Latest update January 22nd, 2020 10:43 PM
Mar 12, 2019 Amnon Peery Politics 0
Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said he believes there are some Democrats who could defeat President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Ryan, in one of his first public appearances after retiring from Congress, weighed in on Trump’s chances and reflected on his tenure in Congress during a Monday lecture in Vero Beach, Florida.
“The person who defines that race is going to win the race. If this is about Donald Trump and his personality, he isn’t going to win it,” Ryan said.
Ryan, who served as Speaker of the House from 2015 until January and was the 2012 Republican nominee for vice president, focused heavily on policy during the hour-long lecture and question-and-answer session.
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He blamed political division for gridlock in Congress, saying technology has created an outrage machine. People are “monetizing” emotions, he said, causing “entertainment wings” of each party that focus on emotional responses rather than the merits of their parties.
Ryan said people should still be optimistic about the future of the country because of a strong economy, and touted the Republican-led tax reform plan passed in December 2017.
Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan speaks on March 11.
He said one of the House’s biggest mistakes during his tenure was taking too long to negotiate a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Ryan blamed the right-leaning flank of the party, including the Freedom Caucus, for causing a three-month delay in moving the legislation through the House.
“That three-month delay eroded public support for it, so by the time it got over to the Senate, it was hanging on a thread,” Ryan said.
Ryan said if there weren’t delays in moving it through the House, he would have expected it to pass the Senate.
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Ryan argued his chamber had several successes that were overlooked, including bipartisan efforts on criminal justice reform, response to the opioid crisis, repealing some small business regulations and energy reforms that have increased American oil production.
But he said more needs to be done to reform immigration and health care.
Ryan said he’d like to see Congress support a plan that eliminates the diversity visa program, reduces visas for extended family members of people who live in America, increases border security funding and finds solutions for “dreamers,” who are minors brought to the U.S. illegally by the parents.
He blamed the Senate’s filibuster rules, which require 60 votes to pass any major legislation, from preventing Republican-led reforms on health care and entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
Opinion: Speaker Paul Ryan bids farewell to a Republican Party that abandoned him long ago
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Paul Ryan on 2020: Some Democrats could defeat Trump
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Menachem Begin in December 1942 wearing the Polish Army uniform of Gen. Anders’ forces with his wife Aliza and David Yutan; (back row) Moshe Stein and Israel Epstein
(photo credit: JABOTINSKY ARCHIVES)
During the inauguration of a memorial to the victims of the Siege of Leningrad in Jerusalem’s Sacher Park on January 24, 2020, before the climax of Holocaust remembrance events at which Russian President Vladimir Putin was given a central platform, we were stunned to hear a rendition of The Blue Kerchief (Siniy
Giant figures are seen during the 87th carnival parade of Aalst February 15, 2015
The annual carnival in Aalst, Belgium, is expected to take place on Sunday with even more antisemitic elements than in previous years.
Aalst’s organizers have sold hundreds of “rabbi kits” for revelers to dress as hassidic Jews in the carnival’s parade. The kit includes oversized noses, sidelocks (peyot) and black hats. The organizers plan to bring back floats similar to the one displayed in 2019 featuring oversized dolls of Jews, with rats on their shoulders, holding banknotes.
Pope Francis waves as he arrives at the Basilica of Saint Nicholas in the southern Italian coastal city of Bari, Italy February 23, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli.
Pope Francis on Sunday warned against “inequitable solutions” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying they would only be a prelude to new crises, in an apparent reference to US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace proposal.
Francis made his comments in the southern Italian port city of Bari, where he traveled to conclude a meeting of bishops from all countries in the Mediterranean basin.
Palestinians walk past a shop selling fruits in Ramallah, Feb. 20, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Mohamad Torokman.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have reached an agreement to end a five-month long trade dispute, officials said on Thursday.
The dispute, which opened a new front in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, began in September when the PA announced a boycott of Israel calves. The PA exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under interim peace deals.
Antisemitic caricatures on display at the annual carnival in Aalst, Belgium. Photo: Raphael Ahren via Twitter.
Disturbing images emerged on Sunday of the annual carnival at Aalst, Belgium, showing an astounding number of antisemitic themes, costumes, displays and statements.
Israeli journalist Raphael Ahren documented people dressed as caricatures of Orthodox Jews, a fake “wailing wall” attacking critics of the parade, blatantly antisemitic characters and puppets wearing traditional Jewish clothes and sporting huge noses.
The stench of anti-Semitism always hovers over Switzerland’s Lake Geneva when the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is meeting there. The foul emanations reached a new nadir last week with UNHRC’s publication of a “database” of companies doing business in the disputed territories in Israel.
Following the publication of the list, Bruno Stagno Ugarte, deputy director for advocacy of NGO Human Rights Watch, stated, “The long-awaited release of the U.N. settlement business database should put all companies on notice: To do business with illegal settlements [sic] is to aid in the commission of war crimes.”
One of the many things that annoys me about politicians is how sure they are of themselves. Everything is black and white. Every idea is good or bad. Take globalism, for example. You either love it or hate it. It works or it doesn’t.
Another thing that annoys me is how so much of a politician’s life revolves around power: Do everything you can to get it, and everything you can to keep it.
Why am I ranting? Because, while our politicians have been consumed with power and the media with the fights over power, a threat to our nation has been virtually ignored.
Blue and White Party leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid are establishing their diplomatic credentials in the immediate run-up to Israel’s March 2 election with an insult to a U.S. administration that has arguably provided Israel with more diplomatic gains than any previous administration.
The Times of Israel reported that at a campaign stop in front of English-speaking Israelis, Gantz accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “of neglecting bipartisan ties in favor of exclusive support from U.S. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” under the headline “Gantz pledges to mend ties with U.S. Democrats if elected.”
Bipartisanship was in short supply at the State of the Union address earlier this month—with one notable exception.
Nancy Pelosi had been looking dyspeptic, shuffling the papers she would later rip to shreds, when President Donald Trump reminded his audience that “the United States is leading a 59-nation diplomatic coalition against the socialist dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.”
Suddenly, the House Speaker applauded. Trump then introduced “the true and legitimate president of Venezuela: Juan Guaidó.”
The law professor Alan Dershowitz has thrown a legal hand-grenade into America’s political civil war by claiming to have evidence that former President Barack Obama “personally asked” the FBI to investigate someone “on behalf” of Obama’s “close ally,” billionaire financier George Soros.
He made his cryptic remark in an interview defending U.S. President Donald Trump against claims he interfered in the prosecution of his former adviser, Roger Stone.