"Where you can find almost anything with A Click A Pick!"
Go to content
US Monthly Headline News April 2022 - Page 1
Dylan Stableford

The Senate on Thursday voted 53-47 to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Three Republicans senators — Mitt Romney (Utah), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) — joined all 48 Democrats and two independents in voting to confirm Jackson to the nation’s highest court. Jackson, 51, will become the Supreme Court’s 116th justice and first Black woman ever to sit on its bench. Vice President Kamala Harris, the nation’s first woman, first Black person and first Asian American to hold that office, presided over the historic vote. The final tally — which was delayed by more than 15 minutes by GOP Sen. Rand Paul's absence — was met with applause in the chamber when Harris announced it. Of the 115 justices that have come before Jackson, 110 were white men, two were Black men, four were white women, and one was a Latina woman.
tporter@businessinsider.com (Tom Porter)

Republicans walked out of the Senate chamber during a standing ovation as Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed as the Black female Supreme Court justice in US history. Video footage showed several Republican senators leaving their seats and heading to the exits as applause erupted in the chamber after the Senate voted 53-47 to confirm her to the Supreme Court on Thursday. The one Republican senator filmed joining the applause as colleagues filed past was Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who was one of only three moderate Republicans who voted to confirm Joe Biden's nominee. The others were Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
CNN's White House reporter invokes 'old Confederacy' to slam GOP senators voting against Judge Jackson
Lindsay Kornick

CNN's White House reporter John Harwood compared Republican senators who voted against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Confederacy. On Thursday, Jackson was confirmed into the Supreme Court by a 53-47 vote. Every Democrat senator voted in favor of confirming Jackson along with Republican Sens. Mitt Romney, Utah, Susan Collins, Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, Alaska. Harwood criticized Republicans opposition to Jackson suggesting they are comparable to Confederate sympathizers who voted against Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
litaliano@insider.com (Laura Italiano)

The FBI has arrested two men in an alarming alleged plot to ingratiate themselves with federal law enforcement officials — including a Secret Service agent assigned to First Lady Jill Biden's detail. Four members of the Secret Service have been placed on leave as a result of the investigation, officials said, without releasing their names. One Secret Service agent in the First Lady's detail was offered a $2,000 assault rifle by one of the men arrested, officials said. It's not clear if that agent is among those on leave. According to an FBI affidavit filed Wednesday night in US District Court in DC, Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, began the plot by posing as Department of Homeland Security employees. The two allegedly obtained handguns, rifles and tactical gear, and drove around in a black GMC SUV — equipped with emergency lights — as part of their disguise.
By Megan Cerullo

Overseas airlines are having to cancel hundreds of flights as they grapple with coronavirus-related staffing shortages weeks after they ditched rules requiring passengers and staff to mask up in the air. The disruptions also come as the CEOs of leading U.S. airlines urge the Biden administration to roll back a federal rule requiring that masks be worn in the sky. Masks have not been required on flights operated by budget-friendly, Swiss airline EasyJet since March 27, the airline said in a statement. The move came after the UK removed all travel restrictions earlier in March.
jzeballos@businessinsider.com (Joseph Zeballos-Roig)

Congress approved a bill on Thursday afternoon to suspend trade relations with Russia. It's the first time that lawmakers sent legislation to punish the Kremlin to President Joe Biden's desk since Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine over a month ago. Appetite has grown in Congress to further isolate Moscow with new reports of Russian soldiers indiscriminately killing Ukrainian civilians. Both the House and Senate cleared the bill with blowout bipartisan margins. Earlier in the day, the Senate approved the measure to freeze free trade with Russia in a 100-0 vote.
Tim Balk

Atrove of White House records that former President Donald Trump swiped and shipped to Florida came under scrutiny Thursday, as word spread that the Justice Department was in the early stages of an investigation and a powerful New York congresswoman sought access to the files. The documents, held in 15 boxes, were transferred from Trump to the National Archives and Records Administration in January, according to the national archivist. Trump had previously taken the documents, some of which were classified, to his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach. The Washington Post reported Thursday that the Justice Department had taken the initial steps in an investigation of the records.
Vaughn Hillyard and Zoë Richards

A report issued Wednesday by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich found no evidence of widespread voter fraud or irregularities associated with the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County while raising concerns about some voting procedures. The interim report, six months into an investigation, was detailed in a 12-page letter to Senate President Karen Fann. Brnovich, a Republican, said his office “has left no stone unturned in the aftermath of the 2020 election.” Former President Donald Trump is pursuing a persistent pressure campaign to uncover any illegal activity that would support his false claims that he defeated President Joe Biden in Arizona 17 months ago. Trump lost Arizona by less than 10,500 votes, and a GOP-commissioned review in Maricopa County confirmed Biden’s victory.
Mariella Moon

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland has revealed that the United States secretly removed malware from computer networks around the world over the past few weeks to pre-empt Russian cyberattacks. As The New York Times reports, Garland's announcement comes shortly after the White House warned companies that Russia could attack critical infrastructure in the country, such as financial institutions and the electric grid. Apparently, the malware the US removed enabled the intelligence arm of the Russian military called the GRU to create botnets out of the infected computer networks. According to the Justice Department, the malware was designed to infect firewalls and made the compromised networks part of a botnet called Cyclops Blink. It's controlled by Sandworm, a notorious group that the US government had previously connected to the GRU. Cyclops Blink is Sandworm's latest known botnet, and it only came to light back in February. It's still unclear what Russia was planning to do with the hijacked computers, but botnets are typically used to perform large-scale Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, as well as to send spam and to compromise sensitive information.
Salvador Hernandez

Brian Kolfage, an Iraq War veteran who launched a multimillion dollar crowdfunding effort to build a private border wall, has agreed to plead guilty to fraud charges after prosecutors say he surreptitiously took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the fundraiser. Before launching We Build The Wall, Kolfage had made a living by peddling right-wing misinformation on social media, eventually leading to him being banned on Facebook. In a letter filed in the federal Southern District of New York, federal prosecutors said that in addition to the attempt and conspiracy to commit wire fraud charges, Kolfage also agreed to plead guilty to federal charges of lying on his 2019 taxes. According to prosecutors, Kolfage first claimed to have earned $63,574 that year, and then filed a correction claiming $300,000, but officials claimed Kolfage's income for that year "were materially in excess of that amount."
Ex-president also rejects suggestions he used ‘burner phones’ on day of the assault in Washington Post interview
Oliver Laughland

