DBP66 Posted March 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2023 Trump supporters in plot to firebomb Sacramento Democratic HQ sentenced to prison 582 Sam Stanton Wed, March 1, 2023 at 3:37 PM EST Two Trump supporters behind a plot to firebomb Sacramento’s state Democratic Party headquarters was sentenced to prison Wednesday, but only after sentencing for one was delayed because his attorney asked for the courtroom to be closed over concerns for his client’s safety. Ian Benjamin Rogers, 46, received a nine-year sentence after expressing his remorse for his behavior, which he blamed on a drinking problem that was exacerbated by COVID-19 lockdowns that severely hurt his auto repair business. “I said a lot of stupid and silly things,” Rogers told Senior U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer as Rogers’ family sat in the first row of the courtroom watching. “I never seriously meant them in any way. ... “I just want everybody to know how sorry I am.” Ian Benjamin Rogers, 45, and Jarrod Copeland, 37, agreed to plea deals in connection with a plot to blow up the California Democratic Headquarters in Sacramento. Rogers’ co-defendant, Jarrod Copeland, 39, received a 54-month sentence after a brief closed hearing. His attorney, John Ambrosio, would not comment afterward on what safety concerns he had or whether Copeland is now cooperating with law enforcement. Both men were facing sentencing for their role in a bizarre conspiracy to retaliate against President Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Copeland, a tool salesman, Army deserter and steroid user who was arrested at his Sacramento apartment in 2021, and Rogers, a Napa auto mechanic who specialized in Jaguar and Land Rover repairs, were indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2021 on charges of conspiracy to destroy a building, possession of destructive devices and machine guns and obstruction of justice. The two men were accused of planning an attack on the John L. Burton Democratic Party headquarters in downtown Sacramento as revenge for what they falsely believed was a stolen election. Court documents say law enforcement seized bombs and dozens of firearms — including machine guns — and that the men hoped the attack would ignite what they called a “movement” they hoped would spur others to action. But Rogers insisted Wednesday he never meant to carry out any of the actions, and said he regretted possessing three illegal firearms and pipe bombs that were among a cache of weapons at his home. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 3, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2023 The big bad "deep state" seems to have vanished??....how could that be?? Inside Jim Jordan’s Disastrous Search for a ‘Deep State’ Whistleblower 1.1k Kara Voght, Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng Thu, March 2, 2023 at 8:00 PM EST jim-jordan-weaponization-committee-flops.jpg House Judiciary Holds Hearing Examining The Weaponization Of The Federal Government - Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images In early February, Republicans brought an FBI veteran to Capitol Hill whom they hoped would expose a “deep state conspiracy” among Democrats and their accomplices in the intelligence community. The GOP witness was part of a network of “whistleblowers” — funneled to congressional Republicans’ new Weaponization of Government panel by allies of Donald Trump — to reveal covert attacks on the former president and broad, anti-conservative discrimination. But before the interview was over, it was the GOP witness who was failing to answer difficult questions — and Democratic committee staff doing the asking. In the interview, the witness, former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst George Hill, had admitted he had little or no firsthand knowledge of alleged “deep state” scandals. Instead, he brought baggage of his own: a history of inflammatory commentary on social media. Democratic staff had found a tweet in which Hill claimed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had “blood on her hands.” In a since-deleted tweet found by Rolling Stone, Hill wrote “Cancer! GO FASTER!” in response to a tweet from Rep. Lauren Boebert claiming that President Biden had been diagnosed with cancer. According to portions of transcripts reviewed by Rolling Stone and sources familiar with the exchange, Hill repeatedly declined to respond to the questions and cited his First Amendment rights. (He’d later go on a conservative talk show to accuse Democrats of trying to paint him as a “right-wing nut job” because they couldn’t handle his message.) As the exchange went on, Hill’s attorney, Jason Foster, begged the Democratic counsel to stop asking about his client’s tweets. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the chair of the new House Judiciary’s “weaponization” subcommittee, opened its first hearing vowing that he’d heard from “dozens and dozens” of whistleblowers about “the political nature at the Justice Department.” Indeed, powerful players from Trump’s orbit have invested in recruiting intelligence community veterans, hoping to produce bombshell revelations and must-see TV to rival the results of the Jan. 6 committee. But so far, Republicans have brought only three of those whistleblowers to Capitol Hill for questioning, and have not scheduled any additional interviews after completing the most recent in mid-February. In the interviews conducted to date, witnesses have offered contradictory responses, maintained fringe and violent online presences that undermine their credibility, and failed to demonstrate first-hand knowledge of alleged FBI wrongdoing. The results have left Democrats gleeful and even some Republicans deeply unimpressed. A “dumpster fire,” is how one Democrat with knowledge of the at-times combative interactions terms the proceedings. “Clearly there is room to grow and improve before [more] public hearings,” a Republican familiar with the process tells Rolling Stone. But the work so far, the Republican says, has been “very much amateur hour,” adding that airing this “stuff on live television would make us look like morons.” (Sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the sensitive matters.) “It is beyond disappointing, but sadly not surprising, that Democrats would leak cherry-picked excerpts of testimony to attack the brave whistleblowers who risked their careers to speak out on abuses at the Justice Department and FBI,” a GOP House Judiciary spokesperson tells Rolling Stone. But if the whistleblowers aren’t able to produce what Jordan has promised, it will be a serious blow to Republicans’ plan to use control of the House to refocus the public away from Trump’s proximity to an insurrection and onto an alleged anti-conservative conspiracy. The whistleblower pipeline comes from a collaboration between Jordan, other MAGA lawmakers, and top officials in Trump’s orbit. Whistleblowers have received payments and legal counsel through this loose network; one whistleblower, Stephen Friend — a former FBI agent who brought concerns about the agency’s questioning of Jan. 6 protesters to Republicans — even received a job. The three whistleblowers who have been interviewed by committee staff have done so with the assistance of aides to former President Donald Trump and the conspiracy-curious Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a loose network that provides money and legal assistance to the GOP witnesses. Hill and Friend are both represented by Foster, a former GOP chief counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee. From his perch under then-chair Grassley, Foster masterminded an aggressive assault against the FBI in the midst of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump. Foster has since founded Empower Oversight, a self-described nonpartisan government and corporate accountability organization. Friend said in an interview with Russia Today that Jordan’s office had “attached” him to Foster. Dan Meyer, listed as a member of Empower Oversight’s Whistleblower Advisory Panel, is also an attorney for Friend. Regarding Hill’s combative interview, Foster wrote: “Foster wrote in an email to Rolling Stone that “It’s irresponsible and a violation of the assurances witnesses were given for Committee staff to leak excerpts of closed door interviews to attack whistleblowers rather than actually doing their job to investigate their allegations regarding the FBI.” Garret O’Boyle, a third FBI whistleblower who spoke with committee staff, is represented by Jesse Binnall, former Trump campaign attorney who worked to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Nevada; Binnall now acts as one of Trump’s go-to attorneys for Jan. 6-related litigation. O’Boyle told staff he’d been connected to Binnall through Kash Patel, a former Trump administration official and one of Trump’s most vocal defenders in his post presidency. Both O’Boyle and Friend said they received payments from Patel through Fight with Kash, a nonprofit organization Patel established to provide “veteran and law enforcement financial support,” according to Patel’s website. Friend received $5,000, he told congressional investigators; O’Boyle declined to share the amount. Friend said Patel also helped connect him with the Center for Renewing America, the Trump-aligned think tank led by former Trump budget director Russ Vought, where Friend is now employed as a fellow. (Patel, too, is a CRA fellow, according to the organization’s website.) Friend officially resigned from the FBI in order to pursue his new employment in February, around the same time as his interview with the Judiciary Committee. In a statement sent to Rolling Stone, Patel wrote that his nonprofit, The Kash Foundation, had made assisting FBI whistleblowers one of its “main areas of focus” and “will continue to assist veterans, law enforcement, education, and other matters outlined in our Mission First approach.” But for all the effort spent to find whistleblowers, they so far haven’t delivered. Friend had been suspended from the FBI since the fall, when he refused to participate in investigations related to the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to a declaration he shared with GOP lawmakers. The 12-year agency veteran described the FBI’s work on the matter as “marred by politicization and ambition” — “this is their 9/11,” he said on an appearance of Roger Stone’s Rumble show in January. In a statement, Friend’s attorney, Meyer, claimed that his client blew the whistle on the Bureau’s alleged failures to follow its own rules and “got what most FBI whistleblowers get: retaliation, isolation, and financial pressure designed to push Special Agents out of law enforcement with no formal wrongdoing accusation, no due process, and lots of harmful error.” He added, “This is not really about January 6th, it is about the broken system of FBI oversight.” Friend first made contact with staffers for Grassley, Johnson, and Jordan shortly after he issued his declaration; his contact with Jordan helped inform the Judiciary chairman’s 1000-page FBI whistleblower report from November 2022. In his interviews for the weaponization committee, Friend has claimed the FBI has been manipulating its case-file management system to falsely inflate threats of domestic terrorism, but prosecutions tell a different story. Studies by agencies like the Government Accountability Office and the University of Syracuse have shown sharp rises not just in investigations of terrorism-related cases but prosecutions of them as well. Hill is a now-retired FBI intelligence analyst who had been based in the agency’s Boston office at the time of the Jan. 6 attack. He, like Friend, has made several media appearances claiming Bank of America had unlawfully provided the FBI with a list that cross-referenced company data on gun and travel purchases to identify Americans who made purchases in Washington, DC on Jan. 6 and owned firearms. Hill has subsequently said the FBI revoked his security clearance after he became a whistleblower, effectively ending his ability to work as an intelligence analyst. He retired soon thereafter. But under questioning, Hill said he’d never actually seen the list — only the electronic communication used to bring it into the FBI’s case management system — and had learned about it only through secondhand chatter from colleagues, according to the interview transcript reviewed by Rolling Stone. Foster, Hill’s own