Tag: GOP hypocrisy

Fox News Attacks Biden For Implementing Fox’s Own Vaccine Policy

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Fox News is turning the White House’s upcoming push for COVID-19 vaccinations among the federal workforce into just another front in its right-wing culture war and campaign to undermine public health — even though Biden’s upcoming policy will be seemingly identical to Fox’s practices in its own offices.

To be exact, federal workers would reportedly be given the choice of either showing proof of vaccination or instead submitting to regular testing. This policy will in fact be very similar to what is already going on at Fox News’ own offices, under a program called the “Fox Clear Pass” in which employees who provide their vaccine information are allowed to bypass daily health screenings. But Fox hosts have railed against the possibility of vaccine passports as “segregation,” “medical Jim Crow,” and “East German-style ‘show me your papers.'”

And in Fox’s telling, the upcoming policy is an insult to regular people across America — who are now being dubbed “unvaccinated Americans” — and an effort to dominate them. (Just to be clear, over 60 percent of the adult U.S. population has been fully vaccinated by now.) Continue reading.

Rep. Eric Swalwell says Cruz and Gaetz are like WWE wrestlers and behind closed doors Cruz told him he was doing a great job as an impeachment manager

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California likened several outspoken GOP lawmakers — namely Rep. Matt Gaetz, Sen. Ted Cruz, and Rep. Jim Jordan — to professional wrestlers, saying they were simply putting on an act on social media and television.

Speaking with the anti-Trump group MeidasTouch in a podcast released Tuesday, Swalwell said many of his colleagues were “better suited to work at the WWE” and were trying to give viewers “what they think the fans want.”

He said he had worked with Gaetz before the rise of Trumpism in the US and observed that Gaetz would turn into a character and “laugh at himself about how stupid he had to act to keep the act going.” Continue reading.

Josh Hawley hits a new low for hypocrisy

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If they decide to make flip-flopping an Olympic sport, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley needs to hop on the next plane to Tokyo.

Hawley just attacked President Joe Biden for attacking Facebook. Yes, this excruciatingly annoying preppy man who has staked his repulsive young political career upon crusading against social media — through the use of social media — has decided it’s not cool for Biden to get in Facebook’s face. Really.

In the past week — publicly and without apology — the Biden administration has pressed Facebook (among other social media) to stop facilitating the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. On Friday, Biden claimed Facebook was “killing people.” The company fired back with a dismissive response telling Biden “to move past the finger-pointing.” Continue reading.

GOP lawmakers mad Biden fired Social Security head for damaging agency

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Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul is refusing to accept his removal.

President Joe Biden fired former President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Social Security Administration on Friday, accusing him of damaging the agency. Congressional Republicans are livid, suggesting that his ouster will imperil Social Security.

Andrew Saul, who was appointed to a six-year term as Social Security commissioner in 2019, is a wealthy investor and longtime Republican megadonor. His deputy commissioner, David Black, resigned Friday at the request of the president; Saul refused to resign or to accept his firing.

“I consider myself the term-protected commissioner of Social Security,” Saul told the Washington Post on Monday. “I quite frankly feel I’m doing an excellent job there.” Continue reading.

McCarthy Decries ‘Partisan’ Jan. 6 Committee — Which Is Exactly Like Benghazi Panel

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is furiously claiming that a newly authorized select committee to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection will be “the least bipartisan committee you can find.” But just seven years ago, he voted for a nearly identical investigation into attacks against the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.

On Fox News on Thursday night, McCarthy (R-CA) was asked about the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, created last Wednesday by a majority vote in the House of Representatives over his objections.

“Think about the structure. It’s not an equal number of Republicans or Democrats,” McCarthy complained. “She [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi] appointed [Reps.] Adam Schift [sic] and [Jamie] Raskin. This is a impeachment committee. Only Democrats have subpoena power. The speaker has control over anyone who is appointed. She appoints everyone, just with ‘consultation’ with Republicans.” Continue reading.

