Tag: controversy
Santos Confesses He's 'A Terrible Liar' -- But Just Keeps Lying (VIDEO)

Santos Confesses He's 'A Terrible Liar' -- But Just Keeps Lying (VIDEO)

Rep. George Santos (R-NY) admitted what we all already knew in a 40-minute interview released Monday night: He has “been a terrible liar.” Speaking to British television host Piers Morgan, the embattled lawmaker admitted that he embellished his resume and lied about his identity, including his educational and religious background.

“I was a Wall Street superstar, I was this, my family were this, and it was all untrue,” Morgan said, calling out Santos for his previous lies. “I don’t characterize these as mistakes. I think they’re part of your process of, cathartic process of redemption, if you’d like. It’s gotta start from ‘I’ve been a terrible liar,’ I mean, would you be prepared to say that?”

“Well, I’ve been a terrible liar on those subjects,” Santos said.

Controversy surrounded the lawmaker—who claims to be the first openly gay Republican to win a seat in the House of Representatives as a non-incumbent—when The New York Times published a story shortly after his win that questioned aspects of his resume, including his education and work experience.

Speaking about the lies he told, the freshman lawmaker claimed he didn’t mean to lead the public astray, but rather lied to be “accepted” by the local party.

“What I tried to convey to the American people is I made mistakes of allowing the pressures of what I thought needed to be done in order to—this, this wasn’t about tricking anybody, this wasn’t about, it’s—” Santos said.

When Morgan noted that it was about “tricking people,” Santos stuck to his claims.

“Let me finish,” he said. “It wasn’t about tricking the people. This was about getting accepted by the party here locally.”

Santos said that lying about his education was one of his "biggest regrets in life," but he did so because it was expected of him.

"Expectation on society, the pressure, couldn't afford it ...” He continued those lies when he decided to run for office: "Although I had built a very credible business career, but I just didn't have that part of my biography."

Santos admitted that he doesn’t have a master’s degree in business, and hasn’t ever worked “as a direct employee” at either Goldman Sachs or Citigroup. Speaking about his experience attending the Horace Mann private school, he said he had attended it for six months in 2004, but the school told CNN it had no records of Santos or any of his aliases.

His other lies included claiming his mother was a survivor of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that he was Jewish. However, when asked about those lies, he seemed dumbfounded.

Santos said he never said he was Jewish but instead had described himself as a "party-favorite joke" of "Jew-ish.”

To this Morgan read off a series of “direct quotes” in which Santos described himself as “‘Jewish,’ ‘half-Jewish,’ ‘proud American Jew,’ ‘a Latino Jew’ and a ‘non-observant Jew.'”

This prompted Santos to claim that he had always said this “as a party-favorite joke and it’s—I’ve done it on stages across—“

Morgan then asked what was funny about falsely claiming to be Jewish.

Speaking to his statement that his mother was in the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City on 9/11, Santos maintained, "That's true."

Morgan noted that there is a “full record” of everyone who was there that day—but Santos’ mother, Fatima Devolder, wasn't listed.

Despite Santos saying he didn't want to speak further on the issue, Morgan pressed, citing her 2003 visa application which said: “she hadn’t been in the US since 1999.”

“So, all this points to her not being anywhere near the Twin Towers on Sept. 11. I do think it matters because it’s such an emotive part of modern American history. So I’ll simply ask you: Did your mother work there, or did you just get that wrong?” Morgan said.

Responding to this, Santos said: “No. My mother was — I was 13 years old [on] Sept. 11, 2001. I was in the United States when my mother was here because she had full custody of both her children. … I won't debate my mother's life as she's passed in [2016], and it's quite insensitive to try to rehash my mother's legacy," he continued. "She wasn't one to mislead me... I stay convinced that's the truth."

Since the lies have been revealed, several calls have been made for the 34-year-old to resign. During the interview, Morgan also questioned Santos on why he thought “no one would find out.”

The young lawmaker said: “Well, I’ll humor you this: I ran in 2020 for the same exact seat for Congress. And I got away with it then.”

When asked about an apology, Santos said: "I have looked inside a camera and said sorry ... If you can ask for forgiveness, I think that is the first step."

Despite widespread calls for him to step down, Santos plans to see out his two-year term in Congress and said he would likely run for reelection in 2024.

Outside of these lies, the New York lawmakeris also the subject of multiple congressional investigations, while facing an allegation of sexual misconduct from a former aide, BBC reported.

Watch the full segment below:

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

False Charges Of Islamophobia Expose 'Woke' Intolerance In Academia

False Charges Of Islamophobia Expose 'Woke' Intolerance In Academia

Chances are, your humble, obedient servant here will never be invited to teach at Hamline University, a Methodist school in St. Paul, Minnesota. For one thing, I’m almost old enough to be president of the United States — that is, well beyond my professorial sell-by date.

For another, administrative jellyfish who cave to self-dramatizing undergraduates demanding to dictate on religious grounds what can and cannot be taught in the institution’s classrooms fill me with disdain. I’d be almost certain to end up embroiled in some soul-deadening, comic opera dispute like the one roiling Hamline’s campus over the past several months.

