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Economy

consumer prices gas

Consumer Price Index (CPI) reporting on gas prices from the Labor Department.

AAA Auto Club Group said this week gas prices have increased on 12 of the past 17 days and on each of the past six, making the national average for regular unleaded at $2.16 per gallon, which is four cents more than one week ago, but is two cents less than a month ago, 46 cents less than the same date last year, and the lowest price for this date since 2004.

Analysts say gas prices are likely to get more expensive as retail prices adjust to the increase in crude oil. Historically, retail gas prices don’t adjust to the oil price shift until a few weeks, though AAA forecasts they will remain at least relatively low for the remainder of the year.

The average price of gasoline is $2.09 in the Sunshine State. On Sunday, the state average rose for the fourth consecutive day in Florida. Regionally, the West Coast suffers from the highest prices in the nation as has been the case over the past decade. That largely the reason why these states have seen the most dramatic decrease in prices over the last week: Alaska (-89 cents), California (-84 cents), and Nevada (-77 cents).

On the flip side, Midwestern states were among the top-five seeing the largest increases: Indiana (+10 cents), Kentucky (+10 cents), Delaware (+9 cents), Michigan (+8 cents), and Ohio (+8 cents).

Regular Mid-Grade Premium Diesel
Current Avg. $2.189 $2.442 $2.680 $2.343
Yesterday Avg. $2.177 $2.433 $2.671 $2.335
Week Ago Avg. $2.132 $2.401 $2.640 $2.297
Month Ago Avg. $2.165 $2.443 $2.682 $2.340
Year Ago Avg. $2.595 $2.861 $3.067 $2.622

Oil prices are rising as Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other exporters are weighing the option to freeze output. The goal is exactly to lower production, increase demand and, as a result, crude oil and retail gas prices.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil inventories are at historically high levels for this time of year.

Quick Stats

  • Gas prices in nine states are below $2.00 per gallon, three fewer than one week ago: South Carolina ($1.87), Alabama ($1.90), Mississippi ($1.93), Virginia ($1.95), Tennessee ($1.95), New Jersey ($1.96), Arkansas ($1.99), Texas ($1.99), and Louisiana ($1.997).
  • West Coast drivers are still paying the highest prices for gasoline despite featuring five of the six states with week-over-week savings. This region includes the seven highest state averages and the four states where drivers are paying an average of more than $2.50: Hawaii ($2.69), California ($2.66), Washington ($2.58), and Alaska ($2.55).

Gas prices have increased on 12 of

Politics

Former President Bill Clinton, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation Chelsea Clinton, discuss the Clinton Global Initiative University during the closing plenary session on the second day of the 2014 Meeting of Clinton Global Initiative University at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona March 22, 2014. (PHOTO: REUTERS)

Former President Bill Clinton, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation Chelsea Clinton, discuss the Clinton Global Initiative University during the closing plenary session on the second day of the 2014 Meeting of Clinton Global Initiative University at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona March 22, 2014. (PHOTO: REUTERS)

The Clinton campaign is on the defensive following two bombshell reports on Tuesday further revealing the secretary of state gave special access to Clinton Foundation donors. The latest bombshell, which was a review of the State Department calendars dropped by the Associated Press (AP) Tuesday night, found at least 85 of 154 people (or 55%) with private interests who either met or had phone conversations with Mrs. Clinton also gave to her family’s charities.

“It’s an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president,” AP staffers Stephen Braun and Eileen Sullivan said. In total, the 85 donors reviewed by the AP contributed roughly $156 million to the Clinton Foundation, which does not include U.S. federal employees or foreign government representatives. At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million.

The AP report marks the first “systematic effort” to “calculate the scope of the intersecting interests of Clinton foundation donors and people who met personally with Clinton or spoke to her by phone about their needs,” they added.

A spokesman for Hillary Clinton pushed back hard on the AP following the bombshell report, even going so far as to tweeting out a demand for an editorial correction.

