Author: Stop the Donald Trump

Trump Says Clinton Made Up Quotes About Him

Hillary Clinton gave a speech on foreign policy that was a direct attack on Donald Trump, whose own foreign policy knowledge is lacking in such a way that CNN has now chosen to fact-check in real time so that viewers can see when he reneges on something he’s said, like his belief that Japan should have nukes.

Trump hasn’t taken well to her speech. He has attacked those who lauded it and gone after Clinton, too. Just as he did yesterday when he tried to claim that he never spoke out in favor of Japan getting its own nuclear arsenal, he tried to insist that everything Clinton said about him in her speech was a lie.

She responded with a link to her site, The Briefing. That link leads to a quote-by-quote breakdown of her speech. Each assertion made about Trump’s beliefs is backed up with a link to the interview or press conference during which he said it.

From saying he has no issue with abandoning our allies in NATO to the direct quote in which he insisted he knows more about ISIS than America’s own military generals do, the takedown is thorough and scathing.

(h/t Mediaite)

Reality

Donald’s twitter response to Clinton’s evisceration of his foreign policy was largely seen as massive disappointment. Many pundits waited eagerly to see how he would respond, how he would defend his positions, and were left with a few poorly-spelled tweets attacking her for using a “telepromter.” Ironically, a few days later Donald Trump himself turned to a teleprompter for his primary victory.

So we wanted to take the time and fact-check both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

1. “This is a man who said that more countries should have nuclear weapons, including Saudi Arabia.”

TRUE. During a CNN town hall interview on March 29, 2016, Donald Trump did advocate for more countries to have nuclear weapons, including Saudi Arabia.

ANDERSON COOPER:  Saudi Arabia, nuclear weapons?

 

TRUMP:  Saudi Arabia, absolutely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEsBoRVlWXU&feature=youtu.be

2. “This is someone who has threatened to abandon our allies in NATO, the countries that work with us to root out terrorists abroad before they strike us at home.”

TRUE. In a March 30 town hall on MSNBC, Trump repeatedly suggested he will threaten NATO countries to bear a bigger burden, ultimately saying “If we have to walk, we have to walk.”

CHRIS MATTHEWS:  We don’t need NATO?

 

TRUMP:  Do you think — no, we don’t really need NATO in its current form. NATO is obsolete, and we’re spending disproportionately…

 

MATTHEWS:  How do you walk from NATO, The Middle East, North Asia, China, all these relationships?  Just drop them all?

 

TRUMP:  Look, NATO is…

 

MATTHEWS:  We have old deals we have to stick with.

TRUMP:  … is 68 years old.

 

MATTHEWS:  Yes.

 

TRUMP:  OK, you have countries that are getting a free ride.  You have countries that benefit from NATO much more than we do.  We don’t benefit that much from NATO….Why aren’t they reimbursing us?  Why aren’t they paying a good portion of the costs?

 

MATTHEWS:  Well, that’s fine.  It’s a good argument if you can get it.  But if the alternative is we walk…

TRUMP:  And we’ll get it, I’ll get it, I’ll get it.  I’m the messenger.

 

MATTHEWS:  If the alternative is we walk…

 

TRUMP:  If we have to walk, we have to walk.

Comments start around the 6:30 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUClmJN4HhI

3. “He believes we can treat the U.S. economy like one of his casinos and default on our debts to the rest of the world, which would cause an economic catastrophe far worse than anything we experienced in 2008.”

TRUE. In an interview on CNBC, Donald Trump broke with tired clichés about the evils of federal debt accumulation. “I am the king of debt,” he said. “I love debt. I love playing with it.”

I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal,” Trump said. “And if the economy was good, it was good. So therefore, you can’t lose.

This idea would indeed cause a global financial crisis. By suggesting an unorthodox approach towards cutting the national debt… not paying it then renegotiate terms. Such a renegotiation risks creating financial turmoil because U.S. Treasuries are considered the safest assets on the planet and a major benchmark for valuing other securities. Calling into question their safety could cause borrowing rates to rise and create confusion in the markets.

Trump later said the media misunderstood his comments. However while Trump did not say the word ‘default’ he explained the exact definition of the word default in his proposal. And his new answer to print money can lead to higher inflation and was almost just as bad of an idea.

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000515269

4. “He has said that he would order our military to carry out torture.”

TRUE. During a campaign event at the Sun City retirement community on February 17, 2016, Donald Trump said that he supports waterboarding and similar interrogation techniques because “torture works” in the questioning of terrorists.

“Don’t tell me it doesn’t work — torture works,” Trump said. “Okay, folks? Torture — you know, half these guys [say]: ‘Torture doesn’t work.’ Believe me, it works. Okay?”

5. “He says he doesn’t have to listen to our generals or our admirals, our ambassadors, and other high officials, because he has quote, ‘a very good brain.’”

TRUE. Asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” who he talks with consistently about foreign policy, Trump responded:

“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.”

“I know what I’m doing and I listen to a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people and at the appropriate time I’ll tell you who the people are,” Trump said. “But my primary consultant is myself and I have a good instinct for this stuff.”

 

Then as evidence, Trump claimed he had predicted the rise of Osama bin Laden, a statement for which was a total and absolute lie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2lBz0532wU

6. “He says climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese.”

TRUE. And complete and total nonsense.

7. “He has the gall to say that prisoners of war like John McCain aren’t heroes.”

TRUE. At the Iowa Family Leadership Summit in July 2015, when moderator Frank Luntz brought up Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Donald Trump said:

He’s not a war hero.

Then went on to say.

He’s a war hero ’cause he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK? Perhaps he’s a war hero, but right now he’s said some very bad things about a lot of people.

Trump caught flack from every direction but refused to change his stance on McCain. When asked by ABC News whether he owes McCain an apology, Trump said:

No, not at all.

Then continued:

People that were not captured that went in and fought, nobody talks about them. Those are heroes also.

Later when confronted with his comments about McCain by a veteran and supporter at a rally, Trump flatly lied that he never made those comments.

8. “He praises dictators like Vladimir Putin…” and picks fights with our friends, including the British prime minister, the mayor of London, the German chancellor, the president of Mexico, and the Pope.”

