theblaze--2020-01-24--Trump administration takes action against California for requiring abortion coverage in insurance pl

Trump administration takes action against California for requiring abortion coverage in insurance plans 'We are putting California on notice '

The Trump administration is taking aim at a California requirement that insurance providers cover elective abortions.
In a formal notice announced on Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) warned the Golden State that its policy requiring insurance plans to cover abortions violates federal law and that the state could lose federal funding if it continues to enforce it.
The federal law that HHS bases the action on is called the Weldon Amendment, which is a spending measure that prohibits states and other government entities from discriminating against health care providers that do not "provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions" if they wish to receive federal funding.
In 2014, the state of California ordered insurance companies operating in the state to include elective abortion procedures. Two years later in 2016, the Obama administration said that the move didn't violate federal religious liberty laws, but that didn't stop the complaints about the law's implications. In November 2019, the California Supreme Court dismissed a religious freedom-based challenge against the mandate brought by a group of Catholic missionaries.
The department concludes that "California violated the Weldon Amendment by mandating that California health care plan issuers cover elective abortion in each plan product, and continues to violate federal law by continuing to require objecting health care entities protected by the Weldon Amendment to cover elective abortion."
The HHS statement says that California has 30 days to give "sufficient assurance that California will come into compliance with federal law" before the administration moves forward with actions that "may ultimately result in limitations on continued receipt of certain HHS funds."
"No one in America should be forced to pay for or cover other people's abortions," said Roger Severino, who serves as the director of the Office of Civil Rights at HHS. "We are putting California on notice that it must stop forcing people of good will to subsidize the taking of human life, not only because it's the moral thing to do, but because it's the law."
The announcement was made Friday morning and coincided with the 47th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., at which Trump will be the first U.S. president to address the pro-life gathering in person.
California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom fired back at the administration's warning in a statement reported at The Hill, in which he said that his state "will continue to protect a woman's right to choose, and we won't back down from defending reproductive freedom for everybody — full stop."


theblaze--2020-01-24--VIDEO: President Trump makes history, becomes first president to address March for Life in person

VIDEO : President Trump makes history , becomes first president to address March for Life in person

President Donald Trump is scheduled to address the annual March for Life in person Friday at 12:15 p.m. ET. You can watch his remarks below live as soon as he begins.
Trump will be the first president ever to address the Washington, D.C., pro-life event in person. Following the announcement of Trump's address, the March for Life website was overwhelmed and shut down.
In 2018, Trump became the first president to speak to March for Life via video feed.


theblaze--2020-01-24--Joe Biden calls illegal immigrant DACA recipients 'more American than most Americans are'

Joe Biden calls illegal immigrant DACA recipients 'more American than most Americans are' 'They believe ... the basic principles that @ @ @ @

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that illegal immigrants under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are "more American than most Americans are."
Biden — speaking at a 2020 presidential campaign event at Iowa Central Community College — told the crowd that "these kids have come, they've done well, most of these kids ... there's a lot of them, and they're not just Hispanic or Asian Pacific Islanders ... and they, in fact, have done very, very well. In many cases, they're more American than most Americans are because they have done well in school. They believe ... the basic principles that we all share. I think they should be, in fact ... put on a path to citizenship."
youtu.be
President Donald Trump ended DACA in 2017, but the move was blocked by several federal courts. However, it appears the Supreme Court will issue a final ruling on DACA early this year.
Anything else?
One of the nation's largest immigrant rights groups — United We Dream Action — protested against Biden ahead of last week's Democratic presidential debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Buzzfeed News reported.
"He does not have any idea of the pain they caused kids, families, parents who were separated from their kids. The pain is irreparable pain," Elsa Osorio, 45 — whose husband was arrested by ICE agents after a routine traffic stop and deported to Mexico under former President Barack Obama's administration in 2011 — told the outlet.
Media outlets also took Biden to task for incorrectly saying the Obama's administration didn't lock illegal immigrants in cages.
"We didn't lock people up in cages. We didn't separate families. We didn't do all of those," he said during last September's Democratic debate.
In November, the AFP News Agency withdrew a story criticizing the Trump administration for holding over 100,000 illegal immigrant children in detention after the outlet discovered the number actually came from the Obama era.
(H/T: Louder With Crowder)


theblaze--2020-01-24--Obama cut Texas’ family planning funds when the state cut out Planned Parenthood. Trump reversed tha

Obama cut Texas’ family planning funds when the state cut out Planned Parenthood. Trump reversed that.

Obama cut Texas ’ family planning funds when the state cut out Planned Parenthood .
Trump reversed that .
'The @ @ @ @ @ all along '

Earlier this week, the Trump administration reversed an Obama administration decision to withhold federal women's health funds from Texas due to the state's exclusion of Planned Parenthood from a statewide health program.
The Texas Tribune reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration had reversed a 2013 decision by the Obama administration to cut off some federal Medicaid funds to the Lone Star State after its legislature voted to cut Planned Parenthood out of the Healthy Texas Women program two years earlier, in an effort to keep taxpayer funds from flowing to abortion providers.
The Austin American-Statesman explains that the state-level program provides — among other things — family planning services to low-income women and that the restored funds will total $350 million over a five-year period.
"The Lone Star State is once again in partnership with the federal government to provide meaningful family planning and health services while fostering a culture of life," reads a Wednesday statement from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott about the funds. "I am grateful to President Trump and his administration for approving this waiver, and for his commitment to protecting the unborn while providing much-needed health resources to Texas women."
Texas health officials asked the federal government to restore the funds in May 2017, just a few months after President Donald Trump took office. On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services granted the state's request. The decision was announced on the 47th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade abortion decision, which Trump also declared to be "National Sanctity of Human Life Day."
Naturally, Planned Parenthood isn't happy at all about the administration's decision to restore Texas' funding, arguing that it would give a green light to other states to make the same kind of decision.
"This backdoor 'defund' could — and will — pave the way for other states to follow Texas's dangerous lead, with grim consequences for repro health nationwide," Planned Parenthood Action tweeted.
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) also weighed in on the decision, criticizing the administration for restoring the funds despite the block on Planned Parenthood. "This is unacceptable and jeopardizes women's health," Feinstein said. "The decision should be reversed."
In contrast, pro-life Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said that the funding restoration "is an acknowledgement that the Lone Star State was right all along."
In a Wednesday statement, Dannenfelser praised the administration, urging the president "to immediately free all states to act on the will of their citizens to support women's health care without encouraging abortion."


theblaze--2020-01-24--Border patrol nabs granny who was allegedly attempting to smuggle more than 200 pounds of meth throu

Border patrol nabs granny who was allegedly attempting to smuggle more than 200 pounds of meth through the border

Authorities arrested a 65-year-old woman and her 19-year-old granddaughter at the California-Mexico border on Sunday after reportedly trying to transport over 200 pounds of meth through the border and into the United States.
Both women are U.S. citizens, according to reports.
What are the details?
Authorities arrested the two women, who were driving a 2006 Dodge Durango, at Andrade Port of Entry near San Diego.
A release from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed that a canine team, which was roving through vehicle lanes at the port of entry, sniffed something suspicious at the vehicle's passenger side door. Authorities stopped the vehicle and executed a search. The search uncovered 299 packages of methamphetamine, which weighed about 219 pounds. Drugs were recovered from the car's roof, doors, and quarter panels.
The release said the monetary value of the meth was at least $416,000.
Authorities turned the unnamed women over to Homeland Security investigation agents for questioning and processing.
What else?
According to the release, a 44-year-old man entered on foot through the Otay Mesa port of entry the very same day. The man was found to be a Mexican citizen named Adan Larios, who had an active felony warrant for sex crimes with a minor in Riverside, California.
A day later, authorities stopped Eduardo Aguilar, a U.S. citizen, who was wanted on a homicide warrant out of Denver.
Authorities noted that both men were transported to their respective states for extradition processes.
"These cases are just examples of the apprehensions CBP officers catch on a daily basis," said Pete Flores, director of Field Operations for CBP in San Diego. "CBP officers are vigilant to stop those who would do harm in our communities at the border, as they attempt to enter the U.S."


theblaze--2020-01-24--California banned state travel to Oklahoma over abortion, adoption laws—so Oklahoma issued its own b

California banned state travel to Oklahoma over abortion, adoption laws—so Oklahoma issued its own ban

California banned state travel to Oklahoma over abortion , adoption laws—so Oklahoma issued its own ban ' I am eager @ @ @ @ @

California has banned state travel to multiple states due to its opposition of conservative abortion or adoption laws. On Thursday, Oklahoma reciprocated with a travel ban of its own, according to the Associated Press.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a first-term Republican, issued an executive order banning all non-essential state-funded travel to the state of California. The order makes notable exceptions for college sports competition, business recruiting trips, and public school trips.
"California and its elected officials over the past few years have banned state travel to the State of Oklahoma in an effort to politically threaten and intimidate Oklahomans for their personal values," Stitt said in a statement. "Enough is enough. If California's elected officials don't want public employees traveling to Oklahoma, I am eager to return the gesture on behalf of Oklahoma's pro-life stance. I am proud to be Governor of a state that fights for the most vulnerable among us, the unborn."
The state of California banned travel to Oklahoma in response to Oklahoma's law allowing adoption agencies to deny placement services to same-sex parents. San Francisco issued its own ban last year to states that pass abortion laws it views as restrictive.
Oklahoma bans abortions after 20 weeks except in cases to protect the life or health of the mother. Patients must receive counseling information and wait 72 hours after first contact before getting an abortion.
California also banned travel to Iowa last year when the state passed a law prohibiting Medicaid from funding gender-transition surgeries.
California bans state travel to other states if a state has "enacted a law that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression." The banned list includes, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and South Carolina, in addition to Oklahoma and Iowa.


theblaze--2020-01-24--UPDATED: Bank puts hold on man's paycheck. Kind employee gives man $20 out of her own pocket — and b

UPDATED: Bank puts hold on man's paycheck. Kind employee gives man $20 out of her own pocket — and bank ends up firing her for it.

