “to strengthen American air and space power to keep the country safe.”
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Thousands expected at Women’s March on Denver Saturday; some Coloradans head to D.C. march
DENVER – Thousands of people are expected to take part in the Women’s March on Denver this Saturday in a local event that mirrors a larger march scheduled in Washington D.C. and other cities across the country.
The national women’s march was organized as a quasi-protest to follow President-Elect Donald Trump’s inauguration after Trump made lewd comments about grabbing women came to light during the campaign.
But the organizers for the Women’s March on Denver say their event is not only about women’s rights, but also an effort to support all human rights, minorities and other marginalized communities.
Organizers Jessica Rogers, Cheetah McClellan and Karen Hinkel told Denver7 Wednesday that the event “is sponsored by women for everyone” and that they hope to give women from across the west a platform to express themselves.
Rogers and McClellan both stressed that the march was not a protest and “not against anything,” saying the event plans more of a focus on propping up and empowering women and other marginalized people, as well as focusing on progressive social issues.
“We hope the march helps inspire women and all participants to take action and do whatever they can to participate in our democracy,” McClellan said.
There are also marches planned in Aspen, Carbondale, Colorado Springs, Durango, Grand Junction and Steamboat Springs.
More than a dozen women, including state legislators, city council members, educators, human rights advocates and other professionals plan to speak during the march, which will start and end at Civic Center Park.
Denver’s march begins Saturday at 9:30 a.m., and the rally starts at 11:15 a.m. The event is set to run through 3 p.m.
SOME COLORADANS HEADED TO WASHINGTON FOR MARCH
The march in Washington, D.C. is expected to draw tens of thousands of people.
Among those from Colorado attending the Washington, D.C., march will be Boulder resident Lilavati Sinclair.
“What we’re there for is to say we are a large constituency, we are a large body of women who are alert, awake and willing to what it takes to defend the rights we already have — protect them going forward and to keep fighting for the ones that have historically been of issue for women,” she said.
Sinclair won’t be alone. Her daughters will also be attending.
“I don’t want to be Pollyannaish and say, ‘Oh, yes, you know, all of us going out there, we’re automatically going to heal all of the divisive speech that has gone on.’ But I do think that there’s a potential of people to bind together and say, this is a time to respect our differences,” said her oldest daughter, Chenoah.
For more information on the Women’s March on Denver, click here.
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New poll finds large increase in support for government-backed health care coverage over past year
DENVER – A new survey from the Pew Research Center shows increased nationwide support for government-supported health care and that low-income Republicans have increasingly warmed to the idea of health care coverage for all Americans over the past year.
The report, published Friday, found that 60 percent of Americans support government-backed health care coverage for all Americans – a 9 percent increase from a poll last year and the highest percentage Pew has found since a 2006 Gallup survey.
But the numbers are still widely split between Democrats, 85 percent of whom polled support federal health care coverage, and Republicans, of whom only 32 percent said they supported government-backed health care.
The report also found that 52 percent of Republicans with household incomes of less than $30,000 per year support government-backed health care for all – up from 31 percent nine months ago.
The near-20 percentage point increase was also seen among “middle class” Republicans earning between $20,000 and $74,999 per household each year. Thirty-four percent of those polled said they supported government-backed health care coverage, compared to 14 percent last year.
Just 18 percent of Republicans making more than $75,000 a year said they supported government-backed health care coverage.
The splits in the report mostly boiled down to a family’s income level. Seventy-four percent of households making less than $30,000 a year support the government backing health care coverage, but only 53 percent of households making above $75,000 a year agreed.
But there were also splits when those surveyed were asked whether they supported a single-payer system or one like the current system set up under the Affordable Care Act in which the government subsidizes people’s plans that they buy through private insurance companies operating on national or state exchanges.
Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed said they supported a single-payer, government program; 29 percent said they wanted a mix of government and private programs; 32 percent said the government should not be responsible for ensuring nationwide health care but wanted the government to continue Medicare and Medicaid coverage; and just 5 percent said there should not be any government involvement in health care coverage of any kind.