TRUE. In an interview on October 1st, 2015, Trump compared President Obama unfavorably to the Russian president.

“I will tell you, in terms of leadership, he’s getting an ‘A,’ and our president is not doing so well. They did not look good together.”

9. “and picks fights with our friends – including the British prime minister…”

TRUE. On Good Morning Britain in May 2016, Trump was asked about comments by British Prime Minister David Cameron, leader of the U.K.’s Conservative Party, who said that Trump’s suggestion Muslims should be barred from the United States was “divisive, stupid and wrong.”

“It looks like we’re not going to have a very good relationship,” if he were to win the presidential election in November.

https://youtu.be/I6-e5hNIBOk

10. the mayor of London…

TRUE. On Good Morning Britain in May 2016, Trump said Khan was “very rude” and made a veiled threat.

“I think they’re very rude statements and frankly, tell him, I will remember those statements. They’re very nasty statements.”

11. the German chancellor…

TRUE. Donald Trump told Breitbart executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon that he was highly critical of Germany’s Angela Merkel saying she is “a catastrophic leader” and that “she’ll be out if they don’t have a revolution.”

Everyone thought she was a really great leader and now she’s turned out to be this catastrophic leader. And she’ll be out if they don’t have a revolution.

12. the president of Mexico…

TRUE. Donald Trump sparked outrage among Mexicans and Latinos over comments he made when he kicked off his Presidential bid when he claimed Mexico sending its “rapists” and criminals to the U.S. and calling for a human-proof wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to keep them out.

When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

Mexican President Pena Nieto attacked the “populism” of the Trump campaign, which he said sought to put forward “very easy, simple solutions to problems that are obviously not that easy to solve,” and then compared Trump to Hitler:

“And there have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of this strident rhetoric have only led to very ominous situations in the history of humanity. That’s how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in, they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis. And I think what (they) put forward ended up at what we know today from history, in global conflagration. We don’t want that happening anywhere in the world”

13. and the Pope.

TRUE. Trump faulted Pope Francis for planning to visit the Mexican border to pray with migrants:

I don’t think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico. I think Mexico got him to do it because they want to keep the border just the way it is. They’re making a fortune, and we’re losing.

Pope Francis then made the observation that that Mr. Trump “is not Christian” in proposing deportations and a wall with Mexico.

Donald Trump responded saying Francis’ criticisms were “disgraceful” and “unbelievable,” said the pontiff will “wish and pray” that the real estate mogul were President “if and when the Vatican is attacked, and he contended that the Mexican government had hoodwinked the pope into criticizing him.

14. “He says he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia.”

TRUE. In a March 2016 interview with Fox News, Donald Trump said:

I know Russia well. I had a major event in Russia two or three years ago, Miss Universe contest, which was a big, big, incredible event. An incredible success.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJjQWJBP2N8

 

 

 

Protesters Attack Trump Supporters After San Jose Speech

Protests outside a Donald Trump rally in San Jose, California, descended into violence on Thursday night, with supporters clashing with anti-Trump demonstrators in running-battles around the convention center where the candidate spoke.

Hundreds of protesters, many of them Latino students and a large contingent of union members, had gathered peacefully outside in the late afternoon, at times jeering at his supporters as they passed by.

But after the rally finished, the protests turned violent as anti-Trump demonstrators chased – and in some cases punched and attacked – departing Trump supporters, some of whom appeared intent on provoking and fighting as well, while other protesters tried to prevent the attacks. Eventually riot police were deployed to control the crowd.

Inside the rally, the presumptive Republican nominee for president struck out at his main rival, Hillary Clinton, after her fiery attacks on him earlier in the day. In a blistering speech in San Diego on national security, the Democratic frontrunner lambasted him as “ temperamentally unfit” to be president and castigated his “thin skin”.

Trump, his voice brash, responded, saying he had thick skin instead of thin, but attacked her over her email controversy, even hinting that if he was elected he would send the former secretary of state to jail. He also said Clinton “wants to abolish the second amendment” and called her speech “pathetic”.

Sgt Enrique Garcia of the San Jose police department said police made “a few” arrests but could not provide details on numbers or charges. “There has been no significant property damage reported. One officer was assaulted,” he said.

The Clinton camp was quick to denounce the violence, with campaign chairman John Podesta tweeting: “Violence against supporters of any candidate has no place in this election.”

But the mayor of San Jose, Sam Liccardo, laid the blame squarely at Trump’s door. “We don’t appreciate [anyone] utilizing campaign tactics of demagoguery, and pitting members of our community against one another to propel their own political ambitions,” he told the Guardian.

The protests had started peacefully in the afternoon. Pooja Bachan, 18, attended with a group of her classmates who arrived from their high school graduation ceremony wearing baby-blue caps and gowns. “Donald Trump is misogynistic, xenophobic and racist,” she said. “I don’t support that for this country.”

“I have family members who are illegal immigrants and they’re scared,” said Monse Lozano, 18, of San Jose. “I’m a citizen and I can’t do much for them.”

Other demonstrators waved Mexican flags and chanted in Spanish and English. One man yelled at Trump supporters entering the arena: “Somos mas Americanos que todos ellos.”

Trump spoke to an audience of around 5,000 supporters, who barely filled a third of the cavernous space attached to the San Jose convention center. After his speech, as Trump supporters began trickling out of the venue, the tenor of the crowd outside shifted.

Bands of mostly young male protesters began chasing, and in some instances attacking, Trump supporters. As more fights broke out between pro- and anti-Trump people, the situation grew chaotic. After being spat on and punched by a protester, one Trump supporter turned to hit back and appeared to accidentally hit a pregnant woman standing next to his attacker, which further angered the crowd surrounding him.

The crowd moved into the street and began blocking traffic, while police maintained their distance. Some Trump supporters waded into the crowd, seeming intent on provoking scuffles.

Several protesters snatched red “Make America Great Again” hats from supporters, setting them on fire. Some burned small American flags and ripped up Trump signs.

At one point, a group of protesters entered the convention center parking lot, where Trump supporters were attempting to leave. Some banged on cars, yelling at the occupants, and one SUV’s tail light was broken. As protesters attempted to surround a Corvette, the driver gunned the engine, almost hitting several people and sending the protesters running.

