And we've discussed only one roller in the dossier-uranium wringer

Rich Terrell

Dirty Hillary, Hoist by Her Own Petard  "The moment that a story starts hurting the Democrats the media loses interest in it. This explains the media’s ho-hum coverage of the confirmation that Hillary Clinton paid for the notorious “pee tape” dossier a former British spy compiled in an attempt to blow up Donald Trump’s candidacy.

. . . "The same pundits who pretended to tremble at dark forces outside the country trying to “tip the election” now say it is perfectly normal and even commendable that Hillary paid a foreign source to smear her opponent.

. . . "Hoist by their own Russian petard, liberals now seek to change the subject, though the more shameless ones are double-downing on the dossier. A few of them still insist that a report Bob Woodward called “garbage” contains devastating information. How do we know? Well, it hasn’t been “disproven,” they sputter absurdly, as if the burden of proof for a charge as outlandish as paying prostitutes to urinate on a bed Obama once slept on in Moscow should naturally fall on the person accused of it." . . .

The fake dossier: Not just Hillary but did the FBI also collude?  ". . . On Tuesday, the Post tossed some fuel into that fire when it reported that the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee had paid for opposition research by the firm Fusion GPS, which had commissioned a dossier that alleged Russian operatives had “been cultivating, supporting and assisting” Trump for at least five years.
"The dossier — really a collection of memos that included unconfirmed salacious gossip about Trump — was written by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. According to news reports, the FBI has confirmed portions of the 35-page document, but information about a “clandestine meeting” between Kremlin representatives and a Trump lawyer in Prague has been discredited.
"The Post story sent ripples through Washington. Shortly after the story went online, New York Timesreporters Maggie Haberman and Kenneth P. Vogel took to Twitter to grouse about Democratic operatives lying to them." . . .

Hill Republicans want more answers from Wasserman Schultz, Podesta about Trump dossier money  . . . "“I am also interested in sharing some memory tricks with folks at the DNC because no one can remember who paid $10 million to a law firm to do oppo research,” Gowdy said. “I find that stunning. $10 million and no one can remember who authorized it, who approved it, who said, ‘This is a really good idea.’”
"When questioned about the issue by Fox News last week on Capitol Hill, Wasserman Schultz said only: “I wasn’t aware of the arrangement at all.”
"Also on Sunday, Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Podesta and Wasserman Schultz “absolutely need to be recalled” before the panel." . . .

Democrats and Dossiers Week at Legal Insurrection

"So the Russia dossier story took an unexpected turn this week.

• Report: Clinton Campaign, DNC Paid for Discredited Trump Dossier
• FEC Complaint Claims Hillary, DNC Violated Campaign Finance Law With Dossier Payments

What Does Maxine Waters Actually Do In Congress?

Furthermore, the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has given Rep. Waters the most corrupt member of congress four separate times. Waters’ shady financial dealings should concern all Americans

Townhall  "Maxine Waters (D-CA) has rebranded herself in the Trump Era as a strong public servant standing up to the corrupt, demagogic president. Repeatedly, she has harangued the president during speeches that range from AIDS fundraisers to LGBT Gala award dinners.

"Today in Michigan, Waters led a raucous chorus at a women’s rally, chanting “Impeach 45! Impeach 45!” But, people would be wise to remember that her career is one of corruption and failure.
"Rep. Waters has passed just three bills in her 27 years in Congress. That means on average, Waters produces something noteworthy for constituents every 9 years. One of the bills was renaming a Post Office. Impressive stuff. 
"In the interim, she is busy making money for her family and allies. Her family has accrued more than a million dollars during her time in the House, according to Red Alert Politics.
. . .

"But, to [those] along with “Auntie Maxine,” remember that aside from rhetorical posturing, she has done relatively little for you in nearly 30 years of public service."   Timothy Meads

Did Obama use Fusion GPS as a vehicle to do his own spying on Trump?

Tony Branco

Monica Showalter   "President Obama's never-ending campaign organization, Organizing for America, gave $972,000 to Perkins Coie, the high-powered Washington law firm that also funneled some $9 million to Fusion GPS, the Washington "opposition research" firm that procured the phony "Trump dossier."  The Federalist's Sean Davis has an excellent, well explained report.  It raises questions as to whether Team Obama actually procured the phony dossier as a pretext to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on then-president-elect Trump.

