Doctors take down misinformation on coronavirus

 

FILE – In this July 27, 2020, file photo, Nurse Kathe Olmstead prepares a shot that is part of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., in Binghamton, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink, File)

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 10:36 AM PT – Saturday, October 17, 2020

A small group of medical experts from around the country are speaking out against misinformation on the coronavirus. The doctors gathered on the Supreme Court steps in the nation’s capitol Saturday morning to inform Americans not to be afraid of the virus.

These doctors argued masks do not help curb the spread of the virus. In fact, they said the masks are socially divisive and pose a threat to civil liberties as well as national security. However, they assert doctors in America are capable of treating COVID-19 and early treatment is key.
WATCH THEIR FULL REMARKS HERE:

States reporting massive turnout for early voting, mail-in ballots

 

 

FILE – In this Oct. 15, 2020, file photo, voters line up at an early voting satellite location at the Anne B. Day elementary school in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Michael Perez, File)

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 8:33 AM PT – Saturday, October 17, 2020

Millions of voters have showed up at the polls and sent in their mail-in ballots in what’s being called an “unprecedented” early voting turnout. Concerns about the coronavirus and mail-in voting have been cited for the remarkable turnout.

According to recent reports, more than 21 million voters have cast their ballots either in person or through the mail so far. Around 1.4 million people had already voted by this time during 2016, accounting for more than 15 percent of the total votes during that election.

The Georgia state secretary said nearly 130,000 people cast ballots in the state Monday, smashing the nearly 91,000 votes cast on the first day of the 2016 election. One county said it saw a 484 percent increase from the first day of voting.

Georgia voters expressed a sense of urgency driving them to the polls, saying this election seems to be more complex due to the ongoing pandemic and the candidates.

“I would strongly recommend coming early and getting it done, that way you know it’s done,” stated Georgia resident Steve Butts. “It’s in the system, you don’t have to hear about it on the 6:00 o’clock news about ‘they found a burlap bag full of ballots’ in, you know, out in the woods somewhere.”

In Texas, where early voting started Tuesday, more than 1 million votes have already been cast in a record turnout. Nearly 17 million Texans registered to vote this year, which is up nearly 2 million since 2016.

In Ohio, nearly 200,000 residents cast early votes this week compared to around 64,000 during the same week in the last election.

Meanwhile in North Carolina, voters waited for up to three hours to cast their ballots in some areas when early voting started Thursday.

It’s a beautiful day, people are eager to vote,” said North Carolina resident Jason Roberts. ” If you wait and go next week, I think you’ll see the lines will not be nearly as long as they are today and it will be a much faster process for someone who doesn’t have the time to stand outside.”

According to reports, the number of first time voters choosing to vote early has more than doubled compared to 2016. More than 2 million infrequent voters have also cast ballots compared to 658,000 during the last election.

Officials said the steps taken by states to make it easier to register to vote and cast a ballot likely contributed to the increased turnout. In Virginia, for example, voters can now vote absentee without having to provide a reason and lawmakers have made Election Day a state holiday.

Registered Democrats are reportedly “significantly” outnumbering Republicans in this early turnout and have returned nearly 2.5 million more ballots. However, GOP officials said they are not concerned while pointing out a majority of Republican voters prefer to vote in person, especially on Election Day.

“This is a pattern we are seeing across other states as well — that Democrats in particular are very motivated to turnout, but they are also very motivated to either vote by mail or vote early,”stated Seth Masket, Director of the Center on American Politics, University of Denver. “There is a good deal of enthusiasm among Republicans as well, they are more interested in voting close to or on Election Day.”

One expert who tracks polling data said Democrats may be doing Republicans a favor by voting early thus clearing out polling places for Republicans to vote come Election Day.

RELATED: Thousands of Ohio voters receive the wrong mail-in ballot

Free speech rally marred by violence as counterprotesters storm event, beat pro-Trump demonstrators

Hired by Big Tech and Worst then Animals.

A rally called to promote free speech and denounce big tech censorship turned ugly Saturday in San Francisco, when hundreds of all Antifa counterprotesters showed up and berated and attacked demonstrators, leaving one missing a tooth.

