Wednesday, August 26, 2015

CEO says attacks on him and his brother are “beneath the dignity … of the president.”

By Mike Allen
Politico
8/25/15 8:36 PM EDT

Charles Koch hit back at criticism of “the Koch brothers” during President Barack Obama’s energy speech in Las Vegas earlier this week, saying he was “flabbergasted” by the attack and charging that Obama made the dig as a favor to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who appeared with him.

“It’s beneath the president, the dignity of the president, to be doing that,” Koch said during a phone interview Tuesday.

Koch’s blistering comments came as he and his brother David, whose conservative political network plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the 2016 election, have spoken out more frequently in an attempt to blunt Democratic attacks on their political influence and insinuations about their motives.

Reid has been particularly relentless, calling the Kochs “shadowy billionaires” who seek to “rig the system to benefit themselves and the wealthiest 1 percent,” among many other charges. At the National Clean Energy Summit at the Mandalay Bay Resort Convention Center on Monday, Obama joined the fray.

The president drew applause when he said: “[Y]ou start seeing massive lobbying efforts backed by fossil fuel interests, or conservative think tanks, or the Koch brothers pushing for new laws to roll back renewable energy standards or prevent new clean energy businesses from succeeding — that’s a problem.”

But Koch, who is chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, said his opposition to subsidies for clean energy companies — or any other private businesses — doesn’t mean he’s against their success. Rolling back corporate welfare is one of the top issues Koch is pursuing with his richly funded political network.

Koch said his company also opposes subsidies for fossil fuels. And he portrayed Obama’s remarks as an unwarranted personal attack.

Read more at: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/charles-koch-blasts-obama-121746.html


Charles Koch AP Photo 2015


Thursday, August 13, 2015

First Read: A One-Two Punch of Tough News for Hillary Clinton

by Chuck Todd and Carrie Dann
NBC News

Meet the Press
Aug 12 2015, 1:52 pm ET


'First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

A Double-Whammy for Clinton, Part One:

After months of resistance, Hillary Clinton's campaign says that the former secretary of state will turn over to the Justice Department her private server and a thumb drive containing copies of her emails. (And that news came on the same day that we learned that two of the emails that the inspector general for the intelligence community reviewed contained "top secret" information, the highest classification of government intelligence.) This is exactly the scenario that many people assumed would play out beginning six months ago - that Clinton would resist and resist and resist and then relieve the pressure when it became absolutely necessary. The big problem for her camp is that now, instead of looking proactive, Clinton looks like she's been dragged into turning these materials over.

And Part Two: A new poll shows Bernie Sanders ahead of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire

And here's Part Two of the double-whammy for Clinton the day after this new flurry of email stories: A fresh poll from Franklin Pierce University and the Boston Herald shows Sanders leading Clinton 44 percent to 37 percent among likely Democratic primary voters.

Read more at: http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/first-read-one-two-punch-tough-news-hillary-clinton-n408411

Hillary Clinton July 24, 2015 BGR image


Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Calls mount for Hillary Clinton criminal investigation amid email data breach fears

Critics say former secretary of state’s actions compare unfavorably to David Patreaus’


By Guy Taylor - The Washington Times - Sunday, August 2, 2015

With U.S. intelligence officials scrambling to contain damage from potentially hundreds of spy agency secrets in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private emails, questions are mounting over why the Justice Department has not yet opened a criminal investigation against the Democratic presidential front-runner for mishandling a mountain of classified information.

While some secrecy experts believe Mrs. Clinton will be able to build a strong case that material on her server was not classified at the time it was moving through her emails, others assert that what the former secretary of state did was far more egregious than the mishandling of information that saw former CIA Director David H. Petraeus sentenced to two years probation and a $100,000 fine.

“I don’t see how the Justice Department would be able to avoid at least investigating this,” said Kevin Carroll, a former CIA officer and secrecy lawyer in Washington. “What Petraeus did was really small in comparison, because there was no exposure of any information to any foreign intelligence services.”

Read more at: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/2/hillary-clinton-emails-calls-mount-for-criminal-in/

HillaryClinton Associated Press July 2015