Brian4Liberty
05-17-2015, 12:56 PM
Bipartisanship: McConnell, Stephanopoulos Reach Across The Aisle To Help Push Hillary Clinton’s Obamatrade (http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/17/bipartisanship-mcconnell-stephanopoulos-reach-across-the-aisle-to-help-push-hillary-clintons-obamatrade/)
by Matthew Boyle - 17 May 2015
An embattled Republican, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), joined an embattled Democrat, ABC This Week host George Stephanopoulos, in a rare showing of bipartisan support for the Hillary Clinton-backed Obamatrade deal on Sunday morning.
With Stephanopoulos on the ropes over his $75,000 donation to the Clinton Foundation — a fact he didn’t bother to disclose before interviewing Breitbart News senior editor Peter Schweizer about his book Clinton Cash — there are serious questions being raised about McConnell’s decision to attempt to help the former Bill Clinton staffer.
...
McConnell’s office hasn’t responded to a Breitbart News request for comment on why he’d throw Stephanopoulos a lifeline—appearing on his show lends him credibility. Stephanopoulos has had to recuse himself from Republican debates in 2016, and won’t be allowed to moderate them—despite previous plans to do so—but is still moving forward with plans to be involved in ABC News’ 2016 and political coverage despite his conflict of interest that he kept from the public until he was later caught. Many, including the Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell, are calling for Stephanopoulos to recuse himself from all 2016 political coverage–noting that ABC is facing a credibility crisis with him at the helm.
McConnell has come under fire from both sides over the past week for pushing the secretive Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) that would fast-track the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton—during her time as Secretary of State—helped negotiate with several Pacific Rim nations. In fact, conservative activist Rick Manning—the president of advocacy group Americans for Limited Government—argues that McConnell is jeopardizing Republican control of the U.S. Senate in the next election by pushing this massively unpopular trade deal through Congress.
...
But none of the bipartisan opposition to Obamatrade, which McConnell is going to attempt to force through the U.S. Senate this coming week, made it into Stephanopoulos’ talk show on Sunday. Instead, the only question Stephanopoulos asked McConnell about the matter was whether he and President Obama were planning to get together to drink bourbon whiskey. The news package that set up the interview wasn’t much better—quoting only McConnell’s support for the deal from the Senate floor and the opposition from liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)—leaving out the critical context of the opposition from people such as Sens. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
...
From there, Stephanopoulos moved on from Obamatrade—again without asking any tough or specific questions. That’s to be expected, since Stephanopoulos—an advocate for liberalism and big government from his perch at ABC News—frequently does advocacy interviews on things like this where he won’t ask real questions but will just let politicians who support what he does, like Clinton, McConnell and Obama do with this trade deal, talk about why they back it.
Stephanopoulos saved his tough questions for McConnell—including where he asked McConnell about specific disagreements he has with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), his Kentucky colleague and a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, on the National Security Agency bulk data collection program.
“Your own Senate colleague from Kentucky, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), wants to end the program,” Stephanopoulos said. “He put out a tweet this week saying I will fight tooth and nail to stop a blanket reauthorization of this attack on our freedoms. How do you respond to that, that the NSA surveillance program is an attack on our freedoms?”
But Stephanopoulos asked no such question about the trade deal—and made no mention his entire show of this—and Sen. Paul’s ardent opposition to the deal. In fact, Paul not only came out against the trade deal publicly, he even went to the secret room inside the Capitol to read it, and in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News outside that room called for its public release.
...
Again, somehow, this never happened according to Stephnanopoulos’ Sunday show and interview with McConnell. Stephanopoulos even asked yet another question a moment later about Sen. Paul.
“Finally, sir, you mentioned that you and Rand Paul agree on most things,” Stephanopoulos asked. “In fact, he’s one of three senators running. He’s your candidate for president. Make the 30-second case for why he should be president.”
“You know, one of the great things that Rand Paul has done is reach out to different constituencies,” McConnell replied.
I’ve been thrilled to how he’s gone to African American audiences. He’s very appealing to young people. Look, we all know that in order to be competitive in presidential elections, we have to carry more voters than we have in recent years, which is not enough to win the White House. So Rand has brought a kind of new brand of Republicanism to the contest. I think it’s exciting to a lot of people, and I wish him well.
ABC spokeswoman Heather Riley—who has been frequently defending Stephanopoulos amid his Clinton Cash craze—did not respond to a request for comment on why the ABC host and former Bill Clinton White House senior staffer didn’t ask McConnell about Paul’s opposition to Obamatrade or other Republican opposition from senators like Sessions or presidential candidates like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Dr. Ben Carson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee or more.
What’s interesting here is that Stephanopoulos’ work alongside McConnell to help push the Obamatrade deal comes on the heels of a new revelation from liberal media outlet Vox that ties Clinton Cash together with Obamatrade. The Vox article basically walks through how the Obamatrade deal and Clinton Cash narratives are intertwined. Jonathan Allen writes:
Almost a decade ago, as Hillary Clinton ran for re-election to the Senate on her way to seeking the presidency for the first time, the New York Times reported on her unusually close relationship with Corning, Inc., an upstate glass titan. Clinton advanced the company’s interests, racking up a big assist by getting China to ease a trade barrier. And the firm’s mostly Republican executives opened up their wallets for her campaign.
During Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State, Corning lobbied the department on a variety of trade issues, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The company has donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to her family’s foundation. And, last July, when it was clear that Clinton would again seek the presidency in 2016, Corning coughed up a $225,500 honorarium for Clinton to speak.
...
A congressional aide told Breitbart News that McConnell and Feinstein running to Stephanopoulos while he’s amid his own scandal to push Obamatrade was a “slippery but brilliant move.”
“Merits of the deal aside, they are brilliant politicians,” the aide said.