The conservative group Team Save America organized the event to protest Twitter, which it argues censors free speech. They planned to rally at United Nations Plaza before moving the protest to Twitter's headquarters a few blocks away. But the event quickly devolved into a shouting match and violence as hundreds of counterprotesters stormed the scene.

Video shows one counterprotester punching Philip Anderson, an organizer of the event, knocking one of his teeth out.

Anderson posted a picture of the aftermath on social media and said he was attacked by Antifa. 

A counter-protester, who declined to give his name, prepares to hit a conservative free speech rally organizer in San Francisco on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020. About a dozen pro-Trump demonstrators were met by several hundred counter-protesters as they tried to rally. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

"This is what happens when you lose free speech," Anderson said over boos as the crowd threw objects at him. "This is what happens, America. This is what our country is turning into." 

The event was canceled before it ever really got started. 

Another protester who was wearing a Trump 2020 shirt was attacked at some point by a counterprotester. 

A supporter of President Donald Trump lies on the ground after he was attacked by counterprotesters in San Francisco, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020. About a dozen pro-Trump demonstrators were met by several hundred counterprotesters as they tried to rally. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Medics transport a supporter of President Donald Trump to an ambulance after he was attacked by counter-protesters in San Francisco on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020. About a dozen pro-Trump demonstrators were met by several hundred counter-protesters as they tried to rally. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to a request for comment Saturday.

Social media companies have come under fire for alleged censorship recently. Last week, for instance, Twitter put a warning on a tweet from the President that compared coronavirus to the flu, while Facebook removed the post altogether.

As of Saturday evening, Twitter had still locked out the New York Post's account for tweeting about their reporting on Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. 

Facebook, meanwhile, said it is reducing distribution of the Post's reporting on its platform. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

 

Biden Crime Family Cartoons

 

President Trump calls Bidens an ‘organized crime family’

FILE – In this Jan. 30, 2010, file photo, Vice President Joe Biden, left, with his son Hunter, right, at the Duke Georgetown NCAA college basketball game in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 2:10 PM PT – Friday, October 16, 2020

President Trump has called the Bidens an organized crime family. He made those remarks while speaking at an event for seniors in Florida on Friday.

“A lot of disgrace,” he stated. “…It’s an organized crime family, as far as I’m concerned.”

The President began discussing middlemen after touting his plan to lower pharmaceutical drug prices. He was slamming middlemen for taking money away from everyday Americans when someone in the crowd called Hunter Biden a middleman.

The President acknowledged the comment and went on to slam the Bidens.

“Hunter Biden is a middleman,” he said. “He made no money until his father became vice president, …it’s a shame.”

He noted the Hunter Biden corruption report is the hottest topic there is and reiterated he can’t believe mainstream media is trying to suppress it.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani lowers his face mask as he approaches supporters of President Donald Trump Monday, Oct. 12, 2020 during a Columbus Day gathering at a Trump campaign field office in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani has accused the Biden family of three decades of racketeering.

Earlier this week, Giuliani stated the emails found on a laptop reportedly belonging to Hunter Biden prove the Biden family has been selling Joe Biden’s office to the highest bidder.

He highlighted a time when Hunter allegedly received a $1.5 billion commitment from the Bank of China to a private equity fund he partially owned.

He suggested this deal came at a time when both Hunter and Joe Biden traveled to Beijing for a round of talks. Joe Biden came away from the talks saying China is not a threat nor a competitor.

Facebook, Twitter's censorship brazenly protects Biden -- endangers our democracy

In 2016 President Trump promised to drain the swamp. Little did he know how tough that would be.

The swamp is protected by the liberal media, Hollywood, the Justice Department, much of corporate America, academia, and now – most threatening of all – social media. The same social media that is working overtime to elect Joe Biden president.

It isn’t just that Twitter and Facebook tried to squash a blockbuster New York Post story that could destroy Joe Biden’s campaign; it is that they were so brazen about it.