Been there, done that. Never again.

The Hamline controversy began when Erika Lopez Prater, an adjunct lecturer, showed her art history class a slide of a 14th-century Persian painting depicting the angel Gabriel delivering a revelation to the Prophet Muhammad. The image derives from an early Islamic history of the world, A Compendium of Chronicles, written by Rashid al-Din (1247-1318).

Conceived and executed as a devotional work, the image is regarded by art historians as “a masterpiece of Persian manuscript painting,” in the words of Christiane Gruber, a professor of Islamic art at the University of Michigan. She added that studying Islamic art without the Compendium of Chronicles image “would be like not teaching Michelangelo’s David.”

Aware that many contemporary understandings of Islam regard visual depictions of the prophet as heretical (lest the faithful confuse Muhammad with God and fall into idolatry), the Hamline instructor handed out a course syllabus cautioning students that paintings depicting Jesus, Buddha and Muhammad would be studied.

Before showing the Persian painting, she gave her class a verbal caution, saying that anybody reluctant to view it was encouraged to leave the classroom. Nobody did. After class, however, Aram Wedatalla, a senior business major and president of the university’s Muslim Student Association, stayed to complain. In subsequent public forums, according to The New York Times, the student described herself as having been “blindsided” by the disturbing image.

“I’m like, ‘This can’t be real,”’ said Wedatalla, who described herself as Sudanese. “As a Muslim and a Black person, I don’t feel like I belong, and I don’t think I’ll ever belong in a community where they don’t value me as a member and they don’t show the same respect that I show them.”

As I am of a low and suspicious nature, it’s occurred to me that the complaining student enrolled in the class precisely to be offended.

Evidently, she chose the right school. Hamline administrators first expressed shame, and then groveled into action. First, the dean of the college informed Lopez Prater that showing the artwork was exactly like using a racial slur toward Black students. Next, the “vice president for inclusive excellence” sent a campus-wide email describing the art teacher’s actions as “undeniably inconsiderate, disrespectful and Islamophobic.”

Essentially charged with blasphemy, Lopez Prater was soon informed that her services were no longer required. Hamline canceled her contract. The institution’s president, Fayneese S. Miller, delivered herself of a statement arguing that respect for the Muslim students “should have superseded academic freedom.”

“To look upon an image of the Prophet Muhammad, for many Muslims, is against their faith,” the president explained in a subsequent statement, adding, “It was important that our Muslim students, as well as all other students, feel safe, supported and respected both in and out of our classrooms.”

In short, as Jill Filipovic wrote in Slate, “the extremely delicate sensibilities of a handful of little religious tyrants (and their apparent inability to read a syllabus or listen to the professor’s words) ‘should have superseded academic freedom.”’

Young Wedatalla wasn’t arguing that she shouldn’t have been forced to look at the offending art; clearly, she wasn’t.

Instead, she was in effect arguing that students at Hamline shouldn’t be allowed to study images that offended her religious views. Perhaps she should transfer to a university in Saudi Arabia. There, her views would prevail. Better to avoid Iran, however, where Persian art is venerated.

Alas, the state’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has issued a statement to the effect that “displaying the image of the Prophet is intended to communicate hate.” The national organization, however, has sanely concluded that it sees no evidence that Lopez Prater “acted with Islamophobic intent or engaged in conduct that meets our definition of Islamophobia.”

Nor any sensible person’s.

Meanwhile, Hamline alumni and trustees should recognize that adult supervision on the campus is definitely required. PEN America has described the episode as “one of the most egregious violations of academic freedom in recent memory.”

While there have been many Hamline faculty and students who have resisted substituting identity politics and theocracy for academic inquiry, the college appears to have an utterly spineless administration.

Gene Lyons is a National Magazine Award winner and co-author of “The Hunting of the President.”

Reprinted with permission from Suntimes.

One Arabic Sentence Closes Schools, And Ignorance Wins

One Arabic Sentence Closes Schools, And Ignorance Wins

There are many good reasons to cancel school. Snow. A hurricane. No heat. A busted water pipe.

But until last week, I had never heard of canceling schools because of what they were teaching.

I have now.

An entire school system in Virginia was shut down Friday — 10,000 students, all kept at home — after a teacher gave an Arabic calligraphy assignment. The assignment, to copy a line as written, was from a standard textbook in a standard class, world geography, with the subject being world religions.

Unfortunately, the line used was the Muslim statement of faith, which translates to “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”

The kids were asked to try writing it.

They went home and told their parents.

Look out.

Emails flew. Phones rang off the hook. Anger simmered and boiled over. The textbook identified the shahada as the Islamic statement of faith, but according to reports, it was never translated to the students, nor was it taught as dogma. It was basically an art project, to see how difficult calligraphy is to reproduce. Chances are most kids had no idea what they were scribbling.

Nonetheless, parents said their kids were being brainwashed. Some called for the teacher’s firing. (Don’t they always call for a teacher’s firing?) Some, the local sheriff told the media, wanted the teacher’s head “on a stake.”

With all the angry smoke rising, law enforcement suggested — and the school board agreed — that every single school in the county be closed Friday.

And all learning screeched to a halt.