‘The epitome of hypocrisy’: 17 Tennessee Republicans accepted PPP loans — but want to slash unemployment benefits

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, liberal economists such as Robert Reich (former secretary of labor in the Clinton Administration) and the New York Times’ Paul Krugman have applauded enhanced unemployment benefits as good for the U.S. economy — stressing that those who receive that money are likely to spend it immediately. Republicans, however, have been claiming that enhanced unemployment benefits from the CARES Act of 2020 or the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 encourage Americans not to look for work. But in Tennessee, according to reporter Jackie DelPilar, some of the same Republicans who now rail against unemployment benefits received payments from the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program.

Reporting for Fox 17 Nashville, DelPilar explains, “A FOX 17 News investigation found 17 state lawmakers who supported the unemployment cuts also accepted PPP loans for their businesses. They accepted a combined $12.4 million.”

Rep. Gloria Johnson, a Democrat who serves in the Tennessee House of Representatives, is calling out the hypocrisy of those lawmakers. DelPilar quotes Johnson as saying, “That’s wrong on so many levels…. It is the epitome of hypocrisy to say ‘I’m going to get this federal help, but you don’t deserve it. You need to go back to work.'” Continue reading.

For Republicans, ‘Crisis’ Is the Message as the Outrage Machine Ramps Up

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With next year’s midterm elections seen as a referendum on Democratic rule, Republicans are seeking to create a sense of instability and overreach, diverting focus from their own divisions.

WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders would like everyone to know that the nation is in crisis.

There is an economic crisis, they say, with rising prices and overly generous unemployment benefits; a national security crisis; a border security crisis, with its attendant homeland security crisis, humanitarian crisis, and public health crisis; and a separate energy crisis.

Pressed this week on whether the nation was really so beleaguered, the No. 2 Republican in the House, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, thought of still more crises: anti-Semitism in the Democratic ranks, “yet another crisis,” he asserted, and a labor shortage crisis. Continue reading.

Trump Ignored Cyber Defense, But GOP Blames Biden For Pipeline Hack

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EDITOR’S UPDATE: Colonial Pipeline announced that its East Coast gas line resumed operations around 5 pm ET on Wednesday evening. But the company cautioned that operations will ramp up for a few days before the line reaches full capacity.

Gas prices are up this week after a hacker attack shut down a major East Coast gas pipeline. Congressional Republicans are blaming the increased prices on President Joe Biden.

On May 8, the Colonial Pipeline Company announced it had been the victim of a cyberattack involving ransomware. The attack forced a shutdown of most of the privately held company’s 5,500-mile East Coast pipeline, which ordinarily delivers 45% of the region’s fuel and runsfrom Houston to New York. Panic-buying since the announcement has resulted in gas stations running out of fuel and the highest gas prices in six years.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a group of hackers with ties to Russia is behind the attacks, though there is no evidence they are acting on behalf of any government. The group, DarkSide, has a history of extorting money after hacking into company computer systems in the United States and Europe. Continue reading.

Republicans promote pandemic relief they voted against

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said it pained her to vote against the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

But in the weeks that followed, the first-term Republican issued a news release celebrating more than $3.7 million from the package that went to community health centers in her district as one of her “achievements.” She said she prided herself on “bringing federal funding to the district and back into the pockets of taxpayers.”

Malliotakis is far from alone.

Every Republican in Congress voted against the sweeping pandemic relief bill that President Joe Biden signed into lawthree months ago. But since the early spring votes, Republicans from New York and Indiana to Texas and Washington state have promoted elements of the legislation they fought to defeat. Continue reading.

Trump voter in Pennsylvania convicted of voter fraud

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As a Trump voter in Pennsylvania is convicted of casting a ballot for his dead mother, whatever happened to the reward money offered by Texas’ Dan Patrick?

In the wake of Donald Trump’s defeat six months ago, Republicans launched a desperate search for illegally cast ballots to help justify the GOP’s conspiracy theories. But despite all the hysterical rhetoric, only a handful of legitimate allegations have been raised, and some involve Republicans casting illegal ballots for Trump on behalf of dead relatives.

Take Bruce Bartman, for example. The Washington Post reported this morning:

Weeks before Election Day, Bruce Bartman mailed his mother’s absentee ballot with a check mark next to President Donald Trump’s name. The problem was, his mother had been dead since 2008. Bartman, 70, pleaded guilty on Friday to a charge of felony perjury and unlawful voting — and blamed his decision to cast the fraudulent ballot on consuming too many false claims about the election.

Continue reading.