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HE SURVIVED NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMPS – HE HAS A MESSAGE FOR THOSE WHO THINK AMERICA RUNS ITS OWN
Benny Johnson | Reporter At Large
High-profile members of America’s media and political circles have used amplified, irresponsible rhetoric to describe President Trump’s immigration detainment policies. Terminology from Nazi Germany is now regularly used to describe American immigration policy in the public arena. Many have likened illegal alien detainment facilities on the Southern border to “concentration camps,” referred to Trump as a “Nazi” or “Hitler” and call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents the “Gestapo.”
Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal likened America’s zero tolerance immigration policy to the “cattle cars of Nazi Germany.” Many pundits and politicians have echoed the sentiment.
David Tuck was born in Poland in 1929. He was enslaved by the Nazis and survived multiple concentration camps. In the wake of pundits and politicians comparing illegal immigrant detainment facilities in modern day America to Nazi concentration camps, Tuck felt compelled to speak out.
Today, Tuck has a message for those comparing American illegal immigrant detainment facilities to the Holocaust. “They know nothing of the Holocaust,” Tuck says. “Grow up. You can’t compare. Every time I hear it, it’s sickening.”
“Wake up,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller. “This is not the Holocaust.”
When he was 10 years old, the Nazis invaded his country. They marched through his neighborhood, identifying Jews. David had a golden Star of David sewn to his clothes and was moved to a ghetto.
In 1941, David was deported to Posen, a Nazi labor camp in Poland, to work as a slave. In 1943, David was once again deported, this time to Auschwitz, where he was forced to build anti-aircraft guns. In 1945, David was deported a third time to the Mauthausen labor camp. He nearly died on the trip from the horrible cold.
David was deported once more to the Nazi military labor camp, Güsen II, where he was required to build German aircrafts. When the Americans liberated his camp, David weighed 78 pounds.
New revelations about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton has critics flirting with a new attack line — treason.
Sen. Tim Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential pick, on Tuesday said that, while nothing has been proved, the conversation has moved beyond obstruction of justice — even before Trump Jr. released copies of his correspondence with music publicist Rob Goldstone, who brokered the June 2016 meeting.
"Nothing is proven yet. But, we’re now beyond obstruction of justice in terms of what’s being investigated," Kaine told CNN, when asked if Trump Jr.'s actions were treasonous. "This is moving into perjury, false statements and even into potentially treason."
While Kaine stressed that nothing is proven, a Kaine spokesperson said the senator "acknowledged the grave impropriety, if proven, of any effort to cooperate with a foreign nation — especially one deemed by our military leaders to be a primary state adversary — to influence an American election."
Echoes of that sentiment have started to take shape in other corners of Congress. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) tweeted out a New York Times report on the eldest Trump son's emails on Tuesday, noting “if this isn't treasonous, I'm not sure what is.”
Trump Jr. on Tuesday released what he said was the full email chain related to allegations that he knowingly set up a meeting with a Russian lawyer allegedly tied to the regime of President Vladimir Putin in order to obtain information that might "incriminate" Clinton, his father's 2016 campaign opponent. Trump posted the emails on Tuesday in the hopes of "transparency," he said, but the release came shortly before The New York Times published its own copy of the emails.
In a June 3, 2016, email with the subject line “Russia – Clinton – private and confidential,” Goldstone says Emin Agalarov, a singer-songwriter whose father is a Moscow-based developer who tried to partner with Donald Trump on a hotel project, “just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.”
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The most explosive line in the exchange arrives via Goldstone, who calls the information "obviously very high level and sensitive information" and "part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump."
Trump Jr. later replies that he is "on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”
Ethics lawyer to former President George W. Bush, Richard Painter, told MSNBC over the weekend that early reports that Trump Jr. had met with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya to get information on Clinton “borders on treason if it is not itself treason.”
“Let’s cut through the baloney here. We know what the Russians have been doing,” Painter said during a later appearance on the network. “When the Russians call or someone calls on behalf of the Russians and offers derogatory information about a former secretary of state who is a presidential candidate, the first person you call is the FBI.”
