Tag: tulsi gabbard
Lackluster Trump Campaign Floats Possible Running Mates

Lackluster Trump Campaign Floats Possible Running Mates

Former President Donald Trump and his crew are throwing around names for his next running mate, according to sources who spoke with The Daily Beast. All are women so far, and all are folks most of us are loath to hear from on a regular basis.

The Trump campaign has yet to take off, and it’s still early in the game, but according to a couple of GOP insiders, the top three on the shortlist include: proud supporter of the January 6 insurrectionists Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene; Trump apologist and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik; and possible Russian asset and former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard. A madcap crew of chaos to be sure.

Eric Jackman, a friend of Gabbard’s, tells The Daily Beast he believes she’ll have the support of younger voters—specifically, “the 9/11 generation” who served in the military—adding that Gabbard “would be very hesitant to offer advice to a commander-in-chief to go invade or overthrow another country.”

“Me, speaking personally, I’d love to see her at the top of the ticket,” Jackman said. “But if it meant her at the top of the ticket with another Republican—yeah, you know, my experience is people who are Tulsi Gabbard supporters are very past partisan politics, they don’t like partisanship, they don’t like to be pinned down by a label.”

One GOP operative told The Daily Beast that a Greene vice presidency could overshadow Trump despite how close they are.

“She’s been characterized as Trump in heels,” the source said. “Her style is just like Trump,” the source added, but also that as MAGA as she is, the former president has already got that base covered.

“You don’t need MAGA—he’s MAGA,” the GOP strategist said. “You need someone who is loyal, someone who can fundraise, and someone who can help you win swing states.”

Of course, Stefanik is an excellent pick for Trump because she threw out all of her ethics some months back and became a staunch defender of the twice-impeached president, standing by her man during the January 6 insurrection investigations and proudly endorsing Trump for a 2024 run—even as other Republicans hesitated.

The Daily Beast reports that other potential names being tossed around are South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and losing Arizona gubernatorial candidate (with the best on-camera lighting) Kari Lake.

Politico reports that Trump’s first campaign stop for his run will happen in South Carolina in late January. An “intimate” event, his advisers say, which is always code for a small crowd. Apparently, they’ve realized half-empty rodeo arenas are a bad look.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Santos Admitted Using 'Stolen Checks' During 2008 Visit To Brazil

Santos Admitted Using 'Stolen Checks' During 2008 Visit To Brazil

In his congressional district in Queens and Long Island, Jewish activists have been calling for Rep. George Santos to resign from Congress following reports that during his 2022 campaign, he falsely claimed that his grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Santos, according to the New York Times, also lied about everything from his education to his work history. Regardless, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has rushed to Santos’ defense, chastising former Democrat turned Fox News pundit Tulsi Gabbard for asking him tough questions during an appearance on Fox News.

Santos has been inundated with bad publicity in late 2022 and early 2023. Now, CNN is reporting that in 2008, the New York City Republican “used stolen checks to make purchases” in Brazil.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Who is Rep. George Santos?

Ans: Rep. George Santos is a Republican politician from New York City who is currently serving in Congress.

What are the allegations against Rep. George Santos?

Ans: Rep. George Santos has been accused of falsely claiming that his grandparents were Holocaust survivors, lying about his education and work history, and using stolen checks to make purchases in Brazil in 2008.

Why are people calling for Rep. George Santos to resign?

Ans:Many Jewish activists in Rep. George Santos' congressional district in Queens and Long Island have called for him to resign following the allegations against him.

In an article published by CNN’s website on January 4, reporters Anne Claire Stapleton, Julia Vargas Jones and Marcia Reverdosa explain that Santos “admitted to stealing a man’s checkbook that was in his mother’s possession to purchase clothing and shoes in 2008, according to documents obtained by CNN.” The journalists add, “The admission came in a statement Santos gave to police in 2010, according to 150 pages worth of case documents.”

Brazilian law enforcement officials, according to the CNN reporters, “suspended an investigation into Santos because they were unable to find him for nearly a decade” but announced, on January 3, that they “will reinstate fraud charges against the New York Republican.”

Stapleton, Jones and Reverdosa report that “Santos used stolen checks to make purchases at a shop in Niterói, a city outside of Rio de Janeiro on June 17, 2008, according to court documents,” adding, “When making the purchase, he used an ID card with the checkbook owner’s name and a picture of himself, according to police documents.”

Although Santos grew up in the United States, his parents were immigrants from Brazil. Santos’ grandparents also lived in Brazil, but according to the New York Times, records show that his grandparents on his mother’s side weren’t, as he claimed, Holocaust survivors who fled to Brazil from Europe to escape the Nazis — both of them, according to records examined by the Times, were born in Brazil.