"To be fair, it's not known whether the $972,000 that went to Perkins Coie really moved onward to Fusion GPS and all its nefarious operations.  But we do know that the White House spied on Trump and leaked its findings to the press.  A look at how that FISA warrant was obtained and on what pretext would be most instructive.

"The timing and other details of the OFA payment are suspicious, according to The Federalist.  The OFA cash rolled in to Perkins Coie around the same time as the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign cash did.  The Perkins Coie lawyer, Marc Elias, who gave the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign cash to Fusion GPS also handled the OFA cash. . . . "

Dueling headlines: Uranium One and Frederica Wilson

Bookworm Room

"Perhaps the most shocking thing of all about the Uranium One corruption scandal is the drive-by media’s deliberate effort to hide the story from the public."

 

"The following headlines are only a slight exaggeration. I’ve used “The Hill,” which broke the Uranium One story, as a representative of those few outlets covering a fact-filled report painting a picture of a staggeringly corrupt Obama administration, which knew that Hillary was selling off America’s national security for her own benefit, and not only did not stop the deal, but took great care to hide it.

The Hill: FBI insider reveals that Uranium One deal resulted from extortion and bribery                                                                 MSM: Rep. Frederica Wilson *– “Donald Trump said a Green Beret deserved to die”                           The Hill: Former Sec’y of State Hillary Clinton approved Uranium One deal after Russians put millions in the Clinton Fund      

             MSM: “Trump said ‘Suck it up’ to Gold Star widow,” claims Frederica Wilson             The Hill: Obama administration approved Uranium One dealdespite FBI info about extortion and bribery                                    MSM: Lying Trump denies that he said a Green Beret deserved to die                                                                                                                      The Hill: Bill Clinton was having private meetings with Russians during Uranium One sale negotiations                          MSM: Donald Trump lied about other presidents nevercalling Gold Star families                          The Hill: When FBI discovered a Russian spy ring, Sec’y of State Clinton rushed spies back to safety in Russia                            MSM: General Kelly sold his soul to Donald Trump                  The Hill: Clinton Foundation took millions from Russians during uranium negotiations                MSM: General Kelly is the face of an imminent right-wing military coup                The Hill: Russia now controls 20% of America’s uranium                   MSM: Frederica Wilson: Kelly is a racist because he’s Irish guy who calls blacks “empty barrels”                           The Hill: Hello! Thanks to Clinton/Obama corruption, Russia now controls 20% of America’s uranium                      MSM: “Donald Trump forgot my husband’s name,” says grieving Gold Star widow              The Hill: Is anyone listening? Clinton took massive bribes; Obama knew; and the administration still gave 20% of our uranium to Russia                        MSM: Gold Star widow: “Trump said it’s fitting husband died in Africa, because that’s where all colored people belong.”                       The Hill: This is serious, folks. We’re tell you about major corruption affecting American national security.                 MSM: Frederica Wilson: “I’m putting together a bill to burn Trump and Kelly at the stake on C-SPAN . . .  Much more here.

 . . . "What’s new about the current report is (a) and FBI insider is confirming that Schweizer’s educated guesses were accurate; (b) that the Obama administration knew this because of FBI reports, but chose to ignore and hide the reports; and (c) that Hillary sent Russian spies back to Russia, with no strings attached, to limit her potential exposure." . . .

* The aforementioned Rep. Wilson and her documented positions on US servicemembers

Is the Gospel No Longer Enough for Black Christians?

Just Thinking…for Myself

"Applying biblical truth to social, political, and theological issues in our world." 

"Located on one of the most historic streets in the United States, particularly for black Americans, Auburn Avenue in downtown Atlanta, stands the venerable Big Bethel AME Church.

“ 'Big Bethel”, as it is affectionately and reverently known, was founded in 1847, the same year educator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass began publishing his anti-slavery newspaper The North Star, and the slave Dred Scott filed a lawsuit in St. Louis Circuit Court claiming his temporary residence in a free territory should have made him a free man.

"It didn’t.

"But, I digress.

"For all its notoriety as the oldest predominantly black congregation in Atlanta, Big Bethel is equally renown, if not more so, for a simple two-word message which, for nearly a century, has stood conspicuously affixed atop the church steeple against the backdrop of an ever-expanding Atlanta skyline.