UPDATED : Bank puts hold on man 's paycheck .
Kind employee gives man $ 20 out of her own @ @ @ @ @ up firing her for it .
Something about this just feels wrong

Update 1/24/2020 12:37 p.m. ET: A spokesperson for U.S. Bank tells TheBlaze that an internal investigation determined that senior banker Emily James should have utilized other available means of assisting the customer. The spokesperson also confirmed that James was previously disciplined for failure to follow bank procedures.
The statment read:
Our internal investigation concluded that Ms. James could have helped the customer had she simply used the appropriate solution that was known and available to her. Ms. James has been disciplined previously for failure to follow procedures. She broke the rules, putting herself and the bank at unnecessary risk. Taking disciplinary action in situations like this is always difficult, as it impacts people. We never take this lightly, but the termination was justified based on a review of all the facts.
Original story continues below.
Emily James, a senior telephone banker at U.S. Bank in Gresham, Oregon, is out of a job after giving a needy bank customer $20 from her own pocket.
What are the details?
The incident took place on Dec. 23 when customer Marc Eugenio visited his local branch to cash his work check.
The bank notified the customer that it put a hold on his $1,000 check, which was bad news for Eugenio as he reportedly had no other funds in his checking account.
KOIN-TV reported that Eugenio hoped to buy Christmas presents for his children and take care of his day-to-day expenses, but discovered hardship in having immediate access to the cash.
Eugenio visited another branch, but its employees were also unable to help him, so he decided to call the bank's customer service line for advice. James ended up taking his call, and feeling pity on the man so close to Christmas.
"I said, 'I wish I had just 20 bucks to get home,'" he told The Oregonian. "And she said, 'Wait, hold on.'"
Unbeknownst to Eugenio at the time, James asked one of her bosses if she could take a break and leave work so that she could fill Eugenio's gas tank so he could get home. She was able to leave, and went on to meet Eugenio — who was at a gas station 14 miles away. When she arrived, she handed him $20 and told him "Merry Christmas."
After the holiday break, James found out that she no longer had a job, and was reportedly fired for an "unauthorized interaction with a [bank] customer."
James explained that the bank was concerned that she had put herself at risk.
"They were worried about my safety," James explained. "He could have kidnapped me or shot me. But I wouldn't have left or even tried to ask if that was OK if I thought that this person would hurt me."
James expressed her sadness over the firing in a statement to KOIN.
"I can't change the world, but I can change the world for that one person," she reasoned. "I would rather my morals align with someone who's more willing to support someone like that, than someone who's willing to throw away 2 1/2 years and a lot of dedication."
James added that she couldn't, in good conscience, leave the man high and dry before the holidays.
"I just don't understand why you wouldn't help someone if you had the ability to," James said. "It's Christmas Eve, it's already a rough time for people, and you're going to leave someone stranded? I couldn't in good conscience do that, knowing it was something I could fix, or at least get him home. Had I known then that I was going to be let go, I would have just removed the hold on the check, because that absolutely would have gotten me fired."
"Hindsight is 20/20," she added.
Eugenio says he feels sorry for James, who he said "went above and beyond."
“I felt so bad. She was the only one helping me," he said, according to The Oregonian.
According to KOIN, U.S. Bank refused to comment on the story because it is an employee matter.
(H/T: Blue Lives Matter)


theblaze--2020-01-24--Olympian Lolo Jones: Being open about my virginity 'was a mistake'

Olympian Lolo Jones : Being open about my virginity 'was a mistake' 'That killed all my dates after that '

Olympian Lolo Jones made headlines in 2012 when she revealed her virginity.
"It's just something, a gift that I want to give to my husband," she noted at the time. "But please understand this journey has been hard. If there's virgins out there, I just want to let them know it's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Harder than training for the Olympics, harder than graduating from college, has been to stay a virgin before marriage."
In other words, resisting temptation: "I've been tempted. I've had guys tell me, they're like, 'Hey you know if you have sex it will help you run faster,'" Jones said then before sharing her typical response. "If you marry me, then yeah."
'Mistake'
But Jones — who's competed as a hurdler and bobsledder — told comedian Kevin Hart in a recent interview that her openness about saving sex for marriage "was a mistake."
"That killed all my dates after that," the 37-year-old said regarding her virginity being public knowledge. "Like didn't even have a chance. Before, at least I had a chance. Before, I'd like, tiptoe. 'OK, when's a good time to tell him? Do I wait until he sees my personality a little bit? Or do I just drop the bomb?'"
However, Hart had a positive reaction to Jones' virginity: "It's rare to see that in this day and age. I mean, I respect it. I think it's dope."
Jones also noted that "having sex actually helps you as an athlete, a female athlete," saying that it's beneficial for hormones and increases testosterone. "So I'm running at a disadvantage."
She also joked that abstaining from sex offers her a "higher level of intensity because I don't have any pressure release" and that "everybody knows me as ... stressed out."
'If He chooses to bless me, He gets all the glory'
After Jones' fourth place finish in the 2012 Olympic 100-meter hurdles, many Twitter users seemed to allege that had she been sexually active, perhaps she would have performed better.
But Jones is a Christian and has credited her faith for sustaining her.
"I had to constantly remind myself, 'When I am weak, He is strong,'" she told the Gospel Herald in 2015. "I'm really telling myself, 'I can't do this in my own strength.' Even the Word says it's not by your strength, it's by God."
"If He chooses to bless me, He gets all the glory," Jones added to the outlet. "That's what I'm really trying to rely on right now. I literally have nothing else. I'm in such a bad position right now from the injuries that literally I'm in a position where God gets all the glory."


theblaze--2020-01-24--George Soros accuses Facebook of conspiring with President Trump to secure his re-election

George Soros accuses Facebook of conspiring with President Trump to secure his re-election 'It makes me very concerned about the @ @ @ @

Billionaire investor George Soros said Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he believes Facebook is working together with President Donald Trump's campaign to secure his re-election, Bloomberg reported.
Soros said Facebook is helping Trump get re-elected so that Trump can return the favor by enacting policies that are favorable to the social media company.
"I think there is a kind of informal mutual assistance operation or agreement developing between Trump and Facebook," Soros said, according to Bloomberg. "Facebook will work together to re-elect Trump, and Trump will work to protect Facebook so that this situation cannot be changed and it makes me very concerned about the outcome for 2020."
Soros did not provide any evidence for this belief. A Facebook communications official denied any such arrangement.
"I'll say it because I think needs to be said," spokesman Andy Stone wrote on Twitter. "This is just plain wrong."
Soros may be referring, at least in part, to Facebook's policy of not fact-checking political advertisements. Although the policy allows politicians of any party to distribute potentially false information, critics have framed it as a policy that benefits President Trump disproportionately.
Soros said Facebook is motivated by financial gain and does not care about potential negative consequences.
"Facebook basically has only one guiding principle: maximize your profits irrespective of what harm it may do to the world," Soros said.
Soros has regularly criticized Facebook over the years, so much that in 2018 Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg directed staff to research whether Soros had a financial interest in attacking Facebook. Facebook also hired the firm Definers Public Affairs to research Soros and distribute information uncovered to the media. When her order to research Soros was publicized, she and the company were criticized for anti-Semitism.


theblaze--2020-01-25--Watch: Sen. Mike Lee scooters from March for Life to 'jury duty' and gives a surprise interview alon

Watch: Sen. Mike Lee scooters from March for Life to 'jury duty' and gives a surprise interview along the way

Watch : Sen. Mike Lee scooters from March for Life to 'jury duty ' and gives a surprise interview along @ @ @ @ @ of the House Nancy Pelosi — an avowed Catholic — attend the rally next year

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) made a lot of traction in Washington, D.C., on Friday, using multiple forms of transportation to shuttle himself from the March for Life rally back to the Senate to serve as a "juror" in the impeachment trial House Democrats are waging against President Donald Trump.
Along the way, Lee paused on his rental scooter to give an impromptu interview, and suggested House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) make the trek to the pro-life rally next year.
What are the details?
Lee traveled with President Trump's motorcade from the White House to attend the commander in chief's address to the March for Life crowd on the National Mall. Roads were closed off to traffic, so on the way back to the Senate, Lee said he had a "unique commute as (he) marched, biked, and scootered to the Capitol for day 4 of the impeachment trial."
The senator documented his trip via videos on his Instagram account, and one leg of his trip was set to Kenny Loggins' "I'm Alright," the theme song of the movie, "Caddyshack."
On his travels back to the Senate, Lee cruised upon Turning Point USA's Benny Johnson, who was carrying a cardboard cutout of Pelosi and asked the senator, "Do you have a message for Nancy?"
Lee responded quickly from his scooter, "I'm reporting for jury duty in just a few moments, I don't like the articles of impeachment, I'm going to vote against them because they're utterly ill-founded and based on a deep-state desire to disenfranchise 300 million Americans who elected Donald Trump President of the United States. Thank you."
Laughing, Johnson asked the senator as he started to leave, "Hey, Nancy Pelosi, she's a Catholic but she's never been to March for Life, can you believe that?"
Lee responded, "She should. Next year."


theblaze--2020-01-25--Vox editor Ezra Klein faces the wrath of liberal Twitter after trying to justify Joe Rogan endorseme

Vox editor Ezra Klein faces the wrath of liberal Twitter after trying to justify Joe Rogan endorsement

