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Mitch McConnell is getting sick of Donald Trump’s bad nominees – CNN
Mitch McConnell is getting sick of Donald Trump’s bad nominees – CNN

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Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Updated 12:36 PM ET, Fri April 12, 2019

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

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(16 Videos)

(CNN)With Herman Cain’s nomination for the Fed, uh, flagging and Stephen Moore’s nomination for the Fed in only slightly better shape, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a very clear message to President Donald Trump on Thursday: Stop picking problematic nominees and asking us to confirm them.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/12/politics/mitch-mcconnell-donald-trump-ken-cuccinelli/index.html

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U.S. Senate passes same-sex marriage protection bill – Reuters
U.S. Senate passes same-sex marriage protection bill – Reuters
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Trump did ‘nothing wrong’ to warrant impeachment, Sen. Lindsey Graham says – Los Angeles Times
Trump did ‘nothing wrong’ to warrant impeachment, Sen. Lindsey Graham says – Los Angeles Times

“What President Trump did here was completely cooperate in an investigation, a million documents, let everybody that the special counsel wanted to talk to be interviewed,” he said, although Trump refused to be interviewed by Mueller.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-trump-mcgahn-mueller-obstruction-20190428-story.html

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Special Report:‘Time to take out our swords’: Inside Iran’s plot to attack Saudi Arabia – Reuters
Special Report:‘Time to take out our swords’: Inside Iran’s plot to attack Saudi Arabia – Reuters

(Reuters) – Four months before a swarm of drones and missiles crippled the world’s biggest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia, Iranian security officials gathered at a heavily fortified compound in Tehran.

The group included the top echelons of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite branch of the Iranian military whose portfolio includes missile development and covert operations.

The main topic that day in May: How to punish the United States for pulling out of a landmark nuclear treaty and re-imposing economic sanctions on Iran, moves that have hit the Islamic Republic hard.

With Major General Hossein Salami, leader of the Revolutionary Guards, looking on, a senior commander took the floor.

“It is time to take out our swords and teach them a lesson,” the commander said, according to four people familiar with the meeting.

Hard-liners in the meeting talked of attacking high-value targets, including American military bases.

Yet, what ultimately emerged was a plan that stopped short of direct confrontation that could trigger a devastating U.S. response. Iran opted instead to target oil installations of America’s ally, Saudi Arabia, a proposal discussed by top Iranian military officials in that May meeting and at least four that followed.

This account, described to Reuters by three officials familiar with the meetings and a fourth close to Iran’s decision making, is the first to describe the role of Iran’s leaders in plotting the Sept. 14 attack on Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-controlled oil company.

These people said Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved the operation, but with strict conditions: Iranian forces must avoid hitting any civilians or Americans.

Reuters was unable to confirm their version of events with Iran’s leadership. A Revolutionary Guards spokesman declined to comment. Tehran has steadfastly denied involvement.

Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York, rejected the version of events the four people described to Reuters. He said Iran played no part in the strikes, that no meetings of senior security officials took place to discuss such an operation, and that Khamenei did not authorize any attack.

“No, no, no, no, no, and no,” Miryousefi said to detailed questions from Reuters on the alleged gatherings and Khamenei’s purported role.

The Saudi government communications office did not respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon declined to comment. A senior Trump administration official did not directly comment on Reuters’ findings but said Tehran’s “behavior and its decades-long history of destructive attacks and support for terrorism are why Iran’s economy is in shambles.”

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, at the center of a civil war against Saudi-backed forces, claimed responsibility for the assault on Saudi oil facilities. That declaration was rebuffed by U.S. and Saudi officials, who said the sophistication of the offensive pointed to Iran.

Saudi Arabia was a strategic target.

The kingdom is Iran’s principal regional rival and a petroleum giant whose production is crucial to the world economy. It is an important U.S. security partner. But its war on Yemen, which has killed thousands of civilians, and the brutal murder of Washington-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents last year, have strained its relations with U.S. lawmakers. There was no groundswell of support in Congress for military intervention to aid the Saudis after the attack.

The 17-minute strike on two Aramco installations by 18 drones and three low-flying missiles revealed the vulnerability of the Saudi oil company, despite billions spent by the kingdom on security. Fires erupted at the company’s Khurais oil installation and at the Abqaiq oil processing facility, the world’s largest.

The attack temporarily halved Saudi Arabia’s oil production and knocked out 5% of the world’s oil supply. Global crude prices spiked.

The assault prompted U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to accuse Iran of an “act of war.” In the aftermath, Tehran was hit with additional U.S. sanctions. The United States also launched cyber attacks against Iran, U.S. officials told Reuters.

The Islamic Republic has blamed “thugs” linked to the United States and other regional adversaries for orchestrating street demonstrations that have rocked Iran since mid-November, when the government hiked fuel prices.

Speaking at a televised, pro-government rally in Tehran on Monday, Salami, the Revolutionary Guards chief commander, warned Washington against any further escalation of tensions: “We have shown patience towards the hostile moves of America, the Zionist regime (Israel) and Saudi Arabia against Iran… but we will destroy them if they cross our red lines.”

SCOURING TARGETS

The plan by Iranian military leaders to strike Saudi oil installations developed over several months, according to the official close to Iran’s decision making.

“Details were discussed thoroughly in at least five meetings and the final go ahead was given” by early September, the official said.

All of those meetings took place at a secure location inside the southern Tehran compound, three of the officials told Reuters. They said Khamenei, the supreme leader, attended one of the gatherings at his residence, which is also inside that complex.

Other attendees at some of those meetings included Khamenei’s top military advisor, Yahya Rahim-Safavi, and a deputy of Qasem Soleimani, who heads the Revolutionary Guards’ foreign military and clandestine operations, the three officials said. Rahim-Safavi could not be reached for comment.

Among the possible targets initially discussed were a seaport in Saudi Arabia, an airport and U.S. military bases, the official close to Iran’s decision making said. The person would not provide additional details.

Those ideas were ultimately dismissed over concerns about mass casualties that could provoke fierce retaliation by the United States and embolden Israel, potentially pushing the region into war, the four people said.

The official close to Iran’s decision making said the group settled on the plan to attack Saudi Arabia’s oil installations because it could grab big headlines, inflict economic pain on an adversary and still deliver a strong message to Washington.

“Agreement on Aramco was almost reached unanimously,” the official said. “The idea was to display Iran’s deep access and military capabilities.”

The attack was the worst on Middle East oil facilities since Saddam Hussein, the late Iraqi strongman, torched Kuwait’s oil fields during the 1991 Gulf crisis.

U.S. Senator Martha McSally, an Air Force combat veteran and Republican lawmaker who was briefed by U.S. and Saudi officials, and who visited Aramco’s Abqaiq facility days after the attack, said the perpetrators knew precisely where to strike to create as much damage as possible.

“It showed somebody who had a sophisticated understanding of facility operations like theirs, instead of just hitting things off of satellite photos,” she told Reuters. The drones and missiles, she added, “came from Iranian soil, from an Iranian base.”

A Middle East source, who was briefed by a country investigating the attack, said the launch site was the Ahvaz air base in southwest Iran. That account matched those of three U.S. officials and two other people who spoke to Reuters: a Western intelligence official and a Western source based in the Middle East.

Rather than fly directly from Iran to Saudi Arabia over the Gulf, the missiles and drones took different, circuitous paths to the oil installations, part of Iran’s effort to mask its involvement, the people said.

Some of the craft flew over Iraq and Kuwait before landing in Saudi Arabia, according to the Western intelligence source, who said that trajectory provided Iran with plausible deniability.

“That wouldn’t have been the case if missiles and drones had been seen or heard flying into Saudi Arabia over the Gulf from a south flight path” from Iran, the person said.

