QUEENS,
New York — A seemingly troubled woman at a town hall hosted by
Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her district stood up to demand the congresswoman support drastic measures to combat climate change, such as "eating babies."
“We’re
not going to be here for much longer, because of the climate crisis,"
the woman pleaded. "We only have a few months left. I love that you
support the Green Deal, but it’s not gonna get rid of fossil fuel. It’s
not going to solve the problem fast enough. A Swedish professor said we can eat dead people, but it’s not fast enough! So, I think your next campaign slogan needs to be this: We’ve got to start eating babies."
Many of Ocasio-Cortez’s constituents appeared confused by the woman’s declarations.
Removing
her jacket to reveal a T-shirt with the phrase “Save the planet Eat the
Children,” the woman continued, “We don’t have a enough time. There’s
too much Co2."
"All of you!" she went on, turning to those around
her, "You’re a pollutant! Too much Co2. We have to start now. Please —
you are so great. I’m so happy that you are supporting a Green New Deal,
but it’s not enough. Even if we were to bomb Russia, it’s not enough.
There’s too many people, too much pollution. So, we have to get rid of
the babies. That’s a big problem. Just stopping having babies just isn’t
enough. We need to eat the babies. This is very serious. Please give a
response.”
Staffers of the New York congresswoman approached the
woman toward the end of her remarks, as attendees in the room became
increasingly uncomfortable.
An
atheist group that has counted Ron Reagan Jr. among its members says it
was inappropriate for a judge to give a Bible to Amber Guyger, the
former Dallas police officer who convicted this week of murdering a neighbor last year.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) – the atheist group for which the 61-year-old son of former President Ronald Reagan has appeared in television ads – filed a formal complaint Thursday with the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct, FOX 4 of Dallas-Fort Worth reported.
The Wisconsin-based group objected to Judge Tammy Kemp giving one of her Bibles to Guyger after the former officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for the shooting death of Botham Jean, a 26-year-old accountant.
“You
just need a tiny mustard seed of faith,” Kemp said to a tearful Guyger,
handing the Bible to her before the convicted former officer left the
courtroom. “You start with this.”
Kemp also hugged Guyger – as did
a brother of the murder victim, in actions that some observers said
showed compassion for the newly convicted defendant.
State District Judge Tammy Kemp gives former Dallas Police Officer
Amber Guyger a hug before Guyger leaves for jail, Wednesday, Oct. 2,
2019, in Dallas. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via AP, Pool)
But in a letter Thursday to the Texas commission, the
atheist group objected to what it termed the judge’s “proselytizing
actions,” saying they “overstepped judicial authority,” and were
“inappropriate” and “unconstitutional.”
“It is perfectly
acceptable for private citizens to express their religious beliefs in
court,” the letter states later, “but the rules are different for those
acting in a governmental role.”
In a separate Twitter message, FFRF attorney Andrew L. Seidel further explained the group’s position.
“We
need more compassion in our criminal justice system,” Seidel wrote,
“but here, compassion crossed the line into coercion. Judges cannot
impose their personal religion on others.”
“We need
more compassion in our criminal justice system, but here, compassion
crossed the line into coercion. Judges cannot impose their personal
religion on others.” — Andrew L. Seidel, attorney, Freedom from Religion Foundation
Seidel is the author of “The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American.”
Neither
the group nor Seidel appeared to demand punishment for the judge. Their
messages seemed aimed only at drawing attention to a “possible
violation” of rules of judicial conduct.
However, another group –
the Texas-based First Liberty Institute, which supports religious
freedom – came to the judge’s defense.
“We should all be thankful
the law allows Judge Kemp’s actions,” said Hiram Sasser, legal counsel
for the First Liberty Institute. “We stand with her and will gladly lead
the charge in defending her noble and legal actions.”
“We
should all be thankful the law allows Judge Kemp’s actions. We stand
with her and will gladly lead the charge in defending her noble and
legal actions.” — Hiram Sasser, legal counsel for the First Liberty Institute
Guyger
claimed she mistakenly entered Jean’s apartment, one floor above hers,
thinking it was her own home, and shot Jean because she believed he was
an intruder in her apartment.
But
on Tuesday, a jury decided that Guyger, 31, was guilty of murder.
Guyger had been a member of the Dallas force for nearly five years.
Also
on Thursday, the atheist group posted a Twitter message objecting to
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin’s support of “Bring Your Bible to School Day,”
saying the Republican governor’s stand was “narrow-minded and totally
inappropriate.”
