The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: atlanta
Trump's Viral Chick-Fil-A 'Moment' Was Staged

Trump's Viral Chick-Fil-A 'Moment' Was Staged

As Donald Trump continues to try to make inroads with Black voters, his allegedly spontaneous viral visit to an Atlanta Chick-fil-A on Wednesday came at just the right time for the indicted ex-president as the patrons and staff, mostly young Black women, appeared to gush over him.

Fox News went wild over the encounter, calling it a “surprise visit.”

Video showed Trump casually declaring in the middle of the restaurant, with his arms opened wide, “Let me give you a hug,” and a young woman running over into his arms.

“Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones the next morning called it, “such an organic moment because you had all these people that obviously knew the president was there but were Trump supporters as well. Minorities.”

Jones then painted the stark “contrast” between President Joe Biden’s State Dinner with the Prime Minister of Japan on Wednesday evening, and the ex-president who just happened to walk into a Chick-fil-A and ordered 30 milkshakes. Jones appeared agitated by the Biden State Dinner, saying, “You got the current president, the ‘smoozing,’ State Dinner, you got the Clinton – why does another former president have to do a State Dinner with the current president? I think that’s strange.”

But it had not taken long for some to say it seemed staged.

“The odds of Trump walking into a Chick-Fil-A in a big city like Atlanta, and every single customer in there just happening to be a supporter, are infinitesimally small. The whole thing was obviously staged to ensure that only his supporters were inside,” observed the social media account for The Palmer Report just hours after the Chick-fil-A visit took place.

MeidasTouch Network on Friday reports, “Trump’s Viral Hug At Chick-fil-A Was With a MAGA Operative,” and notes the woman Trump supposedly spontaneously hugged, Michaelah Montgomery “is a ‘political consultant’ and former Georgia GOP intern.”

Former CNN commentator Keith Boykin, the co-founder of the National Black Justice Coalition, wrote: “I knew it! Trump’s Chick-fil-A stop was a staged photo op with Black Republican supporters. Michaelah Montgomery, the Black woman who told Trump that ‘we support you,’ actually runs a conservative group and worked with Candace Owens’s Blexit Foundation.”

Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch, explained, “Just like his fake union rally & lie about calling Ruby Garcia’s family, the Trump excursion to Chick-fil-A was a staged op with a political consultant who has done work with the GOP, Charlie Kirk & Candace Owens’ orgs.” Linking to their report, Filipkowski, an attorney and former Republican calls it a “pattern of fraud.”

The liberal PAC PatriotTakes reposted a Trump campaign video, added screenshots, and wrote, “These Trump photo ops are pre-staged with supporters prior to his arrival.”

Despite all this evidence, Friday afternoon Fox News continued to hype the two-day old “viral” event, with host John Roberts telling viewers, “That was a true retail politics moment there. Biden goes in to get ice cream, he grabs himself a double scoop and walks out. Trump goes in and buys everyone lunch.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Chris Veal

Right-Wingers Cheered Trump Mural -- Until It Was Completed (VIDEO)

Within hours of Donald Trump’s Fulton County jail mugshot getting plastered around the world, right-wingers were pretending that having the leader of their political movement indicted four separate times was a good thing. Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk’s inhalation of copium included calling it the “most iconic mugshot in American history,” and Lara Trump told Newsmax it would “backfire” on Trump’s detractors. Meanwhile, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shared a poorly photoshopped mugshot of her own in the most superficial form of solidarity available to her.

On The Ingraham Angle, Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo proposed that the mugshot would launch Donald Trump into a cultural landscape with famous musicians and “outlaws,” such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, and Tupac Shakur. He went so far as to say he had heard a “Black lady” call Trump “a gangsta,” which to Arroyo meant Trump now “has cred among a new block of voters that perhaps have never given him a serious look and now they are looking again.” In Arroyo and other right-wingers’ imaginations, Black people believe that anyone who gets a mugshot is cool.

