Page 20 of 22 FirstFirst ... 10 18 19 20 21 22 LastLast
Results 476 to 500 of 532

Thread: Asshole Politician of the Day

  1. #476
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://www.businessinsider.com/girl...cenany-2020-12

    CNN anchor Don Lemon lost whatever patience he had left with White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany during his monologue Tuesday night.

    Lemon took issue with McEnany's consistent media criticism and how she has continued to deny President-elect Joe Biden is the rightful winner of the 2020 election.


    "Do you know she worked for — girl, bye," Lemon said, referencing McEnany's time as a CNN commentator. "Girl, bye. Buh-bye."

    He said McEnany "is acting like the election didn't even happen, acting like she's not about to be out of a job."

    "So much disinformation coming from the podium," Lemon added. "It's every day."

    Lemon described McEnany's persistent suggestions on what the news media should be covering as hypocritical given her history at the network.

    McEnany began appearing on CNN as a law student and was highly critical of Trump as a candidate in 2015, calling one of his comments "racist" and "not the American way."

    Lemon also asked why White House officials like McEnany "act like they're living in an alternate reality and universe?"

    "You used to sit here on the set with us. I think we got it," Lemon said. "When you sat here with us, you thought we had it. You were happy to be here. But now we don't know what we're doing? Girl, bye."

  2. #477
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/15/media...irk/index.html

    New York (CNN Business)Geraldo Rivera, a Fox News correspondent and longtime friend of Donald Trump, has a message for the president: "It's over."

    During a segment on "The Story With Martha MacCallum," Fox News host Martha MacCallum asked Rivera and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk to share their thoughts on President-elect Joe Biden's Tuesday night speech after the electoral college officially submitted their votes.
    "He is absolutely right. It's over," Rivera said, nodding to Biden's speech that focused on moving forward. He added that he wants President Donald Trump to "understand it is over."
    Kirk, who leads the right-wing college activism group, wasn't willing to concede that fact. In defense of Trump and his legal team's efforts to overturn the results of the election, Kirk said Trump supporters still have "very good questions" about the election results.

    There are still plenty of pending legal challenges," Kirk said. "There are hundreds."
    "That's so dishonest," Rivera quickly chimed in. "You have to stop this."
    Trump's cases have been litigated for six weeks, Rivera pointed out, adding that the Supreme Court has rejected Trump's efforts twice.
    "The President of the United States Donald Trump can end the post-election turmoil. The nation is rattled. We are divided. The government is in disarray," Rivera said in a call-to-action video posted to his Twitter account on Tuesday morning, less than 24 hours after the on-air spat with Kirk. "President Trump must concede. The electoral college has spoken. They voted yesterday, as you know, for Joe Biden."
    This isn't a new stance for Rivera. On November 11, four days after most major news outlets declared the race for Joe Biden, Rivera tweeted, "Dear @realDonaldTrump-my honored friend-you fought an incredible battle vs all odds and the curse of insidious disease. You battled the back stabbers & our enemies & remade the world in peace & prosperity. You came so close. Time coming soon to say goodbye with grace & dignity."
    https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump...-news-is-dead/

    President Donald Trump is going in for the kill shot against his one-time favorite network.

    In a Wednesday morning tweet, the president bashed Fox News — going so far as to pronounce its demise.

    “Can’t believe how badly @FoxNews is doing in the ratings,” Trump wrote. “They played right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats, & now are floating in limboland. Hiring fired @donnabraziIe, and far worse, allowing endless negative and unedited commercials. @FoxNews is dead. Really Sad!”
    The tweet is the latest example of Trump trying to siphon away viewers from Fox, and push them towards fringe, far-right outlets such as OAN and Newsmax. While the latter network has had a ratings uptick in recent weeks, neither has been much more than a blip on the Nielsen radar for Fox News — which remains atop the cable news heap.

    Yet for all his proclamations of Fox’s demise, the president has — since the election — granted interviews only to that network. He spoke with Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade this past weekend. He gave his first post-election interview to Maria Bartiromo. And the president’s tweet immediately followed an interview his chief spokesperson, White House Press Secretary and Trump campaign adviser Kayleigh McEnany, gave to Fox News.

    Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com

  3. #478
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/in...-hunter-biden/

    Undercutting President Donald Trump on multiple fronts, Attorney General William Barr said Monday he saw no reason to appoint a special counsel to look into the president’s claims about the 2020 election or to name one for the tax investigation of President-elect Joe Biden’s son.

    Barr, in his final public appearance as a member of Trump’s Cabinet, also reinforced the belief of federal officials that Russia was behind a massive hack of U.S. government agencies, not China as the president has suggested.

    Barr is leaving the Justice Department this week, having morphed from one of Trump’s most loyal allies to one of the few members of the Cabinet willing to contradict the president openly. That’s been particularly true since the election, with Barr declaring in an interview with The AP that he had seen no evidence of widespread voting fraud, even as Trump continued to make false claims about the integrity of the contest.

    The president has also grown particularly angry that Barr didn’t announce the existence of a two-year-old investigation of Hunter Biden before the election. On Monday, Barr said that investigation was “being handled responsibly and professionally.”

    “I have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel and I have no plan to do so before I leave,” he said, adding that there was also no need for a special counsel to investigate the election.

    A special counsel would make it more difficult for Biden and his yet-to-be-named attorney general to close investigations begun under Trump. Such an appointment could also add a false legitimacy to baseless claims, particularly to the throngs of Trump supporters who believe the election was stolen because Trump keeps wrongly claiming it was.

    Barr’s comments came at a press conference to announce additional criminal charges in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 190 Americans, an issue he had worked on in his previous stint as attorney general in the early 1990s. He’ll step down on Wednesday and be replaced by acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.

    Barr’s statements on the special counsel may make it easier for Rosen to resist pressure from the White House to open any special counsel investigation.

    In his 2019 confirmation hearing for deputy attorney general, Rosen said he was willing to rebuff political pressure from the White House if necessary. He told legislators that criminal investigations should “proceed on the facts and the law” and prosecutions should be “free of improper political influences.”

    “If the appropriate answer is to say no to somebody, then I will say no,” he said at the time.

    Trump and his allies have filed roughly 50 lawsuits challenging election results and nearly all have been dismissed or dropped. He’s also lost twice at the U.S. Supreme Court.

    With no further tenable legal recourse, Trump has been fuming and peppering allies for options as he refuses to accept his loss.

    Among those allies is Rudy Giuliani, who during a meeting Friday pushed Trump to seize voting machines in his hunt for evidence of fraud. The Homeland Security Department made clear, however, that it had no authority to do so. It is also unclear what that would accomplish.

    For his part, Barr said he saw no reason to seize them. Earlier this month, Barr also told AP that the Justice Department and Homeland Security had looked into the claims “that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results” and ultimately concluded that “we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that.”

    Trump has consulted on special counsels with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and outside allies, according to several Trump administration officials and Republicans close to the White House who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized discuss the matter publicly.

    Trump was interested both in a counsel to investigate the younger Biden’s tax dealings and a second to look into election fraud. He even floated the idea of naming attorney Sidney Powell as the counsel — though Powell was booted from Trump’s legal team after she made a series of increasingly wild conspiratorial claims about the election.

    Federal law requires that an attorney general appoint any special counsels.

    Barr also said Monday the hack of U.S. government agencies “certainly appears to be the Russians.”

    In implicating the Russians, Barr was siding with the widely held belief within the U.S. government and the cybersecurity community that Russian hackers were responsible for breaches at multiple government agencies, including the Treasury and Commerce departments.

    Hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a radio interview that Russia was “pretty clearly” behind the hacks, Trump sought to undercut that message and play down the severity of the attack.