Donald Trump has said he regrets not marching on the US Capitol building with his supporters on the day of the January 6 insurrection and again rejected suggestions he used “burner phones” on the day of the assault. In a defiant interview with the Washington Post the former president said he had pressed to march with his supporters on January 6, but was blocked from doing so by Secret Service agents. “Secret Service said I couldn’t go. I would have gone there in a minute,” Trump told the Post, later bragging about the size of the “tremendous crowd” at the “Save America” rally that day. Last month CBS News and the Post revealed internal White House phone records from the day of the attack on the Capitol showed a seven-hour-and-37-minute gap in Trump’s phone logs including the period in which the assault occurred. The reports revealed the House committee investigating the attack were examining whether Trump had used burner phones – disposable mobile phones – during that period.
More than a dozen states have introduced legislation to limit discussions about sexual orientation or gender identity in schools.
by Brooke Migdon

In just the first three months of the year, more than 200 bills targeting LGBTQ+ people have been introduced in state legislatures nationwide. Dozens of them aim to restrict talk of sexual orientation and gender identity within school walls, with proponents arguing that exposure to such topics may be “inappropriate” for young children – or even confuse them enough to make them doubt their identities. In Florida, the now-infamous Parental Rights in Education law, which has been labeled by its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, will, beginning this summer, forbid the state’s public primary school teachers from engaging in instruction related to sexual orientation or gender identity. Teachers through high school will not be permitted to address those subjects in a manner not considered “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” for their students.
By Savannah Tryens-Fernandes | stryens-fernandes@al.com

The Alabama Senate passed its own version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law Thursday after a surprise amendment to a transgender bathroom bill. At the start of debate Thursday, an amendment was offered that would stop K-5 elementary teachers from “instruction” on sexuality and gender. Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law, widely called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, last month that said “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
CNBC

New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a judge Thursday to hold former President Donald Trump in contempt of court for refusing to comply with a judge’s order to turn over documents for her investigation of his company. James also asked Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron to fine Trump $10,000 for every day he fails to surrender those documents. The attorney general also says in a court filing that Trump is in violation of Engoron’s order to give the state’s investigators the documents by March 31 pursuant to a subpoena, a deadline that itself had previously been extended from March 3. James is investigating allegations that the Trump Organization manipulated the stated values of various real estate assets to get better financial terms when applying for loans and insurance, and for tax purposes.
Gerrard Kaonga

Avideo of a Donald Trump supporter claiming that Antifa was responsible for the January 6 riots on the Capitol has gone viral on social media. One of the members of comedy duo The Good Liars, Jason Selvig, spoke to the man at a Trump rally in Michigan and posted the video to his personal Twitter as well as The Good Liars, Twitter page. The video so far has over 1.9 million views. Referring to the riots, Selvig asked the man why Antifa would they want to prevent Joe Biden, a candidate they supported, from becoming president. "How do you all feel about the events of January 6? Selvig asked. The unnamed man answered: "A lot of that was Antifa."
Josh Dawsey

PALM BEACH, Fla. — Former president Donald Trump voiced regret Wednesday over not marching to the U.S. Capitol the day his supporters stormed the building, and he defended his long silence during the attack by claiming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others were responsible for ending the deadly violence. “I thought it was a shame, and I kept asking why isn’t she doing something about it? Why isn’t Nancy Pelosi doing something about it? And the mayor of D.C. also. The mayor of D.C. and Nancy Pelosi are in charge,” Trump said of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in a 45-minute interview with The Washington Post. “I hated seeing it. I hated seeing it. And I said, ‘It’s got to be taken care of,’ and I assumed they were taking care of it.” The 45th president has repeatedly deflected blame for stoking the attack with false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and in the interview, he struck a defiant posture, refusing to say whether he would testify before a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault. Trump said he didn’t remember “getting very many” phone calls that day, and he denied removing call logs or using burner phones.
Kipp Jones

Conservative Newsmax TV host Eric Bolling issued an impassioned six-minute plea to Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday regarding his stance on Russia’s war on Ukraine. Bolling has shown solidarity with the people of Ukraine during his recent daily monologues. He asked Carlson to take back old comments and to stop making new ones the Kremlin can use to justify its atrocities. Carlson has long been a skeptic of intervening in Europe’s affairs. In the lead-up to Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion, the Fox News host was apathetic toward the conflict and antagonistic toward Ukraine’s government. In February, after Russian tanks and troops entered Ukraine’s sovereign territory, Carlson dismissed the conflict as a mere “border dispute.” He had previously referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator.” After showing his audience images of dead civilians, Bolling challenged Carlson to use his platform to highlight the horrors of war. He also asked Carlson to cease letting Russia’s state media pimp out his monologues.
Steve Benen

As a bipartisan majority in the Senate prepares to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell complained yesterday that Democrats not only support the wrong nominee, they also have the wrong ideas about the separation of powers in general. From the Kentucky Republican’s remarks on the Senate floor: For those unfamiliar with Capitol Hill geography, when lawmakers refer to “crossing the street,” they’re generally talking about the U.S. Supreme Court, which is literally on the other side of 1st Street, just to the east of the U.S. Capitol.
Don Sweeney, The Sacramento Bee

Apr. 6—A grocery chain with 254 stores in California, Washington, Idaho and several other western states faces a $175,000 fine for price-gouging consumers for eggs during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials reported. Smart & Final, which also has stores in Oregon, Arizona, Nevada and Northern Mexico, settled the price-gouging case with the California Department of Justice, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced in a news release.
ALAN FRAM | Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans blocked a Democratic attempt to begin Senate debate on a $10 billion COVID-19 compromise, pressing to entangle the bipartisan package with an election-year showdown over immigration restrictions that poses a politically uncomfortable fight for Democrats. A day after Democratic and GOP bargainers reached agreement on providing the money for treatments, vaccines and testing, a Democratic move to push the measure past a procedural hurdle failed 52-47 Tuesday. All 50 Republicans opposed the move, leaving Democrats 13 votes short of the 60 they needed to prevail.
Oliver O'Connell, Maroosha Muzaffar, Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Republicans and conservative commentators are being roundly condemned for circulating misleadingly edited clips that purport to show Joe Biden being humiliatingly ignored in favour of Barack Obama at a White House event yesterday. Mr Obama was making his first public speech at the executive mansion since he left office. He participated in a celebration of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, as Mr Biden announced changes to the healthcare programme that could see as many as 200,000 uninsured Americans become eligible for new coverage.
Democrats zero in on right-wing influence over the Supreme Court after the GOP attacked 'far-left dark money groups' during Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearings
oseddiq@insider.com (Oma Seddiq)