The White House will send House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a letter on Friday "daring" her to hold a vote on Democrats' impeachment inquiry into President Trump, Fox News has confirmed.
The
letter will say the White House won't comply with the Democrats'
investigation because Pelosi hasn't codified the probe with a formal
vote on the House floor. Its tone will be consistent with that of the
letter House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., sent to the speaker on Thursday, Fox learned.
In his letter, McCarthy called on Pelosi to end the impeachment inquiry until “equitable rules and procedures” are set up.
“Unfortunately,
you have given no clear indication as to how your impeachment inquiry
will proceed -- including whether key historical precedents or basic
standards of due process will be observed,” McCarthy wrote. “In
addition, the swiftness and recklessness with which you have proceeded
[have] already resulted in committee chairs attempting to limit minority
participation in scheduled interviews, calling into question the
integrity of such an inquiry.”
McCarthy referred to reports that
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was
limiting Republicans' ability to ask questions during Thursday’s
testimony by former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, who resigned last
week.
Pelosi shot back at McCarthy, saying that "existing rules
of the House provide House committees with full authority to conduct
investigations for all matters under their jurisdiction."
She
later tweeted: "The fact that the [House Republicans'] loyalty is to
Trump and not to the Constitution is not going to slow down or impair
our ability to keep the republic of our founders envisioned."
The
letter prompted a response from President Trump, who tweeted Thursday:
"Leader McCarthy, we look forward to you soon becoming Speaker of the
House. The Do Nothing Dems don’t have a chance!"
House Democrats
launched an impeachment inquiry into Trump after a whistleblower
complaint suggested the president took part in a quid pro quo scheme
during a July 25 phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, using $400
million in military aid as leverage to induce officials there to
investigate Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, his son Hunter
and their business dealings in that country.
Trump
has said his call with President Volodymyr Zelensky was "perfect." On
Thursday, he repeated his contention that the Democrats' investigation
"the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country."
Trump
said there "wasn't anything said wrong" in his phone call with Zelensky
and called the impeachment probe a "Democrat scam."
He later
tweeted that, as president, he has an "absolute right, perhaps even a
duty, to investigate or have investigated corruption, and that would
include asking or suggesting other countries to help us out!"
Schiff made a formal request on Sept. 10 to transmit the whistleblower complaint to Congress. Trump has said Schiff is a "lowlife" who should resign. Fox News' Chad Pergram and Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report.
Ukraine’s top prosecutor said Friday that his office is "conducting an audit" of closed cases that had been previously investigated, including the probe involving the energy giant Burisma, where Hunter Biden had served on the board.
Ruslan
Ryaboshapka, the country's prosecutor general, said at a news
conference that his office was instructed to review cases that have been
closed, fragmented or investigated earlier to make sure they were
fairly and thoroughly handled. He said no one attempted to influence him
to call for the new investigations. DOCUMENTS HEIGHTEN SCRUTINY ON BIDEN-UKRAINE DEALINGS, INDICATE HUNTER MAY HAVE MADE 'MILLIONS'
His comment came as the Trump White House fights an impeachment inquiry
that involves allegations that President Trump used military funding as
part of a "quid pro quo" proposal with Kiev to investigate Biden and
his father, former Vice President Joe Biden.
Trump has denied
wrongdoing. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who participated in a
scrutinized phone call with Trump in July, said he never felt pressure
from Trump.
Trump's key focus has been how Hunter Biden, who
reportedly knew little about the energy business and the country, ended
up on Burisma’s board while his father was vice president under Barack
Obama. The elder Biden later pressured Ukraine to oust a prosecutor who
had been looking into the company's founder, though Biden allies say
this intervention was driven by corruption concerns.
Ryaboshapka is considered a reformer and “the father of the anti-corruption strategy in Ukraine,” a former associate told the Washington Post. Another peer called him an “honest person” but expressed doubts that he has the ability to weed out corruption in the country.
"Being a good guy is not always enough,' the source said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some have regrets. A few can’t talk about it. Others would do it all again.
But
the Republicans who carried out President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in
1998 are unanimous in urging caution and restraint as Congress embarks
on yet another impeachment struggle, this time over accusations that
President Donald Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden, and his son.
The
impeachment veterans of two decades ago were thrust into a seismic
political event that was sober and circus-like at the same time. It
opened a new, angry chapter of American politics that strained
Washington institutions that were stronger then than now. They urge a
pause in the tribalism of the Trump era.
“You’ve
got a race to judgment, people apparently have already made up their
minds, and I don’t think there’s a lot of openness about this. And I
think there should be,” said former Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., one of
14 House impeachment “managers” who presented the case against Clinton
to the Senate.
