With Congress about to take up a new pandemic relief package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is back in the limelight, as she has the power to control the destiny of any such effort in the lower chamber.
And as usual, Pelosi is throwing around her considerable weight as speaker to dictate the outcome, even bullying reporters who dare question the process — then again, Pelosi is accustomed to a docile press corp.
On Monday press briefing, Nanacy Pelosi had a full scale meltdown when a reporter tried to ask her if she was willing to support a short-term extension of unemployment benefits while lawmakers work on a broader coronavirus relief package.
“Are you considering extending these benefits for a month or two while you continue negotiations?” the unidentified reporter asked.
Before the reporter could even spit out the entire question, Pelosi was saying no.
Pelosi was in the process of turning over the podium and as the reporter pressed on the issue, Pelosi is heard off camera almost shrieking, “No!”
“No, no, no!” she said repeatedly, clearly yelling at the reporter. “Pass the bill.”
Just as she tried to do before, Pelosi is hoping to exploit the suffering of the American people brought on by the pandemic to cram a bunch of liberal goodies in any new bill — she voiced the “priority” of “vote by mail” as one desire.
Nancy Pelosi has a mental breakdown on camera ..starts yelling “NO” over and over at a reporter …https://t.co/NTY9YV6XH4
House Democrats approved a sweeping $3 trillion relief plan two months ago, chock full of liberal goodies unrelated to the pandemic, but Republicans are looking at a $1 trillion measure that will reduce the $600 weekly jobless benefit noticably.
Having little shame, Pelosi tried to slip in funding for Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S., in an earlier measure.
That she so boldly bullies the media speaks volumes about the state of journalism today — when President trump gets into a scrap with aggressive reporters looking for their “gotcha” moment, it’s front page news.
Here are some of the responses from Twitter, as one social media user asked, “How do these clowns remain in office?”
Listen carefully. She actually asks the reporter if she understands what no means. 😂
— Contraception Is A Mortal Sin (@DEVOlutionistt) July 26, 2020
On Sunday, Jake Tapper had assistant secretary of Health and Human Services Adm. Brett Giroir on his show to talk about Covid testing. Giroir is the testing “czar” for the coronavirus task force.
Tapper started out absolutely KNOWING that testing isn’t being done, not enough, not well enough, and that it’s Trump’s fault, and he was ready to make this government goon answer for that.
But when the government goon actually had an answer, Jake got mad. So he changed the parameters. And when there was still a terrific answer, Jake changed them again. And when that didn’t work he accused Giroir of being afraid of Trump, and said Trump is personally preventing more testing and they’re all too chicken to bring it up.
And when Giroir smacked THAT down it was all “JAKE SMASH”. Read the transcript below, with blow-by-blow.
He concedes Trump used the Defense Production Act, and then he’s like “but still what about more using of it?”
“There seems to be this reluctance to push the president to do what he needs to do to get the testing up to speed. I know that he’s under the misguided impression that more testing is bad and makes him look bad. Which as you know is completely false. And I’m wondering if you and others are just afraid to do this because you don’t want to upset him. Afraid to ask him to do what he needs to do to invoke the DPA to force the federal labs to get up to speed to where we need to be so that we can isolate the virus as you know”.
“When you say people who need a test can get a test, there’s a huge percentage of people who have the coronavirus who are asymptomatic and they quote/unquote don’t need to be tested according to the standard but it needs to be much more widespread the testing to see people who are carriers who don’t have symptoms. That’s the point.”
“Are you afraid to bring this up to president Trump because it will upset him?” said Tapper, getting his quote to be used in every headline for the rest of the day in.
Then Giroir dropped the hammer: “So, Jake, there’s about six different things that you said in there and let me unpack it a little bit,” he said, in an awesome intro to the hammer.
“Everyone in the administration understands the importance of testing. Nobody in the task force is afraid to bring up anything to the vice president or the vice president. Every time I met with the president he is listening to the data, assesses that, he understands it. I meet with the vice president almost every single day. No one is trying to stop testing in this country. No one has ever told me to do that. We want more, better, quicker. So let me just put that to rest right there.”
“Secondly, we look for every opportunity to invoke the DPA. Now, the DPA isn’t a magic tool. It doesn’t violate the laws of physics. You can’t create something out of nothing,” he said.
