Walls Closing In? Cuomo Administration Under Investigation Nursing Home Cover-Up

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is under investigation by the FBI and a United States attorney in Brooklyn for his administration’s possible cover-up of a COVID-related nursing home scandal.

The Times Union in Albany is reporting that an investigation has been launched “examining, at least in part, the actions of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s coronavirus task force in its handling of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities during the pandemic.”

The newspaper notes that there have been no allegations of wrongdoing and that the investigation “is in its early stages.”

Focus appears to be on Governor Cuomo’s coronavirus task force whose more prominent members include New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker and Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa.

DeRosa has been the subject of much consternation after she admitted in a conference call that the administration hid information on COVID nursing home deaths from federal investigators.

RELATED: Cuomo Threatens Democrat State Legislators Over COVID Nursing Home Scandal

Cuomo Under Investigation For Nursing Home Scandal

The New York Times reported that attorney general Letitia James, a Democrat, accused Cuomo and his administration, particularly officials at the State Health Department, of undercounting COVID deaths at nursing homes by as much as 50%.

The New York Post followed that up with a revelation that DeRosa told leading Democrats in a conference call that they did so because the administration feared the data could “be used against us” by the Justice Department saying, “basically, we froze.”

“We were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation,” DeRosa added.

State officials had originally given a figure of about 8,677, and media frequently reported around 6,000 because that was all that could be confirmed based on the scant data already released.

WWNY News reports that the number was actually well over 15,000 seniors who died in nursing homes.

Why the cover-up? Most likely because there was a direct link between those deaths and the actions of the Governor.

Cuomo famously issued an executive order in March forcing nursing homes to take on patients that had tested positive for coronavirus.

RELATED: NY Democrats Accuse Cuomo Of Lying As He Tries To Defend Handling Of Nursing Home Scandal

The Cover-up Continues

Multiple New York state Democrats – that’s Democrats – have accused the administration of criminal conduct in the nursing home scandal cover-up.

Fox News reports that nine Democratic New York State Assembly members signed a letter accusing Cuomo of obstruction of justice.

“We implore you to set aside any concerns of loyalty or disloyalty to this Governor, or that this matter is politicized,” the letter from earlier this week reads.

“We must absolutely consider above all the sanctity of the democratic institution that we call the Legislature of the State of New York, and resolutely pursue justice in the face of an executive who we can say without hesitation has engaged in intentional criminal wrongdoing.”

The obstruction continues though, unabated.

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for the governor, told the Times Union, “We have been cooperating with them (the DOJ) and we will continue to.”

The Associated Press, however, reports that officials with knowledge of the DOJ investigation “said the Cuomo administration had not been cooperative with prosecutors … and for months had not produced documents and other data the Justice Department had requested.”

And when obstruction doesn’t seem to be working, Team Cuomo shifts to intimidation.

The governor has been accused of threatening political retaliation against several New York state lawmakers who have criticized him for his handling of the nursing home scandal.

State Assemblyman Ron Kim claims that Cuomo called him and tried to talk Kim into issuing a statement covering for DeRosa. And when that didn’t work, he vowed to ruin Kim’s career.

Kim reported that the Democrat governor stated “we’re in this business together and we don’t cross certain lines,” adding that he “hadn’t seen his wrath” and that “I can destroy you.”

Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean, one of the few voices to continually hound Governor Cuomo over the nursing home scandal for months on end, said “people should go to jail” over the cover-up.

Dean used Cuomo’s own words about former President Donald Trump and turned them around on the Democrat.

Dean’s in-laws were victims of COVID-19, where nursing homes in New York played a part.

She has, at times, described Cuomo as a “criminal.”

While an investigation by the FBI and a U.S. attorney, along with fellow Democrats piling on seems to indicate the walls are closing in on Cuomo, we wouldn’t hold our breath just yet.

This is the same FBI whose highest-ranking officials tried to destroy the country by subverting the will of the people when they dared elect Trump to office in 2016.

The same FBI that failed to prosecute Hillary Clinton for a crime many people have been thrown in jail for.

Will their ongoing left-leaning agenda interfere in another investigation?

