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Sunday, February 23, 2020
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  • Tony Samuel: My Omarosa story

    INDIANAPOLIS – It’s Omarosa week! And guess what? That’s right. I’ve got an Omarosa story. It’s not a great story. Sort of interesting but could be more interesting if I exaggerate. It might have a point to it, but I’m not yet sure if it will. It all started during the Trump 2016 campaign. It ended on Inauguration Day. As you may remember, Rex Early was our Indiana chairman and I was the vice chair. We were volunteers in those roles. Too bad Rex doesn’t really have anything to do with this story, because it would probably be an awesome tale if Rex and Omarosa had met. What a slugfest that would have been. What most people don’t know is that after the national convention in early August, I was also brought onto the paid staff as the communications director for Indiana. The national campaign had 18 states with paid comms directors, and because I had been the point person with the media up until then, they decided to pay me for it. Back to my Omarosa story. As the communications director, I got to be on calls with the national communications team at 7 a.m., then on another call with the other state comms folks and our director at 8 a.m. and then could listen in on a surrogate call at noon. This was all fascinating as I was listening to folks like Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway and Katrina Pierson. Even Bobby Knight was once on a call. And yes, Omarosa. That was crazy to me because it was Omarosa. She was nuts. I used to watch “The Apprentice,” so I knew she was crazy. What was she doing on these calls?

  • Tony Samuel: Why Rokita is the choice of Trump Republicans

    INDIANAPOLIS – This week, Rex Early and I endorsed Congressman Todd Rokita for the U.S. Senate seat held currently by Democrat Sen. Joe Donnelly. It was an honor to serve with Rex as the Trump-Pence Indiana 2016 campaign chairman and vice chairman.  As Rex and I campaigned around the state for Donald Trump in 2016, we met many Hoosiers who said they hadn’t voted for years or decades or ever because they didn’t trust Washington and were waiting for someone like Donald Trump. Our challenge now is to keep those folks engaged and encourage them to vote for like-minded candidates for Congress in 2018. For the U.S. Senate seat, that person is Congressman Rokita. There are plenty of reasons to support Todd, from his great work as Indiana’s Secretary of State, to his many accomplishments in Congress, to his no-nonsense approach to help Make America Great Again!  For Rex and me, the primary reason is to again help our president. Todd proved to us two years ago that he was for President Trump and has proven ever since that we can trust him to stand with our president even when things are tough.

  • Tony Samuel: Deep state poll shows people are paying attention

    INDIANAPOLIS – It’s astonishing to me that 74% of Americans – Republicans, Democrats and independents – believe that there is a “Deep State” secretly running our government. This is according to a Monmouth University poll of 803 adults taken March 2-5. Whenever the term “Deep State” is used on CNN or the other mainstream liberal media outlets, it is being scoffed at as something only Fox News viewers, conservative radio listeners or Internet conspiracy theorists would believe to exist.  The high percentage of believers is surprising to me. I would have thought it would be lower but still a thing. It is also very revealing that three quarters of the public is concerned by what we have seen at the upper levels of the FBI and Department of Justice during the Obama administration, especially leading up to the 2016 election and ever since with Obama holdovers in the Trump administration. I am assuming that the public’s belief comes from what we are seeing at the DOJ and FBI. I don’t think people would be too concerned about the Departments of Agriculture, Interior, Labor, or most others being major players in a deep state. 

  • Tony Samuel: President Trump's huge year

    INDIANAPOLIS – For fans of President Trump, it’s great to have a huge win and a beautiful tax cut Christmas present, just like he promised. For everyone else, it should feel the same – great, as in Making America Great Again.  Whether you’ve been critical or half-hearted in support or a true enthusiast like me, we can all be pleased with this tax reform and give some credit where due, at least during the holidays.  I could say that “only time will tell” if the president is right or not about tax cuts spurring the economy and putting more in our pocketbooks, but really it’s already telling with major employers like AT&T, Boeing and Comcast announcing bonuses for their employees because of what just happened.  We know how well the stock market has done in the last year because of Trump’s regulatory rollbacks and anticipation of this historic tax cut. This will only continue as the economy starts to really roll after gaining steam this year with two and probably three consecutive quarters of GDP growth over 3%.  So I’d say it’s time for all of us to take a pause as we reflect on the year that was and in our minds set aside the nasty attacks from the far left and the affect they have on poll numbers. I’d like to suggest that all of the Trump haters and the half-hearted supporters and those that secretly or not so secretly take joy in what they perceive as missteps, make a New Year’s resolution to give Trump a chance. That’s all I’m saying.

