Thursday, July 14, 2016

Unintended Consequences

Update #2: It's Pence.

Lots of fun with this on Twitter:













Friday morning update: The plot has thickened where the GOP Veepstakes is concerned. Mike Pence was spotted in New York City last night, which would appear to confirm that it's him. Then the attack in Nice happened and The Donald tweeted this:
He also said, to Fox News I believe, that he hasn't really made up his mind yet. Again, based on the fact that Pence is in NYC, that would appear to be untrue. Trump's probably just trying to gin up suspense for whenever he gets around to making his official announcement. It does, however, put Mike Pence in a bind, as explained by Amber Phillips at The Washington Post:

The next few hours are critical to the Indiana governor's race. If, as expected, Trump picks Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) to be his running mate, Pence will have to drop out of his reelection race because Indiana law doesn't let you run for two offices on one ballot.

The rules say he has to make that decision by noon Friday. Trump was set to make his announcement at 11 a.m. Friday, but he postponed it in light of the terrorist attack in Nice, France. Now, an announcement might not happen until this weekend. That means Pence could be forced to make a tough decision Friday morning between staying on the ballot and forfeiting the vice presidential nomination or taking a risk and getting off the ballot. Yikes. (You can read the article here.)

As interesting as all that is, there's another wrinkle. Apparently the Republicans are having trouble paying for their convention, which takes place next week, and they've sent a letter to benefactor Sheldon Adelson for $6 million in assistance. From Politico.com:

The letter represents the most public acknowledgment to date that Donald Trump has directly cost convention organizers millions of fundraising dollars.

“Over the past couple months, negative publicity around our potential nominee resulted in a considerable number of pledges backing out from their commitments,” the letter says.

It goes on to list the companies and wealthy individuals who have withdrawn their financial commitments. Among those who have canceled their donations, according to the letter, are David Koch ($1 million), FedEx ($500,000), Visa ($100,000), Pepsi ($500,000) and Coca-Cola ($1 million).

The letter says the RNC has raised $58 million — putting the party $6 million below the $64 million that was promised to bring the convention to Cleveland.

They ask the Adelsons to singlehandedly close the RNC’s shortfall.

“We would greatly appreciate if you would consider a $6,000,000 contribution to the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee to help us cross the finish line,” states the letter, which was dated July 12. The convention begins July 18.

“Your support will allow our community to meet its obligation to the RNC, and will ensure our Republican nominee has the best possible platform to lay out his conservative case for our nation,” the letter concludes. “Thank you for your consideration and please let us know if you need any additional information.” (Read the article here.) 

What makes this interesting is that Adelson is a big supporter of, wait for it, Newt Gingrich. When Gingrich ran for president last time around, Adelson donated $5 million to a super PAC supporting the former House speaker. Double yikes. What if Adelson says, "Sure, I'll write you a check but in return I want Newt for VP." What does Trump do then?

I really love the Veepstakes.

Original post:
Does Chris Christie regret putting a man named Charles Kushner in jail back in 2005, when he was a U.S. attorney? Possibly. Is that the reason he wasn't chosen to be Donald Trump's running mate? Possibly. In a story dated March 4, 2005, the New York Times explains what happened:

NEWARK, March 4 - Charles Kushner, a multimillionaire real estate executive, philanthropist and one of the top Democratic donors in the country, was sentenced on Friday to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal campaign donations.

Mr. Kushner, 50, built a construction business begun by his father into a private real estate empire that owned more than 25,000 apartments, millions of square feet of commercial and industrial space and thousands of acres of developable land.

But Mr. Kushner also became embroiled in a bitter family feud over the business and how proceeds were distributed. That dispute, plus his growing prominence as a political financier, helped lead to his downfall. The intrafamily acrimony was such that Mr. Kushner retaliated against his brother-in-law, who was cooperating with federal authorities, by hiring a prostitute to seduce him. He then arranged to have a secretly recorded videotape of the encounter sent to his sister, the man's wife.

The two-year sentence was the most Mr. Kushner could have received under a plea agreement, reached last September with the United States attorney, Christopher J. Christie, that called for 18 to 24 months in prison. But it was less than the sentence of nearly three years that Mr. Christie had sought in recent weeks after concluding that Mr. Kushner had failed to show "acceptance of responsibility" for his crimes as required by the plea deal. Read the article here. 

What does this have to do with the current Veepstakes? Charles Kushner's son Jared is now married to Ivanka Trump. He's The Donald's son-in-law and word on the street is that Jared Kushner does not want the man who put his father in jail on the ticket.  How about that!

Note that I'm writing this mid-afternoon on Thursday, when it looks like governor Mike Pence of Indiana is Trump's pick but it's not absolutely official. If Christie does in fact get the nod I'll update this post.
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