Revolutionary Guards commanders briefed the supreme leader on the successful operation hours after the attack, according to the official close to the country’s decision making.

Images of fires raging at the Saudi facilities were broadcast worldwide. The country’s stock market swooned. Global oil prices initially surged 20%. Officials at Saudi Aramco gathered in what was referred to internally as the “emergency management room” at the company’s headquarters.

One of the officials who spoke with Reuters said Tehran was delighted with the outcome of the operation: Iran had landed a painful blow on Saudi Arabia and thumbed its nose at the United States.

SIZING UP TRUMP

The Revolutionary Guards and other branches of the Iranian military all ultimately report to Khamenei. The supreme leader has been defiant in response to Trump’s abandonment last year of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly called the Iran nuclear deal.

That 2015 accord with five permanent members of the U.S. Security Council – the United States, Russia, France, China and the United Kingdom – as well as Germany, removed billions of dollars’ worth of sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran’s curbing its nuclear program.

Trump’s demand for a better deal has seen Iran launch a two-pronged strategy to win relief from sweeping sanctions reimposed by the United States, penalties that have crippled its oil exports and all but shut it out of the international banking system.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has signaled a willingness to meet with American officials on condition that all sanctions be lifted. Simultaneously, Iran is flaunting its military and technical prowess.

In recent months, Iran has shot down a U.S. surveillance drone and seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel through which about a fifth of the world’s oil moves. And it has announced it has amassed stockpiles of enriched uranium in violation of the U.N agreement, part of its vow to restart its nuclear program.

The Aramco attacks were an escalation that came as Trump had been pursuing his long-stated goal of extricating American forces from the Middle East. Just days after announcing an abrupt pullout of U.S. troops in northern Syria, the Trump administration on Oct. 11 said it would send fighter jets, missile-defense weaponry and 2,800 more troops to Saudi Arabia to bolster the kingdom’s defenses.

“Do not strike another sovereign state, do not threaten American interests, American forces, or we will respond,” U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper warned Tehran during a press briefing.

Still, Iran appears to have calculated that the Trump administration would not risk an all-out assault that could destabilize the region in the service of protecting Saudi oil, said Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit working to end global conflict.

In Iran, “hard-liners have come to believe that Trump is a Twitter tiger,” Vaez said. “As such there is little diplomatic or military cost associated with pushing back.”

The senior Trump administration official disputed the suggestion that Iran’s operation has strengthened its hand in working out a deal for sanctions relief from the United States.

“Iran knows exactly what it needs to do to see sanctions lifted,” the official said.

The administration has said Iran must end support for terrorist groups in the Middle East and submit to tougher terms that would permanently snuff its nuclear ambitions. Iran has said it has no ties to terrorist groups.

Slideshow (5 Images)

Whether Tehran accedes to U.S. demands remains to be seen.

In one of the final meetings held ahead of the Saudi oil attack, another Revolutionary Guards commander was already looking ahead, according to the official close to Iran’s decision making who was briefed on that gathering.

“Rest assured Allah almighty will be with us,” the commander told senior security officials. “Start planning for the next one.”

Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Marla Dickerson

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco-attacks-iran-special-rep/special-report-time-to-take-out-our-swords-inside-irans-plot-to-attack-saudi-arabia-idUSKBN1XZ16H

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Noticias falsas: otro atentado contra la libertad de expresión – El Universal
Noticias falsas: otro atentado contra la libertad de expresión – El Universal

La campaña del Brexit y de las elecciones en Estados Unidos tuvieron un segmento de divulgación de mentiras o noticias falsas, dando origen al reconocimiento expreso de la existencia de éstas, y a partir de ello surgió el debate o polémica de las mismas.

Hoy, con la revolución tecnológica las noticias divulgadas en la red son transmitidas sin freno alguno. Por tal motivo, se dio un giro que motivó que plataformas de redes sociales como Facebook y Google emprendieran cambios a sus algoritmos para evitar las notas apócrifas; pero ello no quita que hubo falta de responsabilidad por parte de las mismas.

Debido a ello, el gobierno alemán aprobó recientemente un proyecto de ley para combatir los delitos de odio y las noticias falsas en las redes sociales, el cual obliga a Facebook, Google y Twitter a eliminar en 24 horas los contenidos que presuntamente incurran en delitos e injurias, amenazas, incitación a cometer delitos de odio y pornografía infantil y en siete días otros mensajes contrarios a la ley. Es claro que dicho ordenamiento no es del agrado de los monopolios tecnológicos, pero ahora los obligan a cumplir con sus políticas que han quedado en el pasado como letra muerta, ya que la finalidad de algunos de ellos es obtener los mayores ingresos por la publicidad, en lugar de revisar sus contenidos.

En ese sentido, ya lo había advertido el CEO de News Corporation, Robert Thomson, “Definitivamente es un momento oportuno para lidiar con lo falso y lo falso, lo defectuoso y lo falible, estos son problemas reales y lo han sido durante una década o más, pero lo falso se ha hecho repentinamente real porque la escala completa de los cambios operados en la integridad de las noticias y la publicidad por las plataformas digitales se ha vuelto más clara…

Ambas compañías podrían haber hecho mucho más para destacar que hay una jerarquía de contenido, pero, en cambio, han prosperado valiosamente al vender una filosofía plana de la tierra que no desea distinguir entre lo falso y lo real porque hacen copiosas cantidades de dinero de ambos para ellos, el contenido gratuito ha sido dinero gratis.”

Por otra parte, Dmitry Bestuzhev, director de Kaspersky Lab, señaló que las noticias falas tienen dos propósitos: el primero es económico, ya que obtienen ganancias atrayendo tráfico a páginas web, y el segundo es la manipulación.

Esta práctica de las noticias falsas falta al principio de exceptio veritatis; además es preocupante por los tiempos electorales que se avecinan en los próximos días, así como en el 2018, las más cercanas son: Coahuila, Estado de México y Nayarit. Además, no debe pasar inadvertido que en las campañas electorales han prevalecido los ataques y las descalificaciones sobre las propuestas reales y factibles a favor de la ciudadanía. Pero el problema apenas emerge, pues el próximo año son las elecciones presidenciales, donde se avecina que los partidos políticos se darán con todo y no será la excepción la publicación principalmente en las redes digitales de noticias falsas que atentan, ante todo, contra uno de los baluartes de toda democracia, como lo es la libertad de expresión.

 

Abogado, maestro en Ciencias Penales.

Sus libros son ‘Manual del Poder Ciudadano. Lo que México Necesita’ y ‘De la Protesta a la Participación Ciudadana’, ambos de Editorial Océano.

@UlrichRichterM

Source Article from http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/entrada-de-opinion/colaboracion/ulrich-richter/nacion/2017/05/25/noticias-falsas-otro-atentado

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Georgia prosecutor requests special grand jury in Trump election probe – Reuters
Georgia prosecutor requests special grand jury in Trump election probe – Reuters

Jan 20 (Reuters) – The prosecutor for Georgia’s biggest county on Thursday requested a special grand jury with subpoena power to aid her investigation into then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to influence the U.S. state’s 2020 election results.

In a letter to Fulton County’s chief judge, first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, District Attorney Fani Willis wrote that multiple witnesses being probed have refused to cooperate absent a subpoena requiring their testimony.

“Therefore, I am hereby requesting … that a special purpose grand jury be impaneled for the purpose of investigating the facts and circumstances relating directly or indirectly to possible attempts to disrupt the lawful administration of the 2020 elections in the State of Georgia,” Willis wrote.

The investigation by Willis, a Democrat, is the most serious probe facing Trump in Georgia after he was recorded in a phone call pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the state’s election results based on unfounded claims of voter fraud.

Willis specifically mentioned that Raffensperger, whom she described as an “essential witness,” had indicated he would only take part in an interview once presented with a subpoena.

