AS HE PLAYS HIS POLITICAL GAMES WITH IMMIGRATION, DONALD TRUMP DOESN'T CARE ABOUT MIGRANT CHILDREN CRYING, AS LONG AS HE CAN BUILD HIS WALL

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The Controversy is including - at the bottom of this column - links to my first and second editorials in this series of three commentaries that focus on the separation of migrant children from their parents.  If you have not had the opportunity to read chapters one and two, please do so by clicking on the links below.    

     Does Donald Trump have a heart beating in his chest?  Apparently not.

     How can Trump get any restful shuteye knowing that every night migrant children are presumably crying themselves to sleep because they are not with their mommies and daddies?  I have a feeling that Trump slumbers quite peacefully.

     Does it not bother Trump in the least that little boys and little girls are grief-stricken because they not only are missing their parents, but they don't know where they were taken?  Some of these kids are around the age of Trump's own son, Barron...while some are not too much younger... and others are only a few years older.  Yet, I'm sure they are all feeling the excruciating pain and the unfathomable sadness of being separated from the parents they love.  How many more tears have to be shed?  It's become obvious to me that Donald Trump doesn't care.  (Note: After this column was published, it was reported that although the mother of the Honduran child pictured above was patted down by a Border Patrol agent, the father of the crying girl told The Washington Post that the child was never separated from her mother. Pulitzer Prize winning photographer John Moore says after he took the picture, the little girl's mother picked her up and they drove off in a van.  However, the tears of the child are still real...and she represents the feelings of nearly seven out of every ten Americans).

     Under pressure by two-thirds of the country - according to a recent CBS News poll that indicates that 67 percent of Americans opposed Donald Trump's policy to separate migrant children from their parents - Trump, on Wednesday, June 20th, 2018, signed an executive order that should put a stop to any future migrant children being split up from their parents.  Those adults - who cross the border illegally with their kids - will still be prosecuted, but their children will stay with them.  They will live together as a family in a detention center while they wait for a judge to hear their case.  But Trump's new executive order will not benefit - one iota - the children who are already detained and divided from their moms and dads.  That document is worth nothing more than used toilet paper for those kids, because apparently, nobody seems to know how to find...ALL the parents...of ALL the migrant children...or how to reconnect those families.

     It's heartbreaking to think...that everyday...and for the unforeseeable future...after traumatic nighttime and overnight hours...thousands of migrant children - from newborn babies to teenagers - are waking up the next morning...remembering how they were pulled from the arms of their mothers and fathers at the U.S./Mexico border...and frightened that they may never see their parents again.  One government official has advised us that some of these children - if not all of them - who are currently detained...may never be reunited with their moms and dads again.

     The question to ask now is...how will Donald Trump and the people of his administration reassemble these family units? After all...the babies can't talk. And other children - who are so very young - aren't likely to know the addresses of the last places they called home.  Furthermore, these kids - most of whom are extremely poor - probably didn't have cell phones on their person when they were forcibly taken by scary-looking border patrol cops wearing uniforms and carrying guns, who later incarcerated them in nothing more than what I call...metal "kiddie crates."  Through photographs, we have witnessed these youngsters...huddled together in cages, as if they were wild animals.  Even if their parents could have afforded cell phones, those migrant adults who were arrested at the border are currently in federal jails...and undoubtedly their possessions were confiscated from them.  However, let's presume that some of those parents did have cell phones.  If they are - at some point - deported back to their home countries...babies and toddlers won't know the numbers to call their parents' phones.

     NBC News reported on June 22nd that a senior Homeland Security official has told "The Peacock Network" that five-hundred migrant children have been returned to their parents since May 7th.  One Guatemalan woman was able to be reunited with her 7-year old son, but only after she filed a lawsuit against the United States government. Also on June 22nd, girls were finally seen by reporters at a detention center in south Florida, near Miami.  It's the first time anyone has seen young female migrants who were separated from their parents.  The Homestead Florida Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children is the same facility where U.S. Senator Bill Nelson and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz - both Democrats from "The Sunshine State" - were refused entrance on June 19th.  Nelson accused the Trump administration of a "cover-up" after he and Wasserman Schultz were denied the chance to check out the facility so they could survey conditions where migrant teenage children - both boys and girls - are being held.

     At last count, the federal government says about 2,300 children have been separated from their parents since Donald Trump and U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions created their "zero tolerance policy" on May 7th. Subsequently, a group of state attorneys general announced on June 21st that they have plans to file a lawsuit against the Department of Justice.  This coalition of eleven chief law enforcement officers from California, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania and the state of Washington are furious over Trump's "cruel and unlawful" policy, which - according to a statement from Xavier Becerra violated the fundamental due process of parents to remain with their underage sons and daughters.  The California AG's press release explains..."We are filing this lawsuit  because ripping children from their parents is unlawful, wrong, and heartless."  "A political stunt" is what Becerra is labeling Trump's "empty and meaningless order that claims to take back policies that he put in place himself."  Becerra argues Trump's policy could "have devastating consequences on children's health and well-being."  Meanwhile, Washington attorney general Bob Ferguson - who leads the lawsuit - says Trump's policy is "rogue, cruel, and unconstitutional."

     To top off the delusional mind of Donald Trump and those of his disgusting cronies...a former U.S. Department of Agriculture facility is being considered as a possible site to house unaccompanied migrant children.  However, this location - in Kelso, Arkansas - is less than two miles from a former internment camp in the town of Rohwer where Japanese-Americans were imprisoned during World War II. Historians have characterized those internment camps in terms ranging from disgraceful to sinful...which is much the way that the lodging for the migrant children is being portrayed.  About those accommodations where the kids are being kept, former First Lady Laura Bush recently wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post.  "These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese-American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history." Yet Donald Trump not only wants to establish a guarded "tent city" for migrant kids - one of several such makeshift housing - but this particular one would be on a flood plain in rural Arkansas.  Besides that...the setting is a chilling reminder of a despicable decision that was made more than three-quarters of a century ago...when innocent American citizens were detained...only because of their Japanese heritage.  The Commission on Wartime Relocation of Civilians says the internment camps "resulted more from racism than any security risk posed by Japanese-Americans" following Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7th, 1941.