“The story relies on utterly flawed data. It cherry-picked a limited subset of Secretary Clinton’s schedule to give a distorted portrayal of how often she crossed paths with individuals connected to charitable donations to the Clinton Foundation,” Brian Fallon said in a lengthy statement. “The data does not account for more than half of her tenure as Secretary. And it omits more than 1700 meetings she took with other U.S. government officials, while serving as Secretary of State.”

Of course, there is simply no way to fact-check Mr. Fallon because the AP only reviewed the documents they were able to obtain, which they had been requesting from a stonewalling State Department.

Meanwhile, James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent at Fox News, reported on Tuesday a review of State Department call logs revealed a senior executive at the Clinton Foundation left nearly 150 telephone messages for Mrs. Clinton’s top aide at the State Department during a two-year period. Cheryl Mills, the longtime Clinton confidant who served as chief of staff for the entirety of Clinton’s four-year tenure as America’s top diplomat, received at least 148 messages from Laura Graham–then the Clinton Foundation’s chief operating officer–between 2010 and 2012.

“No other individual or non-profit appears in the logs with anything like that frequency or volume,” Mr. Rosen’s review found.

One of the messages Graham left for Mills, in August 2011, referenced “our boss” – without further identifying that individual. Another, from January 2012, appeared to reference former President Clinton, using his initials: “Please call. WJC is looking for her [Graham] and she wants to talk to you before she talks to him.”

State Department spokesman Mark Toner added that Ms. Mills and Ms. Graham never shared the same boss but insisted to Mrs. Rosen they “always” acted under Mrs. Clinton to advance U.S. foreign policy interests, “with no other intent in mind beyond that.” The telephone records were finally released by the State Department as a result of an outstanding Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the conservative advocacy group Citizens United.

“It’s an amazing thing that the State Department spokesperson would actually make an argument that Hillary Clinton would be obligated under an ethics agreement that the White House made her sign with the foundation but her top employees would not be under that same agreement,” Citizens United President David Bossie said in a statement. “I find it’s just very Clintonesque.”

Mrs. Clinton’s opponent, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, called for a special prosecutor to investigate the former secretary and the Clinton Foundation. Speaking in Akron, Ohio earlier this week, Mr. Trump was commenting on separate documents obtained by Judicial Watch that revealed special access was granted to Clinton Foundation donors, including the crown prince of Bahrain. Mr. Trump followed up on his criticism of his opponent at a rally Tuesday night in Austin, Texas.

“Hillary Clinton is totally unfit to hold public office,” he said. “It is impossible to figure out where the Clinton Foundation ends and the State Department begins. It is now abundantly clear that the Clintons set up a business to profit from public office.”

Hillary Clinton is on the defensive following

Opinion

Gary-Johnson-AP

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson speaks to supporters and delegates at the National Libertarian Party Convention, May 27, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. (Photo: John Raoux/AP Photo)

Vote for Donald Trump? No! Hillary Clinton? No!

They are not trustworthy. They push bad ideas.

Fortunately, we have another choice: Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and his running mate, William Weld. But most Americans don’t even know they exist.

It would be good if the two ex-governors were allowed to join next month’s presidential debates, but the Commission on Presidential Debates will allow that only if Johnson reaches 15 percent in a select handful of polls. He’s at about 10 percent now. He tried to get the Commission to relax its rules, but they would not.

You can still get a feel for what these candidates offer by watching my show Friday. I’ll do a Libertarian “town hall.” My studio audience will grill Johnson and Weld about … well, whatever they want.

I assume marijuana prohibition will come up. “It’s prohibition,” says Johnson, “that kills people. … Legalizing marijuana will lead to less overall substance abuse because (marijuana is) safer than all the other substances out there.”

That appeals to liberals, but libertarians offer much to conservatives, too. Johnson recognizes that “government is too big. It spends too much money. It taxes too much.”

He proposes “a 20 percent reduction in federal spending. To do that, you’ve got to include Medicaid, Medicare, military spending.” That’s responsible budgeting.

