After the president intensifies his attacks against progressive congresswomen, Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar says, ‘This is our country and we are where we belong.’
Rep. Ilhan Omar promised to continue being President Trump’s “nightmare” as she received a warm welcome in her Minnesota district on Thursday, following a turbulent week in which she repeatedly clashed with the White House.
Hundreds of people greeted Omar at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, many carrying placards of support for the freshman congresswoman.
Last week, controversy ensued after Trump said that Omar and three other far-left congresswomen – Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley – should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”
Critics deemed Trump’s comments racist and divisive particularly as all four congresswomen are American citizens, with three of them born in the U.S. (Omar was born in Somalia.)
“The reality is everybody talks about how [Trump] is threatened because we criticize him,” Omar told the crowd at the airport, MPR News reported. “But the reality is he is threatened because we are inspiring people to dream about a country that recognizes our dignity and our humanity.”
“His nightmare is seeing the beautiful mosaic fabric of our country welcome someone like me as their member of Congress,” Omar added. “We are going to continue being a nightmare to this president because his policies are a nightmare to us.”
“His nightmare is seeing the beautiful mosaic fabric of our country welcome someone like me as their member of Congress. We are going to continue being a nightmare to this president because his policies are a nightmare to us.”
— U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
Omar later attended a packed town hall where she pitched the progressive proposal of “Medicare for All” as her supporters gave her a standing ovation.
Before the appearance in her home district, Omar called Trump a “fascist” after a chant “send her back” erupted during a campaign rally on Wednesday, a chant Trump said he disagreed with.
“I believe he is fascist,” Omar told reporters on Capitol Hill, adding that “I want to remind people that this is what this president and his supporters have turned our country that is supposed to be a country that we allow democratic debate and dissent to take place.”
Negotiators from the U.K. and EU have reached a draft Brexit deal in the eleventh hour of talks and ahead of a crucial EU summit on Thursday.
Sterling rose on news after the U.K. made concessions over the Irish border, an issue that had proven to be the biggest obstacle to a deal up to that point. The pound was 0.8% higher against the dollar, at $1.2929, reaching a five-month high.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said “we have a great new Brexit deal” via Twitter. He called on British lawmakers to back the deal when it’s put before Parliament on Saturday.
Meanwhile, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the deal was a “fair and balanced” one.
Discussions to hammer out a “Withdrawal Agreement” — that will now be put before EU leaders at their summit on Thursday and Friday, and then U.K. lawmakers at the weekend — had continued late into the night Tuesday and into Wednesday. The EU Parliament will also have to ratify the deal at an, as yet, unspecified date.
Speaking after the deal was announced, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said the deal was the result of intense work from both negotiating teams. “We have delivered together,” he said.
Giving further details on the deal, Barnier said that Northern Ireland will remain part of the U.K.’s customs territory and would be the entry point into the EU’s single market. He said there would be no regulatory or customs checks at the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (a part of the U.K.) — removing a factor that had been a key concern for both sides.
The deal covers the protection of citizens’ rights and a transition period which will last until the end of 2020.
Talk show host Nomiki Konst and FOX News contributor Sean Duffy react on ‘Outnumbered Overtime’
As America attempts to recover from the Capitol riot, everyone from President-elect Joe Biden and NBA star LeBron James to members of the mainstream media such as Joy Behar and Joy Reid have vilified police officers for their role in the tragic event.
While Democrats and media members have waffled on whether or not riots are a good idea, they have remained consistent when it comes to criticizing cops. After months of calls to “defund the police,” the latest talking point is that U.S. Capitol Police would have acted differently if the rioters were largely Black.
“No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesters yesterday that they wouldn’t have been treated very differently than the mob that stormed the Capitol,” Biden wrote Thursday on Twitter. “We all know that’s true — and it’s unacceptable.”
At least four people now face federal charges for their roles in the chaos. Officials previously announced the arrests of 82 individuals by state, local and federal authorities. Early Friday, the FBI’s Washington Field Office released 40 photos of people who are still wanted in connection with Wednesday’s events, which resulted in the death of a Capitol police officer. An officer killed one of the rioters and advanced digital technology is being used to hunt down the remaining suspects.
But Biden’s comments echoed criticisms by lawmakers, civil rights activists and professional athletes who called Wednesday’s attack an example of “White privilege,” as a crowd of what appeared to be mostly White protesters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to subvert the counting of the Electoral College votes.
“The View” co-host Joy Behar echoed Biden’s point and declared the riot showed “police are capable of restraining themselves” when confronting people who aren’t protesting police brutality.
“They know how to do it. We saw it. Not only that, many of them enabled these insurrectionists to go into the Capitol,” Behar claimed.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid took things further and claimed White Americans aren’t afraid of the police.
“White Americans are never afraid of the cops, even when they are committing insurrection,” Reid said. “Even when they’re engaged in attempting to occupy our Capitol to steal the votes of people who look like me because, in their minds, they own this country, they own that Capitol. They own the cops. The cops work for them and people like me have no damn right to try to elect a president, because we don’t get to pick the president. They get to pick the president. They own the president. They own the White House. They own this country.”
The far-left MSNBC host continued: “So when you think you own it, you own the place, you ain’t afraid of the police because the police are you and they reflect back to them … guarantee you if that was a Black Lives Matter protest in D.C, there would be people shackled, arrested, or dead.”
CNN has aired multiple segments with the same narrative and published an online story headlined, “Rioters breached US Capitol security on Wednesday. This was the police response when it was Black protesters on DC streets last year.”
ABC News anchors didn’t push back when a guest claimed Black Live Matter protests are largely “peaceful,” and the liberal HuffPost declared,” For Police, MAGA Insurrectionists Weren’t A Threat. Black Lives Matter Was.”
“Capitol Police are well-practiced at mass arrests. And they’ve earned a reputation for being unforgiving and cruel enough, for example, to drag disabled demonstrators from the halls of Congress for demanding affordable health care,” HuffPost’s Christopher Mathias wrote.
“So why did cops appear to stand down so easily as a MAGA mob laid siege to the Capitol? Why surrender so quickly to a horde of Red Hats, leaving them to urinate on the floor and loot offices, causing elected officials to flee into hiding? It’s a question numerous investigations will try to answer over the next months and years,” Mathias added. “But what the chaos in the capital on Wednesday has already laid bare is how law enforcement often uses a hands-off approach to white right-wing demonstrations.”
The theme has also made its way to professional sports. James, the Los Angeles Lakers legend who is arguably the face of the NBA, said the chaos at the Capitol made him think about how his Black relatives would be treated if they stormed a government building.