Congressional Republicans have already passed the initial steps to repealing the ACA, though there is no replacement plan in place despite promises from President-elect Donald Trump and others that they would “repeal and replace” the ACA.
There were rallies held across the country Sunday, including in Denver, to ask that Congress not repeal the ACA, often referred to as Obamacare.
Sunday, Trump said he wanted “health insurance for all” but his spokesman, Sean Spicer, walked those comments back.
Gallup data from December found that some of the counties and states that voted for Trump in November also saw the highest enrollments in the Affordable Care Act coverage last month.
The Pew Research Center poll was based on telephone interviews of 1,502 adults in all 50 states and was conducted Jan. 4-9.
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All four of Colorado’s Congressional Democrats say they will attend Trump’s inauguration
DENVER – As handfuls of Democratic Congressional representatives say they plan to boycott Donald Trump’s inauguration, Colorado’s all say they will be attending.
Many Democratic members of Congress started saying over the weekend that they wouldn’t attend the inaugural ceremony, which is a tradition but not a requirement, after a spat between Georgia Rep. John Lewis and the president-elect.
Rep. Lewis said in an interview late last week he wouldn’t attend the inauguration after he questioned Trump’s legitimacy as president in an interview with NBC News. He said in the interview that he doesn’t believe Trump is a “legitimate” president because of the allegations Russia intervened in the General Election.
After Trump saw the interview, he tweeted out that Lewis was “all talk” and “no action,” saying Lewis should instead focus on his own district, which Trump called “crime infested” and “burning.”
Many Congressional Democrats took issue with Trump’s words, calling it an attack on Lewis, who had a large part in the civil rights actions in the 1960s. He marched in Selma and was an ally of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s.
The Congressional Black Caucus led the boycott of the inauguration, but many Democrats followed suit Monday in saying they would also boycott the event.
However, when asked Monday if they would attend, Colorado’s four Congressional Democrats all said they would be there.
Sen. Michael Bennet, Rep. Ed Perlmutter, Rep. Diana DeGette and Rep. Jared Polis all confirmed with Denver7’s Marc Stewart that they would attend Trump’s inauguration. The state’s Republican members of Congress all said they plan to attend as well.
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Presidential farewell addresses started with Washington, but weren’t a staple until Truman
President Barack Obama gave his final address to the country Tuesday night, addressing what he called victories and failures during his two terms and ending with his hope for continued progression in the country.
The presidential farewell address began with our nation’s first president, George Washington, but did not become a staple of American presidencies until the latter half of the 20th century.
Washington’s first “farewell address” urged Americans to stay together and to avoid partisanship, and was printed in a Philadelphia paper nearly six months before the end of his term.
The next address wasn’t given until Andrew Jackson published his in 1837 – nearly 40 years after Washington’s. That gap in time proved noteworthy in the differences between the two addresses – Jackson talked about how the U.S. and constitution were now engrained in society.
Jackson’s speech, like Washington’s and many of those that were to come, focused on the “common man” being involved in politics, which he said should not be left up to elites with money.
Andrew Johnson ran his farewell message in the New York Times in 1869 despite being impeached a year earlier.
Despite being president at the end of a tumultuous era in America following the Civil War and President Lincoln’s assassination, he lashed out at his political enemies, drawing scorn from many other newspapers. Another farewell address was not given until Harry Truman’s in 1953.
Truman’s address was the first in speech form and was broadcast to all of America. He talked about the great changes American had undergone over the first half the century and during his presidency specifically, and asked his fellow Americans to consider the gravity of some of the decisions he had to make, including dropping the atomic bomb, and “how hard a job” the presidency is.
Since then, every president aside from John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated, has given a farewell speech. Even Richard Nixon, who resigned amid impeachment proceedings, gave a speech in which he said “au revoir” to America.
The Miller Center at the University of Virginia archives presidential speeches. You can find any of the past presidents’ farewell speeches there.