The post Walls Closing In? Cuomo Administration Under Investigation Nursing Home Cover-Up appeared first on The Political Insider.

Poll: The Republican Party is More Marjorie Taylor Greene Than It Is Liz Cheney

A new Quinnipiac University poll out Wednesday shows Americans think Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) more exemplifies the Republican Party than Rep. Liz Cheney (WY).

The poll is almost certainly meant to convey just how far adrift the Republican party has become in the eyes of the media but in reality, it is more emblematic of how difficult it is going to be for the GOP to separate themselves from supporters of former President Trump.

Alienating Trump means alienating your conservative base.

And that base wants fighters regardless of their past controversial comments – which Greene has apologized for – not people who bow down to the Democrats and the mainstream media at the first sign of a manufactured crisis – which Cheney has not apologized for.

The Quinnipiac survey shows 28 percent of Americans believe Greene represents the GOP, while 25 percent said the same for Cheney.

Of note, 47 percent did not offer an opinion, meaning there is still time for either faction of the party to claim the mantle in the Republican civil war.

RELATED: Polls: Majority Of Republicans Want Trump In 2024, Prefer He Play Big Role In GOP’s Future

Is Marjorie Taylor Greene or Liz Cheney the Future of the Republican Party?

Both Marjorie Taylor Greene and Liz Cheney have been making headlines of late, each for how they have acted as representatives of the Republican party.

Greene (R-GA) came under fire after it was discovered she “liked” controversial comments on social media, including one that said “a bullet to the head would be quicker” in a discussion to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

She has also dabbled in QAnon conspiracy theories.

As such, she was stripped of her committee assignments by the Democrat-led House and referred to as a “cancer” to the GOP by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

“The real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully,” Greene would fire back. “This is why we are losing our country.”

Cheney meanwhile made noise by becoming the lead Republican of 10 in the House who joined Democrats in the impeachment charade of Donald Trump.

She also claims there is a “massive criminal investigation underway” to determine if former President Trump is guilty of inciting “premeditated” violence on the Capitol.

Cheney has since been censured by the Wyoming Republican Party for her actions and is facing a primary challenge from state Senator Anthony Bouchard in 2022.

RELATED: Nearly Every Senator Who Voted To Convict Trump Faces Censure Or Has Been Censured

For Now, This is Still Trump’s Party

Marjorie Taylor Greene symbolizing the Republican party is just another sign that Donald Trump still has a boot on the neck of the GOP establishment.

Greene is a staunch defender of the former President, and Trump, who recently met with her prior to the committee vote, and has called her a “future Republican Star.”

America First still resonates with conservatives. Who would have imagined?

Other polls have shown that kind of backing from Trump will make waves in the party going forward.

Despite some GOP lawmakers doing their best to distance themselves from former President Donald Trump, a vast majority of Republican voters want to see him play a big role in the future of the party, including running again in 2024.

In fact, 53 percent want to see him run again during the next presidential cycle, far outpacing his second closest challenger in former Vice President Mike Pence at 12 percent.

A Rasmussen survey in late December indicated 72 percent of Republican voters want their legislators to be more like Trump and less like the RINOs that currently litter the GOP landscape.

Another poll from Axios-Ipsos shows GOP voters lining up behind Trump against the establishment as we barrel towards 2024.

Anti-Trump Republicans are trying to distance themselves from people like Trump and Greene, aligning themselves with Cheney and McConnell, and even contemplating the formation of their own party.

They do so at their own political peril.

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Morning Digest: Wisconsin Democrats unite behind labor-backed candidate for schools chief

The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.

Leading Off

WI Schools Superintendent: Wisconsin held primaries for a variety of state and local offices on Tuesday, with the job of superintendent of public instruction topping the ticket. Jill Underly led Deborah Kerr 27-26 for this nonpartisan office, meaning the two will advance to an April 6 runoff for this open seat.

Both candidates are school administrators and identify as Democrats, but there's a sharp difference between the two: Underly had the support of several teachers unions, including the state's largest, while Kerr was backed by Republicans. On Wednesday, Underly won the endorsement of the Wisconsin Democratic Party while Kerr found herself issuing a no-pology and deleting her social media accounts after posting a bizarre tweet in which she claimed she'd been the victim of a racial slur used to target Blacks (Kerr is white).

