New York Rep. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is learning a lot of new things in Washington — including about what a garbage disposal is.
The
29-year-old freshman congresswoman posted photos and videos on
Instagram showing the apparently “terrifying” contraption at work in her
swanky DC apartment and saying she’d never seen one before.
“OK everyone I need your help because I just moved into this
apartment a few months ago and I just flipped a switch and it made that
noise and it scared the daylights out of me,” Ocasio-Cortez can be heard
saying in footage.
“I am told this is a garbage disposal. I’ve
never seen a garbage disposal. I never had one in any place I’ve ever
lived,” she later said.
The “Green New Deal”-touting Bronx Democrat wondered whether the device was “environmentally sound.”
“This
DC apartment is bougie and has things I’ve never seen before…”
Ocasio-Cortez captioned the video, later noting: “Is this what social
mobility is? Using kitchen appliances you never saw growing up?”
The
Bronx-born representative ended her Instagram story by quipping, “All
you people telling me to reach in and grab whatever’s there are just
Republicans trying to test my health insurance.”
“I’m onto you.”
President Trump has pardoned a former Army lieutenant who was convicted in 2009 of killing an Iraqi prisoner suspected of being an Al Qaeda terrorist, the White House announced Monday evening. White
House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders cited "broad support" for Michael
Behenna, of Edmond, Okla., "from the military, Oklahoma elected
officials, and the public" -- including 37 generals and admirals, along
with a former Pentagon inspector general -- as the reason for Trump's
clemency grant. Sanders also said Behenna had been a "model prisoner"
while serving his sentence. "In light of these facts, Mr. Behenna is entirely deserving of this Grant of Executive Clemency," Sanders concluded.
Michael Behenna, pictured in 2018, now runs his own cattle ranch in his native Oklahoma.
(Courtesy of Behenna family)
A military
court originally sentenced Behenna to 25 years for unpremeditated murder
in a combat zone. However, the Army's highest appellate court noted
concern about how the trial court had handled Behenna's claim of
self-defense, Sanders said. The Army Clemency and Parole Board reduced
his sentence to 15 years and paroled him in 2014, as soon as he was
eligible. Behenna acknowledged during his 2008 trial that instead
of taking prisoner Ali Mansur home as he was ordered, he took the man to
a railroad culvert, stripped him, and then questioned him at gunpoint
about a roadside bombing that had killed two members of Behenna's
platoon.
Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, at left in front of the American
flag, pictured in Iraq with some members of his platoon. In the back
right holding the flag is Adam Kohlhaas, who was killed in a roadside
bombing tied to an Al Qaeda cell.
(File image from Behenna family)
Behenna,
who was 24 at the time, said he acted in self-defense when Mansur threw
a chunk of concrete at him and reached for the lieutenant’s handgun.
Army prosecutors said the argument didn’t stand up because Behenna was
already pointing his weapon at the prisoner. In 2018, Behenna's
parents told Fox News the prosecution failed to disclose that their own
expert's analysis supported their son’s version of events. The expert
felt so strongly that he reached out to the Behennas about his findings. Oklahoma
Attorney General Mike Hunter initially requested a pardon for Behenna
in February 2018 and renewed his request last month. Hunter said he
believed Behenna's conviction was unjustified because of erroneous jury
instructions and the failure of prosecutors to turn over evidence
supporting a self-defense claim. The White House statement said that
former Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and "numerous members" of Oklahoma's
congressional delegation had also expressed support for Behenna. Fox News' Elizabeth Llorente and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in a letter Monday, denied House Ways and
Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal's request for President Trump's tax returns, saying the request lacked a “legitimate legislative purpose.” “As
you have recognized, the Committee’s request is unprecedented, and it
presents serious constitutional questions, the resolution of which may
have lasting consequences for all taxpayers,” the letter read. Mnuchin
told the Massachusetts Democrat he'd relied on the advice of the
Justice Department. He concluded that the department was “not authorized
to disclose the requested returns and return information.” “The
Department of Justice has informed us that it intends to memorialize
its advice in a published legal opinion as soon as practicable. Out of
respect for the deadlines previously set by the Committee, and
consistent with our commitment to a prompt response, I am informing you
now that the Department may not lawfully fulfill the Committee’s
request,” the letter read. The move, which was expected, is sure
to set in motion a legal battle over Trump’s tax returns. The likely
options available to Democrats would be to subpoena the Internal Revenue
Service for the returns or to file a lawsuit. Neal originally
demanded access to Trump’s tax returns in early April under a law that
said the IRS “shall furnish” the returns of any taxpayer to a handful of
top lawmakers, including the chair of the tax-writing Ways and Means
Committee. The White House and the president’s attorneys declined
to comment on the deadline to turn over Trump’s returns. Trump already
has signaled he has no intention of turning over the much-coveted
records. The
president has long told confidants that he was under audit and
therefore could not release his taxes. But in recent weeks, he has added
to the argument, telling advisers that the American people elected him
once without seeing his taxes and would do so again, three White House
officials and Republicans told The Associated Press anonymously. Fox News’ Mike Emanuel, Kelly Phares and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Former independent counsel Ken Starr on Monday sharply criticized the leak of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's letter to Attorney General William Barr following Barr's summary of the Russia report, calling the release of the letter an "unforgivable sin." "His
letter, that was then leaked on the very eve of Bill Barr's testimony,
was essentially, I believe, an unfair, whiny complaint," Starr argued on "The Story with Martha MacCallum." Details
of the March 24 letter went public shortly before Barr testified before
the Senate Judiciary Committee in a tense hearing last week. Multiple
news outlets reported that Mueller raised concerns about how Barr's
conclusions from the investigation were being portrayed, before the
Justice Department had released a redacted version of Mueller's report. Starr also said Barr had been "obliged" to summarize Mueller's findings. Democrats have urged Mueller to testify after his March letter leaked. Barr
