Busted! Sex Trafficking Victim Debunks Katie Britt's Misuse Of Her Story

Busted! Sex Trafficking Victim Debunks Katie Britt's Misuse Of Her Story

The woman who is the sex-trafficking survivor in the story spun by Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) on Thursday night in the GOP response to the State of the Union address has come forward to denounce and debunk the Alabama Republican's telling of events.

“'I hardly ever cooperate with politicians, because it seems to me that they only want an image. They only want a photo — and that to me is not fair,'" Karla Jacinto told CNN on Sunday," the news outlet reported (video below). Jacinto, now an advocate against human trafficking, "told CNN that Mexican politicians took advantage of her by using her story for political purposes and that it’s happened again in the United States."

Jacinto "was not trafficked by Mexican drug cartels, but by a pimp who operated as part of a family that entrapped vulnerable girls to force them into prostitution, she said."

The Daily Beastadds that Karla Jacinto "said no one from Britt’s camp or anywhere else contacted her asking for permission to use her story in the GOP’s SOTU response, and she also confirmed allegations from a viral TikTok video that Britt’s telling of that story was, at best, completely misleading.

"Britt had told a story of a sex-trafficking survivor, now know to be Jacinto, that was crafted to sound as if the victim's horrific experiences had happened at the hands of a cartel and during President Joe Biden's term, in the United States, and as a result of his polices. In reality, the events took place in Mexico, during President George W. Bush's administration.

As the journalism news site Poynter reports, "former Associated Press reporter Jonathan Katz put out a video on social media, saying Britt was 'beyond misleading.' (Here’s Katz’s TikTok video.) The woman Britt appeared to be talking about is Karla Jacinto Romero, who testified before Congress about being the victim of sex trafficking by Mexican cartels years ago when she was 12. She was at a roundtable discussion at the border last year with Britt and two other senators."

CNN's Rafael Romo says he's known Jacinto since 2014, when CNN profiled her for a report.

"She was very surprised, she told me, when she found out on Saturday that she was involuntarily put in the middle of a social media storm," Romo said on CNN.

Through a translator, Jacinto told CNN: “I work as a spokesperson for many victims who have no voice, and I really would like them to be empathetic—all the governors, all the senators—to be empathetic with the issue of human trafficking, because there are millions of girls and boys who disappear all the time.”

“People who are really trafficked and abused, as she mentioned," Jacinto added, referring to Britt and her speech. "And I think she should first take into account what really happens before telling a story of that magnitude.”

Watch CNN's report, including the interview with Jacinto, below or at this link.

Woman who appears to be at center of Katie Britt's SOTU anecdote has message for the Alabama senatoryoutu.be

Mitch McConnell

'I Said I Would': Craven McConnell Defends Support Of 'Disgraceful' Trump

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is defending his decision to endorse Donald Trump, despite having blamed him for the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, calling it an “impeachable offense,” and describing the ex-president as a “son of a bitch,” according to reports.

“The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government, which they did not like,” McConnell said on the Senate floor on January 19, just 13 days after the insurrection, and just one day before Joe Biden would be sworn in as the 46th President.

Less than four weeks later, Minority Leader McConnell again struck out at Trump.

“He said Trump is ‘practically and morally responsible’ for the insurrection on January 6. He said Trump’s supporters were ‘assaulting the Capitol in his name’ and ‘carried his banners’ while ‘screaming their loyalties to him,'” as USA Todayreported February 14 of that year.

“This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out,” McConnell continued. “Former President Trump’s actions that preceded the riot were a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty.”

Days after the insurrection, McConnell told several associates, “The Democrats are going to take care of the son of a bitch for us,” according to New York Times reporters Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin, in their book, This Will Not Pass. McConnell was “referring to the effort to impeach Trump in the Democratic-led House, according to the Times’ reporters,” CNN‘s Chris Cillizza reported.

“And of Trump’s guilt, McConnell was equally clear-eyed: ‘If this isn’t impeachable, I don’t know what is,’ he said.”

Cillizza offered up “a quick reminder of what happened at the Capitol on January 6: An armed mob stormed the building with the express purpose of disrupting the counting of the Electoral College votes. They did so because the sitting President of the United States at the time had, repeatedly and without any proof, told them that the 2020 election had been stolen.”

On Wednesday, CNN’s Manu Raju confronted McConnell on why he endorsed Donald Trump for President.

The Republican Minority Leader responded by essentially saying he endorsed him because he said he would.

“How do you reconcile your Trump endorsement with the fact that you called him practically and morally responsible for January 6, and the fact that he insulted you and your wife repeatedly?” Raju asked McConnell.

The Minority Leader appeared prepared for the question.

He replied, “On February the 25th, 2021, shortly after the attack on the Capitol, I was asked a similar question. And I said I would support the nominee for president. Even if it were the former president.”

“In April of last year,” another reporter told McConnell, “you indicated didn’t really directly answered the question as to whether or not you were comfortable with Mr. Trump, if he was in the middle of criminal trials and indictments, he was the nominee. I presume that means you’re comfortable with him?”