“If those were my kind storming the Capitol, what would have been the outcome? And I think we all know,” James told reporters. “There’s no ifs, ands or buts. We already know what would’ve happened to my kind if anyone would have even got close to the Capitol, let alone storm inside the offices, inside the hallways.”
James isn’t the only person from the NBA community to make this point. Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers reacted strongly to footage of a police officer taking a selfie with one of the protestors.
“It basically proves a point about a privileged life in a lot of ways. I will say it, because I don’t think a lot of people want to. Can you imagine today, if those were all Black people storming the Capitol, and what would have happened?” Rivers said. “That, to me, is a picture that’s worth a thousand words for all of us to see. No police dogs turned on people, no billy clubs hitting people.”
One lawmaker even suggested that Capitol Police could have ties to white supremacists:
Meanwhile, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund defended the response of his officers, but resigned from his position Thursday.
“Once the breach of the Capitol building was inevitable, we prioritized lives over property, leading people to safety,” he said in a statement. “Not one Member of Congress or their staff was injured. Our officers did their jobs. Our leadership did not.”
Fox News’ Caitlin McFall, Jake Gibson and Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report.
Forecasters predict an incoming winter storm will drop several inches of snow across New England, beginning late Sunday and continuing overnight into Monday morning.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning through 10 a.m. Monday for most of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut and warned that the Monday morning commute could be hazardous as a result of the storm.
In a series of maps below, the weather service has outlined how much snow could fall and when different communities should expect it the storm to arrive and depart.
Snowfall totals
The weather service’s most recent forecast puts the likely total snowfall in Greater Boston at about 6-8 inches for the overnight storm. Those numbers are slightly lower for Western Massachusetts and the Cape and Islands, which may get more like 4-6 inches of snow.
However, if the storm worsens in the time before it arrives in New England, Greater Boston could get up to 9-10 inches of snow and the Cape would likely be the only area of the state to see less than 8 inches.
On the lighter side, forecasters say that a tempered version of the storm could result in about 4 inches of snow for Boston and less than an inch in Western Mass. and on the Cape.
Storm timing
Forecasters expect the snow to arrive in Massachusetts around 7 p.m. Sunday, when it comes up from the southeast.
All told, the storm should move through the region in about 12 hours.
The snow should begin falling in Greater Boston by 9 p.m. and start last on the North Shore and Cape, which may not see any flakes until closer to midnight.
The snow will start leaving the state around 5 a.m. Monday, when it should stop snowing in Western Massachusetts. But forecasters warn that the snow could linger in Greater Boston until 8 a.m., likely causing problems for Monday morning commuters.
Daunte Wright’s father, Arbuey Wright, fought back tears as he described feeling cheated and hurt. He said the judge had seemed to care more about Ms. Potter than about Mr. Wright and his family.
“They were so tied up into her feelings and what’s going on with her that they forgot about my son being killed,” he said. “We actually thought we were going to get a little justice.”
Ben Crump, a lawyer representing Mr. Wright’s family, said many people have been sentenced to longer terms in prison for selling marijuana.
One of Ms. Potter’s lawyers, Paul Engh, said he was grateful that Ms. Potter was “shown mercy.”
It is rare that police officers are convicted and sentenced to prison for killing people. And prosecutions are unusual in the few situations in which officers have claimed they thought they were firing their Tasers.
In 15 previous cases over the past two decades in which officers said they confused their weapons, three were convicted of a crime, including two officers who fired fatal shots. Johannes Mehserle, a transit officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant III at a train station in Oakland, Calif., in 2009, was sentenced to two years in prison. Robert Bates, a volunteer sheriff’s deputy in Tulsa, Okla., was sentenced to four years in prison after he shot and killed a man while meaning to fire his Taser.
Prosecutors in the office of Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general, had suggested that they would ask Judge Chu to sentence Ms. Potter to a prison term beyond the standard sentencing range of 6.2 to 8.6 years, but in a new court filing this week they instead said that a sentence within that range would be appropriate.
Ms. Potter’s lawyers asked the judge to sentence Ms. Potter to probation, arguing that she would be a “walking target” in prison and that the prosecution’s sentencing request was “a political statement.”
“Please do not sit or lay on the floor,” say the signs that greet people showing up for a monoclonal antibody treatment designed to fight early stage COVID-19 infections. “If you require immediate medical attention, please alert a staff member.”
The changes come after a photo showing Toma Dean and another person curled up on the floor of the library was shared widely across social media, resulting in local and national headlines.
Dean told News4Jax her 16-year-old son took her to the library after she left Baptist hospital, where she said an emergency room physician recommended that she go get the antibody treatment.
At first, she said, she was so dizzy she could barely stay on her feet. So she sat down, then laid down.
“I don’t know how I made it that far in the day,” said Dean, adding that she’s feeling better now.
A photo posted to Reddit shows a woman lying on the ground at the new monoclonal treatment site in downtown Jacksonville. (Screenshot via Reddit)
The Fleming Island resident said she had been in an out of emergency rooms for the past two weeks while she dealt with symptoms of both COVID-19 and pneumonia.
Doctors say the Regeneron antibody cocktail is meant for patients who are recently infected. That’s why they try to avoid administering it to patients who have been sick for more than 10 days.
“The reality is, by that point the virus has replicated so much that your body’s natural immune system is kicking in and working to fight it,” said Dr. Chirag Patel with UF Health Jacksonville. “We don’t really see that there’s going to be a lot of added benefit of getting a monoclonal antibody fusion or injections.”
While Florida has received shipments with hundreds of thousands of doses of the drug, Dr. Chirag noted there isn’t an endless supply. He said not everyone needs the monoclonal antibody treatment.
“It is best to get this as early as possible to stop it when there’s minimal virus burden,” he said.
Still, even with guidance from medical experts, it appears there’s confusion at the clinic about who can or should go and get the antibody therapy.
A woman who asked to remain anonymous told News4Jax she questions protocol at the site. She said when she went in for the treatment, she wasn’t asked for any proof of a positive test result.
“It just seemed very haphazard,” the woman said. ” … And there was a waiting room full of people. I saw one woman without a mask and room full of COVID-positive people. This site also caters to people who are getting a COVID test, so some of those people…might be exposed while they’re there.”
News4Jax asked staff inside the clinic about checking patients’ COVID-19 status.
Staffers said most of the people who show up have visible symptoms, so they don’t often check, but they have a system in place where they can see if someone has already tested positive.