But some libertarians say Johnson and Weld are not libertarian enough. I’ll confront the candidates with those criticisms.

For example, Johnson sides with judges who say government must force Christian bakers to bake cakes for gay weddings.

“If you discriminate on the basis of religion, that is a black hole,” Johnson said. “You should be able to discriminate for stink or (if a customer is) not wearing shoes, (but) if we discriminate on the basis of religion, that’s doing harm to a big class of people.”

It might. But this is not a clear-headed way to think about the role of government. Discrimination hurts, but discrimination is part of life. We discriminate when we pick our friends, jobs, where we live. In private life, discrimination is constant.

Government discrimination is wrong. Jim Crow — segregation — was very wrong. It is good that the Civil Rights Act ended that. But Barry Goldwater was right 52 years ago and Rand Paul right in 2013, when each said that two of the nine parts of the Civil Rights Act were wrong: the two parts that reach into private life.

I suspect Johnson defends the rules because he fears the ignorant media won’t acknowledge the difference. Goldwater’s comments helped end his presidential hopes, and the media bullied Rand Paul into silence.

But Libertarian candidates should explain the difference, not cave in to the anti-discrimination mob.

No Christian photographer should be forced to photograph a gay wedding. No Black Student Association should be forced to accept whites. No Jewish baker should be forced to put swastikas on a cake.

Every private business should be allowed to refuse service to whomever they want. Outlawing all discrimination perpetuates hatred by driving it underground. Hatred festers when people don’t know who the bigots are.

Yes, it was cruel when lunch counters turned blacks away. But today there are many places to eat lunch or buy wedding cakes. If a restaurant refuses blacks, others will profit by serving people the racists reject. Many of us will boycott the racists and give money to the inclusive businesses. That’s a better solution than government trying to force people to act against their beliefs.

Government should respect that difference between public and private life.

That issue notwithstanding, Johnson and Weld are much better than Clinton or Trump. They favor free trade, work visas for migrant workers and entrepreneurial innovation. The future, Johnson says, is “Uber everything — get government out of the way.”

Hillary Clinton, by contrast, threatened a crackdown on Uber if it didn’t behave more like a regulated, unionized employer.

Donald Trump calls Johnson a “fringe candidate” and claims the route to prosperity is threatening trade partners with tariffs.

I’ll grill the “fringe candidates” this week. Gary Johnson and Bill Weld understand markets, government and freedom much better than their rivals do.
[mybooktable book=”no-cant-government-fails-individuals-succeed” display=”summary” buybutton_shadowbox=”true”]

John Stossel previews his Libertarian town hall

Policy

national-debt-capitol-hill

US national debt piles up next to the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., where no one has the political courage to rise to the challenge of staving off the coming crisis.

It’s not a big day for normal people, but today is exciting for fiscal policy wonks because the Congressional Budget Office has released its new 10-year forecast of how much revenue Uncle Sam will collect based on current law and how much the burden of government spending will expand if policy is left on auto-pilot.

Most observers will probably focus on the fact that budget deficits are projected to grow rapidly in future years, reaching $1 trillion in 2024.

That’s not welcome news, though I think it’s far more important to focus on the disease of too much spending rather than the symptom of red ink.

But let’s temporarily set that issue aside because the really big news from the CBO report is that we have new evidence that it’s actually very simple to balance the budget without tax increases.

According to CBO’s new forecast, federal tax revenue is projected to grow by an average of 4.3 percent each year, which means receipts will jump from 3.28 trillion this year to $4.99 trillion in 2026.

And since federal spending this year is estimated to be $3.87 trillion, we can make some simple calculation about the amount of fiscal discipline needed to balance the budget.

A spending freeze would balance the budget by 2020. But for those who want to let government grow at 2 percent annually (equal to CBO’s projection for inflation), the budget is balanced by 2024.