     This is the third of my trilogy of columns following Donald Trump's immoral, inhumane, and insane policy.  It is perhaps the most disturbingly brutal act that has been deliberately ordered by an American president in my lifetime.  Separating children from their parents and then locking them up in cages is barbaric behavior by a wicked and reckless monster who is totally unfit to serve as president of the United States.  Donald Trump's unconscionable conduct has once again embarrassed our country in a scandal that is likely to define his presidency.  Thousands of children - infants and toddlers, tweens and teens - were stolen from the arms of their mothers and fathers in a gruesome demonstration that should be condemned by every single decent American.  Unfortunately, I have discovered over the last three years - since Trump became a presidential candidate and later The Oval Office occupant - that a large percentage of Americans are not decent.  In fact, I am appalled at those individuals who - as Trump cheerleaders - support the vile practices of an evil and detestable beast.  It boggles my mind that so many people - one-third of our country, according to the aforementioned CBS News poll - can still remain in Trump's corner when he allowed babies to be caged.  And for the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security to not only stand by the commander-in-chief while he performed in such a reprehensible manner, but for this pair of "Trump trolls" to defend the policy and lie about it - as Trump did - is contemptible.  Therefore, Jeff Sessions and Kirstjen Nielsen are complicit in a decision that makes them just as bad as their boss. As for the wimpish vice president...Mike Pence is no better than Trump, Sessions and Nielsen.  Pence totally ignored protesters when he delivered a speech on tax reform in Columbus, Ohio on June 15th.  Instead of stepping up to the plate to prove that his soul is pure, Pence merely talked over the people who were heckling him.  "Why are you ripping children from their families?" one person shouted.  But Pence continued with his prepared remarks as if the protesters were not even in the room. He showed no compassion towards someone who was - in essence - speaking for two-thirds of our nation.

     Donald Trump's executive order, as a whole, is a sham.  It does absolutely nothing to make right what Trump did wrong with the families that have already been torn apart.  As for children who do somehow become reunited with their mothers and fathers, Trump's horrendous plan to indefinitely lock them up in detention facilities - which are tantamount to World War II internment camps - is an abomination that should not be accepted by Congress and the American people.

     If ever there was a crisis, "I alone can fix it" is what Trump told Republicans at their 2016 convention in Cleveland, Ohio. Instead, he wants to use crying babies and distressful older children as hostages and bargaining chips in an effort to persuade Congress to build a xenophobic and racist wall on the U.S./Mexico border.

     Trump blamed Democrats for the separation of migrant children from their parents.  That was a lie.  And he continues to not take responsibility for our country's chaos with the issue of immigration.  However, if Trump would stop spewing his venomous rhetoric about a wall - a structure that will never be built - then perhaps a compromise agreement could be reached by Democrats and Republicans, so that reasonable immigration legislation can be passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

     Let us remember that the vast majority of migrants who have illegally crossed the border in to America have done so to find better lives for their children and themselves.  Families have traveled far distances by foot - from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico - to escape the atrocious violence and the dreadful poverty that ravages their nations.  A great amount of these men and women, boys and girls, have walked hundreds - and in some cases, thousands of miles - to seek safety in what Francis Scott Key described in The Star Spangled Banner as "the land of the free and the home of the brave."  Donald Trump wants all Americans to respect our National Anthem and to "stand proudly" for it.  What a shame that he - along with certain members of his administration - are not representing Mr. Key's words with the honor and integrity that those lyrics deserve.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

Links to first and second editorials in this series:  

http://www.thecontroversy.net/2018/06/separating-migrant-children-from.html and http://www.thecontroversy.net/2018/06/donald-trump-doesnt-give-damn-that.html

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

Now please express your personal opinions by following the instructions above.  And thank you for reading The Controversy.

Photo credits:  John Moore/Getty Images (Little migrant girl crying), Getty Images (Little migrant boy with sad face), United States Customs and Border Protection and NBC News (Migrants in cage), The Associated Press (Senator Bill Nelson and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz), Rich Pedroncelli/The Associated Press (California Attorney General Xavier Becerra), Todd Heisler/The New York Times (Migrant boys held) CNBC (Donald Trump #1), and The Chicago Tribune (Donald Trump #2)

Copyright 2018 Gary B. Duglin and TheControversy.net.  All Rights Reserved.  This column may be freely shared among individuals, but it may not be reprinted or republished in any medium without the express written consent of Gary B. Duglin. Interested parties may contact The Controversy.  Broadcast, cable, satellite, and other forms of media are welcome to quote Gary B. Duglin by crediting him and The Controversy.

DONALD TRUMP DOESN'T GIVE A DAMN THAT MIGRANT BABIES AND CHILDREN ARE BEING SEPARATED FROM THEIR PARENTS AND THEN LOCKED UP IN CAGES. IN FACT, HE LOVES IT.

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     In my previous column - dated Monday morning, June 18th, 2018 - I painted a portrait of Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions as "brutal beasts."  By Monday afternoon, Trump and his attorney general - along with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen - have proven to be no better than barbaric monsters.

     The Trump administration has - since May 7th - ripped from the arms of mothers and fathers more than two-thousand children... some of whom - it has been reported - may never be reunited with their parents.  Let me repeat that ghastly statement for emphasis, so those of you who support Trump and his wicked ways will understand.  Some of the children who have been forcibly separated from their parents as they crossed the border from Mexico in to the United States may never see their mommies and daddies for the rest of their lives.

   

     Donald Trump's actions are immoral, inhumane and insane. This is the behavior of a raving lunatic.  And Jeff Sessions and Kirstjen Nielsen are just as bad.

     These are innocent children - from babies in diapers to toddlers and teens who - as I described in my earlier piece...are being locked

up in metal cages as if they were wild animals.  The horrendous images are not only disturbing, but dreadfully chilling.  This is not America.  At least it's not the America that I have known and loved all my life.  This is not my America. 

     On the MSNBC broadcast Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace, NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff reported shocking details on June 18th after he personally witnessed gruesome accommodations at the Border Patrol's Central Processing Center in McAllen, Texas.  "I'll tell you right now.  There are cages.  I saw them with my own eyes and they look like dog kennels."

     These kids are not hardened criminals.  In fact...they are not criminals at all.  It is, therefore, beyond disgraceful for Trump and his heartless henchmen and henchwomen to treat children - or, for that matter, any other human beings - in a manner that can be equated to Nazis rounding up Jews for the concentration camps.

     Before I start hearing from Trump Republicans - or even from other Jews, as I am Jewish - that I am comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler...that is NOT what I am implying.  Furthermore, I am not suggesting that Trump is going to gas, burn or murder in any way the children - or even the adults - who have been detained.  My comparison is for the method in which Trump has handled...or actually mishandled... this entire matter.  However...Trump, Sessions and Nielsen may tragically wind up anyway with blood on their hands.  It's quite possible - according to a number of medical experts - that some young children may not be able to tolerate the loss of their mothers and fathers following such a harrowing experience of having their families torn apart by men wearing uniforms and carrying guns.  I never thought I would ever write that the president of the United States could end up being responsible for the deaths of children in America.