Both companies shamelessly blocked the spread of a Post story purporting to show that Joe Biden knew about his son Hunter Biden’s questionable activities in Ukraine and China, and that he lied about it. Twitter and Facebook had no excuse; they simply didn’t want Uncle Joe’s image tainted, because they want him elected president.

They know that a slim majority (52%) of Americans think Biden is honest. He earns that reputation not by telling the truth but because when he lies about his family, his educational record, about co-sponsoring the Endangered Species Act or about engaging in the civil rights movement, as he has done on numerous occasions, the liberal media ignores it. 

The media also knows that Trump has failed to dent Biden’s “good guy” image in this campaign; that could change if the president can show that the former V.P., Obama’s point person on Ukraine and China, assisted his son’s efforts to cash in on his White House office.

The behavior of our social media giants is an outrage, and also frustrating.

After all, where did we vent our anger about the suppression of the Post story? On Twitter and Facebook.  

There really is no alternative, which is why they can manufacture absurd arguments to justify their misdeeds, content that it will not dent their business model or cost them money. Make no mistake, at the end it is all about money.

Democrats in Congress threaten to rein in the monopoly power of Facebook and Twitter, responding perhaps to polls like the recent one from Pew which showed that 72% of American adults think social media companies have “too much power and influence in our politics.” 

But they don’t mean it. Democrats want to make sure the social media giants continue to fatten their campaign chests, and they will. In this cycle, over 90% of Twitter and Facebook’s campaign contributions have gone to Joe Biden’s party. 

Somehow, they must be held accountable for their dishonesty, and for filtering the news as they see fit.

But that’s where the brazenness comes in. The social media firms know that virtually every institution in our country is stacked against President Trump. That includes the liberal mainstream media, for sure. They didn’t even bother to carry the Ukraine story until it became a row about censorship on the social platforms.

Google “New York Times Hunter Biden Ukraine” and you’ll find but one piece, headlined: “Allegation on Biden Prompts Pushback From Social Media Companies,” published October 14, the day after the Post broke the story.

The Times’ reporting downplays the sordid details of the emails in which a corrupt oligarch thanks Hunter Biden for the introduction to his father Joe; the piece mostly chronicles the shutdown by Twitter and Facebook, which, they imply, confirms the dubious nature of the story. 

That was also the response from the Biden campaign.  

Many have written that the excuses lofted by Twitter and Facebook don’t hold up, especially when matched against the bogus anti-Trump stories allowed to roam free across the Internet. Many stories connected to the RussiaGate probe, repeated breathlessly on CNN and MSNBC and spread enthusiastically on Twitter and Facebook, proved entirely false.

For instance, at the end of 2017 CNN claimed that Donald Trump, Jr. was offered access to the blockbuster DNC and Podesta emails ultimately published by WikiLeaks before those communications went public. This was a big, big deal at the time, purporting to show that the Trump campaign had indeed conspired with Russian disinformation agents. 

Except, like many similar big “reveals”, it turned out to be utterly fake. There are dozens of such scantily-researched stories that have been widely disseminated, as long as they cast Trump or his associates in a poor light.

It isn’t just the media. The computer containing the compromising emails was first sent to the FBI, last December. Someone needs to explain why the FBI never followed up, especially since Senate Republicans held hearings about Hunter and Joe Biden’s activities in Ukraine. Wouldn’t this laptop be significant to those investigations?

Misbehavior at the FBI figures prominently in the center of many controversies, including dropping an investigation into possible influence peddling by Hillary Clinton enabled by her foundation, the dishonest set-up of General Michael Flynn, the lying to the FISA court and, most recently, according to CNN, in a three-year quest to determine if Trump received campaign funds illicitly from an Egyptian state-owned bank. 

Three years of pursuing a possible crime committed by the president, which was ultimately abandoned and shut down this past summer. They found nothing, just as Robert Mueller found nothing.  

What other politically-motivated investigations of President Trump are underway? Who is authorizing these wasteful political efforts?  

Our country is in danger, and I do not say that lightly. If only one point of view is allowed, if the media suppresses contrary opinion, we are in trouble.

