Wednesday 5/8/19: Cal Thomas, Amber Athey, Adam Kennedy and Sean Spicer
6am – A Buttigieg: ‘I Can’t Imagine’ God Would Be a Trump Republican. Tuesday on NBC’s “Today,” South Bend, IN Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said he “can’t imagine” that God would be in the political party that elected President Donald Trump. Reporter Craig Melvin said, “You also spend a fair amount of time talking about your faith.” Buttigieg said, “Yes.” Melvin asked, “Why?” Buttigieg said, “It’s important to me.” He added, “I think it’s also important that we stop seeing religion used as a kind of cudgel as if God belonged to a political party. If he did, I can’t imagine it would be the one that sent the current president into the White House.”
6am – B/C IMMIGRATION MEETING AT WH: President Trump hosted GOP Senators for a discussion about a new immigration plan that includes increased assets for border security. The proposal, spearheaded by presidential adviser Jared Kushner, seeks to secure ports of entry and create a merit-based immigration system that gives preference to skills of immigrants, rather than their having relatives already in the United States.
WH Immigration Plan Will Focus On Border Security And Merit-Based Immigration. (Daily Caller/Amber Athey) — The new White House immigration plan presented to Republican senators Tuesday focuses on increased border security and a merit-based legal immigration program, a senior administration official told The Daily Caller. The plan was spearheaded by senior adviser and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, but also included input from senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and has now been signed off on by President Donald Trump, the official said during a briefing with a few reporters. There are specifically six goals that the plan aims at addressing: securing the border, protecting American wages, attracting and retaining the best and brightest, unifying families, labor in critical industries and retaining the United States’ humanitarian values. Border officials and immigration experts had a hand in crafting the policies that they believed would achieve those goals. On border security, the plan calls for a physical barrier and modernization at ports of entry to stop drugs and trafficking. “We want to make sure that all people, vehicles and packages coming through the ports of entry are fully scanned for drugs,” the official explained. “This is something from a national security point of view that we believe our country should have.” The official claimed that asylum seekers will be vetted more quickly but did not offer details on how the process will change.
6am – D INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated columnist
NYT: Decade in the Red: Trump Tax Figures Show Over $1 Billion in Business Losses
Pete Buttigieg in South Carolina: America ‘Was Never as Great as Advertised.’ Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg took a jab at President Trump on Monday while delivering a speech in South Carolina, saying America’s past “was never as great as advertised.” “So many of the solutions, I believe, are gonna come from our communities. Communities like the one where I grew up, which is an industrial mid-western city,” the former South Bend, Indiana mayor stated. “That is exactly the kind of place that our current president targeted with a message saying that we could find greatness by just stopping the clock and turning it back.” “That past that he is promising to return us to was never as great as advertised, especially for marginalized Americans… and there’s no going back anyway.”
Biden takes 32-point lead over Sanders in new 2020 poll. Former Vice President Joe Biden has a 32-point lead in the Democratic presidential race in a Hill-HarrisX poll released Monday. Biden won 46 percent in the poll compared to 14 percent for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who came in a distant second place. South Bend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg was in third place with 8 percent, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) with 7 percent.
McConnell calls for end to investigations of Trump, says ‘case closed.’ Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made a case Tuesday to move on from investigations of President Trump and his 2016 campaign, calling the matter “case closed” even as Democrats intensify their inquiries into Trump’s conduct. McConnell (R-Ky.), who faces reelection next year, argued that Democrats are continuing to re-litigate an election result that is now more than two years old — deriding it as a “Groundhog Day spectacle” — and insisted in a floor speech Tuesday morning that the matter is finished and that lawmakers should focus on legislation.
6am – E Trump’s tax records show his businesses lost so much money over a decade, he didn’t have to pay income taxes for 8 of those 10 years. President Donald Trump’s tax information covering the years 1985 to 1994 show a business empire nearly in ruin, according to financial information obtained by The New York Times. Trump’s negative adjusted gross income allowed him not to pay any income tax for eight of those years, according to the records. The filings show that in 1985, Trump lost $46.1 million from his casinos, hotels, and apartments. These businesses kept losing money annually for a total loss of $1.17 billion over 10 years, according to The New York Times. President Donald Trump’s tax information covering the years 1985 to 1994 show a business empire nearly in ruin, so much so that his negative adjusted gross income allowed him not to pay any income tax for eight of those years, according to The New York Times.
6am – F Peloton Fitness Videos Have a New Feature: A Random Guy Named Brad. A 42-year-old dad shows up in classes seen by riders of pricey stationary cycles; ‘I try not to watch him.’ (WSJ) — Drop in on one of Peloton’s cult spinning classes on any given day and you’re bound to see sweat-glistening instructors with abs that could cut glass. Oh, and a middle-aged man named Brad. The 42-year-old Brad Holcman, who works at a New York television network by day and spins under the username #BradNeedsAbs, has quickly become one of the most recognizable figures in the world of stationary-bike maker Peloton. And it isn’t because he’s employed by Peloton (he’s not) or because he’s a fitness model (he’s not). Instead, the father of two has both delighted and infuriated thousands of riders by lip-syncing, hip-hopping and dancing his way through countless of Peloton’s filmed classes in his neon muscle shirts. “People are like, ‘you’re a pelebrity.’ I tell them I’m not—the pelebrities are the instructors,” Mr. Holcman said. Mr. Holcman’s prominence is intentional. Peloton’s $2,245, video-playing bikes allow riders to tackle everything from interval training to Elton John-themed rides from their home. But the classes themselves are filmed and live-streamed from a Manhattan studio. And there is a catch: camera placement usually allows only one rider seated near the instructor to be seen by those following along at home. Once Mr. Holcman realized it, he knew he had to have that seat. “I’m living my best life on this bike,” he said, adding that his drive stems partially from his daughters’ passion for pop music, his own experience DJ-ing bar mitzvahs and weddings, and from fond experiences taking dance classes as a youth. “It’s so surreal to see how the community has taken to me.” Some riders have turned to creative tactics to tune him out. Lauren Mencarini Essig, who rides her bike at home in Maryland, puts a Post-it Note on her Peloton monitor when she sees Mr. Holcman. It works for the most part, although the Post-it can end up obscuring the instructor when the camera angle switches. “I don’t want to get off the bike but I try not to watch him,” Ms. Essig said. Lauren Hynds, a rider in New Hampshire, suggested the company take a simple step: randomly assign bikes for those taking in-studio classes.