Kaepernick blasts 'lawful lynchings,' defends anthem protests while accepting Amnesty award

Former NFL quarterback and social justice activist Colin Kaepernick receives the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award for 2018 from Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty, right, in Amsterdam, April 21, 2018.  (Associated Press)

Free agent NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick accepted the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award on Saturday, as the human rights organization acknowledged his kneeling protests of racial injustice that launched a sports movement.
Amnesty grants its highest honor each year to a person or organization, “dedicated to fighting injustice and using their talents to inspire others.”
In his acceptance speech at the ceremony in Amsterdam, Kaepernick -- who has been criticized by President Donald Trump, members of the U.S. military and many NFL fans for staging his protests during the playing of the national anthem before games -- described police killings of African-Americans and Latinos in the U.S. as “lawful lynchings.”
“Racialized oppression and dehumanization is woven into the very fabric of our nation — the effects of which can be seen in the lawful lynching of black and brown people by the police, and the mass incarceration of black and brown lives in the prison industrial complex,” Kaepernick said.
He also defended his decision to stage his protests during the playing of the national anthem.
“How can you stand for the national anthem of a nation that preaches and propagates, ‘freedom and justice for all,’ that is so unjust to so many of the people living there?” he said in the Dutch capital.

“How can you stand for the national anthem of a nation that preaches and propagates, ‘freedom and justice for all,’ that is so unjust to so many of the people living there?”

Since parting ways with the San Francisco 49ers after the 2016 NFL season, Kaepernick, 30, has been unable to reach a contract deal with another NFL club. He missed the entire 2017 NFL season.
Since then, other NFL players, as well as athletes in other sports, have replicated Kaepernick's protest, in part because they believe the quarterback has been blackballed by the NFL.
Those protests drew the ire of President Trump, who called on team owners to fire such players.
“Can you believe that the disrespect for our Country, our Flag, our Anthem continues without penalty to the players,” Trump tweeted last November. “The Commissioner has lost control of the hemorrhaging league. Players are the boss!”
A recent negotiation between Kaepernick and the Seattle Seahawks fell through, reportedly because Kaepernick would not agree to end his protest, Fox News reported.
TRUMP TACKLES THE NFL AND NATIONAL ANTHEM: A TIMELINE
But in response to the player demonstrations, the NFL agreed to commit $90 million over the next seven years to social justice causes.
Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty called Kaepernick “an athlete who is now widely recognized for his activism because of his refusal to ignore or accept racial discrimination.”
In his remarks, Kaepernick also cited Malcolm X’s words of willingness to “join in with anyone – I don’t care what color you are – as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth,” the Washington Post reported.
“In truth, this is an award that I share with all of the countless people throughout the world combating the human rights violations of police officers, and their uses of oppressive and excessive force,” Kaepernick said.

"This is an award that I share with all of the countless people throughout the world combating the human rights violations of police officers, and their uses of oppressive and excessive force.”
- Colin Kaepernick, Amnesty International award winner

Eric Reid, a 49ers teammate who protested alongside Kaepernick, presented the Amnesty award to him Saturday night.
Reid, a safety who also is now a free agent, continued Kaepernick’s protests by kneeling during the anthem last season.
Kaepernick paid tribute to his friend for his own role in the protest movement.
“Eric introducing me for this prestigious award brings me great joy,” Kaepernick said. “But I am also pained by the fact that his taking a knee, and demonstrating courage to protect the rights of black and brown people in America, has also led to his ostracization from the NFL when he is widely recognized as one of the best competitors in the game and in the prime of his career.”
Reid has said he will take a different approach in 2018.
Previous recipients of the Amnesty award have included anti-apartheid campaigner and South African President Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who campaigned for girls’ right to education even after being shot by Taliban militants.

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Bush family welcomes baby 2 days after Barbara Bush's death

Portrait of the Bush family sitting in front of their home in Kennebunkport, Maine. BACK ROW: Maragret Bush (Marvin's wife), holding daughter Marshall, Marvin Bush, Bill LeBlond (Doro's Husband). FRONT ROW: Neil Bush holding son Pierce, Sharon (Neil's wife), George W. Bush holding daughter Barbara Bush, George Bush, Sam LeBlond (Doro's son), Doro Bush LeBlond, George P.

