H4a news Clips [April 26, 2015] Summary of Today’s news



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H4A News Clips

[April 26, 2015]
Summary of Today’s news
Russian hackers retrieved some of President Obama’s email correspondence last year in a breach of the White House’s unclassified computer system that was far more intrusive and worrisome than has been publicly acknowledged.
Peter Schweizer, the author of Clinton Cash, argues that former President Bill Clinton stepped down from his position as “honorary chancellor” at Laureate International Universities in order to avoid a wave of negative publicity. Several potential candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination—in addition to Clinton surrogate Terry McAuliffe—spoke at the annual gathering of South Carolina Democrats. The Washington Post revealed the conflicted past of Martin O’Malley and the Baltimore Police Department in light of what he’s saying on the campaign trail.


Today’s Key Stories 1

Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Unclassified Emails, Officials Say [Michael Schmidt and David E. Sanger, NYT, April 25, 2015] 1

‘Clinton Cash’ Author Alleges Bill Clinton Just Quit Education Company Because of 'Clinton Cash' [Joshua Green, Bloomberg, April 25, 2015] 4

Offering alternatives to Clinton, '16 Dem hopefuls converge on South Carolina [Elizabeth Landers, CNN, April 25, 2015] 6



National Coverage – HRC AND DEMS 7

National Stories 7

Bill and Hillary’s Excellent Adventure [Michael Hirsh, POLITICO, April 25, 2015] 7

Five Questions About the Clintons and an Uranium Company [Amy Davidson, The New Yorker, April 24, 2015] 12

The campaign of Hillary and Mrs. Clinton [Jennifer Epstein, Bloomberg Politics, April 25, 2015] 15

Hillary Clinton is not ‘calculating’ or risk-averse. I watched her take a huge gamble — and it paid off. [Lissa Muscatine, WaPo Post Everything, April 25, 2015] 18

As S.C. Democrats wait on Hillary Clinton, likely foes plant seeds [By Philip Rucker and John Wagner, WaPo, April 25, 2015] 21

‘SNL’s Cecily Strong Asks Media Not to Talk About Hillary Clinton’s Appearance [Ted Johnson, Variety, April 25, 2015] 24

Hillary Rodham Clinton plans May fundraising stop in Bay Area [Carla Marinucci, SF Gate, April 24, 2015] 25

Obama Jokes About Hillary Clinton, ‘Blackish’ at White House Correspondents Dinner [Ted Johnson, Variety, April 25, 2015] 26

The Insiders: How do the Clinton scandals end? [Ed Rogers, WaPo Post Partisian, April 24, 2015] 27

Clinton's May schedule: Trips to Nevada, South Carolina; fundraisers in California [Dan Merica, CNN, April 25, 2015] 29

Hillary Clinton's Machine Sputters [Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg View, April 25, 2015] 30

GOP's latest Benghazi-related inquiry could benefit Hillary Clinton [Evan Halper, LA Times, April 25, 2015] 32

South Carolina is ready ... to be courted, Democrats say at statewide Democratic Convention [Jeremy Borden, Charleston Post and Courier, April 25, 2015] 34

As Baltimore mayor, critics say, O’Malley’s police tactics sowed distrust [Paul Schwartzman & John Wagner, WaPo, April 25, 2015] 36

National Blogs 39

How Long Will Democrats Stand By Hillary in Face of Financial Disclosures? [David Paul, Huffington Post, April 25, 2015] 39

Whose Hillary Fundraiser Is It? Organizers Minimize Katzenberg Role [Dominic Patten, Deadline, April 25, 2015] 42

Time for an independent audit of the Clinton Foundation, says … Common Cause [Ed Morrissey, Hot Air, April 25, 2015] 43

Chelsea Clinton and the wannabe Clinton dynasty: The blood thins [Thomas Lifson, American Thinker, April 25, 2015] 44

Progressives can’t trust Hillary Clinton: What’s behind her bizarre alliance with the Christian right? [Paul Rosenberg, Salon, April 25, 2015] 45

Who had the worst week in Washington? Hillary Clinton [Chris Cillizza, WaPo The Fix, April 25, 2015] 52