Republicans called out liberal dark money spending during Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearings. Democrats on Tuesday released a report to highlight the long-running dark money spending by right-wing donors on judicial nominations. "The Judicial Crisis Network lurks at the center of a web of right-wing front groups built to control the Supreme Court," Sen. Whitehouse said. During last month's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Republicans unleashed a myriad of complaints about "far-left dark money groups" that they argued played a part in Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination process. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, aired concerns about "the troubling role of far-left dark money" that is "attacking the independence of the judiciary." One after the other, Republicans echoed that messaging. The scenes were reminiscent of when Democrats, notably Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, raised concerns about right-wing dark money influence over the Supreme Court during the 2020 confirmation hearings for President Donald Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Whitehouse said millions of dollars in undisclosed donations went toward boosting conservative judicial nominees.
By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter

A 5-4 Supreme Court reinstated a Trump-era rule Wednesday that restricts the authority of states to reject federal permits under the Clean Water Act in another ruling putting the court's emergency docket in the spotlight. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's liberal justices in dissent, arguing that the court's majority had "gone astray" by granting an unwarranted request on its emergency docket. "That renders the Court's emergency docket not for emergencies at all," Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the four dissenters. She said that the Republican-led states and others that had petitioned the court for emergency relief had not shown they would suffer the necessary irreparable harm to make their case. The five conservative justices did not explain their reasoning for reinstating the Trump-era rule. The emergency docket -- referred to by some justices and outside observers as the "shadow docket" -- has increasingly come under criticism by those who say that important issues are being resolved without the benefit of full briefing schedule and oral arguments. While the court's liberals, especially Kagan, have often criticized the use of emergency petitions, this is the first time Roberts has explicitly joined in.
By Timothy Gardner, David Shepardson and Liz Hampton

WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) - U.S. oil executives will tell Congress on Wednesday they are boosting energy output and no one company sets the price of gasoline, according to pre-released written testimony, as they defend charges by lawmakers of gouging with high fuel prices. Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations are holding the hearing, slated for 10:30 a.m. EDT (14:30 GMT), to grill companies on why gasoline prices remain elevated even though prices for crude oil, the feedstock for fuels, have dropped. U.S. gasoline prices, driven up by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions on Moscow's energy exports, hit a record, before inflation adjustments, on March 11 of $4.33 a gallon and slipped to $4.17 a gallon on Wednesday, according to the AAA motorist group, a decline of about 4%.
Heather Digby Parton

A couple of weeks ago, some Republican senators took to the microphones to declare that the war in Ukraine has shown that Democrats are a bunch of weaklings who can't defend America. What a shocker? One of them even called Joe Biden "Bambi's brother." But despite their fist-shaking, you could see they were just going through the motions. That's because they know their party is hopelessly confused about what they need to do to appeal to their base on foreign policy these days. Elected GOP officials are all over the map on this issue, with a growing faction becoming more hostile to support Ukraine by the day. It's actually not unprecedented for Republicans to vote against military action instigated by Democratic presidents and it isn't even unprecedented for them to refuse to back NATO. Back in the '90s, many of them voted against intervention in the Baltic region after the former Yugoslavia splintered, even in the face of ethnic cleansing and genocide. The House GOP leader at the time, Tom Delay of Texas, said he didn't trust the president and claimed the crisis was "falsely described as a huge humanitarian problem, when in comparison to other places, it was nothing." ( It was not nothing.)
by Rebecca Beitsch and Harper Neidig

A series of revelations about the involvement of allies of former President Trump in the days leading up to Jan. 6 is providing mounting evidence to the committee charged with investigating the attack as it gears up for prime-time hearings. In the span of just a week, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) revealed the former president pressured him to intervene to unwind the election even after Jan. 6. Texts from Ginni Thomas to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows have also surfaced, showing the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas urged him to find a way to keep the president in office. And a federal judge found it “more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6.”
by Kelsey Carolan

Former President Trump is raising eyebrows after he seemingly admitted to losing the 2020 presidential election in a video published by The Atlantic Monday. “I didn’t win the election,” Trump, who has repeatedly rejected President Biden’s victory, said while speaking in July to a panel of historians convened by Julian Zelizer, a Princeton professor and editor of “The Presidency of Donald Trump: A First Historical Assessment.” However, Trump falsely also said the vote was “rigged and lost,” adding that Iran, China and South Korea were happy to see Biden in office.
The lies Republicans tell the American people and some believe them.

Republican-controlled states have higher murder rates than Democratic ones: study
Ben Adler

Republican politicians routinely claim that cities run by Democrats have been experiencing crime waves caused by failed governance, but a new study shows murder rates are actually higher in states and cities controlled by Republicans. “We’re seeing murders in our cities, all Democrat-run,” former President Donald Trump asserted at a March 26 rally in Georgia. “People are afraid to go out.” In February, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., blamed Democrats for a 2018 law that reduced some federal prison sentences — even though it was signed by Trump after passing a GOP-controlled Congress. “It’s your party who voted in lockstep for the First Step Act that let thousands of violent felons on the street who have now committed innumerable violent crimes,” Cotton said during a speech in the Senate.
Greene revives QAnon smear in attack on GOP senators backing Jackson's SCOTUS nomination
Christopher Wilson

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on Monday launched an outlandish attack against three Republican senators who support Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, accusing them of somehow being “pro-pedophile.” The line of attack echoes Greene’s past support for the QAnon conspiracy theory that alleged former President Donald Trump was working to take down a powerful cabal of child traffickers typically portrayed as the Democratic elite. Believers in the debunked belief frequently allege that their political opponents support pedophiles.
The administration's latest review calls for canceling the weapon, but the brass wants it in the fleet.
By Connor O’Brien

The nation’s top military officer on Tuesday told lawmakers that he still supports the development of a nuclear-tipped sea-launched cruise missile that the Biden administration wants to cancel. The comments from Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley make him the latest senior officer to break with the administration’s plan to scrap the missile, after top officers in Europe and overseeing the nuclear force backed it. Milley told the House Armed Services Committee that his advice to the commander in chief would stay private, but said his views on the cruise missile, known as the SLCM-N, and low-yield nuclear weapons “have not” changed. “I will say that to you though, as members of Congress who have oversight responsibilities, my position on SLCM-N has not changed,” Milley said. “My general view is that this president or any president deserves to have multiple options to deal with national security situations.”
“The Palin model—failed as it was: a proud lack of political knowledge, mixed with attention-grabbing antics—set the mold for today's Republican troll caucus,” says Chris Hayes. “And now, 15 years later after creating the genre, Palin is back trying make a run to join them.”
Will Trump’s Truth Social I go the way of Trump steaks?