     On MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, NBC's Jacob Soboroff - on Tuesday, June 19th - made an alarming observation at the detention facility in McAllen, Texas.  "There are babies sitting by themselves in a cage." 

     It was learned by The Associated Press on that Tuesday night that the Trump administration has been transporting babies and other young kids from the U.S./Mexico border to at least three "tender age" shelters in south Texas.  But Trump can't put lipstick on a cage and make it a 5-star hotel.  And he can't make it a home. Labeling them "tender age" shelters doesn't make them anything but what they really are...and that's jails.  Trump has incarcerated infants and other little children.  The AP says that "lawyers and medical providers" have visited these shelters where "crying preschool-age children" are "in crisis."

     Federal officials revealed on June 19th that 2,342 migrant children have been separated from their parents since Trump's "zero tolerance policy" went in to effect on May 7th.

     I unfortunately don't have any children of my own.  But I have - at various times - even for just a few hours...babysat and taken care of my niece and my two nephews when they were babies and tiny tots.  So I do know quite a bit about children.  Therefore, it pains me to wonder...how are these migrant children - from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico - being take care of?  Who's giving babies their bottles?  Who's rocking them to sleep?  Who's snuggling with frightened boys and girls who I've got to believe are scared because their mothers and fathers are nowhere around?  When I heard audio recordings of children crying for their mommies and daddies...it brought me to tears.

     There's no way anybody can honestly turn to any one of these youngsters - even the tweens and teens - and tell them that everything is going to be alright. Because it's not.  Sadly - because of an outdated system - the man... who less than half of our nation elected to lead us...has created a situation that is atrocious and cruel.  Instead of taking responsibility for his own screw-up...Donald Trump - on June 19th - once again blamed Democrats for the current immigration catastrophe that is causing chaos in our country.  In a tweet, Trump compared people - who are looking to make better lives for themselves and their families - to rats and cockroaches. "Democrats are the problem.  they don't care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13.  They can't win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!"  Trump's words are hateful and vicious.  (Note:  MS-13...or Mara Salvatrucha...is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California during the 1980s.  The group later spread to other parts of the United States plus Canada, Mexico and Central America).

     But despite the fact that two-thirds of the American people - according to a new CBS News poll - oppose Donald Trump's policy to separate migrant children from their parents...Trump thrives on the outrage by Democrats...by most Independents...and by some Republicans who are not part of his base and who have a heart.  Trump himself, though, is a sick SOB who doesn't give a damn that migrant babies and children are being stolen from their moms and dads...and then caged.  Trump - on June 19th - told a national group of small-business owners in Washington, DC..."I don't want children taken away from parents."  But "The Donald" can tweet and tell supporters at rallies that he doesn't want families separated, however, it is clearly obvious that Trump loves this madness.  It's tantamount to orgasmic for him.  Oh I know I'm going to receive flack for that comment...but I believe it to be true.

   

     From the moment - on June 16th, 2015 - that Donald Trump came down the escalator at Trump Tower in New York City to announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination, our country has changed...and not for the better.  And since he became The Oval Office occupant... exactly seventeen months ago today...Trump has continued to show his true colors and has proven that he is totally unfit to serve as America's president.  One example is when he praised neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.  In case you've forgotten, let me remind you when Trump told the American people that there was "blame on both sides" of an August 2017 violent riot when protesters demonstrated against the city's plans to remove a statue of a Confederate leader.  In addition, Trump has celebrated and shown admiration for a murderous dictator in North Korea's Kim Jong-un, as well as for Russia's Vladimir Putin - also a killer and a former KGB agent - who leads a country that meddled in the democracy of the United States when it interfered in our 2016 presidential election.

   

     And now...Trump has sunk to a level that I never thought even he could reach.  He has imprisoned babies.  Is this really what America has become?  How can any decent Republican...advocate the unconscionable...abominable... and repulsive behavior of Donald Trump?  Even many Congressional members of the GOP - Trump's own political party - who in the past have supported him...are now butting heads with him. Republican senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Ted Cruz of Texas, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Orrin Hatch of Utah, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky...are calling Trump's policy to split-up migrant families...everything from "a mistake" to "it has to stop."

     To take children from their parents and then to lock up those kids in cages in an effort to get Congressional Democrats and Republicans to agree on immigration legislation that gives Trump his xenophobic and racist border wall...is contemptible and reprehensible.  As I have written in numerous columns for three years...there will never be a wall. Any Republican - or any other American for that matter - who can respond to this editorial with a tone that approves of Trump's policy to separate migrant children from their mommies and daddies...should do some soul-searching.  But trying to locate your soul will be impossible...as you won't find it.  Because to me...anyone who can agree with Donald Trump on this issue...cannot have a soul.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

Now please express your personal opinions by following the instructions above.  And thank you for reading The Controversy.

Photo credits: The Associated Press/Felix Marquez (Migrant girl), Reuters (Donald Trump), United States Customs and Border Protection and NBC News (Migrants in large cage), NBC News and MSNBC (NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff), The Associated Press (Migrant girl looking at law enforcement officers), Getty Images/Christopher Gregory (Donald Trump on escalator), The Associated Press/Eric Gay (Migrant boys sleeping) and United States Customs and Border Protection and CBS News (Migrants on mats in large cage)

Copyright 2018 Gary B. Duglin and TheControversy.net.  All Rights Reserved.  This column may be freely shared among individuals, but it may not be reprinted or republished in any medium without the express written consent of Gary B. Duglin. Interested parties may contact The Controversy.  Broadcast, cable, satellite, and other forms of media are welcome to quote Gary B. Duglin by crediting him and The Controversy.

SEPARATING MIGRANT CHILDREN FROM PARENTS MAKE TRUMP AND SESSIONS BRUTAL BEASTS

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     Donald Trump and his backwards administration has performed other evil acts over the last seventeen months, but to forcibly separate migrant children from their parents brings America to an all-time, shameful low that is not only contemptible but excruciatingly embarrassing.  Such scandalous behavior by the United States government is reckless and reprehensible.

     For U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to invoke the Bible as a way to defend the splitting up of families is sinful.  Our nation's chief law enforcement officer is beyond despicable by using Scriptures to justify his immoral demeanor.  And for Trump to allow Sessions to conduct himself in such a depraved fashion makes the president of the United States complicit in wickedness, which any decent American should not accept, and the rest of the world should condemn.