“I don’t have anything to add to what I just said,” McConnell replied. “I said in February of 2021, shortly after the attack on the Capitol that I would support President Trump if he were the nominee of our party, and he obviously is going to be the nominee of our party.”

Watch below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

New Video Shows Trump Babbling Nonsense 32 Times In One Day

New Video Shows Trump Babbling Nonsense 32 Times In One Day

A video compilation purports to show 32 times Donald Trump forgot words, mispronounced or mixed up names, got confused, or just “babbled insane nonsense” during his two campaign speeches on Saturday.

The video, posted to social media by attorney and MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski, lasts under three minutes, and has gotten 1.3 million views in under 30 hours.

“’Anybody that loves me, I like them’ – a reminder of how easy it is to play or manipulate Trump and how, per his own words, he has zero principles or values and operates on a purely narcissistic, self-serving basis,” observed journalist Mehdi Hasan, quoting Trump from the video.

“And yet again the media will be primarily focused on Biden’s age,” lamented pollster and MSNBC political analyst Cornell Belcher. “As if Biden simply being old with no credible ethics issues is somehow equivalent to Trump’s clear cognitive problems along with 90+ criminal counts & an attempt to overthrow an election. Make it make sense.”

MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday did a segment on what it called Trump’s “public gaffes.”

“The guy just kept getting confused,” co-host Joe Scarborough told viewers as he introduced video.

“We see it more and more,” Scarborough added, calling it “pathetic and sad.”

“He looks lost.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Matt Schlapp

'Normalizing' Nazis: CPAC Chief Enraged Over Report On White Nationalists

Critics are blasting CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, as the embattled head of the organization that puts together and hosts the event, Matt Schlapp, is attacking NBC News over its report that states: “Nazis mingle openly at CPAC, spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories and finding allies.”

“Nazis appeared to find a friendly reception at the Conservative Political Action Conference this year,” writes Ben Goggin, NBC News Digital deputy editor for technology. “Throughout the conference, racist extremists, some of whom had secured official CPAC badges, openly mingled with conference attendees and espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories.”

“The presence of these individuals has been a persistent issue at CPAC. In previous years, conference organizers have ejected well-known Nazis and white supremacists such as Nick Fuentes,” NBC News also reported. “But this year, racist conspiracy theorists didn’t meet any perceptible resistance at the conference where Donald Trump has been the keynote speaker since 2017.”

Schlapp is the head of the American Conservative Union. He and his wife Mercedes Schlapp were once described as the “Trump-Era ‘It Couple’.” Now he is facing a $9 million lawsuit over alleged sexual assault, including “aggressive fondling,” after Republican strategist Carlton Huffman, a staffer at the time for the failed Herschel Walker senatorial campaign, says Matt Schlapp groped him in January of 2023.

CPAC’s list of speakers last week included the far-right ultra-conservative president of Argentina, Javier Milei, who “gave Donald Trump on Saturday an ecstatic hug,” the AP reported. Donald Trump, calling himself a “proud political dissident,” delivered the keynote address at CPAC on Saturday. CNN described it as “lie-filled.”

Schlapp was both furious and dismissive of NBC News’ report.

“NBC’s claim that there was a Nazi presence at CPAC 2024 is false, misleading, and grossly manipulative—especially coming from a writer who has carried the water for Hamas in much of his reporting on the Israel-Gaza war,” Schlapp wrote in a statement posted by CPAC to X. “When we come across someone at CPAC peddling any kind of anti-semitism, we deal with them immediately. Knowing this, NBC weaved together lies and fabrications to create a false perception, and we won’t stand by idly while NBC engages in willful misinformation.”

In a separate post, Schlapp also wrote:

“Yawn. This is a tired old cliche. The Neo-Nazis in our midst are the ones controlling our college campuses and major institutions and grossly populate the newsrooms of corporate media, calling for an Israeli surrender.”

NBC’s Goggin responded:

“The Nazis introduced themselves to me at a mixer and said they were national socialists, started talking about skull measurements and pushing the conspiracy theory that all races were being controlled Jewish people. They were posting about their presence at CPAC online.”

He also provided photos and video:READ MORE: Democrats Discredit GOP Claims on IVF as Republicans Try to Regain Ground After Fallout

CPAC’s list of speakers last week included the far-right ultra-conservative president of Argentina, Javier Milei, who “gave Donald Trump on Saturday an ecstatic hug,” the AP reported. Donald Trump, calling himself a “proud political dissident,” delivered the keynote address at CPAC on Saturday. CNN described it as “lie-filled.”

Schlapp was both furious and dismissive of NBC News’ report.

“NBC’s claim that there was a Nazi presence at CPAC 2024 is false, misleading, and grossly manipulative—especially coming from a writer who has carried the water for Hamas in much of his reporting on the Israel-Gaza war,” Schlapp wrote in a statement posted by CPAC to X. “When we come across someone at CPAC peddling any kind of anti-semitism, we deal with them immediately. Knowing this, NBC weaved together lies and fabrications to create a false perception, and we won’t stand by idly while NBC engages in willful misinformation.”