Drew Harwell, Josh Dawsey

Here’s a truth former president Donald Trump doesn’t want to hear: His social network, Truth Social, is falling apart. The app — a Twitter look-alike where posts are called “truths” — has seen its downloads plunge so low that it has fallen off the App Store charts. The company is losing investors, executives and attention. And though his adult sons just joined, Trump himself hasn’t posted there in weeks. Devin Nunes, the former member of Congress from California who gave up the seat that he held for 19 years to run the company, had said the app would be “fully operational” by the end of March. But it has been hamstrung by technical issues, including a waiting list that has blocked hundreds of thousands of potential users during its crucial first weeks online. Trump has privately fumed about the app’s slow rollout and has mused about joining other platforms such as Gettr, one of its biggest competitors, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
By Oren Liebermann, CNN

The US successfully tested a hypersonic missile in mid-March but kept it quiet for two weeks to avoid escalating tensions with Russia as President Joe Biden was about to travel to Europe, according to a defense official familiar with the matter. The Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) was launched from a B-52 bomber off the west coast, the official said, in the first successful test of the Lockheed Martin version of the system. A booster engine accelerated the missile to high speed, at which point the air-breathing scramjet engine ignited and propelled the missile at hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 and above. The official offered scant details of the missile test, only noting the missile flew above 65,000 feet and for more than 300 miles. But even at the lower end of hypersonic range -- about 3,800 miles per hour -- a flight of 300 miles is less than 5 minutes. The test came days after Russia says it used its own hypersonic missile during its invasion of Ukraine, claiming it targeted an ammunition warehouse in western Ukraine.
Kaelan Deese

South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham made it known on Monday that if Republicans held the Senate majority, Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson "would not have been before this committee." Graham, a former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman who already declared he would vote against Jackson last week, said on Monday that if he were still in charge, "you would have somebody more moderate than this," repeating his grievances that President Joe Biden's nominee is a favorite of the "hard left." "So, I want you to know right now, the process you started to go to a simple majority vote is going rear its head here pretty soon when we're in charge. Then we'll talk about judges differently," said Graham, who voted to advance Jackson last year when she was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Steve Benen

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham caused a bit of a stir yesterday, insisting that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wouldn’t have even received a confirmation hearing if there were a GOP majority in the Senate right now. At first blush, it seemed as if the South Carolinian was effectively making an announcement: Senate Republicans support yet another blockade on a Democratic president’s Supreme Court nominees. But that’s not quite what Graham said. The Hill reported: “If we get back the Senate, and we’re in charge of this body, and there’s judicial openings, we will talk to our colleagues on the other side. But if we were in charge, she would not have been before this committee,” the senator declared. “You would have had somebody more moderate than this.” Graham added, “We are supposed to be trained seals over here clapping when you nominated a liberal. That’s not going to work.”
By Steve Almasy, Dakin Andone and Stella Chan, CNN

(CNN) Police have arrested a second suspect in connection to a mass shooting in downtown Sacramento, California, this weekend that left six people dead and a chaotic crime scene littered with more than 100 shell casings. Smiley Martin, 27, who was taken into police custody Tuesday, was found at the scene of the shooting early Sunday with "serious injuries from gunfire" and taken to a local hospital, the Sacramento Police Department said in a news release. He was "quickly identified as a person of interest and has remained under the supervision of an officer at the hospital while his treatment continues," the release said.
Erik Larson

(Bloomberg) -- A self-styled dating coach from Manhattan who participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and gushed online about “seeing cops literally run” was sentenced to 3 1/2 years behind bars after his social-media posts tipped off law enforcement to a stash of firearms. Samuel Fisher, a 33-year-old QAnon conspiracy theorist who ran a Facebook account called “LuxLife Dating Coach” out of his Upper East Side apartment, was sentenced Monday in state court in Manhattan. Fisher wasn’t armed during the attack on the Capitol, but his arsenal back home was illegal. “The defendant chose to arm himself to the teeth with a large variety of dangerous weapons,” Judge Robert Mandelbaum said before handing down the sentence. “The fact that he didn’t take action doesn’t take away from the seriousness of the offense.”
Republicans blame democrats for voter fraud but it is Republicans who keep getting caught committing voter fraud.

By BRIAN SLODYSKO and HOLLY RAMER, Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A former Trump administration official now running for Congress in New Hampshire voted twice during the 2016 primary election season, potentially violating federal voting law and leaving him at odds with the Republican Party’s intense focus on “election integrity." Matt Mowers, a leading Republican primary candidate looking to unseat Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, cast an absentee ballot in New Hampshire's 2016 presidential primary, voting records show. At the time, Mowers served as the director of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's presidential campaign in the pivotal early voting state. Four months later, after Christie's bid fizzled, Mowers cast another ballot in New Jersey's Republican presidential primary, using his parents' address to re-register in his home state, documents The Associated Press obtained through a public records request show.
BY SAMANTHA BERLIN

Footage of a protest in Rapid City, South Dakota, after a woman banned Native American guests from her hotel is quickly going viral on TikTok. A member of the Oglala Lakota named Eleanor Ferguson, or @lilnativething, posted footage of one protest to TikTok on Thursday where it received 1.4 million views and nearly 12,000 comments, many calling out the ban as a major human rights violation as well as racially discriminatory. "Last week a hotel decided to ban Native Americans in Rapid City, South Dakota," the on-screen text read over video of hundreds of protesters in the streets.
Study finds changes in attitudes, policy preferences about Covid-19, then president Donald Trump
Sravasti Dasgupta

Fox News viewers who were paid to watch CNN for 30 days eventually became more skeptical and less likely to buy into fake news, according to a new study. The study titled “The manifold effects of partisan media on viewers’ beliefs and attitudes: A field experiment with Fox News viewers” by David E Brockman and Joshua L Kalla was conducted in September 2020 and published last week.
By Chris Isidore, CNN Business

