Tag: democratic
For Two Years, Trump Escaped Mandatory Audits In 'Massive' IRS Failure

For Two Years, Trump Escaped Mandatory Audits In 'Massive' IRS Failure

A House committee says that for the first two years Donald Trump held office, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) did not audit him, NPR reports. And no audits were completed during his entire presidency.

This analysis comes after the House Ways and Means Committee agreed this week to release Trump’s tax filing history from 2015-2020. The committee has pursued evidence of the former president’s tax returns for almost four years.

Committee chairman Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, a Democrat, said, "The Committee expected that these mandatory audits were being conducted promptly and in accordance with IRS policies. However, our review found that under the prior administration, the program was dormant. We know now, the first mandatory audit was opened two years into his presidency. On the same day this Committee requested his returns."

"We anticipated the IRS would expand the mandatory audit program to account for the complex nature of the former president's financial situation, yet found no evidence of that," Neal said. "This is a major failure of the IRS under the prior administration, and certainly not what we had hoped to find."

According to NPR, when the Democratic congressman previously asked the IRS for Trump’s tax returns from 2013-2018, the Treasury Department denied his request citing it was “not supported by a legitimate legislative purpose.”

But now, because Democrats on the committee asserted that Trump’s tax returns are imperative to the IRS's presidential audit program, the returns can officially be released. And the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s October emergency application he hoped would block the greenlight for release.

In a split party vote, House committee Republicans voted against the release.

Ways and Means Republican Leader Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas said "We urge Democrats to turn back while they still can. If they release tax returns today it will be a stain on this committee."

In a statement he released last week, Brady said, "Ways and Means Democrats are unleashing a dangerous new political weapon that reaches far beyond President Trump, and jeopardizes the privacy of every American.” He continued, "Going forward, partisans in Congress have nearly unlimited power to target political enemies by obtaining and making public their private tax returns to embarrass and destroy them."

In disagreement, Neal said, "This was not about being punitive, it was not about being malicious."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Democratic Rep. Gallego Moves Toward Challenging Sinema In 2024

Democratic Rep. Gallego Moves Toward Challenging Sinema In 2024

Rep. Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, has long been rumored to be thinking of challenging Sen. Krysten Sinema, who last week stunned Democrats by changing her affiliation to independent.

As some have noted, Sinema’s unpopularity appears to have forced her hand with her party switch, knowing she could not survive a head-on primary challenge from a more popular Democrat. Conventional wisdom currently says in a battle between the popular Democratic lawmaker, Gallego, and the unpopular newly-independent Sinema, a Republican could win the seat if Democratic voters are split between two candidates.

Nevertheless, Gallego has reportedly taken another step toward challenging the incumbent in the 2024 election.

“Gallego has signed up the Democratic polling firm GBAO Strategies for a ‘leadership role’ for a potential Senate bid,” Politico reports. “GBAO Strategies is fresh off a slate of victories in the general election, after working for Democratic Pennsylvania Sen.-elect John Fetterman and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock.”

The Democratic Congressman got the question Monday morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

“I’m going to listen to my family over the holidays — I have a big Latino family that’s going to come in over Christmas, it’s going to be a very, very crowded house — but then after that, we’ll be making a decision. And we’ll be making a decision based on what’s best for Arizona and based on what I hear from the actual constituents of Arizona,” he said.

He also told MSNBC, “Kyrsten has decided to move to an Independent— that’s not the end of the world. What really is the end of the world is she really doesn’t match Arizona values anymore. And I’m going to go back and listen to the constituents of Arizona.”

Also on MSNBC Monday Gallego slammed House Republicans

“The crazy train has pulled in, the circus has put up the tent, and now the clowns are running around inside,” he said of his GOP colleagues.

And last week he slammed Sen. Sinema for leaving the Democratic Party.

“Last month, the voters of Arizona made their voices heard loud and clear – they want leaders who put the people of Arizona first,” he said in a statement. “We need Senators who will put Arizonans ahead of big drug companies and Wall Street bankers. Whether in the Marine Corps or in Congress, I have never backed down from fighting for Arizonans. And at a time when our nation needs leadership most, Arizona deserves a voice that won’t back down in the face of struggle. Unfortunately, Senator Sinema is once again putting her own interests ahead of getting things done for Arizonans.”

Gallego is a former Marine who served in the Iraq War.

First elected in 2010, Gallego has beat a Republican challenger every election, retaining his seat last month with 77% of the vote.

On Friday The New Republicobserved, “At this point, it seems not a matter of if, but when Ruben Gallego announces his run for Kyrsten Sinema’s seat.”

Meanwhile, Republican turned Democratic strategist Kurt Bardella says he doesn’t even think Sinema will run for re-election, which could make Gallego’s attempt to win the seat even easier.

Watch the videos above or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Justice Comes For MAGA Tricksters In Voter Suppression Case

Justice Comes For MAGA Tricksters In Voter Suppression Case

During the 2020 election, the team of Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman — two far-right MAGA activists and conspiracy theorists known for their underhanded stunts — were behind racist robocalls aimed at African-American voters. The robocalls, according to prosecutors, were a blatant attempt at voter suppression, trying to convince Black voters that if they voted by mail, the information they provided could lead to legal consequences for unpaid debts.

But Wohl and Burkman were the ones who ended up facing legal consequences. In late October, both of them pled guilty to a felony count of telecommunications fraud. And on Tuesday, November 29, a sentence was handed down in Ohio by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge John Sutula.