    He tweeted that the “Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality.” He also said China could be responsible even though no credible evidence has emerged to suggest anyone other than Russia might be to blame.

    Monday was also the 32nd anniversary of the Pan Am explosion over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 259 people in the air and 11 on the ground.

    The Justice Department announced its case against the accused bombmaker, Abu Agela Masud Kheir Al-Marimi, who admitted in an interview with Libyan officials several years ago that he had built the bomb and worked with two other defendants to carry out the attack, Barr said.

    Calling the news conference to announce the charges underscored Barr’s attachment to that case. He had announced an earlier set of charges against two other Libyan intelligence officials in his capacity as acting attorney general nearly 30 years ago, vowing the investigation would continue.

  4. #479
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://www.news4jax.com/news/world/...inancial-case/

    TUNIS – Former Tunisian presidential candidate and media mogul Nabil Karoui has been arrested on charges of money laundering and tax evasion, a Tunis court spokesman said on Thursday.

    Karoui spent most of last year’s presidential campaign in jail for the same charges, which he called politically driven. He was released just before the election, but the investigation continued. A judge in charge of financial cases ordered him jailed again on Thursday, said a Tunis court spokesman Mohsen Dali.

    Dali said Karoui can appeal his arrest. Karoui’s brother Ghazi is also facing charges but was not arrested because he enjoys immunity as a parliament deputy, the spokesman said.

    A member of Karoui’s support committee, lawyer Nazih Souii, said he was “surprised and shocked” by the arrest, and alleged that the judge acted under “political pressure.”

    The case against Karoui was opened after a complaint four years ago by an anti-corruption group.


    Karoui, a populist media mogul, founded Nessma TV and heads the Qalb Tunis party, the second-largest party in parliament.

    Karoui was runner-up in last year’s presidential election, won by Kais Saied, a conservative professor who has vowed to root out corruption that has contributed to Tunisia’s economic struggles.

    Both candidates rode to the presidential runoff on the disenchantment of Tunisians, particularly young people and the poor, who felt the governing class hasn’t fulfilled the promises of Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, which unleashed revolts around the Arab world.

    Other prominent figures have also been targeted recently in corruption investigations.

  5. #480
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to dismiss a last-gasp lawsuit led by a House Republican that seeks to give Vice President Mike Pence the power to overturn the results of the presidential election won by Joe Biden when Congress formally counts the Electoral College votes next week.

    Pence, as president of the Senate, will oversee the session Wednesday and declare the winner of the White House race. The Electoral College this month cemented Biden?s 306-232 victory, and multiple legal efforts by President Donald Trump?s campaign to challenge the results have failed.

    The suit names Pence, who has a largely ceremonial role in next week?s proceedings, as the defendant and asks the court to throw out the 1887 law that spells out how Congress handles the vote counting. It asserts that the vice president ?may exercise the exclusive authority and sole discretion in determining which electoral votes to count for a given State.?

    The Justice Department is representing Pence in a case that aims to find a way to keep his boss, President Donald Trump, in power. In a court filing in Texas on Wednesday, the department said Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and a group of Republican electors from Arizona ?have sued the wrong defendant? ? if, in fact, any of those suing actually have ?a judicially cognizable claim.?

    The department says, in effect, that the suit objects to long-standing procedures laid out in law, ?not any actions that Vice President Pence has taken,? so he should not be the target of the suit.

    ?A suit to establish that the Vice President has discretion over the count, filed against the Vice President, is a walking legal contradiction,? the department argues.

    Trump, the first president to lose a reelection bid in almost 30 years, has attributed his defeat to widespread voter fraud. But a range of nonpartisan election officials and Republicans has confirmed there was no fraud in the November contest that would change the results of the election. That includes former Attorney General William Barr, who said he saw no reason to appoint a special counsel to look into the president?s claims about the 2020 election. He resigned from his post last week.

    Trump and his allies have filed roughly 50 lawsuits challenging election results, and nearly all have been dismissed or dropped. He?s also lost twice at the Supreme Court.

    https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/mi...ction-results/

    Here we go again.

  6. #481
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://www.kltv.com/2021/01/02/us-r...ction-lawsuit/

    . TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - In the wake of a Newsmax interview in which he said a federal judge’s decision to reject his lawsuit against the vice president appeared to leave people upset about the election with no recourse but rioting in the streets, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert said he was not advocating for violence.

    “I have not encouraged and unequivocally do not advocate for violence,” Gohmert, R-Tyler, said in the statement. “I have long advocated for following the teaching and example of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. of peaceful protest. That does not keep me from recognizing what lies ahead when the institutions created by a self-governing people to peacefully resolve disputes hide from their responsibility.”

    In the statement, Gohmert added that violence is not the answer.

    “The appropriate answer is courts and self-governing bodies resolving disputes as intended,” Gohmert said.

    The U.S. representative posted the video of the Newsmax interview on his Twitter page Friday night.

    Judge rules “no standing” in my lawsuit to toss fraudulent Biden electors. If I don’t have standing, no one does. When no one ever has standing, what good is a court system? My response on @Newsmax below #SaveTheRepublic #StopTheSteal https://t.co/HLQCM6S5CE

    — Louie Gohmert (@replouiegohmert) January 2, 2021
    During the Newsmax interview, the anchor cited the judge’s statement that Gohmert didn’t have the standing to file the lawsuit.

    “This is an example of when the institutions that our Constitution created to resolve disputes so that you didn’t have to have riots and violence in the streets go wrong,” Gohmert said in the interview. “I still believe in the court system. I was part of the court system for decades – as a litigant, a judge, and as an appellate chief justice.”

    Gohmert said back when he was a trial judge in Texas, he had a controversial case, and his judge friends told him not to try it because it was “dynamite.” He added that he lost a night’s sleep over his decision to try the case.

    The U.S. representative said many judges try to avoid controversial cases like the election fraud lawsuits by using procedural issues.

    “There still has not been one court, state or federal, that has had an evidentiary hearing and allowed the evidence of fraud to be introduced,” Gohmert said during the interview. “All this stuff about it being debunked or unsubstantiated those are absolute lies. Complete lies. The only hearings have been held by state legislatures.”

    Gohmert said that if he doesn’t have the standing to protest the election results, no one does. He added that the bottom line is that the court was telling the people who are upset over the election results, “We’re not going to touch this. You have no remedy.”

    “Basically, in effect, the ruling would be that you’ve got to go to the streets and be as violent as Antifa and BLM,” Gohmert said during the interview.

    On Friday, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit filed by Gohmert and others against Vice President Mike Pence and others in an attempt to stop a Joe Biden presidency.

    Judge Jeremy Kernodle stated a lack of subject matter jurisdiction in his order of dismissal.

    The lawsuit was an attempt to allow Pence to deny electors from Arizona and other contested states.

    Later Friday, Gohmert and the other plaintiffs gave Kernodle notice that they would be appealing to the Fifth Court of Appeals, according to a Politico article. During the Newsmax interview, Gohmert said he expected the court to act before Jan. 6

  7. #482
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://fox5sandiego.com/news/texas-...ergency-audit/

    AUSTIN (KXAN) ? Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz has joined the fight to block President-elect Joe Biden?s confirmation as winner of the 2020 Presidential Election.

    Cruz made the announcement via Twitter on Saturday morning, linking to a joint statement along with several other Republican senators, including Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, Tommy Tuberville, of Alabama, and Marsha Blackburn, of Tennessee.

    The move comes as Pres. Trump, his administration and supporters continue pushing still unproven claims of widespread voter fraud. Last month, electors in all states certified their votes for Joe Biden.

