Obama Condemns Egypt Violence, Cancels Military Exercise

President Obama spoke Thursday from his rented vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard. Jim Watson/AFP-Getty Images

WASHINGTON — President Obama condemned the recent violence in Egypt and announced that a planned joint military exercise between the U.S. and Egypt would be cancelled on Thursday.

“The United States strongly condemns the steps that have been taken by Egypt’s interim government and security forces,” Obama said from his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard in an audio address broadcast live on television with no accompanying video of the president. “We deplore violence against civilians. We oppose the pursuit of martial law.”

Obama announced that the military will not participate in a planned “Bright Star” military exercise with Egypt, which normally takes place every two years. He said that the Egyptian government had been notified of the cancellation this morning. The U.S. had also cancelled the exercise in 2011 in the wake of protests that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak.

Obama did not announce any change in the $1.3 billion in military aid the United States gives to Egypt every year and indicated that the U.S. would be able to work with the current military government if it pursues a democratic path.

“Given the depths of our partnership with Egypt, our national security interest in this pivotal part of the world and our belief that engagement can support a transition back to a democratically elected civilian government, we’ve sustained our commitment to Egypt and its people,” Obama said. But he did suggest there could be “further steps that we may take as necessary with regard to the U.S.-Egyptian relationship.”

“The Egyptian people deserve better than what we’ve seen over the past few days,” Obama said. “We call on the Egyptian authorities to respect the universal rights of the people.” Obama also called on pro-Morsi protesters to protest “peacefully” and called for the state of emergency to be lifted.

“Today the United States extends its condolences to the families of those who were killed and those who were wounded,” Obama said.

Over 500 Egyptians died on Wednesday in clashes between security forces and supporters of former President Mohammed Morsi, who was ousted by the military in July. The Obama administration has resisted calling the move a coup.

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Republican Congressman Wants "Citizen Advocate" For NSA Surveillance

Republican Rep. James Lankford said he wants a “citizen advocate” involved in the process of procuring data through FISA court orders for National Security Agency surveillance practices. Lankford was speaking at a “Tuesday Talk Town Hall” in his district.

“There’s a right way to fix it and a wrong way to fix,” Lankford said in response to a question from a member of the audience about why he didn’t support fellow Republican Rep. Justin Amash’s attempt to curb the NSA’s ability to collect phone data from Americans. “I want to fix it the right way and I want to make sure it’s actually fixed.”

Lankford went on to give examples of ways he would “fix” the NSA’s ability to get phone data on American citizens.

“One of them is: why are we collecting this information? The actual phone companies already have that information, why aren’t we just asking the phone companies to hang onto it and if we have to get a court order to come back to it, that’s no different than what a current court order is now,” Lankford said.

Lankford went on to describe the need for the “citizen advocate” in the process saying “my mom is not a terrorist.”

“There’s also no citizen advocate that’s involved in this process. There’s a FISA court that’s involved in it, that no one has access to other than the intelligence committees. There’s no citizen advocate that represents me. There’s no reason that the government should have my mom’s phone records to be able to pull that and not have someone actually speaking out for my mom, if no one else has access to that. My mom is not a terrorist.”

“That amendment did not fix that,” Lankford conclude before saying the challenge of the process was needing to balance civil liberties with the ability to protect Americans.

The video of Lankford’s remarks has been embedded below.

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The Maurice Bonamigo Saga Is Weirder Than You Thought

WASHINGTON — The firm of a political consultant who became a Twitter sensation after being misidentified in the Egyptian press as a U.S. senator has been vehemently defending the military crackdown on protesters and has reached out to lobbyists in the U.S. on behalf of foreign clients, according to a top-level associate at the company.

According to Ibrahim Magdy, a “political psychologist” who is listed as the Vice President for Political Affairs in Egypt for Maurice Bonamigo & Associates, the firm helped a number of candidates in Egypt’s parliamentary elections.

“Not Muslim Brotherhood,” Magdy said in a telephone call with BuzzFeed. “Some of them belong to the old system, the old system of [former president Hosni] Mubarak.” He said the candidates were “moderates” but declined to name any of them.

“Not always, not always,” Magdy said when asked if they were working in any way for the military, which has launched a bloody crackdown on protesters in the streets of Cairo. “I have connection with the military. It comes by chance but I’m not motivated to work with them, I work with civic people more than them.”

Magdy said that Bonamigo, who has done multiple interviews defending the ouster of Mohamed Morsi and the military’s takeover of the government, was frequently interviewed because “his speech sounds nice for Egyptian people so other media ask him to appear.”

Magdy added that the firm’s Egypt branch is expanding its reach into the U.S.

“I have opened connections with the Arab-American lobby,” Magdy said. “We haven’t started work, only negotiations.”

In a conversation with BuzzFeed, Bonamigo denied having reached out to American lobbyists on behalf of Egyptian clients.

“We’re not lobbying anything,” Bonamigo said. “We don’t reach out to anybody. People reach out to us.”

