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Obama Slams GOP Presidential Candidates: ‘Scared Of Widows And 3-Year Old Orphans’ (Video)

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“They’ve been playing on fear in order to try to score political points or to advance their campaigns. And it’s irresponsible. And it’s contrary to who we are. And it needs to stop, because the world is watching.” –Barack Obama

Speaking at a press conference Tuesday night in the Philippines, President Barack Obama was asked to comment about allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S. The President was only too happy to, and for the second day this week, unleashed a surgical strike on Republican presidential candidates and GOP lawmakers who have been using fear, hate, and lies to drum up their Islamophobic base.

“We are not well-served when, in response to a terrorist attack, we descend into fear and panic,” the President, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Manila, warned. “We don’t make good decisions if it’s based on hysteria or an exaggeration of risks.”

Noting that refugees “are subjected to the most rigorous process conceivable,” he told reporters the “intelligence community vets fully who they are” to “ensure that a refugee is not admitted that might cause us harm.”

The President then slammed, albeit not by name, Chris Christie and Jeb Bush, among others.

“When candidates say, we wouldn’t admit three-year-old orphans — that’s political posturing.  When individuals say that we should have a religious test and that only Christians — proven Christians — should be admitted — that’s offensive and contrary to American values.”

WATCH: Obama Slams GOP Presidential Candidates For ‘Religious Test’ Comments After Paris Attacks

“I cannot think of a more potent recruitment tool for ISIL than some of the rhetoric that’s been coming out of here during the course of this debate. ISIL seeks to exploit the idea that there is a war between Islam and the West. And when you start seeing individuals in positions of responsibility, suggesting that Christians are more worthy of protection than Muslims are in a war-torn land, that feeds the ISIL narrative. It’s counterproductive, and it needs to stop.”

Donald Trump was also not immune from Obama’s scorn. 

“I would add, by the way, these are the same folks oftentimes who suggest that they’re so tough that just talking to Putin or staring down ISIL, or using some additional rhetoric somehow is going to solve the problems out there.  But apparently, they’re scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America as part of our tradition of compassion. First, they were worried about the press being too tough on them during debates. Now they’re worried about three-year-old orphans. That doesn’t sound very tough to me.”

“They’ve been playing on fear in order to try to score political points or to advance their campaigns. And it’s irresponsible. And it’s contrary to who we are. And it needs to stop, because the world is watching.”

“I was proud, when the attacks in Boston took place, and we did not resort to fear and to panic. Boston Strong. People went to the ballgame that same week, and sang the National Anthem, and went back to the stores and went back to the streets. That’s how you defeat ISIL. Not by trying to divide the country, or suggest somehow that our tradition of compassion should stop now.”

And then he went after GOP lawmakers.  

“Oh, one last thing. With respect to Congress, I know that there’s been discussion about legislation suddenly surfacing around refugees. I’ve been waiting for a year and a half, or more, for legislation that would authorize the military activities that we’re carrying out in Syria as we speak, and have not been able to get anything out of Congress. And now, suddenly, they’re able to rush in, in a day or two, to solve the threat of widows and orphans and others who are fleeing a war-torn land, and that’s their most constructive contribution to the effort against IISL? That doesn’t sound right to me. And I suspect it won’t sound right to the American people.”

 

Image: Screenshot via NBC News
Hat tip: Jennifer Epstein and Talking Points Memo

 

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Trump Media Stock Price Hits Lowest Point Since Last November Following Debate

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The stock price for former President Donald Trump’s company Trump Media has fallen to its lowest point in nearly a year the day following his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

As of Wednesday morning at 11:00 eastern time, shares of Trump Media were trading at $15.96, according to CNBC. The last time the stock was that low was on November 14, when shares traded at $15.925 at close of business. The stock price has been declining since July 17’s high of $37.38.

That high is not quite half of the stock’s peak price this year on March 26, when the stock hit a high of $66.22 per share. That day had the highest stock price since less than a month after the launch of the company, when shares hit an all-time high of $97.54 at close on March 6, 2022. Trump Media & Technology Group was founded on February 8 of that year.

READ MORE: Parallels Between Trump Media Loans and Infamous Trump Tower Meeting Drawn by Reporter

Trump Media’s biggest asset is the social media platform Truth Social. Since the beginning of the company, it has promised to have a television streaming service, TMTG+, however it’s yet to materialize. Promises of some form of Trump TV network have circled since 2016, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was expected to win the presidential election, according to NBC News.

Given the company’s small portfolio, many have seen the stock like buying stock in Trump personally, according to CNN. The NASDAQ ticker symbol is even DJT after his initials, rather than TMTG, the initials of the company’s full name. And some stock experts have pinned its success on Trump’s own success in November’s election.

“I think if he loses, he has to sell and DJT goes to $1. If he wins, he doesn’t sell and DJT can make a run for it,” Tuttle Capital Management CEO Matthew Tuttle told CNN.

Trump has $2.3 billion in Trump Media stock, however, he’s been unable to sell it, due to a lock-up period. But that period will expire in two weeks, according to CNN. But if he sells off his shares, it could cause the stock to fall even further.