attorney, clarified that Hill, given his role, wouldn’t even have been aware of such a request — a response that further undermined Hill’s authority on the subject. In his media appearances, Hill has downplayed the Democrats’ line of questioning. “They were more interested in my social media profile and had very little in the way of substantive questions,” Hill told conservative commentator Howie Carr last month. O’Boyle had been an agent based in the Wichita office and was en route to a new assignment in Virginia when the FBI suspended him in 2022. He’d first spoken to congressional Republicans in November 2021 and had more than 20 communications with Jordan’s staff over the last 15 months. “I believe, and likely cannot be swayed from the position, that the FBI retaliated against me for being a whistleblower,” he wrote in a now-private Substack newsletter. O’Boyle also repeated his belief that he’d been suspended by the FBI for his contact with Congress. When Democratic counsel asked O’Boyle to share his suspension notice to prove that, however, O’Boyle refused. He also refused to share his pay suspension notice, which would also have likely listed a reason, as well as the estimated 50 documents he had previously shared with congressional Republicans. In a statement to Rolling Stone, Binnall wrote that O’Boyle “did not release that information to Democrats on the committee because he knew that they would leak it to the media” and added that: “He is a whistleblower on extremely serious government misconduct and unlawful retaliation. He provided that information to people who would take it seriously.” After Jordan and his cohorts concluded their first “Weaponization” hearing last month, several figures in the right-wing media elite — who are staunchly loyal to Trump and the GOP and already primed to just run with the party’s claims and supposed bombshells — reacted with head scratches. “I’m sick of these hearings,” Jesse Watters, a Fox News host and a buddy of Trump’s, complained on-air after the inaugural House Weaponization of the Federal Government subcommittee hearing. “Make me feel better, guys. Tell me this is going somewhere. Can I throw someone in prison? Can someone go to jail? Can someone get fined?” One well-known conservative media host tells Rolling Stone that after that hearing, this person reached out to their “contacts on the [panel]” to express their baffled disappointment with the offerings. This source says their criticism amounted to scolding the committee, and saying something akin to: “Come on, guys, you have to do fucking better than that!” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 3, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2023 GOP Witnesses, Paid by Trump Ally, Embraced Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theories 265 Luke Broadwater and Adam Goldman Fri, March 3, 2023 at 8:05 AM EST House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) listens during a House judiciary subcommittee hearing on the weaponization of the federal government, at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times) WASHINGTON — House Republicans have spent months promising to use their majority to uncover an insidious bias against conservatives on the part of the federal government, vowing to produce a roster of brave whistleblowers who would come forward to provide damning evidence of abuses aimed at the right. But the first three witnesses to testify privately before the new Republican-led House committee investigating the “weaponization” of the federal government have offered little firsthand knowledge of any wrongdoing or violation of the law, according to Democrats on the panel who have listened to their accounts. Instead, the trio appears to be a group of aggrieved former FBI officials who have trafficked in right-wing conspiracy theories, including about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, and received financial support from a top ally of former President Donald Trump. The roster of witnesses, whose interviews and statements are detailed in a 316-page report compiled by Democrats that was obtained by The New York Times, suggests that Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chair of the panel, has relied on people who do not meet the definition of a whistleblower and who have engaged in partisan conduct that calls into question their credibility. And it raises questions about whether Republicans, who have said that investigating the Biden administration is a top goal, will be able to deliver on their ambitious plans to uncover misdeeds at the highest levels. “Each endorses an alarming series of conspiracy theories related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the COVID vaccine, and the validity of the 2020 election,” Democrats wrote in the heavily footnoted report, which cites scores of statements made by the witnesses. “One has called repeatedly for the dismantling of the FBI. Another suggested that it would be better for Americans to die than to have any kind of domestic intelligence program.” The report also notes that the men are tied to far-right Republican operatives and former Trump administration officials who have an interest in promoting false claims about the Jan. 6 attack and the Biden administration while working to defend Trump, who is seeking a second term. The document centers on three men who have been interviewed by the panel’s investigators: George Hill, a retired FBI supervisory intelligence analyst from the bureau’s Boston field office; Stephen Friend, a former special agent who worked in the Daytona Beach, Florida, office; and Garret O’Boyle, a special agent from the field office in Wichita, Kansas, who has been suspended. Other potential witnesses for the new subcommittee are FBI employees who were disciplined for attending protests on Jan. 6, 2021, according to Jordan. Friend, who resigned from the FBI, is part of a group of former agents who were placed on leave and called themselves “the suspendables.” In a letter sent last year to Christopher Wray, the FBI director, the group claimed that the bureau had discriminated against conservative-leaning agents. Hill has claimed on Twitter that the Jan. 6 attack was a “set up,” and that there was “a larger #Democrat plan using their enforcement arm, the #FBI.” He also described the FBI as “the Brown Shirt enforcers of the @DNC,” making an apparent reference to Nazi storm troopers to describe the federal law enforcement agency and its relationship to the Democratic National Committee. O’Boyle and Friend both testified that they had received financial support from Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist and former high-ranking official in the former president’s administration. Friend said Patel sent him $5,000 almost immediately after they connected in November 2022 and that Patel has helped to promote Friend’s forthcoming book on social media. In a statement, Patel declined to confirm that he has provided financial support to the witnesses but suggested that his organization has been focused on helping FBI employees facing retaliation for speaking out publicly. “Whistleblowers who provide credible information exposing government waste, fraud, and abuse serve a critical role for constitutional oversight,” he said. Democrats said they produced their report after they learned that Republicans on the committee were planning to leak material from the transcribed interviews. It was written by Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, the top Democrat on the weaponization subcommittee. Russell Dye, a spokesperson for Jordan, said that Democrats were misrepresenting the testimony gathered to smear public servants who had come forward to expose wrongdoing. “It is beyond disappointing, but sadly not surprising, that Democrats would leak cherry-picked excerpts of testimony to attack the brave whistleblowers who risked their careers to speak out on abuses at the Justice Department and FBI,” Dye said. “These same Democrats vowed to fight our oversight ‘tooth and nail,’ and they are willing to undermine the work of the Congress to achieve their partisan goals.” The Democratic report includes excerpts from depositions and evidence of conspiratorial social media posts. It also details the ties between Trump’s inner circle and the witnesses. For instance, Patel found Friend his next job, working as a fellow on domestic intelligence and security services with the Center for Renewing America, which is run by Russ Vought. The center is largely funded by the Conservative Partnership Institute, which is run by Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, and former Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina. “Based on this evidence, committee Democrats conclude that there is a strong likelihood that Kash Patel is encouraging the witnesses to continue pursuing their meritless claims, and in fact is using them to help propel his vendetta against the FBI, Justice Department, and Biden administration on behalf of himself and President Trump,” the report says. Republicans argue they received useful information from the men for their investigation. For instance, Hill told the subcommittee the FBI regularly conducted nationwide calls involving all 56 field offices after Jan. 6. Hill described the calls as “bordering on hysterical,” according to excerpts from transcripts reviewed by the Times. Friend has been celebrated in conservative circles, with right-wing pundits seizing on his accusations as evidence of wrongdoing at the FBI. But those claims did not appear to hold up during his testimony. Friend has said he refused to take part in a SWAT raid of a Jan. 6 suspect facing misdemeanor charges, which at the time he called an “excessive use of force,” to which he was a “conscientious objector.” The suspect, Tyler Bensch, was accused of being a member of a right-wing militia group connected to the Three Percenter movement. Documents in Bensch’s case indicate that on Jan. 6, 2021, he posted a video of himself outside the Capitol wearing body armor and a gas mask and carrying an AR-15-style rifle. Under questioning, the committee said that Friend “confirmed that ownership of a firearm, even without any additional factors, in fact would be enough of a factor on its own to justify deploying a SWAT team in an arrest.” Friend also testified about being asked to surveil a person attending a school board meeting, touching on a claim promoted by Republicans that the government mistreated conservative parents. But according to the report, Friend conceded during his interview that the man being tracked was a Three Percenter who was under counterterrorism investigation. He was later arrested with Bensch and three other individuals. Friend also engaged with Russian propaganda outlets while he was an FBI employee, the report noted, including being quoted extensively in an article in Sputnik headlined “Under Biden Federal Agencies Turned Into Instrument of Intimidation, FBI Whistleblower Says,” and appearing for an interview with Russia Today. The report cast doubt on the relevance of the witnesses’ accounts. Democrats wrote that nothing in O’Boyle’s testimony “suggests misconduct at the FBI” and that Hill had “made multiple claims about the FBI’s handling of criminal investigations into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, despite having very little personal involvement in those investigations.” The report also said that Hill had embraced a conspiracy theory that an Arizona man named Ray Epps was a federal informant who helped to instigate the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Prominent Republicans — including Trump — have widely promoted the claim, which Epps denies and the House Jan. 6 committee determined to be unfounded. The witnesses also embraced the language and views of the right wing on other matters. At one point during his testimony, the report said, O’Boyle compared coronavirus vaccine mandates to a Polish reserve police unit during World War II that began as a group of “just normal people,” but ultimately “were basically engaging in genocide just like the rest of the Nazi regime.