“Now that I’ve turned 18, I want to be out there and stand up for what I believe,” said Martha Garcia, a student from San Jose, early in the afternoon. “The blood that runs through my veins is Mexican.”

As night fell, and riot cops began to move in on the protesters, Garcia expressed disappointment in the violence. “It’s sad to see San Jose representing like this. Trump is the one igniting the hate. You can’t fight fire with fire,” she said.

Carlos Ceballos, an iron worker from Salinas who travelled to San Jose to protest Trump, was more understanding of the violent outbursts. “I guess it happens to the best of us,” he said as the final protesters retreated from riot cops. Ceballos said he does not like Trump supporters, but as for Trump himself, “I hate him.”

(h/t The Guardian)

Reality

Violence has no place in our political process and should be condemned from all sides.

Donald Trump says a lot of divisive and hateful statements, escalation of tensions may only seem natural. However as a protester, engaging in violence only plays into the hands of Donald Trump and his supporters. It gives them justification for their false sense of being victimized and allows them to paint the opposition as “thugs” and side-step our real and valid arguments.

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-1aSn_Pnhk

Trump: I Never Said Japan Should Have Nukes (He Did)

Donald Trump at rally in Sacramento, California.

Donald Trump on Wednesday night charged Hillary Clinton was misrepresenting his position by saying he wants nuclear arms for Japan — but the presumptive Republican nominee previously has said exactly that.

At a rally in Sacramento, California, Trump said:

[Hillary Clinton] lies. She lies. She made a speech, she’s making another one tomorrow, and they sent me a copy of the speech. And it was such lies about my foreign policy, that they said I want Japan to get nuclear weapons. Give me a break.

 

See they don’t say it: I want Japan and Germany and Saudi Arabia and South Korea and many of the NATO states, nations, they owe us tremendously, we’re taking care of all those people and what I want them to do is pay up.

The questions over Trump’s position comes as Clinton prepares to hit him on that and other comments in a foreign policy speech later Thursday.

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not immediately respond to questions about his position.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

Donald Trump must not realize when he makes these comments that we live in the age of Google.

New York Times Interview – 3/26/16

Here is the New York Times interview transcript where Donald Trump first mentions his foreign policy plan to allow Japan to have nuclear weapons.

Well I think maybe it’s not so bad to have Japan — if Japan had that nuclear threat, I’m not sure that would be a bad thing for us.

Anderson Cooper Interview – 3/29/16

Here is Trump telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper during a town hall, responding to questions about the New York Times article, and suggested that it was time to reconsider the United States’ decades-old policy of not allowing Japan to arm itself with nuclear weapons.

Can I be honest with you? It’s going to happen anyway. It’s going to happen anyway. It’s only a question of time. They’re going to start having them or we have to get rid of them entirely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEsBoRVlWXU

Fox News Interview – 4/3/16

Here is Trump in an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace where Trump clearly states Japan should have nukes. Trump said:

“It’s not like, gee whiz, nobody has them. So, North Korea has nukes. Japan has a problem with that. I mean, they have a big problem with that. Maybe they would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea.”

 

Wallace asked, “With nukes?”

 

“Including with nukes, yes, including with nukes,” Trump responded.

Trump’s comment occurs at the 10:23 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LPEF5S78_Q

Donald Trump Rally – 6/2/16

Here is the Sacramento, California event. Trump’s lie occurs at the 12:48 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdVAiXkgnE4

Trump Tweets 9 Deceptive Graphs “Proving” That Obama Failed.

Twitter

Washington Post – We have generally learned that there’s not much utility in fact-checking every tweet that springs to life from the imagination of Donald Trump or which receives his blessing via retweet. Tweets containing factual errors are not as plentiful as those containing exclamation points or disparagement, but they aren’t exactly rare.

But on Thursday evening, Trump retweeted this one, and we — well, I — couldn’t let it stand.

There are nine little graphs embedded in there, with hard-to-read axes and unclear provenance for the numbers, all of which are meant to bolster one argument: Barack Obama’s presidency has been bad.

Look, for example, at the graph at upper left, “Student Loans.” It’s almost impossible to make out the labels on the horizontal axis, but it’s clear that there simply aren’t any until the graph starts to rise. Which is … a bit deceptive. So what I figured I’d do is try my best to recreate these charts with verifiable numbers, to see how this argument stacks up.

Student loans

The vertical axis on this one tells us what we’re looking at. It passed “1.000” at some point recently; the third labeled section of the graph appears to demarcate 2010-2014. (The others, I think: 2000-2004 and 2005-2009.) If it passed 1 recently, then we’re talking about student loan debt, in dollars.

The Federal Reserve has data going back to the first quarter of 2006, allowing us to create a slightly more legible version of the graph.

(We’ve highlighted 2009 on our charts to emphasize the point at which Obama took over.)

On an old page from 2012, we find the trend extending back a bit more.

The trend, then, isn’t a big spike. It’s a steady increase since about 2006 — before Obama was president.

Food stamps

Here, the horizontal axis extends a bit further back, still in those odd five-year chunks. What’s being tallied here is not “food stamps,” which makes no sense, but average participation over the course of each year, in millions. In other words, the average of how many people used the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) each month of the year.

That data is available from the USDA.

There was an uptick — one that began in 2008, which we’ll get to. But notice that the person who made this chart cut it off before the number started to (slowly) drop back down.

There’s a theme you’ll see present itself here: That Obama took office right after the recession began. As a result, he appears to perform poorly on some metrics, like this one. But that’s a natural result of the financial crisis that predated him: more people relied on supplemental assistance.

Federal debt

…And the government took on more debt.

Notice that on the debt chart in the original, the horizontal axis has changed. No longer does it start in the 1980s — instead, it goes back to 1950. Yes, debt increased under Obama by a large amount. But, again, that increase began under his predecessor, George W. Bush, as an effort to address the financial crisis.

What’s more, comparing 1950 to 2000 makes little sense, since the value of the dollar wasn’t equivalent at that point. But compared to the other problems here, that’s relatively minor.