  • Tony Samuel: President Trump's fruitful trip to Asia

    INDIANAPOLIS – On Tuesday night, President Trump, after an 8½ hour flight from Hawaii which closed out 12 days of travel and work and many meetings in five different countries crossing 20,295 miles, concluded a highly successful Asian trip. He started by paying respect to American service members at Pearl Harbor and ended after strengthening military and trade alliances across the Indo-Pacific region.  The president met with leaders of several different nations, he attended three important trade summits, gave flawless speeches in each country and became the first foreign leader to be honored with an official dinner in the Forbidden City since the founding of modern China. Perhaps most importantly, he reinforced a brilliant strategy in dealing with the nuclear threat of North Korea. He pulled our partners further along with sanctions, showed the world our military might and encouraged diplomacy, as it was announced immediately after the trip that China was sending a high-level special envoy to North Korea.

  • Tony Samuel: Trump's week of contrasts

    INDIANAPOLIS – What a great week for contrasts in American politics. The 2016 election continues for Democrats while President Trump has moved on and is willing to reach across party lines to get results for the American people.  The same week that Hillary Clinton’s book came out, and Bernie Sanders came out with his new plan – wait, I mean the same old plan – is the same week we hear that President Trump and Vice President Pence will visit Indiana and other states to take their powerful message to the people. Right on! The message is simple and the changes are long overdue. As President Trump said, “We believe everyday Americans know better how to spend their own money than the federal bureaucracy, and we want to help them keep as much of that hard-earned money as we can.” The president wants to lower taxes for the middle class, so that Americans have more in their pocketbooks, and for employers, so they can expand and hire more workers and pay more. 

  • Tony Samuel: So who's really beleaguered?

    INDIANAPOLIS – So who’s really beleaguered, Attorney General Jeff Sessions or the whole Trump administration? The President’s tweet calling Sessions “beleaguered” was funny because nobody really thought of Sessions as beleaguered until the President tweeted that he was. He had survived his day in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee and from all indications is performing admirably in his role as AG. Or maybe Sessions was beleaguered and we just didn’t know it, so President Trump wanted to make sure that we did.  The endless stream of CNN panelists make the case every night that it’s the Trump administration that’s beleaguered. Does the President himself feel beleaguered and should he? It didn’t really look like it at his Youngstown, Ohio MAGA Rally this week. He didn’t seem stressed during his appearances for the administration’s American Heroes Week.  Nor did he struggle during the Foxxconn jobs announcement to build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Wisconsin. Time and time again, we’ve seen this President carry the full burden on his shoulders, during the campaign, the transition and the first six months of his Presidency. He did it again by himself announcing, again by tweet, after consultation with his generals, that the U.S. military will end transgender service in the military.

  • Tony Samuel: Enough is enough. It's time for unity

    INDIANAPOLIS –  Where to start? I do think it’s great that the congressional baseball game will go on. It is for charity after all, and we can’t let fear or hate shut down our way of life, as everyone says when tragedy or terrorism occurs. Maybe they have already thought about this, but it might be a good idea to do away with the Republican vs. Democrat theme this year and split the two teams up if possible.  Remember when you’d pick teams in the backyard and captains would each pick one player at a time until the weakest players were left as the last picks? You never wanted to be that last pick. Of course, I never was. I just remember how it was for the others.  But those last picks will play harder to prove they don’t stink. It might be fun and at least different. At any rate, having Ds and Rs play on the same team against other Ds and Rs might bring a truer show of unity. Nothing better to bring folks that don’t know each other well enough together than making them teammates – except maybe being in a war together.  Unfortunately, too much of real life is turning, or could at any time, turn into a war zone.
        