In a separate post, Schlapp also wrote:

“Yawn. This is a tired old cliche. The Neo-Nazis in our midst are the ones controlling our college campuses and major institutions and grossly populate the newsrooms of corporate media, calling for an Israeli surrender.”

NBC’s Goggin responded:

“The Nazis introduced themselves to me at a mixer and said they were national socialists, started talking about skull measurements and pushing the conspiracy theory that all races were being controlled Jewish people. They were posting about their presence at CPAC online.”

He also provided photos and video:

“Either CPAC is lying about having no idea about this, or they simply don’t have a grasp on who they approved to come to their conference…,” Goggin added.

“Nazis, antisemitism, the great replacement theory, [white supremacist Nick] Fuentes, have become so common among conservatives that I think attendees, even journalists, didn’t think too deeply about them being at CPAC. There was very much an ‘oh them’ attitude about the nazis.”

“It really illustrated how successfully extremists have shifted the Overton window. This year, they were expected, and their presence was tolerated,” he added.

Critics blasted CPAC.

“At CPAC, avowed Nazis mingled openly & spread antisemitic conspiracy theories, as speakers welcomed the ‘end of democracy.’ They are all saying the quiet part out loud. And most GOP lawmakers are silent (or cheering). This is how extremism is normalized,” warned Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. Spitalnick “led a group that won a $25 million judgment against the neo-Nazis who organized the deadly 2017 Charlottesville march in Virginia,” The Times of Israel reported in 2022.

“Seriously, read this @BenjaminGoggin piece and tell me those of us ringing the alarm bells on increasingly mainstreamed Nazism are being hyperbolic,” Spitalnick added.

“CPAC denies the presence of Nazis at their conference this year, but when I reported that @cpac was teeming with white nationalists in 2022 there wasn’t a peep from Matt Schlapp about it,” wroteTexas Observer special investigative correspondent Steven Monacelli.

Former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY), currently a candidate for Congress running to unseat U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), said: “I am appalled that Nazis were allowed to attend CPAC—an event Donald Trump headlined again this year. Make no mistake: the Republican Party and Trump have empowered white nationalists for years.”

Responding to the NBC News article, former U.S. government official Mike Walker wrote on X: “This is not Munich, 1933. This is Washington, DC, 2024.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Kenneth Chesebro

Trump Lawyer Used Secret Twitter Account In GOP Coup Plot

Kenneth Chesebro, one of the architects of Donald Trump’s fake elector plot, had a secret Twitter account he hid from investigators in Michigan that he used to promote some of his extremist theories. In October Chesebro pleaded guilty to a felony in Georgia’s RICO case against Donald Trump and 18 others.

Using the handle “BadgerPundit,” Chesebro hid “dozens of damning posts that undercut his statements to investigators about his role in the election subversion scheme, a CNN KFile investigation has found,” CNN reported. “The Twitter posts reveal that even before the 2020 election, and then just two days after polls closed, Chesebro promoted a far more aggressive election subversion strategy than he later let on in his Michigan interview.”

When confronted with evidence the account belonged to Chesebro, his attorneys admitted it belonged to their client, while minimizing the damning posts as a “random stream of consciousness” where he was just “spitballing” and “being a goof.”

But, in one instance, when accused of promoting an article likened to the “death of democracy,” Chesebro on his secret social media account replied, “it’s called politics, dude,” CNN’s KFile team reports.

“When he was doing volunteer work for the campaign, he was very specific and hunkered-down into being the lawyer that he is, and gave specific kinds of legal advice based on things that he thought were legitimate legal challenges, versus BadgerPundit, who is this other guy over there, just being a goof,” said Robert Langford, an attorney for Chesebro.

But CNN reveals that on his BadgerPundit Twitter account, Chesebro said, “You don’t get the big picture. Trump doesn’t have to get courts to declare him the winner of the vote. He just needs to convince Republican legislatures that the election was systematically rigged, but it’s impossible to run it again, so they should appoint electors instead.” That was posted to Twitter, now X, on November 7, 2020, “the day multiple media outlets, including CNN, called the election for Joe Biden.”

CNN reports that contrary to his secret social media claim, “in his interview with Michigan investigators, Chesebro said the very opposite, claiming that the entire electors plan was contingent on the courts.”

“I saw no scenario where Pence could count any vote for any state because there hadn’t been a court or a legislature in any state backing any of the alternate electors,” Chesebro said.

In another twist, CNN reports, “In an email to Trump attorneys in early December 2020, Chesebro linked to a Google Drive account for the email address TheBadger14@Gmail.com, which was once used by BadgerPundit in a tweet as his contact information. Chesebro also cited the BadgerPundit account in emails to a Trump campaign official and attorney John Eastman on January 5, 2021, pointing to tweets from BadgerPundit arguing that Pence had the authority to pick the electors on January 6.”