It is astonishing that as of Friday afternoon seemingly no employees at any major liberal news outlet have stepped up to defend freedom of speech, and a free press.

When the New York Times’ token Republican never-Trumper Bret Stephens recently criticized the paper’s discredited 1619 Project, the Times’ union blew up in outrage and demanded he be shut down. Yes -- journalists wanting to suppress journalists.

And yet they complain when President Trump rails against Fake News.

Trump supporters have but one recourse: making sure they vote by November 3. Reelecting Trump would be a service to our great nation, and sweet revenge as well.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM LIZ PEEK

 

Newt Gingrich: Trump's composure vs. Guthrie's almost maniacal hostility at NBC's Town Hall tells us this

Anyone who still doubts that the elite media is out to destroy President Trump should watch his NBC town hall from Thursday night. 

 Savannah Guthrie, who moderated the event in Miami, was so hostile and irritating, it was really unbearable to watch her at times. She didn’t even pretend to be an objective journalist. 

 In stark contrast, President Trump was so calm, steady, and positive. It was one of his best performances. Indeed, he was presidential, not just a candidate seeking office. And despite — or perhaps because of — Guthrie’s almost maniacal hostility, President Trump’s composure should be encouraging to all Republicans and conservatives. 

 In other words, it was President Trump at his best — defending his indisputably strong record and agenda in a considered, controlled way. He just needs to keep it up. 

A town hall is supposed to be an event where voters ask questions. The moderator should just keep things running smoothly. That’s because, unlike a debate, a town hall provides the people the opportunity to engage candidates directly. 

 
Guthrie, however, took the first several minutes to fire questions at President Trump -- essentially creating a mini-debate with the president.

Compare this to Joe Biden’s ABC town hall on the same night, during which moderator George Stephanopoulos went straight to questions from voters. No aggression. No attempts at “gotcha journalism.” 

 The difference had nothing to do with the moderators or the networks and everything to do with the candidates. I doubt Guthrie would have badgered Biden from the start. 

President Trump looked presidential on Thursday night and he should keep it up during next week’s debate – and through the rest of the election.

Those who watched the event may recall the three women sitting behind the president on camera the whole time nodding in approval of what he was saying virtually the entire evening.

If we didn’t know better, that it was an NBC event, it seemed like they were put there intentionally to make the president look good. But really his remarks were just resonating. 

President Trump answered questions and reassured people on several important subjects, including that we are witnessing a strong V-shaped economic recovery following the lockdowns induced by the coronavirus.

Plus, President Trump defended his wise response to the pandemic — a response that actually saved two million lives by taking early actions, such as stopping travel from China. (Remember, Biden demonized the president’s decision to cut off travel from China as “xenophobic.”) 

President Trump looked presidential on Thursday night and he should keep it up during next week’s debate – and through the rest of the election.

His job is not to entertain but to govern. And he has done a great job of governing the country with effective policies. He should focus on this and not get pulled off course by an embittered, hostile media. 

 To read, hear, and watch more of Newt’s commentary, visit Gingrich360.com. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM NEWT GINGRICH

 

Kayleigh McEnany, 'blessed' to be clear of coronavirus, posts photo with daughter Blake

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, walks up to be interviewed by Fox News, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020, at the White House in Washington. (Associated Press) 

 

Blake

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted Friday that she felt “blessed” to be over the coronavirus.

“Blessed to be COVID clear!” she posted along with a photo of her kissing her baby daughter Blake.

McEnany announced she had tested positive for the virus Oct. 5, days after President Trump and first lady Melania Trump contracted the virus.

She was among a number of people who attended Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Rose Garden confirmation announcement who later tested positive.

“After testing negative consistently, including every day since Thursday, I tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday morning while experiencing no symptoms,” McEnany said in a statement at the time. “No reporters, producers, or members of the press are listed as close contacts by the White House Medical Unit.”

McEnany quarantined at home while still infectious.

Both the president and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who helped President Trump with debate prep, were briefly hospitalized after testing positive but have since recovered.