Vox editor Ezra Klein was subjected to the wrath of liberal critics of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the latest battle between the progressive and centrist wings of the Democratic party.
Klein came under attack when he tried to put the endorsement of Sanders by popular podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan into historical context.
"[O]bama actively courted a lot of racially resentful and conservative voters," tweeted Klein.
"[R]ight before the 08 election, he made a huge deal of colin powell's endorsement, despite powell helping push America into the iraq war. whatever obama was, he wasn't a practitioner of purity politics," he added.
The comparison of Sanders to former President Barack Obama, and also Rogan to Colin Powell drew rancorous condemnations from those angry at Rogan's endorsement.
"Love to compare one of the most successful and decorated black people of all time with a...white podcast host," said writer Kara Brown.
"Colin Powell endorsed Obama, in part, after racist and xenophobic rhetoric were made by the GOP during the 2008 campaign, and Powell felt troubled by their bigotry," replied transgender activist Charlotte Clymer. "That is far and away different from Rogan's transphobic, homophobic, racist, misogynistic bull**it."
"I had this cat muted a while ago. Saw responses to his tweets and looked to see what people were responding to. Y'all need to keep Black people out your mouths—especially if it's to use them as some sh**ty counterargument for the missteps of white men. Clowns. Back to being muted," responded Huffington Post writer Cesar Vargas.
"Maybe — just maybe — it's totally different for a black politician to soothe racist fears over his own person than for white podcasters to appeal to white voters' bigotry and give legitimacy to a racist sense of 'grievance' over their diminishing power," said another social media user.
Another Democratic skirmish broke out when Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) confirmed a report that claimed Sanders told her that a woman couldn't be elected president in a private meeting.
Warren then confronted Sanders in a heated interaction after a Democratic debate, and the encounter was captured on audio.
Here's more on the Joe Rogan meltdown:


theblaze--2020-01-25--'Murkowski is PISSED': Schiff angers GOP Senators in closing remarks, gets vocal condemnation from c

'Murkowski is PISSED': Schiff angers GOP Senators in closing remarks, gets vocal condemnation from chamber

'Murkowski is PISSED ' : Schiff angers GOP Senators in closing remarks , gets vocal condemnation from chamber Several Republicans @ @ @ @ @ — including two key moderates

House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) angered Republican senators in his closing argument urging the ouster of President Donald Trump on Friday, drawing vocal condemnation during his speech in the upper chamber.
Several Republicans spoke out against Schiff's remarks, and the reaction from moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) caused a Politico reporter to declare: "Murkowski is PISSED."
What are the details?
During Schiff's closing, he referenced a CBS News story from earlier in the day, reporting that an anonymous "confidant" of President Trump told the outlet that Republican senators were warned: "vote against the president and your head will be on a pike."
After quoting the uncredited statement during his speech on the Senate floor, Schiff said, "Now, I don't know if that's true," before regurgitating it again. "I have to say, when I read that — and, again, I don't know if that's true — but when I read that I was struck by the irony...I hope it's not true."
"But I was struck by the irony," Schiff repeated, before digging in further. "When we're talking about a president who would make himself a monarch, that whoever that [source] was would use the terminology of a penalty that was imposed by a monarch: a head on a pike."
According to multiplereporters in the Senate chamber, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) reacted to Schiff immediately by saying out loud several times from the floor, "That's not true," and shaking her head regarding the "head on a pike" comments. Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) also said aloud, "That's not true."
Collins said in a statement afterward, "Not only have I never heard the 'head on the pike' line but also I know of no Republican Senator who has been threatened in any way by anyone in the Administration."
Collins is a moderate, and her vote is being closely watched in impeachment proceedings, along with Murkowski, who said after Schiff's speech, "He was doing fine with moral courage until he got to the head on the pike. That's where he lost me."
That quote from Murkowski led Politico reporter Burgess Everett to tweet: "Murkowski is PISSED."
Republicans control the Senate, but GOP moderates are House Democrats' best hope if they want to gain traction in their impeachment efforts against the president.
More conservative Republicans also reacted to Schiff's remarks. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said, "He did a lot of damage to his credibility in insulting the senators." Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said, "He just capped it off with being insulting to everybody." GOP leadership member Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.) agreed, saying, Schiff "offended every Republican senator."
Anything else?
Not every Republican reacted with anger. According to a USAToday reporter, when Schiff made his "head on a pike" statement, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) "laughed at the remark, pulled out his fidget spinner, and started twirling it."


theblaze--2020-01-25--NPR reporter says Mike Pompeo 'screamed and cursed' at her, made her find Ukraine on a map

NPR reporter says Mike Pompeo 'screamed and cursed ' at her , made her find Ukraine on a map '' @ @ @ @ @ about Ukraine ? ''
He said .
`` People will hear about this . ''

An NPR reporter claimed that her questions so angered Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he "screamed and cursed" at her in private and demanded that she point out Ukraine on a globe.
The alleged interaction happened after Pompeo cut short an interview where Mary Louise Kelly pressed him on whether he supported Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
"I've defended every single person on this team," Pompeo said to Kelly. "I've done what's right for every single person on this team."
Yovanovitch is a central figure of the impeachment trial since the president's allies accuse her of standing in the way of investigations into corruption that could have implicated Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. She and other critics of President Donald Trump say he needed to sideline her in order to pursue politically motivated probes.
"I've said all I'm going to say today," Pompeo said when Kelly peppered him with questions about Yovanovitch. "Thank you. Thanks for the repeated opportunity to do so. I appreciate that."
Kelly claims that after he cut short the interview that he leaned in and glared at her for several seconds. Pompeo then had her escorted to his private living room in the State Department where he berated her and cursed at her, according to her account.
She said that he asked her, "do you think Americans care about Ukraine?" with an expletive included, and also said, "People will hear about this."
Pompeo also allegedly demanded that Kelly point to Ukraine on a map, which she claims she did.
Critics of Pompeo were sharing the audio of the recorded exchange on social media.
Here's part of the NPR interview:


theblaze--2020-01-25--Watch: Stephanopoulos caught on air frantically signaling to cut feed of Trump attorney's presser

Watch : Stephanopoulos caught on air frantically signaling to cut feed of Trump attorney 's presser The former Clinton adviser @ @ @ @ @ again — of bias against conservatives

ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos was caught on air Friday gesturing to cut the network's feed of a press conference, as White House attorney Jay Sekulow was commenting on President Donald Trump's impeachment defense.
Video of the incident went viral as many conservatives pointed to it as an example of media bias from the host, who formerly served as senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.
What are the details?
In the clip, Sekulow can be seen arguing that House Democrats have not met "basic fundamental Constitutional obligations" in their attempt to remove President Donald Trump from office in the ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate. As the attorney took another question from a reporter, the feed was cut and ABC returned to Stephanopoulos at the news desk, where he was actively making the throat-cutting signal to his crew.
As the Daily Wire's James Barrett beautifully described: "Realizing that his throat-slashing 'cut' gesture was caught on air, Stephanopoulos winced and offered a meek grin before rapidly moving on to a panel discussion on the latest developments in the trial. 'And that is Jay Sekulow right there,' says Stephanopoulos, still slightly grinning."
The video began circulating on social media as conservatives pointed to the timing of Stephanopoulos' cut and accused the anchor and his network of actively seeking to silence the defense of President Trump. The White House also took notice, tweeting the clip with the message, "Caught! ABC's Stephanopoulos trying to cut off the President's lead counsel."
Anything else?
Stephanopoulos' ability to be objective as a news anchor has been questioned ever since ABC News hired the former longtime Clinton staffer.
Fox News noted that Stephanopoulos' "ties to Clinton also became a source of embarrassment to ABC during the presidential campaign, when he was caught secretly giving money to the Clinton foundation. He had to recuse himself from hosting any presidential debates."


theblaze--2020-01-25--Liberal MSNBC viewers lash out at host Ari Melber for impeachment comments

Liberal MSNBC viewers lash out at host Ari Melber for impeachment comments '' Thanks for your defense of tyranny , @ @ @ @ @ `` F**k off . ''

Viewers of MSNBC were absolutely outraged on Friday when host Ari Melber admitted that he didn't think Democrats had proven one of two articles of impeachment made against President Donald Trump.
"As we are now here with a few hours left and always ready to watch how the evidence unfolds, I do not see an overwhelming case and overwhelming evidence by these Democrats to support convicting on obstructing Congress," said Melber.
"What the Democrats are arguing is basically something that began three months before they actually voted to impeach should now be resolved by the removal of the president. And in every other case, including Nixon, we know the rule has been the president is allowed to fight within the law, is allowed to deny, and, yes, quote, defy, all the way up until the Supreme Court, which takes often more than a year," he explained.
"So is there enough evidence to support the immediate removal of a president, three months and you're gone as a precedent, I haven't seen them land that," he concluded. "I don't see the Democrats having provided enough evidence yet to convict on article two."
Social media backlash
The panelists vehemently disagreed with Melber, but they could not match the vitriol with which MSNBC viewers lobbed at the dissenting host.
"Ari Melber is getting on my nerves. Is he serious right now?" responded a viewer.
"Ari Melber on MSNBC just said the Dems haven't proven their case! I'm done with this Trump loving bulls**t! He said they didn't land the plane on obstruction," tweeted another viewer.
"Thanks for your defense of tyranny," said a third viewer. "F**k off."
"You just made the most ignorant and Trumpian statement ever. I thought you were smarter than saying that what Trump did did not merit removal from office. What kookaide are you drinking?" demanded another on social media.
"Ari is being SO stupid right now. #thebeat The case hasn't been made? Is he in a coma that allows him to still speak?" responded another viewer, "get your head out of your a**."
On the other hand...
Despite the outrage on social media, Melber admitted that he believed the Democrats had provided enough evidence to convict the president on the first article of impeachment having to do with abuse of power.
"When you look at the abuse of power," Melber said, "I saw overwhelming factual evidence and first-person accounts to support constitutional abuse of power by the president to potentially cheat in the election. Undermining democracy itself. Very strong."
Here's the video of Melber's comments:


theblaze--2020-01-25--Family sues Christian school for expulsion of daughter after LGBT-themed cake at birthday party