    Zero evidence of voter fraud in any state, officials report to NYT
    The senators demand that Congress immediately appoint an Electoral Commission to pursue a full investigation and an emergency 10-day audit of election numbers in disputed states.

    In part, the letter reads: ?? we intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ?regularly given? and ?lawfully certified? (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed.?

    The senators say they understand ?most if not all? Democrats and even some Republicans will vote otherwise but say they believe ?election integrity? should be paramount.

    The continued claims of voter fraud come even as Pres. Trump?s now-former Attorney General and close ally William Barr declared the U.S. Justice Department uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would have effected the election outcome.

    Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud
    Additionally, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency?s review of elections operations and results concluded the election was the ?most secure in American history.?

    The agency continued, saying: There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised.?

  8. #483
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://wgno.com/news/pres-trump-beg...in-phone-call/

    WASHINGTON, D.C. ? ?WE HAVE WON THIS ELECTION!? President Donald Trump can be heard telling Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in audio obtained by the Washington Post.

    During the call, released Sunday, Trump assures Raffensperger ? who certified the state?s results for Biden multiple times ? that the people of Georgia are ?angry? about his loss.

    ?There?s nothing wrong with saying that you?ve recalculated,? Trump is heard telling Raffensperger, who he says took the election away from him.

    Raffensperger responds, saying: ?Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.?

    GOP torn over Trump?s Electoral College challenge of Biden
    Trump followed up this statement by asking if it was possible that ballots were shredded in Fulton County and that Dominion had removed voting machines: both rumors he claims to have heard.

    Raffensperger proceeds to negate both Trump?s questions.

    ?You should want to have an accurate election,? Trump says. ?And you?re a Republican.?

    ?We believe that we do have an accurate election,? Raffensperger urges.

    Biden officially secures enough electors to become president
    ?No, no, you don?t. No, no, you don?t. You don?t. You don?t have. Not even close,? Trump continues. ?You?re off by hundreds of thousands of votes.?

    After this, Trump points the finger at Raffensperger, saying he knows what has happened and isn?t doing anything ? and appears to allude to criminal consequences for Raffensperger.

    ?I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state,? Trump says.

    Raffensperger never wavers on the call, however, saying ultimately, ?Mr. President, we have to stand by our numbers. We believe our numbers are right.?

    The Washington Post reached out to the White House, the Trump campaign, Meadows ? all did not respond for comment. Raffensperger?s office declined to comment.

    ?Voter fraud? in 2020 election
    Trump?s continued claims of voter fraud come even as his now-former Attorney General and close ally William Barr declared the U.S. Justice Department uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would have effected the election outcome.

    Additionally, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency?s review of elections operations and results concluded the election was the ?most secure in American history.?

    A November investigation by the New York Times also revealed zero evidence of voter fraud in any state.

  9. #484
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0

  10. #485
    What do you care? Boston Babe 73's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Under your bed
    Posts
    23,483
    Rep Power
    21474870
    PLURAL. I think we need to start enforcing the laws of treason which is punishable by death. Throw these guys in front of a firing squad and see how quickly this fuckacting stops.

    (CNN)The Pennsylvania Senate's swearing-in ceremony devolved into a chaotic scene on Tuesday when state GOP senators refused to seat a Democratic member who had won reelection and seized control of the proceedings from the Democratic lieutenant governor after his objections.

    Republicans in the chamber made a motion to not seat state Democratic Sen. Jim Brewster, whose narrow win in November is being challenged by his GOP opponent. The Pennsylvania Department of State has confirmed his win.

    When Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman objected to the motion -- insisting that Brewster be sworn in -- the state GOP took the rare step of seizing control of the proceedings from him.


    The scene drew swift backlash from Democrats across the state, including Gov. Tom Wolf, who said in a statement, "This is a shameful power grab that disgraces the institution."

    "It is simply unethical and undemocratic to leave the district without a voice simply because the Republicans don't like the outcome of the election. Voters, not Harrisburg politicians, decided this election, and Sen. Brewster is the rightful winner," Wolf said.

    "All ballots were counted and certified, and the results are accurate. Sen. Brewster received the most votes in this race and should be sworn in as the Senator for the 45th District. There is no precedent, and no legal rationale, for failing to do so," he added.

    The state Republicans' case for not sitting Brewster rests on a lawsuit filed by his opponent, Nicole Ziccarelli. She is seeking to overturn her election loss through the removal of some Allegheny County mail-in ballots that didn't include handwritten dates on their outer declaration envelopes.

    It's unclear how long the state GOP plans to keep Brewster's seat empty.
    https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/05/polit...gop/index.html
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    That is too pretty to be shoved up an ass.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    You can take those Fleets and shove them up your ass



  11. #486
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    Quote Originally Posted by Boston Babe 73 View Post
    PLURAL. I think we need to start enforcing the laws of treason which is punishable by death. Throw these guys in front of a firing squad and see how quickly this fuckacting stops.



    https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/05/polit...gop/index.html
    The problem here is that we have to wait for some type of Jim Jones even to happen even though I argue that the right is worse than even jonestown at this point because the Trumpies want to covert the USA or Russia into Trumptown but with more victims.

  12. #487
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://www.npr.org/2021/01/14/95692...nt-water-crisi

    The Michigan Attorney General's Office Thursday announced criminal charges for eight former state officials, including the state's former Gov. Rick Snyder, along with one current official, for their alleged roles in the Flint water crisis.

    Together the group face 42 counts related to the drinking water catastrophe roughly seven years ago. The crimes range from perjury to misconduct in office to involuntary manslaughter.

    The drinking water debacle is linked to at least 12 deaths and at least 80 people sickened with Legionnaires' disease after untreated water from the Flint River caused lead to leach from old pipes, poisoning the majority Black city's water system.

    Snyder, a Republican who left office two years ago, is facing two counts of willful neglect, both misdemeanors which each carry a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a fine up to $1,000.

    The attorney general's announcement cites other charges as follows:

    Jarrod Agen – Former Director of Communications and Former Chief of Staff, Executive Office of Gov. Rick Snyder

    One count of perjury – a 15-year felony
    Gerald Ambrose – Former City of Flint Emergency Manager

    Four counts of misconduct in office – each a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine

    Richard Baird – Former Transformation Manager and Senior Adviser, Executive Office of Gov. Snyder

    One count of perjury – a 15-year felony
    One count of official misconduct in office – a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine
    One count of obstruction of justice – a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine
    One count of extortion – a 20-year felony and/or $10,000 fine
    Howard Croft – Former Director of the City of Flint Department of Public Works

    Two counts of willful neglect of duty – each a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine
    Darnell Earley – Former City of Flint Emergency Manager

    Three counts of misconduct in office – each a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine
    Nicolas Lyon – Former Director, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

    Nine counts of involuntary manslaughter – each a 15-year felony and/or $7,500 fine
    One count of willful neglect of duty – a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine
    Nancy Peeler – Current Early Childhood Health Section Manager, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

    Two counts of misconduct in office – each a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine
    One count of willful neglect of duty – a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine
    Eden Wells – Former Chief Medical Executive, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

    Nine counts of involuntary manslaughter – each a 15-year felony and/or $7,500 fine
    Two counts of misconduct in office – each a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine
    One count of willful neglect of duty – a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine
    Prosecutors said all of the defendants turned themselves into the Genesee County, Mich., jail and were processed.

    At the media briefing announcing the charges, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said the investigation included pouring over "literally millions and millions of documents and several electronic devices." She added it also involved dozens of search warrants and countless hours worked by investigators during the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

    "Our work on this case begins with the understanding that the impact of the Flint water crisis cases and what happened in Flint will span generations and probably well beyond," she said.