So here’s the choice in front of the American people. Either allow spending to grow on autopilot, which would mean a return to trillion dollar-plus deficits within eight years. Or limit spending so it grows at the rate of inflation, which would balance the budget in eight years.

Seems like an obvious choice.

By the way, when I crunched the CBO numbers back in 2010, they showed that it would take 10 years to balance the budget if federal spending grew 2 percent per year.

So why, today, can we balance the budget faster if spending grows 2 percent annually?

For the simple reason that all those fights earlier this decade about debt limits, government shutdowns, spending caps, and sequestration actually produced a meaningful victory for advocates of spending restraint. The net result of those budget battles was a five-year nominal spending freeze.

Obama-Spending-Binge

Federal Spending from 2000 to the present. (Source: Dan Mitchell)

In other words, Congress actually out-performed my hopes and expectations (probably the only time in my life I will write that sentence).*

Here’s a video I narrated on this topic of spending restraint and fiscal balance back in 2010.

Everything I said back then is still true, other than simply adjusting the numbers to reflect a new forecast.

The bottom line is that modest spending restraint is all that’s needed to balance the budget.

That being said, I can’t resist pointing out that eliminating the deficit should not be our primary goal. It’s not good to have red ink, to be sure, but the more important goal should be to reduce the burden of federal spending.

That’s why I keep promoting my Golden Rule. If government grows slower than the private sector, that means the burden of spending (measured as a share of GDP) will decline over time.

And it’s why I’m a monomaniacal advocate of spending caps rather than a conventional balanced budget amendment. If you directly address the underlying disease of excessive government, you’ll automatically eliminate the symptom of government borrowing.

Which is why I very much enjoy sharing this chart whenever I’m debating one of my statist friends. It shows all the nations that have enjoyed great success with multi-year periods of spending restraint.

golden-rule-examples

Source: IMF World Economic Outlook database.

During these periods of fiscal responsibility, the burden of government falls as a share of economic output and deficits also decline as a share of GDP.

I then ask my leftist pals to show a similar table of countries that have gotten good results by raising taxes.

As you can imagine, that’s when there’s an uncomfortable silence in the room, perhaps because the European evidence very clearly shows that higher taxes lead to bigger government and more red ink (I also get a response of silence when I issue my challenge for statists to identify a single success story of big government).

*Congress has reverted to (bad) form, voting last year to weaken spending caps.

[mybooktable book=”global-tax-revolution-the-rise-of-tax-competition-and-the-battle-to-defend-it” display=”summary” buybutton_shadowbox=”true”]

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its

News, US

New York Times (NYT) building in New York City. (PHOTO: REUTERS)

New York Times (NYT) building in New York City. (PHOTO: REUTERS)

DEVELOPING: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is probing a potential hack at the New York Times targeting reporters’ email accounts, Fox News reported on Tuesday. A law enforcement source close to the investigation told Fox News the investigation, which is ongoing, is attempting to determine exactly how the hackers might have gained access and how severe the breach into the Times email accounts was.

The source, who spoke to Fox on the condition of anonymity, said it wasn’t clear exactly how many New York Times email accounts might have been infiltrated. The potential hack was first reported by CNN, which reported that other U.S.-based news organization had been targeted.

Investigators said it is too early to determine who the hackers were or what their motivations are. The source speaking to Fox News was unaware of other reporters at different agencies who may have been targeted.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is

Opinion

An Uber sign is seen in a car in New York June 30, 2015. (PHOTO: REUTERS)

An Uber sign is seen in a car in New York June 30, 2015. (PHOTO: REUTERS)

Massachusetts has a new tax aimed at punishing Uber and Lyft drivers who dare to compete with the government regulated taxi companies.

