Tag: nancy mace
Trump's Icky Birthday Message To Epstein Is All Too Real

Trump's Icky Birthday Message To Epstein Is All Too Real

As it turns out, all of President Donald Trump’s Truth Social temper tantrums about his lewd birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein might have been done in vain.

On Monday, after receiving the Epstein estate files, the House Oversight Committee's Democrats posted what they claims to be the actual birthday card that Trump sent to Epstein.

“We got Trump’s birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein that the President said doesn’t exist,” the committee minority wrote on X.“Trump talks about a ‘wonderful secret’ the two of them shared. What is he hiding? Release the files!”

Part of alleged Epstein "birthday card" from Donald Trump released by House Oversight Committee Screenshot from NBC News

The card, which features a silhouette of a woman’s torso drawn over an alleged conversation between the two longtime friends, first surfaced in July when the Wall Street Journal got wind of an album of vulgar letters that Epstein received for his 50th birthday.

“We have certain things in common, Jeffrey,” the card denoted above another line in which Epstein agreed with Trump.

Just above Trump’s signature, which oddly resembles pubic hair, Trump reportedly wrote, “Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

When news first broke, Trump worked overtime to denounce and delegitimize what the Journal claimed were his own words.

“This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he told the publication. “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”

Soon after, Trump—who has previously sold his sketches for tens of thousands of dollars—filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Journal, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. While it’s unclear how the lawsuit will hold up following this latest development, Trump’s messaging around the Epstein scandal has been transitory at best since his name became attached to it.

From insisting that he would be a driving force in releasing the files to saying that the files themselves are a “hoax” created by the left, Trump’s stance has been anything but consistent.

“From what I understand, I could check, but from what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given. But it's really a Democrat hoax because they're trying to get people to talk about something that's totally irrelevant to the success that we've had as a nation since I've been president,” he said last week.

Trump’s denial has even pushed some of his GOP supporters, like Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia, to break with the president.

“We campaigned on transparency issues like ‘release the Epstein files,’” Greene said to reporters last week. “And all of a sudden there’s this hard stance coming from the Republican leadership and many of the members and the administration, and I’m shocked by it. I think it’s a major misstep. It is an uncalculated error that is going to have ramifications directly in the midterms.”

In step with Epstein survivors, even the most loyal MAGA politicians have found themselves opposing the president because of his refusal to be transparent.

“The truth needs to come out,” Greene said. “And the government holds the truth.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Rep. Jasmine Crockett

Nancy Mace Melts Down, Challenges Jasmine Crockett To Fistfight

On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee's organizational meeting to kick off the 119th Congress briefly devolved into chaos as one Republican member threatened to fight a Democratic member during the latter's allotted time.

While Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) was speaking about Rep. Nancy Mace's (R-SC) crusade against transgender people — which led to Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE.) being forced to use the men's bathroom in the House of Representatives — Mace blew up at Crockett and appeared to challenge her to a fist fight.

"Somebody's campaign coffers really are struggling right now, so she gonna keep saying 'trans trans trans' so that people will feel threatened," Crockett said, tossing her hair as she spoke. "And chile, listen, I want y'all to tell me why—"

At that point, Mace began shouting over Crockett as she spoke.

"Do not call me a child. I am no child. Don't even start! I am a grown woman! i am 47 years old! I have broken more glass ceilings than you ever have," Mace yelled as Crockett repeated that she was "reclaiming my time."

"If you want to take it outside, we can do that," Mace said as she slammed her mic down on a table.

At that point, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who chairs the Oversight Committee, repeatedly banged his gavel, called "order" and demanded the two stop arguing. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), who sits on the committee, posted to Bluesky that Comer ruled "threatening violence against another member is okay, as long as it's in the form of question."