    Worthy, a Democrat, also sought to push back on questions whether the criminal charges brought by current Michigan officials were influenced by politics.

    "This case has nothing whatsoever to do with partisanship," Worthy said. "It has to do with human decency, resurrecting the complete abandonment of the people of Flint and finally, finally holding people accountable for their alleged unspeakable atrocities that occurred in Flint all these years ago."

    Earlier this week, as reports began to surface that charges were looming, an attorney for Snyder, the former governor, referred to them as "a politically motivated smear campaign," according to the Detroit Free Press.

    The Free Press also reported Snyder entered a not guilty plea Thursday morning from a Genesee County jail booth as he and his lawyer appeared remotely via Zoom. The paper also notes its the first time in the state's history that a current or former governor is facing criminal charges for alleged misconduct while in office.


    In this image taken from video, former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, left, with his lawyer, Brian Lennon, leave Genesee County Court in Flint, Mich., after a initial court appearance via Zoom on two misdemeanor counts of willful neglect of duty in connection to the Flint water crisis.
    Corey Williams/AP
    Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud said Thursday that even though charges have been filed, the investigation into the crisis remains open, Michigan Public Radio reports.

    Speaking at the media briefing, Hammoud characterized the crisis as a "categorical failure of public officials" at all levels.

    "When an entire city is victimized by the negligence and indifference of those in power, it deserves an uncompromising investigation that holds to account anyone who is criminally culpable," Hammoud said.

    Snyder and Croft, the former director of the Flint Department of Public Works, are scheduled to be back in court Jan. 19.

    The next court appearance for the other defendants is Feb. 18, according to Michigan Attorney General's office.

  13. #488
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2020
    Location
    Ohio
    Posts
    154
    Rep Power
    0
    https://coloradosun.com/2021/01/14/l...k-in-congress/

    As she barnstormed across the 3rd Congressional District last year with a pistol on her hip and a steady stream of Democrat-aimed insults rolling off her tongue, Lauren Boebert promised to make a big, loud splash in the nation’s capital if voters sent her to Congress.

    Colorado’s newest U.S. representative has delivered on that – in spades – and in just one week.

    Since she was sworn in on Jan. 3, Boebert has been the focus of more ink and air time than she ever racked up at Shooters Grill, her Rifle restaurant where she first took her star turn in the media for serving burgers and fries with a holstered gun and having all her waitresses do the same.

    The high school dropout with a history of minor run-ins with the law has used her first tumultuous week in office to cement her far-right and extremist credentials while also setting off a widespread roar of criticism that includes calls and petitions for her resignation, her expulsion from Congress and her prosecution for alleged “sedition” connected to the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

    Critics now include fellow congressional representatives — including Republicans — and Democratic elected officials throughout the 3rd District.

    Anti-Boebert letters-to-the-editor have been piling up in newspapers across the district. Letter writers have called her “a nut job,” “a national security risk,” “a disgrace,” “a domestic terrorist” and “the most embarrassing thing to ever happen to Colorado.”


    Protests have occurred at all of her Colorado offices. On Twitter, #ResignBoebert has gone viral as opponents call for her immediate resignation, along with that of her fellow Colorado Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, for “helping to incite last week’s deadly violence.”

    Across the district she represents, where her constituents are struggling with the burdens of the pandemic and with perennial issues related to the land and water, residents either want to give a brand new congresswoman a break and time to get her feet on the ground in D.C. or they want her expelled now because they view her as dangerous and worthless when it comes to representing their interests.

    MORE: How Lauren Boebert rose from unknown to a candidate for Congress to someone in Donald Trump’s orbit

    Controversy started on Day One

    The controversy began on Boebert’s first day in office, when she released a slick, campaign-fundraising video that starts with her holstering her Glock and then shows her striding down streets and alleys in Washington D.C. – a city that bans the open carrying of guns and requires concealed-carry permits. The video came after she had vowed to carry her weapon in the halls of Congress and convinced a cadre of Republicans to push for a change allowing for that.


    An image from a fundraising video produced by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert that touts her desire to carry a gun in the U.S. Capitol. (Screenshot)
    Two days later, as the Electoral College votes were set to be tallied and a marauding mob, whipped up by President Trump’s speech at a “Stop the Steal” rally, broke into the Capitol, defaced and damaged the building, defecated in the corridors and searched menacingly for Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Boebert was criticized for her controversial behavior.

    The morning before the mob attack, Boebert tweeted “Today is 1776,” referring to the American revolution. Then, she made her debut on the House floor with a shouted, hand-waving tirade about why she was voting to overturn the results of the presidential election and try to keep President Trump in office. She referred to her need to support her constituents who were in the crowd outside.

    “I have constituents outside this building right now! I promised my voters to be their voice! ”

    During the siege on the Capitol, Boebert live-tweeted that Pelosi had been removed from the chamber, which some critics took to be a message to the mobs.

    In the wake of the riot, Boebert issued a lengthy news release this week in which she defiantly asserted that Democrats and “Hollywood elites,” including Robert Deniro [sic], Madonna and Johnny Depp had called for mob violence on other occasions, including during the BLM demonstrations this summer.

    Boebert wrote that Democrats act as if “the bravery or upholding the Constitutional oath is criminal, which says a whole lot more about them than it does about me or any other Republican.”


    Lauren Boebert, then a Republican candidate for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District seat, is shown here at a campaign event July 27, 2020 in Pueblo. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)
    “Their hypocrisy is on full display with talks of impeachment, censure, and other ways to punish Republicans for false accusations of inciting the types of violence they have so frequently and transparently supported in the past,” her statement read.

    On Tuesday, Twitter labeled as misleading a tweet by Boebert that falsely accused the Democratic National Committee of rigging elections — but not before she railed about the crackdowns on misinformation on Twitter, Facebook and Parler. Her complaints came two days after she blocked a number of her critics on her own Twitter account.

    Her latest controversial action in a week of snowballing controversy came when she refused to open her bag for Capitol police after it set off a metal detector Tuesday evening as she was attempting to enter the House chambers.
    I’ve been passively watching her “political career” after seeing one of her campaign ads. She quit school her junior year and only got her GED after joking the political arena, her husband was convicted of showing himself to minors at a bowling alley, Lauren was actually one of the minors in that case. She married him a little bit after that incident.

    Now she is spending her time denying that her mother was the lady videoed at the capital insurrection, giving detailed instructions with a bullhorn, on how to penetrate the parameter and how to access some of the other rooms. If I’m not mistaken, she has admitted that her parents did get to tour the capital building the day before.

    https://www.ibtimes.sg/new-conspirac...-capitol-54916

    Days after Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) was accused of aiding the rioters by live-tweeting the location of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the Capitol insurrection, she has been engulfed with another conspiracy involving the infamous 'Bullhorn Lady.' Conspiracy theorists are hinting at the possibility of 'Bullhorn Lady' being Boebart's mother, Shawna Bentz.

    The 'Bullhorn Lady' became a sensation after she was caught giving instructions and detailing the floor plan of the Capitol building to a group of attackers gathered inside a room. The recent video strengthened the speculation that Capitol siege was coordinated.

    Bull Horn lady
    An image which has gone viral on social media shows 'Bullhorn lady' (left) and Shawna Bentz (right). Twitter
    "I've Been in the Other Room" Bullhorn Lady

    In the viral video a man is heard asking "What's the floor plan?" A few moments later, a woman in a pink hat and sunglasses, dubbed as 'Bullhorn Lady', is seen instructing the attackers.

    "Hey guys, I've been in the other room. In the other room on the other side of this door right here where you are standing, there is a glass that somebody, if it's broken, you can drop down into a room underneath it," she said.


