Organizers
of a planned Straight Pride rally received some bad news from city
officials in Modesto, Calif., on Friday. They will not be permitted to
hold their event in a city park as planned on Aug. 24. However,
the city has offered to allow the group to rally in a space near the
city’s convention center – provided the organizers file a permit
application by Tuesday, the Modesto Bee reported. City
officials said the original plan to use Graceada Park raised safety
issues because the organizers’ liability insurance had been voided,
according to FOX 40 in Sacramento. “If you don’t have insurance, you can’t reserve one of our parks,” city spokesman Thomas Reeves told Sacramento’s KOVR-TV. The
latest development follows a contentious City Council meeting on
Wednesday evening, at which critics contended the organizers didn’t wish
to celebrate heterosexuality, as the event name suggests, but to
instead communicate an anti-gay agenda. Co-organizer Mylinda Mason of the National Straight Pride Coalition, however, insisted there was no hidden intent. “Everyone
is trying to sensationalize this event and it’s going to be much like a
church service,” Mason told FOX 40. “I know everybody likes to go and
celebrate sodomy but we actually want to celebrate heterosexuality.
"Everyone
is trying to sensationalize this event and it’s going to be much like a
church service. I know everybody likes to go and celebrate sodomy but
we actually want to celebrate heterosexuality." — Mylinda Mason, co-organizer of proposed Straight Pride event
“They’re
looking to amp it up into something that it’s not,” Mason said of the
critics. “It’s really going to be much more like on the purview of a
church service, really. It really is just celebrating our beautiful
country.” But Mason’s 28-year-old son, Matthew Mason, who is openly gay, was among those opposing the plan for a Straight Pride event. “This isn’t ‘straight pride,’ this is ‘hate pride,’” the son told FOX 40. “This is the woman who raised me, actively working against my rights as a human being, who I am as a person.” In a Thursday interview, National Straight Pride Coalition organizer Don Grundmann told USA Today that his organization’s First Amendment rights should be respected. He accused the Modesto City Council of “working overtime” to block his event.
"We're saying that it's OK to be a man. It's OK to be a woman,"
the organizer of a planned Straight Pride rally says. (iStock)
“We’re
being viciously smeared and lied about that we’re racists,” he told the
paper. (At the public meeting a night earlier, Grundmann drew laughter
from his critics when he misspoke and described his organization as "a
totally peaceful racist group," the Bee reported.)
"We're saying that it's OK to be a man. It's OK to be a woman. It's OK to have a natural family, a man, woman and children.” — Don Grundmann, co-organizer of proposed Straight Pride event
"Our
culture is under attack on multiple fronts, such as just being men.
There's so-called toxic masculinity. There's actually college courses
being taught that men are an inherent problem, there's something wrong
with them," he said. "We're saying that it's OK to be a man. It's OK to
be a woman. It's OK to have a natural family, a man, woman and
children.”
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is facing new scrutiny over his past comments that diversity in the U.S. was “a bunch of poppycock.” Biden, who has established himself as the front runner in the race for the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential nomination, has more recently stressed the importance of America’s diversity and criticized President Trump over his immigration policies. “This
is America, and we are strong and great because of this diversity, Mr.
President, not in spite of it,” Biden said on the Democratic debate
stage last month. “America’s strength is and has always been rooted in our diversity,” Biden wrote in a tweet last month. But
Biden took an opposite view back in 1976, during his days as a U.S.
senator from Delaware, and bemoaned in that bicentennial year that there
was no single ethnicity that united the country, the Washington Examiner reported. “I
told you [in a previous speech] about my view that the uniqueness of
America didn’t lie in the fact that we’re a great melting pot,” Biden
said during an annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Boise, Idaho, in
February 1976.
