Replies to post #289087 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[BOREALIS]

Ohio’s Richest Republican Backer Leslie Wexner Quits Party After Visit From President Obama

He said he had been a Republican since college, but would now consider himself an independent.

Gideon Resnick
09.15.18 3:38 PM ET

Former President Barack Obama visited Ohio looking to boost the campaign prospects of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray, who served as the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during Obama’s second term.

Inadvertently, Obama also seemed to convince a longtime Republican, and the state’s wealthiest man, to leave his own party.

Leslie H. Wexner, the fashion retail tycoon whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be $5.9 billion, recently told a small audience in Columbus that he has decided to quit the party he has called home for decades after Obama’s visit.

“I just decided I’m no longer a Republican,” Wexner, the CEO of L Brands said at the event, according to the Columbus Dispatch. “I’m an independent,” he continued. “I won’t support this nonsense in the Republican Party. I’ve been a Republican since college, joined the Young Republican Club at Ohio State.”

Wexner said that he hadn’t made any public declaration in a newspaper about jumping ship, but that he’s been contacting Republican elected friends and telling them that he now considers himself an independent.

The billionaire, who has expressed some bi-partisan leanings in recent months, also reportedly had kind remarks about Obama’s visit to Columbus, which came before a rally for Cordray in Cleveland.

“I was struck by the genuineness of the man; his candor, humility and empathy for others,” Wexner said of Obama, according to the Dispatch. In addition to hearing the former president speak, Wexner’s shift in political attitude also seems attributed to President Trump. The CEO recalled a moment last year when he told employees that he felt “dirty” and “ashamed” when Trump equivocated about white nationalist violence at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last year.

“I have to do something because the leader of our country is behaving poorly,” Wexner said, recalling his reaction to racially charged nature of the event.

Recent filings from the Federal Election Commission, show that Wexner contributed to the National Republican Congressional Committee and Rep. Troy Balderson (R-OH), who narrowly edged out Democrat Danny O’Connor in a recent special election in the state.

Last year, he also contributed $300,000 to the With Honor PAC, an organization that supports both Democratic and Republican veterans running for Congress.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ohios-richest-republican-backer-leslie-wexner-quits-party-after-visit-from-president-obama?ref=home?ref=home

[BOREALIS]

John Kerry Wrecks Trump For Single-Handedly Turning America Into The Laughingstock Of The World

Posted on Wed, Sep 19th, 2018 by Sean Colarossi

Former Secretary of State John Kerry took Donald Trump to the woodshed on Wednesday, saying his incompetence and reckless policy decisions have wrecked America’s image abroad.

In an interview with MSNBC‘s Ari Melber, Kerry was responding to Trump, who accused the former Democratic nominee of having “illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian regime” in what he calls an effort to “undercut” the current administration.

Kerry, who has amped up his attacks on Trump in recent days, scoffed at the president’s suggestion, calling it another attack meant to distract from the fact that Trump has repeatedly embarrassed America on the world stage.

“This administration doesn’t want to debate the real issues because they can’t,” Kerry said. “This is just an effort to avoid their own incompetence, their own inability to do things in Washington in a presidential manner, and I think the American people see through it.”

Video:

John Kerry says attacks on him from Trump are nothing but a distraction. #ctl #p2 #thebeat pic.twitter.com/dJPx34wTAT

— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) September 20, 2018

John Kerry is fed up with Trump destroying the good work done under Obama

If there is one person who knows about international relationships, it’s John Kerry. As a Vietnam war hero who went on to become a productive Secretary of State under President Barack Obama, he has more knowledge of foreign policy in his pinky toe than Trump will ever have.

Kerry helped negotiate the landmark Iran deal, which put a lid on the hostile government’s nuclear program. Trump, of course, tore it up because it had Barack Obama‘s name on it.

The same thing happened with the Paris climate accord, which Trump pulled the United States out of – making America the only country in the world who isn’t now signed onto the pact.

All of that goes without mentioning the fact that Trump has repeatedly picked fights with close U.S. allies like Canada, Germany, the UK and others, all while heaping praise on sworn American enemies like Russia and North Korea.

As John Kerry pointed out on Wednesday, Trump‘s attacks on him have no merit. They are nothing but a distraction from this president’s embarrassing failures on the world stage.

https://www.politicususa.com/2018/09/19/kerry-wrecks-trump-laughingstock.html