    "There's also two doors in the other room. One in the rear, and one to the right as you go in. So people should probably coordinate together if you're going to take this building. We're in, we've got another window to break to make getting in and out easy," she added further.

    What Links 'Bullhorn Lady' to Shawna Bentz?

    Even as there was no official confirmation on the identity of the woman, conspiracy theorists and overzealous internet sleuths linked her with Bentz. From highlighting facial similarities between the two women to insisting that they have identical voices too, the social media users left no stone unturned to strengthen their claim.

  14. #489
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    Quote Originally Posted by Lilbirdie View Post
    https://coloradosun.com/2021/01/14/l...k-in-congress/



    I’ve been passively watching her “political career” after seeing one of her campaign ads. She quit school her junior year and only got her GED after joking the political arena, her husband was convicted of showing himself to minors at a bowling alley, Lauren was actually one of the minors in that case. She married him a little bit after that incident.

    Now she is spending her time denying that her mother was the lady videoed at the capital insurrection, giving detailed instructions with a bullhorn, on how to penetrate the parameter and how to access some of the other rooms. If I’m not mistaken, she has admitted that her parents did get to tour the capital building the day before.

    https://www.ibtimes.sg/new-conspirac...-capitol-54916
    Its Crazier than that

    DENVER (AP) — A former state representative in Colorado sued Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert on Sunday after being blocked from the first-term federal lawmaker’s Twitter account.

    Attorneys for Democrat Bri Buentello of Pueblo filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver, claiming she was blocked after calling for the Colorado Republican to be recalled in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by loyalists to President Donald Trump.

    The suit seeks a court order for Boebert to unlock Buentello on Twitter and a declaration that the Republican’s actions violated Buentello’s constitutional rights to free speech.
    Boebert’s chief of staff, Jeff Small, said her office was not commenting on the case.

    Her communications director, Ben Goldey, quit last week, less than two weeks after Boebert was sworn into office. Goldey said his action was prompted by the insurrection at the Capitol.

    Boebert has links to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory and has sought to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. She gained attention for vowing to carry a gun in the Capitol.

    An attorney for Buentello said Boebert’s “stifling” of critics should be of concern to everyone.

    “She believes the Constitution begins and ends with the Second Amendment,” said attorney David Lane. “We are trying to teacher her that the Constitution is broader and that every provision has to be protected.

    Buentello, who lives in Boebert’s district, served a single term in the state House of Representatives before losing a bid for reelection in November.

  15. #490

  16. #491
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://apnews.com/article/katrina-r...768f2a4f678ad9

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Already facing allegations of stealing more than $600,000 in federal funds from a health care school she directed, a Tennessee state senator has been charged in a new fraud case, the U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis said Tuesday.

    Democrat Katrina Robinson and two other people have been charged in a complaint with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, about six months after Robinson was indicted on federal charges that she used grant money earmarked for health care worker training to pay for her wedding and honeymoon, a Jeep Renegade for her daughter, her children’s snow cone business, and other things.

    In the case disclosed Tuesday, prosecutors said Brooke Boudreaux, an associate of Robinson, convinced someone to pay $14,470 in tuition to the school Robinson runs in Memphis on Boudreaux’s behalf. Robinson, Boudreaux and a third person then split the money among themselves, prosecutors said.

    Boudreaux was never a student at the school, prosecutors said.

    Robinson has pleaded not guilty in the earlier case, which is awaiting trial. In the new case, Robinson’s lawyer, Janika White, said Tuesday that “we are surprised that the federal government would attempt to turn a small monetary transaction into a federal offense.”

    “Ms. Robinson denies that there was anything wrong or illegal with the transaction and further denies that she was aware of any illegal activity connected to it,” White said in a statement.

    The Associated Press could not immediately determine if Boudreaux has a lawyer who could comment.

    Full Coverage: Tennessee
    Robinson, a Democrat elected to the General Assembly in 2018 from a Memphis district, is the director of The Healthcare Institute, which provides training for health care industry jobs, prosecutors said.

    The Memphis-based school received more than $2.2 million in federal grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The FBI said Robinson took $600,000 from the school’s operating account.

    If convicted, Robinson faces a possible sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison in each case. Robinson would be up for reelection in 2022.

  17. #492
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://www.kget.com/news/politics/g...etal-detector/

    Rep. Andy Harris R-Md accused of bringing a gun at the Capitol.

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Capitol Police are investigating an incident in which a Republican lawmaker was blocked from entering the House chamber after setting off a metal detector while apparently carrying a concealed gun.

    Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., set off the metal detector while trying to enter the chamber Thursday afternoon. The metal detectors were installed after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, which left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer. The incident was witnessed by a reporter from the Huffington Post

    After setting off the machine, Harris was asked to step aside for further screening. At that time, an officer discovered Harris was carrying a concealed gun on his side, according to the reporter.

    The officer sent Harris away, at which point Harris tried to get Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., to take the gun from him. Katko refused, telling Harris he didn’t have a license to carry a gun. Harris eventually left and returned less than 10 minutes later. He once again went through security and did not set off the magnetometer. He was then allowed to enter the House floor.

    Harris, in his sixth term representing Maryland’s Eastern Shore, issued a statement through his chief of staff, Bryan Shuy.

    “Because his and his family’s lives have been threatened by someone who has been released awaiting trial, for security reasons, the congressman never confirms whether he nor anyone else he’s with are carrying a firearm for self-defense,” the statement said. “As a matter of public record, he has a Maryland Handgun Permit. And the congressman always complies with the House metal detectors and wanding. The Congressman has never carried a firearm on the House floor.”

    Eva Malecki, a spokeswoman for Capitol Police, said the incident is being investigated.

    The public is not allowed to carry guns on Capitol grounds, but members of Congress may keep firearms in their offices or transport them on the Capitol grounds if they are unloaded and securely wrapped. Lawmakers are not allowed to bring guns into either the House or Senate chambers.

  18. #493
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://fox40.com/news/political-con...ents-lawsuits/

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday brought an end to lawsuits over whether Donald Trump illegally profited off his presidency.

    The justices threw out Trump’s challenge to lower court rulings that had allowed lawsuits to go forward alleging that he violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause by accepting payments from foreign and domestic officials who stay at the Trump International Hotel and patronize other businesses owned by the former president and his family.

    The high court also ordered the lower court rulings thrown out as well and directed appeals courts in New York and Richmond, Virginia, to dismiss the suits as moot now that Trump is no longer in office.

    The outcome leaves no judicial opinions on the books in an area of the law that has been rarely explored in U.S. history.

    The cases involved suits filed by Maryland and the District of Columbia, and high-end restaurants and hotels in New York and Washington, D.C., that “found themselves in the unenviable position of having to compete with businesses owned by the President of the United States.”

    The suits sought financial records showing how much state and foreign governments have paid the Trump Organization to stay and eat at Trump-owned properties.

  19. #494
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://apnews.com/article/legislatu...daf5e8cc50b716

    TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A newly elected Kansas lawmaker accused of threatening two state officials and abusive behavior toward girls and young women before taking his seat will get a public warning about his past conduct rather than facing possible removal from office, a committee decided Friday.

    A state House committee reviewing a complaint against state Rep. Aaron Coleman, of Kansas City, Kansas, said it will draft and send him a public letter of warning that will include expectations about his future conduct. The panel’s three Democrats preferred stronger action against Coleman, but its three Republicans were wary of disciplining him for actions occurring before he took office.