Neil Bush lost his mother Tuesday, but gained a grandson Thursday, completing what he called “the circle of life.”
Neil and Maria Bush's daughter Lauren, a granddaughter of former President George H.W. Bush and the late former first lady Barbara Bush, gave birth to a baby boy just two days after Barbara Bush died at age 92.
“Maria and I will always be grateful for being able to say a proper goodbye to our wonderful mother,” Neil Bush wrote on his Facebook page. “And then two days later, yesterday morning, two weeks before her due date, Lauren Bush Lauren gave birth to a beautiful 7 lb 8 oz baby boy Max Walker Lauren.”
Neil Bush’s daughter Lauren is married to David Lauren, son of fashion designer Ralph Lauren, the New York Daily News reported.
The couple also has a 2-year-old son James, the report said.
“Maria and I were so blessed to spend lots of time with mom and dad during mom’s last weeks and we are so grateful for the condolences and the outpouring of love expressed towards her by many, many friends,” Neil wrote on his Facebook.

“Maria and I were so blessed to spend lots of time with mom and dad during mom’s last weeks and we are so grateful for the condolences and the outpouring of love expressed towards her by many, many friends.”

Barbara and George H.W. Bush had six children together: former President George W. Bush, Robin, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Neil, Marvin and Dorothy. Robin Bush died of leukemia at age 3 in 1953.
A public visitation for the former first lady was held in Houston Friday. Her funeral is scheduled for Saturday, with burial at the George H.W. Bush library at Texas A&M University.

DC lawmaker accused of anti-Semitism reportedly gave constituent funds to Louis Farrakhan event

Trayon White reportedly donated $500 of constituent funds to a Nation of Islam event in which leader Louis Farrakhan made anti-Semitic comments.

A D.C. council member is under fire for allegedly donating $500 to a Nation of Islam event in which leader Louis Farrakhan declared that “powerful Jews are my enemy,” a new report claims.
According to The Washington Post, Trayon White Sr. made the Jan. 29 donation from an account for his constituents.
The private funds were reportedly raised by lawmakers with the intention of being used for members of the community.
Instead White, a Democrat representing Ward 8, allegedly donated to the Nation of Islam’s “Saviours Day,” a weekend gathering each year in which Farrakhan made controversial comments about Jews.
At that February event, Farrakhan railed against Jews, who he claimed were in charge of the FBI and “were responsible for all of this filth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out turning men into women and women into men.” At the event, Farrakhan also reportedly claimed that both “powerful Jews” and the government were his enemies.
White told The Post that he didn’t know about the donation, but defended the group in broader terms.
“The Brothers from the Nation are of the few men that show up to help . . . us address crime and social ills in Southeast. They also run a feeding program in several public housing communities in ward 8,” White reportedly wrote in a text message to the outlet. “I’m a Christian but I support a lot of people and all religions who support my community.”
An official with the Nation of Islam told The Post that White personally ordered the funds be provided to the group.
“He said to me, ‘I want you to make a payment to the Nation of Islam for Saviours’ Day,’” Darryl Ross, the group’s treasurer, told The Post. “So I went on the website to get the information I needed in order to make the payment.”
The controversy surrounding the contributions follows an outcry over previous anti-Semitic remarks White has made. Last month White claimed that rich Jews control the weather.
"Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man," White said in a Facebook video. "Y'all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation.
"And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man."
During the 19th century, the Rothschild family had one of the world's largest fortunes, amassed through banking and other endeavors.
In a subsequent visit to the Holocaust museum, White reportedly questioned the accuracy of the actions of a Nazi in a 1935 photograph.
White has a May 3 deadline to explain the donation to campaign finance officials and could be fined if they determine that the money given was improper.

Fresno State prof blasts farmers as 'stupid' Trump supporters in video rife with F-bombs

Randa Jarrar, an author and professor at Fresno State’s Department of English, sparked outrage for her comments on Twitter calling the late Barbara Bush an "amazing racist."  (California State University, Fresno)

A video posted online this week includes profanity-laced clips from past interviews and speeches by embattled, Bush-bashing Fresno State professor Randa Jarrar, in which she says farmers who support President Donald Trump are "just f---ing stupid."
The nearly 4-minute YouTube video, published Wednesday under the username Vigilante Goose, was emailed Friday to university officials -- including university President Joseph Castro, the Fresno Bee reported.