New York (CNN Business) Elon Musk recently purchased 9.2% of Twitter stock, according to a filing Monday, making him the largest shareholder in the company. News of the purchase sent shares of Twitter (TWTR) soaring 22% in early trading. Musk did not disclose what he paid for the shares, but his stake was worth $2.9 billion as of the close of trading Friday, and $3.5 billion after the spike early Monday. Musk's filing did not disclose the purpose of the purchase or any plans for the company. But he has been a high-profile critic of Twitter policies in the past. Last month he said he was giving "serious thought" to creating a new social media platform. "Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy," Musk tweeted last month. "What should be done?"
The U.S. Supreme Court nominee reportedly had sentenced the shooter to prison in 2017.
Nur Ibrahim

“Pizzagate” was a bizarre conspiracy theory that arose in 2016. It claimed Hillary Clinton and her former campaign chairman, John Podesta, ran a child sex ring in the basement of the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D. C. The theory grew on social media, promoted by Trump supporters and white supremacists, and resulted in a man walking into Comet Ping Pong with a rifle and firing numerous shots in December 2016. No one was injured or killed, but Edgar Maddison Welch, the shooter, pleaded guilty in March 2017 to federal charges of assault with a dangerous weapon and transporting a firearm over state lines. U.S. District Judge Jackson was presiding over the case at the time, and said that Welch’s actions had “literally left psychological wreckage.” She declared that “the extent of the recklessness in this case is breathtaking.” He was sentenced to four years in prison.
Facts do not matter to Republicans. One more in a one long line of lies that Republicans tell us, now they want us to believe Trump killed Osama bin Laden, no Trump did not get Osama bin Laden Obama did.

By Daniel Dale, CNN

Washington (CNN) Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain, a freshman Republican member of Congress, made a series of false claims in a short speech at former President Donald Trump's rally outside Detroit on Saturday -- notably including an assertion that Trump, who has endorsed her for re-election, was the president who caught terrorist Osama bin Laden. McClain's office didn't respond to requests for comment on her false claims in the rally speech, which ran for under six minutes. McClain tweeted Monday: "Joe Biden misspeaks every single day and the media pays no attention to it. Isn't it ironic how I'm under attack for an honest mistake." She didn't specify, however, which of the claims she was calling "an honest mistake." If she was referring to the remark about bin Laden, that wouldn't explain the three other remarks we debunk below.
By Jason Lemon

Representative Lisa McClain, a Michigan Republican, claimed on Saturday that former President Donald Trump "caught" former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. McClain, who first entered Congress during the 2020 election with Trump's endorsement, made the comment as she spoke ahead of the former president during a rally in Washington Township, Michigan. The GOP congresswoman lamented how she and many others view the country to be worse off under President Joe Biden than it was under Trump.
by Philip Bump

Sometimes news is newsworthy not because it is particularly revelatory but because it confirms something obvious that lacked confirmation or because it provides something broadly understood with a sense of scale. This certainly applies to the revelation — uncovered by the New York Times’s Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns and reported by CNN’s Brian Stelter — that President Biden views Rupert Murdoch, founder of Fox News, as “the most dangerous man in the world.” Obvious in broad strokes but now confirmed and with a sense of scale. But this top-line assessment of the face most associated with the right-wing cable network misses an important secondary assessment included in the Martin-Burns reporting. Fox News, the president feels, is “one of the most destructive forces in the United States,” as the reporters put it. This is the more important revelation as it recognizes the breadth of Fox News’s influence even beyond the elder Murdoch. There are four elements outside of Murdoch that make Fox News a uniquely damaging part of the American news landscape: its strength on the political right, the demonstrated way in which it shapes its viewers’ beliefs, its grip on Republican power and the views of its leadership.
Dan Mangan

President Joe Biden on Monday called for evidence to be gathered to put Russian leader Vladimir Putin on trial for war crimes related to his nation’s invasion of Ukraine. “He is a war criminal,” Biden said of Putin, on the heels of reports of mass killings of civilians by Russian-controlled troops in the town of Bucha, northwest of Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv. “This guy is brutal, and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous and everyone’s seen it,” Biden told reporters, a day after video and still images revealed the town’s streets littered with dead bodies. “I think it is a war crime ... He should be held accountable.” Biden also said that he plans to slap additional sanctions on Russia for its conduct during the war, which began with an invasion on Feb. 24.
Nikolas Lanum

Since the beginning of the year, liberal media networks MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS, and ABC have expressed concerns that the GOP will triumph over Democrats in the 2022 midterms, with many hosts asking how President Biden can save the party from an impending bloodbath. On March 23, The New York Times published an op-ed in which columnist Thomas B. Edsall asserted that Democrats are making it too easy for Republicans to claim victory and slammed liberals for turning away from the working class while tolerating brazen crime.  Meanwhile, on the March 30 airing of MSNBC’s "Meet the Press Daily,", host Chuck Todd sounded the alarm on Democrats’ dwindling chances of victory in November with a "Midterm meter" that placed the president’s party in the "shellacking" category, below bad, decent, and exceptional.
Raw Story

A groundbreaking new study paid viewers of the Fox News Network to watch CNN for 30 days. What they found is that the viewers ultimately became more skeptical and less likely to buy into fake news. The early impacts, after just three days, showed that the viewers were already starting to change. The findings of the study, written by David E. Brockman and Joshua L. Kalla, explained that the experiment used content analysis comparing the two networks during Sept. 2020. "During this period, the researchers explained that "CNN provided extensive coverage of COVID-19, which included information about the severity of the COVID-19 crisis and poor aspects of Trump's performance handling COVID-19. Fox News covered COVID-19 much less," said the study. The coverage of COVID-19 it did offer provided little of the information CNN did, instead giving viewers information about why the virus was not a serious threat. On the other hand Fox News extensively but highly selectively covered racial issues, and its coverage of these issues provided extensive information about Biden and other Democrats' supposed positions on them and about outbreaks of violence at protests for racial justice in American cities. CNN provided little information about either. The networks both covered the issue of voting by mail, but again dramatically different information about it (in addition to offering different frames)."
Jason Lemon

Representative Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, wants Fox News host Tucker Carlson to "answer" for what he views as his "support" of Russia's invasion of Ukraine after new evidence of "atrocities" carried out by Moscow's troops has emerged. Carlson, who hosts one of the most popular cable news shows in the U.S., has been regularly featured on Russian state television and utilized as propaganda by the Kremlin amid President Vladimir Putin's internationally condemned assault on Ukraine. Kinzinger has repeatedly slammed Carlson for the views he's expressed connected to the war, as have many other critics.
Fox News – America and Russia's Newsroom
Joni Ashbrook Special to the Advertiser

