Tag: Steve Scalise

Troubled Vaccine Maker and Its Founder Gave $2 Million in Political Donations

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Emergent BioSolutions faces scrutiny in Congress for ruining Covid-19 vaccines and securing lucrative federal contracts. Executives will appear before some lawmakers who benefited from the company’s spending.

WASHINGTON — When Fuad El-Hibri, founder and executive chairman of Emergent BioSolutions, appears Wednesday before a House subcommittee to explain how the company’s Baltimore plant ruined millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine, he will be questioned by lawmakers he and his employees spent tens of thousands of dollars helping to elect.

Since 2018, federal campaign records show, Mr. El-Hibri and his wife, Nancy, have donated at least $150,000 to groups affiliated with the top Republican on the panel, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, as well as Mr. Scalise’s campaigns. At least two other members of the subcommittee received donations during the 2020 election cycle from the company’s political action committee, which has given about $1.4 million over the past 10 years to members of both parties.

Mr. El-Hibri and his wife have made additional donations totaling more than $800,000 over the same period, with the majority going to Republican candidates and organizations. Continue reading.

GOP’s Steve Scalise says DC doesn’t deserve statehood because it’s overrun with ‘criminals’

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Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) on Wednesday came out against making Washington D.C. its own state on the basis that the nation’s Capitol can’t keep its residents safe from “criminals.”

Via Forbes reporter Andrew Solender, a memo from Scalise argued that D.C. should not be granted statehood in part because its government “can’t perform basic governmental duties like protecting its residents from criminals.”

Scalise also argued that D.C. shouldn’t become a state because the city “relies heavily on Congress to ensure its financial solvency, and local leaders are not ready for Congress to rescind funding for local projects and initiatives.” Continue reading.

GOP Says Kamala Harris Is MIA On Immigration As She Announces Mexico Trip

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A stunt from House Republican Whip Steve Scalise, involving a milk carton with the vice president’s face on it, didn’t really work out.

House Republican leaders on Wednesday accused Vice President Kamala Harris of being absent on immigration matters ― even showing up to a press conference with a milk carton with Harris’ face on it, declaring her “missing” at the border.

One problem: At the same time, Harris was holding a White House meeting on immigration and announcing her plans to visit Mexico and Guatemala.

With that milk carton in hand, House GOP Whip Steve Scalise (La.) demanded to know why Harris, who President Joe Biden recently tapped to examine the root causes of migration at the Mexican border, wasn’t personally visiting the region.  Continue reading.

A disaster for journalism raises disturbing doubts for the Republic

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On Sunday, NBC’s “Meet the Press” interviewed United States Senator Ron Johnson. ABC’s “This Week” interviewed House Minority Whip Steve Scalise. CBS’s “Face the Nation” interviewed United States Senator Lindsey Graham. “Fox News Sunday” interviewed United States Senator Rand Paul. They’re Republicans and they had a message for a combined television audience of millions: Donald Trump won.

Not in those exact words, but that was the clear implication. This thing or that thing—it didn’t really matter what thing—meant in their “view” that the former president was robbed and the legitimacy of the current president, Joe Biden, is somehow suspect.

I bring this up not because yesterday was a disaster for journalism and the integrity of the public square (though it was that). I bring this up because it seems to me an answer to the question that haunts democratic discourse: How does a republic deal with parties that lie so intensely, so voluminously and so shamelessly? Some say we should afford them the same respect we ourselves would expect. If we call them liars, that might encourage them to lie more given the outrage of being called liars. Better to check their facts, state the truth and move on in hopes that they behave in kind. Continue reading.

Twitter flags GOP video after activist’s computerized voice was manipulated

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Twitter flagged a video shared by the second-ranking House Republican on Saturday as “manipulated,” as it spliced quotes together from an activist who speaks through computer voice assistance, making it sound as though he’d convinced Joe Biden to defund police departments.

“I have lost my ability to speak, but not my agency or my thoughts,” Ady Barkan wrote to Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the House minority whip, in a Sunday tweet. “You and your team have doctored my words for your own political gain. Please remove this video immediately. You owe the entire disability community an apology.”

