Tag: jake tapper
Retiring GOP Legislator Delivers Stark Warning On Trump In 2024

Retiring GOP Legislator Delivers Stark Warning On Trump In 2024

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

A Republican lawmaker is issuing a stark warning ahead of the 2024 election. In short, former President Donald Trump may no longer be in office but he still poses a serious threat to our democracy with the calculated groundwork his political minions are currently laying.

Appearing on CNN's new documentary, CNN's Trumping Democracy: An American Coup, retiring Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) weighed in on the possibility of Trump winning the Republican presidential nomination and what could happen if he loses the election.

"I think it's all pushing towards one of two outcomes: He either wins legitimately, which he may do, or if he loses again, you just try to steal it," Gonzalez said on Friday.

The one-term, defeated former president has "evaluated what went wrong on January 6: Why is it that he wasn't able to steal the election? Who stood in his way?" explained Gonzalez.

He added, "And he's going methodically state by state at races from, you know, state Senate races all the way down to county commissioner races trying to get the people who ― the Republicans, the RINOs, in his words ― who stopped this, who stopped him from stealing the election."

Although Trump has acknowledged that he has considered another presidential run in 2024, he has not officially announced a campaign.

Retiring Republican has warning about Trumpyoutu.be


Gonzalez, one of the few Republican lawmakers who voted in favor in Trump's second impeachment, also recalled the disturbing scene that unfolded at the Capitol building on January 6. According to the Republican lawmaker, the violence was "an unconstitutional attempt led by the President of the United States to overturn an American election and reinstall himself in power illegitimately."

He also explained why he refuses to part of Trump's antics. "That's fallen nation territory, that's third world country territory," he added. "My family left Cuba to avoid that fate. I will not let it happen here."

President Joe Biden

Beltway Media Blame Biden For Vaccine Refusal, Ignore Fox Brainwashing

Reprinted with permission from Press Run

Busy extending the list of "crises" that President Joe Biden must face, the Beltway media are busy adding Covid vaccinations as a looming failure for the Democrat, as the nation readies a national mandate for the inoculations.

By putting the onus on Biden for the millions of defiant Trump voters who refuse to take the free, safe, and effective shot even as their neighbors become sick and die around them, the press is boosting the GOP — and missing a huge story.

We're witnessing one of the great mass brainwashings in American political history, as millions of Fox News Covid zombies eagerly swallow an ocean of lies, distortions, and misinformation. Yet the press blames Biden for not being able to convince them otherwise. Worse, the press blames the president without ever acknowledging the large-scale brainwashing that is happening.

Uncomfortable with reporting on a conservative movement that has lost touch with reality, the Beltway media are much more comfortable treating the vaccine story as one about a Democratic president who's failing to properly communicate and persuade. And one who's being outmaneuvered by Republicans.

Incredibly, the Washington Post recently cited as a "political win" for the GOP the fact that "Republican governors in several states have also had success in undermining Biden's efforts to require masks for schoolchildren and others in an effort to limit Covid-19 spread."

In a headline that was later changed, the Associated Press claimed that with his mandate announcement last week Biden had declared "war on the unvaccinated."

The New York Times announced, "Delta's rise has been fueled in part by the inability of Mr. Biden and his administration to persuade millions of vaccine-refusing Americans to inoculate themselves against the virus," in a type of dispatch that has been repeated nonstop by news outlets in recent weeks.

Virtually every reporter is working from the same script: Covid is surging and deaths are up because of Biden's "inability" to persuade vaccine "skeptics." What the Times report never addressed, and virtually none of them ever do, is that the reason millions of Americans still won't get vaccinated is because there is a choreographed, deep-pocketed political and media campaign designed to make sure millions of people don't get vaccinated. Period.

The press wants us to believe this is all just happening, by chance. It's not. Biden is battling powerful forces that reject science and are committed to prolonging the pandemic. That's essential to understand our continued health crisis, yet the press refuses to address it. Holding vaccine dead enders responsible for their actions is just not something they want to do.

Following Biden's Covid address to the nation on Thursday, CNN's Jake Tapper not only deducted points for the president's supposed "scolding tone," but the CNN anchor suggested Trump voters should not be singled out for extending the deadly pandemic. By Tapper's telling, because Trump voters are being lied to about the vaccine by far-right players, it's the liars who are to blame — who are the "villains" — not the millions of people who willingly embrace the falsehoods.

Last month, the Times posted a seven-minute, narrated report about an Arkansas community in the Ozarks with a ridiculously low vaccination/high Covid rate. "Rhetoric on freedom and choice is dissuading people from getting the shot, at a terrible cost," the Times tweeted, while promoting the clip. But who was responsible for the rhetoric that was creating a"terrible cost"? The seven-minute Times report never mentioned Fox News and never addressed who was pumping out all the Covid lies. But the report did capture lots of Arkansas locals spouting virus untruths: "We're talking about an unproven, untested vaccine."