In a statement, Trump defended what he called his “perfect” phone call and repeated false allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

In a separate legal woe for the Trump family, the U.S. House of Representatives’ panel investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol on Thursday requested an interview with Trump’s daughter and former White House aide Ivanka Trump.

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a rally in Florence, Arizona, U.S., January 15, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

And earlier this week, New York state’s attorney general accused Trump’s family business of repeatedly misrepresenting the value of its assets to obtain financial benefits, citing what it said was significant new evidence of possible fraud.

Trump critics hope that his legal problems may ultimately stymie a potential presidential run in 2024.

“It begins,” Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island tweeted after news of the Georgia request.

‘FINDING’ VOTES

In her letter, Willis said a special grand jury, which can subpoena witnesses, was needed because jurors can be impaneled for longer periods and focus exclusively on a single probe.

A spokesperson for the superior courts in Fulton County, which encompasses most of the state capital Atlanta, said there was no immediate timeline for a response to Willis’ request.

During the Jan. 2, 2021 call, Trump urged Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to “find” enough votes to overturn his Georgia loss to Democrat Joe Biden. The transcript quotes Trump telling Raffensperger: “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” which is the number Trump needed to win Georgia.

Legal experts have said Trump’s phone calls may have violated at least three state election laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud and intentional interference with performance of election duties. The possible felony and misdemeanor violations are punishable by fines or imprisonment.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/us/georgia-prosecutor-requests-special-grand-jury-trump-election-probe-2022-01-20/

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North Korea says missile test was ‘solemn warning’ to S. Korea – AOL
North Korea says missile test was ‘solemn warning’ to S. Korea – AOL

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A day after two North Korean missile launches rattled Asia, the nation announced Friday that its leader Kim Jong Un supervised a test of a new-type tactical guided weapon that was meant to be a “solemn warning” about South Korean weapons introduction and its rival’s plans to hold military exercises with the United States.

The message in the country’s state media quoted Kim and was directed at “South Korean military warmongers.” It comes as U.S. and North Korean officials struggle to set up talks after a recent meeting on the Korean border between Kim and President Donald Trump seemed to provide a step forward in stalled nuclear negotiations.

Although the North had harsh words for South Korea, the statement stayed away from the kind of belligerent attacks on the United States that have marked past announcements, a possible signal that it’s interested in keeping diplomacy alive.

It made clear, however, that North Korea is infuriated over Seoul’s purchase of U.S.-made high-tech fighter jets and U.S.-South Korean plans to hold military drills this summer that the North says are rehearsals for an invasion and proof of the allies’ hostility to Pyongyang.

After watching the weapons’ launches, Kim said they are “hard to intercept” because of the “low-altitude gliding and leaping flight orbit of the tactical guided missile,” according to the Korean Central News Agency. He was quoted as saying the possession of “such a state-of-the-art weaponry system” is of “huge eventful significance” in bolstering his country’s armed forces and guaranteeing national security.

South Korean officials said Thursday the weapons North Korea fired were a new type of a short-range ballistic missile and that a detailed analysis is necessary to find out more about the missiles. But many civilian experts say the weapons are likely a North Korean version of the Russian-made Iskander, a short-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile that has been in the Russian arsenal for more than a decade.

That missile is designed to fly at a flattened-out altitude of around 40 kilometers (25 miles) and make in-flight guidance adjustments. Both capabilities exploit weaknesses in the U.S. and South Korean missile defenses that are now in place, primarily Patriot missile batteries and the THAAD anti-missile defense system. The Iskander is also quicker to launch and harder to destroy on the ground, because of its solid fuel engine. It advanced guidance system also makes it more accurate.

The launches were the first known weapons tests by North Korea in more than two months. When North Korea fired three missiles into the sea in early May, many outside experts also said at the time those weapons strongly resembled the Iskander.

The North Korean message Friday was gloating at times, saying the test “must have given uneasiness and agony to some targeted forces enough as it intended.”

KCNA accused South Korea of “running high fever in their moves to introduce the ultramodern offensive weapons.”

North Korea likely referred to South Korea’s purchase and ongoing deployment of U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets. Earlier this month, North Korea said it would develop and test “special weapons” to destroy the aircraft. Under its biggest weapons purchase, South Korea is to buy 40 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin by 2021. The first two arrived in March and two others are to be delivered in coming weeks.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry on Friday described the launches as “acts of provocation” that are “not helpful to an efforts to alleviate military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus urged “no more provocations,” saying the U.S. is committed to diplomatic engagement with North Korea. “We continue to press and hope for these working-level negotiations to move forward,” she said.

North Korea is banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions from engaging in any launch using ballistic technology. While the North could face international condemnation over the latest launches, it’s unlikely that the nation, already under 11 rounds of U.N. sanctions, will be hit with fresh punitive measures. The U.N. council has typically imposed new sanctions only when the North conducted long-range ballistic launches.

North Korea has been urging the U.S. and South Korea to scrap their military drills. Last week, it said it may lift its 20-month suspension of nuclear and long-range missile tests in response. Seoul said Wednesday that North Korea was protesting the drills by refusing to accept its offer to send 50,000 tons of rice through an international agency.

North Korea also may be trying to get an upper hand ahead of a possible resumption of nuclear talks. Pyongyang wants widespread sanctions relief so it can revive its dilapidated economy. U.S. officials demand North Korea first take significant steps toward disarmament before they will relinquish the leverage provided by the sanctions.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the swift resumption of talks between the United States and North Korea following the new missile launches.

China, the North’s last major ally and biggest aid provider, said both Washington and Pyongyang should restart their nuclear diplomacy as soon as possible.

“North Korea appears to be thinking its diplomacy with the U.S. isn’t proceeding in a way that they want. So they’ve fired missiles to get the table to turn in their favor,” said analyst Kim Dae-young at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy.




More from Aol.com:

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Trump says he was ‘cocked & loaded’ for Iran strike but called it off at last minute

Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/07/25/n-korea-says-missile-test-was-solemn-warning-to-s-korea/23778776/

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Washington Post runs ‘fact-check’ on Tim Scott’s ancestry but not on Kamala Harris’ ‘Fweedom’ plagiarism claim – Fox News
Washington Post runs ‘fact-check’ on Tim Scott’s ancestry but not on Kamala Harris’ ‘Fweedom’ plagiarism claim – Fox News
Video

Washington Post under fire for Tim Scott ‘fact-check’

Journalist Glenn Greenwald said the newspaper’s effort to ‘debunk’ the story did the opposite on ‘Fox News Primetime’

The Washington Post appears quite selective when it comes to the urgency of its “fact-checks” of certain prominent politicians. 

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., was the subject of a lengthy piece on Friday by the Post’s star fact-checker, Glenn Kessler.

The piece, “Tim Scott often talks about his grandfather and cotton. There’s more to that tale,” examined the “origin stories” of comments the Senator has made over the years about being an ancestor of slaves. Scott has said his grandfather dropped out of elementary school to pick cotton, so the liberal newspaper enlisted its fact-checker to get to the bottom of the claim.

“The tale of his grandfather fits in with a narrative of Scott moving up from humble circumstances to reach a position of political power in the U.S. Senate,” Kessler wrote. “But Scott separately has acknowledged that his great-great-grandfather, Lawrence Ware, once owned 900 acres in South Carolina.”

WAPO RUNS ‘HIT PIECE’ ON TIM SCOTT HOURS AFTER IT WAS ANNOUNCED HE WOULD GIVE GOP RESPONSE TO BIDEN’S ADDRESS TO CONGRESS

Kessler declared he “dug into the South Carolina census records” to “close this gap in Scott’s narrative” despite admitting “census data is historically questionable at best — and at times unreliable.”