“It’s none of your business what we do,” Bonamigo said. “Our clients are very respectable. We don’t divulge who our clients are.”

Magdy named two U.S. persons with whom he has been in contact: Sahar Aziz, a Texas-based law professor who said she had never heard of Magdy or Bonamigo when reached by BuzzFeed, and Randa Fahmy Hudome, a lobbyist who has previously lobbied for the regime of deposed Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi.

Reached by phone, Fahmy Hudome confirmed that she had been contacted by a representative of Bonamigo’s firm.

“I just learned about Maurice, I didn’t know who he was and I’ve been in Republican politics for 30 years,” Fahmy Hudome said. “Somebody who works for his firm contacted me this week.”

“I was very interested in what they’re doing there,” Fahmy Hudome said.

Fahmy Hudome, a former Bush administration official, runs a lobbying group called the American Egyptian Strategic Alliance and frequently talks to members of Congress and members of the administration about Egypt, she said.

“What Egypt is going through right now, we’ve gone through similar things, and we can’t have short memories,” she said. “We advocate continuing aid to Egypt, both military and economic.”

Asked if he had any plans to file with the Department of Justice, Bonamigo said he did not and threatened to file a restraining order against BuzzFeed.

“I don’t need a 22-year-old child to tell me what the rules and regulations are,” he said.

 

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Cory Booker Supporters Look Past The Senate To The White House

U.S. Senate candidate Cory Booker greets supporters after winning the Democratic primary election for the seat vacated by the late U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Mel Evans / AP

NEWARK — Five hours before topping the polls in his very first statewide election, Cory Booker got an earful from Faye Bowen, a 10-year resident of Newark who, while posing for a picture with her mayor, told him he better set his sights higher than the U.S. Senate.

“I hope you become president, dammit!” Bowen said as a campaign staffer snapped their photo in Newark Penn Station, where the candidate spent the afternoon greeting voters on Tuesday — primary day in New Jersey. Booker, who later that night would become the Democratic nominee in the special election to replace the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, didn’t acknowledge the comment, but kept a steady smile as Bowen bounced away from the crowd swelling around him.

Booker may not spend his idle hours thinking about a run for president — he said earlier this month that he, “unequivocally,” has no interest in a White House run in 2016 — but his supporters certainly want him to consider it.

Voters backing Booker described the special election Tuesday as “just the beginning” for the two-term mayor who has long been a national figure, but whose career is extending for the first time beyond the city limits of Newark. Before and after Booker’s victory speech outside the Prudential Center, many expressed the hope that the mayor likely bound for the Senate this fall would one day go all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue.

“I’ve been here, and I’ve seen the change from this mayor right here,” said Bowen, 49. “Of course I want him to be mayor, then senator, then president — hey, hey, hey!” she laughed. “This is just the beginning for him.”

Raquel Cagley, a lifelong resident of Newark, said Booker’s new status as a statewide candidate gives him “a national platform where people can actually see him and know about him and his vision,” she said after Booker’s speech. Cagley, 40, was among the hundreds of supporters gathered to hear Booker speak.

“Absolutely without a doubt he will go beyond the senate,” she said. “Everyone here has seen that from a long time ago. It’s the first step of many more to come.”

Chris Cashman, a registered Republican who said he hadn’t voted for a Democrat in 30 years, vowed his support for Booker in the general election, scheduled for Oct. 16, and also voiced his confidence for the mayor’s prospects in Washington.

“He’s not going to fall into the traditional gridlock of Washington where they’re just so entrenched in voting with their party,” said Cashman, a 50-year-old resident of Princeton, citing a theme Booker himself highlighted in his speech Tuesday night. “He’ll be able to bridge the gap between Democrats and Republicans.”

“I do think he has the potential there to go all the way. I really do,” Cashman said.

Booker, for his part, said he was focused on the general election ahead, where he’ll face off against Republican nominee Steve Lonegan, the conservative former mayor of Bogota.

“It’s absolutely my first statewide campaign,” Booker said on his way out of the Prudential Center, as rain began to fall just after the candidate’s speech came to a close. “I’m so excited to be able to represent the whole state, and especially in places where I think we need even more advocacy, for cities like Camden, Paterson, Passaic, Asbury Park.”

“But we’ve got some challenges still to go through,” Booker said. “We’ve got two tough months ahead. I can’t take anything for granted. I’m going to make sure I try to earn every vote in New Jersey and also continue to serve the city of Newark.”

Earlier this month, when asked by Politico if he would rule out a run for president in three years, Booker gave a definitive, “Absolutely, yes.” He promised to finish Lautenberg’s unfinished term and subsequently serve another six years in the upper chamber. “No presidential, no VP, no,” he said.

Some fans at the Newark rally shared Booker’s reluctance to look too far down the road. “I don’t think he’s thinking right now, ‘Oh yeah, one day I’m gonna run for president,’” said Andrea de Sa, a 22-year-old local resident. “I’m just really excited about where is right now, and I think that’s where he wants to be.”

