The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: election 2022
Hershel Walker

Don’t Tell Trump! Walker Walks Back 2020 Election Lies

During his time as co-chair of the President's Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition under Donald Trump, Herschel Walker repeatedly spread Trump's false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen from Trump and that he, and not Joe Biden, had won in Georgia. Now, as he runs for Senate in the Georgia Republican primary, Walker says he has no idea if those allegations were true.

In an interview posted on Gainesville, Georgia, website AccessWDUN on Wednesday, the former pro football player was asked, "Do you believe there were problems with the 2020 election in Georgia?"

"I don't know if there were problems with the 2020 election," he replied. "What I do know is that, right now, I'm gonna win this seat, and, you know, everyone has complained, even Stacey Abrams complained that her race wasn't fair. And I've heard a lot of people saying a lot of things. One thing that I gotta worry about right now, that I'm gonna have a fair election, that people can believe in our election when I run." Complimenting Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, whom Trump is famously working to defeat in his run for reelection, Walker said, "Because I think, one thing that, I give it to the governor, that he's done is just with S.B. 202, securing the drop boxes now, requiring ID. That's gonna be something that's gonna be great for everyone right now. And that's what I'm happy to see that's going on."

This is a far cry from what Walker was saying in the days after Biden's decisive victory in November 2020.

Three days after Biden won, Walker demanded a do-over. "Instead of us fighting and going to court, why don't we have Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin vote again?" he suggested. "We can have it done within a week, and maintain our democracy."

In a December 27, 2020, appearance on Fox News, he falsely told host Jeanine Pirro that Trump had been reelected and questioned the fairness of the results: "Whether this president got 74 million or 80 million people, but I can guarantee you Joe Biden didn't get 50 million people voting for him. But yet, people think that he won this election."

Biden actually received 81,284,666 votes; Trump got 74,224,319.

Days later, Walker tweeted, "After watching the Ga Senate Hearings, there is no doubt there is serious Election Fraud! The whole world is watching."

On January 6, 2021, he falsely claimed pro-Trump insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn Biden's win were actually "Trojan Horses." He tweeted at Trump, "I call on ⁦@realDonaldTrump to find out who these people are as they do not look like MAGA! You have the power right now to see who they really are and to get to the bottom of who stole this election! Prosecute these bad players."

But since announcing last August that he would run for the GOP nomination to challenge Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Walker has noticeably backed off of his conspiracy theory claims and conceded that he has no real knowledge of the matter.

"Everyone want to talk about whether there was voter integrity or not. Well, let's not worry about that right now. Leave that up to our elected officials who's the right people to get something done," he told WDUN on Oct. 21.

Asked by an interviewer with the right-wing website Daily Caller on Jan. 27 whether he stood by previous statements about fraud in the 2020 election, Walker responded, "There's a problem somewhere. Where is that problem at? I don't know. But I think the only way you solve it, whether one person feel that he didn't get to vote or whether two feel, you need to check it out. And I do stand by that no matter what."

Asked the same thing in February, he told podcaster Steve Beecham, "I don't think anyone really knows."

Claiming that different news outlets were conflicted on the matter, Walker admitted, "I don't know what to trust there, but I say this, is that when I go around the state meeting with people, this person may say that he felt that his vote didn't count, this person said he felt that it did. And for Herschel Walker, I don't know."

A Walker spokesperson did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this story. Walker has not yet explicitly acknowledged that his earlier accusations were baseless.

He also happily accepted an endorsement from Trump, who continues to push widely debunked claims that Biden did not really win; Walker said nothing when Trump pushed those lies at a joint appearance in December.

Walker once played for a team owned by Trump in the now-defunct United States Football League and was an unsuccessful contestant on his "Celebrity Apprentice" television show.

Since joining the race, he has also come under fire for exaggerations and flat-out lies about his tenure as a Trump appointee, his education, and his business record.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Pharma CEO Who Endorsed Price Gouging Donated To Dr. Oz

Pharma CEO Who Endorsed Price Gouging Donated To Dr. Oz

Television personality turned Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz has often tried to present himself as a crusader against the pharmaceutical industry and high drug prices. But he accepted the legal maximum donation from a controversial pharmaceutical executive who once defended massive price hikes as "a moral requirement," according to recent campaign finance documents.

Oz's Federal Election Commission filing for the first quarter of 2022 showed that his campaign accepted $5,800 in donations from Nirmal Mulye, the founder and president of Nostrum Pharmaceuticals, on March 31.

In 2018, Mulye's company decided to more than quadruple the price of its liquid nitrofurantoin — an essential antibiotic used to treat some urinary tract infections — from $474.75 a bottle to $2,392 a bottle.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mulye defended the price-gouging as market-driven, saying, "I think it is a moral requirement to make money when you can ... to sell the product for the highest price."

Oz has tried to convince voters that he has fought against Big Tech and Big Pharma, despite the fact that he and his wife hold millions of dollars worth of stock in companies representing both industries.

In a November Fox News interview, Oz told host Sean Hannity, "I fought to empower my audience, my patients, and now the voters of Pennsylvania, and I've taken on Big Pharma. I've gone to battle with big tech. I've gone up against agrochem companies, the big ones, right? I've got scars to prove it. And I cannot be bought."