Money printing

This one is probably my favorite. I’m not going to get into the politics of the printing of money and why certain quarters object to the practice. Instead, I’m going to try to figure out what the 4 million figures on the vertical axis indicate — and what the numbers along the bottom are.

The Federal Reserve (naturally) has lots of data on money in circulation, including this chart of print orders by year since 1995. It doesn’t match the graph Trump tweeted.

Data.gov (a great resource, by the way) has the number of notes produced each year from 1980 to 2012 in various denominations. Combined, those numbers don’t result in 4-million-plus of anything — they add up to far more. The Department of the Treasury indicates that it produced 24.8 million notes a day in 2014.

So what is this graph? No idea. If you have an idea, let me know.

Update: We have an answer. Dan Ludwinski of the Cornell University Department of Economics explains what the Trump graph shows.

“The ‘money printing’ graph is assets held by the Federal Reserve,” he wrote in an email. “The majority of these assets are excess reserve balances — money deposited by commercial banks and held by the Federal Reserve. Calling this “money printing” is laughably inaccurate. This is money that is taken out of circulation and held by the Fed. Anyone who has taken econ 101 knows that this is a decrease in the money supply.”

Health-care costs

You’ve probably noticed by now that the pink boxes in the Trump tweet generally approximate the period during which Obama was president. It varies a bit, but that’s generally the case.

So you’ll notice on this one that the creator of the charts cheats, making most of the graph a period during which Obama was president. It starts in 2007 and goes through 2015.

“Healthcare costs” is vague. The Kaiser Family Foundation has a tool that allows you to see expenditures under a number of scenarios since 1960 — but none of its charts appear to sync with the one Trump tweeted.

The Federal Reserve, as always, has some data. In this case, it’s health expenditures per capita. They’ve gone up steadily, at least through 2012. The Kaiser data shows about the same thing.

What’s Trump’s chart? I’m not sure. Notice that the vertical axis on it begins at 105, not zero, making the amount of change seem exaggerated. It’s possible that the figures are percentages, indicating how much costs were relative to the prior year. But while 2011 costs were 103.8 percent of 2010 costs in the Fed’s data, 2012’s was only 104.2 percent of 2011’s. So who knows.

Labor force participation

On this one, the creator of the graphs cheats again, showing a section of the vertical axis. But, for once, it’s clear what’s being talked about.

To calculate unemployment, the government looks at how many people in the labor force have jobs. People not in the labor force don’t come into play in that calculation, and so if people drop out of the labor force — stop looking for work or retire, for example — the unemployment rate can fall faster, because the number of unemployed people in the labor force will have fallen. (That’s precisely why the unemployment rate fell in May.) 

This has been used as a counterpoint to Obama’s trumpeting of the plunging jobless rate.

And it’s accurate. Labor force participation has fallen since Obama took office.

Of course, one could also show how many new jobs were added, or the state of the unemployment rate. But given that this is, at last, accurate and comprehensible, we’ll let it slide.

Black inequality

This is an interesting one. The creator of these graphs uses calculations of what’s known as the “Gini coefficient” for black Americans, data that is again available from the Federal Reserve. What we’re talking about here isn’t inequality in the sense of racial justice; it’s income inequality.

The Gini coefficient estimates how far from a perfectly equitable distribution of income a group happens to be. The formulas for this are complex, so it’s nice that the Fed has already taken care of it.

Here are the coefficients for both whites and blacks since 2002, when the Fed data begins.

Notice that the variation is much more subtle in this chart. That’s because the vertical axis shows a wider range. Yes, income inequality increased, but not that dramatically.

Median family income

This one is refreshingly straightforward. Here’s what the Fed has to say.

This doesn’t match the Trump chart, mind you, and it’s not clear why. Oh well. Here’s the Fed’s data, if you want to look for yourself.

Home ownership

Another straightforward one! This is the percentage of houses that are owner-occupied.

Again, the rate has declined under Obama — a decline that began under Bush.

Why? In part because it was home ownership problems that precipitated the recession. Bad home loans and the rapid expansion of home ownership played key roles in creating the conditions that led to the economic collapse. As a result, home ownership rates dropped.

But this graph, at least, is fairly accurate, if a bit deceptive in where it places the blame. That’s not true for many of the others.

So why did Trump tweet it? Because, as has often been the case, the details are less important than the political point. If a bunch of graphs claim to show how Obama has been bad for the economy, boom. Retweet. If some jerk goes through each one and notes why it’s wrong or skewed, that doesn’t detract from the main point, which is that Obama is bad. If challenged, Trump can simply blame the originator of what he retweeted, which he has often proven willing to do.

And that, in a nutshell, is why fact-checking things like this is so often thankless.

Links

The Washington Post article.

 

 

Trump Campaign Releases a Video Defending Trump University… That is Itself a Scam

Former students put forward by Donald Trump’s campaign to help deflect criticism of his defunct real estate seminars have business ties to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

The campaign posted a web video Wednesday defending Trump University after a federal judge unsealed documents in a long-running lawsuit filed by ex-students who claim they were fleeced. The seminars ended in 2011 amid a flurry of complaints and state fraud investigations.

“The students on this video are representative of the many students who were overwhelmingly satisfied with Trump University,” the campaign said. “Rather than listen to the media spin, listen to the hard-working students who can attest first-hand to the truth about Trump University.”

https://youtu.be/2GHBBUrWpf4

(h/t Fortune, Red State)

Reality

As we detailed before, Trump University was a massive scam.

This video features three people – none of whom have ever bought or sold real estate for a living. One of them appears to be a professional testimonial-giver for seminars, one appears to give these kinds of seminars for himself, and one of them has an ongoing business and personal relationship with the Trump family, who have allowed him to sell his protein water on a number of their properties.

These are the three people they found, out of the 40,000 people who (allegedly) came through Trump University who could talk about their great experiences.

Notably, not one of these people is currently in the business of buying or selling real estate, or can offer any proof that Trump University made them successful in this endeavor, which is what it was designed to do.

Contrast this with the thousands involved in class-action lawsuits against the now-defunct university.