"It reads: Jesus Saves.

"The message that “Jesus Saves” has been the clarion call of black Christians in America since their earliest exposure to Christianity in the 1600s. It is this unwavering, and perhaps unfathomable, faith in the redemptive power of the gospel that was the impetus for slave-poet Jupiter Hammon, the first black person in America to publish a work of literature (1760) and whose entire earthly existence was as a slave, to attest:" . . .

N.J. high school football refs walk off field in protest after players take knee during anthem

MyCentralJersey

Via Weasel Zippers

"A father and son who were part of an officiating crew assigned to work a New Jersey high school football game walked off the field in protest after members from one of the teams took a knee during the national anthem Friday night.

"Ernie Lunardelli, the head linesman, said he and his son, Anthony, a line judge, stood on the field with their hands on their hearts while the anthem was played prior to Monroe’s home game against Colts Neck and that both left the field immediately after the anthem because they saw four Monroe players take a knee.

“Anybody that disrespects the flag, in my eyes, it’s not right,” said Ernie Lunardelli, a veteran scholastic football official in his 18th season. “What they are doing with this kneeling and everything, they have the right do to that, but the national anthem has nothing to do with them kneeling. The flag has got nothing to do with why they are protesting. If they want to protest, let them protest, but don’t disrespect our country, the flag and the armed forces.”

"Anthony Lunardelli, who graduated from Monroe in 2008 and played football at the high school, said he perceived kneeling during the anthem as a sign of disrespect.

“ 'They’ve got a right to protest and so do we,” Anthony Lunardelli said. “That (taking a knee during the anthem) is not how I was brought up, and that’s not how I was raised. I’m not criticizing their right. That’s just my viewpoint.”

READ: Amid anthem controversy, NJ football teams honor those who protect, serve

"Four Monroe players first joined the growing number of gridiron players at all levels nationwide who are protesting racial inequality and police brutality when they took a knee prior to a Sept. 28 game at New Brunswick." . . .

Dave Barry's 2016 year in review, before 2017 gets here.

Quoting Mr. Barry:

In the future, Americans — assuming there are any left — will look back at 2016 and remark: "What the HELL?" They will have a point. Over the past few decades, we here at the Year in Review have reviewed some pretty disturbing years.

For example, there was 2000, when the outcome of a presidential election was decided by a tiny group of deeply confused Florida residents who had apparently attempted to vote by chewing on their ballots. Then there was 2003, when a person named "Paris Hilton" suddenly became a major international superstar, despite possessing a level of discernible talent so low as to make the Kardashians look like the Jackson 5. There was 2006, when the vice president of the United States, who claimed he was attempting to bring down a suspected quail, shot a 78-year-old man in the face, only to be exonerated after an investigation revealed that the victim was an attorney. And, perhaps most inexplicable of all, there was 2007, when millions of people voluntarily installed Windows Vista.

Yes, we've seen some weird years. But we've never seen one as weird as 2016. This was the Al Yankovic of years. If years were movies, 2016 would be "Plan 9 from Outer Space." If years were relatives, 2016 would the uncle who shows up at your Thanksgiving dinner wearing his underpants on the outside.

Why do we say this? Let's begin with the gruesome train wreck that was the presidential election. The campaign began with roughly 14,000 candidates running. Obviously not all of them were qualified to be president; some of them — here we are thinking of "Lincoln Chafee" — were probably imaginary. But a reasonable number of the candidates seemed to meet at least the minimum standard that Americans have come to expect of their president in recent decades, namely: Not Completely Horrible.

So this mass of candidates began the grim death march that is the modern American presidential campaign: trudging around Iowa pretending to care about agriculture, performing in an endless series of televised debates like suit-wearing seals trained to bark out talking points, going to barbecue after barbecue and smiling relentlessly through mouthfuls of dripping meat, giving the same speech over and over and over, shaking millions of hands, posing for billions of selfies and just generally humiliating themselves in the marathon group grovel that America insists on putting its presidential candidates through.

And we voters did our part, passing judgment on the candidates, thinning the herd, rejecting them one by one. Sometimes we had to reject them more than once -- John Kasich didn't get the message until his own staff felled him with tranquilizer darts. But eventually we eliminated the contenders whom we considered to be unqualified or disagreeable, whittling our choices down until only two major candidates were left. And out of all the possibilities, the two that We, the People, in our collective wisdom, deemed worthy of competing for the most important job on Earth, turned out to be ... ... drum roll ... ... the most flawed, sketchy and generally disliked duo of presidential candidates ever!