His campaign website claims that as a cardiothoracic surgeon, Oz understands how to fix the health care system:

He’s bravely argued against costly drugs, even as it made him a target of drug companies. As a U.S. Senator, he’ll work to dismantle policies that lead to more expensive prescription drugs for our seniors, and he’ll expand access to private sector plans expanded by President Trump and beloved by seniors for their low costs and high quality that could be available to all Americans who want them.

Earlier this month, Donald Trump endorsed Oz, arguing that his being a celebrity doctor qualified him to serve as a senator. "You know when you're in television for 18 years, that's like a poll," Trump said. "That means people like you."

Trump's own FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, once slammed Mulye's comments and approach to pricing.

"There's no moral imperative to price gouge and take advantage of patients," Gottlieb tweeted in response to the Financial Times story. "FDA will continue to promote competition so speculators and those with no regard to public health consequences can’t take advantage of patients who need medicine."

Spokespeople for the Oz campaign and Mulye's company did not immediately respond to inquiries for this story.

Oz, a long-time New Jersey resident and host of the syndicated Dr. Oz Show, announced his candidacy last November for retiring Republican Pat Toomey's open Pennsylvania Senate seat. He is one of several GOP candidates running for the Republican nomination.

An April Franklin and Marshall College poll found Oz narrowly ahead, with 16 percent support. Connecticut-based hedge fund executive turned Pennsylvania candidate Dave McCormick was close behind, with 15 percent.

The general election is considered a toss-up by election experts.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Steve Bannon

Bannon Promotes GOP Candidates Charged With Sexual Misconduct

Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon hosted 2022 Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster on his podcast after eight women accused him of sexual misconduct, including a GOP state senator.

On the April 19 edition of his show, War Room: Pandemic, Bannon invited Herbster to discredit the reports of sexual misconduct.

Steve Bannon platforms Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster after eight reports of alleged sexual misconduct

Steve Bannon platforms Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster after eight reports of alleged sexual misconductwww.mediamatters.org

During the interview, Bannon set up Herbster to suggest that the current Governor of Nebraska, Pete Ricketts, was behind the allegations.

Bannon asked, “Do you think the Governor Ricketts is in back of this?”

Herbster responded, “There’s no question in my mind about it. He is in back of this.”

Published with permission from Media Matters for American.

Bill Maher

Bill Maher Warns Against GOP 'Kooks' Running In Midterm (VIDEO)

Although comedian and “Real Time” host Bill Maher is a blistering critic of political correctness and “woke culture,” he is no fan of MAGA Republicans and former President Donald Trump. And during an early April monologue on “Real Time,” Maher warned that the far-right GOP “kooks” and “extremists” who are likely to take over the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2022 midterms make the Republican “kooks” of 2010 and 2012 look tame by comparison.

“We are now only seven months away from midterm elections that are poised to make the Republicans much more powerful,” Maher told viewers. “So, attention must be paid to where the Republican Party is right now. You’d think, with the left going a little looney over the past few years, Republicans would have seen an opening to grab the sensible center. But no…. Normal Republican crazy, where you just shoot guns at things you don’t like in your campaign ads — even that shit doesn’t cut it anymore… I look back at the Republican class of 2010 because that year has been held up as an example of Republican kookiness gone wild.”

Maher went on to cite examples of Republicans who were slammed as “kooks” in the 2010 and 2012 elections, including Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell (of “I’m not a witch” fame) and Missouri’s Todd Akin (who is infamous for his “legitimate rape” comment). And the 66-year-old “Real Time” host stressed that in 2022, the GOP is even more unhinged.

“In 2009,” Maher recalled, “it was a big deal when Congressman Joe Wilson yelled out ‘You lie’ during (President Barack) Obama’s State of the Union address. But this year, [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene and [Rep.] Lauren Boebert repeatedly interrupted (President Joe) Biden during his State of the Union. Excuse me, Karen! The president is talking; it’s not a black kid you caught trying to use the pool. No, you can’t have another skinny margarita, and if you don’t sit down, this flight is never getting to Orlando.”

Maher continued, “For all of you who get frustrated because Manchin and Sinema don’t vote like true liberals — because they never were — or think Trump is as bad as it’s going to get, remember the first rule of modern Republican politics: They always go lower. Because this party has no bottom, unless you count [Senator] Lindsey Graham. The kooky Republicans of the 2010 era wouldn’t even make the cut today for extremism. And the ones today aren’t even as bad as the ones in the wings. Wait ‘till you see the incoming group of Facebook uncles, crazy Karens and submental shitposters coming up.”

Maher pointed to “dim-witted religious nut” Kelly Tshibaka (who is running for the U.S. Senate in Alaska), Michele Fiore (who is running for Nevada state treasurer), “sociopath” Eric Greitens (who is running for the U.S. Senate in Missouri) and Tina Forte (a Republican seeking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s seat in the Bronx and Queens) as some of the many GOP “kooks” running for office in 2022.

Watch the video below:


Reprinted with permission from Alternet.