    AP Top News
    Legislature
    Kansas City
    Kansas
    Topeka
    Kansas House panel to warn new member over past behavior
    By JOHN HANNA and ANDY TSUBASA FIELD
    January 22, 2021

    1 of 4
    Rep. Aaron Coleman, D-Kansas City, makes remarks during a special hearing regarding complaints and calls for removal from his position Friday, Jan. 22, 2021, at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. (Evert Nelson/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP)
    TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A newly elected Kansas lawmaker accused of threatening two state officials and abusive behavior toward girls and young women before taking his seat will get a public warning about his past conduct rather than facing possible removal from office, a committee decided Friday.

    A state House committee reviewing a complaint against state Rep. Aaron Coleman, of Kansas City, Kansas, said it will draft and send him a public letter of warning that will include expectations about his future conduct. The panel’s three Democrats preferred stronger action against Coleman, but its three Republicans were wary of disciplining him for actions occurring before he took office.


    Some Democrats wanted to censure or expel the 20-year-old Coleman, but either action would take a two-thirds majority. The chamber’s Republican leaders were wary of overturning an election, and during Friday’s committee meeting, members of both parties said they didn’t want to base their decision on Coleman’s behavior as a minor.

    The committee’s decision means a complaint filed against Coleman by 13 Democrats, including House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, of Wichita, will be dismissed. But committee members said the letter will act as a guide for Coleman, and if he does not abide by what it spells out, he could face another complaint.

    Coleman was elected to the House as a Democrat but dropped affiliation with any party after Sawyer refused to give him committee assignments. He identifies as a progressive and socialist.

    “Mr. Coleman’s going to be watched,” said committee Chair John Barker, an Abilene Republican.

    A new allegation against Coleman became public Friday. Heather Sprague Scanlon, Sawyer’s former chief of staff, said in a written statement that Coleman called her during the summer after House Democrats had denounced Coleman on social media and launched into a “raging diatribe.” She said Coleman made threats to physically harm Sawyer.

    When those statements were read to him, Coleman told the committee, “That is not accurate.”

    But he later apologized to Sawyer and said he’s willing to apologize to Scanlon for his “inappropriate conduct.” He publicly asked for a Statehouse mentor and said he’s spoken to his attorney about counseling.

    “I welcome an informal letter of warning and I am willing to voluntarily accept any recommendations,” he said.

    The committee’s action ends the possibility of Coleman becoming the first state lawmaker in Kansas ousted from office. The Kansas State Library has found no record of any legislator being expelled, although in the past six years, lawmakers in at least four states have been expelled for misconduct.

    “I know that prior to becoming a member of the Kansas House of Representatives, I have not always lived up to my own ideals of treating others with dignity and respect,” Coleman said in opening remarks that he read to the committee.

    Coleman narrowly ousted a veteran Democratic lawmaker in the August primary while running on a platform that included providing universal health coverage, ending college tuition and legalizing marijuana. He won that race even after admitting on social media that he had circulated revenge porn as a “sick and troubled” middle school-aged boy.

    He faced only write-in candidates in the election, even as at least two other accusations of threatening or abusing girls or young women came to light. In December, the campaign manager for his primary opponent obtained an anti-stalking court order against him, but they settled the lawsuit she filed against him earlier this month.

    The complaint against Coleman said another reason to expel him was a now-deleted post-November election tweet in which Coleman suggested Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly would face an “extremely bloody” primary in 2022 for not being progressive enough. Kelly has called Coleman unfit to serve in the Legislature.

    “People will realize one day when I call a hit out on you it’s real,” he wrote. He later said he meant to use the phrase ”political hit.”

    Coleman told the committee that the language of the tweet was “inappropriate” and said he now has a team of people handling social media posts for him.

    Sawyer had called Coleman “a danger to women” and had said his removal from office was necessary to protect other lawmakers and the Legislature’s staff.

    “We would not want this person to blow up and do something dangerous to someone else,” Sawyer told the committee Friday.

    But later, Sawyer said he hopes a public letter will tell Coleman “he’s got to change or he’s gone,” and prevent bad behavior.

    “I don’t want to send the wrong message and say it’s okay to be abusive to women and continue that pattern and get by with it,” Sawyer told reporters.

    ___

    Andy Tsubasa Field is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

  20. #495
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://apnews.com/article/donald-tr...9dd4571a8ef3e8

    A high-ranking official with the Hawaii Republican Party confirmed Monday that he resigned after posting a series of tweets about the QAnon conspiracy theory on the official party account, saying its adherents shouldn’t be mocked.

    “We should make it abundantly clear — the people who subscribed to the Q fiction, were largely motivated by a sincere and deep love for America. Patriotism and love of County (sic) should never be ridiculed,” said one of several tweets that Hawaii GOP vice chairman Edwin Boyette posted Saturday. The tweets have since been deleted from the party’s account.

    QAnon followers advocate a conspiracy theory rooted in the baseless belief that former President Donald Trump was fighting deep state enemies and a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibals operating a child sex trafficking ring. Some QAnon believers were among the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Nicolas Ochs of Hawaii, a member of another right-wing extremist group, the Proud Boys, was among those arrested.

    “People who followed Q don’t deserve mockery,” said another tweet posted by Boyette.

    Hawaii Democratic Gov. David Ige rejected Boyette’s defense of QAnon followers.

    “I think it’s absurd to think that some of those conspiracy theories — and virtually every single one has been debunked as factually inaccurate and totally nonsense. So I don’t see how anyone can think that those who believe it that are really doing it because they’re patriotic,” Ige said.

    The Hawaii GOP Twitter account has a history of promoting the fringe element, including defending Ochs when he was a Republican candidate for state House last year, said Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, chairman of the state Democratic Party.

    “These conspiracies should be immediately rejected, but apparently there’s an audience for them, and it’s disappointing that the Hawaii GOP would cater to that audience,” Dos Santos-Tam said.

    Boyette oversaw communications as one of four vice chairs for the Hawaii GOP in a state dominated by Democrats. He submitted his resignation Sunday, he said in an email Monday to The Associated Press. He did not respond to follow-up questions.

    Hawaii Republican Party chairwoman Shirlene Ostrov took full responsibility for what she said were unauthorized tweets.

    “Our party believes in free speech, but it is a responsibility that each of us must carry in order to maintain a good and just society. Promoting content for the purpose of shock value does not help us to build a more perfect union, nor does it help a divided nation heal,” she said in statement.


    Hawaii GOP official resigns after posting pro-QAnon tweets
    By MARK THIESSEN
    January 25, 2021

    In this Nov. 2, 2016, file photo, Shirlene Ostrov, then a Republican candidate for Congress, waves to drivers at a highway intersection in Waipahu, Hawaii. Now the chair of the Republican Party of Hawaii, Ostrov on Monday, Jan. 25, 2021, took full responsibility for the unauthorized tweets that were sent by the party's vice chair on Jan. 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Cathy Bussewitz, file)
    A high-ranking official with the Hawaii Republican Party confirmed Monday that he resigned after posting a series of tweets about the QAnon conspiracy theory on the official party account, saying its adherents shouldn’t be mocked.

    “We should make it abundantly clear — the people who subscribed to the Q fiction, were largely motivated by a sincere and deep love for America. Patriotism and love of County (sic) should never be ridiculed,” said one of several tweets that Hawaii GOP vice chairman Edwin Boyette posted Saturday. The tweets have since been deleted from the party’s account.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    QAnon followers advocate a conspiracy theory rooted in the baseless belief that former President Donald Trump was fighting deep state enemies and a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibals operating a child sex trafficking ring. Some QAnon believers were among the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Nicolas Ochs of Hawaii, a member of another right-wing extremist group, the Proud Boys, was among those arrested.

    “People who followed Q don’t deserve mockery,” said another tweet posted by Boyette.

    Hawaii Democratic Gov. David Ige rejected Boyette’s defense of QAnon followers.