Russian President Vladimir Putin makes it nearly impossible for Russians to learn the truth about his unprovoked war in Ukraine that is targeting civilians and causing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Independent media outlets have been shut down leaving only Russian state-run outlets to saturate the airwaves with lies and propaganda. And if a Russian dares to call Putin's invasion into Ukraine a “war,” they face 15 years in prison. But one employee of state TV risked the consequences to get a tidbit of truth to the people. She interrupted the evening “news” by holding a sign behind the anchor that said: “Stop the war” and “Don't believe propaganda. They're lying to you.”
Russia Once Again Using Tucker Carlson in Its Propaganda
By Jon Jackson

Russian state media outlets and government agencies have recently been using videos and statements made by Tucker Carlson on his Fox News program in their propaganda regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Carlson's comments from segments where he discusses the U.S. allegedly funding bioweapons labs in Ukraine were carried by the Russian state-owned network RT on Wednesday, while the official Twitter account for the Russian Embassy in Turkey posted a clip on Thursday of the broadcaster making the claims about labs.
Chris Sununu of New Hampshire makes remarks at event noted for tradition of roasting politicians with cutting comedy speeches
Richard Luscombe

A Republican governor has blasted Donald Trump as “fucking crazy” and said if he was ever committed to a mental institution “he ain’t getting out”. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire delivered the remarks at Saturday’s Gridiron Club dinner in Washington DC, an event noted for its tradition of roasting politicians with satirical and often cutting comedy speeches.
by Michael McAdams
It has been nearly a month since President Biden addressed the nation to announce a ban on Russian oil imports amid Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. As Biden pointed out during his speech, this moment is “a stark reminder” that the U.S. needs to be energy independent. At the time, the president made clear to the American public that gas prices, already on the rise prior to the invasion, would reach new heights as a result of U.S. sanctions. Today, we are seeing his prediction play out as gas prices have soared 48 percent year-over-year.  As Biden said, this moment “should motivate us to accelerate the transition to clean energy,” rightly touting his plan to shift the majority of passenger vehicles to electric. While the president’s commitment to transitioning the U.S. to clean energy sources is important, the siloed thinking on electrification is inadequate. Our leaders must be practical about how fast new transportation technology can be adopted, and prioritize multiple low-carbon efforts — not just electric alone. After all, fleet turnovers take decades — not years.
Shanique Yates
More exposure to the environment at Tesla for Black employees has to come to light, and it’s not looking good — at all. The Los Angles Times reports that the American electric vehicle and clean energy company is currently under fire after several Black employees allege unfair and racist treatment occurring at the company’s California plant. One of the most alarming claims along with repeated incidents of being subject to racial slurs is that a number of Black employees were allegedly moved to the back of the plant when Tesla CEO Elon Musk would visit the plant because “they didn’t want a Black face up there.” These accounts of alleged racial discrimination at the plant add to the lawsuit filed against Tesla by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing on Feb. 9. AfroTech previously reported that the suit was filed on behalf of over 4,000 Black employees, both current and former, making it the largest racial discrimination lawsuit filed by the state due to the number of people affected.
Thomas Kika
Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger shared a video clip on Saturday that allegedly shows Russian troops mailing home items that they stole from Ukraine. The clip, initially shared by translator and photographer Yana Morozova, appears to be security footage from a small office space. Numerous men in fatigues are visible, allegedly there to ship the looted items back home to Russia. Morozova also wrote that the footage was taken in Belarus, one of the ally nations helping Russia during its invasion of the Eastern European country.
 
Max Greenwood
Donald Trump’s overtures to Moscow are exposing what Democrats and some Republicans believe could be a major vulnerability for the former president should he mount another White House bid in 2024. Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February, Trump has been met with repeated criticism, first over his insistence that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been “savvy” in his maneuvering in Ukraine and more recently over his pleas for Moscow to release dirt on President Biden’s family. The entreaty to Putin echoes a similar plea from the 2016 presidential race, when Trump publicly asked Russia to release his then-opponent Hillary Clinton’s emails. This time, however, even some Republicans admit that Trump could face more serious political ramifications. “He’s staking out a position on this, intentionally or unintentionally, that no one really wants to take,” one GOP donor said, noting how even some of Trump’s allies, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), have sought to distance themselves from his remarks.
Rachel Olding

A federal judge permanently blocked Florida’s new voter suppression laws from going into effect on Thursday, issuing a blistering ruling that said the bill unfairly and unconstitutionally violated minorities’ voting rights. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker blocked three major components of the sweeping bill from going into effect because they suppressed Black voters:
By Jacob Heilbrunn

J.D. Vance was on the warpath. “Using American power to do the dirty work of Europe is a pretty bad idea,” he told a crowd on Thursday, warning against the U.S. getting more involved in Ukraine. “We don’t have that many non-insane people in Washington. I need you to be some of them.” Vance wasn’t speaking at a campaign stop in Ohio, where he is running for the U.S. Senate, but at the Marriott Marquis hotel in downtown Washington. The audience consisted of over one hundred mostly younger conservatives, and he was sounding the alarm about not just foreign intervention, but about other conservatives — the worrisome resurgence of the Republican establishment. The event was the “Up From Chaos” conference, a self-described “emergency” meeting organized by the Trumpian wing of the GOP to grapple with the political fallout from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The young men, almost all of them soberly dressed in dark suits, and women, almost uniformly wearing dresses, listened attentively as one speaker after another warned about the perils of intervention for their very own lives. A return to the thinking that led to Iraq and Afghanistan could result in nothing less than World War III over Ukraine, they were warned.
insider@insider.com (John L. Dorman)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is pressing his GOP caucus to vote against confirming Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, according to The Hill. Despite the groundbreaking nomination of Jackson — who would become the first Black woman in US history to sit on the high court if she is successfully confirmed — the Kentucky Republican argued that a "no" vote would not be based on "race or gender" but on the judge's record, per the publication. During a recent Senate GOP lunch, McConnell reportedly implored his colleagues to reject Jackson, arguing that the judge on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit eschewed a tough-on-crime approach, a narrative that many Judiciary Committee Republicans pushed during her confirmation hearings as they questioned her judicial sentencing record in several sex-related cases.
Ari Levy, Annie Palmer

