California mayor who compared Trump backers to KKK dies in plane crash: report

A California mayor who recently said he would resign over social media posts comparing Trump supporters to members of the Ku Klux Klan was killed in a plane crash Saturday, according to a report.
Auburn Mayor Bill Kirby was identified as the person killed when a small plane went down near Auburn Airport just after 11 a.m. local time, FOX 40 Sacramento reported.
The other person on the plane apparently survived but there was no immediate information about that person’s identity or medical condition.
Kirby, who was also a physician, took heat from Auburn residents earlier this week during a city council meeting that was conducted by video because of the coronavirus outbreak.
In one of the posts, the mayor allegedly shared a photo of a Ku Klux Klan hood, with the caption, “Good news for Trump supporters is that most of them already have masks,” FOX 40 reported. The post was later taken down.
Kirby told residents he blamed President Trump for a lack of proper gear and testing capabilities in his work as a physician.
“This president has put us all at risk,” Kirby said.
During the city council meeting, officials and the public heard a string of voicemails that the council had received from residents infuriated by Kirby’s online posts.
“These comments are hateful, degrading, bigoted and more consistent with the mentality of a 15-year-old,” one voicemail said, according to FOX 40.
The mayor appeared remorseful at the meeting when he talked about the posts.
“I spent 40 years dedicating my life to serving the community of Auburn as a physician and through my volunteer efforts. Am I perfect? No. We’re all a little flawed,” Kirby said.
Kirby said he planned to step down as mayor at the next council meeting on April 27.
The plane crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration, California state fire officials told the station.
Auburn is a city of about 13,000 residents located about 33 miles northeast of Sacramento.
Fox News’ Jack Durschlag contributed to this story.

Sen. Graham blasts Pelosi: 'She hates Trump to the point of hurting our own nation'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's criticism of President Trump over his halting of funding to the World Health Organization goes beyond just a personal attack, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Saturday night.
"So her issue is she hates Trump to the point of hurting our own nation," Graham said on Fox News' "Justice with Judge Jeanine."

"She hates Trump to the point of hurting our own nation."
— U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

"She is condemning President Trump for cutting funds off of the WHO because they've been in China's pocket, as she at one time mentioned, the fact the virus came out of China, that the Chinese Communist Party lied to the American people and the world at large."
Pelosi blasted Trump’s decision to freeze funding for the WHO, vowing Wednesday to “swiftly” challenge the action amid the coronavirus crisis. In a statement, Pelosi, D-Calif., said the halt in funding amid the global pandemic was “senseless.”
Graham defended President Trump and his Chinese travel ban for protecting Americans.
"President Trump has done a damn good job protecting this country," Graham said. "He closed down travel to China when nobody in the world suggested we should. On March 13th, he declared a national emergency, put CDC guidelines into place that I think have saved a million Americans.
"You may not agree with me, but I believe if we'd done nothing, if President Trump had not acted March 13th, there'd be a million-plus dead Americans."

"President Trump has done a damn good job protecting this country. He closed down travel to China when nobody in the world suggested we should."
— U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

The senator also commented on China's role in the global pandemic, saying the Communist country needs to atone for its role.
"Gross negligence and willful deception by the Chinese government has led to 22 million Americans being unemployed and 38,000 Americans dead," Graham said. "And China needs to pay."
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

California Lockdown Cartoons

Marines race down NYC pier carrying oxygen tanks to help save patients outside USNS Comfort

U.S. Marine Sgt. Austin Loppe, left, and U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Colton Flach, right, are assigned to II Marine Expeditionary Force as part of a Marine security detachment supporting the USNS Comfort. (U.S. Navy photo by Ensign James Caliva)