Yes. After all that, the American people, looking for a leader, ended up with a choice between ointment and suppository. The fall campaign was an unending national nightmare, broadcast relentlessly on cable TV. CNN told us over and over that Donald Trump was a colossally ignorant, narcissistic, out-of-control, sex-predator buffoon; Fox News countered that Hillary Clinton was a greedy, corrupt, coldly calculating liar of massive ambition and minimal accomplishment. And in our hearts we knew the awful truth: They were both right.

It wasn't just bad. It was the Worst. Election. Ever. And that was only one of the reasons why 2016 should never have happened. Here are some others:

• American race relations reached their lowest point since ... OK, since 2015.
• We learned that the Russians are more involved in our election process than the League of Women Voters.
• For much of the year the economy continued to struggle, with the only growth sector being people paying insane prices for tickets to "Hamilton."
• In a fad even stupider than "planking," millions of people wasted millions of hours, and sometimes risked their lives, trying to capture imaginary Pokemon Go things on their phones, hoping to obtain the ultimate prize: a whole bunch of imaginary Pokemon Go things on their phones.
• A major new threat to American communities -- receiving at least as much coverage as global climate change -- emerged in the form of: clowns.
• In a shocking development that caused us to question our most fundamental values, Angelina and Brad broke up even though they are both physically attractive.
• We continued to prove, as a nation, that no matter how many times we are reminded, we are too stupid to remember to hold our phones horizontally when we make videos.
• Musically, we lost Prince, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen; we gained the suicide-inducing TV commercial in which Jon Bon Jovi screeches about turning back time.

Did anything good happen in 2016? Let us think. OK, the "man bun" appeared to be going away. That was pretty much it for the good things.

And now, finally, it is time for 2016 to go away. But before it does, let's narrow our eyes down to slits and take one last squinting look back at this hideous monstrosity of a year, starting with ...

End quote, so keep reading. You have a long way to go. The Tunnel Dweller

Media needs to find balance in its coverage of Trump

Daily Gazette

Fairer coverage would go a long way to restoring credibility

. . . " Almost all conversations about roadblocks Trump faces or opposition to his initiatives centered on what was perceived as the media’s biased portrayal of him and his administration, rather than on anything the Democrats were doing.

"Republicans and conservatives have grumbled about unfair coverage from the “mainstream media” for decades.

"But the Trump era has brought us to a new plateau, one where the media has moved from adversarial to oppositional. Many observers, on both right and left, have come to see the media as the leader of the resistance.

If you care about journalism, it’s a disturbing trend. 

. . . "Perhaps it’s wishful thinking, but it seems to me the media’s anti-Trump fever has shown small signs of breaking lately.

"For example, CNN - the worst offender among the cable networks - this week “fact checked” claims by press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about the president’s accomplishments so far, and, lo and behold, did not pronounce any of them a lie. It was astounding.

"But there are miles to go. Reversing the path they’re on would require a significant internal overhaul by the nation’s leading media organizations.

"Doing so could help them regain their lost credibility and restore the majority of Americans’ faith in them as unbiased arbiters of truth and evenhanded watchdogs of government. And, who knows, it might even make Schumer and Pelosi relevant again." . . .   All cartoons added by TD

thefederalistpapers.org

Dallas police were WARNED Lee Harvey Oswald would be murdered by a 'committee' - but still sent him to his death . . .

" . . . , infuriating FBI head J Edgar Hoover, newly released JFK documents reveal"

UK Daily Mail

1. Before Oswald was shot, a 'calm' voice told the FBI a 'committee' was to kill him
2. The FBI then demanded twice that Dallas PD protect Oswald, the memos say
3. But that didn't happen - to the annoyance of Hoover who said it was 'inexcusable'
4. Hoover's remarks were unsealed along with almost 3,000 other JFK documents
5. He also worried about conspiracy theories, and hoped to quell public distrust
6. The Soviet Union thought LBJ or the right wing had killed Kennedy
7. And the Cuban ambassador was gleeful at the president's slaying 

Hoover said the feds told Dallas PD twice to protect Oswald, but the man
 was still gunned down by small-time crook Jack Ruby (pictured); Hoover
said that was 'inexcusable'

"The murder of Lee Harvey Oswald could have been prevented after the FBI were warned of his impending death - but Dallas police failed to protect him, it has emerged.