Amazon workers on New York’s Staten Island just made history, becoming the first group to vote in favor of unionizing at a U.S. facility operated by the country’s largest e-commerce company. After a hard-fought battle, the result is a major defeat for Amazon, which has used all of its might to keep organized labor off its premises. As of Friday, the tally at the Staten Island warehouse, known as JFK8, was 2,654 votes in favor of joining the union and 2,131 opposed, with 67 ballots being challenged. The fulfillment center doesn’t flip to becoming a union shop overnight, and there’s potentially a long road ahead. But the wheels are in motion for change. Here’s what happens next:
by Jay Traugott Electric Vehicles

All pre-orders will be refunded. In what must be the most shocking news story of the year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed production of the long-awaited Cybertruck has been canceled. The reason? Ongoing development costs have far exceeded the original budget. The controversial-looking EV truck is no longer a viable business case. "Very sad to say we've made the tough decision to cancel our Cybertruck," Musk wrote. "I know there will be plenty of disappointed customers and all pre-orders will be promptly refunded. The decision was made in the best interest of Tesla and its future."
By Aimee Picchi

Homebuyers have faced a tough choice during the pandemic: Swallow rapid price increases and forgo typical steps like house inspections, or risk getting left out of the real estate market. Those dynamics have caused some observers to question whether the U.S. is repeating the housing bubble of the early 2000s, which led to a painful housing crash in 2006 and the Great Recession the following year.
CNN's Kasie Hunt interviews former Trump attorney Michael Cohen about the ongoing investigations into Donald Trump. "The Source" is available on CNN+ — CNN's new streaming service.
Andrew Stanton

Representative Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, turned against Nick Fuentes on Friday after facing criticism for recently attending his America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC). Gosar, along with GOP Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, received bipartisan backlash for attending the event hosted by Fuentes, who has faced accusations of espousing white nationalist views. Democrats and Republicans took issue with their appearance, prompting House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to plan meetings with both representatives. Last year, Gosar appeared at AFPAC in-person, and recorded a welcome message for the conference this year. While Greene has sought to distance herself from Fuentes in the weeks following their appearance in February, Gosar remained quiet until now.
The Infowars host was fined for declining to sit for a deposition.
By Aaron Katersky

A Connecticut judge has denied a motion to halt financial penalties imposed on Alex Jones. As of Friday, the conspiracy theorist and right-wing provocateur owes $25,000 for declining to sit for a deposition in a defamation lawsuit by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims. Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis assessed the fine, which increases exponentially each day Jones refuses to appear, and on Friday denied his motion for a stay. "The defendant in this case is Alex Jones, and, to many, that is reason enough to uphold any fine or sanction. But the law, our law, is better than mere vendetta," defense attorney Norm Pattis wrote in the state supreme court appeal.
Brent Lang

Will Smith, facing possible expulsion or suspension after he assaulted Chris Rock during last Sunday’s Oscars telecast, has instead resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. The move comes as the actor is embroiled in the gravest crisis of his career and as the organization behind the Academy Awards has struggled in its attempts to deal with the fallout from the altercation. In a statement, Smith called his actions “shocking, painful and inexcusable” and said that he will accept any additional consequences that the Academy’s Board of Governors deems appropriate. “The list of those I have hurt is long and includes Chris, his family, many of my dear friends and loved ones, all those in attendance, and global audiences at home,” Smith said. “I betrayed the trust of the Academy. I deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work. I am heartbroken.”
By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN

Michael Cohen, formerly one of Donald Trump's top confidants before turning against him to become the star witness in the investigation into the New York real estate mogul's business and finances, is "disappointed" by reports that the Manhattan district attorney has decided not to bring criminal charges against the former President. "I was disappointed. I was discouraged. And I was distressed," Cohen told CNN+'s Kasie Hunt in an interview that aired Thursday on "The Source." "I was disappointed, because no one is supposed to be above the law." Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has been investigating Trump and the Trump Organization and whether they misled lenders, insurers, and others by providing them false or misleading financial statements about the value of properties. Bragg in February informed the two top prosecutors leading the criminal probe that he wasn't ready to authorize an indictment, leading the prosecutors to resign, a person familiar with the investigation told CNN. CNN previously reported that the resignations had followed weeks of internal debate within the office over the strength of the case, with some prosecutors believing that there is sufficient evidence to charge.
By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN

CNN — The Biden administration will end Trump-era pandemic restrictions that effectively blocked migrants from entering the United States on May 23, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday. Former President Donald Trump invoked a public health authority, known as Title 42, at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, a move that was immediately met with skepticism by immigrant advocates, public health experts, and even officials within the administration who believed it to be driven by political motivations. Yet the Biden administration continued to lean on Title 42 despite objections from its allies.
Jon Skolnik

A circuit judge on Thursday found the Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican, in contempt of court for refusing to turn over documents relating to the state's recount of the 2020 presidential election. "Robin Vos had delegated the search for contractors' records to an employee who did nothing more than send one vague email to one contractor," wrote Dane County Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn. "Putting aside for the moment the impropriety of making a contractor responsible for a records request … Robin Vos did not tell [sic] that contractor which records to produce, did not ask any of the other contractors to produce records, and did not even review the records ultimately received. Still worse, the Assembly did nothing at all." Bailey-Rihn has ordered Vos to release the materials within fourteen days or pay a daily fine of $1,000 any time after that, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Bailey-Rihn established that, if the documents aren't provided, Vos must provide an explanation.
Georgia primary opponents warn the Trump-backed former football star is too flawed to win in November.
By Natalie Allison

Herschel Walker, the former football star who’s armed with former President Donald Trump’s enthusiastic endorsement, has been on a glide path to the GOP nomination since announcing his Senate bid in Georgia. Not a dime has been spent attacking him on television. That’s about to change dramatically. In the eight weeks running up to the May 24 primary, two super PACs supporting Walker’s GOP rivals plan to drop millions of dollars in ads attacking Walker, according to people familiar with their spending plans — ad buys that stand to alter the shape of a race that could decide control of the Senate.
Alexandra Semenova

The U.S. economy notched another sizable payroll gain in March as the labor market extended a strong and speedy recovery to bring employment closer to pre-pandemic levels. The Labor Department released its March jobs report Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Will Stone

Turning off the lights and closing the curtains isn't exactly a catchy, new sleep hygiene hack, but this common sense advice is gaining even more scientific credibility. Many Americans sleep in a room that's punctuated with some form of artificial light — whether it's coming from a TV, a jumble of electronics or an intrusive streetlight. New research suggests that one night of sleep with just a moderate amount of light may have adverse effects on cardiovascular and metabolic health. "I was surprised that even this fairly, I would say, small amount of light just getting through the eyes to the brain still had such notable effect," says Dr. Phyllis Zee, senior author of the new study and director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University.
By Sarah K. Burris