Chesebro’s BadgerPundit account on X still exists, but has been “protected” so only those he has granted access to can read his posts. ”

TheBadger14 is also identified by Chesebro in his bio on X as a blog. NCRM found that site has been active since at least 2011, but posts from the past few years are also hidden from public view. Its “About” page suggests it is a venue for Chesebro to discuss “mocking, through exaggeration for comic effect, relatively routine instances of progressives behaving badly.”

Read the entire CNN article here.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Donald Trump taking Fifth

Borders On Pathological': Judge Issues Scathing Decision, Fines Trump $364 Million

New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s 92-page ruling fining Donald Trump approximately $364 million includes the jurist’s scathing observations about Trump and his executives’ practices.

In an almost literary section of his ruling titled, “Refusal to Admit Error,” Justice Engoron writes, “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological.”

“The English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) first declared, ‘To err is human, to forgive is divine.’ Defendants apparently are of a different mind. After some four years of investigation and litigation, the only error (‘inadvertent,’ of course) that they acknowledge is the tripling of the size of the Trump Tower Penthouse, which cannot be gainsaid. Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological. They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again,” Engoron writes in the section, as pointed put by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern. “This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin. Defendants did not commit murder or arson. They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways. Instead, they adopt a ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ posture that the evidence belies.”

“This Court is not constituted to judge morality; it is constituted to find facts and apply the law. In this particular case, in applying the law to the facts, the Court intends to protect the integrity of the financial marketplace and, thus, the public as a whole. Defendants’ refusal to admit error—indeed, to continue it, according to the Independent Monitor—constrains this Court to conclude that they will engage in it going forward unless judicially restrained.”

“Indeed, Donald Trump testified that, even today, he does not believe the Trump Organization needed to make any changes based on the facts that came out during this trial.”

CNN’s Caitlin Collins commented, “I think that [para]graph really sums up this entire thing.” She adds it explains “why we are seeing this large of a number,” referring to the $364 million fine.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Pro-Trump Border Patrol Union Urges Congress To Pass Senate Bill He Opposes

Pro-Trump Border Patrol Union Urges Congress To Pass Senate Bill He Opposes

In a major blow to House Republicans, some far-right Senate Republicans, and Donald Trump, the labor union representing U.S. Border Patrol agents and staff on Monday endorsed the Senate border bill, saying it “will drop illegal border crossings nationwide.”

The entire House Republican leadership team in a statement Monday called the Senate bill “DEAD on arrival.” The legislation, seen as the “harshest” immigration bill in decades, also provides billions for defense in Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

Just last week Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, appeared before a GOP-controlled House committee, testifying, “I can honestly say border patrol agents want him impeached,” referring to Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

But on Monday, Judd and the NBPC broke from House Republicans.

“Since Joe Biden has been in office, CBP [Customs and Border Patrol] has averaged over 8,000 apprehensions per day and the vast majority of these illegal immigrants have been released under a policy known as catch-and-release,” he said in a statement. In another version that number read “6,700.”

“Approximately 60% of all border apprehensions are single adults, a good number of whom are military age men,” he added, echoing GOP talking points.

“Approximately 60% of all border apprehensions are single adults, a good number of whom are military age men,” he added, echoing GOP talking points.

But then Judd added:

“The Border Act of 2024 will give U.S. Border Patrol agents authorities codified, in law, that we have not had in the past. This will allow us to remove single adults expeditiously and without a lengthy judicial review which historically has required the release of these individuals into the interior of the United States. This alone will drop illegal border crossings nationwide and will allow our agents to get back to detecting and apprehending those who want to cross our borders illegally and evade apprehension. While not perfect, the Border Act of 2024 is a step in the right direction and is far better than the current status quo. This is why the National Border Patrol Council endorses this bill and hopes for its quick passage.”

Fox News’ Bill Melugin adds, ” Like every union, this doesn’t represent the views of every Border Patrol agent, but the union is vehemently anti-Biden & pro-border security, just look at their X posts, and the union president is a supporter of former President Trump – who said he is against the deal.”

Indeed, the National Border Patrol Council endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2016 and 2020.

Trump strongly opposes the legislation, and has warned all Republicans against voting for it, instead demanding a “perfect” bill that allows zero undocumented immigrants to cross the border.

“Only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill,” Trump said on Truth Social, while calling it a “great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party,” according to Politico.

Reprinted with permission from AlterNet


Mike Johnson

House GOP's Impeachment Drive Against Biden Crashes Into Facts

Senior Republican lawmakers and GOP insiders are reaching a consensus that the chances of successfully impeaching President Joe Biden are tumbling, given the dearth of credible accusations against him and the razor-thin majority Speaker Mike Johnson has in the House.

Three top Republican-chaired committees were tasked with investigating President Biden in an effort to impeach him. Some Republicans have suggested or even admitted the effort is either purely political or retaliation for Democrats in the House twice impeaching Donald Trump. Among them, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Troy Nehls (R-TX), then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Oversight Chair Jim Comer, and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan.