Now, there are several legitimate questions in this story. First, is there no other example of Arabic calligraphy? Didn’t anyone involved — teacher, principal, textbook editor — realize a statement of faith is too volatile for a glorified penmanship lesson?

But having asked those questions, here’s another: Do we really need to shut an entire school district over this? Have we so quickly paralyzed ourselves with fear? Are we that spooked by the mere letters of the Muslim faith? And who were the police most concerned about — Muslims, or those who hate them?

“I will not have my children sit under a woman who indoctrinates them with the Islam religion,” a mother told a Virginia TV station.

I understand the anger. It was a foolish exercise. But I’m pretty sure the teacher, whose name is Cheryl LaPorte, was trying less to indoctrinate than to accelerate, hoping to work her way through the Standards of Learning tests that are required by her job.

Now that the district has removed that sentence from the class, she can use a different line to teach the calligraphy lesson. Problem solved.

But not over.

There is a reason book burning is so unnerving. So is shutting a school. Fear stymies education. It paralyzes the mind.

Ironically, the limiting of education — and the exclusion of girls from learning at all — is a key criticism we level against fundamentalist religions — including Islam. We’ve never minded doing Christmas shows in public schools that feature Jewish, Hindu or Muslim students.

Yet here we are, closing down an entire school system — with no actual threats being made — because of a copied Arabic sentence?

I imagine the most hysterical parents would prefer their kids never learn anything about the Muslim faith, never hear the word “Allah,” perhaps never be made aware that 1.6 billion people in the world — nearly 25 percent of the global population — practice that religion.

But ignoring Islam is a clear path toward demonizing it. And if you think that’s how you win a war on terror, think again: Polarizing faiths is the surest way to make certain they attack each other.

The Islamic State would like nothing better than if we made every Muslim feel unwelcome here. People go where they feel wanted. If we remove the freedom of religion principles that make this country great, we might as well set up an express train between the U.S. and Islamic fundamentalists.

There will always be problems. There will always be issues. And, by the way, terror attacks were not invented this year, this decade or even this century.

But learning — open learning — is essential to a free society. It is the bread of a peaceful culture.

Knowledge is power. Ignorance sparks fear. Shutting down schools just means the latter is winning.

(C) 2015 BY THE DETROIT FREE PRESS DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Photo: Ahmed Bin-Baz via Flickr

Christie Comments On Bridge Scandal Case At Mississippi Campaign Event

Christie Comments On Bridge Scandal Case At Mississippi Campaign Event

By Melissa Hayes, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.) (TNS)

TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) told reporters in Mississippi that he’s now been cleared in the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal by three different investigations and if defense attorneys want to subpoena him, they can.

Christie took questions from reporters after attending a campaign event for Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant (R-MI) at a restaurant in Flowood, Miss., Tuesday afternoon.

Christie said he’s now been cleared by a legislative committee that was headed by Democrats, an internal investigation conducted by an attorney he hired, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He said all three came to the same conclusions “that I had nothing to do with this.”

“All you can do is tell the truth, and that’s what I’ve done and what I’ll continue to do,” he said, appearing on a video stream of the event, which aired live on social media.

The event marked the first time Christie has spoken to reporters since his former deputy chief of staff and an appointee at the Port Authority were indicted Friday on charges they conspired to close the lanes in an act of political retribution against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, who declined to endorse Christie’s re-election bid in 2013. The indictments came as another Christie ally at the Port Authority pleaded guilty to two charges related to the lane closures as part of a plea deal for cooperating with federal authorities.

Christie, who is considering a presidential bid, is attending events in Mississippi and Louisiana Tuesday. He campaigned for Bryant in 2011 and Christie made an appearance for him last year amid a busy schedule of events as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

Christie was asked whether the event also served as a campaign stop for his potential presidential candidacy.

“Oh heck, if it was a campaign stop for me, Bryant would be talking a lot more than me,” Christie said. “I’d have him telling people in Mississippi what he thinks of me. So no, this is really about Phil.”

Christie said he supported Bryant’s candidacy in 2011 and was in Mississippi Tuesday to urge voters to give him a second term — and also raise money for the state GOP.

“Believe me, if I come down here for campaign stuff for me you’ll know exactly what that looks like and feels like,” Christie said. “This is campaign stuff for my friend Phil Bryant.”

A reporter also asked Christie how his “moderate policies” would affect his potential presidential candidacy, a remark that drew a quick response from the governor.

“Which moderate policies on social issues are you talking about?” Christie asked. “You know, I’m pro-life, I vetoed Planned Parenthood funding in my state five different times, I vetoed a clip reduction.”

The reporter interjected, “What about gay marriage.”

“I vetoed the gay marriage bill in New Jersey and fought it all the way to the New Jersey Supreme Court, so I don’t know which moderate social issues you’re all talking about,” Christie said.

The reporter asked again, “So you’re against gay marriage?” Christie replied, “I have always been, yes.”

The governor often faces questions about whether his views are conservative enough to win him a presidential nomination. He attributes his image of being too moderate to governing a Democratic state in the Northeast.

Photo: Quinn Dombrowski via Flickr