"Nearly 3,000 documents related to JFK's shooting have been declassified by The White House, among them remarks made by then-FBI boss J Edgar Hoover the day Oswald died.

"According to Hoover, the FBI were contacted by a man who said a 'committee' was plotting to kill Oswald, who had been arrested for killing the president; the feds then told police in Dallas to protect the presidential assassin.

"Instead, Oswald was walked out in front of a crowd, cameras - and local nightclub owner Jack Ruby, who marched out and shot him dead." . . .

. . . "They certainly didn't believe that Oswald - a 'neurotic maniac who was disloyal to his own country and everything else' - was the killer, the notes claimed.

"'Our source further stated that Soviet officials were fearful that without leadership, some irresponsible general in the United States might launch a missile at the Soviet Union,' a note says.

"The documents also say that the Cuban ambassador to the US met the news of Kennedy's murder with a 'happy delight'. 

"It's not clear how Ruby might have got into the basement that Oswald was being transported through when he was shot." . . .

Mattis: threat of North Korea nuclear attack 'is accelerating'

The Guardian

In Seoul US defence secretary said Pyongyang engages in ‘outlaw’ behaviour and that the US will never accept a nuclear North Korea.

 James Mattis shakes hands with South Korean defense minister Song Young-moo

. . . "He added that regardless of what the North might try, it is overmatched by the firepower and cohesiveness of the decades-old US-South Korean alliance.

“ 'North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbors and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear weapons programs,” he said, adding that US-South Korean military and diplomatic collaboration thus has taken on “a new urgency.”

“ 'I cannot imagine a condition under which the United States would accept North Korea as a nuclear power,” he said

"As he emphasized throughout his weeklong Asia trip, which included stops in Thailand and the Philippines, Mattis said diplomacy remains the preferred way to deal with the North.

“ 'With that said,” he added, “make no mistake – any attack on the United States or our allies will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with a massive military response that is effective and overwhelming.”

"Mattis’s comments in Seoul did not go beyond his recent statements of concern about North Korea, although he appeared to inject a stronger note about the urgency of resolving the crisis." . . .

Pictured: General Mattis's statement to the First Marine Division just before the invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddaam Hussein.

On the Democrat funding of the "Trump Dossier"

It has now been revealed that the DNC paid Steele for his efforts.  TheWashington Post reported that, “After the election, the FBI agreed to pay Steele to continue gathering intelligence about Trump and Russia.”  It is only a matter of time before all the details of the “dossier” affair are revealed to the public.

All from the fertile minds of Democrat thinkers, some of whose colleagues are pictured in this post.TD

The Russian collusion narrative is falling apart. There will be many embarrassed politicians in the near future  "Well, it seems that things are falling apart, the center is not holding.  There are those on the left who will not abandon the “dossier” fiasco.  As late as Oct. 7, 2017 the Guardian described it as “one of the most explosive documents in modern political history.”  This “dossier” was an obvious fraud and no one in the intelligence community believed otherwise.  People who claimed it might possibly have value were deceiving the public. They did this because it was the only thing they had to justify an investigation of the Donald Trump campaign.  According to the Wall Street Journal, the dossier “became a factor in Obama administration decisions to launch an FBI counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign.”

"This batch of memos had circulated through the media and intel community for months when BuzzFeed published the full document in January 2017.  As long as it was not public, it could be vaguely referred to in order to support the charge that Trump was owned by the Russians.  Once it was published, it became obvious that it was a fraud.  This is revealed on the first page.  No experienced intelligence officer would classify a Sensitive Source as Confidential.  If he did he would be looking for a new job or possibly be behind bars.   

"The other implausible claim in the document concerns the “golden shower” allegations. " . . .