Jarrar, an English professor at the school, also known as California State University, Fresno, ignited a firestorm Tuesday, just after news broke about the death of Barbara Bush, whose funeral is scheduled for Saturday in Texas.
In Twitter posts Tuesday, Jarrar called the late first lady an “amazing racist,” and said she was “happy the witch is dead.”
WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC LANGUAGE
Outrage over the posts has had Castro and other university officials worried about alienating key donors -- and sparked debate among the faculty over the professor's free speech rights.
As part of the fallout, the university also has been dealing with reports that Jarrar listed the phone number of a student crisis line in Arizona as being her own number, resulting in a flood of calls to the crisis line.
'The bigger person'
The video posted this week opens with Jarrar commenting about the agriculture industry, which is vital to the Fresno area.
“A lot of the farmers now are Trump supporters and just f---ing stupid,” she says, adding that she “can’t f---ing stand the white, hetero-patriarchy.”

“A lot of the farmers now are Trump supporters and just f---ing stupid.”

At another point, Jarrar talks about guns, and criticizes "the left" for being too "gentle" in dealing with "the other side."
“I don’t give a f---. I’m buying guns. I’m an American, I’m buying guns,” Jarrar says. “You know what, the other side is doing some stupid s—t. I’m going to do some stupid s—t. I'm tired of, like, being the bigger person — literally am, usually — but, like, I'm also just tired of the left being, like, f---ing stupid and being like, ‘No we have to, like, be gentle' … no, don’t be f---ing gentle.'"
To some, the video may appear to be intended to embarrass the professor by recycling her most controversial comments, but the professor herself appears to view it differently, calling the compilation “iconic.”
"A troll made a beautiful clip of all my recent greatest hits,” Jarrar wrote on Twitter this week, and included a link to the video, the Bee reported.
Jarrar has since made her Twitter account private following the slew of tweets about Bush, in which she also said she “can’t wait for the rest of her family to fall to their demise the way 1.5 million Iraqis have.”
As for the fallout her posts have generated, Jarrar taunted that she “will never be fired” as she is a tenured professor making $100,000 per year, and “will always have people wanting to hear what I have to say.”
University president responds
Castro took to Twitter himself Thursday to address Jarrar’s comments that sparked national outrage, saying that he too was “upset” and believes it is “important for us to condemn that part of what was done and said,” while stressing the need to “continue to role-model leadership” while upholding the First Amendment rights.
“A single set of tweets does not define the success of our university,” he said.
The video shows Jarrar’s profanity-laced comments eliciting different reactions from audience members who heard her speak. But at one point it shows people walking during an appearance in Indiana, the Bee reported.
What was Jarrar's reaction?
“I’m so proud when people walk out of my talks," she says.

Trump fires back on Twitter over Democrats' lawsuit

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club, April 18, 2018, in Palm Beach, Fla.  (Associated Press)

President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Friday night to fire back at a Democratic Party lawsuit alleging a widespread conspiracy to tilt the 2016 election in his favor.
On a night when he was also tweeting about perceived progress on the denuclearization of North Korea, the president had this to say about the Dems' lawsuit:
"Just heard the Campaign was sued by the Obstructionist Democrats. This can be good news in that we will now counter for the DNC Server that they refused to give to the FBI, the Debbie Wasserman Schultz Servers and Documents held by the Pakistani mystery man and Clinton Emails."

The Democratic Party on Friday filed a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit against Trump campaign officials, the Russian government and WikiLeaks, alleging an election conspiracy.   
Calling it an “all-out assault on our democracy,” the Democratic National Committee filed the civil suit in federal district court in Manhattan. The suit amounts to another legal broadside related to the 2016 race, on top of the special counsel's ongoing Russia probe and the FBI raid on Trump's personal attorney this month.
"The conspiracy constituted an act of previously unimaginable treachery: the campaign of the presidential nominee of a major party in league with a hostile foreign power to bolster its own chance to win the Presidency," the suit states.
The new suit claims that Trump campaign officials worked in tandem with the Russian government and its military spy agency to bring down Hillary Clinton by hacking into the computer networks of the Democratic National Committee and spreading stolen material.
The suit names several Trump campaign aides who met with Russian nationals during the campaign, including son-in-law Jared Kushner, former campaign chair Paul Manafort and former campaign deputy Rick Gates.
Gates and Manafort have both been charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The suit also claims WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange “shared the defendants’ common goal of damaging the Democratic Party in advance of the election.” The suit states that Russia, using WikiLeaks, would disseminate information stolen from the DNC “at times when it would best suit the Trump campaign.”