     On May 7th, 2018, Sessions was adamant that he would enforce a "zero tolerance policy" to criminally prosecute people who enter our country illegally.  So in a speech to police officers in Fort Wayne, Indiana...Sessions - on Thursday, June 14th - heartlessly declared that breaking up families...taking children away from their parents...is not "unusual or unjustified."  Sessions, in part, quoted a passage from the New Testament.  "Persons who violate the law of our nation are subject to prosecution.  I would cite you the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order.  Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful."

     Later the same day, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders augmented Sessions comments by noting..."It is very biblical to enforce the law. That is actually repeated a number of times throughout the Bible."  Whatever happened to "separation of church and state?" Those five words were paraphrased from Thomas Jefferson and then used by others when expressing an understanding of The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Ratified in 1791, there is a First Amendment clause which reads..."Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."  However, the specific words "separation of church and state" do not actually appear in our country's Constitution.

     I don't believe that God has any desire to sever a child's ties from his or her mother and/or father just because those parents want to give their offspring a better life.  That's not the God I pray to.  That's not the God that I have spent more than six decades believing in.  That's not the God who encourages each of us to achieve success...to be happy...and to live our lives to our fullest potential.
   

     But Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions have no problem separating children from their parents.  These two brutal beasts have incarcerated innocent youngsters in overcrowded facilities that are not in any way a home.  Some people who have observed these quarters have compared them to prisons.  No person should be abused when seeking asylum in the United States.  And all Sessions can do is accuse the kids' moms and dads for taking them on "such a treacherous journey."

     As a result, one such shelter - right across the Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas - now holds about 1,500 boys who are between 10 and 17 years old. These kids are basically jailed twenty-two hours of each day with only two hours of freedom daily to go outside.  The tweens and teens are packed together with little or no privacy.  Other 

holding centers house young girls. In addition, there is an old warehouse in McAllen, Texas where hundreds of migrant children are being caged like animals.  CBS News reports that one metal enclosure had twenty youngsters inside.  There are reportedly more than 1,100 people who are caged at this facility that is sectioned in to separate areas for unaccompanied children, adults who are by themselves, and parents with kids.  The overhead lighting remains on 24 hours a day.

     Meanwhile, so-called "tent cities" are in the planning stages on Army and Air Force bases.  But tents are already being set up near the border station in Tornillo, Texas where summertime outdoor temperatures can exceed 100 degrees.  This is not any way for America to treat people... especially children.  But Sessions says he refuses to give in, so "If you cross the southwest border unlawfully, then the Department of Homeland Security will arrest you, and the Department of Justice will prosecute you.  That is what the law calls for - and that is what we are going to do. Having children does not give you immunity from arrest and prosecution."

     Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions are dangerous.  They are tearing apart families at our southern border...and they are denying basic human rights to individuals who deserve better.  Congressman John Lewis says..."Jeff Sessions has a long, LONG history of racism."  And the Georgia Democrat also says that Sessions "continue(s) to infect our justice system with his overt racism."

     The White House claims there's a law that requires migrant children to be separated from their parents when those mothers and/or fathers cross the border illegally.  There is no such law.  It's another one of Donald Trump's lies that his base has gotten sucked in to believing.  But it's just not true.

     Here's what is fact.  Adults who are apprehended while illegally crossing the border in to the United States with their children should - according to the law - be held in a U.S. immigration detention center until a judge hears the case.  Generally - in the past - the court would rule if the mothers and/or fathers should be deported as unauthorized immigrants.  But Trump and Sessions are demanding criminal prosecution.  Therefore, when migrant adults are sent to a federal jail, that's when parents are divided from their kids.  The youngsters can't stay in federal jails so they're placed in make-shift dormitories.

     The Boston Globe reports that border agents have informed some migrant parents that their children were being temporarily moved elsewhere so they could take a bath.  But the mothers and/or fathers never saw their kids again.

     It's not common for her to publicly do so, but Melania Trump - in essence - butted heads with her husband...when on Sunday, June 17th, she encouraged Republicans and Democrats to join forces to put a stop to the separation of migrant children. According to a statement by her spokeswoman, "Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform."

     The government wants us to think that the childrens' facilities are "not detention center(s)."  Officials claim "it's a big, big difference."  Unfortunately, though, the kids being held in the aforementioned temporary lodging cannot come and go as they please...and they are not with their parents, which they should be.

     On Father's Day June 17th in New Jersey, "The Garden State" became a state of pandemonium when seven House of Representatives Members from New York and New Jersey attempted to enter the Homeland Security detention facility in Elizabeth, for which the lawmakers said they were given authorization by the lawyers who represent five people who are seeking asylum and who have been separated from their children.  It took nearly two hours before the Democratic Party politicians were granted access.  But prior to the doors opening for them, New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell tweeted that he and his colleagues were "literally banging on the door to gain entry to the jail to see separated families."

     After finally being allowed to proceed inside the building to meet with the detainees, a news conference was held by Representative Pascrell plus the other six House Members including New Jersey Representatives Frank Pallone and Albio Sires, along with New York Representatives Adriano Espaillat, Hakeem Jeffries, Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler. Congressman Sires was appalled by what he witnessed inside the facility.  "What I saw in there is inhumane.  I see the politics of this administration...and it turns my stomach, because I know what this country stands for.  And that's not what we are in America."

     Donald Trump still insists that he's going to build a wall along the the U.S.-Mexico border.  But since Trump first vowed to construct his xenophobic and racist barrier three years ago, I wrote that such a monstrosity would never be built. And I've written it time and time again in numerous other columns.  So therefore...I stick to my word.  There will NEVER be a wall.

     As usual with Donald Trump, he takes no responsibility for anything he does that is wrong, harmful and hateful toward others.  Instead, he points the finger of blame at liberal and progressive lawmakers - not himself - for children being separated from their parents.  "That's what the Democrats gave us."

     Republican leaders in both the House and the Senate - along with other GOP Members of Congress - need to find some courage to take on Trump instead of being spineless weenies who won't stand up for what's fair and decent.

     I am in favor of giving legal American citizenship to all law abiding immigrants. And crossing the border should not be considered breaking the law.  I suggest we put out the welcome mat as we did many years ago.  And certainly do not prosecute people - most of whom are originally from Mexico and various Central American nations - who simply want to give themselves and their families a pathway for their dreams to come true...a life of freedom...with the hope of an education for their children or themselves...and the possibility - with good, hard work - to be prosperous and successful.