The post is open because the current incumbent, Carolyn Stanford Taylor, decided not to run for election. Stanford Taylor was appointed to the position in 2019 by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to fill the vacancy he himself left when he was elected to the governorship.

Senate

GA-Sen: Contrary to a report earlier this week in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that suggested he might defer to former Sen. David Perdue, it certainly sounds like former Rep. Doug Collins has no interest in waiting on any fellow Republicans before deciding whether to go forward with a bid against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. "I've been underestimated for many years. We're sitting back and watching this develop," he told a conservative radio host. Referring to a Tuesday press release Perdue issued, Collins said, "David must have felt the need to put out a statement …. People know I'm still looking at it."

Campaign Action

PA-Sen: Democratic state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, who'd reportedly been considering a bid for Senate, confirmed his interest on Tuesday, saying, "It's certainly something I'm thinking about," though he did not specify a timetable for making a decision.

WI-Sen: On Wednesday, Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry announced a bid for the Democratic nomination for the seat currently held by Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican who has not announced yet if he'll seek a third term in 2022. Lasry entered the contest with an endorsement from Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who leads the most populous county in the state.

Lasry, who previously served as an Obama White House aide, is the son of billionaire Marc Lasry, who is a Bucks co-owner and a major Democratic donor. (In 2014, Marc Lasry and another financier bought the team from none other than Herb Kohl, a Democrat who held Wisconsin's other Senate seat from 1989 until his retirement in 2013.) The younger Lasry said that he would "invest" in his campaign, but that he would also focus on raising money from small donors as well.

Lasry, though, attracted some unfavorable press coverage weeks before he entered the race after the 33-year-old received a shot of the coronavirus vaccine at a senior living center. Lasry tweeted in response, "My wife got a call from her uncle that works in a facility that had extra doses that were going to go to waste if not used right away," and added that he believed it was necessary to protect his pregnant spouse.

Lasry joins Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, who launched his campaign back in October, in the primary. The Badger State will be one of the top Democratic targets next year and a few other potential candidates are also publicly considering entering the nomination fight, including Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, and nonprofit head Steven Olikara.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel adds that both state Sen. Chris Larson, who lost a very close race against Crowley for Milwaukee County executive last year, and Randy Bryce, who was the party's 2018 nominee for the 1st Congressional District, are "weighing their options," though neither of them appears to have said anything publicly yet.

House

IL-16: Just a month after launching a primary challenge to Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger following the congressman’s vote to impeach Donald Trump, Gene Koprowski, a former official for the conservative Heartland Institute, has terminated his campaign. That leaves a couple of minor intra-party opponents still in the field: perennial candidate James Marter, who lost to Kinzinger 68-32 in 2018, and businessman Jack Lombardi, who doesn't appear to have run for office before.

Legislatures

AK State House: While the bipartisan coalition led by Alaska House Democrats was finally able to elect a new speaker last week, it's not quite clear whether the alliance enjoys a functional majority just yet. The Republican who crossed over to provide the tie-breaking vote for the speakership, state Rep. Kelly Merrick, initially insisted she hadn't joined the coalition, though now the new speaker, Republican Louise Stutes, claims that Merrick is part of the majority—though Merrick herself has refused to answer reporters' questions as to just which side she's on.

This murky state of affairs may resolve itself after the chamber's "Committee on Committees" meets to allocate leadership posts and committee assignments. It takes a 21-vote majority for the Committee on Committee's report to be approved, which means the coalition will need Merrick's support for its preferred assignments to take effect. However, it's not clear when such a vote will take place.

The Republican caucus, meanwhile, watched itself shrink on Tuesday when state Rep. Sara Rasmussen said she would no longer remain a part of it. Rasmussen isn't joining the coalition, though, but instead will serve on her own. However, regardless of how she votes in general, her move is a blow to the GOP because it will reduce the number of slots Republican hardliners are entitled to on committees.

Kamala Harris Refuses To Give Direct Answer After Being Asked If Trump Should Face Criminal Charges

Vice President Kamala Harris declined to give a direct answer on Wednesday morning when she was asked if former President Donald Trump should face criminal charges for his alleged role in the Capitol riots last month.