    “I think it’s absurd to think that some of those conspiracy theories — and virtually every single one has been debunked as factually inaccurate and totally nonsense. So I don’t see how anyone can think that those who believe it that are really doing it because they’re patriotic,” Ige said.

    The Hawaii GOP Twitter account has a history of promoting the fringe element, including defending Ochs when he was a Republican candidate for state House last year, said Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, chairman of the state Democratic Party.

    “These conspiracies should be immediately rejected, but apparently there’s an audience for them, and it’s disappointing that the Hawaii GOP would cater to that audience,” Dos Santos-Tam said.

    Boyette oversaw communications as one of four vice chairs for the Hawaii GOP in a state dominated by Democrats. He submitted his resignation Sunday, he said in an email Monday to The Associated Press. He did not respond to follow-up questions.

    Hawaii Republican Party chairwoman Shirlene Ostrov took full responsibility for what she said were unauthorized tweets.

    “Our party believes in free speech, but it is a responsibility that each of us must carry in order to maintain a good and just society. Promoting content for the purpose of shock value does not help us to build a more perfect union, nor does it help a divided nation heal,” she said in statement.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    “Moving forward I will make sure the Hawaii GOP and its communications accurately reflect the values that we stand for as a country and as the Aloha State,” Ostrov said.

    Boyette took responsibility for the posts in his resignation letter to Ostrov, which he posted on Facebook.

    “Discussion of some topics is ill suited to the forums of social media, and regardless of intent — only serves to increase conflict and discord. The discussion of the Q-Conspiracy was an error of judgement (sic), and should not reflect upon the leadership or the members of the Republican Party of Hawaii. The responsibility for that discussion and that error is mine and and (sic) mine alone,” his letter said.

    In a Facebook post later Monday, Boyette claimed the outcry over the tweets is coming from “leftist activists and the Democratic establishment attempting to smash any critical speech they can not control.”

    He also said, “mainstream media is the worst,” adding that one of the reasons he resigned was that party officers and members would not have to “expend time dealing with a controversy that was not their making.”

    ___

    Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska. Associated Press journalist Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report.

  21. #496
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55924643

    The US House of Representatives will vote to strip committee roles from a Republican lawmaker whose social media posts have prompted outrage.

    Marjorie Taylor Greene has praised the bogus Q Anon theory, wrote a post that caused an anti-Semitism furore and liked other posts calling for violence.

    House Democrats announced the vote after Republicans reportedly declined to punish Mrs Greene for her actions.

    The decision follows some Republican senators calling for her removal.

    Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell issued a rare rebuke on Tuesday, saying that "loony lies and conspiracy theories" are a "cancer" to the party.

    What is the row about?
    Elected to Congress in November, Mrs Greene was assigned to the Education and Labour Committee and the Budget Committee by House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.

    Democrats have argued that because of her past remarks embracing conspiracy theories, including those claiming school shootings were staged, she has "forfeited her right" to join these panels, particularly the education committee.

    On Wednesday, Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said that the House would move forward with a measure to strip Mrs Greene of these assignments after he spoke with Mr McCarthy.

    "It is clear there is no alternative to holding a floor vote on the resolution to remove Rep Greene from her committee assignments," Mr Hoyer said, pledging that the full House would vote on the measure on Thursday.

    The measure requires a simple majority to pass.

    Mr McCarthy is expected to discuss the issue with party members at a meeting later on Wednesday.

    Republicans are also debating whether to punish their third-highest ranking member, Liz Cheney, who broke ranks to impeach Donald Trump.

    In 2019, then-Iowa Republican congressman Steve King was stripped of his Judiciary, Agriculture and Small Business committee seats over comments he made about white supremacy.

    The House of Representatives is heading toward a showdown on Thursday over the fate of Marjorie Taylor Greene, the freshman congresswoman with a penchant for trafficking in bizarre right-wing conspiracy theories.

    Every attempt at reaching some sort of resolution to avoid a floor vote by the whole chamber - an apology by Greene, sanctions imposed by the Republican leadership or some compromise acceptable to Democrats - has been in vain.

    The standoff reflects the conflicting currents within the Republican Party. Some, like Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, view Greene as a symptom of the corrosive effects of Donald Trump's politics. A clear renunciation, then, would be a welcome step away from the ex-president.

    Others consider the move to punish Greene only the latest attempt to persecute and silence an outspoken conservative voice. If Greene is sanctioned, they believe the conservative base will see that as caving to liberals and the mainstream media - and revolt.

    Democrats, sensing an advantage, are pushing for a very public confrontation, even if some are uneasy about the precedent it might set.

    Meanwhile, Greene continues to post eye-popping fundraising numbers and raise her profile - as a hero to some on the right and, perhaps, a martyr.

    line
    Who is Marjorie Taylor Greene?
    Before taking office, Mrs Greene liked posts calling for violence against Democratic lawmakers, claimed that school shootings and the 9/11 terror attack were staged events and made other offensive comments online.

    Her verbal attack on a teenage survivor of a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, was recently unearthed and led to calls for her to be expelled from the chamber by some Democrats.

    Last month, Mrs Greene introduced a measure attempting to impeach US President Joe Biden.

    On Tuesday night, Mrs Greene met Mr McCarthy, and then on Saturday, Mrs Green held a phone call with Mr Trump.

    What have Republicans said about her?
    The looming vote comes as a number of Republican senators openly criticised Mrs Greene on Tuesday.

    "Personally I'd have a hard time supporting, for example, her positions on the school shootings being staged and being on the Education Committee," North Dakota Republican Senator Kevin Cramer told CNN. "Real authority has moral authority."

    "I think our party has to make it very clear that she does not represent us in any way," said Utah Senator Mitt Romney. "Our big tent is not large enough to both accommodate conservatives and kooks."

    Florida's two Republicans senators also took issue with her assertion that the 2018 Parkland school shooting was a set-up.

    "Those were real children that died," said Senator Marco Rubio, calling her "either deranged or a sadist".

  22. #497
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://news.yahoo.com/marjorie-tayl...234457090.html

    The House voted on Thursday to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., from her committee assignments after Republican leadership failed to punish the freshman congresswoman’s embrace of bizarre conspiracy theories and endorsement of violence against Democrats.

    The resolution to strip Greene from her seats on the budget and the education and labor committees passed 230-199, with 11 House Republicans joining Democrats in voting for Greene’s removal.

    Those GOP members were Mario D?az-Balart (Fla.); Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.); Carlos A. Gim?nez (Fla.); Chris Jacobs (N.Y.); John Katko (N.Y.); Young Kim (Calif.); Adam Kinzinger (Ill.); Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.); Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.); Chris Smith (N.J.); and Fred Upton (Mich.).

    In a fiery speech on the House floor shortly before the vote, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., excoriated Republican leadership for ignoring Greene’s incendiary rhetoric. Hoyer displayed a poster showing one of Greene’s Facebook posts that included an image of her with an AR-15 alongside Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib above a banner that read “Squad’s Worst Nightmare.”

    “They’re not ‘the Squad.’ They’re Ilhan. They are Alexandria. And they’re Rashida. They are people. They are our colleagues,” Hoyer said. “This is an AR-15.”

    Hoyer pointed out that two years ago, House Republicans removed Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, of his committee assignments after he questioned publicly why the phrase “white supremacy” was considered offensive. (King was defeated by a primary challenger later that year and is now out of Congress.)

    As a rule, every member of Congress is assigned to one or more committees. For a freshman, especially one in the minority, committee meetings are one of the few ways to exercise power or make a mark in Congress.

