Category: Trump Administration

Biden administration reverses limits on transgender health protections

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The Biden administration announced on Monday that it will reverse Trump-era limits on health care protections against discrimination for gay and transgender people.  

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said that its Office for Civil Rights will enforce bans on sex discrimination applying to sexual orientation and gender identity in a shift from the former administration’s policies. 

The move comes after former President Trump’s administration ruled to remove ObamaCare’s nondiscrimination protections that prevented health care workers from denying care to patients based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. Continue reading.

Trump loyalists taking over top GOP group after helping to stoke Jan. 6 riot

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Hardline supporters of Donald Trump are driving out more moderate members of a top Republican group in the fallout over the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The fundraising arm for the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) made robocalls encouraging Trump supporters to “stop the steal” by marching on the Capitol, which preceded the riot, and more moderate members of the group are quitting as the former president’s allies take over, reported The Daily Beast.

“During the last several months, it has become clear that there is a significant difference of opinion among members of the RAGA’s executive committee as to the direction this organization should take going forward,” wrote then-chair Chris Carr, who is Georgia’s attorney general, in his April 16 resignation letter. Continue reading.

Failure to communicate: The Capitol Police leadership gap on Jan. 6

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Lack of direction, preparation, according to rank-and-file officers

On the morning of Jan. 6, as a group of Capitol Police officers was being briefed on what to expect before a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, a captain told them to be on the lookout for a handful of people wanted for crimes from previous Make America Great Again protests.

The captain also discussed the Proud Boys, an extremist group that would play a substantial role in the violent insurrection, and advised that many people in the crowd could be armed. 

But when asked what the response should be if the officers did encounter armed protesters, the captain’s reply was useless, according to one officer on duty that day. Continue reading.

Capitol rioters make questionable claims about police

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PHOENIX — Joshua Matthew Black said in a YouTube video that he was protecting the officer at the U.S. Capitol who had been pepper sprayed and fallen to the ground as the crowd rushed the building entrance on Jan. 6. 

“Let him out, he’s done,” Black claimed to have told rioters. 

But federal prosecutors say surveillance footage doesn’t back up Black’s account. They said he acknowledged that he wanted to get the officer out of the way — because the cop was blocking his path inside.

Americans Who Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction Nearly Doubles Since Trump Left Office: Poll

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The percentage of Americans who said the country is generally headed in the right direction has nearly doubled since former President Donald Trump left office in January, according to an NBC News survey released Sunday.

The day after President Joe Biden’s January 20 inauguration in Washington D.C., the same poll found only 20 percent of Americans agreed that the U.S. was “headed in the right direction.” But that share improved to about 40 percent among 1,000 adults surveyed between April 17-20. But owing to lingering partisan divides, the president only had a very slight decrease of Americans who view him “very negatively.”

Historically, the NBC News poll hadn’t recorded higher than 35 percent of Americans saying the country is going the right direction since March 20—data that was recorded just prior to the full coronavirus outbreak in the United States. In October, about 10 percent fewer Americans expressed the “right direction” mantra compared to this latest April survey. The highest share ever recorded was in September 2001, just following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in which an overwhelming 72 percent of Americans said the country was going the right way. Continue reading.

The making of a myth

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Russell J. Ramsland Jr. sold everything from Tex-Mex food to light-therapy
technology. Then he sold the story that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump

ADDISON, Tex. — Key elements of the baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald Trump took shape in an airplane hangar here two years earlier, promoted by a Republican businessman who has sold everything from Tex-Mex food in London to a wellness technology that beams light into the human bloodstream.

At meetings beginning late in 2018, as Republicans were smarting from midterm losses in Texas and across the country, Russell J. Ramsland Jr. and his associates delivered alarming presentations on electronic voting to a procession of conservative lawmakers, activists and donors.

Briefings in the hangar had a clandestine air. Guests were asked to leave their cellphones outside before assembling in a windowless room. A member of Ramsland’s team purporting to be a “white-hat hacker” identified himself only by a code name. Continue reading.

‘Mind-numbingly reckless and irresponsible’: Maricopa County sheriff blasts Arizona Senate’s audit demand

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Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone on Friday slammed the “Senate Republican Caucus’ audit of the Maricopa County votes” for “[jeopardizing] the entire mission of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office,” the Arizona Republic reports.

“The Senate Republican Caucus’ audit of the Maricopa County votes from last November’s election has no stopping point,” Penzone said in a statement. “Now, its most recent demands jeopardize the entire mission of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.”

Penzone’s criticism comes after Maricopa County failed to provide “certain routers that the state Senate sought in its original subpoenas” of 2020 election material. According to the Arizona Republic, “the county has provided all 2.1 million voter general election ballots, voter information and election equipment in response to state Senate subpoenas,” but is warning of a “significant security risk to Sheriff’s Office law enforcement data” if the routers are released. Continue reading.

Larry Hogan: GOP turning into ‘circular firing squad’ over Trump loyalty

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As House Republicans prepare to oust Liz Cheney from leadership, one outspoken GOP Trump critic says the party should not swear fealty to a “dear leader.”

WASHINGTON — Gov. Larry Hogan, R-Md., criticized those within the GOP who insist they need to double down on keeping former President Donald Trump as its leader despite his loss in 2020, saying that it’s part of a “battle for the soul of the Republican Party.”

As House Republicans appear ready to remove Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., from its leadership ranks because of her criticism of Trump and his false claims that the election was stolen from him, Hogan told “Meet the Press” Sunday that the party is becoming a “circular firing squad.”

“It bothers me you have to swear fealty to the dear leader or you get kicked out of the party. It just doesn’t make any sense,” Hogan said. Continue reading.

‘It’s a big lie’: Chris Wallace challenges GOPer for refusing to say election wasn’t ‘stolen’

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Fox News host Chris Wallace challenged Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) over his effort to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) from her leadership position in the Republican Party.

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Wallace noted that Banks had deflected when asked about Cheney’s criticism of former President Donald Trump, who has claimed that the election was stolen from him.

“I’ve asked you two questions, Congressman,” Wallace said. “Why are you unwilling to discuss her criticism of President Trump?” Continue reading.

Top Dem lawyer blasts CBS News: ‘Do you really need to both-sides democracy?’

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Attorney Marc Elias, who coordinates Democratic Party lawsuits to protect voting rights, blasted CBS News on Saturday. 

“Senate committee to hold markup on controversial voting bill,” read a headline by CBS News.

“The Senate Rules Committee will hold a markup Tuesday of the For the People Act, a massive voting and elections bill. Democrats claim the bill is necessary to counter new voting restrictions being considered by multiple states, while Republicans decry it as federal overreach,” reported Grace Segers Continue reading.