In a 288-page document, District Court Judge Mark Walker blocked the Florida voter suppression bill and specifically called out judges and the Supreme Court for undercutting the Voting Rights Act. Mark Joseph Stern, Slate's court and law writer, cited several excerpts in the judge's decision that make the decision groundbreaking. Until the case goes to the Supreme Court, Florida's suppression laws will be stopped. Republicans around the country have been pushing voter suppression laws after former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election after a record-setting voter turnout. In Texas, for example, Republicans confessed that the law they passed putting additional barriers on vote by mail wasn't due to an outbreak of voter fraud. Instead, it was to make people feel better. "This is a preventative measure for us," Republican state Rep. Travis Clardy said. "I think it is our job to make sure that doesn't blossom into a problem that disturbs the underlying and one of the underpinnings of our democracy, and that is confidence in our elections."
Republicans want to cancel Disney. Republicans are threatening to harm companies that disagree with them. Watch what Republicans do to you not what they say they will do for you.

Tyler O'Neil

Jose Castillo, a current Walt Disney Company employee who is running for Congress in Florida as a Republican, told Fox News Digital that Disney's new political activism may come back to bite the company… in its pocketbook. Florida legislators have floated the idea of repealing the 1967 Reedy Creek Improvement Act, which gives Disney the autonomy to effectively run its own government in the area around Disney World, in response to the company's recent advocacy against the parental rights law H.B. 1557, which critics have branded the "Don't Say Gay" law. Repealing the law would subject Disney World to the government of Orange County. Castillo warned that, if Disney's advocacy against the law spurs this repeal, it will hurt the company's bottom-line, especially if the company continues left-wing advocacy.
Richard Luscombe

Florida’s tetchy Republican governor Ron DeSantis is threatening retaliation against the state’s largest private employer Disney after it pledged to work to overturn the state’s controversial new “don’t say gay” law banning gender identity discussions in schools. DeSantis has received massive blowback, and mockery, over the law that critics say marginalizes the LGBTQ+ community, including a hard-hitting statement from the theme park giant supporting groups seeking its repeal. In return, DeSantis says Disney “crossed a line” and is now threatening to strip the company of the self-governing status it has enjoyed for almost 50 years, and which has allowed it to expand operations across central Florida almost unchecked. “Disney has alienated a lot of people now,” DeSantis said at a West Palm Beach press conference, reported Friday by CNN.
By David Edwards | Raw Story

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was an attorney for Donald Trump, said this week that his son's first act as governor would be to fire the district attorney who decided not to prosecute the former president. While speaking to conservative broadcaster Steve Bannon, Giuliani revealed that his son, Andrew Giuliani, plans to fire New York City District Attorney Alvin Bragg despite the decision not to prosecute Trump. "You're telling me -- I want to make sure we're clear -- Andrew Giuliani as governor of New York, the first action he will take will be to dismiss -- and they have the power to dismiss the DA?" Bannon asked. "And the mayor!" Giuliani confirmed. "I could have at any time been dismissed by the governor of New York."
Ginni Thomas’ suggested hires included known bigots and at least one suspected foreign spy, sources say.
Asawin Suebsaeng, Adam Rawnsley

Years before she became one of then-President Donald Trump’s most prominent coup supporters, Ginni Thomas was already notorious in his West Wing for, among other things, ruining staffers’ afternoons by working Trump into fits of vengeful rage. “We all knew that within minutes after Ginni left her meeting with the president, he would start yelling about firing people for being disloyal,” said a former senior Trump administration official. “When Ginni Thomas showed up, you knew your day was wrecked.” Ever since she became a welcome guest at Trump’s residences, Thomas—an influential and longtime conservative activist, and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas—had perfected a proven formula of enthralling and manipulating the president’s emotions and mood. On multiple occasions throughout the Trump era, Thomas would show up in the White House, sometimes for a private meeting or a luncheon with the president. She often came armed with written memos of who she and her allies believed Trump should hire for plum jobs—and who she thought Trump should promptly purge—that she distributed to Trump and other high-ranking government officials.
Jordan Erskine

Vladimir Putin is returning the world to a paradigm of "might makes right." China may take note as it eyes its democratic neighbor Taiwan. And the war in Ukraine has shown just how tangled our international supply chains are. As we have seen, diplomatic efforts are all the more difficult when we have to rely on our enemies for our most crucial needs. While it may be Russian oil today, it may well be Chinese manufactured goods tomorrow. If America and the West really want to stand against dictatorships, then remaining reliant on the fruits of their labor is untenable. To fuel our domestic economic recovery and maintain a strong hand internationally, it's time to strategically decouple ourselves from the supply chains that snake through totalitarian regimes across the globe—starting with energy and manufacturing.
Does Jared's appearance put more pressure on Ivanka to testify?
By Bob Brigham

Former senior White House aide Jared Kushner testified on Thursday before the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Politico reported Kushner "did not play a visible role in the former president's attempts to overturn the 2020 election, though he was a top adviser during much of Trump's presidency. According to a recent book by ABC's Jonathan Karl, Kushner was involved in multiple conversations about how to delicately explain to Trump that he had lost the election and interacted with other senior administration officials who were exasperated by Trump's refusal to concede. Kushner had reportedly steered clear of Trump in the chaotic final weeks of his presidency and was out of town until the afternoon on Jan. 6."
Barbara Sprunt

Madison Cawthorn, the freshman Republican congressman from North Carolina, found himself in hot water with GOP leadership after he made comments — without evidence — linking members of his own party with cocaine use and orgies. The 26-year-old described the "sexual perversion that goes on in Washington" during an appearance of the Warrior Poet Society podcast, saying he was asked to join a "sexual get-together" at a politician's home. Cawthorn did not provide specific details that could be used to verify his claims. "And I'm like, 'What did you just ask me to come to?' And then you realize they're asking you to come to an orgy," Cawthorn said.
By Graham Kates

The Federal Election Commission has fined Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign $8,000 and the Democratic National Committee $105,000 for obscuring their funding of the "Steele dossier," a 2016 opposition research report that sought to highlight alleged links between Donald Trump and Russia. The bipartisan election commission also dismissed a complaint against Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier that caused a firestorm of allegations and investigations that shook the early months of Trump's presidency. The campaign mislabeled Steele's work as "legal services" and "legal and compliance consulting" in campaign filings, the FEC concluded.
Back to content