Michelle Gunn

The first woman featured in the video, one Michelle Gunn, appears to be a professional testimonial giver for these self-help workshop scams:

Not mentioned by the campaign is that the celebrity billionaire previously endorsed a self-help book authored by Gunn’s teenage son, titled “Schooled for Success: How I Plan to Graduate from High School a Millionaire.” A website promoting the book also features a photo of a smiling Houston Gunn posing with Trump in what appears to be the then reality TV star’s Trump Tower office.

Casey Hoban

Casey Hoban, a Connecticut bottled-water entrepreneur who said he earned “incalculable” profits on real estate deals after attending one of Trump’s two-day courses about a decade ago.

Not disclosed by the campaign is that Hoban is also a Trump family acquaintance whose protein-infused water is stocked at some of Trump’s golf courses, restaurants and resorts.

Hoban told The Associated Press that his business relationship with the Trump organization bloomed after he attended a charity event held last year held by a Trump family foundation. Trump’s son Eric Trump later tweeted Hoban a personal thank you for his $25,000 donation.

That largesse led to an invitation for Hoban and his family to visit Trump Tower last year for a personal tour of campaign headquarters, where they posed smiling for a photo holding Trump for President placards.

Hoban told the AP that he had only met the Trumps a couple of times and that his budding business relationship with the Trump empire had nothing to do with his offer to the campaign to issue a public endorsement of Trump U.

“Absolutely not, from the bottom of my heart,” Hoban said. “I offered to support Trump University because I did some amazing investments after going to that class. I thought it was a way to tell the world that after going to that class at Trump University I prospered.”

Kent Moyer

Kent Moyer is not in real estate at all, as his rather detailed website attests. Rather, he seems himself to be involved primarily in selling the kind of “coaching” and “seminars” that are pretty similar on their face to Trump University. Kent Moyer, per his bio, appears to have gone to Wharton.

However upon questioning by AP, Moyer clarified that he had attended two-week executive seminars offered by Wharton and had never been academically enrolled as a student at the university. He does not have a bachelor’s degree.

Even if people find real value in the consulting services that Mr. Moyer provides, he by his own admission has never actually made money selling real estate, which is what Trump University is supposed to teach you how to do.

He is a former Playboy Mansion bodyguard who founded a Beverly Hills, California-based company that specializes in providing security to the wealthy and famous.

Moyer told the AP that he does not recall ever personally meeting Trump, but said he has long admired the flashy businessman. He said he reached out to Trump’s lawyers after reading about class-action lawsuits alleging the program was a scam posing as a real academic institution.

“I had nothing but a great experience with Trump University,” Moyer said. “Everyone knew it wasn’t a real university. … What the video doesn’t talk about is that because of Trump University I ultimately enrolled in 2007 in the Wharton Business School.”

Moyer has often described himself in media appearances and in written materials as an alumnus of the prestigious business school at the University of Pennsylvania, of which Trump and some of his children are graduates.

(Editor’s Note: It’s a short day today so this ‘reality’ section was pieced together from the cited articles and is not our own.)

Trump University ‘Playbooks’ Offer Glimpse of Ruthless Business Practices

Trump University logo

A federal judge has given the world an unprecedented glimpse into the ruthless business practices Donald Trump used to build his business empire.

US district court judge Gonzalo Curiel on Tuesday made public more than 400 pages of Trump University “playbooks” describing how Trump staff should target prospective students’ weaknesses to encourage them to sign up for a $34,995 Gold Elite three-day package.

Trump University staff were instructed to get people to pile on credit card debt and to target their financial weaknesses in an attempt to sell them the high-priced real estate courses.

The documents contained an undated “personal message” from Trump to new enrollees at the school:

Only doers get rich. I know that in these three packed days, you will learn everything to make a million dollars within the next 12 months.

The courses are now subject to legal proceedings from unhappy clients.

Judge Curiel released the documents, which are central to a class-action lawsuit against Trump University in California, despite sustaining repeated public attacks from Trump, who had fought to keep the details secret.

Curiel ruled that the documents were in the public interest now that Trump is “the front-runner in the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential race, and has placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue”.

Trump hit back calling Curiel a “hater”, a “total disgrace” and “biased”. “I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump. A hater. He’s a hater,” Trump said at a rally near the courthouse in San Diego. “His name is Gonzalo Curiel. And he is not doing the right thing … [He] happens to be, we believe, Mexican.”

Curiel, who is Hispanic, is American and was born in Indiana.

Trump went on to attack Curiel further on Twitter on Monday and at a press conference in New York on Monday.

The playbook contains strict guidelines on dealing with media. Team members were prohibited from speaking with the media and instructed to contact other officials with the organization.

  • Reporters are rarely on your side and not sympathetic.
  • No matter how much confidence you have in Trump University, you should not say anything.

In addition to the media tips, the playbooks also contain instructions under the heading of “Attorney General.” It gives the name of a Trump University employee to contact if an Attorney General arrives on the scene.

By law, you do not have to show them any personal information unless they present a warrant; however you are expected to be courteous.

Instructing employees how to stall law enforcement investigations might seem like an unusual part of running a real estate seminar company. But at Trump University — which drew investigations by Democratic and Republican attorneys general alike — it was par for the course.

The playbook also contains long sections telling Trump U team members how to identify buyers and push them to sign up for the most expensive package, and to put the cost on their credit cards. The document states:

If they can afford the gold elite don’t allow them to think about doing anything besides the gold elite.

If potential students hesitate, teachers are told to read this script.

As one of your mentors for the last three days, it’s time for me to push you out of your comfort zone. It’s time for you to be 100% honest with yourself. You’ve had your entire adult life to accomplish your financial goals. I’m looking at your profile and you’re not even close to where you need to be, much less where you want to be. It’s time you fix your broken plan, bring in Mr. Trump’s top instructors and certified millionaire mentors and allow us to put you and keep you on the right track. Your plan is BROKEN and WE WILL help you fix it. Remember you have to be 100% honest with yourself!

Trump University staff are instructed in how to persuade students to put the cost of the course on their credit cards, even if they have just battled to pay off debts.

