Buttigieg says those who eat burgers, use plastic straws are 'part of the problem' on climate change

If you eat hamburgers or use plastic drinking straws, consider yourself part of the climate-change problem. That was the assessment of Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Thursday during an appearance on CNN’s "New Day."
Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind.,  told host Alisyn Camerota he thinks many people view climate issues from "the perspective of guilt."
"You know, from using a straw to eating a burger. Am I part of the problem? In a certain way, yes," he said. "But the most exciting thing is that we can all be part of the solution."
Buttigieg said part of his climate-change proposal involves motivating the public.
"I think the downside to us facing just how colossal of a challenge this is, is it can feel paralyzing," Buttigieg said. "But we can rise to meet this and be proud of it. That's part of what my climate plan is about. It's not only about all of the things we've got to do technologically and with regulation and so on. It's about summoning the energies of this country to do something unbelievably hard.
"If you look at the moments when this country rose to a major challenge, overcoming the Great Depression, winning World War II, going to the moon, it required something out of all of us. And I think we could be standing taller," he continued.
Buttigieg made his remarks a day after he and other Democrats running for president discussed plans to combat climate change during a CNN town hall telecast Wednesday.
During the town hall, the 2020 hopeful claimed climate change was a national security issue and that the Syrian war was the first war “partly caused” by climate change. He also invoked God and religion in the climate change debate, saying environmentally irresponsible behavior was “kind of a sin.”

"Let's talk in language that is understood across the heartland about faith," Buttigieg said. "If you believe that God is watching as poison is being belched into the air of creation, and people are being harmed by it — countries are at risk of vanishing in low-lying areas — what do you suppose God thinks of that? I bet He thinks it's messed up."

He added, "You don't have to be religious to see the moral dimensions of this because frankly, every religious and non-religious tradition tell us that we have some responsibility of stewardship, some responsibility of taking care of what's around us- not to mention taking care of our neighbor... At least one way of talking about this is that it's a kind of sin."
Fox News Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

Anti-ICE protesters block rush-hour traffic in Boston area; 12 arrested for trespassing at Amazon

Police in Massachusetts reportedly arrested 12 pro-immigration protesters Thursday after hundreds of demonstrators marched through the Boston area, blocking rush-hour traffic.
The group, arrested for trespassing at the Amazon building in nearby Cambridge, across the Charles River via the Longfellow Bridge, were advocating for private businesses to stop cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Cambridge police said, according to The Hill.
The unscheduled route frustrated passengers and police. “It’s rush hour, there’s only one way (on the bridge). Take some other way around,” a man said to WBZ-TV in Boston. The protesters reportedly refused to tell police their planned route.

“It’s rush hour, there’s only one way (on the bridge). Take some other way around.”

— Boston-area rush-hour commute

"Never Again Is Now" protesters rally at the New England Holocaust Memorial and then march across the Longfellow bridge into the Amazon local business building lobby, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019 in Cambridge, Mass. (Associated Press)

The organizers, "Never Again Action: Jews Against ICE," posted on Facebook they were specifically protesting Amazon’s contracts with ICE and the company’s reported attempts to sell its facial recognition technology to the agency, The Hill reported.
Eighteen people were arrested at a similar "Never Again" protest in July.

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U.S. offers $15M for info. to break up Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s finances

The Trump administration is offering a $15 million reward for anyone who can disrupt the finances of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
President Trump designated the military unit as a terrorist organization back in April, and said the IRGC is Iran’s primary source of directing its terrorist campaign.
U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook announced the reward Wednesday after the U.S. slapped sanctions on Iran’s National Space Agency for helping develop ballistic missiles. The administration also wants information on entities assisting the IRGC and its illicit oil-for-money schemes.
“We are announcing a reward of up to $15 million for any person who helps us disrupt the financial operations of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and Quds force,” stated Hook. “The IRGC has been running an illicit petroleum shipping network over the last several months — this network has moved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of illicit oil.”
The U.S. special representative went on to say these steps are part of the Trump administration’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign to get Iran to negotiate a new deal.