Stapleton, Jones and Reverdosa report, “Brazilian authorities, having now verified Santos’ location, will make a formal request to the U.S. Justice Department to notify Santos of the charges, Maristela Pereira, a spokeswoman for the Rio de Janeiro prosecutor’s office, told CNN. The prosecutor’s office told CNN the request will be filed upon reopening on Friday, (January 6).”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Some Republicans Distancing From George Santos As His Lies Metastasize

Some Republicans Distancing From George Santos As His Lies Metastasize

Republican Rep.-elect George Santos is “not welcome” at Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) events anymore, the group said after Santos repeatedly lied to them about his supposed Jewish heritage. That’s just part of the fallout as Santos tried and failed to explain what’s not just a series of lies but seems to be an entire invented identity. But top House Republicans? They're silent, because with an extremely narrow majority, they’re not going to say or do anything to jeopardize a win in a slightly blue district. In particular, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy previously included Santos when bragging about the increase in Jewish Republicans in the House, but he still needs Santos’ vote for speaker.

The RJC has a lot of reason to be furious at Santos. He’s now saying he “never claimed to be Jewish.” Instead, “Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’” In reality, he told several American Jewish organizations, in writing, that he was “a proud American Jew.”

Speaking to the aforementioned RJC after the elections, he really leaned in:

Santos also claimed his grandparents were Holocaust survivors, which is both gross and unambiguously a lie. No wonder the RJC is saying “He deceived us and misrepresented his heritage” and “will not be welcome at any future RJC event.”

This particular Santos lie is entirely debunked at this point. There are still big questions about some of the others, and the biggest one remains just how a guy whose claims about significant assets and personal wealth all turn out to be lies was able to lend his campaign up to $700,000. One possibility, raised by Democratic campaign operative Chris Walsh in a Twitter thread digging into Santos’ FEC filings, is that … he didn’t. That his official federal campaign filings are full of lies, too.

Walsh’s discoveries include broad strokes like the campaign spending more on fundraising than advertising and specific eyebrow-raising expenditures like these:

If the FEC was worth a damn, it would be digging into this right now.

Here’s how bad Santos is at telling the truth or getting people to continue overlooking his lies: He made Tulsi Gabbard look good.

The really special thing here, though, is that none of this is likely to matter a bit. It would take a lot of Republican votes to kick Santos out of the House, and they will not do that as long as they need him to maintain their majority.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Endorsing MAGA Republicans, Tulsi Gabbard Shows What She Means By 'Independent'

Endorsing MAGA Republicans, Tulsi Gabbard Shows What She Means By 'Independent'

When former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard announced she was leaving the Democratic Party, she extended an invitation to all “common sense, independent-minded Democrats” to join her. Well, in the last few days, we’ve gotten a pretty clear idea of Gabbard’s idea of “independent minded.” Apparently, it means giving a middle finger to the very foundations of democracy.

She’s seen fit to endorse two people who have essentially glued MAGA hats to their heads—a Senate candidate who can’t bring himself to unequivocally declare that Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election, and a gubernatorial candidate who is a chest-beating election denier. Even worse, she’s campaigning for the election denier.

On Sunday, Gabbard took to Twitter to endorse Don Bolduc, who is challenging Sen. Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire.





Gabbard quickly put action behind her words, joining Bolduc on the campaign trail in Loudon, New Hampshire. Watch coverage from WMUR-TV in Manchester.

What Gabbard apparently doesn’t want us to know is that Bolduc has forgotten the meaning of that oath. He spent the better part of a year openly promoting the Big Lie, and was one of 124 retired brass hats who claimed the election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden. Those were big reasons that the state and national Republican establishment swallowed hard when Bolduc won the Republican nomination.

Bolduc has hedged somewhat since winning the nomination. On the day after the Republican primary in New Hampshire, he claimed that he now believed Biden won even though the election was shot through with fraud. Earlier this month, however, he reversed himself again, now saying he couldn’t say one way or the other whether Donald Trump had victory stolen from him.

It says a lot about Bolduc that he can even think about running for the Senate when he can’t unequivocally acknowledge Biden won the 2020 election fair and square. And it says just as much about Gabbard, herself a veteran, that she has no qualms about endorsing him.

Then again, Gabbard’s next endorsement said even more about her. On Monday, she endorsed Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor of Arizona.


Ironically, after hailing Bolduc for upholding the oath that he took to defend the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic”—an oath that she herself swore—Gabbard has gone all in for a woman who has shown herself to be the very definition of a domestic enemy. She has openly and unashamedly promoted the Big Lie, and even went as far as to slam her main opponent in the Republican primary for failing to endorse the Big Lie. True to form, she has refused to commit to accepting the results of the election if it ends in her being defeated by Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

But none of that apparently matters to Gabbard. She introduced Lake at a Republican forum in Chandler on Tuesday night.

As far as I’m concerned, Gabbard isn’t just telling us who she really is. She’s yelling it from the rooftops through a bullhorn. Granted, she gave some pretty loud hints about who she really was when she claimed that WikiLeaks “spurred necessary change”—and the fact that it exposed thousands of people to identity theft be hanged. In so doing, Gabbard effectively disqualified herself from ever running for office again.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.