During a news conference Friday announcing the opening of another clinic elsewhere in the state, one of 10 located throughout Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis discussed the treatment’s efficacy.
The governor noted that data has shown there’s a 70-percent reduction in hospital admissions for people who receive the treatment early after testing positive for COVID-19.
Still, Dr. Patel said the best ways to avoiding getting sick are getting vaccinated and wearing a mask.
Image caption
Rescue teams clambered over vehicles to free those trapped in the crash
More than 60 vehicles have been involved in a pile-up in foggy conditions on a motorway in the US state of Virginia.
There were no reports of fatalities in the crash on Interstate 64 near Williamsburg but more than 50 people were injured, two critically.
The cause of the accident is being investigated.
Police said that the fog, combined with icy conditions, would have been factors.
The crash happened at about 08:00 on Sunday (13:00 GMT) on the westbound carriageway.
Images from the scene showed a mass of crumpled cars rammed into each other along a stretch of the road. Rescue teams carefully picked their way through the vehicles to reach and treat the injured.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., listens to questioning of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, at the House Oversight and Reform Committee. (Associated Press)
After more than two dozen moderate Democrats broke from their party’s progressive wing and sided with Republicans on a legislative amendment Wednesday, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reportedly sounded the alarm in a closed-door meeting Thursday and said those Democrats were “putting themselves on a list.”
The legislation that prompted the infighting was a bill that would expand federal background checks for gun purchases, the Washington Post reported. But a key provision requiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be notified if illegal immigrants attempt to purchase guns saw 26 moderate Democrats side with Republicans.
According to the Post, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scolded her wayward center-leaning colleagues, telling them: “We are either a team or we’re not, and we have to make that decision.”
But Ocasio-Cortez reportedly took it a step further. She said she would help progressive activists unseat those moderates in their districts in the 2020 elections, the report said. Her spokesman Corbin Trent told the paper that she made the “list” comment during the meeting.
“She said that when activists ask her why she had to vote for a gun safety bill that also further empowers an agency that forcibly injects kids with psychotropic drugs, they’re going to want a list of names and she’s going to give it to them,” Trent said, referring to ICE.
The rising tally of child separations adds to the approximately 2,700 children who were taken from their parents during a chaotic, six-week period from May to June 20 last year, when a Trump administration border crackdown triggered one of the worst crises of his presidency.
The policy sought to deter a crush of asylum seekers, who were surrendering as families at the U.S. southern border, by prosecuting parents for the crime of illegal entry and sending their children to federal shelters. Reports of traumatized, crying children led to widespread demands to reunite the families.
McAleenan, who at the time signed off on the zero tolerance policy and carried it out as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in May that family separations are “extraordinarily rare” and make up a tiny portion of the approximately 400,000 families apprehended this year.
But the ACLU and other nonprofit organizations serving immigrants estimated that a small fraction of the 911 children the Department of Homeland Security has taken from their parents since June 2018 have been at risk.
That resolve to resist has led many voters to define their own beliefs in opposition to Trump’s. On immigration, for example, “every Trump outrage increased the proportion of Americans who said, ‘We are an immigrant country,’” writes Greenberg. Indeed, according to recent Pew data, 62% of Americans say that immigrants strengthen the country, while 28%, a near record low, see them as a burden.
Este sábado, fueron distribuidos en Nayaritpanfletos con el logotipo de EL UNIVERSAL y una nota informativa falsa, atribuida a la agencia Notimex, en el que se citaban supuestas declaraciones del líder nacional del PRI, Enrique Ochoa Reza, quien anunciaba la renuncia de Manuel Cota a la candidatura al gobierno de Nayarit.
Las hojas que se distribuyeron aparentan ser la impresión de una nota elaboradas por esta casa editorial. La imagen con la nota apócrida fue subida a la página Imgur hace tres días.
También fueron enviados mensajes SMS con el texto “EL UNIVERSAL: Ochoa Reza confirma renuncia de Manuel Cota como candidato del PRI. Más información” y una liga a la imagen de la nota apócrifa cargada en la plataforma Imgur.
EL UNIVERSAL aclara que no es autor de estos SMS, ni tampoco existe una nota con esa información ya que es totalmente falsa.
Esta casa editorial recuerda que envía servicios de alerta de las noticias del momento, pero nunca mensajes tipo spam y muchos menos invasivos para los lectores.
Por su parte, el PRI en Nayarit informó que ya se han interpuesto denuncias ante la Fepade, rechazó que estos panfletos hayan causado algún daño a su candidato Manuel Cota o a la proyección de votos que espera recibir el tricolor; calificó este asunto como “guerra sucia en la que no han parado” sus adversarios.
Image caption
Pompeo chats with the US defence chief after Wednesday’s classified Iran briefing to lawmakers
Few American officials have been as laser focused on Iran as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, writes the BBC’s Suzanne Kianpour. For him, the conflict is personal.
In early 2016, the first-term Kansas congressman personally dropped off his application for an Iranian travel visa, which he had addressed to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
He and two other House Republicans had rolled up in black cars to the Pakistani embassy in Washington – home to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s diplomatic interests section in the absence of official relations with the US.
The congressmen’s goals were ambitious.
They wished to go to Tehran to monitor Iran’s parliamentary election, visit nuclear sites, hold meetings with top Iranian officials, meet American prisoners, get a briefing on the country’s ballistic missile programme and more.
Image copyright Getty Images
Naturally, the men didn’t make it past the lobby let alone into Iran, but Pompeo had sent a clear message – I’ve got my eye on you.
A year later, the now-junior congressman had played his political cards right and quickly risen up the ranks, securing himself a plum job in the Trump administration as America’s spy chief.
An Iranian official joked that in hindsight they wished the embassy had issued him a travel visa. “We could have had the CIA director in Tehran!”
During his six years as a congressman, Pompeo had one defining pet project – getting to the bottom of the 2012 insurgent raid on the US compound in Benghazi, Libya, which killed American ambassador Christopher Stevens.
He was among the Republicans leading the charge in castigating then Democratic presidential candidate and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whom he blamed for not doing more to rescue the doomed ambassador and three other American officials who were also killed.
But he also had his eye on Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corp (IRGC).
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption
Funeral services were held across Iran for the assassinated top general
As a member of House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Pompeo regularly called upon US intelligence agents to discuss the Quds Force and Qasem Soleimani.
He’s been focused on Soleimani personally for years.
So when the opportunity to scalp Soleimani presented itself, Pompeo was among those who advised Trump to take it, despite knowing it could lead to war and the activation of Iranian terror cells around the world.