TIME reported last month that “the multi-pronged investigation has failed to prove that Joe Biden benefitted from his son’s business dealings or that he used his official government power to enrich himself or his kin. Nevertheless, leading House Republicans appear determined to impeach the President in the coming months, despite queasiness from within their own ranks.”

CNN reported on Friday that a “growing number of senior House Republicans are coming to terms with a stark realization: It is unlikely that their monthslong investigation into Joe Biden will actually lead to impeaching the president.”

“Top Republicans are not expected to make an official decision on whether to pursue impeachment articles until after a pair of high-stakes depositions later this month with Hunter Biden and the president’s brother, James. But serious doubts are growing inside the GOP that they will be able to convince their razor-thin majority to back the politically perilous impeachment effort in an election-year, according to interviews with over a dozen Republican lawmakers and aides, including some who are close to the probe.”

Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), a far-right Republican some have said was instrumental in the planning of the January 6, 2021 insurrection, told CNN, “I don’t know that the case has been made adequately to the American people.”

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) added, “Let the American people decide in November if they want to take this country in a different direction.”

One unnamed GOP lawmaker told CNN of the impeachment, “I don’t think it goes anywhere,” and another said point-blank: “We don’t have the votes right now.”

GOP insiders too are growing weary of the move to impeach Biden, given the dearth of evidence.

“The window to impeach is rapidly closing,” one Republican strategist said.

Another, speaking about the investigation into President Biden told CNN, “You’d be hard pressed to say it’s going well,” and added, “It’s a jumbled mess.”

Meanwhile, CNN adds, House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY) “has gotten in hot water for his handling of witness transcripts and has held only one public hearing on his probe, which one senior GOP aide called at the time an ‘an unmitigated disaster.’”

Add to this that on Tuesday theWall Street Journal editorial board wrote, “Impeaching Mayorkas Achieves Nothing: A policy dispute doesn’t qualify as a high crime and misdemeanor.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Mike Johnson

As Shutdown Looms, House Speaker Struggles With Far Right 'Friends'

Once again, as of late Friday morning, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is claiming he has a spending deal he can pass to avert a shutdown of the federal government that could occur in seven days. Johnson had made the same statement over the weekend. A lot has happened in between.

Portions of the federal government will shut down if that deal or a continuing resolution (CR) are not passed and signed into law by the end of next Friday.

Speaker Johnson and Majority Leader Schumer last weekend announced they had reached a deal, which largely mirrors the deal then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden had agreed to.

But a handful of far-right Republicans, most in the House Freedom Caucus, this week began attacking the deal, insisting that large cuts to the federal budget must be made. And if not, they began suggesting, perhaps Speaker Johnson should suffer the same fate as Speaker Johnson: a “motion to vacate the chair,” removing him as Speaker.

Far-right members of Congress including Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) have been expressing outrage over federal government spending, and dangling the “MTV –” the “motion to vacate” suggestion.

Freedom Caucus chairman, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), and a dozen or so of his fellow far-right House Republicans on Wednesday scuttled a vote, telling reporters the funding deal Johnson and Schumer had reached is “unacceptable,” The New York Times reported,

On Wednesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene complained about the “chaos” members of the House Freedom Caucus – which booted her last year – were causing by complaining about the deal.

But just one day later, in an interview with far-right provocateur Steve Bannon, Rep. Greene changed her tune, denouncing the deal.

“If I’m Speaker of the House,” Rep. Greene told Bannon, “I finish the job in the House. I pass the appropriation bills, and then I tell Chuck Schumer in the Senate, it’s your job now, buddy.”

“But right now,” Greene continued, “Mike Johnson is getting rolled in meeting after meeting after meeting. Every day Mike Johnson gets closer and closer to this deal brings me closer and closer to vacating the chair because I have absolutely had it.”

Here’s how Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman at 8:55 AM Friday summed up where House Republicans are: “One week until the government partially shuts down,” and the “house will be gone by 10:45 this morning.”

The “senate left yesterday – not a single bill conferenced,” and Speaker Johnson “hasn’t publicly said whether he’s for a CR [continuing resolution to keep the government running].

He adds, “as of yesterday, Johnson had members in his office urging him to walk away from a four-day old spending agreement. Remember how appropriations was going to work again? This is as bad as it’s been. If not worse. two deadlines in two months.”

Sherman also notes, “all the hardliners meeting with him say they don’t believe Johnson has agreed to a budget deal. (He did).”

The first possible government shutdown of the year is January 19. The second is February 2.

Johnson has been meeting one-on-one and with groups of his Republican caucus. Sherman has been detailing those meetings:

9:24 AM: “JOHNSON is meeting with MTG [Marjorie Taylor Greene] in the speakers ceremonial office off the house floor MTG said yesterday that she would not support the budget agreement and the government should be running at its bare-bone minimum.”

9:34 AM: “JUST NOW — MTG upon leaving a meeting w @SpeakerJohnson: ‘I don’t think there’s a solid budget agreement yet.’ Johnson announced a budget agreement with Schumer Sunday.”