  • Tony Samuel: Don Jr. reminds Hoosier GOP

    INDIANAPOLIS – What a huge week for the State GOP and especially for original Trump supporters in Indiana. Having a Trump in the state six months to the night of being first on the board to elect Donald J. Trump president, and one year to the week of winning the critical Indiana primary, was a big-league way to cap off a great year. The 20-point general election victory followed but also overshadows Indiana’s primary win when candidate Trump won all nine congressional districts, thus collecting all 57 Indiana delegates and knocking out his last two opponents. Remember the surprise withdrawal by Sen. Ted Cruz that night followed by Gov. Kasich the next day? Back then, Donald Trump Jr. was in the state in April, stumping for his Dad. Having him back was a cool reminder of how important Indiana was for the Trump nomination. That May 3 primary win, at a time when pundits could only focus on what would keep Donald Trump from the nomination, propelled him on a clear path to well over the 1,237 delegates needed without having to worry about any further competition. Don Jr. acknowledged it in his speech before over 1,000 loyalists, saying that it all started in Indiana.

  • Tony Samuel: Trump critics need to look deeper

    INDIANAPOLIS –  Now might be a good time for everyone still working on last year’s presidential campaign to pause and consider what’s going on around the world. It might also be the right time for the folks in the middle that are always at the ready to jump on the bash-Trump bandwagon to take a hard look at his accomplishments in the first 90 days. It’s easy to fall into the media trap against the president by engaging in the trivial, dwelling on the past and picking at every nit you can find or that CNN will find for you.  Should we really care if he spends his weekends in Mar-a-Lago when he also visits the Snap-On Tools headquarters in Wisconsin to announce a Buy American, Hire American program to ensure that our federal government is putting American workers and American products first? Do we really need to complain about his tweets when he is also handling the North Korean crisis brilliantly? Are we still going to dwell on Putin like we are back in the USSR, when the president acted boldly and decisively to use the tools of our military so precisely and effectively against Assad in Syria and ISIS in Afghanistan?
        

  • Tony Samuel: Watching two different countries on cable news

    INDIANAPOLIS – We really are living in two different countries, if you watch the cable television shows every night. The good thing is most people have better things to do.  When I got home Wednesday night, Fox News showed the headline, “FBI on Hunt for CIA Mole after Secrets Are Leaked.”  At the same time, CNN’s headline read, “Pence Dodges Questions on Trump’s Wiretapping Claims.”  The contrast in stories tells the story right there.  A few minutes later, Fox ran a report of an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times with over 20 arrests since 1990, who was intoxicated and smashed the car in which he was fleeing another accident. He also crashed into the car driven by Sandra Duran, a California woman who was a mother, daughter and sister, killing her instantly.  This five-minute story could never paint the true tragedy so many family and friends must now live with forever.  Flip the channel and you would have found CNN covering the “A Day Without a Woman” event, like there is now a national holiday to bash the president. I couldn’t even bring myself to switch over to MSNBC.

  • Tony Samuel: Proud, not surprised, by Trump's address

    INDIANAPOLIS – Obviously, I was very proud of our president while watching him deliver a great speech Tuesday night. I won’t overstate it because I wasn’t surprised, and by now almost everyone either watched it themselves and were impressed or have heard or read all of the positive reviews.  Of course there were the haters. That’s not surprising as the liberals and most of the media had their opposition planned out before the speech began. They were led by the former Democrat governor of Kentucky and the 10 remaining Kentuckians who don’t support President Trump. What was the Democrat party thinking?  I wasn’t surprised by the president’s performance and message because at every turn during the last two years, he has risen to the occasion and he has shared the same type of positive message. That’s why he was the last one standing after the primaries. It is why he came back with two strong winning debate performances against Clinton after most thought he lost the first debate (I didn’t). And it is why he fought so hard during the last stretch of the campaign to be in states you wouldn’t expect. He has always risen to the occasion, and he did again Tuesday night. 

  • Tony Samuel: The demise of the national Democratic Party

    INDIANAPOLIS – Taking up from where I left off three weeks ago, the numbers have increased as far as protests, protestors and now rowdy town hall meetings. Also increasing are vandalism, violence, insults, and threats. I watched a news story the other night of a crowd of adults in Chicago encouraging kids to beat the crap out of a piñata in the image of our president and rip its limbs off, after knocking it to the ground.  Bizarre, disgusting and unbelievable!  To the far left, this hatred looks like a “movement” that is getting stronger. I believe that we are actually witnessing the beginning of the end of the Democrat Party on the national level as we have known it.