Crockett: Somebody’s campaign coffers are struggling right now so she’s going to keep saying trans trans trans.. Child listen Mace: I am no child! Do not call me a child. I am a grown woman. If you want to take it outside

[image or embed]

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 14, 2025 at 9:09 PM

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Nancy Mace

Are These 'Republican Vixens' Mocking Conservative Morality?

South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace was in Washington telling a story about how her "fiance" wanted more action in bed earlier that day. "And I was like, 'No baby, we don't got time for that this morning.'" To which she added, "He can wait. I'll see him later tonight."

The occasion was a Christian prayer breakfast attended by evangelicals.

Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert famously vaped in a theater and grabbed her date's privates. When called out for her offensive conduct, she blamed a "difficult divorce." Meanwhile, self-described "Christian nationalist" Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene showers the House floor with profanities.

I honestly don't care who Nancy Mace shacks up with. But it is fascinating to hear her refer to the guy in her bed as a "fiance" as opposed to some random dude. Makes her adultery sound like almost-marriage.

What are these right-wing vixens up to? For starters, they're advertising their sexual availability. (Tinder never closes.) And as members of Congress, their forays into exhibitionism provide visibility and opportunities to raise money.

These ladies evidently think that they can get away with dishing this coarseness in public while posing as defenders of old-school morality. You sometimes wonder whether they are mocking social conservatives.

Some evangelicals are quite unhappy about this. They are joined by others who simply want more dignity in the political culture.

The road to right-wing vulgarity was paved with hypocrisy. Some of the credit goes to Bill Bennett, who long ago perfected the art of unprincipled rectitude. Former education secretary under Ronald Reagan, Bennett has long peddled a highly elastic moral code — depends on which party benefits — while maintaining a face frozen in pious judgment.

In his 1998 book, The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals, Bennett piled moral censure on Clinton over his tryst with a White House intern. And he went after Democrats for not sharing his indignation.

The first chapter, simply titled "Sex," pounded the pulpit. "In extramarital affairs," Bennett wrote, "there are victims. In marriage, one person has been entrusted with the soul of another." If true, that's bad news for Melania.

Years later, a Fox News interviewer asked Bennett how a man claiming fixed moral views on adultery could support Donald Trump. As the world knows, the former president cheated on his pregnant wife with a porn star and bragged about grabbing women by their genitals.

"I understand how you feel about some of the things," Bennett responded, miraculously keeping a straight face. "But it may be better to lower your standards on things the guy says temporarily than to lose your country permanently."

Ah, so he's using the "fiance" gambit. Branding Trump's lewd talk as "temporary" make it an almost-character flaw. As for the "lose your country" part, that sounds a bit dated considering how close Trump got us to losing our democracy.

"Sexual indiscipline can be a threat to the stability of crucial human affairs," Bennett wrote in reference to Clinton. Would someone kindly translate?

Urging voters to look past Trump's licentious record, Bennett argued, "Think about the economy." Years earlier, he rapped the knuckles of Clinton defenders for allegedly contending that "what matters above all is a healthy economy." Actually, the economy was a lot better under Clinton, and the budget was balanced, too.

Look, Bennett has a First Amendment right to make money off hypocrisy. And let the record show, I too disapprove of adultery. But I also regarded Clinton's misconduct as a private matter to be worked out between a couple and the third party. And I extend that courtesy to Trump, Melania and Stormy Daniels.

Uncomfortable as it may sometimes be, consistency is a good thing.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Nancy Mace

Here's How We Know Republicans Are Lying About Their 'Support' For IVF

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has taken the bold step of defending in vitro fertilization by introducing a nonbinding resolution. That way Republicans in the House can pretend that they’re taking steps to protect IVF without actually protecting IVF.

That’s a Republican idea of a win-win: taking credit for something while doing nothing.

It’s also a perfect illustration of where the GOP stands on IVF. Two weeks after the conservative Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos are children and several hospitals and clinics halted IVF procedures as a result, Republicans are struggling with a fundamental issue: how to convince the general public that they support this popular procedure while reassuring their extremist base that they won’t do anything to address this issue.