“I don’t care if you’re Republican, as I am, or a Democrat. You call the FBI. The last thing you do is go meet with the Russians to try and get the derogatory information," he went on. "They’re only trying do that in order to use you to accomplish some purpose. And we know what that is — it is undermining our system of representative democracy.”
Painter put it more bluntly on Twitter: “This is treason,” he wrote. “He must have known that the only way Russia would get such information was by spying.”
Painter added in a secondary message: “In the Bush administration we could have had him in custody for questioning by now.”
Most members on both sides of the aisle, however, have so far shied away from any mentions of the act.
BuzzFeed reports Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said it was "premature" to call the news "treason," but noted Tuesday's developments were "serious."
Trump Jr. may face other legal danger, as lawyers and political operatives say explanations about the meeting are out of step with common campaign practices when dealing with offers for opposition research. Convictions of treason, however, are notoriously rare.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer questioned Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a former prosecutor, Tuesday evening on what basis he would use the word treason involving the president's oldest son.
The Connecticut senator said that if Trump Jr. “intended to be part of a conspiracy to interfere with the lawful election procedure in this country, if he meant to, in effect, sabotage our democratic institutions by aiding the Russians in doing so, I think that that kind of charge would have to be considered by a prosecutor.”
Blitzer noted the constitutional definition of treason against the United States, which is defined as consisting "only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort," and asked whether Blumenthal believes that definition would apply in Trump Jr.’s case.
“The Russians attacked our nation. They did it through the cyber domain. Their action in my view was, in fact, an act of war,” he said. “ ... They attacked our democracy in a way that would mean treason for anybody who aided and abetted or provided them comfort in doing so.”
Blumenthal emphasized, however, that it was currently speculation and that he knew “no more than what has been revealed publicly, or little more," but noted, "We need to think seriously about the consequences of these starkly illegal claims and potential charges.”
When pressed on accusations of “treason” made by critics, White House principal deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the use of such a term is “ridiculous.”
Huma Abedin was revealed to have emailed classified information to her then-husband Anthony Weiner, in testimony by FBI Director James Comey. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called Thursday for a special prosecutor to look into whether Hillary Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin broke the law when she forwarded emails to her now-divorced husband Anthony Weiner that contained classified material.
“If there was classified information and it was improperly passed to a person unauthorized to receive it, yes, naturally it’s a crime,” Blumenthal said on MSNBC. “Without knowing what the intentions were and so forth, there is potentially a prosecutable crime.”
When asked if she had committed a crime he answered, “It still may be, potentially. It’s not outside the statute of limitations, so far as I know. It’s one that the Department of Justice is going to have to decide. The question is: who will decide it? That’s why we need a special prosecutor to review all of this investigative material.”
FBI Director James Comey revealed during his testimony Wednesday that Abedin regularly forwarded emails from the Democratic presidential candidate to her husband out of convenience. “His then-spouse Huma Abedin appears to have a regular practice of forwarding emails to him for him, I think, to print out for her so she could then deliver them to the secretary of state,” he said.
When asked if either she or Weiner would be charged with misuse of classified information, Comey responded, “there was, we completed it.” “because with respect with Ms. Abedin in particular, we didn’t have any indication that she had any sense that what she was doing was in violation of the law. We couldn’t prove any intent.”
Republicans have cast doubt on this claim, especially Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) who questioned Comey on the unorthodox standard of law that he was using to exonerate Abedin and Weiner.
Congressional Democrats issued scathing statements aimed at the Obama administration over the US's abstention from a Friday UN Security Council vote demanding Israel stop building settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.
Leading Democrats from both houses called out the UN as an inappropriate venue for rejuvenating the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. They objected to the Obama administration's departure from what they view as decades of established US policy of vetoing UN resolutions regarding Israeli settlements.
Incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said it was "extremely frustrating, disappointing and confounding" that the Obama administration failed to veto the UN's vote.
Schumer called out the UN as a "fervently" anti-Israel body, since the days of "Zionism is racism."
"Whatever one’s views are on settlements, the UN is the wrong forum to settle these issues," Schumer said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, called the US's abstention from the vote "unconscionable."