Concern about Iran’s proxy militias had prevented previous American presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush from killing Soleimani.
The decision to target the Iranian general was two-fold for Pompeo.
Preventing another Benghazi raid after the US embassy in Baghdad was breached in late December loomed large. But revenge against the IRGC dates back to his time at the US military academy at West Point.
During the time Pompeo was a cadet from 1982 to 1986, tensions with Iran and its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon were high.
The Cold War was still going on and Pompeo was sent to Germany to serve as a US Army officer.
In that time, 241 US Marines and sailors died in an attack on a barracks for US peacekeepers in Beirut, where kidnappings were also running rampant.
The Soviet threat was existential, but for a young Pompeo, the most immediate emerging threat was Iran and its proxies.
Fast forward 35 years later, the US has delivered the most significant blow to that threat to date.
“It’s big for Pompeo because he convinced the president how important Qasem Soleimani is,” says Michael Pregent, a former US Army intelligence officer who served in Iraq and recently testified to Congress about the level of influence Soleimani had in Iraq.
“Taking out the Iranian navy [or] a nuclear site; none of that equalled to Qasem Soleimani.”
“That’s the biggest guy you can take out short of the Ayatollah,” says Pregent, who has briefed Secretary Pompeo multiple times on the Quds Force.
Image copyright Getty Images
Taking out Soleimani gives Baghdad an opportunity to pull away from Iranian influence, potentially handing the secretary of state a diplomatic victory as well as a military one.
But Pompeo is so much more than secretary of state, says one former top aide.
Steve Bannon, the mastermind behind Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election and former White House advisor, says he also plays the role of de facto defence secretary, National Security Advisor and also head of the CIA.
President Trump does not have the same rapport with the officials in those roles as he does with his secretary of state.
The close relationship Pompeo has with Trump was teed up by Bannon, who says Pompeo was chosen as CIA director soon after election day in 2016 because of his well thought-out ideas on national security – especially regarding Iran.
In Trump’s first weekend as president, both Bannon and Pompeo held a private chat as they watched Trump deliver a speech at the CIA’s Virginia headquarters while a battle raged in the ancient city of Palmyra, Syria.
US special forces were supporting fighters trying to win back the ancient city from ISIS at the time. The Quds Force was also present in Palmyra, which 3,000 years ago had served as a way station between the Romans and Parthian Empire (which was Iranian).
Later, the Roman and Persian empires went to war.
“It hasn’t changed. We’re the Romans,” joked Bannon. It was in this conversation that Bannon asked Pompeo to personally deliver the ultra-classified daily presidential intelligence briefing.
“He needs someone he can relate to,” Bannon told the future top US diplomat.
Bannon says that Pompeo’s evangelical Christian faith also plays a role in his views on Iran. He’s a supporter of Israel – a rival of Iran.
In private, Iranian officials seem to have a fixation on Pompeo and an acknowledgment that – of the Trump administration knives that were out for the regime – his were among the sharpest.
Pompeo recently flirted with running for Senate, but decided against it and is instead remaining secretary of state during a time of heightened global tensions that many fear could still lead to war.
People briefed on the matter expect to see the White House doubling down on sanctions and sanctions enforcement.
The ultimate goal is to bring Iran back to the negotiating table.
“There needs to be an effective and comprehensive JCPOA [nuclear deal] 2.0 that covers Iran’s regional activities, proxies, missile programs and includes a regional voice at the table this time,” says United Arab Emirates ambassador to the US, Yousef al Otaiba.
There is little doubt that Pompeo will some day run for president. But until then, he will continue to be a thorn in Iran’s side as the administration’s maximum pressure campaign to bring the regime to its knees continues.
The mere fact that the federal authorities had taken the remarkable step of searching the private residence of a former U.S. president was a reminder of just how much legal scrutiny Mr. Trump is under as he considers running for president again in 2024.
He and his family have criticized the various investigations swirling around him as partisan or vindictive, and they have denied wrongdoing.
Federal prosecutors investigating attempts to reverse Mr. Trump’s loss in the 2020 election have asked witnesses directly about his involvement in those efforts. In Georgia, a criminal inquiry is focused on his push to have the election results altered there.
More immediately, Mr. Trump is scheduled to be deposed on Wednesday by lawyers from the New York State attorney general’s office as part of a long-running civil inquiry into whether he and his family’s real estate business fraudulently inflated the value of his hotels, golf courses and other assets to obtain favorable loans.
Here is where the notable inquiries involving Mr. Trump stand.
New York State Civil Inquiry
Mr. Trump fought for months to avoid the high-stakes deposition he is scheduled to sit for on Wednesday, which could shape the outcome of the civil inquiry by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, into him and his family business, the Trump Organization. (The deposition was to have been in July; it was delayed after the death of his first wife, Ivana.)
Ms. James’s investigation, which is in its final stages, is focused on whether financial statements in which Mr. Trump valued his assets reflected a pattern of fraud, or were simply examples of his penchant for exaggeration.
Ms. James said in a court filing this year that the Trump Organization’s business practices were “fraudulent or misleading,” but that her office needed to question Mr. Trump and two of his adult children, Ivanka and Donald Jr., to determine who was responsible for the conduct.
The two sat for depositions recently after the judge overseeing the case ordered them to do so. Their brother Eric was interviewed in 2020 as part of the inquiry and repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, according to a court filing.
The former president’s deposition follows a protracted legal battle that resulted in a state judge ruling in April that Mr. Trump was in contempt of court. That ruling came after Ms. James filed a motion asking that Mr. Trump be compelled to produce documents sought in eight previous requests.
His lawyers said they had searched for, and could not find, any documents the attorney general did not already have. The judge nonetheless fined Mr. Trump $10,000 a day until he filed affidavits describing the search. The contempt order was lifted in May after he paid a $110,000 fine and submitted the affidavits.
Because Ms. James’s investigation is civil, she can sue Mr. Trump but she cannot file criminal charges. She could also opt to pursue settlement negotiations in hopes of obtaining a swifter financial payout rather than file a lawsuit that would undoubtedly take years to resolve.
If Ms. James were to sue and prevail at trial, a judge could impose steep financial penalties on Mr. Trump and restrict his business operations in New York.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers would most likely argue in any such suit that valuing real estate is a subjective process, and that his company simply estimated the value of the properties in question, without intending to artificially inflate them.