“Most companies do not need DPA on them because they’re highly motivated to stop the pandemic,” he continued.
As he continued to provide his devastating answer, ruffled Jake tried to grab bag the oomph with a desperate “It’s not enough” interjection.
“Of course it’s enough!” said Giroir. “Tell me one thing we should be doing with any of these private labs that we’re not doing or they’re not doing on their own.”
“I talk to hundreds of people every week, the Rockefeller Foundation, really smart people,” (ie. not YOU Jake) “We have a national implementation for testing that we’re going to be getting together this week. I talk to ACLA, APLU, universities, private labs, hospitals, you name it. We’re getting input on a daily basis. If there’s a stone to be turned, that is left unturned you tell me what it is but from my vantage point, we’ve invoked all the authority.”
“I just told you,” smug Jake smugly interrupted with the air of superior knowledge while chuckling at the guy who talks to the experts and scientists and is one. He repeated his new goalpost that even though they’re doing a ton of stuff they are definitely evil because they haven’t forced labs to hire additional workers instantly out of thin air, and also got a fact wrong about Veterinary clinics in an attempted burn on Giroir, who stomped that mess out right away too.
After Giroir corrected Jake on his facile misunderstanding of the point about veterinary clinics, the now fully wounded and grouchy temper Jake responded by saying “No one thinks testing is up to speed where it needs to be.”
The famous “no one thinks”, which is sort of like “some say” but even dumber. But Jake wasn’t done being wrong yet.
“You have spent this interview talking about how great and perfect everything is,” he said, incorrectly as the transcript will show.
“I started out by saying that we are never going to be happy with testing until we get turnaround times within 24 hours, and I would be happy with point-of-care testing everywhere. We are not there yet,” said Adm. Giroir. “We are doing everything we can to do that.”
“What can we do? We can test everybody in a hospital within 24 hours so they can get the new treatments we developed. We are point-of-care testing in nursing homes or prioritizing because that’s where 50% of the mortality are. We’re supplying the public health laboratories. I work with ACLA every single day. I call their CEOs, those are the big labs,” he said, devastatingly.
“So look, I said we need to continually improve our ecosystem. We started from zero, and that is the truth. There was not a swab in the stockpile, there was not a testing strategy in the stockpile. That’s not this administration, that’s multiple administrations. We have increased it 140 fold and I’m gonna do everything I can every single day to improve that.”
“If you have a specific suggestion, and I answered what you said, we’re happy to talk about it. There’s no barrier here. The president wants this, the vice president wants this, everyone on the task force.”
New York Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler said in a video posted to social media that violence being committed by anarchists in Portland — often against federal agents deployed there to protect government buildings — is a “myth” circulating around Washington D.C.
“It is true, there’s violence across the whole country. Do you disavow violence from Antifa that’s happening in Portland right now?” Austen Fletcher, host of the “FleccasTalks” series, asked Nadler.
“That’s a myth that’s being spread only in Washington, D.C.,” Nadler responds.
“About Antifa in Portland?” the man pressed.
“Yes,” Nadler says as he is moved towards a waiting vehicle by a handler.
“Sir, there’s videos everywhere online, there’s fires and riots, they’re throwing fireworks at federal officers. DHS is there,” the man continues, a reference to the Department of Homeland Security.
“Look online,” the man implores. “That’s crazy, Mr. Nadler.”
Afterward, a woman says to Fletcher and another man with him, “Wow so…he thinks it’s fake news.”
“Antifa’s a myth,” the second man says.
“Yeah, Antifa’s a myth in Portland. Meanwhile, the whole city’s on fire and they’re trying to burn down the courthouse,” says Fletcher.
User “An0maly” posted that brief on-the-street encounter video with another in split-screen showing scenes of violence from Portland.
Video of the violence in Portland, though it may be confined to several blocks around the Hatfield Federal Courthouse, is certainly no myth, as evidenced by the hundreds of videos posted to social media by reporters on the ground including Andy Ngo.
In fact, AP reporter Mike Balsamo noted Sunday he spent a few days inside the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse with “US Marshals” and reported: “Mortars were being fired off repeatedly, fireworks & flares shot into the lobby, frozen bottles, concrete, cans & bouncy balls regularly whizzed over the fence at high speeds.”