"A two-state solution must be negotiated directly between the Israelis and Palestinians, and this resolution flies in the face of this necessity," Blumenthal said.
He also said support for Israel must remain "bipartisan," and that he'll work with colleagues on "both sides of the aisle" to advance "productive measures" that strengthen the US's relationship with Israel.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said that he would work to form a bipartisan coalition to "suspend or significantly reduce United States assistance to the United Nations."
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) speaks with reporters as he arrives for the weekly Democratic Caucus policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington June 2, 2015. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst - RTR4YK2C
(Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).Thomson Reuters)
Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said that he was "deeply disappointed" that the Obama administration allowed such a "one-sided" resolution to pass.
"Actions like this will only take us further from the peace we all want to see," Wyden said.
And Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia said "one-sided resolutions" at the UN are counterproductive to the peace process and "achieving a two-state solution."
"I am dismayed that the administration departed from decades of U.S. policy by not vetoing the UN resolution regarding Israeli settlements," Warner said.
Rep. Eliot L. Engel, a Democrat from New York and the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was "very disappointed" by the US's "acquiescence to a one-sided, biased resolution at the United Nations Security Council."
"I have always believed that Israel can’t get a fair shake at the UN, and that is why Israel has relied on the United States to protect it from the anti-Israel tendencies of some UN Security Council members," Engel said.
Engel further said that the text of the resolution places the "blame" for the stalled peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians "entirely on Israel."
From left to right: United Arab Emirates' Foreign Minister Abdallah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Omani Minister of Foreign Affairs Yussef bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad Al-Sabah, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, Bahrain's Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, pose for a group photo before a US- Gulf Cooperation Council forum at the Gulf Cooperation Council Secretariat on March 31, 2012 in Riyadh. Secretary Clinton promoted a missile shield to protect Gulf Arab states from Tehran and sought to work with them to help end the violence in Iran's ally Syria during her visit to Saudi Arabia. AFP PHOTO/FAYEZ NURELDINE (Photo credit should read FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images)∧
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton sent an email to her campaign chairman John Podesta in 2014, who was then-counselor to President Barack Obama, that said Saudi Arabia and Qatar are both giving financial and logistical support to the Islamic State and other extremist Sunni groups, according to a recent Wikileaks release.
Clinton sent the email on August 17, 2014 to Podesta. It was an eight-point plan to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Clinton’s email said that the United States should support Kurdish forces on the ground with U.S. military advisers and avoid the use of a conventional ground operation.
“While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region,” Clinton wrote.
The former secretary of state added: “This effort will be enhanced by the stepped up commitment in the [Kurdish Regional Government]. The Qataris and Saudis will be put in a position of balancing policy between their ongoing competition to dominate the Sunni world and the consequences of serious U.S. pressure.”
The email from Clinton to Podesta contains a similar format of previous intelligence reports Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal would send to the former secretary of state. The Daily Caller has previously reported how Clinton had previously asked aides to remove markings showing Blumenthal wrote the reports before sending them to White House officials.
The August 2014 email that pointed the finger at Saudi Arabia and Qatar does not contain any information linking it to Blumenthal in particular and is sent from one of Clinton’s personal emails. The batch of Wikileaks emails has not been independently verified by TheDC. However, Clinton and her spokesman Brian Fallon did not dispute the legitimacy of leaked speech transcripts released by Wikileaks at Sunday’s debate.
TheDC reached out to the Clinton campaign and asked if they dispute the legitimacy of the email, but they have not responded. The Daily Caller also emailed Blumenthal asking if he authored the memo, and he also did not respond.
Qatar has given between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation and Saudi Arabia has donated upwards of $25 million dollars to the Foundation.
The Clinton campaign has not replied to a Daily Caller inquiry about whether the Clinton Foundation will return donations from these two nations that, according to Hillary Clinton, fund ISIS.
In 2010, Clinton’s top aide said that the up to $60 billion weapons transfer of fighter jets and helicopters to Saudi Arabia was a “top priority.” The Clinton campaign did not give comment when The Daily Caller asked if Hillary was elected would she cede military support to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