“Our research reveals a more complex story than what Scott tells audiences. Scott’s grandfather’s father was also a substantial landowner — and Scott’s grandfather, Artis Ware, worked on that farm,” Kessler wrote. “Scott’s family history in South Carolina offers a fascinating window into a little-known aspect of history in the racist South following the Civil War and in the immediate aftermath of slavery — that some enterprising Black families purchased property as a way to avoid sharecropping and achieve a measure of independence from White-dominated society.”

Video

Kessler then dove into a longwinded tale of Scott’s ancestors using data he already admitted was often unreliable.

The fact-checker ultimately concluded to not give the lawmaker any Pinocchios, writing, “Scott’s ‘cotton to Congress’ line is missing some nuance, but we are not going to rate his statements.”

However, the Washington Post has yet to look into the “tale” from Vice President Harris, which has been accused of plagiarism earlier this year.

Harris has repeatedly boasted of her parents’ involvement in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In an Elle magazine interview that was published in October, she recalled accompanying them to marches as a toddler in a stroller.

KAMALA HARRIS ACCUSED OF PLAGIARIZING MLK ANECDOTE IN OCTOBER INTERVIEW WITH ELLE MAGAZINE

“Senator Kamala Harris started her life’s work young,” writer Ashley C. Ford led off the piece. “She laughs from her gut, the way you would with family, as she remembers being wheeled through an Oakland, California, civil rights march in a stroller with no straps with her parents and her uncle. At some point, she fell from the stroller … and the adults, caught up in the rapture of protest, just kept on marching. By the time they noticed little Kamala was gone and doubled back, she was understandably upset.” 

“My mother tells the story about how I’m fussing,” Harris told the magazine. “And she’s like, ‘Baby, what do you want? What do you need?’ And I just looked at her and I said, ‘Fweedom.’”

This was a story Harris has told over and over again from her June 2020 appearance on “The Tonight Show” to her 2019 book tour. It was documented as early as 2004 in an interview with W Magazine.

However, after Harris’ ‘Fweedom” anecdote resurfaced on social media in January, Twitter users @EngelsFreddie and Andray Domise, a contributing editor of the Canadian publication Maclean’s, noted that her story resembled one told by civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. in a 1965 interview published in Playboy.

KAMALA HARRIS HAS A LONG HISTORY OF USING ‘FWEEDOM’ ANECDOTE ALLEGEDLY PLAGIARIZED FROM MLK

“I will never forget a moment in Birmingham when a White policeman accosted a little Negro girl, seven or eight years old, who was walking in a demonstration with her mother,” King said at the time. “‘What do you want?’ the policeman asked her gruffly, and the little girl looked at him straight in the eye and answered, ‘Fee-dom.’ She couldn’t even pronounce it, but she knew. It was beautiful! Many times when I have been in sorely trying situations, the memory of that little one has come into my mind, and has buoyed me.”

Fox News reached out to Kessler in light of his fact-check of Sen. Scott’s ancestry to see whether or not he was going to fact-check the vice president’s “Fweedom” story to determine if it was in fact plagiarized.   

Video

The Post’s “fact-check” against Scott drew intense backlash on social media with critics calling it a “hit piece” that ultimately did not debunk the senator’s claims. 

The timing of the report also raised eyebrows since it came just 12 hours after it was announced that Scott would be delivering the Republican Party’s response to President Biden’s speech to a joint session of Congress on April 28. 

WASHINGTON POST CRUSHED FOR ‘FACT CHECK’ ON WHETHER SEN. TIM SCOTT TRULY WENT ‘FROM COTTON TO CONGRESS’

A spokesperson for The Washington Post told Fox News, “The Fact Checker began research on this story several weeks ago. As with all Post reporting, we publish when stories are ready.”

The Post did not immediately respond to Fox News’ inquiry when asking if the fact-check wasn’t “ready” until 3 AM Friday morning. 

Regarding the fierce backlash the report received, the paper stood by the fact-check, telling Fox News, “The Fact Checker piece acknowledges that Sen. Tim Scott may not have known his full family history and that historical records regarding the lives of Black Americans are often scant. Nonetheless, our reporting adds information found in official records to Scott’s public remarks and writings about his grandfather. The Fact Checker occasionally delves into the origin stories of politicians, often without reaching a conclusion about their completeness or veracity.”

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

Scott’s office declined comment, saying he was focused on delivering the GOP response to Biden’s first speech to a joint session of Congress.

Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report. 

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-fact-check-tim-scott-kamala-harris-fweedom

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Catfish murders: ‘Please know your child’s online activity,’ grieving family pleads – ABC News
Catfish murders: ‘Please know your child’s online activity,’ grieving family pleads – ABC News
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10 shot, 4 dead, as gunman opens fire on family watching football in east central Fresno, suspect still at large – KFSN-TV
10 shot, 4 dead, as gunman opens fire on family watching football in east central Fresno, suspect still at large – KFSN-TV
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — At least ten people have been shot, and four are dead after Fresno Police say a suspect opened fire as a family gathered at an east central Fresno home Sunday night.

Officers responded to a home on Lamona Avenue near Ceasar Avenue, located about three blocks south of the Fresno Yosemite International Airport just before 8 pm on Sunday.

Fresno Police say around 45 people were at the home to watch a football game on television.

The suspect came snuck into the backyard and opened fire on the ten people that were in the yard. The other 35 people inside the home were not injured.

Police officials say that five of the victims are currently being treated at Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno and one victim is being treated at Saint Agnes Medical Center.

Hospital officials say of the shooting victims, two are in critical condition, three are in critical but stable condition. Another victim was grazed by a bullet.

When officers arrived, they found three people who had already died from their injuries. The fourth victim died at a hospital.

Police have also not yet released a description of the suspect, or a possible motivation.

The streets in the area have been closed off as an investigation is underway. Residents and drivers are advised to avoid the area.

Fresno Police say they are using their “mass casuality protocol” for this shooting.

RELATED: ‘Any available unit citywide’: Hectic moments authorities respond to Fresno ‘mass casualty’ shooting

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced late Sunday night that it will be sending agents from its San Francisco field office to assist in the investigation of the shooting.

California State Senator Andress Borgeas responded to the shooting on Twitter:

Fresno prosecutor and mayoral candidate Andrew Janz also tweeted:

This is a developing story. Stay with Action News for updates.

Source Article from https://abc30.com/police-searching-for-gunman-who-shot-at-fresno-family-gathering/5704122/

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Antifa activist facing assault charges was tied to Democratic policymakers – Fox News
Antifa activist facing assault charges was tied to Democratic policymakers – Fox News

Joseph Alcoff, center, has been pictured with Rep. Maxine Waters, left, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, right.

What a difference a year made for Joseph Alcoff.

On Monday, the 37-year-old has a court date in connection with charges he’s facing in Philadelphia that include aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation for allegedly being part of an Antifa mob in November that attacked two Marines, Alejandro Godinez and Luis Torres, both Hispanic. Alcoff and two others charged in the attack have pleaded not guilty.

ANTIFA FIGURE CHARGED IN MARINE ATTACK

But while Democratic officials are distancing themselves from Alcoff now, until recently he was a well-connected, aspiring political player in Washington who may have even had a hand in key policy proposals.

His endorsement apparently mattered when several congressional Democrats in February 2018 issued press releases with his quote backing their bill on regulating payday lenders.

As the payday campaign manager for the liberal group Americans for Financial Reform, Alcoff participated in congressional Democratic press conferences, was a guest on a House Democratic podcast and met with senior officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from 2016 through 2018.

He was also pictured with now-House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Both committees oversee financial regulatory policies Alcoff was advocating.

Alcoff met with then CFPB Director Richard Cordray and other senior CFPB officials on April 2016, again in March 2017 and a third time in May 2017, as first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.