“It would be all but impossible for Trump to liquidate his whole stake or even a third of it without completely tanking the stock price,” Michael Ohlrogge, associate professor of law at the New York University School of Law, told CNN.

This year has been particularly tough for Trump Media. This April, the stock’s woes led to Trump falling off Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index of the richest 500 people in the world, according to Fortune. The company has also faced lawsuits from the company’s co-founders, Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, according to the Washington Post, who were in turn sued by Trump, NBC News reported.

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MAGA World Threatens to Boycott ABC After Trump’s Disastrous Debate Performance

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The phrase “Boycott ABC” trended on X, formerly known as Twitter, the morning after the first debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

ABC News aired the debate Tuesday evening, moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis. Though Trump started the debate calmly, as the night went on, he got more and more upset. The moderators pushed back on some of his more bizarre claims, like repeating the debunked conspiracy theory about people eating cats in Ohio or that Tim Walz backs post-birth abortions.

Pundits largely agreed that Harris won the debate. NPR said the debate “wasn’t close.” The New York Times described Harris as “sharp” and said she “rattled” the former president. Fox News’ voter panel said the vice president had been the victor.

READ MORE: Trump Late Night Rant Signals Plan to Evade Harris Debate as Rules Come Back Into Play

Even before the debate, there were claims of bias. On Monday, Fox News’ Sean Hannity predicted that the debate would be “biased” due to the network airing it.

“The one and only scheduled presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will take place. You can watch it right here on Fox News Channel. But unfortunately, it is being moderated by ABC-Disney, barring some kind of political miracle, this debate will not be fair,” Hannity said on his show, according to Mediaite. “ABC-Disney is officially a woke, left-wing organization.”

Hannity also called for a boycott of all Disney properties. ABC is owned by the megacorporation.

“Maybe [Disney CEO] Bob Iger and his left-wing heir apparent, maybe they don’t want half the country to attend their theme parks, maybe they don’t care about their tanking stock price, which is their prerogative,” Hannity said. “They’re free to make that choice, but if they are biased against Donald Trump, as they have been leading into tomorrow night, as their nightly newscast is, half the country is not going to like it one bit. They are not going to like ABC-Disney one bit either.”

As Hannity predicted, many Trump supporters came out in droves to slam ABC and Disney.

“At this point, we need to boycott ABC News forever. If they come on again, we need to turn them off. If they are on YouTube, we need to turn them off. ABC News cannot be trusted by the American people to give impartial journalism. They are a propaganda arm of the lying Democrats,” X user China Clark posted.

The role of @abcnews and @DavidMuir is to allow Haitian thugs to invade your country and eat your pets while they gaslight you by claiming that it’s not true. Just ask the residents of Springfield, Ohio,” Former Newsmax White House correspondent Emerald Robinson wrote. 

“.@ABC is a disgrace. My phone is lighting up with nonstop messages about how extremely biased ABC is during this debate. Kamala Harris is VP RIGHT NOW. People can’t afford anything RIGHT NOW. The border is out of control RIGHT NOW. But ABC is in attack mode against Trump!” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wrote

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Liz Cheney Predicts Many Republicans Will Secretly Vote For Kamala Harris

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Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney predicted Sunday many Republicans will actually end up voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

The former Wyoming representative appeared on ABC’s This Week to urge her fellow Republicans to dump former President Donald Trump and endorse Harris as she has.

“Given the closeness of this election, particularly if you’re going to find yourself voting in a swing state, you’ve got to take the extra step if you really do recognize the threat that Donald Trump poses. Then it’s not enough to simply say, ‘I’m not going to vote for him,’” she said.

READ MORE: Liz Cheney Stomps Mitch McConnell for ‘Political Calculation’ to Ignore Trump’s Election Crimes

But she also said that even if many Republicans don’t follow her lead and denounce the former president, they’ll take advantage of the privacy of the polls to secretly support the Democratic candidate.

“It’s a secret ballot,” Cheney said. “At the end of the day, you just have to wrestle with your own conscience when you’re there in the voting booth. And I would expect that you will see far more Republicans and independents, you know, when the time comes, and they’ve got to make that decision, make the right decision.”

This would be the opposite of what some believe happened in 2016. Polls at the time generally showed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the lead over Trump. But when the election happened, though Clinton won the popular vote, it wasn’t enough to tip the Electoral College in her favor.

Over 70% of Republican insiders felt the polls underestimated Trump’s support, according to a Politico article from October 2016.

“I personally know many Republicans that won’t admit that they are voting for Trump. I don’t like admitting it myself. It won’t matter if Hillary is up more than 5 points, but we might be in for a surprise if Hillary’s lead is less than 5 points on Election Day,” an unnamed Virginia Republican told the outlet at the time.

In a 2016 interview conducted before the election, Trump’s then-campaign manager Kellyanne Conway pointed out that Trump polled better in anonymous online polls than in more traditional polling, according to WJLA.

“It’s become socially desirable, especially if you’re a college-educated person in the United States of America, to say that you’re against Donald Trump,” she said.

A 2019 study found that this was indeed the case. The study found that 54% of those polled voted for Trump but kept their preference a secret publicly. When broken out by gender, 57% of men and 50% of women polled kept their Trump vote a secret.

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