On Sunday, Georgia-based artist Chris Veal painted a mural of Trump’s mugshot on a building that runs along Atlanta’s Eastside BeltLine Trail. Kirk and other right-wingers saw the beginnings of the mural’s creation on X, formerly known as Twitter, and championed it as proof positive that Atlantans were in revolt against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Shortly after Kirk reposted the video, Veal finished his mural and surprise surprise! It wasn’t the pro-Trump message Kirk and others wanted so badly. A bubble had been added to the mural that read: “M.A.G.A. My Ass Got Arrested.” The repost eventually earned a community note.

As for the predicted “backlash,” Veal told Fox 5 that the mural took about three hours to complete. He said feedback has been positive, with people smiling and laughing and giving him “high fives.” Veal added, “I hope they get a kick out of it. I hope they keep up with it and get out and vote.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Fani Willis

Seeking October Trial, Fani Willis Calls Trump Co-Defendant's Bluff

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Thursday "effectively call[ed]" former Donald Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro’s bluff, according to Atlantic Journal-Constitution reporter Tamar Hallerman.

Chesebro is one of 19 people charged earlier this month in a sprawling 41-count indictment accusing Trump and his associates of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Prosecutors say Chesebro wrote internal campaign memorandums that purported to offer a legal framework for appointing fraudulent electors to overturn the will of Georgia voters and give Trump the state’s 16 Electoral college votes. Chesebro “is charged with racketeering and other offenses, such as conspiring to commit impersonating a public officer, conspiring to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiring to commit false statements and writings,” the Atlantic Journal-Constitution reports.

Chesebro on Wednesday filed an “aggressive” motion demanding a speedy trial in the case. Reporters Hallerman and Bill Rankin described the motion as “the legal equivalent of throwing a bomb into the case,” adding the move “could force Willis to try Chesebro by the end of December and scuttle her plans to prosecute all 19 defendants together.”

But, as Hailerman and Rankin report, Willis on Thursday called for the trial “to commence for all 19 defendants on Oct. 23.”

“Willis is effectively calling Chesebro's bluff with this new filing — telegraphing to him and the 18th others that the state is indeed ready,” Hallerman wrote in a tweet. “Will be up to Judge McAfee to weigh in now. There's also the question of what happens to the pending fed removal motions….”

McAfee indeed weighed in “a few hours later setting the trial date Willis wanted but ruling it would apply only to Chesebro,” the reporters note.

“Due to the defendant’s timely demand for speedy trial ... scheduling will occur on an expedited timeline,” McAfee wrote in his decision. “At this time, these deadlines do not apply to any co-defendant.”

As the reporters note, multiple legal issues interact Chesebro’s with speedy trial request. For one, three defendants, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, have asked to transfer their cases out of Fulton County Superior Court to U.S. District Court in Atlanta, and a number of legal experts say if one defendant is removed the other 18 would follow.”

According to the reporters, there’s no precedent for “how Georgia’s speedy trial rule and the federal removal statute interact.”
“There’s no case law,” Atlanta attorney Andrew Fleischman told Hailerman and Rankin.

The reporters add: “Under Georgia law, the speedy trial demand filed by Chesebro applies to all 19 defendants."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Mark Meadows

Atlanta Court Sets $100K Bail For Mark Meadows And Releases His Mugshot

One-time White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Thursday surrendered to the Fulton County Jail on charges related to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the presidential election, the Daily Beast reports.

A mugshot and booking records released Thursday showed Meadows “was booked on two charges — violation of the RICO Act and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer,” the Beast adds. Bond for the former House Oversight Committee chairman was set at $100,000 and he is “forbidden from speaking with co-defendants about the facts of the case, and from intimidating witnesses and co-defendants, or ‘otherwise obstruct[ing] the administration of justice,’” reporter Josh Fiallo notes.

Meadows is one of 19 co-defendants who are accused of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced the charges on Aug. 14.

The first of Trump’s co-defendants turned themselves in on Tuesday, and a steady stream of allies have trickled into the jail in the days since. Trump is expected to turn himself in at 7:30 PM tonight, according to a Truth Social post from the former president.

Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark on Tuesday made emergency requests to avoid arrest as they seek to move the charges to federal court. Those requests were denied by U.S. District Judge Steve Jones after Willis successfully argued the pleas were “improper” and “baseless.”

See the full mugshot below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.