skipped a House Judiciary Committee hearing last Thursday over the
terms of the session, though he testified for hours a day earlier on the
Senate side. He also has refused requests for the unredacted Mueller
report, though he has offered access to a less-redacted version to
certain lawmakers. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold
Nadler, D-N.Y., in a letter to Barr last Friday, threatened to launch
contempt proceedings and "seek further legal recourse" should the
attorney general and Justice Department continue what he called a
"baseless refusal to comply with a validly issued subpoena" for the full
Mueller report. Starr said Barr was trying to do the right thing, only for Mueller to set him up for criticism. "Here
comes Bob Mueller with this letter which is then leaked. That is, to
me, the unforgivable sin. He, Bob Mueller, badly injured this attorney
general and the attorney general didn't deserve that but, of course,
that created its own huge firestorm including suggestions that the
attorney general was totally mischaracterizing the report and so forth,"
Starr said. Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report. Fox News' Martha MacCallum contributed to this report.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is worried President Trump might not step down if defeated in 2020, according to a report published Saturday. “We have to inoculate against that, we have to be prepared for that,” she told The New York Times. She
urged the Democrats to win the debate that matters most to many voters
inside the party: electability. “Own the center-left, own the
mainstream,” she said. Pelosi
also said that in order to beat Trump, liberals have to play at his
level, and the best way to do that is to win big, so he can’t challenge
the results. “If we win by four seats, by a thousand votes each,
he’s not going to respect the election,” she said. “He would poison the
public mind. He would challenge each of the races. He would say you
can’t seat these people.” Last Wednesday, Pelosi pushed out a statement taking aim at the Trump administration in
the aftermath of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report, blasting the
president as “immoral, unethical, corrupt and unpatriotic.” The
statement kicked off by taking aim at Trump over his comments last week
that he would “fight all the subpoenas,” accusing the president of
“blanket, Unprecedented Stonewalling." “The
President has made clear that he will broadly defy requests for
information from Capitol Hill. Trump’s obstruction extends to Democrats’
inquiries on issues that address the challenges facing American
families from the Administration’s efforts to sabotage Americans’ health
care to its cruel family separation policy,” the statement read. Trump
told Fox News last Thursday that he would not allow former White House
counsel Don McGahn or other administration officials to
testify. “They've testified for many hours, all of them. I would say,
it's done,” the president said. “Nobody has ever done what I've done.
I've given total transparency. It's never happened before like this.
They shouldn't be looking anymore. It's done.” Fox News' Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.
President Trump’s latest choice to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a former Border Patrol chief under the Obama administration who has backed the president’s border wall. Trump tweeted on Sunday that Mark Morgan “will be joining the Trump Administration as the head of our hard working men and women of ICE.” He added: “Mark is a true believer and American Patriot. He will do a great job!” Acting
Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said in a statement that
Morgan’s “record of service is needed to address the crisis at the
border and support the men and women of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.” ICE is the agency tasked with enforcing immigration law in the interior of the U.S. Part
of ICE’s mission is to arrest immigrants in the U.S. illegally, which
has made it a symbol of Trump’s hardline immigration policies. Midwestern Education Morgan
graduated magna cum laude from the University of Central Missouri with a
degree in Construction Engineering; he got a JD from the University of
Missouri-Kansas City. His LinkedIn page
says he is an “accomplished senior executive with 30 years of
progressive experience leading people, driving strategic change, and
creating an innovative culture with value-driven proven results.” His
bio also states his service: “U.S. Border Patrol/Customs and (Border)
Protection, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Los Angeles Police
Department, and United States Marine Corps.” Morgan Supports Trump’s Border Wall Morgan,
who was named the head of U.S. Border Patrol in 2016, was ousted early
in Trump’s presidency. Morgan was the first and so far the only outsider
to lead the Border Patrol. He clashed with its union, which has had a
strong relationship with Trump. Since Morgan left, he has defended
Trump’s immigration policies and publicly declared earlier this year his
support for Trump’s efforts to build a wall along the southern border. Morgan wrote in an opinion piece for Fox News this past March:
“It’s time to stop listening to those driven by a personal political
ideology and arm yourself with facts, thorough analysis, and the
perspective of credible experts. It’s an emergency.” In April,
Trump made his appreciation known, tweeting: “Mark Morgan, President
Obama’s Border Patrol Chief, gave the following message to me:
‘President Trump, stay the course.’ I agree, and believe it or not, we
are making great progress with a system that has been broken for many
years!” Morgan Saw Signs of the Growing Humanitarian Crisis Years Ago Morgan told Fox News last January that starting in 2014, the demographics of the people coming across the U.S. border started to change. “Meaning, we saw an influx in family units and unaccompanied minors,” Morgan said. “It was then, also, across the aisle on both sides that referred to that as a humanitarian crisis.” Morgan Thinks Immigration Laws “Are So Broke” Just last week, Morgan told Fox News that the crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico has been getting exponentially worse. “Right now if you grab a kid and come to our country illegally, you’re allowed in,” he said. “They’re
not even asserting credible fear claims, they’re not even asserting
asylum now,” he said. “They don’t need to because our laws are so
broke.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Michael Behenna, pictured in 2018, now runs his own cattle ranch in his native Oklahoma.
(Courtesy of Behenna family)
Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, at left in front of the American
flag, pictured in Iraq with some members of his platoon. In the back
right holding the flag is Adam Kohlhaas, who was killed in a roadside
bombing tied to an Al Qaeda cell.
(File image from Behenna family)