Kamala Harris Interviewed On ‘Today’

“The president was acquitted in the Senate trial,” said “Today” host Savannah Guthrie. “Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, though, had some harsh words, saying he didn’t get away with anything yet, and that civil and criminal liability was still a possibility. I ask you — do you think that President Trump should be criminally charged?”

“You know, right now, Savannah, I’m focused on what we need to do to get relief to American families, and that is my highest priority,” Harris replied. “It is our administration’s highest priority. It is our job. It is the job we were elected to do, and that’s my focus.”

“But you’re a former prosecutor, so I have got to ask you, is that a strong case against the president, a criminal case that Mitch McConnell had raised as a possibility?” Guthrie pressed on.

“I haven’t reviewed the case through the lens of being a prosecutor,” Harris responded, dodging the question again. “I’m reviewing the case of COVID in America through the lens of being the vice president of America.”

Related: Abortion Provider Planned Parenthood “Excited” That Kamala Harris Is Vice President

Harris’ Past Comments Come Back To Haunt Her

Harris found herself in some hot water during Trump’s impeachment trial when past comments that she had made came back to haunt her, as Republicans claimed that she had incited violence in the past as well by encouraging racial riots and bailing out protests.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went so far as to say that if Republicans take back the House, Harris could find herself being impeached,  based on the precedent Democrats set with their latest effort against Trump.

“If you use this model, I don’t know how Kamala Harris doesn’t get impeached if the Republicans take over the House, because she actually bailed out rioters and one of the rioters went back to the streets and broke somebody’s head open,” Graham said, according to Newsweek. “So we’ve opened Pandora’s Box here, and I’m sad for the country.”

Read Next: Whoopi Goldberg Claims Joe Manchin’s Attack On Kamala Harris Was ‘Bigoted’ – ‘Really Disrespectful’

This piece was written by James Samson on February 17, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

Read more at LifeZette:
House Republicans Send Brutal Message To Pelosi – Demand Answers From Her On Security Decisions Before Capitol Riot
Graham And McConnell Feud Erupts In Senate
Pelosi Fires Back After Top Republicans Demand Answers About Capitol Security Before Riot – Deflects Blame

The post Kamala Harris Refuses To Give Direct Answer After Being Asked If Trump Should Face Criminal Charges appeared first on The Political Insider.

Ash Wednesday’s universal message: Honor sacrifices made for our future

In the past ...

Ash Wednesday 2001 was also in February, just a few months after a close election decided by Bush v. Gore in December of 2000. I was a Catholic graduate theology student at a Methodist institution, in a suburb of Atlanta, filling my car up with gas. The station was literally across the tracks in a poorer part of town where the cheaper gas fit my budget. I had just come from a church that was hard enough to locate in the days before GPS.

Asking for directions to a Catholic church in the south often got me weird looks. And on that night, I had a big smudge on my forehead while I pumped my own gas. The night was dark and I wore a Syrian keffiyeh as a neck scarf against the cold.

When I went to pay, the Arabic employee just sort of stared at me. I was not his usual customer at this late hour in the evening. He didn’t quite know what to make of me. So he gestured with his hands as he fumbled for change. He pointed to my scarf and I said, “My sister in Washington, D.C., gave it to me.” Then he pointed to my head, which is when I realized I still had ashes there. “Why?” he asked. “What does it mean?” 

Since it was very cold and we both wanted to get back to our warm places, I fumbled with something quick to say. “It’s Ash Wednesday,” I said. But that didn’t get very far. “I’m Catholic … it’s a religious thing.”

I don't know what that conveyed to him, but that was as far as we got.

Less than a year later, I moved to D.C. to complete my theological training. I began my studies on September 11th. I stopped wearing my keffiyeh not long after when I rode the metro. During my studies, which included interfaith dialogue, I’ve gone back to that moment more than once.

I realize now, the simpler explanation could have been: “I am a sinner entering Lent.”

In the present ...