Family sues Christian school for expulsion of daughter after LGBT-themed cake at birthday party They say the school invaded her @

A private Christian school is being sued by the family of a teen expelled after she posted photos to social media that were contrary to the values of the school.
The story made national headlines because the photos involved a rainbow-themed birthday cake at a private birthday party away from the school.
Whitefield Academy previously objected to how many national outlets were framing the story, and said that Kayla Kenney had been involved in several behavioral issues prior to the birthday party.
"Inaccurate media reports are circling stating that the student in question was expelled from our school solely for a social media post," the school said in a statement.
"In the fall, we met with the student to give her a final chance to begin to adhere to our code of conduct. Unfortunately, she did not live up to the agreement, and therefore, has been expelled," they added.
Kenney's parents claimed in the lawsuit that Kenney suffered "serious emotional distress" as a result of the actions of the school.
"In [expelling the student], Whitefield invaded K.K.'s privacy, defamed K.K., breached its contract with K.K.'s parents Kimberly Alford and Mike Kenney, and inflicted serious emotional distress on K.K. Certainly, in 2020 it is unbelievable that conversations like this one are still occurring — and that lawsuits like this one are still necessary," the family claimed.
Whitefield Academy declined to respond to requests from NBC to comment on the lawsuit.
Here's a local news report about the lawsuit:


theblaze--2020-01-24--Border Patrol nabs granny who was allegedly attempting to smuggle more than 200 pounds of meth throu

Border Patrol nabs granny who was allegedly attempting to smuggle more than 200 pounds of meth through the border


theblaze--2020-01-25--Medical simulation shows shocking number of people could die of coronavirus in just 18 months

Global fear over the coronavirus grew exponentially this week — and a recent medical simulation proves there may be good reason to be concerned.
As the Chinese government quarantines 40 million people in and around the city of Wuhan — where the disease outbreak originated — the United States government is working to evacuate all known U.S. citizens from the area.
More than 1,400 confirmed cases of the disease have already been confirmed, including two in the U.S., while the death toll has risen to more than 40 people.
But Eric Toner, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, is not shocked about how rapidly the disease is spreading.
Just three months ago, Toner ran a staged a hypothetical pandemic and found that a rapid-spreading disease similar to coronavirus could infect people in every country within just six months. Even more shockingly, Toner discovered the disease could kill 65 million people within just 18 months.
"I have thought for a long time that the most likely virus that might cause a new pandemic would be a coronavirus," Toner said, according to Business Insider.
"We don't yet know how contagious it is. We know that it is being spread person to person, but we don't know to what extent," he explained. "An initial first impression is that this is significantly milder than SARS. So that's reassuring. On the other hand, it may be more transmissible than SARS, at least in the community setting."
Toner's simulation did not specifically use the coronavirus, but a vaccine-resistant disease that is deadly and as easy to spread as the flu; the coronavirus checks all of those boxes. The simulation started in Brazil's pig farms (coronavirus originated in a food market that also sold live animals), then spread outward as more people contradicted the disease. After 18 months, 65 million people in the simulated perished.
What could mitigate the spread of coronavirus, Toner explained, is the rapid development of a vaccine, which scientists have already begun developing.
"If we could make it so that we could have a vaccine within months rather than years or decades, that would be a game changer," he said.


theblaze--2020-01-25--CNN analyst admits Trump is winning the impeachment trial, but has too many white lawyers

CNN analyst admits Trump is winning the impeachment trial , but has too many white lawyers Toobin thinks `` it @ @ @ @ @ itself . ''

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin made a surprising admission on Saturday after President Donald Trump's defense lawyers laid out their opening arguments at Trump's Senate trial: Republicans are "winning" the impeachment case.
"Again, I just think the Republicans are winning here. The president is winning here. And as long as they don't completely fall on their faces, which they're all competent lawyers, they're not going to do that, I think that's fine for them," Toobin argued.
www.youtube.com
The liberal commentator also acknowledged that Trump's lawyers raised a "legitimate" point by underscoring the president's longstanding concerns with foreign aid and burden-sharing among nations.
"They did make one good point about [the transcript], I thought, which was the president did about burden-sharing in that phone call, and the House managers didn't focus on that or even mention it. And fair is fair," he continued, according to the Washington Examiner.
Too many 'white people' on Trump's defense team
However, Toobin noted that Trump's legal team may have a major flaw: it lacks racial diversity.
In subsequent remarks, the CNN analyst quipped "White House and white people," while pointing out that Trump has too many "white men" as lawyers.
"It was all white men today," he continued. "There are two white women allegedly on the team, we'll see if they're allowed to argue."
Praised racial diversity of House Democrats
On the other hand, Toobin praised House Democrats for having a racially diverse team of impeachment managers.
"I mean, you know, this is a lesson in the diversity of the two parties," he said. "I mean you look at the House managers, it was almost evenly divided between men and women. It was, you had two African-Americans, you had a Hispanic."
It's unclear how the race and genders of either Trump's lawyers or House Democrats' impeachment team are relevant to the underlying facts of their respective cases, but Toobin said that since television is "a visual medium," when you have one side that "has a very diverse team" and the other is comprised of "all white men," it "says something in and of itself."


theblaze--2020-01-25--Multiple Dem senators already considering voting to acquit President Trump, report says

Multiple Dem senators already considering voting to acquit President Trump , report says ' I 'll be very impartial til @ @ @

At least two Senate Democrats are already signaling they could vote for President Donald Trump's acquittal just hours into the president's legal team began their defense, The Hill reported.
After Saturday's trial session — which ended early to allow Democratic senators to hit the campaign trail — Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Trump's legal team did such a "good job" that their arguments are "making me think about things."
"One thing that stuck in my mind is they said there isn't a witness they have had so far that had direct contact with the president. I'd love to hear from Mulvaney and Bolton," Manchin told a CNN reporter. "I'll be very impartial til the end."
Earlier in the day, Manchin, one of the most moderate Senate Democrats, reiterated his commitment to impartiality.
"I take my oath extremely seriously, my oath to the Constitution to protect and defend and my oath of impartiality. I want to see and hear from the defense counsel today and we'll see where we go from there," he said.
According to The Hill, moderate Democrat Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) has also signaled willingness to remain impartial and consider voting to acquit Trump.
"I'm hoping to hear the facts and the rebuttal from the president. So I think that's only appropriate," Jones said Saturday.
If any Democratic senators are likely to jump ranks and vote against Trump's conviction, Manchin and Jones are the two most likely candidates. As The Hill noted, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) could also be a possible Democratic defector.
Still, Trump's acquittal is almost certain. Democrats need a total of 67 votes to convict Trump and remove him from office, meaning they need 20 Republicans to jump ship — a practical impossibility.


theblaze--2020-01-25--Trump's lawyers 'kneecapped' Adam Schiff and the Dems' impeachment case, says Sen. Rick Scott

Trump 's lawyers 'kneecapped ' Adam Schiff and the Dems ' impeachment case , says Sen. Rick Scott The Democrats @ @ @ @ @ an election

President Donald Trump's lawyers were so successful at dismantling the House Democrats' impeachment case on Saturday morning that one prominent Republican senator compared it to a mob hit.
When asked by Fox News host Neil Cavuto what he thought of the arguments laid out by the president's defense team, Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott said it looked like Rep. Adam Schiff got "kneecapped."
"I think Adam Schiff got kneecapped," Scott said. "I think the White House counsel showed three was no due process in the House. Just a fabrication what [Schiff] did."
Scott, who was elected in 2018, went on to point out that Trump's defense counsel successfully highlighted the weaknesses in the Democrats' case against the 45th president of the United States.
"They explained there was no quid pro quo, no obstruction of justice. I think he did a great job," he added.
'Six key facts' exonerate Trump
As TheBlaze's Chris Enloe reported earlier on Saturday, in his remarks before the Senate, deputy White House counsel Mike Purpura pointed to "six key facts" that exonerate Trump of wrongdoing.
1. The infamous Ukraine call transcript
"The transcript shows that the president did not condition either security assistance or a meeting on anything," Purpura explained. "The paused security assistance funds aren't even mentioned on the call."
2. Ukrainian officials deny being pressured
"[Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] and other Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that there was no quid pro quo and no pressure on them to review anything," Purpura said.
3. Ukraine did not know about paused aid
"President Zelensky and high-ranking Ukrainian officials did not even know — did not even know — the security assistance was paused until the end of August, over a month after the July 25 call," Purpura explained.
4. No witnesses say Trump tied aid to Biden investigation
"Not a single witness testified that the president himself said that there was any connection between any investigations in security assistance, a presidential meeting, or anything else," Purpura said.
5. Security Assistance aid continued after phone call
"The security assistance flowed on September 11 and a presidential meeting took place on September 25, without the Ukrainian government announcing any investigations," Purpura explained.
6. President Trump has been a strong ally of Ukraine
"The Democrats' blind eye to impeach the president does not and cannot change the fact, as attested to by the Democrats' own witnesses, that President Trump has been a better friend and supporter of Ukraine than his predecessor," Purpura said. "Those are the facts."
Indeed, Trump's lawyers spent much of Saturday morning emphasizing to senators a series of exculpatory evidence that absolves the president of any wrongdoing and contextualizing the president's decision to withhold aid to Ukraine.
The Democrats are the ones interfering with an election
Meanwhile, in his remarks, White House counsel Pat Cipollone turned the tables on Democrats by accusing them of being the ones attempting to undermine a democratic election, Fox News reported.
"For all their talk about election interference, they're here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history," Cipollone said in his opening statements. "And we can't allow that to happen."
"It would violate the sacred trust that the American people have placed in you and have placed in them. The American people decide elections. They have one coming up in nine months," he added.