“People ought to wait before
they make judgment on whether or not there’s even an impeachable offense
out here to be considered until all the facts are on the table,” He
added. “That’s not been the case for a number of congressmen on both
sides of the aisle that I can see.”
The
managers during Clinton’s impeachment were all solidly conservative
white men. Most are out of politics. A few are judges. Some do some
lobbying, while others have simply retired. The chairman, Henry Hyde of
Illinois, died in 2007.
The best-known is
Lindsey Graham, a former Air Force prosecutor who was among those most
aggressively gunning for Clinton. In 1999, speaking from the well of the
Senate, the South Carolina congressman made the case: “Impeachment is
not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office.
Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office.”
Now a senator, Graham seems to be part of the defense rather than the prosecution
“I have zero problems with this phone call” with Zelenskiy, Graham said on CBS’ “Face The Nation.”
The
only Clinton prosecutor remaining in the House is Rep. Jim
Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, a 41-year veteran of Congress who is
retiring at the end of next year. He insists charges that Trump abused
his office are nowhere near being proven.
In
1998, independent counsel Ken Starr offered up two vanloads of
testimony and evidence, effectively dropping the full case for
impeachment in Congress’s lap.
“I
think that Starr’s report, which said that the president may have
committed impeachable offenses, obligated the Judiciary Committee and
the House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry to see if that was
the case,” Sensenbrenner said in an interview. Congress had removed
judges in comparable perjury cases, he said.
History is calling again, this time with accusations that Trump abused his power to help his political fortunes.
Sensenbrenner
in July aggressively questioned special counsel Robert Mueller, whose
report didn’t find criminal wrongdoing by the president in Russia’s 2016
election interference but spelled out 10 instances in which Trump may
have obstructed the probe. Mueller didn’t indict Trump, citing Justice
Department guidelines against charging a sitting president. Nor did he
say whether impeachment could be a remedy.
“You
didn’t use the words ‘impeachable conduct’ like Starr did,”
Sensenbrenner told Mueller. “Even the president is innocent until proven
guilty.” Mueller said his mandate didn’t include offering opinions on
other remedies like impeachment.
McCollum,
who left Congress to lose a 2000 Senate campaign but staged a political
comeback as Florida’s attorney general, cautions that lots of facts,
testimony and evidence have yet to surface. The investigation into
Trump’s festering scandal is in its opening stages.
“There
are really a lot more questions than there are answers,” McCollum said,
adding that so far he sees “just a really weak case.”
Democrats
say they already have their “smoking gun,” having obtained the
transcript of Trump’s call with Zelenskiy, and accuse Republicans of
downplaying a clear-cut abuse of presidential power.
Former
Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton, a Democrat who served in the House from 1965
to 1999 during both the Watergate scandal that brought down President
Richard Nixon and the impeachment of Clinton, has said he’d vote to both
indict and convict Trump if he were in Congress. Hamilton said he’s
“deeply concerned” that more Republicans have not publicly favored
impeachment proceedings against Trump or even spoken out against his
actions with Russia and Ukraine.
Trump’s call was “certainly egregious conduct” because it was for personal gain, Hamilton said.
“If
his conduct is acceptable, then we have lowered the bar on what the
office and public trust really means,” Hamilton said. “If we legitimize
the kind of behavior that he has exhibited, then our political system is
going to be greatly reduced.”
Aside from
Graham and Sensenbrenner, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison is the only one of
the 1998 impeachment managers remaining in political office. Hutchison
was re-elected by a landslide last year.
“The
facts have to be developed,” Hutchinson told the Arkansas Democrat
Gazette on Saturday, in little-noticed remarks that amount to apostasy
in today’s GOP. “The allegations raised should be taken seriously.”
Three
of the other former managers are now on the bench. Former Rep. Ed
Bryant, R-Tenn., is a federal district court judge, while Charles
Canady, R-Fla., and James Rogan, R-Calif., serve on state courts.
Rogan cheerfully responded to an email seeking an interview but said he couldn’t comment.
“I
would like to help you, but I fear I am rather hamstrung by our Canons
of ethics,” Rogan said. “Not only am I precluded from discussing
anything related to the current situation, I am precluded from saying
anything that might be interpreted that way (such as giving advice).”
Then
there’s former Rep. Bob Inglis, a Republican from South Carolina who
wasn’t an impeachment manager but forced a Judiciary Committee
discussion on easily the most vulgar accusation levied against Clinton
for his conduct. He seemed almost sheepish when encountered in the
Capitol recently.