...
More: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/17/bipartisanship-mcconnell-stephanopoulos-reach-across-the-aisle-to-help-push-hillary-clintons-obamatrade/
by Matthew Boyle - 17 May 2015
An embattled Republican, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), joined an embattled Democrat, ABC This Week host George Stephanopoulos, in a rare showing of bipartisan support for the Hillary Clinton-backed Obamatrade deal on Sunday morning.
With Stephanopoulos on the ropes over his $75,000 donation to the Clinton Foundation — a fact he didn’t bother to disclose before interviewing Breitbart News senior editor Peter Schweizer about his book Clinton Cash — there are serious questions being raised about McConnell’s decision to attempt to help the former Bill Clinton staffer.
...
McConnell’s office hasn’t responded to a Breitbart News request for comment on why he’d throw Stephanopoulos a lifeline—appearing on his show lends him credibility. Stephanopoulos has had to recuse himself from Republican debates in 2016, and won’t be allowed to moderate them—despite previous plans to do so—but is still moving forward with plans to be involved in ABC News’ 2016 and political coverage despite his conflict of interest that he kept from the public until he was later caught. Many, including the Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell, are calling for Stephanopoulos to recuse himself from all 2016 political coverage–noting that ABC is facing a credibility crisis with him at the helm.
McConnell has come under fire from both sides over the past week for pushing the secretive Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) that would fast-track the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton—during her time as Secretary of State—helped negotiate with several Pacific Rim nations. In fact, conservative activist Rick Manning—the president of advocacy group Americans for Limited Government—argues that McConnell is jeopardizing Republican control of the U.S. Senate in the next election by pushing this massively unpopular trade deal through Congress.
...
But none of the bipartisan opposition to Obamatrade, which McConnell is going to attempt to force through the U.S. Senate this coming week, made it into Stephanopoulos’ talk show on Sunday. Instead, the only question Stephanopoulos asked McConnell about the matter was whether he and President Obama were planning to get together to drink bourbon whiskey. The news package that set up the interview wasn’t much better—quoting only McConnell’s support for the deal from the Senate floor and the opposition from liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)—leaving out the critical context of the opposition from people such as Sens. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
...
From there, Stephanopoulos moved on from Obamatrade—again without asking any tough or specific questions. That’s to be expected, since Stephanopoulos—an advocate for liberalism and big government from his perch at ABC News—frequently does advocacy interviews on things like this where he won’t ask real questions but will just let politicians who support what he does, like Clinton, McConnell and Obama do with this trade deal, talk about why they back it.
Stephanopoulos saved his tough questions for McConnell—including where he asked McConnell about specific disagreements he has with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), his Kentucky colleague and a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, on the National Security Agency bulk data collection program.
“Your own Senate colleague from Kentucky, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), wants to end the program,” Stephanopoulos said. “He put out a tweet this week saying I will fight tooth and nail to stop a blanket reauthorization of this attack on our freedoms. How do you respond to that, that the NSA surveillance program is an attack on our freedoms?”
But Stephanopoulos asked no such question about the trade deal—and made no mention his entire show of this—and Sen. Paul’s ardent opposition to the deal. In fact, Paul not only came out against the trade deal publicly, he even went to the secret room inside the Capitol to read it, and in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News outside that room called for its public release.
...
Again, somehow, this never happened according to Stephnanopoulos’ Sunday show and interview with McConnell. Stephanopoulos even asked yet another question a moment later about Sen. Paul.
“Finally, sir, you mentioned that you and Rand Paul agree on most things,” Stephanopoulos asked. “In fact, he’s one of three senators running. He’s your candidate for president. Make the 30-second case for why he should be president.”
“You know, one of the great things that Rand Paul has done is reach out to different constituencies,” McConnell replied.
I’ve been thrilled to how he’s gone to African American audiences. He’s very appealing to young people. Look, we all know that in order to be competitive in presidential elections, we have to carry more voters than we have in recent years, which is not enough to win the White House. So Rand has brought a kind of new brand of Republicanism to the contest. I think it’s exciting to a lot of people, and I wish him well.
ABC spokeswoman Heather Riley—who has been frequently defending Stephanopoulos amid his Clinton Cash craze—did not respond to a request for comment on why the ABC host and former Bill Clinton White House senior staffer didn’t ask McConnell about Paul’s opposition to Obamatrade or other Republican opposition from senators like Sessions or presidential candidates like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Dr. Ben Carson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee or more.
What’s interesting here is that Stephanopoulos’ work alongside McConnell to help push the Obamatrade deal comes on the heels of a new revelation from liberal media outlet Vox that ties Clinton Cash together with Obamatrade. The Vox article basically walks through how the Obamatrade deal and Clinton Cash narratives are intertwined. Jonathan Allen writes:
Almost a decade ago, as Hillary Clinton ran for re-election to the Senate on her way to seeking the presidency for the first time, the New York Times reported on her unusually close relationship with Corning, Inc., an upstate glass titan. Clinton advanced the company’s interests, racking up a big assist by getting China to ease a trade barrier. And the firm’s mostly Republican executives opened up their wallets for her campaign.
During Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State, Corning lobbied the department on a variety of trade issues, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The company has donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to her family’s foundation. And, last July, when it was clear that Clinton would again seek the presidency in 2016, Corning coughed up a $225,500 honorarium for Clinton to speak.
...
A congressional aide told Breitbart News that McConnell and Feinstein running to Stephanopoulos while he’s amid his own scandal to push Obamatrade was a “slippery but brilliant move.”
“Merits of the deal aside, they are brilliant politicians,” the aide said.
...
More: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/17/bipartisanship-mcconnell-stephanopoulos-reach-across-the-aisle-to-help-push-hillary-clintons-obamatrade/