Facing an unexpected surge in ambulance arrivals at the USNS Comfort hospital ship docked in New York City -- some running dangerously low on oxygen -- Marines on security detail ran hundreds of yards down the pier carrying fresh tanks, the Navy said this week.
On a busy day, the Comfort receives about one ambulance every half hour. But last Tuesday, due to an emergency evacuation of a nearby hospital, 10 ambulances raced toward Pier 90 in Lower Manhattan at the same time, according to a Navy news release.
The government sent the Comfort to New York at the end of March to help bolster local hospitals and offer relief amid the coronavirus outbreak that has pushed health care systems to the brink.
Coordinating traffic and security screening with the NYPD at the entrance to the pier were U.S. Marine Sgt. Austin Loppe and his security team, according to the release.
They encountered a patient in one of the ambulances in deteriorating condition and whose oxygen tank was dangerously low.
“Even just going a couple minutes without oxygen, the human brain starts losing function and having permanent brain damage,” Loppe said. “So that wasn’t something that myself or any of my Marines were willing to let happen to an American citizen.”
The Marines halted the other ambulances and rushed the critical patient’s arrival, getting the ambulance to the front of the line for emergency care, according to authorities.
Then another patient arrived low on oxygen, and as the Marines began prioritizing the order in which the patients could board the vessel, they decided that they should bring oxygen tanks down to their end of the gigantic pier.
So they went to get them, running hundreds of yards to pick them up -- and then bring them back to the patients.

Medical grade oxygen tanks utilized by the patient transport team aboard the USNS Comfor hospital ship. (U.S. Navy photo by Ensign James Caliva)

“They sprinted down the NYC pier to deliver oxygen -- saving a patient's life. The Marines taking part in the USNS Comfort security team are based in Camp Lejeune, N.C., according to authorities. They had been training for an overseas deployment before they were sent to New York.
Alan Reyes, a rear admiral in the Navy Reserve and the chief operating officer of the USO, told Fox News earlier this week that he had deployed aboard the USNS Comfort a decade ago in response to a devastating earthquake in Haiti.
“Watching the Comfort pull into New York Harbor was a really poignant moment for me,” he said, noting that the Navy’s massive hospital ships are a sign of hope and relief.
“There’s heroes out there, and we're just really blessed that they’re doing what they’re doing, and we have to do what we can to support them,” he added.

California protest erupts over state’s coronavirus stay-at-home rules

Protestors demonstrate against stay-at-home orders that were put in place due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Friday, April 17, 2020, in Huntington Beach, Calif. (Associated Press)

A protest of more than 200 demonstrators broke out in Southern California on Friday against the state’s stay-at-home-orders in reaction to the coronavirus outbreak, according to reports.
The action in Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles, was similar to others staged this week in Michigan, Ohio and other locations as Americans seek a return to a more normal life after more than a month of mitigation measures intended to slow the spread of the virus, also known as COVID-19.
As in the other locations, demonstrators in Huntington Beach alleged that state-government-imposed restrictions, intended as safeguards, were becoming an infringement on their personal freedoms.
Placards held by protesters Friday held messages such as “Defy Fascist Lockdown,” “Stop the Tyranny, Open California,” and “We Deem Our Governor Non Essential.”

 “I don’t think there’s any reason for us to be on lockdown now,” Paula Doyle, 62, of Costa Mesa told the Los Angeles Times. “We didn’t have any dangers. We have no danger in our hospitals now of overflowing.”

“I don’t think there’s any reason for us to be on lockdown now. We didn’t have any dangers. We have no danger in our hospitals now of overflowing.”
— Paula Doyle, 62, Costa Mesa resident

Earlier in the week, three Southern California churches filed a lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom, accusing the Democrat of “criminalizing church attendance” with orders limiting social gatherings.
Newsom, 52, a former mayor of San Francisco who became governor in January 2019, issued his stay-at-home order March 19, becoming one of the first governors to do so. The move has been credited with helping the nation’s most populous state keep its infection and fatality numbers relatively low considering its population of some 39.5 million people.
He said Tuesday he foresees a loosening of the state’s stay-at-home orders but did not provide a specific date.