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Declassified intel report finds Putin, Russia meddled in US election to undermine faith, help Trump
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A declassified version of a report by the three top U.S. intelligence agencies on possible Russian meddling into the 2016 General Election says Russia and President Vladimir Putin aimed specifically to undermine faith in the American electoral process and discredit Hillary Clinton in favor of Donald Trump.
The report (click to read in full) from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and national Security Agency (NSA) “is a declassified version of a highly classified assessment,” according to the document, but its findings are “identical” to the classified version. Continue reading
President-elect Trump feuds over Russia reports, attacks magazine that wrote negative article
DENVER – President-elect Donald Trump again took to Twitter Thursday morning to feud with U.S. intelligence agencies over allegations that Russia interfered with the General Election, and to again denigrate a magazine that wrote an unfavorable story about one of his properties.
As national news outlets continue to publish stories citing unnamed government sources who point to Russian interference in the election and possible hacks by agents with Russian ties, Trump continued – as he has in recent weeks – to question their findings.
“If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?” Trump tweeted.
If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2016
His tweet, however, is mostly false – just as it was when he said news of the hacks “wasn’t…brought up before [the] election” on Dec. 12.
The Obama Administration blamed the Russian government for hacking the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Oct. 7.
“We believe…that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a joint statement with the Department of Homeland Security that day.
But a Washington Post story and analysis by cyber-firm Crowdstrike published mid-June were the first to raise the flag that Russia may have been behind security breaches.
Only July 25, the FBI announced it was investigating the DNC breach.
Trump even raised the idea that Russia could have been behind the breach and suggested they release Clinton’s emails in his last news conference – held July 27 – though he said the next day he was being sarcastic. Yet on Oct. 9 he suggested at the second presidential debate that “maybe there is no hacking.”
Election Day was Nov. 8, and since then, more actions have been taken by the White House.
President Obama ordered a review of the alleged hacking on Dec. 9, and asked it be ready and on his desk by the time he leaves office.
And on Dec. 12, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest suggested Trump benefited from the alleged Russian meddling directly since he had praised Russian President Vladimir Putin on the campaign trail as a “strong leader.”
Earnest said Thursday at the daily press briefing it was “obvious” that Trump knew during the campaign Russia was trying to interfere in the election and added that Trump should be supporting an investigation rather than questioning it.
But the hacking allegations weren’t the president-elect’s only point of focus Thursday morning.
He started off by criticizing Vanity Fair, a longtime target of Trump’s that has also feuded with the business magnate in its pages, which published a story a day earlier with the headline “Trump Grill could be the worst restaurant in America.”
“Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of Vanity Fair Magazine,” he wrote. “Way down, big trouble, dead! [Owner] Graydon Carter, no talent, will be out!”
Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFair Magazine. Way down, big trouble, dead! Graydon Carter, no talent, will be out!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2016
He has a habit of taking to Twitter to attack people or news outlets that have been critical of him or his policies. Since Dec. 3, he has gone after an Indiana steel union president, Boeing, China, NBC News, CNN, the Green Party, Saturday Night Live and Alec Baldwin on the social media outlet.
Just four minutes after he criticized Vanity Fair on Twitter, he thanked Time Magazine and the Financial Times for naming him “person of the year,” which he said was “a great honor!”
Thank you to Time Magazine and Financial Times for naming me “Person of the Year” – a great honor!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2016
And before tweeting about Russia, Trump fired off another tweet disparaging his favorite target: “the media,” which has rightfully scrutinized his business dealings and connections as they pertain to his soon-to-be presidency.
“The media tries so hard to make my move to the White House, as it pertains to my business, so complex – when actually it isn’t!”
The media tries so hard to make my move to the White House, as it pertains to my business, so complex – when actually it isn’t!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2016
But the communications director for Trump’s transition team, Jason Miller, said just hours later that Trump’s finances were indeed complex.
