Category: life

Journalist: Covering Trump Was ‘Our Omaha Beach,’ Compares Experience To D-Day

Posted on by Becky Noble

In a new piece in The Atlantic, author and national correspondent for Yahoo! News Alexander Nazaryan compared the thrill of covering the Trump administration to the thrill “storming Omaha Beach must have been for a 20-year old fresh from the plains of Kansas.” 

In the piece, titled, “I Was an Enemy of the People,” Nazaryan recounts how he misses the action of covering Trump. 

He accuses of Trump Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany of lying “relentlessly for months on end.”

Ominously, he reminds readers that frequently had to figure out whether or not Trump was on the verge of starting a “nuclear war.” 

Overall, the intrepid journalists of America, in their brave coverage of Trump, were “merely going where he led. This was our Omaha Beach.”

The liberal media, in its Trump-era way of portraying itself as the victim, has taken that self-proclaimed victimhood to a new level.

RELATED: ‘Never-Trump’ Republicans Looking To Form Their Own Party

Trump Is History Repeating Itself

So covering Trump was a thrill.

Take a look at Nazaryan’s full accounting of his feelings on covering Trump:

Covering the administration was thrilling for many journalists, in the way that I imagine storming Omaha Beach must have been for a 20-year-old fresh from the plains of Kansas. He hadn’t signed up for battle, but there he was, liberating France. France, by the way, is where Trump called American soldiers who’d fallen in combat “suckers” and “losers.” When this magazine first reported those comments, Trump’s supporters denounced the Atlantic story as preposterous and offensive, even as outlet after outlet confirmed the reporting. They failed to realize that the preposterous and the offensive were the twin beacons of the Trump presidency.

Who is this story about? Trump, or the media?

I wonder how many Millennial journalists have asked their older colleagues about how “thrilling” it was for them to cover Ronald Reagan. People of an age remember how Reagan was treated by the media. 

The media’s relationship with Republicans is nothing new – and might go as far back as 1968 when a book entitled, “News Twisters” by Edith Ephron, talked about liberal media bias.

The media would have you believe that this Trump-era was all a first for them, and that is why they all have some sort of weird post-Trump PTSD going on.

Oh no, the media has dated outside its group before, there have been other Republican presidents. They were merely the warm-up act for what would be done to Donald Trump.

Every Republican in recent memory, Bush 41, Bush 43, even presidential candidates, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and especially Sarah Palin, all dealt with media bias.

The difference was, the media wasn’t usually playing an active role. Look at some of the commentary from Democrats about these past figures:

In 2012, then Vice-Presidential candidate Joe Biden told a crowd that consisted of a large number of African-Americans that the Republican ticket led by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would, “put you all back in chains.” 

In 2008, the late Congressman John Lewis accused Republican presidential candidate John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin of “playing with fire.” He went on to say that,”Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.”

Billionaire Democrat contributor George Soros said of George W. Bush that, “(he displays the) supremacist ideology of Nazi Germany.”

Actor and Activist Harry Belafonte also called Bush a racist, and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond once said that, “The Republican party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side.”

The things that Democrats once said of Republicans, are now things the allegedly objective media now say of Trump.

That is a fundamental difference between how past presidents were covered, and how Trump was covered, in my view.

To even insinuate that covering politics is in any way comparable to storming the beach at Normandy tells you how comfortable the media had become in their role as Trump’s adversary.

Indeed, Nazaryan says, “Without quite meaning to, Trump reminded journalists that their relationship to power should be adversarial.”

They needed to be reminded? After eight years of kid gloves with “no scandals” Obama?

The media set its sights on Donald Trump from the time he hit the escalator in Trump Tower in 2015, and then promptly moved on to those that worked for him, specifically former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. 

As a Journalism student, this writer is learning all the mechanics like the “inverted pyramid” process, but I am also learning about sources, checking and rechecking those sources, not making up “facts” of the story, or not making oneself the story.

I am learning that truth and integrity still matter. 

The problem is, I’m not seeing that out of those who are already in the profession.

RELATED: Hillary Clinton Claims Trump Could Be Acquitted Because His ‘Co-Conspirators’ Are On The Jury  

RELATED: ABC News Correspondent Terry Moran Claims Trump Is A ‘Fuhrer’ To Republicans

Everything That Is Wrong With The Media

Message to the media: the problem is, there is simply not enough room here to tell you all the ways your hubris and arrogance is on full display and is doing none of you any favors.

Can we all agree as adults that no one in American history is comparable to the Nazis, for God’s sake?

Can we at least pretend the talking points don’t go out first thing in the morning?

The media says that, “by far the most difficult challenge was reporting that Trump had gotten something right.” Can they point out for us uneducated boobs in flyover country when exactly that was?

How much coverage was given to all the peace deals made in the Middle East? 

Will Biden get any harsh scrutiny? Any scrutiny? Or will the media spend the next four years asking what his favorite flavor of milkshake is?

MSNBC’S Kasie Hunt gushed about how, “I’m just struck by the reality that we’ll now have a president who, as a rule, doesn’t lie, even when it might be easier.”

That kind of gives up the game, doesn’t it?

Alas, Mr. Nazaryan is absolutely right about one thing: journalists’ relationship to power should be adversarial.

But that only goes one way for the media. 

From my perspective, the reason for all this is clear.

Trump finally fought back.

They hate Donald Trump because he exposed the fact that the media lies on a consistent basis, and has decided that they are the arbiters of what the American people can and cannot know. 

Having the audacity to fight back is, in the final analysis, the ultimate crime.

The post Journalist: Covering Trump Was ‘Our Omaha Beach,’ Compares Experience To D-Day appeared first on The Political Insider.

Gaetz Challenges Anti-Trump Republican Adam Kinzinger: ‘F***ing Bring It’

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Florida congressman Matt Gaetz challenged anti-Trump Republican Adam Kinzinger (IL) to “bring it” after the latter named Gaetz as a target for his newly formed PAC.

Well, he actually used slightly more colorful terminology than that.

Gaetz, first elected to Congress in 2016, has fast become one of former President Donald Trump’s biggest supporters.

In a late-night tweet on Wednesday, the Florida Republican began by praising Kinzinger for his military service before making it clear he wasn’t afraid of a fight.

“Adam is a patriot who fought for America from Northwest Florida. We will always appreciate [and] honor his service,” Gatez wrote.

“Now, he wants to target my America First politics, referencing me by name,” he added. “My response: F***ing bring it.”

RELATED: Of The 10 Republicans Who Voted To Impeach Trump, 7 Are Already Facing Primary Challenges

GOP Civil War: Matt Gaetz Fights Back Against Adam Kinzinger

Matt Gaetz was responding to an article published by The Hill in which Adam Kinzinger announced a new PAC he claims is fighting to “take back” the GOP from Trump.

Kinzinger went on the offensive against Gaetz and recently punished Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

“Oh, there’s a huge list. … I mean, look, all you have to do is see people like, of course, Marjorie Taylor Greene. You look at people like Matt Gaetz, who know better,” Kinzinger said. “I think neither of them believes the stuff they ascribe to, they just want fame.”

Ironic, considering the only reason anybody even knows Kinzinger’s name is because he’s willing to pimp himself out to liberal media by attacking Donald Trump.

Kinzinger voted to impeach Trump, one of 10 Republicans in the House to do so, making him a poor man’s Mitt Romney. Or a dumb man’s Ben Sasse, depending on how you look at it.

“The party that always spoke about a brighter tomorrow no longer does,” he said. “It talks about a dark future instead. Hope has given way to fear. Outrage has replaced opportunity. And worst of all, our deep convictions are ignored.”

“This is not the Republican road and now we know exactly where (that) new and dangerous road leads. It leads to insurrection and an armed attack on the Capitol,” Kinzinger suggested.

RELATED: Marjorie Taylor Greene Fires Back After Mitch McConnell Calls Her ‘Cancer’ To The GOP

Gaetz Leads the Way

Gaetz has been leading the charge in the GOP’s civil war against anti-Trump Republicans.

Gaetz actually traveled to Wyoming for a rally in which he ripped Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), another pro-impeachment Republican.

There, he suggested the only two things Cheney has done in Congress is “frustrate the agenda of President [Donald] Trump and sell out to the forever war machine.”

Cheney and Sasse (R-NE) were both censured by their own party in various counties due to their anti-Trump actions.

And many Republicans who sided with Democrats in the House are facing other issues.

Of the 10 House members that voted for impeachment, seven of them, including Cheney, already have primary challengers.

Senate Republicans have seen controversy of their own, with six of them voting Tuesday alongside Democrats to affirm that the impeachment trial is constitutional.

The post Gaetz Challenges Anti-Trump Republican Adam Kinzinger: ‘F***ing Bring It’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

ABC News Correspondent Terry Moran Claims Trump Is A ‘Fuhrer’ To Republicans

Posted on by John Hanson

On Wednesday, ABC News senior national correspondent Terry Moran said former President Donald Trump’s continuing influence and control over the Republican Party was similar to a “Caesar” and a “Fuhrer.” 

Moran made his comments during his network’s second day of the coverage of the second impeachment trial of Trump.

ABC News’ Moran Compares Impeachment To Brown v. Board Of Education’

Moran said, “Whatever you think of this case, they have risen to the moment.”

“This is an atrocity in our history, an atrocity against our Democracy, and the care with which the Democratic House managers of this impeachment trial have come prepared, their argument is organized, they are ringing the notes of patriotism and the emotion of the attack itself, and surrounding that with what they hope is an evidentiary trail from Donald Trump to that attack,” he opined.

“That is their challenge here.”

RELATED: Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki Gets Testy With Fox Reporter, Dismisses Concerns About Biological Males Competing In Girls Sports

Moran seemed convinced that the impeachment trial was constitutional, based on Democrat arguments.

“As far as the constitutional question is concerned, you know, there are now two Senate votes, one in the 19th Century and one today, that the Senate can try impeachments after the officer has left office,” Moran said.

“That is now like arguing with Brown v. Board of Education,” the ABC News correspondent insisted.

Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark Supreme Court case which ruled that state laws segregating public schools were unconstitutional. 

Moran: ‘Republicans Just Aren’t Going To Budge’

He then accused Republicans of being stubborn.

“One more thing, which is the way that Republicans just aren’t going to budge,” Moran went on.

“Whatever the nature of this argument, whatever the nature of the fact, is because I think we heard it in these vivid videos that the House Democrats are playing, ‘Fight for Trump, fight for Trump, fight for Trump,” Moran continued. “Not, ‘Fight for America.”

RELATED: Sen. Ben Sasse Joins List Of Anti-Trump Republicans Censured By Their Own Party

Moran On Trump’s Influence On The Republican Party: ‘It’s A Fuhrer’

That’s when he compared Trump to a “Fuhrer,” the title bestowed upon nazi dictator Adolf Hitler during Germany’s Third Reich.

“He has the Republican Party as a personalized power like we have not seen,” Moran said.

“It’s a Caudillo, it’s a Caesar, it’s a Fuhrer,” he claimed.

“We don’t see that in this country,” Moran finished. “We do now.”

The post ABC News Correspondent Terry Moran Claims Trump Is A ‘Fuhrer’ To Republicans appeared first on The Political Insider.

Hillary Clinton Claims Trump Could Be Acquitted Because His ‘Co-Conspirators’ Are On The Jury

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Hillary Clinton chimed in on the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, claiming that if the former president is acquitted it’ll be due to his “co-conspirators” serving as the jury.

Clinton, who lost the presidential election in stunning fashion to Trump in 2016, made a statement in the form of a tweet on Wednesday.

It has yet to be labeled with any form of fact-checking information by the social media outlet.

“If Senate Republicans fail to convict Donald Trump, it won’t be because the facts were with him or his lawyers mounted a competent defense,” Clinton wrote without evidence.

“It will be because the jury includes his co-conspirators.”

Democrats have argued that any Republican lawmaker who contested election results as they did in both 2017 and 2005 should be expelled from Congress for having allegedly played a role in the Capitol riots.

RELATED: Here Are the 6 Republicans Who Voted That Trump’s Impeachment Trial Is Constitutional

Hillary Clinton Accuses GOP Senators of Being Co-Conspirators to ‘Insurrection’

It takes next-level chutzpah to have denied Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 for four straight years then turn around and accuse Republicans who contested the 2020 election results of being co-conspirators to an insurrection.

Yet, here we are.

It was, after all, Clinton’s campaign that hired the Washington-based opposition research firm Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Trump. Which, in turn, hired retired British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to compile a dossier on Trump and Russia.

She was undermining Trump even before he took office.

Hillary Clinton, whose own husband was part of an impeachment, proceeded to accuse Trump of being an “illegitimate president” and suggested “he knows” that he stole the 2016 presidential election.

Considering all of the leftist-fueled riots that took place during Trump’s tenure, one could reasonably assume – based on their own rules – her rhetoric had inspired violence, making her a co-conspirator.

RELATED: Trump Lawyer’s Demand Senate Impeachment Trial Be Dismissed, Top Dem Admits ‘Not Crazy To Argue’ It’s Unconstitutional

Trump Will Be Acquitted – Again

Accusing Republican Senators of being co-conspirators in the impeachment trial isn’t Hillary Clinton’s first foray into wild conspiracy theories regarding the Capitol riots.

The former First Lady joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in accusing Trump of colluding with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Capitol riots.

“I would love to see his phone records to see if he was talking to Putin the day the insurgents invaded our Capitol,” Clinton told the House Speaker.

Again, no social media outlets banned her for making false accusations.

Despite the fact that six Republicans joined Democrats in voting to affirm that the impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump is constitutional, the effort is expected to fail.

They would need 17 Republicans to crossover and convict Trump. There is little chance that many GOP lawmakers would be duped by emotional arguments and doctored videos as opposed to reality.

Trump will more than likely be acquitted.

The post Hillary Clinton Claims Trump Could Be Acquitted Because His ‘Co-Conspirators’ Are On The Jury appeared first on The Political Insider.

Republicans Release Plan to Target Vulnerable Democrats, Take Back The House

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) released a list of 47 “vulnerable Democrats” they plan to target in 2022 in an effort to take back the House.

The memo reminds voters that Republicans are “just five seats short of a majority” following some unexpected successes in the 2020 election.

NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer says that in the first few weeks of the Biden administration, Americans are already “seeing the job-killing initiatives House Democrats support.”

House Democrats on the Education and Labor Committee, for example, are pushing for a $15 minimum wage proposal, despite warnings from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that it would put 1.4 million Americans out of work.

“We will relentlessly hold House Democrats accountable for their socialist agenda,” Emmers adds, “and ensure voters understand the damaging impact policies like defunding the police, government-run health care, and ending the Keystone XL Pipeline will have on Americans’ everyday lives.”

RELATED: Democrats Have A Back-Up Plan That Might Still Bar Trump From Running Again If Impeachment Fails

Republicans Will Target Democrats, But They’re a Target As Well

While House Republicans will be targeting Democrats to win back the majority from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, some of them will be targets themselves.

Former President Donald Trump is reportedly setting his sights on possible primary challenges to “Never Trump” Republicans, according to Newsmax.

His son Eric was floating the idea even prior to the impeachment fiasco.

“I will personally work to defeat every single Republican Senator/Congressman who doesn’t stand up against this fraud,” he tweeted regarding the 2020 election. “They will be primaried in their next election and they will lose.”

We doubt things have been patched up after the events that followed.

In mid-January, 10 Republicans in the House voted to impeach the former President for “incitement of insurrection.”

RELATED: 64 Percent Of Republican Voters Would Join Trump If He Started A New Party

What Will Trump Do?

The ability of Republican candidates to target their Democrat counterparts may very well come down to what Trump does going forward.

Anger over Republicans joining Democrats in the impeachment effort has boiled over – a report notes that 7 out of the 10 GOP lawmakers who voted in favor of impeaching Trump are already facing primary challenges for their congressional seats.

Further complicating matters, some have speculated whether or not Trump would be better served to start his own party due to a fracture with the GOP.

A poll from earlier this month shows an overwhelming percentage of Republican voters would join a new political party established by the former president.

It seems the NRCC might want to focus on shoring up support from the former President if they are to have any chance of regaining a majority in the House.

The post Republicans Release Plan to Target Vulnerable Democrats, Take Back The House appeared first on The Political Insider.

CBO Warns $15 Minimum Wage Will Kill 1.4 Million Jobs, House Dems Are All For It

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

House Democrats on the Education and Labor Committee voted to approve a $15 minimum wage proposal as part of the coronavirus relief package, despite warnings from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that it would put 1.4 million Americans out of work.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) celebrated the passage of a proposal to more than double the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour by the year 2025.

“It’s a wrap,” she tweeted. “$15 #MinimumWage passes the [Education and Labor] committee after more than 13 hours of debate.”

CNBC reports that it is unclear if the minimum wage provision would survive inclusion in the final $1.9 trillion aid package due to strict Senate rules.

Still, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is hoping to get it through.

“We’re trying to work as well as we can with the [Senate] parliamentarian to get minimum wage to happen,” he told reporters.

RELATED: Democrats Have A Back-Up Plan That Might Still Bar Trump From Running Again If Impeachment Fails

$15 Minimum Wage Would Cut 1.4 Million Jobs – CBO

The vote supporting a $15 per hour federal minimum wage comes within days of a CBO report indicating such a move would cost 1.4 million American jobs.

Raising the minimum wage would lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty, the report adds, but 1.4 million would presumably dip down in take-home pay considering they’d be out of work.

“Young, less educated people would account for a disproportionate share of those reductions in employment,” the CBO states.

Worse, they’d likely be out of the workforce for quite some time.

“In 2021, most workers who would not have a job because of the higher minimum wage would still be looking for work and hence be
categorized as unemployed,” they write.

“By 2025, however, half of the 1.4 million people who would be jobless because of the bill would have dropped out of the labor force.”

RELATED: CNBC: Americans Angry With Dems Over Stimulus Checks, ‘Targeted Attack’ On The Middle Class

President Biden Supports Raising the Minimum

If House Democrats don’t get their $15 minimum wage wish with this coronavirus relief package, President Biden has vowed to push for the pay hike at a later time.

“I put it in but I don’t think it’s going to survive,” Biden told CBS News in an interview this past weekend. “My guess is it will not be in [the stimulus bill].”

That doesn’t mean he’s about to give up.

“I’m prepared as the president of the United States on a separate negotiation on minimum wage to work my way up from what it is now,” Biden argued.

“No one should work 40 hours a week and live below the poverty wage and you’re making less than $15 an hour, you’re living below the poverty wage.”

A recent post by Factcheck.org indicates the numbers could end up being better than the CBO estimates, but they could just as easily be worse.

“There also is a 33% chance that between zero and 1 million jobs would be lost, and a 33% chance that the decrease would be between 1 million and 2.7 million jobs,” they write.

A Biden adviser dismissed concerns about jobs being lost due to a $15 minimum wage.

White House Counsel of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein said “we have a tendency to focus on some of the big negatives.”

Being jobless would seem like a pretty big negative for most Americans.

The post CBO Warns $15 Minimum Wage Will Kill 1.4 Million Jobs, House Dems Are All For It appeared first on The Political Insider.

CNN’s Don Lemon Tells Trump Supporters They Can’t Support Trump And Demand Respect For Police

Posted on by John Hanson

On Tuesday, anti-Trump CNN host Don Lemon said that those who stand with former President Donald Trump have no right to tell others to respect the police.

Lemon made his comments on his CNN program “Tonight.”

Lemon Attacks Police-Supporting Trump Voters

After showing the video that was presented on Tuesday of the Capitol Hill attack by the House impeachment managers, Lemon said, “Blue Lives Matter, huh?”

The video showed some of the mob action as the protests turned violent. Police officers who tried to hold protesters back were injured as protesters tried to break police lines and access outer doors to the Capitol.

Seeming to talk to Trump supporters, Lemon continued, “Law and order, law and order, respect the flags, respect law enforcement. Why don’t you just comply?”

“Don’t you dare even say that again if you can stand by after that video and give Donald Trump, of all people, Donald Trump… and his mob a pass,” Lemon said.

RELATED: PBS’ Yamiche Alcindor Defends Democrat Double Standard On Impeachment – ‘Wasn’t Storming Of The Capitol’ After Maxine Waters’ Speech

The CNN host then implied anyone who supports Trump has no right to defend “law and order” and the police again.

“If you can do that, I don’t ever want to hear that again,” Lemon said. “I don’t want to hear that from you.”

“I don’t want to hear family values from you,” he went on. “I don’t want to hear respect police officers from you. I don’t want to hear it.”

Lemon: ‘No Moral High Ground To Stand On’

Lemon insisted that Trump backers lacked any moral standing to demand moral behavior of others.

“No moral high ground to stand on,” Lemon said. “Look who is on your side there. There have been a lot of lies.”

“We’ve been warning you about all the lies,” Lemon finished.

The “lies.”

Isn’t Don Lemon a personality on a cable outlet that spent years promoting the Russian collusion hoax?

CNN Spent Years Promoting Russian Collusion Conspiracy Theory

Journalist Glenn Greenwald reported in 2017, “Three prominent journalists resigned Monday night after the network was forced to retract and apologize for a story linking Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci to a Russian investment fund under congressional investigation.”

“That article — like so much Russia reporting from the U.S. media — was based on a single anonymous source, and now, the network cannot vouch for the accuracy of its central claims,” Greenwald noted.

RELATED: Lindsey Graham Rips Impeachment – ‘We’re Doing A Lot Of Damage To The Country Because People Hate Trump’

Don Lemon was part of the Trump-Russia conspiracy chorus for a very long time.

Greenwald observed of the 2017 CNN story, “Embarrassments of this sort are literally too numerous to count when it comes to hyped, viral U.S. media stories over the last year about the Russia Threat.”

Additionally, CNN was the subject of a massive lawsuit over their false reporting of Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann.

Sandmann and his fellow students were blasted by the media for wearing MAGA hats at the 2019 March for Life rally in Washington, D.C., where they were confronted by counterprotesters. 

CNN personalities Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo blamed the students.

Lemon stated, “The MAGA hat carries a certain connotation that provokes a conditioned reaction from many people, especially from marginalized people… Their chaperones should be keenly aware of that. Those kids should know that. And let’s say that the kids didn’t because they are kids, their chaperones should be responsible enough to educate them.” 

Sandmann would subsequently sue CNN for $275 million dollars, and the network later settled for an undisclosed amount.

Don Lemon has no right or moral standing to correct other about “lies” or most anything else.

The post CNN’s Don Lemon Tells Trump Supporters They Can’t Support Trump And Demand Respect For Police appeared first on The Political Insider.

Here Are the 6 Republicans Who Voted That Trump’s Impeachment Trial Is Constitutional

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Six Republican senators voted Tuesday to affirm that the impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump is constitutional.

That is one more senator than voted for essentially the same point of order that Rand Paul (R-KY) forced just two weeks ago.

There were, of course, the usual suspects who joined Democrats in declaring the trial constitutional – Republican senators Mitt Romney (UT), Ben Sasse (NE), Susan Collins (ME), and Lisa Murkowski (AK).

Trump has been living rent-free in Sasse and Romney’s heads for some time, while Murkowski and Collins are often squishes who threaten to side with Democrats.

In addition to those four, Senator Pat Toomey (PA), a former ‘Tea Party Caucus’ guy, and Bill Cassidy (LA) voted with Democrats on the trial’s constitutionality.

RELATED: Trump Lawyer’s Demand Senate Impeachment Trial Be Dismissed, Top Dem Admits ‘Not Crazy To Argue’ It’s Unconstitutional

Republicans Join Democrats in Vote At Trump Impeachment Trial

Bill Cassidy is the only Republican senator who voted that the trial is unconstitutional under Paul’s motion, but switched to vote alongside the Democrats saying it is constitutional at the start of the trial.

What changed?

“If anyone disagrees with my vote and would like an explanation, I ask them to listen to the arguments presented by the House Managers and former President Trump’s lawyers,” Cassidy told reporters.

“The House managers had much stronger constitutional arguments. The president’s team did not.”

Strength of arguments aside, you know what didn’t change, Mr. Cassidy?

The Constitution.

“When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside,” Article 1, Section 3 reads.

Both aspects are not being adhered to, as Donald Trump is now a private citizen – not president – and Chief Justice John Roberts has refused to preside over the trial.

“The Constitution says two things about impeachment — it is a tool to remove the officeholder, and it must be presided over by the chief justice of the Supreme Court,” Paul wrote in an op-ed.

RELATED: Democrats Have A Back-Up Plan That Might Still Bar Trump From Running Again If Impeachment Fails

Stupidest Week in the Senate

Perhaps the lone voice of reason coming out of Congress this week was that of Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) who described the impeachment trial as, well … ‘stupid.’

“Welcome to the stupidest week in the Senate,” he announced in a video statement.

Cramer also blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for using impeachment “flippantly” as a political tool and described her impeachment managers as “backbenchers.”

“While Speaker Pelosi sent these backbenchers to tie up the Senate,” Cramer said, “she sent the rest of the House home instead of leaving them here to carry out the actual work of the American people.”

The post Here Are the 6 Republicans Who Voted That Trump’s Impeachment Trial Is Constitutional appeared first on The Political Insider.

Biden’s COVID Team Warns There Might Not Be Herd Immunity Until Thanksgiving Or Even Later

Posted on by John Hanson

Some members of President Joe Biden’s COVID response team leaders are saying internally that it might be Thanksgiving, or even later, before the U.S. reaches herd immunity, which is months later than was originally predicted.

This news comes from two senior administration officials who spoke to The Daily Beast.

Herd Immunity Is The Goal

Biden told CBS News this week that it would “very difficult” to reach herd immunity – which means enough of the population is resistant to the virus for life to return to some semblance of normalcy – “much before the end of the summer.”

Biden said this based on the approximately 1.3 million vaccine doses that are being  produced and/or administered daily.

The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday, “Other top officials working on the federal government’s COVID-19 response say the are uneasy about vaccine supply long term and the impact on herd immunity, and have begun to explore ways to expand U.S. manufacturing capacity, potentially through new partnerships with outside pharmaceutical firms.”

RELATED: Texas Sheriff Claims Biden Admin Releasing Illegal Immigrants Into U.S. Without COVID Testing

Top officials are also reportedly worried about how new variants of the virus might affect achieving herd immunity:

“Together, the recent data has alarmed health officials in the Biden administration who are now raising questions about what more can be done to not only shorten the herd immunity timeline—not just to return Americans to some sort of normalcy but also to ensure the country does not experience another surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.”

It continued, “Officials have spent the last several days discussing ways to ramp up genome sequencing to track variants and how to push out the message that Americans need to more closely follow public health guidelines to reduce transmission as B117 variant cases begin to increase.”

Fauci: ‘We’re Going In The Right Direction’

The Daily Beast notes that White House pandemic leader Dr. Anthony Fauci had previously said that about 75 percent of Americans and those in the U.S. would need to receive a vaccine to reach herd immunity, but was “cautiously optimistic” this goal could be reached by the beginning of the fall.

“I still think that is possible,” Fauci said. “As I’ve said before, once we get into mass vaccination when the general public starts getting it by the end of the spring—April, May, June …and we get past any vaccine hesitancy, then we should be able to reach that 70 or 75 percent mark.”

“We’re going in the right direction.” Fauci added.

In December, however, the New York Times reported that Fauci admitted to moving the goal posts upward, to 80 or 85 percent.

Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky addressed the potential dangers of COVID variants on Monday. 

RELATED: PBS’ Yamiche Alcindor Defends Democrat Double Standard On Impeachment – ‘Wasn’t Storming Of The Capitol’ After Maxine Waters’ Speech

‘We’re Still At Over 100,000 Cases A Day’

“The virus is going to continue to mutate no matter what we do,” Walensky said. “The types of mutations we’ll see will change as more people are immunized.”

This news comes as many states and municipalities across the U.S. are loosening their COVID restrictions. 

Walensky warned against this, particularly regarding masks. 

“We’re still at over 100,000 cases a day,” she said. “I think we have yet to control this pandemic. We still have this emerging threat of variants. And I would just simply discourage any of those activities.”

“We really need to keep all of the mitigation measures at play here if we’re really going to get control of this pandemic” she added.

The post Biden’s COVID Team Warns There Might Not Be Herd Immunity Until Thanksgiving Or Even Later appeared first on The Political Insider.

Texas Sheriff Claims Biden Admin Releasing Illegal Immigrants Into U.S. Without COVID Testing

Posted on by Becky Noble

A Texas Sheriff claimed on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that the Biden administration is releasing illegal immigrants into the interior of the U.S. without any COVID testing.

Sheriff A.J. Louderback of Jackson County made his comments to Tucker after the host asked him whether or not illegal immigrants who are released into the United States after being detained were getting tested. 

The Sheriff replied in the affirmative:

“It’s absolutely true. It’s even, if I can continue, Tucker, the memo, the memo that I received this last week, it’s essentially a defund the ICE by memo, by a memorandum that was sent out by David Borkowski on Jan. 20 or 21. So this is a particularly devastating document for Texans and Americans here in the United States.

The memo Sheriff Louderback referred to in his reply was sent out by then Acting Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2021. 

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Sheriff Makes Shocking Claim About COVID-19 Testing

Sheriff Louderback, in his interview with Carlson, did not hold back.

He said that the memo, put out to CBP (Customs and Border Patrol), ICE, and USCIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services) essentially ties the hands of these immigration enforcement agencies. 

The Sheriff stated that, “This is a particularly devastating document for Texans and Americans here in the United States. When I read it and looked at it, it’s a message to the world that you can come here illegally, you can commit crimes here against Americans, and remain illegally.”

At a time where the U.S. and the rest of the world are still in the grips of a global pandemic, the Sheriff was particularly bothered, as should all Americans be, by the very vital issue of COVID testing being overlooked. 

 “The COVID issue [is being] during that time. So I struggle for a thought process, like many Americans and Texans, on how an administration can conduct themselves in this manner,” stated Sheriff Louderback.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been many news articles about illegal immigrants who have been afraid to get tested for COVID for fear of being identified and deported. 

RELATED: Biden Administration In ‘Active Conversation’ To Require COVID Test Before Domestic Flights

Back To Obama-Era Lawlessness

Sheriff Louderback also said that this was not the first time that America had gone the way of lax enforcement of immigration law. “We walked this path from 2008 to 2016,” he said.

The Sheriff stated that the policy was very similar to the Priority Enforcement Program in 2014 and 2015 during the Obama administration.

In his interview, Sheriff Louderback painted a very grim view of the safety of Americans, at least for the next four years.

“Every peace officer in the United States should be extremely concerned about the attitude, the lawlessness, the complete abject removal of law.

We have a full nullification of the law going on here. We’re going to allow our ICE officers, USCIS, all affected by this memo, which guts the INA and handcuffs them so that they’re unable to respond. So in law enforcement here, those of us that don’t have the jurisdiction to enforce the federal laws here, we’ve created a situation that is unthinkable for the public.”

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Immigration Under Joe Biden

New Biden administration policies include guidelines for Homeland Security that will mean fewer arrests and deportations for drug crimes, DUI’s, and low-level assaulters, fraudsters, and thieves.

Sheriff Chuck Jenkins of Frederick County Maryland says that traditionally in the deportation process, criminal histories are considered.

With fewer arrests for these kinds of crimes, those who may have committed crimes will be free to walk the streets. 

Those coming into the country through the southern border are not just from Mexico and Central America.

Recently, eleven Iranian citizens were apprehended in Arizona, and there is evidence of Chinese drug lords assisting Mexican drug cartels in smuggling fentanyl and other substances across the border.

The new policies are a strong departure from the policies of the Trump adminstration.

To see the entire interview with Tucker Carlson and Sheriff A.J. Louderback, see below.

The post Texas Sheriff Claims Biden Admin Releasing Illegal Immigrants Into U.S. Without COVID Testing appeared first on The Political Insider.