     Reportedly, about 1,500 immigrants illegally cross the border in to America everyday.  The first offense is a misdemeanor.  However, if parents are arrested and charged, Sessions - with Trump's approval - tosses these individuals in to a federal prison.  And if they are parents who have entered the U.S. with their children...those youngsters are separated from their mothers and/or fathers.

     From April 19th to May 31st, the Department of Homeland Security reports that the Trump administration has ripped 1,995 children from the arms of 1,940 parents. That's about 46 kids every day over six weeks.  But the Office of Refugee Resettlement says there are currently more than 11-thousand migrant children in U.S. custody.

     On the Sunday, June 17th broadcast of NBC's Meet The Press with Chuck Todd, Congressman Adam Schiff rightfully attacked Donald Trump and his cronies.  "What the administration is doing...is they're using the grief, the tears, the pain of these kids as mortar to build their wall."  And the California Democrat accused the Trump White House's efforts as a scheme to "extort a bill to their liking in the Congress. It's, I think, deeply unethical."

     The House plans to vote on a compromise immigration bill this week.  But it's not likely to pass...and it, therefore, won't go to the Senate.

     To once again quote Congressman John Lewis..."The White House continues to eliminate human rights protections and endanger those who seek freedom.  Every hour that goes by is another hour of trauma for these moms, dads, and children."

   

     On Father's Day 2018...for dads - and moms too - to have had their children stolen from them is scuzzy and atrocious. Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon says..."My heart broke when I saw families trying to start a new life in America being torn apart, thanks to Donald Trump's immigration policies."
    

     What I call the "Brownsville Border Box" - known as Casa Padre - is reportedly keeping children for an average of fifty-two days.  Some kids are then sent to foster homes, if relatives who are United States citizens or legal residents cannot be located.  
     This is unconscionable.  It's an abomination.  But Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions don't care.  They just don't give a damn.  After all...Trump has not a scintilla of empathy for anyone.

     I wonder, though, how much Trump would suffer if 12-year old Barron Trump was taken away from Melania and him.  I ask you, Donald.  How would you feel if the shoe was on the other foot?

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

Now please express your personal opinions by following the instructions above.  And thank you for reading The Controversy.

Photo credits: Getty Images (Migrant little boy), Gage Skidmore (United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions), Getty Images/Alex Wong (White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders), Reuters/AP/Eric Gay (Migrant boys sleeping), United States Department of Health and Human Service via Reuters (Migrant boys on line), The Associated Press (Migrant girls in lock-up), Getty Images (Melania Trump), Twitter (Congressman Bill Pascrell), Twitter and WCBS Newsradio 880 (Congressman Albio Sires), NBC News/Meet The Press with Chuck Todd (Congressman Adam Schiff), The Associated Press/Carolyn Kaster (Congressman John Lewis), Nexstar Broadcasting/KOIN-TV (Senator Jeff Merkley), United States Customs and Border Protection and CBS News (Migrant boys sleeping on mats on the floor) and Chicago Tribune (Donald Trump)

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STOP ALREADY! PRESIDENT CLINTON ANSWERED EVERY QUESTION ABOUT THE MONICA LEWINSKY MATTER 20 YEARS AGO. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

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     In an interview - which I label "an ambush" - NBC News correspondent Craig Melvin caught former President Bill Clinton off guard when the Saturday Today show anchor confronted Mr. Clinton about the Monica Lewinsky matter.
   

     Full disclosure at the outset - I am a staunch supporter of both President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  If it was up to me, I'd make Bill and Hillary Clinton co-presidents of the United States for life. But that's me...not the U.S. Constitution.  
     One additional disclosure...I have always admired and respected Craig Melvin's journalistic ethics and I have praised him for his skills as a reporter.  Until now. During the 2016 presidential campaign, I applauded Craig, in multiple tweets, following interviews where he shined as a first-rate correspondent.  So I was appalled by his offensively blunt and tactless manner when he broached a subject two decades after a scandal that wrongfully caused President Clinton's impeachment by the House of Representatives, but rightfully resulted in his acquittal by the Senate.
   

     In the interview that was recorded on Sunday, June 3rd, 2018, but that aired during the Today show on Monday, June 4th...President Clinton - now a novelist - and author James Patterson were on hand to promote their political suspense thriller, The President Is Missing, which the former commander-in-chief and the prolific writer penned together.  But Melvin took this opportunity to pounce on Mr. Clinton with questions about the consensual relationship he shared with Monica Lewinsky in the mid-to-late 1990s.

     I watched the entire 22-minute interview on-line at Today.com.  And I enjoyed the conversation for the first fifteen minutes and fifteen seconds.  But Melvin's timing was not appropriate for - what should have been - a feel good chat with Mr. Clinton and Mr. Patterson about their new book.  Instead, Melvin felt it was necessary to bring up the #MeToo movement and how it might relate to the former president's relationship - twenty years ago - with Monica Lewinsky...the impeachment that followed...and whether President Clinton feels that he should have privately apologized to Lewinsky.  That's when the fireworks began.

     Craig Melvin noted that critics recently suggested that President Clinton "should have resigned in the wake of the Lewinsky scandal.  You said that you should not have.  If you were president now...in 2018...with everything that's going on with the #MeToo movement...how would you have approached the accusations differently? Or would you have?

     President Clinton remained a gentleman.  "I don't think it would be an issue because people would be using the facts, instead of the imagined facts.  If the facts were the same today, I wouldn't (do anything differently)."  Mr. Clinton then elaborated by saying that "a lot of the facts have been conveniently omitted...to make the story work."  And President Clinton was adamant about not resigning.  "No. I think I did the right thing."

     That's where Melvin should have realized that this was not a subject that President Clinton wanted to pursue.  However, Melvin forged ahead.  "Looking back on what happened then...through the lens of #MeToo now...do you think differently...or feel more responsibility?

     Mr. Clinton was noticeably becoming annoyed.  "No.  I felt terrible then.  And I came to grips with it."

     For his actions, President Clinton suffered dearly.  Besides having to face an independent counsel...a grand jury...House impeachment hearings...the American people...and his wife and daughter...Mr. Clinton - in his interview with Craig Melvin - declared that "Nobody believes that I got out of that for free.  I left The White House (millions of dollars) in debt."  President Clinton then paused and took a breath before the proverbial smoke started coming out of his ears.  "You typically have ignored gaping facts in describing this.  This was litigated twenty years ago.  Two-thirds of the American people sided with me.  They were not insensitive that..." Appearing aggravated...Mr. Clinton did exactly what he needed to do.  He became even more defensive.  "I had a sexual harassment policy when I was governor (of Arkansas) in the 80s.  I had two women chiefs of staff when I was governor.  I've had nothing but women leaders in my office since I left."  Another brief pause and President Clinton made his point very clear to Melvin.  "You are giving one side and omitting facts."  Now came the tug of war.