Manhattan Criminal Case
Despite its civil nature, Ms. James’s inquiry and Mr. Trump’s deposition still carry the potential for criminal charges. That’s because the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation was also focused on the valuations of Mr. Trump’s properties before it appeared to flag in the spring. It could gain new life depending on Mr. Trump’s performance on Wednesday.
Mr. Bragg’s comments came after two prosecutors who had been leading the investigation left. One of them, Mark F. Pomerantz, said in a resignation letter published by The New York Times that he believed the office had enough evidence to charge Mr. Trump with “numerous” felonies. Mr. Pomerantz criticized Mr. Bragg for not pursuing an indictment in the case.
In his April remarks on the matter, Mr. Bragg said new witnesses had been questioned and additional documents had been reviewed, although he declined to provide details. Later in April, The Times reported that at least three witnesses considered central to the case had not heard from Mr. Bragg’s office for several months or had not been asked to testify.
The investigation has yielded criminal charges against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg.
Last July, before Mr. Vance’s tenure ended, the district attorney’s office charged the company with running a 15-year scheme to help its executives evade taxes by compensating them with fringe benefits that were hidden from authorities. Mr. Weisselberg was charged with avoiding taxes on $1.7 million in perks that should have been reported as income.
Mr. Trump is also under scrutiny in Georgia, where Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, is investigating whether the former president and others criminally interfered with the 2020 presidential election.
Mr. Trump and associates had numerous interactions with Georgia officials after the election, including a call in which he urged the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes,” the number he would have needed to overcome President Biden’s lead in the state.
It is the only known criminal inquiry that focuses directly on Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results. In January, Fulton County’s top judge approved Ms. Willis’s request for a special grand jury in the matter.
But the judge, Robert C.I. McBurney, tentatively ordered him to show up to deliver in-person testimony on Aug. 17. (Judge McBurney said he might reconsider the date if Mr. Giuliani’s doctor produced an adequate medical excuse.)
“Mr. Giuliani is not cleared for air travel, A-I-R,” Judge McBurney said. “John Madden drove all over the country in his big bus, from stadium to stadium. So one thing we need to explore is whether Mr. Giuliani could get here without jeopardizing his recovery and his health. On a train, on a bus or Uber, or whatever it would be,” he said, adding, “New York is not close to Atlanta, but it’s not traveling from Fairbanks.”
Judge McBurney also said on Tuesday that prosecutors should let Mr. Giuliani, 78, know whether he is a target of the criminal investigation. Ms. Willis’s office has already told at least 17 people that they are targets.
Westchester County Criminal Investigation
In Westchester County, Miriam E. Rocah, the district attorney, appears to be focused at least in part on whether the Trump Organization misled local officials about the value of a golf course to reduce its taxes. She has subpoenaed the company for records on the matter.
Washington D.C. Lawsuit
In January 2020, Karl Racine, the attorney general for the District of Columbia, sued Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee, saying it had overpaid his own family business by more than $1 million or space at the Trump International Hotel during the January 2017 inaugural.
The lawsuit, which names the inaugural committee, the hotel, and the Trump Organization as defendants, is scheduled to go to trial in September, after a judge ordered that it could move forward.
Mr. Racine’s office has subpoenaed a range of parties, including Melania Trump, the former first lady, and has questioned Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump and Thomas J. Barrack Jr., who chaired the inaugural committee.
While the committee itself does not have the power to bring criminal charges, it could refer the matter to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, to prosecute them through the Justice Department.
Jonah E. Bromwich, Rebecca Davis O’Brien, Michael Rothfeld and Ashley Wong contributed reporting.
El gobierno informó que se ha descubierto presencia de hidrocarburos en Paysandú en el marco de las exploraciones on-shore que venía realizando la empresa Schuepbach Energy Uruguay bajo los contratos de exploración que mantiene en Salto y Piedra Sola.
El gobierno dejó en claro que pese al hallazgo, todavía resta determinar si el descubrimiento es comercializable. Además las autoridades plantearon que no darán nueva información hasta que no se estudie el flujo de hidrocarburos a la superficie.
La ministra de Industria, Energía y Minería, Carolina Cosse, dijo a la prensa esta tarde que “hay que seguir trabajando y hay muchos análisis más que hacer”. “Es un tema muy importante para el país, tenemos que ser prudentes y no marearnos”, agregó.
El hallazgo se produjo en el pozo Cerro Padilla X-1 ubicado al noreste de Paysandú. Según la información oficial se alcanzó una profundidad de 845 metros. “El análisis de perfilaje mostró 2 metros de arena con saturación de petróleo a una profundidad de 793 metros (Ancap en un principio informó que eran 973 metros, pero luego corrigió la información).
La fluorescencia (que es el análisis que permite detectar la presencia de hidrocarburos) ocurrió a lo largo de todo el intervalo”, mencionó el comunicado de presidencia.
Es el primer pozo exploratorio en 30 años en Uruguay y el primero en que se ha descubierto la presencia de hidrocarburos.
Ancap firmó en febrero de 2012 bajo la presidencia de Raúl Sendic los dos primeros contratos de exploración y explotación on shore con la firma Schuepbach Energy Uruguay SRL, filial de Schuepbach Energy LLC, en marco de la iniciativa de actividades exploratorias sobre la tierra.
Cerro Padilla: Así es la zona en la que hallaron presencia de hidrocarburosBy Irene Nuñez
Cerro Padilla: Así es la zona en la que hallaron presencia de hidrocarburosBy Irene Nuñez
Cerro Padilla: Así es la zona en la que hallaron presencia de hidrocarburosBy Irene Nuñez
Cerro Padilla: Así es la zona en la que hallaron presencia de hidrocarburosBy Irene Nuñez
Medios como RCN Televisión utilizaron los reconocidos drones para tener imágenes aéreas de la tragedia que se vivió en varios barrios de Bogotá por cuenta de la fuerte granizada que cayó el pasado domingo. Esta tendencia se está tomando las redacciones de los medios audiovisuales y digitales.
Los drones se han convertido en una herramienta ideal para lograr tomas aéreas de buena calidad, sin necesidad de invertir grandes sumas de dinero en el alquiler de un helicóptero o avión pequeño. De hecho, los drones pueden ser manipulados por los propios periodistas en el lugar de la noticia.
Empresas internacionales como Inmarsat tienen drones capaces de transmitir contenido multimedia en vivo. Estos equipos casi que permiten el envío de imágenes de alta calidad en vivo utilizando plataformas de streaming. “Los drones pueden cambiar la perspectiva del contenido multimedia, el usuario puede ver lo que pasa en vivo en los rincones más apartados de la geografía”, explican voceros de la multinacional.