So here we are in 2021. Ash Wednesday this year falls after the 57-43 vote on Former 45’s second impeachment for the January 6 insurrection (our own self-inflicted 9/11). It also comes after Valentine's Day/Parkland Anniversary and the Super Bowl amid Black History Month to remind us of all the things we can cram into the shortest month. And like everything in 2021, the calendar cycles through a lens of how it’s not 2020, but we’re still not past its shadow either.

I don’t know whether mainstream media will make a big deal of Ash Wednesday with our second Catholic president. I suspect he might go to mass and would most likely have ashes imposed (perhaps placed on his forehead, perhaps sprinkled). 

The scripture readings for the day are a bit ironic. They talk about how to not make a show of yourself. For example, if you are fasting, you should still clean yourself up and go about your day. After all, what you are doing isn’t for others to see, but for God to see. At the same time, there is a collective call for a public gathering and display so that everyone in the community understands and commits themselves to this period of reflection and preparation in advance of Easter.

I will leave it to priests’ homilies and secular pundits to apply these things to our everyday lives. I have a habit of wanting to experience things anew, not simply to repeat them. While I enjoy rituals and traditions, I am much more interested in change and transformation. Lent always begins with Ash Wednesday. It’s always 40 days. It always involves fasting, abstinence, and works of charity. It always culminates in Easter and Jesus’ resurrection.

In short, as I used to say when I taught such things in parish ministry, HE always rises. Good for Him. The question is, what happened to us? How have we changed? How do I have a better answer for the stranger who was less concerned about me paying for gas and wanted instead to know more about me and why I was there?

The simplest thing I can say in 2021 is this. “Remember you are dust, and to dust, you shall return.” This is often what is said as the ashes are traced on foreheads in the sign of the cross. After 2020, mortality stares us in the face globally in a remarkable way. It’s the great equalizer. The baseline from which the human spirit arises in solidarity and acknowledgment of our inherent dignity. (Notions of pro-life don’t quite capture that.)

The other thing we Christians try to remember is that someone died for us and that calls us to change our lives radically. I don’t expect non-Christians or secular people to come to that exact same conclusion. But I think we can all look at 2020 or our lives before and acknowledge that sacrifices have been made and that people have died before us. And we owe them something. We need to do something to honor that debt and pay it forward.

  • We owe Officer Brian Sicknick and two other fallen officers for doing their duty on January 6, alongside the courage of Officer Eugene Goodman, who is still with us.
  • We owe our investment to better public health and safety for the 2.4M dead worldwide and 450K+ in the USA from COVID-19.
  • We owe our continued commitment to social justice in the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Lewis.
  • We owe it to George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, among so many other lives that matter to work for systematic change.
  • We need to dedicate ourselves to addressing climate change as at least 54 are reported dead and another 200 are missing in India after a glacier broke in the Himalayas.
  • We bear the burdens of 500+ children, separated from their families while trying to cross the border seeking asylum. They are still missing.

The list could and does go on. We all know loss of one kind or another. We all find hope somewhere that this is not the end for us. We have to be prepared. We have to get ready. Are 40 days enough? Are Biden’s first 100? Be resolved, we know what it has cost.

Somebody died for you. Make your life count for them.

Postscript ...

My first protest of the Trump era: Neighbors protesting the Muslim Ban Feb. 7, 2017, stand in solidarity outside ADAMS center in Sterling, Virginia, near Dulles airport, while Muslims come to pray.

I spent time with many Muslims in Atlanta aside from that gas attendant. Hassan was the chief of security at the museum where we both worked. He was a high-level engineer from Iraq, but this was the only job he could get in the states, perhaps because of his background as a soldier. I remember calling him from near the World Trade Center just moments after we first started bombing his country.

“It’s OK,” he said. “He’s a madman.” I also remember his last words to me before I left the area. “When I look at you, I see your keffiyeh and say to myself: There is my friend...

Tucker and guest go full racist: ‘We should not be bringing more Black children into the country’

The Fox News machine, along with the Republican Party, has spent the last 24 hours attempting to place blame for the power outages and electrical grid failures in Texas on environmentalism and “green energy.” This is because, as the entire state has been historically Republican-run, with its purse strings held by the fossil fuel industry, the real blame lies in corruption and a lack of infrastructure that Republican officials neglected to fix for the past few decades.