Eight months after the vaccine arrived we know millions of Trump voters won't take it. That's not the news, although it remains a simple story to tell — and to blame Biden. Instead, journalists ought to be telling the harder truths and fixating on the why, and specifically calling out the forces at play.

The Times' Arkansas report did acknowledge "misinformation certainly exists here," but that single sentence represented the entirety of the coverage of that topic. The report also never mentioned "Republican," and instead referenced "leaders" who have politicized the vaccine.

Just yesterday, the Times published a piece, "How Outrage Over Vaccine Mandates Became a Mainstream GOP Stance," and failed to reference Fox News, which has aired hysterical, non-stop attacks on the federal mandate since it was announced. Fact: That's how outrage over common-sense mandates became mainstreamed within the GOP. Also on Sunday, the Times produced, "The U.S. is Falling to the Lowest Vaccination Rates of the World's Wealthiest Democracies," which included not one sentence addressing the why.

More recently, CNN produced its own 10-minute video about another poorly vaccinated Ozarks community, in Carter County Missouri. CNN spent days interviewing locals who regurgitated anti-virus rhetoric: "I ain't takin' that shit." "There's not enough research on it." "I believe if the good Lord wants me right now it doesn't matter if I take a vaccine or if I don't."

CNN omitted all references to Fox News or the Republican Party, and other bad-faith actors who have brainwashed so many people into thinking the Covid vaccine is evil despite the fact that inoculations have been part of everyday American life for decades — school children all across the country are not allowed to attend classes without vaccines for measles, mumps and many other diseases.

As with the Times report, the CNN segment was exceedingly gracious while interviewing Trump voters as they spewed nonstop misinformation about the vaccine and prolonged the pandemic.

Joni Ernst

Joni Ernst’s Idiotic Lie About Biden And Veterans Ripped Down Live On Air

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa was clearly playing to the Republican Party's MAGA base when, during a September 1 appearance on CNN, she falsely claimed that President Joe Biden has never thanked U.S. troops who served in Afghanistan for their service. But CNN's Jake Tapper fact-checked the GOP senator on the air, and that segment was followed by additional fact-checking from Tapper's colleague Daniel Dale.

Ernst told Tapper, "What I have not heard from this president is a thank you to those veterans who have served in the Global War on Terror. Not once has he expressed empathy and gratitude to the men and women who have put the uniform on and have fought so bravely overseas the last 20 years to keep our homeland safe. And I feel that by not acknowledging his gratitude for them, he's diminishing their service."

Tapper, however, responded, "I have heard President Biden express gratitude and praise veterans…. Just as a factual matter, I have heard him talk about this."

Ernst, however, tried to claim that while Biden had "acknowledged those that are doing service or had done service at the Kabul Airport during the evacuation, but not over the greater Global War on Terror."

In an article published on CNN's website on September 3, Dale explains, "Ernst's claim is not even close to true. Biden has thanked troops who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq over and over again — explicitly saying 'thank you' and explicitly saying the nation is grateful to them and indebted to them. Biden has also spoken empathetically about the sacrifices made by these service members and their families."

Dale adds, "Biden's public words as president so clearly contradict Ernst's assertion that, for fact-checking purposes, we don't even need to go into detail about his eight-year tenure as vice president — during which, he repeatedly expressed his appreciation for troops who had served or were still serving in Afghanistan and Iraq…. Ernst and her office are entitled to argue that Biden's words about the troops have been insufficient or insincere; that's a subjective claim beyond the scope of a fact-check. But on CNN, Ernst asserted something else: that Biden had never uttered such words at all. And that's plain false."

Dale goes on to cite specific examples of Biden thanking U.S. troops. During an April 14 speech Biden praised the "valor, courage and integrity of the women and men of the United States armed forces who served" in Afghanistan.

Biden, on April 14, said, "I'm immensely grateful for the bravery and backbone that they have shown through nearly two decades of combat deployments. We as a nation are forever indebted to them and to their families. You all know that less than one percent of Americans serve in our armed forces. The remaining 99 percent of them — we owe them. We owe them. They have never backed down from a single mission that we've asked of them. I've witnessed their bravery firsthand during my visits to Afghanistan. They've never wavered in their resolve. They've paid a tremendous price on our behalf. And they have the thanks of a grateful nation."

Dale also notes that during a May 28 speech for Memorial Day, Biden told a major deployed to Afghanistan, "I want to thank you so much — your entire family's service to our country. You're all incredible. You so underestimate how important you are."

Biden, during that May 28 speech, went on to say, "I know that many of you deployed yourselves, probably more than once. Over the past 20 years, our volunteer force and our military families have made incredible sacrifices for this country…. To all the Gold Star families across the country: We will never, ever, ever, ever forget."