“We hear that all the time, about it
being black and white, rich and poor, Christian and Jew — therefore
we’re strong. I told you then, I thought that was a bunch of poppycock.” — Joe Biden
“We
hear that all the time, about it being black and white, rich and poor,
Christian and Jew — therefore we’re strong. I told you then, I thought
that was a bunch of poppycock,” he continued. “The fact we are
black and white doesn’t bring us together as a nation. The fact that
we’re Christian and Jew doesn’t send us running into one another's
embrace to herald our differences. The fact is that people fear
differences. The fact that the reason this nation is able to be the most
heterogeneous nation in the history of mankind is not because it’s a
melting pot. It’s because unlike any other nation in the world, we are
uniquely a product of our political institutions. “If
France tomorrow, for example, were to turn in [sic] a monarchy, I told
you, I did not believe that France would substantively change. Because
in France there’s an ethnicity that binds them together, a cultural tie.
You don’t have that in America,” he concluded.
"In France there’s an ethnicity that binds them together, a cultural tie. You don’t have that in America." — Joe Biden
The
remarks are sure to give ammunition to progressive Democrats running
for president. They have criticized the former vice president over his
previous opposition to federal desegregation efforts and his
past touting of his ability to work with segregationists in the Senate. Biden
has been stumbling on the campaign trail over the issue of race
relations. Back in a June he was criticized after saying in a Chicago
speech, “That kid wearing a hoodie may very well be the next poet
laureate and not a gang banger.” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who’s
also running for president, criticized Biden, saying, “This isn’t about a
hoodie. It’s about a culture that sees a problem with a kid wearing a
hoodie in the first place. Our nominee needs to have the language to
talk about race in a far more constructive way.” This
week, Biden told a crowd in Iowa that “poor kids are just as bright and
talented as white kids.” After a very brief pause, Biden quickly
continued speaking, adding: “Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids.” In
response, President Trump told reporters Friday that Biden "is not
playing with a full deck," adding, “He made that comment and I said,
'Whoa.'"
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
continues to shun responsibility for heightened tensions among House
Democrats, distancing herself from her former chief of staff Saikrat
Chakrabarti whose attacks on moderates she called “divisive.” Her
comments came soon after Chakrabarti’s surprise resignation earlier this
month following a series of controversies that contributed to public
divisions within the House Democratic Caucus. “I think it was divisive,” Ocasio-Cortez said during an interview with the New York Daily News,
though she insisted the resignation had nothing to do with
Chakrabarti’s attack on moderates. “I believe in criticizing stances,
but I don't believe in specifically targeting members.”
“I think it was divisive. I believe in criticizing stances, but I don't believe in specifically targeting members.” — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
She added that her office then spoke with Chakrabarti, prompting him to “immediately [take] the tweet down.” Chakrabarti,
who helped manage Ocasio-Cortez’s upstart 2018 campaign, drew the ire
of Democrats last month when he publicly criticized party moderates
during policy spats between progressive members and party leadership. In
June, he tweeted that Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas, one of the first
two Native American women to serve in Congress, enabled a racist system
after she voted in favor of a Senate border bill not backed by
progressives. “Who
is this guy and why is he explicitly singling out a Native American
woman of color?” the House Democratic Caucus' official account tweeted
last month. "Her name is Congresswoman Davids, not Sharice," the House
Democrats added. "She is a phenomenal new member who flipped a red seat
blue." "Keep Her Name Out Of Your Mouth," the tweet concluded -- with interspersed emojis of clapping hands. In
July, Chakrabarti described centrist Democrats who blocked a
liberal-backed emergency border bill as the "new Southern Democrats."