Tucker Carlson, to be clear, is a shitty misogynistic asshole and topped off the anti-green energy segment of his show by talking with former Texas governor and Trump-appointed Energy Secretary Rick Perry. While ending that interview and the first two-thirds of his show, which was dedicated to anti-environmentalism, Tucker literally said, “These people, go back to the gender studies department and stay away from our power grid.” Offensive and stupid on a few levels: That’s the Tucker Carlson brand.

Tucker wanted to end on a high note though, a note that he feels very at home in: white supremacy.

Campaign Action

So he brought on Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute. The Manhattan Institute is a pretend think tank that’s really just a place where conservatives who can’t publish legit scholarly work are allowed to pretend they’re scholars, and then go out into the world to preach against things like police reform, environmentalism, economic equality, higher taxes, and any other whatever actual facts the world has to offer. Heather Mac Donald is best known for being super racist against what she believes to be the myth of diversity, and a war on policing. She has been brought on Tucker Carlson’s show over the years, usually to talk about her expertise in telling Fox News viewers that America isn’t racist and Black people are mistreated by “bad apples” and frequently because Black people don’t behave correctly. That’s her thing. It’s a racist thing, but you don’t have systemic racism and a white supremacist power structure without white supremacists willing to talk about how bad people of color really are.

Anyway, President Joe Biden has promised to try and ameliorate the zero tolerance human rights catastrophe of the last administration, and this means accepting immigrants into our country—specifically immigrants that aren’t from germanic and nordic countries. The Republican Party is the party of racism, or better said, “the politics of whiteness.” Heather Mac Donald is here to stoke that fear of a Black planet, while also telling those viewers not to feel bad about being racist because racism isn’t really real.

HEATHER MAC DONALD: On the one hand as Biden said during the campaign, as he said in his inauguration speech, as he said since then: America is lethally racist. On the other hand we should break down every single reasonable, common sensical immigration control in order to bring in legally and illegally as many third-world immigrants of color as possible. Both positions cannot be true. If Biden believes that Black children are at risk of getting a shot every time they step outside, we should not be bringing more Black children into this country.

Tucker, in his most earnest of television reactions, says “You are so right,” and proceeds to expound upon how “liberals” and their “incessant talk about race” has been hurting the country. He attempts to transition into another question about what the “end game” is for liberals and how badly they want immigrants to be allowed entrance into our country and Black people stuff and Latino people’s rights. This question, like every question Heather Mac Donald answers in her public life, leads to her saying an even more racist thing than she said before. Whereas I said above that Mac Donald was there to tell the Fox News viewers that racism isn’t really real, the second part of that statement is that while it isn’t real, Black people are coming and you should be afraid because they inherently are different than you.

HEATHER MAC DONALD: They want to completely change the character of this country, the foundation of it, the norms, the traditions, and the demographics of it to be very honest. It is based in hatred towards a civilization deemed too white and too male, and they're going to do everything they can—whether it's spewing the poison of identity politics, teaching Americans to hate each other, to hate their past, or flooding it with mass low-skilled immigration that increases the wealth gap that hurts American Blacks and Hispanics.

She goes on to say that on top of all of this, immigrants are uppity when they come here because they hear the liberal white supremacist narrative, internalize it, and then feel entitled to things. She actually says all of that. That’s it, folks. If you are ignorant enough to see sense in this than you are a racist who has enormous sections of your education that need development.

Mac Donald comes on around the 33-minute mark. Trigger warning: She’s crazy racist.

Republican senators push to investigate Cuomo over New York nursing home deaths

A group of nine Republican senators on Wednesday asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration over what the lawmakers called a “cover-up” of the Covid-19 death toll in state nursing homes.

The group, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), wrote a letter calling for the committee’s chair, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), to launch the probe after Cuomo’s top aide told lawmakers the administration purposely withheld the state’s nursing home death toll from federal prosecutors, as first reported by the New York Post on Thursday.

“The American people deserve to know the extent to which Governor Cuomo and his senior staff violated the civil rights of New York seniors, lied to the Department of Justice about their actions, and violated federal civil and criminal laws in the process,” the senators wrote.