Actualmente, los medios audiovisuales tienen que emitir imágenes de archivo mientras que su equipo logístico llega al sitio de los hechos; con los drones sólo se necesita que el reportero esté en el sitio y que conozca cómo manejar el dispositivo para tener tomas en diferentes ángulos. Esto podría cambiar el paradigma de la inmediatez.
Pero no sólo los medios televisivos se están viendo beneficiados por la irrupción de estos equipos. Los portales digitales se pueden convertir en la plataforma preferida para ver cubrimientos en vivo desde los mejores ángulos. Varios drones tienen la capacidad de conectarse a internet en unos segundos tan sólo con oprimir un botón.
Por ejemplo, ya existen drones -que se pueden adquirir por menos de 10 millones de pesos- capaces de conectarse con teléfonos inteligentes o tabletas con redes de 3G en cualquier parte del mundo, utilizando un terminal que es aproximadamente del tamaño de un libro de bolsillo.
Este tipo de dispositivos están diseñados específicamente para su uso en lugares remotos, y permiten a los periodistas no sólo enviar imágenes, también podrán compartir publicaciones de prensa, blogs o tweets incluso en las zonas donde la tradicional cobertura móvil o terrestre no funciona.
Para los ciudadanos los drones también se están convirtiendo en una herramienta de comunicación y denuncia. Medios como CNN o BBC Mundo se han valido de imágenes logradas por usuarios comunes, con drones comerciales, que están en el lugar de los hechos o simplemente quieren mostrar un bello paisaje natural.
Lo cierto es que los drones pueden cambiar la forma de cubrir eventos en vivo, lo que había sido por décadas un dolor de cabeza para los directores de emisión de los medios digitales y audiovisuales.
Progressives said they felt stung by the stunning course-reversal by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, where she swiftly bowed to pressure from moderates. | Alex Wong/Getty Images
The four-day whiplash battle proved Pelosi, who often describes herself as a ‘master negotiator,’ is not invincible.
Democrats broke into open warfare Thursday over Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s surrender to the Senate’s emergency border aid package, with the caucus’s long-simmering divide between progressives and centrists playing out in dramatic fashion on the House floor.
Some lawmakers even resorted to public name-calling, with progressive leader Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) accusing moderate Democrats of favoring child abuse — an exchange on Twitter that prompted a pair of freshmen centrists to confront him directly on the floor, with other lawmakers looking on in shock.
Story Continued Below
Pelosi has spent months deftly navigating a diverse caucus brimming with political novices, deeply split on ideological lines and itching to throw the president out of office. But this week’s fiasco exposed fissures in Pelosi’s rank-and-file, in her leadership and in her relationship with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
“She is a very experienced legislator, but I think this is a very rough patch,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
“We can’t say that we have a lawless administration or a president who should be in prison, or whatever people want to say about him, but then cave,” she added. “You have to fight for what you believe.”
And the conclusion of the four-day whiplash battle within the caucus proved Pelosi, who often describes herself as a “master negotiator,” is not invincible. The battle further illustrates the hurdles Pelosi faces in the fall as she tries to keep her caucus united while negotiating with Republicans to avoid a fiscal cliff and debt default.
Just before the vote, Pocan, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, inflamed tensions further when he called the Problem Solvers Caucus — a bipartisan group of moderates that pushed Pelosi to take up the Senate bill — the “Child Abuse Caucus.”
The stinging attack was a reference to the Senate bill’s lack of additional language to protect migrant children that House progressives had fought aggressively for.
“Since when did the Problem Solvers Caucus become the Child Abuse Caucus?” Pocan wrote on Twitter.
Reps. Max Rose (D-N.Y.), and Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), both members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, confronted Pocan on the House floor over his tweet. According to sources familiar with the conversation, Rose used expletives, and Pocan said he did not apologize.
“I said, how come you can’t stay 24 hours to do your job?” Pocan said of his retort to Rose on the floor. “He said, ‘My mother thinks I’m a child abuser.’ I said, ‘I’ll tell your mother you’re not a child abuser.’”
Rose, whom his party considers to be vulnerable in 2020, vented his frustration Thursday shortly after the exchange, calling Pocan’s tweet “crazy, crazy language.”
“Mark’s tweet just speaks to why everyone hates this place. He’s just trying to get retweets. That’s all he cares about,” Rose told POLITICO.
Their spat continued on Twitter, with Pocan responding: “Maybe the REAL problem is someone who thinks this is about retweets and not about bad contractors, awful conditions and kids.”
More than 90 Democrats voted against the Senate bill, including members of leadership like Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) and David Cicilline (D-R.I.) — a sign of the deep discontent simmering within the caucus. In a shocking move, Pelosi’s entire team of negotiators on the border aid bill, including House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) also voted no.
Progressives, including Pocan, said they felt stung by the stunning course-reversal by Pelosi, where she swiftly bowed to pressure from moderates who had threatened to tank the House version of the bill — which contained hard-fought wins for the liberal Democrats. And Pocan warned that it could fire up the 90-member Congressional Progressive Caucus to take more hardline stances on key bills in the coming months.
“I just think it’s hard to ask our caucus to help deliver votes to pass things,” Pocan said. “It’s just going to be a lot harder for us to care to help deliver votes.”
Multiple other liberal Democrats were also publicly seething at their centrist colleagues for forcing Pelosi to abandon her initial plan to vote on an amended version of the Senate bill that contained additional protections for migrant children.
House centrists, meanwhile, took a victory lap for their earlier efforts to pressure Pelosi into taking up the Senate bill.
“You have to understand, you’re not going to get everything you want,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, said in an interview after the bill passed. “We just wanted to make sure that none of us went home without getting something done for children and families at the border.”
Hours earlier, Gottheimer and other Democratic moderates began privately lobbying their colleagues to threaten to oppose their own caucus’s version of the border bill, arguing that Pelosi should simply take up the Senate version. Those members, who belonged to both the Problem Solvers Caucus and the Blue Dog Coalition, ultimately totaled 18 — enough to tank the bill.
Pelosi went back to the negotiating table, speaking with Vice President Mike Pence for an hour before huddling with her leadership team. Pence agreed to some “administrative fixes” that addressed some Democratic concerns — and Pelosi announced her House would vote on the clean Senate bill as a result — but it wasn’t enough to calm furious liberals.
“I think the Problem Solvers Caucus is emerging to be this tea party within our own Democratic Party,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO. “I find their tactics to be extremely concerning. It’s horrifying. It’s horrifying.”