Six Ways Hillary Is Running Against Bill Clinton’s Legacy [Fred Lucas, The Blaze, April 25, 2015] 53



National Coverage - GOP 55

National Stories 55

Republican Field Woos Iowa Evangelical Christians [Trip Gabriel & Jonathan Martin, NYT, April 25, 2015] 55

Can Jeb Bush win the GOP nomination . . . by praising President Obama? [Ed O'Keefe, WaPo, April 24, 2015] 58

Is America ready for President Graham? [George F. Will, WaPo, April 25, 2015] 61

Zombies of 2016. [Paul Krugman, NYT, April 24, 2015] 62

Scott Walker, a Pastor’s Son, Runs on Faith as Iowa Beckons [Trip Gabriel, NYT, April 25, 2015] 64

Walker hits back at Rubio over whether a governor can be ready for presidency [Ashley Killough, CNN, April 25, 2015] 67

National Blogs 68

George W. Bush Opens Up About 2016 Race [Jason Horowitz & Maggie Haberman, NYT First Draft, April 26, 2015] 68

For Jeb Bush Donors, Yoga Mats and Tesla Brochures [Michael Barbaro, NYT First Draft, April 26, 2015] 71

Rubio Makes First Iowa Visit as a 2016 Contender [Heather Haddon, WSJ Washington Wire, April 25, 2015] 72

I, Carly [Michael Warren, The Weekly Standard, April 25, 2015] 73

Big National News 76

National Stories 76

Death toll in Nepal quake exceeds 2,200 [Annie Gowen, Rama Lakshmi, & Anup Kaphle, WaPo, April 26, 2015] 76

At correspondents’ dinner, Obama jabs at media, candidates and himself [Paul Farhi, WaPo, April 25, 2015] 79

NBC News finds Brian Williams embellished at least 11 times [Paul Farhi, WaPo, April 25, 2015] 82



