Page 8 - Florida Sentinel 11-8-16 Online Edition

President News
President Commutes
Race To The White House
FBI Director Reveals What We Already Knew: There Is Nothing New In The Hillary Clinton Email Debacle
Sentences Of 98 Inmates:
42 Had Life Terms
On Sunday (November 6), a mere two days before the 2016 Presidential election, FBI Di- rector James B. Comey told Congress he had seen no new evidence against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton stemming from recently dis- covered emails and maintained Clinton will not face charges over her handling of classified information, according to the New York Times. Late last month, Comey alerted Con- gress the Bureau would be in- vestigating Clinton’s email exchanges, however, they ap- parently came up empty handed.
“Based on our review, we have not changed our conclu- sion that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton,” Mr. Comey wrote in a letter to the leaders of sev- eral congressional committees.
Due to Comey’s October 28 alert, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch had made completing a review of the
President Barack Obama commuted the sen- tences of 98 inmates last Thursday, continuing his ef- forts to release federal inmates sentenced to harsh prison terms for nonviolent drug of- fenses. Nearly half the group — 42 people — had been sen- tenced to life imprisonment.
The latest announcement pushes the total number of commutations he has granted to 872 during his time in of- fice. This total easily surpasses the combined number of com- mutations handed down by his 11 predecessors, who com- muted a total of 715 sentences during their terms.
President Obama has criticized the impacts of severe sentences imposed during the height of the country’s war on drugs. During a speech last year, the president said that the criminal justice system in the United States was “not as fair as it should be,” adding, “Mass incarceration makes our country worse off, and we need to do something
In a blog post, White House counsel W. Neil Eggleston wrote that the 98 men and women granted clemency Thursday had proven they deserved the chance to rebuild their lives outside prison.
For the 42 individuals orig- inally sentenced to life impris- onment, the news will carry special weight when they learn that they will be able to return to their families and commu- nities.
The administration's highly touted clemency initiative had been tangled up by bureau- cratic delays after it got under- way.
Hillary Clinton is still campaigning for the November 8th Elec- tion.
PRESIDENT OBAMA
Though the pace of commu- tations he has granted has worried activists --- and as of earlier this month, there were more than 11,000 petitions pending, according to the Jus- tice Department — there has been a flurry of activity on this front recently.
In August, President Obama commuted the sen- tences of 214 inmates, setting a single-day record for his ad- ministration, and the 111 com- mutations he handed down a few weeks later also helped set a single-month record. Earlier this month, President Obama granted clemency to an additional 102 inmates.
Some activists are pushing for the president to grant clemency to all nonviolent of- fenders who have served more than 10 years in federal prison.
emails a top priority. Conse- quently, Comey insisted agents comb through every sin- gle email, an extremely tedious process.
In the director’s short letter to Congress on Sunday, he said that he was “very grateful to the professionals at the FBI for doing an extraordinary amount of high-quality work in a short period of time.”
Par for the course, Twitter lit up with comments about the announcement. Some believe Comey should be fired while
others are outraged Trump’s taxes still haven’t been fully re- vealed.
Donald Trump cried foul after learning about the law en- forcement bureau's decision.
At a rally in the Detroit sub- urbs, Mr. Trump insisted it would have been impossible for the FBI to review what has been reported to be as many as 650,000 emails in such a short time.
"Right now she's being pro- tected by a rigged system. It's a totally rigged system.
President Obama: If Hillary Wins Florida, ‘It’s A Wrap’
Stumping for Hillary Clin- ton in Florida two days out from Election Day, President Obama made his closing ar- gument to the state that he said has the power to seal the deal for the Democratic nominee on Tuesday.
"If we win Florida it's a wrap," Obama told the audi- ence gathered outside in Osce- ola County Stadium. "If we win Florida, it's over, so we've got to work our hearts out this week, these next two days, as if our future depends on it, be- cause our future depends on it."
The President referred to some new New York Times re- porting that aides to Donald
PRESIDENT OBAMA
Trump have wrested control of the Republican nominee's Twitter account in the final days of the campaign.
"They had so little confi- dence in his self-control, they said we're just going to take away your Twitter," Presi- dent Obama told the crowd. "Now if somebody can't handle a Twitter account, they can't handle the nuclear code. If somebody starts tweeting at 3 a.m. because 'SNL' made fun of him, then you can't handle the nuclear code."
The President also took issue with Trump for misrep- resenting how he handled a Trump supporter who inter- rupted a speech he was giving last week in Fayetteville, North Carolina, saying it is an exam- ple of why Trump is uniquely unqualified to be president.
Clinton, Trump At Campaign's End:
Still Close - And Still Unpopular (POLL)
According to ABC News, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump end the 2016 cam- paign with the race between them close, their historic un- popularity intact –- and, on the bright side, a weary electorate saying it's ready to accept the outcome and move on.
The race stands at 47 per- cent support for Clinton, 43 percent for Trump among likely voters in the latest ABC News/Washington Post track- ing poll, with 4 percent for Lib- ertarian Gary Johnson and 2 percent for Jill Stein of the Green Party.
While the contest is a close one, Clinton has held at least
a numerical advantage almost continuously across the cam- paign. Indeed, the average re- sult among likely voters in ABC/Post polls since June is 47-42-5-2 percent, almost identical to where it is today.
That said, given the reluctant nature of their support, results have fluctuated with events –- better for Clinton after Trump’s most prominent controversies, better for Trump in Clinton's roughest periods and settling to a close race at other points.
That makes turnout critical, with preference among racial groups among the most promi- nent factors. Trump holds a
16-point advantage among whites -– 37-53 percent, Clin- ton-Trump. Clinton re- sponds with a vast 77-15 percent among nonwhites, in- cluding 89-7 percent among blacks (typical for a Democrat) and 71-19 among Hispanics (a bit better than typical).
Trump has refused to say whether he'd accept Clinton as the legitimate winner, rais- ing the question of broader post-election comity. Unlike Trump, 79 percent of likely voters say they're prepared to accept the outcome of the elec- tion as legitimate, including large majorities across demo- graphic, political and ideologi- cal lines.
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