The New York Democrat said she blames the centrist group for the House getting stuck with the Senate’s funding package.
But other members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, who pride themselves on being bipartisan and largely staying out of the headlines, were privately livid.
Facing an uprising from both the right and left wings of the caucus, Pelosi struggled to contain members’ outrage on Thursday over being forced to concede to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who refused to entertain Democratic demands that he amend the Senate bill.
The end result also left House Democrats fuming at Schumer and Senate Democrats, who voted overwhelmingly for the Senate’s border aid package, weakening the House majority’s negotiating position, they said.
“It obviously significantly undermined our leverage and our ability to keep these important protections in the bill,” said Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), a member of House leadership who voted against the bill Thursday.
Pelosi expressed her own unhappiness with Schumer at a Democratic leadership meeting Thursday, complaining that he couldn’t corral his members to support the House bill, according to a source in the room.
Progressive lawmakers were much sharper — and public — in their criticism. Jayapal said Senate Democrats should have grown a “spine” and not voted with Senate Republicans on Wednesday.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a progressive firebrand, declined to fault House leaders, placing the blame instead squarely on the shoulders of Senate Democrats, most of whom backed the Senate bill.
“Let’s focus on the fact that Senate Democrats joined the leadership behind McConnell in support of something that had no safeguards, no basic human rights for these children,” she said. “What are you doing? You’re just throwing money and saying, ‘continue what you’re doing President Trump, you’re doing a fine job.’”
Senate Democratic sources privately blamed House Democrats, saying they pulled out of bipartisan border aid negotiations in May after the Congressional Hispanic Caucus objected. Some House Democrats also privately blamed Jayapal, who they say inflamed the CHC, urging them to pressure leadership to pull out of the negotiations in May. Others argued that some of the demands from both progressives and Hispanic members came too late in negotiations.
That resulted in the Senate moving forward on its own, with the Senate Appropriations Committee approving its bipartisan package 30-1 before it overwhelmingly passed on the floor.
“Senate Democrats were with the House Dems all the way, but their bill couldn’t pass the Senate,” said a senior Senate Democratic aide. “By refusing to participate in a four-corner negotiation for weeks, House Dems never allowed themselves the chance to have a say in a bill that could actually become law, so they only have themselves to blame for that.”
House Democratic leaders sought to tamp down the controversy but acknowledged they weren’t able to get the job done, refusing to blame their Senate colleagues.
“It’s done. It’s not time for blame,” Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said. “We would have hoped that we would have had the opportunity to get the vision that we think should have been supported by the Senate. We were disappointed we weren’t able to get that in there.”
John Bresnahan, Jake Sherman, Melanie Zanona and Laura Barrón-López contributed to this report.
After months of warnings from the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services — not to mention something about a “national emergency” declaration — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., took a field trip to the border. She found out that, yes, things are, like, really, really, bad!
No one should be surprised that detention centers for illegal immigrants have been overwhelmed by the endless flow of hundreds of thousands of Central Americans, Mexicans and Haitians making their way here, throwing themselves and their children into the care of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which isn’t equipped to handle the crushing volume of people. There simply isn’t enough space and there aren’t enough border agents to manage the inflow.
Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats who toured detention centers for illegal immigrants at the Texas border on Monday were deeply disturbed to have seen unwashed families, overcrowded facilities, and women and children sleeping on floors.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, posted several videos on Twitter that were apparently intended to show the dismal conditions. One video showed a “cramped cell,” another showed the shower facility. It was modest but I’ve certainly seen worse at the downtown Washington L.A. Fitness gym. It’s truly unfortunate that the detention center bathrooms don’t come stocked with Kiehl’s Lavender Foaming body wash, but the entire asylum system is collapsing and there’s only so many dollars to go around to our new charity cases.
This isn’t a matter of the Trump administration deliberately making life uncomfortable for illegal immigrants. It’s just the only logical outcome when our immigration laws function as an incentive to swim across the Rio Grande, land in Texas, and get all the stuff that Americans are required to provide: that’s free doctors, lawyers, medicine, food, shelter, etc.
None of these things are unlimited, including even space to sleep. That’s why we’re now using military bases to house immigrants, at least for a short while before they’re released into the United States. The federal government could open up a Ritz-Carlton in El Paso and yet, what do you think it will look like when another 10,000 Central Americans show up needing a free place to stay?
Congress just finally passed a multibillion-dollar funding package, and we’re supposed to be happy that it received “bipartisan” support. But the whole thing is a joke. More and more migrants will arrive and burn through it all as they show up, poor and sick, then loaded up with free food, free healthcare, and free legal counsel, all courtesy of the American taxpayer.
If Ocasio-Cortez or anyone else is even remotely taken aback by what’s going on at the border, it’s only because they’ve been ignoring what officials have been telling them for the last year.
Fox News correspondent Jonathan Serrie has details from Atlanta on ‘Special Report.’
There has been a full-on media blackout of the new study outlining the ineffectiveness of lockdowns to prevent COVID deaths.
According to a Johns Hopkins University meta-analysis of several studies, lockdowns during the first COVID wave in the spring of 2020 only reduced COVID mortality by .2% in the U.S. and Europe.
“While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted,” the researchers wrote. “In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”
However, the Johns Hopkins study received no mention on any of the five liberal networks this week. According to Grabien transcripts, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and NBC all ignored the anti-lockdown findings after having spent much of the pandemic shaming red states with minimal restrictions and events deemed by critics as “superspreaders.”
It wasn’t just the networks avoiding the study. The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, Reuters, USA Today, Axios, Politico among other outlets also turned a blind eye to the findings, according to search results.
Time Square deserted during lockdown (Ian Jopson)
The researchers – Johns Hopkins University economics professor Steve Hanke, Lund University economics professor Lars Jonung, and special advisor at Copenhagen’s Center for Political Studies Jonas Herby – analyzed the effects of lockdown measures such as school shutdowns, business closures, and mask mandates on COVID-19 deaths.
“We find little to no evidence that mandated lockdowns in Europe and the United States had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality rates,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers also examined shelter-in-place orders, finding that they reduced COVID-19 mortality by 2.9%.
Studies that looked at only shelter-in-place orders found they reduced COVID-19 mortality by 5.1%, but studies that looked at shelter-in-place orders along with other lockdown measures found that shelter-in-place orders actually increased COVID-19 mortality by 2.8%.
The researchers concluded that limiting gatherings may have actually increased COVID-19 mortality.