Other DEM Campaign News Error: Reference source not found

Today’s Key Stories
Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Unclassified Emails, Officials Say [Michael Schmidt and David E. Sanger, NYT, April 25, 2015]
Some of President Obama’s email correspondence was swept up by Russian hackers last year in a breach of the White House’s unclassified computer system that was far more intrusive and worrisome than has been publicly acknowledged.
WASHINGTON — Some of President Obama’s email correspondence was swept up by Russian hackers last year in a breach of the White House’s unclassified computer system that was far more intrusive and worrisome than has been publicly acknowledged, according to senior American officials briefed on the investigation.
The hackers, who also got deeply into the State Department’s unclassified system, do not appear to have penetrated closely guarded servers that control the message traffic from Mr. Obama’s BlackBerry, which he or an aide carries constantly.
But they obtained access to the email archives of people inside the White House, and perhaps some outside, with whom Mr. Obama regularly communicated. From those accounts, they reached emails that the president had sent and received, according to officials briefed on the investigation.
White House officials said that no classified networks had been compromised, and that the hackers had collected no classified information. Many senior officials have two computers in their offices, one operating on a highly secure classified network and another connected to the outside world for unclassified communications.
But officials have conceded that the unclassified system routinely contains much information that is considered highly sensitive: schedules, email exchanges with ambassadors and diplomats, discussions of pending personnel moves and legislation, and, inevitably, some debate about policy.
Officials did not disclose the number of Mr. Obama’s emails that were harvested by hackers, nor the sensitivity of their content. The president’s email account itself does not appear to have been hacked. Aides say that most of Mr. Obama’s classified briefings — such as the morning Presidential Daily Brief — are delivered orally or on paper (sometimes supplemented by an iPad system connected to classified networks) and that they are usually confined to the Oval Office or the Situation Room.
Still, the fact that Mr. Obama’s communications were among those hit by the hackers — who are presumed to be linked to the Russian government, if not working for it — has been one of the most closely held findings of the inquiry. Senior White House officials have known for months about the depth of the intrusion.
“This has been one of the most sophisticated actors we’ve seen,” said one senior American official briefed on the investigation.
Others confirmed that the White House intrusion was viewed as so serious that officials met on a nearly daily basis for several weeks after it was discovered. “It’s the Russian angle to this that’s particularly worrisome,” another senior official said.
While Chinese hacking groups are known for sweeping up vast amounts of commercial and design information, the best Russian hackers tend to hide their tracks better and focus on specific, often political targets. And the hacking happened at a moment of renewed tension with Russia — over its annexation of Crimea, the presence of its forces in Ukraine and its renewed military patrols in Europe, reminiscent of the Cold War.
Inside the White House, the intrusion has raised a new debate about whether it is possible to protect a president’s electronic presence, especially when it reaches out from behind the presumably secure firewalls of the executive branch.
Mr. Obama is no stranger to computer-network attacks: His 2008 campaign was hit by Chinese hackers. Nonetheless, he has long been a frequent user of email, and publicly fought the Secret Service in 2009 to retain his BlackBerry, a topic he has joked about in public. He was issued a special smartphone, and the list of those he can exchange emails with is highly restricted.
When asked about the investigation’s findings, the spokeswoman for the National Security Council, Bernadette Meehan, said, “We’ll decline to comment.” The White House has also declined to provide any explanations about how the breach was handled, though the State Department has been more candid about what kind of systems were hit and what it has done since to improve security. A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment.
Officials who discussed the investigation spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the hacking. While the White House has refused to identify the nationality of the hackers, others familiar with the investigation said that in both the White House and State Department cases, all signs pointed to Russians.
On Thursday, Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter revealed for the first time that Russian hackers had attacked the Pentagon’s unclassified systems, but said they had been identified and “kicked off.” Defense Department officials declined to say if the signatures of the attacks on the Pentagon appeared related to the White House and State Department attacks.
The discovery of the hacking in October led to a partial shutdown of the White House email system. The hackers appear to have been evicted from the White House systems by the end of October. But they continued to plague the State Department, whose system is much more far-flung. The disruptions were so severe that during the Iranian nuclear negotiations in Vienna in November, officials needed to distribute personal email accounts, to one another and to some reporters, to maintain contact.
Earlier this month, officials at the White House said that the hacking had not damaged its systems and that, while elements had been shut down to mitigate the effects of the attack, everything had been restored.
One of the curiosities of the White House and State Department attacks is that the administration, which recently has been looking to name and punish state and nonstate hackers in an effort to deter attacks, has refused to reveal its conclusions about who was responsible for this complex and artful intrusion into the government. That is in sharp contrast to Mr. Obama’s decision, after considerable internal debate in December, to name North Korea for ordering the attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, and to the director of national intelligence’s decision to name Iranian hackers as the source of a destructive attack on the Sands Casino.