Trump also canceled a news conference scheduled for this week – his first since July 27 — in which he was to discuss his business dealings and how they will be handled in his transition to the presidency, but only hours later took to Twitter to discuss the matter without taking questions.
Even though I am not mandated by law to do so, I will be leaving my busineses before January 20th so that I can focus full time on the……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2016
He said he would be leaving his businesses and that his sons, Don and Eric, as well as other executives would manage them. He said “no new deals” would be done while he is in office.
Trump has made Twitter his main soapbox for making statements, most-often in lieu of speaking through traditional media outlets he does not trust. But he also failed to invite Twitter to a technology roundtable Wednesday that featured many top U.S. tech companies. Surrogates said the company was “not big enough.”
Colo. Sen. Cory Gardner calls for permanent cybersecurity committee amid Russian hacking allegations
DENVER – Colorado Senator Cory Gardner is among more than a dozen Republicans calling for the U.S. government to probe the possible influence of Russian hackers on the General Election, despite President-elect Donald Trump’s denials that Russia is involved.
Gardner, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, issued a news release Monday again calling on the Senate to create a permanent committee on cybersecurity.
His call for the creation of the committee comes on the heels of a report by The Washington Post in which anonymous sources told the paper the CIA had concluded Russia intervened in the election in order to help Donald Trump win the presidency, and that people connected to the Kremlin provided WikiLeaks with emails hacked or phished from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta.
On the same day as The Post’s report went to print, President Barack Obama ordered an intelligence review be conducted and delivered to his desk by the end of his term that investigates Russian hacking allegations.
At least a dozen other intelligence agencies and several House and Senate committees have come to the same, or similar conclusions.
“Recent reports from our intelligence community concluded that Russia attempted to influence the U.S. presidential election, serving as yet another reminder of the hose of emerging threats in cyberspace,” Gardner said in Monday’s new release. “These allegations must be thoroughly investigated, and I will continue to work with my colleagues to address the sanctioning of Russian and specifically, bad actors identified following an investigation.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday said that “Russians are not our friends” and condemned the actions by the allegedly Russian-linked hackers. He said the Senate Intelligence Committee will be investigating.
House Speaker Paul Ryan also said the House Intelligence Committee will investigate the alleged hacking, but said the investigation “should not cast doubt on the clear and decisive outcome of this election” or involve “partisan” politics. Ryan said any Russian intervention into the U.S. election would be “especially problematic.”
President-elect Donald Trump, however, continued to deny and downplay any alleged involvement by the Russians, calling the allegations “ridiculous.”
Unless you catch “hackers” in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn’t this brought up before election?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016
He took to his soapbox of choice, Twitter, Monday morning to say “it’s very hard to determine who was doing the hacking” unless the hackers are caught in the act, though forensic analysts are often able to determine the source of hacks long after they are done.
He also continued to chastise Hillary Clinton in regards to the hacks. “Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card,” Trump tweeted. “It would be called conspiracy theory!”
Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be called conspiracy theory!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016
When The Post’s story published Friday, Trump’s team dismissed the CIA assessment in a news release, saying it was from “the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.”
Gardner was among the first Hill Republicans to call for inquiries into and consequences for any alleged Russian hacking in October, when the U.S. first officially blamed Russia for the hacks.
At that time, Gardner said he wanted to introduce legislation to impose sanctions on Russia for its cyber activities, though he at the time pointed to the Obama Administration as being partially at fault, saying it failed “to take the cyber threat seriously.”
He also called for the creating of a cyber threat committee in July 2015 in regards to Chinese hacking.
Click to watch my comments at AEI last week calling for creation of cyber select committee: https://t.co/aFLKE6PsX3 https://t.co/4IxpgfsZW9
— Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) July 30, 2015
Though no new legislation has been introduced yet, his office said he is continuing to work with committee members and other senators to do so.
Powerful Senate Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham have both joined the Senate’s investigation.
One of Colorado’s electors joined a host of others Monday in calling for a full intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking before they cast their votes Dec. 19.
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