The National Institutes of Health estimates that over 10 million children worldwide have been born through IVF and approximately 500,000 more are born each year. In the United States, roughly 97,000 babies are delivered each year thanks to assisted reproductive technologies like IVF, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control.

Families that use IVF are often desperate and have exhausted all other options before facing a physically strenuous process that costs roughly $20,000 per attempt and has an average success rate of 37 percent. Republicans jumping between these families and what they may view as their last opportunity to have a successful pregnancy and build a family comes off as needlessly (and thoughtlessly) cruel.

A YouGov poll shows a solid 67 percent of Americans believe IVF should be legal. Only eight percent believe that IVF should be illegal.

In the same poll, a 46 percent plurality of Americans believe a law should be passed to legalize abortion nationally. Only seven percent of those responding insisted that abortion should be illegal at any time, in any circumstance, no exceptions.

It’s not hard to understand that these two groups who don’t approve of IVF or abortion are likely to have an almost 100 percent overlap. According to the poll results, those saying that IVF should be illegal were more than twice as likely to consider themselves Republicans and to support Donald Trump.

Many abortion laws are based on the idea that life begins at conception. This is a religious concept that dates back only to the 20th century, as early religious figures had no idea about the stages of reproduction. However, the position was rapidly adopted by the Roman Catholic Church and by some evangelical groups. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and conservative Catholic leaders are still officially (and vehemently) opposed to IVF. So are many evangelical leaders and theologians.

The Republican dilemma is simple: Only a small percentage of Americans oppose IVF, but many of those who do oppose it are among the most devoted, fanatical supporters of Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

It might only be a tiny percentage, but it’s their tiny percentage.

Republicans know that losing that portion of their most vocal base would doom any hope of winning a national election. And there is more at stake for Republicans than just votes.

Right-wing figures like Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo are deeply enmeshed in what happened with the Alabama decision. Leo is also the tip of a dark-money iceberg involved in promoting extremist positions on all aspects of reproduction. Republicans are terrified of losing that connection to outside groups, especially when their coffers are nearly bare and the incoming party co-chair is promising to spend every penny paying her father-in-law’s legal bills.

Republicans are left utterly dependent on outside groups to run ads, do opposition research, and take care of all the other things that their own campaigns might do if they had any money. So they don’t dare upset this dark conservative apple cart.

That’s why, no matter what they are saying, Republicans moved immediately to block legislation introduced by Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth that would have provided nationwide protection for IVF.

It’s why there are spectacles like this, where Rep. Anna Luna withdrew her name as the co-sponsor of a bill protecting IVF, even as Republicans are claiming that they support IVF.

Republicans in Alabama may have pushed a bill through the state Legislature that protects IVF facilities (though not parents) from potential prosecution, but the initial version of that bill was very deliberately set to sunset this protection within months of the upcoming election. Legislators removed that April 1, 2025, deadline after it became clear this would have prevented anyone from beginning an IVF procedure for three months before the election, which would have only put this issue right back on the front page at a very inconvenient time.

But absolutely nothing is stopping them from moving to limit or block any IVF protections once the election is over.

Moving to protect IVF through legislation would risk cutting Republicans off from their most fanatical supporters and from sources of cash that Trump can’t directly purloin. It would also leave them vulnerable to questions about why the millions of fertilized eggs destroyed in IVF attempts each year (far more than the number of embryos destroyed in abortions) don’t represent an annual holocaust. If Republicans really believe life begins when a unique genetic signature is created, IVF is unsupportable. If they don’t continue to voice that belief, almost all abortion legislation is left hanging from nothing.

Republicans are flailing, making gestures of support for IVF in hopes the issue will disappear until after the election. They want to pretend to be supportive of desperate families while quietly reassuring their base that they will actually continue to support a position held by only a tiny minority.

Duckworth’s move in bringing forward her bill was a good way to call their bluff. There should be more of this … right up to Election Day.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

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