I ran into Jerry Nadler in DC and asked him to disavow the Antifa violence/rioting in Portland.
Thanks to Justice Roberts and SCOTUS, churches in Nevada have more regulations than casinos.
In a 5 to 4 vote, Roberts sided with the four other liberal members to regulate Nevada churches.
Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley in Dayton, Nevada argued that the state was treating churches harsher than casinos, restaurants, and amusement parks. Those businesses have been limited to 50% of their fire-code capacities. Meanwhile, churches have been restricted to a flat 50 person limit.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., Clarence Thomas, and Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote in the dissent that the distinction makes no sense.
“The Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion,” he wrote. “It says nothing about the freedom to play craps or blackjack, to feed tokens into a slot machine or to engage in any other game of chance. But the governor of Nevada apparently has different priorities.”
“A public health emergency does not give governors and other public officials carte blanche to disregard the Constitution for as long as the medical problem persists,” Justice Alito wrote.
In a similar case, the court made the same ruling in May and Justice Alito sided with the majority. What concerned him, in this case, is that casinos are being treated differently than churches.
“That Nevada would discriminate in favor of the powerful gaming industry and its employees may not come as a surprise,” he wrote, “but this court’s willingness to allow such discrimination is disappointing.”
In a second dissent, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said the case was simple.
“The world we inhabit today, with a pandemic upon us, poses unusual challenges,” he wrote. “But there is no world in which the Constitution permits Nevada to favor Caesars Palace over Calvary Chapel.”
Justice Kavanaugh wrote: “Nevada’s 50-person attendance cap on religious worship services puts praying at churches, synagogues, temples and mosques on worse footing than eating at restaurants, drinking at bars, gambling at casinos or biking at gyms,” he wrote. “In other words, Nevada is discriminating against religion.”
Conservative Trump supporter Jessie Jane Duff ripped Rep. Ocasio-Cortez over her congressional speech on the floor discussing her confrontation with Rep. Yoho.
Jessie was responding to Herschel Walker, who also blasted AOC.
Walker tweeted: “Sorry @AOC that @TedYoho called you out of your name, but your credibility is in question because you didn’t say a word when @RashidaTlaib called the president a motherf***ker.”
Jessie Jane Duff added: “@AOC acts offended and plays her ‘lady card’ after calling people like me a Russian asset, racist and Nazi.”
AOC has never held her tongue from vile words for those she dislikes.
Hard to have sympathy for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez as she acts demure after nonstop offensive name calling.
Ed Hines asked “Is she aware shes pissing off a United States Marine? I know shes not the brightest bulb in the pack but jeez!”
Jessie Jane Duff replied “She could care less for me let alone anyone who isn’t supporting her agenda.”
She could care less for me let alone anyone who isn't supporting her agenda.
— Gunnery Sergeant Jessie Jane Duff (@JessieJaneDuff) July 26, 2020
On Friday, Fox News reported that acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for what he called “dangerous” comments after the California Democrat dubbed federal law enforcement protecting federal property in Portland “stormtroopers.”
“One, it’s disgusting, two it’s an assault on every federal or civilian or state and local law enforcement officer who has taken an oath to protect their communities, to protect, in our case, federal facilities, to do their jobs and I think it’s very very dangerous,” Wolf said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”
DHS had deployed federal law enforcement to protect federal property earlier this month after weeks of protests and riots in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Law enforcement officers have been attacked, doxed and possibly blinded by lasers wielded by rioters as they protect property such as the Hatfield federal courthouse.
But Trump’s administration has faced criticism for its handling of the riots, with Democrats and others accusing it of excessive use of force. Both DHS and Justice Department inspectors general opened investigations into their agencies’ conduct on Thursday.
Pelosi has been a vocal critic of the federal response, accusing “unidentified” officers of “kidnapping” protesters (a claim DHS denies). On Thursday she again branded law enforcement as “stormtroopers.”
“The use of stormtroopers under the guise of law and order is a tactic that is not appropriate to our country in any way,” she said.
Wolf, in response, said the statement was “absurd” and law enforcement was enforcing laws passed by members of Congress, such as Pelosi.