During this time, he reportedly was an Antifa leader in Washington.

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Alcoff’s former employer had little to say about the matter.

“As of December, Mr. Alcoff no longer works for AFR,” Carter Dougherty, spokesman for Americans for Financial Reform, told Fox News in an email.

Dougherty didn’t answer whether Alcoff had been fired or resigned. He also didn’t answer whether the organization was aware of Alcoff’s associations during his employment.

Alcoff was reportedly also an organizer for Smash Racism DC, the group responsible for gathering and shouting threats outside the home of Fox News host Tucker Carlson in November and for heckling Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his wife Heidi at a Washington restaurant in September. Reports have not said Alcoff was directly involved in either incident; only that he was associated with the group.

MARINES TESTIFY ON ANTIFA MOB ATTACK

Democrats are hardly eager to be associated with Alcoff now. Most spokespersons for Democratic members of Congress did not respond to inquiries from Fox News, or distanced themselves from Alcoff.

In one appearance, Alcoff dressed up as “Lenny the Loan Shark” at an event last March held outside the CFPB headquarters, which featured Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va.

“The congressman has never interacted with him nor has he taken any financial policy advice from him. Their names have appeared on the same piece of paper,” Beyer spokesman Aaron Fritschner told Fox News. “He appeared at the same press conference, but they didn’t speak to each other. This person was literally wearing a shark outfit.”

In the February 2018 press statement, House and Senate Democrats co-sponsoring the Stopping Abuse and Fraud in Electronic (SAFE) Lending Act, which boosted regulation on payday lenders, issued versions of a press release, most including the Alcoff quote.

“The Consumer Bureau and Congress have in the past understood the way that payday lenders structure loans to catch Americans in a cycle of debt with exorbitant interest rates,” Alcoff said in the press releases. “It is unfortunate that some in Washington would rather open the loan shark gates than continue to think about sensible borrower protections. The SAFE Lending Act would put Washington back on track to stop the debt trap.”

In August, Alcoff was a guest on the House Democrats’ Joint Economic Committee podcast, criticizing the decline of the CFPB under the Trump administration.

“It’s been an incredible kind of erosion [Trump administration actions] recently, but these are really, really important basic functions [CFPB’s mission] that people across the country should be able to look to Washington and expect,” Alcoff said on the podcast.

In connection with the subsequent attack in Philadelphia, the two Hispanic Marines said the Antifa mob of about 10 or 12 attackers shouted racial slurs during the beating. Only three from the mob were identified and arrested. The attack happened at the same time as a right-wing rally in Philadelphia, which Antifa showed up to protest. The Marines who were assaulted said they were not even aware of the rally.

“On one side, you have the Proud Boys, a racist group of Nazi thugs. On the other side, you have anti-racist activists,” Alcoff’s lawyer Michael Coard told Philadelphia Magazine. “Unfortunately, in the mix, there were two Marines who were caught up in the whole thing as innocent bystanders.”

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Coard, an African American activist in Philadelphia, also told the magazine regarding the alleged slurs, “The question that I have for the D.A.’s office and the police is this: Does anybody think that I, Michael Coard, would represent a racist? … I would never represent a racist. In fact, if I believed that he was a racist, I would prosecute him myself.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/antifa-activist-facing-assault-charges-was-tied-to-democratic-policymakers

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President Trump Orders Flags To Fly At Half-Staff As U.S. Mourns Nearly 100000 Dead – NPR
President Trump Orders Flags To Fly At Half-Staff As U.S. Mourns Nearly 100000 Dead – NPR

U.S. flags will fly at half-staff on federal and military posts through Sunday as President Trump orders a remembrance of the nearly 100,000 people who have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. Earlier this month, flags in the hard-hit state of New York flew at half their normal height to honor those lost to the pandemic.

Roy Rochlin/Getty Images


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U.S. flags will fly at half-staff on federal and military posts through Sunday as President Trump orders a remembrance of the nearly 100,000 people who have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. Earlier this month, flags in the hard-hit state of New York flew at half their normal height to honor those lost to the pandemic.

Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

U.S. government buildings, military posts and embassies will fly the flag at half-staff through Memorial Day weekend in memory of the nearly 100,000 people who have died of COVID-19, President Trump announced Thursday night. The decision comes after Democratic leaders in Congress sent a letter to the president requesting the gesture.

“I will be lowering the flags on all Federal Buildings and National Monuments to half-staff over the next three days in memory of the Americans we have lost to the CoronaVirus,” Trump said via Twitter.

Flags will be lowered from Friday through Sunday’s sunset. Trump added that flags will again be flown at half-staff on Monday to honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.

The national flag is dropped to half its normal height at times when the nation is in mourning or after a national tragedy. The U.S. is currently in the throes of a pandemic that has killed about 95,000 people in the country and derailed normal life for millions of people.

“Our Nation mourns for every life lost to the coronavirus pandemic, and we share in the suffering of all those who endured pain and illness from the outbreak,” Trump wrote in a proclamation ordering the observance. “Through our grief, America stands steadfast and united against the invisible enemy. May God be with the victims of this pandemic and bring aid and comfort to their families and friends.”

The presidential proclamation came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent Trump a letter asking him to order that flags be flown at half-staff on all public buildings on what they called “a sad day of reckoning” — when the U.S. marks 100,000 deaths.

“It would serve as a national expression of grief so needed by everyone in our country,” they wrote.

Earlier this month, the governors of several hard-hit states ordered their public buildings to fly flags at half-staff, including New York, Massachusetts and Colorado.

The procedure for flying a U.S. flag at half-staff or at half-mast calls for it to be raised briefly to its full peak, then lowered halfway. The process is reversed when lowering the flag at the end of the day — except for Memorial Day, when the display is shortened.

“On Memorial Day the flag should be displayed at half-staff until noon only, then raised to the top of the staff,” according to Title 4 of the U.S. Code regarding the flag and its protocols.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/22/860762128/president-trump-orders-flags-to-fly-at-half-staff-as-u-s-mourns-nearly-100-000-d

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Investigan muerte de tres personas en auto incendiado – Diario El País
Investigan muerte de tres personas en auto incendiado – Diario El País

Tres personas mayores de edad fueron encontradas muertas calcinadas dentro de un vehículo incendiado en la zona de Casavalle, según informó a El País la vocera de Bomberos, Mariela Vivone.

El vehículo, un Chevrolet Onix con matrícula de Montevideo, fue encontrado sobre las 3 de la mañana en Camino Paso de la Cruz esquina Camino Carlos A López en medio de un descampado por lo que se descartó la posibilidad de un choque, dijo Vivone.

Las personas aún no fueron identificadas y trabaja en ello Policía Científica. Toda la investigación está enfocada en que podría haber sido intencional dado el entorno y las violentas llamas que se encontraron que podrían haber sido producto de acelerantes. 

Source Article from http://www.elpais.com.uy/informacion/investigan-muerte-tres-personas-auto.html

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Tropical Storm Sam forms; system is forecast to become major Atlantic hurricane by Sunday – The Washington Post
Tropical Storm Sam forms; system is forecast to become major Atlantic hurricane by Sunday – The Washington Post

The season so far has featured 18 named storms, including six hurricanes and three major hurricanes. If three more storms form, the National Hurricane Center’s list of storm names will be exhausted, and it will be forced to use a supplementary list developed by the World Meteorological Organization for any additional storms. “It is noteworthy that this is the 2nd earliest formation of the 18th named storm in the Atlantic basin, moving ahead of the 2005 hurricane season, and only trailing last year,” the National Hurricane Center wrote.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/09/23/tropical-storm-sam-atlantic/

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Michael Avenatti arrested for trying to extort Nike for up to $25M, SDNY says – Fox News
Michael Avenatti arrested for trying to extort Nike for up to $25M, SDNY says – Fox News
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Michael Avenatti arrested on federal charges of extortion, bank fraud and wire fraud

Michael Avenatti, the former attorney for adult-film star Stormy Daniels, was accused Monday by federal prosecutors in New York of operating “an old-fashioned shakedown” by trying to extort between $15 and $25 million from sports apparel giant Nike, part of a string of bombshell claims against the celebrity lawyer.