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National Democrats Cast New Jersey Senate Candidate As Symbol Of GOP Rebranding Struggles

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Lonegan, with his wife Lorraine by his side, makes his victory speech after securing the nomination in the special election primary. Rich Schultz / AP

He calls social security a “Ponzi scheme,” advocates for the “destruction” of Medicare and Medicaid, denounces Spanish-language advertisements as “racial profiling marketing,” and describes Cory Booker, his new opponent in the New Jersey senate election, as a “socialist” who just “can’t wait to pull the race card.”

His name is Steve Lonegan, and Democrats in Washington really want you to meet him.

When Lonegan, the former mayor of Bogota and a recurrent Tea Party candidate in New Jersey, won the Republican nomination in this year’s race to replace the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, national Democratic organizations saw an opening to pan the Republican National Committee’s extensive overhaul effort earlier this year. The party’s “autopsy report,” a 100-page document released by the RNC following Mitt Romney’s loss to President Obama, suggested Republicans embrace immigration reform and create “a tone that ‘welcomes in’” minority communities.

Five minutes after Lonegan topped the polls in the primary Tuesday night, reporters’ inboxes lit up with a memo and video from American Bridge 21st Century: “The new face of the ‘rebranded’ GOP.”

The political action committee’s email would soon be followed by like-minded statements from the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. With Booker leading in the polls by an average of 20 points, Democrats in Washington are poised to focus more on pushing Lonegan to the foreground than helping message for their own candidate.

“This is less about Steve Lonegan and more about the national Republicans,” said Michael Czin, a spokesman for the DNC. “They did this autopsy five months ago, and this is what they have? Look at the races we’ve seen since — Mark Sanford, Gabriel Gomez, and now Steve Lonegan.”

“They clearly haven’t learned from their mistakes,” Czin said. “It’s a distinction without a difference: The end result is they have far-right candidates who are going to cost them an election.”

Lonegan, whose positions on nearly every issue line up with the most conservative wing of the party, is to the right of Gov. Chris Christie, whom he ran against in the 2009 gubernatorial primary: He opposes marriage equality, gun restrictions, and abortion, even in cases of rape and incest; he is hawkish on immigration reform; he wants to “dismantle” the Internal Revenue Service; and he rejects climate change. In his victory speech Tuesday night in Secaucus, Lonegan closed with a line from revolutionary Patrick Henry: “Give me liberty or give me death!”

“The Republican establishment can put out all the autopsies they want, but unless they put out concrete steps to address the problem, they’re going to keep getting nominees like Steve Lonegan,” said Chris Harris, communications director for American Bridge.

The PAC’s web video, released Tuesday night, juxtaposes footage of Lonegan on the campaign trail with soundbites from RNC chairman, Reince Priebus, presenting the rebranding report at the National Press Club in March. “We’re done with business as usual,” Priebus says in the video, as an illustrated neon marquee flickers in the corner of the screen: “New and improved GOP.”

Rick Shaftan, Lonegan’s chief strategist, said the nominee’s response to the American Bridge video was, simply, “Yeah so? That’s the best they got?”

Shaftan dismissed the RNC autopsy authors as “apologists for Mitt Romney’s failed campaign,” and argued that Lonegan shouldn’t be concerned with Republicans in Washington. “Karl Rove and Ari Fleischer? The ones responsible for losing everything? We’re supposed to listen to them?” asked Shaftan. “We should do the opposite of everything they suggest.”

“No one in New Jersey cares what the RNC thinks anyway,” Shaftan said.

Harris compared Lonegan to past Republican candidates, like Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana, whose controversial comments cost them senate wins. “I think he’s more of the Ken Buck model, really,” Harris said, referring to the Colorado district attorney who bungled his 2010 senate run with a series of inflammatory statements. “He’s not some kook. He’s extremely experienced at being extremely conservative, and he’s been around politics for a long time. He’s not new to the game.”

Lonegan raised eyebrows earlier this month when his campaign tweeted, and then deleted, a hand-drawn map of Newark labeled with the names of African and Middle Eastern countries under a caption that read, “Cory Booker’s foreign policy debate prep.” After Booker called the tweet “deplorable,” Lonegan accused his opponent of pulling “the race card.”

Despite the upset over the tweet, the GOP apparatus has endorsed Lonegan in the race. In a statement released Tuesday night, the National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman, Sen. Jerry Moran, lauded Lonegan as “just the type of commonsense conservative we need,” and an RNC spokeswoman told Roll Call Thursday the organization would support the nominee.

“It’s surprising to see the NRSC back someone so extreme after they promised to recruit mainstream candidates,” said Justin Barasky, a spokesman with the DSCC. Barasky described the organization’s future involvement in the race as a combination of “whatever needs to be done to elect Cory Booker, and be helpful in pointing out the difference between” the two candidates.

The Longean campaign, said Shaftan, is “looking forward” to the attention from national Democratic groups, arguing the added media would “just get people more excited.”

An RNC spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

 

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