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Fox News Promotes Sen. Johnson’s Salacious Biden Smears

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters

On the October 19 edition of his radio show, Fox News host Sean Hannity amplified an unverified and salacious claim about Hunter Biden. The allegation began the day before when Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), appearing on Fox with anchor Maria Bartiromo, made a stunning statement with zero evidence. That segment was widely condemned for its irresponsibility, but Hannity doubled down on its baseless claims, suggesting that "a lot of this is going to pan out to be true."

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Romney Slams GOP Senate Probe Of Biden As 'Not The Legitimate Role Of Government'


Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Never Trump conservatives have been praising Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah as one of the few Republicans in Congress who is willing to stand up to President Donald Trump, and now, Romney is speaking out against a GOP investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and his ties to the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has said that the Committee will issue a report on Hunter Biden's activities in Ukraine before the presidential election on November 3. Many Trump allies have promoted the debunked conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine — not the Russian government, President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin — that interfered in 2016's presidential election, and that Ukraine interfered to help Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. And Trump supporters are hoping that the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs report will be some type of "October surprise" that benefits Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

But Romney — the lone GOP senator who voted "guilty" on one of two articles of impeachment that Trump faced in a U.S. Senate trial earlier this year — considers the investigation of Hunter Biden and his connection to Burisma a huge waste of taxpayers' money. Romney, according to the Associated Press, spoke out during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee meeting on Wednesday, September 16 — saying that from the "outset," the investigation "had the earmarks of a political exercise."

"Obviously, it is the province of campaigns and political parties' opposition research, the media, to carry out political endeavors — to learn about or dust up one's opponent," Romney told fellow U.S. senators. "But it's not the legitimate role of government or Congress, or for taxpayer expense, to be used in an effort to damage political opponents."

Andrew Yates, a spokesman for Joe Biden, denounced the Hunter Biden/Burisma probe as "disgraceful" in an official statement. And two Democratic senators, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon called for "the cessation of any Senate investigation or activity that allows Congress to act as a conduit for Russian disinformation" in a resolution.

AP reporter Mary Clare Jalonick notes, "There is no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens, and Hunter Biden has denied using his influence with his father to aid Burisma."

Romney's willingness to vote "guilty" on an article of impeachment against Trump has been applauded by Democrats as well as Never Trump conservatives, but it has made him the least popular Republican U.S. senator among Trump's allies.

As DeJoy Admits Postal Delays, Johnson Says They’re ‘Ginned Up’ By Democrats

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) claimed on Friday that the uproar over delays at the United States Postal Service were not real but were a Democratic narrative meant to win votes in November.

"There are fundraising emails from Senate candidates, and the Democratic senatorial committee dating back as far as April complaining about this postal issue. So I have no doubt the Democrats are ginning these issues and problems up into something it's not, a very false narrative, as I said, designed to extract a political advantage," Johnson, chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said Friday at a hearing with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.


DeJoy himself admitted at that same hearing, however, that the postal delays were real.

"We had some delays in the mail and our recovery process in this should have been a few days and it's amounted to being a few weeks," DeJoy said, discussing the slowdowns.

"We all feel bad about what the dip in our service level has been," he added later.

Other Senate Republicans on the committee said they too had heard from constituents who have had trouble with mail delays — especially veterans, who have faced long waits for critical medications delivered via the Postal Service.

"I am concerned with the delays that we have seen in Ohio and elsewhere," Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) told DeJoy at the hearing. "We have a number of veterans who contacted us and said they weren't able to get their medication."


8-21-20 Rob Portman from Shareblue Media on Vimeo


Portman told the story of a 70-year-old Vietnam veteran in his district whose inhaler for his COPD was delayed.

"The inhaler refill was mailed through the postal service, due to delays, he ran out of it while waiting for it to arrive," Portman said, recalling the story. "And then his insurance said, 'You know what, we're not going to pay for another refill because it's already been shipped through the Postal Service.' And he can't afford to pay for another emergency refill personally."

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Pelosi Blasts DeJoy For Refusing To Restore Postal Service

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Wednesday, a conversation in which he "frankly admitted that he had no intention of replacing the sorting machines, blue mailboxes, and other key mail infrastructure," she said in a statement. She says she spoke with him to let him know that his announcement Tuesday that he was suspending certain policy changes that have crippled mail service "is not a solution and is misleading."

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