FILE- In this Sept. 18, 2016 file photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, center, attends a meeting in Tehran, Iran. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP, File)

AOC fires back after Rep. Steve King posts video of himself drinking water from sink at detention center

Idiot

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., fired back at Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, on Wednesday night, hours after he tweeted a video of himself drinking water from a sink attached to a toilet at a migrant detention center, calling the congresswoman “#FakeNews” for claiming migrants were drinking from the toilet.
“There is a genre of videos where GOP House members - who clearly didn’t read sworn testimony that detention sinks were broken- filming themselves drinking out of toilet sinks,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in response to King.
“They’re so anti-immigrant they risk pink eye to show off that they didn’t do the reading #CloseTheCamps,” she added.
Several hours earlier, King posted that he visited the same cell where Ocasio-Cortez had reported migrants were drinking from the toilet.
“I took a drink out of there,” he tweeted, referring to the sink above the toilet. “And actually pretty good!”
"No way was @AOC objectively honest in her #FakeNews spin about the border,” he wrote of the congresswoman’s assertion about subpar conditions. “Click bait for Snowflakes!"
King suggested the initial claim came from a "language barrier" that resulted in "misinformation" about facilities.
Ocasio-Cortez said that migrants at the detention centers were being forced to drink "out of toilets" hours out she toured one of the locations in July.
Border Patrol Chief Brian Hastings refuted her allegations, stating that migrants are given fresh drinking water.
Fox News' Sam Dorman contributed to this report. 

Longtime GOP Rep. James Sensenbrenner to retire from Congress after 40 years

Wisconsin GOP Rep. James Sensenbrenner announced Wednesday he will retire from Congress when his term expires in January 2021, after 40 years in the House of Representatives.
Sensenbrenner, 76, is the second-most senior lawmaker in the legislative body.
"When I began my public service in 1968, I said I would know when it was time to step back. After careful consideration, I have determined at the completion of this term, my 21st term in Congress, it will be that time," said Sensenbrenner in a statement. Sensenbrenner had joined the Wisconsin state legislature in 1968, and was elected to Congress 10 years later.
Sensenbrenner said he would rather leave Wisconsin's solidly red 5th Congressional District on his own accord than wait for redistricting. "Being able to do this on my timetable rather than after a redistricting in 2022 will allow me to go out on a high note … This is just me feeling the time would be coming in the next few years, and I think this is the best time for me personally, and for both the Republican Party and for me politically," he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., ranking member of the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, speaks during a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing with representatives from major tech companies in Washington. (Associated Press)

His announcement brought the total number of House Republicans set to retire up to 13. Four GOP senators also have said they won't run for reelection in 2020, while only two Democrats in the House and one in the Senate are set to retire.
More than two dozen Republicans retired ahead of the 2018 midterms, leading up to the "blue wave" that helped the Democrats retake the House.
As for a successor, Sensenbrenner said he planned to back the “the Republican ticket from top to bottom," the Journal Sentinel reported.
Sensenbrenner currently sits on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He holds a very conservative voting record, but he has managed to work with liberal Democrats on issues such as civil liberties.
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan spoke highly of Sensenbrenner in light of the news. "Jim has spent the last 50 years protecting our constitutional rights, ensuring the U.S. led the way in science and space, and fighting tirelessly for conservative principles. He is a statesman, a person of remarkable character, and his presence and wisdom will be sorely missed in Congress," Ryan, also of Wisconsin, said in a statement.
"From leading efforts to keep America safe after 9/11 to serving as a fiscal watchdog constantly looking out for taxpayers, Jim has been a stalwart public servant," said fellow Wisconsinite GOP Rep. Bryan Steil, as WISN reported.
Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Nunes files $9.9M suit against firm behind Steele dossier, saying it tried to obstruct Russia probe

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., filed a $9.9 million federal conspiracy lawsuit on Wednesday alleging that the opposition research firm behind the anti-Trump Steele dossier coordinated with another group to file several fraudulent and harassing ethics complaints intended to derail his investigation.
The complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia, which named Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson and the nonprofit Campaign for Accountability (CfA), said the "smear" tactics kicked into action shortly after Simpson "lied" in his closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017, as well as before the Senate Judiciary Committee in August 2017.
Fusion GPS and CfA's "racketeering activities," Nunes alleged, were "part of a joint and systematic effort to intimidate, harass, threaten, influence, interfere with, impede, and ultimately to derail" Republican investigators.
The lawsuit was the latest in a string of filings by Nunes this year, including a $250 million defamation complaint that named Twitter as a defendant and a $150 million complaint against the news organization McClatchy. Courts have not yet ruled on the merits of those complaints.
"I was often smeared," Nunes told Fox News' "Hannity" on Wednesday night. "And now, what we know is, there's a link between those who were doing the smearing and Fusion GPS."
Nunes added: "When we were investigating Fusion GPS, they were actively involved in working to smear me to obstruct justice, to derail our investigation -- and so, I'm gonna hold these guys accountable, and this is just one of many steps we're gonna continue to take."

(Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., sued Fusion GPS and its founder, alleging a RICO conspiracy. (AP, File))

In his latest lawsuit, Nunes noted that in October 2017, he authorized subpoenas to compel Simpson and his associates to testify before congressional investigators and provide related documents concerning Fusion GPS' "nefarious activities," including its role in creating the Steele dossier.
"The bank records produced by Fusion GPS revealed that the Clinton campaign, the DNC and Perkins Coie paid for Fusion GPS’ anti-Trump research," Nunes' complaint stated.
Nunes, then the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was looking into the intelligence community's reliance on the unverified dossier, which the FBI had cited in a surveillance warrant to monitor former Trump aide Carter Page.
Simpson lied in his congressional testimony the next month, Nunes alleged, by claiming he did not meet with DOJ official Bruce Ohr until after the 2016 election. Ohr, however, testified that he met with Simpson in August 2016.
Additionally, Nunes said Simpson lied in August 2017 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Fox News reported last year that when asked by the panel whether that work continued after the 2016 election, Simpson responded: “I had no client after the election.”
Then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, however, challenged that answer in a letter to committee colleague Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. “As we now know, that was extremely misleading, if not an outright lie,” he wrote.
Worried there would be criminal referrals arising from the apparent falsehoods, Nunes claimed, Fusion GPS sprang into action.
"Fearing a criminal referral for his false statements to the FBI and DOJ, for lying to Congress and the Senate, and for obstructing the House Intelligence Committee in its Russia investigation, the Defendants directly and aggressively retaliated against Plaintiff, employing the same or similar means and methods as Fusion GPS and Simpson have employed multiple times in the past to smear the opposition," Nunes' filing stated.
"In furtherance of their conspiracy, the Defendants, acting in concert and with others, filed fraudulent and retaliatory 'ethics' complaints against Plaintiff that were solely designed to harass and intimidate Plaintiff, to undermine his Russia investigation, and to protect Simpson, Fusion GPS and others from criminal referrals," Nunes alleged.
The complaint alleged that CfA, at Fusion GPS' direction, faxed a fraudulent complaint against Nunes to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) in January 2018. According to the filing, which cited reporting by The Daily Caller, the CfA paid Fusion GPS over $140,000 in 2018 for unspecified "research."
Then, in March 2018, CfA was said to have faxed another ethics complaint, this time one that "falsely accused" Nunes of leaking to the media "private text messages between Senator Mark Warner and Adam Waldman, a lawyer connected to [British ex-spy Christopher] Steele, in which Senator Warner tried to arrange a meeting with Steele."
A third ethics complaint faxed that July alleged that Nunes had "violated federal law and House ethics rules by failing to include information on his personal financial disclosure forms and accepting an impermissible gift."

Glenn R. Simpson, co-founder of the research firm Fusion GPS, in November 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

That same day, the Swamp Accountability Project, run by political operative Liz Mair, also sought an investigation of Nunes. Nunes' complaint alleged that Fusion GPS "recruited additional bad actors" including Mair, but provided no evidence.
Mair was not named as a defendant in Wednesday's lawsuit. Nunes has named Mair in two other lawsuits this year.
Neither CfA nor Fusion GPS immediately responded to Fox News' requests for comment. Mair, reached by Fox News, declined comment.
At either CfA or Fusion GPS' direction, Nunes asserted, Democratic operative Michael Seeley requested emails under the California Public Records Act that Nunes' wife, an elementary school teacher, had received.
"Seeley published Elizabeth Nunes’ emails online and included the names and email addresses of numerous school administrators and teachers, resulting in extensive harassment of these innocent, hard-working citizens of Tulare County, including hateful accusations that they teach bigotry and racism," the complaint stated. "In fact, the school was so concerned about security problems resulting from this situation that it adopted enhanced security measures."
In 2017, Nunes was forced to step aside from the Russia probe after an ethics complaint alleged he had wrongfully disclosed classified materials. Nunes was cleared in December 2017.
Nunes' suit sought treble damages and attorney's fees.
"Fusion GPS, Simpson and Steele fraudulently developed the 'Steele Dossier' and disseminated it to U.S. Government officials and the press as if the salacious accusations were true," Nunes' complaint concluded. "Defendants’ corrupt acts of racketeering are part of their regular way of doing business. That way of doing business must end here and now."

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