Of course, the tax advocates don’t describe it that way. Rather, they say the 20-cent fee – and note, it’s always a fee in bureau-speak, never tax – is a win-win for all that will take a cut of all Uber and Lyft rides to distribute among the taxi companies, the cities and towns and to the state. The estimated pot of this fee-not-tax could reach millions of dollars annually, and provide big bucks to the state’s transportation fund. On top of that, the revenues will also be used to help taxi services identify and put in place “new technologies and advanced service, safety and operational capabilities” that could also lead to more workforce development, according to the text of the bill signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican no less.

Wow. It’s like a wonder drug — a cure-all for the state’s transportation and job opportunity woes that seem to include failing taxi technology, whatever that means. But peer past the politicking and take a whiff of the stink. The tax, which take a nickel per Uber ride for the taxi companies, a dime per ride for the local governments, and another nickel for the state to deposit in its transportation coffers, is rooted in socialist ideology.

As Reuters reported, Larry Meister of the Boston-area Independent Taxi Operator’s Association cheered its passage by saying it’s about time – Uber and Lyft drivers have been dodging the regulations that taxi companies have had to abide for years. One such regulation? Vehicular inspections by police.

“They’ve been breaking the laws that are on the books that we’ve been following for many years,” Meister reportedly said.

So the answer is more laws – more fees, taxes and government controls and interventions? That’s a miserable mentality that has no place in a free-market America.

As Kirill Evdakov, the chief executive of Fasten ride service, said while opposing the tax in the same Reuters story: “I don’t think we should be in the business of subsidizing potential competitors.”

That’s exactly right.

Only a socialist – someone who thinks the government should oversee and control business and the economy – could applaud a tax that takes money from a private enterprise and siphons it into the hands of another private enterprise. It’s particularly galling, though, when the money being taken from the private business is being used to bolster the bottom line of a competing business – and then sold as a “safety” benefit for all.

This is theft, pure and simple. And the perpetrator is the government.

Calling it a fee, dressing it as a workforce development benefit, touting it as a safety measure and talking it up as a fairness issue that levels the free market field so all can compete is nothing but spin. You want an equitable playing field for both taxi and Uber drivers – one that provides a fair shot at profit for all? Think less government, not more. Think capitalism, not socialism.

Taxi drivers ought to be fighting for less regulation of their companies, not more rules and burdens for their competitors. That, after all, is the free-market way.

[mybooktable book=”the-devil-in-dc” display=”summary” buybutton_shadowbox=”false”]

[caption id="attachment_44020" align="aligncenter" width="740"] An Uber sign

Politics

FBI Director James Comey, left, speaks during a press conference on July 5, 2016, while Hillary Clinton, right, followed by aide Huma Abedin, to her right, at Andrews Air Force Base on July 5, 2016. (Photos: AP)

FBI Director James Comey, left, speaks during a press conference on July 5, 2016, while Hillary Clinton, right, followed by aide Huma Abedin, to her right, at Andrews Air Force Base on July 5, 2016. (Photos: AP)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) uncovered nearly 15,000 more emails and materials sent to or from Hillary Clinton as part of the agency’s investigation into Clinton’s use of private email at the State Department. The latest documents, which the Bureau sent to the State Department, were not among the 30,000 work-related emails turned over by Clinton and her attorneys in December 2014. The development comes as the government watchdog group Judicial Watch obtained emails as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit relating to the Clinton Foundation.

The State Department confirmed it has received “tens of thousands” of personal and work-related email materials–including the 14,900 emails found by the FBI–that it will review. Worth noting, that number is far higher than the “several thousand” that FBI Director James Comey said in July had been uncovered as part of his agency’s investigation, and completely separate from those Mrs. Clinton has even referenced as existing in the past.

“We found those additional emails in a variety of ways,” Comey explained in July. “Some had been deleted over the years and we found traces of them on devices that supported or were connected to the private e-mail domain. Others we found by reviewing the archived government e-mail accounts of people who had been government employees at the same time as Secretary Clinton…still others we recovered from the laborious review of the millions of e-mail fragments dumped into the slack space of the server decommissioned in 2013.”