    Greene, who has supported the QAnon conspiracy theory in the past and has a long history of making racist comments, was elected to the House in November, and promptly announced she would introduce a bill on her first day to impeach President Biden. (It’s unclear whether any fellow members supported the proposal, which has no chance of passing the Democrat-controlled Congress.)

    Last week, Facebook posts unearthed by CNN showed Greene had supported calls for violence against prominent Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In one post, from January 2019, Greene liked a comment that said a “bullet to the head would be quicker” to remove the House speaker.

    Greene, who was not in office at the time, has said her social media accounts were sometimes handled by others.

    Posts on Greene’s Facebook account also expressed support for baseless conspiracy theories that the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., and Parkland, Fla., were staged. (“Exactly!” she wrote in response to a post saying the 2018 Parkland massacre was a “false flag planned shooting.”)

    Fred Guttenberg, the father of a slain Parkland student, posted a video of Greene harassing David Hogg, a former Parkland student and gun reform advocate, outside the U.S. Capitol.

    In a floor speech ahead of Thursday’s vote, Greene insisted her conspiratorial views — including her belief that the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon never happened — were a thing of the past.

    “These were words of the past and these things do not represent me,” Greene said before blaming the media for distorting her views, equating the press corps to QAnon and casting herself as a victim of cancel culture. She did not offer an apology.

    Last week, Facebook posts unearthed by CNN showed Greene had supported calls for violence against prominent Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In one post, from January 2019, Greene liked a comment that said a “bullet to the head would be quicker” to remove the House speaker.

    Greene, who was not in office at the time, has said her social media accounts were sometimes handled by others.

    Posts on Greene’s Facebook account also expressed support for baseless conspiracy theories that the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., and Parkland, Fla., were staged. (“Exactly!” she wrote in response to a post saying the 2018 Parkland massacre was a “false flag planned shooting.”)

    Fred Guttenberg, the father of a slain Parkland student, posted a video of Greene harassing David Hogg, a former Parkland student and gun reform advocate, outside the U.S. Capitol.

    In a floor speech ahead of Thursday’s vote, Greene insisted her conspiratorial views — including her belief that the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon never happened — were a thing of the past.

    “These were words of the past and these things do not represent me,” Greene said before blaming the media for distorting her views, equating the press corps to QAnon and casting herself as a victim of cancel culture. She did not offer an apology. The unprecedented vote to remove Greene from her committee assignments came a day after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said that her past statements “on school shootings, political violence, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference.” But he did not announce any sanctions, saying instead that she had assured him in a private conversation that she understood the need to meet “a higher standard” as a lawmaker than as a private citizen.

    “I hold her to her word, as well as her actions going forward,” McCarthy said.

    He also claimed he didn’t know what QAnon is, despite saying in August that there was no place for it in the Republican Party.

    McCarthy then criticized Democrats for “choosing to raise the temperature” in “their partisan power grab regarding the committee assignments of the other party.”

    "It's so unfortunate. You would think the Republican leadership would have some sense of responsibility to this institution," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said shortly before the vote.

    In a Wednesday meeting with House Republicans, Greene attempted to distance herself from some of her past comments. She said that the school shootings were “real and awful,” and apologized for having subscribed to some QAnon conspiracy theories, according to attendees.

    Those remarks satisfied McCarthy and her party colleagues, many of whom gave Greene a standing ovation.

    But in an interview with the Washington Examiner published after her meeting with McCarthy, Greene seemed less contrite.

    “And Kevin McCarthy and all these leaders, the leadership, and everyone is proving that they are all talk and not about action,” she said. “They’re just all about doing business as usual in Washington. And so what’s the difference between them and the Democrats? There isn’t a difference."

  23. #498
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://nypost.com/2021/02/14/mayor-...in-small-town/

    he mayor, police chief, city clerk and a former city clerk of a small Midwest town were all arrested for allegedly abusing their power — with crimes including stealing money, falsifying records and strong-arming civilians, officials said.

    In one instance, a resident in Armstrong, Iowa — population 840 — was attacked by one of the defendants with a stun gun to shake them down for money, authorities said.

    Mayor Greg Buum, police chief Craig Merrill, city clerk Tracie Lang, and former city clerk Connie Thackery were charged with felony and misdemeanor offenses in a 21-count joint trial information approved by the Emmet County District Court,” the Emmet County sheriff said in a statement.

    The Iowa Attorney General’s Office filed charges on Feb. 11 after a multi-year investigation uncovered allegations of theft, felonious misconduct in office, tampering with records, assault with a dangerous weapon and falsifying public records, according to the release.

    One of the defendants — it wasn’t immediately clear which — deployed a Taser on a civilian in exchange for cash, officials allege.

    Buum, Merrill and Thackery face a top charge of ongoing criminal conduct — a Class B felony.



    Lang’s top rap is fraudulent practice in the first degree — a Class C felony.

    State prosecutors have taken over the case due to a local conflict of interest, officials said.

    Additional arrests are said to be pending.

  24. #499
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1803462.html

    The mayor of a Texas town who told residents he owed them “nothing” as winter storms left millions across the state without power in single digit temperatures has resigned.

    “No one owes you [or] your family anything,” Tim Boyd, previously mayor of Colorado City, Texas wrote Tuesday in a Facebook post. “I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout!”

    He has since deleted the post.

    In a second post, Mr Boyd said he “won’t deny for one minute” anything he said in the previous post, but complained that his wife had faced harassment while adding that he had resigned from his position.

    Mr Boyd said he made the comments as a “private citizen,” and that he had resigned his position days earlier. He is still listed as mayor on the city’s website, and city council agendas cite him as mayor as recently as last week, according to The Washington Post.

    The former mayor said his wife was fired from her job due to his statement, and complained that his family was subject to “undeserved” harassment and death threats.

    The Facebook screed was shared widely on social media and was reported on by numerous news outlets.

    In his initial post, Mr Boyd said people waiting in their homes to have their power restored were “lazy” and said that the “strong will survive and the weak will [perish].”

    But residents in the region were anything but lazy; residents had banded together to help support each other by walking through the snow to deliver supplies. Others had opened up their private wells to provide water for those who had lost services.

    Mr Boyd’s tirade toward people he thinks are “too lazy to get up and fend for themselves” blamed the “socialist government”.

    It was not immediately clear which government Mr Boyd was referring to, since he led the local government, and Republicans under Donald Trump ran the country for the last four years.

    Texas’ inability to provide uninterrupted utility service to millions of residents is partly due to the state’s decision to operate its own power grid in an effort to avoid federal regulation.

    By Tuesday, at least 10 people had died from the winter storms in the state. Another winter storm is expected to hit the region on Wednesday.


  25. #500
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    4,558
    Rep Power
    0
    https://www.kcrg.com/2021/02/16/arms...investigation/

    The Iowa Corruption scandal

    ARMSTRONG, Iowa (KEYC) — Emmet County Sheriff’s Office arrested Armstrong police chief Craig Merrill on Saturday while he was ice fishing on Lake Tuttle in Minnesota, just across the border from where he works. He’s the fourth Armstrong city official to be arrested, and now joins the city’s mayor, city clerk and former city clerk.

    The Iowa Attorney General’s office announced on Friday they filed charges against Armstrong Mayor Greg Buum, police chief Craig Merrill, current city clerk Tracie Lang and former city clerk Connie Thackery.

    The sheriff’s office says the four were charged in a 21-count joint trial in Emmet County District Court, stemming from a multi-year investigation by the sheriff’s office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. According to the sheriff’s office, the investigation uncovered misappropriation of city funds, falsifying of public records and ledgers to conceal embezzlement and assault with a dangerous weapon.

    The Iowa Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting the case at the request of the Emmet County attorney due to conflict of interest and pending additional arrests.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 2 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 2 guests)

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •