I am guessing the release of Brittney Griner was not a victory for President Joe Biden says the far right extremists. Hint, they already expose themselves as hypocrites, racists, homophobes and arm chair diplomats.
Griner was released on Thursday and is expected to be in San Antonio, Texas as of Friday.
She was sentenced to 10 years in a Russian penal colony for having canibus oils in her travel luggage. Brittney’s wife Cherrelle, the WNBA, Black women and Democrats were celebrating her release.
The noise on the other hand.... well!
Meet Brittney Griner & Marine Paul Whelan. Both Americans. Both were convicted in Russian courts on dubious charges. Both serving multi-year sentences in Russian prison. Brittney hates America Paul served America
The President of the United States traded Russian terrorist arms dealer, Viktor Bout, left a U.S. Marine in Russian jail, and brought home a professional basketball player.
How many people will Viktor Bout now kill bc Biden set him free?
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene๐บ๐ธ (@RepMTG) December 8, 2022
My last tweet was no shot at Brittney Griner. I’m super happy she’s back home as she should be. I just have family who have served and it’s crazy to me the President wouldn’t bring him home too. I’m the furthest thing from a trump supporter but I’m not a fan of Biden either.
No one cuts better deals than Biden. We get an awful America hating WNBA player, while Russia gets an INTERNATIONAL ARMS DEALER!!! The adults are back! https://t.co/zPMKzuB2SA
The Russian Federation confirmed that the release of Griner was one for one deal. The government stated that releasing Griner came at a price. The U.S. government released Viktor Bout, an arms deal the junk food media called the "merchant of death."
Bout spent over 10 years in federal time out before his expected release in 2029. The Russian Federation protested the sentencing of Bout since his arrest in Thailand.
Bout and Griner briefly greeted each other as Russian and American forces brief one another in Abu Dhabi.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a controversial lawmaker who does nothing but troll the internet and podcasting for click bait is calling for impeachment of the president.
Biden celebrated Brittney Griner's release with her wife Cherrelle.
Fox is referring her as a professional athlete and celebrity instead of being regarded as an American. Tucker Carlson claimed that Biden chose Griner over Paul Whalen because she was a Black lesbian.
Some are calling her anti-American because she kneeled during WNBA games and she called for accountability when it comes to police brutality.
Washed Up 45 also got into the mix. He called Griner anti-American and stated that Whalen should have been the first in line. Whalen was arrested in 2018 during the former president's term. He claims he done more to release political prisoners before Biden.
It was under his watch and his own refusal to get Whalen (a supporter of Washed Up 45 at one time) out of Russian custody.
The embattled Federation president Vladimir Putin said he is willing to negotiate more prison swaps. He has not hinted the capture of Edward Snowden, the former NSA official who stole and leaked classified documents to the junk food media. He sought asylum in Russia and later granted citizenship.
Griner is back in the United States and is expect to be home with her wife.
The far right and many of the so called "Never" ones are beyotching about a Canadian American security official being held in a Russian penal colony. He was charged with espionage. It is a far more serious crime than Brittney Griner having a few vape cartridges with CBD oils.
The noise is whining about how the president failed to get am American out of Russia.
President Joe Biden vowed that he will get Paul Whalen released.
A little bit about Whalen. He is a Canadian-American security specialist who served in the U.S. Marines until his discharge. He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1994. He took military leave from Kelly Services to serve with the Marine Corps Reserve from 2003 to 2008, including service in Iraq. He held the rank of staff sergeant with Marine Air Control Group 38 working as an administrative clerk and administrative chief, and he was part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After a court-martial conviction in January 2008 on multiple counts "related to larceny", he was sentenced to 60 days restriction, reduction to pay grade E-4, and a bad conduct discharge. The specific charges against him included "attempted larceny, three specifications of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, wrongfully using another’s social security number, and ten specifications of making and uttering checks without having sufficient funds in his account for payment."
He was arrested in 2018 at his hotel on allegations of espionage.
Whelan was arrested in the Moscow area by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), which later confirmed his arrest. Whelan's twin brother David said Whelan arrived in Moscow on December 22 to attend the wedding of a former fellow Marine at the Hotel Metropol Moscow and to assist the groom's family members on their first visit to Russia, a country he had visited many times. He said his brother planned to return to Michigan on January 6, 2019, via Saint Petersburg.
Per MBK News, an outlet run by Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Whelan had $80,000 in cash "temporarily confiscated" during a customs inspection at Domodedovo Airport. David said his brother entered Russia using his U.S. passport. He said his brother had not been in contact with his family. He was formally charged on January 3, 2019.
According to the Russian news agency Rosbalt [ru], Whelan was apprehended in his hotel room at the Metropol while concluding a long outing with a Russian citizen, who handed him a USB drive containing "a list of all the employees at a classified security agency". The independent Latvian-based publication Meduza reported that the wedding attendees all banded close together for the duration of the holiday, and were taken aback by Whelan's decision to spend the day alone.
The BBC cited family members of Whelan, who said Whelan previously bragged about knowing an agent of the FSB, and was privy to an unusual cache of personal details about his friend, including which intelligence training school he attended (biographical information typically reserved for a very close circle).
As Whelan said about the arrest, his long-time friend had appeared suddenly in the hotel, followed by authorities, who later arrested him.
According to the lawyers, they could not provide the name of the Russian long-time friend due to Russian secrecy rules, but Whelan's family identified the person as Ilya Yatsenko, whom the Russian newspaper Kommersant described as a major in the FSB's Department "K", which monitors Russian economic crimes.
Former Obama and later Washed Up 45 ambassador Jon Huntsman failed to get him out.
Washed Up 45 did not do anything. Mike Pompeo did nothing.
Arizona senator announces she will be an independent. She is the first openly bisexual senator elected to office.
Democrats have not commented on her decision but I am guessing she will be getting death threats and relentless heckling by protesters from this point.
So there will be 48 Democrats and three independents.
Democrats won control of the Senate only to have two distractions ruin it. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) have been thorns in the side of President Joe Biden and they will continue this noise for the next two years.
“I’ve registered as an Arizona independent. I know some people might be a little bit surprised by this, but actually, I think it makes a lot of sense,” Sinema said in a Thursday interview with Tapper in her Senate office.
“I’ve never fit neatly into any party box. I’ve never really tried. I don’t want to,” she added. “Removing myself from the partisan structure – not only is it true to who I am and how I operate, I also think it’ll provide a place of belonging for many folks across the state and the country, who also are tired of the partisanship.”
It clears a path for Rep. Ruben Gellego (D-AZ) to be the sacrificial lamb and official nominee.
Sinema announced on Friday, that she will remain caucused with the Democrats.
Had she flipped to the Republicans, there would be punishment.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would strip her of her committee assignments had she decided to become a Republican and join their conference.
Both Manchin and Sinema also opposed changes to the Senate’s filibuster rules despite pressure from their Senate colleagues and Biden to change them. After a vote against filibuster changes in January, the Arizona Democratic Party’s executive board censured Sinema.
Hiding from reality.
Sinema has been in the middle of several significant bipartisan bills that were passed since Biden took office. She pointed to that record as evidence that her approach has been an effective one.
“I’ve been honored to lead historic efforts, from infrastructure, to gun violence prevention, to protecting religious liberty and helping LGBT families feel secure, to the CHIPs and science bill to the work we’ve done on veterans’ issues,” she told CNN. “The list is really long. And so I think that the results speak for themselves. It’s OK if some people aren’t comfortable with that approach.”
Sinema’s announcement comes just days after Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock won reelection in Georgia, securing Democrats a 51st Senate seat that frees them from reliance on Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote.
Sinema has a feud with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). He vows to defeat her in 2024 if a strong challenger comes forth.
Sinema, Sanders and Manchin are considered headaches to the Democrats. They have often been opposing the mainstream platforms of the Schumer and Biden agenda.
Biden has also vented about them in private.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is the first openly lesbian in the Senate. She and Sinema did vote for the Respect for Marriage Act.
Sinema did vote for Kentaji Brown Jackson, the CHIPS Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the Biden Infrastructure Spending. She opposed raising the minimum wage and extending the child credit for working families.
President Joe Biden delivers once again a promise to the voters who supported him in 2020.
For gay couples and interracial couples, a sigh of relief.
The Respect for Marriage Act passed the House of Representatives and now heads to the president's desk for signature. The bill passed 258 to 169. The law codifies protections for same sex marriages and interracial marriage. Every Democrat and 39 Republicans voted for the bill. The Black extremist, Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) voted present.
The measure passed the Senate with 61-36. Only 12 Republican senators joined the 48 Democrats and two independents in passing this.
The Republicans who voted against this show how they're completely out of touch with reality, their constituents and pretty much are losing a base of voters who could help them win in 2024.
But who ever said Republicans were ever popular with ideas?
They are not popular!
In a statement after the vote, Biden called the legislation a “critical step to ensure that Americans have the right to marry the person they love.” He said the legislation provides “hope and dignity to millions of young people across this country who can grow up knowing that their government will recognize and respect the families they build.”
Republican led states will try to sue the government but it will be somewhat difficult now that Biden signed a law that codifies marriage protection for straight and gay couples. This will also eliminate discrimination based on sexual preference and ensure a spouse will be entitled to loved ones properties in case of death.
Democrats moved the bill quickly through the House and Senate after the Supreme Court’s decision in June that overturned the federal right to an abortion — including a concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas that suggested the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalizing same-sex marriage could also be reconsidered.
While many Republicans predicted that was unlikely to happen, and said the bill was unnecessary, Democrats and GOP supporters of the bill said it shouldn’t be left to chance.
“We need it,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who presided over the vote as one of her last acts in leadership before stepping aside in January. “It is magic.”
The bill is “a glorious triumph of love and freedom,” Pelosi said, tearing up as she celebrated its passage.
In debate before the vote, several gay members of Congress talked about what a federal law would mean for them and their families. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) said he and his husband should be able to visit each other in the hospital just like any other married couple and receive spousal benefits “regardless of if your spouse’s name is Samuel or Samantha.”
Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH) said he was set to marry “the love of my life” next year and it is “unthinkable” that his marriage might not be recognized in some states if Obergefell were to be overturned.
“The idea of marriage equality used to be a far-fetched idea,” said Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) “Now it’s the law of the land and supported by the vast majority of Americans.”
The legislation lost some Republican support since July, when 47 Republicans voted for it — a robust and unexpected show of support that kick-started serious negotiations in the Senate. But most of those lawmakers held firm, with a cross section of the party, from conservatives to moderates, voting for the bill. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) voted against it.
“To me this is really just standing with the Constitution,” said Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) who voted for the bill both times. She pushed back on GOP arguments that it would affect the religious rights of those who don’t believe in same-sex marriage.
“No one’s religious liberties are affected in any way, shape or form,” Wagner said.
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) said he was “proud to once again vote in favor of protecting our LGBTQ and religious friends and neighbors.” He praised Senate changes to the bill ensuring that it would not affect current rights of religious institutions and groups.
“Civil rights are not a finite resource, we do not have to take from one group to give to another,” Stewart said.
The legislation would not require states to allow same-sex couples to marry, as Obergefell now does. But it would require states to recognize all marriages that were legal where they were performed and protect current same-sex unions if the Supreme Court decision were overturned.
While it’s not everything advocates may have wanted, passage of the legislation represents a watershed moment. Just a decade ago, many Republicans openly campaigned on blocking same-sex marriages; today more than two-thirds of the public support them.
Still, most Republicans opposed the legislation and some conservative advocacy groups lobbied aggressively against it in recent weeks, arguing that it doesn’t do enough to protect those who want to refuse services for same-sex couples.
“God’s perfect design is indeed marriage between one man and one woman for life,” said Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) before the vote. “And it doesn’t matter what you think or what I think, that’s what the Bible says.”
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) choked up as she begged colleagues to vote against the bill, which she said undermines “natural marriage” between a man and a woman.
“I’ll tell you my priorities,” Hartzler said. “Protect religious liberty, protect people of faith and protect Americans who believe in the true meaning of marriage.”
Democrats in the Senate, led by Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, worked with supportive Republican senators to address those GOP concerns by negotiating changes to clarify that the legislation does not impair the rights of private individuals or businesses. The amended bill would also make clear that a marriage is between two people, an effort to ward off some far-right criticism that the legislation could endorse polygamy.
In the end, several religious groups, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, came out in support of the bill. The Mormon church said it would support rights for same-sex couples as long as they didn’t infringe upon religious groups’ right to believe as they choose.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who led negotiations with Baldwin and Sinema in the Senate, attended a ceremony after the House vote with Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
“When I think about this bill, I think about how much it matters to people in each of our lives, our family members, our coworkers, our neighbors, our friends,” Collins said.
Thursday’s vote came as the LGBTQ community has faced violent attacks, such as the shooting this month at a gay nightclub in Colorado that killed five people and injured at least 17.
“We have been through a lot,” said Kelley Robinson, incoming president of the advocacy group Human Rights Campaign. But Robinson says the votes show “in such an important way” that the country values LBGTQ people.
“We are part of the full story of what it means to be an American,” said Robinson, who was inside the Senate chamber for last week’s vote with her wife and young son. “It really speaks to them validating our love.”
The vote was personal for many senators, too. Schumer said after the House vote that his daughter and her wife are expecting their first child next year.
“My grandchild will live in a world that will respect and honor their mothers’ marriage,” Schumer said.
Baldwin, the first openly gay senator, has been working on gay rights issues for almost four decades. She also attended the House ceremony.
“We are giving these loving couples the certainty that their marriages are legal, and that they will continue to have the same rights and responsibilities and benefits of every other married couple,” Baldwin said. “We are telling these Americans that we see them and we respect them.”
By the way, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) is a certified coon. He is married to a white woman and his dumb ass voted against it. What the fuck is wrong with this party? Even a coon ass Donalds would vote against interracial marriage. Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) coon ass did at least vote "present."
The final episode of The Daily Show being hosted by longtime host Trevor Noah. The host announced he is retiring from hosting duties to focus on his comedy tour and directing.
"I'm grateful to you, every single one of you," said Noah. "I remember when we started the show, we couldn't get enough people to fill an audience."
For seven years, Trevor came into The Daily Show a humble and talented man. He took over when Jon Stewart retired in 2015 and managed to keep the satirical news program very successful.
In his final taping, Trevor thanked his fans, his writers and the talented correspondents for making the show successful.
"Every seat that has ever been filled to watch something that I'm doing, I always appreciate 'cause I know the empty seat that sits behind it, so thank you. Thank you to the people who watch, the people who share the clips, everyone who's had an opinion, everyone who's been kind enough and gracious enough."
"We still got the ratings."
Trevor thanked Black women especially for saving democracy.
"I've often been credited with having these grand ideas," Noah said. "Who do you think teaches me? Who do you think has shaped me, nourish me, informed me? My mom, my grand, my aunts, all these Black women in my life."
Congratulations Trevor Noah.
He continued on saying that he tells people if they want to learn about America, they should ask Black women because, "unlike everybody else, Black women cannot afford to fuck around and find out."
"Black people understand how hard it is when things go bad," Noah added. "When things go bad, Black people know that it gets worse for them. But Black women, in particular, they know what shit is."
To credit Black women for his achievements took a lot of courage. Given that the noise of the far-right and some of the far-left and hoteps are bitching about Brittney Griner being freed from the Russian Federation's penal colony. She gets to spend her holidays with her wife.
He said in his final closing....
"If you truly want to know what to do or how to do it, or maybe the best way or the most equitable way, talk to Black women. They are a lot of the reasons that I'm here."
Heading home. Brittney Griner will be in the U.S. by Friday.
Keeping it on the hush, hush, President Joe Biden and U.S. officials worked to get WNBA star Brittney Griner released from a work camp in the Russian Federation.
Biden said that Paul Whalen, an ex-Marine who was held on the charges of espionage is on his list.
Griner's wife finally got relief. She appeared with the president, Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Anthony Blinkin in the phone call.
The star was sentenced to a work camp after pleading guilty for having canibus oils in her travel packages in February 2021. She got a 10 year bid but it was ended when the U.S. did a prisoner swap with Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer.
In a statement, Russian officials said they exchanged Griner for Bout on Thursday at Abu Dhabi International Airport in the United Arab Emirates. At a news conference on Thursday, Biden confirmed the swap had taken place.
“Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones,” the president said. “I’m glad to be able to say that Brittney’s in good spirits She’s relieved to finally be heading home.”
The deal reached by officials did not include the release of Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive who has been jailed in Russia on espionage charges since December 2018, according to The Associated Press. Authorities had said for months that they were working to secure the release of both Griner and Whelan.
Biden talks to Griner after she announced her release.
On Thursday, Biden said that officials had not forgotten about Whelan and he promised his administration would continue work to bring him home.
“This was not a choice of which American to bring home,” he said. “Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia has treated Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s, and while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.”
Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, said she felt “overwhelmed by emotions” on Thursday, chiefly gratitude for the work done to free her wife. While she said the day was “just a happy day for me and my family,” she acknowledged that “there’s so many other families that are not whole.”
“B.G. and I will remain committed to the work of getting every American home, including Paul, whose family is in our hearts today,” she said. “As we celebrate B.G. being home, we do understand that there are still people out there who are enduring what I endured the last nine months of missing tremendously their loved ones.”
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and Phoenix Mercury center, had been in the custody of Russian officials since February, when authorities said they found less than a gram of cannabis oil in her luggage, according to The Washington Post. She was sentenced to serve 9 1/2 years after a court found her guilty of bringing illegal drugs into the country, The New York Times reported.
Biden working to get Paul Whalen out.
The prisoner swap was the second between the U.S. and Russia to take place under Biden, following the release in April of former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed. Reed had been convicted two years earlier of assaulting two Russian police officers and sentenced to nine years in a prison camp. In exchange for his freedom, officials commuted the sentence of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who had been convicted in 2011 of conspiring to traffic more than $100 million worth of cocaine, and was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison.
More toppings on that federal sandwich for disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti.
Michael Avenatti who made headlines as then adult film star and activist Stormy Daniels' attorney during her fight over a non-disclosure agreement and hush money exploitation trial is sent to federal time out for 14 years after a federal court found him guilty of swindling millions from his clients.
Daniels was as a victim of his theft.
He was also found guilty in New York which means he will likely get up to 24 years in federal time out.
Avenatti, who vowed to bring Washed Up 45 and Michael Cohen down found himself in their situation.
When your friends become your enemies!
Cohen, who had a feud with Daniels and Avenatti at one time made this remark to the disgraced and disbarred lawyer: "Putz don't drop the soap!"
I'm just kidding.
I can only imagine how Cohen felt when he saw Avenatti got rich off his pain. Cohen spent nearly four years in federal time out after he was convicted for tax fraud and lying to investigators.
In 3021, Avenatti tried to grill his former client Stormy Daniels in his own trial.
Cohen and Daniels ended their feud and made a pledge to keep Washed Up 45 and his allies from ever winning any other election.
Avenatti pleaded guilty earlier this year to four counts of wire fraud and tax-related charges without reaching a plead deal with federal prosecutors, saying he wanted to be held accountable without further embarrassment to his ex-wife and daughters.
Avenatti tried to exploit Nike and many others. He stole from a man who suffered life-altering injuries.
He took an advance of Stormy Daniels' punitive damages to buy luxury vehicles and treat his girlfriend out. He also was hinting a run for president in 2020.
The controversial senator needs to stop and think about his wife and daughters. Instead of spending taxpayer money on doing nothing, hosting podcasts, standing up Herschel Walker while ass kissing Washed Up 45, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) decided to ignore the real crisis at home.
This crisis did not involve him leaving the state of Texas for Cancun, Mexico during a blizzard with power outage statewide.
His 14 year old daughter slit her wrists and the Houston Fire Rescue had to save her life.
She announced she was bisexual and openly denounced her dad's antics.
Caroline Camille Cruz, 14 his eldest daughter is experiencing some things. Being associated to a controversial lawmaker makes life hard for a girl who is trying to adjust to life as a teenager.
Cruz was among a handful of lawmakers who did not wish Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) well when her husband was seriously injured by an extremist. The lawmaker spewed conspiracy theories to why he was attacked.
Now he asks for privacy?
Yeah right!
The Houston Police Department said it received reports just before 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday of a 14-year-old with self-inflicted stab wounds on their arms in the neighborhood River Oaks, where the Republican lawmaker resides with his wife, Heidi, and their two daughters.
Besides the constituents, Ted Cruz ignores his family.
Authorities said the unidentified teen was taken to the hospital but could not say whether the 911 call involved a member of Cruz's family.
In a statement late Tuesday, Cruz's office said his daughter was OK and asked for privacy for the family.
"This is a family matter and thankfully their daughter is okay," Cruz's representatives said in a statement to KTRK and other outlets.
"There were no serious injuries. The family requests the media respect their daughter's privacy at this time," Cruz's office said.
Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or #988, or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The deaf and hard of hearing can contact the Lifeline via TTY at 1-800-799-4889. All calls are confidential. Contact social media outlets directly if you are concerned about a friend’s social media updates or dial 911 in an emergency. Learn more on the Lifeline’s website or the Crisis Text Line’s website.
The Republicans were never a party that had popular ideas. They never had candidates that appeal to a broad coalition of voters. In my honest opinion, the Republicans are too extreme.
Yet, they are the ones who are calling the Democratic Party the extreme.
The same folks who encourage their own voters to believe their elections were stolen, inflation is out of control but offer nothing to solve it, hype up talk about a coup or civil war, scaring bigots with talk about transgender women playing women sports being bad, claiming gay Americans are grooming children, banning books that talk about Black and indigenous history, supporting books that are racist, mocking Democrats lawmakers and their spouses getting hurt, sending migrants to Democratic mayoral cities, saying President Joe Biden has dementia, calling Vice President Kamala Harris stupid, trolling on social media, Hunter Biden's laptop is more serious than the Jan. 6 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, crime being rampant in "Democrat" cities, scaring white poor voters with fentanyl, the reckless handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the talk about Duchess Meghan of Sussex are the things on Republicans minds.
And it all brought to you by Fox.
Tucker Carlson, Sean "Softball" Hannity, Jesse Watters and Laura Ingraham are the undisputed noise of the far right extremists. Had Republican voters turned off the noise, they may of had better information about who they were dealing with.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) had a better ground game than Stacey Abrams.
Sen-elect John Fetterman (D-PA) had a better ground game than Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH).
Mehmet Oz and Herschel Walker were fired by not only President Joe Biden but the American voters. They were the biggest losers not only to Washed Up 45 but the Republican Party.
Herschel Walker heads back to Texas.
They were election deniers, carpetbaggers and completely utterly stupid. Fox had ferociously pushed these two. They mocked Fetterman for having a stroke and it turned off people with disabilities. They claimed that Warnock ran over his ex-wife's foot in dispute, but completely ignored Walker putting a gun to his first wife's head, forced women to have abortions and literally mocking Black leaders. It turned off Black and young voters.
Yet the race was really close. I mean Walker lost by 34,000 votes.
I am guessing most white voters supported Walker over Warnock.
Ingraham for her part was pissed that Republicans failed to win the Senate despite barely winning the House. The far right noise maker claimed the leadership of Ronna Romney McDaniel, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) led to Republican defeat.
“We felt this coming. To me, it never felt like the Senate Republicans wanted this guy in office. He was a Trump pick, they didn’t like that … but there wasn’t the intensity on the part of the Republicans as there was on the part of Democrats,” Ingraham said on her show shortly after Tuesday’s runoff had been called for Warnock. “We have the same people in place in leadership. The same people in place, apparently at the RNC, perhaps that’s not changing. We just keep doing the same thing over and over again. I’m pissed tonight, frankly. I’m mad.”
Ingraham’s comments come as a number of conservative media pundits, including some on Fox News, have either blamed Washed Up 45 for this year’s GOP midterm performance or suggested the party seek new leadership. The former president has announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
She claims that if Republicans had a better approach to voting they could have flipped Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, New Hampshire and kept Pennsylvania.
Now they have Washed Up 45 as their top pick despite the turmoil he is facing.
New York state authorities have the power to dissolve and fine Washed Up 45's company.
It is currently ran by Eric and Donald Trump, Jr. The company is found guilty of tax fraud and it is now up the state to figure out whether it should be forced to go out of business or dissolve its status in New York state.
The company was convicted of tax fraud Tuesday for helping executives dodge taxes on extravagant perks such as Manhattan apartments and luxury cars, a repudiation of financial practices at the former president’s business as he mounts another run for the White House.
A jury found two corporate entities at the Trump Organization guilty on all 17 counts, including charges of conspiracy and falsifying business records. Washed Up 45 himself was not on trial. The verdict in state court in New York came after about 10 hours of deliberations over two days.
The conviction was validation for New York authorities who say their three-year investigation into Washed Up 45 and his businesses is continuing. The probe, which began as an inquiry into hush-money payments made on the former president’s behalf, later morphed into an examination of the company’s asset valuation and pay practices.
The company faces a fine of up to $1.6 million. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 13. The defense said it will appeal.
“A former president’s companies now stand convicted of crimes. That is consequential,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said outside the courtroom. “It underscores that in Manhattan we have one standard of justice for all.”
Washed Up 45, a Republican who launched his 2024 campaign last month during the trial, blasted the verdict as a part of a Democrat-led “MANHATTAN WITCH HUNT!”
“This case is unprecedented and involved no monetary gain to these two Corporations,” the former president said in a statement, adding: “New York City is a hard place to be ‘Trump.’”
The verdict adds to mounting legal woes for the former president, who faces a criminal investigation in Washington over the retention of top-secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, as well as efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Those inquiries are being led by a newly named Justice Department special counsel. The district attorney in Atlanta is also leading an investigation into attempts by Washed Up 45 and his allies to overturn his loss in that state.
The verdict also comes amid a series of self-inflicted crises for the former president in recent weeks, including anger over his dinner with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the antisemitic rapper formerly known as Kanye West, and the former president’s for the “termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” to address his baseless claims of mass election fraud.
The Trump Organization — and Washed Up 45’s management of it — was at the center of “The Apprentice,” the reality show that solidified his global celebrity. That fame in turn helped fuel his unlikely political rise, allowing him to sell himself to voters as a successful businessman who could take lessons from that sphere and apply them to Washington.
The Manhattan case against the Trump Organization was built largely around testimony from the company’s former finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, who previously pleaded guilty to charges that he manipulated the company’s books to illegally reduce his taxes on $1.7 million in fringe benefits. He testified in exchange for a promised five-month jail sentence.
It is not over.
To convict the Trump Organization, prosecutors had to convince jurors that Weisselberg or an underling he worked with on the scheme was a “high managerial” agent acting on the company’s behalf and that the company also benefited.
Trump Organization lawyers repeated the mantra “Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg” throughout the monthlong trial, contending that he had gone rogue and betrayed the company’s trust. Weisselberg attempted to take responsibility on the witness stand, saying nobody in the Trump family knew what he was doing.
“It was my own personal greed that led to this,” an emotional Weisselberg testified.
But prosecutor Joshua Steinglass alleged in his closing that the former president “knew exactly what was going on” and was “explicitly sanctioning tax fraud.”
Bragg slipped into the courtroom as the verdict was being read. Afterward he refused to answer questions from reporters, ducking behind a glass door as he was asked if he regretted the former president wasn’t charged personally.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office assisted in the investigation, called the verdict a “clear message that no one, and no organization, is above our laws.”
In some ways it’s a limited victory for prosecutors, however.
No one, save for Weisselberg, is going to prison. No one is putting a padlock on Trump Tower or forcing the company out of business. And a potential $1.6 million fine is a rounding error on the budget of an enterprise that boasts billions of dollars in assets.
Still, the Trump Organization may now run into some trouble getting loans and making deals, and New York City could have more leverage to try to end the company’s contract managing a city-owned golf course in the Bronx.
But even as the trial was unfolding, the company struck a deal with Saudi developer Dar Al Arakan to license the Trump name for a golf, hotel and residential development in Oman. Next year, three of Washed Up 45’s golf courses will host tournaments for Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
The bigger threat to the company could be the civil lawsuit James filed in September alleging that it misled banks and others about the value of its many assets, a practice she dubbed the “art of the steal.”
James, a Democrat, is asking a court to ban Washed Up 45 and his three eldest children from running a New York-based company and is seeking to fine them at least $250 million. As a preliminary measure, a judge has appointed an independent monitor to oversee the company’s operations while the case is pending.
Bragg inherited the former president's investigation when he took office in January. His predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., had authorized his deputies to seek a grand jury indictment for the former president, but Bragg soon shut that down and they quit.
Officially, he says, the investigation is “active and ongoing.”
On Monday he sent his strongest signal yet that he’s interested in pursuing more charges, hiring former acting U.S. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Colangelo to lead the probe. Bragg and Colangelo worked together on Washed Up 45-related matters at the state attorney general’s office.
The Democrats managed to get one seat flipped with John Fetterman. But it appears that Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) will finally serve a full six year term as senators. That means a hold on control making it easier (even with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)) to get things done.
Warnock won his runoff against that bone head Herschel Walker, a Washed Up 45 endorsed election denying Black extremist.
Warnock defeated the Republican challenger Walker in a Georgia runoff election Tuesday, ensuring Democrats an outright majority in the Senate for the rest of President Joe Biden’s term and helping cap an underwhelming midterm cycle for the GOP in the last major vote of the year.
With Warnock’s second runoff victory in as many years, Democrats will have a 51-49 Senate majority, gaining a seat from the current 50-50 split with John Fetterman’s victory in Pennsylvania. There will be divided government, however, with Republicans having narrowly flipped House control.
In last month’s election, Warnock led Walker by 37,000 votes out of almost 4 million cast, but fell short of the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff. Walker, a football legend who first gained fame at the University of Georgia and later in the NFL in the 1980s, was unable to overcome a bevy of damaging allegations, including claims that he paid for two former girlfriends’ abortions.
Democrats’ Georgia victory solidifies the state’s place as a Deep South battleground two years after Warnock and fellow Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff won 2021 runoffs that gave the party Senate control just months after Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate in 30 years to win Georgia. Voters returned Warnock to the Senate in the same cycle they reelected Republican Gov. Brian Kemp by a comfortable margin and chose an all-GOP slate of statewide constitutional officers.
“I’ll work with anyone to get things done for the people of Georgia,” Warnock, the state’s first Black senator, said throughout his campaign, a nod to the state’s historically conservative lean and his need to win over GOP-leaning independents and at least some moderate Republicans in a midterm election year.
Moron Herschel Walker concedes.
Warnock, 53, paired that argument with an emphasis on his personal values, buoyed by his status as senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. once preached.
Walker’s defeat bookends the GOP’s struggles this year to win with flawed candidates cast from Washed Up 45’s mold, a blow to the former president as he builds his third White House bid.
Democrats’ new outright majority in the Senate means the party will no longer have to negotiate a power-sharing deal with Republicans and won’t have to rely on Vice President Kamala Harris to break as many tie votes.
About 1.9 million runoff votes were cast by mail and during early voting, while the state was on track for a robust Election Day, with state officials estimating an additional 1.4 million votes cast — slightly more than in the November midterm and the 2020 election.
Early and mail voting did not reach the same levels as years past, and it was likely the total number of votes cast would be less than the 2021 Senate runoff election. Voting rights groups point to changes made by state lawmakers after the 2020 election that shortened the period for runoffs, from nine weeks to four, as a major reason for the decline in early and mail voting.
Elections officials reported few problems processing early votes and tabulating ballots cast Tuesday, but there were some delays. In south Georgia’s Lowndes County, two poll workers were in a car accident on the way to the county elections office with the memory cards from one precinct’s polling machines. A Lowndes official said a member of the local elections board went to the accident site to retrieve the memory cards so tabulations could continue.
Walker benefited during the campaign from nearly unmatched name recognition from his football career, yet was dogged by questions about his fitness for office and allegations of hypocrisy.
A multimillionaire businessman, Walker inflated his philanthropic activities and business achievements, including claiming that his company employed hundreds of people and grossed tens of millions of dollars in sales annually, even though records indicate he had eight employees and averaged about $1.5 million a year. He has suggested that he’s worked as a law enforcement officer and graduated college, though he has done neither.
He was accused by two former girlfriends of encouraging and paying for their abortions, despite supporting an outright national ban on the procedure during the campaign. He denied both women’s claims.
He was also forced to acknowledge during the campaign that he had fathered three children out of wedlock whom he had never before spoken about publicly. The mother of one of those children told The Daily Beast that Walker had not seen his young son since January 2016 and had to be taken to court for child support — in direct conflict with Walker’s years spent criticizing absentee fathers and his calls for Black men, in particular, to play an active role in their kids’ lives.
His ex-wife said Walker once held a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. He has never denied those specifics and wrote of his violent tendencies in a 2008 memoir that attributed the behavior to mental illness.
As a candidate, he sometimes mangled policy discussions, attributing the climate crisis to China’s “bad air” overtaking “good air” from the United States and arguing that diabetics could manage their health by “eating right,” a practice that isn’t enough for insulin-dependent diabetic patients.
On Tuesday, Atlanta voter Tom Callaway praised the Republican Party’s strength in Georgia and said he’d supported Kemp in the opening round of voting. But he said he cast his ballot for Warnock because he didn’t think “Herschel Walker has the credentials to be a senator.”
“I didn’t believe he had a statement of what he really believed in or had a campaign that made sense,” Callaway said.
Reality hits the reality TV agitators. Herschel Walker and Mehmet Oz will find home on Fox now that they have lost their elections.
Walker, meanwhile, sought to portray Warnock as a yes-man for Biden. He sometimes made the attack in especially personal terms, accusing Warnock of “being on his knees, begging” at the White House — a searing charge for a Black challenger to level against a Black senator about his relationship with a white president.
“My opponent is not a serious person,” Warnock said during the runoff campaign. “But the election is very serious. Don’t get those two things confused.”
Warnock promoted his Senate accomplishments, touting a provision he sponsored to cap insulin costs for Medicare patients. He hailed deals on infrastructure and maternal health care forged with Republican senators, mentioning those GOP colleagues more than he did Biden or other Washington Democrats.
Warnock distanced himself from Biden, whose approval ratings have lagged as inflation remains high. After the general election, Biden promised to help Warnock in any way he could, even if it meant staying away from Georgia. Bypassing the president, Warnock decided instead to campaign with former President Barack Obama in the days before the runoff election.
Walker, meanwhile, avoided campaigning with Washed Up 45 until the campaign’s final day, when the pair conducted a conference call Monday with supporters.
Walker joins failed Senate nominees Dr. Mehmet Oz of Pennsylvania, Blake Masters of Arizona, Adam Laxalt of Nevada and Don Bolduc of New Hampshire as Washed Up 45 loyalists who ultimately lost races that Republicans once thought they would — or at least could — win.
Why should I do a photo op to appease Republicans?
President Joe Biden slaps down Republican and Fox's noise. They are demanding the president visit the U.S.-Mexico border when he travels to Arizona. What is visiting the border gonna do for him?
Absolutely nothing.
Cause regardless, Republicans will complain.
Biden does have more important issues to worry about. The U.S. border is safe. Do not believe the noise. The noise will scare you with talk about illegals and fentanyl, but the border is watched 24/7. Humanitarian assistance is often given and most migrants are seeking asylum like every other person.
Republicans do not want Brown in this country because it eliminates their white majority rule.
He will also greet Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Gov-Elect Katie Hobbs and outgoing Republican governor Doug Ducey.
He will likely shun Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) in regards to her tepid help in passing legislation.
He is traveling to Phoenix for a groundbreaking of a Taiwanese based computer chips company being built in the area.
Fox, best known for pushing culture wars and white nationalism had its White House reporter Steve Doocy badger Biden about the border.
"Why go to a border state and not visit the border?" Doocy asked.
"Because there are more important things going on," Biden responded. "They’re going to invest billions of dollars in a new enterprise."
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed Republican border visits as "political stunts" last month.
Conservatives screech about the border but offer no real solutions.
The U.S. has seen record levels of illegal immigration throughout the Biden administration. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported 230,000 border encounters in October alone, an all-time monthly record that broke the previous record set in September.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) who lives over 250 miles from the border complained that Biden and the Democrats not taken the border seriously. This canard about the border has been played everyday on the far right media like Fox and the rest of the noise.
This is not biggest problem in the country.
Gun violence is the biggest problem in the country.
Republicans vow to impose policies that require migrants to remain in Mexico, punish human trafficking and push for impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
It is a desperate ploy to court white nationalists.