“[Shelter-in-place orders] may isolate an infected person at home with his/her family where he/she risks infecting family members with a higher viral load, causing more severe illness,” the researchers wrote.
“But often, lockdowns have limited peoples’ access to safe (outdoor) places such as beaches, parks, and zoos, or included outdoor mask mandates or strict outdoor gathering restrictions, pushing people to meet at less safe (indoor) places.”
Close-up of sign for The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. (iStock)
The researchers also examined studies that focused on specific lockdown measures and found that the only intervention that reduced COVID-19 mortality was the closure of non-essential businesses, which reduced mortality by 10.6%, but this effect was likely driven by the closure of bars.
Researchers also pointed out other unintended consequences of lockdowns, such as rising unemployment, reduced schooling, an increase in domestic violence incidents, and surging drug overdoses.
From May 2020 to April 2021, the U.S. recorded 100,306 drug overdose deaths, a 28.5% increase from the 78,056 deaths that were recorded in the previous 12-month period, according to CDC data.
A study from the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice last year found that domestic violence incidents increased 8.1% in the U.S. after lockdown orders were issued.
Experts advise caution when touching potentially contaminated surfaces. Ensure appropriate levels of hand hygiene to minimize risk of virus transmission, doctors say. (iStock)
About 97% of U.S. teachers said that their students have experienced learning loss during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Horace Mann survey last year.
The unemployment rate peaked nationwide at 14.8% in April 2020, but declined to 3.9% in December, which is still slightly higher than the 3.5% rate it was at in February 2020.
“These costs to society must be compared to the benefits of lockdowns, which our meta-analysis has shown are marginal at best,” the researchers in the Johns Hopkins University study wrote. “Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument.”
“The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country. They have all out campaigns against @FoxNews hosts who are doing too well,” he tweeted.
Bring back @JudgeJeanine Pirro. The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country. They have all out campaigns against @FoxNews hosts who are doing too well. Fox …..
….must stay strong and fight back with vigor. Stop working soooo hard on being politically correct, which will only bring you down, and continue to fight for our Country. The losers all want what you have, don’t give it to them. Be strong & prosper, be weak & die! Stay true….
….to the people that got you there. Keep fighting for Tucker, and fight hard for @JudgeJeanine. Your competitors are jealous – they all want what you’ve got – NUMBER ONE. Don’t hand it to them on a silver platter. They can’t beat you, you can only beat yourselves!
Trump specifically named Jeanine Pirro, host of “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” calling for Fox to “bring back @JudgeJeanine.” Pirro’s Fox News show did not air on Saturday night.
“We’re not commenting on internal scheduling matters,” a Fox News spokesperson told The Hill of Pirro’s show being preempted.
Several advertisers pulled their ads from Pirro’s show last week in the wake of the Omar controversy. Tucker Carlson, host of Fox’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” also lost advertisers after a left-leaning blog resurfaced comments he made during appearances on a radio show between 2006 and 2011.
Trump on Sunday also named Carlson, urging, “Keep fighting for Tucker.”
He encouraged Fox to “stay strong and fight back” and “stop working soooo hard on being politically correct.” He suggested that Fox’s ratings prove people want its hosts to stay on air.
Modeled after recent trucker protests in Canada, separate truck convoys have been planned through online forums with names like the People’s Convoy and the American Truckers Freedom Fund — all with different starting points, departure dates and routes. Some are scheduled to arrive in time for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on March 1, though others may arrive afterward.
The convoys follow the recent Canadian truckers’ protest which shut down the busiest U.S. Canadian border crossing and besieged the streets of the capital, Ottawa, for weeks to protest government pandemic restrictions. The multiple blockades were broken up by police last week, with more than 100 arrests.
It remains to be seen if any of the U.S. convoys would seek to actively shut down Washington’s streets, the way their Canadian counterparts did in Ottawa. Some convoy organizers have spoken of plans to briefly roll through the city, then focus on shutting down the Beltway, which encircles the capital.
A statement from the People’s Convoy specifically says the trucks “will NOT be going into DC proper.” That convoy is planning to embark Wednesday from southern California and arrive in D.C. around March 5.
The U.S. convoys seek an immediate lifting of what they say are heavy-handed government pandemic restrictions like mask mandates and vaccine requirements. The American Truckers Freedom Fund website says the group is protesting “the unscientific, unconstitutional overreach of the federal government.”
Vaccines have proven highly effective at preventing Covid-19 infections, especially serious illness and death, and high-quality masks offer strong protection against spreading or contracting the disease. Public sentiment, especially among conservatives, has been shifting against government mandates as the pandemic heads into its third year.
People’s Convoy organizer Mike Landis, in a video testimonial on the group’s website, said the current Covid vaccine “is not proven yet” but supported individual choice on whether to take it or not. Landis said the convoy was open to all vehicles and said the primary goal was to pressure Biden to lift the national state of emergency.
“We want this government to bring back the Constitution,” Landis said. “We do not want to be under a dictatorship communism-style regime, like where we are right now.”
A state of emergency in the U.S. was declared by President Donald Trump in March 2020. Last week, Biden announced his intention to extend it beyond the current March 1 expiration date.
The websites organizing the American trucker convoys directly reference the inspiration of the Canadian movement. A statement on the People’s Convoy website pays homage to “our brave and courageous neighbors to the north — our Canadian brothers and sisters who led the charge.”
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee said Friday that his department was closely monitoring the shifting information and would be devoting additional police manhours in a rolling state of heightened alert over the next few weeks. In the meantime, he warned D.C. residents to stay alert for unexpected traffic snarls.
“There will be disruptions to traffic, that kind of thing,” Contee said. “I think we need to be very candid with the public about what some of the expectations, based upon what we’ve seen in Ottawa, that we might see here in the District.”
Contee called the Ottawa standoff “an incredible situation — one that we have not seen here in the District of Columbia.”
Contee and Mayor Muriel Bowser memorably predicted unrest several days before the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol Building. They warned residents to stay indoors and called for additional resources, but the Capitol Police and National Guard were still caught unprepared when crowds of Trump supporters overran the building, resulting in several deaths and numerous injuries.
Lingering memories of that debacle have fueled a heightened sense of anxiety and speculation over the coming convoys. But Bowser said she wasn’t yet warning residents to avoid the Capitol area or the National Mall.
“We’re not at a point to give specific instructions to residents just yet. We will,” Bowser said.
This is a widget area - If you go to "Appearance" in your WP-Admin you can change the content of this box in "Widgets", or you can remove this box completely under "Theme Options"