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 4, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2023 Trump rival Nikki Haley seeks support from Republicans ‘tired of losing’ Lauren Gambino in Oxon Hill, Maryland Fri, March 3, 2023 at 4:57 PM EST The Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley ventured on to Donald Trump’s stomping grounds on Friday, seeking support from rank-and-file Republicans who are “tired of losing”. In remarks to a half-full ballroom at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Haley presented herself as the face of a “new generation” of Republican leaders, making her pitch to a crowd still overwhelmingly loyal to Trump, her 76-year-old former boss and rival for the party’s nomination. “We’ve lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections,” Haley said, an implicit acknowledgment of Trump’s 2020 defeat that many in attendance refuse to accept. “Our cause is right,” she continued. “But we have failed to win the confidence of a majority of Americans. That ends now.” Haley highlighted her conservative victories as governor of South Carolina and UN ambassador during the Trump administration, vowing as president to “renew an America that’s strong and proud – not weak and woke”. Playing to the audience of conservative activists, Haley spent much of her speech condemning the subjects that dominate outrage on the right: Joe Biden, socialism and the media. “In case you didn’t notice, the liberal media’s heads are exploding about my run for president,” she said of being a conservative woman of color. “I am proof that liberals are wrong about everything they say about America.” One of the Republican’s loudest applause lines was when Haley, after describing herself as the “first minority female governor in history”, declared: “America is not a racist country!” She also doubled down on her call to subject all politicians over the age of 75 to a mental competency test, careful to aim the attack at Biden, who is 80. But the requirement would also apply to Trump. Haley lashed out at CNN’s Don Lemon, who said, in response to her call for such assessments, that the 51-year-old Republican was past her “prime”. Lemon was temporarily taken off air and later expressed regret for the comment. (Haley’s campaign is selling beer koozies that say “Past my prime?” and “Hold my beer”.) After finishing her speech, Haley waded into a crowd of supporters gathered in the main hall of the venue. As she posed for photos, some attendees heckled her, shouting, “We love Trump” and “Rino”, a derogatory label for Republican politicians viewed as insufficiently conservative. It stands for “Republican in name only”. Haley never mentioned Trump by name in her speech, and has been careful to avoid direct criticism of him since launching her bid for president. In a recent interview, she pledged to support Trump if he were to win the nomination. Haley was the first major Republican candidate to challenge him for the party’s nomination. But she was not the only potential aspirant to speak at the conservative gathering. Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech multimillionaire and author who announced his candidacy for president, was also scheduled to speak at the conference following another 2024 hopeful, Trump’s former secretary of state Mike Pompeo. Mike Pompeo speaks at CPAC on Friday. Photograph: Sarah Silbiger/Reuters Trump will headline the event with an hour-long speech on Saturday evening. Once a magnet for Republican rising stars, CPAC will not hear from several possible 2024 hopefuls this year. The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, who is widely expected to announce a run for president in the coming months, skipped the conservative conference and spoke instead at a dueling event hosted by the conservative Club For Growth in Florida this weekend. Also absent were potential presidential aspirants former vice-president Mike Pence, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina and South Dakota’s governor, Kristi Noem. Public opinion surveys underscore the challenging road ahead for Haley. She trails far behind Trump, who remains the clear frontrunner, and DeSantis, hovering at around 5%, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average. That enduring affection for the former president was on full display at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, underscoring the challenge his rivals face as they vie for the nomination. Trump-themed gingerbread is seen for sale at CPAC. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images Attendees wearing “Trump 2024” hats and “Trump was right” T-shirts posed for pictures in a replica Oval Office. “Trump’s rump” was bedazzled on the back of one woman’s jeans. And the former president is all but certain to win the unscientific presidential straw poll of CPAC attendees, as he did last year. “I made up my mind on November 3, 2020 and haven’t changed it since,” said Donna Shannen of Pennsylvania, who was attending her first CPAC along with Dawn Bancroft. Both derided Haley as a “traitor” for condemning Trump’s role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. They said Haley’s later attempts to soften those comments were a sign of “weakness” and hypocrisy. Shannen said she would prefer Haley directly challenge Trump, rather than try to have it both ways with veiled criticism and overt praise. “If she can’t even attack her own opponents in her own party, how is she going to attack Kim Jong-un or Xi Jinping?” she said. Haley did resonate with some attendees. Leaving the ballroom after her remarks, several young women said they were inspired by her message, her foreign policy experience – and the possibility of electing the first female president. “I think she is a way better candidate than Trump would be. I don’t think he can win,” said Ashleigh Dyson, a college student at St Mary’s College of Maryland, who said it was “crazy” that the US had never sent a woman to the White House. Carolyn Wilson, also a student at St Mary’s, said she believed Haley could win over independent and swing voters who recoiled from the Republican party during Trump’s presidency. She added that being a woman would probably help Haley navigate a bare-knuckled primary race. “She’s used to that pushback,” Wilson said, noting that there was a man who loudly booed Haley during her remarks at CPAC. “She didn’t even bat an eye!” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2023 Christie jabs at lack of crowd for Trump at CPAC: ‘That room was half-full’ 534 Stephen Neukam Sun, March 5, 2023 at 1:11 PM EST Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Sunday appeared to poke fun at the size of the crowd that attended former President Trump’s keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the weekend, saying that the room was “half-full.” “You saw the scenes at CPAC, that room was half-full,” Christie said on ABC’s “This Week.” “The reason I don’t think the rallies are going on … I don’t think the rallies would be nearly as big as they were before.” Camera shots from Trump’s speech at the conference showed that the room was not nearly at full capacity. Christie, who ran against Trump in the 2016 Republican primary and then worked on Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns, used the speech’s attendance to point to what he thinks is Trump’s waning support. “There are lots of indicators here, that he’s not what he used to be, in most respects, you’re talking about and so we’re going to see how that plays out,” Christie said. Trump, who was the first Republican to launch his bid for president right after the 2022 midterms, has been criticized for what some see as a subdued start to his campaign. But Trump still holds a lead in most polls, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has yet to announce a candidacy, in position so far as his main rival. Trump used the speech at CPAC to pitch himself as the savior of the Republican Party, telling voters he is the only one who can stop a coming onslaught against American democracy. “In 2016, I declared I am your voice. Today I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,” Trump said in the speech. “Either they win, or we win. And if they win, we no longer have a country.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll Posted March 5, 2023 Report Share Posted March 5, 2023 2 minutes ago, DBP66 said: Christie jabs at lack of crowd for Trump at CPAC: ‘That room was half-full’ 534 Stephen Neukam Sun, March 5, 2023 at 1:11 PM EST Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Sunday appeared to poke fun at the size of the crowd that attended former President Trump’s keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the weekend, saying that the room was “half-full.” When 66 steps to the plate to talk politics, he really swings for the fences... But he thinks claiming empty seats in the bleachers, is some sort of home run...LOL 🤡 PS: CC is not really yer boy to be talking... ...about filling seats. 😝 BTW: good thing he listens to Repubs tho... ...loyal guy there. 🤡🤡 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2023 2 hours ago, Troll said: When 66 steps to the plate to talk politics, he really swings for the fences... But he thinks claiming empty seats in the bleachers, is some sort of home run...LOL 🤡 PS: CC is not really yer boy to be talking... ...about filling seats. 😝 BTW: good thing he listens to Repubs tho... ...loyal guy there. 🤡🤡 Donny can't fill a room no more??....LOL...he lost his mojo??...did people got tired of his B.S. and don't want to vote for a guy who'll lose for a third time??....or enough people now know he's nuts??....😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2023 Fact-Checking Trump's Speech at CPAC Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at Gaylord National Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., March 4, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein (Evelyn Hockstein / reuters) 1.8k Linda Qiu Sun, March 5, 2023 at 10:26 AM EST WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump revived familiar falsehoods and returned to old themes in a speech Saturday night at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Here’s a fact check of some of his claims. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times WHAT TRUMP SAID: “Killings are taking place at a number like nobody’s ever seen, right in Manhattan.” False. Murders declined in New York by about 11% from 488 homicides in 2021 to 433 homicides last year. It was the lowest level since 2019, according to the city’s Police Department. Murders continued to decrease this year to 30 in January (compared with 31 in January 2022) and to 26 in February (compared with 36 in February 2022). Those numbers also pale in comparison to the height of crime in New York in the 1980s and 1990s, when Trump was a mainstay of the city and when it regularly recorded more than 1,500 murders annually. Homicides peaked in 1990 at 2,245. WHAT TRUMP SAID: “We lost $85 billion worth of the greatest military equipment in the world.” This is exaggerated. Trump was referring to, and overstating, the value of military equipment seized by the Taliban after the United States withdrew the last of its troops from Afghanistan last August. According to quarterly Pentagon reports to Congress, the United States had provided $88.6 billion for security in Afghanistan from October 2001 to July 2021, and disbursed about $75 billion. That figure includes the amount spent on training, anti-drug trafficking efforts and infrastructure, as well as $18 billion for equipment. Most of the $75 billion actually went toward “sustainment,” a category that includes salaries, communications and gas for vehicles. CNN and other news outlets have reported that the United States left behind about $7 billion of military equipment. WHAT TRUMP SAID: “They want windmills all over the place that ruin our fields, kill our birds and are very unreliable and are the most expensive energy ever developed” This is exaggerated. Trump has long been an ardent critic of wind turbines, but his complaints are overstated. By one estimate, as many as 328,000 birds die each year flying into wind farms, but other things — inanimate and living — pose a far greater threat. Cats kill as many as 4 billion birds annually in the United States, fossil fuel power plants are responsible for 14.5 million and collisions with buildings as many as 988 million birds. Wind power and other forms of renewable energy are becoming increasingly more affordable. The Energy Information Administration estimated that onshore wind would cost about $30 per megawatt-hour by 2027, cheaper than the $52 for coal, $61 for nuclear, $41 for biomass and $47 for hydroelectric. It will remain more expensive than natural gas, solar and geothermal generation. OTHER CLAIMS Trump also repeated a number of other claims The New York Times had previously fact-checked: — Trump inaccurately claimed to have “shut down” unauthorized border crossings. (The number declined during the pandemic, but began to increase again in the final months of his presidency.) — He falsely claimed that “no other president had ever gotten anything from China, not even 10 cents.” (In the decade before Trump took office, the United States collected $8 billion to $14 billion per year from duties on Chinese imports.) — He misleadingly characterized members of NATO as “delinquent” on payments. (All member nations pay their bills.) — He falsely said that “no one ever heard of” the Nord Stream 2 pipeline before he raised it as an issue and halted its construction. (His predecessors all opposed the project.) — He misleadingly claimed that the Obama administration had only supplied Ukraine with “blankets.” (It committed more than $600 million in security assistance to Ukraine.) — He falsely claimed to have “completed” building a wall along the southern border. (It has not been finished.) — He claimed to have presided over the “best economy in history.” (Average growth, even before the coronavirus pandemic decimated the economy, was lower under Trump than under former Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 6, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2023 This is why Fox news is not news....it's a propaganda channel...state media....and people thought the MSM is bad?!?...