theblaze--2020-01-25--Mike Pompeo fires back at 'shameful' NPR reporter who claims he berated her in private

Mike Pompeo fires back at 'shameful ' NPR reporter who claims he berated her in private 'It is worth noting @ @ @ @ @ '

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted an NPR reporter Saturday who accused him of screaming and cursing at her in private following a tense interview about Ukraine.
NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly alleged Friday that after Pompeo abruptly ended a pre-scheduled interview, he berated her in private and demanded that she identify Ukraine on a map.
In his response, Pompeo released a statement accusing Kelly of violating the "basic rules of journalism and decency."
"NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly lied to me, twice," Pompeo said. "First, last month, in setting up our interview and, then again yesterday, in agreeing to have our post-interview conversation off the record."
"It is shameful that this reporter chose to violate the basic rules of journalism and decency. This is another example of how unhinged the media has become in its quest to hurt President Trump and this Administration," he continued. "It is no wonder that the American people distrust many in the media when they so consistently demonstrate their agenda and their absence of integrity."
"It is worth noting that Bangladesh is NOT Ukraine," Pompeo concluded, implying that Kelly did not correctly identify Ukraine.
Pompeo, however, did not deny Kelly's allegations.
In response to Pompeo's statement, NPR's senior vice president of news Nancy Barnes said, "Kelly has always conducted herself with the utmost integrity, and we stand behind this report."


theblaze--2020-01-25--Amid impeachment, Trump's approval rating climbs to highest levels of his presidency

Amid impeachment , Trump 's approval rating climbs to highest levels of his presidency

House Democrats thought that by impeaching President Donald Trump it would impair him heading into 2020—and they may come to regret their decision.
According to the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, the nation's 45th commander in chief has achieved the highest approval ratings of his presidency, even under impeachment. The Post reports that 44 percent of American adults approve of the job that Trump is doing in office, a significant improvement from his 38 percent rating in late October.
Among registered voters, Trump's rating climbs to 47 percent in the same survey.
Part of a trend?
The Post's survey showing an improvement in Trump's approval rating is one of three recent polls showing similar marks for the president.
An Emerson study released this week also found that 47 percent of Trump. Similarly, a Rasmussen study pinned Trump's approval rating at 49 percent, within the margin range of the Emerson and Washington Post/ABC surveys.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, Gallup released the results of its quarterly snapshot of Americans' evaluation of Trump's performance. In its analysis, Gallup found that during the last quarter of 2019, while Democrats were investigating and impeaching the president, Trump's approval rating averaged 43.3 percent—the highest of his first term.
"Overall, Trump averaged 42% job approval during his third year in office, an improvement over his 38% first-year and 40% second-year averages," the polling firm said.
Consistent with Obama and Reagan
Gallup also noted that, contrary to conventional wisdom, Trump's approval ratings are consistent with those of some of his predecessors.
"Trump's third-year average is not far behind Obama's 44.5% or Reagan's 44.9% averages at the same point in their presidencies," Gallup's researchers added. Both presidents went on to win re-election.
Gallup
What's driving Trump's poll bump?
The polling data suggest that Trump's growing popularity is largely driven by voters' confidence in the economy.
According to the Washington Post, a 56 percent majority of U.S. adults approves of Trump's handling of the economy, a 10-percentage point improvement from September and his strongest rating yet on his signature issue. Among registered voters, approval of Trump's management of the economy is even higher at 58 percent.
In the same nationwide survey, nearly half of Americans (49 percent) said that senators should not remove the president from office while 47 percent said they should. The margin widened in Trump's favor among registered voters where a majority (51 percent) told pollsters they oppose Trump's removal, while 45 percent support it.
The Washington Post-ABC poll was conducted by telephone on Monday through Thursday among a randomly selected national sample of 1,004 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.


theblaze--2020-01-25--Trump's legal team present '6 key facts' in impeachment case that exonerate Trump

'Those are the facts '

President Donald Trump's legal team began their defense Saturday, where they laid the groundwork to make the case that Trump is innocent of the impeachment charges.
During the brief session, Deputy counsel Mike Purpura explained the "six key facts" about the impeachment case that absolve Trump of wrongdoing.
1. The infamous Ukraine call transcript
"The transcript shows that the president did not condition either security assistance or a meeting on anything," Purpura explained. "The paused security assistance funds aren't even mentioned on the call."
2. Ukrainian officials deny being pressured
"[Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] and other Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that there was no quid pro quo and no pressure on them to review anything," Purpura said.
3. Ukraine did not know about paused aid
"President Zelensky and high-ranking Ukrainian officials did not even know — did not even know — the security assistance was paused until the end of August, over a month after the July 25 call," Purpura explained.
4. No witnesses say Trump tied aid to Biden investigation
"Not a single witness testified that the president himself said that there was any connection between any investigations in security assistance, a presidential meeting, or anything else," Purpura said.
5. Security Assistance aid continued after phone call
"The security assistance flowed on September 11 and a presidential meeting took place on September 25, without the Ukrainian government announcing any investigations," Purpura explained.
6. President Trump has been a strong ally of Ukraine
"The Democrats' blind eye to impeach the president does not and cannot change the fact, as attested to by the Democrats' own witnesses, that President Trump has been a better friend and supporter of Ukraine than his predecessor," Purpura said. "Those are the facts."
Saturday's session was brief in comparison to the first four days of the trial, allowing for Democratic senators — Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Amy Klobuchar — to head to Iowa to campaign ahead of the Iowa caucuses.


theblaze--2020-01-25--Impeachment focus group results show bad news for Democrats, former Obama advisor reveals

CNN analyst and former Obama advisor David Axelrod sat in on a focus group this week and the results were clear : even liberal Democratic voters are sick and tired of impeachment , the Daily Caller reported .
`` I was in a focus group this morning for the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago with Chicago Democratic voters and it was chilling to hear them talk about this because impeachment did n't even come up , '' Axelrod said .
The prominent Democratic strategist said that Democrats are ready to `` move on '' from impeachment : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be consistent with TV ratings for the first two days of the trial .
According to New York Magazine , more than 11 million viewers combined tuned into the the six news networks covering the first day of Trump 's impeachment trial .
Fox News drew the largest audience with 2,654,000 viewers tuning into their channel .
By Wednesday , viewership dropped by 20 percent to a total of 8,858,000 watching the proceedings , as reported by Nielsen ratings .
MSNBC had the largest audience in the second day of impeachment with 1,793,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worse compared to other major events New York Magazine noted that compared to other major congressional hearings and political moments that were televised , Trump 's impeachment has had `` a fairly weak showing '' as far as ratings are concerned .
A comparison of the ratings for the impeachment trial with the networks ' on the same day adds greater context to how unpopular they have been .
For instance , according to Nielsen data , Sean Hannity 's show enjoyed 4,246,000 million viewers on Wednesday , twice the size of Fox @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson had 3.93 million and 3.73 million viewers respectively , both significantly larger than the number of people who watched the impeachment trial on the same day .

CNN analyst and former Obama advisor David Axelrod sat in on a focus group this week and the results were clear: even liberal Democratic voters are sick and tired of impeachment, the Daily Caller reported.
"I was in a focus group this morning for the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago with Chicago Democratic voters and it was chilling to hear them talk about this because impeachment didn't even come up," Axelrod said.
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The prominent Democratic strategist said that Democrats are ready to "move on" from impeachment:
No one volunteered it for 80 minutes into the focus group and we're right in the middle of the trial. When it came up they said, it's terrible what he did, the case has been proven, but we know how it's going to turn out. So, we're not really that interested. We're ready to move on.
Low TV ratings
Axelrod's focus group observations appear to be consistent with TV ratings for the first two days of the trial.
According to New York Magazine, more than 11 million viewers combined tuned into the the six news networks covering the first day of Trump's impeachment trial. Fox News drew the largest audience with 2,654,000 viewers tuning into their channel.
By Wednesday, viewership dropped by 20 percent to a total of 8,858,000 watching the proceedings, as reported by Nielsen ratings. MSNBC had the largest audience in the second day of impeachment with 1,793,000 viewers tuning into their programming.
Even worse compared to other major events
New York Magazine noted that compared to other major congressional hearings and political moments that were televised, Trump's impeachment has had "a fairly weak showing" as far as ratings are concerned.
In 2018, the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh drew an audience of 20.4 million on the six broadcast networks. In 2018, the midterms also pulled in a substantial 36.1 million, a greater audience than the four previous midterms.
A comparison of the ratings for the impeachment trial with the networks' on the same day adds greater context to how unpopular they have been. For instance, according to Nielsen data, Sean Hannity's show enjoyed 4,246,000 million viewers on Wednesday, twice the size of Fox's daytime impeachment audience.
Meanwhile, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson had 3.93 million and 3.73 million viewers respectively, both significantly larger than the number of people who watched the impeachment trial on the same day.


theblaze--2020-01-25--Video: Democrat Nadler lashes out at President Trump as 'a dictator' in speech dripping with hypocri

Video: Democrat Nadler lashes out at President Trump as 'a dictator' in speech dripping with hypocrisy

Video : Democrat Nadler lashes out at President Trump as ' a dictator ' in speech dripping with hypocrisy What @ @ @ @ @