Only three days later, during a May 31 speech, Biden spoke at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia outside Washington, D.C. and spoke of "7036 fallen angels" killed in Afghanistan or Iraq and said, "On this Memorial Day, we honor their legacy and their sacrifice. Duty, honor, country — they lived for it, they died for it. And we, as a nation, are eternally grateful."

Dale quotes a July 8 speech on Afghanistan withdrawal in which Biden said of U.S. troops, "I want to thank you all for your service and the dedication to the mission so many of you have given, and to the sacrifices that you and your families have made over the long course of this war. We'll never forget those who gave the last full measure of devotion for their country in Afghanistan, nor those whose lives have been immeasurably altered by wounds sustained in service to their country. We're ending America's longest war, but we'll always, always honor the bravery of the American patriots who served in it."

CNN Anchor Brutally Calls Out McEnany For Nonstop Lying

CNN Anchor Brutally Calls Out McEnany For Nonstop Lying

Reprinted with permission from American Independent

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany appeared on Fox News Monday night to peddle long-debunked election lies — a mere day after insisting on Twitter that she's not a liar.

Among other things, McEnany falsely claimed that President-elect Joe Biden outperformed former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's 2016 performance in only four major metro areas during the 2020 election, suggesting that this somehow proved there had been massive election fraud.

"This [voter fraud] happened in the places that needed to happen, which is why the four metros — the only four — where Joe Biden outperformed Hillary Clinton were Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Atlanta, and Detroit," McEnany said.

That claim is demonstrably false. Critics were swift to note that it had even been debunked by conservative outlets.

According to the right-leaning National Review in November, Biden's margin of victory surpassed Hillary Clinton's in at least 31 urban counties.

Contrary to McEnany's claims, Philadelphia was among the metro areas where Biden's performance did not improve, according to that report.

The National Review also noted that Biden's gains in Detroit and Milwaukee were in fact "distinctly subpar" — and that even Donald Trump substantially improved upon his 2016 margin of victory in Detroit.

McEnany has a long history of pushing disinformation — serving as an unofficial campaign spokesperson while also working as press secretary, a contradictory role that's been scrutinized by experts as a possible Hatch Act violation — even beyond the 2020 election, which Trump still insists he won.

Upon taking over the role of press secretary, she had one promise for the American people.

"I will never lie to you," McEnany told reporters at her first press conference on May 1. "You have my word on that."

She then proceeded to violate that promise — not only in that same speech, but also on dozens of other occasions in the subsequent months.

After leaked tapes revealed that Trump had indeed lied to the American people about the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of the pandemic, despite having knowledge to the contrary, McEnany insisted he had done nothing wrong.

"The president has never lied to the American public on COVID," she said in September.

McEnany has also pushed false claims of voter fraud on the airwaves, falsely claiming Trump won Pennsylvania when he didn't.

In mid-December, long after Trump lost the election, she suggested there still might be a "continuation of power" involving Trump remaining in office.

"[Trump] won't get ahead of that activity actually happening, but he has taken all statutory requirements necessary to either ensure a smooth transition or a continuation of power," she said in a briefing.

McEnany has also lied about former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama blocking an orderly transfer of power — when Trump quite literally thanked them for ensuring one, in his inauguration speech.

She's made other easily debunked claims as well, falsely claiming Trump was the first president to celebrate World Aids Day and that the Trump administration has an all-female communications team.

Notoriously conservative Fox News even cut off a post-election press conference by McEnany in November, noting that she didn't have any evidence to support her claims of a stolen election.

"Unless she has more details to back that up, I can't in good countenance continue showing you this," said anchor Neil Cavuto.

McEnany's latest false claim comes just one day after she took to Twitter to blast CNN's Jake Tapper for saying Sunday that he won't interview her because she lies "like most people breathe".

"There are some people that are so mendacious, I just wouldn't put them on air. Kayleigh McEnany, I never booked her," Tapper said. "Jason Miller from the Trump campaign, I would never book him. These are just people who tell lies the way that most people breathe. There was no value in that."

McEnany fired back the next day.

"This is a therapy session for a broken network, and @jaketapper is lazy enough to participate by lobbing baseless personal attacks with ZERO evidence," McEnany tweeted Monday. "Jake's real problem: I do not leak. I do not lie. But I DO call out the lies of the media (i.e. CNN Russia collusion hoax!)."

There is zero evidence to support her claim that the media created the "Russia collusion hoax." McEnany appeared to be referring to the nearly two-year-long Russian election interference investigation, ultimately spearheaded by former special counsel Robert Mueller, who determined there were at least 10 instances of possible obstruction by Trump on the matter, and myriad ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election and beyond.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.