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Monday night in Ohio called for the appointment of a special prosecutor amid the discovery of emails indicating a “pay-to-play” scheme at the Clinton Foundation and an apparent lie told to federal agents.

On Friday, the New York Times reported that Mrs. Clinton told the FBI during her nearly 3.5-hour long interview that former secretary Colin Powell had advised her on his use of private email during his tenure. However, on Saturday, Mr. Powell pushed back by saying the Clinton team was trying to “pin” her actions on him. He added that he did not use his AOL email to transmit classified information, as Mrs. Clinton in fact did, nor did he use a private home brew server. Further, according to Mr. Powell, the conversation he had with her was a full year after she had already set up the server, not before as she claimed during her FBI interview.

“Her people have been trying to pin it on me,” Mr. Powell said over the weekend in an interview published Sunday night. “The truth is, she was using [the private email server] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did.”

“Colin Powell just proved again how dishonest Hillary Clinton is after he busted her for trying to pin her email scandal on him – one more Hillary Clinton lie,” Mr. Trump said at the campaign event in Akron.

The State Department is in the process of assessing which ones can be released to Judicial Watch, who recently got a federal judge to require Mrs. Clinton respond in writing and under oath to their questions on the matter. Judicial Watch on Monday released 725 pages of new documents, including previously unreleased emails in which Mrs. Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin provided Clinton Foundation donors special, expedited access to the secretary of state. In many instances, the preferential treatment provided to donors was at the specific request of Clinton Foundation executive Douglas Band.

“These new emails confirm that Hillary Clinton abused her office by selling favors to Clinton Foundation donors,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “There needs to be a serious, independent investigation to determine whether Clinton and others broke the law.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) uncovered

Economy

new-home-construction-housing-starts

(Photo: Reuters)

The Commerce Department reported on Tuesday new single-family homes sales in the U.S. surged 12.4% last month to an annualized rate of 654,000 units. The report topped expectations, as Wall Street was expecting 580,000 units.

The annual rate was at the highest level since October 2007, though new home sales in June were revised down to 582,000 units from the previously reported 592,000 units. Single-family home sales, which account for about 9.6 percent of overall home sales, are likely exaggerating the health and strength of the housing market. Housing starts are weak despite sales being up 31.3% from a year ago.

New single-family homes sales shot up by 40.0% in the Northeast and ticked up slighty by 1.2% in the Midwest. Sales in the populous South also surged 18.1%, the highest level since July 2007. However, new home sales were flat in the West during the month of July, where home prices have increased more than the national average amid tight inventories.

In July, the inventory of new homes on the market actually declined 2.9% to 233,000 units, the lowest level since November 2015. Builders must greatly increase new home construction in order to meet demand, though that’s not expected or likely. At July’s sales pace it would take just 4.3 months to move through the supply of houses on the market, the shortest period June 2013 and a decline from 4.9 months in June.

The median price for a new home declined 0.5% on a year-over-year basis to $294,600.

The Commerce Department reported on Tuesday new

News, US

Wasil Farooqui, of the Roanoke area. (PHOTO: Western Virginia Regional Jail via ABC News)

Wasil Farooqui, of the Roanoke area. (PHOTO: Western Virginia Regional Jail via ABC News)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating a suspected ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in Virginia last weekend, which they believe was an attempted beheading. Wasil Farooqui, 20, was charged with two counts of aggravated malicious wounding in the attack that took place on Saturday and left two people wounded. ABC News reported that the FBI have been aware of Farooqui and are familiar with the case.

ABC News reported that authorities were aware of Farooqui, who traveled to Turkey in the last year and is believed to have tried to sneak into Syria to meet with ISIS militants. Farooqui took a knife to a man and woman at an apartment complex in Roanoke, Virginia, injuring both victims seriously during the attack. Witnesses told authorities that Farooqi was shouting “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God is Great”).

Federal investigators believe that Farooqui was trying to behead the male victim and said that there was no connection between FarooqUi and the victims. Farooqui and his two victims were hospitalized after the attack, though their conditions were not immediately clear. The suspected terrorist is being held without bond at the Western Virginia Regional Jail, according to the jail database.