10:54 AM: “JOHNSON is huddling with HFC [House Freedom Caucus] members on the floor. He’s getting chewed out, per a source.”

11:07 AM: “JOHNSON, after getting chewed out on House floor by HFC, says: ‘Our top line agreement remains.'”

See the photo and video above or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Trump's Lawyer Says He Could Order Murder Of Political Rival -- And Not Be Prosecuted

Trump's Lawyer Says He Could Order Murder Of Political Rival -- And Not Be Prosecuted

A President could order the assassination of his political rival and not ever face prosecution unless the House successfully impeached him and the Senate convicted him for that crime, according to the ex-president’s attorney, in oral arguments Tuesday morning attempting to convince judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals of Trump’s claims of absolute immunity.

Trump and his attorneys are arguing Donald Trump has “presidential immunity” and therefore cannot be charged, prosecuted, or tried for actions he took in the federal (and state) trials he is facing for election subversion and other unlawful acts surrounding the 2020 election and January 6 insurrection.

“There it is,” national security attorney Bradley Moss wrote on X. “Trump’s lawyers conceding that Biden could order Seal Team 6 to assassinate Trump and Biden could not be prosecuted absent impeachment and conviction.”

Moss played out the logical conclusions of Trump’s lawyer’s argument.

“How would he ever get impeached, let alone convicted, if Biden could just assassinate legislators who would vote in support of that?” he posited. “Do you get how insane this is?”

“I want MAGA legal pundits to think through what they are defending here with Trump’s immunity fight: if Trump wins this argument, why would Biden even bother letting Trump make it to election day? He could have him murdered, along with GOP congressional allies, and be immune,” Moss added.

Professor of law Eric Segall, who teaches constitutional law, observed, “Trump’s Lawyer is arguing that Presidents can’t be criminally prosecuted for first degree murder unless he’s impeached first. This is a moronic argument under any and all interpretative theories, text, history, and common sense.”

Listen to the portion of Trump’s attorney, John Sauer, arguing that a president can order assassination, essentially commit murder, and not be prosecuted unless first impeached and convicted, below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Mike Johnson

Angry Republicans Already Considering Whether To Oust Their New Speaker

Just two and a half months into his job, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is leading a caucus of increasingly angered and frustrated Republicans, with some GOP lawmakers privately and even publicly attacking their new leader – after ousting their previous one.

Despite two possible federal government shutdowns looming – January 19 is the first deadline, followed by one on February 2 – House Republicans are furious that Speaker Johnson appears to be abiding by the law and a verbal agreement, one forged by his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, and President Joe Biden.

“Significant concerns growing about Mike’s ability to jump to this level and deliver conservative wins,” one “well-plugged-in” House Republican congressman told Punchbowl News. “Growing feeling that he’s in way, way over his head. As much as there was valid criticism and frustration with Kevin, Mike is struggling to grow into the job and is just getting rolled even more than McCarthy did.”

Punchbowl is calling this “Johnson’s Hell Week,” as the House will returns today “and Speaker Mike Johnson is set to get a very rough reception.”

“There has been a lot — and we mean truly a lot — of private griping among House Republicans about Johnson’s deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to lock in the Fiscal Responsibility Act for FY2024 spending.”

Count far-right Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) among those who are publicly griping about spending and about Johnson.

“The speaker’s office and everyone in town are trying to sell everybody a bill of goods. It’s not true,” Roy told the Washington Examiner, which notes, “When asked if he was referring to conversations about a motion to vacate and remove Johnson as speaker, Roy wouldn’t say.”

But he did say, “We’re just having the conversations we need to have about this continued failure theater.”

Monday night on CNN Rep. Roy was more forthcoming.

Asked if Republicans are going to try to oust Speaker Johnson, Roy denounced the spending bill then said, “I think there’s going to be some real conversations this week about what we need to do going forward.”

When pressed again about possibly ousting Johnson, Roy didn’t say yes but he didn’t say no.

“That’s not the road I prefer,” Roy replied. “I didn’t prefer to go down that road with Speaker McCarthy. We need to figure out how to get this all done together. But it isn’t good, and there’s a lot of my colleagues who are pretty frustrated about it, so we’ll see what happens this week.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Christian Ziegler

Police Expand Rape And 'Voyeurism' Probe Of Florida GOP Chair

Sarasota police are expanding their criminal investigation into Christian Ziegler, the embattled chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, to include video voyeurism, a felony that carries a possible five-year prison penalty. Ziegler has been accused of rape by the same woman he and his wife Bridget, a Moms for Liberty co-founder and school board member who helped draft Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” law, admit to having a three-way sexual relationship with.

According to a search warrant affidavit, police believe Christian Ziegler unlawfully filmed his alleged rape of the woman, which he claims was consensual. They have obtained a search warrant for Ziegler’s Instagram account, which they believe contains “evidence of the crime,” according to the Florida Trident, which also first broke the news of the rape allegation against Ziegler and of the three-way relationship.