Unidentified stormtroopers. Unmarked cars. Kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti.
These are not the actions of a democratic republic.@DHSgov’s actions in Portland undermine its mission.
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley blasted the mainstream media for its “willful blindness” as the Trump-Russia collusion narrative falls apart.
Turley, who has been celebrated by folks on the Right ever since being a witness called by the Republicans during the House impeachment investigation into President Trump, delivered on Saturday a rebuke of journalists who he claims have not owned up to their flawed reporting over the past few years.
“The media has steadfastly refused to see what should be one of the biggest stories in decades: an administration’s targeting of an opposing party’s presidential campaign based on false and, in at least case, possibly criminally falsified evidence,” he tweeted.
“Of course, willful blindness has its advantages,” Turley added, referring to the legal concept of deliberately ignoring facts. “Virtually none of these journalists or experts have acknowledged that the collusion leaks were proven false. But then, in Washington, success often depends not on what you see but what you can unsee.”
Turley linked to an op-ed he wrote for The Hill in which he listed out declassified documents, testimony, and other disclosures that refute statements about the Russia collusion investigation.
This comes as U.S. Attorney John Durham is conducting a review, which last year morphed into a criminal inquiry, into misconduct during the Russia investigation, including leaks.
The House Intelligence Committee released dozens of witness interview transcripts in May showing several top intelligence, law enforcement, and national security officials from the Obama administration all denied seeing evidence of collusion, a much different story than what the media and Democrats were saying at the time. Chairman Adam Schiff long insisted there was “collusion in plain sight.”
Special counsel Robert Mueller, who concluded his two-year Russia investigation last year, determined that Russia interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion” but “did not establish” any criminal conspiracy between the Russians and the Trump campaign.
Still, after Trump declared he received “total exoneration,” Mueller told lawmakers last year that his investigation, which also explored possible obstruction of justice, did not completely exonerate the president.
Senator Ted Cruz ripped Justice Roberts after he sided with liberal justices in a 5-4 decision that rejected a request from a Nevada church to block the state government’s attendance cap at services.
Cruz wrote:
“John Roberts has abandoned his oath. But, on the upside, maybe Nevada churches should set up craps tables? Then they could open?”
John Roberts has abandoned his oath.
But, on the upside, maybe Nevada churches should set up craps tables? Then they could open? https://t.co/6pWoOwg9ts
“John Roberts at his hearing: If the Constitution says that the little guy should win, the little guy’s going to win in court before me.”
“What happened to that judge?” Cotton asked.
“He didn’t mention his belief that casinos have more rights than churches.”
The Chicago Tribune reported that a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court denied a rural Nevada church’s request late Friday to strike down as unconstitutional a 50-person cap on worship services as part of the state’s ongoing response to the coronavirus.
In a 5-4 decision, the high court refused to grant the request from the Christian church east of Reno to be subjected to the same COVID-19 restrictions in Nevada that allow casinos, restaurants and other businesses to operate at 50% of capacity with proper social distancing.
Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley argued that the hard cap on religious gatherings was an unconstitutional violation of its parishioners’ First Amendment rights to express and exercise their beliefs.
Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the liberal majority in denying the request without explanation.
Three justices wrote strongly worded dissenting opinions on behalf of the four conservatives who said they would have granted the injunctive relief while the court fully considers the merits of the case.
“That Nevada would discriminate in favor of the powerful gaming industry and its employees may not come as a surprise, but this Court’s willingness to allow such discrimination is disappointing,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissent joined by Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.
“We have a duty to defend the Constitution, and even a public health emergency does not absolve us of that responsibility,” Alito said. “The Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. It says nothing about freedom to play craps or blackjack, to feed tokens into a slot machine or to engage in any other game of chance.”
Kavanaugh also wrote his own dissent, as did Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Fox News reported that an illegal immigrant caused a South Texas motorcycle crash, killing three men, in an incident that “should have never happened,” three members of the Thin Blue Line motorcycle club said Friday.
In an interview on “Fox & Friends,” member David Weed told host Brian Kilmeade that last Saturday started out like “any other day.” 25 of their members were en route to their annual foundation meeting near San Antonio when 28-year-old Ivan Robles Navejas, a Mexican national living in the U.S. illegally, allegedly plowed into the front of their group.