     Craig Melvin:  "I asked if you'd ever apologized...and you said you had."

     President Clinton:  "I have."

     Craig Melvin:  "You've apologized to her?"

     President Clinton:  "I apologized to everybody in the world."

     Craig Melvin:  "But you didn't apologize to her...at least according to folks that we've talked to.  There was never an apology made."

     President Clinton:  "I have not talked to her."

     Craig Melvin:  "Do you feel like you owe her an apology?"

     President Clinton:  "No, I do not.  I've never talked to her.  But I did say, publicly - on more than one occasion - that I was sorry."

     James Patterson interjected, as he seemed irritated.  "Stop already.  It's twenty years ago."

     At this point, President Clinton seemed fit to be tied as he ended the interview with Craig Melvin.  "I dealt with it twenty years plus ago.  And the American people - two-thirds of them - stayed with me.  And I've tried to do a good job since then... with my life...and with my work.  That's all I have to say."  Kudos and much applause to Mr. Clinton for all his accomplishments during his presidency and since leaving office.   

     There was no legitimate, journalistic reason for Melvin to push President Clinton so hard on an issue that was done and over with twenty years ago.  It's something I would expect from a third-rate reporter looking to make a name for himself, not an NBC News and MSNBC anchor/correspondent.  If more reporters follow Craig Melvin's lead, Mr. Clinton is going to be a formidable opponent.  And he would have every right to fight back.

     Before the clash between the former president and the network correspondent, President Clinton shared a bit of information from when he began his political career. "I had an iron rule when I was a young man starting out in politics.  I never attacked anyone first.  But if they came after me...with an attack that had a good answer...I answered."  It looks like Mr. Clinton hasn't lost his touch. 

     President Clinton may not have apologized to Lewinsky in person, but he did indeed say he was sorry...and he directed his remorse towards Lewinsky, among others.

     On September 11th, 1998 - at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC - President Clinton issued a heartfelt apology while declaring to religious leaders..."I have sinned."  Mr. Clinton emphasized that "It is important to me that everyone who has been hurt know the sorrow I feel is genuine - first and most important - my family, my friends, my staff, my cabinet, Monica Lewinsky and her family, and the American people.  I have asked all for their forgiveness."

     Prior to that outpouring of emotion, President Clinton - on August 17th, 1998 - addressed the nation from The White House Map Room...which is where, earlier that day, he testified before the Office of Independent Counsel and the grand jury.  In his nationally televised speech, Mr. Clinton admitted that he had "a relationship with Monica Lewinsky that was not appropriate.  In fact, it was wrong.  It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible."  President Clinton acknowledged that he "misled people... including even my wife.  I deeply regret that."  Mr. Clinton went on to say..."Now... this matter is between me...the two people I love most - my wife and our daughter - and our God.  I must put it right...and I am prepared to do whatever it takes to do so.  Nothing is more important to me personally.  It's nobody's business but ours. Even presidents have private lives."

     What more do Republicans...some members of the press...and even some Democrats and Independents...want from this man?

     To compare the President Clinton of 1998...to any number of men today who are accused of sexual misconduct...lacks the justice that Mr. Clinton deserves.  I support today's #MeToo movement and believe that those men who are guilty of mistreating women - and in some cases other men - in any sort of inappropriate fashion...should be held accountable.

     President Clinton - in his back and forth with Craig Melvin - celebrated the #MeToo movement.  "I like the #MeToo movement.  It's way overdue."  I, of course, agree. But as our 42nd president qualified..."It doesn't mean I agree with everything."  And to that, I also concur with Mr. Clinton.

     Let us remember that America is a nation of laws.  And we are a country that thankfully provides every individual the beauty to live under a blanket of freedom called the U.S. Constitution.  In that...our most precious of American documents... the Fourteenth Amendment asserts that "In the United States, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty."  It is one of our most sacred principles. Furthermore, the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees every person - including non-citizens - "equal protection under the law."  And that it is the duty of the prosecution to prove - beyond a reasonable doubt - that a defendant is guilty. Otherwise, it is the responsibility of any jury...or any judge...to find that person to be...not guilty.  Just because someone claims that a person has been inappropriate doesn't mean that he...or she...is guilty.

     Americans live today in a land where a man was elected president, even though he admitted to trying to have sexual intercourse with a woman who did not want it. In that infamous 2005 Access Hollywood video - which was released in October 2016 - Donald Trump bragged the following to the show's then co-host, Billy Bush about an alleged encounter with Bush's Access Hollywood colleague, Nancy O'Dell.

     "I moved on her, actually.  You know she was down on Palm Beach.  I moved on her...and I failed.  I'll admit it.  I did try and f--k her.  She was married.  No, no, Nancy.  No this was...and I moved on her very heavily.  In fact, I took her furniture shopping.  She wanted to get some furniture.  I said, 'I'll show you where they have some nice furniture.'  I took her out furniture...  I moved on her like a bitch.  But I couldn't get there.  And she was married.  Then all of a sudden, I see her.  She's now got the big phony tits and everything.  She's totally changed her look."

     The conversation continued as the Access Hollywood bus arrived at NBC studios in Burbank, California and Trump noticed actress Arianne Zucker who he was meeting that day to videotape a scene with her on Days Of Our Lives.

     "Yeah, that's her...with the gold.  I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her.  You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful...  I just start kissing them.  It's like a magnet.  Just kiss.  I don't even wait.  And when you're a star, they let you do it.  You can do anything."  Billy Bush replied..."Whatever you want."  And Trump uttered the line that nobody should forget.  "Grab 'em by the p---y.  You can do anything."

     Nothing even similar to that kind of obscene language by Trump has ever publicly been heard from President Clinton.  Yet prior to the election, Republicans didn't care what they heard...and they still voted for Trump.

     In addition to grandstanding about his sexcapades with Billy Bush...radio talk show host Howard Stern got an earful one day about Donald Trump's adventures that were - in essence - actions of a "peeping Tom."  In a 2005 interview with Stern, Trump boasted about walking in to dressing rooms with naked Miss USA and Miss Universe contestants.  "Well, I'll tell you the funniest is that I'll go backstage before a show and everyone's getting dressed and ready and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere.  And I'm allowed to go in because I'm the owner of the pageant and, therefore, I'm inspecting it.  You know, I'm inspecting.  I want to make sure that everything is good."  My goodness, Donald!  You sound like the proverbial "dirty old man."