The woman, who has not been named, says she was not aware Ziegler had filmed the encounter.

The alleged rape occurred after the woman canceled a planned three-way sexual encounter with the Zieglers, known as Florida’s Republican “power couple,” upon learning Bridget Ziegler, Christian’s wife who has strong ties to Gov. DeSantis, was not available.

“Detectives spoke with both the victim and Ziegler’s wife,” Sarasota Police Det. Megan Buck wrote in the search warrant affidavit. “The victim did not give Ziegler consent to take this video of them having sex. Neither … Ziegler’s wife or the victim knew anything about this video that had been taken of the sexual encounter on 10/02/23, and neither had seen the video of this encounter.”

The Herald-Tribune adds, “A Sarasota police detective wrote in the search warrant affidavit for Instagram records that she believes ‘probable cause exists to show (Zeigler) has utilized Instagram to commit the crime of Video Voyeurism.'”

Police have obtained two sex videos of the Zieglers: the one Christian reportedly filmed of the alleged rape, and a second one, of Bridget Ziegler “engaging in sexual relations” with an unidentified woman, sources said, according to a previous report by theTrident. “It is not known if the woman in the video is the same woman who has alleged she was sexually assaulted by Christian Ziegler.”

Bridget Ziegler confirmed the married couple had a three-way sexual relationship with the woman now accusing Christian Ziegler of sexual battery. She stood right behind DeSantis, now a GOP presidential candidate, when he signed his “Don’t Say Gay” legislation into law, an act some have called hypocritical given her consensual three-way sexual relationship and that both helped write and promote the legislation.

Last month the Republican Party of Florida stripped Christian Ziegler of his $120,000 annual salary and responsibilities, finding him unfit to serve. He has refused to resign, but reportedly is willing to step down if handed a massive payout, allegedly up to $2 million.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Donald Trump

Majority of Americans Support Colorado Court Removing Trump From 2024 Ballot

A new YouGov poll finds the majority of Americans -- 54 percent -- support the Colorado Supreme Court’s Tuesday decision that Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on that state’s 2024 primary ballot, because he engaged in insurrection. In a further hit to the twice-impeached former president, the poll found barely more than one-third, just 35 percent, disagreed with that ruling.

Participants were asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of the Colorado Supreme Court ruling that Donald Trump can’t appear on the state’s 2024 Republican presidential primary ballot because his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 takeover of the Capitol amount to insurrection or rebellion against the United States?”

A whopping 84 percent of Democrats, 48 percent of independents, and even almost one in four Republicans, or 24 percent, agreed with the decision to remove Trump.

In a further blow to the ex-president, 38 percent strongly agreed with the ruling, while just 28 percent strongly disagreed.

Meanwhile, nearly six in ten Republicans, 58 percent, believe the U.S. Supreme Court will reverse the Colorado court’s decision. Overall, less than half of all Americans, 43 percent, think the Supreme Court will overrule the state Supreme Court, but just 23 percent think the Supreme Court will uphold it. One-third (34 percent) of Americans are unsure.

Former Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal on Tuesday predicted the U.S. Supreme Court will take the case and uphold the Colorado ruling.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Ron DeSantis

Sinking DeSantis Says Trump Is No Danger, Should Have Gone Further

Ron DeSantis, performing poorly in the polls, on Monday insisted his main opponent for the GOP presidential nomination, Donald Trump, is not a danger to democracy despite the ex-president’s fascistic remarks over the weekend, a signal the Florida Governor might go even further if elected to the White House.

“No,” DeSantis told MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski when the “Morning Joe” co-host asked, “Do you think Donald Trump is a threat to democracy?”

“Look,” said the governor, defending the Republican frontrunner he is currently trailing by an average of more than 50 points in the latest polls, “I think Donald Trump, he when he was president, I think that he really didn’t take some of the action that he could have constitutionally taken.”

“And so I understand there’s a narrative saying he’s going to be much different this next term, but I look back, you know, what didn’t he do?”

Telegraphing that had he been president, or if he becomes president, he would embrace far-right extremist policies even more that Donald Trump did, DeSantis listed what he suggested were some of Trump’s misses while in the Oval Office.

“You know, he didn’t move forcefully to build the border wall that languished for years,” criticized the Florida governor. DeSantis has spent large amounts of taxpayer money flying migrants north, which has been under federal investigation.

“He didn’t fire people like Anthony Fauci from the COVID task force when many conservatives including me in Florida, were saying they needed to go a different direction, even gave Fauci an award his last day in office, a lot of the people who he appointed he sent trashed after leaving office, but he could have fired them.”

“He didn’t really take any action to reform the bureaucracy or to curb the administrative state. So I think what is being said would be him acting in ways that actually were not how he acted before he deferred a lot of his presidency to some of these people that he now criticizes.”

Over the weekend Trump expanded his fascistic pronouncements.