  • Tony Samuel: Trump and numbers

    INDIANAPOLIS – With my day job, I just had coffee with an up-and-coming Republican star who was not initially a Trump supporter. While not thrilled with everything our president has done over the first two weeks, he was happy with 85% of what has been accomplished. He was extremely pleased with the selection of Judge Neil Gorsuch as the Supreme Court nominee, as are so many others.  As the 85% statement sank in after our meeting, it struck me that this is going to be a numbers game. If someone who was probably one of the last Republicans to come around to accept Trump is at 85% now and says that he could be a great president if he changes a few things here and there, then I think the numbers will continue to look good for our president.  Other numbers to look at are the thousands of protestors and numbers of protests in parts of the country and what they represent. Will these numbers grow or will they burn out soon enough because of the lack of solutions offered and the unwillingness to engage in a grown- up dialogue? 

  • Tony Samuel: President Trump's victory finally sinks in

    INDIANAPOLIS – For me, it finally sank in at the inauguration last Friday. It was finally real to me that Donald Trump was our president. It didn’t seem real on election night because it was almost 3 a.m. when he finally gave an acceptance speech, and we had been kicked out of the JW Marriott’s ballroom an hour earlier. Some of us lingered by the televisions in the lobby but I finally made it up to our room and watched his speech with Anita as the kids slept – pretty anti-climactic. The next morning was surreal and the weeks that followed were a flurry of some campaign-related activities while trying to get back to normal work. The holidays hit and we even took a family vacation to try to get away from it all before the start of our Indiana legislative session. So I never really had a chance for it to sink in, but it finally did as I listened to our new president give a powerful speech, where he essentially took the first major step in fulfilling the goals he set forth during the campaign.
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  • Buttigieg finishes distant 3rd in Nevada

    Buttigieg finishes distant 3rd in Nevada

    "I congratulate Sen. Sanders on a strong showing today, and we certainly celebrate many of the same ideals. But before we rush to nominate Senator Sanders as our one shot to take on this president, let’s take a sober look at the consequences—for our party, for our values, and for those with the most at stake. There is so much on the line, and one thing we know for sure is that we absolutely must defeat Donald Trump and what he stands for in November. I believe the best way to defeat Trump and deliver for the American people is to broaden and galvanize the majority that supports us on critical issues. Sen. Sanders believes in an inflexible, ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats, not to mention most Americans. I believe we can defeat Trump and deliver for the American people by empowering the American people to make their own health care choices." - Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, who finished a distant third in the Nevada caucuses with 15.6%, trailing Sen. Bernie Sanders with 44.6% and Joe Biden with 19.5%.
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  • Pence, Holcomb, Buttigieg head 2020 HPI Power 50

    Pence, Holcomb, Buttigieg head 2020 HPI Power 50

    By BRIAN A. HOWEY in Indianapolis
    and MARK SCHOEFF JR.,     in Washington

    As we unveil the 2020 version of the Howey Politics Indiana Power 50 List, Hoosiers appear to be relatively satisfied with their state government, unsure about the federals and specifically President Trump, and are most concerned about health care and the economy.

    These are the latest survey numbers from the We Ask America Poll conducted in early December for the Indiana Manufacturers Association. They accentuate the formulation of our annual Power 50 list headed by Vice President Mike Pence, Gov. Eric Holcomb, former South Bend mayor and Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg, and the state’s two Republican senators who will likely sit in judgment (and acquittal) of President Trump in an impeachment trial later this month. 

    As Pence appears to be heading off thinly veiled attempts by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump to get him off the 2020 ticket, Hoosiers by 47.4% approve to 47.7% disapprove of President Trump’s job performance. This is consistent with 2019 polling by Ball State University and Morning Consult. On the national right/wrong track, just 37% of registered voters in Indiana feel that the country is headed in the right direction, while a majority, 52%, say that things have gotten off on the wrong track, including 51% of independents and 26% of Republicans. Among female voters, the right/wrong track split is 29%/58%.
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