Sutula, according to Cleveland.com reporter Cory Shaffer, “placed” Wohl and Burkman “on two years of probation, fined each $2500 and ordered them to wear GPS ankle monitors with home confinement beginning at 8 p.m. each day for the first six months of their probation.” And they will be required to “spend 500 hours registering voters in low-income neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C., area,” Shaffer reports.

The 71-year-old judge had scathing criticism for Wohl and Burkman, telling the MAGA Republicans, “I think it’s a despicable thing that you guys have done,” and comparing their racist robocalls of 2020 to efforts to bully and intimidate African-American voters during the 1960s.

Sutula’s ruling was strictly for a case in Ohio. Wohl and Burkman have also been facing criminal charges in Michigan and a civil lawsuit in New York State in connection with their racist robocalls of 2020.

Wohl and Burkman weren’t physically present in Judge Sutula’s courtroom in Ohio, but rather, attended the hearing online. And Wohl told Sutula, “I just really want to express my absolute regret and shame over all of this.” Both of them could have been sentenced to up to a year in prison for telecommunications fraud in the Ohio case.

Shaffer notes, “The charge is connected to thousands of robocalls placed in Cleveland in the run-up to the 2020 election between then-President Donald Trump and the Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. The robocalls came at a time when states across the country had expanded the use of mail-in voting as a protective measure during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pair gained notoriety in recent years by throwing press conferences to levy phony sexual misconduct allegations against prominent Democrats and Republicans who are critical of former President Donald Trump. They are also charged in Michigan and are being sued by a civil rights organization in federal court in New York over the same robocalls.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Does Herschel Walker Have Any Idea What He's Talking About?

Does Herschel Walker Have Any Idea What He's Talking About?

As Republican nominee Herschel Walker enters the final weeks before the Georgia Senate runoff election, he has not been able to articulate cogent policy positions on virtually any of the major issues of concern to voters.

Walker will face off again against Democratic Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock in a runoff election ending December 6. Warnock received more votes than Walker in the November 8 general election, but neither candidate reached the 50 percent majority required to win.

Walker, who has frequently boasted of his role as an honorary law enforcement officer, has made fighting crime a major focus of his campaign rhetoric. On October 17, when he was asked during an appearance on NBC News' Meet the Press what crime legislation he would sponsor first if elected, Walker responded, "You know, the first bill you would wanna sponsor, it's gotta be something dealing with, supported our men and women in blue." Pressed for details, he said: "I have no idea what it's gonna look like. … What it's gonna look like, who knows? But we have to, have to get something back where you have law and order. We have to get something back where we have some unity because criminals not afraid of police anymore."

On November 15, Atlanta CBS News affiliate 13WMAZ reported that it had asked Walker's campaign the same question and had received a general response that he would continue making "strong investments" in law enforcement.

The campaign did not immediately respond to an American Independent Foundation request for his detailed policy positions on crime and other top issues.

Walker has spent the Senate campaign seemingly unable to provide coherent answers to policy questions or detailed legislative ideas.

In August, in a story titled "Herschel Walker skips details in bid to oust Raphael Warnock," the AP noted that while Walker blamed Warnock for inflation, he changed the subject to immigration and crime when asked how he himself would reduce it.

A November 16 report by 13WMAZ noted that while Walker has supported increased domestic oil and gas production, he has offered no other anti-inflation policy ideas. Warnock voted for the Inflation Reduction Act and authored key provisions to lower costs for medications and insulin for older Americans.

In an October 14 debate, Walker said he would have opposed the legislation. "I believe in reducing insulin, but at the same time you gotta eat right," he said. "Because he may not know and I know many people that's on insulin, and unless you have eating right, insulin is doing you no good."

After the May 24 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, CNN asked Walker if he would support gun safety legislation. "What I like to do is see it and everything and stuff. I like to see it," he replied, before walking away.

Two days later, on Fox News, Walker suggested, "What about getting a department that can look at young men that's looking at women that's looking at social media. What about doing that, looking into things like that, and we can stop that that way."

In January, Walker scolded a reporter from the right-wing media outlet Daily Caller for asking if he'd have voted for the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, telling him: "Until I see all the facts, you can't answer the question. I think that's what is totally unfair to someone like myself to say, 'What are you going to vote for?'"

Walker has repeatedly fumbled questions about climate change.

"Since we don't control the air, our good air decide to float over to China's bad air. So when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So it moves over to our good air space. And now we got to clean that back up," he said in July.

In August, he said he disliked the Inflation Reduction Act "because a lot of money, it's going to trees. Don't we have enough trees around here?"

"If we was ready for the green agenda, I'd raise my hand right now," Walker said during a campaign event on November 13. "But we're not ready right now. So don't let them fool you like this is a new agenda. This is not a new agenda. We're not prepared. We're not ready right now. What we need to do is keep having those gas-guzzling cars, 'cause we got the good emissions under those cars. We're doing the best thing that we can."

Last December, Walker criticized a voting rights bill named for the late Democratic Georgia Rep. John Lewis, referring to Lewis as a senator and falsely claiming: "I think then to throw his name on a bill for voting rights, I think is a shame. First of all, when you look at the bill, it just doesn't fit what John Lewis stood for and I think they know that and I think that is sad for them to do this to him."

Warnock, who has detailed policy positions on the issues, tweeted on November 8 that Walker is "neither fit nor ready for this job."

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.