“They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump said Sunday “about the record numbers of immigrants coming to the U.S. without immediate legal status,” the Associated Press reported. “Speaking in the early-voting state of New Hampshire, Trump, drew on words similar to Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kempf’ as the former U.S. president berated Biden’s team over the flow of migrants. ‘All over the world they’re pouring into our country,’ Trump said.”

Just one day earlier, during “a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Saturday,” Alternet reported, “GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump doubled down on his claim that immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country’ and praised authoritarian figures like Russian President Vladimir Putin and ‘highly respected’ Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.”

Presidential historian Jon Meacham, also Monday on MSNBC, had “stressed that 2024 shouldn’t be treated like a ‘conventional’ presidential election, as the U.S. is under threat from a ‘fascistic force.'”

“We will never be able to say we were not warned,” Meacham said, according to Alternet. “There’s no surprise attack here. This is explicit. This is clear…. If you don’t think this is serious, I don’t think you’re even remotely paying attention.”

Watch the video of DeSantis below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Experts Praise Smith For Supreme Court 'Leapfrog' Over Trump's Delay (VIDEO)

Experts Praise Smith For Supreme Court 'Leapfrog' Over Trump's Delay (VIDEO)

Legal experts are applauding Special Counsel Jack Smith’s move to “leapfrog” a Trump effort to delay his D.C. case by claiming he has immunity from prosecution and appealing the decisions by asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on that major question.

Trump is claiming he cannot be prosecuted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election because he was president at the time, and is also claiming he cannot be prosecuted because he was impeached nay the House but not convicted by the Senate.

Legal experts and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan have declared Trump is not immune from prosecution for criminal acts, with Judge Chutkan writing: “Defendant’s four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens.”

On Monday the Special Counsel appeared to have short-ciircuited Trump’s delay tactic by asking the Supreme Court to rule on this question: “Whether a former President is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin.

.”It is hard for Trump to logically object to Smith’s request today for expedited Supreme Ct review since it is Trump who is claiming he [should] not be subject to the indictment at all,” writes former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann, a popular MSNBC legal analyst. “Expedited review only helps alleviate that harm, if he is correct (which he is not).”

Weissmann adds, “Note newest Smith team member: the storied appellate lawyer Michael Dreeben. Argued over 100 cases in Supreme Court, and was head appellate lawyer on SC Mueller team.”

“This is a really ballsy move,” declared former U.S. Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman. “And who is Michael Dreeben? He plays a similar role in Mueller investigation but he was a very long time Deputy Solicitor General and probably the most respected Supreme Court advocate on criminal issues in the department.”

Steve Vladeck, the national security attorney and professor of law, adds, “if I were taking a criminal procedure issue to the Court, there’s no one I’d want as my special counsel *more* than Michael Dreeben.”

He also explains, “The bottom line of Jack Smith’s #SCOTUS filing is that he wants to ensure, one way or the other, that the issue of Trump’s constitutional immunity from the January 6-related prosecution is conclusively resolved by the end of the Supreme Court’s *current* term (i.e., June 2024).”

“This is exactly the right move,” announced noted constitutional law scholar and Harvard University Professor Emeritus Laurence Tribe. “And SCOTUS should agree to leapfrog the DC Circuit, just as it did in the Nixon tapes case. The issue is purely legal and delay hurts the country.”

Former 30-year federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, now an NBC News/MSNBC legal analyst sums up the Special Counsel’s move: “Unwilling to play Trump’s stupid reindeer games, Jack Smith takes the reins and seeks an expedited answer from the Supreme Court on Trump’s baseless claim that he is above the law and can’t be prosecuted for his crimes.”

Watch Weissmann’s explanation of Smith’s move below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Fox's Doocy: 'No Concrete Evidence' That Biden Profited From Son's Business

Fox's Doocy: 'No Concrete Evidence' That Biden Profited From Son's Business

In a report focused on House Republicans’ plan to vote on a resolution to open an official impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy told viewers there is no evidence of impeachable offenses.

“The House Oversight Committee has been at this for years, and they have so far not been able to provide any concrete evidence that Joe Biden personally profited from his son Hunter’s overseas business but they are going to try again with this impeachment inquiry set to start next week,” Doocy, who often criticizes President Biden in White House press briefings, said Friday on Fox News Business.

Other news outlets this week have also stressed Republicans have come up empty-handed.

The right-leaning news outlet The Hill, reporting on the resolution Thursday, noted Republicans’ current investigation “has struggled to connect President Biden to the activities of his son, and they’ve failed to prove their most salacious allegation — and the one that would be most key for impeachment: that the president accepted a bribe.”

One of the main pillars of Republicans’ allegations against President Biden, the “narrative that President Biden pushed Ukraine to fire its prosecutor to help his son, who served on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, has largely been refuted,” The Hill also reported.

“Republicans have engaged in wide-ranging inquiry into Mr. Biden for months,” The New York Timesreported Tuesday, “hunting for evidence to back up their allegations that he corruptly profited from his family members’ overseas business dealings and accepted bribes. To date, they have failed to deliver compelling evidence to back up their boldest claims.”

Watch Doocy below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.