Since last week’s report, there have been calls for Cuomo’s impeachment, resignation and the removal of his pandemic-driven emergency powers. The senators stressed that committee hearings would make sure the Department of Justice “has all the tools and funding that it needs to investigate and prosecute to the extent necessary this tragedy and subsequent cover-up.”

“But an investigation by the Department of Justice is rightly conducted behind closed doors and will not provide timely and public accountability for those who played politics with Covid-19 at the expense of the lives of American senior citizens,” the senators wrote.

Cruz was joined by eight other Republican members of the Judiciary Committee: Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

The letter also calls on Judge Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, to investigate the governor.

“When Judge Garland testifies before this Committee, we expect him to commit the Department of Justice to fully investigating this cover-up to determine whether any criminal laws were violated and to prosecute any violations,” the senators wrote. “We will also ask him whether he has the resources he needs to fully pursue an investigation, not only into the deaths that occurred in New York but the deaths that occurred in other states that adopted similar directives leading to the admission of COVID-19 infected persons into elder care facilities.”

Cuomo first addressed the episode on Monday, when he declined to apologize for his administration’s decision.

“Apologize? Look I have said repeatedly, we made a mistake in creating the void,” Cuomo said. “The void allowed misinformation and conspiracy, and now people are left with the thought of ‘Did my loved one have to die?’ And that is a brutal, brutal question to pose to a person. And I want everyone to know everything was done — everything was done — by the best minds in the best interest, and the last thing that we wanted to do, the last thing that I wanted to do, was to aggravate a terrible situation.”

On Wednesday evening, former President Donald Trump addressed the scandal on Newsmax’s “Greg Kelly Reports,” condemning the governor.

“I look at it, and it’s surprising what happened in New York, and we did, we gave [Cuomo] him the Javits Center, we gave him the ship, the great hospital ship and essentially they weren’t used,” Trump said. “Spent a lot of money, and they weren’t used … you could have the patients go there. You could have people go, it would have saved a lot of lives. It’s too bad.”

Matthew Choi contributed to this report.

Posted in Uncategorized

Trump-McConnell rift threatens GOP’s Senate hopes

Republicans are starting their life in the Senate minority mired in a civil war over the future of the GOP and former President Donald Trump’s role in the party.

Trump’s scathing attack on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday exposed rifts that could dash the GOP’s hopes of retaking the Senate in 2022 if they are allowed to fester. Some in McConnell's orbit already blame Trump for losing the majority in Georgia last month. Now, the GOP leader has to hold together a fractured conference and guide Senate candidates through difficult primaries while holding onto seats in states Trump lost last year.

With McConnell castigating Trump over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and Trump firing back in personal terms, Senate Republicans have reacted by trying to defuse the situation — a sign of recognition that they need Trump loyalists and more traditional Republican voters to stick together for future success.

Following Trump's call for Republicans to move on from McConnell, POLITICO on Wednesday reached out to all 16 Republican senators running for reelection in 2022 to ask if they supported the Kentuckian as majority leader. Only two responded.

“Leader McConnell has my full support and confidence,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican who drew Trump's ire and a primary threat after condemning the then-president's refusal to accept the election results, said in a statement to POLITICO. “No one understands the Senate better than he does.”

Other Republicans, meanwhile, spent Wednesday decrying the conflict Trump had stoked the day before but did not criticize the former president, instead emphasizing his role in the GOP.

“If we get into personality squibbles and fights, we are going to be in a challenging place in 2022 and 2024 — which means America will be embracing socialism because we can’t get our act together on the right,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the other 2022 Republican to express support for McConnell as leader, said Wednesday on Fox News, adding that Trump is “the most powerful political figure on either side.”

While no GOP senators have echoed Trump’s attacks on McConnell, some are at least implicitly taking Trump’s side.

“When you look at the polls, if you take a look at Republicans that voted for Trump, would they rather have Mitch McConnell or Donald Trump head of the party — it’s not even a contest,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told conservative radio host Joe Pagliarulo this week.

McConnell, who voted to acquit Trump in the impeachment trial but lambasted his behavior surrounding the insurrection, has already threatened to wade into GOP primaries to fend off candidates he believes can’t win in a general election. In response, Trump, deplatformed on Twitter, released a lengthy statement Tuesday bashing McConnell and claiming that Republicans who stick with him should be prepared to lose.

