Ever since 9/11, our intelligence agencies, as part of the 'war on terror,' have expanded their operations to include American citizens. I was 'terrorized' when I learned that the National Security Agency was intercepting information on Americans.
— Bob Beckel
Unfortunately, some politicians think they are immune from allegations of ethics abuse.
It's time to review what damage the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has done to our political system.
I have long believed there is a lot of waste in the defense budget.
Both parties are so entrenched in their ideologies and a desire to score political points and hold on to power that we never seem to agree on a problem, much less find solutions.
Anger in the black community towards Republicans is established and immutable.
Many good journalists have attempted to confront Trump about his many lies and failures, and have failed.
Some credit is due to Trump for seizing the anti establishment mood of the country, but most of his success can be attributed to pure luck.
In the 1990s, the Democratic Party began to cozy up to their long-time enemies: Wall Street Bankers. They took their money and relaxed their regulations until the Great Recession forced the Democrats via Dodd-Frank to re-regulate the banks.
It is Trump who plays with the tax code to pay no taxes; it is Trump whose Trump-brand products are made overseas by cheap labor; it is Trump who hires undocumented workers from Poland to work on his projects, then refuses to pay them minimum wages.
In the black community, Trump's history of racial discrimination is deeply embedded.
Every time I think that political analysts and writers will finally recognize that most of them don't understand much about political polls, they prove me wrong. They don't know how to read them; they don't understand the importance of cross tabs within a given poll, and they don't know how to analyze them.
The fact of the matter, it's that Trump is getting money from blue-collar workers who send him checks for $250. Why? Who is Donald Trump? It's not who he is, it's who he isn't. Not what he is for, what he is against - that is, everything Washington is doing.
I always say if anybody is running for president, for office, I always take them seriously.
As a survivor, you learn how to talk fast, cut deals, lie when you have to - perfect training to be a politician, you know?
My pop culture ended somewhere north of Elvis but not too far.
I can talk to more persuadable voters in a week on 'The Five' than I could at CNN in a year, so it's worked out fine.
There is a huge difference between gathering intelligence in foreign countries, even our allies, and secretly getting information on U.S. citizens.
Unless public officials are wealthy and fund their own campaigns, the only place they can turn to is lobbyists and institutions like labor unions and corporations.
Money is at the root of most that is wrong in American politics.
Congress votes for things the military doesn't want, and planes and other weaponry that cost a lot but don't work.
Iran would have become a nuclear power had President Obama not united most of the world in boycotting Iranian oil sales, which crippled Iran's economy and forced it to negotiate. Other presidents tried to stop Iran's nuclear program. They failed. Obama succeeded.
Where most politicians would have abandoned a supporter like Jeremiah Wright and the community he served, Obama, while strongly criticizing him, did not throw his friend overboard.
On the road to the GOP nomination, Trump earned the reputation as a good debater by slandering and bullying his opponents, knocking them out with cheap shots and lies. On a crowded stage, Trump got away with these deplorable tactics.
As a former presidential campaign manager, I remember the final week of the campaign as being the longest and most important week of the campaign. The week doesn't seem to end.
I have never analyzed a presidential election as much as I did the Trump-Clinton race of 2016.
Trump has predicated his whole campaign on the unfairness of the playing field. Big corporations, rich donors, big media, and trade deals that punish the little guy.
What I have learned over hundreds of campaigns is if you have lost voters who have supported you in the past, you can get them back. If you never had them, it is a very difficult sell.
When anyone in Washington asks for a favor, no matter how little the favor means to you, act pained and get as much as you can in exchange - even if the person asking is the president of the United States.
Trump is going to be around a while.
When I came to faith, I was on pro-choice boards, and I dropped off of those because you couldn't read the Bible and be pro-choice.
I came from a dysfunctional family - very dysfunctional. And my father used to find great humor in throwing me down the stairs.
If I never hear of Kim Kardashian and Casey Anthony again, it would make my entire day.
Carmakers do not lobby to remove safety regulations on their vehicles, but the NRA constantly lobbies to keep restrictions off deadly weapons.
Congress continues to pass laws to limit lobbyists' influence, but people find ways to get around them.
I understand why foreign government contributions to the Clinton Foundation could raise ethical issues should Hillary run for president.
I do oppose repealing Obamacare, because it's working for growing numbers of previously uninsured Americans.
Iranians have suffered economically under the U.S.-led sanctions.
In 1984, I managed Walter Mondale's campaign for president. Mondale won the nomination after a bruising battle with Colorado Senator Gary Hart and Reverend Jesse Jackson.
In 2016, Trump, with his outsized ego, his anti-immigrant and anti-trade positions, coupled with barely disguised racism and deep-seated sexism and a willingness to lie whenever it suited him, was a near perfect fit.
Rural voters believed the Democrats traded millions in campaign cash at their expense. Along came a guy named Trump to give these voters a political voice.
Trump is part of the reason you are suffering. Trump is the one playing on the not-so-level playing field where he wins and you lose.
The hardest-hit taxpayers in our disgraceful tax system are those folks who pack Trump's rallies, especially in hard-hit Rust Belt states like Ohio and Michigan.
Most voters assume because these political 'pros' are on TV or write for national papers, they know politics. Sadly, most don't have a clue.
The questions I get invariably focus on Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity. It's no secret Hannity is conservative, and O'Reilly certainly is not a liberal. Beck goes well beyond conservatism to some very strange places.
Always taken Donald Trump seriously. I think people have underestimated him.
Life is a series of chapters, and one leads to another to another to another, and God knows what it is.
We know that in the Muslim communities around the world, they do not like us. They recruit people from poor areas and turn them into terrorists.
You don't hear much crosstalk on 'The Five.' When you try to make a point, the other person will back off.