     Trump continued to let his libido speak to Howard Stern.  "You know, the dresses.  'Is everyone okay?'  You know, they're standing there with no clothes.  'Is everybody okay?'  And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that.  But no, I've been very good."  Trump says he was very good.  What a pervert!

     Now add the following to the mix.  Allegedly...Trump entered the dressing rooms of teenage girls who were competing in the Miss Teen USA Pageant, which - at the time - Trump also owned.  Four young women claim that Trump walked in on naked girls as they were changing their clothes.  Three of those contestants have remained anonymous.  But the former Miss Vermont Teen USA, Mariah Billado, is quoted as saying..."I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, 'Oh my God, there's a man in here.'"  Billado says that she informed Ivanka Trump about her father invading the privacy of naked teenage girls who were dressing for the pageant. Billado claims Ivanka responded by admitting..."Yeah...he does that."  Donald Trump, however, denies the allegations about the Miss Teen USA pageant...and PolitiFact has not been able to rate the issue as true or false.  But if Trump did it with adult contestants in the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants - which he bragged about with Howard Stern - then it makes one wonder if the allegations against Trump with the Miss Teen USA pageant are true.

     With what we have heard Donald Trump admit...along with the allegations against him for sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior...Trump was still elected president of the United States by Republicans and some Independents who just didn't give a damn about putting someone with Trump's history in The White House.

     And this year...while sitting behind The Oval Office desk...Americans learned that Trump allegedly cheated on his current of three wives, Melania Trump, in 2006...when he allegedly romped between the sheets with porn film star Stormy Daniels...just weeks after Mrs. Trump gave birth to the Trump's son, Barron.  We also discovered that less than two weeks before the 2016 election, Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen paid Daniels - whose real name is Stephanie Clifford - a sum of 130-thousand dollars so that she wouldn't tell anybody about the alleged one-night sexual affair before voters went to the polls.  But once again, none of this means diddly to Trump's base. Even when Trump - "the liar-in-chief" - got caught deceiving the American people after he told reporters on Air Force One that he knew nothing about the hush money to Daniels, we subsequently found out that he did know...and still...Trump's supporters didn't...and don't...care.  And if that isn't enough...there are allegations by other women who might have received money to keep their mouths shut, including one woman who claims she got pregnant by Trump, but that he allegedly paid for her to have an abortion...and that then...he allegedly gave her big bucks to keep silent. For everything - whether true or alleged - Trump's base either refuses to believe any of it...or they just don't care.

     The above is why I defend President Clinton.  He has apologized for his wrongdoing...and it cost him much more than was fair.  I will provide some details, later in this column.  So therefore...it's time that everyone stops the attacks on Bill Clinton.  

     It must be devastating for any woman...or anybody else...to be sexually harassed, sexually abused, or sexually assaulted.  But Monica Lewinsky fits none of those categories.  I do, however, feel bad for Lewinsky that her adult life is defined by the affair she had with President Clinton.  However...let us be clear that Lewinsky was a willing participant in whatever relationship she had with Mr. Clinton.  That being said...I remain someone - as do others throughout America and around the world - who believe that oral sex is not "having sex" or having "sexual relations."  A good many individuals feel that for such terms to be used, there must be either vaginal or anal intercourse.  So to my thinking - and the thinking of a great amount of people - President Clinton did not lie when on January 28th, 1998, he told the American people..."I did not have sexual relations with that woman...Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie...not a single time, never."  

     Three weeks prior to Mr. Clinton's remarks - on January 7th, 1998 - Monica Lewinsky signed a sworn affidavit that she "never had a sexual relationship with the president"...and that President Clinton "did not propose that we have a sexual relationship."  Lewinsky also swore under oath that Mr. Clinton "did not offer me employment or other benefits in exchange for a sexual relationship," nor did he "deny me employment or other benefits for rejecting a sexual relationship."  Furthermore, Lewinsky's sworn statement included that "I have the utmost respect for the president, who always behaved appropriately in my presence."

     Later that year - on July 28th, 1998 - Monica Lewinsky was granted a blanket immunity deal so she could not be prosecuted for saying under oath that she didn't have a "sexual relationship" with President Clinton.  Without that immunity, Lewinsky could have been prosecuted for perjury if the independent counsel - Ken Starr - could prove that Lewinsky and Mr. Clinton did have a "sexual relationship." Apparently, "Uncle Sam" doesn't agree with me - and others - that oral sex is not a "sexual relationship." 

     Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky were two consenting adults...in basically what comes down to an Oval Office b---job.  Was it wrong?  Of course it was.  Should President Clinton have told Lewinsky that this is something we should not do. Definitely.  As president of the United States, Mr. Clinton - a married man, who was fooling around with an of-age White House intern - performed in a manner that was not appropriate.  And the former president has apologized more than once...with profound and impassioned shame...for what he labeled...a "sin."  But should President Clinton have been impeached?  Absolutely not.  There was no logical or sensible reason for the American taxpayers to foot the bill for a Republican witch hunt that the U.S. Senate agreed was not worthy of a conviction...and, therefore...Mr. Clinton was acquitted on all charges in the impeachment process.

     To relive this entire situation again - after it was settled two decades ago - is pure harassment towards President Clinton.  And quite frankly, I doubt Monica Lewinsky enjoys seeing the whole mess in the headlines again either. That said, though...in an essay for the March 2018 edition of Vanity Fair...Lewinsky wrote about the matter with Mr. Clinton, which catapulted her in to the limelight. "To be blunt, I was diagnosed several years ago with post-traumatic stress disorder, mainly from the ordeal of having been publicly outed and ostracized back then.  My trauma expedition has been long, arduous, painful, and expensive.  And it's not over."  Lewinsky went on to write..."For two decades, I have been working on myself, my trauma, and my healing."  But she also reminded us of what she wrote for Vanity Fair in 2014.  "Sure, my boss took advantage of me, but I will always remain firm on this point: it was a consensual relationship."  I painted that picture above.  But THAT...is the most important element of the Clinton/Lewinsky nightmare.  "It was a consensual relationship."  And in this year's Vanity Fair piece, Lewinsky admits that nothing "excuses me for my responsibility for what happened."

     The bottom line is that throughout two terms - from January 20th, 1993 to January 20th, 2001 - William Jefferson Clinton lived up to his oath of office as president of the United States.  President Clinton did indeed "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."  It's becoming, however, more and more evident - although not yet proven - that the man whose name today is engraved on The White House letterhead...may not be observing and properly honoring the words in the presidential oath.