Do you like living paycheck to paycheck? … Do you enjoy seeing everyone else but yourself in their dream houses and driving their dreams cars with huge checking accounts? Those people saw an opportunity, and didn’t make excuses, like what you’re doing now.

Trump staff are told to spend lunch breaks in sign-up seminars “planting seeds” in potential students minds about how their lives won’t improve unless they join the programme. They are also told to ask students personal questions to discover weaknesses that could be exploited to help seal the deal.

Collect personalized information that you can utilize during closing time. (For example: are they a single parent of three children that may need money for food? Or are they a middle-aged commuter that is tired of traveling for 2 hours to work each day?)

New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman, who has also sued Trump University, renewed his attacks on Trump on Tuesday. “You are not allowed to protect the trade secrets of a three-card Monte game,” Schneiderman said ahead of the document’s release. “If you look at the facts of this case, this shows someone who was absolutely shameless in his willingness to lie to people, to say whatever it took to induce them into his phony seminars,” Schneiderman said.

(h/t The Guardian, Los Angeles Times)

Reality

As we’ve reviewed before, Trump University was a massive scam.

Links

The Trump University Playbook.

Trump Launches All-Out Attack on the Press For Uncovering Donation Lies

Donald Trump on Tuesday went on a sustained frontal assault against the media during a contentious news conference that highlighted his un-presidential temperament.

The billionaire had called the press conference to announce an accounting of his at least $5.6 million in fundraising for veterans groups, but spent most of the 40 minutes criticizing and insulting reporters — collectively and at times individually — as “dishonest,” “not good people,” sleazy, and among the worst human beings he has ever met.

And he vowed the White House briefing room would be just as combative as the Trump Tower lobby, where he addressed reporters Tuesday, should he ascend to the Oval Office.

Trump said when asked if this is how he would behave with the press as president.

Yeah, it is going to be like this. You think I’m gonna change? I’m not gonna change.

At one point, Trump fumed:

I’m the only one in the world who can raise almost $6 million for the veterans, have uniform applause by the veterans groups and end up being criticized by press…I think the political press is among the most dishonest people that I have ever met, I have to tell you. I see the stories and I see the way they’re couched. I find the press to be extremely dishonest. I find the political press to be unbelievably dishonest.

Tuesday’s news conference did not mark a departure from Trump’s relationship with the press, which has been strained throughout the brash mogul’s campaign — but Tuesday was a surprise escalation, especially at a time when many supporters want him to start acting more presidential.

Over the last year, Trump has repeatedly called out individual reporters on Twitter and in interviews for everything from what he viewed as insufficient crowd shots to biased reporting. And attacking the press is a regular part of the Republican’s stump speech, during which he typically rips reporters as “scum,” “slime,” “dishonest” and “disgusting” — often prompting jeers from the crowd.

The news conference came four months after Trump falsely claimed to have raised $6 million for veterans groups, but then dodged reporters’ unrelenting questions about which groups had received the donations.

Trump kicked off his litany of attacks by accusing reporters of turning what should have been a positive story about his charity into a negative one.

Reporters had repeatedly asked Trump to provide an accounting of the donations, requests that were frequently rebuffed or side-stepped by Trump and his campaign staff.

Trump said he didn’t “want the credit” for his fundraising, “but I shouldn’t be lambasted” — that despite Trump repeatedly touting the donations himself on the campaign trail since the January fundraiser, which was televised in what some at the time dubbed a PR stunt.

But the subject of the news conference quickly turned away from the veterans donations as Trump accused reporters of writing stories they “know” are false, and of spinning the truth.

He also lashed out at individual reporters, calling ABC’s Tom Llamas a “sleaze,” referring sarcastically to CNN’s Jim Acosta’s live reports as a “beauty,” telling Katy Tur she’s a “third-rate journalist,” and refusing at one point to call on CBS’s Major Garrett.

Trump repeatedly blasted the media for the way it has covered his fundraising for vets.
“All of the money has been paid out,” Trump said. “The press should be ashamed of themselves, and on behalf of the veterans, the press should be ashamed of themselves.”
“There are so many people who are so thankful for what we did,” Trump said, adding that the final figure could top $6 million once all the donations are in.

Trump listed the vets groups — there were more than 40 — that he said had received money and the amounts that had been given to each. He said there were no administrative costs deducted from the donations.

Trump revised that figure recently to $5.5 million following months of questions from reporters struggling to track the funds and dodging on the exact amount from the Trump campaign.

Trump himself disbursed his $1 million pledge last week to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, a charity that helps support the families of fallen Marines and law enforcement officers to which Trump’s foundation has previously donated. Trump only transferred the money after reporters uncovered that for 4 months of claiming he donated money, he never did.

Amid reporters’ questions, Trump and his campaign have repeatedly offered conflicting accounts of how much money was raised and declined multiple requests to provide a full accounting. The campaign has insisted it was working on disbursing the funds, but said it was waiting on some donors to make good on their pledges and also needed to properly vet the charities in the running to receive the funds.

Three veterans groups earlier Tuesday confirmed donations from the Trump Foundation. The Bob Woodruff Foundation and the Boston Wounded Vets Run each confirmed donations of $75,000 apiece. The Racing For Heroes Foundation also received what the group’s president described as a “large” donation.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

There are a few things at play here. First, Donald Trump’s complaints to the press. Second, the facts he brought up at his conference. Three, the unusually slow distribution of donations to the veterans charities. Fourth, Trump’s own $1 million dollar donation. And finally, and most important, Trump’s completely un-presidential temperament at his press conference.

Trump’s Complaints about the Press

Donald Trump has a history of harassing the press, ejecting journalists from press conferences, and promising to gut the 1st amendment to the United States Constitution to allow the government to sue reporters in an effort to silence the press.

But Donald’s complaint that the press was not nice to him is frankly, too stupid of a statement to have to answer, but we will.

While Trump boasts how much money he raised and how much money he gave to charity he’s essentially demanding that everyone, including the press, should just brown-nose him up-and-down for his awesomeness. However it is not a journalist’s job sit there and accept the information that they are told at face value, but to critically review evidence of a story. (Granted some do this better than others.) And unfortunately for Donald Trump, there has been a lot of justified controversy surrounding his fundraiser.