“The FBI is working with the Police Department following the incident that occurred on Saturday evening,” Special Agent In Charge Adam Lee, head of the FBI’s Richmond field office told ABC News in a statement. “While I cannot discuss details of the investigation at this time, I do want to reassure the community that we are working to determine the nature of the incident.”

Farooqi was being held without bond at the Western Virginia Regional Jail.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating

Politics

Donald Trump speaks to supporters in Akron, Ohio on Monday August 22, 2016. (Photo: AP/Associated Press)

Donald Trump speaks to supporters in Akron, Ohio on Monday August 22, 2016. (Photo: AP/Associated Press)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for a special prosecutor amid emails indicating a “pay-to-play” scheme at the Clinton Foundation and an apparent lie told to federal agents. Speaking to supporters in Akron, Ohio on Monday, the New York businessman said Mrs. Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state “forgot the number one rule for a public servant”–to serve the public, not yourself.

“The Justice Department is required to appoint an independent special prosecutor because it has proven itself to be, really, sadly, a political arm of the White House. Nobody has ever seen anything like this before,” said Trump, who took the stage nearly an hour before he was scheduled to speak. “The amounts involved, the favors done and the significant number of times it was done require an expedited investigation by a special prosecutor immediately, immediately, immediately.”

Mrs. Clinton called the attacks on her private email server and the Clinton Foundation “wacky” during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Monday night. She joked about the emails and the fact that pundits said she “would be dead in six months.”

“So with every breath I take I feel like I have a new lease on life.”

But Mr. Trump, his supporters and government watchdog groups aren’t laughing. On Friday, the New York Times reported that Mrs. Clinton told the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during her nearly 3.5-hour long interview that former secretary Colin Powell had advised her his use of private email during his tenure, though he did not use a private server.

On Saturday, Mr. Powell pushed back, saying the Clinton team was trying to “pin” her actions on him. Further, he said that he did not use his AOL email to transmit classified information, as Mrs. Clinton in fact did, and the conversation he had with her was a full year after she had already set up the server, not before as she claimed during her FBI interview.

“Her people have been trying to pin it on me,” Mr. Powell said over the weekend in an interview published Sunday night. “The truth is, she was using [the private email server] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did.”

Hillary Clinton talks to supporters at a rally in August 2016. (Photo: AP/Associated Press)

Hillary Clinton talks to supporters at a rally in August 2016. (Photo: AP/Associated Press)

Lying to FBI agents, specifically about material information, is a felony.

“Colin Powell just proved again how dishonest Hillary Clinton is after he busted her for trying to pin her email scandal on him – one more Hillary Clinton lie,” Mr. Trump said at the campaign event in response.

The FBI will release up to 15,000 unpublished emails that were recovered during their investigation into Clinton’s private server, which was one of several she used and attempted to dispose of after leaving the Obama administration. The State Department is in the process of assessing which ones can be released to Judicial Watch, who recently got a federal judge to require Mrs. Clinton respond in writing and under oath to the group’s questions.

“Some former prosecutors have even suggested that the coordination between the pay-for-play State Department and the Clinton Foundation constitute a clear example of RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization) enterprise,” Mr. Trump said at the event in Ohio. His statements follow the release of a leaked email from a Clinton-allied firm to Democratic officials actually used the words “pay-for-play” in regards to the donations.

Perkins-Cole

Earlier Monday, former President Bill Clinton attempted to calm the political firestorm and stop the bleeding among voters by announcing he would resign from the the Clinton Foundation’s board if his wife is elected in November. The foundation also said they would stop taking money from foreign governments after it was revealed the crown prince of Bahrain gave multiple millions to Mrs. Clinton for what appears to be access. However, the Clintons made a similiar promise to the American people and the Obama administration when she was nomination by the president.

Donald Trump called for a special prosecutor

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