“It’s really [an] unfortunate tragedy that happened,” Armando Florido said. “We do ride in a formation that is staggered in order to keep us safer. But, this gentleman crossed the middle line and came straight on and hit the first bike. And, it was a domino effect with an explosion and it was a really sad scene to see.”
“This is something that should have never happened,” he told Kilmeade. “This is something that should have been taken care of on his first offense while he was trying to become a citizen of this country, this great country that we live in.”
“We are going to miss these guys. These were great gentlemen. These guys are the front liners, the guys that run in when everybody is running away. And, it’s really a heartbreaking event,” he added.
Killed in the crash were Jerry Harbour, of Houston, road name “Wings,” retired police detective Joseph Paglia of Chicago, and Michael White, an officer in suburban Chicago. Four members were critically injured in the event.
Rico Garcia told Kilmeade that the crash “brings back deja vu” of a 2019 fatal crash that killed seven cyclists.
23-year-old Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, – who had just obtained his U.S. green card – swerved into the oncoming vehicles as he reached down to retrieve something. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) later filed a detainer against Zhukovskyy following his arrest.
On Thursday, Fox News’ Harris Faulkner challenged network contributor Marie Harf to name a Republican-run city that is currently under siege by rioters during an “Outnumbered” segment.
The discussion began with co-host Dagen McDowell ticking off a list of shootings in Chicago, long a Democratic stronghold, just in the past few days as the panel discussed Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to accept federal assistance in bringing order to chaotic parts of the city, a reversal of her earlier position.
“What if it works in Chicago? What if the police in that city can stop the daily murders?” McDowell said before ticking off a list of shootings and killings during the past few days.
“What if this partnership actually works?” she added, decrying the use by some so-called “peaceful protesters” who “carry Molotov cocktails, metal pipes and hammers — is that where we are in this nation?”
McDowell added that “the blame lies fully on the governors and the mayors of these cities” who “are doing a disservice” to their residents by continuing to allow streets to be taken over and violence to proliferate.
“We should have seen this coming for a decade,” she added, stating that Democrat “sanctuary cities” that nullify federal immigration laws paved the way for the current unrest.
Faulkner brought in Harf, who claimed that it’s not a “binary choice” between caring for residents and law and order. She also said it was “really unfair” to blame the violence on mayors and governors and claim they don’t care for their citizens.
“These are tough situations and a large majority of people on the streets, by the way, are peaceful,” she added, noting that people who are throwing incendiary devices and committing other acts of violence should be “dealt with by law enforcement.”
“The challenge is always trying to figure out the right law enforcement way to that, and President Trump has made very clear that he’s going after Democratic-led cities. He has said that, just plain straight out,” Harf continued.
“And so, it seems to many people that this is a political strategy to show himself as a law-and-order president ahead of a tough election that he is couching in law enforcement activity,” she added.
At that point, Faulkner jumped in.
“So, Marie, is there another Republican-led city that is having the kind of problem we’re having in the Democrat-led city,” Faulkner asked.
“Well look, Democrats have been in charge of the big cities on our country for a long time…”
“It’s a yes-or-no question,” Faulkner interjected. “It’s a yes-or-no question.”
“It’s more complicated,” a frustrated Harf replied. “It’s not binary, Harris.”
“No no, it’s not a choice,” Faulkner again interjected. “Is there a Republican-led city that is having the same type of violence and unrest on its streets the way it is in [a] Democrat-led trail of cities?”
Harf responded that there are many Republican-led parts of the country that are violent.
“Do they look like the streets of Portland and Chicago?” Faulkner asked.
Harf then blamed President Donald Trump.
“The streets of Portland didn’t look like this until President Trump sent in federal troops, they were anonymous…and had them arresting people with no due process in rented vans,” she replied.
“When you have markings, you are not technically anonymous, but we won’t go there,” Faulkner responded.
As to Harf’s point, portions of Chicago have been deadly and violent for decades, with black-on-black violence and shootings predominant over the past several years.
And in Portland, police have been forced to declare riots on several occasions over the nearly 60-straight days of protests — long before the administration sent additional federal agents and officers to protect government property in the city.
Incidents of violence include tearing down statues and burning local landmarks, as well as attacks against Portland police facilities.