“We made a mistake” impeaching Clinton, Inglis said, adding that the substance of the matter “wasn’t so very consequential.”
“I
can say that now, in retrospect — I didn’t think that at the time — but
I think that was because I was probably sort of blinded by my dislike
of President Clinton, you know, and wanting to stop him,” Inglis said.
“So there may be some similarities there in this scenario.”
“If
somebody’s the president of the United States and they do something
that’s bad enough, then even their own followers are generally going to
turn on them,” McCollum said. “And that’s not happened yet. It happened
with Nixon. That did not happen with Clinton and that does not appear to
me to be likely to be happening with Trump _ at least on the facts that
are out there right now.”
__
Associated Press writer Andrew Selsky contributed from Salem, Ore.
President Trump just went there.
What’s
happening now, he tweeted, is not impeachment, “it is a COUP, intended
to take away the Power of the People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their
Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given
rights as a Citizen of The United States of America!”
Leaving aside all the terrible things he says would follow his ouster, let’s be clear: This is not a coup.
Impeachment
is a remedy contained in the Constitution after considerable debate by
Alexander Hamilton and the other founders. Impeaching Donald Trump,
especially on a party-line vote, may be dumb, reckless, blindly partisan
or downright suicidal. But it is not a coup, even of the bloodless
variety.
The
president isn’t the only one using intemperate language. Maxine Waters,
the left-wing Democratic congresswoman, responded to his “filthy talk”
by declaring, “Impeachment is not good enough for Trump. He needs to be
imprisoned & placed in solitary confinement.”
So much for due process or the formality of a trial. Waters is already picking out his jail cell.
I
had barely finished writing these words when the president tweeted
about the “Do Nothing Democrats,” saying they are “wasting everyone’s
time and energy on [BS.”] Except he spelled it out.
Look, it’s
hardly surprising that rhetoric is getting way overheated with the
Democrats wielding a weapon that’s only been used against Andrew
Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. But words matter, in political
discourse as in life. And “coup” was no accident.
Trump obviously
has every incentive to rouse his supporters by painting himself as the
victim of dark forces, including the media and the Deep State.
And
the critics can retire to their fainting couches when he retweets a
phrase like “civil war.” Journalists use the term all the time, talking
about a Republican civil war or Democratic civil war or some other war.
But
coup is different, and so is calling for a congressman’s arrest. Trump
yesterday called Adam Schiff a “lowlife” who should resign, saying he
couldn’t carry Mike Pompeo’s “blank-strap.” (Suddenly jock is a dirty
word?) He’s also ended a tweet about the House Intel chairman with:
“Arrest for Treason?” (The supposed treason is that Schiff exaggerated
Trump’s comments on the Ukraine call in what he said was a parody.)
Kamala
Harris, trying to break into the news, is demanding that Twitter
suspend the president’s account. There is zero chance of that happening,
as the senator well knows. Can you imagine the backlash against the
company, already accused of leaning left, for banning a
commander-in-chief with 63 million followers?
Harris pointed to
Trump’s postings in which he likened the intelligence whistle-blower to a
spy and mentioned the word treason. “These tweets represent a clear
intent to baselessly discredit the whistleblower and officials in our
government who are following the proper channels to report allegations
of presidential impropriety,” she wrote Twitter chief Jack Dorsey.
As
for the fourth estate, the president told reporters he is largely
dropping “fake” and will refer to them as the “corrupt media.”
Trump
was teeing off on the Washington Post, but he was mistaken; the focus
of his ire was a new book by two New York Times reporters, Michael Shear
and Julie Hirschfeld Davis.
The Times story
based on the book said that in private meetings Trump “often talked
about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with
snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted
the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh.
After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw
rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was
illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they
shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. That’s not allowed either,
they told him.”
Trump ridiculed the story as a lie and said it
was “stupid” to ask whether he’d ever said such things. (Davis tweeted
that the White House did not deny the account when twice presented with
the details.)
The president then declared that he would largely
retire his “fake news” formulation in favor of “corrupt news”—which, he
added for good measure, is “truly the enemy of the people.”
That’s the latest sign of Trump’s frustration, after years of negative coverage, in the midst of an impeachment inquiry.
But
here’s the kicker. When Fox’s John Roberts asked Trump about a just
posted New York Times story that the whistle-blower told Schiff’s staff
about his complaint days before filing it, he said he couldn’t believe
the paper had written it and that maybe it’s getting better. When the
president views a story as more favorable, he miraculously upgrades his
opinion of the press.