They “certainly seem hell bent [sic] to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s.” — Saikat Chakrabarti
They
“certainly seem hell bent [sic] to do to black and brown people today
what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s,” he tweeted in a
now-deleted post. Chakrabarti’s
comments contributed to the combative relationship between the
progressive freshmen Democrats and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who took a
swipe at Ocasio-Cortez along with Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota,
Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts – whom
she called "four people" who don't have any following. Ocasio-Cortez
said they were singled out because they are newly elected women of
color, further deepening divisions within the party. Democratic
lawmakers, meanwhile, asked Ocasio-Cortez to fire Chakrabarti in an
attempt to start over. His resignation came shortly after Ocasio-Cortez met with Pelosi in an effort to ease the tensions in the caucus. Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y.,
confirmed on Thursday evening that his committee has officially
launched "formal impeachment proceedings" into the alleged misconduct of
President Trump. Appearing on CNN, Nadler said people shouldn't be "hung up on the semantics" since his committee is "investigating" the facts and evidence. He said that he "wasn't waiting" for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has been publicly reluctant to support impeachment, but added that she's been "very cooperative" with his investigation. But
after being pressed as to whether his investigation was considered
"formal impeachment proceedings," Nadler insisted that's what it is. “This
is formal impeachment proceedings,” Nadler said. “We are investigating
all the evidence, we’re gathering the evidence and we will at the
conclusion of this, hopefully by the end of the year, vote to, vote
articles of impeachment to the House floor or we won’t. That’s a
decision that we’ll have to make. But that -- that’s exactly the process
we’re in right now.” "All right, so when you say formal
impeachment proceedings, have you started drafting or preparing articles
of impeachment should you need them?" host Erin Burnett asked. “There
are articles of impeachment introduced a number of months ago and
referred to the committee,” Nadler responded. “As the investigation
proceeds, we may want to draft our own articles of impeachment that may
more closely fit the evidence. We’ll see.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic primary
frontrunner, made another gaffe Thursday when he told a crowd in Iowa
that “poor kids are just as bright and talented as white kids.” Biden, who famously directed supporters to a wrong number during last month’s debate -- and recently misidentified the sites of recent mass shootings
-- quickly corrected himself after some applause from the crowd at the
Asian & Latino Coalition PAC, and finished, “wealthy kids, black
kids, Asian kids.” Biden, who in 2006 drew criticism with
a comment about Indian-Americans moving to Delaware, the state that
Biden represented when he served in the U.S. Senate, also told a crowd
at the Iowa State Fair that “we choose science over fiction. We choose
truth over facts.” Biden, like all of the Democratic candidates,
has put blame on President Trump’s rhetoric for playing a role in the
recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. He said Trump
is “using the language of “ white nationalists. He told CNN earlier
this week that Trump talks about Muslims and people of color in “almost
subhuman terms.” Trump
on Monday called on the nation to condemn white nationalism, but he
didn’t apologize for his incendiary rhetoric on race, from referring to
illegal immigration as an “invasion” to his recent Twitter attacks on
black members of Congress. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
New documents highlighting top Justice Department official Bruce Ohr's contact with ex-British spy Christopher Steele are the latest troubling development for the DOJ in 2016. That's the claim from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who said Thursday on "Hannity" that he believes there was deep corruption in the department during that year's U.S. presidential election. "Here's what we're looking at: Systematic corruption at the highest level of the Department of Justice and the FBI against President Trump and in favor of Hillary Clinton," Graham said. Host
Sean Hannity then asked Graham whether officials "lied purposefully" on
a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant application to
surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. "The best you
could say is that they were incompetent," Graham responded. "The most
likely outcome is that they wanted a result." "I think the
insurance policy is what we're seeing here, getting into the Trump
campaign," Graham continued. "The FISA warrant against Carter Page was a
fraud, I believe. The counter-intelligence investigation is something
we have to look at very closely." On Thursday evening, newly released records obtained by Fox News showed the FBI formally documented the bias of Steele shortly
after the November 2016 presidential election, yet continued to use his
unverified dossier in multiple FISA court warrant application renewals. The documents, first obtained by Judicial Watch, also reveal that top Justice Department official Bruce Ohr maintained
contact with Steele for at least six months after Steele was fired by
the FBI for unauthorized media contacts in November 2016. The
summaries of FBI interviews with Ohr, known as 302s, show that Ohr knew
by September 2016 -- a month before the initial application to surveil
the Trump campaign -- that Steele was "desperate" that Donald Trump not
be elected president. A source close to the matter told Fox
News "this had the effect of putting a senior DOJ official on notice
that a witness/source had an extreme bias" -- yet the FISA warrant
application went through in October 2016 with multiple renewals. In
his interview with Hannity, Graham claimed if a Republican operative
acted in a way similar to Steele, the news would receive wall-to-wall
media coverage. "You could not turn on your television," he said. Fox News' Gregg Re and Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.
"We're saying that it's OK to be a man. It's OK to be a woman,"
the organizer of a planned Straight Pride rally says. (iStock)