🙄 FEC complaints filed over allegations Murdoch gave Kushner unaired Biden political ads 6 Julia Mueller Sun, March 5, 2023 at 4:02 PM EST Complaints have been filed with the Federal Election Commission over allegations that Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch shared unaired political advertisements and debate strategy from President Biden’s 2020 campaign with Jared Kushner, former President Trump’s son-in-law and then-senior adviser. A complaint was filed by progressive nonprofit Media Matters, arguing that Murdoch broke the law by sharing the ads. NBC News reported on Friday that End Citizens United PAC filed a similar complaint to the FEC. The revelation that Murdoch shared the ads was first made public in a lawsuit against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems, who is suing Murdoch and the company for defamation by airing false claims peddled by Trump in the weeks following the 2020 election. The FEC complaint by Media Matters alleges that by sharing rival political ads with the Trump campaign, Murdoch was making “an illegal corporate in-kind contribution” that can’t be protected by a press exemption and that in turn the Trump campaign accepted such a contribution illegally. “This ‘distribution’ is diametrically opposed to Fox Corporation’s regular press activity broadcasting news programming through television and radio outlets and online publications,” the complaint read. “Murdoch’s secret conveyance of the Biden advertisement is even less like press activity than a cablecasting company sending campaign flyers in its bills — and neither can be protected by the press exemption.” The complaint includes allegations that Murdoch sent over the Biden ads “through a private, and secret, direct communication” that, together with the fact that the ads had not aired and weren’t available to the public, highlights the non-press nature of the information-sharing. “Fox Corporation, through Murdoch, appears to have engaged in the exact type of campaign activity to which the Commission has repeatedly affirmed the press exemption does not apply. Therefore, Fox Corporation cannot try to exploit the press exemption to avoid the consequences of making an illegal corporate in-kind contribution,” the complaint read. “Respondent’s actions are not only an egregious violation of the Act and the Commission’s regulations, but also a nefarious attempt by people in power to operate a press entity as a political organization, in blatant disregard of the rules that govern our elections and democracy,” according to the complaint. Media Matters asks the FEC to fine Murdoch the “maximum amount permitted by law and take appropriate remedial action.” Murdoch admitted last week that some top Fox News hosts endorsed Trump’s false claims of election fraud during the 2020 election after a court filing in the Dominion suit purportedly showed some at the network knew the claims were unfounded but reported otherwise on air. The Hill has reached out to Fox, the Trump campaign and the White House for comment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 6, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2023 The lie lives on...in a crazy man's mind...😪 Trump blasts Rupert Murdoch in early morning social media post: How can he say ‘no election fraud’ 60 Julia Mueller Mon, March 6, 2023 at 8:08 AM EST Former President Trump on Monday blasted Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch in an early morning post on his Truth Social account, asking how the conservative media mogul can deny Trump’s continued false claims of election fraud. “How does Rupert Murdoch say there was no election fraud when 2000 Mules shows, on government tape, that there were millions of ‘stuffed ballots,’ & Elon Musk released the FBI/Twitter Files, where pollsters say that the silencing of information made a 17% difference in the Vote,” Trump asked. “2000 Mules” is a film produced by conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza that examines claims that drop boxes were stuffed with fraudulent ballots. Fact-checkers have said that the film does not show evidence of widespread voter fraud and former Attorney General under Trump William Barr told the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot that he was “unimpressed” with the movie. Trump continued in the post with attacks on the FBI and Facebook. “Then there was, of course, FBI/Facebook, another big election integrity fraud costing millions of Votes-& this doesn’t even count all of the many other ways they cheated, or the fact that they avoided State Legislatures?” Trump’s swing at Murdoch comes as Fox weathers a $1.6 billion lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, which is arguing that the network defamed its voting tech by sharing Trump’s claims that the machines were used to fraudulently elect President Biden. Murdoch admitted in a deposition that some Fox News commentators touted Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. Another court filing shows top Fox figures privately dismissed the claims even as the network aired them. Complaints were filed last week with the Federal Election Commission over a revelation from the Dominion suit indicating that Murdoch shared unaired campaign advertisements and debate strategy from Biden’s 2020 campaign with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and then-senior adviser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2023 It's official...Fox news is not news....it's a modern-day propaganda channel. Says the Boss. Had it not been for this law suit the BIG lie would still be going 100 m.p.h.. Fox chair Murdoch in filings says 2020 election 'not stolen' 1/2 Voting Machines Defamation Lawsuit FILE - Rupert Murdoch introduces Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the Herman Kahn Award Gala, in New York, Oct. 30, 2018. A voting technology company suing Fox News is arguing that Fox Corp. leaders Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch played a leading role in deciding to air false claims that the technology helped “steal” the 2020 presidential election from former President Donald Trump, according to a filing Monday, March 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) ASSOCIATED PRESS DAVID BAUDER and JENNIFER PELTZ Tue, March 7, 2023 at 4:50 PM EST NEW YORK (AP) — Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said under oath that he believes the 2020 presidential election was free, fair and not stolen, according to court filings released Tuesday in a voting machine company’s defamation lawsuit over Fox News’ coverage of former President Donald Trump’s false election fraud claims. In sworn questioning in January by lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems, Murdoch was asked, “Do you believe that the 2020 presidential election was free and fair?" “Yes,” he replied, according to a transcript. “The election was not stolen,” he said later. The transcript and other material released Tuesday expand on earlier disclosures that paint a portrait of behind-the-scenes doubt — or outright dismissals — of Trump's voting fraud claims, even as the network gave them airtime. In excerpts of Murdoch's questioning released earlier, he acknowledged that he didn’t stop various Fox News commentators from promoting baseless claims from Trump allies that the election was stolen, even though he could have. He also acknowledged that some of the network’s hosts — Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Sean Hannity — at times endorsed the false claims. Dominion is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion, saying the network crippled the company’s business by broadcasting false claims from Trump’s lawyers that Dominion had changed votes in the 2020 election. Fox says Dominion is inventing its claims of lost business and has cherry-picked and misrepresented remarks by Fox hosts and leaders to paint a picture of a company that threw truth aside to keep its audience. “Dominion has been caught red-handed using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear Fox News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press,” the company said in a statement Tuesday, complaining that “to twist and even misattribute quotes to the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale.” Federal and state election officials, exhaustive reviews in battleground states and Trump’s attorney general found no widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome of the 2020 election. Nor did they uncover any credible evidence that the vote was tainted. Trump’s allegations of fraud also have been roundly rejected by dozens of courts, including by judges he had appointed. Under questioning, Murdoch said he doubted any massive fraud had occurred and said then-Attorney General William Barr’s statement on Dec. 1, 2020, that there was no significant voter fraud “just closed it for me.” Murdoch even worried about Trump, telling a friend in an email that the commander-in-chief was “apparently not sleeping and bouncing off walls!” “The real danger is what he might do as president,” Murdoch added in the message, as he recalled under questioning. Still, Murdoch defended his network’s coverage of Trump’s claims of fraud, even as he privately bemoaned them. “This was big news,” Murdoch said. “The president of the United States was making wild claims, but that is news.” He acknowledged he has kept certain guests from appearing on Fox News and even intervened with on-air talent. He barred Trump adviser Steve Bannon, he admitted, because “I just see him as a fringe character.” Murdoch pointedly said he did not watch Dobbs’ show on Fox Business News and resisted entreaties from Trump to move Dobbs to the more widely viewed main news channel. Some of the network's biggest stars also privately expressed disbelief in the claims made by Trump allies, but aired the claims anyway. “Sydney Powell is lying,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said in a text to a producer, referencing one of the attorneys pushing the claims for Trump. Host Laura Ingraham texted Carlson that Powell is “a complete nut.” Murdoch called her a “crazy, would-be lawyer” in another email to a friend, he told Dominion's attorneys. The latest material in the Dominion case came as another voting-technology company that is suing Fox News trained new focus on Murdoch and Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch, saying they played a leading role in airing false claims that the company's technology helped “steal” the 2020 presidential election from Trump. The company, Smartmatic, said in a filing Monday that the Murdochs, as the ultimate authorities at the network’s corporate parent, “were front and center in the decision to cover and facilitate the disinformation campaign published by Fox News after the 2020 U.S. election.” Fox News and Fox Corp. didn't immediately comment on Smartmatic's claims, which came after a New York appeals court dismissed Fox Corp. from the lawsuit but let it proceed against the news network, as well as Bartiromo, Pirro and Dobbs. Smartmatic's new filing reasserts claims against Fox Corp., supporting them with the new allegations against its top leaders, the Murdochs. As in the Dominion case, Fox News has responded to Smartmatic's lawsuit by saying it was simply reporting on newsworthy claims made by the president and his attorneys. The network notes that its hosts at times asked the lawyers about evidence to support their claims, which was never provided. After Smartmatic demanded a retraction, Fox News ran an interview with an election technology expert who shot down the fraud allegations. Like Dominion, Smartmatic contends that Fox News got behind the bogus voting-fraud narrative to win back pro-Trump viewers who turned to rival conservative news outlets after Fox, correctly, declared on election night that Biden had won Arizona. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slotback Right Posted March 8, 2023 Report Share Posted March 8, 2023 Geez, how many threads did you post this in? Here's my response ...again. Murdoch is entitled to his opinion. How he arrived at his opinion is the question. Is he senile? Was he payed off? Was he being blackmailed? Who knows? What I do know is that Fox News had nothing to do with the containers of ballots that were pulled out from under a table to be counted in Georgia...after they told all the poll watchers to go home because there wasn't going to be any counting going on. And I do know that Hannity, Ingraham and Carlson had nothing to do with the boss man in Detroit ordering all Republican poll watchers out of the room, and then poster boarded up all the windows so no one could see what they were doing. Etc., etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2023 Tucker and I have this in common....who would have thought?!?....we both hate Trump!!.....😉 'I hate him passionately’: Tucker Carlson was fed up with Trump after the 2020 election BLUNT, SOMETIMES PROFANE, Scroll back up to restore default view. 2.2k Jane C. Timm and Amanda Terkel and Dareh Gregorian Wed, March 8, 2023 at 12:16 AM EST On Jan. 4, 2021, Fox News host Tucker Carlson was done with Donald Trump. "We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait," he texted an unidentified person. "I hate him passionately. ... I can’t handle much more of this," he added. By this time, Fox News was in crisis mode. It had angered its audience when it correctly said Joe Biden had won Arizona in the presidential election. Executives and hosts were worried about losing viewers to upstart rivals, most notably Newsmax. The private comments were a far cry from what Carlson's viewers were used to hearing from the stalwart conservative host on his prime-time show every night. “We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest,” he wrote in another text message, referring to the "last four years." “But come on. There isn’t really an upside to Trump.” The revelation is in hundreds of pages of testimony, private text messages and emails from top Fox News journalists and executives that were made public Tuesday, adding to the trove of documents that show a network in crisis after it alienated core viewers by reporting accurately on the results of the 2020 presidential election. A judge unsealed the documents, along with parts of some employee depositions, as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News. The messages are blunt and, at times, profane, as hosts and top executives panicked about how to boost their ratings as Trump refused to acknowledge his defeat. The depositions, meanwhile, offer the broadest picture yet of how executives including Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch allowed baseless conspiracy theories to flourish on air. In a statement, Fox News accused Dominion of dishonestly portraying key figures' internal communications. “Thanks to today’s filings, Dominion has been caught red handed using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear FOX News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press," the statement said. "We already know they will say and do anything to try to win this case, but to twist and even misattribute quotes to the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale.” Smaller snippets of the exchanges were referred to in two Dominion briefs made public in a Delaware court last month, when Dominion sought a summary judgment ruling from the judge and opposed Fox News' motion asking the judge to dismiss the case. Dominion's briefs previously revealed that top figures at Fox News privately blasted election fraud claims as "crazy" and "insane," even as the network aired them on television, and that top boss Murdoch considered some of Trump's voter fraud claims to be “bulls--- and damaging” yet acknowledged in a deposition that he did nothing to rein in hosts who were promoting the bogus claims in the days after the 2020 election. “The emails, texts, and deposition testimony speak for themselves. We welcome all scrutiny of our evidence because it all leads to the same place — Fox knowingly spread lies causing enormous damage to an American company," a Dominion spokesman told NBC News. Dominion, a voting machine company, sued Fox News in March 2021, alleging it caused "severe damage" by giving oxygen to conspiracy theories it knew were false, including bogus claims that Dominion equipment was used to rig the 2020 election for Biden, that it was tied to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and that it bribed U.S. government officials. Tensions between Trump and Fox News have escalated in recent months as more revelations have come out and as Murdoch's media empire has featured Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible 2024 rival. Steve Bannon, a former White House official and longtime Trump ally, has in essence declared war on Murdoch and Fox. Trump has also been going after them in messages on his Truth Social platform. Fox News has said it was "proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism," and it argued that the Dominion lawsuit is designed only to garner headlines. Dominion argues that the First Amendment does not allow media outlets to broadcast conspiracy theories they know are false. “As the dominant media company among those viewers dissatisfied with the election results, Fox gave these fictions a prominence they otherwise would never have achieved. With Fox’s global platform, an audience of hundreds of millions, and the inevitable and extensive republication and dissemination of the falsehoods through social media, these lies deeply damaged Dominion’s once-thriving business,” the 441-page lawsuit says. “Fox took a small flame and turned it into a forest fire.” Here are some of the key highlights: Murdoch worried Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham 'went too far' In his email to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott on Jan. 21, 2021, the day after Biden was inaugurated, Murdoch discussed the heat he was getting from GOP senators for stories suggesting the election had been stolen. “Still getting mud thrown at us!” Murdoch wrote. “Maybe Sean and Laura went too far,” he continued, referring to prime-time hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. He also asked Scott whether it was “unarguable that high profile Fox voices fed the story that the election was stolen and that January 6th an important chance to have the result overturned.” Scott punted the request to a group of executives, noting “please send specifics.” Six hours later, Irena Briganti, the Fox News executive in charge of communications, responded with more than 15 pages of transcripts of examples. In an email the day after Joe Biden's inauguration, Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch wondered if some Fox News hosts Prime-time hosts were furious at the news division for its accurate election call In a group text chain from mid-November, Hannity, Ingraham and Carlson complained about their news colleagues and the network’s decision to call Arizona in favor of Biden. Fox News was the first network to do so, and the call was accurate. “Why would anyone defend that call,” Hannity asked. “My anger at the news channel is pronounced,” Ingraham said later in the exchange. Carlson piped in, saying: “It should be. We devote our lives to building an audience and they let Chris Wallace and Leland [expletive] Vittert wreck it. Too much.” Wallace and Vittert were Fox News hosts and anchors at the time. Maria Bartiromo said she would not refer to Biden as the president-elect on air In text messages with Bannon on Nov. 10, 2020, Fox News host Maria Bartiromo said, "Omg I'm so depressed. I can't take this," and lamented how upsetting it was to watch the "world move forward." "I want to see massive fraud exposed. Will he be able to turn this around," she added, referring to Trump. "I told my team we are not allowed to say pres elect at all. Not in scripts or in banners on air. Until this moves through the courts." "You are our fighter," Bannon later replied. "Enough with the sad ! We need u." Biden was projected the winner of the presidential race on Nov. 7. Murdoch predicted Trump would soon be 'irrelevant' In an email to former Fox executive Preston Padden 20 days after the election, Murdoch said he believed the network was "navigating" everything "pretty well." "And losing tons of viewers - but not leadership yet! Just have to hold our nerve and up our game! In another month Trump will be becoming irrelevant and we'll have lots to say about Biden, Dems, and appointments - so far pretty dull," he predicted. Murdoch's name is redacted, but the email was mentioned and attributed to him in previously released briefs. Fox News executive observes: 'It's remarkable how weak ratings make good journalists do bad things' In a conversation with Fox News journalist Chris Stirewalt on Dec. 2, 2020, about a month after the election, Bill Sammon, who was then the network's managing editor, lamented the state of the place they worked. "More than 20 minutes into our flagship evening news broadcast and we're still focused solely on supposed election fraud — a month after the election. It's remarkable how weak ratings make good journalists do bad things," Sammon said. Stirewalt added: "It's a real mess. But sadly no surprise based on the man I saw revealed on election night." Sammon replied, "In my 22 years affiliated with Fox, this is the closest thing I've seen to an existential crisis — at least journalistically." Stirewalt later said he believed they were "losing the silent majority of viewers as we chase the nuts off a cliff." A month after the 2020 election, Bill Sammon, who was then a top executive at Fox News, said the network was having an Carlson on Trump: 'I hate him passionately' Carlson, one of Fox News' top hosts, made it clear on Jan. 4, 2021, that he was getting fed up with Trump. In a text exchange with an unknown person, Carlson said: "We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can't wait." "I hate him passionately. I blew up at Peter Navarro today in frustration," he added, referring to the former Trump administration official. "I actually like Peter. But I can't handle much more of this." He wrote in another text message: "That's the last four years. We're all pretending we've got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it's been is too tough to digest. But come on. There isn't really an upside to Trump." Carlson, however, has complained about how reporters appear to "hate Trump with an all-consuming mania," as he did in a segment on Oct. 30, 2020. Murdoch wondered whether Pence would pardon Trump In an email Jan. 12 to Paul Ryan — the former House speaker from Wisconsin who served on Fox Corp.'s board — and his son Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch talked about the fallout from the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. "Just talked at length with Suzanne Scott," he said, referring to the Fox News CEO. "Everything changed last Wednesday. She thinks everyone is now disgusted and previous supporters broken hearted." Murdoch also said Trump was now in serious trouble. "His businesses now ruined!" he said. "Who is going to throw a party at one of his golf clubs or hotels? Let alone a tournament. So he has more than just legal problems, bad though they are. The brand is now poison! Who wants Ivanka's fashion lines, jewelry, etc?!" Murdoch even wondered