President Trump may consider reported contact between the Ukraine whistleblower and Rep. Adam Schiff's, D-Calif., House Intelligence Committee as free reign to disparage the impeachment inquiry, according to Tom Bevan.
Schiff also appears to have not been completely forthright about said contact with the whistleblower in the past, the Real Clear Politics co-founder claimed Wednesday on "Special Report."
"This is a gift to Trump," he said.
"As
everybody's racing to try and frame the narrative, this is a gift to
Donald Trump in the sense that he can now muddy the waters and say
'look, this was a setup -- this was a fraud -- this is a hoax'."
Already,
the president has called the impeachment inquiry over his transcribed
phone call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky a "hoax" and earlier
Wednesday called Schiff a "fraud."
A spokesman for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.,
had acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that the whistleblower
alleging misconduct in the White House had reached out to Schiff's
panel before filing a complaint -- prompting President Trump, in an extraordinary afternoon news conference at the White House, to accuse Schiff directly of helping write the document.
Schiff had previously claimed in
a televised interview that "we have not spoken directly with the
whistleblower." A Schiff spokesperson seemingly narrowed that claim late
Wednesday, telling Fox News that Schiff himself "does not know the
identity of the whistleblower, and has not met with or spoken with the
whistleblower or their counsel" for any reason.
"It shows that
Schiff is a fraud. ... I think it's a scandal that he knew before,"
Trump said, as Finnish President Sauli Niinisto stood at an adjacent
podium. "I'd go a step further. I'd say he probably helped write it. ...
That's a big story. He knew long before, and he helped write it too.
It's a scam."
On "Special Report," Bevan called the report "valuable" and also discussed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's apparent reticence to schedule a formal floor vote on impeachment.
He
said Pelosi, D-Calif., has afforded herself maximum flexibility in that
without the vote, her committees can issue subpoenas but the minority
-- Republicans -- cannot petition for them.
On the flip side, he
said, Republicans can tag the inquiry as mostly political because the
San Francisco lawmaker has not taken the formal step of making it a
"serious inquiry." Fox News Gregg Re and Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.
She's a woman, she's an immigrant and she's Muslim -- and that "intersectionality" of identities has President Trump "terrified," U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., claimed in a television appearance Wednesday night.
Omar, a member of the "Squad" of far-left congressional Democrats, made the remarks on the late-night comedy show, "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee."
The
freshman lawmaker, who came to the U.S. with her family from Somalia
when she was a teenager, said she never imagined when she was a child
that she would someday be part of an effort to impeach a U.S. president.
"A
lot of people think we take joy in impeaching this president because we
don't like him," Omar said. "But we take joy in making sure that when
we say we're going to protect the rule of law, that the American people
know that we are serious about that."
"A lot of people
think we take joy in impeaching this president because we don't like
him. But we take joy in making sure that when we say we're going to
protect the rule of law, that the American people know that we are
serious about that." — U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
"I, however, am just always so happy when I think that Don Jr. is upset," host Samantha Bee told the congresswoman.
"That does slightly make me happy," Omar jokingly agreed.
While Omar often criticizes the president, she is also a frequent target of Trump's as well..
"Why do you think that the president focuses so much on you?" Bee asked.
"I
think he is terrified by any women who are practicing 'Shine Theory,'
who have each other's back," Omar responded, referring to a concept of
mutual empowerment developed by American businesswoman Aminatou Sow and
journalist Ann Friedman. "But for me, I think he is terrified at the
fact that I sit on the intersectionality of many identities that he
really despises: a woman, an immigrant, Muslim, refugee, and Punjabi in
one beautiful package."
When asked how she felt about "perpetually
being taken out of context" by her political opponents, Omar simply
told Bee she "doesn't really care that much" about that because her
critics "are just vilifying and dismissing my voice anyway."
"The fact that I live rent-free in their head doesn't mean they get to live rent-free in mine," Omar said.
"The fact that I live rent-free in their head doesn't mean they get to live rent-free in mine." — U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
She
later expressed how she thinks "rehabilitation" is possible for "white
supremacists" like White House adviser Stephen Miller, adding that they
could "use some light, some love, some joy" in their lives.
Previously, Omar vowed in July that she would continue being President Trump's "nightmare,"
after Trump said that Omar and her Squad colleagues should "go back and
help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they
came."
State District Judge Tammy Kemp gives former Dallas Police Officer
Amber Guyger a hug before Guyger leaves for jail, Wednesday, Oct. 2,
2019, in Dallas. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via AP, Pool)
CNN’s Scott Jennings once again took liberals to the cleaners on the Abrego Garcia case, the ‘Maryland man...
