Orlando Sentinel’s Track
Record With Endorsements
In a clear bid to counter President Trump’s reelection launch in Orlando this past Tuesday, the Orlando Sentinel newspaper took the unusual step of announcing its early endorsement for the 2020 presidential race – a candidate who is not Trump.
“We’re here to announce our endorsement for president in 2020, or, at least, who we’re not endorsing: Donald Trump,” the newspaper stated in a staff editorial before Trump’s Democratic challenger is even determined. “The nation must endure another 1½ years of Trump. But it needn’t suffer another four beyond that. We can do better. We have to do better.”
The newspaper decision set of a flurry of anti-Trump news media headlines just as Trump supporters started camping out near Orlando’s Amway Center some 40 hours before Tuesday’s campaign rally to officially kickoff Trump’s re-election bid. Trump tweeted on Monday that the campaign was contending with more than 100,000 ticket requests for an arena that only seats 20,000 people.
The Orlando Sentinel is the same newspaper that in 2018 endorsed radical leftist Andrew Gillum for governor and Democrat Bill Nelson for senate. Both candidates lost to Republicans Ron DeSantis and Rock Scott respectively.
During the midterm election, this reporter documented Gillum’s deep ties to and repeated promotion of the Israel boycott-promoting, anti-patriotic and anti-police Dream Defenders organization, which he refused to disavow despite its anti-Israel activism.
Besides actively promoting BDS, the Gillum-promoted Dream Defenders compiled an education tool for U.S. teachers that glorifies the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a deadly terrorist organization. The project, which claims to be compatible with common core, pushes “rebellion” and educates students on the PFLP’s goal, which is posted on Dream Defenders stationary and quite literally calls for “the destruction of the Zionist state.”
Obama State Department Staffer’s
Connection to the Steele Dossier
While he was an official at the Obama State Department, staffer Jonathan M. Winer facilitated a meeting between anti-Trump dossier author Christopher Steele and the senior director of a firm that did extensive pro bono work for the Clinton Global Initiative.
A second introduction was made to an executive from a strategic advisory firm founded by Bill Clinton’s first White House chief of staff who later served as Clinton’s counselor.
Winer made the introductions in question and also attempted to facilitate a series of other meetings for Steele utilizing his official State Department email address, as documented by emails obtained in a joint lawsuit by Judicial Watch and The Daily Caller News Foundation and reviewed in full by this reporter.
After his name surfaced in news media reports related to probes by House Republicans into the dossier last year, Winer authored a Washington Post op-ed in which he conceded that while he was working at the State Department he exchanged documents and information with dossier author Steele.
Winer further acknowledged that while at the State Department, he shared anti-Trump material with Steele passed to him by longtime Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal, whom Winer described as an “old friend.” Winer wrote that the material from Blumenthal – which Winer in turn gave to Steele – originated with Cody Shearer, who is a controversial figure long tied to various Clinton scandals.
Steele was commissioned to produce the dossier by the controversial Fusion GPS opposition research firm, which was paid for its anti-Trump work by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
FBI Agents Were Unhappy that Comey
Recommended Against Charging Hilary Clinton
Former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe lent some credibility to a previous White House claim that some FBI personnel were upset over the agency’s decision, under the leadership of disgraced ex-FBI Director James Comey, not to charge Hillary Clinton in the criminal probe of her private email server use.
The claim that some FBI rank-and-file workers lost confidence in Comey following his infamous press conference announcing that no charges would be brought has been in dispute.
Yet in largely unreported testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on December 21, 2017, McCabe confirmed that some FBI personnel were “surprised” and “frustrated” with the result of the Clinton email case as announced by Comey. A transcript of McCabe’s testimony was released three weeks ago by House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Doug Collins, R-Ga.
The White House official who took the most flack for saying that FBI agents were upset over the case was undoubtedly White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who made a statement to that effect to reporters on May 10, 2017.
“Most importantly, the rank-and-file of the FBI had lost confidence in Comey,” she said, discussing Comey’s loss of credibility. “We’ve heard from countless members of the FBI that say very different things.”