The televised fundraiser only came about so he could dodge debate questions from Megyn Kelly about his past sexist comments towards women. Then Trump attempted to extort Fox News for an illegal “quid pro quo” donation of $5 million dollars to appear at their Iowa debate.

As we point out below, it was the Trump campaign who originally refused to disclose his fundraiser accounting information and instead brushed off the press and told them to look for the it themselves, which of course they would. Then for the next 4 months Trump lied again and again when he spoke about his charitable $1 million donation in the past tense.

So while Donald Trump tries complain about the nastiness of the reporters, if he and his campaign were open and transparent instead of recalcitrant and stonewalling then there would have been no needed to follow up on this story and uncover some pretty major lies.

Fact Checking Trump’s Statements

During the press conference Donald Trump made many claims that just did not add up.

  • Trump opened the press conference by saying he’s received the most votes ever for a Republican in a primary. As we pointed out before this is not true.
  • Trump mentioned that wanted to keep the donation dealings private yet he boasted for 4 months about his fundraiser every chance he could. He can’t claim to have it both ways.
  • At the 15 minute mark of the speech Donald Trump clearly drops the f-bomb. “Fuck look, when this started, I think you were there, I said if we could raise $1 million dollars that would be good.”
  • Trump claimed multiple times that he didn’t want any public credit for his fundraiser, yet he nationally televised the event, claimed it was for the ratings, continuously brought it up during campaign rallies, and kept sending tweets about it
  • Trump commented that most of the money was sent out early on. But as we detail below, after 4 months only half of the funds were distributed and the other half was sent out on 5/24, the day of the Washington Post story.
  • Trump challenged reporters to go find out how much money Hillary Clinton has raised. The Clinton family donated $105,000 to veteran charities between 2006-2012, helped to raise $50 million dollars for a state-of-the-art veterans rehab center, and has the Clinton Foundation that raises over $200 million for global charities every year. However this is completely irrelevant. The amount of money someone else donates has no effect on the ability for journalists to critically review this evidence.

While his fundraiser that raised $5.5 million dollars for veterans groups is an amazing gesture, it is hardly altruistic. In fact, while $5.5 million dollars is great and will do good, people donate more than $2.5 billion annually to the over 40,000 American charities with military related missions. While it indeed will help veterans and does deserve some thanks, the amount is really a drop in the bucket.

Unusually Slow Distribution of Donations

Trump spent a significant time explaining that the reason why it took so long to distribute the donations is because vetting the different charity groups took time. Filling out forms, sending people out to the charity office, background checks, etc.

However the charities listed as recipients were already rated by trusted charity watchdog groups such as Charity Navigator, and the Trump Foundation already gave to a majority these groups before including the charity that received his own personal $1 million dollar donation four months after the fundraiser. So there was no logical reason to vet them again.

Trump’s Own $1 Million Dollar Donation

On 1/28, the Trump campaign released a press release indicating that Mr. Trump made a $1 million dollar contribution at a special event in Des Moines to benefit vets.

The conservative newspaper The Weekly Standard broke the story on 2/18 that the Trump campaign was refusing to acknowledge how much money was disbursed saying, “You can do your homework and ask the veterans’ organizations.” They did and found out that only about $500,000 was distributed to veterans charities at that time.

On 2/26, the conservative pundit Stuart Varney on Fox Business News corroborated The Weekly Standard’s story with their own independent investigation by checking with the charities a full month after the fundraiser and found that only $650,000 of the supposed $6 million raised had been distributed to charities.

Two months after the fundraiser on 4/7, the not-very-liberal Wall Street Journal again talked to the veteran charities and found only $2.4 million was distributed.

Then on 5/20, The Washington Post followed up with the 22 veteran charities and only $3.1 million could be accounted for. Furthering the scandal, the Trump campaign confirmed that only $4.5 million and not $6 million was raised while claiming $1 million dollars donated by Trump was already given to the charities but refused to share evidence saying, “Mr. Trump’s money is fully spent.”

As recent as 5/23, a day before this story broke, Donald Trump tweeted and was still claiming the money was donated.

And finally 5/24 The Washington Post concluded its investigation which uncovered the story that Trump never gave any money to a veterans charity. Once that fact came to light then, and only then, did Trump cut a check to a single charity from his own personal account and sent out the remaining millions of donations.

Trump’s Completely Un-presidential Temperament

At about the 14 minute mark in the media video is when the sparks really start to fly. It really comes across as child throwing a tantrum.

He is highly combative, curses, singles out individuals for riddicule, and is visibly flustered.

After the press conference, Jesse Ferguson, a Clinton spokesman, tweeted: “EVERYONE STOP. Close your eyes for a moment. Think about the press conference you just watched. Now try to imagine him as President. Thanks.”

We’re not sure we have anything else to add after that.

Media

Trump: ‘Illegal Immigrants Are Taken Much Better Care of by This Country Than Our Veterans’

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally to highlight POW-MIA issues on Memorial Day weekend in Washington, U.S. May 29, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst - RTX2EQSU

Donald Trump told a Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally that people in the U.S. illegally often are cared for better than the nation’s military veterans. Trump was speaking at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where hundreds of thousands of bikers gathered to honor prisoners of war and service members missing in action.

“In many cases, illegal immigrants are taken much better care of by this country than our veterans,” Trump told the attendees. “We’re not going to allow that to happen any longer.”

“We’re gonna rebuild our military,” he continued. “And we’re gonna take care of our veterans. Our veterans have been treated so badly in this country.”

(h/t PBS)

Reality

Donald Trump tries to show he has the back of our country’s veterans, however there has been some rather large controversial moments during his campaign. Trump once said that Senator John McCain wasn’t a war hero because he was caught by the enemy, and has yet to apologize for making that comment. Trump also claimed for 4 months that he donated $1 million dollars to veteran charities, which he eventually did but only after journalists uncovered he was lying the whole time.

Donald Trump does have a point that veterans must be treated better by our lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, as the Veterans Administration has seen its troubles over the years. From unsatisfactory treatment and conditions at the Walter Reed Medical Center and long wait times under George W. Bush, to Obama firing Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki in 2014 for long wait times and false record-keeping. And not much has been done because to this day wait times are still an issue at VA hospitals.