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DOJ watchdog sends criminal referral for McCabe to federal prosecutor

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog has sent a criminal referral for fired FBI official Andrew McCabe to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington.
The move follows a recent DOJ inspector general report that found McCabe leaked a self-serving story to the press and later lied about it to then-Director James Comey and federal investigators, prompting Attorney General Jeff Sessions to fire him on March 16.
A source confirmed to Fox News that the referral was sent.
The Washington Post reported earlier that the IG referred the finding that McCabe misled investigators "some time ago," asking the top federal prosecutor for D.C. to examine whether he should be charged.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe lacked "candor" in conversations with federal investigators.  (AP)

Representatives with the Justice Department, inspector general’s office and U.S. attorney’s office all declined to comment.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., backed the move in a tweet Thursday afternoon.
"The criminal referral from the IG is the right decision. It's about time we have some accountability for this type of conduct at the Justice Department," he said.
In an interview with CNN Thursday, Comey said that he had no knowledge of the referral, but confirmed that he could be a witness against McCabe if he is prosecuted.
"Given that the IG’s report reflects interactions that Andy McCabe had with me and other FBI senior executives, I could well be a witness," said Comey.
The former FBI Director added that he liked McCabe "very much as a person, but sometimes even good people do things they shouldn’t do ... I think it is accountability mechanisms working and they should work because it’s not acceptable in the FBI or the Justice Department for people to lack candor. It’s something we take really seriously."

Former FBI Director James Comey ordered the inspector general investigation that led to Andrew McCabe's ouster.  (AP)

In a statement, McCabe's legal team said they were advised of the referral "within the past few weeks."
"Although we believe the referral is unjustified, the standard for an IG referral is very low. We have already met with staff members from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. We are confident that, unless there is inappropriate pressure from high levels of the Administration, the US Attorney’s Office will conclude that it should decline to prosecute," they said.
While Comey may not have intentionally launched the investigation gunning for McCabe, it was spurred by a desire to find who leaked to The Wall Street Journal in October 2016 about an FBI probe of the Clinton Foundation. The story said a senior Justice Department official expressed displeasure to McCabe that FBI agents were still looking into the Clinton Foundation, and McCabe had defended agents' authority to pursue the issue.
That leak confirmed the existence of the probe into the Clinton Foundation, which Comey, who led the bureau at the time, refused to do.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz sent a criminal referral for Andrew McCabe to the U.S. Attorneys Office in Washington D.C.  (AP)

Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report said McCabe authorized the leak and then misled investigators about it, leaking in a way that did not fall under the “public interest” exception.
Horowitz found that McCabe lacked “candor” when questioned by FBI agents on multiple occasions, and that he told agents he did not authorize the disclosure and did not know who was responsible.
But McCabe’s legal counsel, Michael Bromwich, has blasted the inspector general report and has criticized Comey. The report said Comey and McCabe gave conflicting accounts about a conversation they had on the leak.
“The OIG should credit Mr. McCabe’s account over Director Comey’s,” Bromwich wrote to Horowitz in a letter, complaining that the report “paints Director Comey as a white knight carefully guarding FBI information, while overlooking that Mr. McCabe’s account is more credible…”
He issued a similar statement Wednesday in response to Comey's interview comments:
"In his comments this week about the McCabe matter, former FBI Director James Comey has relied on the accuracy and the soundness of the Office of the Inspector General's (OIG) conclusions in their report on Mr. McCabe. In fact, the report fails to adequately address the evidence (including sworn testimony) and documents that prove that Mr. McCabe advised Director Comey repeatedly that he was working with the Wall Street Journal on the stories in question prior to publication. Neither Mr. Comey nor the OIG is infallible, and in this case neither of them has it right."
On Thursday night, Comey told MSNBC that McCabe didn't tell him about plans to speak to the press.
“He didn’t tell me about it," Comey said. "He didn’t ask me about it before he did it. And I would’ve expected that. But I think he had the authority to do it. But I think as a matter of rule, he had the authority.”
On Wednesday, nearly a dozen Republican members of Congress sent their own criminal referral to the Justice Department and FBI seeking an investigation of McCabe, along with Comey, ex-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Hillary Clinton and others.
GOP REPS REFER COMEY, CLINTON, MCCABE FOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION 
The IG referral, however, could represent a more serious problem for McCabe.