Protesters demonstrate against stay-at-home orders that were put in place due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Friday, April 17, 2020, in Huntington Beach, Calif. (Associated Press)

The governor said at a news conference that the public’s adherence to his orders had “bent the curve” on the number of infections in the state, suggesting the limits could end in the near future.
“The models have changed because of your behavior,” Newsom said. “This will not be a permanent state.”
But protesters in Huntington Beach – and oceanfront city of about 200,000 residents – expressed frustration with the governor’s limits during Friday’s demonstration.
“It’s not dangerous out here. It’s not,” Benny White, 33, of Compton, told the L.A. Times. “I’ve seen plenty of people out here. The beaches are open. It’s a nice, beautiful day. What are we doing? Stop being a germophobe.”

Protesters demonstrate against stay-at-home orders that were put in place due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Friday, April 17, 2020, in Huntington Beach, Calif. (Associated Press)

The protest was organized largely via social media and began around 1 p.m. local time, the Orange County Register reported. Police asked the crowd to break up around 3:30 p.m., the report said.
As of late Friday, California had more than 29,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and had recorded just over 1,000 deaths.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this story.

Crenshaw, Maher clash over Trump: Is goal to make president 'look bad' or 'get to the truth'?

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, had a fierce debate with "Real Time" host Bill Maher on Friday over President Trump's handling of the coronavirus outbreak -- one that examined the president's "style" of communicating versus the substance of his policies.
During the discussion, Crenshaw said some fundamental questions need to be asked whenever anyone criticizes the president.
"When people make these accusations," Crenshaw said, "I have to ask them: Is the goal to make Trump look bad or is the goal to get to the truth? Because there are two separate sets of answers for that."

"Is the goal to make Trump look bad or is the goal to get to the truth? Because there are two separate sets of answers for that." 
— U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas

Maher began by pressing Crenshaw, who served as a Navy SEAL, to defend his support for Trump, a president who Maher said has "pass-the-buck, lie, finger-point, and shirk-responsibility" tendencies.
Crenshaw responded by expressing his support for the country and acknowledging that, "the president's success is certainly tied to the success of the country."
The congressman added that he and other GOP lawmakers are frequently asked by the media to defend their support of the president.
"Republicans always get asked this question and this demand where we have to answer, 'What do we feel about him? Don't you want to comment about his latest tweet and the way he lashed out? And no, I don't," Crenshaw said. "I can't defend everything. He doesn't have the same style as I do. I don't consider him to be my spiritual guide by any means."
The "Real Time" host then grilled Crenshaw on Trump's actions instead of his "style," pointing to reports that the president "was warned" by various aides about the severity of the coronavirus outbreak weeks before it became a global crisis. Crenshaw pushed back, pointing to Trump's travel ban on China.
Maher then challenged Crenshaw on the travel ban, accusing Trump of "lying" about it since people "are still coming in" from China and said Trump's order affected only "foreign nationals."
"The reality is about 40,000 people came in after that," Crenshaw said. "These were U.S. citizens and green-card holders and passport holders being repatriated. U.S. citizens. So you have to make the argument then that we shouldn't allow them in.
"It sounds to me that you're fully agreeing with President Trump on this one and everybody else disagreed with him," he told Maher. "And if you're saying that the travel restriction should have been more extreme, then fine. You clearly had the foresight back then but nobody else did."

"If you're saying that the travel restriction should have been more extreme, then fine. You clearly had the foresight back then but nobody else did."
— U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas

Crenshaw then knocked former Vice President Joe Biden, who disapproved of Trump's travel ban at the time, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for posing legislation to stop it. He also pushed back at Maher's "timeline" critical of the president's alleged inaction, citing a House vote Pelosi oversaw for banning flavored tobacco instead of prioritizing the growing pandemic.
"Your criticism appears to be based on one thing -- that Trump was overly optimistic," Crenshaw said. "That's his style. You can criticize it, that's fine, but it's not connected to the actions that were actually taken."
The GOP lawmaker also asked Maher whether the American people "would have accepted" a lockdown of the country sooner -- when there were "only 102 cases" of coronavirus in the U.S. on March 3.
"I provide all of that context as we try to basically accuse this man of ... he's being accused of having blood on his hands," Crenshaw said. "And context is so important here. If we're going to criticize somebody's actions, we have to do it with the facts they knew at the time. So I'm just trying to be fair here. I don't really care about defending him or his actions. I just care about letting people know the truth. And when people make these accusations, I have to ask them: Is the goal to make Trump look bad or is the goal to get to the truth? Because there are two separate sets of answers for that."