whether Trump could resign and have Vice President Mike Pence pardon him. Rupert Murdoch said that Trump's troubles were Fox Corp.: Murdoch never shared unaired Biden ad The newly unsealed documents call into question whether Murdoch did in fact share unaired Biden campaign ads with the Trump campaign through Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, as a Dominion filing last week claimed. In his sworn deposition, Murdoch both denies and admits to having shared campaign ads with the Trump campaign before they were public. In emails released as exhibits, Murdoch promises to share an ad timed for a football game. It is unclear whether he is talking about an aired or an unaired ad. “Mr. Murdoch forwarded an already-publicly available Biden campaign ad which was available on YouTube,” a Fox Corp. spokesman, Lauren Townsend, said in an email to NBC News. Two groups filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission against the Trump campaign and Fox Corp. over the alleged ad sharing. Fox lawyer warned Hannity was 'getting awfully close to the line' Two days after the 2020 election, Hannity was making Fox Corp. lawyer Viet Dinh nervous. "Let's continue to buckle up for the ride for next 24 hours," Dinh wrote in an email to other top executives. "Hannity is getting awfully close to the line with his commentary and guests tonight." Social media posts from 'angry conservatives' hammer Fox News after the election The week after the election, Fox Corp. Senior Vice President Raj Shah sent around a memo about the state of the Fox "brand" — and it showed that the network was taking a severe hit from its conservative audience. "This week we continued to see extremely high levels of conservative discontent towards Fox News, both on social media and in the pro-Trump commentariat," read the weekly report on Nov. 13. "Roughly half of the top 100 tweets and a third of the top 100 Facebook posts mentioning Fox News were from angry conservatives criticizing Fox or threatening to boycott the network. Both Donald Trump and Newsmax have taken active roles in promoting attacks on Fox News, including by pushing leaked footage and false reports about Fox News talent." The report included a graph showing Fox News' net favorability among its viewers that week — with a trend line dropping dramatically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2023 4 hours ago, Slotback Right said: Geez, how many threads did you post this in? Here's my response ...again. Murdoch is entitled to his opinion. How he arrived at his opinion is the question. Is he senile? Was he payed off? Was he being blackmailed? Who knows? What I do know is that Fox News had nothing to do with the containers of ballots that were pulled out from under a table to be counted in Georgia...after they told all the poll watchers to go home because there wasn't going to be any counting going on. And I do know that Hannity, Ingraham and Carlson had nothing to do with the boss man in Detroit ordering all Republican poll watchers out of the room, and then poster boarded up all the windows so no one could see what they were doing. Etc., etc. senile??..payed off??...blackmailed??...LOL...no...he runs the show and pays the bills and clowns who pushed the BIG lie...he was a co-conspirator in a scheme to sell the BIG lie...and he got busted due to a law suit or else he'd STILL be pushing the BIG lie....Murdock and Fox news got busted by their own e-mails and their own words...they/you want to place blame??...they need to look in the mirror...you got played...😪 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2023 Rupert Murdoch: Hannity, Ingraham ‘went too far’ in promoting Trump’s false claims about 2020 election 80 Dominick Mastrangelo Tue, March 7, 2023 at 8:05 PM EST Rupert Murdoch, owner and co-chairman of Fox Corp., worried to Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott that top hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham “went too far” in endorsing former President Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, new court filings show. In an email dated Jan. 21, 2021, Murdoch wrote to Scott bemoaning the network was still “getting mud thrown at us” over the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and for suggestions that the rhetoric of top talent at the network could have contributed to the attack. “Maybe Sean and Laura went too far,” Murdoch wrote to Scott, Fox News’s top executive, according to the filing. “All very well for Sean to tell you he was in despair about Trump but what did he tell his viewers?” The court filings were made late Tuesday by Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing Fox for defamation seeking $1.6 billion in damages, arguing the network knowingly aired false claims about its software. Fox has so far unsuccessfully moved to have the case dismissed on First Amendment grounds and has called into question the snippets Dominion has highlighted in court filings and cast doubt on the company’s financial valuation. Fox issued a scathing rebuke of Dominion’s filings on Tuesday evening, accusing the voting systems company of smearing its journalistic integrity and highlighting the fact top host Maria Bartiromo invited Dominion CEO John Poulos on her show to discuss the allegations being made against his company. “Thanks to today’s filings, Dominion has been caught red handed using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear FOX News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press,” Fox said in a statement. “We already know they will say and do anything to try to win this case, but to twist and even misattribute quotes to the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale.” Murdoch’s email to Scott is just the latest in a slew of revelations made public through Dominion’s process of legal discovery, which Fox’s attorneys have argued have made for good headlines as the company builds its legal case but do not yet meet the legal standard for defamation. Murdoch, in a previously filed court document, acknowledged Hannity was “privately disgusted” with Trump’s actions following his loss in the 2020 election, despite showing steadfast support on air. “Thanks Paul,” Murdoch wrote to former House Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.), who sits on the board of Fox Corp., according to the previous filing. “Wake-up call for Hannity, who has been privately disgusted by Trump for weeks, but was scared to lose viewers.” In depositions made as part of the same filing, Murdoch was questioned by Dominion’s lawyers about whether top hosts at Fox backed Trump’s false claims about the election. “In fact, you are now aware that Fox endorsed at times this false notion of a stolen election?” one of Dominion’s lawyers asked Murdoch during his deposition. “Not Fox, No. Not Fox. But maybe Lou Dobbs, maybe Maria, as commentators,” Murdoch replied. “Some of our commentators were endorsing it … Yes. They endorsed.” A trial in the case is expected to begin next month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2023 Kellyanne Conway meets again with Manhattan district attorney as Trump hush-money probe barrels toward possible indictment 53 Laura Italiano Wed, March 8, 2023 at 2:41 PM EST Former White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Ex-Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway was back for a 2nd meeting with Manhattan prosecutors Wednesday. She directly links Trump to a 2016 hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen has alleged. A Manhattan grand jury is hearing evidence relating to the illegal, election-eve payment. Kellyanne Conway returned on Wednesday for a second meeting with Manhattan prosecutors, who are probing Donald Trump's alleged involvement in an illegal, 2016 hush-money payment to silence an adult film actress. A state grand jury has been hearing evidence since January in connection with the payment. The probe could lead to potential business fraud charges that carry anywhere from no jail up to four years prison, former Manhattan financial crimes prosecutors have told Insider. At least seven witnesses have met with prosecutors about the hush-money scheme this year, according to published reports and Insider's own reporting; it's unknown how many testified before the grand jury. Conway, whose first meeting with prosecutors was last week, arrived in the early afternoon on Wednesday at one of the Manhattan district attorney's lower Manhattan offices, wearing a bright red dress suit and high beige heels. She declined to speak with reporters, but laughed and joked with a small group of DA staff who escorted her into the building. Conway was Trump's campaign manager in 2016, and was widely credited with masterminding his improbable rise to the presidency. She became one of his top White House advisors. Conway could link Trump to the $130,000 in hush-money at the center of the district attorney's probe, a payment that secured the silence of Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who was about to go public with her claimed 2006 affair with Trump. Conway personally relayed to Trump the news that the payment had been completed, Trump's then-attorney, Michael Cohen, has alleged in his 2020 memoir, "Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump." When Cohen wanted to relay to Trump that Daniels had been paid off, it was Conway who passed along the welcome development, he wrote. Conway "said she'd pass along the good news" to Trump, Cohen wrote. Trump's former White House communications director, Hope Hicks, met with prosecutors Monday and could likewise directly link the former president to the hush-money scheme, according to evidence cited by federal prosecutors in court papers. Federal prosecutors have alleged that Hicks was a direct witness to a flurry of October 8, 2016, phone calls between Trump, two top executives at the National Enquirer, and Cohen as they scrambled to stamp out a series of election-eve wildfires. These included not only Daniels' threats of going public, but the surfacing of a vulgar, hot-mic audio tape from 2005 in which Trump boasted to a Access Hollywood reporter about grabbing random women by the genitals. "So far I see only 6 stories. Getting little to no traction," Cohen texted Hicks as the hush-money payment to Daniels was being negotiated, federal filings say. "Same. Keep praying!! It's working!" Hicks responded. A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has declined to comment on the ongoing investigation. Cohen, the hush-money's admitted bag man, is a key witness who has met with the DA's Trump-probe team six times since January. He recently said that Bragg's decision on whether or not to seek a grand jury indictment against Trump is coming "soon." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll Posted March 8, 2023 Report Share Posted March 8, 2023 18 minutes ago, DBP66 said: Kellyanne Conway meets again with Manhattan district attorney as Trump hush-money probe barrels toward possible indictment 53 Laura Italiano Wed, March 8, 2023 at 2:41 PM EST Former White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Ex-Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway was back for a 2nd meeting with Manhattan prosecutors Wednesday. She directly links Trump to a 2016 hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen has alleged. A Manhattan grand jury is hearing evidence relating to the illegal, election-eve payment. Kellyanne Conway returned on Wednesday for a second meeting with Manhattan prosecutors, who are probing Donald Trump's alleged involvement in an illegal, 2016 hush-money payment to silence an adult film actress. A state grand jury has been hearing evidence since January in connection with the payment. The probe could lead to potential business fraud charges that carry anywhere from no jail up to four years prison, former Manhattan financial crimes prosecutors have told Insider. At least seven witnesses have met with prosecutors about the hush-money scheme this year, according to published reports and Insider's own reporting; it's unknown how many testified before the grand jury. Conway, whose first meeting with prosecutors was last week, arrived in the early afternoon on Wednesday at one of the Manhattan district attorney's lower Manhattan offices, wearing a bright red dress suit and high beige heels. She declined to speak with reporters, but laughed and joked with a small group of DA staff who escorted her into the building. Conway was Trump's campaign manager in 2016, and was widely credited with masterminding his improbable rise to the presidency. She became one of his top White House advisors. Conway could link Trump to the $130,000 in hush-money at the center of the district attorney's probe, a payment that secured the silence of Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who was about to go public with her claimed 2006 affair with Trump. Conway personally relayed to Trump the news that the payment had been completed, Trump's then-attorney, Michael Cohen, has alleged in his 2020 memoir, "Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump." When Cohen wanted to relay to Trump that Daniels had been paid off, it was Conway who passed along the welcome development, he wrote. Conway "said she'd pass along the good news" to Trump, Cohen wrote. Trump's former White House communications director, Hope Hicks, met with prosecutors Monday and could likewise directly link the former president to the hush-money scheme, according to evidence cited by federal prosecutors in court papers. Federal prosecutors have alleged that Hicks was a direct witness to a flurry of October 8, 2016, phone calls between Trump, two top executives at the National Enquirer, and Cohen as they scrambled to stamp out a series of election-eve wildfires. These included not only Daniels' threats of going public, but the surfacing of a vulgar, hot-mic audio tape from 2005 in which Trump boasted to a Access Hollywood reporter about grabbing random women by the genitals. "So far I see only 6 stories. Getting little to no traction," Cohen texted Hicks as the hush-money payment to Daniels was being negotiated, federal filings say. "Same. Keep praying!! It's working!" Hicks responded. A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has declined to comment on the ongoing investigation. Cohen, the hush-money's admitted bag man, is a key witness who has met with the DA's Trump-probe team six times since January. He recently said that Bragg's decision on whether or not to seek a grand jury indictment against Trump is coming "soon." Meh...still waiting on yer "flagged by the bank" schtick... what is it .. 6-7 years and counting ? 🤡 PS: TDS king you are... BTW: Rob Whitley, Ph.D. Talking About Men Is "Trump Derangement Syndrome" a Real Mental Condition? All you need to know about "Trump Derangement Syndrome," or TDS. Posted January 4, 2019 | Reviewed by Devon Frye Share Tweet Email Many clinicians, political commentators, and members of the public have speculated upon the mental health of President Donald Trump. Indeed, over 70,000 people self-identifying as "mental health professionals" have signed a petition declaring that "Trump is mentally ill and must be removed." In sociological terms, the "medical gaze" has been hitherto focused on President Trump, and to a lesser extent his ardent supporters. However, in recent months, many have been questioning the direction of this "medical gaze." In fact, more and more people are suggesting that this "medical gaze" should be reversed and refocused on President Trump’s most embittered and partisan opponents. Some have even suggested that these opponents are experiencing a specific mental condition—a condition which has been labelled "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (TDS). What does DSM-5 say about "Trump Derangement Syndrome"? Mental illnesses are officially classified in a dense and dry book published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) known as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). This book contains 947 pages and lists hundreds of mental disorders; TDS is nowhere to be seen. Similarly, a review of scholarly databases such as MEDLINE and Google Scholar reveal no academic papers on this alleged syndrome. Officially at least, TDS is not a real, diagnosable, or treatable mental disorder. That said, medical anthropologists and critical sociologists have convincingly argued that DSM-5 is a flawed document. Indeed, social scientists have long recognized that there are numerous "folk categories" of mental disorders that are considered real conditions by the general public, even though they are not recognized as such in the DSM. These include categories such as "burnout" or "nervous breakdown." As such, lack of official recognition does not mean that TDS is not a real mental condition. Lay Understandings of "Trump Derangement Syndrome" There is no shared lay understanding of TDS, mainly because it is a folk category rather than a professional category. As such, there is currently much armchair speculation about the nature and existence of TDS, without consensus. The name itself explicitly suggests a "syndrome," which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as "a characteristic combination of opinions, emotions, or behavior." Several commentators have run with this, putting forth suggestions about opinions, emotions and behaviors characterizing TDS. Shared amongst these is a notion that the everyday activities of President Trump trigger some people into distorted opinions, extreme emotions and hysterical behaviors. Well-known writer Bernard Goldberg gives supposed behavioral examples of TDS among Trump’s political opponents, including fainting, vomiting, students retreating to "safe spaces" and others demanding "therapy dogs." Political commentator Justin Raimondo focuses on opinions, language and cognition, writing in the LA Times that "sufferers speak a distinctive language consisting of hyperbole [leading to] a constant state of hysteria… the afflicted lose touch with reality." article continues after advertisement Such forms of highly emotional reaction could be something akin to the fainting and screaming characterizing American Beatlemania in the 1960s. Unlike the Beatles, however, the extreme emotional reaction alleged to characterize TDS is not based on adoration and admiration, but on fear and loathing. Contrariwise, many others ridicule the notion that TDS is anything but a malicious slur term used to discredit and delegitimize criticism of President Trump. For example, CNN’s Chris Cillizza may speak for many when he stated: "The truth is that TDS is just the preferred nomenclature of Trump defenders who view those who oppose him and his policies as nothing more than blind hatred." Likewise, Adam Gopnik writes that "our problem is not TDS; our problem is Deranged Trump Self-Delusion." In other words, there are polarized opinions about the nature, reality and existence of TDS. Conclusion The wider public may be unaware that psychiatrists and social scientists spend considerable time and energy behind closed doors pondering over the existence and reality of mental conditions. This has led the APA to revise the DSM five times since 1952, considerably expanding the list of official mental disorders with each revision. As far as I am aware, few psychiatrists are currently arguing that DSM-6 should contain TDS as a mental disorder. That said, in its official definition of mental disorder, the DSM-5 states that "a mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior…mental disorders are usually associated with significant distress in social, occupational, or other important activities." Many have argued that some people have been seriously disturbed and distressed by the policies, speech, behavior, and tweets of President Trump, so much so that it has affected their cognitive, affective, and behavioral functioning. Such people may need mental health support. As such, further research is necessary to investigate the extreme reactions toward President Trump, in the same way that researchers investigate other extreme social phenomena, such as Beatlemania or the like. This will shed light on the reality of this emerging folk category that has been labelled by many as "Trump Derangement Syndrome." 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2023 21 minutes ago, Troll said: Meh...still waiting on yer "flagged by the bank" schtick... what is it .. 6-7 years and counting ? 🤡 PS: TDS king you are... BTW: Rob Whitley, Ph.D. Talking About Men Is "Trump Derangement Syndrome" a Real Mental Condition? All you need to know about "Trump Derangement Syndrome," or TDS. Posted January 4, 2019 | Reviewed by Devon Frye Share Tweet Email Many clinicians, political commentators, and members of the public have speculated upon the mental health of President Donald Trump. Indeed, over 70,000 people self-identifying as "mental health professionals" have signed a petition declaring that "Trump is mentally ill and must be removed." In sociological terms, the "medical gaze" has been hitherto focused on President Trump, and to a lesser extent his ardent supporters. However, in recent months, many have been questioning the direction of this "medical gaze." In fact, more and more people are suggesting that this "medical gaze" should be reversed and refocused on President Trump’s most embittered and partisan opponents. Some have even suggested that these opponents are experiencing a specific mental condition—a condition which has been labelled "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (TDS). What does DSM-5 say about "Trump Derangement Syndrome"? Mental illnesses are officially classified in a dense and dry book published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) known as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). This book contains 947 pages and lists hundreds of mental disorders; TDS is nowhere to be seen. Similarly, a review of scholarly databases such as MEDLINE and Google Scholar reveal no academic papers on this alleged syndrome. Officially at least, TDS is not a real, diagnosable, or treatable mental disorder. That said, medical anthropologists and critical sociologists have convincingly argued that DSM-5 is a flawed document. Indeed, social scientists have long recognized that there are numerous "folk categories" of mental disorders that are considered real conditions by the general public, even though they are not recognized as such in the DSM. These include categories such as "burnout" or "nervous breakdown." As such, lack of official recognition does not mean that TDS is not a real mental condition. Lay Understandings of "Trump Derangement Syndrome" There is no shared lay understanding of TDS, mainly because it is a folk category rather than a professional category. As such, there is currently much armchair speculation about the nature and existence of TDS, without consensus. The name itself explicitly suggests a "syndrome," which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as "a characteristic combination of opinions, emotions, or behavior." Several commentators have run with this, putting forth suggestions about opinions, emotions and behaviors characterizing TDS. Shared amongst these is a notion that the everyday activities of President Trump trigger some people into distorted opinions, extreme emotions and hysterical behaviors. Well-known writer Bernard Goldberg gives supposed behavioral examples of TDS among Trump’s political opponents, including fainting, vomiting, students retreating to "safe spaces" and others demanding "therapy dogs." Political commentator Justin Raimondo focuses on opinions, language and cognition, writing in the LA Times that "sufferers speak a distinctive language consisting of hyperbole [leading to] a constant state of hysteria… the afflicted lose touch with reality." article continues after advertisement Such forms of highly emotional reaction could be something akin to the fainting and screaming characterizing American Beatlemania in the 1960s. Unlike the Beatles, however, the extreme emotional reaction alleged to characterize TDS is not based on adoration and admiration, but on fear and loathing. Contrariwise, many others ridicule the notion that TDS is anything but a malicious slur term used to discredit and delegitimize criticism of President Trump. For example, CNN’s Chris Cillizza may speak for many when he stated: "The truth is that TDS is just the preferred nomenclature of Trump defenders who view those who oppose him and his policies as nothing more than blind hatred." Likewise, Adam Gopnik writes that "our problem is not TDS; our problem is Deranged Trump Self-Delusion." In other words, there are polarized opinions about the nature, reality and existence of TDS. Conclusion The wider public may be unaware that psychiatrists and social scientists spend considerable time and energy behind closed doors pondering over the existence and reality of mental conditions. This has led the APA to revise the DSM five times since 1952, considerably expanding the list of official mental disorders with each revision. As far as I am aware, few psychiatrists are currently arguing that DSM-6 should contain TDS as a mental disorder. That said, in its official definition of mental disorder, the DSM-5 states that "a mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior…mental disorders are usually associated with significant distress in social, occupational, or other important activities." Many have argued that some people have been seriously disturbed and distressed by the policies, speech, behavior, and tweets of President Trump, so much so that it has affected their cognitive, affective, and behavioral functioning. Such people may need mental health support. As such, further research is necessary to investigate the extreme reactions toward President Trump, in the same way that researchers investigate other extreme social phenomena, such as Beatlemania or the like. This will shed light on the reality of this emerging folk category that has been labelled by many as "Trump Derangement Syndrome." How about Fox news syndrome??...you know...people going around repeating lies they hear on Fox news or looking for a conspiracy to fit the problem....😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll Posted March 8, 2023 Report Share Posted March 8, 2023 4 minutes ago, DBP66 said: How about Fox news syndrome??...you know...people going around repeating lies they hear on Fox news or looking for a conspiracy to fit the problem....😉 LOL..figures you didn't even READ it...🤣 🤡 PS: 😜 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2023 4 minutes ago, Troll said: LOL..figures you didn't even READ it...🤣 🤡 PS: 😜 I'm more worried about you and the rest of the 30% of the population who bought the BIG lie....Trump and Fox news sold them....😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll Posted March 8, 2023 Report Share Posted March 8, 2023 3 minutes ago, DBP66 said: I'm more worried about you and the rest of the 30% of the population who bought the BIG lie....Trump and Fox news sold them....😉 your loss... 😜 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll Posted March 9, 2023 Report Share Posted March 9, 2023 On 7/21/2022 at 10:41 PM, DBP66 said: Jan. 6 committee shows video of Sen. Hawley running down hall of Capitol during siege Dylan Stableford and Christopher Wilson Thu, July 21, 2022 at 9:38 PM On Jan. 6, 2021, before a violent mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was photographed with his fist raised in solidarity with the pro-Trump protesters who had gathered outside the security gates. During the House select committee’s primetime hearing on Thursday night, the panel showed surveillance video of Hawley running down the hall inside the Capitol as the rioters stormed the building. Laughter could be heard in the hearing room as the committee showed footage of Hawley running. He was also shown briskly walking down steps with other lawmakers as they were evacuated shortly after the joint session of Congress had been convened to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election. An image of Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., showing support for pro-Trump protesters on Jan. 6, 2021. (Getty Images) Surveillance camera footage of Hawley running down a hall inside the Capitol on Jan. 6. (House TV) Hours later, Hawley was one of eight Republican senators to vote in favor of overturning the results in Pennsylvania and one of seven senators who voted to overturn the results in Arizona. Counting members of the House, 147 total Republican legislators voted against certification, perpetuating Trump’s false conspiracy theory that the election was stolen from him, one now shared by a majority of Republicans. Hawley was criticized for his actions on Jan. 6 from both sides of the aisle, including being disowned by his mentor, former Missouri Sen. John Danforth, who called supporting Hawley “the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.” Hawley stood by his actions and pulled in a massive fundraising haul for his efforts. “I will never apologize for giving voice to the millions of Missourians and Americans who have concerns about the integrity of our elections,” Hawley said in a Jan. 7, 2021, statement. “That’s my job, and I will keep doing it.” LOL 🤡 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 9, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2023 1 hour ago, Troll said: LOL 🤡 wow...you did some homework here...you went all the way back to July of last year...nice work!!...🤡 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 9, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2023 Surprise...surprise....the truth always wins... Trump 2020 lawyer admits misrepresenting stolen election claims Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo 2k Kyle Cheney Wed, March 8, 2023 at 11:59 PM EST Jenna Ellis, an attorney for Donald Trump who helped drive his false claims about the 2020 election results, has admitted in a Colorado disciplinary proceeding that she misrepresented evidence at least 10 times during Trump’s frantic bid to subvert his defeat. “Respondent made these misrepresentations on Twitter and on various television programs, including Fox Business, MSNBC, Fox News, and Newsmax,” Colorado’s top disciplinary judge Bryon Large wrote in a six-page opinion. “The parties agree that by making these misrepresentations, Respondent violated [a state attorney rule of conduct], which provides that it is professional misconduct for a lawyer to engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.” Large issued a public censure of Ellis for her stipulated conduct. Ellis is the latest Trump attorney involved in the former president’s post-election efforts to face discipline. Rudy Giuliani had his license temporarily suspended and is awaiting a final ruling from a bar discipline proceeding in Washington, D.C. John Eastman is preparing for disciplinary proceedings in California. And Jeffrey Clark has temporarily delayed bar discipline proceedings against him in Washington while attempting to bring the fight into federal court. But Ellis is the first attorney of the group to acknowledge she misrepresented the evidence of fraud. Among her admitted misrepresentations: — Ellis claimed on Nov. 13, 2020 that Hillary Clinton didn’t concede the 2016 election. — On Nov 20, 2020, Ellis claimed Trump’s team had evidence of a “coordinated effort in all of these states to transfer votes either from Trump to Biden, to manipulate the ballots, to count them in secret.” — On Nov. 30, 2020, Ellis said on Fox that Trump “won in a landslide.” — On Dec. 5, 2020, Ellis claimed the Trump team found 500,000 illegal votes had been cast in Arizona. Both Ellis’ attorney and the disciplinary attorneys bringing the case against her agreed that there was no precedent for the case against Ellis — an effort to aid a sitting president’s bid to undermine confidence in the American election system. Large noted that Ellis wasn’t Trump’s counsel of record in any lawsuits challenging the election. But he also noted that Ellis admitted her actions violated “her duty of candor to the public.” “The parties agree that two aggravators apply — [Ellis] had a selfish motive and she engaged in a pattern of misconduct — while one factor, her lack of prior discipline, mitigates her misconduct,” Large determined. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBP66 Posted March 9, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2023 The Hero of the nutty righties... Tucker Carlson’s No Good, Very Bad Week 895 Nikki McCann Ramirez Wed, March 8, 2023 at 11:03 PM EST Fox News Host Tucker Carlson Appears At National Review Ideas Summit - Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images It’s been a shit week for Tucker Carlson, and it’s not over yet. Monday and Tuesday were dominated by bipartisan criticism against the host for his transparent attempt to rewrite the reality of Jan. 6. After spending weeks combing through more than 44,000 hours of Capitol security footage from the Jan. 6 riots, Carlson’s lies about the tape were too sloppy for even Republican leadership to defend. On Tuesday night a new set of evidentiary documents related to the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox dropped, catching Carlson in the crosshairs. In the filing, Carlson and his fellow primetime hosts congratulate each other over the power they hold at Fox, and disparage their colleagues. Carlson even goes so far as to ask host Sean Hannity to help get one the network’s White House correspondents fired. Text messages with colleagues also revealed Carlson admitting that he “passionately” hates former President Trump, and expressing relief at his impending ousting from office. The host concedes that there’s no truth to Trump’s claims of fraud and election theft. “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights” he writes, “I truly can’t wait.” The new documents put the disingenuousness of Fox’s headline host on full display, with receipts exposing the contempt he holds for his audience and coworkers. Now, the network frontman has no choice but to power through it. On Wednesday night Carlson delivered a rare segment praising Trump for his “bold” new 2024 platform. We can only guess if that segment was suggested by Fox executives already straining to save their degrading relationship with the former President. Last week, Trump had a veritable meltdown over a deposition given by Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch in the course of the Dominion lawsuit. Murdoch admitted that hosts on the network aired false claims about the election and alleged voter fraud, and that company executives could have intervened to prevent their broadcast. With every document release stemming from the lawsuit and every episode Carlson airs in its aftermath, Murdoch’s admission comes into clearer focus. While the lawsuit focuses on conspiracy theories regarding Dominion that were aired and promoted by the network, the implications of Fox’s election misinformation are far more consequential than a potential damages check. Despite it all, the network still can’t stop its biggest stars from confidently lying on air. On Monday night, Carlson reasserted the now ubiquitous conservative belief that the “2020 election was a grave betrayal of American democracy given the facts that have since emerged about that election. No honest person can deny it.” The same claim fueled the Jan. 6 rioters attempt to prevent President Joe Biden from being certified as president-elect—a claim we now know Carlson privately acknowledged was untrue. Carlson then spent every night of this week quadrupling down on his efforts to recast the Jan. 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol as an unjust persecution of “meek and orderly” tourists, who treated the Capitol with “reverence.” Nevermind the people who smeared shit on the walls, or the more than $1.5 million in damage done to the building. “We hate vandalism, we hate assault,” Carlson told viewers Wednesday. “Was it a violent insurrection? It was not.” Despite having access to tens of thousands of hours of footage, Carlson’s tirade was barely fruitful. The host immediately fell back to tried and true, largely debunked claims about figures like Officer Brian Sicknick, and “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley. Determined to stretch his Jan. 6 propaganda into a multi-day spectacle, Carlson has, as usual, devoted a significant amount of time to lambasting his critics. He called lawmakers, including members of his own party, who pushed back on his lies “sociopaths” in league with the Democrats. Carlson also insisted that it was actually everyone else who was cherry-picking footage to “convince Americans that Jan. 6 was something that it wasn’t.” Fox and Carlson are experts at dodging accountability, a well cultivated habit that has allowed them to deliver bold-faced lies to their audiences for years. All throughout, the internal dynamics of the network have been shrouded in rumors and tidbits from unnamed sources willing to give a quote. Through the release of the Dominion documents, a level of transparency Fox would have never voluntarily agreed to has been achieved, and it looks like Carlson’s pants are being flamed to a crisp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.