After what seemed like three interminable days of opening remarks from Democrats in the impeachment trial, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) lost his mind and lashed out at President Donald Trump as "a dictator" in his closing remarks before his Senate colleagues.
Nadler accused Trump of declaring himself "unaccountable" to the Congress and wanting to be "all powerful."
"He does not have to respect the Congress. He does not have to respect the representatives of the people. He is a dictator. This must not stand and this is another reason why he must be removed from office," Nadler said, visibly trembling, as he concluded his remarks.
Nadler is referring to Trump administration officials not complying with House subpoenas that the White House claims are unconstitutional, but his comments are misleading and ignore that members of his own party have also refused to comply with congressional requests for documents and testimonies.
Nadler fudged the truth
The congressman from New York fudged historical facts by saying Trump "is an outlier" as the "first and only president to declare himself unaccountable and ignore subpoenas backed by the Constitution's impeachment power."
This is not true. Richard Nixon openly defied congressional subpoenas in the Watergate investigation, even after courts ruled he had to comply with House investigators' demands for documents and tapes. Conversely, Trump appealed the Democrats' subpoena requests to the courts and House Democrats impeached him for "obstruction of Congress" even before the Judiciary ruled on the matter.
We don't have to go as far back as the 1970s. When congressional leaders subpoenaed documents from the Obama administration pertaining to the Fast and Furious scandal, just as Trump did with the Democrats' Ukraine investigation, Obama claimed he had executive privilege and refused to hand them over. The matter was not resolved in the courts until last year.
What about Biden?
By Nadler's standards, Joe Biden would also be considered "a dictator."
When the former vice president was asked by the Des Moines Register last month if he would appear before the Senate if subpoenaed, Biden said he would not, as his presence would only "[t]ake the focus off" Trump.
"You guys are going to cover for three weeks anything that I said. And (Trump's) going to get away. You guys buy into it all the time. Not a joke … Think what it's about. It's all about what he does all the time, his entire career. Take the focus off. This guy violated the Constitution. He said it in the driveway of the White House. He acknowledged he asked for help," he said.
Just this week, Biden doubled-down on his refusal to testify before the Senate. "They are trying to turn it into political theater," he said. "But I want no part of being any part of that."


theblaze--2020-01-25--Trey Gowdy explains how Barack Obama may become a witness in President Trump's impeachment trial

Trey Gowdy explains how Barack Obama may become a witness in President Trump 's impeachment trial

Former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) explained this week how former President Barack Obama may be a relevant witness in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial.
"Part of impeachment is setting a precedent for what's going to happen in the future," Gowdy told Fox News host Sean Hannity,
"So, if the vice president can make that assertion, then he is relevant as a witness, but so too is President Obama because I would want to know whether or not he had the authority of the president at the time he made that that pronouncement that there'll be no loan guarantees unless the prosecutor is fired," he continued.
Gowdy explained that if Democrats claim that Trump has engaged in "unprecedented abuse of power" then that "makes what other presidents did relevant."
"If President Obama gave Joe Biden permission to condition loan guarantees on the firing of a prosecutor, then that makes both of them potentially relevant as witnesses," Gowdy said.
Gowdy was referring to the infamous video of Biden in 2018 bragging about threatening to withhold aid from Ukraine if the country did not fire its top prosecutor.
Biden said at the time:
I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and Yanukovych that they would take action against the state prosecutor and they didn't. So they were walking out of the press conference, and I said we were not going to give them the $1 billion. They said you have no authority. You are not the president. The president said ... I said call him. I'm telling you, you are not getting $1 billion. I said you're not getting $1 billion and I am going to be leaving here in six hours and if the prosecutor is not fired you are not getting the money. Well, son of a b**** ... he got fired.
Of course, Biden denies that he engaged in a quid pro quo or pushed for the firing of the prosecutor to protect his son, Hunter Biden.
However, Republicans continue to believe that Biden and his son are relevant in Trump's impeachment.


theblaze--2020-01-25--Left-wing progressive domestic threats to the union are out of control. It's time to fight.

Left-wing progressive domestic threats to the union are out of control .
It 's time to fight .

Soleimani is dead, and let's rejoice at seeing justice carried out in real time. However, while we're celebrating vanquishing our foreign threats, what about the domestic ones?
They're not "over there," an ocean away where they can't get in the way of our regularly scheduled comforts and cravings. They're right here, and they are legion.
That's how "love is love" and "how is my gay marriage going to impact you anyway" became "bake the cake, bigot" and "wax my balls." It's also how "safe, legal and rare" became a multi-state ode to infanticide last year.
As a Phillip Seymour Hoffman's character in "Almost Famous" once said to a kid who got worked over by life, "They made you think you were cool, didn't they?" And once you feel cool, you want that feeling to last even when a part of you may think things are getting a little weird. Because better a little weird than a target of the woke fascists.
That scam worked out so well for its progressive terraformers that their bait-and-switches have now attempted to weaponize being cool in a whole new way. The subtle poetic touches in the sloganeering are now long gone in favor of violence and usurpation.
It's cool now to don a mask and beat innocent people as a member of Antifa.
It's cool for the very grassroots backbone of a front-running presidential campaign — Bernie Sanders — to be run in multiple states by goons promoting gulags and economic anarchy.
It's cool for doctors to make dance videos of themselves encouraging teenagers to rebel against their parents.
It's cool for journalists to beg, borrow, and steal bloodshed into existence just so they can virtue signal about it afterward.
It's cool for Elizabeth Warren to say this and AOC to say this and Sanders to say this without not only any fear that it will end their political careers, but certainty that it will catapult them.
It's cool to be one of the zombies in this room.
It's brazen and out in the open without any apology or concern. Whereas the dirty dancing used to happen after hours and under cover of rhetorical subterfuge, it's now grinding in your face at high noon.
Just like Soleimani. The intelligence community knew for some time that his travel patterns across borders and among nefarious associations appeared somewhat slapdash. But were they? Maybe he was just so used to getting away with his murder and mayhem that he was at the point where he was truly believing out loud that no one had the guts or resolve to take him out.
In other words, the thug thought he was super cool.
But now he's dead. And it happened because somebody with an R after their name finally set aside fear for fortitude. That's a rare thing in the Grand Old Party, but it is going to have to happen a lot more if the Soleimanis in our midst our going to be prevented from terrorizing the good, the true, and the beautiful into oblivion.
You have to fight back. You have no choice. For this isn't remotely about being cool.
This is about survival.


theblaze--2020-01-26--Trump lawyer reveals how Dems 'hid' a major piece of evidence that absolves the president

Trump lawyer reveals how Dems 'hid ' a major piece of evidence that absolves the president The best defense is @ @ @

If you only listened to the House Democrats' case against President Donald Trump, one could walk away thinking that freezing foreign aid to Ukraine was an unprecedented move by the administration.
But, as Townhall's Cortney O'Brien points out, the White House's top lawyer, Pat Cipollone, revealed to the nation and members of the Senate a major piece of evidence that Democrats have conveniently omitted from their presentations.
"They didn't tell you that burden sharing was discussed in the call," Cipollone said Saturday, referring to Trump's call with the president of Ukraine.
As Cipollone pointed out, in his July 25 call with Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky, Trump told the newly elected leader that Germany and other European nations do "almost nothing" for them. According to transcripts of the conversation, Zelensky said Trump was "absolutely right."
House Democrats "didn't have time in 24 hours to tell you this [in their impeachment remarks]," Cipollone said.
A "legitimate" point
Cipollone's argument even resonated with CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin who, in his analysis of the Trump defense team's remarks, acknowledged the president's lawyers raised a "legitimate" point by underscoring the president's longstanding concerns with foreign aid and burden-sharing among nations.
"They did make one good point about [the transcript], I thought, which was the president did about burden-sharing in that phone call, and the House managers didn't focus on that or even mention it. And fair is fair," he said, the Washington Examiner reported.
"He has talked about it before, and that was, I thought, a very legitimate good point made by the defense," he added.
Toobin also acknowledged that Trump is "winning" impeachment case against him.
The best defense is a strong offense
True to the adage, the president's counsel showed on Saturday that the best defense is a strong offense. In his remarks before the Senate, Deputy White House counsel Mike Purpura went on the offensive and highlighted "six key facts" that exonerate Trump of wrongdoing.
Among them, according to Purpura, is that the transcript of Trump's call with Zelensky "shows that the president did not condition either security assistance or a meeting on anything," In fact, "the paused security assistance funds aren't even mentioned on the call," Purpura said.
"The Democrats' blind eye to impeach the president does not and cannot change the fact, as attested to by the Democrats' own witnesses, that President Trump has been a better friend and supporter of Ukraine than his predecessor," he explained. "Those are the facts."


theblaze--2020-01-26--Adam Schiff accuses 'vindictive' President Trump of threatening him

' I do n't think there 's any doubt about it '

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the House Democrat leading the impeachment charge against President Donald Trump, accused the president on Sunday of threatening him.
Speaking with NBC host Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press," Schiff called Trump "vindictive" and charged that one of Trump's recent tweets constitutes a personal threat.
"What may be personal, though, and I think I have to be very candid about this, is I made the argument that it's going to require moral courage to stand up to this president," Schiff said. "I don't think there's any doubt about it. And if you think there is, look at the president's tweets about me today saying that I should 'pay a price.'"
Todd responded, "Do you take that as a threat?"
"I think it's intended to be," Schiff replied.
In the message that Schiff referred to, the president said Schiff has not yet "paid the price" for "what he has done to our Country!"
"Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!" Trump said.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) was quick to push back on CNN's "State of the Union," denying that Trump was threatening Schiff.


theblaze--2020-01-26--Democrat House impeachment manager inadvertently admits what impeachment is actually about

Democrat House impeachment manager inadvertently admits what impeachment is actually about 'Well , in that — I guess , in @ @ @ @

House impeachment manager Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) made a stunning admission Sunday, implying that Democrats want President Donald Trump's impeachment to impact the 2020 election.
During an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," host Jake Tapper asked Lofgren why she instructed senators last week to not "surrender to the president's stonewalling" when House Democrats did not pursue subpoenas and force additional witnesses to testify.
"You didn't pursue it in court. You ultimately withdrew the cases and went to the Senate," Tapper noted. "Didn't you surrender to the president's stonewalling, in that sense?"
Lofgren responded, "Well, in that — I guess, in that sense, we did, because, if we had waited for three or four years, the election would be over. The issue would be almost moot."
Despite the House waiting to take impeachment action against Richard Nixon until after the 1972 election, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, also one of the Democratic impeachment managers, said last week that "the president's misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won."
The admissions align with what White House Counsel Pat Cipollone told senators on Saturday in the opening statements of the president's defense.
"For all their talk about election interference, they're here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history," Cipollone charged.