Avenatti, who briefly considered a bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, also was charged with wire fraud and bank fraud in a separate case out of California. He was taken into custody at a law firm where he had gone to meet with Nike executives. The 48-year-old appeared Monday evening in Manhattan federal court, where a magistrate judge ordered his release on $300,000 bond. He did not enter a plea.

Prosecutors said Avenatti tried to extort Nike “by threatening to use his ability to garner publicity to inflict substantial financial and reputational harm on the company if his demands were not met.”

A suspected co-conspirator working alongside Avenatti was identified Monday afternoon by The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal as Mark Geragos, who has represented celebrities including Michael Jackson and — more recently — “Empire” star Jussie Smollett. Geragos also was a CNN contributor.

“As alleged, Michael Avenatti approached Nike last week with a list of financial demands in exchange for covering up allegations of misconduct on behalf of the company,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge William Sweeney Jr. said in a statement. “The lofty price tag included a $1.5 million payoff for Avenatti’s client and upwards of tens of millions of dollars for the legal services of his firm – services Nike never requested. This is nothing more than a straightforward case of extortion”

The counts against Avenatti in the New York case are extortion, transmission of interstate communications with intent to extort, conspiracy to transmit interstate communications with intent to extort, and conspiracy to commit extortion..

MICHAEL AVENATTI CUTS TIES WITH STORMY DANIELS

At a news conference Monday, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said Avenatti used illegal tactics and threats in an effort to obtain millions of dollars for himself. He claimed that if Nike did not meet his demands, “the company might die.”

“Our system of justice requires and relies on attorneys, members of the bar, to not simply follow the law, but uphold its finest principles and ideals,” Berman told reporters. “But when lawyers use their law licenses as weapons, as a guise to extort payments for themselves, they are no longer acting as attorneys. They are acting as criminals, and they will be held responsible for their conduct.”

According to the New York complaint against him, Avenatti and the co-conspirator met with attorneys for Nike on March 19 and “threatened to release damaging information” if the company did not agree to make multi-million dollar payments to them, as well as an additional $1.5-million payment to a client Avenatti claimed to represent.

He allegedly told the attorneys that if his demands were not met, he would “go take ten billion dollars off your client’s market cap … I’m not f—ing around.”

The complaint said Avenatti threatened to hold a news conference on the eve of Nike’s quarterly earnings call and the start of the NCAA tournament to announce allegations of misconduct by Nike employees.

“Nike will not be extorted or hide information that is relevant to a government investigation,” the company said in a statement obtained by Fox News. “Nike has been cooperating with the government’s investigation into NCAA basketball for over a year. When Nike became aware of this matter, Nike immediately reported it to federal prosecutors. When Mr. Avenatti attempted to extort Nike over this matter, Nike with the assistance of outside counsel at Boies Schiller Flexner, aided the investigation.

Mark Geragos, left, is seen in this March 2015 photo representing R&B singer Chris Brown at a court hearing in Los Angeles.
(Reuters)

“Nike firmly believes in ethical and fair play, both in business and sports, and will continue to assist the prosecutors.”

JUSSIE SMOLLETT IS VICTIM OF ‘MEDIA GANGBANG,’ DEFENSE ATTORNEY MARK GERAGOS SAYS

The law office of Geragos & Geragos told Fox News that “our office has no comment” on the allegations. A spokeswoman for CNN, for whom Mark Geragos had contributed legal analysis, told the Washington Examiner that Mark Geragos was no longer a contributor at the cable network.

Meanwhile, the alleged client was identified as a coach for an amateur athletic union men’s basketball program based in California.

Earlier Monday, Avenatti tweeted he would be holding a news conference Tuesday to “disclose a major high school/college basketball scandal perpetrated by @Nike that we have uncovered. This criminal conduct reaches the highest levels of Nike and involves some of the biggest names in college basketball.”

Meanwhile, at a separate news conference in California, federal investigators announced additional criminal charges against the lawyer for a separate matter. In that case, Avenatti was accused of embezzling a client’s settlement money to pay his own expenses and debts — as well as those of his coffee business and law firm.

U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said Avenatti was charged with wire fraud and tax fraud stemming from a two-year IRS tax investigation after he allegedly obtained $4.1 million in loans for his law firm and coffee business from a Mississippi bank by using phony tax returns stating that he had made $4,562,881 in 2011, $5,423,099 in 2012, and $4,082,803 in 2013. Avenatti also stated that he had paid more than $1 million in estimated taxes to the IRS in 2012 and 2013 when, according to prosecutors, he actually owed the IRS $850,438 plus interest and penalties for the years 2009 and 2010. In addition, authorities say, Avenatti paid no personal income taxes for 2011, 2012 and 2013 and paid no estimated taxes in 2012 and 2013.

“[Avenatti] is a corrupt lawyer who instead fights for his own selfish interest,” Hanna said, adding that the allegations against the attorney “paint an ugly picture of lawlessness and greed.”

Avenatti became famous as the lawyer for Daniels, the adult-film actress who alleged she had an affair with President Trump in 2006 while his wife Melania was pregnant with the couple’s son, Barron. In the last year, Daniels and Avenatti became household names in their fight against Trump, dominating cable news shows for months and taunting the president in interviews.

Daniels released a statement Monday saying she was not “shocked” by the charges against Avenatti.

“Knowing what I know now about Michael Avenatti, I am saddened but not shocked by news reports that he has been criminally charged today,” Daniels said. “I made the decision more than a month ago to terminate Michael’s services after discovering that he had dealt with me extremely dishonestly and there will be more announcements to come.”

Charles Harder, who represented President Trump in the Daniels case, told Fox News that Avenatti’s arrest marked “a great day for the American justice system.”

Before Avenatti started representing Daniels in February 2018, he was virtually unknown outside of the California legal community. However, in a matter of months, he had become known as a no-holds-barred lawyer with a media style — and a penchant for tweeting — similar to Trump’s.

On Monday, Berman emphatically denied that politics played any role in the case, noting that investigators “received the call six days ago by the victim saying that three was extortionist threats made against them and that’s how we became involved in this case.

A senior Justice Department official told Fox News that while the California investigation into Avenatti had been going on for “a long time,” the Nike case in New York “came out of nowhere” and progressed “very quickly.”

“We could have arrested him last week,” the official told Fox News, adding that officials wanted the charges in both cases unsealed at the same time and wanted to ensure that Avenatti’s arrest went smoothly.

Both cases against Avenatti were overseen by the office of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Justice Department officials tell Fox News that Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan, Rosenstein’s right-hand man, was involved in “significant coordination” on the Avenatti matter over the weekend while also playing a part in Attorney General William Barr’s letter to Congress summarizing the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. The officials added that Barr was also aware of the Avenatti case as it developed.

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Avenatti briefly mulled a 2020 presidential run as a Democrat — he even visited Iowa at one point — but ultimately ruled that out. He also was involved in another high-profile case, representing dozens of parents whose children were separated from them at the U.S. border as a result of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. More recently, he’s been representing women who said they were sexually abused by R&B star R. Kelly.

In the California case, Avenatti faces up to 50 years in prison, while in the New York case, the charges carry a potential penalty of 47 years in prison.

