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Tag: daily caller
No, Biden Didn't 'Ruin Easter' -- And Daily Caller Has Egg On Its Face

No, Biden Didn't 'Ruin Easter' -- And Daily Caller Has Egg On Its Face

Oh, how awkward. After spending their Easter weekend rending their garments because President Joe Biden ruined Easter, Republicans might need to retract their outrage because it turns out, nope, he didn’t.

The story that had so many Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, in a tizzy was published by the Daily Caller last week and declared that the president had quite blasphemously and, the story suggested, for the first time ever in history, “banned religious Easter eggs” from the White House’s annual Easter Egg Roll.

Just one problem, as the Daily Caller noted in its retraction of the story:

The ban of religious symbolism on eggs as part of the White House Easter egg art contest has been longstanding, dating back decades, and the Biden administration did not make any modifications to this rule. While the Caller did not explicitly state at any point that the rule was new, this additional context rendered the main thrust of the article misleading to readers, who could reasonably have come to the conclusion that the rule was new.

Oops.

Johnson is not the only Republican who was quick to jump on the now-retracted story as evidence that Biden—the practicing Catholic president who very regularly attends church services—hates Easter, Jesus, and apple pie. As congressional reporter Jamie Dupree noted, Minnesota Republican and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer used the story to declare that Biden “proudly leads the charge” in the “radical left’s war on Christianity.”

Raging about the longstanding rule that Biden in no way invented or was responsible for was only one part of the GOP’s weekend of rage. Many Republicans were furious that the 15th annual Transgender Day of Visibility coincided with Easter this year—something Biden also did not decide.

At least they can take some comfort in knowing that Biden didn’t personally destroy the sanctity of Easter eggs after all. Their heartfelt apologies will surely be coming any minute now …

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

98-year old World War II veteran Pete DuPré

Far Right Media Slurs Women’s Soccer Team Over Alleged Flag Incident

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer amplified a false claim exploding on conservative social media, retweeting a video wrongly claiming members of the U.S. National Women's Soccer Team "turned their backs on 98-year old World War II veteran Pete DuPré" as he "played the National Anthem on his harmonica."

"Embarrassing and disrespectful," Spicer tweeted. "If you are embarrassed to be an American then don't play on the US team – there are plenty of people ready to take your place."

Far right wing media outlets also exploded with stories. The Daily Caller led the rabid attack with a headline that read: "U.S. Soccer Players Turn Away From National Anthem Played By WWII Veteran."

Breitbart, The Post Millennial, NewsMax, and Russian government website RT all published similar stories.

Fox News Tuesday morning jumped on board, but with a headline that read: "US Soccer denies women's team disrespected WWII veteran before send-off match." The Daily Caller later updated their false story to read: "US Soccer Federation Says Players Weren't Protesting After Video Of National Anthem Line-Up Causes Controversy."

And unable to accept reality, Town Hall early Tuesday ran with this: "Stay Classy, Ladies: Did Some Members of the USWNT Turn Their Backs on a 98-Year-Old WWII Veteran?"

The answer is a resounding no – but if they had they absolutely would have been exercising their First Amendment rights to do so.

Video from ESPN shows several team members facing forward, and some turned facing away from Pete DuPré but they are facing the American flag, which protocol calls for. Some of those facing the flag clearly have their hands on their hearts, others bowed their heads in respect.

The U.S. Soccer communications team was forced to put out a statement correcting the right wing's false claims.

Here's video of them doing just that:

On of the players also pushed back against the false reports:

No one, from Sean Spicer to any of the right wing media, has apologized to the players for baselessly attacking them. But they all maintain their "patriotism."

How To Faceplant While Reporting On The Clinton Tax Returns

How To Faceplant While Reporting On The Clinton Tax Returns

Published with permission from Media Matters. 

An embarrassing misreading of Hillary and Bill Clinton’s 2015 tax returns led The Daily Caller to publish an entire article based on the false premise that the couple had given almost all their charitable donations to the Clinton Foundation.