Trump ‘fomenting domestic rebellion,’ Dem governor Inslee says

A series of Twitter messages posted by President Trump showed the president is “fomenting domestic rebellion,” a Democrat governor alleged Friday.
Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee leveled the charge in a statement that also accused the president of encouraging “illegal and dangerous acts,” Q13 FOX of Seattle reported.
Inslee’s accusations came on the same day that others -- such as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine -- raised the temperature of their rhetoric against the president and his administration as much of the nation remained under stay-at-home orders resulting from the coronavirus outbreak.
The attacks also came one day after the president unveiled guidelines titled "Opening Up America Again," a series of steps for reopening and reviving the U.S. economy.
Whether the Democrats' attacks were spontaneous or part of the party’s election-year strategy, as it looks to deny Trump a second term, was not immediately clear.
Earlier in the day, the president posted a series of messages saying, “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!,” “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!,” and ‘LIBERATE VIRGINIA,” in a show of support for citizens of those states who have been protesting stay-at-home orders or, in the case of Virginia, recent gun control measures enacted by state Democrats. (Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced some easing of that state's rules Friday, the same day protesters gathered outside his home.)
Inslee derided the president’s tweets as “unhinged rantings.”
“His unhinged rantings and calls for people to ‘liberate’ states could also lead to violence,” Inslee’s statement said, according to Q13 FOX. “We’ve seen it before. The president is fomenting domestic rebellion and spreading lies even while his own administration says the virus is real and is deadly.”

Gov. Jay Inslee addresses reporters in Lakewood, Wash., April 3, 2020. (Associated Press)

Inslee, 69, is a former congressman who has been Washington’s governor since 2013. In recent weeks he has won praise – including from President Trump and members of the president’s Coronavirus Task Force – for his efforts to stem the spread of the virus after Washington initially led the nation in both infections and deaths.
As of late Friday, Washington was no longer in the top 10 states in either infections or deaths.
Earlier in the week, Inslee joined an alliance with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, also Democrats, to jointly decide when to reopen their states’ economies.
His Friday offensive against President Trump came the same day as at least two other no-holds-barred rhetorical attacks against the president or his administration.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched a lengthy tirade against the president in a news conference, demanding more federal dollars for his state, which leads the nation in both coronavirus infections and fatalities.
"First of all, if he's sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?" Cuomo said at one point, referring to the president.
“Don’t ask the states to do this without the funding,” Cuomo added later, asserting that the president's placing of the onus on the states without the funding necessary to have a successful reopening was “the opposite of the buck stops here.”
He added: “Don’t pass the buck without passing the bucks.”
Cuomo’s rant drew a response from the president.
"Governor Cuomo should spend more time 'doing' and less time 'complaining'. Get out there and get the job done. Stop talking!" Trump tweeted Friday.
Also Friday, U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, accused the Trump administration of “dereliction of duty” during a conference call about coronavirus between a group of Senate Democrats and Vice President Mike Pence, Politico reported.
“I have never been so mad about a phone call in my life,” King reportedly said.
Democrats were frustrated by what they viewed as inadequate answers from Pence and members of the Coronavirus Task Force regarding COVID-19 testing and other topics, the report said.
On Friday, Pence told reporters that states "have enough tests to implement the criteria of phase 1" of the White House plan to reopen the economy "if they choose to do so."
Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Marisa Schultz contributed to this story.

Joy Behar The View Cartoons