Subject: Stitch: KOCH BOMBSHELL, NEWSMAKER OF THE WEEK INTERVIEW W/ JUSTIN BARASKY, BERNIE SAYS HE'S LOSING BECAUSE 'POOR PEOPLE DON'T VOTE' AND MORE
From: Jonathan Allen <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2016 14:22:32 +0000
List-Id: dff5dea186e38c29c57ca6f8fmc list <dff5dea186e38c29c57ca6f8f.326717.list-id.mcsv.net>

** THE BIG QUESTION

------------------------------------------------------------
If Trump is nominated, what does that mean for the importance of the Koch fundraising network in the 2016 elections?

**
CHARLES KOCH SAYS 'IT'S POSSIBLE' CLINTON WOULD BE BETTER THAN A REPUBLICAN
------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist whose network bankrolls Republican candidates and causes around the country, said in an interview with ABC's"This Week" that "it's possible" Hillary Clinton would make a better president than the Republican nominee.

Moreover, he didn't rule out supporting her.
------------------------------------------------------------

"We would have to believe her actions would be quite different than her rhetoric. Let me put it that way.”

—Charles Koch/ABC's 'This Week' (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/81e2457ff2728373cb8106c121e33130)

------------------------------------------------------------
As recently as last month, the Koch-funded group Freedom Partners aired ads in support of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders because of his opposition to re-authorizing the Export-Import Bank. But there's no love lost between Koch and Donald Trump, who has attacked Koch and his brother David.
As Charles Koch explained to ABC's Jonathan Karl, he thought Bill Clinton did a better job than George W. Bush of controlling the growth of government.

------------------------------------------------------------

**
NEWSMAKER OF THE WEEK: JUSTIN BARASKY
------------------------------------------------------------
Priorities USA Communications Director Justin Barasky is Sidewire's Newsmaker of the Week. CLICK HERE (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/1e08ec0cfdd4981d44aab9cb62b833ab)  to find out about
* that time he lived above a funeral home during a campaign;
* how he thinks about going after Donald Trump;
* and what happened after his social media spat with former NRSC spokesman Brad Dayspring.

Here's what he said to the opening question of how he became a political junkie in the first place:
------------------------------------------------------------

"I recall being interested in politics at a young age, but what really hooked me was a combination of the West Wing TV series and the drama of the 2000 election. After the Supreme Court decision I was hooked."

—Justin Barasky/Sidewire (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/1e08ec0cfdd4981d44aab9cb62b833ab/commentary/dfcb76e3-113e-435f-b9c0-b2c406b2c7de)

------------------------------------------------------------

**

CONSERVATIVES SEE OPPORTUNITY TO INFLUENCE GOP PLATFORM
------------------------------------------------------------
JENNIFER JACOBS & KEVIN CIRILLI note for Bloomberg Politics (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/b7390457c0b50b561c10a63bbd5f3848)  that with the Republican nomination still an open question, it may be hard for the eventual standard-bearer to beat back unwanted changes to the party platform. That's given hope to conservative activists who want to alter the GOP's stated principles.
------------------------------------------------------------

"We are looking at ways to influence the platform process on the economic agenda. ... Bold tax reform, regulatory relief and eliminating cronyism—the face of which is Ex-Im—are issues we'll be advocating.

—Club for Growth President David McIntosh/Bloomberg Politics (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/b7390457c0b50b561c10a63bbd5f3848)

------------------------------------------------------------

** TRIVIAL PURSUITS
------------------------------------------------------------
ABOUT TODAY
The Library of Congress is 216 years old.

YESTERDAY'S TRIVIA
SAL WEIR was the first to respond correctly that Admiral George Dewey was the Vermont-born Spanish-American War hero who briefly ran for president in 1900.

TODAY'S TRIVIA
Brought to you by Sal, name this pair of brothers: One worked for Civil War financier Jay Cooke and the other has a state park named after him in New York.

The first person to respond correctly to [email-masked] wins genuine surprise from the Stitch and the right to ask Monday's trivia question.

PLEASE SEND TIPS, suggestions, comments, complaints, corrections and #Lemonade to [email-masked]

------------------------------------------------------------

**
SANDERS: CLINTON IS WINNING BECAUSE 'POOR PEOPLE DON'T VOTE'
------------------------------------------------------------
Asked why he keeps losing in states with the highest levels of income inequality, BERNIE SANDERS told "Meet the Press" host CHUCK TODD that it's because the people on the bottom end of the income spectrum aren't showing up.
------------------------------------------------------------

"Well, because poor people don't vote. I mean, that's just a fact."

—Bernie Sanders/MTP (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/ffa5bb40b147f34b62472e216228a3ed)

------------------------------------------------------------

That may be a fact, but there's no evidence that it's the reason Sanders is losing.

ROS KRASNY of Bloomberg Politics points out (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/bac7b9aebe5489248d419fa77b311a08)  that "Clinton has outperformed Sanders among voters making less than $50,000 a year"and that in limited exit polling data for voters under the $30,000 mark, Sanders won big in Wisconsin (with 58 percent) and by a smaller margin in Oklahoma (54 percent) while Clinton ran far ahead among the poorest voters in Ohio (59 percent).

------------------------------------------------------------

**
HOUSE REPUBLICANS TARGET POWER OF NSC STAFF
------------------------------------------------------------
Throw a penny anywhere outside the White House gates in Washington, D.C., and you'll find someone who thinks the National Security Council staff has become too powerful in the policy process. Basically, Congress and the heads of executive branch agencies aren't terribly keen on watching American national security and foreign policy made by (often young) White House aides who weren't vetted or confirmed by the Senate.

KAROUN DEMIRJIAN reports for the Washington Post (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/2d0dd226e90dcee42406bb5e61797a8c) , House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry wants to rein in the NSC staff.
------------------------------------------------------------

"Thornberry will offer an amendment as soon as next week to the annual defense policy bill that would slash the National Security Council staff to 'well below' its estimated current level of 400, give Congress more oversight over the council and subject the president’s national security advisor to the Senate confirmation process, according to committee aides."

—Karoun Demirjian/WaPo (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/2d0dd226e90dcee42406bb5e61797a8c)

------------------------------------------------------------

The latter piece seems like a more personal rebuke of President Obama, who infuriated Capitol Hill Republicans by appointing Susan Rice to the post of national security advisor — which doesn't currently require Senate confirmation — when it became clear senators would block her from becoming secretary of State in 2013.

Many of them believe she lied to the public about the nature of the terrorist assault that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012.

------------------------------------------------------------
—30—

============================================================
Have feedback for us? Email ** [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])
.

Sidewire, Inc.
633 Battery Street
Suite 100
San Francisco, CA 94111
USA

Want to change how you receive these emails? ** Update (http://sidewire.us11.list-manage.com/profile?u=dff5dea186e38c29c57ca6f8f&id=7eeab627b3&e=584f90e12b)
your preferences or ** unsubscribe (http://sidewire.us11.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=dff5dea186e38c29c57ca6f8f&id=7eeab627b3&e=584f90e12b&c=5e9d13907c)
.