This month, after CNN reported that hackers had gained access to sensitive areas of the White House computer network, including sections that contained the president’s schedule, the White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, said the administration had not publicly named who was behind the hack because federal investigators had concluded that “it’s not in our best interests.”
By contrast, in the North Korea case, he said, investigators concluded that “we’re more likely to be successful in terms of holding them accountable by naming them publicly.”
But the breach of the president’s emails appeared to be a major factor in the government secrecy. “All of this is very tightly held,” one senior American official said, adding that the content of what had been breached was being kept secret to avoid tipping off the Russians about what had been learned from the investigation.
Mr. Obama’s friends and associates say that he is a committed user of his BlackBerry, but that he is careful when emailing outside the White House system.
“The frequency has dropped off in the last six months or so,” one of his close associates said, though this person added that he did not know if the drop was related to the hacking.
Mr. Obama is known to send emails to aides late at night from his residence, providing them with his feedback on speeches or, at times, entirely new drafts. Others say he has emailed on topics as diverse as his golf game and the struggle with Congress over the Iranian nuclear negotiations.
George W. Bush gave up emailing for the course of his presidency and did not carry a smartphone. But after Mr. Bush left office, his sister’s email account was hacked, and several photos — including some of his paintings — were made public.
The White House is bombarded with cyberattacks daily, not only from Russia and China. Most are easily deflected.
The White House, the State Department, the Pentagon and intelligence agencies put their most classified material into a system called Jwics, for Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System. That is where top-secret and “secret compartmentalized information” traverses within the government, to officials cleared for it — and it includes imagery, data and graphics. There is no evidence, senior officials said, that this hacking pierced it.
Clinton Cash’ Author Alleges Bill Clinton Just Quit Education Company Because of 'Clinton Cash' [Joshua Green, Bloomberg, April 25, 2015]
Former President Bill Clinton stepped down from his position at Laureate International Universities. Although his term has ended, the author of ‘Clinton Cash’ alleges Clinton actually resigned in order to avoid a wave of negative publicity.
Former President Bill Clinton stepped down from his position at Laureate International Universities, part of Laureate Education Inc., on Friday. His five-year term as "honorary chancellor," the company and Clinton's staff said, had expired. But Peter Schweizer, the conservative author of a forthcoming book examining the Clintons’ financial dealings, suggests a different explanation: Clinton actually resigned in order to avoid a wave of negative publicity.
Bloomberg Politics has obtained a chapter of the book describing what Schweizer presents as a “troubling” co-mingling of official State Department business with the private financial affairs of Bill Clinton and a nonprofit run by Laureate’s chairman, Douglas Becker.
Laureate, which runs for-profit colleges, hired Clinton just as the Obama administration began drafting tougher regulations for federal financial aid that goes to students who attend for-profit colleges. Around the same time, the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions launched an investigation into the industry. In his book, Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, Schweizer writes that after Bill Clinton accepted the position at Laureate in 2010 in exchange for unspecified payment, his wife “made Laureate part of her State Department Global Partnership.” The State Department subsequently provided tens of millions of dollars to a nonprofit chaired by Becker, the International Youth Foundation.
Citing the foundation’s tax filings, Schweizer writes that while IYF had received government grants (mainly from the U.S. Agency for International Development) as far back as 2001, they “exploded since Bill became chancellor of Laureate,” accounting for the vast majority of the nonprofit’s revenue. In 2010, “government grants accounted for $23 million of its revenue, compared to $5.4 million from other sources. It received $21 million in 2011 and $23 million in 2012.” The link between International Youth Foundation and Laureate has not been previously reported, he said.
The Clinton campaign disputed Schweizer’s characterization. "This is yet another false allegation in a book that is fast being debunked," said Brian Fallon, a campaign spokesman. "The International Youth Foundation was funded by the Bush administration, well before Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State. In fact, the group's USAID funding actually went down in the year that she arrived at the State Department, not up."
A Bloomberg examination of IYF’s public filings show that in 2009, the year before Bill Clinton joined Laureate, the nonprofit received 11 grants worth $9 million from the State Department or the affiliated USAID. In 2010, the group received 14 grants worth $15.1 million. In 2011, 13 grants added up to $14.6 million. The following year, those numbers jumped: IYF received 21 grants worth $25.5 million, including a direct grant from the State Department.
Laureate has declined to say how much it has paid the former president. Hillary Clinton’s financial disclosure forms in 2012 revealed only that her husband received nonemployee compensation of more than $1,000 from the company that year. The Clinton Foundation’s donor disclosures showed that Laureate cumulatively gave between $1 million and $5 million through 2014. In his book, Schweizer noted that Bill Clinton, during the period when his wife was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, spoke at Laureate campuses in Honduras, Mexico City, Germany, Spain, Turkey, Malaysia, Brazil, Peru, and the United States. Schweizer wrote that “based on his typical fee scale,” the half dozen speaking events Clinton has done annually for Laureate “means perhaps $1 million per year.” He dubbed this blend of government service and private remuneration the “Clinton blur.”