However, all that aside, the main issue here is how Donald Trump is making a false choice between veterans and illegal immigrants. He is instilling a nativist “us-versus-them” mentality to his supports by exploiting veterans to play on patriotism by pitting them against illegal Mexican immigrants. In effect, Donald Trump is trying to convince you that there are only two choices, “fund vets or fund illegal immigrants,” when there are actually more than two options.

There are probably hundreds of different and competing ideas to raise revenues or reform spending in order to fund better VA services. For example, we could end or cut back on corporate welfare, which according to the right-leaning CATO Institute cost taxpayers $100 billion per year. And another choice would be to let the Bush tax cuts expire, which according to the Congressional Research Service cost taxpayers on average $350 billion per year. Even Trump’s plan to repeal Obamacare would leave 37 million people uninsured again but would save taxpayers on average $67 billion per year. To boil a very complex answer down to “either vets or illegals” is simply illogical and dishonest.

Finally, Trump is pushing some long debunked far-right conservative myths how illegal immigrants are “a drain on the system” as the basis of his statement. These myths come from anti-immigration organizations, such as Center for Immigration Studies and Federation for American Immigration Reform, who consistently put out flawed studies that feed right-wing ideology for stronger immigration policies.

The fact is tax revenues of all types generated by immigrants, both legal and unauthorized, exceed the cost of the federal services they use. Undocumented immigrants pay into, but do not qualify for welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, and most other public benefits. Most of these programs require proof of legal immigration status and under the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, even legal immigrants cannot receive these benefits until they have been in the United States for more than five years.

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yourd9Hhqvk

Trump Tells California ‘There Is No Drought’

Donald Trump told California voters Friday that he can solve their water crisis, declaring, “There is no drought.”

California is, in fact, in midst of a drought. Last year capped the state’s driest four-year period in its history, with record low rainfall and snow.

Speaking at a rally in Fresno, Calif., Trump accused state officials of denying water to Central Valley farmers so they can send it out to sea “to protect a certain kind of three-inch fish.”

(h/t SF Gate)

Source

Donald Trump’s California drought conspiracy theory comes straight from lunatic Alex Jones’ InfoWars in an article 3 days prior titled, “Environmentalists Caused California Drought to Protect This Fish.”

The theory that California’s water shortage is all the fault of the Environmental Protection Agency is, like most conspiracy theories, grounded in an actual fact. The EPA has, in fact, caused 800,000 acre-feet of water annually to be flushed into San Francisco Bay to maintain its marine ecosystem. The program, however, dates to the early 1990s, and California’s water system, all told, manages over 40 million acre-feet a year. The practice that Trump describes so darkly involves 2 percent of that—and an economically vital 2 percent at that. California fisheries produce jobs in the hundreds of thousands. But not in Fresno.

Reality

California is now in its fifth year of drought, which has taken a heavy toll on agriculture in particular. Despite an El Niño event that saw an increase last year in snowpacks that supply about one-third of California’s water, 86 percent of the state is still considered to be in drought.

Trump appeared to be referring to disputes over water that runs from the Sacramento River to the San Francisco Bay and then to the ocean. Some farmers want more of that flow captured and diverted to them.

Politically influential rural water districts and well-off corporate farmers in and around California’s Central Valley have been pushing back against longstanding federal laws protecting endangered fish and other species, saying federal efforts to make sure endangered native fish have enough water is short-changing farmers of the water they want and need for crops.

Water authorities say they can’t do it because of the water rights of those upstream of the farmers, and because of the minimum-water allowances needed by endangered species in the bay and by wildlife in general.

The three-inch Delta smelt is a native California fish on the brink of extinction. The smelt has become an emblem in the state’s battles over environmental laws and water distribution.

The farm lobby, a heavyweight player in California’s water wars, also is seeking federal and state approval for billions of dollars in new water tunnels, dams and other projects.

Trump promised that, if he’s elected, he would put their interests first. “If I win, believe me, we’re going to start opening up the water so that you can have your farmers survive,” he said.

California is the country’s No. 1 agriculture producer. The state’s drought is raising the stakes in water disputes among farmers, cities and towns, and environmental interests.

Media

Trump Attacks ‘Mexican’ Judge in Trump University Lawsuit

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Over the course of 12 minutes, Donald Trump used a campaign rally in San Diego on Friday night to lace into the judge overseeing a lawsuit over Trump University, calling him a “hater” and speculating about his ethnicity.

“The trial is going to take place sometime in November. There should be no trial. This should have been dismissed on summary judgment easily,” Trump said. “Everybody says it, but I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He’s a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel.”

“I’ll be seeing you in November, either as president…” Trump said, trailing off. “I think Judge Curiel should be ashamed of himself. I think it’s a disgrace that he’s doing this.” Trump brought up Curiel’s ethnicity: “The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican…I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump.”

Several lawsuits — two in federal court in San Diego and one in state court in New York — allege that Trump’s now-defunct real estate school, Trump University, made false claims about instructors’ experience. Trump has already acknowledged in a deposition that he did not hand-pick the teachers, as marketing materials claimed, though he insists the program was valuable.

“They actually did a very good job, but I’ve won most of the lawsuits,” he said during a GOP debate in February.

Since then, Trump has repeatedly attacked Curiel and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, claiming the former is “Spanish” and the latter is out to get him for electoral gain.

At Friday night’s rally, he got more specific, telling the crowd he believes Curiel — who was born in the United States — is Mexican.

“The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think that’s fine,” Trump said, according to the LA Times. “You know what? I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these jobs, OK?”

(h/t Politico)

Reality

As we investigated before, Trump University was a massive scam.

Curiel, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court in November 2011 by President Barack Obama, previously served as a Superior Court judge in San Diego and, for 17 years prior to that, as a federal prosecutor. He was born in East Chicago in 1953 and earned his J.D. in 1979 from the Indiana University School of Law. From 1999-2002, Curiel headed the Narcotics Enforcement Division for the Southern District of California, where he prosecuted drug smugglers working across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Earlier this month, Curiel delayed the start of trial proceedings until November.

Media

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