Trump Administration 55 , CD3 DFL

How the ‘shock doctrine’ and ‘chaos playbook’ defined Trump’s abysmal COVID-19 response

Although the COVID-19 death count is sobering — almost 3.4 million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore — there is reason for optimism in the United States as more and more Americans get vaccinated for the novel coronavirus. Over half of U.S. residents have been at least partially vaccinated. Nonetheless, the U.S. has had more COVID-19-related deaths than any other country in the world. And journalist Nina Burleigh, in an article published by The Nation on May 17, looks back on former President Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was going from bad to worse.

The CDC’s COVID-19 response, according to Burleigh, was undermined by far-right white evangelical fundamentalists on one hand and Koch Brothers-like corporatists on the other.

Burleigh notes that the CDC, for many years, was viewed as “the global model of excellence for public health” in many other countries. But during the Trump era, she points out, the CDC was “not so popular” among Trump’s supporters — even when COVID-19, during the spring of 2020, was becoming increasingly deadly. Continue reading.

Trumper On FBI Capitol Wanted List Attends Giuliani Event For GOPer Who Pushed Big Lie

FBI suspect Sam Lazar posed for photos with Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who backed Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

A militant Donald Trump supporter whose photo is featured on an FBI wanted list because he was caught on video battling with police officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 attended a political event last week for a Trump-loving Pennsylvania politician who backed the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The event’s headliner: Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who called for “trial by combat” during his speech on Jan. 6 and whose phones and computers were seized in a Justice Department investigation last month.

Samuel Lazar, who is Capitol suspect No. 275 on the FBI website, posed for photos alongside right-wing Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) at the May 15 event headlined by Giuliani. A tipster sent the photos to HuffPost after spotting them on Facebook. Continue reading.

Rep. Phillips (CD3) Statement on the Vote to Create a Bipartisan Commission on the Capitol Insurrection

WASHINGTON, DC — Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) issued the following statement on the House bill to create a national commission to investigate the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, which passed on a 252 to 175 vote.

“I was in the Capitol on Jan 6. I saw it with my own eyes. I walked where blood was spilled and life was lost, and I helped clean up the mess in the early hours of 1/7. I never imagined a single member of Congress would vote against a bipartisan commission to investigate it. I need not shame the 175 who voted in opposition today. Twitter and history will do that just fine. But here’s to the 35 Republicans and 217 Democrats who showed America what patriotism looks like – and votes like.”

McCarthy comes out against bipartisan deal on Jan. 6 commission

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will oppose a bipartisan deal announced last week that would form a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, his office announced Tuesday.

Why it matters: McCarthy’s opposition to the deal, which was negotiated by the top Republican and Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, underscores the internal divisions that continue to plague the GOP in the wake of Jan. 6.

The formation of a bipartisan Jan. 6 commission had been delayed for months, after some Republicans insisted that the scope of the investigation be expanded to include violence by far-left protesters last summer. Continue reading.

‘Virtually unheard of’: Why Jared Kushner’s recent Abu Dhabi visit cost American taxpayers almost $13,000

Although members of former President Donald Trump’s family have been gone from the White House for almost four months, they continue to enjoy the taxpayer-funded protection of the U.S. Secret Service — including Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a former White House senior adviser for the Trump Administration. Kushner recently visited Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and the Daily Beastreported that according to U.S. State Department documents, the Secret Service protection he enjoyed during that trip cost American taxpayers $12,950.

Vanity Fair’s Bess Levin, in a column published on May 17, explains, “If you only got your news from Donald Trump’s new social media website, a.k.a. blog, or by watching the speeches he gives to wedding guests and random passersby at Mar-a-Lago like an old man shouting at an empty blender, you might think he was still president. In fact, he is not, but the U.S. is still paying for Secret Service protection for all of his adult children and their families — which is why, when former first son-in-law Jared Kushner took a little trip to the Middle East last month, it cost taxpayers nearly $13,000.”

Kushner, Levin notes, stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Abu Dhabi from May 5-14 and enjoyed Secret Service protection the whole time. Continue reading.

Self-proclaimed billionaire Trump taking tens of thousands in pension payments since leaving office

Donald Trump, who loves to say he’s a billionaire but always seems to avoid proving that, has already taken tens of thousands of dollars in government pensions.

Since leaving the White House in January, the twice-impeached one-term president has taken $65,600 in presidential pension payments, a spokesperson for the General Services Administration told Insider.

Trump unquietly donated his $400,000 annual salary during his four-year term, as he had promised to do as a candidate in 2016, and it’s not clear what he has done with the pension he’s been receiving since January. Continue reading.

Trump DOJ tried to unmask a Twitter account behind ‘mean tweets and bad memes’ that teased Rep. Devin Nunes

After Rep. Devin Nunes failed last summer to force Twitter to unmask several accounts dedicated to ruthlessly mocking the California Republican, the Justice Department took aim at one of the congressman’s anonymous critics.

Court filings unsealed this week revealed that in the last months of the Trump presidency, the Justice Department used a grand jury subpoena to demand the identity of whoever was behind @NunesAlt, a Twitter account that criticized Nunes, a close ally of former president Donald Trump.

Twitter strongly objected to the November request and filed a motion to quash it, noting Nunes’s own failed legal efforts to reveal the identities of his Twitter detractors. Continue reading.

Arizona Vote Review Is ‘Political Theater’ and ‘Sham,’ G.O.P. Leaders Say

Leaders in Maricopa County, Ariz., are hitting back at Donald J. Trump and fellow party members in the State Senate over a review of the county’s ballots.

The Republican leaders of Arizona’s most populous county issued a blistering rebuke on Monday to a review of the November election that had been ordered by Republicans in the State Senate, calling it “a grift disguised as an audit” that had spun out of the legislators’ control.

The senior Republican in Maricopa County, Jack Sellers, the chairman of the board of supervisors, said flatly that the county would stop cooperating with the review and suggested that it would challenge in court any of its conclusions that pointed toward improprieties.

“This board is done explaining anything,” Mr. Sellers said at a special meeting of the five-member board, four of whose members are Republicans. “People’s ballots and money are not make-believe. It’s time to be done with this craziness, and get on with this county’s critical business.” Continue reading.

Trump signals he’s ready to get back in the game

An emboldened former President Trump is preparing to become more active as he looks to boost GOP allies while mulling a new run for the White House.

Trump is expected to hit the road soon resuming his signature rallies, which will put him more in the public eye and create questions for television networks about coverage.

He’s also set to hold his first fundraiser for his new super PAC at a time when his control over the GOP was augmented after House Republicans voted to dump Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from their leadership team over her repeated criticism of the former president’s false claims about his loss in the 2020 election. Continue reading.

Trump Organization Accused Of Abusing U.K.’s COVID-19 Furlough Program

The Trump Organization has received up to £575,000 through the U.K. job retention program, with at least £110,000 claimed while the former president was still in office. Critics see this as an abuse of the U.K.’s coronavirus furlough program.

Union officials are calling for an investigation of the scandal by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and have lodged complaints about Trump Turnberry’s “all-out assault on jobs and conditions.”

The former director of the Office of Government Ethics under the Obama and Trump administrations called the Trump Organization “disgraceful” for making U.K. taxpayers “prop up” Trump’s business interests. Continue reading.

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