     Republicans - and certain others - are ingrained with a hatred for both Bill and Hillary Clinton.  Many Republicans viciously insist with completely erroneous accusations that President Clinton sexually assaulted or even raped women.  Such allegations are bold-faced lies.  There is no evidence...no proof whatsoever...of any criminal activity on the part of Mr. Clinton with any woman.  But Republicans refuse to accept those facts.  They simply won't believe it.

     Was President Clinton guilty of infidelity?  Yes...without a doubt.  But being unfaithful in a marriage is between two spouses.  Bill and Hillary Clinton's marital problems should never have involved an independent counsel...or Congress...or certainly not the entire country.

     I would bet that Craig Melvin probably doesn't give two hoots whether I think he's a top-of-the-line reporter and a class act...or...if I feel he crossed the line during his interview with President Clinton and that I object to his attempt to outmaneuver the former commander-in-chief.  However, I do hope that Melvin can somehow make it up to Mr. Clinton.  Maybe then...I will have the journalistic respect and admiration for Craig that, in the past, I always had.

     At the outset of this column, I acknowledged my stalwart support and my ardent allegiance for both Bill and Hillary Clinton.  So therefore...with regards to Craig Melvin's inquiry to President Clinton...whether he ever personally apologized to Monica Lewinsky...I ask this question.  Why has Lewinsky not apologized to Hillary Clinton?  Mrs. Clinton is more the victim in this crisis than anybody else.  After all...she was the innocent bystander in a marriage that presumably suffered some rocky roads along the way.  So I sympathize with Secretary Clinton.  But not just for Mr. Clinton's disloyalty...but because of network anchormen such as Craig Melvin... along with other reporters...who - instead of dropping it - will want to drag the Clinton/Lewinsky matter through the mud in perpetuity.

     Hillary Clinton - I would surmise - doesn't want her husband's past to haunt her forever. Nor do I believe that Mrs. Clinton wants to see Mr. Clinton forced to defend himself - over and over again - as he did on NBC.  The couple has stayed together all these years...and they have apparently resolved their marital woes.  It's obvious that Secretary Clinton has accepted President Clinton's apology...and they have made their marriage work, despite their problems from long ago.  Accordingly...I believe - and my sources advise me - that Bill and Hillary Clinton's love for each other is real.  Their public display of affection is not "just for the cameras" as some people cruelly imply.

     President Clinton has confessed that he made a monumental error in judgment. For that, he paid the price through prosecution and persecution...and by Ken Starr's witch hunt investigation, which led to the president's impeachment.  

     But when President Clinton left office, after completing two terms, the United States was in tip-top shape.  The Office of Management and Budget confirms that on January 20th, 2001 - the day of President George W. Bush's inauguration - the U.S. enjoyed a surplus of 128-billion dollars.  And according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, there was a surplus projection of 5.6-trillion dollars by January 2011.  The CBO predicted that projected amount - as the country's fiscal outlook - following the success of the Clinton administration. 

     Unfortunately, by the time President Bush finished his eight years residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, America's economy was nowhere as rosy as it was under President Clinton. Thus, when Mr. Bush left office, he did so with the United States in a catastrophic great recession... with a debt - according to the Department of the Treasury - of 10.627-trillion dollars.  That's the amount of debt held by the public...plus debt held by the federal government including the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.  

     As such, President Barack Obama inherited one hell of an economic disaster when he became president on January 20th, 2009.  

     Americans were kept working under President Clinton.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that Mr. Clinton created more jobs than any president in American history...a total of 23.2-million.  On top of all the other successes by President Clinton, he departed our nation's capital with the United States at peace.

     When Bill Clinton completed his service as our nation's leader, he did so - despite the Monica Lewinsky scandal and an impeachment - with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II.  And he continues to rank in the top one-third of all presidents in American history.

     I know - and President Clinton surely knows - that he is no angel. Mr. Clinton has made his share of mistakes.  But they all pale in comparison to the current president.  Donald Trump is a power-hungry narcissist who believes he is above the law.  He pompously prances about as if he could actually "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody" and he "wouldn't lose any voters."  Try it, Donald, and see what happens.  Your base might still have your back, but New York City police officers will grab hold of your wrists and put them in handcuffs.  Believe me...you won't be able to pardon yourself.

     Americans should recognize that with Bill Clinton, there's a ton of good that outweighs the ounce of bad.  By creating the William J. Clinton Foundation, (now the Clinton Foundation)...along with the Clinton Global Initiative and other programs... President Clinton's humanitarian and philanthropic efforts have helped to save millions of lives.  The Clinton Foundation's achievements have provided better maternal and child survival care to more than 110-million people worldwide.  During the 2016 presidential campaign - in a June 8th interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper - Hillary Clinton noted that "Nine-million people have lower-cost HIV/AIDS medicine because of the work of the Clinton Foundation and my husband."  And PolitiFact confirms that statement to be true.  As is printed on the organization's website..."the Clinton Foundation improves lives across the United States and around the world to create economic opportunity, improve public health and inspire civic engagement."  Overall, the Clinton Foundation and its initiatives and programs create and implement solutions to the "world's most pressing challenges."  The Clinton Foundation strives to prevent global warming and works to address other world issues of concern including poverty.  According to The Washington Post, through 2016, the Clinton Foundation has raised nearly two-billion dollars to help others...and neither Bill Clinton or his daughter, Chelsea Clinton - both of whom serve as members of the governing board - receive any salary or a penny of income whatsoever from the Clinton Foundation. And when Hillary Clinton was on the board, she received no money from the organization either.

     To say the least, President Bill Clinton is a champion in so many ways.  It's time that the United States... and all Americans...put the Monica Lewinsky matter and Mr. Clinton's impeachment behind us.  There is no need to rehash the situation.  So to my peers in broadcast, cable, and print journalism...scratch off from your notepads and your scripts...any list of questions for President Clinton that pertain to those issues.  If Hillary Clinton can forgive Bill Clinton...the rest of America should too.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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Photo credits:  Brad Barket/Getty Images and Comedy Central (former President Bill Clinton #1), NBC News and the Today show (former President Bill Clinton, James Patterson, and NBC News correspondent Craig Melvin), Dave M. Benett/VF17/WireImage (Monica Lewinsky), Getty Images and CNN (former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton), Getty Images and CNN (former President George W. Bush), Jason Reed/Reuters (former President Barack Obama), Chicago Tribune (Donald Trump) and Noam Galai/Getty Images (former President Bill Clinton #2)

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