The dispute came down to two words from an interview Biden gave Barkan at the start of July. Barkan, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), speaks with the use of a device that reads his eye movements and translates them to an artificial voice. The interview, one of many that Barkan had done with Democratic presidential candidates, turned at one point to whether Biden would shift some funding from armed policing to social welfare. Continue reading.

GOP Defends NRA Despite Evidence Of Waste, Fraud, And Abuse

Republican lawmakers are calling a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday against the National Rifle Association an attack on gun ownership while ignoring the charges of “fraud and abuse” contained in the filing.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise tweeted in response to the suit: “Violent crime is skyrocketing in NYC. What’s New York’s Democrat Attorney General focused on? Launching politically motivated attacks against the Second Amendment & NRA. Make no mistake: Making it harder for law-abiding Americans to defend themselves is the far-left’s agenda.”

James’ suit seeks to dissolve the organization and ban its officers from serving on nonprofit boards in the future. Continue reading.

Chris Wallace crushes GOP Whip Steve Scalise’s twisted defense of Trump

AlterNet logoHouse Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) struggled on Sunday to defend President Donald Trump’s alleged attempt to bribe the president of Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

During an interview on FOX News Sunday, Wallace grilled Scalise about reports that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland was overheard saying Trump only cared about things that benefit him like an investigation into Biden.

Wallace pointed out that Trump “never mentions the word corruption” in either of his telephone calls with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky but he did mention Joe Biden and his son.

View the complete November 17 article by David Edwards from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

GOP Whip Scalise Refuses To Disown Death Threats Against Schiff

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the House minority whip, refuses to condemn violent attacks against House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, despite a previous pledge to do so.

Schiff (D-CA) has been on the receiving end of politically motivated death threats, spurred on by comments made by Donald Trump and Scalise, the Washington Post reported Monday.

Trump attacked Schiff, who is a leading voice in the House impeachment inquiry, but saying Schiff committed “treason,” leading many on social media to call for Schiff to be executed. Scalise called Schiff a “proven liar” who needs to be “held accountable,” resulting in many on the right calling for Schiff to be thrown in prison or be executed.

View the complete October 14 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

Scalise Defends Trump Joking About Gianforte Assaulting a Reporter

Majority whip says Trump was ‘ribbing’ Gianforte, not asking his supporters to engage in violence

Reps. Paulsen and Scalise Credit: Paulsen Instagram screengrab

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise has been on TV, Twitter and writing op-eds criticizing Democrats for inciting violence, but on Friday he defended President Donald Trump’s comments about a congressman’s assault on a reporter as simply a joke.

Last year Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte body slammed Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs after the reporter tried to ask him questions about his views on a GOP health care plan.

Trump, during a rally in Montana with Gianforte on Thursday night, said he thought the incident actually helped the Republican get elected to Congress.

Shooting Victim Steve Scalise Would Go Bankrupt With Republican Health Care Plan

NOTE:  We’re glad Rep. Paulsen’s roommate Rep. Scalise has been released from the hospital. We wondered what would happen if Rep. Scalise was faced with healthcare as they have voted to implement for the rest of the country.

The following article by Ben Cohen was posted on the Daily Banter website June 23, 2017:

If you think that the Republican health care bill proposed in the Senate only affects poor people and minorities, you would be completely wrong. The New Republic’s Brian Beutler makes a powerful point about just how important the Affordable Care Act has been for everyday Americans by pointing out that Virginia shooting victim Rep. Steve Scalise would likely be uninsurable after he recovers, and liable for long term care costs until he’s eligible for Medicare. Writes Beutler:

The House and Senate Trumpcare bills gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions in different ways: the former by allowing insurers to price gouge sick people; the latter by allowing insurers to exclude the treatments sick people need from covered benefit schedules, creating adverse selection. Both would destabilize insurance markets for people with pre-existing conditions in at least some states. The Senate bill does not exempt members of Congress, and House Republicans have gone on record with the promise that Trumpcare will apply to them, too.

Continue reading “Shooting Victim Steve Scalise Would Go Bankrupt With Republican Health Care Plan”