The August 12 article, inaccurately headlined “96 Percent Of Hillary’s Charitable Donations In 2015 Went To Clinton Foundation,” claimed that while the Clintons’ tax returns indicate they gave more than $1 million to charity in 2015, “the contributions can hardly be seen as altruistic, since the money flowed back to an entity they control.” The article went on to claim that the donations went to the “Clinton Foundation,” which has purportedly “been at the center of several controversies that have hobbled Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign by eroding trust in the former secretary of state,” and highlighted several trumped-up scandals related to that organization.

Unfortunately for The Daily Caller, the Clintons’ tax returns indicate that they gave that money not to the well-known Clinton Foundation but to the Clinton Family Foundation, an entirely separate entity, which in fact distributes its funds to a variety of other charitable and nonprofit organizations.

As we noted when conservative outlets mixed up the two entities last year:

As Nonprofit Quarterly explained, the Clinton Family Foundation acts “a clearinghouse for the family’s personal philanthropy.” According to the Family Foundation’s 2014 tax filing, Hillary and Bill Clinton are the only donors, and the Family Foundation distributes their money to various charities and nonprofits, including New York Public Radio, the American Nurses Foundation, the American Heart Association — and the separate William J. Clinton Foundation.

The William J. Clinton Foundation — which was recently renamed the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation — is the highly-respected international charity that has garneredsignificant media attention since Clinton announced her run for president. It is the foundation that helps AIDS/HIV sufferers around the world get better medicine, and battlesglobal health crises, economic inequality, childhood obesity, and climate change.

While there would be nothing suspicious about the Clintons donating to Clinton Foundation given their obvious commitment to its good works, the fact remains that the $1 million donation in question wasn’t directed there.

Photo: U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton looks at a computer screen during a campaign stop at Atomic Object company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

On ‘Morning Joe’: High (GOP) Anxiety About Hillary Clinton

On ‘Morning Joe’: High (GOP) Anxiety About Hillary Clinton

Having known Joe Scarborough for years, I always enjoy appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe with him, Mika, Willie Geist, Mike Barnicle et al. And I’m well aware of the host’s quirks, which is why I wasn’t surprised when his producers asked me to appear this morning with Jamie Weinstein, author of a misfired hit on Hillary Clinton in the Daily Caller (a right-wing website edited by Fox News personality Tucker Carlson).

Weinstein’s conjecture is that despite her evident and enduring popularity, Clinton isn’t really a formidable presidential candidate. He repeats well-worn talking points about her record, suggesting that she did little in the Senate or as Secretary of State. He pontificated briefly about the supposed ease of her first election to the U.S. Senate in New York (a race that occurred when he was probably in elementary school). He thinks Democrats only support her because she’s a woman, or something like that — a tautological assertion that makes no sense.

As I pointed out, the latest data gathered by NBC News/Marist Poll indicate just how strongly voters of all varieties in her party support her – and how well she performs against any potential GOP nominee in battleground and early primary states.

If we’d had a few more minutes, I might also have noted several of her achievements as a freshman senator, at a time when her new home state was suffering from the aftermath of 9/11. She capably represented the interests of the city and upstate, bringing home considerable aid and assisting the afflicted, especially first responders — ask any of her Democratic (or Republican) colleagues, as Weinstein assuredly didn’t bother to do.

She helped pass important legislation to help the kinds of people who don’t matter much to the Daily Caller: women, workers, low-income children, armed forces veterans and their families. And she did much of it by working across the aisle, even with the likes of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who played a key role in the failed impeachment of her husband.

Whenever right-wing concern trolls start yammering about Hillary’s problems, I detect what psychologists call “projection.” What actually worries them, whether they realize it or not, is the unappealing Republican presidential field — which shows weakly in that same NBC-Marist poll. But denigrating her seems to make them feel a little better. For now.

Photo: Canada2020 via Flickr