theblaze--2020-01-26--Bombshell report: Schiff may have hid 'potentially exculpatory' evidence from Trump's lawyers

Bombshell report : Schiff may have hid 'potentially exculpatory ' evidence from Trump 's lawyers 'We should be allowed to @ @ @ @ @ '

According to President Donald Trump's legal team, Democrats are concealing the testimony of a major witness the House questioned during its investigation into the Ukraine matter.
Alex Swoyer and S.A. Miller at the Washington Times reported that House Democrats are refusing to disclose the testimony of Michael Atkinson, the intelligence agency inspector general with firsthand knowledge of the origins of the whistleblower complaint that resulted in Trump's impeachment.
'It raises credibility issues'
At least one Republican who was present during Atkinson's testimony says the reason why Democrats are not sharing the information is because it does not advance House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff's impeachment case against the president.
"The reason it hasn't been released is it's not helpful to Adam Schiff. It is not helpful to the whistleblower," Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) said. "It raises credibility issues about both of them."
The Times also noted that the evidence may be "potentially exculpatory" for the president. However, members of the House Intelligence Committee who conducted the interview are not allowed to disclose the details of the discussion, as it could reveal potentially sensitive intelligence information.
Should be part of the Senate record
Republicans on the committee believe that Atkinson's testimony should be part of the Senate trial record.
"It addresses the issue about contacts between Schiff, his staff and the whistleblower, and what the inspector general knows about that. So those are material facts that should be talked about, but Adam Schiff has prevented that," Ratcliffe told The Washington Times.
Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst agrees with Ratcliffe and maintains that House Democrats should have submitted the transcript to the Senate for its impeachment trial.
"We should be allowed to take a look at that, but again they have stated numerous times in their brief they had overwhelming evidence — it would be so clear to everyone — and I haven't seen that yet," she said.


theblaze--2020-01-26--Viral video of 'whistleblower' nurse suggests the coronavirus outbreak is much worse than Chinese go

Viral video of 'whistleblower' nurse suggests the coronavirus outbreak is much worse than Chinese gov't admits

Viral video of 'whistleblower ' nurse suggests the coronavirus outbreak is much worse than Chinese gov't admits ' I 'm @ @ @ @ @ '

A Chinese nurse treating patients with the coronavirus in Wuhan has become a "whistleblower," the New York Post reported, after a viral video suggests the Chinese government is grossly misleading the world about the number of people who have so far contracted the disease.
The nurse, wearing a full protective suit, claims in the video that 90,000 people are sick with the rapidly spreading disease.
"I am in the area where the coronavirus started," the nurse says in the video, the New York Post reported.
"I'm here to tell the truth," she adds. "At this moment, Hubei province, including the Wuhan area, even China, 90,000 people have been infected by a coronavirus."
The nurse also advises people to stay indoors and requests additional medical equipment, the Daily Mail reported.
The video has been viewed millions of times.
As of Sunday, China has reported just 2,700 cases of coronavirus and 56 deaths. But Chinese President Xi Jinping has called the situation "grave," and the government has essentially quarantined upward of 50 million people in the city of Wuhan and surrounding cities, suggesting the situation on the ground is much worse than what they're telling the world.
There have been five confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. so far.


theblaze--2020-01-26--UPDATED: Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, and three others killed in helicopter crash

UPDATED : Kobe Bryant , his 13-year-old daughter , and three others killed in helicopter crash The crash is reported @ @ @ @ @ 10 a.m. local time

Retired basketball legend Kobe Bryant, 41, was killed in a helicopter crash in the Los Angeles area on Sunday along with four other people. Among the passengers on the aircraft was Bryant's 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, according to the Los Angeles Times.
There are conflicting reports as to the identities of the other victims. Bryant's wife, Vanessa, is reported not to have been on board the helicopter.
TMZ reports:
Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas Sunday morning ... TMZ Sports has confirmed.
Kobe was traveling with at least 3 other people in his private helicopter when it went down. A fire broke out.
Emergency personnel responded, but nobody on board survived. 5 people are confirmed dead. We're told Vanessa Bryant was not among those on board.
The cause of the crash is under investigation
The L.A. County Sheriffs Department published a photo of the crash before it was known that Bryant was among the passengers aboard the helicopter:
According to the Los Angeles Times:
The crash occurred shortly before 10 a.m. near Las Virgenes Road, south of Agoura Road, according to a watch commander for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The crash ignited a brush fire and made it difficult for firefighters and emergency personnel to get to the aircraft, he said.
(...)
The Sikorsky S-76 helicopter had five people on board and there appeared to be no survivors.
A source close to ESPN confirmed the tragic news:
Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant is among five people killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, a source confirmed to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. The crash comes one day after Bryant was passed by Lakers forward LeBron James for third place on the NBA's all-time scoring list. As late as 10:39 p.m. ET on Saturday night, Bryant was active on social media, congratulating Bryant on Twitter during the Lakers 108-91 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
The news is being confirmed by local California news stations, as well.
6:43 p.m. Update: The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says nine people were killed in the helicopter crash.


theblaze--2020-01-26--Constitutional scholar calls Trump's Senate defense 'powerful,' 'brilliant': 'A very strong start'

'The House took a lot of hits below the waterline today '

George Washington University Law professor Jonathan Turley, a constitutional scholar and critic of President Donald Trump, showered the president's legal team with praise for their opening arguments on Saturday in Trump's impeachment trial.
"The House took a lot of hits below the waterline today. These were powerful points that gave ample foundation for senators to support acquittal without agreeing with the Dershowitz theory or the suggestion that everything was 'perfect.' I liked the low key, fact-based argument," Turley said.
He continued, "The White House did a particularly good job explaining its position on refusing discovery and also the unfair process. Moreover, it was a brilliant decision to limit the opening to a few hours. The House subjected the Senate to mind-numbing repetition for 22 hours."
"By giving up much of the first day, the White House gave a concise opening, relieved the jury, and pushed the main argument to Monday with a larger television audience. It was a sophisticated and effective strategy that paid off," Turley explained.
"A very strong start to their case," he concluded.
Turley, who has been a vocal opponent of impeachment, said last week that House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) made a "huge blunder" when he accused Republicans of participating in a "cover-up."
Nadler's comments angered Republicans, especially the moderates.
"One of the things you teach law students is that when you make arguments to juries, make sure you don't insult the jury," Turley said.


theblaze--2020-01-26--Major Iowa newspaper endorses Warren, says she will 'treat truth as something that matters'

Major Iowa newspaper endorses Warren , says she will 'treat truth as something that matters' Trump campaign : 'Are they @ @ @ @ @ us ? '

The Des Moines Register announced its 2020 Democratic Party primary endorsement on Saturday, and the honor went to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
"Who would make the best president at this point in the country's history?" the newspaper asked. "At a time when the economic deck has become so stacked against working Americans that the gap between rich and poor is the highest in more than 50 years? At a time when a generation of war has stressed military families and sapped the treasury?"
The newspaper responded, "The Des Moines Register editorial board endorses Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses as the best leader for these times."
The Register went on to assure readers that Warren — who has pledged to dismantle the private insurance industry and impose an unconstitutional wealth tax — "is not the radical some perceive her to be."
A champion of truth?
The endorsement stated that Warren and all the other Democratic candidates could "make a fine president" and that each one, including the Massachusetts senator who's notorious for fibbing, would "treat the truth as something that matters."
Yes, the Des Moines Register's editorial board argued that the same Elizabeth Warren who spent decades falsifying her ethnic heritage would champion facts and truth if she were elected president.
The Register's lavish praise of Warren raised eyebrows among political commentators, including from the Trump campaign's Matt Wolking, who tweeted: "Are they idiots or just messing with us?"
Warren's greatest hits
As TheBlaze has pointed out, Warren has an extensive history of fudging facts to suit her convenience. Below are some examples where the presidential hopeful has not "treated truth as something that matters":
Perhaps most famously, Warren claimed for years that she was a Native American, but a DNA test show that she was almost entirely of white European ancestry. "According to Carlos D. Bustamante, a Stanford University professor and expert in the field of population genetics, Warren's possible Native American ancestry traces back six to 10 generations. The results of her DNA test suggest that Warren is between 1/64th and 1/1024th Native American," reported TheBlaze.
In November 2019, Warren falsely claimed that her children only attended public schools. However, a yearbook obtained by the Washington Free Beacon clearly showed that her son, Alex Warren, attended Kirby Hall School, an elite private K-12 school in Austin, Texas, in the mid-1980s.
In February 2019, TheBlaze reported that Warren falsely claimed having American Indian heritage on her Texas State Bar registration card. Through a public records request, the Washington Post obtained a copy of her 1986 registration card on which Warren hand-wrote "American Indian" in the field for "race.
As Michael Brendan Dougherty notes in National Review, "Warren plagiarized her contribution to a book of Native American home recipes, Pow Wow Chow, from a French cookbook." Not to be outdone, "Harvard bragged about its hiring of Warren and advertised her as an addition to its diversity, though reporting in recent years has attempted to obscure whether this was a help to her," wrote Dougherty.
Warren may be "a policy wonk," as the Register declared, but a defender of truth she most certainly is not.
A caveat in the endorsement
Interestingly, the Des Moines Register's editorial board included a caveat in its endorsement of Warren, warning that some of her agenda might "go too far."
A qualification: Some of her ideas for "big, structural change" go too far. This board could not endorse the wholesale overhaul of corporate governance or cumulative levels of taxation she proposes. While the board has long supported single-payer health insurance, it believes a gradual transition is the more realistic approach. But Warren is pushing in the right direction.
Still, despite its concerns with the extremism of some of Warren's policies, the Register's editors concluded "Elizabeth Warren is the president this nation needs."