Fox News’ Jake Gibson, Lee Ross, Marta Dhanis and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/michael-avenatti-accused-of-trying-to-extort-nike-for-up-to-25m-feds-say

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Mulvaney pushes the health-care fight Trump wants despite GOP’s misgivings – The Washington Post
Mulvaney pushes the health-care fight Trump wants despite GOP’s misgivings – The Washington Post

Josh Dawsey

Ashley Parker

Damian Paletta

March 27 at 9:01 PM

Mick Mulvaney is trying to achieve as acting White House chief of staff what he never could as a conservative firebrand in Congress.

Mulvaney this week helped persuade President Trump to get behind a legal effort aimed at striking down the Affordable Care Act over the objections of some in the administration and Republican leadership on Capitol Hill.

His pitch came during scheduled “policy time” with Trump on Monday and spanned several meetings throughout the day. It was met with resistance from some on the president’s legal team and his Justice Department, as well as with skepticism from Vice President Pence, who favors overturning President Barack Obama’s namesake health-care law but only if Republicans are ready with an alternative, according to White House officials familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private talks.

But Trump — fresh off a victory lap following the conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation — agreed with Mulvaney and was eager to forge ahead into dismantling his predecessor’s health law.

“The Republican Party will soon be known as the party of health care,” the president enthused while walking into a lunch of Republican senators Tuesday. He seemed to try to justify his administration’s unexpected decision, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that “if the Supreme Court rules that Obamacare is out, we’ll have a plan that is far better than Obamacare.”

Mulvaney and his allies have told Trump that joining a lawsuit to overturn the ACA will help him fulfill a campaign promise and could help lead to his reelection, but congressional Republicans worry he’s sent the president on a suicide mission. While Republicans are united in their opposition to Obama’s signature health-care law, they remain divided on how to replace it, and Democrats are eager to exploit this tension while making health care a centerpiece of the 2020 campaign.

The behind-the-scenes role played by Mulvaney — who in Congress was a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus and earned a reputation for frustrating Republican leadership — highlights the way he has operated as a top aide to Trump, first as budget director and now as acting chief of staff.

If Trump is well-known within the White House for having little interest in both policy and nuance, Mulvaney seems to specialize in it. But the acting chief of staff has also sought to frame his long-held views in a way that won’t undermine the president. This has allowed Mulvaney to use his proximity to power to directly shape major White House policy proposals that echo his priorities during a congressional career spent more in shouting from the sidelines than in rooms where deals were made.

He used his budget office perch to craft spending plans that drastically reduced funding for programs such as education, environmental protection and housing. Earlier this year, following a partial government shutdown he supported, it was Mulvaney who helped aggressively engineer the controversial emergency declaration plan to fund large sections of a border wall without congressional approval — and dubbed it “D-Day,” White House officials said. It was a move that deeply frustrated many Senate Republicans, but Mulvaney told the president that senators wouldn’t override him. And now he has pushed Trump into a health-care fight many in the party are eager to avoid. 

“The greatest political liability one can accrue is advocating for the disruption in coverage for Americans who are currently pleased with their own health care,” said Josh Holmes, a former senior adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “What’s happened in the last six months is the Democrats have taken the health-care issues and have walked to the precipice of the cliff and are ready to drop off. The only thing that’s saving them is a Republican grabbing them by the collar and jumping off instead.”

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who chairs the Freedom Caucus and is close with Mulvaney, said the acting chief is taking the right approach. “The 2020 elections will be more about domestic policy than they will be about foreign policy,” Meadows said. “It’s Mick Mulvaney’s sweet spot.”

In a new court filing Monday night, the Justice Department argued that the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, should be thrown out in its entirety. The filing was made with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, where an appeal is pending in a case brought by Republican state attorneys general challenging the law’s constitutionality. A federal judge in Texas ruled in December that the entire law is invalid, in an opinion that went considerably further than the administration’s position at the time.

Before Monday’s filing, the Justice Department argued that there were grounds only to strike down the law’s consumer protections, including those for people with preexisting health conditions, but that the rest should be kept intact. Now the administration wants the whole law thrown out.

Politico first reported Mulvaney’s role in pushing Trump to support invalidating Obamacare. 

Mulvaney is proving to be a far different chief of staff than his predecessors. Reince Priebus, who first held the job, spent much of his time careening around the West Wing — trying to manage his presidential charge and the West Wing’s feuding factions. John Kelly, Trump’s second chief of staff, was a strict gatekeeper who worked to limit the president’s inner circle.

“What would surprise people is that the Freedom Caucus member who went to OMB and is now chief of staff is willing to evaluate things without making his opinions be a part of any calculation,” Meadows said. “The other [thing] is Mick Mulvaney has probably the second most powerful position in Washington, D.C., and yet he allows other people access to the president and doesn’t feel challenged by that.” 

Mulvaney has adopted a more relaxed approach, despite having held three different posts in the administration — at one point, he was acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — and at times holding two roles simultaneously. 

White House officials say Mulvaney is generally well-liked within the West Wing, allowing robust debate and empowering various advisers and officials. He helped foster his personal relationship with Trump over golf — and was on the course with the president as recently as Sunday, where the topic of health care also came up. 

“Mick’s approach is hands-off but not hands-free,” said White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. “He is involved in every policy discussion, presidential decision-making exercise, and he and his team make sure the president is fully briefed.”

Mulvaney aides have deliberately worked to keep his profile low, arguing that Trump often sours on advisers when he reads stories that say they are controlling, shaping or trying to influence him. Mulvaney declined to be interviewed for this article. 

He asks the president detailed questions about his daily calendar, knowing that Trump does not like to be over-scheduled and likes to have free time, and adheres to what Trump wants. He has also taken it upon himself to try to serve as Trump’s inside-the-Beltway fixer, familiarizing himself with as many rules and laws as possible to help his boss avoid stumbling blocks.

Earlier this month, when Trump unleashed 52 frenzied tweets in just 34 hours, Mulvaney was on vacation in Las Vegas. He has told other White House aides that he only worries about Trump’s tweets if they threaten a legislative priority — such as alienating a needed vote — or if they announce policy or personnel.

Mulvaney has also described a steep learning curve on foreign policy, and told others how surreal it was to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Hanoi summit last month.

His health-care maneuvering was met with dismay from many in his party. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), for instance, has urged Trump to hold off on pushing for the courts to overturn Obamacare, a private pitch first reported by Axios. A Republican strategist in frequent touch with the White House said some in the administration were frustrated with Mulvaney for his “ham-handed move,” describing Mulvaney as abiding by “Freedom Caucus and club for dopes rules.”

Mulvaney has been aligned with a broad coalition of conservative groups that have worked with the Republican attorneys general who brought the ACA lawsuit and have urged that the president adopt a harder legal line, according to a former member of Trump’s domestic policy transition team and steering committee member of the Conservative Action Project. Others, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Attorney General William P. Barr, have been more aligned with McConnell, who has feared that any wholesale rejection of the 2010 health-care law would exert pressure on Congress to reopen debate about how to replace the ACA, according to the individual, who spoke about internal conversations on the condition of anonymity.

“Alex and, I think, Barr, have the more reserved positions,” the individual said. “The president netted out with the harder-line approach.”

Trump himself has not articulated his plan for health care, and urged members of Congress to write one. In his meeting Tuesday on Capitol Hill, he explained to senators that health care was the party’s main vulnerability because they had “owned” the economy and the border, officials with knowledge of the meeting said. He told them he decided in the motorcade ride over that his new slogan would link Republicans to being the party of health care.

Mulvaney’s defenders say that on health care, he is simply helping Trump achieve his policy objectives. When the Texas ruling was first announced, for instance, Trump tweeted that the decision was “great news for America!” 