Investigate This, part 3 . . . "Yet John Podesta, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and campaign general counsel Marc Elias have all denied knowledge, either now or in the past. Whole lotta lyin’ goin’ on. As for Hillary herself, well, “she may or may not have been aware.” . . .
. . . "Why was the “dossier” ultimately so important for the anti-Trump conspiracy (if you think of a better way of putting it, let me know)? The reason, I think, is that the use of standard political smears against Trump had proven ineffective. Therefore it became necessary to take it all a step further and to attempt to make some superficially credible allegations of action against the national interest (again, the vague allegations of Mafia ties had fallen flat)." .  .  .  Part 2

Pro-Rubio Washington Free Beacon admits hiring Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Trump  "The conservative publication Washington Free Beacon admits that it hired Fusion GPS to do opposition research on Donald Trump during the GOP primaries. The relationship between WFB and Fusion began in October 15, 2015 and ended in March 2016 when Trump was assured of the GOP nomination." . . .

Shame on the Washington Free Beacon

Donald Trump vindicated  . . . "I won't hold out hope that Hillary, or any of these other cast of characters will be that "someone", but given the new revelations about the sham that is the Russia Investigation, I would hope that our Congressional representatives will get behind the President and have the wherewithal to do the things that they campaigned to do. The President has been fighting these lies on his own. Man up, put. . . your petty squabbling aside, and get down to the people's business."

What was McCain's role in spreading this rumor? . . . "We know McCain is engaging in scorched earth warfare against Trump already." . . .

Kimberley Strassel: The Fusion GPS bombshells have just begun to drop  . . . "The Fusion GPS saga isn’t over. The Clinton-DNC funding is but a first glimpse into the shady election doings concealed within that oppo-research firm’s walls. We now know where Fusion got some of its cash, but the next question is how the firm used it. With whom did it work beyond former British spy Christopher Steele ? Whom did it pay? Who else was paying it?" . . .

Be Mad About Team Clinton’s Dossier Lies and Team Trump’s Meeting Lies

. . . "Or, in other words: Each group is having the exact opposite reaction to the dossier news as it did to the news that some members of Team Trump met with Russians who claimed to have opposition research on Hillary, despite their previous claims to the contrary. When the latter story broke in July, liberal pundits gave it wall-to-wall coverage, saying that seeking opposition research from a foreign adversary is never okay, that the changing narratives indicated something sinister, and that Donald Trump himself must have been involved." . . .

The Russia Dossier Story: A Perfect Storm of Clinton Deception, Media Irresponsibility, and Democratic Moral Blindness  . . . "It would be easy, at this point, to start to wander down the rabbit hole, to wonder how much of the so-called “Russia controversy” is based on the Clinton campaign’s opposition research, but let’s not speculate. The truth will emerge. Instead, let’s do something else: Let’s consider how the Russian-dossier story has thus far represented a perfect storm of classic Clintonism, media irresponsibility, and Democratic moral blindness." . . .

"Hillary Clinton‘s campaign allegedly supplied funds for the discredited Trump dossier and just

 like everything else she touches, it has blown up in her face."   Cartoon by A.F. Branco.

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"Mom Lost Son in Afghanistan 8 Years Ago…But Just Got Letter From Melania"

"Following comments made by Trump on Monday claiming that former President Barack Obama didn’t call all of the families of fallen American heroes, Stephenson said she never received a phone call from the Obamas when her son died."

Western Journalism  "In the midst of the media uproar over an as-of-yet-unproven claim that President Donald Trump made a disrespectful statement to the widow of a recently killed U.S. serviceman, the mother of a deceased soldier has shared a letter she received from first lady Melania Trump years after her son was killed in action.

"In 2009, Jill Stephenson found out that her son Benjamin Kopp, an U.S. Army Ranger, had been shot in the leg.

"Stephenson initially believed that her son was going to lose the leg while still making a recovery.

"Kopp was admitted to Walter Reed Medical Center, but died eight days later from his injuries.

“I wish to offer my heartfelt gratitude for the sacrifices you have made and the high price you and your family have paid to help ensure our freedom,” wrote Trump." . . .

“As a mother, you bear the burden of war in a very personal way,” the letter read.
“I want to take a moment, on Gold Star Mother’s and Family’s Day, to honor you and your son, Corporal Benjamin Kopp, who laid down his life to protect us, our country, and all we hold dear,” Trump said.
“His sacrifice will never be forgotten,” she added. “I hold you close to my heart and keep you in my prayers.”

"Stephenson’s comments and the letter from Melania Trump indicate that Donald Trump wasn’t entirely incorrect in his statement that his predecessors didn’t call or write to all of the families of fallen American soldiers."