theblaze--2020-01-26--GOP senator prepares subpoenas for Adam Schiff, whistleblower, and the Bidens to testify in Senate t

GOP senator prepares subpoenas for Adam Schiff, whistleblower, and the Bidens to testify in Senate trial

GOP senator prepares subpoenas for Adam Schiff , whistleblower , and the Bidens to testify in Senate trial 'If the @ @ @ @ @ will ask for votes on all these next week '

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is preparing to file subpoena requests for multiple new witnesses to testify in President Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial.
According to Politico, Hawley is targeting House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and the Ukraine whistleblower, among others.
"I have drafted motions to subpoena Adam Schiff, the 'whistleblower,' Hunter Biden, and Joe Biden to testify. If the Senate calls witnesses, I will ask for votes on all these next week," Hawley announced on Twitter.
From Politico:
Hawley's strategy harmonizes with plans from GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky to force votes to hear from Hunter Biden, the former vice president's son who was on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Their tactics are intended to convince a handful of senators to sink a vote next week to consider new evidence in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial. Trump's attempt to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens is at the heart of the impeachment case against the president.
If Hawley is able to issue the subpoenas, he would also seek communications related to Schiff and his staff, the whistleblower, the House impeachment managers, and Joe Biden's admitted effort to oust a former top Ukrainian prosecutor, among other communications.
Hawley needs just a simple majority vote to seek the evidence and issue the subpoenas. The tactic would also undercut the Democratic narrative that Republicans are unwilling to consider new evidence and witnesses during Trump's Senate trial.


theblaze--2020-01-26--Ted Cruz nails the lawyers' trick that 'deceptive' Democrats are using in the impeachment trial

Ted Cruz nails the lawyers ' trick that 'deceptive ' Democrats are using in the impeachment trial

With the precision of a highly trained attorney, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz dismantled on Saturday some of the major fallacies in the Democrats' impeachment case.
In an episode of "Verdict with Ted Cruz," the Cuban-American Republican senator from the Lone Star State broke down the old lawyers' trick that Democrats employed in their closing statements before the Senate.
Asked by Daily Wire host Michael Knowles if the Democrats' arguments were deceptive, Cruz's answer was unequivocal: "Yes ... and they were deceptive using lots of different tools."
Cruz continued, "Here's a particular logical construct that the House managers use to be deceptive. They used this several times, and it's a logical construct of 'X, not Y.'"
The Democrats' tools of deception
The Texas senator went on to explain what he means by "X, not Y" and illustrate the different rhetorical tools that Democrats are using to deceive senators and the American public:
They say, for example, that "President Trump and Republicans bought the narrative that Ukraine, and not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election." Now, X is right, Ukraine did interfere in 2016. The lie, the deception, is the "not Y." ... It is obvious that Russia ... did interfere in 2016 ... that happened, and anyone who looks at the evidence recognizes that. The fact that Russia did [interfere] doesn't mean no other country did.
Knowles noted, "It's true that the Republicans are saying that Ukraine interfered, but it's not true that Republicans are also saying, 'Therefore, Russia did not interfere.'"
"And it would be false," Cruz responded. "If we said 'Russia did not interfere,' that's a false statement."
Cruz then delivered another example of how the House managers are using misleading arguments.
What the House managers said over and over and over again is: "The president wanted the announcement of an investigation and not an actual investigation." X, and not Y. There's lots of evidence Trump wanted an investigation announced. There is zero evidence that Trump didn't want an actual investigation. And the House managers asserted over and over and over again "an announcement, and not an actual investigation." They've never cited any evidence whatsoever. By the way, think about it, in what universe would Trump not want an investigation?
A 'lawyerly sleight of hand'
The Daily Wire host observed the notion that Trump only wanted an announcement of an investigation "makes no sense."
"The Democrats' trick here is that they're making a true statement, and they're using the true statement to cover up for the false statement that they say immediately afterward? Knowles asked,
"Yes, and the media does this all the time," Cruz stated, adding, "That logical construct, 'X and not Y,' is a real giveaway that they're engaging in lawyerly sleight of hand."
Cruz also noted that "X and not Y" is a go-to trick used by House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
"By the way," he added, "Adam Schiff says it very smoothly, he says it smiling, and to date, I haven't seen anyone actually contradicting it and pointing out that half of that sentence is total deception."
Knowles, who was noticeably impressed by the senator's analysis, observed, "That's an incredibly deceptive trick."
"There's a reason lawyers are so beloved," a smiling Cruz sarcastically quipped.


theblaze--2020-01-27--New polls show really bad news for Biden as Sanders surges

New polls show really bad news for Biden as Sanders surges Sanders is now leading in Iowa and New Hampshire

A new batch of polls have really bad news for former Vice President Joe Biden and his campaign for the Democratic Party nomination in 2020.
Two surveys — taken in Iowa and New Hampshire within the past week — show Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) with a clear lead in both early voting states.
In Iowa, Sanders has 25 percent support among caucus-goers, opening a seven-point lead on the rest of the Democratic pack, with former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg coming in at second place with 18 percent, according to the New York Times/Siena poll. The poll shows Biden in third place at 17 percent.
In New Hampshire, meanwhile, a poll released Thursday by WBUR shows the so-called democratic socialist with a commanding 12-point lead over his rivals. According to the survey, Buttigieg and Biden find themselves in second and third place, respectively.
Part of a trend?
The Iowa and New Hampshire poll results showing Sanders with a late surge are not isolated and appear to be consistent with other studies conducted in recent days.
For instance, a CNN/University of New Hampshire poll released on Sunday has Sanders with a nine-point lead over Biden (16 percent), while Buttigieg is in third place with 15 percent support. Meanwhile, an NBC/Marist poll published over the weekend also shows Sanders ahead of his Democratic rivals with a five-point lead among likely voters.
Iowa does appear to be a closer race, though. The RealClearPolitics average shows Biden with a razor-thin 0.4 percentage-point lead in the Hawkeye State. However, a CBS/YouGov survey taken January 16-23 found a statistical tie, with Sanders leading Biden by one point, 26 to 25 percent, followed closely by Buttigieg in third place at 22 percent.
At Warren's expense
One of the patterns that's clear from the recent survey results is that Sanders' surge appears to be hurting Sen. Elizabeth Warren's prospects. The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows the progressive Massachusetts senator in third place in both states.
As the New York Times observed:
The rise of Mr. Sanders has come at the expense of his fellow progressive, Senator Elizabeth Warren: she dropped from 22 percent in the October poll, enough to lead the field, to 15 percent in this survey. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is garnering 8 percent, is the only other candidate approaching double digits.
The race is also tightening at the national level, as two of the last three nationwide polls taken show Biden with a lead within the margin of error. On Jan. 1, the former vice president led by an average of nine points. His average national lead over Sanders has been cut by a third to six percent.


theblaze--2020-01-26--UPDATED: Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, and 7 others killed in helicopter crash

UPDATED : Kobe Bryant , his 13-year-old daughter , and 7 others killed in helicopter crash The crash is reported @ @ @ @ @ 10 a.m. local time


theblaze--2020-01-27--A naked man was arrested in Arkansas after trying to force his way onto a school bus with children i

A naked man was arrested in Arkansas after trying to force his way onto a school bus with children inside

A naked man was arrested in Arkansas after attempting to force his way onto a school bus with several children onboard.
The altercation happened in Maumelle near a McDonald's restaurant.
The bus driver with the Vilonia School District told police that he saw the naked man heading towards the bus, so he locked the doors. When the man tried to pry open the doors on the bus, the driver said he kicked his fingers.
Maumelle police said that the man tried to resist arrest when they arrived, but that they were able to arrest him with the assistance of a bystander. Several bystanders had chased him and were yelling at him.
Police identified the naked suspect as Brandon Stegman.
They said that they found his belongings outside the entrance of a nearby hotel. They found prescription drugs and what they believe was a baggie of marijuana. They also found his two dogs, which were handed off to Maumelle Animal Services.
Police say Stegman denied being on drugs, but he was sent to a hospital for evaluation.
There were reportedly 6 children and two adults on the bus.
Police charged Stegman with disorderly conduct, criminal trespass, and possession of marijuana over the harrowing event.


theblaze--2020-01-27--Conservative host dismantles Adam Schiff over impeachment lies

On Monday 's episode of `` White House Brief , '' Jon Miller dismantled Adam Schiff over the lies he @ @ @ @ @ 2016 election and wreck the 2020 election .
`` The Democrats do n't care because @ @ @ @ @ to them , '' Miller said Then , Miller reviewed Knives Out , a terrific @ @ @ @ @ .
Lastly , Miller issued a heartfelt goodbye to Kobe Bryant and his daughter , @ @ @ @ @ below for more .
Use code WHB to save $ 10 on one year of @ @ @ @ @ Jon Miller ?
To enjoy more of Jon 's take on what 's happening at @ @ @ @ @ mainstream media is n't telling you , subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network @ @ @ @ @ , defend the Constitution and live the American dream .

On Monday's episode of "White House Brief," Jon Miller dismantled Adam Schiff over the lies he has told to undo the 2016 election and wreck the 2020 election.
"The Democrats don't care because the truth doesn't matter to them," Miller said
Then, Miller reviewed Knives Out, a terrific film despite its insufferable politics. Lastly, Miller issued a heartfelt goodbye to Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna.
Watch the video below for more.
Use code WHB to save $10 on one year of BlazeTV.
Want more from Jon Miller?
To enjoy more of Jon's take on what's happening at the White House that the mainstream media isn't telling you, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.