Laureate plays up its Clinton ties in a big way. Its homepage prominently features a photo of Clinton speaking this month at a new campus in Panama. Other pages detail Clinton's role at Laureate and the company’s relationship with the Clinton Global Initiative. The fact that Clinton only signed on for a five-year term was not publicly disclosed when his hire was announced in April 2010 or at any time before Friday.
In a statement, Laureate spokesman Matthew Yale said, “The politics and motives of the author are obvious and his claims are baseless. We are proud of our association with President Clinton, who shares our commitment to helping young people change their lives through education. We never needed him to defend us, our results speak for themselves—for example the industry leading repayment rates for our students participating in the U.S. government loan program. Regarding the International Youth Foundation, this is an independent non-profit organization; not an affiliate of Laureate. Their contracts with the US government pre-date Secretary Clinton's arrival at the State Department.”
Schweizer writes, “Isn’t it troubling that while Bill Clinton was being paid by a private corporation, that corporation was also benefiting from State Department actions? Isn’t it troubling that an affiliate of that corporation is also receiving tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money? Isn’t it troubling that this seeming conflict of interest was not disclosed?”
Schweizer certainly seems to think so. And he takes the timing of Clinton’s abrupt resignation as a tacit acknowledgement that the former president does, too. “Curious timing to say the least,” Schweizer said in an email, of Clinton’s decision to step down. “Perhaps when readers see pages 101-104 of ‘Clinton Cash’ they will understand why Bill Clinton resigned from Laureate on Friday.”
To the suggestion that Clinton quit because of the book, Fallon replied, “Lame.”
Offering alternatives to Clinton, '16 Dem hopefuls converge on South Carolina [Elizabeth Landers, CNN, April 25, 2015]
Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton surrogate, Bernie Sanders, Lincoln Chafee, and Martin O’Malley all spoke at the South Carolina Democratic Party state convention on Saturday.
Columbia, South Carolina (CNN) The rain fell relentlessly on the convention center in Columbia on Saturday morning as Democrats from all parts of South Carolina flooded their party's state convention to see Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley speak.
Addressing a convention hall of more than 800 delegates from around The Palmetto State, the group comprised some of the most notable potential candidates to seek the party's nomination for President in 2016.
But the most notable candidate, Hillary Clinton, was conspicuously absent.
McAuliffe, who ran Clinton's failed 2008 campaign, kicked off the gathering by acknowledging his full support for her 2016 bid. In a video message, Clinton thanked South Carolinians for their efforts in her newly-minted candidacy. Despite the lack of a Republican nominee, Clinton projected that the GOP will be "offering the same economic agenda that has failed American families again and again -- a throwback to the past instead of a vision for the future." The delegates, many of whom were women, seemed fired up for Clinton's statement, meeting her message with cheers.
Clinton also made a veiled reference to the shooting of Walter Scott, a black man who was killed by a white police officer in Charleston earlier this month. "You (South Carolinians) care that everyone is treated with respect by law enforcement," she said.
A senior campaign official with Hillary for America told CNN that the campaign already has more than 600 volunteers in South Carolina, and Clinton is expected to visit the state next month.
Next up was Sanders, an independent who has hinted that he'll join the 2016 race as a Democratic contender. He was greeted with a standing ovation when he took the stage, and peppered his 20-minute speech calling for familiar progressive principles, including a better economy for the lower and middle classes, a higher minimum wage and closing the wage gap between rich and poor in the United States.
Fellow New Englander Chafee made his first high-profile appearance since announcing his exploratory committee, and took the opportunity to lay forth a rough vision of his campaign based on the premise of "Good policy, good politics." For the Republican-turned-Democrat, that means Head Start programs, universal health care and an overhaul of the nation's immigration system.
"How dumb can the Republicans be to be beating up on the fastest-growing voting bloc in the country? That's one we gotta grab!" he said. "A path to citizenship is not only good policy, it's good politics."
Chafee also highlighted his experience, pointing to his experience as mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island, his term representing the state in the Senate and his one-term governorship. And while he didn't mention Clinton by name, he called the Iraq War "the biggest mistake in American history," and reminded the crowd that he was the only Republican to vote against the invasion in 2002.
Wrapping up the day was O'Malley, who, similarly to Clinton, drew parallels between South Carolina and his home state of Maryland over a "shared legacy of police-involved deaths."
Speaking to CNN after his speech, O'Malley expanded on his remarks.
"There's probably very few issues quite as intertwined to the really painful racial legacy in our country than the issue of law enforcement and public safety," he said. "We have to be able to talk to one another, we have to be able to acknowledge our fears and our shortcomings, and we have to make all of our institutions, including our police departments, more open and transparent."


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