Mulvaney’s budgets as OMB director have also prioritized the president’s goals over some of those Mulvaney himself advocated for as a fiery and conservative lawmaker. His fiscal plans have jacked up spending for military programs, a priority for Trump, and stopped short of imposing major structural changes to Medicare because Trump ordered it. Trump, however, grew angry last year when he learned Mulvaney was behind a budget request for the wall that only requested $1.6 billion.

If Mulvaney, who wears a boot on his right foot for an Achilles heel injury, struggled to transition from a conservative mischief maker who enjoyed needling his party’s leadership to a deputy in the Trump administration, he has shown few outward signs. In a closed-door speech to donors last year, Mulvaney argued that Republicans should support Trump even if they find his style distasteful, according to a recording of the event obtained by The Washington Post. 

He cited the administration’s handling of religious freedom cases and said there were many more examples.

Still, he added, “It’s not sexy.”

Alice Crites and Amy Goldstein contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-chief-of-staff-mulvaney-pushes-health-care-fight-trump-wants-republicans-fear/2019/03/27/c52a07de-50bc-11e9-8d28-f5149e5a2fda_story.html

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Elizabeth Warren is the Titanic of Democrats: Destined to sink – Washington Examiner
Elizabeth Warren is the Titanic of Democrats: Destined to sink – Washington Examiner

Like the Titanic, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., looks grand on paper. She is energetic, experienced, and adorned with high decoration from prestigious universities. But like the Titanic and the iceberg, Warren is a collision with outsize arrogance. If Warren wins the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, President Trump will almost certainly be re-elected.

Before we get into it, have a quick watch of Warren’s announcement that she is forming an exploratory committee.

Inadvertently for an announcement, that video encapsulates why Warren will struggle to enter the Oval Office as president. It is boring, loaded with not-so-subtle class warfare tropes, and full of rage toward conservatives. Most of all, it offers nothing original.

There’s nothing that might separate Warren from the growing pack of perhaps 30 Democrats who want to face Trump in 2020. Nothing that might allow Warren to evade Trump’s unpredictability and his occasional penchant for political genius.

But that’s Warren. Just slightly more moderate than Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but lacking any of Ocasio-Cortez’s charisma, Warren is what she appears to be: not terribly impressive. You can bet that as 2019 rumbles on and the Democratic nomination heats up, Warren will make mistakes similar to that which has most damaged her: the blood test. More specifically, Warren’s Native American blood test earlier this year that showed Warren is about as Native American as most Americans. Which is to say, not very.

Even if Democrats were not so obsessed with identity politics, Warren might be able to escape her blood test debacle with a mea culpa (as yet undelivered). But that would take something Warren lacks: originality. When one digs into the details of Warren’s domestic and foreign policy proposals, the result is relentlessly unremarkable.

Don’t get me wrong. There is something very special about a nation in which an impossible-to-tan Anglo-American such as myself can have first cousins who are half-Native American. Americans might cry out in 2020 for a candidate who is seen to offer a more optimistic vision than the angry warship of Trumpism. But that candidate must have a vision and instinct that inspires people personally. After all, if the economy remains strong and Trump remains in control, the incumbent will have a very good message: “I might be unpredictable, but things are pretty good, aren’t they? It’s me or Democrats offering higher taxes and spending.”

Again, a candidate must inspire the electorate to the cause of making the nation better. That’s what former President Barack Obama did in 2008, and it dissolved the Hillary Clinton machine. That’s what Trump did in 2016, and it dissolved the Republican establishment.

I don’t see Warren inspiring people. Instead, Warren is a politician without political instinct, and an intellect without introspective flair.

If Warren is the Democratic nominee, I think Trump is getting four more years in office.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/elizabeth-warren-is-the-titanic-of-democrats-destined-to-sink

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The Russia-Ukraine War: Latest News and Live Updates – The Wall Street Journal
The Russia-Ukraine War: Latest News and Live Updates – The Wall Street Journal

President Biden’s decision to release 30 million barrels of oil from the government’s reserves held underground salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana coasts is one of few tools he has at his fingertips to try to protect Americans against higher gas prices.

That release, he said during his State of the Union address, will help “blunt gas prices here at home.”

“I want you to know that we are going to be okay,” he said.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine sent energy prices even higher than last fall, when gas prices ticked noticeably higher alongside inflation costs. Russia is one of the world’s largest oil and gas exporters. But energy analysts say Mr. Biden has very few options to quickly lower prices given the complexities of the industry’s supply and demand.

Speeding up lease sales and permitting for oil-and-gas production on federal lands or interstate pipelines would still take years of development.

Still, Mr. Biden faces pressure from lawmakers to do more to target Russia’s energy sector, which he has avoided to prevent price increases.

Republicans and some Democrats are pushing to expand sanctions on Russia’s powerful oil and gas industry, the lifeblood of its economy. So far, U.S. sanctions aimed at punishing Russia have targeted its top financial institutions and Russian President Vladimir Putin himself.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, wants the White House to ban crude oil imports from Russia. Mr. Manchin acknowledged that such a move could increase gas prices for U.S. drivers but noted that domestic production could soften the blow.

Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert, arrived to the State of the Union address with an outfit reading “Drill Baby Drill”, a Republican slogan that’s been around for more than a decade to signal support for increased drilling of oil and gas.

Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-03-01

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Julio César Rivera es elegido nuevo alcalde de Tumaco, Nariño – Noticias Caracol
Julio César Rivera es elegido nuevo alcalde de Tumaco, Nariño – Noticias Caracol

Con esperanza de cambio, decenas de tumaqueños recibieron resultados que dieron como ganador al candidato de Autoridades Indígenas de Colombia.

Julio César Rivera aseguró que comenzó una nueva era para los habitantes de Tumaco.

Aunque Juan Carlos Galindo, registrador nacional, dio un parte de tranquilidad en estas elecciones atípicas, algunos ciudadanos del barrio La Ciudadela denunciaron que sus votos iban a ser trasladados en un taxi.

Medidas de seguridad y presencia de la Policía en calles de Tumaco se mantienen para preservar el orden público.

Source Article from http://noticias.caracoltv.com/colombia/julio-cesar-rivera-es-elegido-nuevo-alcalde-de-tumaco-narino

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With deadline looming, Trump says failure to fund border security is ‘not an option’ – NBC News
With deadline looming, Trump says failure to fund border security is ‘not an option’ – NBC News

WASHINGTON — After meeting with the top Senate Republican negotiator on a Homeland Security spending bill, President Donald Trump said Thursday that it is “not an option” for Congress to fail to provide security on the U.S. border with Mexico.

“We’ll see what happens but I certainly hear they’re working on something, and both sides are moving along,” he told reporters at the White House after he met with Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., earlier in the day. “We need border security. We have to have it. It’s not an option.”

House and Senate negotiators from both parties are racing against a Monday deadline to hammer out a deal that funds the department and increases spending to control illegal immigration and the flow of contraband across the border.

Trump has insisted that he will build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico whether or not Congress grants him the $5.7 billion he has sought for the project, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that she will not sign off an any agreement that provides funding for it.

The president and leading lawmakers in both parties in Congress have voiced support for increasing spending for enhancements to technology for monitoring the border and for improvements to ports of entry to the United States. Trump has said he is considering tapping emergency powers and existing pots of money to build the wall if Congress doesn’t give him the cash he wants — a move that both sides see as likely to lead to a court fight.

If Congress and the president don’t strike an agreement on border security funding by Feb. 15 — and if they don’t pass a stopgap appropriations bill to buy more time — parts of the federal government will shut down for a second time in the last three months.

Trump ended a five-week government shutdown late last month when he announced that he would sign a short-term measure reopening closed federal agencies to give Congress time to negotiate a border-security agreement.

Jonathan Allen is a Washington-based national political reporter for NBC News who focuses on the presidency.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/deadline-looming-trump-says-failure-fund-border-security-not-option-n969011

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