It’s not an unfamiliar position for elected Republicans, who have had to deal with Trump’s diatribes against their colleagues and competing interests within the party for the past four years — including spending the two months before the Georgia runoffs claiming, falsely, that the November election was stolen from him. With Trump out of the White House and no longer trying to advance legislation through a McConnell-controlled Senate, it remains an open question whether the GOP can quell the in-fighting this time — or whether Trump even wants to.

McConnell and Trump have had bitter public feuds before, including after the party’s failure to repeal Obamacare and during the contentious Alabama special election. Those spats resolved well ahead of the 2018 midterms, but McConnell made clear in an interview with POLITICO last week that he would back candidates regardless of whether they are supported by Trump.

“The only thing I care about is electability,” he said.

Josh Holmes, a top adviser to McConnell, emphasized the senator’s “guiding principle” is backing candidates who can win. He said there could be “huge overlap” between candidates Trump supports and candidates backed by the Senate GOP infrastructure.

“Because Trump makes an endorsement, or if he makes an endorsement, that doesn’t mean anything to us,” Holmes said. “We may very well endorse the same candidate, or not do anything.”

The Trump-McConnell spat is already trickling down to 2022 races. Former Rep. Mark Walker, who was the first Republican to enter the open North Carolina Senate race, said he disagreed with retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr’s vote to convict Trump and called McConnell’s speech criticizing Trump “unnecessary.”

“I think that whether he likes it or not, former President Trump is going to be very impactful on at least Senate races — maybe House races as well — for 2022,” Walker said in an interview.

But Walker said he would be proud to have both Trump and McConnell supporting his campaign, though he insisted it was too early to say whether he’d support McConnell as GOP leader.

“My brand for six years is to be a conservative champion and a bridge-builder,” he said. “I think certain times in D.C., people think you have to sacrifice one or the other. But you don't."

But Trump is making it harder for candidates to toe the line. Earlier Wednesday, while paying tribute to the late conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Fox News Channel, Trump repeated the false claim that he won the election and again went after Republicans for not backing him up.

Democrats looking to expand their incredibly narrow Senate majority in 2022 think they can benefit from the push-and-pull between Trump and McConnell, which they see as dividing the party in key battlegrounds where control of the chamber will be decided.

“It’s too bad it’s come to this in order to advance a progressive agenda. But I think that Democrats ought to strike while the iron is hot,” said Tom Nelson, a Democrat running for Johnson’s seat in Wisconsin.

It wasn’t until after McConnell published a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week castigating Trump that the former president decided to hit back at the Senate GOP leader. Trump wasn’t happy with McConnell’s weekend rebuke of Trump on the Senate floor, but he saw the op-ed as a bridge too far, according to a person with knowledge of his reaction.

Some Trump advisers were critical of the former president’s broadside, saying he needs to be more surgical in how he engages in primaries against sitting GOP incumbents. So far, he has been largely focused on the House Republicans who supported his impeachment, including Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), according to people who have spoken with him.

But people close to the former president say it’s McConnell who made the bigger mistake by starting the fight, even in voting for acquittal. In poking Trump, they argue, McConnell put Republicans in a box, forcing them to choose between Trump — who maintains an iron-like grip on the party’s base — and McConnell.

So far, aides to Republicans facing reelection in 2022 say they’re making the bet that Trump’s threats will be a wash — and that, with months to go until the election season gets into full steam, it’s impossible to know whether any Trump-inspired primaries will materialize. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who opposed the certification of the election results in Pennsylvania, has been reluctant to criticize the former president, betting that his support will be needed in order for the party to reclaim the majority.

But the Senate map suggests that Republicans could face primary headaches. The GOP is focused on four Democratic-held seats — Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire — and could encounter contested primaries in each. Meanwhile, of the top three seats Democrats are targeting, GOP incumbents are retiring in two of them, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

“The only way to get through this civil war is to have everyone have command focus on ‘22,” said Scott Reed, a veteran GOP operative. “Focus on recruiting and running candidates based on good Republican policies and ideas, and not make everything a referendum on Trump.”

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