Biden says he got what he wanted from Putin summit

The Hill logo

President Biden on Wednesday framed his three-hour sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin as a foreign policy win, even as tensions on cyberattacks and human rights loom over the future of the relationship between the two leaders.

White House officials sought to keep expectations low and tightly controlled the optics of the meeting, opting for a solo press conference with Biden instead of a joint one with him standing next to Putin.

The president would not divulge his planned message to Putin when asked at the preceding Group of Seven (G-7) and NATO summits, and officials repeatedly said they hoped for a “predictable and stable” relationship with Moscow, even as experts noted Putin thrives on sowing disorder. Continue reading.

Trump supporter who led ‘armed fighters’ into the Capitol was just angry about having to wear a mask: lawyers

Raw Story Logo

According to The Daily Beast, an attorney for Russell Taylor, a California man accused of leading a group of “armed fighters” into the Capitol to stop election certification on January 6, insisted in court that he should be released ahead of trial because he is not really a terrorist or an insurrectionist — he’s just an ordinary guy who was driven to do what he did because he was angry about COVID-19 mask mandates.

“‘He’s kind of boring, this is probably the most exciting thing that’ll happen in his life,’ Taylor’s lawyer, Dyke Huish, said during a Tuesday detention hearing,” reported Pilar Melendez. “‘Really he’s kind of a vanilla kind of guy — though admittedly he was upset about the masks.’ Huish describing his client as ‘moderately successful,’ and a religious man who doesn’t drink and went to Brigham Young University. He insisted that Taylor’s actions during the insurrection were unique and spurred by his anger over the state-wide lockdown and mask mandate. He denied that Taylor is a militiaman — just that his documented violent actions were misunderstood. ‘This was a guy who got mad about the masks and so he got wound up and felt like this was an appropriate thing to do,’ Huish said during the hearing.”

Prosecutors, however, outlined evidence that Taylor wasn’t quite the easygoing family man his lawyer characterized him as. Continue reading.

Fed officials see GDP, inflation rising higher in 2021

The Hill logo

Federal Reserve officials see economic growth and inflation rising higher in 2021 than they expected earlier this year, according to economic projections released Wednesday.

Members of the Fed board and presidents of reserve banks, which together make up the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), largely see the pace of the rebound from the coronavirus pandemic accelerating deeper into the year. 

The median estimate of 2021 gross domestic product growth from FOMC members rose to 7 percent from a projection of 6.5 percent in March. The median estimate of annual inflation also rose to 3.4 percent from 2.4 percent in March, while the median estimate of unemployment remained unchanged at 4.5 percent. Continue reading.

Congressman reveals new photo from the Capitol riot after Republicans try to ‘memory hole’ the insurrection

Raw Story Logo

During a hearing this week, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray over the shooting death of Ashli Babbitt, the QAnon-believing woman who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 along with a mob of Trump supporters, saying that she was “executed.”

“It’s disturbing,” Gosar said. “The Capitol Police officer that did that shooting appeared to be hiding, lying in wait and then gave no warning before killing her.”

But Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) doesn’t see it that way. Responding to Gosar’s comments on Twitter, Gallego posted a photo that he took on Jan. 6, showing the mob outside the door where Babbitt was shot. Continue reading.

Fox fires Project Veritas-affiliated reporter who declared on-air she’s being ‘muzzled’ by her bosses: report

AlterNet Logo

Fox 26 Houston reporter Ivory Hecker announced Tuesday she has been fired after announcing live on-air during an on-scene segment that her bosses had been “muzzling” her and she had given secretly recorded audio and video to the discredited far right wing activists at Project Veritas.

Fox 26 Houston reporter Ivory Hecker announced Tuesday she has been fired after announcing live on-air during an on-scene segment that her bosses had been “muzzling” her and she had given secretly recorded audio and video to the discredited far right wing activists at Project Veritas.

The Daily Beast reports that in a phone call with Hecker “she said that she had just been terminated by the Fox outlet.” Continue reading.

Fiona Hill recalls horrific experiences of Trump’s meeting with Putin — and how she expects Biden’s will go

Raw Story Logo

Fiona Hill, the former official at the U.S. National Security Council, specializing in Russian and European affairs, spoke to CNN’s Don Lemon, remembering what it was like during the meeting between former President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

President Joe Biden will meet with Putin in the early hours of Wednesday morning in the United States, and there will be a significant difference between the Biden and Trump meetings. 

Hill is the former expert who shredded Republican lies about the Russia investigation. She also revealed as part of the investigation into Trump’s bribery of Ukraine that Rudy Giuliani was circumventing the National Security Council with his own shadow efforts. Giuliani has now become part of an investigation by the FBI into his international dealings.  Continue reading.

Biden White House video highlights infrastructure nightmare in Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky: ‘We deserve roads and bridges’

AlterNet Logo

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has made it abundantly clear that his goal is to do everything he can to obstruct President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, and that includes coming out against Biden’s infrastructure proposals. The Biden White House, meanwhile, has launched a video series that shows why an infrastructure bill is desperately needed, and the first video in the series addresses infrastructure problems in McConnell’s state: Kentucky.

Journalist Daniel Desrochers, reporting for Kentucky.com on June 14, explains, “As moderate Democrats and Republicans have been at loggerheads in coming up with an agreement on how much money to allocate to fixing roads, bridges and drinking water — among other projects — the White House made videos highlighting the lack of broadband access and clean drinking water in Eastern Kentucky. One follows Danielle Adams of Pikeville as she heads into town to get online when her wi-fi goes down in her home. In the other, BarbiAnn Miner in Martin County shows off the dirty tap water in her kitchen sink and some of the decrepit roads and bridges in Martin County.”

In the video, Miner says, “People talk about: Eastern Kentucky is poor, and they don’t really have anything. Well, how are we ever going to have anything if our government won’t invest in our infrastructure?…. We’re people too. We’re American citizens. And we deserve access to clean, affordable drinking water…. We deserve roads and bridges.” Continue reading.

Top Republican thinks China is going to harvest DNA of American Olympians to create super soldiers

Raw Story Logo

The make-up Olympics are headed to Japan this year, but next year Beijing will have the winter Olympic games and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is very concerned that the Chinese government will harvest American Olympian DNA to create super soldiers. 

In a letter that Cotton sent to President Joe Biden demanding to know what precautions are being taken and how to protect Americans from being harvested by the Chinese. 

“First, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operates the world’s most invasive domestic surveillance system. Chinese authorities closely monitor internet traffic within the country and block and censor online information that the Party views as adverse to its grip on power. Continue reading.

21 House Republicans vote against awarding Congressional Gold Medal to all police officers who responded on Jan. 6

Washington Post logo

Twenty-one House Republicans on Tuesday voted against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to all police officers who responded to the Jan. 6 violent attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

The measure passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support from 406 lawmakers. But the 21 Republicans who voted “no” drew immediate condemnation from some of their colleagues, and the vote underscored the lingering tensions in Congressamid efforts by some GOP lawmakers to whitewash the events of that day.

Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.) called the “no” votes “a sad commentary on the @HouseGOP,” while Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) declared, “How you can vote no to this is beyond me.” Continue reading.